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Chapter 7

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Dear Harry,

I NEED MORE CHOCOLATE!

You were right. This year is so difficult. But am I really complaining? Yes. Yes, I absolutely AM!

What was I thinking taking so many courses? There are three feet of essays required every night! What the buggering fuck?! Even Hagrid's class requires a lot of writing, and I'm not entirely convinced he can read!

Oh, right. Hagrid is this lovable half-giant Groundskeeper/Care of Magical Creatures Professor that is a wiz with animals, but he isn't the most educated. Love him like an uncle, but I'm pretty sure he uses the stair method or favoritism when assigning grades on essays we've turned in. (stair method, just in case you never came across that in your worldly travels, is where a professor merely throws their essays up a flight of stairs and assigns you a grade based on where yours lands.)

Currently I am managing to get everything done around my Quidditch practice schedule, but who knows if that will be the case later on in the year when we're competing for the cup and I have five feet on how to brew Felix Felicis. Particularly when the brewing instructions for it are only a foot long in the potions book. Snape is a monster, just ask your mum. (They keep giving each other the strange looks at the Head Table, by the way, bet there is some school age hatred in there. They look about the same age.) Or they would look the same age if Snape took care of himself. He could do with learning to brew a potion for his hair, it's always greasy.

Anyhow, I'm managing to keep myself in one piece and we have the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin first match of the season coming up! Gryffindor is absolutely going to slaughter Slytherin. There'll be pieces of snake everywhere on the pitch.

Glad to read that you are past that pivotal point in your training and that Greengrass didn't make the cut. I don't remember much about her in school, but the girls she hung around with were pretty cruel.

And so glad you found a rec Quidditch League of your own! That means you will be top of your game when I need to practice over the holidays .

With Love,

Ginny

()()()

It was now three weeks into October and Harry and Ginny had been corresponding about once a week since she'd gone back to school.

He had established a lovely routine with work and his social life now. Fridays he and a few of his coworkers would go out for dinner and a pint after work. Hermione was a staple at that, which meant that Ron would usually meet up with them too. He, Ron and Daniel were able to carry on nicely about Quidditch while Hermione and the other ladies scoffed and rolled their eyes.

Ron had guided him towards a recreational Quidditch team that met every other Saturday for a few hours in the morning and had a pick-up game against other teams. It was great to get back in the air again and play a real game. It had been years since he'd done it properly, but it was like riding a bike.

As Ginny had mentioned in her letter, Daphne Greengrass hadn't made it through more than a few weeks before her attitude got her let go. Her potions skills had been just fine, but after a few warnings over her prejudice comments in the lab towards Muggleborns, she was walked out. He and the others had raised a pint to that on their Friday get together last week.

By now everyone had found out exactly who his family was, but also by now they had realized he earned his spot in the lab and it wasn't just his name that got him hired.

Sufficed to say, he was loving it.

All was great. Except for one thing.

That one thing was named Sophia and she worked in the Marketing department.

She was interested in him. And she had made it well known to several people that she was interested in him.

Unfortunately, it was only Hermione that knew why he was confused about what to do with this. To everyone else he was a single heterosexual male that should have shagged Sophia in the loo on their first Friday drinks when she made it known she was interested.

Now it seemed that she was taking his reluctance was simply him playing hard to get and she was keen on the challenge.

Problem was, he didn't know if he was a single heterosexual male.

He had no idea where he and Ginny stood while they were getting this betrothal mess sorted. Were they together?

The obvious answer was 'no', because they weren't dating, they hadn't even kissed, even though he'd been tempted. And yet, they were bound together. A small part of him was telling him they were together, and that part was getting louder every time they exchanged owls.

Another part of him was saying that they made no such promises to each other, never even alluded to it, and so they were each free to do as they pleased. And that part grew louder every time Sirius came home with a new tale about his random conquests, and every time Sophia made a quiet innuendo in his ear.

He was eighteen damn it! He was supposed to have more experience under his belt. Notches being carved and what-not. But his damned conscience was stopping him, and the fact that Hermione would absolutely find out about it, then Ron, then Ginny.

Perhaps the problem was that he didn't want to know for sure if they were together or not.

