Thick as Thieves

It wasn't every day that Trisha Ivanov - no longer just a Bates - found herself out and about. Certainly, her family had their share of cases and she was not sitting about her house al day. Even still, she almost never walked the streets of London. This day was clearly an exception, though, because she glanced down and watched the two pairs of feet walking on either side of her. One belonged to a boy much taller than her, and indeed older than herself. The other set were owned by a fairly quiet girl who was just as much of a Hufflepuff as the boy on her left. While she was fairly disappointed that Caspian wasn't there as well, she understood his need to do things for himself and on his own, especially considering that that they would be required to return to Hogwarts in the fall.

She certainly had missed her friends, and she knew that Caspian had as well. Summer, luckily, was a time for forgetting that the pair of them had gone off two months ago to the school that Keiran Hayes and his wife had set for those displeased with the Ministry's laws. Trisha could only hope that she wouldn't feel strange walking back into the halls where she for so long felt unwelcome. She was set to go into her sixth year, and she was well aware of the fact that this group of friends she had found were the only things that set her right two years ago.

Christian's arm draped over Trisha's shoulders as he tilted his head to look at her. "You okay, doll?" He questioned, eyebrows tugging together in concern. "You've not been listening to my story."

"Sorry, I was just... thinking." Trisha shrugged in return, glancing over to Fiona apologetically. "I didn't mean to interrupt the story."

Christian laughed and let his arm fall back to his side. Shaking his head he just grinned at her. "I hadn't been telling one, Tris. Just wanted to see how long you'd been zoning out on us."

He smiled again as her cheeks lit with embarrassment, Trisha's gaze returning to the sidewalk in front of them. Better to appear focused on where she was headed than what she had accidentally done. "Well, sorry, either way." She replied, her tone only half put out. Turning to look at the stores as they passed, she looked around Fiona and into the window of the closest one. "So, did we actually have a plan today? Or was wandering the idea?"

"Well, I wasn't sure," Christian shrugged, looking to Fiona for an answer. "I could've sworn Ducky said he was heading out as well. You hear from him?"

Finn found herself in the unfamiliar position of keeping conversation going. This was not her territory. It belonged to Alisha, or Ducky, or Nora, or anyone but her. But Tris had been thoughtful, and Finn was not the sort to rouse anyone out of their thoughts, leaving her and Christian to talk of tests, teachers, and other terribly boring school subjects. She did not mind – she enjoyed her friends and liked talking with them. She just did not ever think she had anything of interest to bring to the table. It was not the result of low self esteem (though there was that) but how could she be interesting among her group of firecrackers? What was there to say when Ducky was talking about parties and Nora was talking about pranks? They were all so alive and she was, almost quite literally, the opposite.

She had made sure that their excursion today would not be completely outdoors. Now that summer was approaching, she had to be cautious not to get trapped in direct sunlight for too long. Ducky had assured her that she would not be turning into a pile of dust today, but had given her no other clue as to what they would be doing. If Nora had been able to join, she surely would have known the situation. Finn might feel close to Nora and Ducky separately, but there was nothing to beat the two of them. A fact Finn could never seem to ignore.

Finn smiled kindly at Tris. She felt a bit of a kindred spirit to Tris, even though they were definitely not one of the power friendships of the group. She was one of the quieter of the group so, while their interactions were nowhere on the scale of the others, Finn never felt so odd for falling silent. “No apologies, Tris. I’m sure whatever you were thinking was much more interesting than hearing us go on about Potions essays.” She smiled up at Christian, timid in her attempts for humor. It was definitely another ability out of her normal realm.

And suddenly they were looking to her for answers. Immediately her mind began to overanalyze the meanings of that. They were asking her after Ducky. Was that to mean she was the one, in this particular group, to be most depended on to know the whereabouts of their odd friend? And why? Was there something that made them think they were close? What was it? Why hadn’t she noticed it?

Or maybe it was because she just made a point of sticking close to Nora and Ducky. Yes, that was it.

Still, there were shreds of pride within her as she said, “He should be here. He told me he would be, and he doesn’t usually break a promise. I’m sure if we wait long enough, he’ll-“

HONK!
Finn immediately turned, always the worrier of the group. But there was nothing to worry about. There was Ducky, stopped in the middle of a street, in a car far nicer than anyone could afford. He was grinning like a maniac, as usual.

“Get in, dollop-heads, we’re going on an adventure.”

