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Ginny murmured the password to the portrait and slid through the opening without a sound.
It was well past curfew, and the fact that the prefect was her brother wouldn't stop him from taking points from her. She and Dean Thomas had been out snogging in the dark, and they had thought it best to go back to the tower separately, not to give away what they had been doing if they got caught. She had waited half an hour after Dean left, then had glided through the corridors to the seventh floor, by now an expert in avoiding Mrs Norris and Filch.
The common room looked deserted in the reddish glow of the embers, so she almost startled when she heard a moan coming from the middle of the room. She stilled and listened, and after a moment she could detect the very faint sound of heavy breathing coming from the empty space in front of the fire. Puzzled, she waited, and after a couple of second she was rewarded by another faint moan. This time she recognised the sound, having heard it sometimes in the middle of a summer night, when she couldn’t sleep: it was Hermione’s voice.
She started smiling devilishly, comprehension dawning on her. If Hermione was snogging with someone, and they were invisible, they were almost certainly using Harry’s Invisibility Cloak. And the only one who could have borrowed the cloak was her own brother Ron. So that was why he and Lavender had broken up! And about time too, if anyone asked her. Suddenly, an idea started forming in Ginny’s mind. It was clear that the two invisible lovers were too preoccupied snogging to have noticed the portrait opening and closing, so she had surprise on her side. She could feign ignorance about their presence, and pretend to stumble on them where they were lying in the middle of the floor. It was her opportunity to get revenge for all the times her brother had been a dick about her and Dean. Silently, she crossed the room to the nearest armchair; then, gathering all her acting skills, she walked straight through the space between her and the couch. Her right foot hit something invisible on the floor, but while she was trying to feign a stumble her left foot got caught in something, making her lose her balance and fall with an undignified squeak on the floor.
The biggest surprise was awaiting her as she turned around to the commotion behind her. In a confusion of heavy breath, tangled limbs and ruffled hair, the naked upper half of her brother Ron was hanging in the air, trying to cover himself and a shocked Hermione with the invisibility cloak, while an equally shocked and naked Harry shielded himself with Ron’s body. Ron’s ears and neck flushed with a violent shade of red, while Ginny was too surprised to be embarrassed. Harry was frantically looking for his glasses, until Hermione recovered enough to find them and give them to him. Harry’s owlish stare through his glasses was what finally broke Ginny out of her trance. She closed her mouth, which had been hanging open a while, scrambled to her feet and turning around she run upstairs as fast as she could.
When she was in her own bed, door locked and the other girls sleeping soundly around, she felt like she could breathe again, and she immediately blushed thinking about what she had just witnessed. Even to her it had never occurred… Of course, she was happy for Ron and Hermione. The two of them had been dancing around each other for so long, she thought she was going to explode if they didn’t get their heads out of their arses soon. And she had often thought that Ron and Harry could just as well have been married, the way they never left each other’s side even for one second. Harry and Hermione, though, acted more like brother and sister, so much that she had never really been jealous of Hermione when she was pining after Harry. Well, Ginny thought amused, the position she had found them in was the furthest one could get from “siblings”. She was surprised to find that she wasn’t upset at all by her discovery. She had been moving on from Harry for a while, Dean being a great and unexpected help in that, but she hadn’t been sure she had really succeeded. Now, thinking about the three of them together, she couldn’t find an inch of jealousy within her, only amusement and a sense of rightness. They had always been together in everything, from the very first day they met, so it was only natural that even sex and love shouldn’t tear them apart. Satisfied with her feelings about this, Ginny put on her nightclothes and went to sleep.
The morning after was an awkward one. She had gone down to breakfast without much of a thought, but the events of the evening before had been thrusted in her face when she sat in her place beside Dean. In front of them sat the trio, whispering to each other as usual. When they noticed her, identically worried expressions dawned on their faces, a mix of fear and apprehension. She couldn’t keep the smugness out of her face. Ron’s ears went pink again, and he concentrated even harder on his food. Harry was giving her fleeting looks of worry and guilt, like somehow he had done something to hurt her feelings and didn’t know how to apologize. Hermione had shame written all over her face, and couldn’t even meet Ginny’s eyes. As soon as they were done eating, they fled the Great Hall, suddenly in a great hurry to get to class. Ginny had to admit she was finding this immensely funny, especially since she wasn’t at all cross with any of them, but by mid–morning she had taken pity on them and had decided they all needed to talk. As entertaining as frightening the Golden Trio was, she didn’t want them to think they were in any real danger from her. She finally cornered them after dinner, while they were plotting quietly in the common room. Leaving a perplexed Dean behind, she stalked to their table.
– Your dormitory, now. – she said nodding toward Ron, not wanting to give anything away while the rest of the room was in hearing range. Subtly, they all scurried off to the sixth year’s dormitory, trying not to attract any attention to themselves. After they all were in, she locked the door behind her with a charm, and soundproofed it for good measure. Ron and Harry were sitting on Harry’s bed looking guilty, while Hermione was standing guardedly by their side.
– Ginny, we’re sorry for… – she started, as always speaking for all three of them. Ginny just shook her head.
– You have nothing to be sorry about. – Hermione opened her mouth again, but she stopped her with a raised hand. – Let me finish. You have nothing to be sorry about, and nothing to feel guilty about either. I hope you know this already, but you’re my brother and my best friends, and I would never do anything to hurt you or harm you in any way. Your secrets are your own for as long as you want to keep them. I’m on your side, always. –
She smiled to them, and she could see them relax, visibly less tense and worried. Suddenly she was engulfed in a bushy brown haired embrace, Hermione hugging her so tight she had trouble breathing. She returned the hug, and when she was left free Ron was standing beside her, a hand awkwardly on her shoulder.
– Thanks, little sis – he said, and it was more meaningful than a thousand words.
Only Harry remained silent, a slight look of uncertainty on his face. She smiled at him.
– Are you sure you are ok with this? – he asked. “It won’t hurt you?”, he meant.
– Are you happy? – she replied.
He looked to Ron and Hermione, and something softened in his eyes. – Yes – he answered.
– Then yes, of course I am – she said, and she was.