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second year,
valentine's day sadness
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tw: use of alcohol

As Valentine's day was a time for love, chocolates and flowers, for those who were in love this day were for them. However, for those alone on Valentine's day, it was particularly sad, especially those that had broken up, Aimee spent her day in the common, as she looked around the students she could tell who had plans and who didn't.

She sat reading Wuthering Heights, wanting to see if Andromeda's recommendation lived up to her expectations. Someone sat on the same sofa as she did, she flicked her eyes over, seeing Helene Zabini sat closely by her, she creased her brows, closing her book.

"Hi, big date night?" she asked

"Yes, is it that obvious," she chuckled

"Yeah kind of,"

"Do I look okay?" Aimee creased her brows she had never seen Helene be so concerned with how she looked especially when going out with a boy.

"Yeah, beautiful, is he someone special,"

"Yes, I like him a great deal, I can't believe he asked me to go for dinner, to be completely honest with you," she said, Aimee smiled at her, "does he talk about me?"

"Theo doesn't really talk about much, especially about girls, we all know he likes you," she told her, she smiled, Aimee spotted Theo come from the bedrooms, he was dressed very nicely, his hair styled, he walked over to the two girls.

"You smell nice, going somewhere fancy?" she questioned

"We're going out for dinner, my lady," Theo bowed offering his arm to her Helene linked her arm with his, "don't wait up,"

Within the hour, the common was empty, many had left for dates, even Evan had a date. Aimee heard girls chanting coming from the bedrooms, curious to know who it was she headed towards the bedrooms. She realised the noise was coming from Narcissa's room, she creased her brows walking towards the bedroom.

"To all the boys who fucked us over," she heard Narcissa say, her eyes widened she never heard Narcissa swear before.

"Who's at the door?" another girl said, prompting Narcissa to open the door.

"Aimee, come and join, seeing as Sirius broke up with you, I feel tonight is appropriate," Narcissa pulled her into the bedroom.

"This is my friend Rebekah Avery,"

"Bekah," she corrected, "it's nice to meet you,"

"What are you doing?" she asked as they had a mini controlled fire burning.

"Burning everything our ex-boyfriends gave us," Narcissa said, holding a box of their ex-boyfriend's gifts, "to cleanse ourselves of their existence,"

Aimee smiled, questioning how much she had to drink, as the was a bottle of wine on the bedside table. She looked through the box, a lot of love letters and clothes, even underwear laid in the box. Some of the gifts looked incredibly expensive.

"Even the jewellery?"

"Of course not, we're going to take them to be altered," Rebekah told her.

"What's next?" Narcissa said, looking through the box, "ah, Malfoy's many letters,"

"Good one, Nott's boxer shorts," Rebekah said, throwing them into the fire.

"Go on Aimee go and get something Sirius bought you," Narcissa urge "we'll wait for you,"

"Erm, never bought me anything,"

"That's scandalous," Rebekah exclaimed "not anything, no letter, or chocolates,"

"There's was a book, but he only got cause he felt bad for ruining my original copy,"

"No matter you can help us burn things," Rebekah said "we're also burning Helene's things too, she came up with this idea last year, but evidently she's too wrapped up with her Burke,"

"She looked so nervous before they went out," Narcissa and Rebekah's eyes widened "what?"

"What do you mean nervous?" Narcissa questioned

"You know asking if she looked okay, does he talk about her, that kind of thing,"

"Oh my god, our Zabini is growing up," Rebekah squealed, "now we must celebrate,"

"What's going on?" Aimee asked as Rebekah hurried around the room putting out the fire and pushing the box under the bed,

"Our girl Helene is in love," Narcissa said, sitting on the edge of her bed,

"How do you know?" Aimee sat in the middle of the bed

"Are you kidding number one, she never cares about what a boy thinks of her," Rebekah stated

"Or care how she is dressed, she never dresses to impress someone," Narcissa added she sighed "she's so lucky she has him," the two older girls looked down in the laps, each taking a drink straight from the bottle.

"Just us single ladies," Rebekah said, smiling at Narcissa and Aimee

"What do you say we go and ruin a few peoples day,"

"Yeah sounds great," Aimee said, standing up, "just give me a second," she raced out of the room, hurrying to Regulus' bedroom, praying that he was inside, she knocked on the door.

"What's the matter?"

"It's Narcissa she's a little drunk and I don't think she'd want to embarrass herself," he closed his door, following her to the common room where Narcissa and Rebekah were preparing to head outside. Regulus cringed, hurrying over to her.

"Hey, Cissy, you feeling alright?"

"Oh, my little Regulus," she smothered him in a tight hug, "I'm fine why don't you help your cousin out of the room,"

"I think you've had a little too much to drink, come on," he slung her arm over his shoulder,

"Where are you taking me," she mumbled hiccuping a little

"To bed, you need to rest,"

"Oh you're boring, I don't want to sleep,"

"You'll thank me later," they stumbled to her bedroom, Aimee hurried in front of them to open the door for him. The two cousins stumbled inside, he dropped Narcissa on the bed, he lifted her legs under the covers, as her head hit the pillow she relaxed a little.

"Oh, Regulus, whoever dates you will be the luckiest person in the world,"

"Sleep," he smiled at her as she closed her eyes, drifting quickly off to sleep, Aimee smiled at him.

"Is she going to be okay?" she whispered, he nodded

"Yeah, Narcissa's a strong woman, she'll be fine,"

"Did you get any valentine's gifts?" Aimee asked, wondering if anyone were interested in him.

"Just a flower, from your cousin, she's really sweet she gave a flower to everyone in our year so nobody would feel left out,"

"Really? How did Avery and Mulciber like the flowers,"

"They pretty much stomped on it, in front of her,"

"That terrible,"

"She wasn't upset, I think she expected it from them," she nodded, smiling it was still sweet of Dahlia to give everyone a flower for Valentine's day. "How are you anyway?"

"I'm fine, honestly I am, I'll admit it would have been nice to have been spoiled a little today, I still had fun, Narcissa's friend is really nice,"

"Yeah, Avery said he doesn't like her, a goody-two-shoes cousin he calls her, I like her though she reminds me of Andy a little bit,"

"Yeah, I can see that, oh goodness," she yawned, "I think I'm going to head to bed,"

"Yeah me too, goodnight Aims," he hugged her before they each left for their bedrooms.

What should have been a calm and relaxing day turned into a rescue mission. Aimee couldn't bear to let Narcissa walk out of the dormitory in the state of mind she was in. Things could have been a lot worse if she had run into Lucius. While in the moment she would have been fine, she knew Narcissa well enough to know she would have fully regretted her actions, the following morning.