People Watching

[Sebastian Nott]

ooc. good thing seb's around, then, because seb's ninety percent more fabulous and classy than scorpius text it
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She was quite pretty, Seb realized. Not his usual type, obviously - but then, he didn't really have a type. Girl was his type. Girl older than sixteen, at any rate. But there was something about her that suggested that if he flirted with her - if only for a laugh - he wouldn't get very far at all, and he didn't think she'd be as much fun as Rose, or Molly, or even Dominique or Lucy. She'd probably blush and get terribly embarrassed, which would be fairly hilarious, but it'd also be sort of reminiscent to confusing a tiny, bewildered kitten. Not cruel, exactly, but definitely verging towards it. Then again, he'd feel traitorous to himself if he didn't take any chance he could to flirt. Pondering this, he almost missed her remark, but, once it registered, he widened his eyes, a wounded look appearing on his face. "Roxanne would never. She adores me," he informed her quite seriously. "Thinks I'm the bees knees. She probably has a bit of a thing for me too - but, alas, it could never work for us," he continued, deadpan. "And so she had to settle for second best. Anything to get close to me. What can I say?" His eyes sparkled with mischief. "I'm irresistible."

She sounded only very slightly apologetic, which certainly wasn't enough for Seb, and she didn't look adequately sympathetic, either. Frowning, he scrutinized her for a minute, and then demanded, "What, would you knee me in the groin if I flirted with you? It really hurt!" He insisted, wincing slightly as he relived the incident. It hadn't helped that it had been in a group of people and sent most of them howling with laughter.

"Because..." he trailed off, struggling for an answer, but finished smoothly, a triumphant gleam in his eyes: "Because I don't quit. That's what losers do, and I'm not a loser. And anyways, look at me," he gestured to his face. "Everyone's interested. Even you must be interested." (Seb had a terrible habit of sounding insulting without intending to.)

"There are a lot of you," he agreed, nodding his head solemnly. "So many Weasleys, so little time. You know, I think I've only slept with one Weasley?" He halted in his tracks, his coffee-cup poised before his lips, evidently thinking back to his Hogwarts days. Realising that it was perfectly true, he heaved a massive sigh. "Disappointing. I'll have to change that." He shot her a grin. "Let all of your cousins know that I'm ready and willing. Should they ever need a lay, Sebastian Nott will save the day - ha!" He set his coffee cup down. "Did you hear that? Poetry. I'm obviously a literary genius, too. If you think about it," he said, very seriously, "I'm sort of a miracle."

Seb mulled this over, and then said, as the thought popped into his head, "I wonder if his wife's hot..." and after another few seconds' thoughts, he tacked on: "I guess not, though, 'cause if she was really hot he'd be in a rush to go home. And what would you think if you saw me?" He asked her suddenly, as the thought occurred to him. Batting his eyelashes in a most alarming fashion, he leaned over the table, smiling sweetly. "Go on. Spare no feelings. Tell me all. What would you think I was if you saw me sat over there? Other than a god among men. But that goes without saying."

[Lily Potter]

For a moment, Lily wondered if he'd heard her, as he got a thoughtful look on his face for a second, but then he seemed to register it. She tried to think whether she'd ever really hear Roxie talk about Sebastian Nott and couldn't quite remember. Certainly nothing that would suggest that Roxie might fancy him (which Lily was 99.9% certain she didn't, since Roxanne seemed very happy with her current boyfriend). "If you ruined her wedding, I think she might not adore you any more," she remarked mildly, electing not to comment on his irresistibility.

She opened her mouth to reply to his question, realised she didn't quite know what answer she was planning on giving, closed it again, and thought about it for a moment, her head tilted slightly to one side. "Nooo," she said at last, going for the honest answer. "I don't think kneeing someone's a nice thing to do, whatever they've done." She hoped he wouldn't take that as a cue to flirt with her. That would be awkward. Then again, she wasn't sure whether she'd really know if he was flirting or not.

She thought about telling him that what he just described could be construed as harassment, but changed her mind. "I don't think she's interested," she pointed out instead, once again skipping lightly over the mention of herself. "So you could just save yourself from being embarrassed." Not that he was really the type to get embarrassed by anything, she thought ruefully. Unlike Lily, who blushed at the drop of a hat. In fact, she was blushing as he spoke, as he insisted on talking about sex in a crowded cafe - sex with members of her family, moreover. Trying to cover her embarrassment (she was sixteen for goodness sake, she didn't need to blush at that sort of thing), she gave him a wide-eyed stare.

"Really? You've slept with someone in my family?" As she voiced this, and the idea sank in, curiosity really did overtake her embarrassment. Her family did not tend to talk to Lily about the people they slept with - presumably they considered her too young, which was ridiculous - and she had no idea about most of their love lives, except when it came to genuine relationships. And she was fairly sure that none of them had ever been in a relationship with Seb. "Who was it?" she asked in fascination, then added as an afterthought: "Though if it was Al, I don't want to know." Cousins was one thing. Brothers was quite another.

