Chapter 53, Euphoria

While Loughness had most definitely taken advantage of Hydra's concert as an opportunity to sort of go out with Kereston, he did truly wish to support his sister's band. He liked what she was doing for the elves, and that Ballan was stepping up to help. Wanting to do his own part to assist his sister in her worthy endeavors, Loughness went to the Ministry the day before Hydra's band was to play at the Hog's head to ask Kereston to spread the word of the concert, especially among her elf and goblin Aurors.

He took that opportunity to ask her to attend said concert with him. Of course she was happy to spread the word, loving what Hydra's band was doing for the unity of all races. She accepted Loughness's invite, but he had the sneaking suspicion that she did so casually, not understanding that more was behind it than two friends supporting united races and Hydra's band. Of course this was to be expected, and Loughness was plenty patient. He would take it slow and do things properly until he had Kereston for his own.

If this date was more of an outing of supporting a cause, well he could work with that for now. They met at Grimmauld, because Kereston wanted to go home and get ready to go out rather than just leaving in her work clothes directly from the Ministry. Personally Loughness would not have cared if she'd gone in her work clothes, because Kereston looked beautiful in anything. He did understand her not wishing to draw attention to herself as the Minister, though. Loughness always prided himself on dressing well, so did not go out of his way to dress particularly more well than usual.

Having a flair for medieval attire, considering the fashion classic and suitable to his short stocky body type, he sported a dark green tunic and matching leggings with nearly knee high green suede boots. Their texture was not only comfortable, but allowed him to walk in near silence. His thick black hair brushed his shoulders and curled under just at the ends. He regarded himself in the glass of the full length mirror in his bedroom, and gave a slight smile of pride.

He was satisfied with the reflection that looked back at him. When he went downstairs to meet Kereston, she was waiting for him. Unlike other girls who took ages to primp, Kereston was rather no nonsense about such things, and so never took ages to get herself ready to go out. She wore a simple silvery gray dress made of a soft looking wool. It was loose enough to be comfortable while the simple curves cut into its design flattered Kereston's slender compact figure. Loughness jerked his head away in case he was staring.

"We match," Kereston said with a chuckle. "I'm silver and you are green, so together we make Slytherin!" As they were both former Slytherins, of course this was quite fitting.

"So we do," he said giving a pleased smile as she linked her arm through his. Her blonde ringlets spilled down her back, neatly combed and requiring nothing more. The only adornment she wore was a simple clear quartz wand point about her neck on a black cord. It was one of Mag's. Kereston felt that wearing a wand made it more difficult to disarm her, and as Minister, one wanted to be as difficult to disarm as possible.

"You can Side-Apparate me," she told him. "Elves Apparate so much better than anyone else." She turned to him suddenly, giving an enthusiastic smile. "Isn't it grand that you and Hydra inherited Kreacher's abilities with full strength instead of just half?""

Loughness nodded. "It really is," he agreed fervently. "I mean half would be better than nothing and still have made us stronger than ordinary wizards, but still, I'm pleased that we got the full strength of both sides." Like Grandma says, it truly does make us Pure-blood squared!"

"Did I hear my name?" The spirit of Walburga Black floated grandly toward them as they stood together near the front door. Her spectral head was held high, quite as if she still owned the place, which she basically did. She continued speaking before either could reply. "Do tell Hydra how proud her grandfather and I are of her. Her band shall have to play a show on the Lawn of #12 Grimmauld so that Orion and I might hear them. Of course we shall have to put up wards of silence and invisibility so none of the Filthy Muggles in neighboring houses are aware, but that should be simple enough to manage."

Mainly because she was not going to be the one managing it, Loughness couldn't help but think dryly. It was a bit more complicated on short notice than not, and he would likely be placing the wards in question. He could, though, and he did have a soft spot as big as the world for his grandmother Walburga. "Of course we will do that, Gran. And I shall pass the message on to Hydra."

"You two look wonderful," Walburga said warmly. After both gave their thanks, Loughness slipped an arm around Kereston and Apparated them just outside of The Hog's Head. Reluctantly, he released his grip on her waist once they were there. Pushing the door open, he held it for her to enter first, which she did with a quick smile of thanks at him over her shoulder. The place was already packed.

"Looks like a good number of everyone showed up," Kereston called, speaking more loudly than usual to be heard over the boisterous chatter. The pleased tone in her voice matched the smile on her face as she glanced around in satisfaction at the elves and goblins crowded in among the witches and wizards. Loughness nodded, thinking that if the band impressed, they had a good fan base gathered here that would continue to attend their shows. The concept of spreading unity with music definitely suited Hydra's style and gave a worthy outlet to her strong feelings on equality.

