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firewhiskeyficTitle: Last Date
Author:oldtoadwoman
I am of legal drinking age in my region: (yes/no) yes
Pairing(s)/Characters/Fandom: Rom Weasley & Draco Malfoy (they may or may not be a couple, I haven't worked out any details yet) fandom=HarryPotter but also inspired by Ghosts, but I don't think the Ghosts-logic contradicts any of the Harry Potter logic so I'm not sure why i'm mentioning it
Challenge/Prompts used: all of them, but only barely
Summary: Ron and dRaco are drunk in a bar and arguing aboutpointless shit
Rating/Warnings: gen ish? So far. Okay, sober-me here, warning for creepy death stuff and some in-between-the-lines horror.
Word count: 1748
Author's Notes (if any): Sober-me wishes to apologize for this. I swear it made sense at the time.
"You don't think it's a good idea?" Ron Weasley asked, slurring his words a bit as he leaned into th ebar.
"It's not even in the neighborhood of a good idea. This is what's called a bad idea." Draco Malfoy's words were only slightly slurred. He had been no less drunk than Ron that night seven years ago, but he put more effort into enunciating carefully. "Maybe not the worst idea you've ever had, but if we're ranking bad ideas, this is roughly on par with Gilderoy Lockheart teaching Sex Ed. We are not even considering this idea."
"The first years learned a lot about actual birds and bees that session," Ron mused.
"What?"
"Reading pup on their own, I mean," Ron clarified. "I don't think they got that he was benign poetic. Assuming he *was* being poetic. it's entirely possible that he didn't remember how the 'birds and bees' actually worked."
"You're a fucking idiot, Weasley."
"Birds of a feather," Ron muttered. It wasn't much of an insult, but he'd been drunk since he died and wasn't likely to sober up any time soon.
They'd been arguing forever abut everythign.
If not literally forever, at least as long as they'd known each other, but posilby longer. Ron wasn't sure he'd ever blieved in reincarnation. He thought people who talked about past lives were silly. They were the sort of thoughsts that Luna Lovegood had. And didnt he now, given their current circumstances, essentially have proof that you didn't get reincarnated after death? But it certainly *felt like* he and Malfoy had started arguing in a previouslife.
The current arguement was put on hold when the band played a too-fast punk version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Malfoy sneered that Bonnie Raitt did it better. Ron should have let it slide, but he automatically corrected him, "Bonnie Tyler." He'd barely muttered tje correction imder jos breatj as je waoved pver tje bartemder fpr amptjer rpimd out of habit. Draco was incapable of admitting he'd made a simple mistake and doubled down, giving Ron a lecture on obscure Bonnie Raitt "facts" that he pulled out of his butt.
"Of course, few people realize the Tyler hit was a cover..."
The bartender continued to ignore Ron as he, or others like him, had for the last seven years.
"You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar," Ron muttered. He wasn't even trying to convince Dragco anymore. Talking was just a hbit that he couldn't shake.
"There's no point, " draco insisted. "She's insane."
"Byt you know she's not," Ron pointed out. :bjobjectivley, like. Clearly. Not insane"
"Doesn't matter," draco said dsimissively. "EVERYONE knows shes insane so that's all that matters. No one will believe her."
"d o they need to though? aS long s sjhe believes?"
Malfoy ignored himand amused himself nudging glasses to the edge of h e bar, though he failed to actually tip any over.
Malfoy had the cool super power. HE could, with extreme concentration, move physical objects, though in a crowded nightclub, it never seem to attract any attention. Anyone who had seen a napkin fly away or a beer slide half a centimeter to the side just assumed they were imagining things.
Ron's ghostly power weas even more pointless though.
Any time a living passed through him, they became as intoxicated as ron which was FUCKING REDUANDANT giving the condition most peopl were in to begin with.
Luna and hermione were sitting at a table near the stage. Neither seemed to be paying attention to the band and their glasses sat largely untouched in fdfront of them.
It wouldn't help but with no other action at his disposal, Ron walked through both living women. Luna litled her head to one side, and Hermione shuddered.
