Hanging In the Kitchen

Renny rushed into the strange house, calling, "Piper?! Piper!" She sighed and hugged herself, feeling rather exposed. She had wanted to take Piper out to the movies or something before she ran off. And this is where Piper had led her. A night that had been meant to be a girl's night out had just taken a turn for the worse.

At the dark movies, her outfit was innocent enough, but here it was attracting a lot of unwanted attention. Suddenly a boy from her year walked up, smiling. "Hi, Barney. Have you seen my sister?" He shook his head. "No, you look stressed out though. Here, have some of this potion, it's great for calming you down, really."

She nodded and took a swig. She coughed and said, "That's really pungent!" she said, flattening her hands over her ears and calling over the music. "Keep drinking," he said. "It'll help!" She nodded, chewing on her lip and walking further into the kitchen, drinking more of the terrible 'potion' feeling more and more relaxed. She gingerly grabbed a handful of chips from a bowl and ate some. They were terrible salty... She washed them down with more potion.

Larko skidded to the curb in the only available spot on the block. Dismounting his motorcycle in his denim jeans, tee-shirt and leather biker jacket, the outside people seemed surprise when he took his motorcycle helmet off. These were all people from Hogwarts, and most of them knew him well enough not to expect him to come to a party. Setting the helmet onto his bike, he pulled his wand out and waved it, setting an anti-theft charm on it before entering the party after some punk-looking, blond, spiky haired guy he recognized but couldn't place the name.

There were a bunch of drinking idiots, and he had to repress a shudder. Alcohol really disgusted him, and brought back painful memories. It had never once been "happy juice" for him.

He rubbed a spot that had a ghost ache, as he liked to think of it. More of a memory of the beatings.

He grabbed a soda and sat down in a chair in the kitchen, not looking at anyone. "Why am I even here?" he murmured. Oh yeah...I'm here because all these other people are here. Maybe I'll find some friends to hang out with. And then I can mug the drunk teens. With a self-satisfied smile that he would make a positive influence on the world, he leaned back and jammed to an mp3 player that was playing rock music.

Then he saw some some scumbag giving a drug or drink of some kind and told her to keep drinking it. Immediately he shut off his mp3 and took the headset out of his ears.

"Hey," he told the guy, who looked up frightened.

"Lay off!"

"No, you lay off. What is this shit anyway? Miss, this guy, I'm assuming, is trying to seduce you through drugs," he told her.


OOC: I'm assuming this is something of how you wanted it to play out?

Renny turned, backing away as a boy suddenly tried to start a fight. He said she had been drugged and she shook her head, saying, "N-no, it's not drugged. It's a potion. It's making me feel a lot better, really-" she raised the drink to her lips and tasted it again, swallowing more and more as it relaxed her and took the edge out of her sharp, tactical mind.

Barney walked towards the other boy and hissed, "It's just some Vodka, mate. I know her, she's a 'friend' of mine. I'm not trying to bed her, I'm trying to get her to relax a bit, otherwise she'd call the Aurors on this whole party."

Renny did not care that Barney had just called her a prude basically, and made her seem like an insufferable goody two shoes. What she did care about was the one word she had caught that stood out the most to her. She looked down at the cup, blue eyes wide. "Vodka?" she said in a faint voice. Her hand trembled and she dropped the cup- unfortunately, she had finished most of the drink off and only a little bit trickled out of the cup.

She needed something to wash it down with. She grabbed a nearby full cup and swallowed a mouthful. More bitter liquid. She dropped the cup in the sink and shook her head. "I'm terrible."

Larko immediately grabbed some water and handed it to her, scowling at the guy.

"Piss off," he told him. "You gave her alcohol when she clearly didn't want any. Come on, friend. Let's get you a seat and see if we can't sober you up a little. I'm telling you, this guys trouble. I'd hurt him if I hadn't signed that stupid form saying that I wouldn't damage the place. I'm Larko."

