DISCLAIMER: i do not claim to own these characters or to be making any money off them at all whatsoever. JK Rowling does all that! geez guys!
A/N: so here's the next chapter! it's lots longer than the first one but also more action-y ... but here i am giving away my own story! just read it... also, i have two papers due within the next week, so if i don't update to often, that's why (ggrrrr, midterms). I'll probably have chapter 3 up by sunday, probably? this could be a nice little pattern forming here...
WARNING: this story, indeed this very chapter, contains girls kissing (each other). If "that sort of thing" bothers you then please do not read any further...it's that simple! or, alternatively, you could read it, and then flame me, thus providing my entertainment for the evening! ...either way...
2. Champagne and Cheesecake
Ginny had noticed the stutter and thought this odd, but didn't comment. She searched for something else to say before the budding conversation died. "I don't recognize your accent; do you not come from around here?"
"I do come from here, actually. I went to school at Hogwarts; but I've been working in America for the past year. The muggles there are fascinating; everything is! It's really different from here," he added, brightening up. Ginny wondered what year he had been. He didn't look more than two or three years older than her, though it was hard to tell.
"Oh?" prodded Ginny, mildly amused. He reminded her of someone, she thought. Her father? No, that wasn't it…besides, Mr. Weasley wasn't interested in muggles themselves, as much as in their inventions. She laid her head back on Herman's rather stiff shoulder, and settled in to listen. She knew she had only met Herman a few minutes ago, but dancing together, in his arms, didn't feel strange at all.
"Yeah! Did you know that there are actually free, independent communities of house elves living there? And they're recognized by the American Ministry!" Seeing Ginny's look of interest, he kept going. "…Apparently most of wizarding community there came over with the first settlers, and hardly any of them were rich enough to have house elves. Cotton Mather had some, more than a dozen, actually, but they staged a rebellion and forced him to clothe them. After that, all of the reports say that no one could hold onto an elf for more than a month or so before it ran off into the woods to join the rebels." Ginny smiled as he paused to spin her around in the dance, and then continued the story. "They stayed in hiding for generations, but then in the 1960's, somehow they found out about the muggle civil rights movement and used the same tactics on the American Ministry of Magic." He dipped her, a bit too low, and overcompensated in bringing her back up. Catching his breath, he continued enthusiastically, "Now they have the same rights as wizards there! Isn't it fantastic?"
"I had no idea it was like that there, that's awesome!" she agreed. Ginny grinned. Her dance partner definitely reminded her of someone she knew…hmmm…this could get interesting. The song changed and they continued to dance, and the conversation gradually began to flow more smoothly. She drew closer to Herman, and was taken by surprise…it was hard to tell, under all the bulk of his robes, but as far as she knew, men's chests didn't feel like that…and she had had enough boyfriends to be pretty sure what they were supposed to feel like. A wild idea crossed her mind – could he be…? but she dismissed it just as quickly. It was just because she wanted so much for Hermione to be here that it had occurred to her in the first place. But no matter…if her dance partner wasn't quite what he seemed, then that was certainly his own business and no one else's. Still, she thought, it can't hurt to stick around and see if I'm right. After a few more songs, the orchestra stopped to take a break, and most of the couples who had been dancing drifted over to the refreshments table.
"Look at that crowd!" Ginny exclaimed, in annoyance. "It'll be impossible to get at the refreshments now."
Herman winked and excused himself, coming back five minutes later carrying two flutes of champagne and a small plate loaded high with sweets. "Brilliant!" Ginny exclaimed, taking her glass. Impulsively, she leaned over and pecked him quickly on the cheek. "Thank you!" she said, meaning it. Herman immediately flushed pink and looked away, and mumbled, "You're welcome."
"Hey, let's take this outside," Ginny suggested, motioning to the plate full of desserts. "It's so crowded in here, there won't be room to sit." Also, I wouldn't mind having more time alone with you, she thought…especially if my theory is true…
Indeed, the throng had started to move away from the dessert table toward the few tables and chairs that lined the edges of the hall. Most of the seats were already occupied by older relatives, and there would be little room for younger people unless they had been sitting there all along, like Ginny's friends.
"Good idea," Herman said, and they moved toward the doors of the great hall. Just outside the entrance, a decorative semi-circular terrace had been set up for the occasion, with benches lining the perimeter and shrubberies artfully scattered all around. A few couples had taken advantage of the mild weather and were sitting on the benches, chatting, or in one case, apparently snogging each other senseless.
"Let's go this way," Ginny suggested, motioning in the general direction of the lake. There was still light showing in the western sky, but the stars had started to come out up above. It was a clear, warm night, and the moonlight falling on the waters of the lake in the distance sparkled gently.
