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Healer McGinnis made his way down the corridor toward Hermione’s room. He was deep in thought and almost forgot to show his credentials to the threatening Auror standing in front of him. A large hand on his shoulder got his attention. The Auror didn’t say anything, he just held out his hand, waiting to be shown the ID.
Healer McGinnis handed over his badge and tapped his foot impatiently as the giant Auror checked him off. ‘They see me every day,’ he thought, ‘Is it necessary every time?’ The Auror handed the badge back and waved his hand for McGinnis to pass.
Soon, he was back in deep thought. He had scrutinized the Minster’s case for days, determined to come up with something. He kept telling himself that if he was the one to fix her, he would be the most renowned Healer in the country, maybe the world. And then there was the fact that he actually liked her. He had never been very involved in politics, but in his opinion she was doing a better job than most of the men that came before her, especially those hacks that were around while he was finishing school. He was sure he even voted for her, well, he was pretty sure he had voted for her.
But, if he was truly being honest with himself, his main motivation for putting so much time into this was the family. It wasn’t that the family was one of the most well known in the wizarding world, or that they all looked so sad every time he saw them (although those did help). No, it was that he was terrified of Minister Weasely’s daughter. He couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out why. She couldn’t have been any older than twenty, and she was quite a bit smaller than him. But every time she stared at him with those disapproving eyes, it sent a chill up his spine.
When he reached the door, he paused for a moment and took a deep breath. This was it; he finally had a plan. He slowly opened the door and found an abundance of red heads filling the room. He couldn’t help but notice the raven haired boy who was standing by Mr. Weasely, he looked so out of place.
Healer McGinnis cleared his throat and every eye in the room was on him. “I was wondering if I could talk to Mr. Weasely in private?”
Mumbles of agreement rumbled through the room as the extended Weasely family began to filter out. The black haired boy (who Healer McGinnis knew to be Harry Potter’s son) walked over to the corner of the room and whispered something to a man McGinnis did not recognize. The new man kissed the daughter (which is how the Healer though of her in his mind) lightly on the head and followed the younger Potter out.
Then, it was just Healer McGinnis, Ron, and Rose. McGinnis had kind of hoped she would leave too, but she stayed, she always stayed.
Both Ron and Rose looked at the Healer expectantly, “Well,” he began, “I’ve been looking over the test results and making some calls,” he looked nervously at Rose, who looked skeptical, “As I’ve said before, it is very hard to treat for jinxes if we don’t know what jinxes were used,” Rose let out a scoff and Ron shot her a warning glare, “However, there are some Healers who specialize in disentangling multiple curses. It’s an emerging field, but it does exist,”
Hope spread across Ron’s face. It was literally the best news he had heard in days. “Really?” he asked trying to hide his excitement.
“Yes,” Healer McGinnis could sense Ron’s hope and didn’t want to crush it, “the problem is, none of these specialists are in Britain, and some are better than others…”
“We want the best one,” Ron interrupted. Rose nodded her head in fierce agreement next to him. She still didn’t look convinced, but she hadn’t started yelling yet.
“Well,” he looked taken aback and quickly shuffled through his papers, “In my opinion that would be Healer Spencer Parcell. He’s based in Los Angeles. It would probably be rather expensive…”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ron interrupted again, “Money doesn’t matter,” he pointed to the bed where Hermione still lay, “That is my wife, and I’ll do whatever it takes to fix her,”
“Alright then,” McGinnis nodded.
“Plus,” Ron added, “She’s the bloody Minister of Magic,”
McGinnis just continued to nod, as Rose shot him a rather conquering smile.
“I’ll make that call now,” he shuffled out of the room.
Rose turned to her father, “You think this is going to work Dad?”
“It’s all we have right now Rosie,” he went back to his perch by the bed and Rose went to find the rest of the family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rose and Kenny were snuggling on a couch in the Weasely’s living room. Rose was glad that they had reconciled, even if it did take her mom being in a coma and Kenny spending Merlin only knows how much money to chase her over 3,000 miles. Things were actually even better than they were before. She could be completely honest with him now (well as honest as you were with your boyfriend of a little over a year). She didn’t have to hide the most important part of her life from him any more. On top of all that, Ron spent all of his time at the hospital with Hermione. He hadn’t quite deduced that Kenny was staying in their house; in Rose’s room no less. Rose didn’t want to think how he would react when he discovered that one.
