Chapter 3

She could tell it was going to be the hangover from hell before she even opened her eyes, the pounding in her head reminded her instantaneously of how much alcohol she had consumed the previous night and the dry feeling in her mouth and throat only added to the pain and misery. What time did I get in? She thought to herself as she struggled to peel her eyes open. As one eye propped itself open she began to survey her surroundings, it definitely wasn't her room that she could see for a start it was extremely tidy and very minimal, no makeup strewn across the dresser or clothes discarded in piles on the floor. She remembered drinking a lot and she remembered almost giving in to Chris outside the toilet until Salamander helped her out, then she remembered him saying she should stay in James' bed just in case the git decided to make a night time call to her house. However the rest of the evening was very hazy and she couldn't even recall getting back to her cousin's flat with her old school chum, sighing deeply she rolled over in bed and then her heart caught in her mouth as she saw a mop of bright blonde hair on the pillow next to her.

Suddenly becoming slightly panicked she lifted the covers to gaze down at her own naked body and felt her heart beat wildly as she glanced across and saw that the body in bed beside her was also naked. At that same moment the lean muscular Salamander Longbottom rolled onto his back and stretched up as he began to rub his eyes. Obviously suffering from the same affects as Rose it took him a while to open his own eyes but when he did the shock which shone on Rose's face was instantly mirrored in his own.

"Rose?" he coughed glancing down himself and also realising that they were both in the same bed, and both naked. Yanking the covers up to her neck she looked away from his eyes and began to fiddle with the edge of the deep aubergine trim. "Did we...?" the embarrassed young man went on looking at his life long friend and trying to rack his brains to remember anything about the previous evening. He recalled kissing Rose at midnight to save her from the bloke who had broken her heart and he remembered telling her to stay at their flat in James' room but everything else was a huge blur, in fact everything else from that moment on was actually missing from his brain. Had James and Annemarie come back after all and Rose had had to share his bed? But that didn't actually explain why they were naked and if that had been the case Salamander would graciously have given up his bed and slept on the sofa.

Rose was also searching through her brain as she tried to answer the question, she could not remember anything but she certainly felt as if she had been thoroughly shagged and she was starting to realise that that was the only explanation for their situation, "I...I...think we might...I...I can't...can't remember...anything."

"Me neither," Salamander replied reaching up to rub his throbbing head and beginning to feel more embarrassed, why could he not remember anything? Had he forced himself on the vulnerable young girl? No he wouldn't have done that he was sure, but they had been so drunk, surely it was just because they had both been feeling a bit fragile and lonely. "I'm...sorry?" he said as he moved to the edge of the bed and searched out something to wrap around himself.

"It's not your fault," Rose whispered still rubbing the edge of the covers against her chin, "I think we both had too much to drink."

"Yeah," he added locating a towel folded on the chair by his bedside and pulling it onto the bed, "I'll...I'll give you some..." he coughed uncomfortably as he tried to get out of the bed and wrap the towel around himself without exposing Rose to his groin. "Some space," he finished wrapping the towel around himself swiftly and walking over to the bedroom door where he lifted his bathrobe from the hook on the back and put it on. "Coffee?" he asked and Rose nodded as she watched him leave the room and close the door behind him. As soon as it was closed she laid her head against the pillow and racked her brain again to find any little piece that would tell her what had happened. They must have slept together, why else would they both be naked? Opening her eyes she glanced around the room again and started to notice a few discarded items which looked totally out of place in this pristine and tidy room, like a black lacy bra which was hanging from the edge of a shelf, a tooth floss thong near her black stilettos which were laid haphazardly by the door and her skimpy deep purple dress in a pile on the floor on the other side of the bed where it looked to have been hastily discarded. Her cheeks were flushing as she clearly noticed the signs of passionate and hasty sex between two people who just wanted to get down to it and they became redder as she tried to imagine Salamander's hands on her white skin, probably touching all the intimate areas of her body before they came together as one person.

Rose shook her head in slight embarrassment as she continued to imagine what it must have been like, she had been friends with Salamander all her life and though she had gone through a faze of finding him attractive when she was an adolescent she had always struggled to see him as anything more than her childhood friend and Professor Longbottom's son. Mulling it al over she sat up on the edge of the bed and began to gather her things to put on. After dragging her dress over her head and smoothing it down she stood up and glanced in a mirror above a chest of drawers in Sal's bedroom, her makeup was smeared across her face and her hair was wildly out of control. It was always big and bushy but she managed to tame it for a special evening out using a hair charm however the charm had definitely worn off and it was now as bushy as ever and flattened on the side of her head where she had slept on it.

Walking into the en suite bathroom to Salamander's room she washed her face and tried to make something of her hair which she eventually scraped back into a long pony tail and tied with a small elastic band which she conjured with her wand. Feeling a little self conscious about being back in her rather short, figure hugging dress again she cast one more cursory glance in the bathroom mirror and then retrieved her high heel black sandals before taking a deep breath and opening the door to Sal's bedroom. She was relieved to see that James had not returned home yet and let out her breath as she headed for the kitchen area where Salamander was busy brewing two cups of coffee, he had found some clothes from somewhere and was now clad in baggy tracksuit bottoms and a quidditch shirt. As he heard her approach he turned around and she flushed immediately when she saw his face, "Coffee?" he asked again proffering one of the cups towards her.

"Cheers," she said gratefully as she took the large mug and tried to drown herself in it. She could not look him in the eye and he appeared to be having the same problem, Rose was also acutely aware that she was still in the previous evening's clothes while Sal was more comfortably dressed. They stared awkwardly around the room trying to find a topic to talk about but nothing came to mind so Sal busied himself clearing away the things he had used to make coffee.

