Fall From Grace

Chapter Seven - Outrageous

For the first time that week, Draco and Ginny walked hand in hand towards the Great Hall, deciding that they had to have breakfast with everybody at some point. Not talking and acting as if the emotion they both had began to feel over the last few weeks was non-consequential. If they ignored it surely the feelings would go back wherever they had come from and it would remain as sex. Still the charade must go on. The tables of the Great Hall were full already and they made their way to the end of the Gryffindor table where Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting.

"Go away!" Ron said shortly as they stood next to him.

"Ginny I think it would be best if you did not sit at this table. I suggest you sit with the house you have been sleeping with for the past God-knows-how-long," Harry said, directing his speech to the crispy bacon on his plate, staring at it intently.

Ginny nodded and Draco roughly pulled her away and towards the Slytherin table. Crabbe and Goyle were as unresponsive as the Gryffindors.

"No room," one of them muttered.

"What?" Draco snapped, not being used to being rejected.

"You will have to sit elsewhere. This table is full."

"Fine," Draco said as he snatched a napkin and a plate of toast off the table. Muttering a quick incantation the napkin began to grow and form red and white squares, the traditional tablecloth. Draco spread it on the floor in the middle of all the tables and motioned for Ginny to sit down.

"Sit down, now..." He ordered under his breath and Ginny obeyed without question. He did not try to offer her any of the food he had grabbed from the table he just looked from it to her, daring her to ask him to pass it.

"Draco love, would you like some toast?" she asked as sweetly as possible, fulfilling her role perfectly. He nodded at her without a word, playing his part also.

The Great Hall was as quiet as it had ever been. Everybody, minus a select group of three Gryffindors who were studiously not, was watching Ginny and Draco as they both happily munched on their toast in the middle of the floor. The teachers were staring at Dumbledore, not knowing what to do. By any means there was no school rule that said students were not allowed to eat on the floor of the hall.

Professor McGonagall was running though the rules that applied to food in her head. "Food from the Great Hall may not be taken to be eaten in the corridors, classrooms, bathrooms or bedrooms. Food may be taken outside or into common rooms so long as no mess is left behind. Food may be taken away in the summer for picnics so long as all equipment is returned to school. Any child with food allergies must make them..."

The Food rules faded into Foreign Visitors and there was no mention of eating on the floor in the Great Hall but it had never happened before, especially not with one of her Gryffindors. She looked desperately at Professor Dumbledore who was happily munching his mushrooms, oblivious to the fact that every member of the staff and the majority of the pupils had now turned their attention to him. She also turned her head towards Professor Snape but he was pulling his usual sullen face, or was he? McGonagall took a second, closer, look at Snape and too her utter amazement it looked almost as if the corners of his mouth were turned upward and there was definatly a sparkle in his eyes that wasn't usually there - he was enjoying this debacle! He found it amusing that one of her little Gryffindors was being flaunted like a prize in the Great Hall, and that was just infuriating. Her attention switched back to Dumbledore hoping that the sooner he put an end to it the soon Snape would stop almost smiling. Yet Dumbledore even appeared to be oblivious of the deathly silence that filled the Hall broken only by Draco and Ginny's toast munch and his scrape of cutlery.

The entire student body remained silent and staring at Dumbledore until Draco stood up and pulled Ginny up with him and their attention switched back to Hogwarts most-talked-about-couple. Ginny picked up the tablecloth and folded it neatly. She walked to the end of the Ravenclaw table and smiled.

"May I leave these here?" she asked, her voice echoing around the Hall.

"Uh...um...uh...sure?" A second year gulped as Draco moved to stand next to Ginny. She placed the tablecloth and empty plate on the table and began to walk with Draco to the doorway.

They both paused, still under the scrutiny of their peers, and Ginny kissed Draco lightly on the lips. He responded accordingly by pushing her against the doorframe and pulling her arms up above her head. His kiss was ferocious and hard. Ginny could feel her lips bruising but didn't care, nothing mattered so long as Draco was kissing her.

"TEN POINTS FROM EACH HOUSE!" McGonagall screamed down the length of the Hall as if she had been waiting to punish them for something. "NO PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION IN THE CORRIDORS!"

"It was worth it." Ginny addressed the Gryffindor table but was quickly pulled out by Draco before she could have any more points taken from them both, almost as an afterthought he turned to the teachers' table.

"Sorry?"