They had spent the majority of the day at the hospital, and Rose was just starting to fall asleep in the comfort of Kenny’s arms when she heard three pops and felt Kenny jump a little. (He was trying really hard not to be startled by the magic stuff, but it was all still pretty new.)
“C’mon Ginger, we’re going out,” she heard the voice of James Potter and opened her eyes reluctantly. There she saw him, Albus, and Lily standing in front of them. Obviously dressed to go out.
“Must you call me that James? You know I hate it,” she sighed in frustration. James had always known how to push her buttons. Actually, he knew how to push everyone’s buttons.
“Your hair is a lovely ginger color,” he replied sweetly, “thus the nickname fits,” He smiled at what he thought was the utter brilliance of his logic.
“James,” Rose replied in slight amusement, “like eighty percent of us have red hair. Do you call everyone Ginger? Do you call Lily that, her hair is red,”
“Actually he does,” Lily replied sadly, “I don’t think he can think of anything else,” she added in a whisper.
Rose laughed, “Aw, now I don’t feel as loved,” she whined sarcastically.
“Ha, there, I knew you liked it,” James looked triumphant, “You’ll always be the original Ginger to me Rosie,”
“You really are an idiot, do you know that?” Al shook his head at his brother, “Anyway, Rose we came here to get you guys. We’re going out,”
“Um, I dunno, I’m really not in a very fun kind of mood,” Rose scrunched up her nose.
“That’s exactly why we’re taking you out,” Lily replied with excitement, “don’t make that face. You need to blow off some steam, have some fun, drown your sorrows in copious amounts of alcohol, all that stuff,” she started to pull Rose off the couch, “C’mon get changed. You look like a homeless person,”
Rose looked down at herself. She was wearing an old pair of sweatpants and one of Kenny’s sweatshirts, which she did have to admit, was a little big for her and it might have had some holes in it. She didn’t think she looked that bad until she remembered that she had worn the same pants yesterday.
“Thanks Lil,” Rose replied with the same sarcasm she used with James, “but I don’t think so. Maybe another time.”
“Oh no,” James grabbed her other arm, “we came not intending to take no for an answer. We haven’t had one of our famous crazy Weasely nights in years. I blame you for that.”
“Wait,” Rose glared at the three Potters, “you mean, they’re all coming,”
“You bet they’re all coming,” James smiled, “Fred and Roxie are going to grab that brother of yours. ‘Operation Get Rose and Hugo So Drunk They Forget About The Unfortunate Turn Of Events That Have Happened To Them Recently’,”
“That’s real clever James. Did you think of it yourself?” Rose replied
James continued to smile, “No, Fred helped with the name,”
“Of course he did,” Rose sighed. She knew if the whole clan was involved, there was very little hope for getting out of it. Soon, James, Al and Lily would call for reinforcements and they all would be here. She looked over at Kenny, “You wanna go out?”
“Sure,” he replied so eagerly Rose suspected he might have known about Operation Whatever beforehand, “Sounds like fun,”
She eyed him suspiciously, “You wouldn’t have known anything about Operation James and Fred’s Crazy Name, now would you?”
Kenny looked at Al and James guiltily.
“We may have had some words earlier at the hospital,” Al didn’t make eye contact with Rose.
She couldn’t believe they were all in on this. They hadn’t even known him a week and James and Al had already sucked Kenny in. Half of her was furious at them for manipulating her boyfriend and trying to use him against her. The other half was incredibly grateful she had family, however insane, that cared about her that much.
“Fine,” she finally gave in, “I’ll go get changed. But you,” she turned to Kenny, “are asking for it going out with all of us,”
Kenny laughed, “Oh really, you think I can’t handle myself,” he taunted.
“Well, you know how you’re always saying you’re amazed by how well I hold my liquor,”
“Yeah,”
“You’re about to see how I learned,” she gave him a devious smile and went up to her room to change. Lily scurried after her.
“You tell him Ginger,” James and Al high-fived.
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Two hours later, the five of them were standing outside Hippogriff, the hippest nightclub in Diagon Ally, waiting for the rest of the Weaselys. Fred, Roxie and Hugo got there first. Soon after them, Victiore and Teddy showed up, followed by Molly, Lucy, and Louis. Rose was starting to feel more excited about their night out. She and all her cousins used to go out all the time. They had had some pretty fun times. She hadn’t had a single night in America that even compared to her nights with her cousins.
Hugo came up next to her, “Were you literally dragged here too?”
“At first, but c’mon Hugo maybe they’re right, maybe we need a little fun,”
They all turned to go into the club when Rose heard a familiar voice calling out behind her.
