A/N—Yeah, yeah, sorry about the lack of updating…I had no idea how long it had been until I skimmed my last chapter for ideas and saw the A/N boasting about the OSU win over Michigan—which was a long time ago. I'm still mad that Michigan is still going to the Rose Bowl even after they lost. Stupid Wisconsin. Er, sorry, rambling. Anyway, have no fear because I have a promise to make to all of you who have so faithfully stuck around for the slow process of this story: I swear to finish it by Christmas. I don't even know how many chapters that will take, but I'm on Christmas break and have nothing else to do, so I am finishing it by December 25, 2004. Today is the 14th, feel free to burn me at the stake if I break my promise.

Oh, and one particular scene is dedicated to Heather (ronandherm4eva—my partner in crime) because our weird conversation inspired it. Lol, Merry Christmas, pernongin.

Unconventional Commitments

Chapter Fifteen
Is it Possible to Drown Yourself in a Bowl of Soup?

I am seriously about to kill myself. If it weren't for the fact that my grandmother would track me down in the afterlife and lecture me for all eternity for committing suicide, I would do it, I swear.

Harry is the most boring bloody date, ever. I'd gladly take back Colin to get out of this. Hell, I would marry Colin if it meant this night could end. All right, so that's an exaggeration, but you get the point. This is bad. This is I'm not sure if Harry and I can ever talk after this bad.

He won't say anything! He just sits across the table staring at me. It is the oddest thing I have ever encountered. I have a standard rule of thumb with dates, I don't initiate conversation. If you ask me out, then you find some way to entertain me. But Harry has yet to say a thing to me the entire date. I mean it, not even a "Hello, Ginny, you look ravishing." And I'm not about to give up my code, so as far as I'm concerned, we can sit in silence.

Still nothing…wait, wait, he's opening his mouth, this might be it…but, no, he is only yawning. I hope he falls asleep in his soup.

I start to click my tongue against the roof of my mouth in an annoying manner. If he won't entertain me, then I'll entertain myself and be irritating while I do it. He raises an eyebrow to which I click louder. I hope I'm causing a scene and embarrassing him. He smirks and appears to be ready to speak—but instead he just shrugs his shoulders and goes back to eating his soup.

I stop clicking my tongue as it is no longer amusing to me and eye my knife. Sensing that the knife is a bit extreme, I move my gaze to my spoon. Perhaps if I just happen to drop my spoon (and by drop I mean hurl) on his…oh, I don't know, face, then he'll start to pay attention to me!

Fine, forget it. I will be the adult here and start conversation. If he is going to have this little childish game going on, then that is just fine, but I am not about to partake in it.

"My hand hurts," I say after a moment.

He appears surprise, "You can speak. I knew that you had it in you."

"I should be saying the same about you. You have not said one word to me, Harry Potter, throughout this entire date! It is your responsibility to entertain me—I mean to initiate conversation."

"Well," he says slowly, "the way I see it, you always get bored with these blokes that take you out, correct?"

"So you thought the way to end my boredom would be to sit in silence? Good reasoning, Harry, you should really consider going into theoretical science."

"That was not exactly my reasoning. You see, I think that the reason that you feel so trapped by your relationships is because you aren't the one calling the shots. You allow the man to be the dominant figure and then you hate him for it. So, Ginny, this is your test. You initiate conversation, you control the date, and I shall play the role of the girl."

"Are you out of your bloody mind?"

"I assure you that I am of sound body and mind. C'mon, Gin, what do you have to lose? Just try it. You never know, it very well may solve all your pesky little commitment issues."

Pesky little commitment issues? Is that how he views the very bane of my existence? If I could solve my commitment issues life would be wonderful. My mother would finally get off of my back about something! But it is too much to ask. You cannot simply solve commitment issues. They are a part of you, something deeply enrooted in your mind and they are not something that can simply be switched on and off.

By the way, that really irks me when people act like it's otherwise. You know, how if you tell someone that you are afraid of commitment and they just shake their head patronizingly at you and say "Well, just wait until you meet the right person and they'll change your mind completely." Sodd off, because that doesn't happen! You don't introduce yourself to someone and then just think "Oh, wow, I don't think that I'm afraid of commitment anymore, let's get married and have six dozen kids." It simply does not happen.

I notice that Harry is staring expectantly at me. I suppose he wants an answer to his 'what have you got to lose' question. I had thought it was rhetorical, but I suppose not. "My sanity," I say finally, "that is what I have to lose."

He waves a flippant hand, "Yes, but you never had that fully to begin with, so will you truly miss it so much?"

"You know, for someone attempting to convince me of something you aren't doing a very good job. Don't you know that flattery, not insults, is the way to a girl's heart?"

"Apparently not as the girl that I have been chasing looks like she would rather drown herself in her soup than talk to me."

Drowning by way of soup! Now, why didn't I think of that? I mean, when I had been contemplating suicide, I had thought I would go to the loo and find some way to hang myself from the ceiling. But drowning yourself in your soup…now that is creative. Just imagine the obituary…

I roll my eyes and pretend that that statement wasn't true five minutes ago, "Oh, do be serious, Harry."

"I am. I really think that it might help you to do a bit of reversing roles."

"Fine, we'll play your stupid little game if it'll make you happy, then. I'll be the guy. Scoot your chair over here so I can grope you while you attempt to eat and then when you get annoyed I'll act like I have the right to be a slimy git because I'm paying for the meal. Only when it comes time to actually pay for the meal I'll discover that I've conveniently left my wallet at home so then I'll ask if you wouldn't mind picking this one up."

"All right, but first let me go to the loo to 'freshen up' for thirty minutes while you sit out here and look like a complete arse whose date has abandoned him. Then when I come back out you can mention something about it taking so long, at which point I shall burst into tears and make a scene about how you don't care about me."