"Hey, over here!" The voice belonged to Guillermo, and Loughness turned to see him standing near the side of the stage with James. He felt a pleased smile spreading over his face at sight of his friends. "Let's go stand with them," he told Kereston, bending close so that she could hear him over the noise of everyone chattering as the band began to play. Kereston nodded and Loughness took her hand so as not to lose her in the throng as he carefully inched through the press of bodies both tall and small to join his friends.

"You guys want a cake," James shouted.

Kereston and Loughness exchanged a confused glance. "Cake?" Kereston shouted back.

"It'll make you feel real good," James said in some sort of fake foreign accent that Loughness could not precisely place, likely because it was fake. "It's Euphoric cake," he clarified before Kereston or Loughness could ask. "I brought some for Aberforth to sell. Hydra, Guillermo and I have already had some. We have even experimented by mixing them with drinks, but that was Guillermo's idea and I haven't decided if I personally recommend it or not."

"I am an adventurer," Guillermo proclaimed with a modest grin. "Want me to grab you two some drinks?"

Kereston and Loughness exchanged a glance, before both shook their heads.

"I probably need to keep my eyes sharp in case there is any trouble," Loughness decided.

Kereston nodded, giving him a small smile. "Sadly we can't afford to fully relax yet. That and it's a week night, so for me, there is work tomorrow for which I would rather not be hung over." It did not bother Loughness in the slightest that a life with Kereston would involve much work before they ever had an opportunity for play, because he expected as much for himself considering the current situation as well as his own personal goals for power. Perhaps he had something to prove, being Pure-blood squared, but he had it to prove not only for himself, but for the elves and wizards who would stand with him. Unified they were more, and he would prove that by being more than any other Dark Lord before him.

"You almost look happy at the prospect of work," Guillermo observed with a chuckle.

Loughness shrugged. "It's part of the awesomeness that is being me."

James laughed. "It's always nice to be in a circle of friends with their egos intact." Loughness opened his mouth to agree, when his gaze fell on Kereston watching Mag sing. The band had opened the show with a powerful up tempo dance rock song with a definite nineteen-eighties vibe. Mag stood at the edge of the stage in long flowing green dress robes with a silver scarf in her long red hair, a clear ode to her former Hogwarts house of Slytherin. Her large green eyes were focused on Severus's face as she sang, and he stood before her, clearly as riveted as any fan could ever be.

They'd been married for longer than Loughness had lived and yet they still had that deep enthralled sort of love. Loughness wanted that with Kereston so deeply that it made his heart twist. He wanted it for years and decades and beyond, and he was more certain of that than of anything else. Kereston had such an intensely thoughtful expression on her face as she watched them, that he wondered if she was thinking that she wanted the same with someone. He hoped that it was him, but if it wasn't, he was certain that he could change that and he would. The words Mag sang caught his ear, because yes, he felt precisely the same for Kereston.

"There's a night when you close your eyes around a dream that shines like the sun. Everyone knows it's beautiful, tell me why you wanna dream it alone?" Mag sang. Perhaps the Euphoric cake was getting to him, because Loughness dared to reach out and place a hand on Kereston's shoulder. When she turned to him and smiled into his eyes with her lovely bluish gray ones, he opened his mouth to tell her... to tell her something, but she spoke first.

"I swear it's still hard to believe she actually got him!" She laughed. "I mean that's Severus. Hating everyone and the world Severus, but she had her eye on him for ages, and was certain she'd have him, and it is still shocking that she got what she wanted." That sounded familiar, Loughness thought dryly. Kereston was going on, so he didn't have to say anything, which in this case was a relief. "I mean it's not her, it's him. It's just difficult to picture him warming up to anyone. I mean they do have a lot in common but still." She chuckled again. "I suppose there is someone for everyone, but seeing him with that look of love and niceness and gods forbid is that lust? In his eyes is just bizarre!"

"Like yeah, that's one word for it," James quipped, making a face. "So are you two going to try my Euphoric cakes or not? I get you on the no drinking, but are you caking?"

Kereston chuckled, glancing to Loughness. "Want to? I'm game if you are. I'm rather curious."

Loughness had faith in James's ability to make any sort of food into any sort of charm that he wanted. "I'm open to feeling Euphoric," he said with a chuckle. "Let's see what you've got," he added, turning to James.

Grinning, James dug into a pocket of the dark blue duster he wore, producing two neatly wrapped squares of cake. He passed one to Loughness and one to Kereston, watching expectantly as they opened them.

"It smells like heaven," Kereston groaned appreciatively before taking a careful bite. "Tastes like it too! What are you going to do to keep people from over eating these? Like what happens if one gets too Euphoric? Have you even experimented?" Kereston was asking all the interesting questions, leaving Loughness free to just eat the cake, which he did. It was a blend of delicious flavors that were so well unified that it was difficult to sort one from another. The effects hit him even sooner than expected in the form of a rush of happiness and well-being.

