Lots of Butterbeer (Open)

It was a Hogsmeade weekend and she was at the ice-cream parlour, almost done with her Sunday afternoon shift. It wasn’t quite so busy as it was sometimes because of how cold it was getting, but she’d had a few orders of butterbeer ice-cream. Other than serving the occasional customer, Aoife had just been sitting on the counter, chatting to the boss a bit and just thinking. The other day she had realised that Morgana was going to graduate at the end of this year, so next year she would be the only student working here. That was sad. She liked Morgana, even if Morgana didn’t always like her.

The boss let her off a few minutes early and she skipped happily out of the doors into the streets of Hogsmeade. That was, right after she got herself a two scoop butterbeer ice-cream. That was her hunger dealt with. But she was thirsty. So she headed for the Three Broomsticks to pick up some butterbeer before she went back to school. Her supply was running low anyway so she may as well get a few bottles to stock up.

Aoife went straight up to the counter to buy eight bottles of butterbeer. She decided she wanted to sit down and enjoy one of them with her ice-cream for a while, so she took a seat in an empty booth. Butterbeer and butterbeer ice. Awesome combination. They made her feel so warm and happy inside. Then without warning, she saw rain start to pour down outside the window. Good timing she was in here, rather than being drenched on her walk back to the castle. She could just camp out here until it got lighter because being the genius she was, she only had a light jacket with no hood.

Hunter hated working on weekends. Weekends were meant for fun and relaxation and doing anti-work kind of things. But when the boss had offered him extra to cover the Sunday afternoon shift at Zonkos, Hunter decided it was worth it. After a long, hard day of sitting around doing absolutely nothing but eating candy, Hunter ducked out of the shop and headed to the three broomsticks to stock up on butterbeer. He grinned as the cold air hit his face and quickly found his way into the pub.

Stepping up to the counter and leaning against it, Hunter asked for the usual, as always. The barkeep nodded in recognition and headed into the back room, saying it would just be a minute. The bar left temporarily untended, Hunter's eyes scanned the various bottles, landing on a bottle of firewhisky behind the bar that was close to him. Hunter had been meaning to try firewhisky, but it would be years before he could actually order one. And it occured to him suddenly that this one was there for the taking. But that would be stealing... but hadn't he been stealing potions ingredients for the entire year?

He hesitated, glancing uncertainly at the door to the backroom, but decided that he needed to act fast. The place wasn't empty, but he had a feeling that nobody would notice if he didn't act suspicious. So, acting casual, he stepped around the corner of the bar, slipped the bottle into his bag in one swipe, and returned. Too easy. And too awesome! Hunter grinned, a bit of adrenaline running through him, and waited for his butterbeer to be brought out. In another moment, the barkeep deposited his giant box of butterbeer on the counter, Hunter paid them, and everyone was none the wiser.

And then, just as he was about to leave, a torrential downpour broke out outside. Hunter sighed in irritation - he didn't mind the rain, but to carry a huge box of butterbeer all the way back to the castle in that? Not something Hunter wanted to do. So he may as well take a seat - turning to find an empty one, his eyes caught Aoife's blue hair. How had he missed it before? He momentarily wondered if she saw him take the firewhiskey, but approached her normally. "Hey!" he said with a grin, sliding into the booth across from her and dropping the giant box on the ground beside him. "You don't mind, do you?" he asked after he was already there. Her answer didn't matter. "You're stocking up, too I guess? - though your version of stocking up and mine are clearly different," he added, looking between her butterbeer stash and his.

Aoife just sat, enjoying her food and staring out of the window as the rain poured down. It was a pity and she would get soaked, but it was sort of pretty, rain. Cold, though. When she heard the door open and saw a familiar figure enter the room, she smiled to recognise Hunter. Sometimes she liked his company and other times memories flooded her mind and she felt as though she would rather spend time with anyone but him. But she was getting better at hiding whatever negative emotions she had. Other than anger. She never hid her anger. She just hit people, or resorted to some other form of violence, like she always had. Today she wasn't being stupid and moody and she was glad she had someone to sit with, even though she didn't plan on staying here for too much longer.

Since she was facing in the direction of the counter, she stared at it, watching the barman go and get what Hunter had ordered, most likely butterbeer from what she knew of the boy. Then she noticed Hunter move around the counter and take a bottle of something. Butterbeer? No, not if he was going to buy some. She squinted, but couldn't catch what the bottle was before he shoved it in his bag. What was the point of that? Hunter could be described as a lot of things but she hadn't ever thought of him as a thief before. It was stupid. He had money to pay for stuff, yet he was discreetly taking some stupid bottle of something.

