MOH MOH KE DHAAGE : a royal saga

ELEVEN: FELLOW POTTERHEAD

ELEVEN: FELLOW POTTERHEAD

On her parents' suggestion, Ishanvi had decided to meet the guy –the prospective groom– over the weekend.

She wore a rust orange striped culotte jumpsuit, and paired it with an olive green denim jacket. She slipped on her Adidas sneakers, put huge danglers in her ears and wore her smartwatch on her right watch. Adding a dash of lip tint and a small amount of mascara, she was ready to go.

The venue was chosen by the man himself. It was one of the most expensive restaurants in one of the posh areas of the capital city. Ishanvi reached the restaurant slightly earlier because she felt it was better to arrive early than being late.

Walking up to the lady at the reception, she asked about the reservation.

"Excuse me, there's a reservation for Miss Ishanvi," she told the receptionist.

Her mother had told her that the guy had reserved them a spot on her name so that it'd be easier for her to locate.

The receptionist gave her a warm smile before saying, "Yes ma'am, there's a reservation for miss Ishanvi at the rooftop area of the restaurant."

Ishanvi looked at her, puzzled.

"Why would he choose the rooftop area for the first meeting?" Ishanvi wondered.

"To have some privacy, of course," her inner voice told her wisely.

Ignoring her inner voice, Ishanvi asked the receptionist politely, "Could you please tell me the directions for the rooftop?"

The receptionist smiled at her kindly as she took in her confused expression. "Sure ma'am. This way, please."

The receptionist then guided her, and walked with Ishanvi up to the elevator.

Ishanvi thanked her for helping her out as the elevator's doors slid open.

"Best of luck, ma'am" the receptionist told her with a smile before leaving.

Ishanvi thanked her, and wondered if the receptionist knew the purpose of her visit and that's why she wished her luck?

The elevator took her to the rooftop. Alighting the lift, she walked to the sitting arrangements there.

Surprisingly there was just a single table laid there in the heart of the terrace, with two chairs around it. A sizable bouquet of fresh Blue Orchids –her favorite flowers– were placed in the center. Small scented candles were lit around the bouquet while two sets of crockeries and cutleries were placed across each other.

"Did he book the whole place just for the two of us?" Ishanvi wondered as she took in her surroundings.

She then looked around, and found a silhouette of a man standing across from her. He had his back towards her as he leaned against the glass banister.

"I like people who respect others' time and are punctual," the man said before turning towards her.

The moment his face came into view, Ishanvi's mouth was left open in a huge 'O' in shock. She couldn't believe her eyes at all.

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The next morning, Ishanvi was sitting in front of her laptop in the office, and was typing away on her laptop fiercely. She had arrived at the office quite early, and had been working continuously since then.

Everyone knew Ishanvi was in a bad mood today as her aggressive demeanor had cast a deadly aura in the office. They could tell something was wrong as she ignored all of them instead of chatting around and asking about their well-being. But they had no idea what infuriated her.

Even Anna was afraid to approach her as she didn't want to be the one to face her wrath. And Onir hadn't come today, he was on leave for two days for personal reasons.

As the lunch time drew closer, Anna mustered all of her courage and walked up to Ishanvi. But as soon as she reached near her desk, all her bravery disappeared into thin air. And she just stood there, staring at this new 'severely workaholic' avatar of Ishanvi.

Ishanvi could feel Anna's gaze on her. When she couldn't take it any longer, she spoke up, "Stop staring at me, I'm fine."

Anna scoffed. "I can see how fine you are."

"I told you I'm fine, Anna," Ishanvi gritted out.

Anna ignored her words and asked, "Why are you so mad?"

"I am not."

"Yes, you are! You've stabbed the poor keyboard to its untimely death already," Anna told her in a matter-of-fact tone.

At this, Ishanvi stopped typing and looked at the poor keyboard.

"Did you know that it was Neer?" Ishanvi finally asked her after a while.

"I had my ideas but I didn't really know," Anna replied truthfully.

