Disclaimer: Not mine. You know how it would have ended if it was, right?
A/N: My response to the "Kissing Santa" Challenge by leochick, which can be found here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26200. Hope you'll enjoy it, and please leave me a comment if you read, so that I know what you think of it.
Kissing The Wrong Santa
Chapter Seven: Casual Encounter
She had ash-blonde hair, blue eyes, a pretty face, and full, rosy lips.
"I-I'm sorry" she stammered as Harry helped her stand up.
"No harm done" he reassured her with a grin, then turned, albeit reluctantly, to join the queue again. It was, after all, his turn to ask the bartender a drink.
"A Tequila Sunrise" he asked.
"It's on me" a feminine voice interjected. Harry turned and saw the girl smiling at him.
"It's the minimum I can do. You were a real gentleman, helping me stand up. I heard lot on you, Harry Potter, but never that you were so courteous with girls" she explained, blushing. Then she turned to the bartender. "And a Mohito for me"
"Well, now that you've offered me a drink, I guess I should go back to my friends" Harry excused himself, a bit surprised that someone had recognized him in a Muggle pub. "I'd be more company and invite you at our table, but they are all quite sloshed, and it wouldn't be a pretty sight" he joked, at which she giggled softly.
With a last thanks, Harry left her there, finding it hard to turn around and tear his eyes off her. She could be a good one night stand, he considered, but he was against one night stands. If the fate wanted, they'd meet again, under better circumstances.
Back to his table, however, he kept roaming the pub with his eyes, trying to locate her. He finally found the girl, at the other end of the room, with a couple female friends.
"Harry, mate!" he suddenly heard someone shout in his hear.
"Gosh, Ron, why did you do that?" he said to his best friend. "You almost deafened me!"
"Sorry, mate" Ron grinned stupidly, the effects of the alcohol clearly showing. "I called you three times and you wouldn't answer…"
Seamus, which was the less drunk apart for Harry, intervened. "Of course he didn't, he was too occupied staring at that blonde girl there" he teased Harry, who blushed scarlet red.
Everyone started laughing, and Harry muttered something not completely friendly about Seamus.
"Whatever. I think I'm gonna call it a night, guys. Early start tomorrow and all. Ron, it's better if I accompany you to the Burrow, mate"
"Nonsense. I can go myself" Ron said, and stood up, or tried to, effectively crashing on the table.
Harry rolled his eyes, picked his best friend up and dragged him out of the pub, casting a last glance at the girl from the queue, which met his stare and smiled at him. Blushing furiously, Harry hastily left with Ron leaning on his shoulder.
Then, he proceeded to Apparate them both to the Burrow, where Molly gave Ron one of her famous scolding, but it was ineffective as the redhead had fallen asleep on the couch. Sighing, she turned to Harry and thanked him for bringing Ron home.
"It's nothing, Mrs. Weasley" Harry said. "We both know how Ron is with alcohol, right?" he grinned.
"Yeah, he loves drinking but can't hold his liquor" Molly rolled her eyes. "Well, you must be tired, Harry. Have a good night's sleep, my dear"
Harry wished her goodnight too, then Apparated to his flat. As he got ready for bed, he thought he wouldn't like to be in Ron's shoes once Hermione found out how pissed he was that night.
Next day, Harry woke up late, cursed under his breath as he hit his foot twice onto his bed in his haste to get dressed, gulped a cup of coffee while grabbing the Floo powder to reach the Ministry, and finally ran to his room to check on some papers before Lupin came to bring them to meet the new rookies.
Hermione entered his room merely moments after he was there. "Rough night?" she asked, smiling.
"You can say that" Harry huffed. She shook her head in amusement, and approached him, then proceeded to fix his tie, which he had made a mess of.
As her hands were working on his tie, Harry couldn't help gulping at their physical proximity. He was very aware of how her body was almost brushing on his own, and suddenly shut his eyes.
"Harry! Are you ok?" she asked, worried by his reaction, oblivious to the reason which had determined that. He nodded, and opened his eyes again. She was again at safe distance, so he smiled.
"Still not perfectly woken up, sorry" he lied. "Well, shall we go to the briefing room?"
She eyed him a bit suspiciously, but then followed him out of the room. "I heard from Molly that Ron came back completely devastated last night" she made small talk while the walked through the corridors of Auror Quarters.
"If for completely devastated you mean he couldn't stand up if his life depended on it, then yes" Harry grinned, opening the room for her.
"Honestly, he's never going to learn. He'll hear a piece of my mind later" Hermione scowled.
"Come on, Mione. Don't be too hard on him, it was just harmless fun" Harry said, sitting on her right side, while other Aurors were starting to enter the room. She just followed, not commenting on the nickname Harry had just used for her.
She usually hated nicknames, but that one, or maybe the fact that it was Harry who had used it, didn't bother her that much.
"Hi Forgraves, Thornby" Harry greeted the elder Aurors. "We're going to have our hands full with these rookies, uh?"
"You can say that, Potter" the eldest of the two, Thornby, retorted. "It's always been this way and it always will be, though, so you better get used to it" the older man sighed.
Hermione rolled her eyes. She couldn't see what was wrong in helping new Aurors learn all the tricks of the job. All of them had been rookies at some point, after all. Well, maybe Harry no. He had his "rookie" years at Hogwarts already, and even then he saw and faced things the most experienced of the Aurors in that room would never face.
Finally, Lupin entered the room, followed by a bunch of young men and women.
"Dear colleagues, these are the new Aurors who will be assigned to you" the werewolf started, but Harry lost the rest of the speech as he scanned the group of newbies and saw the same girl of the previous night.
She must have recognized him too, as her eyes widened, and then she smiled at him.
Hermione didn't miss a thing of the exchange, and wondered what was going on there.
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