• Serena Black •

" Truth is like alcohol
hard to swallow
and best served cold."

Serena would have liked to cancel her acceptance to the sixth years' party. Her mood hadn't been particularly good over the last few weeks anyway and, thanks to Umbridge, it had now hit rock bottom. But maybe a little distraction with her friends would do her good and make her forget her worries for a moment. Perhaps that was exactly what she needed.

Sighing, she trotted after her friends who, unlike her, could hardly wait to finally get to the empty classroom where the whole spectacle was to take place. On the other hand, she could have remembered a thousand things she would rather have done. This included simply lying down in her four-poster bed and staring up at the ceiling. If she did it long enough, she might even be able to see stars, like in the Ravenclaw dormitories. However, in order not to spoil the others' mood, she forced herself to smile now and again, but it didn't reach her eyes.

The corridor in the basement lay quietly and inconspicuously before them, but the four of them knew better and indeed, a short time later, the door to one of the rooms was pushed open. Serena didn't know the room and assumed that it was one of the former classrooms. From the outside, no one would have expected a loud party to be raging just a few metres away. But that was probably the point.

Blaise Zabini waved a bottle of firewhiskey in front of her and waved her in happily, "Come in, ladies."

He left Hailey and Serena grinning stupidly before blocking the way in front of Nate and Ron. "Nope, password first."

"Don't be ridiculous, Zabini." Serena rolled her eyes and pushed the drunk Slytherin aside. He staggered for a moment and then disappeared into the dancing crowd. To say he was drunk was probably the understatement of the century. His eyes were glazed over and he had apparently long forgotten what had happened or that he had apparently been the bouncer.

The year above her had indeed done a great job and the party was already in full swing. Serena had been prepared for many things, but not for what now lay ahead of her. She had already witnessed the Gryffindor parties at the Quidditch Cup or other celebrations, or the one time at the lake that had been hosted by the Slytherins and Ravenclaws. Food had been pilfered from the kitchen and the odd bottle of alcohol while hymns and songs were belted out.

The sixth years' party, on the other hand, seemed to be in a completely different league. At the head of the room was a long table, teeming with high-proof alcohol, and there seemed to be quite a few people on the dance floor who had already had a taste.

Not even half an hour had passed when Serena found herself sitting on an improvised couch between Katie Bell and an older Hufflepuff. She seemed to be the only one who was getting increasingly bored. Hailey and Ron had tucked themselves away in one of the corners and seemed to prefer to keep to themselves. Nate and Timothy Barnes were also involved in a conversation that Serena had no idea what it was about.

She could even spot Harry, who had apparently been invited by Cho, with whom he was no longer at war. He was laughing and looking like he was happy for what felt like the first time this year, while she herself was sitting on the couch like a bored wretch. Good for Harry.

"You could at least pretend you're having fun."

Serena was startled when she heard the deep voice in her ear and a glass of golden liquid was held out to her from behind. Indecisively, she looked back and forth between the whiskey and Hall, who was hanging over the back of the couch and looking at her expectantly. "Well, actually, I didn't want to..."

"Trust me, you look like you need it," he grinned, pushing himself off the sofa. "But wait a minute, Black. I think I know better than that."

Serena raised an eyebrow as the Slytherin disappeared for a moment and returned shortly afterwards with a goblet, which he pressed into her hand. "It's pumpkin juice."

Carefully, she tried a sip and promptly realised that it certainly wasn't juice. At least not just. Her face contorted, she coughed briefly and scowled at him.

"With rum in it."

"Idiot," Serena returned, rolling her eyes, but still couldn't resist continuing to sip the drink. Maybe it was the alcohol that made her feel better, but maybe it was the company she had needed.

"If you keep this up, it won't be long before it ends like last time," Hall returned with a grin and leant forwards towards her. "But this time Daddy won't be there to protect you from yourself."

Perhaps it was the mention of her father that prompted her to finally empty the entire cup. She didn't want to be reminded and the alcohol seemed to help her forget for a moment what she had done. Or had it been Harry? The truth seemed to merge with the lie she kept telling, so that she could no longer tell the two apart.

