Ch 25
Pansy had finally pulled Draco onto the street, apparently empty as the muggles had left. But there were two stragglers. Pansy continued to pull Draco towards a certain establishment, The Rock N’ Rolla. Draco tried to slow Pansy’s pace. One of those muggles looked like Weasley or one of his various siblings, with the shock of ginger hair. “Weas-?” Draco had stopped from calling out. The only reason he had meant to call out was to see if Weaselbee had any helpful information for him, but why would Weasley be in Dublin? He should be working at the Ministry, unless he was on an undercover job. Draco averted his eyes to look at ginger’s female companion. At least from the back, she was a right beauty. Maybe that was Granger undercover, having dyed and straightened her hair and dressed a bit more… edgy? As the Granger look-alike stepped into the passenger side of the Weasley look-alike’s car, Draco stopped in his tracks. Not even Pansy could force him to move any longer.

It was Agyness.

Draco stood there dumbly for a second on the sidewalk by the pub, unsure of what to do. Agyness hadn’t seen him; she had been facing the opposite way as she had crossed the street. But when she had gotten into the car, Draco had gotten a chance to get a good look at her. “What are you doing?” Pansy whined, clawing at his arm and trying to pull him towards the pub, “Come ON!” Draco barely even heard her complaints. Once his brain had gone back to functioning, he heard the roar of the old engine as the car started and began to pull out.

Draco sprinted across the wide street towards the car with no regard for any other car that might be zooming down the street. But the old, blue VW had already begun to zoom down the empty street. Quickening his frantic pace, Draco called, “Agyness! AGYNESS!” Neither ginger nor Agyness seemed to see anything in the rearview mirrors or hear his calling; the damned engine was so loud. But the car was too fast for him. As he continued to run, a thought came to him to apparate into the car. But that was dangerous, definitely too dangerous. No way could he apparate into a moving vehicle and no way could he apparate if ginger happened to be a muggle. Probably was, considering he had driven Agyness away instead of using apparation or some other sort of transportation.

As the car turned the corner, Draco stopped at the end of the block and took his hands to his hair, as if to tear it out in frustration. So close, yet so far. His face contorted as if he were about to cry. Unbeknownst to him, Pansy had come jogging down the street after him, her face robotically blank. “Draco, stop acting daft and come ON!” She walked towards him in the center of the street, her traveling cloak billowing behind her as determination overcame her features. Draco slowly turned to face her, a menacing look on his face. “**** the hell off,” He murmured scathingly before turning on the spot and apparating. Pansy stood in the center of the street in shock before turning to look and see if any muggle had witnessed his defiance and her humiliation. Thankfully and as far as she could tell, she was alone on this street.
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The car ride home had been completely silent, with Marcus silently steering the creaky wheel of his car and Agyness leaning against the window pane, pretending to observe the sights of Dublin. When they had finally reached Marcus’s house, Agyness had quickly sprung out of her seat and had begun to help unload Marcus’s equipment. True, the awkwardness had only been caused by their holding of hands, but Agyness wasn’t quite sure if she had wanted to progress that quickly.

Agyness stood at the door, having set the equipment onto the ground and stuffed her hands into the pockets of his jacket. Marcus had caught up with her, having quickly retrieved the rest of the equipment, locked his car, and made his way to the door. Silently handing Agyness the house key, she quickly made to open the wooden door and held it open for Marcus as he waddled inside with his heavy load. As Agyness made to return outside to get the rest of the equipment that was by the door, Marcus held up a hand to stop her as he went to retrieve it. Coming back inside and setting down the last of his things in the living room, Marcus turned to lock the door for the night.

Agyness leaned against his computer desk, the only light in the room coming from the glow of the screensaver on his monitor and the sliver of moonlight coming in through the curtains. Not even Muffin was awake, as she was in the corner of the living room sleeping away, not even having been disturbed by their entrance. “Agy,” Marcus made his way over to her, a guilty expression on his face, “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” “…’S quite alright, Marcus,” She answered softly. Marcus looked from the floor to her face, able to view her expression as a sliver of moonlight filtered through the window and onto her features. “But really, Agy,” Marcus came closer and Agyness couldn’t help but tense up, “You mustn’t lead a lad on like that. I just thought…” As Marcus was at a loss for words, Agyness spoke up, “I’m sorry, Marcus. I didn’t realize-” “Don’t beat yourself up, Agy,” Marcus began, now directly in front of her, “Just blame me, a fool for being in fantasy land.” “You weren’t in fantasy land,” Agyness slowly answered, “I’m just… bad at this sort of thing.” “Well,” Marcus came as close as he could be, “I could always help you out in that arena.” With no answer from Agyness but a slight smile on her face, Marcus cupped her hand under her chin and brought her face to kiss his.

At the last moment, Agyness turned away with Marcus’s kiss simply falling on her cheek. “I-I,” Agyness began, feeling guilty, “I just can’t, Marcus. It’s not right. Trust me, it’s just bad timing on my part.” Pulling away with a smirk, Marcus replied, “Okay, I understand.” Beginning the slow walk to the hallway, Marcus said, “See you in the morning, Agy. Sleep well.”

“You too, Marcus.” And with that, he was off to his bedroom. “Goodnight,” She murmured, knowing that he couldn’t hear her.