She had just gotten out of the shower when Dudley knocked on her door Saturday night at six. He was early. Really early. She hastily slid her robe on before her mother heard the bell from the garden, and rushed downstairs, pulling the large boy into the house. "My mum's out back, but she doesn't really know I'm leaving so-" Aquila pulled him up the stairs quietly and led him into her room. "Sorry, I didn't know you'd be here so early. How long until we need to leave?"
"Eh-" he cleared his throat, looking away from her as his cheeks heated up. "I was just stopping by to, er, hang out before we left."
"Oh, well you can have a seat. I'll change in the bathroom. Do you want anything to drink?"
"I'm good," he admitted, flushing as he sat on the bed. Merlin, it's like he's never been in the same room as a girl before. She supposed her robe was a bit short, though. She went to her wardrobe, selecting a multitude of dresses. She gave him the choice between the red or black, which he hesitated with before chopsing the black.
She grinned and told him she'd be right back before she darted to the bathroom. The dress was short, hugging her body. Though the red was more revealing, she would admit. This one covered up her chest, but left nothing of her legs to the imagination. She used her wand to dry her hair and skin, making sure each black curl was perfectly placed, before she gathered her robe and headed into her bedroom, a toothbrush in her mouth.
"So, how is a Muggle party exactly?" she asked as she hung her robe on the back of her door. There was silence and she turned, pulling the toothbrush out of her mouth to repeat herself, but he wasn't paying attention. He was staring at her with his jaw dropped. She glanced down, self-conscious. "Should I change?" she asked. "I-I don't want to be over dressed."
He glanced away hastily, shifting in his seat. "Er-no, you look fantastic." She didn't seem convinced but finished with her teeth and used her wand to get rid of the spit. She set the toothbrush on her vanity and dug in her closet. "Muggle party... I don't know what your parties are like. There's music, drinking, dancing... Not very formal. Just sort of hanging out."
"Oh," she stated. "Well, that doesn't sound that bad." She grabbed her heels and then her flats. She held them up to him, raising an eyebrow. He chose heels. She grinned, sliding them on. She cast deodorant charms, and then a sticking charm on her dress. She didn't want it to fall off while she was dancing. She sprayed perfume before nodding to herself. "Well, am I presentable?"
"You're gorgeous, bloody hell," he muttered. "Try not to get too drunk. These blokes... they aren't a nice lot."
She nodded, "I don't like drinking too much, so I don't think that will be a problem. If I do start to drink too much... will you let me know?"
"Sure." He sounded like it was a promise she'd keep so she stuck her wand down the seam of her dress and twisted in the mirror to be sure she was presentable. Nodding to herself, she bit her lip as she faced him. "We don't have to leave for another twenty minutes."
"Good..." She joined him on the bed, seeing him tense. "Look, er... Dudley-"
"I'm not going to take advantage of you if you're drunk."
She glanced at him in surprise. She wasn't even going to suggest that. But he did seem sincere. "Good to know, but that wasn't what I was going to say..." He flushed in embarrassment. "My mother doesn't really... well, she doesn't want me hanging out with Muggles, so... I'm going to and I'm going to prove to her you're an alright lot. Also... erm, well don't tell my mum this, but I really do like your family."
He smiled carefully, though the smile really wasn't that big, it was pleasant. "Secret's safe with me."
She laughed lightly and bumped arms with him. "I'd imagine you have a girlfriend. She's lucky."
"Er, no girlfriend."
Aquila glanced at him, confused. "Oh... Well, single life's fun. If there's one thing I missed while I was in a relationship, it was just having fun. Eugh, men are so uptight."
"Oi, we all aren't uptight."
"i suppose not. I just happen to pick the guys that are a fun sponge."
He laughed at that and she was pleased with it. It was boisterous, infectious. She started to laugh with him. "Fun sponge?" he questioned. "Who says that?"
"I do," she defended in a laugh. "Merlin's beard, I don't make fun of you for your weird terms." Dudley conceded and Aquila stood from her seat, tilting her head to the side as she watched him. "How long of a walk is it?"
