Willow Trees vs. Motorcycles

Ron backed off a lot over the next day or so, giving both himself and Harry time to sort out their emotions. After three days the two friends met late one night in the kitchen when neither could sleep.

"About the fight," Ron started.

"I know…I didn't mean to hurt her. I was just trying to catch her," Harry responded.

"She screamed to stop and you didn't let up on her." Ron shook his head. "I reacted."

"I'm aware of that…You know I'd never intentionally hurt Ginny…right?"

"Yeah I know," Ron sighed, "that whole bloody week was awful." Ron got up to head back to his room. "Goodnight Harry."

"G'night Ron."

And for the two friends that was the end of the tension. They understood each other. It was an accident, but Ron would always protect his sister. The mood in the house lightened after the two friends began to talk again, but the tension between Harry and Ginny was palpable. Any time the couple was in the same room neither person was comfortable. It wasn't for lack of trying; both kept attempting to work out the issues between them, but every attempt ended in silence or misunderstanding.

Harry still didn't sleep through the night, every night the nightmares came to him. Last night it was Mrs. Weasley that finally woke Harry to settle him down. Harry was exhausted all the time and his appetite was nonexistent, much to Molly's dismay. He still could only eat sparingly without having his stomach turn.


Two days later Harry was jarred awake by Ron bounding onto his bed shaking him violently.

"I got an owl from Hermione, she wrote us!" Ron exclaimed. "Harry, wake up, its Hermione, she wants me to come visit!"

"That's great mate, really cool. I wonder what Australia looks like?" said Harry still groggy.

"I'll tell you when we get back!" Ron threw some stuff in a bag and ran out of the room slamming the door behind him with a loud bang.

Harry smiled a bit at Ron's unbridled enthusiasm. He got up, grabbed clean clothes and a towel looking forward to a nice shower. As he entered the bath he could smell Ginny's hair, the air was still warm and damp. 'She must have just finished,' he thought. After showering and donning the clean clothes he headed down for breakfast still thinking of Ginny.

Things had been a little better lately, but they weren't right, far from it actually. Anytime they tried to talk, it ended in silence, or with Harry not knowing what to say. He still couldn't sleep, and Mrs. Weasley was upset because he wouldn't eat right.

The kitchen was occupied only by Ginny and Mr. Weasley. Bill and Fleur had left yesterday and George was staying at the flat over the joke shop to try and keep it running.

"Morning," said Harry as he grabbed a plate and some toast from the pan on the stove. He sat at the table and smiled at Ginny.

"Good morning Harry," Ginny responded, smiling warmly back at him.

After that brief exchange the silence was deafening as neither Ginny nor Harry knew what to say next and focused on their breakfasts. In spite of the silence, the couple kept stealing glances at each other. The silence and quick looks didn't go unnoticed by Ginny's father.

"Harry, I got some old muggle tools at a car boot sale the other day. Do you think you could help me with them out in the work shed?" he asked.

"Sure," Harry said distractedly. He placed his dishes in the sink, smiled again at Ginny and followed Mr. Weasley into the work shed.

Mr. Weasley's work shed was like everything else at the Burrow, well used and cluttered. There was all manner of tools, spare parts of things and broken items of no use waiting for repair. On the bench was a box of used drills and saws with a 'make offer' sign on them, the tools from the sale. In the far corner was a pile of stuff with a tarp over it.

Harry and Mr. Weasley had a great time in the shop. Harry showed him the correct way to use tools and Arthur tried his hardest to use them properly having never held a power tool before in his life.

"Harry, you're really quite adept at fixing things," Mr. Weasley complimented him.

"Only some things," Harry replied looking a bit glum.

"Talk to me Harry, I thought you and Ginny were doing okay now?"

"Well I thought we were doing better, but I don't think we are. Every time I try to fix it between us we just end up staring at each other with nothing to say, or leaving before we get mad. It's really weird, we want to get right, but we just can't seem to fix it," Harry explained.

"Harry, you know that old willow tree down the lane?" started Mr. Weasley.

"Yeah," Harry replied, thinking of the huge fight he and Ginny had under it a few days back.

