~.~.~
11:48 P.M.
~.~.~
Twelve minutes to midnight, to the countdown that will lead to the culmination of the Halloween ball's events, and Malfoy is nowhere to be seen.
At least he didn't score with the remaining blonde from Durmstrang; across the room, Blaise is dancing with her. Everyone else seems paired off now, and from where she stands in another corner, nursing another drink next to another tropical-looking indoor tree, Hermione makes the conscious decision to go home alone this year.
"Oh, well, better luck next time," she says to her Wonderlust cocktail in its chilled coupe glass and takes a sip.
Wow, Blaise has definitely outdone himself this time! In fact, this drink's unique flavours compliment everything else she's had tonight, almost as if each cocktail has been a lead-in to the next, and the next, until it has culminated in this one. Her whole body tingles, flushes hot with anticipation as she tilts the glass back and finishes it off. It slides down her throat, cool and smooth, but heats her belly and warms her blood.
She sets her glass down on a nearby stool and contemplates joining the crowd out on the dance floor to hail in the spirits who will be joining them at any moment. The alcohol is really flooding through her now, loosening her rigid control just enough.
Suddenly Malfoy is before her, an identical drink in his hand. Blaise has plied his talents upon his friend as well, it seems. "We're dancing," he tells her without fanfare.
He finishes off his drink with a tilt of his head, sets his glass down next to hers, and grabbing her wrist, he yanks her into his arms.
The hand holding hers is firm, the footsteps guiding them sure. Everything about her partner seems confident and at ease, but there is a look in his eye she knows well, having seen it in the mirror more than her fair share of times over the years, especially before she's about to go to bed with someone. He's nervous, anxious for this to mean more than it should.
In truth, so is she.
Yet there's something to be said about physically dancing with a man you've verbally, mentally, and emotionally crossed swords with on more than one occasion. As there is with their trading insults, there's a natural choreography to their movements around each other, an instinctive knowledge of push and pull to their rhythm. It is easy being in his arms, she discovers, twirled around like a debutante at her first ball by a handsome beau.
It's seductive.
"The spirits are about to appear," she murmurs the reminder, aware of the others all around them and how the level of excitement in the room has ratcheted up as the seconds count down towards midnight. "It's strange, but I just realized… I've never stayed this long at one of these events to see what happens next."
With a matching incredulous expression, her partner admits, "Me either, actually."
That sends them equally into a bout of snickering and chuckling.
"A first for both of us, it seems."
He flashes a grin that's as white as his jacket. "One of many together, I'm sure."
His words make things inside her flutter.
"We should switch costumes," she blurts out. "For next year, I mean."
He whirls her around faster and laughs as her grip on him tightens. "Why, Granger, are you finally admitting that I'm devilishly handsome?"
No need to deny it.
She shrugs. "You know you are."
"Yes, but you've never said," he teases. "You're a notorious hold-out when it comes to me."
There's a double-entendre in there, and she feels its meaning and intent to her toes when he turns the full force of his steely-eyed gaze upon her.
"Perhaps if you actually were more angelic, and less wicked I might be inclined to stroke your ego more often," she tosses back with a sultry grin, blaming Blaise's alcoholic genius for such sassiness.
Draco's gaze heats as he lowers his mouth to her ear. "I can be equal parts nice to naughty, love. Care to find out?"
Ooh, Godric, would she love to! "I suppose I should have an escort home tonight," she agrees with a thoughtful air, pretending to misunderstand. "It is Samhain, and the ghosts are about to come out to haunt the living. Might be too dangerous to go it alone."
"Mmm, safety first," he agrees, lips twitching with amusement.
They pause as the countdown to midnight begins at T-minus two minutes and the rest of the room clears the center of the ballroom, making a space as the Minister performs the ritual to give the dead a safe place to enter into their world.
As the others are engrossed with the ritual, she drags Malfoy back into the corner, the one closest to the door so they can make their escape soon after the big reveal. It's totally private, as the rest of the room is too focused on Kingsley and the show that's about to start. "It's decided then," she pronounces, and then gives him a once over. "You'll have to accompany me home. But first…" Feeling impish, she casts a wandless spell over his outfit, changing his jacket and bowtie a scarlet red and giving his white wings red tips. "Truth in advertising," she tells him as he looks down at what she's done to him. "Well, either that or you could get a job selling ice-lollies to small children…since we both know how fond wriggly things are of you."
He throws his head back and laughs, then picks her up and twirls her around until she's dizzy. "Oh, Granger, you are an evil hussy!"
She gasps, beginning to take offense at that, until he boxes her into the corner behind the tall plants and nuzzles her throat. "My kind of witch," he whispers and runs his mouth over the curve of skin beneath her jaw. When he nibbles gently upon the flesh there and presses open-mouthed kisses to the spot, she moans and grabs onto him, encouraging him not to stop.
They miss the appearance of the ghosts…again.
And she makes a mental note to ask Zabini later exactly what he put in those drinks.
