The Inadequate Life

As Ginny climbed the stairs to the third floor, where most of the D.A. had their bedrooms, she wondered whether she’d been too harsh with Harry. After all, she’d known from the start that there were aspects of the D.A. that no one else was going to know about but him. She felt hurt that Harry still apparently thought it was necessary though—as far as she was concerned, now that they were married they should share everything, no matter what.

Of course, Harry had said that it was more a matter of respecting Hermione’s privacy than of keeping D.A. secrets. And if she was honest with herself, that bothered Ginny even more… because it was Hermione. She had been one of Harry’s first and closest friends practically from the moment he came to the wizarding world, and Ginny had always suspected that she and Harry had been… close.

Which was ridiculous. Harry had never harbored any such feelings for Hermione—Hermione herself had told Ginny that several times over the years. And Hermione had never had eyes for anyone but Ron in her entire life, not even when she’d “dated” Krum and McLaggen. She’d started prodding Ginny for any hint of Ron’s interest in her during Ginny’s second year at Hogwarts. Ginny had long since gotten over being jealous of Hermione.

But even so… Hermione had been with Harry almost from what he saw as the beginning of his life. There had been more than enough time for their friendship and mutual respect to have developed into something more…

Ginny knew she was being absurd. It was only recently that she’d found herself getting more protective of Harry when he was around other girls, especially any girls he’d been close with in one way or another (Ginny was actually a bit concerned that Cho Chang thought Ginny was going to murder her, since Ginny had been glaring at her so much). It had begun shortly after Ginny had gone and changed her name, so it was almost certainly the result of the magical bonding she’d recently completed by taking Harry’s surname. In addition to wanting to be near him—with him—more, she wanted to keep him from anything or anyone that might take him away.

And that made her irritable when circumstances forced them to work separately. That and her irrational, unjustified suspicion of Harry had caused her over-the-top reaction to Harry’s “secret.”

Feeling guilty that she’s been so unfair, and with the feelings of jealousy and suspicion still lingering, Ginny was not in the best of moods when she reached Lavender and Parvati’s door. Ready to tear into them and vent some of her frustration, Ginny had just raised her hand to pound on the door when she heard an unmistakable sound from inside. Leaning closer so her hear was practically touching the wood, Ginny heard the sound again—someone was moaning in pleasure.

Ginny grew even angrier. She had always known that the two girls were flighty, but when they’d both applied themselves seriously to the task of stealing Professor Trelawney’s memory, Ginny had thought they’d grown up a bit. But on top of leaving Neville all alone to tend the greenhouse, and not telling anyone, either Lavender, Parvati or both of them were spending the time they should have been working… shagging? They’d ditched out on their responsibilities, and instead of feeling guilty about it they were enjoying themselves. Very enthusiastically, from the sound of it. That was just beyond the pale.

Instead of knocking, Ginny tried the doorknob. The girls hadn’t bothered to lock their door, so rather than announcing her presence, Ginny slipped inside and shut the door, preparing an assorted stream of bitingly sarcastic criticisms in her head.

As soon as she saw the girls, all the reprimands vanished from Ginny’s mind, and she swallowed as a rush of heat flowed through her. Lavender and Parvati were on the bed together; They’d only gotten as far as stripping off their pants before Parvati had gotten on top of Lavender and they’d started tonguing each other’s cunts. Parvati hadn’t even bothered to remove Lavender’s knickers—she’d just pulled them aside before beginning her assault.

Lavender was the one who’d been moaning—from the looks of it, Parvati was talented enough to have distracted Lavender from reciprocating, and as Ginny watched Lavender’s cries of pleasure grew louder until she screamed and came, clamping her legs around Parvati’s head and thrashing.

Ginny was expecting them to break apart after such a display, at which point they were certain to notice her, but Lavender recovered more quickly than Ginny had expected. Before Parvati could even move, Lavender had lifted her head and resumed her own ministrations on Parvati’s cunt. Parvati’s arms gave out and her head dropped, and she let out a moan that rocketed through Ginny’s body.

