Detention was a pretty standard activity for Lydie. Her parents harped on her for getting into trouble so much but it was worth it. If anything, receiving this many detentions only encouraged her to be sneakier. Lydie knew she had a temper but couldn’t quite control it yet. She figured that was for later in life, when she had to be a boring adult.

She’d racked up a bundle of detentions for that very reason - when it came to Jordyn she just saw red. Lydie had always felt obligated to defend Jai. She as the outspoken one; if Jai were left in charge they wouldn’t get anything done. Shy just wasn’t a concept to Lydie, and neither was the idea of a ‘filter.’ She spoke her mind, regardless of the consequences.

So that’s how she found herself in detention on her sixteenth birthday. She grumpily pulled her hat so low you could barely even see her eyes. Her long hair flapped behind her as she walked with purpose to the trophy room, which was the location for tonight’s torture. It was one of the more tedious activities but was certainly better than writing lines.

Jordyn still couldn’t believe that she had detention. 

This had never happened before.  She wasn’t the type of girl who broke the rules.  If she did, she really tried her best to make sure she didn’t get caught.  Granted, that was happening less and less these days.  Even still, it was usually with her friends that she even attempted.  Now, she was going to the trophy room for a terrible detention with someone who had cursed her mouth shut. 

She would have preferred to have adult supervision, honestly, but that was not what the cards had in store for them.  They’d be polishing trophies, sans wands (the only blessing Jordyn could find in this whole mess) for probably ever.  And on top of it, while Jordyn was on time (five minutes early was always the right time), Lydie managed to be cutting it exceptionally close. 

Glancing at the clock, she sighed when the door opened.  “Just in time,” she muttered to herself before she looked up, obviously forcing a smile.  “Ready?” 

Lydie felt some residual guilt about the fight in the hallway. She still hated the way Jordyn treated her brother, but perhaps she had taken it too far. What really did it was the fact that Jordyn didn’t have her wand. For a girl who acted like she was on top of the world she had been rather careless…. But the hex Lydie had used was an especially vicious one. Perhaps she should have gone with the Bat Bogey hex.

“Ready?”

This was going to suck.

Narrowing her eyes, Lydie picked up a bucket and rag, already familiar with how things worked. She pointed her wand at the bucket and cast Aguamenti. After a moment of consideration she filled Jordyn’s too. The prissy Slytherin probably had no idea what she was doing, might as well make this go faster, Lydie reasoned.

“You don’t have to be so fake,” Lydie said, referring to the plastic smile Jordyn was sporting. “I know you hate me.” Lydie said this nonchalantly, in a tone that gave the impression she couldn’t care less. Without waiting for an answer Lydie headed to the far end of the room and plopped down in front of a trophy case.

She couldn’t help but flinch a little as Lydie withdrew her wand.  Thankfully, she only pointed it at the buckets that needed to be filled, but still.  Jordyn knew she would have to keep an eye on her.  Who knew what was going to trigger her to be wand happy again. 

Nervously picking up her bucket, she really didn’t know where to start or how to start.  She’d never done this before.  The thought brought the bitter taste back to her mouth.  She never would have had to have a detention if not for Lydie’s crusade against her.  But, Professor McGonagall wasn’t going to go easy on her – that wasn’t her way, and Jordyn probably could have avoided it. 

She lugged the bucket to one of the display cases and it bounced against her shins with painful thunks.  This was the worst.  She looked over at Lydie with raised eyebrows, considering it wasn’t really about hate at this point.  And maybe she was fake, but at least she wasn’t miserable and cursing people out of nowhere.  She bit her tongue though (perhaps more fake) amd shook her head. 

“I don’t hate you,” Jordyn finally pointed out and elected to continue with honesty, “though it is hard to like you when you cursed me without warning – or my wand – and got me detention,” she dipped the rag into the water bucket with a grimace and reached out for a trophy to pull into her lap.  “I know you might be used to this,” she pressed the rag against the dulled surface and started to rub in circular motions, “but I’m not.” 

“Though it is hard to like you when you cursed me without warning – or my wand – and got me detention…”

At this Lydie’s face changed to express shock and disbelief, her jaw dropping as she let out a sinister “Ha.” It was surreal to see Jordyn’s perspective of the world. “Like you dropped Jai, without warning?” she snapped. She rolled her eyes and dropped the rag into the bucket of water, then pulled it out and slapped it against the trophy case. 

