Crumbs
Author: twinsofthesky
Title: Crumbs
Challenge: 37. Viktor talks to Ginny before Harry gets a chance to patch things up with her.
Rating: PG
Summary: Bedtime stories are no fun,
And Harry’d like to drop a ton
(of bricks on Krum’s head).
Bedtime stories are no fun, especially when your kids are little demons in disguise.
Genre: Humor/Romance
Word Count: 3057
Notes/Warnings: Cookies and thanks go to cursedinsanity for betaing this fic even when she was suffering from jetlag. Love you, dear.
“Oh, sorry!”
Krum felt pain shooting through his foot as a red-haired girl accidentally bumped into him and stepped on his foot with her high heel.
She turned around to take a better look at the person she had just stomped on, and he saw the flash of recognition in her bright brown eyes.
He waited-a trifle expectantly and wearily-for her to gasp and back away, while apologizing exceedingly.
Instead, she looked into his face closely and smiled. “You’re Viktor Krum, right? I’m sorry about stepping on you.”
Ah, so she wasn’t the frightened type. All right then, she would probably pull out a quill and a few hundred sheets of paper, perhaps a calendar or two, and ask him to sign it.
He flexed his wrist resignedly and waited for her to shove the papers at him.
“Here, I’ll talk to you later, but I’ve got to run now. I think my brothers are still looking for me,” she said, placing a warm hand on his before she wove her way through the crowd and disappeared.
“This girl is very nice-looking,” Krum said to one of the numerous redheads in an effort to talk about something different. Although he would be the first to admit that his wand was one of the greatest, it wasn’t a very interesting topic to talk about at a wedding. He pointed at the same girl that had stepped on his foot before, hoping to get a response. “She is also a relative of yours?”
The boy suddenly looked rather menacing, and Krum involuntarily shifted away from him. “Yeah, and she’s seeing someone. Jealous type. Big bloke. You wouldn’t want to cross him.”
He had wanted to discretely pump someone for information on the girl, but this was obviously the wrong person to ask. The red-haired boy’s expression darkened further, and he looked quite ready to hex anyone on further provocation.
Krum grunted. “Vot is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?”
He strode off then, not before noticing the boy staring forlornly at the dancers.
“Excuse me.”
The girl turned around and smiled widely when she saw who it was. “Hi, is your toe alright?”
“You ver the girl in the wedding, right? The bridesmaid?”
“Yes.” She stuck out her hand and smiled widely. “I’m Ginny Weasley. It was a bit unfair, how they put me beside Fleur and Gabrielle, but I suppose some things have to be done.”
He took the hand and inwardly wondered how she could continue smiling like that-didn’t the muscles in her face hurt? “I’m Viktor-”
“Oh, I know,” Ginny said with a wave. “Big Quidditch star, famous Seeker, all that.” But instead of becoming fangirly and giggly, she turned away from him and looked out at the dancers, tapping her feet to the music.
Krum felt distinctly foolish. He had never been confronted with a situation where he needed to start the conversation. Moreover, he usually never wanted to take part in a conversation-he found it easier to just grunt and look surly. It was extremely energy efficient.
“You vear those shoes often?” he asked, in a wild attempt to get her talking.
She tore her eyes away from the dancers and considered the question, unsure of what he was asking for. “Um, no, these are new. For the wedding. I’d like to take them off and chuck them at someone’s head right now, but my Mum’s been watching me closely, so I’ll need to suffer some more.”
“You don’t like them?”
“Well, they’re awfully pretty and they make me look tall, but they hurt like none other.”
“I know,” Krum said with a wince as he looked at his own feet.
Ginny smirked. “You think that’s bad-imagine that pain for hours and hours on end. That’s me right now.” She slid her right foot out of the shoe to show him the red and throbbing foot. She slipped her foot back in quickly. “You want to go sit down somewhere? I’m about to fall over.”
Before even waiting for an answer, she headed for one of the tables far away from the dance floor.
