A/N: I think we might go back to school after this. I haven't quite decided. The main thing is, stay safe.

For disclaimer, see Chapter 1

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They wandered leisurely through Mayfair, stopping at the first popular-looking cafe for a spot of brunch. Neither was inclined to talk as they ate, but after she paid the bill, Harry kept an eye on her as they walked.

"Stop hovering," she said gently. "I'm fine."

"Look," he said with a shrug. "I made you worry this morning. And I'm sorry."

"Just as you told me that one thing did not automatically mean the other, you being gone did not make me upset. I was already upset and not seeing you in the house took me back. And it," she sighed, leaning against his chest. "You died once, Harry. It was awful."

"I'm not leaving you," he whispered, kissing her forehead. Chuckling softly, he leaned forward, whispering into her ear. "I'm the Master of Death, remember. I'm not leaving until we're ready."

She laughed and kissed his lips sweetly, before leaning against his side. He wrapped an arm around her and she tangled her hand in his as they walked.

"We've missed the Changing of the Guard," she muttered, picking his hand up to look at his watch. "Where did you get this by the way?"

"Bought it," he shrugged. "Used some of the Ministry money. It's looking a bit sad lately."

She smiled, kissing the back of his hand and went back to what she was saying.

"We'll come back tomorrow to watch if you like?"

"Sure," he smiled. "Whatever you want?"

"Alright. Tomorrow we'll come here first, then go for breakfast across the city. There are a few galleries you might like, too."

"My beautiful woman, I am in your capable hands."

She shook her head and leaned a little more against him as they kept walking. It was a long walk but they weren't in a rush and they weren't concerned about getting back. Neither of them had to worry about money so they ate when they were hungry, and they stopped when they felt like it or saw something they wanted a better look at.

"Do you want to go up on that?" she asked, nodding to the London Eye.

"Not sure it can compete with a broomstick," he whispered in her ear. She smiled and pinched his side but nodded.

"I am in agreement."

They spent a beautiful day together, roaming the city and taking in the sights. By the time they'd decided they'd had enough, Minerva Apparated them back to Mayfair and they'd picked up some fish and chips for dinner. She had suggested setting the table, but Harry made her wait while he summoned the blankets off the bed and shrunk the coffee table lower to the floor and pushed back the sofas. When he was finished there was a beautiful little relaxed dining area in the living room and they ate on the living room floor, lazing on oversized cushions, feeding each other chips. Minerva had not had such a pleasant day in a long long time but by the time they decided they were finished eating, there was a fire in Harry's eyes that made her skin tingle. She smiled demurely and threw her napkin on the table.

"We can clean up in the morning, don't you think?" she muttered, holding out her hand as she stood.

"Definitely," he muttered, stepping around the table and into her space. She moaned as he kissed her desperately. "Do you realise how sexy you are," he muttered, nibbling on her earlobe.

She'd had lovers before that had tried to tell her things while they made love but it had never excited her. Harry's quiet whispers always made the ball of excitement in her stomach roll and buck and she let out a breath, rolling her hips into him.

"Oh god, Minerva," he muttered. "Let me love you."

"I'm yours," she whispered, meaning every syllable.

She pulled away from him and detoured into the bathroom. Minerva opened the cupboards under the sink and brought out a few candles that she placed around the room, lighting them and turning the lights off. He leant against the doorframe, watching her with a smile on his face.

"You're incredible," he said gently, adoring the way the soft candlelight played over her face. "I keep pinching myself to check this is real. How did I end up falling in love with the most incredible witch on the planet? I will never know."

"You're very real, darling," she smirked, glancing down. "And I'm not all that, as they say."

"You always debase my loving words with talk of sex," he quipped, making her laugh loudly.

"You sounded just like you father then," she said quietly.

His heart thumped but for the first time in a long time, he wasn't sad. He looked back at her with a smirk growing on his face.

"He better not have said all that."

Her laugh was infectious and they tapered off to a quiet chuckle before moving in sync into the bathroom. They brushed their teeth and as Minerva dried her face, she met his eyes. His heart swelled at the love shining from her and he didn't want to wait any longer. She squeaked at the shock as he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, placing her gently on the bed. They'd made love slowly before, but this was something different. Harry seemed desperate to go so slowly and for once, she let him. He undressed her, inch by inch. Every time she tried to help, he'd pull her fingers away and kiss them softly, before placing them back on the bed.

She eventually got the message.

He started at her hair, undoing it from its confine and massaging her scalp for a few minutes. She really did try not to moan, but his hands were so strong and they pressed exactly where she needed it. He worked his way down her body, unlooping her earrings gently and breathing his love into her ear as he nibbled on her lobe.

"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he whispered and she breathed out shakily, believing him. "I love every single part of you. Even the parts I can't see yet."

She heard him as he meant it, judging by the look in his eyes as he held her face gently. He wasn't just talking about her body. He was talking of her soul. Of those parts, they were yet to share and the quiet dreams she'd put away so long that she felt burst into life again. Of spending the rest of her life with a partner. An equal. Someone who shared her passions and who could introduce her to his own. She couldn't wait to learn things she'd never learned and never seen and never experienced. With him.