He turned away from Barney pointedly, looking at the girl and holding out his hand. "Do you even know this clown? I completely sympathize with you."

Then he rounded on Barney. "I don't suggest you pass out, asshole. You might end up naked with another man."

Renny hiccuped and looked at this new boy. "Friend? I don't know who you are- you're Gryffindor, huh, aren't you?" She had clearly already gotten tipsy already. She was wrong about not knowing him- she knew everyone at Hogwarts- but she was right about questioning him as a friend. She might vaguely know him, but he was more of a stranger than Barney.

"I-I-I.." She stuttered, squinting as she tried to figure out what she was trying to say. He had said he wanted to leave that room. She shook her head. "I'm hungry.. and I have to be here, in case my sister shows up." She sipped some water and winced, her hand going up to her head. "Cold," she said in a small voice.

He held out his hand out and Renny reached out to squeeze it. "Who, Barney? Uh huh, he's my friend. Apparently, he's a bad friend, but I suppose he was trying to be nice. Didn't work, but.." She shrugged and reached out to get more chips.

At Larko's words, Barney muttered, "You'd like that," before hurrying off. Renny giggled and then pressed a hand against her mouth. That had been mean.. Funny.. but mean. "Bye bye Barney," she muttered, even though he could not hear her. "I'm Renny," she announced to Larko.

Larko rolled his eyes and resisted the urged to roundhouse kick Barney. He wasn't worth getting arrested for. "Alright, I understand," he told her, pulling two chairs up and easing her down into one. "Just drink as much water as you can. I don't know any of the spells to get rid of this kind of thing, so we'll just have to go with it. Who's your sister? I can watch out for her if you want."

He leaned back and took a chip.

"Mmm, not bad. It is a good idea to put something in your stomach," he advised.

Renny did not want to drink this water. It hurt her head; somehow she got it into her head that if she continued drinking the alcohol.. maybe her head would get used to it and stop feeling so funny. But the thought of being purposely bad was positively dreadful. Instead, she allowed herself to be sat in a chair and she cradled the water, picking up a bag of pretzels.

She nibbled on one and then answered him, "Piper. She's why I'm here. I just need to make sure she gets home alright." She teared up and then wiped her eyes- why was she being so emotional?! Piper would be fine, she always was. She sighed and ate another pretzel. "I just have to wait."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure both of you get home okay," Larko promised her with a reassuring smile. "I'll even make sure nothing bad happens to you here. That stuff is really terrible."

He wrinkled his nose and pointed at the cup of vodka. "Me, personally- I don't drink. I'm not exactly what you'd call responsible, though. Everyone always says there would be two sober people at a club. Me and the designated driver, because no one would trust me with a car!"

He was babbling now. This was something he wished he could help but, well, he wasn't exactly used to talking to people. Let alone people of the female gender.

"I'm sorry you have to be here at all. I really am. I'm just here to protect as many people as I can."

Trowa had been lingering upstairs, his left hand rested high on the wall above the blonde head of the girl he was chatting up. With his beer in hand it was clear where he was getting his confidence from but he was far from drunk and certainly far from sober. He still had his head screwed on right though and when Barney stormed upstairs incensed, Trowa immediately called out to him. Barney glanced around and Trowa smirked before calling his name again, a more sing-song lilt to his voice this time. Barney’s eyes finally found Trowa and he sidled over, his gaze finding the pretty little blonde quicker than Trowa had. Smirking, the Ravenclaw leaned over and grabbed another beer off of the side. He popped the cap off with the bottle opener he had on his keys and thrust it into the waiting hands of Barney who, much to Trowa’s dismay, was having trying his hand on the blonde.

“So where did you come from?” Trowa asked, clinking his bottle against Barney’s. “Surely you don’t have trouble pulling,” Trowa joked. Barney made a face but smiled nonetheless.