More than a little intrigued by the girl, he followed, and sat across from her.
He pretended to watch the dancers but kept an eye on her instead. She really was very pretty, with her red hair tucked behind one ear like that, her brown eyes bright, her cheeks flushed. On top of that, the dress she was wearing made her look slim and radiant.
“You like Quidditch?” he asked her abruptly, snapping his eyes away from her before he embarrassed himself.
“I do.” She looked at him carefully, not bothering to disguise her interest. “I’ve seen you play. At the World Cup, with my family.”
Krum felt color rising up in his cheeks, no matter how hard he tried to make it just go away. “Vat did you think?” he muttered, scowling at the table.
Ginny’s eyes returned to the dance floor, as if she were searching for something. “It was an exciting game-I was glad I went.”
“And vat did you think of my playing?” he challenged, unable to stop the words from exiting his mouth. It was ridiculous. It wasn’t even as if her opinion should matter, when it came to his playing. But he couldn’t stop himself from straining to hear her answer as another song started.
Ginny shrugged carelessly. “Decent, I suppose.” She looked at him, brown eyes lit with excitement. “Do you want to dance?”
Decent? His mind yelled in outrage. Decent?
But she was giggling into her hands, and, between her laughs, he was able to hear the choked, “The look on your face!”
Krum sputtered wordlessly, still unable to explain to himself why he even cared about what she thought of his playing.
She was suddenly standing next to him and pulling him to his feet. “Let’s go dance. My mum’s giving me that look.”
He let himself be led to the dance floor, looking bewildered and confused. “Vat look?”
“The one that says if I don’t entertain you and make sure you’re having the time of life, she’ll squizzle me with her eyebrows when this is all over.” She laughed again and put her hand on his shoulder.
He stood stiffly, still unsure of what to make of her incessant chatter and infectious laughter.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you.” She shook his shoulders lightly in an attempt to get rid of his rigid posture.
“I don’t like dancing,” he said tightly.
“What, your natural grace doesn’t translate itself off the pitch?” Her smile was suddenly wistful, and she looked like she was remembering something pleasant.
“No,” he scowled. “I just don’t like dancing.”
“I see,” she said knowingly, leaning in close and whispering, “You’re scared.”
“I am NOT!” he cried out indignantly, before realizing that simply everyone had stopped dancing to stare at them. He fixed his scowl at them and they hastily averted their eyes.
“Prove it,” she said, sounding positively smug that she had evoked such a response from him.
He reluctantly complied, trying not to notice how warm her hands were and how he could practically count all the freckles on her face if he tried hard enough. “I thought you ver seeing someone,” he said suspiciously.
She automatically tightened her hold on his hand and stiffened. “Where did you hear that?” she asked quietly.
Krum squinted around the room to try to find the redheaded boy he had been talking to, but there were too many redheads in the room to pinpoint the exact boy. “He had red hair.”
Ginny snorted. “Figures. What did he say?”
Krum racked his brain. “Big, jealous, someone I vouldn’t want to cross. Does that sound about right?”
He didn’t realize that she’d stopped dancing until he tripped over her feet and nearly pitched themselves into the nearest dancing couple.
Ginny was looking at him as if there was something seriously wrong with him. “Did you just say big?”
“That’s what he said,” Krum grunted defensively, a scowl starting to return to his face. “Isn’t he?”
She didn’t answer because she was scanning the room again, still looking for something. Her mind was obviously elsewhere, so he awkwardly stood there, shifting his feet, wondering what on earth he should do now. His palms became clammy, in the same way they did before a Quidditch match, so he tugged his hand from hers and walked off of the dance floor.
She followed him directly to a table and brushed her hair out of her eyes, suddenly looking uncertain. “You sure you don’t remember who it was?”
“A cousin of yours.” Krum wrinkled his nose as he pulled out a chair. “Barny, right?”
