Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Chapter 25

"Ginny."

It was the only word that escaped Harry's lips when he put his eyes on his wife. He was at the doorstep of his apartment, his arms crossed over his chest, a strange light in the bottom of his green eyes. Ginny was more beautiful than ever; her red hair was over her right shoulder, and she was biting her lips in a funny way, something that Harry hadn't seen her doing in a long — long — time.

"Hi," she muttered, her suitcase in front of her.

"Did you travel well?" he asked, not paying attention to the fact that the suitcase that she was holding seemed to be quite heavy.

"Well, yes. I was just a little surprised to notice that you condemned the chimney…"

"No one uses it nowadays…"

"Except me," Ginny let out in a sarcastic laugh.

"Anyway…," Harry said with a vague movement of hand. "What are you doing here?"

It should have been his first question. Of course, he knew why she was there; it was the Quidditch training break, he was her husband… Moreover, with all these things — the divorce, James' custody, Susan had been clear: Ginny had to live with him and James during these few weeks.

"You know why I am here. I don't really want to argue, at least for now — it is your choice. James' well-being is what counts the most at the moment. I don't want him to be disturb by some… arguments that can take place between us. I don't want to be that woman."

Surprised would not be a word strong enough to describe Harry at that moment.

"Do you agree?," Ginny continued, not paying attention to his trouble. "Or do you want him to be in the middle of an ugly war between his parents?"

"Of course not," Harry retorted hotly. "This is not what I want, not at all."

"If you want to go through this divorce, good for you," she carried on with, still holding her suitcase with both hands. "But don't count on me to help you — or do everything that I can to stop you from doing it. It's the only thing that I can say right now. Now, can I please come in?"

Harry took a step back to let Ginny enter into their apartment, gazing at her with a strange expression. She seemed to be honest — more honest than the last time that he had seen her, and than the last time he had read something from her.

"Do you need some help with your suitcase?" he eventually asked when she entered in the living room.

"I'm a witch, Harry," she laughed before taking her wand to make the heavy suitcase fly to their bedroom. "But thank you. Is James in his room?"

"Yes, he was playing in his crib when you knocked at the door."

"Can I… ?," she started, and it seemed to be a genuine question to Harry.

"Of course. You don't have to ask me the authorization to see your son."

"Our son," Ginny corrected with a smile. "I missed him," she simply added before disappearing in the corridor leading to James' room. From where he was, Harry heard the incessant babbling of his two-year-old son, along with the sweet voice of Ginny. He hadn't heard her voice like that since what seemed to be a lifetime, and for a second or two, he wondered what James' life would be without a mother figure. Would his son hate him for divorcing his mother? He was still young, but in a few years, how would he react to the situation?

Something on the coffee table soon caught his attention, and he took the piece of parchment that Hermione had sent him earlier, burying it into his pocket. Her words spun into his head, adding a little more confusion to the already awkward situation. "Don't be too harsh on her"… "Do it for James"… "We'll see each other soon enough". She was amazing, despite the situation. She would always find the perfect words, the ones that he needed to hear. Every time. Hermione wasn't the kind of person who would overshoot her target; she was perfect, and knowing that she was by his side was a relief.

When Harry had noticed that she didn't want to spend a lot of time with him and James — particularly James —, he had asked her why, even if, inwardly, he knew.

"I don't want James to be disturbed, knowing that… that Ginny will be back pretty soon. I'm not his mother, and I don't intend to take her place."

But even if she wasn't James' mother, the 2 year-old boy was seeing her as a part of the family. He was always looking for her, asking to see "Minee", and Harry had done his best during the last two weeks to distract his soon. But James wasn't the only one who wanted to see Minee.

Ginny returned into the living room with James into her arms, drawing him for his torpor.

"James seems to be fine," she eventually said with a smile.

"He is. He is in a much better state than six months ago," Harry couldn't help saying.

His wife bit her lower lip, and looked down to meet James' curious look.

"Why are you looking at me like that, Jamie?," she chuckled, trying to hide her embarrassment. "Did he eat?"

"Yes, I took care of that, too;"

"Harry…," Ginny let out in a breath. "If we want this to work… You have to change your attitude too."

"Who said that I want our marriage to work?"

"I'm not talking about that," Ginny retorted bitterly. "We'll talk about that later, right now I'm —"

"We will not talk about that," Harry cut her off, his arms crossed over his chest, his voice softer when he noticed that James was looking at him, frowning. "I have nothing to say about that. We'll spend Christmas together if you want to, but that's all that you will have from me."

"I want to, and I have to," Ginny corrected. "Don't forget that. If you hadn't sent me the divorce papers, everything would have been different. You decided to do it, so you have to assume the consequences now."

Harry said nothing and after a few moments, he nodded and went to the entrance door.

"Where are you going?" Ginny asked, her voice not as confident as prior.

"I need to take some fresh air," he explained while taking his coat and his scarf. "I guess that you can take care of James in the mean time. I'll see you later."

"Harry, wai—"

Ginny Weasley Potter didn't have the time to finish her sentence. Harry was already gone.

"Are you okay?"

Hermione looked up from her book to meet Daniel's gaze. She smiled at him before closing the book and putting it back into the shelf.

"Yes, I'm great. I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were already here."

