Disclaimer: I’m not JKR, and so forth, but I thank her profusely for such wonderful characters…
Cultured Left Foot
Chapter Four: Anté Up
The corridor Alex was leading him down seemed to be getting darker and darker. In fact, Draco was sorely tempted to use a Lumos on his wand to see what the bloody hell his supposed Slytherin mate was getting him into. Draco picked his way along the corridor, hoping his favourite dragon-hide loafers were not getting scuffed as they made their descent into the lower regions of the west dungeons.
Just as Draco was about to let out small sigh of indignation to remind Nott that this was supposed to be a reward, not an endurance challenge, Nott stopped abruptly, and switched the Vilion champagne bottle to his left hand. Raising his wand he tapped out a pattern on the slimy stones of the dungeon. Slowly, the stones began to make a crunching sound and shift outwards to create a small tunnel. Nott ducked down and motioned Draco to follow him through. Draco paused a moment, schooling his features into what he hoped was a cool impassive face that would hide his slight nervousness at being lead into such an unfamiliar situation.
As Draco made his way through the tunnel he could hear voices talking animatedly beyond. He heard laughter as he approached the room, emerging from the tunnel he got his first look at the assemblage of Nott’s guests, six teenagers sat around a large round table looking at him with amusement. Draco nodded his head at the crowd in greeting. Nott, standing beside him in the doorway, eased the tension by initiating introductions.
“Oh, come now, everyone knows our resident Slytherin Prince, Draco Malfoy.” Alex addressed his friends. Turning to Draco, he motioned for Draco to step forward and meet everyone.
The little redhead was the first to pipe up. “Ah, at last a real challenger for the game, it’ll be a pleasure to fleece you proper Malfoy.” She stuck her hand out and winked at him.
Draco let a small look of confusion sweep his face, glancing warily at Nott, “Pleasure, Miss?”
“Ginevra, Malfoy,” she said with a little shake of her head letting a chuckle escape, “Weasley.”
Draco’s eyebrows rose infinitesimally, how in Hades’ halls had he gotten into this. This went against pretty much his entire upbringing. Ah, what the hell, Draco reconsidered, I trust Alex, plus I’m completely outnumbered anyway.
Next was a face Draco recognized well, and he reached out to clasp the hand of an olive-skinned boy with long dark hair pulled into a chignon. “Zabini, always a pleasure.”
The boy grinned, showing rows of pearly teeth. “Well, be sure to remember that for later tonight hen your pockets are considerably lighter. Right, old boy? But it’s good to see you away from those horrible goons of yours. I dare say those ogres hardly bathe, and their manners,” Blaise scoffed, “I don’t know how you put up with them.”
“This is exactly why I’ve opted for your company tonight.” Draco grinned slightly.
Feeling more comfortable now, Draco turned slightly to greet the next wizard at the table, a tall, gangly fellow, who looked mildly familiar.
“Terry Boot, Padma’s told me quite a bit about you Malfoy.” They shook hands hesitantly, before Padma, who was sitting beside him nudged her best friend in the side.
“Oh, play nice you, he’s nothing to worry about. A proper gentlemen, right Malfoy?” she said smiling at the blond teen.
“Miss Patil, good to see you again, glad to see that you escaped unscathed from last night’s encounter.” He teased.
“Well, you know how irresistible old Sevvie is.” Padma giggled back, though she blushed slightly at the reminder of last night’s events. She quickly countered the redness in her cheeks by wiggling her eyebrows in what was supposed to be an enticing way at those assembled, causing laughter to break out at the table.
Two seats were left empty beside Padma, then completing the circle, Draco greeted a barrel-shaped black haired wizard sitting on the near side of the table who introduced himself as Tony Goldstein and the witch beside him as the ‘lovely and talented’ Selene Fawcett. Ginny smothered a chuckle, and Selene rolled her eyes in good humor at her boyfriend’s description of her.
Nott nodded appreciably, and handed the bottle of Vilion over to Blaise who began to conjure glasses for everyone. Noticing the absence of one of the regular crew, he asked lightly.
“Where’s our mascot tonight? Shame she’ll miss our guest.”
Blaise added, “Speaking of, I haven’t seen her all evening, she wasn’t at supper, was she?” He turned a questioning brow towards the Ravenclaws in the group.
