one shot, two shot, three tequila, floor {corbin}

[evelyn marie dalton]

As she span around in another dizzy circle, Evie was beginning to fade in her ability to see situations logically. If she was logical in any matter of her life, she wouldn't have taken to many bad habits, such as drinking and smoking on various evenings out, but she wasn't a logical person in actuality - she was an instinctive person. She worked upon her feelings, rather than thoughts which instantly told her where and what she wanted to do at that very moment in time and the constant spinning was one of these aforementioned things. As she felt her head pounding against her skull somewhat, she ceased turning for another consecutive time and halted her footing to fall partially against the nearest table in the bar. Glancing back at her friend, she grinned, assuring them of her well-being before helping herself to the drink of the guy who had recently established a liking towards her. She placed a hand around his neck, to support herself, feeling the dizziness subside completely and walking away, with his drink, without a second glance.

He seemed annoyed, Evie gathered, when she caught a few of his insulting words as her back turned and she stole his paid-for-item. Draining the glass of its amber alcoholic liquid, she slammed it upon the side, relishing the burn of the acid rushing down her throat. Turning to hold the gaze of the barman, she asked for a second before quickly finishing that one also, giggly and excited with her emotions heightened from the influence of the drugs her body was processing. For once, she felt a sense of freedom along with the enjoyment of these activities, something that hadn't been permitted whilst living and being educated at the same building. At least Hogwarts granted access to certain enjoyable places that were not so easily ventured into, under the watchful eye of her parents. Releasing the second drink of so many more, she gave her group of associatives a quick grin, before walking out into the night and pulling her jacket up over her dress to block out the sudden gust of early morning breeze. Still with one hand clutching her jacket, she reached into her left pocket, retrieving a single cigarette which caused her to smile to herself before going through the motions of lighting it. Inhaling, she took a sharp breath in before releasing the smoke and sighing in relief and pleasure at this newer sensation.

She had no ideas how many drinks had passed her lips, how many hours she'd spent dancing on the small free space in the multiple bars she'd walked in and out of. She had even less idea about the number of men she'd kissed in the past few hours - she'd stopped counting at three or four, but none of that mattered to her. It was about the feeling of freedom and enjoying herself without restrictions or rules applied to every situation, something that drinking allowed her to feel for a few drunken hours. She'd been thinking the same two things throughout the night - that David should have agreed to accompany her, for she found time without the company of her closest friend somewhat lacking, but also that she wanted to see the boy that would never willingly turn up to an event of this nature.

Of course she'd figured that she couldn't let anyone else know that she frequently went out on nights like these, they definitely weren't the type of social occasion that her parents would give a seal of approval to, causing her to jump to a sensible conclusion. As time had progressed, however, and she had became rapidly more drunk than before, Evie's sense of logic and reason was seriously dimmed and negated by the mixture of smoke and alcoholic liquids flowing around her body, meaning that her ability to process thoughts of who was the most suitable person to collect her had almost immediately jumped to that of one of the servants at Dalton Estate. One servant in particular, that she couldn't stop herself from summoning in her drunken state, having no other person in mind at that moment. A small giggle escaped from Evelyn's lips, exhaling once again, continuing to drag on the cigarette a few times before glancing at the road opposite. She couldn't help herself from gazing at the silhouette of a tall man, as though unable to consider the idea that it probably wasn't him - he couldn't possibly be that fast, right? She rubbed her left temple with her free hand, letting out another calm sigh, watching the dark shadow approaching her.

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[corbin elliot tharme]

corbin's night had been, let us face it, slightly boring. he'd done nothing but read and eat all night, failing to find anything else to occupy him. the book he'd chosen was one that he'd picked up in muggle london, game of thrones, and it was heavy. not the content, but the book itself, it was quite large. he could have chosen to read something magical, but hey, he did like muggle things and one cannot blame him as he was of course, muggleborn. his mother and father were no witch or wizard, and it had been a shock to them, and to corbin, when everyone had found out what he was capable of. well, of course, everyone couldn't have found out or else that would be breaking the magical state of secrecy or whatever it was called. corbin had been warned all about that, and it was something that he'd never forget. he didn't want his wand to be removed from him, because even though he'd been born a muggle, it would be hard now that he'd already had access to magic, to hand that over. and it would mean he'd probably have to leave his home in hogsmede, and his job for the dalton's, and in particular, one dalton girl behind him. speaking of which, she was now at hogwarts, and corbin couldn't help but imagine the dalton kids wandering around the halls that he too had called home. he bet that they hated the fact that they'd be mingling with other children that could be muggleborn on a daily basis. in fact, corbin had been confused to hear that this was dalton adult approved. 

