Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter Six: Firewhisky
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Hermione was drunk.

If someone had told her a year ago that she and her friends would be at The Burrow, absolutely smashed, she wouldn't have believed them.

When Fred had suggested Firewhisky, she immediately thought to turn it down. She had felt herself kick back into "Prefect Hermione" mode and confiscate any alcohol the twins might have had, before she had realized that they weren't at Hogwarts, and they weren't breaking any rules. Everyone was of legal age, and they were all supposed to be celebrating Harry's birthday. Well, perhaps Ginny wasn't of legal age, but Hermione knew that if the rest of them had drunk, it would've taken quite the effort to stop her from doing the same.

She had been rather curious, she had to admit. She had never had so much as a drop of Firewhisky before. She had no clue what it would taste like or feel like, or even how she'd react to it. It would be good research, she had told herself. She had known that the others all wanted to have some, being that the boys had often made remarks about trying it and Ginny just had a knack for disobeying the rules.

She had agreed, and now, she was having an absolutely wonderful time. Everything seemed so much better when inebriated. Hermione found things she never used to find funny – like the fact Crookshanks's face was almost completely flat, or the way the mirrors in the house could have a conversation with you – utterly hysterical.

She felt a certain lightness in her stomach and a giddiness that had not been there before. She was hyper, and was considering talking the others into a long midnight fly – perhaps even to visit Hogwarts.

She stood from her seat and walked across the room to Harry, wobbling slightly on her legs as she did so. She plopped down on the couch beside him and smiled dimly. Ginny was on the other couch, thoroughly examining a button, and Ron was chasing Crookshanks ('Oi, what a pretty thing! Come here!') He finally yelled out 'Accio Crookshanks!' and the ginger-haired cat flew into his outstretched arms. There was a momentary lapse in time as she, Harry and Ginny (who had dropped the button behind the couch and had given up trying to retrieve it) watched the scene before them. Ron teetered dangerously on his legs as Hermione's cat squirmed and fought against his embrace, finally succeeding in getting free – but not before scratching Ron's right arm.

'What a strange man,' Ron muttered, watching as Crookshanks tore out of the room as fast as his four legs could carry him.

Fred and George appeared in the room, more Firewhisky in hand.

'Happy birthday, Harry,' George said, raising his glass.

Fred laughed breezily and said, 'We'd better make this a night to remember –'

'Because once Mum gets home –'

'We're all in for it.' Hermione giggled as they proceeded to toast Harry, take two long swigs apiece, and burp. Fred looked around at Ron, who had joined Ginny on the other couch. 'Is Ickle Ronniekins a little drunk?'

Ginny was clutching her sides with laughter and stood up quickly – perhaps too quickly – before falling back down onto the couch. 'Y'know where we should go?'

'Where?' inquired Harry.

'We should go to Diagon Alley – no, we should go to Hogsmeade – no, we should visit Hagrid!' exclaimed Ginny.

'Hagrid's a funny bloke,' said Harry. 'Awfully tall, too.'

'Well, his father was a goblin,' Ginny said. 'That explains it. All goblins are – oh, wait, that's not right ...' Hermione laughed and tried to picture Hagrid as a half-goblin.

Ron stared at his sister and grabbed a strand of her hair. 'You have the strangest colour hair I've ever seen,' he announced. Harry snorted and Hermione bit back another laugh, staring at the two. They had the exact same shade of red hair.

'Now would be the perfect time to test out our new Giggle Gaggers and Somersault Sallies, wouldn't you say, Fred?'

'Definitely. We mustn't forget about the Tangerine Tarts or Jumping Jack Juice either.'

'Barking Blips are in order, too, I'd say.'

The twins left and Hermione stared, wide-eyed, at the place where they had just stood. 'Was it just me, or could you see more than one of that man, too?' she asked.

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Harry stretched out on the sofa and watched as his three friends bounced their way around the room. Ron had (by Harry's count) just done three-hundred jumping jacks while Ginny was somersaulting around the room. Hermione was in stitches, nearly passed out on the floor, where she was rolling around and laughing hysterically, for no apparent reason. Every now and then, the chortling would stop and would be replaced with a series of barks.

He briefly wondered why he was acting so normal, if the rest of them, who had had just as much to drink as he did, were acting in such a manner. Then he saw Fred and George standing a couple feet away, each with a notebook, documenting everything. He laughed and vowed that he wouldn't eat or drink anything either twin prepared for him.

