A Business Affair

Chapter Twenty-eight: Consequences Served


Harry turned slowly from the closed door, unconsciously holding his breath while waiting for the hammer to drop. Ginny stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes blazing with rage.

Harry didn't move from his position by the door. Instead, Ginny began walked towards him slowly, her arms now crossed across her chest. She continued to glare at him as she neared.

He squirmed slightly under her piercing gaze. In some ways, he welcomed a fight and in others he was scared to death of what she might do to him. It wasn't like he could actually tell her where he had gone.

Ginny came to a stop several feet from Harry and stood behind the couch. She unfolded her arms and put one on the back of the couch as she glared at Harry.

"So," she said dangerously. Harry took a breath and said nothing. He wanted to see what she thought before defending himself. "Where were you?"

Harry paused. Instead of answering her, he took off his jacket slowly and hung it carefully on the hook by the door. He could feel her eyes watching his every movement. When he turned back to her, she was still glaring at him with as much anger as she could muster.

"What do you mean?" he replied calmly, deciding he really didn't care how much angrier she got. He was sick of looking at her and knowing her little secret. Well, now he had a secret of his own to lord over her, in his own mind anyway.

"You know damn well what I mean," she growled. Her eyes burned holes in Harry's head as she stood in the middle of the tiny living room.

Harry shrugged and walked around her, ignoring the look of pure hatred she shot at him. He walked into their bedroom and began changing his clothes.

She followed him, standing at the door, blocking his way out. "Harry," she said in an ice-cold voice. He looked up and said nothing. "You disappeared last night. Where the hell did you go?! And why didn't you come back?!"

Harry sighed as if the conversation was boring. He slipped off the green shirt and switched it for a white tee-shirt. He threw the other shirt in a laundry basket and turned to face her once more.

"What's it to you?" he asked, giving her a dark look.

"What do you mean?!" she exploded, losing what little composure she had left. "You left me alone at a Ministry party, Harry! Everyone was there!"

"It didn't seem like you were lonely," he replied acidly.

Her eyes flashed and she took her hand down from the doorframe. "Maybe not, but at the end of the night, you were gone. What was I supposed to tell people? That I lost my husband?!"

"Oh, so now I'm your husband!" Harry retorted angrily. "It sure didn't seem like it when you were surrounded by every man in the place!"

Ginny glared angrily and let out an angry hiss, much like a disturbed cat. "At least they give me attention."

"Attention?!" Harry exclaimed incredulously. "They practically worship you and you don't do anything to discourage it."

"So what if I don't?" she asked. "At least they're there to take me home at the end of the night."

"What is the big deal?!" Harry yelled. "You can Apparate. It's not like you have to walk home or something!"

"It's the principal, Harry," Ginny snarled, and Harry scoffed.

"Principals, ha! Like you have any principles," he said darkly.

"Well, at least I don't abandon my husband without so much as a word!"

"Yes, you do!" Harry yelled, amazed at her stupidity. He just wanted to strangle something at the moment. "You did last night!"

Ginny was breathing hard from all the yelling and the combined adrenaline from the fight. She glared at Harry, breathing heavily through her nose. "Well, you knew where I was!" she yelled. "And where were you?!"

"It's none of your damn business!" Harry yelled.

"It is too, Harry! How could leave me like that and then not even come home?!"

"I don't know," Harry said sarcastically. "How can you abandon me at the Ministry party every year?"

"I do not," she said snidely.

Harry let out an agonized yell. "You do too!"

"This isn't about me, Harry," she said angrily, trying to change the subject back to him. "This is about you. Where the hell did you go?"

"Where I went and what I did is my own business," Harry replied, his green eyes darkened in anger.

"Your business?" Ginny repeated in disgust. "I don't care what the hell you think, but you will tell me right now or I will--"

"Or you'll what?" Harry interrupted her. "Curse me? Hate to break it to you, sweetie, but I didn't defeat Voldemort by waiting around to get cursed, so you might not want to threaten me with that."

Ginny glared at Harry, snarling under her breath. She knew he was right and her threats were empty, but that didn't excuse him for his behavior the night before. "Fine," she said furiously, "I'll find out sooner or later."

