This chapter is dedicated to my Grandpa Seymour, who passed away last night at the age of 86. Love you and miss you, Grandpa.
After dinner that night, Hermione was helping Molly and Arthur get the boys into bed. She went into the twins' room first again, and found them sitting on their beds in matching pyjamas, making faces across the room at each other. When they heard her walk in, they turned to look at her, and she found herself making a silly face at the both of them, causing them to break out in a fit of giggles. "Alright, boys, it's time to get to bed. Let's see...one, two...oh no! What happened to Mr. Porkington? It's his bedtime too!"
"Siwwy Mya, he's wight hewe!" Fred replied with a wide grin, holding him up for her to see. He tucked him back under his arm and laid back down.
"Phew, didn't want to get him in trouble with your mum." She walked over to George's bed and tucked him into his blankets, sitting down on the edge of his bed.
"Mya? Awe you sweepin' in you' woom t'night?" George asked in a sleepy voice.
"Mhmm. That's where I'm going to sleep every night from now on," she replied, smoothing back his hair.
"E'wy night? D'zat mean no mowe sweepo'ers?"
Hermione shook her head in amusement. "Okay, maybe not every night. We do need to have a sleepover every once in awhile."
"Good," he replied quietly.
She got up and kissed his forehead. "Goodnight, George," she said, and made her way over to Fred's bed. Tucking him in, she peeked beneath the covers to make sure Mr. Porkington was still there, and pulled him up a bit so his head stuck out from beneath the blanket. She kissed the pig's forehead, and then Fred's, and said, "goodnight, Mr. Porkington, goodnight, Fred," as she exited the room. Closing the door, she met Molly on the stairs.
"Billy and Charlie are all settled into bed, as is Percy, though he wanted you to come in and say goodnight. Are the twins all settled?" she asked the younger girl.
"Yes, Molly. I'll go see Percy, and then I'm going out for drinks with your brothers. Did you need anything else before I go?"
"No, no, dear, you go out and have a good time, and do try to keep my brothers in line," she teased. "Don't forget your glamours before you leave!"
"Thanks, Molly, I'll do my best with the boys, but no promises," she replied with a wink. She went across the hall to Percy's room, and knocked before she opened the door. "Percy? I heard you wanted to talk to me before you went to sleep..."
He sat up in bed. "Mya! Yes, I wanted to thank you again for starting me on reading today, I'm really excited about it, it was a lot of fun. I can't wait until I'm good enough to read chapter books!" he exclaimed, reaching out to give her a hug.
"It was my pleasure, Percy, I had fun as well. We'll work on it again later in the week, alright?" He nodded, and she leaned over to kiss his forehead. "Get some sleep now. I have to go, your uncles are waiting for me. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Mya," he replied as he snuggled back down under the covers.
Hermione climbed the stairs to her room and opened her closet, trying to decide what to wear. Feeling daring, since it was her first time really going out to the pub as an adult, she pulled on a pair of skinny black jeans and a sparkly silver top with an open back, and slipped on her favourite red heels. She put on a minimal amount of makeup, and then pulled out her wand. She charmed her hair black and tamed it into thick, smooth ringlets. Fishing her purse out of her beaded bag, she headed downstairs, wand in hand.
The twins saw her before she noticed them, and Gideon's eyes bugged out, his mouth dropping open in surprise. Fabian saw his brother's expression out of the corner of his eye, and nudged him with his elbow. "Quit drooling, mate, birds don't go for that," he jibed quietly.
Gideon shut his mouth with a glare at his twin, and walked over to Hermione, taking her hand and kissing it softly with a cheeky grin on his face. "If it's not too forward, I'd like to say that you look absolutely ravishing tonight, Miss Lewis."
She blushed fiercely. "Thank you, Mr. Prewett. You clean up pretty well yourself. Are you two ready to go?"
"Just waitin' on Emmy," Fabian replied. Hearing a pop on the front porch, he strode to the door. "And speak of the devil, I believe she's just arrived." He opened the door and ushered her in, kissing her cheek.
She walked over to Hermione and extended her hand. "Hi! I'm Emmeline Vance, we met briefly at Amelia's last night."
"Yes, I remember," Hermione replied, shaking her hand. "It's nice to see you again."
Gideon strode over and swept his brother's girlfriend up in a hug, lifting her off the floor. "Emmy, my love! I've been wilting like a flower without sun in your absence!"
