What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?
"It never happens. If there's a thing that can't be stopped, it's not possible for there to be something else which can't be moved, and vice versa. They can't both exist. You see, it's a trick question is the answer."
OOO
"Hey Ginn!" Hermione called out, waving from the doorstep of the apartment complex.
Ginny paused, finding the source of the voice. Spotting Hermione, she grinned and started walking faster. It was only slightly cooler today, with just enough of a breeze to stop the humid summer heat from completely swamping you.
"Good afternoon, Hermione!" Ginny called out, feeling her spirits lift up. What a lovely day it was- practice had gone well too.
She stopped walking when she reached Hermione and just stood there, grinning at the other young woman. After a moment, the silence suddenly turned awkward and Ginny said, "Well- can I see your apartment?"
"Oh!" Hermione said, turning to the door, "Of course!"
Was that a blush that Ginny had seen as Hermione turned away? Either way, it was almost immediately gone. Hermione led Ginny inside, turning to the stairwell and leading her up to the second floor.
"Let me just fetch my purse and we can go walk around Hogsmeade and stop in at the Three Broomsticks," Hermione said as she unlocked the door to her apartment.
"Sure," Ginny said, leaning in on the doorway and peering curiously inside. The apartment was like an organized explosion of books, paper, and quills. Different combinations of the three were scattered everywhere, but neatly, as if there was some grand organizational principle behind having three quills stacked next to a book and a stack of paper on the counter, and 4 quills, 8 books, and 1 sheet of paper on the coffee table.
They alternated between silence and mild chitchat about current events- who the next Minster of Magic might be, changing laws on the rights of magical creatures and how this might eventually lead to more respect for Muggleborns... Neither of them quite managed to bring up the things they'd been writing about in the journal, each waiting for the other to broach the subjects first. And so they arrived at the Three Broomsticks, and found themselves sitting and staring out the window, sipping so-called 'Fire-Bombs', a light drink that was a mixture of Fire Whiskey and an anise seed flavored bubbling drink.
"Oh!" Ginny finally said, after watching a few Hogwarts students meander past, "Mum says to invite you over to dinner sometime. I think she's feeling friendly about it, anyway. Letting bygones be bygones. I hope."
She grinned at Hermione, who only nodded with a terse smile and said, "I'd love to visit the Burrow again."
Ginny could see the tension behind Hermione's eyes, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to press her. And Hermione didn't seem to want to bring it up herself. How could it be so easy to communicate by journal, but so hard in person?
"Mum means well and all, but she's started putting on the pressure for Harry and I to have kids," Ginny said, forcing a chuckle, "As if we're going to start a family so quickly!"
Then she realized she'd accidentally strayed to an even more tense topic, and took a gulp of her drink to cover up her sudden anxiety. A little later, Hermione started talking about Grindelwald and civil rights again, and they got into an intense debate on the amount that government should force people to be fair- should laws be put into effect to try and counter anti-Muggleborn biases, or was it the citizen's job to get equality for her or himself?It was late when Ginny finally admitted that she had to go home, and both of them found themselves stumbling into dark homes and dark beds, just tipsy enough to fall immediately to sleep.
OOO
So how are things with you and Ron? Ginny scrawled in the journal.
It was a Sunday, and Harry and Ron had both been called in to work on some immediate important update on the wizards Harry and his partner were after. Ginny was spending the afternoon writing back and forth with Hermione in the journal, while she lazed outside under a tree in the shade. She had a book open by her side, to read while Hermione wrote a longer entry, or had to go off and do something else for a bit.
Oh, I don't know. I haven't really talked to him again. I suppose I'll have to see him when I come to dinner with your family at the Burrow. Ginny watched as Hermione penned in the words, the ink magically appearing on the thick journal parchment in Hermione's neat script.
Do you still miss him, though? Ginny carefully wrote in, after a pause to think about it.
Sort of. Is it possible to both miss him terribly AND never want to get back together? I miss Jaya too, actually, Hermione replied.
So what about this Jaya, was it hard to leave her? Ginny inquired.
No, not anymore than leaving a good friend really. We keep in touch. I mean, don't get me wrong it was a wonderful experience, but it wasn't it, she watched Hermione reply.
What do you mean? Ginny wondered, How do you even know anyway?
Well we didn't have any of that wild and out of control passion, I still had my own free will to choose my actions and think about how I felt about her and how far I wanted to take it, I guess we just weren't falling for each other, Hermione's reply came after a longer pause this time.