Ginny’s nipples felt painfully sensitive, and she felt herself growing more and more aroused; she wasn’t at all attracted to the two girls, but the sounds and the display of it all made her want to track down Harry and just fuck him until they were both raw and exhausted, and to hell with being angry with him.

Since the girls were so obviously wrapped up in each other—literally as well as figuratively—Ginny sat down on a comfortable chair by the door. Unable to help herself, she put her hand over her crotch and began to rub her cunt through her clothes. She was very wet, and found herself having to be careful lest her own ragged breathing alert the girls to her presence…

It only took a few minutes more for Lavender to bring Parvati off. Too soon for Ginny’s taste—she hadn’t come, and was all worked up. Gritting her teeth, she stopped rubbing herself and stood up; she put on her best “hacked off” face and walked over until she was standing next to the bed. Lavender and Parvati were both breathing heavily with their eyes closed, so Ginny was able to get right up beside them before snapping out “Well? Are you finished, then?”

Both girls shrieked and scrambled backwards, grabbing instinctively for anything to cover themselves with. Ginny would have laughed at the reaction if she hadn’t been maintaining her furious demeanor. “Ginny!” Lavender gasped when she saw that it was Ginny. “We—this is our room, you can’t just waltz in—”

“I came up here,” Ginny interrupted sharply, “to find out why you two failed to mention that you’d abandoned Neville!”

The two girls both looked a bit embarrassed. “Um, we thought he was going to tell you,” Parvati mumbled.

“He did,” Ginny retorted. “Just now. But I guess it was better for the two of you to spend three days goofing off and shagging each other while Neville struggled on by himself! Do you think you’re above helping the D.A. that way? We thought you understood how important this is—we thought you’d act with a bit of maturity! Obviously we were wrong!”

Both Lavender and Parvati hung their heads, looking ashamed, and Ginny congratulated herself. She’d studied Minerva McGonagall dressing down students often enough to have picked up some techniques, and they were obviously very effective—at least, in Ginny’s hands they were.

“Have you at least been practicing your spell casting?” she asked, knowing the answer, and upped her scowl when the girls both shook their heads mutely. “Bloody hell, we can’t afford to have anyone shirking like this! We don’t have enough people to make this work unless everyone does their part! And I don’t know about you, but I don’t reckon Voldemort’s going to put up with this shite either if he wins!”

“We—um, sorry,” Lavender muttered. “We—we should have come straight to Harry.”

“But we were making things worse in the greenhouse,” Parvati added quickly. “Really! Neville was getting furious with us since we just don’t know Herbology that well…”

“I know,” Ginny grudgingly conceded. “Neville said as much. Apparently we made a mistake in assigning you to help him. That’s why we’ve come up with another job for you that should suit you better. Come on,” she said, plucking two pairs of jeans from the floor and tossing them at the startled girls. “Get dressed. It’s time for you to take on a new task.”

It was a stretch to say that “we” had come up with another job for the two of them, Ginny thought vaguely as Lavender and Parvati blushingly redressed themselves. She had only come up with the idea on her way upstairs to confront them. But it worked out logistically, and assuming everyone behaved themselves—which they’d better if they didn’t want a Bat-Bogey in their knickers—then her solution would solve multiple problems.

As soon as the girls were reasonably presentable, Ginny headed for the door, not waiting to see if they followed. She was exaggerating her anger a bit, but she wanted to stress how important it was for them to be able to rely on each and every member of the D.A. Hearing the girls’ footsteps behind her, Ginny led them to the stairs and down to the second floor.

When they arrived in front of the second conference room, the door had vanished, showing that someone was inside. Ginny pounded on the wall where the door should have been. “Ron!” she shouted. “Open up!”

After a short pause the door shimmered into being and swung in. Ron stuck his head out and gave Ginny a confused, mildly irritated look. “Er… hi, Ginny—do you need something?”

