it’s a homies only kind of mood • [billie]

“Yo, Billie!” Josie padded up to the Ravenclaw, lips split into a large grin. They fell into step and she slung an arm around Billie’s shoulder. “Thanks for hosting this party, man! It’s brill.”

‘Psyched’ would be the understatement of the millennia. Josie had been looking forward to a good party since Naya had entered the common room completely smashed in third year. She’d looked like absolute shit but in a way that indicated she’d clearly had a good time. It would be the experience to cement their adulthood – well, after O.W.Ls, but thinking about exams brought on the kind of stress Josie preferred to avoid. And this party would be the perfect setting.

“You havin’ a good time, yeah?” she asked, pulling a braid out of her face. “Need a pick-me-up?” Josie took a swig out of a small bottle of firewhiskey and both winced at the slight burn and laughed, but she hoped Billie knew that she was deathly serious. Most of her siblings were too over-protective to let her even look at a bottle of liquor, but Leah had made sure she was equipped tonight. When it came to mischief, if no one else was down, Leah always was.

After giving it more thought, she supposed Billie herself had an in with her own alcohol-provider. That creep boyfriend of hers was a proper adult now, yeah? Josie frowned and spared a quick glance at the blonde. Billie was small and dainty and probably had less strength in her entire body than Josie had in one thumb. She felt massively protective of the Ravenclaw. And Billie’s boyfriend was kind of a git. One time Josie had waved to him in the corridor and the only acknowledgment she’d gotten in return was a look like she'd sprouted a second head. As he walked off, she’d fought the urge to deck him.

He seemed to have an aversion to getting to know the lot of them – Billie’s friends – and Josie found that very dodgy. She wondered if he’d bothered to show up at the party at all, let alone shower them in free booze. She figured she already knew the answer but she wanted to give that asshole a chance to prove her wrong and redeem himself. “Is Donnelly here?”

The blonde gave a weak smile as Josie took a swig of alcohol to illustrate her point, unsure if the Gryffindor was asking if she really wanted a drink from her flask or not. There were others drinking, but she herself hadn’t brought anything (of course). Nola and Mavis were doing most of the “hosting” anyway, if it could be called that; all Billie had done was unlock the front door. Now she was hovering at the edges. “I’m fine thank you,” she answered politely. Josie asked another question and Billie remembered why she was trying to disappear upstairs in the first place. Her smile, small though it may have been, faded away into nothing.

“Oh,” Billie said distantly, raising her eyebrows just a touch. “Phillip?” Her heart was racing and she wasn’t even sure why. Would it be like this every time she told another new person? How many more times tonight…? “No, he’s not,” she heard herself say, feeling a million miles away. Her voice was small, but characteristically polite. It was her natural, default state; the place she went when she didn’t know how to feel, or when she felt like her feelings were too big, took up too much space.

Her steps slowed and she came to a stop. They were heading back towards where the others were congregated, and despite the fact that she’d rather the floor open up and swallow her whole than have people percieve her as impolite, Billie couldn’t do it. She glanced up the staircase to her right, wanting to disappear up there rather than be down here still. “No, er, we broke up,” she said, not really wanting to look at Josie as she said it but doing so anyway to avoid being impolite.