Ordinariness
A Harry/Ginny fic by Rabid Lola
Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter. If you don't know who does, then too bad. :D
A/N: So blame me if all I can write is fluff. En-joy.)
He was leaving, today.
Harry Potter, older, wiser, not yet done with his calling. He'd graduated from Hogwarts two years ago, and still he hadn't defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort.
But maybe, just maybe, today would be the day.
Maybe…
They had a chance, a good, but infinitesimally small chance. But it was a chance.
Part of it was thanks to the young woman Harry was paying a visit to now.
He opened the door to the room, gently…and gaped as the figure within leapt to its feet, wand at ready.
"Oh…Hi Harry."
Harry frowned at the pale redhead before him. "Ginny. You should be resting, for God's sake…"
Ginny Weasley smiled tightly, then relaxed, as she sat down on the edge of the lone cot in the room, and motioned for him to come in. "I am. But resting doesn't mean I can let down my guard."
Ginny Weasley. Fresh out of Hogwarts, only eighteen. Still a girl, but in many ways already a woman…there was an oldness in her face, a weariness in her eyes, of one who has seen too much…but there was a fire, a strong, bright fire, of one who wouldn't ever give up.
Everyone still alive in Dumbledore's Army had that fire behind his eyes.
Harry looked at Ginny…she was tall, for a girl, and thin, with a pointed face that managed to be lively in spite of everything. Her flyaway red hair was gathered into a lose tail, and the dark brown robe she wore hid the bandages all over her torso.
She'd been severely hurt, two days ago, leading a group of soldiers and destroying majority of the magical shield generators of Voldemort's army. She'd also gained, for them, a specific object, that may help in the defeat of Voldemort…
He'd nearly killed her in return.
Harry had almost lost her…
"You're going for it today?" her voice broke into his thoughts.
Harry flushed a little, but he replied, "Yes."
She studied him. "Are you sure you know how to use it?"
"I've listened to your every instruction, milady," Harry said dryly.
She laughed at him. Harry always marveled how she could laugh like that, real, unburdened laughter, not tainted by the dark sadness of the world today…
His chest constricted a little. He needed to tell her, now, before anything else happened…
"I came to see how you were doing," he blurted.
Coward. Wrong words.
"I'm fine, thanks," she said calmly. "Really, between you, Ron, and Hermione…"
They'd all become friends. Comrades, fellow warriors. But he needed to tell her she was more, more than that, even if he wasn't the same to her…
"Harry!" Ron's deep voice echoed down the corridor. "Harry! We're going!"
"Good luck," Ginny's eyes were burning again. "I wish I could go…"
"You stay. Rest. And…"
"Harry!" Ron thrust open the door. "Gin, have you…oh dammit, there you are. Let's go. Hurry. Mione's ready…"
Damn, Harry thought. He couldn't say it. Not in front of Ron, though Ron knew. It was something private, something precious…
"Good luck, all of you," Ginny said fervently.
In a sudden movement, Ron strode forward and swept Ginny in a tight, gentle hug, mindful of her wounds.
"Love you little sis." Ron's voice almost broke as he said this. "You take care, you hear?"
"I'll be safer than any of you." It almost sounded like a complaint. She hugged him back, then pushed him away. "Go. You have no time to lose. Now."
"Harry….c'mon…" Ron said urgently.
Harry raged at himself for not being able to get it out. "Bye, Gin," he managed to croak, moving to follow Ron out of the door.
"Bye Harry," she said quietly. "I love you."
He froze. He had NOT just heard that.
The ordinariness with which she'd said it…as if she'd been saying it every day of her life, to him, all the time. And maybe, in a way, she had. Just not aloud.
Harry turned slowly, hopefully, missing Ron's huge grin. There was no mistaking the look in her eyes…she didn't mean it platonically.
In a second, he was beside her cot, full of elation, and he leaned down a little and kissed her softly on the mouth. She kissed him back sweetly, then laughed a little, pushing him away. "Go," she said. "And come back soon."
He forced her to lie down, and grasped her hand softly. "I will," he promised. "Rest already, Gin. I love you, too." Like Ron's, his voice almost broke at this.
She gripped his hand in reply before letting go. "I figured," she grinned. "Goodbye. I'll be praying for you." Her voice fell to a whisper, and her eyes grew tender, as she said again, "Love you."
"Goodbye." Harry ran to follow Ron, and to meet his fate with the wizard called Voldemort.
Sometimes ordinariness is the anchor that keeps us steady, and grounded, in a wild, chaotic world.
Something there, something unchanging, a sign of hope, a sign of stability.
Like love, out of love, it keeps us going, pushes us on, sees us through.
And we work towards it, towards ordinariness, so that we can see it again, just one more time.
And three days later, as Harry, Ron, and Hermione stumbled back into the hideout, exhausted, bloody, victorious, there was nothing out of the ordinary when Ginny rushed forward and threw her arms around him, kissing him repeatedly before saying in a choked, breathless voice, "Thank God."
He leaned on her, overcome, and she supported him, as others took charge of Ron and Hermione.
And as she handed him over to a healer, he managed to whisper, "I came back."
And as he lay in the hospital bed, drifting in and out of sleep, well on his way to complete recovery, she sat by him, and held his hand, and whispered, as tears of relief streamed down her cheeks… "I love you."
...--EnD--...