II
A strange but familiar feeling whooshed around me, and by the time I had the chance to open my eyes again we were now inside of a hollow tunnel. That was when I heard the music finally.
Thumping rhythms and low, heavy beats echoed from the walls. "Did you just fucking apparate? If you get in shit for that do not take me down with you." I warned her, but I was just looking for reasons to be annoyed this time in all honesty.
"Oh sh, what beard daddy doesn't know can't hurt him can it? The door is spellbound so it's the only way through." She muttered, seeming more and more deviant by the second. Then she took out a strange vial of powder from her pocket. "Seriously y/n, where are we and what's going on?"
"We're going where all the freaks and misfits go to be themselves in privacy. Are you a misfit too?" Before I could answer she had poured some of the powder on to her hand and blown it in to my face and all over me; before covering herself in the strange dust too. "What the fuck was that?" I coughed, trying to brush it off.
"You'll see, come on."
Y/n crept her way down the narrow tunnel with me hot on her tail, albeit reluctantly. The music grew louder and louder until we came to a hatch. She took one last devilish look back at me before popping it open and crawling out in to an open space.
It was almost pitch black, so much so that I wouldn't of been able to see my hand in front of my face. If it wasn't covered in the powder y/n had chucked over me that is. Each person glowed a mixture of fluorescent blue, pink and purple. Y/n was pink so that meant so was I, I would never be seen dead in pink so I huffed as she yanked me in to the people who were chatting, laughing and dancing.
It was like a neon wonderland. If you could see it, then it glowed. It was actually beautiful.
"How the fuck-?" I whispered, just trying to take everything in before noticing that y/n was no longer by my side and all of a sudden I felt nervous and vulnerable. This wasn't my domain, in my whole six years of being in this place I've never heard a word be spoken of this kind of thing. The professors don't have a clue, it's utterly genius. "Luna? What th-"
Lovegood danced passed gracefully twirling with a pair of fairy wings enchanted to her back, it seems like she had transformed or manipulated some sort of bag pack and was the last person I'd of expected to be at a banned gathering. "Hello Malfoy," she said sweetly before spinning again. "Do you like water-wine? It tastes like water but makes you tipsy like wine its so wonderfuuul!"
Luna Lovegood... tipsy. Wow. "Er- yeah. I suppose."
"You can get some over there beside the stack of chests, if you can't find it then that means the Nargles got there first but I tend to only really find them inside shoes most of the time."
Sorry, what? It would be impossible for anyone to hold any ill will against Lovegood but by fuckery I have zero clue of what she's talking about literally all the time.
My eyes searched for y/n in the crowd as I walked around what I could only describe this place as a secret chamber. Not quite as secret as the actual chamber of secrets. Plus this one is somehow on the top floor, but not quite, as if between floors which I'd like to say is impossible but weirder things have happened in this castle.
Most of the others here, around twenty of us in total seemed to mostly be from other year groups although nobody seemed younger than fifteen. The only people from my year I recognised were Lovegood and Finnegan, and if Finnegan is somewhere Dean Thomas is surely nearby. And of course, now y/n.
I'll have one drink to try this weird wine, just so I can know what it is and try and replicate a recipe or something. It's for my own personal gain. I'm getting intel, its not weird if it's for self service.
The water-wine was indeed where Luna had said it was, there was a collection of large glass bottles; old potion bottles in fact. And it did really just look like water, so I popped the cork and brought it to my lips wearily. It had to be a joke there's no way.
Yet almost immediately after swallowing a mouthful my stomach began to tingle and feel warm.
I was snatched from my thoughts by two hands pinching at my sides. "Boo!" Y/n teased before prying the bottle from my hands and taking an enormous mouthful. "See not so bad is it DrAcO MAlFoy? Better than lurking in the halls like a ghost."
Oh how those words would come back to bite us in the end.
The colourful dust had rested itself on the tips of her eyelashes and her nose. Y/n looked like a psychedelic pixie, and I fucking despised myself for finding her so fascinating so quickly. The energy that radiated from her was like nothing I'd ever come across before. She was pure, unfiltered electric.
The music switched to the next and immediately half of the voices in the room erupted in to song. Of course so did she, only this time she sounded semi-decent unlike the screech she hurled at me to get me here.
"Say you will, say you won't, say you'll do what I don't! Say it true, say to me, C'est La Vie!!!"
