More Than One Way Home (4/7) - Draco/Ginny
Title: More Than One Way Home
Author: Vesica
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Draco/Ginny with hints of Ron/Hermione, Harry/Pansy
Summary: It hasn’t always been an easy road for them, but sometimes it takes getting really good and lost to find the way home again.
IV. Are you telling me the truth?
Ginny was surprised how good it felt to dig back into her research and even on the nights she was alone, the house didn’t seem so empty when her notes and books were waiting for her.
Things had gotten a little better, but it wasn’t like it had been.
There was a coldness to Draco sometimes, a wall between them, and she didn’t have the first clue as to what it was causing it.
At first, she’d met his standoffish behavior with extra warmth and cheer, trying to draw him out little by little.
She’d started paying more attention to his likes and dislikes, fixing his favorite meals or picking up more of one of his hair potions before he had to ask.
But when she was rebuffed time and time again, each kindness passing unnoticed and her attempts at pleasant conversation failing, she just gave up and started to withdraw some herself.
His work had become even more demanding, some crisis in the Japanese Wizarding currency requiring even more nights away from home. A few times, he hadn’t come home at all, claiming he’d slept on the couch in his office.
An idea began to form, settling in and slowly entwining its thorny limbs around her heart. As much as she tried to fight it, she couldn’t help but think of the one thing that would explain what was happening to them.
She told no one, not even Pansy, about the thought that kept her awake, particularly on those nights she was alone, spending hours staring the ceiling and seeing vision after vision of where he might be and what he might be doing.
Something inside her snapped the morning he announced casually that he and a few of his executives would be headed to Japan for a week to investigate a possible merger with a Japanese investment firm.
The question just tumbled out before she could stop it and she nearly broke her favorite teapot, slamming it down on the table with a thump. “Are you having an affair? Just tell me the truth.”
His face went from disbelief to shock and then to anger before finally settling on a particularly wounded expression that he quickly smothered.
“Why would you even think that? Ginny, you know how unstable things have been with the company. The Asian currency market tanking really hurt us and we need to really consider this opportunity.”
He took a few gulps of tea and chose his next words carefully. “No, I am not having an affair. I have never had an affair and I never WOULD have an affair. Excuse me for wanting to take care of my family. I suppose you’d rather we all lived in a ditch somewhere.”
And with that, he stormed out of the kitchen and right out the front door, pausing only to gather his things.
She cringed as the front door slammed shut. The tea hadn’t even stopped sloshing in his teacup and there was already this horrible distance between now and not two minutes ago.
She shoved her plate aside and buried her head in her arms on the kitchen table and just let herself cry until she ran out of tears.
She didn’t know that he stood on the front step for a long time, gulping in the autumn air, and waiting for the horrible churning in his stomach to subside.
Truth was, there was a time a few years earlier when he very nearly had cheated on Ginny.
A new broker had joined the firm and they’d had excellent working chemistry from the get-go. Unfortunately, they’d had chemistry period and she hadn’t been at all troubled about the ring on his finger or the family portraits on his desk.
When her subtle hints and flirting were ignored, she’d pushed the issue. And for a moment, he’d considered it.
More than considered it really. She was lovely - very pretty and so free-spirited, so totally focused on him - his ideas, his opinions, his preferences - and all the attention was intoxicating.
He’d thought about it for weeks, trying out excuse after excuse for why there was no reason he shouldn’t go out for drinks with her after work or accept one of her many invitations for dinner at her place.
He caught himself staring at her at work, his mind painting pictures of the fun they could have. And it wasn’t as if she wanted forever - she’d made that quite clear. She wanted him, he obviously wanted her and she didn’t see why they weren’t doing anything about that.
In the end, he’d given her a firm “no thanks” and pulled some strings to get her a better position, with a much higher salary, with an investment firm in Paris.
She’d gone without complaint, just a few disappointed looks and a goodbye hug that lasted about five minutes too long.
Even so, he wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for how close he had come to making a terrible mistake.
He turned and quietly opened the front door but the sound of his wife sobbing stopped him.
He closed the door again and Apparated straight to the office.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
After that first kiss, the slow fire that had been burning within her turned to a raging inferno. After a few close calls in the library, they abandoned any pretense of studying, meeting in the make-shift office turned dorm room he’d been assigned after a few of his Housemates had gone too far with their pranks.
