Title from Pierre Rverdy's poem, "Inn".
2155 hours


Raine Almasy opened the front door, a glass of wine in one hand and her mouth half full of fresh strawberries. She swallowed them, raised her red eyebrows at their first guest of the evening, and placed her hand out in anticipation. The flat behind her was a busy tableau - a large living room with a window overlooking Hiraeth's courtyard, filled to the brim with faux rococo furniture, plush blankets by the pile, silken paisley cushions and mint green drapes. It smelled of popcorn.

A record player was spinning something jarringly modern, in contrast with the yesteryear decor.

"You're early," she observed. Virgil Carstairs, in powder blue pyjamas slung over a cute t-shirt Raine coveted, smiled languidly at her. He placed a generous sachet of dried gillyweed into her palm and pushed past her into the flat.

            "One for you, one for me-" he held up another two sachets as he turned around to observe their living space and slung his backpack to the floor. "One for the girl who fell out of the tree. Where is she?"

Godric's socks, was he already high? Did he actually meet his dealer in those clothes? It was fifteen degrees out! And raining! Looking at his legs made Raine feel cold. She shut the door, jerking her head in the direction of the kitchen, to the right. "Snack duty. You could make yourself useful."

He shrugged in response but disappeared into their small kitchen; the source of that lovely buttery fragrance. On the back of the front door, Raine and Abby had pinned all the RSVPs to their sleepover. Everyone had written different responses, it seemed a shame to let them go to waste.

In the kitchen, Abby took her snack duty seriously. She'd rolled up the sleeves of her soft blue robe, the unicorn print of her pj's just visible underneath, and stood in fuzzy stockings, holding a pink muggle marker in one hand. It looked like the sweets trolley had escaped the Hogwarts Express and jumped into the bowls on Raine's kitchen counter. There were Bertie Bott's, cauldron cakes, liquorice wands, and pasties of every flavor. There were bowls of crisps, popcorn, and a few healthier options. Abby had labeled them with note cards ever so helpfully:

Sasha - veggie platter

Sasha - hummus & crackers

Fauna - VODKA soaked jelly slugs! Vertigio-inducing!

And:

Normal jelly slugs!

Overkill? Probably, but Abby felt she needed to do something to prepare. Raine, lifesaver Raine who had invited Abby to move in with her, had promised people would come, and Abby had played along, going so far as to suggest a slumber party and to add some sparkle and color to the invite.

She twirled a lock of red hair around her finger. Abby had peppered Raine with questions about the guests she didn't know, but Raine's answers had been perfunctory at best. Would people actually come? She knew Sasha would. She could only imagine the rest would because they already knew Raine.

Or they were curious to see if Abby was holding it together.

Hold it together, Abby! Tonight was meant to be fun.

Abby's crup bounced around the small kitchen, licking crisp crumbs off the floor and sticking her nose into the rubbish bin. Abby opened another bag of crisps just as someone knocked on the door. Someone was here, so soon! Her hands stilled on the bag. Her heart hammered. She listened, pushing Roxy away with a gentle nudge of her foot.

A boy's voice greeted Raine. As Abby stood frozen, Roxy dashed around Abby's ankles and to the edge of the kitchen, forked tail wagging. Then the dog circled back to Abby, then back to the edge of the kitchen, torn between greeting the new guest and guarding a nervous, excited, crumb-dropping Abby.

She turned with a half-smile as Roxy let out an excited bark. A young man in a flamingo shirt eyed her, his face the picture of impish. This must be Virgil Carstairs, author of 'save your hexes for the criminals'. The crup sniffed at the boy's feet, tail knocking against the boy's legs. Abby set down the bag of crisps on the counter.

"Roxy! Don't slobber on our guest's cute slippers!"

Abby scooped up the crup and held the wriggling puppy in her arms. She noticed Virgil carrying two satchels. Right, the gillyweed!

"What's this?" She teased. "A pinch of pixie dust?"

They'd all be flying high tonight!

