October Writing Challenge - Day 23
Robin and David Willows (in mention) belong to the fabulous @that-scouse-wizard and the cinnamon roll that is Farid Sikander (see what I did there, haha? xD) obviously belongs to the wonderful @carewyncromwell
Warning: underage drinking and allusion to NSFW topics
The Three Broomsticks were crowded to the point of bursting on this New Year’s Eve, there was no other way to put it.
Farid Sikander sighed wistfully, and looked around the main room of the pub. People were standing shoulder to shoulder all the way through, and the crowd was so thick he couldn’t see the door leading to the snowy streets of Hogsmeade on the other side of the room anymore.
The sheer amount of people made Farid uncomfortable and he wished for the free and open space of the Hogwarts Grounds, but it wasn’t like he could just leave.
Back when he had lived with his family in Waterford, Ireland, it had been their tradition to go to a big party outside in the streets of his neighbourhood for New Year’s Eve. There had been food, there had been music, and there had been dance; but most of all, there had been his parents and his brother and sister.
Farid had been missing his family badly lately, even worse than usual, so his uncle Arif had jumped on the opportunity to organise a party in the exact same style Farid knew from his childhood. Farid was grateful for it and trying to have fun, he really did, but he couldn’t help but feel alone in the middle of the crowd.
His uncle had gone and met some colleagues who had stayed at Hogwarts over the holidays, and Farid didn’t see anyone he felt the urge to talk to. Everyone except for him had glasses of butterbeer or champagne in their hands and seemed at least a little drunk already, making Farid wanting to join them even less.
He sighed and sipped on his cup of spicy hot chocolate - it was a family recipe and a favourite of his; the hot drink with sprigs of cardamom, cinnamon and cloves was reminding him more of home than this party ever could.
Farid let his eyes wander over the cheerful crowd, when a group of laughing people around the same age as himself drew his attention. He froze and set his cup down on the table next to him when he saw who was standing in the centre of it; he’d known the wild shock of dark curls anywhere.
Reva Amari must have said something funny or clever, because the group surrounding her burst into laughter, while her lips were drawn into a mischievous smirk that made Farid’s heart beat that tiny little bit faster, as it always did when Reva was around.
Without wanting to, Farid looked her up and down, and then quickly looked away again when he found he was staring; she was wearing a tight, black dress that hugged her curves way too well to make him feel comfortable with the sight.
From beneath her mane of dark hair big, silver earrings were flashing, matching the bangles on her wrists. The unusually feminine look was broken by the black and worn boots Reva had chosen in favour of heels - anyone who knew Reva knew she only wore heels if it couldn’t absolutely be helped, and even then it was highly unlikely she’d wear them for the whole duration of the evening.
Next to her, in a very pretty red dress that made her eyes sparkle, stood Robin Willows, one of Reva’s best friends from school. Robin was younger than Farid, but he still knew her from sight; she was the daughter of the resident Charms professor David Willows, which Farid knew through his uncle, who was just now coming up next to him.
“Look,” he said to Farid with a friendly smile, “there’s Reva and Robin over there. You’re friends with Reva, aren’t you? Or at least with her brother Dylan. Why don’t you go over for a bit?”
Farid shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
“I don’t know, Uncle,” he mumbled. “There’s quite a lot of people, and… uhm, I don’t know Reva that well, you know, I’m more friends with Dylan, as you already said. I wouldn’t even know what to say.”
“Of course you would,” his uncle said and clapped him on his back, “there’s no use for a party if you only stand in the corner by yourself. Sometimes, Farid, you have to just go and live for a bit,” he added and laid a hand on Farid’s shoulder; Farid didn’t quite know how to act at this almost fatherly display of affection.
“If you think so, Uncle,” he muttered, picked up his cup and made his way over to Reva and Robin.
Weaving through the crowd without touching any girl or woman he passed proved to be trickier than Farid had thought, and he was relieved when he’d finally reached the other side of the room.
As soon as Reva saw him, a brilliant smile lit up her features and she tugged her friend Robin by the sleeve of her dress.
“Farid!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “I’d hoped you’d be here, but I didn’t see you. Where have you been?”
She made a step towards him as if to hug him, but caught herself after a moment. Instead, her eyes flickered to the ground for a second and she took a sip out of her champagne glass.
“Uhm, yes, my… er… my uncle kind of helped organise this… party, I guess. It’s a bit too, well, crowded for me,” Farid managed to string his words together, cursing himself for the sudden flare of nerves he was always having whenever Reva was looking at him with her dark eyes sparkling with mischief.
He took a deep breath and tried again.
“What are you doing here?” he managed to ask a lot more fluently.