"Well about thirty some years ago I got a used muggle motorbike. Anyway, I jumped on it a bit prematurely and took off without any training on the blasted thing and promptly crashed it into that tree. Damn near broke the tree and my body in half," he laughed. "Lords, Molly was furious at me. The beating from her was almost worse than the wreck itself. Molly yelled for nearly three hours without taking a breath."

"Oh, where was I? Right, so anyway, the tree was horribly scarred. Bark all chewed off it, big crack in the side…"

"But you'd never know," Harry interrupted, "I mean you can't even tell."

"That's right Harry, but I never fixed the tree," Mr. Weasley countered, looking at Harry.

"Well of course not, time healed it!" retorted Harry with a bit of indignation. The lesson dawned on him just as he finished his comment. 'Time,' he thought, he needed to bend time. To somehow turn it back. 'We just need to get the lost time back!'

"Can I go sir? I'd like to find Ginny," Harry asked and flew out the door without waiting for a reply.

He quickly crashed back through the door into the shed, hugged Mr. Weasley, and then raced right back out without saying a word, leaving Mr. Weasley grinning in his wake.


"Ginny! Ginny!" Harry hollered as he careened through the house. "Ginny where are…" he collided with Ginny on the stairs, both of them falling in a heap of tangled arms and legs at the bottom of the steps, "…you," he finished.

Ginny rubbed her sore right temple, which was now sporting a raised red bump from the collision. When she lowered her hand she flashed Harry a sneaky smile, giggled, kissed his cheek quickly and said, "What Harry? What's so important that you have to trample me?"

Harry lost all train of thought after the kiss. 'She kissed me,' raced through his mind, 'we haven't kissed since my birthday.'

"Hello, earth to Harry," Ginny gently shook him back to reality.

"What? Right, do you still keep your journal?" he asked.

"None of your business, mister!" she replied sternly.

"Aww, not that stuff, but from you know, when I broke up…with…you," the sentence slowed down as he said it. "Please go get it, I promise you won't have to read anything you don't want me to hear."

They untangled and Ginny went to get the diary. 'Please, for Merlin's sake, let this work,' Harry hoped.

He took her hand and together they wandered down to the old willow tree. Ginny conjured a bench and they sat together. Ginny read from her journal reliving her nightmares. Harry reliving each horrible night he spent fearing for his and his friends lives. Starting slowly from the day they separated, they went through each page. There were no laughs and too much sorrow. Harry realized just how awful Ginny had felt each night apart. Her nightmares vividly recorded in shaky handwriting. And for the first time Ginny understood how close Harry was to death at each turn. It was very difficult going. Little by little, Harry opened up about the events during the horcrux search. Bit by tiny bit he let Ginny inside his world; his world of pain, suffering, death and torment. Ginny in turn shared her fears, and related the horrible hell that Hogwarts had become under the Carrow's rule.


Life at the Burrow settled into a small routine. Breakfast in the morning, then Harry and Mr. Weasley would go out to the work shed or do, 'man things,' as they would say. Ginny and Molly would work in the house spending real time together. Nearly losing Ginny in the battle had strengthened their relationship and both were relishing the time spent together. In the afternoons, Ginny and Harry would walk down to the willow, and sit with each other poring through the past ten months as best they could recollect. Some days the couple would grab brooms and fly off to a quiet corner of the property to talk. In the evenings they would talk more in the study or somewhere else private.

Ginny recoiled in horror at the tale of the night in Godric's Hollow, shuddered at the thought of Harry having to poison Dumbledore to get a fake horcrux, and was speechless as she heard about Hermione's torture at Malfoy manor. Luckily Ginny was tougher than most anyone Harry knew and she handled the truth without crying, though he could tell it hurt her to hear all that had happened. She was strong and that helped Harry tell the stories in detail.

Harry, to his credit held firm as Ginny described the detentions, beatings and curses inflicted on her during the school term. He cried as the reality of her suffering crashed down on him. He'd wanted her to be safe, yet she had remained the primary target for punishment and ridicule.

The more Ginny and Harry talked, the less violent Harry's nightmares seemed to be. He still was far from sleeping peacefully, he was still having nightmares nearly every night, but the gut wrenching screams were not as common. Ginny's nightmares decreased in frequency as well. Unbeknownst to Harry, most nights after he fell asleep, Ginny would make her way up to Ron's bed and sleep there where she could comfort him quickly as he thrashed about during his nightmares.

