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firmament2009-05-04 07:35 pm
gorgeousnerd) wrote in firmament2009-05-04 07:35 pm
"A Painful Discovery", Harry Potter (Trio), PG-13, Draco/Ginny.
Title: A Painful Discovery
Fandom: Harry Potter, Trio-era
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language
Length: One-shot, about 4500 words
Characters/Pairings: Draco/Ginny; Ron, Harry, and Hermione
Spoilers: I think there's some OotP-era spoilers.
Beta:assassin
Summary: What happens after Ron finds out the identity of Ginny's not-so-secret boyfriend.
Notes: This was written really fast in summer 2004 for a challenge I gave where I asked people for pairings and I wrote fic for them. Again, the quality of writing means that it's only a good nostalgia read.
A Painful Discovery
When Harry Potter and Hermione Granger walked into the Great Hall after they had finished their study session, they noticed something was different. It wasn’t the amount of people that were at the Gryffindor table or the level of noise or any of the obvious things that usually stood out, but there seemed to be a buzz around the people that wasn’t normally there. Of course, the two couldn’t resist from finding out what was going on, so they walked briskly to the table and sat across from Lavender Brown.
“...completely lost it,” she was saying eagerly to Parvati Patil, who was sitting to her right. “I could tell it was only a matter of time, but it was just so...”
“What happened?” Harry interrupted impatiently.
Lavender glared at him.
“Sorry, Lavender, but what’s going on?” Hermione apologized, making sure she looked interested in what the gossip was saying.
Lavender shot one last look of anger at Harry, then smiled at Hermione. “Of course you wouldn’t know yet,” she began eagerly. “You were studying Charms in the library, right?”
“Yeah, we just got done.”
“Well, Ron went crazy. He started yelling at his sister in front of everyone just five minutes ago over there.” She pointed to the area in front of the table where the teachers sat. “No one really shut up until they had moved past what was probably the meat of the argument, but everyone knows what it was about. The whole Slytherin table wouldn’t stop laughing at him, so he turned red and ran out.”
Hermione and Harry exchanged a look. “So, he finally found out.”
“Do you know who told him?” Hermione asked Lavender.
“No.” She giggled. “And I wouldn’t want to be that person, I can tell you that. He looked like he was ready to kill. I’d bet Draco’s in hiding right now.”
“If he knows what’s good for him,” Harry agreed. “Where’d Ginny go?”
“She left just a few minutes after him, and she didn’t talk to anyone before doing it.”
“Well,” Hermione sighed, “we’d better go find them.”
Harry nodded in agreement. “I’ll take Ron, you get Ginny.”
--
Ron wasn’t hard to find. He was sitting in the Gryffindor stands at the Quidditch pitch, trembling with rage. Harry knew it’d had to be a good half-hour since the spectacle in the Great Hall, but he didn’t seem any less mad. It seemed he had kicked some of the seats because the sturdy wood was splintering in some places. Shredded parchment lay under his seat.
Harry didn’t say anything at first, but just sat next to Ron. He wasn’t being quiet or trying to hide that he was there, but he had decided it was best if he let Ron talk first. He didn’t have to wait long.
“I couldn’t find him,” Ron growled, his hands clenching into fists. “The coward that’s shagging my sister couldn’t even stay in one place long enough for me to hurt him.”
“Who?”
Ron looked at Harry with a sort of calm anger. Harry supposed that his friend was trying to keep from taking his anger out on him. “Don’t play dumb, Harry. The entire school knew, and no one told me.”
“And what would you have done?” Harry asked him. “They say not to shoot the messenger, but that’s exactly what would have happened. You would have taken your anger out on the person who told you first, then you’d hunt down Draco and finish being mad on him. Do you really think that’s fair?”
“And do you think it’s fair for that smarmy bastard to be screwing my sister and for me not to know? I hate Draco Malfoy. His parents have tried to kill my parents more times than I can count. Not to mention what he did to us last year when Umbridge was in power. Have you forgotten everything, Harry?”
“No,” Harry replied. “I remember. But a person can change, Ron. Ginny told me that she’s really happy.”
Ron’s face turned bright scarlet. “She talked to you about this? And you didn’t tell me? I thought you didn‘t say something because you thought it was a rumor...”
“I’m sorry, but Ginny made me promise.”
Ron stood. “So, promising my sister means more to you than telling your best friend what no one else would tell him? That’s real great, Harry. Thanks a bunch.”
He turned to leave, but Harry stood and caught his arm. Ron tried to shake free, but Harry hadn’t played those years of Quidditch for nothing.
“I didn’t tell you because you are my best friend. I couldn’t stand the thought of hurting you with this. I wanted her to tell you herself, and that‘s what I said when she made me promise. It wasn’t mine to tell, Ron! It wasn‘t my business! Don‘t be hacked off at me for something that I wasn‘t involved in.”
Ron’s face didn’t change from its furious glare, but he did stop fighting Harry and sat down again. “You got involved, and you should have said something.”
“Fine. I’m sorry.“ Harry sat, too. “I probably should have said something. But I’m not going to feel guilty over this. Ginny should have told you weeks ago.”
“Weeks?” This wasn’t as angry as previous statements, but it was full of surprise. “This has been going on for weeks?”
“Yeah.” Harry wasn’t going to say that Ginny and Draco’s relationship was probably going to be at six months in the next week or two. He didn’t think that would help matters. “How did you find out, Ron? Ginny didn’t tell you?”
“No.” He gestured unenthusiastically at the parchment under his seat. “I got an owl at breakfast. It said to keep an eye on Ginny because she was getting herself into trouble, so I followed her around today, and...”
“And...” Harry prompted.
