Guests started to arrive after I got off the phone with Peaches. She'd coached me on how to do my hair and makeup as we discussed my realization, and I examined our work in the mirror. I had enchanted my hair to be straight and smooth, making it easy to flip around and run my hands through. The makeup look she'd walked me through was fairly simple, with dark brown around the eyes and a red lip to match the dress Ginny had offered me. And the dress- the dress fit like a glove. It hugged curves I hadn't even realized that I'd had, and I'd paired it with white tights and a pair of red heels that were most definitely Alice's at some point. Tying the whole look together with a pair of jingle bell earrings I'd brought as a joke, I felt fairly confident in how I looked. So confident, in fact, that I barely noticed David's glare as I entered the room.
Potter saw me first, and he seemed to light up when we made eye contact.
"Sterling! Merlin, you look.." He trailed off, and I snorted a little, pushing my hair back absently, revelling in the way my hand glided through it.
"Thanks kiddo. You look pretty cute tonight." I winked at him, and I wasn't lying. He wore a pair of dark jeans and an ill fitting dress shirt, but the get up was somehow very fitting on him. Behind him his parents spoke animatedly with the Weasleys, and a man with lots of tattoos seemed a little too close to my mom for my- or David's- liking. I decided to ignore that as I peered around the room, clasping my hands behind my back nervously.
"Have you seen the twins anywhere?" I asked coyly. Potter sighed, and then looked around as well, shrugging.
"I think all the kids have headed over to the tent already. Snagging drinks before the adults can scold us for it, you know."
"Oh." I said lamely. There was a lull in the conversation.
"Do you want to head over there with me?" Potter finally asked with an amused tone. I let out a sigh of relief.
"Yes, please. I feel like it'd be weird if I, like, headed over on my own."
He laughed, gestured towards the door.
Fred, George, Bill and Ron stood in a circle an arms length away from Alice, Ginny, Hermione and Neville. Oh- Neville. I hadn't imagined that I'd see him here. Ron was shooting weird and painful looks towards Alice who was very pointedly ignoring them and my heart went out to my sister- wasn't I just a few days ago in exactly the same position? Or, well. I guess I was a little stupider in the situation. Alice was definitely the smart one- Ravenclaw and all. She'd figure this out.
George was the one to catch sight of Harry and I, and waved us to their group. I shot Alice a small grimace, to which she glared back at, and followed Harry into the group of boys. Hermione offered me a shy little wave as I did, to which I smiled politely and waved back. Hermione was nice, I figured. Maybe, if things got too overwhelming, I could just hang out with her tonight. That was a reassuring thought. Fred was saying something to me, and I only caught the end of it.
"-clean up nice." He was saying, and I looked at him blankly. Bill chuckled a little, hiding his face in his drink and Fred's cheeks tinted pink, glancing around at the group of boys. He gestured to me up and down then. "Right, lads? She looks nicer than usual!"
"I think Diana always looks nice." Harry commented quite matter of factly, which made me blink at him in surprise. The tips of his ears went red, but he maintained a straight face, shrugging. Fred bristled a little, then fumbled with his words, then regained his composure and crossed his arms.
"Yeah, well, me too." He said haughtily, and I raised a brow at him.
"You going to accept all these compliments, Sterling, or are you just going to let the idiots carry on?" George's voice lilted with amusement. I looked up at him, feeling the whiskey from earlier swirling hot and heavy in my stomach.
"I dunno, I kinda liked the attention. By all means-" I gestured to the group vaguely, "-if anyone else wants to chime in before I put an end to this."
"You do look nice." Ron mumbled in the way children do after their mother tells them to be polite.
"Ravishing. Why, if Freddie hadn't finally made his move I would-" George started to say quite animatedly, slinging an arm around my shoulders and leaning in close, but Fred cut him off with an indignant noise. George, who already smelled heavily of vodka and beer, threw his head back and laughed.
"Nice to see that dress being put to good use. Fleur'll be glad to hear someone's wearing it." Bill commented idly as George unwound himself from me, turning towards the drinks table. I watched them whisper and huddle together, but got distracted as Bill continued to speak. "That guy your mum invited seems like quite the... Character."
