Thank Merlin for the beautiful art of blackmail, because Victor was almost certain Airlia was going to refuse to go along with his plan. Rightfully so, of course, and he would’ve still found some other way to force her into it, but that would’ve meant unnecessarily wasting more precious time.

The portkey trip for Vairi had not been any more pleasant than it had been for Ned and Vianna, and Victor felt grateful he hadn’t had anything heavy for breakfast that morning or else he would’ve probably coughed it all out on Airlia. Taking a brief second to gather himself, Victor looked around the alleyway for any sign of the other couple. Of course, they had already left the alley. Victor just hoped they hadn’t wandered too far away.

Still dragging Airlia along by the wrist, Victor returned to brisk walking, this time out of the alleyway and out onto the square. His blue eyes scanned the area for any sign of Ned or Vianna and, much to his relief, they weren’t very difficult to spot. They were, after all, the only teenagers running around like children throughout the square. Most of the muggles over the age of twelve seemed unamused.

“There they are. C’mon.” Victor began walking in the general direction of the other two kids, oblivious to the strange looks coming from the people walking by, who seemed a little concerned with the carelessness with which the boy dragged along who they could only assume to be his girlfriend.



Vianna beamed as Ned agreed to finding a telephone for her to use. Amazing how something so plain and simple seemed to fascinate the girl almost as much as if they were talking about a Quidditch match. Well, maybe not THAT much, but almost.

When the boy questioned Vianna’s knowledge of phones, the girl replied, “Muggle Studies, of course.” What did he think she was, a first year? By fifth year most students had already begun studying muggle technology.

And then, much to Vianna’s delight, Ned had spotted a phone booth. As the boy asked who she wanted to call, Vianna furrowed her brows. “I don’t know, don’t you have to dial a number? I don’t know any numbers,” she replied as if this was all very obvious. Which it was. Didn’t he realize Vianna liked to just jump into things without making plans or even thinking things through? It was one of the few things she had in common with Vince.

Taking the coins Ned offered, Vianna proceeded to feed them into the phone, giggling to herself as she began to dial a random set of numbers. She flashed the boy a playful grin as the line tone echoed in her ear, patiently waiting for someone on the other line to answer.

So basically Ned Hall had brought Vianna Vincenzi all the way to Muggle London so she could fulfill her dream of prank calling.