A/N: This is a sequel to my fanfic The Sanctuary, but works as a separate story as well. Now I am giving the ladies of the fandom chance to have their say about all the fanfics that spur from our overworking imaginations. (But are they complaining… We'll see about that.)
A Quiet Afternoon
A soft summer breeze fluttered the pale muslin curtains and pleasantly cooled the air at a spacious chamber at the top of the Astronomy Tower. The afternoon sunlight lit the room, creating shadows on the colourful carpets.
A young woman with fiery red hair occupied one of the several plush armchairs artfully spread around the room. Lazily she was watching Professors Sinistra and Vector play a game of Bridge with the Patil twins. Deep in her thoughts, she swirled the contents of the silver goblet she was holding in her fingers. After draining the cup empty Ginevra Weasley stretched her arm forward.
"More Beaujolais, if you please, Mary."
The words were polite but the tone was not. One of the stunningly beautiful young women standing dutifully by the wall hurried forward. She was quite unusually looking with dark, almost purplish eyes and platinum blonde hair Mother Nature would never grant to any real woman. However, after filling the goblet she curtsied and meekly moved back among the other similarly unearthly looking creatures.
As soon as her cup was filled, Ginny forgot all about her. After all, Mary Sues came and went. In fact, looking at them flutter in and out of existence was something that made you feel queasy if you watched too long.
Ginny was bored: the card game wasn't much of entertainment and Katie Bell, the only other occupant in the room, was laying on the bench by the window her legs up. When arriving she had waved wearily indicating she was too exhausted to talk about it. And anyway, the smile plastered on her face was almost as nauseating to look as the shape shifting of Mary Sues.
Well, it was said Oliver Wood was worthy of his name.
She perked up when the door opened and Hermione staggered inside arm in arm with none other than Pansy Parkinson. Giggling they wobbled through the room towards Ginny and fell on a sofa next to her chair. In unison they kicked their spike-heeled shoes under the table. None of them paid any attention to yet another Sue--black hair with the ends dipped in purple and blazing scarlet eyes, Circe forbid--filling two goblets.
"So, a good Slytherin Ho!Mione -fic, I gather?" Ginny asked eyeing the outfits of the two other women. Really, if the School Governors would lay an eye to uniform skirts that short combined with fishnet stockings they would have a mass apoplexy even before they noticed that very obviously neither of the girls wore a brassiere.
Hermione stared at Ginny cross-eyed trying to decipher the meaning of her friend's word. That made Pansy roll her eyes and laugh shrilly at her companion. Hermione shook her head to clear her thoughts. It was only then when she seemed to notice what exactly she was wearing.
"Honestly!" she muttered and pulled out her wand. With one wave she turned to her usual bushy-haired and sensibly dressed self. Pansy muttered something about overly prim Gryffindors but nevertheless Tansfigured her own garments to a more appropriate form. (Naturally, the skirt tad shorter than Hermione's.)
"So…." Ginny pressed on. "What was it like? Who was it?"
Hermione blushed and Pansy laughed again. (Really, it was amazing how you got used to that teeth-rattling noise after a while.)
"I would ask rather who it wasn't." The Slytherin said and languidly stretched her arms over her head.
"Lucky you," muttered Ginny, "I have suffered several romantic fluffy stories in a row now--they can be nice too, I admit--but enough is enough and I'm really dying for some action."
"Well, the joys of PWP and all that, but I get so little fluff that I would trade with you any time. Being the bad girl is fun, you know what they say, but I wouldn't mind changing with you."
"It's a deal. We will trade." The two women shook hands to seal the arrangement. "Oh, I hope it would be Lucius Malfoy. Or Snape. Or better yet, both of them." Ginny said dreamily.
For a while they sipped their wine in silence, Ginny deep in pleasant thoughts trying to will the inspiration on The Fanfiction Author. Her musings were interrupted by Hermione whose head snapped up suddenly. She drained her goblet empty and smoothing her robes stood up.
"Well, I can feel the muse at work. See you in a while." With that she disappeared.
When she was gone Ginny cleared her throat.
"OK, place your bets." She announced. "Who do you think it is this time?"
"Then galleons on Ron!" Said Pansy before anyone else could as much as open her mouth.
"Oh, come on, Parkinson," chagrined Ginny. "That is too easy. Snape, five galleons."
"As if that is any less predictable."
"Whatever. How about you? Ladies, please place your bets." She yelled at the general direction of the Bridge table.
"Harry, a fiver." Sinistra didn't even lift her eyes from the cards.
Vector pursed her lips. "Lupin, two galleons."
Patil twins looked each other and then nodded. "Fred and George, fiver from both of us."
"Alright, but only if they are both in it. Katie, what about you?"
Katie Bell jerked up on a half sitting position. "Eh? Whasgoin' on?"
"Mione-bets. Who is the lucky gentleman this time?"
"Uh… Snape?"
"Taken."
"Harry."
"Taken."
"Merlin's Balls. Ron? Fred? George?"
When Ginny shook her head to each name, Katie said few colourful words about her lack of attentiveness. "I don't know. Fleur Delacour, ten galleons, bugger it!"
"Ladies, it seems we have a daredevil." Ginny waved her wand and a glass container, very much like the one counting house points in The Great Hall, filled with shiny coins.
"It is really unfair. Hermione always gets all the best stories." Pansy sounded rather petulant.
"Well, it's the rule of the nature. She is the main female character, after all."
The conversation was interrupted by Vector who slammed her cards on the table ferociously.
"That's it." She declared. "I've had enough of this game and all the fics where I am just a minor character at the background. I have an Author to see about a story that has been hanging on over half a year! I will refuse to see it remain just oneshot when it could be a deliciously angsty and torrid romance between Severus and I!"
With a dramatic whirl of her robes she disappeared.
"Well, we were loosing anyway." Sinistra dropped her cards. "Fancy playing, Ginny, dear?"
But Ginny felt the pleasant tingle of the muse at work inside her. "Sorry, some other time."