Chapter 11: Harry and Ginny's Decision
On their way out of St. Mungo's, after Harry had finished his first round of treatment with Healer McAuliffe, they all decided it would be best if he did not apparate or Floo for a few hours. Ron flooed in an order for a Ministry car to pick them up and had it waiting for them as they exited the false front of a shop through the window.
Harry was silent on the return trip to the Burrow only answering 'yes' or 'no' when asked a question during Ron and Hermione's discussion of McAuliffe's ways of treatment, which garnered him a look of unease from Ginny.
"Harry," Ginny spoke up as soon as the car was driving away from the Burrow and Ron and Hermione made their way inside. "Are you feeling OK? You looked...I don't know...a little distant on the trip home, like you were having thoughts of running into hiding again."
"No, Ginny, I wasn't thinking about leaving again, so you can get that thought out of your head." Harry answered taking her hands, kissing her palms softly and sitting down on the porch steps, pulling her down next to him. "I actually feel better, more like my old self, than I have in years! I guess you could say it's like having a hugh weight lifted off my chest."
"You had me worried, Harry." She said breathing a sigh of relief. "I thought you might have another set back like yesterday."
"You have nothing to worry yourself over," said Harry pulling her into his arms. "I was just thinking about...well...about you and Ron wanting me to live here with you and...I think I may do that and..."
Ginny squealed with delight, hugged Harry tighter and kissed him on the forehead with a loud smack causing him to laugh.
"I'll take that as you still want me to stay here?"
"Of course I...we want you here, Harry! We were serious about you staying with us to help you get back to your normal self again...and us being together will be an added bonus for me!" Ginny said wriggling her eyebrows causing him to blush and laugh harder.
Ginny stood, pulling Harry up with her and led him into the house where Ron and Hermione were sitting rather close at the kitchen table.
"Everything OK?" Hermione asked when Harry and Ginny came in and took a seat across from her and Ron.
"Nothing was wrong, Hermione," Harry said looking at her and Ron seriously. "I was just thinking about what Ron and Ginny asked me yesterday."
"And what was that, Harry?" Hermione pressed when he did not elaborate.
"They asked if I wanted to stay here for a bit until I got myself back together and I think I want to do that."
Hermione, Harry and Ginny looked at the shocked expression on Ron's face, who was just staring at Harry, his butterbeer not all the way up to his lips. He slowly sat down the bottle looking at each of them in turn with a smile slowly lighting up in his eyes as he tried to keep it, unsuccessfully, off his lips.
"What?" He asked at last, still looking at their expressions, laughter beginning to sputter out. "Did you think...I was going to go...spare?"
Hermione began laughing then punched Ron hard on the shoulder which caused him to laugh harder as Harry and Ginny joined in the laughter while Ron took his punishment from Hermione.
"Ron," Harry said as the laughter started to abate from everyone. "I was thinking about going to Godric's Hollow to get a few things and...I wanted Ginny to come with me."
"It's OK with me, mate, wherever you want to go with Ginny, so you don't need to ask me or let me know for that matter." He answered his laughter drying up at what Harry had been asking. "She is old enough to know what she wants and to go where she wants. So, if she wants to go with you then...go!"
Harry's face lit up with relief and joy knowing Ron did not mind and trusted him going to his home for few hours, to pack up some of the things he would need to get by for a few weeks, with Ginny alone. He stood and pulled Ginny up with him and into a tight embrace.
"I'm going to apparate us in so hold on tight, OK."
Ginny nodded and waved to Ron and Hermione as they disappeared with a loud 'POP'.
Ginny's first impression upon seeing the Hollow for the first was it was desolate. The house they were standing in front of could not have been where Harry had hidden himself away for five years.
The house, which looked to have been white in the past, was now a chipped and peeling grey with tinges of yellow with age. The roof supports appeared to have collapsed on the western side from numerous winter snowfalls. The shutters were hanging loose, while others were on the ground, no longer covering windows that had been shattered by kids or just broken from seasonal weather change.
"It's only a Disillusionment Charm, Ginny." Harry said when he saw her expression. "I see the house the same way that you do, but the inside looks normal."
"What about the rest of the Hollow, Harry?" Ginny asked as he started up the overgrown walkway. "Surely you didn't do everything like this."
Harry looked towards the direction she was pointing and saw what she meant. Grass hardly grew anywhere and the trees were barren of any kind of foliage. The places where homes used to be were now just rectangles of foundations slowly rotting back into the earth. The few houses that did remain were in such deplorable condition that it was an amazement they were still standing. The others were covered in the only thing growing healthily, ivy.
"No, I didn't do any of that...what you see out there is real." He answered sadly, sighing softly. "Apparently after Voldemort raided the house here everyone fled in fear leaving it to rot away."
"But why doesn't anything grow here?"
"I think whatever he did to find us here; he cursed the land so it would never be livable again as punishment for not ratting us out."
Harry started back up the walk that was overgrown with the only grass that would grow here; it seemed to Ginny, witch grass that had crickets and grasshoppers jumping from their disturbed shelters. He made his way up the rickety stairs, onto the porch and opened the door with a muttered incantation.