He stood at the threshold of the kitchen, leaning against its doorframe and watching Abby Reid turn to acknowledge him. Red hair, unlike the blonde girl in his vision[1]. Something skittish there too but not quite mouselike. Virgil paid no mind to the crup, used to being around his parents' dogs, but felt his smile relax into a wider one when it was snatched away from ruining his favourite pink slippers.

            "What's this? A pinch of pixie dust?"

"I think we can be a bit more generous than a pinch, surely...?" he tilted his head to the side, stepping forward into the squib's personal space so that he could carefully deposit the sachets next to a bowl of what appeared to be liquor'd jelly slugs. "Virgil Carstairs. Pleasure."

Virgil reached into the bag of crisps, already high enough to prioritise nibbles over manners. "You must be unicorn girl," he glanced down to meet her in the eye before noisily biting into a crisp. "I had a vision about you." A voice in his vision had told Abby that she was never going to make it - but lo and behold! She made it.

He reached behind his ear, where he had stuck a joint rolled especially for this meeting. Virgil was very curious: it had been his first proper vision, or at least the first one he followed up on. Seeing the younger Reid in person was surreal. He daintily offered her the joint, half obscured by the sleeve of the oversized pyjama top he was using as a jacket.

"Ditch the crup, light up?" The wizard indicated her arms, busy with her active pup. "They don't take the dog to Neverland with them, you know."

1.	Of Every Waking Hour - 28th July

Virgil was the type of person who oozed pureblood charm (or was it smarm, according to Raine), and while Abby was used to this air from her own family, she found his assessing gaze unnerving. When he smiled at Roxy though, she relaxed a little.

"Abby," she replied with an arch of her eyebrow as he dubbed her Unicorn Girl. He must have seen the unicorns on her pajamas or remembered their sad fate from the Daily Prophet article.

Then he mentioned a vision. A vision involving her and unicorns. Abby gave him a frankly puzzled look. Was he for serious, or giving her a line? She wished she could send Raine a questioning glance and find out more, but Abby decided to worry about that later. She was trying to recall where she'd heard the word Neverland before.

Ah. A book!

"Maybe they should. It could bite Hook on the nose. Give him a dog complex in addition to the crocodile complex." Abby set the crup down. Roxy promptly sat on Abby's unicorn-stockinged feet.

Abby tilted her head at the joint, wondering how exactly Neverland boy did this.

She took a small puff, coughed into her hand, and smiled.

"Or maybe they should just share their pixie dust," she passed the joint back to Virgil in a gesture of said sharing, and reached inside the bag of crisps that would probably never make it to the bowl.

Sasha's first draft of the RSVP had included a spattering of questions and requests for party protocol clarification, especially in regards to expected attire and what (apart from pajamas and not sleeping gear) one should bring.  Was the prelude to slumbering casual or semi-casual?  Was there even a prelude, at all, or should one assume potential slumbering from the start?  These were potentially complicated matters, given the necessity of traveling to the party in the evening and traveling home in the morning. 

Surely, they weren't expected to arrive in their pajamas?  What would people on the street think?

But, after reviewing the content of the invitation, Sasha had decided not to bother Raine with unnecessary questions (and risk being hexed) and went with what seemed the most logical: wear your pajamas but transfigure them into normal, casual street clothes.  However, glancing around the entryway it was becoming clear that his logic might have led him astray. 

He was also starting to wonder if the hostess gift had also been unnecessary but he offered the bottle of wine to Raine, anyway before setting Abby's wrapped housewarming gift on a table.  "Thank you again for the invitation.  This is exciting," Sasha offered to Raine.  "I've never been to one of these.  Oh.  And, don't let Abby shake that.  It's living,"  he offered, pointing to the box.

Moira stood barefoot on the sidewalk and stared at her destination. She wore a light jacket over her pajamas to help combat the growing chill of the evening and combat the rain during the walk over.  Her hair was held back with a black clip though several strands had escaped confinement.

