Hello again my amazing readers! You know what time it is- HOUSES STORY TIME! Once again I'm Slytherin house HOH, and I seriously cannot believe it's round six! We're 2/3 of the way done with this season, it's insane. For round six we have a themed round. We pick one of the themes, and then one prompt from the list.

For my theme, I decided to go with "trying (or succeeding) to understand what someone else is going through". Exciting, no? For my other prompt, I've gone with (word) survey. Please ignore the possible parallels to Doctor Strange I have going here :) Enjoy this, guys!

Note: Just putting out a warning for a perhaps OOC Harry

Word Count: 1071

Beta: Aya, Tea, Ash Juillet

Ginny Weasley took a deep breath as she stood before the apartment door. This was a moment that she had both dreaded and anticipated. She carried a bottle of wine as well as some Chinese takeout. Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been an event of consequence, but this evening was different. As she raised her hand to unlock the door, she thought to herself, Here goes nothing.

She thought back to the morning after Voldemort's defeat when everything seemed to return to normal in the Wizarding World. Well, not exactly normal. Things could never be completely right because Fred had died. She remembered being huddled with her family in the aftermath, wondering how in the world they would get on without half of the Weasley twins. And she remembered Harry, standing in the midst of it all, seeming completely lost and confused.

Of course, it was a completely natural reaction. He'd been on the run for nearly a year ever since Bill and Fleur's wedding, and he'd been a marked man for several years before that. She knew that had to have been traumatic, and to suddenly have all that weight lifted off in one go would have to be a hard adjustment. Since the end of the battle, however, Harry had changed from how he had been before. He'd become more distant and closed off, and even Ron noticed he wasn't making as many jokes.

The real clincher was when he'd turned down an opportunity to join the prestigious Appleby Arrows Quidditch team. While Ginny had also gotten an invite to the team, she'd opted for the Holyhead Harpies. She knew that Harry was still in the midst of training to be a proper Auror, but there didn't seem a reason in her eyes that he couldn't do both, even if he was only a reserve player.

Coming out of her thoughts, Ginny finally made herself unlock the door and enter the flat. She and Harry didn't share it exactly, but she spent a lot of time here, and he'd given her a key.

"Harry?" she called through the quiet rooms.

Making her way through them, making a careful survey of each room out of habit. She finally found Harry in the bedroom. He'd seemingly just gotten back from Auror training and was removing the heavy robes they wore before tightening the strap on his watch. She remembered her mother giving it to him last year for his birthday. It had belonged to her uncle Fabian, and her mother had gotten it after he was killed. Harry still wore it despite the fact that it was damaged beyond repair by their ensuing adventures; he claimed it was in solidarity for George.

Before she could speak, Harry turned to Ginny and managed a small smile despite his evident tiredness. "Hey, Ginny. Figured you'd be here soon."

"You predicted correctly." She chuckled in response. "Trelawney would be proud." After a beat, Ginny said, "I brought some Chinese for dinner. Got the eggrolls I know you love."

After a while, they were nearly done eating, and Ginny said, "Harry… I… I wanted to talk to you about something."

Harry looked up, eyes raised in question. "Sure, Gin. What's up?"

Ginny took another deep breath before forcing herself to say what she had to. "Harry, I know you've likely been through hell and back and that the battle was insane. We lost a lot of good people over the last few years, and you in particular have bore the brunt of everything that's happened. I just…"

Carefully not reacting, Harry said, "Just what?"

Ginny sighed. "I know I'm the absolute last person who should be saying this, but… it's over now, right? I've tried to move on, and maybe it's not even complete yet or even close to being okay, but after Fred…" She had to stop herself from allowing a sob to escape. "Well, there's still life to live in spite of the loss. I know your mum and dad would have wanted that for you, you know? It just hurts me to see you regressing."

Harry closed his eyes for a moment. Opening them, he said, "This is about not signing on with the Arrows, is it?"

Ginny nodded, watching him carefully, attempting a survey of his emotions. "And you're just a lot more closed off than you have been before. Like I said, I understand, I just…"

"Ginny," Harry interrupted her gently. "Thank you for being concerned, honestly. I'm sorry I've been unlike myself, I just… It's been hard to get back into a normal routine after not being part of society for almost a year. We were on the run, spending all our time in the tent when we weren't foraging for something to eat. It's been a job to readjust, but I know we'll be fine. Maybe just not now."

Ginny gave him a warm smile, inwardly blushing at his use of we. "Of course we will."

"I simply didn't want to get too bogged down with commitments straight away. I would have loved to be a Quidditch player, but the Auror opportunity came first. Maybe if things were different…" Harry stopped that line of inquiry, unwilling to go down the path of "what ifs."

"Things are different," Ginny acknowledged. "Just in a very different way than they have been before. Things will get better, I promise. People just have to adjust and maybe find a new point for normality again."

Harry let out a genuine smile this time. "I can't wait for that to finally happen."

Ginny gave a relieved smile. She was relieved to see that this talk had in fact loosened him up. This gave her the push she needed to ask her final question. "And maybe that will include… us?"

To her surprise, this caused Harry to stand up and come over to her. "I was actually planning on waiting a couple weeks to do this, but I feel the time is right now." Ginny covered her mouth in surprise as Harry knelt, pulling a small box from his pocket. Inside it was a beautiful ring. "You're an amazing girl, Ginny. I knew that, but your understanding of my situation hit it home. I don't want to let you get away, so I'm going to ask. Geneva Weasley, will you marry me?"

Ginny jumped up and embraced Harry, filled with joy. "Of course I will! Yes!"