Early morning rays filtered through the window, disturbing Ginny's sleep. It had been the first night in a while that she had slept well, she mused. She yawned, shutting her eyes again against the painful light and stretching. Her arm encountered something else in the bed, however.
Ginny slowly turned her head, afraid of what she might see. "Argh!"
Draco was having a very odd dream indeed. In it, a woman's voice crooned nothings into his ear, and he vaguely realized he was in his own bed. Then the woman's soothing voice turned to a scream, and he frowned before realizing he was now awake. Shaking his head to clear it, he winced as a jolt of pain went through his befuddled senses. What on earth was wrong with him? It felt like… oh no…
He turned and met the eyes of a startled Ginny Weasley, who was currently looking at him like he had grown several more heads than was usual.
"What the hell are you looking at?"
Ginny had hoped it was all a bad dream, and that she was actually snug in her bed in Griffindor. But upon hearing Draco's rude words, she had the sinking realization that this was real, and she was not in her room, but Draco's.
"Oh, shit," she swore uncharacteristically, trying desperately to remember what had happened the previous night. A quick glance down ascertained the continual presence of her clothes, and she inwardly sighed in relief. The last thing she remembered was Blaise coming in, and as she looked around she saw that, apparently, more had happened that she couldn't recollect. Draco's once pristine room was covered in multiple bottles, some of which had spilled their contents on any available surface. Blaise was also missing, and she assumed he had removed himself without bothering to wake either her or Draco.
Facing the other current occupant of the room, Ginny couldn't stifle a giggle at Draco's hair, which had arranged itself in many gravity-defying directions. Her laugh broke the silence, and Draco turned to a mirror, scowling at his untidy reflection, which only elicited more laughter from Ginny. Draco was taken aback at how the sunlight filtered through her hair, causing a halo around her head. She still retained her spark, even in a situation such as this, he thought wryly.
Ginny finally got her mirth under control, clutching her head in pain. "Oh, Merlin, what did I do yesterday?" Staggering up from Draco's bed, she looked around, bewildered. "And where's my bag?"
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Was that your first time drunk?" he asked, not bothering to answer her question.
Ginny considered this. It was obvious that some drinking had taken place, but it never occurred to her that she'd been drunk. That would explain quite a bit…
"Weasley?" Draco called when she didn't respond.
"Well, no," Ginny answered his previous question absentmindedly. "Bill brought a case of butterbeer home one day, and Fred and George thought it would be great fun to trick me and Ron into drinking it. All of it."
While she spoke, Ginny was scanning the room. "Malfoy, where's my bag?" She repeated irritably.
Draco slid smoothly off his bed, shooting her another condescending look. "Yesterday was Saturday. You hadn't brought a bag."
"Oh," Ginny said, blushing at how stupid she must have sounded. "Well, I'll just be- Argh!"
Draco winced as she yelled again. Was it necessary for anyone to be that vocal in the morning?
Ginny was staring at her own reflection in the mirror, looking stricken. As he watched, she pulled her shirt to one side, revealing an unmistakable red mark on the side of her neck. Draco's eyes widened at the evidence that something had ostensibly transpired yesterday.
"Are you quite sure the Irish bloke didn't do that?" Draco asked carefully, not wanting to set off her temper.
"Of course I'm sure!" Ginny said angrily. "I think I would have noticed if he'd been biting my neck!"
Draco wisely omitted asking why she had let him do it, then.
Ginny opened her mouth again, presumably to continue berating him, but she was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Draco sighed, already knowing who it was. "Come in, Blaise."
Blaise burst in, observing Ginny's presence before even looking at Draco. "Spent the night, did we?" Blaise asked Ginny by way of any greeting.
"Good morning to you, too," Draco muttered.
"You would know!" Ginny said, motioning to the bottles littering Draco's floor. "This was all your doing!"
Blaise held up his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, I'll admit I might have had a minor part in this," Ginny snorted, putting her hands on her hips, "But I did it for my good friends!"
"I'd never spoken to you in my life before yesterday!"