“Hey! Who’s that creepy ginger over there!”
Rose turned around, “I didn’t know they let dumb blondes this close to regular people anymore!” she yelled back to the only cousin she hadn’t seen since coming home.
Dom and Rose rushed towards each other and collided. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t get back when it happened,” Dom cried, “I tried, I really did, but they kept telling me I was under contract and…”
Rose stopped her, “Dom, don’t worry about it. I was the last person to find out. Where have you been?”
“I was in Brazil, shooting swimsuit stuff. You know how it is,” she waived her hand dismissively.
“Yeah,” Rose rolled her eyes, “I know exactly how that is. C’mon let’s get drunk,”
They headed back towards the group. James was over talking to the large, angry looking bouncer by the front door. James worked for the Tornados, the leagues best Quidditch team. He worked in player relations. It was his job to make sure all the players were happy and to schmooze new prospects into signing with the Tornados. He was actually quite good at it, and consequently was close with some of the most famous Quidditch players of the day. Hippogriff was actually owned by Taylor Hershey, the Tornados star Seeker, and one of James’s good friends. Rose kind of hoped that Taylor Hershey would be there; he was voted Best Looking Player three seasons in a row by the readers of Quidditch World.
“Alright guys,” James came back to where they were all standing, “let’s go,” He started past the bouncer and everyone followed him. Music was blaring and the club was packed. James led them through the bar to an area that was roped off. The bouncer guarding the area acknowledged James.
“Mr. Potter,” he shook James’s hand, “Mr. Hershey said you would be using the VIP lounge tonight. Is there anything I can get for you?”
“Just make sure someone comes over to take our drink order,” James gave the bouncer his famous charmer smile.
“Yes, sir,” the bouncer unhooked the rope to let them all into the VIP area and stalked away to get their waitress.
James turned to the group, “Tonight, we are VIPs,” he gestured toward the VIP lounge, which was furnished with tables and couches, and was big enough to fit all of them and then some.
As everyone went to claim places to sit, Rose walked over to James. “Wow, you really went all out,”
“Hey, what can I say, I have connections and I’m good at using them,” he looked away from her, “and I wanted to make tonight awesome. You deserve an awesome night,”
She looked at him with what can only be described as gratitude, “Thanks James, that means a lot.” She gave him a peck on the cheek.
He blushed, which was very uncharacteristic of him. “Don’t get all mushy on me Ginger,” He walked away and sat down with Fred and Molly.
Rose went over to where Kenny was sitting talking to Dom. Lily and Al were also sitting with them.
“Rose,” Dom looked at her accusingly, “you never told me you had found yourself a man in America,”
“You never asked,” she shrugged.
A petite waitress came over to take their drink orders. “Oh my gosh,” the waitress shrieked when she saw Dom, “you’re Dominique!”
Dom had become pretty famous since she had started modeling. Early in her career someone told her she had such a long and distinctive first name that she didn’t need a last name. She took their advice and had been simply ‘Dominique’ ever since.
Dom gave the girl a big smile, “Yes, I guess I am,”
“Wow, that’s so cool,” the girl gushed, “Can I have your autograph?” The waitress gave Dom her pen and a napkin that had been on the table. Dom signed it with a flourish and gave it back to her.
They ordered their drinks and the waitress darted away with her napkin firm in her grasp.
“So,” Kenny asked Dom, “You’ve done ok for yourself then?”
“I guess I’ve done alright,”
The giddy waitress came back with their drinks and Fred stood up on the table he was sitting at. “Hey everybody! Listen up!” Everyone stopped talking and looked up at Fred. “Tonight, we are finally back together, the way it’s supposed to be. Our goal tonight is to make sure Rose and Hugo have a good time, because if anybody deserves a good time, its them,” a few ‘here, here’s’ rumbled through the crowd. “I want us to raise our glasses to the one and only Aunt Hermione who would always let us crash at her house, not matter how drunk we were,”
“You didn’t have to listen to her after everyone left,” it was Hugo who interrupted Fred with a laugh.
“I guess not,” Fred continued, “but she is a top notch lady either way. To Aunt Hermione!” he raised his glass in a toast.
“To Aunt Hermione!” everyone echoed and emptied their glasses.
