Chapter 48: Chapter 47
A small scowl crossed Harry's face.
"I do not. It's important to look the part as much as it is to play the part. When a meeting for a business transaction it's just as important to look professional as it is to sound professional."
"Right, right," Tracey waved her hand airily, as if waving off a bug. "I think you just like trying to look all smart and stuff, Mister big shot."
Harry frowned for a moment, before deciding he was going to ignore Tracey, her snickering, and her parents snickering as they watched him interact with their daughter. He instead turned his attention to Lisa. Their greeting was much more subdued than Tracey's enthusiastic glomping.
"Hey, Lisa. How has your summer been so far?"
"Good. Well, mostly good." When Harry raised an eyebrow at her answer, Lisa made an annoyed gesture. "Just the same old problems. I've been having to deal with my sister and she can be a bit... trying as you know, but I've had to deal with her every year so it's not like I don't have experience with it."
"Ah," Harry nodded in understanding. "She's been giving you trouble?"
"No more than usual."
Which was Lisa speak for 'she's the most annoying person in the world, but there is nothing I can do about that'.
"I see," Harry said. "Well, I hope things get better." Lisa snorted, letting her know her thoughts on that. Meanwhile, Harry looked over at the two adults, feeling a tad sheepish that he had not greeted them first as was proper in pureblood society. "Mister and Misses Davis. It's a pleasure to see you two again."
"The pleasures all ours," Misses Davis said, grinning as Harry gave her a proper pureblood greeting after shaking Mister Davis' hand. "Would you care to join us?"
Harry only needed a moment to think about it. He was hungry, that much was true. But it had been over three weeks since he saw any of his friends and, while he might not admit to it out loud, he had missed them.
Not as much as he had missed Lisa maybe, but he had missed seeing them and talking to them.
"I would, thank you."
Harry sat himself down next to Tracey and Lisa, both of whom had an ice cream sundaes in front of them. From the scent coming off them, he guessed that Tracey's was chocolate fudge with mint and Lisa's was white raspberry cheesecake. He also noticed their toppings, Tracey's ice cream had so much whip cream on it that it almost looked like the entire bowl was filled with the stuff. Lisa seemed to have taken a more spartan approach, sprinkling only a little bit of chopped nuts and sprinkles on hers.
"Do you want some ice cream?" asked Mister Davis. Harry shook his head.
"I'm not much of a sweets fan," Harry admitted. Sweets were bad for people's health. Too much sugar. And that was not going into what they did to your teeth. "And I haven't had lunch yet."
"If you'd like I could grab you a sandwich?" Misses Davis suggested, causing Harry to blink at how accommodating she was. It wasn't like he hadn't had people be like that to him before. Misses Crawft did the same thing. But he was well acquainted with Lisa's mother. He hardly knew Tracey's.
Still, best to be polite and accept the offer.
"Thank you. If it's not too much trouble, could you get a turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, olive oil with a vinaigrette dressing and flax seed with no cheese?"
Misses Davis looked amused at his very specific specifications as she stood up. "I'll see what I can do," she promised, and then she was off.
"That woman," Mister Davis shook his head fondly before he went back to reading the newspaper in his hands.
Harry looked at Lisa and Tracey.
"So what are you two doing here?"
"You mean aside from hanging out?" asked Tracey, giving him a wry grin. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Yes, I kind of figured that," Harry said a bit dryly. "I mean, did you two just come here for ice cream? Or are you shopping too?"
"We did do some window shopping," Lisa admitted.
"But we mostly came here for the ice cream," Tracey added shamelessly as she dug into her sundae, moaning in delight as she took what looked to be her first bite of the day.
"I don't think Hermione would agree with you on that," Lisa said with an amused smirk. Harry blinked.
"Hermione's here?"
"Yeah," Tracey grinned. "She's still inside Florean's though." A snicker escaped her lips. "She's been in their for the past four minutes. Me thinks she's having a bit of trouble."
As Tracey pointed into the shop, Harry looked over his shoulder and saw that Hermione was indeed inside the store. She was with her parents, who were standing on either side of her and looking at the girl with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. Hermione herself was staring intently at the glass case filled with different kinds of ice cream, the thumb of her right hand being bitten on as she surveyed her choices.
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