"All the more reason to have a getting-to-know-you gathering!" Blaise said brightly.
Draco quickly interjected before Ginny could do Blaise any mortal injury. His head hurt terribly, and the sooner Ginny left, the sooner he could go to Snape for a hangover remedy. "Blaise, has everyone gone down to breakfast yet?"
Blaise nodded. "Yeah, breakfast started twenty minutes ago."
"Right," Ginny said, moving towards the door. She paused, looking back at Draco.
Anticipating what she was about to say, he waved his hand carelessly at her. "We'll talk later," he said, mostly because he knew she wouldn't leave until he said something.
Ginny scowled, then ducked out of the room.
Blaise looked at Draco thoughtfully. "Was that a hickey I saw on Weasley's neck?"
Draco groaned. "Why the bloody hell are you so chipper today? You drank more than me, I'm sure."
Blaise smiled slyly. "I have my own supply of Anti-Hangover Potion."
Draco decided not to ask why. "Well, don't just sit there grinning like a damn fool and go get me some!"
Ginny snuck along the corridors, hoping that most of the student body was at breakfast and not wandering the halls. As she went, stopping at every corner to cautiously peer around, she mentally rebuked herself for going to Draco's room in the first place. She should have known better than to walk in to the serpent's lair…Ron would go crazy if he ever found out…
"Oy, Gin!"
Ginny spun around, her hand automatically flying to the mark on her neck. "Hey, Seamus!" She said with a brightness she didn't feel, cursing her bad fortune.
Seamus jogged up to her, slowing as he neared her with a puzzled expression. "Is something wrong?"
Ginny had always wanted the attention of someone besides Ron, and if a seventh year had approached her with intentions as clear as Seamus' a month ago, she would have welcomed it. But now, she was hung over, hungry, tired, and confused, and she wanted to be alone to think very badly. She was beginning to regret ever accepting Seamus' advances as something good.
"Nothing is wrong, Seamus," Ginny gritted out, a bit more harshly than she'd intended. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she cast Seamus an apologetic smile. "I just am not feeling well today. Perhaps I'll talk to you later?"
Not waiting for Seamus to reply, Ginny turned with a sigh and begin walking back towards Griffindor tower.
Seamus watched Ginny walk away, his response dying out as he realized she wasn't listening. He was getting the feeling Ginny didn't want a relationship, but he wasn't quite ready to give up. Sighing, he turned to continue to breakfast, but was startled by a sound coming from a suit of armor. Casting a wary glance, he stopped and surveyed the hallway.
Seeing nothing, he shook his head. Maybe there was something wrong with him? He shrugged, but didn't get two steps before being hit in the back with a spell he didn't recognize that caused him to see blackness before falling to the ground.
Ron was feeling as though everything was changing very quickly. His two best friends were turning on him, and he didn't really want to fight with them. Even his appetite (which he considered healthy) wasn't up to its normal standards. He picked at his food at breakfast, listening to Dean jabber on about something or other. Scanning the table between nods to Dean, he noticed Seamus was missing, as well as Ginny. As a matter of fact, he hadn't seen her come in last night either, but he'd spent most of it in his dorm, avoiding Harry and Hermione.
"Ron."
Startled out of his reverie, Ron dropped the forkful of eggs he'd been holding. "Seamus?"
"Last I checked," Seamus said, looking at Ron oddly.
Ron thought Seamus looked a bit off, but he couldn't focus on anything right then. "Have you seen Ginny?"
"As a matter of fact, I just did."
Ron furrowed his brow. "She's not coming to breakfast?"
"Actually, she went straight back to the common room. I don't believe she was feeling very well."
Ron gave Seamus an odd look for his abnormal behavior, and then pushed away from the table. "I'm done," he announced, effectively ending Dean's one-sided conversation.
Ron walked along the halls aimlessly, unsure of what he should do now. He wasn't ready to talk to Harry or Hermione just yet, though he felt like he was only delaying the inevitable. Turning his steps in the direction of the common room, he decided to check up on Ginny.
