I do not own any of it.
Off My Office Floor
The week went by fast. Harry had no idea what he had been doing, it shouldn't be Friday already. It felt like Monday had just ended. He spent most of his week convincing himself that he and Ginny could kiss again without it affecting him like it did on Sunday. He would be ready for it this time. He wanted to kiss her again and he wanted to hold on to the friendship he had built with her. It had been hard at first, trying to be her friend and forget her at the same time. But eventually he forgot about the romantic part of their lives, or at least buried it far enough down so that he could function around her. He had convinced himself that those feelings were gone, and he could enjoy Ginny without any complicated feelings.
The only time he wasn't telling himself this was when he went to visit his Godson on Tuesday night. Teddy always made his troubles seem so far away.
He had started at his new post on Monday and everything had gone smooth enough. He was adjusting to having a desk, he had never had one before. But he was settling in. It did help that Ron's office was across the hall, well, it was more like a room really. The space consisted of a lobby with four offices off of it. The other two offices belonged to Miles Mander and Randle Ayrton, two men that went through training with Harry and Ron, and whom Harry liked.
In the lobby area, was the desk for the secretary that they all shared. This was the only complaint about the space that Harry had. The secretary was a bold-looking girl with large dark eyes, a prominent chin, and short black hair. Harry remembered her not so fondly from his Hogwarts days. In his sixth year, Romilda Vane had tried to slip him a love potion. And while Harry did not like her, he was forced to admit that she was excellent at her job.
"Hey Romilda, could I have the East Asia memo?" He asked her leaning out of his office.
"Sure, I will bring it right in." She replied smiling that annoying smile at him.
Harry just nodded stiffly and went back into his office. Every time he thought he might be warming up to working with her, she would smile at him and that would be blown to hell. He wondered how he was going to get past this little hurdle. It was difficult to work closely with someone that you just couldn't stand.
He didn't even look up when she came into his office and put the memo on his desk. "Would you mind if I went home a little early today, Harry? I am going to the ball tonight and I would like to have the time to get ready."
Harry glanced up at her. "Well, I don't mind, but you don't work for just me, Romilda. You need to clear it with Ron, Miles and Randle."
"I know, but you're the most important." She smiled at him. His jaw clenched. "They will be okay with it if you are. Are you going to be there tonight?"
"Hmm, Kinglsey is making me go."
"That's great, I will be looking forward to seeing you all dressed up." She smiled again. "Who is the lucky witch that gets to be your date?"
"Oh, umm, I don't have a date. There wasn't anyone I wanted to ask." It was true enough; although he hadn't even considered getting himself a date. In his mind, it was work he was doing tonight.
"Well, that's good, I don't have a date either." She smiled again. Wonder why, Harry thought bitterly. "Will you save a dance for me?"
Harry stared at her. He couldn't think of anything else to say, "Uhhh." He wondered how he was going to get out of this. But Romilda stopped him from having to come up with a response.
"It's a date then, see you tonight, Harry." She smiled at him as she left. Harry stared at the door with a confused look, thinking back over the conversation. He had no idea how she could take it that it was a "date" and he didn't think he would ever understand.
Harry was still staring at the doorway when Ron walked in, followed by Randle. "Harry, wake up. Meeting time." Randle told him. Harry moved his stunned gaze to him. He had sandy blond hair, a button nose and brown eyes. He looked relaxed and laid-back. However, looks could be deceiving. Harry knew that Randle was almost unbeatable in a duel and his temper could rival Mrs. Weasley's, Harry liked him a lot.
"Romilda thinks we have a date to dance tonight." Harry told them, still confused.
Ron and Randle just laughed at him. They shared Harry's thoughts on Romilda and were very glad it wasn't one of them she had singled out. "Well, Mate, that's what you get for being the Boy-Who-Lived!" Ron chocked out between breaths.
"Oh shut it." Harry snapped at him. "Just because you two have girls doesn't mean you have to laugh at us single guys who have to put up with the strange ones."
"You do have to put up with the strange ones," Randle conceded, "But you also get to pick the hot ones up in bars."
"Oh, yeah, that's why I am single." Harry laughed. "Anyway, East Asia is having some problems that need to be dealt with and I think we should discuss..." He looked around, "Where's Miles?"
"Right here," answered the tall, thick man in the doorway. He had dark brown hair with brown eyes and pointed features. He was so bulky; he looked as though he could kill you with one hit. Harry knew this was probable, but not likely, it took a lot to get Miles to use physical force. "I just saw Romilda, and she told me you two had a date tonight? Was she serious?"