"Probably not," she agreed without really thinking about it. "Also he's quite old, so she probably is too. Though I expect old people are hot to other old people." She stopped herself as she realised that she was rambling again, which was odd because usually she didn't do that except with people she actually knew quite well. She stared at him for a moment as he asked his next question, her mind empty of answers. Part of her wanted to mumble something - anything - and change the subject rather than try and answer that particular one, which struck her a bit personal. But part of her also wanted not to fail the challenge, and that part won. She leaned back very slightly as he leaned towards her, but shrugged.

"Um. It would depend what you were doing. I'd probably wonder why you were by yourself." Oh God, Lily, wrong thing to say. He was bound to take that as a compliment and think she couldn't imagine why someone like him would be drinking coffee alone. Which was partially true, but still. "So I'd probably think you were waiting for someone. And if I knew you, I'd think you'd tried to chat up some girl you'd just met in a shop, and told her to meet you for coffee thinking she'd come, but she didn't."

[Sebastian Nott]

"How would I ruin her wedding, pray tell?" He demanded, looking slightly offended. "Didn't I just say I'd make it classy and fabulous? Have you never been to a Nott party?" Seb knew for a fact that the parties that he and Chloe threw were legendary - it was partly to do with the fact that their Manor was impossibly large and spacious and there was space for absolutely everything, and tons of dark corners to do absolutely everything, and never a shortage of rooms, and that they had a swimming pool. But it was also because himself and Chloe were incredibly talented at decorating and, obviously, with them both being the life and soul of every party (Seb would refuse to admit everything else) a party of theirs was sure to be epic. It was practically law. "And, if I was best man, which I should be -" he frowned, realising he'd have to tell Scorpius that if he was anything less he wasn't going to attend, "It'd be even better. Oh, man, the stag party!" His eyes lit up as the thought popped into his head. Strippers. There would have to be strippers.

"And that," Seb said solemnly, lifting his coffee towards her, "Is why I like you more than Dominique. You have class. And you'd probably know not to miss such a fabulous opportunity." Finishing off his coffee and setting the cup down on the table with finality, he said, as the thought occurred to him, "How is that mental cousin of yours? I must say, I was shocked she graduated with those grades. I got all Outstandings," he tacked on in a conspiratorial voice. "Not that I'd settle for anything less."

It was true that the girl didn't seem very interested, and even Seb could see that. He was one hundred percent sure that if he had gotten talking to her properly, she would've adored him, but he supposed she was marginally stressed due to all of the plates and cups she had to balance. "If only we had met somewhere else. We could've hit it right off..." he sighed mournfully. "Oh, circumstances. It's like that wanky Romeo and Juliet lark. Except just shagging, not love. Ah, well," his expression changed from sober to cheery in the blink of an eye. "Plenty more fish in the sea! I'll see if I can round up the troops to go out tonight."

Seb had never spoken to Lily Potter before in his life, and, at her surprise that he had slept with one of her cousins, he was beginning to understand why, exactly. He usually expected Weasleys to be loud and confident and mischievous, and it sort of boggled his mind how different she seemed from the rest of them. Seb wondered if she was considered very young - after all, she was sixteen, wasn't she? In his sixth year, practically everyone had shagged someone else and practically everyone drank and swore cheerfully. Then again, though, Ainsley and Ella were in sixth year - in fairness, Seb would often waggle his eyebrows and chat about what he'd done with this girl and that girl to them, but more so in an attempt to freak them out, because he considered Ainsley and Ella rather young, as he was wont to do with girls he was related to. He was still very much in the mindset that Chloe was far younger than him (rather than a sparse ten minutes). But surely it was expected that he'd slept with a Weasley? He'd have been hugely ashamed of himself if he hadn't. And it wasn't as though Seb shied away from chatting about his sex life - but was she just hugely innocent, or what? Perhaps he wasn't supposed to tell her. Maybe Albus would get a bit miffed if he found out. But then, if Albus had found out he'd been in a coffee shop with his younger sister, he'd have probably thought Seb would've been trying to sleep with her.

"Erm," he said, a reluctant grin spreading across his face. "I'm sure you can guess. And oh, Al..." he shook his head ruefully. "It could never work out between the two of us. He is fit, though," he informed her, with a nod of his head. "If I was drunk enough, I totally - " realising what he had been beginning to say, he cut himself off before concluding the sentence. "I - totally - would...shower him in affection..."

Seb fiercely hoped that when he got married - if he got married - that he wouldn't have to muck about in a coffee shop for hours, and that he still found his wife hot. It was sort of boring, though, sitting in a coffee shop. If Seb had wanted to avoid someone that much, he'd have probably gone to a grotty muggle pub or something. That meant you could have alcohol, too, and you didn't have a hope in hell of running into anyone from the wizarding world. He opened his mouth to voice his thoughts when she started to say what she'd think he was doing if she spotted him in the coffee shop, and, once again, he grinned. Seb's facial expressions were generally large smiles or smoulders or pouts. "Ahhh. Because I'm just too lovable and popular to be left on my own, right?" He listened to the rest of her sentence, grimacing slightly at the thought of being stood up, and then shot her a mockingly flirtatious look, glancing up at her from under his lashes. "And if you saw us together, obviously you'd think we were a smitten couple, planning to elope and leave behind a cruel, judgmental world. God, I want another coffee," he added, demeanour changing entirely as he shot a look at the empty cup. "D'you want one? D'you want some food, too?" He plucked the menu off of the table and eyed it speculatively. "My treat. I'm really hungry. I think I'll get a couple of things."