On most nights, he was waiting for her, opening the door almost before she knocked and she’d be in his arms, drinking him in, hands tangled in his hair, before the door even closed behind them.
She was rather surprised at his patience. He seemed content with their endless hours of kissing and groping, never pushing for more than she was comfortable giving. She knew he had more experience than she did, and she wasn’t exactly a snowy white lamb, but she didn’t know how much more.
One question in particular kept running through her mind and popped back into her mind one night, while they both lay sprawled on their backs and panting, the lingering sensations of hungry hands and yearnings searing their skin.
She’d wanted to know if he’d had many girls before her and, in typically Ginny fashion, just asked straight out.
He laughed wryly. “No, my reputation as the Slytherin Sex God is somewhat undeserved.”
“Oh.”
Rolling over to face her, he propped his head up on one elbow and arched one eyebrow devilishly. “Why? Are you disappointed?”
She’d learned a thing or two about wicked grins over the last month and a half and all but leered at him. “Well, it wasn’t a complaint really…I’m just not sure I really have enough data yet to judge this whole Sex God status. I mean, how am I supposed to judge without more information for comparison?”
She leaned towards him but deliberately pulled away before he could kiss her. “Know anyone who might be willing to participate in a little research?”
He tried to kiss her again and she again she pulled away, smirking, and this time scooting back across the bed. “Maybe I should ask Seamus…or Michael…or I could ask Blaise. Think he’d help?”
With a determined growl, he crawled after her, the ensuing wrestling match left them in a tangled, laughing heap.
She made a futile escape attempt, which he totally saw coming, easily catching her and pinning her arms down.
She was suddenly aware of just how much of him was pressed up against her.
Images of their increasingly bolder evening activities and the increasing frustration they were causing her flashed through her mind. She gasped a little at how fast her heart was suddenly pounding thinking about where this might be going.
She might have gotten better at smirking, but he was still the undisputed Master.
He didn’t do a thing - just held her there, smirk deepening by the moment, watching as a deep blush crept down her neck and enjoying the wonderful things her suddenly quickened breathing was doing to her breasts.
He didn’t move a muscle for what felt like forever, waiting until she finally gave in, trying to tug her wrists out of his grasp and wriggling against him with a tiny whimper. “Merlin’s balls, Draco. Do something!”
“You had only to ask.”
In a flash, his hands were gone from around her wrists, snaking beneath her shirt to brush across already aching breasts, gliding across the bare skin of her abdomen and tracing up her sides. She shivered and he grinned, at he least did until she crushed her lips to his.
This was nothing they hadn’t done a hundred times before, but this time there was something different - the caresses a little more insistent, the kisses a little more desperate.
She didn’t want to let him go for a moment, which made undressing somewhat difficult. However, the increasingly ragged whimpers escaping every time his lips left hers inspired incredible feats of disrobing on his part. Somehow he’d managed to get her shirt and bra off and thrown halfway across the room without his lips leaving hers for more than a moment.
For her part, Ginny demonstrated an amazing level of focus, managing to find and yank down the side zip on her skirt with one hand, the other hand being quite occupied cradling the back of his head as flicked his tongue across her nipple, nearly making her breathing stop entirely.
At the sound of the zip, he looked up, torn between lust and concern. “Gin? We really don’t have to rush anything…”
She pushed at his shoulders, forcing him to sit back on his heels, and went to work, tugging his shirt off over his head. “Oh, yes we do…”
He was quite serious in his reply, which was hampered somewhat by her kissing him in mid-sentence. “No, we really don…Mmrrrmmm.”
He was really trying to be the logical one here, but that was nearly impossible with her nimble fingers hard at work unbuttoning his trousers.
She broke the kiss and pulled away from him. “Would you lay down so I can actually take your trousers off?”
His body, not being nearly as honorable as his mind, obeyed without protest. His mouth however, hadn’t quite gotten the memo that they were surrendering in the face of her resolve. “You’re sure about this? I mean you want…want to…”
She’d managed to work his trousers down, despite the fact he was lying there like a dead weight, stunned into immobility by a combination of shock and a crushing surge of hormones.
She pulled them off, tossing the trousers into a corner and slid off the bed. She slipped the button on her skirt free and pushed it down over her hips. “Well, Hmm…I don’t know. You’re really reformed? Renounced your evil ways, joined the side of right and all that?”
