Chapter 29: The Bouncing Bulb

Skye headed off towards the bar to find someone to flirt with while I made my way back to the table and Jordan. I was extremely nervous. Flirting with guys in bars wasn't something I was used to. I'd always been more of a homebody than a party girl. But after an emotionally charged two days, all I wanted was to not think about the many challenges that were facing me at work and just enjoy myself. So, returning to the table, I grabbed my partially drunk firewhisky and downed the remainder of it in one go.

"Whoa!" Jordan cried as I slammed the glass down on the table and resumed my seat. "What's got into you?"

"I'm here to have fun," I declared. The firewhisky didn't burn as much going down this time, but my throat was starting to feel numb. "Let's have another round."

"Are you sure?" Jordan asked. "You've already had three."

"Another!" I declared determinedly.

Jordan signaled a waitress and ordered me another firewhisky. He didn't get another for himself, since he still had a nearly full glass in front of him.

"Where's Skye?" Jordan asked, looking around.

"She's at the bar," I replied, gesturing in the general direction of the bar behind me.

"I see," Jordan smiled. "So, I guess now I have you all to myself, then."

"That's right," I agreed, throwing caution to the wind. I was being much more forward than I usually would be, though I suggested it had something to do with the three firewhiskys I'd consumed, the last one in particular.

"Tell me the truth," Jordan said then, scooting a bit closer to me. "You don't know anything about quidditch. You just came along for the after-dinner drinks. Am I right?"

I leaned forward just a bit, resting one elbow on the table, but turning so that I was fully facing Jordan. "It's true," I admitted. "I know almost nothing about quidditch. But I'm open to learning a thing or two."

"Maybe I could teach you sometime," Jordan offered. His hand moved down into his lap and then reached out towards my knee. "I could come by to watch the Hufflepuffs practice and then maybe afterwards I could stop by your office? You could teach me about muggle studies, I could teach you about quidditch."

I swallowed as I realized that this flirtation was starting to progress further than I'd expected it to. His hand was moving further up my leg and I knew that normally I would have already pushed it away. But my mind was a little cloudy and as a waitress dropped another firewhisky on the table for me, I decided that instead of worrying about the hand on my leg, I would start on my fourth drink.

"I bet you could teach me about more than just quidditch," I said. The words hardly felt like me own, but they were coming out of my mouth. The hand moved up a little more and I felt myself leaning even further towards Jordan.

"I have some time now," Jordan offered. "Maybe we could start our lesson tonight."

He bent his head and leaned in as if to kiss me, but before he could Skye interrupted by plopping herself down in her seat across from Jordan, dragging someone along with her.

Jordan reluctantly straightened up and we both turned to look at Skye.

"Hey guys," she said, seemingly oblivious to what she'd just interrupted. "This is Billy," she introduced the guy next to her.

"Hey Billy," I said with a small wave and a smile in his direction. Skye certainly hadn't wasted any time.

"Billy was just telling me about this club not far from here," Skye declared. "The Bouncing Bulb, was it?"

Billy nodded.

"And you want to go?" I inquired.

Skye nodded. "I thought we could all go. But only if you guys are into it."

I shrugged and glanced at Jordan. It seemed like a fun idea to me. He nodded his assent and I smiled widely.

"Yeah, alright," I agreed. "We're in."

The Bouncing Bulb was a very short walk away. We stepped back out into Diagon Alley and walked up the lane to a small doorway nestled between a book publishing shop called Obscurus Books and an apothecary, both of which were closed for the evening. In fact, most of the shops in Diagon Alley were closed at this point, though a great many people still walked up and down the Alley.

"Welcome to the wizarding world nightlife," Skye whispered into my ear as we entered the club.

I'd never been to a muggle club, but I imagined it would be much like this one. There was loud music and beams of light moving all over the room, except that there were no speakers and no spotlights directing the beams. Like the music in Diagon Alley that afternoon, this music permeated the walls of the club and it was like it was coming from every direction all at once. The beams of light moved independently, sometimes even changing into different shapes as they bounced all over the room.

There was a bar at the back of the room and booths encircling the club, and in the center was a large dance floor on which dozens of witches and wizards were currently dancing in a manner I'd never seen before. It must be some form of wizarding dance, I decided. But I figured I could copy it easily enough and manage to fit in.

Billy immediately dragged Skye onto the dance floor, leaving Jordan and I standing in the entrance of the club. I shifted nervously, having never been in this kind of atmosphere before and deciding to take my cues from Jordan.

"Do you want a drink?" he asked.

Despite the loud and almost ear-splitting music, I could hear Jordan perfectly clearly. All around us, other people were having conversations that were being totally drowned out by the music and I suspected that part of the magic was that you could hear when someone was talking to you, but nothing else.

"Sure," I agreed. I hadn't had the chance to finish my fourth firewhisky back at The Leaky Cauldron, and the effects of the third had worn off a bit when we'd gone outside to get here.

When we got to the bar, Jordan asked me what I wanted, but I balked, realizing that the only drinks I knew were the ones that had been ordered at dinner that night. I could order more firewhisky, I supposed, but I felt like now that we were in a club, I should switch to something more exciting. I just didn't know what that could be.

"Surprise me," I challenged him.

With a smirk, Jordan took me up on the challenge, ordering us each two shots of something called lobe-blasters. From the name itself, I suspected that it would sufficiently inebriate me to be able to enjoy myself without any of the usual awkwardness I tended to display in these situations.