I scowled, hunching slightly and desperately wishing I had a pair of pockets to dig my hands into. "Yeah." I mumbled. "He's the fucking worst."
"Well, I wouldn't have said the worst- he just seems a little.."
"Shy." Ron supplied.
"Rude, you mean." I shot back. Ron shrugged.
"Your words, not mine."
"Do you not like him, then?" Bill asked in a very soft and older brotherly tone, which- for some stupid reason- made my stomach do weird little flip flops.
"Uh, no. I fucking hate him. And my mom knows that, but she doesn't care."
"Well, maybe he makes her happy." Harry offered sweetly. I shot him a look, and his face went bright red.
"No, he doesn't, but she won't admit that, and that's the problem." I tried my best to explain it evenly, not letting the malice that so desperately wanted to influence my voice appear. Bill regarded me with interest as he took another sip of his drink, and I noted with sudden curiosity that the cup was glittering. As if the liquid within it was swirling with sparkles.
"What is that?" I decided to ask instead of letting the conversation go any further. If anything, I just wanted to not have to think about David tonight. I had enough on my plate with the anticipation of Cedric's presence, and Angelina, and just the whole situation with Fred in general. Peaches had been so good at talking me out of the jitters I'd been feeling earlier over my dumbass revelation, but now they were starting to show face again. My fingers tapped, my head felt a little lighter than usual, my chest felt tight. I was thankful when one of the twins was pushing a cup of the same, sparkling matter into my hands.
"Just try it." George said with a lopsided grin. Fred nodded beside him, and Bill literally smirked, taking another sip of his own. I made a face at all of them, but when Ron also nodded excitedly, I took a deep breath and shot back a large gulp.
It stung, going down, but then something that felt like honey and tasted like peppermint followed and suddenly everything was like, totally fine. I still felt light and jittery, but now it was in a good, excited way. I blinked heavily at the twins, who were grinning down at me.
"Nice, huh?" Fred spoke first.
"Made it ourselves." George followed.
"It'll make the whole night better."
"Better?" I repeated. My tongue felt loose and heavy in my throat. After one sip? Holy shit.
"Yeah, better. Trust us." Fred's voice was reassuring.
"Oh, it's not all that brilliant." Ron butt in. George shooshed him with a disgusted look.
"Excuse me?" He scoffed.
"You're just-"
"Come off it Ron. I think the plan is rather nice, actually." Bill interrupted. Fred put on a triumphant look, and crossed his arms. George still looked rather upset with Ron, but didn't say anything, just mimicking Fred's action. Ron rolled his eyes, but took a sip of his own drink, which was distinctly not sparkling.
"Not willing to participate?" I asked him with a gesture at the cup.
"It just all seemed rather lame."
Fred rolled his eyes, and moved to nudge my hand with his elbow.
"It's not, I promise."
"Yeah, well, 'course she'll like it." Ron mumbled, and I looked between them as Fred's face flushed deeply.
"Could I get a cup?" Harry piped up. George turned to make whatever it was for him, and as the conversation in the group dissolved into something else, I took the moment to actually look around the tent.
The walls and ceiling still looked like a tent, but it'd been decorated rather like the Burrow's living room- there were somewhat nice looking couches and armchairs scattered around, as well as a couple of tables covered in drink and food. A large fireplace crackled beside a tree that was so large it had to be placed in the middle of the room, with the star on top brushing the highest point of the tent. It was decked in all sorts of balls and ornaments, some that danced around and spoke with one another, others that changed color, and small flickering fire orbs that wavered when people walked around it. The floor around the tree was laden with presents, and I wondered absently if those really were all presents, or if it was just for decoration. As some of the crew that had arrived with Harry waltzed in and placed things into the pile, I figured that maybe this was just another christmas party tradition I wasn't aware of.