“It’s you who needs something,” Ginny replied. “Remember how you said that you were shorthanded? Well, we’re reassigning Lavender and Parvati to your project.”

Ron looked startled, but pleased. “Really? But what about Neville?”

“I’m taking care of Neville’s new help right after this,” Ginny informed him. “Don’t worry about it.” She noticed Seamus and Dean inside the conference room, and a quick glance at Lavender and Parvati showed that all four of them seemed to be exchanging slightly flushed glances. Interesting.

“Well, that’d be great,” Ron said eagerly. “Two more sets of hands… Parvati, Lavender, are you two still working at your job?”

“No,” Lavender said bitterly. “Madam Malkin wasn’t taking in enough business to need the help any more.”

“That’s great!” Ron exclaimed, and then looked embarrassed when the girls gave him scandalized glares. “Just because it means you’ll have more time to help,” he amended. “Are you free now? Come on in, we can fill you in on what we’re doing…”

“Make sure to set up a time for someone to give Lavender and Parvati a practical demonstration of how to use the things,” Ginny reminded Ron.

“We could do that,” Dean commented. Seamus elbowed him in the side.

“Oh, this is about those inventions of Fred and George’s that Harry mentioned?” Parvati asked, looking rather pleased. It made sense—she had always seemed to enjoy Fred and George’s sense of humor.

“That’s right,” Ginny confirmed, “and that’s why it’s extra important that you know exactly what you’ll be working with. These things are considerably more dangerous than a Canary Cream.”

“Right, right,” Ron agreed, and stood aside.

As she walked past, Parvati leaned over to Ginny and whispered “Thank you, Ginny!”

“Don’t do it again,” Ginny admonished sternly.

“We won’t,” Parvati promised. She walked through the door, and as Ginny walked off Ron was already explaining what they were doing before he’d even gotten the door shut.

*****

Harry sighed as he trudged down the third floor corridor. After Ginny had left him, he’d headed down to the basement, where Hermione had said she’d be working with Pansy on some potions. But when he’d gotten down there, Pansy, who was watching six cauldrons simmer six different mixtures, had snippily told him that Hermione had left to do some work in her room. So Harry had turned and trudged all the way back up the two flights of stairs he’d just descended and then another flight for good measure.

Harry stopped in front of Ron and Hermione’s room, paused a minute to catch his breath, and then knocked. After a moment the door swung open. Hermione was seated on her bed, and was pointing her wand at him—for a second Harry thought she was going to hex him, but then he realized she must have used her wand to open the door. “Oh—hello, Harry,” Hermione said, looking a bit surprised. “I thought you and Ginny were still talking with Tonks and Remus!”

“We just got back a bit ago,” Harry told her. “Er… are you busy? I could come back…”

“No, it’s nothing crucial,” Hermione said with a smile. “Luna asked me to double-check some of her final translations for Sawol Immortalis. I don’t know why, she’s been spot on so far.”

“Oh. Uh, Pansy made it sound like you were working on something really important…”

“That’s because I told her it was really important, without mentioning what it was,” Hermione admitted, her smile becoming slightly mischievous. “Pansy’s feeling a bit overworked, and it would seem that she gets even more… abrasive when she’s overworked.”

“Oh, I see,” Harry said, stepping inside and shutting the door. “You just wanted to get away from her. Er, does that mean she needs more help?”

“Not at all. In fact, Justin confided in me that he never has very much to do when he’s down there besides preparing ingredients. Evidently, Pansy doesn’t trust anyone’s hands but her own, and possibly mine, to properly make the potions.”

“You should be flattered,” Harry teased.

“Oh, I am,” Hermione stated, deadpan. “Deeply.” She grinned when Harry chuckled. “Did you need something from me?” she asked.

“Yeah. Kind of,” Harry confirmed, walking over to the bed. He glanced around but Ron and Hermione had moved the chairs in the room away from the bed.