He thought that perhaps he should take some of Fred and George's products, and join in on the fun. It was his birthday after all, and everyone else was having a much better time than him. After Hermione choked out, 'Ouch – help – me – I – can't – stop', amidst another fit of giggles, he concluded it was more painful than it looked, and he was glad to stay away from the twins.

'Maybe you should help her?' he slurred, looking at Fred.

He exchanged an innocent look with George – or maybe it was the other way around, Harry was having trouble distinguishing who was who. 'What makes you think we're involved?'

Harry stared incredulously at them and quickly glanced back at his friends. He noticed that he was seeing trails. 'Hermione's barking,' he stated blandly, looking back at the twins.

'Alright, alright. I suppose we've gotten enough research done for tonight,' the twin on the left said, sounding defeated.

'You're lucky it's your birthday, Harry, or we would've slipped you something that made your skin turn orange and lasted twenty-four hours,' said the twin on the right.

'Yeah,' said the one on the left, again, 'we took pity on you. Ginny, on the other hand, will be in a right state tomorrow when she wakes up.'

'With her temper –'

'Not to mention the fact that it'll clash horribly with that Weasley hair of hers –'

'I, for one, am glad I won't be sticking around.'

Harry watched Ginny as one twin held her down (she was desperately fighting against them, trying to somersault) and the other shoved a pill in her mouth. Within seconds, she stopped fighting and looked around at Ron and Hermione.

'Wuzzgott'n inna them?' she asked, looking considerably dizzy from all the somersaulting. Harry simply laughed and continued to observe the events around him. Ron had stopped doing jumping jacks now, and looked on, curiously, as Hermione's barks finally ceased. Lightly rubbing her side, she stood shakily and looked around.

'Does anyone fancy a dip in the pond?' asked Hermione, her voice oddly hoarse, which Harry assumed was from the barking. Harry smiled, thinking it sounded like fun. Ron grinned. 'We should all go!'

'D'you have a bathing suit?' asked Ron.

Hermione screwed up her face in intense concentration before saying, 'I could borrow Ginny's.'

'And she'd wear ...?' Harry asked, completely aware of how stupid the conversation was. Mrs Weasley had said already they weren't allowed outside. But then again, what she didn't know couldn't hurt her, right?

Ginny giggled and sat down on the couch next to him, so close that she was practically on his lap. 'I s'pose nothing.'

Ron gave them a strange look and said, 'Oh, yuck! No.'

Hermione looked around the room dejectedly and shrugged. 'Alright, then what're we to do? I don't want to sit around,' she groaned.

Ron smiled and blinked dumbly for a second, before saying, 'Well, we can't go outside, so let's bring the outside to us.'

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Ron awkwardly climbed up the stairs, realizing for the first time how many there were in his house. What a strange thing they were, too, he thought. He took step after step after step, and before he knew it, he was in a different place.

'Bloody brilliant,' he mumbled as Ginny laughed from somewhere behind him. He led the way up to the drawing room. After they all gathered inside of the cluttered room, Ron pulled out his wand.

'D'you think you should be using that?' asked Ginny. She didn't sound the least bit concerned, though. She sounded relaxed and was unfazed when he gave a half-hearted swishing motion with his wand, uttered a Shrinking Spell, and everything in the room turned microscopic, allowing them all to lie on the floor and spread out. He pocketed his wand and smiled smugly at his little sister. He sluggishly dropped to the floor and looked up at the ceiling and the rest mimicked his actions, Hermione to his left, Ginny to his right, and Harry on her other side.

'What're we doing?' asked Harry. Ron whispered his plans in Hermione's ear, and she grinned. Pulling out her own wand, she muttered an incantation that he had never heard before, and pointed it at the ceiling. She gave a lazy swish of her wand and before long, the plain, off-white ceiling warped and changed; now looking like the night's sky. He had been inspired by the ceiling of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, but knew the magic was far too difficult for himself to pull it off. That's where good ol' Hermione came in.

'Pretty,' Ginny sighed.

'Should last about an hour ... two at best,' mumbled Hermione, who shifted and pocketed her wand.

The four friends laid there for a while in a comfortable silence, staring up at the ceiling. He heard shuffling to his right but ignored it, trying to lose himself in the atmosphere. Ginny giggled and a shooting star streaked across the fake sky, but no other noises were made, and the silence overtook them.

