Chapter 9
()()()
Harry couldn't quite get a read on her. She didn't look like her answer was a no, but she was surprised. He wasn't sure why it was such a surprise though, they'd been together for months now. He wanted more time with her. The only way they could manage more time together was if she moved in.
It had been his first thought when Neville mentioned it was time for him to move back in with Gran. Harry had known that it was an eventuality that Neville was going to go back home, they had both known that this was temporary, and though Harry was also raised in that house there had been some rational part of his brain that told him it was Neville's responsibility, not his.
Harry felt no desire or pull to move back. He was out on his own now, and even if the location he was currently in was also temporary, he didn't have any desire to continue staying in this temporary living situation by himself. There was a cottage that he owned through the Potter family that he might fix up and one day make his permanent home, but he wasn't there yet.
He was near ready to start working away at the cottage, and maybe when Ginny was busy being back in the throws of the next Quidditch season he could start fixing the place up on his days off. But right here and now this made sense.
"It just seems like the right time," he said tentatively.
"It does?" she asked curiously. "Because Neville is moving out?"
Yes, that might have had something to do with it but it was more the catalyst than anything. Ideal timing was really all that was. "Well… yeah. And, you know, I like having you here. It would give us a chance to actually see each other more."
"So, it isn't just, I don't know, convenient?" she said with a frown.
He frowned back at her. "You don't want to," he said sadly, his disappointment dripping off of every word. It was like a knife piercing into his heart to think that she didn't want to.
"I… do actually," she said, but it didn't sound like it was a yes.
His brow furrowed. "You do, but you don't?"
"It's just," she bit her lip and thought over how to phrase her next words. "There's still quite a bit we haven't said to each other."
He felt his expression soften at that. They'd danced around this yesterday at the reception, how they hadn't said a certain something to each other yet. He set his cup down and stepped towards her, pulling her into his arms and looking down at her tenderly.
"I love you," he said, and he meant it. He'd never felt about anyone else the way he felt about her. He saw a future with her that extended beyond them sharing a flat together. The words had come out of his mouth so easily, as though he'd been saying it for a while already. He was comfortable with it, with her.
It had been a big awakening for him when Neville brought up his moving out and Harry's mind had automatically jumped to Ginny moving in. When he'd thought of fixing up the Potter cottage too for full time habitation he had wondered about fixing up the grounds for the two of them to play Quidditch on. She was in his plans for the future and there was no doubt in his mind that he was in love with her.
The way her eyes sparkled at hearing those three words come from him was captivating.
"I love you too," she told him softly.
They stood there grinning stupidly at each other as the bacon sizzled away beside them and the pancakes started to burn.
"Shit!" Ginny detangled herself from his embrace and flipped over the now burnt first batch of pancakes. She gave a chuckle, "oh well."
Harry took the burnt items and tossed them in the bin.
"So, is that a yes?" he asked, feeling much more confident about her answer now that they had crossed that other milestone.
Ginny transferred the bacon to a plate and then gave him a kiss. "I love you," she said again. "And I am really happy that you are asking me to move in, but us saying that to each other wasn't the only thing we hadn't told each other."
"What?" He couldn't think of what else they hadn't said to each other. "What haven't I told you?"
She started pouring the next round of pancakes into the pan and set the bowl back down before answering. "Have you noticed how neither of us have talked about the war? Every time it starts to come up we stop and change the subject. And you don't talk about your parents. Those are hard conversations, and they aren't going to be very pleasant. We haven't seen each other at our worst and I feel like if you can't talk about that stuff with me, or won't, then I can only see this unravelling," she told him honestly. Ginny looked like she hated that she said those words aloud. "I only realize it when the subjects come up and simply file it away in the back of my mind as something we will get around to talking about eventually, but then we don't. And now you're asking me to move in with you, and I really want to. But I want to know that you feel comfortable talking to me about this stuff before I do. Because if I move in here and I'm still not someone you think you can talk to, then it will destroy me. I want to be your person, you've no idea how badly. But with how often we do manage to carve out time for each other we don't get up to a whole lot of sharing, not outside of the carnal sense anyhow."
"We don't talk enough?" he asked. Was that really her reason for not wanting to move in with him? Because she wanted him to talk to her more? She'd been through the war herself, she knew what it was like, why did she need him to talk to her about it? "I don't know that much about my parent's, what am I supposed to tell you about them that you don't already know?"
