A/N: I dedicate this story to StarKid McFly, because I love her very very muchly and she's seemed very excited for me to finally finish this and post it. And because without her, I wouldn't love Zach, nor would I have ever thought of Zanny 3
xXx
Backwashed Firewhiskey
It was in the newspaper that he heard about the Potter's divorce. The divorce of a star Quidditch player and the Boy Who Lived was something to talk about. Apparently it had been 'dissolving for a while' or some kind of bullshit. He didn't care, of course, beyond what it meant about the way their children would act in class. Their eldest was a fifth year, second third, last second.
Zach didn't really have any connection to the Potters, outside of teaching their children, so the information was stored away in the back of his mind with all the other useless crap. The children seemed to be almost the same for it, none of them flipped out any more than usual. The only person who could possibly be considered linked to them would be fellow Professor Neville Longbottom, who he saw relatively often considering he was married to Hannah, who was part of his friendship circle, and therefore Neville was part of that circle by default.
But as soon as he'd put down that magazine, he barely thought of it again. And it certainly never came up in a conversation he started. Hannah was a notorious gossip when she wanted to be though. His only real response to it had been 'what do I care? It's not like it's ever going to affect me that they've divorced'.
He thought the only way he could be wrong was if the children acted up. Oh, Hannah was never going to let him down, considering what actually happened.
xXx
This new 'Parent Teacher' shit was ridiculous. He honestly did not see how meeting up with parents and discussing their child's actions and behaviour and progress in school was helping anyone. The parents didn't want to be there, for the most part, and the Professors didn't either. Stupid Muggle Studies Professor recommending it. He didn't care if the Muggles did it. They didn't have Howlers to communicate disappointment and upset at a child's lack of progress. And if he was honest, he could never bring himself to be that upset about a child's lack of progress. What did it matter to him if a kid wasn't acting on target? If they wanted to dick about instead of pay attention it was their future to sacrifice.
Zacharias Smith leant back in his seat, groaning inwardly at the situation. Why the hell did he become a teacher again? Oh, right. Because he was an idiot.
He heard someone sit down opposite him, but didn't bother moving from his position of staring at the ceiling. "If your name isn't MacMillian, Weasley, or Conner, your kid's doing fine in Charms and you have nothing to worry about."
"Don't make this any harder than it is, I already want to hex you."
He had to grab the desk to stop himself falling, mentally reminding himself that swinging on chairs was a bad idea. He tried not to stare, he really did, but he knew there was surprise written all over his face. "Weasley?"
"Potter," she corrected, one child next to her. The girl. "Nice to see you too, Smith."
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm a parent," she pointed out, disbelief on her face. "You know, coming to check that my children are doing well at school, secretly hoping that they're making your life a living hell?"
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Zach turned his attention to the daughter, seeing that calculating look on her face. It was the Slytherin one. "You only brought the one kid with you?"
"No, Harry's also here with Albus. We figured we'd split them between us and then meet and compare notes."
Lily groaned. "Can we just get on with this? I should've stayed at home like James."
"You should've done," Zach agreed, finally speaking directly to her. "Why didn't you?"
"I wanted to hear how I was doing. I need to know where I should improve."
He raised a brow in disbelief.
"What?" she scowled. "Just because I care about my education-!"
"Please start talking about her progress or whatever before she starts another rant about the value of education," Ginny begged, looking a bit tired with it all. Lily huffed and folded her arms across her chest, looking every bit the bratty teenager.
"Lily Potter- that's your name, right? Right, just checking. Lily Potter…Lily Potter," Zach shifted through the cards on the table.
"I want to know how James is doing too."
"I thought Harry had James?"
"Harry has Albus."
"That seems a bit unfair."
She gave a slightly regretful smile. "Well, James and Lily live with me. Albus lives with his father."
Zach glanced from Ginny to her daughter who was giving him evils. Apparently Lily didn't want him asking questions about it. He figured he'd drop it to be nice. Not because Lily genuinely looked kind of frightening. "Right, I'll do Lily first, then James."
"How has my little girl been performing in class?"
Zach turned his attention to the report card, putting on his Professor face as he began to explain about how Lily was very hardworking but had a nasty habit of sitting in the back of the class and gossiping amongst her friends, some of whom needed to pay a little bit more attention if they wanted to pass their OWLs next year. He moved onto James rather quickly, Lily losing interest just as quickly and wandering off on her own, spotting one of her friends as Zach launched into a rant about how he did not appreciate some asshole sitting at the back of his classroom and bothering the rest of the students. Ginny informed Zach that she did not appreciate him referring to her son as an asshole.
"But he's doing well enough," Zach said with a shrug. "He'll pass. If he paid attention more, he would pass very well, but I gave up trying to get him to pay more attention a long time ago."
"NEWTs feel like they're just around the corner."
"They kind of are," Zach muttered in response. He wasn't looking forward to it. Exams. Ugh. More work for him. "So are OWLs."
"Al," Ginny muttered, acknowledging that her other son was taking his OWLs. "I should probably let Harry deal with that though. Thank you for your help, Professor Smith."
It looked like it visibly pained her to say that. Zach was about to shoot off a snarky remark when he caught someone out of his eye. Heading his way. He swore, grasping Ginny's arm as she tried to stand and forcing her back down before rummaging through the cards.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Telling you about Albus."
"Harry's dealing with-!"
Zach paused, looking up at her with pleading eyes. "Don't leave me."
"What?"
"Professor Smith!" came a voice from behind the redhead. "It's so nice to see you!"
The Professor in question turned a nervous smile to the woman who Ginny turned round to see. Daphne Greengrass. He really didn't want to deal with her. Why was she even here? "I didn't expect to see you here, Daphne."
"Well, who else is going to bring my little girl to Parent Teacher evening?"
"I was sort of expecting her to go with her cousin."
Daphne laughed in her coy little way. "Don't be so silly! I can always spare the time to look after my darling precious."
Zach sucked in a breath, nodding shortly. "Where is Katelyn?"
"Kathryn."
"That one."
Daphne quickly recovered from her mild annoyance at him getting her daughter's name wrong, going back to cheery and smile-y. Oh, he wished she'd leave him alone. "She's off playing with her friends. I thought it might be better to talk to you just the two of us."
"Where's your husband?" Ginny asked. Zach tried not to look too surprised.
"I'm not married," the former Slytherin explained, clearly not pleased with the interruption. "I never married. Divorces are terribly expensive if it all goes wrong, but I assume you know that, don't you?"
"So you got knocked up?"
Nothing could stop him looking surprised after that comment.
"Excuse me?" Daphne bristled. "I did not get knocked up. My boyfriend and I planned on having a child."
"You sure it's his?" Ginny probed. "You have a wonderful reputation, you know."
Though the reputation part was true. And one of the reasons Zach was trying to avoid her.
"I didn't think you were a gossiping hen, Weasley."
