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Chapter 7

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Ginny's successful performance in the first proper game she was able to take part in had moved her solidly into the second string position and she was getting a lot more game play than she had ever expected due to the first string players getting burn out the farther into the championship they progressed.

Unfortunately for Harry he wasn't able to get out and see every one of her games as the Harpies played game after winning game in the championship and had their season stretch on as they did so. Ginny and the other Harpies were put into lockdown to keep them in peak performance and she'd been relegated to an unknown hotel until either a trophy was in their hands or they'd lost it altogether. Either way it turned out the Harpies were having a phenomenal year.

It was only one other game that Harry was able to attend in the final round robins, one more storage room they were able to rock together as well. He'd managed to listen to a few more of their games on the wireless but he'd been given an important and time-consuming case as well, so it was really ideal timing for both of them as neither had the time to dedicate to their budding relationship at that point anyhow.

It was a different sort of relationship than he'd ever been in before. It wasn't reinforced through constantly meeting up for a meal then back to hers for a shag. They owled regularly and he would fall asleep thinking about her. They were getting to know each other through their letters and have more of a foundation. It wasn't a purely physical relationship and he found himself quite enjoying that.

He'd found out a few stories about Ginny through Luna as well. Luna had been at his flat for dinner a few nights in the past month that it had been since his and Ginny's night out at the pub with her teammates and Luna had relayed a few tales of their childhood misadventures and stumbling across the twins prototype items, one of which wound up giving each of them a black eye that lasted for ages. Fred and George had the solution to be rid of the black eye's, but as penance for their snooping the twins wouldn't give it over.

Harry really missed Ginny though.

By the time the Quidditch Cup Final came around he found himself mercifully without a case that required his full attention and had been planning on surprising Ginny after the match because she didn't know he'd be able to make it, he hadn't known he'd been able to make it. Because the Harpies had made it to the final game, win or lose this was going to be the final game.

And, win or lose Ginny would no doubt enjoy a quiet weekend away with him too. He knew this because they had written to each other about doing just that at some point down the line. He assumed she had been talking hypothetically, him not so much. He was sure he could get a few days off, and he certainly had the funds to whisk her away somewhere. After this match they would both have the time to do that.

"Harry," a voice nearby called out to him.

Harry looked over and saw that Ginny's brother Ron was heading his way past the other Auror desks and towards his own.

The two of them had bumped into each other in the cafeteria a few times over the past few weeks and wound up having lunch together. Ron was an easy bloke to get on with, it didn't seem to bother him that Harry was going out with his sister; they simply didn't discuss that. Luna and Hermione had wound up joining in on those lunches a few times and Harry noticed that Ginny's teasing of Hermione being interested in Ron was not unfounded.

It was obvious to everyone except for Ron. Which was amusing.

"Ron," Harry greeted back. "What brings you up here?"

"Tickets to the game tomorrow," he said and held up two shining tickets in the air that seemed to glow brighter the neared Ron approached Harry's desk.

Harry jumped out of his chair and managed to stop himself just shy of snatching the tickets out of Ron's hand. "How?! I heard everywhere was clean sold out!"

"What, you tried to get tickets and couldn't?" Ron asked him incredulously.

"Well, I don't exactly work for the Sports Department like you," Harry dismissed as he examined the golden lettering on the Championship Cup tickets.

"I didn't get these through the Sports Department, I got them through Ginny! All I did was ask," Ron told him, as though he were daft. "You could have asked her yourself, each of the team mates gets a few tickets for friends and family. You also could have mentioned to anyone that you wanted to go and doors would be opened. Bit of weight behind your name, you know?"

Harry rolled his eyes at him. "I guess I didn't think of just asking Ginny. I was going to listen to the game on the wireless tomorrow and try meeting up with her after."

"Well, now you can sit beside me and still meet up with her after," Ron grinned. "Listen, are you done right now? Want to grab a pint?"

"Yeah, I could do that," Harry grinned. He was in a great mood now. Besides Neville and Remus, there weren't many men that he could call on to go out for a drink. Making friends had not been something that came naturally to he or to Neville. It had just been the two of them growing up.

