Bad Romance

Chapter 103

Chapter 103: Living On The Edge

As it happened, they didn't have to wait long for their first customer. He was a tall gaunt wizard with a sharp nose and thin face.

"Where's the pretty girl," he asked, and Bellatrix scowled. She nearly opened her mouth to say she was quite pretty when she recalled that she had no desire to interact with customers. Anger did provide a quick fix for anxiety, though.

"We ate her," Rabastan said with a wide grin and Bellatrix let out a laugh. And here they thought he'd be better at dealing with people!

The man peered at them, unimpressed. "I'd give you Lestranges credit for a lot of twisted activities, but cannibalism I can't see. Not posh enough for you. You'd think you're too good to put anyone lesser in your mouth, and if you didn't consider them lesser, you wouldn't eat them," he observed.

Bellatrix had to admit the observation was a correct one. She wasn't very surprised that he recognized them due to their hard earned infamy. The fact he wasn't running out of the shop and caterwauling like a little bitch was mildly more impressive.

"So really," he asked, as he wandered past the counter toward the nearest row of shelves. "Where's the pretty girl? And why are you lot here instead? I mean, it does keep things interesting and all."

"She's taken the day off for personal studies and we're sitting in for her," Rabastan said.

The man paused to peer over his shoulder at Rabastan and waggle his brows questioningly. "She's as good as three Lestranges?"

Rabastan chuckled. "Never. She doesn't need to be, though. We just come as a set when possible and the shop owners kindly kept that in mind."

"Ah," the man said. "I see."

He wandered about for fifteen minutes or so and finally bought a book called Deadly Wards. Wards were placed to guard a person, place, or thing, so anyone breaking them meant no good or at least had their nose or other parts stuck somewhere they knew they had no business being. Of course, if anyone mucked about with someone's wards they deserved to die, but the fact that Blaise and Gellert so casually sold such a direct way to use wards to kill those who broke them was impressive. At least Grindelwald hadn't gone as soft as Bellatrix at times feared.

Rabastan rang up the wizard's book and handed it to him with a friendly smile.

"It was nice meeting all of you, but when is the pretty girl coming back," the man asked.

"Tomorrow," Rabastan assured with an eye roll.

"Well, I won't need anything by then, but it's nice to know she won't be out every day," their first customer said, then motioning as if to tip a hat he wasn't wearing, he left.

"Yea," Rabastan crowed. "We survived our first customer! And they survived us."

Bellatrix chuckled. "He was certainly an odd one."

"At least it keeps things interesting," Rodolphus chuckled. "The man has poor taste in women, but at least I didn't have to beat the hell out of him for eyeing you." He put an arm around Bellatrix, and she felt herself smiling as she leaned into him. Roddy always knew just the right things to say.

The next customer who came in actually asked for their autograph. It was nearly an hour after the first. This wizard was older, close to Dumbledore's age, though with an admittedly darker air about him with long black robes and claw-like fingernails.

He wanted them all to sign the paper bag Enchanted Odds provided for larger orders. He bought a wand, a few books and a self-refilling wine goblet. After Rabastan bagged all the items up, all three signed their names around the design on the bag's front.

The third customer was a middle aged witch who seemed a little frightened of them, which Bellatrix didn't exactly mind. She gave them no trouble and bought quite a lot of jewelry, greatly diminishing the collection under the glass countertop.

Gellert and his man would need to restock. Bellatrix considered leaving them a note to say as much, but the empty bits under the glass countertop would speak for themselves. The next customer came in close to lunch time. She was a chatty young witch with a giddy personality. She was very intrigued by the Lestranges, even more so than the items she saw in the shop, asking them about the most interesting things they'd done with fascination on her face. She was a waif-like little thing, thin and of average height with long wispy silvery blonde hair and a flowing dress of gossamer green.

Rabastan waited until she was paying to ask her out. Giggling like a schoolgirl, she clapped her hands happily as she shook her head. "Dear, no. You're far too old for me, but it was sweet of you to ask," she said before lifting her large bag of items and breezing out with a cheery wave.

"Old?" Rabastan sputtered. "But she was all interested in us! And I am most certainly not old! I'm five years younger than you lot, and you don't look that old."

"THAT OLD?" Bellatrix nearly squawked.

"Those are fighting words right there, little brother," Rodolphus warned darkly. "We are most certainly not old. We are still quite beautiful and virile, in fact."

"Sure, sure, but this is about me," Rabastan said, waving away their objections.

"What happened to your interest for Parvati," Rodolphus asked.

"Yes, the interest that in fact makes you an annoying insufferable prat," Bellatrix clarified.

"Oh it's still there, but she's not shagging me yet, so you know."

When Harold arrived with food, they closed up the shop for lunch which took half an hour. He'd brought chicken sandwiches, which while very good, did not take very long to eat. As they reopened, Bellatrix came to the conclusion that while the day had been somewhat interesting, the shopkeeping experience was growing dull.

"Perhaps we shall always require more excitement," she told Rod, who nodded.

"I'm glad you said that, because I've been bored for over an hour," Rabastan said with a sigh that caused Bellatrix to grin.

"And if we can't handle a job with no thrills or kills, we could never handle retirement," Rodolphus pointed out.

Rabastan nodded. "Yep. Fuck dying in bed. We'll go out fighting the good fight at three hundred with wands in our hands and Crucio on our lips."

Bellatrix felt that familiar, comforting mad grin spreading her lips as she raised her cup to that. For now, though, they had the rest of the day to get through and a shop to keep for at least six more hours.

As it turned out, it was only four more hours. Parvati was back just after four, flashing them all a pleased smile as she took in the shop. "Everything is still in one piece! I'm proud of all of you. Thanks for looking after things for me. Can you do it again next week, same time? I'm really enjoying working with Lyra."

"No!" the three shouted in unison.

Parvati laughed. "Very well, I'll sort something else. Perhaps I can work with Lyra and some of the better Aurors on the weekends." She chuckled. "To be honest, I'm surprised you all lasted the entire day. I couldn't believe you wanted to watch the shop at all."

Rabastan grinned. "See," he said, turning to Rodolphus and Bellatrix. "She already understands us better than we understand ourselves!" When Rod and Bella just stared, he shrugged and returned his focus to Parvati. "So... Wanna go out some time? Just with me, of course," he added hastily.

Parvati laughed. "Sure."

All in all, Bellatrix felt it had been a rather productive day. They'd discovered something very important about themselves, and Rabastan finally got a date with the only girl she'd ever seen him transform into a raven to impress.

Now if they could just sort a way to get rid of Delphini while everyone who mattered remained safe. And they would. They had Grindelwald, the goddamned Lestrange Three were helping, and a goblin was apparently about to make a new badass sword to even trump that of Gryffindor, so things had to work out!