(no subject)
Title: Love, Luck, Lust and Loss
Author: apostrophe_ess
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JKR, I merely gain from playing these games in her playground.
Pairing/Character: Minerva McGonagall (aged 21), Tonio Vuela, Nikita Dolohov, and Blanca Ruggerio
Word Count: 3,650
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Following another day of investigations Tonio has a date, while Minerva enjoys a meal in her favourite restaurant.
Author's Notes: A second story for millieweasley's history challenge **here**.
Part: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
Link to part sixteen
Part Fifteen: Chapter Ten, Part II - Frustration
27th November 1946
The rain had started once again when Minerva made her way to the Piazza to meet with Tonio the next morning. It wasn’t the heavy and thunderous rain she’d endured in Parma, but that which she associated more with a storm that would before too long burn itself out. She missed the blue skies that Italy had presented her with each day before she’d returned to Britain earlier in the month. It was as if it was a sign that now she was back the work needed to be effected as quickly and thoroughly as was possible. As if the only way she would return to the life that was waiting so alluringly in Britain was by achieving what had to be done here.
Nikita Dolohov sounded an interesting man. His family had moved to Italy from Russia when Nikita was a boy, his father sourced for his unique abilities with underground work towards one of the Italian Ministry’s newer departments. When the work was over, the records showed, his father requested to remain in Italy as both Nikita and his younger sister had settled into the Italian way of life, had taken to the language and systems of education, and his wife preferred the climate. It suited the Ministry to keep Signor Dolohov where he was. He could be more use to them here. And, by him remaining in Italy the knowledge he gained was kept there too. Obliviating memories that spanned nearly a decade wasn’t a task either easy or relished by those who would have been called to undertake it. It was definitely preferable to keep the Dolohov family within Italy, for all concerned.
The family had been watched quite carefully, all of them, during this time. Nikita’s record at school was well documented within the secret archives of the Ministry, as was that of his sister. The friends they and their parents had made had been, for the first decade, checked meticulously. The family were, despite their name, as Italian as any other they came into contact with by now. Nikita, married in recent years to a witch of half Italian and half French parentage, was due to become a father himself in a few weeks time. Ariane, his wife, was looking forward to becoming a mother and extending the line of the Dolohovs.
Neither Minerva nor Tonio expected to find anything untoward with their interview with him. However, as it happened when Minerva and Tonio reported to the pre-agreed meeting Nikita failed to be at his office on the border side outskirts of the small town of Courmayeur.
Irritated by the locked doors, the shuttered windows, and no sign of life whatsoever, Tonio suggested to Minerva they adjourn to a café for an hour, and return to hopefully find him in post a little later on.
Tonio had told himself in strong terms that he was doing to do nothing today towards his intended capture of Minerva’s heart. He’d not make suggestions either aurally or physically with gestures to lead her to think that his intention was to pursue her. He’d heard it rumoured that she had been brought across from Great Britain, once again, by the same man who had spent the weeks of her induction into the Italy Ministry guarding her on her arrival. Kiely Goodwin - Tonio had taken it upon himself to be appraised of as many details as it was possible to be - had been reluctant to leave her.
Tonio knew that he was considered a play wizard. He’d not set out to be so. That his good looks and easy manner with the witches bought him favours was, in his eyes, a bit of a perk. He had a reputation, there was no denying that, but he liked to think that his reputation was favourable, and not derogatory. From what he heard, and from what he experienced, there were many girls who would enjoy the opportunity to test the strength of the rumours. Not a day went past without an invitation, or two, to enjoy the contours of someone’s mattress.
Blanca Ruggerio was such a witch. She had used all sorts of ploys over the years in her attempts to ensnare Tonio, and it was precisely that which had ensured that she remain free of the knowledge she so craved. Until today. With a sinking feeling in his stomach as he looked across the top of his wide rimmed cup at Minerva, Tonio realised that this very evening he was due to enjoy the company of Signorina Ruggerio firstly over a meal, and then most likely on her doorstep. He was quite determined that he would step no further than her doorstep. No matter what her suggestions, or the weather, or anything, he would not be stepping into her home.
The only reason Tonio had at last succumbed to entertaining Signorina Ruggerio on any type of date whatsoever was that she had made it quite clear she would not pass on any information regarding Minerva’s parting from Kiely Goodwin without a certain amount of encouragement.
