Art was perturbed at how many people were in the the Leaky Cauldron when he pushed through the door.  He knew they had just reopened, but it was a Tuesday for the love of Godric.   It was going to be rather hard to carry on a conversation with his old friend with this many people there.  He pushed his way through to the bar, probably less gentle than the other patrons would have liked, but more gentle than he felt like being with that many people about. 

He sidled up and tried to flag down one of the too-busy barkeeps.  While his hand waving started out largely normal, it quickly evolved in to some sort of angry interpretive dance.  He was quite sure after a minute or two that somebody had slipped some invisibility potion into his afternoon tea as a prank again.  He only realized this couldn't be true when he looked around to see if the other patrons were being served.  Turned out the only people not looking at him were the bartenders.

Finally an exasperated witch came up to him and said, "YES sir, what can I get you?"

"Och..."  Art hadn't thought that far ahead, he'd been too annoyed at all the people.  It had been a while, but he remembered Knox to be happy with drinking most things.

"Uh...I.....I'll take twa Scotch Firewhiskeys.....something Islay or from the Islands, nice and smoky....ye got something like thae?"

"Sure, no worries" replied the witch as she turned about to go find the right bottle.

"Wait! Make it three."  Knox was bigger than Art (in the vertical direction anyway), but tended to be more contemplative of his drinking habits than Art thought healthy. "And doubles."

"Sure" the irritated witch said dryly, rolling her eyes.

She returned with three ornate tumblers with white clouds rolling over the edges and sinking to the floor.  Art paid her 12 galleons for the drinks (the city was a fair bit pricier than back home), tipped her a couple galleons (which she seemed surprised at) and immediately upended one of the drinks into his big round hairy face. 

He slammed the glass back down onto the bar a bit harder than he'd intended and said

"That is nice and smoky, thank ye," burping a little smoke ring as if on queue. 

He took leave of the bar and shoved his way back through the too-close throng of people, hurrying to claim a booth he'd just seen a pair of young witches vacate in the back.  He tripped on small wizard clad in a green cloak, nearly spilling his expensive whiskeys, apologized profusely, bowing in the awkward way that he was prone to when he wasn't sure what exactly to do, and made it to the booth just before a group of rough looking wizards. 

"Sorry lads, I beat ye tae it"  he said with his signature doofy smile, as though he'd just won a footrace.  The wizards looked perturbed, but moved off after a minute of scowling.

After a couple minutes, Art spotted Knox's big, swarthy head sticking out above the crowd, stood up next to the table and began a much less angry interpretive dance to try to get his attention.

Knox Greyfriar didn't see him.

Instead his attention was taken by a table of younger witches and wizard erupting in greeting, their voices raising above the din of the bustling pub. "Professor Greyfriar! Hey!" Knox beamed and went right on over, claps on the back and hand shaking. They made a merry few moments of conversation before the former Hogwarts Headmaster moved on to the bar.

"Professor Greyfriar!" He was popular at the bar, too. He got a bright smile from the bartender, who went right about his drink order. In the time it took to fill two glasses, Knox was greeted by an old colleague and a great nephew twice removed. He smiled and waved. A wizard about town.

In the dim light no one seemed to notice or comment on how haggard the old man looked under his wide smile.  It was only a day after the full moon. Only hours before he'd been clawing at the walls of a Ministry safe room. He was never good on the day after (or the day before), but he resented the curse taking one drop of joy from his days, so he pushed through as much as he could.

"Here you are, sir: two Ogden's Blacks."

Knox put his coins on the counter and went to find a table. And find one he did soon enough, with Arthfael already there, and two drinks already waiting. "Arty O! Didn't see you there! Budge over! Here: new from Ogden's, their new black bottle. Supposed to be peaty as all hell."

He took a smell before setting the glasses down and his face told the tale. "Phew!"

"Nice, old man!  I've been meanin' tae try that one!"