Smiling good-naturedly, Tony spoke up, “She’s built herself a fine fort in the Ravenclaw common room and has decided that an evening of jewelry-making was in order. I tried to convince to come, but it was a no-go.”
“Aw, that’s too bad, and she’s so good at predicting the Shifter. Well, we’ll see if we can't convince her to come next time, then.” Ginny finished. Draco raised an eyebrow at her for clarification.
“Luna Lovegood, great player when she gets it in her mind to come. Blaise’s adopted her as our mascot, radish earrings and all.” She grinned at him, knowing it would perturb him to know that information about his fellow Slytherin.
Done with formalities, it was time to have some fun. Alex seated himself next to Padma, and Draco filled in the remaining chair next to Tony.
“So mates,” Alex started, “should we let poor Malfoy here know what sadistic pleasures we have in store for him? Gin, will you do the honours?”
“No worries Alex.” She pulled out a thick pack of playing cards. “It’s Wizard’s Poker, Malfoy.” Her grin widened when she noticed that he looked slightly unsure of himself, “we play basic rules and deck, but just in case you’re a little rusty, I’d be happy to remind you. What we have here is a wizard’s deck; each of the four suits has thirteen number cards, jack through king, mage. Mages are always high.” She looked pointedly at Boot when she said that, before she continued on, “This deck also has four Seers, but remember, they can show you someone’s losing hand, just a soon as they’ll show you someone’s winning hand. Plus there’s always the Shifter, we set it on random instead of dealer control, just to make it fair, okay with you?” Ginny grinned at Draco, noting his obvious surprise at the little impromptu lesson.
Draco nodded slowly, racking his brain, trying to remember the last time he played this game. Years, certainly, as Crabbe and Goyle were definitely not keen enough to handle the subtlety of the game.
Alex, trying to lighten the mood spoke up, “Ah, Draco it’s not so bad, you’ll catch on quick, here have a drink.” He handed him a glass, which Draco gratefully sipped at. Music started in the background as a Wireless was flicked on, and the game began.
An hour later, things were beginning to ease up, and Draco was actually enjoying himself, of course the liquor probably helped too. Everyone was friendly, Weasley, the little strumpet, was having far too much fun at his expense, and winning most hands. Luckily they had been playing the last couple hands without her, as she had decided to go in search of a little refreshment.
She returned just after the next hand of cards was dealt. Draco picked them up carefully and was shuffling them in his hands and pondering his options, when they heard the tunnel shift to allow her to enter the dungeon room once again.
“Ah, Gin, you angel you, let me take those butter beers off your hands.” Tony complimented as he got up to relieve Ginny of her burden. Not only did she have half a dozen butter beers, but she also carried a basket filled with biscuits, muffins, and cakes. Draco merely raised a surprised eyebrow at her success and turned his head back to the game. He was still trying to decide which cards to discard and how many, when he heard light breathing over his shoulder.
“You should really put those two back, and get two more.” She whispered and pointed to the two cards in question. Malfoy looked askance at the red head and whispered vehemently back.
“I never asked for any help Weasley, and stop looking at my ha-” he cut off as he watched the cards in his hand start to change number and suit and heard a background chorus of groans from the rest of the players. The Shifter had just activated.
Ginny poked him in the gut hard and whispered quickly.
“You’ve got the beginnings of a high straight, and with that poltergeist, you can add to it. And use your Seer, always use your Seer, no matter what Malfoy, odds are always better once you know what cards are out of play.”
Looking up at her warily, Malfoy nodded slowly in agreement. He’d forgotten to use the Seer on past hands, preferring instead to trade it in and try his luck for another pair. He didn’t particularly like taking advice from a Weasley but since she had been the one winning most of the hands, he saw the logic in it.
With Weasl- Ginevra’s help, Draco happily won the hand and the next, before Ginny sat back down at the table and was dealt in. His coach gone, Draco had middling success the rest of the evening, but he was certainly getting the hang of it.
It was going on midnight when the group began to break up; Gin and Lene were the first to leave, having the farthest to go to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff respectively. Draco noticed that they pulled out an old piece of parchment and studied it for a moment before calling goodbye to everyone and ducking out, a map perhaps? The Ravenclaws were next; since they were already in the right wing it was easy for them to sneak back up to their common room from the dungeon. That left the Slytherins, Alex, Draco, and Blaise, still sitting casually at the table, swirling the dregs of their butter beers, and reflecting on their successes (and in Draco’s case, losses) of the evening.