"It isn't that I want you to 'tell' me about them. I just want you to share with me. Look, we've got the bedroom bit of our relationship down pat, that has been obvious from our first date. We also seem to work together wonderfully and are in sync enough when it comes to our tastes. We've got similar interests and we care enough about each other to have reached that next point in our relationship. But I still have some things I would like to know, and some things I would like to be able to tell you. We just haven't had the time yet, nor been in the right setting."
Harry thought that over.
Ginny turned her attention back on their breakfast as he let that sink in. It hadn't occurred to him that they should be talking about the war with each other. It was a terrible time of his life, one that he'd known he would have to face for a long time before it happened and required a lot of preparation; and wanted to put behind him. It had come up a few times, but Ginny was right, every time it was mentioned the subject was quickly changed.
It wasn't like they had been on opposing sides though, and she had been at Hogwarts for the duration of the war. It hadn't been a safe and secluded hide-away from the worst bits of it, but it hadn't been the worst that the war had to offer either.
The two of them didn't get up to much talking about the serious things and he hadn't realized that they should. If she was going to move in with him then she would be seeing him when he was in his worst of moods, and she hers. Right now every time he saw her it was like a vacation from his real life, if she was living with him then it would be commonplace enough that his excitement over spending time with her wouldn't always break through those bad moods.
She was right.
They needed to really talk.
"Okay," he said.
"Okay?" she turned to face him again.
"Yes. Let's take today to get it all out. I'm don't have anything else planned, neither do you, right?" he asked.
"No, I'd hoped we could spend the day together," she said softly as though she couldn't believe he was seeing where she was coming from.
"Then lets. Let's hole ourselves up in what will be our room," he said pointedly, "and you can ask all the questions you want. I might not be able to tell you everything you want to know, but you can ask. And you can tell me what you've got to share as well."
"Really? You're okay with that?" she asked, looking like a weight had been taken off her shoulders.
"You're right. If we're going to live together than we should talk about that stuff first."
Ginny set down her spatula and wrapped her arms around him tightly. "Thank you," she mumbled into his shirt.
He kissed the top of her head. "I'll let Neville know he can come out of his room now."
Ginny chuckled and gave him a kiss before moving back to the stove again.
Four hours later the sun was shining through the window in Harry's room and illuminating the bed they were both still sitting in as they talked. They'd talked about the struggles that they'd had growing up, his being related to how he'd been orphaned and how long it had been for the the meaning behind that to have sunk in. He hadn't felt any less loved than Neville as they were raised side by side. They had each other and hadn't known any other way of life. The two of them were eleven by the time they had both realized just how much losing their parents had affected the way things could have been.
When their Hogwarts letters came and Gran had explained why they couldn't both go that was the catalyst for them truly understanding. There hadn't been any other kids around to discuss excitement about going to Hogwarts with, it hadn't been an eventuality they'd been looking forward to like it had been for Ginny. He remembered the owls coming in the morning shortly after they'd both had their birthdays and seeing his name scrawled in that shiny green handwriting.
It was only after that the two of them felt like they might be missing out on something, and what started Harry feeling guilt about the situation he'd put Neville in. Neville could have gone on to Hogwarts if it hadn't been for Harry being taken in by their family, but Neville assured him that he'd rather stay home with Harry than go off on his own to that school. And they had a really good teacher in Remus.
Harry told her about how their freedom to go out into the world had been stripped away bit by bit as the Death Eaters began to rally, about how their wards had been tried and tested in an effort to get to him. That was what led to him getting training from a few Aurors and led him into the Order of the Phoenix.
"I wound up having this shared consciousness with Voldemort," he told Ginny. "It turned out that there was a piece of him in me, it had been placed there by accident when he tried to kill me as a baby. It was why he couldn't die properly. He'd ripped apart his soul to make himself immortal, by the time he'd come after me and my parents he was just a shred of a man and his soul was so fractured that it broke apart again when his spell rebounded."
"I thought there was no block for the killing curse?" Ginny asked. "How could you have managed to rebound it back to him when you were only a year old?"
"It was because my mother sacrificed herself for me," Harry explained. "It was a protection that Voldemort didn't know existed. That was why he was after me, he didn't know about his piece of soul, he only knew I was the only one who had survived after he'd set his mind to kill them."
