A/N - This is my first posting on fanfiction.net, so I'm still getting used
to the way things work! I'm writing this with a friend. . . a bit of
personal gratification for both of us, you might say. ;) So it's all for
fun, but please feel free to leave any comments, especially on accuracy in
terms of HP land! I hope you enjoy!
Nancy reddened but didn't respond. Jenni knew perfectly well that she'd been trying to get over that muggle linguist for years, she thought with a yawn, no need to start a whole conversation about him. Besides, she only remembered bits and pieces of language stuff. Shooting a nervous look towards the newspaperman, who was now gesticulating angrily at some very tall red headed wizard dressed in rather flashy muggle clothes, she muttered to Jenni, "You think we gave him enough money?"
"Yeah, I'm sure we did." Jenni sighed in exasperation at Nancy's worried voice. "He's probably just angry at us because we look like tourists."
Jenni glanced up; she'd made it to the fourth page, and still had not made any headway into discovering the name of the team. She followed Nancy's finger across the street to the newsstand, and met a pair of narrowed, startling light blue eyes. Quickly looking away, Jenni thrust the newspaper up in front of her face, feeling oddly embarrassed.
Nancy didn't notice the moment, and was still watching him curiously. "Huh, long red hair, doesn't LOOK Romanian. With those clothes, he wouldn't look out of place in New York! Ooooh, Jenni, he's coming over here. Maybe we finally found someone who speaks some English!" Reaching over to tap her friend on the shoulder, she found the paper in the way.
"Jenni? What on earth are you doing behind. . ."
"SHH! Nancy, you can't go off talking to some strange guy from who knows where." Jenni was speaking in a rather hushed whisper. "I mean, what if he's a serial killer or something?"
Nancy giggled at Jenni's ridiculous accusations. "A serial killer? Have you been reading horror stories again?"
"From out of town are we, ladies?" A smooth low voice neatly interrupted Nancy's question, and she turned to the stranger with a relieved smile. Jenni stayed hidden, staring below the paper at the two large boots that were standing not three feet away from her.
"Yes, yes we are, and quite unprepared as it turns out." Nancy stuck out her hand, "Nancy Gwin, with the Daily Prophet." She noticed his demeanor change slightly when she said that, and wondered at it. He made no move to introduce himself. Shrugging, she continued.
Jenni, meanwhile, was trying to get a good look at the man without catching his rather disturbing eyes again. He was very tall, of that she was sure, because she could see the top of his head over her newspaper. She could also see that his hair was at least slightly longer than normal, making her wrinkle her nose. What was it with guys trying to be cool these days, she thought grumpily, long hair made her think of Snape. Although, he did have red hair. Jenni had a thing for red hair and her lips twitched upward in a semi smile. Lowering the paper slightly she inadvertently gasped when she saw the dangerous looking earring he sported.
Both Nancy and the stranger turned to look at her, and blushing, she pulled the paper up so that neither one could see her face. Nancy rolled her eyes and said, "This is my colleague Jennifer," she winced at the glare that Jenni shot her, even though Jenni hated it, she'd never gotten used to introducing people by their nicknames. " . . .Ferguson. She's been trying to find some references to the Quidditch team in the local paper."
The stranger began to laugh. Jenni dropped the paper, revealing her red face and flashing blue eyes, and with a slightly annoyed voice asked, "And just what is so amusing?"
"Well, nothing really. But maybe," the stranger took the paper and turned it around, "it might help to read it this way." He winked at the two of them, still grinning. He eyed the one holding the paper, Jennifer was it?, noticing that she had a slightly round face and her eyes were a striking blue color.
Jenni glared furiously at the man as Nancy looked over Jenni's shoulder. "Hey, thanks! That does help. Look Jenni!"
Nancy had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at her best friend's expression. How had they never noticed that it was upside down?
Jenni flipped the paper back up to hide her face. Why did he insist on staring at her? Hopefully he would get the hint and go away. Something about him just simply unnerved her. Jenni began to scan the paper with renewed interest again when the stranger interrupted.
"By the way," he offered his hand. "My name is Bill Weasley."