It took a moment for him to realize that she was smiling, smiling so widely that it actually hurt his own muscles. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
His hand automatically went for his wand as he suddenly realized that she was probably here to kill him. Was she from another Quidditch team? Were the other teams so desperate that they would strangle him to win?
His wand snagged on some thread in his pocket and he jerked at it, irritated that some pretty redhead girl would kill him while he just struggled to get his wand out.
She stepped back from him and noticed the perturbed expression on his face. “Are you alright? Did I step on your foot again?” she asked, looking concerned.
“No,” he said gruffly, staring at her suspiciously, wondering inwardly whether she was going to attempt to kill him again. “Are you trying to kill me?” he asked her, quite bluntly. He had never really been good at subtlety.
A corner of her mouth curled up. “Are you always so paranoid? Tell me, do you think it would hurt you if you smiled for a bit?”
He looked at her warily. “I don’t know.”
“Come on. Just try. It’s dead easy.” She smiled encouragingly at him, laughing as he glowered at her.
“Fine.” He resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at her (she had an infuriating ability to make him act in ways deemed unacceptable for famous Quidditch players) and screwed his face up in a sneer. His facial muscles strained at the unfamiliar upward pull.
“That’s actually quite painful to look at,” Ginny said, covering her eyes. “I think you should stick to scowling. You’re better at it.”
Krum slumped into his chair, fatigued, and gave her a frustrated look. This girl was ridiculously hard to categorize. She’d effectively crossed out ‘Giggling Fangirl,’ ‘Frightened Schoolgirl,’ and even ‘Hired Assassin.’
He tried again. “Do you play Quidditch?”
“Yeah, a little bit,” she said with a casual shrug.
Krum glanced at her, feeling elated, as he had finally zoned in on what kind of fan she was. Avid Quidditch player. In a couple of seconds, she would probably start telling him about her own victories, starting with the ‘I know this must be awfully boring to you, since you play professional Quidditch, but I think you’ll find this game fascinating…’ before winding into an incredibly long and pointless story.
He waited for her to start talking, but she didn’t say anything, fiddling with the tablecloth and humming under her breath. “Vell?” he demanded of her, after a long silence.
But she was looking around again, brown eyes flitting from one side of the room to the other.
Interesting, how her attention kept wandering. And also faintly annoying. “Seeker?” he asked, taking a wild stab at her position. She certainly looked like one, with her thin but athletic build.
Her eyes flew back to his. “Sometimes. I like scoring better, so I stick to Chaser.” She laughed suddenly. “But the biggest reason I’m not a Seeker is that someone I know is the best Seeker I’ve ever seen, so it’s useless for me to compete.”
“Really.”
It was impossible to miss the sudden coolness in his tone, as if the temperature had just dropped a couple degrees.
“He’s a natural-I’d say he was born in the air, but that would be wrong and kind of gross in real life.”
“He’s that good?” Krum asked, his thick eyebrows rushing down in a glare. “Better than anyone?”
“Yes.”
A wall of red seemed to be constructed right in front of his eyes, because he couldn’t see anything. This infuriating girl refused to be labeled and put neatly in a box, and it was just so frustrating, because he just didn’t know how to react to someone like her-
By god, perhaps something like this would just shut her up.
Not thinking, he leaned in close, and before she could even move, or protest, he had kissed-
“WHAT? HE KISSED YOU? THAT SMARMY BAS-”
“Harry!” Ginny cried out abruptly, fixing him a look.
“You didn’t even tell him that you were single! AND HE JUST KISSED YOU EVEN WHEN HE THOUGHT THAT YOU WEREN’T-”
“Did I forget that part?” Ginny pursed her lips as she thought about it. “Oh, I guess I did. Well, he did know that I’d broken up with you; I just forgot to tell you this time around. I could have sworn-”
“That STILL doesn’t EXCUSE HIM from just kissing you like that!”
Ginny waited patiently for the red splotches in his cheeks to fade away.
“Daddy!” protested Lily, with a pout on her face. “You always stop Mummy right there.”
