THIRTY

The morning was already drawing into the afternoon by the time Eve dragged herself into the Great Hall. The energy around her was lively, and from the bright shades reflecting off the stained-glass windows, Eve knew her peers' optimism matched the heavenly weather awaiting them outside. There was no better equation for a perfect day at Hogwarts than a quidditch Sunday and a beaming sun. But Eve could not think of anything more blissful than turning and walking straight back into bed.

Though, her pessimism was momentarily alleviated when she spotted Douglas sitting alone.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Eve asked, swinging her legs over the bench to take the spot directly across from her friend. Douglas glanced up from his Daily Prophet with a raised brow.

"Say that again, but mean it this time," Douglas returned.

"Perhaps after some coffee," Eve said, reaching across the breakfast display in front of them and grabbing a porcelain cup. She raised the cup to the coffee kettle beside it and watched the spout begin to pour.

"Still hungover from Friday?" Douglas asked, observing Eve as she raised her coffee cup to her lips and took a sip, flinching immediately at the boiling temperature. He grinned.

"I think I went to bed only a few hours ago," Eve sighed, reaching for the milk pitcher. When she noticed Douglas furrow his expression at her words, she continued, "It was girls' night last night."

"I can't believe I missed out on all the gossip and nail painting," Douglas said, shaking his head and dropping his newspaper on his plate for dramatic effect.

"You didn't miss out on much. Turns out I don't tell my friends much these days. It's a very miserable realization to come to with a face mask on," Eve replied, watching her coffee turn in its cup with her silver spoon, its dark golden hue reminding her of the firewhiskey shots from the night before. She grimaced.

"Sickle for your thoughts?" Douglas asked tentatively, although they both knew Eve's secrets were not a match for the claws of Douglas's friendship.

Eve sighed, grabbing a slice of toast and biting a mouthful. She thought over her words with measured chews.

"I just don't understand why boys do so much and yet will not explain any of it," Eve lamented, biting another mouthful of toast. This time though, she didn't bother to finish chewing as she continued, "But before you realize they haven't explained any of it, they have already done so much, you know?"

"Oh, and how much exactly has he done?" Douglas piped, his eyes glimmering with amusement although his mouth pursed to halt the grin. Eve rolled her eyes.

"We've snogged," Eve said, and when Douglas raised his brows as if unimpressed by the answer, she desperately elaborated, "Several times, many times now. I think I've felt him graze my arse once, too."

"Eve, you naughty girl," Douglas replied with breathless astonishment, raising a hand to his chest in good dramatic measure. Eve took another aggressive bite of her toast.

"How can I let a boy so absurdly turn me on and then leave me as absurdly confused in a matter of ten minutes?" Eve asked, looking ardently at Douglas now as if her questions were a matter of life and death for her. She felt her cheeks run hot.

"I'm not sure, Eve. You're also the girl that snogged a boy just so he would stop talking about his pet ferret last year," Douglas replied, using his best therapist tone, although his grin did not leave his face.

"That wasn't George," Eve countered.

"No, George is the boy that sells vomiting sweets to first years and accidentally turns himself into an old man with a homemade aging potion," Douglas responded flatly, watching as Eve's face fell to a tense frown.

Eve stared at him for a moment as if his words had startled her to disbelief. And then she began laughing, loud and uncontrollably until she felt her cheeks swell and her eyes grow watery. Douglas smiled wide as if he had been waiting the entire conversation for the exact moment.

"I'm really going mad over the boy that took bets on live dragons last year," Eve breathed, her eyes widening as she recalled her life before George when she simply saw him as just a ridiculously foolish part of a pair. Maybe Douglas was a therapist all along.

"We all let ourselves go mad over boys," Douglas shrugged, his smile growing more sincere as if he decided to begin wrapping up the fun.

"I don't know what it is about him," Eve shrugged.

"This year has been raging hell, and he's good fun. Why should you not snog him?" Douglas asked, looking to Eve now for an exact answer. She gave a mindful pause.

"I suppose because I fancy him…?" Eve replied, her words ending in an unplanned question because perhaps Douglas had the answer all along. Eve's notions formed to be true when he nodded.

"You should probably talk to him about it then," Douglas said. Eve frowned.

"Well, that's no fun," She retorted.

"Ignore him then," Douglas shrugged. Eve considered this for a moment.

"He'll just bug until I fold," Eve concluded.

"Not if you're horrifically impolite to him," Douglas grinned.

