ADDICTED | j.p x oc

20

Gryffindor had a match against Ravenclaw that Saturday, which they unsurprisingly won. However this meant that James was now walking around with an extra air of confidence for winning his first match as captain. It also meant that Eleanor's peaceful Saturday evening was ruined by a rowdy gaggle of Gryffindors invading her common room after they'd left the main party in Gryffindor tower.

Due to the noise, El was planning on heading to the Slytherin common room, hoping to find Marlene, Evan or Regulus. She unfortunately didn't have any firewhiskey left, after James had poured it down the sink, so settled for grabbing a small bottle of wine, and walking past the drunk group of students.

"Burke! Care to join us?" Sirius barked from his position sprawled out on the couch on top of his teammates.

There was about twelve of them there, made up of the quidditch team and a few of their friends. "I would, but there are many things i'd rather do right now," she replied, scanning the group to see her least favourite ginger sitting on the knee of the head boy.

Most of the groups attention was now on the only Slytherin in the room, James' eyes fixating on the bottle in her hand. "Like what?" Lily smiled up at her innocently, with her usual annoying amount of kindness.

"Jump off the astronomy tower... marry a troll... stab pins in my eyes-" she counted her list on her fingers, not an ounce of humour on her face.

Sirius waved a dismissive hand, "Yeh, yeh we get it." El laughed and left the room, not saying anything more.

When she entered her house common room, she took a seat next to Evan on the sofa by the fire. He was sitting talking to Regulus and Theo and put his arm on the back of the couch in response to her joining them.

"Hey, you guys seen Marls?" El asked, greeting the three boys.

Regulus smiled back at her and Evan began tracing small circles on her shoulder near where his hand lay. "She's in her dorm with some Ravenclaw girl," Theo said, "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?" he gave her a cheeky smile, sitting back in his seat.

El and Theo were cousins, on her mums side, him being one of the only family members she could even tolerate. "Bunch of Gryffindors in my common room, quidditch win 'n' all that," she shrugged, resting her head against Evan's arm, "I brought wine though."

She gestured her bottle to the three who all laughed, "I have firewhiskey in my dorm," Regulus didn't wait for the others to answer, marching up to his dorm to retrieve the bottle.

Evan squeezed the shoulder he'd been rubbing to get El's attention, "You okay? I didn't see you at the match today," he looked mildly concerned, his eyes tracing over her face, taking in the parts that were illuminated in the firelight.

She shrugged and nodded, "Yeh i'm fine, wasn't bothered about seeing Gryffindor or Ravenclaw play," her voice only loud enough for Evan to hear.

His hand began to absentmindedly play with the strand of hair that had fallen onto her shoulder as Regulus reappeared with a bottle in one hand and three cups stacked in the other. He took his seat back on the armchair and put down what he was holding onto the small coffee table in front of them.

"Sorry, El, i could only find three," he apologised, unstacking the cups and pouring the amber liquid into it.

"Don't worry about it, i drink straight from the bottle," she waved her wine as if making a toast, before taking a sip.

***

The group stayed by the fire for a while, Marlene coming down from her dorm to join them, introducing Dorcas to the group before the Ravenclaw returned to her own common room.