Dating Habits of Wizarding College Students
Chapter 04 - Get This Party Started
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I own no portion of the Harry
Potter world, including Severus Snape.
All characters and characterizations from the world are property of JK
Rowling. Dianthus
and other original characters are solely of my imagination, however.
I welcome comments and reviews,
including harsh criticisms and flames. I
may delete them after a time, to reduce my personal embarrassment, but rest
assured that I will read them and take any appropriate statements to heart.
I cannot emphasize enough that you
must read Dianthus Stories in order
for this tale to make any sense at all.
In fact, you’ll note that this is actually part III – parts I and II are
both contained in Dianthus Stories,
so go read that one first.
Also, smut begins in Chapter Seven,
if that’s what you’re looking for.
That’s perfectly fine. But I say
again you may be a bit confused when you get there if you don’t slog through
the chapters leading up to it.
*****
Chapter Four – Get
This Party Started
“I’ll take first
shift as barkeep,” shouted Jon as he bounded into her flat.
large cloth bag over his shoulder. It
sounded, from the clinking noises that were issuing from the bag with each
step, as though he’d brought at least half a dozen bottles.
“Jon,” she said
warningly, “those aren’t all fire whiskey, are they?”
“Tell me what you
have against fire whiskey,” he laughed, setting the bag on the couch.
removed his wand from his pocket. He
waved it, and the bottles floated from the bag and came to rest on her lab
table. She was relieved to see that two
of the six or so bottles were wine, not whiskey.
“I’m so glad you
thought to clean this off,” Jon said approvingly.
were stashed away in a closet in her room.
“This makes a perfect bar. Where
are your glasses?”
“I’ll show
you.” Jon followed her to the
kitchen. “They’re all up there – don’t
get the good wine glasses, though. They
were my gran’s, and I don’t want them smashed by you lot.”
“You’ve got some
nice stuff,” said Jon, peering into her cupboards.
“My Grandpa died
earlier this year,” said Dianthus. It
was still hard to say.
“Oh,” said Jon,
turning to look at her. “I’m so sorry.”
Dianthus
shrugged. “Thanks.”
“Are your parents
– uh – gone too?”
“My parents died
when I was little,” Dianthus said with another shrug.
“So you’re all
alone, then?”
“I have a
sister. She lives with a guardian,”
Dianthus said. “It’s complicated.”
Jon got the
message and dropped the subject entirely.
Instead, he retrieved a number of glasses and sent them to the makeshift
bar with his wand. He and Dianthus
followed them back into the living room.
“I thought Reese would be here by now,” he said, looking around the
flat.
“She’s primping,
I’m sure,” Dianthus said with a laugh.
“I’m thinking that
“You’re probably
right. Is your boyfriend going to be
here tonight?”
“Uh – no,” said
Dianthus, thinking quickly. “He – he
works out of town.”
Jon gave her a
funny look. “Do you even have a
boyfriend?” he said.
“What?”
“Well, lots of
girls have given me the old ‘I have a boyfriend at home’ line,” said Jon
casually, now arranging bottles on the bar.
“Makes it a lot easier to turn a guy down.”
Dianthus didn’t
know whether it was good or bad that he might think she was making it up, but
she didn’t have time to answer – someone was knocking at the door, and before
she could get to it, she heard laughing voices out in the hall.
“Di!”
hugged her as if they hadn’t seen her in years.
“You guys get in
here!” yelled Dianthus. “Come and meet
Jon.”
“Never mind him,” said
Martine in an undertone. “Where’s this
Reese girl?”
“Primping,” said
Jon promptly. “You’re stuck with just me
until she gets here.”
“Sorry,” giggled
Martine. “Didn’t
realize you could hear me.”
Dianthus made
introductions all around, and Jon handed Martine a shot glass filled with fire
whiskey. “Cheers,” he said, giving her a
sultry look, which Martine returned in kind.
Dianthus shared a glance with Melanie – it appeared that Martine had
captured another heart.
“I don’t know how
she does that,” murmured Melanie, watching Jon’s suddenly vacant stare as
Martine began twisting her finger through her hair.
“She gives them
asked’.” She and Melanie burst into
laughter as another knocked sounded at the door.
