Body Language and Blissfully Buzzed

Little Miss Formerly Perfect

(A/N: Unfortch, I don't own Harry Potter or any of the songs mentioned)

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Body language is something that you feel
It's just too real to be concealed
Body language is something that you learn
And you just can't get taught
We'll never get caught

--Cute Is What We Aim For : Finger Twist and Split

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It was New Year's Eve and the Gryffindor common room was filled with blaring music and dancing bodies. Some of the seventh year girls had decided to throw a party in the common room to celebrate New Year's and although it started as a small gathering, most of the school had found out about it and was now crammed into the room. There were witches and wizards from all of the houses, except for Slytherin, as they were having their own party in their common room, exclusively for their house.

It was excessively loud, crowded and alcohol was being passed all around the room. It was exactly what Hermione Granger did not want to happen.

Hermione had been appointed Head Girl at the beginning of the year and although she had almost gone crazy living in the Head's dorms with Malfoy, she was actually looking forward to tonight's party. More specifically a night away from Malfoy and an opportunity for her to possibly have an excuse to finally get together with her favourite red-head, Ron Weasley, her crush for what seemed like forever. Unfortunately for her, Ron currently had Lavender Brown sitting in his lap and he was very drunkenly stroking her head.

Oh great, thought Hermione. Looks like they're getting back together again. She had always hoped that Ron secretly liked her, but apparently she was completely wrong, as she saw Ron lay a very wet and alcohol-induced kiss on Lavender's lips. Well if that's what I'm missing then good riddance, I guess...Okay so maybe I'm still a little bit jealous. She glanced at her watch and realized that it was almost 10:30. This is going to be one very long night.

Hermione slumped against the wall and searched for another of her favourite red-heads, more namely Ginny Weasley. She quickly picked her out of the crowd and yelled as best she could over the music. "Ginny!" She screamed. Ginny's familiar ginger head whipped around and waved at Hermione. She pushed her way through the crowd and to Hermione, although very unsteadily. "Ginny…Are you drunk?" asked Hermione.

"I'm not drunk…per say…I'm…blissfully buzzed" responded Ginny, slightly slurred.

"Ginny, this party is getting really out of hand and considering I'm Head Girl, it will not look good upon my reputation if my own house gets caught for this!"

"C'mon Hermione, at least wait until Midnight, nothing bad has even happened yet! I think you just need to loosen up" Said Ginny, in her most sober voice. She shoved a glass into Hermione's hand. "Here, just have a couple of drinks and for once can you please just forget about responsibilities and just have fun"

"If I forget about responsibilities than who's going to think about them!?" Said Hermione, getting a little bit aggravated.

"Hermione, the world isn't going to stop if you do one irresponsible thing in your life. Just one shot, Little Miss Perfect" She said to Hermione with a sweet yet sinister look. Ginny knew she had struck a sensitive nerve with the 'perfect' comment, but it was the only way Hermione would ever just chill for once.

Hermione hated being called 'perfect', even though deep down she knew she was. "Okay fine, just one shot…But after Midnight I'm sending everyone back to their common rooms." She declared.

"Oooh this is going to be so fun!" Ginny giddily said as she whirled around and grabbed 2 shot glasses, and then filled each up with a clear liquid from a nearby bottle. Ginny shoved one into Hermione's hand and gripped the other one tightly with her own hand. "Okay, On three. One Two Three!" Ginny yelled the last number and tipped the glass back and into her mouth.

Hermione did the same, but as soon as it hit her mouth she felt it burning. She swallowed it as fast as possible and it burned the whole way down into her stomach. She grimaced slightly as the last of it made its way down her throat. She gave Ginny a half-hearted smile, but all she could think was Oh man why the hell am I doing this.

"One more!" Yelled Ginny.

"I dunna…I haven't eaten yet and that last one was pretty bad" Replied Hermione, desperate to get out of the situation.

"C'mon, you can't honestly tell me you're wasted after ONE SHOT" Ginny put extra emphasis on the last two words, she wanted to see Hermione have fun for once and she definitely knew what buttons to push when it came to pressuring Hermione.

"Ugh. Fine…Just one" Said Hermione.

The glasses were filled once again and Hermione very reluctantly took another shot. This time it felt a little better as the burning sensation wasn't as severe.