With a large sigh Tonio wondered just how far he would be expected to go in providing that encouragement. Would it be enough for the Signorina, and he used the term lightly, to be seen with him? Would his apparent attentiveness in the form of sparkling smiles, and his arm protectively sweeping her through doors be enough? Was she expecting him to embrace her? He supposed he was willing to take part in each, or all, of those encouragements if necessary. If however, he was expected to go further, to lavish his sexual favours upon her he doubted he would be quite so willing. For the first time he could remember, Tonio Vuela was entertaining a lady without any intention of allowing that entertainment turn to his own physical satisfaction.
“That was a large sigh, Tonio,” Minerva observed, sitting back in her seat and looking thoughtfully towards him. “I am sure that Signor Dolohov has a satisfactory explanation.”
“He will be extremely sorry if he has not,” Tonio replied, deliberately ignoring her comment about his sigh. He could hardly explain that the sigh was as a result of his forthcoming date. A date that had, for him, but one purpose, and that being to find out just how serious Minerva and the British wizard were about each other. He knew he could ask Minerva. He’d worked through the conversation in his head, short that it was, several times. However carefully he skirted around the subject he would have to ask a direct question to have any hope of gaining a satisfactory answer, though he doubted he’d be granted an answer of any assistance whatsoever. Minerva McGonagall, he knew, would be far more likely to interrogate him on why exactly he wanted to know.
“Aye,” she replied, her typical Scottish mode of agreement interjected into their conversation of Italian. “It’s not like you to be so down about work matters. It’s one of the things I like, and find easy, about you. You usually bounce back, much like myself, and are ready to move onto the next form of attack. Are you sure that is the only problem?”
“Perhaps a poor night’s sleep, Minerva,” Tonio offered. “Not my usual perky self this morning.” She smiled, he noticed. A smile with a tinge of satisfaction about it followed by a smirk that she was having trouble controlling. “Have you never had trouble sleeping?”
“Oh aye,” Minerva replied. “I know how difficult days can be to get through without the required number of hours.” She was sure she knew just why Tonio had missed his sleep. For a moment she wondered if the witch concerned had reacted as she had to his ministrations, and then as quickly as the thoughts had manifested, she pushed them away again. He was good at sex, there was no doubt about that, but at home she had an excellent lover. As if to prove it her hand found its way to the stone that showed, by a slight protrusion in her top. “I suggest it’s time we attempt once more to meet with Signor Dolohov?”
Tonio nodded and bit back a smile. He’d seen her expression and guessed the thoughts in her head. “Shall I make a full report of tonight’s slumber to you tomorrow?” The look Minerva cast him over her shoulder as she moved towards the doorway of the café told him no!
Nikita Dolohov wasn’t one little bit as Minerva had expected to see him. From the reports of his successful education and the way he’d progressed within the Italian ministry she’d expected a self-assured man. She knew he was close to forty, and that he was due to be a father for the first time very soon. It was perhaps not the most common age to be venturing along that particular path for a man, but it was hardly ancient either. There were cases of wizards at home who fathered second families in their fifties and sixties, much to her mother’s distaste, she remembered with a smile.
Short, stubby, with muddy brown hair and mid brown coloured eyes, Nikita stuttered nervously in his greeting of Minerva and Tonio. His apology for not being at his post at the appointed time was almost embarrassing in its effusiveness and the amount of time the statement took to deliver. His wife, he explained, had called him home with an anticipated emergency. “You know what it’s like,” he’d impressed upon Tonio, “when the missus is going to deliver the first. She’s nervous and you’re frus …” and he giggled, spluttered, coughed and turned to Minerva. “All a false alarm though, luckily. She’s still got a couple of weeks to go.”
“What arrangements do you make,” began Minerva, “for your post being covered if you are called away unexpectedly?”
Nikita’s expression froze for a second and he dropped his gaze towards his feet. “Would you -. Could I get you -. Err, coffee?” Turning towards the kitchen area in the corner of his office, he removed his wand and set out three cups regardless of any answer and then busily set to boiling the kettle.
Minerva looked towards Tonio and raised an eyebrow to be met with a shrug. As if totally in tune with each other they moved to the visitor side of the desk and sat into the two seats that appeared there. “Thank you,” Minerva accepted the offer. “Perhaps you could explain while the kettle boils?”
“What w-w-w-was that?” Nikita asked, looking over his shoulder and presenting something that appeared to be a grimace, but which Minerva felt sure he considered a winning smile.