My eyes narrow, "And when you cry I'll just sit here like the insensitive fool that I am because I'm a man and I care for no one but myself! I'll tell you that you are just being girly and to pull yourself together."

"And then I'll be all over you because I, like all girls, flock to guys that treat them like shit."

I take the napkin out of my lap and throw it on the table, "I don't want to 'play' anymore. In fact, I think that I have had quite enough." I stand, "Goodnight, Harry."

He stands with me, "Gin, don't leave. I'm sorry."

"No you aren't. You got just what you want, right? You're right, I am like most girls. If a guy treats me horribly I will most likely stay with him because every girl thinks that she can change the bad boy, mold him into the perfect boyfriend. Or maybe I just like a challenge. I don't know." I laugh sadly, "Why else would I have stayed with Draco Malfoy for so long?"

Harry's jaw drops, "You went out with Malfoy?!"

Whoops. I forgot that that particular failed relationship was somewhat of a secret. I wave my hand flippantly, "It's not important." And it really isn't. It was after the whole Dean fiasco…I was upset and wanted to be rebellious. What better way to rebel against my overprotective brothers than to chase (and catch) Draco Malfoy?

Harry, however, now just appears to be confused. I almost feel pity for him. Almost.

"Whatever, Harry. I'm still leaving."

"No, don't. I really am sorry, Ginny, I thought the whole role reversal thing was a good idea, but it obviously struck a nerve with you. I'll be normal, I swear it."

"You're never normal."

"I…but Malfoy, Ginny? You really went out with Sodding Malfoy…did you sleep with him?"

"Oh, God, Harry. It was a long time ago and—"

"You did! You slept with the ferret. How could you?"

"You realize you sound like Ron at the moment and the entire restaurant is staring at us?"

"I do."

"I'm not staying around for this. You can make a scene by yourself." And I don't. I apparate back to my apartment and look around for Hermione. She isn't here. She's never here anymore. Oh well, it isn't as if I miss she and Ron keeping me awake at night.

Predictably, I hear a pop behind me. I figured Harry would come to apologize.

"Malfoy," is the first thing he says and it is still in that same disbelieving tone.

Well, perhaps he hasn't come to apologize. It seems he has just come to rant further and annoy me. Terrific.

"Actually, it's Ginny. But if you want me to attempt to go become a Malfoy I could give it my best shot."

"I just…why didn't you tell me?"

"Because it happened forever ago, you seemed to hate me at the time, and it is none of your bloody business. I doubt Draco even remembers it, really."

"So it's 'Draco' now?"

"Are you aspiring to be Ron? Of course it's 'Draco' do you think we shagged calling each other Malfoy and Weasley?"

"You…shagged, then?"

"Look, Harry, it was a long time ago, and—"

"But you slept with him, Ginny."

"Yes. If it is that important for you to hear, then fine, yes we shagged."

"But you slept with me, too."

"Acute observation. I don't know what you're on about, Harry. Is this some weird 'sharing' thing? You don't want your enemy's ex?"

"No—I mean yes. I mean no…I mean I don't know, Gin. I just…it's a surprise, all right? Did anyone know?"

"A few people," I reply tersely. I don't elaborate. I have a feeling that if he knew that Hermione knew about Draco and me and never told him then he would be rather upset with her. Although, I still stand by the reasoning that it is none of his business.

"Why did I never know?"

"Harry, can we drop this, please? I told you already, it is in the past, so far in the past that I can barely remember it. It truly is not important."

"It's important to me."

"Why?"

"Because it's Draco bleeding Malfoy…"

I roll my eyes, "If that is your only reasoning then I'm afraid that you have effectively lost this argument."

"C'mon, Ginny, if you suddenly found out that I had slept with…say, Pansy Parkinson then you'd be upset too."

"Not really, no. Pansy isn't so bad looking, you know. I could see where a male would be attracted to her. Now, if you had some long drawn out relationship with her, I'd be surprised. She's a real bitch, that one. Feel sorry for whoever marries her…"

He seems to ignore all of which I just said. "You would too be jealous if I slept with her."

"No, I wouldn't be, Harry."

"Would too."

"Would not.

"Would too.

"Would too."

"Would not."

"You're right, I wouldn't be." God bless muggle cartoons, really. And I never thought I'd say it, but God bless Fred and George for becoming obsessed with the American ones.

"Damn," Harry mutters, "that always gets me."

"It always got Daffy as well, dear."

Harry laughs but then suddenly stops. "You would be upset, though, or at least surprised."

Does he really want to go through this again? "Fine, I'd be a bit surprised, but not upset. I understand that certain things are in the past, such as who we have slept with."

"But I've never slept with anyone else."

"Rotten luck for you, then, but if you had, I assure you that I would be fine with it."

He grumbles and sits down on the sofa. "So who else have you slept with?"

"I think it's a bit late for that conversation."

"No, I want to know."

"No, you don't. I'll tell you, then you'll get angry, and then we'll have this conversation all over again."

Harry shrugs in agreement. "You're right, I suppose. I guess I should go then…"

"If you want to," I say.

"I have work in the morning, so I probably should. This has been…odd, Ginny."

"Pretty much, yes, but I expected nothing less. Owl me later?"

"Of course." He stands and gives me a brief kiss on the cheek. I turn my head and kiss him fully on the lips. "Goodnight, Ginny," he says in a low voice.

"Goodnight, Harry."

A/N—That was an odd chapter. Oh well. Merry Christmas, all! Or Happy Christmas if you prefer…I know some people that really dislike the phrase Merry Christmas. Supposedly it's weird and an American thing. So if you are one of those people, Happy Christmas, lol. Oh, and Happy Holidays to anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. And now I'm rambling…so I'll just end with a plea for everyone to please review!