Chapter 58
What the hell was that all about? Harry asked himself as he stalked past the overstuffed chairs Lavender and Parvati were occupying, slipped through the portrait hole, and ambled towards the corridor that would eventually lead him to the Room of Requirement. I don't fancy Ginny. She's Ron's little sister for Merlin sake. He'd bloody well pulverize me if he knew what I was just thinking about. I can't have thoughts like that about her.
Obviously you can, a sarcastic little voice piped up in the back of his mind. Seeing as how you just did.
But it isn't her, Harry argued with himself, not really. Ron mentioned bringing girls up to our room and Ginny just happens to be a girl, that's all.
An attractive girl, who you want to snog, the voice taunted.
I do not.
So why were you thinking about it then?
Ron was the one that brought it up, Harry insisted. This is all his fault really. Not that it would stop him from killing me if he ever found out I fancied his sister, which I DON'T, but still, how am I not supposed to think about doing those kinds of things when I know for a fact that he is?
That's what it is, Harry decided, finally hitting on a means of justifying his actions. I can't stop thinking about doing it because I know he is. But just because I'm randy and Ginny happens to be the first girl to pop into my head doesn't mean I fancy her, or that I really even want to do those things with her per se. The only reason I thought about her at all is because other than Hermione, she's the only other girl I'm really close to or comfortable with.
Which is exactly why you shouldn't be thinking about doing things like that with her in the first place, he scolded himself as he continued to march down the hallway, walking right past the tapestry of Barnabas the Balmy and his dancing trolls without even noticing. Ginny is your friend, not some shag toy you can play with and discard as soon as you get bored. She deserves better than that.
Not that it really matters, because she's not interested in me like that anymore, he made a point of reminding himself. Anymore than I'm interested in her.
Good thing too, because Ron really would kill me. Not that I'd blame him. I'd want to kill me too if did something like that to her, he admitted to himself, jerking his eyes off the ground when they landed on the base of the man-sized vase that was situated at the end of the corridor.
"Damn," Harry muttered, spinning around when he realized that he'd walked right past the stretch of wall where the door he wanted was concealed.
Get a grip already, he admonished himself as he trudged back towards the blank space opposite the tapestry. You have to be able to concentrate if you want to get in, he reminded himself, closing his eyes and banishing all thoughts of redheads from his mind so he could focus on envisioning what it was he was going to need. But all he really needed was a quiet place, so he pictured the Gryffindor common room in his mind and started pacing.
Harry had just made his second pass in front of the blank wall and had turned around to make his third and final one, when an unexpected voice rang out behind him.
"What are you doing?" Parvati Patil asked, unable to contain her curiosity. She'd just seen him walk back and forth in front of the same spot with his eyes closed twice after all.
"What's it to you?" Harry shot back, not only irritated with her because she'd broken his concentration, but with himself as well, because he hadn't realized she was there and she'd actually managed to startle him.
"Nothing I guess," Parvati replied somewhat cautiously. "I just saw you heading this way and thought you might be starting the D.A. up again or something, that's all. I wasn't trying to snoop or anything," she said, despite the fact it wasn't exactly true. She'd seen him leave the common room on his own, with nothing but a balled up cloak tucked under his arm and her curiosity had been peaked, so she'd decided to follow him.
"Well I'm not, so you can leave."
"But you are trying to get into the Room of Requirement? Is that how you do it?" she asked, having always wondered how it was that Harry and his friends managed to find the secret room in the first place, let alone how they managed to get inside. When she'd shown up for the D.A. meetings the year before, the doorway had always been visible and one of them was usually manning it, but when she walked down the corridor on her own after the meetings, or before they started, the wall where the doorway ought to be was always smooth and vacant. "You just walk back and forth in front of the wall until the door appears?"
"Something like that," Harry admitted. "But you have to concentrate and I can't do that with you standing here yapping at me."
"Sorry," Parvati said quietly, before shutting her mouth and taking a few steps backwards so she wouldn't be in his way, but she obviously had no intentions of leaving. She did refrain from speaking however, and simply stood there instead watching him as if she expected him to perform some impressive feat of magic.
"All you have to do is walk back and forth in front of the spot where the doorway should be while thinking about what it is that you need," Harry said quickly, hoping against hope that if he explained how to get inside, she'd go away and try it on her own later.