corbin lifted a spoonful of the cereal that he was carefully balancing on his chest to his mouth, before taking the contents of it into his mouth, and moving his hand to turn the page of his book. he'd not found literature like this in the magical world, and his book collection was mainly made up of muggle authors that he'd scouted out and purchased with muggle money in london. he loved london, the city was brilliant and so full of different people and cultures. the only downside was that there were barely any forests or fields that were untouched by men, and he liked the outdoors and he liked fields and forests and things like that. he loved gardens too, and that was partly why he'd taken up the post at the dalton estate. they had such great grounds and when he wasn't working within the estate, he was stood there staring at them, taking it all in, in complete awe. someone else that he'd taken in when he probably shouldn't have, was evelyn dalton. corbin had a sort of weak spot for her, and often took her orders whenever she summoned him for help. corbin probably wasn't supposed to do so but he feared that if he didn't then evelyn would tell her father and maybe her father would be mad at him for ignoring her. either way he lost, so he'd rather play on the safe side and help her out. 

and so, when he'd been summoned by miss dalton, he couldn't help but put down the cereal that he had been eating, and set aside his book to get dressed in appropriate clothes. where was she? at some bar? that was strange, she'd always been so innocent. maybe she'd gone to help a friend. corbin apparated out, the name of the bar held firm in his mind, he didn't want to get splinched at all. who would? when he made it in front of the club in one peace, corbin glanced across trying to spot miss dalton in the crowd. maybe she was inside? no, she wasn't. he saw her. surely she wasn't the girl with the lit cigarette in her mouth. corbin couldn't imagine a dalton child being so rebellious as to smoke and drink. he was willing to bet that if this was true, her parents didn't know about it. besides that, neither had he, she'd always seemed so innocent. he watched in awe for a few moments as the pretty girl kept looking at him, and still dragged on her cigarette. he had to go. sucking in a deep breath, corbin crossed the road. 'now corbs, nothing stupid ok?' he warned himself internally before stepping out in front of miss dalton.

"miss dalton, you rang?" he asked, nervously. he didn't know why out of all of the people she could have called, she chose him, but the fact was that she had, and so he'd come running. as per usual. nothing changed. apart from his perception of her. "forgive me miss, but when did you start smoking?" he asked, unable to recall a time that smoke had been detectable on her clothes when she was around him. if the dalton's found out and also found out he knew, oh boy, he'd be in big trouble.

[evelyn marie dalton]

In her slightly dazed state, it took a few moments for her to recognise the person standing in front of her despite that she had known him from the minute she heard his voice, taking too much pleasure for a girl of her status in the tone of a servant's words. Should she even recognise him that soon from something as personal and individual to him as that? She wasn't entirely sure, but she didn't feel entirely certain of much at that particular moment except that she was somewhat happier to see him than she should have been. She took a few seconds to regain her normal expression around him, although that was a lot more difficult when one was under the influence of several bodily substances including alcohol, taking longer than she had anticipated to draw upon her previous behaviour around the servant boy.

No matter what she did, however, she could not hide her first reaction to seeing him which was to jump in surprise at being so suddenly approached and addressed even when she'd watched someone approach her, it seemed her mind was still very much shocked to see him in a setting like this. But in this moment of short consideration she realised that he would have been thinking exactly the same about her, wasn't his opinion of all of his employers that they were perfect members of a pure-blood family who did everything asked of them and never did anything so wild or stupid as she had been caught doing? She glanced back at him, attempting to vocalize all of the feelings now shooting throughout her body and many of which were not suitable forms of reply to his words in the slightest. Pushing her hair back, she found herself staring at her cigarette as though hoping that it would disintegrate in her fingers and make her look a lot less guilty than she was currently looking. Damn, she was so bad at hiding her feelings, especially in this state. It might be better not to speak at all, but she knew that it wouldn't help her cause at all to pretend she couldn't see him or hear his enquiries into her state of health and what he was always going to be thinking- what exactly she was doing wandering a place like this in the early morning. ”Mr. Tharme,” she started, before realising that she could never take back what he'd seen. ”I'm just... out for a walk.” Yes, even knowing that he would never believe her excuses, she couldn't stop herself from acting as though she'd been entirely innocent in this situation and unfortunately caught up in the middle.

”I obviously called,” she frowned, unable to control her usual tone taking over to avoid her slipping up and making such a clear mistake as she might be prone to do. ”You were much... faster than I expected.” Or was he actually just slow and time seemed to be passing faster than she felt it moving? She considered this, still wrapping her jacket behind her and failing to keep her gaze away from his face. Feeling her face heat up, despite feeling warm due to the soothing heat of the drink inside her stomach she turned away abruptly, hoping that he'd fail to notice or at least believe that she wasn't to be taken seriously during this mood. Still frowning somewhat, she turned back to face him for a moment, ”Are you just going to stand here all night? I could have managed that by myself.” Yet another complaint, not out of the usual for her attitude towards the gardener.

She took a step closer to him, revelling in this closeness although making sure not to let it show upon her face or through any body language. In doing so, she managed to lose her calm, however, by speaking her mind. In most situations people would be too used to to her talking before she thought about her words that it would not have proved to be a significant surprise, but her next words shocked even her. "Your eyes look different under the moonlight." She'd proven to herself that she was suffering from the influence of mixed substances that were provoking her unsatisfactory feelings, she decided to keep her mouth shut for a while. Yes, nothing could go wrong if she stopped herself from making ridiculous comments to her father's employee, right? The logic appeared to be flawless.