[Lily Potter]

"I doubt that Roxie would think tight dresses on the bridesmaids was classy and fabulous. Or strippers," Lily replied. "Anyway, no, I haven't," she replied to his mention of the Nott parties. It wasn't a reproach and didn't sound like one - simply a statement of fact. Lily would never have expected to be invited to the Nott parties, as she only knew Chloe a little better than she knew Seb, and it had never bothered her in the slightest, as she had never particularly wanted to go to one. The Notts were friends with her brothers and cousins, not with her. The only slightly surprising thing was that Seb didn't know that she had never been to one, as they were his parties and he presumably helped to control the guest list. However, she supposed that at big parties - and she knew they were big, from things Rose and Roxie and people had said - it was possible to lose track.

"You barely know me," she pointed, refraining from rolling her eyes. "You can't like me better. And Dom has class, she just..." Lily trailed off, unable to think of how to finish that sentence, since to be brutally honest, Dom didn't really have much of what might be called 'class'. Lily loved her anyway, of course, and would defend her from such accusations, but she wasn't a very easy person to defend. She latched onto his question instead. "Dom? She's fine. I think. She's playing reserve for Puddlemere United, so I suppose it doesn't matter much what her grades were..." Actually, she had no idea what Dom's grades had been, she realised. "Well done," she added politely, on hearing his own grades. She wasn't sure whether she believed him or not, but it was always possible. She wouldn't get her own OWL results until later in the summer, of course, but she was sincerely hoping she had got a few Os as well.

She stared at him blankly for a moment. "How is that anything like Romeo and Juliet?" she protested. "The whole point of Romeo and Juliet is that their families hated each other. Do you even know her family?" She was quite impressed that he knew about Romeo and Juliet, since of course it wasn't something that was taught at Hogwarts, though he clearly didn't understand the story very well.

She blinked at his grin, thinking about the question... and the possible answers. How was she supposed to guess? Although she supposed if she thought about it... "Well, it obviously isn't Dom. And I doubt if it's Roxie. Or Lucy." She eyed him doubtfully. "At least tell me if it's a boy or a girl. Though I don't want to know if it's James either." Not that she had any remote expectation of it being James, since, again, she was fairly sure he was only interested in girls. "Molly?" she guessed, picking probably the flirtiest of her cousins as perhaps the likeliest. She pulled a face as he called her brother fit, though it turned into a reluctant laugh as he changed what he had been going to say. "I'm sure he'd be pleased." She nodded solemnly.

"No." She shook her head. "You're just too loud to carry on sitting by yourself unless you were waiting for someone. You'd move and start talking to someone else. Or spilling your coffee all over their book," she added, unable to resist this dig, and ignoring both his flirtatious look and his words about the two of them.

"Um..." She glanced at her own cup, which was three quarters empty, then back at him. "It's okay. Honestly. I have money." Though she was hungry herself, now she came to think of it.

[Sebastian Nott]

"I've never actually shagged a bridesmaid," Seb announced, as this thought occurred to him, and he shook his head in disappointment. "Not good enough, obviously. Anyways, what's wrong with a bridesmaid looking a little sexy? D'you want to be one?" He tacked on, perking up, his entire demeanor brightening to the extreme. "C'mon. It'll be fun. You can wear a dead tight thing, and it can be all blue and shimmery. Like a mermaid!" With this proposal, something of a lightning bulb struck Seb. Holding both hands up, palms forward to ensure she would not interrupt him - for he required pure, pure silence to fully grasp what he was grappling at - he leaned back in his chair, chin tilted upwards. "I've got it," he said solemnly. "I've got the theme for the wedding. Beach theme. Everybody wears their swimsuits, we have the whole ceremony malarkey in front of the sea. That means tans, lots of drinks, and, most importantly - " his lips tweaked upwards, " - bikinis. And the strippers are for the stag night, Clever Clogs," he switched his tone entirely, smoothing down his shirt and suddenly looking very prim. "Unless I get very, very drunk at the reception. I like to take my clothes off after I've been drinking a lot," he confessed shamelessly. "Usually, though, I manage to get myself somewhere private and a girl before I start stripping. You never know, though," he conceded. "Also, if there's karaoke, I'll be magnetically drawn. I don't know what it is about it..." he pressed a solemn hand to his heart, and leaned forward. "But every time I get a microphone in my hand, I lose myself in the music," with this intense announcement, he gave a nod, and elected not to add that he was completely tone deaf and the last time he'd attempted karaoke he'd been booed cheerfully off of the stage.

"You haven't?" He blinked. But then, he supposed, not everyone could come. They were very select, after all. But she was Albus' sister, and she seemed alright - and she was sixteen, or whatever, which meant she was old enough. He'd draw the line at children ambling around the party, but sixth year was reasonable. Plus, she was quite pretty. "Well, come to the next one, then. It's our eighteenth. Mine and Chloe's. Albus'll be going. We only invite pretty people," he informed her in an undertone.