"Shall I get you anything else?" the Slytherin asked, pointing to the now empty glass in her hand. Before Serena could even think of a reply, however, he had already disappeared and returned with a full bottle of firewhiskey, which he sat down in the vacated seat next to her.

"I hate this stuff, it burns," she complained, but allowed her cup to be refilled. Hall almost choked on his grin. "Well, it's not called firewhiskey for nothing, is it?"

The Gryffindor stared indecisively at the pretty golden liquid. Something told her that this was the perfect evening for alcohol, even if she would probably regret it for the rest of her life the next day. But the evening was still young and so was she.

Hall watched her closely as she put the cup to her lips and took a big gulp. It was disgusting how the whiskey flowed down her throat, leaving a harsh and burning flavour. But numbing the part of her brain that allowed her to make rational decisions felt almost like a release.

Wasn't that exactly what her father did? Drinking to be carefree for a moment. Like father, like daughter. Once again her cup was empty and Hall had obviously drunk quite a bit too, because he grinned even more stupidly than usual as he tried to sell her pumpkin juice with rum again.

Serena's entire head now felt pleasantly numb, as if it had been stuffed with cotton wool. She only half noticed when Zabini staggered over and sat down on the back of the sofa next to his friend, "You got Black drunk again?" he slurred, his glassy gaze fixed on her without really looking at her, "Then don't complain again tomorrow when you throw yourself at him."

"I'm not drunk," she contradicted defiantly and felt her surroundings begin to spin at the same moment. But her previous interlocutor had long since turned away again and seemed to have the attention span of a goldfish in this state, "Daphne's dumped me again."

"Try again, Blaise," he was encouraged by Hall, leaving Serena to shake her head at his advice. The longer she listened, the more she believed that the Slytherin himself had no idea what he was talking about, "If you keep bugging her, she'll have to say yes eventually."

"You're stupid," she said, watching as Zabini seemed to have made it his mission to actually put his stupid tips into practice. She wondered whether it was normal for them to swap girls with each other. She wouldn't put it past either of them.

"At least you're not spoiling everyone's mood now," Hall replied and opened the bottle again enthusiastically. "More whiskey?"

Serena promptly began to regret the recharge, as her surroundings seemed to blur and made it difficult for her to focus on one thing. The alcohol was slowly going to her head, but there was no end in sight. Her thoughts and memories became fuzzier and fuzzier until they were nothing more than a dark grey cloud that had settled somewhere in her head.

"Are you coming with my friends or would you rather sit here sadly by yourself?" the Slytherin finally asked, gesturing to a group of his housemates sitting behind the dance floor. Sober, she would probably have declined the offer, but her drunken self didn't seem to think it was such a bad idea, so she agreed and allowed herself to be pushed across the room.

Not much time had passed before Serena let out the first giggle of the evening, which inexplicably turned into a loud laugh. She didn't even know what she found so funny. Perhaps it was the fact that Blaise Zabini now had a large red stain on his shirt, which had probably been caused by his friend's bad tips. Perhaps it was the realisation that Theodore Nott was incredibly funny or Hall's hand on her thigh, which strangely didn't seem to bother her at all. But perhaps she was also laughing at herself for having misjudged the Slytherins so much, at least some of them, and that they were actually quite nice, or at least could be from time to time.

At the same moment, the Gryffindor realised that she had unconsciously started laughing and earned herself a quizzical look from Malfoy, who surprisingly hadn't made fun of anything since she had been sitting in the circle. Serena quickly closed her mouth again and held her cool bottle of butterbeer to her hot cheeks. By now this drink was empty too, so she stood up, staggering, and stumbled over to the table with a refill.

The choice was vast and most of it was unfamiliar to Serena, but at that moment she was keen to experiment. A mixture of vodka and orange juice sounded promising before she noticed the pair of green eyes resting on her. "Made new friends?"

"Hmmm?" she looked up from the sea of bottles and straight into Harry's face, who didn't look too thrilled though, "I can't believe you can still hang out with him after what happened."

"I have no idea what you mean," Serena replied and had already turned back to her still empty cup, which was just waiting to be filled by her. But Harry hindered her plans by plucking the bottle from her hand, "If you hadn't told Hall outside Umbridge's office, the Ministry would never have found out about the secret stash."

