Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Thirty-Three

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Hermione was handing out drinks in the dressing room again. She had gotten two hours of sleep and she felt exhausted. Walking on these high heels was difficult when the body was out of focus.

"Tonight is Friday," Nanni announced to the other dancers, "It means we'll be extra busy. And I've heard from a good source that Marcus Flint is returning tonight with his friends."

"I haven't heard anything about that!" Christina complained. "Who did you hear that from?" she looked almost hurt that Nanni would know something she didn't.

She reached for the drink Hermione had handed her and threw it down her throat. Hermione cursed inside, if Christina would be in a foul mood it would be the staff who would suffer. "You didn't dance for him did you?" she accused Nanni who smiled evilly. "Well did you?" she said and stood up.

Nanni laughed and held up her hands innocently.

"Relax babe, it was Blaise who told me when I came in today." Christina seemed to relax. "And apparently his friend with the glasses is very wealthy, so…"

"What about the red head, he was kind of cute," Ava added.

Nanni laughed nastily. "Disappointed that that Quidditch broad didn't go for you?" she snickered and took a very small sip from her red wine. "No, he's a nobody - works for the other one or something like that. Nothing to bother with. Besides, he went with her yesterday…" she added and turned to Hermione who was just setting a drink at Ava's side. Ava snapped around and clasped Hermione's arm hard, her long red nail dug into her.

"What? Did you dance?" she accused.

"No, no I didn't," she answered and stuttered a bit.

"Is he mud?" she asked shocked.

"I don't know," Hermione answered.

"No he isn't, but he fancied her I think," Christina said.

The others stated laughing. "What's next, someone'll want to see Eloise take her clothes off?" Ava added, "I think I'd rather go blind, maybe I would go blind after seeing her." she snickered again, "But then again, some get turned on by Grindylows, why wouldn't there be someone who'd like a troll like Eloise, or a mudblood like Hermione," she turned her nose up and stared at Hermione, it looked like she dared her to reply.

Hermione smiled kindly at her and started to back away.

"Did he want to shag you?" Ava said and refused to let Hermione sneak off.

"No," Hermione answered.

"Why? And why would he want to see you at all?" she demanded.

Hermione swallowed hard and looked around.

"I- I don't know. I don't think he really wanted to, I think he was just shy and didn't dare ask for one of the real dancers."

Ava smiled contently and turned to Christina again:

"I made half of what I did last Friday yesterday, tonight better make up for that."

The others nodded in agreement. Hermione backed away as discreetly as she could. She hoped tonight would be a good night… for everyone.

-

Tonight's theme was old American western and all the girls were walking around in chaps and fake muggle-pistols. Hermione and the others wore their usually outfits, they never partook in the charade of the other girls. She kept throwing glances around looking for Harry but he wasn't there.

"Wazz this supposed to be then?" she heard the man she was serving slur to the girl dancing next to her. She heard her answer and noticed it was Tori a fairly new girl.

"A pistol."

"And what's that then?"

"Have you never seen a muggle movie sir?" she said flirtingly and bent down and tugged at his robes collar. She was dancing on her knees on the stage.

"I must have missed what a pistol is, tell me then darling…"

Hermione's stomach churned, the man must be thirty years - at least - older than Tori.

"It's loaded with amo, and when you touch it, it will shoot it's load."

The man shuddered visibly and reached inside his pocket. He pulled out a handful of galleons and placed them in the holster of the gun.

"What else?" he's voice shook.

Tori turned her back to him and swayed her bottom at him.

"Well it's pumped full with lead, and you can just shoot again and again and again…"

Hermione turned and walked away. She felt nauseas as she returned to the bar. Fridays was always extra bad. It meant the ministry workers came to celebrate the weekend at the club. It also always meant that Hermione had a better chance at good news, but it meant more greedy hands and disgusting older men trying to recapture their youth by having young girls in their bed. Not a single Friday had passed without someone grabbing her ass.

"Yo, birdie?" someone called out and she spun around, hurrying in his direction with her tray raised.

-

Another two hours passed before she finally saw Harry. He arrived with Ron and Marcus Flint and Miles Bletchley again. He looked very frustrated and Hermione could read his expression, something had him very perturbed.

She didn't get another chance to look at him, she had to hurry backstage with food for the girls on a break. She had her orders and did as she was told, she quickly announced:

"The guests from last night are here!" she said as she arrived.

"Which ones?" Christina called out.

Hermione swallowed but tried to look as casual as usual:

"Marcus Flint, that red head and his friend, and I think I saw Miles Bletchley," she said.

