Resolving

Three

Around ten thirty that night, Blaise's phone rang. He looked up from his Firewhiskey, lurched out of his chair, tottered over to his phone and picked it up.

"Hello?" Blaise rubbed his eyes and held back a groan.

"Blaise? Hi," said the voice of Louise. He smiled.

"Hi. What's up?" He walked back to his chair and swirled the contents of his glass around.

"Not much. I had a horrible day at work -- no one seems to understand coding the way I do and so they call me for every little emergency. Once, they called me to have me tell them all how to code boldface in HTML. I almost strangled them. How was your day?" He heard shuffling in the background and jingling, so he supposed she was just getting home.

"Went to visit an old professor of mine and then saw my family. Turns out my ex is dating my oldest friend and my sister ran off with a Frenchman and got married and had a baby after leaving school," he said.

"That's a bit of a shock to lay on you your first day back with the family," she said. "Fancy getting a drink? There's a great pub right downstairs..."

Blaise glanced at his glass. "I don't know; I've been up here since six drinking whiskey so perhaps I shouldn't..."

Louise laughed. "Whiskey? You haven't lived yet, mister. Come out with me and we'll see who can really drink who under the table."

He laughed. "If you want me to go you'll have to come get me. I'm far too lazy to pry myself up out of my comfortable chair to go to the pub."

"Then it's handy that I am in fact right outside your door," she said. There was quick succession of knocks and he laughed, hanging up and answering the door. "Come on, I don't like to drink alone." She grinned at him and tugged him out.

"Let me grab my coat," he replied, laughing. He took his coat off of the table and followed her out.

He headed towards the lift but she tugged him towards the stairs. "C'mon, the stairs are more fun when you're going down."

"Okay," he said, grinning. "So which pub is this, exactly?"

She stepped quickly down the stairs and her laughter floated up to him. "Whichever one we see first, of course!"

Six hours later, Blaise walked back into the apartment building teetering slightly, weaving his way to the stairwell banister. He began fumbling through his clothes as Louise made her way in and muttered "Aha!" once he found what he'd been looking for.

"What's that?" she asked as he mumbled something she couldn't hear.

He turned around; his eyes were suddenly completely clear and he stood up straight. "Nothing. Just a mint or something. Not quite sure."

She laughed. "Ah, okay then." Glancing at her watch, she groaned. "Oh, it's late! I've got to get to bed, but would you like to go out sometime? For a real dinner and less drinking?"

Blaise thought about this for a moment. "Sure," he said, grinning. "Is Friday good for you?"

"Perfect. See you then!" She took off up the stairs and he waited for the lift.

~*~

Three days later, after he had touched up his curriculum even more and exchanged a few letters with McGonagall, Blaise sat glaring at his television. He'd just gone out to buy it the previous day and, after some difficulty, managed to set it up. Now if he could only figure out how to turn it on.... Pressing buttons randomly, he let out a whoop when he finally clicked it on. In the excitement, he also turned it back off.

He groaned. "Now I know why Hermione said TV is such a waste of time," he muttered. "First I can't figure out how to turn it on, and once it is on, I turn the thing off. Wonderful."

There was a knock on the door. He tossed the remote on the chair as he got up to answer it.

"You know, you take forever to answer the door," Zel said, as the door swung open. "I think you're too paranoid. Either that or you're always doing something else."

"Hi, Zel," he replied, laughing and hugging his sister. "What're you doing here?"

"I knew you weren't coming back to the manor before term started. Don't give me that look and don't say you were planning on it. I know you, Blaise. You're an almost exact copy of me and if I were you I wouldn't come within eight miles of that dusty old tapestry pit if I didn't have to." She flounced around him and sat down primly in his chair. "Father says hello, of course. He also said to tell you he'll be stopping by Hogwarts this winter, part of some sort of lecture for the students that McGonagall wanted them to hear."

Blaise stood by her and raised an eyebrow at her.

She gave him a look. "What?"

"You are in my chair," he said.

Zel smiled pleasantly. "Well, if you had more than one chair in this living room, I would sit somewhere else." She looked around and then gave him an expectant look. "Well?"

"Well, what?" he said, sitting next to her and squishing her into the armrest.

