Summary - AU. Harry Potter lives an ordinary post-college, non-magical life. Everything is hunky dory until he realizes that he's got feelings for none other than the sister of his roommate, Ron Weasley. Moreover, she's just been swept off her feet by handsome Dean Thomas, who happens to have a grudge against Harry and Ron ever since their best friend, Hermione, punched his cousin (Draco Malfoy) in the face. Contains H/G, R/H, fluff, angst, and a fairly engaging plot line, if I do say so myself.
Disclaimer - I regret to inform you that I am not, cannot, and, unless science makes some major technological advances, will never be JK Rowling. I own none of the characters, terms, references, or places aside from ones I create and my storyline, you know the drill, R&R! Also, while I wish I had half the artistic ability of the people who are part of DeviantArt, I do not, and the cover photo is credited to user ~myavi on said site.
Author's note - As usual, every review I get makes me feel like a rockstar, particularly since the Harry Potter fandom on FanFiction is so huge and it's difficult to get noticed. As a disclaimer, I just want to emphasize that this is a T-rated fic for language and more mature themes (not ones that I think necessitate an M rating though), and this chapter contains more than others have. So, reader's discretion is advised. Anyhow, hope you enjoy this chapter. I have chosen to develop Draco as a more sympathetic character, mainly drawing from the moments in HBP and DH where he is clearly in a miserable, unfair position, for which his father is partially responsible. Never fear, more fluff is on the way, but I want this to be well rounded - angst and an interesting plot. R&R away!
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Chapter Four: Not Now, Not Ever
Ginny and Hermione arrived right on time. Both were clothed very nicely, the former in a pair of dark red trousers and a flowy white top, the latter in a fitted chambray dress. Before anybody could say a word, however, Ginny swept over to them and said excitedly,
"So we were at the library."
Hermione breezed in, looking disgruntled. "Ginny, it's not funny."
"Yes it is." To emphasize this very fact, she gave a gleeful little chortle. "So we were at the library, and there's this bloke who's there all the time, and he and his mates were gawking at her, but they couldn't remember her name, right? And I guess they wanted her attention, because they kept pointing and snickering, and finally one of them called out, 'Oi, Egghead!'"
"This is true," said Hermione, sighing woefully. "Let's speak no more of it, okay?"
"No, no, because now we all have to call you Egghead." Ginny dissolved in giggles against the counter.
"Wow," said Harry, smiling a bit too widely at her. "You are getting a lot of amusement out of this."
"I know, I know, it's just - Egghead."
"Hilarious," Hermione said sardonically.
"Where's Dean?" Ginny asked, standing in the middle of the kitchen and twirling around happily.
"Loo." Ron jerked his head in the direction of the bathroom. "Why don't you go introduce him to Hermione?"
"Egghead," Ginny said firmly, skipping off to find him. Hermione groaned in exasperation and followed her.
"Your sister's in a good mood," observed Harry.
"Yeah. Who d'you reckon those guys were? You know, at the library."
"Good lord, you're not going to get jealous over that, are you?"
"No! I'm just wondering."
"Sure."
"Stop looking at me like that."
"I'm not looking at you like anything!"
"Sure."
xxx
And so it was that Dean first knew Hermione as "Egghead," and though he attempted to find out her real name, humoring his girlfriend seemed to trump all, so he gave up. A few glasses of wine and jovial discussions later led to the rest of the lot calling her by said nickname, and dinner was wholly enjoyable.
Harry, for his part, put up a valiant fight against liking Ginny's new boyfriend. Yet the more he wrestled with himself internally, the worse he felt. If he liked her, shouldn't he want her to be happy with whoever she was going to be with? As much as he hated to admit it, if anyone was to deserve Ginny, it was someone like Dean Thomas. Not to mention that their chemistry, while sickening on a subjective level, was remarkably apparent on an objective one. The couple interacted far less than he'd braced himself for: they did not cling excessively to one another and mingled easily with the group. They were perfect, and he would have to deal with it.
Ironically, as the night progressed it turned out that he and Dean had the most in common out of everyone (including, Harry thought privately, their interest in a particular redhead), and oftentimes became so engaged in conversation that he almost forgot to resent the genial, good-looking chap. Almost. But then Ginny would kiss him on the cheek or lean her head on his shoulder and he had to clamp his jaw shut so as not to say anything untoward.
Dean's girlfriend - that was how Harry determined to refer to her now, in his head - came over to him when he was refilling his drink; he nearly knocked her out with the fridge door.
"I'm really glad you came," she said, brushing aside his apology. "Really."
"What?" It should be illegal for anyone to have such beautiful brown eyes. "Oh. That. Er - no problem."
She was standing way too close to him for comfort, and he inched away ever so slightly as she said, "You don't have to answer, but why did you leave?"
"Why did I what? Oh, why did I leave? Well - Colin called me up, and I just totally - the dinner slipped my mind -"
"Harry. I know you knew it was today."
"Really?" He chuckled nervously. "Can I take the not-answering option?"
