Compilation of Hinny Works

by LegendDairy

I've got too many Hinny one-shots, and there are more coming. So they are all going to be posted here instead of individual stories. And Harry/Ginny pairings only, no others. Will be updated sporadically.

62. Choosing to Pay the Bills

AN- TRIGGER WARNING.

That's right. Trigger warning.

This prompt came in and had me questioning whether I had the right to write something like this. I am very fortunate to have been born into a body that I am very comfortable to be in. There was no question or confusion that I dealt with, no need to prove myself or answer to anyone. I was born a she and I am happily a she.

Reading this prompt I went back and forth on whether I should do it, but then the idea kept swirling around in my mind. I had the story play out in my head the way I saw and immediately knew that there would be people that took issue with it, thinking that I was completely misunderstanding the way individuals identified themselves and challenges they face in society and this is absolutely not my intention.

I, He, She, We, They, Them; whatever pronoun you go by or refuse to go by, I am a firm believer that you should be and do what you need to in order to be comfortable and true to who you are.

I hope you read this for the story that it is, not disassemble it and parse for subtext or attack me for taking on this challenge. (But this is anonymous so I know I'll get those reviews anyhow)

And here is the prompt so you understand what this warning was about, and to the Guest reader that sent this- thank you for the challenge, I did change up the 'when' of it going down though.

***Prompt- Arthur Weasley, upon learning that his seventh child is a girl performs an ancient spell to turn his child's gender from female to male, not informing any of his other children. Jimmy Weasley grows up under the impression that he is gay and struggling with his identity, particularly because he believes he is in love with his brother's best friend. Then one day something happens, and Jimmy discovers that 'he' is actually a 'she'.

Now, I did not make the entire story about this prompt, I worked it into a larger story and if you have enjoyed my other one-shots thus far, I think you should give this a chance too.

()()()

Choosing a Profession and Paying the Bills

()()()

Astoria Malfoy, 23, had been found dead and stuffed into a rubbish bin off the side of the Leaky Cauldron. It had been one week since the murder and no one had been arrested for it. There were all manner of stories coming out about homeless witches and wizards having robbed her and injured her in the process, thus the disposal of her body and the lack of valuables on her person.

There was also a story of an affair, one that she might have tried to end and that had been what landed her in the bin.

Then there was the possibility of retaliation landing her in there. The Malfoy's had been on the losing side of the war, the men in that family had borne the Dark Mark and those that had lost loved ones because of the war might have taken Astoria's life to somehow make it even.

Harry Potter had a hard time believing that last theory. Astoria herself had been a Greengrass through the war, and anyone who knew anything about the way the upper class worked would have known that her marriage to Draco Malfoy had not been out of love, it was a power play. Astoria was a pureblood and no doubt had been 'assigned' to marry Draco Malfoy.

The Malfoy's weren't seen out and about much in their society save for special functions. Draco Malfoy had a company he'd started right out of school and was heading up, something to do with investments, but it mostly dealt with the Muggle sector, believe it or not. Draco and Astoria Malfoy had posed for pictures at gala's and fundraisers, she had done her part to make sure that everyone knew how sorry the Malfoy family had been with their part in the war by attending charity events and even launching a few support programs herself.

She didn't love her husband though, and Draco Malfoy hadn't loved her either.

If her affair had been made public though, and there absolutely had been an affair, it would have looked bad for the Malfoy family.

No, Harry had his money pegged on Draco Malfoy having been involved in his wife's death.

That was why he, Harry, was perched on the top of the building across from Malfoy Holdings where Draco Malfoy was sitting at his desk. Harry had seen all the interviews and interrogations that Draco had been in through use of a Pensieve. Draco hadn't admitted to knowing anything or anyone that might have wanted to harm his wife, he also didn't seem all that bothered by it. Harry hadn't been present for the interrogations because of his history with the suspect, scouting missions were something else though.

"Fucking freezing up here," Matthew, the other Auror who had joined him on the stake out, said as he rubbed his hands together. It was the middle of January and they were in the middle of London. The cold was seeping into their bones no matter how many warming charms they used. "All he's been doing is paperwork. Shouldn't he be packing up to head home now?" Matthew complained.

"What's he got to go home to?" Harry said dryly.

Matthew snorted, "a big empty manor house? A side piece? Scotch by the fire?"

"We haven't been able to figure out who his side piece is," Harry pointed out.

"Whoa, action," Matthew pointed out the person walking into Draco's office. "His assistant. Damn, maybe she's his side piece. I certainly wouldn't say no."

Harry took a good look and had to agree with Matthew. Draco Malfoy's assistant was a very good looking girl, particularly all done up like she was. High-waisted skirt, nice blouse, hair done up in a twist and heels on.

"Have they interrogated her?" Harry asked him.

"No, just confirmed with her about his schedule day of the murder. Still not sure if she's a witch."

"If she is the side piece then we might be able to get her to confess to it if we bring her in for questioning. We could use the other office," Harry said. The Auror's had a facility they used when they needed to interrogate Muggles that didn't require bringing them into the official Ministry building. And as Malfoy and his assistant were two good looking people of the same age, opposite genders, it wasn't far-fetched for there to have been something between them.

"The mother is coming in now," Matthew said.

Narcissa Malfoy had come into the office and given a stiff nod to the assistant before she went over to greet her son with a kiss on the cheek, then it was just the two Malfoy's in the room.

It was getting on six at night, there was a good chance that they were all leaving soon.

The approval to watch Draco Malfoy had only been given today, one week after the murder and only because the trail had gone cold. It was their last ditch effort to find probable cause.

"Should we try and follow the Malfoy's or the assistant?" Harry wondered aloud. "We might be able to get her talking, or overhear her talking to someone else about it."

"The Malfoy's could all be using the Floo in the office to head home," Matthew pointed out.

Harry knew that had been a possibility as they did know Malfoy was connected to the Floo Network through his personal office, but Harry didn't really fancy the idea of sitting on this rooftop another few days and was hoping one or three of them would wind up walking down the street.

"Oh, looks like our lucky day," Matthew said and pointed down to the ground level exit onto the street. The assistant was walking out the door.

Harry and Matthew locked eyes for only a moment and it was decided.

"Alley over there?" Harry gestured with his chin to the dark corner at the side of Malfoy Holdings. Matthew responded with a firm nod.

A blink later that they were both street level and following several paces behind her. She didn't seem in a hurry, but Harry had caught her checking her watch.

"Do we know her name?" Harry asked him. She looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn't place her.

"Just the initials, G-something Prewitt," Matthew shook his head. "No one's looked into her yet."

The Prewitt bit sounded familiar too. He was mentally cursing himself out for not remembering where he'd heard that surname before.

They followed discretely behind her for two blocks before she stopped, braced her hand on a railing outside a residential building and one by one she pulled her heels off and put on a pair of sneakers. She also transfigured her skirt into a pair of trousers and pulled her hair out of the twist it had been in so it fell down around her shoulders.

At least now they knew she was a witch. That made things easier.

Harry's brow furrowed at the wardrobe change, then she pulled out a handkerchief and wiped at her eyes, cheeks and mouth.

Couldn't she have just done that when she got wherever she was going, or before she left the office?

She started moving again and they continued following in behind her once more. Three blocks later and she went into a pub called The Flying Ox. It was a regular Muggle pub with decent pub food and beer on tap, there was a billiards table in the back as well. Harry had been in there a time or two before.

His stomach was in agreement with following her in there. A burger and chips sounded really good about now. Both he and Matthew did charms to change their appearance slightly. Her being a witch she would recognize him and they didn't want that.

The wave of warm air when they entered the pub hit his face full on and fogged up his glasses immediately. "See an empty table?" he asked Matthew.

"Yeah, can you seen enough to follow behind me? There's one beside our girl there."

"Lead on," Harry told him, pulling his glasses off his face and following the blurry form of Matthew to the high-top table.

"Come with me then," a girl was saying to the assistant. "I don't want to be the only one there cheering him on." This friend had very blond hair and was quite pretty, Harry could tell that without need of his glasses. It kind of radiated off of her. She spoke with a slight French accent as well.

"Gabby," the assistant said. "I've only just got here. Can you at least wait until I've had a drink in me before you start nagging about this, that and the other thing? I'm really not interested in watching him try out. It'll just make me miss it even more."

"You could have tried out yourself, there was nothing stopping you."

"No, nothing. Except for the fact that in order to follow that dream I'd have to give up on other things I like, like eating," she pointed out. "And you know the other reason as well."

"Oh, you can't possibly like being stuck working in an office. If it's money that's the problem then why don't you come and stay with me again until you get yourself sorted?" Gabby offered.

"Yeah right. I'd have to cut my own ears off the first time you forget a silencing spell, then I'd never find myself a man."

"Wasn't a man what got you into this mess in the first place?" Gabby asked her.

"Wow, tell me how you really feel," she grumbled.

"What can I get for you gents?" the waitress asked coming up to Harry and Matthew.

"Got any specials on?" Matthew asked.

"We've got a few more of the fish and chips left, that's our Friday special."

"I'll take that," Matthew told her, "and a Guinness."

Harry did his best not to shoot him a look. They were on the job, they weren't supposed to be drinking. But Matthew had been an Auror for a lot longer than Harry and had seniority. Probably grew jaded to the rules a long time ago.

"I'll have a burger and chips, just a water for me though," Harry told her.

After the waitress left he made the mistake of catching the assistants eye.

He held her gaze for longer than he probably should have as well because he suddenly found himself quite comfortable looking into her eyes. Generally, eye contact made him instantly look away, he would catch the eye of people all the time and then find something else in their vicinity to look at instead, it was just human nature to do so. He didn't like eye contact and found most people didn't enjoy it either.

She had quite nice eyes though. They were a warm honey brown and the remnants of the make-up she had hastily rubbed off her face outside left just enough that her lashes were still dark and there was a bit of shadow on her lids that completely complimented her otherwise natural look.

A warning bell went off in his mind then and he simply gave her a polite smile and then turned back to Matthew.

Something about her eyes was familiar though and he couldn't place it.

It was just over an hour they sat there at the table beside their person of interest. That tables around them were growing more rowdy as the night dragged on as well. A few men stopped by the table to chat the girls up and they learned the assistants name was Ginny.

Not a single one of them asked about Ginny's work. Nor did her friend Gabby bring up the name Malfoy.

He and Matthew settled up their tab and called it a night while the other table was still carrying on. It was pretty clear that they wouldn't be learning anything by sitting beside the table and hoping for some tidbit of information to drop.

"It's worth interrogating her," Harry told his partner after they left the pub.

"Of course it is, but we need a reason," Matthew said. "Her friend not knowing who Ginny works for is not enough to bring her in."

"You noticed too then?"

Matthew scoffed. "She changed before arriving, only mentioned something about paperwork and anytime Gabby brought up their job she immediately changed the subject. If I had to guess I'd say she definitely doesn't want anyone to know she's working for a Malfoy. Possibly she doesn't want to be working in the Wizarding World either, same as Malfoy. Working for him must be close enough, but far enough if you know what I mean."

They took look around them once they were a few yards down from the pub entrance and then Apparated once more to a rooftop, the one directly across the street from the pub to wait and see if Miss Ginny would be heading home or possibly to her boss' house for a late night tryst.

She'd seemed like someone that was easy to get on with and very much the opposite personality of her boss. All his dealings with Malfoy himself had been met with sneers and formality since leaving school. Ginny, however, had been quick to laugh and tease any men that came over to chat she and her friend up, and sarcastic.

There were a few times Harry had to stifle his humor when overhearing her comments.

"I can't really see her being a mistress," Harry confessed his impression of Ginny to Matthew.

"No, I can't either. But people surprise you," Matthew told him. "Remember what she was saying when we first sat down? About how she needed the money?"

"You think Draco Malfoy could be paying her for sex?" Harry asked.

"I wouldn't put it passed him," he shrugged. "He's a wealthy guy. The ladies certainly aren't lining up for him based on his personality. And as for her," he thumbed in the direction of the pub, "like I said, I've learned that people can surprise you."

That was certainly true.

When all the dust had settled after the last war it was hard not to have missed spotting everyone's true colors. There were those that had been Death Eaters and proud of it, those that had simply gone along with whomever was in power and those that had been forming the resistance.

It was six years ago now since the war had finished and Harry had been a fully fledge Auror for two of those years. He still needed some guidance when it came to certain common knowledge about the inner workings of politics and such at the Ministry, but that didn't stop him from being good at his job. It didn't stop Matthew for asking to stay partnered up with him either.

Draco Malfoy was one of the first former Death Eaters he'd met when the war ended. At that time the Auror trainee's had been taking turns acting as security around the Wizengamut chambers on the lowest floor of the Ministry and it was Harry's turn when the Malfoys were sent in for questioning. Draco Malfoy hadn't been paying much attention to those around him, particularly not those that were working there. Harry and the other Auror trainee's may as well have been camouflaged into the wall. Draco had simply stood there waiting for his turn and complained to his mother, albeit under his breath, about what an inconvenience this all was. He'd blamed everything on his father, as though that justified his behavior and treatment of the Half-Blood students at Hogwarts.

It sickened Harry to hear it.

They may have played their part to help he and his friends during the last battle, but it was clear they had only been out for themselves in doing it.

