Sunday Morning After

She opened her eyes, and all she knew was pain.

The light, it flooded through the open curtains and made the pounding in her head even worse. Pressing a hand against a throbbing temple, she staggered to the window to hastily pull the drapes shut.

It was cold... Wait a minute, why was she naked? She couldn't remember exactly... Whose bedroom was this? The faint glimmer of panic that rose in her stomach was ignored, outdone by the sick feeling already residing there.

Gurgle. Shuffle. Step. She couldn't understand why she felt so sick...She couldn't find any of her clothes either. She'd searched the empty gray room, with its peeling paint. She even shuffled the blankets of the double bed she'd woken up in but did find anything useful there either. For lack of a better idea, she just wrapped a semi-transparent white cotton sheet around her.

What could she do now? There obviously was no one else in the room... In a moment of overwhelming paranoia, Ginny ran to check under the bed. She pulled open the closet doors and shuffled aside the few things in there. Nope, no one. She really was alone, but she still didn't know where she was. She took a deep breath, ignored her throbbing headache, and found the courage to the leave the room. Maybe she would find a telephone and call someone for help? Maybe she could get some idea of where she was? ... Maybe she could find something to drink?

Extending a shaky hand, she turned the doorknob and slid out of the room, her bare feet padding quiet on the hall carpet. She was in an apartment, she realised. A gray one, for it seemed all of the walls were painted various shades of it. She looked around and chose to head towards the left which seemed to open into a more spacious room... a sitting room, she guessed. The kitchen was probably nearby, at least, she hoped it was. She needed something to drink, to get the sour taste out of her mouth.

She staggered to the refrigerator and pulled open the door... It was empty. At least by her standards, it was. Normally her mother kept the icebox filled with all sorts of goodies-

Oh no! Her mother! Would she be worried when she learned that she hadn't come home last night? Ginny couldn't help but smirk. Probably not. She hadn't minded last week, or even the week before that... After searching through the cupboards, she finally found a mug, which she filled with cold water from the tap and gulped down very, very quickly.

Too quickly.

Her stomach gave a queasy lurch and Ginny brought her hand to cover her mouth. Oh no... Where was the bathroom?! The other end of the hall! Feeling the bile rise in her throat, she ran out of the kitchen, down the hall and into the bathroom. Without wasting a second, she threw herself onto her knees, the sheet falling from her shoulders, and wretched violently into the toilet bowl. She held her hair out of the way and closed her eyes to block the view. The color of the toilet didn't help much either. It was green, not gray. Green like the olives in Martinis... Like the ones she'd had last night... And the beers... And the shots... which all seemed to be coming up at that very moment.

Ginny was so involved... er... reminiscing that she didn't notice someone rolling out of the bathtub, pulling the sheet back up around her. She only realised there was another person in the room when he took her hair in his hands to hold out of her face for her. It seemed like an eternity, but after a while, her stomach had finally emptied itself. Ginny was very thankful for the way he was rubbing her back.

"can you pass me my water?" she asked, and then felt the mug being put into her hand. She flushed the toilet, rinsed her mouth, and spat it into the bowl.

"Want mouthwash?" mumbled the masculine voice behind her.

"Thank you." Ginny turned around to take the bottle of Listerine from the man. He was slumped on the shit green tile floor naked, and completely unabashedly so. He was peering at her through slitted eyes, as he held the sides of his head in his hands.

"I'd hate to sound rude," he slurred, "but who the hell are you?" By the looks of him, Ginny figured his head hurt as much as hers did.

"I'm Ginny Weasley."

"Oh. I'm Draco Malfoy."

"Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise."

She leaned back against the wall and shivered. "Are you cold?" she asked as she offered him part of her- his sheet?

"No," he answered politely, "I'm actually too warm, probably feverish and dehydrated." he looked at her warily. "I think you are too."

"Probably," she answered matter-of-factly as she held the blanket tighter.

"Say, last night... " he began.

"We had sex," Ginny answered casually, holding his gaze. Draco chuckled, grinned, and shook his head.

"Obviously," he said, pointing out their lack of clothing. "The question is, did we use contraception? I can't remember." The seriousness of the question hung in the air before Ginny answered.

"Yes, I take birth control potions. There's nothing to worry about."

"Oh. Good." Draco answered, sounding relieved. He actually smiled, which startled Ginny.

"How did you get here?"

"How did I get here?" Draco gave a hollow laugh. "I live here."

"You live in a Muggle flat?" Ginny asked in disbelief. "Why would you live in a Muggle flat, of all people?"

The blond just shrugged. "It may be Muggle, but at least it's mine. I pay for it with my money and I don't owe any body anything, Not my father, not my mother, nobody."

"Oh... right..." Ginny answered, not quite understanding him. "What I mean is how did you get here. I looked around before and didn't see anybody."

"Oh, well last night I had to go for a piss. And then I fell asleep in the bathtub. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Oh. Right." she repeated.

An awkward silence passed, only made more uneasy by the fact that their shoulders and thighs were touching with only a thin sheet between them. This would have been arousing, but it was too bad that they were both too hung over to be turned on very much.

"Do you know where my clothes are?"

"Nope," came Draco's simple reply.

"How about my wand?"

"With your clothes, I guess. I'm sleepy. I think I'm going to go back to sleep. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Ginny returned his smile. For a brief instant, she weighed her options. No clothes, no wand, and nothing better to do, so...

She stood as quickly as she could, which wasn't that fast because her headache was making the world pulsate. "I call the bed!"

"Oh no you don't!" Draco growled. he clumsily lunged for her legs, but she hopped out of the way. With Draco in close pursuit she hobbled to the bedroom, dove into the bed, and threw the blankets over her head with a cocky grin. From under the white cotton blankets she heard Draco laugh, and felt his weight push her down onto her back, his arm across her stomach. Giving a small giggle, she pulled the blankets away so she could see Draco lying face down to her right.

Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy... After playfully tugging at Draco's hair, she pushed his head into the pillow and was rewarded by him swearing at her just as jovially.

"What time is it?" he muttered.

"Two. In the afternoon," she said, looking briefly at the red alarm clock by the bed.

"Wanta go out for dinner when we wake up?"

"Um, like at ten?"

"Sounds about right," he said, bringing his right arm up to stroke her cheek.

"Draco Malfoy, asking me on a date?" Ginny mused aloud to herself, earning a chuckle. "Sounds great," she murmured happily, her eyes closed. The last thing she remembered before falling sound asleep was someone pulling the blankets to her shoulders and Draco's warm body as she rested her head against him.

~ FIN ~