“We’d just like to know what arrangements you make if you are called away on an emergency and you are expecting someone,” Tonio explained.
“Someone?” Nikita asked nervously. “Like who?”
It was hard to disagree that the man was not only nervous about being interviewed by them, but also extremely anxious about the forthcoming delivery of his wife’s first baby. He gave adequate answers to their questions, and the paperwork he showed them was faultless. That he’d never had to think about emergency procedures for when he was away was probably also true, though it was something that was noted quite carefully for any review the Ministry wished to undertake.
“Well do you think we should recommend a transfer for him?” Tonio asked Minerva later in the day when they were due to part company.
“Temporarily, until his baby is safely delivered and established perhaps.”
“It’ll be Dora’s decision whether to recommend it to his boss. Shall I put it to her?”
“Aye,” Minerva agreed. Looking up the skies were darkening once again, it was possibly they were in for a wet evening. Perhaps one she’d enjoy from a comfortable booth in Oseria L’Infedele with a bottle of her favourite crisp white wine and a plate of creamy sauce covered pasta. If she took her book then she could quite easily spend the whole evening there and while away an hour or two as she did so.
Looking up from the book Minerva noticed someone she’d seen before, quite recently, if she wasn’t much mistaken. The woman, medium height and mousy haired, was dressed up as if on a special night out. Minerva smiled at the over the top style of her spangled robes, low cut at the front and with, if Minerva wasn’t very much mistaken a deep split from her left ankle to above her left knee.
“I am here to meet a friend,” the woman explained to Aldo Demario, the tone of her voice - a little too loud and too bright - telling anyone who happened to be listening, and it was hard not to, that it was an unusual occurrence.
“Would that be a gentleman friend?” Aldo enquired encouragingly, taking her elbow in his hand and steering her towards a table in clear vision of Minerva’s booth should the young lady like some entertainment. Something he was quite sure they’d be afforded during the course of the evening.
“It would,” the woman responded gleefully. “A rather handsome and gorgeous gentleman friend. If everything goes to plan,” she dropped her voice and looked knowingly towards Aldo, “then there will be a healthy tip for you tonight.”
“Aaah, a special night then,” Aldo winked in dramatic fashion. “Perhaps I should have seated you in a booth?”
“Oh no!” the woman responded, her voice once more excitable. “Not at all, not at all. We will be quite comfortable at this charming table. The candlelight, you know …”
Minerva continued to watch over the top of the pages of her book as the woman adjusted her seated position to apparently display her wares to their best advantage. She tried draping the skirts of her robes in different ways, firstly showing the whole of her left leg, right up over her knee, then so only her ankle protruded, then so that her leg up to and including her thigh was slightly exposed. Minerva winced at the sight. Whoever this charming and good looking man was she couldn’t imagine, unless he was severely sight disadvantaged in candlelight that he’d enjoy that particular display.
Satisfied that her robe was arrange to best effect the woman took to perfecting the set of her hair, as she admired herself in the back of a spoon charmed to enlarge her image as a mirror. All of this preening was quickly redundant however when the door opened once more and into the restaurant walked the long anticipated wizard. Tonio.
Minerva resisted making a sound, and lifted the book a little higher in order to block out any sight he might have of her. The way Aldo had seated the woman, whose name hopefully she was about to find out, Tonio would have his back to the booth where Minerva sat right now and she could enjoy the display freely.
“Good evening Blanca,” Tonio acknowledged his date, taking one of her hands in his and raising it very briefly to his lips.
“Handsome as always, Tonio,” the witch replied reluctantly moving her hand away after Tonio had dismissed it. “How has your day been?” As she sat back down her robes fell back into the charmed position she had arranged them in before. Every detail of her appearance had obviously been taken care of with the intention of impressing him.
“Long and tiresome,” Tonio offered. “Long and tiresome.”
“Oh well,” Blanca exclaimed. “You should try a day or two on the borders then you’d know what long and tiresome mean.”
The sickle dropped. Minerva remembered where she’d previously met the witch, just the previous week when she’d returned from home and parted from Kiely. Blanca whatever her name happened to be had brusquely insisted on them parting the instant she had arrived to cross Minerva into Switzerland before Apparating ready to return once more to Italy.