"Alright then, fair enough." Why on earth did she have to be so easy going, so likable? "Well, thanks, anyway. It means a lot to me, you know." She leaned in, catching him off guard, and wrapped her arms round his neck, letting go before he could appropriately respond. This caused a delayed reaction which was quite awkward; his hands fumbled about her waist after she'd ended the hug, and she inhaled sharply.
Abort, he thought wildly. Abort abort abort. Coughing, he backed away as quickly as possible and all but sprinted to go find anybody and everybody who was not Ginny Weasley.
xxx
Draco frantically called Dean 12 times before remembering that he was at that damn dinner. His shoulders shook; suppressing the raw power of unshed tears was like trying to prevent a massive helium balloon from inflating, using only a pinky. He leaned forward, wrapping his arms around himself in the damp air.
"Draco?"
It was the last voice he wanted to hear. "Mother," he said coolly.
"May I?"
They were sitting beneath an abandoned bridge, on a rusty metal bench. At his curt nod, she sat down.
"So this is where you run off to."
"This would be it."
"It's...nice." She shivered. "Bit chilly."
This was getting absurd. "Cut it out," he said irritably.
"Okay."
"Thank you."
A long silence stretched out between them. Narcissa started to say something, then stopped. Start stop start stop. This continued for awhile until Draco was about to go mental, and burst out,
"Just effing say whatever it is that you're trying to!"
"You know how much I love you -"
"No. Please don't go there."
Disregarding his protest, she continued, "I love you so much, Draco. You know I would do anything to keep you safe from harm."
"Yes," he answered shortly. He'd not bothered to tie his shoelaces when he fled the house, and they were now too muddied and tattered to see even the smallest gleam of white in the dark.
"And your father -"
"Don't," he said through gritted teeth. "Don't talk about him. Not now, not ever. I've heard enough of that. The past eight years, in fact - or don't you remember?"
His mother flinched. "Believe me, I don't want to talk about it any more than you do, but you can't keep doing this! You run away from home every time the tiniest thing upsets you -"
"The tiniest thing?" He felt his hands tremble, felt the fury bubbling up. "How can you call Dad's situation 'tiny'? Look, I've had to deal with him almost as long as you have. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm also twenty-three, not to mention the fact that I still live at home doing nothing! Everyone's out there having a life, but me? No, I'm just sitting around, trapped by my father's mistakes! Do you see me making money? Going to school? After I transferred, I got what, two more years of education before it happened and we had to call it off?"
"Sweetheart," murmured Narcissa, but she dared not touch her own son; so strong was his anger that she very much feared he might explode, and she did not want to be the recipient of that. Not again, not anymore.
"I'm done, Mum," he said bitterly, though the pulsing heat of his tone was gone. "I'd move in with Dean if I could, but it's not as if I've got happy memories of that place either. Dad ruined everything for me, every birthday, every school, every memory, every town, and I don't know what to do now."
Tentatively, she rested her hand on his knee. "It will be okay."
"I don't want to see him. I can't. I won't."
She repeated, "It will be okay."
"You can't make me see him! You can't effing make me - bloody hell." A tear streamed down his face. "You can't make me see him."
And she wrapped her arms around her shuddering son and whispered into his thin blonde hair, "It will be okay."
xxx
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean, and Ginny sat on the back porch after their meal, talking happily.
All was going stupendously and they were planning to go to the cinema sometime when Ron said, "Hey, Hermione, can you grab my phone for me? It's in the kitchen."
She elbowed him gently. "Only if you keep using my real name. 'Egghead' is officially off limits from now on. No more. Not now, not ever."
"Fine," he said, and she stood.
"Where is it?"
"Um, I think I saw it last on the island by the fruit bowl."
She was moving to go inside when Dean got up abruptly, interrupting Harry in the midst of a rugby anecdote.
"Yes?" Hermione asked pleasantly. "Would you like me to get anything for you?"
"You're Hermione? Oh," he said stiffly.
"Er...is there a problem?"
"Hermione...Granger?"
"Dean," Ginny said sternly, laying a hand on his arm. "What are you doing?"
"Just a sec. You're - did you punch my cousin when you were thirteen?"
"What?"
"Draco Malfoy. He's my cousin. Did you - he said you punched him when he was thirteen, said that's why his parents made him transfer."
"Oh my god," Hermione said breathlessly. "I am so, so sorry. I - I had no idea that that was why he moved away."
"Is this the kind of company you hang out with, then?" Dean demanded of Ginny, while Hermione repeatedly apologized, to no avail.
"Oi, you can't judge her on that," protested Harry.
"Stay out of it, please. Ginny?"
"Dean, I...it was ten years ago! You have no idea the situation, you've no idea what he might have said or done to provoke it, and if you think he's so innocent then why don't you ask him what happened?"
"Oh. I see. So you have a grudge against Draco, even though you're the one who hurt him?" He glared accusingly at Hermione. "That's messed up."
