Ayla was, to put it politely, ever so slightly tipsy. It was December 23rd and the Weasley's Christmas party was well under way. Ayla had lost count of the number of drinks she'd had. Sarah on the other hand, being heavily pregnant and only able to drink pumpkin juice, was well aware of how much Ayla had consumed. She also had a rough idea of how much more her friend could handle before Sarah would have to drag her home. It wasn't very much more.
Ayla had several fantastically good excuses for her current...let's call it festive merriment. It was Christmas. She had the next week free - no work. It was a party. It was a Christmas party don't you know. What's his name was gone for good. And oh yeah, Christmas! Who didn't love Christmas? The snow, the colour's, the singing people. Wasn't it all just great? Sarah had been treated to this speech from her friend a dozen times. Each rendition had become more slurred and more repetitive as the night got older. Christmas. Whoopee.
"Sarah! Let's…let's….let's go dance!"
Sarah had to laugh the only time Ayla ever wanted to dance was when she couldn't see straight and was just a bit wobbly on her feet. Basically a time like tonight. And it was never fun dancing with Ayla when she was like this. Mainly because neither of you were very sure which direction you would be going in. Funny to watch, but dangerous to be with.
"No you know what's even more fun than dancing Ayla? Sitting down, very quietly, for at least half an hour." Sarah tried her best to make this sound like the best idea in the history of good ideas in hope that Ayla would agree. "So that one of us can sober up." The last part Sarah said under her breath, making Ayla angry when she was drunk was never a particularly good idea. Ayla thought her friend's suggestion over. To other guests it looked as if she was trying to remember the twelve uses for dragon blood whilst whistling the French national anthem. Very difficult.
"Nah, I think I wanna dance."
"No let's sit, we could have another drink." Sarah failed to tell Ayla that the only other drink she would be allowed was a very large, very cold bucket of water.
"But we could um, you know drink and…and dance!" Ayla's eyes lit up triumphant. The two best things in the world, drinking and dancing, combined together in a wonderful harmony. Sarah shuddered drinking and dancing with Ayla was not top of her list of priorities, sitting down was. She spotted a passing Weasley, she wasn't sure which one it was and neither did she care, she made a grab for him. It was his party, he could dance with Ayla - it was only fair.
"Oi! Wealey dance with her will you? I would but I'm a bit well.." she trailed off and pointed at her stomach. There was only two and a half months of her pregnancy left, she'd avoided Saint Mungo's so far, she wasn't about to be admitted over night because she'd been foolish enough to dance with a drunk. "If you need me, I'll be sitting down. Over there." Sarah left, pushing her way through the crowd she reached a spot that was perfect. She could still see her friend but she was a safe distance away from the flailing limbs that Weasley would have to avoid in order to live through dancing with Ayla. She grinned to herself, it was always fun to watch people attempt to dance with her friend when she was in this state.
Her view, however was shortly obscured, by a very tall and annoyingly familiar pair of legs.
"Excuse me. Do you mind moving." It wasn't a request, it was an order. Being pregnant did have its advantages, you got to boss people around. And no one ever dared disagree with you.
Oliver turned around when he felt something hit the back of his head. It was Sarah, Ayla's friend, and she was throwing balled up paper napkins at him.
"Move." she shouted again. Stupid pretty boy, doesn't he know a direct order when it's given to him? And these Quidditch players were supposed to be good at doing what they were told. Sarah somehow doubted that. But then he did move. Maybe he isn't all that stupid she briefly thought. Or maybe not, she corrected herself as he sat down next to her. Since when did 'move' mean 'please sit down next to me'?
"Hey you're getting really big?" what a charmer she thought. "When's it due?" Oliver really didn't know what else to say to the girl, she was Ayla's friend and he barely knew her or what to say to her. So what could he possibly talk to Sarah about. He moved his hand to pat her stomach, kids were cool he thought, miracle of life and all that.
