Chapter Fourteen
Ginny was aware of how terrible she felt the very second that she woke up. It would have been difficult for her to say which of her symptoms was worst. There was the extreme dehydration, which made her feel as though she had no saliva in her mouth…the throbbing headache in her right temple, intensified by the bright mid-morning sunlight that streamed through her window…the nausea that lurched its way through her stomach all the way up to her throat, giving her the sensation that she would be sick any moment if she moved too much… And to top it all off there was a puddle of drool, the size of a large crumpet, on her pillow from where she had lain her head with her mouth open all night long. So that was where her saliva had gone.
She groaned and lifted herself up to flip her pillow over to its dry side, then started, realizing that she wasn't alone in her bed. Lying next to her was the very person who was the reason for Ginny's formerly-drunk, and now hungover, state. Sleeping on her side with a peaceful look on her face, Hermione clutched the pillow like a lover, and her long, tangled brown curls were splayed out around her head like a halo. She looked like an angel, or a wood nymph snoozing on a lily pad; it was a toss-up to say which she resembled more, but regardless she almost made Ginny forget how ill she felt.
And - Ginny's heart skipped a beat - Hermione was naked. Or at least she appeared to be so. The covers had slid halfway down the brunette's torso to expose her bare shoulders, upper back, chest. And the top of one breast, and part of a small, pale pink nipple, was also visible. Instant arousal shot through Ginny's body, and just as quickly she felt a bit guilty at how unquestionably turned-on she was. She had seen Hermione in a two-piece swimsuit before, during at least one summer when Hermione had visited the Burrow and the two girls had taken a dip together in a nearby lake. Even then she had noticed that her friend possessed a fine figure. But this was something else all together.
Then Ginny became aware that she, too, was very nearly starkers. She was significantly less so than Hermione, because Ginny still had her bra and panties on. (She couldn't tell if Hermione was wearing underwear, but she wasn't bold enough to lift the covers and find out.) But however you cut it, the fact remained that the two girls were in bed together, more or less unclothed.
Arousal was replaced by confusion, which then gave way to panic. Ginny couldn't clearly recall anything that had happened to her after Harry had dropped her off at her dormitory. All she remembered was a vague sense that Hermione had appeared and woken her up at some point after she'd collapsed in her bed, but this morning it had seemed like that was probably only a dream. Now Ginny was irrefutably awake (never could she have dreamed or imagined a hangover as bad as this one), and Hermione was definitely in bed with her. Had something happened between them two of them…?
Maybe that was possible if Hermione had gotten drunk last night as well. But surely not. The prefect had consumed just one Butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks, and nothing else. A single pint of Butterbeer didn't contain enough alcohol to get someone even slightly buzzed; it was only after at least two that the average adult could expect to feel its affects, which was why Wizarding drinking laws allowed the beverage to be sold to minors. Unless Hermione had changed her mind about drinking that night, and had gotten hammered some time after Ginny had been dragged out of the pub by Harry - which wasn't bloody likely - then she remained as stone-cold sober as always. And Ginny couldn't believe that Hermione, whom she still viewed as a candidate for the hypothetical "Straightest Girl at Hogwarts" Award, would ever do anything sexual with another girl unless she was either under the Imperius curse or wasted out of her brilliant mind.
No, there had to be a reasonable explanation for this, she thought, calming down. And while Ginny probably would have allowed her wand to be snapped in half just for the chance to kiss Hermione, never would she wish to take advantage of someone who was intoxicated, even if she was intoxicated herself at the same time. Besides, what would be the good of having sex with the object of her affection if it was the sloppy, drunken kind of sex that she couldn't even remember?
But until she found out what had transpired, Ginny was content to lay there for a minute or two longer, simply admiring Hermione's loveliness. She could hardly believe that she was even allowed to see her friend like this. How many other people were lucky enough to wake up to their unrequited crush naked in their bed? Knowing that her chances with the girl were still impossibly slim didn't stop Ginny from enjoying this moment.
