CHAPTER SIXTEEN A LITTLE GIRL TALK

Ginny arrived at home just as the sun came up. As she walked in the door, she realized instantly that she wasn't the only one still up. She walked towards the smell of fresh ground coffee permeating from the kitchen and found a disheveled Hermione chugging a steaming cup at the kitchen table. "Alright there, 'Mione?"

She was greeted by a jump as Hermione knocked over her cup, now empty, and shattered it on the floor. "I didn't know anyone else was up." Hermione said.

"God, 'Mione, you look awful." She did indeed. Her hair was as bushy as ever and her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. She squinted at the sunlight that crept through the open door and Ginny recognized a familiar odor of stale ale. "Hermione with a hangover? Call Ripleys'. I've now seen everything." She set her jacket down over the chair before sitting tenderly down on the chair trying to keep it from scrapping the floor. "What's with the boozing?"

Hermione wasted no time getting to the point. "It's that damn brother of yours." Ginny was surprised at the tone in her voice. " He's driving me crazy! I'm sure that you've noticed things aren't going well."

"No, I had no idea." Ginny lied. Badly.

Hermione rolled her eyes at her friend's lack of stealth. "Anyway, I just don't know what to do. You remember Lavender Brown?" She waited for a confirming nod. "Well a few weeks ago, Parvati Patil wrote me to tell me that while she and Lavender were going home, you knew they were a couple, right?" This time there was no nod as Ginny's eyebrows had disappeared into her hairline. "Well she writes and tells me that we had better watch our significant others because they had "caught up" on the platform before he had gotten on his train to come home."

" 'Caught up' like talked?"

"It sounded like more than that. I do know that they at least hugged. He knowshow I feel about her and him and then I hear that he can't even keep his hands off her the first time they see each other. So then he finds a letter that I had kept from Viktor as a memory from school, right, I mean he was my first crush, and he tries to say that's the same thing. Viktor lives in Bulgaria. Lavender is down the street from us. Who is more likely to get cheated on, huh?" Ginny opened her mouth to answer before realizing that Hermione was very good at rhetorical questions. "Thenhe spends all day long accusing me of flirting with other guys and still being in love with Viktor, but he still expects me to want to have sex with him at the end of the night. It's not like he's so unbelievable that I can't live without it." Ginny cringed at these words. She did not want to even think about Ron having sex.

"Did he ever have....sex...(she almost gaged at the word)...with Lavender?"

"He claims they didn't." Hermione sounded uncertain if it was a lie. "He claims that I was his first, and to tell you the truth, I'd believe it. He had no idea what he was doing."

"Oh, and you did?" Ginny laughed.

"Well...."

"Ron wasn't your first?"

"Not exactly. Come on though, how could I have known that he would ever admit that he liked me?"

"So you and Viktor..." Ginny was shocked at the interruption.

"Not...Viktor. I never had sex with Viktor." Hermione suddenly became very interested in the wood grain of the table.

The conversation had just become much more comfortable for Ginny. Anything to not talk about Ron in the sac. "So, details, I want details. Who was your first? Anyone I know?" Ginny turned suddenly at a noise in the hall but as the door remained closed she ignored it.

"Someone...from school." Hermione began tentatively.

"Do you not want to name names because he was that bad or that good that you want to keep him for yourself?" Ginny laughed as she pulled her chair up closer to the table.

"No, it's not that. It was my fifth year and everyone was getting curious. Talk was going around and...a friend and I decided that we'd help each other out, just to know what it was all about."

"So, was it any good?"

"It was both of our first times, what do you think? It was awkward, there was a lot of laughing, and it hurt."

"So he sucked." This story was quickly losing Ginny's interest.

"Now, I wouldn't say that, we just didn't really know what to do or what to expect. For a first time, it was good. He was gentle and slow and I think it helped that we both didn't know what to expect cause I'm not sure that I even let him get all the way in."

"So, he was at least equipped?" Interest back.

"Yeah...I guess so. Bigger than some people. To be fair Ron had a lot to compete with since he wasn't my first. Or second.."

"Hermione! I never would have taken you for a slut. Was he even yo€ur third?"

"Yes! I'm not Cho Chang for crying out loud. Let's just say that after that, by the time Ron was in the picture, I didn't have any trouble fitting him in. Rumor has it, at least from Penelope Clearwater, be thankful that you're a Weasley woman." She winked knowingly at Ginny's shocked look. "Don't get me wrong, Ron knows what he's doing now that he's been trained up a bit. Ginny get over yourself," she scolded to her continued grimace, "you didn't think he was going to be a virgin forever did you?"

"OK. Enough brotherly sex talk. How 'bout more details."

