Serve
A/N: So it's going to be two Friday updates in a row because life. Not that I think you mind, so enjoy!
A/N: I wrote a story back in September called Circumlocute and Pottermum thought it would be fun to see Harry and Ginny learn to play Muggle sports together. This is for her. :) There will be more, these just take a touch more time for me to write because my version of sports is rock climbing and snow skiing; I have to actually go research a bit about the sports they're learning so I don't completely come off clueless. ;) Enjoy!
You'd make a fair Beater, Wood's words echoed in Harry mind as he and Ginny headed to the tennis courts. He took comfort in those words, given that tennis was a rather simplified version of hitting Bludgers around a Quidditch pitch. Harry hadn't played any Muggle sports since Hogwarts, and feeling keenly aware of his lack of knowledge in this area, he paid for an introductory lesson with an instructor, rather than attempt to draw up any memory from his childhood of how the game worked.
Harry had awful memories of sports in primary school. He was picked last; he'd been gangly and uncoordinated; he'd been targeted as the punching bag with "accidental collisions." Quidditch had been so freeing partially because flying was so easy. He didn't trip over himself and the broom moved with him like it was a part of him. His eleven-year-old self had sworn off Muggle sports at that point.
But his eleven-year-old self didn't know eighteen-year-old Ginny. His eleven-year-old self didn't understand how much that ten-year-old girl on the platform would come to mean everything to him. So his eleven-year-old self was just going to have to deal because Ginny wanted to try out Muggle sports and Harry was going to make sure she had the chance.
"You're awfully quiet, love," Ginny squeezed his hand as they opened the gate to the court they'd been directed to meet their instructor at.
Harry forced a smile, "Just trying to separate the bad memories from this experience."
Ginny gave him a pointed look to explain and he sighed. "Up until this moment, every experience I've had with playing Muggle sports has been from primary school, which basically means it was awful. So I'm trying not to let those old feelings ruin this for us."
Ginny's look softened immediately and Harry felt warmth spread through his chest.
"You know," Ginny chuckled, "the first time I snuck out to try and fly I fell every single time. More than once, I fell off and the broom kept flying and crashed into the broom shed."
Harry laughed, picturing a little seven-year-old Ginny watching the broom clatter loudly against the shed wall.
Ginny grinned, "At the time I was angry and sore and scared Mum was going to come out and scold me, but now it's funny, now I can laugh about it."
Harry regarded Ginny for a moment before taking a deep breath. "I think I was nine, the teacher was working on football with us, and told us to play a match as a class. I was in Dudley's old hand-me-downs," he chuckled, "I must have looked like a vagrant. I had to roll the pant legs up a good few inches when I was that young, and that wasn't nearly as bad as having to pull six inches in on the belt."
Ginny bumped his shoulder and smiled, "So you were an adorable little guy in clothes that made you look like a vagrant."
Harry grinned, "Adorable, huh? Is that what you thought when you first saw me?"
"We're talking about you, sir," Ginny stuck her tongue out at him.
"Fair, we'll circle back to that," he winked at her. "The teacher selected captains and then I was the last to be picked. The whole class played like I was the one player they couldn't get red carded for. But," Harry felt a small smile pull at his lips, "I could run. Merlin, Gin, I was good at running!"
Harry felt his whole demeanor changing as he looked back at the situation with new eyes.
"I don't know if half the class was actually playing the match, because there were so many of them just chasing me. I probably ran a mile on that pitch." Harry laughed and looked up at Ginny who was grinning at him.
"See, it helps to find some humor in it," she pushed off the net and nodded towards the gate, "And I think that's our tennis instructor."
The woman was older, probably in her mid-sixties, if Harry was going to go off of her white hair, cut short just below her ears.
"Hello dears," she held out her hand. "I'm Sandy; I'll be teaching you the basics of tennis today."
"Hi Sandy," Ginny gave her a warm smile, "I'm Ginny and this is Harry."
Sandy smiled happily as she shook Harry's hand, "Shall we get to it then?"
Sandy went over the basics with them, how to hold the racket, stance, where the ball needed to connect with the racket so it would up go where they wanted it to, before starting to serve to them. Harry chuckled as Sandy praised his ability to hit every ball she aimed at him. Having had to teach Jimmy and Ritchie how to actually be Beaters apparently gave him a good advantage in the realm of playing tennis.
Ginny, however, was struggling. She wasn't doing poorly by any stretch of the imagination, but it was obvious that she had always been a Chaser and a Seeker. She'd never had cause to pick up a Beater's bat nor anything of the sort. She was at an obvious disadvantage.
"Harry, come to this side of the net and I'll teach you to serve, then you can serve to Ginny." Sandy beckoned him over with her racket, which Harry found a very strange looking act.
He tried to give Ginny an encouraging smile, but she avoided his attempts to catch her eye.
Well shit.
Harry let Sandy show him how to serve and began serving the ball to Ginny. She was improving, he could see that, but she didn't seem to be noticing. Sandy finally taught Ginny to serve and had them hitting the ball back and forth. Ginny still wasn't meeting his eyes and Harry briefly was grateful he'd never actually played Seeker against Ginny in a match - just backyard scrimmages - because he was starting to rethink this whole plan of learning Muggle sports together.
Finally, their two-hour session was over and they bid Sandy goodbye. But Harry made a pretense of fixing the laces of his trainers as Sandy moved off the court and out the gate.
"Coming, Potter?" Ginny sighed as she picked up her bag.
"Just a second," Harry waited another moment to be sure Sandy wasn't going to turn around and interrupt him. Then he pulled a tennis ball from his bag.
"Think fast," he chucked the ball at Ginny who caught it without a second glance.
"That the best you've got?" She smirked at him, holding the ball up by her face.
"Probably, but I wanted to remind you you're brilliant and it seemed like a pretty decent object lesson."
Ginny looked at the fuzzy green ball and sighed, "So why are you so good at this?"
Harry came to stand next to Ginny and pulled her close. "I spent sixth year teaching Jimmy and Ritchie how to be Beaters. They had some good talent on their own, but they needed a lot of help. In turn, I ended up being a passable Beater."
Ginny rested her head against Harry's chest and was quiet a moment. Harry was just about to break the silence when she looked up.
"I don't suppose the Muggles have a sport that my Chaser skills would be usable?"
Harry grinned, "There's one, it's called basketball. You throw a ball through a hoop."
Ginny's smile spread slowly across her face, "Well that sounds brilliant."
"I'd be happy to arrange it for us," Harry took her hand and their bags, "but I'd first like to know more about how adorable you thought I was on the platform that first day."
Ginny rolled her eyes and opened the gate, "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."
Harry pulled her into him and pressed her back against the chain link fencing that separated each court, "Then maybe you could tell me what you think now."
He pressed his lips against hers, dropping their bags as his hand found her waist. Ginny melted into him and Harry had to keep reminding himself they were in public as his hands ached to roam across her skin.
"Harry..." Ginny started, but Harry cut her off.
"I'm realizing you'll need to tell me all of this somewhere private."
Ginny gave him a wicked grin and Harry realized he'd walked right into this, not that he minded really. Ginny seemed to agree with his assessment because she grabbed his hand and he barely had a moment to snatch their bags before she was sprinting towards the secluded spot behind the parking garage that they used to Apparate there. It wasn't more than a few moments before Harry found himself in the broom shed behind the Burrow.
Muggle sports were fun, and he was sure Ginny would want to learn more, but surrounded by old brooms and gear, with Ginny whispering exactly of what she thought of him now, Harry couldn't help but thank Merlin for this firecracker of a woman, whom he loved more than even Quidditch.