The Search Is Over

Chapter 119

Dora agreed to travel with Kreacher and Regulus. The three of them were gone for over two and a half months. They spent much of their time in Switzerland where many bohemian lifestyle type wizards tended to gather in the bars and inns belonging to magical folk.

Dora's face nearly constantly wore that charming fascinated expression she got when meeting new magical people or learning something new about magic. Regulus hoped to use this time of meeting so many new and interesting people to continue research on some particular topics of interest, but unfortunately this was not to be so. Simply meeting interesting intelligent people didn't mean they knew secrets of how the elves were bound as slaves to wizards or anything he didn't already know about the Peverell brothers.

Still getting out, and encountering a variety of different and interesting people was nice. Just because they were different and interesting didn't mean he or Kreacher made any long lasting connections, though. Both tended to require more than that for such connections. Most of the close friends or relations Regulus and Kreacher formed in their lives were with others who also had few friends. From Severus to Blaise to the Lestranges, this was so. Kereston and Gellert were the more social exceptions, though Gellert claimed to be an introvert by nature nonetheless.

For her part, though, Dora was more interested in longer lasting connections on this vacation. Though she was generally even more anti-social than Regulus, she found herself a debonair Swiss wizard named Fisnik to...befriend.

He was a head taller than Regulus with wide shoulders, blazing green eyes and a long blonde mane of curls. While he and Dora double dated with Regulus and Kreacher a few times, both couples did enjoy many nights of romantic alone time, so there was a nice balance.

Though Regulus had never seen it in action, Dora had mentioned keeping the company of other gentlemen before. As a result, he dared not hope she would be over Marius for good even if she currently appeared to have herself a Swiss Mr. Vampires lived a long time, and relationships ebbed and flowed, leaving plenty of time to be burned by old flames. Kreacher dared to hope, though, quite vocally to Regulus's amusement and Dora's embarrassment.

When they left Switzerland for Germany, they invited Fisnik to come along, which he was glad to do. He wasn't one of those lay-about wizards with far too much money and no job, but his job didn't take up much of his time. He was a transporter...of wizards. He made a great deal of money providing apparating services to drunk wizards, or any other wizards who were uncomfortable with apparating themselves. Regulus and Kreacher were surprised to learn of how many of those existed.

"It's a phobia, often because they are taught in school the dangers of what can happen when apparating is not done properly," Fisnik explained.

"This phobia, of course, causes them to overlook the fact that this is why we are always taught to do it properly, but phobias aren't logical."

"They likely doubt their ability to manage it properly for whatever reason," Regulus mused.

"We have a good friend who is very much interested in Muggle psychology," he explained almost apologetically.

Fisnik and Dora laughed but Kreacher's expression was thoughtfully distracted.

"Does Kreacher feel a horror story coming on," Fisnik teased and Kreacher nodded.

"Kreacher does. He was picturing a group of people apparating together, and it goes all wrong!"

He leaned forward eagerly. They sat in a bar while Fisnik had dinner, and the ambiance was warm and companionable.

"When they arrive at their destination, everyone's body parts are switched around. They keep apparating in an attempt to fix things, but in the end they will all become one huge creature that can never separate!"