Chapter Two - February 14th, 2003
"Are you sure you don't mind taking James for the night? Angelina told me today that you agreed to watch Roxanne, Fred, and Victoire as well! Had I known I would've asked Luna to babysit." Ginny Weasley exclaimed as she stepped out of her older brother's fireplace.
"I'm positive. It gives me something to do while all you love birds are out having fun tonight. Valentine's Day really is the worst day to be single." Charlie Weasley said as he grabbed his nephew from Ginny's arms. "Besides, I barely ever get to see the tykes. It'll be fun."
"Alright. Well if it gets to be too much Harry and I will only be in Diagon Alley. There's a new restaurant there apparently."
"Oh yeah, Ron was telling me. You're all going there, aren't you?
"Mhm. George and Angelina, Bill and Fleur, Percy and Audrey, along with Hermione and Ron."
"Wow, sounds romantic," Charlie chuckled as he placed James into the playpen he had borrowed from Ginny for the occasion.
"I know. I'm not looking forward to it, to be honest. Fleur planned it. And of course I couldn't decline, not after I made such a fuss over how we haven't seen each other since the wedding." Ginny said, the frustration in her voice becoming more obvious with every word. "Although, Harry and I do have something special planned for after supper, so it won't be all bad."
"Ginny! I don't want to hear about that!" Charlie said, clearly disgusted with the idea of his little sister partaking in 'special' after supper activities.
Ginny chuckled as she placed a kiss on James' forehead. "Now you be a good boy for Uncle Charlie, okay?"
"He's one years old, Gin. I don't think the kid could be bad if he tried."
"That's what you say now. Just wait 'till you let him out of that playpen. Anyway, thanks so much, Charlie! I'll be back over around noon tomorrow."
And with that the young witch stepped into the fireplace and disappeared.
"I'm so sorry, Gin. I'll make it up to you, I promise." A very stressed Harry Potter said to his wife from the coat closet as he grabbed his cloak and broomstick.
"Fucking Ministry... They shouldn't have gotten rid of Dementors at Azkaban! This is the fourth time since the war ended that we've had a breakout." Ron complained as he grabbed his own cloak and broomstick. "I'm really sorry, 'Mione. We'll celebrate as soon as this whole fiasco clears up."
Hermione nodded in understanding before placing a kiss on her fiancé's cheek.
"Good luck, and stay safe. Let us know if something goes wrong and you need back up outside of the Auror department, alright?" Ginny called as her husband and brother exited the house through the front door.
"I should probably head home and get some of my papers sorted out for the trial next week," Hermione explained as she stood to walk towards the fireplace. "There's a family that's been abusing their house elves. Demanding that the poor elves spend their nights out in yard, in the freezing cold, and denying them the right to sleep. It's appalling."
"Don't you dare leave," Ginny exclaimed as she grabbed Hermione's hand to pull her back onto the sofa. "Harry and I have a case of firewhiskey in the cupboard that we had been saving for tonight. There's no need to let it go to waste just because him and Ron got called into work. I don't hear any owls summoning us to the Ministry, so we may as well enjoy ourselves."
Not particularly wanting to turn what was supposed to be an evening out into a night of work, Hermione obliged Ginny by sitting down beside the younger witch, who Hermione couldn't help but notice looked particularly beautiful tonight. Her pale, ivory skin looked quite enticing in contrast to the black fabric of her dress
"I suppose a drink wouldn't hurt. Merlin knows I could use one. It was such a stressful week."
"That's the spirit! Well, sort of. Here, take a glass and toast with me," Ginny said as she passed her soon-to-be sister-in-law a glass of firewhiskey mixed with butterbeer for flavour.
"To being sort of, but not really, alone on Valentine's Day!" Ginny raised her glass to Hermione's.
"To being with a good friend on Valentine's Day," Hermione said with a smile before raising her own glass to meet Ginny's.
The two women quickly swallowed the small amount of liquid in their cups. Although the two weren't typically drinkers, neither could wait for the firewhiskey to enter their system. Unsure if it was simply a need to unwind and relax, or the need to have an excuse to spend more time with a dear friend, Hermione wondered how long it would be before she began to feel the effect of the strong firewhiskey.
"This stuff truly is potent," Hermione said as she took another sip. "It's rather odd how much more quickly it hits you than Muggle whiskey."
"Really? It's probably the magic in the firewhiskey,"
"Probably. I couldn't say for sure though. I'll have to remember to look it up later."
