Christmas is for morons

Ariel liked to think himself a much better dancer when he was sober. He wasn’t exactly drunk now, though. Just a little bit...tipsy. He was still managing to put one foot in front of the other and he wasn’t doing too badly at it either. Jack was alright considering and she had yet to tread on him as she’d warned him she would do. He didn’t mind either way. Not being trodden on would be lovely though. Really quite...nice.

A glance down at his feet told him that no, he hadn’t taken his shoes off. This perturbed Ariel slightly. He had a thing about shoes and socks and just anything on his feet. He didn’t like it. It felt funny and he made sure to take his shoes off even if he didn’t take his socks off. Socks, shoes, slippers...they all began with ‘S’ and were all equally restricting. He hated them. He blamed this hatred on all foot-related things beginning with ‘S’ on the fact that the puppy literally ripped itself out of his shoes during the full moon. That was mostly because Ariel was always late and he worked from shirt down. He also had a tendency of wearing a lot of layers therefore it took him a long time to get to his shoes so when the moon came out – he lost them.

When Jack said his judgment was blurred, Ariel’s face became animated in a different way. He wasn’t disgusted or frustrated or whatever other negative emotions showed up on his face. He was actually disbelieving and he unconsciously wrinkled his nose. He scoffed afterwards though, reminiscent of a usually aggravated, moody werewolf that wasn’t drunk. Ariel wasn’t drunk now. Just a little bit...tipsy. “And you...” He started his retort but couldn’t quite figure out what to fill the missing spaces with. Ariel hummed thoughtfully and continued to move himself and Jack around the room at a steady pace. “My judgment isn’t blurred,” was what Ariel settled with, a childishly indignant look taking over his facial features. “I am perfectly sober!”

It was strange for Ariel to let himself get drunk, let alone in the presence of someone other than Ollie. Oliver was a prat at the best of times and he was awful when he knew Ariel was drunk. Ollie was far too adventurous for a Ravenclaw and the two of them ended up hanging off of a bridge somewhere when Ariel was wasted. Ariel didn’t know how or why. It was a different bridge every time but they woke up either asleep on the side or hanging off upside down, only just attached because their belts are tied to one of the support beams. There were some scary moments in the mornings but they were just lucky there were no large bridges in their area, just small ones.

Jack wasn’t likely to hang him off of a bridge though. He wasn’t going to hang her off of one either. She had better alcohol; she was bound to be as bad as him. She was holding it together better though, it seemed. They’d probably fall asleep later or one of them would be stupid enough to brave the stairs to go back his or her respective dorms. Ariel didn’t know about Jack but he had every intention of staying in the Room of Requirement. There were no stairs there. Or rather, here.

“You will always have to dance,” Ariel told her, “What if you find yourself a wealthy husband that likes to hold balls so he can watch all the pretty girls dance?” Ariel wrinkled his nose again but this time it was in disgust, a more normal facial expression for him. “Actually scratch that.” He shook his head and chuckled, deciding on a whim to change direction. He dropped Jack’s hand and placed his hand on her waist. He spun them around and immediately took them back into the leisurely waltz around the room. “It’s fun though...if you’ve got a partner that has connections from his brain to his feet. If you don’t then feign illness or something,” Ariel grinned and looked at Jack, raising an eyebrow at her. “Was Wake a good partner?” he asked, “Secret? Oh go on then. Divulge your secrets. I’m all ears."

Jack smirked at his words, seeing the indignation n his face and feeling a little proud that she still had the nerve to incite irritated responses out of people. She had not been able to irritate anyone in awhile, besides James who was irritated at her very presence, so there was the unmistakable bubble of smug pride somewhere in her, and she laughed at his words.

She began to laugh again as he thought of some reason she would need to dance. The idea of her married to some rich man was hilarious. She had never really even put any thought into the possibility of marriage because, frankly, these really were not the things that kept her up at night. Maybe it was strange that she had not put any thought into marriage... Great, now it would start bothering her. Either way, though, she knew that it would be incredibly unlikely Jack ever got married to a rich man that threw balls. Ariel seemed to think the same because he withdrew his thought and they chuckled.

