A deadly affair

Inside the Leaky Cauldron one evening, Danny sat at the bar area, his body slouched forward and his hand wrapped around a mug of firewhiskey. After his last display with the beverage, he had nearly choked himself to death, the intense liquid nearly burning out his larynx. He really needed that, so he decided to take it easy with the drinks this time. He drank a sip from the mug, his throat feeling the usual burning sensation, something he had gotten used to at this point. He set the mug back down on the bar and kept his head positioned on wood counter.

"Something wrong Danny?" the barkeep asked, wiping down one of the used mugs with a rag.

He looked up from the wood counter and smiled. "Yeah Tom, I'm just a little hungover and hoping to get drunk again."

Tom laughed "Well, take it easy this time, you don't want to burn out your insides or anything like that."

Danny raised his glass "If I ever decide to do that, I'll know who to come to. Cheers." He took another sip of his drink, taking a little more than the last. He set the mug back down on the counter and sighed. He would look for a place tomorrow to stay for a while, just to allow Tom one of his rooms again. He was nice to Danny because he had worked there in the past, it seemed like Tom was the only follow he actually knew there. All of a sudden, Danny felt his stumble rumble, the sound barely being audible to anyone else. Damn, he was hungry.

"Hey Tom, could you whip up one of those fish and chips?" Danny asked with a smile.

"Yeah, sure kid, I'll be back in a moment," Tom said with a nod, leaving the bar now.

Well, at least he'd have some food for his thought.

There were times when Zara both loved and hated The Leaky Cauldron, when she was up for more of a challenge in her job, she went there to pick up guys, sometimes when she didn't try to kill anyone and just needed to get laid, she went there, but today.. Zara was in the mood for blood. Striding into the bar, Zara looked around.

She was wearing a simple purple traveling cloak, deep in color, and very graceful about her thin shoulders, Besides that she wore simple muggle clothes, jeans and a tank top under her cloak. She looked pretty normal, her long dark hair pulled back into a high ponytail, her makeup simple and clean, nothing too extraordinary about her, except that she was a stunning beauty in a room full of rather gruff looking people.

Zara went over to the bar and ordered a bottle of Fire Whiskey, which was served to her promptly and she undid the top and brought the mouth of the bottle to her lips in a simple motion, bringing it back and swallowing a gulp, before setting it down and making a face as it burned down her throat. "Shit.." She whispered to herself and ran her fingers through her hair.

Danny hadn't been paying attention much when the woman had entered the pub, but he definitely took notice when she snatched the whole damn bottle of firewhiskey. Danny had been reaching for the bottle to pour a little more when the woman had grabbed it. Taking noticed, Danny turned his head to the women and was downright surprised to see her chug a shot directly from the bottle. Damn. She wasn't that bad looking either, possibly the best looking person in the place right now.

"Can't get drunk fast enough?" he remarked to the woman, reaching back down and grabbing his mug.

He looked away from the woman and looked back down at his mug, taking a quick sip, setting it back down as quickly as he picked it up. Where the hell was Tom anyway? If he saw some random chick chugging bottles, he wouldn't be sure as to how he'd react. Probably pissed, probably impressed...maybe both. Danny couldn't lie and say he wasn't impressed either.

"I take it you come here often?" he asked, not moving his glance back to the woman.

Zara glanced over towards the man who spoke to her after she had set the bottle down. She let the fire burn down her throat for a second before responding, her voice a bit more hoarse than usual. "Drunk is exactly what I'm aiming for." She said lifting the bottle back up to her lips and taking another swig, gasping and half slamming the bottle back down as it burned down her throat, causing her eyes to water and making her cough a couple of times.

"I don't exactly come here often, but I get drunk often enough, and with this sh*t as well. "She said smirking, as she eyed the bottle again, contemplating another burning round down her throat before deciding to take it easy. She didn't want to get TOO drunk already anyway. She slowly turned to look at the guy, and froze short. The man was quite the handsome devil. Her face lit up in a lopsided smile, and she brushed her hair away from her face, grinning. "Sorry, where are my manners? My name is Katie Goss." She said, making a name up on the fly, and holding her hand out to shake his.

Judging by how the woman reacted to the sight of Danny, she must've thought he was pretty attractive. He wasn't that great of a face reader, but she made it pretty damn obvious. He decided he would use that towards his advantage though. He turned his body towards the woman though, slouching forward a little, almost barely noticeable. He gripped his fingers around his glass again and took another swig of his whiskey, his throat burning a little bit in the process.

"Thompson. Danny Thompson," he said, reaching out and shaking her hand. The name Katie Gloss didn't seem quite right for some reason in his mind, but he didn't care. The entire wizarding world had weird as hell names, who's to say she couldn't have one either. "So Katie," he said, a smirk on his face "you seem to be one of the better looking people here...can't imagine you'd be in a place like this."

"Come on Danny," Tom said out of nowhere, setting his plate next to him. "Oh calm down Tom." Danny replied, rolling his eyes. "Whatever man, just remember who's giving ya free whiskey..." With that, Tom walked away. In a way, he sorta helped Danny. He looked back towards Katie and said "Old friend of mine...we go a long way back."

Zara eyed him as he eyed her, and she could smell the potential attraction there, the sexual tension between them was small, but there, she only had to pick at it. "It's a nice place.. good for a girl to get lost in with no real difficulty, as other women pass through here on their way into the street." She said lightly, lifting the bottle to her lips again and swallowing another gulp of the liquid. She slammed it back down and let her eyes water for a moment before swallowing and clearing her throat.

She looked up as the bartender spoke to Danny, before she moved a bit closer to him and smiled at him warmly. "Friends in good places or bad hm?" She asked, batting her eyes at him, by this point she was already pretty well towards looking drunk, she had swallowed like, a quarter of the bottle already as it was. However Zara had always been able to hold her alcohol well, and barely felt anything by it, but she acted like she did. "So Danny..." She said drawing his name out to hear the syllables better before nodding. "What brings YOU, to a place like this?"

Zara was slightly worried however, if Danny was friends with the barkeep, well he'd remember Zara, and he'd quickly be missing Danny if something were to happen. She'd have to see how it went, but she wasn't sure if she'd be able to actually kill this man, least she could do was take his money though. She just had to get him upstairs.

"Sounds like me and you are similar then," he said, a slight smile on his face forming as he took another sip from his mug. She seemed to be very aloof in way, seemed like she was almost hiding something. Yet she imposed herself upon that bottle of firewhiskey quite well, so Danny ignored that possibility. He was too interested to really care. He was still amazed by the fact she could down so much firewhiskey in one sitting, half of the damn thing seemed to be gone! "Seems like you waste no time trying to impress someone around here," he said

"I guess you could say I'm a regular here," he said, shrugging his shoulders up and down. He even worked here in the past, but everyone had either died from that mysterious disease or had been replaced. What a wonderful time they all lived in, that was for sure. He downed another shot of his mug this time getting a little more used to the burning sensation in his throat as he began to answer her next question. "I often come here to escape, but now, I'm just trying to enjoy myself any way possible, whether it be from the classy individuals that roam this place, or the beautiful women." He checked out her once more, his mind completely set on what he wanted. And he wasn't going to just let himself lose a catch like this.