A/N: And now we return to our feature presentation. It was exactly three months ago today that I started this little project –it was originally supposed to be an oneshot but then a rapid plot bunny attacked and it expanded drastically upon my original thoughts.

Disclaimer: This world is JKR's and I am simply playing in it for a while!

Luck of the Irish

Chapter the Thirteenth

Meddle not in the affairs of the dragon; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

~Anonymous

It had been several weeks since his blow-out with Lucy, and true to her word, Seamus hadn't seen head or tail of her since she had left the hallway in front of his flat. For Seamus, it seemed like an eternity, waiting for Lucy to forgive him, or come up with a punishment that would –in her mind- make them equal. While he waited, Seamus had come up with several things he would be willing to do just for the opportunity to see her face again. As each moment passed and the separation grew more and more, each suggestion became more and more desperate.

Seamus desperately missed Lucy's company. It was one of those things where you didn't realise what you have until it was gone. He had abused Lucy's friendship and was now paying the cost for it. Spending time with her had been an excellent distraction from the crushing depression that had been creeping in since he had heard about Kari's imminent wedding. Now with her presence no longer a constant part of his life, he no longer had a light to keep out the darkness. The only thing that was keeping him going was the time he spent with Kari. If he tried really hard, he could sometimes pretend that she wasn't getting married and that they were just planning a very extravagant party.

He was currently lying on his bed in his small muggle London flat staring at the ceiling and contemplating life, existence and whether or not he could ever forget Kari when a light knock sounded on his front door. He slowly pried himself off his bed, feeling very listless as of late. He contributed it to the fact that he wasn't sleeping much anymore because sleep only brought nightmares.

Finally he reached his door, the knocking now resembling angry pounding. He performed a quick spell to reveal the identity of his company –a habit he had picked up from his mother- and was rewarded with the information that it was Kari who was impatiently waiting on the other side. He took a moment to wonder on why she was there –they didn't have plans to meet until later that week. Finally, when Kari's pounding became so loud and urgent Seamus was afraid she would disturb his neighbours.

"What took you so long? It's not like your apartment is that large! I was waiting for like ten minutes! That's just impolite! Didn't your mother teach you anything?" Kari continued on scolding Seamus as she blew into his small apartment and began cleaning to give herself something to do. When Kari was experiencing any heightened emotion –be it immense sorrow, extreme joy, or considerable indignation- she cleaned. At that particular moment, Seamus wasn't complaining. He had never been the neatest person in the world and if she was willing to tidy up, he wasn't going to stop her.

After Kari had gone through his entire living room and was heading towards the bedroom, Seamus did step in. He may have been friends with Kari since he was eleven, but he still felt awkward about having her in his room. "Not that I don't appreciate seeing you, but why are you here?" he asked, placing a hand on her arm and steering her towards his newly uncontaminated couch.

"I can tell when something is bothering you and lately, you've been very distant and down. I mean, just now it took you an unnatural amount of time to answer the door. Tell me what's up and maybe I can help. I always say that if you're having a crappy day, let it all out."

Seamus was suddenly hit with a strong sense of déjà vu. He had heard that message, those words, spoken before. A stabbing sensation spread from deep inside him and rushed towards the surface, causing Seamus to double over, grabbing at his short sandy hair to try and alleviate some of the pain.

Kari was instantly by his side, rubbing soothing circles over his back and trying to get Seamus to open up about what was going on in his mind. Seamus tried to think, tried to figure out what was causing this all-consuming pain. Just as suddenly as the pain had arrived, it vanished, bringing with it a forgotten memory.

Just as he was about to gulp the alcoholic beverage, he felt a foreign pain in his upper bicep. He looked over at said arm and saw a short, chestnut haired girl, her fingers pinching the skin of his left bicep.

"What are you doing?" he questioned, not quite drunk enough that he started slurring his speech.

"Pinching you," the rosette stated simply as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She had a strange accent that Seamus couldn't quite place and made her words sound even stranger to his inebriated mind. Seamus rolled his eyes.

"I meant, why are you pinching me?"

"If that's what you meant, that's what you should have said," the girl explained simply, tossing her hand over her shoulder and motioning for the bartender. Seamus knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with this girl, yet he still felt a compulsion to try. He waited for her to order her Guinness before beginning his assault.

"Well now I've asked you, so go on, answer it," he prodded.

"It's Saint Patrick's Day and you're not wearing green." She took a sip of her beer and waited for him to say something against her. "I'm Lucy, by the way. Lucy McCarthy and you are?" Seamus rolled his eyes again and didn't answer. He didn't care what the universe was trying to do to him. He was going to ignore this girl and enjoy his beer, no matter how chatty she got.

However, there was only so much talking any sane human could take and Lucy was getting close to passing that threshold. The short copper haired Lucy McCarthy, her incessant talking in her weird accent, and the fact that she couldn't take a hint, dug into Seamus like a small ice pick. With every unwanted word she spoke, the pick dug further and further into his side until the pain became unbearable.

"URRG! Look, I was trying not to be rude, but I really just want to sit here and drink my beer!" he shouted, slamming his glass down onto the wooden bar top causing some of the liquid to spill over the rim. "Alone," he added as an afterthought when Lucy didn't immediately leave.

