InsaneJournal

[Ficlet] Price (Harry, Hermione, Ron, G)
Title: Price
Author: Envinyatar (aka envinyatar15)
Characters: Harry, Hermione, Ron
Rating: G
Highlight for Warnings: *alcohol*
Canon-compliance: Not explicit; set post-Hogwarts.
Word Count: 754
Summary: Having two boys as best friends can be quite costly.

Notes: For my dearest zebraspots05. One year ago I posted the first fic I'd worked on together with her, and I really feel she's been pushing me to a higher level with my writing ever since. Thank you so much for putting up with me, my random shitty drafts and my incessant rambling! And also, get better! *hugs* and ♥ I hope you like this at least a tiny bit - you once mentioned Trio was your OT3, and while we don't have a threesome here you will hopefully figure out what inspired this :D Also, unbeta'd, because this was written in the spur of a moment.

For 100quills: #50 influence, 50scenes: #55 caution (for #42 trickster), challenge_the: #083 comedy.


“Oh come on, 'Mione, let us help you. The new kitchen's driving you nuts,” Ron pleaded, but Hermione only gave him That Look until he closed his eyes and let his head fall back onto the bed in defeat.

“No no no, you know how easily he's intimidated by that. Don't even think about trying That Look with him while I'm around. I see everything, I know everything!” Harry slurred and threw one arm around Hermione. Except he was a little unsteady even while sitting, and he leaned so heavily on her that she lost her balance, too. Their upper bodies connected with the cover of the bed with a soft thud.

“Oi! Harry, be careful,” Hermione chided, but it seemed rather pointless since she began giggling a second later. Lying flat on her back now, she lifted her legs high into the air, struggling with air molecules for dominance.

“Too late.” Harry laughed as the world settled back into place. Then he rolled around, contemplating Hermione with the intensity that could only come from Drunken Harry's Eyes and meant the worst.

She turned her head and focused on him, or, at the very least, tried to. Harry was in too many places all at once. “What?”

Harry tried his best innocent expression, which she thought she could ignore just this one time. Give him the satisfaction of seemingly fooling her. Hermione turned away from him again, back to her quite independent feet. Even though she was quite focused on them, she still did catch the conspirational grin Harry threw Ron, but she let that slide, too.

She knew she'd have to pay for her rejection, but she couldn't care less at the moment. Feet v. Air was much more important.

Watching the interesting match – Air had gained the upper hand, but Feet were slowly coming back – was disrupted and postponed when the boys simultaneously reached for Hermione and began tickling her wherever they could. They knew Hermione was ticklish, and they shamelessly used that knowledge for their revenge. Thought they could bribe her into letting them into her new flat, did they?

Hermione shrieked and kicked in outrage, but she wasn't in any position to give as good as she got. Several minutes passed in which she struggled, helplessly laughing and crying and fighting against her tormentors. Whenever she managed to kick one of the boys away, the other doubled his efforts. She tried to curl in on herself, trying to get out of his range of action – never successfully. It was a vicious circle, really, for then the other came back into battle.

Only when she had no more breath left and felt close to suffocating did she surrender.

“Stop it!”

For a moment, the world must have stopped turning for the boys. They gawked at her in surprise. “You give up?” an unbelieving Ron eventually asked her, stopping dead in his tracks and causing Harry to do the same. Their movements were rather uncoordinated, Hermione noticed.

Not that hers weren any different.

“Yes.”

For another moment Ron looked at her as if she had grown a second head – and she examined herself to determine whether she actually had – then a lopsided grin spread on his features. He flicked his eyes up to meet Harry's, then looked down at her again. “You'll let us do it?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. She had actually surrendered, and now they were playing with her? Unbelievable, though not exactly surprising, she'd have to admit. Damn the boys for knowing which buttons to push. “Yes, for god's sake. I will.”

Ron punched the air. “I knew it. I knew that one day, Harry and I'd outwit you.” That lopsided grin was still in place, and since Ron spoke the truth – they had outwitted her – Hermione scowled back.

She didn't like not being right, and she didn't like giving in to Harry and Ron when she had been very determined not to do it. She didn't like it now that she was drunk, and she most certainly wouldn't like it when she woke up the next morning, or when the boys were trying to work out how you installed a new kitchen without magic. Because at least on that she would keep insisting - even though it would drive her mad and probably destroy her precious new furnishings.

That was the price she'd be paying for trying to drown her distress over the new kitchen in alcohol, she thought. And for having two sneaky boys as her best friends.