“How come none of you know where the room of requirement is?” Ivy said in a hushed angered voice. She was accompanied by Paige, Maria and Sean Rowland, Maria’s childhood best friend and a fellow Ravenclaw. They were all dressed up for the party but none of them actually knew where the Room of Requirement was, where the Hufflepuffs were currently hosting the party. “This is absurd.”

“I’m sure it was on one of the upper floors but I don’t exactly know which one,” Sean said. “Why don’t we just head back to the common room and check it out in the Hogwarts: A History?” Maria offered.

Ivy shook her head. “No, that’s going to take us too long. We are so far ahead now.” They all had been chatting excitedly coming out and then started following each other thinking they were leading the way but they soon came to know that none of them actually knew where the Room of Requirement was. Since then, they had been roaming around up and down the whole castle in hopes of finding the room and also looking out for Filch.

“How about the library?” Sean said. “Must be closed by now. It’s too late.” Ivy looked over at Paige who seemed to be in her own world. She was seemingly unaffected by the fact that they couldn’t find the party. She wore her LED shoes and was just admiring them as she walked around the whole school.

“Mind helping us out a little Paige?” Ivy remarked sarcastically. “Can you stop admiring your shoes now?” Paige spun around her heels. “I can’t!” she said with a wide grin. “This is the best gift I’ve gotten like ever! My shoes light up!”

Ivy rolled her eyes at the absurdness. “You can literally do magic. Why are you so mind blown over shoes that light up?” Paige ignored Ivy as she clicked both heels of her shoes and they shone an array of neon colours. “Why did I even bother asking her?” Ivy thought to herself with a sigh.

“Now what?” Ivy crouched down besides the wall and put her face in her palm. “I’m sure we can’t be the only ones left behind. There must be some other students trying to go to the party as well. We should just wait a while.” Maria said, putting a hand on Ivy’s shoulder. “Yeah, let’s just wait a while. Then we can go back to the common room, I guess.” Sean shrugged.

Luckily, after a few minutes of waiting, they could hear some voices and by the sound of it, it seemed like they were students. Sean was the first one to see them, and immediately as he did, he turned back towards the others. “Quick, hide!” he told them. “What? Why?” Maria started but he quickly ushered the four of them behind a wall.

“It’s the Slytherins.” he whispered. “So what? It’s not like we are going to pick a fight with them.” Maria replied back, throwing an uncertain look towards Ivy. They were talking in low voices. “There’s Nott. And Parkinson and Zabini.” Sean said. “Black is with them.” he added. “And I don’t think Ivy would want to come in their way.” Ivy rolled her eyes with a bitter look on her face. They weren’t wrong.

“Alright, alright, we can just follow them.” Maria said. “Quietly,” Ivy added, throwing a look at Paige and her glowing shoes. They did not want to attract attention but Paige’s shoes were doing the exact opposite. “Alright quickly now before we lose them.” Sean said and they all got out, secretively making their way behind the Slytherins, Paige trailing besides Ivy.

The four then quietly followed the Slytherins and managed to find the Room of the Requirement. They hid behind a suit of armour to wait for the Slytherins to go in and followed them.

The party wasn't exactly what Ivy had imagined. She had thought of a dance floor with a disco light, music blaring— drunk students all around. That was what would come to anyone's mind when you first hear the word party. But this was better. This was great actually.

The Hufflepuffs sure had their own way of partying. The whole area was enveloped in a cozy vibe, numerous plants here and there, symbolizing their love for Herbology. There were candles, lots and lots of them scented with every flavor you could think of.

The Hufflepuff common room was near the kitchens and they all were familiar with the house elves. So, food was not a problem at all. They had lined up a great long table, filled with food, on one side. But what Ivy liked the most was the vine wall. The whole wall was covered with green vines that had small berries growing on them. You just needed to stand there and the magical vines would offer you the fruit themselves, like invisible hands controlling them.

Students were all up to different things. Some were talking, some danced to the rhythmic music while others played exploding snap in the corner. There was even a place for students to sing where a 7th year Gryffindor was singing a muggle song.

Maria and Sean were already off taking part in the next round of exploding snap. And Paige was preparing to head off somewhere too. Ivy grabbed her hand.

