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A Taste of Honey
By indywriter

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Category: Pumpkin Juice Challenge (2018-2), Pumpkin Juice Challenge (2018-2)
Characters:Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny, Luna Lovegood
Genres: Fluff, Humor, Romance
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 12
Summary: ** Winner for Most Romantic in the Pumpkin Juice Challenge
Someone's spiked the pumpkin juice just in time for the Valentine's Day Feast, and Hogwarts students are acting strangely indeed. Is the time finally right for Harry and Ginny to find each other? And will it take magic to make it happen?
Hitcount: Story Total: 3114



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.



Author's Notes:
The title may be "A Taste of Honey," but there's a fair amount of cheese here. This is a stressful time of the year for my job, so I wanted to just have a little fun. I hope you enjoy this too...




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Ginny looked around the Great Hall with perplexed dismay. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she was fairly certain she didn’t like it. Everyone seemed to be acting quite strangely. Valentines Day always seemed to bring out at least a little bit of crazy in the Hogwarts student body, but this wasn’t the usual sort of crazy.

She shook her head as she realized that she had determined various levels of crazy for her home away from home. Her attention was drawn to the Gryffindor table where she saw Ron talking earnestly to Hermione. Harry sat with them, but Ginny could tell that he was merely an observer to his best friends’ conversation. It must have been an interesting topic, whatever it was, seeing as Harry’s jaw couldn’t possibly drop open any farther than it already had. His eyes were wide and he appeared quite stunned.

Ginny’s concentration was broken by shouts from the Ravenclaw table. Michael Corner and Cho Chang, who had been kissing only moments ago, were now arguing loudly.

“What’s your problem?” Michael demanded.

Cho’s eyes glittered dangerously. “You said you loved me, but it’s obvious that I can’t compete with your first love - YOU!”

Michael sputtered indiginantly but didn’t deny the accusation. “Whatever makes you say that?”

Cho’s answer was lost to Ginny when Draco Malfoy stepped in front of her. His face held the superior smirk it always carried when they ran into each other. “Weaselette.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him just what he could do with his smirk, but something seemed off. He eyed her up and down, raising an eyebrow and moving his mouth in such a way that Ginny felt a shudder run through her. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn…

“It’s your lucky day.” His voice felt like an unwelcome caress. “I’m choosing you.”

Ginny waited, but Draco didn’t continue. “You’re choosing me? For what?” She waited for the inevitable insult that would follow.

Draco looked at her as if she were simple-minded. “To be my girlfriend, of course.” His tone was such that he clearly expected her to accept him without question.

Shocked, Ginny laughed out loud. “I thought it was Valentine’s Day, not April Fools, but that’s a good one, Malfoy.” She continued to chuckle, until she noticed Draco’s growing irritation. “Wait, you’re not serious, are you?”

With narrowed eyes he answered tersely, “Of course I’m serious. But I’m beginning to rethink bestowing such an honor on a blood traitor like yourself. I guess you’ll just have to make it up to me.” He surprised her by reaching out and stroking her cheek. Reflexively Ginny pulled away, but Draco grabbed her chin. “I’m sure I can think of a few ways you could do that.”

Ginny tried to pull away again, only to have Malfoy increase his grip. Before she could slip her wand out of her pocket, she heard a familiar incantation. Grinning, she watched as Draco grabbed at his nose in a futile attempt to fend off his bogeys as they grew and transformed into bats. He pushed her aside and ran screaming from the Great Hall.

Ginny turned to thank her savior and found herself drowning in the green eyes that had haunted her dreams since her first year of school. Realizing his mouth was moving, she shook herself from her reverie and focused on what he was saying.

“...know you can take care of yourself, but everyone’s been acting strangely today. I saw him grab you and just knew what you would do. Sorry I beat you to the punch, but I’ve always wanted to try that spell.” Harry ruffled his hair as he shrugged.

Ginny reached her right hand out to touch Harry’s arm reassuringly, but he shifted at the same moment and she ended up catching hold of his hand. Normally she would have dropped it immediately, but she was feeling particularly emboldened so she decided to keep ahold and squeezed his hand gently. “It’s okay, Harry. I wasn’t going to yell.” She thought back to Draco’s behavior. “Well, I wasn’t going to yell at you anyway. Draco was definitely going to get a piece of my mind though.”

Harry chuckled and squeezed her hand in return, making no move to pull away. “What exactly was the ferret trying to do anyway?”

Shaking her head uncertainly, Ginny explained. “He announced that he’d chosen me to be his girlfriend.” She took in Harry’s shock and smiled. “I was surprised to say the least. And let’s just say that my response offended him.”

