Mishaps happen (Merry)

[Rister Graas S6]

Apparently, he couldn’t leave his parents alone for one moment. Even if it was for such a short period of time as it would take him to visit the bathroom. Knowing that the two potted palms would hide him from view from the rest of the guests in the relatively fancy restaurant, Rister leaned his shoulder against the wall and observed the scene with some amusement. Two guys, standing on both sides of dad’s chair in a what could only be taken for an intimidating posture. Dad had his own reputation. Mainly being an arrogant jerk with too much money and power and a temper down to par. Fact that he was now a werewolf didn’t hurt either, so he was generally left alone. For the kids sake over at him now, Rister hoped that they weren’t just two goons trying to get ahead by impressing dad. Not that he saw very many other options. Dad had a dangerous enough aura for even drunks to keep their distance. But whereas a stranger would find dad’s move utterly impassive, Rister saw the tiniest twitch in his lip-corner. And mom’s raised eye-brows as she took a delicate sip from her glass of wine while her right hand was toying with her dessert spoon was a clear sign of amusement.

Wondering what dad might have done in order to get two kids – though Rister probably shouldn’t call people older than him kids, but he felt older than some people at times – harassing him, Rister stepped forward and let his eyes wander absently over the room. Only to land on two girls being helped to their seat by a waiter, by having obviously just arrived. His eyes taking in the long sylph-like figure, something clicked in Rister’s head. His eyes travelled back and forth between Merry and the two boys talking to dad, even as an amused smirk slowly appeared on his face. Protective brothers, right? What had they thought? That Rister was out with some other girl and promised to smash his face in for Merry? Mom and dad seemed to be quite calm though, so Rister would let the guys finish their rants in peace. He probably knew well enough what the topic of conversation was.

With an amused half-smile, half-smirk gracing his face, Rister stepped fully out from the shadow of the potted plant and made his way over to Merry and her companion. Merry’s companion seemed to locate her first and Rister watched with some amusement as her eyes grew large while her glance flickered between Rister and his father. Rister’s smirked widened slightly as he let the girl take in their similarities. And oh yes, he was similar to his father. Two drops of water. They looked quite identical, except on nights with a full moon. When you looked closely, you could tell that dad was older, but they had the same build, same pitch-black hair pulled into a ponytail in the nape of their neck, sharply chiselled chin, even their characters bore a couple of similarities with both of them enjoying morning and outdoors and animals. Their eyes were the thing that you could use to tell them apart. Rister’s were his mother’s vibrant emeralds, the ld curse still made dad’s eyes look like bottomless black pools with the liquid covering the entire eye-ball. But as dad usually wore black sunglasses in public and someone who hadn’t seen both of them in real life before, they might look like identical twins from distance like form here to their table or form the restaurant door to dad’s table. The girl staring at him would have a couple of realisations hit her right about now.

Seeing that Merry had her back turned towards him as well as her face hid in her palms, Riser calmly let his fingers touch her shoulder to alert her to his presence as he stepped around here to stand at the edge of the table between the two girls: “Merry.” Rister smiled politely at Merry’s companion as he held out his hand to shook her, “I don’t believe we have been introduced yet. I’m Rister -,” Rister’s eyes flickered over to Merry with a grin flashing across his face for the briefest of moments. He had been introduced to the ‘Rumour Has It…’ column as well, so Merry was bound to know who he was already anyway, “- Mordred Graas.” Looking up Rister glanced over his parents and Merry’s brothers. “But as logic tells me that those are Merry’s brothers harassing my father over there, I would also guess that you are Merry’s older sister, the one with good chances to become a detective one day,” Rister wracked his brain for a moment, “I also recall the name Kali, but I will be terribly sorry if I made a mistake about that.”

[Kris Graas]

Kris kept his face neutral, his eyes locked with his wife, who was smothering her laughter with her glass of wine. Only paying half attention to the words spilling out of the boy’s mouths – though mainly only one of them did the talking – Kris considered the situation. He had certainly never thought that the brothers of his son’s girls would come and rant in his ears. At least only Rister looked similar enough to himself, for Kris to be mistaken for his son. The effect was probably enhanced by the fact that the boys hadn’t really seen either of them before. At least that’s what seemed likely to have caused this entire situation. Besides his son did look like a mirror image of him in general aspects. Kris had more scars and different scars from his first-born, but scars weren’t visible currently. There was some more innocence and less cynicism in Rister’s facial features. The war against Voldemort Kris had experienced and later the change to a werewolf had left a light imprint on Kris’.

