Ginny pulled her hair up away from her neck and bent down, picking up Dean's clothes from the floor and throwing them into the hamper by the door. She'd elected, some would say forced, him to live here, but she didn't have to like the fact that he was messy just like every other guy she knew. They were incapable of using a hamper. Oddly, the fact that his painting supplies littered her room didn't bother her a bit. That was Dean, and everywhere she saw a tube of paint or a stick of charcoal, she smiled.

Actually, the fact that they were having this night was the only thing that had made her smile in the past two days, which was why she was trying so hard to make it special. Dean was picking out the movies, since he knew more about them than she could. She'd suggested a comedy, hoping to cheer herself up via the fictional characters and the extremely bad food they'd be having. Extremely bad because she only allowed herself to eat large amounts of candy and soda on happy occasions, and Harry making full Auror status definitely counted as a happy occasion, despite how she was feeling on the inside.

She'd been stupid and grabbed a few bottles of wine as well, knowing that she really couldn't embarrass herself in front of Dean, Luna and Harry. More than likely, they'd all seen her at her worse.

She made her way down the stairs, lugging the full hamper. It was times like this she longed for a house-elf, but she really couldn't see herself ever having one.

She set the hamper at the bottom of the stairs and smiled as Dean walked through the door, bags in hand. "And our selection tonight will be?"

Dean grinned and handed her the smaller of the bags. "Ahh, this evening, we will be feasting on cheesy goodness... that is, Pizza and John Cusack." Turning towards the kitchen, he said, "Go ahead and pick a movie. I'll put away the pizza and get out the plates."

She grabbed the bag from his hands as he passed with the pizza, grinning when she pulled the first one out. "You know, I've never seen 'Say Anything' in all our movies nights? You kept suggesting it..." She followed him into the kitchen, sitting at the island as he moved around, grabbing plates and glasses. "I hope it doesn't disappoint."

"Not if you have a single romantic bone in your body, it won't," Dean replied as he set the boxes on island. He popped something into the icebox, before reaching into a cabinet for the dishes. "If you don't, by the end of the movie, have both teary eyes and a new-found love for Peter Gabriel, I'll..." He pondered for a moment. "Actually I don't know what I'll do. Eat my hat, or something?"

"You don't have a hat." She said, grinning. It was very odd, watching him move around the kitchen. She was used to watching Luna do it. She could cook, she just preferred not to. "Luna! Food's here!"

Luna had been in the library, reading a book on wizarding politics of the 1400s. It was dreadfully dull, but there were worse things she had done in the search for a story. She didn't want to think about that night in Venice, though.

When she heard her name called, she happily set aside the book and climbed the stairs, the smell of pizza making her stomach growl.

"'Lo, Dean, Gin. That smells heavenly. Can we eat now, or should we wait for Harry?" She really hoped it was the former. Had she even bothered to eat lunch earlier?

"Hi, Luna. We can graze a bit before Harry gets here. I picked up enough pizza for tonight and a couple days of leftovers," Dean said cheerfully, opening a box and sliding it across the island towards her.

Ginny and Luna reached forward at the same time, each grabbing a slice. Ginny smiled with a mouthful at Dean, forgetting her manners and talking with her mouth full. "You know, I think you and Harry might be the only people we'd let see us like this. Honestly. Stuffing our faces?"

Dean snorted. "Better than the whole 'I'll just have a salad' thing that women seem to do on dates. I swear, do women think it's attractive to watch them eat next to nothing, while listening to their stomachs growling the whole time?" Making a disgusted noise he added, "I like a woman who goes at things with a little gusto."

"I don't do that," Luna said after swallowing her mouthful of pizza. "Not the salad thing, at least. Dates are awkward enough without having to be hungry, from what I remember of them." She took another bite of pizza and moved the movie cases around so that she could read the backs. "Are these all the same bloke, then?"

"Yeah. John Cusack. He's bloody brilliant. Of course he's a Yank, but nobody's perfect." Dean turned to Ginny. "Are you planning to open that wine anytime soon?"

Ginny opened her mouth to say 'go ahead and open it' when she heard the front door open. She turned on the stool, smiling brilliantly when Harry walked down the hallway towards them. "For he's a jolly good fellow!"

