A Game of Cat and Mouse

T W E N T Y S E V E N

When Elio woke up the next morning, his head was pounding. Concaving inwards with the pressure of a thousand hippogriffs stomping onto him. His mouth felt drier than the Sahara Desert and, oddly, his lips tasted like cherries and chamomile tea. Elio hated chamomile tea and he hardly remembered Albus and Scorpius feeding him cherries. And his body was oddly cold. Like it was missing something but he couldn't quite grasp what. Elio couldn't remember the last time he'd felt like this. This horrible.

He groaned and sat up, clutching the side of his head while cursing the creator of firewhisky. He'd only had a couple of glasses. Why in Merlin's name did he feel so terrible? He used to drink whole bottles of that stuff and could barely tell the difference.

Annie. That was the difference. Before, he was lonely. Before, he was trying to escape the pain of coming home to an empty bed. Before, he drank to forget how utterly unfulfilled he was. Before, he didn't have her.

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty," a voice sang next to his head. Without even opening his eyes, Elio reached forward and smacked Scorpius upside the head. "Ow! Fuck you, mate."

"Get the fuck out of my face," Elio growled as his head pounded with Scorpius's shouts. He opened his eyes to see Scorp grinning from his spot on the floor. Elio must have pushed him harder than he thought.

He looked down to see that he was still wearing his clothes from the night before. He groaned again.

"Albus is making breakfast so get your ass dressed. I'm sure your mummy wants you home."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up." Elio waved his hands and that seemed to satisfy Scorpius, who went to the kitchen. Probably—knowing Scorpius—to steal food from Albus as he was cooking it.

The three boys had been best of lads as long as Elio could remember. Of course, he knew Scorpius first so those two had always felt closer but he met Albus as a child once or twice due to their parents' friendship. Albus's dad and Elio's mum had been friends since his mum's seventh year. So when Albus was sorted into Slytherin, their friendship was officially cemented.

They used to have boy's nights at least once a week but ever since he'd met Annie, his boy's nights had been spent completely sober. Last night was the first night Scorpius had managed to convince him to drink.

Clearly, it went well for him.

As Elio was standing up, he heard something crinkle below him. "What the bloody hell is that?" he muttered to himself before noticing a spare piece of parchment lying precisely where his ass had been. On it was written a single line:

Annie said yes.

Bits and pieces of the night slowly started to come back to him. Annie... she'd shown up with James when his consciousness already had one foot out the door. She looked so adorable in his green Slytherin sweater, clearly nervous to have interrupted whatever was going on while James glared at Elio's goofy ass.

Great. Way to look like an imbecile in front of the guy who already hates you, he scolded himself. But then he remembered how he made out with Annie in front of James and he realized he should probably be worried less about embarrassment and more about living through the next twenty-four hours.

He remembered cuddling Annie, holding her on his lap, and wishing that he'd never have to let her go. He remembered the sound of her giggle as he kissed her everywhere, the taste of cherries on her lips mixed with the recent cigarette breath on his, the feeling of warmth he felt when she began to drift on him, the happiness he felt with his best friends and the love of his life all in one room...

And then the memories stopped. His mind went dark.

Annie said yes. Annie said yes. Annie said yes.