Title: Take A Walk On The Wild Side
Summary: After seven years of worry about Voldemort (not to mention schoolwork!) Hermione Granger accepts a dare from Ron to take a walk on the wild side for one night.
Rating: PG-13 for adult themes
Authors Notes: I love taking showers- I always get hit with story ideas whilst I'm in there lol. So this is a shower one-shot lol.
'Right- Party, tonight, Three Broomsticks, who's coming?' Ron called over the excited calls from the Gryffindor common room. It was a brilliant day outside and for the first time in three years they had something real to celebrate.
Voldemort was gone. He had taken down some great wizards in his time, but he was finally defeated.
And the victorious Dumbledore's Army would be arriving in Hogsmeade that afternoon and Ron wanted to make it a night to remember- especially for Harry. He deserved it. From the letters that his father had sent to him after the final battle, Harry had fought tooth and nail with Voldemort until the end.
Putting the letter confirming the arrival time in his pocket he bounded across the room to where Hermione was sitting, staring out the window at nothing. He sat down next to her and beamed.
'Cheer up 'Ermione. The wars over, Harry's coming home and we've finished school. Damn good reason to celebrate if you ask me!'
'I didn't ask you,' she said coolly.
'Well, I don't care if you asked or you didn't. Cause you're coming to this party tonight and you're going to have fun even if I have to bewitch you.'
'Oh just sod off Ron,' she snapped standing up and starting to make her way through the crowd. Ron hurried to keep up.
'Well let's make a bet then.'
'A bet?'
'Yes. A bet. I bet that you can't, for one night, take a walk on the wild side and have the teenage fun you're meant to.'
'And what do I win?'
'A whole summer without me annoying you- if you take a walk on the wild side at this party tonight, I won't annoy you all summer. No teasing, nothing. All summer.'
'And if I lose?'
'I get to tease you as much as I like all summer long.'
'It's not much of a bet, but I'm in. Just to see your face when I walk on that wild side.'
~*~
Looking around the room, Hermione made sure that Ron wasn't looking before she let out a sigh. Pretending to be having fun and walking on the proverbial wild side was tougher than she thought. She took a sip of her Butterbeer and let her eyes fall on Harry.
Mr Weasley had been right about one thing in his letter- Harry was in a very victorious mood. He had grown up since Dumbledore's death a year earlier and he seemed light years ahead of the rest of them. He seemed to have let go of the ghosts that were holding him back and it had been the best thing for him- he had been happy for most of the year. And now that Voldemort was gone for good- well, the grin couldn't be wiped off his face as he sat at the table with Ron, Lavender and Parvati. They were playing a drinking game of some sort and Hermione found herself wishing she was more like Lavender and Parvati. She had such a hard time letting go and having fun, the kind of fun they had.
The kind of fun that guys liked. The kind of fun guys like Harry liked girls to have.
She sighed heavily. Viktor Krum had been the only guy who had ever expressed an interest in her and he'd gotten married a month earlier. It was depressing to realize that at eighteen all she had done with her life was study.
'What good is it pretending,' she said miserably to herself. 'I'm not having fun.'
It's time to make your own fun the voice in her head said. Before she knew what she was doing, her feet were taking her to the table where her two best friends sat. She summoned another chair without thinking and sat there with them and smiled sweetly.
'So boys, how many rounds behind am I?'
Harry and Ron let out a cheer and called for Madam Rosmerta to bring them more Firewhisky. Ron expertly poured her five glasses full and Hermione just looked at each of them. She had never drunk anything stronger than Butterbeer. She knew it would hit her hard.
'C'est la vie,' she said, picking up the first glass and knocking it back in one. She was right- it hit her hard. Her head spun and her stomach churned, but she reached for the second glass. Then the third. Then the fourth. She stopped at the fourth. Everything was getting blurry. Down went the fifth. Ron refilled all five glasses and she drank them all in quick succession.
'Ron… I think you have a challenger…' Harry said watching as Hermione downed her eleventh straight glass.
'She won't beat me,' Ron said, pouring some liquid into his own glasses. Harry grabbed the bottle from him, deciding to bow out of the game. Lavender and Parvati had departed when Hermione arrived. Ron quickly caught up to Hermione in the number stakes and Harry began doling the liquid out in single glass shots.
By the time they got to the sixteenth round, quite a crowd had gathered. Hermione couldn't see or hear any of them- her only focus was the glass in front of her. Not that it was in very much focus. Everything was blurred.