"What part of she kneed me in the groin do you not understand?" Seb demanded, but he was greatly amused. Obviously he preferred her to Dominique. He'd rather bang Dominique, but that was because Dominique was his age and he had an inkling she'd be very good in bed. Plus, she was blonde, and he had a distinct thing for blondes. But she didn't seem keen on threatening to kill him all of the time, and, like the rest of the Weasley crowd, she was good-looking. "Hang on. I remember now, Scorp's playing reserve for them too. Don't know why he's doing it, to be honest," he admitted. "If I ended up on the same team as her, I'd get out before she could do any lasting damage. Frankly, I think she's waiting for an opportunity to pounce, and make it look like an accident. His Quidditch days are numbered..." heaving a sigh, he tutted under his breath.

In all honesty, Seb knew very little about Muggle things, and his information on Romeo and Juliet was sparse. All he knew for sure was that they banged, and a ton of people died. Deciding not to allow this to shine through, he reached out and patted her hand, saying consoling, "Obviously you missed the point of Romeo and Juliet. I think you need to do a bit of a re-read. This? Between the two of us?" He gestured between himself and the waitress (she was standing behind the till, feverishly searching for change while an impatient customer looked on irritably). "This is electric. I'm talking full-scale. And that..." realising he had completely lost his train of thought, he frowned, eyebrows knitting together. What was he talking about, again? He adopted a serene expression. "Sorry. I'm so deep that sometimes my own thoughts overwhelm me. It's my cross to bear. I'm sure you understand." Ha. An expert escape.

"It's not James," he informed her, quite truthfully. "Although I do, on occasion, fantasize about him in a maid's costume. Like, a French one. One of those really sexy ones, you know?" When she guessed correctly, his mouth spread into a rueful grin, and he tilted his head to one side, rolling his shoulders up into a shrug. "Congratulations. Wasn't that hard to figure out, though, considering. Mollipop," he said this fondly, because he did genuinely like the Weasley family member he'd lost it to in his third year. "We were so young. So naive. I'm sure she still treasures those beautiful moments between the two of us. Oh, to be thirteen again..."

Somewhat offended, Seb pointed accusingly at her. "Oi! I fixed your book, didn't I? And I bet I've improved your afternoon about - well, at least ninety-two percent. I'm endearing." A friend of his mum's hand pronounced him so when he was ten and he had never quite let it go. For a solid year it had been his answer to positively everything. Seb, why did you push your sister into the pool? Why, because, mother, I'm endearing. And it still served its purpose, eight years later.

"Psh. So do I. I'm buying you something -" he handed the menu over to her, "In exchange for your fascinating company and for the fact that I spilled coffee all over your book. Even if, as stated previously, I did fix it."

[Lily Potter]

Lily stared at him in utter bemusement as his ideas got more and more ludicrous. "You know, bridesmaids are just women the rest of the time," she pointed out. "I'm sure there are plenty of girls who've been bridesmaids you could, um..." She trailed off, not quite comfortable using the word 'shag', especially in a public place. "No thanks," she went on firmly. "I don't want to look like a mermaid." She didn't think that a wedding on the beach sounded like the most horrible idea - in fact, she thought it was quite a good one. Lily did not do tight, revealing clothes though - she did baggy and comfortable. And she definitely didn't plan on wearing a swimsuit in front of a whole crowd of people. Neither did she own a bikini, but she certainly wasn't going to tell him that. There was a kind of awful fascination about everything he was saying, even though she was more than slightly horrified by it, and by the fact that they were having this conversation where people could be overhearing them. She honestly had no idea what to say to him in return though - talking about sex simple embarrassed her, and it wasn't like she could contribute anything meaningful, as she had never been anywhere near doing anything sexual herself.

"Oh... um, thanks," she said, slightly confused by his sudden invitation. "When... when is it?" Did he think she'd been angling for one? But then again, he probably wouldn't care if she had. She wasn't sure if she would go or not. She had been to very few proper parties, mostly ones that happened at school, and she suspected that this one would be slightly wilder than any she had attended before. She wasn't really a party person - she did like them sometimes, if there were people she knew and could hang out with without feeling awkward. She'd have to find out whether anyone she knew was going to this one - aside from her relatives, of course, who would probably mostly be going, but would be unlikely to want to hang out with her there.

"The point of Romeo and Juliet is that it's a tragedy, not a romance," Lily said firmly. "And it's all about feuding families." If there was one thing she was sure of her ground on, it was stories. Not that Romeo and Juliet was one of her favourites, but she knew what she was talking about. However, she simply shook her head as he ran himself into the ground. She wasn't sure she'd ever met anyone who could talk as much as him before.

She had picked up her coffee to take another drink as he started talking about, and choked a little and had to put it down again as he mentioned James in a maid's outfit (what?). "I don't want to know!" she told him wildly. "He's my brother!" She was lost for words again as he went on, her mouth falling open slightly. "I... You were thirteen? That's..." She trailed off again, unable to think of words for what it was. Horrifying sprung to mind. Lily was sixteen, coming up seventeen, and didn't feel ready to have sex yet. Thirteen was just a kid! She had known, of course, that Molly had had sex before, as many of her cousins had. But she had never imagined that it had been at as young as thirteen.

