Written for the Hinny Ficfest 2021.
Thank you Clare for organizing this! And an enormous thank you to WB.
Prompt: "His pickup line wasn't as good as mine. Just saying."
Disclaimer: I found some pick up lines on the Internet. The first and third were adapted to fit in the story, the others were let as is.
"Merlin! When I said 'Accio the most beautiful woman in the world,' I never thought it would work!"
Ginny froze, her lips inches away from the straw in her cold butterbeer, hoping that awful pickup line wasn't destined for her, but, to her total disappointment, a young man with brown hair slumped his elbow over the bar next to her.
Shit.
His spicy perfume made her wrinkle her nose a bit, the scent so strong she felt like she could taste it on her tongue. Fixing her glass with a frown, Ginny decided to ignore him, hoping he'd take the hint and leave her alone. She hadn't expected having to reconsider her decision so soon when she heard the next sentence he dared to pronounce, the words sounding filthy coming from his mouth.
"I'm Harry Potter, nice to meet you."
Ginny closed her eyes and took a deep breath, not believing her ears. If there was one thing Ginny would recognize everywhere, it would be Harry's voice.
That man wasn't Harry. And he had the audacity to use Harry's name to woo a girl in hope to bring her home tonight.
She turned her head towards the guy, noticing the round glasses and fake faint scar on his forehead. But the eyes were all wrong. Totally wrong. They weren't that enchanted green that made her heart falter every time Harry landed his eyes on her.
Under the effect of the wave of indignation vibrating in her veins, she fisted her hand around the fabric of her skirt and exhaled through her nose.
"Oh really?" she asked him, her voice velvety and smooth. The guy sat more comfortably on his leather stool, sending her a grotesque wink at the same time. He nodded to her, playing with the side of his glasses and then, leaned over her, which caused Ginny to pull back.
"In chair and in blood. At your service, Mademoiselle."
She couldn't let this slide and it took her herculean strength to not hex him right then and there with the hardest bat bogey hex she'd ever manage to send.
"I'm so happy you'd changed your mind about me," said Ginny, batting her eyelashes at the guy.
The guy frowned. "About you? What do you mean?"
"You don't remember, Harry? You told me we were done." Letting out a heavy sigh, Ginny passed her fingers in her long hair, before taking a sip of her cold drink. "I'm so happy to see you."
Giving her a nervous laugh, the guy shifted on his stool. "I'm sure I'd have remembered you. A girl as good-looking as you? Nah. I wouldn't forget you," he said with more confidence.
Giggling, she bit her bottom lip, and then leaned towards the man. "That's funny. They do say you never forget your first!" She widened her eyes, gasping. "Maybe I shouldn't have Obliviated you that hard," she murmured looking at the dirty floor of the pub and placing her finger on her chin like she was remembering the event. "You were just begging so hard for me to do it, Harry."
The man gulped before looking at her with a stare Ginny could describe as half horrified and half judgy.
Perfect.
"Right. Erm. Listen, I'm not really Harry Potter. But hey! I may not be the Boy Who Lived, but I can still be your chosen one," he chanted like he'd practiced that bad pickup line in front of the mirror a hundred times.
"Oh, you're not?" asked Ginny, pouting. "That's too bad. I guess you're still cute enough."
"Amazing!" exclaimed the imposter, clapping his hands in joy. "Are you interested in making some magic together tonight? My wand is all ready for you! I have a big one too," he added, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Mine is ready too!" she responded with a devious look, taking out her wand.
The guy took a sharp breath at the sight. "You know what? I think someone on the Floo called me," he said, pointing his thumb behind his shoulder.
"You don't want to play with me? That's a pity."
"I'll see you-"
"No thanks," she said with a severe tone, sending a hex at his feet. Ginny was done playing. Tom, the owner of the Leaky Cauldron, threw her a nasty look, still wiping a glass, but said nothing. The imposter guy, dumbfounded, widened his eyes at her in fear. "Don't try ever again to dress up as him to shag, understand? And you look ridiculous with these glasses by the way," she shouted at him when he ran away.
"His pickup line wasn't as good as mine. Just saying."
Ginny, still fuming, jumped at the sound of the voice, spilling a bit of her drink on the bar. She turned towards Harry who was leaning against an empty table just behind her, arms crossed.