"And what is it you need tonight?" she asked coyly. Unfortunately for her, the fact that she was trying to flirt with him when right over Harry's thick head.
"Peace and quiet," he replied rather tetchily. "So if you don't mind."
"Why not just go to the library then?" she asked, not buying his explanation. "It's always quiet there. Unless you're planning on meeting some lucky girl here," she added, studying him closely to see if she'd hit close to the mark.
"No," Harry snapped, using an exasperated tone of voice. "I'm just going to be working on some homework, if you really must know."
"Uh huh," she said in a placating manner, clearly not buying a word of it. "Without your books, or your notes, or so much as a quill. Homework. Right. And who exactly are you going to be working on this 'homework' with?"
"No one."
"Maybe I can help you then."
"I don't think so," Harry retorted. "Professor Tonks specifically told me that I should work on it alone."
"Ooooh," Parvati said excitedly, her whole face lighting up. "So it's Defense Against the Dark Arts is it? Did she teach you some new spell? Is it something we're going to learn in class later? Oh, can't I see it? Just show me once and then I'll leave you alone to practice. Please," she added in a sickening sweet voice, batting her eyelashes as she did so.
"It's not for class," Harry sighed, taking his glasses off for a moment and rubbing his own eyes with the palms of his hands. "It's just some relaxation exercises, ok? Nothing big or flashy or impressive about it," he stated as he put his glasses back on, hoping against hope that the truth would disappoint her and put her off a bit. "All I'm going to do is sit there and try and clear my head."
"You mean like meditation?" Parvati asked, not even remotely put off by the boring nature of the truth. "What form are you going to use?"
"Form?" Harry asked uncertainly.
"Yes?" Parvati replied. "Are you going to try Concentrative Meditation and focus on your breathing to relax or are you going to use a form of Mindfulness Meditation? Did Professor Tonks give you a mantra?"
"A what?"
"A mantra," Parvati repeated, taking in Harry's confused expression and elaborating a bit. "You know, a word or phrase to use in order to focus your mind. Something to repeat when random thoughts intrude and you need to refocus. You don't have to tell me what it is, if that's what you're worried about."
"Good thing because I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied.
"So you don't have a mantra then," she said, more to herself than to Harry. "So you'll be focusing on your breathing instead? I supposed that makes sense. You are just starting out after all. I could help you if you like," she said gamely. "I mean just to get started. Make sure you're using the proper breathing technique and sitting in the proper pose. That kind of thing."
"Um..."
"It really is terribly important that you start off right. If your posture isn't properly poised you'll never get it right," she insisted. "I'd think Professor Tonks would be here to walk you through it herself. Unless she's already done that."
"Er... yeah, she has," Harry said, despite the fact he really didn't know what Parvati was talking about.
The term poised made him think of some ballet dancer balancing on a toe and Tonks couldn't do something like that without falling flat on her face even on her best day. The thought of her even attempting it was actually rather humorous. Parvati however, was a very good dancer, at least as far as Harry remembered. She had managed to get him through the opening of the Yule Ball, despite the fact he had no idea what he was doing, and she obviously knew more about meditation than he did. Maybe she could help him.
"How do you know so much about this stuff anyway?" Harry asked, looking at her in a contemplative manner as he tried to make up his mind.
"Meditation is a Hindu practice," she replied straight away, "and my father believes that it is the key to good health and happiness," she added, rolling her eyes a bit as if she didn't quite share his point of view. "He made sure both Padma and I received the proper instruction. It's good for relaxation and focus," she continued, "but personally, I've never gleamed much enlightenment from it. But if you're trying to use it to enhance your ability to focus so you can learn some complicated DADA spell, I can definitely help you with that."
"Well, Tonks did walk me through it," Harry said, after a few seconds of silence had elapsed, "but it was a couple weeks ago," he admitted, "and I haven't really had time to try it out on my own since then. I suppose if you really want to help, a few pointers wouldn't hurt."
"The first thing you're going to have to do is get comfortable," Parvati said, after giving Harry the time he needed to concentrate and make the door appear. "You should probably start by taking some of your clothes off," she said completely non-pulsed, tugging her own jumper over her head as she followed Harry into a duplicate version of the Gryffindor common room.
