CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH THE PARTY
IS IN FULL SWING

. . .

It was sufficient to say that Rosie Rosmerta had never hated her mother more. Yes, she was absent, and certainly the cooping up of her in the house hadn't helped, the numerous punishments, the shipping-off to her aunt's at less than a moments notice - but she had never hated her mother more than in that very moment, because she had found out everything that she had been missing.

How could she have been missing this? Why would her mother do this to her? How could she have stopped her from experiencing this, from learning here, from enjoying life at Hogwarts? Why would she does this?

And Rosie looked down over the party ongoing in the common room below her from a windowsill. She had stolen a bottle of Vodka with only about half a cupful left in the bottom from the table and climbed up there with a cup she had already poured measures of pineapple, cranberry and orange juice into the bottom to meld together some kind of cocktail, legs swinging over the faded red wallpaper below her.

James was in the midst of his glory, smiling as he and Sirius devolved into a loud, out-of-tune recreation of ABBA's best bits, stood on the coffee table and the couch and passing a bottle of Firewhiskey between them to be used like a Muggle microphone. She had been there just minutes ago, spotting the windowsill from afar and feeling the overwhelming emotion that was the drunken sadness many were plagued with at times and slipping away with a kiss to James's cheek as he barely skipped a note.

Peter was chatting to a couple of Hufflepuff girls, who looked either high or in the midst of drunken oblivion and seemed to be convincing him to join them in their precarious states. Remus had taken up a spot on the outside of the party, and seemed to be fending off some of the younger years who looked like they were trying to buy... or attempt to bum a cigarette off of him.

He shook his head, waving them away. Finally, when they had stopped pestering him, he reached into pocket and out emerged a squashed cardboard deck. He selected one still in tact and lit it, eyes scanning the room. His gaze found hers and he began to weave his way through the crowds of dancing, mingling students of all houses other than that of green. Eventually he made it, his height allowing him to dodge and swerve around any obstacles, before following her path up to the windowsill; a back of a sofa, a cabinet and a hand on the top of a bookshelf to push himself up, and soon he was sat beside her.

"You okay, Rosie?" He asked, words a little thicker than usually and slightly obscured by the cigarette between his lips.

"Yeah... yeah, fine." She nodded. "Just in need of some fresh air, and seeing as I don't go here, well, I didn't want to go off exploring and accidentally break into some first year's dorm and scare them half to death."

He looked over at her for a moment, almost like he was examining her. "I know, it can all be a lot." He took another drag of the cigarette before offering her it. "It's not James, is it? He can be a bit... full on sometimes, when it comes to things, and you seem to be similar but I wanted to check either way."

"No, no, it's not James. But thank you." She smiled, taking it from it and taking a drag, blowing the smoke out the gap in the window behind it. It swirled into the night, taken away by the cool breeze. "No, I like James, a lot really. I just... I don't know. It's a lot all at once."

"James?"

"No, just everything. My mum home-schooled me, obviously... and as much as I'm enjoying this party it's just a reminder of everything I missed out on." She shrugged. "I think, what I'm trying to say, is that I'm just a little pissed off." She blew out smoke. "I'm just pissed off."

"And that's why you're here, inadvertently." Remus shrugged, gesturing for his cigarette back, and she took another drag before passing it back. "What? I notice things... I'm supposed to notice things, so I do."

"Fine, yeah, you're right. So what do you suggest I do?" She asked, tipping more vodka into her drink.

"Have some fun with it. Go find your new friends-with-benefits and have fun."

Her eyes widened. "How do you know about that already?"

"James was bragging about it for five minutes before ABBA came on. Of course, then I couldn't get another word out of him, but I didn't need to." Remus smiled. "He seems very happy with this arrangement, you'll be glad to know. And he's looking for you, how's your chance."

With that, Remus all but pushed her off the windowsill she had been sat on, back into the throng of people below.

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