Nancy immediately shook his hand. Jenni, however, only glared harder. "Why are you still here?"
"I thought maybe, you might need help reading the paper?"
Nancy recognized that look in Jenni's eye. This was NOT going well, and Jenni was prepared to take this Bill down a notch or two at any cost. Stepping back to be out of the line of fire if hexes started flying (Jenni was one of the more dangerous angry people she'd ever met, too much imagination) Nancy shivered as a cloud blocked the sun. She glanced up, and was surprised to see that the odd glittery cloud she'd noticed earlier was very large now, and throwing one heck of a shadow. She slanted a look back at the two and crossed her fingers, hoping for rain. THAT would break this up fast enough. And then, maybe she could go get some sleep.
"Just because you were so quick to point out that the paper was upside down, does not mean I want your help. In fact," Jenni continued rather loudly, "I can manage just fine without your help."
Bill was caught off guard. Apparently he had somehow gotten off on the wrong foot. "I only meant. . . I mean. . . my brother works here so I know a little bit of the language."
Jenni threw the paper down into the street. "No. You meant we were helpless girls who didn't know the first thing about being in a foreign country. And you just assumed we wanted some long haired, self centered, egotistical punk who thinks highly of himself to come and point out the fact that we were reading the paper upside down."
Bill began to grin again. He was becoming rather amused at her quick temper. And he rather liked the way the anger made her eyes appear even more blue than normal. He leaned casually against a street pole. "Are you done yet?"
Jenni advanced threateningly on Bill, "No, I am not done yet."
If Jenni realized she stood no chance at all at 5'2 against the towering 6 foot something red head, she didn't let it show.
Picking up the paper that Jenni had thrown to the ground, Nancy looked around for the nearest trash can. This wasn't much use to them anyhow, seeing as the closest they'd come to figuring out the language was turning the paper right side up, and Jenni seemed intent on alienating the only English speaker they'd met thus far. The only thing she saw was across the street, right by the glaring newsman. With a shrug, she started over, and was about halfway there when an earsplitting "Rooooooooooooooowr" froze her in her tracks.
Jenni and Bill both stopped glaring at each other and looked for the source of the sound. They found it, just as Nancy realized her "cloud" was bearing down on her, and had teeth, wings and fire breath. It was very close, and its eyes were oddly mesmerizing, the deepest of blacks with a red flame dancing in their pupils.
Jenni screamed. There was a dragon headed straight for her best friend, and Nancy seemed to have forgotten the old mantra of "run first look later" they'd worked out in school.
"Nancy!" Jenni's first instinct was to run straight for her friend. She was oblivious to the mass of people running the opposite way. Her only thought was to get to Nancy before that dragon did. Dead set on grabbing her by her hair and dragging her to safety, Jenni was furious when she was lifted straight off her feet by Bill Weasley. She pushed furiously against the strong arms that were pulling her away from her friend. "Let me go! Nancy! DRAGON!" Jenni could only scream helplessly as her best friend came to life and tried to run out of harms way.
Nancy was thinking with fascination that she'd never even seen a dragon, let alone one's eyes, when Jenni's scream jolted her back into reality. "DRAGON!" Suddenly realizing the amount of danger she was in, Nancy dashed to the opposite side of the street, and made herself curl up into a protective ball as the dragon crashed headlong into the pavement.
Bill knew that he had no chance of reaching the brown-eyed one, Nancy, before the dragon. Looking behind the huge beast, he saw an entire crew of dragon handlers on their brooms. His eyes widened as he remembered something Charlie had told him about dragons. They didn't fly low. This dragon would only be coming down because they'd stupefied it to the point where it could barely fly. It was going to make quite a crash site. Grabbing the tiny brunette around the waist, he ignored her screamed protests and flying fists. He could at least protect one of them. With a grunt he lifted her into his arms, surprised at how small she really was, and slammed them both up against the wall. He heard the impact of dragon on road and tensed, protecting her with his much larger body as the cobblestones began to fly through the air.
