In Which the Party Gets Loud
Alice
She shouldn't have been as surprised as she was. After twenty years of knowing them, Alice should have realized that her parents would not have let her homecoming be a quiet one. She was honestly a little shocked at how small the gathering was. Hannah and Neville had skipped out on inviting all of the extended family and acquaintances. The surprise party was only 75 of their closest friends.
The night wore on. Alice had given so many hugs and smiled so brightly her arms were sore and her cheeks burned. Eventually she found herself sitting at one of the tables her parents had brought up from the bar below. The wooden bench she sat on was hard beneath her and the table was still sticky despite no doubt being helplessly scrubbed at by every member of the Longbottom clan. You could never really get butterbeer out of wood. Alice sat between her (not so) little brother Frank and best friend Rose. Across from them was Lily and Albus Potter. They were all talking about the last Quidditch match between the Chudley Cannons and the Wimbourne Wasps. As Alice had just arrived back in the country, she was not up to date in all things Quidditch. And even if she had been, Alice would most likely not have been following the sport. She didn't dislike it, just never really bothered to follow along with it like her best friend and many other Hogwarts students.
Alice stifled a yawn behind her hand. She was still not acclimated to the time change, her body still back in New York. She glanced at her watch, it was getting late, another 20 minutes and she could make an appropriate excuse to leave. Twenty more minutes of saying pleasant good byes and she would be on her way to floo back to her apartment.
"Where are you living, Alice?" a voice asked, calling Alice out of her thoughts and back to the sticky wooden table and the people that surrounded it. She looked up to see Lily had been the one to address her.
"In a little apartment in West London. I can't quite remember the streets but it's over a cute little pub."
"You've just described about half of the buildings," snorted Albus. "They've all got a pub below, or a Boots." Albus smiled slightly at his response as the other members at the table, namely Alice, rolled their eyes as his sassy remark.
"So what will you be doing at your new job?" Frank asked, ignoring Albus.
"Much of the same as the last one. Mostly reading manuscripts that the higher-ups can't be bothered with. My title hasn't changed merely my office. But I've come over specifically with a writer so I have no idea if I will just be working with him or not."
"Who is it? Anyone we might know?" Lily's perfectly plucked red eyebrow rose.
"William Desmond," Alice replied, almost unsure as she did not know if they were aware of who that was.
"That name is so familiar," said Rose, scratching her head.
"He was a few years ahead of us at Hogwarts I think," said Albus.
"And he wrote Underground, that book about muggle-borns escaping England during the war." Scorpius added, sitting down on the bench next to Lily. She smiled up at him and gave him a hug.
"Scorpy I haven't seen you in ages! How's everything going?" Lily cried as she squeezed the blonde boy in her arms.
He smiled slightly and Rose flinched so hard that Alice felt it next to her. Sensing her friends discomfort Alice decided now was as good a time as any to start saying goodnight. Alice yawned louder than was probably necessary, stopping Scorpy from responding.
"Well, I think it's time I called it a night. I'm still a bit tired from the journey and my body still thinks it's in America."
"It was so nice seeing you," Lily smiled sincerely.
Alice stood up, followed by Rose and soon everyone else as they began to say their goodbyes.
Life moved on and Alice found her groove back in the UK. Every Sunday she would floo to Hogsmeade for dinner with her parents and her brother (if he could get away from school). Her office was only a few blocks away from the Ministry so she would make a concerted effort to see Rose at least once a week for lunch at one of the pubs or cafés that lined the streets. They were always loud and full of people, muggle and wizards alike. Every once in a while they would see someone from work or a fellow former Hogwarts student picking up a sandwich or grabbing a quick cup before jetting back to their lives. It was on one such summer day that Alice and Rose ran into a young man Alice had not seen since her welcome back party.
Alice had gotten up to go get another cup of tea at the counter and when she came back her seat was occupied by a messy haired young man. His back was to her but when Rose looked up to acknowledge her return, he swiveled around in the plastic seat to look at her.
"Hi Alice," Albus said with a smile that only lifted the lifted the right side of his mouth.
