Disclaimer- Don't own Harry Potter. If you've kept up with the story thus far then I'm going to stop warning you that there may be some smut ahead. No shame in admitting that it's what you came for in the first place ;)
"Well? What the hell is going on?" Ron demanded.
Harry was at a loss for words. Still.
"What's going on is we've just been busted." Ginny said simply. Harry gave her a worried look.
"Busted? Have you two been sneaking around behind my back?"
"Um..Well…" Harry started.
"Yes." Ginny finished. Harry gave Ginny a pained expression.
Ron glared at Harry. "Were you ever going to tell me?"
"Of Course! We just didn't want to, you know, make a big deal out of it." Harry tried explaining whilst shrinking back from his friend.
"So you hid it from your best friends? She's my sister!" Ron asked accusingly.
"I know! That's why I couldn't tell you!" Harry defended.
"How long have you been sneaking around with her?" Ron growled.
Harry cringed. Ginny leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest. The way the two of them were talking at each other it didn't look like she was needed for this conversation. Ron wasn't even acknowledging her presence and Harry was completely focused on Ron now.
"How long?" Ron yelled.
"Ron?" Hermione came upon them. "What's going on?" She looked between the three and drew her own conclusion. "Oh."
"Did you know about this?" Ron balked.
She bit her lip and blushed. "I only just found out last night." She assured him.
"Last night? And you didn't tell me?" Ron barked at her.
"Ron, please calm down. Can we go somewhere more private?" Harry asked. Ron was getting louder and louder.
Hermione took Ron's hand and led them down the corridor to the empty Charms classroom. Harry walked beside them. He was racked with guilt, but also kind of relieved that this milestone was finally getting overturned.
He let the two of them enter first and held the door open behind him. But there was no one to hold the door open for. The corridor was empty. 'That can't be good' He thought to himself.
"Where'd Ginny go?" Hermione asked when Harry closed the door.
Harry winced at her question. "Do you think I should go get her?" He asked unsure.
"How about you answer my questions first?" Ron glared at him.
Harry swallowed and sat down across from Ron. He fiddled with his clenched fists. "We. Erm. Remember that day before we came back to school, when I went to help her collect the apples?"
Ron's jaw dropped. "You've been together that long?" Ron turned to his girlfriend. "You didn't know?"
"No! I thought it was new!" Hermione was floored.
"How could you keep it from us for that long?" Ron asked him
"Because it is such a big deal." Harry reasoned.
"Of course it is!" Ron agreed.
"Exactly. Can you imagine how your family would react if they found out?"
"Mum would be through the roof. She'd love it. Probably start planning your wedding then and there." Ron shrugged, not quite understanding his problem with that.
"Sounds like a lot of pressure for a new relationship doesn't it?" Harry pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows at him.
"That makes sense Harry, but it's been months now. Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Hermione asked.
"We talked about it, weeks ago, but then everything just sort of fell into a rhythm and we kept putting it off." Harry looked at Ron wearily. "I'm really sorry mate. I just. It was just so nice having her there as sort of a break from it all."
Ron scrunched up his nose at that. "I guess I'm fine with it. I'd choose you to be with her over any of the other guys that have been sniffing around her. Doesn't mean I want to hear about it though." He pointed his finger at him.
Harry relaxed and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "That's great. I don't really want to know what the two of you get up to either." Ron beamed at that and slid closer to Hermione, putting his arm around her shoulder.
"By the way. If you hurt her there are five more brothers that'll hurt you worse than You-Know-Who." Ron threatened him in good nature.
"Speaking of which. You are still going to keep this quiet right?" Hermione asked him carefully.
Both Ron and Harry looked confused.
"Why? I'm fine with it." Ron asked.
"Yeah, that was the only reason we weren't public."
"Harry, you are a target. You don't think that Ginny would be in danger being with you?" Hermione explained.
Harry felt the blood drain from his face. "Shit. I hadn't even thought about it, I mean, I had a while back, but now… And with Malfoy here too, it could easily get back to Voldemort." Ron and Hermione exchanged glances at that. "Don't" Harry said. He knew they still didn't believe Malfoy was a Death Eater. "You're right. We still have to keep a lid on it. It's dangerous enough just being my friend, but if they found out how I feel about her."
"How do you feel about her?" Hermione asked excitedly leaning forward.