And seeing that his eyes were covered by dark sunglasses that his eyes to avoid scaring the public, that wouldn’t hint to the boys that they had the wrong person either. In all reality, they were even dressed similarly. A pair of simple slacks from black silk and an elegant slip-on blouse with a slightly opened and raised collar and sleeves that tightened around the wrist tightly enough to keep the sleeve from getting in the way and loosely enough to let them get their wand from the sleeve with a mere flick of the wrist if needed. A hint might be the dark crest ring glinting on Kris’ finger, but how were the boys to know that Rister didn’t wear his daily? But that still didn’t entirely explain why Kris was reduced to listening to the boy’s rant while his son as Kris noted over Cleo’s shoulder had made his way to two girls. The sister and someone else the boys had mentioned before? Didn’t matter. One of the boys had made a mistake of laying his hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. Was it supposed to be polite way of threatening? The kid really picked the wrong target for that. The daily romps back at home, well cared for body, exercise, even the sense of feral nature coming from his werewolf aspect had given Kris lean but quite impressive muscles.

And he hated it when people took such liberties with him like laying their hand on his shoulders. Kris was on his feet nearly on the same second the hand fell on his shoulder, trusting his reflexes and instincts as he twisted the arm to a slight angle. Too slight angle to do any real damage and invisible enough manoeuvre to not cause any unwanted attention. But painful enough to make sure Kris had the kids attention, as he applied some pressure to his elbow absent-mindedly. His right hand holding the kid steady, Kris raised his left one slowly, removing his sun-glasses and letting the youngsters take in his eyes, before slipping the sunglasses back on. “I do believe you got the wrong person,” Kris pursed softly, letting go of the boy’s arm as he took hold of both boys chins and turned their heads towards Rister and the two girls, “But may I be so kind and point it out that in reality you were probably looking for my eldest son?”

Rister let go of the kids chins and stepping around one of them extended his arm to Cleo, who placed her wine-goblet on the table, stood and smoothed out the knee-length ruffles of the skirt of her red dress, before accepting Kris’ arm and settling in a position next to him. Kris’ arm finding it’s location on her back, in order to lead his wife out. There would be no bill presented to them – they had dined here often enough and the manager would send the bill to Gringotts. “Oh, and do tell the ladies they look very good,” Cleo said over her shoulder as she paused for a moment before the couple made their way towards the café door, both turning their heads towards the table with Rister and the two girl’s once – Kris nodding slightly, Cleo inclining her head in a polite acknowledgement – before they stepped out of the café.

[Rister Graas S6]

Rister observed his parents quietly for a moment, the fingertips of his hand slightly resting on the table-top. “Oh, don’t touch…,” Rister grimaced as the boy seemed to ignore common sense and touched his dad’s shoulder. The result was quite immediate as well as Kris shot up, turning the attention of both boys to Rister and the girls after releasing the fools elbow from his grip, which – knowing dad – wasn’t exactly light. Dad had always been convinced that a man should be able to take a punch or two if needed. Even if he had to admire his parents style in handling the matter. And mom looked good too in her dazzling red dress, the exact tone of her hair and shoes, as the dress brought out her long legs and smoothly unblemished back, which was based until a bit under the waist, with two think straps running around her arms holding the dress in position. A red flame next to dad’s entirely black outfit, whereas Rister had opted for a pale green shirt.

Rister had to hid his smirk as the two boys made his way over, and he held out his hand to shake theirs. “I do apologize for dad. But it’s full moon in two nights from now and I suppose he’s feeling a bit on edge,” Rister drawled out with amusement evident in his voice, as he hinted to the well enough known info in society that Kris Graas was a werewolf despite his family and money and connections, “I’m Rister Graas. By the show put on, I’d say that you are Reid and Tyler Garwin, but I’m not at all sure which of you is which. I wasn’t aware there was something you wanted to talk to me about?” Rister threw an amused glance at Merry, one of his lip-corners curving upwards, “Though I do seem to be meeting awfully lot of Merry’s relatives. Fair Rosalind, Pip, you three. I believe that should be all besides the parents, or will they be waiting for me in the apartment when I get home tonight?”