“What do you think? I found them in a broom closet, Malfoy’s pants around his ankles, and...” Ron broke off, and Harry would have sworn that he saw tears in his eyes.
Harry was going to say something, but he knew that anything he tried to say would be completely stupid. He sat in silence next to Ron, knowing that if anything needed to be said, Ron would talk.
--
While the two friends were having their dialogue on the Quidditch pitch, Ginny was in the Potions classroom, venting her anger in her own way. She had immediately come here after the fight with Ron without thinking, mainly because she had wanted to be alone, and there was no better place to be alone than the Potions dungeon at the moment. Snape had been on an unknown mission for Dumbledore for about a month, and, since it was the end of the term right before summer, they hadn’t been able to find a replacement on such short notice. Classes were taught by Dumbledore in his office, which left the dungeons free. Ginny and Draco had been the only two students to have the courage and desire to use the room since Snape left, and no one else seemed to know that they did.
Ginny had tossed an empty cauldron about five feet away from her when she had first slammed the heavy doors shut, angry enough to use her full strength to heave the huge pot farther than normal. This pretty much tired her out, so she sat against the cauldron, pounding on nearby desks whenever her rage reached a peak where she had to do something. She wasn’t the crying sort, so she took her aggressions out on inanimate objects periodically.
After about ten minutes, her emotions had quieted enough so she heard the doors open and close. The footsteps were light, so she decided it must be a girl, and, therefore, not Draco. She considered being quiet and pretending she wasn’t there, but she knew that she couldn’t find a place to find quick enough that would keep her out of the person’s line of sight for long.
“Go away,” she called, not looking behind the cauldron to see who it was. “I’m not in the mood to talk.”
“I didn’t have talking in mind,” the amused answer came, the voice deep and decidedly masculine.
Ginny’s eyes widened, but then she laughed quietly. “I thought you were a girl, Draco. You usually walk a little louder than that.”
Draco chuckled, then walked around the cauldron and sat on a desk across from Ginny. “Well, I just wasn’t in the mood to stomp around today. I think Weasley...Ron has done that enough for everyone.”
“So you heard,” she sighed.
“I don’t think anyone in this school didn’t hear. I was in the Great Hall at the time, you know. I just thought that being quiet and ignoring you was the best thing to do.”
Ginny blinked up at him. “You mean, when Ron stormed off to look for you, you were right there?”
“Yeah, funny, isn’t it?”
“It is,” she laughed. “He’ll catch up with you eventually.”
“So? I’ll let him take a few swings. Unless you break up with me, you’ll be around to help me heal.”
“Why would I break up with you?”
Draco gave her a measuring look. “Family seems really important to every Weasley I’ve ever met. I didn’t think that would exclude you.”
“Family’s important to me,” Ginny agreed, “but Ron’s being a git. Being true to my family and dating you are not mutually exclusive, you know.”
“If I had a sister that your brother was having sex with, I don’t know if I’d be too happy about it.”
Ginny laughed. “You agree with Ron?”
“Not really,” Draco replied. “I don’t have a sister. But I thought it sounded good.”
“You’re just trying to get under my skirt, Malfoy,” Ginny accused, pretending that she was insulted. She stood and moved forward, stopping about three feet in front of Draco’s reclining form.
He smirked at her. “I’ve been there before.”
For some reason, Ginny had never been able to resist that smirk. When she had first seen it, she had mistaken her reaction to it for annoyance, but now she knew the difference. A broad grin spread on her face, and she curled her fingers around the green and silver tie neatly tied around his neck. He was wearing his uniform with everything but his robes and his Slytherin sweater, and she was glad that he had saved her the time of taking the heavy clothing off.
“You’re still not in the mood to talk, are you?”
“No.”
At this, Ginny couldn’t wait any longer. She pulled him to her using the tie and kissed him hungrily. Through the daze in her head, she found it funny that she could want to fool around again after just having done so earlier that day. However, she was a teenager, and she sometimes was just turned on by the stones in the castle walls. Wanting to blow off some steam with an attractive teenager was no stretch.
As they kissed, Draco reached for Ginny’s two braids and took off the ties holding her hair in place. Ginny knew from experience that he loved playing with her hair while they had sex, and she very rarely let him take it down to make him appreciate it all the more. She would have stopped him, but she still had some aggressions to work out herself, so she didn’t want to stop what they were doing for a second. He was having problems getting it undone, though, so she broke away from their kiss, grinning.
“Having problems?”
“You...must have glued them together or something,” he replied breathlessly.
Ginny laughed and reached back with both arms to get the braids herself. She hadn’t realized that her chest was more prominent when she did this until she saw Draco’s gaze fixed unflinchingly on that area of her body. Once her hair was free, she pushed off her robes and pulled off her sweater, leaving only her white blouse. She hadn’t put on a bra because she had lost it during their tryst earlier, and Draco’s eyes seemed to get even wider. She made a mental note to do so more often.
Draco moved his hands to the buttons on her blouse, but Ginny pulled his hands away. “No hands for this,” she ordered, “or we stop right now.”
She knew just as well as he did that this was just a small obstacle, but it was little things like this that made it fun for her. It wasn’t as if Draco didn’t have certain things that he liked that he made sure he got.
Now, Draco’s mouth was carefully undoing her blouse. She could feel how he held the shirt in place with his teeth and pushed the buttons through the holes with the tongue. The moisture his mouth left against her shirt sent her already sensitive skin into full-blown goosebumps, and it was all she could do to keep from shaking with anticipation.
“Hurry up,” she gasped. “Is there a reason you’re taking so long?”
He looked up into her eyes, only moving far enough away from her shirt to talk. “I thought you wanted me to do this.”
