A/N: Sorry it has been so long! Unfortunately, VenusInHerHair cannot continue with this collab, so its just me now! Hope you enjoy!

*.*.*.*.*

Chapter 9: Ruined Dresses and Other, Worse Messes

*.*.*.*.*

"Fuck I'm late…" Lacey grumbled, her voice weighed down by sleep as she rolled over in the unfamiliar bed. A lean, tattooed arm reached out around her waist, trying to keep her there.

"Love, stay…"

"Sirius, I have to go to practice, we'll talk about this later," she finished the conversation and flung his arm off of her, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and standing up into a stretch. She had fifteen minutes until she had to be at the pitch, so no breakfast and bed hair would have to suffice for the morning. As she transfigured last nights' going out clothes into shorts and a comfortable t-shirt and her combat boots into a poor excuse for trainers, she watched Sirius Black wake up and open his eyes to meet hers.

"You look gorgeous. I've never met a woman as beautiful as you."

"You said that to me last time!" she groaned, annoyed as she jammed her foot into her shoe without untying it, "You probably say that to every woman."

"But I don't. Just with you, because it's actually true with you."

She could tell he was masking hurt feelings, but she didn't have time to fix them right now. She stopped and looked at him-unsure if last night was a vengeful mistake or a new start. Either way, he was her friend and he didn't deserve this, "Sorry I've snapped. I just have a lot on my mind. I promise we will talk about this later?"

Sirius nodded, appeased for the moment as he sunk back down into the mess of covers on the comfortable bed and Lacey gave him a wink on her way out, taking the stairs of Grimmauld Place two at a time and bolting out the door. As she walked to the apparition point, she cursed her thoughtlessness and thanked Merlin that it was early enough that no photogs from the Prophet had been on Sirius' doorstep. He was regular page 6 fodder, and snaps of him and his random birds always made a gossipy little story. Twice now she had been unscathed, and she didn't know if she wanted to risk it again.

Lacey arrived at Exmoor, the Harpies' current practice pitch, under a minute late, and had the entire team staring at her as she grabbed her broom from her locker and met them in the center of the changing rooms. Ginny cleared her throat and started talking strategy and drills they would run that day as Lacey tried to pull her hair up into a ponytail and make it look less messy, and less like she had just had sex.

"Late because of Malfoy?" Ginny goaded her best friend a few moments later as they walked out onto the foggy pitch.

"No, its over between us. I just overslept, that's all," Lacey avoided the redhead's keen eyes and tried to put on a brave face. Saying it out loud made it all the more real. Last night she had ended things with Lucius Malfoy, a man she had started to fall for, before they really even had a chance to really begin. And she had heard his little French brat. And she hated her instantly.

"What?" Ginny's response was a half snort, half laugh in disbelief, but Lacey wasn't as amused. She knew she should be furious with Lucius for lying to her-for making her the other woman-but she hated the girl just as much, as silly as it sounded in her head.

"He lied to me about the girl from Beauxbatons. She's sleeping with him. I went and saw him last night and she was there. And he made it pretty clear I wasn't welcome," with a firm nod, Lacey mounted her broom, silently hoping Ginny wouldn't bring it up again, and kicked off the pitch into the air.

*.*.*.*.*

"Sir?"

"Sit down Virginia and eat your breakfast," Lucius told his mistress quickly and in his peripheral vision, he saw her sit abruptly and pick up her fork. Her eyes searched for his, but he never let his wander from his current depressing reading material. He didn't want her to see it just yet, or ever, if he could help it.

Lucius had been awake all night, alternating between watching Virginia sleep and thinking about his deep feelings for her, and cursing himself for being so rude to Lacey and cutting her out of his life. Where had he gone wrong? Had he really thought he could keep both of them without it falling to pieces? Was he really that much of a fool?

He snapped out of his inner argument and looked at the paper in front of him. On the gossip page of the Prophet was a small article prefaced with a picture of himself by none other that Rita Skeeter spouting dribble and speculation about why he hasn't proposed to his current mistress yet. Thankfully she hadn't brought up Lacey, but her implication that he had ill intentions with Virginia enraged him and against his better judgment, he opened the letter that had arrived this morning.

"Sir…is something wrong?"

"Virginia please!" Lucius barked at her when he saw who the letter was signed by. A short, hasty note had been written in Mr. Renwick's hand, talking about his disappointment in the article the Prophet wrote, but also his disappointment in Lucius-that he was making his daughter look like a whore and he and his wife like fools. It was a threat if Lucius had ever read one, and he quickly folded the letter back up before finally returning the gazes of his mistress. He was instantly struck with profound guilt. She was gorgeous, doting, and loving. She was everything he ever wanted and he had made her look cheap by not even discussing marriage with her. Living with someone was all well and fine if one was a half-blood or less, but in pureblood society, it simply wasn't done for long and marriage had to be in the cards. There was no way of getting around it. He had to marry Virginia or ruin both of their reputations, as archaic as it seemed.

