Daley Manor Party

[daleysabrina]

You can do this.Sabrina took a deep breath, looking herself over again in the free standing body length mirror inside her bedroom, flatting out the flowing top that Martha had helped her pick out for the party. Even though she had a walk-in closet filled to the brim with brand new, gorgeous clothes for literally every occasion, Bri still felt her

Comments

[skylar_x]

It was definitely a very strange thing being at a party without a drink in her hand, Skylar holding firm to her promise of not drinking for a while, at least not until she got herself back in control. It had only been a week or two but the reality of it was like a slap in the face, not only to her but to Harry as well. The temptation to lose herself was just too great, drown herself in vodka sodas until everything went fuzzy and the memories weren't screaming out at her anymore. Until she was sleeping through the night Skylar was going to stick to water

[daleysebastian]

Not for the first time, Sebastian cursed the fact that this was his manor - his and Sabrina's - which meant apparently people wanted to talk to him. Did he need a sign to indicate he really wanted to be left alone? It probably wouldn't even matter with this crowd.

At least, this time, it was Skylar. He'd probably have liked Skylar anyway, without her connection to Reid, but after seeing her following her kidnapping, he'd felt a little more fond. That was closer to the type of thing he found himself dealing with before he'd come back.

"Mostly Reid. I pretty much just agreed to it and then gave up." He couldn't stop rolling his eyes a little. "It was a good idea, in theory." In practice, it seemed to be going well, he just wasn't a fan of his space being invaded, even when he allowed it.

[skylar_x]

"Most of Reid's ideas are only really good in theory," Skylar joked, though it did hold a certain amount of truth to it as she raised her eyebrows in a knowing way. It wasn't really a secret that he often got ahead of himself, charging headfirst into situations he was excited over before giving them a second thought. That, or he was on the couch for days watching documentaries and scalding down scalding hot ramen.

There was no in between.

"But it looks like it's doing your sister a bit of good? She's getting on with Orla fairly well-"

[daleysebastian]

"I think they knew each other, before, or something." Sebastian turned to shake his head at the perky redhead laughing at something and dragging Sabrina along. From what he could tell, Orla looked young enough to be Sabrina's age or close to it. Slytherins and Ravenclaws tended to get on fairly well. It made sense in a way.

"As long as she's having a good time," Sebastian nodded and glanced back at Skylar. "That's the point, anyway."

He'd lost track of how many times he'd said that or something similar since people started filtering in. "How have you been?" He tried not to let the question be too loaded. At least he had more than enough experience at a disinterested and blank tone.

[skylar_x]

"Orla will be good for her, I think. She can be a little intense but she always means well," Skylar assured him, eyeing Orla from across the room as well. Really, she was impossible to miss.

Skylar turned back to Bash, taking in his question and knowing that there was a deeper meaning behind it. While she had been near unconscious at the time, she remembered the concerned look in his eyes when they pulled her from the basement, how torn up he had been himself after fighting to get her out.

"Me? I'm- you know, fine," she settled on, shrugging light as she brought her water glass back up to her lips.

"Much better now that some time has passed."

[daleysebastian]

"That's usually all that works." Not that Sebastian knew that from experience. In his life, time just made things more distant and likely to creep up on you. It was more effective than most other things, though, so there was that.

Hopefully, she wasn't going to get caught up in nightmares and intrusive thoughts.

"Didn't drag Potter along with you tonight?" It was the slightest bit teasing, mostly only denoted as such by the small smirk that accompanied it. Sebastian didn't think too highly of Aurors, but he'd seen Harry in action regardless of any sort of regulations to save someone who mattered to him. Plus, it was pretty clear Skylar and Potter were a package deal. It seemed random, but Sebastian wasn't the best judge of random.

[skylar_x]

"Usually. Some days are better than others," she confessed, letting her guard drop ever so slightly as she reminded herself that this was the guy that Reid was with (hooking up with? seeing? dating? That was all still a little bit murky), and she could trust him, at least to some extent.

The last few nights she had at least made it through the night, the bags under her eyes not nearly as pronounced as they had been the last month. She wasn't even wearing much make up tonight, sick of caking it on in an attempt to hide away.

The idea of moving out of her flat, where so many terrible memories waited for her, was definitely helping.

"Harry? Oh no, I definitely dragged him along. I figured it was about time that he got used to the crowd-"

Skylar craned her neck, wondering exactly where she had lost him.

"He's probably catching up with Dean or Seamus-"

[daleysebastian]

Sebastian nodded along with her description of how she was doing. That was all anyone could expect, he reasoned. It was better than Sebastian probably expected for her. "I'd say take it one day at a time, but I hate cliches."

When she turned, Sebastian glanced around, not actually very interested in where Skylar's boyfriend was. He wasn't terribly interested, really, but then again, Sebastian made it a habit of being uninterested in anyone in his house.

"Right. Dean and Seamus." Which was interesting enough, if not shocking. "How much do you know about Thomas, then?" Sebastian had a compulsion to try to figure things out, and he wasn't going to try to scare Sabrina's boyfriend off, but he getting things from people first hand had a different effect than reading it on paper.