Ginny giggled, then hated herself for it. She didn’t like sounding like an insipid blonde. “I guess I did get myself into this one.”
“Then I’ll finish up.”
Draco undid the rest of the buttons in good time, but it still seemed like an eternity to Ginny. The second the last button was undone, Ginny opened her shirt all the way but left it on. Both of them loved doing things as close to fully clothed as possible because it seemed naughtier somehow.
Ginny just loved how Draco made her feel as he ran his hands over her bare skin. He knew just where to touch and what pressure to use to make her shudder. Of course, she couldn’t be too bad as he seemed to shiver just as much as she did. She nibbled at his ear experimentally, and she actually made his legs wobble for a brief moment. That made her smile, but she closed her eyes and tried not to groan when he returned the favor and blew in her ear.
Then, they were interrupted when a female voice called, “Ginny!”
Ginny and Draco looked toward the door at the same time. “She’s not in here, is she?” Ginny asked, worried.
“No, she’s in the hall. Let’s just ignore her.”
Ginny sighed and shook her head. “She could come in, and where would that leave us? Besides, I think it’s Hermione, and I have to talk to her.”
Draco rolled his eyes, but he pulled away and started putting his clothes back on nonchalantly. Ginny buttoned her blouse quickly, pulled on her sweater, and picked up her robes. “I’ll be back,” she told him. “But maybe we should finish this tonight.”
He smiled. “I guess. But I’m calling the shots.”
A goofy grin spread across her face, then she ran out into the hall outside the dungeon as quickly as she could. “Hermione?”
Hermione was at the end of the hall, about to climb up the stairs. At Ginny’s voice, she stopped and turned around. “Ginny! I’m glad I found you.”
Ginny jogged to catch up to Hermione. “What’s going on?”
“Everyone’s talking about your fight with Ron. Did he find out about you and Draco?”
She smiled grimly and nodded. “Yeah. It wasn’t the way I would have chosen for him to find out, but it’s my fault for putting it off for so long.”
Wisely, Hermione didn’t ask for more details. She was definitely smart enough to guess what those details would probably include. “Are you okay? I heard he was sort of mean about it.”
“Am I okay? I sort of thought you would side with Ron on this one. Why aren’t you looking for him?”
“Harry’s taking care of it.” Hermione sighed. “Ron may be one of my best friends, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t, too. And I know that a lot of the friends you have wouldn’t think to see if you were okay, and I am sort of worried.”
“Worried because Ron yelled at me when I deserved it, or worried because of me and Draco?”
“Both,” Hermione replied bluntly. “I’ve always sort of thought Malfoy might be dating you to hurt Harry and Ron. Of course, you have been together longer than even he might keep up a prank, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t do it.”
Ginny smiled softly. “That means a lot, Hermione. Most people seemed to be more caught up in the drama than the people involved. But I like Draco, and I really like our relationship together.”
“You like him.” Hermione was studying her face. “Don’t tell me you’re understating it for my sake.”
She gave a helpless shrug before she thought about it, then adopted a smirk much like Draco’s. “Why would I do that?”
“All right, I won’t press it. Just be careful.”
Ginny sighed. “Okay. Will you help me find Ron in a minute? I should really apologize to him.”
“Sure. Why not now?”
“I need to go tell Draco where I’m going.”
A look of disgust flashed briefly over Hermione’s face, but it disappeared quickly. Ginny couldn’t help but respect how nice Hermione was trying to be. “Will that take long?”
“No, hang on.”
Ginny ran back into the dungeon where Draco was finishing putting on his tie. She probably looked extremely ruffled, but he was definitely good at looking perfect under short notice. Anyone who saw him probably would have thought he had just been studying.
“Ready for more?”
She desperately wanted to, but she took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’m going to go find Ron and apologize.”
“Fine, but I’m going with you.” His voice sounded a little weird.
This was the last thing that Ginny had expected to hear. “Um, why?”
“I haven’t put this much time into our affair just to have Ron talk you out of it now.”
His voice sounded weird because he was scared of breaking up. This wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned it. She wouldn’t have guessed it. “You’re going to rile him up.”
Draco raised his right hand. “I’ll be good, I swear.”
Ginny was suspicious, but she decided not to fight him. This was probably the best move because it wouldn’t look like Draco was hiding from Ron, even though they might fight. At least they’d get it over with.
--
Hermione, Draco, and Ginny had been searching for Ron for a good half-hour when they walked out on the Quidditch field.
“He’s very good at hiding, isn’t he?” Draco commented, amused. “And here he probably thinks I’m the one holing up somewhere.”
Hermione frowned. “If he isn’t here, I don’t know where he is...oh!”
She pointed up to the Gryffindor stands, and Ginny could see Harry waving at them.
“Potter’s with him?” This seemed very funny to Draco. “I wonder what they were doing?”
Ginny smacked his arm. “Stop it.”
“How do you know they weren‘t doing...anything?”
She opened her mouth to counter, then closed it again. She didn’t know. The thing of it was, she didn’t even care if Harry and Ron were dating. It wasn’t as if gay and lesbian couples weren’t common at Hogwarts. Besides, despite the fact that Draco seemed to be referring to them in that manner, he could have meant anything, knowing him.
“Let’s get this over with,” she sighed, and the group worked their way up the stairs to where the two guys were sitting.
When they were close enough to see Ron and Harry closely, Ginny felt a little guilty. Ron looked as if the day’s events had really hurt him, even though he was covering it relatively well with a mask of anger. She didn’t blame him at all; it wasn’t as if she wanted to see Ron having sex with her worst enemy. There was also the fact that both Harry and Hermione had known for months and hadn’t told him. All in all, she really didn’t want to be in his shoes.