Rolling his eyes, Harry shrugged out of his jacket. "If you start singing, I'm leaving."

"Hey!" She smiled, jumping out of her seat to wrap her arms around his shoulders. "I told you you'd be fine," she whispered, squeezing him.

He smiled at Dean over her shoulder, hugging her back. "Yeah, yeah. When have I ever listened to you?"

Pulling back, she smiled. "That's the honest truth." Ginny made room for him at the island as he reached for a piece of pizza. "Hungry?"

"Starved." He looked over at Dean, who was uncorking a bottle of wine. "I'll take one of those." He took a bite of the pizza, turning to smile at Luna. "How's the Quibbler?"

"Good," Luna replied, hastily covering her still-full mouth with her hand. Once she swallowed and tried to stealthily clean off any pizza grease that might be clinging to her face -- a task that she couldn't help but feel that she failed at -- she smiled at him. "So far no one's complained about the rise in price, and this month's issue is so popular that we're doing a second printing. We haven't had to do that since the war ended.

"Congratulations on passing your exams. I thought about sending a good luck card or something. But it didn't occur to me until lunch. Sorry."

He smiled. He was surprised she even thought she'd need to. Gin's card had been a surprise, and he and Luna had never been particularly close. Actually, he couldn't recall a time in the last 4 years he'd seen her without Ginny being present. "Don't worry about it. This one here had it covered."

Ginny smiled. "That I did. If you thought you weren't getting a card, you were mental. It's be like Mum not knitting you a sweater. It just doesn't work that way." She raised her eyebrows at Dean as he handed her a glass of wine. "Thanks, love. How did you know I needed a drink?"

Dean grinned. "Because I'm psychoti... Psychic!" he said with a laugh. "Because I'm psychic. I thought you knew."

"I believe psychotic more," Luna teased as she accepted her own glass of wine. "I saw that look you gave me when I accidentally knocked over that tube of paint. You can be bloody scary when you want."

"Moi? Scary? Perish the thought!" He adopted a ridiculously overdone expression of innocence. "I'm the very soul of kindness. I help kittens out of trees, walk old ladies across the street..." Dean's smile turned teasing, "refrain from murdering someone who ruined a ten-galleon tube of ochre..." Dean hefted the bottle. "Anyone else care for a glass?"

"I'll have one." Harry nodded at Dean before looking over at Ginny. "Why are Dean's paints here?"

Ginny smiled at Dean before turning to look at Harry. "Um..."

Harry smiled back, his eyebrows furrowing. "What?"

"Dean's staying here."

"Oh." Harry nodded, grabbing another slice of pizza. "Downstairs on the couch?"

She took a larger sip of her wine and turned to look at Dean.

"Bitch," he whispered as he sat beside her. Turning to Harry he said, "I'm afraid not, mate. Sadly, that wasn't one of the options given to me. Kicks like a mule, this one does."

Harry looked between them. Ginny was not trying to hide her grin. He narrowed his eyes. "Yeah?" He bit into the slice of pizza. He looked at Dean with a raised eyebrow. "Where are you staying, then?Sunroom?"

"In her room, actually." Dean shot a sidelong glance at Ginny. Seeing her smug little grin he turned to Harry. "How could I not? She's warm, loves to snuggle and... Say, Harry, has she always done that cute little snoring thing?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye. At Harry's amused nod, Dean grinned. "Adorable isn't it?"

Ginny frowned. "I don't snore."

Nodding, Harry grinned at Dean. "She really does snore. It's not really cute. Especially with those knees."

"I don't snore!" She looked over at Luna. "You've slept beside me! Tell them!"

Luna almost spit her wine out when all eyes turned to her. "Well, you actually do. It's not that bad, really. I could see it being called cute." She fiddled a bit with one of the movie boxes. "By the way," she mumbled. "If Ronald sends you a howler about Dean living here, I'm sorry." She then continued in a brighter voice. "Who's ready to watch a movie?"