Hermione, looking like she was trying not to laugh, gestured to the bed. “It’s safe, you know,” she said. “I’m not going to seduce you.”

Harry was startled for a moment, and then laughed. “Yeah, all right,” he agreed, and sat down. “Just don’t tell Ginny we were in your bed together.”

“What?” Hermione gave him a confused look. “Harry, Ginny wouldn’t for a moment believe—”

“I was just teasing, Hermione,” Harry interrupted gently. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh. All right. So what do you need?”

“Er… well, you remember at the D.A. meeting last week, when I told Angelina, Alicia and Katie that I would have a job for them but that we were still planning it out, so we’d talk to them in about a week?” Harry asked.

“Well, yes, of course!” Hermione agreed excitedly, her curiosity piqued. “And I was confused, because you hadn’t even mentioned it to me, but then I thought you gave me a look saying you’d explain later. But since then we’ve been so busy and I haven’t had time to ask…”

“Right. Well, the girls accosted Ginny and me just before we left and demanded to know when they would get told what their job was. And I promised them that we would talk about it this afternoon. But that means that I have to stop avoiding doing what I have to before I can explain it to them.”

“Harry, I don’t understand,” Hermione said after Harry was silent for a moment. “What have you been avoiding doing?”

Harry grimaced. “I’ve been avoiding talking to you,” he admitted.

“What?” Hermione frowned. “But Harry, we’ve had plenty of conversations since the meeting—” She stopped herself, and light dawned on her face. “You mean—you mean there’s something specific, don’t you? Something that you have to ask me about, but don’t want to?” When Harry nodded, Hermione looked very upset. “Harry, you can talk to me about anything. The D.A. is never going to succeed if—”

“But it’s not about the D.A.,” Harry told her. “I mean, it matters to the D.A., but as far as you’re concerned, it’s…personal. And I didn’t want to bring it up if you didn’t want to talk about it…”

Hermione placed her hand gently on Harry’s arm, silencing him. “I’m your friend before anything else, Harry,” she reminded him softly. “You and Ron were the first real friends I ever had, and you’re still the best. If there’s something that concerns you about me that’s personal, I won’t hold it against you if you bring it up—in fact, it’s probably best if you did. How can I mend problems I don’t know exist?”

Harry smiled weakly at Hermione’s half-hearted attempt at a joke. “I know you’re aware of…what I’m thinking about,” he told her.

“Harry,” Hermione huffed in her stubborn, I’m-about-to-insist-on-something voice. “Stop stalling and tell me what it is!”

“All right, all right,” Harry muttered. “Well, it’s like this; I’ve noticed—and I know I’m not the only one—that you’ve gotten a lot more powerful magically over the last few months.”

Hermione stared for a moment before dropping her eyes. “I—I don’t know if that’s true, really,” she demurred. “I think it’s just the perception of my power that’s changed.”

“What?” Harry gasped. “But Hermione—”

“Well honestly, Harry, what have I done that’s so unbelievable?” Hermione interrupted. “Nothing that’s usually beyond a seventeen-year-old witch—”

“You’re mad,” Harry stated. “What about your Patronus, then?”

“What about it?” Hermione demanded defensively. “We already established that its possible for a traumatic event to cause a person’s Patronus to change!”

“But not to become more powerful,” Harry countered. “Your otter was always reasonably strong, but you had some trouble maintaining it for long. But that eagle, or whatever it was, must have taken out half a dozen Dementors on its own, and you didn’t even flinch! And while we’re talking about you being able to maintain spells for longer than you used to… I noticed that you can do the Levitation Charm on yourself without even holding your wand! That’s supposed to be impossible—you told me yourself all the way back in first year that Levitation Charms were notoriously hard to cast, and literally impossible without a wand!”

“I’m surprised you remember that,” Hermione mumbled.

“I do, but don’t change the subject,” Harry said firmly. Now that he and Hermione had finally started talking about her upsurge in magical ability, he had to bring her around.