Recovering herself slightly, she shook her head at him, her lips twitching up into a smile. "Okay, okay, I was joking. I know you fixed it." She had to admit (to herself, not to him) that there was something about him that was a little endearing. He was plenty of other things as well, but she couldn't help laughing at his utter nonsense. She opened her mouth to protest again - she wasn't just protesting for the sake of it, but really did object to the idea that guys should automatically pay for things for girls - and then closed it again. After all, he had spilled coffee over her book. Plus, if he had money to splash around, he probably had a job, which was more than she did. "Well... okay, thanks," she said genuinely. "I'll have another coffee." She would probably regret drinking two in a row later, but never mind. Would it be rude to also ask for something to eat?

[Sebastian Nott]

"Shag," he supplied helpfully, smirking. It was always fun to meet people who were so innocent. They provided a ridiculous amount of entertainment, after all. "What? Why not? Mermaids are cool," he said defensively. "I was talking to my mate Lorcan, actually - oi, he works here!" Bolting upright, Seb looked around keenly, as though Lorcan might burst out of the back of the cafe with a bouquet of roses. No such thing happened, and Seb sighed deeply, as though his friend had somehow disappointed him. "Anyways, Lorcan was asking me some lark about mermaids versus veelas. At first I thought he meant to shag, obviously, but then it transpired that he meant in a fight. Anyways, the conversation continued, and I felt compelled to ask him how mermen and mermaids shagged. And...I can't remember how they did, actually. Do you know?"

Seb frowned. Chloe had definitely mentioned a date to him, but he couldn't quite remember it. It was soon. Soon-ish, anyways. Sometime in the next couple of weeks, probably, unless Chloe decided to make it a very late affair indeed. With a shrug, he said, "Who knows? I'll get Chloe to put you on the invite list..." he probably wouldn't remember, actually, but he'd invited her anyways, so if she had the initiative to, she'd just tag along with Al. It wasn't as though anyone was going to turn her away, after all.

"Right," Seb said, eyebrows shooting upwards. "D'you like to read, then? Well," he interrupted himself with a roll of his eyes, "Obviously you do, unless the book I spilled coffee on was your first little foray. What was it, by the way?" He asked, quite genuinely interested, for he very much liked reading. His preferred sort of books happened to be textbooks or something along those lines, but he wasn't fussy. He could delve into a good fictional book if he was bored.

At her choking on her coffee and protests against his over-sharing, Seb found himself howling with laughter. Oh, god, it really was worth it, saying things like that, if someone reacted properly. "Well, he's quite fit," he told her, once he had recovered himself, although he was still sniggering. "Tell him from me that I'm still interested. His legs," Seb pretended to fan himself. "And those eyes. Phwoar. Yum. If you're thinking of birthday presents, I'd like him in a ribbon, nothing else." He waggled his eyebrows. He quickly sobered up at her shock when he mentioned that he and Molly had been thirteen. Alright, so he supposed that it was a bit weird, looking back. Not that he regretted it, but thirteen was rather young. Still! Had she no idea who he was? With his and Molly's reputation combined, how did she think they could have been any older? "I was nearly fourteen," he assured her. "I think? Can't properly remember...mid or late third-year, I do believe. Surely you've heard, though?" He shot her a deeply surprised look. Did she not know that everyone called him a bit of a slut?

"Just another coffee?" He looked horrified. "What about food? You're a growing girl! I'm a growing boy! Go on, seriously," he said sincerely. "I don't mind. I've got a lot of money on me, and anyways, if you weren't here, I'd just buy extra food for myself. So."

[Lily Potter]

Lily was fully aware that she was blushing, not so much from the word shag (she really didn't care what language other people used, it just felt weird crossing her own lips) as because he had clearly picked up on her hesitation and was now laughing at her. Bother. "I know they're cool, but..." She searched for an acceptable reason she didn't want to dress as one, a reason that did not involve her reluctance to show too much skin. "How are you meant to walk in a mermaid costume?"

"Lorcan's not working today," she informed him, trying to keep up with his rapid changes of topic. She and Lorcan frequently had cups of tea here at the ends of his shifts, so she tended to know when he was working and when he was not. Lily blinked at him as the conversation veered back from Lorcan to mermaids - and shagging - again. "I think... aren't they... like whales?" she volunteered cautiously. "So, y'know... kind of the same principle as people..." Was she really discussing the reproduction habits of merpeople? Merlin.

"Right," she said, in answer to his confusion over the date of the party. "Well... yeah, thanks," she repeated, feeling a bit stupid. How was she meant to know when it was? Ask one of her relatives, she supposed. Or just ignore the invite and stay in that night, which would be the easy option.

She looked quickly at him, trying to gauge whether he was one of the people who was really interested, or whether he was simply being polite, or whether - which seemed the most likely option - he was actually making fun of her. However, she was slightly surprised to see a spark of real interest on his face. The book was still on the table beside her, so she picked it up and turned it so he could see the cover. It was an academic book on Muggle literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Lily had read a lot of Muggle things, both stuff that would be classed as 'literature' and stuff that would not (for everyday reading purposes, she generally preferred stuff that was not), but she always found studies of Muggle things vaguely interesting, especially when the Muggle things were books. And she was taking Muggle Studies at NEWT level, so it would probably be relevant at some point. "I just bought it at Flourish and Blotts," she told him. He'd probably think she was extremely boring for her choice of reading, but Lily had given up caring that people found her boring.

