Chapter III
Ginny's night started out with an innocent butter beer, leading to pint after pint of mead. She drank alone until Rosemerta escorted her home at closing time.
"Ginny, here we go. Hermione will be home soon. You should have taken a potion, Ginny," Rosemerta said sighing and covering Ginny up with a blanket. Ginny was sprawled haphazardly, laughing wildly.
"Hermione is with Harry…she won't be home. They are probably shagging like dogs right now. I'm…I…I'm fiiiiine! I'm, a…a…a…big girl," Ginny slurred.
"Take care of yourself, Ginny. I'll see you later," Rosemerta said and flicked the lights off in the lounge where Ginny was laying. Ginny passed out soon after fully dressed in her jeans and boots.
In the morning, Ginny awoke to Hermione's muggle stereo blasting cheesy love songs from some one-hit-wonder American boy band. She rubbed her throbbing head and got up from the sofa.
"Hermione, will you shut off that poor excuse for music?" Ginny shouted up the stairs.
"What's that Gin?" Hermione shouted back down.
Ginny stomped up the stairs, barged into Hermione's room and clicked to music off. "I said, turn off that poor excuse for music!"
"What's your problem? I know you not a morning person, but you're never this evil."
"I have a hang over," She replied moodily, rubbing her throbbing her head.
"Why didn't you take that potion? We have some in the cupboard."
"I wasn't expecting to drink. I was just going for a butter beer, and I guess somehow I started drinking mead."
"Mead? That stuff has a 90 proof! No wonder you were so drunk!"
"I know. Do we have any headache potion?"
"Yeah, it's the blue bottle," Hermione called as Ginny walked down the hall to the bathroom.
Draco Malfoy woke up in a strange room that wasn't his own.
'Oh Merlin, who did I have a one night stand with this time?' Draco thought. He looked to his left. The bed was empty, offering no clue. He got up, stretched his tall, and quite naked frame and started to get dressed. As he was buckling his belt, he saw a familiar figure leaning against the doorframe.
"Hey Samantha."
"Hey Draco," She said and then took a draw on her cigarette.
"Are you still on birth control potions?"
"Yeah, don't worry about. I think we used a condom too. I'm not sure. For once I think I was more drunk than you," Samantha said, chuckling. She leaned against the doorframe. Her face still held the remnants of make up from the night before.
"I thought you weren't allowed to drink on your shift," Draco said, sitting back down on the bed, putting on his socks. Samantha was a bartender at the Three Broom Sticks.
"I was off when I saw you drinking with that Ginny girl. For a minute I thought you were going to take her home."
"I almost slept with Ginny Weasley? Oh god, I must have been drunk." Draco rubbed his temple wondering how he could have been so foolish.
"She looked just as lonely as you did." With that statement, the memories came flooding back to him a hazy fog of last night's drunken revels.
"Well, well, Draco Malfoy. I didn't expect to see you here," Ginny half slurred. She was only a little tipsy.
"What did you think I did? Sit at home drinking from expensive crystal brandy decanters?"
"And smoking Cuban cigars. That is exactly what I thought." Ginny smiled and took a sip of her wizard's ale.
"Well, I was lonely so I came down here to see if I could take someone home for a drunk fuck."
"Drunk fuck? What a lovely term. Doesn't one night stand sound better?"
"Not to me. Because DF is exactly what it is."
"I haven't had a one night stand since I first got out of Hogwarts." Ginny replied, sounding nostalgic.
"And who was that with? Your hero Potter?"
"I really don't think that it is your business Malfoy," Ginny hiccoughed in Draco's face, getting angry.
"Your face is looking quite lonely to me."
"Yeah, is it?"
"And you're lonely. You give it away….especially your eyes." He whispered silkily into her ear.
"Well I'm right in front of you. You have never noticed me until you were drunk off your rocker?"
"That isn't true. I think you're sexy. I watch you everyday, jogging down the side walk in your high heeled shoes."
"If you didn't scream at me every time I'm late, maybe I won't have run!" Ginny was getting hostile.
"Hey, my memories lay out side that window. I can see the of Malfoy Manor from that top floor window." Draco wasn't sticking to any subjects.
"Oh poor baby Draco. You had a childhood full of expensive robes and summer holidays in Italy. I feel really feel bad for you."
"You bring the worst out of me Ginny Weasley. If it's not me, then it's you."
"Hey Draco, I'm off my shift. Do you want to have drink with me?" Samantha said pulling on his arm.
"Just remember that Ginny. It's not me, it's you!" Draco shouted as Samantha dragged him across the pub. Ginny called a waiter over and asked for another pint.
"I did almost sleep with Ginny didn't I? Thanks for saving me," Draco said fixing his hair with the comb he always kept in his pocket.
"It wouldn't be that bad for you would it? I mean Ginny Weasley is a pretty girl," Samantha replied, lighting up another cigarette and taking a long draw on it and sighing.
"She is but she works for me," Draco said, frowning.
"Oh bad idea."
"Exactly. I have to go. I have lots of work to do on the new magazine. I'll see you later Samantha," he said picking up his cloak, closing her bedroom door behind him, letting himself out.
A knock came to the door and Hermione got up to answer the door.
"Good afternoon Hermione. How are you?" Ron replied from the doorway, smiling widely.
"Oh god Ron, where did you come from? I thought you were in America!" Hermione squealed and hugged her friend. Ginny hurried to the door.
"Ronald Weasley, why didn't you tell us you were coming home?" Ginny laughed and kissed his cheek, her hangover gone from her mind.
"I wanted it to be a surprise. I was just at the Burrow. When I heard that good ole Percy was running for Minister of Magic, I had to come home," he said has he walked into the living room.
"It looks like a bunch of girls live here!" Ron laughed, noticing the near tidy and homey atmosphere, along with hairbrushes and assorted fashion magazines on the coffee and end tables.
"You're very observant. Hey, guess what?" Ginny replied happily, feeling like a child.
"I don't know, what Ginny?"
"You are looking at the editorial writer for the new magazine, Phoenix Feathers!"
"Oh Ginny, that is brilliant! That's what you've always wanted to do." Ron hugged his sister.
"I know. Hey Mione, why don't you ring Harry and tell him apperate here if he isn't busy," Ginny offered.
"Good idea, Gin."
"That was my next stop. You guys were the closest to Hogwarts."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Hermione asked, dialing Harry's number.
"Nothing. You'll see later." Ron smiled knowingly, looking at his two favorite girls in the world.