Hide and Seek

Chapter 1

 ICE HEIST: SUSPECTS APPREHENDED

A daring bid to rob Gringotts bank was spectacularly foiled after suspects inadvertently crossed paths with none other than our own hero and Britain's most eligible bachelor, Harry James Potter. The incident occurred yesterday afternoon around lunchtime, when several would-be robbers attempted to ransack the premises by wandpoint. The five accused attacked the goblin guards before demanding an unspecified sum of money from one of the bankers. Unfortunately for the hapless criminals, Harry Potter happened to be in attendance at the bank on personal business. Potter, a man who lets his actions speak for him, immediately leapt into action, casting an ingenious ice charm on all of the suspects, literally freezing them in their tracks, before any blood was shed. The Aurors arrived soon afterwards to chisel the suspects free from the ice and take them into custody.

When asked afterwards how he felt about the shocking and traumatic incident, Potter's eyes glistened with the ghosts of his past and he said, "Why don't you bugger off and pester someone else? I want to eat my lunch in peace."

Harry Potter remains a man who speaks little but to the point, a person of action rather than words. But beneath his rough exterior and boorish manner lies a tender soul, wounded by countless battle scars and a lifetime of loneliness. Who could possibly fill the chasm that is the heart of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived? A man who has given so much to the world but has yet to find love of any real significance—

"Draco, darling," said Pansy suddenly, "if you're planning on spending the whole evening reading the newspaper instead of talking to me, I'll just be heading home."

Draco looked up from the newspaper to find Pansy staring at him, a pencil-thin eyebrow raised. He folded the newspaper in half and discarded it onto the empty chair next to him.

"Honestly, the way that the Prophet bangs on about how wonderful he is, you'd think they were his bloody PR team," he grumbled.

"Who?"

Draco drew her an incensed look. "Potter, of course! Who else?"

"Oh, yes. Quite," Pansy replied unenthusiastically, running a long painted fingernail down the drinks menu. "What are you having? I think I'll try a Martini Francaise..."

Draco sighed and snatched the other drinks menu off of the table. "I don't like anything on here."

Pansy frowned. "What are you on about? They've got half a dozen brands of whiskey on here for you to choose from."

"Yes, but they don't have Ogden's," he whined. "That's the only one that I like."

Pansy groaned and slammed her menu onto the table. "Well, I'm not the one that insisted on coming to a Muggle-run establishment for drinks."

"I only suggested this place because nowhere else will serve us," he shot back. "And if any wizard-run bar did serve us, there's a high likelihood that they would have tampered with our drinks."

"Yes, well whose fault is that?" Pansy drawled as she waved over a waitress.

Draco opened his mouth to argue that she could hardly blame the entirety of the Second Wizarding War on him, but quickly closed it when a petite Muggle with mousy brown hair approached their table.

"Are you guys ready to order drinks?" she asked brightly.

"Yes, I'll have a Martini Francaise," Pansy replied, accenting the words in her best imitation of French. "And my friend here will have a Cock Sucking Cowboy."

"Pansy!"

"It's only a drink, darling," she assured him before adding in a mock whisper to the waitress, "Although, he could do with a real one, too. You don't happen to have any hidden behind the bar, do you?"