A/N: Thanks to everyone who left feedback! Everyone who agreed and said
that Eminem is hot is now my new best friend!
Disclaimer: FANfiction...
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"It is freezing out here!" Gia shivered in illustration as she wrapped her calf-length black coat tighter around her.
Harry glanced at her and grinned as they walked through the streets of her neighborhood on their way back to Hermione's house. "Well, of course it's cold," he told her teasingly. "It's December and look what you're wearing."
She rolled her eyes at him and playfully punched him before reaching for his hand and pulling him closer to her. When he was close enough, she dropped his hand and pressed herself against them as they walked; his arm went around her waist, and they grinned at each other.
To be perfectly honest, he appreciated what she was wearing to the fullest extent possible. Of course, you really couldn't see it now because of the heavy overcoat, but she had on a navy blue formal gown that she'd used for her cousin's wedding reception. It wasn't too fancy, but it was fancy enough to give her a very elegant look when she'd opened the door earlier. Her blonde curls were down and flowing beautifully. Harry thought she looked stunning.
And he told her so as they walked together down the street.
"You look really pretty," he said quietly, causing her to turn her head and look at him shyly.
"Thank you," she replied just as quietly, with the smallest hint of a smile.
"Beautiful, even," he added seriously, dropping his arm and once again reaching for her hand, pulling them both to a slow stop. She looked at him curiously for a moment but didn't resist when he turned his head and caught her mouth with his own. In fact, she returned the kiss, slowly but sweetly. Turning even closer to him, she allowed her free hand to rise slowly up his arm and over his shoulder to rest at the nape of his neck, where her fingers played mindlessly in his messy hair.
It was hard to explain what he felt when he kissed her. True, he'd never kissed any other girl, but he was positive that it couldn't feel like this.
In the days since their first kiss, they'd gotten quite a lot of practice in, and they no longer blushed or stole nervous glances afterwards. And when they pulled apart for air, he looked straight into her eyes, and they shared a bright smile.
Gia moved her other arm up, too, until both of them were wrapped around his neck, and she looked up at him warmly. "It's like magic," she said with a grin.
Knocked a bit off by her off-handed statement, he furrowed his eyebrows slightly and looked at her curiously. "What is?"
"Everything about you."
The analogy sent a strange feeling through him, and he smiled despite himself. Without replying, he lowered his head and kissed her again as his hand found the small of her back and pulled her closer.
She was right.
This was a magic all of its own- one that didn't require wands, incantations, spells, or potions.
It was definitely his new favorite subject.
Leaning up, he looked down at her and couldn't help but feel all sorts of happy little feelings. "I wanted to do that now," he explained with slightly raised brows, "because I'm not sure if I'll get another chance tonight."
She bit down slightly on her lower lip, and his eyes darted there out of instinct. "Well, I could kiss you all night long," she said quietly.
He grinned at her, quite inclined to take her up on the offer. "Maybe you should then," he said seriously. "Maybe that would improve my chances of not getting killed by Hermione's dad before the end of holiday."
She wrinkled up her nose curiously. "Huh?"
He laughed and shook his head. "Nothing. Just maybe he would finally believe that I'm not after Hermione, and he wouldn't have to follow through on the death threats he gave Ron and me."
Gia caught on and smirked. "At least not on the ones he gave you..."
Harry rolled his eyes and sent her a mock-glare. "Oh, shut up."
She stood up on her tiptoes until their noses were almost meeting. In an inviting whisper, she said, "Make me."
Harry grinned at her before doing just that. He caught her lips and kissed her deeply, so deeply, in fact, that she had to lower herself back to flat feet, wrapping her arms even tighter around his neck so as to not lose an inch of contact with him.
When they finally parted, she didn't loosen her grip at all. Instead, she just beamed up at him as he asked her a question.
"Did it work?"
She raised her eyebrows. "Must have because I can't think of a damn thing to say."
"Are you warmer now?"