"I don't like it here." hermione said.
"It's haunted' Louna said mater of factlyj.
"See!" Ron shouted at raco. "She s primed! She already knows we are here."
Draco made a non-comittal sound and the bartender * almost* maeeye contact, which caused ron to forget himself and try to order another round oncemore. It was such an odd habit that he coldn't break. He was already drunk and , appparently, destinted to remain drunk for all eternity, butit still frustratedhim that he was unable to continue drinking. If only he had managed tdie with a glass in his hand,
Kevin had died with a glass in hi shand. Though he claimed most of the alcohol hd burned off.
Ron tried listing out Luna's good qualities. H tried appealing to Drac's snobbeery by pointing out that she came from an established wizarding famly, but that only sent Draco on another tangent about whether the term "well-bred" was racist . There was nothing more annoying than a reformed asshole. Draco had ssaid so many SO MUCH worse things when they wer ekids and now here he was lecturing Ron on appropriate terminology.
"Do these people even know howmany people died here?" Herminone wondered alloud.
Had it been a lot? Ron wondered. He did remember there being more than just Draco and Kevin and himself. Most had ascended into wherever most people went after death. There had been a lot of flashing lights.
Everyone continued to dance, unaware or, or unintersted in, the fact that th nightclub had been rebuilt on the site of a tragedy.
"Life goes on," Luna said.
The band went on a break and the bartender switched to pre-recorded music.
Draco always complained about the pre-recorded music. .
"We paid for live music," Draco said.
"Seven years ago," Kevin said, taking a swig of his allegedly alcohol-boiled-off drink. "It's all been bonus free shows sinc ethen. We're lucky they rebuilt at all."
"Could be a carwarsh," Ron agreed.
"*They* paid fr live music," Draco insisted, nodding at the table where Luna nad Hermione sat.
"Try" Ron insised.
Draco shrugged and walked slowly over to the women's table. With concenrated effort, he forced his finger to inereact with the physicalmolecules on Luna's glass and traced out the word "Hi" in the condensation on her glass.
"Hi?!" Ron repeated incredulously.
draco shrugged. "Whatdid you want me to say?"
Luna didnt startle at all as the words appeared inf ront of her. She merely turned the glass around so the words faced Hermione.
Hermione didn't startle either.
"Ask them 'why?'"hermione said flatly.
"Why what?" kevin asked.
"Go away, kkevin" both Ron and Draco said.
Kevin wandered off and Ron tried to pretend he didn't notice when kevin walked through the wall of the women's toilets. He was a creeper, but death had at least rendered Kevin a harmless creeper.
"Why what?" Luna asked, unconsciously quoting a ghost she'd never met.
"Why were they both here that night," Hermione asked.
"Nevermind," Ron said hurridly.
As usual, Draco ignored him. He traced out "1st date" in thon the glass,b ut he was running out of condensation and "1st" blurred into an illegible splotch.
"Last date,"? Hermione read when Luna rotated the glass toward her again.
"Oh, my god, you made it worse," Ron muttered.
"Tehcnically, not wrong, " Draco said.
First date. Last date. Eternal bad date.
"Excuse me," Ron saiid. "I'm going to skeev with Kevin in the ladies."
But Hermione only nodded to herself. "They're happy?" she finally asked.
Luna loked vacantly in the direction of the stage where the band was picking their instruments back up after their break.
"Live music every night," Draco said with a shrug.
Luna didn't seemto hear hm exactly but after another moment of silence, she said,"I think Draco's happy they rebuilt the nigthclub."
"Ron?" Herminone asked.
There was a longer pause until Draco poked Ron in the side. "ow!" He could walk through walls if he wanted to. He shouldn't feel that solid.
"Is *she* happy?" Ron asked.
"I think," Luna began, hesitating sightly. "I think Rons' happy if you're happy."
"Well … " before she could finish, the band started back up with an ear-splitting shriek.
