Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and weep for the loss. I do own the plot of this story and thank my little bunny for helping me out. Don't steal or the bunny will turn rabid and hunt you down. It's handy like that.

It's For Their Own Good

In which Ron hides, Hermione lies, Ginny beats up boys and Harry doesn't care. Really, he doesn't. He swears. Okay, well, maybe it bothers him a little bit.

Harry Potter would have liked to find a nice quiet place to study for more than fifteen minutes at a time. The library was out of the question, for Hermione kept huffing over his and Ron's propensity to fall behind. The common room was overfilled with students longing for the dreary weather to end, so that was out. And now…

"Your sister is absolutely mad! A complete raving lunatic!" Upon entrance into their dorm, Dean Thomas shouted this remark at Ron Weasley, who was idly flipping through Flying with the Cannons (which was certainly not his Transfiguration homework).

Ron gave him a quick glance from his bed and shrugged. "Yeah, so?"

Harry looked amusingly at the two from his own bed, but tried to start reading again. Hermione was sure to have kittens if he and Ron didn't finish the assignment before the day was out. Dean, though, wasn't having it.

"Look at this! Look!" Dragging down his collar, Dean showed Ron something on his neck. At Ron's disgusted response, Harry looked up again to see a huge red blotch on Dean's dark skin. "Look at what she did!"

"Ugh! Don't be showing me your love bites!" Ron threw down his book and made a face. "Especially if my sister made it."

Dean had the grace to look perplexed for a moment before shaking his head vigorously. "It's not a love bite! If it was one, do you really think I'd show it to her brother?"

"Well, I don't care what you call it," Ron sputtered, clearly not listening to Dean's explanation. "You shouldn't be showing stuff like that to other blokes, it's disgusting."

"Don't you even want to know how it happened?"

"NO!" Ron hurriedly gathered up his books, no doubt reconsidering being around Hermione if Dean was his only other option. "And we'll never speak of it again!"

"It's not a love bite!" Dean yelled after Ron as he dashed out the door as if a pack of nundu were on his tail. He glanced sulkily at Harry, who was watching with bemused interest. "It's not."

Harry held up his hands. "Whatever you say, Dean. I don't want to know either."

The other boy glared at him and Harry only raised his eyebrows in response. "Well, I'm done with her, that's for sure. If she wants to act completely barmy, I don't need to be around for it. There are plenty of other good-looking birds around here that aren't missing a few screws."

Slightly offended by his remark, Harry didn't answer and instead looked down at his book again. Intent on reading, he paid Dean no attention as he stomped off to the lavatory and started yelling an explanation to Seamus Finnegan, who was already inside. Harry sighed and closed the curtains around his bed to block out the noise; if Dean wanted to break it off with Ginny it was fine with him, but he didn't have to listen to any complaining.

As he settled back into his homework, though, Harry couldn't help but wonder exactly what had happened.

"Oh, Ginny, he didn't."

"He did! Can you believe the nerve?"

Harry stopped short of putting the spoonful of porridge in his mouth to see Hermione and Ginny's heads huddled together across from him. Ron pointedly ignored them, but Harry's interest was piqued by the fierce whispers. Slowly, he stuffed the porridge though his lips and tilted his ear slightly towards them.

"…kept saying that I was absolutely barmy and had to find a better way to spend my time," Ginny was finishing, her mouth set in a scowl. "As if it's my problem that he doesn't know how to hold himself together!"

"Well, I can see why you're upset, but you only really dated for a few weeks…" Hermione shrugged. "You're better off knowing how he'd react now rather than later."

Ginny waved a hand in the air. "Oh, forget about that. It was fun while it lasted, but I certainly expected more from him. Boys are just so infuriating."

"Mmm," Hermione agreed and turned back to her breakfast plate in time to catch Harry's eye. She gave him a stern look and he returned with a sheepish smile. "All right there, Harry?"

"Huh? I'm fine," Harry ate a few more spoonfuls than necessary so that he wouldn't have to say anything more. Hermione regarded him suspiciously, but Ginny paid him no attention. Though his curiosity had been upped a few notches, Harry finished his breakfast without another word and avoiding Hermione's gaze.

