[TTD – karaoke bar] Dancing Queen (Sabrina)

Sabina was relieved to have found a miniature apartment in the magical area of London. It had taken her all summer to find a place and while this was far from ideal she had her first own place. So far there was not much in the apartment but Sabina rather liked the look of it that way. It seemed bigger. She could only imagine how it would look like when proper furniture (even if only a few pieces) would take up most of the space. For the time being she had a mattress on the floor and that was basically it.

For this very reason Sabina did not want to spend the evenings alone in her apartment even though she had a large collection of books she had borrowed from the local library to prepare herself for her studies. It was not like she had to do that but Sabina Sarkova liked to be prepared. She wanted to have an advantage over her class mates at the law school when the semester begun.

Although Sabina was not at all into singing, she had found a karaoke bar just around the corner that was quite nice. She liked the decorations, the mostly young crowd and it was fun to listen to the people who actually dared to go on stage and sing. She had been there twice before and was totally determined to make it her local.

When she arrived today it was pretty crowded. Apparently Friday night was special here. The young witch found an empty seat at the bar next to a girl that looked like she was around her age. “Hey,” she announced her arrival. “I hope this seat is empty?!“ Giving the other girl a brief moment to protest, she sat on the barstool and ordered a beer. She wasn't into any drinks with a lot of alcohol but she rather liked the taste of beer.

Smiling at the other girl she lifted the bottle and said “Cheers“. It seemed to her that the other witch had either come here alone as well or was waiting for someone. In case that she had come alone, Sabina decided she could as well introduce herself to make things less awkward. It would probably be easy to comment the singing performances together. “I'm Sabina, by the way,”

When someone began to sing on the stage, Sabina turned to watch him. However, she saw that they were being watched by an overweight guy around thirty years of age. When he realised that she had noticed him, he got to his feet and approached the girls. Sabina frowned and turned away, hoping that he'd just pass them then.

However, the guy tapped her on the shoulder. 'Hey, sorry if I'm intruding, but would you two give me an autograph?' Sabina stared at the man incredulously and he clarified 'You are the Demonblink Duo, though, aren't you?' 

The Czech witch coughed and tried to hide her amusement. With a glance at the girl next to her she nodded. „Well, yes… We'd like to go unnoticed here today though. So if we give you our autographs will you kindly move away?“ She had no idea why she was not simply saying that she did not even have a clue who the Demonblink Duo was but somehow she felt like this might be funny after all.

@Sabrina Sasseville

Sabrina was finally free. Now that she had graduated, there was nothing to keep her in the same household as her bickering parents and siblings anymore. She was free to do as she pleased, and live her life how she wanted to. After one month at home, Sabbie was sick of all the drama caused by her blood curse in the household and began planning her great escape. She had dreamed of travelling the World and seeing the sights for so long, and she finally had the means and opportunity to do so. She wondered if the extended journey would allow herself to figure out who she really was.

Since a visit to the United Kingdom was long overdue, and she still had some friends there whom she desperately wanted to see again, Sabrina decided she’d visit England first, and then move to Wales, Scotland and Ireland whenever the time felt right to do so, before moving on to the next country. In her eyes, no visit to England would be complete without being in London, so there she was to stay for a week or two. It had been great fun, thus far, touring both magical and moldu areas, and of course testing out her English skills was wonderful too.

Being free from her parents and any well-meaning (but annoying) guardians and friends, meant that she could finally go to pubs and clubs and drink alcohol, which was something Sabrina’s parents had forbidden her for doing, which didn’t make much sense to her. So when she walked past a magical karaoke bar, Sabbie stopped in her tracks and immediately was curious to check it out. If she did end up singing, Sabrina thought she had a decent voice and wouldn’t be embarrassed by such an activity.

But now that she had her third cosmopolitan cocktail in a couple of hours, Sabrina was definitely a little drunk. It was a weird feeling for her very first time, and she didn’t really know how to act or respond to it. A witch around her age came up to her and asked to take the seat next to her. Sabrina smiled brightly at her, gesturing to the seat. “Go ahead!” She half-shouted, as she flagged down the bartender for her fourth cosmopolitan. “Cheers,” she echoed, as she lifted the glass towards the other witch’s own glass.