Rister grinned slightly. Oh, this moment would give him material to tease dad about for months. It had been priceless really. Perhaps he should thanks the two older Garwin brothers for the entertainment. Perhaps send them a bottle of champagne when he was leaving, as this was obviously a well-planned family meeting for the four. “But just in the case of future references,” Rister raised his right hand slightly, “I don’t wear the family crest all the time, dad does. The knowledge might – perhaps – come in handy sometime. But I believe I’m disturbing your dinner.” Rister bent his shoulders and head in a polite beginning of a bow: “It was a pleasure to meet you Kali and an even greater pleasure to see you again, Merry. Do give fair Rosalind my best.” A nod to the brothers, and Rister turned to leave the family to enjoy their meal in peace, still feelign utterly amused by everything that had transpired.

[Merry Garwin H6]

“You look great,” Kali brushed a lock of dark hair away from her little sister’s face before fastening the chain around her own neck. Merry’s eyes flicked to the engagement ring hanging from the plain golden chain, a knowing grin flashing across her face quickly. Kali’s boyfriend, Jack, had proposed no less than five times but, although Kali had repeatedly turned him down, he hadn’t relented. Kali had eventually compromised by agreeing to wear the ring – the place where she must wear the ring hadn’t been specified thus its position around her neck – while considering the possibility of marriage. “I’m too young,” Kali told her softly, following Merry’s gaze. “He’s wonderful and I love him but he has to learn that I’ll always fight against him. There’s still so much that we don’t know about each other and I’m not going to commit myself to him unless I know that we won’t live unhappily.”

Tyler knocked on the door – she knew it was Tyler even before opening the door since his knock was a lot less demanding than Reid’s - and Merry pulled Kali through the door, being gentle since they were both wearing heels high enough for them to be slightly unstable in. “You look wonderful, both of you,” Tyler smiled warmly, wrapping an arm around Merry’s waist. “You mean they look like temptresses,” Reid corrected, a discontented twist to his mouth as he led them outside. Both girls shared an amused glance, knowing how protective their brothers were. “Hold on tight,” Tyler warned Merry, who huddled close to him to let him apparate them both to the restaurant. It was an annual event, this dinner. Every summer for the past six years, the four of them had picked a night to simply enjoy themselves and catch up with each other. They would go out to dinner and then back to the house for a night of movies, games and staying up all night to talk. The only difference now was that they would be heading back to Tyler’s apartment rather than the house they had all grown up in. Kali appeared a few seconds after Merry and Tyler and instantly starting fussing over her sister, brushing away imaginary wrinkles from her dress and smoothing her hair.

“Oh,” Kali’s quiet gasp drew Tyler’s attention, ever alert as he was, and she silently signalled to him to drop back from Merry’s side before whispering in his ear. His eyes widened then he jerked his head, wordlessly telling Kali to lead Merry to a table as he drew Reid’s attention by smacking him over the head. With both girls clad in dresses and high heels, they were receiving more attention from the male population of the restaurant than their brothers would have preferred but Merry and Kali remained oblivious to it as they chatted light-heartedly together as the waiter showed them to a table. “Where are Reid and Ty? They were here...” Merry’s voice trailed off as she caught sight of her brothers and buried her head in her hands. “They’re so embarrassing. Why can’t they just relax and have fun? That’s the whole point of tonight!”

“Merry,” Kali hissed sharply and Merry opened her fingers enough to peer through the gap, confused by the alarmed look on her older sister’s face. “What? Oh no, did they actually punch him or something? Ah!” Merry muffled a surprised yelp when something touched her bare shoulder and raised her head questioningly. Her eyes landed on Rister and she instantly felt the urge to bury her face again. “Yeah,” Merry affirmed dismally as Kali accepted Rister’s hand coldly. “Those two idiots are our brothers. I hope your father is enjoying their company because I’m going to kill them when they get back over here.” Kali patted her shoulder sympathetically before turning a cool gaze to Rister. Merry smiled slightly, knowing the thoughts most prominent in her sister’s mind without even having to ask. Kali was always the flirt but she wouldn’t be anything more than almost painfully polite to Rister just because she knew that he had hurt Merry, albeit inadvertently. “Kalista Sierra Garwin,” Kali introduced herself, looking even more bored with Rister’s presence than even Pip had. “And I’m a journalist, not a detective.”