On the nineteenth day of this ritual they got to the night of the final battle.

"You, know what hurts me the most?" Ginny questioned. "You didn't come to say goodbye. That after everything, after all the waiting, hoping that you still cared about me, you didn't care enough to say goodbye." Her eyes teared up.

"Is that what you thought?" Harry responded desperately. "Oh, no Gin that wasn't it. I saw you outside the castle. I was using the cloak so nobody could see me. I saw you help that poor girl."

He paused to collect himself. "All I wanted to do was run to you, and grab you, and kiss you, and hold you. Oh Ginny, I wanted to hold you so bad, to never let you go."

He continued on, "But I realized if I did that, I'd be giving Voldemort the tool he needed to get to me. I knew in my heart he would kill you to get to me. That's how he works, he manipulates everyone. So I walked past, putting you out of my mind so he wouldn't know."

"So you really did do it?" she whispered softly. "You resigned yourself to the fact that you had to let Voldemort kill you. You stood up to be killed for all of us?" She clenched him tighter and wiped her nose and cheeks on his shoulder.

"No one else could do it Gin. I was the seventh horcrux, part of his soul was in me!" he whispered lightly brushing his hair back to show his scar. The full shock of the revelation now showed on Ginny's face. "And when I finally went in to face him I wasn't thinking about everyone else. I was thinking of you. I knew that if I did this awful, horrible thing, if I gave my life, that you would finally be safe. You would be able to live and have a life even though I wouldn't be coming back."

"When Hagrid brought you in, and we thought you were dead," she paused for a second, "…my life flashed before my eyes. All the things I ever desired in life were flashing by, leaving forever. You, and messy haired children, and a small house, and our wedding, all these hopes I had for a future, just erased before my eyes."

She sighed, "I didn't want to live. I wanted to die so I wouldn't have to go on. But, I wanted to kill those responsible, and if I died during the fight, then that was better than living without you."

When they finished relating their thoughts during the last night Ginny broke down. She never thought that Harry, her Harry, would simply allow himself to be murdered to save everyone else. But just the same, she knew he would if it was the only way. She shuddered up against him as he gently held her upright.

Harry and Ginny kept talking, revealing more details about the fight that night. Harry shivered as they recalled the killing curse that missed Ginny by mere inches. They marveled at Molly's disposing of Bellatrix, and snickered at Ron and Hermione's timing.

Harry held her till she stopped shaking and they gazed at each other. Ginny noticing for the first time that Harry wasn't the same. His hair was longer, his body was more muscular, but he looked older and tired, the oldest seventeen year-old she had ever seen.

Harry for sure thought Ginny was beautiful, but as he held her so tight, he felt her bony arms and hips. She had grown taller over the last year, but she seemed to be much too skinny.

"We should get back Gin," Harry said, and they both started the walk back to the Burrow in the waning sunlight. Harry took Ginny's hand in his and intertwined their fingers. It was the couples way of continuing to comfort each other after the talks. To Harry's surprise, tonight she lifted her hand and guided his arm over her shoulder and snuggled into his chest as they walked slowly back to the Burrow. This time the walk back was so very different; it was comfortable and relaxed, not tense and cumbersome. He knew they were far from finished with the conversations, but to get past the last part helped relieve tremendous amounts of strain between them. He could sense it in the way Ginny was walking and the way he was breathing. It was a marked difference from the recent past. He could even swear at one point she almost smiled.

"You know Mr. Potter; you have yet to ask me on an actual date. Do not expect any fringe benefits until you find a way to do so," she said slyly. Ginny smiled at him, tossed his arm off her shoulder and sprinted for the house. Harry gave chase at full speed, barely catching her as they got to the front door. Ginny squealed with laughter as he managed to get his hands on her waist.


"Gotcha!" Harry panted as they plowed through the door right into Mrs. Weasley. She fell over spilling a tray of beef pies and pumpkin juice, creating a floor with the traction of a wet ice rink. Ginny slid through knocking over the sitting bench. "Ouch!" screamed Harry, as the bench flipped over and smashed his kneecap, forcing him to release his grip on her waist. He got a bit of traction as he stepped on Mrs. Weasley's dress which allowed him to spring forward. His hand clamped onto Ginny's shoulder. "Gotcha again!" he laughed, pulling her down in a one handed tackle. They both rolled through the kitchen and into the doorway leading to the living room, knocking over Mr. Weasley as he came to his wife's aid.

