Bittersweet Nightshade

Encounter

Garreth came to it slowly.

Sunlight tickled his nose and he scrunched up his features, turning away from the brightness.

In an attempt to ignore the break of day, he pushed his head back into his pillow, a massive headache drumming against the inner walls of his skull as his conscience returned slowly.

But his pillow felt... odd. Hard, and cold.

Grumbling, he reached out is hand to fluff it up, his palm hitting on metal uncomfortably hard. The hit resonated in the hollow body next to his head, ringing in his ears and feeding the steady pounding in his skull, turning it into a full-on migraine.

With a groan, Garreth turned onto his back. Everything was so hard and cold...

Dragging one hand down his face, he finally blinked open his eyes. The bright light that surrounded him made him want to close them again, but he forced himself to sit up, running one hand through his messy hair while looking around himself.

"Just great..."

He was on the wooden floor of his shop, apparently having been hugging an empty cauldron as a pillow.

Garreth stared at the cauldron, much feeling like emptying the contents of his stomach into it, the headache now pairing up with the nausea of an A-class-hangover.

Groaning again, he leaned his back against the shopfront and closed his eyes, trying to recollect how he had ended up passed out on the ground.

Slowly, the pictures flooded his mind.

Right...

He had been to the Three Broomsticks... He had met up with some friends... friends from school, for a... a...

The word slipped him and he snorted to himself, eventually pulling himself up and digging through the shelves behind the counter, swaying heavily on wobbly feet.

Finally finding what he was looking for, he chugged down the bottle of hangover remedy, shuddering at the awful taste.

Class reunion.

That was the word he had been looking for. He sighed, some common sense returning to him at last, as well as more pictures of the previous night, blurred though.

In honour of the fifth anniversary of their Hogwarts graduation, him and his old fellow classmates had celebrated a small reunion party. They hadn't been too many, though, most of them scattered across the country, busy with their jobs or the young families they had started.

The few that had made it back to Hogsmeade though had made the most of it. Especially Leander and Sallow had been determined to outdo one another with how much fire whiskey they could imbibe, and Garreth, being the idiot he was, had been determined to surpass both of them.

After Sirona had brought the three of them the sixth bottle, things had started to get blurry.

He ran one hand through his hair again, acknowledging the utter mess he was.

Drinking yourself into oblivion? Hefty points will be taken from you.

He literally could hear the voice of his aunt ringing in his ears.

The fact that he hadn't made it farther than a couple of miles away from school after graduating also meant that aunt Mathilda kept her watchful eyes on him, doubtlessly a favour his father had asked of his sister.

Passing out on the floor of your shop? Ten points from Gryffindor.

Garreth pulled a face and pushed himself up from the counter, testing his balance. The remedy potion seemed to kick in and he felt the nausea ease slightly, giving him back some steadiness and feeling in his legs.