CHAPTER 15 ━━━ DRUNKEN NIGHTS
WHEN GRYFFINDOR BEATS SLYTHERIN by grabbing the snitch first you know there's a moment of large triumphance. When Gryffindor beats Slytherin in the way where Slytherin gets the snitch first somehow, yet Gryffindor wins by another 160 points you know there will be a feud. When Gryffindor beats Slytherin you know there will be a party. When Gryffindor beats Slytherin you know the night is going to be insane, well for most.
Towards the end of every year, whichever house wins the final Quidditch game, gets a lavish school party, supervised of course. But mischievous students of Hogwarts weren't ones for supervised parties. It comes as no surprise that once the fest ends, they throw the biggest bash they can themselves after dark in the hours of midnight. Mila always had the mental note never to attend Gryffindor's special celebration, and she hadn't for two years, sadly one of the likes of Remus Lupin had made her break that pact with herself.
One, the crowds flood into the dormitories and hallways, absolutely nauseating anyone who tries to walk by. This was easily due to the fact that any house, besides the opposing was allowed to attend. She could always even hear the chatter of everyone all the way up from her bed, which she might add was quite far back in the girl's dorms. Two, everything always somehow ended up with alcohol. Even when you've brought your own drink, put it down for one second and someone could easily take it up as their own to toy with. Third, everyone was always wild, so quickly could someone get trampled if they looked at someone the wrong way, or if they were simply being playful.
This much, and many more is the reason that anyone below fifth year was not allowed to join the fuss. Though, many were able to slip through, Mila being evidence as Serenity dragged her way around. Growing into herself Mila was able to stand up and simply say she wasn't going to go. She was responsible, and she would continue to be responsible. That was until Remus and his friends had begun to undo it all.
Remus was no stranger to Mila's opinions on parties, and sadly for himself, Mila had somehow been dragged to every party hosted in the Gryffindor common room just by being friends with him. Therefore he made no understatement in telling her that she didn't need to show her face in the common room at all that evening, and he'd be perfectly fine with her not in attendance. She of course, full-heartedly agreed, she needed to break this streak of a bad habit.
But that night she sorrowly disappointed herself as halfway through the party she'd opened the door to her dorm and walked out, not for a quick errand, but to attend. She was bored of being painfully alone. Serenity, Ruby, and Maisie were downstairs doing Merlin knows what. Ida too was downstairs, taking the opportunity to be with Daphne that night. All she was going to do was go downstairs, find Iddy and Daphne, and see if they could all go elsewhere to hang for the night.
Already walking down the hallway were peers sitting down on the floors in small duos or groups, and embarrassingly she had to tip-toe around all of them. As she made her way more down there were larger groups and crowds, now deciding to all stand. She squished and squeezed her way through, not uttering any apologies this time, she was doubtful they'd ever hear it over everyone's talking and the ear-blasting music. Getting to the end of the stairs a snobbish girl entered her line of view blocking her from going further, the girl quickly inspected Mila before moving to the side letting her through.
Shaking her head at the slightly odd interaction she pressed herself onward, she wasn't going to spend her night alone, but she surely was not going to spend it here. Continuing to make her way through she found her place to stand at the foot of the entrance into the common room, looking to find her friends she scanned the crowd, only to find a pair of shining brown eyes.
Of course, Remus had spotted her almost immediately, surprised to catch her glance he gave a small two-finger wave accompanied by a nod and a smile. Mila grinned back with a huff through her nose. Dropping her last task, she again shoved her way through the crowd, this time signaling her apologies, she did not want to be threatened with a duel all of a sudden. Meeting her halfway, Remus quickly left his friends, James and Sirius snickering behind. "Go get 'er, Moony!" Sirius encouraged shoving his friend away. Thankfully to Remus, Mila had not heard the remark when she stood in front of him.
"What are y'doing here?" Remus chuckled looking down at her.
"Always a surprise," she shook her head playfully, "Well, I was looking for Ida, have you seen her?" she asked hopefully pursing her lips.
"No I haven't, M'sorry," Remus said with a slight frown. Mila didn't mention that she noticed his slightly slurred speech, instead, she was quite nervous, the crowds were much larger than any of the last parties she'd been to. Remus watched her carefully as she shifted from foot to foot, looking around askance. Cursing to himself for the question he was about to ask, and if indeed she did agree, he'd be setting himself up for more relentless teasing from his friends. He gulped and met her eyes again, furrowing his brows he paused, "D'ya wanna get outa here?"
Mila cocked her eyebrow, "And where do you suppose we'd go?"
