if you leave the light on { d a n j e r }

“Don’t listen to anything he says,” Freya called out from the kitchen, cutting Danny off as he dished some terrible Danny-dating-advice through the bathroom door. “And I’m not doing this again,” she added, even though she knew she probably would do it again if one of the boys asked her to.

She wasn’t anyone’s mum; she could barely fry an egg, for Merlin’s sake, and she only ever did washing when she ran out of underwear, but she was the only one of the three of them who could pull off a decent ironing charm. So here she was, running her wand slowly down the sleeves of Jeremy’s shirt. Ironing was way too much effort, she thought, but there was something satisfying about watching the little crinkles disappear. A fact she’d only admit to herself.

After she was done, she made her way through the hall to the bathroom, passing Danny in the hall and scrunching her face up at him. She knocked on the bathroom door, then opened it just enough that she could stick her hand, with the shirt on a coat hanger, through the crack. “Here you go, Jem,” she said gently, wiggling it a bit until he took it. She shut the door, then hovered in the hall for a moment before going out to the living room to wait there instead.

"Oh yeah and tell her that her ass looks nice if it does. Girls looove compliments on their butts," Danny added as he talked to Jere through the bathroom door as he leaned against the doorjamb. He was in a pair of old worn-in jeans that had holes in the pockets and a faded navy Puddlemere shirt, feet bare, hair in its normal disarray. Somehow, they had both had dates lately and Danny wanted to make sure his best friend was fully prepared so of course he was offering his best advice.

He grinned as he heard Freya call out from the kitchen, but kept saying little advice bits as he thought of them. "Oh and don't eat anything onion-y. Don't want bad breath for that first snog, get me?" he added with a laugh as Tricky came around the corner with a freshly ironed shirt. His brows flew up and he nodded a job well done to her before sticking his tongue out after she crunched her face at him. He purposely stuck his bum out as she passed him to knock into her, giving her a little "Oops, didn't see you there."

"Yo, dude," he whispered as a sudden thought popped into his mind, shuffling closer to the door and opening it a crack, whispering through the tiny space. "Have you manscaped lately, don't forget it. Ow!" The door snapped shut and Danny rubbed his nose before taking a step back, glaring at his friend through the door. "Geez, it was just as question."

She smacked Danny's arm with the back of her hand as she passed him. “Don’t tell her her ass looks nice on the first date,” Freya called over her shoulder as she went back to the living room. The blonde hovered for a bit, not really sure if she should sit down or wait for Jeremy standing up. Despite her feelings about the ironing, she did sort of feel like a mum, or maybe a proud older sister or something, as she waited for her redheaded friend to come out. She was a bit nervous for him, especially with Danny whispering in his ear. She rolled her eyes, wondering how Danny had gotten a second date with that other girl.

Ellie, she thought. Not that other girl, but Eleanora Lovecraft, who she’d been sort of friends with in school. They’d never been close or anything, but Ellie had been friends with Keela, and Freya and Keela were close, so they’d been friends too, by default.

Freya shook her head, returning her focus to Jeremy. Tonight was more about Jeremy and his date, not Danny’s. She shifted her weight from foot to foot impatiently. Merlin, she hoped things went well tonight.

"Uh... that doesn't sound right..." Jeremy said slowly as Danny gave him some dating advice. He was clueless about girls, but he was also pretty sure Danny didn't know much more than he did. That was why they always asked Freya about these sorts of things. It was why he nodded and pointed down the hall in her general direction when she shouted for him not to listen to anything he said. Jeremy shrugged a little smile on his face and hoped he would remember the onion thing. That at least sounded like a good bit of advice. Then again, if they got nachos then all bets were off. Jeremy wouldn't pass up a good plate of nachos, not even for a first date the first kiss, he had priorities after all.

"Thanks Tricky." He called from inside the bathroom as he reached for the hanger and slipped the shirt over his shoulders. He'd never been able to do the ironing spell, he barely did the cleaning ones properly, their entire flat being proof of that. He buttoned the last of the gray buttons and flattened the bearded dragon print over his chest and stomach.

"Manscaping? ... oh! Dude!" Jeremy said, pushing the door closed again and not bothering to make sure Danny's fingers weren't in the jam first. Even Jeremy was caught off guard sometimes by the random things his best friend said. He was a hilarious wizard, but Jeremy was a bundle of nerves, so he didn't see the humor in the comments at that moment. He shook his head, looking back at the mirror to return to his pile of curls and then paused... Shrugging his shoulders he pulled on the front of his pants, checking out the situation down there, and then rolled his eyes.

Emerging from the bathroom he met them in the living room and did a little strut. "So, what do you think?" He was nervous, and as his two best friends, they could probably see the difference in his personality. Jeremy smiled weakly, trying to remind himself it was going to be a fun date.

"Then when? Second date for ass compliments?" Danny asked Tricky with a grin, still rubbing his nose from getting slammed in the face with it, the curiosity in his voice mixing with his amusement. He was sure he was just as out of sorts before his date with Ellie, but hell, this was fun. Now that he wasn't the one who had to pull off the feat of the century and impress a girl, Danny was totally relaxed.

