A Business Affair

Chapter Thirty-five: Miserable Bliss


"Oh, Hermione," Ginny sighed dramatically, pushing her way past her and into the house.

Hermione shut the door behind her and followed her into the living room. Ginny walked over and sat down in one of the armchairs around the fire, heaving a huge sigh as she did so.

Hermione approached her carefully, wondering what she was here for. Obviously it could be for nothing good. Hermione sat down tentatively in one of the arm chairs next to her and waited for Ginny to say something.

When nothing was forthcoming, Hermione cleared her throat.

"So Ginny, why are you here?" she asked, sounding confused. She was interested to know why the red-head was showing up on her front porch in the middle of the day. She glanced over to her desk where some of the work she had left to do was sitting.

"Hermione," Ginny said, giving her a serious look. "I'm here about Harry."

"Oh, what about him?" she asked lightly. She already knew the reason. It was quite obvious from the way Ginny was looking at her, as though trying to decide how much she knew.

"You must know something is going on?" Ginny asked her, watching her closely.

Hermione just shrugged and waved her wand, conjuring a kettle of hot water and some tea bags along with cups. She poured herself a steaming cup of tea and offered some to Ginny.

"Tea?" she asked, offering a cup to her.

Ginny frowned at the cup Hermione was offering. "No," she said shortly. "Hermione, has Harry talked to you at all lately?" she asked pressingly.

"Well," Hermione said thoughtfully, sipping her tea. "He came by the other day."

"What did you talk about?" Ginny asked eagerly, scooting forward in her chair.

Hermione saw her eagerness and paused. "Oh, you know, mostly about Quidditch. He just loves that sport," she said with a smile. She raised her cup to her lips to hide her laugh as Ginny scowled at the information.

"That's it? You didn't talk about anything else?" she asked.

"Hmm," Hermione said, pretending to think hard. She had promised Harry she wouldn't reveal anything to Ginny. Even though she and Ginny were friends, her loyalties lie with Harry.

"Anything odd that he said?" Ginny suggested as Hermione remained silent.

"Well, we did talk about Ron and Pansy," Hermione said at length. "Can you believe those two? Who would have thought they would get together? I certainly didn't. I think they'll do well, don't you?"

She could see Ginny getting angrier as she talked on about Ron, something that was completely unrelated to what she wanted to know.

"Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed, annoyed. "Just tell me what's going on with Harry!"

"What's going on with Harry?" Hermione repeated. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" she yelled, getting angrier by the second at the lack of information. She had figured that Hermione of all people would have figured out what was going on.

"I'm sorry, Ginny, but I don't know what you're talking about. Harry seems perfectly content to me."

Ginny let out an annoyed growl. Absolutely no one was being helpful. "No!" she yelled, standing up. "He's doing something, I know it! He won't tell me and no one else will either!"

"Sorry," Hermione apologized with a shrug. "But I haven't noticed anything."

"Fine," Ginny growled. "I have to go anyway."

She got up and practically stalked from the room. Hermione followed her out to the front door and watched as she told her goodbye and stormed down the walk, disappearing at the end of it.

Hermione shut the door and sighed. She felt bad lying to her friend, but she saw what Harry meant about Ginny becoming unmanageable. Hermione didn't want to be the one who revealed Harry's secret. That was for Harry to do when he was ready. She only hoped Ginny didn't figure it out before then. She seemed pretty gung-ho about finding out what was going on.

***

Ginny arrived back at the flat only to find that it was still empty. Harry's coat was still gone from the rack by the door. She was at a loss of what to do for a moment. It was the weekend, meaning she would have to be home with Harry for the next two days.

She didn't think she could take being alone with him for that long and knowing something was wrong. She knew Harry would never tell her whatever it was and no one was willing to give her any kind of information, so she had to figure it out herself.

She was still fuming from her encounter with Hermione. She couldn't tell for sure but she thought that Hermione had not been completely honest with her.

She looked around her at their small living room. It seemed cramped all of a sudden. Harry often complained that it was but she always paid him no notice. Now though, she thought the small space was suffocating.

She decided that she needed to get out, to get away. She needed time to think all this over.

She turned abruptly and walked into their bedroom. She grabbed a suitcase from under the bed and began piling clothes in it. Once she was packed, she went into the kitchen. She scribbled a short note and left it on the counter.

Then she walked back into the bedroom and grabbed the suitcase, Disapparating in a crack.

About ten minutes later, Harry pushed open the front door carefully, looking around closely for any sign of Ginny. He sighed when he saw that her coat was gone. He took off his own and hung it up on the rack by the door and made his way into the kitchen.

He went to the fridge and pulled out something to drink. He sat down at the counter and was gazing out the window at the smog covered sky of London when a piece of parchment caught his eye.

