QL, Wanderers, Beater 1, Round 3.

Theme: Girls just wanna have fun

Prompts:

(dialogue) "Pay attention to me."

(emotion) fear

(object) glitter

Word count: 2048

Betas: Aya, Carmen, Abi.

"Look at me. Focus on me! Pay attention to me!" she pleaded, looking down at her friend. This couldn't be happening. It was just supposed to be a bit of fun. She looked around in fear, looking for somebody, anybody to help, then let out a breath. "Keep calm. Focus."

Ginny shouldn't have let things get so out of hand, but now Cho was unconscious on the floor and she wasn't sure what to do.

She looked around, trying to keep her breathing controlled to lower her heartbeat, but it was useless. The young adult tried to reason with herself, she had been in a war, and yet, her mind was blank.

Picking up her wand from where she had abandoned it on the floor a few moments ago, she sent a Patronus to her husband. He would be able to help.

Ginny sighed, wiping the tears that were falling down her cheeks. This day had started so well. It was just supposed to be a fun girls weekend.

That morning.

Ginny hadn't been able to stop smiling for the past twenty minutes as her friends all started to turn up. Everybody had been so busy since graduating Hogwarts that it was very difficult for everybody to get together unless it was a wedding – and even then not everybody could make it for the entire thing. However, with her expert planning, Ginny had managed to arrange a whole weekend for the girls. There wasn't a specific reason, no big announcement or special occasion. Simply the chance to reconnect, let loose, and have fun.

Cho, Luna, and Hannah were already there when Ginny had arrived, and she took immediate notice on how much they've changed since their school days. Cho looked the most different out of the three of them; her hair was lighter and she appeared a lot happier and full of life. Hogwarts and the war took a big toll on her, so Ginny was glad to see that she had recovered well.

Hermione walked in and made a beeline for them.

"'Mione!" Ginny greeted as if they hadn't just seen each other the night before.

"Hey Gin," she replied, allowing herself to be hugged. She turned her attention to the other girls already there and hugged each of them.

"You look great!" Hermione said to Hannah who was currently five months pregnant and clearly showing.

Hannah grinned back at her. "Thanks! I hope I don't ruin the fun this weekend. No drinking for me."

Hermione shrugged off the comment, she wasn't planning on drinking much herself, either. "You won't ruin anything. Trust me. The weekend is already better with your beautiful glow warming the place."

Ginny opened her mouth to agree with Hermione but only ended up nodding as the Patil sisters had arrived and approached them. They were almost unrecognisable and Ginny decided they are the ones who changed the most next to Cho.

"Sorry we're late," they greeted in unison before they hugged everybody individually and fell into different conversations.

"That's it! We're all here!" Ginny announced after doing a quick headcount, pulling everybody out of their mini conversations. "We have a lot to do this weekend. Loads of catching up, adventure, drinking, and partying!"

There were a few whoops.

Ginny scanned everybody's face before pulling out the Portkey. She was glad that nobody was too late. "Thirty-eight seconds."

Hermione was the first to the coat hanger, followed by Cho. Soon they were all holding on except Hannah.

"I'll see you all there in about…" Hannah paused and looked at the time. "Twenty minutes."

There was a few light goodbyes before the Portkey activated and they were all sucked into the void to their weekend retreat destination.

The drinking began sooner than was anticipated by any of them. All it took was a single suggestion of pink champagne and an exploding glitter party-popper to get them going. Noise erupted around the women, covered in the shimmery glitter, peeling silly string from their hair just half an hour later, and discarded plastic cups strewn around their retreat location. Already wasted, they were going out into the dark-lit streets to find somewhere to celebrate being drunk and being with friends.

"Your lipstick is smeared, Gin," Hermione commented, rubbing her thumb along her own lip absentmindedly. She had promised herself she wouldn't drink, but several raspberry vodkas had taken her down faster than a hippogriff on speed. "In fact, your face is smeared." She giggled nonsensically.

"I'm in love with an idiot," Ginny replied, grinning. "Hannah, how are you not completely hammered right now?" To which Hannah pointed at her protruding belly sardonically, lemonade in hand.

"Unfortunately, I'm carrying life within me, so I cannot be as reckless as the rest of you," Hannah joked in return. "Plus, I love lemonade. Don't pity me, ladies."

"Never."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"I don't think I want children," Hermione mused, last. "I'm going to drink alcohol for the rest of my life. This fizzy pink stuff is great for your health, right?"

Ginny grinned. She had told the brunette that the colour of the drink symbolised the fruit it had in it. Absinthe. For apple. It was a hilarious new version of Hermione Granger.

"Speaking of health, I should be getting back," Hannah said, downing the last of the lemonade and standing unsteadily. "The lady gets tired when she's carrying what feels like fifty extra pounds of human inside her. And even sugary lemonade is not enough to keep me going." Hannah smiled around at her friends, in their horrifying drunken state, but just as attentive to each other as usual. "This has been so fun. I am so excited to see how sick you are all going to feel tomorrow. Be safe!"

"I'll go back with you now, if that's alright, Hannah?" Padma asked, her twin beside her.

The three girls kissed cheeks, chins, foreheads of their friends and hobbled outside into the biting night air.