"Ow, Blaise you're not four anymore. Good lord, boy, what have you been eating? You're getting fat! Well, where is the rest of your furniture? I am assuming it's been ordered."

He looked up at her from where he'd landed after she pushed him off the chair. "I need more furniture? I have a table and chair for the kitchen, a chair for the living room and an end table, plus a bed and nightstand in my room. And a lamp."

"We mustn't forget the lamp, of course," Zel said sarcastically. She looked around the room again and sighed theatrically. "Get up then."

Blaise stood up, and said, somewhat suspiciously, "Why?"

"We're going to get you new furniture, of course," she said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "You need more furniture. Be grateful that I'm letting you come and help. I could just decorate this place all on my own without asking you." She poked him. "Get your coat."

He muttered as he went into his room. "Where are Eduardo and the kids anyway? Shouldn't they be here to accompany us on this lovely shopping spree you're going to have with my money?"

He heard her laugh. "Glad you picked up that I'm not paying for this," she said. "And Eduardo, Atton and Taris are at the zoo. The kids haven't been in at least a year and this zoo is much better than the one near the house in Italy. Of course, I've heard there are lovely zoos in America but I don't think it's worth a transcontinental flight just to see some monkeys and possibly a lion or two. We'd Portkey, but they're so damned expensive nowadays."

"Expensive? Portkeys? Why?" Blaise asked.

Zel pulled a face. "After the War it was deemed 'too dangerous' for people to Portkey everywhere, with the very specific details of where people end up. They said that the escaped Death Eaters could find out where people would arrive and attack them when they were still disoriented. But, that's old news. Let's go."

"Let's go, then." He walked out of his room and went to the door, opening it for her and following her through. They made their way downstairs and outside to get a cab.

When they entered their fifth department store, Blaise glared at Zel and said, "I cannot believe I let you suck me into shopping with you. Never again."

"You know, that's what Eduardo said the first three times I took him shopping. But then he discovered this wonderful thing Muggles have. I believe it's called a CD player. Now he just listens to it whenever we shop. The trouble is, I sometimes leave him behind in stores, which is just horrid. I have to backtrack, leave things on hold. Very annoying. I'm thinking of just hiring someone to shop with me instead of towing him along." As she said this, she was looking through the masses of furniture on display. "Oh, Blaise! Look at that one!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him through the maze of couches and ottomans until they reached a group of matching loveseats and sofas.

Blaise stared at the furniture. "My God, Zel. You actually found furniture that I like."

She patted his shoulder. "It's a gift. What do you think? You don't have to get the chair since you've already got one, so they'll probably take a good hundred and fifty pounds off the price."

He looked over at her where she was fairly jiggling with excitement. He sighed. "Where's my checkbook?"

~*~

They got back to his apartment and Zel sat down in his chair, fishing around a moment before pulling out the remote. "What's this?"

"Controller for the television," Blaise said. "I've no idea how it works."

Zel gave him a blank look. "What's a television?"

Blaise motioned towards the TV. "That thing. Like I said, no idea how to turn it on. Well, not without pushing the power button, but I want to learn to use the controller."

Fifteen minutes later, they were busy figuring out how to use the controller when there was a knock at the door. Blaise got up to answer it.

"Hi," Louise said, smiling at him. "Did you want to have dinner...oh. I see you have a guest. I'll come by some other time." She began to turn away.

"No, Louise, wait," he called after her. "This is my sister, Zel. Zel, this is Louise Nunn from upstairs. She's quite nice. Please, come in Louise."

Louise came in and Zel smiled at her. "Hi, it's nice to meet you," she said. "Blaise needs some nice neighbors. I am in constant fear he'll become a crotchety, anti-social old man like his favorite teacher."

Louise laughed. "Well, he's a lovely man. What are you doing?" she asked, seeing Zel poke a few more of the buttons on the controller.

"We're trying to figure out how to turn it on using this...thing," Zel said, frowning at the controller.

Louise looked at Blaise in surprise. "You don't know how to use a remote?"

Blaise felt his entire face turn red. "My family didn't have a television. My parents are...were...old-fashioned. We read. A lot."

Louise laughed. "Well then," she said, walking over to him and smiling sweetly, "I'll just have to teach you."