Draco and his mother though were excused from spending anytime in Azkaban. They merely had to pay a penance to Wizarding society through financial means and were banned from ever sitting in Wizengamut proceedings or working for the Ministry in any capacity.

It wasn't harsh enough punishment.

Malfoy Holdings was an international business and though Harry wasn't entirely sure what it was they did, something about stocks and trading, he knew that it made a lot of money.

It was another hour before the girls were spilling out of the pub. They shouted their farewells to each other and Gabby Apparated off home from the closest alley. Ginny though started walking again, and by herself.

Harry looked down at his watch. They had another hour before they were into overtime territory, yet he was willing to forgo overtime if it meant they had another lead.

Which they didn't.

Harry and Matthew followed Ginny home and watched the light in her flat turn on. Her blinds were pulled so they couldn't see exactly what she was doing, but they were sheer enough that the shadow of her form going back and forth across the flat doing her nightly routine was visible, and it was just her moving around in there.

With a nod at each other once they saw she was settling down into her bed, each of the Aurors called it a night.

()()()

There was a tapping at the window that woke Ginny on Monday morning.

This was becoming her usual way of waking up and it was the unfortunate downside of being good at what she did.

With an annoyed sigh she rolled out of her bed and opened the window. It wasn't a regular post owl that was delivering her Daily Prophet like most people would receive first thing in the morning. Instead, it was an Eagle Owl from her employer and the man whom she directly worked for asking her to complete some mundane task on her way into the office.

Ptolemy was this owl's name and he was as much a prick as the man who owned him. He used to try to nip and scratch her hand before and she'd retaliated by banishing him out the window with her wand.

Thus, she didn't bother attempting to untie the letters from his leg anymore, she simply ripped it off the string and gestured for him to be on his way.

She could swear, if owls were able to sneer that was exactly what this one was doing at her before taking flight.

Though she may have gotten plenty of sleep she was not eager to start her day, and she was certainly not going to start it off by reading what Draco Malfoy wanted her to do before heading into the office. He already demanded that his specialty coffee and alternating breakfast pastry be in an exact location on his desk every morning, which he more often than not didn't bother eating. She always had to stop into a café and pick it up though on the way in, using an expense account of course.

But he'd also had her picking up dry cleaning or swinging by a client's home or business to pick up documents that he didn't trust not to be intercepted.

Not that it wasn't part of her job, but it wasn't always with-in what her job hours should have been. Though she did get paid plenty, plus there were other perks to the job like travel. It was just irritating to be ordered around like a House Elf.

The only reason she had gotten the job was because of the late Mrs. Malfoy.

Astoria had been a regular patron at the charity foundation in Paris that Ginny had worked at part time her summer after finishing up at Beaubaton, which quickly turned into full time. They knew each other from their first three years of schooling, which Ginny had done at Hogwarts. It took a bit for Astoria to realize who she was and the surprise registered on Astoria's face, but she moved past it. They hadn't ever been social for those years they shared classes, it was only until two years ago when Ginny worked with her on organizing a gala that they started talking properly.

Over the course of their business interactions they became more friendly and Astoria started confiding in her.

Astoria was not happy in her marriage. That was something that had been widely assumed, but she had confirmed it to Ginny. She had been sure that Draco was seeing other women, but as he was being discrete enough that Astoria wasn't able to tell who the women were, she wasn't much bothered about it.

It was something that Ginny couldn't fathom. Particularly now that she herself had been in a relationship and been cheated on. When that had happened to her, she and her boyfriend they had been living together and had just signed a two-year lease on a place that she could have only afforded with his help.

He had been the reason she had moved back to England, it wasn't a country filled with happy memories. Him leaving left her in more than simply a financial jam.

Astoria fixed that situation by getting her the job with Malfoy Holding.

Never once had Astoria asked for information on her husbands coming and goings over the past year and a half that Ginny had worked there, and never once had Ginny been able to tell if there was another woman in the picture, or man.

Ginny knew exactly why Astoria was comfortable with her being the one to work with her husband though. She knew that there was no chance that Draco could ever look at her with the interest and lust that she occasionally saw in a strangers eye. There was too much history there. To much disgust on his end, which should have only been the other way around if things had been different.

If her parents hadn't made a decision at her birth that caused her so much grief and mental distress.

And when Astoria was found murdered, Ginny had no idea who might have been responsible. When the Auror's had come to question Draco she had nothing to offer them. There were no insights that she had into who might have done it or where Astoria was supposed to have been that day. She managed Draco's calendar, not his wife's. And Draco had been at work in his office the entire day.

There wasn't anyone in her personal life that Ginny could have talked to about it either. Because for the year and a half that she had been with Malfoy Holding she had never told her friends or family that she worked there. They all still thought she worked with the charity foundation and had simply been very careful with her money when it came to paying her rent.

It was a delicate dance she played when it came to questions of her occupation. It was just her brothers that she was in touch with, but she didn't see them too often. And there was only half a year left on her lease before she could move to a less expensive place and then she could quit and have all this experience to pad her resume.

It hadn't been that hard of a secret to maintain really. She did still do work with the charity on behalf of Malfoy Holding. The hardest part had been learning to look the part for her position at Malfoy Holding. Her job required her to be poised and professional. Astoria had given her several sets of clothes and talked her through exactly how to do her make-up. Something that Ginny had needed coaching on since she was thirteen and was grateful for the help because it really was transformative. She remembered staring at herself in the mirror in amazement after Gabby had gotten to her one night at Beaubaton and did a sort of Cinderella thing with her.

Now, as she finished brushing her teeth and moved on to applying her make-up, she felt like she could have done more. Like she and Astoria should have actually become good friends, ones that had a wine and cheese night once a month or something. Then maybe whatever had happened to her wouldn't have happened, because she would have been with Ginny at her flat instead of wherever she had been that landed her in a dumpster.

It was what ran through her mind every morning now as she applied her mascara. Astoria's sad smile was what Ginny was reminded of when she made sure that her eyebrows were perfectly shaped.

She had lost a few friends during the last war and for some ridiculous reason she had thought that she had seen the last of their funerals for a while.

After she'd finished up her breakfast she finally opened up the letter that had been sent to her that morning.

Another dry cleaning pick-up.

Why he couldn't simply have used his House Elves for this she didn't understand. Sure, he didn't want them at the office, but they could have simply Apparated in and out of his office without being seen.

She looked down at the slip that was included for the item pick-up and saw that there was a dress on there. A bit unusual. And it was a dress that was her size, something that Astoria and Narcissa Malfoy were not; recorded as a black, size four.

Ginny's brow wrinkled in confusion. She had most certainly not left a dress anywhere for Draco Malfoy to pick up, and there weren't any other women in his life that it could have belonged to.

That she knew about.

And he would not have slipped up with one of his mistresses at a delicate time like this.

On her way in to work she stopped at the cleaners and picked up the five items that were on the slip. Strangely enough, the dress that was with them was hers. It was a black silk one with silver hemming and a few rhinestones along the v-cut neckline.

In a daze of confusion she thanked the lady behind the counter and shrunk the items down to put in her bag.

She could not remember the last time she had worn that dress.

It wasn't one that she would have worn to work, she only wore it on special occasions. So how in the hell would Draco have gotten his hands on it? And why would he have sent it off to be cleaned?

She went to the café closest to the office and picked up his usual latte and a chocolate croissant on Monday and headed to the office.

Draco wasn't in yet. He liked to do a bit of a late start on Monday's. Ginny set down his food and turned to his closet. Now is when she should be pulling his cleaned clothes and hanging them up, but instead she paused and stared at the closet.

If she put the clothes in there then the dress should go with them, right? Because it might not have been her dress. She didn't remember seeing her dress in her closet this morning, but she hadn't been looking for it either.

The clock on the wall beside the closet read 8:15am.

He probably wouldn't be in until 8:30, 8:45 at the latest.

It wasn't enough time to walk home, though if she Apparated then she could make it.

Ginny hated Apparating, she wasn't a fan of using the Floo either. And both options made a complete mess of all the work she put into her appearance.

This situation called for it though. She'd be wondering about it all day otherwise.

She rushed up the stairs with her bag in tow and made it to the roof where she Apparated straight to her own buildings roof and took in a deep steadying breath. The suctioning feeling from doing that always made her nauseous.

From there she rushed down the stairs and to her flat, making a beeline for her closet.

There it was.

So, then this was not her dress that was in her bag.

Who the hell's dress was it then?

Was Draco Malfoy seeing someone?

Unable to explain her reasoning to herself she pulled her own dress down from the hanger and switched the hanger so that it would be her dress hanging in his office closet. The other one she shoved to the very bottom of her bag.

With that she headed straight back to the roof and Apparated back to Malfoy Holding and hurried down to the office and placed the dry cleaning in his closet, including her dress.

Then she went to the bathroom and double checked her appearance. As she knew it would be, her hair was a bit of a mess but other than that the rest of her looked just as she had when she left her flat first thing this morning.

Okay.

She fixed her hair, but her nerves were making her hands tremble a bit.

Surely there was an explanation. She couldn't come right out and ask him what that explanation was, but if he didn't say anything would that be more suspicious?

Ginny went back to her desk.

Draco still wasn't in, so she occupied herself with her usual workload, attempting to get as much done as possible to try and put the dress out of her mind.

Her mind was spinning a bit too much for her to concentrate on the words in front of her though. So instead, she riffled through her desk, looking to clean it out a bit. It was what she did when she was worked up. Cleaning kept you busy and there was no thought process involved in it.

In her bottom drawer though she found something that did not belong to her.

There was a ring in there.

It was a sapphire ring in a platinum setting.

How on earth did that get in her desk?

She'd cleaned out her desk two days after she learned of Astoria's passing for the same reason that she was doing it now, as an attempt to cope and out of agitation, and the ring hadn't been there then.

Astoria always wore this ring, had it not been on her when they found her?

"Prewitt."

Ginny jumped at the sound of Draco calling her name. He was walking towards her from the lift and she immediately tucked the ring into her bag alongside the dress before standing up with all the items her boss would need for getting the day's dealing dealt with.

It had been an interesting start having to work with him. The animosity between their families stretched back as far as she could remember, having started several generations before her father or grandfather. Her going to work for him, particularly so soon after the war where they had been on opposing sides, it had made her belly churn with guilt.

Then again, she hadn't been a Weasley for a few years now.

She and Malfoy had a silent agreement not to discuss her lineage or the story behind her name change. Their sole purpose in the office was to get work done. There were no casual chats had between them, no mention of current events. Strictly business.

It was the same today as well.

He showed no indication that there was anything amiss with his dry cleaning, nothing to show that he may have stuck his deceased wife's ring in her desk drawer. Nothing but their everyday shuffle.

He had been this way the day after Astoria's body had been found as well. The only thing out of the ordinary that day had been when he'd had to go into the Auror offices for questioning.

He'd acted like it was simply a deal that had fallen through.

Again, Ginny didn't ask him anything about it and he didn't bring it up.

And now all day at her desk she kept checking and rechecking her drawers for anything else that might appear that had belonged to Astoria. But there was nothing else.

The dress was one thing, but the ring?

By the time her end of day came around she had decided. She had to turn it over to the Auror's that were dealing with the case.

Which was why at six that evening she was standing at DMLE clutching her bag, her hand holding steadfast to the bottom of the bag where the dress and the ring were.

She wasn't quite sure who exactly she needed to speak to though and the receptionist was gone for the day. There had been two Auror's that came to Malfoy Holding, but she hadn't recognized them. She knew Tonks was an Auror, but as Ginny looked across the bull-pen she couldn't pick out a head of pink or blue hair.

There was a man sitting at a desk not too far away from her, so she approached him.

"Hello, can I speak to-"

"Ginevra!" her name was called out from close by in surprise. It was Percy and he was walking over to her.

Shit, Ginny had a moment of panic. She didn't need him here right now! He was her only brother that worked at the Ministry and he didn't work in this department. They hadn't seen each other in ages and she was surprised he even recognized her. Explaining her presence there was not going to be something easily accomplished without giving her situation away completely.

"What are you doing here?" Percy asked her with a smile. "You look lovely," he leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She could never tell whether he was forcing himself to act like she was completely normal. He had also been the only brother that hadn't tried to push her face in the mud during play when she was growing up and she'd always appreciated him a bit more for that.

"Thank you. What brings you down here? And so late?" she asked in hopes to find inspiration for what lie she was going to tell from his answer.

"Ah, well, as you know my role with International Magical Cooperation involves quite a bit of back and forth with the Head Auror. Thus, I was just in a meeting with him to go over a few departmental memo's that had not been replied to in a timely manner."

As he was carrying on about it Ginny looked towards the Head Auror's office and saw two Auror's coming out of said office. The pair of them looked very familiar. One was a bit older, one was around her age with messy black hair and glasses.

She locked eyes with the second one and immediately flashed back to her last few days at Hogwarts and how she had seen him in the library before her whole life had changed.

()()()

One aisle over and across the through-way Harry and his friends were packing up their assignments into their bags before leaving the library and Jimmy was trying to be discrete about watching his every movement. It was hard to concentrate with Harry around, he was such an attractive distraction.

Jimmy tapped his pen on the paper before him and looked over the two columns he'd written.