"Be mean to get a boy to like me? Are we 11 years old again?" Eve asked, sending Douglas a bewildered stare.

"I said impolite, didn't I? Boys like a chase. Leave him just as confused as he's left you," Douglas said flatly, as he had read the information in a textbook and not his own demented male brain.

But at that moment, it sounded mildly sensical to Eve. And as if to celebrate her mind being made up, the bell tower chimed the hour.

"Let's ditch the quidditch game and lay in the sun, yeah?" Eve asked, watching as their fellow breakfast stragglers around them began to pull themselves from the tables.

"Perfect. I had no intention of interacting with anyone today, anyways," Douglas replied with a nod, "Before you came to me with your miseries, of course."

"Girls' night, but make it Eve and Douglas," Eve said with an equal nod. She began to rise to her feet, and Douglas quickly followed suit.

"But I suppose you're out of the firewhiskey?" Douglas asked, sending her a playful glance.

"I am, but I do know where Fiona keeps her personal stash for emergencies," Eve replied, and almost immediately, the thought of alcohol didn't repulse Eve anymore with the idea of her best friend's involvement. Teenage bodies worked in those mysterious ways.

"I would medically consider our emotions as crisis level," Douglas shrugged.

"Oh, our? Sickle for your thoughts, Douglas?" Eve asked, watching as the boy turned on his heel and began walking in the direction of the Great Hall doorframe. He sent Eve a grin.

They made it back to the common room quickly and without notice. Mostly everyone had left for the game by then, besides a few younger years that opted for staying behind to study and water the planters. Oh, the tender hearts of Hufflepuffs.

Eve found Fiona's liquor stash hastily, having infiltrated it many times in the past years since they began dabbling in adolescent misbehavior. There was no firewhiskey, but there was a bottle of Scottish brandy and a rather scary-looking Russian vodka bottle. She picked the vodka.

She came back down the dormitory tunnel with her bookbag and bottle in hand. Douglas was already waiting for her.

"It was between brandy and vodka. I took the vodka," Eve said, waving the bottle for a moment for his eyes before stuffing it in her bookbag.

"Good. Why does Fiona have brandy anyways?" Douglas asked as the pair descended back into the common room.

"She says it makes her feel sexy and sophisticated," Eve shrugged.

"Oh, perhaps we should have taken it then," Douglas grinned, stopping to glance back in the direction of the dormitories. Eve rolled her eyes and pushed him along.

The vacancy of the corridors was much similar to that of the common room. Besides a few passing students here or there, some set towards the library with books in their hands, some idling groups of friends taking advantage of the empty castle. Eve and Douglas found a clear spot on a grassy hill, far enough away from the actual stone of the castle for purposes of unadulterated privacy, but high enough to still make out the floating specks that hovered over the quidditch pitch below.

Eve watched a tiny green fleck of color zoom around the field and past the goal post. The murmur of cheers commenced, and she grimaced at the thought of a score for Slytherin.

"I can't believe we are drinking in broad daylight," Eve muttered, her profound realization followed by another swig of the vodka to her lips.

"I think that's called adolescent disillusionment," Douglas replied, leaning back on the grass with outstretched elbows and lifting his face to illuminate in the golden sun, "You get older and realize things are not quite as easy as they were when you were 11."

Eve thought over his words carefully, considering how difficult and painful the last year had been, how so much had seemingly changed in such a small fraction of time. And how much she had changed with it. And yet, Eve thought of being 11 years old again, in her first year at Hogwarts. Things had felt so difficult back then too.

"This is such a strange place," Eve stated, the only possible thought she could muster as she continued to mull over Douglas's words. The murmur of the crowd came again, but her eyes hadn't caught what had happened. She was watching the glimmer of the Great Lake now.

"Do you think you would turned out stranger if you were a muggle?" Douglas asked. Eve didn't turn to see how serious his expression was, but she laughed nonetheless at the question.

"Oh, no doubt. Have you met my parents?" Eve replied. She heard Douglas's laugh arise from beside her.

There was a pause in the conversation, and after a minute or so, Eve turned to Douglas to meet his expression. But his was elsewhere in the scenery ahead. She watched his face, patiently waiting for him to recount his thoughts, and in time, he turned to her and grabbed the bottle. He took a long sip, his face immediately twisting in its taste as he lowered the bottle from his lips.

"My dad keeping talking to me about working in the Ministry with him," Douglas said, a small sigh leaving his lips as he sent Eve a halfhearted smile over his shoulder, "It's funny to think we only have one year left, and I haven't thought about graduating all year."

