Morning After
"Ow."
That was my very first conscious thought.
Swiftly followed by "Buggering buggering buggeration."
This one was directed at the totally unnecessary amount of sunlight streaming in through the gap in the curtains, which at least my dorm mates had been kind enough to leave shut.
Groaning, I gingerly sat upright and waited to see if I was about to hurl.
All clear, just a pounding headache and aching limbs. Lucky me.
Squinting mostly, I surveyed the room to look for anything that could slightly indicate what had happened the night before. I had a feeling that I was forgetting something desperately important.
I looked down at myself and saw, to my surprise, that I was wearing a very short, sleeveless black dress. Oh, that's right, the party. Not that I could remember much of it except that some girl had worn the same dress as Alicia and Alicia had not been best pleased.
Shrugging, and deciding I would piece together the events of last night after I'd fuelled myself with a few cups of coffee, I shuffled my way across to the bathroom and turned on the shower.
Ouch.
Too much noise. Way, way, way too loud. But I had to wash away the wretched stench of alcohol. Afterwards I gracefully fell out of the shower via slipping over on the wet floor and was thanked with the unholy crash of my shampoo bottle being knocked off the side of the bath. The noise set me off and I cringed, whimpered and groaned, before moving silently out of the bathroom, taking extra care to perform only the minimal movements necessary.
I longed for some form of hangover cure, and vowed never again to abide by school rules (anti-hangover potions were strictly prohibited in Hogwarts. Although, in fairness, sneaking out of the premises to go to a 'mad rave' was also somewhat frowned upon.) However I knew of one beacon of hope shining proudly through the veil of headache and hazy-memories: I was certain that people like the Weasley Twins -what with the firewhisky they somehow snuck in on a day-to-day basis- would have a cure. Thank god for the Weasley twins.
Weasley.
Why did that name sound really important? What was I not remembering?
Once I had successfully managed to dress myself with all the correct clothing on the correct parts of my anatomy, I began thinking about the coffee waiting for me in the hall with great anticipation, but because I was relatively sure that the smell of food would, in my condition, make me sick and the noise of the owls arriving would be unbearable, I regretfully conceded that I would have to find the Weasleys first.
There it was again. I thought that name and I felt like I was missing something. How peculiar.
Sluggishly, I made my slow way down the stairs ensuring each time my foot fell exactly in the middle of each step and sighing, I entered the common room, wincing immediately at all the chattering students.
Alicia was slumped down over the table, her arms wrapped securely over her head. She only looked up once I'd pulled the opposite chair out and sat down.
"Ouch" she smiled commiseratively "you look about as bad as I feel."
-
A moronic third year brat with a face like a troll then came rushing over, chasing a firework that was heading directly for us. Not noticing the two crotchety 6th Years eyeing him warily, the buffoon then jumped and caught the damn fizzing thing in his outstretched arms as he collided loudly with the table Alicia and I were resting our heads on.
"Times ticking away" yelled his friend gleefully from the other side of the room.
Aghast, Alicia and I realised what that ticking firecracker was, and just what was going to happen, at exactly the same millisecond but we were each as powerless as the other to do anything in response.
KABOOM!!!
The friend started laughing hysterically and the boy near us took a moment to unfreeze from shock and then joined in.
Alicia and I found it somewhat less amusing and growled. Loudly.
"What's wrong with you two?" he sniggered, unapologetically. Ugh. Imbecile.
I was about to tell him that it was none of his damned business when Alicia beat me to it.
"Well" she said ruefully, looking up at him "We're just feeling a bit guilty. See, there was this third year that kept making noise when we really wanted some peace and quiet. So we killed him and fed his entrails to rabid dogs. Do YOU think that was unwarranted?"
Understandably, the boy scarpered.
I chuckled.
"Nice."
Alicia waved it off. "Eh. I have a way with kids."
The blissful silence that followed continued for quite a while as neither of us wanted to be the person to break it.
...
...
...
...
"HEY, HEY GUYS!!!!"
Damn you Katie, with your stupid chipper attitude. Damn you.