"Don't stop," Ron pleaded. He knelt down onthe floor beside her chair. If anyone had been able to see him, they might hav enoticed that he knetl down slightly below the surface of the floor as the new nightclub had been rebuilt at a slightly higher elevation than the old one.
In a rare moment of sympathy, Draco sat down on the empty chir next to Luna. Ron could only interact with the original metal barstools at the bar, but Draco was more skilled at sitting on th enew wooden charis andonly occasionally slipping through them. "Tell her to go on," he said to Luna.
The band made it through half of a song and Ron had already given up, when Luna shouted over the din, "Go on! He can hear you! You dont have to be loud."
Hermione watched the band play and started talking to herself. Maybe she believed Luna. Maybe she didn't. Wizards and Witches could see most ghosts, especially the ones whose final moments connected them to magical places. Ron wasn't aware of any precidence of two wizard ghosts trapped in a muggle bar. Evnen Luna showed no awareness of the muggle ghost Kevin. But whether she believed Luna or not, Hermione talked to him as if he were there. She talked about their kids and their jobs and who Hugo was dating now and Rose's newest hobby. She described the cat she'd adopted from the shelter and told him about her new boyfriend. Ron had always had a jealous streak, even well after the divorce, but the news didn't pain him this time. Death had finally gotten through to him where divorce hadn't.
Luna seemed mystified by the bill when closing time came so Hermione handed over her own credit card.
"You should both come back again tomorrow," Ron insisted.
Luna looked wistful, but didn't repeat the request.
"Yeah, okay, fiar ienough." He'd been a clinging enough ex-husband when he was alive. A clingy *ghost* ex-husband was certainly not *less* creepy.
Luna and Hermione were among the last to leave, slowly making their way out as the band packed up for the night. Hermione glanced over her shoulder and said goodbye to the empty club.
Kevin wandered back into the main club and Draco started humming "Total Eclipse of the HEart".
Sometimes the last employee to shut down the bar forgot to turn the lights out,b ut they weren't lucky tonight and room fell into total darkness.
"Bonnie *Tyler*" Ron said.
"Fuck you."
Author:
oldtoadwomanI am of legal drinking age in my region: (yes/no) yes
Pairing(s)/Characters/Fandom: Rom Weasley & Draco Malfoy (they may or may not be a couple, I haven't worked out any details yet) fandom=HarryPotter but also inspired by Ghosts, but I don't think the Ghosts-logic contradicts any of the Harry Potter logic so I'm not sure why i'm mentioning it
Challenge/Prompts used: all of them, but only barely
Summary: Ron and dRaco are drunk in a bar and arguing aboutpointless shit
Rating/Warnings: gen ish? So far. Okay, sober-me here, warning for creepy death stuff and some in-between-the-lines horror.
Word count: 1748
Author's Notes (if any): Sober-me wishes to apologize for this. I swear it made sense at the time.
"You don't think it's a good idea?" Ron Weasley asked, slurring his words a bit as he leaned into th ebar.
"It's not even in the neighborhood of a good idea. This is what's called a bad idea." Draco Malfoy's words were only slightly slurred. He had been no less drunk than Ron that night seven years ago, but he put more effort into enunciating carefully. "Maybe not the worst idea you've ever had, but if we're ranking bad ideas, this is roughly on par with Gilderoy Lockheart teaching Sex Ed. We are not even considering this idea."
"The first years learned a lot about actual birds and bees that session," Ron mused.
"What?"
"Reading pup on their own, I mean," Ron clarified. "I don't think they got that he was benign poetic. Assuming he *was* being poetic. it's entirely possible that he didn't remember how the 'birds and bees' actually worked."
"You're a fucking idiot, Weasley."
"Birds of a feather," Ron muttered. It wasn't much of an insult, but he'd been drunk since he died and wasn't likely to sober up any time soon.
They'd been arguing forever abut everythign.
If not literally forever, at least as long as they'd known each other, but posilby longer. Ron wasn't sure he'd ever blieved in reincarnation. He thought people who talked about past lives were silly. They were the sort of thoughsts that Luna Lovegood had. And didnt he now, given their current circumstances, essentially have proof that you didn't get reincarnated after death? But it certainly *felt like* he and Malfoy had started arguing in a previouslife.