"What?" he asked, spinning around just in time to see her toss her jumper aside and crouch down on the hearthrug to remove her shoes. Unfortunately for Harry, Parvati wasn't wearing anything but a formfitting black tank top under her jumper, and as tight as it was, in her current position, he had a straight shot view down the front and he couldn't help but stare at the ample amount of cleavage that was showing.
"You'll need to take your shoes off," she stated when she looked up and saw him just standing there gawking at her. "Here, I'll help," she added, trying not to smirk when she came forward on her knees and untied his trainers for him.
She hadn't purposely set out to entice him with the view, but seeing as how he'd finally noticed her, she couldn't say she was exactly sorry about it either.
Maybe Lavender was onto something, she thought, recognizing the keen look in Harry eye because it was very similar to the one he, and all the other boys in the immediate area, had been directing at Lavender just before Hermione walked in and hexed her clear across the room for trying to seduce her boyfriend. I usually prefer something a little more subtle, but this seems to be working so... I might as well go all the way and there is no possible way he'll be able to misconstrue this, she thought, locking her large brown eyes on his trousers momentarily and slowly running them up his body until she was looking directly into his wide eyes.
"You'll need to unbutton those," she said without so much as blushing.
"WHAT?"
"Your trousers," she explained as she sat back on the hearthrug, never taking her eyes off his shocked face. "I told you," she said, slowly peeling off her socks, then crossing her bare legs and placing her feet on her thighs after she bunched her skirt up just enough so it wouldn't be in the way, "you need to be comfortable," she explained, "and I have a feeling that your trousers may be a bit... constricting. Actually, unbuttoning them might not be enough," she added, smiling to herself when she noting the fact his eyes were glued on her exposed thighs. "You should probably take them off altogether."
BLOODY HELL! Harry's mind screamed, his entire face flushing with color. If he did that, she'd know exactly how much watching her disrobe was affecting him. Then again, maybe that's what she wanted. No, he told himself, despite the fact he was no longer sure of anything.
She couldn't possibly be suggesting what he thought she was suggesting, could she? Had she seen what he was looking at? Did she already know what he was thinking about? Did she know how much the sight off her baring so much of her lovely brown skin was affecting him? And if she did, why wasn't she embarrassed? Why wasn't she covering herself up?
Unless she's doing it on purpose, Harry thought, his already wide eyes getting even larger behind his glasses. Is that why she was just sitting there like that, letting me ogle her? Is that why she wants me to take my trousers off? Unless, Harry thought with mounting horror, Unless this is some kind of whacked out test. Maybe she just wants to see if I'm thick enough to take my trousers off so she can run back to the common room and laugh about it with all the other girls. OH DEAR GOD! This can't be happening.
Who says it can't? his libido piped in. She's beautiful and you already know that she's interested. Hermione told you and she wouldn't lie about something like that. Why are you fighting it?
Because I can't.
Who says you can't? he argued with himself, biding his time by removing his own shoes with his toes. Ron and Hermione are doing it, so why shouldn't you? A good snog never hurt anyone.
But I can't, he exclaimed, slowly peeling off his own jumper, despite his better judgment. I don't even know how.
Then this is a perfect opportunity to learn. All you have to do is follow her lead and do whatever she does just like you did with the dancing.
But what if I'm wrong? What if it isn't what she wants? Maybe she really is just trying to help me get comfortable because it will help with the meditation stuff. If that's all she's trying to do and I try something else, I'll make a complete berk out of myself.
"Er...," Harry stammered, unbuttoning his trousers and feeling thoroughly exposed as a result, despite the fact he still had plenty of clothing on. "What now?" he asked, sitting down on the floor opposite Parvati and looking at her nervously.
"Are you comfortable?" she asked casually, allowing her eyes to dart down to zipper for the briefest of moments, before refocusing on his face again.
"Er...I guess so," Harry replied, his face heating up yet again.
"You're going to need to sit upright," she instructed, straightening her own back and thrusting her chest out in the process. "Like this," she said, showing him the proper stance "You have to keep your spine completely straight. You don't want it to be rigid though," she added. "You want to be comfortable and natural. Just try and keep your shoulders back and your chin up and you should be fine."
