Hello hello hello,

Hope you're all well and not too pissed at the length of time it took me to get this chapter out - my life has been very busy including moving back to uni, meeting a very lovely lady and also DEADLINESDEADLINESSOMANYDEADLINES. So I'm sorry about that. Hope you enjoyed the last chapter, I attempted to make their kiss as non-mushy as possible (which was HARD ok I just want them to love each other immediately and get married) and I hope you didn't find it too OOC - for this version of themselves at least. Anyway, fair warning, this chapter contains A LOT, and I mean A LOT of swearing. Like there's one line which is all swear words. But I'm sure (I hope) we're all adult enough to deal. As usual it would be really great if you reviewed/favourited/whatever, because it makes me feel validated and fabulous. Thank you for reading!

Lots of love,

TheGreenEyedIdiot xx

Harry stretched. His back clicked.

He hadn't opened his eyes yet but the transparency of his eyelids told him it was late morning at least. That was odd. Why hadn't he been woken?

His eyes snapped open.

Shit.

He'd stayed in Ginny's room all night. Why the hell had he stayed in Ginny's room? What could possibly have prevented him from returning to the Mrs Weasley-approved safe zone of his own bedroom?

Shit.

Harry had been in the middle of wrestling his socks on, but he absolutely froze.

Shit. Shit shit shit. Shit shit shit shit.

"Oh sweet, merciful Merlin please tell me this is a dream." Harry jumped into action again, finally succeeding with his socks and moving onto trousers. No. No no no no nope.

There was no way on the fucking planet that he had kissed Draco McFerret. Abso-fucking-lutely not. No.

Fully dressed, Harry sank back down onto the bed and let his head flop into his hands. What in the name of all that is holy had he been thinking? His mind jumped around, flashes of last night coming in and out.

He kissed me… no, no I definitely kissed him first.

But he kissed back? Yes, after I kissed him.

Harry found himself touching his lips with a finger in kind of shocked daze.

Oh Merlin, Ginny. He had to tell her. Right? Didn't he?

Did he?

He didn't want to tell her. He very, very much did not want to tell her.

"Get a grip, Harry", he said aloud. George appeared in the doorway.

"Talking to yourself now, eh? Not a good sign."

Fred inevitably appeared behind him. "You need to make some real friends, Harry. Get out a bit more."

Harry tried to smile but apparently just looked ill, because both twins speedily moved out of his way as he headed for the door. Fred threw up his hands as Harry passed.

"Easy there, this suit would definitely not benefit from your vomit."

Harry made a small grunt in response and threw himself into the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

He collapsed on the toilet seat. He really ought to tell Ginny, but not now, not immediately. She'd just been through a horrible ordeal; she didn't need this on top of it. He'd tell her… tomorrow? The day after? He shrugged, he'd work out the detail later.

Harry splashed his face with water and brushed his teeth, feeling marginally better. As he dried his face he caught a glimpse of Ginny's shampoo bottle and smiled. He picked it up and opened the cap, taking a deep sniff.

He'd always loved that smell. It immediately transported him back to his sixth year; burying his face in her hair as they rode tandem on a broom, or cuddling in the same armchair in the common room as they did homework. His smile faded a little and he put the bottle back. It seemed a long time ago.

Harry's attention was caught next by the sleek black bottle next to Ginny's shampoo. He smirked. He would bet all the gold in his vault that it was Draco's. Without thinking, he picked it up and removed the cap. He took a long sniff and smiled, yep, definitely Draco's. He sniffed again. It smelt nice. He'd never really given much thought to how Draco smelt but it was sort of woody and smoky and- he was half way through a third sniff when he suddenly realised what he was doing. The bottle slipped out of his hand and crashed to the floor, squirting its contents all over Harry and the floor.

"Shit, shit shit." Harry cursed quietly to himself, and waved his wand to clean and replace the shampoo in its bottle. He shoved it back into its place and turned his back on it, taking a deep breath and shuffling out of the bathroom, straight into Mrs Weasley.

"Oh, there you are, dear. I was just coming to look for you; everyone's in the kitchen having breakfast. You'd best hurry if you want any bacon." She smiled at him a little too forcedly, and stroked his face a little too tenderly, but otherwise her façade of strength was very good.

Harry smiled at her as kindly as he could, and hurried down the stairs. He entered the kitchen with his head bent, an unruly blush climbing his neck as he felt Draco's gaze on him immediately. However, as he did a quick scan of the room, he found his girlfriend's eyes to be even more intense. He hurried round to sit between her and Charlie, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Oi, where's mine?" Charlie pouted, before grinning at Harry. "Go on Potter, gi'us a kiss. I'm lonely." Harry's blush went from a four to a nine in a matter of seconds; a fact that did not go unnoticed by Charlie.

"Don't be shy, I won't bite." He gnashed his teeth playfully and winked at Draco, who was watching was a sort of constipated look.

