Paying off a Debt

Danny ate in silence for the most part, his mind wandering about in the silence. Seemed like she didn't want to talk much, or at least didn't know what to talk about. It just felt like the atmosphere had changed all of a sudden, going from a mild rivalship to something else. He had no clue what it had been, but hey, free dinner. An average dinner, but hey, nothing else could really compare to the fish and chips at the Leaky Cauldron.

So the time went, seeming like hours when it had only been about ten minutes. Danny had finished his plate and waited silently, not sure as to what to say. He needed to come up with some joke or something to help clear the mysterious air right now. After another 30 seconds of thinking, he smiled, an idea popping into his head. "Hey, if you want," he said "I saw a small lake nearby that was teeming with ducks, we could go there and throw rocks at them if you want." he wondered if she would enjoy that, she seemed to be the sort to want to do things like that.

Though silence was rather awkward, she enjoyed eating quietly. And ignoring everything and everyone that surrounded them, she was able to fix all of her attention on the food, something so glorious and tasty. Her salad was with tasty chicken and nice, cold sauce. She picked on her half eaten white bread and when she was finished, she drank all of her juice. Then, before looking at Danny, she proceeded to look around and examine all the other visitors.
Everyone were older than they and for a moment there she thought that she had actually picked the wrong restaurant, but on the other hand, she liked it there. It was quiet and solid and the service was also nice.

Again, it was Danny who broke the silence with his suggestion. She smiled brightly. At least they had something to do! But throwing pebbles at the ducks didn't sound so good. She was sadistic indeed but towards humans not animals. In fact, she would never-ever hurt anyone who wasn't able to defend themselves. And those pretty little birds were helpless against their evil plans. „I'll just take some of those,“ she said, taking three little buns, smiling at herself. „And feed those to them. You can throw rocks at them, though.“ She gave off a simple shrug. Whatever he wished to do.
Then she waved to the waitress, giving her a sign that they were done eating and were ready to pay for their dinner.

To say that Danny was shocked was almost an understatement. Here was Miseria, willing to torture him and possibly even murder him if she had the chance, saying she didn't want to harm an animal. He couldn't help but smile at the realization that she still had some humanity inside of her. He nodded his head and chuckled a little, thinking he was about to see a softer side of her, possibly the only part that didn't want to kill him or anyone else. That'd be enjoyable, sure.

The waitress returned a moment later and set a small black checkbook on the table, Danny looking at it. His first instinct was to pay for it, but remembered the deal she had promised him of her paying for it. "Y'know what," he said, pulling out his wallet "I'll just pay for it. I don't really mind either way." He pulled out the necessary funds from his wallet, jabbing the cash inside the small black book and wrote on the napkin next to him 'Keep the change'. He didn't want to be in that kind of atmosphere anymore, it just felt a little awkward for the both of them. Pushing himself up from his seat, he did a quick stretch of his back in an unnoticeable way and looked back at Miseria. "I'll show you the way," he said, proceeding out of the restaurant.

He walked outside into the cool air, his face contorted into a yawn. He was just glad to be out of that place and into some fresh air, away from any onlookers of their shenanigans. Well Miseria did a good job of making herself known in the place, he wondered if she'd be the center of conversations for a while. At any rate, he continued across the street and walked down two blocks, checking over his shoulder every now and then to make sure she was following. Everything seemed fine so far, their silence overshadowed by the sound of passing cars and people chattering in the background.

Once they reached their destination, Danny realized it was really only a small pond and not a lake, the pond looking like a small lake from a distance. "Well...there's water," he said out loud, a grin on his face "and there's duck, so I guess we made it." Ehh, this wasn't too bad. He walked towards the edge of the pond and sat down, realizing that no one else was here. It was sad to see no one else enjoyed this time of night, it was a pretty calm sight to see. Ducks swimming casually and the water listing lazily behind them. "Well, you can throw your bread now if you want," he said with a smile to Miseria.

Her eyes followed the waitress all the time. She was drumming with her fingernails against the table. She even went too far by painting those light pink as well to fit the costume, but in the evening she had forgotten about those.
When the waitress finally arrived, she took out her purse and then looked up at Danny, frowning at him. It was her duty to pay for the dinner this evening. In fact, he seemed to be rather excited about the free food thought. Miseria started bluntly at him with little disappointment in her eyes but as she saw that he actually meant it, she sighed quietly. „That doesn't the dept is off,“ she warned him, putting her purse back into her handbag.

