As the month dragged on, overnight hours spent at Spellpunk were becoming increasing common.  It probably wasn't the best coping strategy but he hadn't found a better one, especially now that the university term was over and he didn't have studying for exams to occupy his mind at night. 

Video gaming or working in the lab usually got him through the evening and early night but, by about 11:00, his little house elf would start reminding him about the importance of sleep.  So, he'd usually concede and tell her he was flooing back to Cambridge to sleep but usually just find his way to the constant stimulation of lights, sound and the smell of sweaty dancing bodies.  No, it probably wasn't the best strategy, but it did help quiet the mind for a few hours - letting him recharge just enough to return to his new job in the morning with enough energy to feign being alright and protect that all-important new employee first impression. 

Especially during the week, and given the hours he kept at the club, it was rare to see anyone he recognized so he was somewhat surprised to see a familiar face when he stepped inside.  Vanessa Carson had been one of the handful of students who had decided to let their educational journey end during their fifth year and hadn't continued through to NEWTs.  A concept that, even with his best efforts, Sasha simply couldn't put his head around; it sounded both incredibly relieving and terrifying at the same time.

Some friendly conversation would add to the distraction, especially with someone who probably remembered him more as the awkward, shy, studious Ravenclaw he'd been before fifth year.  With that goal in mind, he made his way between the tables in her direction and offered an awkward grin, only then realizing there was a good chance she wouldn't recognize him. 

Almost immediately, he realized that the benefits of that probably outweighed the awkwardness. 

"Allo, Vanessa?" he offered as he approached.  Joy.  This had all the makings of one of those awkward 25 year reunion scenes in a comedy movie.  Cue mildly embarrassing, slightly traumatic memory since those are usually what people remember the most.  "You probably don't remember me.  Sasha Schlagenweit?"  The name change had been very recent - within the last month.  "I um ... I was the Ravenclaw Chaser that got ... strategically kissed during the Hogwarts Quidditch Cup in 2008[1]?"  With pointed effort, he ignored the baggage that came along with that memory.   

1.	Just a jaunt down memory lane for the anniversary

It was no secret that Vanessa liked a good party. Nor was it that Spellpunk was a favoured haunt of hers, as it was many people her age's. A way to escape the suffocation that life sometimes brought about with its dips and twists, what could go wrong in the alternate reality that was the writhing mass of drunks that took over Spellpunk when the sun set? Still, while it wasn't uncommon to see Vanessa chatting with some stranger who'd piqued her interest, out on the dancefloor or having a little fun with karaoke night, it was to see her as she was now.

Sitting perched on a barstool with one heeled foot tapping absentmindedly in time to the music, tonight Vanessa's blue eyes weren't trained to the cutie manning the bar but to the amber drink clasped within one hand. Her usual bright smile had been replaced by an intense stare into the liquid, as if if she were to stare hard enough it would solve all her issues. If only. Last week had been tough, with a phone call from her dad refusing her offer to have him round to Christmas on account of this offer including her mother's appearance as well and an owl following suit from her mother in similar fashion. Honestly, sometimes Vanessa felt she was the only adult in this god forsaken family, if it could even be called that. Her parents refused to be even in the same building as each other, what were they? Five?

Usually Vanessa would have turned to her music, turned her anger into lyrics, but for some reason this time she couldn't. She didn't know why, sometimes this just happened though. Whenever she'd open her notebook, take out her guitar, she'd just dry up, not know what to do. It was really beginning to piss her off.

And so here Vanessa was, turning to her other way of letting out anger. Drink in hand and many more to follow, she'd soon forget all her troubles in favour of the pure bliss of being drunk. With a small sigh, she lifted the glass to her lips and downed it in one.

"Allo, Vanessa?"

Vanessa couldn't help but jump slightly when she heard someone address her, almost falling off her seat. She bit back a barrage of curses, merlin she really didn't want to deal with paparazzi right now, or even worse, the press.  A glance over her shoulder proved it to be a young man, about her age, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Vanessa couldn't help but feel like she recognised him from somewhere, but she couldn't quite place it.