'I'm thirsty,' announced Ginny. 'Harry, come help me get a drink from the kitchen.' Ron rolled his eyes at his sister's inability to do anything for herself and watched as Harry obediently got up from the floor and followed the redheaded girl out of the room.

A quiet fell over Ron and Hermione again as they stared up at the sky. Although he was tired, and felt that his body needed sleep, his mind was buzzing with thoughts and he couldn't settle down.

'D'you think it'll be different now?' he asked. She didn't answer for a moment.

'Different how?' came the reply, though Hermione made no effort to look at him, or vice versa. Ron was pleased to find, through her tone of voice, that she seemed to understand most of what he was asking without his explanation.

'Well, you're – you're a Muggle,' he said softly, hoping she wouldn't find a way to be offended by his stating the obvious. 'Are you going back to your parents when this is all over? Will you forget about the wizarding world?'

'I haven't thought about it,' she said sleepily. 'I doubt I'll ever be able to turn my back on this world, but it would be nice to live at home for awhile. I haven't been there in so long – not for a long amount of time, at least ... probably not since I started coming here during the summertime.'

He didn't really know how to respond to that. 'Sorry,' was all he could say.

'Don't be,' she said, rolling onto her side to face him. 'I love it here, really. Honest. I just miss my mum and dad.'

Ron nodded and turned his head to see her, but she had already rolled onto her back again. He stared at her for a moment, transfixed, until he remembered what they were talking about. 'What about Harry?' he asked. 'What d'you think he'll be doing?'

'I don't know. I expect that he'll be lost for a bit.'

'How d'you mean?'

'Well, his entire life – at least in the magical world – had been focused around Voldemort.' Ron tried not to flinch at the mention of Voldemort, and was thankful that Hermione didn't notice when he failed miserably. 'He'll probably be wondering what his purpose is, once he's gotten that out of the way. The world will open up to him in ways we can't even imagine right now.'

Ron shifted uncomfortably and thought about what she had said. If Harry defeated You-Know-Who, and became even more famous than he already was, would he still be the same person, underneath it all? Would Harry Potter still want to be his friend, even though Ron Weasley wouldn't be anybody special? He hadn't been anybody special on the train to Hogwarts, when they met, but then again, Harry didn't think he was anybody special, either. And he couldn't have been more wrong about that.

He didn't need to worry just yet, because he wasn't even totally sure that they'd all survive this war. That thought didn't comfort him much, either.

'Yeah ...' he sighed.

'I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. It probably won't even hit us that we aren't going back to Hogwarts again until September rolls around,' she predicted. 'Part of me is expecting a letter from Dumbledore, saying it was all a big misunderstanding, that he's still very much alive and that Hogwarts will live to see another year.'

'I think I am, too.'

'Why do you ask?'

'What did I ask?' Ron asked, confused.

'You asked if things will be different,' she reminded him. 'Why?'

He attempted a shrug, which was easier than he'd expected it to be, as he was horizontal, and said, 'I was just wondering.' He turned to look at her and she rolled onto her side again, her features relaxed and her lips pulled into a small smile.

'We aren't going to leave you, Ron.'

He swallowed audibly; amazed that she had correctly guessed what he was secretly worried about. Hermione had always been good with emotions and things like that, he reminded himself. 'I didn't – that's not –' She stared at him in a knowing way and he fell silent.

'We aren't going to leave you,' she repeated. 'You'll always have me – and Harry, of course.'

'Promise?' he asked quietly.

And although he knew she couldn't make a promise like that, not without the chance that she might unintentionally break it, he felt a thousand times better when she said, 'Cross my heart.'

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Ginny was restless.

She was obviously having a reaction to the alcohol because, as she lay there, staring up at the enchanted ceiling, she felt tired and giddy and slightly spaced, all at once. She slid over a few inches to her right, where Harry was. She rested her head on his shoulder, but not before he kissed the tip of her nose, rousing a giggle from her lips.

She wanted to do more than rest her head on his shoulder, but the fact that her brother and Hermione were in the room didn't exactly permit the type of snogging session she had in mind. Unless – did she dare? She had to. Perhaps it was the Firewhisky that was making her feel so ... enticed, but she had to do something, no matter what the reasons were. She had to get Harry alone.

