104 Fowl Predicament
"MOVE, PADFOOT! THIS IS OUR SONG!" James hollered, clumsily trying trying to push Sirius aside as 'Piano Man' began blaring through the gigantifide dormitory.
Without a second thought, Sirius flicked his wand at his best mate and winced as his nonverbal spell knocked James backwards onto his bed. James groaned, and mumbled something about Mary and harmonicas. His feet stuck straight up in the air and he should have been too drunk and uncoordinated to get up very fast, but previous experience told Sirius he'd probably try to bolt again.
Sirius blew some hair out of his eyes and wiped his glistening forehead with his sleeve. Wrangling inebriated underaged teenagers was quite the workout.
It hadn't been difficult to find James. He was right where Regulus said he would be, next to the table of fire whiskey shots, surrounded by a herd of mini trumpeting Leroys in Greek helmets, one hand draped over Finley Bell's shoulders, laughing like he had just heard the funniest Quidditch joke in the world. The real trouble was convincing the old sport that his time at this soirée was over.
"No! Stop it!" James had shouted, forgetting about Finley and running off like a naughty toddler, zapping random partygoers' drinks into miniature elephants as he did so.
Sirius had chased him all through that bloody party, leaping over elephants and by some miracle managed to corner him in the nook he'd reserved for their beds... and he was not going to let his best mates sudden infatuation with a random Billy Joel song stop him now.
"You're drunk, Prongs," he said, shimmying one of James's loafers off. James's feet were at a convenient angle given that he was still wallowing on his bed like a dying bug. "You'll thank me in the morning."
Sirius tossed the shoe absently onto the floor and reached for his wand, planning to use a nice sticking charm, when quicker than he should have been possible, James summersaulted off the bed. At first, Sirius thought he'd fallen by accident, but then James stood up, hair messier than ever, crooked grin and glassy eyed—and dashed off towards the party— now only wearing one shoe.
"Prongs!" Sirius yelled, running after him, weaving past all those stupid random people. Why hadn't someone shut this party down already? "GET BACK HERE!"
He was so damn angry at James. Being angry at James was a new thing. But he supposed it wasn't really James, it was more like James's alter-ego—His drunken self-destructive ball of chaotic toddler energy alter ego. Still, he was so furious that he sounded like his mother when he screamed... which only made him more upset.
"SING US A SONG YOU'RE THE PIANO MAN!" James sang loudly, voice cracking, pushing a few hufflepuff girls out of the way.
Sirius half-muttered an apology as he pushed them aside as well. "Sorry—friend—shoe—"
"MARY!" James hollered, wobbling on his toes, looking over the top of some random tall kids head. "MARY MCDONALD GET OVER HERE! IT'S OUR SONGGGGG!"
He was finally standing still, but there were too many people in the way for Sirius to get a clear shot to stun him, so he pulled a Leroy and charged.
"MARY?!" James called, unsuccessfully trying to push his glasses up his nose. "MARY WHERE ARE—GULPIN GARGOYLES!"
Sirius leaped. He should have tackled James to the ground in a gigantic bear hug, but James ran away at the last second. Sirius tried to break his fall, grabbing on to some random person, but only succeeded in taking them down to the floor with him.
His head whacked against the floor and left him dazed for a moment—though, he was vaguely aware he was being screamed at.
"UGH! Get off of me you sweaty piece of—"
The girl, for Sirius now realized it was a girl he'd tackled instead of James, stopped abruptly.
"Sorry—friend—whiskey—elephants..." he said, trying to get back to his feet. He had to get to James before he tried to snog someone else—or accidentally transfigured a Ravenclaw into a pachyderm—or—or something... Sirius stood and the world swam. He didn't even realize he was about to fall again until he felt the body of someone try to steady him.
"Woah, there—I think you hit your head pretty hard—" she said.
"I have to... get James..."
He tried to pull away but the person's grip was iron tight. Annoyed, he looked down at his captor. "Oh, bloody hell—not you!"
Lydia Green was scowling, but she refused to let go of her hold on him. "You know, most people might say thank you?"
