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"Ow! Motherf—OW!" Phillip suddenly screeched, an octave higher than usual as he leaned over the ping-pong table with a completely gutted expression. "Blimey, mate! Jesus Bloody Christ" he exhaled deeply as he righted himself upwards and grabbed the closest open bottle, which given that all surfaces were well-stocked with both alcohol and refreshments for the pitiful no-alcohol spanners, wasn't such a terrible feat. He drunk what must've been at least a quarter of it and shoved in the hands of the closest passer-by. "Mate, I dun think ye really know your onions. The ball is supposed to go into the cup, not my crotch. That's why they call it beer pong and not hit-the-bloke-where-it-hurts-most pong" he whinged with a scowl.

He awkwardly fixed his pants and glared his pong opponent to death before picking up a ball from the basket. He took a deep breath and threw the ball, landing a perfect hit and doing a victory fist pump.  "Bob's your uncle! That's how ye do it, ye'll never see Phillip Kinsey throw a spanner in the works when it comes to pong" he said smug grin all over his face. "Come on now, sup up!" he gesticulated at his opponent to drink the cup. "I wanna give the beer pong table a viking pyre funeral at a bonfire on the Q pitch..." he mused with a dreamy expression on his face, a heartfelt smile as he clasped his hands over his chest.

He stepped off to let his teammate take over and turned around giving the room a cursory look with his hands on his hips. He was like a proud momma seeing her kids to their first day of school. This was going to be an epic one off and he hoped everyone would be completely plastered and in shambles by the end of the night. Also it would make for a very interesting Task tomorrow at the Tournament... Phillip would rather not think about that, actually. He was dead curious to see how the more muggle games would fare with the crowd. He focused his eyes on the poker table and the Monopoly table and grinned brightly as he palmed his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. "Oi! If the money stops flowing, the bank's taking clothes as well" he shouted with a shit-eating grin.

But most of all, he hoped some plonker would get hammered enough to make the talk of the school for the next half a year. "Alright, ye brill daft apoths—God bless y'all lovely people" he said amplifying his voice with his wand this time. "Me party, me rules. So... Challenge!" he said with a big grin, raising his eyebrows. "Keep a shot glass near ye and some strong booze—beer does not count! And for every word that comes out me chops that you sad posh English people can't understand, you take a shot. Ye 'avin it?" he asked still grinning, before returning his voice to normal and starting to air-guitar on Flogging Molly.

1.	Look at me I made a never-ending playlist for ze party!

Chloe was drunk. Slowly but surely, drunk. She had gotten there about a half an hour ago, and she immediately started to drink. Everyone else was doing it, what was the harm in it? She was dressed in a striped crop-top and a blue skirt. She was going to have a good night, no matter what. She had already given Phillip his present, as it was a journal to keep all the best Phillip-isms in. Someone needed to record that stuff. That stuff was pure gold.

Chloe stared down at the cards in her hand. "Sh--," She said, noticing her pair of threes among the other cards. "I don't know how to play poker." She announced. The other players laid out their hands, and Chloe put down her's. It was the losing hand, and she really didn't know how this game went, even if this was the second hand she lost. "What does that mean?" She asked.

Some other player smiled. He took a sip of his drink. "It means you lose your shirt, sweetie." He said. Chloe smiled, as she reached to pull the tight top off. She folded it neatly and put it on top of her shoes which she had lost last hand.

"Another round, anyone?" She asked, with a hiccup, as she took another sip of alcohol.

Somehow Katherine had gotten herself isolated from Chloe. They had arrived together and shortly after, they’d been separated. A still full cup of something (Katherine did not know what it was, and she definitely was not going to drink it) lingered in her slender fingers. At the first chance she got, she ditched the glass on a table somewhere, only to have it snatched back up by someone who obviously loved the stuff. Not that she minded, to each his own; but this wasn’t her sort of atmosphere.

She preferred red wine to whatever toxin was being doled out in the cups. And even when she had wine, she had never managed to finish a glass because she was too busy making nice with the other people at whatever party she was at. This – this did not qualify as a party. It was a raging wave of hormonal teenagers bumping and grinding and stripping. Where was the decency?

In the crowd she spotted her tipsy redhead, and made her way towards her friend. She avoided groping hands and offers to throw back a few drinks, cringing when people got too close to her. She was not built for this environment at all.

