In All the Thunder

Chapter Five: Get Well Soon, Preferably Sober

"I don't want to go."

"I don't care; you're going."

"Leave me alone, I'm not going."

"Then what are you going to do while we go out and have a great time?"

"I'm going to sob into my pillow like girls are supposed to; chuck wadded up tissues to the other side of the room while I watch terribly angsty, cheesy movies like normal girls do; and then go murder my father so I can return to acting like me again. Sounds like a good plan, eh?"

Lily gave an exasperated sigh. Lorena was being a right pain in the arse. Everyone had thought that Remus had successfully pulled her out of her bout of grief, but Lorena had slipped right back into it when Nathan had sent her a hurried written letter. Now, all Lily wanted was to get Lorena back to normal. In all honesty, things weren't as fun without Lorena, knowing that she was absolutely miserable.

"Whatever," Lily mumbled, and she walked out of the bedroom, shutting the door quietly. Lorena had to come around some time sooner or later, preferably sooner.

Ever since Lorena had spent her days moping around her house, boxes had been left closed and full. The only thing that had been put up was the bed. Lily had bought her a television, hoping that she'd enjoy it and feel better, only to have her stumble upon the channel Lily watched herself - the one that showed movies that made people sob their heads off. And now that Lorena's mood was very off, Remus had been worried and sad, too, mad at himself for not being able to make her feel better. James had suggested chocolate; Remus had nearly strangled him. Lily would've done the same thing, but had been too busy trying to save James to even roll her eyes.

The living room was pilled with brown boxes, the couch, the chair, and the kitchen table. Why the kitchen table was in the living room, Lily had yet to find out. She supposed that Lorena had finally started unpacking and moving furniture when she'd got Nathan's letter. Speaking of Nathan's letter, there it was, lying on a box innocently.

Lily looked around, seeing that she was still alone. She looked back down at the letter. It wouldn't hurt to take a peek at it; no one knew what had upset Lorena so much. Lily picked the letter up. The first thing she noticed was the state of the letter - all the blotches, the terribly messy handwriting (Lily had seen Nathan's handwriting before; for a six year-old, he had incredibly neat handwriting), the scratch outs, the small holes in the paper, and the darkness of the ink. Her curiosity was sparked immediately; she hoped Lorena wouldn't mind her reading the letter.

Lorena,

I know that it must come as a surprise to get a letter from here so soon after your departure, but something has happened. I'm sorry to bother you. now that you have a job I thought that you might want to be updated.

Brandon has done something very bad stupid. He tried to get Allen to ask Father to let you come back home or visit or something. But Allen isn't like he used to be anymore now that he's got a high-paying job at the Ministry. I mean, he's being a pain in the arse. He's acting like a snobby prat. He's being a big git. So anyways, Brandon tried to reason with Allen about you, but Allen's on Father's side now. I think it's because Father helped him get that bloody job in the first place. Anyway, so Allen the prat took Brandon to Father so Brandon could get punished because, you know, he was being a "vigilant pest".

Things...didn't go so well. Father was all like, "You are not to speak of her again, blah, blah, blah." And then, Brandon went off on him and was like, "Well, I think that you're stupid!" and so forth. It's got real out of control hand over here. Father smacked him. Brandon's locked himself in your my his bedroom and refuses to come out for anything. He hasn't eaten in two days. I've talked to him late at night (so no one will see me) by sitting right outside the room; he's talking about running away.

I mean, I'd like to see you again very much just as much as him, but he's starting to sound crazy! We're He's only six! He can't possibly run away and live on the streets at six! I'm scared that he will though and leave me alone here because he sounds dead serious.

I think I we he really needs to talk with you. Father's forcing him and me to come with him today to Knockturn Alley for a bit of shopping. We'll slip away and meet you in the Quidditch Supply Shop at one. I hope that sounds alright. I'm worried. Father will get mad at us, but for once, I don't give a care. I hope a brick accidentally falls on his head and knocks some sense into him. I hope you can make it.

Please don't send an owl back with a reply. I stole Decus from Father to send this to you. If Father finds out, I'll be dead in some serious trouble. If Father sees anything from you, he'll go ballistic. Please meet us at Diagon Alley.

I miss you so much.

