Tainted Love

Red Wine

IRIS

Bass, lights, sirens coming from somewhere down the street. The night sky pounded outside, moon high and bright in the sky. Almost full, so close. Give it a couple more nights and the werewolves would be out in the Black Forest.

Now they were out in human form at the Siren and the Leaky Cauldron and the Black Unicorn.

Everyone was on the prowl. It was getting colder and people like having warm beds, even for a night.

Iris's feet hit the floor to the beat. Some things were moving slowly and other things were moving quickly. She was drunk enough that her body felt heavy in a very comfortable way. Her mind was swinging side to side and slightly expanding, pushing at her head.

It wasn't a headache. It felt like she was much smarter than she ever had been before, like something in the blue lights was teaching her the laws of the universe.

Theodore's hair was moving slow, shifting from side to side as he moved. Falling over his forehead, then twisting to the side. Sometimes it covered his eyes and Iris could only see his grin.

His hands were moving quickly, though. They were on her waist, then her sides, then around her back. He was drunk too, drunk enough not to care, and Iris didn't care either.

It had been a while since she had felt like this. It wasn't pure happiness, but she had drinken enough liquor to feel absent of sadness and stress. She wasn't hurt or confused, wasn't anything except content and slightly anticipatory of what might happen next.

In truth, she didn't quite understand the exact nature of their relationship. They were together now, but just to make other people jealous. But they liked each other.

She was drunk enough that it didn't matter. She wasn't questioning her own moves, wasn't questioning anything. Her hands were on him too. He was warm and she could feel him breathing, which was nice. He felt like a real person. He was a real person, very real, and he didn't mind her knowing.

Tracey and Sebastian had both mysteriously had other plans during their regular Friday night trip to the Leaky. Iris and Theodore both suspected that that was a lie, that they just wanted to force Iris and Theodore to be alone together.

Iris didn't really mind. She liked being alone with Theodore.

He was easy and steady in a comforting way. He was practical but not boring. He smiled often and with his whole face.

The song got slower in the middle, lots of chords building on each other. And now everything was slow, his hands and his hair and the way his eyes widened slightly as they caught hers.

She felt him on the back of her neck, the pads of his fingers pushing in lightly. He was gentle with her. His touch was always a suggestion, never a command.

They kissed. His lips were warm like the rest of him. Iris felt like her body was reverberating, like the stars outside were hurtling through the windows and crashing into her skin. And the weight of them was pushing her down but she was floating too.

They broke apart. The door opened and they were close enough to it to feel the gust of cold air that blew through.

It was a nice reprieve from the suffocating warmth of the dance floor. Iris looked up and tightened her hold on Theodore at once.

It was Daphne who had come in, with her pin-straight blonde hair that she insisted was natural even though the rest of her family had dark brown hair, almost black. Iris had learned this particular fact from the gossip section of the Daily Prophet.

She felt like her heartbeat was speeding up as she turned back to Theodore.

As soon as she met his eyes, he shot a pointed look at Daphne then looked back at her.