She hugged him tightly and buried her face into the front of his coat as she mumbled a contented, "Toasty."
After a moment, Harry reluctantly pulled away from her embrace and once again reached for her hand. "We'd better go. We're going to be late as it is."
She nodded and sighed before they started walking once again towards the Grangers' house. When they caught sight of it, they were both instantly shocked; cars lined the driveway and both sides of the street for a block.
"Wow, I didn't expect this many people," Harry said as they made their way through the maze of automobiles and up to the front door.
Once on the doorstep, they both hesitated for a moment. Sounds of the party could be heard clearly, and through the windows, they could see hoards of nicely dressed adults crowding the front rooms.
"Do we have to knock?" Gia asked uncertainly.
Harry had no idea, so he shrugged. "I dunno. I don't guess so..."
Gia glanced at the door. "Well, you sort of live here for the time being, so I guess it's okay if we just go in, right?"
He shrugged again. "I guess so."
As they slipped into the foyer, no one even glanced their way, as everyone was far too involved in their own conversations. Harry immediately felt nervous in the large group of people he'd never before met or seen.
"What should we do with our coats?" Gia whispered as she, too, surveyed the room of people.
"I guess in my room," Harry answered back with a shrug. They slipped up the stairs to his room and safely deposited their coats on his bed; it was so strange to be so quiet upstairs when the downstairs was jam packed with people chattering and a soft elevator music.
They caught sight of Ron and Hermione for the first time when they went back down to the party. Both of the other teenagers were standing quite close together in a corner, obviously trying very hard not to be noticed. His friends looked up when Harry arrived at their side with Gia seconds later.
"I didn't know it was going to be this big," Harry said, glancing around once more.
Hermione shook her head. "I don't remember this many people ever being here before. I don't even know half of them."
"You look great, Hermione!" Gia said brightly. Harry nodded with agreement, and his best female friend smiled shyly.
"Thanks. You do, too."
Gia grinned and offered her own thanks.
Harry glanced at Ron and noticed for the first time that he hadn't spoken. This might have been because he was far too busy staring at Hermione, but Harry couldn't be quite sure...
A rather loud squeal caused all four teenagers to jump in surprise as a woman in her late thirties rushed over and immediately wrapped Hermione in what looked like a bone-crushing hug. The look on Hermione's face was priceless as her eyes widened in shock before she forced her face into a smile and said, "Aunt Cheryl!" in the same perky voice she'd used the first time they'd seen Gia and Celeste.
"Hermione Lavinia Juliet Granger!" her aunt stepped back and held her niece at arm's length as she surveyed her.
Harry and Ron caught each other's eyes and shared a brief snicker. They'd always enjoyed teasing Hermione over the fact that she had two middle names and a total of thirteen syllables in her full name. And, of course, the fact that all of her names, minus her surname, happened to the name of a character in a Shakespearean play- apparently, her mother was a huge fan. They never passed up the chance to point out that it was a good thing she hadn't been a boy, or else her name might have been Romeo Macbeth Hamlet Granger.
She was never amused.
"I haven't seen you in forever!" the lady said giddily. "And look at you! Your hair, your dress... You're gorgeous!"
Hermione turned about the color of her dress and managed a quiet, "Thanks..."
"Are who are these young people?" Cheryl turned to survey the other three teenagers who were all looking at her with curious faces.
"Oh!" Hermione jumped a bit. "I'm sorry. These are my friends from school, Aunt Helen." She motioned to each boy as she named them. "This is Harry, and this is Ron." Then she motioned to Gia. "And this is my friend from primary school, Gia."
It was the first time that she'd referred to Gia as a friend, and the girls shared a brief grin with each other before Hermione continued.
"And this is my Aunt Cheryl," she explained to the other kids. "She's my mother's sister."
This wasn't hard to tell. She had the same petite frame and silky brown hair as Linda Granger. In fact, they looked almost like twins.