“I know Dad, you always interrupt. You could let Mum finish the story for once,” James said, unable to completely hide his grin.
“And it isn’t as if you’re hearing this story for the first time, either. You know what happens,” Ginny said reproachfully at him.
Harry fumed angrily-it was as if his whole family was against him.
“Don’t worry, Dad,” Albus said, slipping a small hand in his. “It’s just because you love Mummy.”
Ginny checked the clock and let out a soft gasp. “I think it’s time for you kids to go to sleep,” she said. “Sweet dreams, Lily,” she said, as she tucked her youngest in bed.
“’Night, Mummy. Good night, Daddy.”
Harry mumbled something under his breath, shooting his daughter a look.
She smiled sweetly at him. “Mummy, Daddy won’t say good night.”
“Harry…”
“Cheeky little thing,” he said, before bending over her to kiss her forehead. “Love you, Lily. Good night.”
Ginny was herding her sons out the door. “Go to bed. I’ll be checking up on you in a couple of minutes.”
James and Albus scampered off to their respective rooms while Ginny kept the door open for Harry.
“I’ll be there in a second,” promised Harry. “You can go tuck in the boys.”
She nodded and left them with a hint of a smile on her face.
“Okay, Lily,” Harry said with a sigh, after making sure that Ginny was out of hearing distance. “What do you need now?”
Lily fixed her bright brown eyes on him, looking innocent. “I don’t need anything, Daddy.”
“You promised me that you wouldn’t have your Mum tell that story if you could have ice cream that morning, remember?”
“Nuh-uh!” Lily said, shaking her head, her brilliant red hair falling over her shoulders. “I just like hearing that story, Daddy!”
Harry sighed.
Much later, when the kids were all asleep, Harry turned to Ginny and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Your children are demons.” Her red hair fanned across her pillow and tickled his nostrils. It was amazing, how she still smelled of flowers.
Ginny snorted. “I remember you having a big hand in making them, Harry. So don’t go blaming this on me.”
“The pranks run in your family. Twins, remember?” He swept her red hair off to one side and grumbled into her shoulder.
A rueful smile made its way to her lips as she remembered Fred. “And I suppose the Marauders have nothing to do with it. To say nothing of you.”
“It was for the good of the world,” he reminded her.
“Right, getting food from the kitchens,” she scoffed. “I don’t think so.” She shivered slightly as she felt his lips at the nape of her neck. “So why are our children demons?”
“No reason. They just are.”
Ginny turned around in his embrace so she was facing him. There was an amused smile on her face. “So this has nothing to do with the fact that the children are taking advantage of you?”
He had never really been a good liar, but he tried anyway. “What do you mean?” he asked, making his eyes go wide for good measure.
“You think I can’t tell? They don’t really want to hear the story. James and Albus always look like they’ve eaten something awful, and Lily just enjoys watching your expression whenever I get to the good parts.”
Harry groaned as he realized just how dreadful his children truly were. “They’re awful.”
“If you didn’t react so obviously, they’d never even have thought about it,” Ginny said, laughing. “And it isn’t as if you have to sit in the room and hear it every time. It’s like you’re afraid that he’ll do more if you aren’t sitting and listening to every word.”
“He just might,” he said, stuffing his face into the pillow. “My own children! Conspiring against me!”
“Ice cream in the morning, new brooms… Is there anything you haven’t promised them?”
“Well, I thought they’d stop after the brooms! I’d deliberately told them that they couldn’t ever ask you to tell the Krum story, but did they listen? Demons, I tell you.”
There was a thoughtful silence after his muttered declaration.
“I suppose there’s only one way to stop them from hearing the story,” Ginny said softly, and her eyes darkened.
“What’s that?” he asked, lifting his head from the pillow to look at her curiously.
“Stop me from telling it.” She kissed him lightly and pulled back a little, tilting her head. Her brown eyes were hazy. “Although it might take a lot of convincing on your part…”
“I think I’m up to the task,” he managed to say before her lips found his.