He managed to croak as her skirt dropped to the floor, “Yes, you know I have.”
“You’re telling me the truth?” She glanced pointedly at the inky stain on his left arm.
Draco propped himself up on his elbows, totally baffled as to why they were having this conversation now.
He was also a little distracted because she was standing there, arms crossed, which basically served as a huge flashing arrow pointing to her fantastic breasts.
It took a few seconds but he did manage to remember how to speak. “Ginny, what are you playing at? You know I would never go back to the Death Eaters and even if I did, they’d kill me. Changing my mind isn’t really an option, not that I’ve ever wanted to.”
Ginny regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. “Yeah, I know. But I had to ask…mostly before I did this,” she added, taking hold of her panties and pulling them down. She stepped out them, wadded them into a ball, and tossed them over her shoulder.
Considering the spectacular view, Draco was now wondering why they didn’t have this conversation more often.
She climbed back onto the bed and knelt over him, arms on either side of his head and breasts entirely too close to his face for the promotion of coherent thought. “Sorry about that. You forgive me?”
Draco looked at her incredulously. “You’re naked and on top of me - there’s not a lot I wouldn’t forgive right about now.”
“Good,” Ginny said with a grin. “Now, in answer to your question, yes - I want - very much so.”
And that, as far as Ginny was concerned, was that. She kissed him and was pleased when he recovered enough to grab her and pull her down to him.
There were a few stops and starts, mainly when Draco, now going for the Saint of the Year, kept stopping to ask again if she was really, really sure and once to have a minor panic attack about contraceptive charms.
“Already done,” she replied breezily, kissing the tip of his nose. “I’ve been casting them on myself every night for the last two weeks.”
This took a moment to sink in, but once it did the resulting increase enthusiasm on his part, not to mention the fact he finally stopped asking if she was sure, was everything she’d hoped for.
The first time went so well and Draco was so very accommodating about repetitious hard work in the name of advancing knowledge, that it was nearly dawn by the time a rather happily exhausted Ginny crept back to Gryffindor Tower.
End Part IV of VII.
Jump to Chapter 1
Previous
Next
Author: Vesica
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Draco/Ginny with hints of Ron/Hermione, Harry/Pansy
Summary: It hasn’t always been an easy road for them, but sometimes it takes getting really good and lost to find the way home again.
IV. Are you telling me the truth?
Ginny was surprised how good it felt to dig back into her research and even on the nights she was alone, the house didn’t seem so empty when her notes and books were waiting for her.
Things had gotten a little better, but it wasn’t like it had been.
There was a coldness to Draco sometimes, a wall between them, and she didn’t have the first clue as to what it was causing it.
At first, she’d met his standoffish behavior with extra warmth and cheer, trying to draw him out little by little.
She’d started paying more attention to his likes and dislikes, fixing his favorite meals or picking up more of one of his hair potions before he had to ask.
But when she was rebuffed time and time again, each kindness passing unnoticed and her attempts at pleasant conversation failing, she just gave up and started to withdraw some herself.
His work had become even more demanding, some crisis in the Japanese Wizarding currency requiring even more nights away from home. A few times, he hadn’t come home at all, claiming he’d slept on the couch in his office.
An idea began to form, settling in and slowly entwining its thorny limbs around her heart. As much as she tried to fight it, she couldn’t help but think of the one thing that would explain what was happening to them.
She told no one, not even Pansy, about the thought that kept her awake, particularly on those nights she was alone, spending hours staring the ceiling and seeing vision after vision of where he might be and what he might be doing.
Something inside her snapped the morning he announced casually that he and a few of his executives would be headed to Japan for a week to investigate a possible merger with a Japanese investment firm.
The question just tumbled out before she could stop it and she nearly broke her favorite teapot, slamming it down on the table with a thump. “Are you having an affair? Just tell me the truth.”
His face went from disbelief to shock and then to anger before finally settling on a particularly wounded expression that he quickly smothered.
“Why would you even think that? Ginny, you know how unstable things have been with the company. The Asian currency market tanking really hurt us and we need to really consider this opportunity.”
