CHAPTER FOURTEEN: HOGSMEADE

WARNING: This chapter contains a bit of slash, inserted FOR HUMOR AND PLOT PURPOSES ONLY. I won't have any permanent major slash in the story; that is to say, none fo the main characters will be involved in that sort of thing.

"No. NO, Gaius, that's just sick..." Hermione tried, her face giving her away. The closet door shut; it's two occupants were in for quite a surprise... when they awakened, that is.

An important lesson had been learned that day in Muggle Studies that day: drugs and wizards make an even worse mix than drugs and Muggles.

"Oh, come on, they deserve it... it'll give them some 'quality time'." Blaise said, before she, too, started laughing.

"Who else do you suppose are in the closets?" Harry asked. "Well," Gaius said, surveying the classroom, "given the people not here, and the articles of clothing that are..." he trailed off.

"Well... who's who?" Hermione asked, curiosity eating away at her.

"Good question... well, apart from our dear friends Ron and Draco in here, let's see..." Gaius stopped in front of one, and used a charm to determine who was in that closet. "Eh... Longbottom, Creevey, Parkinson, and Bullstrode." he read, disgusted at the mental image the names produced. "It would appear that the chemicals in marijuana react rather badly with wizarding brain hormones." Gaius remarked dryly.

Harry and Hermione laughed, but Blaise, being Wizard-born, missed the joke. "What?" she asked; all she got for a response was a "never mind" from Gaius.

"Aaannndd, behind closet door nukber two! We have... Thomas, Finnigan, Brown, and Patil... Parvati, that is." Gaius said.

"And in this one... dear Lord!" Gaius cried. "Eh, I'm not saying."

"Tell us!" Hermione yelled. "Nope, you'll find out on your own."

Gaius said, clearly showing that he wouldn't budge on the issue.

Ron stirred. He wondered where he was... and why was it so dark? He looked over, and saw en equally horrified Draco Malfoy.

Both boys screamed, and ran out of the closet to encounter a laughing Harry and Hermione. "You did this, Potter!" Draco shouted.

"No, no, it was Gaius. Speaking of which," Harry said, "classes are over for the day. Let's head down to dinner."

The four of them left once Ron and Draco had recovered their (thankfully) few missing clothes. Blaise joined them shortly, followed by several recovered students. "Gaius is finishing them up."

Later, a few more came, followed by Gaius, Luna, and Ginny. "What took you so long?" Ron asked.

"Unlike some people, we didn't have the urge to run away screaming from that class, Ron." Ginny said; only Hermione noticed the slight tremor in her voice. Ron just shrugged and went back to his Quidditch discussion with Harry. Gaius mouthed 'later' to Hermione's questioning glance.

"Virginia? Are you alright?" Draco asked Ginny after dinner; both were prefects and, as such, had an excuse for meadering about the corridors after dinner.

"Yes!... no, Draco, I'm not alright." Ginny started out strong, but faltered as she finished.

"Well?" her companion pried. "I...sleptwithlunaearlier."

"Come again?" Draco asked.

"I... well, when we were... you know... in Muggle Studies... I did... err... with Luna..."

"You shagged Luna Lovegood?" Draco asked, not sounding at all shocked. Ginny merely nodded.

"Heh... you two spend enough time together... this was just an experiment or something, right?" Draco asked, wondering is his girl was leaving him for... another girl!

"Yes, absolutely. Wouldn't have even happened if I wasn't in such an intoxicated state." Ginny said, relieved that Draco wasn't mad.

"Ok... what about when we-" Draco was cut off.

"THAT's different," she said, hitting him in the side for bringing it up in the corridors... where Ron could hear.

"I want to know what's going on. Now." Hermione told Gaius as she sat down in the remote corner of the Gryffindor common room where Gaius was, joined by Harry. All of the prefects had finished their patrols; Ron was already in bed.

"Alright. In the last closet, the one I didn't want to tell you about..? It was Ginny and Luna." Gaius said.

"WHAT!?!" Harry and Hermione shouted in unison. Hermione looked over at Ginny, who suddely looked very embarrased and looked away.

"Dear God..." Harry muttered.

"Well, I removed her inhibitions with that little enhancement to the samples. She wouldn't have done it if she didn't want to. Therefore.. this unfortuately reflects something on her and Luna's part... a desire to experiment."

"Great. She still want to experiment?" Hermione asked.

"No. She has is completely out of her system, or so she says. And what's left, Draco'll probably remove tommorrow in Hogsmeade..." Gaius then left, leaving two astonished (and disgusted) friends behind him.

"See you later," Gaius said the next morning, entering Hogsmeade with Blaise.

Ron and Luna left next, Ron saying "Hope not to see you any time soon... OW!" The last bit came after a playful Luna slapped the back of his head; she took off into the town, Ron hot on her tail.

"Have fun!" Ginny said by way of parting as she and Draco separated from Harry and Hermione.

Sorry, I probably mangled that Ginny/Luna bit. One of my Betas told me I should counterbalance the R/D humor with a femmeslash humor part. So this will be my only attempt at any slash, for thre time being. Truth be told... I prefer the regular pairings. R&R, s'il vous plait.