Throughout her meal Minerva enjoyed immensely seeing the woman’s antics in captivating Tonio. She watched as Blanca fluttered her eyelids, arranged her seated position to allow Tonio a free view beyond the neckline of her robe. She watched as Blanca rested her hand on Tonio’s leg, slowly sliding it up his thigh, and she watched when Tonio halted it. Minerva wished she could see his expression at that point, thinking it would be priceless. She had wondered why he was out on a date with such a woman, she was hardly his usual sort, and then, further amused, remembered the rumour that he’d previously enjoyed the attentions of the mother of a daughter he’d romanced. Maybe they weren’t rumours after all?
As she promised Blanca left a healthy tip on the table after loudly proclaiming that Tonio was going to be seeing her safely home, and once again Minerva shrank back into her booth until they left the restaurant. She’d have loved, she thought as she paid her own bill, to have been a Murtlap on the Doormat when Blanca and Tonio arrived at Blanca’s front door.
“Thank you,” Blanca murmured in the deep voice that she’d used when faced with Minerva and Kiely’s embrace.
“You’re welcome,” Tonio answered, his voice not quite conveying the meaning his words would normally contain at such a time. Blanca Ruggerio had proved a little more difficult to prize information from than he’d imagined or hoped. “We must do it again some time.”
“The night isn’t over, Tonio?” Blanca expressed with enthusiasm. “I have some extremely special coffee and a bottle of splendid brandy which I thought …”
“Perhaps next time.”
“Oh no! Surely not.” Blanca fought to hide the panic from her voice that he was not even going to kiss her good night. Ever since she’d been invited out by Tonio Vuela she’d dreamed of a night without sleep, a night where he made mad passionate love to her, a night where he fell under her spell, a night where he realised instantly the next morning he couldn’t live without her any longer. “Just a little one, hmmmm?”
Tonio looked at her hand, stroking his arm and took in a deep breath of consideration. He supposed he should afford the woman the same courtesies he usually did those he’d taken on a date. He should at least kiss her goodnight, even though he’d promised himself he’d not cross the threshold.
“Perhaps,” he smiled, moving his lips slowly towards Blanca’s and brushing them lightly against hers. “Perhaps.” This woman was the epitome of everything he usually tried to avoid. That one negligible kiss, so negligible it almost didn’t happen, was to her like a red rag was to a bull. Her arms slipped up around his neck, she moved close and pressed her body into his, her face was raised and he leant down once more and kissed her.
This time she was not letting him get away with anything but a full blown embrace. One hand moved to tangle in his hair and she parted her lips and teased at his until their tongues met. Tonio kissed her back, almost mechanically, but still a kiss. He slid his own arms around her back and chased her tongue back into her mouth, plundering it with his own.
“Oh Tonio,” she gasped when he moved back and took some air.
Tonio was aware of her pressing her body into him, her hip moving against him. He was sure he knew exactly what she was searching for, and exactly what she was failing to find. A kiss did not always lead to arousal after all, even if the lady seemed to think that instantly he would be showing that particular physical sign. “Slow down,” he suggested and took the hand that was making its way towards that area. “There’s no hurry, is there?”
“We’re on my doorstep, Tonio,” Blanca breathed at him, fluttering her eyelashes once more and adjusting her position to allow him full view behind her deep necked robe if she should wish it. “Shall we -“
She didn’t finish, Tonio silenced her once more with a kiss. Now he was in a quandary. If he did step over the threshold and enjoyed some of the special coffee and brandy he was sure he could manipulate Blanca to give him the information that he needed. He would have to seduce her, of course. Not that she was going to take much in the way of seduction, she seemed quite intent on being the seducer herself after all. He suspected that her own particular brand of pillow talk could be most useful to him. Woman loved to get closer in the rosy after glow of sex, while he gave them every intimation they would soon be experiencing more of the same.
However, he’d promised himself he was not going to follow that path with her. He was only seeing her to withdraw some information about the woman he very much wanted to be intimate with, one who was in every danger of changing his life forever. One who, alone he was sure, could alter his path of Lothario, heartbreaker, stud. Tonio continued to kiss Blanca as the thoughts raged through his head. Tentatively and experimentally he raised one of his own hands and moved it between them letting his thumb slip underneath the fabric of her robe top.
Blanca Ruggerio was older than the usual witch he romanced, that was obvious from the reduced firmness of her flesh under his touch. It was also a good sign. Single older witches were always more grateful after the event also. “Shall we go in?” he asked, allowing his body to react to the circumstance. He’d not stay long, an hour at most - just long enough to encourage the woman to sing. He’d most definitely be sleeping in his own bed tonight. Of that he was sure.