Rose looked at her empty glass and then at their new waitress friend. “I’m going to need a lot more of that,”
One advantage of having a star struck waitress was that they didn’t see another empty glass the whole night. Rose had had two cosmos, a mojito, and was winning the tequila shot war she had going with Dom. Things were just starting to get pleasantly fuzzy around the edges. Lily, Lucy, Roxie and Molly were all dancing with attractive looking gentlemen, Fred and James were inviting every girl without a date to join them in the VIP lounge. Louis was sitting with Hugo, who just looked sad. Teddy and Victoire were enjoying themselves on a rather private sofa in the corner. Al was hitting on the spunky waitress who had come back with more drinks.
“You know,” an obviously drunk Al slurred, “you are very pretty,”
The waitress looked at him like he was the thousandth drunk guy to hit on her, which he probably was, “Thanks,” she rolled her eyes and walked away.
“Way to strike out buddy,” Kenny laughed. He had in no way kept up with Rose and Dom, but he was pretty far-gone himself.
“Naaaaaah,” Al drew out the sound obnoxiously long, “She wasn’t that attractive anyway,”
Rose and Dom weren’t paying attention. They counted to three and the both of them licked salt off their hands and downed another tequila shot simultaneously. Dom scrunched up her face and stuck a lime in her mouth. Rose gave her head a spastic shake and stuck out her tongue.
“How many of those things have you done?” Kenny asked.
Rose gave Dom a confused look, who shrugged back at her. Her confused look went then to her fingers where she alternated between putting four and five fingers up. Finally, she put her hand down and sighed looking at Kenny. “I do not know,” she looked at him thoughtfully, “but I’m winning,”
She stood up and slowly made her way over to Kenny, stumbling quite a bit in the five feet she had to walk. She plopped herself down on his lap and flung her arms around his neck. “You,” she put a finger on his nose, “are just too damn cute,” she placed a quick kiss on his lips.
“You,” he returned her nose gesture, “taste like tequila,”
“You like it?” she gave him a more intense kiss. He returned it enthusiastically. After a few minutes of what Rose thought of as bliss, Lily’s voice interrupted them.
“Don’t you need air?”
Rose turned on her cousin, disgruntled, “I was doing ok, thank you very much,”
“Whatever, we need to get Hugo dancing or something. How could we forget he’s such a sad drunk?”
Rose gave an exasperated sigh and hoisted herself off of Kenny’s lap. She and Lily stumbled their way over to where Hugo and Louis were sitting.
“Is it always your goal the have absolutely no fun?” Rose came at her brother with all her drunken force.
“How can you be having fun,” Hugo slurred. Lily was right, Hugo got more depressed the more alcohol he consumed, even under normal circumstances.
“I’ve had this many,” she just wiggled her fingers at him, indicating no real number, “tequila shots. How can I not have fun,”
Lily turned to Louis, “Hey Louis, let’s go dance. I’m sure there are some girls out there that James and Fred haven’t found yet,” Louis emptied his glass and jumped up with Lily, obviously relieved to have an excuse to leave the side of his best friend.
“You need to loosen up,” Rose grabbed Hugo’s shoulders and shook, making his head loll from side to side. It was then that she spotted their waitress, clearly getting off her shift.
Rose rushed over to her almost tripping over a chair, a table, and her own feet. “Hey,” she searched her brain for the waitress’s name; she knew she had given it to them. She gave it up as a bad job and went with the next best thing, “Hey, little waitress!” the waitress turned around.
“I’m off now, and I think it’s almost last call…”
“No,” she stumbled over to her, “I don’t want something else to drink. Well I could go for one of those pink things Molly had earlier…” she broke off looking pensive, but then she remembered why she had come over, “but I came over to talk to you. You see my brother over there,” she pointed at Hugo and the waitress looked, “he’s having kind of a rough week…”
The waitress interrupted her, “I’m just the waitress. This really isn’t that kind of place…”
“Ew no!” Rose cringed at the thought of what was just implied, “I was talking about just dancing with him, maybe just talking to him,” the girl didn’t look like that was any more appealing, “you won’t have to pay for a single drink and I’ll get you dinner with Dominique,”
The girl’s eyes lit up, “Really, you can do that?”
“Sure, I’m her agent,” one of the upsides to Rose’s intoxication was that she was a much better liar when she was drunk.
“Ok I’ll do it! I’m Hannah, by the way,”
“Hannah!” Rose hit herself on the forehead, which caused her to stagger back a little bit.
Hannah walked over and sat next to Hugo and started to talk to him. Rose danced over to where she had left Kenny and grabbed his hand. “Let’s dance,” she pulled him up and dragged him onto the dance floor.