A round of "nice to meet yous" went around before Cheryl smirked mischievously at the boys and said, "Now, which one you two is more than just a friend?"
Ron went incredibly red and looked at the ground, Hermione looked as if she wanted the earth to swallow her up, and Harry instinctively reached for Gia's hand. This, of course, earned a rather sharp glare from a rather scarlet-faced Ron and an amused smirk from Hermione's aunt.
"We're all just friends," Hermione said quickly before anyone could start jumping around and making assumptions that would undoubtedly embarrass two of the four teenagers and sicken a third.
Another unconvinced little grin gave way that Cheryl didn't necessarily believe her niece but wasn't going to dwell on the issue. Instead, she grabbed Hermione's hand and said, "Your uncle will want to see you. Come with me, Dear," and pulled her off in the opposite direction, leaving Harry, Ron, and Gia all standing together in the same corner in a room full of strangers.
Gia turned to the boys and raised her eyebrows. "Is her name really Hermione Lavinia Juliet Granger?"
Ron and Harry instantly burst into laughter and nodded. "Yeah," Harry confirmed, grinning. "Can you believe that?"
Gia just looked dumbfounded as she shook her head and muttered, "Holy shit..." before excusing herself to make a run to the bathroom.
When Ron and Harry were alone, Ron filled Harry in on what Hermione had told him before his arrival. "My mum sent an owl and wants us all over there tomorrow for lunch."
"Really? Cool." Harry grinned. "I bet your mother makes a fantastic Christmas dinner, doesn't she?"
Ron shrugged. "Well, not as good as the feast at Hogwarts."
"Yeah, but she doesn't have as many people to feed, either," Harry pointed.
"She almost does," Ron said with a roll of the eyes. Then he glanced around and said, "Hey, do you think all these people know about Hermione?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know," Ron lowered his voice. "About her being a witch."
Harry hadn't even thought about that, and he looked around at the room full of Muggles. "Probably not all of them."
"Probably not all of them what?" Hermione had returned and was now standing behind the boys looking quite curious as to what they were discussing.
"How many of these people know about Hogwarts?" Ron asked quietly.
Hermione shrugged. "I think just my parents and my grandparents. We didn't really tell anyone else. Where's Gia?"
"In the bathroom," Harry answered absently as he took in the crowd of people around him. "Where are your parents anyway?"
She shrugged again. "I haven't seen them at all actually. They're around here somewhere."
Gia chose that moment to show back up, and the four of them spent the next hour and a half mingling mostly with themselves and greeting various members of Hermione's extended family. The party didn't actually get interesting until Linda Granger rushed over to the four of them laughing loudly with one of her friends.
The friend immediately wrapped Hermione into a hug and started gushing over how pretty she looked and how wonderful it was to see her. Of course, this was done through several failed attempts at complete sentences, broken apart with guffaws of laughter shared by the two older women.
Hermione stared blankly at them through all of this until Mrs. Granger seemed to be struck by a brilliant idea and said, "Hermione! You can play the piano!"
Ron, Harry, and Gia all tried very hard not to laugh at the look of stunned disbelief that covered Hermione's face slowly. "Mum... Are you drunk?"
"No, I'm not drunk," she said through shared giggles with her friend as she turned up a glass of wine and downed the last of it. Hermione stared silently at her, obviously not knowing what to say. Mrs. Granger proceeded to turn around and yell loudly across the room for her husband. "Charles! Come here!"
Mr. Granger bounded over immediately with a rather out of place smile covering his normally grave face. He grinned when he reached the teenagers and even winked knowingly at Harry, who's hand was still clasped in Gia's.
"Charles," Mrs. Granger said through bubbly giggles. "Don't you think Hermione should play for us?"
"I think that's a grand idea!" he said loud and boisterously.
Hermione put her fingertips to her temples and turned away muttering, "My parents are drunk... My parents are drunk in public... My parents are drunk..."