He took the glass and held it up by way of encouraging Knox and said

"Here's tae us, wha's like us, gey few an they're aw deid" and threw it back. 

"Whoo! That's got enough legs tae run a marathon!" Art said blinking. "Reminds me of thae time we ran into thae Chameleon Ghoul up near Aberdeen." 

He slid the smoking tumbler across the table to him and asked,

"How've ye been Knox?  Ye look like a pile of dragon keech."

Knox grinned - he was barely older than Art, and yet he was always 'old man'.  He didn't mind - with age came permission to speak at length on any topic without interruption.

He had a seat opposite Arthfael and raised a drink with him.  Art slammed the precious whiskey, which caused Knox some scandal. Knox took a healthy drink but let it savor a moment.

"I'm offended, Art," he said, touching his fingers to his pearls. "I'm in my prime."  He was talented at hiding it, but he knew he looked a fright, so he shrugged in more seriousness. "No worse than usual."

He took another drink, taking a small moment to rue his lot in life.  Phew! Just two sips and he was feeling the effects, so weary was he from last night's transformation. Knox was thinking about that chameleon ghoul.

Suddenly he slammed his hand down on the table. "It was the plunger, wasn't it! We were crammed into that bathroom in the pub waiting out a couple of Snatchers and the damn thing started beating us! Had no idea what was going on - thought it was a trap!"

Flynn was supposed to meet up here with his older sister and gossip over a couple of drinks, but he was early. Audrey wasn't usually one to be late, but he knew that she was busy with her latest client. Either way, he didn't wait for her before ordering a lager. As he waited for his drink to be poured, he looked around for some sort of familiar face. The Leaky Cauldron was probably the most popular bar, despite the fact that it had blown up several months ago. Usually he saw somebody he knew. This time was no exception.

There were few people in this world he had more respect and admiration for than Knox Greyfriar.  He was clearly having a good time chatting with a friend. Flynn was surprised to see Knox out the night after the full moon-- but the again, Knox was a hardy guy. And sometimes a drink and good conversation was what somebody needed after a rough day.

He approached the pair, a wide grin on his face. "Ah, Knox! It's good to see you!" He exclaimed, before looking over at Arthfael. "I'm Flynn, nice to meet you--" He looked from one man to the other, "And I can't tell who has the more impressive beard."

Art broke from his reverie of the old days like a glass knocked from the edge of a table.  He glanced up at Flynn with a look of slight confusion, cast a furtive glance to Knox  with a flicker of an expression that was nearly imperceptible and his eyes quickly flitted back to Flynn as his face hardened into a scowl.

"Apparently yer pup needs tae learn some manners, old man," Art said as he shot Flynn a hard look.  He let the silence hang for just a little too long as he decidedly did NOT reach out to shake Flynn's hand.

"Or he just needs tae get his eyes checked..." he let the din of the bar continue to cover the hanging silence a second before cracking a slight smile, "My soup catcher is obviously far more stupendous!" 

As he proclaimed this with the volume of 4 shots of strong whiskey, he hopped up from their booth, cracked a goofy smile
and fluffed his wild beard with a flourish.  He snatched Flynn's hand and shook vigorously and kept it as he bowed and overly deep bow, proclaiming, "Arthfael Cunubelinus Oglesbee, Esquire, MD, PhD, and yer most humble servant!"

"So how dae ye know the old man?"

Arthfael meeting Flynn Hughes - now that was two worlds crashing together.  Knox watched Arty with amusement as he greeted Flynn in his own special way. 

"Flynn and I are conspirators," Knox explained, the truth of he and Flynn's cahoots so strange there was little risk in some honesty. "A young man I've come to admire.  Will you join us, Flynn? We were reminiscing about old times. In particular the pair of us crammed together in a tiny bathroom where we were, coincidentally, attacked by a plunger. We came out alright, but it left a different kind of scar."

The two good-sized wizards trying to draw wands when there was not an inch of elbow room, then squeeze out the door inconspicuously.  The embarrassment left a timeless welt.