Harry grinned. “I’ll just bet it did. He’s used to people fawning all over him, and I can’t see that happening with you.”

“Er, no.” Her smile faded as she continued. “Then he told me that I could make it up to him, and he made it clear just how he thought I could do that.” She rubbed her chin with her free hand, annoyed to find it tender after Malfoy’s rough handling.

Harry’s green eyes narrowed in apparent anger. “He’s lucky all he got was a bat bogey hex. You probably would have hit him with much worse. I’m sorry I interfered; I would have liked to see you set his kneecaps on fire.”

Ginny’s chest swelled with pride. Harry clearly wanted to punish Draco. But instead of storming off and doing it himself or telling her what he would have done, he apologized for not letting her do it herself. Dean Thomas, her off-again boyfriend, would have acted like Malfoy’s advances were a personal offence to him. He wouldn’t have trusted her to take care of herself, which was just one of the reasons she’d broken up with him last month.

She looked at Harry and smiled sweetly, “Draco would have been lucky if it was just his knees I set fire to.”

Harry laughed, squeezing her hand. “I can just picture it.”

Looking around the Great Hall again, Ginny noticed that her brother and Hermione seemed to be completely unaware of anyone else’s presence. Their lips were joined, their hands entwined, and not even one of the Hogwarts’ ghosts could have passed between them. She felt her eyes goggle and her mouth drop open.

Harry’s gaze followed hers. “Yeah. That’s… new.” She could hear the shrug in his tone. “Not that we haven’t known for years that they both felt this way, but we’d just started eating dinner and Ron started confessing his feelings.”

“Ron?” Ginny looked at Harry, thoroughly nonplussed. “My brother, Ron? Ronald Bilius Weasley? He simply confessed his feelings? To Hermione?”

Harry grinned. “I know. I was shocked too.” He looked around, his gaze pausing when it reached Luna. She looked vaguely intrigued, yet also rather satisfied. She kept glancing at Romilda Vane, who appeared to be seething. Harry’s eyes narrowed. “I have a feeling Luna might know something about all this.”

He pulled Ginny along behind him as he approached the Ravenclaw table, ducking as Cho Chang lobbed a drumstick at Michael Corner’s head. “Hey Luna, do you know what’s going on?”

Luna looked up and nodded, setting her radish earrings dancing. “Most of the time. But sometimes I do get a little lost in thought.”

Harry blinked. “I meant, do you know what’s going on right now? Do you know why everyone’s acting so strangely?”

“Oh that.” Luna smiled her enigmatic smile and nodded again. “I caught Romilda Vane adding Amortentia to the pumpkin juice in the kitchens. But instead of telling on her, I decided to balance it all out with a little Veritaserum.”

“Oh Luna,” sighed Ginny. Then she looked puzzled. “So that must mean that people will fall in love but also tell the truth?”

“Based on my observations, anyone who drinks the pumpkin juice will profess their love only to the person they truly love or desire. That person, if they have also had some pumpkin juice, will respond to the one they love in return.”

Harry thought for a moment. “So Ron and Hermione…”

“Were obviously in love with each other already, but the potions made them finally admit it,” Ginny added. “While Cho and Michael…”

“Aren’t really in love, but seem to be attracted to each other,” supplied Harry.

Luna appeared pleased with their logic. “I would agree. What was really interesting though was Draco.”

Harry felt a tremor run through Ginny via their still entwined hands. He looked up at her in time to see her grimace.

“It might have been interesting to watch, but it was fairly shocking to be part of.” Ginny’s tone was almost sarcastic, but Harry could detect a note of unease.

Harry squeezed Ginny’s hand, drawing her eyes to his. “Why don’t we get out of here? Maybe get some fresh air in the Courtyard?” At Ginny’s grateful nod, they said their farewells to Luna and slipped out of the Great Hall just as Crabbe declared his undying love for Millicent Bulstrode.

The Courtyard however was nearly as chaotic as the Great Hall. Every nook and cranny seemed to hold canoodling students who declared their love for each other, while the more open spaces seemed filled with arguing couples. They ran up to the Gryffindor common room only to discover more of the same. The hallways were noisy with murmured words of love and disdain.

Finally Harry led Ginny down to the kitchens. They were relieved to find that either the house elves were immune to the effects of the pumpkin juice or they hadn’t indulged. Dobby was delighted to find Harry and Miss Wheezy in need of his assistance and quickly fetched them some dinner. As they finished their meal with a dessert of treacle tart, Harry turned their conversation back to the effects of the pumpkin juice.

