Chapter Two
The weekend of the Hogsmeade trip didn't come a moment too soon. After a year of freedom and time spent shopping and painting, going back to school was hard work. She was quite excited to get out and at least buy some chocolate frogs or something. Daphne, of course, had a running mental list of everything she wanted to find for their Halloween costumes, as well as some other necessities. She'd winked when she said that, and Aiofe had no idea what it signified.
Zabini had a date. Of course he did. Some sixth year girl that Daphne was decidedly not jealous about. Malfoy and Nott seemed to mostly have plans that involved the Hog's Head. They'd all decided to meet up at the Three Broomsticks at some point for a pint of butterbeer and dinner. The seventh and eighth years were allowed to stay out longer than the other years, and only had to be back at the castle at dark. Aiofe wasn't sure if that was a new rule this year or not.
She and Daphne were up before the other girls, eager to get to the showers first, and Aiofe was drying her hair when Alessandria made her way into the bathroom, clad in only a towel. Aiofe looked down from the mirror, blushing. Then she blushed more because she would die of mortification if anyone saw her reaction to seeing Alessandria half-naked. Why did it have to be Alessandria? The girl that doesn't even want her as a friend? Somehow with less girls and a smaller dorm room, she felt like she couldn't get away from the pretty Greek girl.
She finished her hair, applied some quick muggle makeup, and slid into her jeans and a tank top. It would probably be one of her last few chances to get some sun on her bare arms, the autumn chill was coming to the castle quickly. She was bringing a thin jacket even, just in case.
When Aiofe emerged from the bathroom Daphne was pulling on trainers. She was wearing black leggings that accentuated how long and thin her legs were, and a long-sleeved Weird Sisters t-shirt. It was the most understated outfit she had ever seen Daphne wearing, and it would look casual on anyone else, but the delicate gold chain around her neck, the tiny diamond studs in her ears, and the overall way she carried herself, made it somehow still look prim and proper. Aiofe held back her smile. Daphne was clearly trying to reinvent herself. She wondered if she had been wrong about Daphne's reasons for becoming her friend, maybe she hadn't been the girl's only option, and was instead just part of the process of this new Daphne.
"Ready to go?" Aiofe plopped down on her bed and forced her feet into her own tennis shoes before giving Daphne a thumbs up.
"Now I am."
They made their way past the breakfast nook, Daphne insisting they would go straight to Madam Puddifoot's for a coffee and a cake, but Aiofe still glanced at the carafe wistfully as they walked by. All three Slytherin boys and Michael Corner were sitting around the table, surprisingly. Aiofe waved at them as they headed through the tapestry.
They managed to make the second carriage and Daphne was thrilled, even though they had to share it with a few over-eager third years. They were all Gryffindors, and eyed Daphne warily.
True to her word, Daphne allowed herself to be dragged into the bakery, and even sat down in the chair across from Aiofe to allow her to enjoy her coffee and pain au chocolat. She ordered a tea for herself.
"So, after this I'm thinking dresses immediately, and then I have to stop at Llewella's for some hair potions, so I can stop using up yours. Then you wanted to go to Honeyduke's, right?"
Aiofe replied with a resounding "Yep!" and the powdered sugar dusted on the top of her pastry puffed out of her mouth like a sugary cloud. Daphne gave her a disdainful look.
"How do you eat sweets everyday and stay so thin? I would love to know… Anyways, after that I have some catalogs I need to pick up from the Owl Post, as I'm assuming we aren't going to be able to find anything good enough at Glad Rags for our costumes…" Aiofe wanted to ask why they were bothering going there in the first place, then, but she didn't bother. She was content now that she had sugar and coffee, so she would let Daphne drag her around for as long as she wanted.
Aiofe finished up her pastry and coffee and ordered a second cup to go before her and Daphne made their way down the cobble streets of Hogsmeade. She'd eaten quickly enough that the streets were still pretty quiet, which Daphne seemed pleased about. She grabbed Aiofe's arm and dragged her towards Glad Rags.