In one column

- Quidditch

- Messy

- Roughhousing- as mum calls it

- Dirty Jokes are Funny

- …

And in the other column

- Like playing dress up

- Wish I had longer hair

- Desperately wanted to play house until I was eight

- No interest in kissing girls

- Completely in love with Harry Potter

Anything else that he felt he could write down it all came down to feelings, not legitimate proof. How does one put emotions into words?

How was the fact that he would get emotional over a sappy story or stole his mum's romance novels and read them in secret any proof that there was something wrong with him?

Wrong wasn't the right word.

Different.

He was different than all his brothers. And he worked damned hard to pretend he wasn't. They gave him enough of a hard time when he was little and wanted to have tea parties instead of joining them in hitting each other with sticks or whatever.

Beside him, Percy was the one that got the most teasing, and that was because Percy was well smarter and more reasoned than the rest of them.

Him wondering if he was gay or not was not the same as being intelligent. Everyone was understanding about Percy being intelligent.

And he wasn't sure he was gay. Yes, he was in love with a guy, but the term 'gay' just didn't feel right.

Nothing felt right.

He just wanted to scream and cry all the time and he was sick of it!

This couldn't be normal. None of the other guys in his dorm, or his brothers seemed to be having this hard of a time simply being.

There were other things too.

He was thirteen.

Thirteen-year-old boys, like him, were starting to have uncontrolled reactions to things. Like getting hard in the middle of class for no reason, having wet dreams, fantasizing about Romilda Vane and her perky breasts.

The potentially gay bit explained the last one, but either he was delayed in receiving his hormones or something else was going on.

And who the hell starts praying to have erections at random?

But all he heard when he was waiting for his turn in the shower was that Colin needed to jerk one out and Aaron woke up with morning wood. Meanwhile his own penis served the function of being convenient for aiming purposes when he needed to take a leak.

His dorm mates were starting to get hair on their chins too, meanwhile his own cheeks and chin were still baby soft. So he probably just had a bit more of a wait to hit puberty is all.

Writing out this list for himself was supposed to help him feel better, but it wasn't helping. It was just a list of his insecurities that were now jumping up at him from the page. Lines in ink that were taunting him. Every scratch of quill on parchment was echoing in his ears, screaming over and over again that there was something wrong with him.

He could sense that there was someone coming over towards him and quickly stuffed his parchment into his Charms textbook, trying to look as discrete about it as possible, and failing horribly.

"What's this you're trying to hide?" taunted the all too familiar voice of Draco Malfoy. He was in the year ahead of Jimmy, but apparently picking on Ron wasn't good enough for him, Malfoy was programmed to pick on Weasley's, and since the twins form of retaliation was too scary for him, it meant Jimmy got it.

"Homework, ever heard of it?" Jimmy snapped at him.

Malfoy wasn't buying it though. He snatched at the parchment sticking out of the book and managed to grab hold.

Jimmy snatched to get it back and wound up ripping some of the paper. That just motivated Malfoy more.

"Ohh, love letter I'd bet," Malfoy teased.

"Give it back," Jimmy warned and pulled out his wand.

"No," Malfoy started.

"Incendio," Jimmy pointed at the fragment of parchment before Malfoy could say anything more. The list went up in flames while he was still holding it and Malfoy jumped back.

"Geez, sensitive, aren't you?"

"Mister Weasley!" shouted Madame Pince. "Lighting a fire in a LIBRARY?! You will have detention for a MONTH. Get out!" She was pointing for the door with one hand and reaching for her wand with the other. They both knew they would be in for it if they stuck around any longer.

Malfoy scattered immediately and Jimmy turned to collect his things, but as he leaned over across the table there was a horrible cramping sensation in his lower belly. It felt like someone was reaching into his gut and squeezing.

He gasped in a breath as a dizzy spell came across him.

"What are you waiting for?" Madame Pince barked. "I said for you to get out. And don't come back before next year!"

Jimmy managed to keep himself upright and turned around to face her. "I don't… feel right," he slurred the last bit and then fell to the floor in a dead faint.

When he blinked his eyes open again he was looking up at the unmistakable ceiling of the hospital wing.

"Oh, man," he groaned. Except his voice was a few octaves higher.

Probably a result of a potion, he dismissed.

Looking over to the side table there was a glass of water there and he reached over for it. Sitting up on his elbow he drank the entire glass down and put it back, only then noticing that his hands looked different. They were a bit more… delicate. A bit smaller. Wrists too.

His eyes travelled up to the elbow, shoulders, across to the other hand.

He sat up properly and continued examining his hands. He shifted around to see if there was anything that felt off. There was still a bit of that squeezing sensation in his gut but it wasn't too bad. Other than that he felt fine.

Better than fine.

Comfortable.

He didn't normally feel comfortable. Normally he felt like his body was something that needed to be carried around with him, like a Halloween costume he was being forced to wear and maintain at all times.

And he needed a pee.

Pulling back the covers he slipped out of bed, a bit unsteady on his feet, but managing to keep balance well enough.

He felt weak though.

No, weak wasn't the right term.

Lighter maybe?

Quietly as possible he padded to the loo, trying not to let the matron know that he was awake just yet lest she force some horrible potion down his throat.

Passing the mirror above the sink before reaching the toilet had caused him to do a double take, then check behind him for another person before looking back at the girl in the mirror.

The freckles were still in the same location, the nose was still the signature Weasley nose. The hair was still the same vibrant red and eyes were the same brown. But the jaw line was softer, the lips were poutier, eyebrows had more shape to them.

His hand came up to her face and trailed a newly delicate finger down from forehead to chin, turning this way and that to examine each side.

He was a she!

It should have been a stranger experience, shouldn't it have?

She gave a swallow and looked down at the clothes on… her. She pulled at the neck of the shirt and pulled it outwards to look underneath then let it go quickly and looked back up at herself in the mirror, eyes wide with shock.

Those were… starter boobs.

That's what the boys called them. The breasts that girls had before they grew in properly. They were small, but they were there. And it certainly wasn't the flat chest he'd had the last time he checked.

She checked.

Beginning to dance with need to pee he/she made his/her way to the toilet.

Moment of truth.

The trousers and pants dropped to the floor and couldn't bear to look before sitting on the toilet. Sitting was an instinctual decision. Whether it was there or wasn't, sitting was the choice that felt best right then.

That certainly felt different! His eyes went wide and he looked down now.

He really was a she!

And she didn't know what to think.

Grasping for toilet paper she balled it up, a lot of it, and gave a wipe. That felt really strange too.

And there was a smear of blood on the paper that came away.

Her mind went into overdrive thinking something was wrong with her new body. She quickly finished up and washed her hands before going in search of Madame Pomphrey whom she found at the end of the bed she had been occupying.

"Something's wrong," she said in a panic. "With this body. It's, there's." The words wouldn't come out.

"It's alright, dear," Madame Pomphrey told her as though she knew exactly what was going on. "Just relax, back into bed and I'll explain."

She paused at the tone of the matrons voice. Madame Pomphrey was as no-nonsense as McGonagall, but she was using a very calming voice right now.

That was cause for even more concern.

Deciding it best to obey she went back to the bed and went under the covers.

"Now then," Madame Pomphrey started and pulled a chair over to sit beside the bed. "When you came in yesterday."

"Yesterday?" she asked in incredulity.

"Yes, yesterday. We decided it best to keep you asleep while you adjusted back to being in your natural body."

"My what?!" What the hell did that mean, 'natural body'.

"My dear," the matron took a deep breath. "The reason you collapsed in the library was because of your estrogen levels, and the cramps that you are no doubt feeling right now are from menstruation."

She just stared at Madame Pomphrey.

Menstruation?

Madame Pomphrey continued, "it has been discovered that when you were born… your parents, they. Well, they used a certain spell."

"What?" she said quietly.

"That spell made it appear that you were male," Madame Pomphrey continued calmly. "However, it was not done properly as you still have a normal amount of estrogen for a girl your age, and you have started into puberty, thus the bleeding you were concerned about a moment ago."

"I have… my period," she stated in a daze. "Wait a moment," she held up a hand, fury now wracking through her body. "My parents decided after I was born to turn me into a BOY?!"

How could they do that?!

The Matron nodded. "It seems that once you were born and they discovered that you were a girl they made the decision to…"

"Give me a penis?" she offered.

The matron nodded.

"How… w-what… so I'm actually," she stammered.

"Female, yes," the matron nodded. "And I am sorry that you have to find out this way. I am sure that you must feel like you've woken up to a nightmare. We had no choice but to reverse the spell for your health. Waking up in this body as you are must have been a horrible shock. I had hoped to be here when you did wake. The Headmaster and your parents should be coming here shortly to talk it through with you."

She was numb.

This explained the list she had been making at least; she wasn't gay, she was a she.

Now the bigger shock was that it turned out her parents love wasn't so unconditional after all.

The matron patted her hand and simply sat there with her for another half hour before getting up to continue her tasks.

It was two hours more before Dumbledore walked in with her parents. Her parents who couldn't meet her eye.

"Miss Weasley," Dumbledore greeted. "May I call you Miss Weasley."

"Apparently that's who I am," she said, glaring at her mum and dad.

"And how are you taking this discovery thus far?" he asked.

"It explains a few things," was all she could admit.

They had lied to her. They had made a decision that wasn't theirs to make. Why couldn't they have just given her away if they didn't want a girl? Just dropped her at an orphanage and told everyone else she had been a stillborn or something? Why did they have to live a lie for thirteen years?

"Jimmy," her mum started.

"My name isn't Jimmy, is it? I don't know of any girls with the name Jimmy. Don't even know what it would be short for. Suppose Jamie would be the closest, but still too close to the lie for me."

"How about I continue with Miss Weasley for now?" Dumbledore asked, looking at her kindly.

She pursed her lips and looked down at the sheets on her bed.

There weren't any other students in the hospital wing right now and she was so grateful for that. She could already imagine the taunting, name calling, whispers and sideways glances. She would be a pariah to the extreme. A freak.

"I can't keep going here," she blurted out.

"We can't afford to send you anywhere else," her dad said.

"I'll figure something out," she told him. "You didn't want a girl, fine, you won't have one. You can adopt Harry now. He'll be your seventh child. Sorry I was so much of a disappointment to you."

"Miss Weasley," Dumbledore started.

"What?" she prompted. "Is it even against the law, what they did?"

He shook his head. "There is no law that I know of regarding this that would be punishable to them. They will simply have to live with the choice they made. As will you."

"I don't have to live with it around them though, do I?" she muttered loud enough for them to hear.

"We are sorry," her mum said with tears in her eyes.

"Being sorry doesn't change anything," she argued.

"It is a start though," Dumbledore told her.

She didn't want to stay here and listen to their excuses or hear how sorry they were. They changed her identity. They caused her so many years of confusion.

Getting out of the bed again she stalked to the door and was halfway there before turning around to look at them once more. "How many of my brothers are actually my sisters?"

Her parents looked surprised with the question. "None," her father assured her.

She nodded once. "Just me you didn't want then."

"We did want you," her mother assured her. "We still want you. We still love you. It was a choice made in panic in the moment. We would take it back if we could."

"In the moment?" she repeated incredulously. "You CHANGED MY GENDER 'in the moment'? Please tell me you hear how completely insane that is!"

They both let tears fall down their faces as they nodded in shame.

"Fuck both of you!" she grit out through her teeth, unable to think of anything more elegant to say then.

Leaving the hospital wing as she looked then could have been a terrible idea if anyone would have come across her but she found an empty classroom and holed up in the corner, crouching down into a ball and cried.

"Hello," a serene voice said to her from across the room.

The classroom hadn't been as empty as she thought apparently. It was already occupied by Luna Lovegood. Luna had been her friend for years but they weren't very close. Jimmy had defended Luna from bully's time to time but they hadn't played together since making mud pies when they were seven or so. That was around the time Jimmy and Ron stopped playing make believe and Luna still carried on.

"Hi," she wiped her eyes and tried to regain some composure.

Not one to follow convention, Luna walked over to her and crouched down so they were level. Her eyes raked all over the new girls face thoroughly before locking eyes for an inordinate amount of time and smiling.

"You look much more natural now. What name to do you suppose you would like to go by?" Luna asked.

By the time the story got around to the rest of Hogwarts about Jimmy Weasley, Ginny was living at the Lovegood's home. Luna had sent her father an owl and he had come to collect Ginny from Hogsmeade right away.

He had been very kind and moved her into Luna's room while Luna stayed to finish up her year at Hogwarts.

Ginny's parents knew where she was and had sent her letters day after day, her brothers as well, but none of them came to take her away.

She supposed that they all thought they were giving her space to figure herself out, but it was a process.

There had been a blurb in the Daily Prophet about her and what her parents had done, but it wasn't plastered all over the front page. Being grateful for the disturbing news that Voldemort was back was not something she ever thought would be possible though she couldn't help but be happy to have her life story overshadowed like that.

One week after Luna had come back from school and Ginny had taken her end of year exams via Owl Order from the Ministry there was a knock at the door.

It was her Auntie Muriel, crazed and aged as she was, she offered to take Ginny in. It turned out she had always wanted another girl in the family and would be amenable to financing her education at Beaubaton.

It was Muriel that christened her new name as well.