It was a Schrodinger's Cat situation; if he didn't ask, then he wouldn't know. And right now, he didn't know if he wanted to know.

He did know that if he found out that she was dating someone, even the thought of it made his stomach twist up in knots.

"Why the long face?" Sirius asked as he joined him on the patio.

Harry looked up at his godfather and tried to decide if telling him would be a good idea or a bad one. The choice was taken away from him thought when Sirius snatched the letter out of his hands.

"Oh! And what does our fair Ginny have to say for herself? Ooh! Gryffindor/ Slytherin game! We're going to that!"

"What? You want to go to a school Quidditch game?" Harry asked.

"Not a school Quidditch game," he said in a mocking voice. "Gryffindor versus Slytherin!"

"What's this?" his father asked coming out onto the patio to join them.

"Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch game is coming up. And we're going!" Sirius decided for them. "And we should bring Remus along!"

"Sounds like fun," James grinned.

Harry wanted to interject. Didn't they need to get invited to go to a school Quidditch game? It may have been his dad and Sirius' alma mater, but they wouldn't just let anyone show up to a school match, would they? Particularly when there wasn't anyone related to them playing. So far as he understood it, these matches were just for the students and teachers to attend.

"And you know what else sounds like fun?" Sirius asked.

James gave a groan. "I do not want to hear about your latest conquest."

"Relax. This time it's not that. It is about who I met at the pub yesterday, but these gents were not my type," he joked.

Now, he had to admit, Harry may have been reluctant to share his confusion over his romantic life with Sirius, but he was a good person to turn to to take his mind off of all that internal struggling that had been going on in his brain.

"Fred and George Weasley!" Sirius announced.

Shit, cue the internal struggle again, Harry thought. This couldn't have been leading anywhere good.

Thus far he had managed to avoid meeting the twins himself. They hadn't played against each other in the rec league and never made an appearance at the Friday get togethers with Ron either. From the stories Ginny had told him he was worried he'd be pranked pretty badly once he did run into them, and Harry was more than happy to put that off for a bit longer.

"It seems the two young gents have a business venture that they are interested in, one that requires some financial backing, and I happen to be looking for a new project!" Sirius announced.

"You're going into business with the Weasley twins?" James asked. "Just like that?" He snapped his fingers.

Sirius shrugged one shoulder. "They want to make and sell joke products. They know the industry; I know the industry. And I'm bored," he stated the last bit like a teenager.

"Alright, who had three months?" His dad asked jokingly. "Was it me? Three months before you go squirrely and need a new project?"

"Hey, I already told you I was bored even before the rest of you started working. And, when the opportunity presents itself," Sirius shrugged. "They told me about some of their products, even gave me something called a Canary Cream that had me molting yellow feathers all over the bathroom. It was quite a bit of tricky magic they would have needed to manage that."

"Did I ever tell you that they found your map?" Harry suddenly remembered. "Ginny has it now. The twins found it in the school caretakers office."

"Our map?" his dad asked, not looking like he had a clue what Harry was talking about.

"The Marauders Map," Harry told them.

"Ginny has our map?!" Sirius said excitedly. "You know, the more I hear about her, the more I like her. And I liked the twins too. I'm meeting up with them again in a few days to hear about more of their products and talk about where they might want to go with them in terms of a business venture."

"Speaking of business with the Weasley's," his dad said a bit more morosely. "Solicitors still haven't found anything. You sure you don't want to see about pushing it out to another generation? It took the Weasley's seven or so generations to have a girl, they might have a curse of their own. And Ginny was the seventh child too. Familial magic is an odd thing."

"I'm not doing that," Harry said firmly. "And we are certainly not going to make Ginny barren to enforce the extension."

"I'm sure it won't come to that," his dad tried to placate.

"But you don't know, do you? She might not be keen on having a kid so young, neither am I, but I don't want to find out ten years down the road that she can't have a kid and then wonder if this is why." On that much, Harry was sure.

What he really wanted to do was to see Ginny again and get the chance to talk to her.

If they actually went to the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin game then he would get the chance to see her, but she'd be busy playing and then celebrating after her win for them to get the chance to talk. And he knew she was going to win, her letter wouldn't have come off so cocky if the Slytherin team was as good as her team.

