"Harry!"
He sighed at the sound of her voice and approaching footsteps. He didn't dislike her. He liked too much, in fact.
He just wasn't quite certain if he wished to be with anybody at this particular moment.
"I - " She stopped just short of where he sat on the broad window sill, the sprawling view of the grounds a small comfort in light of his distress. "I came as soon as I heard."
Harry nodded, avoiding her gaze. Over the years, he had imagined, rather often, what it would take to have Ginny Weasley running towards him with open arms again the way she did in the Gryffindor common room a lifetime ago.
The fact that he could well be on his way to being fired was not one of those scenarios.
"How is he?" Ginny slid on the other side of the window sill. "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will have him fixed up in no time."
Harry sported something between a scoff and a chuckle. "I would hope so. She's a hundred years old and still fixes students like no one else can."
Ginny's smile, unlike her usual brilliant one, was subdued - indulgent, even.
It was the smile he saw her use on Ron whenever the latter was being rather inappropriately funny. It was the smile she sported at the sight of Hermione stuttering to get out the word 'yes' when trying to reply to Ron's proposal, all while rolling her eyes at the wording he'd used to ask.
And Harry wasn't sure if he wished very much to be compared to either of his friends at the moment.
"You weren't hurt, were you?" Ginny asked softly.
Harry closed his eyes. It was not his finest moment, and he wasn't particularly keen to relive it.
Yet relive it he must.
And this afternoon, as per McGonagall's instructions, he would be reliving it in front of the entire Hogwarts board of governors.
It wasn't so bad to practice a bit in front of the one person whose opinion he cared most about, he supposed.
"I'm alright. It's just - it was, it was practice - just practice." Harry leaned his head back against the stone walls with a sigh. "I'd softened the floors and cleared the furniture. No one was supposed to be hurt."
"You were only doing your job."
"I thought I was." Harry scoffed again. "I should have checked the wands beforehand for any cracks. To get a student so seriously injured, in class, is practically unpardonable."
"Harry." She pressed a hand on top of the one he'd placed on his knee.
She didn't say much, didn't say more.
Somehow, it was better off this way.
"When's the review?" She asked, when the sun dipped another degree towards the horizon.
Harry glanced at his watch. "In another hour."
Ginny nodded, her hair glowing in the afternoon sun. They'd skipped lunch, and she'd probably had to reschedule a class or two. It was the little sacrifices, at times, that endeared loved ones to us even more.
Harry sighed below his breath.
"Gin, if they ask me to leave - "
"Don't be silly," she interrupted him. Her hand closed more tightly around his. "Harry, I'm sure they'll understand."
"But the parents - "
"McGonagall will handle them, and Madam Pomfrey will work wonders."
He looked at her softly. "Makes me wish we never came back after Easter."
"Harry, you are a great teacher - and I would have done anything to have a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher like you back then." There was so much earnestness in her voice that he almost believed her. "And if there is anything I can do to just make you see yourself the way I see you - "
He met her eyes.
And after nearly a year of working side by side - after three years of stolen glances at the Burrow over holidays and birthdays - after a hundred little dreams and hints and hopes - he leaned forward, slid his hands onto her jaw, and pulled her into a kiss.
She kissed him back, as she always did, as things were always meant to be between them, and he relished in the feeling of having her lips back where they most belonged. He drank her in, with kiss after kiss, the warmth of the sun flooding their side as the fervor of her kisses warmed him from the inside out. Her hands mapped his chest over his robes. His fingers drifted across the breadth of her shoulders.
It wasn't a good snogging session between two children. It wasn't the desperate kiss of a dying man.
It was tenderness and hope, renewal and love. It was a thousand eternal sensations rolled into one moment of glory. It was coming home - as they had always been fated to do.
"Ginny," he whispered, when they parted, both panting, with hooded eyes and swollen lips.
They said one could never forget one's first kiss.
But second first kisses were none too shabby either.
"Whatever they say," she whispered back, her voice hoarser than he'd expected, "I'm on your side - forever."
"Even if I were placed before the Wizgamot? Or banished to Azkaban?"
She chuckled, then she smiled. "Always one for the dramatic, Harry."
"I serve to entertain."
He kissed her again when they stood, lips and hands lingering in every way they could. It was not the best time, nor the best place.
But he was with the best person, and that all-important fact made everything else in life just a little bit better.
And he let that one thought buoy him as he steeled himself, took her hand, and began their trek towards the headmistress's office.
A/N: I had to have some non-fluff at some point!