Ron went back to the common room, and then walked over to the girl's dormitories. "Ginny!" he bellowed up the stairs.
"Coming," she called down exasperatedly. When she came down, she was wearing a black turtleneck and jeans.
Ron frowned at her attire. "I thought you weren't feeling well. Why get dressed?"
"Oh, I, uh," Ginny floundered. "I just decided to go to the library later."
"You know," Ron began, moving over to an armchair in front of the fire, "I noticed earlier this week that you were watching Malfoy. You even seemed to move quicker when he was around. Is there something I should know about?"
Ginny didn't remember Ron ever being that observant before. "If I move quicker around him, it's to provide a moving target," she said flatly. "I don't want him to bite my head off."
Ron narrowed his eyes at her. "Tell me if he's bothering you."
Ginny nodded, turning and traveling back up the stairs.
Ginny spent the rest of the day lounging around and icing her neck, hoping to mask the red welt there. She finally discovered a spell that worked for just such instances in a copy of Witch Weekly (Make Out, then Fake Out!). It was getting late now, and she was starting to feel very badly about treating Seamus so severely in the morning. It wasn't his fault she wasn't being careful around Draco and it wasn't fair to him. Maybe she should apologize…
Walking down to the common room she found it empty except for Seamus who was sitting in a chair reading. She noted the time, thinking it was odd for everyone to be in bed so early. "Seamus?" She called.
Seamus looked up from his book, snapping it shut and looking up at her. "Yes?"
Ginny was momentarily distracted by how cold his normally friendly eyes were. Was she really that rude to him? "I, uh, wanted to, uh, apologize for-,"
"There's no need," Seamus interrupted.
"Er…" Ginny was confused. Was he angry?
"No, I really should apologize, I just haven't, uh," Ginny couldn't continue. She saw a familiar expression on Seamus' face, and it was disturbing. He looked at her like Tom used to, as if he felt pity for her even though he was the source of her pain.
"Been feeling quite like yourself?" Seamus supplied with a smile that made Ginny's blood run cold. Standing he put his arm around her shoulders, and she fought down her sudden nausea as he continued. "Believe me, I understand exactly what you mean."
AN: I had a bit of a block while trying to write this, and so I wrote a v. short fluffy one-shot to clear my head. It's pretty cute actually, and if you want to check it out, it is called The Impotence Of Being Earnest. Huggles to Pia for coming up with the name and summary! There is also a fic up on Ebony Secrets that the wonderful Pia wrote, and it's amazing!
Anyone have any ideas for Ron's revenge? Let me know!
Kerichi- Lol, I missed you last chapter! Seamus figures Ginny would welcome any advances by a seventh year, so he expects her to be grateful he's paying attention to her. And Ginny doesn't have the best track record for popularity, so sometimes she wants someone to be there for her so much, she starts accepting what she doesn't necessarily want. But I think Draco might change all that, don't you? ; ) Blaise is actually the big drinker, so he probably accounted for a bottle all by himself. Don't forget, they had the rest of a day and all night.
Pia- My block is gone! I've alsogotten chapter 1 of the fic, so we can look over that and post soon! I realize things seemed a bit rushed with Draco and Ginny last chapter, but let's not forget: they were completely sloshed. It'll take a while for them to have any true feelings (sober, that is) so don't be disappointed!
Embellished- Thanks a bunch, but you might stop feeling sorry for Seamus very quickly.
Person with no keys (Anna)- Thank you for finally reviewing, and I did have to resort to drastic measures! But, one would be sufficient lol. I don't like Harry, but just for you, I put HHr…ick, I had to rinse my brain afterwards.
Sneere- Thank you for reviewing, and I'm sorry if you're getting bored. I agree, seeing how people construct Blaise is interesting. My reasoning behind Dumbledore is that it always seemed in canon that he was closer to McGonagall than any other person, so for her to have trusted him and him not to have been able to protect her would certainly be a huge blow. I'm sorry, but I don't plan on making any of the current characters any darker than they already are, though quite obviously, there will be darker stuff later on in the plot.