From them on Jimmy Weasley was officially no more. It was only Ginevra, Ginny, Prewitt now.

()()()

Now here was another blast from that past.

And looking into Harry Potter's face, taking in his manly features, she realized now that she hadn't been thirteen the last time she saw him.

It had been last night.

His hair had been different, his eyes hadn't been the same color, but the glasses and the physique were the same. As was the smile.

How had she not remembered the smile? She'd fantasized about it endlessly in her adolescence.

They'd been following her.

"So, are you here on behalf of your work, or have you got a date?" Percy's voice cut through the white noise in her brain.

"What?" she asked, blinking rapidly to bring herself back to the present.

"Well, you are all done up. I assume there is a special reason for it," Percy asked brightly.

Ginny stared at him for a moment, still collecting her thoughts. He had always tried so hard to get those around him to take him seriously and make himself look like he was important. It must have required this kind of forced polite small talk all the time.

The likelihood of him believing her if she was being honest was slim. It might be the best course of action to go with.

"Thought I'd get all dolled up for an interview actually," she smiled. "I'm a person of interest in a murder." She waited a moment for Percy to roll his eyes, which he did. "No, actually I am also here to speak to the Head Auror, so I'll catch up with you later, yeah?"

Offering him no more than that she gave him a pat on the arm and made her way to the Head Auror's office where the two Auror's from Friday night were still standing there.

She came to a stop in front of them and looked from one to another. "I guess I have some information you might be interested in."

A few minutes later she was in an interrogation room with the dress and the ring placed on the table between she and the two Auror's as well as the Head Auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt. She had told them the whole story of how she had found the items just that day and switched the dresses as though some instinct had told her to.

"How long have you worked for Malfoy Holding?" Kingsley asked her.

She felt ashamed then, unjustified, but it was there, and she lowered her eyes. "Year and a half," Ginny answered honestly.

"And you still have your family believing you work for a charity?" His deep voice made it sound like a scold.

Her eyes flashed up to his in anger. "I'm not here about that. And all this is supposed to be privileged information, isn't it? You can't tell them." She didn't know the man very well but she knew he was close with her family.

"No, I can't," he inclined his head. "But you should."

"Save it," she snapped at him. "I'm good at my job and it pays well. Working for that arrogant prick is the only downside and he isn't as terrible now as he was in school, so I can deal."

"You think he's reformed?" Harry asked curiously.

It was strange being in his presence again. They had hung around each other a bit when he'd stayed at the Burrow, before she'd gone away. She didn't think he realized it was her he'd been following since she did look quite different, and it had been nearly ten years.

She did still feel a draw from him that stemmed from her hormones though. That hadn't changed.

"I didn't say that. He just minds his tongue and doesn't talk to me about anything other than work," Ginny told him, then rested back in her chair and crossed her arms. "I don't know what the fuck is going on. Picking up the dress this morning was weird enough. Finding the ring in my desk just makes it even more strange. I was friends with Astoria. Not like we were having tea parties or lunches together. But friends none the less. She didn't love her husband, I know that. But as I said, I make good money at that job, why would I want to jeopardize that by killing the bosses wife and getting thrown in Azkaban?"

Harry and Kinglsey's mouths shifted a bit at that, like they had an immediate response to the question but didn't want to say it out loud. Auror Matthew Goodwin didn't have the same qualms.

"You might if you were sleeping with him," he pointed out.

Ginny stared at him for a moment before a shiver ran through her body. An unwelcome image of a pale and sneering Draco Malfoy coming towards her with his shirt off in his office was brought to her mind and she felt sick.

It was a horrifying image.

"I. Would. NEVER," she stated. Then she had to fight the urge to vomit as the picture of her nearly naked boss grew closer to her. She actually had to cover her mouth and take a few breaths to regain control of her gag reflex. "Oh, that's disgusting."

Her whole body gave a shiver once more.

"And he would never," she told Auror Goodwin. "He knows my history, which by the looks of it, you don't," Ginny told the Auror emphatically. "Astoria did wonder if he had a mistress, but she had never found proof, and neither have I," Ginny told them.

"What about this dress?" Harry asked. "It couldn't have belonged to Astoria Malfoy?"

"Mine did once, but then she had it altered and gave it to me," Ginny told him. "She didn't want it anymore after-" Then it hit her, the reason why Astoria had given her the dress was because someone else had the exact same one and they ran in the same circles.

Astoria was never a fan of this girl, not even in school. This particular girl would not have been too happy with Draco Malfoy being paired off with Astoria Greengrass either.

But Ginny hadn't seen hide or hair of Pansy Parkinson for ages.

"Didn't Pansy Parkinson get married off to some Italian Pureblood?" Ginny asked the room. She was sure that the Parkinson's had done what they could to stay neutral in the last war and Pansy had been shipped off to get married to some Italian bloke the minute her NEWT results came in.

"Pansy Parkinson?" Auror Goodwin asked. "Of the Parkinson family? One of the Sacred Twenty-Eight?"

"Yeah, that's her. Slytherin. And she and Draco had been together for most of their time at Hogwarts. Then she buggered off after the war. But when Astoria gave me this dress it was because she said Pansy had the exact same one."

"You think she would try and pin Astoria's murder on you?" Harry asked.

"Well, the lot of you obviously thought I might have something to do with it," Ginny stated and glared at Kingsley.

"Ginevra," Kingsley sighed. "I have a lot of cases I oversee. It wasn't until earlier today that I realized it was you that was the Malfoy's assistant. Which was very confusing considering I didn't know your whole story until just after the war."

She relented, it wouldn't have been something her family would boast about or use as an amusing anecdote. Her mum and dad had been ashamed about what they'd done, and rightly so. When the story came out it was simply one of the many headlines at that time.

"But you do believe me, right?" she couldn't stop herself from asking.

She knew this was his job where his personal relationships couldn't be taking into account. But he did know her estranged family. Enough that he should know that she wouldn't kill someone over a Malfoy of all people. She'd be more likely to kill Draco Malfoy himself.

There was no probable cause for her to want Astoria dead.

The two Auror's were waiting for Kingsley's say on whether she could be released.

"I would like them to search your flat," Kingsley decided. "If there is no evidence that Draco Malfoy has been in there then we can record that. We will look into what has happened with Pansy Parkinson and track her whereabouts over the past two weeks."

"Fair enough," she agreed immediately and stood up. "Do you have something I could write the address down on?" she asked them.

"Er, no need," Harry told her somewhat awkwardly. At least he had the decency to look like he regretted the fact that he knew where she lived. Auror Goodwin was still looking at her like she was a suspect.

"Right then," she said stiffly then turned to Kingsley. "And this, my working for Malfoy Holding, this stays confidential, right? You aren't allowed to tell them?" She didn't need it getting back to her parents. Even though they weren't a big part of her life now, she didn't want them knowing.

Kingsley pursed his lips but gave her a stiff nod. Harry didn't do anything, and that was enough confirmation for her.

()()()

Shacklebolt telling he and Matthew to go and search her flat was the best way he could have diffused that situation. Ginny's reaction to the suggestion of she and Draco Malfoy being involved seemed pretty believable to Harry, but it could have been seen as favoritism if they didn't do something to follow up on their initial suspicions.

Despite the fact that she was a Weasley, even if she had changed her surname, and because of the other reason, she was still a beautiful woman; any man, woman and child could see that she was attractive, Draco Malfoy might have been able to see past all the other bullshit.

He knew that her family had a hard time when the truth came out and when she ran away. He'd heard her mentioned a few times at the family gatherings, but only as Ginevra, never Ginny. And he'd completely forgotten about what her new surname was.

Harry couldn't blame her for dealing with it like she did. He certainly didn't have anything he could offer her in the way of advice or condolence when he'd been told what happened to her.

The inside of her flat was nice. It was just a one-bedroom flat but the floors were a nice dark wood and the walls were a very pleasing color. The layout she'd chosen was simple and easy to maintain too. There were a few photos on the wall but they weren't cluttered. She'd put a lot of thought into her décor. He hadn't been able to tell that from their vantage point across the street, they'd only been able to make out her shadow moving around the flat.

He'd been sent on tasks like this before but usually the suspect wasn't standing right beside him with their arms crossed and glaring.

She was mostly glaring at Matthew who seemed to have designated himself the 'bad cop' for this situation.

Harry was glad that Matthew had chosen that role. Even with their history, Ginny wasn't someone he wanted thinking poorly of, plus she was rather a good-looking girl and he couldn't help himself giving her a looking over.

Matthew went straight to pulling open the drawers in the kitchen and rifling through them.

"Mind if I check out your bedroom?" Harry asked her.

"What?" she asked, startled at his question with how it sounded.

He didn't let the awkwardness that could come up from that question sink in though, he couldn't let it. "I need to check your drawers and closet," he explained. "Promise I'll be a bit more gentle than that," he said inclining his head towards the racket going on in the kitchen.

"Right, yeah. Follow me," she led him into the bedroom and kicked her shoes off at the door, sinking a good two inches lower to the ground and giving a soft moan at the relief her feet were now feeling.

It was a good noise.

He ignored that as best he could and went to her closet as soon as they were in the room.

Her closet was full of very fashionable business attire and a few dresses. Harry pushed them all aside and searched the far corners, in the shoe boxes at the bottom and under them. There were no men's clothes anywhere.

"And nothing is missing?" he asked.

"No. Just the dress that I swapped out this morning and put in his closet at the office," she told him.

Harry nodded and moved over to her dresser starting at the bottom. The drawer was full of very soft and comfortable looking pajama's as well as a few green knit sweaters with a 'G' on them. Those gave him pause. He knew where they'd come from, he had a few of his own in good repair from the last few Christmases with an 'H' on them.

He knew she hadn't been back to the Burrow since she'd left, but her keeping these jumpers that her mother had sent her after everything meant that there was some part of her that missed them.

Her middle drawer was jeans, sweats and casual shirts. The top drawer were her intimates. He gave pause looking at them and was very aware that she was standing behind him and could see him looking at them.

There was one item that stood out though.

With two fingers he pinched the fabric at the bottom of the drawer and pulled it up. It was a mans drawers.

"And these belong to?" he asked her, turning around so he could see her face.

She didn't look impressed with the question. "Me," she answered and snatched them out of his hands. "Just because they're designed for men doesn't mean that they are the only one's aloud to wear them."

"You wear men's drawers?" he asked skeptically. From all the other clothing articles he'd seen he had the impression that she did everything she could to prove to herself and anyone else that she was all female.

"Not under my clothes," she rolled her eyes. "As pajamas in the summer when it's hot. They belonged to an old boyfriend and he left them." She shrugged. "I just never got around to throwing them out." She was pouting as she looked at them now. As though telling the story of how she came to own them hadn't really occurred to her before then.

He believed it though.

"Have you had them long?" he couldn't help asking.

"A few years."

"Your boyfriends haven't minded you having an old boyfriends drawers around?" He had a hard time believing that. If he was going out with a girl, he would probably have traded out these drawers with a pair of his own.

"These did belong to my last boyfriend."

That gave Harry pause. "It's been years since your last boyfriend? How is that even possible?"

Ginny looked up at him in surprise at his tone.

He didn't blame her for her expression. He had clearly just told her that he found her desirable. She was though, she must know that.

"Er," he coughed and moved around her bed to check her nightstand.

"Oh!" she gave a start. "Do you have to-"

But it was too late, he had opened the top drawer of her nightstand. In it was something he had not been expecting to see. Something silicone that was designed to vibrate. It was also a hot pink color.

He immediately shut the drawer and took a step back from it feeling more flustered than he had been in a very long time.

"I'd appreciate you maybe not mentioning that to your boss," Ginny said.

He managed to meet her eye then, feeling like his face was probably as red as hers just then. Their embarrassment turned into humor though and they both gave a laugh over it before he moved on.

"I won't find anything interesting under the bed, will I?" he jokingly asked.

"Just my mountains of porn," she replied jokingly.

He got down on his hands and knees and checked under the bed. There was something large under it. A pile of clothes or a mannequin or something. He squinted to try and figure out exactly what he was looking at, then realized a second too late exactly what he was looking at.

Or rather who he was looking at!

Her wand wasn't pointed at him, but down towards the end of the bed where Ginny was standing. A blue spell shot in Ginny's direction from the woman under her bed before there was a crack and the hidden woman dissapparated.

"Matthew!" Harry called out and rushed to the end of the bed where Ginny was now laying collapsed on the floor.

"What happened?" Matthew asked as he came down on the other side of her.

"There was someone here, hiding under the bed and waiting for Ginny. She fired off a spell and then dissapparated."

"Who?" Matthew asked.

"It looked like it might have been Parkinson, but I don't know for sure. A blonde woman, same approximate age and size as Ginny anyway. It's too dark under there for me to be 100% sure." Harry looked Ginny over for any immediate signs of concern and felt for a pulse on her. The spell hadn't been green, so it wasn't the Killing Curse.

"Enervate," Matthew called out.

Ginny's eyes shot open and she gasped in a deep breath.

"Ginny, you're okay," Harry assured her. "Are you hurt? Can you feel your fingers and toes?"

She lay nearly still for a moment more catching her breath then he saw her toes and fingers move.

"There we are, good job," Matthew said. "Think you can sit up?"

They both grabbed under an arm as she attempted to get herself into a seated position.

