A Business Affair

*


Chapter Four: Secrets and Lies


"How's your new owner?" Ginny asked quietly. She seemed to be trying to be nicer to Harry after the previous day's fight. Harry sighed as he flopped down on the couch.

"You'll never guess who it is," he said darkly.

Ginny furrowed her eyebrows and sat down next to Harry. "Who?"

"Draco Malfoy."

"Oh no!" she exclaimed. "That's horrible, Harry."

"Tell me about it," Harry muttered. "And now I'll have to see him all the time!"

"It won't be that bad, he won't be just there to torture you. He's there for the whole team. At least you don't have to suffer alone," Ginny said, trying to placate him.

Harry scowled and gave her a dark look. "You think that will stop him from taking every shot he can get at me?"

"What kinds of shots do you think he'll take?"

"Uh..." Harry hesitated, not wanting to reveal that Draco had somehow intuited their marriage problems. They hadn't even admitted to themselves that they had problems.

Ginny saw his hesitation and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "What kind of shots, Harry?" she repeated slowly, her eyes flashing.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly.

"Somehow, I get the feeling you're not telling me the whole truth, dear," she said in an overly sugary voice.

"It's nothing," Harry said dismissively, getting up from the couch. Ginny didn't follow him, but her narrowed eyes did. He walked around the back of the couch and was almost to the kitchen when a question made him stop.

"Why are you lying to me?"

Harry stopped and turned around. "I'm not lying to you."

"You're not telling me the whole truth."

"That's different."

Harry knew automatically that he'd said the wrong thing.

Ginny rose from the couch and moved slowly towards him. "So you are lying to me?" she asked dangerously.

"No," Harry said desperately. He could see the way the conversation was heading.

"You're keeping things from me."

"I'm not, I swear, Ginny."

"I don't believe you."

"And why not?" Harry asked, his anger growing now.

"Well, it's obvious there's something you're not telling me."

"Don't you trust me, though?"

Ginny paused and Harry's mouth fell open in indignation.

"You don't trust me!"

"No," Ginny said quickly, seeing the damage. "I do, I just--"

"No, you don't trust me. I can't believe my own wife doesn't trust me."

"I do, Harry. Harry, wait!"

Harry didn't listen as he stormed out the front door and to the apparition point. He didn't wait to see if she was coming after him before he Apparated away.

He appeared in front of a large white house. Woods surrounded the house and the front garden was alive with color. Harry strode up the walkway and knocked on the door. He stepped back onto the porch and waited.

Soon, the door was thrown open and a woman with wavy brown hair stood in the doorway holding a small little boy. The boy had dark brown hair and pretty hazel eyes.

"Awy!" The little boy said, throwing out his arms. Harry smiled at the boy and took him from his mother. Hermione stood back and smiled at the pair of them.

"Hi, Jamie," Harry greeted the little boy in his arms. The little boy just grinned, not being able to say much.

"What brings you here, Mr. Potter?" Hermione asked, still smiling. To her surprise, Harry handed her back Jamie and sighed.

"I need to talk to you," he said, and walked past her into the house. Hermione frowned and followed him into the living room. She set Jamie down in a crib and went to join Harry on the couch.

"What's wrong?" she asked seriously.

"Well, to start," Harry began, "something is seriously wrong with me and Ginny; we fight all the time, she's always mad at me, I forget to do little things, and I don't know why. And, to top it all off, Draco Malfoy is the new owner of my Quidditch team."

Hermione bit her lip nervously and Harry stopped. He looked at her closely and she looked away. "You knew!" he said, finally realizing. "You knew Malfoy was doing this, and you didn't tell me?!"

"Harry," Hermione sighed, "I knew you wouldn't take this well, so I didn't tell you."

"I can't believe you people," Harry muttered to himself.

"Harry, what do you really think of this?" Hermione asked.

"What do you mean, what do I think?! I think this is horrible! I'll have to see him all the time now! And he knows about my marriage problems. You don't think he'll take every advantage?"

"About your marriage problems..." Hermione started and Harry gave her an anxious look. "Do you know what exactly is wrong?"

"No, that's the problem. Everything was fine up until a couple months ago. I don't know what happened!"

"Hmm," Hermione said, thinking. "And why are you fighting?"

"I don't know," Harry said with a shrug. "It's just little things, but then sometimes, like yesterday, she says things that make me wonder why I married her."