“S’nice to meet you. I’m Sabrina!” The French witch smiled, her accent much stronger through the alcohol than normal. “We’re like… name twins. Almost.” Sabrina thought that this was clearly a sign they were destined to meet and be friends. Another, significantly less pleasant-looking person ambled over to them, and asked them for an autograph. Sabrina laughed heartily, but then realised that perhaps the witch she just met was famous. She seemed to be going along with it and everything, so she had to be. That was so cool! Sabrina wanted to write to her brothers and tell them all about meeting a famous singer after this was over. Sabrina began to sign whatever the hell was pushed in front of her face, before realising that she shouldn’t be signing her own name. So, in what she thought was brilliant deception, she just squiggled her hand holding the quill to make her signature completely illegible. Sabrina thought it was genius.

The other person wandered away, thoroughly pleased to have some random signature, and Sabrina immediately turned to face Sabina. “Wow, you're famous! That’s so cool. Merveilleux.” She added before frowning a bit. “I’m sorry I don’t recognise you though. You must not be so popular in France.”

Just like her new friend, Sabina signed in a way that was illegible. She laughed as she listened to Sabrina's assumption that she was, indeed, famous. Emptying her beer, she waved at the bartender, saying that she wanted the same drink her friend had. “Well, I'm not whoever the guy thinks I am,” she explained to Sabrina then as she watched the bartender preparing her drink.

As he put it down in front of her she picked it up and lifted it for another toast. “To the Demonblink Duo,” she said, chuckling with laughter. “I don't even know who they are,” she added. “You know, I only recently moved to London so I'm not yet too familiar with the local music scene… or any for that matter.” She shrugged and emptied her cosmopolitan a little too quickly.

“This is tasty,” she said, feeling how her cheeks reddened for no reason at all. “I'll take another one,” she said. Someone was singing karaoke now and it sounded dreadful. “Ugh, this is awful,” she said, leaning over to her new friend. “I'm not a particularly good singer either but that witch there really cannot sing at all.”

She sipped her drink, noticing that the guy who had asked for their autograph was still watching them from afar. “What about...” Sabina paused. “No, that's silly… or… well, maybe not!” She felt a tipsy already and quite uncharacteristically daring. She quickly downed her second cosmopolitan, put the glass on the counter and slid of the barstool as the other woman finished her song.

“Come on, Sabrina,” she said, grabbing her companion's arm gently. “The Demonblink Duo should have a guest appearance here, don't you think?” She grinned. “How hard can it be? They do give you the lyrics anyway, right?!” As she made her way towards the stage she let go of Sabrina's arm, thinking that the other witch would probably follow her anyway. She felt a little weird after the consumption of the uncharacteristic amount of alcohol but she actually rather enjoyed it. It made everything feel as though it wasn't real, as though there were no consequences.

“We, the Demonblink Duo, would like to perform our latest hit,” she exclaimed after she climbed the stage, pushing a guy away who had made it there a second before her.

“Oh,” Sabrina laughed, not thinking of anything else that was intelligent to say, as Sabina explained herself.

She happily clinked glasses with her new friend again, echoing “to the Demonblink Duo!” after Sabina said it first. Sabbie giggled, her head resting on her hand, which was propped up by her elbow leaning on the bar. Clumsily, she downed the remainder of her fourth cosmo, wiping her mouth a bit as she loudly placed the glass back down. “Me neither,” Sabrina replied, realising that those two words encompassed the fact she also didn’t know the ‘Demonblink Duo’, or know the London music scene, or indeed any music scene just like Sabina. The only ‘music scene’ that Sabrina knew well was the orchestra that played during ballet performances and that music just wasn't played in bars or pubs. “I’d say welcome to London, but y’know I’m from France and just travelin’. Honestly, have no idea what I’m doing ‘ere.” Sabrina slurred in her thick accent, made worse by the fact she was quite drunk.