When he came over and greeted her, she wasn't sure if she should bring it up or wait, see if he stole anything else and then blackmail him. For now, she could act natural. At least, try. She was a bad actress. "Hi!" Aoife smiled. "Yeah, I mind, you can't sit here," she added sarcastically. It wasn't like she had any say in whether he sat down or not, Hunter wouldn't listen. She snorted at his huge box. "These can last me till Tuesday, I don't really need to stock up." Then she could quickly come in here and pick some more up to last her until Friday, when she was working again. And so on. It was an evening shift on Tuesday. She hated them because there were never any customers - who bought ice-cream on a cold weekday evening? - and she got really bored really fast.

Maybe she should bring up the stealing thing. Quietly. And casually. "You know, you'd think they'd have better security, wouldn't you?" she asked, her tone low but normal. "Makes you think anyone could steal anything."

It seemed like Hunter had caught Aoife on a good day. Or at least an act-like-they-were-still-friends kind of day. Which was a lot better than the act-really-awkward-because-of-everything-that-had-happened-between-them kind of days. Although, Hunter was pretty much beyond acting awkward around Aoife. Since he and Seren had started dating earlier in the year, things seemed to have just fallen into place. And Aoife's presence didn't confuse him - or irritate him - anymore. Aoife was his friend - sometimes - and Seren was his girlfriend. It was like before, everything was jumbled, but by putting that defining line between the two he'd managed to fix everything.

Hunter snorted at Aoife's sarcasm. "Yeah, well, you never know," he told her with a shrug. "You have your moments." As in, sometimes, Hunter wouldn't put it past Aoife to tell him not to sit with her and mean it. Though, even in that case, it wasn't as though he would listen. He shook his head disapprovingly when she pointed out that the butterbeer she'd gotten would be enough to last her a few days. "Must be nice to only have to buy enough for yourself," he said. "I seem to remember bringing back a box this size once a week last term, and hardly seeing any of it because everyone else drank it." He stared pointedly at her for a moment - because she'd probably been primarily responsible for the disappearance of half of his butterbeer - but eventually broke his gaze, laughing.

Oh, she'd seen him. "Shit," he muttered under his breath, glancing around briefly to make sure that no workers were near them. Hunter momentarily weighed his options. Except there really weren't any options - he'd pretty much have to share his prize with Aoife or risk being blackmailed by her. So, with a sigh and another look around, he kicked his bag under the table toward her so that she could open it and see what was inside. "And try not to make it obvious," he said lowly to her, not necessarily trusting her to not make a show out of seeing a bottle of firewhiskey in his bag.

That was true, but her moments were fewer now, after dying her hair and progressing on her long journey to self-actualization. At least, they were less violent and more moody. It was so bad. Aoife O'Donnell, officially a moody, stupid teenager. Like she had vowed she would never be. "Yeah, but most of the time I can pretend to like you," she smiled, not at ALL bitterly.

But someone was bitter. "Not last term, the term before," she pointed out. "It's your fault for being old and getting a job before me." Sometimes she wished she was older within the year group. Then she remembered it was great being not a teenager for as long as she could. And summer was a nice time to have a birthday in, right before school ended. "I was just being polite, anyway," she added, sticking her tongue out. "You kept offering me butterbeer and I couldn't say no without coming across as rude! It was probably Blake who drank it all, actually." She laughed a little nervously because of his weird slightly evil stare and was glad when he broke it.

Aoife glanced down at the bag Hunter had kicked across and had to squint to see the bottle properly. Firewhiskey. Ah, that made sense. She had to bite her lip to hide a reputation-ruining, girlish giggle but the amusement was clear on her face. It was okay that he had stolen it because he could justify it. They weren't old enough to really buy firewhiskey so it was his only way of getting some. Fair enough. That wasn't going to stop her thinking about blackmailing him. She looked back up to grin at Hunter. That wasn't obvious at all! She really was a better actress now! "Why do you even want it?" she asked. It was just alcohol and she didn't think there could really be anything so special about it. Saying that, she had been tempted to try firewhiskey ice-cream on plenty of occasions. Just for the adventure. "And how much worse would my hair look with green highlights?"

