The Wizarding World

Laura sighed with relief. It seemed the girl hadn't even noticed that Laura had forgotten her name. That would have been pretty embarrassing. 

She was saved from further awkwardness when she heard Jenny mention the girl's name was Samantha. One less thing to worry about then. 

"Punch sounds good," she said, in response to Maxwell. 
Maybe she'd feel less nervous if she had something to drink.

"So Jenny," she said, attempting to make conversation. "What's the uh, wizarding world like?" 

That was the best question she could think to ask. All she'd really seen of the wizarding world was Diagon Alley and Hogwarts. Jenny seemed as good a candidate as any to ask.

Will's mouth flailed around uselessly for five minutes before he was interrupted. An elder student, whom Will believed to be Ravenclaw's female (he wasn't entirely sure if he was honest) prefect from fifth year, punctuated Will's noiseless rant with a hushed but, judging by her(?) facial expressions, urgent conversation. Will eavesdropped and naturally caught very little and nothing of use. Yamada stood.

"I briefly must go. Remain in your seats." She left without further elaboration. Will looked around shiftily and after a minute had passed he stood.

'Let's go!' He tried to say, but he was still silenced. He mimed a foul mouthed torrent of words as he exited the classroom. He jabbed his finger in the direction of the party and mimed 'Slughorn!'. Of course, they were the guests of honour, they couldn't miss the whole shebang!

Maxine nodded with a slight giggle at the fact that Will was still cursed. She followed him out the door and once again acknowledged she understood, "Hey, can we not let our friends know we're there? Or at least not know I'm there."

She was on an important reconnaissance mission, after all. She couldn't risk anyone tipping Jenny off that she was spying on her in the hopes that the gryffindor revealed her true dastardly plans with Laura. Also, because she was bored and playing spies sounded like something to kill time with.

---

"Alright, wait here and I'll get your drinks," Maxwell headed off to the table of refreshments, leaving the girls to talk amongst themselves. He didn't consider till too late that he didn't have a way to carry all the drinks to them. Oh well, he'd cross that bridge later.

"What's it like?" Jenny responded to Laura with confusion, "I'm not sure what you mean," For someone who'd only ever lived in the wizarding world, maybe it was too hard to think of how it'd be different, "I mean, we use magic like sensible people instead of that... electrical stuff the muggles use, if that's what you mean,"

"Ohhh, it's so great Laura!" Samantha picked up where Jenny didn't feel like responding, "Although those muggle items always seemed really cool to me too. But so many chores are made easier when you use magic! And even more, it can be a lot of fun. Well, I wasn't allowed to use any at home yet, but my parents used to show me all kinds of neat tricks when I was little," she was very excited as she spoke.

Jenny felt like Samantha was talking about things that were so simple like they were the greatest things ever. Well, whatever, "Yes, 'neat tricks' are great and all, but the practical applications of magic are so much better. Travel is made very easy when you know how to apparate wherever you want to go. My dad's taken me a few places in the past using it and it's quite useful," she felt like this was along the same lines of things that Samantha was telling Laura, so why not add it?

--

Bart deadpanned at the last question, "Just... yes, wear them. Your sunglasses look good on you!" he pretended to exclaim, although more to cover up his own nervousness. He once again adjusted his clothes all over, fiddling with every wrinkle, as he'd been doing for a while now, "Ahhh, this is insane, seeing as I'm not very fond of parties. It's difficult to believe I'm actually going..." he mumbled.

"Also, Hymie, will anyone even notice that we're late? I don't think anyone's waiting for us," He decided to point out the obvious flaw in the plan, again mainly due to being nervous about going into a room with so many people who were just going to want to talk and dance. OH god, the dancing, yeah he was staying away from any of that if it happened.

"So wizards can go anywhere they want?" said Laura, sounding amazed at this. 

She made a mental note to learn to apparate as soon as possible. She wasn't quite sure what the word meant; but the way Jenny described it made it sound kind of like teleportation. Being able to go anywhere sounded useful. 

Maybe Jenny knew something about it. 

"How do you apparate? Is it a spell? Can you show me?" she asked, excitedly. 

--

"That's why they'll be so surprised to see that such funky-fresh cats like us raising the roof at their shindig," said Hymie. 

Hymie grinned. He couldn't wait to see the look on Sam and Max' faces once they showed up at their fancy Slug Club party. He wished Bart would calm down a bit though. He was gonna ruin their cool entrance if he kept that worrying up. 