He cringed to himself and shrugged, "Was hoping you'd have an idea."
Biting her lip, Mila looked around, noticing the impending hunger in her stomach as she hadn't eaten since lunchtime, and on top of that her evident sweet tooth. She flickered her eyes back to Remus, "Are you hungry?"
Remus was definitely not hungry, full on the fire whiskey he'd taken in and the dinner he'd had a few hours prior. Still, he nodded his head, letting Mila drag him away from the commotion and twisting through the empty halls down into the dungeons. The walk there was quite nice, his looser state allowing him to converse more. As they stumbled, well Remus stumbled, through the halls he'd offered his new bottle of beer up to Mila after she'd cleared her throat. "I can hear how parched you are you know?" he poked.
Turning the corner Mila side-eyed him, hesitating before she took the bottle and took a small sip. "You're a bad influence on me, Remus Lupin," she noted, "I've been to more parties this year than I have in the past, and now I'm taking swigs out of random bottles you've given me. It's a surprise your marks are so well, especially considering how many detentions all your friends get," she teased.
The boy scoffed, "My marks are barely up to par. Afraid potions in sincerely kicking my arse currently," he confessed, shaking his head to himself.
"Potions? Really?" Mila asked as they approached the entrance to the kitchens, "That means you aren't going to be good at what we're making today, are you?" She watched as Remus opened the painting up, the two crawling through it as Remus gave her a scared glance.
"We're cooking something?"
Mila tip-toed through the replicas of the great hall's tables approaching the many counters. "Perhaps you've only paid visits for chocolate, but the few times I've snuck down here made it very clear they don't keep stocks of food lying around. But also, we aren't cooking. We're baking!"
Remus could see the math floating around in Mila's head before she listed the ingredients she'd need. "Can you find flour, sugar—white and brown, cocoa powder, vanilla, and chocolate?" She laughed as Remus gawked at her.
"I'll try," he murmured, turning around as he set off on his task. Mila herself had gone into the fridges collecting eggs and butter along with finding a mixing bowl and a whisk. She looked around wearily, scared to be caught in here so late.
The few times she'd been to the kitchens, without Remus, she'd been caught with Serenity and immediately shooed out, along with the removal of a few house points. It'd surprised her that the last time she'd come with Remus the elves paid no mind, and with the same company with her this time she relaxed a bit for if an elf were to wander back in, maybe they wouldn't be kicked out, even at this time of night.
"So what are we making?" Remus questioned, dropping everything onto the counter.
Mila grabbed the stack of different measuring cups Remus had brought for her, smiling at the fact he'd known to grab them, the use for measuring cups passing over her mind. "Well I'm going to make us some brownies, you will be standing here watching as you just sorrowfully admitted that you can't follow simple instructions."
Remus put on a playful hurt expression, "Well I've just brought you everything you asked for more haven't I?" he said as more of a plead. He grinned at the giggle Mila expressed, plopping some amount of white sugar into the bowl, immediately setting to work.
"Well, it doesn't help that you're supposedly bad at potions and a bit tipsy."
He snickered at her jab, "You took a sip of the drink too!" He stared curiously as Mila heated a stick of butter with her wand, the substance dripping into the bowl next to the two sugars. "How do you just know how to make this off the top of your head?"
Mila smiled smugly to herself, "You're full of questions tonight," stopping as she focussed on cracking two eggs into the bowl before she mixed the ingredients as she talked. "When I was little, we'd moved to Britain all the way from Mexico, and soon enough it was just me, my brother, and my mum. Of course, my mom was always at work, but she'd made friends with Serenitiy's family. I was always over at their house, and often we'd make brownies because it was so easy for us, so eventually the recipe just ingrained into my mind."
"Once we started school we'd tried coming in here to make them, but we were always kicked out, so soon we'd only make them a few times over the winter and summer," The corner of her lips tilted down slightly, "Actually we haven't made them in a while, so this is nice." She tapped the whisk on the edge of the bowl, letting the residue of the batter fall into the bowl.
Remus barely even noticed as she snatched the chocolate from his hands, too focused on her as he watched her demeanor quickly change. "Stop eating the ingredients, Remus!" she scolded.
He raised his arms in defense, "I can't help it!" His brows slightly furrowed in worry about how Mila had just been talking. She went along melting the chocolate the same as she had done with the butter, dropping a tablespoon of vanilla extract in too. Before she could even set down the measure, the bowl had been slid out from in front of her into Remus' area.
"What are you doing?" she softly yelled in some surprise.
"I want to mix it!" Remus announced, "No one can mess up stirring, and I want a part in this too!" he added before her protests.