"I'm fine," Ginny said and got herself up to her feet. "What happened?"

"You sure you're okay?" Harry asked, wanting to insure there wasn't any damage caused from whatever spell that was. "No pain anywhere? Can you tell me what had happened before you lost consciousness?"

"Um," she cast her gaze around the room. "Yes. Yes, you were looking under the bed after," then color came to her cheeks once more and she had trouble meeting his eye.

That was a relief to him. She hadn't lost any memory. "Alright. I think we should get you to St. Mungo's and have a Healer look you over."

"Yeah, then you need to submit the memory to a pensieve," Matthew told Harry right away. "We need to get a good look at this intruders face."

"I don't need to see a Healer," Ginny broke into their conversation. "I need to know who just broke into my home and fired a spell at me! They're probably trying to set me up from what I've seen today. I deserve to know who it was!"

"Miss Prewitt," Matthew started in his placating manner. It seemed he believed her story now.

"Don't bother trying to convince me otherwise. I'm incredibly stubborn, ask your coworker," she inclined her head towards Harry. Her hands went to her hips and she gave him a hard look.

Harry tried to keep the smile off his face, but it was too amusing. Matthew had fought with the Auror's against Death Eaters in the last war and here was this young twenty-something girl in a skirt trying to tell him what was what.

"We should get you checked out soon," Harry told her.

"Then you'd better let me see the memory soon," she countered. "I assume there's a Pensieve at your office somewhere?" she asked more to him than Matthew.

It was against his better judgement, but five minutes later they were back at Auror Headquarters and he had retrieved the Pensieve that was kept in Kingsley's office and moved it to the interrogation room that they had Ginny in earlier.

Present for this was Matthew, Ginny, himself and Samantha Hubert, one of the administrative support staff that was pulling the overnight shift. Protocol stipulated that someone unrelated to the case should be there.

"It isn't going to show everything from before you checked under the bed, is it?" Ginny asked him quietly.

He knew what she was concerned about the others seeing, but there was no way to censor that part out. "Sorry," was all he could offer her.

"Right," she sighed. "Okay, so look you two," Ginny said to Matthew and Samantha. "There is a personal item in my nightstand that Auror Potter came across right before finding the woman under my bed. Can we just keep that bit out of the report?"

"Personal item?" Samantha asked.

"Yes. Personal," Ginny emphasized.

Matthew let out a laugh. "Don't see why we'd need to record that," he assured Ginny.

"But everything should be documented," Samantha said. She was clearly not getting it. She was someone that did great with paperwork but didn't catch on to innuendo very easily.

"I'll just drop the memory in. Then you'll understand," Harry said shaking his head.

The four of them fell into the Pensieve and landed in Ginny's bedroom. Harry saw himself closing the top drawer of her dresser. "Er," his past self coughed and moved around her bed to get to her nightstand.

Currently the four of them standing there were paying more attention to the bed and trying to see if there was any indication that a person was hiding there. As it was Harry's memory though and he hadn't noticed, they couldn't tell.

"Oh! Do you have to-" past Ginny started.

Matthew and Samantha looked over to see what it was that had been in the nightstand.

"Oh!" Samantha exclaimed in understanding. "I've the same one in blue."

The three of them couldn't contain their chuckles of surprise at that admission from her. She was a very ridged person and yet she didn't look the slightest bit embarrassed having shared that information.

"I'd appreciate you maybe not mentioning that to Shacklebolt," past Ginny said as a bashful Harry looked slightly uncomfortable.

"I won't find anything interesting under the bed, will I?" past Harry asked jokingly asked.

"Just my mountains of porn," the other Ginny replied.

"Here we go," his current self said and all four of them got down on their hands and knees alongside him. This time he knew exactly what he was looking at and had more time to take in what she was wearing.

She was in something that could be categorized as exercise clothes. Something that would have allowed for a full range of movement. It was clear from that she hadn't anticipated two Auror's showing up with Ginny when she got home.

"That's Pansy Parkinson!" Ginny exclaimed as Pansy shot off a silent spell at Ginny.

"The blue of the spell looks like it was supposed to be a disarming spell meant to knock you unconscious," Samantha told them matter of fact.

"Well, that's what it did. There I go," Ginny frowned.

Then the woman under the bed dissapparated and his past self called out for Matthew.

The tug of the memory fading away pulled them back into the interrogation room.

"I'll go and pull any files we have on Pansy Parkinson," Samantha said and promptly left the room.

"Wouldn't Kingsley have pulled them earlier?" Ginny asked sounding slightly confused. She looked to be in a daze.

"You're sure that was Pansy Parkinson? The same girl that you had brought up earlier that had that dress identical to yours?" Matthew asked her.

"Yes," she nodded. "That was her. Unless it was someone under Polyjuice. But if it wasn't, that was her." Ginny pulled out one of the chairs and sat down. "Why? Why would she have come to my flat? To plant more of Astoria's things in there? I mean, most of my clothes came from Astoria handing them off to me so I don't see why anything else of hers being there would be suspicious."

"Parkinson was Draco Malfoy's girlfriend before Astoria and he married," Harry stated, having a hunch as to why Parkinson would have been there. "And do you happen to know why they went their separate ways?" If Ginny had been friends with Astoria then they probably talked about it.

Ginny shrugged. "They both had pre-arranged marriages, so their relationship could only have gone so far anyway. It's an old Pureblood tradition anyhow," she offered. "So far as I am aware, Pansy moved away right after the war, got married to some rich guy but still would make eyes at Malfoy when they attended the same functions. She and Astoria never got on. Not that Astoria was thrilled with having to marry Malfoy since he wasn't her choice."

Samantha came back in the room. "It looks like Pansy Rossini, nee Parkinson, was married to an Italian Wizard that died a few months back. She moved back to the country from Italy recently. Her travel was logged in the system."

"How recently?" Harry asked. "How long has she been in the country?"

"Three weeks."

"Then she was here for Astoria Malfoy's murder," Matthew nodded. "Looks like she might have been trying to pin that one on you," he told Ginny.

"Why would she be trying to pin that on me though?" Ginny asked incredulously. "She could have pinned it on anyone. What do I care if she wants Draco back? She could have started up an affair with him and even Astoria wouldn't have given two shits!"

"It would tie it up nicely for her though, wouldn't it?" Matthew surmised. "The young, pretty assistant of her former lover is the last eligible woman in his life. Easy to assume that there would be something going on between you and your boss. That's what we wondered," he indicated to Harry.

Harry cast her an apologetic look, but it was true.

"With you gone then it would look like you'd done in Astoria in an attempt to get her out of your way so you could have Malfoy all to yourself. If that didn't work out in your favor then you might try and do yourself in."

Ginny just stared dead-eyed at Matthew as she let all this sink in.

"This is all just guess work," Harry stated for the room. "We don't know for sure what her motives are, and I think we need to talk to Malfoy now about this."

It was nearing nine at night when they found themselves standing outside Malfoy Manor. He'd been over the report supplied by the Auror's that had to inform Malfoy about finding his wife's body and their impression of him upon hearing the news. They hadn't found anything at the Manor house that might have meant he was responsible for it. They did note that the husband and wife had separate bedrooms though.

Now that he was standing outside Malfoy Manor and seeing it for himself he realized that they could have had entirely separate wings of the house to themselves as well.

"What is the point of getting married to someone you don't want to be around?" Harry asked aloud and shook his head.

"It's a Pureblood thing," Matthew shrugged.

"The self-proclaimed 'Noble' Pureblood families force this in order to get more Pureblood kids," Ginny told him.

"Well clearly that wasn't going to happen if they never saw each other," he pointed out.

"She still had a year before she was going to be forced to have a kid with him," Ginny said with a frown. "Both families expected her to be pregnant in a few months."

"Do you think that might have had something to do with the timing of this?" Harry asked her.

"Could be," she realized.

There had been a ward that they'd passed through on the way to the front door and it had allowed them entrance. Judging from the fact that the Malfoy family was still being closely watched they must have only been allowed a ward that warned them of someone coming on to the property, nothing to stop people from doing so.

A House Elf opened the door before they had the opportunity to knock.

"Hello Binky," Ginny greeted. "We need to speak to your Master Draco. Could you please get him for us."

"Miss Prewitt," the Elf greeted her happily. "I will get my master. Please stays here." The Elf blinked out of existence with a small pop.

It was only a moment later that they heard a door open that sounded like it was on the second floor. Harry had looked in through the window of the door to see the opulent entryway of the manor and couldn't believe that it was just three people who lived here, now two. The place was as large as Blenheim Palace, it was ridiculous.

He could see the form of a man coming down the stairs towards the door.

"Prewitt?" Draco Malfoy greeted while looking at the two Auror's, his eyes lingering on Harry and a minute, yet familiar, sneer coming to his face.

"Malfoy," Ginny said in greeting right back. "Any idea why your ex-girlfriend was at my flat earlier. Hiding under by bed?"

"Excuse me?" Genuine surprise on his face at the question.

"Pansy Parkinson. Sorry, Pansy Rossini, was hiding under my bed this evening and fired a spell at me that probably would have had more impact if she wasn't in a panic from being caught. Then she disapparated," Ginny told him.

Malfoy looked flummoxed. "Why?"

"That's what we're here to ask," Harry said. "Have you had any contact with her since she arrived back in the country three weeks ago?"

"Three weeks? She's only been back for three days so far as I know," Malfoy stated.

"Then you do know that she's back in the country," Matthew piped in. "I think you should let us in and tell us just how it is you know that."

Malfoy gave the impression that this was all a nuisance to him, yet waved them in and brought them to a small study off to the right of the entrance hall. He lit the fireplace and conjured enough chairs for all of them to take a seat.

"Pansy was here," he started once they were all comfortable, sitting himself down in a highbacked chair that may as well have been a throne. "She came by on Saturday to give her condolences over Astoria. She claimed she'd just learned of what had happened. Then we went out to dinner. But she said she'd just arrived back in the country. And I have no idea why she would have gone to your flat," he said to Ginny, looking truly perplexed about it.

"Had she been wearing that dress you sent out to be dry cleaned?" Ginny asked.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed at his assistant then and his jaw clenched. "I am widowed and as you likely know, Astoria's and my marriage was more of a business arrangement than a relationship. Pansy did stay the night on Saturday."

"I don't give a shit about your love life, Malfoy," Ginny said dryly. "I want to know if she had been wearing the dress that you had me pick up this morning. The one that is identical to one that I had hanging in my closet."

His brow furrowed at that information. "I doubt it then. No offense Prewitt, but you wouldn't be able to afford her style of clothing."

"You know that your late wife and I were friends, right?" Ginny asked him. "She wound up giving me quite a few of her clothes when she had tired of them, including that dress."

He did look a little startled at that information but breezed past it. "What does it matter? Okay, you and she have the same dress, so what?"

"And did you and she stop by your office at any point?" Harry asked him.

Malfoy blinked at him, his eyes doing another once over of Harry's appearance. "We did."

"Did you see her go anywhere near my desk?" Ginny asked desperately.

His eyes went blank for a moment as he thought on it. "We Floo'd to my office because I had to deal with something. I may have left her alone there for a few moments. What of it?"

"That must have been when she put the ring in my desk!" Ginny said eagerly to Harry.

"What ring?" Malfoy asked, sounding annoyed.

"Miss Prewitt came to us this evening," Matthew started. "She had Mrs. Rossini's dress, your deceased wife's ring and a theory."

"Do you know where we could find Mrs. Rossini now?" Harry asked.

Draco Malfoy wasn't looking at either of the Aurors then, he was looking at Ginny. "You think she killed Astoria and is trying to pin it on you? To what end?"

Ginny steeled herself to give the answer. "That was my question as well."

"And why wouldn't you bring these items to me directly? You found them in the course of you work day and you work for me."

"Come off it, Malfoy. The only reason that I started working for you was because of Astoria. She knew I'd be a perfect fit because I could do the job and there would be zero chance of us sleeping together. We might work well together but we hate each other. If I thought you and your mistress were trying to pin her murder on me, why on earth would I bring this to you?"

Malfoy looked furious with her but said nothing more to her, instead he turned to Matthew. "I believe she is staying at her family estate in Norfolk. I don't know how long for. We have plans to meet on Wednesday evening for dinner and I haven't seen her since yesterday morning."

Harry couldn't think of any other reason they should stay where they were any longer. He wanted to go directly to the Parkinson residence, but Ginny shouldn't be with them when they did. She couldn't exactly go home either as it had already been broken into and she wasn't safe there until the got to the end of this.

He exchanged a look with Matthew. They didn't have cause to look through the house nor to give Malfoy Veritaserum to make sure he was telling them the truth.

"Thank you for answering our questions. We will be heading over to her family home now. In case she isn't there, if Mrs. Rossini reaches out again let her know that we expect her to show up at the Auror Headquarters for questioning," Matthew told him.

They all stood up, but Harry was the farthest from the door and wasn't going to move until Ginny did. She, however, was staring at her boss.

"Should I be expected at work tomorrow?" she asked quietly.

Mr. Malfoy squared his jaw again. It looked as though there was a battle going on inside his head. "Yes," he answered finally. "It would be too much work to replace you."

She gave him a nod and then followed Matthew out the door.