%%%

Sirius wondered for about the sixth time in as many minutes why he was bothering. Since he had left Hogwarts he had only been down this damp, smelly tunnel a very few times and the finer points of the last time were probably best forgotten. The way into the Shrieking Shack was awful. Your robes were dirtied and the fettered smell lingered for days afterwards. James had once joked that to go down here you must really love someone. It was that love Sirius was cursing. If only Moony could sort his own damn problems, best friends eh? What are they like?

With the sun streaming through the slats in the windows the Shack looked almost pleasant. It had taken Sirius all year to figure out where Remus would disappear to and when he finally figured it out Sirius felt like laughing. The place that all of Remus' initial Hogwarts fears had been relieved would be the obvious choice for where to ponder the new problems. And true to fact Remus was sitting on the battered old couch, eyes shut and deep in thought. Never one to miss a mischief Sirius switched suddenly into dog form and then padded quietly behind the sofa. Taking a hold of Remus' cuff gently between his teeth Sirius used his dog power to drag Remus off and onto the floor. Landing with a heavy thud Remus began to scream.

Sirius quickly changed back into human form and wouldn't stop giggling. Remus, after realising that he wasn't being attacked, stopped screaming like a little Hufflepuff girl and began beating Sirius about the head with a sock.

"Moony...stop...stop," Sirius gasped between laughs. "...where...sock?"

"Sirius you great git desist! Now. I got the sock from your foot!"

"What...oh bloody hell you did!" Sirius peered at his now-beginning-to-get-cold-foot and stopped laughing. "May I have it back?"

"Bloody Padfoot," Remus cursed, tossing the sock at Sirius.

"It was too good an opportunity to miss," Sirius moaned after correctly interpreting Remus' foul expression.

"What do you want Sirius?"

Sirius was stunned. Remus only called him Sirius when he was depressed or if Sirius had broken something.

"I...I...eh that is...I..."

"Bloody hell Siri tell me what you want."

"Ok. I'm Siri again. Don't scare me like that all this 'Sirius' nonsense. You have only called me 'Sirius' properly once and that was on the express, on our first day...I wanted to talk." Sirius sat on the sofa next to Remus and smiled.

"About?"

"Hermione," he said softly not wanting to scare Remus away.

"What about her?" Remus' voice had taken on a slightly colder edge; his business was his business.

"You love her. Don't try to deny it I see it in the way you talk about her. Please Moony, don't interrupt. Let me just get this out. I know how you feel but you have to let her go. Sometimes the person we think we love is actually the person we care most about."

"That's the same thing Siri."

"No. No it's not. Do you remember back in sixth year? I thought I loved Lils so much. We were dating, had been for a year if I remember correctly and we had been each other's everything?"

"Pissed James off," Remus laughed.

"Yeah, but I finished with her. Remember? You helped me through it; you best bloody had remember," Sirius scolded lightly but dropped his tone. "You saw how hard it was for me to let her go but I had to. Her best mate loved her, and they were perfect for each other. It's the same with Hermione."

"Harry?" Remus asked shocked.

"Ron. He stares at her almost as much as you do. When I'm not helping you mark papers or control first years I have a lot of time just to watch. He pretends not to know answers just so she'll lean over him and point things out. He smells her hair-"

"Lemon and Honey," Remus whispered as if answering a test.

"-and she lets him. I meant what I said the other night. If she were older..."

The air between the two friends grew thick. Remus was quietly contemplating was Sirius had just said and he was desperately trying to think of a way he could be with Hermione, in spite of everything. His mind drew a blank.

"Do...does Hermione know?" Remus' voice cracked under the strain of talking.

"About Ron? No. I'm not even sure if the boy knows. Harry does but then the boy always did take after his godfather." Sirius grinned. "Lils' eyes, James' hair and my personality. The perfect man."

"Yeah," Remus snorted playfully before becoming sombre once again. "Do you remember when Lils told us she was pregnant? We had so many plans. You and James were going to teach him football and Quidditch so he would the most popular kid in Muggle and normal school."

"Lils made me promise not to let you teach him how to kiss." Sirius was in full tease mode. "She said you slobbered too much."

"Sirius Johann Black, I never kissed Lily Evans, never."

"Lily Potter. Her name is Lily Potter now." Sirius paused over his words. "...Was. Her name was Lily Potter."

"Oh, come on Padfoot, I have a heart to break!" Remus stood up and put out a hand to help Sirius up.

"Hermione's a tough girl, she'll cope." Sirius smoothed out his robe and gave Remus a faint smile.

"I know mate, I meant mine."