"Sorry. Thanks for breaking my fall you spiteful psychopath—now please let me go—"
"Where's Adelaide?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes up at him. It was probably meant to be seductive, but a piece of Lydia's red hair was caught in her lashes and her smile was too big, lipstick too red. She looked like a creepy porcelain doll that had been charmed to eat him.
"Don't know—but you better hope she doesn't find me like this."
"Why? Think she'll be jealous?" Her voice was lower, hoarser, like she needed a cough drop. She leaned closer which only intensified the 'I'm going to eat you' vibes.
"Hmm... I'm thinking more along the lines of murderous..."
Loony Lydia clearly took this as a compliment, eyes flashing with pride.
Sirius tried once more to pull away, but his head was throbbing and balance was still off. He couldn't get the right leverage. Every second he wasted there with stupid Lydia the more likely it was that James was going to get himself into serious trouble.
"Look—Just let me go and I promise I'll convince Addy not to scalp your hair off."
Now Lydia looked murderous. Yikes.
"I'm not intimidated by that lazy, half-breed, Veela slut!" Lydia said, over enunciating every syllable.
And now Sirius was murderous. Lovely.
His jaw clenched, his vision was red. He ripped his arm out of Lydia's grip and rounded to face her, wand pointed right between her blue eyes, then snarled, "What did you just call my girlfriend?"
Lydia held her composure, but she was trembling, whether from his tone or the wand, Sirius didn't know and didn't care. He was effing tired of this stupid girl bullying Addy and trying to woo him away with love potions. If he didn't have a moral code against attacking defenseless girls he would have hexed Lydia on the spot for all the horrible things she'd done—all the times Adelaide had held swallowed down tears at her merciless teasing.
Lydia stammered a non-response, cross eyed looking at his wand. Behind him, people were clapping in time with a new song, chanting, and whooping. Lydia's gaze drifted over his shoulder and her flummoxed expression morphed into a smirk of vindictive joy.
Not good.
She laughed as Sirius spun wobbly to the source of the commotion.
Not good at all. "What the..."
Lydia's breath hit hot against his ear, sending a shiver of disgust down his spine. "Well McDonald certainly seems to be... enjoying herself..."
Sirius didn't even look back at Lydia or bother to push her back down—he just ran.
Remus Lupin was entirely unhelpful and Adelaide was annoyed. He had burst into her room insisting that she had to go back to the party and babbling something vaguely ominous about finding Mary and then refused to say anything else.
"Just... you just need to come back..." he had said.
Well now she was back and the party was even more bananas than before and she had no idea if Mary was hurt or dead or got her period while wearing those cute white bellbottoms again or if Evan had finally snogged her and she was melting into a giddy giggling puddle of happy Mary soup.
"Remus! Where—what's going... on..." her voice floated away eyes hardly believing what she was seeing.
First and foremost, she'd found Mary, as had half the male population at the party, evidently. The leggy brunette was standing atop a table like it was a stage, encircled by cheering boys and one horrified James Potter. They were all, with the exception of James, chanting her name, clapping, and whooping with glee at either because of her outfit, which was no longer her white bellbottoms and present top, but a slinky, revealing, two pieced, gold, belly dancing costume or the accompanying belly dance she was performing for them. Though, she didn't look anything like herself, she still looked very pretty, and her dance was rather skillfully executed, especially considering she had a large boa draped over her shoulders.
Not a feathered boa.
A real one.
The serpent flicked its little forked tongue in time with the music and the crowds clapping, tail coiling around Mary's wrist, body cozied up against her neck.
Now if the fact that Mary was dancing and flaunting her curves for a bunch of stupid hormonal boys wasn't out of character enough, the snake was a dead give away.
Mary hated snakes.
No. Actually, Mary was terrified of snakes.
Adelaide could still remember how traumatized she'd been third year when her boggart took the form of a gigantic viper. Someone threw a rubber snake at her a few days later as a joke and she burst into tears.
Mary should have been screaming or crying or trying to curse the snake into a worm... not dancing with it.
"YOU FOUL—PEICE OF— DRAGON SHIT!"
Adelaide turned and finally processed the second very weird thing that was happening.