"Can I fix you something to eat?" he asked trying to sound casual.

"No, thanks..." she stuttered, the thought of food really turned her stomach and the longer she sat in uncomfortable silence the more she wanted to get home to her own place and out of the awkward situation she was in, "the coffee's enough. I...I really should get going though, I think Mum and Dad were going to call over today, what time is it anyway?"

"Eleven," he replied glancing at his watch.

"Oh...well...well...as I said I should be going I...I..." she continued to stutter as she stood up and steadied herself on her feet, "th...thanks for..." what? She thought to herself, keeping her company all night? Rescuing her from Chris? Or making sure she didn't shag her ex by shagging her himself?

"Yeah," Salamander coughed uncomfortably, "y...you too...I'll...I'll see you...er?"

"Soon," Rose interjected as she walked towards the fireplace. Salamander followed and when she reached the inglenook in the corner she turned to face him and he leaned down to kiss her cheek, she flushed immediately and then without another word jumped into the fireplace and disappeared in a whirl of flames.

The moment she had disappeared from view the front door to the flat opened and James Potter walked through, "Happy New Year mate," he bellowed sounding far too bright for Salamander's liking. "Did you two have a good night wallowing in the corner?" he asked looking innocently at his friend.

"What? Oh...oh yes it was...was nice to catch up really you know."

"I saw you dancing at midnight and then you were back at that table but I can't remember seeing you leave, we we're there till about four but you had both gone before then."

"To be honest mate I can't remember," Salamander joked half heartedly. When he had left the bedroom to organise some coffee and allow Rose to dress without embarrassment he had sat in the kitchen and racked his brain to try and recall anything about the rest of the night that would have led the two of them to sleep together. He remembered going back to the table and continuing to drink from the firewhiskey bottle and after a little more probing he had remembered them deciding to floo back to his flat so that Rose would be safe from Chris' possible visit. He knew he had taken Rose by the arm and escorted her to the large open grate in the Leaky Cauldron but anything after that was completely erased from his brain, he tried and tried but it was not there anymore and he had no idea how or why they had ended up in his room together and he didn't even know if it had been he or Rose who had initiated it

"Well you did finish the bottle," James said interrupting his new attempt to extract a memory from his jumbled brain, "every time I looked at you, you were pouring out another shot, I take it you have a bit of a thick head this morning too?" Salamander nodded his head at his friend. "I wonder how Rose is feeling! Much the same I would imagine by the way you were both attacking that bottle! I'm guessing she went home and not to her Mum and Dad's, Aunt Hermione would have her up at the crack of dawn if she was there with a hangover!" he laughed jovially and the confused man still nursing a cooling cup of coffee felt a little envious of his bright and sparkling mood.

"Yeah, probably," he muttered desperate not to betray what had occurred between them the previous night.

"Well I'll leave you to nurse your hangover," James said as he headed in the direction of his bedroom, "I'm only back here to get changed and then I'm off for dinner with Annemarie's Mum, Dad and sister," he went on, "then we're going to call over at Grimmauld place, any plans for the rest of the day?"

Trying to work out what the hell happened last night he thought to himself but he just shook his head at his flatmate who closed his bedroom door behind him as he went on to get ready. Salamander was still searching through his blurry jumbled mind when James reappeared in the room twenty minutes later looking refreshed and wearing clean clothes, "Did Vernon catch you last night?" he asked as he buttoned up his crisp, newly ironed shirt, "About his birthday next week?" Salamander recalled Vernon talking to him about something but the topic of conversation had been mingled into the mess in his mind so he shook his head in reply. "He's having a party at Mum and Dad's on Saturday," James went on as he attempted to tame his wild Potter hair which was not only the same as his father's in colour but also in style as it never stayed flat. "Everyone's going, Albus, Lily, Hugo, Rose," he felt his heart skip a beat at the mention of her name and he was sure that his cheeks flushed but if they did James did not notice as he continued to reel off all the members of the Weasley family. "You're Mum and Dad are invited too and Consuela," he finished not noticing any change in Salamander at all, "six o clock I think he said. Anyway I'm off to do my duty with the 'in laws,'!" he chuckled before turning on the spot and apparating with a loud POP leaving Salamander once again alone with his thoughts searching through them to find any tiny memory of the return to his flat the night before.

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When Rose stepped out of the fireplace into her own, cold house she shivered and ran into the bedroom to find something warm to wear. Discarding the previous evening's clothes on top of a heap of others she dragged on a pair of loose fitting trousers and an overlarge sweater before returning to the living room to light the fire and try to bring some life to her home. She had not been inside it properly for over two weeks as she had been staying with her parents for the Christmas period, hiding away from Chris, she had flooed in once to pick up some fresh clothes and an outfit for last night but now she knew she had to return to living in it. After a few minutes the living room had begun to warm and she left it to make another strong cup of coffee which she hugged in her hands as she slumped into a chair and stared at the glowing flames trying to piece together anything about the later events of last night.

How on earth had she ended up in bed with Salamander Longbottom? Yes he had kissed her but that had been to rescue her and not for anything else, they had both known and understood that and had continued to chat and drink as the amiable old friends that they were. How had going to sleep in James' bed translated into shagging Sal in his own? It had to have been the firewhiskey combined with the fact that they were both heartbroken and lonely, the amount of alcohol had obviously affected them and all Rose could hope was that it had not affected their friendship in the same way. Her family were very close to the Longbottoms and they were always at all family occasions, she would not be able to avoid Salamander and besides he had been her friend for a long time, she did not want to have to avoid him for the foreseeable future. Curling up and deciding to take a nap on the sofa she thought to herself that it was definitely the booze and the occasion which had led them to do what ever they had done and she was adamant that Sal would be thinking the same thing too.