Reminiscing
~
"Okay, this one."
Lily's irate frustration was a nearly tangible crackle in the perfumed air of the boutique. Draco glanced up over the rim of his spectacles.
"Absolutely not," he said calmly.
Lily's fists balled up in the skirt of the slinky, forest green dress she wore. Thousands of shimmery little beads were sewn into the light, clingy fabric. The slit ran all the way up to mid-thigh and the halterneck straps were beaded strings.
"Why." Lily's question sounded from between grit teeth.
"Turn around," Draco said flatly.
A moment of hesitation, and then Lily spun around to reveal her back, exposed from neck to tail bone.
"Absolutely not," repeated Draco, looking back down into his phone, typing out an email with one forefinger, painstakingly slow.
"It's a dress. You want me to buy a dress. This is a dress."
"I want you to be respectably dressed for your seventeenth birthday party," Draco replied without looking up. "You're coming of age, yes, but you will do so whilst dressed as you ought to be."
"As I ought to be," Lily repeated scornfully.
"As a Potter-Malfoy ought to be."
"Why can't a Potter-Malfoy wear something like this?"
"We don't go out in public half-naked."
"This is a floor length gown."
"The whole length of your left leg is on display, as is the entirety of your back." Draco glanced up once more. "Your whole back. You're practically naked."
Lily"s clenched jaw shifted as she gnashed her teeth some more. With forced calm, she said, "Papa, I do not want to be wearing some sort of Victorian ballgown for my seventeenth birthday party."
"More's the pity. But no, definitely not this one either."
"I can wear a jacket over it." Lily raised one eyebrow when Draco looked up again. "I want a leather jacket."
Draco snorted, shaking his head. "I don't think so."
"Dad said I could get one."
"Your dad is an idiot."
"I want one like his."
"Absolutely not. He's a lunatic with a flying motorcycle. You don't want everything he has, trust me."
"It's just a bloody leather jacket, Papa, please!" Lily actually stomped one booted foot, her voice rising shrilly.
"I'm used to strops, darling, I invented them," Draco said, completely unbothered. "Besides, what would your grandmother say. She would faint."
"She told me to get the jacket in black." When Draco looked up in genuine surprise, Lily went on, "She said black would go best with her opal earrings that she's having reset in silver for my birthday present."
Draco stared at her over his spectacles as she stood glaring back at him, hands on her hips.
Then the bell above the door tinkled merrily, and Harry's voice filled the silence of the stylish little boutique as he exchanged cheerful pleasantries with the owner.
Reaching breaking point, Lily shrieked, "DAD!"
"I will not tolerate that sort of screaming in a public--," Draco started.
"Green, eh?" Harry said, walking into the private area Draco had reserved for the afternoon, his own boots loud on the wooden flooring.
"Because I have your eyes," Lily said in her most honeyed voice. "Grandma's eyes."
"Good choice, Lils," Harry said affectionately, sitting down on the plush sofa next to Draco before carefully picking through the collection of truffles set out in little crystal bowls.
"You haven't looked at the dress very closely," Draco said, voice tight.
"Oh?" Harry popped a hazelnut truffle into his mouth, straightened his glasses a bit, and leaned back, crossing ankle over knee. "Let me do that, then." A pause, and then, "She looks great!"
Draco twirled one forefinger through the air, motioning for Lily to spin. "She's half-naked."
"It's the trend now or something," Harry said, shrugging and scratching carelessly through his beard.
"I want to wear it with a leather jacket, Dad," Lily said hastily. "A black leather jacket. One like yours."
Harry grinned, roughing up his hair as was his wont. "Like Sirius'. Yeah, why not? Let's get you one."
"Harry."
Draco's lips were very thin as he pulled off his glasses and turned the full force of his displeasure onto Harry.
"Don't," said Harry. "We said she could pick her own outfit."
"The Minister's going to be at the party," Draco said tightly.
"Doubt he cares, honestly," Harry said, eating more chocolate. "Besides, it's Lily's day."
"I don't like to be ganged up against," Draco said, teeth gleaming white on a forced, very dangerous smile.
"Babe, we're not ganging up--," Harry started.
"Where is James?" Draco said suddenly, raising his voice over Harry's.
"My ears are burning," James drawled, sauntering in. Draco turned in his seat to look at him, his mouth slightly open.
James' hair was a bright, lemon yellow where it stood in a carefully styled, vertical mass on his head. The sides had been shaved down close to the scalp and dyed green.
Draco could only splutter in apoplectic dismay at the sight.
"What are you supposed to look like?!" he finally managed to ask.
James shrugged, scratching behind one pierced ear. "Dad thinks it looks cool."
Draco whirled around in his seat, now glaring violently at Harry. "He was supposed to get a haircut that's also suitable for school."
"He's still on summer break," Harry said.
"His head looks like a bloody sunflower!" Draco said. "Harry, you had one job--"
But Lily was now cackling loudly at James, who in turn stood grinning proudly, hands in his pockets, fourteen years old and sincerely unbothered about a single opinion that wasn't his own. Harry couldn't help grinning, too, but he quickly moved closer to Draco and took one of his hands with both his own.
"Babe, we've talked about this," he murmured gently. "This is one of those times you need to let go. Remember how we talked about letting go?"
"She's seventeen, and he looks someone cracked an egg on his head," Draco seethed.
Harry leaned forward and kissed him squarely on the mouth.
"How about lunch at the Ritz?" he asked gently.
"And then we buy me a black leather jacket," Lily said, hitching up the skirt of her dress and stomping loudly back to the changing room.
"Life was easier when I was seventeen," Draco muttered darkly, glaring at where their son was inspecting a rack of dinner jakcets.
Harry grinned again. "Yeah. A war, a megalomaniac. I really miss those days."
~
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