"Whatever you do Paige, no drinking. That's it." Paige rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine, mum."

She replied sarcastically then with a smile and have fun she was lost in the crowd.

"Okay Ivy. Your friends have officially abandoned you." Ivy said to herself. But truth be told, she didn't want to bother anyone tonight either. Paige wanted to hang around her quidditch team and Ivy did not want to interrupt Maria and Sean. They should spend time together because it was very obvious that Sean liked Maria and everyone knew it but them. So it was better that the two idiots figured out their feelings. Besides, the food table looked too tempting to care for anything else.

Without wasting another second, Ivy quickly went towards the food table. The cupcakes were big, pink frosting with colorful sprinkles on them. She chose the biggest one out of the them and in an attempt to eat the whole frosting in one go without making a mess, she had to take a really big bite due to which her face was currently stuffed with cupcake and her cheeks puffy due to the sugary treat inside. She knew her mother wouldn't approve her 'eating like a monster' like this, so she only wished no one would see her right now. It would be very embarrassing if someone were to find her like this.

"Hi Binns!" A very familiar Gryffindor's voice rang in her ears. Someone she really, really didn't want to see her in this situation. Oh just my luck! Ivy scoffed as she turned around to face him with a guilty look.

Sirius chuckled. "Relax, relax, we have enough food here." He said and Ivy turned red with embarrassment. Why did he always have to catch her in the most humiliating of times?

"You look like a chipmunk." he said pinching her rounded cheeks with his fingers. Ivy blushed even red and quickly swallowed down the cupcake.

"I'm really sorry about that," she said, embarrassed. "Oh, no need to be. Are you enjoying yourself?" he asked. Ivy just nodded her head. Yes, I'm totally having the time of my life. I've already managed to embarrass myself not even 10 minutes into the party. Great life!

“Hey Padfoot! Are you not going to introduce me to your new friend?” another person joined them. Remus Lupin stood beside them with a smile. “Oh, great timing! I was just about to bring Ivy to you guys.” said Sirius. “I really wanted to introduce her to you all. Where's James?” “Doing the usual.” Peter Pettigrew pointed in a direction. They all looked to where he pointed to see James Potter standing beside Lilly Evans, grinning probably at some lame joke he had cracked. Lily really looked like she wanted him out of here.

“He should be coming back in 3..2..1..” Sirius counted. As soon as he said the last number. Lily snapped at James, grabbed her friend’s arm and left the place. James started coming towards them with a disappointed look on his face. “Wow. You guys are good at this.” Ivy chuckled. “We are so used to seeing this that we are aware of every single step Evans will take.” Remus answered.

James joined them with a dejected look on his face. “You should be used to it by now, Prongs.” Sirius said. “Cheer up mate!” he handed him the glass of firewhiskey. “I just don’t get it why she doesn’t like me. I’m so terribly charismatic.” he said sadly as he gulped the drink in one go. "Well, maybe if you stop annoying her and grow up a little, she'll see your charisma." Remus answered.

"Well who's this?" James asked, finally taking note of Ivy. "Oh wait, I know you!" He said again, before she could introduce herself. "Miss. Binns right?" He said with a smile, bringing his hand forward. "We met on the train." "Yes, that's me." Ivy replied, shaking his hand. She was surprised he remembered her from that brief encounter.

Ivy talked to the marauders for a while. It was nice. James' silly jokes were actually quiet likable. The embarrassment from the cupcake incident earlier had died down as well. She was just glad to be in the company of Sirius and seeing him introduce her to his friends. All was well until she was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder.

“Binns!” someone called her out, Ivy turned around to see Michael Davies. “Um, Can you come with me for a moment? There is a little um situation." he said.

"What happened? Is it Paige?" Ivy asked, worriedly. She excuses herself from the marauders and followed Michael through the crowd.

"I am extremely sorry, I didn't know she was a light drinker. She didn't tell us beforehand. If I had known, I would've given her a smaller shot or stopped her from drinking more but she kept drinking quickly—" Michael Davies fumbled with words. "Wait wait wait wait," Ivy said, stopping him. "Who are you talking about?!" She asked him.