Leaning back in his chair, Alex stifled a long yawn, breaking the pleasant silence that had fallen over the boys. Draco took advantage of the break and asked his two fellows a question that had been bothering him all night.
“So, it’s always like this, hm?”
Blaise looked over towards him, slighly tipsy, and started batting his eyelashes, “what do you mean, Malfoy? Do we always fleece handsome young aristocrats? Well, we try but they are so few and far between these days, it’s hard to get one that meets all the criteria...”
Alex threw a crumpled napkin at the boy, “Shut up, you drunken Pouf,” he laughed. Turning towards Draco, he commented.
“More specific mate.”
“Well, you know, everyone all cheery and getting along like that? Doesn’t it blow up in everybody’s faces sometimes? And they all put up with us Slyths, easy like that? Since when does that ever happen?”
Alex tapped his chin thoughtfully, pretending to be deep in thought. Draco watched him carefully, waiting for an answer.
Slowly Alex began to speak, “How should I put this, er... yes, no, most of the time, about fifth year.” He looked over to Blaise to make sure he’d got that right.
“Yep, about fifth year.”
The expression on Draco’s face clearly asked for more of an explanation.
His mate sighed, “Listen, did you have a good time tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Did knowing that some of the witches and wizards playing tonight were from Gryffindor, or Hufflepuff, or even Ravenclaw, affect you enjoyment of the evening?”
Draco thought about the question a little before answering. “No, not really I suppose. I was surprised at first. But since no one was wearing their house emblems I kind of didn’t notice after awhile.” He looked at his friend, surprised at his own answer.
Blaise stood from the table and whisked the mess away with his wand.
“Quite right, why on earth let a hat discern who you can and can’t associate with. That’s my motto. Now I’m bushed and I think sloshed, let’s get back, what do you say?”
--------------
Author’s etc: More to come, thanks for putting up with the inevitable procrastination on my behalf... Cheers! Review if it pleases…
Chapter Four: Anté Up
The corridor Alex was leading him down seemed to be getting darker and darker. In fact, Draco was sorely tempted to use a Lumos on his wand to see what the bloody hell his supposed Slytherin mate was getting him into. Draco picked his way along the corridor, hoping his favourite dragon-hide loafers were not getting scuffed as they made their descent into the lower regions of the west dungeons.
Just as Draco was about to let out small sigh of indignation to remind Nott that this was supposed to be a reward, not an endurance challenge, Nott stopped abruptly, and switched the Vilion champagne bottle to his left hand. Raising his wand he tapped out a pattern on the slimy stones of the dungeon. Slowly, the stones began to make a crunching sound and shift outwards to create a small tunnel. Nott ducked down and motioned Draco to follow him through. Draco paused a moment, schooling his features into what he hoped was a cool impassive face that would hide his slight nervousness at being lead into such an unfamiliar situation.
As Draco made his way through the tunnel he could hear voices talking animatedly beyond. He heard laughter as he approached the room, emerging from the tunnel he got his first look at the assemblage of Nott’s guests, six teenagers sat around a large round table looking at him with amusement. Draco nodded his head at the crowd in greeting. Nott, standing beside him in the doorway, eased the tension by initiating introductions.
“Oh, come now, everyone knows our resident Slytherin Prince, Draco Malfoy.” Alex addressed his friends. Turning to Draco, he motioned for Draco to step forward and meet everyone.
The little redhead was the first to pipe up. “Ah, at last a real challenger for the game, it’ll be a pleasure to fleece you proper Malfoy.” She stuck her hand out and winked at him.
Draco let a small look of confusion sweep his face, glancing warily at Nott, “Pleasure, Miss?”
“Ginevra, Malfoy,” she said with a little shake of her head letting a chuckle escape, “Weasley.”
Draco’s eyebrows rose infinitesimally, how in Hades’ halls had he gotten into this. This went against pretty much his entire upbringing. Ah, what the hell, Draco reconsidered, I trust Alex, plus I’m completely outnumbered anyway.
Next was a face Draco recognized well, and he reached out to clasp the hand of an olive-skinned boy with long dark hair pulled into a chignon. “Zabini, always a pleasure.”
