Chapter 9

The time seemed to drag on like molasses as Ginny imagined what her invisible lover would do to her that night... she had never imagined sex could be so completely amazing. She had almost feared it after what had happened in her first year... but now... after last night... she realized that what Tom's spirit had done to her had very little to do with sex... with Tom it had been nothing more than pain and a throbbing sensation of being invaded... just pulsing agony throughout her whole body, but mostly in her loins... now that she had actually experienced having sex, the whole event before actually lost some of it's power over her... she had always known that Tom hadn't done anything to her physically... but somehow that fact had never really completely sank in until she found out what it really felt like to have a man inside her.

She shivered, remembering the feel of it.

"You ok?" One of her roommates asked, catching up to her and looking at her with concern.

She quickly smiled. "Fine."

The girl arched her eyebrow at her suspiciously, "You better be..." She said, looking around and leaning closer, whispering conspiratously, "We were able to get ahold of some refreshments for tonight..." She said with a mischievous giggle.

Ginny's eyes went round. AGH! She had forgotten that Friday nights were girls night... her roommates would expect her to hang out with them, staying up to all hours of the night... and from the sound of it, consuming 'refreshments' that were almost definitely not allowed...

"I don't know if I'm up for it tonight... I'm really tired and I have tons of homework..." She started.

The girl arched an eyebrow again. "You don't really think you can get out of it with those lame excuses, do you?" She asked with a smirk.

Ginny glared at her.

"See you at curfew." She said in an overly cheerful voice, flouncing off to sit with her other friends.

Ginny grumbled irritably, taking her usual seat and plunking some food on her plate. She just sat there after that, poking at her dinner moodily. She looked over across the table. Her brother had a far off look on his face, a little smile trailing over his lips. After a moment he caught sight of her and quickly dropped the smile, his cheeks flushing bright red. She eyed him speculatively, a little smirk creeping onto her mouth. Looks like she wasn't the only one with a reason to grin today... she wondered what... or more importantly WHO he was thinking about... Harry and Hermione were sitting on the other side of him, far from where his gaze had been... it looked like he had finally stopped fixating on Harry. Ginny sighed happily to herself, profoundly relieved.

-----------

Ginny was sitting tailor fashion on the floor beside the low coffee table near the fire in the Gryffindor common room, pouring over her homework. She hadn't been lying actually... she DID have a ton of homework to do... and the sooner she got it done, the sooner she could forget about it and concentrate on finding a way of getting up to the owlry and spending the night with Darien... Her roommates had already gone up to the room, giving her not-so-subtle hints that it was time to 'call it a night', but she had ignored them.

Despite her concentration on her homework, it hadn't passed her notice that Ron kept glancing and his watch. As it crept past nine thirty, he started giving the portrait hole longing glances when he thought no one was looking. Harry and Hermione were there too of course. Harry had his arm across Hermione's shoulders, but Ron didn't even spare it a glance. Hermione was doing her best, as usual, to 'include him'. Ron usually put up with it, even played along, but tonight he seemed disinclined to, answer her a bit shortly.

Hermione persisted even more cheerfully than before. Ginny rolled her eyes. Wasn't it blatantly obvious Ron didn't want to hang around with them? That he in fact appeared to have agreed to meet someone somewhere? If his manner didn't tell her, then she should have at least clued in from the fact that he had already showered for the night, and had put on cologne and fresh clothes that she knew were probably about the best he had this side of dress robes.

Ron tried to get up, muttering something about prefect rounds. Hermione grabbed his arm and pulled him back down beside her. "Ron..." She said patiently, "We both know rounds aren't mandatory... sit... stay... we really want to talk with you."

Ron rolled his eyes and settled back down, glancing at his watch again. Ginny looked at her own. It was less than ten minutes before ten. She finally sighed.

She got to her feet. "That's it! Ronald Weasley, we have to have a talk!" She said sternly, folding her arms over her chest.

