14.

She spent the next hour in an exhausted daze. . .still glowing from orgasmic bliss. She had never been one to cuddle with lovers afterwards; she was a restless person who could not waste several hours simply lying. However the first thing she did when she returned to her home, was to drop everything in the kitchen, go straight to her room and collapse onto her unmade bed. She knew that she should bathe, before she fell asleep, but there was something so . . .comforting about his scent still lingering in her senses that she wanted to stall as long as was possible.

Besides, bathing would take an awful lot of energy, of which she had none to spare. There was the walking to the bathroom, the running of the water, undressing. . .no, it was simply to much at the moment. She would rather lay, searching for the answers as if they might be carved into the ceiling like commandments etched in stone.

If it were only that easy! Well, it wasn't exactly difficult, but it wasn't so simple as simply saying '' Oh, that's my boyfriend.''

He wasn't. In fact she couldn't manage to imagine that particular tidbit of titular vernacular ever applying to Severus Snape, no matter how far advanced there relationship might become; and she couldn't exactly think of another suitable phrase. She tried a few variations, and shook her head lazily at each utterance.

" We're lovers. . ." It rang of rose-lit romanticism, and numerous encounters.

" We're together. . ." sounded oddly aloof, as if the situation were arranged by nonchalant mutual agreement instead of spontaneous attraction.

"We're seeing each other." A little more appropriate but hardly accurate, and definitely not simplistic after you attached all of the '' hereto for's ' and '' there withins '' of this new and yet sketchy relationship.

Aha! That was it;

" We are founding a relationship. . ." ( all donations would be appreciated.)

Maybe not.

Maybe she just wasn't serious enough to deserve a relationship. Other women had relationships, where they spent long hours discussing the pro's and con's of each individual moment, dissecting every word nuance and action he performed to see if somehow it boiled down to a personal criticism. She might have her feminine surges, but she was a Weasley, and she could never be serious enough to be that paranoid.

She fell asleep face down across the bed, still trying to devise the perfect term to use if someone should ask her what was '' going on between them".

" Well, my brothers best friend fed my ex-professor, and now teaching rival, a doped chocolate, so I had to knee him in the undercarriage to get his attention,and then he confessed to love. . ."

" Ginny? Are you alive?'' someone poked her foot.

" Severus?" she mumbled into the sheets.

" Hardly. Blimey, I thought you were dead."

" Ron? " Ginny turned over and began rubbing her eyes. " What are you doing here?"

Ron tucked his wand back into his pocket and turned away, noticing her blouse had come undone.

" I told Mum I would come and find you. You didn't come to the meeting tonight, your Floo was closed, and nobody has heard from Snape." Ron gave a little nod toward the bathroom door.

" He isn't in there? Is he?" he rasped in a hoarse whisper.

" Who?' Ginny was still shaking the dreams from her head.

" Snape?"

" Why don't you go look ? " she sat up, and glared at Ron with some irritation. " As far as I know, he isn't in there, and I am not dead. "

" Why didn't you come to the meeting?" Ron asked, nudging the bathroom door open to have a look anyhow. He seemed disappointed that he didn't find a guilty Professor hiding behind the door.

" Because I fell asleep." she answered in a false-cheerful soprano.

" Yeah. You were really knocked out." he wandered out of her bedroom, towards the kitchen, and she heard him open the coat closet and the pantry on his way through.

Shaking her head in defeat, she rolled off of the bed and followed. Luckily she was halfway to the door when her mirror, in the shocked tone of a grandmother seeing a scandalous new garment, screeched at her;

" Where do you think you are going, young lady?" it demanded. " Just look at yourself!"

Ginny obliged.

" Your hair is a mess, your blouse is torn! Torn I tell you! Now how did that happen?"

Ginny blushed.

" And look at your face. . .all red and blotchy. You were sleeping on your stomach weren't you? A lady should never sleep face down, it makes the eyes puffy!"

The mirror went on with it's lecture while Ginny hastily changed her shirt and combed her hair. When she sneaked out of the room, it was still in the middle of a somber dialogue about how a beauty nap did absolutely no good if you looked worse after waking.

She found Ron in the kitchen, rooting through her food stores.

" Did Sev-uh, Snape come to the meeting ?'' she asked, automatically handing Ron one of the boxes of Every Flavor Beans she kept on hand for his visits. He stuffed six or seven into his mouth, before answering.

" Nope. Thought he was with you."

" No. Well, he was, but he had to go somewhere."

" Yeah. . .he was summoned. Dumbeledore was pretty concerned."

" Why?"

" He thought that maybe the two of you had been discovered somewhere, and attacked by Deatheaters."

" Why would he think that?"

" Because there was another man working for the ministry that was squealed on, and the Deatheaters killed him this afternoon. Found out he was a double agent, and they killed him, his wife, their son, and their infant twin daughters. They think they might even have killed his wife's grandmother. . .they can't find her anywhere."

" That's horrible. I didn't know that there was another double agent.'' she said quietly. " But we weren't attacked. We were having a picnic. See?" she gestured to the basket.

Ron shrugged. He kept looking toward the guest bedroom, as if worried any moment that a Deatheater was going to pop out and hex him green.

" See anybody suspicious while you were out?" he asked.

" No. .. we were completely alone."