Harry shifted uncomfortably and looked back and forth between his friends. "Um… Strongly?"
Her eyes flicked briefly to Harry's pocket, the one with Ginny's bra in it.
"Right. Well that's enough mushy stuff. You and Ginny are together and keeping it quiet. Hermione and I are together and telling everyone, now to breakfast." Ron slapped his hands on the table and rose from his seat.
When they got to the Great Hall Ginny was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Luna. Her back was facing the Gryffindor table. Harry did not take that as a good sign. "Should I go talk to her?" He asked his two friends.
"Maybe wait. Don't want to be too obvious about it." Ron said knowingly. "Or, Hermione, can you go ask her over?"
Harry and she exchanged a look. Ron didn't know about what had happened earlier that morning between the two girls. "Um. Maybe we should just give her some space right now. I'm pretty sure I know what she's talking to Luna about."
"What?" Ron asked loading up his plate.
"Not my place to say…" She blushed a deep red.
Harry was distracted by Draco Malfoy coming into the hall. He narrowed his eyes at him and followed the Slytherin with his eyes. He caught how Malfoy searched the hall and his eyes landed on Ginny. That startled Harry. Why would Malfoy be looking for Ginny?
()()()()()()()
"Can I borrow her a moment?" Harry asked Luna.
The girls were in a corridor on their way back to Ravenclaw. "You'll have to ask Ginny if you can borrow her." Luna replied.
He looked pleadingly at Ginny. Ginny didn't answer right away. She wanted to make him sweat a bit. She was mad about how he and his friends took it upon themselves to dictate things about their relationship. Considering it was the very night after she and Harry had crossed a big step in the progression of their relationship and hadn't even talked to each other about it then, she was none too thrilled with him at the moment. Though, not giving him a chance to apologize wasn't going to fix anything. And there was so much they needed to talk about.
"I'll catch up with you later." She said to Luna and followed Harry.
Harry sagged with relief and smiled lazily at her. He held his hand out a moment to take hers, then quickly retracted it.
He led her to the seventh floor. As they drew closer and closer to the Room of Requirement Ginny couldn't help how wide her eyes were growing, nor the feeling of her stomach wanting to bring up her breakfast. 'There's no way' She thought. "Where are we going?" She asked him quietly.
"It's a surprise." At the portrait of Barnabus the Barmy he told her to stop and paced back and forth a few times, then the door appeared. Harry smiled at her. "Open it." He urged.
She was shaking with nerves. Trying to suppress her hyperventilating she went to the door and grabbed the handle. Pulling it open it revealed a room rather like a study with a couch and a roaring fire. Her astonishment must have shown on her face as Harry came in behind her and closed the door.
"Welcome to the Room or Requirement." He took her hand and led her to the couch.
"So, this room creates whatever you want it to?" She asked. 'Thank fuck for that!' she thought. She'd only ever seen it full of miscellaneous junk. Draco had never said it could be anything but.
"Yeah. We used it for the DA training last year. Bloody useful."
She sat back on the couch and looked over at him. He looked happy. "Why are you just bringing me here now? We've been snogging in broom closets and classrooms this whole time."
He looked bashful. "I know. It's just that after last year when you mentioned how many dark corners there are in the school, I may have made up a list in my head of all the spots I wanted to take you to. I've been crossing them off." He finished quietly and looked down at his hands. Not daring to meet her eye.
Ginny thought back over where they'd snuck off to when they could get away. Sure enough, she didn't remember hitting the same spot twice. She burst out laughing. "You've turned it into some kind of sexy scavenger hunt? That's kind of sweet."
Harry looked back up at her grinning and slid closer. Their sides were touching and he put and arm around her. "About earlier." He began.
"Where do you want to start?" She lay her head back on his arm and sighed. "What we did last night, the part about Hermione, or your conversation with Ron?"
"Yeah. It's been a busy 24 hours." He agreed. "How about we start with last night? Which I really loved by the way."
Ginny smiled at him and kissed his cheek. "I should hope so. But we didn't actually discuss sex, like you wanted to."
"Um, no, I guess we didn't. It is still too soon?" He asked with hope in his voice.
"Oh. Yeah." Ginny started carefully. "The thing is. I'm not." She fidgeted with a loose string on her shirt. "I mean to say. Uh. What we did last night was great, but. Wow, this is hard to say to you."