Ginny had expected Ron to rush at Draco, but he just looked at them, looking sort of weary. “So, you’re ganging up on me. Can’t this wait?”
“I wanted to apologize, Ron. I’ve really screwed this up, and you definitely deserve to be mad at you.”
Ron stood and walked toward Ginny. Reflexively, she grabbed at Draco’s hand, and Ron’s eyes followed the movement.
“I’m not mad at you.”
This seemed a little weird. “You aren’t?”
“No. I’m mad at everyone for not telling me. After we fought, Dumbledore told me that the general consensus was that it was best for me not to know, and I felt like such an idiot that the Headmaster knew and I didn’t. I’m mad that I’m so thick that I couldn’t even tell that my little sister was going out with someone. Ever since Fred and George left, I’m the family you’re around the most, and I haven’t been...well, haven’t been doing my job. Not that it’s a job, but...”
“I know what you mean.”
Ron glared at Draco. “Most of all, I’m mad at Malfoy for doing this. You knew what I would do to you, but you did it anyway.”
“I didn’t know I had to ask your permission before I dated someone,” Draco replied coolly.
“You do if you’re shagging my sister!”
“Ron!” Hermione gasped. “Stop it!”
“No. This pillock has been trying to get to me ever since we started at this school. And now he’s done it. Shouldn’t he get what he’s been asking for?”
“Not anymore, Ron.” Ginny stepped between the two of them. “You can take it out of his hide if we stop going out, but you should leave him alone until then.”
“And why should I do that?”
“Because I’m asking you to, Ron. I might not ask you to if this was just a short fling, but we’ve been going out for nearly six months now. This could last, and I don’t want you to ruin it.”
“Don’t worry, Ginny, I wouldn’t dump you because your brother’s a git,” Draco commented cheerfully. “I’ve known that all along.”
“Why are you going out with him?” Ron asked desperately. “Aren’t Harry and Hermione your friends? He hates them!”
“Don’t put words in my mouth, Weasley,” Draco shot back. “I have no reason to hate any of you, you aren’t worth it, especially the Mud...Granger. I’ve been pretty pissed at you sometimes, but...”
Ginny hissed, “Don’t try to help me, Draco.”
“Draco? Isn’t that familiar,” Ron snapped. “When did you stop calling him Malfoy?”
“Please, Ron. I’m not asking you to like Draco. I’m just asking that you leave him alone while we’re going out. In case you can’t tell, I’m not going to flaunt our relationship in front of you.”
Ron sighed. “Does Mum know?”
Ginny froze. She had avoided telling her parents about her and Draco for the same reasons she hadn’t told Ron. In fact, he was the first member of her family to know. When she thought about that, she wondered who Draco told. He definitely wouldn’t tell his father, but did he tell any of his friends, or...
“I’m guessing that you haven’t,” Ron replied after a moment of silence.
Hermione nodded. “You’re the first Weasley to know, from what Ginny’s told me.”
Ron shook his head. “You should tell them.”
“Yeah, I think what happened today showed me that. I’ll owl home tomorrow.”
“You know,” Ron remarked. “I’m never going to like this.”
“Believe me, I’m not expecting you to.”
“Harry?” Hermione asked.
Everyone looked at her. “What?” Harry asked.
“What’s that in your hand?”
Harry opened his right hand to show scraps of parchment. “It’s...um, an owl Ron had.”
Draco was squinting at it. “Let me see.”
Harry looked at Ron, and he nodded. Harry handed what he was grasping reluctantly to Draco, who scanned the handwriting carefully. After a few minutes, he laughed. “Oh, this is too good.”
“What?” Ginny asked, looking at what he had assembled. She was startled to read the message.
“Pansy Parkinson. Merlin, she doesn’t quit, does she?”
“Parkinson?” Ron asked, startled. “She sent that?”
“Yeah.” Draco was still chuckling. “We broke up a year ago, and she has been trying desperately to get back at me. I’m really not surprised she’d do something like this.”
Ron snatched the torn papers back, and read them again, crumpling them in his hands with anger. “She was setting me up to see you two having sex.”
“I can’t believe it,” Ginny added, eyes wide with shock.
“It’s classic Pansy. She’s a real voyeur, too, so she probably got...” Draco shut up at a look from Ginny.
“I’m sorry for being such a git, Ginny, especially when I was set up to do it,” Ron said angrily. “I’ll see you around.”
At this, he ran out of the stands.
Ginny breathed a sigh of relief. “That went a lot better than I thought it would.”
“Well, he found someone to be mad at who really deserved it,” Hermione remarked. “Will I see you at dinner, Ginny?”
“Yes. It’s in a half-hour, right?”
“Right.”
“I’ll catch up with you and Harry then.”
Hermione smiled and left. Harry shot the two of them a suspicious look, then gave a slight smile and followed.
Ginny turned to Draco. “Well, I have to say that I’m glad that you two didn’t start punching each other.”
Draco shrugged. “I think he would have felt a lot better if he had. I hope that he doesn‘t try to start a fist fight with Pansy, she can most certainly fight back.”
“Here I thought I was going to have to be careful with you until you healed.”
He laughed at that. “You thought your brother was good enough to hurt me?”
“Well, actually...how good are you at fighting?”
Draco sat down on the stands, looking around at the red and gold hangings. “You know, I never thought I would be in this area of the stands, except maybe to vandalize it.”
“You wanted to vandalize it?”
“Why not?”
Ginny didn’t have an answer for that. “You didn’t even think you would come up here with a girl? You seem like the kind of guy that would get a kick from that.”
Predictably, Draco smirked. “I have been with a girl in the Slytherin area, but not here.”
