A Pureblood Rendezvous

The Zabini and Poliakoff family weren't the closest of families but they did share things in common. For starters they were both pure bloods and honoured traditionalism. Secondly they both had children, which was the reason for a meal that was in progress on the bright Friday evening.

The clock had ticked seven and desert was being served. Up one end of the table was Mr Poliakoff and down at the other end Mr Zabini with the children and the mother of his children in the middle. It was a rather large gathering in the sense of things but Romeo wasn't completely bothered. Kaiden, an older Slytherin, was there so was able to manage the many hints of him and Ciara becoming a couple.

Yes Romeo liked the female attention, loved it in fact. Although there was a difference between him wanting to find a girl to play, manipulate and an arranged marriage. 

It just so happened that Romeo had been seated next to Ciara with Kaiden opposite the pair besides Daphne Greengrass. 

Alas, at half past seven they were all stuffed from the luxurious ice cream the Zabini's had brought round to show their appreciation for the invitation from Me Poliakoff. 

As the adults moved into the reception room Romeo held back, hoping to go off with Kaiden and have a laugh. They for on fairly well and, despite the age gap, it wasn't ever awkward. Well. At least Romeo hoped it wouldn't be after their fathers practically pushing him and Ciara together. He wasn't quiet sure what Kaiden thought of the arrangement.

'Want to go somewhere else?' Romeo asked Kaiden in a hushed voice.  He really couldn't endure any more time being told who he should direct his romantic attention to, especially with the older brother being in the room. 

He hated these things. He didn't even understand why he had to be there. This was something between his parents, the Zabini boy's parents, Ciara and Romeo. He didn't have to be involved in any of it. Still, he found himself being dragged into the dinner.

What made it worse? The fact that he was seated next to the mother of his sister's suitor. Kaiden sighed, trying to stay out of the conversations that were going on as much as possible. It was evident that he did not want to be there. But he knew better than to ask to be excused.

His parents wanted him to be around to keep everything in order. As the older brother, it was his duty to keep his sister safe and keep Romeo from doing something stupid. It sucked for him. As everyone started to go into the other room, he looked at Romeo who had held back and asked if he wanted to go else where.

Kaiden glanced into the other room and shrugged. "Why not?" he said. Ciara noticed that both Kaiden and Romeo had not entered the room with their parents and herself. She poked her head into the dining room and looked directly at Kaiden. "Aren't you coming?" she asked sweetly, glancing at Romeo but ignoring him for the most part.

"Nah. I'm going somewhere else." he told his sister. "Can I come with you?" she asked. "I don't know. If he wants you to come." he said passively.

Romeo Zabini sighed with relief when Kaiden agreed to go elsewhere. It meant he would be able to escape Kaiden's sister and the constant side remarks about how the two are perfectly suited, although it was more the remarks he wanted to avoid. Ciara wasn't that bad, they were both the same age and had been in classes together every now and then.

'Sure whatever.' Romeo replied lacklusteredly. The Slytherin wasn't usually this off with girls, in fact rather the complete opposite, but the meal had stuffed him and the marriage talk drained him. Despite neither parents saying the word marriage he knew that is what they wanted at some point, perhaps upon finishing Hogwarts. On the other hand Romeo couldn't think of anything worse. He wanted to be a bachelor for as long as possible - it was a kind of hobby of his.

Romeo's younger sister poked her head around the door into the dining hall, curious as to why they hadn't followed. 'What are you doing?' She asked. 'Nothing, go back to Mum and Dad.' Romeo instructed her in an annoyed tone. He loved his younger sister but she asked too many questions and mitered him too much, especially about girls. She was starting Hogwarts this year and Romeo was praying she was sorted into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw... He couldn't bare to have her ruining his fun in the Slytherin Common Room.

'Where do you want to go?' He asked Kaiden as his sister returned to the reception room where she would sit, bored out of her mind, listening to the adults talk about politics, happenings in the prophet and of course Romeo and Ciara.

Kaiden looked down at Ciara before looking back to Romeo and shrugging. "What about we go for a swim or something?" he asked. There wasn't much else to do and their parents would no doubt be looking for them soon. Although considering both Romeo and Ciara would be missing, they'd think that they went off together and Kaiden was probably just keeping an eye on them.

That's what his parents had instructed him to do in the first place. "That sounds like a good idea Kai!" Ciara smiled at her older brother, but still mostly ignored Romeo. Kaiden smiled back at his sister and looked at Romeo. "What do you say?" he asked the younger Slytherin.

This Kaiden didn't seem like the Kaiden form Hogwarts. At Hogwarts, Kaiden always acted like a jerk and rarely smiled when people were around. This Kaiden was different. Especially since he was around his little sister.