Her frustration manifested itself in aggressive scrubbing. Once her arm grew tired she relaxed her grip and sighed as she dropped the rag back into the bucket. She scooted over to the next case and sighed again. This was going to be a long night, Lydie thought as she looked around the large room filled with identical glass cases.

She turned her attention back to her respective case, scrubbing in a circular motion. Lydie saw something glinting in her peripheral vision, something between the case she was scrubbing and the last one she’d done. How had she missed that? She mentally cursed whoever had decided to drop something and not pick it up, leaving Lydie to do the job.

Lydie reached to pick it up when she realized what it was. She quickly put the flask into the space between her criss-crossed legs and looked around to see if there were any witnesses.

Of course, Lydie would obviously try to push off everything on Jordyn and Jai.  Like it wasn’t her choice to hex Jordyn or that her brother couldn’t do something about it if he really wanted to.  After all, it wasn’t like he kept writing to her or anything – obviously he had taken the hint. 

But, ever the Gryffindor, she had to defend someone who didn’t need defending.  Jordyn just went about her scrubbing.  Though, there was perhaps a little bit more elbow grease than there had been before.  She didn’t really know what to say, mostly because it wasn’t any of Lydie’s business. 

Honestly, it wasn’t anyone’s business except her and Jai and even then, it was obviously resolved or they’d still be going on about it.  She imagined he had moved on and was living his life post-Hogwarts in the ministry and she’d be doing the same at St. Mungo’s soon.  He probably even already had a new girlfriend!  What was Lydie so in knots about, really? 

Glancing over to her detention mate, she raised her eyebrows at her quick movement and suspicious glances around.  “What’ve you got there?” Jordyn asked accusingly. 

Lydie assumed Jordyn would tattle on her, even though the flask wasn’t even hers. The container was more or less full -- and despite never having had a drink, Lydie knew this was enough to get the job done. The job being getting absolutely plastered. She couldn’t decide how to deal with the situation, and it was distracting her from cleaning.

“What’ve you got there?”

Damn! How had Jordyn noticed? She was practically on the other side of the room. There were a few ways she could play this. The most appealing option was to cover up her discovery, but Lydie was a profoundly bad liar, and though Jordyn had many bad qualities, stupidity was not one of them.

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes she held up the silver flask. “It’s not mine,” she started as a disclaimer. “I literally just found it right there.” Lydie pointed to the general area where the flask had been. She put the flask back in her lap, quickly, just in case. Lydie rubbed her lips together as she thought about this. Lydie knew Jordyn was a drinker - or at least that she was tolerant of it, having spied Jordyn at the 7th-year bonfire party.

Of course, Lydie would answer every question but the one Jordyn asked.  Lowering the disgusting, soggy rag into her lap, she rolled her neck over her shoulder and tilted her eyes across the room at the snarky teenager.  She didn’t care that it wasn’t Lydie’s no more than she cared where she found it.  She wanted to know what it was. 

Placing her hands on the ground, Jordyn pushed herself up and left the rag in its place next to the bucket.  Her curiosity overrode her desire to clean trophy cases.  As she strode across the room, Jordyn narrowed her eyes and zoned in on the item in question.  A judgmental little hmm escaped her, despite her better judgment and held out her hand. 

“Have it here,” she demanded more than asked and held out her hand for Lydie to place the gleaming silver flask in her hand.  When Lydie reluctantly placed it there, Jordyn’s manicured fingers curled around the cool metal.  Lifting it to her eyeline, it was inconspicuous.  Whoever left it made sure they wouldn’t be identified.  Unscrewing the cap, Jord lifted it to her nose and sniffed. 

She lowered it quickly with a grimace.  “Good Godric,” she scowled, “that smells like antiseptic,” she gestured for Lydie to take it back.  “Put it back – that’s disgusting.” 

Upon discovering the flask, Lydie began flipping through her mental Rolodex of Hogwarts students likely to have hidden stashes of alcohol. Possibly the last person on the list was the Head Girl, but in an unlikely twist of events it was the Head Girl who unscrewed the top of the flask.

To say the drink smelled terrible was a vast understatement. Lydie blanched and coughed as Jordyn opened it - but at the same time, strangely enough, smiled. This was a very unexpected scenario.