The next couple of weeks were quieter; Dean had stopped grumbling over the breakup and started making comments over who he was thinking of asking out next. Hermione acted as if nothing was amiss, Ron disappeared for long periods of time whenever someone mentioned his sister, and Ginny was asked out on another date. Harry figured it was probably all for the best.

Harry was sitting outside by the lake on a rare clear day when Ernie Macmillan went by, favoring his right leg. Thinking that it was a bit odd for the other boy to be on Hogwarts grounds when he'd made plans with Ginny for Hogsmeade, Harry waved him over and said hello.

"Hey there, Harry," Ernie limped over and leaned against the tree behind Harry. "Having a good one?"

"Yeah," Harry said easily. "Didn't feel like going to Hogsmeade. You?"

Ernie looked disgruntled and his leg quivered slightly. "Er, change of plans."

"You and Ginny decided to stay in?"

"No," Ernie replied slowly. "Just me. That… that didn't happen after all."

Cocking his head in question, Harry was surprised that the Hufflepuff didn't elaborate on this comment. "That's too bad."

"Yes, well, you'd think so," Ernie answered a bit irritably. Catching his tone, he looked abashed and apologized. "Sorry, I know you're friends. Ginny's just not what most blokes around here expect is all."

"Okay," Harry said simply.

Ernie excused himself after a few moments when they found there wasn't really anything else to talk about. The limp really wasn't that bad, but it was still there a couple days later and Harrysort of regretted not asking more about it. Not that that meant anything of course.

"Er, Hermione?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"Is there something I should know…" Harry's fingers clicked off on the library table one by one as he thought how to form the words. "What exactly is going on with Ginny?"

Hermione's head shot up, but she didn't answer his question. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Just then Harry looked obviously at Zacharias Smith, who was walking by his arm in a sling – he'd been bragging about going out with Ginny no less than two weeks before. Hermione followed his gaze and her face went slightly pink, but she only shrugged. "What does that have to do with any of it?"

Harry then gestured with his head toward Colin Creevey, who sat at the next table with large bandages on both his hands. A few days prior Harry had heard Colin asking Ginny to take a walk with him after dinner. The younger Gryffindor was currently struggling to hold a quill and write on a sheet of parchment in front of him and was failing miserably.

"I still don't see what you mean," Hermione said with no little nervousness in her voice.

"Can't forget the seventh-year Ravenclaw who's still in the hospital wing, Eddie something-or-other," Harry said idly in response. "Madame Pomfrey said he should be back to normal by the end of term."

Lips pursed tightly, Hermione wrenched her quill between her fingers. "Have you seen Ron? I haven't seen Ron all day. It'd be good of him to be here. Do you know where he is?"

"He's taken to hiding at every opportunity," Harry explained with what Hermione thought was infuriating calm. "Can't blame him since it seems Ginny's on a rampage with all of Hogwarts… well, at least the boys."

She sighed and Harry smiled placidly.

"Well, if you must know," Hermione said hastily. "It's best that you ask Ginny herself. I'm not one to be airing about someone else's dirty laundry."

He quirked up an eyebrow. "So there's dirty laundry?"

"What? No!" Looking horrified, Hermione split the quill in two. "Just don't ask me anything else."

"All right then." With that, Harry looked back down at his book and drew absentmindedly in the margins.

"Ginny! Hey, Ginny!" A fifth-year Ravenclaw went racing by Harry in the corridor and after the red-headed girl. Rolling his eyes, Harry fixed the strap of his book bag and followed after them.

"So, I was thinking about this weekend-" the boy was saying, Harry vaguely remembered his name to be Carl or Wendell or something.

"Will any of you ever learn?" He asked with undisguised exasperation as he approached, earning startled looks from both Ginny and Carl-Wendell-Something. "She's just going to chew you up and spit you out."

Ginny's mouth dropped (in both anger and surprise, Harry was sure), but the Ravenclaw just looked completely confused as Harry patted him on the shoulder. "Really, best be off. You'll thank me one day."

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked him between clenched teeth, but it was already too late, Carl-Wendell-Something had taken the warning to heart – and was no doubt thinking of Eddie Surely-Has-A-Last-Name-Of-Some-Sort who was heard to be recovering nicely – and had sprinted away.

"Helping," Harry answered as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. "You weren't really going to say yes, were you? And if you did, I was saving him a trip to the hospital wing. It's a win-win situation."