"No, I leave that up to you, Greengrass," Ginny spat back. "And it's Potter."
"Still clinging to your husband's surname? How cute."
"At least I had a husband. Just the one mind you."
"Plenty of boyfriends though."
"Yeah, who I dated all at separate times to each other."
Daphne looked up at Zach with an icy gaze. The man stiffened, eyes wide, ready to bolt. "Are you going to see me or not?"
"In case you didn't notice," Ginny spoke up after a moment of Zach being too scared to speak. "He's seeing me at the moment. Wait your turn."
"I can't believe you're allowing her to talk like this, Zach."
"I can't believe you're allowed to dress like that."
The woman went red with anger, glaring daggers down at Ginny as she clamped her mouth shut, sticking her nose up before turning on her heel sharply and storming off. Well wasn't she a bag full of roses.
"Do I want to know why you're avoiding Daphne Greengrass?"
"She keeps bothering me. Trying to tangle me into her web."
"Is she really going to sink so low as to bed you?" Ginny asked.
Zach glared. "Piss off."
"That's no way to speak to someone who just saved you from the claws of the cougar. I'm surprised you're rejecting her actually."
"I don't want to catch anything nasty."
"Of course," Ginny stood again, shifting awkwardly. "Well, I'm off. Next time you can save yourself."
"Thanks, Weasley."
"Potter."
"I never liked Potter."
"You don't say."
Zach stood automatically as she left, unsure why he did. Moments later he was greeting another concerned parent however, thoughts quickly leaving the redhead that he hadn't seen in years.
At least until that night when he saw her in the Hogs Head at the bar with a drink. He wasn't sure what possessed him to actually go and strike a conversation with her. Probably the same thing that made him stand up when she left.
"Well, twice in one day. And here I was thinking I'd never see you again," he clucked his tongue. "Wishful thinking apparently."
"Here I was thinking I'd never have to deal with you irritating me again," she clucked her own tongue mockingly. "Yet you just keep trying to get me to talk to you."
Zach gestured to the bartender to get him a Firewhiskey. "I'm surprised you're not in Three Broomsticks."
"I went to see it. It's crawling with people. Students and their parents, I kind of just wanted a quiet drink. Why aren't you there?"
"I rarely go there. It's always crawling with students. The last thing I want is to hand out more detentions. I have to supervise those things, you know?"
Ginny smirked, knocking back the rest of her drink. "Oh, your life must be so hard."
"It is," he glanced down at her empty glass. "You're enthusiastic."
"Having you near me makes my stress levels go up."
"Best make sure I sit next to you then," Zach decided, plonking himself down as his drink arrived. "Another one for the lady, please."
Ginny raised a brow.
"I figured I probably owed you for saving me from Greengrass today."
"I wouldn't wish her on any man."
Zach took a sip of his drink. "Did you talk to Harry about the other kid you have?"
She gave him a half amused look. "We're divorced, not at war. But yes, I did. Pleased to know he's doing okay."
"Your kids have a tendency to talk to their friends instead of paying attention."
"Don't most kids?"
"This is true."
They fell into a slightly awkward silence, Ginny tracing the rim of her glass with her index finger, Zach observing the selection of drinks behind the counter.
"How did the rest of the parent teacher night go?" Ginny finally asked. "Did Daphne bother you again?"
"It was dull. And a total waste of time. I honestly do not see the point," he sighed dramatically. "But, what can you do. Daphne eventually got me, but her daughter was with her then. Apparently she's more behaved in front of her."
"You have to set a good example for your children, really."
"That's why I don't have children."
"Not because you can't find a woman willing to put up with you?"
"Oh please, women are crawling over each other to get to me," Zach smirked at the redhead who snorted. "You already did the marriage and three children thing."
"I did. Three beautiful children."
"I'm not envious."
"Sure you're not."
The slightly awkward silence descended on them again. Zach took a slightly larger sip of his drink. Ginny followed suit, taking a larger one than that. Zach did it again. Then Ginny.
Then they were both trying to down their drinks faster than the other.
When her glass slammed down on the table, followed by his a few seconds later, she gave him a triumphant smirk. "Beaten by a girl."
"Yeah, whatever. You had less than me in the first place."
"You wish. You just don't want to admit I won."
"This time."
A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as the bartender came over and they ordered another round of drinks, feeling less tense than before. Zach's comment about the atrocious fashion hazard sat in the corner certainly helped.
And that was the odd, slightly wobbly start of their friendship. It was a bizarre thing, saying that he was on relatively friendly terms with Ginny Potter. Though he didn't say it out loud. He supposed they were now both thirty-something adults, not stroppy teenagers. Sometimes watching the students at his school interact made him wonder how on earth he was ever like that. He was, at some point in time though.
They began to frequent the Hog's Head, Ginny thoroughly amused when students would appear from the secret passage way and scatter at the sight of their Professor in the bar. Ginny was pretty creative when it came to helping thinking up punishments for the students who would appear more often than others. And it certainly kept Zach from getting bored supervising the same detention over and over. Before either of them really knew it, three weeks had passed, and they were spending more and more time drinking together.
Though not tonight, Zach thought as he stared at the large 'CLOSED' sign on the door of the Hog's Head, trying to decide what to do now. His brain couldn't quite get past the whole 'you can't drink tonight' thing. He was struggling with it slightly. That should probably worry him.
"Smith!"
He turned, seeing his usual drinking buddy walking up the path towards him, a frown on her face. He raised a hand in greeting, still standing dumbly at the door.
"What's going on?" she asked as she reached the pub, turning to the sign and raising a brow. "Closed?"
"Yeah, apparently so."
"I remember the bartender mentioning something about the boss going on holiday I think."
"I don't."
"That's because you never pay attention."
He scoffed at the disapproving look she gave him. "I have more important things to worry about."
"Like what, beating me in a drinking contest? Unlikely to happen."
"I will one day," he muttered darkly. "Bloody women."
There was no point denying the smugness in her tone when she spoke next. "Well, looks like you won't be beating me today."
"Yeah," they stared at the closed sign for a few moments. "What now?"
"What do you mean what now?"
"Do we just…go home?" he looked up to where the school was. He didn't really want to go back so early. "Find somewhere else…?"
Ginny bit down on her lip, thinking as she did so. He was kind of amazed that they were planning what to do next as a pair, rather than separately. "I suppose we could go back to my place? I have a couple of bottles that I haven't opened yet."
Zach raised his brows, looking down at her. "Are you seriously inviting me to your house?"
"Yes, I'm seriously inviting you to my house," she rolled her eyes. "You don't have to come. I really don't care if you'd rather go back to school and-!"
"No, I'll come."
She smirked. "Thought so."
He had to admit though, as he allowed himself to be apparated to the Potter Household, or at least the one that Ginny lived in, he was surprised as he found himself standing outside of a cottage. She didn't look at him as she walked forward to open the door, stepping in and leaving it open behind her as she shrugged off her jacket and hung it on the coat rack. Zach slowly followed suit, stepping over the threshold and shutting the door behind him.