His best friend on the other hand... he came out of the bathroom strutting and Danny nodded, grinning, as he leaned against the wall arms crossed. "Great shirt, hair lookin' good. Your face is a little bit of an eye sore, but what can ya do?" Danny joked with a laugh, glancing at Freya as he enjoyed this new opportunity to rag on his friend. He looked nervous though and Danny was torn between teasing him and making him feel better. Merlin knew there was a lot riding on this date for Jere. Dude could barely get a date at all so this had been like a miracle dropped from the heavens.

Freya smiled as Jeremy emerged. He looked nervous and she felt that protective feeling again. She just wanted him to have a good time. The blonde glanced at Danny as he started talking, nodding along enthusiastically until he got to the face part. She shot him a withering look.

“You look great,” Freya said, turning her attention back to Jeremy. Unable to help herself, she moved forward to smooth the front of his shirt. “Missed one,” she told him softly, doing up one of his buttons. “This was the right shirt,” she added. Jeremy was one of the sweetest people she knew; she really hoped things went well for him. She smoothed his collar.

“Don’t listen to anything Danny says,” she added, stepping back. “Danny?” she asked, not looking at him. “Time?”

For a split second Danny's words started to make him feel better, more confident, and then that all came crashing down around him. He wanted to touch his face, instinctively, but he stopped himself and gave his best friend a dirty look instead. Luckily Freya stepped in and her words were much nicer. Jeremy's palms were sweating, his breathing was a little off, he was more nervous than he had been in a long time. He rarely landed dates, so this was like a huge deal, and he couldn't help but remind himself of that.

She finished a button he'd forgotten and fixed his collar and he smiled sheepishly, trying to chill. He thought about smoking to take the edge off but this was too important. He'd smoke before work, or even back before lessons at Hogwarts, but this was a whole other level of importance. And he didn't want to mess it up by getting too high.

"Really, you think so?"

He exhaled loudly and began trying to shake out the fears, as he looked from Freya to Danny and back again. And waited for the time.

Danny shrank back from Freya's glare, holding up his hands defensively as he laughed to himself. He couldn't help himself. Jere looked so nervous. He hadn't seen him like this in a while. Not since his last date. Which was like eons ago practically. It was a good thing Freya had decided to come over to help because otherwise Jeremy would probably be a disaster by now.

"T-minus two minutes," Danny answered as he glanced at his watch and then back at his red-headed friend. "Do you remember where you're apparating to right?" he asked. He had already forgotten himself, but it's not like he needed to know anyway. Well, not unless he was planning on pulling some kind of prank on his friend while he was on the date. And Freya had already warned him off of that so he knew better.

"C'mon, mate. Chill. You'll be fine. You're gonna have fun," Danny told him with a genuine smile.

"I do," he did remember where he was going right? He had set this whole thing up, he should remember?! Jeremy nearly panicked, a scared look crossing his face, and then he remembered where he was going and relaxed again. He took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "You're right, I got this." He did what he could to hype himself up. He had a little list of things to ask her about, he had Freya's good advice, he had Danny's... well Danny hadn't really been helpful but he supposed he did teach him what not to do, and he had his lucky dragon shirt on. This was going to be great.

"Time to go, don't want to be late." Don't want to be late was something that had literally never escaped Jeremy's lips. He was late for everything, even when he was trying to be late, he was later than planned. He checked his pockets, patting them to make sure he had his wand and his wallet so he wouldn't have to come back. "Okay wish me luck..." he said as he slipped on his neon sneakers at the door and began unlocking the couple of locks they had bolted to the door.

"You two have fun tonight," he said, smiling sweetly and waving at Freya, and then his eyes narrowed on Danny, "And don't touch my stuff!" And with that he was out the door, on the way to his date with @Montserrat Fábregas .

She was ready to throttle Danny if he said the wrong thing, but thankfully he eased up on the teasing a bit. "Good luck!" Freya called, bouncing a little as she waved a final goodbye.

Freya sighed as Jeremy left, feeling something like relief. She felt nervous for him, but that nervousness lessened a little once he was gone. She glanced at Danny. It had been a few days since they’d hung out together, alone. She’d actually fallen asleep on his chest during the radio show they’d been listening to, and Danny had had to wake her up. They’d hung out all afternoon, but he’d left before dinner. They’d seen each other since then, of course, but not one on one.

“Sooooo,” she said, turning to him, holding her hands behind her back. “What should we do? Wanna go out for some food or something?” They hadn’t talked about it explicitly, but she assumed she and Danny would just hang out until Jeremy got home. Or… if that didn’t happen, then she’d just hang out for a while, and go home. “Listen to some more true crime?” She smiled a bit, knowing that that was definitely not the answer.