"Darling, I am sorry," he reached out and beckoned for her to place her hand in his. He squeezed her soft, pale little hand gently, eyeing the ring finger and momentarily wondering what a ring would look like there. Beautiful, he had no doubt, but would it be damning to him? Would she change like Narcissa had? "I was just distracted by this blasted paper," he brushed it off as rash thoughts began to manifest in his head, "I'd love it if you visited your parents today while I am at the office, and afterwards, I will join you."

Her face was skeptical and she surveyed him for any sign that he might be lying. Last night it had appeared that whatever it was between him and Lacey Delaney was over, but now she had lost some trust. He saw her hesitation and started softly rubbing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb, "I want you to discuss with them an engagement, and if all goes well, I will ask your father for your hand tonight."

Virginia looked ready to fall out of her chair. Her sweet face was trying to decide between shock and happiness and it resulted in teary eyes and a wide smile. Lucius noticed she was practically glowing. "Really? But last night…"

"I have done some more thinking since then, and it really isn't proper for me to put your honor in a questionable predicament any longer by having you live here without being married," Lucius finished, not being able to keep himself from smiling over the look on her face. If marriage would damn him to a life of mostly monogamy, her face might well be worth it to him.

"Oh Lucius!" She hopped up from her seat and moved to him, leaning down to kiss him hard on the lips while he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her onto his lap. They kissed for a few moments before Virginia sheepishly pulled away, got off of him, and straightened her dress.

"I'm looking forward to finishing that later," he told her, his voice low and promising and Virginia bit her lip in subconscious anticipation before flitting off to ready herself for the day. Lucius leaned back in the dining room chair and sighed. Once again he felt torn in half with two distinct emotions: happiness and guilt because he knew he tended to ruin anything lovely that came to him. As much as he wanted this, he knew there was a good chance he might ruin her.

But if his reputation was to remain unscathed and his lucrative partnership with Virginia's father unburdened, then he had to prepare for his day as well, which meant a trip to his jeweler.

*.*.*.*.*

Virginia was in her own little world as she strolled down Diagon Alley that afternoon, a bag in each hand as she had decided to get a few new sets of dress robes for the upcoming engagement parties she was already planning in her head. She wanted to look stunning for Lucius, still over the moon that he wanted to marry her and thinking about what was in store for her that night when she was pushed to the side. She stumbled and one of her bags fell to the ground.

"Shite! So sorry!" a redheaded man bent to put the things back in her bag, but one of her dress robes had come out of the box and landed in a muddy puddle between the cobblestones of the street. A dark haired man joined the redhead, opting for his wand instead of his hands, but his quick cleansing spell didn't do much for the pretty dress. He met eyes with Virginia as his friend mumbled about being a bit tipsy and she noticed she was right in front of the Leaky Cauldron.

"I'll buy you a new one, just let me know where you got it," his voice was earnest and her grey eyes met his vivid green ones and she shook her head.

"It's really no problem, I should have been watching where I was going…"

"'Arry, come on…" the redhead scratched his slightly stubbly face as he looked on at the pair, suddenly very annoyed at the way his best friend was eyeing the girl in front of them.

"I'm Harry Potter, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss…?" he stuck out his hand boyishly, with a lopsided grin on his face. Virginia searched for the famous scar as confirmation and found it faded, peeking out between perfectly messy clumps of black hair.

"Just Virginia, please…" she found herself blushing with his eyes on her…but it wasn't from his fame. She knew all about him…the whole Wizarding world did, but she had never felt particularly inclined to meet him. But now, standing in front of him, she definitely saw the appeal.

"Really…let's go…"

"That's my friend, Ron," Harry motioned over his shoulder, "Can I walk you back home? Carry your bags for you?"

"I'll be fine, but thank you," she managed to say, feeling foolish for staring at his eyes too long for it to be socially acceptable. She knew better. She was about to be engaged.

"Well, if you insist, it was lovely meeting you Virginia." With a winning smile, he continued up the street with Ron Weasley in tow as Virginia continued the opposite way, heading to her parents'.

*.*.*.*.*

"Lacey? What are you doing here?"

"I might as well just come out with it," she sighed, looking at her former professor and his wife, very swollen with their second child, "I slept with Sirius and I need to talk to him about it, is he home?"

Tonks, Remus Lupin's wife, laughed loudly, holding the watermelon sized bump protruding from her as she did so, "You've never been one to mince words…"

Remus blanched, thoroughly regretting taking up Sirius' offer of sharing Grimmauld place when he and Tonks started out their marriage poorer than dirt. The random birds were bad enough, but could be dealt with through silencing charms and locked doors, separating their side of the house from Sirius', but he did not like that Sirius was venturing into mutual friend territory, "Yeah, he's upstairs…."