"Ssee not sso bad!" Slurred Ginny.

Hermione could feel the light-headedness coming on. "Okay, that one went straight to the head" she said, as she sat down on a nearby chair.

"But look, you had two shots and you're perfectly fine!" Ginny stumbled a little before sitting on the armrest of Hermione's chair.

"You may be right, but I feel like absolute crap. My head is really starting to kill me" complained Hermione as she put a hand to her forehead.

"That's because you're a rookie! And usually once you pass the…4 shot line, that's when you start to feel perfectly alright" replied Ginny, beginning to sway side to side to the music. "And might I add that Harry is looking perfectly alright tonight as well…" added Ginny.

"Maybe for you Gin, but the only guy I want is a little bit preoccupied" Hermione told her with a bit of sting to her words.

"Well if you don't want Harry, then I'm all over that" she replied, winking at Harry who was standing across the room. He waved her over and Ginny looked at Hermione. "Look, I know you wanted to hook up with my brother, which I find absolutely disgusting might I add, but my advice to you is to go get yourself some more liquid courage and seduce your way to Ron! I know for a fact that he likes you more than Laven-skank, she's just easy, you should know that!"

Hermione heaved a sigh before collecting her thoughts. Maybe Ginny was right, all she needed was a few ounces of social skills and there was certainly a lot of that around. "Okay, you go over there with Harry and I'll try to do something about my Ron situation"

Ginny hopped up shakily from her seat. "Good! I don't want to see you have a boring new years; it's your last year at Hogwarts. Let Loose. And if my brother is too big a git to realize how great you are, then there are plenty of other willing boys in this room" She added in the last sentence as she walked over to Harry and he quickly put his arm around her waist and guided her to the dance floor.

Hermione watched them walk away before getting up herself and grabbing another shot glass. Ron is definitely not going to miss Lavender whatshername once he sees me.

She downed one shot, followed by another one, and a third and final one. She could feel the ground becoming slightly unsteady beneath her feet and was quickly thankful that she had worn flat shoes to this party. She walked over to a table where Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and Neville were seated.

"Hey guys! What do you think of this party?!" said Hermione excitedly. Those five simultaneous shots really had gone straight to her head. She was feeling increasingly friendly.

"It's pretty good" replied Dean. Giving Hermione an inquisitive look.

"Yeah it's a lot of fun, but why aren't you guys dancing?" she asked.

"Well I'm not really much of a dancer…" replied Neville quietly as he looked down at his shoes.

"I think I'll be the judge of that!" she yelled, getting up from her seat. "Come on, let's dance" she told them as she grabbed another shot from the table.

Of course the boys being…well boys, would not refuse a drunken offer to dance from one of the most wanted girls in the Gryffindor house. So Dean put his arm around her waist walked with her to the dance floor with the other two boys following behind.

Hermione made sure that they were in perfect viewing distance of Ron and began swaying her hips to the sound of "Cyclone" playing over the speakers in the room.

Its funny how even terrible dancers let go and can look good when a few drinks have gone around.

Hermione was trying to be as seductive as she possibly could, mostly brought on by the alcohol. She moved her hips to the beat and threw her hands over her head. Once in a while she would throw Ron a sideways glance and each time she looked at him she saw him staring at her. With each of these looks she would make her dancing and body language increasingly more flirtatious. Throwing her arms over the heads of the guys and moving gradually closer to them.

If this doesn't make him jealous than I don't know what will, she thought to her self. Finally the song ended and she saw Ron get up from his chair, leaving a very sad-looking Lavender alone. A new song began to play and Hermione recognized it as "Love In This Club". Wow I didn't know that other people at Hogwarts knew this kind of Muggle music. Hermione had never really liked hip hop or r and b, but she really didn't care what music was on at this point, she was preoccupied watching Ron approach her.

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(A/N: This is my first fan fic so please review and tell me what you think! I'm trying out a new thing where I'm putting a song that I feel works for each chapter, so tell me if it works or not. And I realize this sounds like a Hermione/Ron fic, but just wait one more chapter and you'll see the Dramione ness coming through...kind of. And for anyone wondering about the "blissfully buzzed thing, anytime I go out drinking with my friends, as soon as I say "blissfully buzzed" they know that I'm pretty much smashed…)