Some minutes later, they reached the lake and strolled along a path that followed the shore, sipping their champagne and chatting animatedly. Ginny was a bit surprised that there weren't any other couples walking on the grounds, but the music had started again inside the Great Hall, and all the couples who had been on the terrace had gone back inside - except for one, who were doing something rather enthusiastically under the bench they had been sitting on. Ginny and Herman reached the lake, and as they rounded a bend in the shore, the entrance to the castle disappeared from sight and the enthusiastic couple with it.
The two of them walked on in a companionable silence, following the edge of the lake, and finally climbing a low rocky rise that jutted out from the shore into the lake. It was a few meters higher than the surrounding ground, and on top of it grew a copse of small pine trees. Herman spread his cloak out under the trees, and they sat down to admire the view. The view from the rise was fantastic. They could see craggy mountains receding into the distance, and the lake, with small sparkling waves as far as the eye could see, and in the distance the towers of Hogwarts were still visible. Everything was bathed with moonlight, and the overall effect was dazzling.
Ginny heard the snap of a twig of a small animal making its way through the copse behind them. There was a soft rustle of pine needles, and then everything was silent except for the distant call of a night bird. Herman put the still-untouched plate of desserts down between them and took a toffee nut nugget.
"It's too bad we finished the champagne on the walk here; now we have to eat this alone…. Not that I'm complaining!" said Ginny as she picked up a miniature chocolate cream tart. "These are delicious!"
"Mmmmm," Herman agreed, his mouth full of the nugget, which was apparently stickier than it looked. He swallowed, then said, "Here, give me your glass." Ginny complied, curious. Herman took her glass and held his wand above it. That wand—Ginny was sure she had seen it before, and it didn't seem likely that Olivander would have sold two so similar. She smiled to herself, still more interested to see where this was all going.
With a small frown of concentration, Herman flicked the wand ever so slightly and a stream of pale yellow, bubbly liquid flowed out of the wand tip and into the glass. He handed it back to Ginny, smiling generously, and did the same to his own glass. Ginny sniffed the contents of her glass and then grinned.
"To magical champagne!" she said, clinking their glasses together. "That was seriously cool…the only nonverbal spells we learned were for defense. Is it hard?"
Herman smiled even wider at the compliment. "No, it's not hard once you know how it works. That one is actually just a variation of aguamenti, the water spell. Basically, the theory is the same, you just have to change the incantation based on what liquid you want. Variations in the wand movement correspond to changes in the temperature of the liquid. The incantation for wine is vinomenti; if you don't want just plain wine then it has to be nonverbal so you can mentally direct it to be what kind you do want. Of course, actually conjuring wine from nothing would violate the first principle of the law of Transfiguration, so what the spell does is conjure water from nothing and then transfigures it into another liquid temporarily, so you can't ever get really drunk off conjured alcohol unless you consume more than ten drinks an hour, or something ridiculous like that…" He trailed off.
Ginny stifled a laugh with an overly large bite of a raspberry-cheesecake-shortbread square. She definitely knew who "Herman" reminded her of now, but it still didn't make any sense. She finished chewing, and took a sip of the magically produced champagne.
"This is really good!" She said, though she had been expecting as much. "Can I try making some? After we finish these, I mean?"
Herman nodded confidently. "Yeah, you'd be able to do it fine."
They finished off their champagne and the rest of the desserts, and then Ginny moved the empty plate off to the edge of the cloak and scooted closer to her mustachioed companion. "Ok, I'm going to try it now. Vinomenti, right?"
"Yeah. It'll be easier to stick to the basic, verbal charm for starters."
She held her wand over her glass, and said "Vinomenti!" aloud, copying Herman's earlier wand flick. Instantly, a thick, slightly lumpy purple-red liquid flowed from the tip of her wand into her glass. "Oh no, I messed it up!" cried Ginny, holding her glass up to her face to inspect it.
"No you didn't, not really," said Herman, leaning in to examine the results. "You just went a bit overboard on the temperature control part. It's frozen!"
They both laughed and Ginny took a sip of her experiment. To her surprise, it didn't taste half bad. "Here, try this," she said, offering the glass to Herman. He tried it, and also looked surprised. "It's like…a wine slushy," he proclaimed, after some deliberation.
"A slushy?" asked Ginny, looking at him over her glass.
He met her eyes, and couldn't seem to look away. "It's …. an American drink…frozen fruit flavored…slush." He was less articulate now than he had been all evening.
Deliberately, Ginny lowered her glass and leaned in to close the few inches that were separating them, never breaking eye contact. Herman was completely motionless, not even blinking, apparently transfixed by her gaze. Keeping her eyes wide open, Ginny closed the remaining distance between their faces and laid one small, tender kiss on his mouth. She had to aim carefully to avoid his large, bushy, handlebar mustache, which grew down to cover part of his upper lip and went down past both corners of his mouth. After a moment, he seemed to break out of his trance somewhat, and started kissing her back. His enormous, bushy mustache got in the way however, and scratched Ginny under her nose. Involuntarily, she pulled back and sneezed.