Going out to pick up women, that they had figured out.

Harry let Ron lead the way to the pub he had in mind and it was a shock to Harry that Ron was leading him to a Muggle pub.

"Dunno what it is they do to the food here, but it is well better than anything in the Alley," Ron said of a place called the Star and Sailor.

"I can't help but agree with you there, mate. Something about Muggle fried food and their beer on tap," Harry said. "Ever notice how many pubs of theirs are called the Something and Something? Star and Sailor, Fox and Hound. I reckon it would be a pretty great pub crawl if you had to stop in for one pint at every establishment with a name like that; The Blank and Blank Pub Crawl."

"Yeah," Ron gave an appreciative laugh. "I'm going to recommend that for the next bachelor party."

Harry tilted his head at him in interest. "You've got a lot of friends getting married then?"

"Urgh, it's a bloody epidemic," he groaned slightly, not looking very convinced about his attitude towards it. No doubt it was mostly due to his current single status and not because he wished his friends were less happy about their choice of life companion.

"First it was my brothers Bill and Percy, then my mate Seamus from school, then Dan from the office, now its my mate Linden in a month. He's doing his bachelor party in two weeks."

"And all over the span of?" Harry asked, pressing for a timeline.

"Three years," Ron shrugged.

"That's not excessive."

"Nah, guess not. It's just the third one I've gone to stag through."

"Isn't picking up girls at a wedding supposed to be easy?" Harry asked, not that he had ever been to a wedding himself and knew firsthand. "There are several stories out there claiming that is the easiest way to have a one off anyhow."

Ron's neck colored red at that and he looked quite sheepish. "I'm not… I'm not the best with, you know, coming off as someone a bird might want to have a one off with."

"You've, er, you've got a, erm, past though, right?" Harry awkwardly asked what his celibacy status was.

"Oh, I've had girlfriends, sure. I've even had a one-off before, well, that one was… er, a learning experience?" he said that last part as though it had been more of a confusing experience for him more than anything. "She was a sort of friend and said she just wanted to know what it would be like to try a few different things, and since we knew each other already." He cleared his throat and took a pull from his glass. "Anyhow."

Clearly Ron wanted to move on to a different subject, Harry did as well.

"So, the game tomorrow," Harry started. Quidditch was always a safe subject. "It'll only be the third time I've seen Ginny playing."

"She is dominating out there," Ron said eagerly.

The two of them launched into recaps of the game play that Ginny had been a part of and some of her truly excellent moves.

By the time it was ready to call an end to the evening Harry had had a great time hanging out with Ron.

"Where abouts do you live?" Harry asked.

"I've a flat with George," he gestured to the West of them. "Place is packed with stuff. Boxes of this and that. He really needs to get a shop set up somewhere. I think Zonkos in Hogsmeade would probably sell to him for the right price. That'd be perfect."

Harry was familiar with some of the products available in George's catalogue, he had a few clever inventions in there.

"I'm the other way," Harry gestured towards his flat. "Shall we meet outside the stadium tomorrow? Half hour before the game?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Here," Ron handed over one of the tickets. "In case we get separated."

()()()

Ron giving Harry his ticket the previous night had been a very good call, as Harry had failed to mention that he would be attending the game in a disguise. They wound up meeting at the seats and Ron stopped just shy of decking Harry for occupying his seat before Harry could convince him who he was. They had a laugh about it after, but it had been a tense few moments.

Harry was rather touched that Ron would have defended his seat the way he did though.

From the moment the game started the two of them were captivated. Every last member of both teams were giving it their all, which meant that there were just enough penalties and injuries that the lowest ranked second-string player on the Harpies team was getting a bit of playing time by the time the second hour rolled around.

Harry and Ron both jumped up and cheered as Ginny Weasley's name was announced across the stadium.

"She's brilliant!" Harry cheered as he focused on her alone. She was an intuitive flier and so fast on a Firebolt. It was like watching a fly shooting around the stadium, just a blur of green and red as she dove and swerved around the other players.