"Relax; we're the coolest dogs this school has ever seen," he said. "So lets get ready to raise the roof!"

Will nodded. He always thought he'd make a good James Bond, sneaking around and all. He was subtle and suave, right? They went through the halls and Will was silent, although not by choice. His silence, however, enabled them to actually tell what was going on around the halls and they manoeuvred their way around teachers and stray students.

The halls, Will noticed, had indeed been decked with boughs of holly. Everything was decorated, someone had even placed festive hats on the suits of armour. The whole affair was rather spectacular, not least the red magical lights that adorned the ceiling, moving as if they were alive, on a background of greenery and unmelting snow. They were following them, he realised. That would make sneaking difficult.

The lights would cluster on their position when the twosome moved and then disperse when they got too far from their home position or when the Gryffindor pair stopped. Will pointed upwards. The lights only emitted a dull glow and one would have to look directly up at the high ceiling to notice the lights were following anything. But they were pretty enthralling. Almost...hypnotising...

Will had planned to crash the party all high-profile-like but Maxine wanted to stay hidden. The lights were magical and probably difficult to fool, so they needed to just stay hidden even when an arrow pointed at them. 

He snapped back to reality with a crash. He had wondered into a suit of armour. He swore silently and then looked thoughtfully at the mass of metal. Will grinned.

When Maxwell reached the punch table, he was surprised to see a boy his own age that he didn't recognize from the slug club. Had someone else invited him? He greeted the boy and got a nod of acknowledgement. The other boy didn't seem to be much for talking so Maxwell let it be as he went about fixing the drinks. Once he had a cup for everyone, Max pondered how he was gonna bring all of it to the girls without spilling a drop on himself.

"Where do you need these to go?" A voice asked and he was surprised to see the boy from before, beside him and holding two of the cups he just made.

"O-oh, uh, over there with those three girls," Maxwell pointed in their general direction.

Again, the boy nodded and began making his way to the girls with Maxwell trailing behind them. He was so distracted by that silent boy that had suddenly helped him, that he nearly bumped into a suit of armor. Saying a quick apology, despite knowing the suit didn't have anyone in it, he rushed back after the other boy.

From the suit of armor, Maxine watched her brother leave, her eyes following where he was going. She grinned as she spotted Jennifer and the others. Perfect, operation spy on Jenny was set to go. She made a soft clang to signal Will and get his attention towards the others.

"Oh, uh, yeah I know all about Apparating, but it's not easy to actually do!" Jenny bragged, although it wasn't like she could DO it herself, but she didn't need to say that part.

"Ohhh, that's cool Jenny, you should show us," Sam said, eager to see her friend apparate.

"Uh, oh hey, Max is back with drinks! Thank you, sir, and who is this?" She quickly took a cup to cover up needing to actually explain anything, giving the spotlight over to Max. Sam also took her own drink happily.

---

"I'm not sure we can raise this particular roof," Bart looked up at the amazing ceiling that was above them. Yeah, it was more like a sky. He then sighed, "Alright, w-well, fine. I'm r-ready when you... are, Hymie," He said, his breathing becoming heavy but his face was determined. God there were going to be so many people in there, but he didn't think about that. Come on, it was just like sitting at the tables for meals, he told himself over and over, it'll be fine!

"Lets do this thing," said Hymie. 

He opened the door, and walked into the room as confidently as possible. He was certain that he looked like the coolest cat that ever crashed a party. 

"The cool kids have entered the building," he said. 

Yeah, that thing he just said was definitely a cool thing. He would have to say that more. It would be like some kind of phrase; a phrase that really caught peoples' attention. A capturephrase, if you will.  

He looked around. Aside from one or two people who were staring at him as if he were a crazy person, nobody seemed to notice or care about his entrance. Oh well; not everyone was cool enough to appreciate a totally cool entrance like that. 

He kept walking. Part of being cool was not really caring what other people thought of him. That was just how he rolled.

He immediately headed towards Sam and Max; to see what they thought of his cool entrance. 

--

"So it's probably not something I could learn by the end of the school year," said Laura, sounding disappointed. 

Once again, her thoughts turned to the many awesome, magical things she was going to miss out on if her parents refused to let her go back another year. However, she refused to dwell on that. Right now, she had more questions about wizards.  