Reva pulled Robin closer and pressed her cheek against Robin’s; both girls giggled.
“I’m starting the new year off with one of my best friends in the world,” Reva laughed, and took another sip of her drink. Judging by the flush on her cheeks, it probably wasn’t her first one either.
Farid tried not to look at her glass disapprovingly, and instead concentrated on her again.
“I thought Dylan said you and your family wanted to celebrate together in Montrose?”
A shadow passed over Reva’s face.
“Well, my plans have changed,” she said curtly, and before Farid could ask what was wrong or apologise for upsetting her, she had already turned from him.
Farid was unsure of what to do, but before he could make up his mind, Madam Rosmerta called out from behind the bar.
“Alright everyone, this is it! Ten, nine…”
The whole crowd started counting down the last seconds of the old year together; when the clocks chimed midnight, the room erupted in confetti, cheers, hugs, and well-wishes.
Farid discreetly kept to the side of the wall; his faith didn’t allow him to touch any woman outside his own family, and he didn’t want to ruin the mood of anyone by rejecting a hug.
Not wanting to be in the way of any celebration, Farid used a moment when Reva and Robin were distracted by Robin’s father to retreat back to his peaceful corner of the room where he had come from; luckily, his uncle was nowhere to be seen to tell him to go back.
He watched on the sidelines as the party went on, sipping on his hot chocolate and being half glad and half sad to not be part of all of it.
His musings were forgotten, however, when he saw Reva break away from her group in a quiet moment. The look on her face was nothing like the happy, exuberant one Farid knew from her, and his brow furrowed when she slipped out of the door into the icy January night.
Not even thinking about what he was doing, Farid left his corner and followed her outside.
He found Reva sitting on a bench on the side of The Three Broomsticks. She had her arms spread along the length of the backrest, and her head dipped into her neck; the fireworks were long over, but she was watching the night sky regardless, as if the stars held all the answers she was looking for.
She jumped when Farid cleared his throat, and he instantly felt sorry for it.
“Oh, uhm, sorry, I shouldn’t have… I…, “Farid took a deep breath and tried again. “I’m sorry I startled you, I didn’t mean to. Are you okay?”
“It’s alright,” Reva said quietly, her eyes trained on the sky again. “I just needed some fresh air, don’t worry.”
Farid wasn’t sure if it was the flickering light coming from the windows in their back, or if Reva was looking genuinely sad. It was only now that he realised Reva was sitting on the ice cold wood with her bare legs and without so much as a jacket on.
“What are you even doing?” he gasped and immediately shrugged out of his own patchwork jacket.
He held it out to her, and Reva considered him for a long moment, which made Farid feel antsy, before she gave him a small smile and reached for it. She’d meant to take it by its collar, where Farid was holding it, and when her hand almost touched his, Farid recoiled instinctively.
The trace of softness which had been showing on Reva’s face vanished again and she dropped her hand. She let herself fall back into her seat again and flung her arms around her torso.
“Am I that revolting?” she laughed bitterly, and the sound was like a punch in the gut for Farid; it didn’t sound like Reva at all.
“Just look at you guys,” she said, “never able to make up your mind. The one can’t get enough of me, and the other won’t even touch me,” she scoffed, not looking at Farid but at the tips of her boots.
She raised her glass to her lips and took a huge sip of her champagne she’d brought outside with her; Farid could tell by the way Reva was drawing out her words that she was quite drunk at this point already.
“You’re not revolting at all… what are you even talking about?” Farid said.
He approached her very slowly and spoke in a calm tone as he sat down next to her, like he would with a scared animal.
“See, that I’m not touching you, that has nothing to do with you as a person,” he explained, and she looked at him doubtfully.
“Doesn’t really sound like it, though.”
“Well… you see, it’s one of the rules of my faith,” Farid said with a helpless shrug. “I’m not allowed to touch any woman outside of my family.”
“Is that why you’re always acting so strange? Around Saffron, and Dana, and me?” Reva said with a slight tilt of her head.
Her hair was falling into her face and Farid had the strong urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear again; he gripped the mug he was still carrying tighter instead.
“It is,” Farid said apologetically. “We have many rules.”
Reva hummed thoughtfully and turned to Farid. The sad look on her face was gone, and the sparkle in her eyes had returned.
“Have you never thought of breaking the rules?” she asked curiously.
“Which one?”
Reva shrugged and the corners of her mouth twitched. “Any.”
Farid felt the heat rise to his face and he rubbed his neck in embarrassment.
“Well, uhm, you probably wouldn’t consider that rule breaking I guess… I mean, your track record is impressive after all… although of course I don’t mean…”
Reva was just watching him with an amused expression and raised one eyebrow at him.
