Log: Danger/Elaine
LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY deoppressoliber)
Characters: "Danger" Diggle and Elaine Campbell When: During Dinner, Nov. 10, 1976 Where: Ravenclaw Commons Rating: TV-MA (L,V) for Adult Language, Adult Themes, and Mild Violence
Summary: Danger is drunk and looking for a fight. Elaine is torn in her own right. A fight ensues.
Guilt over having missed the Quidditch match was the furthest thing from Elaine's mind when she returned from the Astronomy Tower after the dinner hour. She wasn't really all that hungry, and the small store of fruits and the tea that she'd been drinking nearly continuously all day had ensured that she remained that way. She'd heard the crowd at the stadium from her spot, and a quick peek of the journals revealed that Gryffindor had won. She felt bad for her House and Housemates, but still found that she couldn't really care about the outcome of the match -- not today. Not when she was still reeling from the blow dealt her by her grandfather. But even a self-imposed exile must come to an end, and so Elaine found herself at one of the more secluded tables in the Ravenclaw Common room, surrounded by parchments and books and scribbling furiously away at the History of Magic essay due Tuesday.
Danger hadn't been this angry in a while -- not since he found out his team mate was shagging his crush at the time. But it fueled the fire within. It made Danger want to play harder, work harder, play faster, dig deeper, in order to extract vengeance upon two levels -- one, in order to avenge the loss from the pre-season, and secondly, in order to make Meghan pay in shame (of course, Shan would do that for him later in the night, but that was beside the point). But no matter how hard he tried, no matter how hard he worked...they still lost. Which was frustrating, to say the very least, to Danger's young, angry mind. All of his own personal hard work, two-a-day trainings, Saturday's hard work...for nothing.
Danger immediately returned back to the safety of his domicile. Wasting no time, the squeaky floorboard underneath his bed was loosened, and he sought what he was looking for -- that beautiful bottle of bronze elixir, that would take away his pains. But it didn't -- shot after shot just allowed him to brew over his loss, punish himself for not being better, not working harder, for not having his father's strength and guile to defeat his opponents on the pitch. Danger continued, finding that the brew didn't do anything but made him feel worse about the entire thing.
After he was easily a quarter way down from the bottle, he couldn't take it anymore. He threw his journal to the side, and all the hateful things said in it. Quite literally, he threw everything off his desk, scattering it every which way across the large room. Danger picked up his cloak to leave, but realized that his bottle was still out. Hastily, he put it back in its hiding spot, before heading down the stairway, to get the hell out of the Ravenclaw commons for a while.
The room seemed to spin as he walked, making it difficult for him to keep a straight line. But somehow, he found a way to keep his bearings, and hit the stairwell down to the empty commons. Empty except for her. He'd recognize her soft blonde hair anywhere, seeming stuck in a book, as she was seemingly hiding from the world. Right now, even though she was the first person that he wanted to see, she was also the last....as, after all, after admitting to himself that he was worried for her and wanted to be there for her, she totally and completely hid away from him.
"OY!" he exclaimed, coming down from the stairwell. "Fancy meeting you here," he continued, staggering towards her. "What's the matter, then -- stars not good company tonight?"
Elaine stilled completely at the voice -- she knew it immediately, even slurred as it was with alcohol. This wasn't Dedalus, come to check on her. No, the tone of the voice and the words themselves told her this was pure Danger Diggle -- and a whole other creature. Finally she put her quill down and looked up at him. He literally reeked of alcohol and stood as if at any moment he was going to tumble over. Mouth set, she shook her head. "Go sober up, Danger." She sighed slightly, reaching for her textbook. "I've got homework." Perhaps clearer vision on his part would show a girl floundering desperately in the new reality that had presented itself and unwilling to admit that she was little more than a babe, lost in the woods. And for now, she'd ignore his words, because becoming angry -- really, truly angry -- was too much work.
"I'm as sober as a feckin' magistrate," he continued, wobbling towards her in a funny sort of way. In any other reality, Dedalus would have been there for her, because in all reality, she was a very important part of his life. She was a very crucial part of his life. And he needed her, because for as lost as she was in her new reality, Danger was just as lost, caught between two realities, not truly being able to embrace either one. But this was not a clear-minded, intelligent Dedalus. This was an alcohol fueled Danger, who burned with anger over losing the only thing that meant more to him than his friends twice over in three months. He was not about to take this sitting down.
He sat across from her in an overstuffed chair, still smelling of the whiskey that he so easily punished himself with. "So where were you, then?" He asked, not necessarily in an accusatory tone, but in a tone that was more...questioning, than anything else. "We could have used you at the game today...at least I could have." He shrugged, looking away as he spoke. "But you didn't miss anything. It was a feckin' loss...great way to start the season, ne?" he offered, looking back at her with a lazy glare.
"Of course you are," Elaine muttered to herself, trying to focus on the words before her even as he sat with her, the smell of the liquor becoming more palpable. Without thinking, she wrinkled her nose. It wasn't that she was against alcohol, it was that the smell wasn't desired at the moment. "I was in the astronomy tower. Working." Her tone made it clear that he should have <i>known</i> where she was, for where else did she retreat? After all, he was one of her closest friends. "I didn't feel like going." She admitted it quietly, hating herself for it. but it was, nevertheless, the truth. "Everyone was saying in the journals that Ravenclaw played a good match."