The current arguement was put on hold when the band played a too-fast punk version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and Malfoy sneered that Bonnie Raitt did it better. Ron should have let it slide, but he automatically corrected him, "Bonnie Tyler." He'd barely muttered tje correction imder jos breatj as je waoved pver tje bartemder fpr amptjer rpimd out of habit. Draco was incapable of admitting he'd made a simple mistake and doubled down, giving Ron a lecture on obscure Bonnie Raitt "facts" that he pulled out of his butt.
"Of course, few people realize the Tyler hit was a cover..."
The bartender continued to ignore Ron as he, or others like him, had for the last seven years.
"You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar," Ron muttered. He wasn't even trying to convince Dragco anymore. Talking was just a hbit that he couldn't shake.
"There's no point, " draco insisted. "She's insane."
"Byt you know she's not," Ron pointed out. :bjobjectivley, like. Clearly. Not insane"
"Doesn't matter," draco said dsimissively. "EVERYONE knows shes insane so that's all that matters. No one will believe her."
"d o they need to though? aS long s sjhe believes?"
Malfoy ignored himand amused himself nudging glasses to the edge of h e bar, though he failed to actually tip any over.
Malfoy had the cool super power. HE could, with extreme concentration, move physical objects, though in a crowded nightclub, it never seem to attract any attention. Anyone who had seen a napkin fly away or a beer slide half a centimeter to the side just assumed they were imagining things.
Ron's ghostly power weas even more pointless though.
Any time a living passed through him, they became as intoxicated as ron which was FUCKING REDUANDANT giving the condition most peopl were in to begin with.
Luna and hermione were sitting at a table near the stage. Neither seemed to be paying attention to the band and their glasses sat largely untouched in fdfront of them.
It wouldn't help but with no other action at his disposal, Ron walked through both living women. Luna litled her head to one side, and Hermione shuddered.
"I don't like it here." hermione said.
"It's haunted' Louna said mater of factlyj.
"See!" Ron shouted at raco. "She s primed! She already knows we are here."
Draco made a non-comittal sound and the bartender * almost* maeeye contact, which caused ron to forget himself and try to order another round oncemore. It was such an odd habit that he coldn't break. He was already drunk and , appparently, destinted to remain drunk for all eternity, butit still frustratedhim that he was unable to continue drinking. If only he had managed tdie with a glass in his hand,
Kevin had died with a glass in hi shand. Though he claimed most of the alcohol hd burned off.
Ron tried listing out Luna's good qualities. H tried appealing to Drac's snobbeery by pointing out that she came from an established wizarding famly, but that only sent Draco on another tangent about whether the term "well-bred" was racist . There was nothing more annoying than a reformed asshole. Draco had ssaid so many SO MUCH worse things when they wer ekids and now here he was lecturing Ron on appropriate terminology.
"Do these people even know howmany people died here?" Herminone wondered alloud.
Had it been a lot? Ron wondered. He did remember there being more than just Draco and Kevin and himself. Most had ascended into wherever most people went after death. There had been a lot of flashing lights.
Everyone continued to dance, unaware or, or unintersted in, the fact that th nightclub had been rebuilt on the site of a tragedy.
"Life goes on," Luna said.
The band went on a break and the bartender switched to pre-recorded music.
Draco always complained about the pre-recorded music. .
"We paid for live music," Draco said.
"Seven years ago," Kevin said, taking a swig of his allegedly alcohol-boiled-off drink. "It's all been bonus free shows sinc ethen. We're lucky they rebuilt at all."
"Could be a carwarsh," Ron agreed.
"*They* paid fr live music," Draco insisted, nodding at the table where Luna nad Hermione sat.
"Try" Ron insised.
Draco shrugged and walked slowly over to the women's table. With concenrated effort, he forced his finger to inereact with the physicalmolecules on Luna's glass and traced out the word "Hi" in the condensation on her glass.