"Your sister," he said, looking confused by the look on Ivy's face. "Is there something wrong?" He asked.

"Oh my God," Ivy said, holding her head in her hands. "Light drinker? She wasn't supposed to drink at all! She's underage!"

Michael Davies was just as shocked as Ivy. "She didn't tell us! She told us she could drink!" He said quickly to avoid Ivy misunderstanding the situation. "Take me to her." Ivy said in an intimidating tone and Michael quickly took her to where the rest of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team was gathered. They all sat on little couches and beanies and in the middle of one couch Paige Binns laid down, raspberry red in face, giggling in a silly manner.

"Hello sister!" She said upon seeing Ivy. She tried standing up but stumbled on her feet and was about to fall before Ivy supported her. She was still in shock to see Paige like this. Paige giggled again. "I'm having fun, Ivy. Give me another one of this Mike!" She tried grabbing on to Michael Davies who just took the glass from her hand and set it aside.

"You are so dead Paige." Ivy said icily in her ear but Paige just laughed more, slipping on her feet and grabbing Ivy for support.

"I'll need to go." Ivy said. "We need to go back."

"Alright, I'll help you." Michael said, taking Paige's weight from Ivy. But the blonde refused.

"No, no. It's alright. Enjoy your night, Davies."

"No, really, it's fine. I don't think you can handle her alone like this. It's a far way to go." Michael insisted but Ivy was stubborn in her word. She wasn't going to disturb somebody else's night because of Paige's silliness.

"Just do me a favour… If you see Maria Ogden or Sean Rowland kindly tell them I have gone back to the dorm." Although reluctantly, Michael agreed.

On their way out, avoiding bumping into the swarm of students, Ivy saw Sean singing Maria's favorite muggle song, who just sat on the couch laughing at him. They seemed to be having fun. It was wrong to disturb them. Ivy knew that if she told Maria about the situation, the girl would stop everything at once and come to help Ivy. And Ivy didn't want that.

▫――――――――――――――▫

Paige was heavy. Ivy felt herself succumb under her sister’s weight. With Paige’s arm

wrapped around Ivy’s shoulder, she held her firmly making sure they both wouldn’t fall down all the while scolding her. And it wasn’t any help that drunk Paige was a maniac. Not that sober Paige was any better, but if normal Paige was crazy then it’s all up to your imagination what drunk Paige was.

She was constantly talking in gibberish, all the while slipping twelve times a minute. She just couldn’t stay still. And with the fear that Filch or any teacher could come and catch them any second, Paige wasn’t really helping.

“Oo! Oo! Oo!” she suddenly shouted aloud. “Ivy.. Ives! We need to go to the Astronomy Tower! Please Please Please Pleaseー” “ーbe quiet!” Ivy whisper-yelled angrily, covering Paige’s mouth with her hand. Filch could catch them any second now. Paige helplessly tried removing Ivy’s hand as she continued speaking in muffled voices. “Please, please, please Ivy!” “No. We are going straight to the common room.” Ivy stated in a stern voice. “You’re going to get us in a lot of trouble if we get caught and the common room already feels so far away. We aren’t making any pit stops.”

“Come oonnnn Ivー hic.. Ivy beans..Am Iー hic.. not a good sister? I’ll even give.. I’ll even give you my.. neon.. neon shoes,” Paige said with a pout. Her words were getting more slurred with each second. Ivy refused once more, but Paige pushed her away. Then she sat down on the cold floor of the Hogwarts corridor and started crying. “Shh! Shh! Paige be quiet!” Ivy tried to shake her sister to come back to her senses. This was getting so frustrating. Paige looked straight into Ivy’s eyes and made the saddest puppy face ever. “You don’t..love me anymore!” she said with another wail. “I just.. I just wanted to see the stars!”

Ivy honestly didn’t know what to do. Any teacher could walk in on them any second with the ruckus Paige was making, she wasn’t listening to Ivy, the common room seemed so far away, and all of this was starting to give Ivy a headache now. For a second, she considered sitting down besides Paige and crying too. It was all so overwhelming. Maybe she shouldn't have refused Davies. It was hard doing this alone.

