A Business Affair

*

Chapter Twenty-two: Deception at its Best


"Fuck him!" Draco exploded as soon as they appeared in his living room. Michael just rolled his eyes and moved over to sit on the couch.

"Qu'est-ce qu'il a pensé?! Ce petit salaude! Il me rend furieux! Cet Irlandais idiotique pense qu'il peut voler Potter de moi?! Je ne pense pas!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Michael interrupted. "English please."

Draco stopped, not realizing he hadn't been speaking in French. "Oh," he said simply. He walked around the couch and sat down, breathing hard in anger. "What was he thinking?! He lets that slut of an Irishman come on to him! What the fuck is wrong with him?!"

"I don't know," Michael said, knowing he couldn't say anything. He had seen what Seamus had been doing but wasn't about to tell Draco about it. He actually found all of this quite amusing.

Draco growled to himself. Watching Seamus come on so blatantly to Harry had caused an unknown wave of dislike to come over Draco. He hadn't liked the feeling he had gotten while watching the sandy-haired man smiling charmingly at Harry and touching him so suggestively.

"Do you want me to stay?" Michael asked, growing tired of his silence.

Draco seemed to snap out of his reverie and turned to look at Michael. "No, you can go," he said.

Michael picked himself up off the couch and looked down at Draco. "Don't worry about him, Draco. No one can resist your charms," he said.

Draco looked up at him with a raised eyebrow before chuckling slightly. "I'll see you at practice," he said, smirking. Michael nodded before leaving through the front door.

Draco sighed and stared into the empty fire grate as he heard the door swing shut. He got up suddenly and took a handful of the green powder from on top of the mantle. He threw it into the grate and watched as a green fire sprang to life.

"Blaise, come here now," he called. A moment later a revolving shape appeared and Blaise stepped out, brushing soot of his robes.

"Yeah?" he asked, moving into the room. He took out his wand and waved it at his clothes, Vanishing all the remaining soot.

Draco motioned for him to sit down wordlessly. Blaise took his seat cautiously, watching Draco the entire time. He waited expectantly but when no one spoke, Blaise rolled his eyes. "Is there a reason you called me?" he asked searchingly. "What happened at the match today?"

"We won," Draco said simply and Blaise's eyebrows came together at his statement. He knew that couldn't possibly be the reason Draco had called him there.

"And?" he asked, waiting for more.

"And Potter did something very stupid."

"What was that?"

"Well, for one, he almost didn't catch the Snitch. I saw him hesitate. That could have lost the entire match." Draco paused to take a breath, and Blaise waited for him to continue. "Then afterwards, that stupid Seamus Finnigan was blatantly flirting with him. Of course, Potter is too dense to have noticed, but it was very obvious."

"So what?" Blaise asked, not seeing what importance this had.

"So how stupid can Potter be? It was obvious Finnigan was just trying to get in his pants," Draco said maliciously, scowling.

"What does it matter?" Blaise asked, still not quite understanding why it was so important.

"It doesn't really matter, but he should know better than to flirt in public like that. Potter is married. You think he would catch on when someone was trying to shag him. That Finnigan is too much of a slut for his own good. He should stick to his own kind."

"His own kind?" Blaise repeated, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "You mean half-bloods like Potter or good-looking guys like Potter?"

Draco glared at him momentarily. "I mean low, dirty, disgusting males, all his type."

"I don't know about that, Draco," Blaise said. "If I was gay, I would say that Finnigan isn't exactly the worst someone could do."

"Well, Potter is not someone. He is Harry Fucking Potter. He could do a lot better than that scum."

"Right," Blaise said, absorbing his words.

"I'll just have to take him down," Draco drawled and Blaise stared at him.

"Oh, come on," he said. "That's not necessary. Most likely Potter is oblivious to these advances anyway. He seems perfectly harmless. Besides, you've got enough to deal with besides messing around with Finnigan as well."

"I suppose," Draco muttered, clearly disappointed at not being able to take down Seamus.

"It'll be fine. I bet Potter had no idea what was going on. He's so clueless."

"Yeah," Draco sighed. "This has been enlightening, but I have things to do now."

Blaise took the hint and rose from the couch. He walked toward the front door, not being able to Apparate directly out because of the wards. He stopped just before stepping outside onto the porch that was covered in a light frost.

"I'm sure your manipulations will work out in your favor," Blaise said slyly. "They always do."

He left and the door swung shut behind him in the cold breeze. Draco sat on the couch thinking over his words. He settled back into a relaxing position and sighed in contentment. He was sure it would work out as well. It always did.

