entanglements | d.m.

53.goodteam

January '99 | H E R

Mandy holds up the baby. "Is the dent very noticeable?"

Collectively, everyone replies, "Yes."

Turning the doll around, Mandy inspects the concavity in the head herself. Her shoulders sag, body falling back into the armchair. "Darn it. Zacharias won't say how that happened—it certainly wasn't me—and no spell works to push it back out."

"At least it's not crying," Sue says, poring over homework at the usual coffee table in the common room. "An actual baby would."

"And I would actually kill him," Mandy grumbles. "I'm so glad that this will be over tomorrow, and I'm so glad we had this practice. Really. It gave me a real look into what a complete self-absorbed nutter my partner is."

"Not to mention, Zacky bragged about how desperate you have been for him but weren't even that good." Tarq supplies the talk that went around school shortly after the Draco-Pansy-fiasco.

"Tosser," Mandy grumbles some more. "I'm excellent in bed. Very engaging. Not my problem he wants a pillow princess."

Devyn hides her smile by biting into her granola bar. Tarquin, leaning his head against her thigh as he's sitting on the floor, snorts for everyone to hear.

"I wouldn't he surprised if he prefered to look at himself in the mirror while doing it," he says.

Draco nods at that, pacing around their circle, rocking the doll to sleep. "Wouldn't put it past him."

"Actually," Tarq whirls his head around with renewed interest now that the Slytherin has drawn attention to himself. "That sounds like something you'd do."

"Well, you'd be wrong. I'd rather watch how your friend here," he points at Devyn, "falls apart around my dick. Or fingers. Or my mouth."

"Goddamn," Sue mutters, hiding her wide eyes behind her hand as she stares at the book before her.

"Okay," Devyn pins Draco with a warning look, feeling warmth creeping up her neck. "No need to get vulgar."

"Oh, but there's nothing vulgar about it in the moment, is there?"

"Just..." she begins, his heavy stare rattling her, "keep it to yourself."

The corner of his mouth tugs up, seeing how simply words affect her. "Locked and secured, baby."

Devyn looks away once his stare gets a bit too intense, feeling as if her entire body has been dipped into heat.

She is about to change the topic by saying something stupid, clears her throat when a scream pierces the relatively quiet common room. One doll sets another off, and another—

This sort of chain reaction happens a good handful of times every night, and it's so bloody tiring and annoying. Lilith is not affected, thankfully, but Draco is piercing daggers at those who now try their best to calm their dolls.

Gosh, Devyn is so glad once this stupid assignment is over.

Mandy has her hands covering her doll's ears. "I don't know how much babies normally cry but I feel like every single one here cries too much and I really don't want to keep doing this."

"But what if the better we perform, the longer she wants to keep it going," Devyn voices one of her earliest theories. Sparks didn't specify on the conditions that make her decide if she will order a second round. "That could be a possibility."

"I think she just wants to continue on for the full month, no matter what," says Tarq. He's wrapped his arms around Devyn's lower legs, cheek nuzzled on her thigh as if he's about to fall asleep. She drops a hand to stroke his head.