Have You Ever Met a Liar as Brilliant as Me?
It was absolutely boring in the connected room they had in the inn. They had decided to stay there for about a week and correspond with Kira Petrov and see if she could help them get into Hogwarts. At this moment, Elise was staring up at the ceiling with her hair drying and Nott was reading through the letter they had gotten.
They both had gotten up early and were in Nott's room. While Elise had seen this as a good time to get ready, Nott had seen it as a good time to get straight to work. Two hours had passed and Nott still hadn't had anything to eat so Elise got up. At the sound of the bed creaking as she clambered up, Nott's head shot up, his fringe fluffing up and covering his tired silver eyes.
"Where are you going," he asked his voice hoarse and raspy sounding. Elise passed him and opened the door, looking out into the hallway of the inn.
"I'm going to get us something to eat."
When Elise returned with a tray of earl grey tea, toast, and jam she expected Nott to still be sitting where she had left him. Instead, he was nowhere to be found. Elise set down the tray and sat down at the desk where Nott was sitting before preparing the tea and spreading jam on the toast. As she was spreading the jam to the corners, she heard a tapping noise and opened the window, letting in a beautiful white and tawny colored owl.
The owl hooted and perched on the windowsill but Elise was backing away from the owl. Owls have always frightened her when she was a child. The owl sat adamantly on the windowsill hooting at her and Elise swallowed. It was obvious the owl wasn't going to drop off the letter and just leave, it was waiting for a reply.
Shaking, Elise walked towards the owl taking slow, even steps before reaching the windowsill. She tried to snatch the letter away from the owl but it playfully snipped at her, causing her to let out a squeak of surprise. Again, she tried again and the owl, sensing her fear, stood still while extending its leg towards her. Elise grabbed the letter in her shaking hands and walked backwards, eventually bumping into the bed and falling over.
She heard the door creak open and looked between her legs that were up to see Nott wearing a towel and drying his hair walking out of the bathroom that connected their rooms, looking in his wardrobe for clean clothes. Feeling the blush rising on her cheeks, Elise focused on rolling backwards until she was in a sitting position. Instead, she had rolled off the bed and was sprawled on the floor. She felt Nott's presence rather than heard it, but that could have been her screaming too loudly to hear anything properly. The owl hooted at her and went back to eating her toast.
"Are you alright," Nott asked helping Elise up but she sputtered looking at anything but his naked torso and his dark, wet hair falling into his eyes. Knowing fully well that she was red in the face she looked down and immediately regretted it, seeing that Nott was still in his towel.
"You need to go get dressed." The words rushed out of Elise's mouth as she turned her face away from Nott and fanned herself with the letter before giving up and lightly smacking her face.
"But are you okay," Nott asked again and Elise mumbled a yes, focusing now on the letter in her hands and opening it. She heard the groan of the floorboards as Nott walked back towards his wardrobe.
"Don't look," he called out, but Elise wasn't going to look. She was sure that if her blood rushed into her face once more she was permanently going to have a red face and with that she might as well just die. As she opened up the letter, Elise was met with the immaculate handwriting of Kira Petrov.
Mikhael,
I am deeply sorry if I offended you as I have not been in contact with my family in a very long time. I would love for you to stay with me and attend Hogwarts with your friend but I am very apprehensive. There is a war going on and you do not simply know who to trust at times like these. I am sorry to hear about the passing of my brother and his family but hopefully we can meet outside of these words. I'm suggesting that we have dinner at 6 tonight. If you can come, please meet me in front of Gringotts in Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley is located behind a pub and inn called the Leaky Cauldron in the heart of London. If you cannot make it then maybe we can meet later as I would love to meet you and your friend. Last time I saw you, you were nearly the size of both of my hands. Send your reply with Solar (apologies in advance if he eats any of your food, he's particularly fond of toast).
Kira Petrov
Elise chewed on her lip as she read through the letter. Since it was the end of July and September was fast approaching, it would be nice to have someone help them with the admission process and this did give them an excuse to go to Gringotts as they were running low on funds, partially because of Nott's sweet tooth and mostly because Elise's endless pit for a stomach. But on the other hand, did they really want to involve another person in their life before they left 1942 altogether?