"Not bad."
"Thanks," she relied dryly with a smile. "Shall I go get the glasses then?"
"Glasses?" Zach scoffed and gave a rueful grin. "I thought you said you had two bottles? That's one each."
"What kind of child are you?"
"Not a child, just saving you from having to wash up glasses."
She guided him into her living room, Zach revelling in the surreal-ness of the whole situation. He slouched back on the couch as she invited him to sit down, observing the room briefly before turning his attention back to his host, who was getting a couple of bottles out of a cupboard for them, placing them on the coffee table and tapping her wand on the lids.
"Cheers," he took the wine bottle from her, wondering whether or not they should've had glasses. It seemed a lot more civilised.
"Do you want to go into the garden?" Ginny asked, looking down at the bottle in her hand.
He was going to ask why, but decided that drinking straight from a bottle was an activity much better suited to the garden, and agreed instead, allowing himself to be lead through the house once again. Stepping out onto the patio, he was greeted with a large garden that surrounded the majority of the house, a large fence keeping people from entering.
"You certainly want to make sure people don't get in," he commented, stepping down the patio steps. She stayed where she was, leaning against the railing and looking out onto her garden.
"You would too if you were an ex-Quidditch player who was married to Harry Potter."
Zach nodded. "Fair enough," he turned to look at her again, noticing that she'd let her hair down for once. "You look like you actually dressed up to go out tonight too."
She snorted, moving to sit on the patio steps. He resisted the urge to sit next to her. "I had to go to this thing today," she explained, taking a large swig from the bottle. "This is a really bad way to drink wine."
"Probably," he took his own swig, turning back to take in the garden. It did look well kept. "What was the thing you had to go to then?"
"Formal dinner at work. The shareholders and managers and stuff were all there, congratulating us on our hard work. They usually only have one at Christmas as an 'end of year' thing, and it varies in niceness depending on how many copies are sold over the year, but there was a new person on the board, so they felt the need to make a proper event out of it."
"Was it suitably boring?"
"Most definitely."
He chuckled. "I'd say I was glad I had dinner at school with a bunch of kiddies, but someone thought it would be a good idea to charm all the cutlery to sing and dance. Entertaining until some stroppy brat decided to have a fight with a fork. Those things are vicious."
Laughter started bubbling in Ginny's stomach. "I bet that was fun to stop."
"I think I preferred trying to stop the spoons than dealing with the brat who was being a proper Drama Queen about the whole thing. At least I knew where I stood with the spoons."
"I'm sure the brat was pleased that she didn't have to deal with you either."
He smirked. "I know your nephew had something to do with it. I just know it."
"I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you're talking about…" she paused, as if she had to think. "Freddie?"
"That's the one."
"I wouldn't be surprised. At least he's graduating soon."
"I bet your son helped him."
She grinned, though her voice held fake-innocence. "My son? Whatever would give you that impression! He's an angel!"
"Not the eldest."
She laughed that time and took another drink as he moved to sit next to her, forearms resting on his knees. "You have a nice garden."
"Neville helps with it a lot. It wouldn't be nearly as nice as it is if it wasn't for him."
"He's gotten…really good at his job," Zach said diplomatically. He wasn't sure how he could say he was surprised how different Neville was from the kid that Zach went to school with.
"I think we've all gotten good at our jobs," she said, the tone of her voice suggesting she knew what he was getting at. "We're not school kids anymore."
"I barely remember being a school kid anymore."
"I don't, most of the time."
He gave her a questioning look. "Most of the time?"
She shifted awkwardly in her seat, not meeting his gaze. "Most of the people I still meet from Hogwarts I continued to see after we graduated. I don't really think about school with them anymore. If there's a point where I ever think about it, it's when I'm with you I guess."
He followed her gaze to look out at the lanterns littered round the edges of the grass. "That makes sense."
"You know, when I'm sober enough to remember stuff."
"Three cheers for being too drunk to remember stuff," he said, holding his bottle out for her to clink. She gave him a strange smile before knocking the bottom of her bottle against his and then drinking from it.
"You live here alone then?"
"Yeah, it's where we raised the kids, so it made sense to stay. Harry moved in with his boyfriend once the papers were signed."
Zach's mouth dropped open. "What?"
Ginny began to giggle pleasantly again. "He's done a good job at keeping that one quiet actually. He and Al moved in with Harry's boyfriend. Apparently after twenty years of living with me, he decided to fall in love with a man. I was always 'his little sister', which I told him was weird and creepy and to never say it again."
"Fuck, that's harsh."
"I kind of saw it coming."
"You did?"
She nodded slowly. "He had a hard childhood, then all that responsibility, I think he probably wanted some kind of normal-ness to his life," she gestured to herself and the house. "And this was normal."
"Why did Al go with his dad?"
"They were always very close," she explained, and Zach realised from the way that she was studying the label on the wine bottle so carefully that this probably wasn't his place to pry. He'd always been far too curious with some people. "I wasn't really upset. Lily and James stayed with me after all, though Lily does occasionally threaten that she's going to leave and live with her father. And James tends to be a little protective of me I guess. Looking out for his mother," she gave a fond chuckle. "Even when he was a little kid. He was a right mother's boy."
Zach snorted, thinking of the eldest Potter. "I can imagine that."
"But it can be kind of lonely during term time. It feels weird, even after two years, that this is my house. Not our house."
"I'm sorry for bringing it up…"
She gave him an amused look that brought colour to his cheeks. "Even if it's weird, it doesn't bother me so much. The divorce was kind of coming. I was the one who filed for it."
"The papers…"
"Of course the papers implied it was mutual, or his decision," she rolled her eyes. "I did it for him. It was always for him."
"Never thought of another husband?"
"For someone who was sorry for bringing it up, you're not quick to stop prying, are you?"
He grinned sheepishly. "Right. Sorry."
"Never thought of another husband. I wasn't kidding when I said James was protective. Never thought of a wife?"
"Never. Wives bring children. No one wants children."
"I'd make a comment about you being too much of a dick to hold a girl long enough, but…" she gave a nonchalant shrug. "I suppose you're not as bad as you used to be."
"Or maybe you're just going senile and can't tell?"
"You don't need to take the compliment if you don't want it."
"That was a terrible compliment."
"It's you, there's only so many nice things I can think of saying."
"What about my dashingly good looks?" he asked, leaning back on his elbows. "Or how hardworking I am? I am a Hufflepuff you know."
"I know, I don't know why though."
"I'm noticing the lack of comment on my dashingly good looks."
She gave him a disbelieving look. "Are you always this arrogant?"
"Only because it's true."
She scoffed, knocking back more of her drink, and saying in an incredibly mocking tone: "Oh, of course, your dashingly 'good' looks."
"That's more like it."
"Did you not pick up on the sarcasm?"
