Harry managed to grab Dean after dinner and led him intoan unused classroom. Dean sat on one of the desktops as Harry paced in front ofhim. "Okay, I'm pretty sure I know why Ron's acting the way he is."Harry launched into an explanation of how Ginny had told Ron that they weredating just to get a rise out of him and went on to describe Ron'soverprotective brother routine last year with Michael Corner and howunreasonable he had been over the summer as well. He told Dean that he hadtalked to Ginny about it today and that she was confronting Ron about it, sohopefully Ron would quit being a prat for no good reason.
Dean had sat quietly throughout the whole story, browfurrowed. When Harry finally finished talking and looked at him expectantly,Dean finally spoke. "Well, I guess that explains it then," he saidsimply. "I wish someone had told me about it beforehand, though."
"Well, we didn't expect Ron to hold a grudge againstyou after he found out the truth," Harry explained.
"Oh it's not that. That's not a big deal,really." Here Dean grinned wolfishly at him. "I just wish Ginny hadtold me beforehand. I mean, if her brother was gonna be mad at me anyway, Icould have at least enjoyed some of the benefits of it, eh mate?"
Harry didn't know whether to laugh because Dean wastaking it so well or knock him upside the head for the insinuation. In the endhe chose neither. "Well it's over now anyway," he said at length."Ginny oughta be able to set Ron straight pretty quickly. Believe me, sheis one girl you do not want to get on the bad side of."
"You speaking from experience, mate?"
"Mostly second-hand experience, thankfully,"Harry admitted. Dean had laughed at that.
"Well, thanks for explaining everything, Iguess," Dean said. "I think I'll head back up to the common roomnow."
"Sounds like a plan," Harry agreed.
When they reached the fat lady's portrait and enteredthrough the opening, Harry scanned the crowd of Gryffindors for the trademarkWeasley red hair. He spotted Ginny at a table with a few girls from her yearwith several books opened in front of them. She glanced up as he and Deanwalked in with a questioning look on her face. He gave her a thumbs up to lether know it went alright. She awarded him a smile in reply and mouthed thewords "thank you."
Sunday morning came soon enough, and Ginny found herselfwalking through the halls towards the Room of Requirement. They had agreed thenight before that she would meet Harry there after his workout, then proceeddown to the Great Hall together. Harry would eat quickly and head over to hisoffice. He would open the door, walk in, throw on his invisibility cloak, walkback out right away and shut the door.
Ginny was early. She had agreed to meet Harry at ten to8:00, but she was ready at 7:30 and decided to just head over early. She wasn'texactly sure what to expect when she got there. Harry had mentioned that afterhis morning jog, he would go to the Room of Requirement to work out, but shehad no idea what this entailed. When she reached the correct hallway, she foundthat a door was already in place across from the portrait of Barnabas theBarmy, so she quietly let herself in.
The room was somewhat large and was filled with racksholding weights scattered throughout. There were various contraptions in onesection that she was completely unfamiliar with. Another section was relativelyopen and covered with a cushioned mat. Ginny absently walked toward the workoutmachines, though she had no idea what they were for, and continued to observeher surroundings.
As she walked further into the room she could make outsomeone's heavy breathing. She weaved her way through the machines to find thesource. When she finally found him, her breath caught and she had to grab holdof a nearby machine to steady herself. Hanging on a bar attached to the wall,shirtless, was Harry Potter. She slowly sank down onto the seat of the machineshe was clutching and observed him unobtrusively.
She watched as he hung there for a minute, motionless,with sweat dripping down his face and exposed torso. His hair was tied backbehind his head to keep it out of his face, but a few wisps had escaped andwere sticking to the sweat on his cheeks. He adopted a look of concentration ashe resumed his workout, completely unaware of the audience.
Ginny watched, mesmerized, as the muscles in Harry's armsand chest contracted as he pulled himself up until his chin rose above the bar.He slowly lowered himself down, muscles rippling all the way. As soon as hisarms were completely extended, he grunted as he exploded upwards again, chinrising above the bar. He slowly lowered himself yet again, and Ginny washypnotized. She found she could not move, nor could she calm her poundingheart. She may have given up on her crush on the boy Harry Potter, but shecould not deny her attraction to the man in front of her.
Only this time it had nothing to do with him being HarryPotter, the Boy-Who-Lived, nor did it have anything to do with how noble andbrave he had been, nor how selfless he was. It had nothing to do with who HarryPotter was deep down inside that had captured her attention in the past. All ofthose things attracted her to Harry despite his appearance. That's not to sayHarry was unattractive before. His eyes had always been breathtaking, and hehad always been kind of cute, but this was different. This was not cute; thiswas sexy. He no longer had his boyish good looks. This was a man, pure andsimple, and about as fine a specimen as she had ever seen.
There wasn't an ounce of fat on his body that she couldsee. And given the view that she was getting right now, that was actuallysaying something. Even from the distance she was at, she could pick out variousmuscles on him. His abs were well defined, giving him a nice six pack. Hischest was sculpted perfectly. As he slowly lowered himself down again, shecould see his biceps and triceps bulging on his arms. As she continued to watchhim, she unconsciously licked her suddenly dry lips.
And then he dropped from the bar and fell the couple feetover which he had been suspended. He grabbed his shirt from the ground nearbyand proceeded to wipe the sweat off his face and neck with it. As he finishedwiping himself down, he finally looked up and noticed that he was no longeralone. A blush started to form, and she was secretly thrilled to find that itwas not confined to his face. Even so, she could feel the heat in her own faceand knew that she was probably even redder than he.
He nervously crossed his arms across his chest andglanced down at his own naked torso. He looked back up at her, and a silencedescended upon them. After about a minute spent just looking at each other,Ginny finally came to some of her senses and spoke up. "Sorry, I didn'tmean to interrupt or anything. I was running early, so I decided to just comeright over rather than waiting around. When I came in here I just got curiousand started walking around." She said all of this rather quickly.
"It's alright," he told her honestly. "Iwas just surprised to see you there is all. I didn't hear you come in, and I'mnot used to company when I'm here."
"Oh," she stated glumly. "Well, I can waitoutside if you'd prefer." She started backing away from him back towardthe exit.
"No!" he exclaimed a little louder thannecessary. "No, it's fine, really. I was just finishing anyway. Let mejust take a quick shower, and I'll meet you back out here in a bit."