The game wound up being a win for Puddlemere United, but it was a close one. Harpies 320, Puddlemere 410.

"Oh, it rotten luck," Ron moaned.

"They still did excellent," Harry said. "Er, so listen. Are you hanging around?" There was a certain storage room that he was interested in hanging out near and having Ron with him would complicate his after game plans.

"No, I'll let you console her. Just tell her she played brilliantly for me, yeah?" Ron told him.

"Great, yeah, I'll let her know," Harry said a little too eagerly.

Ron gave him a slight grimace of understanding for his enthusiasm but said no more.

Harry didn't think on it. Harry and Ginny were adults in an adult relationship, and he hadn't seen her in person for weeks and his body was already preparing himself for greeting her again.

He wound his way through the crowd, not gaining anyone's attention with his glamors still in place, and made his way to the same storage room he had met Ginny at the last two times. It hadn't been the same Stadium any of those times but they all had the same lay out.

He was wearing the same look he'd donned for their first date to the Quidditch game so he really hoped that she would recognize him if she passed him in the hall on by the room. He leaned back against the door to the storage room and waited, wondering if Ron had thought to mention he would be there or that the second ticket had been for him. He could hear the stadium emptying and a few chants of the Puddlemere United song in the distance.

He was already playing out what was going to happen the moment they got into the storage room. She was going to pull him into the room by the front of his shirt and remove his glamors, then she'd slip off her trousers hastily so they were still hanging off one leg. He was going to start kissing her desperately as he worked at his own trousers. He'd slide into her as he had her pressed up against the wall and they'd ride each other until they were both crying out their finish.

Then they'd actually say 'hello'.

He could picture it so clearly and his body was ready for just that to happen.

There were no actual fans that were going through this corridor right then so he reasoned that it was safe enough that he could remove his glamors. There might be a few non-Harpy people that might pass him, but if there was someone that did know that he and Ginny were an item they might alert her to the fact that he was standing there.

While he was debating whether he should remove the spells or not he wrapped his knuckles against the door behind him absent mindedly and it swung inwards, making him stumble back. A hand grasped onto the back of his shirt and pulled him further into the room before it was incased in darkness as the door swung shut once more.

A mouth was on his before he had the time to register all that had just happened. It was likely that the lips pressed against his were Ginny's but he wasn't going to take that chance without verifying. He pushed back against the body before him and lit the end of his wand.

It was Ginny, but she looked startled to see him.

"Oh no!" She took a startled step back. "Oh, I'm sorry! I thought you would be…" she trailed off. "H-Harry?"

He grinned at her. She hadn't realized he had his charms in place and hadn't recognized him right away. "Worried you'd just cheated on me?" he teased.

She blushed and looked sheepish but kept a big grin on her face. "I didn't figure anyone else would be standing outside this particular storage room. Do you mind removing all that?" she requested of his charms.

He turned his wand on himself and removed the spells.

"Much better," she purred as she came in closer once more.

"Miss me?" he asked huskily.

"So much," she replied in an equally husky voice.

She was still kitted out in her Harpies uniform and he could feel the many layers beneath his hands as they came back together once more. Her lips against his own was the way it should be. He missed the feel of her against him. Trailing his kisses down her jaw and neck he surveyed where they were and backed her up against the pile of mats behind her.

He reached for the buttons that held her jersey together and fumbled with them until they came undone. She pulled his lips back to her own before letting the jersey simply fall to the floor then pulled at his own sweater to get it over his head.

Piece by piece their articles of clothing fell away before she took the lead and made him lay down on the mats. "I've been doing a good job of riding things today, no need to stop now," she whispered in his ear.

He groaned at that and his member bobbed appreciatively from the comment. The mat was cool against his bare bum and back, but Harry didn't care once Ginny was astride him, sinking down onto his erection without so much as a glance at it.

"Oh, fuck yes. I've missed you," she moaned.

He didn't know if he was referring to him or just his penis, either way he was settled nice and snug inside her. She felt tighter than he remembered. Hotter, wetter, just all around more perfect. And when she started riding him properly he didn't care about the surface he was on.