Nathan

Lily stared at the letter, feeling shocked. She hadn't expected Nathan to write something like this or be so brash at all. From what she had seen of the boy, he was cheery, almost always grinning, and was the quieter one of the twins. However, this didn't sound like him at all. It was his handwriting and him writing it alright (Nathan was very smart for his age), but it sounded more like something that Brandon would write. She supposed that Brandon was being normal, but she couldn't imagine a six year-old running away from home. She knew that Brandon took after Lorena a lot, but she hadn't suspected him to be filled with so much anger at such a young age. Perhaps Lorena's estrangement from her family had changed something in them. Maybe-

"Lily?" There was a sniff.

Startled, Lily jumped and hastily put the letter back onto the box before spinning around. Lorena was shuffling into the room. Lily didn't want her to know that she was rooting through her personal things.

"Oh, hey, Lorena," Lily said, trying to sound normal. She hinted, much to her dismay, a note of uneasiness in her voice. Lorena was sure to detect that. However, Lorena did nothing but rub at her eyes irritably. Lily put on a faint smile. "I thought you had your day planned out already."

Lorena frowned. "Not anymore. Sobbing is stupid, and a way to ruin a perfectly good pillow; watching cheesy, angsty movies makes me want to puke, which is rather disgusting; and my dad's in Prague for work-related business, and I don't want to go to Prague." She sighed. "So, that leaves me with nothing to do now."

"Oh, that's great - I mean..."

"I know what you mean." Lorena smiled faintly. "What are we going to do?"

Lily beamed. "We're going to meet Krystyna and Sara in Rome."

"Rome?! Italy?" Lorena's eyes looked as if they were going to pop out. Lily nodded her head. "We're just going to Apparate there - no questions asked - nothing." Again, Lily nodded her head. Lorena eyed her dubiously and then, "Whatever."

"Yes! Now go get ready - and in Muggle clothing."

Lorena grumbled something and shuffled out of the room. Lily was so happy. She'd been to Rome before with her family; it had been so fascinating. A trip there was sure to cheer Lorena up. It had even made Petunia pleasant, which had been a miracle in itself.

A few minutes later, Lorena came back wearing Muggle clothes. Lily beamed at her; Lorena grinned back weakly.

"Do you know where the Apparating points are; there's a hidden part that Muggles can't see," Lily told her. Lorena shook her head. "It's in the Coliseum - just envision the inside of that."

"Oh, I was thinking of spaghetti, but I suppose the Coliseum is a better place to Apparate to," Lorena sighed resignedly.

Lily snickered. They Apparated.

~*~

Rome had been filled with plenty of excitement. Krystyna and Sara had already been inside the Coliseum, lounging around as they waited for Lily and Lorena to arrive.

For the most part of the day, Lorena had stood beside Lily, who seemed to be the main one in helping her forget a few things in her life. Krystyna was slightly confused at this (she had usually always been the one to comfort Lorena when things happened concerning her family), but supposed that Lily was better at consoling people anyway. With that, Krystyna and Sara had paired up, which had been fun. Both of them had wanted to see the same things and had seemingly been thinking the same things, too. All in all, things had worked out.

Lorena had seemed to take a liking to Rome. They had gone out to eat first, which had been filled with plenty of great food. She had been quiet throughout most of the day, listening to the rest of them talk, occasionally putting in a thought here and there. By the end of the day, she had almost been back to normal until they had returned to the Coliseum to Apparate back to England.

"Time to go back home, I suppose," Lorena mumbled.

Krystyna looked at Lily, asking for forgiveness with her eyes, as she slowly said, "Oh, um, no, we're not going home just yet." Lily shrugged her shoulders, which Krystyna was thankful for. She looked over at Lorena, who had looked up at her now. "We're going to the Three Broomsticks."

"Work?" Lorena wore a puzzled look on her face.

"I could go for a drink or two," Sara offered.

Lorena eyed them all suspiciously and finally said, "You've all been around James and Sirius too much for your own good. Since when do you all drink?"

"Well, we're not saints," Lily huffed.

Lorena smirked. "I see."

"We'll show you," Krystyna stated.

"Krystyna, the last time I saw you drink was when Sirius coaxed you to take a sip of his Firewhiskey; and, if I remember correctly, you spent half an hour in the toilet." Lorena grinned.

Krystyna blushed, despite trying not to. "Well, I don't do that anymore."

"I suppose you drink it by the tankard now," Lorena said sarcastically.

"What? I say I don't take hour long toilet trips anymore after sipping Firewhiskey and suddenly I've become an alcoholic?" Krystyna said in mock-hurt.

