She gave a condescending snort of amusement in Nikolai’s direction at his next comment. The only bloke she had ever seen take him out was their old partner back in Russia and it was actually unnerving to see what they both were capable of. Neither one of them ever took it easy on her, even when she and Nikolai had started dating and he would come by the Ministry to help out with training he would always give her everything he had.

It had been awhile since Persephone had tried to get her information this was, though it was still easy to slip into the persona. She had two approaches though she very rarely used they one of an innocent you woman just stumbling into the wrong part of town. While that garnered just as much attention the sources weren’t as interested in sharing opinions. Showing a bit of skin and keeping most of her edge while simultaneously giving off body language that could be taken as interest worked much better than the former. It also made it seem much more believable of her character if she absolutely had to get aggressive with a bloke. She was slightly concerned she may have to with this new bloke but would only use it as a last resort.

The bloke watched her closely as she took a ‘sip’ of her drink and sat it back on the bar. A sly smile came across his face at her answer. ”I’ll take that as a yes…” He said smoothly as he leaned in a bit as if telling her a secret.”A lady never gives away her position.” She replied not even attempting to pull away. She really did dislike the ones that really got into her personal space so early in the game though that sentiment never came over her face. ”Well you certainly don’t look like much of a lady to me…” He replied with a chuckle pulling away slightly to take another appreciative look over her. Her eyes moved over him slowly as if she were giving him the same courtesy though she was actually trying to get a better read on him and see if anything could be telling. She noticed his sleeves rolled a third of the way up his forearms. On his left inner forearm seemed to be what looked like a black and gray scale tattoo peaking out. She really could only help but to be so lucky if it was what she thought it was. ”I never said I was one…” She said quietly with a sweet smile as she leaned forward to show a touch more skin in hopes that he would be distracted by her chest and she could get slightly closer to see if it was what she thought it was. She let her foot trail back just slight enough to tap Nikolai’s. She was sure he didn’t want to see the display, but she hoped it would alert him that they may actually have a ‘live one’ when it came to a source.

There were many people in this bar that could potentially have information that could prove to be helpful. The only problem was that he wasn’t exactly the type that could just go up and start trying to get someone drunk, whereas Persephone could casually flirt and ply them with alcohol until they got chatty. Nikolai didn’t have to look all that closely to know that there were very few other women in this bar, and his game wasn’t normally trying to get information out of them anyhow, though that wasn’t to say that he wouldn’t try his hand at it on occasion if a bint approached him. That had actually already happened that evening, with a scraggly haired woman who had came up to him—that was another benefit that Persephone had. She was attractive in a place where females commonly weren’t due to circumstances and choices that led them to not give a damn what they looked like. Of course, looks meant very little to Nikolai when he was trying to get information from people, so he hadn’t turned down the conversation; it just hadn’t proved to be all that helpful and the woman had left with some equally looking disheveled man a few minutes before Persephone had gotten there.

Nikolai took a drag of his cigarette as he listened in on the conversation going on next to him, obviously without looking like he was. To anyone who had noticed him, he would just look disinterested in just about all of his surroundings and that was how it would stay for now. Perhaps Persephone would get some information out of that one, so long as Nikolai could stop himself from wanting to kill him. Every time the man spoke, Nikolai did dislike him more and more, though he was pretty damn glad that he at least didn’t have to witness the bloke blatantly checking his wife out. He didn’t have to look to know that it was happening, but it was better that he didn’t see it firsthand.

Later, they would surely have fun with the fact that they had ended up at this bar together, and they more than likely would continue to act like they didn’t know each other. Hell, there were rooms to rent upstairs, he mused to himself, and that would actually be an incredibly interesting use of their time later. But he was getting ahead of himself, clearly. They had to see what happened here first, and he would continue to keep an eye on the situation as well as keep up with anything that was happening around the pub. Nikolai took a swig of his drink as he felt Persephone tapping her foot against his. Since not much was happening yet in terms of her needing him to punch the bloke, Nikolai could only assume she alerting him that this might actually end interesting. Not that he ever did think that she’d subtly try to get his attention in order to get him to knock out some bloke—but he certainly wouldn’t say not to that, after all. But for now, he would just gain satisfaction from picturing knocking the bloke out and then perhaps it would become a reality later. As he flicked his cigarette to ash it again, he contemplated why he was getting territorial all of a sudden, and blamed it on the fact that they hadn’t ever been in a situation together that was quite like this. But he could deal, obviously, though he would love for this to end with the bloke needing to be told to back the hell off… he could fucking hope, clearly.