"Like it hadn't occurred to us at all that we would be leaving this place one day," Eve continued in a low murmur, her mind imagining Douglas's words now.

Eve was certain she would have figured out what she wanted to do outside of Hogwarts by her sixth year. She was so convinced she would have planned something, anything at all that made sense for her future. But if she was to be honest with herself, Eve hadn't thought about her future one single bit this entire school year. As if all the stress and misfortune of this past year only amounted to her worrying about the next day ahead. How could she possibly think of graduation when she wasn't sure if she'd be expelled on any given day for using her wand outside of class?

"Cedric and I would talk about it all the time. Overbearing fathers desperately wanting us to follow so closely into their Ministry entangled footsteps," Douglas said, his expression tightening into a pained sort of smile at the memory. He took another sip as he spoke again, "Of course, his father is a bit kinder than mine."

The mention of the name brought a strange sensation of overwhelming ache in Eve's chest as if she had just been given momentous life-changing news right there on the grassy hill. Eve opened her mouth, possibly to speak, but after a few moments, she realized it was because she was finding it hard to breathe.

"What is it?" Douglas asked, and when Eve turned, he had a concerned gaze on her.

"I think I forget he was dead for a second," Eve replied, shaking her head and turning back to the lake. When the sparkle of the water wasn't enough of a distraction for her, she turned her eyes to the quidditch pitch, watching the moving misshaped dots again. She wished she had the score now.

"Yeah, I do that sometimes too," Douglas said, and for a second or so, she felt her shoulder squeezed from his touch.

Eve turned back to him with a small smile and took the bottle from his hands, taking a massive gulp in a sort of desperate attempt to lighten the mood. Her swallow was caught by a deep eruption of coughs, her body's attempt to punish her surely for the alcohol intake. But the momentary choking caused Douglas to burst into laughter from beside her, and when she was able to catch her breath, Eve laughed along with him.

"Oh, I'm drunk for sure now," Eve said, desperately clinging on to her cheeks as she felt the familiar wash of warmth come over her.

"Don't worry, it's lack of oxygen, most definitely," Douglas chuckled, taking the bottle from beside Eve, but the modest sip he took indicated he was bidding not making Eve's mistake.

Eve took Douglas's word for it and attempted to retrieve air back in her lungs. She took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes and feeling the warmth come from the sun above. In the silence and dark vision, Eve heard rustling come from beside her, and in the few familiar clinks, she realized Douglas was going through her bag. She opened her eyes and saw her sketchbook in Douglas's hands.

"Draw me, yeah?" Douglas asked, a grin spreading on his face as Eve let out a sharp snort of amusement at his demand. She realized now that the oxygen did not help. She was, indeed, a bit drunk.

"Come on, like old times," Douglas continued, pushing the sketchbook into Eve's lap until she took it.

"You're talking like we've aged forty years, Douglas," Eve laughed, but she opened to a blank page all the same.

"When was the last time we've just relaxed and done things we enjoy?" Douglas asked incredulously, waving his hand in the air as a way of gesturing to their current climate of affairs. Eve could see a familiar glint in his eyes and noted that he was, in fact, also a bit drunk now.

"As in me drawing and you sunbathing?" Eve asked, grinning as she plunged her hand inside her bookbag and searched for her sketching pencil.

"Precisely," Douglas answered, and as if on cue, he leaned back on his elbows and assumed a sunbathing position.

And in the soft grass and the drunken haze of the bright sunlight, Eve drew well-intentioned muddled illustrations of Douglas from his spot beside her. And even as it rendered silent between them, the keenly comforting atmosphere between them was enough for each of them to forget the painful memories they shared only minutes prior.

Eve's gaze on Douglas and her sketchbook was finally broken by the loud distant cries of the quidditch arena from below them.

"Match must be over," Douglas said, although his mild tone suggested he didn't quite care at all at the very moment.

"I hope Ravenclaw won," Eve murmured, although her tone was not of hopefulness.

She reached for the bottle and took a short swig as if anticipating what would be a dreadful clamor of Slytherin celebration. Douglas's thoughts must have been similar because he took the bottle from her hands and mirrored her actions. The pair watched the castle grounds below began to speckle with crowds of students. Some seemed to be making a quick return to the castle, while other groups began to fill out the grounds around them, seemingly caught in the mild grace of the February weather just as Douglas and Eve had. Douglas let out a short huff as the first group of students began to pass by their direction, tossing the bottle of vodka back into Eve's bookbag for innocent measure.