Tyler was grabbed by the person she had thought was Rister and Kali looked both horrified and guilty, her left hand automatically rising to play with the ring resting in the hollow of her throat. Merry hid a smile at the act. Despite all of her protests about Jack and his proposal, Kali was almost undoubtedly going to marry the slightly older wizard. Their brothers rejoined them and Merry eyed them with concern that was only marginally abated when Reid took a protective stance behind her, her hands resting on her shoulders. The only response Rister got from Reid was a frosty stare so Tyler nodded, equally as aloof and polite as Kali had been as he shook his hand. “I’m Tyler, he’s Reid.” As though the glance Rister shot at Merry was his cue, Reid scowled darkly. “We don’t appreciate you trying to play about with our sister. I don’t care how rich you are or how attractive or charming girls find you, Merry is too good for you. So stay away from her before we feel the need to really step in.”

Merry waited until Rister left before glaring at her siblings, outrage clear in her eyes. “He didn’t do anything to me,” she hissed, keeping her voice low in case Rister was still in hearing distance. “It’s not his fault that my hormones are active or that I found him attractive. So maybe next time you should wait to find out all of the details before playing the overprotective brother. Oh, and threatening the right guy is also a good idea.” Satisfied that Reid and Tyler looked suitably abashed, Merry stood up and headed after Rister, catching him just outside the restaurant and touching his shoulder lightly to get his attention. “I’m really sorry about my brothers. They never wait to hear the details, they just jump to their own conclusions and they’re usually wrong but they never change. And Kali was bordering on being rude too, which really is unlike her and none of them had the right to act like you took advantage of me or anything.” Merry sighed and ran her hands through her hair, barely caring that she was destroying the curls Kali had carefully produced for her. “And they ruined my night,” Merry scowled, aware that she sounded slightly childish but not caring. “It’s the one time in the whole year when it’s just the four of us, when no boyfriends or girlfriends or little siblings are allowed to be present, and they all ruined it with their absurd accusations! And I’m sorry that they tried to ruin your night too.”

[Rister Graas S6]

He wasn’t usually greeted so coldly. Not by women, not by random people, not by most people. Rister wondered absently if the girl had been a Gryffindor, unable to leave school prejudices behind her. Or a Hufflepuff who had been picked on one too many times? Rister kept the handshake brief, grinning at Merry’s brothers. “Dad looks slightly amused so I wouldn’t be overly worried for your brothers,” Rister assured Merry absent-mindedly, tilting his head and observing the situation, “And even if he weren’t, mom is so your brothers don’t entirely need to die painfully. Mishaps happen. Even though the man is 18 years older than I am – do I really look double my own age?” A journalist. All the worse. They weren’t Rister’s most popular breed, having seen what journalists could do at will – plenty of articles had been published about his parents and Gabriel, and Rister himself had starred a couple of Rumour Has It... column as well. But he doubted the girl would write about her own family, so Rister remained silent – swallowing a joke about what sort of information journalists look for – as he met Kali’s cool gaze with an equally distant one of his own: “I’m surprised you didn’t recognise my parents for who they were then.”

Rister observed the two brothers as they made their way over, noting almost absent-mindedly how the brother who took up position behind Merry didn’t shake his hand. No, Rister decided quietly as he observed the family. None of the four had the character of a Slytherin nor the patience to wait with their attack. Rister hummed non-commitally, skipping the statement it was a pleasure to meet the two for now. Even after blaming his father quite inaccurately they had arrogance and no feeling of wariness as they had obviously been wrong. Rister met Reid’s eyes coldly, slowly feeling his own arrogance raising its proud head as his eye-brows inched higher in irony: “Play about with your sister? And how exactly is buying an ice-cream to a girl who recovered my sister’s book playing about with someone? Or did you mean I can’t accompany my parents to eat in a popular restaurant? I’m quite sure you should rather avoid public places at that case, as I have a sinking suspicion you two didn’t even bother to apologize to my parents for whatever words you threw you in dad’s face, without making sure you knew who he was after you approached him.” Rister nodded absently in greeting to a passing seventh year Slytherin moving to her table with her parents, “So young and rash.” Even though Merry’s brothers were older than Rister by age, they seemed to lack the reservations breed and trained into Rister. He was a Slytherin and he needed to keep his head in all situations, if he ever wanted to be able to make sure he won’t ruin his family heritage. It was this self-control Rister had been taught to exercise since birth that allowed Rister to give this verbal slap to the boys, without a polite tone and phrasing as he smirked lightly.