He released her hand and placed his free hand on her waist and spun them. Jack grinned a little because at least they were not taking this dance thing so seriously. Jack could be serious, but she preferred just messing around and hanging out. It kept the demons at bay. She smirked at his words and at his mention of feigning illness she conceded a funny bit of truth. "Why do you think I had some Fever fudge tucked away?"

He seemed interested by her secret and she felt a smirk widen onto her face. She hoped he was not expecting something profound or image-altering because really it was just something funny she had considered a waste of a stroke of genius. "Well, before I became champion, I did have plans for the Yule Ball, but my commitment to the tournament forced me to abandon my amazing plan." She bit her lip and then said, "I was going to transform the Great Staircase into a water slide." She grinned. "It's a mix between the Glisseo spell, Aguamenti, and an Engorgement spell. Imagine, everyone coming down thrilled by th prospect of the ball, all dressed up, go to make their dramatic enterance and wham! They're sliding down a slide full of water!" She grinned. "They could have dried off of course, but it would have been a nice start."

It wouldn’t have surprised Ariel one bit if the redhead had some sort of illness-inducing sweet tucked away in one of her pockets. She did have connections to Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes he believed. Or at least, he was under the impression she did. She couldn’t be loyal to Zonko’s. Barely any people were nowadays but they were a classic. It was like the Three Broomsticks vs. The time it was only a One Broomstick pub. Ariel hummed thoughtfully to himself but didn’t say anything in response. Instead, he decided to try and kick his shoes off. He’d had enough of them and he was definitely drunk enough not to care about where they ended up. They weren’t that expensive. He could afford to lose them.

“It wouldn’t shock me,” Ariel said finally.

As he wound Jack around the room, he began to loosen the grip his shoes had on his feet. Magic went along way. They were right when they said it was from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. When they passed the piano, the shoe gave up its grip on Ariel’s foot. The Slytherin kicked the shoe away and it disappeared under the piano. It made his dancing a little more awkward but it didn’t take long for the other shoe to come away and that one went and joined its brother underneath the piano.

Ariel smiled to himself, feeling himself becoming lighter on his feet; springier like the dog when the moon was high in the sky. The moon was due too. He was beginning to look more wolfish, too. The change in his teeth definitely made eating red meat easier, not that he liked it much. The canines were a lot sharper than usual. He had to be careful as he kept cutting his tongue. They were oddly sharp to begin with, the natural werewolf blood doing that, but when the full moon rolled around they became elongated and he looked almost like a vampire. It was slightly disorientating in the mornings as Ariel truly wondered what he was – a werewolf or a vampire. Either way, he wasn’t human. He was filled with dirty, tainted blood; the dirty, tainted blood that supposedly ran through Jack’s veins.

When Jack spoke again, Ariel looked at her, this time seemingly as he’d been looking at her yet staring into space. He quirked an eyebrow at her and smirked a little. “A water slide?” He questioned. “Well that’s new. You’d have ruined all of the girls’ pretty dresses though. The gents would have been lucky in that respect.” Ariel could picture it but that was his mind wandering again. That took too much effort. It took too much time to find someone that complimented him which was why he didn’t bother. “Some of the girls would have gone back to their dorms and not come back out, you know. As interesting as it would have been to witness, I don’t think it would have been appreciated. Maybe you could try it for when the French and the Slavic’s go home?”

Ariel seemed to be having some sort of problem with his shoes and he was jiggling his feet a little, which made Jack raise an amused eyebrow. Suddenly, he flung off one of his shoes, prompting Jack to tip her head back and laugh. He had to awkwardly hobble for a few seconds before freeing himself of the other one. Jack grinned. She kept her shoes on because they were comfortable and had been laced quite well, and Ariel's lack of shoes also shaved off a bit of their height difference.