"Shoulders back," Harry repeated as he stared at her, his eyes focused several inches below her shoulders and his own body anything but relaxed. "Chin up. Right. Now what?" he asked, after forcing himself to adopt a similar pose.
"Relax your muscles and let all your tension wash away," she instructed, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Start at your head," she said, after letting the breath out. "Focus on the tension as you breathe in and push it away as you breathe out, then work your way down. Do the same thing with your eyes. Breathe in," she said, sucking in a deep breath, oblivious to the fact Harry was watching her chest rise and then fall, "and let it and the tension out," she said after exhaling. "Move down to your jaw, then to your neck, then down to your shoulders," she explained. "Slowly work your way down your entire body. Focusing on any tension you are feeling as you breathe in and force it to leave your body as you exhale. Breathe in deeply at first, then less and less, so that by the time you reach your feet, you're breathing is slow and natural. You want it to be calm. You want it to mirror the way your body feels. It should be nice and slow and relaxed just like you are."
"You aren't relaxing," she said, after opening her eyes and looking at him. "Take a deep breath and hold it," Parvati insisted. "Now close your eyes and focus on your neck. Feel the muscles there. Pull any tension you are experiencing in them forward. Now exhale and push the tension out. Imagine it leaving your body. Imagine yourself forcing it out. Now take in a new breath, fresh and clean, and concentrate on your shoulders."
"That's right," Parvati said softly when he complied. "Now let it out and move to your chest. Just breathe in and let it out," she said as she watched him.
Little did she know it wasn't his own chest he was thinking about, it was hers. The way it rose and fell with each breath she took. The way the firelight dancing across the room from the fireplace shimmered against her smooth skin. The way her sleeveless top hugged her body and the perfect roundness of the breasts it concealed. So full and firm. He imagined himself reaching out and touching them, cupping them both so he could feel the weight of her in his hands. He imagined his fingertips running over her flawless skin. He imagined her nipples hardening against his palms in response. He wanted to feel them. He wanted to see them. He wanted to take them in his mouth and...
OH GOD! This is sooo NOT what I'm supposed to be thinking about.
"Think of meditation as going to the bottom of the ocean, where everything is calm and tranquil," Parvati explained while Harry silently cursed himself.
What are you doing? he rebuked himself. She told you that you weren't supposed to be rigid, and yet here you are, thinking about her body instead your own and look what that's gotten you. You're so hard now you can barely think straight. Way to go, Potter. How do you plan on getting out of this one?
"There might be a storm brewing on the surface," Parvati continued in a soft voice, despite the fact Harry wasn't really listening, "but below, where you are, the water is unaffected. It doesn't matter how high the waves get now because where you are it is peaceful and silent."
The hell it is.
"When a wave from the outside world comes crashing down you will not feel it. You will be unaffected. Feel your fears, your doubts, your worries, and all the other earthly turmoil you're experiencing ebb away."
"Just take a moment, to breathe," Parvati instructed in a serene voice. "Breathe slowly and evenly now. Concentrate on your breathing. Use your imagination and feel yourself breathing out all the rubbish you want to get rid of. Let it ebb away with the waves on the surface and focus on your breathing.
Yeah right, Harry thought. No way in hell this is going to just ebb away. As soon as she leaves I'm going to have to help it along. And she better go soon or she's liable to notice what's going on, because my trousers are bloody unbuttoned, he reminded himself, shifting uncomfortable. SHITE!
"I don't think it's really working," Harry said, his green eyes snapping open behind his glasses. "But thanks for trying. You don't need to waste anymore of your time sitting here trying to help me though," he added quickly. "I reckon I can work it out on my own from here."
"You really think so, do you?" Parvati asked, a coy smile playing across her lips that sent a jolt of terror through Harry's body. "I suppose you could at that," she added, licking her lips and dropping her gaze to his lap, "but it wouldn't be nearly as fun."
OH DEAR GOD! Harry screamed in his head. She knows.
"You won't be able to concentrate on your breathing with that," she said unabashedly, forcing herself to look into him dead in the eye and batting her eyelashes again as she spoke. Somehow she managed to do it without blushing too much, but she couldn't help but feel brazen.
