Merry Xmas Everybody (OPEN)

[scorpius hyperion malfoy]

December 16, 2027

Scorpius Malfoy knew that changing into his dress robes in the toilet as soon as he got off work probably wasn't the greatest way to start off an evening that was supposed to be filled with networking and general mixing and mingling among those who worked at the Ministry of Magic, but anyone who wasn't an intern was perfectly aware that there was going to be more firewhisky consumed than anything else.

He hadn't invited anyone else along to be his plus-one for the night, simply because he knew that it wasn't exactly a fun invitation to receive. Spending a Thursday evening at the Ministry watching old men get drunk and make questionable decisions that could potentially harm their political careers was only really enjoyable in theory. In practice, it was actually pretty painful to watch, as was the inevitability of someone making some comment to someone else that was intended as a compliment but only came across as an insult about their blood status.

Unfortunately, Scorpius had grown up on the side of the wizarding world where such occurrences were exceedingly normal. It kept him from showing how horrified he actually was by them, he supposed, which was good in social situations where nearly everyone outranked him. As far as the people of his parents' generation were concerned, he was still practically a little boy and spent his time playing with Muggle toys all day.

He knew that he wasn't as immature as they thought him to be, though, and he certainly didn't look it in the robes that he was wearing. They were sleek and black, with the sort of fabric that moved fluidly as he walked through the corridor and out in the direction of the lifts.

OOC: OPEN!

[lily luna potter]

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It really didn't matter who had invited her at this point, as Lily had seen half of her family and James by now. Technically, it was her older brother, but a tiny family reunion amidst the midweek Ministry Christmas party seemed an apt thing to do, especially in the run up to the actual Weasley-Potter Christmas in two weeks time. This was also the first 'professional' party she had ever been too, and its mood was drastically different from what she expected it to be, though also similar to the ones she used to host at school. Drunk Ministry officials and magical business executives everywhere were not very different from the way most of their children acted within the confines of the Room of Requirement, a curious comparison that she found hilarious once she had a couple flumes of champagne handed to her. It wasn't like this was the first time she'd had alcohol, but it was the first time that there wasn't anyone directly around her to stop her from drinking too much. So yeah, it started to go south fairly fast.

Lily had just finished her most recent flume, depositing it on a random table where more seemed to be set up. She managed to grab what looked to be a cookie of sorts as well, immediately popping it into her mouth drunkenly as she wobbled down the food stations trying to find something else to eat. A flutter of black robes, topped with almost white blonde hair caught the corner of her eye at the far end of the room. Scorpius. Lily hadn't terrorized him in a while. Snagging another cookie, which she would have loved to jam into her pocket if she had one, she quickly made her way after the Malfoy boy. Dodging past cousins and ancient warlocks teetering on the edge of a blackout after one drink made her feel like she was in a spy movie. Maybe that was just the alcohol doing it to her brain. Either way, she felt cool.

"Heyyy Scorp," she called as she quickly approached, as if he had a target on him (which he sort of did). "I haven't seen you in forever. How've you been? Did you miss me?" Once she closed the gap, she was going to grab onto him. With what arm though? Sacrificing her cookie for the road or new drink seemed foolish...so she immediately drank the champagne. Problem solved, except now she had an empty glass again. "Because I missed you," Lily added in a fit of drunk giggles, reaching out to him. "Want a cookie?"

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[scorpius hyperion malfoy]

December 16, 2027

Now, Scorpius hadn't been in the midst of the party for long at all before he heard someone greet him in a way that most people at the Ministry generally did not. Even if they needed a favor from him, the typical "Ministry" approach wasn't quite so casual or—dare he say it—flirtatious. It was puzzling enough that Scorpius had to question what he had just heard, at least until he realized that it was Lily Potter who was attempting to engage him in conversation.

"I haven't seen you in forever. How've you been? Did you miss me?"

There were two possible explanations for Lily's behavior that occurred to Scorpius off the top of his head. The first was that she was drunk, and the second was that she had been slipped a love potion in something, which took him back to the days when his fellow Hogwarts students would try to sneak alcohol or Amortentia or whatever else they had on hand into the beverage options at student parties. He had never been one to participate in any of that, but he wasn't oblivious to it, either.

