It's Mutual

Chapter One

Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy

Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own the Wizarding World of Harry Potter .. I don't think I could afford to.

Author's Note : This story is rated 'M' for Mature Audiences. Not right away, but in upcoming chapters. I have no idea how long this story will be .. but I'll try to make it decently long and interesting enough. Thanks so much for checking it out (or giving it another shot, as I realize it's been awhile, lol)

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Harry James Potter sat at the long table in the kitchen at 12 Grimmauld Place staring at anything he could find that wasn't the heartbroken expression on Ginny Weasley's face.

Or at least, the expression he was assuming was so, as Ron had told him it was that way not even five minutes previous before his friend had left, storming out of the townhouse, a slew of insults shouted over his shoulder Harry's way.

"Harry…" Ginny began to say slowly. Harry looked up towards her out of the corner of his eye, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. He knew this entire thing was his fault. If he hadn't asked Ron to help him move some things from Grimmauld into the small flat he had bought with Ginny last week, then Ron would have never seen the latest copy of Wet 'N Wild Wizards he had stashed in a Quidditch magazine. If Ron had never seen that magazine, he would have never confronted Harry about it. If he had never confronted Harry about it, Harry wouldn't be sporting a busted lip right now, and Ginny wouldn't have heard the ruckus from the Drawing Room and come to investigate, finding Ron mid-punch and Harry standing there refusing to fight back.

"My sister!" Ron had cried. "How could you do this to my sister?"

Harry had stood there and let Ron hit him, shout at him, and eventually sock him in the mouth. "I technically haven't done anything to her, Ron."

"You're a bloody poof! A fancy nancy! You're-" Ron had stood there with his mouth hanging open, gasping as he searched for the next insult. Harry worried he might suck in a few flies.

"Harry!" Ginny calling him again brought Harry back to the present. Harry jumped slightly and turned his full attention to the youngest Weasley sibling, who was not wearing an expression of betrayal, sadness, anger, or anything Ron had suggested. Instead; she seemed to be… accepting? Knowing, almost.

Harry felt his cheeks redden as he spoke, "you don't seem nearly as upset as Ron said you were."

Ginny raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to reply, seemed to reconsider, and closed it. After several heartbeats of silence, she opened her mouth again. "I think… I think I've known for a while now. I think I've also known that you were never going to tell me yourself, so in a way I'm glad Ron did."

Harry began to argue but was cut off by the floo flaring up and Hermione stepping out, she began to brush the soot off of her pencil skirt and cocked a sculpted eyebrow up at the pair of them standing there looking rather calm. "Ron made it seem as if you were about to hex Harry's genitals onto his forehead." She said simply, moving to the table and summoning the tea tray.

Harry finally spoke. "Gin says she knows I'm a poof," he shrugged, feeling slightly hurt as he remembered the words his best friend of nine years had aimed at him.

A spoon whisked by Harry's head, narrowly avoiding his ear as Hermione summoned it to stir her drink as she said, "Harry, I've known you were gay since fourth year."

Outraged, Harry jumped from the bench, nearly flipping it over as he shouted, "why didn't you think to tell me! I only nicked that magazine off Seamus and Dean last week!"

Ginny began to laugh, "Seamus and Dean look through gay porn magazines? I rather thought they put the sex in homosexual by themselves."

Hermione, who had just brought her cup to her lips, spat a mouthful of Earl Grey out and onto an already sour Kreacher, who was passing by to fix a late lunch. As the liquid landed on his ears, he vanished it with a snap and a snarl, muttering insults under his breath.

"Well, even Seamus and Dean need to spice up their sex live, Ginny," she said, dabbing at her mouth with a conjured handkerchief and looking after Kreacher apologetically.

"Um… 'Mione… Gin? Can you two talk about Seamus and Dean's sex life after we talk about ours?" Harry asked, embarrassed and annoyed.

"Ours?" Ginny asked. "I thought the fact that my brother found a gay porn magazine in your things meant that we need to talk about the fact that we didn't have one anymore."

Harry shrugged, "I dunno. I think I was just curious."

Hermione began snickering behind her teacup. "Harry, Ron wasn't the only one fascinated with Viktor Krum at the World Cup, and Cho wasn't the only one who fancied Cedric Diggory fourth year."

"That doesn't mean that I'm gay."

Ginny piped up from her spot at the other side of the table, "I remember hearing Fred and George saying something about you eyeing Charlie when he came for the Tournament that year too." Harry rolled his eyes and began to wonder if she had been flipping through Wet 'N Wild this entire time or if she just started, and how he had missed it if she had.