Ginny scowled at him, but didn't retort. She strode off away from him, so Harry picked up the pace to get by her side. "What's going on anyway? You know, for curiosity's sake."

"Well, it's none of your business," Ginny snapped. "You just got rid of a perfectly lovely boy-"

"Who would have been bleeding before the day was out, I'm sure."

"-that I might have considered if I hadn't been rudely interrupted," Ginny finished hotly.

"Considered harming which part of his body again?" Harry asked with pure innocence.

Ginny threw her arms in the air. "Gah! You're infuriating!"

"Seriously, Gin," Harry put a hand on her arm to stop her from taking off again. "I'm curious. Help me out here."

She was pouting, but Harry had a feeling she wanted to tell him so he wheedled her a bit more. "Come on, Ginny, you can't leave me hanging like this. Hermione won't tell me and I haven't been able to track down Ron for days. Please?"

Looking at him out of the corner of her eye, Ginny grumbled, "I might have said yes to him, you know."

"So do I need to ask you out to find out?" Harry said suddenly, his tone mischievous. "Okay, let's get some pumpkin juice from the kitchens after you step on my toes. Is that fitting?"

Ginny ignored his silly request. "Do you really want to know? Really?"

"I wouldn't offer my toes if I didn't. I'm quite fond of them," Harry said airily.

"Fine then," Ginny grabbed his wrist and pulled him along the corridor. "It's your own funeral."

"I hope you're not being literal."

"Here." Ginny stopped in a familiar hallway and turned to Harry. "You have to make your mind completely blank. I know exactly what I want, so you can't go mucking it up."

"Blank, right." Harry nodded and stared at the space where he was sure the door to the Room of Requirement would appear. "Got it."

"Good." Still holding his wrist, Ginny pulled him back and forth along the corridor (Blank-blank-blank, Harry thought to himself). After their third passing, the door appeared and Ginny looked over at him. "Last chance to back out."

Harry grinned brightly at her. "Never doubt a Gryffindor."

"Yeah, well, you'd be surprised," Ginny mumbled as she opened the door.

What was on the other side of the door was so surprising merely because of its plainness. The walls, ceiling and floor were all painted the same light gray color and it was no larger than the common room in size. Under his feet, the floor gave away slightly so that he felt as if he was bouncing along. Harry looked around with confusion clear on his features and at last gave Ginny a questioning glance.

"You have your wand, don't you?" That was all she asked.

"Never go without it these days," Harry plucked it out of his pocket and dropped his book bag by the wall. "What's this all about?"

"Okay, these are the rules-" Ginny began.

"The rules?"

"Rules," She said again, firmly. "One, you are only allowed to use a shield charm to defend yourself-"

Harry stood straight up. "Defend myself?"

"Are you going to let me finish or not?" When Harry gestured that she could continue, Ginny sighed and said, "As I said, only the shield charm is allowed. Any other defense maneuvers are based on your agility to get the hell out of the way of the enchantment. When we first begin, the spell will move at approximately one meter per second. The longer we last, the faster it goes – unless we tell it to speed up - until someone is hit. Best of three wins, understand?"

"Er, I think so…" Suddenly wondering where his bravado had gone, Harry gave the walls and anxious once-over. "Ginny, how long have you been doing this?"

Ginny lifted her hands, "I got the idea from my dad this summer. It's based off a Muggle sport they call Rack-A-Ball."

"Racquetball," Harry said casually. It was starting to make a whole lot more sense and he shrugged off his robes.

"Whatever." Ginny copied his motions until they both stood there in the Oxford shirts and ties. "Are you ready?"

"I guess so."

She gave him a wicked grin. "We'll start with something easy. For the beginner."

He followed her lead until they stood at the center of the room. Ginny had funny glint in her eyes and it made Harry ever so slightly nervous, but he got into position across from her. "Let's do it."

"Rictusempra!"

The shout came suddenly and Harry jerked back when he saw the spell come out of her wand, go straight up, hit the ceiling and come back right down on him. Within seconds, he was writhing on the floor and laughing hysterically.

"Oh, Harry," Ginny looked down at him with no pity as he rolled around. "Finite Incantatem. I expected more from you."