Harry saw Ron trying desperately to stifle a laugh, but it appeared to be an attempt made in vain. He glanced at Gia and saw that she, too, seemed quite amused by the sight of the two serious dentists drunk and gleeful.
It was almost too hard of a task to watch them and not laugh.
"Hermione," her mother took a step toward her daughter but tripped slightly and had to be caught by her friend, causing all three adults to erupt into hilarious laughter. When she finally recovered, she tried again. "Hermione, what are you going to play for us?"
Hermione turned to look at her with narrowed eyes. "I'm not playing anything, Mother."
"Oh, Honey... Don't be such a drag, Hermione."
"A drag?!" Hermione looked at her mother incredulously before turning to the other teenagers and asking if she'd heard correctly. "Did my mother just tell me not to be a drag?!"
This was just far too much, and Harry, Ron, and Gia all started laughing against their own will- partly from the actual events but mostly from the look on Hermione's face during the whole thing.
"Oh!" Her mother suddenly started waving like madly, and one of the hired servers stopped by them with a tray of full wine glasses. Mrs. Granger placed her empty glass on the tray and took another one.
Mr. Granger then proceeded to drink the last bit of his and do the same. Just as the server was about to leave, though, he took four more glasses off the tray and handed one each to Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Gia.
"Have some fun," he said good-naturedly. "We'll see you later."
The adults walked off, apparently forgetting that Hermione was supposed to be playing Christmas carols for all of their friends.
A stunned silence entailed as all four teenagers stared at the glasses in their hands. Finally, Hermione looked up and started stuttering again.
"My parents are drunk... And they gave us alcohol?"
Gia grinned and shrugged. "They seem pretty cool to me!"
Harry and Ron both laughed, and Hermione sent them all a sharp glare. "Don't even think about drinking it," she warned seriously. "They don't know what they're doing. We can't drink this- it's illegal."
Two heads turned slowly in the direction of each other, and Harry and Ron shared a long look of disbelief before both bursting into laughter at exactly the same time.
Hermione sent them both looks that could kill, and Gia, confused, asked what was so funny.
"Nothing!" Hermione snapped.
Harry and Ron continued to snicker. Harry turned his head to Gia and answered, completely ignoring Hermione's glare. "It's just that the last time Hermione lectured us about not doing things that were illegal..." He broke off, not able to finish through his laughter. "Oh, man...
"The last time she gave us this lecture," Ron broke in with a grin, "she ended up so drunk she couldn't even stand, much less walk."
Harry laughed loudly, and Gia looked at Hermione with stunned disbelief. In a shocked but amused voice, she said, "Hermione, you got drunk?!"
"No, I did not," she said sharply, glaring at her so-called best friends.
Both of the said friends smirked and said, "Yes, she did," at exactly the same time, causing Gia to burst into laughter with them.
"That's great!" the blonde exclaimed through giggles. "I definitely would never have thought that you... Well, good for you!"
Hermione just looked at all of them in disbelief. "We are not drinking this," she said sternly.
"Oh, lighten up, Hermione," Ron said with a slight eye-roll. "It's just a little wine." He turned to the other two. "I'm in- who else is?"
Harry and Gia glanced at each other before grinning and clinking their glasses together with Ron's. All three of them then raised the glasses to their lips and started to drink.
Hermione glared at them ruefully for a long moment, until she heard her mother speaking (very loudly) to one of her aunts and telling them that Hermione was going to play them all some music on the piano.
She glared angrily across the room, and the other three teens laughed. Rolling her eyes, Hermione muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Bloody hell," before clinking her glass with Harry's and turning it up.
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Okay, so I know this one was a bit broken up, but I didn't really ever have too much planned for this party. The next chapter won't pick up here, but it will start on Christmas morning and include flashbacks of the night. So, you will get to see what happened during bits and pieces of the rest of the party.
Please leave feedback!!!
PS- I really want to know people's opinions on Gia. I'm still getting very mixed reactions about her. Please tell me whether you like her or hate her. Don't forget to tell me why you feel one way or the other~! Thanks!