"Ciara, why don't you go get changed?" he told the girl and she nodded, before going off to her room.

Romeo nodded in agreement that going for a swim would be a good idea. It was an idea that he hadn't thought of, which meant that their parents would most likely not find them in the pool. 

The only thing was that he didn't have any swim shorts with him, meaning that he would have go go in his boxers. Not that this was an issue, he was confident about his body. Unlike some of the over weight or untoned fifteen year olds Romeo worked hard to keep in good shape. He was proud of his image and made an effort to maintain it - something that had gotten him far with getting girls, he just hoped it wouldn't draw Ciara to him. Not that he disliked her but the whole arrangement had caused a complete flop in his attraction towards the girl.

'I will probably just sit with my legs in for a bit though.' Romeo began to tell Kaiden as Ciara hurried off to get change. 'I'm bloated.' 

"Okay, Lets go!" Ciara giggled as she came bouncing back into the dinning room where she had changed into her mint green two piece bathing suit that barely covered anything. "Hurry before Daddy notices we are not in there." She said in almost a whisper looking up at her brother with wide innocent eyes. She giggled again and she looked back towards the door that led to the room where everyone else was at talking about who knows what. They wouldn't notice anytime soon that the three of them were missing but they would notice eventully. She sighed and shook her head adults were stupid sometimes.

"Dad already knows Ciara." Kaiden said, looking into the other room. He could see their father looking into the room they were in. He looked at Kaiden and gave a half nod, before turning his attention to whatever subject the Zabini couple were talking about. Kaiden rolled his eyes and looked at his sister.

"You're really going to wear that?" he asked with an eyebrow raised. He knew better than to say anything more than that to his sister. Besides, his only other comment would be that she looked slutty. Which he knew she did not like being called. "Well whatever. Let's go." he said, shaking his head and headed toward the door leading to the pool.

"Romeo, you can either go without swim trunks, in your boxers, or I can lend you some to wear." He said to the younger Slytherin, stopping at the door with his hand on the handle.

Romeo and Kaiden simply stood in silence whilst they waited for Ciara, who was much quicker than the Slytherin expected - and much less covered up than he expected too! For a moment her dark eyes gazed upon her almost naked body, perhaps his fallen-attraction to her hadn't fell that far at all.
 
'Oh. Yeah. Okay.' He replied, not knowing what to say. Would Kaiden get angry if he began to flirt with the fellow fifth year? He knew it would make their parents happy... The sudden hormonal rush evaporated and the light bulb switched off in his head at the thought that this was all arranged. Arranged relationships weren't sexy. They had no spontaneity to them, no exceitment and were far less fun. Half of the relationship involved the parents after all.
 
At Kaiden's comment of their parents knowing where they were going he turned his head to see his Father wink at him. Clearly Blaise found this amusing, knowing full well Romeo only wanted fun and not an arranged marriage. Oh well, he would just have to try and avoid the words 'I do' best he could.

'I'll keep my boxers on.' Romeo replied, not wanting to go naked in front of Ciara, it was bad enough she had to see his body, which of course he adored but if Ciara were to crush on him, he most likely wouldn't be able to help himself and that arrangement would only end up like a let down balloon. Not fun at all.

"Yes i am!" Ciara giggled bouncing up and down. She didn't really care what Kaiden thought of what she was wearing as long as he didn't say it out loud. Romeo obviously liked what he saw from the was he looked at her. "Come On!" She said pushing her way past her brother and out the door.
The fifteen year old didn't care if her father knew what she was doing or not as long as he doesn't make her go back in that room and listion to the adults drone on about boring things. "Don't be such slow pokes!" she called over her shoulder as she ran towards the pool.
Ciara stopped right at the edge of the pool and looked back at the boys. Even though she understood how to swim she didn't like it. She was horribly afride of it. But, she couldn't let the boys know. No, they'd make fun of her. Carefully she sat on the edge letting her feet dangle in the water and lowered her self into the rather warm water.

"Alright." Kaiden responded shortly to Romeo's response. He walked toward the pool, watching Ciara in front of them and mentally saying everything he wanted to tell her about her choice in swimwear. He really didn't like when she wore things like that but no matter how much he didn't like it, he couldn't influence her decisions.

He just had to suck it up and deal with it.

Meaning he had to ignore it and act like he didn't care about his sister at all. He had caught Romeo's gaze over Ciara before, but he hadn't said anything because he knew he wasn't supposed to. All he was told to do was to keep things from getting out of hand if it started to happen.

After entering the room that was slightly more humid than the hallway they had just been in, Kaiden moved his bangs to the side and walked over to the side of the pool, keeping his eyes on Ciara as she lowered herself into the pool. The seventeen year old sat on the edge and let his feet fall into the pool with a small splash.