Chapter 4- Excuses, Excuses
"She did what?" Hermione had just heard the story of Ginny's little escapade from the boys and she was not thrilled. She was giving them looks that said 'Oh God, please tell me you're lying'.
"I know, that was my reaction, too," Ron replied, shaking his head.
"No it wasn't. You reacted more like an exploding cauldron," Harry said, emphasizing his point with hand motions and sound effects.
"All the same," Ron said, cutting off Harry's interpretation of potion bits burning the flesh off his face, "I can't believe she would do that. I can understand that she was upset, but that was a little too radical, even for Ginny."
"Well, I don't know," Hermione said knowingly. "If my boyfriend were to cheat on me, I would go to extremes for revenge."
"You mean you would whoop his arse in every class and try to make him feel slow?" Harry asked.
"No, I would try to find a new boyfriend, very quickly, who was better looking, smarter, and sexier than the previous one."
"So that's why she chose Malfoy," Ron mumbled to himself.
"So you're saying," Harry asked Hermione, oblivious to Ron's last comment, "that Ginny picked Malfoy to replace me because I'm not the fastest broom in the bunch and because I don't spend every spare moment either working out or styling my hair?"
"Um, yes. That's pretty much it."
"That's ridiculous!" Harry slapped his hand on the table and started to leave.
"Well, Harry," Hermione asked him, causing him to turn back to her, "why did you choose to cheat on Ginny with Cho?"
"Yeah, mate, I'm still not happy about that," Ron said, sending Harry an angry look. "She's my sister, for Christ's sake. Did you really mean to hurt your best mate's baby sister?"
"No! Not at all!"
"Then why did you do it, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Come on, spill! And the truth this time. Last time, you told me you were 'letting Ginny down slowly while exploring other options'. And you told me you'd dumped Ginny all ready! I don't believe that after this morning. Don't lie to me again, Harry." Ron's face had started turning a light shade of red. Harry knew that this would soon change to a darker shade of red, indicating that Ron was capable of murder. No one messed with a red Weasley.
"All right, all right, I'll tell. But Ron has to stop turning red."
Ron held his hand up in defeat, but his shade of red barely lessened.
"All right. Most of what I told Ron was the truth. It wasn't working out with Ginny. At least, not for me, anyway. I really didn't know how she felt, but our relationship was becoming a little too serious for me. I just wanted to relax a little bit, so I was going to suggest we take a break. So you see; I was going to let her down slowly.
"I know I shouldn't have lied about dumping her, but I was telling everyone I had, explaining that I would prefer if they didn't talk about it, because it was a touchy subject for Ginny. So when Cho asked me to help her study for her Defense Against the Dark Arts test, I saw no problem in it. I didn't realize what she was really planning on.
"We met by the lake, and it surprised me that she didn't have any books. She was sitting with her feet in the water, and I sat down next to her.
"'Harry, do you like me?' she asked.
"I was taken off guard and stuttered out an answer of, 'Well, I...I...I guess. I mean, you...you're pretty, and nice. Yeah, I guess...I do like you.'
She was staring at her feet for a while and I thought I had offended her, until she whispered 'Kiss me,' under her breath."
"And you did?" Hermione asked.
"Well yeah! I mean, it's Cho. I know you're a girl, Hermione, but even you have to see that she's gorgeous."
"So, this morning wasn't the first time you've kissed her?" Ron questioned, turning red once again.
"Well, no."
"Was it the second?" Ron was turning redder as time passed.
"No," Harry squeaked out.
"Harry," Hermione asked calmly, trying to keep Ron from killing Harry, "how long have you been seeing Cho?"
"You mean starting with that day at the lake?"
Ron and Hermione nodded.
"And ending with today?"
They nodded again, steadily growing more impatient.
"Well, I think it's been about...uhm...close to...approximately-"
"Harry," Ron said, with a tight smile, "just tell us. I'm not in the mood for any more excuses. Please don't make me any madder."
Harry looked around for an escape route, but soon found out that all of them would take him close enough to Ron for his friend to jump on him. Harry closed his eyes, readying himself for a blow from Ron.
"A week."
Ron sighed deeply. "All right, I can deal with that. You told me you broke up with Ginny two weeks ago, so I was assuming that it would be longer than that. But for Merlin's sake, Harry, when were you going to tell Ginny? The girl has a right to know!"
"I was going to tell her tomorrow, actually. I wanted to make sure it was going to work with Cho before I dumped her."
"So Ginny was your fall back?" Hermione had been quiet up until now, but this set her off. "Harry James Potter, I'm ashamed of you! You were using Ginny! Saving her in case it fell through with Cho, that's disgusting!" Hermione stood up and stormed out of the room. Ron shook his head and followed.
"Why me?" Harry asked no one in particular, before laying his head on the table.
"Harry?" a voice behind him said.
He looked up to see Cho, who seemed concerned.
"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked, sliding onto the bench beside him.
"Nothing, Cho." Harry hung his head and stared at his hands for a few seconds. Then he shook his head more violently. "Actually, Cho, there's something I need to tell you. You know what happened at breakfast this morning? Well, I haven't been very honest with you lately."
Author notes: Thanks to SniperteamTango and Sleepless for their wonderful reviews! Let me know your thoughts in a review.
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