Author: apostrophe_ess
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JKR, I merely gain from playing these games in her playground.
Pairing/Character: Minerva McGonagall (aged 21), Tonio Vuela, Nikita Dolohov, and Blanca Ruggerio
Word Count: 3,650
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Following another day of investigations Tonio has a date, while Minerva enjoys a meal in her favourite restaurant.
Author's Notes: A second story for millieweasley's history challenge **here**.
Part: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.
Link to part sixteen
Part Fifteen: Chapter Ten, Part II - Frustration
27th November 1946
The rain had started once again when Minerva made her way to the Piazza to meet with Tonio the next morning. It wasn’t the heavy and thunderous rain she’d endured in Parma, but that which she associated more with a storm that would before too long burn itself out. She missed the blue skies that Italy had presented her with each day before she’d returned to Britain earlier in the month. It was as if it was a sign that now she was back the work needed to be effected as quickly and thoroughly as was possible. As if the only way she would return to the life that was waiting so alluringly in Britain was by achieving what had to be done here.
Nikita Dolohov sounded an interesting man. His family had moved to Italy from Russia when Nikita was a boy, his father sourced for his unique abilities with underground work towards one of the Italian Ministry’s newer departments. When the work was over, the records showed, his father requested to remain in Italy as both Nikita and his younger sister had settled into the Italian way of life, had taken to the language and systems of education, and his wife preferred the climate. It suited the Ministry to keep Signor Dolohov where he was. He could be more use to them here. And, by him remaining in Italy the knowledge he gained was kept there too. Obliviating memories that spanned nearly a decade wasn’t a task either easy or relished by those who would have been called to undertake it. It was definitely preferable to keep the Dolohov family within Italy, for all concerned.
The family had been watched quite carefully, all of them, during this time. Nikita’s record at school was well documented within the secret archives of the Ministry, as was that of his sister. The friends they and their parents had made had been, for the first decade, checked meticulously. The family were, despite their name, as Italian as any other they came into contact with by now. Nikita, married in recent years to a witch of half Italian and half French parentage, was due to become a father himself in a few weeks time. Ariane, his wife, was looking forward to becoming a mother and extending the line of the Dolohovs.
Neither Minerva nor Tonio expected to find anything untoward with their interview with him. However, as it happened when Minerva and Tonio reported to the pre-agreed meeting Nikita failed to be at his office on the border side outskirts of the small town of Courmayeur.
Irritated by the locked doors, the shuttered windows, and no sign of life whatsoever, Tonio suggested to Minerva they adjourn to a café for an hour, and return to hopefully find him in post a little later on.
Tonio had told himself in strong terms that he was doing to do nothing today towards his intended capture of Minerva’s heart. He’d not make suggestions either aurally or physically with gestures to lead her to think that his intention was to pursue her. He’d heard it rumoured that she had been brought across from Great Britain, once again, by the same man who had spent the weeks of her induction into the Italy Ministry guarding her on her arrival. Kiely Goodwin - Tonio had taken it upon himself to be appraised of as many details as it was possible to be - had been reluctant to leave her.
Tonio knew that he was considered a play wizard. He’d not set out to be so. That his good looks and easy manner with the witches bought him favours was, in his eyes, a bit of a perk. He had a reputation, there was no denying that, but he liked to think that his reputation was favourable, and not derogatory. From what he heard, and from what he experienced, there were many girls who would enjoy the opportunity to test the strength of the rumours. Not a day went past without an invitation, or two, to enjoy the contours of someone’s mattress.
Blanca Ruggerio was such a witch. She had used all sorts of ploys over the years in her attempts to ensnare Tonio, and it was precisely that which had ensured that she remain free of the knowledge she so craved. Until today. With a sinking feeling in his stomach as he looked across the top of his wide rimmed cup at Minerva, Tonio realised that this very evening he was due to enjoy the company of Signorina Ruggerio firstly over a meal, and then most likely on her doorstep. He was quite determined that he would step no further than her doorstep. No matter what her suggestions, or the weather, or anything, he would not be stepping into her home.
The only reason Tonio had at last succumbed to entertaining Signorina Ruggerio on any type of date whatsoever was that she had made it quite clear she would not pass on any information regarding Minerva’s parting from Kiely Goodwin without a certain amount of encouragement.