'I'm thirsty,' she said, breaking the silence. With great effort, she sat up and glanced at Harry, smiling deviously at him. Her head felt like it weighed twenty pounds, but she ignored it. 'Harry, come help me get a drink from the kitchen.'

He gave her a curious look, one that quickly turned into amusement, and he got up from the floor. They walked out of the room and down the stairs, Ginny leading the way. She came to a halt outside of her bedroom.

'What's the –?'

She grabbed Harry by the shirt and pushed him inside, shutting the door behind her. She pounced on him, pushing him against the wall and forcing her tongue inside his mouth. He responded, kissing her eagerly, his tongue battling against her own. He tasted of Firewhisky and chocolate. He put his hands on her back and pulled her closed to him. She moaned, her fingers tangling in his hair and crushing his face against hers, desperate to deepen the kiss. She was standing on her toes and he was leaned over slightly. Ginny cursed herself for being so bloody short (her brothers were all insanely tall, she would never understand it) and wished that Harry would have the sense to press her against the wall, so she could hook her legs around him and they'd be equal height.

She needed to breathe, but she didn't want to pull away. She wanted to stay like that forever, even though the overwhelming height difference would grow to be downright uncomfortable, and she'd probably pass out from air shortage. 'Lock the door,' she panted when they separated.

'What?' he asked. 'Gin, this isn't a good time for a snog. Ron's upstairs. He thinks we're getting drinks.'

'Hermione'll keep him busy,' she shrugged. 'He's in a right state, anyway. He won't even notice that we're gone.'

'Fred and George,' he whispered, though he didn't sound too concerned about either of them. In fact, unless Ginny was mistaken, he sounded as though he desperately wanted her to convince him everything would be fine.

'They've Apparated back to their flat already,' she lied. Truthfully, she knew that her brothers were downstairs. Although they had broken a rather important rule by giving everyone Firewhisky, they weren't stupid enough to leave the four of them alone until their mum got home. Normally, Order meetings lasted well past midnight, so Ginny didn't expect to see her mother for another few hours.

'We shouldn't,' he said without conviction.

'You're legal now, how bloody wonderful is that?'

'Pretty great,' said Harry.

'And,' she smiled, pressing her body against his, 'what better way to celebrate and use magic for the first time outside of Hogwarts than by locking the door?'

Harry grinned and moved away from the wall, so he was in plain view of the door again. He pulled out his wand from the back pocket of his trousers and muttered 'Colloportus.' There was a squelching noise and the door sealed itself shut.

He kissed her again. Evidently, he was satisfied that Ron wouldn't come looking for them anytime soon. Ginny started to push him back, deeper into the room, but he didn't budge. Instead, he returned his hands to her back and pulled her closer to him, letting her feel a distinct something press against her hip. She groaned and gave a hard push, finally succeeding in getting him to stumble backwards. They continued moving until the back of Harry's knees collided with the edge of her bed on the other side of the room. Smiling innocently, Ginny gave a small shove and he fell back onto the bed.

She leapt up onto him, straddling his stomach. She bent down to kiss him, pleased with herself when he groaned and squirmed beneath her. She stifled a giggle and pulled away slightly. He propped himself up with his elbows, putting up quite the fight, not wanting her lips to leave his. Her hands went to his shoulders and she pushed him back down against the bed before leaning in again. Her fingers slid over his chest as she felt his hand go up the back of her shirt and caress the soft skin underneath. She bit his bottom lip and kissed him deeply before pulling away again.

She kissed his mouth, his jaw, his neck. She lifted his shirt and kissed his chest, biting him softly because she knew that he liked it. Harry's body wasn't particularly defined in any way, but something about it seemed to shift something inside of her. Perhaps it was because he was Harry Potter and he was actually letting her do this – which she had always fantasized about doing – that made her giddy and excited and horribly turned on.

She could feel his erection pressing into her stomach and a strange idea popped into her head, one she had considered in the past but always ended up disregarding. This time, however, she didn't disregard it. But she hesitated. What would Harry do? Would he think she was a slag? Or would he be like every other bloke in the world and love it? She had to find out.

She slid down his body, trailing kisses down his stomach, her fingers hastily unbuttoning his trousers.

He came up onto his elbows again, looking uneasy. 'What're you doing?'

'Relax,' she whispered.

'Gin –'

'Relax. I just want to give you a proper birthday present.'

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