"So, when he came back he just kept on coming after you in order to make himself look more powerful," Ginny surmised.
"And it was what killed him in the end." This next part he hadn't told many people. "Ginny, in that last battle I let him kill me."
"What?" she blinked up at him.
"I just walked up to him and let him kill me. It was the only way to destroy the last fragmented piece of his soul."
"But, if he killed you…" she started in confusion.
"I was dead, for a bit. While I was I found myself sitting in our garden at the Manor. Dumbledore was there and he told me that I could stay dead, or I could come back. He said that I'd fought bravely and sacrificed myself but that there could be so much more to my life if I returned."
"It was Dumbledore? Not your parents?" she asked.
"No," he shook his head. He was surprised that he found himself looking back fondly at the memory. He hadn't allowed himself to think back on it like this before, but it was kind of cathartic. "I'm glad of that though. If it was my parents then I don't know if I would have come back. I suppose it didn't have to be me in the end that killed Voldemort after that, but everyone in the Order thought it did so I don't know that they would have tried to go after him by themselves or just kept taking out their Death Eaters one by one like they had been."
"I was there," Ginny said. "I had helped take down a few of the Death Eaters and was in the Great Hall when you defeated him."
Harry looked at her sharply then. He hadn't know she'd been there! She would have been underage at that point and should have been evacuated with the others.
But her whole family had been there fighting. The Ginny he knew would not have simply left them there without even trying to fight alongside them.
"Then you saw what happened." For some reason he felt like that was a good thing, and it wasn't just because he didn't have to tell her the details of his killing the Dark Lord.
"I did. Taking a life sticks with you, even if it is for the right reason," she said dolefully.
"How many did you," he started to ask.
"Three," she answered quietly. "They were horrible people who had done so much wrong, but I can't help feeling that I gave them the easy way out as well. If they'd just been bound and captured then they would be suffering in Azkaban right now instead of dead. The parts of that night that stick with me though, it wasn't the people I'd killed, it was the people I'd known that had gotten killed. I saw the wall crash down on Fred and Greyback ripping the throat out of a girl a year above me."
They shifted closer to each other so that she could rest her head on his shoulder, their backs against the wall behind them.
"That last year of school before the Battle had been horrible. The new professors were openly torturing the students in the corridors. Not just Muggleborns or the older students, but the kids. For some of those kids it was their first time being at Hogwarts and they were having the Cruciatus Curse put on them." Tears were rolling down her cheeks now as she remembered. "I had to hold one of the first year girls all night long once in the Gryffindor Common Room because she was too terrified to go to sleep on her own. In the end all the fifth years and above just brought their bedding down in turns so that there were at least ten of us spending the night in the Common Room and blocking anyone going upstairs to the dorm rooms. It was really the only bit of comfort we could offer each other."
He knew it had been bad, but for them to have used the Unforgivable Curses on children that young was despicable.
"My last year we did the same thing. Everyone was still traumatized. Logically they knew that the war was over, but something like that doesn't just leave you. The number of times I would hear screaming coming from one of the dorms because someone had a nightmare that was actually a memory." She gave a shudder. "They brought in counsellors of course, and we tried to shield the first years from hearing about anything that had happened so they too weren't scared, but Hogwarts wasn't the same anymore."
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," he whispered to her and hugged her tighter. "It sounds worse than mine. You had to be so strong for all those kids."
"McGonagall helped us as much as she could, and Flitwick and Hagrid. I could tell that Snape was curbing the amount of damage the Carrow's could do, but there was only so much he could have done to help. They weren't able to keep an eye out for everyone at all times. I started breaking a few students out of detentions and obliviating the junior Death Eaters that were using them as target practice for hexes and such."
"That was detention?" Harry asked, scandalized at the thought.
"There was worse ways for some of the girls to spend detention," she told him grievously.
"Ginny," he said her name, surprised he could summon the breath for it.
"Not me," she assured him. "I took the brunt of a few hexes, and yes, I had the Cruciatus used on me, but never for longer than a few seconds."
"That's all it takes," he told her sadly. "That's how Neville lost his parents. They're still alive, they've just lost their minds because of the Cruciatus Curse being used on them repeatedly. They're in St. Mungos. They were tortured the same night that my parents were killed. Neville goes to visit them every week or every other week, but they don't know him as anyone other than the boy that brings them sweets."
