Requiem of a Hyena: Ginny (A Drinny FanFic requested by misspassionatesaggitarian)
"Nymphadora Tonks." The minister said mounrfully. Ginny let out a quiet sob and dabbed her eyes with her sleeve, mentally correcting the minister with a 'Don't call me Nymphadora.' It only made everything hurt moree, finally recognizing that they were gone, leaving a child behind. Ginny glanced at Harry who seemed too broken and guilty to shed tears for loved ones. It had been a while since Voldemort's defeat and with the rebuilding that needed to be done, they finally made time to mourn their fallen comrades. "Fred Weasley." There it was. the minister finished being answered with a cacophony of sobs from those around her. She stood and got in line to see the bodies behind Ron and Hermione. They stood in front of Fred and near the back of the line there was loud shouting and Ginny turned to see George walking off followed close behind by Ginny's mother.
"Georgie! George, where are you going?" Molly shouted as George apparated away. Ginny felt a lump form in her throat. She was sad about Fred's death, but seeing George, knowing that she could never understand his pain, broke her heart. She let out a quiet sob and felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over and saw Harry giving her a sad look and directing her to move up and finally look at Fred. She finally looked down at Fred's lifeless face, a wave of finality hitting her like the Hogwarts Express. She sobbed loudly, falling apart in Harry's open arms. She buried her face in his shoulder and let her tears fall.
"Come on, Gin. Let's get out of here." Harry said quietly, rubbing her back comfortingly. "We can go somewhere and talk." Ginny paused a moment before shaking her head, taking a deep breath and regaining her composure enough to pull away.
"I just want to be alone, right now, Harry." She lied. She didn't want to be alone, but she just didn't want to talk about it. She had mourning to do, but the funeral riled up a lot of emotion that she thought she had successfully repressed. She didn't want to talk about it, but that's what Harry wanted. She needed to get her mind off of this. "I'm just going to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Harry." She said, taking a small breath and apparating away. The scene changed drastically from the bright overcast cemetary to a dimly lit locker room with the hoops and hollers of a crowd roaring into the room from a tunnel that lead to a quidditch pitch. She had a quidditch game soon. For the summer she was a Holyhead Harpy and she was gone a lot, but Jeanette, the team captain and head cheaser, gave her the night off. It was against the Wimbourne Wasps. What was the risk? However, she needed to get her mind away from where she just was and the only way she could think of was to be here. She quickly changed and grabbed her broom before heading down the tunnel.
"Harpies! Harpies! Harpies!" The crowd cheered as she finally mounted her broom and flew into the bright lights of the quidditch pitch. She let her eyes adjust and then scanned the area to find Jeanette. She finally saw the head of dark black hair, marked by red, green, and white stripes. Ginny got her attention then zoomed up next to her.
"Weasley, what are you doing here? I gave you the night off." Jeanette said, catching her breath a little. Ginny paused a moment and then cleared her throat.
"I'm here to play, Jeanette." Ginny said with a nod. Jeanette narrowed her eyes a moment before taking a deep breath and giving a quick nod. She looked around and then let out a sharp whistle, a piercing sound that traveled throughout the whole pitch probably. The rest of the team quickly gathered around in a huddle.
"Myra, you're back at chaser. Claire, you're benched. The Wasps are known for injuring players, so be ready." Jeanette said with a nod. "Alright. Let's have a good game, Harpies. Weasley, good luck out there. Break!" She clapped and the Holyhead Harpies shot off in different directions, leaving Ginny just floating there, trying to focus in on the game.
"I'll take a gillywater, please." Ginny said to the person working the bar, sliding her a couple sickles. She turned around and smiled at her celebrating teammates. Their victory was close, but a victory is a victory and according to Jeanette, 'we worked and toiled and played hard, so why not party until we pass out?'
"Weasley!" Myra said, running up and throwing her arms around her. "Weasley!" Ginny gingerly hugged her back, but not being able to drink was making it a little difficult to get into the party spirit. Myra put her hand on Ginny's cheek and pinched it a little before stumbling off toward someone else. "Vicki!" Ginny heard before she rolled her eyes a little and turned back to the bar, her gillywater waiting for her.
