Chapter 2: The Morning After
"You've got to get up—you need to try and eat something before class."
Draco slowly opened his eyes to see Cormac McLaggen standing over his bed. Sitting up, Draco immediately felt nauseous, cotton-mouthed, and heavy headed. No doubt about it—this was one killer hangover.
"What happened last night?" Draco muttered, trying to adjust his eyes to the sunlight streaming through the window with, according to Draco, the intensity of a 1000 Lumos charms.
Cormac chuckled. "You drank about 2 bottles of firewhiskey, that's what happened."
"So, that's why I feel like I was hit by a bus? Lovely. Class should be fun today."
Cormac laughed again (rather too loudly for Draco's ears in his current condition), adding, "You have plenty of time to shower and grab some breakfast before class. Here's your class schedule."
Draco muttered his thanks, taking the paper from Cormac and reviewing his classes. Draco looked back up at Cormac, who had started to make his bed and get ready for breakfast. "Did I do anything last night I should be embarrassed about?" Draco asked cautiously. He had almost no recollection of the night before, and he could only hope that he hadn't turn an awkward experience into a hostile one.
"No," Cormac said laughing, "unless you count dancing on a table top embarrassing."
"NOT BLOODY LIKELY!" Draco blurted in horror. He hoped to Godric that he hadn't done anything that humiliating.
"Just teasing you, mate. You were actually rather nice last night. It was…a bit unexpected, to be honest. You talked to Neville for almost 2 hours. He looked terrified at the start of it, but after about 20 minutes, Neville realized that you most likely weren't fixing to insult him. Or hex him."
Slowly, pieces of the night before came back to Draco. People seemed almost pleased that he was there? Was that true? Or was it simply the firewhiskey colored glasses of the night before that left memories fuzzy? "Wow", Draco meekly responded. Had he really been welcomed last night?
"Well, see you at breakfast. Oh, and take some of this. It's Hangover Relief Potion. Hermione gave it to everyone last night, but you weren't really in a state to realize that, I 'spose." Cormac said as he left the room.
"Thanks" Draco muttered in reply. He grabbed the bottle and gladly took a dose, happy to know that the nausea would soon subside. Already feeling better, Draco tried to piece together the night before. He remembered feeling more welcomed than expected. Of course, that could have been the liquid courage everyone had. He didn't recall talking to Ron, Harry, or Hermione, and he hoped, for his own sake, that he hadn't. He was going to have to cross that bridge at some point, and it was a conversation that would be hard enough to get through sober, much less wasted on Firewhiskey.
He had a lot of apologizing to do, and he knew he would have to get to it eventually, but at the moment, all Draco could think of was a shower and trying to find a spell to rid him of his blinding headache.