Morning Musings

Harry opened his eyes to pale sunlight shining through an open window. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and looked over at Ron's bunk. He was still asleep, snoring contentedly. A sound similar to "Er-my-nee" escaped his lips as he rolled over, dreaming.

The wall clock said 7:10, so it was still considered early at Grimmauld Place. Hermione and Ginny were in the next room, probably in the same state as Ron. Harry, feeling alone in the house, slipped out the door and into the hallway.

The house was quiet, just as they had become accustomed to. Mrs. Black had been moved to another location, in the situation where Harry actually had had to pay the person he was giving it to for her to leave. The Permanent Sticking charm had been reversed by a particularly powerful incantation by Hermione, so now everything was back in order.

Harry very nearly passed up the living room entirely without giving it a second thought before he spotted Ginny sitting in the armchair, reading. He didn't want to scare her, so he made sure he stepped on a few squeaky boards to let her know he was up.

She looked up. "Good morning," she said softly.

"Hello," he said.

Ginny patted the space beside her in the huge armchair, and he joined her. They were a little squished, but nevertheless comfortable.

"What where you reading?" Harry asked to pass time.

"Oh, nothing," Ginny said, quickly stowing the book behind her. Harry, who had the lightening-fast reflexes of a Seeker, grabbed it from her.

"Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches?" he asked.

"Just seeing what I might be subjected to," she muttered, her cheeks turning red.

"This stuff? Well, just so you know, you're ickle brother gave that to me on my seventeenth birthday. I don't think I've ever even opened the front cover."

Harry paged through it, watching pages of print flash before his eyes.

"I wouldn't put you through this torture," he said finally. "Would I really give you flowers? Come on, what idiot would do that-" he paused, seeing the look on Ginny's face.

" – without getting her chocolate first," he added.

"Don't try that on me, Mr. Potter!" Ginny said in mock-anger.

"This coming from the girl who gave me a talking Valentine's Day card," he retored, laughing.

"You still remember that?" she asked softly.

"Of course, I wouldn't forget things like that. I might still have it."

They were silent for a minute,then Ginny figdgeted around so that Harry's arm wrapped around her.

"You were so cute, in that boyish sort of way, back when you were eleven. You became mine the day I saw you. Of course, being the total idiot I was then, that meant giggling late into the night with my dormmates and sending you terrible singing Valentine's Day cards."

"Well, I liked the card, I really did, but I honestly didn't even consider that in eight years we'd be sitting in an armchair laughing about it. However, I am glad at the turn of events that brought us to this point."

"Yes. But one false move in the past and we could have never have met, or you and Ron would never be friends, and you wouldn't have kissed me in the common room, and you would have been killed by Voldemort, and…"

"Wow. It really all depended on that one moment when I went on the train. If I had been one moment late-"

"We would be in completely different places right now, not even knowing each other the way we do."

They reflected on the memory at King's Cross for a while, and Ginny put her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He wrapped his arm around her and they sat there in silence, listening to the sounds of the house and enjoying each others' presence.

"I don't think we should concentrate too much on how everything could have went wrong. We're here now, in the present, and that's what matters most to me." Harry's voice vibrated in his chest, tickling Ginny's face.

"Hmmm. Maybe now, in the future, we'll thinking about how at this moment everything could have gone wrong."

"I don't think we'll be doing that."

"Why not?"

Harry reached the small velvet box in his pocket and smiled as he got down on one knee.

A/N: I didn't really know where this story was going until I wrote the last sentence. Set before An Announcement to Make. Anyway, sorry I haven't updated in so long, I've been busy and hitherto out of ideas. Please review, I'm still playing around with the idea of documenting the Potter marriage!