A Business Affair

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Chapter Forty: A Culmination of Fire

Harry pushed open the door to his apartment with an elated smile on his face. The door shut with a click behind him as he practically drifted into the room. His heart felt as though a weight had been lifted.

He knew that it wasn't right to cheat on Ginny but with all that had happened and been done over the past few months, he couldn't help thinking that he was doing the right thing. Despite all her faults, Harry still felt that it would be cruel to leave her so abruptly. He planned on letting her down easily, telling her that the marriage wasn't working and he felt they needed a divorce.

He would be careful not to mention Draco at all costs. He knew an affair would not make her happy. She already suspected something anyway.

Harry went into the bedroom and changed into more comfortable clothes, jeans and a tee shirt. He slipped off his shoes and walked back out into the living room.

He was surprised to see Ginny standing in front of the couch, her arms crossed and glaring at him. He was taken-aback by her apparent anger and stopped just outside the bedroom door.

"Hi, Ginny," he greeted her carefully.

She didn't reply, only continued to glare at him as though he were the devil. He gave her a cautious look and edged forward, clearly unsure why she was so angry. He hadn't done anything that he could recall.

"Is everything okay?" he asked cautiously.

She uncrossed her arms and stuck them on her hips angrily. "I don't know," she said sarcastically, "is it?"

"Er..." Harry stalled, wondering what she was on about. "Yeah?"

Her eyes flashed angrily as he responded and she took a step toward him slowly. He kept a close eye on her as she moved slowly closer, stopping as she rounded the arm of the couch.

"Really?" she asked in a cold and dangerous voice.

"No?" Harry guessed. He had no idea what could have made her so angry this time.

"Harry," she snarled in a low voice and he took a step backward. "What have you been doing?"

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly, eyeing her carefully. She looked like a lion ready to pounce any second.

"This is it, Harry," she said dangerously. "I'm giving you one last chance to tell me the truth about what has been going on."

"Nothing has been going on!" Harry said fervently. He knew she would kill him if she really found out. Not to mention it wouldn't work well with the whole "let her down easy" phase.

Ginny let out an angry huff as she glared at Harry, fire burning in her eyes. She moved forward again around the back of the couch and stopped. Harry couldn't stop himself from taking another step backwards.

"Alright, that's the last straw," Ginny said threateningly. "I'm not going to take this anymore."

"What are you going to do?" Harry asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I know, Harry," she said darkly, not answering his question.

"Know?" he repeated. "Know what?"

"I know what you did," she snarled.

Harry looked at her for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to work out what she meant. Then it hit him. She knew!

"What?" he asked, panicked.

"That's right, Harry," she said angrily, “I know what you've been doing. Lying to me, cheating on me, and you never admitted it!"

Harry was shocked into silence for a moment. He vaguely wondered how she had found out but a more pressing matter was pushing at his brain at the moment.

"Me?! What about you?!"

"What about me?" Ginny asked scathingly.

"You've done the exact same thing!"

"I have not. And this is not about me! You cheated on me with Draco Malfoy, of all people! What the hell were you thinking?! How could you do that?! You're not the same person I married, Harry."

Harry stared at her open-mouthed. He couldn't believe she was still denying any kind of similar activity. Didn't it affect her at all? Or maybe she was just devoid of a conscience.

"I'm not the same person you married?!" Harry repeated incredulously. "Are you kidding me?! You are just about the furthest from anything I thought I would ever marry!"

"Well, I guess it's not a problem anyway since you like blokes!"

"I guess not," Harry replied harshly. He was sick of taking all the blame all the time.

"Why did you do it, Harry?" Ginny asked angrily, determined to get an answer.

"Are you really asking me that question when you go off and sleep with some guy practically every day?!"

Ginny stared at him. She had been about to reply but stopped short as she heard what he said. He was glaring at her furiously now, daring her to deny it.

"What?" she asked quietly.

"Oh, you think I didn't know?! Oh, I know, Ginny. I've known for months. You go around accusing me of lying and cheating on you when you have been doing the exact same thing for God knows how long!"

Ginny mouthed silently. She'd had no idea that Harry knew of her affair. She had thought he was just mean spirited.

"Anything to add, Ginny?" Harry asked harshly. "Anything to defend yourself with? What was it? That I was never around, I didn't love you enough, you didn't get enough attention? What was your petty reason for ruining our marriage?!"

"You know what it was, Harry?!" Ginny yelled, finally getting her wits back as it all sunk in. "I was always pushed to the side. I'm Harry Potter's wife. That's it! No more! I stand at your side at the parties, shake hands with people I don't know then get shunted away while you're engulfed by your fawning admirers."

"Ginny, it's not like I can control that!" Harry exclaimed, surprised at her reasoning. "I didn't choose to become this, to save the world. I hate going places where that happens but it's unavoidable! You knew that when we got together! You knew me for years, you saw it all during school. How could you not know it would happen?!"

"Maybe I thought it would be different," Ginny said harshly.

"Different?!" Harry exclaimed. "How would it be different after I killed Voldemort?!"

He rolled his eyes angrily when she flinched at the name. He glared at her, waiting for her reply. He was so angry he could barely see through the rage. Of all the things she could have cheated on him for, something he couldn't control wasn't a reason he'd considered.

"I don't know, Harry! I just don't know!" she yelled, throwing up her arms.

"Well, what do you know?" he asked angrily.

"I know that this isn't working."