She stood up and followed him. When they finally were outside, Miseria felt much better. It was as if the pressure itself flew away from her heart and shoulders. She looked back inside the restaurant to see waitresses cleaning the table after them and removing the candles. „Wait up,“ she said when he started walking. It was uneasy for her to run after Danny when her stomach was still full of salad. She grabbed his arm, trying to make him slow down a bit. With little effort, she was finally walking right next to him.
As for the restaurant and her new reputation as total weirdo or a diva, she didn't bother thinking about that. They were muggles and they'd never bizarrness of a wizard.

When they finally reached the 'lake', Miseria was slightly surprised. She let go of Danny's arm and looked at the little pond. She looked at Danny with raised eyebrows, not sure if he was joking or not. But it looked like he was also quite surprised by the view. Miseria shrug off another awkwardness and she took out the buns from her bag and started breaking one of the into pieces. She offered one to Danny too before heading off to the pond. As she threw first piece of white bread into the water, all the ducks gathered there in a second, asking for more.

Danny sat on the grass near the water, just glad to be outside for a while. He only wore a semi-formal style clothing, so he didn't care much if the dirt got on his shirt or his pants, he never cared for proper appearances anyway. He held the small roll of bread in his hand, taking off a little piece to feed himself, and then another to throw at the ducks. They were more than likely going to be lethargic by the end of the night, if they had enough bread pieces to do so. He watched for a moment as Miseria threw a bread piece into the water, still surprised by her action. Despite his own initial sense of astonishment about her actions, he figured it was typical. Most humans hated each other, but not animals. Animals never stabbed you in the back or slept with your wife, they would only just waddle by or try and eat you. At least they were direct about killing you anyway.

He looked out towards the water again, the moon giving it a reflective property, making the medium sized pond look brighter in the darkness as the blackness surrounded it's perimeter. It wasn't the same as the Great Lake, at least there you wouldn't hear passing cars or see someone get stabbed in a dark alleyway for some cash. He shifted himself on the grass, placing one leg outwards with the other coiled up in front of him, both of his hands flat on the ground as a support to lean upon. "It's a nice night out," he said, breaking the momentary silence "one of the better nights in my opinion." He didn't know what to say directly to Miseria, his mind still hazy at that point. The night had turned out better than what he had initially expected, he was even a little surprised she hadn't tried to kill him yet.

He repositioned himself so he was slouching forward, his eyes still on the lake, but then he looked up towards the moon. You figured with all the magic the wizarding community had, they would be up there already. Sad thought really. He looked back down and his eyes locked upon the water again. "Have wizards ever gone to the moon?" he asked, mainly out of curiosity.

There was a simple reason why Miseria disagreed in throwing rocks at the ducks. Animals were harmless creatures who had nothing to do with their problems, or int his case, Miseria's needs for violence and torture.
Humans, on the other hand, made everything so special in this occasion. They were able to defend themselves from harm, and yet some of them actually gave in to all of this and allowed everything to happen with them. Miseria hated such people, but then again, she was no different. She was also weak, sometimes even weaker than allowed.
She sat down on the soft grass, figuring that even if her clothes would get dirty, that wouldn't matter at all. Darknes surrounded them and who would actually bother to notice something like that?

For a second she looked at Danny to see what he was doing. He had made himself quite comfortable there. He even took the advantage of the given white bread that was actually meant for the ducks, not him. But she didn't bother to fill him with her sarcastic remarks. Instead, she took another bun and tore it appart and threw it to the hungry birds who were rallying against each other for the last piece. Just like humans only they were like parasites, and those birds – they were basically nothing next to them, only a short term lifeform.

Miseria was unsure wether to thank Danny for breaking the silence or no. She looked at him again and bit her lip, unable to answer to his remark. Night was nice, indeed, not cold or too warm, something neutral and perfect for Miseria. With the last white bread fed to the ducks, she looked up at the moon and shrugged her shoulders:“I guess so. I mean with all the magic that we got and the things that have been done in the past then going to the moon must be simple.“ For those who had brains enough to figure out how to go there and survive in the space. Going there already took a lot of time. From what she heard, muggles used spaceship called Apollo 11 to go to the moon and it took them over three days to arrive there. She lay down on the grass and put hands under her head to make herself a bit more comfortable. Ducks were still swimming near them in hopes to get some more treats, but Mis had nothing to give them anymore. „Would you go to the moon?“ She asked, eyes still fixed on the silver moon.