Feeling a renewed mixture of relief at her apparent retained ability to speak as she should towards someone of lower class but also regret at knowing strongly inside that she was exaggerating her frustration and annoyance towards him because she couldn't express her real thoughts, she finished smoking, rather conveniently given his next question, she placed an expression of complete confusion upon her face. ”I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Cor-.” She trailed off immediately, being alarmed by her consistent error rate. She had reached the point where she was making far too many errors, ones that he'd notice even if he chose not to act upon or comment upon any of them – they were the kind of things that her mother would scold her extremely harshly for even daring to do. Her eyes trailed away from his eyes once more, feeling more ridiculous than before, currently saving herself from the worst type of embarrassment by not blushing.

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[corbin elliot tharme]

Corbin had never suspected in his time with the Dalton's that Evelyn was the type to sneak out and get drunk, and smoke cigarettes, but judging by the fact that she wasn't coughing her guts up thanks to the smoke, it wasn't her first time. This was shocking to Corbin, she'd seemed like the innocent one. If anyone was sneaking out and getting drunk out of their mind, he'd have assumed it would be one of the twins, not innocent Evelyn. It surprised him, yes, but they did always say that it was always the quiet ones that you had to watch out for. Why did she call him though? He supposed that she couldn't call any of her family, maybe like him, they didn't know of her habits. This sounded likely, as if the Dalton adults did know, they'd probably never let her out from under their watchful eyes ever again. Hm, now it made sense. But how did she know that he would never rat her out to the adults? Did she know that he was more predisposed to listen to her and to obey her, even though it should be Lord Dalton above all? That wasn't the case though and Corbin knew it. If Evie ever asked him to do something, he'd jump through circles to try and please her, even if it wasn't really appropriate for him to do so.

As the smoke settled in his hair and came upon his nose, Corbin couldn't help but welcome the familiar smell like an old friend. He had smoked in the past. Not constantly, not properly smoking, just occasionally, it had been his respite, his comfortable bed at the end of the long night, and all those sorts of things. He'd smoked to dissipate any frustrations that he'd had that came from his job, and from his ex fiancée leaving him. That had been a rough stage, and cigarettes had always been there for him when he'd needed it. He'd cleaned up his act however, as a part of getting over his ex. His eyes travelled to the cigarette, and then he noticed Evelyn staring at it too. He moved to take the cigarette from her hands and took one drag, sucking the smoke into his lungs, as the feeling hit him, the head rush, the giddiness, the relaxing effects. One drag, and then he dropped it to the floor, put it out with his shoe, and breathed out the cloud of smoke, letting it mix with the cold air around them. He couldn't help but smile a little as she said she was just out for a walk. "Miss Dalton, you should know that it isn't safe to be 'out for a walk' by yourself at this time of night" he stated, raising his eyebrows.

It was true, her parents wouldn't want her to be 'out for a walk' at all, let alone at this time and alone, it wasn't safe. How many times had she put herself into danger without anyone knowing about it. "I apparated, Miss Dalton, to get here as fast as possible for you, as I know at this time you wouldn't call me if it wasn't important" Corbin stated, checking she was warm enough by observing her for a moment to ensure she wasn't shaking. "Are you warm enough, Miss Dalton?" he asked, willing to offer her his jacket if she needed it. "Of course not Miss Dalton, what would you like for me to do?" he asked, wondering why she'd called him. When she stepped closer, he sucked in a breath, the bitter taste of the cigarette on his tongue still. It was amazing, one drag and it would get everywhere, his clothes, his hair and his breath. He frowned after hearing what she'd said. She'd never said anything so...intimate? to him before. "Does the colour look different?" he asked, at a loss for what else to say. He'd not anticipated her saying that, and was unable to come up with anything better to say than that. Not that she probably knew the colour of his eyes anyway.

Another breath was sucked in as she began to say his name. To be honest he wasn't even sure if she knew his name, as he'd never heard her call him anything other than 'Mr Tharme' which was the most appropriate thing to call him as he was, after all, her father's servant. But more so, he was her servant too, she probably knew that by now as he literally was at her beck and call. None of the other servants went as much out of their way as Corbin did for Miss Dalton. "Miss Dalton, you had a cigarette in your hand when I approached you, how long have you been smoking? I won’t tell Lord Dalton, I assure you." Corbin asked, curious. He'd never recalled a time in which he could detect smoke on her clothes. How long had nights like this been something Evelyn had been doing? ”Miss Dalton how much have you had to drink?” Corbin asked, as best to assess the damage, so to speak. He couldn't take her back to Dalton Estate, and he couldn't sneak her into Hogwarts castle and her dormitory, so really there was only one choice left. He'd have to take her home. He wished he'd tidied up a bit more now, but he hadn't had much time recently. He supposed it wasn't that much of a mess.