"There's not really anything else to say. Two fifteen year olds experimented in the Room of Requirement before a D.A. meeting. That's about it."

"Your boring me. Move on. How 'bout Mr. lucky number two?" At this, Hermione held up a hand in protest.

"This isn't freebie porno hour, Miss Weasley. I showed you mine now you show me yours."

Ginny wasn't quite as eager to share as she was to hear. But it was only fair. Tit for tat. But her first tat wasn't something she was exactly proud of. "OK...but you have to swear that you won't tell Harry. Ever."

Hermione nearly choked on her second cup of coffee. "It wasn't Harry?!" She sat up straight and set her cup down to give Ginny her full attention. "This is gonna be good."

"Well, it was at school too. The Room of Requirement came in handy more than once."

"So how many guys found you in the room?"

"It was just one, keep your pants on. Oh wait, you can't do that." Hermione threw her cup at Ginny but she was still smiling. "There's nothing much to tell, same as yours. We'd been dating for a while and one thing led to another like they always do. It was my first, but not his so he knew what he was doing even if I didn't. And yeah, it hurt, the first time. He already had experience so he wasn't exactly soft, but I'm glad that I got some practice in before Harry. He was a little more than I expected and I don't think I would have been able to do it again if he had been my first."

"I know!" Hermione paused at Ginny's questioning look. "I mean, getting the painful one out of the way before you're with your spouse so the first time with them is good... So, did Harry have any experience?" She spilled out in one run on sentence.

"He had to have. No one has that kind of born talent." Hermione snorted into her cup. "I'm sure him and Cho hit it in fifth year."

"He told you he had sex with Cho?!" Hermione's face was turning red.

"Well he never said her name, but I'd rather not confirm that Harry's been covered in essence of Cho."

"Well, if it makes it easier for you to kiss him at night, I can guarentee you that Harry and Cho never had sex. In fact, they never did anything more than kiss. Once. And he wasn't even that impressed."

Ginny was taken back at her friend's reaction. "You don't have to defend Harry you know. I was going to marry him even thinking he had been with her, but thanks for easing my mind. Maybe I can cancel my STD tests." She started to laugh, but Hermione just nibbled on a cracker that she had summoned from the cupboard.

Several silent seconds crept by. "So..." Hermione tried to break the silence through her cracker. "How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

"Oh, it was my fifth year too."

"Dean?!"

"No. It was after him, but before Harry. Enough about me. It's your turn again. When was your second?"

"It was my sixth year. Men in general were just pissing me off, especially your brother, and I found a listening ear and shoulder to cry on. In March, when Harry and Ron were both in hospital and I had all this time to spend with him, things got a little more serious between us and...well. Like you said, one thing led to another."

"So...was the second time around better?"

"I don't want to say better, but it was definatly easier. Both of us had experience so it wasn't as awkward and it was because we had feelings for each other, not just because we were friends so there was a lot of things that made it more like real sex, you know."

"Was he hot?"

"Are you kidding me? You think I'd just go with anyone?"

"Well, you are sleeping with my brother." Ginny made gagging noises as she poked her finger into her mouth.

"Your brother is cute. You just don't see him the way that I do."

"And that's a good thing. Because that would be illegal."

"Shut up. Yeah he was cute. OK, he was really cute." Hermione began to blush slightly.

"Who?"

"I'm not gonna tell you that. He's not exactly someone that I'd openly admit that I slept with. It's kind of a Romeo and Juliet type relationship."

"You both wanted to drink poison after sleeping with each other?" Ginny asked.

"No, you dork. It was more like we shouldn't be together because our houses are kind of enemy's you know."

"So he wasn't a Gryffindor? So what, neither was mine. It's not like we didn't have classes with other houses. There was a shit load of cute Hufflepuffs. I personally wouldn't have declined if Cedric Diggory had asked me to meet him in a broom cupboard. Besides look at your choices from Gryffindor. I don't know about you, but Seamus Finnagin and Neville Longbottom says it all for me. Harry was sort of a diamond in the rough for Gryffindor I think."

"That's only because your hitting that."

"Oh admit it Hermione, you think Harry is hot. You're just jealous that I'm sleeping with Harry and you're stuck with Ron."

"I'm not stuck with anything." Hermione sounded almost offended at this and several more seconds ticked by as Hermione finished her cracker.

"What do you remember most about your first?" Ginny finally asked trying to break the tension. "I mean, besides that it hurt, that's a given."

A smile crept across her lips before Hermione answered. "That he was gentle. We took our time, because we were both so nervous, but he never rushed me, never acted like I was just a piece of ass. It was probably one of the only times I've had sex that I didn't just feel like a pussy."