Finn was usually the one to hesitate. But there was a seat in the front with Ducky. She glanced one way, the other, and then skittered across the seat, hopping into the passenger seat. She looked at her friend with anticipation. His eyebrows darted up and down behind his glassed, but he revealed nothing more. Finn looked forward, biting her lip in anticipation. The worry would come later, surely.

Christian offered Finn a wide smile at her comments, only letting the smile retreat into a more relaxed expression once his fellow Hufflepuff started trying to explain. As if the crazy Gryffindor could hear them wondering after him, Ducky’s voice called out, drawing Christian’s attention. Trisha and Fiona had already turned by the time the eldest of the three managed to look around, and he couldn’t help but frown. Even as Finn rushed forward, he just stared. Tris looked up at him, silent, as if waiting for his opinion on the situation on hand. Usually, he knew, she would’ve turned to Caspian. But he was not there to chide them or choose to go along with it.

The morality compass of one Christian Zabini was flailing a bit, considering he was almost certain Ducky had no access to vehicles – especially one that appeared generically Muggle. While the boy – though he was nearly a man, all things considered – had seen the things before, how was he to know either way? He half hoped he was wrong, and that Ducky had at least taken it from a witch or wizard. But even that didn’t sound quite right in his head. Frowning, he wanted to comment on it, but also didn’t want the car sitting there while they debated the matter. Someone could already be looking for it.

“Go ahead, Tris,” he started, opening the door for her once they reached the car. After she climbed in, he followed and shut the door, passing Ducky a disapproving glance. Trisha folded her hands in her lap and stared at the floor of the vehicle.

“Seriously?” He asked finally, staring between Ducky and Finn. “Did you know about this?” He asked her, eyes wide. “We could get in so much trouble. I didn’t know you even knew how to work these things!”

Christian’s hand rested in the handle of the door, though it became more of a grip than a relaxed gesture the longer he was in the car. While he was fairly used to Ducky getting them into all sorts of messes, this one seemed more dangerous than usual, and he was seriously concerned at that point.

Ducky was grinning widely at her, seemingly a bit surprised that she had been so quick to join him in what seemed to be an obviously dangerous circumstance. "By Jove, Finn-face, you're starting to get interesting." She sneered at him, though a blush rose in her cheeks, and he winked at her. She scoffed and crossed her arms, turning forward. A playful swat connected with her shoulder and she let out another bashful smile, turning in her seat to look for her other friends and to hide the expression that had overtake her features.

She was far more transparent than she wanted to be, sometimes.

The door opened and Christian ushered Tris in, who immediately took a solemn expression and posture. Ducky turned in his seat and his eyes fell upon the Ravenclaw girl, frowning deeply. He reached back and slapped her knee to rouse her. “Tris – we’re not going to a funeral! I promise you! So give us a smile, yeah?” He grinned widely but Finn’s expression was much more meek. She did not want her friends to be upset, but she was not sure Ducky’s boisterous demeanor would bring Tris out of this pensive attitude she had fallen into.

Christian immediately piped up and Finn stuttered out a handful of consonants at him, but did not manage to get any full words out. Ducky spoke up instead. “Oh, please, Christy. When have I ever led you astray? Never, I tell you, in all the years I’ve known you. I’ve only ever had wonderful experiences prepared for you, laying out the essence of life so that you might divulge in its sweet honeys!” He stared at Christian in indignation.

“I didn’t know,” Finn said a bit helplessly.

Christian turned forward in his seat and began working the levers. “Besides, my brother Cain taught me how to drive. I got the car from him, so there’s no worries! We’re free people today!” He began to drive, surprisingly safely, down the road.

Christian shot Trisha an apologetic glance as Ducky sent her a jab. The Hufflepuff knew full well that the jibe was meant teasingly instead of seriously. She looked over in return but her smile didn’t seem very real. “C’mon, doll, I’m not convinced.” Tris rolled her eyes, and Christian immediately knew she was back with them.

It was Christian’s turn to roll his eyes, as was his typical reply when Ducky used the awful nickname he had been given. Used to it, though he was, the seventh year didn’t quite agree with the claim that the Gryffindor had never sent them in the wrong direction. He wasn’t, however, totally against the idea of doing something new. Summer in the Zabini house often meant travel, though lately it had meant boredom. Apollo was so busy with Blaise that the younger twin could hardly find time to try and convince his brother to do something interesting. It had been increasingly difficult to get Apollo to spend any time on anything outside of the family business (which Christian termed ‘being an intolerably boring arse’) and the Hufflepuff found himself searching for time with the Slytherin.

It was extremely odd.

