sweet emotion

Rolling up her sleeves, and trying not to wince in the process, Rosa confidently made her way over to the shop, stopping dead in her tracks. Raising her wand in front, she quietly walked inside. “Hello?”

At that moment, a short, wiry haired man appeared from the back room balancing a stack of boxes in the air beside him with his wand. “Check this place out,” Fabian mumbled to Rosa.

Without a second thought, Fabian jogged over to the man, spending only a couple of minutes with him before doubling back to Rosa. “They fired him,” Fabian said in a near whisper. “Shop’s going under. The threat of lawsuits, the articles--- ‘S been bad for business, I guess,” he said, looking around. “Find anything of interest?”

It was like an itch she couldn’t scratch. She didn’t believe Gerald Troy had anything to do with this. It was too obvious for it to be a reaction, the ingredients of the lotion too simple to cause such an effect on so many people. But she’d been given these instructions to investigate him, and she was determined to get to the bottom of this. He might even be able to give them a lead.  “Prewett –”

“You ready to go?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” It had become something of an unofficial motto throughout his short lifetime. Fabian was happy to help where he could when he was called on---whether work, the Order... Being ready had nothing to do with it. Sometimes, things simply had to be done, and that was that. “Where’s the shop at again?”

As soon as Mundungus saw Fabian’s reaction, a smug smile painted itself on his lips. He was always too proud of his charms. “Another day,” he agreed, with a nod. “For now: drinks, drinks, drinks… we have twenty more to go. Have any other wishes for your birthday? Dancing? Rollerskating? Flying on a broom naked?” He shrugged. “No judging.” 

“Oh, Merlin,” Fabian said, running his hands across his face. “Anything but getting naked. That’s my one and only request.”

“Maybe noise isn’t what I was focused on either.” Which is why Amelia Bones was relatively relaxed. She thought she’d be hiding broomsticks from drunks ready to take flight out third story windows. Mixing muggles and magic had been concern number one and, unbelievably so, that had gone smoothly, apart from the suspected serum spiking to one Dawn Withey. She’d follow up on that at a later time. “You throw an alright party, Prewett.”

“Hindsight’s--- What’s the phrase? Ten outta ten?” He’d remember noise next time, certainly. For his first major party in a Muggle flat, though? Fabian didn’t want to toot his own horn, but he thought it had gone swimmingly. Even the likes of Lucius Malfoy had stopped by. “I’m glad you had a good time at least Guess this means I’ll be throwing more soon, yeah? If Improper Use or sommat doesn’t get wind of all this.”

And just in the nick of time, according to his watch. Fabian adjusted the band around his wrist and grabbed his things. Within just minutes he was walking through the door of the Hopping Pot, eager to start making the rounds. “Happy birthday to me,” he said to himself as he took a seat at the bar. “I’ll have one of-- Whatever that is, one of those, yeah.”

Narcissa was about to make a snarky comment and insult the whole ordeal, but then she bit her tongue and thought for a moment. “You know, strange enough I think I did end up having a bit of fun. At least now I can also say that I had been to a party broken up by enforcers… Evens if it was muggle cops.” She gave a smile, halfway between kind and goofy. “I believe I have you to thank for it all? By the time the word got to me it was buggled up quite a bit.”

It was bizarre, standing here with Narcissa Black in his flat. Fabian hadn’t mingled with her much during their years at Hogwarts, despite being in the same year. He’d never have imagined her here. But now--- Well, he knew Narcissa had two sisters, and each had a reputation that preceded them. Perhaps he had suspected least the one she was most like.

“Don’t mention it. These things happen all the time. With less---havoc,” he added quickly.

“Hmm,” Mundungus looked around, eyes luckily sharp despite the drinks he had had so far. “No, no, no, oh wait! There!” he pointed to the outside of one of the bar, “I see two. We could… borrow them.”

That wasn’t exactly what Fabian had, had in mind when he’d brought up the brooms, but now, upon further inspection, he wasn’t really sure that he’d had anything in mind at all. In fact, he was certain now that he hadn’t, except for the want of his legs to stop and save their energy for dancing later that night.

“Alright,” he relented, shifting the guilt from his shoulders a little more easily thanks to the lager. “But they’re comin’ right back, Fletch, you hear?” Sprinting ahead, he lifted the broom from the ground and took off. It took him a few moments to balance properly -- it had been years since he’d flown properly sober, let alone drunk -- but once he did, he let out a whoop.

“Bless your owner, chap,” Fabian said loudly to the broom. “Guess you could say you’ve left ‘em for a spell. But I don’t mind, ‘cause with you I find I’m always feeling well...”

“Precisely. And please, don’t stop. You can’t let down the whole country,” Carolyn joked, shaking slowly her head, “can you?”

