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Right, no, of course she wouldn't. Any remaining shred of confidence and swagger Octavius had previously had concerning his costume withered away into nothing.

"English Gobstones… guy, he's not really," Octavius fidgeted uncomfortably, trying to reconcile the leftover adrenaline from what very well could have been a near-death situation to currently wishing he had dressed snazzier. "Had a lot of his Chocolate Frog card, so I thought—"

Octavius wasn't entirely sure what he thought, or at least what he thought he could admit to Rose in order to seem even a modicum as cool as he might have appeared to her when they had been dating, or friends, or dating, when the sound of footsteps approaching from around the hedge caused him to start.

Fearing the worst, that it may well be another Boggart, or some other monstrous creature of the same ilk, Octavius, not thinking, seized Rose's hand and began to haul him behind her when the most horrible sound echoed into the ominous, dark night.

"BEURK!"

An aggrieved spat of unintelligible garble followed the exclamation, and then:, "Rose, I cannot reach my wand, you must—cette substance gluante what is the word, this—sleem, it has—"

Octavius froze in the midst of brandishing his wand yet bracing himself from an attack, finding himself staring at a monstrosity walking towards him that both struck fear in his heart yet caused him to wonder about several things. Since when could he see Thestrals? Secondly, since when did Thestrals speak in a—french, was it?—accent, and thirdly, why was Rose on speaking terms with a French spectre of death?

But as the skeletal horse drew closer, Octavius realised a hood of some sort, or an enchantment, was pushed aside and a head of shocky blonde hair revealed itself, until—

"Oh." Trying not to blanch, Octavius dropped Rose's hand as if it were a hot coal and made to step far, far away. "I didn't—know it was him—you, I didn't—know."

Axebanger Brookstanton, looking nearly as deadly as death itself in spite of the dull green goop staining the entire left side of his body, stared at him in mild confusion before turning his annoyingly smoldering yet somehow beseeching look on Rose. "You must help me," he said.

Not even a please. Octavius tried not to gape, or stare, or yell loudly and tear at his hair, but it was a trial. Could this possibly be the worst night of his life? Were the Fates conspiring to absolutely ruin him? WAS ROSE HERE WITH AXEBANGER BROOKSTANTON?

…Were they— Octavius had to swallow air thrice to be able to say the words even to himself. Were they here together?