Slytherin || 7th Year

2.

Some people read books to escape, others watch a movie. The Slytherin Six, well, they turn to rather expensive habits. Belle loved to drink. Merlin, she loved to drink. It made the world around her feel a bit fuzzy and unclear. Drinking made things easier because she wasn't completely there to think about shit. She learned to drink from a young age. Her mother used to give her Butterbeer when she was fourteen when guests were over. If Belle was to call on any of her happiest memories with her mother, it would be when she was allowed to drink.

Now Pansy, Belle's best and closest female friend loved sex. She always had new partners. She was seen as pretty easy, but Pansy prided herself in having a type, that type being Purebloods. Belle couldn't fault her friend. Her home life was pretty far from being warm and fuzzy. Pansy needed comfort that could only be found in another warm body. Daphne didn't eat somethings; it was a sense of control. They all knew when she got like that but let her be. She always got herself together before they had to really be concerned. Draco locked himself in his room and never came out, he was always the kind of person that just needed a quiet corner to stew shit over. In Belle's opinion she was sure that he did things alone that would get him in a lot of trouble. There was no way he just sat in silence. Blaise liked to gamble; it didn't matter what it was he was placing bets. He particularly loved a good Quidditch Game or making up his own twisted and horrible bets on people. He even convinced Vincent Crabbe one year to get a girl to fall in love with him and take her virginity in exchange of 10,000 galleons. Theo loved to fight; he would take on any Gryffindor that said just the right thing to set him off. There were too many times when Belle had to come to Theo's rescue, more than she was proud of.

Now, to most this would seem very troubling and terrifying for barely 18-year old's to already be exposed to these types of things. You have to look at it in context, not that it made it any better. This was all they knew. Being a Pureblood meant it was easy to get away with things, especially when they were corrupt. Belle remembered the first time her mother had an overdose. She was 8 years old. She was the one that called the healers. It was part of being rich or so Belle always thought. When you have too much money, that come with pressures most never would have to face. It was an escape, a moment to not have to worry about those expectations. So, Belle let herself lose it to the drink every now and again. So, what of it?

Belle took a sip from her Firewhisky letting it roll on her tongue like liquid fire, bringing the buzzed feeling she was searching for. The music that was playing way too loud started to dull into background noise. The Firewhisky was doing its job. She didn't even mind that she was sitting alone all that mattered was her bottle of liquid getaway and the boy that was waiting for her at their spot.

The rest of the Slytherins were distracted with their own assortments of fun. She hadn't seen Pansy for a minute but didn't think much of it. She would resurface later that night in the dorms. That's if she didn't get caught by a lurking professor. Belle was very good at getting away with things. She was an upstanding student in class, they always believed her lies of just wanting a walk because sleep wasn't coming to her easy. If she got a particularly difficult teacher, she would use her crocodile tears and talk about how her parents fight a lot and she was scared they would divorce. Now some of that was true but she stopped being scared for them before she even started at Hogwarts. It would do them some bloody good to get a divorce or kill each other already.

She looked at her watch quickly. It was a few minutes off from her meeting with Theo. It was hard sometimes to be secretly fucking one of her close friends. It wasn't that she was ashamed by any means. She just knew all the shit that would come if the rest of her friends found out. There was just this unwritten rule that the inner crew was off limits.

Belle ignored every reasonable, level-headed thought telling her to stop this. What would it look like if this came out or something was to happen? As much as her mind screamed no, her body had another idea. So, she made her way to their spot.