Ginny stood, putting her hands out in front of her. "Whoa. First," she turned and pointed at Harry. "I do not snore, and I'm offended you'd even suggest it. They're only agreeing because you're intimidated by you." She turned back to Dean. "You have no idea how many knees to the ribs you'll be getting tonight. Seriously. You're going to have bruises and I will not be healing you." She turned to Luna and shook her head. "And you? You're supposed to be my best friend! Why on earth would you tell my older brother that I'm sleeping with a man every night? That's like... alright, I don't know what that's like, but when I think of somehow to get you back, I will."

She grabbed her glass of wine and rose an eyebrow. "Let's take this downstairs before I start getting angry."

"I did not tell him that you were sharing a bedroom," Luna explained, grabbing her glass and a box of pizza. "Just that he'd moved in, which Ronald said he knew anyway. Give me some credit for having a little tact, Gin. Mind you, it's usually shoved out of the way byflibbitygibbits, but it is there."

"And you know we love you, Gin," Dean added, giving her a hug. "Snores and all." He took the slap to the back of his head with a laugh.

"Yeah, and you're going to love my bony little knees digging into your bony little sides." She made her way down the stairs behind Luna, her glass and an extra bottle of wine in hand. She flopped on the over-sized couch in the basement. She looked over at Harry. "So, how was the actual testing?"

"Fine." He sat down next to Luna, grabbing the box from her hands and grabbing another slice. He was hungry. "The practical exam wasn't hard, but the laws and procedures section was a bitch." He leaned back against the cushion, putting his arm along the back of the couch. He shrugged, biting into the pizza. "Only 4 of us made it. Out of 15."

"That's not good." Ginny said, taking another sip of her wine. "You always did suck at the paper portion. Not having Hermione there was a bad thing I take it."

"Understatement." He sighed, looking over at Dean. "So what have you been up to, Mate? Gin told me about you making Master. Congratulations."

"Thanks, Harry." Dean grinned suddenly. "That reminds me - I have something for you. Consider it a little gift for your graduation." He ran up the stairs.

Luna felt awkward. The other three were her friends, but they seemed to be so much closer to each other than she felt to them. Which was why she was sitting, silently eating pizza, and watching the byplay. But once Dean left to retrieve his present for Harry, the room descended into silence. Oddly uncomfortable with it, with her own reluctance to speak, she cast around for a topic of discussion.

"How's the clinic going, Gin?"

Ginny shrugged, leaning against the arm of the couch. "Fine. Booked a few appointments for next week. Mostly kids, which is what I was hoping for. Getting kids as patients means they'll use Healing Hands while they grow. Years commitment, if I do everything correctly. I have the wards set for an emergency, but we've only been open for a week and some. I'm not expecting anything, really." She smiled at Harry. "Though, if you notice anyone hurt and bleeding while going around and doing Auror stuff, I wouldn't be adverse to you sending them my way instead of St. Mungo's."

Harry frowned. "I think it's procedure to send everyone to St. Mungo's."

"Well, the procedure sucks." Ginny took another large sip of her wine, reaching for the bottle. The last time she'd drunk like-

She changed the subject. "Where the hell is Dean and what the hell does he have for you?"

Harry rose an eyebrow. "You think I know? I didn't even know he was living here."

"Well, you need to be around more often."

Dean came down the stairs, hefting a rather large something. "I'd decided to give this to you for Christmas, but I figured that now was as good a time as any." He paused for a moment. "Bugger. Now I have to come up with another Christmas gift." Shaking his head, Dean handed the flat parcel to Harry. "Anyway, here you go. Congratulations, and all that rot," He said with a grin.

Harry grabbed the package with a raised eyebrow. "Alright. I didn't know men gave each other presents, but thanks?" He grinned up at Dean before picking at the edges of the paper.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, just open it."

He leveled Ginny with a glare. "Just because you can't wait to open things doesn't mean other people can't either."

Ginny sat back against the cushions, narrowing her eyes. Harry rolled his own before grabbing the paper and opening it. He looked up at Dean. "You did this?"

"Yup. It was the piece I submitted for my mastery, as a matter of fact. Gin has the original." Dean walked over to the television and popped in High Fidelity before sitting down beside Ginny.

Luna leaned closer to Harry in order to get a better look at the painting. It really was beautiful. Dean had managed to capture Gin's likeness exactly, but it was more than just her image. The painting seemed to radiate pure Ginny.