Coming on this strong wasn't Parvati's usual style, but this was Harry Potter; The Boy Who Lived; the most eligible bloke is all of Hogwarts. Not only was he rich and famous, he was actually good looking to boot. And yet despite all of that, he wasn't some smug pretty boy with an ego the size of one of Hagrid's monsters that was in need of constant stroking. In fact, Harry had no idea what a catch he was, which made him all the more appealing. If she could land him, she'd be the envy of half the girls in the school and for a payoff like that Parvati was willing to take a few risks. If she had to take a leaf out of her best friend's book and be a bit brazen to do it, then that was exactly what she was going to do.
"There are other ways to relax and experience a bit of Nirvana," she forced herself to say in a seductive tone of voice. "I could help you with that too, you know?"
BREAKBREAK
"Looks like the room is free," Ron leaned down and whispered into Hermione's ear the instant they cleared the portrait hole and he spotted Seamus loitering around a group of fifth year girls, no doubt trying to chat them up. "It would be a shame to let it go to waste," he continued unabashedly.
"You're shameless," she sighed, but it was more for show than anything else. Ron knew perfectly well that she didn't really disapprove as much as she was pretending to. "We just got finished..."
"I wasn't finished," he interrupted, "and I know for a fact that you didn't get to finish either, because..."
"It was nearly curfew," Hermione argued, this time completely sincere.
"So what?" Ron countered, "There was no way anyone was going to find us there," he argued. Ginny didn't know about the secret chamber behind the mirror on the fourth floor after all, and she was the one doing rounds.
At least she better not know about it, Ron thought to himself. If Ginny knew about it, she might be tempted to use the space herself with some wanker she found attractive, but had the good sense not to tell him about. Especially now that they'd taken the time to clean the place up a bit and Hermione had transfigured the blanket she'd smuggled down in her rucksack into a mattress. No, he most definitely did not want his sister knowing about, let alone using, and his private space.
"And even if we did get caught out in the hallways once we left," Ron continued to argue, "we're prefects."
"Exactly," Hermione stated. "And a fine example we'd set. We give Malfoy a detention for being out after curfew, then turn around and do the same thing ourselves, only to have your sister let us off."
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
"RON!"
"Hermione," he countered with a smile.
"Come on," she said, shaking her head as she took his hand in hers and tugged him towards one of the worktables. "You have an essay to start."
"But you said I didn't have to do any homework tonight," he whined, coming to a dead stop in the center of the room.
"That was before, when I thought you were going to go to bed early."
"We can still do that," he said, fixing her with a cheeky grin. "Let's turn in early," he said in a quiet voice, pulling her towards the stairwell that led to the boys' dorm. "It's the best idea you've had all night, and that's saying something." It had been her idea to go down to the secret room behind the mirror on the fourth floor and turn it into their own private love nest after all.
"Is that all you ever think about?" Hermione asked, yanking her hand out of his.
When Ron spun around she was scowling at him, or attempting to anyway, but she wasn't able to sustain it for very long. She didn't really want to fight with him now that they'd made up. So she glowered and went through the motions, because she thought she ought to, but they both knew that her heart wasn't in it.
"Recently," Ron admitted, opting for honestly instead of a denial, seeing as how she could read him just as easily as he could read her. "But it's not my fault I'm mad about you."
"Mad being the operative word in that statement," Seamus said, coming up behind Hermione and looking at Ron as if he wanted to retch. "You can add nauseating and whipped to that list as well."
"Says the bloke that couldn't find a 'bird' willing to go upstairs with him," the redhead countered.
"Sod off, Gingernut," Seamus snapped.
"Forget it," Ron said, not to Seamus, but to Hermione who had bristled at the Irishman's statement.
Most people, Seamus included, would have assumed that it was due to the fact he'd cursed in front of her, but Ron knew the truth. He knew it because he could sense what she was feeling and he recognized the sensation very well. It was the same thing he felt whenever someone called her a 'mudblood', only to a lesser degree. But she was still aggravated and insulted, not because Seamus had curse, but because he'd followed it up with a slur about red hair. She was offended on his behalf and she fully intended to tell Seamus off for it.
