Antonin had barely disappeared into the green flames when they roared again and Daphne Greengrass strode out, a pile of books in her arms.

Draco sprang forward to take her traveling cloak, trying to hide the grin splitting his face. I grinned too, having missed Daphne during her potions conference in Norway. She stopped short two steps into the room and looked around in confusion at the books strewn across the room.

"What..." she began.

"Oh, Hermione and Antonin had a domestic," said Draco with a wink.

"So I take it he's in St. Mungo's then?" Daphne bantered back, not losing a beat. All four of the room's occupants laughed. I rolled my eyes, privately thinking that if I'd learned all those years ago that Draco Malfoy had a sense of humor I'd have dropped dead in shock.

"Sit down," I laughed, "I'll tell you all about it, but you'll need a strong drink."

We settled ourselves back into the chairs, and Lucius put the room to rights with a sweep of his wand. As we poured out drinks, he bade the three of us a good night and retreated with a meaningful glance and Draco and Daphne.

By the time Draco had told the story, with entirely too many dramatic re-enactments, we were all several drinks deep and staring to get quite silly. Draco turned on the wireless with a flick of his wand, and Daphne grabbed me and pulled me to my feet.

We waltzed across the room to Celestina Warbeck, Daphne giggling as I tripped over her feet.

Daphne started singing, "You charmed the heart right out of meeeeee," completely off-key. I whirled her around in a particularly spirited turn, and we smacked into something strong and warm, tumbling down to the floor in a pile of giggles.

I looked up to see what we had collided with, and found Antonin standing over me. His shoulders were so wide that he completely blocked out the firelight, making it impossible to see what expression he was wearing. We both froze for a moment before he laughed and pulled both of us to our feet. I breathed a sigh of relief, and let my momentum carry me directly into his warm chest. He wrapped one arm around me and tucked my head under his chin.

"Is everything alright?" asked Draco.

"Fine," grunted Antonin, "he didn't let me do it myself, but the bastard is finish."

I popped out from his embrace, "A toast!" I declared, slurring only slightly.

I grabbed four glasses and poured a generous measure of Ogden's into each. As we each let the liquid burn down our throats and warm our stomachs, a silence settled upon the group. Daphne, clearly not wanting to lose the momentum of the evening, proposed,

"Another toast- to the finest dancers this mouldy old manor has ever seen!"

"Ah, I don't think I can drink to that until I've seen the performance," countered Antonin with a gentile smile.

I sprung to my feet and dragged Daphne off the couch. We launched into an extremely exuberant, and slightly uncoordinated tango. As the last lines of the song rang out, Daphne tried and failed to dip me, resulting in both of us tumbling to the ground yet again. Applause rang out from our extremely forgiving audience as we dissolved into another fit of the giggles.

Draco pushed himself up off the couch, and pulled Daphne gently to her feet.

"I think I'd better put this one to bed before she does any lasting property damage. Dolohov, I trust you can keep Hermione in check."

"Unlikely," he grunted, but the corners of his mouth twitched.

"Oooh, going to put me to bed, are you?" giggled Daphne, winding her arm around Draco's waist, "I like the sound of that!"

Draco's entire face flamed as red as Ron's hair.

"In the strictly literal sense, yes," he said awkwardly.

"Well you're not fun!" giggled Daphne.

"Just stun her," suggested Antonin helpfully, "she can sleep it off."

Draco appeared to seriously consider this, as he tried to propel her towards the door, and Daphne gave him a smack on the arm.

"Not nice!" she admonished as they made an ungraceful exit.

I sunk back into the couch and reached for the Ogden's again, but Antonin grabbed my hand.

"Also not nice!" I fixed a bleary stare on him.

He pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me.

"I think you had quite enough," he stated gently.

I huffed, but found myself unwilling to leave the comfort of his lap. We sat in a comfortable silence for a moment, staring into the fire. Uncharacteristically, Antonin broke the silence first.

"How do you feel, kotyonok?" he asked.

"Drunk. Happy. I missed Daphne," I evaded.

"That's not what I ask."

"I don't know. How am I supposed to feel?"

He shrugged. After a moment I continued,

"I should be happy. I've desired his death for so long. Tried to kill him twice. But I feel nothing. It just... still sucks,"

Antonin nodded.

"Isn't revenge supposed to be cathartic?" I asked, half to myself.

After a moment, Antonin answered me, speaking so quietly I felt the rumble in his chest more than I heard his words, "Never has been for me,"