Not far away from the bizarre belly dancing, snake charming performance, Evan Rosier was fighting with Mulciber, muggle style. As far as Adelaide could tell, Evan was winning, but only barely. His brown sweat soaked hair fell into narrowed eyes, blood from his newly broken nose gushed down his face and into his mouth, making his usually glittering teeth grotesque and stained scarlet. Mulciber was uglier than usual, sporting a busted lip and one eye that had been swollen shut. Both boys looked dizzy and unsteady on their feet. But while Evan's teeth were bared like a murderous dragon ready to rip someone's throat out, Mulciber was grinning as if getting pummeled was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Adelaide didn't know why Evan was fighting him specifically, but just looking at the smug look on Mulciber's face made her want to deck him muggle style as well.
"You know you should really be more thankful, Rosier," Mulciber wheezed, spitting a mouthful of blood on the floor. "McDonald seems to be in a good mood—Maybe now you'll finally get lucky—"
If Evan hadn't tackled him at that point, Adelaide would have.
She squeaked in surprise and stepped backwards to avoid getting caught in the action. Mary was still dancing away on the table with the snake, having the time of her life, but now Adelaide could see Regulus and Marlene at the edge, trying their hardest to convince her to come back down. Remus tried in vain to clear the crowd. James was still rooted in place, looking up at her in horror. No sign of Sirius...
"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" Evan roared, blood and spit flying in Mulciber's stupid face as he pinned him to the floor, forearm against his neck. "LIFT THE EFFING CURSE, MULCIBER, OR SO HELP ME SALAZAR I'LL TELL DUMBLEDORE ABOUT—"
"Go on then, Mr. Prefect! Tell him! I don't care!" Mulciber laughed, but there was fear in his one good eye. Adelaide got the impression that he cared very much.
"Tell him what?" she asked before she could stop herself.
They both turned to her, confused.
Mulcibers grin returned. "Oh, Fawley! Just in time! Care to join the show—"
Adelaide's hand instinctively went to her wand and Evan landed a punch on the right side of Mulciber's face. Her stomach churned. Muggle fighting was so barbaric.
"You don't speak to her," Evan growled.
Mulciber was still smiling. "Tut tut, that's not very nice, Rosier. You know, if you want that pretty, slag girlfriend of yours—" Evan punched him again, but Muciber continued as if he hadn't. "—to stop the show you might try asking more politely next time."
"Lift the curse, you shit faced troll," Evan said in the most impolite way possible.
Mulciber grinned and laughed. "Ah, alas, I can't."
Evan, out of his mind with anger, looked momentarily terrified, before returning to fury. "Yes, you can! I know you're the one who cast it!"
"Nope. Wasn't me," Muciber shook his head, limp hair falling in his sweaty face as he chuckled. "Besides... you of anyone should know that flashy isn't my style. If I cast that curse... no one would ever know..."
Evan simmered silently for a beat then screamed a wide string of profanities and pushed Mulciber away, wiping the blood off his face with his sleeve as he staggered towards Mary's little show.
Adelaide hurried to catch up with him. "Evan! You can't just let him go! He's obviously lying!"
Evan walked toward the table-stage, eyes focused on Mary. "He's not."
"Evan, Wait! At least let me help you—episky!—what curse did they use? Can't we just undo it ourselves?"
Evan shooed her away, not even thanking her for fixing his broken nose. "You don't think I've already tried that?"
"Evan—just wait! There's got to be a way to—"
"STUPEFY!"
Behind them, someone fell to the ground with a horrible thump. Adelaide circled around. "What in the—"
Avery was on the floor, breath knocked out of him, grasping for his wand which had fallen out of his hand. It rolled just out of reach, accidentally kicked by some random laughing passerby. Behind him, Mulciber was clumsily returning to his feet, leaning against a picked over table of assorted sweets, grinning as he watched the drama unfold.
"YOU MANGY FACED WEASLE!" Sirius roared, materializing out of the crowd of Mary's fanboys, pushing Evan aside, wand pointed right at Avery. "GET AWAY FROM MY GIRLFRIEND!"