Persephone knew her husband wasn’t typically territorial but she had a feeling this might be a different story altogether. It wasn’t uncommon for her to inappropriately joke with male friends of theirs though it was always in good fun and never serious. But he had never seen a man come onto her so strong, especially one who spoke to her the way this one was. There was no mistaken what the bloke wanted from her and he wasn’t hiding it. She guessed she preferred when a source was more straightforward about things. It made her work easier as she really didn’t need to egg them on so much, but it also meant they were far bolder with their advances. There wasn’t some kind of barrier between them physically which she usually preferred there was one. She knew she could handle things if necessary but she preferred not to as it often drew attention to her in a way that wasn’t favorable to what she wanted.

The man moved his left arm to place a hand onto her knee causing his sleeve to ride up farther. It was just as she was hoping as she saw the lower half of a dark mark. It was then that she also noticed a wedding band which was curious. It wasn’t unusual for married men to make their way into bars in this area alone looking for something on the side, but it looked quite expensive. The man had been awfully distracted by her display as he was obviously being careless about concealing his arm, though in this area it wasn’t that big of a deal. ”Good…” The man whispered his hand squeezing her knee. ” смерть едок…” She breathed seductively as if saying something inappropriate. It often made her seem more alluring to use another language with these types, almost exotic which would definitely work to her advantage. She knew Nikolai would still be listening intently and wanted to give him some kind of heads up as to what they had on their line.

The man’s eyes darkened slightly at her words letting his hand drift up a little past her knee. It took everything in her not to immediately attack the man for touching her, but so far he wasn’t getting too aggressive with the contact and he really could be a damn good source. ”Mmmm, not from around here? I’d love to know what that pretty little mouth was saying…” He answered. She pulled away from the man slowly to take a ‘sip’ of her drink. ”Wouldn’t you like to know?” She answered with a smirk before noticing that Nikolai was almost done with his drink while hers remained untouched. The barkeep was busy down at the other end of the bar by now thankfully. She needed to get the man’s hand off of her without resorting to anything drastic. She took a long pull of her cigarette blowing the smoke in the man’s direction. She had noticed an ashtray on the other side of Nikolai giving her an idea. She had to continue to look like she was drinking, and the man was sure to notice soon that she wasn’t actually drinking what he ordered her which would probably set off some alarms. ”Excuse me…” She whispered pulling herself away from the man to turn around and reach over her husband for the ashtray as the other pushed her full glass of vodka in front of him and slid his nearly empty one near her while butting out her cigarette. She knew the man would be too focused on her backside to notice anything odd. She brought the mostly empty glass to her lips as if chugging the liquor when she turned back around to the source before setting it back on the bar.

---

смерть едок.
Death Eater.

If he got over being irritated that this man more than likely had hands on his wife, though he was making the smart decision to not look over to verify this, then he might be able to appreciate that this could end up being a bit amusing. Nikolai had never actually seen Persephone gain information in this way and he had to admit that he was a bit curious to see just how she went about doing it. Besides, he was going to be the one getting Persephone underneath him later, not this random bloke, so there was no reason to be getting so territorial over it, or so he would continue to tell himself. For now, it would be far more interesting to see how this played out. Persephone could handle herself, and if the man did anything that crossed any major lines, then Nikolai could thankfully teach him a lesson, obviously. So really, there was no way that this wasn’t going to work out in his benefit, so long as he didn’t look over to see just what was happening next to him. Hearing it was going to be amusing and aggravating, depending on how the bloke let it play out… Nikolai would guess that the conversation would have a bit of both of these aspects, as the man was going to continue to piss him off, and Persephone’s responses would probably continue to amuse him.