"Gideon Prewett, put me down!" she squealed. He gently put her back on her feet, and turned to Fabian.
"Well, brother, are we ready?" Fabian nodded, and took Emmeline's arm.
"Where are we going?" Hermione asked.
Gideon just wrapped his arm through hers and shook his head with a mischievous grin. "Uh uh uh, it's a surprise. I'm going to side-along you." And with that, he twisted in the air and apparated them away.
-oOo-
They landed in an alley, and walked out onto a poorly-lit street that was sparsely populated. Hermione could hear the thumping bass of loud dance music coming from somewhere nearby. "Where are we?" she asked, looking around and trying to get her bearings.
"Offish Alley, it's on the opposite side of Knockturn from Diagon," Fabian replied.
"That's where we're headed," Gideon added, pointing at one of the buildings. "The Grindylow. It's half-pub, half-dance club."
When they arrived, they decided to start out their night just talking over drinks in the quieter half of the establishment, so the girls sat themselves at a table near the bar while the twins went to get their drinks. "I'm so glad Gideon brought you as his date tonight; it's always a little awkward when it's just the three of us," Emmeline said, sliding into the booth.
"Oh no, this isn't a date!" Hermione replied quickly. "I was under the impression that this was a group thing."
Emmeline chuckled. "Well, considering I'm Fab's date, I'd think that'd make you Gid's date by default..."
Hermione blushed, and was rescued from the awkward subject matter by the arrival of the guys. "A Firewhiskey for the lady," Gideon said, placing a drink in front of Hermione and sliding into the booth beside her.
"Thank you," Hermione replied. "What shall we toast to?"
"We can't toast yet! We have to wait for the shots to get here first," Fabian exclaimed. "The bartender should be bringing them by any minute now."
Sure enough, the bartender came by their table with a round of shots for each of them. "What are these?" Emmeline asked, lifting the shot glass closer to her eyes to inspect it.
The guys looked at each other and grinned widely, turned to their respective companions, and replied together, "Red-Headed Sluts."
The girls burst out laughing, and Emmeline swatted Fabian's arm as she tried to catch her breath. "Why am I not surprised?"
"I propose a toast," Gideon declared, lifting up his shot glass. "To friends, both old and new."
"I'll toast to that," Fabian replied, and brought his own shot glass up to tap his brother's as the girls lifted theirs as well. They all downed their shots together, and settled into their seats feeling a little more lighthearted than when they arrived.
-oOo-
An hour and a half and a few drinks later, Gideon turned to a pleasantly drunk Hermione. "What do you say we get out of here, so we don't have to watch this?" he asked, gesturing towards his brother and Emmeline, who were fawning over each other in a sickeningly sweet manner.
Hermione nodded. "I'd actually been thinking about getting up to dance. Shall we?"
Gideon slid out of the booth and held his hand out to help Hermione out as well. "Let's go show them how the professionals do it," he said with a cheeky grin. Hermione just laughed and slid her hand into the crook of his arm, following him into the dance club portion of the establishment.
They danced for awhile, switching styles with every song change, and Hermione couldn't help but feel delightfully happy. She hadn't danced with anyone since Bill's wedding, and that was nearly a year ago; she had forgotten how nice it was to have a competent dance partner.
Gideon, for his part, couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He had described her as 'ravishing' at the beginning of the night, but at this point, she could be considered nothing less than breathtaking. Her cheeks were flushed, there was a smile on her face that hadn't disappeared since they first reached the dance floor, her eyes were alight with happiness; she seemed to be positively glowing. He didn't think he'd ever seen a more beautiful or enticing sight in his life, and he told her so.
Hermione blushed, and buried her face in his chest as they waltzed at a tempo completely separate from the music playing in the club. "Why are you hiding?" he asked, drawing her face back up with two fingers placed under her chin.
"I'm just not used to being complimented on anything other than my brain," she replied.
"Well, you'd better start getting used to it, because you're far too pretty for me not to tell you so," he declared, and then spun her out and caught her in his arms again as she spun back to him. She laughed airily, and reached up to place her hand on his chest, leaning back to be able to see his face.
"You know, you're not too hard on the eyes yourself," she said with a saucy wink that was totally out of character for her...not that he knew her well enough to recognize that yet. He grinned brightly at her, and the song changed to a popular muggle dance track.
"How do you dance to this?" he exclaimed. "What even is this music?"