Evan frowned, unsurprised. His shoulders slumped, glancing from Mary back to Avery, resigned. "Of course."
While Evan looked worn out and fed up, Sirius was ready to bash Avery's head in. She knew Sirius hated him, but even this was a little extreme for him. Avery must have tried to hex her or looked like he was going to hurt her.
She reached for Sirius with her right hand, wand still tightly gripped in her left. "Sirius, what—why are you—"
Avery went to reach for his wand and within the half second it took for him to pick it up and wield it at them, Adelaide and Sirius communicated their plan with only a glance. She didn't even have time to say the spell aloud—she didn't even know if the spell would work.
But Sirius did. He didn't even put up a defense when Avery called out, "Expelliarmus!"
"Quack!"
A gigantic white duck sprung out of the tip of Avery's wand and started waddling confused on the space between them.
For a moment they all just stared at the new addition to the party, then Mulciber was in stitches. "Mate! That's brilliant! You really know how to pick em'!"
Avery's face turned a shade of purple he was so furious. "Stupefy!"
"Quack!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
"Quack quack!"
"Sectumsempra!"
"QUACK!"
The last duck looked angry. It turned on Avery and began pecking at his trousers. "Ow—stop it! BLACK! What have you done to my wand!"
Adelaide felt Sirius shaking, and it took a moment to realize he was laughing. "Not what I have done," he said, pride in his voice as he lopped an arm over Adelaide's shoulders. He smelled sweaty. "I'm afraid you have Addy to blame for your fowl predicament. Nice one, love."
Avery let loose a long string of curses, ending with a nice line about her being a filthy blood traitor whore. Naturally after that particular comment, Sirius flicked his wand almost lazily, stunning him once more, throwing him back onto the ground. It was impressive, even by Sirius's standards the ease with which he cast the spell.
Mulciber howled in laughter, shoveling a bowl of mms into his busted up face.
"Fix my wand, you bitch!" Avery half-whined, half shouted.
"Fix my friend!" she shouted back, pointing up to Mary. Evan had abandoned them and was up on the stage, trying to avoid the Boa's front end as he tried to coax Mary away. However, Mary misunderstood his intentions and was trying to dance against him. This only flustered Evan more.
Avery's face contorted into a sinister sneer. "Why? She looks like she and Rosier are having a pleasant evening?"
Sirius growled and Adelaide had to hold him back. If he punched Avery and knocked him out, which she had a feeling was his intention, they wouldn't be able to get any information out of him. Sirius flashed her a 'Babe, why can't I hit him?' sort of look.
"Why did you curse her?" Adelaide asked. "What are you even doing here?"
Mulciber cackled and Avery threw him a warning scowl, but mulciber couldn't care less. "Why does he do anything?! He came to see you, Princess!"
Sirius looked down at Adelaide, jaw clenched. "Can I please hit him now?"
"I didn't curse you're stupid friend, Fawley!" Avery spat, standing up and dusting himself off. "Now fix my damn wand and I'll gladly—"
Suddenly, Avery was back on the ground, tackled by none other than James freaking Potter. "MARY—IS NOT—STUPID!"
James was trying to throw punches, but kept missing then almost falling over.
"Oh bloody fracking hell..." Sirius muttered, trying to pull James off of him.
Adelaide could tell he wasn't really trying his best, probably hoping James could hit get at least one good shot at Avery since he couldn't.
"Barbaric! You're all nothing but—barbarians!" Avery shrieked, narrowing missing another strike from Potter.
Sirius finally pulled James off, fixing his glasses for him. "Pads... why're there ducks?" James slurred.
Avery tried to make a getaway but Adelaide was quicker. She stood over him, wand pointed down at his face. "Oh no you don't! You're not going anywhere until I get some answers! Starting with you you're really here," Adelaide snarled. "And if you didn't curse Mary who did?"
Avery stared up at her with an odd expression that made her suddenly feel more self conscious. It wasn't fear, or even loathing. Both of those she could probably handle. Nope. His face was softer, mouth handing open, eyes wide. She could feel her face getting hotter.
