Her Chocolate Lair

Darcy had been absent from school for awhile now, as she had been sailing around North America in a mad dash after some newly-discovered jewels. Being in school during the first half of the year had been hard - she had to face the knowledge that Bryce and her father were off doing what they wanted, sailing like crazy, and enjoying life while she had been shut up in the library, having facts shoved down her throat. When Bryce had finally contacted her, she had left Hogwarts before she had even turned in the proper paperwork. Now finals were coming, the jewels had been secured, and she had settled back into school life over the weekend.

Unfortunately, though, being out of school had been just as hard. Now she was facing finals, and she had been terribly out of practice. If she had been struggling in the face of finals when she had been here (three months ago, with a tutor) she was surely screwed now, just days from her final tests before winter provided solace and wholly without a tutor. It had only taken her three hours staring at the pile of books before her to decide there was no point in attempting to cram - she was just going to take the grade her brain would give her. Que sera, sera.

She had raided the kitchen and was now enjoying a feast of chocolates from Honeydukes. She was sprawled out one one of the couches, snug in tights, combat boots, and an oversized, ugly Christmas sweater. Her mind was already on winter break and she wanted it to hurry its ass up and catch up with her already. She lolled over the couch and aimed the dart in her hand, tossing it. It stuck into the dartboard and the third year who had dodged the prior dart let out a sigh of relief. "You done with that, yet?"

She raised her hand, full of darts. "Four to go, Morty."

He let out a groan and his small group of previously-giggling young'uns reluctantly gathered their things and left. She retired the darts and giggled to herself.

Darcy, you clever devil.

"What opinion do you possess of the newly passed Marriage Law?" The Hufflepuff fifth-year with the overly large head nodded earnestly at her.

"Hmmm." She said, all stirringly eloquent.

No....not large. Long-ish, more like. Almost oblong. Like a mango.

"No reaaalllly." He enunciated back, almost as if drawn-out syllables would penetrate better into her head. "Do you not think it is a sham to the name of a legislation? An infraction upon our civil rights?"

Wow. Any more archaic and he'd burst out into Shakespeare. There always was a pompous Hufflepuff in every year. People called it the 'Smith effect.'

Oblong. Mangoes. All yellow and succulent and juicy and mhrrrmmmmm........

"Hello?" The Hufflepuff snapped a finger before her eyes. He was starting to look slightly put-out now, brows drawn tight together. Like an inflated, chubby, oblong-headed monk of Ivanhoe-like times, a Prior Aymer with a wobbly lip and an annoyed scowl that seemed more hilarious than intimidating. "I am trying to discuss something rather important with you, you know."

"Do I really?" Escaped from her lips before it could be properly censured. Alisha shot the boy a sympathetic smile, and then clapped him on the back. "You see.....marriage is like.....a well. A deep, big, bottomless well. Now, the more gormless of those among us, like to jump into the well willingly. For the more sensible ones, there is the Ministry. So we are all condemned to mass suicide, really. Got it?"

The boy blinked, bewildered, back at her. Alisha took pity on him. She patted him once more on the back, comfortingly. "It's alright. You'll get better."

Even as she turned, then took off for the couch closest to the fire, she could hear the fifth-year mouth witlessly, "Wha-?"

Crashing into the couch was easy. Wrestling one of the chocolates from its occupant, was not. But Alisha was at a height and position advantage, so three minutes later found her prostate over the same couch, legs flung over the nearest table, licking off orange-flavoured chocolate from her fingertips. "You should know better than to hide chocolate from me, Pirate. I know everything. And all the little nooks and crannies and cubby-holes you have, so don't bother there either." A final lick. "How was the trip? Brought anything for me?"

Darcy was so concentrated in basking in the glory that was her clever little mind that she did not expect the sneak attack fromt the skies. That was the problem at being at sea, you never expected the skies you so relied on to be the deliverer of defeat. This failing was what made her lose the Great Battle of Honeydukes Chocolate, as a familiar figure suddenly flung herself onto the couch. Darcy had no qualms in flinging fists and elbows, though she was significantly holding back. She had been raised on a boat where, sometimes, the only fun to be had was to wrestle those around you. She was a strong girl, and she did not want to break her friend.

Alisha was one of the few that always seemed happy to just pick up their friendship wherever it had left off. Some of Darcy's more needy friends, the lesser ones, were always upset when she left, and slow to gain their loyalty back. Padril and Alisha were perfect examples of the sort of friends Darcy needed - those all too happy to see her leave because they knew it was what she wanted, but perfectly pleased upon her return. It was one of the reasons Darcy was so relaxed in letting some of her precious chocolate get surrendered to the other Hufflepuff girl - it was what pals did.

The battle was over, and Darcy rolled over so she was back to sitting, her right ankle loosely resting on her left knee. She lolled her head over and grinned, "I'm learning my lesson, slowly but surely." She smirked. "The trip? It was good - it's been awhile since I've been to the 'Mericas. So that was pretty cool. We ran into a problem in a Florida port and had to stay there awhile, which was cool for me. And Dad found what he was looking for, so... money in the bank." She shrugged. She got that they were chasing a paycheck. She was just along for the adventure.

Did she get Alisha something? Of course. Darcy always found trinkets and made sure she got enough to distribute among her friends. "In fact..." She pushed the sleeve of her jacket up, revealing a bunch of bracelets she had purchased in Florida. "This one is the coolest," she said, slipping off one of the bracelets and handing it to Alisha. "It's from this little general store in this weird Florida bayou called Lenny's Tackle, Bait, and Filtered Water. They had a bunch of trinkets like this made from crocodile skin. This one was the coolest by far though."

((So this is months late. We could continue it... or not. Just thought I'd reply. XD ))