“It’s not impossible,” Hermione said, trying to sound dismissive. “Obviously, or I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

“But it is supposed to be impossible for you to have done those searches on the Black family ledgers,” Harry said, throwing out another example. “The goblins made a point of telling me that the ledgers were all charmed especially to prevent any kind of search charm from working on them. I specifically asked them about the type of charm you used, and they told me ‘Of course’. And before you say that the charms must have worn off, the goblins said that they renew the charms every six months without fail.”

“I thought of that,” Hermione said stubbornly. “And it seems to me that, considering how much the Black family touted pureblood superiority, they may not have thought the ledgers needed protecting against anyone who was Muggleborn.”

Harry gaped at Hermione for a second before snorting. “Bloody hell, Hermione, you’re really reaching! If anything, the Blacks would have been more likely to protect their assets against Muggleborns—they wouldn’t have wanted anyone who wasn’t a pureblood getting their hands on a Knut!” When Hermione was silent, Harry pressed his advantage. “There’s more, too. Hermione; when your parents showed up and we were scrambling to cover for them, you Apparated yourself and Ron—”

“But that was an accident!” Hermione exclaimed desperately. “I didn’t even mean to do it!”

“I know, but that just makes it even more unbelievable,” Harry replied. “You didn’t even get dizzy! And I asked Ron, and he said that he felt completely normal when you both arrived. Remember, I did side-along Apparation with Dumbledore a couple of times. It was horrible, I almost blacked out and got completely disoriented. If even Dumbledore can’t make it less unpleasant, what does it say that for you, it was effortless and there were no side effects?”

“It—I don’t know,” Hermione admitted. “I honestly don’t know if what I did even counted as side-along Apparition… I know it seemed the same, but there were differences.”

“But you were Apparating and took Ron with you, right?” Hermione nodded. “Then any difference isn’t important. You Apparated and took someone with you, and that’s amazing.”

“I suppose it is…” Hermione said reluctantly.

“But all that stuff didn’t get my attention as much as one other thing did,” Harry told her softly. “When Neville was attacked you put up an Anti-Apparition Charm on the greenhouse—the entire greenhouse—and then held it effortlessly while we were fighting the Death Eaters. You kept it up even when a Death Eater tried to break it and Apparate. And you didn’t even let it go until I touched your shoulder. That had to be more than two minutes, with no preparation—you just did it, and it worked that well? Hermione, that’s—” Harry shook his head. “I know I’m not the most knowledgeable about magic, but we had to do an essay about Anti-Apparition Charms, remember? And one of the things that the textbook stressed was that effective castings of the Charm take hours or even days of preparation, for people who have years of experience with them. You told me that you’d never even tried one before.”

Hermione was fumbling with the bedspread, and shaking her head slightly, although not in protest of Harry’s words. “I don’t understand it, Harry,” she murmured unhappily. “It simply makes no sense! Things began to happen right after I was Cursed, but Curses don’t work that way! The only thing I can think of is—”

“What?” Harry asked when Hermione didn’t finish her thought. “Hermione, what is it?”

“It—I remembered how sometimes permanent physical injuries can cause people to compensate in other ways,” Hermione said tentatively. “For example, often when a person loses their sight, their hearing becomes more acute. And it occurred to me that my magic could be compensating for my lack of physical strength…”

Harry shook his head. “I don’t know about that stuff, Hermione… but if you think it’s a possible explanation, I’ll trust your judgment. Still—well, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not really concerned with why you’re so much more powerful—just that you are.”

“It’s f-frightening to admit,” Hermione said faintly. “I never wanted access to that much power. I was happy being able to do what I already could!”

“It’s not all bad,” Harry pointed out. “At least you don’t need Ron to carry you everywhere, right?”

“Actually… I rather liked that,” Hermione admitted shyly.