Lorena gave a raucous laugh. "Of course I wasn't implying that; I was merely implying that you couldn't hold down a full Firewhiskey."

"I can hold down two, I'll have you know!" Krystyna, by now, was a deep red.

"Two?! Oh, wow, Krystyna, sometimes, I wonder about you..."

"Just because you can drink about fifty of them don't mean that I'm a weakling!"

"I didn't say that, now did I." Lorena grinned. "Besides, it's impossible to drink fifty Firewhiskies without dying. I think my limit is sixteen."

Krystyna snorted. "You'd know, wouldn't you?"

"Alright, alright," Lily sighed. "Are we going or are we just going to stand here and argue all night?"

"Let's go," Lorena and Krystyna said in unison. They laughed together. They hadn't been arguing, but had been tossing comments back and forth to see who floundered first. Lily had obviously had enough of their trying to one-up the other. Sara was giggling. They Apparated once again.

Once in Hogsmeade, they walked down the street to the Three Broomsticks. Since it was such a warm night, there were other people walking around, slipping into stores before they closed for the night. The village seemed to be in a cheery mood. Krystyna figured that it would help Lorena even more. Of course, the plan she had in mind was not a very good one, but it was the only thing she could think of.

There was only one way to make a person forget something long enough to enjoy themselves totally, however much she detested it. She had learned it from Sirius, who had seen many of people go from crying to laughing at the many parties his parents had forced him to go to. Apparently, the Blacks and their relatives were a much more rowdy pureblood bunch than the Melanies, Whitfields, Potters, and Fawcetts. The Malfoys were...well, Krystyna couldn't call them exactly rowdy or calm.

The only thing that could possibly get Lorena to simply forget for an hour or two was to get her totally, out of her mind, smashed. If there was one thing Krystyna had learned months ago about Lorena, it was that she dwelled on things until there was no possible way to forget, a carbon copy of the problem in her mind forever. Krystyna had been foreign to such things; she wasn't a dweller like Lorena.

Once at the Three Broomsticks, Sara and Lorena ducked inside, chattering quietly about Sara's Healer training. Krystyna was about to follow them when Lily grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back to keep her from going in. Krystyna sighed; she was afraid Lily would do this.

"Alright, what are you planning, Krystyna?" Lily demanded. Krystyna honestly didn't want to tell her; the mere thought of doing this was making Krystyna sick to her stomach. "Sara must've caught on, but it seems as if Lorena and I have been left in the dust. You know as well as I do that Sara won't touch anything even slightly alcoholic because she says it's bad for you kidneys!"

Krystyna knew that there was no way to get out of this. She looked away from Lily. "Well, it's quite, er, simple, really," she stammered. Lily's green eyes seem to penetrate through her. "I thought about...how we didn't exactly make Lorena forget, you know, her problems when we were in Rome, like we anticipated." Lily seemed to loosen up a little at this. "So I thought, well, if Sirius says it works then so be it!"

"If Sirius said what works?" Lily now looked very suspicious.

Krystyna relented, sighing in defeat. "Sirius told me that you'll forget your problems for about an hour or two if you..." She looked away again, ashamed. "If you get drunk enough," she finished.

"Krystyna Melanie!" Lily exclaimed. "We are not getting Lorena drunk out of her mind on purpose!"

That had been exactly what Krystyna was waiting for; she knew that Lily would say that.

"Well, we haven't got much of a choice now, really," Krystyna explained. Lily snorted. "I mean, it's not like I'm going to keep ordering drinks for her. But..." She grinned weakly. "You know Lorena; she's bound to get more than a few drinks. She wants to forget; she knows how it's done around here."

Lily snorted again. "So you just brought her here so she'd get herself drunk."

"Well...you make it sound like a terrible idea," Krystyna muttered lamely.

"That's because it is a terrible idea!" Lily said loudly.

There was a noise; Lily and Krystyna looked over. Sara had her head poked out. "Hey, you two, I know it feels good out here and all, but I'm feeling a bit out of place here."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

"Well, it's not exactly filled with the normal daytime customers," Sara said dryly. Upon seeing the worried looks on both of their faces, she hastily added, "But it's nothing seriously scary. It's not like the crowd during Lorena's shift" - she chuckled - "yet."

"Oh," Krystyna sighed, "oh, okay. We're coming."

"Yeah, we were just having a" - Lily gave Krystyna a furtive glower - "friendly chat about, you know, Lorena. We're worried about her."

