Late afternoon

In retrospect, maaaaybe it was a bad idea to meet for drinks on a Sunday. Adrestia wasn't expecting to get piss drunk today but, the thing about stuff like that, you never REALLY plan for epic drinking to happen. They kind of just did! Unless you've just broken up with somebody. Or got fired. Or you're having a mid-life crisis. She didn't think this fit with her or either of her two cousins so it wouldn't matter tonight.

"Three founders!"[1] Tia eagerly ordered as she slipped a few galleons over the bar counter: enough to cover another round of drinks for later as well, "Two Ravenclaws and a Gryffindor. We're at the corner table. Or we will be anyway," she glanced at her watch.

Cepheus and Andie weren't here yet but the shots would be happy to wait. Adrestia slipped into her seat at a table not far from the billiard games, eying a group of witches who had just started. At least there was something to keep her entertained before they arrived.

The drinks appeared first - two deep blue shots, one crimson shot that almost looked like a blood liqueur. She thanked the wizard who'd brought them, before catching sight of the first of her cousins to arrive.

"Hey!" Tia called with a wave, grinning. "Party's almost started!" If, she thought, you could call three Gamps a party.

1.	Death & Co's fantastic menu!

“Looks like it,” Ceph replied, weaving his way between tables in Death & Co. to reach the one his cousin was sat at. No sign of Andie, unless she was in disguise (not beyond his sister’s metamorphmagus capabilities, after all). He slipped his jacket off, as it was the afternoon and London was nearly reaching twenties outside.

“Are we all set here, or should I…?” He thumbed to the bar but it looked like they were set to begin, well, as soon as Andie got there. Taking a hint from the position of the drinks at the corner table, Cepheus slid into a seat beside Tia and gave her a well deserved hug and a kiss on her cheek.

“Thank you for giving me an excuse to get my arse out of the flat, I bought more books this morning.” Ceph looked guilty at the admission, as if it were some terrible habit that he would often frequent the Sunday morning Diagon book sales. “More beautiful things I’ll never have the time to read. Anyway, how are you?” They were about as far as one could get from a full moon, so he very much hoped his cousin was in fine fettle.

"That is how it is done." The witches at the billiard table parted. The balls were all gone. The witch who won handed the cue to another. She walked towards the table. She smiled at Tia and Ceph. Her hair and face changed.

"What took you so long?" Andie said. "Are those shots?" She took the red one.

Tia reciprocated the hug from her cousin, laughing fondly at Ceph's love for beautiful things he never has the time to read. Beautiful things had that redeeming quality - you could forgive them other flaws, including the time it took to get through one. She honestly wished she could just... absorb books. Without the bother.

"I'm fine!" she sighed wistfully, "Had a mentor thing earlier, totally need to chill out now." And on that cue, like a sun coming out from behind the clouds - which were in fact a nimbus of other women - Andromeda appeared.

Adrestia clapped her hands together, "Sneaky! Hidden in plain sight!" she exclaimed and then picked up her blue shot, toasting her fellow Gamps cheerfully. Drinky drinky time! The werewolf drank it in one ago and slammed the glass down with vigour. She stuck out her tongue - a vivid blue.

"Are we drinking away bad memories or drinking for new ones?" she waved at the bar, ready to replenish their glasses.

“What took you so long?”

“Sneaky!”

“You have to disguise yourself to get anyone to play you at pool now?” Ceph asked his sister, who you never bet against on the pool table if you wanted to keep your coins.

Reunited with his kin, the three Gamps downed their shots, and Cepheus reciprocated Adrestia’s blue tongue with one of his own and screwed up his nose at the sight of them all doing it like little children. He couldn’t help but laugh happily at the two witches.

“.. drinking away bad memories or drinking for new ones?”