The boy grinned, showing rows of pearly teeth. “Well, be sure to remember that for later tonight hen your pockets are considerably lighter. Right, old boy? But it’s good to see you away from those horrible goons of yours. I dare say those ogres hardly bathe, and their manners,” Blaise scoffed, “I don’t know how you put up with them.”
“This is exactly why I’ve opted for your company tonight.” Draco grinned slightly.
Feeling more comfortable now, Draco turned slightly to greet the next wizard at the table, a tall, gangly fellow, who looked mildly familiar.
“Terry Boot, Padma’s told me quite a bit about you Malfoy.” They shook hands hesitantly, before Padma, who was sitting beside him nudged her best friend in the side.
“Oh, play nice you, he’s nothing to worry about. A proper gentlemen, right Malfoy?” she said smiling at the blond teen.
“Miss Patil, good to see you again, glad to see that you escaped unscathed from last night’s encounter.” He teased.
“Well, you know how irresistible old Sevvie is.” Padma giggled back, though she blushed slightly at the reminder of last night’s events. She quickly countered the redness in her cheeks by wiggling her eyebrows in what was supposed to be an enticing way at those assembled, causing laughter to break out at the table.
Two seats were left empty beside Padma, then completing the circle, Draco greeted a barrel-shaped black haired wizard sitting on the near side of the table who introduced himself as Tony Goldstein and the witch beside him as the ‘lovely and talented’ Selene Fawcett. Ginny smothered a chuckle, and Selene rolled her eyes in good humor at her boyfriend’s description of her.
Nott nodded appreciably, and handed the bottle of Vilion over to Blaise who began to conjure glasses for everyone. Noticing the absence of one of the regular crew, he asked lightly.
“Where’s our mascot tonight? Shame she’ll miss our guest.”
Blaise added, “Speaking of, I haven’t seen her all evening, she wasn’t at supper, was she?” He turned a questioning brow towards the Ravenclaws in the group.
Smiling good-naturedly, Tony spoke up, “She’s built herself a fine fort in the Ravenclaw common room and has decided that an evening of jewelry-making was in order. I tried to convince to come, but it was a no-go.”
“Aw, that’s too bad, and she’s so good at predicting the Shifter. Well, we’ll see if we can't convince her to come next time, then.” Ginny finished. Draco raised an eyebrow at her for clarification.
“Luna Lovegood, great player when she gets it in her mind to come. Blaise’s adopted her as our mascot, radish earrings and all.” She grinned at him, knowing it would perturb him to know that information about his fellow Slytherin.
Done with formalities, it was time to have some fun. Alex seated himself next to Padma, and Draco filled in the remaining chair next to Tony.
“So mates,” Alex started, “should we let poor Malfoy here know what sadistic pleasures we have in store for him? Gin, will you do the honours?”
“No worries Alex.” She pulled out a thick pack of playing cards. “It’s Wizard’s Poker, Malfoy.” Her grin widened when she noticed that he looked slightly unsure of himself, “we play basic rules and deck, but just in case you’re a little rusty, I’d be happy to remind you. What we have here is a wizard’s deck; each of the four suits has thirteen number cards, jack through king, mage. Mages are always high.” She looked pointedly at Boot when she said that, before she continued on, “This deck also has four Seers, but remember, they can show you someone’s losing hand, just a soon as they’ll show you someone’s winning hand. Plus there’s always the Shifter, we set it on random instead of dealer control, just to make it fair, okay with you?” Ginny grinned at Draco, noting his obvious surprise at the little impromptu lesson.
Draco nodded slowly, racking his brain, trying to remember the last time he played this game. Years, certainly, as Crabbe and Goyle were definitely not keen enough to handle the subtlety of the game.
Alex, trying to lighten the mood spoke up, “Ah, Draco it’s not so bad, you’ll catch on quick, here have a drink.” He handed him a glass, which Draco gratefully sipped at. Music started in the background as a Wireless was flicked on, and the game began.
An hour later, things were beginning to ease up, and Draco was actually enjoying himself, of course the liquor probably helped too. Everyone was friendly, Weasley, the little strumpet, was having far too much fun at his expense, and winning most hands. Luckily they had been playing the last couple hands without her, as she had decided to go in search of a little refreshment.