“Chloe,” she sighed when she noticed her friend tearing her shirt off. Oh dear lord, she was more drunk that Katherine had previously thought. Somebody’s wild ping-pong ball whizzed by her face, only to be accio-ed back to its owner. Her eyes followed the small ball back to a group of people bouncing the plastic spheres into cups filled with more of that wicked drink that was being passed around. Her eyes turned to Phillip as he amplified his voice, knitting her eyebrows together at the realization that he expected everybody to be participating in this wickedness.

Growling under her breath, Katherine returned to the task of reaching Chloe. There was no way on earth that she would be keeping some ‘strong booze’ in her hand all night long. The only reason she was here was to keep an eye on her friend, just to make sure she didn’t become the item of gossip everyone hoped to apparently become. She laid her hand on Chloe’s shoulder once she reached her and knelt down by her friend, her lips lowered next to Chloe’s ear. “Pick up your clothes and walk away from this table or I will cut you off,” she whispered hoarsely.

When one of the boys at the table made to protest at the intrusion, she cut them off with a death glare. She wasn’t having it.

"Beckett, dear bloody Christ" Phillip said in complete awe, having gotten close enough to the cards table to see what was going on round there. "Aren't you full o' surprises" he said approvingly, still in complete shock at her transformation. Damn, that dress was doing a number on half the blokes in the room.

"Wow, wow, wow" Phillip continued apprehensively, seeing she was going to be a complete twat and party-poop all over his rager. "Now, let's not get our knickers in a twist, shall we?" he looked down at the table and gave a very impressed nod at Harris' state of undress. "You go, girl! Don't let Beckett piss all over yer fun" he said with a shit-eating grin, leaning over her chair to look at everyone at the table with a deadly glare. "Now, you twats, none o' this until someone properly explains the game to the lady" he said seriously before genius stroke down.

"Better yet, Beckett, dear, why don't you join in?" he drawled with a charming smile. "I'm sure with those sharp Ravie brains of yours you could make every tosser at the table run home to mommy over their lost galleons, ey?" he raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "I noticed yer not drinking anything. There's a twenty year old Merlot, some wanker under-sold me before Christmas..." he mused, faking complete disinterest. "I've been saving it for a special occasion, but I can't possibly 'ave someone not 'aving a good time at me own party, now can I?"

The only sign that she'd had a bit too much was the faint tinge on her cheeks; otherwise, Mai didn't seem too different than normal. Well, other than her very different choice in attire and the fact that it was so revealing for her. This was a party, though- Phillip's party. Special circumstances demanded different clothes and she completely ignored (or stopped noticing with her inebriation) any odd looks her peers threw at her.

A cup of vodka and pop was her particular poison tonight (more heavily laced with vodka than pop, too) and she was already starting on her third cup;  she was currently lounging on a couch after dancing away her first and second cups, her legs having gone a bit weak for the first bit of her third. She had little doubt that it wouldn't be long before she was back on the dance floor (or maybe even hit the cards table if she felt like it). She hadn't spotted the birthday boy yet but was keen to keep an eye out for him; she had his gift, after all.

Katherine turned to greet the birthday boy with a little bit more chill than she had desired, but everything about this atmosphere was just such a turn-off, she couldn’t really be herself. “Kinsey,” she said with moderate disapproval at the way he was so completely judging her right now. She never should have come. She should have locked herself up in the Ravenclaw common room with a really good book and something productive to do.

Instead she’d come here. With the sole purpose of supervising Chloe.

And now Chloe was being pushed over her edge with Phillip’s stupid smile and his-oh-so-persuasive ways of complementing Chloe’s little act that she was putting on. In her too-tight, curve-hugging dress; it wouldn’t be appropriate to continue to judge Chlo, that’d be just too hypocritical for her taste. She shifted her weight, a hand on her hip as she gave Phillip a look that said really? You want the boring, stuck-up Ravenclaw playin’ your games? But she didn’t say it, instead she gave him a smile that would fool anyone inebriated enough to think she was actually being cheerful.

“I’ll find something to suit my tastes, there’s no need to worry,” she said sweetly. This place made her want to gag. At the challenge of joining in the game, she raised her own eyebrow as if she was thinking about accepting the suggestion to play. “Maybe in the next round I’ll consider joining up, I can’t rain on everyone’s parade at the same time.”