Danny turned his gaze over to Miseria again, her question interesting. He looked down towards his feet in thought, an audible hum coming from his lips. "Well, I can't say I wouldn't," he said "I mean, it is just another part of us that we haven't really explored yet. I guess I would, but it's not like I can apparate there. Apparation could only go so far....not to mention you had to have previously visited that area before you could warp yourself there. He wished he had been there in the past though, it would've been a great place to just sit down and throw some rocks at Earth. It'd burn up in the atmosphere anyway, it's not like anyone would care.

He moved himself a little so he was sitting next to Miseria, just so he could hear her better, since it was hard to listen to someone who had been projecting their voice outwards. He bent his knees upward into the air and leaned more of his body forward, his eyes still out on the water. "It's funny how we can sit out here like we're 16 again," he said with a smile, his eyes going back towards Miseria "and just talk about the moon." Strangely enough, Miseria even looked different in the moonlight. He didn't see someone who had just threatened to torture him, he saw someone else right now. Maybe it was the food hitting his system hard or something. "You look different tonight," he said with a smile "besides the whole wearing pink thing...uhh...y'know." He quickly turned his head back towards the water.

Apparation, obviously, was out of question. But they had magics, and they were able to build a whole spaceship if only they wanted to! Miseria bit her lip again as her thoughts started to travel towards her fantasy about going to the moon and back. With magic they could not only visit the moon but also Mars and perhaps get near some other planets and at least take a slight look at them. Muggles fantasized about such things; creating life on Mars and sending people to live out there. Although that sounded fascinating, Miseria wouldn't go there. Not yet at least. She had to be guaranteed that it would be safe over there, not from the alien invaders but the safety itself; the food supplies, air, water.

When he moved closer to her, she turned her face at him. He probably didn't hear most of her words as she had the habit of mumbling some of them to herself. His next words made her think about the past again. Her thoughts traced back to place where they met and she grinned. „Kind of. Although I just graduated from Hogwarts, I feel like saying that I miss my childhood.“ By that she meant her schoolyears, so carryless and fun. And though she was a nurse there, she wasn't able to attend the classes or worry about the examinations. All she had to do was to heal those poor little children from their fever or other injuries they got from quidditch. „Moon is nice,“ she replied locking her eyes on the light circle in the dark blue sky.
„Oh?“ She raised her eyebrows at his remark about her appearance. She wore minimal make-up so instead of having black mascara or thick eyeliner framing her big eyes, she had nothing but her natural already long eyelashes. „Is that bad?“

Danny chuckled for a second before shaking his head gently. "No, it's not bad at all," he said, moving his hands over his arched legs "you just uhh...I don't know how to put it." He moved his left hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it momentarily. He was sounding odd it was obvious even to him, and he was a block head most of the time. "I guess you could say you look more...positive." Positive? Good one there, Fitzgerald. He sighed out of his own embarrassment and said "You look good, I guess that's all I'm trying to say."

He paused to recollect his thoughts. The silence only provoked him further to feel more tense, each second feeling worse than the last. Why was he feeling so uncomfortable, he had never felt that way around Miseria. Granted, they had only been talking for a week or so since he first arrived back in England, but still. To quickly try and recover the situation, Danny looked back at Miseria, his gut feeling a little more tense now. "So how is it like being a nurse at Hogwarts?" an easy save, but nevertheless helpful for a situation like this.

Miseria rolled over to her stomach and picked some of the grass and examined it carefully. Danny's mumbling made her smile. He was acting strange or just plain weird. Weirder than she did in that restaurant with all her torturing stuff. His next words about her looking positive made her laugh. Color of her clothes obviously added some effect on the 'mood'. „Thank you, I guess?“ Usually people never noticed her being positive or miserable, she never told anyone or never allowed such emotions to escape from herself. „Oh,“ she raised her eyebrows again and dropped the grass. Then she looked at Danny, smirking at him. „Are you alright, Danny? I mean with all the compliments that you give me, there must be something wrong. Should I send you flying towards the lake so that we will have the old Danny back?“

As much as she saw in the darkness, she was now certain that Danny was unsure of what to do or say. His emotiones were tense. Miseria, on the other hand, felt quite normal. Silence didn't bother her, it helped her to collect her thoughts and then carefully choose her words. Her former question about sending him into the pond was a joke to ease his emotions.
„Hm, I don't know that yet, but I hope it won't be that difficult to work there...“ Once she almost drowned and that scared the hell out of the hospital staff. That was when Khaat worked there. She was mourning her parents so bad that the only thing that she found to fix her pain was a suicide. Now, thinking about it, she didn't know how to feel; to be sad that she was still alive or enjoy life as much as possible. „But I will contact you as soon as possible when I will get my first student. That aside, what are your plans?“