The Morning After
Ginny
By Crys
Harry / Ginny / Hermione ship
Ginny woke up with a start when someone laid a hand upon her bare shoulder. Her eyes snapped open to see the concerned face of Harry Potter hovering over her.
"Hey," he whispered. "How're you feeling?"
She slowly sat up and stretched her arms above her head, one after another. When she looked over at Harry, she found him still kneeling at her bedside but his attention was definitely not on her actions. It was instead riveted to a point about six inches below her chin. Or two points, actually.
Rather than being embarrassed by her state of undress, she instead turned toward Harry and leaned forward a little. "Actually, I'm feeling a little peaked."
Harry closed his eyes and swallowed on a dry throat. After silently counting to ten, he opened his eyes (carefully looking up into her sparkling brown eyes) and said, "Gaargh."
Or something to that effect, anyway.
Ginny giggled at Harry's reaction. "I'm feeling fine, thank you. Why aren't you in here with me, anyway?"
Harry again closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. "Ginny, I don't think I'll be able to hold an intelligent conversation with you if you don't get some clothes on."
"Oh, fine." She pulled the sheet up and tucked it firmly under her arms. "Is this better?"
Harry cracked open one eye for a moment before the second one opened fully. "I liked the view before, but at least this way I can talk without becoming distracted." He took another breath and his blush receded a little bit. "As I was saying, how do you feel?"
She shrugged, absently combing the fingers of one hand through her hair in a half-hearted attempt to detangle it. "I'm fine. I didn't have much to drink last night. At least not as much as the rest of you did. How're you feeling?"
Harry held up his hand with a vial of a noxious looking green potion in it. "Better after the hangover cure." He tilted his head and went on cautiously, "You didn't go to bed as . . . intoxicated as the rest of us?"
"No, I knowingly crawled into bed with you while naked if that's what your concern is, Harry." She watched the line of tension in Harry's shoulders ease considerably. She reached forward one hand and cupped the side of his face. "I meant what I said last night, Harry," she whispered, drawing his face forward so she could kiss him on the cheek. She smiled at him. "Any more kisses than that will wait until after we brush our teeth."
Harry chuckled nervously. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." He looked into her eyes for a moment before going on quietly, "Remind me to thank Meghan later for helping to bring you into my life."
"I've loved you for years, Harry Potter. Now that we're both sober and conscious, I hope that you'll believe me."
Harry slowly broke into a soul-brightening smile and leaned forward to kiss her deeply, morning breath and all. When he eventually came up for air, he leaned back with a glazed look in his eye and a goofy grin. Shaking himself back to reality, he said, "We'll have to have an in-depth study of this situation later. For now, I think I should be handing this hangover cure out to our suffering friends."
As Harry moved around the bed to tend to the other naked and probably hung-over witch in his four-poster, Ginny glanced around the room. Her eyes falling onto her sleeping brother and his new boyfriend, a plan started to form. Her nefarious plotting was interrupted by a groan of pain from behind her.
Hermione very slowly sat up, eyes closed and a hand to her forehead. "What happened?" she asked in a dry whisper.
"Drink this," Harry gently ordered.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, voice dropping even further as she winced in pain.
"It'll make you feel better," Harry offered.
Hermione's hand blindly reached out for a moment before Harry caught it and pressed the vial into it.
Trusting Harry implicitly, Hermione drank the contents without looking. She immediately gagged and started coughing.
Ginny turned around on the bed and rubbed one hand over Hermione's bare back.
The coughing fit only lasted for a few moments before Hermione's eyes opened to see Harry standing before her. Confusion in her eyes, she looked over her shoulder to find a sheet-wrapped Ginny smiling at her. This, combined with her sudden recognition of her complete lack of clothing, hit her all at once. "Eeep!" she uttered, falling back onto the bed, hands pulling the sheet up to her chin. "Harry!" she hissed. "You'd better get out of here, right now!"
Harry smiled down at her. "Why? You're in MY bed, Hermione."
Eyes flitting back and forth between a standing, clothed, and amused Harry to a sitting, unclothed, and amused Ginny, Hermione finally said, "How . . ."
"How much do you remember about last night?" Harry asked.
"Not much," Hermione admitted, eyes still going back and forth. She took a breath and visibly braced herself. "How did I end up naked in your bed with Ginny?" she asked in a rush.
"Would it help if I got back in there with you?" Harry asked innocently.
"Only if you're naked when you do," Ginny promptly replied.
Hermione spent a few moments perfecting her owl impersonation.
Shrugging agreeably, Harry reached one hand up to the robe fastenings at his throat.
"Stop!" Hermione squeaked, eyes still wide.
Finally taking pity on the confused witch, Ginny asked, "Do you remember Meghan's question last night?"
Hermione closed her eyes and furrowed her brow in concentration before they flew open again in horror. "I didn't."
"You did," Ginny cheerfully assured her.
Hermione turned to Harry. "You did?"
Harry nodded, smiling down at her. "I did."
Hermione smiled back for a moment before turning to Ginny. "You did?"
Ginny smiled up at Harry. "I did."
Hermione turned back to Harry, but he answered her question before she asked it. "I did," he confirmed.
Hermione blinked rapidly for a moment before turning to Ginny again. "We did?"
Ginny fought off the case of the snickers that was threatening. "This is getting repetitive. You and I both admitted to loving Harry. He admitted to loving the both of us. You and I haven't discussed how we're going to deal with the joint custody of this gorgeous wizard, though."
