Knickers

Chapter 10-Letting the Cat Out of the Bag

Harry Potter waited in the hallway with the rest of the Weasley family, trying desperately to keep his temper from boiling over. Indeed, not only had Colin shown up with Ginny, but also Katie had somehow finagled her way out of her hospital bed and come to Hogwarts for the birth of Ron and Hermione's first child. Furthermore, as Oliver had explained as he brought Katie into the school, she would have snuck out on her own if he hadn't insisted on accompanying her. She had ended up being signed over to his custody, in lieu of Harry, as her Healers had insisted that she wasn't ready to be up and around yet. In the end, she had been released for a twelve-hour period, after which time she was expected back at St. Mungo's to finish her treatment. Now, she was lying on Harry's lap, fast asleep as they waited for Madam Pomfrey or Ron to come out and tell them whether it was a girl or a boy. Said child appeared to be taking their sweet time however, as Madam Pomfrey had told them all cheerfully just fifteen minutes before. Harry was forced from his angry musings by the sound of Ginny questioning Oliver about the sanity of Katie being out of bed and at Hogwarts.

"Look, Ginny, she wanted to come, and there was nothing I could do to stop her," Oliver sighed, turning away from his conversation with Fred and George about the Cannons' chances of winning the World Cup that year to answer Ginny's intrusive question. He turned to Harry, "Back me up here, man; she's your fiancée."

"But she really shouldn't be out of bed. Look at her." Ginny made a crude gesture to Katie's form, currently sprawled out, head on her fiancé's lap on the couch that Harry had transfigured for her out of one of the old copies of Witch Weekly that had been lying about the waiting room.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Ginny, she'll be fine."

"But, Harry, didn't she have a concussion? Should she be sleeping, right now?" Ginny shook her head, marvelling at the stupidity of the men in front of her. She smiled indulgently. "Just an opinion, Harry, but I really don't think she should be here."

Harry paused at this, anger at the patronizing tone that Ginny had just taken with him and, at the same time, that the reason behind her argument rose in his mind. She had a point about the concussion, and he really hadn't reckoned that she shouldn't be sleeping when she had been passed out on his lap two hours already.

His worried thoughts were broken as Oliver answered for him, “The doctors gave her medication to allow her to sleep before we left the hospital. It lasts for twelve hours and then we have to make sure that she stays up for another twelve," Oliver said in a tired voice. "Harry's right; she'll be fine, and the sleep will do her good."

The truth of the matter was that he didn't believe that she should be going to Hogwarts either, but Katie had insisted. The medication that the doctors had given her had been an afterthought, but it appeared that it had been a good one, considering that she had been sleeping peacefully in Harry's lap for several hours.

"I can't believe how irresponsible you're being about all of this! Medication or no, she was seriously injured today, and all you two can say is that 'she'll be fine'…" Ginny said, directly mocking the two men who had allowed Katie to sleep with a concussion.

"Ginny, would you just let it go," Harry muttered, not intending for Ginny to hear, but having had enough of her rude behaviour since she and Colin had entered the waiting area an hour before. He shook his head; not even noticing that she was shooting murderous looks his way. "You're the one who knocked her off her broom, anyways."

"Excuse me?!" Ginny's concern quickly transformed into furious anger. She looked at Harry, not believing what she had just heard, as if he had just conjured a lie.

Harry rolled his eyes. She surely couldn't have been thinking that she was innocent in all of this? Indeed, if she was going to have an opinion about the way that he and Oliver had dealt with Katie's health, then she should verbally acknowledge that she was the one responsible for putting Katie in the state she was in.

At this point, he believed he was justified to say whatever he had to say to Ginny. She had been pissing him off since she had arrived with her voice of concern. "Just an opinion, Ginny," he said finally, throwing her own patronizing words back in her face after taking a moment trying-and failing-to clamp down his anger yet again. "But why should you care, now, about Katie's health, when you didn't even care enough to stick around and see how she was after you caused the accident?"

The room that had previously been buzzing with gentle conversation suddenly went silent. Everyone knew how angry Ginny could get, and Harry… well, Harry had had a rough day—what with Katie's accident —and when Harry had rough days, it was good to stay low and keep moving. Not a good combination.