"I have so many questions about wizards," she said.  "So I'll just ask... wait, did that suit of armor just move?"

No, Will answered instantly but he was still silenced. When was this damn spell going to wear off. Actually it was probably for his benefit as he would have been instantly exposed, so he did his best impression of a statue as the Slug Club members looked at Maxine.

He wasn't really sure why they were spying on Jenny. Something about true evil intentions? Will would have been content just causing havoc in the middle of the party but this was fun too.

He turned his head slightly to watch Slughorn walk past him briskly to intercept Hymie. Rookie error, Will thought to himself, caught before he could even crash the party properly.

"Mr. Rudolphus isn't it?" Slughorn said with no real interest in his voice. Will did not like this man who was only loyal to people who could get him something. Even if he weren't bitter, Will doubted he would have liked the teacher. "May I ask who it is that you're here with? It would be in poor taste to arrive to a party you weren't invited to after all." 

Perhaps Slughorn was irritated at the murmurings about haunted suits of armour, or maybe it was the fact that Will had poured a few bottles of something into a few bowls of punch. In his defence it seemed to be a hit. He spied one of the bottles in the bin, labelled Blishen's Firewhisky 1920. 


Whisky? Oops.

Well the party was terribly dull.

"Oh! This is, uh..." Maxwell began to answer as he and the new boy passed the girls their drinks, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your name."

"'m Liam, Liam Kearney, pleasure ta meet you," The boy answered with a hint of a half-smile. It dawned on Maxwell that he did hear a bit of an Irish accent in the boy's voice.

"I haven't seen you around the club, did someone invite you?"

Liam put his hangs in his pockets and shrugged as if that explained everything, "Ah, well, just sorta-"

He was interrupted by a clang that got the rooms attention. Everyone turned toward the armor.

From within it, Maxine tried to go stock still as a student approached it. She held in her breath, hoping they would think nothing of it and turn away. No such luck, as the student boldly pulled the helmet off of it. Maxine grinned back nervously to the crowd, "I take it this isn't a costume party...?"

"Maxine?!" Maxwell nearly shouted in surprise, "I'm sorry, Liam, but-" When he turned back, the boy was no where to be seen, having more than likely left in the commotion.

"Um, he's with me, sir," Bart stepped forward to help Hymie, "I know I said I probably won't show up, but uh, well, I'm... here," he gave a little awkward wave.

His attention was then taken by a certain commotion going on behind the teacher...

----

Jennifer had chugged down her punch as soon as she got it, but then coughed a bit, "Ugh, it's... really strong isn't it?"  She looked up in time to see someone pulling the helmet off of the suit of armor that had honestly looked out of place to begin with.

"Maxine?!" Jennifer was as surprised as anyone else. Dammit this is why she couldn't stand muggle borns! They don't know their place, "You!" She walked right up to the suit of armor, "Why can't you let well enough be? You weren't invited! You weren't supposed to be here at all! Why I have half a mind to... to..." She grabbed at her head. Was it just her or was the whole room... spinning? Her breathing was very clearly and obviously becoming less steady as well, so it's likely others might notice something odd.

Samantha was watching the whole thing with a bit of a blush and was giggling, "Isn't Jennifer silly? Hey, hey Max, isn't she~?" she leaned in close to Max like she was sharing a secret, but then didn't even say anything and just stayed there.

"Uh, what kind of party is this?" Bart was looking at what was going on with quite some confusion, then turned to Hymie for some sort of answer.

"It's Rodolfo" said Hymie, sounding somewhat annoyed.

He was pretty sure he'd mentioned possibly joining Slugclub whenever. He'd mentioned that multiple times, in fact. How could he have been clearer? 

"I just thought this would be a good place to announce to my homies that I'm gonna be chillin with them in the Slug Club," he said. 

--

Laura stared dumbfounded at the events around her. She walked up to Maxine; gently getting between her and Jenny. 

"Hey, Jenny, would you mind getting me some more punch?" she said. 

She hoped Jenny would buy her lame excuse to separate her from Maxine. She really didn't want to get caught in the middle of a row with those two. 

"So, Maxine...what's with the armor?" she asked, figuring she should start with the obvious question.

Will stood stock still as his friend got questioned. He wasn't a suit of armour he was just a suit of armour. And he was enjoying his accidental consequences until he bumped into Liam. "Oh, sorry about that bruv," he said without realising the silencing charm had worn off.