Disclaimer: FANfiction...
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"It is freezing out here!" Gia shivered in illustration as she wrapped her calf-length black coat tighter around her.
Harry glanced at her and grinned as they walked through the streets of her neighborhood on their way back to Hermione's house. "Well, of course it's cold," he told her teasingly. "It's December and look what you're wearing."
She rolled her eyes at him and playfully punched him before reaching for his hand and pulling him closer to her. When he was close enough, she dropped his hand and pressed herself against them as they walked; his arm went around her waist, and they grinned at each other.
To be perfectly honest, he appreciated what she was wearing to the fullest extent possible. Of course, you really couldn't see it now because of the heavy overcoat, but she had on a navy blue formal gown that she'd used for her cousin's wedding reception. It wasn't too fancy, but it was fancy enough to give her a very elegant look when she'd opened the door earlier. Her blonde curls were down and flowing beautifully. Harry thought she looked stunning.
And he told her so as they walked together down the street.
"You look really pretty," he said quietly, causing her to turn her head and look at him shyly.
"Thank you," she replied just as quietly, with the smallest hint of a smile.
"Beautiful, even," he added seriously, dropping his arm and once again reaching for her hand, pulling them both to a slow stop. She looked at him curiously for a moment but didn't resist when he turned his head and caught her mouth with his own. In fact, she returned the kiss, slowly but sweetly. Turning even closer to him, she allowed her free hand to rise slowly up his arm and over his shoulder to rest at the nape of his neck, where her fingers played mindlessly in his messy hair.
It was hard to explain what he felt when he kissed her. True, he'd never kissed any other girl, but he was positive that it couldn't feel like this.
In the days since their first kiss, they'd gotten quite a lot of practice in, and they no longer blushed or stole nervous glances afterwards. And when they pulled apart for air, he looked straight into her eyes, and they shared a bright smile.
Gia moved her other arm up, too, until both of them were wrapped around his neck, and she looked up at him warmly. "It's like magic," she said with a grin.
Knocked a bit off by her off-handed statement, he furrowed his eyebrows slightly and looked at her curiously. "What is?"
"Everything about you."
The analogy sent a strange feeling through him, and he smiled despite himself. Without replying, he lowered his head and kissed her again as his hand found the small of her back and pulled her closer.
She was right.
This was a magic all of its own- one that didn't require wands, incantations, spells, or potions.
It was definitely his new favorite subject.
Leaning up, he looked down at her and couldn't help but feel all sorts of happy little feelings. "I wanted to do that now," he explained with slightly raised brows, "because I'm not sure if I'll get another chance tonight."
She bit down slightly on her lower lip, and his eyes darted there out of instinct. "Well, I could kiss you all night long," she said quietly.
He grinned at her, quite inclined to take her up on the offer. "Maybe you should then," he said seriously. "Maybe that would improve my chances of not getting killed by Hermione's dad before the end of holiday."
She wrinkled up her nose curiously. "Huh?"
He laughed and shook his head. "Nothing. Just maybe he would finally believe that I'm not after Hermione, and he wouldn't have to follow through on the death threats he gave Ron and me."
Gia caught on and smirked. "At least not on the ones he gave you..."
Harry rolled his eyes and sent her a mock-glare. "Oh, shut up."
She stood up on her tiptoes until their noses were almost meeting. In an inviting whisper, she said, "Make me."
Harry grinned at her before doing just that. He caught her lips and kissed her deeply, so deeply, in fact, that she had to lower herself back to flat feet, wrapping her arms even tighter around his neck so as to not lose an inch of contact with him.
When they finally parted, she didn't loosen her grip at all. Instead, she just beamed up at him as he asked her a question.
"Did it work?"
She raised her eyebrows. "Must have because I can't think of a damn thing to say."
"Are you warmer now?"
She hugged him tightly and buried her face into the front of his coat as she mumbled a contented, "Toasty."
