The Start of Something Good (Mol, Arth, Ted, Andi)

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur nodded thoughtfully. "You must be right," he said. "I'd never hear of someone selling coonversations before... perhaps a lot of muggles just have money troubles. Although, I really don't think I'll ever figure out how she knew I was there. Oh, how I wish I'd tried to talk to her longer!"

Taking a sip of his butterbeer, he looked at her in what he hoped was a casual manner. He wondered what the chances were he could get her to agree to an actual date with him.

[Molly Prewett]

"Maybe she was selling some kind of service," Molly suggested. "I heard that some witches that are really good at Divination sell to muggles." She shrugged, and then laughed at herself. "I really don't know. I think I'm just making things up now."

She realized she hadn't even touched her drink. She was enjoying her conversation with him, and she wanted it to last. For some reason, she thought when the drink was gone, the conversation would be over.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur laughed, too. It wasn't that what she said was so funny, particularly, but her laughter was infectious. And her smile... it tugged on his heart. Suddenly this was going from a harmless flirtation and innocent conversation to something a bit more serious. At least for him. He knew that he wanted to see her again, and he wondered if he had a chance. She seemed to be having a nice time. The fact that she was still here at all was highly encouraging. And she hadn't had a sip of her second butterbeer...

"That's possible. Maybe she wasn't even calling me at all... just calling that phone number in the hopes that someone would answer and she could sell her conversation, or something like that. It's all very unusual. We don't drop into people's floos, asking for money, do we? I do think that muggles tend to over complicate things... but that's part of their charm, I think."

[Molly Prewett]

Molly shrugged. Muggles were muggles, as far as she was concerned. She had nothing against them, but she much preferred her lifestyle and was happy with it. She couldn't descriminate, anyway. After all, she didn't have any particularly fascinating magical job. She was just used to the ease and convenience of magic, and supposed she was spoiled by it.

"All right, Arthur. When you're not trying to unravel the mystery of muggles, what else do you do?" She was curious what he did in his spare time, when work didn't call.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur was a bit taken aback by the question. Not that it was an odd question, or an unexpected one, but he was still stuck on the subject of muggles. He thought for a brief second about telling her of his muggle battery collection, but he thought she might think that a bit weird. That was definitely not a first meeting topic. At least third date, maybe fifth. He'd never yet gone beyond a fifth date...

"Well, let's see... I really like Quidditch. The Chudley Cannons are my team... even if they're the worst team in the league." He laughed. "Do you follow sports?"

[Molly Prewett]

"A little," she answered. "My brother's are fans," she added by way of explaination. "So I have to at least keep up on scores and the like. But I root for the Wimbourne Wasps whenever I can." She smiled.

She didn't want the conversation to die there, and in an effort to keep it alive, asked, "Did you play in Hogwarts? I was a Chaser for the Gryffindor team for four years."

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur thought for a minute. If she was a Chaser on the Gryffindor team, he should know her, right? "Yes, I played Keeper for Gryffindor for 2 years, until I took a bludger to the head. I got a concussion, and was out for the rest of the year. My mum forbid me from going out for the team the next year. It's OK, though... I wasn't very good, anyway." He looked at her again. "I feel like we should know each other. Have we met before? And really, that's not a line or anything. I just think that if we were in the same house, we must have crossed paths once or twice."

[Molly Prewett]

Molly shrugged. "We couldn't have been on the team during the same years..." she said. "I would have known you then. Of course I would have. In fact, I think..." She crinkled her brow, trying to remember something. "Rosemont was Keeper the first year I was on the team. How old are you?" She asked. Maybe they were just far enough apart that they never moved in the same circles.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur nodded. "Yeah... Rosemont was my replacement after my injury. I was only on the team for my second and third years. I must have just missed you." He rather wished now that he could have convinced his mother to let him stay on the team... perhaps then he would have met Molly sooner. He smiled a little, thinking that she must have been absolutely adorable when she was younger.

As for admitting his age, he was oddly reluctant. There wasn't really any good reason why, just a simple matter of vanity. She seemed like such a young thing, and he didn't want her to think he was old. Of course, if she was out of school, she had to be at least 17. And he wasn't too much older than that... "I'm 21," he admitted.

[Molly Prewett]

Molly nodded. "I did just miss you, then, maybe by a year." That was a shame. She wondered if they would have been friends had they known each other. Or would they have been at odds? And then a small romantic thought crept into her head, what if he could be here what if? The man that one day, she would look at and say, what if I didn't let you buy me that butterbeer?

She tried not to frown when he admitted his age. It wasn't that 4 years was a big difference... just that it was a big difference when you were only 17. She was still a child, and he was an adult... and would he go running when he found that out? Did she even want him to stay?

"Oh. Yeah. We missed each other in school."

