A/N: A gift to the wonderful HazzaP. Cross-posted on AO3 if you're so inclined to read over there, but I figured I should post here too.

Harry throws back a shot glass, and lets out a gasp like the liquid burned his throat.

He wishes it was alcohol. He could use a little something to take off the edge. The stress of tonight. The stress of the potential attack. The stress of Ginny wearing that dress that dips deeper than he is accustomed and hugs her hips so right.

The water charmed to look like firewhiskey doesn't do the trick, however. It is fake.

Just like Ginny's amused smirk as she observes his performance. Or maybe that's real. He doesn't know anymore. He leans close to her, putting a hand on her waist. She smells so good up close. He refrains from making his inhale too obvious, but allows himself to fill his senses with her anyway.

It's remarkable how comfortable they are with touches like this. Sure, it's all for show, but that hadn't made it easy those first couple weeks together. Hell, the first time he'd held her hand walking down Diagon Alley, his face had been as deep a shade of red as her hair. But Ginny made it easy. She told him in no uncertain terms he should treat her like he would any of his girlfriends. He hadn't been forthcoming about his poor luck in that department, but decided to treat her like he'd always wanted to when he imagined spending his life with someone.

So the casual touches, the closeness. He embraced it, and Ginny had reciprocated right from the start.

"Too much?" he whispers in her ear, referencing his exaggerated sigh.

Her lips tickle the shell of his ear when she tilts her head up to respond. He resists a shiver. "You had a drink, Potter," she says, "Not an orgasm."

He can't help the laugh that escapes him. It's louder than he intends, probably loud enough to be heard over the music throughout the hall. But that's okay. He's supposed to look and sound inebriated anyway. "Merlin," he says with a shake of his head. He pulls back just enough to see her face. "Is that a little insight into the sound Ginny Weasley makes when she comes?"

She flushes red, but doesn't look away in embarrassment. They didn't get embarrassed anymore. Otherwise Harry would've died from it, the way Ginny liked to tease him. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she asks him with a wink before pulling out of their tight embrace to nurse her own fake drink.

And yes. The answer is definitely yes. Two months of pretending to be this girl's boyfriend would make any man desperate for release—hers or his own. Throw in suggestive conversations like this one, or the countless public kisses they've pretended were for themselves and not for show, and Harry had been dreaming of all the sounds Ginny might make.

Ginny is a beautiful, talented Quidditch star who just signed a wealthy contract extension with the Harpies. It's a sickening world if stalkers can exist, but Harry's not at all surprised this is the girl to get one in that world. It's been fake, and yet he's fallen head over heels in his time with her. Thank Merlin he's had Sirius to vent all his...frustrations to, or he'd have exploded by now. It's not like he could talk about this stuff with Ron. Not about his sister.

And it is all going to end tonight. At least, they hope it will. After two months of being unable to catch the person or persons who had been sending threats to Ginny, Harry's Auror Department had gotten desperate. Harry, initially installed as Ginny's secret bodyguard undercover as her new boyfriend, is to act as bait with her in the end-of-year celebration with the entire Harpies organization.

Intel suggests Ginny's stalker would be present tonight. They'd at least gotten far enough in the investigation to know it is someone within the organization. But they had not made a move since Harry had been by Ginny's side in public. Which he had predicted from the start, arguing against his placement in the position. Who would continue their threats against Ginny when the Savior of the Wizarding World was on her arm?

It turns out, the threats continued, and turned more violent when she started 'dating' Harry Potter. Soon, he was target number one, and the letters to Ginny had gone from creepy and stalkerish to violent and threatening.

And yet they'd made no move on him or her. Harry had been vigilant, of course. And so the Department, anxious to end the case and get their best resource back in the office full-time, had come up with this awful plan of using a citizen as bait. The only person who fought against the plan more vociferously than Harry was his partner Ron. Ultimately, they were convinced, first by Ginny yelling at them and insisting she could do it, and that she wanted her life to go back to normal. And second, by admitting that their current plan of protecting Ginny and waiting on the stalker to make a mistake wasn't working.

