Diagon Alley

Club Imperio - Cosmo - Write about a popular girl Additional Prompt: Lemon Slice [Dialogue: "When life gives you lemons, you take a deep breath, and crack open a bottle of tequila."]

Versatility - 100 characters - Daphne Greengrass

Bingo - Accio

Potions Club - Ginger Root - Write about something or someone that's metaphorically sweet but fiery.

Gringotts:

Misc Locations - Forbidden Forest

Friends prompts - (Dialogue) "Please don't do that again, it's a horrible sound."

Nature words: 1. Forest 2. Foliage

Loosely based on the myth of Daphne and Apollo

Daphne was leaning against a laurel in the Forbidden Forest. It had become her sanctuary when she needed a break from her peers — and more recently to get peace from Draco Malfoy.

The laurel was situated next to a river running through the forest to meet the Black Lake at its end. It was situated close enough to the lake and the castle that not many beasts came here, but far enough away that the occasional unicorn or friendly creature came to drink from the water. Sometimes she would bring a book to read while she was sitting there, other times she would just be writing in her journal or contemplate where she wanted to travel when she was finally out of Hogwarts.

A rustle in the foliage nearby alerted her to something coming closer. She sat up straight and closed her book hoping it might be a deer — they were her favorite type of animal.

Sadly, it wasn't an animal coming to take a drink, it was Draco in pursuit after her. She groaned when she saw him and gathered her things to head back to the castle.

"Daphne! There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"I know," she mumbled and tried to walk away from him, but he was faster and quickly blocked her exit route.

"What do you want, Draco?"

"You, Daphne, I think I've made that pretty clear."

"And I've made it clear that I don't want anything to do with you."

"Don't be like that Daph." He moved closer and tried to take one of her hands but she pulled her hands away.

"Don't call me Daph," she warned.

"Why? Tracey gets to call you that."

"Tracey is my friend."

"And I'm more than that."

She scoffed. "You wish."

"It makes sense for us to be together, the two most popular people in school. We could rule the castle together."

"I'm not interested, Draco," she said and sidestepped him. He reached out and caught her hand just before she had managed to slip away. She stared at the hand and then Draco in disgust. "Let go of me."

"Not until you see reason. We belong together"

Daphne was getting pissed off. It was bad enough that her mother kept pestering her about marriage and potential matches, Draco being a creepy stalker on top of it made her want to punch a wall.

But, she was too smart to hurt herself over a boy. Instead, she took her anger out on Draco by drawing her wand and saying, "Accio laurel branch." The branch swung and hit Draco over the face and Draco was out cold before he hit the ground.

She laughed a little and walked back to the Slytherin common room after she had made sure he still had a pulse. He deserved to lay out in the cold for a while and she was craving some time in the dungeons without his presence.

The Slytherin Common Room was empty except for a few people. One of them was Tracey Davis, her best friend, sitting alone on a large couch over by the fireplace, who Daphne walked over to straight away.

"Daphne, where have you been?" Tracey questioned without looking up from her book.

"Reading."

"You don't look like you've been reading."

"Draco found me," Daphne explained with a roll of her eyes before she plopped down on the couch next to Tracey. She put her head on Tracey's lap and her feet up on the armrest.

"Ah," Tracey retorted and went back to reading her book.

Pansy made a noise that was high pitched and made an owl hoot in annoyance.

"Please don't do that again, it's a horrible sound," Daphne said.

"You shouldn't be so mean to Draco!" Pansy said.

Pansy looked up at Tracey who pursed her lips to refrain from smiling. Pansy always did this, and they were quite sick of hearing about 'the wonders of Draco Malfoy'.

"Why not?" Daphne said even though she knew she should have just shut up.

"Daph," Tracey whispered in warning.

"Because he is amazing, you are lucky he even likes you. No one else does."

"Really, Pansy?" Daphne sat up straight and stared the other girl down. "Here I thought you were the outcast."

Pansy looked outraged and started to splutter a response but Daphne cut her off. "I'm sure Draco desperately needs your help, I left him out in the forest somewhere." Her words made Pansy look green, the girl hated the forest and wouldn't set foot anywhere near it, not even Draco could make her go.

"He is brilliant, I am sure he doesn't need my help."

Daphne could see the corner of Tracey's lip twitching when she laughed at Pansy. Pansy, on the other hand, turned her nose up at them and returned to her homework.

After a while, Blaise came down from his dorm room and walked over to join them. He sat down next to Tracey and put his feet in her lap. Tracey didn't deign their friend with a glance, only one thing could get her to look away from her book, but Theo hadn't gotten back from the library yet. Blaise was always surprised that Tracey didn't respond to him at all. According to him, she was a nerd and should therefore at least blush at his presence. He continued to try and flirt with her to wear her down but Tracey had no reaction. Then when Theo came into the room, she blushed at once.