"Gillywater? That's low even for a Weasley." Ginny toward to the voice and saw a face that made her skin crawl a little. Draco Malfoy smiled deviously and stepped closer.
"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" Ginny asked, taking a big drink of her gillywater. Draco looked disgusted with the drink and turned to the bartender.
"2 of your finest Ogden's Firewhiskeys." He sneered to the bartender, handing over his money. "That was some game, Weasley." Ginny cleared her throat and eyed the two glasses that were filled in front of her.
"That doesn't answer my question." Ginny said bitterly. Draco sighed a little.
"I was going to attempt and make conversation, Weasley, but that's out the window." Draco said, sliding a firewhiskey to her. She looked at it and then back at him. "I'm just celebrating another Holyhead Harpies victory. Thanks to you, I've made quite a bit of money."
"You bet on me to win? That's a little out of character, isn't it, Malfoy?" Draco drank his firewhiskey then ordered another, making a face as it went down his throat.
"Money is money. Who cares how I get it?" He took a deep breath and looked at her drink, looking a little bothered.
"But you bet on a lowly Weasley. What would your father think? Dear old Lucius." Ginny said sarcastically, taking another drink of gillywater. Draco paid the bartender and picked up his drink.
"My father is busy convincing the ministry to spare the Malfoys from Azkaban, but in the meantime I offer a toast to being free and being able to bet on quidditch." He said, holding up his glass. Ginny looked at her gillywater. It was empty. Her eyes landed on the firewhiskey and she picked it up. What was the harm in one drink?
"To freedom and quidditch." She said with a little laugh before throwing back the drink. That was the last thing she remembered. Bits and pieces of that night remained in her memory when she woke up, but a lot of it was a thick haze.
"Accio Ogden's..." She mumbled as she woke up. The summer sun was bright on her face and she groaned as she sat up. There was a dull ache behind her eyes and every little gentle breeze through the windchimes made her cringe. She was on a beach and she had sand in her hair. It was odd, but she didn't feel bad about last night. She was sure she probably did something stupid, but she was more bothered that she couldn't remember what it was than she did for doing it in the first place. She sat up and rubbed her face, running her fingers through her hair, trying to get some of the sand out. There was a little groan beside her and she looked over to see a familiar mop of blonde hair, rolling away from her. She panicked and stood up quickly, backing away from him. There was no way that she would do that. She looked down at herself. She was fully clothed and she even had shoes on. So was Draco for that matter. There was no way she could do that. She took deep breaths, sitting down in the sand and rubbing her eyes, trying to recall what happened last night. "We went from...to...then..." She mumbled, burying her face in her hands.
"What the hell-" Ginny looked up at Draco as he rolled over. His eyes landed on her. "We didn't uh...Do.." Ginny rolled her eyes and shook her head, but she still didn't know. There was no way, even drunk, that she would do that. Especially with him.
"What did you do to me, last night?" Ginny sneered at Draco. Draco sat up and looked out at the water.
"If memory serves, you had a great time last night." Draco said, pulling his knees up and hugging them to his chest. "I didn't do anything except help you relax a little." Ginny looked at him and sighed a little. Apparently, he remembered the night better than she did, so she would have to be nice to him if she had any hope of regaining the events of last night.
"Ma-Draco, what did we do last night?" Ginny asked quietly. Draco took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes.
"I don't remember, Gin." Draco said quietly. Ginny stared at him oddly. He called her Gin. Why was he being nice to her all of a sudden?
"Why did you call me that?" Ginny asked quietly. Draco looked at her and shrugged.
"You told me to call you that last night. Somewhere between talking about how boring Potter was and how much you liked the smell of mead." Ginny gasped.
"I had mead, too?" Ginny said, running her fingers through her hair and grimacing at the feeling of sand in her hair. "Where are we?" She asked, looking around. Her eyes landed on a little house that was incredibly familiar. "Oh, my gosh..." She said, putting her hand on her face.