She glared at him as he laughed at her, openly this time, although she was only half-serious. "Well, how would you like it if someone started talking about Chloe like that to you?" she demanded. "That's weird. If you want him that much, ask him out or something - don't ask me to do something." She shook her head at him. "Third year... I don't even want to know any more." She'd barely known what sex was in third year. Well, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. She could clearly remember - the memory was mildly embarrassing now - asking Teddy what an STD was in her fourth year... As she remembered that, Lily also suddenly remembered why she'd been asking Teddy what an STD was, and bit back a sudden giggle. She couldn't remind him of those posters, that would be mean.

It wouldn't be rude now he'd offered... would it? "Um, well..." Lily hesitated, glancing at the menu. "Well, okay... I don't want much though. What are you having?"

[Sebastian Nott]

This quite stumped Seb, because he realised that it would be rather difficult to get about in a mermaid costume. Not that it wouldn't be hilarious if everyone was falling all over the place, but it might kill the mood slightly, and he wasn't sure even he could convince Scorpius that all of the bridesmaids being unable to move was highly romantic and fabulous. "I don't know," he said finally, lifting his palms up and shrugging. "I'm sure you'll think of something. Or we could just levitate everyone around."

He glanced at her curiously. How on earth did she know Lorcan? His Lorcan. He'd never seen them together, but then he supposed he probably wouldn't have been particularly interested if he had. Or perhaps he would've - he would've asked Lorcan if she was his girlfriend and taunted him about her for days on end. "You know Lorcan?" He said aloud, blinking. "How? Are you his secret girlfriend?" Oh, well. He'd tease Lorcan later. He could tease her now. "I knew he had someone! And that's how you know his days - do you two hook up in back between Lorcan's shifts?" He let loose a low whistle, eyes glinting with amusement. "Naughty Lorcan! I'll have to give him a good talking-to next time I see him." He was distracted from poking fun at her, however, by her referencing whale reproduction. "How do you know how whales get together?" He demanded, completely forgetting he had just asked her how mermaids did the deed.

"You're very welcome. Be honoured and proud," he informed her with the utmost solemnity. It wasn't everyday someone got invited to a Nott Party, after all. People would be nattering about it for months afterwards.

Seb wasn't entirely sure what he'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been that. He'd sort of expected her to be reading something fantastical, or romantic - which, he supposed, might have been a bit of a stereotype. She just seemed sort of dreamy. But the book was turned towards him, and it looked very serious indeed, and it was on the topic of Muggle Literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He didn't know a very great deal about Muggle Literature, because the vast majority of their library was taken up with wizarding books, and he seemed magnetically drawn towards textbooks, but nevertheless he held out one hand, saying, "Can I have a look, then? My hands are clean!" At this, he beamed at her, and raised the other hand, waggling them both at her. "I used not to let people touch my books because they'd get dirt on them, or fold the pages, or crack the spine - " he couldn't contain a shudder at such appalling behaviour, but his face relaxed almost immediately after, and he couldn't resist adding, "But don't worry. I'm good with my hands."

Her dirty look only made him laugh the more, running one hand through his hair and snorting explosively, not even noticing the waitress throwing him her own filthy look as she wafted by. When she brought up Chloe, however, he sobered up, and said cheerfully, "They'd know better than to do that. Anyways," and this was spoken firmly, "Chloe's completely angelic. And innocent. Well, I mean, she'd not innocent in the sense that she's got a devious mind when it comes to getting the last of the ice-cream - " at this, he shook his head, " - but, in - well - that way - you know what, I'm not even talking about it," he announced, and assumed a martyr-like expression. "If it makes you feel any better, Molly was a fantastic person to lose my virginity to," Seb said seriously, although even he couldn't think why she'd be enormously cheered by this statement. "And I was the first fellow in the year to have sex, so it made me a very happy bunny indeed," he nodded.

Sighing deeply, Seb responded with a half-mournful: "It's what I'm not having that ought to be the question. God, I'm hungry. I feel like an omelette," he said, very suddenly, patting his stomach. "An omelette, some sausages - maybe some pancakes, too - might go to Fortescue's after this and get some ice-cream as well..."

[Lily Potter]

"Or we could just wear normal clothes," Lily suggested. She had almost forgotten that the wedding they were discussing was not actually a real one, or at least not - she assumed - one that was going to be happening imminently. Lily didn't necessarily see the appeal of a huge traditional wedding, especially for herself, but she was a romantic at heart. Wedding planning could be quite fun, she thought - though having Seb as your co-planner would certainly make it interesting.

"Of course I know Lorcan." She rolled her eyes at his newest ridiculous idea - Merlin, how did she stop him? "His mum's my godmother. I'm named after her. But I'm pretty sure if he wanted to hook up with someone in between shifts, he could find someone other than me." She said this without any thought of deliberate self-deprecation - Lily took it for granted that nobody would ever want to hook up with her except as a last resort, and possibly not even then. She found the thought quite comforting. At his question, she shrugged. "I don't know. I must have read about it somewhere."