Blaise looked at Daphne and pouted. "You still love me, don't you Daphne?"

"Not today, today sucks. My hair is full of twigs." She grimaced and pulled one out of her and flicked it in the general direction of Pansy.

"You know," Blaise said and moved to sit next to Daphne, squeezing himself between the two girls. "When life gives you lemons, you take a deep breath, and crack open a bottle of tequila."

"Do you have tequila?" Daphne asked.

"No."

"Then you're not helping, you're just teasing."

"Would you love me if I had Tequila?"

"Yes, even more than I love Tracey."

"Hey!" the girl in questioned yelled.

"What? He doesn't have tequila so I still love you more."

Blaise smiled a half smile and leaned closer to whisper in Daphne's ear. "But I know who does."

"Who?"

"Theo."

"Can we convince him to give us some?"

"We can't," Blaise said and pointedly looked at Tracey.

"What?" Tracey asked, still not looking up from the book (unless you counted the occasional glances towards Theo).

"Please go convince Theo to share his tequila," Daphne pleaded with Tracey while leaning over Blaise to give her a puppy dog stare.

"Why do you think I'll be able to convince him?"

"Because he's crazy about you," Blaise said. At his words, Tracey dropped her book and looked wide eyed at Blaise with her mouth hanging open.

"Close your mouth Trace, Theo's watching," Daphne said.

Tracey quickly shut her mouth and looked over at Theo who was indeed looking at her after she had dropped her book on the floor. She blushed and looked away when he caught her eye. Theo smiled and closed his book before he walked over to them, picked up the book, and handed it to Tracey.

"Thanks," Tracey said.

"No problem," Theo responded.

When Tracey took the book their hands touched. They both stopped and stared at each other, too caught up in the moment to realize there were other people present.

"Join us mate," Blaise said and broke the silence. Daphne smacked him but he just looked at her with a raised brow.

Theo wasn't bothered, he sat down on the chair close to them and asked what they had been talking about.

"Tequila," Daphne said at once, cutting off whatever Blaise was about to say. Daphne was sure he would say something about Tracey and Theo and wanted to stop Blaise from ruining how good they were together in that moment.

"Tequila?" Theo questioned.

"Yes, I heard you have some?" Daphne said.

"What do I get in return?"

Before Blaise could say something to that Daphne poked Blaise in the ribs and said, "The pleasure of our company, of course."

Theo shook his head at her but didn't object. "Let's wait until the younger years have retired?"

Daphne smiled and wanted to respond something but was distracted when Blaise pulled out another twig from her hair. "Ow."

"You're starting to look like Granger. I thought the aim was to keep Draco away from you."

Daphne pretended to gag before she started arguing with Blaise. Meanwhile, Theo and Tracey made doe eyes at each other and a few awkward attempts at conversation.

Much later Theo went upstairs and got his tequila. They started drinking while Pansy eyed them with disdain and made noises to show how annoyed she was. It wasn't until they were at their third shots that Draco showed up. He made a show of how hurt he was by what Daphne had done to him earlier before he and Pansy disappeared upstairs.

Their only reaction was to yell taunts after them and laugh before they had another shot. It was right around this time that Theo and Tracey found themselves on the other couch, making out and forgetting their two friends sitting nearby.

"I wish their first kiss was something they would remember," Daphne remarked to Blaise while she was nursing her drink.

"This isn't their first kiss."

"It isn't?"

"No, their first kiss was in the library. Something about reaching for a book and their mouths colliding when they both reached across from each other."

Daphne snorted. "Sounds like them."

Blaise smiled at that and leaned back on the sofa. "You ever think you'll have that?"

"Awkward kisses while reaching for a book?"

"No, love."

"Love?" Daphne contemplated how she was supposed to respond to this. She knew what she wanted, but she never knew how to voice it. "I don't want or need love."

"You don't?"

"No, do you?"

Blaise snorted. "With my mom, I don't think of love the same way people like those two do."

"So you don't want it?"

"No, I really want to be loved and love someone. I just don't know how."

"I just wanna live, and I couldn't do that if I was—" She sighed, unable to voice her more complex thoughts while inebriated.

"—married?" Blaise finished for her.

"A Malfoy."

Blaise laughed and they toasted before taking another shot. The rest of the night was never remembered again. Years later she found a picture of Blaise with a laurel crown and her standing next to him posing as a tree — she didn't know what it meant, but it was a fond memory to look back on while she was on the road, traveling alone to far away places.