-----

"Oh... okay, please be good," Slughorn replied, clearly disgruntled. He reminded himself only to let the exceptional people have plus ones before wondering off to deal with what appeared to be a drunkard child. But he was feeling a bit... bendy...

"No problem, mate," Liam said, completely unphased by the talking suit of armor, "You and your friend might want to wear something more subtle when you crash a party."

Liam noticed Slughorn leaving the pair that just arrived and coming in their general direction. He should really use the momentary ditraction to his advantage. He wasn't really supposed to be here, having wandered into the party just because he could and was curious.

"Well, see ya around," He turned, holding up one hand as a sign of farewell to Will and began to walk toward the exit.

----

As Jennifer ranted on, Maxine gave her a look of utter contempt. Or at least, that was her intention up until she started noticing her acting... strangely. Her contempt turned to bafflement as she wondered just what got into the girl.

"Uhm, well," Maxine began to answer Laura distractedly, as she pushed herself out of the armor and uncerimoniously fell to the floor. Her eyes was still on the clearly drunk girl now that she had gotten a better look of the symptoms, "I was just making sure she didn't, you know, cast a spell on you. Er, hey, you guys didn't drink anything you shouldn't did you?"

Not like she didn't already know the answer to that.

----

As Sam moved closer, a familiar smell invaded Max's nose. His eyes widened as he looked down at the cup in his hand. He hadn't drank from it yet and he was glad for it. Of course, that wouldn't save him from any drunken antics from his friend. He should get her back to the dorms quick, before she gets herself into trouble.

"Hey, Sam, I think its time to go back to our rooms, it's getting pretty late, right?" It wasn't, they had only got here a little over half an hour ago. Still, he urged gently, "Come on, lets go."

Hopefully, he could get her to her room quickly without much fuss, then he can rush back to check on the others.

Bart scratched his head in confusion. He really didn't understand parties, or their teacher Prof. Slughorn.

--

"Uh, more punch? Yeah sure..." Jenny felt her anger fading away. Wait, shouldn't she warn her friend how bad the punch tasted? "Actually hey, Lauraaa, the punch is gross are you sure you want more?" Maxi's question went unnoticed. Jennifer also had, of all things, a small smile on her face. This coupled with her sudden drop in charismatic charm (is that even close to what it really is?) made it obvious she was NOT herself.

--

Sam ended up leaning on Max, "Late? No wayyyy, we just got here right? Lets have fun! Hehehe," She tried to grab Max by the hand and take him towards the snack table, "In fact, I feel hungry! Aren't you hungry? Man lets eat!"

As the professor left; Hymie scanned the room for Sam and Max.

He noticed Max walking towards the door with Sam. He quickly made his way towards them. 

"Yo, Sam, Max!" he said; stepping between them and the door. "Bet you guys didn't expect to see your number one bro here," 

--

"Why would you even think you had to make sure of that?!" said Laura, raising her voice a bit more than intended. 

Just as Laura was about to call Maxi on her immediate distrust of Jenny; Maxi suddenly changed the subject. What the heck did drinks have to do with this situation? 

"Are you seriously changing the subject?" she said, getting a bit louder. "Cause I think we need to talk about why you assumed Jenny cast a spell on me; and didn't even..." 

It was at that moment Jenny came back; and Laura suddenly started to put two and two together. Jenny was completely wasted. 

"Maxi, did you spike the punch?"

"Take it easy," Will replied with a half salute. In all fairness the disguise itself wasn't too awful. Perhaps a bit clunky. "Oh damn," He muttered as Slughorn walked by. His voice was back, he finally noticed, but he stood stock still as the portly Potions professor looked around. 

Will was saved by one of Slughorn's guests engaging the man in conversation. "Horace, how are you," the slightly overweight lady said with a slightly overenthusiastic voice, "I'd like to introduce you to Bert. He is the subject of my new book." Will saw Slughorn's eyes widen at the gaunt, bedraggled man.

"Is that such a good idea?" He asked.

"It's fine, we have until Wednesday."

"Oh, in that case..." The trio made conversation but their voices had lowered. They slowly moved away and Will took that opportunity to leave. His cover was blown after all.

"Maxi, did you spike the punch?" Will heard as he discreetly approached his friends.