It all smelled like gingerbread and peppermint and firewood and pine and I suddenly was overwhelmed with a homesickness I didn't even know I possessed. Back home, Christmas was all white- a white table, with white ornaments and white clothes and white gifts. I don't know why we'd done it, but that was just the way it was- Alice thought it was because mom thought the red and green and gold of a normal christmas was tacky. I don't really remember what dad had thought of it, but my heart squeezed as I watched Harry's dad meander up to our group with his friends and place an affection hand on top of Harry's messy hair. His dad was taller than I'd imagined him to be, with the same crooked nose and glasses and smile as Harry had. Beside him, the man with lots of tattoos asked the twins to get him a glass of the strongest whiskey they had and 'I mean a glass, boys', he'd said animatedly. With a start, I realized Professor Lupin was sidled up next to the tattooed man. He gave me a gentle smile as way of greeting, but having turned to say something to his friend, left only the fourth man- who was small and mousy haired- to peer at me curiously.
"New friend to the Weasleys?" He asked in a quiet, gentle voice. I offered a polite smile and shrugged, taking a careful sip of my drink as the older men joined the conversation, suddenly feeling unreasonably shy. The man returned my smile, and held out a hand.
"I'm Peter. These lads and I went to Hogwarts together. That there-" He pointed at at the blonde man, who turned slightly towards us as Peter spoke, "-That's Remus. Don't let the scars fool you- he's the least scary of us bunch. Well, I guess, rather than me. At least, I've been told. You don't think I'm scary, do you?" He looked at me, and I flushed, shifting uncomfortably.
"Yeah, I mean, I know him- that's Professor Lupin." I pointed out, and the teacher in question turned when he heard his name.
"Peter, don't make the poor girl uncomfortable." He said very suddenly and very sharply, gesturing for Peter to move away from me slightly. I rubbed my shoulder, offering another, albeit a bit weaker, polite smile as Peter did move away from me, mumbled all the while about how 'Remus' was no fun. The tattooed man bent around Professor Lupin, and regarded me carefully. I felt weird, and shy around my Professor and his friends, and it felt really, really weird seeing him out in the real world. He looked younger, honestly, amongst his friends, and I couldn't help swooning slightly at the way he seemed to control the three other men. 'Daddy issues', Peaches's voice rang in my head. I ignored it.
"You're Alice, then?" The tattooed man was saying.
"Diana, actually."
He frowned, looking me up and down.
"But isn't Diana the older one?"
"Yeah, that's me."
"You're so little!"
Fred, who I guess had made his way over to my side, barked a laugh out and mussed up my hair. I grumbled and shoved his hand away and took another sip of my drink and as I tried to bat Fred off he somehow managed to tangle our fingers together, hold my hand against the small of my back. I looked up at him as he drew the tattooed man- Sirius, Fred called him- into a conversation about like, something to do with a motorbike? It was hard to keep track, because the fingers intertwined with mine felt hot and heavy and sent warm tingles down my spine and into my stomach.
It seemed as though Professor Lupin noted our casual touch, but said nothing. He merely shot a smile my way. I grinned back, and played with Fred's hand a little. After a moment, it was gone, and I realized I was slightly embarressed by how much I missed it.
Lupin wound up at my side a few moments after that, peering into my cup curiously.
"Don't tell me you're drinking, Diana." He said in a very serious and reprimanding tone. I beamed up at him.
"Okay, I won't tell you."
He let out a long sigh, shaking his head, shoving his hands in his pockets. I pouted up at him.
"Aren't you going to ask me about my holiday, Lupin?"
"Don't you want to talk with your friends, Sterling?"
I shook my head animatedly. "Uh, no. Obviously I want to talk to my favorite professor in the whole wide world."
Lupin obviously tried to hold back his smile, but couldn't, and my grin grew wider in response.
"Alright then, Diana, go on. Tell me about your holiday."
I was about to- opened my mouth and took in a deep breath and everything- but then tattooed man appeared at Lupin's shoulder and interupted everything.