"What, you don't think there's enough of me to go around?" Harry asked challengingly.
Ginny looked thoughtfully at his robes just below where his waist would be. "We'll have to find out, won't we?"
"Detailed examinations," Hermione added.
"Hands-on testing."
Harry's mind immediately locked up.
Hermione smiled at his expression. "I think we broke him."
Ginny sighed dramatically. "And he was still almost new, too. You'd think we could get at least fifty years out of him before any of the parts wore out."
Harry's mind snapped back into reality at their twin laughs. "I was originally worried that in the sober light of morning you two wouldn't want to be with me. I woke you two up first in case you wanted to quietly sneak out."
"Don't you worry about that," she purred.
"I'd show you how wrong that thinking is, but I'm not into giving free shows like that," the other commented.
"If you're STILL worried about both of us, we can all three go to breakfast arm in arm and then you can snog both of us senseless in the Great Hall if you'd like."
"That sounds like fun, actually."
"Remus would sure love to see that."
"McGonagall wouldn't."
"I bet it would give Snape a coronary on the spot, though."
As Harry's brain was in the process of shutting down again, he couldn't work out which witch said what. Harry gave himself a mental slap and dragged his brain, kicking and screaming, back to the realm of reality. "As fascinating as this conversation is, I think we really should help out our friends."
Hermione leaned forward onto her elbows and looked around the room for the first time. "Ron and Colin?" she asked in an amazed tone.
Ginny grinned evilly. "Oh, to have a dose of polyjuice."
Harry snorted out a laugh. "Imagine Ron's expression if he woke up next to Snape."
"Or if it was Mum who woke him up," Ginny added.
"Umbridge," Hermione suggested.
Harry pulled a nauseated face while Ginny and Hermione chuckled.
"Where's that hangover cure?" Ginny asked.
Harry pointed.
Stark naked, Ginny climbed out of bed and picked up two vials. She then went over to Ron's bed and shook his shoulder. After a few seconds, Ron gruffly asked, "Whazzat?"
"Drink this," Ginny ordered, shoving one of the doses into his hand.
As Ron slowly sat up and then drank the potion, Colin went through similar waking up motions and took the vial from Ginny without comment. He managed to drink the hangover cure without making a noise.
Recovered from his coughing fit, Ron finally looked around. Eyes landing first on Ginny, his eyes bugged out. "Ginny, you're starkers."
Ginny looked down for a moment and then back up. "You're right, brother of mine and master of the obvious. I am, in fact, starkers."
"But . . . But WHY?" sputtered Ron.
"Because being in Harry's bed is a great deal more fun when I'm naked," she answered calmly.
Colin looked over Ron's shoulder and looked at Ginny for a moment with a raised eyebrow. "As impressive as your sister's body is, Ron, I think you should be paying more attention to your sex life than hers."
At Colin's first word, Ron jumped and spun to look at the other boy. Ron gaped at the scene for a moment, clearly trying to think.
Harry rolled his eyes and didn’t give Ron a chance to recover. Instead, he walked over, pulled the curtains of Ron's four poster bed closed, and said, "Have fun, you two." He then cast a wandless Silencing Charm around the bed.
Hermione snickered as Ginny walked back over and sat down on Harry's bed, making no effort to cover herself.
Harry, feeling surprisingly clear-headed considering Ginny was bouncing around the room without a stitch of clothing on, went over and picked up two more of the vials.
Seamus and Lavender were easy to wake up and convince to drink the potion.
Once he was coherent, Seamus blinked at the two witches on Harry's bed (Hermione was resting on one elbow by now, the sheet doing an inadequate job of covering her) before kissing Lavender on the cheek and stumbling into the bathroom. Everyone heard the shower turn on a few moments later.
Lavender was eyeing the two witches in interest. "You two and Harry?"
"That's the plan," Ginny said.
"They're lucky," Lavender opinioned to Harry.
"No, I'M the lucky one," he retorted, smiling at the two on his bed.
"Not quite yet, but soon," Hermione corrected him pertly.
Lavender smiled widely as Harry again was struck dumb. Blushing brightly, he grabbed one of the vials and went into the bathroom, muttering something about Dean.
Chuckling, Lavender turned to the two witches. "Go easy on him, girls. At least until he's properly broken in, anyway. I've always heard that you can tell a lot about a wizard by the power he wields with his wand. Do let me know, okay?" Not waiting for a response, she stood and followed Harry and Seamus into the bathroom.
The moment of silence was broken by Hermione. "I love you like a sister, Ginny, but I'm not about to give him up," she said, eyeing the other witch on the bed warily.
"Me, neither. Just don't seduce him into a life of monogamy next year when I'm still in Hogwarts, okay?" Ginny asked.
"No problem." Hermione looked pensive for a moment. "My only question now is whether we can both marry him or if we'll have to settle for mistress or concubine status."
Harry and Dean, walking out of the bathroom at that moment, stopped short at hearing Hermione's question.
The expression on Harry's face melted the hearts of the two witches, convincing them that their choice was the right one.
Dean stared at the two of them, his jaw hanging open.
Ginny said, "Dean, leave."
Dean obediently turned and headed toward the door, stopping only long enough to pick up the remaining hangover cure doses.
"Harry, take off that robe and get in here," Hermione ordered.