She was carrying a covered plate of three dozen chocolate chip cookies. Moira had acknowledged after making them that the amount might be too much but hadn't realized how many there were until she was done. In her nervousness she had begun over thinking the whole party thing and ended up with more than originally planned. Even so, her cookies did tend to disappear within a few hours.

Never having actually attended such a party as this one, Moira was uncertain as to what to expect. There had been the Christmas holiday spent with the Peppers, but that had been a full house to the point of claustrophobia for the actual celebrations on Boxing Day. This was likely to be very different.

Moira shook her head to stop her stray thoughts and approached the door, knocking with her free hand. When the door opened she gave the hostess a smile. “Hi.” Once inside she gave a quick perusal of the interior. “Nice place. Hi, Sasha.”

Oh.... unicorn girl didn't know about his little warning to older Reid. Virgil noted her confused reaction, quickly gleaning the surface of her thoughts to confirm this suspicion. How anticlimactic! He considered clarifying and then, crunching down more crisps, decided that exposition was dull. She seemed awfully fun. He snorted as she took the tiniest of drags from the joint and proceeded to join him in the infamous Crisp Appreciation Society.

"We are not sharing pixie dust with a crup -" he laughed, shaking his head at her. "- and, Merlin,  you're not doing it right. Hold on, hold on."

Virgil slid aside some of the bowls on the marble countertop and then pulled himself up on to it, where his bottom took up only a marginal amount of space. He accepted the joint, hunching forward and gesturing dramatically so that Abby would know this was for her benefit.

"Breathe it in, take in some regular air when you pull off..." the wizard did exactly as so. He held up his hand, counted to five, smoothly blew out a puff of smoke into Abby's face. "You can breathe that in too," he winked and handed the roll back to her. "It's true, what they say about second-hand highs."

Outside the kitchen, a series of knocks and voices were forming the rest of the party. Almasy could deal with them a little longer. He had already met everyone else; Abby was new.

Not to mention he wanted to give her a minute in case she felt dizzy. Some people did, when they floated. Virgil leaned back slightly and reached for one of the normal jelly slugs. "You and Almasy have anything planned for us tonight?"

Two for the price of one - Sasha's courteous arrival was followed closely on the heels by McBoid! They were starting to remind Raine of those muggle puppets. What were they called? Bert and Ernie? That sweetly endeared them to her. She accepted the bottle of wine and went to put it among the other drinks at a side table by their tiny fireplace. Firewhiskey, gigglewater, other wines.... and regular water, naturally. For the teetotals.

"You can tell Abby yourself, when Virgil's done terrorising her in the kitchen." At least that was what she assumed Carstairs did with anybody he could corner in a room.

Raine turned back to Sasha, shooting the housewarming present a suspicious look. They were already outnumbered by animal flatmates if you included owls. Hopefully it was just a plant in there or something. She waved Moira over to the sofas and coffee table.

"Make yourself at home. Which is, by the way," this she addressed to her other guest with a grin, "the point of sleepovers. Have you seen movies with slumber parties in them? I guess they're mostly girls, in those. It's not that much different."

On the other hand, Raine suspected that wizarding pillow fights were much more vigorous.

Abby waved at the smoke in front of her, but took the joint back from him. Hearing the voices near the door, her eyes lit up, and Roxy the crup lifted her head.

"It's Schlawkward!" Abby pushed the crup off her feet. "Go slobber on him, go, go!"

The crup bounded into the living room. She glanced back, wanting to run over there and give Sasha a hug, but that could probably wait a minute. She had a joint to test, properly.

"What, crisps aren't enough for you? Ask the party-planner! Raine. She plans things. I sit and look pretty."

Abby hopped up onto the counter opposite him, or tried to. She managed on the second try, while holding the joint and maneuvering her shorter limbs. "Don't laugh at me!" She laughed. She positioned her bum between a bowl of liquorice wands and fizzing whizzbees.

"Ok, so. Breathe in," she took a long drag, and blew out with just a bit of a cough this time.

Abby waited a moment, joint dangling from her fingers. And just like that, a little green fairy appeared (figuratively) over her head and sprinkled a pinch of peace on her shoulders. Peace and joy! Was it the holidays already?