After a moment, Harry reluctantly pulled away from her embrace and once again reached for her hand. "We'd better go. We're going to be late as it is."
She nodded and sighed before they started walking once again towards the Grangers' house. When they caught sight of it, they were both instantly shocked; cars lined the driveway and both sides of the street for a block.
"Wow, I didn't expect this many people," Harry said as they made their way through the maze of automobiles and up to the front door.
Once on the doorstep, they both hesitated for a moment. Sounds of the party could be heard clearly, and through the windows, they could see hoards of nicely dressed adults crowding the front rooms.
"Do we have to knock?" Gia asked uncertainly.
Harry had no idea, so he shrugged. "I dunno. I don't guess so..."
Gia glanced at the door. "Well, you sort of live here for the time being, so I guess it's okay if we just go in, right?"
He shrugged again. "I guess so."
As they slipped into the foyer, no one even glanced their way, as everyone was far too involved in their own conversations. Harry immediately felt nervous in the large group of people he'd never before met or seen.
"What should we do with our coats?" Gia whispered as she, too, surveyed the room of people.
"I guess in my room," Harry answered back with a shrug. They slipped up the stairs to his room and safely deposited their coats on his bed; it was so strange to be so quiet upstairs when the downstairs was jam packed with people chattering and a soft elevator music.
They caught sight of Ron and Hermione for the first time when they went back down to the party. Both of the other teenagers were standing quite close together in a corner, obviously trying very hard not to be noticed. His friends looked up when Harry arrived at their side with Gia seconds later.
"I didn't know it was going to be this big," Harry said, glancing around once more.
Hermione shook her head. "I don't remember this many people ever being here before. I don't even know half of them."
"You look great, Hermione!" Gia said brightly. Harry nodded with agreement, and his best female friend smiled shyly.
"Thanks. You do, too."
Gia grinned and offered her own thanks.
Harry glanced at Ron and noticed for the first time that he hadn't spoken. This might have been because he was far too busy staring at Hermione, but Harry couldn't be quite sure...
A rather loud squeal caused all four teenagers to jump in surprise as a woman in her late thirties rushed over and immediately wrapped Hermione in what looked like a bone-crushing hug. The look on Hermione's face was priceless as her eyes widened in shock before she forced her face into a smile and said, "Aunt Cheryl!" in the same perky voice she'd used the first time they'd seen Gia and Celeste.
"Hermione Lavinia Juliet Granger!" her aunt stepped back and held her niece at arm's length as she surveyed her.
Harry and Ron caught each other's eyes and shared a brief snicker. They'd always enjoyed teasing Hermione over the fact that she had two middle names and a total of thirteen syllables in her full name. And, of course, the fact that all of her names, minus her surname, happened to the name of a character in a Shakespearean play- apparently, her mother was a huge fan. They never passed up the chance to point out that it was a good thing she hadn't been a boy, or else her name might have been Romeo Macbeth Hamlet Granger.
She was never amused.
"I haven't seen you in forever!" the lady said giddily. "And look at you! Your hair, your dress... You're gorgeous!"
Hermione turned about the color of her dress and managed a quiet, "Thanks..."
"Are who are these young people?" Cheryl turned to survey the other three teenagers who were all looking at her with curious faces.
"Oh!" Hermione jumped a bit. "I'm sorry. These are my friends from school, Aunt Helen." She motioned to each boy as she named them. "This is Harry, and this is Ron." Then she motioned to Gia. "And this is my friend from primary school, Gia."
It was the first time that she'd referred to Gia as a friend, and the girls shared a brief grin with each other before Hermione continued.
"And this is my Aunt Cheryl," she explained to the other kids. "She's my mother's sister."
This wasn't hard to tell. She had the same petite frame and silky brown hair as Linda Granger. In fact, they looked almost like twins.
A round of "nice to meet yous" went around before Cheryl smirked mischievously at the boys and said, "Now, which one you two is more than just a friend?"