Ginny promptly sat in Draco’s lap. “Shall we fix that?”
Draco shrugged. “What else are we doing?”
Fandom: Harry Potter, Trio-era
Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language
Length: One-shot, about 4500 words
Characters/Pairings: Draco/Ginny; Ron, Harry, and Hermione
Spoilers: I think there's some OotP-era spoilers.
Beta:
assassinSummary: What happens after Ron finds out the identity of Ginny's not-so-secret boyfriend.
Notes: This was written really fast in summer 2004 for a challenge I gave where I asked people for pairings and I wrote fic for them. Again, the quality of writing means that it's only a good nostalgia read.
When Harry Potter and Hermione Granger walked into the Great Hall after they had finished their study session, they noticed something was different. It wasn’t the amount of people that were at the Gryffindor table or the level of noise or any of the obvious things that usually stood out, but there seemed to be a buzz around the people that wasn’t normally there. Of course, the two couldn’t resist from finding out what was going on, so they walked briskly to the table and sat across from Lavender Brown.
“...completely lost it,” she was saying eagerly to Parvati Patil, who was sitting to her right. “I could tell it was only a matter of time, but it was just so...”
“What happened?” Harry interrupted impatiently.
Lavender glared at him.
“Sorry, Lavender, but what’s going on?” Hermione apologized, making sure she looked interested in what the gossip was saying.
Lavender shot one last look of anger at Harry, then smiled at Hermione. “Of course you wouldn’t know yet,” she began eagerly. “You were studying Charms in the library, right?”
“Yeah, we just got done.”
“Well, Ron went crazy. He started yelling at his sister in front of everyone just five minutes ago over there.” She pointed to the area in front of the table where the teachers sat. “No one really shut up until they had moved past what was probably the meat of the argument, but everyone knows what it was about. The whole Slytherin table wouldn’t stop laughing at him, so he turned red and ran out.”
Hermione and Harry exchanged a look. “So, he finally found out.”
“Do you know who told him?” Hermione asked Lavender.
“No.” She giggled. “And I wouldn’t want to be that person, I can tell you that. He looked like he was ready to kill. I’d bet Draco’s in hiding right now.”
“If he knows what’s good for him,” Harry agreed. “Where’d Ginny go?”
“She left just a few minutes after him, and she didn’t talk to anyone before doing it.”
“Well,” Hermione sighed, “we’d better go find them.”
Harry nodded in agreement. “I’ll take Ron, you get Ginny.”
Ron wasn’t hard to find. He was sitting in the Gryffindor stands at the Quidditch pitch, trembling with rage. Harry knew it’d had to be a good half-hour since the spectacle in the Great Hall, but he didn’t seem any less mad. It seemed he had kicked some of the seats because the sturdy wood was splintering in some places. Shredded parchment lay under his seat.
Harry didn’t say anything at first, but just sat next to Ron. He wasn’t being quiet or trying to hide that he was there, but he had decided it was best if he let Ron talk first. He didn’t have to wait long.
“I couldn’t find him,” Ron growled, his hands clenching into fists. “The coward that’s shagging my sister couldn’t even stay in one place long enough for me to hurt him.”
“Who?”
Ron looked at Harry with a sort of calm anger. Harry supposed that his friend was trying to keep from taking his anger out on him. “Don’t play dumb, Harry. The entire school knew, and no one told me.”
“And what would you have done?” Harry asked him. “They say not to shoot the messenger, but that’s exactly what would have happened. You would have taken your anger out on the person who told you first, then you’d hunt down Draco and finish being mad on him. Do you really think that’s fair?”
“And do you think it’s fair for that smarmy bastard to be screwing my sister and for me not to know? I hate Draco Malfoy. His parents have tried to kill my parents more times than I can count. Not to mention what he did to us last year when Umbridge was in power. Have you forgotten everything, Harry?”
“No,” Harry replied. “I remember. But a person can change, Ron. Ginny told me that she’s really happy.”
Ron’s face turned bright scarlet. “She talked to you about this? And you didn’t tell me? I thought you didn‘t say something because you thought it was a rumor...”
“I’m sorry, but Ginny made me promise.”
Ron stood. “So, promising my sister means more to you than telling your best friend what no one else would tell him? That’s real great, Harry. Thanks a bunch.”
He turned to leave, but Harry stood and caught his arm. Ron tried to shake free, but Harry hadn’t played those years of Quidditch for nothing.
“I didn’t tell you because you are my best friend. I couldn’t stand the thought of hurting you with this. I wanted her to tell you herself, and that‘s what I said when she made me promise. It wasn’t mine to tell, Ron! It wasn‘t my business! Don‘t be hacked off at me for something that I wasn‘t involved in.”
Ron’s face didn’t change from its furious glare, but he did stop fighting Harry and sat down again. “You got involved, and you should have said something.”
“Fine. I’m sorry.“ Harry sat, too. “I probably should have said something. But I’m not going to feel guilty over this. Ginny should have told you weeks ago.”
“Weeks?” This wasn’t as angry as previous statements, but it was full of surprise. “This has been going on for weeks?”
“Yeah.” Harry wasn’t going to say that Ginny and Draco’s relationship was probably going to be at six months in the next week or two. He didn’t think that would help matters. “How did you find out, Ron? Ginny didn’t tell you?”
“No.” He gestured unenthusiastically at the parchment under his seat. “I got an owl at breakfast. It said to keep an eye on Ginny because she was getting herself into trouble, so I followed her around today, and...”
“And...” Harry prompted.
“What do you think? I found them in a broom closet, Malfoy’s pants around his ankles, and...” Ron broke off, and Harry would have sworn that he saw tears in his eyes.