[skylar_x]

Skylar knew that there was a reason that she liked Bash and well, here were two of them.

"Good, I hate cliches," she told him, laughing lightly as she met his gaze. The last month had really been nothing but old and tired pieces of advice, often from people that had no idea what they were talking about and couldn't relate to her at all. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Sebastian and a few demons of his own so of course he would understand.

And the second was much more light hearted but speaking to her on a deeper level.

Gossip.

"I don't know him personally, not outside of Harry, but I do make it my business to, well, know this-"

[daleysebastian]

He grinned briefly, the expression settling into a smirk lest his completely unaffected and slightly annoyed reputation get crushed. Sebastian would admit, though, that he did legitimately like Skylar and here were enough reasons for that.

Eyebrow raised, he gave her an expectant look.

"Lucky, so do I." He shrugged, raising his mostly empty glass, somehow still the same one he'd filled earlier. "Which is why you should share with the class."

[skylar_x]

Normally Skylar was much more strict with when and where she disclosed her coveted gossip, the letters and e-mails still coming into her even though she wasn't exactly actively writing the column at the moment. Everything she ever received, at least the juicy stuff, was locked away into her memory.

There was no way that Skylar was about to forget anything that had to do with one of Harry's friends or Ginny's ex.

"Alright- he dated Ginny Weasley before she dumped him for Harry about ten years back. He hasn't had a girlfriend since though-" she started, briefly glancing over her shoulder, which more out of habit than anything else.

"He's dated, though. I've never heard anything about any random hook ups and he's a bit of a workaholic."

[daleysebastian]

That all seemed to add up to what Sebastian had found - on the personal life scale, anyway. There was unaccounted for time, as far as Sebastian could tell, but he remembered the history they'd all lived, even if he'd been as far away as he could manage at the time. There were some things even Sebastian didn't want to dig into.

The point was, Skylar had just handed him enough to make an opinion.

"Do you know how much time you could have saved me if I had asked you this a few weeks ago?"He shook his head, almost but not quite shocked. "What's your opinion?" He had no idea why that mattered to him, but for some reason or other he was willing to put some stock in Skylar's judgment of people.

[skylar_x]

"Well, now you know- you need quick gossip? I'm definitely the one to come to," she told him, eyebrows arched as she shot him a very knowing look, her thumb pointed inwards towards herself.

Most of the time she let the gossip speak for itself, making small insinuation and passing them off as pieces of advice inside of her column, knowing that usually the truth just spoke for itself. After all, people were going to believe what they wanted to about a person. The gossip was there mostly just to stir up a bit of trouble.

"My thoughts? Well, honestly I don't really see what the Ginny Weasley appeal is-" Skylar started, rolling her eyes as she said the girl's name, "but he seems like a nice enough guy which is weird, you know, considering he's best mates with Seamus Finnigan-"

She shrugged, her eyes flickering over towards Dean briefly.

"Good looking too-"

[daleysebastian]

"I'll keep that in mind," he snorted. Gossip wasn't exactly his thing. Maybe it was a little his thing, considering how much Sebastian just liked to know things since information was power, but that was completely outside the point.

"Good looking is a given." Sebastian muttered before he thought about it. There was no denying it, though, since Sebastian wasn't blind and paid more attention to attractive men than he did women. "Which is actually weird since he's the person than managed to get her here" While he expected Reid probably told Skylar everything - suspected it strongly enough that it made him a touch nervous, even if he'd never admit to having that kind of feeling - he wasn't about to admit where his sister had been or give out any information about the problem they shared. Telling Reid and Jemma had been one thing, but as much as he liked Skylar - bordering on fondness - telling her wasn't an option.

[skylar_x]

"Oh, is that how they met?" she mused, crossing her arms over her chest as she nodded her head slowly.

Reid had given her the run down about Sabrina after he had met her before the music benefit, all too excited about the new little adorable project he had to work with. Sometimes it amazed her just how big of a gay cliche her best friend was but she wouldn't dream of having it any other way.

"Well, you must know how I feel on the whole love at first sight bit-"

The way she said it was skeptical but deep down Skylar was a huge romantic, in love with the same guy since she was twelve, and she was sure that Sebastian knew a bit about her story through Reid. At least Sabrina didn't have to wait a decade for her crush to notice her-

[daleysebastian]

"That's what she says." Sebastian rolled his eyes the slightest bit. He was doing that a lot during this party. If it wasn't eyerolling, it was glaring. Somehow, people kept wandering up to him.

He did not used to have this problem.

"Love at first sight." He said it with something close to disgust. Sebastian was anything other than a romantic, as if that wasn't obvious enough with whatever he was doing with Reid. He tried not to think about just how much of that Skylar surely knew about. It's not like Reid was the type to hide things from his platonic lifemate.

"Again. Cliches. The drawn out things pay off better." He wasn't just saying it for her benefit, he actually believed it.