"Are you dressed yet," Elise asked Nott, not daring to turn around and check.
"I'm dressed," Nott called back to her as he walked towards where Elise was standing and peered down at the letter in her hand.
"This brilliant," he cried as he snatched the letter out of her hand rushed off to write a reply to Kira. Elise stayed where she was and watched as he quickly wrote a reply and sealed the letter with his wand. In about a minute's time, the letter was sealed and the owl was on its way after it had finished the toast that Elise was spreading jam on.
Nott went to his wardrobe and started pulling his clothes out. Sighing, Elise just waved her wand and the clothes started folding and packing themselves into his trunk.
"Come on, you need to eat," Elise said as she warmed up the toast and tea again with a prod of her wand. She put six cubes of sugar into a cup and set it aside before picking up some toast and spreading the jam. When she was satisfied, she took the toast and tea, put them on a separate smaller tray, and handed it to Nott.
"Here you go," Elise said with a smile before turning to leave. But Nott had grabbed her wrist and when she turned around, he was holding a piece of toast out towards her.
"You also need to eat," he said with a serious look on his face, "If you don't eat your pit of a stomach will growl and the last time that had happened we received too much attention."
Elise pouted a little before taking the toast and sitting down at the desk, far away from Nott.
They left the inn after having breakfast and used the inn's floo to travel to the Leaky Cauldron. With their trunks shrunk and in the Elise's inside pocket and in their evening clothes, they were ready for dinner. They didn't dare get a room at the Cauldron. Just in case that Kira will let them stay with her. They were ready except for the fact that they were six hours early.
"I'm hungry," Elise whined as she pulled on Nott's sleeves.
"Of course, you are," he replied as he scanned the Leaky Cauldron.
At that Elise pouted as she stared up at him. Nott just sighed and led them out of the Cauldron and led them to Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley looked similar to how it was in their time but what surprised her the most was Knockturn Alley. In their time, Knockturn Alley was filled with the Dark Arts but here, Knockturn Alley seemed like it hosted the places where the wealthy would peruse to their heart's content.
If Nott was surprised, it didn't show on his face as he led her down to Gringotts. They pulled out their keys as they waited in line behind a group of boys that seemed to be around their age. One of the boys turned around suddenly, taking Elise by surprise.
"Hello Miss, could you tell me if you find my friend here attractive," he asked, jerking his thumb in the direction of a boy who had white blonde hair. Elise realized with a start that this boy was Abraxas Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's grandfather who had bored her to death inside his portrait whenever she visited Malfoy Manor. Nott shifted slightly beside her and the boy stopped grinning at her before looking up at Nott.
Not wanting to start any trouble or disrespect people who were bound to be as old as her grandparents, Elise quickly spoke up.
"Your friend has really nice hair," Elise said, successfully drawing the attention of the group and Nott. "But there is no point in being attractive if you don't have the personality to match."
With that the line moved up and the dark haired boy who had questioned Elise winked at her before blowing her a kiss goodbye. Elise felt her face burn and quickly looked at the ground as they walked to the front of the line and reached the goblin. The goblin took them underground and into their vaults.
There were massive mounds of gold in both vaults and Elise and Nott both filled up their pouches before exiting Gringotts.
"Can we get food now."
At that, Nott ran his fingers through his hair before checking his watch.
"It's one o'clock so we should go and get lunch."
And with that they walked down Diagon Alley arguing about where to eat.
"I want to eat where there are lots of sweets. So, I think we should go to that parlor over there," Nott said pointing to a bright ice cream parlor down the street. At that Elise scowled a little.
"They just serve ice cream there you dimwit," Elise said, smacking Nott's arm. Nott just rubbed his arm and scowled back at her though his silver eyes were gleaming with laughter.
"If you don't mind," a new voice interjected, "why don't you both enjoy a meal with my friends and I?"
Elise looked up and smiled at the boy who was winking at her from the line at Gringotts. Nott didn't seem to be on the same page as her since the gleam in his eyes vanished and he put up his signature tough Slytherin act.
Elise rolled her eyes at Nott and followed the boy. Nott followed behind rather reluctantly and she could feel herself heating up from his stare.
