𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐎𝐮𝐭 {𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲}

| 𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐋𝐄 | 𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯

"My husband has been dead for four years, Mr. Atwood," she said flatly, her expression lifeless as she blinked at him, unamused.

"Oh, Merlin, Rose, I am so, terribly sorry!" gasped Lorcan, placing a palm on his chest. Then, leaning even closer, whispered in a hushed tone- "Are you looking? At all?" Rose narrowed her eyes at him, but he was unfazed, now stretching his whole torso over the tabletop. "I heard Astroford is going to be there."

She seem to perk up at the mention of that name, only slightly. Lorcan barrelled on. "With your stunning silver hair, and that dress? I mean, you only live once, darling."

With a sigh and roll of her eyes, Rose then turned to me. "Name?"

"Pansy Atwood." The name was out of my mouth before Lorcan could answer for me.

"Pansy?" Rose echoed, scrutinising me now. I held my smile, my cheeks straining with effort. She looked down to scratch something down on a card before giving it to me. ENTRANCE PASS, it read. "Throw it in that box on your way out," she said, jerking her thumb in the direction of a large brown box on the side of the counter before waving us away. "Oh, and Mr. Atwood?" We turned. "Don't call me darling ever again."

Lorcan gave her a sheepish wave and we hurried away, ducking out of her sight and losing ourselves in the horde of other officials milling about.

"Wife?" I hissed at him once we were out of earshot. "You said I was supposed to be family!"

"Wife is family. And the thought of marrying me can't be that bad!"

"Lorcan, I swear to Godric-" I began, but he tightened his fingers around mine. "You know, you really need to lighten up. It's not like Rose was solemnising our marriage!"

"And what about the bloody party you have gone and invited us to?" I whispered as scathingly as I could.

"Don't worry, old Rose has the memory of a troll," he said serenely. "She'll forget about it soon enough. Give it a few minutes."

I groaned. For someone nicknamed "The Laugh", he certainly was a walking joke, and not a very funny one at that.

We were approaching the lifts. I hesitated for a moment but Lorcan pulled me ahead. "Now, remember," he said in a low voice. "You're my wife. You might want to start acting like it. Hey, Mrs. Zephaniah! How's it going?" He greeted the middle-aged witch that had just gotten onto the lift with us.

"Alright, and you, love?"

"Great. Fantastic. This is my wife, Pansy. Pansy, Mrs. Zephaniah from the Pest Advisory Board."

"Lovely to meet you." I squeaked as I shook her hand. This was a disaster. It had not even been fifteen minutes and I was already cracking under the pressure. But could you blame me? I was a fish out of water. My blue dress turned heads, sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the sea of severe black robes. I ran through the plan once more in my head to distract myself.

Lorcan would help me get in, and I was to stay in the bathroom until everyone had left for the day while he feigned having to work overtime. Then we would break into Rutherford's office and look at Angel's file.

I had thought the plan rather clever. After the Second Wizarding War, the Ministry had quadrupled its security measures. Dozens of spells and charms had been cast over the entire building, and they had replaced regular security wizards with Aurors.

By masquerading as Lorcan's family, it would not have been too conspicuous. And by hiding in the bathrooms until everyone had gone, we technically would not be breaking into anywhere.