"Albus," Alice was careful not to spill her tea as she smiled at the green eyed boy. Albus didn't quite realize he had commandeered her seat forcing Alice to sit in the empty one between the two cousins.
"Albus finishes his second year of Auror training this Friday," Rose filled in before there could be a lull in the conversation.
"Oh wow!" Alice gushed, "That is truly amazing. Congrats." She patted him on the arm in celebration.
"Thanks. Training can be brutal," Albus said. He rolled his eyes. That seemed almost like an understatement. Alice could see the edges of a large purple bruise peaking out from under his grey t-shirt and he had a cut above his left eyebrow. However, training didn't seem all bad as the arm she had just patted had been strong underneath her hand. Not that she had much to compare it too as she had never really touched his arm before. She'd only ever imagined doing that, late at night, unconsciously as she drifted off to sleep… but that was besides the point.
"Well," Albus huffed, "I must be off, seeing my mum about some pesky family business that just must be taken care of." He smiled at his cousin before standing up from the sunshine yellow chair. "Alice, see you around I'm sure. Rosie, see you Saturday." And with one last wave, Albus turned on his heals and walked out of the room with all of the confidence of a man who was more than aware that he would be the first one to put his life at risk for the people in this room, and would do so happily. Which, for the record, was a lot of confidence.
Alice sat flustered for a moment. She sometimes felt that Albus would come in like a hurricane, with a flurry of action and Alice's usual calm life had to adjust to it. It wasn't that her life was never busy, in fact it usually was, it was just that Albus had a way of making everything seem… bigger, almost. He just had an air that everything he said was not just important but hilarious and insightful and miraculously cliché yet understood by all at the same time. It made her heart speed up and her senses go to overdrive in a futile attempt to keep up. It was both frightening and exhilarating when his attention was turned on you because it meant that you got to play along in his game of wit and word, something she had become more adept at over the years. And especially now that she was working with text. The increased heart rate and rapt attention used to scare her but now those (few and far between) moments when she would see him and those even fewer and farther between ones where he would address her were things she desperately looked forward too. And it didn't hurt that when he fixed his interest on someone his green eyes shown and he ran his hand through his already unruly hair, making it somehow even messier yet even better all at the same time.
Once she had regained her composure, which hadn't been lost so much as misplaced for a minute in her mind, like when you forget for a second where you put your wand, she looked up at her friend. Rose was stirring another sugar packet into her milky tea, absentmindedly staring out the window at the people walking past outside. Yet the café window faced a small alley, and there wasn't much to look at. Rose was really just staring at the brick wall across the way.
"What's Saturday?" Alice asked, figuring it was some type of family event as the Weasley clan seemed to have at least one a week.
"Hmm?" Rose said, her eyes torn from the red brick.
"Saturday. Albus mentioned something about seeing you this weekend." Alice's eyebrows rose up under the fringe on her forehead.
"Oh, that! Just a small gathering in celebration of him and Scorpius finishing their second year." Rose said, continuing to stir her tea. Her eyes stared down at it, so intently that Alice wondered if Rose had learned some secret visual magic that could allow her to heat lukewarm beverages.
"Rose, are you alright?" Alice reached across the table and stopped her best friend of nearly a decade from stirring until the spoon broke.
"It's just," Rose sighed, finally looking up Alice, "the whole Scorpius thing."
Alice smiled sympathetically but inwardly rolled her eyes.
"Hun, it's been two years since then-"
"I know!" Rose exclaimed, receiving a withering look from the old lady at the table one over from them.