"That was," Harry sat on the floor, holding his arms at his sides, "a dirty trick."

"Yes, well, it happens" Ginny smiled and held out hand for him. "Come on then, get up. At least move faster next time. I won't count that one, just for your sake."

"Humph," Harry got into position. "Give me a real spell this time."

"If you say so," Ginny raised her wand again. Their faces were close and he could feel her breath on his cheeks. Then she shouted, "Stupefy!"

"Protego!" Harry put up his shield before he knew where she'd sent the spell. It flew to his right and he immediately watched its movements and went in the opposite direction. Ginny put up her own shield and soon they were darting around the room.

The first few minutes, Harry was intent on making sure that the spell never came near him, but Ginny did just the reverse. She ran towards the spell and put out her shield so that it ricocheted toward him. Knowing that she was trying to do him in, Harry changed his strategy so that every time the hex came near him, he defended himself just enough so it headed back in her direction. Ginny grinned widely at him when she saw he'd cottoned on and yelled, "Faster!"

Immediately, the red light of the spell began to bounce the ceiling, walls and floors as if it were manic. Harry barely missed being hit in the ankle and he jumped up fantastically and landed on his backside. Luckily, his shield held and the spell turned straight for Ginny. She quickly shifted and bent her knees, so that it went straight over her head and Harry couldn't help but be impressed by her nimbleness.

Their strange duel went on and on, making sweat pour down his face. Whenever of either of their shields began to lose power, they would each shout, "Protego!" again and Harry learned to do this at a certain pace, no matter if he'd hit the hex or not. It helped, but the light was getting faster and faster, his arms getting more tired and he wasn't sure how much longer he and Ginny would make it.

It was unexpected to feel his insides flutter just a bit when he looked over at her again. Somewhere along the way Ginny had rolled up the sleeves to her shirt and her tie had gone askew; though her hair was tied up in a band, pieces of it had long escaped and were sticking to her cheeks. After he sent the red light her way, Harry pushed back his own hair and hastily shoved up his own sleeves and loosened his own tie. He didn't feel as put together as she looked, but he had a feeling it had nothing to do with the clothing.

Though she looked a bit winded, Ginny didn't give up. Harry tried one more time and nearly shouted with joy when the spell hit his shield just right so that it headed straight for Ginny, whose back was right to the wall. She, however, dived to the side and the light hit the wall right where her chest had been.

Harry would have liked to think his shield was strong enough to withstand the rebounding hex, but the sight of Ginny's fallen form distracted him from keeping it up. It wasn't as if she was hurt, no, because she was already pushing herself up to stand. It had more to do with the fact that Ginny's skirt had ridden up and he could see quite a long expanse of leg. A very long expanse of leg.

Before he could recover, the stunner got him straight in the forehead and Harry fell with a thump.

"Harry?" A hand was patting his cheek and fingers tracing over his forehead. "Are you feeling all right?"

"That was definitely a dirty trick," Harry said again, half-heartedly. He opened his eyes and Ginny's concerned face looking down on him swam into view.

Her eyes narrowed in confusion. "What?"

"Nothing." The back of his head hurt, his forehead hurt and, now that he'd stopped moving, Harry could feel the protest of his leg muscles. Feeling oddly satisfied, he grinned at Ginny, "That was fun. Can we do it again?"

Ginny scoffed first and then laughed. "If you really want to. That was impressive, Harry."

"You were pretty good, too," he replied from his prone position.

"Actually I meant the stunner to the head," Ginny bit her lip, mirth in her eyes. "That's the first I've seen happen to someone else."

"Yeah, well…" Harry trailed off. Her hands were still on his face and he didn't feel like getting up quite yet. "Did I do well otherwise?"

"Very well. Don't try to get up yet, I know it takes a few minutes to recover from one of those."

At first Harry was confused, but then the memory flashed back into his head of the Department of Mysteries and how the red light had hit Ginny square in the face. "Ah," was all he could say.

"You should be proud of yourself, though," Ginny settled down next to him. "Not many have made it this far."

"Is that so?" Lifting a hand to his head, Harry massaged the sore spot. "How many?"

"Well… actually, just you." Surprised to realize that, Ginny smiled encouragingly at him. "Congratulations."

Harry dropped away his hand and looked up at her. "Do I… do I get a prize?"

