"Harry?"
The man looked up from the book he had been poring over. When he saw who it was, his ears went slightly red, and has heart thumped unevenly. There was a sharp jolt in his stomach as he looked at her. She was the most beautiful, the most exquisite being he had ever laid eyes on. She was blinding him.
"What, Ginny?"
She blushed slightly when he said her name, and seemed to forget what she was going to say. She just looked at him, sitting there in front of the fire in the common room, with a book open on his lap. She focused on the book. Harry didn't usually read did he?
"What are you reading?" she asked, looking at the object in question.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "My potions book."
At first, Ginny didn't understand, then it dawned on her. "You got it back?" Intrigued, she went to kneel beside him to look down at the Half Blood Prince's scribbling. "Why are you even reading that harry? Snape wrote that."
He didn't answer. Just swallowed loudly. He looked nervous. That was when Ginny noticed how close she had gotten to him. Their bodies were almost touching. They had not been that close since his birthday. She pushed the thought from her mind. He did not feel the same way as she did, and she was not going to start moping over him again. At least not in front of him.
"Now that I know everything, I don't mind reading it." He was staring at the page, but Ginny could tell that he wasn't seeing any of it. He just couldn't look at her. He looked as nervous as she felt.
"Harry?" He looked up, finally. Ginny could see the pain in his eyes, though he hid it well. "You don't need to be upset anymore, remember? It's all over." He grimaced at that.
"Too many were lost."
She forced an eye roll. If he wasn't going to be strong, then she would be strong for him. He needed someone to take the weight of the world off his shoulders for a while. "Harry, you would say that, even if only one person had died, and you didn't even know them." He winced. Okay, new tactic. She made her voice gentler. "That's a good thing, sometimes. It means that you're caring. But you need stop worrying. You'll get grays." She decided the only thing that would keep her calm through this discussion, would be to tease him.
"Ginny, I'm seventeen. I won't get gray hair for a while." At least he was playing along. That was something, wasn't it?
"Maybe you should start worrying about someone else, like maybe yourself, for once." She was getting steadily angrier as she went along. "I mean, all you ever think about is other people. Ever. You NEVER think about yourself, and it isn't good. You walked right into the forest, tonight! You tried to die! For other people, half of which you didn't even know! It's not right! And even then, you didn't stop to think about the bad you were doing for everybody! How were we supposed to kill Voldemort, with you dead?!"
"Ginny-"
"And you OBVIOUSLY weren't thinking of me, or any of my family, for that matter! Do you have any idea what the hell my mum went through, when you were just… gone at the wedding? Or when you showed in Hagrid's arms, when he was carrying you through the Forest? What I went through? You didn't ONCE think of me, throughout all of that!"
She quieted, and just sat there, staring at him. She had that blazing look in her eyes that brought Harry back to memories he would happily live in for the rest of his life.
That made him angry. After all that he had done to save her, to protect her, from a life of pain, or even, he shuddered to think about it, death. She thought that he hadn't thought about her at all!
"Ginny, you're all I thought about while I was gone! Every dream, every wish, every single thought, was about YOU! I NEVER stopped thinking about you, ever since we left! How can you even think I didn't care, that I never thought about you! You're the last thing I thought about when I was in the Forest, before he hit me with the killing curse! You're the reason I kept fighting, the reason I never gave up, the reason I'm still here! Because I love you!"
Harry froze. He had not meant to say that. Well, he had meant to say it, but he had not meant to shout it at her. And then, without even registering what his body was doing, he kissed her. As softly, and with as much love as he could possibly muster. His eyes slid shut, and she opened her mouth to deepen the kiss. That was fine with him. Somehow, they ended up on the floor, with him lying on top of her. He felt her tongue explore his mouth and his own respond happily.
When both of their lips were still, they opened their eyes.
"I love you, too, Harry. Always have, always will." She was smiling slightly, noticing as she bent her head up to kiss him again, that he seemed relaxed, calm. She had not seen him so perfectly blissful, since his last Quidditch match.
Perfect, she thought dryly as their lips met again, I'm in the rankings with a snitch.
