Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is just a figment of my imagination
Chapter Nine: Morning AfterShe opened her eyes and a bright light blinded her for a moment. She wondered why she felt so wam and fuzzy. She sat up and saw that it was a blanket that had been keeping her warm. She raised her hand to her head and felt a stinging headache coming on.
She sighed and leaned her head between her knees. This wasn't her bed. This wasn't her bedroom. This was her livingroom and this was her couch. She wondered what she had been doing the night before. Working till midnight? Going out with Tess?
She must have had a good reason to fall asleep on her couch. She noticed the empty bottles on the table. There were three of them.
"Oh..." she groaned.
Surely she didn't drink all of that alone. Tess must've been there, something like a girls' night out, only not out, but in.
She stood up and stumbled into the bedroom where she grabbed a towel and then headed into the bathroom. The warm water made her feel releaved. Her headache seemed to disappear slowly as she massaged the shampoo into her hair.
She turned the tap open a little more and let the jet of water wash the shampoo from her hair again. Then she turned off the shower and dried herself off with her towel. She looked into the mirror and saw she had some kind of dark mark in her neck.
She rubbed it curiously but it didn't go away and she decided to ignore it. Walking back into the bedroom, she dripped water all over the floor. She sat down on the bed to put on her jeans and a brown shirt with a v-neck. When she leaned down to put on her shoes, she glanced at the alarm clock on her bedside table.
"Shit!" she exclaimed.
Not only was she too late for her first class, she had missed that one completely. But she could never even be there on time for her second class either. It was eleven thirty already. She groaned again.
Now more slowly, she finished getting dressed by putting on her neat tailored black jacket. She loved this jacket very much. She looked at herself in the mirror and suddenly her eyes opened wide. She looked at the spot in her neck again and bit her lip. This was a hickey!
'Definitely not a night out with Tess then...But what..'
Then she remembered. It had been George she had been drinking with. It had been George who had started to kiss her. She suddenly remembered how tender their first kiss had been. He had been careful not to scare her off.
"What makes you so...affectionate all of a sudden." She heard herself say.
She blushed at remembering his answer.
"...You do."
Her heart began to race all over again. It was the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her, not to mention the most unexpected.
She touched the hickey in her neck again, this time as if it was something sacred. She couldn't help feel giggly. The memories of their kisses made her close her eyes with pleasure again. But then she realised there was something missing in this morning-after picture.
Where was George?
She hadn't seen him when she had woken up, but then again she hadn't been looking for him either. She walked back into the other room and looked around.
The glasses had been placed on the kitchen counter and she knew she hadn't done that herself. And she was also pretty sure she hadn't wrapped herself in a blanket. But George wasn't in the appartement anymore.
She felt a little taken aback at that realisation. She grabbed her coat and her bag, took the keys and her wallet and then closed the door behind her. She leaned against it and wondered what had really happened the day before.
She remembered how sweet George had been, how he had apologised and, again, how he had kissed her. She couldn't imagine anyone, least of all George, saying all of that just to be able to snog someone.
'No, he wouldn't just do that and then leave me, would he?"
The hesitation inside her grew and instead of happiness, she now felt doubt. She turned around with a snap and rammed her key back into the lock and walked back inside.
She threw her bag down on the floor and leaned her hands on the kitchen table. She reached out to the biscuit tin to grab one of those disgusting ginger newts, gritting her teeth. There was nothing, no note, nothing. Nothing that proved he had actually been there. Not even a stupid note to say where he had gone.
She vagule noticed a newspaper headline concerning the appointed life sentence of Theodore Nott, but ignored it. She looked at the clock again. She was too late for the second class now, too. Well, if she wasn't able to go to class or to the office, she might as well go figure out what was going on.
She grabbed her keys again and stormed out the door.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Fred! That alarm has been going off for ages! Will you get up or shut it off!" Ginny shouted.
Fred looked up with bleary eyes. "Wha-? Oh, I'm sorry."
Ginny crossed her arms. "That's it. Next time mum sends me on errands, she can forget it."
"What are you doing here..." he asked sleepily.
"Mum sent me to buy some stock for the potionkit back home. And she wanted me to check on the two of you. She's afraid that you're not looking after yourselves." She looked around and noticed the empty pizza boxes and bottles of beer. "Gee, I wonder why." She added sarcastically.
Fred yawned. "At least we keep the shop clean. Our customers have no acces to our personal mess."
He got to his feet and rummaged around through the papers on the desk he had fallen asleep on.
"Fred, didn't you get any sleep last night?" Ginny asked him worriedly. "You've got a bed, why don't you sleep in it?"
"I was so busy last night that I just fell into a coma. That's all." He said dismissively.
"So you meant to tell me you didn't stay up because you were worried about this mess."
He sighed. "It feels like George is too busy with other things to worry about the shop."
"What do you mean?"
"Check his bed, he won't be there. He went out after the shop closed last night and I never noticed him get back."
