Blood Bound

Chapter 7 - Cantus

A/N

I just want to warn readers that there is a spicy scene in the second half of this chapter that is most definitely not pg-13 so if you're not comfortable with that kind of stuff, be sure to skip the last POV.

Enjoy!!

Slytherin beat Ravenclaw 360 to 190 after the longest two hours of Hermione's life. She'd gone back to the Head's dorm with Ginny after the game to work on some homework. She'd been debating since her conversation with Luna the day before if she should tell her friend about what she'd been going through. Luna hadn't been upset with her when she found out -at least I think that's what that conversation had been about-so she figured if anyone else was likely to be as receptive to it, it would be Ginny. They'd been studying for about an hour when she finally looked from her parchment at her friend.

"Gin, can I tell you something?" she started. She was so nervous to tell her, but the closer to saying it all out loud she got, the more she wanted to get it off her chest.

"Course 'Mione" Ginny looked up from the book she'd been reading to direct a concerned expression at her. "You know you can tell me anything."

"Just, promise you won't get mad at me" she hedged.

"Unless you're about to tell me that Harry broke up with me because you're pregnant with his baby, there's literally nothing you could say that would make me angry with you" her friend responded lightly but she knew she meant it. Taking a breath, she started her story. She told Ginny everything; from finding out accidentally when she'd been helping with cleaning up the castle, to why she broke up with Ron. The only thing she left out was what she'd seen in Harry's head, that's not my secret to tell. It felt unbelievably good to tell somebody everything. She had to give her friend credit, she sat and listened to everything. When Hermione finally stopped talking almost twenty minutes later, she finally spoke.

"Are you telling me" she started "that you can hear what I'm thinking right now?" She looked Ginny in the eye and held the eye contact as she responded.

"Right now you're thinking how bloody cool it would be if it's true, now you're thinking that you should think something less easy to guess in case I'm fucking with you, now you're singing a Weird Sisters song, GINNY I am not repeating out loud what you just thought that's crude!" She scolded her friend and they both dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"Okay alright I believe you," her friend said after she'd wiped her tears of laughter away from her eyes. "Holy shit 'Mione I can't believe you've been dealing with this for months! How have you not gone insane yet?" She cringed at the question, knowing her friend would be upset with the answer.

"Truthfully? A fuck ton of alcohol and daily doses of pain-relief potions" she spoke quietly, half hoping she wouldn't hear her admission.

"Well as much as I don't approve of your substance abuse, I know I'm not one to lecture anybody on coping mechanisms, with my bed-hopping through an entire quidditch team. I'm so sorry you had to go through this alone the whole time, I promise I'm gonna try and be there for you however I can from now on okay? We can figure this out together." The red-head reached out and took her hand, squeezing gently and offering her a reassuring smile.

She pulled Ginny into a tight hug. The two sat there for quite a while until finally they broke apart and went back to their homework without saying anything else.

--

Draco was drunk, he knew that. What he didn't know was exactly how drunk he was until he tried to get up off the sofa he'd been sitting on in the Slytherin common room. The team had rushed back to the dungeons and the party had been happening for a few hours. As soon as he leaned his weight onto his feet to stand up, he would end up falling back onto the couch. As he was gearing up for his third attempt, Nott slid into the seat next to him and slipped a vial of sober-up potion.