The four teens sat in a circle in the library, with a half empty bottle of fire whiskey in the middle.
"And then Hermione just hit the guy! He never saw it coming! This big bad death eater falls to the floor in shock he was just hit by a girl!" Harry said.
They all laughed.
"No, no, Ginny was priceless, 'Put the wand down and your manhood, or what's left of it, will stay intact!' And he did it!" Hermione said.
Ron giggled at that and couldn't stop for a full five minutes.
"We're cuttin' you off mate, no more for you!" Harry took the fire whiskey and took two large gulps.
"That's disgusting!" Harry looked at the offending bottle then handed it to Hermione who gladly drank some more.
"We are getting in so much trouble!" Hermione slurred, "funny thing is, I don't care!"
"I better put my knight in shining underpants to bed." Ginny pulled her brother up and they carried each other to their rooms.
Harry laid down on the hardwood floor of the library. Hermione laid down next to him then moved so her top half was on his top half. She started playing with his unruly hair.
"You're a very good kisser you know." her fingers traced lines on his lips.
"I didn't know that. No one's ever commented."
She pulled some of her hair behind her ear and nodded, "Very good."
"But I'm the only one you've kissed, how do you know if I'm good or not if you haven't kissed anyone else?"
"Because you, Mr. Potter, made everything go tingly. I used to sleep in a girl's dorm, I know how first kisses are supposed to be, and one thing they aren't supposed to be is tingly... especially everywhere."
Harry's forehead wrinkled, "Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"You... It was nice... I mean... a lot nice..."
Hermione leaned over to whisper in Harry's ear, "When you dream... those dreams, am I ever there?"
"We do share a bed Hermione, of course you're there."
"No, I meant in them." Hermione pressed her nose to Harry's neck, "You smell great."
"You know you smell a little like old books... even when you haven't been to the library for the longest time..."
"Is that a bad thing?" She did not move away from his neck.
Harry thought about it for a second and said, "No."
Hermione looked him in the eye, as if to see if he was indeed telling the truth. She then put her lips to his, so they were just barely touching. They stayed like that for a second until Hermione pressed her lips to his. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as his tongue entered her mouth.
When they broke apart Harry said, "You taste like fire whiskey."
Harry seemed to think the kiss was a natural thing to do with your best friend, as if Ron could be in the room and it wouldn't have made a difference.
"As a friend, do you love me?" He asked.
"Yes." She said without a moment's pause.
He seemed to think about this for a second, then asked, "Could you say it?"
"Harry James Potter, I love you."
Harry exhaled deeply and hugged her to him in a tight hug.
"That's the first time I've heard anyone say that to me," tears welled up in his eyes.
Hermione knew he might cry if she didn't do anything, and being quite drunk she couldn't think of anything else to do but kiss him. This time when Harry put his tongue in her mouth he put his hand on the back of her head and moved them, if it was physically possible, closer together. Hermione pulled apart from him needing to breathe. She looked into his eyes to see they were fully dilated, leaving only a small ring of green. He seemed to concentrate on her face.
He moved a stray hair behind her ear, "Are you going to be mad at me in the morning?"
"It is morning."
"I meant when we sober up."
"Why would I be mad at you?"
"Because I can't say it back." He said.
"I wont be mad, I know you can't and it isn't that you wont, or that you don't. Will you be mad that I kissed you?"
"No. Because... It seemed... friendly."
"Winky is sorry Mr. Harry sir!" Winky said.
Neither saw her enter the room so they did not know how much she saw. They both sat up and wiped their lips.
"What is it Winky?"
"Tonkey told me to get you, the Professor is no longer wolfy and wants to talk to Harry sir."
"Okay, Thank you Winky, I'll be right there."
Harry got up, then helped Hermione get to her feet.
"You need any help getting to your room?" He asked.
"No, I'll be fine." She carefully walked to the stairs.
Harry buried the fire whiskey deep in one of the bookcases. He tried to straighten himself out as much as possible then went down to the basement. Lupin was fully dressed and out of his cage with Tonks helping him up the stairs.
"Harry, I heard the news, you took on five Death Eaters."
"We only got four, Bellatrix got away."
"Harry, not every four Arours could take on that many Death Eaters and come out victorious."
"We were lucky." Harry said.
Lupin shook his head, "You know one day you'll accept the credit for your actions."
"Not today." Harry said plainly.
Lupin got to the top of the stairs and looked at Harry.
"Harry, is there something different about you? Well I mean you look different."
"No... Well Hagrid gave us fire whiskey for our wounds."
"I knew I smelled that, no, I think it's something else... maybe he gave you a sip too many. You need to be careful with that stuff."
Harry smiled weakly, "I know."
"I just don't want people to start thinking ill of you, because kids can sometimes be tempted to do other things and I know you're not a bad kid but you might think it would be a cool thing to do."
Harry crossed his arms in front of him, "I'm not a child."
"I know. I'm your legal guardian and I'm just looking out for you."
"You may be, but you aren't the first, at least Sirius didn't treat me like a child!"