He set down his drink and walked to the other end of the counter and picked it up. There in Ginny's loopy handwriting was a note for him.

Harry,

I went away for the weekend. I'll be back on Sunday.

-Ginny

Harry set down the note, thinking to himself. If she was gone then that meant a relaxing weekend.

He felt an excited glint in his stomach at the thought. It was soon replaced with a sick feeling, though. If she was gone for the weekend, what was she doing?

He sighed and threw down the note, not wanting to think about it anymore. He went back to the other end of the counter and grabbed his drink, taking it into the living room with him.

He sat down on the couch with a large sigh. He sat there and stared at the black television screen for some time. He didn't know if he should be happy about Ginny's absence or not. Sure, it got her away from him for a while, but it was also very likely that she was off with some man doing God knows what.

Harry set his feet up on the coffee table and leaned back comfortably on the couch. For the moment, he decided to take this as an opportunity to relax in his own home.

***

The weekend passed well enough. Without Ginny there, Harry was able to actually feel like it was his home. He cooked whatever he wanted for dinner, got up whenever he wanted and did whatever he wanted.

He was quite enjoying himself, choosing not to speculate on what, or who, Ginny may or may not be doing. He almost forgot that she would be coming home soon.

On Sunday, Harry roused late once more. He shuffled out to the living room after getting dressed. He looked around at the mess that had been procured over the last few days. He reminded himself to clean it up and went into the kitchen.

He made himself a nice breakfast, or rather, lunch. When he finished it, he was just putting away the dishes when he heard the front door swing open. He froze, his arm holding a plate, posed to put it in the cupboard.

He heard the door slam and he bit his lip, knowing that Ginny was obviously not in a good mood. He had thought her weekend away would put her in a good temper at least for a while.

"Harry!" He heard a yell from the living room.

Carefully, he slid the plate in the cupboard and shut it quietly. Gingerly, he stuck his head out of the doorway and followed it carefully into the living room.

"Welcome home," he said, trying to be cheerful.

He saw her eyes roving over the mess on the floor, clothes lying about, shoes piled by the door, plate and cups not on coasters. They came up to rest on Harry, narrowed dangerously.

"What happened here?" she asked in a low voice.

"I just forgot to clean up," Harry said quickly, sensing a fight coming on.

"So you can't even take care of yourself for three days?" Ginny asked sarcastically. "Typical."

Harry fought to keep himself calm. He knew she was angry about something and was just baiting him to get him to respond and fight with her.

"I'm sorry," he apologized half-heartedly. "I'll clean it up right away."

"Too right, you will," she snarled.

Harry rolled his eyes and turned to go back in the kitchen to get his wand.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me!"

"I didn't," he said calmly, his back to her.

"Yes, you did! Harry James Potter, you will not disrespect me like that!"

"Ginny, stop trying to pick a fight," Harry said harshly, turning around to look at her.

"I am not," she snarled. "If you could just be a clean person, we wouldn't have this problem."

"My cleanliness is not the problem," Harry replied hotly. "You just can't leave anything alone!"

"At least I don't hide things from you," she replied scathingly. Harry couldn't believe her audacity to say such a thing.

"I'm sure you do," he growled back, careful not to let her know what he did.

"No, Harry, I don't. If you would just tell me what was going on--"

"Then what?" Harry interrupted her, giving her a hard look. "You'd say it was alright and we'd be one big happy family all over again?"

"I could help you, Harry," she replied harshly.

"Well, I'm not hiding anything so I don't know why you are so fixated on this!"

"Harry, I'm not as stupid as you think. I can tell that something is going on."

"And why is that? Because you just can't accept the fact that maybe I'm just not happy!"

"No, I know you are not telling me something!"

Harry just scoffed and rolled his eyes again, always back to the same argument. She just wouldn't let it go. "Why can't you let this go, Ginny? Why?"

"I want to know, Harry," she said harshly. "You need to tell me."

"I don't need to do anything," Harry replied shortly.

"You need to be honest with your wife!"

"Honest!" Harry repeated incredulously. "I--I don't even know what to say to that."

"Just tell me the truth!" she exclaimed.

"There's nothing to tell!" Harry yelled, his temper getting the better of him. He hated these stupid repetitive fights. They never got anywhere and always ended in shouting.

"Stop lying to me, Harry!"

"I’m not the one who's lying! I just can't take this anymore!"

He strode back into the kitchen and grabbed his wand off the kitchen counter. He stormed back out into the living room where Ginny was standing in shock, glaring at Harry.

He primly ignored her and walked past her and out the door before Apparating away. He appeared in front of a rather large house. He strode up to the door and knocked loudly.

It was pulled open seconds later and a head poked out curiously.

"Potter!"


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A/N: Yay :) so please review!