“I don’t think Ron minded much, either,” Harry said with a grin. Hermione flushed. “I don’t know why you’d be unhappy about having more power, Hermione. You’ll be able to do a lot more that most other people can’t. You’ll probably be able to do just about any job there is that involves magic.”

“But power corrupts, Harry!” Hermione exclaimed. “You of all people should know that—just look at Voldemort!”

Harry shrugged. “Look at Dumbledore. He was more powerful than Voldemort, and he didn’t even have to resort to Dark magic to get that way. He never got corrupted—he fought against Dark wizards his entire life.”

“That’s something else that frightens me,” Hermione whispered. “What if Bellatrix Lestrange’s curse was the—the source of my new power? What if my new power is Dark magic?”

Harry’s jaw dropped. “Hermione, that’s ridiculous! Hell, you know more about the theory of magic than I do—you know that there’s no such thing as ‘Dark magic’ and ‘Light magic’. It’s all the same, and the only difference is how it’s used. The Dark Arts are about studying how to use magic for evil purposes, not about how to use a different form of magic altogether. Even if Bellatrix Lestrange’s curse… I don’t know, infused you with more magic, it’s the same stuff that all of us use!”

Hermione nodded slightly. “I do know that it’s not logical,” she admitted. “But I can’t help thinking it anyway. It’s just so hard to reconcile—I want my increased power to make sense, but magic doesn’t always work logically.”

“That doesn’t mean it has to be bad,” Harry replied. “In fact, I think that your increased power—and the fact that Voldemort thinks you’re dead—may be the key to winning the war.” He nodded when Hermione looked up at him in shock. “I had to get this out in the open, Hermione, because I need to talk to you about an idea I had for what you can do during the final battle.”

Hermione paled. “I assume you want me to help you fight Voldemort,” she said faintly, her voice shaking slightly.

“No,” Harry said, surprising her. “Actually, I think there’s something more important that you can do.”

Harry laid out his idea for Hermione, who sat listening silently with her mouth agape. “H-Harry,” she stammered when he asked her what she thought, “I’m more powerful, but not that powerful! I—I can’t do that!”

“Are you sure?” Harry asked. “I did a little research, and I think it’s possible you could pull it off. I mean you’ve done it before—”

“Yes, but on a much smaller scale!” Hermione shot back, her voice ascending with apprehension. “And I didn’t have Voldemort directly attempting to counter me!”

“But the theory says that it doesn’t matter if someone’s trying to counter it, so long as the person doing the casting is strong enough and they’ve done all the preparation beforehand,” Harry told her. When Hermione didn’t reply, Harry added “Hermione, I’m not asking you to say you’ll do it right this second. I just want you to do your research like you always do. If you come back and tell me it can’t be done, then we’ll try to think of something else.”

“It—it does seem like a good idea, if it would work,” Hermione admitted. “All right, I’ll look into it. But I’m not promising anything, Harry. I really have no idea what to think right now.”

“Good,” Harry replied. “Knowing you, that means you’ll do research until you collapse.” He chuckled when Hermione swatted him. “I have to go to a meeting now,” he continued. “With Angelina, Alicia and Katie.”

Hermione gasped. Harry had explained how his plan for Hermione applied to the three Gryffindor girls. “But I haven’t said I’ll do it yet!”

“I know,” Harry assured her hastily. “I’m just going to tell them about the idea, so they’ll start thinking about it. And if we decide to go through with it, they’ll be better prepared.”

“Oh. Yes, all right.”

Harry got up, but hesitated before leaving. “Hermione, you shouldn’t be afraid of your magic,” he said. “Even if magic is used as a weapon, it’s no more evil than the person wielding it. And you’ll never be evil, no matter what.”

“Good people can still commit evil acts,” Hermione pointed out dryly.

“But often what seems like an evil act has a good outcome,” Harry retorted. “Intention is important, Hermione, and you would never intentionally do something evil. Someone might be able to force you to do something against your will, but you can’t corrupt the incorruptible.”