Disclaimer: I don't own anything. How often have I said this? Surely you all understand that by now. *sigh*
Ginny stood out on the balcony of her flat in Diagon Alley, her big shirt blowing around her in the wind. She looked up at the sky, which was a nice blue laced with big puffy clouds. In her hand, she had a bottle of Ogden's Fire Whiskey and was taking lazy sips from it every ten seconds.
She sighed loudly and hung further over the balcony and scratched her knee, frowning at it viciously. Yes, she was drunk, very drunk. From the door, the sounds of family and her friends calling on her Wiz-Phone was evident, they left numerous messages that she wasn't even going to bother to answer.
"Hello? Ginny? Come on, Ginny, you can't stay home and mope all day," she heard Charlie's voice say. She hadn't even heard from her mother yet, she'd probably been too ashamed to call her.
Then there was Ron, who was torn, he didn't know how to act. "Gins, let me take you to lunch, I don't want you to lie around feeling sorry for yourself."
"Ha," she said, swinging her bottle of fire whiskey around. "Feel sorry for myself? Now, why would I do a thing like that?"
She was mumbling under her breath to herself so she didn't see the snowy white owl that was heading her way. Ginny had brought the bottle up to her lips again and it swooped down whizzing past her head, making her cry out and topple over the edge of the balcony.
Draco Malfoy was walking down the cobblestone sidewalk quickly, trying to get to work. He had already run into numerous people because he wasn't watching where he was going.
He did stop to buy a Daily Prophet, he grinned to himself as he read the front page. "Harry Potter's Bride has Cold Feet." From what he'd read, it was much more than just cold feet, she had called the entire wedding off.
A shriek rang out through the morning air. He looked up quickly to see a figure fall over a balcony, its limbs flailing helplessly. "Oh, great," he said as he noticed it was female and falling right over his head. He dropped his paper just in time to catch her in his arms.
She looked up at him through a veil of long, red, curly hair. She blinked slowly and slurred, "Wow, you're good at catching people."
Draco raised his eyebrows. "Well, yes, I guess you could say that." He noticed a broken bottle of whiskey on the cobblestones and cursed under his breath. This woman was drunk.
"It was very nice of you to catch me." She said. "Just think, I could have broken my neck if you hadn't." Her head fell onto his chest, then it jerked right back up. "Who are you?" she demanded clumsily. "And why are you going around catching people?"
He frowned at her, "What are you doing falling from buildings onto unsuspecting people?"
She let out a loud wail. "It isn't my fault. I swear." She stopped to look at him and whisper confidentiality, "Today is my wedding day. Or, technically, it's my non-wedding day considering I called it off." She sighed. "I was only getting married to him because….well…I thought I loved him…."
Draco just about dropped her on her butt. "What? Who were you getting married too?"
She rolled her eyes, "Harry Potter."
Now he set her down on her feet carefully. He had just caught a Weasley. He wiped his hands on his robes, but didn't really think that helped get the filth off much. But then again, this Weasley had to be better than the others, considering she turned down Harry Potter and all.
He looked at her carefully, she was a mess. Her very red and very curly hair was all over the place, her eyes had dark circles under them and smudged eye make up all over the top portion of her face. He noticed that she had little beads of sweat on her eyebrows; she was going to be sick.
"Eugh," she clutched her stomach with one hand and looked up at him piteously. "I think I'm going to barf."
Ginny knew the guy had somewhere to be, and she could help but feel guilty. He was holding her hair back for her as she puked her organs up in the trash dumpsters in the alley next to her apartment building. He was tapping his expensive shoe clad foot on the ground, waiting for her to finish.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and straightened to face him. She felt a great deal more sober now, even though she was still pretty drunk. She had a pretty good feeling that she was as pale as a ghost, with was probably making her ugly freckles stand out even more.
"I'm sorry," she croaked, still tasting the disgusting bile in her mouth. She hoped to Merlin that he couldn't smell it too bad. It was embarrassing enough as it was.
He gave her a look and just said, "You should lay off the liquor." Then he left.
She stood in the alleyway watching him. His expensive black robes billowing our around his legs as he walked way. She sighed and hit her forehead gently with the palm of her hand. "Damn, I didn't even get his name."
Ginny started back to her flat, wincing at the hard stones on her bare feet.
"Ginny! Oi! Gins!" she turned around and saw Colin running at her. She groaned; she really didn't want him to see her like this. "Good, Merlin, Gins, what have you been doing?"
"Puking my brains out," she said blinking at him.
"Oh," he put his hand on her arm. "Do you need me to help you back to your apartment?"
"That would be lovely."
"And," he wrinkled his eyebrows. "What are you doing out here in just a shirt? Puking no less?"
"I'm wearing underwear, Colin, not just a shirt. For Merlin's sake." She gave him a long look. "Oh, and I fell over the balcony. That would be why I'm puking out here, and not in my flat."
"What?" he looked at her carefully. "You fell over the balcony."
"I do believe that's what I just said."