He blinked stupidly then shook himself out of his thoughts and returned to a scowl. "I came for the free booze, you idiot. And she isn't cursed, she's drugged."
Adelaide could hear James yelling again, a drunken slew of half formulated oaths—something about shoving a harmonica someplace a harmonica should never be shoved.
"Drugged with what, exactly?" Adelaide said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. Spells she could reverse, no problem. Potions not so much.
He rolled his eyes in a impatient manner. "I don't know! I'm not the one who did it!"
"But you know who did," she said rather than asked.
Avery half-glanced back behind him, catching himself. But it was enough for Adelaide to know exactly who drugged Mary.
Her wand whipped to Mulciber and he took the mm bowl with him, limping as fast as he could toward the exit. He bumped past a group of boys, but promptly gasped and fell on his Slytherin bum when he saw their faces, mms scattering like marbles, nearly tripping poor Gaspard Shingleton as well. The three boys Mulciber had run into were making various animal noises that resembled laughter and had the faces to match. One panda, one spider, and one killer whale.
Davey, Peter, and Jack.
Adelaide doubted they even knew they stopped a fugitive from escaping, but was thankful all the same.
Mary had the worst headache of her entire life. Hands down. No contest. It was awful. Just the filtered light through her eyelids throbbed back against her skull, as if her eyeballs and her brain were having the words gruesomest Quidditch match against one another. She groaned and readjusted trying to cover her eyes. Her mouth was parched and cottony and her limbs felt heavy and sore like they did after a good work out. Weird.
Something smelled really good.
Wait.
That was her.
She smelled really good. Or at least her sleeves smelled good, like Sandalwood and citrus.
It took a moment to place why this was so familiar.. but then it clicked.
"Evan?" she croaked, blinking her eyes then shutting them tight in the brutal light of morning.
Hold on... it was... morning?
Her sleeves smelled like Evan and it was morning.
She sat straight up, forgetting the headache momentarily. "Holy horklumps!" she gasped, looking around, trying to get her bearings. "Where am I? What's going on? Why is—"
"Shh... Mare you're fine. You're safe," Evan said. He was sitting on her bed, looking completely out of place and only further exasperating her headache. For one, he had some really messy hair, of course, he rocked it and looked like a freaking fashion model… but still… messy. He also looked like he'd stayed up all night boxing with a grizzly bear. His hair was a mess, his face was bruised and cut, yet clean. And he was wearing a Gryffindor scarlet jumper with a big golden lion.
And as if that wasn't weird enough, she was pretty sure she was laying in James's bed in the Gryffindor boys dormitory. She swiveled around in alarm, worried for a heartbeat that James was snuggled up with her.
No James.
Thank merlin.
She let out a breath and flopped back against the pillows.
She must have winced because weird-banged-up-Evan-in-the-Gryffindor-jumper starting fretting over her.
"Easy— are you feeling okay? No—scratch that—of course your not—I—"
"Thirsty. Headache," she managed.
Evan might have said something, but she was still sort of half asleep, so she wasn't sure. It could have been five seconds or five minutes or five hours later, but eventually he was coaxing her vertical and shoving water in potions in her face.
She felt better almost immediately.
"Better?" he asked.
She sighed contentedly. "Loads..."
However, now that it didn't feel like her frontal lobe was being pummeled by bludgers, she was able to fully grasp how very weird her current situation was.
For one, she wasn't wearing the right clothes.
"I... what in the... what am I—" she was mostly covered by James's duvet, but she was painfully aware that she had bed hair, bad breath, and was wearing Evan's jacket over a… was it a belly dancing costume? What the actual hell? How did that happen?
She tried to remember how she got to be in James's bed, why Evan was there, when she changed into this horribly embarrassing outfit... but all came up a blank.
Which was scary.
Really scary.
She didn't even realize she was crying until Evan smothered her in a hug. It was really nice and all but she was still freaked out and simply could not get over the fact that he was wearing a Gryffindor jumper. It was so weird.
"Sh—Mare—it's okay..." he said, smoothing her hair suffocating her in his scent (hey, if she was going to die, she'd prefer to go being hugged by Evan).