She took a seat beside her now that Ishanvi was willing to talk about what was bothering her. Ishanvi had told Anna about her meeting with the prospective groom that her parents had chosen for her, nobody else in the office knew about this meeting but Anna.

"You know, I had gone to meet him with the idea that I'll tell him that I don't want to marry right now and then this will be over. But who knew a f**king Prince was waiting for me at the terrace. I forgot all my lines I had painstakingly prepared to convince him to agree with me," Ishanvi sighed.

"You could've still said No, you know. It's not like Neer would've forced you to marry him against your wishes."

Ishanvi looked like Anna had said something blasphemous. "How do you expect me to refuse a Prince? I don't want my head to be served on a platter to my parents for humiliating a Royal Prince." Ishanvi shuddered even thinking about it.

Anna laughed at her innocence or rather sheer stupidity. "What world are you living in? They surely don't do that in this world anymore."

Ishanvi looked at her incredulously, clearly not believing her. Her High School History books can't lie, can they?

"Achha, I get it that you couldn't outright refuse him. So, what did you do when you found out it's Neer? Did you turn back and run from there?"

"What else could I do? I sat and chatted with him… And then I didn't realise how time flew," Ishanvi added after a pause. "It wasn't until I got a call from my Mum asking me about my whereabouts that I realized that we had been talking for five hours. Five f**king hours! Can you believe it? That's mad!" she shook her head at that.

"And if I may ask, what did you guys talk about?" Anna inquired, trying to get to the bottom of it.

“Oh, you know everything and anything. We started with Harry Potter and our favorite books and authors, and then went on to talk about the global warming and environmental crisis, then we veered off to spiritualism, whether we believe in soul mates etcetera. We discussed our goals and what we want from life, and some other random stuff. The conversation felt so smooth and natural, and to tell you the truth, it didn't feel forced at any point that I was amazed," Ishanvi confessed honestly.

"Who broke the ice first?" Anna inquired.

At this question, Ishanvi found herself going back to the time when she met Neer the other day at the restaurant's rooftop.

FLASHBACK

Ishanvi couldn't believe her eyes that the guy she was meeting for the prospect of marriage was none other than the Royal Prince of Punjab— Neer!

Neer found her reaction both weird and funny. He walked up to her and extended his hand forward. "Hello! I'm Neer Oberoi. Pleased to meet you."

Ishanvi just stared at him without blinking.

"We couldn't meet properly the other day at the party, hence I thought I should begin with introducing myself first," he said in a gentle voice.

Ishanvi nodded her head in understanding. "Heya, I'm Ishanvi Dixit. Honored to meet you," she said, shaking hands with Neer. It was true that it was an honor to meet a Prince.

The handshake was warm, and wasn't too long or too short.

After the introduction, Neer moved to the table and pulled a chair out for Ishanvi.

Ishanvi smiled and thanked him before she sat down.

"I hope you're comfortable here. Actually, I had to reserve this whole place because I wanted to stay away from the prying eyes of strangers," Neer told her, taking a seat across from her.

"It's alright," Ishanvi told him and turned to examine the place.

The Twilight sky was painted a stunning shade of blue and magenta, and first street lights had appeared. The terrace had planters on the three sides with a variety of flowering shrubs and small trees, while one side had a glass banister –the one Neer was leaning on earlier– which offered a splendid view of the city.

Ishanvi knew it was a high-end place, and you need to make prior reservations here. She wondered how Neer had managed to reserve the whole rooftop on such short notice.

Although she had said she was fine, she was anything but comfortable. She was finding it hard to stick to her seat, and not give into her impulse to turn and run away from there.

A waiter approached them shortly, and asked about their choices of beverages and appetizers.

Neer offered one of the menus to Ishanvi, and took the other one for himself. Ishanvi perused the menu and placed her order with Neer's.

After the waiter left, Ishanvi began to fiddle in her seat. She was continuously looking at her phone as if waiting for something to pop up on her phone's screen that'd tell her how to begin the conversation.