"Wait a moment, this is the Diana I've heard so much about!" The man cried, sloshing his glass of whiskey onto Lupin's dress jacket a little. To my surprise, Lupin didn't even react. He actually smiled at the action- almost lovingly. Wait, was it lovingly? Because then he was snaking an arm around the man- Sirius's, I remined myself- waist. Oh, goddamn, was I stupid? I must be, I figured, as Lupin drew Sirius in close. So- because I was a moron, obviously- I chose not to react to the gesture.
"Lupin, you talk about me?"
Lupin bit back a grin. "Only a bit."
"Wow, I can't believe I'm your favorite." I fanned myself jokingly.
"Careful now- you know I don't play favorites. Besides, how could you be my favorite when you take up nearly every one of my lunches."
I pouted up at him again, and Sirius quirked a brow, looking between the two of us in amusement.
An hour later, and I was drunk. Fred and George kept refilling my cup or pushing new drinks into my hands, and Alice had insisted we do a shot in private because she was anxious and I was in a pretty easily influenced state of mind. Angelina had arrived at some point, and everytime I looked over, she and Fred would be laughing at something, which was not good for my intoxicated state of mind. Cedric was also here, now, but I pointedly hadn't noticed him, and if he'd noticed me, he didn't say anything. Now I was laughing at something Lee Jordan had said, because he was here too, and George was a warm presence at my side, and the room felt hazy and the Christmas music Mrs. Weasley had put on at some point was soft and soothing in the background.
"You don't remember?" Lee was saying to George, who was shaking his head and watching the action made the world tilt a little, which caused both of the boys to look down at me.
"Oi, Sterling, you doing alright?" George reached out to grab my elbow, and I nodded, blinking.
"Yeah, I'm super good." I told him, even though his image was a little blurry. I sniffed and straightened my shoulders, trying my best to seem as sober as possible. Which I was good at doing, I knew, because I'd tricked even Juliet a few times when I was already blacked out. "Sorry." There we go, my voice sounded steady and clear. George relaxed, and dropped my elbow.
"Ah, mini Sterling's headed this way." Lee commented as the moment passed, and I turned faster than I should have. I blinked hard while I waited for the room to stop spinning, and found my sister marching over to the little conversation, looking furious.
"Can I talk to you?" She muttered, grabbing my upper arm before I could respond, dragging me towards the corner of the tent. I went without protest, shrugging and waving goodbye to Lee and George. Lee laughed loudly, and George gave a childish wave in return. I beamed at him before being spun around to face Alice. The world tipped slightly, but then I was fine, and she was talking, and I was trying to keep up.
"-and then Ron was suddenly like, there, right? And I swear to God, Diana, Fred was totally goading him on okay- like, those boys are so fucking weird-"
"Tell me about it." I muttered, tuning out again as I curiously glanced around the tent. Alice's boy problems were interesting, sure, but something was rubbing me the wrong way. Something was- wrong maybe? Her mentioning Fred made me thing that hey, I actually haven't seen the guy in a while. Which was sort of weird, considering this whole trip he'd been practically breathing down my neck. Well, kind of. So, maybe not breathing down my neck. But he was there, right? Present. In my head, I guess. My eyes were searching for him of their own accord, I decided. I mean, hey, he's hot! I wanted to look at him. Maybe?
My stomach dropped when I did finally find him. Angelina was leaning into his side, and his arm was wrapped around her shoulders, and they were speaking like, intimately. Suddenly, all the feel-good magic swirling in my system was souring. Was he- was he fucking for real right now? After everything I'd just gone through- after everything he'd just fucking been doing for the past couple of days- and, in front of everyone? Just, out in the open like that? I watched, the magic turning to ice and making my fingers grow cold as Fred's hand ran up Angelina's shoulder to cup at the back of her neck, and she was smiling stupidly at whatever he was saying and I-
"Are you even listening?" Alice whisper shrieked, shrill and drunk, and my eyes snapped towards her.
"No." I deadpanned, and she balked, but I gestured to where I'd been looking with my cup, and she let out a little gasp.
"Oh, okay, what... The fuck."
"Right." My voice sounded heavy in my ears. Dead like. Just- defeated, I guess. I felt defeated. I felt... Jealous? Like, yeah. But also- betrayed, in a way. Angelina had been so nice yesterday. She'd been so reassuring that nothing was going on.
