Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. It all belongs to JK Rowling.
Word Count: 840
Challenge: HSWW - Assignment #9 - Divination - Tarot Cards
Prompt: Write about someone with a gambling/alcohol addiction.
Optional Prompt(s): Muggle!AU
Pansy took another shot of tequila; the liquid seared her throat as it slipped down the passage, nearly forcing her to cough. Her experience with the liquid was the only thing keeping her from doing so. Even then, the possibility of choking herself did little to deter her from filling her glass once more.
"Pans, stop it. You're only going to make yourself feel worse in the morning." Daphne shouted at her best friend above the din of the club.
"It's no use Daph, you know that better than any of us." Blaise said as he made his way to his girlfriend's side. The pair had been dating since the previous year's Halloween party and the constant reminder of what had gone down that night was killing Pansy inside. Shooting a green-eyed glare at the couple, Pansy took a swing from the bottle; the shot glass forgotten on the tabletop of the bar.
"Still, it doesn't mean I cannot try to stop her from doing this to herself." Daphne reasoned.
"Oh come off it, you just don't want to deal with a hungover Parkinson in the morning." Blaise snorted, standing right in front of his girlfriend.
"She is a handful when she is hungover, I should know as her roommate. And if you really cared that much about that, you could've come down to help me." Daphne retorted. Even while she was considerably inebriated, Pansy knew where this was headed; and she did not want to be around for it. With a roll of her eye, she grabbed her trusty bottle and hopped off the barstool searching for a place to sit where she wouldn't play audience to her friends sticking their tongues down each other's throats.
"Pansy, is that you?" Pansy turned the source of the sound, only to find herself face to face with her Literature TA, Hermione Granger.
Pansy couldn't believe that she was here; she always seemed so uptight whenever she was in class.
"Wow, you are really drunk; I don't think you should have any more. Come on, hand me the bottle." Hermione held out her hand.
Pansy usually wouldn't have complied, but for some reason her held the bottle out for Hermione to take. Perhaps it might've been the intense glare she had been giving her since she saw the bottle.
"Good, now come with me." Hermione wrapped her free hand around Pansy's shoulders and guided her towards the exit of the club.
"So you've been drinking yourself unconscious every night for the past two months, just because your ex-girlfriend dumped you?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Yeah." Pansy breathed out lightly. Hermione had taken Pansy to her flat to crash for the night. Pansy did not want to intrude but when she realized that her keys were with Daphne, it left her without many choices to choose from.
"But why? What did this girl do that made you so infatuated with her?"
"She… was my first girlfriend and the one I got kicked out of my parents place for. We had been going strong for nearly four years; through most of high school and parts of college. Then she decides out of the blue that she's straight and wants to fuck her partner from her chem lab... ON OUR BED!"
"Oh fuck, that's bad." Hermione held a hand up to her mouth.
"You know, I really don't think it was going well for us, and it was probably for the best that it ended. Our relationship was running on our desperation to try and keep it alive just because we invested so much of our time in it; and that would never last. But that was not the way she should've gone about that." Pansy just couldn't stop the words from pouring out of her mouth. The alcohol was taking her inhibitions away and her emotional state was of no help either.
"Yeah, you're right. You deserve better." Hermione placed a hand on her shoulder, inching a little closer to her.
Taking a deep sigh, Pansy replied. "I should probably go out there more, try and find someone to be with; instead of trying to drown my sorrows over spilt milk."
After a long pause, Hermione slowly whispered. "Maybe you can start with me."
Pansy turned to face her, eyes widening as Hermione closed gap between the two. Pansy was stunned, but before she could gather her senses to reciprocate, Hermione broke off the kiss.
When Pansy tried to lean in once more, Hermione held up a hand to stop her. "Only when you get rid of this." Hermione nodded at the bottle of tequila on the study table.
Pansy pouted but Hermione was stubborn. "Go to sleep, I'm going to crash on the couch for the night. We'll talk in the morning. Good night."
Hermione picked up the bottle and walked out of the room with a wave goodbye, as Pansy thought she could get rid of the bottle if it meant she could replace them with Hermione's kisses.
"Good night." Pansy mumbled out.
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