"No, she assumed that since I don't have a date for tonight and that she doesn't, we would dance together. I wonder what Kinglsey would do if I skived off." Harry added thoughtfully.
"No way, Harry, you've missed the last four," Ron reminded him. "Kinglsey would have your head."
"Alright, well it was a thought. Okay, East Asia." Harry started again.
Ginny entered the ball with the air of confidence that she didn't truly feel. She felt confident enough in her deep purple full length gown, but she still hadn't gotten used to her family's new status since the end of the war. Kinglsey had made sure to appoint her father to a high office, which meant that the entire family was now expected to be at all of the ministry functions. She had never liked them, but she had gone. Usually with a date, but she didn't have one tonight. A guy named Mitch asked her on Tuesday, but she turned him down, and wasn't sure why. She was sure that he would've been an interesting date.
The entire week, she just couldn't stop thinking about Harry. The kiss that they shared, and what it might have lead to, had been the subject of her dreams for five nights now. She wanted to get her hands on Harry Potter again. That much she was certain of. She didn't know if he had a date for the night, but she hoped she would get to feel his body against hers again, and if that happened tonight, all the better, she thought with a small smile.
She looked around, and decided that she would go to the bar first and get a drink before she started to make the rounds to mingle.
Harry watched her enter from his corner. His pulse picked up just by being in the same room as her. He couldn't help himself, his eyes slid down noticing how clung to her curvy body. He knew then that he wanted a physical relationship with her. He didn't need a romantic relationship. Heck, who needed all that, who had time for that? But he was sure he wanted to feel Ginny beneath him.
He was going to have to take a minute to himself so that no one noticed the reaction his body had to her dress. So far no one had noticed that he was there and he wanted to keep it that way. He liked parties, but this wasn't a party to him. It was an annoying part of work. But he didn't mind standing in his corner and watching the people at the ball. He liked people watching, when they were all slicked up and polished and trying to look better than the people they were talking too. It was kind of like watching a play, and as long as he could stay safely in the audience he would make it through the night. Although he knew that wasn't going to happen.
"Oh, Harry! There you are!" shouted Hermione. Rushing over to him, she gave him a hug and pecked him on the cheek. "Wow, don't you look edible tonight?" Ron and Harry both gaped at her. "Well you do," she told them. "It's just an observation."
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry started. "But don't ever say that to me again, it freaks me out."
"Yeah, I agree with Harry." Ron told his fiancé as she rolled her eyes. "Come on, Harry, the entire family is seated at the same table."
And so they were, when Harry walked up to the table he saw that it had little name tags sitting on each place setting. He also had a suspicion that someone had moved the name tags around. He was sitting right next to Ginny. He didn't mind, he just hopped that he would have enough control to keep his hands off of her during dinner.
He enjoyed the meal, and had sat through the speeches. By the time Kinglsey had introduced the band, he was losing his will power to keep his hands off of her. She was seated close enough that every time he breathed, he would inhale her flowery scent. He excused himself to go get a drink from the bar. He thought he would get a butterbeer. That was until he noticed that Romilda had come up next to him at the bar. "I'll take a Firewiskey." He said to the bartender.
"Hi Harry, you look wonderful tonight." She smiled at him. Harry took the glass from the bartender and drank it in one gulp.
"Thanks Romilda." He looked around for an escape path, but he couldn't find one.
"So, shall we dance?" She asked him. She didn't wait for an answer, but pulled him out onto the floor until he didn't have a choice but to dance with her.
Ginny watched the little spectacle at the bar. She laughed to herself when she saw the look on Harry's face when he started dancing. She knew what Harry thought of Romilda and couldn't blame him for it.
"Hey Ginny, maybe you should go save Harry from that slag that has attached herself to him." Bill told her, smirking.
"I don't know, it looks like he is enjoying himself." Ginny replied.
"It looks like he's constipated." George told her.
Ginny had to agree. Harry was defiantly not having a good time. Sighing, she pushed away from the table. She couldn't get out of dancing with Harry. Not that she didn't want to dance with him. She just didn't want to give her family any reason to think something might come from it. She went onto the dance floor and tapped Romilda on the back. "Can I cut in?" She asked.
"Yes," Harry practically shouted. He let go of Romilda and grabbed Ginny so fast, that Romilda lost her balance and fell into the couple dancing next to them. Harry swept Ginny away around the dance floor.
"Thanks for doing that." He told her. He felt his skin heat up where her hand rested on his neck.
"Bill told me to; he noticed you weren't enjoying the dance. George just thought you were constipated."