His reaction to what she was reading definitely surprised her. A mild interest was surprising enough - but he actually wanted to look, enough to be reassuring her that his hands were clean. She wasn't quite] as fussy about her books as he claimed to be (she might have made a bigger deal of the spilt coffee is she had been), but she did appreciate people who looked after them. Smiling at him, she checked whether the table was also clean, then pushed it across to him. "Sure. I haven't read much of it yet, so I don't know how good it is." She glanced curiously at him, his innuendo-laden joke passing her by entirely. "Do you like Muggle literature then?"

"Well, so's James," Lily retorted, in reply to the 'angelic and innocent' comment. She actually knew very little about James's private life and preferred to keep it that way, but as she often tended to think of her brothers more in the way you'd expect if she was older than them, not younger, she persisted in her cheerful delusions. She was aware that they were probably delusions, but still. And as for Seb and Molly... she didn't even want to think about that. "I'm glad for you," she said firmly, hoping to end that strand of conversation. "I didn't really want to know that though." It occurred to her that Albus was in Seb's year, which at least meant - if he was telling the truth about being the first - that Al hadn't been sleeping with people at thirteen, which was one good thing. At this point, Lily was prepared to believe almost anything of her family members.

"What, all at once?" she asked idly, not really expecting an answer, and looked again at the menu. "I'll just have a toastie. Honestly," she added, before he could jump in and protest.

[Sebastian Nott]

"Where's the fun in that?" Seb pouted. He didn't see the point of weddings if they were boring and by-the-book. Seb was certainly not a romantic, and so he viewed weddings as merely an excuse to get incredibly drunk, wear fancy clothes, act like a bit of a prat and have a one-night-stand. Not that he really needed an excuse to do any of those things - Merlin, he'd done them all multiple times without any wedding whatsoever - but anything that allowed people to do such things was top-notch in Seb's opinion. "I'd wear my bunny outfit, if you wore a mermaid outfit," he suggested. "It's pink and fluffy and mega sexy."

It was rather ridiculous how utterly oblivious Seb could be - so much so that even he wondered how on earth he had managed to be unaware of the existence of Lily Potter. Oh, he'd known in the back of his mind, he supposed, but considering she was his best mate's little sister and hung around with Lorcan, it was rather poor form. "Why wouldn't he want to hook up with you?" He asked, a grin playing on his face. "What, is he afraid of your brothers coming to beat him up? Although in fairness - " he gestured towards himself, " - Lorcan's hooking-up schedule is pretty tight. We get it on in the back on weekends between shifts. So you might want to stick to weekdays. He's a great lover, Lorcan," Seb joked, propping his chin up on his hands and casting a dreamy look towards the kitchens, as though Lorcan might waft out of them wearing an apron. "Gentle, yet passionate."

She passed over the book amicably enough, and he flicked it open, half-concentrating on the words and half on what she was saying. "Not really," he admitted easily. "I like text-books and stuff like that. Facts. And wizarding ones mostly, 'cause that's mostly what we have at home. Reading is sexy, though," he said, looking up very suddenly and wearing an indignant expression on his face, as though she had suggested otherwise. "They teased me for my falling asleep reading school-books and spending blissful hours in the library, my room-mates and friends, but I got the last laugh with the seven Outstandings. Ha," he finished calmly, flipping through another chunk of the book in interest. In all honesty, Seb would read absolutely anything and everything - it didn't take him long to get sucked into a book, and once he did he was impossible and would ignore absolutely everybody around them. After he'd resurface from a book he'd spend about two hours explaining it in great detail to the poor soul who happened across him first, and then the cycle would continue once he got his paws on another one.

Seb snorted in reaction to Lily's suggestion that James Potter was innocent. Alright, so it wasn't as though Seb had heard very many rumours about him, but still. He highly doubted James Potter was anything remotely near to innocent. "Thanks," Seb said, mockingly heartfelt, blowing a very sarcastic kiss in her general direction. "Haven't seen Molly in a while, actually," he said, more so to himself than Lily, making a mental note to see Molly soon.

"I repeat: growing boy," Seb said seriously. "Just a toastie? You're not just being polite, are you? Whatever, though," he jumped to his feet without waiting for a response, stretched, and said, "I'll be right back. Don't leave me all on my lonesome, now." With a parting wink, he gallivanted towards the counter, where the waitress was standing with narrowed eyes.

[Lily Potter]

"I don't see how wearing mermaid costumes and not being able to walk would be fun," Lily objected. "Though I suppose it would at least mean nobody could make me dance." Dancing was an activity that held very little appeal for Lily - she supposed she could see how it could be fun, if you were good at it (or if you just didn't care) but she remained utterly stubborn if anyone ever tried to get her to take part in it. At least a mermaid costume would make the perfect excuse, even if that was literally the only plus point of wearing one that she could think of. "Do you actually have a bunny costume?" she added curiously. "Or did you just make that up?"

