It's Not Just Sex

[Hiya chaps and chapettes! Long time, no chapter right? Sad to say this one lives up to its name as well. It’s all talk and no sex. On other hand, now that I’m posting I’m hoping to be able to get on with the next chapters.]

Chapter Four: Frank Conversations


“I don’t believe it. I simply do not believe it,” Hermione nearly howled as she re-entered the drawing room, “They’re at it, again!”

“At what again?” Said Ron, without thinking. Hermione blushed slightly.

“You know they were doing… It. I mean I went up to tell Harry I’d got his rucksack with his stuff and Pansy’s too I might add… Anyway, I –um- I heard them.”

Ron’s ears went slightly red. He tried to think of a response to that, that wouldn’t make him look stupid. After a couple of seconds, he shifted uncomfortably, this was stupid. As good friends as he was with Hermione, there was some things that they did not talk about. Sex was right up there at the top the list along with his toe-nail clippings and the reason Hermione got grumpy at the end of every month like clockwork.

The truth was Ron was almost afraid to speak his mind at that moment, He had not forgotten the damage that had been done (alright, that he had done) but the truth was, he didn’t really see Hermione’s problem when it came to Pansy. It wasn’t that he didn’t know about the ‘history’ between the two witches but he’d been on the receiving end of Pansy’s tongue. (Ron mentally winced at the connotations, this idea brought to mind) Never the less, vast litany of past put down or not, he wasn’t holding a grudge. Though maybe that was because he’d seen the state Pansy was in when she’d arrived at The Burrow. Of course, being stunned by Moody the second she apparated had probably not improved matters in Pansy’s eyes.

It had been rather awkward, trying to stick up for Pansy, what with the entire Order Of The Phoenix glaring at him, it was especially hard not to be intimidated but on the other hand, it was similarly unthinkable to Ron that he would tell Harry when he arrived ‘Oh well you’re girlfriend was here only The Order thought she was a Slytherin spy and kicked her out on the curb to fend for herself,’ of course he hadn’t had to defend Pansy on his own for long, as soon as his Mum had seen the state if Pansy’s back, well, there’s no question of her leaving The Burrow without it being seen to. And that had been, more or less, that.

Pansy at The Burrow for a month had been a strange thing to behold. It wasn’t as if anyone in the building actually knew her. They mainly just had their own personal idea and what she was like before meeting her and saw what they thought they were going to see. Pansy, herself, as far as Ron could see had kept to herself, very happy to just try and stay out the way. Though when asked she attempted, with obvious inexperience, to help out. Mentally, Ron shrugged, it was easy to get upset for someone for having had a more comfortable live that you, that didn’t mean it was fair to do so.

“Ron!” Hermione said sharply, breaking him out of his thoughts, “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Err… Good for them?” said Ron, and then resolutely spat his foot out of his mouth again.

“Boys!” Hermione harrumphed, “I should have expected that really. Oh you’re getting laid by the bitchiest girl in our year? Well she’s hot so high fives all round!”

“Look, Hermione…” Ron ploughed on, though still wondering why he was bothering, “I’ve no idea why this bothers you so much, I mean, have you just looked at Harry, recently? He’s happy. I mean, really happy. When was the last time that happened, in like forever?”

The plain fact of the matter was though, Ron could think of an idea why Hermione was so annoyed; an idea that though not entirely unexpected never the less made his heart plummet any time he gave it thought. After all, what did he have that The Boy Who Lived couldn’t out do him in?

“Oh sure,” Hermione continued; obviously oblivious to Ron’s internal turmoil, “It’s all good fun for now. What happens when the going gets rough? Look how quickly she dumped Draco for him when times were tough and tell me she won’t do it again?”

Ron shrugged.

“Maybe you’re right but still it’s not up to us, we’ll just have to be ready to pick up the pieces.”

Hermione made a non-commital noise as she pulled out her sleeping bag.

~O~

“So is anyone going to explain anything, ever?” said Pansy grumpily, as the trio rushed around the House chattering excitedly about a sign they’d found on the door. She was not having the best day, despite the amazing sex of the night before; she’d woken up alone in the bed. Lovingly covered in the quilt by someone but never the less, alone, while Harry had gone wandering around the upper stories of the vast house he apparently owned.

“No” came the short sharp reply, unsurprisingly from Hermione. Still the tartness of her retort earned her a dark reproving glare from Harry, which she ignored as Ron laid a restraining hand on her arm.

“All we knew about this locket was that some one with the initials RAB had it,” said Harry turning to her, “Now we know who that was; this guy, Regulus Acturus Black. He was a Death Eater on the first war, thing was, he couldn’t go through with it so Voldemort killed him in the end.”

“A Death Eater lived here?” Pansy frowned, “But I thought you said you owned this place? Your family were never Death Eaters, right?”