()()()

James used the Floo to get to Hogwarts that evening after talking with Harry and Sirius, going directly to Lily's private quarters. He didn't join her overnight the last time she had to stay the weekend, but this time he felt he needed to.

It was because of the letter that Ginny sent Harry that compelled him to see her.

They had only talked about the Quidditch match part of the letter, but he saw what Ginny had written about Snape and had grown concerned about it. He felt obligated to stay at the castle with her tonight, just to see for himself that Snape didn't attempt to come into her private quarters on the weekends she was required to stay.

He didn't feel like he was being overbearing, or misremembering just how in love with Lily Snape had been throughout their school years.

And Snape had really seemed to derail after their fifth year and the incident where Lily finally ended their friendship. He had still been a brilliant student, but he'd taken to holing himself up in the library, like he knew she'd be there, or staring at her all through mealtimes.

Snape's obsession with her, and his own obsession, which he preferred to think of as wooing, was what finally shaped James up to become the obvious choice for Head Boy in his last year, and finally resulting in Lily falling in love with him.

Though, he absolutely did not want to give any credit to Snape for that.

Snivillus had gotten into the Dark Arts, and James wouldn't put it passed him to try something on Lily, despite all of her well-rounded arguments about how that couldn't possibly happen.

If Ginny was noticing something was off between them, then he wanted peace of mind by being here with Lily on her nights at the castle.

It was a cozy space that she was provided; not much of a personal touch to it though. There was a small counter and basin area and a kettle by the fireplace, one couch, a desk, and two doors; one leading to the bathroom and one to the bedroom. Lily had brought sheets and a few spare clothes from home for that room.

It was only a single bed though and James was quick about expanding it to a double.

He then took a seat on the couch and picked up the book she'd left on the end table. He had no idea how long she would be and knew she would be mad at him if he was found wandering the corridors.

It was passed eleven by the time she finally came into the quarters, and he'd fallen asleep with his head back on the couch.

"James?"

He let out a loud snort as he jolted awake. "Yes, hi, what?"

"James, what are you doing here?"

He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and saw she was dressed in tight sweater and jeans under her robe. It was the same kind of thing she wore when she was Head Girl on the weekends and it was giving him flashbacks for a moment there.

"What time is it?" he checked his watch. "Were you out doing rounds or something?"

"Yes," she told him, as though that should have been obvious. "That's why I stay here once every four weekends; the Prefects do the rounds, then I do rounds after them."

"By yourself? How long does that take?"

She cocked her head at him and crossed her arms, using her serious face. "Why are you here, James?"

He obviously couldn't tell her it was because he didn't trust Snape. "The Gryffindor/Slytherin game," which was partially true. "Sirius, Harry and myself, we wanted to go. Wanted to make sure that was alright."

Her eyebrow went up. "And you didn't think a question like that could have waited until Monday? The match is next week."

He gave her his best boyish grin then. "I expanded the bed in your room. And I really like the picture of you standing there with those robes on."

"Don't tell me you came here for a shag," she exasperated. "I am so tired."

"We never shagged at school!" he pointed out as he stood up and followed behind her to the bedroom. "I mean, we did everything else." She glared at him then, but he knew his wife's expressions, she was partly amused. "And I was home, and alone," he finished as he stepped behind her and gave a kiss to her neck.

"Tell you what," she said as she stepped just out of his grasp, "you be a good boy tonight and let me sleep, then I'll let you make me late for breakfast."

()()()

"Did I mention how brilliant it is that students that are of age are allowed to visit the village on the weekends?" Ginny giddily asked her friend for the third time.

She was in an excellent mood! Their game had started at nine in the morning and Slytherin was eating their Chasers dust for the whole game until the Gryffindor Seeker caught the snitch two hours in. The score had wound up being 240-20! They were a shoe in for Quidditch Cup this year!

Ethan chuckled, "you wouldn't be saying the same thing if we'd lost." Ethan was a Beater on the Gryffindor team and in his sixth year, but had turned seventeen in the middle of September, so he was allowed to head into the village too.

"No," she shook her head, smile still wide on her face. "Wouldn't be saying it if the game ran past one either. That'd hardly give us the time to come down and get any time to explore the village and stock up."

