“let me see that,” malfoy whispered in his ear, and harry pratially jumped he hadn’t notied him ome up behind him he handed malfoy the paper and wathed the grey eyes fous on one of the front page stories garius santi named runner-up in the miss wizarding world pageant—breaks reord for oldest oant and first ever male runner-up harry reognized the middle-aged man pitured in an alluring pose in a fushia ball gown “that’s the top most unspeakable!”
malfoy shot him a gre “when you rammed into me, you sent us into the future, potter”
“oh,” was all harry ould think to say in response then he looked bak at the photo “how is that your first rean to santi ping seond in a beauty ompetin?” malfoy shoved the paper into harry’s hest and stalked out of the hotel muttering something about “bloody narissus”
sighing, harry went after him when he aught up, malfoy was tuning the timepiee, adjusting several sets of arrows on different dials on the fae of it his lips were parted, as if baited and waiting for the ulminan of something imperative “grab ahold of me, potter”
“what?” harry burst
“last time you had barrelled into me,” malfoy smirked “i’m sure if you treat it like a side-along, it’ll work just fine”
harry stepped up and grasped malfoy’s upper arm, the slight touh warm and eletri
“where—when are we going?” harry stammered, still taken abak by the tingle in his hand
malfoy’s smirk deepened and his eyes rinkled “bak,” he said
“bak when exatly?” harry said malfoy winked, and then harry was overwhelmed by the familiar feeling of falling with his feet pnted firmly on the ground
there was only so muh one-sided n that one ould have with a goddaughter whose soul was tred in a kneazle’s body pansy had waited almost twenty minutes for drao and potter to ome up to the room she’d spent half of that time hanging into something more ropriate for a ransom drop off and iigative trekking aross sotnd staring at herself in the mirror, she smoothed the lines of her soft amel trenh oat and lined the olr over the white silk blouse thik, bk wool trousers ompleted the look, topped with a bk fedora if she was going to experiene her undoing, she would at least look amazing
she heked the time they still had almost four hours until everyone was supposed to be bak pansy’s nerves were making her sik what if herne atually aquired all of the ransom demands? would they take everything exept the damned pnt in exhange for bertrie? how would they swith them bak? she was going to talk herself into a oblin if she kept on
pansy deided to flip through the books longbottom gave them she read about the history of inquollis arpus arently at some point in the fifteenth entury, a terrible wizard, alexandr the hornswoggler, tried to take over russia using the soul-ather his attempt to get ivan iii almost sueeded but was stopped when one of his vitims attaked him the text was vague about who the vitim was, merely stating that alexandr died due to injuries from a wild goat stampede
“a drink,” she said as bertie slid against pansy’s boots she losed the book and stood “i need a drink”
pansy found the hotel bar just as rowded as it had been that afternoon she managed to steal a seat and order a finisterial camité, her favorite drink the bartender had just brought her the delightful green onon, when the seatto her vaated and another warm body shimmied up into it
“hello, pansy,” lovegood’s musial voie rang aross the bar
turning, she took in the sight of the ravenw woman lovegood had tamed her hair bak into a bun, but otherwise looked exatly the same as when pansy had seen her st, whih had been a little more than hour ago “hello, lovegood” pansy raised an eyebrow “e to hek me for tinsel gnats?”
“i didn’t bring any gold dust,” lovegood put her hand on pansy’s arm “why? does your sweat smell like eggnog?”
pansy snorted “lovegood, what are you doing here?”
the blonde looked away, staring at the ollen of alohol bottles against the bak of the bar “i sensed something when we were all in nev’s offie i know most people onsider me somewhat of a whimsial ariature of a with, but i an be rather deisive, even useful” she turned bak to pansy and gave her a soft smile pansy took a sip from her drink and lovegood ontinued, “i ould tell you were in great emonal distress and felt ompelled to help in any way that i an”
pansy ouldn’t tell if the bitter taste in her mouth was the liquor or her body’s rean to yet another member of potter’s liqueassistane the very idea of someone from that side of the warhelp to pansy was farial exept the golden t had bent over bakwards, probably broken a thousand ministry rules in the proess, just to find bertrie now lovegood? pansy suspeted on rare oans lovegood dispyed her dry and subtle sense of humor, but for the most part, the blonde was a sinere person and genuine oddity pansy took another sip and sighed
“alright, lovegood,” she deided “you an help by keeping me distrated until the others get bak” lovegood smiled, and pansy briefly wondered how suh a person ould be real most of their ssmates would sooner see pansy fed to the giant squid than help her, or sazar, omfort her she looked down and ouldn’t stop herself from returning the smile
“i wondered where harry and drao were when i saw you alone at the bar” lovegood draped an arm over the bak of the barstool, striking a pose that had her faing pansy “but i’m sure they’re fine,” lovegood ontinued and leveled pansy with a alm stare the weight of it made pansy take another sip of her drink “they’ve probably just found a suitable broom loset in whih to work out t