He squinted at her, and she sensed the onslaught of a brotherly lecture. Ron could be overwhelmingly protective at times. . .and sometimes incredibly bossy. She was in the mood for neither trait at the moment. She was worried about Severus.

" All clean .'' someone called from the other room.

" Who is that? " Ginny demanded.

" Tonks."

" Tonks? What is Tonks doing in my guest room?''

'' Nothing you would have to censor in a family friendly environment." Tonks said laughing. " I was sent to be certain that nothing suspicious was in your house."

" Why?"

" Because she is an Auror, and that's what they do." Ron answered.

Ginny heard something crash to the floor and break. Something that sounded painfully like her blown glass unicorn.

" Don't worry I can fix it!" Tonks called. " As soon as I get my foot unstuck." A small feminine grunt was followed by a dull thud.

" All right, Tonks? '' Ron called.

" Yes. Don't worry, I don't think the floor was scorched. "

Ginny winced visibly. If the floor was scorched, it would cost her a lot of money, and a good explanation to the house's owner. She was about to open hr mouth and call to Tonks to just please vacate the room. . .when Tonks barreled out of the door, face flushed, and hair disheveled. She had long spiky violet hair that was halfway between being cute, and making her look like an exotic weed in bloom.

When she reached up to brush a lock of it back, a large engagement ring flashed in front of Ginny's eyes. So. . .Charlie had actually done it. Ginny finally gave in and smiled. Only Charlie would have given a woman an engagement ring with dragon scales engraved on the silver band.

" It's a lovely ring, Tonks."

" What? Oh. ..yeah.. .bit scaly though, really, but it's Charlie. You have to love him." she grinned.

" Glad someone does." Ron said from the hall bath, where he was checking behind a shower curtain for rogue assassins.

" So. . .when are you getting married? "

" Oh, I don't think we ever decided. We were waiting to see whether or not we liked being engaged first. '' Tonks passed by Ginny, casting a rather greenish glow as she checked for spells, hexes, Portkeys, or suspicious wards. She stopped in front of the small hall closet.

" This is warded. " she announced.

" I know. Tonks! Don't! It's full of. . .''

Too late Tonks blasted open the door, and Ginny closed her eyes, hearing all too well the crash's and bangs the carefully stacked junk falling out of the closet. See had used magic to cram it all in, but it need no assistance in tumbling to freedom. Photograph albums, books, pencils, souvenirs, stuffed animals, trinkets, clothes, musical instruments she had never learned to play. . .spread across the floor in a an ocean of chaos.

" Sorry!" moaned Tonks.

" Wow Gin, what was all of that doing in the closet?" Ron watched cross-eyed as a feather from a quill floated down lazily past his nose.

" I cleaned house." she stated.

" Must be a special relationship. You never cleaned house for Harry."

" Shut up."

" You dated Harry?' Tonks asked. She was trying to stuff the junk back inside, but it would have none of that. . .not now that it was free again.

" Only for a week or two. Just leave it Tonks, I'll get it later."

" Two weeks." Ron affirmed. " One day he got lost on the sofa and we had to dig him out with a pick axe.That's when they broke up."

" Don't be ridiculous." scoffed Ginny." We didn't ' break up'. We 'drifted apart'."

" You drift apart from all of your beau. Some drift more speedily than others."

" Ron...'' she said, with a tone of warning in her voice. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Tonks examined the living room.

" Some practically pick up there robes and flee."

" All right, that is enough! " Ginny barked, sounding disturbingly like her mother. " Are you here for a purpose, Ron Weasley?"

" You mean, on this earth or in this room?" he asked with a smile of faux innocence, unable to resist an opportunity to drive his baby sister a bit batty. ( Not that she needed any help, in his opinion. . .anyone that would willingly see the Snape as a suitor.)

" Both. But start with '' why in this room'' ?" she quickly re-charmed all of the closets contents to return to the inside, and locked the door.

" Ginny. . .I have to tell you something important, but first I have to ask you a question. Don't get mad at me, please." Ron scrunched his face up in an expression of apprehensive squeamishness.

'' Going to check the bedroom! " sang Tonks from the kitchen.

" There is no one suspicious in my bedroom." Ginny stated. They would have had plenty of time to evacuate if they had been in there, she thought.

" Oh, well. . .don't despair, there is always hope for the future. " Tonks replied in her characteristic cheeriness.

" Well. . .what's the question?" Ginny asked Ron, crossing her mental fingers that he didn't ask any thing embarrassing or tell her something exceptionally horrid, like they found Severus in pieces, or the Burrow had been attacked.

" Well. . .er. . .is this thing, between you. . .and Snape; is it real? "

" I believe so." she answered in all honesty.

" I mean, has he given any indication that it is something more than just. . .I mean. . .you know, not real?"

" Well, he told me I looked real, and that I got to him in a good way. " she smiled.

Ron's eyebrows shot up in skepticism and he wrinkled his nose slightly.

" But seriously, yes, he has given me. . .plenty of indication that he is serious."

" Can you prove that you were with him today at four o'clock in the afternoon?"

" What?" she asked softly." Prove he was with me?"

" Yes. And it should be fairly believable."

" Why?" Ginny was genuinely confused.

" Ginny, I am going to be perfectly blunt. Severus Snape is under suspicion for murder. . ."