He took a few gulps of tea and chose his next words carefully. “No, I am not having an affair. I have never had an affair and I never WOULD have an affair. Excuse me for wanting to take care of my family. I suppose you’d rather we all lived in a ditch somewhere.”
And with that, he stormed out of the kitchen and right out the front door, pausing only to gather his things.
She cringed as the front door slammed shut. The tea hadn’t even stopped sloshing in his teacup and there was already this horrible distance between now and not two minutes ago.
She shoved her plate aside and buried her head in her arms on the kitchen table and just let herself cry until she ran out of tears.
She didn’t know that he stood on the front step for a long time, gulping in the autumn air, and waiting for the horrible churning in his stomach to subside.
Truth was, there was a time a few years earlier when he very nearly had cheated on Ginny.
A new broker had joined the firm and they’d had excellent working chemistry from the get-go. Unfortunately, they’d had chemistry period and she hadn’t been at all troubled about the ring on his finger or the family portraits on his desk.
When her subtle hints and flirting were ignored, she’d pushed the issue. And for a moment, he’d considered it.
More than considered it really. She was lovely - very pretty and so free-spirited, so totally focused on him - his ideas, his opinions, his preferences - and all the attention was intoxicating.
He’d thought about it for weeks, trying out excuse after excuse for why there was no reason he shouldn’t go out for drinks with her after work or accept one of her many invitations for dinner at her place.
He caught himself staring at her at work, his mind painting pictures of the fun they could have. And it wasn’t as if she wanted forever - she’d made that quite clear. She wanted him, he obviously wanted her and she didn’t see why they weren’t doing anything about that.
In the end, he’d given her a firm “no thanks” and pulled some strings to get her a better position, with a much higher salary, with an investment firm in Paris.
She’d gone without complaint, just a few disappointed looks and a goodbye hug that lasted about five minutes too long.
Even so, he wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for how close he had come to making a terrible mistake.
He turned and quietly opened the front door but the sound of his wife sobbing stopped him.
He closed the door again and Apparated straight to the office.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
After that first kiss, the slow fire that had been burning within her turned to a raging inferno. After a few close calls in the library, they abandoned any pretense of studying, meeting in the make-shift office turned dorm room he’d been assigned after a few of his Housemates had gone too far with their pranks.
On most nights, he was waiting for her, opening the door almost before she knocked and she’d be in his arms, drinking him in, hands tangled in his hair, before the door even closed behind them.
She was rather surprised at his patience. He seemed content with their endless hours of kissing and groping, never pushing for more than she was comfortable giving. She knew he had more experience than she did, and she wasn’t exactly a snowy white lamb, but she didn’t know how much more.
One question in particular kept running through her mind and popped back into her mind one night, while they both lay sprawled on their backs and panting, the lingering sensations of hungry hands and yearnings searing their skin.
She’d wanted to know if he’d had many girls before her and, in typically Ginny fashion, just asked straight out.
He laughed wryly. “No, my reputation as the Slytherin Sex God is somewhat undeserved.”
“Oh.”
Rolling over to face her, he propped his head up on one elbow and arched one eyebrow devilishly. “Why? Are you disappointed?”
She’d learned a thing or two about wicked grins over the last month and a half and all but leered at him. “Well, it wasn’t a complaint really…I’m just not sure I really have enough data yet to judge this whole Sex God status. I mean, how am I supposed to judge without more information for comparison?”
She leaned towards him but deliberately pulled away before he could kiss her. “Know anyone who might be willing to participate in a little research?”
He tried to kiss her again and she again she pulled away, smirking, and this time scooting back across the bed. “Maybe I should ask Seamus…or Michael…or I could ask Blaise. Think he’d help?”
With a determined growl, he crawled after her, the ensuing wrestling match left them in a tangled, laughing heap.
She made a futile escape attempt, which he totally saw coming, easily catching her and pinning her arms down.
She was suddenly aware of just how much of him was pressed up against her.
Images of their increasingly bolder evening activities and the increasing frustration they were causing her flashed through her mind. She gasped a little at how fast her heart was suddenly pounding thinking about where this might be going.
She might have gotten better at smirking, but he was still the undisputed Master.
He didn’t do a thing - just held her there, smirk deepening by the moment, watching as a deep blush crept down her neck and enjoying the wonderful things her suddenly quickened breathing was doing to her breasts.
