"It's just unbelievable!" cried Ginny, her arms flung high in the air, her eyes wild with frustration. "I can see he likes me now, the way he looks at me...and you!" She pointed at Hermione, "you said he kept asking questions about Dean!"
Hermione nodded grimly.
"You think it's any better for me," she sighed wearily, "your brother's all over the damn place, furious with me one minute and all over me the next! I don't know what he's thinking half the time!"
"He probably isn't." Ginny assured her.
They sat in furious silence, cradled in the window seat beside Hermione's four poster bed and watching the two dots that were Ron and Harry buzzing around the Quidditch pitch under the darkening sky.
"I've tried making him jealous." Hermione said, quietly. "He just becomes surly and rude, it doesn't seem to spur him into admitting..." She trailed off, her eyes shining suddenly.
Ginny took her hand gently, giving her a reassuring smile.
"He'll get there...one day...and so will Harry." They looked at each other doubtfully.
"There has to be something we can do." Hermione burst out frantically, "What haven't we tried?"
There was a short pause.
"Alcohol." Said Ginny, shortly. With that she dived out of the room and arrived back minutes later clutching a large bottle of Firewhisky. "Fred and George." She explained, grinning at Hermione's horrified expression. She handed it over to the stunned brunette. "Come on Hermione, if you're going to be miserable you might as well be drunk."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Ginny's vision was blurring now and she knew she was slurring her words. As more people had started up towards bed the two girls had moved into the common room for some privacy, being that it was the Easter holidays the large circular room was already empty and the two girls sat pink cheeked on one of the squashy sofas.
They giggled at each other for a while, both still aware enough to know how drunk they were.
"Shee, we don' need the boys to have fun!" Ginny grinned lopsidedly.
"Yeah, but what about snogging?" asked Hermione, pouting slightly. "I want to snog Ron."
Ginny gazed at her for a few minutes-keeping focus was slightly harder after a bottle of Firewhiskey. Then without any warning or any thought she leant forward and kissed Hermione full on the lips, the other girl froze momentarily before relaxing and beginning to move her lips against Ginny's.
Oh, it was nice to be kissing someone again! Hermione hadn't kissed anyone since Krum and that was only quick, quite chaste really. She wasn't gay, she knew this as a fact and years of fantasising about Ron backed this up, but another fact that she had recently uncovered through experimentation was that Ginny was an exceptionally good kisser. Even when totally pissed.
She felt Ginny fumbling and before she could react her top was off and she was sitting in front of one of her best friends in nothing but a bra and a pair of jeans. A slightly more sober voice in Hermione's head suggested that maybe Ginny wasn't entirely heterosexual and that maybe there had been a little more to her and Luna's friendship than previously suggested, but it was quickly silenced as one of Ginny's hands slid under the fabric of her bra.
Right, she thought, two can play at that game. She unbuttoned one of Ginny's shirt buttons and then with a giggle of encouragement she continued down until Ginny's shirt hung open, pooling around her elbows, they goggled at each other for a second before Hermione lunged forward again and caught Ginny's lips, together they moved their mouths in a rhythm, letting their hands whisper over one another's torsos, plucking at clothes, smelling shampoo and alcohol and tasting electricity.
There was a clatter.
The two girls broke apart and looked towards the portrait hole. There, standing sweaty, rumpled and open mouthed were Harry and Ron. The clatter had been Ron dropping his broom.
Hermione felt herself sobering up very quickly and, without looking away from the boys, she could assess the situation: She was sprawled on her back in only her bra and undone jeans, her hands tangled in Ginny's hair, Ginny's slender form was pressed closely against hers, one hand on Hermione's breast the other supporting the two of them on the sofa, wearing only her denim shorts and bra, one knee length stripy sock was missing.
There was a long, long silence.
Hermione begin to panic, she knew her cheeks would be burning and any minute now she would have to make a run for it...but she suddenly felt Ginny's hand find hers and she squeezed it.
"Wh-what?" It was Ron, croaking almost inaudibly.
"Just doing what neither of you had the courage to." said Ginny, impressively steady and casual.
"Yes," agreed Hermione, surprising even herself, "Pretty rubbish Gryffindors if you ask me, Gin."
"Mmmm, shall we?"
Almost as if rehearsed the two girls clambered up, gathered up their clothes and turned to go back up the stairs.
"Oh," Ginny said, looking over her shoulder at the dumbstruck boys, a cruel smile playing on her lips, "If you do decide to grow some balls, you know where we are."
"Yes," agreed Hermione, "But do knock, just in case." She bit her lip, slotted her hand into Ginny's outstretched fingers and together they climbed the staircase.