Inside Your Mind

a little time

A Little Time - The Beautiful South

September 1st 1998

No one answered until Ginny conjured up a glass with her wand and held it towards Blaise, not once looking away from the window.

'That's the spirit, Weasley.' Blaise smirked approvingly. He poured Ginny a generous amount before pulling his own glass from thin air and filling it to the top.

Hermione stood firm, watching as Draco used his wand to make two glasses appear on the coffee table, and Blaise filled them both with Firewhiskey. Blaise placed the two bottles on the table and sat on the spare sofa, raising his glass towards the middle of the room and taking a long drink.

Hermione watched as Draco took both of the glasses from the table and turned to look at her, holding out one of the glasses in her direction. She looked from his deep grey eyes to the swirling glass of amber liquid and saw it as it was; a peace offering.

Though she couldn't understand why, Hermione felt her face twitch as if she were about to cry, so she slowly made her way over to Draco's outstretched hand to pluck the glass from between his fingers before he could see the emotion on her face.

She took a long sip from the glass, relishing the burn as the liquid slipped down her throat, before planting herself on the floor in front of the fire and placing her glass on the carpet so that she could slip her outer robes off her shoulders and her feet from her shoes. She hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin on her knees, while she watched the flames.

After a while she could hear Blaise and Draco begin to talk quietly to one another but didn't bother to listen.

The longer she spent directly in front of the fire the warmer she got and, after half an hour, she had also removed her cardigan, her tie, her socks, and had also undone a couple of buttons of her shirt. Her glass of Firewhiskey sat empty by her left hip.

'Refill?' Draco asked from behind her left shoulder, surprising Hermione out of her thoughts.

'Please.' She replied quietly without turning her head away from the flames.

He didn't try and speak to her again as he poured, the splash of liquid hitting the glass the only sound in the otherwise quiet room. A cool breeze tickled the bottom of her spine as he stood up and settled himself back on the sofa.

After another half an hour of silence from Hermione, and another glass of Firewhiskey down, she shuffled back so that she could pull a cushion down to the floor to sit on and rest her back on the sofa.

'Do you want another?' Draco asked as he lifted the bottle of Firewhiskey from the table in front of Hermione.

'No, thank you.' She replied with a shake of her head. She had spent the last hour trying not to let the tears fall down her cheeks and she worried that another glass of Firewhiskey would open the floodgates and ruin all of her hard work.

'Weasley, another?' Blaise called, drawing Hermione's attention to the fact that she hadn't spoken to Ginny all evening. She looked over to see the red head was still sat by the window, her head resting on her knees, with her hair covering half her body but not hiding the slight shake of her shoulders as she cried.

When Ginny didn't reply Hermione stood from the floor and walked over to her best friend.

'Gin.' Hermione whispered. 'Come sit by the fire.'

'Okay.' Ginny nodded as she let Hermione pull her up from the chilly window seat and lead her over to the sofas.

Ginny sat next to Blaise in silence, so that she could take the bottle of Firewhiskey from him and pour herself another glass, while Hermione took her spot back on the floor near Draco.