Harry pours himself and Ginny another drink from the fake firewhiskey bottle, and hands the shot to her. Their fingers brush and linger when she takes it from him. She meets his eye, and Harry admires her acting ability. Her look is fire. Or maybe she's not acting. Maybe his plan later has a little more hope than he fears. But that's for later. After the much more life-threatening plan.

"I would like to know," he tells her before finally pulling his hand away from hers. "I'd like to be up close when it happens, too."

She brings her free hand up to rest on his chest. "Merlin, Potter," she whispers. "Are you sure there isn't real alcohol in here? Your tongue is looser than usual."

"I could put that tongue to different use tonight, if you'd prefer," he says with a wink. And yeah, he may be laying it on a little thick, even for the salacious rapport they'd developed these past two months. He'd blame Ginny, but he's been a more-than-willing participant.

"Godric," Ginny curses with a grin. "You are on one tonight aren't you?"

Harry shrugs. "If everything goes according to plan, our daily rendezvous might just be coming to an end, Weasley. Figured I should get all my licks in now."

Ginny bites her bottom lip, and he thinks a sadness comes over her features before it vanishes. "Well, I won't miss the letters and the threats, or you constantly hovering for my 'safety'," she says with air-quotes. Then she catches his eye. "But I will miss you blushing when I kiss you."

Harry narrows his eyes at her. "Oh come on! I haven't behaved like that in over a month!"

Ginny snorts. "I know. I miss it. You were so cute Harry."

"Okay," he says with a good-natured smile. He throws back his shot, and gives a less exaggerated exhale. He lifts an eyebrow at Ginny, who gives a nod of approval with a chuckle.

"Much better, Harry." Her eyes glint with a challenge. "Is that what you sound like?"

He fights his own blush and grin, and just shakes his head at her. She drains her own shot and brings it back to the bar with a hard clank. The sound echoes throughout the hall, over the music that other Harpies team and organization members are out dancing to. Harry looks over the celebrating people, and turns back to Ginny with a frown. "Sorry for ruining your party tonight, Gin."

She shrugs. "No more than the last two months," she says. Her voice is light and joking, but Harry can hear the actual frustration in her voice.

"You ready?" he asks.

She takes a deep breath. "If you think we're drunk enough."

Harry does a mental tally of the number of fake drinks they've had. And yeah...he'd say they should be sufficiently plastered. He leans in and presses his lips to her neck, the first of many many moves he'd make on her tonight that were new. But she'd told him not to hold back. "It's go time."

Ginny giggles loudly, and pushes him back. "Harry!" she calls out, not too loud to be suspicious, but louder than Harry assumes she would normally be in this setting. He hopes to be able to confirm this assumption one day, even if he's not one for public displays of—

She interrupts his stream of consciousness with a tug of his hand. "Come on," she says, peering over her shoulder. Harry follows, and he truly doesn't have to feign the daze he's in. Her gorgeous red hair falls over bare shoulders, and Harry can't keep his eyes off her pale skin. Except to drift down her green dress and get a good look at her arse.

He wonders if he'll have to apologize to her when this is all over for the number of times he's unabashedly checked her out. He can claim it was for his cover, of course. But considering how much he's enjoyed it, he thinks a confession might be in order.

She leads him, giggling, from the big, open room where the celebration was taking place, down a hallway. It was important they get far enough from the party to be interrupted only by the one person they wanted to interrupt them. At a proper distance, Ginny turns around, and her look makes him swallow. She pushes him against the wall, stands on her toes, and kisses him hard.

Harry recalls their first kiss vividly. He thinks about it often with equal parts joy and mortification. After a couple weeks "dating" each other, Harry had been informed that their ruse was drawing suspicion on account of the optics. Apparently they didn't look like a couple. So he and Ginny came up with a plan for him to kiss her after her game against the Tutshill Tornados.