"Onward! We have dresses to try on!"
X
Hours later they found themselves in the Three Broomsticks. Aiofe was squished into one of the booths, Theo Nott on one side and Daphne on the other. And she was starving. She'd had a chocolate frog for lunch. Daphne had been horrified about her eating chocolate for two meals in a row. They'd arrived, she had grabbed a menu off the table, ordered a gruyere and ham toasty and a pint of butterbeer, and settled in to wait impatiently for food.
Even the fact that Nott was so close to her that she could smell his soap or cologne or aftershave, whatever it was that he always smelled like, mixed with whiskey and if she wasn't incorrect, muggle cigarettes, could not distract her from her grumbling belly. She wondered where he would have even been able to pick up that habit. She liked the smell of cigarettes as long as they weren't overpowering. It's what her father always smelled like back home and she'd come to associate the scent with days spent working on old cars, motorcycle rides down the coast, and him sitting at their kitchen table, novel in one hand, cigarette in the other.
Nott had laughed at her eagerness and teased Daphne. "Some people do have to eat, you know." Before going back to his conversation on the benefits of regularly cleaning your broom handle with Malfoy. She still wasn't sure if that was an innuendo or not. Zabini had not arrived from his date yet.
To her dismay he arrived right as her sandwich did, and she was forced to resituate herself before she could eat. She was now pressed up against Nott, firmly trapped by bodies on either side, as Zabini had taken the seat on the outside of Daphne. Aiofe couldn't help but make note of that, as they almost always sat in the same order, Blaise, Draco, Theo, Aiofe, and Daphne, so him changing up the order was weird.
But, no matter, she turned her attention back to her food.
She observed the rest of the table while she ate. Malfoy was asking Zabini about his date across the table. It was alright, nothing special. Daphne was trying not to seem too interested. Nott had shifted himself back slightly in his seat to give her elbow room to eat, and he was quietly sipping on his drink. Something stronger than butterbeer, she'd wager. She tried not to let her eyes linger too long on his glass, though, as he was both incredibly observant and readily defensive. It wasn't necessarily an issue for a teenage boy that was of-age to be drinking, anyways. She herself had a butterbeer in front of her.
She finished up her sandwich and tuned back into the conversation.
She immediately wished she hadn't.
"So, you just drink if you've done the thing?" Daphne was asking.
"Right, and we go around in a circle and ask… but we need fresh drinks first." Draco, Daphne, and Blaise all got up to go to the bar. Aiofe still had a nearly full glass of butterbeer in front of her, and Theo had recently refilled his glass with a flask he had pulled out of apparently nowhere.
She turned to look at him, trying to gauge if he had too much to drink already. His eyes were sharp as ever, though, and she didn't know what other signs to look for.
"How was shopping today?" He asked. "Find anything good?"
Aiofe shrugged. "We were dress shopping for the Halloween dress. Nothing was 'good enough'." She said with a grin.
Theo's eyebrows raised. "Already?" She shrugged again and gestured in the vague direction Daphne had gone. As if she had a choice in the matter.
They fell silent again as they both turned to watch their friends at the bar. Just as they started to head back to the table, Theo leaned in closer to her so that his chest touched the back of her shoulder and his warm breath fanned across the side of her neck. His hand slid onto the table in front of her, palm up, he crooked his middle and ring finger up at her.
"Do you know why you should masturbate with these two fingers?" He asked. She nearly choked on her own spit before she realized this was another of his pickup lines.
"Why?" Was her voice breathy? She meant for it to sound normal.
"Because they're mine." He chuckled beside her, sounding pleased with himself. She didn't have any time to respond before the others were sliding back into their seats. Malfoy slid something dark in a short glass over to her. He had another whiskey for Nott as well.