Figaro Sellaphix had lost his shirt somehow (surprising not at the poker table) and was wearing a favorite hat, and was moving around between all the little activity stations.  In on hand, a bottle of watermelon liquer that was more sugar and alcohol, and in the other a bottle of Weasley's Logorrhea he was trying desperately to dole out. (But it seemed that people had learned their lesson the last time - the recreational truth potion was more trouble than it was worth.)

After having bothered the kids at the twister mat, he headed over to drape one bare arm over the tall shoulders of Phlippy Kinsey, and the other over the shoulders of Miss Serious Kats Beckett.  With the bottles in his hands, they dangled round about their faces as he cheerfully said, "Hello, Mr. Kinsey and Kats.  Lovely evening.  Truth potion?"

Raine had spent a good deal of Kinsey's party laying down on one of the couches lining the wall, listening to the music with a straw sticking out between her teeth and somebody else's sunglasses drawn over a pair of tired, darkened eyes. Her legs stuck out over the couch arm and dangled listlessly.  Merlin's knickers, she wanted to go to bed.

Sleep had been a tricky thing to pin down recently; even so the Gryffindor wanted to be at the brawl soiree. It was Philip after all- he had come to her birthday gathering.

"Oi Almasy, move over! Yer takin' up the whole place." A brawny Slythie was mumbling as a group of the green-coats came stumbling over with sloshing plastic cups. Raine tipped her stolen sunglasses to give the bloke a good look before shrugging and sliding on to her feet.

Not worth it.

"All yours," she turned to walk away and swished a curtain of recently-bleached blonde in their faces. Perhaps it was time to find their host of honour before he descended into a bottle of something or other. He wasn't difficult to spot in all the muck and mayhem of drunken games.

Right there: squished together by Figaro, a bottle of Logghorea and a tolerable Ravenclaw.

"I'd rather they resorted to the vodka, Sellaphix~" Raine remarked in a dry voice as she approached them from behind. Fig wasn't completely horrid; their time together at the Tournament softened her opinions. "It isn't really a truth potion is it? A poor man's veritaserum.."

The witch plucked a bottle from the Hufflepuff's loose grip, raising a skeptical eyebrow at it.

"Raine!" 

Figaro released Kinsey and Kats at the sound of his former partner in the TetraWizard Tournament.  It was a startlingly cheerful greeting for two people who were not necessarily close nor chummy.  But with the music, libations and general feeling of good cheer, she was Fig's favorite person so far!  He threw his arms wide, his bare chest gleaming pale, and gave her a quick stumbling side-hug.

"Raine, you did a thing with your head! It's different!"  She'd dyed her hair blonde.  She didn't have the face of a blonde person, but it still seemed to work.  He guessed? He wasn't up to date on hair fashion.

But she had the Logorrhea and he beamed, gesturing that she take some.  He really wanted someone to take some with him.  It was so much fun.  And, no hangover. 

"It is!" he assured her emphatically.  "Takes like lemon-lime.  It totally works.  Want me to show you?"

As if Figaro needed even half an excuse to drink some watered down truth potion and become the center of attention.

A little too friendly, even for Figaro.

Raine narrowed her eyes in what might have been an unfriendly look but he was already jabbering about the Logorrhea- nicked  just as much from the birthday boy as from the Hufflepuff. Shrugging off her attempt to master an evil glare, she shoved off the bottle cap with her thumb.

"Lemon-lime?" the witch wrinkled her nose in anticipation as she tried to smell the 'beverage'. This was going to be a rather bad idea.

Worse than bad, stupid. Glancing up quickly at Katherine and then more pointedly at Philip, Raine lifted the bottle in a toasting gesture. Better stupid than sullen?

"One can't hurt," a feeble smile escaped. "Only if you throw one back as well, Sellaphix." Not a chance in Salazar's chamber she was doing this alone- she wasn't that stupid.

Figaro placed a hand over his heart.  "Hufflepuff's honor," he swore with a giant smile.  Raine Almasy - composed Gryffinwarrior getting lubed on Logorrhea? It was like Christmas.

"Kinsey!" he turned suddenly back to the birthday boy.  "Kate!" And the proper one.  "You've got to as well."