She needed this break. Her brain hurt from all the information she had been cramming into every recess of it, all the facts that she was attempting to memorize to the point that she didn't need to memorize them anymore. She didn't have her own Hermione at school making her study schedules and flash cards for her to help with the process.

Her Hermione was off at E.L.M with Harry.

The only thing she'd done besides Quidditch Practice and schoolwork was attempt to talk to Professor Binns about getting out of marriage contracts, see if he had any tidbits of information that he might not have mentioned to Lily when she asked. And if that hadn't been such an important thing that she needed to know then she wouldn't have been able to stay awake through his droning on about the history of them and different types.

What she'd summarized from his hour-long lecture was that he didn't know how she could get out of it.

He could have just said that.

She was blaming Professor Potter for that hour of study time wasted. And if she hadn't been such an incredible Charms teacher, or her potential future mother-in-law, then she might have given her a glare over it. Lily had mentioned to her that she'd asked, but she'd also said it had been a short conversation, which had been what led Ginny to think that if she dug deeper into the conversation with the ghost professor, that something might spring up.

"Where do you want to go first?" Ethan asked, linking his arm through hers. "Drink first to celebrate or stocking up from Honeydukes so that we can get that craziness over?"

"Hmm," she took a moment to think over her options. Either one was going to be fun, but if they went to the Three Broomsticks then she might get waylaid by everyone else that was headed to the village from the school right now wanting to talk about the game.

"Well, really," Ethan cut through her pondering, "there is one more thing that we have to get out of the way before you decide."

"What's that?" Ginny asked, smiling up at him brilliantly, still in her good mood.

She had not been expecting him to lower his face to hers though. His lips had barely brushed hers before she reacted with a startled jerk and her body instinctively jolted back to put more space between them. Her heel caught on a rock from the movement, and she fell down hard onto her bum, the pain of it didn't register right away as she was staring up at him.

"Were you just trying to kiss me?" she asked in shock.

Ethan was standing there, his arms still outstretched, and his head tilted down slightly, his expression holding his own shock. "I thought," he started. "Did you not know? I thought we were both on the same page here."

"What page?" she asked incredulously. "I don't think we're even reading the same book!"

"Ginny, you're flirting with me all the time. We're going to Hogsmeade together," his eyes were darting all over her body as though trying to find some part of her that was agreeing with what he was saying. "I thought you wanted me to!" Ethan's tone held a sheepish desperation to prove it wasn't all in his head.

Her mouth was frozen in an 'o' shape, her brain working in overtime to remember when she might have been giving him mixed signals.

"Ethan," her head shook slightly and she got herself up to her feet. "Ethan, I'm sorry. I'm just friendly like that with everyone. I was raised around boys, I act with you the same way with you as I do with Demelza," she shrugged. "I didn't mean… I didn't even know you thought of me like that."

Ethan looked as though she'd just slapped him. "So, you don't like me," it wasn't a question.

"Just as a friend," she told him painfully. "I'm sorry you thought otherwise."

"But. But, why not?" he asked, thankfully he appeared more confused than angry. "I'm alright aren't I? And you haven't been showing interest in anyone else," he pointed out.

Ginny's shoulders sagged and she shook her head, the corner of her lips ticked up, her body seeing some humor behind the misunderstanding. "But Ethan, I'm not even availa-" she cut herself off and her expression dropped.

"Available?" he finished for her, sounding astounded. "You aren't available? Since when?"

She couldn't answer though. All she could do was stare at him dumbstruck because she had no idea whether it was true or not. She had a Betrothal Contract and though she and everyone else involved were looking for a work around, she and Harry had grown so close. She knew she had feelings for him but still didn't want to admit to anyone, maybe not even herself really, that if they couldn't figure a way out of the Contract that she was becoming less and less bothered by it.

But did that mean that she wasn't available?

In her mind she and Harry were in this together. If he was seeing other girls and had just failed to mention it in their letters, she'd be gutted. But he wouldn't be in the wrong if he was seeing other girls, because they had never discussed it.

She didn't want him seeing other girls, and she didn't want to see other boys. She just wanted Harry to herself and all the confusion behind what there was between them to be gone.