Title: Crumbs
Challenge: 37. Viktor talks to Ginny before Harry gets a chance to patch things up with her.
Rating: PG
Summary: Bedtime stories are no fun,
And Harry’d like to drop a ton
(of bricks on Krum’s head).
Bedtime stories are no fun, especially when your kids are little demons in disguise.
Genre: Humor/Romance
Word Count: 3057
Notes/Warnings: Cookies and thanks go to cursedinsanity for betaing this fic even when she was suffering from jetlag. Love you, dear.
“Oh, sorry!”
Krum felt pain shooting through his foot as a red-haired girl accidentally bumped into him and stepped on his foot with her high heel.
She turned around to take a better look at the person she had just stomped on, and he saw the flash of recognition in her bright brown eyes.
He waited-a trifle expectantly and wearily-for her to gasp and back away, while apologizing exceedingly.
Instead, she looked into his face closely and smiled. “You’re Viktor Krum, right? I’m sorry about stepping on you.”
Ah, so she wasn’t the frightened type. All right then, she would probably pull out a quill and a few hundred sheets of paper, perhaps a calendar or two, and ask him to sign it.
He flexed his wrist resignedly and waited for her to shove the papers at him.
“Here, I’ll talk to you later, but I’ve got to run now. I think my brothers are still looking for me,” she said, placing a warm hand on his before she wove her way through the crowd and disappeared.
“This girl is very nice-looking,” Krum said to one of the numerous redheads in an effort to talk about something different. Although he would be the first to admit that his wand was one of the greatest, it wasn’t a very interesting topic to talk about at a wedding. He pointed at the same girl that had stepped on his foot before, hoping to get a response. “She is also a relative of yours?”
The boy suddenly looked rather menacing, and Krum involuntarily shifted away from him. “Yeah, and she’s seeing someone. Jealous type. Big bloke. You wouldn’t want to cross him.”
He had wanted to discretely pump someone for information on the girl, but this was obviously the wrong person to ask. The red-haired boy’s expression darkened further, and he looked quite ready to hex anyone on further provocation.
Krum grunted. “Vot is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?”
He strode off then, not before noticing the boy staring forlornly at the dancers.
“Excuse me.”
The girl turned around and smiled widely when she saw who it was. “Hi, is your toe alright?”
“You ver the girl in the wedding, right? The bridesmaid?”
“Yes.” She stuck out her hand and smiled widely. “I’m Ginny Weasley. It was a bit unfair, how they put me beside Fleur and Gabrielle, but I suppose some things have to be done.”
He took the hand and inwardly wondered how she could continue smiling like that-didn’t the muscles in her face hurt? “I’m Viktor-”
“Oh, I know,” Ginny said with a wave. “Big Quidditch star, famous Seeker, all that.” But instead of becoming fangirly and giggly, she turned away from him and looked out at the dancers, tapping her feet to the music.
Krum felt distinctly foolish. He had never been confronted with a situation where he needed to start the conversation. Moreover, he usually never wanted to take part in a conversation-he found it easier to just grunt and look surly. It was extremely energy efficient.
“You vear those shoes often?” he asked, in a wild attempt to get her talking.
She tore her eyes away from the dancers and considered the question, unsure of what he was asking for. “Um, no, these are new. For the wedding. I’d like to take them off and chuck them at someone’s head right now, but my Mum’s been watching me closely, so I’ll need to suffer some more.”
“You don’t like them?”
“Well, they’re awfully pretty and they make me look tall, but they hurt like none other.”
“I know,” Krum said with a wince as he looked at his own feet.
Ginny smirked. “You think that’s bad-imagine that pain for hours and hours on end. That’s me right now.” She slid her right foot out of the shoe to show him the red and throbbing foot. She slipped her foot back in quickly. “You want to go sit down somewhere? I’m about to fall over.”
Before even waiting for an answer, she headed for one of the tables far away from the dance floor.
