Circumstances Insist

[Aurora Night]

The one flaw in Rory's otherwise brilliant chocolate plan, apart from Aodhan not being allowed in the girl's dormitory (which, it would be weird to have him in there anyway, so that was fine), was that Hayley couldn't come into Gryffindor house with the rest of them. It sucked, and they'd all been moaning about it for years. There'd been talk of smuggling Hayley in many times, but none of them had quite figured out how to do this – they thought they had, once, but had then discovered that the number of house robes in the laundry were watched very carefully by house elves nowadays, for some reason.

The point of today's mission wasn't smuggling, however. "Okay, just wait here," Rory told Hayley, who she'd dragged up here by herself after dinner. "I'll be back soon as. And if I accidentally say the password loud enough for you to hear ... well." She flashed a grin at her friend, but knew it wasn't likely to work. The portrait had threatened to remove itself from its frame the last time it had heard one of the gang seriously mention the idea, and that just wasn't worth the trouble ... this time. Rory darted through the portrait hole, through the common room, and up the stairs to her dorm to grab the specific present she had set aside before returning to her friend out in the corridor. "Ta da," she said, presenting the bar of chocolate to Hayley with a grin. "Tell me it's the best Valentine's gift ever." Rory had really enjoyed picking a flavour for each of her best friends, and she was sure Hayley was going to appreciate her one immensely. "Red-Hot Chilli chocolate. It's no Fitzwilliam Fimbleton the Fifth's Fabled Frankly Fuc|ing Fantastic Five-hundred Fahrenheit Fairy Flame Feast: Not for the Faint-Hearted – which we are not, by the way," Rory tipped her finger back and forth between herself and Hayley with a smug grin "– but I don't think anyone has thought to make a chocolate version of that yet."

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley had long been resentful about her house, and that resentment was never stronger than when she was reminded that most of her friends slept in the same room, while she was isolated. Of course, they always made every effort to include her, for which she was grateful, but their cunning plans to sneak her into the dorm had always failed. Still, Hayley was determined that she'd stay the night with her friends at school, at least once before they all graduated. It was a mischief too good, a heist too interesting, a dream too longed-for, to pass up.

But it was not the plot afoot today. Rory had told Hayley in her rose note what to expect, so she wasn't surprised when her friend dragged her away after dinner. Smirking, Hayley waited in the corridor, casting mischievous glances at the portrait as if daring it to let her in - not as though she expected anything to come of that. Her grin widened as Rory presented her with the chocolate, and she giggled gleefully as she saw what flavour it was. "Rory, that's brilliant." Hayley did enjoy spicy food, and though she wasn't as obsessed with it as Rory seemed to think she was (or was that part of the joke?), she would certainly enjoy devouring this. "Definitely the best Valentine's gift I've ever had." Not that Hayley had had many Valentine's gifts - although actually, Rose's friendship bracelets back in third year probably beat it, but that wasn't what Rory wanted to hear. "Oh my god, can you imagine FFFFF chocolate, though? Can we suggest that for Gambol and Jape's? Or would it make your boss hate us too much?"