"It's very good," Luna said as she tried to sit upright again. She had somehow managed to become on the edge of overbalancing and was forced to place her hand on Harry's leg in order to lever herself upright. She smiled apologetically at him and turned to watch the previews that were playing.

Dean leaned over to whisper in Ginny's ear, "Are you sure I can't meddle, just a little bit? I mean, just look at them! They're both single, and lonely, and insanely cute together..."

Ginny turned from the TV to look at her friends. They were both sitting, looking at the screen. Not even the lines of their bodies were touching. She turned to look at Dean. "You're mental." She pulled back further, looking at him with narrowed eyes. "Why are you- You've been smiling a lot lately. Why are you smiling? Why would-" Her eyes widened and she pulled her legs under herself, turning to face him and sucking in air. "Why are you smiling, Dean?"

Dean had never been so happy to be born black as he was right now. It hid the blush that he felt burning on his cheeks. "Umm... because I'm happy? I'm spending quality time with my friends and my platonic life partner. Why wouldn't I be smiling?" he said with an innocent smile.

She grinned. "Your platonic life partner who knows when you are lying your little arse off! You're lying to me! Dean Thomas, I swear to Circe, I know when you're lying and you're lying!"

Ginny looked over at Luna. "He is totally lying!" She turned back to Dean. "Lying!"

"I never should have shown you The Princess Bride," Dean muttered sourly. "I am not lying. I'm just in a good mood, that's all."

Luna blinked at the two of them, wondering what in the world they could be talking about. A quick glance at Harry showed that he was just as confused as she was. She listened to them for a moment and got the general gist of the conversation. Dean had obviously had sex. Even she could tell that he was on a better mood, and she wasn't exactly known for noticing things that were right in front of her face.

"The movie's starting," she said. Dean having sex was none of her business. And she wanted to watch this Cusack bloke.

Harry sent Dean a knowing glance before turning back to the TV with a smirk.

Bugger! Dean thought. Pulling Gin's legs across his lap in their usual movie-watching pose, he tried to ignore the various looks, smirks and glares... especially Ginny's.

"Who was she?" She waved her hand in front of his face when he didn't look like he'd heard her. "Hello? I asked who she was. Who was she?"

"Who says there was a 'she'? I never said that there was a 'she'! Not that 'she' would be a 'he'... though there's nothing wrong with that, of course..." Dean sighed. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

Ginny cocked her head to the side. "Do you even know me just a little bit, Dean Thomas? Even a little bit?" She held her fingers up just a few millimeters apart. "Come on. Tell me." She smiled, "Come on... come on!"

"Fine," he said a bit petulantly. Pulling out his portfolio, he enlarged it and handed it to Ginny. "If you really want to know, she's in there. All you have to do is find her."

Ginny grabbed the portfolio and pulled it into her lap. She flipped through it, looking over. Her eyebrows rose. "You had sex with Hannah Abbott?"

Harry's head spun around. "WHAT?"

Blinking at Harry's surprisingly vehement reaction, Dean hesitantly said, "Ooookay... I'm not saying that I did, since I do not like that look in your eye one little bit, Mr Potter, but would it be such a bad thing if I had?"

Ginny laughed. "Besides the fact that Blaise Zabini would hex your bollocks off?" She heard Luna's intake of breath and turned. "Sorry. I didn't mean to say bollocks."

Luna coughed raggedly, the wine she had inhaled burning her throat. Bugger, wine going down the wrong pipe was uncomfortable. She could feel her face start to flush and ducked her head to allow her hair to hide her face. She was glad that Zabini had settled things with his Hannah, but it was a bit startling to hear about that when she wasn't expecting it.

Feeling calmer, she lifted her head and looked over at Ginny and Dean, who were eyeing her worriedly. "I'm fine," she said. "It just startled me, is all."

As she was looking away from them, she caught Harry's eyes and could see the knowledge in them. He knew! Somehow he bloody knew that she had slept with Zabini. Quickly she looked away and refocused on the screen.

Harry didn't press the issue, but he was still having an issue with Zabini having touched her. Just the thought itself made him sick to his stomach. Luna was... Luna was Ginny's friend who wore the radish earrings and fought side by side with him in battle. She didn't go around shaggingSlytherins. It'd be worse, he supposed, if it had been Malfoy. He didn't think he could take that.