It happened on her eighteenth glass. She lifted it to her lips and began to let the hot liquid slide down her throat, but it wouldn't go down. She bought her hand up to her mouth and covered it before she got up and ran in the general direction of the ladies loo.
Finding the loo door she stumbled in and grabbed hold of the first toilet she could and opened her mouth. The Firewhisky came out from the last glass came out, followed by most of what else she had drunk.
Eyes slightly in more focus, she looked up at her surroundings and saw Harry, Ron and the twins staring at her in disbelief. That was when she realized she wasn't clutching a toilet. She was clutching a urinal.
She was in the men's toilet.
'I feel like shit,' she slurred, letting go and sliding down to the floor.
~*~
It was the bumping sensation that woke her up. It was dark, her head was pounding and she knew she wasn't on the ground. Her eyes focused and she saw the glint of Harry's glasses in the dim torch light.
He was carrying her up a set of stairs. But where was she?
They reached a landing and Harry pushed a door open and laid her down on something soft- it felt like a bed. But where there beds at the Three Broomsticks?
'Here,' he said, passing her a water bottle. 'You need to drink some of this.'
She gulped a little bit of the water, but her stomach started to churn so she stopped.
'My head…' she groaned and was surprised to hear Harry laugh.
'I'm not surprised. Seventeen glasses in a row of Firewhisky? Hell, I'm surprised you're still conscious!'
She groaned and threw the water bottle on the floor.
'S'all Ron's fault,' she murmered. 'Stupid bet anyway.'
'Bet?' Harry asked confused.
'He… he said I couldn't walk on the wild side… but I showed him…'
'You showed more than just Ron,' he said softly, sitting on the bed next to her and stroking her forehead. 'You just sleep now. We'll talk in the morning.'
'Sleep with me?' she said, closing her eyes, grabbing hold of his hand.
'I can't,' he whispered into her ear. 'Not tonight, not now…'
He kissed her forehead and looked at her face. She hadn't heard him- she was sound asleep. He sighed and let go of her hand and sat on the chair next to the bed. The Firewhisky he had drunk allowed him to doze off sitting next to her.
~*~
Waking up with a splitting headache was something Hermione wasn't used too, especially waking up in a strange bed with a splitting headache. She sat up quickly, startled by her strange surrounds and the fact that she couldn't remember how she got there.
Harry was sound asleep in a chair next to the bed, a fact that added to her confusion. She shook him roughly and he jumped at first, before smiling at her.
'Morning. And how are you?'
'Ugh- not so loud,' she said, laying back down. 'What happened to me? Why do I feel like I've been run over?'
'Well,' Harry started, grinning. 'You took a bet with Ron, from what I believe, and it led to some things happening, which led to you being here.'
Her memory came back with his words. The bet. Her jealousy at Harry and Ron drinking with Lavender and Parvati.
'Oh god… I made a right fool of myself, didn't I?' she asked and Harry shrugged his shoulders.
'I think a lot of people will have forgotten after Ginny's attempts at karaoke,' he said with a laugh. 'Why did you take the bet with Ron? And why did you challenge him with the Firewhisky?'
'Because,' she said miserably. 'I was trying to be like them.'
'Like who?'
'Lavender, Parvati… Ginny even. The girls who can let loose. You know, the sort of girls you like.'
Harry grabbed hold of her chin and looked her straight in the eyes.
'Wherever did you get the impression that I liked that sort of girl?' he asked and she shrugged. 'Because there is only one sort of girl I like.'
'And what's that?'
'Smart girls. Girls that will spend more time studying of a morning than doing their hair. Girls that start revising for end of year exams in December. Girls who feel that getting an A on a test in class is a tragedy,' he said quickly, looking her in the eyes. 'Girls like you, Hermione. Girls like the real you.'
Hermione was in shock for a moment- she almost couldn't process what he had said. She couldn't think of the words to say, so she lowered her head forward and kissed his lips softly.
'That's why you wouldn't sleep next to me, in the bed,' she said quietly. 'You were scared I'd take it the wrong way.'
'Damn scared,' he said with a laugh. 'You feel up to breakfast?'
'No… I feel like sleeping a bit more… will you join me?'
'This time, Miss Granger, I will,' he said, kissing her softly. 'After all, you're just my type- except when you take a walk on the wild side.'