Ginny raised her eyebrow. "George? Do you know where he went?"
Fred shook his head.
"But after all that hastle back home, about Hermione? I thought he was serious about her and now he went clubbing with some other girl?" she placed her hands on her hips and was about to go on a rant when the door that separated the appartement from the shop opened.
George had a smile on his face that seemed to tell Ginny enough. She glared at him.
"Where have you been?" she said sharply, sounding unnervingly like her mother.
George seemed to wake from his trance of happiness. He looked surprised to see his sister here.
"Well...Top o' the mornin' to you." He said, regaining his happy smile.
His cheerfulness didn't seem to pass on to his siblings.
Fred yawned and looked at him with tired eyes. All he really wanted was to go to bed and sleep on a real pillow. George shook him awake with a loud shout.
"Hey! I came here this early for the shop, you know. If we're not going to do some work I could have stayed where I woke up. I could have stayed somewhere else."
"Somewhere where?" Ginny asked sharply.
"Somewhere private. I don't have to tell you where I go or not."
She huffed.
"And there I was thinking you actually cared about her!" she exclaimed, not even bothering to name the girl she had in mind.
George shrugged, knowing very well what girl Ginny was talking about. He didn't say anything because he felt it wasn't any of Ginny's business. Whether she was right or not. He looked at Fred.
"So shall we get to it?"
Fred nodded.
"I asked Verity to be there as well. She should be here in half an hour." Fred said. "Give me fifteen minutes to take a shower."
Ginny looked at her two brothers.
"This is just great." She said sarcastically. "One sleeps on his desk, the other doesn't sleep at all!"
She turned around and walked towards the door.
"I'll be sure to tell mum how you're all doing. But let me tell you this. I expected something better from you, George." She snapped around, her red hair whipping in the air.
George looked at the alarm clock. It was ten a.m. He wondered if she was up yet. If she remembered just as much as he did.
He grinned. He had never expected her to react the way she had done. He had though she would have resisited more, to push him away. But she had allowed him to kiss her straight away. And she was a ferocious kisser.
With a smirk, he realised he was sensing a strange feeling in his stomach. Was that...love? he was certainly hoping it was. He cast a look in a mirror and noticed the dark circles under his eyes. No wonder, though. He had spent an entire night romancing.
He remembered how sweet she had looked when she had fallen asleep against his shoulder. He had caressed her hair from her face, set his alarm for the next day and looked at her till he had fallen asleep himself.
The door opened and Verity came walking in, more than twenty minutes early. She greeted him and sat down, straightening her magenta coloured robes.
"Morning, mr. Weasley. Mr. weasley asked me to sit in on the meeting. He said it would 'broaden my business sense'."
Fred walked in at that moment, a towel wrapped around his waist. He looked at Verity with embarassement.
"Oh...I'm...sorry. Verity, why don't you go to the backroom downstairs, I'll go change."
When the girl had left, George grinned at his brother. "Nice, Fred. I think she was impressed. Now all you have to do is sound interesting all day and she'll be putty in your hands."
Fred huffed. "That really is the only thing on your mind, isn't it. Girls, girls, girls. I have no intention of hitting on Verity, but it sure does explain where you have been all night. Who was it you talked into bed this time? I wonder if you even remember her name."
"Fred, since when have you been this spitefull? And I'm not that kind of Cassanova either. You know that just as well as I do."
Fred ignored him and walked out of the room to get dressed.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"What is wrong, Vivian darling? You don't seem to be paying as much attention as you normally do."
She looked up from her notes.
"Oh..." she smiled. "There's nothing wrong, Greg. I'm just thinking about something, nothing more."
Greg Andersson stared at his collegue. She leaned forward and looked straight back at him. She pouted her painted red lips and brushed her foot aginst his leg.
"And now I'm thinking about what I'm going to do tonight...Something that includes wine and that cosy little restaurant up Kensington street?"
Greg smiled. "Hmm...sounds delicious."
He winked at her.
She stood up and walked away from the table, taking the effort to move her hips the way she knew Greg liked her to. She opened the door and looked out.
'No Granger today, then. Just Farlane and Parker.' She though to herself.
She sighed. Today seemed to be such a dull day. Normally there would be something she could do or say to get the assistants out there to grit their teeth and grovel. She loved doing that. But not today. Her mind just didn't have the energy to think of something. Perhaps there was something wrong with her.
No, that wasn't it. Perhaps because Granger wasn't in today. She always enjoyed messing with that girl's temper. So was so easy to set off and to manipulate in going into a mad rant. All she needed to do was tell the girl to bring in coffe and she seemed to snap.
Vivian sat back down at the table and rested her feet on it. She bit her liop and looked out the office window. From where she was sitting she could see that girl Tess Farlane. She hated her. Well, not especially her, but what she represented.
