Moments

48. 'Are you decent?'

(998 words)

'Are you decent?' George whisper-shouted through the door as he knocked quietly.

The door opened, giving George a fabulous spectacle of Pansy pulling on a short black-satin robe over a matching camisole top and French-knickers.

'Never,' answered Pansy as she tied the sash around her waist and leant against the door frame with a flirty glint in her eyes. 'You should know better than to ask me a question like that!'

George ran his gaze over her curves up to her hair which was obviously just towel-dried and tousled around her face, the blunt bob long since grown out. 'I shall start cooking for you every night if you promise to always answer the door like this...'

She smiled cheekily, 'are you coming in?'

'No, I have the accounts to prepare so I'm just dropping off this. I cooked too much.'

She raised a questioning eyebrow. He might just have cooked too much so he could also feed Pansy but he liked looking after her. It gave him a purpose and he knew that she often skipped dinner because she couldn't be bothered to cook after a long exhausting day with the twins.

'You're a darling!' she said. 'But I've told you, George Weasley: I. Do. Your. Accounts.'

'You're. On. Maternity. Leave.'

'And. You. Aren't. Charging. Me. Rent. Now, be a good boy, run upstairs and get all your paperwork. I'll open a bottle of wine.'

'Yes, madam,' he bowed.

'And don't thump up the stairs or you'll wake the Things.'

As if, he thought. He knew how hard it was for Pansy to get Hector to sleep. He still took the stairs two at a time.

When Pansy came to work for him, she'd taken one look at his chaotic accounting systems and taken him to task. Once she'd re-ordered things for him, she suggested better management practices and a few investment ideas and, all-in-all, not only was the shop thriving, but his bank account was too.

'Well,' she sighed a little later. 'That was a different way to spend my birthday evening, George. You certainly know how to titillate a girl with your magnificent columns.'

'Your birthday! Why the bloody hell didn't you say? Tomorrow, Pansy, I am taking you out for a meal so we can celebrate properly.'

'But Hector and Esther...'

'Harry and Draco can take responsibility.'

'Oh Salazar!' But she smiled and George felt excited.

The following evening, George couldn't help laughing at the long list of dos and don'ts that Pansy listed until Harry eventually manhandled her out of the door, saying, 'we've got this, Pansy. Now go, and enjoy your date!'

They looked at each other with slightly narrowed eyes.

'Is this a date, George Weasley?'

'Well, I'm not one to back out of challenge. Are you, Pansy Parkinson?'

'Never, Mr Weasley! But should I take umbrage, are you calling me a challenge?'

'Do you expect anything less?' he asked with a smile.

'Well, no,' she said thoughtfully and held out her arm for George to take.

George winked at Harry and Draco who were watching from the door. 'Behave yourselves, boys!' he teased.

He took her to a small bistro-restaurant near Carkitt Market.

The meal was charming, as was the company. George liked the way that Pansy had chosen a simple white shirt and jeans which she wore with a black jacket and high heels. He liked that she listened to his ridiculous ideas for the shop or told him about her diverse suggestions for the Special Room. He liked it even more that she made him laugh and he wondered if it might be slightly awkward if he tried to bed his assistant/accountant/housemate/friend.

Just outside the door to her flat, Pansy turned to George and stepped close, reaching out to toy with the lapels of his jacket.

'Are you coming in, George?' she asked, looking him in the eyes.

'My, what big brown eyes you have!' he smiled.

'All the better to eat you with!'

'Then, yes...'

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him passionately, running her hands into his long silky hair.

The flat was in near darkness. Harry and Draco were spooning on the sofa and fast asleep. George shook out the throw and laid it over them and Pansy signalling him from the door of Hector and Esther's bedroom. When he joined her, he saw a small slowly-spinning globe on the bedside table sending out a peaceful reflection of a galaxy of stars over the ceiling.

'You could sell these by the bucket load,' she whispered. 'Draco used to Charm it at school, it's his constellation, and me knowing that is nothing to do with the self-centred git drumming that into us every night for seven years.' She smiled fondly and George hooked a finger under her chin and kissed her again.

'In the morning I'll talk to him about producing some for my shop. Now, where shall we go? Your room or mine?'

'It had better be mine, in case the Things need me during the night.'

'Silencing charm it is then!' George winked and Pansy buried her head against his shoulder to stifle her giggles, but then she took his hand and led him into the bedroom.

'I'd better warn you,' she said as George helped her out of her jacket. 'I've still got the remnants of my pregnancy body and a horribly wrinkly tummy after those two brutes stretched it to the size of Hogwarts' Great Hall...'

'I love your pregnancy body already,' he murmured as Pansy unbuttoned his shirt. 'And your tummy is magical and amazing for producing the Things so a few wrinkles don't put me off. Does me being a bi-polar one-eared prankster put you off?' he asked as he slid her shirt from her shoulders and kissed her neck.

'Never. And I'll just have to nibble on the other ear lobe,' she whispered as she pulled him back onto the bed by his belt buckle. 'Did you cast that Silencing Charm?'

*****