"Are you saving yourself?" He asked cautiously. He'd heard girls were big on the 'saving themselves' thing. He blamed romance novels for that.
She could practically hear a balloon deflating in his question. "Yes. But not until marriage or anything." She assured him.
"Oh. So, what? Until you're in love?" He tried to say it with a straight face. Guys don't talk like this to each other, Sirius had coached him a bit on how to come off as being completely open to her feelings about it, even though girls are crazy.
She smiled at how concerned he was. "Preferably, but also until I'm sixteen."
"But you're… Shit, you're fifteen. I forgot." He shifted uncomfortably. "But, what we did last night was okay?"
She liked that he was so much more nervous than she was. It made her more confident. She hitched her leg over him and straddled his lap. "What we did last night was okay. And there are many other things that are okay too." She lowered her voice and she lowered her head to his ear and kissed just below his ear lobe. She was pressed up against him just enough to feel a stirring in his trousers.
"Like. Like what?" He panted. Ginny kissed his lips and he grabbed her bum and pulled her closer to grind up against him.
She moaned against his mouth. "We have other things to discuss Harry." She reminded him as he kissed down her jaw and moved one of his hands up her shirt.
"You started it." He smiled, continuing his ministrations.
She abruptly pulled away from him and reclined on the other side of the couch, making sure they were no longer touching. "What about you Harry? Are you waiting?" She teased him.
"Apparently I'm waiting until I'm seventeen." He was looking at her with undisguised lust in his eyes.
She couldn't help rubbing her thighs together. His look alone was enough to make her want to drop her panties. Coupled with his hand that was slowly travelling up her leg. "Harry." She warned, unconvincingly. Smiling.
"Ginny." He sounded like a predator about to devour his next meal. She bit her lip and that was all it took to set him off. He yanked her legs so she was lying down properly on the couch and came down on top of her, attacking her mouth. She was responding to his kiss, and moaned against his mouth. His desires from the previous night were so fresh in his mind. He was desperate to feel that high again. His hand was under her bra in an instant, the other was beside her head, trying to put weight on it so he didn't crush her. He settled himself between her legs and wished she was wearing a skirt.
The idea of having nothing but a thin layer of cotton between them was making him unbearably hard. He was suddenly too hot and pulled back as quickly as he'd pounced to rip his shirt over his head. Ginny put a hand on his chest to stop him from coming back down again.
He stilled, looking into her wide eyes. She looked startled. He swallowed deeply. Was he pushing her right now? She'd said she liked it before. Almost involuntarily he rubbed against her again and her eyes slid shut. He did it again. And again.
"Harry." She panted. "We really have to. Oh, that feels good." She ran her hand up his chest and around his neck to pull him back down to her.
()()()()()()
"Oi! Stay awake this time." She smiled as Harry lay sandwiched between her and the back of the couch.
"I'll try." He smiled into her shoulder with his eyes closed.
"We were to talk about my altercation with Hermione earlier." She reminded him.
"Ugh. Do we have to, right after…" He tugged her tighter into him.
"Getting off?" She offered chuckling. "Well it's that or my brother."
"Yep, that's the lesser of two evils. Okay, so what exactly happened? She looked like she wanted to look anywhere but at you at breakfast."
"Well, when she got back to the dorm this morning I did tease her lightly about being with Ron all night. Then Luna skipped in and asked when I'd snuck out of the dorm. Oh, by the way. My dorm was empty all night. But anyways, Luna mentioned you having my bra, and Hermione said my taking my bra off in your bed was 'fast'." She used finger quotes.
"You know she means well." He ran his hand up and down her side, not finding himself able to stop touching her.
"If I said her being in my brothers bed all night was fast, do you think she'd be okay with that comment?" She raised her eyebrow at him.
"She'd probably have a cow." He agreed. His eyes were still closed with his relaxed state.
"Harry, there's a reason why Luna is my only female friend. Girls are… bitches. They make comments and get too emotional. Hermione is no different, she just doesn't realize it."
"You and Luna are girls." He pointed out.
"We are a different kind of girl. For instance, Luna shagged Neville last night, and I asked 'what position?' Well, I also asked about contraception, but it was a high five moment, not a 'whoa you're a slut' moment, which is exactly the vibe I get from Hermione."