They clapped their hands. And Nanni shouted: "Hurry, where's my food?"

"Steamed broccoli?" Hermione asked and Nanni nodded.

"And mine?" Christina looked at the trey, Hermione pushed the small plate of salad at her.

"You keep your Marcus, tonight I'll score the big bucks," Nanni said as she took one singular piece of broccoli and then left the room. Hermione remained at Christina's side. She was shaking slightly.

"Help me in the loo!" she said to Hermione who hurried after her. The loo was a pretty room with a toilet in the middle and large bouquets of roses set on different spots.

"Sit!" She ordered Hermione who sat down on the toilet lid.

"Can I get you…"

"No!" Christina answered and sat down on the floor. She started tugging at her pantyhose, and her long dancer heels looked absurdly long when she sat on the floor.

"You didn't see Pettigrew did you?" she asked panicky.

"No..." Hermione hesitated, "Should I look for him? I'd tell you at once!"

Christina nodded quickly.

"Yeah Hemmy, if you see him, tell me. He'll want to see me." Christina started scratching her elbow intensely and Hermione knew at once that something was wrong.

"How can I help you?" she said.

Christina looked up at her and for a moment it looked like she was about to say something, she held Hermione's gaze for a moment and then suddenly looked down at the floor.

She reached inside her bra and pulled out a small bag.

"Do you want some?" she asked. "It's muggle and it's brilliant…"

Hermione knew what it was but looked away. "I'm not allowed."

Christina nodded and the poured a small line on the floor.

"If you see him, I have to know," she snorted the line and the turned to Hermione, "Promise!"

Hermione nodded but Christina threw herself along the room and grabbed Hermione's arm. "No I mean it, you have to tell me. If I am dancing for Marcus and Peter comes in... he'll be upset… do you understand?"

She looked intently at her and Hermione nodded.

"I promise!"

Christina's pupils dilated and she reached up and smacked her cheek very hard. "Good little girl. You're my girl aren't you? My Hemmy?" she mumbled.

"Sure," Hermione answered and helped Christina of the floor.

They walked back to the dressing room when Christina turned to her.

"Is it my turn to dance now?"

"Yes."

"What is the theme tonight?" she asked and Hermione held her up.

"You're a cowboy."

"Cowboy?" Christina said and looked like she was drifting away.

"You have a hat and you have a gun. And look at the stiletto boots, you can always use those."

Christina grinned to herself and then leaned forward and kissed Hermione on the lips.

"My Hermione, my friend right?" she grinned and Hermione gave her half a smiled before Christina walked out on the stage.

-

Hermione took a moment next to the stage and gathered her breath. She had to change her mood; she had to force herself into something else. She felt and heard a bitter, angry ballad playing inside her mind at the moment and she had to force a happy party song in there instead. She guessed that was exactly what Christina had done on the floor of the bathroom.

Hermione closed her eyes and thought about Harry, he was out there right now. For the first time that thought didn't help. Thinking of Harry didn't help. Now she had to be happy for him as well, he would see her and he would be miserable if he saw her in pain. Now she had to be "happy" for yet another person. She took a deep sigh and then stepped outside. The loud music almost hit her in the face. The dark smoke in the room filled her lounges and the base of the music thumped inside her body.

She looked around the dark club but had no chance of seeing Harry, the whole space of the club was open and all the lights were again on the stage.

She swore rather loudly under her breath as Eloise nudged her in the side.

"Those fatties wants drinks," she yelled over the music and Hermione hurried over.

-

The dance floor had opened and many of the men were dancing, a selected few with a small number of of the strippers at a very high cost. Hermione hurried from table to table, just trying to learn where he was sitting. She saw Ron's red hair sticking up at the back of a table and hurried over.

"Can I get you anything?" she said quickly as she arrived. Her stomach fell when she realized that it wasn't Ron at all. She knew the men there just by word, she had never actually met them. It was the Weasley twins with some friends. She knew they were good people. But she was insanely disappointed to see them in the club.

"Yes can we have a few extra strong Gillywaters?" one of the twins asked and Hermione turned around when one of the twins grabbed her arm and pulled her closer.

He pulled her close and whispered: "Harry is on the far other side - he asked us to come," she pulled back and started walking away just as she heard him add to his friends: "They always forget the sugarstick, better to remind them!"

Hermione sighed, the other side of the bar was far from her waiting area, she would have no reason to go there at all. She couldn't even think of an excuse to go, it would make her look very weird. When Eloise gave her the drinks she hurried back.

"Hi," the same twin who had grabbed her said as she arrived. She smiled curtly.