Jenni was well aware of Bill's arms wrapped around her as debris flew everywhere. She winced slightly as she felt rocks hitting them and wondered anxiously if Nancy was okay. She shuddered fearfully, and felt his arms, strong and muscular, tighten around her instinctively.
Nancy reddened but didn't respond. Jenni knew perfectly well that she'd been trying to get over that muggle linguist for years, she thought with a yawn, no need to start a whole conversation about him. Besides, she only remembered bits and pieces of language stuff. Shooting a nervous look towards the newspaperman, who was now gesticulating angrily at some very tall red headed wizard dressed in rather flashy muggle clothes, she muttered to Jenni, "You think we gave him enough money?"
"Yeah, I'm sure we did." Jenni sighed in exasperation at Nancy's worried voice. "He's probably just angry at us because we look like tourists."
Jenni glanced up; she'd made it to the fourth page, and still had not made any headway into discovering the name of the team. She followed Nancy's finger across the street to the newsstand, and met a pair of narrowed, startling light blue eyes. Quickly looking away, Jenni thrust the newspaper up in front of her face, feeling oddly embarrassed.
Nancy didn't notice the moment, and was still watching him curiously. "Huh, long red hair, doesn't LOOK Romanian. With those clothes, he wouldn't look out of place in New York! Ooooh, Jenni, he's coming over here. Maybe we finally found someone who speaks some English!" Reaching over to tap her friend on the shoulder, she found the paper in the way.
"Jenni? What on earth are you doing behind. . ."
"SHH! Nancy, you can't go off talking to some strange guy from who knows where." Jenni was speaking in a rather hushed whisper. "I mean, what if he's a serial killer or something?"
Nancy giggled at Jenni's ridiculous accusations. "A serial killer? Have you been reading horror stories again?"
"From out of town are we, ladies?" A smooth low voice neatly interrupted Nancy's question, and she turned to the stranger with a relieved smile. Jenni stayed hidden, staring below the paper at the two large boots that were standing not three feet away from her.
"Yes, yes we are, and quite unprepared as it turns out." Nancy stuck out her hand, "Nancy Gwin, with the Daily Prophet." She noticed his demeanor change slightly when she said that, and wondered at it. He made no move to introduce himself. Shrugging, she continued.
Jenni, meanwhile, was trying to get a good look at the man without catching his rather disturbing eyes again. He was very tall, of that she was sure, because she could see the top of his head over her newspaper. She could also see that his hair was at least slightly longer than normal, making her wrinkle her nose. What was it with guys trying to be cool these days, she thought grumpily, long hair made her think of Snape. Although, he did have red hair. Jenni had a thing for red hair and her lips twitched upward in a semi smile. Lowering the paper slightly she inadvertently gasped when she saw the dangerous looking earring he sported.
Both Nancy and the stranger turned to look at her, and blushing, she pulled the paper up so that neither one could see her face. Nancy rolled her eyes and said, "This is my colleague Jennifer," she winced at the glare that Jenni shot her, even though Jenni hated it, she'd never gotten used to introducing people by their nicknames. " . . .Ferguson. She's been trying to find some references to the Quidditch team in the local paper."
The stranger began to laugh. Jenni dropped the paper, revealing her red face and flashing blue eyes, and with a slightly annoyed voice asked, "And just what is so amusing?"
"Well, nothing really. But maybe," the stranger took the paper and turned it around, "it might help to read it this way." He winked at the two of them, still grinning. He eyed the one holding the paper, Jennifer was it?, noticing that she had a slightly round face and her eyes were a striking blue color.
Jenni glared furiously at the man as Nancy looked over Jenni's shoulder. "Hey, thanks! That does help. Look Jenni!"
Nancy had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at her best friend's expression. How had they never noticed that it was upside down?
Jenni flipped the paper back up to hide her face. Why did he insist on staring at her? Hopefully he would get the hint and go away. Something about him just simply unnerved her. Jenni began to scan the paper with renewed interest again when the stranger interrupted.
"By the way," he offered his hand. "My name is Bill Weasley."
Nancy immediately shook his hand. Jenni, however, only glared harder. "Why are you still here?"
"I thought maybe, you might need help reading the paper?"
