Everything was obscured by haze. This wasn't unusual for Harry, for as long as he could remember, without his glasses, he had never been able to see the world clearly. Those little panes of seemingly unimportant pieces of glass that he continuously wedged upon his face were really his windows to the world – without them he would essentially be blind. And yet, ever since a certain red-headed girl had walked into his life, he had been finding it increasingly harder to view the world clearly without her.
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His second-year he had been completely blind to her. It was only when he saw her lying before him, surrounded by blood, ink and dirt from the chamber floor that he finally began to see her. At the time he could only think that it had something to do with her being his best friend's sister – not realising that this was the start of something extremely real for him.
His third-year, she went very much unnoticed again by the boy. They were on speaking terms, but as far as actually seeing her, he had been too preoccupied with death threats, dementors, black dogs, werewolves and long lost godfathers to even stop to recognise her, he was only a 13-year old boy after all. She however, still trying to get over her ordeal within the chamber, did not seem to mind and both existed in harmonious, ignorant blindness.
His fourth-year, he thought he only saw her as a means to escape the embarrassment of finding a proper date to the Yule Ball. He however did not anticipate caring as much as he did when she turned him down for none other than Neville Longbottom. It wasn't that he thought himself better than Neville, but he couldn't help but feel somewhat angered at the thought that he got to take her while he didn't. The blindness surrounding this girl was slowly starting to lift and although he didn't realise it yet, he was feeling quite jealous of Neville.
His fifth year was both disastrous and confusing at the same time. He had seen the wrong girl. She had seen the wrong boy. Neither one cared to admit that they weren't happy with the other moving on but took each other's 'interest' in others to be that they were no longer interested. A friendship of sorts did however begin to grow between the pair, but both had reverted back to the same blindness that had plagued the boy since his second year.
His sixth year, the haze lifted the most it ever had in the entire time he had known her, making it almost possible for the boy to see. She was however oblivious to him now, focusing on others instead of him. A beast began to rear its ugly head inside of him as his frustration at her blindness and anger at himself for having not seen her truly until now threatened to overwhelm him. He was well aware that his anger was now in fact jealousy. She was unaware by his sudden revelation of feelings and continued to date the wrong guy. He was torn; Should he tell her? Was he allowed to feel this way? What would his best friend think? Was she worth potentially losing his best friend? All of a sudden all the whether or nots or was he allowed or should he, fell away and became irrelevant when he finally kissed her after the Quidditch final. She was kissing him back and the beast inside roared in delight, the world as he knew it suddenly snapped into a focus he had never experienced before.
His seventh year, or what was supposed to be his seventh year, was so filled with despair, death and his mission given to him by Dumbledore that he really didn't have time to think of the redhead he had left behind. He couldn't bring himself to dream of a future with her – it would have made what he was supposed to do all the more difficult. His heart however yearned silently for her as hers waited for his. As much as that year had drawn him away from her, his focus on her remained unwaived. She completed him. She made him see.
The months after the battle were perhaps the hardest. He continually blamed himself, she continuously tried to make him see sense and forgive himself. She continued to be his eyes for the world that he had all but shut himself off of.
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Early one morning, just before dawn, Harry woke to a familiar face inches from his own. She had taken to sleeping with him at night, to keep away both their nightmares. Her perfect features were as beautiful as he had ever seen them, a peaceful dreamlike state occupying them, something that had been missing from her since the war. Harry yearned to see this peace return to her. He wanted her to wake up every day with the same feeling he did – he wanted her to know how he felt.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead, urging her out of sleep.
'Hey', she murmured from sleep, smiling slightly.
'Hey yourself', he smiled down at her and right in that almost perfect moment, he knew what he wanted to do.
'Gin, I am so grateful for the way you have been with me the last couple of months. I can't even begin to understand why you – '
'Harry...' Ginny cut in.
'No, let me say this. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have been able to go into the forest that night. I wouldn't have been able to come back. I wouldn't have been able to keep going. I need you more than you will ever need me and I know it's incredibly selfish of me to ask you this but ... you make my world clear, without you everything is a haze ... you are my world ... I need you so I am able to see everything properly – '
'Harry you don't have to ...', but before Ginny could launch into a speech about why Harry didn't need to tell her these things, Harry was the one to cut her off.
'Ginerva Molly Weasley ... I love you more than life itself. I need you, I want you, I am blind without you ... will you marry me?'
The smile that had been on her face suddenly faltered. Harry began to worry that his proposal had not gone the way he had expected.
'I bet you wake up all the girls before sunrise and give them that line', Ginny began to grin.
'Well ... er ...'
'Of course I'll marry you prat!'
Ginny playfully hit Harry before laughing and pulling his face towards hers and beginning to kiss him the same way she had after the battle, with as much love, devotion and pure passion that Harry's words before had been filled with. Before the kiss got to the point where neither of them would have be able to stop, Harry however pulled away.
'What the –', Ginny said confused.
'Must you have ruined the moment like that Gin?' he joked.
Laughing Ginny replied,
'Would you still love me if I didn't keep you from becoming a sentimental, 'lovey-dovey' guy?' she asked, shooting him a devious smile.
Harry supposed he shouldn't have expected anything less from the fiery, brilliant, exceptionally beautiful redhead before him. He loved this woman with all his heart, more than words could ever tell her. In all the years he had known her, she had been in one way or another his driving force, his reason to keep going and kill Tom ... his reason for fighting for a future that he could have a life with her. Ginny Weasley had made it possible for Harry Potter to see the world in ways he could never have imagined. Harry owed his life to this woman who would have soon be his wife; the woman he loved more than life itself, the woman he would willingly die for and the woman he would continue from that day onwards prove he was worthy of seeing the world alongside her.