"Damn. What're you gonna do?"
"I dunno. What'm I supposed to do?" I took a long sip from my cup, relishing in the way whatever it was burned down my throat, followed by sickly sweet syrupy juice or whatever. Then I tore my eyes away from the scene, and sighed heavily. "Like, what the fuck."
"Wanna take another shot?" Alice asked lightly. I sighed, and rolled my eyes, but relented. It was probably a bad idea, but honestly any other option I could think of was definitely worse. Alice nodded a little, and told me she'd be right back, and disappeared into the party. I followed her blonde head for a little while, weaving in and out of the crowd. She'd also decided to wear her hair straight, and it hung lower than mine, which had surprised me when I'd first seen it. Ginny must have did her makeup, and she did look older than me in the long silver skirt and white sweater our mom 100% dressed her in. It had been a little annoying, as a lot of the adults were assuming that she was me and I was her, but it was nice to see that she was growing up a little. Alice had always been sort of stuck in her stubborn, childish behaviour.
"You look lonely." Someone commented gently to my right, and I was shaken from my thoughts as I glanced over, very much unready to see Cedric peering down at me. Fuck, he looked nice, with his hair gelled into messy curls and his dress shirt slightly unbuttoned up top. He was holding a cup of the sparkly drink Fred and George made, and a red velvet jacket was hung over his arm.
"Is that your school shirt?" Was the only thing I could think of thinking because wow, when did it get so hot in here and oh my god, where the fuck did Alice go again? Cedric laughed, and his cheeks were a little pink, and I was feeling very unsteady on my feet because I had been doing so well at avoiding him.
"Nothing gets past you when it comes to clothing, does it. Yeah, I didn't really have anything nicer."
I raised a brow. "The Cedric Diggory didn't have anything nicer than his school shirt? That seems unlikely."
Cedric's face flushed even darker, and he scratched at the back of his neck sheepishly. "Ah, well. Nicer that was clean, anyway."
"That sounds more realistic." I tried my best to keep the nerves out of my voice, and the sentence came out haughtier than I'd meant it. But he laughed, which made me smile shyly, and I held my cup against my lips. And then I risked a glance Fred's way, and he wasn't even turned my way. But I could see Angelina's hand wrapped around his torso, and something mean and angry burned in my chest.
"How've you been, anyway? You never um... Never answered when I texted." He sounded nervous, and I glanced up at him, and he was looking at the ground, his face pink and contorted with anxiety. I felt bad, then. Guilty. Cedric had always been so nice and fuck- yeah, I just like, left him hanging. I'd barely even given him a second thought over the past couple of days. I opened my mouth to say something, but he decided to add on, then. "I guess I didn't expect anything. I mean, I understand we were drunk, obviously. And- and I'm sure you've been, you know, busy with everything and being here and all. It just- well, I don't know. I um- I do like talking to you, Diana. And-, well, you know, if you want to just- oh, I don't know, um, forget everything that happened at-" He gestured vaguely, eyes still stubbornly on his feet. "-then that's okay, you know. I don't mind. I uh- well, and with Fred and everything- and, and you know, Fred's a- he's a good guy and-"
"I have vodka or gin." Alice announced rather rudely. She'd barreled into the little corner that Cedric and I still hid in, and she paused when she realized that he'd been talking. "Oh, hello. Sorry, I don't remember your name. Do you want to take a shot with us?" She held up the bottles, and Cedric looked wildly between the two of us.
"Cedric, I don't know if you've met my sister, Alice." I gestured as I spoke. Alice merely held the nibs she'd somehow acquired up as response.
"It's nice to meet you, Alice."
"I drink all of these on my own if I have to. I only narrowly avoided David, okay, and if he catches us with them mom'll be on our asses all night."
"Oh, fuck." I muttered, blindly grabbing one of the bottles from her fingers and unscrewing the cap.