What so you're only falling for someone if you're what, beyond self-control? Ginny's reply was quick.
Well, no, but I mean take Ron and I. It was pretty slow and easy but we had so many times of turmoil that it almost felt like that. That we had that, that were were falling. But after Jaya, for whom I was also not falling, I think it made it even more clear that I love Ron, but only as a friend. Jaya said that when you do fall in love, you'll know because there's a reason it's called falling in love. At first you're standing on this precipice and you know once you step off there's no going back. That you've put your life, your heart, into the hands of another person. They're the only ones that can catch you then.
Ginny frowned at the journal and then shut it momentarily to stare up at the sky through the leaves of the tree. What Hermione had written unsettled her, but she wasn't sure she entirely agreed. In fact, all that passion at the beginning of a relationship never lasted, it wasn't real, was it? Everyone said that eventually a relationship mellowed down into something warm and comfortable. Had she and Harry ever had that fiery burning?
Feeling peeved, she hastily wrote back, So what, everyone who doesn't have that, is settling for less?
No, I'm just saying that Jaya and I weren't falling in love.
Ginny shut the journal again, realizing that the blood was pounding in her ears. What was that all about? She stared up at the gently swaying branches of the tree above her and let herself start to feel grounded again. She thought about all the people she knew, all the relationships she'd seen. Did she even really know what love was? She suddenly felt thrown off balance again, out of control, standing on the edge.
Harry was her hero, she was his support, his partner always at his side. What they had, it was love, right? And it hit her, what was wrong with the image of the four of them, four best friends, two siblings, a family really. The picture was too comfortable, it wasn't a picture of four people in love, it was what she had just realized, a picture of four best friends.
"Oh... oh Merlin," Ginny whispered, "I'm not thinking about this. Damn you, Hermione!"
OOO
"Hermione, dear, would you help Ron pull up some potatoes from the garden?" Molly Weasley asked Hermione, who was currently standing awkwardly at the edge of the kitchen.
She traded glances with Harry, who just shrugged and rolled his eyes. Hermione felt a laugh build inside her, but she forced it down and said, "Of course, Molly."
Ginny turned to look over her shoulder with a smirk from where she stood at the counter, directing her wand at some bread dough. Her mum seemed to be alternating between giving Hermione resentful glares and between trying to re-accept Hermione by trying to put her and Ron back together. Ginny felt a squirm of weirdness over thinking her mother too was thinking of putting them back together.
Hermione just looked all sad and beautiful altogether and at once, it must be hard for her to be here, not quite one of the family. She'd attempted to contain her bushy hair in a ponytail but already strands were frizzing out and framing her face, especially in the summer humidity. Compared to her own athlete's form Hermione was slender, not quite petite and definitely not fragile, but soft, without giving the impression of being soft. This is the girl who slapped Malfoy in the face, who battled death eaters against You-Know-You. Whose patronus is an otter and whose favorite color is periwinkle blue...
Ginny watched as Hermione left the kitchen, saw her go out to the back garden where Ron was digging around in the rows of short potato plants looking for the biggest root. She watched out the open top half of the back door, watching Hermione smile at Ron. They must have exchanged a few words because Ron laughed, and the awkwardness that had been there lessened a little. Ginny turned her gaze away, because the tightness she felt in her chest again reminded her of things she was still refusing to think about.
Ambivalence, was that the word? To both want something and to also feel strong adversion to it, this is how Ginny somehow felt about Hermione and Ron's relationship. Ginny felt very ambivalent. But somehow... the part of her that didn't want it was growing stronger. She felt guilty about this too...
Maybe she'd never really wanted Hermione to get back with Ron, maybe that had been her brain's explanation for her longing for Hermione to become re-involved in their lives, to stay in their lives and not disappear again like a dream.
"Ginny? That dough isn't going to knead itself," Molly pointed out to her daughter. Ginny looked back down at the dough that her wand was still pointed out, surprised to see it was still there.
"Oh, sorry Mum," Ginny said, and wiggled her wand at the dough again, forcing it to mash itself into itself.
OOO
Hermione looked up, startled to see that familiar redhead, and not the male one, slip into the back shed where she was, well yes, hiding.
"You too?" she asked as Ginny flipped over a bucket and sat down.
