Girls Night Out
Ginny was pleased at how well the group had blended in with Muggle London as far as clothing went. Then again, it was well after midnight in the middle of Soho, so they probably could've gone in witches' robes and been perfectly fine….
She, Katie Bell, Luna Lovegood, Alicia Spinnet, and Angelina Johnson were headed to their fourth bar of the night. Katie was recovering from a bad breakup, and Angelina was celebrating a promotion at work, so they'd decided that a night on the town was well in order. After freezing their arses off at The Ice Bar ("I didn't know it was actually made of ice!"), they'd walked (or in three of the five cases, stumbled) back onto the street in search of their next haunt. Ginny, as designated Sober Sitter, was bringing up the rear of the group. It was her civic duty as their friend to get them good and plastered, but not let them die or wander off with any unsavory characters. After losing Alicia twice, she wasn't taking any more chances. She hadn't counted on exactly how much Angelina wanted to celebrate or how much Katie wanted to forget, and how much the other two wanted to help out in that process….
They stopped on the second street after the Dog and Duck pub, and Katie gave out a gasp.
"Toothbrushes!" she cried, dashing off to the left.
"Oh for the love of—" Ginny began as the others ran (swerved) after her.
Katie had spotted a bunch of "clean living" activists on the corner. Along with condoms, bottled water, and home pregnancy tests, there was a bin full of toothbrushes that they were passing out. Katie had rugby tackled one of the men.
"Sorry," Ginny said, pulling the older woman off of him.
He simply scowled, passed her a water bottle, seemed to think on it for a second, and passed her two more.
"Look, Ginny, they're putting…they're putting condoms on bananas!" Angelina said, nearly bent double at the small display. "BANANAS!"
"Okay, yes, I see it…. Luna, put that down! We're off to the next place."
"I think we're going the wrong way," Luna said, setting the condom covered banana back down.
"Doesn't matter," Ginny said, corralling them into the next bar that didn't look skeevy.
"I want to go to Candy Bar!" Alicia whinged.
"Don't worry, we'll go there next."
She managed to get them a booth in the corner of Thirst Bar, even though the place was packed, and enlisted Angelina's help to get drinks. They were only gone for a minute, or so it seemed to Ginny, but when she turned around again there was a group of Uni-aged guys hitting on the rest of the party.
"Hell no!" Angelina said, conjuring boxing gloves in an instant.
"Calm down!" Ginny said, vanishing the gloves. She was secretly impressed at her friend's tipsy wand work, but was glad it was too dark for the Muggles to notice. "I'll take care of it." Maneuvering back to the table, she set the drinks down and cleared her throat.
"'ey baby!" one of the guys slurred. "I put the STD in Stud…. All I need is you."
Wishing she'd let Angelina knock him unconscious, Ginny rolled her eyes and said. "I'm taken, thanks. And so are they. Piss off." She turned to slide into the booth and felt one of the men slap her on the ass. She just barely resisted the urge to draw her wand, but still whipped around to give him a solid right hook to the jaw. Luna grabbed her before she could introduce him to her fist. She sat down and glowered at the boys from over the rim of her glass.
"Oi, are those your space pants? B'cause your ass is out of this world!"
"No," Luna said calmly. "They're her softball pants, because her ass is out of your league."
Ginny, well versed in Muggle sports thanks to her father, snorted half of her Sprite/fruit punch mocktail.
"Don' get it…" Angelina slurred.
The guys seemed to get the hint and slunked off to another group of girls.
Meanwhile, Alicia was helping Katie build some sort of creation out of….
"Er…where did you lot find tin foil?" Ginny asked.
"Hmmm?" Katie replied, poking her straw into the top of the thing's head.
Later, Ginny should've realized that what happened next would happen next….
Angelina, who'd been knocking back vodka shots, took out her wand and tapped the small monster. It grew to the size of a hula hoop and began rampaging through the club.
"BOLLOCKS!" Ginny said, discreetly whipping her wand out and stopping the tin foil menace. The only people who saw were nearest to them, and stoned anyway, so the rest of the bar paid no attention to their panicked shouts.
She took all of their wands after that.