"It was your girlfriend that broke into her flat and tried to hurt her as well," Harry told him. There was no way that Malfoy Holding could have held something like this against Ginny and gotten her fired for it. She was attacked, not the other way around.

Once they were back outside the wards of Malfoy Manor they had to discuss what to do next.

"She can't come with us to the Parkinson home. She shouldn't have been here with us either," Matthew said.

"I know," Harry agreed. "You can't go home either," he told Ginny directly. "Is there somewhere else you can go?"

She chewed her lip. "No. If I go to one of my brothers then I'll have to tell them what happened. Could I just wait back at Auror Headquarters or something? If I don't know what happens after you go to the Parkinson's then I'll just be stressing about it all night anyhow."

"I have somewhere you could go," Harry offered. He shouldn't have, she was still a part of this investigation. She was also a victim too and he was positive she was innocent.

Matthew looked away from him then. Being very conspicuous about looking at the tree they were standing beside as though he was purposefully making himself not a part of the conversation because this was against the rules. It meant that he too knew that Ginny was innocent in all this and was letting Harry make that call.

()()()

Harry's home was beautiful. Gothic and dark, but beautiful.

He had opened his home to her and that was incredibly nice of him. He'd given her the run down of the house quickly before he left her there. It had been his Godfathers and he'd moved in after the war. It was just him living there, the house was empty save for their House Elf Leela. He showed her the kitchen, the sitting room, bathroom and guestroom then left her under Leela's guard.

She wasn't quite sure if he had been joking about Leela being there to protect her, either way the offer of a place to stay was very much appreciated.

He didn't act awkward at all around her, and she was doing her best not to act strange around him either. He was still the boy that she'd been desperate to hide her attraction from, except now he was a man and she was still very much attracted to him, she was a woman now too, so that part wasn't so confusing. Yet it seemed neither knew exactly how they should be behaving towards each other.

It was only ten in the evening now. Usually she was in bed by this point in the day but it was an unfamiliar house and she needed to wait up for him to get back and tell him what had happened and if they had Pansy in custody.

She wandered the halls and went up and down the stairs. It was an old London townhome, that much she could tell. She wasn't told exactly where in London they were and didn't ask. There were spots on the walls that were slightly off color from the wallpaper around it and looked like portraits had been removed.

Ginny didn't dare poke her head in any of the other rooms because she didn't want to be nosy. Pacing up and down the stairs was how she was trying to work off some of her anxiety. It was an attempt to exhaust herself as well.

That little pink device that Harry saw in her nightstand was her usual method of getting to sleep. It was good and relaxing to have that before bed. That method was not available to her tonight though.

"Does miss want some hot chocolate?" Leela asked as she stood outside the kitchen door once Ginny had reached the base of the stairs again.

"Yes, please," Ginny accepted gratefully. Her legs were starting to smart from going up and down the stairs so many times. Having a nice warm beverage and potentially chatting with this nice House Elf might help distract her.

"How long have you worked for Harry?"

"I's being here four years. They helps me get away from a bad master. My new master is a good man. He needs a good women. Are you a good woman?" Leela asked her happily.

Ginny couldn't help smiling at her. Leela's large eyes were so open and honest as she stared at Ginny like she was gauging for herself if she was good. "I try to be," Ginny told her honestly. "I don't always feel like I am though."

"You do a bad thing?"

She didn't want to get into her entire sordid history. It wasn't just her changing her name along with her gender and running away, there were things that she had done in order to embrace her womanhood and find out just who she was before she could be comfortable with her new self, and those things had changed her. However that wasn't something she opened up about. "I started working for someone who was a bad man. I don't think he's doing anything bad now, but I don't think bad just goes away. Although I have to wonder if he was just trapped in his position and by his family. Either way, he did bad and my family would not like that I work for him."

"Do you do bad things for him?"

"No."

"That's good. When I worked for a bad man, I was forced to do bad things for him. My new master told me it wasn't my fault though. He tells me I am a good House Elf."

"I have no doubt that you are. Thank you for taking the initiative to make this for me by the way," she raised her cup in salute.

Leela gave her a big, proud smile.

"Who was Harry's Godfather?"

"Master Sirius," Leela told her.

"Black?" Ginny asked in surprise. "Sirius Black the escapee from Azkaban?" She remembered the chaos and depression of her second year at Hogwarts because everyone was convinced Sirius Black was after Harry. In the end it had turned out that he was a good guy, Ginny had learned that much. She hadn't been around to know any more of the story.

"Yes miss. Master Harry is a good master. He had a bad House Elf before me. A bad bad House Elf who did not like master." Her face scrunched up in consternation.

Ginny hadn't had much experience around House Elf's, they weren't one of the 'creatures' that were brought up in her Care for Magical Creatures class. Nor were Goblins, as Goblins and House Elf's could speak for themselves. But she did visit with the House Elf's in the kitchen at Beaubaton and knew that they held their masters above all else, so for Leela to call her previous master bad it meant that her previous family had to have been truly awful. For Sirius Black's House Elf to have been bad though, that didn't make any sense. Perhaps there had been something wrong with the Elf mentally.

By the time Ginny finished her cup the kitchen door opened and Harry appeared. He was alone, no Auror Goodwin with him.

"Was she there?" Ginny asked.

"No. It was just her mother. and she didn't know that Pansy was back in the country. Apparently she has been out of touch since her husband died," he told her as he took a seat opposite her at the table.

"Pansy's husband, or her father?" Ginny asked for clarification.

"Pansy's husband, Rossini," he confirmed.

"And her mother has no idea where she might be?" That didn't sound good.

"Likely at a hotel somewhere. Unfortunately, there are several hotels in this country that would be deemed suitable to a girl like her. Meaning five star with Egyptian cotton sheets," he stated. It seemed he was resisting rolling his eyes.

Leela set a drink down in front of him. "Would miss like more?"

"No, thank you," Ginny told her kindly.

She'd been thinking about what Pansy might have been up to. If Astoria was only a few months away from requiring her to get pregnant and uphold her betrothal agreement, then Pansy might have been out to end that by way of getting rid of her. Her own husband dying though, that can't have been a coincidence.

"I know what you're thinking," Harry told her, "and we've already sent word to the Italian Auror's to find out what they know about Federico Rossini's passing. Once we know more we can make it a higher priority. As it stands Samantha has issued a warrant that Pansy is wanted for questioning on a break and enter as well as assault."

Ginny nodded while she let the information sink in.

She sat there while Harry drank his hot chocolate and was unsure what to do. Should she just go up to bed?

"I suppose I'll just tuck in for the night then," Ginny said and stood up.

"Right," he stood as well. "I'll get you something to change into so you don't have to transfigure your clothes."

She let him lead the way to the third floor and to what was apparently his bedroom. He opened up a few of his drawers and she took in the lovely four poster canopy bed and lovely woodwork of the furniture. This room could have easily been a study at one point with the nice large windows. The room itself was very large. His art on the walls was indicative of a life spent travelling the globe. It looked like he had kept a memento from each place he travelled to.

She stepped closer to examine the stone incased in a shadow box frame.

"That's a Benben stone," he told her as he came to stand beside her.

"The top of a pyramid?" She asked in surprise. They were very valuable.

"Surprised you know that. Most don't," he sounded pleased.

She blushed. "Well that trip we took there after my first year at Hogwarts, I did pay attention to some of the tours we went on."

"Right, I remember that," he nodded, still giving her that signature 'Harry Potter' smile of his. The one that meant he was engaged in the conversation but there was something nagging at the back of his mind.

"Out with it," she stated.

Now it was his turn to blush a bit. "I know you still talk to Bill and to Percy. But what about Ron?"

"What about Ron?" She shifted uncomfortably. "He never knew what to say to me after, or how to act. It was painful being around him, and I have tried," she assured him. "I wrote to him a few times and he never wrote back. Then whenever we did see each other he would ask something entirely inappropriate and not realize it. Something that he would never in a million years have asked Hermione about what it's like to be female."

It was horribly depressing to her to think about how derailed her life had been because of her parents making that decision they shouldn't have made.

"Yeah, that sounds like Ron," Harry admitted and ruffled the back of his hair. "I, er, I did wonder about you from time to time. I… I felt guilty actually."

"Guilty?"

"Yeah. I mean, I didn't have any family. Well, I had the Dursleys, but I don't really count them, if you'll remember the story. But then, there was your family and they kind of took me in. But then… well, you left and I found out why. I was shocked to have heard the story of where Jimmy had gone. To think that they could do that to you, or that there was a spell for such a thing."

"Curse," Ginny corrected. "It was a curse and one that I am constantly dealing with the ramifications of. It is usually what ends my relationships, because they find out."

Harry nodded in understanding but then gave pause. "Mr. Boxer briefs hadn't realized until later on then?"

She shook her head. "We'd been together for over a year. I moved back to England for him, we rented our flat. Then we were out to dinner one night and I ran into Luna Lovegood. She made mention of it, not meaning anything by it. But he couldn't deal. Stopped shagging me and started shagging someone else."

"Ginny," he said her name so softly, "I'm so sorry."

She gave a one shouldered shrug and rolled her eyes unconvincingly. "It is what it is."

He held up a shirt and a pair of drawers for her and Ginny couldn't help appreciating his selection. He was looking a little bashful as he offered it to her.

She would be sleeping in his clothes.

Thirteen-year-old her would be giddy from this.

"Thank you," Ginny said as she took them from his hand. The fabric on them was so soft. "I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Sleep well."

With that she headed back down the stairs to the guest room he had offered her and shut the door.

She tossed and turned all night. Every two hours it seemed she would roll over and check her Tempus to see if it was a reasonable enough time to go and have a shower or head down to the kitchen. By 5:30 she had given up on sleep and gone to the bathroom.

There was a lovely clawfoot tub there she was tempted to use, but as she was a guest she didn't feel quite comfortable using that. The water pressure in the shower was lovely though, and the shampoo that he had there smelled wonderful. She took her first whiff of it and it immediately called to mind getting wrapped up in a strong-armed hug. Smelling like that all day she wouldn't mind in the least.

After toweling off and pulling on her clothes from the day before, and casting a cleaning charm, she headed down to the kitchen. All of her supplies that she needed to look her part for the day were at her flat and she didn't know if she should go back there right now, or if she would even be allowed.

Leela wasn't in the kitchen when she arrived, nor was Harry. But there was coffee percolating on the stove. Ginny looked through a few of the cupboards and found the mugs and let herself into the ice box for cream.

"Oh, uh, good morning," Harry greeted her when he entered the kitchen. His hair was even more tousled than it had been before he'd gone to bed. It looked good on him.

"I hope you don't mind," she indicated to her cup.

"Not at all," he assured her. He came over and grabbed a mug for himself and poured a cup while she searched for the cutlery drawer. "It's here," he said and pulled the drawer closest to him open.

She came towards him and took out a spoon.

"Is that my shampoo?" he asked, catching a whiff of her hair.

Her eyes shot up to his own. Did he find that strange? "It was the only bottle I saw in there, sorry."

"No, no. It's fine. It just took me by surprise, that's all."

She nodded slowly and stepped away from him and towards her cup. Was it strange, she wondered, being more attracted to him because of his scent? There were fragrance companies that made millions because of their signature scents. Somehow though, her smelling like him and realizing it was making her all the more attracted to him.

He was incredibly kind too, and had grown into a gorgeous specimen. She'd go so far as to call him a hottie. "Are you seeing anyone?" she had to know. He was being so nice and there was no point in her thinking that there might be some potential there if there absolutely wasn't.

She wanted to rip off the band aid as well and know if their history, hers in particular, was a deal breaker.

It was no trick of the light seeing how pleased he was that she had asked. "No, I'm not," he told her.

She could bring herself to do no more than nod before collecting her cup and moving over to the table, biting her lip to stop from smiling stupidly.

"Will I be able to get into my flat this morning?" she asked as he took a seat across from her.

"Yes, but I'll have to accompany you again. I'll see you to your office as well, but then you'll be on your own for a time, so please don't head out of the building for anything."

"There's no reason I can think of that I would today," she assured him.

"Good. Then an Auror will likely collect you at the end of your day and let you know where we are at with the case and locating Parkinson, er, Mrs. Rossini."

"An Auror? Then you don't think it will be you?" She was barely comfortable enough around Harry. Though, if it were a different Auror escorting her then there wasn't likely to be this… thing between them.

The little boy in her still wasn't quite believing this situation.

"I can't promise anything," he shook his head regrettably.

Ginny nodded and moved to put her dishes in the sink. "Thank you again, by the way, for giving me a place to stay last night."

"Did you sleep well?"

"No," she admitted with a smile. "But I don't think I was likely to sleep well anywhere. It wasn't anything to do with your guest room."

She went to leave, but Harry put his hand on her arm to stop her.

"How have you been, Ginny? Really?"

His gorgeous eyes were searching hers for the missing history. He looked so concerned and it was a bit heart warming to see.

"I've managed," was the best that she could offer.

"What… when you went to Beaubaton, were you able to start over? Do you think it was a good choice?"

They were going to do this now, she thought in resignation. Inclining her head towards the table they moved over to it and took a seat.

"My last day at Hogwarts, before I went to the Hospital Wing, do you know what I was doing?"

He shook his head.

