Prompt: "Is that my jumper?" "No…?" (I 17)

This drabble is an A/U of DH after Harry arrives at the Burrow following the fight over Surrey and where Harry and Ginny pretend to have broken up. After not being able to sleep that night, Harry ends up having a late-night talk with Ginny after he asks if she's wearing his jumper. This drabble is rated hard T, soft M.

Note: this prompt is not on my bingo card.

Sleep did not want to come for Harry that night. The shot of Fireshiskey had long since worn off and images of the fight earlier in the evening haunted him every time he closed his eyes. Hedwig dying to a killing curse; George covered in his own blood from losing an ear; watching the ground come ever closer as he and Hagrid crash landed outside the Tonks' house; the look of fear and worry on Ginny's face as she wondered how her brothers and father were doing.

The last one seemed to haunt him the most. He had wanted to take her into his arms so badly, give her comfort and take comfort from her, but since he and Ginny had agreed to pretend they were broken up, he couldn't in case anyone suspect they were secretly still together.

Finally giving sleep up as a lost cause, Harry threw the covers off of himself and got out of bed. He quietly made his way out of Ron's room and down the stairs. He stopped in front of Ginny's door, wishing he could go in and slip into bed with her. But Hermione and Fleur were in there with her, so he couldn't do that either. He let out a sigh. Maybe this whole faking it thing was as dumb as Ginny told him she thought it would be. But they had to at least try.

Continuing down the stairs, Harry made his way into the kitchen. He padded over to the stove and put the kettle on to boil water for tea. He then reached up into the overhead cabinets to take out some tea and a mug.

The creaking of the bottom stair drew his attention to the door to the kitchen. He only had to wait a few more seconds to see who it was: Ginny. She was wearing very short bed shorts and…

"Is that my jumper?" Harry asked surprised.

"No?" Ginny tried to sound innocent as she moved over to where he stood, taking a mug out of the cabinet for herself and adding tea to it.

"So your mum knits you jumpers now with large 'H's on them?"

"Well, you outgrew this one and no longer wear it, so technically it's no longer your jumper since it fits me."

"Not being very subtle are you, considering we supposedly broke up according to everyone?"

Ginny whipped around to face him. "Me not being subtle? You were looking at me longingly enough tonight that Hermione asked me if there was still something going on between us."

Harry felt his face redden. "I didn't realize." He muttered.

"Hermione said you looked like a lost puppy trying to find its way home all night long."

Harry let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair. The kettle's whistle starting to sound drew Harry's attention back to the stove. He took the kettle off and poured hot water into the two mugs. Putting the kettle down, he went to sit at the kitchen table, putting his head in his hands.

"Hey." Harry looked up to see Ginny standing next to him. She moved to straddle his lap, her arms coming to wrap around his neck.

"I'm sorry." Harry whispered.

"Why are you sorry?" He could feel her playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck, causing goosebumps to rise up.

"I thought at least pretending to break up would help keep you safe. Doesn't do a whole lot of good if I can't even control myself around you."

"Harry, you're not exactly the best at hiding your emotions, you wear your heart on your sleeve. It's not that hard to tell that despite the fact you 'broke-up with me', you're still showing you feel something for me."

"Oh, great."

"It's not necessarily a bad thing, it means you have feelings and do care about those around you."

"Funny, that's basically what Dumbledore told me after Sirius died and I destroyed his office. Of course then he told me the prophecy and here we are."

"Mmm, yes, now you've got it in your head that you need to go run off to Merlin knows where with my brother and your other best friend."

"Gin, you know I have to do this with as little help as possible."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because Dumbledore told me not to tell anyone outside of the three of you."

"And? Dumbledore kept a lot of secrets, Harry, he barely told you anything about horcruxes and where you could possibly have hidden them before he died. Anything he did tell you seemed to be on a need-to-know basis. Dumbledore did enough alone and now he shifted all of that to you, expecting you to do the same. It's not fair of him to put all of this responsibility onto you when he had an entire order who pretty much sat around and did fuck all to stop Riddle and his Death Eaters."

Harry was silent for a second. "You think I should tell the Order about this?"

"I'm not saying to tell everyone in the Order, tonight proved that you sure as hell can't trust Dung. But you could talk to Tonks, Remus, Kingsley, Dad, or Bill about this. Hell, you could also talk to Professor McGongall if she's available. You can trust them to help you with this and be discrete about what they're working on." Ginny shifted in his lap. "You don't have to do this alone, Harry."

Harry pondered her words. Her point was rather tempting, and the idea of not being the only one to share this burden would be nice, not to mention being able to have some extra help…

He sighed, resting his head on her shoulder. "I'll think about it. I might talk to Bill or Tonks first."

They remained silent for a while, Harry just enjoying finally being able to hold Ginny like he had wanted to all night long. He had missed her so much during his time alone at his aunt and uncle's house, wishing that he could have written to her. Of course he couldn't do so, it would look very strange to write long letters to a girl who was supposed to now be your ex. Ron would accuse him of yanking Ginny around while Hermione would be very suspicious about why he'd be writing so much to Ginny. Yet another comfort he could have used that he denied himself, all for what he thought was the right thing to do to keep her safe. Tonight did show him one thing: no one was safe. Maybe it was time to accept that he had been wrong.

"Gin?"

"Yeah?"

"You were right when you said back at Hogwarts that my idea to pretend we broke up wouldn't work."

Ginny smirked. "Took you long enough." She leaned in to kiss his lips. "And Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"You were right that this is your jumper."

Harry felt himself smile and let out a soft laugh. "Took you long enough." He parroted her line back at her.

He could see a mischievous look come to her eyes. "Well since I've acknowledged this is your jumper, I think I should give it back to you."

And before he could say or do anything else, she grabbed the bottom hem of the jumper and pulled it up and off her body, revealing to him that she wasn't wearing anything else under the wooly garment and just what the slightly scratchy material had done to coax her nipples into hardened peaks.

It was a good thing no one else came down that night into the kitchen, otherwise Harry was sure the Weasley brothers would have been handsomely rewarded by Voldemort for killing and disposing of him.