Sinners and Serpents {g.w.}

Chapter 12

The pounding headache that pulled you from sleep was almost worth the fun you had the night before.

Almost.

It seemed, as you walked out into the cold Slytherin common room, that most of the older students were thinking similarly. You felt bleary-eyed and the drowsy fog of sleep still wrapped around your head. Spotting Briar and Eva sitting on a couch in front of the crackling fire that was radiating an incredibly inviting warmth, you slowly made your way over to them. Your steps were slow, clumsy, as tiredness still trailed you.

Briar noticed you first, giving you a small smile and nod of solidarity concerning your state, and Eva picked up one of the three steaming mugs that were sitting on the black table in front of them. "Coffee?"

You nearly groaned at the slightly bitter smell that wafted towards you as she held it out to you. "You're a lifesaver, you know that?"

"This one had me up twenty minutes ago because she didn't want to get coffee by herself, so I figured I'd grab one for you, too," Eva told you, motioning to Briar, who had an innocent smile on her face.

"I'd say I'm sorry that you had to go get them, but I'd be lying," you told them.

The first sip of coffee that hit your tongue was wonderfully hot and sweet, just how you preferred it. "Fuck, Eva. Have I ever told you I love you?"

Eva laughed lightly. "Yes, once or twice, but the sentiment is always nice to hear."

"Hey, why don't I get any thanks?" Briar interjected, holding her own mug close to her chest.

"Because you were the one who pulled me out of my perfectly warm bed and made me come with you," Eva told her.

Briar stuck her tongue out at her, receiving a laugh from the girl. "We didn't see you all night. You did go to the party, didn't you?"

"Oh, I went," you assured her, a grin sneaking across your lips. "It was quite a good night."

Briar and Eva's eyebrows raised simultaneously with interest. "Seems like it," Eva said before taking a sip of her coffee.

Confusion rippled through you before you clapped a hand to your neck as you remembered the boy's teeth and mouth creating a mix of pleasure and pain on the sensitive area. "Is it bad?"

Briar laughed. "Not too terrible, no. But whoever you gave you that did a rather thorough job, it seems."

You groaned. "Fuck. I'll have to ask Hermione to cover it up."

"Are you going to tell us how you got that, or are you going to leave us hanging?" Eva asked.

The heavy, hot presence of the mystery boy's hands, the delicious friction of his thigh against your hips, made arousal stir anew as you sipped your coffee before speaking. "As the dance was starting, I see this boy walk in, right? He was so...elegant, so incredibly attractive that I swear I almost stopped breathing. But then, this girl came up to him, so I was pretty sure he was off limits, you know?"

Briar and Eva nodded, sipping their coffees as you spoke. "And then, I'm a bit tipsy and I'm dancing with Ginny and Hermione, and I bump into someone. I turn around, and there's that guy again, and the way he looked at me, holy fuck, it was like..."

You let out a sigh, remembering the way his lips had pulled up into a smirk that had you longing to find a dark corner and let him do whatever he'd pleased.

"That hot?" Briar asked.

"You have no idea," you answered. "So I apologize, and then he asks me to dance. I say yes, and we start dancing, and this boy had to have been probably six inches taller than me at the very least. And the song ends way too soon, and I was a bit sad because I was sure he was going to leave, but then he went to get us drinks."