"David?" Cedric repeated as Alice pushed the rest of them into his hands, nabbing two for herself. I held a finger up to Cedric, grimacing a little apologetically, and then tapped the bottle of my nib on Alice's. We counted to three silently, and then threw the drinks back. Alice produced a whole body shiver. I merely washed the taste down with the cup in my hand. I'd grabbed gin- fuck, I hated gin.
"Another!" Alice declared, exchanging her empty bottle for a filled one. Cedric, who was somehow managing to hold all of the nibs in one hand, was watching us with a horrified expression.
"Who's David? What is going on? Are you guys okay?"
"Nope!" Alice said gleefully, and then threw the shot back.
"How old even are you?" Cedric sputtered, and Alice glared at him after her second post shot body shiver.
"Oh- hold up, you're Cedric!" She said way more enthusiastically than I'd ever heard Alice talk. I watched her suspiciously. It was super surreal, seeing her drunk. Maybe Ginny wasn't a good influence. Fuck, maybe I wasn't a good influence on her? Wasn't it just a couple nights ago she refused to drink anything? Where was Neville- he was always a nice boy. Oh, wait, was Neville the reason she was drinking?
"That's my name, yeah." Cedric's face flickered between amusement, worry and confusion as he watched my little sister. Alice shook her head and waved her hands a little.
"Oh man, oh man. I can't believe we're mirroring one another again. Diana, I thought this only happened with mom. Why're our love lives mirroring?"
"Love lives?" Cedric repeated, and now his uneasy expression was directed at me. My face, which was warm and pink from alcohol already, burned in response to the question. Instead of answering it, I just took a long sip of my drink. Fuck, it was almost empty. Cedric's eyes bore into the side of my head, and as my alcohol muddled brain scrambled to think of something to say, my eyes watched a large hand fall on Alice's shoulder.
"Hope you girls are behaving." David's low and gravelly voice hissed into our conversation. I couldn't contain the heavy sigh and eyeroll that my body let out as an automatic response to his presence, and Cedric's heavy gaze was replaced with David's, which held a lot more malice than I was sure Cedric was even capable of.
"Hope you're behaving as well, David." Alice said brightly, sounding a lot braver than I felt. David peered at my sister, and then at the nibs Cedric still held.
"Don't tell me you've been drinking." He muttered. Because David didn't drink. Because David was the fucking worst.
"Uh, no duh we're not drinking, David. That'd be super rude of us- wouldn't it, Alice?" I said with a lot more sass than I'd intended. I mean, I definitely sounded drunk. Alice grimaced, but she nodded anyway. David looked at us doubtfully, but then- bless his fucking soul- Cedric spoke up.
"Sorry, sir, I actually had asked Alice to get these for me. See, my father and his friend were looking for some." Cedric gestured to where his father stood, laughing with a pretty boisterous and red faced Mr.Weasley. David grunted, and looked Cedric up and down.
"That so?" The man grumbled. Cedric nodded earnestly, and jostled all the objects in his arms to free a hand, offering it to my mom's boyfriend.
"I'm Cedric, by the way. Cedric Diggory. Diana and I are in Hufflepuff together."
To his credit, David shook the offered hand. They exchanged surreal pleasantries, and Alice edged out of David's grip, sidling up close to my arm, hooking our elbows together.
"Well, I suppose, it seems like you're keeping good company." David finally relented. And then he was gone. Beside me, Alice let out a long breath.
"God he sucks." She muttered, and I snorted, and the action jostled all three of us, and when did Cedric get so close. Alice moving away and David leaving left my view of the tent unobscured now, and my eyes automatically fell on where I'd last seen Fred and Angelina. They were still there, but Fred was looking at me, and his brow was furrowed, and his face was slightly pink. Was he angry? I kind of hoped he was angry. Actually, yeah, I kind of wanted to make him angry. The strange, hot, cruel thing in my chest twisted into itself. I wanted him to feel how I felt, I decided.
"Gang, shall we get the fuck out of here?" I announced.
"Please." Alice breathed. Without thinking, I entangled my elbow into Cedric's as well, and ignored his questions as the three of us marched out of the tent together.