diff --git a/src/dpy_paginator/dpy_paginator.py b/src/dpy_paginator/dpy_paginator.py
index d307c06..f2516b3 100644
--- a/src/dpy_paginator/dpy_paginator.py
+++ b/src/dpy_paginator/dpy_paginator.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ config-free: no host config import; everything is passed at construction.
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import asyncio
+import logging
 from typing import (
     Any,
     Dict,
@@ -69,6 +70,8 @@ DEFAULT_EMOJIS = {
     "cache": "\U0001f5c2\ufe0f",  # 🗂️
 }
 
+log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 PageT_co = TypeVar("PageT_co", bound=Page, covariant=True)
 
 
@@ -161,6 +164,10 @@ class ButtonPaginator(Generic[PageT_co], discord.ui.View):
         super().__init__(timeout=timeout)
         if not pages:
             raise ValueError("ButtonPaginator requires at least one page")
+        if per_page < 1:
+            # per_page <= 0 would ZeroDivisionError (==0) or yield a negative max_pages
+            # (<0) at the divmod below; fail loud like the other construction guards
+            raise ValueError("per_page must be >= 1")
         self.author_id: Optional[int] = author_id
         self.delete_message_after: bool = delete_message_after
         self.mentions_allowed = mentions_allowed or discord.AllowedMentions.all()
@@ -427,3 +434,7 @@ class ButtonPaginator(Generic[PageT_co], discord.ui.View):
             await self.message.delete()
         except (discord.NotFound, discord.Forbidden):
             pass
+        except discord.HTTPException:
+            # on_timeout runs as a fire-and-forget task; a transient delete failure must
+            # not surface as an unretrieved-task traceback on a best-effort cleanup
+            log.warning("paginator on_timeout: failed to delete message", exc_info=True)