SIMple Reflections of Life

"Yes; three days from now will be quite easily done. Four healing draughts…? Of course." Draco smiled pleasantly, rising from the table and shaking the hand of the elderly witch, who remained seated. He took his leave of her, strolling into the floo room to return to the castle. Not a profitable afternoon, but sometimes it felt good just to help some of the more seasoned of the wizarding world.



Harry was not anywhere to be seen; damn it all. He wanted to get him to help with these potions. Harry didn\'t have any classes to teach today, after all. He went in search of him and found him in their shared quarters. Harry was relaxed in his favorite chair, his computer on his lap.



"Bloody hell. Again?" He asked, irritated.



"What?" Harry asked innocently, looking up at him.



"That blasted muggle contraption!" He sighed. "What is it about that thing that has you so enthralled?"



"It\'s not the computer, it\'s the game; oh come on. It\'s just a bit of fun." Harry chuckled softly.



"Maybe for you; it\'s not so fun for me. Your little person on there isn\'t fat." Draco shot back with a distinct pout.



"He\'s not fat anymore; I enrolled him karate classes and he never misses a class. He\'s trimmed up quite a bit… looks a lot more like you, now." Harry chuckled as Draco moved to look at the screen. The background was much different this time; a building with little two-seat tables with white lace tablecloths on them, each little chair had a heart for a backrest. The wallpaper was wreathed with roses and pink, and neon lights on the walls in the shapes of hearts. Even the lighting, pretty little chandeliers of wrought silver had light globes

covered in softly glowing roses.



"Where the bloody hell are they?" Draco asked, eyeing the place hesitantly. "That place looks eerily like Madame Puddyfoot\'s…" he mumbled, admiring all the details that had been put into the place. Even the little centerpieces looked right, with the stupid little Cupid statues.



"Not exactly; couldn\'t get the falling hearts to come out of the ceiling from nowhere, but it\'ll do." Harry laughed.



"Do you actually build these houses Harry?"



"This one I did; I wanted this to be special."



"That must have taken you hours!" Draco mused, leaning on Harry\'s shoulder to watch SimHarry and SimDraco be guided to a seat at a table by a hostess. They sat at a table together, chatting for a bit in their nonsense language. SimHarry must have said something funny because SimDraco began to laugh, nearly falling out of his chair. Draco frowned in distaste at the lack of decorum being displayed; he would never act that way in public even if he was madly smitten! "Harry, what language are they speaking? I speak fourteen languages and I\'m absolutely certain I\'ve never heard anyone talking the way they are… even the music is in that gibberish…"



"It\'s Simlish."



"Sim-what?"



"Simlish." Harry repeated patiently; he thought it rather sweet that Draco was interested in learning anything at all about what muggles do, or why. "The designers of the game decided it would be better, I guess, for them to jabber away in a language no one could understand; that way the game is usable for anyone in any country and any language."



"Oh… and this makes sense to muggles?"



"It must; this is a pretty popular game." Harry grinned softly, watching as the couple on the screen proceeded to hold hands as they sipped wine and ate dinner.



SimHarry leaned over and offered a bite to SimDraco, who accepted it, the two smiling dreamily at each other.



Draco frowned at the screen. "Are they on a date?"



"Yeah. First date." Harry agreed, watching, choosing more interactions.



"And you get to tell them what to do?" Draco asked.



"They don\'t always do what I tell \'em to." Harry said. On the screen, SimHarry leaned in for a kiss, but SimDraco stood up, pushing his would-be romantic partner away as he said something in a rankled and irritated tone. "Oh, bullocks." Harry frowned, sighing.



Draco was now confused. "Why did you tell him to do that?"



"I didn\'t. These characters in this game have a personality of their own; obviously, he\'s not ready for his first kiss." Harry shrugged. "Gotta butter him up some more."



"First kiss…?"



"Yeah. First kiss, first date… the whole kit and caboodle…"



"But… where\'s he going?" Draco demanded as SimDraco wandered off. "Go after him!" he scowled at SimHarry.



"I will." Harry took a few moments to try to clear off the commands he\'d entered so his character would go after the other one.



"Who\'s that…?" another Sim approached SimHarry. He thought he recognized her, but why in the name of Merlin\'s Blue Balls would Harry put that overbearing witch in the game too?



"Oh;let me see. That\'s Pansy Parkinson." Harry answered, running his mouse over the girl who came up to SimHarry.



Draco scowled. "Why the hell would you put that twit in there?"



"I just needed filler characters. It\'s nothing serious, Dray. They haven\'t even talked before, I…" Harry cut off his sentence as SimPansy flirted with SimHarry, running her hand up his arm, sweet-talking him in a clearly suggestive tone.



"That hussy!" Draco growled, and then watched with undisguised glee as SimDraco ran up and began to slap her repeatedly, then turned and slapped SimHarry as well. "That serves you right, flirting with that hussy!" Draco smirked.



"He didn\'t flirt, she did!"



"I didn\'t see you pushing her away, so it\'s the same thing…!" Draco fired back.



Harry rolled his eyes and had his character apologize to the now weeping SimDraco. "Don\'t you dare forgive him! Make him earn it!" Draco growled at SimDraco, much to the amusement of Harry.



To Draco\'s ultimate irritation, it only took a few minutes of sweet-talking and the pair on the screen was hand in hand again. "Merlin; he\'s a love-besotted sap!" he mumbled as the pair began to slow dance in the middle of the restaurant.



Harry chuckled softly. "There; now, let\'s see if they\'ll kiss…" He said, clicking the screen to have his character try again. The two snuggled, then a movie scene ensued, the two kissing and floating into the air, their bodies pressed close, eyes for no one but each other when the kiss ended. Everything around them went all blurry, awash in hearts and sparkles, the pair glowing in the moment, pink glowing sparkles swirling about them. "Aw, how sweet!"



"Yes, very interesting; but Harry, why the bloody hell has everything gone pink?" Draco asked with a frown.



"First kiss." Harry grinned at him.



"So let me get this straight; Muggles see everything all pink and sparkly when they have their first kiss?" Draco asked, trying to keep a straight face. It was all much too comical.



Harry snorted with laughter. "No, of course not; it\'s just to emphasize how romantic it all is." The two Sims held each other, dancing a bit longer, then began to kiss again.



"I guess it is, a little…" Draco agreed with a bit of reluctance, then stared in silent shock when an old woman suddenly appeared and began yelling, bashing them both on the head with her sizeable handbag, scolding them both thoroughly. Draco quickly found his voice again. "What the bloody hell is Professor McGonogall doing in a tea room?!" he demanded.



Harry laughed. "That\'s not Professor McGonogall."



"Well then who the bloody hell is it?! Is she Voldemort\'s mother?!"



"Merlin, no…!" He laughed harder. "Her name is Mrs. Crumplebottom."



"Crumplebottom?! The name suits her; she\'s nothing but an old harridan, that\'s what! Leave them alone, you ridiculously ancient crone! They weren\'t bothering you!" Draco growled at the screen. SimDraco was crying and Mrs. Crumplebottom was verbally tearing into SimHarry now. "Have them Avada Kedavra her!!" he demanded, cuffing Harry on the shoulder.



"They don\'t have magic, they\'re muggles!" He chortled.



"Ha! They do so! They levitated when they kissed! Muggles can\'t do that!"



"That was just a movie!"



"Well make a movie of them doing her in! Harry, you at least could Imperious her to make her go away!"



"I tell you, they don\'t have magic." Harry answered, chuckling.



"She\'s awful! She\'s ruined their first date!" Draco pouted.