It was Colin who jumped in at this point and later, Molly Weasley would recount to Ron and Hermione that this was the point at which everything had come unravelled. And she did mean everything. "Apologize for that, Harry," he said in a no-nonsense voice. Harry was taller and broader than Colin, however, and consequently, this held little weight.

Harry simply rolled his eyes again. He was too angry at both Ginny and Colin to care about treating Ginny with the respect he generally felt she deserved. The fact of the matter was that Katie had become his very good friend over the time that they had been on the Cannons together, and this feeling had only deepened when they had started to sleep together. As for Colin, well Harry knew for a fact that he was cheating on Ginny and that certainly made it all right for anger, in his book. Ginny, after all, was the sister of his best friend and the woman he was in love with, although nobody but he and Katie were privy to this fact, right now. More's the pity, Harry snorted as he took in the glare that Colin shot his way. If the family knew how he felt about Ginny, then they would understand what he had to do in the next few days….

"Apologize, now, Harry," Colin demanded again, standing and walking over to the Boy-Who-Lived.

Harry smirked un-apologetically. This was his chance to see if his theory was correct–that Colin was cheating–and Harry Potter had never missed a chance to solve a mystery. If he recalled correctly, that's what had gotten him in such trouble in Hogwarts. "I will when you do," he said finally and softly. Inwardly, he started to ponder whether or not he was going to have to formally 'out' Colin's affair to the entire family that evening. He certainly hoped not. The joyful celebration following a birth was neither the time nor the place for that sort of accusation. He glared right back at Colin, trying to imply, in one unyielding gaze, exactly what he knew was going on between he and Laura

Colin simply gave him a defiant look, suddenly realizing that somehow, Harry knew. He knew everything, and this was very dangerous. After all, even though he was going to be breaking the engagement with Ginny sometime in the next few weeks, he hadn't wanted to do it in front of her family for health reasons: namely his own.

"Guys," Ginny stood up, walking to stand between her fiancé and the still sitting Harry. "Stop it. Colin, I'm not offended," she said softly, shooting a look at Katie, who was watching the argument with tired eyes. Harry was right, and so was Oliver. Katie would be fine and, at this point in time, Ginny was willing to sit quietly in her humiliation as she contemplated, yet again, how she was the one who had put Katie in this condition. It had been an accident, though, and she had to keep reminding herself of that. Why, if she hadn't have moved when she had, she would have received the brunt of that Bludger. "Besides, we have to look at the truth of the matter. I did it, and I have to own up to the consequences."

These last words out of Ginny's mouth made Harry laugh humourlessly. To hell with the timing, what had just come out of Ginny's mouth made him ill. She was inwardly rationalizing what she had done; he could tell by her tone. "Yeah, Colin, let's all own up to the consequences."

Katie, who had woken up early into the argument, sat up, holding her sides as her ribs protested the movement. Oh, no. He wasn't doing what she thought he was doing, was he? "Harry, don't do this."

Harry ignored her, though, continuing. "You want to tell them, Colin, or should I?"

Fuck. Katie closed her eyes and buried her head in her hands; the headache that had been forming since she had been temporarily released from the hospital was gaining strength as she thought of the chaos that was about to be unleashed upon the room they were all sitting in. The Weasleys were going to kill Colin, and then they were all going to have to watch as Ginny killed Harry for breaking up her relationship with her fiancé. Katie watched as Ginny opened her mouth, probably to deny that Colin was doing anything out of the ordinary. After all, they had known each other since Hogwarts. Ginny, Katie knew, thought she knew her fiancé. How wrong she was.

"Harry, stop," Ginny tried to cut in, yet again, afraid that the man who she had loved, seemingly since birth, would goad her fiancé into doing something that she was afraid would change the entire face of their relationship. Indeed, she had a sneaking suspicion that the feeling of [being withheld from information that she had gotten off of Colin after they had made love that night] had something to do with what Harry was talking about, and she, quite frankly, didn't want to know… was too afraid to know.

"All right then," Harry drawled snidely, seemingly channelling Malfoy for a moment, "since it appears that Colin isn't going to say anything, let me be the first. He's having an affair, Ginny."

Katie groaned. Harry hadn't been terribly happy to see her at Hogwarts (and not in her bed at St. Mungo's where she belonged), but had been willing to put behind him for a few hours, if she promised to go backbefore the night was through. Now the secret he'd told her quietly when she had arrived had been made public, to the shock of the entire room and to the anger of all the males.