"Wheee!" Abby giggled. She lifted her legs and pointed her toes out, admiring her unicorn socks. Picking a piece of fuzz off the heel, she decided to wear the title of Unicorn Girl with pride.

"We'll probably be playing drinking games and other types of games."

Abby pointed the joint at Virgil, "Tell me, Lost Boy. Do you see fun and mayhem in our not so distant future?"

Sasha greeted Moira in return before casting uncertain glance from Raine towards the kitchen.  Abby and Virgil.  What he knew of each independently, he could imagine how that would be a dangerous combination.  Raine turned her attention to helping Moira settle in and familiar crup came bounding towards him.   

"Allo, kleine Roxy," Sasha greeted the crup and bent down and scooped her up.  "Wie groß bist du gewachsen." 

Still holding Roxy, Sasha slowly made his way towards the kitchen and leaned against the door frame.  His nose wrinkled slightly as a stray tongue flapped errantly as he grinned at the pair sitting on the counter.  It was good - reassuring - to see Abby acting more like her bright self. 

"Something tells me mayhem is all but a guarantee."  So far, the two most gregarious individuals in the group seemed to be delving into synthetic side of fun.   "Am I correct in assuming chess isn't among the games?"

Virgil very much doubted that all Abby Reid ever did was sit and look pretty. Her looks were incidental, her personality was wildly purposeful. Far from passive. He laughed even harder at being told not to laugh at her, and nearly choked on the toffee flavoured jelly slug. God, that joint he smoked on the way over was kicking in with a vengeance right now. His mind felt miles away.

As a precaution, Virgil ensured his mind was exactly where he last left it while he picked up the bag of crisps. Abby was having another go at gillyweed. A much more effective go.

            "Tell me, Lost Boy. Do you see fun and mayhem in our not so distant future?" she aimed the joint at him, interrogative.

"Lost boy," he repeated dreamily, "I like that." After all, he was Peter Pan wasn't he? The most lost of all those boys in Neverland. Virgil reached forward to pluck the joint from Abby's hand, in exchange for the crisps. Didn't want her all the way up in the clouds just yet. Raine wouldn't forgive him.

Sasha made an appearance in the doorway just as Virgil took another drag, forcing his intent gaze from squib to wizard. Exactly the opposite of mayhem, this one.

"Chess is a game for two," he answered pleasantly, smoke escaping his red mouth. "You have to think bigger, Schlawkward. Less black and white." Was that what Abby had called him a moment ago? Perfect nickname. Virgil helped himself to a third toke before he passed the joint back to his new friend. "Going to join us in cloud city?" he asked Sasha.

Something told him that if anyone could convince him, it was Abby.

Chess? What was chess? In the haze of the clouded kitchen, Abby cared little about the black and white pieces hacking each other up, only catching on that Virgil had just used her favorite nickname for Sasha, thereby sealing his fate as her new friend.

Abby hopped off, resting a hand on the edge of the counter as she wobbled slightly. She stared at the crup in Sasha's arms. Roxy had followed instructions for once!

Roxy's reward was to return to the floor.

"Roxy, you're Sasha-blocking me," she told the crup, lifting her out of Sasha's arms. Once on the floor, the crup skidded on her paws to sniff and bite at the smoke in the air.

Abby gave Sasha a hug, feeling a case of the warm and fuzzies that had little to do with the gillyweed she'd just tried.

She drew back, and looked him up and down.

"I know I've been away a while, but those do not look like pajamas."

She tossed a grin at Virgil over her shoulder, finally taking the offered joint. "Raine hasn't hexed him for it yet. It must be up to us to decide his fate. Sasha!" She paused. "I hereby grant you citizenship in cloud city. Population three."

Smiling, she held the joint out for him to take.

Scheiß.  It appeared as though Virgil had officially boarded the Schlawkward train.  He should have changed his name when he had the chance; even if he did now, he would probably be branded Schlawkward for life.  No matter what he changed his name to. 

