Thanks again for all the reviews. If anyone's interested, I have just finished my 1st Prize Fic, which was also my 1st attempt at a seriously smutty PWP. It's called Happy Birthday & I just got it posted.
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CHAPTER 11 Hangovers and Hookups
"I feel horrible!" was the first thing Ginny heard when she woke up.
"Shut up!" she tried to say, but stopped when she felt the horrid, nauseated feeling in her stomach.
Zoë threw the curtains to her bed open and handed her a small green vile. "Drink up!"
"No!" Ginny moaned. "I'm never drinking anything you recommend again!"
"It's a hangover potion," she assured her. "You want this."
Ginny nearly gagged as she downed the awful liquid, but immediately she began to feel better. "What time is it?" she yawned.
"Oh, about 3:30," Bianca told her after swallowing her own potion.
"Are you serious?" Ginny sat up. "Someone's gonna suspect something!"
"So?" Helena challenged, pulling back her own curtains and accepting Zoë's glass. "They can't prove anything!"
"So," Zoë sat down on the edge of Ginny's bed. "Gable isn't bad, is he?"
Ginny whimpered and pulled her pillow over her head. "Gable who?"
"Come on," Zoë pulled the pillow away.
"I'm sorry to both of you," Ginny rubbed her eyes. "For snogging your ex-boyfriend."
"I didn't care," Zoë shrugged. "I told Helena to go for it!"
"And I'm the one that told you that he fancied you!" Helena added.
"But I don't want a boyfriend," Ginny complained. "I'm too busy."
"Whatever," Zoë rolled her eyes. "Just tell him that. He'll understand. You can just snog him when you need to!"
Ginny giggled. "I don't think so. I don't need any more rumors about me! Besides, you have serious hickeys on your neck."
"I know," she rubbed them absent mindedly. "Last night was great, wasn't it?"
They spent the remainder of their Saturday nibbling on food and laying around, Ginny purposely avoiding Gable, as well as Draco's suspicious gaze when she was stuck next to him when a staircase decided to move.
Sunday, Gable found her outside by the lake with Luna and Bianca, and joined them, sitting with his arm loosely around her. She could feel the burning eyes of gossiping students, and away from the heat and alcohol and passion of the nightclub, she squirmed uncomfortably, but he was oblivious.
Monday, he sat by her side in Potions class and she wished she could crawl under the floorboards and die. Draco's gaze was so fierce she could feel his eyes tearing at her skin, and she had never felt shallower in her entire 17 years. She felt like a total prat. Every person in the room probably assumed she was trying to make him jealous - although she swore to herself she wasn't.
On Wednesday, when she received her homework back from Draco, it had a large, red A at the top. Not an O, an A. For the first time since February, she looked up, willingly meeting his gaze. She wanted to tell him, "I'm sorry, I don't really like him. He was just there." But she said nothing, just stared into his blank face until she could no longer handle the indifference he was so easily projecting.
"Professor Malfoy," Helena's syrupy voice broke Ginny's thoughts. "Could you help me?"
"With what?" he asked stiffly.
"I don't know if this is just the right color," she sighed dramatically. "What do you think?"
Draco stepped forward and glanced into her cauldron. "It looks fine." He glanced up and Ginny's mouth dropped. Helena had one finger in her mouth and her robes were suddenly showing an eye full of cleavage.
Draco stepped back, and immediately his face was blank again, but he did shoot one quick look at Ginny. "Your essay was wonderful," he told Helena. "The best I've seen."
Ginny felt her stomach drop. How could he? How could he sink so bloody low? It wasn't her fault Gable hung onto her! She wanted to cry and scream and throw up.
As they walked to their DaDa class, Zoë grabbed Helena by the shoulder and spun her around. "Just what are you playing at?" she shouted.
"What are you talking about?" Helena shrugged out of her grasp.
"I'm talking about you, coming onto Professor Malfoy!"
"Isn't he single?" she asked sweetly.
"Show some respect for your dormmates, you bint!" Zoë shouted.
Ginny bit her lip and grabbed Gable's hand, pushing past Helena and marching towards Snape's class.
"Well, my dormmate is snogging my ex, isn't she?" Helena's voice rang down the hall.