The door swung open by itself and Harry stepped aside to let her enter first. As she stepped into the foyer that led into a short hallway, she knew what Harry meant about it looking normal on the inside. The walls here were painted a soft sky blue and a sunroof just above them let in ample light that filled almost the entire hallway with its glow and warmth. As they made their way down the hall Ginny caught a glimpse of a sitting room painted in Gryffindor red and gold with curtains that had the Gryffindor emblem emblazoned on them.
Harry led her into his small kitchen where he told her to make herself at home while he packed a few things up. When he left he alone she took in the almost too clean kitchen painted in a yellow that would have matched a Fairy's light perfectly had one been in the room. The large fireplace here appeared to have never been used with its almost total lack of soot and ash.
She walked back out into the hallway and looked up the stairs where Harry had disappeared to pack whatever it is he wanted. She opened the door directly across from the stairs and looked in astonishment at a very large library filled from floor to ceiling with books. In the center of the room was a desk cluttered with parchment, quills and different colored inkwells.
"Now, this seems more like Harry." She muttered to herself as she looked around the room and made her way over to the cluttered desk.
She picked up the top piece of parchment and tried to make out what he had written in his untidy scrawl. The lettering was done in an unsteady hand and at a speed, which should have been impossible without breaking the quill used. Sitting down in the worn chair, she tried to figure out what Harry was doing here when she saw the date scratched across the top. He had written this last night while in his fit of an anxiety attack.
She could make out very little of is contents, but what she could she was sure it was intended to be about his suicide he talked about earlier while under hypnosis. Ginny shuddered at the thoughts of losing him now that they had finally found each other, tossed the parchment into the wastebasket, made her way out and to the stairs to find Harry, as if she was afraid something would happen to him, who she could hear bustling around upstairs.
At the top landing, she heard a drawer being opened and peeked into the door on her left that was standing slightly ajar. The room had the same feel as the library downstairs, but she knew at once that Harry had spent most of his time here when not sleeping his days away. On one wall was a small bookcase that had just a few books and quite a few keepsakes he must have held dear while the rest of the walls were bare except for the picture window looking out over a slow running creek. He was sitting behind the desk, which was visibly cleaner than the library desk, rummaging through a drawer on the bottom.
"Hi, love, I didn't hear you come up." Harry said with a smile when he noticed her standing just inside the door. "I'm almost done."
She watched him bend back down to rummage in the drawer once again and made her way over to the bookcase to see what he kept out while in solitude. On the top shelf were four books: The Healer's Helpmate, Fantastic Beast's and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages, and laughably Hogwarts: A History. The next shelf had his Special Services to the School Award from his second year when he had saved her and killed the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets along with his Hogwarts Diploma. The third and bottom shelf had photos of Hermione, Ron, her and the rest of the Weasley's from various times throughout the years.
She turned around to find Harry staring over her shoulder startling her.
"I didn't mean to scare you!" Harry blurted out taking her into his arms and kissing her softly on the lips.
"It's alright, Harry." She replied returning his hug and giving him a kiss of her own. "Just make a little noise when you walk up behind me next time or you may not be so lucky next time." She finished brandishing her wand at him.
"I need to get something from the bedroom and then we can be on our way back to the Burrow." Eyeing the wand carefully, knowing what she was capable of, he kissed her once more and rushed from the room after slinging a gym bag over his shoulder.
"I hope he's packing more than that." Ginny muttered when she saw what he was using to pack his things.
She followed him into his bedroom, which was undecorated with only a queen-sized bed centered against the north wall and a small nightstand. Harry was once again digging in another drawer with the gym bag open between his feet, but this time it was the one in his nightstand. Ginny plopped down on the bed next to Harry who turned to look at her seriously.
"Gin, I'm glad I've decided to stay with you and Ron." He said after retaking her hands and interlocking their fingers together. "It took awhile for me to know what I was looking for in life. You have taken hold of my heart and led it back to solid ground." Harry leaned forward and kissed her gently and sensually." With just one touch you make me forget all the empty nights I had."
"Harry, I-" He cut her off with another of his sensual kisses releasing her hands and placing his arms around her waist.
Ginny slowly slid her arms around his neck and lay back onto the bed, bringing him down on top of her. She beckoned him to deepen the kiss in which he obliged. His hand slid up her belly and over her breast finally finding the top button on her sweater. His fingers fumbled with each button nervously, but finally he had each undone and began to trail kisses away from her mouth and down her neck.
A soft moan escaped her mouth when he kissed the skin behind her ear and moved on down her collarbone. He trailed kisses between her breasts and down her belly. Suddenly he sat up breathing heavily and ran his fingers through his hair in exasperation.
"I shouldn't have done that, Ginny, I'm-"
"Yes, you should have," Ginny said sitting up and putting her arms back around his neck and leaning her forehead against his. "I want you and no one else, Harry."
He pulled her close, reclaiming her lips with his and lay her back down on the bed becoming one with each other for the first time.
Afterwards Ginny lay in the comfort of Harry's arms while he dozed, the sweat still drying on her body, slowly and softly tracing the outline of each rib with her finger. At last her dreams had come true, she was lying in bed with Harry after making passionate love and was now contemplating what would come next between them. A long relationship before marriage or getting married and starting a family that Harry and herself could love after he finished his treatment at St. Mungo's? She fell into a light sleep still thinking about sharing her first time with Harry and he with her along with their future together.