"I adore the way your breath hitches -" It did so as he bit down on the tendon straining against her skin. "Just like that."

She gripped the bedding, trying not to move as he moved his hands to her waist and started pushing her shirt up over her stomach.

"Relax," he whispered. "There's a long way to go yet."

She smiled, meeting his eyes for a moment and seeing the same fire she felt all over her body reflected in his eyes. She sat up a little and he pulled her shirt over her head and threw it behind him. She didn't care. She watched as his eyes trailed down her face, and then her chest, down to her navel and then back to her eyes.

"Your skin is so soft," he muttered, rubbing his cheek on it. The stubble that had grown since the day before scratched in a way that made her toes curl. "Your body is so beautiful."

Her back arched without permission and he smiled. She'd seen him smile a lot since he'd come back. Come back to her. But this one, she noted, was for her alone. His hands were large on her middle and he stroked them from the top of her trousers to the bottom of her bra.

"This is very sexy," he muttered. His lips twitched as he traced the deep blue lace. She'd been rather worried when she'd nipped out to buy it a few weeks prior. She hadn't been overly sure it was something she wanted or needed, but Harry's eyes made her want to buy ten more, just for him.

"It's yours," she muttered, without meaning to, then feeling brave, she continued. "The matching bottoms too."

He groaned as he slid his hands down to her trousers and pulled them off, leaning on his heels as he stared.

"Do you realise how utterly breathtaking you are?" he whispered.

She wasn't sure if he wanted an answer, but his hands trailed over her feet and up her legs. He ticked the backs of her knees briefly, before leaning down and pressing a kiss against her centre. Her leg twitched, though he didn't encourage it open, instead, continued moving up her body to her face.

He traced her features, kissing her temple and her eyelids and, finally, her lips. She grabbed him and held on while they slid their tongues along each others'. The breaths they took were loud in the silence of the room and she wrapped her leg around him before she realised what she was doing.

"Ah ah ah," he smirked. "I'm not done."

He slid his palms around her back and she arched again to help him. She remembered one lover who had so killed the mood with his insistence that he would 'get there' that she'd left before he'd even managed to get his shirt off. Not Harry though. Harry unhooked it and pulled it gently off her, his thumb rubbing gently on the red skin on her side and the grooves in her shoulders.

"So much strength," he whispered, laying beside her now. "So much gentle."

His fingers traced nonsensical patterns over her belly and he kissed her lips with a tiny moan.

"Think we could do this forever?" he asked quietly, as they caught their breath.

"Oh darling," she said, lovingly. "We'd surely get bored."

"Of you?" he scoffed quietly. "No Min. Not ever."

She smiled as he nibbled on her neck and sighed deeply. She let go of everything and drifted while he turned on every single cell in her body. She almost laughed at herself when she realised he'd not even taken his own shirt off yet.

"Patience," he muttered as she mentioned it. "I want to enjoy this. I want you to enjoy this."

"Oh darling, I am."

He smiled at her and she decided that while she was absolutely okay with him running this experience, she wanted to see him as well.

"Take this off?" she said, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

He did and he was left wearing a pair of black jeans, hung low on his hips. His muscles weren't overtly obvious, but they were there and she ran her hand over his stomach, tickling her fingers in the hair below his navel.

"You are utterly beautiful," she muttered, glancing at his body and then up at his face. "I know it's not something many men would -"

"I'm not many men, Minerva."

"No love," she beamed. "You certainly are not."

He liked that and rewarded her by laying between her parted thighs and using his mouth on her belly. She squirmed happily as it ticked and itched and aroused. Her hands, which had been clenching the bedspread went to his hair and undid the tie. She groaned as it fell beside his head and tickled her further.

"You quite like my hair like this, don't you," he muttered, nipping her hip.

"I adore it," she said, unabashed. She grabbed a handful and wound it in her hands.

"Mm," he chuckled. "I see."

He went back to his exploration and before long he was blowing gently on her nipples.

"Oh," she hissed. "Harry."

"I love it when you say my name. When I know you're thinking of me and nobody else."

She groaned and he gave her what she wanted finally. She ran his tongue around her nipple in tight circles. The skin quickly went taught and when he was satisfied he drew it into his mouth and sucked.

"FUCK!"

He groaned this time and she felt the flutterings of her centre.

"Oh," she hissed. "Harry, I'm -"

"Come for me, my love. "Show me. Show me your love."

Whatever she had previously thought about his magical prowess, she had vastly underestimated it as he whispered a spell she'd only vaguely heard of. Trying to remember what it did, she immediately understood when his tongue, pulsing lightly, pressed against her nipple.

"HARRY!"

She clutched his head against her breast as she broke. He held her tightly as her hips jerked into his middle and he moaned as her thighs wrapped around his hips.

"Harry," she muttered. "Harry."