***
After that, Draco made a point of speaking directly to Helena during class,a dn she flirted with him like a Veela in heat, while his eyes darted silently to Ginny, and Ginny silently glowered, but said nothing. Gable acted oblivious, although Ginny was positive he wasn't. Ginny wasn't sure why she was with him, allowing him to hold her hand and kiss her, because she wasn't interested. He was nice enough, and very good looking, but Ginny didn't want him.
She missed Draco.
After the game against Ravenclaw, which they had won by 290 points and she met with the scouts, promising that she'd be signed with one of them by the end of the school year, she decided to tell Gable. It was only fair, really. Besides, she was sick and tired of Helena's tirades and Draco's sullenness and Gable hanging onto her with every step she took.
"You were great!" he told her, kissing the back of her neck as she placed her broom in the shed.
"Thanks," she smiled. "Now I've just got to choose which team I want!"
"Uh huh," he said, his lips still attached to her skin.
She stepped away from him. "I'll probably go with the Canons. I think the Unions are offering more money, but I've always been partial to the Canons cause of my brother. He'll be so-"
Her words were cut short by Gable's mouth pressing into hers.
Ginny pulled back and gently shoved him away. "Look, I wanted to tell you something."
"You don't have to," he answered, his voice heavy, stepping forward.
"Really, I do. I just think that-"
Gable had her pressed into the broom shed and was kissing her neck. "I've wanted you for so long."
"What are you doing?" Ginny struggled to sidestep him.
"Sh, sh." He pressed his mouth into hers once again and she felt his hands snaking up the sides of her jumper.
"Stop!" she tried to snap, but her words were lost in his mouth.
One of his fingers had found its way underneath her bra, and the other was steadily trying to slip into her leather Quidditch trousers.
"Stop!" she managed to shout, using all her strength to shove him away. "What are you doing?"
"Congratulating you," he answered, diving for her. He caught her wrists in his hands and pinned them above her head. "I know what you want. I've known since that night in London." He tugged at her pants, groaning as he pressed his body into hers.
"Stop it!" she shrieked, angered and panicked.
Gable didn't stop. His hand had snaked down the front of her tight trousers, and he was grinding himself against her again, the same way he'd done in Muggle London, but this time, it filled Ginny with fear, not any type of wild abandon.
Tears of fear and frustration filled her eyes and she struggled to kick at him, but before she could, there was a thump, and a sudden movement, and Gable was no longer in front of her. For a moment she was confused, and then she realized that Gable was on the ground, and Draco was on top of him, pounding at him with his fists.
She watched in shock, as Draco's hand connected with Gable's nose and eyes and lips and jaw. When the blood began to pour from Gable's face, Ginny suddenly realized she should pull Draco off of him.
"That's enough!" she told him, tugging on his robes. "You're going to be fired!"
When Draco did stand to his feet, he kicked Gable several times and then turned to Ginny. "Are you alright?"
"Yes," she nodded, beginning to shake. "No. I don't know."
"Come on." He led her back to the school, leaving Gable to find his own way back. "What did he do to you?" he demanded when he sat her down in his bedroom.
Ginny began to cry. "Nothing. He just tried."
Draco held her as she cried, saying nothing, but stroking her hair and wiping away her tears.
Finally, she looked up at him and asked, "What were you doing out there?"
"I came to congratulate you," he said quietly. "I heard you've been offered a contract."
She smiled through her tears and nodded. "Yeah."
Draco sighed. "We'd better go talk to Dumbledore. He'll want to know why I was having a Muggle duel with a student."
"I don't want to talk to him," Ginny shook her head. "I don't want anyone to know!"
"It's alright," he hugged her. "It's not your fault." As she spoke, there was a flash of flame in Draco's fireplace, and then a large red and gold phoenix feather floated to the stone floor.
"Dumbledore is waiting for us," Draco said quietly.
Ginny looked at him fearfully.
"It's alright. You're not the one who did anything wrong." He picked up Ginny's hand and then reached out to the feather.
Without warning, Ginny felt a sharp tug on her belly button and was surprised when they landed at the top of Dumbledore's staircase.
"Come in," Dumbledore's voice rang out.
Dumbledore sat calmly behind his great desk, his hands folded and his expression calm. A sulking, bloodied and bruised Gable sat sullenly in one chair, while Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape stood at either side of him, their expressions equally grim.