Frankly, it just led to Christian calling up members of their group of friends to find other things to do. Luckily, Ducky had done that for him this time. It meant that he couldn’t be frustrated with the guy in the front seat. “Okay, so you got the car from your brother. Is it his? Or did he find it?” Christian asked, using his fingers to form air quotes around the last two words.

“Look, I’m not condoning the latter, but let’s just go with it, Christian.” Trisha chided lightly, relaxing into her seat and watching the buildings go past. “As far as I can see, we’re safe here. And even if we’re not, you’re of age and can use some spell or other to fix anything that goes wrong.”

“Why do you always have to be right?” He asked, venom missing from his question.

“I don’t have to be. When I’m with you I just am.” She shrugged, her eyes flicking to the front of the car as if she hoped it would draw a reaction from Finn or Ducky.

Christian pursed his lips briefly as he looked at Trisha, but relaxed into his seat with a quiet “hmph.” He gave it a few moments, content to let Tris and anyone else who bothered to wonder after him feel bad about it, before finally asking, “Where are we headed, then?”

Finn knew that if her father knew what she was doing, it would all be over. Her friendships with Ducky and Company would be swiftly ended, probably along with the lives of Ducky and anyone who tried to stop him, and she would be put on house arrest for awhile. She knew her father meant well. She had been raised as a princess, after all, wanting for nothing, save for more company. He wanted her to remain perfect, and not for his own pride, but because he believed her ambition was something that was rooted in her, rather than a conditioned way of being.

And besides, it was not just the perfection of remaining focused and determined to achieve her goals that her father wanted for her. It was safety. He had been explaining for years how dangerous it was for her to be a vampire. How her friends would turn on her, how people would want her dead because she was less of a risk. Then there was the danger of being a teenager, and how her friends would probably be adrenaline junkies just raring to put their lives on the line for the stupidest thing. And how as such a naïve, sweet person she was at risk for being taken advantage of by corrupted minds. And of course, at the tender age of almost-fifteen, boys were always going to be raring to compromise her.

According to her father, she was one of the most at risk youths in the country.

If he were to see her now, ignoring everything he had said, and willingly putting herself into a situation that was obviously a bad idea, he would go ballistic. Insist it was the influence of the heathens in the car and do everything to get back his little girl. So she hoped, for everyone’s sake, that this trip would be short. Besides, what would she say to him? ‘Daddy, you don’t understand, I adore Ducky and can’t stop myself around him?’

Pathetic.

Christian turned questions onto Ducky and Finn turned to look at him, nervously chewing on her lip as she waited for his answer. In response, he merely tipped his head back and roared with laughter. “You’re a riot, Christian.” Finn turned in her seat, real concern flashing onto her expression as she looked to her friends. Tris’ words, though, were reassuring, so she turned back in her seat and settled, swallowing down the anxiety that was always quick to rise inside her, squeezing her hands nervously.

She turned back around at the exchange between the two in the back, rolling her lips awkwardly, not sure whether to laugh or entreat them to settle down. After a moment, she turned back to facing front, deciding she could be of no help. Of course. She let out a long breath when Christian asked Ducky as to their location. She turned her head.

Ducky smiled behind his aviator glasses, looking up into the rearview mirror at his friends. “Anywhere our hearts desire, mate. Shipyard, the park, the country, a lake. What tickles your fancy?”

The question wasn’t answered, which had Trisha lifting an eyebrow, though she hardly dared comment on it. It wouldn’t do anyone any good, of course, if she showed that she was concerned. Christian would just be more wary than he already was, and any chance at fun would be lost. Since meeting these friends, Trisha had decided that being different hardly mattered as much as some people told her it did. That point was further proven by Caspian’s fervent promises to take care of anything that happened. Neither she nor her husband were the sort to actually confront anyone if they didn’t have to, but she supposed it was part of what made them work.

Christian glanced at both girls, trying not to be the deciding person on what would be their fate for the day, it seemed. Before he could put in an opinion, however, Trisha sat forward to rest her hands on either side of Ducky’s chair, leaning around to peer at him. “Let me get this straight. You get a car from your bother, won’t tell us where he found it or got it, and yet all you want to do is… go to a park or a lake? I would’ve thought you wanted to get up to something.”

“It would fit your M.O., mate.” Christian pointed out with a shrug.

“I’m just amazed you don’t have any mischief you wanted our help for.” Trisha continued, brow furrowing from her sheer curiosity. “Are you trying to tell us that our leader in crime is out of ideas?” Offering a teasing scoff, she leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest, watching him in the rear-view mirror.

