Sweet Revenge
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
A/N: This is in response to a really old Amortentia Challenge. For details, please visit www. Amortentia – potion.tk (Remove spaces).
As the dust settled around the Hogwarts castle, Ginny Weasley knew everything would change.
Harry had defeated Voldemort and survived; Severus Snape had been exonerated and honored for his assistance in destroying the Horcruxes and, in turn, the Dark Lord. Two great men had saved the Wizarding world, and yet they still hated each other more ardently than ever before.
Ginny didn't care, though. For her heart belonged to only one man. She and Harry were quickly married in an ostentatious ceremony. They were on the cover of every publication in their world, and to everyone, they seemed to be the perfect couple.
For a while, they were happy. Harry was the star seeker for Puddlemere, and Ginny was settling into her new job at the Ministry. Her parents kept begging for more grandchildren, and every time the subject was broached, Harry and Ginny would blush and giggle to each other.
But it wasn't long before the demands of both their careers began to affect their marriage. Ginny worried they'd married too soon, but every time she'd voice her concerns, her husband would assuage them away and make divine love to her. And when she woke in the morning, she was happy again.
Harry's training and playing schedule began to keep him away longer than was usual. He kept insisting to Ginny that he was putting in more hours because he couldn't bear to disappoint the fans, and after all, she knew he hated to disappoint people.
One Thursday evening, Ginny left work early. She'd begged her boss for Friday off, and he'd finally relented. Harry was to play a match Friday night in Aberdeen, so Ginny hurried off to surprise him.
When she Apparated outside the inn where the team was staying, however, she was stunned when the front desk told her that Mr. Potter had asked not to be disturbed for the evening. Of course, when they discovered that it was Mrs. Harry Potter requesting his room number, they gave it to her with a thousand apologies for the inconvenience.
Ginny knocked on the door and waited patiently. She heard noises through the door – giggling and banging. She knocked again, louder this time, and finally noticed the "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the knob. Her breath hitched and she opened the door with a quiet spell.
The sight before her made the blood drain from her face. She felt dizzy, lightheaded, and for a moment, she thought she might faint.
There, in a large mahogany bed, settled beneath a dark orange duvet, was her husband drawn so close to another person that it was difficult to determine which pairs of legs and arms were his. The only distinctive feature was the black hair poking up from beneath the sheets.
Harry's head was tossed back in euphoria, but when he brought his head up to smile at his lover, his green eyes connected with Ginny's brown ones.
They both gasped, and Harry did his best to shove Cho off of him as he hastily wrapped the sheets around himself and ran from the bed.
"Ginny, wait," he called. But Ginny was too quick for him.
She darted from the room and ran quickly down the hall, tears escaping from her eyes as quickly as she'd escaped from her husband.
"Ginny, don't leave!" Harry called, and Ginny finally stopped and turned to face him.
"Please," he begged. "Let me explain. It's nothing like you think, I swear. I love you. With her, it's just sex. It gets lonely on the road sometimes," he tried to explain. "But I don't love her, I love you. Please, you have to believe me."
"You love me?" she asked plaintively. "You want me to take your word for it? I can't do that anymore, Harry, not after what I just saw. How can you claim to love me and have sex with another woman? How would you like it if I went out and slept with another man?"
Harry's face went blank for a moment. "But you wouldn't," he said softly. "You wouldn't do that to me. You love me."
"There was someone else I loved once too," she replied. "But I gave you my heart, everything I had." Ginny said nothing more, for her own answer to the situation had just been revealed to her.
Harry cast another pleading look at her, but Ginny turned from him and Disapparated.
She found herself staring at a vaguely familiar brick row house. The outside was dingy and dreary, but she knew that her hope rested inside.
Severus Snape took one look at the woman who'd banged incessantly on his door and without a word, snatched her into the house.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, gripping her shoulder roughly. "We agreed," he continued. "After you chose your precious Potter, you promised never to find me."
Ginny wrenched herself from his grip and her tear-filled eyes blazed in anger. "I made a mistake, all right?" she said. "He hurt me, and now I want to hurt him."
Snape stood up to his full height and sneered at her. "So you came here for what?" he asked. "A revenge fucking?"
"Yes." She answered. "That's exactly what I came here for, and if you're not going to give it to me, then I'll find someone else who will."
Snape laughed evilly and slowly circled the young woman. "Who else is going to serve your purpose better than me? Your husband hates me. No wonder you never told him about our… liaisons while he was off destroying Horcruxes. No, I know you, Ginevra Weasley. You came here knowing I would be the ideal candidate to cause your husband enough pain and torment. It's impressive, really. How depraved you can be when you want to." He laughed again and ran a long finger down her jaw.
"Since I'm going to agree to this, we're going to do this my way," he said, reaching a hand into her hair and wrenching it back roughly. "You are going to give me pleasure and you will enjoy it!"
Ginny slapped his hand away from her hair and glared fiercely at him. "I always did enjoy it, Severus," she replied, shoving him back until he fell back onto his thread-bare sofa.
She kissed him, biting his lips and sucking his tongue into her mouth. Snape chuckled deep in his throat. He'd missed her fire and her roughness, even in intimacy.
As Ginny kissed her way down his body, magically removing his clothes along the way, he grinned wickedly as he imagined Potter watching what his wife was doing to him.
Later, when Snape was finally sated, Ginny redressed quickly and turned back to Snape, ready to say her farewells. She hesitated when he withdrew his wand, but all he said was, "Your memory or mine?"
Ginny smirked and leaned in for a kiss. "Yours," she replied darkly. "Let him see what I did through your eyes."
Snape smiled at her wanton attitude and pressed the end of his wand to his temple, withdrawing the silvery gossamer strand from his wand. He wafted it into a waiting phial in Ginny's hand.
"Thank you, Severus," she said, her forwardness faltering into vulnerability.
He gently cupped her cheek in his hand and softly kissed her lips. "I missed you," he admitted.
Ginny nodded but did not respond. Instead, she stowed the precious memory in her pocked and left quietly.
Harry returned to his and Ginny's flat later that evening to find it eerily quiet. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. At least, he thought, it doesn't look like she's left me or kicked me out. The only conspicuous thing was Dumbledore's old Pensieve sitting on the sofa table. He approached it with caution, not knowing what to expect. Next to it laid a note.
Harry,
I didn't know what to say to you, so I thought I'd leave a memory. This way, you'll have no questions about what your betrayal did to me.
It wasn't signed, but Ginny's scrawl was unmistakable.
He hesitated, looking at the silver swirling in the basin. Summoning up his Gryffindor courage, he took a deep breath and plunged in.
