AN: Ever had a story planned out in your mind, only to find it doesn't come out that way on the page? That's what happened with this. Oh yes, characters are not mine.
She looked around the busy club, from her vantage point at the bar. No-one had caught her attention yet, but it was still fairly early. The bartender knew exactly why she was here, and wordlessly refilled her drink. Nodding her thanks, she returned to scanning the crowd. It was becoming a bad habit, this. One day, perhaps, she'd come to terms with her past, and stop picking up random strangers in this club. Always here, as though it was somehow important. This barstool might as well be reserved for her; actually, knowing the bartender, it might well be. Same drink every time, vodka and orange. Well, that's what she'd been drinking on the night her world came crashing down, so perhaps if she carried on drinking, it would either improve or she'd be so drunk she wouldn't care. Usually, it was the latter.
Sometimes she'd approach someone who interested her, sometimes she wouldn't. Sex and alcohol were supposed to blot out all emotional pain, but it just seemed to be making it sharper. Then again, it wasn't every day your lover left you for your worst rival. So she felt entitled to be angry, to try to rid herself of the loneliness any way possible.
Now she thought about it, her desperate quests to forget things was how they'd ended up together in the first place. She'd just been dumped by her first real boyfriend, Fred Weasley, and had gone to hide in the dorm, wanting to be left alone. Alicia had followed her, knowing something was wrong. In the middle of her outburst, she'd declared all men were scum, and had been surprised to find Alicia agreeing. That was the start of a five year… love affair, was the most appropriate description, really.
Five years that had some to an end just one year ago. The longest year of Katie Bell's life.
…………………
Shaking her head, she snapped out of her musings. One day, she'd recover enough to stop coming here, to the place where Alicia had danced with, kissed and then gone home with Marcus Flint. The very same Marcus Flint that had taunted them all through Hogwarts for being female quidditch players.
Someone sat next to her, and called the bartender over.
"A scotch please, and whatever the lady was drinking." He indicated her, and she spun round to face him.
"I don't let strangers buy me drinks."
"But we're not strangers, Katie."
He knew her name, but she couldn't place him. He didn't look or sound familiar, and she raised one questioning eyebrow, waiting for him to introduce himself. As his drink was placed in front of him, he pushed up his sleeves slightly, revealing a wand strapped to his forearm. A risky move, in a club filled with muggles, but she knew immediately that he was a wizard.
"Hogwarts?" she whispered. "What house?"
"Not yours, kitten. Not yours."
Kitten. Why did that sound familiar? Who had used the word kitten? If he didn't want to say what house he'd been in, that meant it was Slytherin. That meant, she thought in horror, he could have been sent here by Marcus and/or Alicia, in some sort of bizarre humiliation – not that she'd done anything wrong – Alicia had been the one to leave her, not the other way around.
"You really don't remember, do you, kitten?" He wasn't mocking her, surprisingly enough, but almost seemed upset. She shook her head, still trying to remember. Suddenly, it came to her. Perhaps the alcohol had been dulling her brain, but one member of the Slytherin quidditch team had repeatedly called her, and the other two girls, "kitten". This was the first time, however, that it hadn't sounded condescending.
"What brings you to a muggle club, Pucey?"
He laughed, softly. "Kitten, why so hostile? Call me Adrian, we're not quidditch rivals any more."
She nodded, still reluctant.
"That still doesn't answer my question."
"Why I'm here? Because, as much as it pains me to admit it, muggles have much better music than we do."
Well, that much was true. If she had to listen to Celestina Warbeck any more, she might just go insane. Then again, music wasn't really considered a proper career, like it was in the muggle world.
"Dance with me?" The question was completely unexpected, and caught Katie off-guard.
"With you?"
"I've seen you dance at the Hogwarts balls, I know you're good. Yes, of course with me."
Shrugging, she stood up and held out a hand to him. He smirked, in that irritating way that all Slytherins seemed to have perfected, and swept her onto the dance floor. She'd been having dance lessons for as long as she could remember, it was something she'd always loved. She was surprised by his skill, and commented on it.
"Do you really think I could have grown up in a prestigious pureblood family without learning to dance? I assure you, every minute of those lessons was torture." He had such a pained expression that Katie had to laugh. She had no doubt that he'd hated it.
His hands touched places she'd never have allowed normally; in fact, she wasn't sure why she allowed it now, except it all seemed so accidental. And, she had to admit, it had been ages since anybody had made her feel attractive. Despite everything, Adrian Pucey had made her feel sexy again, even though they'd been enemies, she'd had bad experiences with men, he might just be here to make fun of her.
On the crowded dance floor, someone knocked into Katie, and she fell, awkwardly. Adrian caught her before she could hit either the floor or someone else, and pulled her back onto her feet. She clung to him until she felt her balance returning. He leaned down, and she could feel his breath on her neck, sending shivers down her spine.
"Perhaps we'd better leave – it's getting dangerous."
It might have been the alcohol, or it might have been her hormones, it didn't matter. Without protesting, she took his hand and allowed him to lead her outside. In the fresh air, her stomach rebelled against all the alcohol she'd ingested, and she vomited violently into the gutter. To her surprise, this didn't worry Pu… Adrian. He gathered up her long hair and held it back, out of the way.
