I am still just a rat in a cage
*Though his father may see him as a pathetic free-loader, there are important favours Barty offers his friend in exchange for his rent. It isn't exactly like prostitution. In fact, it's more like the opposite. Like anti-prostitution. A loyal cock-blocking service.
This is how Barty finds himself at Victoria's mansion. He's just endured approximately four hours of sitting strategically inbetween Victoria and Regulus - a human shield. All four of these hours consisted of Barty yearning vaguely for the more traditional duties of a shield. Some killing curses. Muggle bullets. Something, anything that wasn't listening to their stiff exchanges, looking back and forth as he does so, as though watching the world's slowest ping pong match, held between two wooden planks with no ball and no winner.
Mercifully, Victoria's finally let them loose, and Barty charges happily down gilded corridors and tapestried hallways as they try and let themselves out. It's then that something about the labyrinth sparks a revelation. He turns to his Regulus, eyes wide.*
Do you think she's Minoan? A Minoan vampire. Thousands of years old. Maybe we should have bought string. And a sword. My shield duties don't extend to minotaurs, Reg. Just so you're aware.
This is how Barty finds himself at Victoria's mansion. He's just endured approximately four hours of sitting strategically inbetween Victoria and Regulus - a human shield. All four of these hours consisted of Barty yearning vaguely for the more traditional duties of a shield. Some killing curses. Muggle bullets. Something, anything that wasn't listening to their stiff exchanges, looking back and forth as he does so, as though watching the world's slowest ping pong match, held between two wooden planks with no ball and no winner.
Mercifully, Victoria's finally let them loose, and Barty charges happily down gilded corridors and tapestried hallways as they try and let themselves out. It's then that something about the labyrinth sparks a revelation. He turns to his Regulus, eyes wide.*
Do you think she's Minoan? A Minoan vampire. Thousands of years old. Maybe we should have bought string. And a sword. My shield duties don't extend to minotaurs, Reg. Just so you're aware.