"Poor Neville," she said. "That must be torture for him."
"It is, but he bears it admirably."
They sat there silently for a bit. He was glad that she had asked that they share their experiences with one another. It wasn't just his experiences that they were talking about too but commiserating and sharing their stories about the war was cleansing. It was haunting to know what had been going on at Hogwarts, but he was glad to know that she hadn't borne the worst punishment that those Death Eaters and Junior Death Eaters had to offer.
"Which of your brothers is your favorite?" Harry wondered after a few minutes of his mind wandering in all different directions. "You have so many of them." She hadn't had any of them with her at Hogwarts during her last two years, and he had to wonder if that had helped or hindered her getting through that horrible time.
"I like them all for different reasons," she told him. "Ron is probably my favorite though. I'm not as close to Percy and Charlie, but George and I get along great, and Bill has always been the big brother that I looked up to the most."
"They all have their best attributes?" he offered.
"They do."
"What was Fred's?" If they were going to be talking about the deep stuff today, then he wanted to know this too, and for her to know that she could talk to him about it.
She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder before answering. "He was an instigator."
"Isn't that George as well?"
"George is brilliant, he thinks outside the box, and now that Fred isn't around he is the one to make things happen. But when they were together what most people didn't notice was that Fred was always the one taking the lead. I'm willing to bet that most of the products that they came up with were from Fred's overactive imagination, but George's ability to make them a reality."
"That would make Fred brilliant too, if he was the one with the ideas for the products," Harry pointed out.
"You did meet him, didn't you?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, I met both the twins together a few times during Order of the Phoenix meetings. They were very entertaining."
He could feel Ginny grin into his shirt.
She looked up at him then. "Do you think we would have been together now if we'd have met back then?"
"I don't know," he told her honestly. "I might have considered you out of bounds or something. I also didn't know a damned thing about girls back then," he chuckled.
"And I would have been all too eager to give you an introduction to that part of your education and would have scared you off," she grinned. "I did have a big crush on you then. I did when we started going out too, but that was more because of your cute arse."
"I knew you only liked me for my bum then," he teased and gave her a kiss.
"And now I love you, and I'm allowed to say it out loud," she said kissing him back.
He leaned his forehead against hers. "Move in with me," he said.
She rubbed her nose with him and gave him a soft kiss. "Yes," she whispered.
"Yes?" he grinned.
"Yes, I'll move in with you."
Harry felt his chest grow warm and that warmth spread through out his whole body at her agreement. They were going to live together! That meant he would be coming home to her every day.
"Thank you," he said and hugged her closer. "I promise I won't start referring to you as the 'wife' or anything and will leave the toilet seat down."
Ginny chuckled. "I've lived with several male's before, I know you'll forget to put the seat down, but I also know to check before I try to sit down. As for the 'wife' thing, back at you, I promise not to start calling you 'hubby' or anything."
"This is a big day we've had today," he said happily.
"I know. And I'm so glad," Ginny said. "Um, when exactly is this all supposed to go down then? Neville moving out I mean."
"He was figuring on a month or so from now."
"Two months then until I'd move in?" she asked.
"Gives you enough time to clear it with Luna, or back out."
"I won't back out. I mean, unless you cheat on me or something."
"Fat chance of that happening," he scoffed.
()()()
Harry watched Ginny fidgeting nervously as she adjusted her jewelry and straightened her dress for the hundredth time in front of the bathroom mirror. He could understand her being nervous, this was the first time she was going to meet Gran and the woman was rather daunting to someone who hadn't already been in her good graces. There were stories that had been circulating for years of how Gran could intimidate other members of the Wizengamut, including former Minister Cornelius Fudge, with a single disapproving look.
Harry wasn't worried on Ginny's behalf though. There was no way that Gran wouldn't instantly take a liking to Ginny. Everyone took an instant liking to Ginny; she was smart, sweet, sassy and beautiful. She was also a Weasley and there was nothing bad anyone could say about that lot. Gran had known the Weasleys were on the right side through the last two wars, and she thought well of Arthur and Molly.
Harry stood up from his seat when Ginny walked into the sitting room and looked over herself one more time in the reflection on a piece of framed art she'd hung up when she moved in just over a month ago.
"You look perfect," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her waist and gave a kiss to her neck. "She'll love you, I know she will."