"Nope, that was me!" He announced before looking at Jenny and sniffing. "Oh bloody hell, you're plastered!" He guffawed. A sizeable amount of the crowd looked as the suit of armour doubled over. The room went silent.

"Hey!" Came the voice usually reserved for when Will dropped Doxy crap in Maxine's potions without looking first.

"Uh... we need to split. Now." He grabbed Maxine's arm and pulled her towards the exit. "The pineapple was lovely, thanks bye!" And he sprinted out the exit.
___________

'Pineapple?' Slughorn wondered. He hadn't set out any of his favourite Crystallised Pineapple for the guests. He didn't wonder about the identity of the armour though: he was fairly sure the loud one was that insufferable Gryffindor first year which would tend to indicate that the other one was Maxwell's less bearable sister. Not that he had any proof. 

He sighed. "Um, sorry about that folks," He said, a tinge pink. He turned and something caught his eye - bottles in a bin.

That was strange, they were hidden with the other presents, like the sweets Ambrosius had sent him...

The dots connected; the penny dropped. "You little bastard," he muttered softly.

"No, I didn't honest-!" Maxi protested when she suddenly heard the confession of her partner in crime. Of course it was his doing. She took a glance in Maxwell's direction and sure enough Sam was just as wasted. Oh boy, as funny as this situation could be, Maxine was pretty familiar with the antics of a drunk.

"Hey!" She winced when she heard Slughorn's voice.

She had to agree with Will that they hd to leave, but as she looked at Jennifer and her sorry drunken self a pit in her stomach known as guilt started to form. She could be an ass, but letting that girl embarrass herself at a party was a bit much even by her standards. So, she grabbed Jennifer by the wrist and dragged her along too, "Come on, drunky, you're coming with us."

Maxine hoped her brother could handle Sam, himself.

----

Max was in fact not handeling it all that well. His friend was persistent. But, he knew a way to win her over. Hopefully, this would convince her to go back to the dorms.

"Oh, uhm, yes, very hungry. I have some snacks at the dorm, we should go get them," He attempted to persuade her, "I baked most of them myself."

Hymie and Bart then arrived, to which he was grateful. Those two would definitely help him with this predicament. Or at least, attempt to.

"Guys," He moved closer to them and a little away from Sam, bringing his voice down low so she wouldn't hear, "Someone spiked the punch, can you help me get her back to the dorms?"

"What- hey! Unhand me you-!" Jennifer tumbled a little as she followed along, and all effort she had on arguing changed to keeping her balance. Why did she feel like this? Something was weird. Somehow she'd managed to miss any indication that the drinks were spiked, so she felt lost like she was at sea.

Her dress ripped in a few places, nothing improper, but it looked kind of like she'd ran through a forest. In fact it was just that she tripped and hit every corner they passed, including the sharp edges of the suit of armor as she kept bumping into Will somehow. It was when she bumped into Maxine that she finally said something though, "Ow! Can't you be more gentle?! I don't like it so rough..." She demanded of Maxine, despite the fact that it was her own fault. Although, they were likely to stop running in a moment.

------

Samantha gasped in such an exaggerated way that you'd think she ran out of room to breath in by the end of it, "Yessss, Max's snacks are the best!" Seems Max's worries that she might not be very cooperative went away rather quickly. She then noticed her friends all huddled together. She moved into the huddle uncomfortably close to Bart, "Hey guys, what are we talking about?"

Bart stepped back out of the group, flustered and unsure how to proceed. She really was drunk! Bart wasn't sure what to say to that, "Goodness, uh, Sam could you keep personal space in mind?" He had never spoken to a drunk person before actually...

Sam seemed to completely miss what he said as she had already started leaning on Hymie, saying, "Heyyyy, Max has snacks lets share them ok?"

Bart grabbed his face with his hand, "Ugh..." He then and there swore to never drink an ounce of real alcohol for as long as he lived.

So Maxi hadn't spiked the punch. Laura kind of felt bad for immediately assuming it was her. However, she was still mad about what she'd said just before that. 

Just as she was going to tell Maxine off, however; she suddenly ran off with Jenny. Laura had to fight the urge to chase after them. 

She didn't want to make a scene, after all. Not to mention they'd probably be heading towards the Gryffindor commons. Not some place a Slytherin ought to go. 

And there was still a party to enjoy. A party that she was only getting to enjoy because she came as Jenny's plus one. 