"I'm Fred, this is George, that's Lee!" he waved around. "We're all friends…" he drawled the last words and her eyes darted around. "Our companion from the ministry is in the loo at the moment, but we're all friends." he repeated.

Hermione knew better than to say anything at a place like this. She just gave them a polite smile.

She looked at the twins, she could see a very small bit of Ron in them, but the small bit was still comforting. Lee was a very handsome man with long dreads down his back, she guessed that at a twin-establishment to this club, but with male strippers, he would have been the headliner.

A hand suddenly smacked her butt very hard and she jumped.

"You're back!" George called out. "We got you your drink,"

"And a tart I see?" the man closer to eighty years old snarled and kept his hand around Hermione's waist.

"No no, this isn't one of the dancers. She a waitress," George quickly added and the man yanked his hand away like he had been stung.

Hermione hurried back to the bar and had to clutch her waist. She hurried behind the bar and filled a glass of red wine and squatted on the floor where she swept it.

"Hermione," Eloise called and Hermione was close to smashing the glass in the floor with anger.

"Yeah?" she called out in a harder tone than Eloise deserved.

"Christina is asking for you"

"Great," she mumbled before she filled three triple firewhiskeys. She hurried back to the back room and found Christina half lying on one of the leather sofa.

"Where have you been`" she snarled at her.

"Sorry Christina, I only just now heard that you asked for me. I brought a drink for you!"
Without an answer Christina took it.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked kindly and sat on her knees next to Christina.

"That bitch..." she complained.

"Who?"

"Fucking Nanni!" Christina threw the now empty glass straight into the wall. "She stole that fucking dude right from me. He was mine, I said he was mine."

Hermione kept still, and kept her breathing steady.

"What happened?"

"Marcus is playing it cool towards me tonight, he does that sometimes. Apparently he has his eye on that new girl - Tori... the whori, "she snickered at her won cleverness. "So I told them, the other one is mine, the rich one…"

Hermione knew but still.-.

"Which one…"

"That Harry Potter, the rich one."

Hermione nodded sheepishly and swallowed what felt like blood.

"But still, fucking Nanni, she is still fucking all over him. I could just kill her!"

Hermione bit her lip and nodded. The next few seconds went very slowly as she looked down at her shaking hands and ordered them to be still. She clenched her fists quickly.

She looked up at Christina who looked ready to cry.

"Can I just say something?" she said and Christina looked up bored. "Something I'm not supposed to say, it might even cost me my job…" Hermione added and Christina's eyes shot up interestingly.

Hermione bit her lip for a moment before she added: "Christina you are so much prettier than Nanni, if you want to win that Harry Potter, you can!"

Christina looked shocked for a couple of second before her chest suddenly swelled and she took a deep breath.

"Yeah, and I could see by the way he looked at me…" Hermione swallowed, "He wanted to fuck me. He kept staring at me…"

"And besides…" Hermione quickly spoke.

"What?" Christina asked.

"No I shouldn't say…" she trailed off.

"What?" Christina demanded and when Hermione looked away she got harder by the tone. "Don't ever forget who I am Hermione, I'm your boss!"

"I would never forget;" she assured her. "Well I heard that Peter Pettigrew was coming tonight… and well…"

"What?" Christina demanded.

"Well I heard that Nanni said that she was sure that Peter would go home with her."

Christina leaned back against the wall and Hermione knew she was nowhere getting caught in her lie, because if there was anything these girls believed, it was the lies of others. Hermione had never met anyone or anything like them.

Now all she had to do was pray Pettigrew would arrive…

-

Another hour passed and she still hadn't seen Harry or Ron. All she knew was that "the rich" ones from last night were there.

She was waiting for some Minister officials as a hand grabbed her roughly and spun her around violently, she almost fell at the spot.

She gathered herself quickly and wished Blaise hadn't seen her stumble.

"Hermione." Christina demanded and Hermione sighed.

"Yes," she answered and steered Christina towards the bar. This always happened when Christina got too drunk. She would either get weepy, clingy or very hostile.

"You have to help me!" she slurred and Hermione smiled kindly.

"With?"

"Come with me to the table," she ordered and grabbed Hermione's hand. She ran forwards and Hermione stumbled forwards. All she could focus on, was not stumbling and causing Blaise's fury.

She yanked Hermione's hand so hard that she stumbled into the table.

Hermione looked around the faces, some she knew, some she didn't.

"Here!" Christina announced," If you are in a bad mood and want to kill someone, kill this one. She's a mudblood!"

Hermione looked up and met the eyes of Peter Pettigrew.

"Kill Hermione, and just let me dance!"

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