Ron went incredibly red and looked at the ground, Hermione looked as if she wanted the earth to swallow her up, and Harry instinctively reached for Gia's hand. This, of course, earned a rather sharp glare from a rather scarlet-faced Ron and an amused smirk from Hermione's aunt.
"We're all just friends," Hermione said quickly before anyone could start jumping around and making assumptions that would undoubtedly embarrass two of the four teenagers and sicken a third.
Another unconvinced little grin gave way that Cheryl didn't necessarily believe her niece but wasn't going to dwell on the issue. Instead, she grabbed Hermione's hand and said, "Your uncle will want to see you. Come with me, Dear," and pulled her off in the opposite direction, leaving Harry, Ron, and Gia all standing together in the same corner in a room full of strangers.
Gia turned to the boys and raised her eyebrows. "Is her name really Hermione Lavinia Juliet Granger?"
Ron and Harry instantly burst into laughter and nodded. "Yeah," Harry confirmed, grinning. "Can you believe that?"
Gia just looked dumbfounded as she shook her head and muttered, "Holy shit..." before excusing herself to make a run to the bathroom.
When Ron and Harry were alone, Ron filled Harry in on what Hermione had told him before his arrival. "My mum sent an owl and wants us all over there tomorrow for lunch."
"Really? Cool." Harry grinned. "I bet your mother makes a fantastic Christmas dinner, doesn't she?"
Ron shrugged. "Well, not as good as the feast at Hogwarts."
"Yeah, but she doesn't have as many people to feed, either," Harry pointed.
"She almost does," Ron said with a roll of the eyes. Then he glanced around and said, "Hey, do you think all these people know about Hermione?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know," Ron lowered his voice. "About her being a witch."
Harry hadn't even thought about that, and he looked around at the room full of Muggles. "Probably not all of them."
"Probably not all of them what?" Hermione had returned and was now standing behind the boys looking quite curious as to what they were discussing.
"How many of these people know about Hogwarts?" Ron asked quietly.
Hermione shrugged. "I think just my parents and my grandparents. We didn't really tell anyone else. Where's Gia?"
"In the bathroom," Harry answered absently as he took in the crowd of people around him. "Where are your parents anyway?"
She shrugged again. "I haven't seen them at all actually. They're around here somewhere."
Gia chose that moment to show back up, and the four of them spent the next hour and a half mingling mostly with themselves and greeting various members of Hermione's extended family. The party didn't actually get interesting until Linda Granger rushed over to the four of them laughing loudly with one of her friends.
The friend immediately wrapped Hermione into a hug and started gushing over how pretty she looked and how wonderful it was to see her. Of course, this was done through several failed attempts at complete sentences, broken apart with guffaws of laughter shared by the two older women.
Hermione stared blankly at them through all of this until Mrs. Granger seemed to be struck by a brilliant idea and said, "Hermione! You can play the piano!"
Ron, Harry, and Gia all tried very hard not to laugh at the look of stunned disbelief that covered Hermione's face slowly. "Mum... Are you drunk?"
"No, I'm not drunk," she said through shared giggles with her friend as she turned up a glass of wine and downed the last of it. Hermione stared silently at her, obviously not knowing what to say. Mrs. Granger proceeded to turn around and yell loudly across the room for her husband. "Charles! Come here!"
Mr. Granger bounded over immediately with a rather out of place smile covering his normally grave face. He grinned when he reached the teenagers and even winked knowingly at Harry, who's hand was still clasped in Gia's.
"Charles," Mrs. Granger said through bubbly giggles. "Don't you think Hermione should play for us?"
"I think that's a grand idea!" he said loud and boisterously.
Hermione put her fingertips to her temples and turned away muttering, "My parents are drunk... My parents are drunk in public... My parents are drunk..."
Harry saw Ron trying desperately to stifle a laugh, but it appeared to be an attempt made in vain. He glanced at Gia and saw that she, too, seemed quite amused by the sight of the two serious dentists drunk and gleeful.