She took one look at mine and Alicia's pitiful half-hearted glares and burst into shrill giggles.
"Oh, wow. Ha-ha! You look goooooood. Was it the drink or did I miss some crazy voodoo shit and now you're all, like, undead? Nosferatu? Should I fetch my stake? Hahaha"
Alicia's jaw clenched.
"Hey Katie, you know what it means when you have to laugh at your own jokes? That everybody else isn't laughing. You know what it means when nobody else is laughing? That it wasn't funny."
Katie stuck out her tongue.
"Nobody laughed at what you just said."
"Ah, but I wasn't making a joke. Just an observation."
"But with humoristic undertones."
"On the contrary-"
"Geesh ladies!" interrupted another, more masculine, voice that lilted slightly with the relentless flirtation that contaminated every word he said. "For two hung-over chicks you use a load of bloody big words."
"Now, Lee," Katie smiled coquettishly "I didn't drink. I'm perfectly fine this morning."
"S'not our fault you're not as fun, Kate" I grumbled into my hand.
Lee snorted at the sight of me.
"Hey, Angelina. Looking pretty tempting this morning, ha-ha."
I thought my one-fingered response was pretty adequate. Alicia seemed to agree.
"Hey, where'd you go, Angie?" Lee asked suddenly, but I only half heard and didn't quite process it, since my eyes were transfixed on how Lee's hand happened to be casually resting on Katie's slim waist.
"Oh, yeah!" Alicia piped up. "I was looking for you at the party, coz that tramp that wore the same dress as me had gotten all her mates to give me evil-eyes, and I needed recruits! Katie was off snogging Lee, though-"
Whoa, wait. Seriously? I looked at the pair for confirmation. Yep, Katie was turning red as cherry and Lee was grinning stupidly. They definitely hooked up.
"-and so I was trying to find you and you were nowhere to be seen! Left me to face down that slag by myself! Can't believe she wore the same dress."
"It looked better on you" Katie said with the sincerity and swiftness only a best friend can give.
"Yeah, it did Leesh" I agreed. Silently adding, 'I think. Considering I can barely remember last night.'
Alicia looked slightly mollified.
"And to answer your questions" I chuckled self-consciously, rubbing my ear "I can't remember. I don't even know how I got here, or who I was with"
"Hahahahahaha" Lee burst out laughing "hahaha, classic."
Katie through her arms around my shoulders.
"Don't worry, you were fully clothed when Leanne and I pulled you upstairs from where you lying on the Common Room sofa. I don't think anything, y'know, happened."
"The common room?" Alicia queried, and when Katie nodded continued "well then. Must have been a Gryffindor with you...or McGonagall found you pissed and dragged you up here..."
I shuddered at the terrifying thought.
"Fred disappeared as well" Lee threw in, carelessly "but I figured he was with Natalie. Maybe he brought you up here, Angelina? Angelina?"
Naturally, I didn't hear him. I was oblivious to the world. You-Know-Who could have come in doing the fox trot with Trelawney and I wouldn't have batted an eye-lid. I had something much more pressing dancing through my brain.
Fred.
Fred Weasley.
...
-x-
"No. I love it, Fred. That's why you've got to STOP. Shush."
He lay down next to me and propped himself up on one elbow to see me, looking confused.
"Well..." I continued.
NO!
STOP TALKING
"I like it. I like it a lot. Actually, Fred, I like everything about you a lot-"
– x -
Oh God.
Oh dear sweet mother of God.
Please say I didn't. PLEASE say I didn't.
But of course I did. I could remember it vividly.
The drink.
The stumbles up the hill.
The falling into Fred.
The kiss. Oh my god, the kiss.
Please say I didn't say it. Oh God.
-x-
"The thing is though, Fred Weasley" I mumbled as my eye-lids starting getting increasingly heavier with every blink "I don't think it is. You think it's because I'm effing hammered. Well I think I bloody love you."
-x-
"Holy Sugarplum Fairies." I murmured in horror, to the bewilderment of Lee, Katie and Alicia.