She, reluctantly, pushed him off of her so she could, you know, breathe. "Why—why are you here—why am I here—and why are you wearing this—and why am I wearing this and—and where's James?!"
Evan's perfect handsome eyebrows got all scrunched up and it was so cute that if Mary hadn't been flipping out, she would have told him so and made him blush. He took a deep steadying breath. His hand reached half the distance between them then returned to his lap, as if he was going to move the hair out of her eyes, but thought against it. She wished he would have.
"Sirius lent me this because my shirt had blood on it," he began carefully. "I-I was worried about you and they let me stay here over night so I could… um... check on you... James is in the bathroom, hungover… er… and vomiting and generally regretting his life choices... and... and..." his eyes flashed down to her shoulder for a moment. She was fully covered thanks to the blanket and his jacket… but still she felt exposed. Maybe it was just the fact that Evan seemed to know about what had happened than she had. Without thinking she crawled deeper under the covers to hide herself. "Do you—do you remember what happened to you... at the party?"
His eyes were so sad. She couldn't tell if he wanted her to remember or not. Man, she really wished he'd hug her again... No. Focus. She had to focus. The party... "I um... I know I was there... and that I was hanging out with James while I waited for you..." Evan frowned almost imperceptibly, but she brushed it off. "But then he—he went off with Finley and I—I... I went to tell Avery and his friends to leave. I threatened to turn them into chickens if they didn't... Wilkes bailed right away... but the other two..." Her head hurt again. "I can't—I can't remember anything else..."
"So you don't remember the snake?" Evan asked.
"The what?!"
"I—Erm..." Evan scratched the back of his neck, blushing. "Maybe it's better if we wait for Addy to get back... she'd probably be better at explaining than me anyways—"
"Evan..." she said slowly, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. "Evan, what happened to me?"
He was reluctant, but he told her everything he knew. He told her that she'd been drugged, by Mulciber allegedly, though they didn't know how or with what. He told her that someone else, they didn't know who, had charmed her clothes into that god awful getup she was currently wearing. He told her, again blushing, how she'd been dancing on a table for everyone with a boa constrictor draped over her shoulders (she made a mental note to take a shower ASAP). And lastly, that her friends had kicked everyone out and let her stay in the dorm until she got her strength back.
There was a distant retching sound coming from the bathroom. "Okay..." she said, voice shaking as she tried to process everything. "Okay... so you're here... and James is in there..." she nodded towards the bathroom. "But where's everyone else?"
It was easier to be worried about everyone's whereabouts than to address the horribly unsettling truth that she'd been publicly humiliated and remembered none of it. Evan, idiot that he was, somehow seemed to understand.
"Sirius is with James still... the rest went down for breakfast..."
"And Mulciber?" she said before she could stop herself.
This time Evan's hand reached for hers and he didn't retreat back to his lap. His hands were warm and bigger than hers, which was kind of a big deal because she had big hands for a girl. He made her feel dainty, not like a giant Sasquatch sent to look down on everyone's dandruff. It was nice. Also it was Evan. So it was really nice.
Evan cleared his throat. "Well... I expect he's down at breakfast... for now..."
Mary didn't know what to make of his tone, nor of his information. A weird burning feeling bubbled up within her chest at the thought of Mulciber casually having some eggs Benedict while she hid away in someone else's dormitory, feeling and throughly violated. Stripped of her dignity and memory and forced to face the repercussions of something that wasn't her fault... something that was his fault.
Evan must have sensed her anger. His hand gripped hers tighter. "He's not getting away with what he did to you, Mary. I can promise you that."
Mary searched his blue green eyes, asking them for an answer to how that would be... "But how—"
"Addy..." Evan said, as if reading her mind. "Addy and the boys... they're going to go to Dumbledore after breakfast... they're going to tell him everything that happened... everything he did to you... he's not getting away with it."
Mary sputtered for an answer, her sluggish head trying to understand why this made her even more anxious and panicky... the answer was right in front of her... but she couldn't quite piece it together... just out of her reach...
Adelaide... Dumbledore... everything...
Then it clicked.
