Harry Potter :Diamond Heart

I got Firewhiskey,' Katie grinned when she returned to the table, three small glasses clutched in either hand.

'How'd you manage that?' The Weasley twins looked on in awe. Harry had absolutely no doubt that they had tried to get hold of the liquor here on more than one occasion.

'Well the drinking age is seventeen,' Katie shrugged, 'I might only be sixteen, but I'm sitting with two sixth years who might be overage and I guess they just assumed I was two.'

'What about Harry?' Fred asked. 'He's an ickle fourth year.'

'He's not ickle,' Katie defended, then flushed scarlet when Angelina and Alicia burst into giggles. Harry rather felt he had missed something.

'They never asked,' Katie continued, still blushing furiously. 'I guess they assumed that if he can defeat a Dark Lord as a baby he can manage alcohol.'

'Are you sure you can manage him, Katie?' Alicia teased. Harry didn't need any of the emphasis on the word manage to realise what they had meant before and meant now. He really had no idea how he was supposed to react to innuendo, but he wasn't going to flush like Katie was. That seemed to just encourage them. He kept his mouth shut and practiced the mind-clearing techniques that were the basis of occlumency; it was a surprisingly effective way of keeping his mortification from showing.

I might need the Firewhiskey if they keep this up.

'I guess I'll be keeping this, then,' Katie threatened, passing a single whiskey glass to Harry and each of the Weasley's, but keeping the other three for herself.

'We'll behave,' Angelina promised. 'Harry doesn't want to see a drunk Katie on his first date.'

'It would put even the most lovesick of suitors off,' George agreed.

'I remember when Alicia was given a whole case of elderflower wine because the shop lost her ordered bottle and the three of us drank it on New Year's Eve. I took the candle you stole from the Great Hall and you got so angry you tried to transfigure me into a goblin.' Angelina was in stitches before she finished her telling, gasping the words out through a fit of giggles.

'I didn't,' Katie denied, 'I only threatened.'

'No,' Alicia laughed harder, 'you tried very hard, but you were using a breadstick from the kitchens instead of your wand.'

'You were certain that it was your wand,' Angelina remembered, having recovered enough to regain the ability to speak. 'Alicia ate it in front of you and you burst into tears because you thought you'd never be able to do magic again.'

'I did not,' Katie repudiated rather weakly. 'I don't remember doing any of that.'

'Of course you don't,' Alicia smirked, 'it was a thirteen bottle case and you drank seven of them. You fell asleep in the middle of crying about your breadstick and we had to carry you back to bed.'

'Never let her drink, Harry,' Angelina warned, 'she's very funny drunk, but an absolute disaster to deal with. We've a hundred more stories from that night alone.'

'Well keep them to yourselves,' Katie sulked. 'Or I'll keep the whiskey for myself.' She looked very cute she sulked, Harry decided. Katie pressed her lips together and curled them inwards as she frowned. The expression was quite heart-melting.

'Go ahead,' Angelina challenged, calling her bluff.

Harry's date did not even hesitate. She lined up the three glasses and drank them down in three distinct gulps, placing them in a neat row in front of her and beaming happily at her friends.

'Uh oh,' Fred and George intoned together, 'we're in trouble now.

'Fire whiskey is potent stuff,' Fred explained at Harry's puzzled glance. 'It's meant to give you a buzz no matter now much you drink, but the more you do the stronger and longer the feeling.' Harry gave the three empty glasses a nervous look. 'Don't worry Harry,' Katie chirped,' if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.' She pushed his glass towards him as the Weasley's linked arms and exuberantly drank their own.

Harry eyed the amber liquid with suspicion. He had never actually drunk real alcohol before. Nobody considered butterbeer alcoholic when you had to drink a lake of the stuff to get even the slightest tingle.

'It doesn't hurt,' Katie reassured him. 'You'll feel great,' she added a little dreamily.

Harry raised the glass to his lips and emulated his date in drinking the entire thing in a single gulp.

It felt like he had swallowed napalm. The inside of his throat was burning and he had to wonder if this was how his dragon from the first task felt when it breathed fire.

The burning faded swiftly and with it went any form of unease and discomfort he felt. The crowded room no longer concerned him, the fact that he was touching Alicia's foot with his own toes was not important and the warm feeling of Katie's thigh pressed against his own no longer came with a flutter of nervousness.

Harry decided he quite liked Firewhiskey.

'See,' Katie beamed, shifting close enough that her whole body from knee to shoulder rested against Harry.

'How long does this last?' Harry asked, luxuriating in the warm tingle he felt throughout himself. 'An hour or so for you,' George told him, 'a few more for Katie.' That was good. The effect, pleasant thought it was, would have worn off completely for him by the time they needed to leave Hogsmeade. Katie would probably only be slightly affected once the two hours were up.

'We should head towards Honeydukes,' Alicia reminded the older three. 'Fred promised us chocolate and Lee is probably waiting there by now.'

They rose and squeezed out past Harry who for once felt no urge to flinch from their sudden proximity.

'Keep her cheerful,' Angelina warned good-naturedly, patting him on the shoulder as they passed. 'Katie's an extremely emotional drunk, but lovely as long as she's happy. Let her get upset or angry and there's no telling what she might do.'

'Of course,' Alicia added, 'being Katie and being drunk means just about anything could upset her. She once cried for ten minutes because she dropped her sandwich when we went to the kitchens after celebrating Lee's birthday.'

'I'm always happy,' Katie declared with confidence that could only be born from alcohol.

'Thanks for the whiskey, Katie,' the twins laughed together as they left. She nodded in reply and leant her cheek onto Harry's shoulder.

'Let's go wander,' she suggested, slipping an arm about his waist and trying to lift both him and herself without having to move away from him. Harry pushed himself up from his seat, staggering slightly when his movement coincided with one of Katie's insisted tugs and he overbalanced.

'Where shall we wander?' he asked her as they left the inn.

'I don't mind,' she beamed, her arm still around his waist. Harry certainly didn't mind. He was busy enjoying the abundance of warmth that he felt. Next to Katie he was somebody. The tingle of the whiskey, the touch of the sun and the heat of Katie's arm and side against him told him that with utter certainty.

I don't want this feeling to ever end.

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