Sallows Salvation

Codeword: Honeydukes

Before my eyes even open the pain pounding in my head is unbearable.

A hangover, great.

I groan in discomfort as I sit up and notice a glass of water, a vile and note on my bedside table.

"Water is for hydration, the vile will fix the hangover and if you tell anyone I did this for you, hangovers will seem like a dream... - Imelda" the note reads.

I chuckle at the threat before drinking both, already starting to feel a bit better but not fully. I get up and wash my face in the basin and as I look in the mirror I notice dark marks along my neck.

What the fuck... I lean forward and inspect them more. Love bites? My hand touches my neck and last night's events coming flooding back to me. Sebastian kissing the girl in Hufflepuff, Garreth and I slow dancing and.. oh god.

My cheeks fill with color as I remember last nights events with Garreth. What even came over us?.
And remembering Sebastian being sat up waiting for me to come back last night before basically telling me off and storming away, I have a bad feeling about today.

I wrap my house scarf around my neck in an attempt to hide the bruises along my neck and head out for the great hall, god I'm starving..

The common room looks as if nothing ever happened last night despite a few clearly hungover students, I feel your pain guys don't worry. I hurry up the stairs and leave my common room.

"Hey uh Y/N" Garreths voice appears next to me "I was hoping to catch you before you went for breakfast..can we talk?" He sounds shy, he has bags under his eyes. I imagine he's just has hungover as me.

"Oh uh of course.." I mumble, I can barely look at him without having flashbacks. Fuck sake.

"about last night...I-" he stops speaking and I can see his brain searching for the right words "look... I think you're stunning and I love hanging out with you but...I think the alcohol clouded my judgment and I don't want to ruin our friendship over this nor do I want you to think I'd take advantage of you with your emotions last night... what I'm trying to say is I don't regret it I just-" he's starting to ramble.

"Weasley... calm yourself. It happened, it was fun. Nothing more, consider our friendship intact" I give him a nudge and a reassuring smile.

He sighs with relief.

"Okay brilliant" he nods towards the way to the great hall for me to follow and I tell him about Sebastian waiting up for me and what he said.

Garreth starts laughing.

"Wait he seriously said 'the next time you're going to be out all night doing whatever or WHOEVER' I can't take that seriously" he's laughing so hard I can't help but laugh myself.

"Well he's definitely jealous and has a thing for you, which works out because I've come up with an evil plan" Garreth smirks.

Oh no, not again.

"I was thinking about it and now with what you've told me I'm convinced, he's going to be trying to wrap his head around it all. You said you fancied someone in the room and then you kiss me and then he saw us sneaking around the corridors plus gossip has already started to spread we're an item.." hes rambling again.

"Get to the point Garreth" I roll my eyes.

"Why don't we pretend to be dating? He's bound to snap eventually, confess his jealously or whatever" he raises an eyebrow at me.

"And what do you get from this exactly?" I look at him shaking my head.

"A reputation of a desirable man which I can use to my advantage later" he wiggle his eyebrows at me.