It might be a lost cause with those two, but he figured he'd try in the spirit of fun.  Figaro seemed to have the memory of a goldfish - last time he'd used the stuff, he'd pissed off his companions and got punched in the mouth.  Which hurts like hell.

Chloe tried to play through the next hand, but she was becoming quickly bored. "Okay," She announced with a slurred voice. "I'm all done here." Chloe stood up, trying to get her feet into her heels, and her shirt in hand. As she took her first few steps, Chloe stumbled, her heels rolling her ankles, as she grabbed on to the back of a chair to stabilize herself. Where was Katherine? Katherine knew how to walk in heels. She could teach Chloe. But Katherine was mad because Chloe was shirtless.

Her eyes settled on the brunette Ravenclaw, as she stumbled over to her friend, one heel on, and one in her hand. They just didn't fit on her feet anymore. What? That didn't make sense. It had to magic. Someone magically played with her shoes or something. Yes. That was Chloe's excuse. "Katherine!" Chloe said, a bubbly smile on her face as she approached her friend. "Hold this." She said, thrusting the one shoe, and the cup of some strange mixture of alcohol. She didn't know what the hell it even was. It was sweet though. And it made her feel warm and fuzzy inside.

As her friend held her things, Chloe attempted to wrestle on the shirt. "This got shrunk. Some how. I don't know. It's tight." She said, finally getting her head through the head hole. "Katherine, Katherine, look! It doesn't cover my stomach!" Chloe kept looking down at her pale stomach through the crop top. "Woah. That wasn't what it was like before, right?" She asked confused, before losing her train of thought, as she saw Fig.

"Fig! I missed you!" Chloe said, a bright smile on her face, and what she expected as a strong scent of alcohol on her breath, as she threw her arms around the blonde. "You." She said, with a poke to his chest. "You are trouble, Sellaphix." She said, with a hiccup, as she proceeded to throw herself at Phillip as well.

"And it's your birthday! Ah! Hugs for the birthday boy!" Chloe yelled, wrapping her arms around Phillip, and even planting a kiss on his cheek. Sober Chloe would have never done that. Ever. But a few drinks for this Chlo made for a very physical Chloe. She stumbled back with a smile, as she leaned up against Katherine, still in one heel. It was then that her eyes settled on Raine. "Raine! Your hair!" Chloe's jaw dropped. "You were a ginger. Yes. You and me. We were ginger sisters! But now you're blonde." Chloe put a hand to her mouth. "Should I be blonde now? Katherine, Katherine," She said, tapping her friend. "We should go dye hair!" She said with a smile.

Phillip merely raised an eyebrow at Beckett and let out a snort, "Well, then m'lady, suit yerself" he said to the rather Ann Twacky gal. Behind the Ravenclaw, if he skenned real hard, he could make out her housemate, and his face took a radiant grin as he waved his hands about to signal her attention. "Yo, Clark! Stop deaking 'round and come 'ere. I'll get ye sorted" he finished with a wag of his eyebrows making a gesture with his pinky and thumb, as if pouring something down his throat. If anyone could keep up with his leathering habits, it was Mai.

He turned quickly as he felt an arm 'round his shoulder and turned to see Fig. He snorted at his hat and shook his head violently in a awe, hell naw at the Logorrhea. "Mate, I'll make enough of an arse of meself without that, thank ye very much" he said seriously. "And 'sides it lack a certain percentage of alcohol for me tastes. But, hey knock yourself" he raised his arms, washing his hands of any possibly hazardous consequences the beverage could cause. He turned quicker than you could say Jack Robinson at hearing the voice of the one and only Raine Almasy, but his gleeful expression soon went to shite as he took her in. He stood there jaw hanging, as she and Fig exchanged some words and went about the Logorrhea, still not quite... What even? What the bloody hell?

"Almasy... what the actual fuck" he finally exclaimed an octave higher than usual, arms raised in complete frustration. "You can't claim Hufflepuff's honor, Fig" he said distractedly still staring at Raine. "You're Sellaphix. We dun go down tha' road, mate" he finished, taking the few steps to Raine. He raised a trembling hand to her head and gently took one strand between his thumb and index, staring at it like it had personally offended him. "What did you doooooooooo? Are ye off yer trolleys?" he whined long, throwing her a puppy face. "How could you do this to me?!" he asked scandalized. "You're—you're supposed to be Red Sonja! Jean Grey! Black Widow! Hell, I'll even take Poison Ivy or Velocity" he ranted, wildly gesticulating about. "But this?!" he said pulling gently on the strand still between his fingers. "This is bobbins—this no work!" he sriked, fuming now. He took a gulp out of whatever bottle was nearby and finally let go of her hair. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes for a second, and opening them in time with a grin on his face.