Just then Hermione made adorable, soft whimpering noises as she stirred in her sleep, and Ginny had to bite down on her lip to keep from audibly swooning. The brunette's eyes fluttered a few times, then opened. Ginny began to panic again as she wondered what in the world she should say.
"Gin?" Hermione murmured as she sat up. She pulled the covers up over her chest. Ginny didn't know if Hermione realized how much of her body she had been revealing, but she thanked whatever deities might be out there that Hermione wasn't freaking out about it.
"Hey…do you feel okay this morning?" yawned Hermione, rubbing her eyes and then making an attempt to smooth down her bushy hair. Sweet Merlin, even with bedhead and eye bogies she's cute as hell, Ginny thought to herself before she responded, squinting in the sunlight,
"No, I'm awful, actually."
"I thought you might be. Hold tight, I'll brew a hangover antidote for you. It should only take about ten minutes or so."
"Wait," Ginny said before Hermione could get up. "Um, what happened, exactly? Why are we…?" She made a sweeping gesture with her hand at their mutual states of undress.
"Oh." Hermione looked embarrassed for the first time that morning. "Well, I had to stay with you through the night in case you got ill or something. I didn't have my pyjamas with me and I couldn't find yours, so I just took your clothes off for you and slept in my underwear. I thought you probably wouldn't mind."
"N-no, of course not." You have no idea how much I really, really don't mind. "I was just worried that maybe - maybe I'd vomited all over both of us, or something. You've probably had enough of that lately, considering what happened with you and that Slytherin first year awhile ago."
Hermione let out a small laugh. "No, fortunately for both of us there was none of that last night. Why don't you lie back down and I'll get started on that potion."
Hermione reached down the side of the bed and retrieved the long-sleeved thermal tee shirt she'd worn last night. She pulled it over her head with her back turned to her friend, which briefly gave Ginny yet another nice view - this time of Hermione's entire span of bare back. How was Hermione, who was usually very modest, so nonchalant about being almost naked around her friend? She must be comfortable around other girls because she's not at all attracted to them, Ginny thought dolefully. If she fancied me, she'd be as shy as I am right now.
"Any sign of my roommates out there?" Ginny called out weakly, laying her head back down on the pillow and closing her eyes. Her nausea had abated for the time being, but she wished with all her might that her head would just. stop. pounding.
"No, they must have gone to breakfast," Hermione said. "Which is good, because I'll be using my cauldron on the floor. Be right back."
As Ginny lay alone in the bed, her headache-addled mind struggled to comprehend all that had happened to her in the past twelve hours. She'd made an ass of herself at the pub, she knew, and it would be terribly embarrassing when she next ran into the people who had seen her that way. But what may have been worse yet, Harry now had knowledge of her crush on Hermione. Ginny hadn't intended for anyone to know her secret, despite how much she had loudly spilled about how beautiful she thought Hermione was.
Truth be told, though, confessing it to a friend had lifted a weight off of her. Her problems always felt ten times worse inside her head than they felt after she'd talked to someone. And Ginny knew that she could trust Harry with anything. But if he had been able to suss it out, who was to say that it hadn't also been made obvious to everyone who was at The Three Broomsticks last night? What if Hermione managed to figure it out as well? She may not have put it together just yet (she probably wouldn't have slept next to Ginny topless if she had), but eventually she might. She was no dummy, after all. Well, that's the last time I'll ever drink that much. Clearly it makes me lose the filter between my brain and my mouth, Ginny thought grimly.
Before long the door to the dormitory creaked open again. Ginny heard the noises of Hermione setting her heavy cauldron on the stone floor, starting a fire beneath it with Incendio, and stirring the boiling ingredients. In what felt like almost no time at all, Hermione was standing at her bedside (dressed in a fresh outfit of clean clothes that she must have retrieved from her own room), holding out a steaming mug of pulpy green liquid.