"Brothers," Ginny said in way of answering, "They still haven't gotten over their little sister being married and keeping asking me how my wedding night was and stuff like that."
"Molly for me," Hermione explained, "Won't let me and Ron be out of each other's sights, and when Ron is out of sight she just kind of glares at me. She still hasn't forgiven me."
"She will," Ginny assured the othe girl, "You know how she is."
"So, ever the only girl in the family," Hermione mused with a smile.
"Yes, Bill and Charlie want me to play quidditch with them but then they keep ganging up on me and besides I play quidditch all week I just want to relax!"
Ginny exclaimed, "Gosh I love them but then I come home and remember why I'm glad I don't live here anymore."
"Go get one yourself Ronnykins!" Charlie's shout echoed across the fields behind the burrow.
"Shit," Ginny said standing up and knocking over the broomsticks that they'd both failed to remember were stored in here.
"Lemme come hide behind you, I think we can both hide back there," Ginny said and scooted through the shed over to Hermione.
Hermione obligingly made room and stepped sideways, squeezing herself into a back corner behind an old metal toolbox. Ginny just barely fit as well.
They both held their breath as Ron burst into the shed, cursed at the old fallen down broomsticks, grabbed one and then turned around, "Did you bring yours Harry?"
"Yes, thanks," Harry's voice could be heard. The tool shed door closed.
Once he was gone Hermione suddenly realized how close she and Ginny were- close enough for her to tell that Ginny did not, in fact, have on a bra, and Hermione's hand was dangerously high on Ginny's right leg... Her breath caught in her throat. She glanced up to meet Ginny's eyes in the cool shadows of the shed. That was a mistake.
Ginny was staring at her like a deer in the headlights as she bit her lip, her hair mussed, a few strands dangling down in front of her face. Her eyes just barely an inch above her own. Hermione could hear, and feel, the other young woman's breath speeding in and out of her lungs.
"You make me feel... something, I absolutely should not feel," Ginny's voice was a breath on her cheek.
Hermione's first thought was about how easy it would be to kiss her, here, hidden away in this shed where no one would see or know and she let her fingers tighten on Ginny's thigh. But then she came to her senses and she tried to squirm backwards, put space between them.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Hermione said lamely, "Shall we get out of here?"
Ginny looked down and mumbled something noncommittal and they both stumbled out of the shed, brushing the dust off.
OOO
Hermione sighed with relief as the magical hold of Apparition let her go in the street outside her apartment in Hogsmeade. It was dark out, and getting a little chilly so she pulled her cloak tighter around herself and looked up into the flawlessly clear night sky. She still felt weak and a little sick, and it wasn't from the Apparition. She pulled her cloak again, needing something to do with her hands, and let out a long sigh.
She looked at her apartment, decided she couldn't stand the idea of being in there alone with herself, and immediately Apparated away again. This time, she appeared in the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron of Diagon Alley. She pulled the hood of her cloak up and slipped through the Leaky Cauldron into the streets of London, casting a quick disillusionment charm so that she wouldn't have to change into Muggle clothing.
Soon she was pulling off her cloak inside Bee's N Bee's and walking over to the bar. Luckily, it being a Wednesday night, it was not very crowded. She turned to look at the other man seated at the bar, and this time it was her turn to say, "Well well, who do we have here? This isn't the same silver haired Malfoy I knew at Hogwarts?"
"Yes yes," Malfoy said rolling his eyes as Hermione sat down next to him, "You look like you could use a drink. My treat this time?"
"Merlin, yes please," Hermione said, putting her arms down on the counter and then dropping her forehead onto her arms, "Sometimes I think I never should have come back to this country."
"That bad?" Malfoy wondered, "New book not going well?"
Hermione suddenly realized who she was about to unload on, and wondered if he'd find this annoying. She picked up her head and looked at him carefully. But Malfoy just looked curious, and a little bored. The bar was fairly empty.
"Book is fine," she said, "It's going to be quite a sensation I think. Just wait, I'm not telling you."
"What Grindelwald's gay?" Malfoy asked sarcastically.
Hermione nearly started choking wondering, Was Malfoy reading her mind? and managed to cough out, "Do you have a one track mind, or what?"
Malfoy shrugged, and waved the bartender over, a young woman- Hermione looked again and corrected herself- man, then- maybe he wanted to present as a woman? Either way, the bartender came over, and Malfoy ordered two shots of firewhiskey.