Harry was going to say something, but he knew that anything he tried to say would be completely stupid. He sat in silence next to Ron, knowing that if anything needed to be said, Ron would talk.
While the two friends were having their dialogue on the Quidditch pitch, Ginny was in the Potions classroom, venting her anger in her own way. She had immediately come here after the fight with Ron without thinking, mainly because she had wanted to be alone, and there was no better place to be alone than the Potions dungeon at the moment. Snape had been on an unknown mission for Dumbledore for about a month, and, since it was the end of the term right before summer, they hadn’t been able to find a replacement on such short notice. Classes were taught by Dumbledore in his office, which left the dungeons free. Ginny and Draco had been the only two students to have the courage and desire to use the room since Snape left, and no one else seemed to know that they did.
Ginny had tossed an empty cauldron about five feet away from her when she had first slammed the heavy doors shut, angry enough to use her full strength to heave the huge pot farther than normal. This pretty much tired her out, so she sat against the cauldron, pounding on nearby desks whenever her rage reached a peak where she had to do something. She wasn’t the crying sort, so she took her aggressions out on inanimate objects periodically.
After about ten minutes, her emotions had quieted enough so she heard the doors open and close. The footsteps were light, so she decided it must be a girl, and, therefore, not Draco. She considered being quiet and pretending she wasn’t there, but she knew that she couldn’t find a place to find quick enough that would keep her out of the person’s line of sight for long.
“Go away,” she called, not looking behind the cauldron to see who it was. “I’m not in the mood to talk.”
“I didn’t have talking in mind,” the amused answer came, the voice deep and decidedly masculine.
Ginny’s eyes widened, but then she laughed quietly. “I thought you were a girl, Draco. You usually walk a little louder than that.”
Draco chuckled, then walked around the cauldron and sat on a desk across from Ginny. “Well, I just wasn’t in the mood to stomp around today. I think Weasley...Ron has done that enough for everyone.”
“So you heard,” she sighed.
“I don’t think anyone in this school didn’t hear. I was in the Great Hall at the time, you know. I just thought that being quiet and ignoring you was the best thing to do.”
Ginny blinked up at him. “You mean, when Ron stormed off to look for you, you were right there?”
“Yeah, funny, isn’t it?”
“It is,” she laughed. “He’ll catch up with you eventually.”
“So? I’ll let him take a few swings. Unless you break up with me, you’ll be around to help me heal.”
“Why would I break up with you?”
Draco gave her a measuring look. “Family seems really important to every Weasley I’ve ever met. I didn’t think that would exclude you.”
“Family’s important to me,” Ginny agreed, “but Ron’s being a git. Being true to my family and dating you are not mutually exclusive, you know.”
“If I had a sister that your brother was having sex with, I don’t know if I’d be too happy about it.”
Ginny laughed. “You agree with Ron?”
“Not really,” Draco replied. “I don’t have a sister. But I thought it sounded good.”
“You’re just trying to get under my skirt, Malfoy,” Ginny accused, pretending that she was insulted. She stood and moved forward, stopping about three feet in front of Draco’s reclining form.
He smirked at her. “I’ve been there before.”
For some reason, Ginny had never been able to resist that smirk. When she had first seen it, she had mistaken her reaction to it for annoyance, but now she knew the difference. A broad grin spread on her face, and she curled her fingers around the green and silver tie neatly tied around his neck. He was wearing his uniform with everything but his robes and his Slytherin sweater, and she was glad that he had saved her the time of taking the heavy clothing off.
“You’re still not in the mood to talk, are you?”
“No.”
At this, Ginny couldn’t wait any longer. She pulled him to her using the tie and kissed him hungrily. Through the daze in her head, she found it funny that she could want to fool around again after just having done so earlier that day. However, she was a teenager, and she sometimes was just turned on by the stones in the castle walls. Wanting to blow off some steam with an attractive teenager was no stretch.
As they kissed, Draco reached for Ginny’s two braids and took off the ties holding her hair in place. Ginny knew from experience that he loved playing with her hair while they had sex, and she very rarely let him take it down to make him appreciate it all the more. She would have stopped him, but she still had some aggressions to work out herself, so she didn’t want to stop what they were doing for a second. He was having problems getting it undone, though, so she broke away from their kiss, grinning.
“Having problems?”
“You...must have glued them together or something,” he replied breathlessly.
Ginny laughed and reached back with both arms to get the braids herself. She hadn’t realized that her chest was more prominent when she did this until she saw Draco’s gaze fixed unflinchingly on that area of her body. Once her hair was free, she pushed off her robes and pulled off her sweater, leaving only her white blouse. She hadn’t put on a bra because she had lost it during their tryst earlier, and Draco’s eyes seemed to get even wider. She made a mental note to do so more often.
Draco moved his hands to the buttons on her blouse, but Ginny pulled his hands away. “No hands for this,” she ordered, “or we stop right now.”
She knew just as well as he did that this was just a small obstacle, but it was little things like this that made it fun for her. It wasn’t as if Draco didn’t have certain things that he liked that he made sure he got.
Now, Draco’s mouth was carefully undoing her blouse. She could feel how he held the shirt in place with his teeth and pushed the buttons through the holes with the tongue. The moisture his mouth left against her shirt sent her already sensitive skin into full-blown goosebumps, and it was all she could do to keep from shaking with anticipation.
“Hurry up,” she gasped. “Is there a reason you’re taking so long?”
He looked up into her eyes, only moving far enough away from her shirt to talk. “I thought you wanted me to do this.”
Ginny giggled, then hated herself for it. She didn’t like sounding like an insipid blonde. “I guess I did get myself into this one.”
“Then I’ll finish up.”