Nikolai took a long swig of his drink, nearly finishing it off, before setting it back down on the bar. He felt like Persephone might actually have a few issues with the fact that the man had bought her a vodka, because she couldn’t drink it casually and if she didn’t drink it at all, the man was likely to lose interest—or so he would assume. After all, he probably wanted to get her drunk as much as Persephone wanted to get him drunk, and if he noticed her not drinking the vodka, he might attempt to find an easier target. He wondered if there was a way for him to casually get her drink from her without him noticing, as he knew that he could drank it in one gulp, or at least drink enough of it that Persephone might actually be able to handle finishing it off. As he was contemplating it, he heard Persephone subtly slipping a bit of Russian into the conversation, though he obviously didn’t outwardly react to it. So this one was a Death Eater, he told himself, glad that someone worthwhile had actually came up to her, though he didn’t doubt that they would have spotted him out otherwise.

He had just been taking another quick drag of his cigarette when Persephone leaned across him to grab the ashtray. Obviously, he didn’t outwardly react more than briefly looking her over since she had given him quite the view and clearly any man would take advantage of that. It also would probably make this Death Eater realize that there was combination in keeping the ‘pretty little bint’s’ attention, so he might end up upping the game slightly. That could work in Persephone’s favor, obviously. When she had returned to her original position, he realized that a full glass of vodka now sat in front of him, which he quickly moved into his hand to keep the contents out of view of the bloke. He hadn’t even seen her make the switch, which was quite amusing; but it also did prove that they were thinking along the same lines. Nikolai picked up the drink, taking a long gulp of it, stopping himself from chuckling under his breath. This was certainly a cheap vodka, though he supposed that was to be expected since no one in this area had access to that much money anyhow. Cheap vodka was one of his pet peeves, and it really just made him dislike this man even more than he already did.

This man seemed like he could have quite a bit of good information if the dark mark was any indication coupled with where he was. He looked to not be much older than Persephone, so he wouldn’t have had many years as a Death Eater before things finally came to a head. That could either work to her benefit or not. He may not know much just because of his age, the fact that he was somehow married, and that his appearance wasn’t outright grimy made her question what he was doing around there. He had started getting a bit too forward early on in this and that made her slightly nervous as to what kind of man in general she was dealing with. She knew she was good, but given her slight assessment along with his physique he would be difficult to take down if necessary. Normally she would find a way out of situation like this but she had a feeling if things got physical Nikolai would probably step in the moment it started. She knew this was probably uncomfortable for husband, but in a way he was still acting as her partner for back up. Granted she was already cooking up a plan that might work better. Getting them drunk gave her more of an edge and she had her own little ways to avoid consuming alcohol so her head stayed clear. She didn’t have much of a tolerance when it came to liquor.

It was hard for Persephone not to say something inappropriate to her husband as she caught him looking at her when she leaned over the bar. Though it seemed like he was making a show of it for the other bloke to see. ”Sorry about that…” She said to Nikolai softly patting his leg where the man could see before pulling away and turning back to the man. She could see her husband’s quick movement to the full glass in front of him. It was definitely good thing he had been there to help her on this. She had smelled enough vodka in several years to know what cheap vodka smelled like compared to high quality vodka. Nikolai was not one to ever drink cheap liquor. She couldn’t handle good quality vodka; there was no way she could get away with drinking the cheap type without gagging most likely.

The man had caught sight of the large Russian looking her over and furrowed his brows slightly at the display. He didn’t like competition in the slightest. Persephone spotted this pretty quickly and hoped the man wasn’t stupid enough to approach her husband. ”I would like to know actually…” He replied smoothly once his eyes came back to her. She quirked an eyebrow at the man and shrugged. ”If you have to ask, you’ll never know.” She replied with a smirk. ”Fair enough. Does that mean I can make my own offer on the night? Since, you know, if I ask I’ll never know?” She laughed lightly. ”I don’t know. I like my men on more of the…. dangerous side.” She said looking over her shoulder at Nikolai to give him an appraising look. While her husband was not as intimidating as he looked to those who knew him, to an outsider he could look very threatening. Maybe egging this man on to try to prove he was ‘dangerous’ might work if he felt he had competition.