She herself had been even less than what Tess Farlane was now. She had only been a secretary yet she had managed to work her way up to partner by wearing short skirts, the right sort of bra and a blouse that hinted that there might be a bit of fooling around if the right buttons were pressed.
Sublte promotions had been enough for her to let Andersson have some of what he wanted and didn't have at home. And still those girls out there bothered her. She felt the need to remind them that she had risen above their level. And Granger, the eager little brat, was the worst of them all.
Vivian looked at the adressbook in front of her. Some names had a small 'x' behind them, meaning she had sent them a christmas card already. There was an 'x' behind Granger's name too. Vivian frowned. Why had she sent one to that girl again?
'Weasley.' She remembered. Granger was going to stay with the Weasleys. Apparentally a different branch on the family tree.
She grabbed a pencil and viciously crossed out the name. Then she closed the adress book with a snap and grabbed her purse from the top of a pile of old newspapers.
'Prosecution has begun. Old Death Eaters are finally given what they're owed. Nott and Goyle behind barrs. Others still working on their defence, but will it be in vain?' she read quickly.
"Come on, Greg. I'm hungry." She said, leaning down on his desk so he could see right into the cleavage her jacket was showing.
Greg nodded amusedly. "Whatever you say, Vivian."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"And basically, once we launch the new line of snackbox treats, sales should go sky high round finals period. All we need to do is find someone to try out that Brainbuster Bubblegum and see how it works." Fred finished.
George looked pensive. "What about Zonko, though? Won't this trouble make people hesitant about buying our stuff?"
"I hope not. We need to keep it quiet, though. We need to sort this mess out as soon as possible." Fred said with a sigh. "This means you can't mention it to anyone either, Verity." He added.
"Yes mr. Weasley. I understand, sir."
Somewhere in the front of the shop, the bell above the door chimed. No one seemed to notice.
"So...until this idiocy has passed, no new launches?" George asked.
"Probably not. Depends on how it turns out. But not now. That's the best option we have right now. On the other hand, we do need to keep our income up. I have no idea how much this courtcase is going to cost us."
"Don't worry. I think I can persuade Hermione to put some more speed into it."
"Excuse me?" a very angry female voice said from the opening of the door. "So that's what everything was about? Your courtcase?"
The twins snapped around. A very angry Hermione stared at them.
"Nice of you to let me know. Good day."
She turned around and marched out the door. That explained why he hadn't left a note, she though viciously.
Fred slowly turned towards George and stared at him incredulously.
"...No..." he said. "Tell me you didn't..."
George said nothing.
"George! Tell me it wasn't Hermione you spent the night- For goodness' sake, you idiot! I thought she meant something to you!"
George finally faced his brother. "She does. Believe me, she does."
"So you went out and showed her you cared by sleeping with her!" Fred yelled.
"Quiet down! I did not sleep with her!" George yelled back. "She does mean something to me, of course I didn't sleep with her!"
"So tell me why she was so angry right now."
"Listen, Fredrick. I don't have time for this right now. I've got to go find her."
George brushed past his brother and stumbled out the door. Fred sighed. He could only hope George was telling the truth. Because if he wasn't, Fred was sure his twin-hood would come to an end real soon.
A cough made him look up.
"...I'll just go and alfabetise the muggle collection." Verity said quietly, moving towards the door carefully.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
George looked down the street. He recognised a flash of brown hair near Flourish and Blotts and started to run in that direction.
"Hermione! Wait a minute!"
She walked on faster, ignoring him as best she could.
"Come on, Hermione...Please?"
She halted suddenly. He caught up and smiled at her while catching his breath.
"Thank-"
"You think this is funny." She stated, looking at his smile. " Well, ha ha. You could have told me this was about the shop, but you didn't. Do you think it's funny to toy around with someone's feelings? That's just cruel and vile, George! Next time you need my help, you can forget it."
She wanted to turn around, but he grabbed her bu her shoulders.
"You're not letting me explain." He said calmly. "If I wanted your help with our shop then I wouldn't have gone about getting it like this. You honestly think I would? Hermione, when I said I was sorry about what happened at the Burrow I meant to say that I was sorry for hurting you. That I had never intended to hurt you, nor that I would ever want to."
"You sure don't show it though, do you." She snapped. "Two times you managed to make me think you cared."
"Three times a charm?" he whispered.
"What?" she asked. "Are you completely insane? I hate you."
"No you don't..."
"I-"
"I'm sorry about this morning. I would have left a note, but there was no paper."
"Hmm." She huffed waspishly. "Some excuse."
"Fine. You don't believe me?" he asked. "Then please allow me."
He pulled her into the middle of the street without warning, scooped her into his arms and, before she knew what was happening, he had dipped her into a very pationate kiss for everyone to see. Once he had lifted her up again, he looked at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
"Believe me now?"
She huffed again, trying to cover up her blush.
"Well..." she said uncomfortably, starting to walk on because she didn't know what else to do. "...I suppose I do..."
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