"You don't think the two of you will ever get on?" His eyes were open now and he rested his head on his hand looking down to read her facial expression.
She stared into his green eyes, knowing he was hoping she'd say 'yes'. "I know you want us to, but forcing a friendship doesn't work. You and Ron weren't even friends with her until that Troll incident, before that Ron said she was annoying. Right now, I'm at the annoyed phase. She's basically called me easy, twice."
"So, all I have to do is find a troll?"
"Yes Harry, that's exactly what I'm saying." They laughed.
"Alright, I won't push it." He sighed.
"Now, what about the last item on our agenda?" She scrunched up her nose.
"Then we can loop back around to your disappearing act. Ron was pissed, but he seems to be fine with it. Just doesn't want to know what we get up to."
"I'll make a mental note not to snog you furiously in the common room then." Ginny grinned.
"Right. About that." Harry sat up. "While it's great for me that Ron and Hermione know now, we should probably still keep our relationship under wraps."
"What? Why?" Ginny sat up too and handed him his shirt.
"Look, with Voldemort still gunning after me, I don't want you to turn into some sort of pawn he thinks he can use." He pulled the shirt over his head and took her hand.
"You want me to be your little secret to protect me?" She asked him incredulously.
"Yes. He tried to use Sirius last year, and I worry that he'd find a way to get you if he knew we were together." He said as though it were obvious.
"But I'm already a target being a Weasley, and your friend." She pointed out. She was getting overly irritated, and in the back of her head, she knew it wasn't completely justified. He was just worried.
"Well I don't want to pile on now do I?" Harry shrugged, as though it was obvious.
"So what? You just want to put me up on a fucking shelf and pull me down whenever you find you can make time for me?" She was getting angry, and louder.
"That's not what I'm saying." He argued.
"Well, what you're saying sounds a hell of a lot like you have no problem having me for a bed fellow, but you'll be damned if you'll let me in as part of your life in general."
"Ginny, you have no idea the lengths he'll go to!"
And just like that Ginny felt like a glass sphere that held all secrets was about to burst. She was furious. As if she didn't know the lengths that Tom Riddle would go to. She knew better than almost anyone! She wanted to tell him. Yell at him about just how much different her life would be if she didn't know the lengths that man had went to becoming the most feared man in recent history.
"You know what Harry. That disappearing act that I pulled earlier. We can't discuss it right now, because I've got to pull another one before one of us says something we can't take back." She hissed.
With that she got up and left, leaving a very confused Harry Potter alone to contemplate what the hell just happened.
()()()()()()()
"Luna, I need to talk to you." Ginny said to her best friend at the Ravenclaw table. It was a day after the room of requirement with Harry and Ginny had been grappling with the growing divide in her 'relationship', and she was at the point of bursting.
"Is this something to do with the confused Nargles that are floating around your head?" Luna asked her calmly.
"Yes" Ginny admitted. Luna was a complete space cadet to most people, but Ginny spoke her language, and damn if that girl didn't just know what was going on. "And there isn't really anyone else that I can talk to about it. It isn't like Ethan would understand, or care. And Neville is a little too close, you know?"
Luna nodded and spooned yogurt onto her toast. "Well I suspect you wouldn't like to discuss it here."
"You suspect correctly." Ginny nodded and averted her eyes from Luna's breakfast. It looked disgusting. "After breakfast, let's go for a walk to the lake before classes."
Ginny looked over at the Gryffindor table. Ron and Hermione were seated side by side, Harry had his back to her and was sitting across from them. He'd seemed a little distracted after their talk yesterday, which she had been grateful for, since she too was a little distracted.
After she'd basically run from the room she cooled off pretty quickly. She knew where he was coming from. It still pissed her off that he would try to shelter her like that, but it wasn't his fault that he didn't know why she wouldn't need it. She was nowhere near as angry as she had been at the time, but she was still angry.
She drank some coffee and ate a little food while she waited for Luna to finish up. Luna was in no hurry it seemed, but Ginny was rather anxious for some girl talk and advice. Hestia and Norma were filling her in on all of the fifth-year gossip while she waited. They were also asking about what happened to make Parvati and Lavender suddenly so endeared to her. Apparently the two Gryffindor girls thought themselves to be great friends with Ginny now that they had managed to get dates to Hogsmeade with the boys they fancied.