Draco undid the rest of the buttons in good time, but it still seemed like an eternity to Ginny. The second the last button was undone, Ginny opened her shirt all the way but left it on. Both of them loved doing things as close to fully clothed as possible because it seemed naughtier somehow.
Ginny just loved how Draco made her feel as he ran his hands over her bare skin. He knew just where to touch and what pressure to use to make her shudder. Of course, she couldn’t be too bad as he seemed to shiver just as much as she did. She nibbled at his ear experimentally, and she actually made his legs wobble for a brief moment. That made her smile, but she closed her eyes and tried not to groan when he returned the favor and blew in her ear.
Then, they were interrupted when a female voice called, “Ginny!”
Ginny and Draco looked toward the door at the same time. “She’s not in here, is she?” Ginny asked, worried.
“No, she’s in the hall. Let’s just ignore her.”
Ginny sighed and shook her head. “She could come in, and where would that leave us? Besides, I think it’s Hermione, and I have to talk to her.”
Draco rolled his eyes, but he pulled away and started putting his clothes back on nonchalantly. Ginny buttoned her blouse quickly, pulled on her sweater, and picked up her robes. “I’ll be back,” she told him. “But maybe we should finish this tonight.”
He smiled. “I guess. But I’m calling the shots.”
A goofy grin spread across her face, then she ran out into the hall outside the dungeon as quickly as she could. “Hermione?”
Hermione was at the end of the hall, about to climb up the stairs. At Ginny’s voice, she stopped and turned around. “Ginny! I’m glad I found you.”
Ginny jogged to catch up to Hermione. “What’s going on?”
“Everyone’s talking about your fight with Ron. Did he find out about you and Draco?”
She smiled grimly and nodded. “Yeah. It wasn’t the way I would have chosen for him to find out, but it’s my fault for putting it off for so long.”
Wisely, Hermione didn’t ask for more details. She was definitely smart enough to guess what those details would probably include. “Are you okay? I heard he was sort of mean about it.”
“Am I okay? I sort of thought you would side with Ron on this one. Why aren’t you looking for him?”
“Harry’s taking care of it.” Hermione sighed. “Ron may be one of my best friends, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t, too. And I know that a lot of the friends you have wouldn’t think to see if you were okay, and I am sort of worried.”
“Worried because Ron yelled at me when I deserved it, or worried because of me and Draco?”
“Both,” Hermione replied bluntly. “I’ve always sort of thought Malfoy might be dating you to hurt Harry and Ron. Of course, you have been together longer than even he might keep up a prank, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t do it.”
Ginny smiled softly. “That means a lot, Hermione. Most people seemed to be more caught up in the drama than the people involved. But I like Draco, and I really like our relationship together.”
“You like him.” Hermione was studying her face. “Don’t tell me you’re understating it for my sake.”
She gave a helpless shrug before she thought about it, then adopted a smirk much like Draco’s. “Why would I do that?”
“All right, I won’t press it. Just be careful.”
Ginny sighed. “Okay. Will you help me find Ron in a minute? I should really apologize to him.”
“Sure. Why not now?”
“I need to go tell Draco where I’m going.”
A look of disgust flashed briefly over Hermione’s face, but it disappeared quickly. Ginny couldn’t help but respect how nice Hermione was trying to be. “Will that take long?”
“No, hang on.”
Ginny ran back into the dungeon where Draco was finishing putting on his tie. She probably looked extremely ruffled, but he was definitely good at looking perfect under short notice. Anyone who saw him probably would have thought he had just been studying.
“Ready for more?”
She desperately wanted to, but she took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’m going to go find Ron and apologize.”
“Fine, but I’m going with you.” His voice sounded a little weird.
This was the last thing that Ginny had expected to hear. “Um, why?”
“I haven’t put this much time into our affair just to have Ron talk you out of it now.”
His voice sounded weird because he was scared of breaking up. This wasn’t the first time he’d mentioned it. She wouldn’t have guessed it. “You’re going to rile him up.”
Draco raised his right hand. “I’ll be good, I swear.”
Ginny was suspicious, but she decided not to fight him. This was probably the best move because it wouldn’t look like Draco was hiding from Ron, even though they might fight. At least they’d get it over with.
Hermione, Draco, and Ginny had been searching for Ron for a good half-hour when they walked out on the Quidditch field.
“He’s very good at hiding, isn’t he?” Draco commented, amused. “And here he probably thinks I’m the one holing up somewhere.”
Hermione frowned. “If he isn’t here, I don’t know where he is...oh!”
She pointed up to the Gryffindor stands, and Ginny could see Harry waving at them.
“Potter’s with him?” This seemed very funny to Draco. “I wonder what they were doing?”
Ginny smacked his arm. “Stop it.”
“How do you know they weren‘t doing...anything?”
She opened her mouth to counter, then closed it again. She didn’t know. The thing of it was, she didn’t even care if Harry and Ron were dating. It wasn’t as if gay and lesbian couples weren’t common at Hogwarts. Besides, despite the fact that Draco seemed to be referring to them in that manner, he could have meant anything, knowing him.
“Let’s get this over with,” she sighed, and the group worked their way up the stairs to where the two guys were sitting.
When they were close enough to see Ron and Harry closely, Ginny felt a little guilty. Ron looked as if the day’s events had really hurt him, even though he was covering it relatively well with a mask of anger. She didn’t blame him at all; it wasn’t as if she wanted to see Ron having sex with her worst enemy. There was also the fact that both Harry and Hermione had known for months and hadn’t told him. All in all, she really didn’t want to be in his shoes.
Ginny had expected Ron to rush at Draco, but he just looked at them, looking sort of weary. “So, you’re ganging up on me. Can’t this wait?”