As she was dancing with her boyfriend and her cousins, Rose wasn’t thinking about her mother, the incompetent Healers, or any holes in the adults’ stories. She was finally just having fun.
Healer McGinnis handed over his badge and tapped his foot impatiently as the giant Auror checked him off. ‘They see me every day,’ he thought, ‘Is it necessary every time?’ The Auror handed the badge back and waved his hand for McGinnis to pass.
Soon, he was back in deep thought. He had scrutinized the Minster’s case for days, determined to come up with something. He kept telling himself that if he was the one to fix her, he would be the most renowned Healer in the country, maybe the world. And then there was the fact that he actually liked her. He had never been very involved in politics, but in his opinion she was doing a better job than most of the men that came before her, especially those hacks that were around while he was finishing school. He was sure he even voted for her, well, he was pretty sure he had voted for her.
But, if he was truly being honest with himself, his main motivation for putting so much time into this was the family. It wasn’t that the family was one of the most well known in the wizarding world, or that they all looked so sad every time he saw them (although those did help). No, it was that he was terrified of Minister Weasely’s daughter. He couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out why. She couldn’t have been any older than twenty, and she was quite a bit smaller than him. But every time she stared at him with those disapproving eyes, it sent a chill up his spine.
When he reached the door, he paused for a moment and took a deep breath. This was it; he finally had a plan. He slowly opened the door and found an abundance of red heads filling the room. He couldn’t help but notice the raven haired boy who was standing by Mr. Weasely, he looked so out of place.
Healer McGinnis cleared his throat and every eye in the room was on him. “I was wondering if I could talk to Mr. Weasely in private?”
Mumbles of agreement rumbled through the room as the extended Weasely family began to filter out. The black haired boy (who Healer McGinnis knew to be Harry Potter’s son) walked over to the corner of the room and whispered something to a man McGinnis did not recognize. The new man kissed the daughter (which is how the Healer though of her in his mind) lightly on the head and followed the younger Potter out.
Then, it was just Healer McGinnis, Ron, and Rose. McGinnis had kind of hoped she would leave too, but she stayed, she always stayed.
Both Ron and Rose looked at the Healer expectantly, “Well,” he began, “I’ve been looking over the test results and making some calls,” he looked nervously at Rose, who looked skeptical, “As I’ve said before, it is very hard to treat for jinxes if we don’t know what jinxes were used,” Rose let out a scoff and Ron shot her a warning glare, “However, there are some Healers who specialize in disentangling multiple curses. It’s an emerging field, but it does exist,”
Hope spread across Ron’s face. It was literally the best news he had heard in days. “Really?” he asked trying to hide his excitement.
“Yes,” Healer McGinnis could sense Ron’s hope and didn’t want to crush it, “the problem is, none of these specialists are in Britain, and some are better than others…”
“We want the best one,” Ron interrupted. Rose nodded her head in fierce agreement next to him. She still didn’t look convinced, but she hadn’t started yelling yet.
“Well,” he looked taken aback and quickly shuffled through his papers, “In my opinion that would be Healer Spencer Parcell. He’s based in Los Angeles. It would probably be rather expensive…”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ron interrupted again, “Money doesn’t matter,” he pointed to the bed where Hermione still lay, “That is my wife, and I’ll do whatever it takes to fix her,”
“Alright then,” McGinnis nodded.
“Plus,” Ron added, “She’s the bloody Minister of Magic,”
McGinnis just continued to nod, as Rose shot him a rather conquering smile.
“I’ll make that call now,” he shuffled out of the room.
Rose turned to her father, “You think this is going to work Dad?”
“It’s all we have right now Rosie,” he went back to his perch by the bed and Rose went to find the rest of the family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rose and Kenny were snuggling on a couch in the Weasely’s living room. Rose was glad that they had reconciled, even if it did take her mom being in a coma and Kenny spending Merlin only knows how much money to chase her over 3,000 miles. Things were actually even better than they were before. She could be completely honest with him now (well as honest as you were with your boyfriend of a little over a year). She didn’t have to hide the most important part of her life from him any more. On top of all that, Ron spent all of his time at the hospital with Hermione. He hadn’t quite deduced that Kenny was staying in their house; in Rose’s room no less. Rose didn’t want to think how he would react when he discovered that one.
They had spent the majority of the day at the hospital, and Rose was just starting to fall asleep in the comfort of Kenny’s arms when she heard three pops and felt Kenny jump a little. (He was trying really hard not to be startled by the magic stuff, but it was all still pretty new.)