At his words, she shrugged. "They could have fixed their dresses if they were clever enough. I'm sure all of the professors could cook up a spell to have everyone's hair and outfits go back to normal. Plus, I think the fun people would have appreciated it. We never have anything that fun randomly pop up. It would have been a public service, in my opinion."

Yes, she was bitter, and sarcastic, but she would not have done it just to be cruel and ruin the evening many girls would consider to be one of the most important of their ridiculously uneventful teenage schooling career. Sure, she would have pissed off some people, but she would do it in the hopes of thinking everyone might find it a funny little twist to the night. She sighed, "Yeah, maybe it's a bit overboard."

At his words, she was brought back to thinking about the tournament. Why was she even trying to succeed? What made it so important? Surely not to prove to anyone else her abilities, she was done with doing that. Maybe to herself, to try and convince herself that Vito and Chase and Andrew had not affected her so badly to change her... She smirked, looking up a him. "Maybe in the summer when people can appreciate it a bit more. I'll work up some scheme to make sure everyone's dressed for the occasion."

Jack was laughing a lot. She was definitely drunk. He wasn’t trying to make her laugh. Ariel smirked and continued to guide her around the room. She did have a point. They could have fixed their dresses but Ariel doubted they would have had the incentive to do so. They most likely would have been distraught; too distraught to even function let alone think about fixing the dresses. If he was a teacher then he certainly wouldn’t have fixed everything back up for them either. He would have been far too amused by their squeals of indignation upon finding their one-hundred galleon dresses ruined.

“Providing they took Charms,” Ariel smirked. There would be no chance they’d be able to fix the dresses if they didn’t have the magical knowledge to do just that.

Ariel had the magical knowledge but he didn’t go to class enough. There also weren’t enough instances to put it to good use. He wanted to go to class but he couldn’t half of the time. There wasn’t enough consistency in his health. He’d compared it to a mountain. After reaching rock bottom he’d have to go up again. Then there would be a period of normality before he started down the downward slow. The bottom line was that he was never healthy enough to go to class. He was either recuperating or his health was declining as his body prepared itself for the full moon. His inherited werewolf blood should have made him stronger. The wolfsbane should have given him more control. Instead he was weaker and had next to no control over the dog. That was why he was so drained mentally and physically for up to two weeks after the event. He had to fight to get control. He never just gained like so many others.

He was at the end of his middle ground. He’d have tomorrow then he’d start to get sick. At least he’d been well for Christmas. There were so many times when his mother would despair. She felt so useless. She hated to watch the disease progress. He tried to hide it from her, put on a brave face. He covered his mouth when he coughed, he ate the food she reheated for him, and he tried not to cry. At the end of the day though, that was still blood staining the napkin, that food would end up in the toilet later and tears would streak down his cheeks during the course of the painful night ahead.

“It’s not overboard just perhaps not practical for the ball. Summer is the best time for it I think. They hold balls then don’t they?”

Jack smirked, nodding at his words. A lot of people gave up Charms for some reason, whereas she knew most spells that were useful pranks came from Charms. It was really the only reason she had continued the subject, and that was the motivation behind most of the classes she took anyway. What could she learn that would better help her piss people off?

He said it was not practical for a ball and said summer would be the best time, which she had figured out. So her grand plan may not go to waste. She could imagine it now. People hurrying to get to lunch or to some sort of diversion she or Keith could set up and suddenly be sent tumbling down a chute full of water... Maybe she would save it for graduation.. Nah, too big of event for people to be good natured about it.

She shook her head at his words, saying, "I don't think so. They did have that summer party but..." she trailed off, getting a jolt as she realized how casually she had brought up that part of her of life, that day that had been a personal hell for her. She stared down at her feet and continued in a more subdued voice, "I don't think they have balls."

If she was not as tipsy, drunk, buzzed, whatever... she may have been a little more capable of pulling on her brave, cocky smile and pushed through the thought, waiting until later to break down because of it. But she had slipped up and now she was off her game. Why could she not move on? It had been so long ago, and yet the events of that day had changed her life and ever since, any mention or thought of it was enough to severely shake her.