“No but I inherited this place from my godfather, Sirius,” Harry said, with a sad smile.

“Sirius…” Pansy pondered the two names she just been told, “Not.. Sirius Black?”

“The very same,” said Harry,

“Notorious mass murderer?” Pansy asked.

“Yup, that’s the chap.”

“The same one everyone said was trying to kill you a couple of years ago?”

“Yeah, only he wasn’t really.”

“He wasn’t?” Pansy flushed with confusion as Ron and Hermione did not try to conceal their growing grins.

“Nope,” Ron cut in, sniggering slightly, “he was trying to kill my rat.”

“Your rat?” She repeated blankly.

“Well, I say, ‘my rat’ what I really mean is a Wizard,” Ron said casually,

“Is this a joke?” Pansy glowered, “Some kind of fool the newbie charade? Because that’s the most ludicrous…” Words failed her.

“Not a joke” Harry shrugged, nonchalantly, “I’ve got a complex past.”

Pansy opened her mouth again to retort, when a horrible albeit familiar wailing filled the house. Someone had disturbed the awful portrait of a ghastly old woman in the entrance hall. The quartet charged down the flights of stairs to the front door, wands pointed at the indistinct figure now covered in the Curse Dumbledore’s dust.

“Hold your fire,” coughed the figure at the door “It’s me, Remus.”

Ron and Hermione visibly sagged in relieve; Ron lowering his wand while Hermione’s turned hers on the still screeching picture. Still mistrustful, Harry and Pansy kept their wands up until Remus Lupin walked out of the dust and conclusively identified himself to the other in a speech, which mentioned his wife, his wolf and a moony map, which apparently convinced the three Gryffindors by again was entirely lost on Pansy.

Suspicions allayed; they descended into the sublevel kitchen, a stark slightly damn stone room with their old Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Pansy was uncomfortably aware that although this was a happy reunion for the Gryffindor Trio, she herself had spent an entire year mocking and lambasting the man, mostly behind his back, but not entirely. Lupin had never been less than professional with Slytherins in return… which did nothing to alleviate the tension Pansy was feeling now.

~O~

Even as they settled down around the kitchen table, butterbeers in hand, the question started shooting off in both directions pretty fast. Primarily related to the safety of the inhabitants of the Burrow, The Order and Harry’s group themselves. Lupin was shocked when Harry related that they’d both been attacked by Death Eaters in the forest, post apparition and gave Pansy such a significant looking over that Harry angrily interceded; pointing out the curse wound still showing on Pansy’s shoulder.

Ron quickly changed the subject, asking why Voldemort hadn’t declared himself minister for magic. The conversation was quickly absorbed by discussion of the new regime brutal methods in breaking into Order safehouses looking for Harry. Now they had the ministry’s power behind them and a suitable justification: on the Daily Prophet front page, no less, proclaiming the need to bring him in, for question about Albus Dumbledore’s death, which it phrased in such a way as to imply that there was some question as to whether Harry had done the deed himself.

A second later, Lupin dropped a bombshell on the meeting.

“Harry,” he said, “The Order is under the impression that Dumbledore left you a mission.”

Harry still brooding slightly, simply nodded.

“And can you confide in me what that mission is?” Remus asked slowly.

Internally Harry grimaced, instantly his reaction jumped towards ‘no’ which he could only really justify by stating that Dumbledore had only entrusted him, Ron and Hermione with the task and if Dumbledore hadn’t told Lupin, he couldn’t either. Sadly is eyes flickered over to Pansy, Hermione if not Lupin himself would point out the rather obvious flaw in that line of reasoning. Hedging his bets, Harry said cautiously,

“I’m not sure that’s really wise, is it, Remus? I mean, ‘need to know’ and all that. If I don’t tell you, you can’t give it up under questioning at all.”

“Very wise, Harry, but I was asking so I could offer my services to you on this quest. I’m sure I could be of great help to you.” He said softly, annoyingly his eyes shifted to Pansy again, as if questioning what help she could possibly be, “If only as a protector, you needed tell me what you are actually up to”

“I appreciate the offer, Remus but really…” Harry paused there was something really wrong about Lupin expression, he was apparently eager to help but underneath the surface there was a kind of… desperation almost, then the obvious question, “Would Tonks come as well?”

“Tonks?” Remus said, as if he’d never heard the name before, “No, I don’t think she’d be up to it. She’s at her parents.”

Harry noticed Lupin’s eyes twitch slightly with latter half of the sentence. Something was definitely off. Here, he pressed his line of questioning, leaning close.

“Why not?”

“Well.. Umm…” And Lupin, a grown man, seemed to squirm under the sudden intent gaze of a quartet of interested teenagers, “She’s, well, She’s pregnant.”