Deciding to skip sending the group a bottle of champagne – Merry’s relatives had irked him. He understood being protective. He was protective of his own sisters as well. But his protectiveness rather showed in staying as close as possible to the guy, not scaring him off to tempt him with the chance of meeting his sisters in secret. A forbidden fruit was always sweeter. And in reality he hadn’t really even been out with the girl. Shaking his head with some amusement, Rister stepped out of the restaurant and stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Stopping, Rister turned around, raising his eye-brows politely at Merry. “No need to apologise, I know my reputation as well as anyone. They have all the right to be protective. Though I do wonder why your entire family prejudices against having money. I never said I was happy only because I had some,” Rister mused, taking hold of Merry’s elbow and calmly steering her back inside the restaurant, brushing her worries over her family aside without ever admitting that they hadn’t been rude with ease coming from hearing, seeing, and partially living politics since birth.

“So why are you letting the fact that I happened to dine in the same restaurant ruin your dinner with your siblings? If it’s that absurd, you’ll all just get a good laugh out of it. I know me and my parents will get to laugh over what happened for quite a while,” Rister commented calmly after Merry had finished her small rant, guiding Merry back to her table, politely pulling out her chair for her to retake her seat. Rister’s eyes travelled over her brothers and sister lazily and ponderingly. Merry had seemed flustered and sincerely apologetic, so Rister suddenly tilted his head, his eyes focusing on the two boys. “Muggle London,” Rister stated quietly, before reading out the address of their apartment, which was quite unfamiliar to the wider public, due to being rented on the name of one of their employees in muggle part of the town, “I understand what being protective of one’s sister means. I hardly find any reason for either of you two to cause a storm in a teacup right now, but there’s no need to let it ruin your appetite tonight. I’ll be present at that address until 16.00 tomorrow, before I’m leaving for home in Italy for three weeks. If any of you thinks they have any reason what so ever to talk to me, you can do it then. Tyler and Reid will be relieved to hear that my parents are leaving tonight already.” Rister’s eyes snapped to Kali, showing every bit of authority in him: “If info about where the Graas family resides while in England leaks into any newspaper, I’ll have the one you work in sued for invasion of privacy.”

Rister smiled charmingly at the entire group, even if the smile didn’t entirely reach his eyes: “Bon appetite, everyone. I’d suggested the soufflé, it was quite delicious. If you’ll excuse me.” Giving a polite nod of his head that took in all 4 Garwin’s, Rister turned on his heel and sauntered towards the door of the restaurant again. “Send a bottle of your best champagne to the table Garwin’s are at. My expense, no need to tell them who sent it,” Rister murmured softly to the head-waiter as he passed him at the door, receiving a curt bow of understanding in return along with a clear: “Have a nice evening, sir!” Walking the required distance from the apartment, Rister closed his eyes and apparated. Only after he opened his eyes in their apartment did Rister laugh out loud and – shaking his head in amusement – went to find pen and paper to let his brothers in Italy know of what had transpired so that they could greet that with appropriate jokes when his parents got home.

[Merry Garwin H6]

“I don’t make it my business to memorize the faces of everyone who appears in the gossip columns. It’s annoying enough to have to read them without adding photos to it,” Kali bit out sharply, her eyes flicking to Reid and then Merry accusingly. The second-oldest brother shifted guiltily, looking somewhat abashed by the heavy weight of his younger sister’s brief glance. He had been in the Rumour Has It column numerous times during his own time at Hogwarts not too long ago for various indiscretions with young heiresses who either didn’t care or didn’t know that he was a half-blood whose mother had been disowned for her choice of husband. The fathers of the girls had certainly cared though, but Reid merely smiled rakishly and turned his head. Kali herself had made the decision to keep up with the rumours so that they could be denied or ignored when their mother’s face scowled at them and threatened to punish Reid if she heard one more rumour about him. All four of the eldest Garwin children had worked endlessly to keep the gossip columns away from their mother and Reid out of trouble for the remainder of his years in Hogwarts and Tyler and the two girls had nearly collapsed in relief when Reid had grudgingly agreed to stop flaunting his girlfriends just because he knew that their grandmother would be incensed by one of her grandchildren acting so inappropriately.