"Not more than three blocks."
She bit her lip, nodding. "Um, when I drink... I just kind of get loud... and really giggly." She flushed in embarrassment. "If I say something... I probably mean it, but, um, maybe it's best if we forget what I say?"
"Whatever you wish. I'm a loud drunk, too, so I think I can manage to get you home."
"Great," Aquila smiled. She pulled open her bedside drawer and dug through her many accessories until she found a simple silver necklace. She put it on and then paused when she found a man's ring. She pulled it out slowly, staring at it a moment, lost in the memories. It wasn't hers, but her father's. It was his class ring that he had given the bouncing baby girl, because apparently every moment Aquila got with him, she would always take it off of his hand and try to fit it onto her baby fingers, but it was always too big. Her father had given it to her one a small chain to wear around her neck, so that when he was away to serve the Dark Lord, she would always have a bit of him with her. She had been wearing it when he died... She hadn't seen it in years - not since before she got her letter to Hogwarts. She always hid it from her mother, and brother - she always put it in the back of the drawer, seeing it as bad luck. A part of her younger self thought that it was a good luck charm and her father had died because he didn't have it.
"What's that?" Dudley asked.
Aquila jumped, forgetting she wasn't alone. She glanced at Dudley, not noticing how much time had passed. "It's... it's nothing," she murmured. She placed it back in her drawer carefully. "It was my father's class ring... I had forgotten I had it, is all." She smiled at Dudley as she shut the drawer. "Shall we?"
She led him down the stairs quietly, pausing and glancing towards the back, before taking his arm and pulling him out the front door. Once she shut it, she began to giggle.
"Your mum doesn't know you're going?"
"She does, but she doesn't know where it is, and she doesn't know that I am going, because she told me not to." Aquila grinned at him as they began to walk towards the end of the neighborhood, passing Number 4 on the way. "My mother doesn't really approve of making friends with Muggles. She says it's pointless as I'm only here three months out of the year and then I'll be shipped off like some mail order bride." She paused, thinking. "At least, I think that's what they're called. Anyway, I say whatever. I'm going to make friends with whoever I want. And while Piers probably has less than honorable intentions for befriending me, you aren't bad, so I'm willing to endure it."
Dudley grimaced, "He, uh... likes you."
"You don't have to sugar coat it," Aquila snorted. "He wants to have sex with me."
Dudley cleared his throat in surprise at the blunt statement. "Er, yeah."
"Well, he's not going to," Aquila informed Dudley decisively. "It's a party, not a brothel." She glanced at him suddenly. "Right?"
"Right," Dudley said uncomfortably. She tried to think of a subject change. "There's only two bedrooms anyway," Dudley continued, smirking as he glanced at her. "Usually one's already occupied by Malcolm by the time the party starts, so the empty one usually goes to the drunkest two people first."
"Merlin, you lot are so carefree," she exclaimed. "It's amazing." She let out a breath and stared ahead of them a minute. "My school we just sort of find an abandoned classroom... our dorms are shared with the entire class, so there are five other girls in the same room as me." She glanced at Dudley, shrugging. "Not as much privacy as you'd think."
He seemed to find this shocking, but didn't continue the conversation. Instead, he grimaced as he heard the pulsing music. "Right, that's them."
Aquila spotted the house that the party was taking place at. It didn't look special, but the flow of teens into the building was obvious. "Well, this sounds fun."
When they finally arrived, Piers flocked to the pair of them immediately, pressing two brown bottles to them. "Welcome. There's plenty of alcohol for any of your desires." He looked over Aquila and winked at her. "Quite sexy there, babe."
"Yeah, thanks," she said carefully. She sipped the liquor and found it tasted horrible. Merlin, they enjoyed this stuff? At least Firewhiskey had flavor.
"I'll introduce you to some people," Dudley offered and Aquila nodded, grateful for being pulled away from Piers as he tried to make another move on her. She was led to the kitchen where a few girls were talking loudly over the music and drinking out of plastic red cups. "Ella, this is Natalie, Amber, and Lucinda." Aquila gave them a polite smile and they looked her over before smiling back. "Girls, this is Ella. She just moved in down the road."