“Ishanvi… umm, if given a chance, which fictional character would you want to kill?” Neer asked her, finally breaking the ice.

Ishanvi's eyes turned to Neer the moment she heard those words. ‘A fellow reader? Tick!’

“Umm, the only name I can think of is Dolores Umbridge, for all the things she did in the Order of the Phoenix I'd really like to kill her with my bare hands,” Ishanvi replied with some heated emotions in her voice.

“I had a feeling it must be her,” Neer told her, with a knowing smile. “Would you join me in planning her murder then?”

"Of course, I would. I would do anything to kill that b**ch," Ishanvi replied with so much animosity before realising that she had sworn in front of a Royal member. She hurried out to give an explanation, "I'm sorry. I don't usually curse but Dolores just brings out the worst in me."

Neer smiled at her. "Don't worry, I'm not judging you."

“Umm, which Harry Potter book do you think needs to be appreciated more?” Ishanvi questioned.

“It has to be the Order of the Phoenix because there's so much going on, and you get to know about quite a few things, which –if I might add– they had omitted in the movie. It was the most horrible movie adaptation from the series!”

"By the way, how did you find out about my interest in the magical world of Harry Potter or that I'm a bookworm?" Ishanvi asked him, getting comfortable now.

It was evident Neer knew the perfect way to break the ice and make her comfortable.

"Your ALWAYS wallpaper gave it away," Neer motioned towards her cell phone that was lying on the table. "Only a bookworm can truly comprehend the importance that one word holds… And being a huge fan myself, I knew right away that I had found a fellow Potterhead in you," he gave her a full-fledged smile.

Ishanvi noticed how beautiful his smile was with two deep dimples forming on both his cheeks.

Just then a server brought their order, and Ishanvi looked away from Neer's face, embarrassed that she was almost caught gawking at him.

FLASHBACK ENDS

"It was him. He broke the ice first," Ishanvi replied, coming out of her reverie.

Anna mulled over Ishanvi's words from earlier before asking, "Ishi, tell me something. How often does it happen to you that you end up talking with a stranger for five hours straight?"

"What do you mean?" Ishanvi couldn't comprehend what Anna meant.

"I think there's some compatibility between you guys otherwise you wouldn't have talked so naturally for hours, don't you think so?"

Ishanvi didn't answer her.

"I know you, and I now know Neer as well. If there wasn't any chemistry between you guys, you two would've left after the initial conversation," Anna told her knowingly. "Don't you think all these things are trying to say something?"

"What are you getting at?"

"That you should give him a chance."

Ishanvi didn't respond, so Anna asked her again, "Tell me, how many people have you clicked with instantly?"

"That's because I didn't have any other option. I couldn't just leave because he is a prince," Ishanvi replied stubbornly. She wasn't going to accept that there was some chemistry between her and Neer.

"But no one forced you for a five hour long conversation, did anyone?" Anna smirked, her eyebrow c****d up.

Ishanvi had no answer for this.

"What are you afraid of?" Anna questioned. She could feel Ishanvi was scared of something, and that's why she was holding herself back when it was clear that she had started to like Neer –even if it was just as a friend or a fellow reader– but wasn't willing to accept him in her life.

"He's way out of my league, Anna," Ishanvi confessed in a small voice.

"If he had thought that way, he wouldn't have agreed to meet you in the first place. He agreed to meet you, and for this marriage, then there must be a reason behind it. He must have seen something in you before agreeing for the proposal his parents brought to you," Anna said with conviction.

Ishanvi didn't want to fill her head with Anna's hopeful words, and get her hopes high only to crash on the ground in the end. "Bullshit," she gritted out.

"Think whatever you want. But I'd still suggest you give it a chance," Anna advised before leaving Ishanvi with her thoughts.

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A/n

So did you know it was Neer? Or did you think it was someone else? I think some (or all) of you had an idea. What do you think will happen next? Do tell me your views in the comments, I look forward to reading them all.