Dianthus decided
to leave the door open. Every time she
closed it, it seemed to encourage more people to apparate into her
hallway. It turned out Jon had invited
more than ‘a couple’ of guys – soon her flat was
filled to bursting with talking, laughing, drinking
people. Someone found her wizard’s radio
and the sounds of the latest dance music from the WWN were added to the
cacophony. It was getting louder by the
minute.
showed up, looking extremely nervous – which Dianthus thought was quite
possibly the funniest thing she’d ever seen – and strode directly to the
bar. Ignoring Jon completely, she yanked
a bottle and filled a wine glass halfway to the brim with fire whiskey.
Dianthus into the coat closet for a quick chat.
“Is she here?”
“Not yet,”
Dianthus whispered. “Are you planning to
pass out before she arrives?”
looked down at the glass in her hand. “I
don’t know why I did that.” She let
Dianthus pull the glass from her hand, but not before she’d taken a long swig
off it.
“You have dated a
girl before, right?” said Dianthus, grinning.
“Not actually,”
said
was so pale with anxiety that Dianthus could see her face in the dark closet.
Dianthus pulled
out her wand. “Lumos.”
She shoved the wand halfway back into
her pocket. “You’re kidding, right?
“I am sure,” said
defensively. “I just haven’t had the
chance to meet anybody yet.”
“Well, you’ll get
your chance now. Reese can’t wait to
meet you. Evanesco,” she added, emptying
the glass of its remaining whiskey.
“It’s hard to meet
a nice woman,” said
Martine crowded
her way into the closet. “What are you
guys doing in here?”
“
got an attack of the nerves,” said Dianthus.
“Shut the fuck
up!” said
“I just wanted to know – ouch, Mel, there’s no room in here!”
“I just wanted to
let you know,” Melanie said loudly, “That people are looking at you funny,
keeping the hostess trapped in a coat closet.
And I think Reese just got here, Di, or at least there’s a girl who
looks like what you said. Muggle
clothes, spiky black hair.”
“I can’t breathe!”
yelled Dianthus. “Move it, you
guys!” Melanie opened the door, and the
four of them stumbled out. Dianthus
grabbed
was pointing toward the broom closet, laughing.
“Come on, you,” she said to
across the room. Reese ran her hand
through her hair as they approached.
“Reese, this is
said Dianthus, pulling
Reese.” The two girls stood, eyeing each
other, muttering greetings and inane comments on the party, until Dianthus
rolled her eyes and said, “Why don’t you dance?”
face lit up, and she threw Dianthus a grateful smile before beaming at
Reese. “That sounds great!
Reese grinned and nodded. As they
headed to the middle of the crowd dancing in front of the radio, Dianthus
caught Jon’s eye.
“Kids,” she said.
“Kids,” said Jon,
nodding his head wisely.
“Have you seen
Jeremy?”
Jon pointed across
the room. “Went
straight to your bedroom.”
“What?” Dianthus
shrieked.
“Think he’s
hiding,” said Jon.
Dianthus hurried
into her bedroom. Jeremy was lying on
her bed, staring up at the canopy. He
looked completely despondent.
Dianthus shut the
door behind her, to block some of the sounds from the living room.
“Can’t,” he
moaned.
Feeling very
Snape-like, Dianthus stalked over to the bed and glared down at him with her
arms across her chest. “Jeremy, get the
fuck up. Now.”
Jeremy looked at
her in abject terror. “There are too
many pretty girls out there,” he whispered.
“And all the guys are better looking than me.
Dianthus sat on
the bed. “Jeremy, you have just as much
chance as any of those guys. You’re
smart, you’re funny. You’re a sweet
guy.” Jeremy looked unconvinced.
to meet you some girls,” Dianthus insisted, pulling on his arm.
you? Come on, let’s go.”
With a heavy sigh,
Jeremy heaved himself out of the bed and Dianthus pushed him gently to the
bedroom door. Jeremy hesitated with his
hand on the knob. “Dianthus, would you
go out with me if you didn’t have a boyfriend?”
“I would strongly
consider it, Mister Kingfellow, if you were to ask me nicely,” said Dianthus,
fluttering her eyelashes teasingly. She
was pleased to see him smile, even if it was a pretty weak smile.
The music and
chatter blasted their ears as they left the room.
yelled, “Jon, take a break and run Jeremy through every girl in this
room.” Jon gave her a sharp salute and
moved out of the way so that she could take up his post.
