Chapter Fifteen: I Don't Wake Up Pretty, He Wakes Up By Himself
I awoke with what seemed like a large quantity of cotton wool in my mouth and between my ears. I grumbled sleepily and rolled over, with the idea of going back to sleep very appealing in my mind. A low, muffled growling noise came across from somewhere behind me and I sat up straight in my bed, my hands forming themselves into a defensive pose. Then I felt absolutely ridiculous. Who makes that pose anyway? I shouldn't do it ever again. It did not look good on me. I looked like some kind of over-scared, under-learned hick. I turned to see what had made that odd noise and saw Johnny snoozing peacefully, and the memories of Saturday afternoon came flooding back. The lights on the clock next to my bed said that the time was almost four in the morning, and I realized with a jolt that I'd spent the entirety of Saturday throwing up, drinking, and being asleep. I felt like I was seventeen again, but my body at that time was definitely more resilient than my current one. Then, I could have had firewhiskey shots, curry and beer for a hangover breakfast, and then go out again that night and be fine for class the next day. Now, I was lucky that my recent antics hadn't killed me. Granted, twenty-seven wasn't exactly elderly, but it was a hell of a lot older than seventeen. Then, I remembered Severus.
Oh, Merlin. Severus. I barely remembered what exactly it was that I'd said to him, but I knew that it was probably incredibly embarrassing and stupid of me. I had an unfortunate tendency to say incredibly embarrassing and stupid things when I was drunk, and also when I was sober. I had the feeling I'd made a tremendous ass of myself though, and the situation needed to be rectified immediately. I leapt out of bed, still fully clothed, though I hadn't showered in a while and I could even smell myself. It was disgusting. I needed a shower, badly. After making sure Johnny was still fast asleep, I peeled off my revolting clothes and tossed them into the laundry hamper for the house-elves to wash. I felt a bit bad sometimes, making them do all my work, but they seemed to be happy enough and looked extremely offended the few times I offered to do it myself.
Now completely naked in a stone castle in the middle of the night, I was so damn cold that I wouldn't have been surprised if bits hadn't started falling off. This could not be allowed to occur, not again anyway. I ran as quietly as I could over to the bathroom and shut the door softly behind me, casting a silencing charm on the door so that the noise of my shower wouldn't wake Johnny. I turned on the faucets and hopped underneath quickly, the steaming hot water making my icy feet tingle unpleasantly. It wasn't too long before I was used to it though, and I washed my hair and did everything else that had to be done as quickly as I could. Soon enough, I was totally clean and wrapping a huge, warm, fluffy green towel around me. There was one thing to say about Hogwarts, even if it was totally freezing most of the time, they provided nice compensations, such as never-ending hot water and the warmest towels I had ever experienced. They were even charmed to dry hair about sixty times faster than with an ordinary towel. Sometimes a blow-drier was better though, because the charms on the towels were a bit malicious and they could dry your hair in any position they liked. Fortunately, the towel charms were smiling on me, and my hair turned to cute curls. I'd wanted curly hair all my life, but unfortunately my hair was just boring and straight. Oh well. This fabulous Sunday, I was curly.
I peeked my head around the bathroom door cautiously, and to my relief, Johnny was still sound asleep and snoring a bit. It was safe to emerge. I walked over to my closet, hoping that the stone floor didn't decide to creak, or whatever stone did. Thankfully my trip was silent as stars, and I pulled some clothes out of the closet before realizing I'd forgotten underwear, which was on the other side of my bed. Sure, it would have been a lot safer to go around the bed, but going over would be so much easier, and Johnny seemed to be pretty sound asleep…
Okay, so I was just being lazy. But I didn't want to have to go all the way around my bed. It was a pretty big bed, and if I wanted to walk around it I'd probably need to pack provisions or something. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration. But still. It was pretty big. And that's why I decided to go over instead. I carefully placed my hands on the other side of Johnny's slumbering form and slowly began to creep over, trying to make no sudden movements so he wouldn't wake up and see me. He'd probably think I'd gone mental or something, or that I was some kind of creepy rapist. Thankfully I got both legs over and was in the clear on my side of the bed, only a few inches away from my underwear drawers. Unfortunately, I didn't count on the loose sheets that had turned into a messy knot while I'd been sleeping under them. I also didn't count on my foot being caught in this knot, and me crashing down to the ground, bringing the lamp from my bedside table down with me. Being quite fragile, it smashed into many shards in a very noisy sort of way. Wonderful.
I slowly rose to check on Johnny. To my immense surprise, he was still sleeping. I would have thought he was dead, were it not for his soft snoring and occasional twitching. Before he could wake up and see me, naked and gawking at him, I pulled on a pair of underpants and a bra before climbing over the bed again to get back to the closet. I was less careful this time, as I knew that he wouldn't wake up –
"What are you doing?"
Oh. Wonderful. He woke up. And I just happened to be perched on all fours over him in my underwear. I slowly turned my head to face him and tried for a smile, but he just looked confused and slightly worried. I got the feeling I'd be seeing a lot of that. "What do you think I'm doing? I'm trying to get dressed without you seeing me."
"Oh," he said, looking thoughtful. "You're not doing it very well."
"I am aware of that, thank you," I said snippily, continuing to crawl over him to get to my closet. I fell off the bed yet again when I tried to dismount, and stood up quickly in the hope that he wouldn't think I was entirely mental. I grabbed the clothes I'd selected earlier and pulled them on, a pair of faded jeans and a prettily printed black t-shirt. "Well, now I'm dressed, I should go and do… what I was planning to do when I woke up."
"It's five in the morning," he said. "And I don't think I caught your name, or if I did, I've forgotten it. Sorry."
"That's okay, you were pretty pissed," I said, throwing on a jacket and a pair of slippers. "It's Raphaela, Raphaela Vialle. Now, if you don't mind, I have to go and do something."
"Okay," he said, pushing his hair back in a way that was extremely pretty, and getting out of bed. "Urgh, I reek."
"Yeah, I did too," I said, trying to make him feel less weird about waking up in my room, fully clothed and smelly. "The bathroom's through there if you want to shower or something."
"Might have to," he said, moving towards the bathroom. "Then I'll probably go, my roommate's probably wondering where I am. I just said I was nipping out to get milk, that was about eighteen hours ago."
I laughed. Johnny was funny. And pretty. So, so pretty. I could feel myself turning into a giggly mess over him. Stupid pretty boys. Why did they have to be so pretty and charming? It was unfair, and I wouldn't stand for it. But then he was in the bathroom and I heard the water running and I had to steady myself a bit and try not to think about him in the shower. It was difficult. But I had to, I had to go and see Severus. I had to push all thoughts of showering-Johnny out of my head and concentrate on Severus. Unfortunately, my still-sleepy brain got confused and made me think of a combination of the two, which was… well, never mind what it was. It was horrifying and I almost threw up at the horror of it. I pushed all thoughts of everything out of my head and decided that it would be nice to write a note to Johnny. I quickly found parchment and a quill and composed a short note that I left with his shoes and jacket by the door.
Hey Johnny, (I hope that's your real name and not just a drunk thing)
It was nice to meet you. You should owl me or something. If you want
to. You don't have to. But it would be nice if you did. Well, more than
nice. It would be utterly lovely. But I can't stress this enough, YOU
TOTALLY DON'T HAVE TO. But I think you should.
Regards,
Raphaela