"Are you ever going to introduce yourself," Elise asked the boy as he led her through the street into Knockturn Alley. This seemed to lessen Nott's stare on her as it probably shifted to the boy.
"Pardon me for being so rude. My name is Alphard Black," he said with a grin as he ran a hand through his shoulder length dark hair.
"And we are here," Black said, opening the door to let Elise and Nott in. They walked towards a private room where the rest of the boys were, talking and looking over the menus. As they walked over, everyone looked up at them and stopped talking. Nott pulled out a chair for Elise and pushed her chair in before taking a seat beside her while Black took a seat on her other side.
"Alphard," drawled Abraxas Malfoy as he looks Elise and Nott over, "aren't you going to introduce us to your new… friends?" At this Black avoided Malfoy's eyes as he stared at Elise and Nott, pleading for them to step in as they never got to introducing themselves.
"Please do excuse us," Nott spoke up looking Malfoy directly in the eyes, "My name is Mikhael Petrov and this is Arielle Flauxwood. We are from France and are hoping to attend Hogwarts. And you are?"
Malfoy started introducing everyone around the table. A boy with dark brown hair and brown eyes was introduced to be Rainier Lestrange and the blonde haired, blue eyed boy next to Rainier was Landon Rosier. Next to Landon was a boy with chestnut hair and dark blue eyes named Dorrin Avery. And seated next to Dorrin and an empty chair was a boy that scared Elise. He had dark silvery eyes that looked almost black and dark reddish brown hair. When he was introduced by Malfoy to be Darius Mulciber, the number of teeth he showed Elise when he smiled at her seemed to be double the normal amount.
Sensing that she was uncomfortable, Black put his hands together and clapped before saying that lunch was on him, leading to everyone letting out a small cheer.
Lunch with the Slytherin boys wasn't so bad as Black kept making her laugh with his cringey attempts to flirt with her. Elise made sure to keep her distance from Mulciber and his multiplying teeth throughout the whole lunch and when she and Nott left the others the time was around four o'clock.
"The food was so good," Elise said, patting her stomach. Nott didn't say anything and when she turned to look at him he was staring straight ahead. Black was walking on the other side of Elise and laughed. The other boys were in front of them and they all seemed to be heading towards the Leaky Cauldron.
"Of course, you thought the food was good. How many servings of potatoes did you even get?" With that Elise jabbed Alphard in the stomach and saw Nott scowl slightly at Alphard's comment.
"Alphard," a shrill voice screeched and Elise looked at the little shop near the ice cream parlor that Nott wanted to eat at. Standing in front of the small jewelry shop was a girl who looked to be a few years older than her and two younger boys. The girl and one of the boys looked to be related as they had the same color of icy blue eyes. The other boy had lighter chestnut hair and silver eyes.
Alphard sighed and walked towards the girl but when he got to the boys, he ruffled their hair slightly. Elise stopped and moved to the side to wait for him, Nott following behind her like a shadow.
"What do you want Walburga," Alphard asked the girl with a sigh, shifting from foot to foot, obviously annoyed. Walburga instead glared at him before pushing the two boys towards Alphard.
"Father said that you were to watch Cygnus and Elias. I have to meet Lucretia soon for tea and discuss betrothals." While Walburga continued to chew out Alphard, the boys, Cygnus and Elias had moved towards Elise and Nott.
"Cygnus Black," the blond haired boy with the same sharp blue eyes as Walburga said as he thrust out his hand towards Nott. Nott shook his hand and Elise stared as Walburga left in a flurry of white.
"Mikhael Petrov and this fine lady beside me is Arielle Flauxwood." Elise watched as the gears turned in Cygnus's head as he nodded slightly.
"You both are purebloods from France, aren't you?." Elise nodded her head and there was an awkward pause in the conversation; which, the other younger boy took it to himself to introduce himself as Cygnus had not.
"My name is Elias Nott. I'm going to be in my fifth year while Cygnus is going to be in his fourth." Elise felt Nott stiffen up beside her as his father introduced himself.
"Well," Alphard said interrupting their conversation, "I think it's about time that we part ways. I hope to see you both soon at Hogwarts." And with a peck on her hand and a wink, Alphard left with Cygnus and Elias.