She gave him a questioning look and he smiled at her. "Just try it." And so she did, and she was very pleased with the result. It had a slightly tart, apple taste to it. She could tell the alcohol content was high, but it wasn't an offensive taste.
"Alright, Malfoy, you've got great taste in alcohol, I admit."
He sipped his own drink before announcing he would start the game with something easy.
"I have never gotten caught with my hand down my trousers." Aiofe grimaced. That was an easy one? It was also weirdly related to what Theo had said to her just moments before. Herself, Daphne, and Blaise all had to drink. Her and Daphne laughed when they both lifted their glasses to their lips.
Theo's turn was next. "I have never had sex on a broom." He said with a mean grin pointed in Draco's direction. It earned him a raised middle finger while Draco drank.
Aiofe realized it was her turn all too soon. "I have never had a sexual fantasy about a professor." She almost fell out of her chair when everyone but herself and Draco had to take a drink.
"You guys are disgusting. Absolute filthy degenerates." Malfoy told them all, his mouth turned down and his nose up.
Daphne asked them all if they had ever had sex while in detention. Theo drank.
Blaise asked if they'd ever wanked on the Hogwarts express. No one had to drink to that one. Aiofe quickly realized while trying to come up with her next question that sexual questions were easiest, as some subjects in this group could be a landmine and she hadn't fully learned how to navigate them yet.
When it was Draco's turn again he announced, "I have never wanked to the thought of someone the same gender as me." And truthfully Aiofe didn't even really consider lying, and she wondered when she had gotten so comfortable with the group. She, Daphne, and Blaise all raised their glasses to their lips.
Theo was looking at her with raised eyebrows. "I will be revisiting that in my dreams tonight, Malone." Which made the rest of the table dissolve into laughter. "Oy, Blaise, who did you-"
Blaise cut him off. "Not you, prick."
"Damn. There was a good threesome opportunity there…"
Aiofe glanced over at him, eyes narrowed. She couldn't quite decide if she was meant to be the third party in that situation.
Theo changed the subject before she could ask. "I have never broken up with a girl by telling her I was in love with her sister."
Blaise hesitantly raised his glass to his lips and Daphne smacked him on the back of the head. "You're still a dickhead for that one."
Aiofe's jaw dropped. "No way! You broke up with Astoria and told her you were in love with Daphne, Blaise? That is so mean!" He looked properly guilty about it, so she let it go.
"I haven't ever done anything sexual in the library." All three of the boys drank to that one and she wondered exactly how they accomplished that. She looked at the three of them, they all looked pleased with themselves at her and Daphne's disbelief.
"I need details!" Daphne was saying to Draco. "Wait, nevermind, Pansy." She turned to Theo instead. "Details, Theo!"
"Look, those tables can conceal a lot, that's all I'm going to say."
On Draco's next turn he changed the game. The new game was called Hot Seat, and everyone got to pick a victim to ask an embarrassing question to, and if they didn't want to answer, they had to drink. It sounded simple enough until Draco picked her first.
"Aiofe, who was the first guy you slept with?"
Aiofe groaned. "Like, his name?!" Draco gave her a nod and a smug grin. "Merlin! Names should be off limits!" When no one agreed with her she reluctantly answered the question. "It was River Malcos." Aiofe covered her face with her hands.
Daphne gasped next to her. "He's like years older than us!"
"Only two years. He was quite sweet, don't worry." She didn't want them thinking River had taken advantage of her or anything, he'd been good to her while they were dating. He was still probably her favorite ex, if she was honest.
"He graduated years ago, right? He works for the Department of International Magical Cooperation, right?" Aiofe blinked at Daphne, thinking that maybe she had downplayed her desire to get into politics a little bit, if she was keeping up with the DIMC.
"Yeah, we dated for a while when I was a fourth year. He was great, we're still friendly, can we change the subject?" Her tablemates laughed and Theo took pity on her, asking Blaise about the girl he had been with earlier in the day. Blaise's answer was more than she ever cared to hear about his sexual proclivities again. No wonder he had been late to dinner.