"Be careful, it's very hot," Hermione instructed. "And…it may not taste great. I used to flavor it with a bit of vanilla extract when I made this for Fred and George, but I didn't have any of that left."
"Don't worry, I'm used to most potions tasting horrible." Ginny swallowed a gulp of the drink. It tasted like boiled leaves and ginger, which wasn't altogether bad, but wasn't pumpkin juice either. The remarkable thing about it was that she began to improve almost at once. Any nausea that she had left was gone, and as she continued to drain the mug, she felt the throbbing in the vein in her temple gradually lessen. She was still incredibly thirsty, though. Seeing a full cup of water on her nightstand, she reached for it and downed its contents in three large gulps.
"Wow, I'm better already," she sighed, laying herself back down. "Thank you so much. That antidote is amazing. You should be a medi-witch, honestly."
"You're welcome, I'm glad it's working. There's lots more left in my cauldron if you need it. And actually…" Hermione sat down on the bed next to Ginny, and a small smile appeared on her face. "Okay, I wasn't going to announce it quite yet, but this is what I didn't tell everyone when Angelina asked me last night if I had a job locked down."
"Oh? Well, don't keep me in suspense."
"Madam Pomfrey has agreed to take me on as an assistant in the Hospital Wing. If I like it and do well, she'll write me a letter of reference so I can apply to school in the Healing Arts. And then if I get in and graduate…who knows. Maybe I'll be able to take over as school nurse when she retires in a few years."
"Hermione, that's fantastic!" Ginny exclaimed, genuinely happy for the first time in days. "Tell me everything! When do you start, how much is she going to pay you…?"
"Well, I start as soon as the students come back from the winter holidays. And as for payment…that's the only thing," Hermione sighed. "She and Dumbledore said that there really is no money for another paid position at Hogwarts right now. I could tell that they felt bad about it, but it's just the truth that the school is under a tight budget currently. They can only take me on as a volunteer, so it's not a proper apprenticeship."
"That's too bad," Ginny frowned. "Do you have any other prospects?"
"Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Scrivenshaft have offered to hire me when they open the book-selling portion of their store. If I work there at least twenty hours a week, it'll cover my entire rent plus a little bit extra. So I'll have some income, but not much. I might still have to take on another part-time job." Hermione looked a bit discouraged as she went on, "I never wanted to work three jobs when I graduated from Hogwarts, but…hopefully this will only be temporary."
"Yeah, I'm sure soon you'll be able to find something you like that's both full-time and pays well enough. It really does suck that you won't get compensated for helping Madam Pomfrey, but this is still great news."
"Thank you. Money or no money, I'm still looking forward to working in the Hospital Wing." Hermione shifted on the bed, and the expression on her face changed. "Hey, Ginny, I…um, wanted to talk to you about something."
Ginny's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach. "…Yes?"
"Do you remember anything that you said at The Three Broomsticks last night?"
It was tempting to claim that she'd blacked out and didn't recall anything, but Ginny couldn't bring herself to do that. She cringed and replied, "Er, yeah. I think I remember most of it."
"Well, I'm not going to hold it entirely against you, since it was obvious that you didn't have control over yourself. But…you practically outed Rosmerta and Hooch's relationship in front of the entire pub. I just don't understand why. Drunk or not, I thought you knew better than that."
Being shamed by Hermione Granger felt worse than the hangover. The brunette so rarely spoke critically of anyone; when she did, it was like your own parents expressing disappointment in your actions. Especially because she was almost always right.
"I don't know why I did it," Ginny said, looking away. But that wasn't entirely true; she was self-aware enough to know that it was at least in part because she was jealous of the two women for being out of the closet and in a committed relationship with the person they each loved. "I do feel bad about it. But at the same time, I don't think it did any real harm. Pretty much everyone knows they're gay, they don't exactly make a secret of the fact-"
"But that's the point - they don't make a secret of it. They choose who gets to know, and who doesn't. It's not your place to spread that information around," Hermione said, gently but firmly. "Do you really believe that they tell every single patron that they're lesbians? There are still plenty of people around who are prejudiced about that kind of thing. What if the wrong person heard, and it resulted in the pub getting vandalized, or Rosmerta and Hooch being attacked?"
