Aconite - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 30

Hermione was already pouring the second glass of wine meant for Ginny when she heard the small pop from outside her cabin, followed by heavy steps up the stairs. She didn't even need to look up when the door opened and she heard something heavy being set down onto the table.

"As wonderful as wine sounds right now..." Ginny started, "...I need something heavier."

Hermione looked over to see a bottle of amber-colored liquid and she raised an eyebrow at her friend. "I don't have anything to mix that with."

Ginny shrugged and popped the bottle open. "It's fine. I've brought my own."

She set her bag down and pulled out a bottle of what looked like lemonade and a bottle of cranberry juice. Hermione chuckled and walked towards the couch with the two glasses of wine that she now assumed were hers to drink, watching Ginny with interest as she sat down. "Mixing cocktails now, are we?"

"It's surprisingly really good," Ginny said lightly as she worked. "It's bourbon, too, which is even more surprising because I didn't realize that Blaise even drank muggle drinks when he introduced it to me."

"Why am I not surprised that you got this from Blaise?" Hermione muttered before taking a sip of her wine. "What is it?"

"He said it's called a 'spire', whatever that is," Ginny shrugged. "It's bourbon, lemonade, and cranberry juice. The harshness of the bourbon is really muted with the other flavors."

Hermione hummed contemplatively at this before shaking her head. "I'll try it next time."

"Suit yourself," Ginny said before taking a long drink and leaning back against the couch, propping her feet up on the coffee table and staring at the wall across from her.

There was a few minutes of silence as both girls were winding down from the day; as much as Hermione wanted to start talking about what was going on with Ginny, she didn't want to pry the information out of her friend immediately.

"I was thinking..." She started slowly, swirling the wine around in her glass. "We haven't taken a trip together in a while."

"No, we haven't," Ginny said quietly while still staring blankly at the wall. "Did you have a place in mind?"

Hermione shrugged. "Not really, I just wanted to see how you felt about it. Have there been any places you've been wanting to go?"

She waited while Ginny took another sip of her drink and contemplated her answer. After a moment or two, Ginny tilted her head back and forth before saying, "Somewhere with a beach would be really nice about now."

"That does sound nice, actually," Hermione nodded. Then she looked over at Ginny with concern and asked, "Did something happen? I saw the Prophet this morning and I can tell that something is majorly off."

Ginny took a long drink before tilting her head back against the couch to stare up at the ceiling. Her voice wavered as she quietly said, "Mum read the article. She knows about Blaise and I."

"What did she say?" Hermione asked, pulling her legs up underneath her in the chair.

She heard a snort as Ginny shifted her legs to cross one over the other. "She said that Blaise and I are unwelcome at the Burrow as long as we are together and I am living with him."

Hermione stared at her. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah." Ginny scoffed and took another drink. "Dad of course said that mum only wrote that out of anger and that I am always free to go visit, but I don't know anymore. You know how mum is."

"Yeah..." Hermione knew all too well how Molly Weasley would get when she believed something. She was still angry at the fact that Molly had believed the lies that Rita Skeeter had written about her in fourth year, and how cold she had acted towards Hermione. Even though Harry had corrected the older witch and she immediately went back to being warm and caring, Hermione would still catch the cold shoulder from her mother-in-law from time to time, and it was mostly after her and Ron would have an argument. "I still can't believe though that she would tell you that."