Ron couldn't help but be a little flattered by that knowledge and yet at the same time, he realized that Hermione didn't really comprehend why the comment hadn't bothered him as well. What she failed to understand was the fact that Seamus didn't really mean anything by it. It was just the way blokes were with one another, especially when they were friends. They could insult one another without any provocation whatsoever and it didn't mean a blessed thing. Only in this case, Ron had given Seamus provocation. He'd made fun of Seamus, so Seamus had ridiculed him in return. No harm, no foul, and no reason to blow it all up into something it wasn't and make a scene.
"It's not a big deal," Ron added as he steered Hermione, who was still glaring at Seamus over her shoulder, back towards the study tables. "What do you say to a game of chess?"
"But your essay..." she started to complain.
"It's only nine," Ron said, cutting her off before she had a chance to get going. "I've still got plenty of time to work on the bloody thing. Just one game."
"Fine," Hermione relented, "but if I win," she added with a smirk, "you really do have to start on your essay tonight, WITHOUT anymore complaints."
"Aren't you going to ask what I want when I win?" Ron asked with a lopsided smile.
"Oh, I know perfectly well what you want," she replied. "And don't think I'm going to let your urges fluster me."
"And you're still willing to play?"
"Yes, I believe I am," Hermione said somewhat smugly, dropping her rucksack on the ground beside the vacant table. "You go get your chess set," she instructed, "and I'll go get my transfiguration notes. You'll be needing them, along with those books we just brought back from the library, once we've finished playing."
As if, Ron scoffed in his head, sniggering to himself as he turned around and headed for his dorm.
BREAKBREAK
Harry had to hand it to Parvati; she was a very patient teacher. As of yet, she hadn't complained once. Not when he pulled away from her without warning to remove his glasses. Not when he bumped her nose with his, not once, but three separate times. Not when his teeth accidentally knocked against hers. Not even when he got more comfortable with the actual snogging part and found the courage to let his right hand slide off her shoulder and brush the part of her anatomy he'd been thinking about ever since she removed her jumper. She hadn't objected once. If anything she seemed to welcome it, encourage it even. His hands weren't the only ones wandering now by any means.
A fact which quite frankly stunned Harry. Even though it really was happening, all of it still seemed so unreal. Parvati Patil, one of the most beautiful girls in his year, was snogging him. Not only that, she'd just brushed the palm of her hand down the front of his trousers, causing him to suck in a huge breath.
Harry tried not to groan at the contact, assuming that it had been accidental. He didn't want to break whatever spell they were under or scare her off. But rather than jerk her hand away, as Harry expected she would the instant she realized what had happened, Parvati left it right where it was and only then did he realize that what she was doing was completely intentional.
"Did Cho ever touch you like this?" she cooed into his ear. "Did she ever do this?" she asked, no longer teasing him, but pressing her hand down firmly.
"SHITE!" he hissed loudly, jumping clear off the sofa they were sprawled out on when she squeezed him briefly.
"She didn't, did she?" Parvati asked, unable to hide her smile.
She couldn't help but feel proud of herself when she noticed the way Harry's eyes bugged out, before he clenched them shut that is. The way he was reacting to her, it was just so obvious that she was the first person to ever touch him in this way. She'd wondered about it when they'd first started kissing, because Harry seemed rather inexperienced for having had a girlfriend. And Cho Chang wasn't exactly a shrinking violet. But apparently she hadn't gone nearly as far with Harry as rumor had it she went with Cedric. A fact which surprised Parvati, but pleased her as well.
It was rather thrilling really, knowing that she was the only girl to ever touch him in this way. And if she played her cards right, she was in a position to be his first. Maybe not his first girlfriend, but his first at everything else that mattered. But she'd have to take it slow. If she pushed him too far, too fast she'd likely scare him off and that was the last thing she wanted.
Maybe I shouldn't even be doing this, Parvati thought, and yet she left her hand exactly where it was until the doorway leading into their facsimile of the common room unexpectedly swung opened and David Devane, one of the fifth year Gryffindor perfects entered the room and spied them on the sofa.
"BLOODY HELL!" Devane swore, just as a second person, this one with long red hair entered the room.
Her eyes immediately darted to the bits of clothing strewn across the floor, before jumping up to Parvati, who was furiously attempting to smooth out her rumpled skirt. In that instant Ginny fixed the older girl with a satisfied look that all but screamed, I'm going to enjoy this, but the look vanished when her eyes fell on the person sitting next to the raven haired beauty on the couch.
