Harry Potter and the Cursed Heart ~discontinued~

Chapter 11

Alice was one of the last back to the common room that evening after she spent the last of her time in the Great Hall trying to see how many doughnuts she could fit on one plate, eventually stacking them into an impressive tower. While that hadn't taken her too long, the real time waster was trying to walk and balance them all at the same time.

Entering the common room, Alice's triumph was short lived as as soon as she stepped foot inside, the plate was taken off her and placed on a table of snacks with a cheer going up at the addition. Surveying the room, it turned out Alice had stepped in to one of Hufflepuff's infamous party. Grieving the loss of her doughnuts, Alice made the only logical decision and headed off towards the alcohol table.

She had reached out for a cup of something, not knowing what but it seemed strong, when a body stopped her. Looking up to see who had the audacity, she was assaulted by a mass of hair. "Steve," she acknowledged.

"Alice, I hope you understand that it wouldn't be very good parenting for me to let you get a drinking problem so young."

"But they stole my doughnuts," she whined. He rolled his eyes at her dramatics but allowed her to continue anyway. "Secondly, it is not parenting, you're barely a year older than me."

Appearing over Steve's shoulder and slinging an arm around him, Cepheus added, "Steve, I'm older than you but you don't see me parenting..."

"It's because you aren't responsible enough to parent," Steve muttered under his breath, but Cepheus' grin just grew.

"Besides, I trust the kid to be responsible. Now," he stepped around Steve to next to Alice, "considering I'm your elder, I should be parenting you. You better get used to calling me daddy." Cepheus ran away cackling as Steve lunged after him.

Just as Steve reached Alice, they both watched as Cepheus tripped over his own feet and instead of falling face first into the floor, fell face first into Angelica. Steve, who had now come to a stop, and Alice cringed at the same time as he fumbled back up to his feet. "S-sorry Angel," he stuttered anxiously as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

Angel had her ever-present ethereal smile on as she faced Cepheus. "It's alright CeCe, I know it's an accident. Are you alright? You could have been injured."

Cepheus watched his feet as he avoided his light blush being seen. "I'm fine Angel. Are you?"

Angel's smile grew ever so slightly, "I'm fine CeCe. Be careful, you could get hurt next time." Giving him a kiss on the cheek, Angelica turned back to her conversation as Cepheus' blush grew to cover his entire face. Alice could've sworn she also saw a slight blush on Angelica's face but couldn't be sure in the lighting. Looking up, Cepheus noticed them watching and shuffled off, his blush still stuck on his face.

'Angelpheus? Celica? Hmmmm, tricky.' Alice thought. Turning back to Steve, she had a question that was not entirely off topic, "Stevie, what is this party for?"

Not removing his eyes from where he was watching Cepheus trying to hide, he replied, "First Monday of the year."

'Really any excuse. I appreciate the hustle.' "So if this is for the first Monday, why didn't you have one yesterday?"

"Oh we did, you just sort of walked through it and didn't notice. You did seem kind of tired."

Alice shrugged, "Sounds like me."

At this, Alice found herself alone again. She debated on whether to find someone else to talk to but decided on the task of seeing how many doughnuts she could steal back.

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"Pucey, sit." Harry instructed from his armchair in the common room, gesturing to the sofa opposite the one the court was on. Adrian watched the boy carefully as he took his seat. He knew the boy was more powerful than he had already shown and was in awe of his ability, but he questioned why he was talking to him. He knew he hadn't broken any of the rules and the unknowing set him on edge.