She dropped her hand and let go of Ariel, saying, "Eh, I'm done dancing. I'm getting a little dizzy." She was, but it was not because of the dancing. She went and sat against the wall again, sliding down and picking up the wine, though she did not drink it, just hold it by the neck and stare at it. Why had she defaulted to drink...? That was a lot like Vito... No. She was not going to start torturing herself again. She took a small drink of the wine and then pulled the Komboloi from her pocket, playing with them.

The dancing ended fairly abruptly and the music soon followed. Ariel leaned against the piano, more for his own sake for appearance wise and dropped a hand down to grip the side. He looked at Jack carefully and frowned slightly. He moved towards where the bench was, using the piano as something to brace himself on. He dumped himself down on the bench and exhaled heavily. Ariel wasn’t sure if it was his body or just the alcohol throwing him off balance. That was another thing. He found his balance becoming increasingly off as time wore on. Often he’d need to be on all fours to even function in the mornings. That wouldn’t be for a while though and only time would tell whether it would get that bad. He just hoped things would be normal. He’d suffered more so lately than many other times.

Ariel swivelled himself around and looked down at the white and black keys of the piano. He placed his left hand down on the keys and pressed down on the one underneath his index finger. He liked to think he could play well. He was so-so. Richard had stopped the piano lessons after Ariel had been bitten. Fiona hadn’t protested either. It was odd really because he knew that he would have gotten up for them no matter what state he was in. He loved the sound of music as it filled the room. He loved that he could make the music, too. Ariel smiled when the key made the noise that he associated with that particular key and he pressed it again, experimentally.

“I can’t remember much...” He spoke to Jack but kept his eyes on the keys. “My mother...she used to encourage my learning of instruments...” Ariel closed his eyes and took his hand off of the keyboard. He opened them slowly and lifted his hands up. He grasped the cover and pushed it down. The keys disappeared from view, reminiscent of the way he’d put them away the last time he’d played. “But my...step-father...he never approved of me doing much of anything. Can’t think why...” he smirked to himself and turned around the stool, his head spinning slightly. “He was a bit of a health freak and I, the sickly child that I was, became his worst nightmare.” That was only half true. As much as the alcohol wanted to talk, Ariel still had control of his mind.

Ariel tapped the cover thoughtfully and looked at Jack who had once again chosen to sit with her wine. He looked down at the beads and then up at her jaw which was being bathed in both green and red. Ariel smiled and rose from the bench. He walked over to Jack and lowered himself tentively onto the floor so as not to hurt himself. He lifted his head, tearing his eyes away from his knees and turned his gaze on Jack’s jaw again. He took his hand off of the floor and brushed his fingers on his trousers before reaching out and gently touching the tip of his finger to her jaw bone. “Red,” he identified the colour and smiled slightly. He moved his finger along her jaw, marking the red with his thumb, and placed it on a green. “Green,” he murmured. “The beads...they’re reflective. It’s funny...I never noticed before. How things changed when one is mildly intoxicated.”

Jack watched the wine bottle, widening and squinting her eyes to see the distorted effect on the curved glass of the the bottle, ticking her eyebrows and her lips for her own amusement. She saw Ariel move and watched him make his unsteady way to piano. She supposed it was the alcohol taking its effect, making him a little wobbly and wrote it off as nothing.

He sat at the piano and pressed a key a few times. She had always been sort of envious to musicians. She did like music, she just did not have the patience nor the technique for it. If she ever calmed down she may have brought herself to learn a few chords on guitar, but she never had sat down long enough to try. She preferred to leave it to the people with the natural abilities. Besides, learning an instrument usually meant singing, and she was not much of a singer.

Jack watched Ariel as he spoke, never having thought of him as the kind to learn musical instruments. Then again, she had never really thought of him in any other context outside Hogwarts. She tried to imagine a younger version of him and an older woman at his side, as he reached out to a piano and found the vision came easier than she would have thought. She shook her head slightly.