Finally, Luna finished every morsel on her plate and drained the last of her pumpkin juice and Ginny dragged her outside.
"Okay, so here's the situation." Ginny launched into it as soon as they were away from potential eavesdroppers. "I really like Harry, I do. We've been sneaking around for months now, and the snogging is the best I've had so far. We talk a bit, but never about anything important. I know he has a pile of shit going on, and I know he talks to Ron and Hermione about it all the time. I can see the concern in Hermione's face time to time when she looks at him. I just feel that if this relationship was supposed to grow into anything meaningful, or worthy of us even telling people that there is a relationship, then he should be telling me some of the serious things too, right?"
Luna twirled her hair and gazed out at the lake while Ginny rambled out her problem. "And are you willing to tell him your secrets too?"
Ginny frowned and stared out at the water herself. "The thing is, with my secret, it isn't just my secret." She knew that Luna didn't know what this secret was, nor would she ask and it didn't bother her.
"Maybe that is the same thing for Harry."
"Well how is it that he can run over to Ron and Hermione the second he gets out of Dumbledore's office, but he can't tell the person he's been feeling up in alcoves for the past months?!" She let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not normally like this." She said through her hands, now covering her face.
"Do you maybe want to tell me about the other guy? It would probably feel good to get it off your chest."
Ginny groaned, she didn't even question how Luna knew. "I can't. That is part of the secret. It isn't like I've cheated on Harry, but I feel rather detached from him when I'm around the other guy. I think Harry see's me as some kind of reprieve from the shit cards he's been dealt all his life, and part of me wants that for him. But another part of me just knows that when it comes time to tell the secret all hell is going to break loose anyways. And this other guy already knows. We've… bonded."
"It doesn't seem particularly nice to be stringing poor Harry along then does it?"
Ginny's jaw dropped at that. "I'm not stringing him along! I'm trying to figure out what I want!"
"And you want this other guy."
Ginny pondered. She'd had a dream or two that involved Draco, and those weren't particularly kinky dreams, they had just made her feel supported. Draco and she had leaned on each other. He was getting a shit deal with the cards he'd been dealt too. However a romantic relationship between the two of them would be entirely complicated. Another part of her brain said that the relationship she currently had with Harry was also entirely complicated, so what difference does it make.
"He's been shagging other girls." Ginny said, for lack of anything better to say.
"And?" Luna asked.
Ginny snickered a bit. "And I know it doesn't matter. I don't even know why I said it."
"Do you think if you and Harry broke up and you decided to be with this person that he'd expect sex?"
This is why it was so good to talk to Luna, she spoke so candidly that it helped Ginny sort through her feelings.
"He knows I'm a virgin, Harry too for that matter, and that I don't plan on changing that soon." Ginny chewed her lip. "Forget about the other guy. Even if there were any potential there, right now my problem is with my current romantic relationship. My decision on whether or not to remain with Harry is not predicated on whether or not I will be in a relationship with this other person."
"Trust is the basis for a lasting relationship. You don't trust Harry and it seems Harry isn't trusting you."
Ginny stopped walking, she knew that this would be the answer she'd get. "I know it's a little messed up. But, my biggest hurdle right now is that he doesn't want to go public with our relationship, even though Ron now knows. I had thought that was what held him back. Now he says it is because Voldemort is after him, so he could come after me to hurt him."
"I can see that happening." Luna nodded, still staring out at the water. "You're not sure you want to keep sneaking around with him?"
Ginny heaved a big sigh. "I'm super conflicted about it. I don't want to be infantilized. I have six older brothers to protect me, I would think that my boyfriend would think I could protect myself."
"By running away to Ilvermory again?"
Ginny's eye's widened looking at Luna. Ginny knew that Luna saw right through most smoke screens, but she didn't think she knew that Ginny had been 'running away' when she went to Ilvermory.
Luna turned to look straight into Ginny's eyes. It was almost frightening, her blue orbs seemed to see right into the depths of your soul. "I know you went there to hide from something. I don't need to know what it was, but you are still hiding, and until you are ready to stop then you aren't being fair to Harry."
"You're right." Ginny replied glumly. She toed her shoe into the ground a bit. "There's something else too." Ginny sighed. "So, when we're fooling around, everything feels great… for the first little bit. Then it starts to feel wrong. Very wrong. And I always find a reason to get away. Homework, meeting up with you, tired, whatever. I really like Harry, but I feel weird about it sometimes."
