Where's Hermione?

Chapter 4

"Aren't you going to eat anything?" Ginny asked Harry at breakfast.

"No," Harry groaned. He just stared at his toast and poked at his egg yolks.

"Come on Harry! Ever since Hermione died, you have been acting very strange lately," Ginny pointed out annoyed.

"I wonder why," Harry shouted back as he stood up. He noticed that everyone in the Great Hall was staring, so he sat back down. "Where's Ron?" he asked gently.

"He went to go see Professor McGonagall with Padma Patil."

"Why is he going with Padma?"

"Because Professor Sprout told her to go since Parivati died too."

"I'm going back up to the common room," Harry said pushing away his plate.

"I'll go with you," she suggested.

"No. I think you should stay here," he said as he walked away from the table.

"What was that about?" asked Neville.

"I don't know," Ginny told him. "But I feel like there is something that he is not telling me."

***

"Hey Ron," Harry sighed as he dropped his books on the table and plopped onto the couch.

"Hey Harry," Ron answered back.

Just as soon as Harry sat down Seamus and a couple other Gryffindor boys walked in carrying two big cases.

"Seamus, what's in those cases?" Harry asked.

"Rum of course," he replied. "My granddad sent me the last cases of his rum as his will! He thought I would have been old enough to drink it by the time he passed away, but they had to send it to me anyway!" Seamus and Dean dropped the first case, while Lee Jordan and another boy dropped the second one.

"What Fred and George would have paid to be here," Ron murmured to Harry.

"Well drink up Harry," Dean said as he tossed him a beer. "You too, Ron. You guys both need it."

Ron and Harry both took a sip at the same time. Ron spit his out, and Harry made a funny face when he swallowed his.

"What's the matter?" Seamus asked.

"I think that this rum is old," Ron said still spitting on the floor.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Seamus explained. "It always tastes like that, but once you get used to it, it tastes good. Go ahead, keep drinking it." Ron took a big long gulp of it, and almost gagged. Harry did the same.

"Here," said Lee handing a bag to Harry and Ron. "It's firewhisky mix. Trust me, it makes it taste it a lot better."

Harry and Ron poured the powder mix into their drinks, watched it fizz up, and then took a sip.

"He was right," Harry concluded. "It does taste better."

"It does Harry," said Ron as he took a long drink.

"Hey, where did mine go?" asked Harry.

"Umm, you drink all," Ron explained.

"Well, then I better get another one." Harry took a bottle out of the cooler, poured some into his cup, and then took a long drink with out bothering to put in some firewhisky mix.

"Hey, Seamus, how did you get the coolers?" Ron asked.

"Well," he started, looking confused, "I think that there was about six owls carrying each cooler, and there was two coolers so there were about ten owls carrying the coolers."

"Harry can you get me another one?" Ron asked.

"Sure," Harry said as he walked towards the cooler. Then suddenly he tripped on the table. "Whoa!" he shouted as he went flying across the table. "Hey, Harry," Ron said laughing hysterically, "you tripped!" Ron laughed so had he almost pissed himself. The table couldn't hold all of Harry's weight, so the legs snapped. This made Ron laugh so hard he was rolling on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Ginny yelled. Ginny had walked into the common room just as the table fell.

"Nothing," all the boys said together.

"Well you're obviously doing something," she yelled back.

"You know what Ginny," Harry said standing up, and waving his cup. "Why don't you just back off."

"I can't back off, I'm your girlfriend," Ginny tried to explain.

"No, Ginny, you're not my girlfriend. You want to know the truth?"

"No, I don't," Ginny, said.

"Well, when I saw Hermione all white in the bed, I tried to pretend that she was alive. When I asked you out, I was pretending that she was alive. I figured that then I wouldn't have that much pain. But now that I know what I did, it just makes it even more painful."

"You don't mean that Harry. You don't mean it," Ginny said on the verge of tears. "You're drunk Harry, you don't mean it."

"Yes I do, I just didn't want to tell you." Harry put down his cup, walked up to the dormitories, and fell asleep as he fell onto the bed.

***

Harry woke up with a splitting headache, as he walked down to the common room. Ginny was already awake, reading a book on the couch.

"Good morning, Ginny," Harry said yawning.

"Did you mean what you said?" she asked.

"What did I say?" Harry asked, looking confused.

"Oh, yeah, you were to drunk to remember. You said that you didn't want to be my boyfriend."

"Did I really say that?"

"Yes."

"Well I guess that when you are drunk the truth comes out. I guess that I did pretend that Hermione was alive so I wouldn't get hurt, but it turns out that it hurt you and me. I'm sorry about what I did."

"It's okay. Can we still be friends?"

"Yeah, but only friends, because I'm not over Hermione yet, and I think that may take a while, because I loved her so much."

*The End*