Dianthus
discovered that being a barkeep meant lots of shouted, fragmented conversations.
tall girl. “I’m Billie – you?”
shot. “Oh, your place?” shouted Billie,
and she tossed back the shot. Dianthus
nodded. “Nice,” finished Billie, already
turning away.
She poured drinks
and watched the partygoers: Erin and
Reese were still dancing, along with a large crowd in the center of the
room. Melanie was chatting
enthusiastically with a heavyset girl by the door, waving her arms around.
about dragons, because Melanie looked transported, while the girl had a vaguely
frightened look on her face. Jon was
pushing Jeremy and a pretty black girl with long braids into the crowd of
dancers, seemingly oblivious to the eyes of many of the other females in the
room upon him. And Martine was swaying
and jumping with at least three boys circling her.
When Jon came back
to the bar, Dianthus yelled, “Sure you don’t want to dance?”
At that, Jon
grabbed her hand and shouted, “I’d love to!”
Over her laughing protests, he pulled her around the bar and into the
dancing crowd.
Dianthus yelled,
“I don’t know how to dance!”
“Who cares?”
yelled Melanie from behind her, joining the throng with the pudgy girl in
tow. Jon pulled out his wand and yelled
something that Dianthus didn’t catch, and volume of the radio bumped up a
notch. The dancers shouted their
approval.
It was hypnotic,
with the insistent beat of the music in her ear and the swaying crowd around
her. They wore a mixture of Muggle
clothes and robes, and they were all dancing together with no particular order
to them. One minute Jon was in front of
her, then someone she hadn’t met yet.
She turned and Martine was weaving through the crowd, eyes closed.
looked connected at the waist. Jon was
flinging his arms in the air like a wild person, in time with the chanting of
the song from the radio.
Dianthus suddenly
wished Snape was there, his body pressing against hers in the horde, his hands
rather than Melanie’s on her hips. She
closed her eyes and tried to focus on the moment, on the music, on the sweaty
bodies surging around her. She was
young, she was having a fabulous party, her friends
were all here with her. But it was no
good. Having thought of him, having
imagined his dark eyes on her as they moved together to this driving beat,
Dianthus couldn’t get the picture out of her head.
and leaned breathlessly against the bar.
She was sweaty and hot – she needed a little break from the music and
the crowd. She made her way through the
dancers and into her bedroom.
Iris looked
disgruntled. “I know it’s loud,” said
Dianthus soothingly, walking around the bed to stroke the owl’s wing.
to her as she flew out the open window.
“And leave your
own party?” Melanie had followed her
into the bedroom. She, too, was flushed
and sweaty. She turned and closed the
door behind her. “And
such a good party, too.”
“I just need a bit
of space for a minute,” muttered Dianthus, leaning her head out the window.
“So you can feel
lonely in peace? So you can wish you
were with Snape instead of us?”
“I can’t help it
if I miss him,” said Dianthus irritably.
“Yeah, but we miss
you,” said Melanie, just as
irritably. “And we’re here.
Ha dri drink.”
“I don’t want a
drink,” Dianthus grunted. “You know fire
whiskey doesn’t agree with me.”
“Maybe if you have
a little less this time,” giggled Melanie.
burst through the door, with Reese’s hand in hers.
than normal, “we’re going to take off, okay?”
Melanie waved them
out of the room and joined Dianthus at the window.
“Wish everybody
would leave,” muttered Dianthus.
“Stop it,” said
Melanie fiercely. “Your happiness does
not depend on Snape. You can have a good
time without him. You were having fun
dancing, I know you were.”
“Yeah,” admitted
Dianthus, turning to look at her. “But
even that made me miss him.”
“So come back and
miss him with your friends,” urged Melanie.
“And go dancing with Snape next weekend.”
Dianthus
snorted. “You know we can’t.
“You can dance
right out there in your living room,” insisted Melanie.
there.”
Dianthusok hok her
head. “He’s already got plans.”
“Make different
ones,” said Melanie. “Ones that require
keeping your clothes on,” she added drolly.
“Make him wait a little before he throws you down on the couch again.”
“Can you believe
we did that?” Dianthus said with a little grin.
“I can’t believe
half of what you did, but I’m taking careful notes,” said Melanie.
what set the whole thing off, you know it’s true.”
manage. If we don’t get back out there,
they’re going to trash your flat.”