"You're such a baby."
"What happened to calling me a grandfather last week?" Remus scrunched his nose and stuck out his tongue playfully as he swished the whisk around in the bowl.
Mila huffed, moving items on the counter out of the way for her to hop up and sit. "You've gotten whatever curse Benjamin Button had and you're aging backward!" she insisted, "Which means luckily you won't be able to talk soon, meaning I won't have to hear you drone on whatever boring mystery novel you're reading."
He continued to stir the batter as Mila added in the last of the ingredients. "I'm denouncing you as a friend," Remus flatly stated. Mila hopped off the counter in search of a pan and soon returned with it and some baking parchment.
Mila took back the bowl of brownie batter and grabbed a spatula as she started putting it into the pan, taking a finger lick for herself. "More brownies for me then," she teased, spreading and flattening the mixture to utter perfection. Finally, she lit up the oven, levitating the pan i'nto it as she closed the small door and uttered, "Now we wait."
She picked up her back from her hunch, stretching as she turned around she caught Remus' stare. "What?"
"Nothing, sorry," his cheeks heated, his fingers going to his forearm pinching himself discreetly in repercussion. He felt himself get more embarrassed as she kept a curious look upon him.
Folding her arms over her chest she leaned back against the counter. "Why are you here Remus?" she softly smiled, tilting her head to the right and giggling, "Everyone knows you've all been going to every party you can since the start of this year, and now you're waiting impatiently for a batch of brownies to finish as you're missing probably the biggest party of the year."
Remus gulped biting the side of his cheek. Was he that easy to read, he thought, was she catching on? "Breaking a bad habit," he muttered shyly, "Can't start having a bad influence on every new friend I get."
"You're funny, Rem." Mila turned her head back towards the oven as her eyes grew slightly wide in shock, "Oh shit! They look done already!" she yelped, clutching her wand as she open the oven door.
"It's a magical Hogwarts oven, what'd you expect?"
"Oh shush! Could've mentioned something to me if you knew!" she griped, though there was a tone in the back of her voice that implied she wasn't mad. She glared at Remus as he began laughing at her, "You're terrible," she grumbled.
"I thought I was funny?"
She levitated the pan up in the air once again, bringing them with her as she began exiting the kitchen. "Come on!" she called Remus, picking up his feet he immediately followed suit. Once again she led them back up, though he was struck with confusion as they passed the stairs leading towards Gryffindor Tower.
"Where are you taking me, Mils?" Remus said, almost out of breath it seemed as they kept climbing higher and turning down more halls. Mila, noticing Remus a few steps behind, quickly grabbed his hand, yanking him along, as she still maintained the brownies in the air.
Finally, his question was silently answered as they entered the door, Astronomy Tower, labeled just above it. Remus added a knowing look to his friend as she shrugged grinning, "We need a good place for them to chill, it helps if it has a good view." She returned her hand by her side, Remus slightly frowning behind her at the loss.
Though he'd take it as a victory this time that she had grasped his hand purposefully and hadn't apologized this time. She wanted to grab his hand to stay by him, and that was very important for him to note. He slowed up the stairs, entering the large landing he watched Mila plop herself down on the floor, crossing her legs over one another and lowering the pan next to her at her left. She waved her hand back and forth over the pan. Remus joined her, licking his lips from the bare smell of chocolate flooding his nose. "Are they cool yet?"
"You're impatient, I might as well send you back down to the common room and let you get full off of your booze!" she snapped playfully. A subconscious urge had Mila digging into the pocket of her pajama pants, which she now realized she had had on flushing from embarrassment, but ultimately discarded the thought as she satisfyingly got out a small box of cigarettes.
As always, she brought up her wand, lighting it with the small enchanting flame and taking her first puff. Remus scoffed from the side, shaking his head with a grin from her mischievous smile. "Give me one," he pointed his head asking.
Mila exhaled the smoke and shook her head no, "This was my last one, need t'buy more over the summer." She opened the box and showed him the emptiness, proving her truth. Remus rolled his eyes, brushing his hair out of his face before he reached over and plucked the roll from her fingers.
"Hey!" she yelled, shoving at his side. He merely ignored her annoyance, chuckling as he stumbled the cigarette to his lips. It was when he looked off at the view that there was a shift in his eyes, and as Mila looked at what newly captured his attention it was what brought her attention to how the scars across his hands and face evidently shined. Mila looked at the source confronting a warm smile growing on her face. "It's beautiful, right?"