"Harry, what are you talking about?" Ginny laughed nervously as she took in the confused but angry looks that appeared on the faces of her five brothers. Ron wasn't there at that moment, for obvious reasons, but she knew that if he had been, he would have been the most furious of them all. Even if it wasn't true, Ginny knew that her brothers—all six of them—had been just chomping at the bit for an excuse to kill—both literally and figuratively—her fiancé.

She looked around the room at those who were still sitting down as they observed the argument rather quietly. An embarrassed blush rose on her face as she thought about the situation she was in. How disgustingly ironic would it have been if Harry were right... Just as she had made her decision about marrying Colin…

"Colin is not!" She laughed it off. "He wouldn't do that to me, because he knows I'd kill him if he did. We're getting married and," she smiled pointedly at Harry, "he loves me." Her eyes looked up to meet her fiancé's and her nervous giggles suddenly ceased at the stony-faced look that graced his façade. Her worst nightmare had apparently just come true.

"Actually, Ginny…" Colin said finally, bringing a hand up to his head to run through his hair. It would do him little good to deny it, especially as her brothers looked like they were going to hurt him terribly, regardless of the results of any investigation they might embark upon.

"No!" Ginny backed away from Colin, refusing to let him touch her with the hand he had suddenly reached out. How dare he? She was giving up so much for him: her dreams and any hope she had ever had about getting together with Harry. "No, you're not. WE'RE GETTING MARRIED. Why would you do something like that, unless you… unless you didn't want to… you didn't WANT me… or something…" She paused at this, shaking with anger, the room around her still. This wasn't happening—couldn't be—because if it were, then that meant that she had been wasting her time for years—years that she could have spent getting over her fears of rejection and just telling Harry how she felt. She felt like a fool. "Who is she?"

Colin sighed before saying, simply, "Laura."

"LAURA?!" Ginny suddenly burst out in anger. She WAS a fool. She had known that her fiancé and his partner were close, but she, in her ignorance, had completely ignored the fact that they had fallen in love—or lust, she couldn't be certain—right under her nose. "HOW LONG NOW, COLIN? I bet you were sleeping with her since the first day you met her. Did you…." She gasped, suddenly realizing something. "Did you propose to me even though you had feelings for her?" All thoughts about how she had accepted under the same circumstances made themselves scarce at that moment.

"Ginny, let me explain," Colin protested, reaching for her again, and in his ignoring of her question, confirming her understanding of the situation. But Ginny pushed him away and fumbled on her left hand for his engagement ring. She took it off sullenly, pursing her lips as she looked at it for a moment before handing it back to him. It was over, and now, she could conclusively say she had no one. Harry was getting married and Colin had cheated on her. She had never felt so awful in her life.

"Here you go, Mr. Creevey," she said in a quiet voice, all the while trying to hold back tears. Her mother sent her a sympathetic gaze. "Better go give this to Laura," she sniffed, one tear making its way down her cheek, anger at Harry now suddenly flaring up inside her. Yes, he was angry with her for what she had done to Katie, but that didn't mean that he had had to make this devastating announcement here at Hogwarts, forcing her to create this scene in front of her family. "Merlin knows, I don't need it anymore."

Colin tried once more to explain, his throat tight with unshed tears. He couldn't believe that this was happening. "Ginny, I'm sorry."

"We're done here, Colin." Ginny turned her back on him. "You should probably go."

He nodded. It was over, "All right," he said nearly soundlessly, before walking out the doors to the waiting room.

Ginny paused only a moment to watch Colin leave, before sounding off again, her tears apparently no barrier to her anger, which now seemed to ooze from her in wild streams of fury. "Why the fuck did you do that, Harry?"

Harry simply looked up at Ginny and raised an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean, Ginevra?" he said icily.

Ginny shook her head, not believing Harry's attitude. She was interrupted from anything else she might have said though, when he continued, "I thought I was doing you a favour," he spat out, standing up and beginning to pace. Katie simply watched sadly. "I thought you'd appreciate knowing that your fiancé was being unfaithful to you, if only to have the satisfaction of breaking up with him before he could do it to you again, with another woman." He stopped in front of her, looking her in the eye as he got closer to her. "I thought you'd value the fact that you didn't need to spend the rest of your life with a man who only treated you as second prize in a contest."