The man went on to introduce himself, and Vanessa couldn't help but laugh at the memory he brought up. Oh she remembered Sasha, or more specifically that quidditch match. Vanessa had been watching from the slytherin stands, she still laughed when she remembered how he'd frozen, gone bright red as well if she remembered correctly. A proper tomato. Sasha himself had never really been much more than an aquaintance to Vanessa, shy and formal as he was, but that event alone was enough to leave him forever ingrained in her memory.

"You know I've got a lipstick the exact same shade of red that you turned," Vanessa hummed, blue eyes sparkling teasingly. "That was quite a quidditch match, best one of the season if you ask me." She tilted her head, making a split second decision. Vanessa didn't want to spend the night alone, she could always do with some company. And better with someone she sort of knew than with some stranger. Unless that stranger was the hottie at the bar of course.

"C'mon, sit down, lemme buy you a drink," Vanessa added, jerking her head at the stool beside her before turning her attention to the bartender before Sasha had gotten a chance to supply. "six shots of whatever's strongest, prettyboy, you know what just keep them coming will ya?"

Sasha offered a slight, apologetic grimace when he saw that he'd caused Vanessa to jump and waited a few moments to see if recognition would follow.  For a fleeting moment, it looked like it wouldn't ... or the memories that came along with that recognition were not as innocuous as Sasha had assumed.  Not that that would have surprised him all that much; he had been just as awkward back then, even before the mass of bad luck that had been fifth year and beyond.   

Which was why it had always surprised him that he'd found himself surrounded by Slytherins so often.  He'd originally assumed it had something to do with his strong academics and the Slytherin tendency to utilize any tool at their disposal.  Which didn't entirely explain how he'd somehow exclusively only dating Slytherins. 

Well, mostly. 

Honestly, very little of the social side of school had ever made a lot of sense to him.  Hence the awkwardness that people tended to find either amusing or off putting.  He was just on the verge of assuming it was the later and shuffling away with his name-brand awkwardness on full display when Vanessa finally placed him.

And, to his considerable relief, laughed. 

"You know I've got a lipstick the exact same shade of red that you turned."

True to form, Sasha could feel the all too familiar flush of warmth rising in his cheeks.  But, he dipped his head both to nod in agreement and to attempt to hide the blush.  "It was definitely a unique strategy on their part.  I wish I could say that wasn't, you know, my first kiss.  But, that wouldn't be entirely true."  As the fates would have it, that also wasn't the only time he'd kissed the Ava Grosvenor.  He'd done so again that Halloween, not three months before her untimely death. 

At her invitation, he settled himself on the stool next to her, and was about to politely insist that she didn't need to be buying him drinks but she proved quicker on the draw.  He watched with dubious amusement as she ordered the half dozen shots of what was strongest with standing instructions to bring more, well aware this would be a bad idea.  "I can't say I've ever done the whole show up to work hungover routine before, either," he offered with an uneasy laugh.  Given what they'd experienced with the giant nightmare-machine in the Department of Mysteries, Sasha suspected being hungover was a horrible idea.

"Honestly, I'm much more of a beer guy - you know - alvays must haf beer zo trink," he said, letting his normally subtle Bavarian accent come out in full force.  "So, don't be too offended if I don't keep pace."  Even if he weren't trying to avoid dying at work the next day, he had a suspicion he couldn't hope to keep pace with Vanessa.  "Is this your normal Thursday night routine?" he asked, curiously. 

"I can't say I've ever done the whole show up to work hungover routine before, either."

Vanessa raised an eyebrow, not in the least bit surprised. "Well aren't you a good boy," she smirked as the bartender got busy pouring mystery liquids into six glasses. "I'm sure they won't mind."

Vanessa was lucky in that manner, her job meant that unless she had a gig or a recording the next day, it didn't really matter whether she had a couple drinks the night before. Sasha however, didn't seem like the sort to have gone into the music industry. Whoever he worked with probably would mind. But hey, if Sasha was coming to spellpunk on a Thursday night, it looked like he wanted an escape, a distraction, and you couldn't do that without alcohol.

"Where do you work then? Oh wait don't tell me. Ministry? You ravenclaws."

The bartender slid six glasses over towards them, Vanessa thanking him with a smile and a wink before returning her attention back to Sasha as he spoke once more.