Granted, the group had an inherent hatred of the name, seeing as Malfoy had been quite awful to Harry and, by association, Ron and Hermione. He'd incessantly made fun of Harry for not having "proper" parents; this teasing quickly escalated into a deep rivalry between the two, ending when Draco said scathingly one day at recess that the only reason anybody pretended to like Harry was because they were forced to pity him. When Ron, dumbstruck, told him ineffectually that he was a "bleeding idiot," he got even by dubbing Harry an "attention-seeking prat."
Hermione decided to intervene at this point, snapping, "You're an utter cretin, Malfoy. Why don't you go off and gossip with your own friends - oh, wait, you don't have any!"
Such unkindness was quite unprecedented for the goody two-shoes; the boys gaped at her, and they had momentarily triumphed over Draco until he snarled in turn that she was nothing but an "insufferable know-it-all," a "total nightmare," and ought to go eff herself because nobody else would.
The fact that they were thirteen made this behavior all the more shocking and deplorable, but when they related the story to Dean, he fell silent instantly, looking pained.
"I'm sorry," he finally said. Ginny gazed at him in concern, and took his hand in hers. Harry felt an unpleasant plummeting sensation in his stomach and then felt like a terrible person.
"You didn't know," whispered Hermione. "It's - I'm sorry. Not that it makes it any better, but I got in trouble too. I shouldn't have done that, I was just so fed up with his behavior."
"Okay," Dean replied flatly.
"Well I don't understand how you can possibly still blame Hermione," Ron said crossly. "It was clearly Draco's fault. I know he's your cousin and all, mate, but he's the one who messed up."
"He probably had his reasons." Dean stared down at his lap. "I'm sorry that he did that, just please don't pin the blame on him."
"Excuse me?" asked Ron indignantly. "He's the one who, if I recall, started the entire todo?"
"Yes, but Hermione chose to retaliate," Dean pointed out.
"And he bloody deserved it!" said Ron, loudly and heatedly.
"Ron -"
"No, Hermione, Dean has no reason to be such an arse! This was years ago, why does it even matter?"
"I'm just saying," Dean said through clenched teeth, "that you oughtn't to think badly of my cousin, or blame that whole incident on him."
"Are you mad?" cried Ron. "How are you making Hermione out to be this utter -"
Harry watched Ginny retreat into her chair, face paling as she watched her evening go down the drain. They made brief eye contact; she mouthed, Help me, and Harry nodded instantly. He wanted nothing more than to sit next to her, to be exactly in Dean's position, but he couldn't think those thoughts. Not now, not ever.
"Oi - you lot - this seems a bit childish, yeah?" he asked. "What say we head back inside, maybe pop in a movie, and...?"
Ron put up a hand. "Hold on."
"Ronald!" Hermione finally yelled in agitation. "You don't need to defend me! Dean's clearly on his cousin's side, and honestly, Harry's right: I did that to Draco ages ago, why should it matter now?"
"Because - well, look at Ginny," said Ron. "You've ruined it for her."
"Stop it, Ron," snapped Ginny. "Dean?"
He turned to her uncertainly. "I'm sorry, I just - I can't handle being around people who are going to hate on my cousin. I can't."
"I'm not hating on him," she said quietly.
"You aren't defending him, though, are you?" started Dean, when Harry took three steps toward him swiftly and said very firmly,
"Don't get her involved. She hasn't done anything wrong."
Dean exhaled slowly. "You're right. Sorry, Gin."
She waved it off, and whispered, "Thank you" to Harry when he came back to stand beside her.
"I'm sorry," Ron said gruffly, after a pregnant pause. "I may have overreacted."
Hermione crossed her arms stonily. "There's the understatement of the century."
"Are you mad at me?" Ron asked incredulously.
Ginny interrupted in frustration, "Dean - I just don't understand why you're so defensive of him!"
"Me neither, to be honest," Hermione concurred, and Harry had to agree.
"Exactly," Ron said, getting fired up again. "Do you want to tell us why you're being such a prat, or...?"
Dean's face had become quite contorted as they launched this verbal attack, and he began to visibly quiver. It took Hermione's comment that, "You really have no reason to side with Malfoy, you know, so I don't understand why -" for him to hit the roof.
"BECAUSE HE'S GOT AN ABUSIVE ALCOHOLIC DAD WHO'S IN PRISON FOR ATTEMPTED ASSAULT!" Dean shouted.
And there was nothing, really, that anybody could say after that.
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Author's note, pt. 2 - Alright, so that was a bit intense. I know you all may have been expecting a Harry-Dean stand off - but I thought Dean befriending Harry, and Harry having mixed feelings about this, would make things a bit more interesting. Again, I chose to integrate the whole Malfoy-Voldemort-Lucius conflict (not really conflict, but I don't know what else to call it when he's pressured by Voldemort thanks to his father's involvement with the Death Eaters). Ron being so defensive of Hermione is a trait I think people often overlook; he will do anything to defend her honor, even if she insists that she's fine. Hope you enjoyed and this didn't get too angst-ridden for you. R&R, more is coming soon - I'm writing as fast as I can! Thank you for all your support.