"I did, I just chose to ignore it."
She gave a wholehearted laugh that was infectious.
That time when that train of conversation finished, there wasn't a silence. They continued talking; right through to the bottom of their glasses, when there was a pleasant buzz in the air. Even after their drinks were finished, bottles cast to the side, they continued to talk. Quietly about more serious things, and loudly with lots of hand movements and dramatics and laughter about silly things. There was one point where Zach was on his feet, re-enacting the time that he found two kids trying to sneak chickens into the school for a prank, Ginny falling backwards with laughter as she pictured it.
By the time silence finally descended on them, they were laid on their backs across the patio, feet on the stairs still, sound of birds chirping away in the trees. Ginny let out a rather large, noisy yawn, barely remembering to cover her mouth.
"Not getting tired on me, are you, Weasley?"
"Potter," she corrected with a smirk, turning to him. "So what if I am? I don't have to be in school to supervise children tomorrow."
"Ugh," he covered his face with his hands. "Fucking boarding schools."
"Do you have to be in the whole day?"
"No, I don't. Only part of it, then the rest of the day's free. I usually go bug Ernie, or have sleep in. I'm only supervising in the evening."
A hesitant look passed across her face. "Are you okay getting back at this time?"
He had no idea what time it was, but birds generally meant sometime in the early hours in the morning. "I don't really have much choice, there's only one way back to Hogwarts."
"You could stay here if you wanted."
His eyes snapped to meet hers. "What?"
"I have a perfectly decent couch if you need a place to crash. Alcohol and tiredness probably aren't good factors when apparating."
"They're not," he agreed. "If you don't think I'd be too much of a bother…?"
"No, not at all. We'll conjure you some blankets and pillows, it'll be fine."
"I'd appreciate it."
Ginny stood, wobbling slightly, before offering a hand to Zach. She was certainly strong enough to pull him up. It took barely five minutes to get him sorted before she was saying goodnight.
She even managed to make tired look relatively pretty.
xXx
Zach wasn't exactly sure what changed after that night, but something did. When he woke up there was a mug of coffee in front of him, and a note apologising that she had to leave so soon, but that there was an emergency at work that she needed to sort out. He drank half the coffee before it got too cold, figuring it'd probably been there a while. It was about one o'clock when he was finally leaving the house, scribbling a 'thank you' on the note, unsure what else to really put, before disappearing to bother Ernie. It found it slightly hard to concentrate for the rest of the day though, which he blamed on being tired.
They continued to go to the Hog's Head together though. As the end of term fast approached, Ginny began to demand to know more information about how her sons were doing, and if they were going to fail. Though she did seem more concerned about James and his NEWTs. If it had been anyone else he probably would've told them a lot more than just to shut up and stop being a bore, but with Ginny he didn't. He just told her to shut up and stop being a bore.
"I just wanted to make sure they're doing okay!" she insisted.
"They're fine, you don't need to ask every five minutes. Seriously."
"You're a terrible drinking buddy."
He smirked. "Yet here you are, spending time with me. Why is that, I wonder?"
Her eyes flashed. "Certainly not your personality."
Then there was this other development. One that he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about. Their banter had turned from mocking, to teasing, to this…other kind of teasing. One that he'd done when he was younger. A dance that he watched some of his students do before they became more than just friends. Of course, he was probably just reading too much into it. They were both single, attractive people, who apparently had nothing better to do with their time than try to dry up the bar. And it wasn't like finding her pretty was a new thing. Anyone with eyes could see Ginny Potter was pretty. He'd just never really cared that she was pretty.
Not that he did now, of course.
He took a large swig of his drink. He was beginning to confuse himself. Best to drink more.
"Easy there, big boy. No one else is going to drink it."
"You never know. I bet that was what your son thought before I confiscated that bottle of firewhiskey he had last week and drank it."
"You confiscated firewhiskey from James?"
Zach smirked. "For once, Potter Number One is innocent."
She gasped, looking torn between being horrified and incredibly amused. "Albus?"
"Apparently he's more of a Gryffindor than I gave him credit for."
"No! Really?"
"Really."
"Wow," she began to giggle. "This is definitely something I'll be telling his dad about."
"He kicked off a proper fuss when I drank it."
"You drank it in front of him?"
"Sure did."
"What did you say?"
He felt himself beginning to chuckle. "I'm not sure you want to know."
"Please tell me."
"I told him I'd make sure I shared it with you when we went to the bar next."
The laughter that poured forth from her lungs was priceless. "Oh Merlin! I was wondering why he owled me to ask if I was friends with any of his Professors."
"I've never seen anyone so horrified."
"That's brilliant."
"It was. I wish you could've been there."
"So do I. Oh, poor Al. I'm never going to let him live this down. And you didn't even save any of it for me?"
"Well, I did, but I forgot it in my room, I was just so eager to see you."
She didn't look convinced. He wished it wasn't kind of true. "I guess we'll just have to go find it then, won't we?"
"I don't think I'm allowed to take guests into Hogwarts on a school night without permission."
"I can wait outside."
He shook his head slowly, a plan forming in his mind. He couldn't believe he was about to do this. "The Headmistress is going to kill me."
A smile lit up on her face. "Really?"
"Really," Zach rolled his eyes. "Drink up. Best to get this over with."
With a massive grin Ginny stood and knocked back her drink, pulling on her coat as Zach did, though he was moving much more slowly. She was pulling him out the pub in no time, leaving him with barely enough time to pull his jacket on properly, though he certainly wasn't resisting. The trip down the road to Hogwarts had never felt so short, filled with giggles and laughter and shoulder-bumping.
"Okay, calm down," he whispered as he pushed open the teacher's entrance which was attached to their rooms. "Seriously, I'll kill you if the Headmistress wakes up."
"Okay, okay," she sucked in a breath. "Calming down."
Five minutes later, he shut the door to his room, before they both broke into laughter.
"I'm sorry," Ginny managed to get out. "There's just something really weird about sneaking into Hogwarts to drink Firewhiskey."
"I agree," he grinned, heading to the kitchen area of his rooms, before returning to the living room with a just-more-than-half finished bottle in his hand. "Look what I have."
She walked over, taking the bottle from his hands. "I can't believe this is Al's. Here I was thinking he was the well behaved one. This isn't the Malfoy kid's bad influence, is it?"
Zach found himself laughing at the idea of the little Ravenclaw boy being the bad influence. "I have a feeling Draco should be more worried about your son corrupting his than the other way round."
"Well, he doesn't live with me, so it's not my fault," she joked, before taking off the lid and raising the bottle, tipping her head back as she took a large drink. Zach couldn't help but watch her throat move with the actions.
But then she was offering the drink to him and he didn't have time to linger on weird thoughts. Instead he was drinking from the bottle, feeling incredibly foolish and childish and all together brilliant.
"I'll have to write him a letter thanking him for the drink."