~.~.~
12:10 A.M.
~.~.~
Blaise glances once over at the corner where Granger is currently getting her socks knocked off, quite literally, by Draco behind some decorative shrubbery and thinks he may have used a bit too much Lust Potion in that last concoction he served them both.
Then again, when one is dabbling in the art of matchmaking an angel and a devil, one has to pull out all the stops to bring them together. Their natural inclination is to fight until someone puts an eye out, otherwise. This…well, this is much better. Draco won't be so lonely and desperate anymore, and maybe Granger's hair will finally relax. All that sexual tension for so many years has been the cause of its uncontrollable frizz and breakage, after all.
"So, when does your shift end?" the blonde from Durmstrang—what was her name again? Talkative? Tedious? Something like that…—asks, giving him 'the look'.
He blinks, confused at first by her question. "Oh, this? Uh, I don't actually work here." Stepping out from behind the bar, he tosses the drying towel aside and turns to the actual bartender. "Thanks for letting me dabble, mate."
"You want a job here, come back anytime," the guy replies. "You're a genius with the tonics!"
"Yes, I know," Blaise admits, feeling a bit smug. "Ones for hair, too. Speaking of which-" As he and the blonde Swede head out the door together, he runs his hands through the woman's long, straight tresses. "Witch, let's talk about giving you an update with a nice cut..."
.
~FIN~
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AUTHOR'S END NOTES:
Sassy Witch's Brew recipe
2 ounces Viniq Original purple
2 ounces dry champagne or prosecco
Dry ice chips
Serve in a flat Champagne glass.
Pour purple liquor into glass.
Top with champagne or prosecco.
Drop in dry ice chips.
Jekyll & Hyde recipe
3 oz. gin
½ oz. lemon juice
1 tsp. grenadine
1 handful ice
Tonic water
Green or yellow glow stick (optional)
Served in a tall tumbler.
Mix gin, lemon juice and grenadine in a cocktail shaker.
Pour into a large glass filled with ice.
Top with tonic water.
Garnish with a glow stick (optional).
Witch's Heart recipe
1 jigger apple brandy, chilled or apple vodka, chilled
1 tsp. grenadine
2 jiggers blackberry shimmery liqueur ( how-to-make-shimmery-liqueur/)
Powdered dry ice
Served in a martini glass.
Add about 1/2 - 1 tsp of powdered dry ice to the bottom of the glass (optional).
Place the apple brandy and purple shimmery liqueur in a shaker. Add 1 ice cube and shake for a few seconds to chill the drink. Strain the drink into a martini glass. Top up with more purple shimmery liqueur if necessary.
Pour 1 tsp of grenadine syrup, about an inch from the surface of the drink - the grenadine should sink to the bottom, creating a "bleeding" effect.
Add about 1/2 tsp of powdered dry ice on top and serve with a stirrer, so that your guests can stir the "potion" to create that shimmery, smoky effect.
Your Mother's Ruin recipe
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup chilled club soda
1½ cups gin
1½ cups fresh grapefruit juice
3 thinly sliced grapefruit wheels, for garnish
¾ cup fresh lemon juice
¾ cup sweet vermouth
2¼ cups chilled Champagne or sparkling wine Ice
Dry ice
Served in a tall highball glass, chilled.
In a large pitcher, stir the sugar with the club soda until dissolved.
Stir in the gin, grapefruit and lemon juices and sweet vermouth.
Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.
Transfer the punch to a large bowl.
Gently stir in the Champagne and float the grapefruit wheels on top.
Add dry ice to the glasses just before serving.
Dragon's Breath Firewhisky recipe
4 ounces Grangestone 1977 Blended Malt Scotch Whisky
Dry ice.
Served in a chilled rocks glass.
Pour whisky into glass.
Add dry ice.
Black Magic Galaxy recipe
2.5 ounces Black Vodka
3/4 ounce Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice 2/3 - 1 Small Lime
1/2 ounce Simple Syrup
Ice
Wilton Edible Pearl Dust In White Find at craft store in baking aisle
Served in a cosmopolitan glass.
Into a cocktail shaker add in your simple syrup, lime juice, and black vodka.
Fill with ice until the liquid line.
Give it a hard shake for 30 seconds.
Add a dash of pearl dust to the bottom of a martini or coupe glass.
Pour cocktail into your glass and serve.
Add more pearl dust if it's not shimmery enough and stir it with a bar spoon to combine it.
Wonderlust recipe
¼ ounce absinthe
1 ounce genever, preferably Bols
3/4th ounce crème de violette (violet liqueur)
3/4th ounce pineapple gum syrup
3/4th ounce fresh lemon juice
Ice
1 spiral-cut lemon twist, for garnish
Served in a coupe glass.
Rinse a chilled coupe with the absinthe. Discard the excess.
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add all the remaining ingredients, except the garnish. Shake well.
Strain into the coupe.
Garnish the glass with the lemon twist.