Remus hummed a yes, but his shakey exhale of smoke said otherwise, so subtly that luckily Mila had not noticed. His jaw clenched, trapping the last bit of smoke in his mouth as he took it down. The moon was in its last stages of its waxing gibbous, meaning the full moon was right around the corner, or even in fact, tomorrow. He hadn't been tracking it the last few days, so the shock of the fleet hit him. That was why he was irritated all week, and why he desperately didn't want to be at the celebratory party with his pounding headache, not from the beer, but from the event that was going to come.
Instead of focusing on the daunting day ahead of him, he removed his eyes from the glowing moon and planted them back to what he decided was a much better view. Mila looked adoringly up at the sky, and maybe her ability to do so was what he envied. For him, it was another thing controlling his life, attached with strings he desperately tried to cut through. But yet for Mila, it was something for her to always come back to, something that would always be there, a string she was grateful couldn't leave.
The two sat, almost in comforting silence as they exchanged a few words in between delving into the dessert they'd made. They spent quite a while searching for the star Sirius was named after, but to no avail as the star wasn't to show for another few months. Soon enough Mila's mouth opened wide, a yawn escaping from her lips. Remus' eyes flickered ahead of him toward the clock tower, noticing the time he'd realized how fast the hours slipped away, "It's late, you should get to bed," he asserted.
"We. We should get to bed," Mila stated, she wasn't going to let Remus stay up wasting the rest of the night drinking and lazying around. It wasn't too long till they'd made their way back to the Gryffindor common room, which was noticeably emptier than before, not to say that it still wasn't filled with loadss of people. Remus stayed close to Mila, helping her shove her way easily to the foot of the stairs leading up to the girl's dormitory.
The two stalled, Remus nervously swaying on his feet. "Good night, Rem," Remus took in the last of the overwhelming smell of smoke and chocolate shared between them. And for what felt like the millionth time in the last month since her birthday, he watched her disappear up the stairs, this time far too quickly as the other random girls going up and down enveloped her much too fast.
Ignoring her request for him to get to bed as well, he stalked back down to the common area, finding the three of his friends sprawled across a small table, snickering as Remus approached, slouching into an open chair. "Oh, Moony's back from his date!" Sirius exclaimed, Remus, shooting him a glare that said quiet down and shut up.
His angered stare was soon dropped into a look of desperation as he pressed his face into his hands, and his hands into the table. "I'm hopeless," he uttered, "She caught me staring once out of all the billion times I've stared tonight," he confessed with a groan.
"Gettin' obvious are you?" Peter slurred, taking a swig of the beer bottle in front of him, which was now just refilled with water.
"Very."
James snorted, "You're not very discreet with your attempts, Moons. D'ya wanna get out of here?" the lensed boy mimicked. Remus planted a harsh kick to James' shin, the yelp attracting the notice of a few other people in the room before Sirius shooed them off with a stern look.
"So what happened on this little excursion of yours?" Sirius asked, all his features brightening in amusement.
"Surely something that leaves her wanting more. Looks like you did something right," Peter teased, pointing at the frantic girl who rushed back down the stairs of the girl's dormitory in a fume, huffing at the bridged balcony overlooking the space. After seeing Remus still up she rolled her eyes. The boys snickered at how Remus jumped and clutched his forehead with a tut.
Remus flared to the group, telling them not to do anything before he got up out of his seat, meeting Mila once again at the small stairs leading into the common room. "Why are you up?" she ranted, her arms crossed, but this time in fury.
"Why are you up?" Remus asked in between being amused and concerned at this sudden change within the past 5 minutes.
Mila heaved a breath, letting herself relax. "I got up to my room and Serenity was there, with a boy. We got into an argument, because you know I wouldn't have a problem leaving her alone to her romance if she wasn't initiating it in my bed!" she screamed quietly so only Remus could hear. Remus' brows clenched together in a slight shock. "Made a stupid reason for doing it and we ended up picking a fight but I lost, on purpose! I'm not sleeping in a bed where she's trying to get hot and heavy!"
Remus couldn't help but laugh at her predicament. "It's not funny!" she mewled.
"S'a little funny," he smirked.
Mila grumbled and then looked a bit shyly at Remus. "Can you wait with me out here until they're done? I doubt she's going to actually do it, won't take that long"
Remus shook his head, "No you've got to sleep now, they're not going to be done for a while, Mils," he guessed.
Her eyebrows lifted in slight irritation, "Remus, I can't sleep now. I literally can not." Her hands were brought up in pinches as she explained.
