A Wonderful Fortuitous Love

26. Everything Changes

"I was starting to think, maybe you need to feel your way more through life – just turn off the lights and follow your senses, even if you stumble once in a while. Maybe that's what falling in love is like. Just feeling your way through the darkness until you find something solid to hold on to."

— Katie Kacvinsky

________________________________________

"Granger, you really need to remove that stick from your arse," said Pansy, who was leaning back on her palm and sitting on the table, surrounded by large bottles and glasses of alcohol. She had a crystal glass in the hand she wasn't using to support herself and brought it back to her lips, guzzling it down noisily. Once finished, she held the glass out in front of her and studied it closely with a frown etched on to her features.

Hermione waited for her to make up her mind about whatever it was she was disputing over. Then Pansy burped, placed the glass clumsily on the table and (instead of refilling it with champagne as she had been all night) grabbed the bottle and began consuming it from there.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Just how are you going to get home like that?"

She tilted her head towards the exit. Hermione followed where she was gazing and stared – along the walls were sombre looking men in black robes.

"Who are they?" she asked, turning back to Pansy.

"They're the people who'll Apparate you safely back home," she explained, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "God, Granger. Get with the times." She giggled, slopping a bit of the drink down her front.

Hermione reached for a napkin and started dabbing here and there. This action was apparently hilarious to Pansy, for she swung an arm over Hermione's shoulder.

"D'you know where Blaise is?" Hermione wondered, searching the large room for him. "I haven't seen him at all."

"Oh." Pansy giggled again, swaying drunkenly on the spot. "He's been in the dining hall."

"All night?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"Ah, yeah. Duh Hermione!"

"But how can anyone eat that much?"

"Pfft, he's Blaise! You're his friend, you should know by now the two things Blaise's life revolves around is sex and food."

"But –"

"Sex and food, Granger," she repeated loudly so that a few people close by turned. "Trust me, I would know."

It wasn't her words that had Hermione staring at Pansy suspiciously, but more of the suggestive tone. "What?"

Pansy winked knowingly.

Hermione, who sincerely hoped she was misunderstanding what was being implied, asked hopefully, "Please tell me you just baked him a cauldron cake."

Pansy outright laughed this time, spilling more alcohol down her dress and shook her head vigorously. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no." She leaned down closer to Hermione. "No." Pansy slurped the rest of the bottle. "I slept with Blaise Zabini!" she declared gleefully.

Hermione gaped.

"Oh, and Granger? Have something to drink already. The alcohol isn't a snake."

"How – how did you – but –" Hermione stuttered. "Blaise is your best friend. How could you have been comfortable sleeping with him?"

Pansy eyed her from over the new bottle of alcohol she was examining. She wasn't laughing anymore. "You had no problems shagging Weasley."

Both women stared at each other.