With Lily's rapid questioning, Scorpius wasn't sure what to say. He didn't mind Lily; he just hadn't anticipated being accosted by her at a Ministry party, of all places. Scorpius also wanted to remain aware of everything that he did or said, given the state that Lily was in. He wasn't the type to try anything with her, but he also didn't want her to suffer any embarrassment when she came to her senses.

"Because I missed you. Want a cookie?"

Merlin's beard. This was going to be more of a challenge than he had anticipated, Scorpius realized, and he was of perfectly sound mind. He was inclined to think that it was Amortentia, though that didn't fit with the champagne flute that Lily was carrying. Trying to disengage her without leaving her brokenhearted, Scorpius shook his head at her offer of a cookie. "Oh, no thank you," he answered Lily gently, hoping that would satisfy her.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

▲

Lily was slightly confused by Scorpius's response, though she wasn't sure if that was due to her drinking or the fact that he didn't specify which question he was saying 'no thank you' to. If it was to not missing her, that was like, totally not cool. Everyone deserves a daily dose of her after all. Without it, how did they live? Boringly. That's how. The only person that had willingly turned her away like that so far was Albus, but he ruined everything anyways. Scorpius had never been that way to her. So it had to be about the cookie! "More for me then," she said as she broke off a piece with her teeth and placed the rest into her pocket. The empty champagne flume found a free space on a nearby table, though unbeknownst to her it was dangling on the edge precariously. Not her problem anymore.

Now her hands were free! "Don't tell me the Ministry made you all boring like it did to Al," she said rather loudly. A few heads turned to look at her, but she hadn't noticed. A finger was pointed at him during this accusation, poking him once in the shoulder as she narrowed her eyes at him and continued, "Boring, boring, boring. We could have been something, you know? Like, a team!" Lily had no idea where she was going with this, as the thoughts weren't really connecting with the words that were spilling out of her. She wasn't even upset at him, yet it sort of sounded that way. "How come...how come you don't miss me?" she stumbled over her words with a perfectly timed hiccup. "That's not really nice of you Scorpius. Our dads didn't hate each other just for us to turn out this way. All that hate, just for our love to go...poof!" She made a explosion motion with her hands as she spoke. Lily wobbled a bit at this, finding her footing again after only a second. She really could do with another drink though...

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[scorpius hyperion malfoy]

December 16, 2027

What Lily said to him made little sense, but it seemed to make sense to her. She was going on about how he had done something to break her heart or something like that, and she seemed to think that they had had some sort of romantic relationship. Her hiccuping was a good indicator that she didn't really know what she was saying, which left Scorpius to deal with… that.

He supposed that it could have been possible for her to be both drunk and under the influence of a love potion, though it would have been highly improbable. Unlike for love potions, there were no antidotes for alcohol consumption. (Considering how many complex potions and antidotes did exist, it felt like even more of a joke that no one had invented one.)

Unfortunately, Scorpius's time as an intern in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement hadn't involved the kind of training that Aurors and Hit Wizards received. It would have been nice to have picked up a thing or two from them about how to subdue someone without unintentionally escalating the situation, he thought.

Lily wasn't being violent, but she was absolutely capable of making a scene. Putting her in a Full Body-Bind Curse could have been an option if not for their being surrounded by people who would immediately question him for having taken that step. He wasn't about to do anything drastic—and especially not while everyone was trying to forget about work for the evening.

Trying to negate anything that Lily had to say would only make her more frustrated with him, Scorpius thought. He really didn't want to have to play along with whatever was running through her head, but he wasn't sure that he had many other options. Swallowing his pride and hoping that he would be believable enough to her, he knew what he had to do, and he knew that he needed to act quickly.

"You know, you're right," Scorpius remarked, trying to sound as though Lily had caught him in a lie. "I have missed you, Lily!" More than anything, he missed the sober Lily. She could be a handful regardless, but it would have been an improvement. He wouldn't have had to feel as though he had entered an impromptu audition for WADA.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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Staring intently at Scorpius with nothing but drunken, woozy thoughts behind her eyes, she narrowed them into a long glare. What was even going on right now? She was pretty sure she had asked him why they weren’t besties anymore, and that she had missed him, but some fuzzy little thought was telling her that wasn’t the entire extent of it. It probably would have been better if everything was black and blank.

