Gone Awry

"Ah! There you are!" Mrs. Zabini said when the two of them entered a very comfortable looking dining room. Like the rest of the mansion, the interior was very modern. It had a marble floor, that held a leopard pattern on it - when Ash saw this, her heart skipped a beat, because her German house had exactly the same marble - and in the middle of the room was a black table that was set with four plates - white with leopard print on the rim -, leopard coloured knifes and forks and (normal) wine glasses.

"Sorry about the delay mom," Blaise said before going over to her and giving his mother a kiss on the cheek.

"No problem, my dear. Hector isn't here yet either."

"Hector?" Blaise asked a bit confused.

"My new fiancée."

"Oh..." Blaise said, with an grimace on his face. Chuckling Ash put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ah! Ash! How lovely you look! I must say green is a perfect colour for you. You should be happy that you got into Slytherin!"

Ash laughed at her comment. "Yeah I was quite please with the house colours I must admit. Red always seemed to make me look a bit like a strawberry."

Mrs. Zabini laughed at that. "Oh, I'm sure red looks wonderful on you as well, but green... Perfect."

"Thank you."

"And how do you like your room?"

"Its wonderful, Mrs. Zabini. Absolutely gorgeous"

"Ash, please call me Oriana - Mrs. Zabini always makes me think I'm old..."

"No problem Mrs... I mean Oriana."

"Good girl. Now come on. lets sit down and talk a bit!" Oriana said and gestured for ash to sit on the chair to her right, while Blaise took the chair to her left.

"So tell me. Why have I never heard from you before this year?" Oriana asked.

"Um," Ash hesitated for a second, looking at Blaise. "I've just transferred to Hogwart's this year."

"Really? And where were you before?"

"I was in an wizardry school in Germany."

"Germany? What was it called? You see one of my late husbands was from Germany as well."

"Schwarzwälderkirsch"

"Isn't that a cake?"

"Our founder was a sweet tooth." Ash said her cheeks getting a reddish tint.

"Well, I like that name. But sadly that's not the school my husband was from."

"Are you hundred percent sure he's German or that he went to school in Germany? Because as far as I know its the only school for the German talking society. Meaning that not only Germans went there, but Austrians, German Swizz and the people from South Tirol."

"Hmm... let me think..."

"Mom, do you mean Sebastian?"

"Yeah, him."

"He went to school in Denmark."

"Oh... wasn't that Ben?"

"No, he was American."

"True true!" she said, turning to Ash she added laughing, "can you believe that my son knows more about my husbands then I do!"

"Seemingly."

"So, now tell me. How do you like Hogwart's?"

"I love it. At the start it was a bit weird for me, I had to get used to the teachers, the house system, the accents and the walking, etc. but now that I got used to it. Its fun!"

"The walking?"

"Well you see, our school was in an hollow mountain and a lot of the class rooms and dorms were only reachable when you fly with your broom, hence we always used our broom to get from A to B."

"You must be a very good flyer then!"

"I do believe I am."

"Then you should take part in the flying competition that my fiancée is taking part in next week! I bet he could get you in there!"

"Flying competition?"

"The Annual Broom Race. Surely you must have heard of it!"

"Oh, of course I did! Your fiancée is participating? He must be very brave then. Not many wizards actually survive the race."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Well, its a race in Sweden that goes for 437 miles from Kopparberg to Arjeplog. If it were just the distance - no problem, but the course runs through a dragon reservation. Hence, if you get an Dragon angry... lets say its not very healthy."

"Huh... very interesting."

"But I would still love to take part in that race once. My problem is that my cousin would kill me if he found out - and he definitely would find out. He's a Dragonologist."

"Well, just sign up under a different name and wear a cape. He won't notice until its to late."

"When did you say it was?"

"Next week."

"I'll think about it!" Ash beamed at Blaise and his mother.

"No you wont," Blaise said.

"None of your business."

"It is. Its a deadly race, I don't want to lose a friend to that stupidity."

"Oh, don't shit your pants Blaise. I only said I'd think about it."

"But I know that if you say you'll think about it the probability that you'll say yes is 99%"

"If you say one more word I'll say yes."

"No"

"Alright Oriana. I would love to participate in the race"

Mrs. Zabini looked from her son to his friend and back. "Well, Blaise does have a point. It is dangerous. Do you really want to risk it?"

"Yes, I've decided."

"Well, then there's nothing I can do. I'll ask Hector if he'll get you a place... Ah! speak of the devil!" she said with a broad smile and stood up walking over to the door, where a man in his early 40ties entered the door. he had dark brown hair and brown eyes. His skin was very tanned - which looked a bit weird in the middle of winter.

"Darling. May I introduce, my son Blaise. Blaise this is Hector."

Hector held out his hand for Blaise to shake. "Nice to finally meet you"

Blaise looked at the hand and then at the man that it belonged to with a scowl.

After a few seconds, Blaise's face scrunched up in pain and he glared at Ash, who had just kicked his shin under the table.

"Be nice," she mouthed at him.

Rolling his eyes he took the man's hand.

"- and this is Ash," Oriana went on.

"Wow, Blaise has a very beautiful girlfriend," he said with a smile.

"Oh no, Blaise and I are only friends."

"So your single?"

"No, I've got a boyfriend."

"But its not Blaise."

"Exactly."

"Why not?"

"What do you mean?"

"You'd be a nice couple."

"Um... thank you," she said with an awkward smile and Hector and Oriana looked at each other, shrugged and sat down as well.

"Hunny, we were just talking about the race next week."

"Oh really? Do you want to participate Blaise?"

"No, but Ash was thinking about it," he said in a bored yet a bit aggravated tone of voice.

"Really? You like to race?"

"I live for it."

"Well, the entrances are already over, but I can see if I could get you on the list somehow."

"I thought that maybe she could take your place, hunny. I wouldn't want anything happening to you when we just met." Oriana said in a sweet and velvet voice.

"Darling, our wedding is in the summer, I really don't want anything happening to you before that. You can always participate again next year."

Hector sighed. "I'll see if I can get you on the list, if not you can race instead of me," he said, smiling at the blond girl next to him.

"I don't know how I can think you for this! I've been dreaming about it since forever!" Ash said beaming.

"No problem. I'd d anything for a beauty like yourself."

Ash's eye twitched a bit and her smile froze for a second as his words creeped her out, but she quickly hid it by turning to Oriana and asking what they would have for dinner.

"You'll know as soon as it appears," and just when she finished saying that sentence, four house elves rushed into the room, balancing plates above their heads.

"Rocket salad with melted goat cheese," one of their high pitched voices chimed and raced back to the kitchen to let her masters dine in peace.

"Guten Appetit." Ash muttered under her breath - she still wasn't used to not saying anything before eating.

During dinner they talked a bit more about their plans for the holidays, while eating Lamb cutlets as the main dish and a chocolate mouse for dessert.

"Well, we didn't really think about that, did we?" Ash asked Blaise who shook his head. "We were invited to the Christmas party and New Years Party at the Malfoy's and also I'm gonna have dinner with them at one point. But other then that... " Ash shook her head.

"And now you've also got the race you've got to include into your plans!"

"Correct. So both Tuesday are booked by the Malfoy partys. And somewhere in between that I think I'll have dinner with them.. What we could do is a little trip to the Alps and go skiing!"

"Skiing? As in the muggle sport?"

"Yes. But its fun! Trust me in that!"

Blaise sighed "I'll try it."

Ash beamed at her friend. Best we do that next week end... By the way, when is the race?"

"Its on the 26th."

"Good," Ash cheered. "This will be so much fun!" she grinned at Blaise.