"That's not good," Hermione said.

"No, and I..." Harry looked around quickly as though to make sure no one else was there, hiding behind the drapes. He leaned in closer to Hermione. "We haven't had sex in two months. And the last time we did, something felt wrong."

"How do you mean 'wrong'?" Hermione asked with a concentrated look.

"I don't know," Harry whispered. "But it was weird, like I shouldn't be doing it or something."

"Has it always felt like that?"

"Well... kinda, I mean, not really, it's just... well, I guess it kind of has. Something was always off. I mean, I enjoyed it, but something was... wrong."

"And you've never been with anyone else, right?" Hermione asked.

"Er..." Harry said, biting his lip nervously. "Well, there was this one time, after the final battle. Everyone was drinking and Seamus was really drunk and he kissed me."

"It was just a kiss though."

"Yeah... It just--I dunno," Harry said with a sigh. Hermione's eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as she surveyed Harry. Harry felt as though he was under a giant microscope.

"Harry, I really don't know what to tell you. Since we don't know the exact cause of all of this, it's impossible to find a solution. My best advice is to talk to Ginny about it."

"I can't talk to her; she'll just yell at me again!"

"Harry!" Hermione said, exasperated. "Just try, why don't you?"

"Fine, I will try, but I'm not going to let her yell at me again," Harry said huffily. Hermione rolled her eyes, but at that moment, they heard the front door open and close.

"Where is my lovely wife?" They heard Blaise call from the entrance hall. He walked into to the living room, smiling happily then frowned when he saw Harry.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" he asked in surprise. Harry rolled his eyes darkly and Hermione sighed.

She got up and kissed Blaise quickly. "Harry just came by to ask me something."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to steal Hermione, seeing as how often you're over here," Blaise said with an eyebrow raised. Harry just gave him a withering glance in return.

"Blaise, Harry is Jamie's godfather. He has all the rights to come over," Hermione said, scolding him slightly.

Blaise rolled his eyes but dropped the subject. "I know, sorry, honey. It's just odd that he's here all the time. I mean, aren't you married?" he asked Harry.

Harry scowled at him. "Thanks for reminding me," he said darkly and Blaise shot a questioning look at Hermione, who shrugged.

"Trouble in paradise?"

Harry's head snapped up as Blaise said the exact same words Draco had used just days before. "Have you been talking to Malfoy?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yeah," Blaise shrugged. "I see him all the time. We had lunch together today actually."

"You!" Harry said. "You told him. That's how he knows! You fucker!"

"Harry, language!" Hermione reprimanded him, jerking her head toward Jamie who was sitting in the crib, playing with a brightly colored toy. Harry rolled his eyes and Blaise glared at Harry.

"He's my best friend. I can tell him whatever I want."

"But it's my business. You shouldn't even know." He said this while turning to Hermione. "You shouldn't have told him."

"Harry, we're married. It's just how it works."

Harry looked between the two then huffed. "Well, I hope you're happy. You two have just succeeded completing the 10th circle of hell in my life." Then he turned and stormed out of the room.

"What the hell is his problem?" Blaise asked in annoyance as he collapsed on the couch. Hermione frowned at his language but ignored it as she retrieved Jamie. She gave the little boy to Blaise, who smiled and held him up to look at him.

"Well, he's obviously having marital problems. And it probably wasn't the best idea to tell Draco about it," Hermione said and Blaise frowned, moving Jamie to sit on his lap.

"But Draco was interested. He needs something to cheer him up from his divorce. He seemed to like that news."

"He only liked it because it involved Harry suffering."

"I'm not so sure," Blaise said and Hermione looked at him.

"You mean, you think there might be something..." Hermione trailed off with a questioning look at Blaise.

"Maybe. Draco got a divorce, Potter isn't doing so hot with Weasley, and you never know."

Hermione thought back to the conversation she had just had with Harry. 'It just felt wrong.'

"Has Draco ever been with other... people?" Hermione asked delicately, hoping Blaise would get the meaning.

"He used to experiment a bit in school, but nothing ever came of it since he was destined to marry Pansy."

"And now they're divorced."

"Right."

"And he's bought the Quidditch team Harry plays for."

"Yes, although he adamantly denies it has anything to do with him."

"I doubt that, but the only thing we can really do is sit back and wait to say I told you so."


~*~

A/N: Please review!