XXX
They had indeed been going the wrong way. There was map reading, more than a few wrong turns, Ginny comforting Alicia after she burst into tears at an animal cruelty awareness poster, stopping in Soho square for Katie to sick up all over a statue, and dragging Angelina away from a guy selling a monkey.
"You can't just buy a monkey from a stranger!"
"I don't have any friends with monkeys for sale!"
They finally made it to the right street. Luna was sober by now, having transfigured her last three drinks into water on the sly.
"I thought I'd keep you company on the non-blurry side of things," she said, stabilizing a wobbly Angelina.
"Thanks," Ginny said with a grin. She did another quick people/wand count as they made their way down Carlisle Street. "What do you reckon? Candy Bar and then back home?"
"I think that's a good idea. Katie's just about done, and I don't think London will survive another round of magic from Angelina—accidental or otherwise."
Ginny cringed, wondering what the police would make of the inexplicably pink statue Godric Gryffindor outside of The Toucan. "You might be right."
"Karaoke! They have Karaoke tonight!" Angelina cried happily as she, Katie and Alicia led the way into Candy Bar.
"What's karaoke?" Ginny asked.
"Er…I think it's when Muggles turn on a popular song and sing along to it. Badly," Luna explained. "Angelina said they did it a bunch when she was travelling with the Ballycastle Bats."
They went through the process of finding a table again. Luckily most of the patrons had either cleared out or were downstairs dancing the last of the alcohol and bad decisions out of their systems. They found a table near the karaoke station so they could experience the second hand embarrassment up close.
Ginny ran to the bar to get drinks. "Look," she told the bartender, "My mates are sloshed. I'm pretty sure the only reason one wanted to come here was because she thought there would be free Mars Bars."
The older woman laughed as the music to a hip hop song came on.
Ginny heard Katie yell, "I know this one!" but didn't look around for fear of what she might see. "Can you give me some flavored Sprite? It'll be trouble enough getting them home without adding more booze."
"Got you covered, love."
Ginny turned around, and nearly fell over laughing.
All of the girls, including Luna, were on the small stage swaying and bobbing to the music. Katie grabbed the microphone from Angelina and started to sing/rap.
I'm out that H-town
Coming, coming down
I'm coming down dripping candy on the ground
H, H-town, town, I'm coming down
Coming down dripping candy on the ground
Ginny stood there gaping. She wasn't quite sure she hadn't been hit with a Confundus charm, because nothing in the world made sense anymore. She watched in shock and slight terror as Luna took the microphone next.
I know when you were little girls
You dreamt of being in my world
Don't forget it, don't forget it
Respect that, bow down bitches
I took some time to live my life
But don't think I'm just his little wife
Don't get it twisted, get it twisted
This my shit, bow down bitches
"I don't understand! The blonde one's sober!" she called to the bartender, still in shock.
"Sure, love. In my experience, it's always the 'sober' ones that get up to the craziest stunts of the night."
Ginny carried the tray of colorful fizzy drinks back to the table as her group led the bar in a chant of "Bow down bitches!"
The night wound down quickly after that. After the display in Candy Bar, Ginny made Luna prove she was sober by Apparating a few streets over and then coming back.
"What would you have done if that hadn't worked out?" Luna asked.
"Don't know. I'm at the 'Make It Up As You Go' stage of the night. Oi! Alicia! Stop pinching his bum!"
They wrangled Alicia away from a group of college boys and made their way down an alley to an Apparation point.
"Side along, ladies," Ginny ordered, grabbing hold of Alicia and Katie. "Can you get Angelina back to George?"
"No worries!" Luna said. "See you tomorrow for lunch."
Nodding at her once, Ginny tossed her Angelina's wand and watched them Disapparate. "Ready you two?"
They slurred their answers, drunk and sleepy.
She assumed this meant yes and, praying there was no repeat puking, Disapparated.
XXX
Her bed had never felt so warm and welcoming. She groaned as she snuggled into the covers. She felt an arm slide around her waist and pull her close.
"Wotcher, Ginny," a sleepy voice said.
"Hey Tonks."
"How did girls' night go?"
Ginny smiled into her pillow. "I'll tell you in the morning."