Harry slipped out of the Slytherin forms before the sunrise that Saturday morning, and headed quickly for his own dorm to fetch his Invisibility Cloak.

He had hardly slept and felt increasingly shit on the comedown from Draco's 'fairy wine' from the night before - he was right, ecstasy was a hell of a drug. Still, he'd been warned that this part wouldn't be fun.

"I take it you'd never done molly before tonight?" Draco had asked him before they slept, and Harry had shaken his head.

"Ok, well you should know there's a hell of a comedown. Tomorrow's going to be a write-off and probably the two days after that too."

He'd checked the time; it was two in the morning. "It's Saturday," Harry said, "That means the Express leaves for London tomorrow - is it going to be really bad?"

"Yeah," Draco nodded. "You'll get anxious, dizzy, paranoid - it's not fun. Even when you take the really really good shit, which, for your information, the stuff you took was."

"I don't doubt it," Harry rolled his eyes. "Imagine you not having the best of something."

But Draco had been right again, of course. Anxiety, dizziness, and paranoia were all good words to explain the turmoil inside Harry's body that morning, and there were plenty more besides.

As he walked the empty halls towards the Gryffindor tower, Harry was glad he'd dipped from the Slytherin dorms before Draco woke up. Because if Harry felt shit, Draco always insisted on feeling fifty times worse, and had no problems taking it out on Harry as a punching bag. Things could be different after the intense romantic quality of the night before, but that sort of thing wasn't worth the risk where Malfoy was concerned.

Harry wondered if a hot bath would make him feel better, and resolved to run one quietly before grabbing his cloak and heading to Hogsmeade. He'd already bought for all his friends and the Weasleys, but it seemed that now he had one last present to buy.

***

Draco himself was far less keen to rise and shine even by late afternoon. He'd sat through plenty of comedowns before in class, but this one was gearing up to be particularly earth-splitting.

It seemed the more he took the drug, the worse it hurt him afterwards, and he'd been making a serious dent in his supply that term.

The one thing he didn't expect to see when he finally decided to get up for a drink, however, was the small form of Ginny Weasley at the foot of his bed like some sort of orange sleep paralysis demon.

"Don't scream," was the first thing she said, which Draco found both infuriating and laughably ridiculous.

"Why the fuck would I scream?"

She shrugged. "You seem prone to drama."

There was no arguing with that.

"I'll get to the point," the Weasel sighed. "You hate Harry Potter, right?"

The 'yes' didn't come as swiftly as usual to Draco's lips.

It seemed hypocritical to say he hated Harry when his bed was still soaked in Harry's scent from the night before, when his sheets were practically still warm from the shape of Harry's body, and his lips were bruised from Harry's mouth.

But Draco was aching and drained, so he said it nonetheless.

"I hate him too," Weaslette nodded, her head on one side and a devilish look in her eyes.
"And I have an idea for a way we could hurt him."

Cunning didn't suit her, Draco noticed. Made her look even Weaslier. God, how had Potter done that?

But before he could actually respond, the younger girl had reached boldly out and began to dryly rub Draco's crotch over the duvet. The contact felt like an electric shock; his senses kicked in and he recoiled.

"What are you doing, you stupid bitch?!" he exploded, forcing himself backwards up the bed and pulling his knees to his chest like a shield. "Get the fuck out of my dorm! God, you're a creep! How did you even get in here?!!"

"I just wanted to-"

"Ugh, I don't want to know! I can't believe you'd touch me like that! Fuck off before I'm sick."

Bloody weirdo.

***

When Hermione and Ron couldn't find Harry that morning, Hermione went instantly into concerned mode.

"All I'm saying, Ronald, is that it's eerily similar to the last time he partied with Draco Malfoy!" she was saying as she paced around the Gryffindor boys' dorm. "And last time he was gone, it was because Malfoy had been vile to him - what if this time he's been worse?"

"Last time he bit him till he bled, and laughed about his dead parents. I don't think he could do any worse," Ron pointed out.

Hermione didn't laugh, so he sighed dejectedly.
"I don't know what you want me to do. I sent Ginny up to check if he's in the Slytherin dorms, about five minutes ago. Just chill till then," he told her, but he might as well have told the sun not to shine.

Hermione was already on her way back out the portrait door to find Malfoy and give her a piece of her mind, and part of Ron pitied the bloke. He followed his friend, though. It was always fun to watch Hermione bollock Malfoy.

The blonde was conveniently on his way out of the dorms when the pair arrived, and Hermione happily cornered him, wand already out.

"God, are all you Gryffindors trying to bloody kill me today?!" Draco asked, exasperated.

"What did you do, Malfoy?" the girl demanded, ignoring his question. "Harry's gone and it's obviously to do with you because all you do is hurt him, so tell us what you fucking did this time!"

"I haven't done anything!" Malfoy protested. "I really don't know where the stupid bastard is any better than you do."

"Did he stay with you last night? Ginny was meant to come and ask you."

Malfoy toyed with the idea of lying, but decided against it. "Yeah, he stayed."

"Well, is he there now?" Ron asked, just as Ginny rounded the corner, fists balled at her sides.

"No, he's bloody not," she hissed angrily, storming past the group. "Malfoy's probably poisoned him."

"What's wrong with her?" Ron said irritably, but his expression darkened when he caught sight of Malfoy's expression.

"Do you know something, Malfoy?" Hermione asked with sudden suspicion.

"He's not going to like it," Draco sighed, glancing pointedly at Ron.

It took the Gryffindors a second to work out what he meant, and Malfoy spent that particular second preparing himself for impact. It came promptly.

"You didn't!" Ron roared, slamming into the other boy harder than either of them had expected, and grabbing him aggressively by the tie. "That's my LITTLE SISTER, you creep! And she's barely just got over Harry!"

"Believe me, she did all the work-" Draco began, but Ron slammed him hard against the wall again and cut the sentence off.

"Not like that, Weasel! Ugh, as if," Malfoy snapped when he regained his breath. "I just mean she came on to me. But we absolutely didn't have sex. I'm not that bloody quick- she was only there for thirty seconds!!"

Ron's breathing was still heavy and it was clear he wasn't letting Malfoy off the hook in a hurry, but he was listening now at least.

Draco got the upper hand in this moment of relapse, and shrugged out of Ron's grasp to lean against the opposite wall. The redhead knew better than to approach him again.

"And for the record," Malfoy continued, "that's not why your precious Potter's not here. This happened after he left, I didn't even hear him go, and you just jumped to your own conclusions."

"What happened, then?" Ron asked reluctantly. "With Ginny."

Malfoy paused. "Do you really want to know?"

Ron grimaced. "What do you mean, do I really want to know?"

Malfoy fought a blush; God, since when was he so embarrassable?" Just do you want me to - ok, fine. If you must know, she groped me. Tried to give me a handjob. I was... still intoxicated. And it stopped before it got going at all. Happy with that?"

Ron was revolted. "Happy?!??!" he asked, looking like he might be sick.

"Harry's going to take this even less well if he doesn't already know," Hermione warned him as Ron dry-retched against the wall.

"What's Harry going to take less well?" called a familiar voice from behind them. Draco turned, and immediately blanched.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, I'm about to get my head kicked in."

________________________________

a/n: weaslette ruins it again 🥳 go ginny

i actually like her i promise, she's just a tool in this fic haha but hope you're all still enjoying <3 pls vote and comment!

~ paradisedraco