She scrambled out of the bed so fast her knees gave out.
Evan yelped and tried to help her back to bed, but she refused, shooing him off and hobbling toward Remus's trunk to steal some sweats and a jumper. "Close your eyes, Evan!"
Evan looked like he wanted to protest, but seeing the clothes in her hands, thought better of it and did as he was told.
In a flash, Mary was wearing a full outfit a-la-Lupin. "Evan what time is it?!" she said quickly looking around for her wand.
Evan, hands still covering his eyes, told her it was pretty late, breakfast was nearly over—
"Shit! Shit, I have to stop them before it's too late!"
Evan, unconcerned for her modesty, stared at her incredulously— thankfully she was a quick dresser. "Stop them?! Too late for what?!"
Mary cursed under her breath, hand firmly gripping the door. She didn't have time to explain this to Evan... but he did stay up all night with her so she figured he deserved some sort of explanation.
"I have to stop them before they talk to Dumbledore!"
Evan blinked, worried she'd gone insane again. "Mary... you... you understand what Mulciber did, right? What he made you do? What he forced you to do? He—Dumbledore needs to know, Mare..."
Again that panic was creeping up her chest, clawing though her throat and finally wound up in her tear ducts, as every other emotion usually did. "I—he..." she took a shaky breath, blinking the tears away, willing herself to stay composed. "They can't tell Dumbledore what happened without telling him about the party."
Evan blinked again. "They—they know that, Mare. They know... they didn't care... they said you were more important..."
Stupid tears. She was crying. Ugh. "No! Evan! Do you know how much trouble they're going to get in?!"
Evan seemed conflicted between wanting to console her and tell her she was being stupid. "It doesn't matter! Mary, that creep needs to face some punishment for what he did to you! You can't seriously be more worried about your friends getting detention—"
"Addy can't get in trouble, Evan!" she choked back a sob. "She can't! Her—her parents—Evan you don't understand! She can't—we can't let them tell Dumbledore! I can't lose her!"
Evan tried to wrap his arms around her but she pushed him away.
"Mary... Dumbledore isn't going to expel Addy just for throwing a party..."
She shoved the heels of her hands against her eyes, tying to stop crying. Stop being so emotional. Stop freaking out. But she couldn't.
"N-not Dumbledore! Her dad! Her—her dad said if she messed up again she—she'd—she'd have to g-go to F-France!" she forced the words out, hands tingling and lightheaded. "I—I can't lose her—she's my best friend in the whole world—and I—I can't be the one to—to get her sent away! Evan, I wouldn't be able t-to live with myself!"
This time, she let Evan hold her.
She let herself cry into his chest, letting him wrap his arms around her and stroke her messy bed hair for five deep breaths...
After five deep breaths, Evan went into the bathroom to fetch Sirius and have him run down and tell the others to call off the plan. Sirius needed no convincing— one mention of Addy and France and he was bolting faster than Mary ever could have managed, but she could tell Evan wasn't really happy about it.
Once she'd calmed down, things were sort of awkward between them… He didn't really look at her. He kept his distance. His face was all stoney… which she hated. Eventually, she broke and told Evan he should go back to his dorm and get cleaned up before he attracted even more attention to himself, but really she just wanted to avoid the tension between them.
Once he was gone, mounting his broom with a dissolutionment charm she didn't realize he could cast, she wandered towards the bathroom door, praying James was decent.
The door creaked and he groaned, peeking up from his vomit bucket. He looked bad. Really really bad. Pale. Sad. And also oddly unlike himself without his glasses.
"You look like you got ran over by a chimera then thrown around by a giant squid," she said plopping herself onto the stone floor beside him.
He made a face and grunted. "Feels worse."
A beat passed but it wasn't awkward like it was with Evan. James was easy to be around, even when he was at his worst.
"Sirius told me what happened..." James managed, eyes shut, voice echoing off the hollow insides of the wooden bucket.
"Weren't you there?"
James shrugged then winced. "Apparently. I—it's—sort of fuzzy... I think I tried to hit Mulciber..." He scrunched his eyes closed really hard. "He called you stupid and it pissed me off."