She'd just won the game, playing at her usual MVP-level with over twelve goals and stellar defense. Harry had been less than his usual MVP-level at doing his job, and had spent extra time watching her in the sky instead of watching the crowd for suspicious behavior. She looked so good in her Quidditch kit on that broom, hair flying in the wind behind her. And when the snitch was caught, and she flew over to his box, he thought his heart might just beat out of his chest.

He'd tried not to get in his head about it. It was just a kiss. A fake kiss at that. And yet he'd been catching himself looking at her lips more and more often of late. They were outrageously kissable, he'd decided.

She'd hovered just in front of him, a sly smile on her face. He'd reached out, and pulled her gently towards him. "Great match, Gin," he'd said without thinking much, and then pressed his lips softly to hers.

He vaguely remembers the cat calls, the flash of a camera. He mostly just remembers Ginny's soft lips, and the feel of her flushed cheeks under his thumbs as he cradled her face. This kiss had been tender, and when she pulled back, her eyes fluttered open. "Gin, huh?" she asked, clearing her throat.

And then she was gone-off to join her team in celebration, leaving Harry to feel like he might've done something wrong. Only to find out later, she loved the nickname, and thought he was a pretty good kisser.

Today's kiss is not a tender kiss like their first.

They are supposedly drunk and horny enough to leave a party. They have to look oblivious to the world around them. Easy targets.

So Harry pulls her tight to him and wastes no time pressing his tongue past her lips.

"Mmm," Ginny moans in surprise. The sound does nothing to slow Harry down, tilting his head for better access. One of his hands clenches her waist tight, while the other runs up her back.

For as close as they've pretended to be over the past two months, this kind of behavior is new to them. Innocent kisses and casual touches had not prepared Harry for the hunger that rushes through him, and it takes all of his concentration not to get lost in her. He can't. Because even though Ron and a team of Magical Law Enforcement are nearby, waiting to pounce, Ginny's protection falls on Harry first and foremost.

So even when Ginny's hand snakes up his chest and tugs at his shirt. Even when she lifts her head so he can kiss down and back up her neck, and nip at her ear lobe. Even when her breathing quickens and Harry feels his blood flow shift. He must listen for more than her groans of approval. He must look at more than the flush creeping up her chest. He must ready the wand tucked safely in his sleeve, and not the wand stiffening in his pants.

He'd joked "sorry if I get hard, and sorry if I don't" to her before the night started when they'd planned this out. He's grateful he'd broken the ice then so it's a little less awkward now. Of course, that doesn't make him less surprised when she presses harder against him and rolls her hips.

But he can't exult in the pleasure rocketing through his body, because he hears it, then. The lightest of sounds. His eyes snap up from the beautiful shape of her collarbone he'd been directing his attention to see a ripple in front of him, like the air over a crackling fire. He can taste the magic in the air, now that he's lifted his lips from her skin.

In a swift motion, Harry spins Ginny out of the way and flicks his wrist. His wand flies from its holster in the sleeves of his robes, and he casts a wordless shield at the same time a blue light flashes from the hazy air in front of him.

The caster gets launched backwards, his disillusionment charm breaking as he takes several hasty steps to catch himself from the powerful shielding charm.

His name is Eugene Beck. He works as an assistant coach, and had helped Ginny a lot in her Rookie year when she'd taken the league by storm. When discussing potential suspects, Ginny had reluctantly let them add Eugene to the list. In the years following her breakout season, she'd worked more closely with higher-ranking coaches, and she had to admit Eugene hadn't been as friendly since that first season.

And now, he looks anything but friendly as he hurls curse after curse at Harry, a glower on his face so dark even the array of colorful spells coming from his wand couldn't brighten his features. He backs away, putting a little more distance between himself and Harry. Smart man.