“Ooh, drinking away the bad vampire dreams, unless we’re replacing them with startlingly good looking ones.” Cepheus suggested, trying not to consider Tristan Vaillancourt in conjunction with the ‘good looking’ picture in his mind for a replacement vampire. “Why, I thought you were just looking to chill out, rather than start here and end up somewhere down Knockturn explaining to a hag why eating vegetables makes your coat glossy…?” At least he was pretty sure that’s what happened that night the other year. He’d not been able to work out which eyes were real on the face of a heavily tattooed doorman while it took place, as they all blinked.

"You two are lightweights." Andie said. She rolled her eyes. "Do both." Andie said to Tia. "Here. Let me buy. You got those." Andie stepped up to the bar. "Unforgiveables?"

Adrestia patted her cousin Ceph's shoulder understandingly, sympathetic to the vampire plight of late. She was buzzing with good cheer - it would take many more shots for the buzz to turn into the hyperactive drumming that would lead to staring down doormen with more tattoos than your average Knockturn bloke.

"Andie's right," Tia declared loudly, "About doing both, I mean, we're not lightweights. Are we? Maybe we are..." she eyed her empty shot glass suspiciously. There was only one way to re-confirm that accusation. "Unforgiveables it is."

The auror left for the bar, and Adrestia turned her attention back to Cepheus. "Vampires giving you a hard time at work, or is it just the usual whining?"

“… we’re not lightweights. Are we? Maybe we are…” Tia mused aloud.
“Only one way to remember.” Cepheus replied from the table and allowed his sister to buy whatever it was they were going to drink next.

“Vampires giving you a hard time at work, or is it just the usual whining?” Cepheus could imagine a couple of colleagues sniggering at that phrasing, but Tia was far too practical for innuendo without more alcohol.
“Biting,” Ceph replied, “rather than whining. This change in the public eye of late has stirred up some anti-vampire sentiment. Good time to take on some advice but now the world and his wife are claiming the pale looking hermits who live on the corner are wand-bearing vampires, and we need to investigate.” He glanced to the bar to see how Andie was getting on.

“Most of the time they’re just antisocial people who become more anxious about going out for our intrusion and their neighbour’s accusations, and if they are vampires, there’s no proof of any wand and it was as likely a pencil in their hand. Preaching the converted, I realise, you must get this all the time.”

"As bad as each other." Andie said. She put the drinks down. "They have a world left alone for centuries. We have wands. But if they want they could have us." She sat down. "I do not understand people who disrespect them." Andie said. She did understand it a little. She knew they did it because they were afraid. They wanted to be superior. They wanted control. "Cheers." She knocked back the Imperius and blanked out.

Tia leaned forward slightly, arms crossed on the table as she took in what her cousin was saying with a sympathetic nod. People were paranoid; they all fancied themselves to be vampire food or - as in what Ceph was saying - witnesses of law breaking vampires. It sucked. Vampires were getting shit, and so were antisocial pale people! Poor pale people.

             "Preaching the converted, I realise, you must get this all the time."
"Something like that," she shrugged. "We're less obvious than vampires, we can hide what we are. And we're still witches or wizards."

They could hide their scars and their susceptibility to silver. The only thing Tia and her fellow werewolves couldn't hide was their inability to enjoy the night of a full moon. People didn't always trust werewolves but they did trust them more than vampires. Andromeda returned with drinks in time to join the conversation.

Adrestia took a Cruciatus and held it idly, "I don't understand those people either," she lifted the drink to her lips, "It's like they don't think." Quick breath, and then she downed the shot. A chill set into her bones right away. Tia shivered and swore loudly.

“… I do not understand people who disrespect them.” Andie uttered, respectful of vampires for their individual powers.
“I don’t understand those people either. It’s like they don’t think.” Tia followed and Ceph looked from one to the other.
“Because they fear them,” Cepheus replied gently, “we’re arrogant witches and wizards, we have power.”

Andie knocked back her shot and became glassy-eyed and vacant. Tia did hers with a shiver and a shake.

Cepheus found himself looking down at an empty glass, wondering how long[1] it had been since he’d taken it and why the world was suddenly very loud and in focus. He blinked and withdrew from the table in surprise.

