Magic | D. Malfoy

10. What Good Friends are made of

The bell rang, an obnoxious, flat sound that made all three people in the room cringe.

"Merlin's beard, Aira, you really need to change the sound of the bell."

"Spoken like you are here everyday, Blaise," Aira shot back with a glare at him. "Open the door."

He huffed but didn't protest as he left the couch to open the door. Draco standing right next to Aira in the kitchen, watching her taking out glasses for their drinking, lowly cleared his throat as he watched his friend go. "He was right, you know."

"I know, I hate that sound just as much as he does," she admitted. "I didn't want to accept defeat, though."

Draco chuckled, "Fine."

Aira sent him a sideways look. "You are acting weird."

He blinked, "I'm not."

"You are," she insisted, then looked away. "It's alright, I'll get it out of you one way or another."

"Torture methods are out of the table, right?"

"Yeah, I haven't built my torture room in the dungeon yet."

He laughed, and Aira sent him one more suspicious look he ignored. Blaise returned, Theo right after him.

"Hello," he greeted them with a grin as he walked over, drawing the 'o' in his greeting until he needed to breathe and Aira sent him a look. His cheeky grin remained. "I got the promotion."

"No way!" Aira exclaimed, her disapproval turning to excitement. She was the first to react, Blaise and Draco congratulating him shortly after. Theo's grin widened even more as she walked over and pulled him in for a celebratory hug. "I'm so happy for you. You worked so hard."

"Yeah, I know," he admitted as he hugged her back. "It feels good to have my efforts acknowledged." He pulled back, turned to face his friends once more. "I was warned, of course, that I can be demoted and they will be watching me closely in case I get any ideas."

"You bet they would say that," Blaise rolled his eyes, "suspicious fuckers."

"What we should focus on is that you got the job," Draco insisted as he clapped Theo on his back. Theo sent him a confused look.

"Did you just say we should focus on the bright side of things or did I hear things wrong?"

"No, definitely not," Blaise shook his head, "I heard him too."

"I told him he's been acting weird but he's pretending to be all innocent," Aira said, narrowing her eyes at Draco all the while. "Nothing a drink or two can't get out of him."

"Careful, Aira, we go out weekly for drinks his tolerance is better than it used to be," Theo halfheartedly warned her. He knew she wasn't going to listen to him before she replied.

"I can still make him talk. One way or another."

"You get almost scary when determined," Blaise said with a brief shake of his head. He looked at Draco as if he meant to wish him good luck and then walked away, to the couch, where they would be soon retiring. Theo and Draco stayed to help Aira with the drinks.

"How come we gathered here today?" Theo asked on his way to the couch. "Not that it isn't a pleasure, Aira, but this doesn't happen all that often."

"Call it a good deed in light of Christmas being less than two weeks away," she replied, nonchalant. "My sister will be coming over for the holidays, I won't have the time to see you as often."

They turned to face her at once. Draco was the one to speak. "Really? Family hasn't visited you in a while."

"Yeah, they couldn't really, so I'll make the most out of this visit. I wouldn't mind you coming over but it won't be like the previous years."