"It's a muggle song," she replied. Feeling a bit braver than usual, probably due to the liquid courage running through her veins, she told him she would teach him. She began to dance much closer to him than they'd been thus far, and he looked nervously at her as he tried to mimic her moves...not that he was complaining about his proximity to her.
-oOo-
"There they are! Oh, Fab, look at them! See how they're looking at each other?" Emmeline exclaimed. "I give them three months, maximum."
Fabian wrapped his arm around her. "If I know anything about my brother – and I do know quite a bit about him – it's that he's terribly slow with these things. I say it'll happen around Christmas."
"You're on," she agreed. She grabbed her boyfriend's hand and dragged him over to the dance floor, catching the attention of Gideon and Hermione. "Hey," she called to them, reaching out to put a hand on Hermione's arm. "It's late, we should be going."
Hermione and Gideon looked at each other and a nod of resignation passed between them. They turned and followed the other two out of the club and back onto Offish Alley. "Mya, maybe you should spend the night at our place," Gideon said, causing her to look up at him in surprise. "If you go back to the Burrow, you risk waking the boys when you climb the stairs, and that's just more trouble than it's worth to sleep in your own bed, yeah?"
She thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, alright, that's a fair point. Would you mind lending me something to sleep in, then?" she asked.
"Of course," he replied. "Take my arm, and I'll side-along you there." Nodding at his brother, he apparated the two of them to the flat he shared with his twin. "Welcome to our humble abode...it's not much, but it's home."
"It's lovely," Hermione proclaimed. "It feels so cosy, reminds me of the flat the Fred and George from my time got together after Hogwarts."
He gave her a tour of the flat, ending outside his bedroom. Tugging her inside, he went to his bureau and took out a pair of pyjama pants and one of his most comfortable old shirts. He handed her the clothing, and pointed her in the direction of the bathroom. While he was alone in the room, he quickly changed his sheets and cleaned up the scattered laundry with a flick of his wand, sending it to the hamper in the corner.
When she walked back into his room, he looked over at her and his eyes widened. "Feel free to borrow my clothes anytime. You look better in them than I do, it seems," he said with a wink. She blushed furiously, and went to place her clothes with her purse and wand. "You'll be sleeping in here tonight, Mya, I'm going to kip on the couch. Is there anything else you need?"
"Oh no, I can't take your bed!" she protested. "I'll be perfectly content with sleeping on the couch."
"Absolutely not," he replied firmly. "You are a guest, and a lady, and I was raised to be a gentleman. End of discussion. I'm pretty knackered, so I think I'm going to go to sleep. Are you alright here?" he asked as he gathered up a blanket and pillow to use on the couch.
"I think I'm fine...oh, would you happen to have an owl? I should probably send a note to Molly so she doesn't worry if I'm not there when she wakes up in the morning."
"No problem, I'll take care of it on my way to the couch. You go get some sleep, young lady, you've had a long day."
"Yes sir!" she replied, with a salute. "Thanks, Gideon, goodnight."
"Goodnight, Mya," he said softly as he left the room and shut the door behind him.
-oOo-
"GOOOOOOOOOD morning, Mya!" Fabian shouted as he leaped onto his brother's bed, startling their guest awake.
"Sweet Merlin," she groaned. "What time is it?"
"Time for you to wake up!" Fabian replied with a big grin, looking down at her.
"Ughhh. Gideon!" she shouted. As he walked into his room, he noticed the predicament his friend was in and laughed. "Can you please remove your brother from this bed?"
Gideon smiled at her and forcibly removed Fabian from where he was perched on top of a combination of Hermione and blankets. "Sorry, Mya, should have warned you before you went to sleep. He's always been unnaturally energetic in the morning, I never understood how or why."
"Because it's a new day!" Fabian exclaimed. "New fun things to be done! Oh, and Emmy fed me coffee."
"That'll do it," Gideon said with a grin, rolling his eyes.
Hermione giggled. "Alright, well, as long as I'm awake, I should probably head back to the Burrow to try and rein in the kids, since Arthur had to go back to work today."
"The beasties can wait!" Fabian cried. "Emmy's made us breakfast, you can't leave before you've tried her waffles!" No longer being held captive by his brother, he bolted back over to the bed and started dragging Hermione out of it by her wrists. "Hurry! The heating charm can only last so long before they start to get cold!"
Posted: 19 March 2012
Word Count: 2,744