"It's just" Rose sighed again and continued, quieter, "Every time I see him it hurts. I just think of what we used to have. Not in a romantic sort of way, I just miss him. And not just because we really clicked that night after graduation, but all the years of being friends, both secretly and not so secretly. We went from barely acknowledging each other to him being one of the closest people in my life to us being nothing at all. It just sucks that we got the timing so fucked. That that night couldn't have happened sooner or maybe never happened at all. But I also don't wish those things because it was amazing and knowing that he felt the same way, at least at one point, at least a little, gave me the chance to maybe move on from the whole thing. From feeling the way I did about him. Because, to be honest, I think I loved him. I don't know what that even means though. I didn't know what love was at eighteen and I don't know what it is now either. Sometimes I just wish we could have had a real go at it. Had an actual honest-to-Merlin shot at making whatever it was between us work. Because sleeping together that one time was not the way to do it. We shouldn't have let each other leave and blow it off like it was nothing. To me it wasn't nothing, it was a whole lot of something that I'm scared I'll never find again. Not just with Scorpius, but with anyone. And so when I see him it hurts because there are so many things going on and I just don't know how to deal with them."
During this whole speech, Rose's hand never left Alice's. Alice squeezed it hard, wanting one of the people who knew her better than anyone to know that she was there, no matter what. "Have you felt this way all this time."
"Always," Rose replied. "And I know I'll never say anything about it to him because I don't want to mess up the timing again."
"Have you talked to anyone about it?"
"The only other person would be Albus who is out as he is now so close to Scorpius and, ironically, before this whole thing happened, Scorpius himself."
"I only wish you had told me sooner, but this isn't really something one can convey over floo or in a letter."
"I know, me as well. But I'm glad you're here now. Hopefully for good."
Alice smiled softly at her friend, "For good."
It was late Saturday evening when Alice suddenly awoke from her nap. She hadn't meant to fall asleep but after she got into bed for a quiet night in, her eyes had started to droop. Alice had planned a whole evening by herself as her flat was empty. Devon was out on a date with his boyfriend and wouldn't be back until the morning while Isabel had gone home to Texas to visit her family for the Fourth of July. "Even wizards can be patriotic!" She had exclaimed as she showed Alice her American flag bikini.
Before getting in bed, Alice had made herself a nice dinner and sat listening to some old wizard songs her parents liked and reading a book that her company's rival had just published. She had cleaned up the kitchen and gone to her bed, planning on continuing to read the sappy romance. However once her head hit the pillow, unwarranted fatigue kicked in and before she knew it she was being startled awake by what sounded like loud banging coming from the living room. Her room was darker than it had been when she fell asleep and moonlight poured in through the unblocked window. Slightly scared of what might be beyond the door, she sat up and grabbed her wand. The banging stopped for a moment, and she relaxed but flinched again when it sounded louder when it restarted. Deciding that she wasn't one to sit by and let her place get ransacked, she silently stepped on the floor. The banging stopped and Rose tip toed to the door. She opened it, hoping it wouldn't squeak and walked into the darkened hallway. There was another window at the end of the hallway, letting in a little more of the summer moons brightness.
Alice made it down to the end of the hall where it opened up to the sitting room and kitchen. She sighed and moved out into the open, wand at the ready, prepared to battle whoever dare enter her home and sanctuary.
She was met with nothing.
The banging started again and Alice looked around room. Nothing seemed out of place and there was not anywhere one could conceivably hide. Listening more intently for the source of the noise, Alice realized it wasn't coming from inside the apartment, but from below it. Alice stopped for a moment and decided to try and go back to bed now that she realized that there was no threat to her home.
Once she walked back to her bed, the banging had stopped. She began to drift off again, but then it started up again. As she listened to it, it started to seem that the bangs had a pattern to them, almost like the people below was banging on the ceiling to a song- with a sledge hammer. She tried to fall back asleep but the noise was too loud. She looked at her watch and saw that it was already almost a half an hour into Sunday morning. Alice didn't want to be that neighbor but she did have work to do in the morning. Her life working for Nancy Bowbenof and, more specifically, Will was very hectic. She had notes due on his new book first thing Monday morning and had been planning on spending all of Sunday working.
Alice swung her legs back over the side of her bed. She shuffled around looking for a loose sweatshirt, finding an old Gryffindor one at the end of her bed. She pulled on her furry boots and shuffled out of her apartment, making sure she locked it behind her. Ask she walked, she haphazardly pulled her blonde hair up into a ponytail. She silently prayed to whoever might be listening that her downstairs neighbors would be kind (and sober) enough to stop whatever banging they were doing. She walked to the stairway at the end of the hall, walking slowly down the winding passage to the fourth floor. She walked down the hall identical to the one above until she came to the offending flat: 405.