"I'm here," he muttered. "Finite. I'm here."

He held her so tightly she felt like she was anchored to him and in a way she was. This man had changed her life in such a small but unfathomable way. To give her the anchor she'd been searching for all her life. To relieve her of having to carry her own anchor.

"I love you," she breathed, trying to catch her breath. "Harry, love -"

"Divesto," he whispered. She groaned as his bare skin slid against hers.

"I can't," she blinked away tears as his hand slid down her thigh and lifted it higher. She felt his cock nudging her and groaned. "I -"

His hips rolled into hers and she huffed as he purposefully missed.

"Please lover," she whispered. "Please don't tease me."

"I love it when you call me that," he huffed, biting down on her shoulder gently. "I love making you squirm for me."

"Harry," she gasped. "Lover."

She held onto him tightly as he pressed inside.

"Tell me how it feels," he growled. "Tell me what it's like to my cock so deep in you."

She tried, she genuinely did but she couldn't breathe as he rolled them and hooked his arm under her knee and slid so deep it was almost painful.

"Darling," she muttered, trying to roll her hips against him.

"I love you," he said in her ear, pinching her nipple and breathing out against her as he started moving his hips in time with hers. He groaned as she pulled him close, trying to hold on to her self-control. She clawed at his back as he lost his self-control under her fluttering muscles.

"Yes lover," she hissed, his fingers biting into her hips. "Yes. Yes.

The sounds of their breathing and the rustle of sheets as they moved fell away as she wrapped her hand in his hair and brought their lips together. His tongue mimicked his hips and she felt her thighs tingling and she breathed his name again.

"Yes Min," he groaned.

She felt his body tense and she pulled him tightly against her as he slammed wildly against her hips. The slight pain only helped her fall over the edge with him and she squealed as her whole body convulsed in time with his mantra. Her name on his beautiful lips. He wrapped her up tightly and held her as she jerked against him. She couldn't help the tears that poured out of her eyes and she whispered her love into his ear as she clutched at his hair.

"I have you," he murmured. "I have you."

She cried, even though she tried to get herself under control, he didn't seem to mind. They stayed entwined until it didn't matter anymore and he leaned up, on his elbow, to wipe her tears.

"They are good tears, aren't they?"

"Yes," she chuckled bashfully. "Yes."

"You sure?"

"Harry," she whispered. "I cannot tell you what that meant to me. I," she shook her head, wiping away the tears. "To say I love you seems so inadequate."

"But it isn't. And I love you."

She, famed for her rousing speeches and crisp oration, could think of nothing to say. So, instead, she kissed him. Sweetly at first, allowing it to build until she felt him harden on her thigh.

"Let me," she whispered. "Let me love you now."

He shook his head and she hesitated, but seeing the need in his eyes ran her hand down his abs and over the wiry hair to take him in hand. He made a noise in her ear as she held him gently, a little pressure and a gentle movement. He was so alive, she felt every twitch in her core and as she began to move, she realised it was her wetness that covered her hand.

"Min," he muttered. "Don't have to do that."

"And if I just want to?" she asked imperiously, her hand travelling a little further down to cup him.

"Let me be inside you," he whispered. "Please."

As she wound him higher, she thought about it, in between rubbing her thumb over his nipple and tracing a jagged scar on his biceps with her tongue.

"Min. Please."

She noted the desperation in his voice and decided she liked being the one who could fulfil that. She straddled his legs, pulling his face to her chest and letting him take his fill of her breasts while she reached down between them and held him again, squeezing ever so gently to get his attention. She sank down onto him and he whispered her name again. Angling her hips, she rocked them back and forth, trying to find the right rhythm. It didn't seem to matter to him, and he held her tightly once more, mouthing her skin in time with her hips.

She let him lay down and used his stomach to lean on, finally finding a rhythm that suited her as it did him. He groaned and jerked up into her as she came down, making her gasp.

"Harry!"

He was a fast learner and before long he was thrusting his hips up as she rocked down onto him, pushing himself so deep that her eyes would roll. This orgasm was different. She tried to stop him from taking over, but he was too strong and that thought alone made her shudder. He held her middle and bounced her on his cock until he couldn't speak. His mantra turned into quiet growls and she leaned her head back in supplication, her hair spilling down her back and onto his thighs.

"YES!"

He surged up into her as he came and the force of it sent her into oblivion as well, frozen as every muscle inside of her spasmed. As her thigh started to shake from the effort, he dropped back onto the bed and she followed, trusting him to catch her.

He held her tightly as she struggled for air and it was more than a little while before she could comprehend what he was saying.

"I'm going to love you for all of time," he muttered, his hands running through her hair gently. "Forever. I'm not ever leaving you. We're going to grow old together. Gonna travel the world. See new things. Spoil our godchildren." She was still quaking as he pulled the sheet up over them and sighed happily. "I'm going to marry you one day," he whispered, perhaps thinking she was already asleep. She smiled against his chest, suitably sore all over and fell asleep, dreaming of what the future he had imagined might look like.