His eyes had adjusted to the scant amount of light in the room and he could see her outline now. The slight curve of her waist was illuminated enough that it looked like he could see her aura around her. Her breasts were bouncing up and down with every movement as though performing a tantric dance for him. Her head was thrown back as she enjoyed the sensation of having him buried deep inside her once more and it was altogether the sexiest sight he'd ever beheld.

Ginny was bracing herself back with her hands on her ankles for support and Harry couldn't help grabbing her hips and assisting with the movements by thrusting up into her as she came down on him.

Eventually he couldn't enjoy the sight anymore, the feeling of her taking him in like she was was too good to keep his eyes open. All of his energy was focused on how fucking good it felt. Every sensation in his body was firmly collected in the area around his groin. He was vaguely aware of words leaving his mouth but he had no idea what they were or if they even made sense.

Ginny came to lay forwards over him and changed up the rhythm to grind against him. He kept his hands in place to insure that she was grinding with as much penetration as possible and when he felt her walls tighten around him signaling her finish he couldn't help himself from holding her hips slightly above his own and thrusting up into her at a rapid fire pace until he too was spent.

They lay there gasping for breath, both unable to move as their heart beats slowed back down.

"Tournaments over now," Ginny panted. "Mean's we'll have a hell of a lot more time for that now."

Harry grinned over that prospect. He'd been looking forward to it. "Come away with me," he blurted out without thinking.

"What?" she asked between pants.

"Come away with me," he repeated. "Let's go on a mini-holiday. Just you and me and two days or so. We don't have to go anywhere crazy, I just want to spend some proper time with you."

He could feel her smile against his bare chest. "I'd love that," she whispered. "I have a place we might be able to escape to as well."

"Really?" he asked.

He felt her nod against his chest. "It is my turn to arrange a date as well, isn't it?" she asked teasingly.

Harry let out a laugh. It had been nearly two months since their trip to the Nimbus factory, he really hadn't anticipated that it would take this long for them to go on their third date.

()()()

"Where exactly are we?" Harry asked as he looked around them. Judging from the terrain they could easily still be in the U.K, somewhere by the sea. It was definitely the same waters he was used to seeing on the beaches. It was a secluded area they had Apparated to and there weren't any Ministry officials that were there to register them or anything, so they couldn't have gone too far from London or outside the U.K.

"We're about an hour outside Bordeaux in France," Ginny said brightly.

"France?" He was pleasantly surprised.

"Do you remember Fleur? From that family dinner you were tricked into attending? Well, it is her family cottage that we're borrowing. She said no one in her family had it booked it for this week so we were welcome to it."

"That's great!" he grinned.

The sun was shining and the wind off the water was warm. He breathed in deeply that lovely salty air and felt himself relaxing from that alone.

After he'd suggested the trip away, and after he'd gone out with the Harpies again in celebration of how far they'd made it in the Championship, he and Ginny wound up back at his for the night. The next day he'd wondered just how long they might have to wait before they could actually steal away for a mini-holiday.

And gods did he ever want to. Just she and him alone for a solid 48 hours sounded wonderful.

Honestly, he'd never felt about anyone the way he did about Ginny and thought that they really had a shot of making this work long term. The only problem that they had thus far was their busy schedules and now that she was in the off season that hardly mattered. He might get sent on an undercover job again that required surveillance and little contact with her, but now they knew that they could still make that work. And if it was possible only this far in then surely it wouldn't be a problem when they were further along.

"Any wineries around here that we might look at?" he wondered aloud. His plans for this get away mostly involved them being naked, but naked with fancy French cheeses, bread and wine sounded like it would be all the better.

"I did look into that," Ginny told him. "There are three different wineries in walking distance. Apparently they really don't need all that much space to make a real go of it. There is one that only has about three acres to themselves, but I've been told that their product is divine," she threw on an accent for that, meaning it must have been a direct quote from Fleur.

Harry chuckled appreciatively. "Wonderful, we'll have to check it out."

Ginny nodded in agreement. "Other than that there is simply the beach to enjoy. And each other, of course," she added with a suggestive eyebrow waggle.