It seemed to Nikolai that their skill at working together was coming back to them without trying, not that they had ever had to do anything quite like this before. This, partnered with them just knowing each other as well as they did actually made them quite the team, though it was for obvious reasons why they weren’t actually partnered at the Ministry. That was completely reasonable, obviously, but they did have quite a lot of practice at it when it came down to it. It was because of that Nikolai was sure that Persephone had a similar idea as far as trying to up the game, as was pretty damn clear to him when she brought her hand to his leg in a way that was completely visible to the bloke in question. He figured that it was certainly possible that the Death Eater would think he’d have to do something a bit more interesting in order to keep her attention, and that could prove to be incredibly beneficial—so long as they played it right. However, them playing it wrong would probably just end up with the man trying to look tough by starting shit with him; Nikolai would not deny that opportunity in the slightest, finding that he wouldn’t actually mind if that was the first idea that came to the Death Eater’s mind. Yes, he supposed that would draw a bit more attention to them than they could really use while in this seedy bar, but there was no way that he was going to ever deny the opportunity to teach that particular man a lesson. Obviously he didn’t know that Persephone was married, but that logic did nothing to make the distaste for the Death Eater to diminish.

He chuckled under his breath as she apologized, knowing that the way to play this right would simply make it clear to the other man that he would have to fight to keep Persephone’s attention. Somehow he doubted that the Death Eater would be able to come up with any ideas to do that that wasn’t beneficial to them… more than likely it would actually result in learning something that they didn’t know before that could help them. “You can make it up to me later,” he rumbled, having to actively stop himself from speaking in Russia. It was just a habit in situations like this, apparently, but he obviously couldn’t speak the language that the Death Eater had just heard her speaking; that would raise some serious red flags if the man had any sense at all.

Nikolai downed the rest of the cheap vodka, not wanting to waste his time sipping on the low-quality liquor, before setting the empty glass back on the bar. Amusingly enough, he knew it would have taken Persephone probably a damn hour to make a dent in that drink, and he did always gain entertainment from the fact that she still hadn’t gained an appreciation for vodka. He and Spiridon had both tried to push that along by purposefully ordering her it on occasion while in Russia and it had always failed—and that had been the good stuff. He continued to listen to the conversation happening next to him while gaining the bartender’s attention. Once he had ordered his own drink, he made a show of looking over at Persephone, as if determining what she would like to drink. Obviously, he couldn’t go with wine if she was keeping with being a bit rough around the edges as she would have to be as a bint in these parts and now also clearly wasn’t the time to try to further her taste for vodka for ordering her a better quality one. “And a… brandy, for this one,” he added, tilting his head in his wife’s direction after hearing him speak about liking her men more dangerous. Yes, her side of the conversation actually as a bit amusing to hear. It was only moments that the bartender was delivering the drinks to them, and he pulled out money enough to pay for it before taking a swig of the vodka to make up for the shitty brand that he had just been drinking.

Persephone couldn’t say she was surprised that Nikolai was handling this all so well. In fact, he was an extremely big help to her little plan. It did feel like old times working together where they could usually tell just what the other was thinking without having to exchange any kind of dialogue. While they had never been in this kind of position it seemed they were syncing up perfectly as they typically did. Of course this was all still slightly distracting as she would have just preferred to go elsewhere with her husband and take care of more personal business. This was especially true when he said she could make it up to him later. ” О, я буду.” She whispered back knowing that the Death Eater probably heard her whispering but most likely couldn’t even tell what she said or in what language she used as she had moved her lips close to Nikolai’s ear to deliver it.

Part of her hoped the bloke would just get up and start getting uppity with her husband, just so he could get put in his place and she could better place her attention. But the man could have something interesting to say and it would completely defeat the purpose of her doing this in the first place. Hell, he could have information that could break quite a few cases wide open, granted this wasn’t official work she still liked to look into things when she could.