Sarah thrust her now empty glass into his hand before he could lay so much as a finger on her. Who the hell did he think he was?
"February. Can you get me another drink? Pumpkin juice. Thanks." she smiled brightly at the confusion that edged across his face before he nodded and walked off. Women, thought Oliver, I just don't understand them. Men, thought Sarah, you have to watch them every step of the way or who knows where you'll end up.
Weasley seemed to be doing ok though. No sign of any broken bones at least. She could now see Ayla and which ever twin it was dancing. Either Weasley had adapted to Ayla's unique way of dancing, or he actually danced like that too. What a scary thought. It looked too natural for him to be pretending. Well that solved one thing, when Ayla's drunk and wants to dance, simply find a Weasley for her to dance with.
Sarah yawned, she was bored, tired and had no-one to talk to. What a fun party this was, she thought to herself. By the looks of it she was the only pregnant person in the room too. That settled it, she was going home, even if she had to drag Ayla out by her hair. She heaved herself up and began to wade back through the bodies to where Ayla was attempting to dance. On the way she bumped into Wood again, she took the drink from his hand - downed it in one go and smiled at him before she carried on towards her friend. She couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face, that was one man who definitely did not understand women.
"Ayla! We're going home."
Ayla turned around and launched herself at Sarah. "You came to dance!"
"No come on let's go, it's getting late. No I don't want to dance. Let go!" Ayla had grabbed Sarah's arm and was trying to force the other girl to dance. Her technique was to swing Sarah at the other guests in hope that she would somehow find a rhythm to go along with the music. Somehow it didn't really work. When she realized this Ayla let go and smiled at the twin whose hand she currently had in her death grip. He was fun, whoever he was. She resumed flailing her arms about in the air as she'd been doing before Sarah had joined them. This caused the Weasley's hand to sail through the air and narrowly miss Sarah's head. Ayla giggled, dancing was fun.
"Look you go home. Me and George will look after her. Just give me her address and I'll personally make sure she gets home safely." the twin, now distinguished as Fred, leaned in and yelled conspiratorially in Sarah's ear. She looked at him skeptically, he was a Weasley twin after all. Could he be trusted?
"Ok but you better take good care of her. If I hear you experimented on her or something, I'll hex your balls off!" Sarah gave him her most threatening don't mess with me glare. When he nodded she pulled out her wand and conjured a slip of parchment with Ayla's address on it and pushed it into Fred's hand.
"I mean it. I'll be there tomorrow at eight. If she's not there, I'll find you Weasley and make you wish you'd never been born." Sarah hugged her friend, trying her best to explain what was going to happen before leaving, giving Weasley one last glare. She hoped that Ayla would do nothing to embarrass herself.
As it was Sarah wasn't the first guest to leave, the party was slowly losing force. Within an hour all that was left of the party goers was Ayla, the twins, Oliver and a couple of goblins from Gringotts, and of course the few remaining staff.
"Ayla do you remember where you live? Do you know your address?"
Ayla tottered, unable to stand still without falling over. She was sure she was seeing two Fred's. Or maybe one of them was George? There was two of them.
"I think the more important question Mr. Weasley, or Weasley's is do you know where you live?" Ayla giggled again, it had been a fun party.
It was useless, Fred knew he couldn't let her go home alone. Even if he let her walk there was no telling where she would end up. He grabbed Oliver, he still looked sober, just the man for the job and shoved the parchment Sarah had given him into his hand.
"Can you take her home mate? We've got to settle up with Tom and get those goblins out of here. They're refusing to leave see." He glanced over at his twin who was trying to reason with the group. All in all it had been a good party he thought.
"Sure. Come on Ayla we're going home."
She goggled "To your house?"
"No to yours. Come on in you get."
He lifted her into the fireplace and shouted out her address, they soon disappeared in a flash of emerald green flames. Fred smiled, he knew his old friend had a soft spot for that girl. Why else would he be in Diagon Alley every week? It certainly wasn't to see him and George.