"I absolutely love your dress," one of the girls insisted. "Amber, isn't it gorgeous?" She approached Ella, passing the girl a red cup. She took the brown glass and gave it to Dudley. "Don't make her drink that, Dudders. This tastes so much better," the girl insisted. "I'm Natalie. I live across the street. Now, I insist that you tell me where you go that dress."
"Oh, it's custom made," Aquila admitted. "My mother had it designed."
"Wicked," Natalie breathed. She eyed it before glancing at Dudley. "Are you two together?"
"Friends," Aquila shrugged, making Natalie nod.
"Are you any good with aiming?" a different girl asked suddenly. "Dennis challenged us to beer pong, but we absolutely suck at it."
Beer pong? She glanced at Dudley. He just nodded to her. "I have spectacular aim," Aquila stated.
"That's it, you're playing for us," the third one declared. "If you win, you get the prize of the night."
"Prize?" Aquila asked, confused.
Natalie nodded behind her and Aquila turned to see a rather large bottle of some sort of alcohol with a bow on the top. Prize was written in some sort of marker on the glass. It was a stupid prize, but she supposed fitting for a game that seemed to revolve around aim and alcohol. "Are you willing to play for us?" Natalie asked.
"Yeah, sure," Aquila shrugged. She didn't see any harm in it. She promised to catch up with them as Dudley led her out back into the garden where there were more people and a table was set up in the middle of it, a pyramid of cups on each side. "How exactly do you play beer pong?"
"You bounce a ball across a table and it has to land in the other side's cup. If a ball lands on your end, in a cup, you have to down all the contents in the cup," Dudley stated, glancing at the table. Two people were playing and people were cheering them on, chanting the name "Ryan" over and over again. "Usually," Dudley continued. "If you aren't wasted before, you're wasted after."
It sounded like a fun game. Dudley got pulled away from her, leaving her standing by herself as she sipped from the red cup. It tasted better, almost fruity, and she wondered what it was. As she watched him get pulled towards the beer pong table, she failed to notice someone come up beside her.
"So, you fancy a dance, then?" She turned to see a rather handsome young man with a matching red cup, giving her his partial attention. She glanced around them. The people that were dancing seemed to be more jumping than leaping like lords, but she nodded. She downed the rest of her cup before setting it on the table beside her and he grinned wickedly, pulling her towards the pulsing crowd of teenagers. Amidst them, she quickly fell into a rhythm and sort of lost herself in the 'dance.' She rubbed herself against him once more for good measure before she began to pull away when he wrapped his arms around her, her back pressing against his chest, feeling how much he wanted her.
It made her as uncomfortable as Piers did. He didn't grope her or anything, as they continued to dance against one another, but she didn't want to give him the wrong idea. Soon his head dropped to her neck and she gasped in surprise as he began to kiss along it, both of them stopping her dance as this guy, whose name she didn't even know, continued to suck along her pulse point. Merlin, Muggles were wicked at this stuff.
"I think the spare room's still open," the guy murmured in her ear.
She tilted her head to the side, her eyes fluttering in pleasure. His hands, which had been resting on her hips, began to drift lower. "I'm pretty sure we're not going to the spare room," she returned.
He chuckled, making her throat vibrate. "I'll kick them out-" His fingers drifted to the edge of her dress and slowly, as if it were a snail, he began to pull it up slightly, so the hem line was a bit more revealing than Aquila was used to. It was already a short dress. Her hands grabbed his suddenly and pulled them off of her. She turned to face him, giving him a flirty smile.
"I think it's best we not." She trailed her fingers down his chest. "I have a beer pong match to play soon. It sounds like fun."
"I'll cheer for you. If you win, maybe the bedroom?"
She giggled and leaned up in her heels until her lips barely touched his. He tried to kiss her, but she stayed just inches away. "No. I'm not sleeping with you."
