you should be dancing | dahlia

[gehry benjamin ollivander]

goes right on 'til the dawn

August 25, 2028
dahlia jade leloup
lily luna potter

”I’m telling you, Lils, that bartender is totally into you.” Benny drank a mouthful of his beer before loudly putting the stein back on the table. ”He didn’t even look at me.” Benny despaired dramatically. Maybe if he’d come alone, there might have been a chance, but alas, the incredible women in his life also accidentally stole the men he also thought were cute with their beauty. He supposed there were worse problems to be had. ”No matter, the other one winked at me.” A beautiful blonde woman with exaggerated eyelashes. Finishing off his beer, Benny happened to look up when he saw her—his sister.

”I’ll be back.” Benny excused himself for the men’s room, though he caught a glimpse of someone familiar from the corner of his eye. Nell? Out of her shop? Well, wasn’t that a sight. But she wasn’t alone. At the table, he recognized Rhys, all smiles as he whispered something to a blonde next to him. He raised an eyebrow. Well, the werewolf moved quickly, didn’t he? Not that Benny knew the blonde, but he supposed his reaction was for Vasilia, his dear friend. Next to his sister, he recognized another tall man, but Benny couldn’t remember his name as he’d only run into him at Nell’s shop a few times and suspiciously early. Nell’s stammered explanation didn’t need to explain what Benny suspected from the bounce in sister’s step those days.

The last woman he didn’t recognize, but Benny made a mental note to tell Lily when he returned. Walking back, Benny took the path of least resistance to the table so he couldn’t see the table again. But he did order another pitcher from the blonde bartender. ”You won’t believe who’s here! Nell and what's-his-face, Rhys.” It wasn’t like Benny to ever hold a grudge against anyone, but this was a special case. While he wanted to hop on over there and say hello, he and Lily were distracted by funny images on their phones for a little while as they went mostly through the next pitcher of beer.

”Alright, alright. I'm gonna pop over and see Nell, be right back.” It was curious that man was with them. Maybe this was some double date of sorts? But when Benny arrived at the table, he only saw one person. The woman he didn’t know. ”Erm—excuse me. Was Nell—Nell Ollivander just here?” Like some cartoon, Benny scratched his head in confusion. ”And the guy next to her—what was his name? Adam, Ernie—something like that.” Merlin, his name had gone in one ear and out the other each time. ”Anyway—I'm Benny, Nell’s little brother.” With a big goofy grin, he introduced himself to the woman and her basket of fries.

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[lily luna potter]

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"Obviously he is. I'm gorgeous, darling," Lily flipped her hair dramatically over her shoulder, a fake American drawl to match. It left a lot to be desired, but it worked for the situation. The two of them were perched at a small table in the Three Broomsticks, an incredibly packed Three Broomsticks at that, having drinks on a Friday night. There was no such thing as an occasional distraction for Lily, as everything was a distraction to her. Familiar faces here, friends there. Benny was lucky that she had managed to actually sit in her chair and stay there, though calling it sitting was maybe an exaggeration. Both of her feet were bouncing on the floor, itching to hop up at a moments notice and run off to the next person that grabbed her interest. Not that Benny wasn't interesting, just that with the way both of them were, they would eventually split up and do a sort of divide and conquer amongst the patrons of the pub. That was how these sorts of things went for them.

"Nuh-uh. That wink was for me. You were just standing in the way of it," she joked as she took a sip of her butterbeer. She didn't need alcohol when she had liquid sugar at her disposal. Eventually she'd have an actual drink, but not right now. Benny excused himself, and she sat awkwardly at the table alone. That rarely happened. She bobbed back and forth to some tune she'd heard earlier in the day and been doing re-runs through her brain. There were no discernible words that she had memorized, just the music.

Benny returned quickly, looking excited. "Really? No offense, but I didn't think she went out that much," Lily laughed. Rhys was an exception. She saw him frequently enough in Diagon. Lily half expected him to immediately suggest that they go over to join the group, but they were easily distracted to the point where an unmeasurable amount of time passed before Benny realized it. "Okay!," she agreed to his departure. "I'll be floating around...somewhere," Lily added as she also stood and disappeared towards a group that looked somewhat familiar to her. If they weren't already friends, they would be soon!

gehry benjamin ollivander ● 374

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[dahlia jade leloup]

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Dahlia's fingers scraped the greasy wax paper that was settled on the bottom of the basket she'd been plucking 'chips' out of all evening. They had long gone cold, but their starchiness paired well with the significant amount of drinking she'd done already. Unfortunately, she'd eaten all of them, a few having been stolen by Rhys and Archer at the beginning. Speaking of, everyone but her had seemingly left. Half-filled steins littered the table when each of her friends departed, and all were empty now. She couldn't let good beer go to waste like that. And now Dahlia was unsure if she was capable of getting out of her chair. In her drunken stupor, she had started to giggle to herself about how this was what being transfigured into a chair probably felt like. Totally glued into it, she stared at her empty table.

Even though she was hammered, Dahlia wasn't stupid. She'd seen how Rhys had been sneaking glances at the Juniper girl all night. Their not so secret texting back and forth. And then she'd seen them leave together. She had no stake in what Rhys did in his free time, but she also knew that the two had dated previously. Whatever worked for them. But then Archer and Nell ditched her too. She was positive they were seeing each other as well, her earlier drunken declaration making the entire mood of the table shift instantly.

All that remained was her empty basket, one half-pint of beer, and her. A number of heads in the crowd occasionally turned to scope out her table. Like vultures, they wanted it for themselves. Dahlia knew she had overstayed her welcome at the table but also refused to budge. The slight narrowing of her eyes scared most of them off.

Surprisingly, a second basket of fries appeared, the waitress (bartender?) dropping them off said courtesy of her friends. Who had all ditched her. She started to pick away at the new basket when an energetic man suddenly popped into view at her table. He was asking where Nell went, and was also apparently her brother. Dahlia shrugged. "Probably to fuck that Archer guy," she stated flatly before introducing herself, "Dahlia. I'm Rhys's sister."

gehry benjamin ollivander ● 373

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0