Mary half-smiled. "You said you tried...?"
"I missed."
"Ah."
James ran a hand through his dirty hair. She was fairly certain he was going to vomit again. "I did a stupid thing, Mare..."
"Yes, well... now we know you and fire whiskey don't mix—"
"I kissed Finley."
That was the absolute last thing she expected to come out of his mouth.
It was followed by the thing she most expected. Vomit.
"Gross..."
James moaned woefully, almost like he was going to cry. "I know... I know..."
Mary was actually commenting on the vomit, not kissing... but she had to admit, him snogging someone other than Lily... not good. Not for him... not for the poor girl he'd pulled into this mess. But she couldn't exactly say that when he looked so broken...
"Well..." she began, forcing the optimism into her voice. "It could have been worse... At least Finley's sweet... she'll be disappointed and all, but she'll get that mistakes happen... especially when you've been drinking and—"
"I wasn't drunk."
If James hadn't lifted his head to look at her she would have thought he was lying.
But—if he wasn't— that would mean...
"Wait... what?"
James slumped down. "I wasn't drunk when I kissed her. I got drunk after because I—I felt so guilty... I just wanted it to stop..."
Mary couldn't make sense of what she was hearing. "You—if you're weren't drunk—James, are saying you meant to kiss Finely?"
He threw up again.
"Yes..." He groaned. "I told you! I screwed up!"
"Why!? Why would you do that?! I thought you fancied Lily!"
"I do!" he said louder, almost growling, squeezing his eyes shut as if it was painful to think about. "I do fancy her! Bloody fancy her so much it hurts... But—but Mare she hates me! All I do is try to be nice to her and she won't even talk to me! And when she does she's just angry the whole time and—and Finley... she's nice… and wicked at quidditch… and kind of cute... and she was actually talking to me... she actually wanted to be with me and I—I don't know what happened... I knew she wanted me to kiss her and I—I just did... and then I immediately felt like I was cheating on Lily and I—I just kept kissing Finley to make the bad feelings stop... but it only made it worse so I— then I switched to the fire whiskey... and yeah... here we are..."
"God, James..." Mary breathed. "Did you tell Sirius all that?"
"Duh."
She shook her head, not knowing what to say. Obviously he'd handled things the wrong way and made a total mess of things... but seeing things from his perspective... she could kind of understand why he did it.
His eyes lifted from his puke bucket and, if possible, got even sadder. "I should never have left you..."
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
His hands gripped the bucket so tight that his knuckles turned white. "I should never have left with Finley—I should have gone with you to deal with Avery... If I'd been there maybe they wouldn't have—I—it's all my fault, Mare..." he closed his eyes. "I'm so sorry..."
"It's not your fault, James," she said softer. "It's Mulciber's. He's the one that made me drink the weird potion and go all snake charmer."
James snorted. "You did dance rather well."
"Shut up or I'll take away your bucket."
James's arms wrapped protectively around his bucket, pouting. "You're mean."
Mary laughed then sighed.
James closed his eyes, like he was about to be sick again.
"Couldn't Sirius brew you an anti-hangover potion or something?"
James threw up, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "He can—he did... I told him I didn't want it..."
"Self-inflicted punishment for cheating on your not-girlfriend?"
He shrugged.
She nodded. "Sounds logical."
He didn't laugh, but he almost smiled which was something.
Mary was about to get up and grab them both some water when he spoke again.
"It—I—um... it was a really selfless thing you did... for Addy..." he shook his head. "Mulciber doesn't deserve it… but you're the only one who even thought about all that... with her parents and stuff..."
Mary didn't think it was selfless at all… If anything, she was selfish and pathetic. She didn't want to lose Adelaide… even if that meant letting her attacker go free. If anything, she felt weak. But of course she'd never ever say this out loud. And so, not knowing how to respond, she brushed the whole thing off and changed the subject.
"Did we ever figure out who Marley's mystery lad was?"
James snorted indignantly. "No."
Mary sighed and they shared a mischievous look between them. "We're keeping the bet going next school year, aren't we?"
James smirked. "Of course."
Then he puked in his bucket.