It looked like the bloke was getting a little more irritated by Nikolai’s presence , especially when he had ordered Persephone a drink when she said she liked her man on the dangerous side. She took a moment to be amused that her husband remembered the only liquor she ever drank and she could only remember a handful of times she drank it over the course of them knowing each other. It wasn’t like she could sit there sipping wine as she usually did when going to bars on her own or with friends and colleagues. At least he wasn’t going to be a smartass and order her better quality vodka. She shot a wink at Nikolai before she heard the man clear his throat loudly. She quirked an eyebrow at him. ”If you knew what I was capable of it’d make your toes curl, slag.” He said casually before draining her glass on slamming it on the bar and snapping his fingers to get the bartenders attention. She gave him a disinterested look as she took a sip of Brandy and pulled another cigarette from her pack. ”Oh is that so?” She answered lamely before lighting her cigarette and taking a long drag thoughtfully as she made it a point to look back over at her husband as if contemplating abandoning her current conversation, making it clear that she would just move onto him if the Death Eater didn’t impress her. She was the only woman in the bar at present

---

О, я буду
Oh, I will

A smirk grew across his face as Persephone leaned into whisper to him about making it up to him lately. The idea alone just brought up many different reasons why they should get a room in that pub instead of trying to venture anywhere else. Nikolai just found it particularly appropriate to do that when they had been acting like they didn’t know each other; besides, it just opened up a hell of a lot of intriguing options. It was obvious that the Death Eater was starting to notice that he had competition, which was good if he was planning on upping the stakes and actually becoming useful. Nikolai took one last drag of his cigarette, blowing the smoke out slowly. This night had taken an unexpected turn, but he was still incredibly amused by the fact that they had both ended up at this bar. It was the type of shit that he would certainly tell Spiridon about the next time he talked to him, but it also was something he could tell Vadik whenever they were in contact next as well—that was just less often than with his former partner. Somehow he doubted that either of them would be surprised by this occurring, and Spiridon would get a laugh out of the Death Eater buying Persephone cheap vodka. Assuming this continued to go well, Nikolai could see this continuing to be incredibly amusing, apart from him getting territorial and wanting to just start hitting people to the damn ground, but even that was almost entertaining in a way.

Nikolai was beginning to actively hope that this man would be stupid enough to try to start something with him in order to prove to Persephone how dangerous he was, as that would give Nikolai the chance to actually knock him the hell out as opposed to sitting here just thinking about doing it. Every time the Death Eater spoke, he became more irritating in Nikolai’s mind, and he did wonder if casually calling women slags was something that worked well for him as far as getting them to bed him was concerned. He almost made a face at the thought, concealing his expression momentarily by taking a swill of his new vodka. There, he thought, feeling slightly less likely to strike the man at any moment with the presence of a better vodka. Nikolai knew that Persephone would certainly act on her bluff if this bloke didn’t prove to be more interesting. He had no doubt that she would simply ‘move on’ to Nikolai and not worry about the man anymore, but he also had quite the feeling that the Death Eater would be stepping up his game enough to stick around for at least a while longer. Nikolai could deal with that, he supposed, since information had been why he had come here to begin with. Since it didn’t seem likely that he would be gaining any from any of the blokes here, not exactly being able to use the effective methods that Persephone could, he was just going to keep an eye on things, enjoy his vodka, and step in if the irritating bloke really did need to be taught some kind of lesson or just punched the hell out—depending on what suited the situation, obviously.

Putting out the cigarette in the ashtray, Nikolai began to wish that he had brought his own pack, since he didn’t have anymore. He supposed he could make one last show of this shit to prove to the Death Eater that he was actually going to have to make a concerted effort to keep Persephone interested, but he also didn’t want to interrupt to the point that the man gave up entirely. For now, he just took a swig of his drink, smirking slightly though it was partially hidden by the glass, when he saw Persephone looking back at him. He did hope that this bloke actually had something worth all of this trouble, otherwise this entire situation would be aggravating for nothing. Granted, he wasn’t aggravated so much by the situation, since it was the job to get information and methods were methods; he simply just didn’t like the fucking handsy Death Eater, which was reasonable.

This situation looked like it would be promising in several different ways, all of which would be to she and Nikolai’s benefit. It was amusing to still get to flirt around a bit with her husband as if she didn’t know him, and at the same time further their mission to get some kind of information from the man. It was apparent the Death Eater seemed to be getting more agitated by the moment just by Nikolai’s presence. Persephone caught the man giving her husband a good once over as if to size him up. She had to stop herself from snorting in amusement as it seemed as if the man thought he could take the Russian on. As much as she would enjoy watching the Death Eater get his ass handed to him, it would mean the end to their conversation and getting some kind of information from him.