Harry could not prevent himself from also glancing at Draco, whose teeth seemed to have left an indelible imprint of tingles on Harry's lips. After what seemed like hours, Charlie finally stopped teasing and simply roared with laughter at Harry's face.

Harry, relieved, turned to face Ginny with a grin, but to his surprise he found her glaring at him even more furiously than before. Harry's heart sank as he tried to imagine what could possibly have angered her so early in the day.

Maybe Draco – but no, he wouldn't. Would he?

Harry ate hastily, shooting short but frequent glances at both Ginny and Draco. Ginny seemed to be ignoring him, staring very hard at her eggs, while Draco returned each look coolly, and only once with a hint of a smirk.

After clearing a mere two plates of breakfast and escaping Mrs Weasley's insistence that he have more – a practically unheard-of feat in the Weasley house – Harry excused himself upstairs, trying in vain to catch Ginny's eye. He waited fifteen long minutes in her room, pacing back and forth, back and forth across her floor, until – oh no.

He had come to a stop directly facing her window, which had a very pretty view over the back garden. A view that directly overlooked the deck chairs where he and Draco had had their… moment. Oh no.

But no, she had been out cold. She had taken her sleeping potion. But what else could it be? What on earth could have made her so very angry after she was perfectly happy with him last night? Harry also seemed to remember her telling him that her tolerance to sleeping potions was heightened. She spent most of her second year on them, because of her nightmares about Tom Riddle.

The door swung open.

Harry swivelled slowly on the spot.

"Er, hi."

She shut the door.

"Hi."

She sat on the bed.

"Are you alright?" Harry said. His hands were sweaty. When had his hands started sweating?

"Mhm. Why do you ask?" Ginny smoothed the covers carefully and looked at him sweetly.

"Oh. It's just that at breakfast you seemed a little…"

"Stand-offish, perhaps?" Ginny said this very calmly, and Harry felt a new fear awaken in him. Something about her measured voice screamed 'Mrs Weasley'.

"Erm. Yes. I suppose you could say that." He replied.

Ginny stood up, and Harry could see that she was shaking a little bit.

"And you can't think of any reason that I might be upset with you? Nothing at all?"

Harry knew that this was probably his only chance to explain himself, but unfortunately his mouth did not seem to agree, "I… don't… I don't… I don't…"

"You don't, Harry? You don't what? Know? Understand? Care? What? What the fuck is it that you don't do? Because as far as I was aware, you don't kiss fucking ferret balls, but apparently I was wrong, so please Harry, go ahead and explain what you don't do now, since I'm so out of the fucking loop?"

By the end she was screaming, the wand clenched in her hand sparking and cracking.

Harry felt like he'd been gutted. His mouth opened and closed, about three thoughts behind his brain.

Ginny was not patient, she tapped her foot on the ground. "Come on, Harry, don't play dumb. Who else knows? Who else fucking knows? How long has it been going on? Have you fucked? Oh I'm sure you've been having a wonderful time, what with Malfoy sucking your cock half the time and your girlfriend cuddling you the other half. I can't believe you made me think I wasn't fucking good enough. Well I hope you're fucking happy, because this is the most fucked up I have ever been treated and I don't care who the fuck you are, you don't get to treat anyone like this."

Harry's brain clocked in around the time Ginny mentioned Draco sucking his cock, and was working overtime to try to comprehend what he was hearing.

"Ginny, Ginny, what are you talking about? There's been no… no cock-sucking. Of any kind." He wasn't really sure what he meant by that, but he thought it sounded authoritative. "There's nothing going on, we're not having an affair. We just, well, I kissed him last night. And I feel fucking terrible about it Ginny, really. I'm so, so sorry."

Ginny frowned. "That's… it?"

Harry, sensing a slight reduction in anger, replied eagerly; "Yes, yes, that's it! Really, there's nothing else going on. What gave you that idea?"

Ginny seemed deflated. "I don't know. My mind. Over thinking, I guess. And then I saw the way Charlie was teasing you at breakfast and I just assumed…"

"You assumed that your favourite brother knew that Draco and I were having an affair behind your back and that he was ok with it?" Harry felt brave enough to take a step forwards.

Ginny smiled a little.

"Yeah, that was pretty ridiculous." And then her smile dropped. "But you kissed him. Why? There must have been a pretext to this, you don't just go around kissing men for no reason."

Harry looked at the tear tracks that he was responsible for and he knew that this was not the time to mince words.

He sat down on the bed. "I wish I could say that there was more sense to it, but honestly, ever since he came out I just kept wondering. Or, well, thinking. Thinking about myself. Doing things without thinking. Wanting to be near him, I don't know." Well, he hadn't intended to mince words. Apparently there was no quick explanation here.

Ginny looked pissed off again. "So there was something going on. Don't fucking lie to me while you're trying to explain yourself, I don't deserve this shit."