All three looked over at her in surprise.

"Wha... what about?" Ron asked, startled.

She narrowed her eyes. "You know very well what about!" She growled. "Come on! Get to your feet or we'll discuss it here in front of everyone!" She said, her voice making that clearly a threat. More and more people started looking over with interest.

He swallowed. He didn't know what he'd done, but she could verbally eviscerate a bloke but good when she got mad... not something he wanted any witnesses to. "Ok, ok..." He muttered miserably, getting back to his feet.

"Outside." She growled, storming over to the portrait hole. He blinked in surprise, but followed.

He turned to her fearfully as the portrait sealed the entrance behind them. "What did I do?"

"Nothing yet, but from the looks of it, you're about to." She said, suddenly grinning merrily.

"Huh?" He asked, shocked.

"I'm not blind, Ron. You wanted out... and if I'm not mistaken, you're about to be late for something, so GO!"

A brilliant smile lit across his face. He glanced at his watch, then grabbed her head between his hands, planting a kiss on her forehead before turning and dashing headlong down the corridor. She smiled as he disappeared down the stairs. At least SOMEONE would be having a good time tonight...

She settled down on the stone floor, leaning back against the wall and took out her nail file. She didn't want to go back into the common room until she was sure Ron had gotten to wherever he was going. She was sure if she went back in now they would go searching for him to 'make sure he was ok'. She had broken a couple of nails in Care of Magical Creatures class that day anyway. She took her time, filing away for a good ten minutes. She was just examining them and preparing to get up and return to the common room when the portrait hole opened.

Hermione came out, squinting around in the relative dimness of the corridor as the portrait swung closed behind her, the fat lady still snoring softly against her frame. When she spotted Ginny sitting on the floor, she hurried over, crouching beside her in concern. "Ginny! What happened? Are you ok?"

Ginny smiled, "I'm just fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

Hermione blushed. "I don't know... I just... I mean you seemed so upset... and I know Ron's been a bit off since..." She shifted uneasily. "I guess I was just afraid he might take his frustrations out on you..."

Ginny rolled her eyes, anger flaring inside her and the ludicrousness of the suggestion. This had gone far enough! "Ok, it's time we get something straight Hermione." Ginny said, her temper rising. "My brother, though he may be a prat on occasion, would never hurt me!"

"I... I didn't mean..." Hermione said, taken aback.

"Furthermore," Ginny said, raising her voice to override Hermione's protests, "If he's been frustrated lately, it's because you won't leave him the bloody hell alone!"

Hermione's eyes went wide, her cheeks darkening. "What are you talking about?"

Ginny sighed. Why wasn't she getting it? She lowered her voice, slipping into a tolerant tone she usually reserved for explaining things to Neville when he was being particularly thick. "Ron does not like you. Well, he does LIKE you, he just doesn't WANT you... He has no desire to be WITH you. Ever. You are like a sister, and he finds it very irritating, and undoubtedly a bit insulting, to have you treating him like he's some stupid, star-crossed school boy who is hanging at your heels. Is ANY of this getting through?"

Hermione was staring at her, taken aback by the girl's bluntness. Ginny had never spoken to her like this before. "But... but the way he was looking at us every time me and Harry were together..." She said, obviously in shock.

Well, Ginny wasn't about to go handing out her brother's secret, so she neatly sidestepped it. "He may have been a bit jealous that you two had someone... but not that Harry had YOU. He was lonely... now I think he's found someone, but you seem intent on monopolizing him. Was it not blatantly obvious he wanted to leave tonight? I saw it. I'm sure anyone who took two minutes to observe him knew it too. Yet there you were, literally holding him down! I wasn't mad at him... I was just helping him escape!"

Hermione's mind was obviously boggling. She sat down a bit less than gracefully beside Ginny, thinking through the night's events in her mind. "Oh I feel simply horrified..." She said faintly, "I've never been so mortified in my whole life... I never even ASKED him how he felt... I just assumed that was why..."

