My heart sinks.
So, I have been attempting to get the Floo number of a homosexual man. Well this night is going to be interesting.
"Terribly sorry," I stutter, forgetting my purpose and losing the control of my larynx simultaneously. Slightly dejectedly, I slip into the next seat down.
"No, no. Honestly it is no problem." He awkwardly sticks out his right hand. "Luca Williams. Oh, and this is my brother, Nathaniel."
And in that one second, my prospects are beginning to look brighter.
Meanwhile, Severus Snape has slipped out of The Three Broomsticks and is striding, head-down, towards the corner beside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour; he is searching for a classier sort of woman than the types that hang around The Three Broomsticks. I mean, Aurora Sinistra for Merlin's sakes!
As he rounds the corner, his eye is caught by a woman sitting on a bench, her head buried deep into a novel. It is a Muggle novel. Pride and Prejudice. A niggling feeling in the back of Severus' head reminds him that he has heard of the book before.
"Excuse me," he attempts in a honeyed tone. The woman looks up.
Oh, for Merlin's sake!
I leave The Three Broomsticks with no less than seven Floo numbers tucked into the upper lining of my dress. Where to go next? My feet lead me automatically past Hogsmeade's sweet shop, which has become the bane of my life since Albus discovered Muggle sweets, and around the corner of Florean Fortescue's. Then my eyes direct themselves towards a miniscule amount of activity on my left-hand side. There is a shuffling of feet.
I glance, with - admittedly - an increasing pulse rate, down through the alleyway that lurks beside me. My eyes try to search through the darkness to find the source of the noise.
I whip my wand from a hidden pocket on the side of my dress. "Lumos." The alley is shrouded in light, but still nothing is fully visible. Curiosity killed the cat, my mother would have said. But, I reason, I am not in cat form now.
If I had not gone down the alleyway, if I continued on my path and walked towards the alcove a few paces ahead, I might have seen a colleague with a companion I never would have thought possible.