More than a little intrigued by the girl, he followed, and sat across from her.
He pretended to watch the dancers but kept an eye on her instead. She really was very pretty, with her red hair tucked behind one ear like that, her brown eyes bright, her cheeks flushed. On top of that, the dress she was wearing made her look slim and radiant.
“You like Quidditch?” he asked her abruptly, snapping his eyes away from her before he embarrassed himself.
“I do.” She looked at him carefully, not bothering to disguise her interest. “I’ve seen you play. At the World Cup, with my family.”
Krum felt color rising up in his cheeks, no matter how hard he tried to make it just go away. “Vat did you think?” he muttered, scowling at the table.
Ginny’s eyes returned to the dance floor, as if she were searching for something. “It was an exciting game-I was glad I went.”
“And vat did you think of my playing?” he challenged, unable to stop the words from exiting his mouth. It was ridiculous. It wasn’t even as if her opinion should matter, when it came to his playing. But he couldn’t stop himself from straining to hear her answer as another song started.
Ginny shrugged carelessly. “Decent, I suppose.” She looked at him, brown eyes lit with excitement. “Do you want to dance?”
Decent? His mind yelled in outrage. Decent?
But she was giggling into her hands, and, between her laughs, he was able to hear the choked, “The look on your face!”
Krum sputtered wordlessly, still unable to explain to himself why he even cared about what she thought of his playing.
She was suddenly standing next to him and pulling him to his feet. “Let’s go dance. My mum’s giving me that look.”
He let himself be led to the dance floor, looking bewildered and confused. “Vat look?”
“The one that says if I don’t entertain you and make sure you’re having the time of life, she’ll squizzle me with her eyebrows when this is all over.” She laughed again and put her hand on his shoulder.
He stood stiffly, still unsure of what to make of her incessant chatter and infectious laughter.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to eat you.” She shook his shoulders lightly in an attempt to get rid of his rigid posture.
“I don’t like dancing,” he said tightly.
“What, your natural grace doesn’t translate itself off the pitch?” Her smile was suddenly wistful, and she looked like she was remembering something pleasant.
“No,” he scowled. “I just don’t like dancing.”
“I see,” she said knowingly, leaning in close and whispering, “You’re scared.”
“I am NOT!” he cried out indignantly, before realizing that simply everyone had stopped dancing to stare at them. He fixed his scowl at them and they hastily averted their eyes.
“Prove it,” she said, sounding positively smug that she had evoked such a response from him.
He reluctantly complied, trying not to notice how warm her hands were and how he could practically count all the freckles on her face if he tried hard enough. “I thought you ver seeing someone,” he said suspiciously.
She automatically tightened her hold on his hand and stiffened. “Where did you hear that?” she asked quietly.
Krum squinted around the room to try to find the redheaded boy he had been talking to, but there were too many redheads in the room to pinpoint the exact boy. “He had red hair.”
Ginny snorted. “Figures. What did he say?”
Krum racked his brain. “Big, jealous, someone I vouldn’t want to cross. Does that sound about right?”
He didn’t realize that she’d stopped dancing until he tripped over her feet and nearly pitched themselves into the nearest dancing couple.
Ginny was looking at him as if there was something seriously wrong with him. “Did you just say big?”
“That’s what he said,” Krum grunted defensively, a scowl starting to return to his face. “Isn’t he?”
She didn’t answer because she was scanning the room again, still looking for something. Her mind was obviously elsewhere, so he awkwardly stood there, shifting his feet, wondering what on earth he should do now. His palms became clammy, in the same way they did before a Quidditch match, so he tugged his hand from hers and walked off of the dance floor.
She followed him directly to a table and brushed her hair out of her eyes, suddenly looking uncertain. “You sure you don’t remember who it was?”
“A cousin of yours.” Krum wrinkled his nose as he pulled out a chair. “Barny, right?”