"I know. I'm sorry. I guess I downplayed it. But really, nothing has happened. It's nothing more than Draco being Draco, and me being… curious, I guess. And I'm so sorry that I let it become anything more than that. Even if just for a few seconds."

Ginny's eyes had turned hard and watery, "I can't do this, Harry."

"I know, I'm sorry I put you in this position. But I promise I'll talk to Mrs Weasley today about moving our rooms around, I won't even speak to him any more. I love you."

Ginny shook her head and shuffled slightly away from him. "No. I really can't do this. I can't be with you if I know you're that attracted to another person. I'm not doing that to myself. I love you Harry, but I'm not going to put myself through another one of your weird mood swings or performance issues if there's even a possibility that it's related to Draco fucking Malfoy."

Harry found that his mouth was hanging open a little bit. His mind raced, searching for anything he could say to make this better and coming up blank.

"Please go." She said, her voice cracking with tears, eyes still shut.

"Gin, please."

Harry got up; his vision clouded with tears, and stumbled towards her. He held her face in one hand and leaned down to kiss her, but she turned her head so he only caught the corner of her mouth.

"Please. Ginny, please understand. I love you. I promise I won't speak to him, I'll never look at Dra-"

"Stop it." Ginny was almost sobbing; her eyes open again and fixed on Harry. "Don't do this to me. I'm not waiting around in the wings while you get whatever this is out of your system. This is fucked up enough, please just let it die."

"I'm not really in the habit of letting things die." He said bitterly, standing up from the bed.

He walked out of her room slowly, as though expecting her to call him back any second. He turned and faced her as he stepped over the threshold but she waved the door shut with a flick of her wand.

The cold of the landing was like a slap in the face.

She was gone. Really, actually gone.

Harry climbed the stairs to the room he shared with Draco, dragging his feet. Fucking Draco. Smarmy fucking Draco ferret-face, with his hair and his eyes and his stupid fucking smirks, coming in here and fucking with everything.

Harry's footsteps became less and less reluctant, more and more purposeful with every step. Bloody Draco, with his body and his cigarettes and his sarcasm, how fucking dare he?

He reached the door of his room and shoved it open, revealing a partially-dressed Draco lying on Harry's bed, reading one of Harry's books.

Harry's throat felt constricted. "Fucking ferret!" he yelled, and launched himself across the room. Draco, to his credit, did not look overly alarmed, just surprised. Harry landed on him in one flying leap and tried to hit as much of Draco as he could while still sort-of crying. Draco quite deftly caught and held Harry's wrists, then grabbed and rolled so that he was on top of a now more docile, mainly crying Harry.

"For Merlin's sake, Potter, there's no need to cry about it. I sleep in your bed most nights anyway when you're with the Weaslette and the book isn't even that good to begin with. Far too much conjecture."

At the mention of Ginny Harry became decidedly more distressed, and Draco didn't really have to guess why.

"Ah, the Weaslette. I see. Had a bit of a tiff, then? I don't doubt it's your fault, whatever it is. Say what you will about the girl but she's frustratingly good at being your girlfriend."

Harry stopped fighting. "Yes, it is my fucking fault. Also your fucking fault, but mostly mine. Would you let me go? I'm not going to punch you."

Draco slid off Harry, who in turn sat up.

"Potter, this may be an indelicate question given the circumstances, but why do you smell like me?"

Harry coughed a laugh. He'd forgotten about the morning's escapades with the shampoo. "Had an accident. Shampoo, er, explosion in the bathroom. It's ok though, cleaned it all up."

"I should hope so too. I had to bribe the twins quite significantly to get them to buy me that. It probably costs more than everything you're wearing." Draco sniffed and looked down at himself in disappointment. "Probably costs more than everything I'm wearing too, actually."

Incredibly, Harry found himself almost grinning. He couldn't remember Draco ever having this effect on him before. Maybe he was still in shock.

"Well, she broke up with me." Harry said uncomfortably.

"Because you kissed me?" Draco asked, unperturbed.

"Er, yeah. Among other things."

Thankfully, Draco seemed satisfied with this. "Oh well, all good things come to an end. Although I'm not sure that farce of a relationship could really be classed as a good-" Draco stopped talking at the look on Harry's face, which surprised both of them.

"Erm, anyway. I'm sure you'll both be alright and go on to live long and fruitful lives. There. Are you done bitching?"

Harry glowered at Draco "Not quite."

"Well maybe now you won't have to turn down Charlie when he begs you to kiss him at the breakfast table. Merlin, Potter, to be in your position."

Harry grimaced a little bit. "Yeah I don't think he'll be doing that for a while. I expect I'll be getting a bit of frostiness from all of the Weasleys for at least a few weeks."

Draco shrugged and picked up Harry's book again. "Oh well. More Charlie for me."

Harry couldn't explain it, the little shot of nausea that ran through his stomach when Draco said that. And, as, he couldn't explain it, he decided to simply write it off as coincidence.

The alternative was way, way too scary.