"I can be punctual when I want to," he explained in a laugh. "Are you still going to say no?"

"What are you talking about?," Hermione asked with a frown on her pan.

"The bookshop. Our bookshop."

Oh, that. Daniel had talked about it several times in the past, but Hermione had always refused. She didn't really know why. Maybe that inwardly, she wanted to do it. But she wanted to do it alone, not with someone like Daniel. He was amazing, she wouldn't deny it, but he wasn't the kind of person that she would trust without thinking twice about it.

"You already know my answer," she chuckled. "Listen, I don't want you to think that it is because of you but…"

"But it is," Daniel cut her off with a wink. "Hermione, I know you better than you think, even if we don't know each other for a long time. I know that you think that I am not trustworthy, and well, I won't argue with that. I just hope that you will change your mind before March."

"March?"

"I intend to, well… Quit this job by the end of March."

"That's pretty soon," she couldn't help but notice.

"I know, but I think that now is the good time to do it. I have some savings, and… Well, not enough to open a bookshop like the one that I want to open, but it will do for now."

"Oh… I didn't expect that. So you were serious about it."

"More than serious, Miss Granger! Is that a proof enough of my seriousness?"

"Well, it's a good proof, but not good enough, sorry," she let out in a laugh. "But give me some weeks to think about it. If you can come with a good business plan and everything… Maybe that I will think twice before saying no."

"Deal," Daniel concluded before shaking her hand. "But right now, I think that there is someone waiting for you," he added with wave of hand for someone behind her.

Hermione turned around to meet Harry's green eyes, his face hidden behind his red scarf. She quickly apologized to Daniel and walked toward Harry, surprise at the bottom of her eyes.

"What are you doing here?," she muttered.

"I just wanted to see you… Did I interrupt something?," he asked, his eyes following Daniel through the bookshop.

"No, not at all. I was just talking about work with Daniel, nothing important. Where is James?"

"With Ginny."

"With Gi… Oh. She's already there then."

Harry nodded and loosed his scarf a bit.

"She's just arrived. I couldn't stay with her under the same roof, I… I needed to see you. I'm sorry to come unannounced at your workplace, I know that I shouldn't have done that, but…"

He seemed to be really confused about the situation, and Hermione smiled at him.

"It's okay. It's strange at this time of the year, but there is almost no one in the bookshop today. Come with me."

Out of habit, she took his right hand and head to the back shop. It was small, but large enough for both of them.

"I'm sorry, it's quite dusty here… I always try to clean up a bit, but I don't know why, it's still dusty," she said with a comical face.

"Never mind," Harry laughed. "I just wanted to see you, nothing else. It's been a while."

Hermione looked up at him, nodding.

"Yes… It's for the best. But you still have your phone if you want to hear my voice."

"I will be harder now that…"

He didn't finish his sentence, but Hermione knew right away what the problem was.

"Of course… What happened then?"

"She's… different. I mean, in her last letter, she seemed to be so angry, so hateful, but now… It's like she's another person, really."

Hermione frowned, and sat down at the little wobbly table, prompting Harry to do the same.

"Can you be more explicit?"

"I don't know… I've got the feeling that she wants to make me change my mind about the divorce, even if she didn't say it at loud. She seems to be kind with me, kind with James… Well, of course, she is kind with James, he's her son after all. But I don't know… I've got a strange feeling about it."

Hermione didn't talk right away; she didn't expect that at all. She had thought that Ginny would have been furious, that she would have threaten Harry. Not that it was something that she wanted; but it was something that the redhead would have been capable of, giving the letters that she had sent to Harry in the past.

"And what do you think about it?," she muttered, fearing his answer.

"I think that it is a complete nonsense. I want to divorce, and she will not change my mind about it. You're there. It changes everything," he quickly explained, taking her hand into his.

Hermione softened a little, knowing that Harry was not the kind of person who would say something just to please her.

"Alright… But you still have to cope with her for the Christmas holidays."

"I know, and I will. I don't want James to feel strange around us. I'll do my best to be friendly toward her, at least when he is with us."

"It's the best think that you can do, yes… And of course, you can come and see me when you need to talk. Just talk," she specified with a smile.

"Just talk," Harry repeated before bending over to kiss her chastely on the lips. "I will not do anything more than that, I promise."

"I wouldn't have let you if you wanted more," Hermione laughed.

It was weird to be in such a situation; they had already done so much more than that in the past, but right now, Hermione didn't think that it would be a good idea to go further, knowing that Ginny was there. It was quite hypocritical in a way, but she didn't want to passionately kiss Harry, or - even worse - to make love to him with the thought of his wife, her friend being under their roof. The feelings that she had for him were already hard to admit, and she didn't want to dramatize things.

"I need to get back to work," she eventually said, getting up from the chair.

"Of course. I don't know when…"

"Don't worry about that," Hermione cut him off. "Come when you've got the time and the desire."

'You're perfect, do you know that?," Harry said in a breath before hugging her.

"I try to," she chuckled. "Now go. And give James a kiss for me. I really miss him."

"He misses you too," the green eyed wizard admitted. "We both miss you."

With a last kiss at the corner of her lips, Harry left the back shop, leaving her alone. Hermione had been surprised to see him in the bookshop. And now, she was sad to see him go; but she had to for their sake.