"Got your wallet right?" Danny asked as Jere patted his pockets. "And your wand?" he added, but luckily his friend had some sense about him because he had both and was waving himself out the door a few moments later. He grinned as he told him not to touch his stuff and then glanced at Freya, wiping a fake tear from his cheek. "My boy... all grown up," he joked before laughing at himself and walking back down the hallway. "Hope he remembered to put money in his wallet," he told her with a perk of his brows.

At her question, Danny shrugged but then smiled at her mischievously moments later. He hadn't really had any plans, but Jere's parting words did inspire an idea. "Wanna help me find Jere's stash? He changed his hiding spot and I haven't been able to find it for a week now," he told her as he toed open the door to Jere's room and started walking around, trying to remember where he looked the last time.

After shuffling around some clothes on the floor, he paused and looked at Freya, pointing a finger at her. "But we were never in here, got it, Tricky?"

“His stash?” She replied blankly. “Oh, like…? Oh.” Freya nodded awkwardly, getting it. The first time she’d ever been high was after a promise she’d made Jeremy in the Dome. One of those If we ever get out of this... kinds of promises. And it was pretty blurry, but she did recall shovelling chocolate cookies into her mouth and literally sobbing about them while the boys babysat her. She followed Danny to Jeremy’s room, leaning against the doorframe as she watched him scrounge around on the floor.

She’d only partaken in the experience again a couple of times – the last time was when they’d been listening to that radio show, and she and Danny had been convinced it was more of a comedic radio play than a true crime show. After listening to another episode – well, half an episode, before she’d fallen asleep – Freya wasn’t sure how they’d come to that conclusion. It was a little disturbing, in retrospect.

“Dan, have you ever thought of like… Is it in a box, or…?” She patted her jacket, drawing her wand from the inside pocket. She glanced at him, feeling a bit inexperienced and naive. He pointed a finger at her, swearing her to secrecy, and she nodded. “Sure but, describe it to me?” She let him speak, then held her wand out in the general direction of the room. “Accio Jeremy’s stash,” she said.

Sure enough, it only took a moment before a hard, wooden box came flying from the laundry basket and straight to Freya. She caught it as it thumped her in the chest. "Ow!" she said, dropping her wand. The blonde rubbed her chest where it'd hit her as she held it out for Danny. She gave him a look. "Really?" she asked, not extremely impressed that he hadn't thought to try and use magic. Jeremy hadn't even hidden it with magic either, she thought. Well, at least they were equally matched, she thought, picking her wand up off the floor before it got lost among the floor things.

"Yeah, his stash," he repeated as he pulled out one of his dresser drawers, rummaging around for a second before closing it with his hip and then going across the room to look somewhere else, not bothering to check the other two dresser drawers. He wasn't the best finder to say the least. Maybe that's why he hadn't been sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Thought of what?" he asked as he leaned halfway over Jere's desk, knocking over a cup that was thankfully empty, to see if he had stashed it between the desk and the wall. "A box? Yeah, it's like--" he made a box shape with his hands to show the size "--and has some engraving some on the top, I dunno." He shrugged as he peeked behind one of the Falcons flags Jere had taped to his wall, you know, just in case there was some secret hidden vault behind it. No luck though.

Danny turned as Freya accioed it and he widened his eyes. The thought had literally never occurred to him, thinking that Jeremy had spelled it so that he wouldn't be able to find it that easily. "You're a godsend, Freya Ann Trickett," he said with awe in his voice as he came over to her and took the chest from her, opening it and nodding as if his mouth was already watering.

"C'mon, we're gonna have fun tonight," he said as he grinned at her and grabbed her hand, pulling her into the living room and flopping onto the couch with the box.

“Ashlyn,” Freya corrected. There had been a time when she’d been pretty unhappy that her initials spelled FAT, but whatever. “Close, though,” she complimented generously. Freya watched him open the box with some amusement. She poked the area just under her collarbone where the box had hit her, sure that it’d turn into a bruise at some point.

“Fun? Oh –” Danny grabbed her hand and tugged her out of Jeremy’s room. She followed him, throwing a guilty look back at the open door. “Ummmm,” she said, taking a seat on the floor beside him slowly, an unsure expression on her face. She wasn’t sure about the stealing thing, or the other thing. “I don’t know, Danny…” She trailed off, unable to help a tiny smile in the face of his obvious excitement.

"Who?" he asked as she mentioned Ashlyn. Was that someone he didn't know? He thought Jere was meeting a girl named Montserrat? If her name was Ashlyn, he really needed to pay attention more.

He filtered through the different little compartments, looking at the different strains, neatly labeled and organized. He tried not to mess it up too much so that Jere wouldn't notice too much was missing, but he did take a second to appreciate the one thing that his friend managed to keep organized. Were these alphabetized?! Amazing.

Danny felt her leaning against his legs as she took a seat on the floor and he heard the hesitation in her voice so he looked away from the little baggie labeled 'The Kush Who Lived' and glanced at her. His smile grew a little as he spied her smile. "What? You don't want to..?" he asked, his tone open and light. He was perfectly fine if she didn't want to, but he thought it would be fun. He remembered the last time she had gotten high and had been crying over cookies or something?? The memory made him smile wider.