"Hi?!" Ron repeated incredulously.
draco shrugged. "Whatdid you want me to say?"
Luna didnt startle at all as the words appeared inf ront of her. She merely turned the glass around so the words faced Hermione.
Hermione didn't startle either.
"Ask them 'why?'"hermione said flatly.
"Why what?" kevin asked.
"Go away, kkevin" both Ron and Draco said.
Kevin wandered off and Ron tried to pretend he didn't notice when kevin walked through the wall of the women's toilets. He was a creeper, but death had at least rendered Kevin a harmless creeper.
"Why what?" Luna asked, unconsciously quoting a ghost she'd never met.
"Why were they both here that night," Hermione asked.
"Nevermind," Ron said hurridly.
As usual, Draco ignored him. He traced out "1st date" in thon the glass,b ut he was running out of condensation and "1st" blurred into an illegible splotch.
"Last date,"? Hermione read when Luna rotated the glass toward her again.
"Oh, my god, you made it worse," Ron muttered.
"Tehcnically, not wrong, " Draco said.
First date. Last date. Eternal bad date.
"Excuse me," Ron saiid. "I'm going to skeev with Kevin in the ladies."
But Hermione only nodded to herself. "They're happy?" she finally asked.
Luna loked vacantly in the direction of the stage where the band was picking their instruments back up after their break.
"Live music every night," Draco said with a shrug.
Luna didn't seemto hear hm exactly but after another moment of silence, she said,"I think Draco's happy they rebuilt the nigthclub."
"Ron?" Herminone asked.
There was a longer pause until Draco poked Ron in the side. "ow!" He could walk through walls if he wanted to. He shouldn't feel that solid.
"Is *she* happy?" Ron asked.
"I think," Luna began, hesitating sightly. "I think Rons' happy if you're happy."
"Well … " before she could finish, the band started back up with an ear-splitting shriek.
"Don't stop," Ron pleaded. He knelt down onthe floor beside her chair. If anyone had been able to see him, they might hav enoticed that he knetl down slightly below the surface of the floor as the new nightclub had been rebuilt at a slightly higher elevation than the old one.
In a rare moment of sympathy, Draco sat down on the empty chir next to Luna. Ron could only interact with the original metal barstools at the bar, but Draco was more skilled at sitting on th enew wooden charis andonly occasionally slipping through them. "Tell her to go on," he said to Luna.
The band made it through half of a song and Ron had already given up, when Luna shouted over the din, "Go on! He can hear you! You dont have to be loud."
Hermione watched the band play and started talking to herself. Maybe she believed Luna. Maybe she didn't. Wizards and Witches could see most ghosts, especially the ones whose final moments connected them to magical places. Ron wasn't aware of any precidence of two wizard ghosts trapped in a muggle bar. Evnen Luna showed no awareness of the muggle ghost Kevin. But whether she believed Luna or not, Hermione talked to him as if he were there. She talked about their kids and their jobs and who Hugo was dating now and Rose's newest hobby. She described the cat she'd adopted from the shelter and told him about her new boyfriend. Ron had always had a jealous streak, even well after the divorce, but the news didn't pain him this time. Death had finally gotten through to him where divorce hadn't.
Luna seemed mystified by the bill when closing time came so Hermione handed over her own credit card.
"You should both come back again tomorrow," Ron insisted.
Luna looked wistful, but didn't repeat the request.
"Yeah, okay, fiar ienough." He'd been a clinging enough ex-husband when he was alive. A clingy *ghost* ex-husband was certainly not *less* creepy.
Luna and Hermione were among the last to leave, slowly making their way out as the band packed up for the night. Hermione glanced over her shoulder and said goodbye to the empty club.
Kevin wandered back into the main club and Draco started humming "Total Eclipse of the HEart".
Sometimes the last employee to shut down the bar forgot to turn the lights out,b ut they weren't lucky tonight and room fell into total darkness.
"Bonnie *Tyler*" Ron said.
"Fuck you."