The lobe-blaster was very different from the firewhisky. It didn't burn on the way down so much as cause little sparks to start going off in my head. At first it felt like a headache, and I was very upset at the possibility of my hangover starting before I even got properly drunk. But then the headache dissipated and I stopped thinking so much and I couldn't even remember much besides what was immediately in front of me.

"Does it pass the test?" Jordan inquired, having just taken his own shot.

"Definitely," I agreed.

I grabbed his hand, and with my best come-hither look, led him out onto the dance floor.

I don't know whether it was the magic of the club or the effect of the shot I'd taken, but I found that there was no need to concentrate on mimicking the dancing of those around me. My body began to move in time with the music, and it was like it was being controlled by the song itself rather than my consciousness. Jordan danced with me and as the music changed, I found myself pressed against him.

His hands went around me and I felt them land on my ass. He bent his head and rested his forehead against mine, and we locked eyes as we continued to dance. I couldn't have remembered where we were if I'd tried. All I knew was that I existed and that Jordan existed and beyond that the rest of the world was like the static on a television channel I didn't have access to.

Jordan moved in and kissed me, and I leaned into it, kissing him back a little sloppily, but he seemed to like it. His hands tightened around me and we continued to dance and nothing else mattered.

"Let's get out of here," Jordan said in a low voice, pulling back just a little.

I nodded eagerly, my eyes unable to see anything but Jordan. The rest of the club had become hazy and almost felt like a mirage – like it wasn't really there. The only thing that I knew for sure was real anymore was Jordan. I would go anywhere with him.

We were almost to the door when something solid wrapped around my arm and jerked me back and away from Jordan.

"What – ?" I cried out in confusion.

My head throbbed as my focus shifted from Jordan to Skye and my thoughts now refocused on her.

"Where are you going?" she asked me, her eyes flicking between me and something beyond me that I couldn't identify.

"I was – " I frowned. I tried to remember where I'd been going, but I couldn't. "I was – "

"We were just going somewhere a bit more private," a voice cut through the fog. Jordan was there again, but I was so confused. My head pounded as I tried to focus on both him and Skye at the same time, but it was too much. I reached up and grabbed at my head, pressing against it to try and relieve some of the pressure.

"What's wrong with her?" I heard Skye asked.

"Nothing's wrong," Jordan insisted. "I'm not forcing her to leave with me. She wanted to."

"She has work in the morning," Skye insisted. "She knows she can't stay out too late."

I gritted my teeth as the pain in my head threatened to overwhelm me. Having both Jordan and Skye talking was too much. Every time the other would speak, it was like I was being hit in the head with a sledgehammer. And then just as it was starting to subside, and I could think again, the other would speak and it would happen all over again.

"She's a big girl," Jordan said. "She can set an alarm and get back before her first class."

"She needs to come back with me," Skye insisted, wrapping a hand around my arm. "Katie, come on, it's time to go."

I looked up at Skye and my vision tunneled so that all I could see was her and her face. I remembered then that it was important that I return to Hogwarts with her tonight. I had a breakfast shift, and I needed Skye to teleport me back to the outskirts of the castle.

Another hand wrapped around my other arm, and I was spun around. The sledgehammer smashed into my brain and I whimpered, but then my vision focused on Jordan once more and I remembered our plans to leave the club and continue the evening just the two of us.

Skye moved around me and pushed Jordan out of the way, replacing him in my line of sight. My head throbbed once more and I pulled my arms from their respective grasps and started to pull my hair. If I could match the internal pressure with some external pressure, maybe I could cancel it out.

"Okay seriously, what's wrong with her?" Skye demanded. My eyes were closed, but I could still hear the voices.

"Nothing!" Jordan exclaimed in his own defence. "I swear. We did some shots, we danced, and we kissed. That's all."

"Shots?" Skye asked warily. "What kind of shots."

"Just a couple of lobe-blasters," Jordan replied.

"You idiot," Skye groaned. "She's a muggle. She can't tolerate a lobe-blaster!"

The voices started to become muffled as the throbbing pain in my head became too much. I fell to the floor, but I was barely even aware of that as my brain threatened to explode out of my skull.

"She's a muggle?" I heard Jordan's voice demand. "Well she didn't tell me that!"

"Okay, you need to leave," Skye ordered Jordan. "If I'm going to stand any chance of getting her back, she can't be dividing her attention."

"But I – "

I didn't hear what was said next. Or perhaps Skye didn't say anything and simply scared Jordan away with a look. But then Skye was crouching down next to me and Jordan was gone and as I focused my attention on her, the rest of the club faded away and the headache subsided and her face became the only one I could see.

"Katie," she said gently. "Do you think you could stand up?"

I did as she asked, shakily getting to my feet with her help.

"Alright," Skye said encouragingly. "That's good. Okay, now just focus on me. Ignore everything else. We're going back to The Leaky Cauldron and then we're going to apparate back to Hogwarts, alright?"

I nodded. I couldn't remember much of what had happened. I knew that there'd been some time when Skye hadn't been around. But she was here now, and that was what mattered. I would do whatever she asked me to do.

"Let's go," she said.

She wrapped her hand around my arm and slowly, she began to lead me out of The Bouncing Bulb and back out onto the street.