Sara rolled her eyes. "We all are. Now come in here, sit down, and have a Firewhiskey - I don't care."

Lily and Krystyna looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and walked inside, hoping for the best. They didn't like going to the Three Broomsticks during Lorena's shift without Sirius or James. It was a wonder how Sara had been able to stand it.

However, once inside, the two saw that it wasn't as bad as they thought. Sure, they still felt slightly out of place, but it wasn't as bad. However, there were so many people crammed inside that Krystyna couldn't spot their table.

"Where's Lorena?" she whispered.

Sara pointed somewhere. "Over there, sitting alone because two people felt the need to bicker like they did at Hogwarts over schoolwork and Quidditch practice."

Lily and Krystyna blushed. At Hogwarts, Lily, try as might to be helpful and a good friend, had thought that Quidditch practice had got in the way of their time to do their homework; Krystyna, who loved Quidditch more than winning the House Cup, had simply not seen the logic in such a horrid suggestion. Lorena, who was the one who usually did most of the arguing, usually laughed loudly at them; Sara, who wasn't one for confrontation and arguments, had been so peeved at them that she'd shout at them to shut up all the time.

In order to divert the attention away from them, Lily and Krystyna looked where Sara had pointed and saw, much to their horror, some man disturbing a disgruntled-looking Lorena.

Sara gasped. "Oh, no, if that man makes her upset-"

"-she'll murder him!" Krystyna finished, not caring if Sara hadn't thought up that. But as they shoved their way through the large crowd to get to Lorena quickly, it seemed as if she had the situation under control.

"Yeh can' be here all by yerself," the man said, grinning. He grabbed her wrist.

Lorena immediately jerked her wrist out of his grip and shot him a glare that should've killed him on the spot. "I can be if I want to be, but I'm not so leave me alone."

"Ah, come now, yeh seem to be a lovely young lady-"

"If you keep messing around with me I won't seem like such a lovely young lady anymore!" Lorena snapped irritably. "Leave - me - alone!"

"But yer so-"

"-frustrated by your lack of competence and insistent annoyance!" Lorena ended, losing her nerve.

The man furrowed his brow. "Now miss-"

"Don't 'miss' me! The only thing I miss is you not being around me!" Lorena retorted. "Now get away from me before I hex you into the next life!" She brought out her wand, making the man jump back. "I am being dead serious right now. I just came here to get wasted, not hit on. I'm taken - goodbye."

As the man scurried away hastily back to his laughing friends across the room, Lorena put her wand away and gave them all a look of calmness. "Arsehole," she simply said.

"Lorena..." Lily said weakly.

But Lorena waved her hand at Lily dismissively. "Oh, have a red currant rum and be quiet, Lily. That was nothing."

"He could've hurt you!" Sara squeaked.

"In a room full of witnesses?" Lorena raised an eyebrow. "I daresay, I don't think he was that drunk to do something so idiotic. I mean, he was drunk - no doubt about that - but not that drunk." Sara didn't look convinced. "What could he have done? Pounce on me and try to snog me?"

She snorted and began to laugh as Lily, Krystyna, and Sara sat down.

"It's not funny," Krystyna said quietly. "We thought that...well..."

Lorena stopped laughing enough to say, "That I was going to murder him?" She began laughing again.

"She hasn't had anything to drink yet, has she?" Krystyna whispered to Sara.

But before Sara could answer, Lorena stopped laughing and said, "Of course I haven't. Besides, it takes a whole lot more than one Firewhiskey to get me smashed."

"Don't flatter yourself," Lily said dryly.

"Was that sarcasm - from Miss Lily Evans, no doubt - that I heard?" Lorena smirked and leaned back in her seat. "My, my, well done, grasshopper Evans; I've taught you well in the art of dry humour."

Lily grinned. "Oh, shut up."

Lorena started to stand. "I'll get the-"

"No, I'm getting the drinks," Krystyna interrupted, jumping to her feet. Lorena had stopped, halfway standing and halfway sitting. "You're a waitress; all you do is bring drinks and stuff. But it's your day off so I'm not letting you."

"Oh, um, okay, sure, do what you want, Krystyna." Lorena looked slightly confused, but she sat back down in her seat anyway. "I want two Firewhiskies."