He turned back to the screen, but couldn't help but notice how tense she was next to him. He took pity, knowing she probably wouldn't want Gin to know. "They're apparently disgustingly happy together now. Air Supply is back on the radio, but at least this time it's not a sad song. Or... Celine Dion."

She sent a smile in his direction, touched that he was trying to make her feel better. She relaxed slightly and once again focused on Lloyd's antics.

Dean sat frozen in shock as he made the connections. Oh. My. God. She totally had sex with him! And Hannah knows. And Harry, too. Seeing the speculative look on Ginny's face, Dean realized that she didn't. And Luna would be mortified if she ever found out. He sighed. The things I do for my friends. Turning to Ginny he said lightly, "So, now that we've established that I'm definitely not shagging Hannah Abbott - no matter how lovely she looks in her unmentionables - would you care to take another guess?"

Ginny rose an eyebrow and turned back to the portfolio. She continued to flip through. She didn't pause on Tracey Davis. She knew that Dean wouldn't be having sex with her. She wasn't his type. He needed someone sweet. Or, she thought he did. Someone who had potential. She didn't want him in a relationship strictly based on sex. Attraction just wasn't enough to base a relationship on.

Perhaps her own thoughts and feelings were coloring this belief, but it was the truth. Almost no one was going to be good enough for Dean, not in Ginny's eyes. She might not fancy him like that, but she'd be damned if she let someone hurt him. Ginny could hold a grudge, and while it wasn't really an attractive attribute, it was a strong one.

She rose an eyebrow when a particularly naked and posing witch came next. "Well... she's certainly... limber... isn't she?" She turned the portfolio, her lips quirking with a smirk. "Blimey but she's not shy at all."

Dean shrugged nonchalantly. "I suppose not. At least, not when she's trying to taunt a bloke with what he'd thrown away, at any rate."

Ginny's giggled turned into a gasp when her head whipped around to look at Dean. "This is Alicia Spinnet!"

"Indeed," he replied. "She owled me about doing some sketches of her yoga class. She got the idea for that," Dean said, pointing to the portfolio, "while we were having lunch afterwards."

She turned back to look at the painting, raising an eyebrow when Alicia's image contorted to a new position. "And you wonder why I'm afraid to sit for you. Everyone you paint ends up taking off their clothes. Or... most of them."

Her head slowly turned back to Dean. He was still smirking and looking down at the painting. It clicked. "Her. It was her."

Dean grinned. "What makes you say that? Why, you haven't even made it to the intriguing Ms. MacDougal yet."

"Oh, shove it, Harry had sex with Mac, not you."

Harry's attention was pulled away from the screen. "What?"

Ginny smiled. "I knew it!"

Dean's eyebrows rose. "And does Neville know about this? He had a date with her a week or so ago. I think that he's a bit fascinated by her, not that I blame him."

Harry's eyes darkened. "Yes. I know all about the date."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't let him fool you. He's not mad about them getting together. Mac told me she made him go dress shopping with her."

"Hey!" Harry frowned. "You weren't there. You don't know what I had to go through." He sighed, pushing himself farther back into the cushions. "It was horrible."

"This from the man who faced down the Dark Lord and won. Harry Potter, scared of skirts. It's ridiculous." Ginny dodged the pillow he lobbed at her head, laughing. "Baby man!" Her head rolled back until it was looking at Dean. "So you and Alicia huh?"

Ignoring the question for the moment, Dean chuckled. "I feel your pain, Har. This one," he said, tickling Ginny's feet, "seems to think that I'm her victim of choice when it comes to torture-by-shopping." Grinning, he added, "And it could have been worse, mate. You could have been drafted for Gin and Luna's frilly knickers binge."

"How would you know about that, Dean Thomas?" Luna asked. She was not pleased by him bringing up her knickers in front of Harry, who had no reason at all to know about whether or not they were frilly. "I don't recall you there that day."

Shrugging, he replied, "Gin mentioned your little excursion after I walked in on her wearing 'em when I first moved in." Dean noted Luna's annoyed glare. "I'm sorry, love. I didn't think it was a big deal." And getting Harry to think about you in your knickers isn't a bad thing either, he thought. He wasn't averse to doing a little meddling, after all.

