How Do You Choose Between What is Right and What is Easy?

Nikki__uno

Story Summary:
Harry & Hermione cheat on Ginny & Ron together. One night, Ginny catches them in the act, & she has only one person to turn to - Draco Malfoy, who she has been friends with since the beginning of the year. Draco has an idea - give Potter a taste of his own medicine & see how he likes the feeling of being betrayed by someone he trusts. Ginny agrees. The next day, Ginny reveals to Harry what she was doing the night before, & with whom. They argue about it & Harry's affair, & Ron overhears. He confronts Harry, then Hermione. Ginny leaves the common room & the traitorous Gryffindors behind. Everything quiets down & seems to come to some semblance of normalcy - until Hermione & Ginny both find out they're pregnant.

Chapter 03 - Chapter 03

Chapter Summary:
Harry becomes secretive, and Ginny is certain he is cheating. The only person she can talk to is her secret friend, Draco, in the middle of the night.
Posted:
03/27/2008
Hits:
2,579


Chapter 03

That evening, as she was sitting in the common room working on an essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry came and sat down beside her. "Did you have a good day today?" he asked her.

"Oh, satisfactory."

"Good."

"Hey, honey?" she asked him, setting down her quill by the parchment she'd been writing on.

"Yeah?" he asked, his eyes wandering across the room to where Ron and Hermione were engulfed in a game of Wizard Chess.

"Do you mind if I borrow your Invisibility Cloak tonight? I wanna do some studying in the library tonight."

"Yeah, sure babe."

"Thanks. Do you mind if I just go up and get it?"

"No, don't worry about it, you're working. I'll go up and get it for you." He got up off the couch they were sitting on and left the room. Ginny watched him go, a tiny bit of sadness on her face. He had barely looked at her.

~*~

At 10:45, Ginny was stepping out into the moonlight on the top of the Astronomy Tower. She slid the Invisibility Cloak off and dropped it into a corner before going over to the balcony and leaning on it, letting the wind whip through her hair.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up." Draco's voice came from the shadows, startling her. She whipped around, her hand on her chest, as she emerged from the shadows. "You look nice," he said, coming towards her and leaning beside her on the balcony. She turned around and leaned back on the stone. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

"I'm good. You just startled me, is all."

"Oh, okay. I tend to do that to people, you know."

"Oh, I know," Ginny said, a small smirk on her face that could almost rival his own.

"I was just thinking this could be our meeting place."

"Good idea. It's nice out here."

"Except for in the winter. We'll have to find someplace else to meet then."

"Oh, that's easy. We can just use the Room of Requirement."

"The... what?"

"The Room of Requirement."

"What's that?"

"Let me show you."

~*~

It was a third of the way through the year, and already the teachers were acting like the end-of-year exams were right upon them. The homework load they were receiving was almost unbearable. At the end of the school day, students were nearly always found holed up in the library all evening, or quietly studying in their common rooms until late into the night.

Ginny had never been one to study much, but her parents had warned her that if her grades didn't pick up this year, she would be in a heap of trouble (and she really didn't feel like receiving any Howlers from home this semester). However, no matter how late she stayed up studying, she always made it a point to go up to the seventh-year boys' dormitory and say goodnight to Harry (although she didn't often make it back to the sixth-year girls' dormitory until the next morning).

Ginny, for the most part, enjoyed dating Harry. She'd had a crush on him since she'd first laid eyes on him in King's Cross Station, with his emerald green eyes, and his black unruly hair that just would not lie flat no matter what you did to it. She was finally getting attention from people as well (for something other than her looks). However, as much as she liked the publicity she got from dating a celebrity (she was almost a celebrity herself because of it), it seemed like nowadays he didn't even care about her anymore. When he looked into her eyes, it was like he was seeing the eyes of someone else. And he didn't even want her to sleep in his bed anymore.

She was sure he was cheating on her.

Since that first trip to the Astronomy Tower when she had shown Draco the Room of Requirement, they had been meeting there at least once a week. She felt guilty about keeping a secret from Harry, but he would just get upset over it and it was harmless, anyway. Her and Draco would play games like Wizard Chess and Exploding Snap, or practice dueling, but mostly they would just talk. It was December 15th, a Friday, and they were meeting in the R.O.R. (what they liked to call it in their notes they sent to each other in the mornings) at 11:00. Harry never really used his Invisibility Cloak anymore, so Ginny had kind of taken temporary possession of it.

Ginny got there at five-till-eleven and found Draco already lounging in a plushy armchair in front of a roaring fire.

"You're early," she said, taking off the cloak as she came in, and shutting the door behind her.

"So are you," he said, smiling up at her.

She looked at the dark green watch on her left wrist. "Only by a few minutes."

"Come sit down," he said, patting the armrest of the chair next to him.

She walked across the room and plopped down in the chair he was indication, sitting cross-legged and sideways in it, so as to look at him easier. He turned to face her as well.

"So what's up?" Draco asked her, contemplating the slightly lost look she had on her face.

"Nothing."

"Oh, come one. We've known each other for awhile now; you can't lie to me."

"It's just... Harry doesn't even seem to want to spend time with me anymore."

"His loss."

"Yeah, whatever."

"I'm serious. If someone doesn't want to hang out with you, especially someone who's gotten the wonderful privilege of dating you, then it's their loss. You're a lot of fun to be around."

"But just me, right? Not the rest of my family."

"Well, you know how that is. We've had our share of problems over the years. Just because of who my father is, and what he does, all of them think I'm going to turn out just like him."

"Are they pushing you to?"

"Is who pushing me to what?" he asked her, a confused look on his face.

"Are your parents pushing you to join the Dark Arts?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. My parents don't understand me at all. They just don't get that I don't want anything to do with the Dark Arts, and I definitely don't want anything to do with Voldemort. I wish they would listen to me, just once, but they don't want to hear anything I have to say."

"I know what you mean."

"How so?"

"Just with the way my parents are with me. They don't understand me either. I mean... they still treat me like I'm eleven years old and I don't have a clue about anything. They think I should become a Healer when I get out of school, but all I really want to do is be a stay-at-home mom."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I know. It's stupid."

"It's not stupid. I actually think that's very admirable. Not enough parents spend time with their kids these days, you know? I think it would be great if you could be around to spend time with yours all the time. And if they didn't appreciate it when they were younger, they would definitely appreciate it later in life."

Her face instantly lit up. "You really think I would be good at doing that?"

"I think you would be wonderful at it. You're really smart. You can do anything you want to."

She smiled at him. "You're really great, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," he said, his ever-famous smirk on his face once again.

"Well, aren't you the conceited one!"

"No, just sure of myself."

They smiled at each other for a moment. Then Draco put his hand on the inside pocket of his cloak, pulling out his pack of Exploding Snap. "Now," he said, "I brought this with me because tonight..." He laid the pack on the table in front of them. "... I am going to finally cream you."

"You wish!"