pansy parkinson burst into the room a few mier followed not far behind by luna lovegood. “luna?” hermioh dropped. luhe kneazle ihen hermio popped out of her head whehe pair of them, aure, were overed, head to toe in gold dust. “what is going on?”
&ed a treaty with the wiie fae of devonshire,” parkinson frowned. she wiped a hand over her forehead areak of gold dust aross her skin.
luold you, if you an reah an aord with fae, you an do anything.”
hermio are you doing makiies with faeries? i’ve been waiti an hour! no one’s shown up!”
& it er,” parkinson stated. “and no one said anything about a peae treaty.”
pansy took a breath and remiheir pn ell, mostly.
“it’s going to be okay,” lu her a smile. she held bertie in her arms a her head absehe k pleased with being held so losely t lights on luna’s christmas jumper.
“i dohis!” hermione admonished.
“do you thiher?” pansy frowned. “i’m not sure i’ll ever get the gold dust out of my—”
hermioed, “it is not a good idea fo into a situation without havihe others. there are so many variables!”
&ood outside the hotel waitiime to apparate to haddington. it must have been an iing sight to see: three women in various poorly fitted holiday jumpers, a rge pnt, and a kneazle.
“where is ron? where are harry and drao? where did the soul-ather pnt ome from?” hermione would not stop askiions and shifti from foot to foot.
“who bloody ares,” pansy rolled her eyes.
luna leaned in and aught hermione’s eye. “do you trust ron, “mione? i’m sure he’s following the leads like he’d said.”
hermione sighed. “yes, but—what about harry and drao?”
“unbelievable!” pansy shook her head. “we are in a risis and where have all the men gone?” pansy shrieked. “we dohem. fuk “em.”
igora stramitz didn’t usually elebrate holidays. she found it hard to experiene joy if she still had an open ase, if someoill out there aloed from their loved oainly never worn a holiday jumper, let alone a had fshing lights and moving parts. parkinson and lovegood assured her that it was absolutely o stay in solidarity with the wiie fae, nats as lovegood had alled them.
&ood t at his own blue jumper as it fshed the phrase rowena’s little helper. “tell me again how this is going to work?”
“parkinson and lovegood have bribed the solstie fae with the promise of a christmas e early party iheir help.”
&ner shook his head. “ao wear these beause…?”
igora blihe damhings distiween friend and foe, okay?” she knew how absurd the pn was. she also had worked sixteen other kidnappih ransom drops a as seure about the exhanges as she did now.
the kidnappers had eo hoose a muggle rereatiohe exhah no i magi meant it was easy to detet traps, wards, and other useful mihods of apture. it also meant the kidnappers ould disapparate at any time. igora rised he ministry had ever thought of using fae magi before. although the small reatures were notoriously temperamental, their magi was so ihe natural world that if a regur and even more advahey’d likely he fae were there.
arkinsoo meet at the hora had never imagihe woman would have suh a story to tell. parkinson ended up admitting that there artment le to the ase, so she ouldn’t divulge all of the details. there were still ih the ransom demands, but parkinsora that as loed bertrie, and—oddly—a red kneazle named guihing would be fine.
&hing parkinsohed what igora and felix had seen and heard, so igora had o offer her servies ao help in any way that she ould. she’d never imagi would mean donning a christmas jumper and waiting on the roof of an indle swimming pnal that the wiie fae were loose and terr the kidnappers.
“is this the stra ase you’ve ever worked?” felix asked, rousing igora frhts.
&o him, smirking. she’d worked missing persons a long, lohis might be the stra i memory,” she offered.
a fsh ia her eye. she and felix dropped to their knees ahe edge of the building. the field below was slightly lit by the eletri lights of a muggle parkihey ould make out two groups of hooded figures staher end of the opehen a womaered, “lumos! ”
two figures stood losest to the buildiher fures made their way to the middle of the field. igora’s mouth fell open when she realized ohe four was bertrie zivaapped her on the shoulder ao his wath. when igora looked bak to the field, the figures erf the expeted seurity spells ahe area.
from what she ould tell, bertrie seemed alright. she lung to the side of ohe figures in the field and looked around with wide eyes. the p robably terrified.
pop!
pansy parkinson and luna lovegood, who luthed the re