"Absolutely looking forward to that," he said heavy with anticipation.

It had been a week since the final game and Harry had put in a busy week at work to insure that he didn't have any reason to get interrupted while they were away, which meant that they hadn't had much opportunity to get together this past week.

Which also meant he was horny as all hell.

"There it is!" Ginny proclaimed happily as they reached the cottage.

His jaw dropped when he saw it. It wasn't really a cottage at all, it was a retreat, a proper beach house. It was beautiful.

They were reaching it from the beachfront and had a few steps to climb to get there. From outside he could see that it was one story and had an infinite pool that showcased water cascading over the side of the balcony. They ascended the stairs and he saw that every room facing the sea was glass walled. From the beach itself you couldn't see into the 'cottage' so it still maintained privacy. There were bedrooms on either side of the kitchen/living area and a loft above the kitchen with a small library.

"Amazing," he said in awe.

"Isn't it?" Ginny said in much the same tone. "This was where we had Fleur's bachelorette party and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. Getting completely drunk on champagne in the hot tub only added to my adoration."

"Hot tub?" he asked keenly.

Ginny pointed to the other side of the pool where there was a sunken circular section separate from the small pool.

"We will most certainly be enjoying that as well," he said definitively.

Ginny hummed and came to stand in front of him, giving him a lingering kiss. "We most certainly will," she purred. "Right now though, lets take a proper tour of the inside. Figure out which bedroom we want. Last time I was here I wound up sleeping on that beach chair." She pointed to the one just under an overhang from the middle section of the house.

"Passed out, did you?" he grinned.

"No," she laughed. "It was my only option. The beds were taken, the couches as well. I outlasted all the other girls you see, so it was either the chair or the sand. Trust me though, either would have been comfortable considering how smashed I was. Lucky I didn't just pass out in the hot tub."

"Sounds like it was a good time," he chuckled.

"It was. You know, I didn't really like Fleur before then. Thought she was too… French for my brother." She wrinkled her nose in a cute way.

"Too French?" he puzzled over the description.

"Yes, she was always going on about our heavy English foods and putting so much effort into her appearance, talking up her country and the way she did things compared to us. It wasn't until I was surrounded by her cousins and such that I realized it was simply the way they all talked, like it is a cultural thing, and then I realized that Fleur was easily the least annoying of them all."

Ginny unlocked the door that led into the cottage with a complicated wave of her wand and incantation. There was a shimmer of light that came off the building and Harry felt a pulse go through him as the charm on the cottage was removed to keep out intruders.

The inside of the cottage was light an airy. A nice beach theme that allowed the natural light to fill up the place. He could see sconces that went around the room that were bound to make it rather the romantic setting when the sun went down.

The kitchen had a large cooking island that separated it from the sitting area and the floor was all tile.

"Love it," he said with an amazed shake of his head.

He set down their bag and wandered into the closest room. It held two double beds and had a bathroom the far side from the beach. The other room on the opposite side of the sitting room was the master and it had a beautiful four piece bathroom.

"This one!" he called out. "This place is great!" He couldn't believe that they were able to get a place like this to stay in for two nights and it wasn't going to cost them a knut. Fleurs family could easily have rented this place out for several Galleon's a night.

Ginny was in the kitchen peering into the cupboards and fridge. "We'll have to go out and find the market," she told him.

"I was anticipating that, but I haven't got any Franc's in my wallet."

"I do," she told him happily, doing a little dance over to where she'd hung her purse.

Her exuberance was cute. He found it adorable that she would have these little bursts of happiness and do a small dance about, her smile was infectious as well.

"Up for a walk? I have a small map of the town as well in case we needed anything. It's about ten minutes down the road," she said.

"Let's do it. The sooner we're stocked with food and wine the sooner we can test out that pool and hot tub. I'll have to transfigure some swim trunks though, I didn't bring any."

Ginny gave him a smirk. "I didn't bring a swimsuit either."

Well he liked the sound of that.