"Eugene!" Ginny shouts from behind Harry. He carefully positions himself between the pair, wand working furiously to ward off any spell from hitting her. Though, he hears that she's got her own wand out as well. He hasn't seen it up close, but Ron tells him she's more than capable in a fight. Harry believes him. "Why are you doing this?"

"He doesn't deserve you!" the deranged man shouts between a particularly dangerous blasting hex and a harsh purple spell Harry doesn't immediately recognize. "No one does!"

Harry deflects the blasting hex, and it hits the ceiling above them, sending chunks of wood and sheetrock flying. Harry dives at Ginny to protect her from the debris and the unknown spell. Her own shielding spell protects them both from the debris while the purple light hurtles down the hallway, striking the doorway down the hall and turning it to liquid.

From the ground, Harry throws a pair of stunning spells followed quickly by a disarming charm.

Eugene deflects and dodges, and decides he won't be winning this fight. He turns on the spot to disapparate.

But there is no familiar crack of the teleportation. The enchantments Ron put up would have prevented that. He loses his footing while he turns himself around, only to see Ron running down the hallway, flanked by two other members of the DMLE.

Harry turns on the ground, pulling a deactivated snitch from his pocket. He grabs Ginny's hand, and brings it to the small ball, just as spells start to fly again. He feels a familiar tug at his navel, and raises his eyebrows at Ginny, who nods to him. And together, the Portkey takes them to his home.

Moments later, they settle on Harry's living room floor, on an old rug that he really should replace. The both sit up, hands still grasped around each other and the snitch. Ginny looks sad, despondent. Harry shifts his hands to drop the ball, and instead holds hers more firmly.

"You okay, Gin?" he asks her softly. He checks for any injuries, but it's clear the only damage taken would have been from their crash to the ground. She's fine. Physically, at least.

She nods. "I...I really didn't think it could be him. I guess I hoped it wasn't anyone I knew well or was close with."

"We'll find out everything we can," Harry says. "Try to understand better why-"

She only shakes her head, and Harry wants to kick himself. Always the Auror. He reaches out for her and pulls her into a hug. "I'm sorry."

Her hands wrap around him, and her grip is tight. After a moment, she takes a long breath. "Thanks Harry. For all of this. I know it wasn't your favorite."

Harry pulls back with a small smile. "You kidding me?" he says with a wink. "Getting to snog the Ginny Weasley instead of doing paper work? It was a dream job."

She snorts."Yeah, I felt how much you were enjoying it earlier."

Harry groans, and gets to his feet. He reaches for her hands again to pull her up, too. "Please don't judge me. It was a weird evening. Fake drinks, you in this dress, the thrill of the pending fight."

She only smirks. "Sure, sure."

Harry shakes his head at her while fighting off a smile. "So, I need to get back and make sure your brother didn't bullocks this up. Are you okay to wait here until we bring him in and make sure he was working alone? I can floo Sirius if you want comp-"

"I'm good," Ginny says quickly, and looks around her. "You could've warned me you'd be bringing back to your place, Harry."

"I'm not-" he starts. "I just thought until we knew everything, this would be the safest-"

She laughs. "Merlin, you're a mess. I'm fine. Go."

Harry nods. "Make yourself at home," he tells her, and motions to the kitchen. "There's some tea or whatever you find. What's mine is yours."

"Thanks Harry," she says earnestly.

He bends down to pick the snitch back up. "Of course. I'll, erm, see you later tonight." Ignoring his compulsion to stay here with her now, he activates the Portkey.

When he arrives back in the hall, he's pleased to find Eugene Beck bound and unconscious in the hallway. Ron is giving orders to the witch and wizard who accompanied him. They turn and exit the hall right as Harry approaches Ron.

"Hey mate," Ron says with a sigh of relief. "Everything all right?"

Harry clasps him on the shoulder. "Great. She's safe. Beck is caught." Harry looks down at the man and resists the urge to kick him.