She immediately started chasing after them.

--
--

Hymie stared at Max for a moment; then nodded. Sounded like Sam was about a step away from embarrassing herself in front of a lot of people. He wasn't about to let that happen. 

"Can't just leave a brother hangin'. Or a sister for that matter," he said, before turning his attention to the girl that was currently hanging on him. 

"Come on Sam, lets go loot that Max's snack stash,"

Will ran through the halls still in his armour until they were far enough from Slughorn's party to be safe. Running in the armour was tiring and Will was drenched in sweat and panting like a dog. 

He composed himself and turned to his two companions. "Well that was a success! Why did you have to bring her with us though?" He asked with a frown which immediately melted into a grin once he noticed Jennifer was still drunk. "Enjoy the punch?"
____

Yamada limped down the hall towards McGonagall's office if it could be called that - Hagrid was practically carrying her and her legs wouldn't have carried her past the edge of the forest. She was bleeding and dizzied. She heard a crash of metal but it was probably just the ringing in her ears.

"- yer t' the hospital wing," Hagrid said. She hadn't heard the full sentence - she struggled to focus. 

"No," she groaned. "Need to tell... grnhs." She mumbled. Had she eaten a knut? No, she realised, blood had filled her mouth. Just a little more. Then she could tell McGonagall about what she'd seen.

About the greenhouse.

"Can't do that if yer dead, can yer?" Rumbled the half-giant and he seemed pretty resolute. The idiot, this was important. This wasn't the way to the headmistress' office.

She had to... to do what? 
___
Will huddled in a corner with Maxine and Jennifer, his hand over the latter's mouth. Yamada went limp but didn't hit the floor. Hagrid hauled her over his shoulder like she was a shoulder bag and continued on his way.

"Well shit," Will commented. "We didn't get caught!"

"I don't know, I felt guilty, okay?" Maxine answered Will, sounding slightly agitated with herself and the situation. She then swiveled on Jennifer, "And you, no complaining until you're sober. Wait, that would be worse, okay no complaining period."

Man, she really messed up. Laura had looked so angry and now she was babysitting a drunk Jenny. Detention was sounding better and better. She'd probably be lucky to get a punishment as light as detention after this.

It was then she heard Hagrid coming down the hall with Yamada and huddled into the corner with Will to watch the events.

After they went on their way, Maxine peered over curiously, "What do you think happened? Oh, hey! What if that chimera had something to do with it! .... ah, but, I hope Professor Yamada will be okay. She was cool."

----

"Oh thank god," Maxwell mumbled over his breath, but smiled pleasantly at Sam. Which, had a twinge of nervousness that anyone would notice, "Come on, then. Don't want to leave those snacks waiting."

He gently grabbed Sam by the arm and away from poor Bart as he led her out the room. He regretted having to interrupt Bart and Hymie after they had just got to the party, but he really needed their help. He wasn't sure if he could handle drunk Sam all the way to the commons on his own. Especially, without getting caught by a teacher. He didn't want her getting in trouble for being drunk.

Jennifer opened her mouth to keep complaining as if she had every intention of getting them all caught right here, but her mouth was quickly covered as Hagrid and a beat up looking Yamada passed them. She didn't much care, though, as she was focused on the hand covering her mouth. She tried to pry it off of her, but all she accomplished was tiring out her arms until he let go on his own, "Bah, heathen, shtupid, ugh," She kept wiping at her mouth like she was trying to get the taste of mud off her tongue.

"Wait, chimera? You aren't thinking of shneaking into the woodsh now are you?" Jennifer slurred, and it was clear that she wasn't getting any better.

----

Sam allowed herself to be led by Max, but the whole way she kept asking embarrassing questions or saying weird things, "Hey, Max, you ever kissed a girl?" "Hey Hymie, boxers or briefssss?" "Baaart, you need to speak up moooooore~!"

Indeed, Sam didn't make the trip easy by any stretch of the imagination, but they would eventually make it back to the dorms.

"No," Will replied, "I'm thinking of sneaking into the woods later when I don't have a drunk goblin to bring around." He checked to see if the coast was clear. "Alright, I think we're good. Let's go."

Getting back to the common room was relatively uneventful and none of the older students who were still awake seemed particularly perturbed by their late entrance aside from a couple of odd looks. 