Luna sent a short glare in her friend's direction. Circe, first telling Malfoy that she slept nude, now Dean about her silky knickers. She was beginning to wonder if Gin had any sort of filter between her brain and her mouth when it came to her room mate's habits. Who knows who else she might have said something to. "It's not really a big deal, I guess," she allowed after a moment. "I just prefer it when my knickers are not a topic of conversation."

Ginny had the grace to blush and burrowed a little farther down into the cushions, well as much as she could with her legs over Dean's lap. "I believe the exact conversation just had me saying we'd gone on a frilly knickers expedition. I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal." She hated it when Luna was mad at her. Ginny didn't have many friends who were girls, never really liking most of them to be honest, and she really didn't want to make the one who could stand her angry.

She looked over at Dean and sent him a glare. "Alicia Spinnet?"

Luna frowned in confusion. "What does Alicia Spinnet have to do with my silky knickers?" She looked at Harry, who seemed to be suppressing laughter. "Did I miss something?"

Dean just groaned in embarrassment, and from the sudden - and vivid - mental image of Ali and Luna parading about in nothing but skimpy knickers. Shaking himself, he looked up to see Harry losing his battle against laughter.

Harry smiled at Luna, forgetting how innocent and spacey she could be for a second. Her look of confusion was actually pretty cute. "Ginny is making fun of Dean for sleeping with AliciaSpinnet. I don't know why, though, because she's quite fit."

"And older. And a quidditch star." Ginny turned her glare from Harry back to Dean. "She's too pretty." At his face, she sighed. "I don't mean she's too pretty for you. I mean she's pretty and aquidditch star and probably has men, and quite possible women, throwing themselves at her right and left. I know Ron never has a shortage of birds hanging about."

Dean's expression darkened. "Gin..." he sighed, trying to collect his thoughts. "There are two ways ways I could take that, and neither of them is particularly good. Either you're saying that a good friend of mine is a slag, or you're telling me that since she can have anyone she wants, she couldn't possibly be interested in me." Dean shook his head. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes we've had sex and no, we're not dating." Seeing Ginny's look, he held his hands up and said quickly, "No, Gin, it wasn't a one night stand. We're friends. We care about each other, but neither of us is looking for a relationship right now."

Ginny's eyes widened and she saw up a little straighter. "What? No-" She turned and glared at her wine glass before looking back to him. "I didn't mean that at all. I meant that I know you, Dean Thomas. You like women. You respect women, and no one is good enough for you. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Well, it came out wrong, Gin." Harry smiled slightly when she sent a scathing look his way. "Hey, I'm just saying."

"I didn't mean it like that at all, Dean. I didn't. You're one of my good friends, and I know I'm a healer, but..." she frowned. "I don't want to have to fix you."

"The I guess we're lucky that I'm fairly sturdy. Unbreakable, even." Dean leaned over and hugged her. "I love you Gin, and I love that you care so much, but I know what I'm getting into. Ali and I may not be a couple, or 'in love', but we do care about each other."

Ginny pushed against his chest, glaring at him. "Thanks for making me feel like a girl, Dean. I thought I was going to have to start crying."

"I'd be making an inappropriate joke 'bout your feeling like a girl, but I don't feel like having "The-Boy-Who-Kicks-Much-Ass" over there hexing mybludgers off," Dean said with a grin.

"Could I, for once, not be the boy who did something?"

"You haven't been possessed by fanspis," Luna told him, patting him sympathetically on the arm. "Which is actually very good since I can't imagine you with green skin. I think your eyes would get lost like that. And they really are your best feature." Deciding that they had moved away from topics she was interested in, she turned back to the veletision where the bloke was holding some sort of box over his head. She had missed enough of the movie that she really had no idea what was going on, but she was enjoying it anyway.

Harry looked at Luna with a smile on his face, even after she'd already turned away. Turning back to the movie, he settled back into the couch.

Ginny turned and looked at Dean, who had a smile on his face. "Shut up."


Summary: Ginny, Luna and Dean spend some quality time with their favorite Auror. Fun and slightly tipsy confusion follows.