"Give me that back," she grumbled, crossing her arms in front of her chest like a defiant little child, "I still don't know..."

"He's a Slytherin and he's from that stupid squad! Of course he ran straight to Umbridge, what were you thinking?" he interjected angrily, his eyes glaring angrily at her from behind his glasses, "He told on us."

Anger was now beginning to rise in Serena as well and it didn't help her condition that her tongue was loosened and ready to speak her mind, "No, this is all your fault! You could have just waited until the summer and now we can't even visit Dad in the holidays. I didn't say a single word to Hall about Grimmauld Place or what I was going to do. He didn't even know you were in it!"

After her last word was spoken, she staggered for a moment so that she had to hold on to the table. "You're drunk," Harry stated dryly and grabbed her arm, "Come on, I'll take you upstairs."

"No, I don't want to go," she replied firmly, taking a step back so that he let go of her and his hostile expression returned. "Better stick with your new friends, eh?"

"What if I did?" Serena returned defiantly and managed to grab the bottle he was still holding.

Harry looked at her, stunned. "Do you realise anything else? They definitely don't mean you any good and if you don't come with me now, Hall will probably rape you later or why do you think he bottled you?"

"Watch your mouth, Potter." The Slytherin in question had stood menacingly behind the bespectacled boy and had his other friends in tow. Meanwhile, Zabini had put an arm around Serena and joined in. "Yeah! Don't be so mean to Black!"

"Probably best if you leave now, Potter," Nott said simply, nodding towards the door. Serena could see Harry had his hands clenched into fists and was still looking at her, "Fine." he hissed and before she could call him back, he was gone.

"Potter just doesn't know when he's not wanted." Malfoy had also rejoined them and promptly cackled in response. But Serena had long since stopped feeling like laughing and slowly put the bottle back on the table. Her elation had ebbed away by now and instead, every single suppressed emotion seemed to resurface. Harry, her father, Umbridge, Maxon, all the things that had been on her mind lately, came back into her consciousness like an unwanted guest.

Only now did she realise how full the room actually was. It was getting fuller and tighter at the same time, as if it was going to explode at any moment, but maybe her eyes were just playing tricks on her.

Serena turned away and felt the anger slowly dissolve into despair and sadness. Alcohol suppressed feelings, but it also brought them out again and made them twice as powerful. Before she could stop it, tears were streaming down her flushed face and her body was wracked with sobs. The last few weeks hadn't exactly been a walk in the park for her and it was only now that she realised how much had piled up.

She was handed another cup, this time by Zabini, who scrutinised her briefly and just managed to hold on to Nott before he threatened to tip away. Serena sipped briefly at the drink, which again burned in her throat. The effect of the alcohol seemed to have changed and now she felt nothing but nausea rising up inside her. "I think I need some fresh air," she mumbled and hastily wiped her wet cheeks.

The hand that grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the stuffy room was surprisingly warm. Serena was only aware of her surroundings in blurred outlines and was glad that Hall was leading her out, because she probably wouldn't have been able to make it out on her own, swaying so suspiciously.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. The loud music was now ringing unpleasantly in her ears and the bass was piercing her through and through. It was only at that moment that she realised that Hall had probably not heard her quiet words and repeated them as they stepped into the quiet corridor. It still lay in front of them as if it couldn't hold back a drop of water and it was hard to believe that there was such a racket going on behind that wooden door.

In the dim light emanating from the torches, Serena could see the turquoise eyes scrutinising her for a moment. "Well, outside," the Slytherin replied and began to pull her behind him again. Only Serena knew that this was not the way out. Not even close, and if she wasn't mistaken, the effects of the alcohol seemed to have worn off on him. If they had done the same to her, she would probably have said something. But Serena still couldn't form a clear thought and so she remained silent.

As if in a dream, she heard Hall mumble a word and push her into the Slytherin common room. The green light that enveloped the entire room in its glow made Serena feel dizzy again. The fact that she had asked for fresh air seemed almost comical in this place. They were deep under the lake and it wouldn't even be possible to open a window without the room being flooded with cold water. A way out seemed completely impossible.

______________________

What do you think are Hall's intentions?