She smiled at her new friend’s comment about the cosmopolitan, especially as the Beauxbatons graduate was relatively new to the cosmo herself. Every time she had gone out, Sabrina aimed to try a new drink and since the bartender suggested it, she thought it sounded fun. Sabbie snorted and slapped her hand on the bar table as Sabina criticised the witch’s terrible singing. She had an excellent point. “I know, right?” She half-shouted, “I bet we could do waaaaaaaay better.”

Sabrina turned to face Sabina as the other witch seemed to debate with herself about something, swaying slightly in her seat as she waited for Sabina to finish her sentence. Mirroring her companion for the evening, Sabbie slid off the stool, stumbling slightly as Sabina gently pulled on her arm. “Oh, you mean us?” Sabrina asked as Sabina suggested they should continue to pretend to be this mysterious duo. “Yeah, we’ll be amazing at this! Just reading words, right?” This seemed like a fantastic idea, Sabrina thought, as she staggered slightly behind her new friend as the room spun quite a bit.

Climbing the stage alongside Sabina, the ballerina bumped clumsily into her friend, giggling the entire time at how much fun this was before they even started singing. As the music began playing a pretty standard sounding pop song, Sabrina felt the heat rising into her cheeks, as her face grew flushed, embarrassed at all the people that were looking at them. She began to attempt to sing as words appeared in front of her, not really as in tune as she would have been. Perhaps she would have been really good, if Sabrina actually knew the words and song, and wasn’t having trouble standing upright after 4 cosmopolitans. Sabbie had no clue what she was doing, but it was kinda fun, and  very nice to rebel against her over-protective family and make an amazing new friend too.

“Oh that's exciting,” Sabina said, almost a bit jealous that Sabrina had the time to travel around when she had come to London for the sole purpose of finding a place to live and studying here. She felt that the other girl had to be quite adventurous if she went travelling all by herself. She made a mental note to enquire further later on.

“Way better,” Sabina agreed, nodding eagerly. “And yes, we'll be given the lyrics. It'll be fun,” she said and soon enough they were on stage. Sabina grinned as Sabrina bumped into her and giggled. As the music started, the Czech witch felt that the song was nothing special but that didn't change that she had never heard it before.

She tried to sing along, clearly singing worse than the witch that had performed before them. In fact, the audience was jeering them as they were not exactly convincing. Apparently the Demonblink Duo did sing better than they did – the real duo naturally also had the advantage of knowing their songs – and they also performed rather than just stood there stiffly.

As a glass flew on stage, Sabina pulled her new friend to the side. “Let's go,” she said urgently, taking Sabrina's hand. “Seems like no one will ask for our autograph here any longer.” She giggled as she jumped off the stage and made her way outside, not loosening the grip on her friend. “Where do are you staying for the night?” she asked. “I live close by. You can crash at my place if you don't mind that it's tiny and not exactly comfortable yet.” She yawned and pointed at the next corner. “It's right there. We can go exploring the city tomorrow if you like but now I really just want to sleep.”

[out]

“It really is,” Sabrina smiled at her new friend. “S’ way better than being trapped at home by my stupid family…” She complained bitterly, rolling her eyes.

Had she not been completely drunk, Sabrina would have been really hurt and offended by the jeering of the crowd, as it became obvious that neither of them really knew what on Earth they were singing. As it was though, Sabrina felt like the situation wasn’t really real and it became rather comical instead. This did nothing to help the performance as she just broke down into hysterical laughter instead.

She barely even paused in her cackling as a glass flew near her and Sabina pulled her off to the side and took her hand. “Good,” Sabrina laughed, clumsily jumping off the stage with Sabina and following behind her unsteadily.

The night air seemed to hit her all at once and Sabrina felt like her legs were moving of their own accord as she tried to stand still next to Sabina while she talked. “Uh, a hotel… somewhere?” Sabrina muttered, having absolutely no idea where said hotel was as she looked around the street in vain. Sabrina beamed widely as the other witch offered to let her crash at her place. “Oh my gosh, you are soooooo sweet!” Sabrina squealed as she hugged the other witch. “I’d love to explore with you tomorrow. Lead me to your place!”

[out]