Knickers

Chapter 14-Encounters

“Katie?” Harry called as he stepped into her flat, using the key that she had given him months ago. ‘Strange,’ he thought to himself. It was too quiet…

“I’m in the kitchen, Harry!” he heard her call.

Feeling better about the situation, he sighed, taking the few steps to the kitchen and smirking as he caught sight of his ex-girlfriend turned friend. A 3 weeks after they had had the encounter with Ginny and Oliver at Hogwarts, they had ‘officially’ broken up. Although, if he got right down to it, the correct name for what happened was waking up hungover next to each other after a night of drunken sex and realizing that, despite the fact that the chances of them being together completely with Ginny or Oliver were slim (although Katie stood an entirely better chance than he did), they probably shouldn’t be ‘together’ anymore. The morning after, they had decided to ‘break up.’ This had been plotted out and acted out in the Leaky Cauldron for all the press to see and sure enough, the next morning, everyone knew. Now, they were ‘officially’ just friends.

And so Harry entered Katie’s kitchen with a thinly disguised smile on his fact, bursting to share the news with her that he and Ginny were finally on the verge of something more than the terse co-habitation they had been living in for the past few months. But even this had been a step up from what they had done before that. Not speaking had a habit of tainting a relationship.

“Am I to believe that something has happened then? You look like the cat who ate the canary,” Katie drawled as she looked up from the plate of sandwiches she had just finished arranging.

Harry let the stupid grin that he had been trying to hide when he had entered her flat loose on his face. “Why yes actually, something did happen. Something quite extraordinary.”

“And just what would that be?” Katie leaned forward conversationally on the island that sat in the middle of her kitchen, inadvertently giving Harry an eyeful of the bountiful cleavage she had (hidden only by the satin bathrobe she was wearing).

Harry’s grin turned into a smirk. “Someone has a date with Ginny Weasley this Friday night.”

“Does that someone have dark hair, green eyes and a tell tale scar on his forehead?” Katie teased, knowing full well what Harry was telling her and feeling extremely happy for him. After all, no one deserved it as much as Harry.

Harry leaned forward on the counter top across from his ex. “Why yes Katie, how did you know?”

“Just a guess. I know how much you like to rave about who your beloved goes out with,” she sighed, straightening herself up and going to the refrigerator for the jug of pumpkin juice.

“Well I wouldn’t call her that,” Harry piped up defensively. He was in love yes, but that didn’t mean that he had spent the last few months pining away for a woman who….he furrowed his brow. She was right. Beloved was a good word for what Ginny was to him.

Katie simply shot him a look as she poured two glasses of juice and sat them on the countertop. “You love her Harry and that’s what matters. What you call her is your own business.”

“Speaking of business,” Harry’s thoughts suddenly turned sober. “How are the press treating you these days? Still bothering you for interviews?”

“No.” Katie replied succinctly. “Although your fans seemed convinced that I’m to blame for the break-up. I’ve had to put up enhanced security measures on my mail to guard against stray curses.”

“Oh Katie….”

“Harry, it’s fine,” she sighed, letting a sly grin appear on her face. “After all, it’s not like I wasn’t satisfied with the relationship. And ending it, yes, was extremely…frustrating. I’m certainly going to miss the sex but it was unhealthy…the manipulation, not the sex….and I think we’re both moving on now as far as the press is concerned. Both you and I know that it was over a long time before anyone thinks it was.”

“About that,” Harry went on awkwardly. What Katie was saying was true but at the same time, he still felt a little awkward about what happened between them to make them realize that they had to publically break-up. “Can we talk a bit about that evening? I just…I want to know that everything is alright between you and I, and what about….”

“…Ginny?” Katie finished his sentence coyly. “Don’t worry Harry. I won’t be saying anything. We were both drunk and it was 3 weeks after she had blatantly rejected you in front of her entire family. I think a little comfort sex was called for. We just aren’t going to let it happen again because of our prospective relationships that formed the basis for our previous relationship.”

“That WAS the only reason for it all, wasn’t it?”

“The sex? Or our friendship?” Katie came around the counter and leaned her elbows on the countertop next to Harry, catching his eye as she did so. “Because I think we probably would have done it at some point, even if we had stuck with a purely platonic friendship.”

“You think? I mean,” he shifted uncomfortably. “”The sex did come kind of naturally.” A little too naturally, Harry thought. Indeed, 2 evenings into their talks about their unrequited loves had found Harry and Katie screwing each other silly outside of the Leaky Cauldron under the helpful effects of an obscurity charm.

“I think that despite whatever would have happened had we not banded together for this crazy adventure that we still would have ended here. Friends first, with the option but not necessity of more,” Katie finished. She laid a hand on Harry’s. “Look, what we have now is a product of all of that…nonsense. And it was nonsense. Really great, fulfilling nonsense, but nonsense none the less. We should never have manipulated Oliver and Ginny the way we did.”

“And now we’re paying for it,” Harry murmured, running a hand through his thick hair and wondering if, come Friday, Ginny would inquire about the last time he had sex with his ex-fiancée.

“And now we’re paying for it,” Katie repeated soberly. “Although I think we’re nearing the end of it all.”

“And just how do you know that?” Harry looked at her, seeing the earnest expression on her face and feeling his curiosity perk up. “And what’s with the juice and sandwiches? Don’t we usually drink firewhiskey on evenings like this?” He looked at the juice, then the sandwiches and furrowed his brow in confusion. “Were you expecting me?” A thought suddenly occurred to him and a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. “Or someone else?”

It wasn’t Katie that answered him though. From the living room, he heard the creak of her bedroom opening and suddenly….Oliver was in the kitchen.

