He raised his glass to drink, because it was obvious he had done that countless times. It was just curiosity that made him ask it, because Linda had always seemed so direct and kind of naively honest.
He wasn't really surprised when she looked him directly in the eyes, raised her glass, and drank. But still he couldn't suppress the question, "When?"
"Tsk tsk tsk Mr Yaxley, now what did we say about discussing answers?" she grinned. "My turn."
She paused for a moment and Orion could almost see her mind working.
"Never have I ever kissed someone from another house. Accidents and spells gone wrong not included", she finally said and looked at him expectantly.
Things started getting serious… He raised his glass slowly and took a sip while watching her doing the same.
She beamed at him:"Okay, forget that stupid rule. Who was it?!"
It was so obvious this would be coming. He only raised his eyebrow: "Do you really think I'm going to tell you?" he said, sarcastically.
She mimicked him and suggested: "If I tell you that all drinks tonight will be on me, will you tell me?"
He just smirked, before he replied. "Money never was an issue in my family."
She would have to offer him more than that to make him talk. "If I ask really, really, really nicely?" she tried, leaning over the table.
He just shook his head. "No. My turn", Orion said firmly and watched Linda's frustration with amusement.
"You're just not drunk enough." She gestured at him, that Orion started to fear she might crash one of the glasses.
He grinned widely. "Never have I ever been drunken enough to do something incredibly stupid", he continued the game and took another gulp.
"I don't have to be drunk for that," she said, folding her arms in front of her chest.
Orion was a bit confused. "Fine, don't drink, then."
He shrugged and watched her. At least she recognized it, unlike back in School. "I just want to give you a head start. I'm Irish. I was raised on cider. My turn. Never have I ever kissed someone from Gryffindor", was her next move.
Again, Orion raised his eyebrow. "Do you really think I could have kissed a Gryffindor?" he replied, pretending to be shocked. but he didn't touch his glass.
She shrugged. "There are worse things to kiss, I suppose."
"Like what?" he had asked before he could help it.
"Like, I don't know. Filch. Snape. Slytherins. Whatever. Your turn", she explained.
He narrowed his eyes. Come on, it wasn't that bad kissing me, was it? he thought, but didn't say it and just continued the game. Let's see, if she…
"Never have I ever kissed a Slytherin. Accidents and Spells gone wrong not included", he stated and immediately took his glass to drink.
It was obvious he had as his wife had been a Slytherin. Linda on the other hand smirked as she watched him drink and didn't touch her glass. He grinned: "Would have surprised me... but you never know..."
Linda was suddenly very keen to continue. "Speaking of: my turn. That pretty much narrows it down, unless you want to include Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. Never have I ever kissed someone from Ravenclaw, accidents blah and all that", she said and watched him expectantly. He didn't move.
Neither did she. They both stared at their glasses for a while, then, Orion broke the silence. "You didn't, either?" he asked, unable to suppress the surprise in his voice.
She had been a Ravenclaw after all, and had never had anything with a boy of her house?
"Bunch of morons, the lot of them. Besides, Aidan was too busy lusting after Lucinda Carrow to notice any girls from his house", she babbled, and then looked at him.
"Well. Go ahead." He just shook his head. "To hear that out of your mouth..." he pondered.
"A dream come true, eh? Go on. Say it. One house left", Linda said, expectantly.
But Orion only smirked. "It's your question", and went on with another one.
"Never have I ever used sex to get what I want", he said, a bit too loudly.
He noticed that the entire pub had turned their heads in his direction but didn't care. Neither of them drank.
Linda smirked. "My, aren't we just the two saints", she said, smiling, and immediately asked the question he had purposefully left out.
"Okay, since you won't say it, I will: Never have I ever kissed someone from Hufflepuff", she stated and drained her glass in one gulp. There you go, he thought and took up his glass to drink.
This seemed to excite Linda. "Ye Gods! Who? I don't care about the rules, tell me right now or your next cider will contain veritaserum!"
Orion smirked. "I let you guess", it was funny to watch her act like an old gossip.
"We could shout the names at each other", she suggested, laughing out loud."On the count of three."
Orion stayed calm. "You know perfectly well I won't", he replied.
It was a good sign that he actually was getting drunk, because otherwise he would just tried her. Linda wasn't happy.
"Aw come on Yaxley, loosen up! Okay, uhm... what was her name... the one with the glasses. Patricia... Howard? Howards!" she guessed.
"Every wrong guess, you have to drink... so... no, not her", he said.
This evening was about drinking, wasn't it? "I guess you have... Benjamin Hayes?" he tried.
It was an obvious choice, because this Hufflepuff had been known to like to play with girls. But Linda wasn't part of them, as he found out: "Wrong. Can I ask further questions? Such as, was she in our year?"
He leaned back in his chair. "Yes, she was... this narrows it down to four, as it wasn't Patricia. What about you?" he replied.
"Yes, he was. Also four for you, since I made it my personal mission NOT to become one of Ben's countless affairs. Was she a blonde?" Lindas question made him frown.
"No... you can't mean... what's her name again? That... muggleborn? Nancy or something? No. No blonde. I married one." That's enough, he couldn't help thinking.
Linda started to hiccup. Already? He thought, slightly amused, when she suddenly burst out: "Oh. My. God. No way! NO WAY! Lavinia McBean?"
At that, she started to giggle uncontrollably. He again felt all the glances of the entire pub on him. How embarrassing, he thought and looked at her bewildered. "What's so funny about that?"
„Nothing. Really. Very serious, the whole thing. So, how did that work out for you?" she babbled on and tried to stop her giggles.
She positively beamed at him. He didn't quite understand all the fuss she made about that. "Long story, istn't it? You have no idea..." he said dryly.
But Linda didn't give up so easily. "Oh, we have all night", she grinned.
Orion started getting defensive. "I only ever kissed her... once... because she was dating this other guy... Gryffindor... I think she married him... he's dead", he said, not bothering to think before he spoke.
Linda sighed. "We all lost people."
They both stared in their glasses. It seemed that the entire pub had become silent as well… as if they had been listening to their conversation attentively.
"Great, now I've killed the mood. And when you find out whom I kissed, you'll hate me even more", Linda broke the silence, still rather depressed.
He immediately understood. "You... didn't... no, not him?" he stammered. Linda looked directly into his eyes.
"Please guess wrong one more time. You'll need the drink."
"I can't believe it! Before or after me?" he exclaimed, watching her attentively. This was just too ironic.
"AFTER you, you git. Five minutes after the graduation ceremony, actually. Hey, those were the times when I would do anything to piss you off. And he makes me laugh. I like people who make me laugh", Linda explained and Orion was too drunk to stay mum: "Don't you still do that? Anything to piss me off?"
"Oh, of course. I wrote a whole book for the sole purpose of pissing you off. It was all part of my cunning plan. Best student of the year - pissing you off. Shagging Prewitt - pissing you off. Moving back home - pissing you off. Cheers", Linda went on and hit him hard on his shin under the table.
He gritted his teeth but didn't comment on this. Rather, he started babbling. "You... haven't been... a sssecret Sly-therin? - I have never done anything... to piss you off... except... the thing at the newspaper... and... everything else," he said and thought it all very logical.
"Yes, except the thing at the newspaper and everything else. There were times when I wanted... ah, what the hell. Never have I ever thought about using an Unforgivable on my fellow editor-in-chief," Linda said and took her glass.