Luna looked at her speculatively. "You don't love him then?" Ginny shook her head. "You've been carrying on for a long time for someone who doesn't love him. Why is that? You are taking this relationship seriously enough."
Ginny knew that that was the make it or break it question.
()()()()()()()()()
Harry sat staring blankly at his potions essay. It was supposed to be his potions essay anyways, he hadn't written a single word of it. After Ginny had left the Room or Requirement a few days earlier they hadn't seen much of each other outside of class. And they weren't talking in class either. She would barely look at him. He'd told Ron and Hermione that they were kind of at a standstill after he suggested continuing to keep their relationship quiet. Ron looked confused while Hermione looked like she understood immediately why.
That annoyed him.
He didn't talk much to anyone in the past week, and it was a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. The first one he was going to take Ginny on. He couldn't help thinking of all the places he'd wanted to take her. And now he just didn't know what was going on.
"Need a hand with that?" He closed his eyes. Her voice had such a power over him. He could feel her sit in the seat beside him.
"Ginny." He said almost painfully.
"I don't want to just keep avoiding each other. Obviously your school work is suffering."
He forced himself to turn and look at her. 'Damn her for looking so good. And smelling so good.' He thought, then his eyes took in her appearance. 'Does she have more buttons undone on her top than normal?'. It had been four days since they last spent time together. He almost forgot what her lips felt like. 'Oh God. She's wearing a skirt.'
"This book helped me with Slughorn's essay." She slid a book over to him. Leaning down slightly so he could see down her shirt.
"Thanks." He swallowed.
"So Hogsmeade is in two days." She started. He knew she could see the jolt of excitement he felt with her bringing it up. She smiled. "It seems that each of our best friends are paired up, leaving us as the third wheels. I thought you might be interested in showing me around?"
"Yes." He said instantly. She did a quick look around, checking the coast was clear, and pulled him into a deep kiss. He had to clutch the side of the table to stop himself from throwing her on the table and climbing on top of her. She nipped his bottom lip rather hard and pulled away when he yelped softly. "What was that?" He asked quietly, bringing his hand up to his lip.
"I just wanted to make sure you knew, we're still in a fight." She said leaning into him and moving her hand to trace his bottom lip with her thumb. Before resting her hand on his thigh.
He gave her a dazed look. As far as he was concerned, if this was what fighting with Ginny was like, they could carry on fighting. She'd obviously set out to tease him and it worked. He gave her a dopey grin. "Thanks for the book."
"No problem." She said sweetly getting up from her seat. In the process she'd put a little extra weight on his leg and 'accidentally' brushed his crotch, which was bulging slightly. "Ta."
Harry watched her walk away behind the bookshelves. He so loved watching the way she walked away. He smiled and looked back down at his blank parchment. His smile dropped. He'd completely forgotten what the essay was supposed to be about.
()()()()()()()()
"Any Progress?" Ginny asked Draco as she followed him into the Room of Requirement. It was now Friday and she wanted to hang out with Draco before the Hogsmeade weekend.
"They sent an apple back." Ginny clutched his cloak sleeve. Draco stopped and faced her. "There is still quite a bit more work to do before it is ready for human transport." He assured her taking in her shocked expression and giving her a reassuring smile. She nodded and relaxed. "How are things with you and Scarhead? I've noticed some odd behavior between the two of you. Trouble in paradise?" he tried not to sound too hopeful.
"You'll be delighted to hear that we did not break-up. We are just going through something." She said lightly.
"You know, if you're still with him out of fear of not finding another partner for your innocent snogging sessions, I'm pretty sure I know someone willing to take that bullet."
She smiled slowly. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm not currently taking applications." She teased. He'd been getting rather flirty with her over the course of their meet-ups, she couldn't stop herself from flirting back some times. "Not enough bimbo's in this school willing to give it up in darkened broom cupboards for you?" She walked on.
He stared at her ass as she walked. What he wouldn't give to throw her down on a bed right now.
A bed materialized in front of her and she fell onto the mattress. He would have laughed if he wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed, and turned on seeing her splayed out in the bed.
"Damn it, Draco!" She yelped after getting over her surprise.
