who ? oliver wood and iona rivers when ? 1st jan, 2002; 5:14 am where ? somewhere in diagon alley what ? oliver needs rescuing bingo ? predawn; "i had never seen one as big as that before."; a stray dog; status ? active
The ringing in of the New Year had been pleasant. Oliver had celebrated with most of his friends. There had been drinking (too much), there had been singing (bad), there had been a lot of good time had (actually), but Oliver wasn't very good at sleeping in strange places. So he had the great plan to go home. The party was still going on when he slipped out, most likely unnoticed by anyone because everyone was pretty drunk. The plan of going home had been okay, well. If Oliver has 100% truthful, there had been no plan, he had just thought 'home' and left. Which meant that for the past six minutes he had been aimlessly wondering around Diagon Alley because Oliver lived in Bournemouth. He couldn't Apparate, not in this state, so he needed to find a Floo, but everything was very confusing and kind of spinning.
And that's when it happened.
At first, Oliver didn't notice, probably due to the level of intoxication, but it didn't take very long for him to become more and more aware about the fact that he was being followed. At this time of the day, there weren't many people around. Ever so often someone would cheer somewhere but mostly it was desolate. Except for... "What are you doing?!" Oliver exclaimed maybe a bit too loudly as he sharply turned around. That was a terrible idea, because all it did was make him dizzy and it was still there. Just staring at Oliver. He had never seen one so big. "Go away," he said but it just looked at him. Like it knew something that Oliver didn't. He then started wondering what he might not know before remembering that he was trying not to be followed by... that thing.
He moved. And it moved. He moved faster. And it moved faster. He stopped. And it stopped too. What was happening.
That's when Oliver spotted an Auror. He hadn't really ever had a need for an Auror before, but suddenly it seemed that the best thing to do was to ask an authoritative figure to deal with it. Maybe it would listen to an authoritative figure.
"Constable Madam Auror Miss?" He called out. "I am a citizen in distress," he informed her, really very drunkenly. He walked closer and it followed. "You have to help me," Oliver said with so much determination in his voice that it might have passed for actual need for help. "It won't stop following me," he told her. "You have to make it stop," Oliver added before looking down at it.