"Can't we have Jameson or something?" Hermione complained, taking her shot from the bartender.
"No, real Wizards only drink Firewhiskey!" Malfoy declared with a grin. Hermione realized he was already a little beyond tipsy. He raised the shotglass to Hermione, who decided What the hell- shots it is tonight! and tapped her glass against his.
They downed the Firewhiskey and Hermione barely managed not to cough as the strong liquor burned down her throat.
"I met someone..." Hermione started taking a swallow of water to chase down the Firewhiskey.
"Wizard or witch?" Malfoy asked with a grin-almost leer that said he would be very amused if she answered 'witch'.
"Witch," Hermione let herself admit and suffered through the predicted laughter from Malfoy.
He buried his face in his hands while his shoulders kept shaking before he finally asked, still pink in the cheeks, "Are you sure this isn't why you left Weasel then? Or were you just lying?"
"Oh piss off! Yes, I'm sure!" Hermione said, "Get me another shot already."
"So, who is this someone?" Malfoy asked waving over the bartender again. Hermione gave him another look- when had he been a gossip? Maybe hanging around Pansy Parkinson for seven years had rubbed off on him.
"The wrong someone," she correct, then muttered under her breath, "Wrong Weasley." She blinked, realizing that she could already feel the alcohol entering her bloodstream. Sometimes being a light drinker was obnoxious.
Two shots later Hermione was starting to feel drunk, and she was spilling the entire story about her relationship with Ginny Weasley to Draco Malfoy. Malfoy she could tell was not hiding his own emotions quite as well and she could tell he was torn between condescending laughter at watching his old rival get drunk, feeling superior over being not as drunk that she was, thinking of what he could say to take advantage of his knowledge about her drunkenness in some way that would make him look good, and just genuinely enjoying himself. It was actually a little amusing to her to see his face flicker between the "You wait until my father here's about this!" expression of condescension and the sympathetic laughter of someone who has been in similar positions before.
"So I went to leave, and for some reason- okay obviously because my subconscious is interested in her, not some reason, I went to kiss her goodbye... I mean, on the cheek, because you, uh know... that is the friendly thing to do... And uh... she sort of turned her head and it wasn't quite her cheek. Er, almost on the lips..." Hermione stared helplessly at Malfoy's half-hearted attempts to hold in his laughter.
"Anyway, we've been writing back and forth, and she knows I've dated a woman before- but anyway, and oh I KNOW I'm a bisexual but I don't think she's even thought about any of that and now that I'm around it's opened her mind to wonder about all sorts of things that she's really not and I'm taking advantage of her! And none of it should matter because she's with someone else, she's married!
"I've corrupted her or something... She said this- well it was in a shed, er... we were hiding from the Weasley horde- Molly is mad at me for dumping Ron so I was avoiding her- and Ron. And I didn't really dump Ron... we just ended up having irreconcilable differences... Anyway, Ginny and I were hiding in the shed and she said 'You make me feel something I really shouldn't feel'.
"And I just brushed her off, I mean what else could I do other than just have her right then and there!"
"This is a little more than I ever wanted to know about you Granger," Malfoy smirked, "I hope you don't expect me to start sharing with you likewise! Though I don't think that if I was inebriated as you are that I would have been able to get out the word 'irreconcilable'."
"I should shut up, shouldn't I," Hermione said, just a hair too drunk to actually blush, "Merlin, you hate the Weasels- I mean Weasley's... actually, don't you hate me too?"
"Well yes I suppose I do still hate all you preppy little Gryffindors," Malfoy admitted, "But I'm not above pretending to lend a sympathetic ear in order to gain future blackmail opportunities."
"Next round's on me," Hermione said pushing herself up straighter, "And by the way you'd better watch that tongue of yours because you and I both know that I can Obliviate you before you could say The Boy Who Lived."
Malfoy actually appeared to consider this but then, Hermione realized, he did look a little bit drunk now too. Just for spite she gave him a double shot and gave herself a regular, again of Firewhiskey.
"Not going to match me drink for drink?" Malfoy sneered.
"No, I plan on getting you just as thoroughly pissed as I plan to be," Hermione admitted.
"Haha," Malfoy said, "Perfect Know It All Granger, turning to the drink to battle her depression... from relationship problems with another witch..."
At least it wasn't 'Mudblood' Hermione thought cheerfully, "Yeah, so says ferret-boy Slytherin who happens to be gay, and is therefore the last of the Malfoy line, finding himself alone in a liberally minded bar on a Wednesday night."