"Sorry, couldn't help it." He was not sorry. She was wearing a skirt today, and her knickers, as it turned out, were black and silky looking. The bed was now blocking the aisle and they both needed to crawl over it to get to their destination.
"So, what is your next phase in the 'beam me up Scotty' project?" Ginny asked when they reached the Vanishing Cabinet. It still looked the same, she had expected it to look different, unsure why.
"The what project?" Draco gave her a funny look, as though concerned for her sanity.
"Sorry, Muggle reference. What is your next step in fixing the cabinet?" She shook her head. Ethan had made her watch a show called Star Trek in the Ilvermory common rooms. All the boys seemed to love it, she thought it was ludicrous.
"I'll be sending a live animal next. You don't happen to have one of those Puffekin things that your brothers sell, do you?" He smiled at her.
"They are called Pygmy Puffs, and no, I do not have one. Bloody things drove me mad all summer. Kept getting out of their enclosure and I'd find them all over the store."
Draco smiled imagining her chasing little fluff balls across shelving and yelling victoriously when she caught one. He wanted to ask more about what was going on with her and Potter. He wanted to find any reason he could to keep her there with him all night again. Since starting back to school this year, she was really his only friend. It had come as a shock to him when he'd realized that.
Crabbe and Goyle had only ever been more like body guards for him. Zabini was kind of cool, but he was staying well away from anything to do with the upcoming war, and knew that Draco was going to be forced to be in the thick of it, so he made sure to stay away from him. Nott was actually on his way to becoming a junior Death Eater himself and Draco mostly ignored him because he couldn't be trusted. Most of the girls in his year were too friendly, Pansy Parkinson was still trying to hang off of him, but he really couldn't stand her, Greengrass was alright, but he'd shagged her before so that made it difficult to cultivate a friendship. The only other Slytherin in his year was Bulstrode, and he'd pass on that, she was an idiot.
That left Ginny, she'd basically become his everything. It was killing him that she was with Potter. "So, what's got you down this week?" He asked her finally. It was the most casual way he could think of to ask her about her relationship status.
She sighed and sat on the floor. Draco and Ginny both had craziness going on in their lives, and they were each-others confidants, and she needed that as much as he did. "You know, I've told you more of my secrets than anyone else?"
Draco nodded. He was confused. Did that mean she had more secrets?
"Do you know that nail polish, Gosh Wow? It goes on clear and you can make it turn whatever color you want it to be and stays that way?"
Again, Draco nodded. "I know my mother loves it. Raved about it to her friends when she first tried it. What the hell does that have to do with anything? You want a bottle for Christmas?"
Ginny laughed. "Trust me, if I wanted a bottle, I could get one myself."
"Well, I know it is expensive." He said gingerly.
"Ha! I am well aware." She smiled and shook her head lightly. "I've regretted the name of it since it came out."
"Regretted the name? You named it?" He was even more confused now.
"I invented it. Gosh Wow, GW. Thought it was clever." She rolled her eyes.
Draco's mouth dropped open. "Invented it? But it's been out for a few years now."
She nodded. "Three years, yeah." She bit her lip. "I made it my first year, patented it, then sold it to Wonder Witch, get a percentage of the sale profits. That's how I afforded to go to Ilvermory. Forged a letter telling my parents I got a scholarship."
Draco was stunned. She was eleven when she'd created something that's probably made her a fortune, and would continue to do so. Though, now he was confused again. "What does that have to do with you being in a bad mood this week?"
"Nothing." She said simply. "It was just something that I hadn't told you, and you know one of my biggest secrets." She gestured to her necklace. "I didn't want to hide my other one from you anymore."
"Why would you hide that?" He asked her sincerely. "You should be proud. That's amazing."
Ginny shrugged. "Talk of money makes my family uncomfortable. Mostly my parents and Ron, but I just got so used to hiding it that I don't make mention of it to anyone."
Now more than ever Draco was fighting the urge to lean over and kiss her. "This isn't fair." He muttered under his breath.
"What isn't fair?" She asked. She'd only just barely heard him.
He looked her dead in the eye. "You shouldn't be with Potter. You should be with me."
AN- There, he admitted it. And all you Hinny fans, no sniping. There is a rhyme and a reason. If you haven't figured it out yet, then stay tuned. I don't want any reviews from Draco haters. You will just have to wait and see what happens.