Pansy

Damn.

I Didn't have keys to get into the building. It was early morning, about 6, and I was standing outside of the apartment building that we were staying in while in Paris. I had just walked here from Lev's. After we had done the deed, he seemed to want me out of his place pretty bad; he had practically picked up my clothes, shoved them at me and shown me the door. His excuse was that he had to get ready for work, and he said he'd call me later. Well, I'm not gonna hold my breath. Shit, why was this happening to me? Maybe I was overthinking the whole thing.

I took a deep breath and called up to the apartment in the little key-pad near the front door. The phone was answered on the first ring.

"Hello! Pansy?" came a frantic female voice. "What," I snapped back, my usually demeanor returning quickly at the sound of that voice. There were a few muffled sounds on the other end of the line, and I thought they might have been fighting over phone. "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" suddenly came the loud shout of Ginny Weasley. "WE'VE BEEN UP ALL DAMN NIGHT LOOKING FOR YOU, WAITING FOR...WE MUST HAVE CALLED YOU EIGHT HUNDRED FUCKING TIMES!" "Ginny!" came the reproachful cry of Luna.

Someone must have wrestled the phone from Ginny's grip and pressed the star key to let me up. When I reached the door to apartment eight they were all waiting for me. They still had the same clothes on as last night, and looked tired and wore looks of either worry or annoyance. I was immediately bombarded with "Where were yous," "We were so worried," and "Why didn't you answer my phone calls," I waved them all of as I pushed past them up the stairs into the apartment. I was getting a headache and just really wanted to go to bed, "Look, I'm really tired so I'm just going to take a shower and lie down for a while." I said as kindly as possible. My eyes caught Hermione's eyes for a second and I saw genuine worry in them. I scowled as I turned on my heel and took leave of their company.

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Hermione

I laughed as my boyfriend fed me a bite of his pizza, his grey eyes sparkled in response and the corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled. It was just the two of us, having dinner at a crowded little Italian restaurant. Harry, Ginny and Luna were going on the Batobus and then taking a walk up Champs Elysee at night when it was all lit up. Pansy was out again with her butcher friend. "What do you think Blaise would think of this place?" I asked Draco when I had finished my mouthful of pizza. Blaise was a close friend of Draco's who was working as a lifeguard this summer before going to UCLA Berkeley in the fall. Draco looked around thoughtfully before turning to me and replying "Intimate atmosphere, with plenty of vino flowing, good food, the waiter doesn't speak a word of English...or French for that matter; this is a place that my dear bosom companion, Blaise Zabini, would enjoy very much." Draco delivered this in a silky smooth voice and with the famous Malfoy smirk on his lips. I smiled at him and felt his fingers on my leg under the table. I looked directly at me boyfriend, and arched an eyebrow at him as his hand continued to move up my thigh. Draco grinned at me and removed his hand. "Soon," he said to me, looking around the restaurant "Don't worry, we'll do that soon." he finally added with a smirk. I scowled, "As if I was worried." I replied saucily.

Before we had finished our dinners a waiter had come and taken our orders for dessert; just as these desserts were arriving, two tiramisus, a stout, middle-aged aged man was seated at the little bistro table next to ours. He appeared to be wearing too many clothes for such fine weather, and, overall, just looked very out of place. I surveyed this individual while Draco started to eat his tiramisu (if there is one thing you can say about teenage boys, it's that they are always hungry). The man placed a ratty looking briefcase on the floor, that was so full that papers were sticking out of it, and fixed his glasses to a more comfortable position on the bridge of his nose. The man noticed my staring and I turned my attention back to my dessert, my cheeks growing warm. Draco raised an eyebrow at me from across the table, and my blush deepened.

After dessert we got a couple of coffees, and my thoughts turned to Pansy. "I feel kind of bad that we let Pansy go out with Lev alone." I said to Draco. "We've been out with them for four nights. We all met his friends, saw where he lives, hung out with him...he seems fine; I wouldn't worry about it." he hesitated before he added "Too much," Draco took my hand that was resting on the table into his and gently caressed it "Besides, we needed some time alone." I nodded in agreement, but I still felt sort of bad.