"Ye're proper top anyway, Almasy, but you done broke my heart." Phillip smiled fondly and leaned closer to whisper in her ear. "We can even bleach our hair together. I've the perfect potion—me own brew, but you don't tell any of these minging scallies and knappers." He chuckled and straightened again, just in time to be wrapped in Chloe's arms. He snorted as she kissed his cheek and messed her hair before letting her go. "She's adorable" he said wildly amuse to no one in particular. "I say go to Izola's in Hogsmeade if ye wanna do yer hair" he added seriously, with a frown, not really sure, why the Harpy from Hell had passed his mind.

Madly waving arms were the thing that snapped her attention away from lazily scouring the room - just the person she was looking for, actually: the birthday boy himself. "Yo, Clark! Stop deaking 'round and come 'ere. I'll get ye sorted," he called out to her, a very Phillip-esque waggle of his eyebrows and a drinking gesture a clear indication of his intentions. Mai quite approved.

With lazy grace, she pushed herself out of her comfortable position on the couch and stalked over to the birthday boy, her attention not diverting to his other friends while she held out a rectangular and smallish green-wrapped box in front of the Gryffindor's line of sight. "Happy birthday," she purred, her voice careful not to slur the words together. "Enchanted them myself. You'll likely see what they do by the end of the night anyways; goes great with booze, after all." The cigars had a nice flavor to them; one of her former foster 'dads' smoked them and she'd been wise to nick a whole box before she was shipped off to another home. They were enchanted to produce multiple dragons out of their smoke, which she'd  spent a good week perfecting for his gift.

Katherine jumped a little as Fig draped his arms around Phillip and herself. It was a little to close for comfort; but who really cared with Fig? He was this wild card that always had something up his sleeve. And it seemed as if that 'something' of the night was a bottle of truth potion in one hand and a bottle of mysterious pink liquid in the other. Katherine wasn't stupid - or looking to have her secrets spilled at a party - so she respectfully declined both while offering a loose smile to the cheerful Mister Sellaphix. Even if that smile included grit teeth because, well, Katherine wasn't used to shirtless and possibly intoxicated boys putting their arm around her.

She was released, thankfully, at the arrival of a (BLONDE?!?) Raine. Now that was different. Chloe wouldn't like that, she had always considered herself family to other gingers like herself.

But the attention from Fig wasn't so lost as he tried once again to get them to drink the potion he was toting around. Luckily for her, the group shifted around as Chloe came crashing into her. She took the offered shoe and drink out of her friend's hands. Curious, she swirled the drink around in it's cup and was met with a sickly sweet smell. Good gosh, why did people even drink these things when it wasn't obvious what was in them?

"Chloe," she sighed as her friend pulled the shirt on. "You're a wreck." She shook her head with a grin, no matter how stupid she looked or how absolutely ridiculous this party was; Chloe still managed to amuse her even dressed like that.

She held her balance as Chloe leaned up against her, "No, we're not dying our hair right now. Maybe tomorrow. Or in a few weeks." Or never. Katherine was fond of her brown hair. And she knew Chloe was fond of her own crazy red hair. There was no way either of them were going to go blonde. That was just crazy talk. Or maybe it was the alcohol.

She pushed Chloe's shoe towards her, dropping it in the girl's hands in hopes that she would put it on and get her outfit looking as complete as it could. (It was a difficult task when you showed up half-dressed in the first place.) She hesitated before asking," What is this?" She was looking at the sweet alcoholic beverage in her hand, the one she'd just taken a sip of absent mindedly. It was warm and sugar-y and she had to admit, it felt pretty good. But no, she was Katherine. She was a party pooper and no fun around people drinking alcohol. She couldn't drink this, or anything else. Wrinkling up her nose, she offered the cup back to Chloe. "How much have you even had tonight? You're looking a bit drunk, Chlo. I'm just saying."