A Discerning Palate

“Have you lost your goddamn mind?” Hermione shrieked when she saw who Ginny had drug through the portrait hole.

“I knew this was a bad idea.” Pansy muttered.

“Hermione. This is Pansy. Say hello.” Ginny forced through grit teeth.

“I know who she is, genius. What’s she doing here?”

“She is going to help us. Your turn to sit down Herm.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” Hermione sat down.

“We are going to cause some very unGryffindor-like trouble.”

“I can’t believe you’ve enlisted the enemy to help you get Harry.”

Pansy opened her mouth, but Ginny widened her eyes and shook her head almost imperceptibly.

“Well, we witches have to stick together, regardless of house. And if I know anything, I know men.” Pansy laughed lightly.

Hermione was still wary, but more open to the idea.

“Here’s the plan. It’s juvenile, but it will work. Hermione, you have this unrequited thing for Ron, right?”

“He’s dating someone, Cho, of all people. It started out as a favor to make Harry jealous, but then Cho really fell for him. Gods, I hate her. I could rip out every hair on that swamp-eyed, dumpy arsed…” Hermione paused as she caught herself. She blushed. “Sorry. I can’t believe I let her make me jealous. That is so unlike me.” Hermione gave a watery-smile.

“Wow, Hermione. Cussing, now physical violence. What’s next, sex?” Ginny teased.

“Of course.” Pansy said as if it were the most logical thing in the world. “But here’s what we are going to do.”

Ginny and Hermione leaned into the small area between them and Pansy began whispering hurriedly.

“It’s completely sophomoric, but it will work. We’ll meet at the Room of Requirement and we’ll conjure several numbered doors. We’ll make a big show of putting numbers into a hat and drawing, but I can charm it so the numbers are drawn by certain people. It will be like that muggle game…um, Hermione, what’s that called where you go in the closet?” Pansy didn’t wait for Hermione to answer, but continued on. “But here’s the twist, there will be some sort of activity that must be completed for the door to open.” Pansy raised her brow.

“I can’t do that.” Hermione gasped.

“It doesn’t have to be The Activity, silly. And don’t be dense. It will be whatever you tell me that you want it to be. It’s going to be rigged.”

Ginny looked up just in time to see Ron and Harry come through the portrait hole.

Upon seeing the statuesque blonde, both of them instantly straightened and seemed to puff up like porcupines. Ginny couldn’t be sure if it was a defense or mating mechanism. But Pansy handled it as if it was commonplace for males to act that way around her. Then, Ginny assumed that it was.

“Hello boys.” she purred.

“Hello.” Ron gulped and looked around. “Cho isn’t here, is she?”

“Not that I saw.” Hermione narrowed her gaze in on him and he squirmed like a worm on a hook.

“Hello, Harry.” Pansy bit her bottom lip a bit, as if contemplating something wicked.

“Pansy.” He acknowledged without looking at her.

“Parkinson? But she’s a pug faced little…”Ron began. “You can’t be…” He broke off. “I mean…”

“Close your mouth Weasel. You’re drawing flies.” She planted a chaste, but unnerving kiss on Ron’s cheek.

On her way out, Pansy paused next to Harry, her eyes level with his. She brushed her mouth against the corner of his, as if aiming for his cheek in a way that was anything but chaste, brushing her breasts against his arm as she went.

“I hope you decide to play our little game, Harry.” Pansy whispered and was gone.

“What was that?” Ron asked, incredulous.

“Pansy is my new friend.”

“Gin, she was rubbing herself all over Harry. And Ron.” Hermione punctuated in a none-too-subtle way.

“I know. She was just being friendly.” Ginny said, opening her innocent doe eyes wide.

Hermione snorted. “Now we really have to talk.” She made to drag Ginny off.

“Wait, hold on.” Harry seemed to snap out of his daze. “What little game?”

“Oh. Pansy is hosting a game. It’s sort of like that seven minutes in heaven thing that Hermione told us about. Are you going to play?”

“No, and neither are you.” Ron interjected.

“I’ve got news for you, Ronald. I’m going. I’m playing. And so are you.” Ginny informed him.

“But Cho isn’t…”

“So what? It’s not like you married the hag. Live a little.”

“Ginny, we need to talk.” Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the burgeoning storm that was about to explode between she and Ron.

He dragged her up the stairs and to her room. “Do I need to carry you?”

“Making quite a habit of that lately, don’t you think?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Look, if you want to be locked in a closet with me,”

“Harry, you unbelievable git.” Ginny sighed.

“Gin,” he broke off again and then his eyes darkened.

For the first time, Ginny didn’t see the Boy-Who-Lived. She saw the man; the lust there in his eyes, and it was for her. This thing that she’d always dreamed of. And now, it wasn’t enough. She’d put away girlish laments long ago.

But she couldn’t deny how safe she felt wrapped in his arms. So when he leaned in to her, she didn’t pull away. When his mouth touched her lips, reverently, gently- she allowed it. He deepened the kiss, but when the spark ignited, it wasn’t Harry she saw. It was Draco.

Ginny tore her mouth from his. “I can’t Harry.”

“There’s someone else?” Harry asked her softly.

“I… I don’t know.”

“It’s okay Gin. But then who is it who wants me to come tonight?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Dear Merlin, it isn’t Pansy is it?” Harry looked nervous.

“Of course not.” Ginny was surprised at how easily the lie fell from her lips.

“Since you turned me down, I guess I’m in the market. So, I’ll come. Hey, you know, the offer still stands. If you need to talk…” He smiled at her.

“Yeah, sure.” Ginny felt like a humongous jackass in that moment. Harry was so good, so pure. Why wasn’t he “it” for her anymore? Why couldn’t he be? Why did she have to want what she knew she couldn’t have? Maybe that was it, maybe it she would want Draco until she got him and then, it would be out of her system.

“Harry, I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t worry about it, Gin. It took me too long to notice that you were more than Ron’s little sister.” He kissed her again, but this time on her forehead.

She smiled weakly as he turned to go and headed back down to the common room.

Harry hadn’t been gone for a minute when Hermione rushed up the stairs and burst through the door.

“There is more to this than you told me. Out with it!” Hermione demanded.

Ginny sighed. “You have to swear that you won’t say anything. Under pain of torture.”

Hermione looked exasperated. “Fine, fine. Whatever. Just tell me.”

“I’m not in love with Harry.”

“I am not hearing this.” Hermione made to plug her ears. Ginny half expected her to stick both her fingers in her ears and start yelling at the top of her lungs to block out what she was going to say.

“I love him, but I’m not in love with him.”

Hermione dropped her hands. “I have a terrible feeling that I know where this is going. Not Malfoy, not Malfoy, not…oh hell, it is.” Hermione stopped when she saw the look on Ginny’s face. “And Pansy…” “Harry…” “Ewww.”

“Please Hermione. She’ll help you get Ron. She’s really not that…”

“I don’t even want to hear that. That’s a crime against nature, trying to set up the Boy-Who-Lived with the Slytherin Slag.”

“Hermione!” Ginny admonished. “She’s my friend now. And she doesn’t call you names. She hasn’t for a long time, if you stop to think about it. I think that’s when she started to like Harry.”

“I know I’m going to regret this.”

Ginny hugged her furiously and released her. “I knew I could count on you.”

“What flavor do you think I should get?”

“Really?”

“Well, Pansy said that it could make my mouth taste that way too.” Hermione giggled.

“Chocolate. Definitely. Ron’s favorite. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t actually eat you.”