The bespectacled man at the table next to ours had been shooting us occasional furtive glances. I felt sort of bad for him; he was the only person sitting alone at a table in the crowded restaurant. The waiter had brought him a small bottle of wine and poured him a glass, and now the man was fiddling with his briefcase. His stubby fingers seemed almost clumsy as he handled the case, and quite suddenly (to him, it seemed, anyway) the case opened and papers slid out onto the floor, some even landing under mine and Draco's table. "Excuse me; I'm very sorry." he said in an embarrassed voice. He had a slight north-western European accent; but spoke English very well. I quickly gathered up some papers near my feet and noticed Draco doing the same. The man continued to heartily apologize. "It's quite all right." I said kindly to the man, smiling and handing back a handful of his papers. He apologized to both of us again, but Draco reassured him that it was fine. "You are too kind." he told us, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his forefinger. "I'm Draco, and this is Hermione." Draco said gesturing to me. The man stuck out his hand to shake "My name is Eldred, Eldred Worple," he said shaking Draco's hand, and then mine, bowing his head slightly at me. "It's a pleasure to meet you," I hesitated: "Would you like to sit with us?" Even I surprised myself with that, but Draco masked any emotion he might have felt and immediately offered to pull up a chair.

"-actually, that's why I'm in Paris; researching for my new biography." Eldred had turned out to be quite the talker, despite of his sheepy disposition earlier. "Have you written biographies before, or is this your first?" asked Draco. "Oh, yes! I have have written seven other biographies, but I expect this one will be my big break. All my others have been of people in the Amsterdam and Brussels areas: nobody very interesting really; artists, a famous musician… These people were so insignificant that I can't really imagine anyone wanting to read their life story!" 'Then why did you want to write it?' I thought "I made a decision very early on in my career," Eldred continued "That I wouldn't write biographies on people that have about a hundred biographies written about them. I mean, everyone and their brother have written a biography on Dickens and da Vinci; I've read enough about the lives of people that died hundreds of years ago! So, I promised myself to only write about people of my time...the problem is finding these people. But! this one I'm working on now, oh, it's something quite different, quite extraordinary." His eyes glowed, and his cheeks turned rosy as he talked about his new book. "What -or who- is it about; if I may ask." said Draco. "Oh, of course! It's about this charming young man, by the rather unfortunate name of 'Sanguini' -but the name suits him, I suppose. His life story has been quite extensive, but he has changed and made a fresh start for himself in London; that's where I met him, actually." "You said you were in Paris doing research-" I queried. "Oh, yes! You see, Sanguine used to live in Paris and he still has acquaintances here that I wish to speak with to know a little bit more about him. Though I'm worried that his friends here may be a slightly rough crowd, I wouldn't want to get on their bad side." Eldred smiled at this as if he had said something amusing. "I should probably mention at this point that Sanguini is, in fact, a vampire."

"A vampire?" I asked dubiously. Draco raised his eyebrows at me silently as if to say 'Wow, look at the nutter we found.' "Yes, though I understand your reluctancey to believe me; even I wasn't sure at first. But...there is a group -a coven, I believe they call it- here in Paris. As I understand it, they don't don't work, at least not during the day, but usually they have a fake job that they say they work at. Actually," Eldred got out sheet of paper from his momentarily forgotten briefcase, and placed it in front of my on the table. I read the address; it sounded familiar… 'No... it can't be...' I reread the address a couple of times. It was, it really was the same address to an apartment I had been to two nights ago. I pushed the paper over to Draco for him to read it. "That's an old friend of Sanguini's that I intend to speak to." said Eldred. Draco shook his head at me, not recognizing the address. "The party! at Lev's friends' house!" no reaction: "Two nights ago!" I said frantically. Draco's eyes grew big and round "No," he whispered under his breath and grew very pale.

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A.N.: As you all know, these characters do not belong to me (except for the few that I'm making up). All rights belong to J.K. Rowling.