[Arthur Weasley]

"Still," Arthur continued, "You'd think we would have crossed paths at some point. We were both in Gryffindor, after all. But then, I did spend a lot of my time in the library. Did you spend a lot of time with Andromeda? I know she was always surrounded by friends... she was very popular."

He wondered silently if she was uncomfortable with the age difference. It was entirely possible, after all, that the age difference was a big part of why they didn't notice each other back then.

[Molly Prewett]

"I tried to spend time with Andi," Molly said with a shrug. "It was a little difficult when her sisters started... the Blacks are very adament when it comes to blood traitors."

They probably did cross paths in school, though for the life of her, she couldn't remember him. He would have already been what, a fourth or fifth year when she started? Besides, he likely hung around Ted, and she didn't know many Hufflepuffs... just a handful.

"We probably just moved in entirely different circles."

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur nodded. "Yes, I suppose we probably did. It's a pity, though. I feel like we would have gotten along. And it seems odd when you meet someone from the same house, and you didn't know them."

He was just babbling now... he felt like he was running out of things to say. But he didn't want her to get bored or decide it was time to leave. So he took a deep breath and said, "Anyway, since you're a quidditch fan, maybe we could go to a game some time. Maybe when the Wasps play the Cannons... you can watch your team destroy mine... they all do." He gave a crooked smile.

[Molly Prewett]

She gave him an unguarded smile. He was asking her out again... which meant, by whatever gods looked down on her, that he hadn't found her as droll and unimpressive as he made her feel. It was unintentional, she knew, but it was hard to measure up to him, or her brothers, for that matter.

"I... would like that," she told him. "And for the record, my team slaughters *everyone*," she added with a little smile.

He did sound like he was ending the conversation, though. "Should I let you get to it, then? I mean, if you're busy..."

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur laughed, a little too loudly, at her comment. "Yes, and my team gets slaughtered by everyone," he replied. "What can I say? I have a weakness for the underdog. I mean, sooner or later, their losing streak's got to end, right?"

He took another sip from his butterbeer, allowing himself to imagine spending an evening with her at the Quidditch Stadium in town, watching a game, maybe sharing some popcorn... It sounded perfect.

But when she suggested that he might be busy, he shook his head vigorously, causing some of his butterbeer to slosh around in his glass and splash a small amount on the floor. "Oh, no... I'm not busy," he said quickly. "I mean, I don't have plans or anything. I was just supposed to hang out with Ted until Andromeda got home, and then I was just going to go home and feed my pet rat. But he'll be fine a while longer... I'm in no rush."

[Molly Prewett]

She giggled at him a little. Arthur was a mess. He was nervous, and clumsy, and he laughed too loudly, and quite frankly, she found it refreshing. Arthur Weasely could make her smile, and if you ould make a girl smile...

"Oh, all right," she said, giggling again when he sloshed his drink on the floor. "You just sounded like you had somewhere you needed to be."

[Arthur Weasley]

She thought he was a git. He was sure of it. Laughing at things that weren't funny, spilling his drink (again), tripping over his words... making a right arse out of himself. Could he have been any less suave? He was a git, that was all there was too it. But she hadn't run away yet. Maybe she liked gits.

"No, not at all. No where to go... Certainly no where I'd rather be than here right now. Except Paris. Because isn't everything better in Paris? Or... so I've heard." He laughed his nervous laugh again.

[Molly Prewett]

Molly shrugged, her smile faltering at that statement. It was a wonderful compliment, and she wasn't sure how to take it, so she glossed over it.

"My family... the Black side, anyway, loves Paris. I think that's always tainted it in my eyes."

But maybe one day she could go to the city of love with someone who would make her forget that connection she made in her mind. "Have you ever been?" She asked.

[Arthur Weasley]

Arthur looked at her a moment. She didn't seem to know how to take compliments... she was even worse at taking them than he was at giving them. He wondered if she had any idea just how lovely she was or how interesting she was to him.

"No, I've never been, either. I've always wanted to go. You shouldn't let anyone else taint it in your opinion, though. Not until you've had a chance to experience it for yourself."

Something else in her statement caught his notice, however. "Wait... you're a Black? I didn't realize you were related to Andromeda."

In a distant way, he was related to her, too. His grandmother, a Black, had been kicked out of the family for marrying his grandfather, simply because the Weasleys had always been considered blood traitors. He hoped they weren't too closely related, because despite the pureblood tendencies to intermarry, he felt a little diversity was preferable in the family gene pool.

[Molly Prewett]

She shook her head. "No, I'm a Prewett. But my mother is Andromeda's father's cousin. I'm not even sure what that makes Andi and I... Sirius and I are cousins, that part's easy. It's just simpler to say cousins for me and Andi. My father was considered a blood traitor though, which got my mother burned off the tree and all."

She sighed. That half of her family was so outrageously, ridiculously snooty. They thought far too highly of themselves.

"Good riddance, I say. The only thing my mother lost was an inheritance."