"Please," Hunter snorted, reaching down to pull a bottle of butterbeer from his box and cracking it open. "You always like me. You're just too stubborn to admit it." Hunter was actually once hundred percent certain that this wasn't entirely true - but he was also pretty sure that it was partly true. At least, if his own feelings about Aoife were anything to go by. Sometimes he loved being around her, and sometimes he couldn't stand her and went out of his way to avoid her. But in the end, even on a bad day, he knew that he wouldn't want to stay away from her for very long.

"Okay, so I supplied you the year before last," he admitted. "But I was still the go-to person for my sisters and Ariel all last term," he reminded her. "I even caught Lyra stealing some from my room," he told her, shaking his head in exasperation. "Right, because you never took any butterbeer without me offering it to you," he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Hunter watched Aoife's reaction carefully, still concerned that she'd draw attention to them. But impressively, she managed to keep her cool and just shot him a grin once she realized what it was. He let out a breath of relief and smirked back at her. Then, she asked the dumbest question he ever heard. He sighed. Normally it was Hunter that asked dumb questions, and Aoife that hit him for it.

"Because," he said slowly, "We aren't supposed to have it. Which means by right away that it's worth it. It might as well have a huge label that says too awesome for people under seventeen." That was a reason in itself. "And also because Jack's tried it before. And he says it's tons of fun. But also to be careful because it makes ugly girls look not so ugly, or something," he added as an afterthought, not really directing that part at Aoife. Then, she changed the subject completely, and Hunter looked at her in confusion for a moment before her words processed in his brain. She was asking about her hair? Really? "I guess it would depend on how much firewhiskey I'd had before I see it," he replied, shrugging. In other words - ugly.

Aoife shook her head. Stubbornly. But it was okay to be stubborn here, because Hunter needed to understand that not everyone liked him and that being an arrogant, self-centered git didn't help his case in the slightest. "You're hardly the most likable person," she pointed out. "You already know how I can see ALL your awful, unappealing faults." And they put her off him a lot. Still, he did have a couple of good faults, like... he wasn't afraid to upset people (cut his hair off when he knew it would make her super sad) and he was the twins and Jack's brother (awesome by connection).

"That's your fault too!" she said. "It's great that you were giving back to the community and being nice to younger students for once, but nobody was forcing you!" Well, maybe Lyra was, but surely not Lyn or Ariel. She laughed. "People do crazy things for butterbeer," she shrugged. "Did you let her keep the butterbeer?" It was mean if he hadn't. But fair enough, she probably wouldn't have in that situation.

That made sense. She didn't want to be easily convinced to change her opinions, but that was actually really obvious now that he said it. "I don't see why they don't let us have firewhiskey, though," Aoife said thoughtfully. "However old you are, it's bad for you and could kill you if you had loads and loads and loads. I suppose it's just to taunt us." Adults were cruel like that. "When did JACK have it?" He was a muggle, cool one, but still a muggle. "Ugly girls look not so ugly...?" she repeated, confused for a moment before she got it. "OH, I get it!"

If that was true, Aoife would have to carry out her plan with the green streaks. Especially since Hunter seemed to think it would be ugly, from what he was saying. "I'm good at the colour changing charm now, it'll all be fine." But she had wanted to change her hair back to normal. Now that she'd made her statement and proved that she was ugly without red hair. "Or maybe I'll make it ginger," she added quietly.

Hunter raised an eyebrow at Aoife when she said he was hardly likeable, but after a moment he shrugged, because she wasn't entirely wrong. "Depends on who you ask," he told her good-naturedly, taking a sip out of his bottle. "All of my awful, unappealing faults, huh?" he repeated doubtfully. "Alright then. Name six right now. And no hesitating, or you lose." He crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, looking at her expectantly.

"Yeah, I let her keep it," Hunter said, rolling his eyes. Lyra might be an annoying, arrogant brat - kind of like him - but she was still his sister. And he'd be lying if he didn't admit, at least to himself, that he had a small soft spot for her. "She ended up cleaning my room before she left, so it worked out."

Hunter nodded in agreement, but shrugged. "Yeah, well, didn't stop me," he pointed out, absentmindedly reaching down to rezip his bag as he did so. "And Jack didn't have firewhiskey. He had regular whiskey. Like the muggle kind - but I bet it's all the same. The git wasn't even going to tell me, but I caught him talking about it with some of his friends." He watched on in amusement as Aoife took a moment to put the thought together in her mind. "Sometimes you're really slow, you know that?" It was like she was a teenager and a five year old combined into one person. Which weirdly made a lot of sense considering it was Aoife.

