Restricted Romance

Disclaimer- I lay-th no claim to the characters invented by JKR or the quote used in mine epigraph.

Yet he [Odysseus] sleeps sound beside Calypso and when he wakes he thinks only of Penelope.

2 AM. Harry Potter was lying on his back with his head resting in his arms and feeling completely miserable. Tonight, he- the Boy Who Lived, the proverbial savior of the Wizarding world, famed in song and story- could not perform for his wife.

Looking over at Ginny's sleeping, he felt a wave of remorse. No woman should have to feel unloved by her husband! What tortured Harry was that this was not the first time. He hadn't been able to make love to his wife in over a year.

It wasn't for lack of trying- Ginny was doing everything she could think of. She'd poured over books, taking their advice. Sexy lingerie, roll-playing, bondage, body chocolate; yet nothing worked. No matter what new idea Ginny came up with or how hard Harry tried, his body refused to cooperate, leaving her at wit's end.

"I don't know much longer I can take this, Harry!" she'd cried into his shoulder earlier that night. Pulling away and looking up into his eyes with tears spilling out of her own, she stammered, "I- I th-th-think we should j-just stop-p-p trying." She left him looking crest-fallen and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Harry had waited over an hour for his wife to come out. When she finally emerged, Ginny was still bleary-eyed as she returned to bed.

"Let's just go to sleep," she sighed sadly as she got under the covers with uncharacteristic gracelessness. Harry put a comforting hand on her arm, only to have it brushed off. It stung, but he knew that slight rejection he'd experienced could only be a small fraction of how Ginny felt.

Harry checked the time again. 2:15. Why does time pass so slowly when you're miserable? Sighing quietly, he left the bed, careful not to disturb Ginny. Harry crept over to the bathroom door of the master suite, picking up his wand off the dresser on his way. He stopped in the doorway to glance back at the bed.

Ginny's face was swathed in moonlight, making her already pale skin shine like ivory. Her red hair dazzled. Even gazing upon her ethereal beauty like this, it did not illicit a bodily response from him, except another sigh.

"Muffliato!" he whispered into the night. He didn't want his shower to wake her. He closed the bathroom door, then turned on the hot water. Harry tugged off his favorite hula-dancing-lion-patterned boxers (a gag gift from his brother-in-law, George) and stepped into the shower stall.

Steam was already beginning to fill the bathroom as Harry reached down and touched himself. Grabbing a-hold of his member, it was already beginning to harden. Harry considered trying to call Ginny in, but just the thought of his wife made him start to go limp.

He hadn't told Ginny that he was able to perform without her because he knew it would hurt her deeply. He let her believe that it was just him growing older, but in a secret place hidden inside the darkest crevices of his heart, he knew it wasn't true. Harry was no longer attracted to his wife; loved her, yes, of course. But the attraction was gone.

Nor did he tell Ginny that a just over a year ago, he had begun to see someone else. Someone he had never before imagined himself with until they'd literally ran into each other turning around a bend in an abandoned Ministry corridor. Their heads had smashed into each other, causing their lips to meet. That serendipitous moment was the beginning of a passionate cloak-and-dagger relationship that Harry both loved and loathed.

Thinking of that fateful first kiss, Harry pumped himself hard and fast. After a few minutes, he came, moaning out the name that had inspired this deluge of pleasure that washed over him.

"Draco!"

A/N- Review if that's how you roll. The epigraph quote was used as a chapter epigraph in Watership Down but I'll be damned if I can remember the original source. I assume it'd be The Odyssey, but when I googled it, all I got was some WSD study guide written in German...