"Well, in the mean time, how about you have another drink so you'll truly understand what you're researching?" Ginny asked as she slyly poured more firewhiskey into both cups.
"Ginny!" Hermione said, a sense of dizziness taking over her body. "Oh, I guess another can't hurt. But you should really put the rest of that away. It's barely been ten minutes since you opened it and half of it is already gone!"
Ginny chuckled as she closed the bottle. Rising as slowly as possible, to avoid falling over, Ginny headed towards the cupboard to place the firewhiskey back inside. However, instead of immeadiately heading back to the sofa as Hermione had anticipated, the young witch began moving things around within the cupboard.
"Speaking of muggle paraphernalia, look at these, Hermione. They're called 'Loving Dice'!" Ginny tipsily made her way back to the sofa, where she handed Hermione a pair of red dice. One die featured names of body parts, some of which Hermione knew she'd find offensive had she had less firewhiskey in her system. The other die featured actions such as 'massage', 'lick', 'tickle', and 'kiss'.
"Ginevra Molly Weasley, I am sha-ocked at you. These are horribly inaprop..inaprop..inapropiate!" Hermione said, the firewhisey slowly beginning to affect her speech.
"I bought them for Harry and I. Valentine's Day game, you see."
"Oh, I would've loved to have been given a massage for Valentine's Day." Hermione said, purposely looking at the tamest face of the die.
"Well then we've got to roll the die! I tried to jinx it earlier so that whatever a person wants will show up. I'm not sure if it wocked though. "
"Wocked?" Hermione teased, realizing that there was a chance that Ginny was more intoxicated than she was.
"Worked. I'm not sure if it worked." Ginny corrected herself.
Ginny clumsily moved her hand towards Hermione's, causing both women to blush slightly when their hands met. Ginny quickly pried the die from Hermione before rolling it onto the table.
Both witches leaned forward, curious as to what it said.
"Interesting," Ginny said. "I guess my jinx didn't work."
"Your jinxes always work though! I'm quite jealous of how talented you are when it comes to spells!"
Ginny shook her head, "Why is it on 'kiss' and not 'massage', then?"
"Maybe you want to kiss me." Hermione somewhat hopefully, noted.
"No, no," Ginny said, causing Hermione to immediately regret her statement.
"Not that I wouldn't!" Ginny said quickly, appearing worried that she had offended Hermione. "Er.. not that I would, either. I don't really know. But either way, it doesn't matter. Those die won't show what I want, they show what the other person, the one not rolling them, wants."
"What... what I want?" Hermione asked, completely unsure how to respond. Sure, Ginny looked extremely beautiful. Her lips looked particularly enticing, their colour showing particularly well against Ginny's light complexion. But Hermione was positive she was only noticing these things because of the firewhiskey running through her system. It must simply make people more perceptive of the things around them.
"Mhm, what you want, Miss Granger," Ginny said, a sly smile on her face.
As the younger witch leaned forward slightly, the sly look still upon her face, Hermione thought Ginny might do it. In fact, perhaps because of the firewhiskey, Hermione almost found herself wishing Ginny would do it.
"Your child is a menace. A monster. A beast."
Ginny and Hermione both jumped at the sound of an unexpected voice coming from the fireplace.
"I love him, Gin, but I can't do it. When Dad told me that all Auror's were required to report in for duty tonight... well, I considered it a God-sent, as I knew that'd mean you'd be home." Charlie Weasley said as he walked out of the fire place and towards the two girls. Behind him stood the four year old Victoire, the three year old Fred, and the two year old Roxanne. The three children all seemed to be extremely hyper as they jumped up and down and looked excitedly around the room. In Charlie's arms were Dominique and James, both of whom were trying to slap each other.
"What happened? And why didn't you owl me? I'm... I was... Hermione and I are having dr..dr...drinks!" Ginny stuttered, making her intoxicated state apparent to her brother.
"Are you drunk? And you too, Hermione? Are the two of you wasted?" Charlie laughed, clearly finding the idea of the two girls being intoxicated to be quite amusing.
"What's wasted mean, Uncle Charlie?" Fred asked, watching as his two aunts stumbled to hide the 'Loving Dice' and cups on the coffee table.
"It, uh... Well, you see, Fred, it means that.." Charlie began, clearly regretting having used the term in front of his three year old nephew.
"It means," Ginny said, cutting her brother off, "that Aunt Ginny and Aunt Hermione are going to have really bad headaches tomorrow morning."