April 2nd, 1891 — Egypt

Ruperts initial reaction to Kristoffer got a job had been but, why? It was incredibly boring not to have the other man around to cause trouble with during Ministry working hours. And then it had occurred to him that Kristoffer having a job in the Portkey Office might prove very useful. And he had been proven right when it did not take a lot to convince his friend to snag a portkey under a random name.

Rupert saw it as celebrating his friends new job but really it was just an excuse for them to cause trouble somewhere no one knew their names. He personally had no idea when Kristoffer had even gotten the job. And so here they were, in what looked to be Egypt. It had been after working hours when Rupert and Kristoffer had portkeyed here and it looked like this country was only a couple of hours ahead of where they had come from.

"Let's see what this place has to offer in forms of entertainment." Which was probably mainly sightseeing at the brothels, trying foreign drugs or getting into wandfights but whatever. Entertainment was entertainment and Rupert had been so bored lately.

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Elias Grimstone Kristoffer Lestrange

  

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fabulous set by MJ!

Kristoffer had been working long enough to have learnt the basics of his job, but a short enough time that if anyone found out about this portkey permission he could probably wriggle his way out of it by playing the fool, pretending he’d made a mistake. Certainly no one would find out that he had come along to Egypt for the ride.

“Maybe we’ll stumble upon some lost ancient treasure,” Kristoffer said with a snort, although it was more likely they’d cause an international crisis or bring another set of plagues upon Irvingly if they tried - and the narrow (magical) city street he was idly leading them down did not much look like the way to any tombs or pyramids.

“Which way?” he said, casting his gaze at the options before them, one of which was a flight of stone steps up to a door up on a terrace, and the other the archway below it that led into shadow. Either looked intriguing enough to him.

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"Never knew you to be so whimsical," Rupert said teasingly. He doubted that they would have such luck. Though maybe they could find a different sort of treasure.

"Let's see what is down this way," he said, going through an archway that led into shadow. If this proved boring, they could check in the other direction instead.

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fabulous set by MJ!

Kristoffer raised an eyebrow at that remark. “No, whimsical isn’t the word people usually use to describe me,” he said with a smirk (although the alternative words Kristoffer had in mind probably weren’t the ones most people would use when they thought of him, either).

With a shrug, he followed Rupert down the archway, past a few gilded looking doors before the street narrowed a little further, becoming something nearer a passageway - and it was at this point that Kris was pleased he wasn’t going first, because if one of them was going to be fodder for any threat, it better not be him.

“Just as long as we don’t get mugged by any Arabs,” Kristoffer muttered from behind his friend, wondering whether he should have his wand at the ready just in case. Getting mugged would be much the opposite of finding lost treasure; and he’d been down Knockturn Alley enough times to know the kinds of people one could meet lurking in the depths of a city. Hopefully this street was not so bad, and if there was a brothel down here somewhere it would have some class. He did not much want to return to London with a case of syphilis.

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Rupert snorted. "Have your wand, don't you?" He asked teasingly. "Just do what you did to that chap at the World Quidditch event that one time." It had been amusing to witness though not something he ever wanted to be on the end of.

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fabulous set by MJ!

“Yeah,” Kristoffer protested, and fingered his wand in his pocket, a little tempted to have it out at the ready, but not wanting to look too paranoid, either. “And what do you plan to do while I’m duelling, huh? Stand and watch?” He tossed Rupert a narrow-eyed look; his friend might still be at leisure in his whole life, but that hardly meant Kristoffer ought to do all the work.

Rupert was a little taller, too, and might look a little dangerous with his dark hair and sharp features if he weren’t also so bloody slender. This passageway was getting more worrying by the moment, too, and none of the doors looked particularly promising. Kristoffer glanced over his shoulder, and when he glanced back, a silken hanging brushed past his cheek and nearly made him physically jump.

“Forget treasure,” he added under his breath, “just find me a foreign whore.”

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"Attack as well, I figure. What care do we have about playing fair if someone dares to try mugging us?" Rupert asked as he met Kristoffers gaze. If anything, them being in a foreign country meant that they could do whatever they wanted and get away with it.

Rupert was also feeling uneasy but then he heard something in the distance. "Listen. Music and womanly laughter," he said. That boded well for finding a possible foreign whore for Kristoffer to have fun with. And where one whore was, there was bound to be another one, right?

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fabulous set by MJ!

“Well, none,” he agreed with a laugh, mollified somewhat by Bingham’s answer. (However, even though Rupert was his best friend and his best bet for a loyal second in any duel, Kristoffer did secretly think he was too much of an ineffectual pretty-boy to be much of an asset in a real fight.)

But he was a real whore magnet, wasn’t he? “Better than a compass, you are,” he murmured with an amused snort, because it did sound like there were festivities not far off. He followed Rupert for a while, but pushed past him in excitement once the music got much louder. “Through here, I think –?” Kristoffer said, emerging out of the alleyway and finding an open door into a grander-looking building, only the faint clouds of strange-coloured smoke drifting out from it briefly giving him pause.

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Rupert chuckled as his friend pushed past him. "Do you reckon the smoke might be from some exotic type of drug?" Rupert asked as he emerged from the alleyway behind Kristoffer. Rupert was not one to shy away if something looked like a curiosity - perhaps that was the trait that had found him in Ravenclaw. "I'm going to see if anyone here actually understands English and can tell me." From what he could tell, there were also ladies a plenty for Kristoffer to amuse himself with.

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fabulous set by MJ!

“Could be,” Kristoffer said, giving the air a cautious sniff. It didn’t smell like an opium den, exactly; there was a faint sweet smell in the air, and a visible glimmer to the haze, so it did smell... intoxicating. Pleasant. Worth the trying.

Rupert seemed ready to go lose himself in it, anyway. Abruptly anxious at the thought of Bingham leaving him behind, if they split up, Kristoffer clutched briefly at his arm to restrain him. “Wait,” he said, in a low tone. “Shouldn’t we have some kind of – signal? In case of trouble?” What if he needed to find Rupert again in this place, or they had to leave in a hurry? No way Kristoffer was being left behind. No way Rupert was getting out of here without the portkey back, right?

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Rupert looked back at the other man when he grabbed his arm. "Yelling my name would work," Rupert said, figuring the man had a point there. He didn't quite trust Kristoffer to not just leave him behind and he doubted Kristoffer had the same sort of trust in him not to do so. "What do you suggest? Causing a ruckus of some sort that either of us will hear no matter where we are in this place?"

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fabulous set by MJ!

If he didn’t know better, Kris would have thought it sounded like Bingham was mocking him – but his friend’s tone was not openly facetious, so he took it as sincere. Besides, the second suggestion sounded just fine to him. “Oh, I can always cause a ruckus,” Kristoffer agreed, with an almost gleeful nod, satisfied enough that they had a backup plan up their sleeves to finally let go of Rupert’s arm.

Whatever peril they might get into in this place, Kristoffer was at least confident in his capacity to make a scene.

“Have fun, then,” Kris said, all carelessness again, moving off from the entryway with no further compunction about the unfamiliar smoke, “– I’m going to find out if she’s a tart.”

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