"I…" Ginny felt as though her eyes had been opened, and it was a rude awakening indeed. How could she not have realized what she was doing? Perhaps because of the compassionate and accepting family she had been raised in, it was easy for her to forget that many others weren't as tolerant. "I couldn't live with myself if that happened because of what I said," she admitted. "You're absolutely right. I need to apologize to Rosmerta and Hooch. There are loads of people I need to apologize to…you being among them."
"You mean about last night? Gin, don't even worry about it," Hermione said, her face softening. "It happens to the best of us-"
"No, it doesn't. It was inexcusable. Harry gave me a talking-to that made me realize that last night was supposed to about you, and I made it about me by acting like a loud, drunk idiot. It was especially stupid of me to ruin it, considering that I organized the get-together in the first place. I really am sorry, Hermione."
"You didn't ruin it. Honest. But thanks for saying that, even still." Hermione reached out and pulled Ginny into a tight embrace. The redhead relished a moment in the feel of Hermione's arms against her bare skin. Being touched by Hermione Granger in any fashion never got old.
Pulling away reluctantly from the hug, Ginny sighed heavily and swung her legs over the bed. "Well, I'm going to take a shower and then head out to The Three Broomsticks. Best to apologize to Hooch and Rosmerta as soon as possible, you know? I hate to wonder what they must think of me right now."
As Ginny reached for her towel, Hermione said from her perch on the bed, "Do you want me to come with you?"
Ginny considered for a moment. Any other time, she would've loved to have Hermione accompany her for moral support. But she had a feeling that it might be prudent to go it alone. Once she asked forgiveness of the couple for outing them as lesbians, it was very possible that her own interest in girls - and in one girl in particular - might become a topic of discussion. The barmaid and the flying instructor would be good people to vent to about that, but she certainly didn't want Hermione there for that conversation.
"I really appreciate it, 'Mione. But I think that this is something I need to do on my own," Ginny said softly.
Hermione nodded. "I understand. Let me know how it goes, even though I'm sure they'll forgive you easily. Rosmerta and Hooch are good people."
"Yeah, they definitely are. Anyway, I'll meet up with you back here when I'm done in Hogsmeade. And then, if you want, I'll help you pack up some of the stuff in your dorm," Ginny offered, thinking that she needed to make up for last night's behavior to Hermione somehow. "This weekend seems like a good time to start moving the bulk of your things into your new flat."
"That sounds great. Thanks, Ginny." The sweetest of grins crossed Hermione's face, and Ginny's heart melted. Even if her love for Hermione seemed doomed to remain unrequited for the rest of their days, the upside was that at least their friendship was still going strong.
The girls hugged once more, and went separate ways - Hermione for breakfast at The Great Hall, and Ginny for the washroom. It wasn't until Ginny stepped out of the shower that it dawned on her that she had never asked Hermione what Ron had said to her the night before.
Author's Notes: The more I write this story, the more fun it becomes, even when the process is slow and feels like running a marathon. I'm so glad I returned to it after the several long hiatuses I took. Let me know in a review if the story is still fun for you...I love both compliments AND constructive criticism!
The next chapter will pick up immediately where this one left off. I didn't initially plan for Chapters 11 through 15 to all take place within the same 24-hour time period, but it has turned out to be a very important day for Hermione, Ginny, and Ron.
Also, I would like to have your input: do you think that Harry was too rough with Ginny at the end of Chapter 11? No one's said anything to me about it, but when I read that passage again I wondered if I made him seem too aggressive when he hauls her out of the pub and confronts her. I want him to come off as assertively trying to get at the bottom of things, not pushy or violent. If you have an opinion on whether I should tweak that passage or leave it alone, please let me know.