"Knew it was him," Ron says with disdain. Harry can only snort.

"Oh you did not."

"Did too!" Ron defends, but with a smile. "He was in my top ten at least."

"Of a suspect list of twelve," Harry laughs. "So, we bringing him back to headquarters?"

Ron nods. "I am."

"You?" Harry asks, more confused than angry that Ron is taking over. "Mate this was our case."

"He was half of our case," Ron says. "I'll be interrogating him. You have a different debrief to take care of."

Harry's breath caught. Surely Ron didn't realize the suggestion in his words. "You want me to bring Ginny in?" he probes.

"No need to put her through all that," Ron says. "Just make sure she's safe until I send word. Find out if there's anything more she can tell us about him."

Harry nods. "Sure."

"I'll send a Patronus message," Ron says meaningfully.

"I'm sorry?" What was he getting at?

"I won't come knocking on your door or apparating into your home," Ron reiterates.

"Mate, what are you-"

"Harry, please don't make me spell this out for you," Ron interrupts with a roll of his eyes. "It's weird enough already."

Harry can only shake his head because surely Ron isn't suggesting what Harry thinks he is. "I'm going to need you to clarify, Ron, because I'm fairly certain you would not be saying what I think you're saying."

Ron groans. "You're an Auror, Harry. Not an actor."

"Erm, yeah mate," Harry says, now even more confused.

"Tonight's op-hell, the last two months-was only successful because you were not acting a part."

Harry freezes. Then swallows. "Listen, mate, nothing has happened."

"I know," Ron breathes out with exasperation. "You've been as professional as possible under the circumstances. You haven't taken advantage of my sister at any point, even when she was practically throwing herself at you."

Harry shakes his head. "No...she-that's not. She never did that."

"Okay, Harry," Ron says with a chuckle and a pat on his shoulder. "All I'm saying is that if you wanted to talk to her tonight, now that it's all over, you don't have to worry about big brother walking in on your...confession."

Talk. Confession. Right. That was already a part of Harry's plan tonight. Ron sure seemed to be suggesting a hell of a lot more though. Still, Harry is grateful for the support from his best friend since practically the day Ron joined the Aurors. Harry hadn't had many friends his own age, growing up with Sirius, isolated from much of the Wizarding World. So it meant a lot to him that one of his few friends now was supportive, even with the difficult family dynamics.

"Thanks mate," Harry says at last. "I promise I'm not go-"

Ron holds up his hand. "I want absolutely no details about anything. Ever. I just wanted you to know I've got your back on this."

Ron reaches into the right pocket of his robes and pulls out a portkey of his own-a quill with a rather pitiful feather. He kneels beside Beck, and within moments the two of them vanish, back to the Ministry, where Beck will be interrogated.

Harry has a different line of questioning for tonight. So he activates the Snitch portkey yet again, and goes home.

She's in his kitchen. She's found a kettle and has her wand out to start the stove. He lets himself watch her for a long moment, because this may well be the last time he gets to simply enjoy her company. As much fun as the past couple months had been with Ginny, he has to admit that it might have all just been a show.

At least, the things that indicated his interest might be mutual might be a show. He's confident he could at least call her his friend, and that she'd call him a friend, too. And that gave him just enough hesitation about confessing his feelings tonight. It would hurt to lose her completely.

"Hey Gin," he says at last, his voice breaking.

Ginny spins around on the spot, and an orange curse launches out of her wand. Harry dives out of the way just in time.

"Oh, fuck, Harry I'm so sorry!" Ginny shouts, and pockets her wand as she rushes over to him. Harry laughs as he clambers back to his feet, and Ginny helps him the rest of the way when she arrives.

"No problem," he says, and she smooths out his robes with a worried look on her face. "Good to know you had those kind of reflexes all along. Should've guessed as much, considering you play quidditch professionally."