"Well, it can't get much worse than it already is, no matter what you do to it," he reminded her. But it seemed like Aoife might be, amazingly, coming around and considering changing her hair back to its normal color. "You better be careful," he told her, rolling his eyes. "Red's tricky. Not many people can pull it off."

Yeah. Some people would adore - or more appropriately worship - Hunter, however terrible a person he was. Seren, mainly. Six. On the spot. Ah. This might be difficult. "You're arrogant, mean to first-years, stuuuuuuborn like meeeeeee," she began, dragging out her words on the last trait to give her more time to think. "Oh, and ungrateful, you think the world revolves around you... and... ARGH HESITATION. I lose." Almost. How many was that, four or five? "Also spiteful," she added, just for the sake of getting six.

"Well, maybe you can be nice to little people sometimes," Aoife shrugged. Lyra probably didn't count though, being his sister and only the year below them. "Okay... well, as long as you got a... clean room out of it, fine." Positive reasoning. Rooms didn't need to be clean, they were just rooms. And cleaning them was so much effort.

She smiled. "I don't think anything stops you." Maybe that was another negative trait or a strange compliment, she didn't know. "Oh, that makes sense," she nodded. "I bet the wizard stuff has some weird magic twist, though. Maybe it changes your appearance or something." That would be cool, but slightly worrying. If she tried some and didn't know what would happen. Her weird nose might get even weirder. "Slow?" EXCUSE her. "You're the one who asks dumb questions and never does any schoolwork!" she exclaimed. "I'm actually much smarter than I look. People think: "dumb redhead girl" but I am SO MUCH MORE. I am the SMARTEST person I know! And you are the stupidest. SO shut up." How DARE he?

Oh, it could. An evil smirk spread across her face. "I could add green streaks, maybe some pink ones, make it into a 'fro, tie up random bits and have a few little plaits," she suggested. That would hardly be an improvement. "Yeah, but do you think I really care about pulling off a hair colour when there are so much more important things to worry about?" Not schoolwork or anything, that was stupid. "Cloudy is PREGNANT again, Hunter! I need to come up with lamb names, not worry about hair!"

This would be entertaining. Hunter wasn't surprised when she started off with arrogant. That was the easiest bad quality to come up with - not very impressive at all. He raised an eyebrow and smirked a little as she started stalling on the third one - technically, that was hesitation, but he let it go because not a couple of seconds later she completely lost her momentum. Hunter snorted as she threw in a last one despite the fact that she'd already failed. "Too late, you already lost," he said. "And isn't being arrogant and thinking the world revolves around you the same thing, anyway?" It definitely was. But Aoife would probably deny that fact because she refused to ever admit she was wrong.

"That's because I'm not smart enough to consider the possibility of failure," he replied with a grin. Which was particularly stupid, considering how many times he had failed. "Well I hope it doesn't do anything too weird. If it does, I could sell it to the less fortunate and try and get Jack to send me some of the normal kind from home." He momentarily considered the fact that it was probably a good thing he and Seren were in different houses. He could be wrong, but he was pretty sure she wouldn't support his stealing firewhiskey and drinking - she was more of a rule-follower.

Hunter tried to keep a straight face as Aoife started going off about how he was actually the slow one and she was really smart and shit. He waited for her to be done, still trying and failing to fight a smirk. "I never said you were dumb, I said you were slow - though saying you're the smartest might be pushing it a little." A lot. "But it takes you ages to put things together sometimes - like just now," Hunter told her. "And just because I don't do schoolwork doesn't make me stupid. It just means I'm not that great at magic. That has nothing to do with being smart."

When Aoife started talking about how she definitely could make her hair look worse, Hunter was hit with a slight sense of nostalgia, reminded of the first day that they'd met. Then, he'd asked her not to make his friendship bracelet pink, and she'd grinned evilly - just like now - and informed him that there were plenty of other terrible colors she could make it. He hadn't worn it in years. Literally. But he still had it. Wait, what were they talking about now? Oh, sheep. Of course. "Name it Hunter The Coolest And Smartest And Most Handsome Sheep In The Universe," he told her. "Problem solved."