With a large sigh Tonio wondered just how far he would be expected to go in providing that encouragement. Would it be enough for the Signorina, and he used the term lightly, to be seen with him? Would his apparent attentiveness in the form of sparkling smiles, and his arm protectively sweeping her through doors be enough? Was she expecting him to embrace her? He supposed he was willing to take part in each, or all, of those encouragements if necessary. If however, he was expected to go further, to lavish his sexual favours upon her he doubted he would be quite so willing. For the first time he could remember, Tonio Vuela was entertaining a lady without any intention of allowing that entertainment turn to his own physical satisfaction.
“That was a large sigh, Tonio,” Minerva observed, sitting back in her seat and looking thoughtfully towards him. “I am sure that Signor Dolohov has a satisfactory explanation.”
“He will be extremely sorry if he has not,” Tonio replied, deliberately ignoring her comment about his sigh. He could hardly explain that the sigh was as a result of his forthcoming date. A date that had, for him, but one purpose, and that being to find out just how serious Minerva and the British wizard were about each other. He knew he could ask Minerva. He’d worked through the conversation in his head, short that it was, several times. However carefully he skirted around the subject he would have to ask a direct question to have any hope of gaining a satisfactory answer, though he doubted he’d be granted an answer of any assistance whatsoever. Minerva McGonagall, he knew, would be far more likely to interrogate him on why exactly he wanted to know.
“Aye,” she replied, her typical Scottish mode of agreement interjected into their conversation of Italian. “It’s not like you to be so down about work matters. It’s one of the things I like, and find easy, about you. You usually bounce back, much like myself, and are ready to move onto the next form of attack. Are you sure that is the only problem?”
“Perhaps a poor night’s sleep, Minerva,” Tonio offered. “Not my usual perky self this morning.” She smiled, he noticed. A smile with a tinge of satisfaction about it followed by a smirk that she was having trouble controlling. “Have you never had trouble sleeping?”
“Oh aye,” Minerva replied. “I know how difficult days can be to get through without the required number of hours.” She was sure she knew just why Tonio had missed his sleep. For a moment she wondered if the witch concerned had reacted as she had to his ministrations, and then as quickly as the thoughts had manifested, she pushed them away again. He was good at sex, there was no doubt about that, but at home she had an excellent lover. As if to prove it her hand found its way to the stone that showed, by a slight protrusion in her top. “I suggest it’s time we attempt once more to meet with Signor Dolohov?”
Tonio nodded and bit back a smile. He’d seen her expression and guessed the thoughts in her head. “Shall I make a full report of tonight’s slumber to you tomorrow?” The look Minerva cast him over her shoulder as she moved towards the doorway of the café told him no!
Nikita Dolohov wasn’t one little bit as Minerva had expected to see him. From the reports of his successful education and the way he’d progressed within the Italian ministry she’d expected a self-assured man. She knew he was close to forty, and that he was due to be a father for the first time very soon. It was perhaps not the most common age to be venturing along that particular path for a man, but it was hardly ancient either. There were cases of wizards at home who fathered second families in their fifties and sixties, much to her mother’s distaste, she remembered with a smile.
Short, stubby, with muddy brown hair and mid brown coloured eyes, Nikita stuttered nervously in his greeting of Minerva and Tonio. His apology for not being at his post at the appointed time was almost embarrassing in its effusiveness and the amount of time the statement took to deliver. His wife, he explained, had called him home with an anticipated emergency. “You know what it’s like,” he’d impressed upon Tonio, “when the missus is going to deliver the first. She’s nervous and you’re frus …” and he giggled, spluttered, coughed and turned to Minerva. “All a false alarm though, luckily. She’s still got a couple of weeks to go.”
“What arrangements do you make,” began Minerva, “for your post being covered if you are called away unexpectedly?”
Nikita’s expression froze for a second and he dropped his gaze towards his feet. “Would you -. Could I get you -. Err, coffee?” Turning towards the kitchen area in the corner of his office, he removed his wand and set out three cups regardless of any answer and then busily set to boiling the kettle.
Minerva looked towards Tonio and raised an eyebrow to be met with a shrug. As if totally in tune with each other they moved to the visitor side of the desk and sat into the two seats that appeared there. “Thank you,” Minerva accepted the offer. “Perhaps you could explain while the kettle boils?”
“What w-w-w-was that?” Nikita asked, looking over his shoulder and presenting something that appeared to be a grimace, but which Minerva felt sure he considered a winning smile.
