Treacherous - Theodore Nott

Chapter Thirteen

I was able to finish my paper last night without any more distractions, luckily. That means I get to go to the party tonight.

This party will be nothing like Blaise's, it'll be smaller. But a party's a party, and Astoria and I look forward to them every week.

Slytherin is kind of known for its parties, which usually draws in a crowd from other houses. I wonder who we'll see tonight.

"Ouch!" I yelp out in pain.

"Oh, sorry," Astoria shakes her head.

She's currently standing behind me, helping me curl my hair. Unfortunately, she found something more important to think about and burned my ear.

I wonder if Mia and the boys will show tonight, or if they'll be too distracted by whatever's in the Room of Requirement to make an appearance. I thought about filling Astoria in on the situation, but I'm still not entirely sure what the situation is. That, and the way that Theodore seemed so nervous about me finding out makes me wonder how safe it is. I don't want to get her involved in some dangerous plot. Best not to tell her.

I look at Astoria who is once again dazed off, my hair burning in her hands.

"Alright, enough," I say, swatting her hands away. "Something more important than my hair you want to share with the class?"

She shakes her head out of the daze and apologizes again.

"Are you okay?" I ask, concerned.

"Yeah," she sighs, brushing it off.

"Are you sure? You've been out of it all day. The past few days actually, now that I think about it."

"Yeah, just trying to figure some stuff out. I'd rather not talk about it right now."

I nod, "Okay, just let me know when you do want to talk."

I reach my hand behind me and grab hers, squeezing it.

She smiles weakly at my gesture and lets go of my hand, walking over to her bed. Once there, she reaches for the shirt laying on her bed and holds it up.

"So I was thinking, this shirt with those shorts you wore to last week's party. Thoughts?"

I smile at the glimmer in her eyes, glad the excitement of the party is enough to pull her out of whatever is bothering her.

"Yes, super cute. It's in my bottom drawer if you want to grab it."

With that, she nods and goes to grab it, then disappears into the bathroom.

With my hair done, I touch up the last of my makeup and go to pick an outfit for myself.

—————

As we walk down the stairs together arm in arm, the music reaches our ears. We look at each other, smiling, and finish our descent.

The smell of alcohol and weed  reaches my nose and I inhale deeply. I can feel the vibrations of the bass moving through my body.

The common room is dark with fun lights strung around miscellaneously, all different colors. A light cloud of smoke has settled on the room, and the flashing lights reflecting off of it.

We always opt to show up fashionably late, so there's already a crowd gathered passing around drinks and making out in the haze.

"Nice," I remark, referring to the couple currently eating each other's faces just meters away from us.

"One of those parties," Astoria responds, leading me over to the drink table.

We pour drinks for ourselves and walk across the busy room to the pong table.