For the Snakes and Ladders challenge with the character Harry.
For the foreign quote Competition with the quote "Love does not consist in looking at each other, but rather in, together, looking in the same direction. (Aimer, ce n'est pas se regarder l'un l'autre, c'est regarder ensemble dans la même direction)" -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
But especially for Lady Phoenix Fire Rose, for the 2013 Gift Giving Exchange. I hope you like it, Lady! I used your prompts "Dreams" and "Fate can only do so much."
"Come on, Ginny. It's time to go!" Harry called from the living room of their flat.
She walked out of the bedroom, adjusting the necklace she had just put on. "Are you going to tell me where we're going yet?" she asked impatiently.
"No," he said, pulling her into a kiss when she was close enough. "You look beautiful."
When they reemerged from the squeezing void of Apparation, Ginny knew they were in London. It was cold out, but the sky was clear. "Now will you tell me?"
Harry's eyes were mischievous behind his round glasses. "It's a place the Dursleys used to go when I was a kid."
Ginny pulled away from him. "You seriously want to take me to a place that the Dursleys used to go? On New Year's Eve? The first year we're married?" She huffed. Men. They really did know nothing at all about romance.
Harry stopped walking and touched her elbow, turning her to face him. "It's not somewhere the Dursleys used to take me, Ginny. That was pretty much limited to Mrs. Figg's place." He smirked and Ginny couldn't help but smile back. "This is somewhere they used to go every New Year's Eve. Dudley used to come back and chat for weeks about how splendid it was."
She crossed her arms and looked up at her husband's sincere face. "You believed him?"
"That time I did. He told the whole neighborhood. And begged to go back every year." He paused, and his look implored her to trust him. And she wanted to, she absolutely wanted to. So, finally, she let him. "We're nearly there, love. But in a moment we'll have to Apparate again."
"Why? Why didn't we Apparate straight there?"
"The location we need to get to next is rather... concentrated. I couldn't get the location wrong, so I wanted to be closer when we tried it." He looked up at a building behind Ginny and took her hand. Next thing she knew, the air was again squeezed out of her, but the sensation was over in mere moments.
Getting her bearings, she released his hand and looked around. They were on the roof of the building they'd just been by. No one else was up here, but two chairs had been set out, a table between them with roses on them. "Harry? Did you-"
"This is where I was all day, getting it ready for us." Ginny couldn't help but see the pride on his face and she grinned. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe Harry - her husband! - knew how to be romantic after all.
They settled into their chairs and a comfortable silence. The view was perfect. People gathered on the streets below them, crowded together, craning their necks toward the sky for the first sign of... something. Ginny wasn't yet sure what they were waiting for. But she remembered being younger, when sitting here with Harry as newlyweds was just a far-away, impossible dream. The reality, though was so much better than the dreaming. Perhaps they were fated to be together. They were well matched and if Ginny would say she believed in soul mates, it was only because of Harry. But fate can only take you so far.
After the romance, after the wedding, it was all up to them. And so far, in the three short months that she had been Mrs. Ginny Potter, it was unimaginable bliss. "Ginny, Ginny, look!" Harry said eagerly, pointing out toward the newly built London Eye. They were across the Thames from the ferris wheel, near Westminster Abbey. From the building Harry picked so aptly, they could see both the Eye and Big Ben. But Big Ben was exploding.
"What are they doing?! It's going to burn down!"
"No, it won't. It's been this way for years. Dudley told me about it."
"You... you haven't been, either?"
"When would I have come?" he said, sounding perplexed. Ginny thought about it. He spent New Year's with the Dursleys until 1996, in 1997 he was... well, Ginny didn't know where he was. There were still some things regarding the war he didn't want to talk about. Just last year, they were together at the Burrow, the quiet New Year's celebration she was used to.
She smiled and leaned across the table between them to kiss him. Their kiss, however, was brief. Right now, they had no need to look at each other. They were there, together, and she didn't need the reassurance that he wasn't leaving. It was enough just to experience the moment with him, to watch the sky alight with fireworks. Maybe the Muggles knew about magic, somehow, too. The fireworks were beautiful; more amazing than nearly anything she had seen, and watching with Harry's hand in hers only made it better. The sparks between them were brighter than fireworks.
After all, Ginny learned love had nothing to do with looking at each other. There was much to be missed that way. Love, true love, is about looking together in the same direction. As the night sky danced, lit up with firework clocks and explosions, she had no difficulty with this. There was so much beauty to be shared. She had a feeling they would talk about this moment for the rest of their lives.
Five...
Four...
Three...
Two...
One...
"Happy New Year, Harry," Ginny said after they broke away from their kiss.
"Happy New Decade," he replied with a grin. "Happy New Century, Happy New Millennium..."
Ginny smiled. Every day felt new with him. Their most important new beginning was September 18, 1999. But every new day was equally as important. She hoped they had tens of thousands more.