“Well, I can, and I have,” Fabian quipped, “just not in this capacity. And furthermore, I shan’t!”

Carolyn nodded at Fabian’s reply, smiling back at him. “And what crowd. A great party, really,” she pointed out. “And this is good,” she said, talking about the drink. “Well, decent, not too bad,” she corrected herself, joking. “Too many compliments might go to your head.” 

“Sure, gotta keep me humble,” Fabian agreed. “I mean, what would be the point of throwing another party if I peaked with this one, yeah?”

Still not a charity case.

Thank you. 

“Don’t mention it.”

Fabian wanted to ask about the Ministry, but he didn’t want to be a pest. Being so far removed from the place while so many of his friends were there--- He felt like he was missing something important. But he wouldn’t say so aloud.

“So...”

“Oi,” Carolyn said back, her smile widening. “Did you have any doubt?” She wouldn’t be surprised if he did. She actually expected everyone to doubt she’d show up instead of shamefully hide away. 

“You are really good at this,” Carolyn complimented Fabian as she watched him prepare her drink. “Do I want to know what it is?” she joked as she studied it with a playful wary eye before taking a careful sip. “Hmm?”

“That you’d show up? Nah,” Fabian lied, shaking his head. “That I’d be able to find you in this mess of a crowd? Yeah, absolutely.” He cocked an eyebrow at Carolyn. “That depends. D’you want more, or d’you want to avoid it? Guess you’d like to know either way, actually...” he added quietly as an afterthought.

“I’m not saying which or if either! You’ve just gotta wait for it brother mine.” Gideon gave Fabian a mischievous look before stepping close and slinging an arm over the other’s shoulders. “So what do you want to do for your birthday anyway? Pub night? Party? Dinner?”

“Well, that’s all of the fun of it, isn’t it? The anticipation?” Fabian shook his head. “Dunno yet. I haven’t given it much thought. Maybe a Quidditch match? If things’ve settled down by then, of course, and if the Cannons are even still playing by that point in the season.”

Carolyn looked like she was enjoying herself—and she wanted people to believe that. The song was almost over and she went looking for refreshment. Swaying lively, she crossed the room with a bright smile on her face as she nonchalantly ignored all the stares and all the whispers. 

“Make way, or hand me a drink.”

“Oi, you made it!”

Admittedly, Fabian was concerned about Carolyn, given the way things had been going for her lately---and that was just from what he’d been picking up from the news. He knew tonight could be a well deserved break, but also could just easily turn into a disaster. He threw together another drink quickly, with ease. Better him than someone else. He hated to think that way, but better safe than sorry.

“Stuff,” Carolyn repeated, letting out a soft sigh, her smile faltering for just a moment. Then she nodded knowingly when Fabian mentioned adulthood stuff. “Yeah. It’s like a curse. An unbreakable one,” she added, a little joking note in her voice. 

“That’s great! And yes, totally.” She smiled brightly. “And jokes aside, let me know if I can help.” 

“Jokes aside is no way to live, Wilkes,” Fabian chuckled, patting Carolyn gently on the shoulder. “I will, though. Whatever it takes for a night like you’re thinking of.”

Lucius had a very good a idea. Lucius had a square box around his waist. Lucius had no underwear. And Lucius… had an ache in his knees. 

“I can’t sit.”

The night had been full of surprises, but perhaps the most surprising surprise of all was that Lucius Malfoy wasn’t the most surprising attendee at all. “The costume’s brilliant, though,” Fabian said as he filled his cup.

Dawn hadn’t wanted to come, especially after Florence had told her where the party was being held. But she hadn’t had much choice to say no once Florence practically forced her into the matching dresses she’d made them out of old tinsel. But she had a full day of work the next morning, followed by training that night. The last thing she needed to be doing was sitting in a room of drunk people, even if they were her friends, in an itchy dress. With a glass of juice in hand, Dawn found her eyes wandering to the clock, wondering when she’d be able to go home. 

Fabian had expected a few surprising faces to appear in his flat that night -- both familiar and strange -- but Dawn Withey’s hadn’t been one of them. Brief as their romance had been, and as good of terms as he liked to pretend they had ended on, turning around to find she’d come to the party -- that she was sitting there, not two yards away -- was a shock he hadn’t been prepared for. Hoping she hadn’t seen him, he turned away immediately, fighting his way through the crowd to the other side of the room.

“What did I get myself into?”

“Er--- Nothing good, it looks like,” Fabian apologized quietly. The visit from the Muggle cops had mostly sobered him up, but he was still tipsier than he wanted to admit. He smiled sheepishly at Narcissa. “I hope you were at least having fun before it ended.”