It took a moment for him to realize that she was smiling, smiling so widely that it actually hurt his own muscles. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
His hand automatically went for his wand as he suddenly realized that she was probably here to kill him. Was she from another Quidditch team? Were the other teams so desperate that they would strangle him to win?
His wand snagged on some thread in his pocket and he jerked at it, irritated that some pretty redhead girl would kill him while he just struggled to get his wand out.
She stepped back from him and noticed the perturbed expression on his face. “Are you alright? Did I step on your foot again?” she asked, looking concerned.
“No,” he said gruffly, staring at her suspiciously, wondering inwardly whether she was going to attempt to kill him again. “Are you trying to kill me?” he asked her, quite bluntly. He had never really been good at subtlety.
A corner of her mouth curled up. “Are you always so paranoid? Tell me, do you think it would hurt you if you smiled for a bit?”
He looked at her warily. “I don’t know.”
“Come on. Just try. It’s dead easy.” She smiled encouragingly at him, laughing as he glowered at her.
“Fine.” He resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at her (she had an infuriating ability to make him act in ways deemed unacceptable for famous Quidditch players) and screwed his face up in a sneer. His facial muscles strained at the unfamiliar upward pull.
“That’s actually quite painful to look at,” Ginny said, covering her eyes. “I think you should stick to scowling. You’re better at it.”
Krum slumped into his chair, fatigued, and gave her a frustrated look. This girl was ridiculously hard to categorize. She’d effectively crossed out ‘Giggling Fangirl,’ ‘Frightened Schoolgirl,’ and even ‘Hired Assassin.’
He tried again. “Do you play Quidditch?”
“Yeah, a little bit,” she said with a casual shrug.
Krum glanced at her, feeling elated, as he had finally zoned in on what kind of fan she was. Avid Quidditch player. In a couple of seconds, she would probably start telling him about her own victories, starting with the ‘I know this must be awfully boring to you, since you play professional Quidditch, but I think you’ll find this game fascinating…’ before winding into an incredibly long and pointless story.
He waited for her to start talking, but she didn’t say anything, fiddling with the tablecloth and humming under her breath. “Vell?” he demanded of her, after a long silence.
But she was looking around again, brown eyes flitting from one side of the room to the other.
Interesting, how her attention kept wandering. And also faintly annoying. “Seeker?” he asked, taking a wild stab at her position. She certainly looked like one, with her thin but athletic build.
Her eyes flew back to his. “Sometimes. I like scoring better, so I stick to Chaser.” She laughed suddenly. “But the biggest reason I’m not a Seeker is that someone I know is the best Seeker I’ve ever seen, so it’s useless for me to compete.”
“Really.”
It was impossible to miss the sudden coolness in his tone, as if the temperature had just dropped a couple degrees.
“He’s a natural-I’d say he was born in the air, but that would be wrong and kind of gross in real life.”
“He’s that good?” Krum asked, his thick eyebrows rushing down in a glare. “Better than anyone?”
“Yes.”
A wall of red seemed to be constructed right in front of his eyes, because he couldn’t see anything. This infuriating girl refused to be labeled and put neatly in a box, and it was just so frustrating, because he just didn’t know how to react to someone like her-
By god, perhaps something like this would just shut her up.
Not thinking, he leaned in close, and before she could even move, or protest, he had kissed-
“WHAT? HE KISSED YOU? THAT SMARMY BAS-”
“Harry!” Ginny cried out abruptly, fixing him a look.
“You didn’t even tell him that you were single! AND HE JUST KISSED YOU EVEN WHEN HE THOUGHT THAT YOU WEREN’T-”
“Did I forget that part?” Ginny pursed her lips as she thought about it. “Oh, I guess I did. Well, he did know that I’d broken up with you; I just forgot to tell you this time around. I could have sworn-”
“That STILL doesn’t EXCUSE HIM from just kissing you like that!”
Ginny waited patiently for the red splotches in his cheeks to fade away.
“Daddy!” protested Lily, with a pout on her face. “You always stop Mummy right there.”