“C’mon Ginger, we’re going out,” she heard the voice of James Potter and opened her eyes reluctantly. There she saw him, Albus, and Lily standing in front of them. Obviously dressed to go out.
“Must you call me that James? You know I hate it,” she sighed in frustration. James had always known how to push her buttons. Actually, he knew how to push everyone’s buttons.
“Your hair is a lovely ginger color,” he replied sweetly, “thus the nickname fits,” He smiled at what he thought was the utter brilliance of his logic.
“James,” Rose replied in slight amusement, “like eighty percent of us have red hair. Do you call everyone Ginger? Do you call Lily that, her hair is red,”
“Actually he does,” Lily replied sadly, “I don’t think he can think of anything else,” she added in a whisper.
Rose laughed, “Aw, now I don’t feel as loved,” she whined sarcastically.
“Ha, there, I knew you liked it,” James looked triumphant, “You’ll always be the original Ginger to me Rosie,”
“You really are an idiot, do you know that?” Al shook his head at his brother, “Anyway, Rose we came here to get you guys. We’re going out,”
“Um, I dunno, I’m really not in a very fun kind of mood,” Rose scrunched up her nose.
“That’s exactly why we’re taking you out,” Lily replied with excitement, “don’t make that face. You need to blow off some steam, have some fun, drown your sorrows in copious amounts of alcohol, all that stuff,” she started to pull Rose off the couch, “C’mon get changed. You look like a homeless person,”
Rose looked down at herself. She was wearing an old pair of sweatpants and one of Kenny’s sweatshirts, which she did have to admit, was a little big for her and it might have had some holes in it. She didn’t think she looked that bad until she remembered that she had worn the same pants yesterday.
“Thanks Lil,” Rose replied with the same sarcasm she used with James, “but I don’t think so. Maybe another time.”
“Oh no,” James grabbed her other arm, “we came not intending to take no for an answer. We haven’t had one of our famous crazy Weasely nights in years. I blame you for that.”
“Wait,” Rose glared at the three Potters, “you mean, they’re all coming,”
“You bet they’re all coming,” James smiled, “Fred and Roxie are going to grab that brother of yours. ‘Operation Get Rose and Hugo So Drunk They Forget About The Unfortunate Turn Of Events That Have Happened To Them Recently’,”
“That’s real clever James. Did you think of it yourself?” Rose replied
James continued to smile, “No, Fred helped with the name,”
“Of course he did,” Rose sighed. She knew if the whole clan was involved, there was very little hope for getting out of it. Soon, James, Al and Lily would call for reinforcements and they all would be here. She looked over at Kenny, “You wanna go out?”
“Sure,” he replied so eagerly Rose suspected he might have known about Operation Whatever beforehand, “Sounds like fun,”
She eyed him suspiciously, “You wouldn’t have known anything about Operation James and Fred’s Crazy Name, now would you?”
Kenny looked at Al and James guiltily.
“We may have had some words earlier at the hospital,” Al didn’t make eye contact with Rose.
She couldn’t believe they were all in on this. They hadn’t even known him a week and James and Al had already sucked Kenny in. Half of her was furious at them for manipulating her boyfriend and trying to use him against her. The other half was incredibly grateful she had family, however insane, that cared about her that much.
“Fine,” she finally gave in, “I’ll go get changed. But you,” she turned to Kenny, “are asking for it going out with all of us,”
Kenny laughed, “Oh really, you think I can’t handle myself,” he taunted.
“Well, you know how you’re always saying you’re amazed by how well I hold my liquor,”
“Yeah,”
“You’re about to see how I learned,” she gave him a devious smile and went up to her room to change. Lily scurried after her.
“You tell him Ginger,” James and Al high-fived.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two hours later, the five of them were standing outside Hippogriff, the hippest nightclub in Diagon Ally, waiting for the rest of the Weaselys. Fred, Roxie and Hugo got there first. Soon after them, Victiore and Teddy showed up, followed by Molly, Lucy, and Louis. Rose was starting to feel more excited about their night out. She and all her cousins used to go out all the time. They had had some pretty fun times. She hadn’t had a single night in America that even compared to her nights with her cousins.
Hugo came up next to her, “Were you literally dragged here too?”
“At first, but c’mon Hugo maybe they’re right, maybe we need a little fun,”
They all turned to go into the club when Rose heard a familiar voice calling out behind her.
“Hey! Who’s that creepy ginger over there!”