"Trying to figure out if I was gay," she admitted. His eyes opened wider in surprise. "See, there was this boy that I was mooning over and though that should have been a big indication, I never really felt like I was a boy myself. I was making a list of reasons why I was, reasons why I wasn't. Malfoy actually was the one to come across me and start taunting me. He took my list and I lit it on fire in the library, that's what was getting me kicked out right before I had the pain that sent me to the hospital wing.

"Finding out it was because of my estrogen level was a shock. Finding out my parents had discovered that their seventh child was a girl and made the choice to turn me into a boy was an even bigger shock. They claimed it was because they had been struck by how girls needed extra clothes or whatever that they couldn't afford, but I didn't care what their reason was. I still don't. They did damage with their choice.

"When Madame Pomphrey told me, when she and Dumbledore figured out how to reverse the curse and I was me for the first time, I cried. Because I finally felt right. I was finally in the right body. But now there's this stigma I carry around with me. And it's easy for me to tell who knows my past and who doesn't."

"I would imagine there are some uncomfortable questions asked," Harry said.

Ginny let out a laugh, "oh, yes. I've gotten all of them over the years. Questions about whether my breasts are real, if it was easier to aim when using the loo. My best friend at Beaubaton though, you know what she wanted to know?" she asked with a big smile.

"What?"

"If I had any tips for pleasing a man, because I had the inside knowledge."

Harry let out a bark of laughter then. "And what did you tell her?"

"That I'd never had so much as morning wood, so I wasn't the right person to ask," she shrugged with a chuckle. "But anyhow, moving to Beaubaton and changing my guardian to Auntie Muriel, I still believe that was the right choice to make. I hadn't been done with my rebelling though. I felt robbed and out of control. So, I did what I thought I needed to do at that time to regain some of that control."

"What was that?"

She felt a blush rising to her cheeks, but her embarrassment over it didn't stop a smirk from coming to her lips. "I became a huge slag."

Harry's jaw dropped at that answer. "W-what?"

Ginny let out a giggle. "I didn't know what I was doing. I was completely out of control really, but I think it helped too." She shook her head. "Just, the first boy I caught giving me a looking over, I liked it. And after spending so long listening to the guys in my dorm or my brothers talking about all they wished a girl would do to make things easier for them. Well, I did it. I just went up to the guy, Dorian, asked if he was interested. Next thing you know I had five or six notches in my headboard and had plenty of tips for Fiona on how to please a man."

Harry's amused response to that helped her breathe easier. There was no judgement there and that was what she was hoping for.

"One question though," he wondered. "Who was the boy you had been mooning over?"

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "Looking for confirmation, are you?"

His responding blush was raising her spirits. "Well, I mean. I remember Colin Creevey, and I remember you. The, er, fawning, I'll say, it wasn't exactly the same."

"No, it wasn't," she told him straight. "I had no idea what was going on with me then, but the only thing I did know for sure was that I had a debilitating crush on you."

He didn't look at all uncomfortable with that admission.

()()()

After they had checked in at several five-star hotels throughout the day they still had no luck tracking down Pansy Rossini. Her deceased husbands file had arrived from Italy too and that didn't have any definitive proof that he had been murdered. Diagnosis was that he had a stroke and drowned in the pool.

That marriage also looked like it had been one to drive the Pure bloodline. A picture had accompanied the information and Fredrico Rossini had been nearing his fifties and a short portly fellow. It looked like the betrothal had been a business deal as well, as Fredrico did dealings with Pansy's deceased father.

The file on the late Mr. Parkinson showed that he died of natural causes, simply having stopped breathing in his sleep.

The way the timelines played out though, it could have been Pansy working towards getting her school time lover back to herself through first killing her father, then her husband.

Harry had made sure to be the Auror assigned to picking Ginny up once she completed her work day. She'd looked very happy to see him. Again, they went back to his and he told her what progress they'd made over a few beers.

He was amazed at the heels she wore for work. The height they gave her was an extra two inches, and the sound she made when she took them off, it did things to him. Currently she was rubbing one of her feet on the other side of the couch from him.

It was kind of mesmerizing.

"Do you want me to do that?" The offer was out of his mouth before he'd thought about it.

The glimmer in her eye told him she was all too happy he offered, and the foot that was now extended out and resting in his lap further proved it.

He set down his beer and started working on her arches. She hummed with pleasure, and he grinned at the sound. "Like that, do you?"

"Hmm, what magic hands you have there Potter." She sank a little further down on the sofa as she gave into the massage.

"I may have been told that once or twice before," he grinned and tugged on each of her toes a bit to loosen them up.

"Oh yes? Is this one of your moves then? Get the girl into a 'damsel in distress' type situation and then massage them into submission?"

"Pretty sure you've learned to take care of yourself just fine. And I don't mean with just Mister Pinky from your nightstand," he served back.

"Yeah, that bit I've got taken care of. The massage bit though, that I can't recreate."

"Tell me, is a vibrator better than the real thing?" he couldn't help asking as he grabbed her other foot and started repeating the movements.

She was turning into a puddle of goo and wasn't at all bothered by the question. "It's less hassle, that's for sure. Just turn it on and 'buzz, buzz, ah' then I'm out for the night. Tell me your hand isn't less hassle for you."

He gave a shrug. "It is, but-"

"But it isn't the same as the real thing," she finished for him. "Yeah, but when you've had your heart broken those relationship scenarios that you once craved suddenly don't have the rose color to them anymore. Now it's 'I wish I had someone to wake up to in the morning', except that is followed by 'how much longer would that one last?' and 'how devastating will it be?'"

"Guess I haven't had my heart broken then. I still do want some of those scenarios to happen. It would be nice to end the day with someone regularly, just having a chat or a shag."

Her eyes opened and she gave him a calculating look. "Are you always the one ending things then?"

She had him there. "Yeah," he admitted quietly. "It wasn't like I ever let things carry on for too long when I wasn't invested. Or that I was giving mixed signals about what my expectations were. All the women I've been with wind up either too crazy or too serious too fast. There was always something. And I always tried to be nice about it when ending things."

"So, none of them moved in and found out you'd been cheating."

"No."

"Then I guess you're alright." She closed her eyes again and rested her head back against the arm, rubbing her foot against his hand to encourage him to continue.

He chuckled a bit to himself at her insistence that he continue and kept rubbing her foot. "I kind of wish I had ever gotten to the point of asking someone to move in with me though. To be that invested in a relationship, it must have been nice. I mean, I'm sorry he turned out to be an arsehole, but not all of us are like that. I mean, I know your history and I still wouldn't kick you out of-" he stopped dead there.

Ginny sat up on her elbows then and gave him this look that he couldn't define. "You wouldn't kick me out of bed? Is that where you were going with that?"

He felt caught. It had been completely obvious where he had been going with that sentence. "I just. Well, I mean." He gave a sigh and decided to just admit it. "I didn't know who you were when we tailed you the other night. Just thought you were this fit bird we thought might have been a murder suspect. The 'Prewitt' part of your name rang a bell but… well. I knew you'd changed your name to Ginevra from Jimmy, and that part stuck. But, I'm having a hard time seeing Jimmy or Ginevra when I look at you. I just see Ginny. And, well, Ginny is pretty great."

She stared at him for a bit longer, but looked pleased with his summation, then she switched the foot he was holding for the other one in request that he keep up with his massage. His discomfort at his admission dissipated as she lay back and simply enjoyed herself.

"You were part of the reason I knew something was up," she told him.

"What? When? What do you mean?"

"Like I told you this morning, when I was at Hogwarts I was doing up a list of reasons why I might be gay. Fancying you was one of the reasons."

He dropped her foot into his lap hearing that. "Was it only me that you fancied when we were in school together?"

"Of course. You were very cute," she smirked.

A smirk looked good on her. Her eyes were closed and she stretched out more on the couch, each extension of her limbs was further enticement to move closer to her. She liked him then and from the way she was encouraging him to touch her right now, he was sure that meant that she liked him now as well.

He gathered himself together and continued rubbing her feet, her sigh of contentment encouraging his hands to start rubbing up her calf, then to the other one. Her hips gave a roll to get herself situated more comfortably and he was mesmerized by it.

His hands moved up to just above her knees, then before he knew it he was leaning over her and she had come up onto her elbows again, meeting him part way and then they were kissing. Her hands wound into his hair, his hand went underneath her to cup her bum and pull her closer to him so they were pressed against each other completely.

Her lips were so soft, the taste of her lip gloss coating his own lips and making it to his taste buds.

She tasted incredible, it was like cinnamon and vanilla. It complimented the way she smelled.

Their hands and lips wandered as they lost themselves in each other and the next thing he knew it was late into the evening. He'd completely lost track of time.

Getting carried away snogging someone like that was not something he had done since he was a teenager. He pulled back panting and painfully engorged.

"Ginny," he whispered, her name being the only conscious thought he could verbalize.

"Harry," she said back and brought her lips up to meet his once more.

Thinking was overrated anyhow. He lost himself in her again. He didn't want to play the 'what if' game in his head. He didn't want to separate from her and have them go off to different bedrooms so that they could spend the night tossing and turning and wondering what the other was making of what they'd gotten up to in his sitting room.

It was a decision that they both made that wound up with him waking the next morning with her in his bed, the two of them naked and him spooning her from behind, just like one of the relationship scenarios that he wanted.

It had been an incredible night. Three times they'd shagged. Every time it looked like one of the two of them might open their mouth to say something that could potentially ruin the magic of the moment they would fall together again.

Now it was morning and they had places to be.

He still didn't want to start questioning what this was that they had done, if it was a one-time thing or if they could try for something more.

There were too many questions and too serious a discussion about how her family would be involved. He wanted them to enjoy each other more.

Harry could tell from the way she was breathing that she was awake now. He tightened his arm around her and kissed her shoulder. She pressed herself back against him and moved her bum so it rubbed right up against his groin.

With one big sigh she rolled onto her back so she was looking up at him, her beautiful brown eyes taking on an almost honey colored tint in the morning light coming in through the crack in the curtains.

'Merlin, she's gorgeous,' he thought. He could get used to waking up like this more often.

"Can we not?" she asked out of nowhere.

"Not?" he questioned.

A worry line presented between her eyebrows and she bit her bottom lip. "I don't want to talk about what this is right now."

He let out a huff of air in relief. "Nor do I." He hugged her to him. "But I would like you be here again tonight. We don't… don't have to… we could just enjoy ourselves for a while. Technically, you're still supposed to be under my protection and," he let out a chuckle. "I could get in a lot of trouble for what we did last night."

Ginny relaxed back against the mattress. "I'm not a suspect anymore though, right?" she asked and her hand came up to trace the side of his face.

He leaned against her hand and enjoyed the sensation of her trancing her fingertips along the outside of his ear. "No," he said in a daze. "Pansy is who we're after now. All signs point to her. But whether she is still focused on pinning it on you we aren't sure. So, you should still only be going between work and home, and by home I mean here."

Her hand movement stopped and he opened his eyes to look down and see that worry line was still present. On impulse, he leaned down and kissed that line between her brows.

"Harry," she said quietly. He hadn't noticed how nice his name sounded coming from her lips before. The tone she said it with wasn't one that was eliciting great feelings in him though.

"Shower?" he suggested, cutting off whatever she might be wanting to say next. "Then I'm sure we've already got breakfast waiting for us downstairs.

()()()

They managed to not discuss what this meant between them through their morning preparation; shower, getting dressed, breakfast. Leela seemed to have known what had happened in the front room and his bedroom last night though, and she wasn't too subtle about how excited she was that they had 'found a mate in each other', as she phrased it.

The matching blush on both their faces made Ginny feel better about it.

It had been a daydream come true for her to spend the night with him. He had been everything her high expectations had wished for. Now she wasn't sure what to make of it, but putting off figuring that out sounded good. They had other issues to focus on anyhow.

Harry said they were still trying to track Pansy down, until then she was supposed to go to work and carry on as usual.

Showing up at work at her usual time she placed a coffee and breakfast in Malfoy's office and went to her desk to confirm his schedule for the day, that was when Mrs. Malfoy showed up.

It wasn't uncommon for her to stop by, but for her to give more than a cursory nod in Ginny's direction was uncommon. For her to be standing over it looking like she had something to say to Ginny was completely out of character, and undoubtedly had something to do with Pansy and Astoria.

Mrs. Malfoy opened her mouth and then closed it, inclining her head towards her son's office in favor of a more private area.

"I knew who you were," Mrs. Malfoy started. "I chose to ignore it because I believed Astoria was being very smart about having you working here for Draco. I wish I had the same option of secretary for my own husband."

"An incredible assistant?" Ginny asked testily, well aware that was not what Narcissa was referring to.

The elder woman pursed her lips and gave Ginny a looking over. "You've become a beautiful woman, there is no sign of what you used to be, nor is it common knowledge what family you come from. You have knowledge of the Muggle world that Draco dabbles in and he has absolutely no inclination to lay with you."

Ginny remained perfectly still by the door as Narcissa moved her sons breakfast slightly on his desk, likely just to keep her hands occupied.

"Pansy was not aware," Narcissa said plainly.

Ginny resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She wasn't sure where Narcissa was going with this.

"When Astoria was found… I suspected, but I had no proof."

"And you didn't say anything? To Draco, or to the Aurors?" Ginny asked.