"I don't know what would happen if someone got too happy, to be honest," James admitted. As he spoke, Kereston continued to eat her cake. "I didn't exactly want to try it myself in case the results were unpleasant, but for the same reason, I didn't want to ask someone else to try it either. So I added a spell to the recipe that creates a feeling of fullness after two cakes and a feeling of nausea if a person eats a third, so they'll just end up throwing up if they persist."

"That's a genius idea to prevent overdose," Kereston said. She chuckled. "Too much Euphoria and a person could lose their mind or something for all we know. They could jump for joy off a tall building or something."

"Jesus," Guillermo shouted, eyes flying wide in shock.

"Damn, I didn't think of the jumping aspect," James said.

Kereston shrugged. "Either way I figured as a former Ravenclaw that you'd have it sorted. I was just curious about how you'd managed it." I am feeling amazing, by the way! This was a literally genius idea!"

"It really was," Loughness agreed. "I only have the best in my social circle, though, and James was always worthy."

James grinned, clearly pleased. "Thanks, guys." He bounced a little on his toes, grin widening. "I can now say that my products were endorsed by the Minister herself!"

"You certainly can," Kereston agreed. "I feel amazing! I haven't felt this laid back and happy in such a long time."

"Well I'm happy to have done that for you, Minister," James said in a tone of mock gravity that his pleased grin promptly ruined.

Kereston sighed. "Don't remind me! All I wanted to do was to fix things, to make a better stronger government so that atrocities like Voldemort wouldn't happen again without being eradicated swiftly, and since taking office, I have only had shit show after shit show. First the madness that was Delphini, and now whatever is probably going to happen with everyone losing their literal minds over not having magic and other races having power for a change."

"Have you been putting out the word of a cure in progress to keep people mellow and hopeful,"Loughness asked.

Kereston nodded."Yes, but so many people are a dangerous combination of stupid and impatient so you know it could still end badly." She frowned suddenly, giving her head a vigorous shake."No! I don't want to think about it tonight. I want to be happy tonight!"

"Fair enough," Guillermo said with an understanding smile.

Ballan joined Hydra and addressed the audience then, which drew all four of their gazes to the stage. They'd come to support Hydra and her boyfriend performing together for human and elf unity, so the conversation fell still as they all listened to the song with rapt attention.

"He can sing," Kereston breathed. "He's good!"

"But he's hating every minute of it," Loughness said. "He really didn't want to do it."

"Really?" Kereston gave him an incredulous look before quickly returning her attention to the stage.

"I know this song," Guillermo called, raising his voice to be heard over the music. "My Mum used to play it all the time!" He began swaying to the beat, singing along with Hydra and Ballan as he tossed his hands jubilantly into the air. Others were dancing too and Loughness grinned, because it seemed to be going over quite well. He was proud of his sister. Not to mention, her band was truly talented! His toes were tapping to the beat, if only mentally due to the restrictions of movement because of overcrowding in a small space. He'd have asked Kereston to dance, but the place was so packed that moving without bumping into others would be nearly impossible. As that did not feel at all romantic, he opted to wait for a better opportunity.

"That cake and drink combo is really hitting him," Kereston observed of Guillermo with an amused grin.

Loughness nodded. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, and that was nice. It was nice just being out with Kereston and listening to good music, even if the room was over packed. The general sense of well being brought on by the Euphoric treat made him feel as if everything would be alright in the end. "Good job on the cake, mate," He called to James who grinned happily as he bobbed his head in acknowledgement.

Feeling utterly content,Loughness leaned his back against the wall as Kereston did the same at his side. He was with the girl he loved, even if not yet *involved with* her yet. Things were going well in general for everyone, and even if they still had to figure out what the elf woods was for, they would sort it in time. It was rather nice to have a bit of a magical mystery to solve. Something to tantalize the brain was nice, and when he figured it out, the ancient forest would serve as his power base. It was time that the elves had a Dark Lord, and equally time the witches and wizards had one who actually succeeded. The goblins could follow him too. One day the goblins would produce a Dark Lord of their own, but until then, he was there for them, ready to give them the equality they deserved.

"What are you thinking about," James asked and Loughness smiled.

"Goblin Dark Lords."

"Why?" James asked. The band was between songs so he could speak normally without having to shout over the music.

"Why not?" Loughness asked, arching a brow in his friend's direction while he tried not to laugh. This Euphoric cake was amazing.

"Agreed," Kereston chimed in. "It beats worrying about the next calamity to come, after all."