Rose turned around, “I didn’t know they let dumb blondes this close to regular people anymore!” she yelled back to the only cousin she hadn’t seen since coming home.
Dom and Rose rushed towards each other and collided. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t get back when it happened,” Dom cried, “I tried, I really did, but they kept telling me I was under contract and…”
Rose stopped her, “Dom, don’t worry about it. I was the last person to find out. Where have you been?”
“I was in Brazil, shooting swimsuit stuff. You know how it is,” she waived her hand dismissively.
“Yeah,” Rose rolled her eyes, “I know exactly how that is. C’mon let’s get drunk,”
They headed back towards the group. James was over talking to the large, angry looking bouncer by the front door. James worked for the Tornados, the leagues best Quidditch team. He worked in player relations. It was his job to make sure all the players were happy and to schmooze new prospects into signing with the Tornados. He was actually quite good at it, and consequently was close with some of the most famous Quidditch players of the day. Hippogriff was actually owned by Taylor Hershey, the Tornados star Seeker, and one of James’s good friends. Rose kind of hoped that Taylor Hershey would be there; he was voted Best Looking Player three seasons in a row by the readers of Quidditch World.
“Alright guys,” James came back to where they were all standing, “let’s go,” He started past the bouncer and everyone followed him. Music was blaring and the club was packed. James led them through the bar to an area that was roped off. The bouncer guarding the area acknowledged James.
“Mr. Potter,” he shook James’s hand, “Mr. Hershey said you would be using the VIP lounge tonight. Is there anything I can get for you?”
“Just make sure someone comes over to take our drink order,” James gave the bouncer his famous charmer smile.
“Yes, sir,” the bouncer unhooked the rope to let them all into the VIP area and stalked away to get their waitress.
James turned to the group, “Tonight, we are VIPs,” he gestured toward the VIP lounge, which was furnished with tables and couches, and was big enough to fit all of them and then some.
As everyone went to claim places to sit, Rose walked over to James. “Wow, you really went all out,”
“Hey, what can I say, I have connections and I’m good at using them,” he looked away from her, “and I wanted to make tonight awesome. You deserve an awesome night,”
She looked at him with what can only be described as gratitude, “Thanks James, that means a lot.” She gave him a peck on the cheek.
He blushed, which was very uncharacteristic of him. “Don’t get all mushy on me Ginger,” He walked away and sat down with Fred and Molly.
Rose went over to where Kenny was sitting talking to Dom. Lily and Al were also sitting with them.
“Rose,” Dom looked at her accusingly, “you never told me you had found yourself a man in America,”
“You never asked,” she shrugged.
A petite waitress came over to take their drink orders. “Oh my gosh,” the waitress shrieked when she saw Dom, “you’re Dominique!”
Dom had become pretty famous since she had started modeling. Early in her career someone told her she had such a long and distinctive first name that she didn’t need a last name. She took their advice and had been simply ‘Dominique’ ever since.
Dom gave the girl a big smile, “Yes, I guess I am,”
“Wow, that’s so cool,” the girl gushed, “Can I have your autograph?” The waitress gave Dom her pen and a napkin that had been on the table. Dom signed it with a flourish and gave it back to her.
They ordered their drinks and the waitress darted away with her napkin firm in her grasp.
“So,” Kenny asked Dom, “You’ve done ok for yourself then?”
“I guess I’ve done alright,”
The giddy waitress came back with their drinks and Fred stood up on the table he was sitting at. “Hey everybody! Listen up!” Everyone stopped talking and looked up at Fred. “Tonight, we are finally back together, the way it’s supposed to be. Our goal tonight is to make sure Rose and Hugo have a good time, because if anybody deserves a good time, its them,” a few ‘here, here’s’ rumbled through the crowd. “I want us to raise our glasses to the one and only Aunt Hermione who would always let us crash at her house, not matter how drunk we were,”
“You didn’t have to listen to her after everyone left,” it was Hugo who interrupted Fred with a laugh.
“I guess not,” Fred continued, “but she is a top notch lady either way. To Aunt Hermione!” he raised his glass in a toast.
“To Aunt Hermione!” everyone echoed and emptied their glasses.
Rose looked at her empty glass and then at their new waitress friend. “I’m going to need a lot more of that,”
One advantage of having a star struck waitress was that they didn’t see another empty glass the whole night. Rose had had two cosmos, a mojito, and was winning the tequila shot war she had going with Dom. Things were just starting to get pleasantly fuzzy around the edges. Lily, Lucy, Roxie and Molly were all dancing with attractive looking gentlemen, Fred and James were inviting every girl without a date to join them in the VIP lounge. Louis was sitting with Hugo, who just looked sad. Teddy and Victoire were enjoying themselves on a rather private sofa in the corner. Al was hitting on the spunky waitress who had come back with more drinks.