She fell back on her heels and turned away from him, spotting Dudley as he glanced hastily away from her. Just as she was about to reach him, Natalie appeared out of nowhere. "There you are! You're on. Let's win this game!"
"Oh, I was just-" she started to say as Dudley glanced at her. They made eye contact, but Natalie grabbed Aquila's arm and dragged her to the table against her will. "Now, Dennis, this is Ella. She's new here. Go easy on her, okay? She's playing for me."
Aquila glanced at Dennis at the other end of the table and he winked at her. "Ella, baby. I think they forgot to tell you, I'm the beer pong champion. Never lost."
Aquila laughed. "That's about to change, Dennis. You see, at my school, I'm the party queen. So I'm pretty sure I have this in the bag."
The crowd seem to get larger as they all cheered. She picked up the ball - being granted the first move - and mimicked what she saw the pair earlier do. It bounced off the table and landed gracefully in the closest cup to her, the tip of the pyramid. Everyone cheered and Dennis downed the drink before pulling the ball out and flicking it across the table, making it land into her own cup. She smirked, downing the drink and tossing it to the side before she threw the ball towards him once more.
"Come on, Ella!" Natalie cried. It landed in the second cup, on the second row of the pyramid. Aquila had a goal to go in order, so that each cup would be torn down like a ten-pin game.
By the time Aquila got the fifth cup in a row, and Dennis had done the same to her - though his selection was messy and not at all in order like her - just about everyone in the party was gathered around. She could see Dudley just in her peripheral vision, laughing as Dennis had to drink yet another cup. His sixth. He threw the cup aside angrily and tossed the ball, getting it in one of her cups. She downed it without a second thought and plucked the ball out, staring at his cups. They were a little blurry, but her years of Quidditch were on her side and if she could hit a bludger in the middle of a snow storm, or hail, or a lightning storm, she sure as hell could win this game.
She tossed and it got in. It was back and forth back and forth until there was just one cup left. Everyone held their breath as Aquila tossed. She was dizzy and her eyes were feeling severely unfocused, but by the gasps and then the roar, she knew she got it in. She watched as Dennis downed the drink and people began to congratulate her. "Wait, wait," Aquila insisted. "Let's see if he can make it in my cup."
"Ooooo," people began to laugh and she waited patiently as Dennis staggered to retrieve the ball and then he bounced it, missing by a wide margin. Aquila shrugged and picked up the cup anyway, downing it before she slammed it down against the table.
"I win," she stated simply.
"Fuck, girl, how in the world did you do that?" Natalie's voice sounded. "You went in order!"
"I'm a bit of a science geek at school," Aquila winked, stumbling slightly in her heels as she took a few steps. "Woah, that was not a good idea. Why did I let Dudley pick heels for me?" She stumbled again and caught the edge of the table to keep her upright. She giggled. "I have absolutely no balance." Natalie laughed too. "You win the tequila."
Aquila groaned. "No way, you can have it. I'm not going to ever drink it."
"You sure?" Natalie asked. "You aren't going to be sick, are you?"
"I can hold liquor," Aquila insisted. She stumbled again and laughed. "Okay, walking home in heels is definitely not an option."
Dudley appeared suddenly. "Do you want to head home?"
"If you want to stay-" Aquila started.
"Everyone's leaving anyway," Natalie shrugged. "Amber and I are heading back, so we can give you a ride, if you'd like."
"Thanks," Dudley said. He laughed as Aquila struggled to walk again. Finally she just sat on the grass and pulled her heels off of her feet, before holding up a hand to him. He helped her back up and she clutched her heels in her other hand before walking with more grace towards the house.
"Thank you," Aquila told him as they entered the flat ground.
"No problem. I'm not letting you fall flat on your face."
She laughed, "No, I meant taking me to the party." She leaned against him, giggling slightly. "I haven't had this much fun in... Gosh, it's been a while."
"Well I had fun too," he admitted. "I didn't know how good you were at beer pong."
