Marauders - Always - Part One

CLXXXI: The Three Broomsticks

Oliver rushed back to the inn after spending the afternoon with Cedric Diggory. They'd talked about the triangulation method that James Potter had once talked with him about, ages and ages ago it seemed, and all Oliver wanted was a moment to catch his breath. Any time he talked about James Potter, those old feelings of helplessness returned and Oliver felt a pain somewhere in his guts that he only knew one way to numb... and he needed a distraction. Pronto.

Wally Grant was supposed to be coming to see him, to be that distraction. But when Oliver was approaching the inn, his eyes traversed up to the window that was his, overlooking the square, hoping to see a light illuminating the closed window curtains but there was no glow, the window was just as dark as it had been when he'd left - and the room behind it just as empty, he knew already. He stopped his hurried walking, slowing to a stop at the side of the fountain in the square, and lowered himself onto a bench, staring up at the window with that pain in his stomach gnawing deeper.

He could see himself going on into the inn, nodding to the witch or wizard at the concierge, and climbing the stairs. Heavy footsteps that echoed off empty walls, the sound of the key hitting the stout little table by the door where he would drop it before going in to the dark loneliness inside. He didn't want to believe he'd do it, but he knew better than to believe he wouldn't - there was a bottle of pills wrapped up tight in his socks in the very bottom of his suitcase. An emergency stash. He'd go and he'd get just a half of one. Just a small hit, a small bit of peace to tie him over. To make things at least a little alright.

But they wouldn't be alright. He knew that. He knew the pill wouldn't really help, wouldn't really mend anything, only make him feel worse, make him feel like a failure.

Where the hell was Wally?

Oliver was stirred from the whirling blackness of the thoughts clouding his brain by a nudge against his knee and he looked down to see a black dog sitting not even a foot away. He stared at the dog. The dog stared back.

"Shoo," Oliver said, waving his hand. He'd never been a dog person.

The dog barked instead of shooing, making Oliver jump in surprise at the sharp sound. He'd never had a dog around him much - he'd only had a turtle as a house pet and what little bit of experience he had with dogs he hadn't much enjoyed. They tended to be loud beasts with nasty smelling breath and a constant desire to lick one's face with a slimy tongue - a sensation 
Oliver hated. Even now, the dog was staring up at him with a lolling tongue as Oliver stared back in bewilderment.

Oliver stood up and skirted around the dog carefully, avoiding touching it - it looked unwashed and there was no telling what sort of diseases it was carrying, or fleas for that matter - but he wasn't in the market for anymore headaches than he already had, thank you very much. But as he walked away down the road, away from the inn and the temptation of the pills that sat in the sock in his suitcase, the dog followed him. 

"No, no," Oliver said, impatiently, "Shoo... off you go..." but the dog simply barked again each time.

Oliver looked about for some way to escape the dog, and he hurried into the Three Broomsticks, figuring the dog wouldn't be able to follow him into the pub and in the time it took him to get himself a pint or two of Rosmerta's mead, the dog would have gotten bored and gone to find someone else to threaten.

The Broomsticks was packed. A wizarding band called the Expelliarmen were playing, a rock band reminiscent of Nirvana, their music was loud and the singer's voice coarse, rising in screams now and then. Oliver wasn't a huge fan of the grunge rock scene - he was much more into the old pop stuff that had been big when he was a teen and early twenties - but he had to admit the Expelliarmen were pretty good, especially for a wizard band, which were fairly notorious for being on the lower end of the quality scale. (After all, why bother stopping at the wizarding world if you were big enough to actually make the scene?)