"It's just-how come you aren't all bloodied up then?" asked Colin as he helped her up the stairs.
"There was this really nice," she paused, "and gorgeous guy that caught me."
Colin frowned, "Caught you? What was he doing?-Just standing around waiting to catch someone?"
Ginny shrugged, "I don't know. But he was very nice about it; he even held my hair back for me while I puked my brains out."
"Quit saying that," Colin said wrinkling his nose.
"What?-Puking my brains out?"
"Yes, just exactly that."
Ginny patted his arm, "It's okay, Colin. I didn't really puke them out. They're still in my skull, fully intact."
"I don't know about that…" he said slowly. He sniffed her. "Have you been drinking?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "So what if I have?"
"Gods, Gin, you're drunk."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," she said tripping over her feet, swaying over the stair rail. Colin caught her arm and hauled her back before she could fall over that too.
"You sure are smarmy when you're drunk," Colin said, opening to door of her flat and leading her inside. "You go take a shower and I'll make you some tea." He shoved her towards the bathroom gently. "Go on now." He looked around the kitchen with mild disgust, there were liquor bottles everywhere.
"You'd think," he said to himself. "That since she was doing the jilting, she might not be so miserable." He shook his head and found her trash can, throwing all the bottles into it, causing loud clinks to ring out through the flat.
>.< br>
Colin heard the shower cut off and Ginny making odd noises in the bathroom. He looked towards her bathroom worriedly,
but didn't move to go in there. He finished cleaning in the kitchen only to find that there were more liquor
bottles in the living room. He sighed and dragged the trash can in there.
The springs in Ginny's mattress creaked. Colin shook his head, "No way am I cleaning up this mess by myself if she's out." He left the trash can in the middle of the room and walked to Ginny's knocking gently on the door. She didn't answer. He pushed the door open and saw her lying on the bed, her robe wrapped around her. She was snoring.
"Good Gods," he said. "She has no tolerance for alcohol." He shook his head and went back to cleaning.
Draco ran his fingers through his soft, pale blond hair. He grumbled low in his throat as he looked down at the parchments in front of him.
"Parkinson!" he barked.
Pansy scrambled in looking very flustered. He narrowed his eyes at her. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" She had taken to calling him Mr. Malfoy now that she worked for him. There was nothing that got on his nerves more.
He tried not to yell out at her. He'd already had a pretty stressful morning, catching a Weasley out of midair and all. "We need catering for the meeting on Friday."
"What kind?" she asked, summoning a quill and pad from her desk.
"Just the snack kind, it's going to be lasting through lunch. I figured we could take a break for everyone to go get lunch. But they might be hungry later," said Draco. When Pansy didn't say anything, he blinked at her, "I want you to find somewhere that can cater a small snack type thing."
"Oh," she said nodding. She thought for a moment, "How about that Cookie Shoppe? They've got the best cookies I've ever had."
He furrowed his eyebrows, "That really small one?"
"Yes, it's great. And I think they cater."
Draco shrugged, "That's okay I guess."
Pansy grinned at him, "Okay, I'll get right on it."
"Don't break it," he mumbled under her breath as she left his office.
Ginny was going to die. Or at least that's what she felt like doing. Her head was pounding with a skull splitting headache, and she had stomach-turning nausea. "Aghh," she groaned clutching her head.
Colin poked his head in the door. "You up?"
His words echoed through her head like thunder. "Yes," she said wincing.
"Does your head hurt?" he asked innocently.
She glared at him, "Yes, yes, actually it does."
"Oh," he said smiling. "Well, I've made you some tea. Want to see if helps any?"
"I'd be willing to try anything," she said getting out of bed. A wave of nausea came over her and she bolted to the bathroom. Colin could hear her retching and went to get her a glass of water. He brought it to her, seeing her sitting on the very edge of the toilet seat, lid down. She was pale and shaking, her freckles standing out fiercely. "On second thought," she croaked. "I'll be willing to try anything but something that contains alcohol."
Colin nodded, "That might be wise."
"Oh, shove off," she said as he handed her the glass of water. She gulped it down and her eyes widened, "No, no, stay," she jumped off the toilet and jerked the lid open again. Colin sighed and took her hair in his hands.
"You know," he said conversationally. "It seems like you're the one who was left standing at the altar the way you're acting."
She shook as she turned around to face him, wiping off her mouth with some toilet paper. "No, if I was the one left at the altar," she said shakily. "I would be much, much worse."
"But you didn't even love him," Colin pointed out. "You said so yourself."
"The humiliation, Colin, the humiliation would make me worse."
"How do you think Harry's feeling right now?" he asked.
Ginny shrugged, "I'm not sure. But probably not as bad as me, considering we were both going to get married for the wrong reasons. Me calling it off was probably a relief to him."
Colin quirked his mouth noncommittally, "Whatever the case, I think you should come have some of this tea I made. Did I tell you I make really good tea?" he asked as he helped her up from the bathroom floor. "My mother says it's the best in all of England."
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