Ginny sighed, then spoke more gently, "Listen, I didn't want to break it to you like this, but I saw no other choice. You're spending all of your time ignoring your boyfriend to spend time with someone who doesn't require, nor WANT your constant presence. Not to mention I think you're starting to drive Ron nutters, and I know he'd feel REALLY bad if he finally snapped and said something. He's still your friend, after all."

"Oh Merlin..." Hermione said, wrapping her arms around herself, "How can I face him now? I've been such a fool... what could I possibly say? I mean..." She trailed off, looking lost.

Ginny smiled, "Calm down... just... don't even bring it up. Just start treating your boyfriend like a boyfriend, and Ron like a good friend, drop the clingy crap, and get on with your lives. Don't tell him about your love life, and for Merlin's sake, don't ask him about his! If he wants to tell you about it eventually, he will, but he's not very comfortable talking about that kind of thing. I'm sure Ron will appreciate not being harped on about it. And, I mean... he's a GUY. I'm sure he would really rather not have any kind of scene or apology. Trust me, he is REALLY uncomfortable with THAT kind of thing."

Hermione sighed, but nodded. "Ok... we'll try that then..." She said morosely.

-----------

It was nearly midnight and the girls were still going strong, despite the numerous bottles of butterbeer they had gotten AND the small amount of Firewhiskey they had managed to procure (and had been spiking the butterbeer with). Ginny would have loved to tell them about setting Hermione straight, but she never liked spreading gossip. Still... it had felt absolutely glorious finally venting a bit at the older girl. She liked Hermione, but she could be so insufferable sometimes... a chance to school her in the obvious was a rare treat indeed. Ginny just let the afterglow of it sustain her through her roommate's seemingly endless tales of boys that they were sure liked them, and of course talking about everyone else's love lives.

She had finally had more than enough of their inane banter, and told them she needed to get some fresh air. They just giggled and called her a lightweight, but let her go. She went to the far window, all the way across the room from them next to her bed (which was the last one in the row). Ginny leaned her head against the side of the window pane, sighing sadly. She wished she had a view of the Forbidden Forest from there... she had undoubtedly already missed his nightly flight with the Thestrals. She smiled, remembering the feel of racing through the air with him pressed up against her back...

"Is that smile for me?" He asked softly, his lips brushing her ear.

She shivered and closed her eyes, pressing her cheek against his. "I hoped you would find me... I'm sorry for not coming out tonight..." She whispered.

He kissed her neck, "It's ok..." He murmured softly, "I doubted these little vixens would let you out of your Friday night ritual..."

She smiled. He really HAD been watching... She stifled a moan as he nibbled on her earlobe. "I wish I could get away..." She murmured longingly.

"Well...." He said, a bit of mischievousness creeping into his voice. "You could always go to bed and draw the hangings... and we could put that Sanctuary charm to the test..."

Her eyes went wide and she felt a rush of excitement at the thought. She couldn't possibly... not with all of her roommates in the same room with her... but then again... she was finding it hard to remember WHY it was wrong with him fondling her through the thin material of her nightgown...

"Hey Gin! You ok over there?"

She looked over, "Um... I... uh... I'm not feeling that good actually... I think I need to get some sleep..."

"Ok..." The girl said, looking a bit concerned. "You do look a little flush... just tell us if you need anything..."

Ginny quickly nodded. "I think I just need to have a nice long... um... uninterrupted sleep." She said, trying to keep the smirk off her face as she got up, feeling him brush past her into the room. She closed the window most of the way, leaving it open just a bit, then got onto her bed, quickly drawing the hangings shut as she felt his arms slip around her.

When they were all closed, she turned, having to pry him off her a bit, stifling a giggle. "The charm first..." She whispered.

She felt his smirk as he kissed her. "As you wish..." He whispered, then cast the spell.

------------