Once again, she remained seated, staring at him with her large auburn eyes. "When I'm having a crappy," she paused in thought for a moment, "extended period of time, I find talking about it with someone always helps. That way, you're not the only person in the world carrying around your baggage. Also, if you tell your issues to a complete stranger, you don't have to worry about burdening them because, chances are, you're never going to see them again.

As the memory faded from Seamus' immediate thoughts, he did something he had never done in front of Kari –or any girl besides his mother. He broke down and cried, spilling the entire story –besides the fact that he was in love with her- about what was causing him this great beguile. He told Kari that he had recently –about fifteen years ago- fallen in love with this girl who didn't return his feelings. One night, while drowning his sorrows at a local pub, he had met an infuriating young woman who had promised to help distract him from his pain. He continued on with telling the tale of their first outing and concluded with his idiocy and their fight.

Kari was quite for a moment, digesting the information. When she had wrapped her head around everything her nearly lifelong friend had told her, she stood quickly, asking for this distraction girl's information. Seamus gave it to her reluctantly, inquiring as to what she was going to do with the information. Before he was able to get his answer, Kari had disappeared out his door leaving Seamus once again alone with his sorrows.

Lucy McCarthy was sitting in a small local coffee shop on a fairly busy corner of the Irish capital, a muggle novel clutched in her hands. She had spent the past few hours brainstorming torture activities she could inflict on Seamus when she came to the realisation that she didn't really want to hurt him. She may have been hurt by what he did, but she couldn't seem to stomach doing the same with him. Instead, she had decided to take her mind off of her woes by diving into the lives of some of the fictional characters created by her favourite author.

She was just getting absorbed into the main characters world when a loud voice above her drew Lucy right back out. She rolled her eyes, put her bookmark at her spot and looked up at whoever had just spoken, ready to give said person a piece of her mind. Lucy had many pet peeves, being interrupted while reading was in the top ten. Her eyes met deep pools of green on a face she didn't recognise. It only stalled her for a minute, taking her slightly by surprise that a stranger knew who she was.

"Can I help you?" she spoke, her voice dripping with contempt and sarcasm, "I obviously wasn't doing anything important."

"Hey, Lucy, I'm Kari. Ummm… Seamus' friend. I don't know if she's mentioned me…" the very pretty woman, who had no ability to pick up on blatant sarcasm or read a situation, hesitantly spoke.

"No, he's mentioned you. What can I do for you?" Lucy inquired, deciding that being mean to the woman Seamus was in love with wouldn't earn her any karma points. She would have to just pretend to like this girl or suffer the consequences.

"I don't know if you're aware, but your fight has had a really bad effect on him. He's like depressed and not sleeping. I came here to ask if there was anything I could do to reconcile you too. He's a really good friend of mine and I hate seeing him like this," Kari prattled on, taking the empty seat across from Lucy.

"Yeah well, he stood me up for a reason that I don't even think he's explained to me yet. Anyway, I told him that we needed our space and that I'd reconsider our friendship after being away from him for a while. But thanks for your input," Lucy replied, her nice façade cracking and her true personality showing a little bit. Kari began to speak again so Lucy raised her book and began to re-immerse herself in her book.

Seamus wasn't entirely sure how Kari had gotten him to the zoo. She had always been very persuasive, even to people who weren't madly in love with her. There wasn't a single person on Earth who could stand against Kari; if there was, he wanted to meet them and have them trade their secrets.

He spent a few moments wandering around, watching some of the more excited children take in all the animals. All the while, he was wondering when Kari would show herself. She had promised that she would meet him outside the snake exhibit at noon, which was now nearly forty minutes ago. He didn't want to wander to far away from the snakes, but at the same time, he also wanted to check the other areas around the zoo in case Kari had gotten caught up with another animal. She did have a relatively short attention span.

His stomach started sinking as the moments ticked by and the more he stood around, not really looking at the animals, the more he felt like a freak. People were probably wondering what a twenty-four-year-old was doing hanging around a zoo, especially one frequented by young children. The moments continued to pass and Seamus began to feel worse and worse. If this was how Lucy felt while waiting for him at the theatre, he felt really bad. He hated this feeling and swore he would never make any one feel like this again, especially Lucy.

As he waited for his friend to show –gradually believing he had been stood up- a groaning noise sounded loudly behind him. Turning slowly, not entirely sure what to expect, Seamus came face to face with the very girl who had occupied much of his thoughts for the past two and a half weeks.

"Hey Lucy," he spoke, not sure of where he stood with her.

"Well, I guess you now know what I felt like. Sucks to be stood up, huh?"

To be continued…

A/N: Unlucky chapter thirteen in an overly unlucky story! Hopefully you enjoyed it and can give me some feedback! Five more chapters and then this story will come to a close, anyone else a little sad? Oh and not sure if I mentioned their ages before, but as of right now Seamus & Dean are twenty four, Kari is twenty three, and Lucy is twenty two! If I did mention ages before (besides flashbacks) let me know so I can fix them to these ages :P