He began to choke on the liquid, a large smile on his face as he spluttered and gasped, coughing as she patted him harshly on the back.
"Ew," was the whiny, playful response. "You backwashed!"
"You were the one who made me!"
"That's gross."
"Are you too much of a girl for backwash?" he teased, shaking the bottle with a grin.
"It's your spit. I'm not drinking your spit."
"Good. All the more for me!"
"I demand compensation."
He shook his head, moving towards the couch, waggling his finger. "It's this or nothing. Backwashed Firewhiskey or the slow process to sobering up."
When she didn't answer, Zach smirked and turned round, thinking he was safe. Until he heard her let out a battle roar and tackle him to the ground. He barely managed to keep the bottle from spilling all over the floor.
"Changed my mind!" she declared, on her hands and knees while he was on his back. "I'll have the backwashed Firewhiskey."
He made a disgusted face and noise, moving it out of her reach as best he could. "Ew, that's gross," he said mockingly. "You're so disgusting, Weasey."
"Potter," she corrected, before reaching up and taking the bottle. "That's mine."
"You won't."
She smirked, swishing the liquid round. "What makes you so sure?"
"You're a girl, of course you won't."
"Correction, I'm a girl who's had a reasonably large amount of alcohol to drink," she winked down at him and sat back, straddling his legs. "Bottom's up!"
Zach wasn't sure if he was grossed out or kind of turned on. Though alcohol did do weird things to you. He grasped the bottle, using it to help him flip them over, so that he was the one looming over Ginny. She yelped as it happened, but didn't turn the bottle the right way, getting it all over her neck and the floor, spluttering as it splashed her in the face.
"What the hell?"
Zach felt laughter breaking forth. "The-the look on your face-it's priceless!"
"Now neither of us are going to get it!"
He rolled off her and onto his back, clutching his stomach.
"Oh come on, it wasn't that funny," even as she was saying it though, she was beginning to chuckle, which slowly turned into a surprisingly feminine giggle, before joining Zach in his laughter.
Neither new how long they laid on the floor laughing for. When they finally calmed down however, Ginny was lying on her side, barely an inch of air separating her from Zach, who turned his head to look down at her. "You wasted your son's Firewhiskey."
"You were the one who took me by surprise."
"You stole it in the first place."
She wiped her chin. "Now I have gross Backwash Firewhiskey all over me."
"Should've thought about that before you stole it."
"You were the one who stole it originally. I bet this was bought with my money."
"I'm genuinely devastated now. No more Firewhiskey."
"No, it's too busy being all over my face."
"We should probably clean you up."
Ginny looked up at him. Zach wasn't sure when they'd gotten so close. Or when he'd moved to be on his side. She smirked lazily. "Kinky."
"That's not what I meant."
She grinned triumphantly. "Are you too much of a girl to drink face-Backwashed-Firewhiskey?"
It was the idea of losing to her that made him do it. At least, that was his defence. Which was admittedly a very, very weak one. Probably would've been better off with the defence of 'one too many beers', but there wasn't time to think in that much detail. He had to admit, he didn't think he'd ever licked someone before.
"Ew! What the hell?"
Zach couldn't help but laugh as she wiped her cheek. "You asked for it."
"I didn't think you'd actually do it!"
"I didn't think you'd actually drink the Backwash Firewhiskey either.
"I can't believe you licked me," she gave him a stern look, though her smile spoiled it. "You're such a child."
"Men never age."
"No, they stay children forever."
"I'd say we're even now. You had my spit, I licked your cheek."
She rolled her eyes. "That's not even, skin isn't nearly as gross as spit."
His heart was beginning to hammer. "Well, I'll just have to solve that, won't I?"
"And how do you plan on doing that, Professor?" she asked in that teasing tone she'd begun to take with him.
There was no way Zach could even try convince himself that he regretted leaning forward and kissing Ginny. Especially not when she kissed back. Her hair was just as soft as he'd imagined when he ran his hair through it, and the skin on her hands were rough from years of playing Quidditch. But they still felt like girl hands, slender and long fingered. Nothing about all that detailed sappy stuff really mattered when his tongue stroked against hers though.
When they pulled back for air, they spent a long moment in silence, staring at each other. Neither knew exactly how to handle this, even if they were fully grown adults.
"I'd say that's even," she finally whispered, sounding slightly breathless.
He sucked up what little courage he had. "I'd say it needs another to make it even. Or, you know, another two."
Ginny seemed more than happy to oblige.
Before they really had time to fully understand what was going on, they were standing, Zach pulling Ginny in the general direction of the couch, falling back onto it as he felt the cushions touch the back of his legs. She wasted no time in straddling him, her hands tracing the lines of his face as their tongues danced, his own hands beginning to roam her body, running along her back, down her sides, over her backside and down her legs to pull her closer to him.
She pulled back long enough to pull his shirt off, tossing it to the side as she began to let her own hands do some wandering.
Zach wondered briefly if he should check that she was okay with this. Then he decided that there was no point checking.
When he began to grope her she pulled back, and he groaned in disappointment, thinking it was all over.
But instead she chuckled, standing and taking his hand. "No need to be so upset, I was only going to ask where your bedroom was."
He stood and smirked down at her, quickly recovering from his momentary lapse of depression. "You really have had a lot to drink, haven't you?"
"It's the only way I'd possibly suggest this."
xXx
When Zach woke up, he really wished his body had been nicer and allowed him to sleep longer. He rubbed his face with the heel of his hand, grimacing at the thumping in his head. He swore, with age, hangovers became worse and worse. He went to get his wand from his bedside table, only to find it wasn't there. Since when did he go to bed without his wand? He must've been really preoccupied-
Ooh yeah. He'd almost forgotten about that. Though as soon as he remembered what he did, the memories of it came flooding back, a small slightly satisfied chuckle escaping his throat. How could he have almost forgotten that?
Turning his attention to the place next to him, he saw that it was empty, a vague outline of where someone had slept on his bed sheets. He pushed himself into a sitting position, glancing around the room for sign of a note or something. After the time he slept on her couch, he wouldn't put it past her. But he caught sight of her jacket in the corner of the room, so he guessed that she was still about somewhere. Forcing himself to stand, he yawned and tugged on his boxers, heading out of his bedroom and towards the living area. Raising a brow at the sight of Ginny shifting through his things. She looked up as soon as he entered, eyes wide with surprise.
"Er, I thought you were asleep."
"Hello to you too," he leant against his door frame, raising a brow. "Want to explain what you're doing?"
"I-er-I'm trying to look for my jacket."
Zach rolled his eyes and reached back into the bedroom, grasping it before tossing it in her direction. "I don't suppose you think we should be mature adults and talk about this?"
Ginny looked torn between being a mature adult and picking the other option. "We probably should. Where do we start?"
"How about, 'thank you, Zach, for the most amazing-'!"
"Don't even bother finishing that sentence," she said with a smirk. "I was thinking more 'what does this mean'?"