Nancy recognized that look in Jenni's eye. This was NOT going well, and Jenni was prepared to take this Bill down a notch or two at any cost. Stepping back to be out of the line of fire if hexes started flying (Jenni was one of the more dangerous angry people she'd ever met, too much imagination) Nancy shivered as a cloud blocked the sun. She glanced up, and was surprised to see that the odd glittery cloud she'd noticed earlier was very large now, and throwing one heck of a shadow. She slanted a look back at the two and crossed her fingers, hoping for rain. THAT would break this up fast enough. And then, maybe she could go get some sleep.
"Just because you were so quick to point out that the paper was upside down, does not mean I want your help. In fact," Jenni continued rather loudly, "I can manage just fine without your help."
Bill was caught off guard. Apparently he had somehow gotten off on the wrong foot. "I only meant. . . I mean. . . my brother works here so I know a little bit of the language."
Jenni threw the paper down into the street. "No. You meant we were helpless girls who didn't know the first thing about being in a foreign country. And you just assumed we wanted some long haired, self centered, egotistical punk who thinks highly of himself to come and point out the fact that we were reading the paper upside down."
Bill began to grin again. He was becoming rather amused at her quick temper. And he rather liked the way the anger made her eyes appear even more blue than normal. He leaned casually against a street pole. "Are you done yet?"
Jenni advanced threateningly on Bill, "No, I am not done yet."
If Jenni realized she stood no chance at all at 5'2 against the towering 6 foot something red head, she didn't let it show.
Picking up the paper that Jenni had thrown to the ground, Nancy looked around for the nearest trash can. This wasn't much use to them anyhow, seeing as the closest they'd come to figuring out the language was turning the paper right side up, and Jenni seemed intent on alienating the only English speaker they'd met thus far. The only thing she saw was across the street, right by the glaring newsman. With a shrug, she started over, and was about halfway there when an earsplitting "Rooooooooooooooowr" froze her in her tracks.
Jenni and Bill both stopped glaring at each other and looked for the source of the sound. They found it, just as Nancy realized her "cloud" was bearing down on her, and had teeth, wings and fire breath. It was very close, and its eyes were oddly mesmerizing, the deepest of blacks with a red flame dancing in their pupils.
Jenni screamed. There was a dragon headed straight for her best friend, and Nancy seemed to have forgotten the old mantra of "run first look later" they'd worked out in school.
"Nancy!" Jenni's first instinct was to run straight for her friend. She was oblivious to the mass of people running the opposite way. Her only thought was to get to Nancy before that dragon did. Dead set on grabbing her by her hair and dragging her to safety, Jenni was furious when she was lifted straight off her feet by Bill Weasley. She pushed furiously against the strong arms that were pulling her away from her friend. "Let me go! Nancy! DRAGON!" Jenni could only scream helplessly as her best friend came to life and tried to run out of harms way.
Nancy was thinking with fascination that she'd never even seen a dragon, let alone one's eyes, when Jenni's scream jolted her back into reality. "DRAGON!" Suddenly realizing the amount of danger she was in, Nancy dashed to the opposite side of the street, and made herself curl up into a protective ball as the dragon crashed headlong into the pavement.
Bill knew that he had no chance of reaching the brown-eyed one, Nancy, before the dragon. Looking behind the huge beast, he saw an entire crew of dragon handlers on their brooms. His eyes widened as he remembered something Charlie had told him about dragons. They didn't fly low. This dragon would only be coming down because they'd stupefied it to the point where it could barely fly. It was going to make quite a crash site. Grabbing the tiny brunette around the waist, he ignored her screamed protests and flying fists. He could at least protect one of them. With a grunt he lifted her into his arms, surprised at how small she really was, and slammed them both up against the wall. He heard the impact of dragon on road and tensed, protecting her with his much larger body as the cobblestones began to fly through the air.
Jenni was well aware of Bill's arms wrapped around her as debris flew everywhere. She winced slightly as she felt rocks hitting them and wondered anxiously if Nancy was okay. She shuddered fearfully, and felt his arms, strong and muscular, tighten around her instinctively.