"I know what you mean. Almost every time with Harry is like that." Both women sat quietly smiling.

"You're a lucky woman, Gin. I hope you know how much he's done for you."

Ginny had spent all night thinking over Harry and she knew. Deep down, she knew that he would do anything for her.

"What do you remember about your first?" Hermione saw that she was losing Ginny.

"I was scared. I knew I wasn't his first so I was scared that I wouldn't be good enough. I was scared because I heard it would hurt. I was scared that people would find out. That's what I remember most."

"Was he cute?" Hermione asked and now it was Ginny's turn to blush.

After several moments she finally answered. "Yeah. He was. I remember that he had the cutest little dimple." She blushed even more. "It was somewhere that you couldn't see with his pants on, let's just say. He was built too. More then you could tell under those stupid school robes. I remember being surprised that he had a tattoo."

" A viper on the inside of his right thigh?" Hermione had become suddenly very serious and sat up straight.

"Yeah...how did you... You slept with Draco Malfoy?! When?"

"The begining of March my sixth year. You?

"End of March, same year, but we'd been dating for like two months before that!"

"How did you keep that a secret? It was nearly impossible for me to find time to be with him with Harry obsessing over him with that stupid map. I had to only see him when Harry was sleeping or playing Quidditch or in detention."

"What map?" Ginny asked.

"He has this map that Fred and George gave him that lets him see where everyone is in the school at any time. He obsessed over it in sixth year always watching Draco because he was sure that he was doing something for Voldemort. I tried time and time again to convince him to stop obsessing so that it would be easier to see Draco, but he wouldn't listen to me."

Ginny's eyes became very wide. "He could see anyone? Anywhere?! How can something like that be legal?"

"Well he must have always missed you too because he never said anything like that to me, but trust me when I say you must have been touched by an angel to get away with hanging around Draco that year. We always met in Hogsmead or the Room of Requirement."

"Yeah, us too. That fucker." Ginny shivered as she began to feel dirty.

Suddenly there was a scuffle of shoes outside the kitchen door. Hermione picked up her wand from the table and aimed it out the door. "Incarcerous!" A rope shot out of the end of her wand and tightened around it's target like a long fishing line. Hermione tugged hard on the rope and into the room fell face first just the boy that both girls wanted to see. She stood up to cross the room, joined by Ginny, to stand cross armed looking down on the bound boy. "Well, good morning, Mr. Malfoy. Enjoying the show? I bet you knew long before we did that you were the star. Or did you think that we would never catch on to the fact that you played us both like a damn fiddle? 'I'm so alone.'" Hermione mimicked his voice.

"'No one understands me'". Ginny piped in in her best Draco imitation.

"How many other girls got that same sob story? Couldn't have been too lonely when you had two woman in your bed. Oh, you're good, Draco. I actually felt sorry for you."

"Like I'm the only one that ever kept a secret?" Draco stated as he closed his eyes and vanished the ropes so that he could stand. He recomposed himself and loomed over top of Hermione who looked down at the floor guiltily. He crossed to sit down at the table and propped his feet up as if preparing to watch a good show. "Why don't you tell Ginny about how you were a little dick-jocky in school, hmm? About how I wasn't the one to pop your cherry?"

"Cute mouth, Draco. I already know that , and besides, Hermione isn't the one on trial here." Ginny stood firm as she looked over to smile at Hermione in support. Hermione didn't return the smile.

"Three words from me and I would be the least guilty person in this house." Draco said. Hermione jumped forward a little as if to go stop him from talking, but held herself back when Draco smiled slyly at her.

"You're a weasel, Malfoy. You'd rat someone out just to save your own ass?" Even before the words were out of her mouth Hermione was receiving two sets of "well duh" stares. "I thought you had changed is all." Hermione said trying to make herself look less foolish.

"OK, one of you better tell me what's going on here 'cause this is getting really old." Ginny began to look back and forth between Hermione's guilty face and Draco's sickening smirk. "Hermione, you know there's not anything you could tell me that would make me hate you. You're my best friend. Besides, you told me the truth about sleeping with dick-face here so what could possibly be any worse than that."

Hermione looked down at the floor before she shook her head. "I can't do that to you Gin. It can't be me that tells you what happened that night. I can't do that to you." She started to walk slowly to the door as she wiped a tear away from her cheek.

Draco stood and cleared his throat. "Hermione-fucked-Harry." He sat and propped his feet back up on the table and summoned a bottle of beer from the fridge.

----------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17 Teaser

"This is not a truce, this is not an apology, this is a chance for you to give your side of the story." Ginny sat across from Hermione at the table and waved her hand in a flippant way. "Go."