He didn’t move a muscle for what felt like forever, waiting until she finally gave in, trying to tug her wrists out of his grasp and wriggling against him with a tiny whimper. “Merlin’s balls, Draco. Do something!”
“You had only to ask.”
In a flash, his hands were gone from around her wrists, snaking beneath her shirt to brush across already aching breasts, gliding across the bare skin of her abdomen and tracing up her sides. She shivered and he grinned, at he least did until she crushed her lips to his.
This was nothing they hadn’t done a hundred times before, but this time there was something different - the caresses a little more insistent, the kisses a little more desperate.
She didn’t want to let him go for a moment, which made undressing somewhat difficult. However, the increasingly ragged whimpers escaping every time his lips left hers inspired incredible feats of disrobing on his part. Somehow he’d managed to get her shirt and bra off and thrown halfway across the room without his lips leaving hers for more than a moment.
For her part, Ginny demonstrated an amazing level of focus, managing to find and yank down the side zip on her skirt with one hand, the other hand being quite occupied cradling the back of his head as flicked his tongue across her nipple, nearly making her breathing stop entirely.
At the sound of the zip, he looked up, torn between lust and concern. “Gin? We really don’t have to rush anything…”
She pushed at his shoulders, forcing him to sit back on his heels, and went to work, tugging his shirt off over his head. “Oh, yes we do…”
He was quite serious in his reply, which was hampered somewhat by her kissing him in mid-sentence. “No, we really don…Mmrrrmmm.”
He was really trying to be the logical one here, but that was nearly impossible with her nimble fingers hard at work unbuttoning his trousers.
She broke the kiss and pulled away from him. “Would you lay down so I can actually take your trousers off?”
His body, not being nearly as honorable as his mind, obeyed without protest. His mouth however, hadn’t quite gotten the memo that they were surrendering in the face of her resolve. “You’re sure about this? I mean you want…want to…”
She’d managed to work his trousers down, despite the fact he was lying there like a dead weight, stunned into immobility by a combination of shock and a crushing surge of hormones.
She pulled them off, tossing the trousers into a corner and slid off the bed. She slipped the button on her skirt free and pushed it down over her hips. “Well, Hmm…I don’t know. You’re really reformed? Renounced your evil ways, joined the side of right and all that?”
He managed to croak as her skirt dropped to the floor, “Yes, you know I have.”
“You’re telling me the truth?” She glanced pointedly at the inky stain on his left arm.
Draco propped himself up on his elbows, totally baffled as to why they were having this conversation now.
He was also a little distracted because she was standing there, arms crossed, which basically served as a huge flashing arrow pointing to her fantastic breasts.
It took a few seconds but he did manage to remember how to speak. “Ginny, what are you playing at? You know I would never go back to the Death Eaters and even if I did, they’d kill me. Changing my mind isn’t really an option, not that I’ve ever wanted to.”
Ginny regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. “Yeah, I know. But I had to ask…mostly before I did this,” she added, taking hold of her panties and pulling them down. She stepped out them, wadded them into a ball, and tossed them over her shoulder.
Considering the spectacular view, Draco was now wondering why they didn’t have this conversation more often.
She climbed back onto the bed and knelt over him, arms on either side of his head and breasts entirely too close to his face for the promotion of coherent thought. “Sorry about that. You forgive me?”
Draco looked at her incredulously. “You’re naked and on top of me - there’s not a lot I wouldn’t forgive right about now.”
“Good,” Ginny said with a grin. “Now, in answer to your question, yes - I want - very much so.”
And that, as far as Ginny was concerned, was that. She kissed him and was pleased when he recovered enough to grab her and pull her down to him.
There were a few stops and starts, mainly when Draco, now going for the Saint of the Year, kept stopping to ask again if she was really, really sure and once to have a minor panic attack about contraceptive charms.
“Already done,” she replied breezily, kissing the tip of his nose. “I’ve been casting them on myself every night for the last two weeks.”
This took a moment to sink in, but once it did the resulting increase enthusiasm on his part, not to mention the fact he finally stopped asking if she was sure, was everything she’d hoped for.
The first time went so well and Draco was so very accommodating about repetitious hard work in the name of advancing knowledge, that it was nearly dawn by the time a rather happily exhausted Ginny crept back to Gryffindor Tower.
End Part IV of VII.
Jump to Chapter 1
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