“I was trying to get Renny to lighten up,” He explained, his fingers coming to play idly with the curls that sat on the blonde’s chest. She smiled and gave a little squeal of appreciation. At this, Trowa couldn’t help but smirk. “Some guy decided he wanted to play Prince Charming though. He’s trying to sober her up down there.” Barney made a face. “In my defence...it’s better off her being pissed rather than sober. Could you imagine what she’d do when this place dissolved into a massive orgy?”

“What’s an orgy?” The blonde purred breathily, pushing herself into Barney who, appropriately, blanched. “Do you think,” she gave a little giggle, “you could show me?” Barney’s arm wound around her waist and a slow smirk spread onto his lips. Trowa chuckled and Barney looked over the blonde’s head at Trowa.

“Feel like a ménage à trois, Trowa?” Barney joked with a wide grin.

Trowa laughed, “I’ll find you later mate – though, I think the blonde has friends. Have fun with them won’t you?”

So Trowa left poor Barney to have the time of his life with the blonde and her friends and decided it best to go and check on Renny and her recently acquired Prince Charming. Taking a swig of his beer, Trowa weaved through the people, only stopping to greet someone or wish someone luck with their ménage à trois, quatre or cinq. He finished up his beer just before he got into the kitchen and grabbed another before opening the door and letting free a half naked couple who needed to find a bedroom or a place to shag before they did so in front of Renny. Trowa smiled and stepped away to let them pass and watched them go with a smirk on his face. He laughed a little and jumped into the kitchen, deciding to forgo the steps down. He landed easily and found Renny more or less immediately – and the guy who he assumed was playing ‘Prince Charming’.

Trowa sidled over, grabbing another beer from the table, and came up behind Renny. He draped himself over her and brought his lips to her cheek, kissing her three times before dangling the beer in front of her face.

“How are you, beautiful?” He asked with a wide grin on his face. Trowa glanced over at Prince Charming and nodded before leaning over and putting the beers on the table. “Now do tell...what’s this about you drinking? I like the sound of it to be honest though I don’t suggest you drink Vodka. Stick to beer, darling...you’ll last longer. Now...can I steal you from Prince Charming and get you blind drunk? I promise I won’t let you get into a ménage à trois...unless of course it’s your decision.” Trowa snickered a little. “Let go of your inhibitions, baby, just go with it. Barney has gotten incredibly lucky and I envy him. Though...I reckon I’d rather get drunk with you than end up stark naked wrapped around some random in the morning. So...to drink or not to drink? You can’t sit around and wait for Piper forever, Ren. She’ll live. It’s time for you to start living your life.”

Renny stared at Larko, her eyebrows scrunched together and hiccuped again, saying "Who are you?" as though still rather confused. He was acting like he was some sort of super hero or something, rather than a boy who happened to point out she was drinking and had caused a a scene. Renny was staring at him when she suddenly felt arms wrap around her and someone kiss her cheek multiple times.

Her eyes widened and she turned, a small gasp passing her lips as she tried t figure out who had caught her. "Who- Oh! Trowa!" She was so relieved to see someone she really trusted, she giggled and reached her hands back to circle his neck, giggling slightly. "I'm fine.. Just ach-y. I made a new.. friend? And Barney is trying to get me drunk." She pushed out her bottom lip.

As he continued on, it became apparent that was his plan to. Her eyes widened and her arms dropped into her lap, before slipping around her own waist. "What?" she repeated, but as he spoke, she felt herself wanting more and more to do what he said. He was right- she was already getting drunk and it would at least be safer to continue getting drunk with him, than to wait here while she sobered and possibly get duped again. Besides, her instincts were telling her the more she drank, the less it would hurt.

She looked up at him, blinking, and then slowly reached out for the beer. It was already open so she lifted it and brought it to her lips. The taste was not as terrible as the Vodka, and she did feel some relief to her head. She nodded, saying, "Okay, Trowa. You win. Just don't let me get into trouble."