Not fazed, she leaned back in, wrapping her arms around her companion, and kissed him again, trying to avoid kissing more mustache than lips. She was finally kissing Hermione, (unless she was sorely wrong in her guess, and she didn't see how she could be), something she had thought would never happen in her waking life. Then Probably-Hermione slowly moved "his" arm around her waist, drawing her closer, and she could feel him smiling under her kiss. Unfortunately, she found she couldn't focus on what she was doing with the large mass of facial hair in the way, tickling her face. She broke the kiss, but didn't loosen her embrace.
"This has to go." she proclaimed, matter-of-factly. Herman, who still had a look of dazed bliss on his face, gave his head a small shake as though to clear it, and said, intelligently, "What?"
"This mustache! It's damn hard to kiss you with it on…" Ginny smirked mischievously. "Unless you didn't want me to kiss you again."
"I, of course I do, I mean, what do you mean?" he said, with looks of confusion, bliss, and suspicion fighting for dominance on his face.
Just then, another twig snapped in the copse behind them, and there was a louder rustle. Something hard hit Ginny on the arm, and she yelped in surprise and jumped back.
"What the hell was that?" she cried, looking around furiously. "Herman" was still sitting where he had been a moment earlier, stricken. He was staring into the trees with a look of anguished terror. "Oh shit…it can't be…" he breathed.
A witch emerged from the trees, pine needles covering her hair and robes. "What the fuck do you think you're DOING?" she shrieked, and lobbed another pine cone at Ginny.
"How did you get here?" Herman demanded, voice shaking. The witch, who looked to be in her early twenties, didn't respond, but just eyed Ginny and adjusted her grip on the pile of pine cones she was holding, as if selecting which one to lob next. There was an unnatural, dangerous glint in her eye.
Ginny knew better than to be caught unawares this time, and caught the pine cone that sailed toward her head the next moment with the effortless grace of a Seeker.
"It's not important how I got here!" cried the intruder in the same shrill, manic voice. "What's important is why the fuck were you snogging my girlfriend?" This last question was aimed at Ginny. Ginny didn't have a chance to answer, because the witch had turned on Herman again.
"And you! How could you do this to me, Her-mee-own?" Ginny shuddered at the american slaughter of the familiar name, but felt a thrill of vindication. She had been right all along! The witch's tirade was apparently just starting though, for she continued on in the same shrill voice.
"Do I mean nothing at all to you? Did you not stop to consider for ONE MINUTE how it might make me feel before you went off and seduced this- this- this- little girl? I bet she's not even of age! Or did you even think to ask? Because anyone's better than me, right?!" She was by now yelling hysterically, tears pouring down her face, but Ginny could see beads of sweat standing out on Hermione's own, terrified, face. The hysterical witch drew her wand and advanced on Hermione, menacingly. Hermione's eyes grew huge and she quickly retreated a few paces, mute.
"Don't think I'll let you get away with this-I'll make you PAY!" she raised the wand.
With an incoherent "eep!" Hermione turned tail and scrambled down the rock, making off at breakneck speed around the lake in the direction of the castle. "Don't run away from me, you bitch!" screamed the witch, and made to follow Hermione down the rock.
Ginny had had enough of this. With one last glance at Hermione's retreating figure, she took charge of the situation at hand. "Stupefy!" she cried, and a jet of red light shot from her wand, hitting the intruder in the back. She immediately fell limp, and slid from view with a sound like a sack of potatoes being rolled down a ramp.
-ici finit la chapitre-
A/N - i love crazy lesbian exes, don't you? they're just so hilarious and tragic at the same time...wonder how Hermione managed to pick one up so fast? hint hint. but seriously, getting reviews makes me write faster for REALZ guys. that little button's just calling out to you, in its little voice...hear it? yes?
Razor bladed heart - glad you like it! i don't like keeping people waiting, in fact the amount i like keeping people waiting is probably inversely proportional to the amount you like to read new chapters...yeah...or something like that...
Morbid WereWolves - yeah, it reminded me of Masquerade too...thanks for pointing that out early, i hadn't noticed quite how close they were...it was a problem. but now i rewrote a bunch and now it's going to be an even more kick-ass story! (can you tell i'm excited?) hope you keep reading!
Armed Metropolis - lol, it was kind of obvious, huh? oh well, this is fanfic, not a murder mystery! i always get crushes on unavailable (ahem straight ahem) people too, so it was really easy to write that part...poor Ginny!
Vampslayer08 - thanks! you're awesome! and yesssss, i am a fan of tatu. they're pretty much my favorite band of all time :) ty soglasna isn't my favorite song of theirs ever, but it has distinct femslash-y undertones, which makes me happy, so it seemed appropriate. even if they are fake lesbians...whatever!
ogis - here's more! was that soon enough for you? i try, really!