Hermione snapped her fingers quickly and sat her cup down so fast that some of it sloshed out onto the table, "and you never liked kissing Cho fifth year!"

Harry crossed his arms across his chest and huffed, "that was just because I was starting to realize I wanted to… be with Ginny?" he regretted it the second he said it, as he realized it sounded like a question.

"Yeah, halfway through sixth year when I was dating Dean," Ginny scoffed, barely looking up from the magazine with glossy, dilated eyes.

Hermione shook her head, and looked at the clock on the wall and cursed under her breath, "I have to get back to the office. I told Withersbee I was only nipping to the loo for my monthly. If I'm gone any longer he'll get suspicious. Although, he probably already is by the way Ron came running into my office, red faced and steaming out the ears. I'll floo you later Gin, I want a peek at that!" she called as she threw some powder into the fireplace and was gone with a call of, "The Ministry Atrium!"

With Hermione gone, Harry opened his mouth again, "I think you're right. I don't think I would have told you. Because honestly… I'm not entirely sure myself."

Ginny closed the magazine and placed it down in front of her. Moving around the table, she straddled the bench and patted in front of her for Harry to sit. Once he had, she gave him a sad smile. "Harry, that isn't fair on either of us though… think of it. You could actually discover that you prefer to have a man in your bed at night. And if we continue the engagement, and get married, I don't want you to feel trapped by it. You could be happy with a man. Look at Seamus and Dean, for instance. It wouldn't be right to be together and then years down the line, maybe you aren't comfortable asking for a divorce, so you cheat and things fall apart quickly."

Harry nodded his head, looking at the ring on Ginny's finger he had found in the Potter vaults at Gringott's. It was a gold band with a ruby stone. Two small diamonds sat on either side of the ruby. According to the goblin who had showed him to the vault, the ring had belonged to his great-grandmother who had been a Gryffindor as well and was named Virginia, often called Ginny. The similarities were the reason he decided to give the ring to the redhead in front of him. Ginny liked little facts like that.

Ginny looked at her finger too, twisting the ring around and Harry answered the unasked question floating in the air between them. "Keep the ring Gin. I want you to have it. I think my great-grandmother would have wanted you to have it as well."

A smirk slowly formed on Ginny's face, "you weren't going to get this ring back anyway. I love it too much."

Harry smiled, but their was a slight tension in the room, and not a sound for a while except for the mutterings of Kreacher as he banged the pots and pans, loudly and probably on purpose, preparing their meal.

Ginny stood from the table and summoned the magazine into her outstretched hand. "You done with this? I was going to head to the flat and flip through it some more. Hermione wants a look too, when she comes later."

Harry nodded his head, "er… yes. You can take it. Just… I don't know how I'm going to sneak it back to Seamus and Dean's."

Ginny grinned, "I've got it. I'm heading over there later anyway. Seamus wants the team to make an appearance at the pub or something… do autographs and such, wants to talk it over with me first."

Harry nodded his head once in affirmation, his stomach beginning to growl and the smell of freshly baked bread coming his way.

"Right, well… you're beginning to get lost to the idea of food, I can see that now," Ginny rolled her eyes and kissed Harry on the cheek, saying she'd talk to him the next day before stepping into the floo and calling out the address of the flat they had bought together. Harry mentally hexed himself for forgetting to ask her how she wanted to take care of that, since they were broken up now, and he assumed they weren't going to be living together.

Kreacher suddenly appeared in front of Harry and bowed lowly, "Lunch will be done soon, Master," he said with the same fake kindness he always used to address Harry before vanishing back to the stove with a 'pop'.

Harry mumbled his thanks and stood from the table, thinking about the firewhiskey in the library that might take away his headache. Or make it worse. Either way, it would put him to sleep if he drank enough of it.

As he made his way into the library, he saw Dean's owl perched upon the back of one of the sofas. There was a note tied to his leg which Harry untied and read, his heart racing as he read the words;

Did you nick our magazine? -Dean

I KNOW YOU DID. GEORGE OWES ME 5 GALLEONS. -Seamus

A small smile played across his lips as he read the part from Seamus, but the anxiety grew as he realized that five people now knew about the magazine… maybe more if Ron had gone and blabbed. He was dreading the day when he had to tell those in his life.

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Author's Note : That's Chapter One! Thanks so much! Tell me what you think… I'll have the next one up soon, loves.

~Princess