Cappuccino After Eleven
A huge shoutout to Ronnie11 who reminded me to update this story (although it was some time ago). I hope you're still here
Other than that, I will try to keep the updates coming from now on. Recently has been an amazingly busy time with friends and travel. I hope all of you readers and reviewers are well, can't wait to share more of the story with you.
Chapter Seven
Wine-Turned-Shot Girl
As it turned out in the end, Ron had lost the game to her.
Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that he had let her win on purpose, since she had seen his hand move towards the horse that could end the game and take her down, but which had then lightly swept past it and moved some other senseless piece on the chess board instead. After that his entire well-laid strategy disintegrated and he focused more on her face than the board.
Not that she was complaining about that.
The wine warmed her softly from within, her stomach in bubbling with butterflies, and she could feel the never-lifting blush on her face as a warm sheet under her skin.
"So, what is my price for winning?" Hermione asked, daring herself to speak her mind. It was much easier when she was a little tipsy.
"Hmmm," Ron said, warm skin dotted with freckles.
He looked around the room, his blue eyes jumping from one spot to another.
"Perhaps you could do a shot with me?"
Hermione jumped from her chair and up beside him and turned her head to look him straight in the face.
"Certainly!" she exclaimed happily.
A moment later, Ron had gathered a couple of shot glasses and held a brown bottle of some brand of mysterious liquor in his hands.
He poured two shots and handed one to her. She accepted it happily.
Deep in her subconscious, she wondered, that perhaps it was the wine that made her accept it so easily. But another part of her insisted that, just perhaps, it was because that it was Ron who was the one offering it to her.
She mimicked a posh British accent and hoped she would be funny, "Thank you,"
He chuckled; cheeks tinted red. Success.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot the little finger!" Hermione yelped, then curled her little finger away from the glass in a queenly fashion.
"Oh, no! We can't have any of that happening!" Ron continued while laughing, then clinked his glass to hers.
"Cheers!" they both said at the same time.
The shot burned in her throat, and she had to force herself not to spit the horrid liquid right back into the cup.
Looking up at his face, she saw it all scrunched up in a grimace. When he noticed that she looked at him, he tried to cover his face, but Hermione swatted his hand away softly.
"The pain on your face is so evident," she said laughing, wiping away the tears the liquor had brought up in her eyes.
"…thanks?" he half-asked, half-stated. Then, he blinked and with a mischievous smile said, "Do you want to see more of that pain?"
Hermione didn't have time to think before he already had called all of the others over.
In a moment, they were standing in the middle of a flock of people that wanted free shots. Lavender twirled a lock of her wavy hair behind her ear, hoping to grab Ron's attention. Unfortunately for her, Harry had beat her to it and was already being poured a full second shot glass of the horrid liquor.
"Honestly," Ron whispered in Hermione's ear and eyed the half-full bottle, "I have no idea what the hell I even bought,"
He poured glasses for Neville, Parvati and Padma, Lavender, and Cho.
Then, he turned his crooked smile to her.
"Are you down for another?"
Hermione wanted to say no but her hesitation ended up with her being poured another glass anyway.
"To both old and new friends," Harry shouted, his shot glass raised.
The others raised their glasses too.
"And fuck Brad!" Lavender added in her shrill voice, forcing a giggle out of Hermione.
Cho looked at Harry for a moment with big awestruck eyes, then they all took the shot together.
When the burning yielded, she looked around the room. Around the table, all of them were grimacing, Neville even brushing over his tongue with his fingers to try and remove the taste. Unfortunately, the taste seemed to linger. His eyes watered.
"That was horr –" Lavender started, the white in her eyes visible.
"– brilliant!" Harry finished, taking his second shot without even a bat of the eye.
He slammed glass down on the table when he finished.
Ron, empathetic to the ones affected by the taste, sent around a bag of potato chips, and afterwards, everyone were happy again, perhaps even a little woozy with the alcohol.
"Who wants to play Never Have I Ever?" Cho asked quietly, once again locking eyes with Harry.
Could those two just realize they liked each other already? Hermione thought, then locked eyes with Ron.
He nodded quickly, "Do you want to?"
"Sure!"
They all settled in the sofa and chairs surrounding a small table run over with sticky alcoholic liquid. Hermione looked longingly to the other side of the couch, suddenly struck with the cold from having her only friend there sitting so far away.
For a moment, he didn't even look at her, but Ron turned around in an instant, flashing her a smile.
Lavender begun, "Never have I ever been to the US!"
Hermione, the only American, took a sip of her wine.
"Never have I ever had a pet rat that turned out to be a nasty, old, fugitive man,"
"He's not my pet rat, he's Percy's!" Ron yelped defensively.
Hermione laughed along with the others. She just needed to have a chat with Ron about whatever that was later.
For now, her shocked reaction and his reddening face were sufficient.
After a few more rounds of senseless game playing, there were a series of knocks on the door, and a whole lot of people streamed into the now overly crowded student flat.
By the time Hermione had finished her glass of wine in the couch, the living room was full of people. The rhythmic bass of the sound speaker lulled her into a fine trance, slowly dancing around to whatever music was playing over it.
She broke off from the new crowd to refill her glass with water, and accidentally bumped into a black-haired friend with glasses.
"Hey, Harry!" she exclaimed.
"Harry! Harry is here?" somebody chimed behind her, and suddenly she were flocked with three other people as well.
Harry shrugged at her, suddenly looking tired.
"Hey, I'm Colin, do you remember?" a young-looking Brit said.
"Yes," Harry sighed, but a moment later, he must have realized how detached he had seemed, and his look softened, "Colin Creevey, right?"
"Yes!" the teenager exclaimed, then turned to two of his friends, "Harry Potter knows my name!"
For a second, Hermione was silent. Then, something in her mind clicked.
Harry, Ron's childhood best friend, was the Harry Potter.
A/N: If you have the time and mind for it, I'd love to receive a review or a comment about what you think about this story so far!