A Discerning Palate

“Oh Fuck.” was all Ginny could manage.

“Ginny…”

“I think I need to get Harry.”

“No!” Hermione cried.

“Let me see how bad the damage is.” Ginny reached for the covers and Hermione pulled them up to her chin.

“I can’t.”

“Merlin sakes, Hermione. How else am I going to fix it?”

“I don’t know, but seeing me naked is not in the equation.”

The small shape under the bed began to wiggle about in a furious motion. Hermione gasped.

“Oh. Oh…my Merlin! Ron…RON!” Hermione was screaming as she bit down on her lip. Her hands soon let go of the covers and she had a white-knuckled grip on the edge of the bed.

Ginny blushed and looked away momentarily. “Um, I take it he’s still, uh….attached?”

“He certainly is.” The other girl let out a heavy breath.

“I’m not here. I’m really not here.” Ginny repeated to herself, as if by reciting the litany, it could be true.

“Ginny! You have to… What the hell is Hermione doing?” Pansy began, as she burst into the room.

“Doesn’t anybody fucking knock anymore?” Hermione wailed.

“What have you spastic little Gryffs gotten yourselves into now?” Pansy asked, noting the shape beneath the covers. “That’s Ron isn’t it?” The Slytherin girl could barely contain her mirth.

“It’s not funny.” Ginny said, as a smile erupted on her face. “No, really.”

“Fuck if it’s not. But I’ll give you a break and laugh after we fix this. What did you do?”

Ginny explained the situation and Pansy’s eyes goggled. “He’s seriously stuck? No Shite?”

“YES!” Hermione howled.

“Okay. Calm down. Relax.”

“Could you relax if your boyfriend’s tongue was stuck in your cunny?” Was the sharp retort.

“Well, no. But we aren’t talking about me, sweetie.” Pansy winked for effect.

“What would you do?” Ginny asked, curiosity piqued.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I would ride him so hard and so long his tongue would shrink in protest.” She laughed a bawdy sound.

“That’s all very nice and good for you but,” Hermione began. The shape began to thrash around frantically and Hermione squeaked a very high pitched sound. “Oh hell. I think he wants to…” Hermione broke off, biting her lip again.

“I think he’s going to try it. But we have to unshrink him first.”

“Oh, I can fix that. I used to do that Millicent all the time in second year.” Pansy flicked her wrist and the small angry shape was now a very large Ron-like shape.

“Privacy?” Hermione reminded them.

They slipped out the door, locking it behind them.

“So what did you come to tell me?” Ginny asked as they walked back to Ginny’s room.

“Are you going to marry him?”

“You’re completely insane.”

“Isn’t he what you want?” Pansy asked knowingly. “And don’t say that you don’t know. It’s different for us than for muggles. You knew the minute he touched you.”

“That’s why I can’t. It’s what Lucius wants.” Ginny sighed.

“Fuck him.”

“Umm, no. He tried to kill me remember?”
“You know what I mean.” She looked at Ginny, annoyance splashed across her features.

“I just can’t.”

“You will change your mind.”

Ginny snorted. “Maybe if Lucius were to drop dead.”

Pansy eyed her carefully. “He just might at that.”

“How do you know?” Ginny stopped in her tracks.

“He’s going to Azkaban. There is a certain someone I know high up in the Ministry.”

“Bollocks!”

“I had a very special friend last year…” Pansy let the sentence hang.

“Oh Merlin, you slut!” Ginny giggled. “But what else did he say?”

“Lucius has been caught importing banned relics and some other really nasty things. My friend owled to warn me to stay away from them.”

“That is an interesting development.”

“Without his father’s influence,”

“Pansy, you know Draco will do whatever it is that he sets his black little heart on regardless of what his father wants of him.”

“True. He will always be a bastard, that one. But reformed rakehells make the best husbands.”

“Pansy, have you been reading Hermione’s novels?” Ginny smirked at her.

“No. I just found my white knight.” Pansy realized what came out of her mouth and thought for one moment that she might actually puke. “I so did not say that.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” The redhead laughed.

“I think I’m sick.”

Ginny couldn’t resist the remark that came to her lips. “Sick, huh? Maybe you’re pregnant.”

Ginny felt the punch connect with her arm before she actually saw it. It hurt like the very devil, but it made her laugh all the harder.


(page break)

“…pregnant?” Ginny’s voice drifted into the common room.

Harry snapped to attention.

Who was pregnant? Was Ginny pregnant? Who else was up there?

Oh dear Christ, Lucifer, Merlin on a stick, and the holy fucking choir!

Pansy.

No.

She couldn’t be. She’d used that flavored charm…

Harry thought back to their last time together. All he’d tasted had been Pansy. And he hadn’t thought to ask.

Fuck!

No, not fuck. Fuck was bad. Fuck might have gotten him into something. Maybe not bad. He loved Pansy and when the war was over, if he lived, he was going to marry her. But it was too soon. The whole wizarding world was about to go up in flames and he was going to be father. Was he doomed to die before his child could know him?

Harry straightened himself. He was over reacting. Surely, Pansy would confide in him if she even suspected…

No. She wouldn’t. She would think it was her opportunity to do something noble for him.

“Hey, Harry.” Ginny said as they entered the common room.

Pansy looked at him and smiled. He rushed to her side and took her hand.

“Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

“No,” Pansy looked at him questioningly and paused, wondering what he was about.

“Sit down, sit down.” He guided her over to a couch and insisted that she sit down and put her feet up.

“What are you doing?”

“Just trying to look after you. Are you sure that you don’t need anything?”

“Harry. What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re clucking over me like a mother hen.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“You can get me some pumpkin juice.” Pansy offered, rather disinterested.

Harry left to fetch the juice without a word.

“What was that about?” Ginny asked.

“Hell if I know. He’s acting like I’m wounded or…”

The girls looked at each other. “Pregnant!” They said in unison.

They were still laughing when Harry came back with the juice. He eyed them with mistrust, noticing the familiar twinkle of Weasley mischief in Ginny’s eyes.

“What did you do?” He asked as he handed Pansy the juice.

‘I don’t feel well, Harry. The smell of the pumpkin juice is making me sick.”

He snatched it back and took it out of the room.

“You are too mean, Pansy.”

“I wasn’t kidding.”