"What is this place?" Draco said, walking up next to her. "You said that this place was open or something." Ginny ignored him and just started walking toward Shell Cottage. Luckily, Bill and Fleur were on their extended honeymoon that they didn't get to have right after their wedding. She knocked and got no answer. She took a deep breath before walking inside.
"Bill? Fleur?" She called out inside, being answered with silence. She breathed again, knowing that she was alone.
"So, what is this heap?" Draco asked, brushing off his jacket and looking around the sandy beach house. Ginny never really liked the house, but she was grateful for it now.
"This is my brother's house." Ginny said, taking a quick peek around. "Look, make yourself at home, just don't...touch anything. I'm going to take a shower." She said before going to the bathroom and stripping down. She turned on the water and stepped into the shower letting the water run across her body. She could feel herself relax. "What is going on?" She asked herself, wondering what in the world was going on. She closed her eyes. She thought about the previous night. Did everything that he said happened actually happen? "Obviously I drank. I might have told him to call me Gin. Would I say that Harry was boring? I wouldn't say that." She reassured herself. "Not that it would be wrong.." She mumbled to herself, washing the sand out of her hair. She needed to get her mind off of the funeral. Harry wanted to keep her mind on the funeral. It took a game of quidditch and Draco Malfoy of all people, to let her mind finally relax away from the funeral. She quickly finished her shower and stepped out, shaking out her clothes and slipping them back on. She tied up her hair and then walked back down to see Draco sitting at the kitchen table, reading a copy of the Daily Prophet that Ginny didn't know was how old.
"Alright, then." Draco folded the paper and dropped it on the table. He stood and brushed off his clothes again. "This place is filthy." Draco said with a scoff as he finished brushing himself off.
"Uhh...Can you just sit down? I'll make you breakfast or something." Ginny said as she walked into the kitchen and to the fridge. She pulled out some eggs and some bacon and then got to work. "You're going to tell me everything that we did, last night, Draco." She said, heating up a pan. Draco sighed and sat back down, looking at her.
"Well, you had a drink and then a few more and then we started talking and you complained about Potter a lot and your mother and then you mumbled something about liking someone who doesn't want to just talk all the time. Or something." Draco said, waving dismissively. "You assume I remember it all. After that, you started to fall asleep and you apparated us here and we passed out or something." Ginny looked at him and narrowed her eyes. Usually she would assume that he was lying, but he seemed to be telling the truth.
"Well, where did we go? Who did we talk to? What did I do?" Ginny asked, whisking furiously, staring at Draco. Draco took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes.
"We went from the pub to some ridiculous club. We danced together, I think." He stared up at the table for a moment before his eyes widened and he looked up at her, his hand moving to his mouth.
"What is it? You just remembered something." She pointed the whisk at him threateningly. "Tell me, Malfoy!" She said, pouring the eggs into the pan and then sitting down across from him. She really didn't care about the food. She wanted to know what happened.
"Look, we were both drunk. And we were having a great time." Draco said with a sigh. "You were upset about something. And uh...Well..." Ginny slammed her fist down on the table. He cleared his throat then leaned across the table, kissing her on the lips. She froze and was tempted to punch him, but something felt...familiar. He pulled away and she sat there looking at him, her lips slightly parted. Her cheeks were red and she leaned back in her chair, running her fingers through her hair. "We did that. A few times, actually." He said, clearing his throat again. She took a small breath and she felt her heartbeat slowing back down. Why was it beating quickly? This was Draco Malfoy that had just kissed her. She stood up and paced a moment before sitting back down.
"I..." She had opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't know what to say. She hated to say it, but the way he kissed her...She kind of liked it.
"We were drunk. It was nothing." He said with a sigh. They locked eyes a moment and even though they both blushed their eyes didn't leave each others. It was like the same thought passed between them and before she knew it, she was leaned over the table, her lips trapped in his. She broke away and sat back.
"Oh...What will my mother think?"