She returned just after the next hand of cards was dealt. Draco picked them up carefully and was shuffling them in his hands and pondering his options, when they heard the tunnel shift to allow her to enter the dungeon room once again.
“Ah, Gin, you angel you, let me take those butter beers off your hands.” Tony complimented as he got up to relieve Ginny of her burden. Not only did she have half a dozen butter beers, but she also carried a basket filled with biscuits, muffins, and cakes. Draco merely raised a surprised eyebrow at her success and turned his head back to the game. He was still trying to decide which cards to discard and how many, when he heard light breathing over his shoulder.
“You should really put those two back, and get two more.” She whispered and pointed to the two cards in question. Malfoy looked askance at the red head and whispered vehemently back.
“I never asked for any help Weasley, and stop looking at my ha-” he cut off as he watched the cards in his hand start to change number and suit and heard a background chorus of groans from the rest of the players. The Shifter had just activated.
Ginny poked him in the gut hard and whispered quickly.
“You’ve got the beginnings of a high straight, and with that poltergeist, you can add to it. And use your Seer, always use your Seer, no matter what Malfoy, odds are always better once you know what cards are out of play.”
Looking up at her warily, Malfoy nodded slowly in agreement. He’d forgotten to use the Seer on past hands, preferring instead to trade it in and try his luck for another pair. He didn’t particularly like taking advice from a Weasley but since she had been the one winning most of the hands, he saw the logic in it.
With Weasl- Ginevra’s help, Draco happily won the hand and the next, before Ginny sat back down at the table and was dealt in. His coach gone, Draco had middling success the rest of the evening, but he was certainly getting the hang of it.
It was going on midnight when the group began to break up; Gin and Lene were the first to leave, having the farthest to go to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff respectively. Draco noticed that they pulled out an old piece of parchment and studied it for a moment before calling goodbye to everyone and ducking out, a map perhaps? The Ravenclaws were next; since they were already in the right wing it was easy for them to sneak back up to their common room from the dungeon. That left the Slytherins, Alex, Draco, and Blaise, still sitting casually at the table, swirling the dregs of their butter beers, and reflecting on their successes (and in Draco’s case, losses) of the evening.
Leaning back in his chair, Alex stifled a long yawn, breaking the pleasant silence that had fallen over the boys. Draco took advantage of the break and asked his two fellows a question that had been bothering him all night.
“So, it’s always like this, hm?”
Blaise looked over towards him, slighly tipsy, and started batting his eyelashes, “what do you mean, Malfoy? Do we always fleece handsome young aristocrats? Well, we try but they are so few and far between these days, it’s hard to get one that meets all the criteria...”
Alex threw a crumpled napkin at the boy, “Shut up, you drunken Pouf,” he laughed. Turning towards Draco, he commented.
“More specific mate.”
“Well, you know, everyone all cheery and getting along like that? Doesn’t it blow up in everybody’s faces sometimes? And they all put up with us Slyths, easy like that? Since when does that ever happen?”
Alex tapped his chin thoughtfully, pretending to be deep in thought. Draco watched him carefully, waiting for an answer.
Slowly Alex began to speak, “How should I put this, er... yes, no, most of the time, about fifth year.” He looked over to Blaise to make sure he’d got that right.
“Yep, about fifth year.”
The expression on Draco’s face clearly asked for more of an explanation.
His mate sighed, “Listen, did you have a good time tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Did knowing that some of the witches and wizards playing tonight were from Gryffindor, or Hufflepuff, or even Ravenclaw, affect you enjoyment of the evening?”
Draco thought about the question a little before answering. “No, not really I suppose. I was surprised at first. But since no one was wearing their house emblems I kind of didn’t notice after awhile.” He looked at his friend, surprised at his own answer.
Blaise stood from the table and whisked the mess away with his wand.
“Quite right, why on earth let a hat discern who you can and can’t associate with. That’s my motto. Now I’m bushed and I think sloshed, let’s get back, what do you say?”
--------------
Author’s etc: More to come, thanks for putting up with the inevitable procrastination on my behalf... Cheers! Review if it pleases…
To Be Continued.
sweetproserpina is the author of 6 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 6 members. Members who liked Cultured Left Foot also liked 516 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 6 members. Members who liked Cultured Left Foot also liked 516 other stories.
Leave a Review