“I know Dad, you always interrupt. You could let Mum finish the story for once,” James said, unable to completely hide his grin.
“And it isn’t as if you’re hearing this story for the first time, either. You know what happens,” Ginny said reproachfully at him.
Harry fumed angrily-it was as if his whole family was against him.
“Don’t worry, Dad,” Albus said, slipping a small hand in his. “It’s just because you love Mummy.”
Ginny checked the clock and let out a soft gasp. “I think it’s time for you kids to go to sleep,” she said. “Sweet dreams, Lily,” she said, as she tucked her youngest in bed.
“’Night, Mummy. Good night, Daddy.”
Harry mumbled something under his breath, shooting his daughter a look.
She smiled sweetly at him. “Mummy, Daddy won’t say good night.”
“Harry…”
“Cheeky little thing,” he said, before bending over her to kiss her forehead. “Love you, Lily. Good night.”
Ginny was herding her sons out the door. “Go to bed. I’ll be checking up on you in a couple of minutes.”
James and Albus scampered off to their respective rooms while Ginny kept the door open for Harry.
“I’ll be there in a second,” promised Harry. “You can go tuck in the boys.”
She nodded and left them with a hint of a smile on her face.
“Okay, Lily,” Harry said with a sigh, after making sure that Ginny was out of hearing distance. “What do you need now?”
Lily fixed her bright brown eyes on him, looking innocent. “I don’t need anything, Daddy.”
“You promised me that you wouldn’t have your Mum tell that story if you could have ice cream that morning, remember?”
“Nuh-uh!” Lily said, shaking her head, her brilliant red hair falling over her shoulders. “I just like hearing that story, Daddy!”
Harry sighed.
Much later, when the kids were all asleep, Harry turned to Ginny and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Your children are demons.” Her red hair fanned across her pillow and tickled his nostrils. It was amazing, how she still smelled of flowers.
Ginny snorted. “I remember you having a big hand in making them, Harry. So don’t go blaming this on me.”
“The pranks run in your family. Twins, remember?” He swept her red hair off to one side and grumbled into her shoulder.
A rueful smile made its way to her lips as she remembered Fred. “And I suppose the Marauders have nothing to do with it. To say nothing of you.”
“It was for the good of the world,” he reminded her.
“Right, getting food from the kitchens,” she scoffed. “I don’t think so.” She shivered slightly as she felt his lips at the nape of her neck. “So why are our children demons?”
“No reason. They just are.”
Ginny turned around in his embrace so she was facing him. There was an amused smile on her face. “So this has nothing to do with the fact that the children are taking advantage of you?”
He had never really been a good liar, but he tried anyway. “What do you mean?” he asked, making his eyes go wide for good measure.
“You think I can’t tell? They don’t really want to hear the story. James and Albus always look like they’ve eaten something awful, and Lily just enjoys watching your expression whenever I get to the good parts.”
Harry groaned as he realized just how dreadful his children truly were. “They’re awful.”
“If you didn’t react so obviously, they’d never even have thought about it,” Ginny said, laughing. “And it isn’t as if you have to sit in the room and hear it every time. It’s like you’re afraid that he’ll do more if you aren’t sitting and listening to every word.”
“He just might,” he said, stuffing his face into the pillow. “My own children! Conspiring against me!”
“Ice cream in the morning, new brooms… Is there anything you haven’t promised them?”
“Well, I thought they’d stop after the brooms! I’d deliberately told them that they couldn’t ever ask you to tell the Krum story, but did they listen? Demons, I tell you.”
There was a thoughtful silence after his muttered declaration.
“I suppose there’s only one way to stop them from hearing the story,” Ginny said softly, and her eyes darkened.
“What’s that?” he asked, lifting his head from the pillow to look at her curiously.
“Stop me from telling it.” She kissed him lightly and pulled back a little, tilting her head. Her brown eyes were hazy. “Although it might take a lot of convincing on your part…”
“I think I’m up to the task,” he managed to say before her lips found his.