Starbeam - A Wizarding World Story - ON HIATUS

Chapter 23

Would Anyone Like A Prank?

Claire growled in frustration as the lead of her pencil broke, again. Slamming the sketchbook down on the stone beside her, the pencil sandwiched between the pages, she scowled out the window she was curled up against, the cold of the glass slightly calming her anger. 

"Petit merde." She muttered, and was startled bu a nearby chuckle. Twisting her body, she searched for the source of the voice. It appeared as Draco Malfoy stepped into her field of view.

"You speak french, Foster?" He asked, curious. She nodded. 

"Ouai, en peu. Mais, c'est pas bien. I only took a year and a half back in America. A family friend offered to teach me, I was interested. We had lessons about once a week, until she died suddenly. I was très triste. I don't remember a lot of it though, unfortunately. You?" She explained. He took a seat next to her, his leg brushing her own. 

"Oui, je parle français aussi. Ma mère... insisted that I learned. She'd grown up speaking both french and english, and convinced Father that I should be brought up le même." Draco replied. Claire smiled softly. 

"That's pretty cool. I wish I grew up bilingual, that'd be fun. And that way, I could switch between the two if I couldn't think of the right word in either language or something like that." She commented. Draco chuckled.

"Ouai, I suppose that is an upside. Mais, if your amis don't know what you're saying, especially when you're trying to explain something to them, it's frustrating." he said, nodding. Claire shrugged.

"Vrai, true, that'd infuriating. But you could make it funny. Like, you could be saying something really serious in english, and throw in a random french word that would make no sense if you actually speak french, but to those who don't, you seem very serious. If I ever did that, I'd probably be laughing too hard that they'd catch on or something." She laughed. Draco nodded in agreement.

"C'est vrai, you would." was all he replied with. She grinned. 

"It's be insanely hilarious, though, wouldn't it?" She asked enthusiastically. He laughed lightly, still nodding. Then he saw the subject of her previous frustration.

"What were you drawing, Claire?" He asked gently. She gave him a surprised look, but grabbed her previously discarded sketchbook and showed him the drawing. It was a mermaid, the muggle version, something Draco realized quickly as he looked it over. 

"Any particular reason why she'd naked." He jokingly questioned. Claire shrugged, a slight blush dusting her cheeks.

"Haven't decided on what style of clothing works best with her yet. The choice is between a sort of etherial style with long, flowing, see-through sleeves and the like, or the muggle design of a bra-like crop-top. I'm leaning more towards the former, but I kinda want to keep it true to how muggles think mermaids look like. I'm not sure. What do you think, Draco?" She asked, biting her lower lip as she looked at the sketch critically. He frowned, slightly distracted by her lip biting but shifted his focus to the topic of discussion. His eyebrows furrowed as he analyzed the drawing as well. 

"You should probably go with the etherial option. Maybe keep a few aspects of the the typical one, but yeah, that's the kind of feeling I get from this." The boy recommended. Claire beamed with satisfaction at that. 

"Oh! Thank you so much! That's a fantastic idea!" Her enthusiasm was amusing and contagious.  Draco chuckled. 

"Of course, love. Though, I didn't know that you liked art. Had I know, I would've gotten much better supplies than a simple pencil." He said. Claire blushed, the nickname "love" throwing her off a little.