***

Harry walked into his living room, looking around for Ginny carefully. He'd been over the game in his head a million times. He knew he'd done the right thing by catching the Snitch, but he felt a twist in his stomach when he thought of Ginny's words.

Once he got all the way into the apartment, he found that Ginny wasn't home yet from her "meeting" with a friend. Harry sat down on the couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table to relax. He switched on the TV and watched as some sitcom came on.

The sound of a laugh track filled the room as Harry watched, mildly interested. He was listening closely for the tell tale sounds of a key in the lock, signifying Ginny's arrival.

He waited for at least half an hour before he heard her arrive. The lock clicked and the door swung open. Harry hastily took his feet off the table before she saw. She walked in, shaking rain off her umbrella. The grey clouds from the morning had condensed to pelt down bullets of water.

She took off her coat and hung it up on the rack. Harry watched her apprehensively, still going over what he was going to say. Finally, she looked up at him and smiled warmly. She reached up and took the pin out of her hair, allowing it to flow down over her shoulders.

She moved to where Harry sat on the couch and gave him a peck on the cheek. He inwardly cringed but didn't show it. She took off her gloves and laid them on the table.

"How was the match?" she asked finally.

"We...uh...lost," Harry said, carrying out his plan.

Ginny gave him a sympathetic look. "Oh, I'm sorry, Harry."

"It's okay. It's the end of the season anyway. There's always next year," he replied, lying easily to her face. If she could do it, he could.

"I suppose so," she said sympathetically, scooting closer. "Do you want me to cheer you up?" she asked suggestively, rubbing his shoulders in a relaxing manner.

He shrugged off her hands and stood up. She looked at him questioningly as he walked away.

"Actually, I'm just kind of tired," he said, having been unable to stand her touching him when he knew of her betrayal. It burned through him that she could just pretend like nothing was wrong.

"Oh," she said, sounding hurt. "Alright."

She stood up from the couch and went into the kitchen. Harry heard her making tea and he sighed. He knew it hurt her and he was glad. He wanted her to feel the pain of rejection that he felt. He couldn't stand the thought of her touching him so intimately as they once had.

The mere thought made him want to take a long shower and scrub all his skin off. Somewhere deep inside him his conscience was telling him that it was wrong to treat her like this and be fooling around with Draco while another stronger voice yelled that he had every right to want to get revenge and that Draco was the perfect opportunity to do so.

These voices often battled in his head. When he was with Ginny, the conscience nearly won until the louder voice screamed of her betrayal. When he was with Draco, the strong voice took control of everything, his mind and his body.

Harry heard Ginny moving around in the kitchen. At this moment, his conscience was telling him that if he wanted to at least keep a decent relationship with her, he should talk to her. For once, both voices agreed though for different reasons. The louder voice said it was so she wouldn't become suspicious.

He gave into his inner thoughts and went to the kitchen, determined to soothe her fears for the time being.

***

Harry walked through the large lobby in the Ministry of Magic, wandering somewhat aimlessly. He wasn't exactly sure what he was doing. As he rounded the Fountain of Magical Brethren, he caught sight of the Minister of Magic shaking hands with some robed wizard.

Harry dashed quickly back around the other side, hoping the Minister hadn't seen him. It didn't appear so, but Harry took no more chances. He walked straight to the magical elevators and waited until a golden grille opened for him.

He hurried inside and to the back. He was soon joined by a few wizards. Over their heads, he could see the Minister walking through the hall. He ducked down as the Minister looked his way.

To his relief, the doors shut and the elevator started moving downward. Harry waited impatiently as it stopped at every floor and people got on and off.

Finally, he reached the floor for Improper Use of Magic offices and Mis-Use of Muggle Artifacts offices as well. He stepped out, carefully avoiding a man that had a very angry-looking miniature tiger in a cage. The tiger hissed and attempted to claw him through the bars.

Harry sucked in his stomach as he slid past and out the doors. He breathed a sigh of relief as he was released into the mass of cubicles. He waded through the maze, looking for a specific desk.

Instead of turning towards where he knew Ron's office was, he took a left and went down another row. He reached the end one and stuck his head inside.

Within the cubicle was a bunch of Quidditch posters, all the men in brightly colored uniforms zooming around the pictures. Accompanying them were a few random pictures of very hot men from magazines.

Someone was sitting in a rolly-chair on the other side of the square office. Harry moved carefully into the cubicle and cleared his throat to announce his present. The man in the chair swung around and his face broke into a large grin.

"Harry!" he exclaimed happily. Harry panicked slightly.

"Shh, Ron might hear," he hissed. The man waved a dismissive hand.

"Nah, he didn't come in today, something about taking a personal day... I don't know."