An hour later they were enjoying a charcuterie board they'd left poolside with their wine and both of them were floating around au natural in the pool. It was a new feeling for him to be free balling in the water. Baths were one thing, but he'd never gone skinny dipping before, certainly never with a beautiful female like the specimen beside him.

"Think you'd want to have a place like this when you're older?" he asked through his relaxed haze.

"I don't know," she said in thought. "Maybe if I've already checked out several other locations in the world first. I'd like to do my vacationing in a few different spots before I decide. Don't know what's out there if you don't look and experience for yourself."

He nodded. That was a fair point of view. "Have you traveled much?"

"No. I went to visit my brother Charlie in Romania when I was ten and to see Bill when he was in Egypt when I was twelve, then there was coming here for Fleurs bridal shower, that's basically it. You?"

"We went to Spain once, and Norway, but mostly just stayed on the estate. I'm not sure if Neville and Gran would have traveled more if it wasn't for me." It had been a question he'd posed to himself a few times over the years since he was old enough to understand the scope of his situation. He'd been orphaned and taken in by someone he now considered his grandmother, but what if that hadn't have happened? "Do you think they might have travelled more if it weren't for me?" he asked aloud, not thinking clearly enough to realize that part of that conversation took place in his head.

"The Longbottoms aren't known to be the most wealthy of families around, just comfortable," Ginny told him. "Maybe they would have traveled, but I very much doubt they would hold any resentment you for their choosing not to." She moved herself closer to him so they were touching.

He popped the bit of bread and cheese he'd been holding into his mouth and moved his hand around her waist to pull her flush against him.

"If Neville is opting to live with you in that flat instead of out on his own, I'd say he is still rather fond of you," she teased.

"That's another thing," he said. Normally he wouldn't have brought this up, but they were in a secluded location and had opted to forgo the wine glasses and drink straight from the bottle so he had no idea how much wine he'd drunk. Wine itself made him rather mushy and emotional. "What do you think life would have been like for Neville if he was able to go to Hogwarts? He could have studied under Whats-her-name, the Herbology teacher?"

"Professor Sprout," Ginny nodded.

"Yeah. He could have been learning from her instead of from books before he went in for his Apprenticeship after Voldy there was gone. He'd have been further along in his career maybe."

"I think Neville seems to be quite happy with where he is right now. Luna says he gets to travel plenty and I know he's had a decent amount of women in his life now. More than I've had men anyhow," she shrugged.

"That a problem for you?" Harry asked. They'd mentioned their number to each other before. He certainly didn't care what his number was, he just wanted a quality girl.

"Merlin, of course not," Ginny said with wide eyes as though the thought of that was horrifying. "I much prefer to be selective. Think I've chosen quite well this time too."

They grinned at each other sappily before each going in for a kiss. He enjoyed the unimpeded access to her body. The weightlessness of the water allowed her to easily wrap her legs around his waist as well and she was nicely buoyed against him.

"Ever shagged in water before?" he asked, not caring to hear the answer, but hoping it was a no.

"I haven't," she said heavily. "Care to give me that introduction?"

Shagging out in the open air in the middle of the day was a rather freeing experience. Good food, good wine, fantastic location and being buried deep inside his beautiful and sassy girlfriend was certainly making him feel things. Not just the pleasure that sex provided, but the rose-colored glasses that came from falling in love.

It felt a bit early for that between them, but he'd also never been in love with anyone before so what did he really know about it.

It turned out the water really added something to the experience. Something about the weight distribution of the water, it required more to achieve his own finish, but that just meant that Ginny got two and he wasn't going to complain about that at all.

"I think it's time for the hot tub," she said as they were both starting to breath normally again and trying to stay afloat.

Sex, sunshine and snacks, it was all they needed to make their mini-holiday amazing. Getting proper one on one time with her too had just reinforced that this relationship was right. He'd never felt as sure of someone as he did with her. They just fit and it was easy.

Now if he heard that comment slip out of her mouth about how many kids she wanted down the line the only part that would freak him out was her joke about them being fathered by the Wasps Keeper.

Then again, that could be the wine talking too.

()()()