Maybe he could simplify matters and just change his name to Schlawkward.  Sasha Rudolf Waldgraf Schlawkward.  Didn't have quite the right ring. 

Sasha refrained from pointing out that chess could involve more then two people, with the addition of multiple boards and a prearranged coordination of matches.  Not only was he well aware that would just give Virgil more ammunition, but Abby was coming over to hug him.  He smiled as he hugged her back.

"I know I've been away a while, but those do not look like pajamas."

"Well, I drove over and I wasn't about to go out in public in sleepwear."  Surely, that much should have been obvious.  Did people actually do that?  "The power of transfiguration.  I didn't think we'd be starting out in pajamas."  They were for sleeping and Sasha doubted that would be the primary means of party entertainment. 

The extended ... he doubted it was a cigarette ... confirmed his suspicions.  "I don't know," Sasha said, shaking his head.  "If an elf unexpectedly whisks me off to the hospital, it would-"  It would, of course, be his luck that he'd end up at the muggle hospital high on some wizarding drug and next week he'd be explaining to Fauna why muggle newspapers are warning of a strange new street drug.  But, it was also his luck that he was always the spoil-sport of the group. 

And, Abby was incredibly cute.  She could probably convince him to binge on steak and fries.  Gillyweed was a vegetable, after all.

"Are there welcome mats?"  Sasha felt a largely unfamiliar combination of nervousness and excitement as he took the joint.  Feeling slightly (appropriately) awkward, he took a long drag off of it and grimaced at the rancid smell.  After a few seconds, he released the smoke slowly through his nose and handed the joint back to Abby. 

Nicholas stood outside the door and stripped to his boxers before vanishing his clothes.  He tucked his wand under the waistband on his side.  It had been too cold and in too muggle of an area to just wear the boxers the whole way. Especially with a random, to the muggles anyway, piece of wood stuck in his boxers. And it was a slumber party, and he rarely wore more to bed than what he was wearing now.

He'd considered doing everything the invitation said not to.  Though now that he was at the door, he wasn't actually sure he'd RSVP'd. He had a large bottle of tequila tucked under his arm, hopefully that would make up for not letting them know he was coming.  Though really, booze, gillyweed, and any kind of party, how could they think he'd not come.

Though he had considered skipping, and with Virgil and Ariadne being gone all night, following through with his threat/desire to break in all the flat surfaces of the flat.

But...booze...gillyweed...party.  He knocked on the door and shivered.  He might need to cast a warming charm.

Continued from this thread.


The lift dinged and creaked open, revealing a hallway that bent in a square around what Fauna knew to be the courtyard below. She casted Tia a sideways glance, chuffed to see the girl wearing her pink sweatshirt, which matched well with the rest of Tia's outfit.

In fact, they coordinated unintentionally. Fauna, in her yellow tank and pink and brown pj bottoms, next to Tia, who was wearing yellow shorts and shoes.

This wasn't the first time Fauna had let her friends borrow her clothes. She was forever flinging her cloaks, capes, mittens, and other goofy sweatshirts at her shivering female friends while the boys (her housemates) were too busy preening to pay attention. This time felt different. She didn't know why, exactly. But as goose bumps crept up Fauna's arms and her hair frizzed from the rain, a silly smile crept up her face.

Turning the corner in the hall, she came to an abrupt stop. Her hands flinched, the box of cupcakes jumped in her grip, and Fauna took a very small step in front of Tia before she processed what she was seeing.

Oh. A boy in his boxers.

"Um," she shuffled forward in her cupcake slippers, tilting her head at the boy standing in flipflops in front of flat 5E. She kept her gaze on his face, trying not to look at his boxers, even though there were words on them and she had a feeling those words were amusing.

"Gryffindor? I mean, Bevans?" Fauna tried to recall his name.

She gave Tia an apologetic look. And she'd been worried about her arriving in street clothes.

"Raine!" She hugged her friend a few moments after the door opened. "I brought Tia. Your neighbor," she added with a blush, in case Raine didn't know.