"Two?" Lily spun around to look at Lorena, who merely shrugged her shoulders. Lily rolled her eyes back to Krystyna. "I just want a, er, red currant rum, please." She blushed a little when Lorena started up again. Sara raised an eyebrow. "Oh, please, stop it. I had a taste of James's once, and to tell you the truth, it was really good."

"I think you did more of the changing, not James!" Lorena gasped out. Krystyna was now chortling along with Lorena.

"I think I'll just have a gillywater, thanks," Sara told Krystyna, grinning at Lily. Krystyna walked off to get them their drinks. "Wow, what happened to the Lily Evans I knew?"

Lily tried to control her blushing. "I like to think that both James and I changed for the better."

Lorena snorted. "Hm, a soft spot for red currant rum is a change for the better? I see more than just you two have changed."

"Shut up, Lorena," Lily said, although she was smiling.

A few minutes later, Krystyna came back with all their drinks. She handed them out and sat down with her cherry syrup and soda in hand.

"So," Lily said, taking a sip of her drink. She eyed Lorena over the glass rim. "How's everything going with Remus?" Lily was happy to see Lorena turn a pale pink. "Well, I take it?"

"I-I suppose so," Lorena stuttered. She threw the Firewhiskey down her throat immediately and sat the glass down.

Lily arched an eyebrow. "You suppose so?"

"I mean," Lorena began slowly, "things are going fine." She paused. "In fact, we're going to a, er, concert Friday."

"What sort of concert?" Sara asked immediately.

"Oh, you know, the sort of flowy classical music he likes," Lorena said, making wide gestures. It was the sort of music that she was actually fond of, but didn't want anyone to know. What would people say if they found out that tough Lorena had a weakness for classical music? Remus had about near died when she had admitted it to him; not even Krystyna, Lily, or Sara knew about it.

Krystyna was surprised. "Remus didn't say anything about that to me yesterday when we were talking-"

"That's because I called him this morning; a friend at work here gave me some tickets last night at work," Lorena explained patiently. "It was Phillip; he got them for his wife, who likes classical music, but found out that now that she's pregnant, for some reason, she gets sick when she hears cellos. He gave them to me because I mentioned something about Remus liking that music."

At least that wasn't a lie, however far-fetched it sounded.

"You didn't look to happy about going on a date with Remus this morning," Lily pointed out.

"Well, I was happy, but..." Lorena sighed, trying to stall so she could think. "But, you know, I was still feeling pretty bad. You don't just bounce out of it because you're going on a date."

Lily tried to steer the conversation away from that immediately, cursing herself for bringing the subject up - the one subject that she wanted to go away for good. "Oh, would you look at that, I'm out already." She looked up from her empty glass. "Krystyna, would you mind-?"

"Of course not, Lily, I need a new drink, too." Krystyna stood up. "Sara?" But Sara shook her head and lifted her half full glass of gillywater. "Lorena?"

"I could go for a few more shots, I suppose," Lorena sighed, glancing at the two small, empty glasses in front of her. And so, Krystyna went to get more drinks.

It went like this for a while. They would all talk about something (like work or boyfriends), but every time the conversation landed on the touchy subject of the week, Lily would announce that she needed more to drink. She couldn't think of anything else to say. After an hour's time, Lily stopped waiting for the sensitive topic to be touched; she would call for more to drink because she simply ran out of red currant rum.

"More to drink, I think!" Lily announced brightly, swaying in her seat as she held up her full glass in the air. It sloshed around; some trickled down her arm. She giggled. "That rhymed, you know."

Sara leaned over to Krystyna and said, in a most astonished voice, "I think Lily...is drunk."

"I think so," Krystyna agreed, gawking at Lily, whose face was red and eyes were glossy. She was smiling from ear-to-ear, humming to herself, as she swayed side-to-side.

"Drinks?" Lily repeated, standing up.

Krystyna jumped to her feet and grabbed Lily by the elbow. "Nah, let's just go home now. It's getting late, I'm afraid." She wasn't lying. A new crowd had come in, the one she didn't feel comfortable being around. Lorena was leaning in her seat, sniggering loudly. "I'm wiped, too."

"How can you be wiped, Krystyna?" Lily demanded loudly. "The party's just started!" She took a sip of her red currant rum and looked around the room. "Oh, look, there! I think I see Sirius!" She took a few steps toward a man with black hair in a dark robe, but landed up almost falling down. It was a lucky thing that Krystyna already had ahold of her, even though she pulled Krystyna down slightly too; Sara had to help pull Lily up. "Oh, Sirius! C'mere, Sirius!"