She was miffed by the man referring to her as a slag, though she didn’t show it. She wondered if he actually got women like that or if he was under some impression that she was some kind of call girl. Either way she wasn’t going to react. She almost drew her wand as she felt his hand come around to grab the sides of her stool and pull her seat closer to him. She kept her face neutral and bored though in her head she was already formulating her own little plan to get him to back off. ”I run with a very dangerous crowd… do you know what it feels like to look into someone’s eyes as they take their last breath?” He breathed close to her face. No he was getting way too close, and he already looked a bit drunk. a light weight apparently. ”Maybe… but I’m not really convinced you have.” She answered back cryptically with a quirked eyebrow.

He had paused bringing a hand to her thigh with a sly smile. ”Why don’t we finish this conversation somewhere else…” The man whispered his eyes flickering back to the Russian. He knew something, but there was no way she was leaving with him. She knew her limits and wasn’t about to push them right at that moment. Before she could even speak his hand began to move farther up her thigh. She took a long drag of her cigarette ‘accidentally’ dropping it on the man’s hand. ”Shit..” She said. Just as he pulled his hand back she reached down as if to hurry to retrieve her lit cigarette and grabbed his middle finger, bending it back until a loud pop could be heard. The man cursed under his breath holding his hand as he stood up. ”You fucking clumsy bitch.” He hissed narrowing his eyes at her. Persephone already noticed the barkeep moving back in their direction glaring at the man. She hoped the bloke would just take his leave, before he got seriously injured.

He knew that situations in Knockturn Alley could escalate in just about a second. The same could be said for just about anywhere in the magical or Muggle world. It only took an instant for something to spiral out of control and it was all a matter of not allowing that to happen and keeping awareness of any potential issues that could occur. Nikolai had practice with this in both Muggle and magical settings, able to watch closely and read situations whenever he was doing anything that could result in problems of any kind. So, clearly, Nikolai knew that at any moment, he might have to step into this conversation and sort shit out—and not with damn words; but he also was well aware that Persephone could take care of herself and that it would have to get quite serious for her to not be able to handle it. If that moment did come, then he had no problem with causing permanent bodily harm to this Death Eater, and he’d do it without a second thought. After all, he would have to leave the bloke with a lasting lesson, and it would clearly take quite a bit of violence for him to be taught anything of the sort.

But for now, he was just listening carefully as he pretended that he didn’t give a damn about anything that was going on without him. The man knew that Persephone had other options and so Nikolai could certainly get away with not completely ignoring them, but for now he was sure that his presence was enough to up the game if the Death Eater really wanted to keep Persephone interested. If he didn’t, then he could fuck off, and they could go back to amusing themselves in other ways. It really made no difference to him whatsoever what route that the Death Eater took. It wasn’t lost on him when Persephone’s stool was pulled closer to the man in question, and he could vaguely hear that he was speaking though it was so quietly that Nikolai didn’t catch what he had said—though his wife’s response was decidedly an unimpressed one, so he was beginning to believe that this conversation would be ending sooner rather than later, luckily.

The moment that he heard Persephone cursing and the man quickly getting to his feet, Nikolai assumed that shit had clearly happened though he didn’t know what it had been. But he did very obviously know what the popping sound was that happened only moments later and had to stop himself from outwardly laughing and simultaneously groaning out loud. Had she really just broken his damn finger? This was getting to the point that he would feel more comfortable in sorting this shit out himself if the man was going to get physical, but it was possible that he wasn’t stupid enough to try anything but Nikolai was certainly going to make sure of that if he had to, because he really needed to be knocked the hell out anyway—or at the very least, Nikolai thought that Persephone should break another one of his fingers or five. Setting his glass down on the bar, Nikolai let his gaze move warningly over to the Death Eater in question, knowing that he could have him on the floor if he even took a step closer to his wife—but of course, he wanted to give her a chance to injure him further if that was what she was looking to do. If the threat in his eyes wasn’t reason enough for the fucker to leave, then he could be taught a more serious lesson, easily.