When his new assistant told Donnie that she had come across a great deal on a portkey to an "exotic island getaway for two," he was more than a little skeptical. He paid her well to keep him from killing himself with work, but he didn't pay her
that well. When she was evasive about the company she had purchased the portkey from, it was red flags as far as the eye could see. Lorin was a Slytherin so there was no telling what lengths she might have gone for this "great deal." But, then again, so was Donnie. In the end, he packed up a suitcase with light-weight clothing an a few bathing trunks and took a hold of the dubious portkey at the appointed time with Lorin by his side.
After the horrible, tugging sensation left him, the first thing Donnie noticed was that it was not a warm tropical beach which awaited him. Instead, it was blood
freezing! A gale-force
gust of wind blasted against his side and caused him to stagger on the uneven, rocky ground. The sky was a steely blue, hard enough to bruise your knuckles on. The surf roared just a few dozen meters away, gray and white-capped waves slamming against the shore, sending up plumes of icy mist. Gulls wheeled and called mournfully overhead. Along the coastline, Donnie could see strange pillars rising from the water. Behind him were low hills covered in dry scrub, slowly rising into snow-capped mountains that disappeared into for at their peaks.
"Oh, aye, quite exotic," he drawled in his heavy Irish accent. "Never seen tha likes ah this before...." He pulled out his wand, transfiguring his beach wear into a more substantial coat. "So, now what? How long until tha return portkey activates?
If it activates..."
@Lorin Odell