Ginny allows herself a smile, though it doesn't reach her eyes. "I'm sorry," she says again. "I guess I've still got some adrenaline from earlier."

Harry's good humor leaves him in an instant. "Oh..oh shit, Gin. I shouldn't have left you so quickly. Are you...are you doing okay?"

She shakes her head emphatically, and takes his hands in hers. "Harry, I'm good, I promise. And I was good when you left. I just haven't been in a scenario with spell fire in a few years, that's all. Got my blood pumping. And I wasn't expecting you back so soon." She pauses. "Why...why are you back so soon?"

"Oh." Harry freezes. He really should've played out this scenario in his head a little first. How does one go about confessing feelings? Luckily, he's got his actual job to fall back on. "Ron's taking care of Beck. He wanted me to, erm, debrief you."

"You don't strike me as a guy who would sit the interrogation out," Ginny says, narrowing her eyes at him.

He scratches the back of his neck. "Normally I'm not. But...I'm still on protection detail until we're sure it's all over, and…" Ginny watches him carefully while he tries to find words. "And I wanted to be with you."

"Oh," she says, with a hint of a smile.

"Yeah. I...like being with you."

Her smile grows. "Me too."

"I don't want to stop being with you," Harry forges on.

Her eyebrow quirks. "You want to keep being my bodyguard?"

"No!" Harry says quickly. And the next words out of his mouth come just before he recognizes that she's messing with him. "I want to keep being your boyfriend."

The playful smile she'd been sporting drops, and her eyes widen. And then the panic seeps in. But Harry has never been one to half-ass anything. So he doubles down. "These past two months have been...amazing. And it shouldn't have been. It should have been frustrating and annoying, and felt like a waste of my time, like I thought it would be. But it wasn't. Because of you. And if everything was always fake for you, that's fine. But it wasn't for me."

Ginny's only response is to reach up behind his neck, and pull him down into another kiss.

But it wasn't another kiss. It was a first kiss. A first kiss with zero questions attached. And Harry melts into it, wrapping his hands around the small of her back and pulling her to him. Her fingers snake into his hair while her lips move against his.

When they separate, Harry rests his forehead against hers. Harry has to fight through the blissful fog in his mind to speak. "So...I'm guessing it wasn't fake for you either, then?"

Ginny chuckles. "No. Stopped being fake after an embarrassingly short time," she admits, and presses another kiss to his lips. "I thought...I hoped, maybe it was the same for you."

"Definitely the same," Harry kisses her again, and his next words take too long to get out because he can't stop pressing his lips to hers. "I've never met someone so...beautiful...so strong...so fun...so-"

He's interrupted when Ginny doesn't let him pull away from his kiss to compliment her more. Instead, the kiss deepens. It's hot and Harry is reminded of their display from earlier in the evening, but this time he's not distracted in the least. He's not watching for Eugene Beck or worried about Ron barging in on them. It's just Ginny's tongue running along his lips, just her fingers frantically moving over his body, just her arse in his hands.

She moans into his mouth as he squeezes her, and then she's tearing at his robes, trying to pull them over his shoulders without breaking their filthy kiss. He tries to shrug out of them, and asks her through hurried breaths, "Want to sit on the couch?"

"Bed."

"Bed?" he gasps when his robes hit the floor and her hands sneak under his shirt. Her touch is electric.

She bites her lip. "Bed."

Harry lifts her to his hips and kisses her while she wraps her legs around him. Her dress rides up her hips, and the feel of her against him makes him groan. "Bed," he says against her lips. He turns toward his bedroom. "So...I do get to find out how Ginny Weasley sounds when she comes."

"Let's hope so," she says, with a roll of her hips against his. "The Harry in my imagination has had great success. Let's see how the real one does."

Harry shudders as he presses into his room, and shuts the door behind him. It seems a little unfair that he's competing with a fake version of himself. But he's up to the challenge. After all, so far their fake relationship is incomparable to the real Ginny in his arms.