“We’d just like to know what arrangements you make if you are called away on an emergency and you are expecting someone,” Tonio explained.
“Someone?” Nikita asked nervously. “Like who?”
It was hard to disagree that the man was not only nervous about being interviewed by them, but also extremely anxious about the forthcoming delivery of his wife’s first baby. He gave adequate answers to their questions, and the paperwork he showed them was faultless. That he’d never had to think about emergency procedures for when he was away was probably also true, though it was something that was noted quite carefully for any review the Ministry wished to undertake.
“Well do you think we should recommend a transfer for him?” Tonio asked Minerva later in the day when they were due to part company.
“Temporarily, until his baby is safely delivered and established perhaps.”
“It’ll be Dora’s decision whether to recommend it to his boss. Shall I put it to her?”
“Aye,” Minerva agreed. Looking up the skies were darkening once again, it was possibly they were in for a wet evening. Perhaps one she’d enjoy from a comfortable booth in Oseria L’Infedele with a bottle of her favourite crisp white wine and a plate of creamy sauce covered pasta. If she took her book then she could quite easily spend the whole evening there and while away an hour or two as she did so.
Looking up from the book Minerva noticed someone she’d seen before, quite recently, if she wasn’t much mistaken. The woman, medium height and mousy haired, was dressed up as if on a special night out. Minerva smiled at the over the top style of her spangled robes, low cut at the front and with, if Minerva wasn’t very much mistaken a deep split from her left ankle to above her left knee.
“I am here to meet a friend,” the woman explained to Aldo Demario, the tone of her voice - a little too loud and too bright - telling anyone who happened to be listening, and it was hard not to, that it was an unusual occurrence.
“Would that be a gentleman friend?” Aldo enquired encouragingly, taking her elbow in his hand and steering her towards a table in clear vision of Minerva’s booth should the young lady like some entertainment. Something he was quite sure they’d be afforded during the course of the evening.
“It would,” the woman responded gleefully. “A rather handsome and gorgeous gentleman friend. If everything goes to plan,” she dropped her voice and looked knowingly towards Aldo, “then there will be a healthy tip for you tonight.”
“Aaah, a special night then,” Aldo winked in dramatic fashion. “Perhaps I should have seated you in a booth?”
“Oh no!” the woman responded, her voice once more excitable. “Not at all, not at all. We will be quite comfortable at this charming table. The candlelight, you know …”
Minerva continued to watch over the top of the pages of her book as the woman adjusted her seated position to apparently display her wares to their best advantage. She tried draping the skirts of her robes in different ways, firstly showing the whole of her left leg, right up over her knee, then so only her ankle protruded, then so that her leg up to and including her thigh was slightly exposed. Minerva winced at the sight. Whoever this charming and good looking man was she couldn’t imagine, unless he was severely sight disadvantaged in candlelight that he’d enjoy that particular display.
Satisfied that her robe was arrange to best effect the woman took to perfecting the set of her hair, as she admired herself in the back of a spoon charmed to enlarge her image as a mirror. All of this preening was quickly redundant however when the door opened once more and into the restaurant walked the long anticipated wizard. Tonio.
Minerva resisted making a sound, and lifted the book a little higher in order to block out any sight he might have of her. The way Aldo had seated the woman, whose name hopefully she was about to find out, Tonio would have his back to the booth where Minerva sat right now and she could enjoy the display freely.
“Good evening Blanca,” Tonio acknowledged his date, taking one of her hands in his and raising it very briefly to his lips.
“Handsome as always, Tonio,” the witch replied reluctantly moving her hand away after Tonio had dismissed it. “How has your day been?” As she sat back down her robes fell back into the charmed position she had arranged them in before. Every detail of her appearance had obviously been taken care of with the intention of impressing him.
“Long and tiresome,” Tonio offered. “Long and tiresome.”
“Oh well,” Blanca exclaimed. “You should try a day or two on the borders then you’d know what long and tiresome mean.”
The sickle dropped. Minerva remembered where she’d previously met the witch, just the previous week when she’d returned from home and parted from Kiely. Blanca whatever her name happened to be had brusquely insisted on them parting the instant she had arrived to cross Minerva into Switzerland before Apparating ready to return once more to Italy.