"And why would you care about that?" Ginny said snidely, so quietly that the rest of the room had to strain to hear it.

Harry, unable to stop himself, told her the words that he swore he'd never say to the woman in front of him, "Because I love you, Ginny, and HAVE loved you since my sixth year at Hogwarts, and I will be damned," his voice started to rise at this point, "if a second rate cheater is going to have the satisfaction of telling you that everyday, when he doesn't, not really. He can't."

The room's collective jaw dropped at this last statement, apart from Katie, who dropped her head into her hands a second time and moaned. The jig was up.

Oliver, noticing this, turned to Katie. From her reaction, he was expecting her to be in tears. Instead, he found that she was laughing hysterically.

Ginny nodded, not knowing what to say to this. She had waited for this moment for her entire life, but suddenly, it didn't seem so important. He was still engaged after all, and he HAD just broken up her own engagement for what she knew now to be purely selfish reasons. He couldn't love her that much, if doing that came so easily to him. There was only one thing left for her to do.

Harry didn't even see it coming; instead, he took the full brunt of the punch that Ginny threw his way.

"Fuck you, Harry," she swore angrily, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks. She turned to the door that she had just watched Colin walk out of and walked towards it, turning back to her family as she got to it. "Tell Ron and Hermione congratulations for me. I have to… I have to go… think." And with that, she left, leaving the room to the echoes of Harry's impromptu confession.

"Well, that was…interesting…." Bill mused, not believing what he had just witnessed.

Harry snorted and then winced as he felt the pain from his face. Ginny had one hell of a punch; then again, he knew that. He and Ron had been the ones to teach her, after all.

"Harry," Katie spoke up, her voice wavering as she tried to hold back the great gusts of relieved laughter that threatened to spill out of her. The secret was out, finally, and, although she had to admit that she was entirely unsure where they were going to go from here, she was relieved to finally be living in reality again.

"Yeah, Katie?" Harry said wearily, not turning to meet her eyes for fear that the sadness that he was feeling would show. Suddenly, he felt arms go around him. Apparently, he didn't have to look at her for her to know.

"Hey, it's all right," she murmured, noticing that he wouldn't—or couldn't—look her in the eye, "It's going to be all right."

From behind her, Oliver snorted in disbelief. "Excuse me? Your fiancé just told everyone that he's in love with another woman, and you're the one comforting him?! I don't believe this."

Katie sighed, lifting her head off of Harry's chest and looking at Oliver. "You don't understand, Oliver."

"Oh, but I think I do," Oliver said wryly, coming over to stand next to the still embracing couple. "So, who's the other guy?"

Katie froze in shock that Oliver had made such an accurate guess about her and Harry's situation. "Other guy?"

"Yeah, Katie." Fred, who had been silent along with the rest of his family for the last few minutes, suddenly spoke up, "The other guy. If Harry here was in love with Ginny, and you knew about it, obviously, you must have had feelings for someone else, too."

Katie was unaware that their plan was so transparent.

She was saved from the embarrassment of either making up a guy or confessing to Oliver, by the door to the hospital wing opening to reveal a tired, but happy Ron.

"Hey, everybody," he grinned broadly.

"Ron?" Molly stood up anxiously, walking over to her son and taking his hand. Ron winced.

"Oi, Mum, careful with that; Hermione did a number on it," he hissed, taking it back and smiling. "You'll be pleased to know that she's doing well, although I can't say the same about my hand," he paused, taking a breath. "It's a girl."

"Oh, a girl!" Molly gushed, turning to her husband, who had stood up and walked to where his wife and son were talking.

"Congratulations, son." Arthur stepped forward, embracing Ron.

Ron returned the hug, furrowing his brow as he took in who was in the room—and who was not. "Where's Ginny?"

The family exchanged worried looks, no one knowing how to describe what had happened in the past half hour in this very room.

"She wasn't feeling well, Ron, and she didn't want to give whatever she had to the baby," Molly said after an awkward silence. The room breathed a sigh of relief at this seemingly plausible answer.

Ron nodded his head, knowing that this was a lie, but too happy with his lot in life at the moment to care. "Would you all like to meet her, then?"

The faces of his family lit up as they all followed him into the hospital wing, excitedly whispering about the new addition to the family. No one noticed when Harry, Katie, and Oliver, pale-faced, didn't follow.