Get a grip, Farid thought to himself; this was ridiculous.
“My older brother and I once snuck out after curfew to watch a film we were too young for,” Farid said meekly. “It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s the best I can come up with.”
Reva’s laugh was loud and clear as it rang through the cold night air, and it made Farid feel warm on the inside.
“That’s adorable,” she chuckled, “You’re one of the good ones, aren’t you? The really good ones, I mean, the ones you don’t really find anymore these days.”
And just like that, Reva’s beautiful smile faltered and flickered out; the sadness from before had resurfaced again and was clouding her features.
“I bet you’d never tell a girl you loved her if you didn’t mean it,” she said so softly Farid wasn’t sure she was actually speaking to him at all. “Girls do a lot of stupid things when you tell them that you love them.”
Farid’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean? Who did that to you?” he said and his voice was hoarse.
But Reva shook her head, already regretting bringing the topic up.
“No one, forget it. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s alright.”
She brought her hand to her face and Farid realised with a jolt that silent tears were running down her cheeks; suddenly he felt red hot anger bubbling underneath his skin at whoever had dared treat her like that.
“No it’s not alright,” he said vehemently, ”it’s not alright at all! No one should take advantage of you in such a way and -“
“Farid, that’s enough,“ Reva said with a warning tone.
“You shouldn’t need to experience something like this, no one should, and it’s despicable that he -”
“I said, it’s enough,” Reva said so sharply Farid instantly stopped talking.
All the anger he’d felt subsided as he saw her glaring at him.
“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have, really… It’s obviously not my place to say things like this, and you respect my boundaries, so I should have respected yours and…”
Reva sighed deeply and brushed her hair out of her face, letting her hand rest on the top of her head for a moment.
“No, it’s alright. You meant well, it’s just…” she sighed again, “I really don’t want to talk about this, or him, or anything like that tonight. That’s not a good way to start the year, sorry for bringing it up in the first place.”
She raised her glass again, not to her lips but towards Farid, and looked at him expectantly.
“What do you say? Let’s drink on peace and a new year?”
Farid was relieved to see she wasn’t actually angry at him and clinked his mug against her dainty glass; Reva looked at it curiously.
“What is that?”
“I don’t drink alcohol,” Farid explained.
“The rules?”
“The rules,” he said with a slight smirk. “This is a special kind of hot chocolate we used to drink at home.”
“What makes it so special?”
“There’s a whole lot of spices in it. Not everyone’s cup of tea… or chocolate, I guess… but I like it. It reminds me of my family.”
Reva tilted her head and looked intrigued.
“May I try it?”
Farid looked down at the brown liquid inside his cup. “I’m afraid it’s pretty cold now. It doesn’t taste as good when it’s cold.”
“I can help you with that,” Reva smiled, produced her wand seemingly out of nowhere and tapped it against the rim of the mug with a quiet clink. Immediately after, warm and fragrant steam was rising into Farid’s nose; magic would never fail to amaze him.
“How about now?” she asked innocently.
Not seeing a reason to refuse her, Farid held the cup out to her. When Reva took it from him, their fingers were almost touching, not even an inch from each other. Farid realised he would only need to loosen his grip on the cup a little, the tiniest bit, and the tips of his fingers would be brushing against hers.
The thought made his heart flutter and he was so tempted to do it, just not play by the rules like Reva always did this one time.
But the moment passed and the warm porcelain of the cup left his hands; Farid was half glad and half disappointed by it.
Reva laid both her hands around the mug, clearly relishing the warmth against her cold skin. Farid was oddly excited when she brought it to her lips and took a small sip of his favourite drink.
“What do you think?”
“I like it,” Reva smiled, “it’s unusual, but in a good way. I like the cinnamon, it makes it feel so warm. We don’t use much cinnamon at home, my mum is allergic to it.”
“Shame she has to miss out on it,” Farid said and meant it; cinnamon was one of his favourite tastes in the world. “Do you want me to make you your own cup?”
“I’d like that,” Reva said and handed him his mug back before standing up, “but not tonight. This is not a night for hot chocolate, not even when it’s spicy.”
She walked past him into the direction of the door that would lead her back inside The Three Broomsticks. Just before she could round the corner, she stopped and looked over her shoulder at Farid.
“You really are one of the good ones, Farid Sikander,” she said quietly, “don’t you ever forget that.”
And with that she dipped back into the light and the noise of the party going on inside.
Farid stayed where he was, and leaned back against the backrest of the bench, much like Reva had done before. His head was empty, but his chest was filled with a warm feeling that didn’t come from the magically heated cup inside his hands.
Shaking his head, he took another sip of his hot chocolate, but found the taste to be different than before; all he could think of was the cinnamon.
