Ch 19
Marcus’s old, blue VW rattled along the urban roads of Dublin. It amazed Agyness how she was in the countryside not more than a few minutes ago, and now she was in an urban locale. “Versatile place, Dublin is,” Marcus remarked with a grin, seeming to read her mind. Agyness clutched her bag to her side tightly. She had brought her wand, just in case. She could feel the outline of it in her small bag, hoping it wouldn’t poke out as she rattled in her seat in the jerky automobile. The muggles would probably think she was carrying around a twig.

Marcus parallel-parked the car in front of a grand theater, elegantly dressed folk already crowding around the ticket booth and the front doors. “Welcome to the Palace,” Marcus smiled as she took in the grandeur of the place. It was so beautiful, she had to stop her jaw from dropping. The marquee read, in large and elegant script, “The Twelfth Night”. Marcus hurried out of the drivers seat and before she knew it, he had opened the passenger door and offered his hand to Agyness. This gesture took Agyness by surprise, and she couldn’t help but blush. “Thank you, good sir,” She grinned puckishly as she took his hand and hopped out of the car. Releasing her hand, Marcus spoke, “Wait here. I need to get you a ticket. Don’t talk to strangers, now.” Agyness laughed as he disappeared into the crowd, fighting his way to the ticket booth.

Agyness pulled her sweater closer around her and smoothed out her shorts. This was the first time she had really been alone since arriving in Dublin, and a chill seemed to reverberate through the air. Agyness would have thought it was caused by dementors, but she hadn’t been consumed by feelings of hopelessness. Just as she began to scan the crowd, just for the chance that the guards of Azkaban might be present, Marcus ran over to her, a triumphant grin on his face and a ticket in his hand. “Had to go through hell and back for that,” Marcus swiped his left hand through his ginger hair and straightened out his jacket. “These city-dwellers, rough crowd.” She laughed at his attempt as humor as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, beginning to lead her through the crowd and into the theater.

Marcus and Agyness took their plush, red seats in the front row. “Nice,” Agyness nodded and looked around. She had gone to plays before, but she had never had front row seats. “Perks of having a sister in the show,” Marcus commented, taking his seat next to her and beginning to scan the crowd. Agyness took a look at Marcus’s clothes and asked, “Was Jes joking when she said to bring a change of clothes? Because if I got dolled up for this and brought some casual clothes for later-“ “Calm it down, Agy,” Marcus was still scanning he crowd, “I don’t live up to my sister’s dress code. Never have. You look beautiful, and you can change into your other clothes later. I prefer to stand out from the ‘elite’,” He gestured to a group of middle-aged people in the row behind them, the women wearing pearls and the men smoking cigars. Agyness couldn’t help but smile at his comforting comment. Suddenly, loud, brash voices roared over the chatter of the crowd, “Marcus! MARCUS! MARC! Over here! Over HERE!!!” Agyness and Marcus both turned. Agyness could faintly spot a crowd of men, some standing, some jumping, all waving and hollering, in the top tier of seats in the back of the theater. “Wh-?” Before Agyness could finish speaking, Marcus turned her away so she faced the stage once again. She turned her head to look at him and saw that his face and ears now matched the color of his hair. “Something I need to know about?” Her eyebrows raised beneath her bangs as she smirked. Marcus shook his head and the lights began to dim, much to his relief. The play was starting.
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Draco was in the security office of King’s Cross Station. It had been all too easy. He had simply apparated into the security room, the lone, tubby guard asleep and snoring in a chair in the corner, his cup of cold black coffee balanced precariously on his lap. Within just a few seconds, Draco had locked the door and stunned the guard, all with a couple of flicks of his wand. The gray hairs of the guard’s mustache were slightly suspended, as he had been in mid-snore as Draco had stunned him. Draco couldn’t help but snicker at this as a smug smile crossed his lips, proud of his handiwork. “Now, onto more important matters,” Draco mumbled as he turned towards the opposite wall, filled with ten different screens showing ten different areas of the train station. Thankfully he had taken a muggle studies class, so he knew how to operate the machinery. He had taken it out of necessity to become an auror, definitely not out of desire.

He examined the scenes on each of the ten screens, showing what was currently happening. He decided to try his luck at the screen that showed the ticket booth. With the press of a few buttons, the video began to rewind. As it rewinded to earlier in the day, he let the tape play, his narrow, gray eyes scanning the screen for any sign of Agyness. A familiar figure crossed the black-and-white screen and he rammed his hand onto the pause button. He zoomed into the frozen scene and saw what he had expected: it was her, all right, foraging through her purse at the front of the booth. A frown crossed his face as he saw her trunk beside her, confirming his premonitions. He released the pause button and let the video play, then froze it quickly again. Her ticket was in her hand, and Draco zoomed in as far as he could to see the location printed on the stub. Much to his dismay, the video camera didn’t have the technology to zoom in quite that far. He slapped the panel on the wall angrily with the palm of his hand, steam almost coming out of his ears as his anger manifested.

“Why are women so complicated?!” He thought as he leaned against the video-paneled wall, trying to hold in his rage. “Why am I even doing this in the first place? She obviously went somewhere, she’ll have to come back to her flat in London sooner or later. Merlin, I’m so mad I could-!” Draco almost crumpled to the cement floor in shock as a silvery mist erupted charged into the room. Draco placed his hand to his chest in shock as the patronus of the silver stag came to a halt. “She’s in Dublin,” The deep, precise voice of Harry Potter emanated from the mouth of the patronus. With those words, the patronus darted off and vanished. Recovering himself, Draco brushed off his black suit and gave way to a smirk. “I’ll have to send him a thank-you owl one of these days,” Draco murmured, grateful for the angel of a stag that had just been present. With the flick of his wand to release the spell on the locked door and the guard, Draco turned on the spot and was gone.

The security guard, just having been woken up, blinked twice and rubbed his eyes, staring at the spot where Draco had been. With one hand, he lifted his styrofoam coffee cup into the air and examined it, “What’s in this stuff?”