Throughout her meal Minerva enjoyed immensely seeing the woman’s antics in captivating Tonio. She watched as Blanca fluttered her eyelids, arranged her seated position to allow Tonio a free view beyond the neckline of her robe. She watched as Blanca rested her hand on Tonio’s leg, slowly sliding it up his thigh, and she watched when Tonio halted it. Minerva wished she could see his expression at that point, thinking it would be priceless. She had wondered why he was out on a date with such a woman, she was hardly his usual sort, and then, further amused, remembered the rumour that he’d previously enjoyed the attentions of the mother of a daughter he’d romanced. Maybe they weren’t rumours after all?
As she promised Blanca left a healthy tip on the table after loudly proclaiming that Tonio was going to be seeing her safely home, and once again Minerva shrank back into her booth until they left the restaurant. She’d have loved, she thought as she paid her own bill, to have been a Murtlap on the Doormat when Blanca and Tonio arrived at Blanca’s front door.
“Thank you,” Blanca murmured in the deep voice that she’d used when faced with Minerva and Kiely’s embrace.
“You’re welcome,” Tonio answered, his voice not quite conveying the meaning his words would normally contain at such a time. Blanca Ruggerio had proved a little more difficult to prize information from than he’d imagined or hoped. “We must do it again some time.”
“The night isn’t over, Tonio?” Blanca expressed with enthusiasm. “I have some extremely special coffee and a bottle of splendid brandy which I thought …”
“Perhaps next time.”
“Oh no! Surely not.” Blanca fought to hide the panic from her voice that he was not even going to kiss her good night. Ever since she’d been invited out by Tonio Vuela she’d dreamed of a night without sleep, a night where he made mad passionate love to her, a night where he fell under her spell, a night where he realised instantly the next morning he couldn’t live without her any longer. “Just a little one, hmmmm?”
Tonio looked at her hand, stroking his arm and took in a deep breath of consideration. He supposed he should afford the woman the same courtesies he usually did those he’d taken on a date. He should at least kiss her goodnight, even though he’d promised himself he’d not cross the threshold.
“Perhaps,” he smiled, moving his lips slowly towards Blanca’s and brushing them lightly against hers. “Perhaps.” This woman was the epitome of everything he usually tried to avoid. That one negligible kiss, so negligible it almost didn’t happen, was to her like a red rag was to a bull. Her arms slipped up around his neck, she moved close and pressed her body into his, her face was raised and he leant down once more and kissed her.
This time she was not letting him get away with anything but a full blown embrace. One hand moved to tangle in his hair and she parted her lips and teased at his until their tongues met. Tonio kissed her back, almost mechanically, but still a kiss. He slid his own arms around her back and chased her tongue back into her mouth, plundering it with his own.
“Oh Tonio,” she gasped when he moved back and took some air.
Tonio was aware of her pressing her body into him, her hip moving against him. He was sure he knew exactly what she was searching for, and exactly what she was failing to find. A kiss did not always lead to arousal after all, even if the lady seemed to think that instantly he would be showing that particular physical sign. “Slow down,” he suggested and took the hand that was making its way towards that area. “There’s no hurry, is there?”
“We’re on my doorstep, Tonio,” Blanca breathed at him, fluttering her eyelashes once more and adjusting her position to allow him full view behind her deep necked robe if she should wish it. “Shall we -“
She didn’t finish, Tonio silenced her once more with a kiss. Now he was in a quandary. If he did step over the threshold and enjoyed some of the special coffee and brandy he was sure he could manipulate Blanca to give him the information that he needed. He would have to seduce her, of course. Not that she was going to take much in the way of seduction, she seemed quite intent on being the seducer herself after all. He suspected that her own particular brand of pillow talk could be most useful to him. Woman loved to get closer in the rosy after glow of sex, while he gave them every intimation they would soon be experiencing more of the same.
However, he’d promised himself he was not going to follow that path with her. He was only seeing her to withdraw some information about the woman he very much wanted to be intimate with, one who was in every danger of changing his life forever. One who, alone he was sure, could alter his path of Lothario, heartbreaker, stud. Tonio continued to kiss Blanca as the thoughts raged through his head. Tentatively and experimentally he raised one of his own hands and moved it between them letting his thumb slip underneath the fabric of her robe top.
Blanca Ruggerio was older than the usual witch he romanced, that was obvious from the reduced firmness of her flesh under his touch. It was also a good sign. Single older witches were always more grateful after the event also. “Shall we go in?” he asked, allowing his body to react to the circumstance. He’d not stay long, an hour at most - just long enough to encourage the woman to sing. He’d most definitely be sleeping in his own bed tonight. Of that he was sure.