Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be… Unless JKR is my long lost Aunt or something… However, in either case: I Disclaim.
Summary: This is an awfully AU one-shot in the sense that there is NO magical things happening, after the war, Ginny and Harry are living as muggles in Seattle. That's mostly all. OH! Harry has a stuttering problem. I don't remember if that was in the books. Ta ta!
Growing Into Love
Imagine this: Boy meets girl in downtown Seattle. Both are on holiday. Boy likes girl, and he thinks she's funny. Girl gives him her phone number. He gets home. He calls her. They talk for hours. When they go he says he'll call her the next day. Repeat process for a long time!
Scene one: These two young people have been friends for a long, long time...(5+ years). They know everything there is to know about each other. They are over frequently and they go out a lot. Finally, one day, the guy, lets call him Harry, looks at the girl in the middle of a comedy movie. The other is smiling, their eyes glowing and their laughter is real. The first realizes that he really, truly, honest-to-my-peanut-butter-sandwich, loves this girl that he's known for positively AGES!
Scene two: The girl, lets call her Ginny, is also, out of the corner of her eye, watching this guy. Imagine what she sees. He is staring at her with this soft look in his eyes. She doesn't know what it is, only that she'd do anything to see it in his eyes every time he looks at her. He doesn't know she sees it. It stays that way for another two months. Him looking; her seeing, and him not knowing. She finally gets her lazy butt in gear and kisses him in the middle of a movie. He is shocked for a moment. He realizes that SHE is kissing HIM and HE is supposed to like HER! This tells him something... He kisses her back. When they are kissing it's like they were SUPOSED to kiss. Like someone shoved their faces together and stuck some nice tasting super glue on their lips. They can't stop kissing. When they finally do, they do not know what will happen. They don't kiss again. For a long time. They are still just as close and maybe closer. They go out, they dance, and they hold hands. They don't kiss.
Scene three: They are dating. They kiss. They feel like, even though they aren't married and have not slept together, they are as close as if they had.
Scene four: Cupid decides that things need a little push. He draws his little bow and arrow and shoots Harry in the back of the neck and as Harry rubs his neck and doesn't notice the love struck arrow in his neck he asks Ginny to meet him at the space needle. Ginny agrees. Harry walks home by way of the jewelry store...He only meant to buy her a bracelet he tells himself as he pays for the platinum ring.
Scene five: Both Ginny and Harry are in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle. Harry starts talking randomly and finally gets the balls to ask a question. Follow their dialogue.
"Ginny? Remember when we first met?" Harry has this wary look, his hands are sweaty and his fingers are nervously drumming on the table...His other hand held a fork and he's playing with his food. He hasn't eaten a bite
"Dummy, how could I forget?" Ginny has almost finished her food, not knowing that Harry hasn't touched his.
"Remember when you kissed me?" He gets a bit braver now. He takes a sip of his water.
"Where is this going?" Ginny puts her spoon down and looks him in the eyes. This makes it harder for Harry to concentrate. He stutters.
"J-just answer the question,"
"Yeah,"
"Well, we've known each other for around seven years now and I wanted to ask you something--"
"Shoot,"
"W-w-will...will you..." Ginny starts to snicker; she loves it when he stutters. He knows it... The stuttering gets worse.
"Come on! Spit it out Harry!" Harry takes a long drink of his icy cold water and talks, no stuttering this time.
"Will you marry me Ginevra Molly Weasley?" Her eyes could be used for dinner plates. She lets out a squeal of frabjoyous joy and leans out across the table, giving everyone in the restaurant an eyeful, and as she leans in to kiss him, he ducks his head so she misses his lips. Ginny gets a mouthful of nose and she begins to kiss it passionately until Harry pushes her slightly away, laughing. She tells him that, yes, she will marry him, now can she have at his nose again?
That is the kind of relationship they have. No matter what the other person does, there is nothing that would lower them in the eyes of the other person. They are first and foremost, best friends. Ones that only death can bring apart.
A/N: This is an AU thing I just had the inspiration to write. It's just a fifteen minute thing and I don't know if I'll ever do anything with it. I don't usually do G/H. Normally I'm all for D/G, so… Yeah, the usual R&R and stuff. Oh, I'm looking for a Beta reader. So, e-mail me at labyrinth underscore maze13 at yahoo dot com.