Harry’s jaw dropped as he took in the sight of the Cannons Quidditch Captain….clad only in a pair of boxers, clearly having recently had sex with Katie if her own lack of clothing under the bathrobe was any indication. “When did this happen?!”

“About a month and a half ago. A little while after…while you know.” Katie smiled, moving to give her lover a kiss.

“We all know,” Oliver said dryly as he placed an arm over Katie’s shoulder. “Including myself and I want you to know that I don’t care. If I were in your shoes I too would probably had one last drunken fling with this gorgeous women.”

“Oliver,” Katie rolled her eyes sarcastically. “Stop. You’re embarrassing me with your sweet words.”

“Yes luv, I know but it’s important to state the obvious,” Oliver sighed, a smirk threatening to break his face in two. “Harry here knows. Hopefully he won’t know this again in the near future though…”

“Indeed I do,” Harry joined in the fun at Katie’s expense. “And you have nothing to worry about. Tell me though Oliver, does she still do that thing with her face when she’s about to….”

“I do not make faces in that context!”

“Yes you do,” both Harry and Oliver said together, identical looks of amusement on their faces.

Harry looked down at his watch as he looked at the gaze of longing that soon was exchanged by the couple in front of him. It was time to go.

“Well, I’ll just be seeing the two of you later then?” he said quietly, turning the leave the kitchen and exit the flat entirely before Katie decided to have her way with Oliver- company or no company.

“Keep me posted on the Ginny situation. Where are you taking her by the way?” Katie looked up from the eye sex she was currently having with Oliver.

“I thought I’d take her to the Muggle Cinema. The reporters have just been horrible lately and I don’t want to subject her to the scrutiny of the press this soon in our relationship,” Harry looked down at his hands, shuffling his feet nervously. This decision had come not a half hour after he had left Ginny in the change rooms. Indeed, with the break-up of his ‘engagement,’ he had once again become the subject of a fair amount of news-both real and fictional. “Might scare her off.”

“I’m sure a little press won’t scare her off Harry. She’s known you forever and she’s had feelings for you almost that long…” Oliver cut in, having overheard about Harry’s date with Ginny from the bedroom where he had been resting after he and Katie’s second romp. Katie was, if anything, enthusiastic…

“Oh really? Susan knew me ‘forever’ and it scared her off,” Harry said bitterly.

“Harry, I’m sure this time’ll be different,” Oliver said quietly, already showing Harry signs of territoriality in his cradling of Katie’s body against his own. “Besides, Susan wasn’t right for you anyway. I’m sure whatever Ginny might use to break-up with you won’t have anything to do with the paparazzi.”

He cleared his throat, running his hand through his already messy hand anxiously. That’s what he was afraid of, “Let’s hope so eh? I really don’t feel like have a pseudo-engagement again with your girl here. I’ll see you guys later then?”

Oliver and Katie nodded, their attentions already drawn back to each other.

Harry smiled, turning to leave. He was happy for them. As for his other concern, that of his indiscretion with Katie only three weeks after the now infamous fight at Hogwarts, well, hopefully Ginny would be as understanding as Oliver had been. That is, if she needed to know at all…

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“Are you sure you’re alright with everything that’s happened between Harry and I?” Katie asked quietly as she and Oliver entered her bedroom, the plate of sandwiches and cups of juice making their way to her dressing table.

Oliver sat down on the edge of the bed, sighing. “Not the way you want me to be, I think. I’m still not comfortable with the fact that you two slept together again. And I don’t think I’ll ever be but in order to make this work, I have to realize,” he reached out his hand to her and took her own, pulling her toward him and into his lap. “That he is the reason why you and I are together and for that, I guess I should thank him.”

“Oh Oliver,” Katie sighed, tipping his head up and placing a kiss on his lips. “I’m sorry. We…we weren’t thinking right that night. We were both sad and lonely-you and I were only sort of speaking and Ginny wasn’t even acknowledging that he was even living in the same house as she was-and we were drinking fairly heavily…”

“Yes, about that. Remind me to never let you and Harry drink alone again,” Oliver said wryly. The truth of the matter was that he didn’t blame Katie for her behaviour with Harry. He was annoyed by it, but he didn’t blame either of them.

Sensing that they had moved on from the awkward portion of their conversation, the air finally cleared, Katie leaned forward and kissed him again. “Thank you for being so understanding.”

“We weren’t together yet. I have to recognize that I can’t-and shouldn’t-judge you for your past actions. Goodness knows you haven’t judged me thus far on my disastrous relationship with Fleur. Well, barring not sleeping with me immediately after your release from the hospital,” he returned the kiss, slipping a hand under her bathrobe as he did so.

“You were on the rebound Oliver. It wouldn’t have been fair to either of us,” Katie sighed into his mouth.

“And I’m happy you made me wait. Fleur certainly didn’t bother,” he pulled away slightly to breathe, thinking of the way in which he had broken up with the French woman. No, she hadn’t even finished her relationship with Oliver before jumping into bed with Victor Krum. From what he had heard just the other day, she was now onto a new conquest-a Russian Chaser that she had met when she had gone to Bulgaria with Victor a month after she and Oliver’s break-up.

“It’s her loss Oliver,” Katie murmured, readjusting herself on his lap so that she was straddling him. “And my incredible gain.”

“Why yes it is Miss. Bell, yes it is,” Oliver groaned as her crouch came into direct contact with his own, his mouth overtaking her own and devouring it. Thinking about Fleur was pointless. He had Katie now and she was worth about 10 Fleurs. She was his best friend, his confidante and, more importantly at the moment, his lover. Moaning now as the woman on top of his opened her bathrobe and reached under his boxer shorts to remove his rapidly hardening cock, he smiled. Things had certainly worked out for Oliver Wood.