"Oh! Hello, Romeo. Fancy seeing you here, I thought you'd just left," she said over her shoulder, looking at her brother's best-friend.
Harry had a murderous look on his face. "I saw. Thanks for that. And, erm, sorry. I'd never had said this to you."
"At your service, Cap'tain."
Harry smiled a little. "I'm not your captain anymore."
Ginny waved her hand, taking a sip from her glass. "It's a tiny detail."
"Right. Well, I'm truly sorry about this. I wasn't expecting blokes to try to-"
"Don't be sorry, you prat. You can't control this. Plus, you weren't the one trying to get into my pants tonight."
Harry gave her a faint nod, uncrossing his arms. "Can I?" he asked, pointing at the stool next to her, to which she nodded without waiting, making place for him to sit by moving her legs from the way.
She glanced at him without saying anything and, like he'd read her mind, he answered her unspoken question. "Ron asked me to pick up our dinner tonight, so I ordered here."
"Good choice. Their stew's the best," she said, her fingers on her straw.
"Mmm, I think your mom's stew is better."
Smiling, Ginny leaned in Harry's direction, engulfed by the sweet scent of his soap. "She's not here, you don't have to pretend," she murmured to him conspiratorially.
Harry faked a gasp. "Who do you think I am? I would never! Not to Molly Weasley. I'm way too scared to lie to her face. What if she finds out? And she would. I could even lose my place as her favourite Harry!"
"Well, I can confirm to you you're also my favourite," said Ginny, putting a strand of hair behind her ear.
Harry held her gaze, his eyes glinting in the murky bar, making Ginny's heart pump faster.
"I still think my pickup line was better by the way," he said, breaking the intensity in the atmosphere.
She let out the breath she was holding. "Right. I still think you were drunk," replied Ginny, a smirk on her lips.
Harry shrugged. "Maybe."
Looking at the grumpy man behind the wooden bar, they exchanged a couple of words, Harry confirming his takeaway order again and paying, and then he turned to her.
"But I won't confirm anything," he said to her at last.
"What was it again?" she asked.
With a crooked smile, Harry adjusted himself on his stool. "Are you sure you're not a Dementor? Because I'm sure I'd die if you kissed me."
Ginny let out a chuckle, twirling the straw in her glass. "That's such a pickup line for an Auror. Did you hear it at the Ministry?"
Putting his elbow on the bar, he replied, "Of course I did. But it was my favourite."
"That's what I thought." She took out the straw from her butterbeer, pointing it at Harry in accusation. "I know you and you're not smooth enough to think up one yourself. At least, Fake-Harry did," she added, unimpressed. To add credence to her act, she looked down and pulled a lint from her skirt, and then sighed dramatically.
Harry acted offended which warmed Ginny's heart. Since the battle, Harry was more closed, always sporting a frown, suspicious of everyone and everything. To see him carefree, exchanging nonsense with her in a public place like it was the most natural thing in the world, was a precious sight after all the horrors she saw herself.
She pinched her lips together and lifted an eyebrow, knowing she'd hit his competitive button. He squinted his eyes in concentration, ignoring when the bartender put his takeaway bag at his side, the rich and homey scent of the stew made with red wine filling the air and enveloping her senses.
"Did you survive the Avada Kedavra curse? Because you're drop-dead gorgeous. Oh! Nevermind. That was me."
Ginny, taken by complete surprise, spat out a bit of her butterbeer on the bar and started coughing, hand on her chest. Harry, laughing at her spontaneous reaction, put his hand on her arm, a simple gesture, yet, one confirming her he was there to help if she needed it.
"Merlin, Harry! All your pickup lines are dark," she pointed out to him with a laugh, once she'd regained her composure. She wiped the liquid from her bottom lip and chin, mindful of not looking yucky when Harry was so close to her, his hand burning the skin of her arm.
He gave her a boyish grin in return, never removing his hand from her, his cheeks tinting pink. "What can I say, it is my charm."
A moment passed, neither of them seeming to care about the flow of people walking close to them at the bar or the cheesy song playing on the wireless, spending the minutes looking in each other's eyes, a goofy smile on their lips. Harry eventually cleared his throat, his mood darking. "And, er, you? What were you doing here? Are you waiting for someone?"
She shook her head, crossing her arms on the bar "No, I was here with Neville-"
Harry's shoulders slumped a bit, and she wondered what she'd said to provoke such a reaction from him when his jaw squared. "Ah. I see."