"Great…" Lacey nodded before taking the stairs up, not happy at all, which tended to prompt her into saying really inappropriate things to people out of sheer annoyance. She knew it probably wasn't the best idea to blurt out something like that to the first person she saw, but part of her wanted people to know. Well, if she was being honest, she wanted Harry to know, as quickly as possible.

After practice that afternoon, Ginny and Lacey had decided to have a girls' night in at Lacey's with a bottle of firewhiskey and a mountain of pumpkin pasties, but Harry and Ron had interrupted them. An hour later, after all of them were significantly drunk, Ginny and Harry started fighting and ended up breaking up. Lacey had yelled at him for being a cheating arsehole, Ron begged them both to not be rash, and Harry's reasoning was that he was too young to settle down, and didn't want things to go on any longer.

Deep down, Lacey knew Ginny was aware of Harry's cheating, but she loved her childhood sweetheart and didn't want to let him go. When Harry had left, Lacey held her sobbing best friend until Ron suggested he take her to the Burrow and let their mother begin to mend the heartbreak.

She had promised she would talk to Sirius by the end of the day, but the whole night had changed her perspective on many things. Why did men have to be such scum? Why, like Harry did to Ginny, did Lucius lie to her? They didn't deserve that. And if her fucking his Godfather pissed Harry off, then even better, Lacey reasoned.

"Sirius, it's Lace, can we talk?" she knocked on his door, knowing she was about to open a can of flobberworms. As much as it was flattering most days, people cared about her life-especially who she was romantically linked to. The papers caught on to them once before, and that damned Rita Skeeter was seemingly always around the proverbial corner. Sirius was just as famous, but the current negatives seemed to outweigh the positives, especially when he opened his bedroom door shirtless.

"Truthfully, I didn't think you would come back. Last time you avoided me for months…"

"Well in so many words I just told Remus and Tonks we fucked, so there's that," she sighed, walking past him into his room and sitting down on his bed, "We need to talk about 'us'".

Sirius sat down besides her, searching for her eyes under her thick curtain of brown hair nearly obscuring her profile from him. With a gentle hand he brushed some back behind her ear, "You almost look like 'Mione, thinking so hard."

"Do you want to date me?"

"Sorry?"

"Date me. As in not just sex. Taking me out and not sleeping around…" her blue eyes were fierce as she looked at him and he placed a hand on her cheek.

"Are you drunk, love?"

"Answer the bloody question!"

"There's nothing to answer…I've wanted that for a while. You were the one that walked away from me that night, when I thought we were going to start something. What changed?"

"I don't care what people think of me anymore, that's what changed," she replied quietly. She had let herself publicly date a former Deatheater, so why not this? When she saw his smile a part of her felt wrong. Yes, there was chemistry. Yes, she could see that dating him would be fun, but she knew why she was doing it. And it wasn't just to piss Harry off.

But Lacey knew that having Lucius Malfoy was in the past now. Not that she was surprised. She wasn't his type. And he was obviously happy with his young little thing, and she had to move on…and try to not date a Quidditch player this time as a rebound. She deserved happiness, didn't she?Maybe her friends wouldn't be thrilled right away, but it was a hell of a lot safer than who she had been falling for…was still falling for. Her career couldn't exactly be torpedoed by a decent man, brought back from near death once, and so beloved and charming, right? Her thoughts were flying through her head at ridiculous speeds, and to silence her brain, she leaned over and kissed him.

*.*.*.*.*

"Go up to your room, there's something I left there for you, and then meet me in mine," Lucius' voice was low and slightly raspy in Virginia's ear. They were both uninhibited from the multiple bottles of wine Virginia's father had brought out for the happy occasion that night and the girlish pink flush to Virginia's cheeks hadn't faded for hours. Lucius gave a little squeeze to her hip before parting from her in the hallway and she walked, feeling as if she were in a dream, to the room she now wouldn't be using for much longer.

Sitting in the middle of the four-poster was a sleek black box, embossed with gold script. Virginia crawled up onto the bed and opened it, rifling through the tissue until she pulled out a negligee that looked as if it had half of it missing. Even more color rose to her cheeks and she looked back down, for the millionth time that evening, at the four-carat diamond ring adorning her perfectly petite finger. From the glistening gem she glanced back at the skimpy underwear. Although being with Lucius had made her far from a prude, he still had never insisted she wear anything particular to bed. The thought was both thrilling and intimidating. She would be his wife soon, and she didn't want to disappoint him.

Tap. Tap Tap Tap.

With one eyebrow raised, Virginia clambered off of the bed and to the French doors leading out to her private balcony. As she opened them, a very annoyed owl hooted at her before flying away and she bent down to pick up the box it had been carrying. In total opposition to Lucius' gift, this one was pure white, and she opened it quickly as she walked back inside.

In the box was a brand new version of dress that had been ruined today in front of the Leaky Cauldron, in her exact size, with a simple note on a card sitting on top of it.

I'm sure this will look beautiful on you.

-Harry

A/N: Love you all! Would love to hear your thoughts!eHe