"Oh, how intuitive of you," Harry replied scathingly. Her glare became angrier still as her eyes shot daggers at him.

"But I still want to know why Malfoy, why him?!"

"Why not him?!" Harry shot back. "He's here, available. He's smart, caring, gorgeous, charming. He's just about everything I ever wanted in a person."

"Sure, he is," she replied scathingly.

"What about you?!” Harry demanded. “You’re cheating as well. You don’t even have the decency to tell me who it is? Draco’s better than anyone you could have. He's everything you used to be. You've changed, Ginny. I don't know how I missed it, but it happened."

Ginny glared at Harry, her nostrils flaring. “Michael is a perfect gentlemen!” she exclaimed.

Harry’s mouth fell open. “Michael? Corner?! You and him?! He’s my teammate!”

Harry’s brain was working furiously fast. He had thought Michael was gay. If he wasn’t then why had Draco used him before? What was going on?

“Yes, Michael,” Ginny sneered. “He’s a wonderful man. He’s better to me than you ever were.”

“But he’s gay!” Harry exclaimed.

“He is not!” Ginny yelled. “I can prove it.”

“Then just how do you explain him sleeping with Draco?”

“He did not,” she exerted, breathing hard. “You’re lying Harry. You’re trying to ruin my happiness! Michael would never do that.”

“Well, he did. You can ask Draco if you really want to know,” Harry sneered. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Why was Michael with Ginny when he was supposed to be gay? He didn’t understand it.

"Listen, Harry," she replied, her expression turning ugly. "This is pointless. We both know that however bad it gets, tomorrow it will be like it never happened. So why don't we just stop now?"

"No," Harry said simply, staring at her. "No, this is it. I can't take any of this anymore. I want a divorce."

The words rang in Ginny's ear as silence overtook the room. They stood staring at each other for a moment, neither saying anything.

Harry felt suddenly extremely relieved that the words had actually made it out of his mouth. He hadn't wanted to tell her this way but there was no other choice.

"We--we can't get a divorce," Ginny said finally, looking at Harry through disbelieving eyes.

"Oh, yes, we can!"

"No, I refuse! We can make this work!"

"You just don't want to lose my name!" Harry accused her.

She scowled but came back with a determined expression. "So what? It gets me what I want," she said harshly.

"Sorry, Ginny, but you're not gonna benefit from me anymore. We are not going to make this work. We are getting a divorce, and that is final!"

Harry turned around and ducked into the bedroom just as a glass ornament sailed past his head and shattered against the wall. He slammed and locked the door, hastily putting on his shoes and grabbing his wand. He Disapparated just as he heard an enraged scream and another something breaking against the door.

***

"Pansy?" A tentative voice crept in from the front entrance way. Pansy looked up from her place on the couch where she'd been curled up reading a book.

"Ron?" she asked, looking around for the source of the voice.

Ron poked his head around the door and walked in slowly, looking like a puppy that was in deep trouble. Pansy watched him carefully as he walked around and sat down on the couch, determinedly not looking at her and sitting as far away as possible.

"What's wrong?" she asked, setting down her book and giving him her full attention.

"Y-yesterday, after I left here... I kind of did something..."

"Did what?" Pansy asked, not sure she wanted to know.

Ron took in a long breath and looked down at the floor, a worried expression on his face.

"You didn't kill anyone, did you?!" Pansy asked urgently.

Ron gave a small smile and laughed. "No, I didn't." He sighed and seemed to be preparing himself.

"Then, what did you do?" she asked again.

"Well, I was upset about what you told me," Ron said, looking up at her pleadingly. "And you told me I couldn't do anything so I went to a pub..."

Pansy watched him, her expression growing more worried. She could only imagine what Ron might have done drunk.

"And, what happened?" she asked tentatively.

"I kind of... ran into... Ginny there," he said, dragging it out. He glanced up at Pansy to find her expression nettled.

"And?" she asked, trying to understand.

"Well, I was really drunk and I accidentally... told her."

Pansy's expression rapidly changed to one of absolute shock. She stared at Ron, her mouth hanging open.

"What?" she breathed, unable to believe what she had just heard.

"I know!" Ron moaned, covering his face with his hands. "I can't believe it! And now she's gone off to kill Harry! What am I going to do?! I'm so sorry, Pansy! You shouldn't have told me! I was crazy for asking."

"I... I don't know, Ron," Pansy said, shaking her head disbelievingly. "I don't think we can do anything. I'm sure it will work itself out in the end. And don't feel too bad. Who knows, this may be a good thing."

Ron uncovered his face slowly, looking up at her. "You think so?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure, maybe, you know," she said, trying to sound upbeat while privately she agreed that he had probably brought about the next apocalypse.

"Oh, Pansy," Ron sighed, looking at her lovingly. "I'm so glad I'm marrying you."

"You should be," she said reassuringly. "Maybe now I can stop you from doing all these stupid things."

Ron laughed and moved over to where she sat, putting an arm around her and hugging her close. "We can only hope," he said simply.

Pansy smiled up at him then picked up her book again. She stared unseeingly at its pages, thinking to herself.

I hope this all work out, she thought worriedly. If it doesn't, we're all going to hell.


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A/N: I know it's really early tonight, not quite Monday yet but we'll be driving for like 10 hours tomorrow to get home and I really don't want to do this tomorrow... So early it is! Hope you enjoyed, and as always, please review!