With a small smile, Ginny nodded and leaned forward. She dropped a light kiss straight on his forehead and then drew back. "All better?"

"Yeah," Harry said hoarsely, glad that his suddenly thumping heart wasn't so loud that she could hear it.

She motioned towards him, "Care for another go, then?"

"In just a minute," Harry raised himself on his elbows, much to his arms groaning. He stared at Ginny and she stared back and it was if someone else were sitting all the way up and leaning towards her. Harry sure hoped it was him, because that someone was angling his head and she was angling her head and then her lips were on him again, but they were on his lips. Harry let out a small muffled moan and closed his eyes and he could feel Ginny smiling now.

Drawing back, very reluctantly, Harry licked his lips and nodded, not really knowing what to say. He could have sworn Ginny was blushing, but it was hard to tell because both of them were already so sweaty and flushed to begin with.

"Ah, well," Harry began, feeling very self-conscious now. "Are you ready for another?"

Ginny coughed slightly and nodded. "Sure. You can start it off this time."

"Great," Harry hopped to his feet and held out a hand for her. Tentatively giving him her own hand, Ginny rose up and was on the verge of saying something, but then clearly decided otherwise. "Are you ready?"

She set her shoulders. "Ready."

"Okay." He knew he had to be sneaky, so Harry held his arm in one direction, but slanted his wand so it pointed slightly to the side. Thinking for a moment and then finally deciding on a spell, he bellowed, "Tarantallegra!"

"Protego!" Ginny said instantly and Harry followed suit. Once again, they were on the move, shifting, sliding and bouncing along the ground. While they went off in different directions, Harry couldn't help but have his gaze follow her everywhere she went, rather than follow the spell.

Knowing he had to make the match harder, Harry shouted the spell again and then two flashes of light were bouncing around the room. He saw Ginny's eyes widen, but the excitement on her face was unmistakable. Her lips formed an enthused grin and he couldn't help his thoughts thinking back to where he'd been very intimately associated with them.

Laughing to himself, Harry arranged it so that both sets of spells came his way and he pushed them in succession towards Ginny. He missed the first time, but when he did it again, one of them got her right in the side, resulting in an immediate dance. Ginny's amused yell echoed off the room's walls and he moved closer to her, protecting both of them with his shield until he was close enough to lift the spell.

"Finite Incantatem," Harry said and pushed her back toward the wall as she regained control of her legs. "My win."

"There's still one more, Potter," Ginny replied while wiping at her brow, laughter still in her eyes.

"Yeah, well, I don't care," Harry bent his head towards her and then he was doing again what he'd been thinking of all through the duel. Her lips felt even better this time, most likely because Harry felt as if he were of sound mind and not somewhere outside. And, just as before, she kissed him back and he felt the thrill shoot down straight to his toes.

Ginny pulled away suddenly and looked him straight in the eye. "Harry."

"Ginny," he said just as seriously, though with a tinge of mocking.

She set her hand on his chest and earnestly said, "I don't need protection."

Harry set his forehead against hers, "I never said you did."

He kissed her again, briefly, and pulled back.

"I've got some Dark Lord intent on mounting my head on his wall," Harry added.

Ginny shook her head, "He'll lose."

Then they were kissing again and it was brilliant, even more so when Harry felt Ginny's tongue sweep against his lips. A few moments later, they came up gasping for air. Somewhere behind Harry the blue light was still bouncing about, but he put his hands up on the wall on either side of Ginny's head.

"No more beating up other blokes, all right?"

"No more acting as if it didn't bother you that there were other blokes, all right?"

Harry blinked in surprise and Ginny chuckled.

"What, you thought I didn't notice? You're a very bad eavesdropper, Harry."

He leaned in instead of answering and though their teeth clacked a little, Harry thought this was the best one yet. When it ended, his eyes were only on Ginny's rumpled form, her swollen lips and gleeful expression. He lowered his hands, using one to grasp hers and the other to pick up his book bag, which was right by their feet.

"Ready to go?"

"But, Harry, we haven't finished," Ginny objected, pointing at the one remaining spell.

"Nah, don't worry," Harry opened the door and drew her out to the corridor. "I think we both won."

The End

A/N: I love reviews and welcome constructive criticism. Thanks for reading!