It was interesting, she would, herself, admit, that Trisha would actually be interested in getting into all manner of mischief. But her summer thus far had involved family jobs and spending time with Caspian - both of which were lovely and comfortable. But after a time, comfortable could become dull if there were no intermittent adventures. Unfortunately, Caspian was busy and could not come along with the group that afternoon. "But really," she added belatedly, "we're not messing with anyone? I'm fine with going to the lake or something, but that's hardly our style, is it?"

Ducky's cheshire cat grin was wide on his face as his mind did some quick thinking. His friends thought he was the great schemer, the sort to wake up one day and decide he wanted to take his friends somewhere, so he would make the arrangements to get wherever it was that he wanted to get them. They just did not seem to realize that the boy never had a destination. Not for their trips and certainly not for himself.

The facts were as simple as this : Ducky would decide he wanted to do something, so he arranged to be around the people with which he would like to spend the adventure. He would do something to get their attention, like arrive in a stolen car, and he was certain the rest would fall into place. No one had seemed to have caught on, though Nora might have suspicious at one point, that their fearless leader did a whole lot less of leading than he did improvising.

He couldn't help it. The journey had always been his favorite part after all.

He peered through his sunglasses at the streets around him. He saw the glint of water off in the distance and he smiled. He turned back to Tris, taking his eyes momentarily off the road. Finn's hands twitched, desperate to seize the wheel - which she finally did, steering for her friend, a look of fear on her face as Ducky regarded his friends that were nice and comfortable in the back seat. He mirrored Tris' expression.

"I'm never out of ideas," he said. Yes, one always came at the last minute. "We're going to a party. On a boat." He turned back, surprised to see Finn was holding the wheel. He gave her a funny look and took control again. "The problem is... we're not exactly invited."

And we need to find a party to crash... On a boat.

Christian looked pretty unimpressed, but Trisha merely smiled at the pair in the front seat. At least she could always trust that Fiona would keep things safe and fairly in line. It settled her to some extent, even as Ducky claimed they were planning to crash a party somewhere. Christian looked a little pleased with this suggestion, though Tris barely caught his expression before he tried to hide it. Nudging his arm with hers, she offered a smile in hopes that he would lighten up. If she and Fiona weren’t complaining, Trisha couldn’t see why Christian of all people would be.

“Where?” She asked finally, leaning to the left so she could lean around Ducky’s chair and look at him as he drove.

Christian, on the left side of the car, had apparently decided to give up the act and accept his fate as part of the group once more, because he actually spoke up as well.

“Bristol? Isn’t it on the water? Bound to be folks out there getting up to something interesting. We head down there sometimes to see friends of the family. It’s a little more expensive than a towns around here, but provided we’re crashing, who cares?”

Shrugging, he leaned back and crossed his arms. Trisha couldn’t imagine, even after a long while being friends with Christian, was it must be like for families to take trips all the time like his seemed to. Then again, she had learned that sometimes it ended up just Christian and his mum, since Apollo and his father were so frequently busy. Rather than saying anything along those lines, Trisha just put in a quiet, “That’d work,” and waited for someone to take the initiative.

Christian supplied Ducky's answers in his questions, which is what Ducky had been hoping for. Between the three other people in the car, he had been certain there would be one who would have at least some inkling of what was in store, and that one of them would speak up about it. Which was good. This way, Ducky did not have to play the whole 'it's a surprise' angle and hope he chanced his way onto a boat party, keeping his friends in the dark to his own ignorance for his own plan. Once he had stolen the car, he had stopped thinking. Now he his plans had caught up to him.

"Yes, Bristol!" Ducky said, smiling widely as he cast a grin around the car, Finn's hands nervously jerking forward to steady the wheel, anxiety coming off of her in waves now. "I heard from a mate of mine about this very posh boat party going on. There should be champagne, little weenies, and older women in cocktail dresses." He turned back round to give Christian a cheeky smile, this time eliciting a small squeak out of Finn that sounded a lot like "Ducky, please!"

He turned back around, leaning back in his feet as he steered. "Yes, I've really outdone..."

He had just stopped. Finn glanced at him, finding this odd, and glanced back at her friends in the backseat, hoping they had some explanation. She looked back to Ducky who was staring straight forward, though the large sunglasses hid his expression. "Ducky?"

Ducky wet his lips. "Okay guys, just... act casual." Finn turned around in her seat and saw it. A police car. The alarms weren't going but it was definitely following them, investigating. Ducky let out a long breath. "Just... casual."