"Come on, let's get you some water."
She nodded, weakly.
It turned out that his apartment was only a few minutes away, and that's where he led her. She gratefully sipped at the water, and tried to cast a scourgify, but couldn't. He realised, and cast the spell for her, before wrapping his arms around her and settling them both in a large, comfy armchair. She felt relaxed, which surprised her, but decided to worry about it later.
He brushed a kiss on the side of her neck, and that was the last thing she remembered from that night.
………………….
When Katie woke, she lay on the bed with her eyes closed for a few moments to assess her condition. Headache – not too bad, will be sorted by a couple of painkillers. Eyes – not overly sensitive to light, well, I'm not burying my head under the pillow yet. Location... this one required opening her eyes, which she did so very slowly. Hmm, not my room, which means I went home with someone. Wait, what am I wearing? A t-shirt that definitely isn't mine. Ok, where am I? Time to find out. She slowly sat up, not wanting to make her headache any worse, and padded out of the bedroom. And stopped in the doorway when she saw who lived here.
"What was I thinking last night?"
"Good morning, kitten." He pointed to a pain relief potion on the table. "That's for you."
"How'd you know – what did you do?"
"I saw how much you had to drink last night, that's all."
"OK." She gulped down the potion, and the throbbing pain in her head began to fade. "As long as you didn't… you know… do anything."
"I'm not in the habit of taking advantage of drunk women, unlike some I could name."
As her headache disappeared, her memories of last night began to return.
"Thank you, Adrian."
"Why do you do it? Go there and get drunk, I mean. I'm pretty sure you're a regular there."
"To try to forget past relationships, neither of which ended well."
"I see." He paused. "One of them was with Alicia?"
"How would you know?"
"Flint and I work together – he was boasting about how he'd shagged her the night he stole her from her girlfriend. Since Angelina Johnson's married, that meant it was likely to be you."
She nodded, not knowing what to say. The attraction she'd felt last night was still very much present, which worried her slightly. Her only two real relationships had both ended in disaster, and she was unwilling to risk having her heart broken a third time.
"Can I use your shower?"
"That way." He gestured towards a door on the far side of the room, and she walked over. What she didn't know, however, was that his attention was firmly fixed on her bare legs, visible beneath the t-shirt she was wearing. He was grateful that she couldn't see him – she'd probably have hexed him. And make no mistake, that woman knew some horrible hexes, as he'd found out at school. Adrian put that down to the Weasley influence – she'd probably learnt them as a form of self-defence.
………………
Katie stood in front of the mirror, waiting for the shower to warm up. She looked an absolute fright, and was surprised that he hadn't thrown her out as soon as she'd woken up. Still, at least she could apparate home without splinching herself, like she'd probably have done last night. Testing the water, she decided it was warm enough. Stripping off the baggy t-shirt, she stepped into the shower. It was surprising how much better a hot shower could make you feel.
Afterwards, she wrapped a towel around herself and poked her head out of the bathroom.
"Where did you put my clothes?"
"They're in the bedroom, kitten."
"Thanks."
That meant she had to walk past him wearing nothing but a towel. Bugger. Nervously, she walked out, clutching the towel tightly. Now was not the time to be clumsy and trip over something. Unfortunately for Katie, the more she concentrated on being careful, the more likely she was to fall over. Which, of course, is exactly what happened.
Realising that she didn't want to let go of the towel (not that he blamed her), Adrian helped up the furiously blushing Katie.
"Calm down, kitten. You're not hurt, are you?"
Too embarrassed to speak, she simply shook her head. No, only her pride was hurt.
"That's good."
He then made the mistake of glancing down, his eyes raking over her body. What she didn't realise was that pulling the towel so tight showed off her figure perfectly, and he liked what he saw. Leaning down slightly, he captured her lips with his own. To his surprise, she didn't push him away in disgust, or slap him (which, if he was being honest, he'd expected). She seemed momentarily paralysed, before kissing him back. Touching his tongue to her lips, he was amazed to find her mouth opening, her tongue against his as he deepened the kiss. Their arms wrapped around each other, moving closer together. Katie's hands tangling in his hair, stopping him from escaping. Not that he wanted to. In fact, he'd be quite happy to do this for hours.
They had to stop, however, in order to breathe.
"Katie… I'm…"
"Don't apologise. Not for that."
"I won't, then." He paused, eyes raking over her again. "You look so damn sexy right now, kitten."
"Shut up and kiss me." She launched herself at him, and they landed in a heap on the sofa. Where they stayed for at least the next half hour, at which point Katie decided she'd better get dressed before things went too far.
"You will stay here tonight though, won't you, kitten?"
"Let me fetch a few things from home, and I'll be right back."
A few things turned out to be most of her belongings, one night turned into many, and it wasn't long before she'd officially moved in.
AN: I feel really mean, writing Alicia as the nasty one, because I like the character, but I needed someone to fill that role. So, it's time for you to review!