“Reid, stop it,” Merry reprimanded warningly, digging her nails into her brothers arm painfully when Tyler’s suddenly resigned look told her that Reid was opening his mouth to retort to Rister. “And you’re just as bad,” Merry frowned at Rister reprovingly, her eyes dark with unhappiness, embarrassment, fury and apology. “I’m sure your parents taught you better than to verbally taunt someone and I certainly hope they taught you better than to provoke someone into an argument in such a public place. I know that my parents taught Reid better, although he seems to have forgotten it.” Merry sent a tight-lipped, furious glance over her shoulder at Reid, promising retribution that they both knew would be delivered. Slowly, Merry’s eyebrows drew together and she sent an unsure glance at Tyler, hoping that her eldest brother hadn’t forgotten all of his manners. “You did apologize to Mr and Mrs Graas, didn’t you Tyler?” The brown-haired man looked offended as his eyes landed on his younger sister. “Of course I did,” he scowled. “We made a mistake and we were out of line anyway. Of course I apologized.” Reluctantly, Tyler inclined his head to Rister. “I apologize for my brother feeling the need to snap at you too. I’m sure it’s quite obvious that he hasn’t grown out of his Gryffindor sorting yet although he’s been graduated for three years.” Feeling hopeless, Merry shot a warning glance to her older brother as well. Tyler was openly taunting Reid and it wouldn’t end well when Reid was already on edge. If they continued then this would escalate into a full-blown argument and Merry didn’t want to see her name in Rumour Has It ever again, especially not for knocking out two men.

Merry smiled to herself bitterly, still angry and embarrassed by her brothers. “We’re not prejudiced against you because you have money. Reid hates you simply because you came within five feet of me and Pip probably told him that we were alone while he and Rosa were playing. Tyler doesn’t care about you one way or the other; he just tries to control Reid and usually fails. Pip just plain dislikes you, but Rosa adored you, you Bee Prince. Kali...she knows your reputation so she’s cautious because she’s not sure just how much truth was in that rumour. Me,” Merry shrugged carelessly, her eyes guarded. “I think that I don’t have a right to judge you at all so I don’t bother liking or disliking you since I barely know you. You’re none of my business, whether you’re rich or not.” Well, Merry mused knowingly, that was one way to kill a crush: watching your brothers and sister openly show their dislike and practically attack Rister’s father. Unwillingly, one corner of Merry’s mouth rose in a half-smile. It had been amusing, if nothing else.

“You didn’t ruin my night,” Merry assured Rister sincerely. “My brothers ruined my night by behaving in a ridiculous manner and not considering that your parents were simply trying to enjoy a pleasant meal. I wonder if Mum would care if I killed them,” Merry mused playfully as Rister accompanied her back to her table. She loved her brothers too much to ever actually kill them, but perhaps a little torture would be acceptable? Mum was always exasperated by Reid anyway so she might not mind. Getting permission to torture Tyler might be a little bit harder because he was the first-born and Mum adored him just a little bit more than the rest of them – though that may be because he wasn’t as troublesome as his brothers and sisters – but Merry was confident that she could do it. Dad would indulge her, probably. He always did. “Don’t encourage them.” Merry glanced at Rister irately before arching her eyebrow at her brothers, clearly forbidding them from even thinking about going to the address. A truly furious Merry was a sight to behold, and probably to run from depending on how furious she was because years of martial arts and archery had made her a girl to be scared of, and both her brothers knew that so they nodded at her meekly. Neither of them wanted to be used for target practice for her arrows ever again. It was too much of a terrifying experience. “I have better things to do than gossip about your life, believe it or not,” Kali answered boredly, making Merry smile slightly at the uncanny resemblance to Pip. It just wasn’t right for a nineteen year old woman to match the exact tone of a seven year old boy. “Have a nice evening,” Merry smiled wryly as Rister took his leave, waiting until he was out of sight before turning a steely gaze to her siblings. “So, how do we greet new people again?”