It was almost too hard of a task to watch them and not laugh.
"Hermione," her mother took a step toward her daughter but tripped slightly and had to be caught by her friend, causing all three adults to erupt into hilarious laughter. When she finally recovered, she tried again. "Hermione, what are you going to play for us?"
Hermione turned to look at her with narrowed eyes. "I'm not playing anything, Mother."
"Oh, Honey... Don't be such a drag, Hermione."
"A drag?!" Hermione looked at her mother incredulously before turning to the other teenagers and asking if she'd heard correctly. "Did my mother just tell me not to be a drag?!"
This was just far too much, and Harry, Ron, and Gia all started laughing against their own will- partly from the actual events but mostly from the look on Hermione's face during the whole thing.
"Oh!" Her mother suddenly started waving like madly, and one of the hired servers stopped by them with a tray of full wine glasses. Mrs. Granger placed her empty glass on the tray and took another one.
Mr. Granger then proceeded to drink the last bit of his and do the same. Just as the server was about to leave, though, he took four more glasses off the tray and handed one each to Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Gia.
"Have some fun," he said good-naturedly. "We'll see you later."
The adults walked off, apparently forgetting that Hermione was supposed to be playing Christmas carols for all of their friends.
A stunned silence entailed as all four teenagers stared at the glasses in their hands. Finally, Hermione looked up and started stuttering again.
"My parents are drunk... And they gave us alcohol?"
Gia grinned and shrugged. "They seem pretty cool to me!"
Harry and Ron both laughed, and Hermione sent them all a sharp glare. "Don't even think about drinking it," she warned seriously. "They don't know what they're doing. We can't drink this- it's illegal."
Two heads turned slowly in the direction of each other, and Harry and Ron shared a long look of disbelief before both bursting into laughter at exactly the same time.
Hermione sent them both looks that could kill, and Gia, confused, asked what was so funny.
"Nothing!" Hermione snapped.
Harry and Ron continued to snicker. Harry turned his head to Gia and answered, completely ignoring Hermione's glare. "It's just that the last time Hermione lectured us about not doing things that were illegal..." He broke off, not able to finish through his laughter. "Oh, man...
"The last time she gave us this lecture," Ron broke in with a grin, "she ended up so drunk she couldn't even stand, much less walk."
Harry laughed loudly, and Gia looked at Hermione with stunned disbelief. In a shocked but amused voice, she said, "Hermione, you got drunk?!"
"No, I did not," she said sharply, glaring at her so-called best friends.
Both of the said friends smirked and said, "Yes, she did," at exactly the same time, causing Gia to burst into laughter with them.
"That's great!" the blonde exclaimed through giggles. "I definitely would never have thought that you... Well, good for you!"
Hermione just looked at all of them in disbelief. "We are not drinking this," she said sternly.
"Oh, lighten up, Hermione," Ron said with a slight eye-roll. "It's just a little wine." He turned to the other two. "I'm in- who else is?"
Harry and Gia glanced at each other before grinning and clinking their glasses together with Ron's. All three of them then raised the glasses to their lips and started to drink.
Hermione glared at them ruefully for a long moment, until she heard her mother speaking (very loudly) to one of her aunts and telling them that Hermione was going to play them all some music on the piano.
She glared angrily across the room, and the other three teens laughed. Rolling her eyes, Hermione muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Bloody hell," before clinking her glass with Harry's and turning it up.
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Okay, so I know this one was a bit broken up, but I didn't really ever have too much planned for this party. The next chapter won't pick up here, but it will start on Christmas morning and include flashbacks of the night. So, you will get to see what happened during bits and pieces of the rest of the party.
Please leave feedback!!!
PS- I really want to know people's opinions on Gia. I'm still getting very mixed reactions about her. Please tell me whether you like her or hate her. Don't forget to tell me why you feel one way or the other~! Thanks!