"Sickly child?" Jack queried. She would not have imagined that. Now, someone like her old friend Nixen or his sister... She could imagine. Both were tiny and bony and sort of unhealthy looking. Ariel did not match that picture for her. He seemed much too confident to have ever been too sickly. Both Nixen and his sister were sort of subdued...

Ariel came and moved to sit next to her again and she stared at the beads in her hand, turning them over and clicking them together. She felt something begin to invade the bubble she usuully kept around herself and Ariel gently touched her jaw, saying 'red.' He dragged his finger to another point and said 'green.' She turned to look at him, her jaw tingling slightly where it had been touched. Was he messing with her...? No, she was pretty sure he had had too much to drink to be able to. She nodded slightly. "I hadn't noticed either..." She pushed a smile onto her face. "I guess drunkenness can have it's uses."

The reflective colours were speckling all over her face now and Ariel could tell there was a change in the light. He smiled a little and touched his middle finger to a red spot of light on her cheek. “Sickly, yes,” he said, moving his thumb to a green spot. “I was fine when I was really young. Then when I was...eight or nine, I can’t really remember, I started to get sick and I never really recovered I suppose. My mother used to put food supplements down beside my bed with my glass of water because I couldn’t eat. Then there would be these times sort of ...once every month or so I guess that I’d feel on top of the world. I’d literally feel as if I could pull a tree from the ground or,” Ariel chuckled, “blow a house down. Then I’d come crashing down again. Then I’d get better and it would fluctuate. It takes the whole ‘for better or worse’ thing a bit far.”

It was a half truth. Ariel wasn’t lying but he wasn’t telling her everything. He’d never really recovered. He’d never been able to cope with the dog, not like everyone else seemed to. Those in Fenrir’s pack often sought him out, the elder ones at least. They’d try to teach him but it did nothing for him. At times it just made things worse. He could remember in the early days, his muscles feeling like lead. He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep. The only thing he could really do was breath and cry. Those were the only things he could do well at least. He hated Fenrir; he hated the man with a passion. Ariel could only say one thing – things got better with age. He wasn’t wiped out like he used to be. Fiona didn’t have to pick him up and carry him to bed like she used to have to. He could carry himself around for a good few hours. When he was at home he’d get breakfast on, write instructions to his mother and heal some minor injuries. Then he’d only just be able to get upstairs, bang on her door and collapse in bed.

He did so much for them. He’d never realise how much they appreciated it.

Ariel moved his hand away and looked at the coloured dots that no covered Jack’s cheek and jaw. He smiled and reached out again, this time covering her cheek with his hand, almost cupping that one side of her face. “I’ll live I guess,” he breathed, “Long enough to fight another day at least.” He looked down at the beads and then up at her face again to see that the colours had moved again towards the middle of her face. “Hey,” he frowned slightly but a playful smile still had a hold on his lips. His eyebrows knitted together in drunken concentration and he reached down with his thumb to cover the red to the side of her mouth. “Pesky things.” He chuckled.

Jack definitely would not have guessed that. Any of that, really. She listened carefully, feeling her cheek warm up slightly at his touch. She just stared at him, registering that it was a little strange how she was not squirming at his touch. She had never been a touch-y sort of person, and she had even stiffened at the touch of Vito... Then again, he had usually been trying to mess with her mind. Maybe she trusted Ariel a little more... Or maybe she was drunker than she had thought.

He cupped her chink and she stared at him as though trying to focus on him, even though her vision was perfectly crystal clear, even through the alcohol. She was definitely not sure why she was not pushing him away as she usually did. Even when chase had hugged her at the beginning of the year when they had tried- and failed- to reconcile- she had stiffened, unsure of how to react when being touched.

See parents, this is why you're supposed to hug your kids.

"That's good," she said softly, looking up at him. She shifted the beads and Ariel gave a n amused look of mild frustration and chased after one of the colors with his thumb on the side of her mouth. She smirked up at him and jiggled the beads, shedding some of the color onto his face and reaching out to touch his nose with her index finger where a red dot was. "Oh look. Ariel the red-nosed Slytherin." She smirked.