pansy parkinson burst into the room a few minutes ter followed not far behind by luna lovegood “luna?” herne’s mouth dropped luna held the kneazle in her arms then herne’s eyes almost popped out of her head when she realized the pair of them, and the reature, were overed, head to toe in gold dust “what is going on?”
“we just iated a treaty with the winter solstie fae of devonshire,” parkinson frowned she wiped a hand over her forehead and left a streak of gold dust aross her skin
luna nodded “i told you, if you an reah an aord with fae, you an do anything”
herne baulked, “what are you doing making peae treaties with faeries? i’ve been waiting here almost an hour! no one’s shown up!”
“we’ve got it overed granger,” parkinson stated “and no one said anything about a peae treaty”
pansy took a breath and reminded herself that their pn was fwless well, mostly
“it’s going to be okay,” luna sent her a smile she held bertie in her arms and pet her head absentmindedly the kneazle was not pleased with being held so losely to the red fshing lights on luna’s christmas jumper
“i don’t like this!” herne admonished
“do you think i like it either?” pansy frowned “i’m not sure i’ll ever get the gold dust out of my—”
herne interrupted, “it is not a good idea for us to go into a situan without having reoed with the others there are so many variables!”
they stood outside the hotel waiting for the right time to arate to haddington it must have been an iing sight to see: three women in vaus poorly fitted holiday jumpers, a rge pnt, and a kneazle
“where is ron? where are harry and drao? where did the soul-ather pnt ome from?” herne would not stop asking quesns and shifting her weight from foot to foot
“who bloody ares,” pansy rolled her eyes
luna leaned in and aught herne’s eye “do you trust ron, “ne? i’m sure he’s following the leads like he’d said”
herne sighed “yes, but—what about harry and drao?”
“unbelievable!” pansy shook her head “we are in a risis and where have all the men gone?” pansy shrieked “we don’t need them fuk “em”
igora stramitz didn’t usually elebrate holidays she found it hard to experiene joy if she still had an open ase, if someone was still out there alone and separated from their loved ones she’d ertainly never worn a holiday jumper, let alone any jumper that had fshing lights and moving parts parkinson and lovegood assured her that it was absolutely neessary to stay in solidarity with the winter solstie fae, or tinsel gnats as lovegood had alled them
felix stoodto her, frowning at his own blue jumper as it fshed the phrase rowena’s little helper “tell me again how this is going to work?”
“parkinson and lovegood have bribed the solstie fae with the promise of a christmas e early party in exhange for their help”
her partner shook his head “and we have to wear these beause…?”
igora blinked “they help the damned things distinguish between friend and foe, okay?” she knew how absurd the pn was she also had worked sixteen other kidning ases with ransom drops and never felt as seure about the exhanges as she did now
the kidners had enough sense to hoose a muggle rerean area for the exhange a pe with no i magi meant it was easy to detet traps, wards, and other useful ministry methods of apture it also meant the kidners ould disarate at any time igora was surprised no one at the ministry had ever thought of using fae magi before although the small reatures were notously temperamental, their magi was so intuned with the natural world that if anyone ast regur and even more advaned probes, they’d likely not even notie the fae were there
when pansy parkinson had owled her to meet at the hotel bar, igora had never imagined the woman would have suh a story to tell parkinson ended up admitting that there was a department of mysteries angle to the ase, so she ouldn’t divulge all of the details there were still inonsistenies with the ransom demands, but parkinson assured igora that as long as they proteted bertrie, and—oddly—a red kneazle named guinevere, everything would be fine
everything parkinson dislosed mathed what igora and felix had seen and heard, so igora had no hoie but to offer her servies and agree to help in any way that she ould she’d never imagined that would mean donning a christmas jumper and waiting on the roof of an indoor muggle swimming pool for a signal that the winter solstie fae were loose and terrorizing the kidners
“is this the stra ase you’ve ever worked?” felix asked, rousing igora from her thoughts
she turned to him, smirking she’d worked missing persons a long, long time “this might be the stra in reent memory,” she offered
a fsh in the distane aught her eye she and felix dropped to their knees and peered over the edge of the building the field below was slightly lit by the eletri lights of a muggle parking area nearby they ould make out two groups of hooded figures standing on either end of the open field below then a woman’s voie uttered, “lumos! ”
two figures stood losest to the building while the other four figures made their way to the middle of the field igora’s mouth fell open when she realized one of the four was bertrie zivantus felix ted her on the shoulder and pointed to his wath when igora looked bak to the field, the figures were learly perf the expeted seurity spells and heks on the area
from what she ould tell, bertrie seemed alright she lung to the side of one of the figures in the field and looked around with wide eyes the poor thing was probably terrified
pop!
pansy parkinson and luna lovegood, who luthed the re