"Well," he rocked back on his heels. "That depends if you want feelings to get involved."
"Feelings are gross."
"I agree."
The pair stood in silence for a few moments, searching for something to say.
"So, how about next time this happens we agree to leave before the other wakes up to avoid these awkward silences, yeah?"
Zach smirked. "Next time, ey?"
She rolled her eyes at him. "Well, we are two people with needs, who consume a lot of alcohol around each other. The chances are pretty high probably. Besides, the morning after is when you have all those feelings and couple-y shit," she winked at him, a strangely knowing look in her eye. "And I know how emotionally retarded you are."
"You're the one who said feelings are gross."
Sauntering towards the door, she conveniently ignored what he said. "I'll see you tomorrow, Smith."
He found it difficult to stop smiling and staring at the door, barely managing to, a small laugh escaping his lips. Ginny certainly was interesting.
xXx
It was the seventh year's graduation. He'd had to go to many of them, Professor's attendance was kind of required, much to his chagrin, so he'd been going to them as long as he'd been teaching. Which was far too long. Sometimes they were relatively entertaining, depending on who was graduating and whether or not he had to get involved in cat fights. This seventh year was good enough, he guessed. They were keeping a close eye on the Weasley Troublemakers. A very close eye. James looked incredibly disappointed that he could barely go to the toilet without someone questioning him. Zach found it incredibly amusing.
He wandered over in the general direction of the Potter family as the ceremony finished, the parents all saying goodbye as most of the children got ready to go to their little party afterwards. He lingered by the buffet table, picking at the leftovers, not wanting to be too obvious. After all, they were all there. He didn't particularly want to talk to the others.
He resisted the urge to smirk as someone moved to stand next to him, a familiar freckled hand reaching out to pick at the ham. They stood in stubborn, totally not suspicious silence for a few moments.
"Have you seen Cho's dress?" Zach asked quietly, smirk breaking forth on his face.
Ginny made a barfing noise. "Whoever thought she'd look good in yellow needs to be shot, seriously."
Zach found himself laughing, glancing up at his redheaded companion, smile tugging at his lips at the sight of hers.
"So," she turned to glance over to where her family was. "What are you doing now?"
"Going to drink more confiscated Firewhiskey no doubt."
She chuckled. "You can come with us if you want?"
"Us?"
"Yeah, Harry and his boyfriend and me. James is off to his little graduation; Lily and Al are going to stay with their Grandma."
Zach gave her a disbelieving look. "Because that won't be awkward. Are you asking me on a date?"
"Ew, don't be silly, we're drinking buddies. And I'm going for a drink."
"You don't want to be stuck playing third wheel, that's what this is about."
She gave a lopsided smile. "Okay, you caught me."
He was the one to glance over his shoulder this time, before leaning in to whisper in her ear. "I can think of other things to do that don't involve being a third wheel."
She attempted to give him a horrified look. She failed. "At my son's graduation?"
"Oh come off it, I saw you with that wine bottle, you were just as bored as I was. And I'm still bored. And I have another hour until I'm allowed to leave, because I have to 'wait for everyone else to leave'."
"Ugh, painful."
"Every year."
"Well, I do feel very sorry for you."
"I can deal with pity-sex," he said, patting her on the back. "Come on, follow me."
"You're a terrible person."
"I honestly don't think I mind or care."
They just slipped through a side door as they heard a loud bang, turning quickly, Ginny still holding the door open, seeing a whole chorus of fireworks go off from all sides of the room, the sound of singing filling the room, along with the screeching of what looked like Howlers soaring through the air. After soaking up the image of the room lit up by various colours and patterns, Ginny turned her eyes to her eldest son, who was dancing on a table with his cousin Louis, cheering away and singing along to what sounded something like the school song. It wasn't long before there were more than just James and Louis dancing on the tables.
"I'm not sure if I'm proud or want to hit him with a large kitchen object."
Zach gave a surprisingly soft, but still amused smile, as he looked down at her. "It's kind of nice, in a way. I was kind of expecting him to turn everyone into fish or something."
She chuckled and gave him that usual disbelieving-yet-amused look. "This is true. It does look amazing."
He didn't know what possessed him, things seemed to possess him a lot these days, but before he could stop himself he was leaning in and placing a kiss on Ginny's lips, pulling back after a few moments, a slightly worried look on his face, mixed with mild confusion. Though the sight of fireworks exploding in her eyes was distracting.
"You really want to get started on that, don't you?" she whispered, before kissing him.
He doubted the rest of the evening was something he really needed to go into detail with. The Staff Bathrooms may have been a lot nicer than the student ones, but that didn't mean they were equipped for the activities they were engaging in. Though that kind of made it all the more fun.
What he didn't really expect was to turn up to the pub two days later to find Ginny nursing a cold beer and looking incredibly displeased with the world. As soon as he sat down next to her she glared furiously at him as if he'd done some heinous crime. Zach wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to sit next to her at their usual place at the bar, but the bartender had already put his usual down in front of him, and he was kind of locked in place by that glare.
"Er, hi?"
"Sit."
He did as he was told.
Ginny turned back to her drink, taking a couple of gulps.
"Is everything okay?" he asked. "Is James driving you up the wall now that he's finally home?"
"It's not James, for once," she muttered darkly. "It's Lily."
Zach scowled. Lily. She had been looking rather smug lately, especially when she was passing him in the hall. "Lily?"
"She saw us at the graduation," Ginny sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Kissing in the doorway."
"Oh. Well that explains the smugness."
"She's blackmailing me."
"She's what?"
Ginny sighed again, resting back in her chair and finally dropping the glare entirely. "She's blackmailing me. Threatening to tell James."
"I'm not sure I follow. What happens if James finds out?"
"That's part of the problem. Though it's predictable enough to know he'll be in a right strop for weeks."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad. Sure, he's protective, but we're going to have to find a way to work this round him staying there anyway. It'll be easier if he knows. I won't need to worry about running into him while I sneak out in the early hours of the morning."
"You should've seen him when Louis got Prefect. He was breaking plates and declaring his life was over. He can't find out."
"Seriously?"
Ginny scowled. "Yes, seriously! I won't have him destroying my house! You're his Professor, or former Professor, but we started this while you were still his Professor. He'll even have a wild story to go with it about how you're abusing your power to take advantage of me. Trust me. We can't let him find out."
"So, how are we going to work this?" Zach asked, figuring it was probably best to avoid the jokes about where James got his dramatics from. "He lives with you now."
"I'm hoping he'll move out soon."
"Has he started looking to move out?" he was kind of surprised at the prospect.
Though the look on her face said it all. "He's made himself far too comfortable."
"Well," Zach shifted nervously on his chair. He didn't want to admit how disappointed he was about this. And if he was it was because it was a shame to give up sex with anyone, not because it was Ginny. "I guess that's the end of that."