Danger scoffed in a rather loud matter. Sure, Ravenclaw played a good match. But it wasn't good enough...and per Danger's standards, it would never be quite good enough. "We played like shit," he offered, his face now staring towards the fire. "We played like absolute shit. Our scorers were out for themselves, our keeper was too busy in a bet to make sure that we didn't win...and, the bludgers just didn't do a goddamn thing right," he said. "Of course, my beating...my beating wasn't its best, but feck, I can't carry the entire team, now can I?" The frustration came out more and more as he spoke, letting out steam through a pressure valve that seemed ready to explode at any given moment. "Either way," he continued, looking back at her, wondering why she was so caught up in her work. "It would have been nice to see you out there. Could've done you some good, you know...get you out of that rut of yours." He didn't mean for his words to sting, but when you're on the bottle, you don't know much of the difference.
Elaine stared at him, wondering how, even in his drunken state, he could be <i>that</i> egotistical, and slam his teammates -- <i>their</i> housemates and <i>friends</i> -- in such a way. "I think that you need to shut up, Danger," she said a trifle quietly, but with a good many of her thoughts flitting across her face. "You're talking about your friends right now and I think you need to shut up." She took a deep breath to halt the anger that stemmed from his remarks about the match. But then he spoke again, and she turned ice cold. "A rut? Oh, forgive me for thinking that an arranged marriage to a man I don't even know and lives nowhere <i>near</i> England is a rut! I didn't want to go to the match, Danger, so deal with it!"
She glared at him, her cheeks starting to flush and her brow furrowed over eyes that were darkening to a deeper shade of blue as she spoke.
Danger didn't realize that what he was saying was hurtful. In his inebriated state, he was trying to just be friendly, to be helpful, to be casual, and fun. He knew that these days were trying on Elaine, which is why he was trying to help. Alas, his attempts seemed to be to no avail...granted, he wasn't trying very hard, but it was the thought that counted, right? Dedalus would have taken her anger in sensitivity...the Danger beast, however, met it with equal anger.
"Right, and that's how far away?" he offered, bolting up, as if he were being attacked. The anger seemed to sober him up to an extent...but not enough to let his lips loosen up. "First off, live a little, Elaine! That's a lifetime away...and, shit, it could be worse!" His tone wasn't harsh per se, but it was definitely not kindly in any means of the word. "You could be stuck at 50 alone in the world, like some of us are destined to be! At least your family feckin' cares..." taking a breath, he continued on his diatribe. "And, who knows -- by the time its all said and done, your gran'dad will probably have changed his mind! Shit, Elaine...life doesn't end because you think it does. So start living!"
That was <i>it</i>. Elaine stood, her chair scooting back several inches from the force with which she bolted from her chair. Bracing her fists on the table, she leaned over it as far as it would allow, but it still wasn't enough. "You bloody well don't <i>get</i> it! By the end of the Christmas Holidays I could be <i>engaged</i>! And if Grandfather has his way, I'll be married within that same amount of time -- all the better for restoring glory and that Pureblood status back to the name of Campbell!" She slapped the table, hard, blinking back tears and realizing that they stemmed more from the stinging pain she's just inflicted upon herself. "You say my family <i>cares</i>? All Duncan Campbell cares for is making sure that whatever child I give birth to can claim Pureblood status! He doesn't give a damn about me or my brother or anyone else but that! And if my <i>father</i> cared?" She started shaking her head; when she spoke, her voice hitched even as her volume continued to rise. "If my father truly cared for me, he wouldn't have let this happen in the first place!"
In an instant, Elaine understood that Danger <i>didn't</i> understand that blood truly was more important to some people and that she was caught in the middle of it -- and age and modern year had no bearing on it. It was an ancient system, and just because of the fact of where she'd been born and who she was born to, she was firmly caught within this trap. Her face was ugly when she let loose her finally volley. "You don't know what the <i>fuck</i> you're talking about, Dedalus Diggle."
Sure, she was caught in the middle of a horrible situation. But to say that Danger didn't envy her because she still had a <i>family</i> in the first place, that she could turn to, and argue with, and wasn't treated like the bastard child because he came out this way, would be a complete lie. And, what's more, it hurt her that she didn't see it that way, and instead continued to fight it out as if Danger knew absolutely nothing about being on the losing end of a family battle.
"Well Jesus Christ, Elaine, I suppose that's all my fault, now ain't it?" He began, the anger in his words rising. "Believe it or not, I know a little better than you give me credit for...but, of course, I wouldn't know -- I wasn't the spawn of my cousin shagging my aunt!" In complete and total frustration, Danger threw the chair he was sitting in down, allowing it to make a horrible noise as the back of the chair hit the ground. "No, I'm not a feckin' pureblood -- I wouldn't feckin' know a goddamn thing about it!!"
Throwing his hands up in anger, and feeling the hot, vengeful tears welling up in his eyes, Danger began walking towards the exit of the common room. "'I'll remember that, Elaine. I really will."
To Elaine's credit, she didn't flinch when Danger threw his chair. But his jibe about her parentage -- completely untrue yet still hurtful because it hit on truths about their differences that neither had ever truly wanted to bring up -- still struck closely. She stood as tall as she could, and whatever height she gained was more from anger and bravado, and the ink bottle that she found her hand wrapping around. "I hope you do, you stupid, asinine, bloody <i>idiot</i>!" And with that, and the unerring accuracy of a girl used to flying into rages against her brother and using whatever means of retaliation that were around her, Elaine's inkbottle flew towards Danger. She didn't wait to see where it landed, already turning to run up to her dorm.