I loathe pop music. It's childish, cheap and utter nonsense at the best of times. Time to dip and get the fuck out of here. "Right I'm off, you've got what you wanted. Enjoy your weird party."
"Okay, bye then." She smiled with her eyes up at me, and over the bottle she was now drinking from again. It almost sounded like she was daring me to leave. It didn't take much to push back through the swaying bodies.
But I couldn't find the hatch, and I was positive that exactly here was where it was. Taking a 360 view, it was definitely here on the wall. When I turned back y/n was slouched against the cranky old chests giggling under her breath and watching me. She wiggled her fingers to wave and continued to sip at the water-wine.
Fucker.
"Where's the fucking hatch?!" I snapped as I stormed back toward her, calling everyone's attention over to us for a moment before they went back to doing their own thing. "No idea," y/n shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Suppose you can't leave now until someone figures out how to get it back."
"This isn't funny."
"No you're right... it's actually fucking hilarious."
"It's as if you're literally going out of your way to stress me out!"
"Yep," she nodded, taking another sip. "Well why?!"
I was half expecting a really stupid response like 'because I can.'
"To show you that whatever you were fretting and worrying about isn't worth spending your energy on. It doesn't need to take up so much of your mind, because I bet you haven't thought about it since we got here have you?"
Actually no, I hadn't. Doesn't mean that I shouldn't of though, but it's not like I can argue the toss and say well actually I'm just worried I'm going to be murdered if I don't help some other murderers commit their murder.
"Unlike some, aka you. I actually have shit to fucking worry about but I don't expect an annoying little day dreamer princess like you to understand. The worst you have to contend with is choosing which teddy to sleep with at night."
Her brow arched, but her posture never shifted; even as I leered over her trying my best to look intimidating. "My feelings are so hurt how could you?!"
Impressed with myself I took a step back, but she just lifted the bottle to drink and stare at me before huffing and dropping her shoulders. "That was genuinely the worst insult I've ever heard, and even if your heart was in it which it wasn't.. it still wouldn't of offended me. Try again, but this time ramp it up and diss on my dead relatives or body shame me or something."
I was speechless, and that had literally never happened to me before; least of all whilst insulting somebody. It just wasn't working on her. So she held out the bottle again. "Stop being a fucking pussy and live. It's either that or go and cry wank yourself to sleep. I know which one I'd rather and who knows maybe you'll have enough time at the end of the night to do both."
"What part of I don't want to be here aren't you understanding?!"
"The part where you've been mindlessly holding my hand instead of taking the bottle from it for the last three minutes."
Her hands are pretty soft, and her skin feels warm from the foggy air collecting in the small space. And-
I tugged it away and threw my head back, swigging away at the liquid like I was never going to get a drop of water again in my life. If this is how she wants it then game fucking on, I'm not an uptight person and I'm going to prove it if she wants it so badly.
By the time I had drunk enough to make my throat sore she had weaved in amongst the bodies and began to dance. Y/n swayed her hips with closed eyes, just drowning in the music as she glowed bright pink and blue; her hand trailing from her hair, around her throat and down her chest.
It was like watching the northern lights in slow-motion, it left me feeling homesick for a place I've never been to. The fact I had started to feel pretty good from the liquor wasn't helping either. My shoulders loosened from their tensed position as they relaxed and the music didn't sound so irritating anymore. The legal poison flooded my veins, a creeping fuzz trickling throughout my body.
So when she motioned me to her space with a finger I found myself moving toward her without even thinking about it, arriving right in the middle of everybody. Her left arm came up to rest around the back of my neck whilst her right pressed a strange, small looking dot of paper on to her tongue.
Likely ecstasy, and when she held one to my mouth I simply showed out my tongue for her to gently place on the surface before it dissolved in to my taste buds. It was bitter, and I'd done it once before so I knew damn well this was it now for me. I was here for the whole journey.
The high came quickly, causing the neon lights to appear brighter and deeper. Fabrics felt like marshmallow and I experienced the music deep inside of my body as if I was one with it.
Her ribcage shivered between my palms as she lost herself in her trance and moved freely like wind itself up against my body.
And then, I go blank. Everything else from that point on remains a hazy blur, just time lost never to be seen or remembered again.
That was the first night I met y/n, and knowing what I know now.. I'd of begged to have been there because it was amazing, and I was too stubborn at the time to admit it.