Jordyn handed the flask back to her (perhaps the most unexpected thing so far). Lydie took a closer sniff, expecting the smell to be worse than it actually was. Her expression changed to one that read ‘Hmmm, not so bad…’

Curiosity got the best of her. “Might make cleaning up in here a bit more fun,” Lydie commented. Besides a few nips of her parents’ occasional drinks, Lydie had never had a proper drink. It wasn’t about morals, just lack of opportunity. And here one was. She brought the flask to her lips and gulped as much as she could tolerate before Jordyn could stop her.

The drink swam through her veins, liquid nettles that left her feeling tingly and numb and surprisingly less mad at Jordyn. She offered back the drink. “C’mon,” she said, “it’s my birthday. Celebrate with me.” Despite the over dramatic grimace she made after chugging a bit of whatever it was, Lydie added, “It’s not so bad.”

Jordyn was not a drinker, by rule.  She had tried it a couple of times, but it wasn’t something she actively sought out.  It smelled bad, it usually tasted bad (unless it was bubbly and light), and made most of her classmates act like idiots.  The bonfire had been proof that.  Though, she supposed, it also ended with her getting a boyfriend.  There were obvious trade offs.   

But, she didn’t think this was going to happen here!  “It most certainly will not,” Jordyn huffed stiffly.  Nothing good could come of it. What if the headmistress came up to check on their progress?  What if Lydie was completely drunk and they got in more trouble?  Well, really, if Jordyn got in more trouble. Whatever Lydie wanted to do was her choice, but if it implicated her?  That was not acceptable! 

Her dark eyes widened as Lydie put the silver lip to her lips and took a long drink.  Her mouth was dry for a moment before she stuck out her hands and waved them madly, “Lydie!” she screeched, “Stop!”  She immediately retracted her hands and put them over her mouth.  That had been an awfully long gulp. 

When the flask was held back out to her, Jordyn regarded it with suspicion and fear.  Was Lydie lying to her?  She had to be.  It couldn’t be her birthday.  She didn’t remember that.  Of course, Jordyn was infamously bad at remembering anything that wasn’t in her little planner, so she elected to suck in her cheeks and purse her lips in response.  She was probably just trying to draw her into getting in trouble.

She took the container and weighed it in her hand – it was definitely much lighter.  She swore, if Lydie threw up… Her nostrils flared a little as she lifted the flask again and shook her head, “I can’t,” she declined, “despite your happy birthday.” She looked at the clearly effected fifth year, “what if we’re caught?” 

In addition to her lack of drunk memories was a lack of experiences with actual drunk people. Every now and again one of her aunts would have one too many glasses of wine and they'd become giggly and a touch senile. She'd seen Jai drunk a handful of times, but his drunk personality wasn't much different than his sober one. It all seemed like fairly harmless fun - though she had overheard Jai puking his guts up after a long night of drinking.

She knew she wasn't drunk but she definitely felt different. Maybe it was just the pleasure of seeing Jordyns assortment of horrified expressions. It occurred to her, when Jordyn pointed out they might get caught, that she might not believe the birthday story. For some reason Lydie didn't really come across as honest as she actually was.

"It really is," Lydie said. She nudged Jordyn a bit. Drinking alone seemed lame, and at the moment it was the only feasible celebration she could have. "My birthday, I mean. April 16, 1995, 3:27 a.m." The Patil family joked that it was so typical of Lydie to have been born at such an inconvenient hour.

"...What if we get caught?"

Lydie shrugged. "What if we don't?" Lydie saw rules as more of 'guideines,' which was how she reasoned that this was a good idea. Or at least an idea. "C'mooooooon," she nagged, "I'm sixteeeeeeeeen today. D'ya really think anyone will notice if we don't actually clean the trophy room?" She looked around the room, which was perfectly spotless from many other detentions. "No one ever comes in here." She lifted the flask back up. "Hence the hidden contraband." She poked Jordyn with the flask.

If it were Jordyn’s birthday, she would be beside herself having to spend it in detention.  It did not seem like an odd occurrence for Lydie, however.  She wondered just how many birthdays she had spent doing something like this.  Probably all of them while she was at school.  Maybe that was judgmental, but then again…

Lydie was the one holding up a flask to her and not give a whit about getting caught. 

She couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t and more than that, the headmistress herself had given them this punishment.  It was more than likely she’d show up at some point.  If they were drunk… Jordyn couldn’t imagine being out of detention until she was out of school.  A punishment far less severe for her than the fifth year, admittedly.  But she wouldn’t want to risk the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend…

She knew it was a punishment just within reach and a heavy deterrent for Jordyn who had so few Hogsmeade weekends left.  “I think the Headmistress would notice, yes,” Jordyn replied sternly.  She wouldn’t give a punishment without being certain to check it was carried out.  What would be the point then? 

Crossing her arms across her chest, Jordyn shook her head.  “I won’t dream of it until the job is done.”  It seemed a fair compromise… and even more than that, might be a distraction against the suggested rule breaking.  It never struck her that Lydie had a long attention span anyway, “Understood?”

“I think the Headmistress would notice, yes.”

Lydie rolled her eyes. Jordyn was such a detention noob. Now that it was past curfew, there was no way that McGonagall would be showing up. The woman had a life of her own, which meant the need for sleep and the occasional night off. It was up to the prefects and the other goody-goodys to monitor the halls. Lydie had tested this theory by once skipping detention to see if the professor noticed, and indeed she had. So there was some way of tracking whether or not students with detention showed up, even if she didn’t.

She was about to explain all of this to the Slytherin, but before she could, Jordyn added, “I won’t dream of it until the job is done. Understood?” 

For some reason this made Lydie smile. “Yes ma’am,” she replied with a salute. They didn’t even really have to do a good job; Lydie would probably be back here at some point later in the week for one of the other detentions she’d received for this incident. “‘Sure you don’t want a liiiittle nip to make the job…” Lydie paused, wondering what word would be appropriate here, “...funner?”

Jordyn did not buy Lydie’s sudden agreement.  She especially did not trust her smile.  Lydie was not the type to actually agree with sensible things.  She had to be planning something. 

She sucked the inside of her cheek between her teeth and bit down, trying to trust Lydie (but failing miserably).  Jordyn shuffled back toward the case she had been working on before and dipped down to pick up the rag again.  The silence was broken as Lydie asked her again to drink from the flask. 

Raising her eyebrows, Jord couldn’t believe her.  Well, that wasn’t true.  She absolutely could believe her.  She knew she couldn’t trust her to actually relent.  Sighing heavily, Jordyn leaned into the glass, squeezing the rag so the soapy bubbles dripped down the glass and between her fingers. 

She breathed in through her nose and lowered her chin with a heavy sigh.  Jordyn’s shoulders slumped and she glanced over, eyeing the silver flask.  “One sip,” she warned and dropped the rag again, striding over to hold out her hand.  “Then we finish.”  Jordyn was not normally so easily bullied, but it was her ex’s little sister and it was her birthday.  Plus, she was being so insistent and Jordyn was trying to turn over a new leaf… Before she thought too much about it, she just grabbed it and held it to her lips, taking a sip of the disgusting concoction. 

That had taken a lot less convincing than Lydie expected. Since the discovery of the flask this had somehow become Lydie’s mission: to get Jordyn Dimbleby to drink with her. Before tonight she had never taken more than a few sips of alcohol, and already she was partaking in peer pressure. That had happened fast.

She was impressed, to be honest, which wasn’t something she expected either. To ease her nerves Lydie decided she would play a small prank on the Head Girl. While Jordyn was mid-sip Lydie snapped her attention to something off in the distance behind Jordyn. There was nothing there, but Lydie hoped her acting skills would make it seem like there was - like maybe a certain Headmistress.

After a few moments Lydie couldn't keep a straight face any longer and busted out laughing. Her laughs came out as giggles, and Lydie had not giggled in quite some time but she was feeling just bubbly enough to do so now. She took the flask back and then looked around the room for the spot where she had been cleaning. Lydie found the spot but couldn’t figure out which case was next. They all looked the exact same, and were identically clean.

“Uh… So which ones do we still have to do?” Lydie asked skeptically. What she was really asking was ‘Do we really still have to do this?’. Lydie was now testing the Head Girl’s level of anal retentive uptight bitchiness. Yesterday the Slytherin had topped the charts. But now they both had alcohol on their breath…