“I wanted to apologize, Ron. I’ve really screwed this up, and you definitely deserve to be mad at you.”
Ron stood and walked toward Ginny. Reflexively, she grabbed at Draco’s hand, and Ron’s eyes followed the movement.
“I’m not mad at you.”
This seemed a little weird. “You aren’t?”
“No. I’m mad at everyone for not telling me. After we fought, Dumbledore told me that the general consensus was that it was best for me not to know, and I felt like such an idiot that the Headmaster knew and I didn’t. I’m mad that I’m so thick that I couldn’t even tell that my little sister was going out with someone. Ever since Fred and George left, I’m the family you’re around the most, and I haven’t been...well, haven’t been doing my job. Not that it’s a job, but...”
“I know what you mean.”
Ron glared at Draco. “Most of all, I’m mad at Malfoy for doing this. You knew what I would do to you, but you did it anyway.”
“I didn’t know I had to ask your permission before I dated someone,” Draco replied coolly.
“You do if you’re shagging my sister!”
“Ron!” Hermione gasped. “Stop it!”
“No. This pillock has been trying to get to me ever since we started at this school. And now he’s done it. Shouldn’t he get what he’s been asking for?”
“Not anymore, Ron.” Ginny stepped between the two of them. “You can take it out of his hide if we stop going out, but you should leave him alone until then.”
“And why should I do that?”
“Because I’m asking you to, Ron. I might not ask you to if this was just a short fling, but we’ve been going out for nearly six months now. This could last, and I don’t want you to ruin it.”
“Don’t worry, Ginny, I wouldn’t dump you because your brother’s a git,” Draco commented cheerfully. “I’ve known that all along.”
“Why are you going out with him?” Ron asked desperately. “Aren’t Harry and Hermione your friends? He hates them!”
“Don’t put words in my mouth, Weasley,” Draco shot back. “I have no reason to hate any of you, you aren’t worth it, especially the Mud...Granger. I’ve been pretty pissed at you sometimes, but...”
Ginny hissed, “Don’t try to help me, Draco.”
“Draco? Isn’t that familiar,” Ron snapped. “When did you stop calling him Malfoy?”
“Please, Ron. I’m not asking you to like Draco. I’m just asking that you leave him alone while we’re going out. In case you can’t tell, I’m not going to flaunt our relationship in front of you.”
Ron sighed. “Does Mum know?”
Ginny froze. She had avoided telling her parents about her and Draco for the same reasons she hadn’t told Ron. In fact, he was the first member of her family to know. When she thought about that, she wondered who Draco told. He definitely wouldn’t tell his father, but did he tell any of his friends, or...
“I’m guessing that you haven’t,” Ron replied after a moment of silence.
Hermione nodded. “You’re the first Weasley to know, from what Ginny’s told me.”
Ron shook his head. “You should tell them.”
“Yeah, I think what happened today showed me that. I’ll owl home tomorrow.”
“You know,” Ron remarked. “I’m never going to like this.”
“Believe me, I’m not expecting you to.”
“Harry?” Hermione asked.
Everyone looked at her. “What?” Harry asked.
“What’s that in your hand?”
Harry opened his right hand to show scraps of parchment. “It’s...um, an owl Ron had.”
Draco was squinting at it. “Let me see.”
Harry looked at Ron, and he nodded. Harry handed what he was grasping reluctantly to Draco, who scanned the handwriting carefully. After a few minutes, he laughed. “Oh, this is too good.”
“What?” Ginny asked, looking at what he had assembled. She was startled to read the message.
“Pansy Parkinson. Merlin, she doesn’t quit, does she?”
“Parkinson?” Ron asked, startled. “She sent that?”
“Yeah.” Draco was still chuckling. “We broke up a year ago, and she has been trying desperately to get back at me. I’m really not surprised she’d do something like this.”
Ron snatched the torn papers back, and read them again, crumpling them in his hands with anger. “She was setting me up to see you two having sex.”
“I can’t believe it,” Ginny added, eyes wide with shock.
“It’s classic Pansy. She’s a real voyeur, too, so she probably got...” Draco shut up at a look from Ginny.
“I’m sorry for being such a git, Ginny, especially when I was set up to do it,” Ron said angrily. “I’ll see you around.”
At this, he ran out of the stands.
Ginny breathed a sigh of relief. “That went a lot better than I thought it would.”
“Well, he found someone to be mad at who really deserved it,” Hermione remarked. “Will I see you at dinner, Ginny?”
“Yes. It’s in a half-hour, right?”
“Right.”
“I’ll catch up with you and Harry then.”
Hermione smiled and left. Harry shot the two of them a suspicious look, then gave a slight smile and followed.
Ginny turned to Draco. “Well, I have to say that I’m glad that you two didn’t start punching each other.”
Draco shrugged. “I think he would have felt a lot better if he had. I hope that he doesn‘t try to start a fist fight with Pansy, she can most certainly fight back.”
“Here I thought I was going to have to be careful with you until you healed.”
He laughed at that. “You thought your brother was good enough to hurt me?”
“Well, actually...how good are you at fighting?”
Draco sat down on the stands, looking around at the red and gold hangings. “You know, I never thought I would be in this area of the stands, except maybe to vandalize it.”
“You wanted to vandalize it?”
“Why not?”
Ginny didn’t have an answer for that. “You didn’t even think you would come up here with a girl? You seem like the kind of guy that would get a kick from that.”
Predictably, Draco smirked. “I have been with a girl in the Slytherin area, but not here.”
Ginny promptly sat in Draco’s lap. “Shall we fix that?”
Draco shrugged. “What else are we doing?”