Ariana Longbottom arrived at the party after it was in full swing. She had spent hours on end trying to decide whether or not to come but in the end she felt like she had to. She had a morbid sort of curiosity that made her wonder about his life with his beautiful wife. She wasn't hung up on him. Or at least that was what she tried to tell herself. Because getting hung up on married men was never a healthy thing to do. Especially a married man she barely knew. She spotted Lily at the bar and began to make her way towards her.
The all of a sudden an excitable, athletic looking man thrust a shot in her hand and urged her to drink it. Feeling slightly overwhelmed, she gulped it down, feeling the alcohol sting the back of her throat. She looked at the man who had handed her the alcohol and vaguely recognized him from a Quidditch magazine.
"Do you want to dance?" the man shouted over the noise of the party.
She just nodded and they made their way to the mass of gyrating bodies.
"The name's Will," the man shouted.
"Ariana," she shouted back.
Will seemed perfectly happy to continue dancing without any further introductions and Ariana just went along with it. Her eyes scanned the darkened room for signs of James Potter to no avail. Suddenly she felt terribly alone. Especially since Lily seemed to be having a deeply intense conversation with one of the Scamander twins. Ariana mentally cursed herself for bothering to come to this place where she felt like she was being practically suffocated by the amount of bodies.
"Can I get something to drink?" she yelled over the pandemonium.
"Sure," he shouted back and led her out of the epicenter of the chaos. He found them a pair of unoccupied chairs and sat her down with the promise to save him the seat.
"I'll be back in a second," he said. "What do you want?"
"Firewhiskey's good," she said.
Sure enough Will came back with a large Firewhiskey for her and a massive dark coloured drink for himself.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Some tea thing," Will said. "James recommended it. It has four types of alcohol so it can't be bad."
"Alcohol and tea?" Ariana asked wrinkling up her nose.
"It's pretty good," he said taking a swig.
"I'll stick to Firewhiskey," she said, taking the glass from him.
"So Ariana," he said. "What do you do?"
"Curse breaker," she said, without missing a beat.
"Bollocks," he said with a snort. "You looking like a flipping model. Why would you want to work in dirty old ruins?"
"Quidditch player I assume?" she said dryly.
"Puddlemere," he said, puffing his chest out.
"Oi Broadhurst!" a short man with a prominent nose yelled. "Gwenny's gone cuckoo. Deal with her."
"Duty calls," Will said. "But I'd love to get to know you better…um…"
"Ariana," she said.
The man with the prominent nose just smirked as he led Will away.
"Broadhurst is a decent chaser," a voice said in her ear, making her jump. "But pretty lacking in the brains department. I wouldn't go for him if I were you."
"James," she said with a gasp. "You scared the daylights out me."
Sorry," he said, looking entirely unrepentant.
"Did you get someone to get rid of Will?" she asked.
"Maybe," he shrugged.
"You know that puts you sort of high up on the stalker scale," she said.
James just shrugged sheepishly, looking rather young in that moment.
"So what did you want to talk about?" she said, still having to raise her voice a little even though the noise was far less in the corner they were in. Ariana briefly wondered if James had done some noise muffling charms.
James looked slightly blank. He had only planned up to getting her alone. He was now entirely unsure how to proceed.
"How have you been?" he asked rather lamely.
"Good," she said, sounding rather uncomfortable. The last time they had been alone James had kissed her rather passionately and now they were making awkward small talk.
"I've been pretty good too," he said, conversationally. "Moved back here."
"I know," Ariana said. "It was all the papers could talk about for months."
"You look through the papers to check up on me?" he asked, amused.
"Well it's hard to miss," Ariana said waspishly, taking a large sip of her Firewhiskey. "You're everywhere."
"Y'know you don't have to dig through papers to see how I'm doing," he said. "You could just write."
"Or you could just write," she said, sipping from her glass and much to her dismay, finding it almost empty.
"I'll get you a refill," James said immediately. "Just stay here."
"I'll be waiting," Ariana said, the alcohol making her much less inhibited.
She watched him disappear into the crowd of people, her chest slightly hurting at the sight of him leave. It had been almost three years and she still couldn't get rid of those feelings she had for him. It was entirely unfair she thought rather indignantly. While he had been screwing his beautiful half-Veela wife, she had been going on entirely unsatisfactory dates with colleagues and people her mother set her up with. Maybe she just hadn't met the right guy yet. Unfortunately James had been the only person in the last three years who actually got her to feel something other than mild regret. Though when she thought of James she felt major regret. And a host of other emotions she wasn't quite sure how to describe. Sure she had walked away the last time because she felt like she didn't know him well enough. Certainly not well enough to break up his marriage. But she briefly wondered if it would have been better if she had slept with him. Then he would've gotten out of her system and she would've gotten out of his.
After waiting for almost half an hour Ariana just felt rather numb. He wasn't coming back evidently. She decided to bid him adieu. This had definitely been a mistake. The effects of the Firewhiskey had worn off and all she really felt was empty.
She walked through the sea of people hoping to spot a James in the mix. She saw Lily walking up the stairs with a Scamander twin. Well at least she's having fun, Ariana thought as she watched their retreating backs. There were so many sweaty, inebriated people in the room that Ariana began to feel slightly claustrophobic, but then she saw something that made her almost heave.
Two people were in a corner (which was mostly tucked away from sight) wrapped around each other. And although Ariana couldn't quite make out the man's face since he was turned away from her, the hair was undoubtedly messy, black, Potter hair. And the girl was definitely, definitely Sophie. She had a sort of aura around her that was unmistakable, even in a darkened room.
It felt a little like cold water had been thrown over her. Of course James would be with his beautiful wife. Why would he not be with his gorgeous half-Veela of a wife?
She decided that despite the fact that she would be apparating home later she would have a drink. And a strong one too. She made her way to the bar and ordered a large vodka tonic. There was a lot about Muggles that had to be appreciated. Wizards did make alcohol that was far tastier but entirely useless when one wanted to get drunk quickly.
As she was sipping her second one when James reappeared.
"There you are," he said, sounding a little out of breath. "I thought I had lost you."
"Look," she said, slurring a little. "This was a bad idea. I never should've come. You have a wife. A wife you're obviously still in love with. Or at least attracted to since you've been going at it for the last half-hour."
"What are you talking about?" he asked, bemusedly.
"This was a bad idea," she repeated. "And I'll be out of your hair soon. I promise."
"At least let me help you get home," James said, concernedly.
"Not on your life," she said, downing the rest of her drink and getting up shakily. "You've had more to drink than me."
"Ariana," he called after her as she walked towards the fireplace. "Ariana stop."
But Ariana just picked up a handful of Floo Powder and disappeared into the green fire.
a/n: So I'm being better with updates noww. Also this is the second of the party chapters. There's definitely going to be at least one more. So I hope you like it and please tell me what you thinkk :)