"Ginny?!" Ethan called her attention and waved a hand in front of her face.

"It's complicated," she breathed out.

"So, there is someone else," he said sadly.

"Yes," she nodded solemnly, still trying to work it out in her head. "I'm sorry if I gave you mixed messages."

He heaved a great sigh and looked down the hill towards the village. "Ah, well," he shrugged, not sounding like he fully meant it, "at least I can't say I didn't try."

"Still friends?" she asked hopefully.

He gave her a forced smile, "yeah. Just… mind if we make separate plans for exploring the village now?"

"That's fine," she told him immediately. "And if it helps, I'm pretty sure I saw Jamie Cummings giving you a good looking over the other day," she told him, hopeful that moving on to another love interest might help him be at ease around her again, Jamie Cummings was a pretty Hufflepuff girl in his year that was most certainly not hoping to be 'just friends' with him.

He gave her a tight-lipped smile that could have passed as simply a grimace before he turned away from her and continued down to the village by himself.

Ginny waited a few moments before she continued on her way as well. Ethan's legs might have been several inches longer than hers, but she was a quick walker and didn't want to make him any more uncomfortable by catching up with him on accident.

Turning away from the main road she headed to the Hogs Head, figuring there would be less Hogwarts students there celebrating Slytherin's loss. One drink, she figured, and then she could restock her supplies. Hopefully by the time she made it back to the castle she'd be feeling more up to celebrating with her friends.

Ginny kicked the sides of her boots against the outside wall of the pub to get the buildup of dirt off them before entering. There wasn't the same rush of warm air that she would have been pelted with had this been the Three Broomsticks but she'd been there often enough to know that the drinks were cheaper and the seats had warming charms on them.

"Ginny!" came a familiar voice from the corner table.

She looked toward the voice and stood there staring in shock at the sight of Sirius, James and Harry with a fourth man that she recognized only from photos around Potter Manor as Remus Lupin. She managed to snap her jaw shut after collecting herself.

"Hi," she greeted them in an altogether high-pitched voice. Clearing her throat, she tried that again, "hello. What are you all doing here today?"

Harry got up from his seat, his expression set with a wide grin. "We came to watch you play," he said before giving her a hug. "You were just as brilliant as I knew you'd be." His arms around her felt lovely. He had this nice scent to him that she remembered vaguely from their time together in the summer but hadn't realized was uniquely his until now.

"You were there?" she asked, her face growing hot from the pleasure of his attention.

"We were all keen to see a game of Quidditch, figured if we were going to see one this weekend, then it had to be yours," he told her and took her hand to guide her to the seat beside him.

"You made us former Gryffindor's proud," James told her.

"What are you drinking?" Sirius asked and waved over at Aberforth, the barman.

"Oh," she turned around and caught the eye of the bartender. "The usual please, Abe," she told him. He nodded and she turned back to the group of them. "Why didn't any of you mention you'd be coming to watch?"

"We didn't want to distract you," Harry told her unconvincingly. Something about how the other three were looking at him told her that wasn't entirely truthful.

"Remus Lupin," Remus held his hand out for her, "nice to finally meet you."

"You as well," she greeted, accepting his hand. "I've seen you in a few photos from my visits to the Manor over the summer."

"You did a damn fine job in your match today," Remus continued. "We all imagined you would be down at the Three Broomsticks to celebrate."

"Oh, well. I was debating about heading there before stocking up on a few things but then," her eyes darted over to Harry and then back down at the table. "There was a misunderstanding with a friend and I was kind of hoping to avoid, um, them."

"Everything alright?" Harry asked.

Ginny gave him a tight smile, very much not wanting to go into detail. "Yep, everything will be fine."

"But it isn't now?" he asked, she could see he was trying to figure out what could have happened. Considering they wrote each other regularly and about every little thing going on in their lives he clearly knew it was something recent.

"It's," she started, but Aberforth came and set her drink down in front of her. "Oh, look! A distraction! Thanks, Abe."

"Alright, Gin Gin," Aberforth said in his usual grumpy monotone while he walked away.

"Call me that one more time and you'll regret it," she growled at him, unable to keep the corners of her mouth from twitching up.