“I guess you’re probably disappointed that Dean wasn’t there. I would have figured he’d be waiting for you.” Harry tried to keep his tone nonchalant, though he was personally quite happy that Dean had been absent. There would have been nothing worse than watching Dean and Ginny profess their love for each other and snog each other senseless.

Snorting loudly, Ginny scoffed at this. “Dean might have professed his love for me, but he doesn’t really love me. He never did.” She shrugged and continued. “He was in love with the idea of me. But he really wants a girl who is, I don’t know, fragile I guess. He wants to be chivalrous and protective, but that’s not what I want or need.” Before Harry could interrupt, she hurried to explain. “Not that chivalry is bad, but he never seemed to think I could take care of myself. And even if he knew I could, he thought I shouldn’t.”

Harry’s heart leapt in his chest. “But I thought you two…”

Ginny shook her head, her eyes shyly meeting his. “Not any more. We broke up at the end of January.” She bit her lip tentatively. “Harry, what would have happened if you drank the pumpkin juice? ‘Cause I know what would have happened if I had.”

Part of Harry wanted to run away or make a joke, anything but admit what he knew in his heart to be true. But deep down he knew that he needed to be brave if he hoped to get what he’d been hoping for all year. “If I drank the pumpkin juice, I know exactly what would have happened. I would have ended up telling you how much I like you. I would probably have tried to kiss you, if you would have let me. And then you probably would have thrown treacle tart at my head for my impertinence.” There. He’d said it. But he’d tried to inject a bit of humor just in case she wasn’t interested in him.

Ginny smirked at him. “I would never throw treacle tart at your head. Treacle tart is far too delicious to waste as a weapon. No. If I ever throw food at you for being impertinent, it would be vanilla pudding.”

Harry chuckled, but it was forced. He’d confessed his feelings, but she’d chosen to latch on to the joke he made, rather than the sentiment he shared prior. He started to tidy up their tray, wanting only to get away from the intimacy of being the only humans about. He’d feel safer once they got back to Gryffindor Tower and had other students to distract from the painful twist of his heart. He kept his eyes away from the object of his desire, hoping to bluster his way through the next few minutes without her realizing just how hurt he truly was.

Reaching out to clear away her plate, Harry froze when Ginny rested her hand on top of his. “Harry.” Ginny’s voice was barely more than a whisper, but it seemed to echo in his ears. He met her eyes; he had never seen them look quite so soft and deep, as if he were about to drown in melted chocolate. She spoke again, her voice quiet but firm. “Harry, forgive me for joking just now. That was badly done of me.” She bit her lip nervously before continuing. “I wish we had both drank the pumpkin juice. I would have done the same thing.”

Harry blinked and felt his cheeks flush. “You don’t have to say that.”

“It’s the truth, and I think you know it.” Her eyes held his gaze, doing everything in their power to reinforce her words. “You know, you had to have known how I felt about you all these years. I liked you so much that I could barely speak in front of you.”

Harry’s heart soared, but his brain tried to look for logical arguments against her words. “But you dated Michael and Dean. And you certainly have no trouble talking in front of me or even to me now.”

“Prat. You were over the moon for Cho Chang at least half that time. And I couldn’t just pine away when you didn’t even know I existed. Hermione suggested I focus my attentions elsewhere for a while and build my confidence.” She looked away then, taking over the task of tidying up their plates and cups. “But the whole time I was still hoping you’d finally notice me.”

This time it was Harry who reached for Ginny’s hand. He held it until she again met his gaze. “It worked. I noticed you, I mean really noticed you, last year. But you’d just gotten on with Dean. I’ve been bloody jealous of one of my best mates and half in love with another one all year.”

Ginny gave him a blazing look. “Look at us, Harry. Everyone else is confessing their true feelings because they drank that pumpkin juice. But you and I didn’t need a potion to loosen our tongues and admit our feelings. Who knows what will happen when the potion wears off?”

Harry smiled. “They might not even remember what they said and did. Or they might deny it.” His eyes dropped to her mouth, he wondered if he’d be able to taste the honey they’d eaten if he kissed her now. “But we can’t deny this or blame it on anything or anyone else.”

He wasn’t certain just how they left the kitchens or made their way upstairs, since they kept a firm hold on each others’ hand and never broke eye contact. But they soon found themselves in the now-deserted Gryffindor common room, snuggled closely on a sofa before the fire and unwilling to let the evening end. When finally they said their goodnights, Ginny kissed him with a fire that he knew would light his path in the dark days to come. And as Harry climbed the stairs, he realized Ginny’s kiss was even sweeter than the taste of honey.


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