”I-I knew it!” she said successfully after holding her hand up to her mouth to stop another hiccup. That was happening a lot. The last drink she had was really starting to make its way to her head…and her stomach. ”I even gave us a nick-nickname. Scorlily. I get more letters because I’m better, but you get the first half because you’re…you’re…” The room had started to spin slightly as she spoke. She suddenly did not feel good at all. Trying not to move her head too fast, she glanced around to see where she was at, and how far away the bathrooms were. Too far, but there was a small outdoor space close by.

”I need air…” she said abruptly and quickly pulled herself away and towards the garden. Every step felt like the floor expanded underneath her, and she was doing her best to hold back the sick that so desperately wanted to make its exit. Doing so in the middle of the floor was a great way to embarrass herself and the family, and she was not going to do that. Being the drunken fool was one thing, leaving it all over was something else entirely.

Not stopping to see if Scorpius had followed her outside, or if the courtyard was empty, Lily turned to the right and found a dark corner that seemed to be away from everything else and promptly got sick.

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[scorpius hyperion malfoy]

December 16, 2027

From a moral standpoint, lying to a drunk Lily Potter wasn't really that bad. Chances were good that she wouldn't remember any of it the next day, and Scorpius had to frame it as doing her a favor. If he could minimize both of their embarrassment, then that would be better in the long run—and nobody would really care about his acting abilities or lack thereof, as long as Lily's drunken state was satisfied with his work.

What Lily had to say to him was equal parts hilarious and horrifying. She had come up with a nickname for them as a non-existent couple: "Scorlily". There was some logic behind it, supposedly, but Scorpius didn't get to hear the end of it before Lily mentioned that she needed air.

Going from being Lily's fake lover to being her babysitter in a matter of seconds was a shift, but Scorpius knew from the context that Lily's needing air after having had as much to drink as she must have had wasn't great. He followed after her as she left, glad that she had enough sense left not to get sick in front of everyone at a Ministry Christmas party.

Lily made it to another part of the building that must have been enchanted to look like the outdoors, thanks to the work of the Magical Maintenance Department. For what it was worth, Scorpius thought that having fake weather within the Ministry was nice when there was more sunshine underground at the Ministry than outside of it. It probably didn't make much of a difference at night while vomiting, but it could have been worse.

Initially, Scorpius stood back from where Lily had gone to throw up, but he did want to stick around in case she needed him.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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It wasn’t like vomiting was a strange occurrence for Lily: she frequently ate too much candy or sweets and pushed herself over the edge and there was also the post-werewolf nausea that occasionally took over right when waking up in the morning following a full moon. But it was vastly different when all of the champagne she had just forced down into her stomach violently erupted like this. And Merlin did it burn. The one silver-lining was that she always felt better after, and a few minutes of standing in the corner of the courtyard later, and things started to feel like they were going back to morning. Her head already hurt, but that was to be expected. Reaching out for what looked to be a tree to help stabilize herself as she straightened up, Lily was surprised to find that it wasn’t real, but a corner of a room. It was only then that she realized that the ‘outside’ she had run out to was actually a room charmed to look like such. And that she had thrown up in the corner of said room instead of onto some bushes. Now she felt bad about the whole thing.

Thirsty and headache coming on, she slowly backed away from the corner of the room, thinking of what spell she could use to clean it up. Leaving it would be gross, after all. ”Scourgify,” Lily cast at the corner, as she couldn’t recall what the liquid specific one was. A useful set of spells she frequently needed to use at work, though kept both written on a sticky note by the cash register because she always forgot which was which.

Her clean-up, if it could be called that, seemed satisfactory enough, and she turned to leave the charmed room. She needed water and to probably leave. She turned around to see Scorpius standing nearby, giving him an awkward grimace as she tried to separate herself from the scene of her crime. ”That wasn’t really ladylike of me, was it? she asked, still feeling the effects of the alcohol despite sobering up quite a bit over the last few minutes.

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[scorpius hyperion malfoy]

December 16, 2027

Scorpius wasn't someone who had spent a great deal of time around the people who partied incessantly at Hogwarts or after having left school. As such, his experience with drunk people was confined to the occasional pub patron who'd had a few drinks too many and who happened to be inside an establishment at the same time as he was or to the upper-class drunkenness of the adults at the events his parents had had him attend when he was younger. Because of his age and gender, he had never been in a position where he felt threatened in any way by the latter. Other people's alcohol consumption to excess was something he saw as questionable, and he didn't really have any tips or tricks up his sleeve to share.