But Ivy took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. Crying wasn’t going to help in any way, just waste more time. “Okay,” she said. “Okay, let’s go to the Astronomy Tower.”

The frown on Paige’s face immediately turned into a smile as if it was never there. “You’re the best sister ever!” she said immediately tackling Ivy into a hug but stumbled and they both fell down. Ivy cushioned Paige’s fall but ended up hurting her hand instead, all the while Paige giggling hysterically. Ivy ignored the jolt of pain in her wrist, and quickly headed towards the stairs to go up. There were a lot of stairs to climb.

It took them a good while to reach up the tower, mainly because Paige was constantly stumbling so she had to be given extra support so she wouldn’t fall off and end up opening her skull. But they reached the tower finally, and Paige ran off ahead, giggling and smiling as she saw the starry sky. Ivy’s wrist was throbbing, and her headache was getting stronger too, but she could admit that the cool night breeze and seeing the stars twinkling on the sky did make her feel better. They both sat down on the bench, gazing upwards. Ivy let herself relax, closing her eyes. She could hear Paige mumble something incoherent, but she was too tired to pay any attention to it. Suddenly, her ears heard a little thud. Her eyes fluttered open.

She quickly stood up, pointing her wand in the direction of the noise. “W-Who is it?!” she said aloud albeit scared it wouldn’t be Filch or his cat. She took small steps ahead and lightened the wand. “Lumos,”

The light illuminated the area in front of her to reveal none other than Regulus Black, who got caught in between a failed attempt at hiding behind the big telescope. He looked disappointed in himself for being caught, but he came out from behind it. Then pursed his lips, and raised his arm. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here?” Ivy’s fear turned into immediate annoyance, as she asked with furrowed brows. “Are you following us?” She raised her wand more firmly at him.

Regulus didn’t miss the slight hesitation in her wrist movement.

“Calm down, I’m not a stalker.” he rolled his eyes. “I don’t have that much free time to waste stalking. Even if I did, what makes you think I’d willingly want to stalk you of all people?” he crossed his arms and stepped forwards.

“Then what are you doing here? Hiding?” she asked, emphasizing on hiding, wand still raised at him. “You’re not the only one who likes coming to the astronomy tower.”

“Oh look Ivy, it’s Black!” Paige said excitedly coming towards them. “Hi Black! I don’t hate you at all. My sister is very scary, I get why you don’t like her.” Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Don’t tell her but sometimes I’m scared of her too. More than a Banshee.” she said like a little child a secret. Ivy looked at Paige with disbelief and anger. “Oops, she heard,” Paige covered her mouth with her hand, the giggled. Regulus couldn’t help but let out a laugh too. But he caught himself from laughing out loud when Ivy snapped her head back at him and glared. He didn’t want to die on the Astronomy Tower on a cold night. Too brutal.

Before Ivy could say anything more, she felt a weight on her shoulder. Paige had placed her head over there, eyes shut as she mumbled sleepily. Maybe it was all the running around, and the stair climbing, or because of the rush of energy because of the liquor, that had made her sleepy. “I’m sleepy, Ivy. Let’s sleep under the stars tonight.” she said something more too, but her sleepy words mumbled it all together.

“Is she drunk?” he said in an amused tone. “Honestly speaking, I couldn’t have known if she was drunk or not if it weren’t for her stumbling like this. She’s kinda the same when she’s sober too.” Regulus said with a laugh. Ivy glared at him again. Honestly, if looks could kill, she would have murdered and burried him all at once. He coughed nervously. Ivy looped her arm around Paige again, trying to keep her steady. Her wrist wasn’t of any help either.

“You need some help?” he offered, seemingly appearing nonchalant. “Not from you.” Ivy said with spite. She really did need help, but accepting it from her sworn enemy? Never.

“Fine.” he said with an annoyed shrug and climbed down the stairs. Back to his common room, perhaps.

In the end, Ivy managed to reach back their dorm, carrying Paige behind her with a levitating spell. The dorm was quiet, Alexis fast asleep and Maria still at the party. Ivy put Paige to bed, who was sleeping like a log right now. She took a painkiller for her own headache, and the wrist pain, then pulled the covers over her. It had been a very tiring night. Too tiring for her to even think about why Regulus had offered her help.