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

Chapter 09

The slap rang out loudly in the mostly empty common room. Ginny staggered back a step, stunned by what Harry had just done to her.

"You are an ugly, smug, colossal slut," Harry said, almost (but not quite) shouting.

"You're going to call me a slut?!" Ginny exclaimed, rage and surprise covering her face. "What the hell do you call sleeping with Hermione behind my back for the last three months?!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!!" Ron chose that very moment to make his presence known. Harry and Ginny jerked their heads simultaneously towards the stairs, surprised that they were not alone like they'd originally thought. Ron looked over at Harry, his face searching for an explanation. "What did she just say?"

"How long have you been listening?" Harry asked, his voice low. He gripped the bridge of his nose for a minute before looking back up at Ron.

"Long enough," Ron said. "Now answer the fucking question."

"It's not what you think, Ron," Harry said.

Ron opened his mouth to speak, but Ginny beat him to it. "What the hell!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "You're worried about hurting Ron's feelings because he found out you've been fooling around with his girlfriend, but you have absolutely no qualms about cheating on your own girlfriend!"

"So I did hear correctly," Ron said, folding his arms and shaking his head. By the look on his face, it seemed to Ginny that he was trying very hard not to explode with rage.

"Yeah, you heard correctly, Ron," Ginny said. "I came back late last night, and I caught them having sex right in front of the fireplace. And I'm sure that if I wouldn't have interrupted them, they would've gone for another round!!"

Ron held up his hand, stopping her from saying anything more. "I really don't need the details, Ginny. I get the picture. And be glad I'm so incredibly pissed off at Harry, or I'd have a few words to say to you, too."

"What the hell does that mean?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

He raised his eyebrows at her. "Draco Malfoy?"

"Don't even start to lecture me, Ron."

"I wasn't going to, actually. You're old enough now to make your own decisions. I just hope you know what you're doing. As for you..." he said, turning his attention back to Harry, "... how could you do this to me?" Harry said nothing. "Answer me, you bastard! How could you do this to me?! I'm supposed to be your best friend! Is this how you treat your friends?! What other of our friends have you done this to?! Have you slept with Seamus' girlfriend?! Or Dean's?! Or is this a special treatment you reserved just for me?! Your best friend?! Your best fucking friend!!"

"Can you let me get one damn word in edgewise here?" Harry said, that annoyed tone coming back into his voice again.

"Why bother?" Ron said. "All you're going to do is feed me some cock-and-bull-shit!!"

"What is all that yelling going on down there?" came a voice from the stairwell leading from the girls' dormitory. It was Hermione - she had finally showed up on the scene. Ron turned around and walked very slowly in her direction. He stopped when he was just a couple of feet away from her and crossed his arms. "What's going on?" Hermione asked, looking clearly confused.

"Look around!" Ginny yelled. "You're smart, figure it out!"

Hermione didn't say anything, only stared back and forth between the three people in the room, stopping on Ron when he began to speak.

"Three months," he said. "We've been together a year, and you've been cheating on me for three months. With him."

"Ron... I don't know what to say.... I'm so sorry."

"You're only sorry because you got caught, you bitch." He was silent for a moment. He looked down, his hands at his sides, before quietly saying, "Just tell me what I did wrong."

No one said anything, and Ginny chose that moment to leave. Little did any of them know that it would be one of the last times that Ginny would ever set foot in Gryffindor Tower again.