Daphne asked Draco to tell them a story of something he had done with a girl in fifth year, apparently one of the only girls he had dated besides Pansy. Draco preceded the story with a disclaimer that nothing he said could get back to Pansy, because even though they had been broken up at the time, the other girl would kill him if she found out what really happened. After Daphne swore on her sister that she wouldn't tell anyone, Draco began his story.
"Okay so this was over winter break in fifth year, Theo spent the break at my house and he dragged me to some muggle nightclub in London." Aiofe about died of shock that Draco and Theo had interacted with muggles as far back as fifth year. "So he charmed a couple pieces of parchment into muggle identification cards and we floo'ed to Rosier's apartment in London and walked to the club…" Draco seemed very reluctant to tell this story. Next to her Theo had a hand covering his lower face, but she could tell he was grinning below it. "There was this girl there, a muggle girl, and she was smiling at me so I bought her a drink and asked her if she wanted to dance." Theo interrupted him.
"Merlin you are the worst storyteller ever. No, what he actually did was send her a drink, and then she looked over at him all bashful and shit, like she hadn't been eyeing his cock through his trousers two minutes before, and this motherfucker just walked up, slipped his hand around the back of her neck," he demonstrated on Aiofe, sliding his hand around to cup the nape of her neck. "And then he leaned in to whisper in her ear, no idea what he said-"
"-I just asked her if she wanted to dance!"
"And the next thing I know the two of them were disappearing into the Men's loo together. It was the suavest shit I ever saw. And he was still a virgin at that time! I think I learned some things that night."
"Sweet Merlin you lost your virginity to a muggle girl!?"
Aiofe was pretty sure this was the first time she had ever seen Draco blush. She hadn't known Draco well in fifth year, but she would have never imagined the boy was out sleeping with muggle girls. His father probably would have disowned him for risking impregnating someone of lesser blood… Actually his father would have probably disowned him for being friends with her, now that she thought about it.
After they finished teasing Draco about the muggle girl, and then about blushing about the muggle girl, Blaise brought the conversation back to her.
"Aiofe," she groaned loudly, "if you were going to pick someone at this table to uhh, feed the kneazle…" She blinked at him.
"Go belly-to-belly." Draco added from across the table.
"Make the hippogriph with two backs." Daphne chuckled next to her.
"Yes, yes, I got it." Aiofe covered her face again.
"You know as long as you keep blushing all the time they're going to say things to make you blush…" Daphne told her, very unhelpfully. But she was correct so Aiofe dragged her face out of her hands and glanced around the table, pretending to be deciding which of them was the most attractive. She could tell from the smirks on Blaise and Draco's faces that they expected her to pick Theo.
She picked up her glass and took a long drink instead.
Theo slid an arm around her shoulders. "You know you can just say it's me, Malone. Nothing to be embarrassed about."
"Actually, I was going to say Daphne, but I didn't want to make her uncomfortable." She lied.
"Oh she can come too."
Daphne cracked up next to her and reached over Aiofe to push his arm off of her should and replace it with Daphne's own. "Quit trying to steal my bestie, Nott."
Aiofe laughed and snuggled into Daphne's side. The mix of the alcohol and easy company had her feeling much happier than she had in quite a while. Maybe ever since the war began.
Since it was Draco's turn again they decided to leave the game there. It was starting to get dusky outside, and they didn't want to abuse their new freedom so quickly that it was taken away. Daphne kept her arm around Aiofe all the way back to the castle, though it had shifted from a friendly gesture to a huddle of warmth as neither girl was properly dressed for the evening air.
Aiofe listened to the Slytherin boys bickering about early morning Quidditch practice all the way back to the castle. The other boys were trying to convince Theo to join them, Theo was refusing to do anything that occurred before nine o'clock. She rolled her eyes at Daphne but both girls had smiles on their faces. Aiofe was feeling pretty lucky to have found the group of friends.