Smoke and Stars - A Theo Nott Story

The Common Room Party - Part One

"What do you even wear to a common room party?" Aria mumbled under her breath as she searched desperately through her wardrobe. It was safe to say that she had not anticipated parties being a part of her routine and, therefore, had failed to sufficiently pack for one. To be fair, she had never really been to a party before so it wasn't like she knew what to wear to them anyway. Beauxbatons wasn't exactly a party school—and she didn't exactly have many friends to invite her to one as the very few she did have were completely unpopular, like herself—and Enzo forbade her from going to parties with him in the summer. He insisted that they weren't the place "for a lady like her", whatever that meant. So that meant that now, going to her first one at the ripe age of 17, she was incredibly naive.

Astoria laughed. "Anything you want, silly! It's not a pageant." She was currently rifling through her own wardrobe, though she appeared to be having much more success.

Aria just scowled in response, though she didn't say anything. "Aria, I know you. Your frustration is not about the outfit. You would have been fine wearing a sweater and jeans to this if it weren't for the fact that a certain someone has never missed a single Slytherin party."

Her head snapped up to meet her friend's mischievous eye. Astoria could barely contain a smile behind her lips. "I don't care about him going," Aria mumbled. "I don't care about him at all."

Astoria rolled her eyes. "You are the worst liar when it comes to Theo. Come on, Aria. It's okay to admit that you have a little crush on him."

With a heavy sigh, she fell back on her bed, scrunching her face as she massaged her temple in an attempt to ease the tension there. "I do not have a crush on Theodore Nott. He's my brother's best friend so we're just friends too. Nothing more."

"Yeah, okay," Astoria said with a grin. Aria heard digging in the closet before she was suddenly hit with a piece of fabric on the head. She sat up to find what looked like a black dress.

"Azzy, I'm not borrowing your clothes."

"Of course you are! Actually, you're keeping that one. I can't remember the last time I ever wore black so you'd really be doing me a favor. Now I have more room to buy even more clothes." Aria laughed at her friend and began to get dressed as Astoria fished out a beautiful white strapless dress.

"Now that'll catch his eye."

Astoria's head whipped around to meet Aria's cheeky grin. "Whose eye?"

She rolled her eyes. Now, it was her turn to tease her friend about a boy. "Draco's. It practically matches his hair."

Astoria's face turned a bright shade of pink. "Draco is engaged to my sister. I'm wearing this because I want to look hot for me, not for him."

"Azzy, you couldn't even keep a straight face telling me that. What's going on with you two?"

She sighed deeply. "I don't know! I used to have a crush on him until my parents betrothed Daphne to him. I know she doesn't like him—at least, not like that—but he's still engaged to her. I can't change that. And now he's suddenly talking to me and he's so wonderful and I think he might like me but he's engaged to my bloody sister!"

Aria walked over to where her friend was now lying on the bed and smoothed back a piece of her hair before resting her hand on her cheek. "Hey, you're incredible, Astoria. You're going to find happiness, whether it's with him or someone else or even on your own. Don't worry about Draco or the future. Just focus on having fun tonight."

Astoria grinned. "Okay but only if you promise not to pine over Theo all night. Otherwise, I'll be forced to pine over Draco and we already see how well that's going for me."