A group of younger Hufflepuffs passed them from a distance, their faces glancing at the pair with curious stares.

"Fueling the romance rumors heavily today," Eve grinned, turning to Douglas, who was eyeing the younger eyes with moderate consideration.

"Lucky wee infants. They have yet to know the torture of romance," Douglas sighed, his eyes scanning the crowd further before his face fell to a frown, "Looks like Slytherin won judging by the rare appearance of smiles."

"Fantastic," Eve stated flatly, leaning back on her palms in a state of intoxicated disappointment and unbalance. She grimaced as a group of joyous Slytherins took a spot on the grass not too far from them.

"Don't look now, but I see a particular shade of red coming up the hill," Douglas muttered.

And as if he hadn't warned her at all, Eve turned and saw the tops of the Weasley twins' heads, their figures intermingled with their usual group of Gryffindor friends. After their quidditch ban, Eve was surprised that the twins had shown up at all, but she suspected they would never miss an opportunity to heckle their green-clad peers. She turned her eyes away quickly and remained in her casual disposition as if she hadn't disobeyed her friend at all.

"You looked, didn't you?" Douglas asked, giving her leg a quick kick from his own.

Eve let out a groan from the pain and raised herself with her palms, using her free hands now to push Douglas's shoulder. The alcohol must have acted as an underscore for their strength and a weakening on their reflects because Douglas fell back haphazardly from his seat and into the grass beside him.

"Bloody hell, Eve!" Douglas exclaimed, gripping his shoulder tightly and bursting out into surprise laughter.

"Hufflepuff on Hufflepuff violence!"

Douglas turned to where the distant cry came from, although the action wasn't needed from Eve to know it was Fred who had yelled it.

"Demon strength she's got!" Douglas called back, and Eve finally turned to glance at the Gryffindor group in the distance.

They laughed at Douglas's words but continued to make their way up the hill with seemingly no attempt to approach them. But in her glance, it was entirely impossible not to look at George, and unfortunately for her, he was looking straight at her when she did. She watched his face break out into a grin, and he sent a playful wave of acknowledgment. And before Eve could even remotely come up with the best strategy of a reply, she simply looked away and back at the field below. She heard Douglas let out a snort from beside her.

"How did he look?" Eve asked tentatively, her eyes not daring to look away, although she figured by now George was up the hill and out of sight anyways.

"Mildly puzzled. Good work," Douglas nodded.

Eve caught Douglas's bemused expression as she turned back to him, and in an instant, the pair broke into a fit of drunken laughter.

"Why did I do that? I'm such an idiot," Eve asked, her incredulous tone causing another swarm of giggles to erupt from her. The entire interaction felt like one silly mess of childish amusement, but at the very least, the lack of sobriety eased the embarrassment Eve now felt.

"I mean, technically, it was impolite," Douglas said flatly, although he was still grinning from ear to ear as he worded it.

"I'm sure he will be begging for my attention in no time at all," Eve said, a giant sigh escaping her lips as she thought about the grave mistake she surely made in her plans of romantic conquest.

"Oh, just you wait, Eve. How many girls has he burned a carpet for?" Douglas asked, the specificity in his question causing a deep eye-roll from Eve.

"The answer to that question might be more concerning than you think," Eve replied, thinking over the prospects now in her head.

How was Eve meant to measure the magnitude of fancy George had for her? She had only known him personally this school year, and before that, he was just the boy that came in a double pack of trouble and attention. An attention, Eve might note, that was taken by girls at school. As if she was naïve enough to think George hadn't had his share of romantic projections throughout his time at Hogwarts. Eve knew what girls liked. She, in recent self-admittance, just realized she liked it too.

"Times are dire, and boys are stupid. But we cannot lose hope," Douglas stated, his words morphing from a therapist's tone to that of a politician's.

"Your future in the Ministry will be bright indeed," Eve grinned.

"Yeah, write that down for me, will you?" Douglas murmured with an eye roll. He lifted himself off the ground in one sweeping motion and began brushing his hands on his trousers.

"Let's go eat," he said, reaching for Eve's bookbag and swinging over his shoulder.

And just as the vodka could be heard sloshing haphazardly from outside her bag, Eve wobbled messily to her feet with the sudden movement of the ground below her. She giggled and grabbed Douglas's shoulder.


Author's Note: 30 chapters! Wow! I could probably write thirty chapters of just Eve and Douglas hanging out lol. Anyways, thanks for reading! Next chapter is going to be juicy, I swear.