"Is this your normal Thursday night routine?"

Vanessa laughed. "Is that what you think of me?" she teased, nudging a trio of shot glasses towards him as she took one from her own little group and downed it. The drink burned her throat as it went down, jumpstarting her heart and sending fire coursing through her veins. Vanessa tilted her head, relishing in the feeling. She downed another one.

"I like it here," she continued, her smile bordering on smirk taking a more thoughtful air. "Helps you escape and all."

For a second she was quiet, an unreadable expression across her face as she glanced back down at the three shot glasses in front of her, two of which were already empty. What would her mother say if she could see her now? Probably something about how she should've stayed in school, how her father had 'poisoned' her with all this music nonsense. A lovely witch, Sabrina Carson was.

But Vanessa couldn't go all brooding on Sasha, not even with the alcohol she'd consumed already taking affect- clouding her mind. So she glanced back up, dragging that same charming smile from before back onto her face. It was proving hard to put on than usual.

"Alright, my turn for a question," Vanessa announced, drumming painted fingers against the remaining shot glass with liquid within it. She paused, running through a few ideas, but there was one which she really wanted to know, even if she doubted Sasha would answer it.

"What brings Sasha Schlagenweit, who's 'never done the the whole show up to work hungover routine before', to Spellpunk at this time of night... on a Thursday?"

Sasha chuckled slightly, shaking his head.  He highly doubted a deficiency of workday hangovers was adequate to qualify one as a good boy.  There had been a time, not all that long ago, when Sasha's primary goal in life had been to be appointed Head Boy and finish Hogwarts at the top of his year. 

He definitely tried to strive for the title of "Good Boy" during his early years at Hogwarts but those days were long gone. 

"It's not quite the same, but the closest I came was getting caught in the Hogwarts corridors in a rather advanced state of intoxication."  He had been hungover the next day, but he'd been able to sleep it off on a long train ride.  In the end, it had been of negligible importance. 

Unlike tomorrow.  Sasha was confident his supervisors would mind, very much, especially given what little they knew about the massive space rock[1].  He knew better than to try and interact with that thing when one's mental acuity was impaired.   

"Do I come across as the government employee type?" he asked, diverting his attention briefly to order a lager from the bartender.  "Which - I suppose I am.  Mostly, though, I've been ... well ... a student.  I'm studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge University.  It's a muggle university," he tagged on.  He didn't know if Vanessa was pureblood or muggleborn or anything about her general familiarity with the muggle world.  "And I got hired on as an Unspeakable trainee a couple weeks ago."  Despite her good guess, Sasha had never really anticipated he'd end up at the Ministry of Magic.

"Is that what you think of me?"

A bright blush spread across Sasha's cheeks and he was quick to offer an apology, despite the obvious lack of seriousness in her tone.  "I ... no!  Of course, not.  I don't think anything.  For all I know you work ... a Sunday to Thursday schedule and this is ... effectively ... nevermind," he trailed off, his gaze following the track of the three shot glasses pointedly slid in front of him. 

Pinching one of the shot glasses between two fingers, he held it up to one of the club's overhead lights, peering through the dark liquid.  The red light just barely penetrated the fluid, causing it to glow and dance a vivid, dark maroon color.  "It is a good place to hide from the rest of world," he admitted, lowering the glass once more to the bar.  "The music's not great, but it's loud."

"Snow," he corrected, sliding the glass side to side between two fingers, just fast enough to cause the alcohol to slosh slightly in the shot glass but not fast enough to spill any onto the bar top.  "My name's Sasha Snow, now.  I changed it a few weeks ago.  But, I suppose I'm here hiding from a nagging house elf," he offered, truthfully.  Of course, the actual answer was far more complicated, but underneath all the complication, that was the most accurate explanation.  "And, I suppose, like you, it's a bit of an escape and you can really only play video games for so long." 

Still playing with the drink rather than consuming it, Sasha chanced a sideways glance at Vanessa.  "So, what are you escaping from?  And, if you really don't want to answer, you could say so.  Or, better yet, you could always lie and make something up and I wouldn't know the difference."

1.	Plotting info about the magical asteroid that elicits fear in those that get near