"Say uncle," Harry goaded as he started to tickle her.

"No," she squealed, "no." She could feel his fingers wringing every bit of mirth from her; strong enough not to let her get away, but soft enough to bring the tingling sensation to its peak. Ginny laughed heartily, remembering this feeling. 'Oh how I missed this feeling. The last time he touched me, really touched me, was by the lake the day before Dumbledore was killed, over a year ago.' She tried half-heartedly to wriggle away from him, not really wanting the contact to end. "No, no more, I give," she cried with tears of laughter streaming down her face.

"That's not 'uncle' sweetie," Harry purred in her ear. He continued his torture of merriment, leaving Ginny gasping for breath, unable to talk.

"That's enough Harry, let her up," ordered Mrs. Weasley, which made Harry pause enough for Ginny to get a good breath.

"You know Molly, she did hex him three times in one day, and he should be allowed his revenge," Mr. Weasley pointed out. Instantly Harry once again started in on Ginny's knees and ribcage causing her to squirm through the spilled food creating a much bigger mess.

"Uncle!" Ginny finally gasped. Harry stopped the tickling.

All four now sat on a floor covered in food. The sitting benches were overturned everything utterly a mess. Ginny the worst off as her entire body was covered with the night's dinner from her thrashing on the floor.

Ginny and Harry looked at Molly and Arthur with trepidation figuring they were about to be scolded to no end.

Molly appraised both teenagers, her face softened and slowly she smiled at the pair of them. "Ginny, Harry, that's the first I've heard either of you really laugh in forever. Go on, get out, I'll fix this up," Mrs. Weasley said in a relieved tone.

"First shower!" called Ginny. "I've got to get these clothes off," she said as she got up to leave.

"Race you!" Harry said quickly and jumped up for the door. He wasn't quite fast enough as Molly grabbed his shoe and tripped him up. He fell to the floor with a thud.

"Harry dear, I'm thrilled that you and Ginny are happy today, but do not push too hard, understood?" Mrs. Weasley said guardedly.

"Yes ma'am," he replied and headed up the stairs hoping to get there in time to catch a glimpse of Ginny heading down the hall in a towel.


'Come on you big oaf,' Harry thought to himself. 'Why can't I do this? I've fought evil, saved the world… Come on already, third times the charm right?' He raised his hand and stood motionless at the door. 'Okay then, this time. It's been two days, and there's only two more days till Friday, so I have to, for real.' He raised his hand for the fourth time and managed to knock on Ginny's door.

"Come in," he heard Ginny say. He pushed the door in. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed with a thick book in her lap reading. Her oversized T-shirt draped her small frame, but with the sunlight behind her Harry could see the form of her body through the material.

He swallowed as he tried not to stare.

"Harry, for the second time, what?" Ginny asked.

'Second time? Oh I was staring wasn't I?' he thought. "Well," he finally said aloud, "I'd… I'd like to know if you'd like to go out this Friday night." There he had done it! He managed to get out the words without stuttering or drooling.

Ginny put down the book, stood up and walked to Harry. "I would like that very much Harry," and she gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "What time will we be leaving?"

"Seven o'clock, if it suits you," Harry said.

"Seven o'clock on Friday is fine," Ginny confirmed, giving him another small kiss and showing him out the door.


Once he returned to his room Harry pumped his fist in excitement; he'd asked her out on a real date. Something he had never done in his life. And she said 'yes'. No doubt, this was good. And she was so pretty, plus she had her hair in that pony tail again. He loved that, of course he loved it when she wore her hair loose too. And it looked really good put up. Maybe he just liked her hair any way she wore it.


Ginny lay back on her bed for a moment smiling. He'd been out there for almost twenty minutes readying himself, but he did finally ask didn't he. He was so sweet. She liked it that she made him nervous, if only he knew how nervous he made her. She stood up and went to her closet trying to decide what she would wear on her first date with the man she was sure she loved.