"That's not Sirius!" Krystyna gasped out.

Lily stopped and squinted at the man. "Really? I could've sworn that it was him..."

"No, Sirius is at home, sleeping soundly in his nice, comfy, warm..." - a wistful, almost dreamy, look came upon Krystyna as she blinked tiredly and yawned - "bed."

Sara yawned. "Bed sounds nice, don't you think, Lily?"

Lily screwed up her face, as if in deep thought. "Not really. I want more red currant!" She held up her glass; all the red currant rum poured out of glass.

"They're out of red currant rum now," Lorena finally said, standing up slowly and stretching. "After around eleven or so, they stopped selling and, I'm afraid, it's midnight now." Lily frowned and looked sadly into her now empty glass. "It's best we get going home."

Krystyna and Sara helped lead Lily out of the Three Broomsticks, Lorena not following too far behind them. With each of them on either side of her, the two of them practically carried a drunken Lily down the street as she sang loudly at the top of her lungs some Muggle song.

"She can't Apparate in this state!" Sara exclaimed.

"Maybe we can do a Sobering Charm on her," Krystyna offered.

"That's in the process of being worked on right now," Lorena explained. "What I'm saying is that the Sobering Charm doesn't work for all types of alcoholic drinks as of yet. It doesn't work on people who get drunk off red currant rum - not yet, at least."

"Before I even consider believing you, how many Firewhiskies did you drink?" Krystyna demanded.

"Only twelve, calm down, Krys," Lorena said calmly.

"Only twelve?!" Krystyna shouted. "You're supposed to be drunker than Lily!"

Lorena snorted. "Obviously, since Firewhiskey is four times more potent than weak red currant rum."

"But," Sara said, drooping a bit as Lily fell on her more, "you're not drunk."

"I am too drunk," Lorena replied.

"You're certainly not acting like it," Krystyna pointed out.

Lorena sighed and shook her head at them, rolling her eyes. "Don't you understand? This is how I am when I'm flat out wasted. I don't get all giggly or loud or obnoxious. I'm calm. Can't you two tell a big difference in me?" Even though she should've sounded exasperated, she sounded terribly cool.

"Well, we figured you were just being..." Sara couldn't seem to find a word for it and then gave up.

"Come on now," Lily yelled, "sing along with me! Nobody does it better." She swayed into Krystyna, hard, and almost knocked her over. She grinned at Lorena. "You know the song. Remember? The spy movie Peter made you watch? James Bond - oh, he reminds me of my James..."

Lorena snorted very loudly. "There you have it then, Lil," she said. "All you have to do is switch 'Potter' to 'Bond' and you're dating James Bond himself."

"Hey, you're right!" Lily exclaimed. "I'll have to tell him that." She giggled. "Makes me fell sad for the rest. Come on now, Lorena - sing it with me!"

"Yeah," Krystyna bit back, "sing it with her."

Lorena smirked. "Oh, fine, I will. Nobody does it half as good as you. Baby you're the best."

She and Lily began to sing the rest of the song together loudly, Lily giggling here and there. By the time they stopped singing the song, they were at the end of the street.

Lily grinned at Lorena. "You know what."

"What?"

"You have the most beautiful voice," Lily stated.

Lorena began to laugh, holding her sides. "Yup, she's bloody pissed out of her mind, alright!"

"You know, you do have a great voice, Lorena," Sara offered meekly.

"Yeah, I never knew you could sing like that," Krystyna said. "You've never sang before."

"Well, I-" Lorena looked mildly embarrassed about it. "I don't really like to talk about it. I'm a horrible singer, honestly. My mum made me take lessons because said I was hopeless at learning any musical instrument. She tried to teach me how to play the flute, but...that never worked out. Then, it was the piano, but I had fun annoying her by banging on the keys. I tried to violin - liked it, too - but couldn't produce a single good sound. So, she said that since I liked talking so much, I must have good vocal cords."

"I guess your mum was right" - Sara paused - "for once."

Lorena rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, do shut up for a second while I vomit all my Firewhiskey." While Sara and Krystyna cackled and Lily continued singing, Lorena stuck her wand out. Lily was clearly in no condition to Apparate. The only way to travel then was by the Knight Bus, which might even shake Lily back to soberness or cause something else like - "All aboard the Vomit Express!"

It was going to be one long, rough trip back home. That was for sure.