"Come here often?" Sirius asked with a cocky grin.

Ginny could do no more than give him a wide smile as she raised her hot chocolate spiked with Crème de Menthe up to her lips and took a small, satisfying sip.

()()()

Harry and Ginny left the Hogs Head together an hour later and she'd seemed in better spirits when they left than when she'd arrived. He didn't know if it was just from the surprise of seeing them there that she was behaving oddly, he would have expected her to be more exuberant after Gryffindor's win. She was distracted though.

"Honeydukes?" he prompted as they went down the path back to town.

"What?" She didn't seem to be paying any attention.

"You said in your last letter that you needed chocolate; I would assume that means you need to stop into Honeydukes."

"Oh, right. Yes."

"Anything else?"

"Erm, I could use another quill."

"Okay." They walked in silence for another minute. "Is something wrong?" he finally asked her. "Are you angry that we came to the game for some reason?"

"What?! No!" She reached out to grab his shoulder, stopping them. Her eyes were wide with surprise at the suggestion. "I'm not angry. I'm just… I'm in my head about… stuff. Sorry. It's nothing to do with, well, that's not true," she bit her lip and looked down at the buttons on his coat. "I'm happy to see you, I promise."

He recognized her yammering for what it was; confusion.

Her dialogue sounded an awful lot like his inner monologue when he thought about her, or Sophia.

He wanted to ask her about what they were to each other, but it was such a strange thing to bring up and if she was already dealing with something, then it might not be the right time.

Then again, as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and saw her worrying her bottom lip, he thought that part of her confusion might be linked to his own. And she had mentioned a 'misunderstanding' with a friend. Could it be the exact same misunderstanding he was having with Sophia?

"Look, Ginny, you're the one that's better at being straight forward, can you please just tell me what's wrong? Because I think that we need to talk more, not just about work and school, which is all our letters are about." He wanted her to be the one to bring it up, it would be so much easier for him if she did. He mentally crossed his fingers hoping she would mention something about their relationship status.

Ginny bit her lip and glanced down at the village. "There's." She paused and took a deep breath. "Look, the reason why I'm in a mood is because I was headed down here with a friend and we had a, a misunderstanding and it put me in a mood, that's all."

"A misunderstanding?" Inside he was begging her to explain it.

"He-"

At that word, 'he', Harry felt like he was both relieved and devastated.

"He tried to kiss me."

Harry had a difficult time swallowing. When he opened his mouth, he was surprised that his voice sounded normal, with how strange his throat felt now he would have expected it to be more raspy. "Tried?"

"It, er, threw me off and I actually fell backwards and landed on my bum," she blushed.

He wanted to smile. He was worried that she was going to tell him she liked someone else, that this 'friend' of hers and she had been growing closer for a while and now she had another reason for wanting out of the betrothal.

Ginny looked too miserable about it for him to show her that had made him happy. Instead, he decided to commiserate.

"There's a woman at work that has been trying to get close to me."

Her eyes locked on his in surprise and her lips parted, just a bit, just enough to emphasize them to the point of distracting him.

"I don't know if it's because I'm a Potter, or-"

"It isn't," Ginny told him immediately.

"How would you know that? You don't even know who I'm talking about," he smiled.

Ginny rolled her eyes at him and gave an exasperated sigh, "because you've got that interesting accent that makes me want to just sit and listen to you talk for ages, and you are a good-looking bloke. Smart too."

"You want to just sit and listen to me talk for ages?" he asked her, intrigued by that information.

Ginny blushed deeper. "It's not just me. You know, girls, women, er, people," she landed on, "your accent is unique, and people would want to listen to it because of its uniqueness."

"Right." He was feeling warm from how flustered she was getting over complimenting him. "But this leaves us with a question though, one that we hadn't discussed."

"Yes, it does," she nodded, looking like she wanted to avoid this subject just as much as he did.

"Just so you know, I'm not interested in the woman I work with."

"And I was apparently giving mixed signals to the friend," she assured him. "I was only being friendly, like I would be with anyone."

He wished she hadn't just said that.

Ginny was a friendly person.

And they were friends.

Harry lost his nerve then and looked back down to the village where he could see Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop. "Shall we go and get you a new quill then?"

()()()