"Well, there you go," she went on hastily, rather than dwelling on exactly why Lorcan would not hook up with her (the reasons were many, number one being that Lily wasn't remotely interested in hooking up with him). She didn't like going round putting herself down to everyone, in case it looked like she was fishing for compliments, and anyway, with Seb she was quite sure that any response he made would probably be inappropriate and embarrassing, even if it was intended to be complimentary. "He has you, so I'm sure he doesn't need anyone else. Even if he does have to share you with most of my family," she added wryly.

"Well, that is a text book," she pointed out. "Though it might not be very interesting if you haven't read any of the books it's talking about. Not that I've read them all," she admitted. "Or even most of them. Roxie's lent me some of them though." She looked doubtfully at him, not quite sure what he meant by calling reading sexy, and not really wanting to ask, in case he told her. Reading, to Lily, was something she did without thinking and couldn't live without, like breathing. 'Sexy' wasn't a word she'd have used for it. "Seven Os - that's really good! Well done!" she said genuinely. Lily got good grades herself, though her tendency to daydream, and to read stories instead of school books, always threatened to let her down. Seven Os at NEWTs was impressive by anyone's standards though. Come to think of, she did remember seeing him in the library quite often. "What are you doing now then?" she asked politely. "Have you got a job already?" She assumed that with grades like that, it wouldn't be too hard for him to find one, unless he was very choosy.

As his comment about Molly seemed to be more to himself than to her, and she didn't really want to continue with that conversation, Lily let it go and ignored his obvious sarcasm. "No, honestly," she assured him about the toastie instead. "That's all I want." She watched him go to counter, feeling a bit as if she'd just been caught in a hurricane. She had no intention of walking off and leaving him - however uncomfortable the conversation was, she wasn't quite that rude. Anyway, despite the awfulness of some of his subjects, she found him more entertaining than anything. Completely ridiculous, of course, but still very funny. And she couldn't help being slightly flattered that someone like Seb actually found her worth talking to, since most people seemed to find her fairly boring.

[Sebastian Nott]

"Fun for me," Seb corrected her at once. "It'd be hilarious. Everyone falling all over the place. Scorpius scowling. That boy," he shook his head ruefully at the thought of his cousin. "I bet even at his wedding he'd be a right snarky bastard. Now I'd be different at my wedding," he informed her righteously. "You wouldn't see me trying to chat up bridesmaids at my own wedding. And you don't dance?" He cocked his head to one side. "Why not? It doesn't matter if you're no good..." he waved this thought away airily, "I mean, let's face it, nobody at weddings can dance. Or in nightclubs. Or wherever. Everyone just gets pissed and then waggles around. Except for me," he corrected himself solemnly. "I'm an excellent dancer." (He was a passably good dancer, mainly because he had no inhibitions whatsoever.) "'Course I actually have a bunny costume. I'll probably wear it at the party at some stage. It always finds its way out after the tequila. We'll make a deal!" He exclaimed suddenly, as the thought struck him. "You come to the party, and I'll wear my bunny costume, and then you can dance with me," he held out his hand to shake, looking at her very expectantly indeed. "Just a dance, now," he tacked on, eyes gleaming wickedly, although there was a martyr-like expression set on his face. "Don't try to seduce me on the dancefloor, now."

She didn't seem to want to pursue the subject of Lorcan, which made him slightly curious. Perhaps she had a crush on his mate. Lorcan was somewhat fanciable, he supposed. Not quite as fanciable as the legendary Sebastian Nott, but he wasn't bad. Sort of sweet, actually. He squinted slightly at Lily, chewing his bottom lip in an attempt to picture the two of them together. She was slightly young, of course - but she was sixteen, at the least, and therefore, he supposed, old enough. He'd definitely shagged someone of at least nineteen when he was sixteen. Or roughly that age, anyways. "Hey, I'm a much sought after guy," Seb shrugged. "Give the people what they want. If they want a naked and willing Sebastian Nott, I'm up for it."

The subject of the book was somewhat foreign to him, but it looked adequately interesting, and if he'd had the time, he probably could've sank into it and not resurfaced for quite a while. However, he had company, and, deciding to be mannerly for once, he thanked her and handed the book back. He caught her doubtful look and widened his eyes innocently. Of course reading was sexy. "Everything I do is sexy," he informed her, by way of explanation. "It's tough, but it's my cross to bear, you know." He gave a mock-bow when she congratulated him for his outstanding results, but really, he'd hardly expected anything else. He would have sulked something dreadful had he not achieved perfection in his grades. "I'm in the Ministry," he told her. "Need to work my way up. Family connections can only get you so far..." he looked deeply put out by this. "Anyways, the goal is Minister for Magic. That's the aim. Shouldn't be too hard." He picked an imaginary piece of lint off of his t-shirt.

After Seb had ordered what he considered to be an adequate amount of food (the waitress gaped at him) - he'd ordered extra because he wasn't sure a toastie was quite substantial enough for a sixteen-or-seventeen-year-old-girl and he didn't want anyone to go hungry, not if he could stop it - he sauntered back towards their table, pleased that she was still sitting there. Dropping into his seat, he picked up the conversation once again as though there had been no interruption, saying cordially, "So. How's the summer been? Many exciting and wild nights out? A whirlwind summer romance? Give me all the details," he leaned across the table, treating her to what he considered to be his most sincere smile. "I won't tell a soul. Not your brother. Even if it's naughty."