“You know,” an obviously drunk Al slurred, “you are very pretty,”
The waitress looked at him like he was the thousandth drunk guy to hit on her, which he probably was, “Thanks,” she rolled her eyes and walked away.
“Way to strike out buddy,” Kenny laughed. He had in no way kept up with Rose and Dom, but he was pretty far-gone himself.
“Naaaaaah,” Al drew out the sound obnoxiously long, “She wasn’t that attractive anyway,”
Rose and Dom weren’t paying attention. They counted to three and the both of them licked salt off their hands and downed another tequila shot simultaneously. Dom scrunched up her face and stuck a lime in her mouth. Rose gave her head a spastic shake and stuck out her tongue.
“How many of those things have you done?” Kenny asked.
Rose gave Dom a confused look, who shrugged back at her. Her confused look went then to her fingers where she alternated between putting four and five fingers up. Finally, she put her hand down and sighed looking at Kenny. “I do not know,” she looked at him thoughtfully, “but I’m winning,”
She stood up and slowly made her way over to Kenny, stumbling quite a bit in the five feet she had to walk. She plopped herself down on his lap and flung her arms around his neck. “You,” she put a finger on his nose, “are just too damn cute,” she placed a quick kiss on his lips.
“You,” he returned her nose gesture, “taste like tequila,”
“You like it?” she gave him a more intense kiss. He returned it enthusiastically. After a few minutes of what Rose thought of as bliss, Lily’s voice interrupted them.
“Don’t you need air?”
Rose turned on her cousin, disgruntled, “I was doing ok, thank you very much,”
“Whatever, we need to get Hugo dancing or something. How could we forget he’s such a sad drunk?”
Rose gave an exasperated sigh and hoisted herself off of Kenny’s lap. She and Lily stumbled their way over to where Hugo and Louis were sitting.
“Is it always your goal the have absolutely no fun?” Rose came at her brother with all her drunken force.
“How can you be having fun,” Hugo slurred. Lily was right, Hugo got more depressed the more alcohol he consumed, even under normal circumstances.
“I’ve had this many,” she just wiggled her fingers at him, indicating no real number, “tequila shots. How can I not have fun,”
Lily turned to Louis, “Hey Louis, let’s go dance. I’m sure there are some girls out there that James and Fred haven’t found yet,” Louis emptied his glass and jumped up with Lily, obviously relieved to have an excuse to leave the side of his best friend.
“You need to loosen up,” Rose grabbed Hugo’s shoulders and shook, making his head loll from side to side. It was then that she spotted their waitress, clearly getting off her shift.
Rose rushed over to her almost tripping over a chair, a table, and her own feet. “Hey,” she searched her brain for the waitress’s name; she knew she had given it to them. She gave it up as a bad job and went with the next best thing, “Hey, little waitress!” the waitress turned around.
“I’m off now, and I think it’s almost last call…”
“No,” she stumbled over to her, “I don’t want something else to drink. Well I could go for one of those pink things Molly had earlier…” she broke off looking pensive, but then she remembered why she had come over, “but I came over to talk to you. You see my brother over there,” she pointed at Hugo and the waitress looked, “he’s having kind of a rough week…”
The waitress interrupted her, “I’m just the waitress. This really isn’t that kind of place…”
“Ew no!” Rose cringed at the thought of what was just implied, “I was talking about just dancing with him, maybe just talking to him,” the girl didn’t look like that was any more appealing, “you won’t have to pay for a single drink and I’ll get you dinner with Dominique,”
The girl’s eyes lit up, “Really, you can do that?”
“Sure, I’m her agent,” one of the upsides to Rose’s intoxication was that she was a much better liar when she was drunk.
“Ok I’ll do it! I’m Hannah, by the way,”
“Hannah!” Rose hit herself on the forehead, which caused her to stagger back a little bit.
Hannah walked over and sat next to Hugo and started to talk to him. Rose danced over to where she had left Kenny and grabbed his hand. “Let’s dance,” she pulled him up and dragged him onto the dance floor.
As she was dancing with her boyfriend and her cousins, Rose wasn’t thinking about her mother, the incompetent Healers, or any holes in the adults’ stories. She was finally just having fun.