"Unlike Sirius, at least I know the difference between you and James!"
Harry stared at Lupin for a moment then turned and walked out of the silent room.
* * *
The four teens re-entered Grimmauld Place and quietly went back to Ron's room and locked the door with so many charms no one would be able to get in for a month. They opened the bag of muggle groceries and opened the bottles to the hard liquor while Harry opened the pack of cigarettes.
"Why did we get these? Not that I'm complaining." Ron took a swig from the bottle of vodka.
"To prove a point." Harry lit his cigarette and inhaled then coughed violently.
"Are you going to start smoking now?" Ginny asked.
"This is part of proving the point." Harry said as he tried to inhale again.
"What gave you this 'brilliant' idea?" Ginny asked.
"My aunt had a huge crush on this muggle, I remember her saying how manly he looked... It was exactly what Lupin was having a fit about, I thought it would be a good way to get my point across."
"Why are we drinking?" Hermione asked.
Harry shrugged, "I don't want to get drunk alone."
* * *
Remus started to pace again in front of McGonagall. She had come when he said he needed help with something, but she never realized it was with this.
"I went too far, I know I shouldn't have said anything about Sirius but really, how am I supposed to compete?"
"Remus, don't worry so much, he'll forgive you, just give him time."
"What if he doesn't forgive me?" Remus asked.
McGonagall sat down and motioned for Remus to do the same. He sat down, but winced, making the man look years older than he was.
They then turned to the stairs when they heard footsteps. Harry came into the room and stood against the wall, in a way that would have rivaled James Dean. Harry took a drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke out like he'd been doing it for years. He took a large swig of the vodka in his other hand, then took another drag. He stood there and after a moment blew out the smoke in one long breath.
Lupin looked at Harry for a minute, then spoke, "Harry, what's the meaning-"
"Unlike you at sixteen, pulling pranks and acting more childish than I ever did, I'm not infantile. I guess you can add it up to the fact that I was never a child, so the feeling escapes me."
Harry walked away, not wanting to hear anything Lupin could have said. McGonagall seemed to be, for the first time Lupin could remember, speechless.
Harry shut the door to Ron's room calmly then ran to Ron's bathroom to flush the cigarette.
"Make your point?" Hermione asked.
"I think so." Harry handed her the bottle, "I think I should go sleep this off."
"Are we not getting drunk anymore?" Ron was sitting upside down in his chair.
"No, just me. You guys keep at it if you want."
For the first time in quite some time Harry went to bed in his own bedroom.
A couple of hours later Hermione tripped her way to her room to only see it bare. She closed the door and mumbled, "Sorry, must've got the wrong room."
She opened the door to Harry's room and seeing his sleeping form she walked over to the bed. He was lying on his stomach so she crawled into bed and used his back as a pillow.
* * *
Mr. Weasley went down the hall to make sure all the kids got to bed okay. He heard from Lupin that they had been drinking for most of the day, and although he was mad at his children he was comforted by the fact that they stayed in one room and didn't make any trouble. It was far from what his other children had done the first time they drank, especially the twins. He was also comforted with the fact that Ginny was not alone with... a boy... and that her brother was there to keep an eye on her. Harry and Hermione were responsible kids and he knew they would never do anything 'bad.' He reasoned that if he were sixteen and knew he had to kill the darkest wizard for a hundred years he would need a drink too.
He opened the door to Ron's room, apparently where most of the drinking took place, and stepped inside. He threw away the two bottles of empty muggle liquor and the pack of cigarettes. He looked over to see his son half on the bed and half hanging off. He moved him so that he was lying completely on the bed. He wiped the words 'King Weasel' written in lipstick off his forehead, and wrapped the covers around him.
When he got to Ginny's room he wrapped her in covers and wiped the word 'Tease' off her forehead. He made a mental note to forget he ever saw that. He crossed the hall and opened the door to Hermione's room, no one was there. His heart began to race, he looked under the bed and in the bathroom, but she wasn't there. He went to see if Harry was gone too, and his heart stopped racing. It seemed to stop all together.
Harry was laying off to the right and on his stomach while Hermione was using him as a pillow. He got closer and saw the word 'Bookworm' written on her head, while Harry had nothing written on him. 'He must have gone to bed early.'
He wiped the word from her head and decided it would not be good for her parents to see this, no matter how innocent he knew it was. Harry began to move a little and mumbled something.
"Hermione..." he shook her but she did not seem to wake.
"Hermione..."
He shook her a bit harder this time and her eyes began to open.
"You're in the wrong bed Hermione."
She looked over at Harry then back to Mr. Weasley, then back to Harry again, then to Mr. Weasley.
"Oh, right. I was wondering why my pillow was so hard."
With help from Mr. Weasley she got up off of the bed. Harry then shot up straight in bed.
"Voldemort is a horrible ballerina!" he said.
"That's right Harry, he couldn't pirouette if his life depended on it!" Hermione shouted back.
With that Harry laid back down and fell asleep again.
-->