After knocking rather loudly on the door, Alice patiently waited for a few moments, hoping someone would come to the door. She knew this was the right door as she could still hear the occupants banging loudly inside. Alice suddenly got the horrible idea that maybe there was a couple inside and they were having sex and that she would be intruding and now it would be awkward whenever she saw them around the building. And even though the noise had been coming from their ceiling, this building was wizards only and she had heard some… interesting stories of wizard sex that involved things far too complicated and excessive for Alice's taste. However before she could run away from any potential embarrassment, the door opened wide.
The first thing she noticed about the man in the doorway was his hair. It was so blonde it almost looked white. His head was turned away from her, laughing at a joke someone inside had made. He was quite tall and she didn't recognize him until he turned to face her, the continuation of his laugh still adorned his mouth. Once he saw who stood in the door way, he looked slightly confused and Alice was sure she did as well. For the man in the door was someone she had not expected to see.
Scorpius Malfoy's eyebrows nit together as what must have been his drunken mind trying to figure out how Alice Longbottom came to be standing at his door way during the wee hours of the morning.
"Hey Scorpius. I didn't realize you were my downstairs neighbor but I just came down to see if anything was the matter as there has been a loud banging noise in my flat and I just wanted to see if maybe you could keep it down a little?" She rambled this much more than she meant to.
"Oy!" Scorpius called behind him, not being quiet at all, "Keep it down, will you Al, you woke up poor LB here!"
Alice turned red as she knew the other occupant of the apartment must now be curious as to why Alice Longbottom had been awoken by the noise. But the music she had heard upstairs suddenly stopped. And along with it the loud base that she inferred must have been the cause of the banging.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Albus called back, his voice getting louder as he walked towards the door. He stopped short when he rounded the corner and saw Alice standing in the door. A big lopsided smile came on his face as the drunken 20-year-old came to the doorway and grabbed Alice in a most unexpected hug. Her breath caught and he set her down.
"What are you doing here?" The smile never leaving Albus' face.
"Well, I heard banging and came to see if I could ask you to keep it down. I know that sounds awfully lame of me but I really have a lot to do…" She trailed off, not wanting to sound even worse than she already probably did.
Suddenly there was a squeal and Alice was almost toppled over into the hallway. She had been attacked by her best friend.
"Ah! What are you doing here Alice?!" Cried Rose.
Alice, not wanting to explain herself a third time, merely shrugged her shoulders and said "I live a floor above." She figured that was enough explanation for her drunk friend.
"Well you have to come in! We're celebrating Albus and Scorpius completing more of their Auror training."
"Yes I know. You told me that yesterday." Alice smiled at her friend and allowed herself to be pulled into the apartment. It looked very much like her flat upstairs, only a little smaller as it was for two people instead of three. She looked around to see only three more people in the room. James Potter, Albus' older brother and Rose's cousin. Alice had not known him well at Hogwarts but his reputation of being as big a troublemaker as his uncles and grandfather preceded him. Sitting on the warn leather couch next to him was another member of their large family, Roxy Weasley. She had been a year above them at Hogwarts and one of Rose's favorite cousins, meaning Alice had become friends with her too. Yet they had lost contact over the years since school. A third guest sat on the ottoman next to the coffee table, Blake Zabini. A close friend of Scorpius' that Alice had rarely spoken to. All she knew of him was that, like Scorpius, he was desperate to get away from his family's past and move on with his life. Alice was more than happy to let him do so.
Alice finally climbed back into her own bed around three hours later. She had spent the early morning hours in the flat below hers getting to a point of drunkenness where she matched her companions. She reconnected with Roxy and talked to Blake for what might have been the first time despite being in many of the same classes at Hogwarts. She even managed to her a pleasant conversation with Albus, who wasn't nearly as intimidating when both parties were drunk.
It was not easy getting up that morning to do work.
