i'm on top of the world

“Narcissa’s fine,” said Lucius, mouth twisting up into a strange sort of smile - the kind that said he really didn’t want to smile, but found himself doing so anyways. It was just Evan, anyways. He didn’t feel the need to be that detached alpha male with his wife’s cousin. “Marriage is, well, fine. Better than I thought it’d be.” He swirled his drink, staring into the deep red. For a second, he felt like a fidgeting schoolboy. “Have you got any plans to settle down, then? Or are you planning on staying single?”

“I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one here this evening that isn’t a fan.” Ilona nodded in agreement. Sure, she wasn’t a fan of any Quidditch team, or the sport at all for that matter, but it was nice to be talking to someone who wasn’t cooing over the Puddlemere players. 

“So tell me, in your observations, have you found anything worth noting? Perhaps we could trade notes on what we’ve seen.”

“Of course,” Marlene shrugged as if this should have been obvious. She thought it might be, considering she was at the party at all. Although, she knew would have never turned down any event that combined quidditch and booze. It could have been a party thrown by the Banchory Bangers after their next lost and, while not exactly honoured by an invite, she still would have made an appearance. “I would’ve loved to see the Arrows make it past semi-finals, though. Now, how anyone could actually prefer the Wasps,” Marlene shook her head, “that’s beyond me.”

Dorcas’ smile faltered for a moment as his tone turned sour, though was not about to start a pointless argument in the middle of the party. She took a longer sip of her drink, choosing to ignore his comment and silently agree to disagree. “Well a little competition isn’t a bad thing.” She said raising her eyebrow slightly as he paused. “Were you Captain? You seem like you would be.” She told him as she smiled slightly back up at him. 

“Cheers to that!” Bellatrix said with a grin, raising her glass and taking a long drink from it. She knew this man; he was only two years her inferior, and they often had dealings with one another for the Dark Lord’s purposes. It was liberating to see that he shared her philosophy on life. When Evan mentioned the Minister, Bellatrix cackled. “In my opinion, where the Minister is involved we are always on official business,” she said with an evil wink. “Is he here?”

“No, no.” Lucius gave a dismissive wave of his hand, barely glancing around the venue. “Narcissa came with me, of course.” It was one of the best things about being married - Lucius never had to suffer the indignity of attending a party by himself, and certainly never worried about his partner looking less than perfect. “And you?”

“I suppose.” Doe shrugged slightly and took another sip of her drink before she continued, “I could never get into it. It’s definitely the heights. Maybe if it were closer to the ground it’d be much more fun. Oh, you know, like soccer…same thing practically but just played on the ground.” Dorcas said with a small laugh.

“Then again, I’ve never been very good at sports in general, so I probably wouldn’t like that either.” Doe continued to ramble for the next few minutes about her lack of athleticism and how she was much more into reading. “Oh…” She said, finally realizing how long she had been talking, “I’m probably boring you to death with my whole lifes story. Were you much of an athlete?” 

“I like the Harpies, myself,” Lily replied,  sure that the man wasn’t even looking for an answer. He looked vaguely familiar, but Lily wasn’t sure if they’d ever actually met before. Truthfully, Lily had come to see her friends, and to have a little fun- James was the one living on a high with Puddlemere’s win. “My husband is a Puddlemere fan,” she said, this time sure that he was indeed looking for a response, as she gestured towards the crowd. “He’s in there, somewhere,” she added, laughing. “I’m sorry, you look so familiar… Have we met before?”

“It doesn’t particularly matter to me,” said Lucius. He patted his pockets, grinning loudly. Galleons clinked loudly under his hands. “A profit is a profit.” Lucius never had a preference for teams - he gravitated to winners, and never stuck to a single Quidditch team. “Did you make any bets, then?”

“I’m not even that big of a Quidditch fan,” Dorcas hummed as she sipped at her drink, scanning the crowd of people once more as they cheered and danced in the streets. “There are way too many rules to even try to understand and climbing up all those stairs and sitting that high up to even see the match, definitely not my thing. Even so, I’d never miss an opportunity to party”

“A party is what everyone needs right now, you know? With all of this negativity and violence in the world, it’s nice to just forget about it all for one night and have a good time.” It may not have been what everyone needed, but it was definitely what she needed. She needed to forget everything going on, even for just one night. Forget about her parents, forget about work, forget about all of those horrid newspaper articles she read everyday, just forget it all. 

“Playing the game is far more entertaining than watching it,” Evan stated. He had played whilst at Hogwarts and had loved every second of it; the thrill, the adrenaline, the competition. Watching just got him frustrated and irritable now so, he tried to avoid going to matches where possible. As Dorcas continued her point, Evan’s gaze dropped for a moment. It was him and his people that she was referring to, and it felt oddly strange to have to stated so simply to him. He was the negativity, he was the violence.

“No, I don’t have time for this nonsense, I just came for a fun night,” Bellatrix said with a shameless smile. “So I guess that means neither of us really belong here, but that we’ll enjoy it more than those other fools. Lucky us! That’s the best kind.” Admittedly, she had had several drinks already, but she maintained that what she said was an honest truth–she fully intended to have a night full of disorder, spontaneity, madness. She felt like it had been so long since she’d done something crazy just because; and, though she believed in her cause, the war had been deviating her attention and energy  to creating a very serious, very specific chaos and she missed the liberty of choosing the chaos.

Dorcas smiled at Evan as she watched him pour the whiskey, “There are perfectly good cups right there. Someone might think you’re trying to steal all the liquor” She joked, “They make these flasks now a days that can hold entire bottles of whiskey…or vodka, or well whatever you’d want to put in there. Orange juice even.” Doe rambled, the effects of the few drinks she had already starting to take control. She rambled sober, but she rambled twenty times more tipsy. 

Doe shrugged a little as she scanned the crowd of people, “Well, I guess, technically.” She sipped at her drink before looking back at Evan. “My friends are supposed to be around here somewhere, and I was supposed to be looking for them. But you see, I couldn’t find any of them and the music was really good.” 

His hand paused for a moment, wondering if he ought to put the bottle down but the thought passed quickly. “It’s here to take so, I thought I’d take my fair share,” Evan replied, smirking as he finished topping himself up. Corking the bottle and screwing the flask shut, he turned to face the young witch. “I think I want to get my hands on one of those flasks; they sound really handy,” Evan teased.