Ginny looked almost disappointed. "It's not the end of it, exactly. We just have to be more careful," there was that glare again. "You have to be more careful."
"Me? How is this my fault?"
"You're the asshole who decided to kiss me where people could see."
"I-I-!" he glanced away, feeling heat beginning to creep into his cheeks. "I got impatient."
"You don't say."
"Look, that's by the by, point is how are we going to be more careful. Friends with benefits is the best kind of relationship there is."
A fond smile worked its way onto her face. "We're friends?"
"Well, what else would we be?"
"I don't know, you've just seemed a bit reluctant to actually consider me a friend."
He turned to his drink, stewing on her words. Was he reluctant to consider her his friend? He supposed he'd always thought of her as his drinking buddy, but that was sort of the same thing kind of wasn't it? Almost. Close enough. "It's kind of weird thinking of the girl who almost killed me in school is now my friend."
"I never almost killed you, what are you talking about-oh you're not talking about that time when you were being an dick, were you?" she deadpanned. "Oh wait, you were always a dick, my bad."
"Shove off," he muttered, judging her with is elbow. He couldn't help but smirk at her giggle. "I'm surprised you even want me as your friend, the way you talk."
"Maybe if you'd asked me five months ago," she drawled, before sobering slightly. "But now I do."
"Glad to hear," Zach said with a nod, suddenly feeling awkward and feeling-y and uncomfortable.
The grin on her face clearly said she knew he was feeling awkward and feeling-y and uncomfortable.
When they were on their second drink, he couldn't help himself from asking her a question that had been bugging him for a while. Though he couldn't say why. "Hey, Weasley."
"Potter," she said automatically, though she looked a bit confused. And kind of upset.
He didn't have time to dwell on it though. "Why do you do that?"
She blinked. "What?"
"Correct me."
"Well, Potter's my name."
The slightly confused look she was giving him was making him uncomfortable. "Your ex-husband's name."
A smile came on her face again, understanding flashing in her eyes. "I've been Ginny Potter for half my life; it's just as much my name as Weasley was my name. Besides, do you know how much hassle it is to change your name back? Everyone has to be notified, and all your documents have to be changed," she scoffed. "No thank you."
"I guess that makes sense."
She smirked up at him. "You best be careful, Smith, else I'll start thinking you're getting jealous."
He spluttered indignantly, taking her seriously for a moment. Until she burst into fits of giggles, with the line 'the look on your face'.
From then on, they wouldn't just go back to her place, not without knowing that James would be out. Which was relatively often, due to his girlfriend. He seemed to only really eat meals at home, and Zach came round late and was gone by breakfast, still leaving before Ginny woke up. He had to admit, he hadn't expected it to be so hard to limit their meetings to only a couple times a week. He'd thought it would be easy. They only ever really had sex if they were drunk, after all.
But that wasn't necessarily true anymore. Not since the graduation really. It'd gone from drunken escapades to casual sex. Which he wasn't really complaining about. If there was one thing about redheads, it was that they had a lot of passion. He was fairly certain it made up for their temper.
One morning Zach found himself tugging on his shoelaces, a smile tugging at his lips as he reflected on how bizarre it was that he was getting ready to sneak out of Ginny Potter's house. She was still sleeping in the bed, the light snore occasionally falling from her lips, ever the graceful one, and he'd found the habit of waking up early enough to leave didn't bother him as much as it did. Besides, sticking around the morning after was what couples did. And they were not a couple. Definitely not a couple. Drinking buddies, yes. Friends…well, yes, after that conversation. Quite good friends really. But not a couple. Just two mature adults getting sexual frustration out of their system. That was how he'd come to think of it when he left every time and felt a need to reason it out.
Standing, Zach checked his pockets for everything he needed before he heard something that had his heart stop.
The sound of someone coming home.
"Mum!" called an all-too-familiar voice. "Where are you?"
Oh shit.
Zach darted for the door, hoping that he could make it out in time. He hated seeing former students. He hated seeing current students too. And he was under the impression that James was busy with his little Jefferson girlfriend. At least he thought it was Jefferson. The details weren't important, but he had to remember enough to at least pretend he listened to what Ginny said sometimes.
"Are you still asleep?"
The blond barely managed to conceal himself behind the door as it swung open, nearly smacking him in the face. Really, he should've used a Glamour charm. He was a Charms Professor. They were kind of his specialty.
"Mum!" James demanded, standing at the bottom of her bed, hands on his hips. It was a stance the Zach had seen the mother in question posing with. He wasn't sure he wanted to make that connection. "Wake up! I want attention!"
"James?" she murmured, rolling onto her back, thankfully wearing a t-shirt. Though he hadn't been thankful about it when he woke up this morning and realised he couldn't get a peek before he left. "What on earth are you doing up?"
"It's eleven o'clock!"
"That still doesn't answer my question," Ginny stated, pushing herself into a sitting position. "I thought you were at Carly's house?"
Carly. That was what she was called.
James rolled his eyes. "I was, but that's why I'm here."
"What happened?"
Zach crept out from behind the door, figuring the best time to leave would be while James had Ginny's attention. She was very good at not looking at him; face barely changing, eyes still focused on James. She really didn't want him finding out.
"We need to take precautions about her coming round. I think she's insane."
Ginny pinched the bridge of her nose. "Of course you do."
He was out the door, turning round the hall, the voices becoming faded. He was so close to escaping. They were never doing this at her house again. He didn't care if they had to rent a room at some pub. He was walking down the stairs, confident that he would get out uncaught.
But then he froze in place as he stepped on a particularly creaky step, feeling the whole house come to a still, before a shrill alarm went off.
"What is that?"
"To check for intruders!" James' voice declared. "Someone's on the stairs!"
"James, wait!"
Zach was off like a bolt, running down the rest of the stairs and skidding round the corner, heading straight to the front door. There was no time to use the Floo, he was going to have to apparate.
"Deploy the trap!"
The what?
"James, get back here this second!"
He could hear both Potters thumping down the stairs as he let out a startled yelp, stepping on something that grasped on to his feet, yanking him upwards by the foot into the air, cursing under his breath as he fumbled for his wand. Whenever you wanted to be fast, everything was against you.
He was too late as someone else came skidding round the corner.
"Who the hell-!" James' brows furrowed in complete confusion. "Professor Smith?"
Zach groaned. He'd been caught.
Ginny came round the corner a moment later, wrapped up in a dressing gown to cover her lower half. "James, what have you done to my house?"
"Our house, mother."
"You don't pay rent; it's not your house."
He turned to give her a disbelieving look. "You're really going to nit-pick? I've caught a trespasser here. We need to call dad and tell him someone broke in."
"I really don't think your father needs to know about this."
"Just because you're divorced doesn't mean he can't help us."
She grimaced, looking torn between lying and telling her son the truth. "Sweetheart, there's really something you should know."
James pointed his wand at his old Professor. "Why are you in my house?"