"I've never played!" she admitted. "Did I ever tell you that? Not once. I didn't even know what was in the cups. What even is beer? Is it like a mix between a deer and a buck?" Dudley laughed at that as he led her out the front door, nodding to Piers. Aquila giggled as well, waving to him haphazardly and nearly knocking Natalie in the head as she carried the large liquor bottle to her car. Dudley opened the back door and Aquila slid inside. Dudley following. "Because I'm pretty sure they could come up with a better name besides beer. What about duck?" She giggled. "Wait, that already exists."
"You okay to drive?" Dudley asked Amber.
Amber nodded. "I've only had one shot, and that was when the party started."
"That was a short party," Aquila admitted. "Is it always so short?"
"It's been about three hours," Dudley told her. "You danced for about two and that game lasted a while."
"Woah," Aquila murmured.
"Don't you dare get sick in my car," Natalie threatened, the large bottle on her lap in the front seat. "I do not want to explain that to my parents."
Aquila giggled, leaning against Dudley's side as she felt extremely tired. It couldn't have been late, but she was exhausted from dancing for so long, and her legs hurt. "Wake me up when we get there," she murmured. She never heard a response because the world grew dark and her head rested against Dudley's shoulder as the car started to life. She had never been in one of the contraptions before, but she was too pissed to care at the moment.
She awoke to the sound of a door opening and groaned slightly. "We've officially arrived," Dudley stated.
She blinked and refocused and found that she was on a doorstep and Dudley was opening the door. "Whose hous-"
"Stay the night at mine. No funny business, I promise," Dudley insisted, stepping through the door. "Mum and Dad won't mind."
"I'll just crash on the couch or something," she murmured as they entered the foyer and just then she realized that he was carrying her.
"No can do," Dudley stated. "I'm sleeping on the couch."
A part of her brain realized that the couches were much too small to have a person sleep on, but he carried her up the stairs as though she was nothing. "Why are you carrying me?" she whispered. "I can walk."
"You're about to pass out. I've got it."
"You're strong," she murmured, giggling slightly. He chuckled. "Do you play any sports?"
"Rugby," he answered quietly and he opened a door.
She was deposited on a bed and gasped suddenly. "I need paper!"
"Paper?" Dudley asked, confused.
"I need to write a note for my mum," she answered. She tried to roll out of the bed, but Dudley rolled her back so she was laying on her back.
"I'll get it," he insisted, digging around for some. He produced a pen a second later and Aquila quickly wrote two notes, blinking hard and taking extra care to make sure it was legible. "I can barely read that, but okay."
She giggled. "Is Potter awake?"
"Lights on," Dudley answered after a second.
"Tell him to deliver the one to Angelina Johnson first, and then my mum's after his bird's returned." She heard him hesitate and tried to sit up, reaching for the papers. "I'll just-"
"Got it," he insisted. "Sleep, alright?"
She giggled slightly. "Don't sleep on the couch. I'll keep my hands to myself." She scooted over so that he had room to join her. "It's your bed and I'm imposing because I'm drunk."
He hesitated. "I don't know-"
"If it's not okay with your Mum and Dad-" Aquila began.
"Just let's not get frisky."
She giggled in response and turned on her side in the bed, nodding. "I pinky promise."
He chuckled and she pulled the covers over her awkwardly, getting tangled briefly, before figuring it out in her drunken state. She heard him say something quietly across the hall and then there was a silent pause. Footsteps padded towards her as two doors shut and she opened her eyes briefly to see Dudley shed his trousers and dug in a drawer for some pajama bottoms. She shut her eyes quickly as he turned around, feigning sleep as he joined her in the bed.
"Are you asleep?" he muttered. Aquila gave a noncommittal moan and shifted slightly, smirking as he pulled the covers up over him. "Night, Ella."
"Night, Dudley," she murmured. She took in a deep breath, still smelling his cologne on his body. It was fresh and something that she wished she had noticed before she had gotten drunk. It smelt nice... really nice. "You smell good," she blurted.
He chuckled. "Go to sleep."
"Aye, aye, Captain," she murmured. And she was awake no more.