"- but Hannah finished her shift and he was drooling too much for me to stay there. I said I had to talk to Tom for my mum and just left. I don't even think he noticed," she said with fondness, remembering Neville stammering when he spoke to Hannah.
Harry's demeanour shifted in a sudden when she mentioned Hannah and a melodious laugh escaped his mouth when she finished her story. "And he believed you?"
Sending him a wink, she put her straw between her teeth. "Just like your imposter did. I'm a good liar."
He shook his head, eyes close, a small smile on his lips making him look adorable. There was something magnetic and captivating in Harry's whole-being, always causing her to crave and long for more.
"You're perfect," he threw at her, earnest. It was totally unexpected and the passion filling his voice surprised her and left her speechless for an instant, her mind unable to come up with any reply. Blood rushed to her cheeks, her heart racing at high speed, and she fought with herself to tear up her gaze from his, to stop reacting like the teenager she once was.
Harry pressed his lips together without leaving her eyes, inhaling deeply like he was trying to gather enough courage. Ginny didn't dare to breathe when he lifted his hand slowly, tentatively, to the lock of hair shaping the side of her face. His warm fingers grazed the skin of her ear, sending shivers in her neck, the moment filled with an intimacy they had never experienced before then.
"Come with me."
"Where?" she whispered, her throat closing from nervousness.
Pulling back, he took the steaming bag with the forgotten stews and put it on his lap. "We'll give that to Ron and Hermione and, I-I don't have any other pick up lines in mind, shit," he mumbled. "Would you come to dinner with me?" he asked, his voice cracking at the end of his sentence.
Thinking back to the party at Dean's yesterday, she remembered when he told her the dementor pick up line, how she'd hoped it could be real, and knowing full well she'd be the one dying if he'd kiss her. Ginny had spent the rest of the night imagining the feeling of his lips on hers, what it'd have been like to have him an inch from her face, enjoying the sensation of his firewhiskey smelling breath warming her skin.
She had followed each of his steps all night, not that she was proud of it of course, and hadn't been able to shake off her excruciating desire for something to happen that was burning in her veins. Burning since, if she was honest with herself, years.
But, as expected, nothing happened. Nothing apart from Harry shooting her this weird, yet, charming pick up line. And as clumsy and kinda dark it had been, it had affected her for hours. From his attractive lips, everything could sound adorable. Nothing happened because Hermione had broken the moment by giving Harry a glass of water and her brother Ron had laughed at how Harry had clearly reached his limit that night. Harry, his jaw clenched, had simply scrambled up to his feet, away from her, and Ginny had missed on her his glazed eyes looking at her like she was all he'd ever wished in life for the rest of the night.
It wasn't possible though, she'd told herself. She knew she had still been imagining things. That pick up line had surely been a joke so Ginny hadn't wanted to dwell on it too much.
Now though, there was no possible misunderstanding and she came to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, Harry had been trying to flirt with her since a moment already.
"Yesterday? You were serious?"
Harry passed his hand in his hair with a sigh. "I know I'm bad at pick up lines. I wanted to crawl in a hole after telling you this. And clearly, you didn't get my intentions-"
"I really didn't," she rushed to say.
Harry sighed. "I'm bad at this."
"Really bad," she confirmed, nodding with vigour, and Harry tried to poke her stomach playfully in response.
When their laughter died, he touched her hand, brushing and looking at her fingers in the most gentle way, electrifying her senses. Ginny realized he was still waiting for her response.
"I have a better idea," said Ginny, too excited to hide it.
Tilting his head, he sent her a confused look.
"There is some stew at home that Mum cooked yesterday." Harry squeezed her hand, his warm eyes illuminated as much as one of the flames of the candles burning in the Leaky.
"I couldn't ask for more," he said, getting off of his stool, Ginny mimicking him. "You, your mum's stew-
She waved her hand at Neville and Hannah in goodbye. "Oh, wait until I bake you a treacle tart, Romeo," she told Harry with a smirk, walking in the direction of the Floo with him at her side.
Harry groaned. "How long are you going to tease me like that? It's not fair! I'm not teasing you with your poem! Do you want me to recite it or-?" he asked her, beaming like a fool and reaching for her hand. Ginny's eyes widened in horror at his words.
"Fair point, Romeo."