Harry laughed and looked over her shoulder. Romilda was glaring at the back of Ginny. "I don't think Romilda is too happy with you right now." He told her.
"She hasn't be happy with me since I 'stole you away form her' in my fifth year."
"'Stole me away from her?'" Harry repeated. "How could you steal me away, I was never with her!"
"I know, but that is what she believes."
He smiled at her. Being this close to her was agonizing. He kept thinking about what she had on under that gown and how would be the best way to get her to show it to him.
She noticed the change in his eyes. "Harry," she whispered to him. "You can't have me here in the middle of the dance floor. My parents are watching us."
"I know, but I want you here just the same." He looked over at her parents and sure enough, both of them, along with the rest of the Weasleys were watching the two of them dance as if this was their wedding dance. "Are you telling me you don't want to, period, or that you just don't want to here?"
"Oh, it's the later. I think I am going to loose control if I don't get my lips on you soon." She thought for a moment. "I'll meet you in your office in ten minutes."
Harry stared at her for a moment. He let the invitation to see what she was wearing under the gown sink in. "How about five?" He asked her eagerly.
"Ten or it might look suspicious. Thanks for the dance Harry." She said as the song ended. She turned and walked back to the table her family was sitting at. Harry walked back to the bar. Ginny was testing his control tonight, but, hopefully, he could loose it soon.
Five minutes later, Harry was in his office waiting for her. He knew he was early, but he just couldn't stay in the ballroom any longer. He could only think of her scent, which was not helpful when people wanted to make conversation with him. He snuck out unnoticed, he hoped, and was now waiting. It seemed like the seconds took hours. Then the door opened.
There she was.
He smiled at her. "I wasn't sure you knew where it was." He told her to break the silence that filled the room.
"It's the one that says 'Potter' on the door. Not that hard to find." She told him as she walked up to him. He grabbed her hips and pulled her towards him, kissing her as she pressed up against him.
He hadn't kissed her like this before. With impatience and heat and hunger all mixed together. He hadn't kissed her as if he couldn't get enough. Her body quivered in response as her fingers raked through his messy hair. More was all she could think of. She wanted more.
He switched the angle of the kiss; it wasn't quite as desperate now, or as rough. He was imagining what it would be like to slide into her when she started flipping open the buttons of his robes. Before he could think about it, he was pulling her to the floor.
His hands had just gone to unzip her dress when a silver lynx came through the door and spoke with the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Harry Potter, I saw you leave and you had better get back here right away. You are to remain at the ball the entire night. Not slip away to work."
Ginny rolled onto her back and let out a groan.
"Well," Harry started as he pulled himself back to his feet. "That ruined it, didn't it?"
"Sort of," Ginny replied as Harry helped her to her feet. "I guess you had better get back."
Harry started straitening his shirt. "Yeah, I guess." He muttered, annoyed
"I want to make love with you."
His already jangled system suffered. "I think what we both want is pretty clear. I just don't know what we are going to do about it." He kissed her again before he walked out of his office. He knew that she would be along in a few minutes.
"Where have you been?" Ron asked him when he reentered the ballroom.
"I just went back to my office, but Kingsley made me come back." Harry told him, leaving out a lot. What was he supposed to have said? I just got off my office floor with your sister who wouldn't be dressed right now if our nosey minister wouldn't have interrupted. He didn't think that would go over to well, no matter how much Ron wanted him and Ginny to get together.
"You work to much, Mate. You need to find yourself a girl keep you from it." He looked around the ballroom. "Speaking of that, where do you think Ginny has gotten off to?"
"Dunno. Maybe she snuck off with some bloke and they're snogging somewhere." Harry told Ron smiling. It was the truth after all, well it had been. But since Harry was standing there, Ron couldn't notice that he was the bloke.
"What? She had better not be. Who's this bloke she was with?"
"I was just taking the Mickey out of you. Relax, she's right there." Harry pointed to the spot where Ginny, moments before, had snuck back into the ballroom. Ron looked relieved to see her, and to see her alone.
"You should go ask her to dance, Harry. She looks kind of lonely."
"Why don't you do it and I will go find some girl to take home at the end of the night." Harry walked away from Ron before he could reply. Ginny hadn't looked lonely, actually, she looked ravishing. Harry knew he needed to stay away from her in front of her family. He spent the rest of the night dancing with random girls, not paying attention to any of them. He then left the ball alone and miserable, thinking of the way Ginny kissed him in his office. How would he ever be able to get work done in there without thinking about that?
AN: A few scenes are based on scenes from different Nora Roberts books. If you want to know which ones, just ask. I hope you like it. I will update again next Tuesday. Please Review.