"Just stay in my room," Remus blurted before he could stop himself, pinching himself again at his lack of self-control. What surprised Mila was that she wasn't immediately opposed to this idea, and for some odd reason, she'd asked for confirmation on it.
"Really?"
Remus nodded his head slowly in soft shock of himself. Had he really offered that she could stay in his room? Stupid.
Her voice came out so soft in a weak whisper that Remus almost didn't hear her if it wasn't for his attention on her lips. "Ok." And up the stairs, with no obstacles, Remus continued to curse himself in his head. Mila gulped walking down the halls as a few boys gave the pair of them disgusting smirks. She was only going to escape the horrendous mess that was her roommates, she justified in her head, but not out loud to give satisfaction to the peering onlookers and their hushed remarks
She exhaled a relief sigh as she entered the door Remus had led her into, and immediately upon entering it was clear to see the different sides of the room. One bed was messy, with sheets undone, clothes on the floor, and random objects lying around. Another quite pristine, a made bed, and a perfectly organized nightstand. The two beds lying in the middle were quite a mixture of both, but the clear sign of how to pick out Remus' bed was the book that Mila had gifted him lying on top of his nightstand.
"Sorry for the mess," Remus apologized embarrassed.
"I hate boys," Mila cheekily exasperated, staying at the door of the room. Remus began taking a few pillows off his bed then digging into the closet taking out a knitted blanket and old sheet as he set them up on the floor next to his bed. "Thanks," Mila said, walking towards the makeshift bed before being interrupted by Remus' hand stopping her.
"You're not sleeping on the floor, Mila," he chuckled as if it were a known fact.
"I'm not taking your bed, Remus," she disputed back.
"Keep being stubborn and I'm going to stop helping you in Astronomy."
Dropping the matter of where to sleep for a second Mila bleated, "I don't need your help in Astronomy. I can't let you sleep on the hard floor, this is your room!"
"And you're the guest, which means I especially can not have you sleeping on the floor," Remus lightly and playfully shoved Mila towards his bed, despite her pleas and insistence. Maybe she could make him lose his control and sense in some situations, but he wasn't going to let her do that to him now.
The backs of Mila's knees eventually bent as she gave up and sat on the mattress. "Thank you," she uttered quietly.
Remus beamed at his win. "Listen now, you're going to get some rest and I'm going to go downstairs—" Mila's mouth was about to let out a sharp noise before Remus continued, "—No. I'm going to go downstairs and hang out, only for a little while, I swear. But once I come back I'm going to come back with everyone, and they're going to be drunk and noisy, so you're free to shut the canopy to quiet their ruckus" While Mila didn't know it, Remus hated opening his canopy as he completely dreaded the task of closing it back up again with its heaviness of the fabric.
"You might want to do it even if you don't need to block out the noise because if they see you they might tease you," And as in you, Remus meant himself. He was setting himself up for torture on a torturous day.
Mila sighed through her nose and smiled up at Remus, looking at the tiny clock they had, it was almost one in the morning, and least to say she was extremely tired. "Thank you, Remus. You're sweet," her cheeks puffed, letting herself fully take his offer to infiltrate his bed for the night
"I'm not insufferable anymore?"
"No, I didn't say that. You're still quite terrible," Remus' stomach fluttered at the smirk she gave, and even if he hadn't realized it all night, it had stumbled with nerves every time he made her grin that night.
"Good night, Mils," Remus finally parted, turning off the light and leaving Mila alone with the click of the door shutting. And when she sunk into the mattress, laying her head on his mounds of pillows, she was enveloped with scents of mint, smoke, and dusty book pages that practically sang her sleep.
a/n: what we aren't going to talk about, is the fact that the first 6 paragraphs of this chapter were finished from October 19th-Early November, then I let this chapter sit for another month, added two paragraphs in December, let it marinate with it's solemn 1000 word count before I added the 3,600 words in two days and sat and thought to myself see it wasn't that hard.
Because it wasn't that hard and I have no good idea on why it's taken me four months to write this chapter, (meaning it took four months to put out chapter 13, sorry lmaoooo I'm just a girl)
This chapter very much deviated from what it was originally supposed to be; a drunken night with the eagles playing in the background. But at the ending scene, a pivotal scene which sets up our next chapter, had been done. Hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did.
ALSO LET'S APPRECIATE MY NEW UNDERSTANDING ON HOW TO STRUCTURE MY DIALOGUE BECAUSE MY GOD WAS IT SHIT IN THE FIRST 13 CHAPTERS I NEED TO GO BACK AND EDIT THAT COMPLETE GARBAGE DUMP OF STRUCTURE.
k bye :3
4.6K words