"Of course not. You know us well enough to know that we share information only if it will benefit us."

"And having Astoria out of the picture benefited you?" Ginny asked incredulously. "I thought she was the perfect wife to have assigned to your son. She would give you a grandchild with the bloodline you want and manage to put in appearances when and where needed."

Narcissa scoffed. "I didn't want her to be the one producing a Malfoy heir. I never did like her."

Ginny could do no more than blink at her, she knew that Astoria didn't love Draco but she thought that she was going to live up to her familial obligation.

"No, Pansy would have been more proper a wife for Draco. Her own husband passing away opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. But then you," she shook her head. "I should have told her who you were. I didn't move quick enough for that one."

Her bag, Ginny realized, her wand was still in her bag and that was at her desk. She didn't have anything to defend herself right now.

Narcissa was in on it!

"A child's happiness is all that is important to a mother. Draco wasn't happy with Astoria, that was Lucius' doing. Business arrangements," she scoffed. "We could have done business with the Parkinson's just as much as the Greengrass'."

Where was Draco? Ginny now wondered. He was usually here by now.

"Why are you admitting all this to me?" Ginny asked. "Were you the one to kill Pansy's husband or father? Set her up to take care of Astoria, then she tried to pin it on me by mistake?"

Narcissa squared her shoulders. "Here is what is going to happen. Astoria had a lover, a shop keeper named Mauricio from a place on Diagon Alley. She was going to break things off with him because she was going to go through with her betrothal contract and produce my son an heir. Mauricio is the one that killed her in a jealous rage. Pansy however was convinced that it was you that killed Astoria and was convinced that if she planted enough evidence that you would get locked away in Azkaban and our precious Draco would be safe.

"She and Draco had just been reunited after each losing their spouse and she took it upon herself to ensure that he was kept safe from the likes of you. It was mis-guided, but ultimately harmless. You will be completely understanding about all this because, of course, it is completely laughable that there could ever be anything romantic between you and my son." There was this smile on her face, a forced polite smile that reminded Ginny so much of her sister Bellatrix from pictures she'd seen in the paper.

"You want to buy my silence," Ginny understood.

"Everybody wins," Narcissa said so pleasantly. "My son gets a wife that is better suited for him, one that would do anything for him. And he also gets to keep an assistant that he has come to, for the lack of better terms, love. And you get to keep your job, you won't have to look over your shoulder for Pansy or even myself, and you have your rent on that basic, yet expensive, flat of yours covered for, shall we say, ten years?"

She couldn't help it, she did the mental math on how much that worked out to and how much Narcissa Malfoy was willing to pay for her silence.

And she was stuck in the room with a deranged, aristocratic wife of a former Death Eater who was very accustomed to getting her way.

"What happens if I say yes?" Ginny asked.

Narcissa pulled out her wand, "you will make an oath. Break it and you die."

"I suppose that if I say no, I also die?"

She gave her another polite smile, a patronizing one. "You are such a clever… girl."

Way to get in another jab where she could. "Draco doesn't know anything of this then?" Maybe if she could delay Narcissa until Draco got there, then that would provide her a distraction to slip out and get help.

"No. Draco doesn't know what is good for him. Astoria had that part right."

"And where is Pansy now?" She had to know. Narcissa was probably the one that helped hide her after she was seen in Ginny's flat.

Narcissa pursed her lips again. "You have less than one minute to decide before we either make this oath or you lose your life from me 'defending' myself. No doubt you know my family history as well and though I don't like to get my hands dirty, I certainly am capable of it."

She was trapped.

This was a life-or-death situation and the only way out of it was to take the oath.

"The Aurors already know about Pansy being at my place and how she planted the evidence. What good would this do you? Coming here to confirm what I had already figured out."

Narcissa rolled her eyes, "it will stop you from pressing the matter when the 'truth' about Mauricio comes out. You simply need to go along with it and keep your mouth shut."

She wouldn't be able to live with herself then though.

Ginny cast a glance through the glass doors of the office to the floor lobby, attempting to find some inspiration on how to get out of this.

"Okay," she said and took a slow step forward. "Not like you've left me any choice."

"Neither of us has any choice," Narcissa stated in distaste. She raised her wand.

She had a very delicate wrist, Ginny noted. So many years of rough housing with her brothers had taught her a thing or two about how to really injure someone with very little force. Narcissa being an aristocrat and a woman, well, she might not see it coming.

It was quick, she was working more on impulse than anything else.

Her palm thrust upwards once she was close enough and struck Narcissa in the nose, breaking it instantly. Ginny grabbed hold of Narcissa's closed fist, gripping the wand and pointing it towards the wall, then her own closed fist punched hard into that delicate wrist and the cracking sound echoed through the room.

Ginny stepped back, now holding Mrs. Malfoys wand and pointing it at the woman crumpled on the floor.

"You BRUTE!" Mrs. Malfoy screamed behind her uninjured hand that was covering her blood-filled nose.

"You claimed to have known my history. You really should have been expecting that," Ginny told her. Her heart was racing a million miles a minute, adrenaline was pumping through her veins. She did it! She had been in a no-win situation and now she had someone threatening to kill or blackmail her at her mercy.

Ginny felt invincible!

But what the fuck was she supposed to do now?

It was her boss' mum she had at her mercy. Was she supposed to call in the Aurors again? Draco hadn't really appreciated that the last time, he sure wasn't going to like that this time considering it was his mother.

And loath as she was to admit it, she did need this job.

"Where is your son?" Ginny demanded.

Narcissa glared at her. "What do you care?" A glimmer of something caught in her eye though. "You don't know what to do, do you?" She let out a nasally scoff. "Oh, poor little Weasley."

"Petrificus Totalus," Ginny cast. The wand was not the most receptive to her, but luckily such a rudimentary spell was strong and effective enough to buy her time to figure out what to do next.

She closed up the Floo so that if Mrs. Malfoy did manage to free herself from the spell she would have to have the key to open up the Floo again, and Ginny took the Floo Powder for good measure. Then she went back to her desk and used her own wand to lock the door to Draco's office.

Now she really was at a loss as to what to do next.

A big part of her was just wanting to wait for Draco and let him know.

He wasn't such a terrible boss. They had this level of respect for each other that was kind of like a 'don't ask, don't tell' type relationship that worked for them. He hadn't loved Astoria, but that had nothing to do with Ginny, and she was sure that he had nothing to do with Astoria's death.

He had grown up since he'd been her bully at Hogwarts.

He deserved to know how his mother and ex-girlfriend had been manipulating his life.

Or maybe she should tell the Aurors first?

Then maybe she would still have a job.

She could still work for him after all this, right?

Was that crazy? Working for a man who's loved one's were trying to frame you for murder or silence you with an oath that would kill you if you broke it.

What other choice did she have though?

Thankfully she didn't have to ponder it for too much longer at her desk because Draco walked out of the lift.

"Why is my Floo closed?" he demanded as he stalked towards her.

Telling the boss first it is.

"Your mother is in there," Ginny told him through gritted teeth. She checked to make sure there wasn't anyone around them and then threw up a Muffliato spell. "She just tried to kill me and bribe me. I have her wand and she is currently petrified."

"Excuse me," his demeanor faltered and he blinked at her several times. "She…"

"She and Pansy were working together," Ginny went on. "Pansy didn't realize who I was and didn't consult your mother before trying to pin Astoria's murder on me. Your mum wanted to buy me off and have me tell the Aurors it was all just a misunderstanding. That it was actually Astoria's boyfriend that killed her."

Draco took a step back and stared at her blankly as he processed that. He looked over to his door, no doubt saw his mothers foot poking out from the floor on the other side of his desk, then turned back to Ginny. "Did you…"

"You're the first person I've told," Ginny admitted. "It only happened a few minutes ago. I'm still… processing."

"But you are going to," he stated plainly.

He was right to have made that a statement. Of course, she was going to tell the Aurors, it was a wonder that she hadn't already.

"I felt like I owed it to you to tell you first," she said quietly, surprising him and herself with those words.

He studied her for a moment more, then nodded. "This is going to be a PR nightmare if it gets out. I want you to clear my schedule for today, then call the Aurors here. Do you know who this boyfriend of Astoria's is?"

"I have a name and that he works in a shop on Diagon Alley," Ginny told him.

"Good. Find him and bring him here also."

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked. He couldn't possibly be wanting to turn his mother in?!

"Clearly Pansy and my mother are both suffering some kind of psychotic break from the loss of their husbands and that has resulted in them acting on these insane impulses." The way he was saying it was like he was telling her the story they were going to give. "We will make sure that this boyfriend of my late wife has an alibi for the night of her murder, then we will convince both my mother and Pansy to admit what they have done."

That wasn't going to work. There was no way either of the women would go for it. Ginny didn't want to be an accomplice in his lies either.

She took a deep breath. "Malfoy," she started off slowly, making sure he was actually listening to her. "I'm not going to cover up for them. I'm not going to act in some female Pureblood way of only giving the smallest hint of the truth and covering up for the fact that they not only killed your wife and my friend, but tried to pin that on me as well. They might have had a psychotic break, like you said, but they need to fess up to it and go to prison, not St. Mungo's for a few months only to be released into your care and society at large once more with the story that they were simply under stress or some such nonsense. She already tried to buy my silence, I'm not going to let you do it either," Ginny stated for him.

"Then I no longer require your services," he told her. "Unlike you, I put my family first."

Ginny clutched her own wand a little tighter in her hand. "Petrificus Totalus," she cast again, and down he went.

She looked out to the building across the street and hoped that there were still a few Aurors posted over there keeping an eye out for Pansy Rosini, and she cast her Patronus to send a message calling them over.

It was Matthew and another Auror that Ginny didn't know that had been in the building over and they answered her call. Ginny told them the whole story from Narcissa Malfoy walking in up until Draco Malfoy firing her. She also submitted her memory for pensieve viewing.

She was sitting in the interrogation room at the Auror Headquarters when Harry tracked her down. He looked like he'd been filled in on all that had happened.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Well, it looks like I'm out of a job, so that part sucks."

"Forget about your employment, you can find another job. I'm talking about how you were threatened by the Malfoys."

Ginny gave a small shrug. "I suppose that I had a slight suspicion my working for Malfoy would wind up like this. The money and title was just too good to pass up. The job itself was what I wanted to be doing also. Maybe now I can find a job doing the same thing, but not for such a prick this time."

She was feeling depressed, but it was a manageable depression.

"I'll help you with the job hunt if you want!" he offered. "Or maybe Hermione knows of an opening somewhere. Nearly two years doing a stellar job for Malfoy of all people, that's got to count for something."

She appreciated what he was saying but there was still one problem preventing her from going on the job hunt right then. "What about Pansy?"

"Narcissa confessed under Veritaserum that she was hiding her, and where."

Ginny let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. "That's a huge relief."

Harry nodded, but he didn't look as relieved as she thought he should.

"What's wrong?" she asked him.

"Does this mean that your going home tonight?"

Oh, she couldn't help the pleased feeling that was coursing through her and up to her cheeks as she realized what his true concern was; what did this mean for them and what they did last night?

"Well, I suppose I should give it a little bit longer, another night or two at least, before I go back to my flat. Just, you know, so that they will be properly processed, and I'll know for sure if they're getting locked away before going home and chancing anymore encounters."

"Then, you'll go back to mine?" he grinned. "For a little while at least?"

"For a little while," she grinned back.

()()()

A little while turned into full time. Ginny managed to find another job, but it didn't pay near enough to cover her rent so she wound up subletting it and moving into Harry's spare bedroom. By that, we mean she put her stuff in the spare bedroom and used it more like a closet since she and Harry slept in his bedroom.

The topic of telling her family that they were together was decided for them.

You see, it had been a while since Ginny had been with a man, and there was one small detail that they forgot about that first night they spent together.

"You're pregnant?" Harry asked, dumbstruck. It was two months after Ginny had been fired from Malfoy Holding.

She was looking from the potion to him, then back over to her wand that was glowing. Both the potion and the wand were indicating that she was, in fact, knocked up.

With his baby.

"Look," she prefaced, "I didn't plan this."

"I know you didn't! I didn't either!"

"Why would you have planned it?"

"Why would you have planned it?" he asked right back, as though it was simply incomprehensible that she would try and trap him into being with her indefinitely by getting pregnant.

That he couldn't possibly comprehend her doing that, it made her happy. "Okay," she let out in a chuckle, "what are we going to do?"

"Well, we're going to tell your family now, for one," he stated. "Then two would be setting up a nursery."

She squinted at him in thought. "You aren't freaking out about this nearly enough."

He took hold of her hands and pulled her close. "I know it's sooner than either of us planned, but we were headed here anyways, weren't we? Marriage, kids? I was pretty sure we were both on the same page about us being in it for the long haul."

Her heart melted just a little bit. Yes, she felt like they were both on the same page about that, even though it had been a very short while they'd been together everything about their relationship had just fit, but it was the first time either of them had said anything about it.

"Okay," she agreed. "We'll tell the Weasley's and start working on the nursery."

He hugged her close and gave a kiss to her forehead.

"You know, teenage me is completely psyched about this," Ginny admitted.

He chuckled and gave her another kiss on top of her head. "Adult you will be happy once you've processed it a bit more."

()()()