"Better take this one to bed then," Will said, leading up the stairs to the girls' rooms. His grip on the floor disappeared and fell, sliding down unceremoniously on his backside. "Hey, what's up with that?" He complained. The stairs had turned into a slide and a few fifth years laughed at his misfortune, which only served to irritate him further.

He tried in vain to run up the slide but every time he'd just get to the middle and slide back down as if he wasn't even running.

"It's magic, moron," snickered one of the older students with a bad case of acne. "No matter what you do you'll slide down if you're a boy." 

"Shut up, you spotty gimp," He replied testily, silently vowing to get up the stairs one day. He didn't notice the fifth year he insulted turn red, the pimples looking like they were ready to explode as he went for his wand, only to be restrained by his friends.

"I'm going to bed," Will announced to Maxine and Jennifer before leaving up his own gender's stairs, which, thankfully, didn't turn into a slide.

Maxi covered her mouth with her fist to suppress her snickers at Will's misfortune. It almost turned to full blown laughter when he snapped at the older students.

"Night, Will!" Maxine waved with an amused grin. It was almost a shame her and Maxwell would be leaving tomorrow. She so would have used this incident to mess with him all day.

Once he was headed up his own dorm stairs, Maxine turned to Jennifer, "To be honest, I'm glad he can't come up to our rooms. Don't have to worry about him pulling pranks in my sleep."

She then tugged at Jennifer's wrist and pulled her up to the rooms despite any protests she would have.

"Go to bed, no arguing," She told the drunk girl sternly before getting ready for bed herself. She was pretty tired from the days adventure. A long night's sleep was just what she needed.

--

The next morning she woke up early and went by the infirmary. There she asked for a potion for headaches and such then headed back up to the dorms. She placed the potion and a cup of water next to Jennifer's bedside. Why she was doing this? Well, she didn't really want to deal with a hungover Jenny and plus, she felt partially responsible for the girl getting drunk in the first place.

With that settled, she went about packing her luggage to leave later in the day.

----

Maxwell woke up aching. His side felt really sore for some reason. That's when he realized he was on the floor. Did he fall out of bed in his sleep? He blindly reached for his bed and felt something warm. Someone was in his bed.

He wiped the sleep from his eyes and got a better look. Yep, that was definitely Samantha.

He sighed.

She must have woken up last night in her drunken stupor and not realized she not only got into the wrong bed but also the wrong dorm room entirely. Seriously, why didn't the school consider these things when they let girls come into the boy's room.

Well, no point in waking her up. He should start packing anyway.

Jennifer stirred from her sleep, hearing the sounds of things getting packed. Gaaaah, why did everything hurt? No, mainly her damn head. She made noises of anguish as she rolled around under her blanket. She felt really uncomfortable on top of everything, and realized she'd gone to bed in her dress. What the hell? Ow, ow, even worrying about it hurts.

"What..." She poked her head out of her blanket to look at Maxine, "What happened? Why was I... ugh, what was in those drinks?" She saw the drink of water next to her bed, and suddenly she felt VERY thirsty. She sat up and drink it fast enough even Sam might have been proud.

----

Sam woke up juuust enough to realize she wasn't in her own bed, made a groaning noise, and rolled over. She was pretty sure she didn't need to wake up anyway. 

When she rolled over, a bag of cookies that looked like the kind you'd find at dessert in Hogwarts fell out onto the floor. The truth behind these cookies was that the house elves made them for her last night when she asked while drunk.

"Ask Will," Maxine replied to Jennifer's question nonchalantly as she continued to pack her clothes into her luggage. "There's a potion there too for you, just by the way. The Nurse said to take two spoonfuls now and two more before dinner."

She didn't look at Jennifer once as she said this. It felt weird, being nice to someone she viewed as so awful. Plus, she was still feeling pretty guilty so that just added on to the weirdness.

This wasn't to mention Laura. She had been so mad at her when she found out Maxine had crashed the party. Should she apologize? But, ah, that would be awkward. Maybe she should just sneak away to the trains and spend her Winter Break hoping her friend cooled down.

Ugh, why was doing the right thing always so hard.

----

After he was finished packing, he went over to his bedside and nudged his friend awake. They had a couple hours before they had to leave for the trains and he at least wanted to spend these moments with his friends. Especially since their night was cut short by Gryffindors with poor decision making skills.

"Hey, Sam, lets head down to breakfast then we can hang out with Hymie and Bart before I have to leave."