"I invited him here, James. He's not breaking in."
The brunette's brow furrowed more in confusion. "What? But you were asleep when I got home."
Zach rolled his eyes. No wonder the brat still lived at home, if he couldn't put two and two together.
"I was," Ginny agreed. "He stayed over."
"What, in Lily's room or something?"
Oh, how tempting it was to just say 'I'm fucking your mother'.
"Sure, let's go with that. Could you please let him down?"
"I'm going to tell Lily you let her smelly Charms Professor stay in her room."
"How do you know it wasn't your room?" Zach added helpfully. The furious glare that Ginny shot him was worth it.
James paled. "You didn't let him sleep in my room, did you?"
"No!" Ginny gave a frustrated sigh. "He slept in my room."
"In your room?"
"Yes."
"But you only have one bed?"
"I do."
James turned his attention from his mother to his victim several times. "He slept in your bed?"
"Yes."
Recognition slowly began to seep into his eyes. Before his entire face paled. "He slept in your bed."
"Yes."
The brunet promptly fainted.
Zach finally got out his wand, pointing it at his feet and dispelling the charm keeping him hovering in the air, landing on the ground with a thud. He turned to look at the other man who had landed on the ground with a thud, before turning his attention back to his drinking buddy.
"You weren't kidding when you said melodramatic, were you?"
She shot him a nasty look. "Shut up you. You were no help at all."
"I'm not here to be helpful."
"I just want to hex you so bad sometimes. Why are you still here, anyway?"
"I was just leaving when I heard him come home," Zach pushed himself onto his feet. "Is he going to be okay?"
Ginny brushed it off, stepping around her son to reach Zach. "He'll be fine. This has happened before. The fainting thing, I mean, not the rest of it. He's not found out about people I've slept with before, at least not when they were leaving."
The blonde successfully managed to smirk, despite the odd feeling he got from that sentence. "I'm sure there are a long line of them."
"Not since you started bothering me."
"Why Ginevra, I didn't realise we were mutually exclusive."
"I said there wasn't a long line, not that there wasn't any," she said, the look on her face making Zach want to run away. He didn't like it. It meant bad news for him. "Though that kind of hints that you've not got any, if it's 'mutual'."
"So there was a long line?"
"Don't try to change the subject."
"I'm not the one changing the subject here," he said with a sniff, raising his chin. "I could have more than you if I wanted to."
"So you don't want more than me?"
"Only because women are so much effort having more than one is just a pain."
She stepped closer to him, tugging on the collar of his robes, glancing down at her hands for a moment. Nervousness that he so rarely saw on her face. "I suppose the does make us mutually exclusive then, seeing as men are also too much effort to have more than one."
"Well," Zach ignored the satisfaction he felt from the knowledge that this meant there was definitely no line of men. "Glad we got that sorted out."
"Me too," Ginny smirked as she looked up at Zach again. "And I suppose now that James knows you don't have to leave every morning so early, if you felt any need to stay longer."
"It is a lot of effort getting up and leaving so early. So much hassle."
"And we don't want you to have to go through so much hassle."
"We don't."
"Even if," she hesitated. "Even if not leaving every morning so early is what couples do?"
He shrugged his shoulders in an attempt to look like he didn't care. He hadn't quite realised just how much he did. "Just because it's what couples do doesn't make us a couple."
"This is true."
"Though," he grimaced at the curious hope that crept into her eyes. "It would probably be a lot less hassle to explain it to people if we just said that was what we were."
Ginny smirked. "You're so romantic."
"I can take it back you know."
"I suppose," she gave a dramatic sigh, her hands moving down Zach's collar, following the shape of the robes. "Seeing as it will be less hassle, I could agree to just saying that was what we are."
"I can see where your son gets his dramatics from."
"Yeah, well at least I'm not a commitment-pussy. You're the one who can't handle relationships."
He frowned slightly. "You were never interested in one either."
"No, I just knew you'd run scared."
"Yeah right. I bet you're the biggest commitment-pussy ever."
She gave him what was probably supposed to be a stern look, but was kind of ruined by the suppressed smile on her face. Before she had a chance to say anything however, there was the sound of someone waking up and shuffling about, drawing their attention to the fainted boy on the floor.
"I should help him," Ginny murmured, beginning to move away. She yelped slightly as Zach pulled her against him, looking up and getting ready to launch into a rant, before she was effectively cut off by his lips meeting hers, wiping all thoughts of her son from her brain. Especially when his arms snaked round her waist and he nibbled lightly on her lower lip, before his tongue met hers. Helping James wasn't exactly at the forefront of her mind.
"Mum, what hap-ARGH MY EYES I'M BLINDED!"
Ginny pulled away as quickly as she could again, cheeks heating up as she brushed down her front. "James! Forgot you were there for a moment."
"I'm never going to be able to see again!"
"Stop being so melodramatic!"
"I'm moving out. I have to get out of here."
She growled and grasped the back of his shirt as he began to crawl away. "Oh no you don't, you're going to explain to me why my house is booby-trapped."
Zach watched as the pair began some kind of struggle for power, Ginny slowly drawing out a long winded story about how James' girlfriend was stalking him and they had to arm the house in case she followed him home, while he attempted to draw out the reasons why his mother had finally lost her mind, and whether or not it was Albus' fault. For a moment, Zach thought it was probably better this way. It would certainly be easier to continue this…whatever it was if he wasn't attempting to sneak around it. They were thirty-something-and-a-bit year old adults. Not teenagers avoiding the wrath of their parents.
It only lasted a week before Zach found himself hanging upside down in the air for the third time, a very unimpressed look on his face as Ginny made her way towards him while trying not to laugh, biting down on her lower lip.
"I'm never coming here again."
"He just needs time to adjust. It's a big change."
"You've been divorced for four years, surely he's had time to adjust to the fact his mother sleeps with men who aren't his daddy."
She ran a hand through his hair, smile still on her face. "You'd be surprised. He's been nicer to you than some of the others."
"Some of the blokes you've been with were twats."
"And you're not?"
"Of course not. Now are you going to let me down from here?"
She smirked, nipping at his jaw, one hand finding the top buttons of his shirt. "I wasn't planning on it."
"We are in the middle of your living room, you know."
"I know," she started to undo the buttons.
"Your son could come home any minute, you know."
"I know," her lips began to trail along the exposed skin. "Maybe it'll get him to move out faster."
Now that did sound like a good thing.
xXx
HELLO ALL! I hope you enjoyed that. I certainly did. And I hope Sig is happy about the fact that there's someone called Jefferson in it this time :P This story just kind of...kept going. And the title was very hard to think of. I had to get my Beta, xNomii to give me one because my iPod was being very unhelpful. But yeah, really enjoyed writing this, even if it was a bit plotless. And long. Veeeery long. I BEAT YOUR LONGEST ONESHOT NAY! HA.
Anyway.
R+R!
Thanks ~
Kivea R.