Harry spun around to face the doorway just in time to see redhead gasp.
"GINNY!" he yelped, his face turning a brick red, not with embarrassment but with shame. "It's ... it's not what you think," he said without even taking the time to think about it. He knew it was lame the instant he heard the words out loud, and yet he couldn't stop himself. He didn't know why he felt so guilty, but he did and before he even had time to register that fact, he was trying to explain everything away so she would close her mouth and stop gaping at him with that hurt expression on her face.
"What I think," Ginny said, recovering enough to squared her shoulders and place one hand on her hip as she bristled, her eyes jumping from Harry, to Parvati and her swollen lips, then back to Harry again, "is that you and your girlfriend," she spat the word out venomously, "have just earned yourselves a big fat detention."
"But... but that's Harry Potter," David said to Ginny, goggling at her in disbelief. "I thought you two were... he's your brother's best friend. You aren't seriously going to give him a detention."
"THE HELL I'M NOT!" Ginny snarled, turning her anger on her fellow prefect. How dare he stick up for Harry when he'd just been caught cavorting around the castle with that... that... shameless hussy. "It's after curfew," she snapped, feeling the need to justify her outburst. "And they are clearly violating the rules. They're lucky detention is all they're getting. I've got half a mind to march them down to McGonagall's office and let her give them the same lecture she gave Malfoy."
"That's a bit extreme," David said, somewhat taken aback by Ginny's reaction to the whole thing and clearly uncomfortable. "They're Gryffindors," he added, as if that would make all the difference.
"Which is why we're letting them off with just the detention." Ginny retorted. "But I will be telling McGonagall about this," she said, turning her glower on Parvati again. "You can count on that," she hissed, before spinning around and stalking out of the room.
"You two better go back to the real common room," David said to Harry after taking a moment to glance around the duplicate version they were standing in. "Don't worry," he said quietly, glancing over at the doorway Ginny had stomped through to make sure she really was out of earshot. "I'll see if I can't talk her out of it. It's not really that late yet."
"Don't bother," Harry sighed, detention being the least of his problems at the moment.
"Don't be silly," Parvati reproached Harry, jumping off the sofa, grasping David's forearm, and giving him a gentle squeeze in gratitude. "It's so sweet of you to offer," she said amiably. "I really do appreciate it. We didn't realize it was after curfew. Time must have gotten away from us. I really am terribly embarrassed," she said, turning on the charm and trying to talk both her, and Harry, out of this mess.
Additional Note:
Yes, I know. I'm evil. I'm a horrible, twisted tease that gave you all a glimmer of hope and a glimpse of a Harry/Ginny pairing in the near future and then stomped all over it. And the worst part is I did on purpose, because I wanted you to feel a smidgen of what poor Ginny must have felt when she walked in on them. It adds to the story to feel what the characters feel after all. (Insert evil cackle here.)
I'm sure there are a good many of you H/G shippers out there right now that want to scream obscenities at your computer screen (or me) at the moment, or bang your head against your desk in frustration. Some of you might have even done it already. Sooooo sorry to disappoint you. Although it really shouldn't come as much of a surprise. I hinted that this was coming in the answers to my reviews and flat out stated it months ago in the Price of Love topic at the forums, but I know that a great many of you were still blindsided.
Believe it or not, there is a method to my madness. Very rarely do we get it right on our first try (even in a fictional world). Ron and Hermione somehow managed to do it, but I don't think it should be so easy for Harry. Ron might not understand girls, but he does understand love, having grown up surrounded by it. Harry however does not and the only way he is going to learn to recognize the real thing is by jumping into things headfirst and learning as he goes. He is a kinesthetic learner after all, which means he has to try things out on his own in order to work out the kinks. And confusing lust with possible love, or going for looks over personality and compatibility is most definitely a kink I think Harry needs to work out. Yes, I know, he did that with Cho, but that wasn't really much of a relationship. One kiss and one horrendous date can't possibly be enough for someone as thick as Harry. Personally I feel he needs to experience at least one more failed romance before he'll be in a place where he's ready to appreciate what someone like Ginny has to offer. So as painful as it may be for everyone involved, (Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Parvati included), we're just going to have to grin and bear it.