"Shut-up Granger," Malfoy glared at her.
"Shut-up Malfoy," Hermione retorted with a sardonic grin.
They stared at each other for a few more seconds before both of them burst into hysterical laughter.
OOO
Hermione was brushing Ginny's hair as the two girls readied themselves for bed. Ginny was spending the night at Hermione's after their girl's night out, despite Hermione's misgivings and, she wouldn't lie to herself, anticipation.
"Here let's take this to the bed and I'll see if I can work some of that tension out of your shoulders," Hermione suggested setting down the brush and, aware of her still faintly inebriated state, shoved aside all misgivings and decided to just let things go where they would go.
"Mmm," Ginny moaned softly as the two of them sat cross-legged on the bed while Hermione's fingers kneaded the other girl's shoulders.
"I've needed this," Ginny whispered, leaning her head back, "Merlin can Harry not give massages..."
Hermione leaned closer while she worked, letting herself inhale Ginny's scent, her nose just a centimeter from Ginny's shirt. She smelled of grass and sunshine and faint but sweet sweat.
"Can I take off your shirt- it'll make it easier to get between your shoulder blades," Hermione said, feeling unusually bold, though she had found a knot through Ginny's shirt and pushed on it to make her point.
Ginny peeled off her white t-shirt revealing the sports bra underneath. Hermione plucked at it with a finger, "This'll need to come off too."
Ginny turned her head and smirked, "If I didn't know you better I'd think you have less than professional intentions."
"And if I do have unprofessional intentions?" Hermione asked moving her hands lower on Ginny's back.
"I suppose I'll just need to take off my bra anyway..." Ginny answered, pulling off the sport's bra after she said it, "After all- I do need the massage."
Hermione let herself drink in the sight of Ginny's lithe athletic form- her tanned arms but pale body, the slight curve of skin that suggested bare breasts just beyond her eyesight. Just the thought made Hermione's body tingle from her groin lest she hesitate too long, she got back to work on the massage.
She worked on the knot between Ginny's shoulder blade for a little bit longer before starting to work across her shoulder blades, towards the edge of Ginny's back. She leaned in close again and kissed the girl on her spine, then quickly started massaging again. She let her hands drift over the gap between back and arm to massage Ginny's biceps. Hermione was suddenly aware of how close her fingertips were to Ginny's breasts, and she moved her hands down Ginny's arms, reaching for her hands.
Ginny shivered, goosebumps running across her forearms and with Hermione's gentle suggestion she let herself collapse backwards into Hermione's arms and attentions.
Hermione let herself kiss Ginny's ear and was rewarded with a quiet gasp, there was no turning back now. She kissed her ear again, and yes, this time Ginny turned her head back towards Hermione and she leaned down to touch their lips together. But it was awkward at that angle, so despite the fact that she could feel the tension entering Ginny's body, she pulled away, leaving it a soft, quick kiss. She paused- and in that pause, Ginny took the initiative.
"I think it's your turn now," Ginny asserted in an electric whisper turning around so that she was straddling Hermione's lap. Hermione sucked in a breath as Ginny reached down to pull off Hermione's nightshirt and gently unclip her bra. Hermione lifted her arms to allow Ginny to pull her bra off and then Ginny was holding her wrists and pushing her back against the pillows. She saw Ginny pause to briefly take in the other girl's body and Hermione arched her back to push her hips up into Ginny's, her entire body aching for more contact, for the feel of Ginny's lips against her skin and then Ginny's lips were really on Hermione's, really truly kissing her, her tongue pushing into her mouth, their bodies pressed together-
Hermione woke up with a gasp and stared at her ceiling for a moment before muttering, "Fuck!" half out of frustration that her subconscious was making her have such dreams, half out of frustration that she had woken up only part way through the dream. She glanced to the left and right of her just to be sure it had been a dream, that somehow Ginny hadn't ended up at her apartment for a night of drunken delicious fun...
Stop! Ginny is not delicious! Hermione chided herself and climbed out of bed, shedding her nightgown to climb into an icy cold shower.
A/N: Sorry a little longer in getting this one up. Ah lesbian drama... in my life that is. Waaay too many triangles.. er squares.. er maybe um figure eights? Anyway don't forget to check out some of Snowbear's writing. (.net/~Snowbear)