"Have you seen Luna?" Cho asked suddenly to Ginny's left, a white wine in her hand. Ginny shook her head.

"Not since she started dancing on that poor bloke's table."

"That was funny," Hermione murmured, then giggled loudly and obtrusively. "She's probably away with the fairies. Away, allegoric, antibody, ant... Amiga..." Hermione trailed off, looking into the distance, remembering the words beginning with 'A' for no apparent reason. It didn't bother the other two women, who were too far gone to notice this, let alone notice Hermione wandering off.

Cho and Ginny drank together longer and longer into the night, neither of them realising the time or the people around them. Cho mentioned something about air before pulling Ginny outside with her. It was a beautiful night, with glistening water falling around them. "The water is like glitter in this light."

Ginny looked up and agreed. However, she was quickly distracted with a flash of light and noise down an alleyway. The curious witch followed the commotion with Cho stumbling behind her. That's when their night went downhill.

Harry scoffed at Ron's behaviour. His best friend had decided that since the girls were having a great weekend out, that they should too and invited half of the Aurors to their house for a 'lad's evening in'. Due to work schedules and the lack of organisation on the Weasley's part, only six turned up, giving them a total of eight Aurors. Which Harry really enjoyed. He still wasn't fond of big parties.

But, Ron was still acting like a school child as they played the throwback games. Truth or Dare just wasn't all that enjoyable anybody. At least until Ron was running around outside him a pink tutu singing Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper - Or at least what he thinks the words were.

"He does know that's not the tune?" Bradley, their newest Auror questions. He was a half blood who definitely knew all of the lyrics to this song. He had come up with the dare.

"Those aren't even the words," Ashley pointed out with a shrug. Harry wasn't sure how she knew the lyrics, but didn't question it.

Harry simply shrugged. Whatever Ron was doing, it was amusing.

Patrick was the first Auror to stop laughing and look into the distance, Ashley being the second. "Is that a Patronus?" she questioned.

Harry looked up. It was a horse. Ginny? He was up on his feet.

Harry. I need your help. I- Merlin. I don't know what happened but… I don't know who they were. Just come. Cho's unconscious and I don't know where Luna or Hermione went. I think Hannah went to the hotel. I just- Come please.

The Auror's didn't bother waiting until the end of the message until they began getting up and ready to go. "What's the location?" Bradley questioned, summoning some water for everybody to help sober up.

"What's going on?" Ron asked as he wondered in.

"Gin's in trouble," Harry responded shortly as he grabbed his wand. He gave a very, very short briefing before Apparating out.

Harry let out a sigh of relief when he turned up and saw that Ginny appeared unharmed. The pops that sounded around him made him feel safer about heading straight to her instead of checking their surroundings. "Gin. What happened? Look at me."

"I…" Ginny looked around before burying her head in his chest.

"Where's 'Mione?" Ron demanded.

Her breathing was shallow. Harry ran a hand through her hair before turning his attention to Cho. He gently pushed his wife off him and stood up. "Bradley. Take Cho to St. Mungo's. I want a full report on her health within ten minutes."

"Yes, Sir."

Ginny looked stunned as the male took her friend away. "Wait! What are you doing?"

"Cunningham, Moss, Weasley." The three looked at him. "Search this area for any from the party. Hermione Weasley, Luna Scamander, Padma Patil, Pavarti Patil, and Hannah Longbottom.

The three nodded and started. Ron looking very focused, but they both knew he would be focused on looking for one of them specifically.

"Knight, Zabini, Orville. Go the the hotel room and see if any of them are there."

Harry waited two seconds for them to follow his orders before finally turning his attention back to his wife. "What happened?" he asked again, his voice back to the soft and comforting tone he had started with. "Pay attention to me. Only me."

Ginny took a shaky breath, taking her time to compose herself. Harry hated seeing her like this. "We were just partying. Cho and I came out for some air. We were really drunk. And these guys were threatening to kill these other guys. I told them it wasn't a good idea and then they turned their wands on us."

"Who fired first?"

"I… I did. They were going to attack. It was a… No. They attacked first. Not me. But… they… One of them attacked another guy with a curse and he screamed in pain. I warned them and helped...tried to help." Ginny attempted to explain, her words slightly scattered. It was unclear if that was due to fear or alcohol – probably a mixture of both.

"I helped," she whispered pitifully looking over at where Cho had been laying down.

Two pops alerted Harry to returning Aurors.

"Longbottom, Patil, and Patil are safe in their hotel room. Orville is staying with them," Blaise Zabini informed them.

Harry nodded. Five out of seven accounted for. "Thank you. It appears Ginny and Cho interrupted an attack and were caught in the middle."

Ron walked out with a very drunk Hermione, followed by Luna being carried by Moss.

"She's just asleep," he answered his unasked question.

"I think it's time for everybody to go home."

"What? No! The party's just started!"

Harry raised his eyebrows at Hermione, but decided now wasn't the time to get curious about this side of one of his best friends. "Moss, take Longbottom home to Neville. Weasley, take 'Mione and Ginny home. We'll stay and investigate what happened."

He received nods once again. And even though Harry was fully focused on working out what happened, he did enjoy watching Ron attempt to wrangle Ginny, who refused to go without Harry, and a very, very drunk and sparkly Hermione. This would be a night he wouldn't forget.