"Oh," Harry said, frowning. What did Ron need a "personal day" for? He shook his head of the unnecessary thoughts and looked back at the sandy-haired man.

"Seamus, I need to talk to you," he said seriously.

"What about, Harry?" he asked, swinging his feet up to lay them casually on his desk. He waved his wand and another chair appeared next to him.

Harry sat down in it nervously. "Is it safe to talk here?" he asked cautiously.

"Uh... hold on," Seamus said. He reached over and picked up a rock similar to the one Ron had had. He clicked a button on the side and talked into the top of it. "Hey Roy, I'm taking my break, okay? Deactivate the Watchers." He set down the rock and directed Harry's attention to a small gargoyle figurine on the top of his desk. The eyes glowed red momentarily before becoming a calming blue color.

"It's okay now, no one is listening. We can put up a Silencing Charm too, just for good measure." He took out his wand once again and waved it once. A quiet fell over the cubicle and Harry relaxed.

"Okay, well, Seamus, I don't think it worked," Harry said.

Seamus raised an eyebrow. "Not work?" he repeated. "Harry, he was eating it up."

"But he still went off with Michael afterwards," Harry said dejectedly.

Seamus looked thoughtful for a second. "I think it worked, Harry," he said finally.

"What do you mean?!" he exclaimed then quickly lowered his voice, forgetting the silencing spell. "He went off with Michael and he didn't come to practice today. Michael seemed pretty happy about something..."

Seamus laughed slightly at Harry's thoughts.

Harry looked at him sharply. "What?"

"Nothing, Harry. It's just-- just because he doesn't come to practice one day doesn't mean anything."

"But he always comes!" Harry said.

"I don't know. What do you want me to do?" Seamus asked.

Harry frowned, furrowing his eyebrows in thought. “I think you should stop by practice one day," he said.

"Practice..." Seamus said, thinking. "That could be interesting."

"Yeah," Harry said excitedly. "You should come, it would be good."

"Hmm," Seamus said as his brain worked quickly. "That is a really good idea, Harry."

"Yeah," Harry said, getting into it now.

"Malfoy wouldn't like that at all. He didn't really seem to like last Saturday either though," Seamus said, chuckling evilly.

"I don't know," Harry said reluctantly. "He didn't seem to mind taking Michael off somewhere to shag no doubt. How can he do that?! I thought we had some kind of agreement! Isn't he not supposed to be with other people?!"

"I don't know?" Seamus said slowly, not sure if Harry wanted a real answer or if the questions were rhetorical.

Harry sighed dejectedly and Seamus didn't know what to do. "It's just all too complicated sometimes," he sighed. Seamus nodded understandingly. Harry stood up slowly from his chair and turned to Seamus. "I have to go," he said. "But thanks. Will you stop by this week? We have practice every morning."

"Sure," Seamus agreed. "This ought to be interesting to say the least," he added with a mischievous grin.

Harry smiled slightly and left the cubicle. He heard Seamus lifting the silencing charm and telling Roy that he was off break. Harry walked back through the maze of cubicles and took the elevator back up. As he walked out of the elevator and made for the exit, he heard someone calling his name.

"Harry!"

He stopped dead and nearly winced at the voice. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes momentarily, collecting himself.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, he chanted to himself. He grimaced, but when he turned around, he was all smiles.

"Hello, Minister," he greeted the man approaching him.

"Harry, how have you been? Finnigan tells me you won the match last Saturday; that must be nice. And, of course, you're already practicing for the next year Malfoy tells us. I suppose you've got to be in shape all time, don't you?" The Minister went on without giving Harry a chance to answer any of his questions. Eventually, he settled for being silent.

"You do know," the Minister said suddenly. "That the Annual Ministry Christmas Party is coming up soon, less than a month, Harry! You are coming, of course?"

Harry was trapped. He hated going to these Ministry functions. They were always dreadfully boring and he usually found himself alone in a corner with Ron, drinking himself into oblivion while Ginny flirted with every man in the room.

The Minister was watching him anxiously and Harry knew there was no way out. He was expected to attend no matter what. He inwardly sighed but put on a smile for the Minister.

"Of course I'm coming," he replied. "Wouldn't miss it."

The Minister grinned and slapped Harry on the back. "Knew I could count on you!" he said. "Well, Harry, I must be going. I'm looking forward to seeing you at Christmas!"

Harry nodded as the Minister walked away with a bounce in his step. Harry dragged his feet as he walked to the exit. The Annual Ministry Christmas Party, just one more thing to add to his list of things to dread in the coming month.


~~**~~

A/N: Well, we're almost to Christmas! lol. I know, it's late, but they're some of the best ;) Please review!