Disclaimer: Regrettably, the rights of Harry Potter do not belong to me.
Author's Note: My second story in only a few days (third if you count the update of Only You). Another Harry/Ginny, which is strange since I usually don't care for the pairing. This story is... strangely hopeful for me. I actually like it a lot. It is short, I know, but nothing else seemed to fit.
Anything
She hadn't expected him to live past the war, and she knew that he hadn't expected to either. Everyday it was a surprise to wake up with his arms wrapped around her in protection, or to feel him come up behind her during the day and softly kiss her neck, murmuring strange, yet beautiful things into her ears.
Their kisses were both nervous and fierce now, because neither of them really believed that they were still alive. That was what the war had been like. The survivors didn't truly feel like survivors because after seeing all the death caused by the Dark Lord's second reign, they believed themselves to be dead as well. It wasn't a good feeling.
It was getting better now. When she woke up each morning she would feel a little more secure. She no longer felt that Harry would disappear as soon as she turned around. But the fact remained that she would never truly be able to forget that feeling.
They were both twenty now and had been engaged for only a couple months. She wanted a winter wedding, because nothing else would have fit. She still remembered Bill and Fleur's summer wedding. That had been right on the brink of all the destruction. It was before anyone who hadn't seen the first war understood what was going to happen. It had been beautiful and full of hope. That was something that most everyone had lost over time.
She stared out the window of their modest home. Harry had rebuilt the house on Godric's Hollow as soon as the war ended. It was a beautiful place to live. Everything was surrounded in little hills and meadows, with forests showing up on the edge of the horizon. The house itself wasn't much. It was more spacious and newer than anything she had seen, but it wasn't a mansion in any sense of the word. It still smelled of fresh cut wood from the beautiful flooring. She loved it almost as much as she loved Harry.
Neither of them were working outside of Harry's efforts to clean up the aftermath of the war. They were much more keen on figuring themselves out and trying to get over the destruction that had cut off the rest of their childhood. It wasn't as if they were lacking for money. That probably wouldn't happen for at least five hundred years, and neither of them would live that long.
The door to the kitchen opened and she spun around with her wand in her hand already. A relieved sigh left her lips when she saw Harry standing there with caution clouding his eyes. She felt her cheeks blush horribly and put her wand back away. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "I was just remembering."
He didn't ask her what she was remembering. He merely walked over and wrapped an arm around her in a comforting hug, running his spare fingers through her hair. "I wouldn't have expected anything else." She could feel him shrug his shoulders.
"I still feel stupid." She laughed without raising her head from its position on his collarbone.
"Just because the war is over doesn't mean the danger has passed," he told her. She knew that his brow was furrowed and that the expression on his face was one of someone much older even though she couldn't see his face.
She sighed. "You say that. It doesn't mean that I want to believe it."
He lifted her face up with one finger under her chin. "No one does Ginny."
"I love you." She gave the words to him freely because she knew that he needed to hear it. They were never given so lightly in return, but it didn't matter. She already knew how he felt.
"I –" His breath caught and she place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I love you too."
She smiled and he did as well. The war would never be forgotten and the scars would always show, but they had each other to work through their guilt, their fear, and their memories. They were both strong, and if they could make it past the Dark Lord's destruction, they could make it past anything.
