When the world stopped spinning he took a moment to collect himself, clamping his good eye closed and shutting himself off from the images from his magical eye. When Alastor felt comfortable enough to look around again without sicking up he realized the memo was gone and a door off to one side was closing.
'Oh, not again, ' was the only thing he had time to think before the room spun around, leaving him completely disoriented.
When everything finally stopped spinning, Moody had to remind himself why he was doing this in the first place. He had to salute them on their security though, even if he knew where he was going he'd have no idea where to go. He'd just have to hope Saul got his message soon or who knew how long he'd have to wait; thankfully it wasn't long.
A door burst open behind him and a man with a face like thunder came barreling through with his wand in hand, his hair and beard streaked with gray.
"Where are you, you son-of-a-bitch!" Saul said as he looked around the circular room.
Alastor moved to one side and gazed with his replacement eye, hoping for every advantage against the Unspeakable he could get if things went south for some reason. Unfortunately, that was also the moment the door Saul came through closed and caused the room to spin again.
'Damnit!' he cried in his head. 'The spinning's worse on the sides. '
"Show yourself, coward," Saul demanded as the room spun. The spinning didn't seem to affect him at all.
With his magical eye Moody saw a wave of misty white emanate from the man's wand, pulsing through the room and bouncing off him to echo back to Saul. Invisibility cloaks could keep you hidden from view but there were always other means of detection, and now Froggy Saul knew vaguely where he was.
"What is this, Lichfield?" the Unspeakable asked as he pointed his wand towards him and kept an eye out for any hint of movement. "Has your time finally run out and you wanted a bit of revenge before you go; only now you can't do it?"
"Not exactly," Moody said.
Finally giving up the illusion that he could fight the man - even if he had to - somewhere where the room itself was an enemy, he stowed his wand and shook his hands out of his sleeves to show he wasn't armed before lowering the hood of his cloak to reveal his face.
"Moo- How do I know you are who you look like?" Saul asked, squinting at him and still not lowering his wand. "And what are you doing down here? How did you know that stupid name?"
"You don't, to see you, and Lichfield told me years ago," Alastor said gruffly. "And since those are the obvious answers anyone could make up from seeing you charge in here, how do you want to handle this? Quiz me on things only I would know when we have never gotten to know each other well? How's that going to work?" he asked, spinning his magical eye around in a not-so-subtle clue the man was being ridiculous. "You got my memo," he continued, "So do you have the time to talk, Froggy, or not?"
"No," Saul replied. "And don't call me that. If it's important, come back tonight; this place is always deserted by then."
"Sure thing, Croaker," Alastor agreed, his magical eye darting around to all the doors around him. "Now how the hell do I get out of here?"
...
The swirling lights from the other fires were rather stupefying, almost as if they were trying to lull you to sleep. That was only if you didn't try to focus on them anyway; if you did, they'd make you sick. Harry thought it better just to close your eyes and avoid the issue entirely; it wasn't as if he didn't have other things he'd rather think about anyway.
The day-trip hadn't ended quite how he would've liked it to. There was the unfortunate turn with Mr. Lovegood towards the end, and apologizing for not asking her first after that - even though she said she understood - so perhaps things just weren't quite right in order to get another one of those kisses on the cheek. It was nice to think Hermione had been building herself up to one though. Still, Harry didn't mind, just thinking of the one from the night before still made him smile.
He might've tried to give one to her instead but that would've been… Well, he didn't know how to describe it. Not unpleasant; Harry was quite sure kissing Hermione would've been rather nice, on the cheek or otherwise. It might've felt more like the hug he got from her instead, the one where her father was watching the entire time; that was uncomfortable. It was the first uncomfortable hug he'd gotten from her, but even then it was nice. It just had him wishing the smiling man would go somewhere else, or at least turn around, because hugging a man's daughter just didn't seem right when he was standing there watching.
The whole thing made him glad the next time they'd be together would be on the train to Hogwarts, where at least that wouldn't be a problem. And when he thought of it, things had gone rather well, at least until the Hopefuls meeting, and Hermione seemed to enjoy herself too. So maybe Fred and George were right, maybe this was a da-
With a lurch and a belch of flame behind him snapping his eyes open, Harry found himself in the Weasleys' kitchen on wobbly legs. Maybe paying a bit more attention while flooing wouldn't go amiss; he didn't want to end up landing on his behind or collapsing as soon as he got where he was going after all. He tried to cover for the slip by using the movement to shake the ash out of his hair rather than dusting himself off, just in case any of the guys had seen it.
"Oh there you are, Harry!" Mrs. W- Molly greeted him cheerfully from the very homey table. She had what looked like several issues of the Daily Prophet around her; she must've finally gotten bored looking through the old notebook of hers.
"I figured once Percy had come through you two wouldn't be far behind," she said with a smile, before her eyes darted back to the fireplace curiously as the moment lingered. "Does Hermione know how to use the floo?" Molly finally asked with growing concern. "Oh dear, she might've come out of the wrong grate. Merlin knows where she'd end up then. Burslem, probably."
.....
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