“Gods that always gets me.” He uttered to his female companions. “Better to get it over and done with.” He licked his lips and his nose wrinkled at the bridge. “Hope I wasn’t gone long. What were we on about? Vampires? Well, we’re not going to solve it overnight.” He shrugged and lined up his glasses on the tray. “At least we’ve got one on our side - so to say. You met Tristan, Tia?”

1.	The Unforgiveables

Andie was absent for a few seconds. When she came to her brother was long gone. Tia shivered.
"Did I tell you I am going to move into the house?" Andie said to Tia. "In Godric's Hollow." It was empty since February. It belonged to all three of them. "Can not face selling it. It has been in the family forever. We shall make it a good place again."

Her big brother came to. He talked about vampires again. Andie let him.
"You would know if you did." She said to Tia.

She was glad it was Cepheus who had taken the Avada Kedavra. Tia didn't fancy that particular shot, and thought anyone who could knock back all three consecutively was a mad bastard. As it was, cousin Ceph was only one third of a mad bastard. For now. Andromeda returned with more drinks and Tia smiled gratefully at her.

"You didn't!" she replied, as this was the first she'd heard of Andie moving to Godric's Hollow. "I'm glad you aren't selling it. There were a lot of good memories there!"

At least for them anyway. Tia had fond recollections of going to visit her cousins in that big house, of feeling both frightened and super entertained by having so many people around! Being an only child, she had envied that when she was younger. It was nice that they all still got together like this.

            "You met Tristan, Tia?" Ceph joined the conversation, disjointedly.
   "You would know if you did."

"I've seen him around," Tia shivered - nothing to do with her drink. She only spent so much time on level four, and usually glimpsed Vaillancourt on his way in when she was leaving the Ministry. "He looks like he knows too much. Are you going to have a party?" she changed the subject, glancing at Andie. "At the Hollow I mean. Or are we too old to be calling them parties?"

The werewolf pulled a face. "Do we have to start doing dinner parties now? I need more to drink."

"He is old enough to know too much." Andie said. "We could have a party yeah." She was not thinking that far. It was strange to move back into the house. It was a project. She would make it well again. She would miss the noise of London. But she liked the country. The house elf would make it easy. "A dinner party. How proper." Andie laughed. "I think I will do Christmas. Like always. Do you think anyone will come to a party? They do not like us much. Our neighbors."

“… He looks like he knows too much.”
“He is old enough to know too much.”

Ceph let out a little chuckle at the witches describing Tristan. He certainly did have that knowing look. It was easy to forget he’d lived longer than any of them because of his appearance.

“Are you going to have a party? At the Hollow I mean. Or are we too old to be calling them parties?”
“… We could have a party, yeah… A dinner party. How proper.”

Cepheus realised that he must have missed a conversation topic change while he was under the influence of the shot and blinked rapidly, matching up the conversation topic with a mention of Godric’s Hollow.

“I think I will do Christmas. Like always. Do you think anyone will come to a party? They do not like us much. Our neighbours.”
“In Godric’s Hollow?” Cepheus asked, though by this point it was rather rhetorical. “We can only try to patch things up. It’ll be ten months, I mean, people have begun talking to me again at work. Couldn’t have sold it. Nobody would give us a decent price with all the work to the foundations. Got to fill in that room, unspeakables been all over it neutralising the malignant magic.”

The wizard made a face and combed his hands through his hair as if to brush out the negative feelings about their family home in recent months. It was the overruling reason he had not willingly offered to move in and sell his place in Diagon Alley above the florists. He liked his smaller space and the location. It was easy to feel lonely when you lived on your own and living out in the village in such a bit house would only amplify it. It didn’t seem to bother Andie. Orion wouldn’t change his travelling lifestyle until he absolutely had to, either.

“Definitely a party, lady of the house.” He grinned. “Can always start with a dinner party, and try to be proper. But we’re not old enough to do a stuffy one, are we? Just old enough to bother the neighbours with inefficient silencing charms.”