A/N: Once again, I have misspoken and been called out, haha. When I talk about the Hallows, I simply mean that Harry made sure that no one else would find them, hence "destroying them." Ah, the end is drawing near…
"…Yeah, she's the balance beam and I keep
Falling all around her fairy tale…"
-Blue October
The Fourth Task
"So do you ever wanna move?" Ginny asked Harry quietly as they sat underneath a warm June day.
"Never…" He responded, half asleep, half completely serious. "What are you thinking about?"
"Absolutely nothing, just being here right now." She answered, turning her head to look back at the man holding her in his arms.
Harry and Ginny had been doing this all week long. Minerva let them skip classes whenever they felt like it, Ron and Hermione were giving them all the space they needed, and even their teachers were sending them N.E.W.T. review materials to peruse at their own convenience. It felt like, for the first time, they had absolutely no responsibilities. Yes, they had exams approaching, Harry had the Fourth Task coming up in the next week, but for the here and now, the only thing that was important was spending time together and healing after the ordeal of the past week.
"You know that I will never let that happen to you ever again." Harry would say.
"You know that I put my own wand to my own head." Ginny would respond.
"Just like I did with Voldemort?" He was trying to invoke a reaction.
"Just like your mum did." She always knew what to say. "I had faith, Harry. I just knew I was doing the right thing, even if the people who love me thought something different."
"But Gin…"
"No, I'm serious. You threw that potion directly at my head. The pendant jumped out and blocked it. It wasn't some ancient magic or untested realm of power. It was just you and me. You gave me something more important than a birthday gift that day."
"What?"
"I can't believe, after everything you've been through and everything the two of us have said…" she paused, "Just because there is magic involved that is unbelievable to other people or unforeseen by the people involved, doesn't mean that the heart of the matter has changed."
"We love each other."
"Exactly! I'm sure other people have tried to sacrifice themselves for their loved ones and failed, but none of them were ever put in the same position as your mum or me. We both love you, present tense, and we always will. The only difference is that you have been given special gifts AND special curses. If it weren't for your past, you would never have been in the situations you have been in, but you also wouldn't have come out on top in those situations if not for your past."
"Gin…" He already understood. He didn't need her to continue.
"Something special happened the night your mum saved you." She didn't know about the Otseptine, a vial of which was still hidden amongst Harry's possessions. "Something special happened the other day, too. But the point is that the only way those things could occur is if the two people involved had a love so deep, and so powerful, that it could overcome the extraordinary circumstances placed before them."
And finally, they could rest, having talked through the horrible atrocities in their lives. There was a reason for everything, even if no one could see it at the time……….
……….As it happened, the Fourth Task came and went.
A week later, over a hundred thousand wizards from multiple countries were all gathered to witness Harry Potter and Hermione Granger triumph over the Beauxbatons team for the first ever TriSchool Cup. In the end, Harry's performance in the Third Task vaulted him over Gabrielle Delacour for the TriWizard Cup, with a lot of logical help from Hermione in the last task. She helped their team reason their way through numerous obstacles, including the opposing team, on their way to victory. The de facto win was, in large part, due to his friend's genius, and his acceptance speech noted it at least a dozen times.
The important thing was that another event was over and done with in his life. He could once again attempt to focus on things that held more significance, or at least, more personal meaning. "Gin!" He yelled as he as running up the corridor to catch her.
"Hey, Harry. Aren't you supposed to be in that photo shoot for the Witch Weekly ad for the next issue?"
"Haha." He said sarcastically. "Actually, we've just finished, I Apparated back as soon as I was done with something else."
"What else?"
"I don't wanna tell you."
"What do you mean?"
"I'd rather just show you! Can you break away from the library for a few minutes?" The two of them had been studying for their N.E.W.T.s furiously over the past fortnight, and Harry was not going to spoil her chances of getting that internship with the Healers at St. Mungo's.
"Um, sure." She said, a little disbelieving that Harry Potter could have an actual surprise planned.
"Ok, come with me." He dragged her out of the castle and down the steps and past the winged boars until they were outside the grounds. "You ready?"
"Well, since I don't know what we're doing…um, I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Harry laughed, and in the next instant, turned on a dime, grabbing hold of her hand. He could hear her squeak a little as she didn't realize that apparation was in their near future, but the next squeak that emanated from her mouth was one of delight. "Harry! What are we doing here?!"
He did not think that she would be so skeptical. His only thought was that she would be hysterical over how beautiful the view of the French Riviera was, and the fact that they were there would make her forget any kind of reason or logic. "What?"
"Don't mess with me. This isn't some little vacation! We have our tests in two days. You wouldn't have brought me here without a damn good reason!"
Harry would never get tired of how fiery she was, a Daughter or not, and decided to tell her right away before her feistiness got out of hand. "You wanna vacation here whenever you want?"
"What?" She was looking out over the horizon of the Mediterranean, but he was staring straight into her eyes, seeing the reaction on her face, this girl that had never been given so much as a new book, was now gazing at a future she never thought possible, even with him. "What did you do?"
"I understood what my own fourth task was," he paused as she looked at him with a quizzical look, "and I acted on the challenge."
"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."
"Trust me, I'm not smart enough to act like I planned all of this, or anything that has happened to us over the past year, but now that I can see the past, I figure four things were expected of me…" He put out his hand, much like she had the night they had gotten engaged.
"And?"
"One," he ticked off his pinky finger, "get back together with you." She stepped back from him for a moment, trying to figure out where this was going. "Two," he ticked off the ring finger, "ask you to marry me." She started looking around, as if expecting to see some surprise party Apparate to their side this very instant. "Three," he ticked off his middle finger, leaving one finger up, "show the world how much you mean to me by getting married." She put her hands to her mouth. "And four," putting down his pointer, revealing a strong hand, "buy a home."
"A home?" She stuttered. "HERE?"
"No." He smiled, knowing that all this suspense was killing her. "I put a down payment, with my TriWizard winnings, on a new hidden wizarding settlement that is going to be built here in the next several months." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "But I figured it was a good way to tell you that I
not only bought the rights to my parents' home in Godric's Hollow," she smiled widely, "and not only did I get a magical cleaning crew to finally restore Grimmauld Place," she moved back a couple steps, "but I also bought a plot of land in Ottery St. Catchpole that is yours to do with it whatever you please."
He smiled, waiting for her reaction, and moments later she jumped the small distance between the two of them and leapt into his arms, half weeping, half laughing. "I love you."
"Technically you love my parents and Sirius for providing the money."
"You're the one who did these things with the money! AHH!" He spun her around as they kissed and hugged throughout the exchange. He was trying to ask her where she wanted to live ultimately, but there apparently wasn't time for that in the spontaneous celebration of her good fortune. In the end, Harry didn't care. Ginny was happy. That was worth a hundred houses and a million galleons.
"Now I did say that I would only delay your studying for a few minutes…"
"I know!" She looked like she was wrestling with the notion of staying on the beach or returning to the library, as if a moment on the cold sand and her entire career were somehow comparable. "Give me a few days to figure all of this out?"
"Of course, we'll always make decisions together."
They kissed, Apparated back to Hogwarts, and got back down to studying for tests that would only prove that which everyone in the wizarding world already knew: these two were incredibly talented, incredibly gifted, incredibly experienced, and meant for each other.