"You'll be pleased to know that Mr. Pyrnne has already informed us of what has happened," Dumbledore greeted them, motioning for Ginny to sit down. "We do, however, need your verification."
Ginny stared at the corner of Dumbledore's desk, ignoring McGonagall as she stepped closer and refusing to look at Draco.
"Whenever you are ready," McGonagall said calmly.
Ginny opened her mouth and to her surprise the words came out.
When she was through, Dumbledore nodded. "Very well. That is what Mr. Pyrnne told us."
Ginny's relief overcame her surprise.
"Now, the only question that remains is whether or not you would like to press charges."
The room was completely silent. Even Fawkes and the portraits were hushed, waiting her answer.
"No," she answered slowly. "No, I don't want to do that."
"Very well," Dumbledore nodded, turning to Snape. "If you could escort Mr. Pyrnne to the hospital wing, then? His parents will be here shortly."
Ginny refused to look up as he left the room, knowing that his eyes were digging into her skin.
"However," Dumbledore continued after they were gone, "it is only right that I speak with you about this . . . atrocity as well, Professor."
Draco nodded stiffly.
"I think it would be fair to say that I will not be asking you to fill a teaching position next year." His eyes twinkled over his glasses.
"Really?" Draco glanced up.
"I have it on good authority that your inheritance is to be given back to you soon."
Draco nodded. "Thank you, sir."
"Now Ms. Weasley, would you want to go see Madam Pomfrey?"
Ginny shook her head. "No. I'll be alright."
"Then I assume I can safely trust you to escort Ms. Weasley back to her dorm?" he asked Draco. "I believe they are having a celebration in there. And Minerva if you could just stay here one moment."
"I don't really want to go back there yet," Ginny told Draco as they made their way up the stairs. "I think I'll just go to the library for a while or something."
"Come back to my room," Draco suggested. "I have some papers to grade and you can rest."
Ginny bit her lip. "I think I just want to be alone. Thank you though." Walking away from him was just about the hardest thing she'd ever done.
When she finally went back to her room, she admitted what had happened to Zoë and Bianca, who raged and cried with her.
"But, then," Bianca finally asked, "why didn't you go with Professor Malfoy?"
"I just couldn't," Ginny whispered, a fresh crop of tears erupting. "I don't know. I wanted to, but I couldn't."
"Why not?" Zoë asked, over and over. "You have something with him. Something, I can't explain it, but it's there, Gin. Stop fighting him. Forgive him."
"I did."
"You didn't. Otherwise you'd be in his room. Not ours."
"Don't do this to yourself, Ginny," Bianca pleaded with her. "You haven't been happy since you had that row."
"I know," Ginny sobbed into her pillow.
"I'm sorry about Gable. I had no idea he would . . . try that," Zoë whispered, stroking her back.
"It's not your fault," Ginny sighed, rubbing the tears from her eyes. "He didn't get to do anything though."
"No, but still," Zoë protested. "Look, you aren't happy. I know it, Bianca knows it, you know it. Just go to him."
"What if that stupid bint is with him?" Ginny fumbled for excuses. "Helena's been hanging all over him."
"She's in bed," Bianca giggled.
"Oh. Oops."
"Forget it," Zoë shrugged. "Gable approached her about you, you know. He said if she could set him up with you, that would clear the way to Professor Malfoy."
Ginny sighed. "I hate everyone."
"No you don't," Bianca picked up her hand. "Come on. I'll give you a glamour charm and you go talk to Professor Malfoy."
"I can't!"
"Yes you can!" Zoë snapped. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life wondering if things would have worked out? Wondering what your life would be like if only you had forgiven him? If things don't work out this time, well, then you'll know. You won't have to wonder. I think risking being hurt and knowing is preferable to wondering because you wanted to be safe!"
Ginny sat up. "Why did I even trust him in the first place? I had no reason to!"
"Dear gods, Gin!" Zoë sighed. "You can't go around not trusting every person you meet!"
"Right now," Ginny rubbed her eyes, "I just want to go to bed."
She stripped off her Quidditch clothes and performed a quick cleansing charm before pulling her cotton gown over her head and crawling into bed.
"Gin honey," Bianca's voice reached her ears. "We love you."
"Love you too," she murmured before drifting off to sleep.
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