"Sure you will," Harry said skeptically. "And while you're at it, why don't you find the meaning of life as well, 'cause I'd sure like to know."

"You can hide whatever you want from me, but I will know," she snarled.

Harry gave her a sarcastic smile then rolled his eyes. "Right," he scoffed, "because you're the master at hiding things."

Ginny's eyes burned with fire as Harry pushed past her and back into the living room. She turned around and stared at him indignantly. "I don't know what has been going on with you lately," she said, still glaring at him, "but you can rest assured it stops here."

"Oh really?" Harry replied sarcastically. "How can you be so sure?"

"I have my ways," she growled.

Harry gave a derisive laugh for a moment before stopping abruptly. "Your ways," he mocked. "Your ways don't exactly work in case you hadn't noticed."

"They work better than you think," she said forcefully. Harry just scoffed and rolled his eyes. He turned around and headed for the door. "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere that's not here," he said simply before pulling open the door and leaving her standing in the living room, lost for words.

***

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Pansy jerked her head up from where it had been resting on the table. She stood up, smoothing down the front of her black dress. She walked elegantly over to the front door where someone was still knocking.

She opened it and saw Draco standing on the front step; he looked a little disturbed. Pansy ushered him inside and walked over to the couch.

She sat down on it and sighed. Draco followed her quietly, giving her an odd look. When he sat down, he turned to her and opened his mouth to speak but she beat him to it.

"I know what you're going to say," she started, and Draco was slightly taken aback.

"What?" he asked.

She sighed again and went on. "You don't think Ron is good enough for me. You think it's a mistake to get married. Well, I don't care," she said, giving him a hard look. "He makes me happy and even if he's a little off the wall sometimes, like last night, he is still a wonderful person."

Draco's mouth hung open slightly as he stared at Pansy, trying to process everything she had just told him. "Wait," he said, finally coming to grasp the situation, "you're engaged to the Weasel?!"

"Don't call him that," she chastised. "And you should know, he announced it last night to the entire room."

"Hmm... That must have been after we left," Draco muttered to himself.

Pansy heard though and perked up. "We?" she asked, momentarily forgetting her worries.

"Uh uh," Draco said, shaking his head. "We're going to talk about you first. Since when are you engaged to the Wea--er... Weasley?"

Pansy frowned, pouting that she couldn't get out of the conversation now that she'd started. "Since a couple weeks ago. We didn't tell anyone because we knew how they would react. But last night when I came to the party with you, I think it hurt Ron and he kind of had too much to drink. Needless to say, now pretty much everyone knows."

"But you weren't ev--Oh, wait," Draco said as it dawned on him. "It was him! You were cheating on me with that?!"

"He's not a thing," Pansy replied acidly. "He's a person, a good person. We love each other and we're getting married."

Draco rolled his eyes and scoffed. Pansy scowled at his lack of support.

"So what are you going to tell him when he finds out your ex has been screwing his best friend?" Draco asked.

"Oh, but you haven't..." she trailed off as she looked at Draco. Her eyes widened in realization as it hit her. "Oh my god," she breathed. "You did!"

"Yes, we did," Draco affirmed her suspicions. "What was I thinking, Pansy?"

"Well, I don't know," she said, rolling her eyes. "So what exactly happened at the party that I missed?"

"I think I might have had just a bit too much to drink, Potter too. And I kind of... sort of... brought him back to my place and we..."

Pansy's eyes were wide as he left the sentence open. She knew what had happened. Her mouth curled into an evil smirk as she looked at Draco.

"What?" he asked cautiously.

"How was it?" she asked curiously.

He looked shocked. "What?!" he squeaked. "You don't need to know that!"

"But I want to. Tell me, was it good?" she asked eagerly.

"I am not telling you that!" he exclaimed.

Pansy rolled her eyes and pretended to sulk. "What are you going to do then?" she asked.

"I-- I have to keep going," he said, wishing it wasn't true.

"Why?"

"I can't stop now! Besides, it won't be that bad. I just have to sleep with him. It's not that horrible I guess..."

Pansy laughed slightly and he scowled at her. "Oh, Draco," she sighed. "How far are you willing to take this? Do you really want to hurt Potter this much? You know, he's not that bad of a guy. He did kill You-Know-Who and all that."