Lily vomited, as expected, but magically cleaned up after herself. Scorpius, observing from a safe distance, was glad to see that she'd had that presence of mind, anyway. "That wasn’t really ladylike of me, was it?" she asked him upon seeing that he was there.

"It happens," Scorpius replied with a slight shrug. He wasn't going to break it to her then that her being ladylike hadn't been his concern. "You alright?"

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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Drinking to the point of being sick this early in the night was a sign that she needed to call it quits and go home. Normally she would have tried to rally and keep going, but there was a rumbling in her stomach that really didn’t feel good. She knew she’d be fine as long as she caught the floo powder and managed to make her way into her parents’ home. Then everything after was up to the will of her body. Overall, she felt better with it out of her than when it had been bubbling around inside of her. Still, the taste of alcohol and finger foods mixed with stomach bile was not the most pleasant to have swishing around in her mouth.

Scorpius asked if she was alright, and she nodded her head to confirm. ”I need some water though.” Lily squinted at the crowd, looking for a waiter with a tray of waters. Anything that was clear was probably champagne. Thinking about putting more alcohol in her body made her stomach lurch slightly. None of the other guests knew she’d just turned the corner of the other room into a biohazard zone. Normally that would have made her giggle furiously. Right now, she was afraid any sudden movements might lead to sick.

”And then I think I’m going to go home,” she admitted. Everyone would understand not wanting to stay around after getting to that point. Leaving was being responsible. A first for her. She still needed air, the annex room being a fake, but that could wait until she got home now. Spotting a table with a self-serve water dispenser, she motioned with her head to Scorpius that she was going that way. Quickly crossing the room and keeping herself as even as possible to avoid any more issues, Lily snatched a paper cup, filled it, and downed the ice-cold water in an instant. She barely finished drinking before she refilled it and repeated the process. Just getting rid of the taste in her mouth made her feel better already.

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[scorpius hyperion malfoy]

December 16, 2027

Lily nodded to signal that she was alright; she just needed some water other than that, she said. She looked around, apparently trying to find someone walking around with water available for the partygoers. There didn't seem to be one right away, but Lily followed that up by saying, "And then I think I’m going to go home."

Scorpius felt that was probably a good move on her part. It was unfortunate that Lily wouldn't be able to enjoy the night completely, but she would be better off going home instead of drinking so heavily again. She had saved herself from total embarrassment, and she seemed to recognize how close to the brink she'd been.

No longer having to play along as though he were the love of her life, Scorpius was happy to assist Lily as his normal self, but it was Lily who noticed a water dispenser first. He followed behind her when she went over to it, and she was clearly glad for the relief it brought her. "We can find somewhere quiet to sit, and then I can walk you back out to the Atrium?" Scorpius suggested. Lily probably wanted to wait a few minutes more before trying to get home.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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The sobering clarity that came along with getting sick by her own doing was an odd adrenaline rush. Because while it did solve the immediate issue – having too much alcohol in her stomach – it didn’t completely cure her of her ailment. There was still the amount that had worked its way into her bloodstream and the want to simply climb into her bed and cover herself up was increasing as the seconds wore on. The weird, intrusive thought of wanting to eat again also popped up, and she assumed that was the still drunkenness of her brain telling her that eating something dry and salty would be perfect right now. Like popcorn! If it wasn’t for the fact that she had a bad history of accidentally catching them on fire in the microwave, she probably would have thrown a bag in the second she managed to find herself back home. With her parents out (and somewhere amongst the crowd here), that wasn’t a risk she wanted to take. So water was it for now.

”That works,” she mumbled from behind the cup of water as she finished drinking it and had it refilled again. The one good thing about large events like these was that she knew almost everyone there. If Scorpius hadn’t been quite literally next to her, she could have easily found a cousin or another friend hanging about. Assuming they wouldn’t think she was joking at first about her current state.

Lily drank the second cup of water, starting to feel even better than she had before, and went for a third. ”I’m good to go now,” she said, blinking back the sudden wave of exhaustion that hit her. The adrenaline from getting sick was finally starting to wear off. Usually she could run with that high for hours, constantly upping it over and over again. But tonight, she was tired. She had finally reached her limit.

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