Harry sat back in his chest, stunned. Hermione and Pansy both made near identical girlish cooing noises at the ideas and then looked at each other in slightly horrified expression and Ron clapped Lupin on the back, while Lupin half heartedly thanked them for their congratulations and then turned back to Harry and said, as if he hadn’t just dropped a bombshell on them,

“So what about it Harry, shall I join you? I’m sure you’re father would want me to look out for his son.”

Harry gaped at him, too shocked to even be angry. It was obvious even to him that Lupin didn’t believe what he was saying. Harry felt his image of the man shatter, as he realised that Lupin was utterly scared out of his mind at the prospect of fatherhood.

“No he wouldn’t, Professor Lupin,” He said quietly and formally, “I think he’d understand that protecting your own family should come first.”

“Come on, Harry,” Remus said cajolingly, “Tonks will be perfectly safe with her family and if I go with you, I can help stop Voldemort that much more quickly. Really, it would be for the greater good.”

“Remus,” Harry said, “Go Home. Trust me on this, your child would much rather grow up with you that without.”

“But..”

“Don’t make me pull out the big guns here Remus.” Harry said, in increasingly hostile tones.

Remus straightened his shoulders.

“Big guns?” He said, “You need me, Harry. There are dark magics out there you can’t even imagine.”

“Lupin.” Harry stared him straight in the eye, locking him in an intense furious stare, “My Parents died fighting to protect me, neither them or me are going to have an respect for a coward running out on his kid.”

The next thing Harry knew, he was flat on his back on the cold stone floor, which was spinning slightly. Ron and Pansy’s face hovered over him and he saw rather than felt them help him up and into a chair, just as a distressed looking Hermione descended back into the kitchen.

“Well he’s gone,” She said “Disapparated. Well done Harry, drive off some one who could actually help us why don’t you?”

Harry felt he’d could have mustered up a better glower if the room would just stop spinning for a moment.

“I stand by what I said Hermione,” He growled, “Parents shouldn’t leave their kids if they have a choice. He can’t run away from Tonks just because he’s scared.”

“Look,” said Ron, calmingly, “Let’s not fight, ok guys? I mean its not like we could have told Lupin what we were looking for is it?”

But Hermione would not be calmed down.

“Honestly, Ron, its not like we had to tell him. I mean, she’s coming along,” she waved a hand at Pansy, “And we’re not telling her what’s happening, are we?”

Suddenly Harry was sick of it all, the lies, the half truths and the endless sniping.

“Actually we are,” He said shortly, “Like I said Hermione, its not a matter of trust, it’s a matter that Lupin didn’t need to know because I wasn’t going to let him come with us. Pansy, is so she does,” he turned and gazed at his girlfriend, “Tell me, Pansy, what do you know about Horcruxes?”

Pansy shrugged, eliciting a slight superior smirk from Hermione and then said,

“Only that they’re about the most evil dark object that its possible to make. That’s it something to do with immortality. Oh, and that to create one you have to some pretty sick things.”

Harry, Ron and Hermione all stared at her, mouths open. Even Harry had expected nothing more than a shrug, a sorry, and a dazzling smile, not an eerily accurate if a bit vague account of what a Horcrux actually was/

“How does she know that?” Hermione demanded shrilly, “I looked through the entire library for a year and only found passing references. How can you give me the answer off the top of your head?”

Pansy smiled immodestly at Hermione, seeming rather happy to see her wrong footed.

“Advantages of being part of the Pure and Noble House of Parkinson, Hermione, all my childhood and every summer since, the lesson didn’t stop they just changed from the Hogwards curriculum, to Duelling, the Family History and the proper duties of a young lady in running a household.”

Ron didn’t get it. Neither did Hermione.

“Meaning?” Hermione snapped.

“Meaning, that my family curses by the name of my great-great-great-great-granduncle Percival Ulysses Parkinson, who was arrested for the attempted creation of the Horcrux, and got himself sent to Azkaban for the rest of his natural life for whatever evil thing that it is that you do when creating Horcrux and more importantly squandered the family fortune in fines for the attempted Horcrux creation, as well as legal fees and ultimately pointless bribes.”

Hermione stared for a second long before harrumphing and changing the subject.

As the conversation continued, Harry leant back in his seat hands behind his head, trying to concentrate on Pansy’s beaming visage rather than the storm clouds gathering in Hermione’s countenance.


[end notes: Well this should have had another scene, but I felt this was a good end point as well. So the other scene will start me off next time. It works better that way anyway, owning to a time skip of a couple of days. I can only say this; I highly disliked the Lupin scene in DH, in fact the whole Lupin/Tonks plot line was just bizarre. Nethertheless, I hope my tweaking has made both parties seem a little more reasonable Key change I think was Harry not completely losing his rag, instead he’s just gently smouldering the whole way though.

Anyway, so you made it this far! Well done! Rewards yourself with a biscuit and a beverage of your choice. :P And then I’d be awfully grateful for a review.]