Draco was silent for a moment, thinking it all over. Yes, Harry wasn't all bad. He did have some good qualities, his body being one of them. Draco sometimes found himself thinking longingly of the feeling of Harry's body and his emerald green eyes drawing him in.

But then he thought of why he had started this in the first place, to humiliate Potter. He wasn't exactly sure if it was working. Harry didn't exactly seem to like the encounters but he wasn't pushing him away either. And he had agreed to continue shagging.

Draco stared at the floor, trying to come up with an answer. Something deep inside him told him it wasn't a good idea to continue with this, but his Slytherin pride pushed above all the other voices to tell him he couldn't back out now. He had to continue no matter what. He had started it, he better finish it, and he better do it right.

"I don't know," he said finally. "I started off wanting to and I still kind of do, but there's something else."

"What else?" Pansy asked carefully.

"He just seems so sad sometimes," Draco said, referring to Harry. "It's like he's not happy and I can't help feeling something weird when I look at him and he looks so depressed."

Pansy didn't say anything though her brain was going a mile a minute. She saw what Draco didn't though she knew that if she pointed anything out he would adamantly deny any claims and it would do no good. In fact, it might just ruin things.

Instead, she opted to remain silent with her thoughts. She knew he would figure it out eventually with or without her help. Someone else was bound to notice as well.

Draco sat on the couch, lost in thought. Finally he looked up, realizing that Pansy hadn't said anything yet. "What should I do?" he asked.

"Wait," Pansy said. "Are you asking for help?"

"I can do it," he said snidely, scowling.

Pansy just grinned at him. "Of course you can, Draky," she said, using the pet name she knew he despised. "I don't know what you should do. I think that's for you to figure out."

"What am I going to tell Blaise?" he asked more pressingly. That was the real problem at the moment. He just knew what Blaise was going to say.

"Look what you did now! You're going to ruin it all, Draco! I told you not to, but did you listen? No..."

Draco scowled as Blaise's voice once again entered his head.

"I think you ought to be more worried about what to do when Granger finds out about all of this. She is going to flay you two alive."

Draco grunted in agreement. He knew Hermione would have a fit if she ever found out. "Well, she doesn't have to know," he said. "I trust Blaise can keep that much a secret at the very least. But what am I going to tell him?! He saw this coming..."

"Really?" Pansy asked. She made a mental note to talk to Blaise soon. He must know more than he let on.

"Yes, really," Draco said grudgingly. "He is going to kill me."

"Maybe," Pansy said, not really listening, more absorbed in her own thoughts.

"Pansy," he said, wanting her attention back.

She looked at him, waiting. "What?"

"What should I do?!"

"I'll tell him," she said suddenly.

Draco looked taken aback. "You would do that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Of course," she replied.

"What's the catch?" he asked.

"No catch. I just want to help you. You do want help, right?"

"I guess..."

"Good," she said, smiling. "Then I'll tell him and you don't have to worry. Well, except about where you're going to get Potter next time."

Draco shuddered and Pansy smirked. "Please, do not talk about next time," he said, grimacing. She chuckled lightly as he continued to look disgusted. She knew he didn't really feel that way but would never show it.

She rose from the couch and he followed suit. Once they reached the door, Draco turned in the doorway, pulling his coat closer around him as snow drifted lightly from the sky.

"I'm going to thank you for doing this, but you better not be up to anything," he said carefully, eyeing her suspiciously.

She gave him warm smile and turned him around, pushing him out the door. "Now why would you think that?" She gave him a mysterious smirk before shutting the door in his face. Draco rolled his eyes and shook his head, walking down the icy walkway. He knew Pansy wouldn't offer to do this for nothing, but at the moment he really didn't care.

Back inside, Pansy walked over to the fireplace. She grabbed a pinch of green powder from a box on the mantle and tossed it into the flickering flames.

"Blaise," she called, "come here, we have much to discuss."

A swirling shape appeared in the fire and Blaise stepped out, wiping soot off his clothes. He looked up at Pansy who was curled up on the couch, looking very content with herself.

"What?" he asked.

"Have a seat," she said, offering the couch. "I think you may need to sit down for this."


~~**~~

A/N: Oh we're so close and yet so far away... Please review!