Ginny gave a soft sigh and leaned back against his chest. "I've heard she has some strong opinions though, and she isn't afraid to voice them. I'm just hoping that I'm able to stop myself from shoving any of my objections back in her face." She turned around to face him properly. "Were you this nervous that first time you had dinner at the Burrow after we started going out?"
"Are you kidding?" he asked with a slight chuckle. "How many of your brothers were there? And it was your dad that invited me! This dinner is going to be you and I, Neville and Hannah and Gran. It's the first time Neville is bringing Hannah to meet Gran as well so the focus won't solely be on you." Harry was really happy that Neville had found someone that he seemed to have fallen head over heels for so soon after his and Luna's relationship ended. It may have been fairly mutual, but still.
"Yeah, I know," Ginny rolled her eyes. "I just hope it goes well."
"It will. And it will go even better if we are on time. So," he pulled her along gently guiding her by the hip towards the door.
They were going to be Apparating from the street so that they didn't get soot on their clothes. It was chilly and damp out and now the sun was setting early as Autumn had settled in. The two of them hurried down the sidewalk to get to the closest Apparation point. The way the chill immediately seeped into his skin Harry was eager to get back indoors and out of the cold.
He hugged Ginny close and spun them out of sight to reappear at Longbottom Manor at the end of the laneway.
"Oh!" Ginny exclaimed as she saw the house.
The widows were all bright and casting light across the front garden. It did look like a sizable home from the front, and from the back, but looks were rather deceiving from those angles. It wasn't an enormous manor house, it was just long and narrow. There were two wings on the second level, one that he and Neville had shared growing up and one for Gran. Each of the wings had three rooms and a full bathroom. The main floor held a formal sitting room, a less formal sitting room, dining room, library, and a kitchen. Compared to The Burrow he supposed it was rather spacious.
Actually, it was extremely spacious compared to the Burrow.
Harry probably should have found the time to bring Ginny by earlier, like before they moved in together, but they just hadn't found the time with her busy practice and game schedule and his working during her days off.
Honestly, all he wanted to do with his time off was curl up on the sofa with her, or in bed. He hadn't wanted to share their alone time with anyone, it was still too new of a luxury to come home to her. The days when they did get the whole day off together were mostly spent gloriously naked in the bedroom.
He really did not mind living with her at all. There had been a few changes around the flat, but nothing major. Neville's old room had been turned into an office/storage/Ginny's closet; she took up a lot of their bedroom closet too, but all of her 'fancy things' were in the other one. She'd hung up a few items on the walls in the spaces that Neville had left blank and she was more of a whiz in the kitchen than Harry was used to.
All good things.
His biggest adjustment was the amount of space her things took up in the bathroom. He still didn't know what half the bottles and doohickeys were that were scattered all over that room and thought it best not to ask.
"This place is beautiful!" Ginny said as they hurried up the walkway to the front door.
"It is," he agreed. "Even more so in the spring and summer when Neville has the garden just the way he likes it."
Harry rang the twist bell in the high center of the door in an announcement of their arrival before simply opening the door himself. "Hello?" he called out.
"We're in here," Neville called back from the left of the entryway, in the formal sitting room.
"Neville, for heaven's sake, get up and greet them. You are the man of the house. Where are your manners," Gran's voice scolded.
Harry quickly took their coats and hung them up, then was about to walk towards their voices but Ginny's grip tightened around his arm.
"Shoe's off or on?" she whispered with a slightly panicked look on her face.
"Oh." He pulled out his wand and cast a quick cleaning spell on their shoes. "On," he grinned.
Ginny grinned back and linked her arm at his elbow when Neville came into view.
"Glad you're finally here," he said. "She's been all over Hannah and I. Two months in is much too soon for them to have met. She's been asking about our intentions! Already!" He looked about ready to call it a night already.
"And just what are your intentions?" Ginny smirked.
"Don't you start," Neville pointed a finger at her and narrowed his eyes, a small twinkle breaking through his threat.
Harry grinned at that interaction; he was glad that the two most important people in his life right then were able to carry on with each other like that.
Not wanting to cause further delay, or leave Hannah alone with Gran any longer, the three of them went back into the sitting room. Sure enough Hannah looked rather uncomfortable on the couch beside Gran's chair, though that could have something to do with the couch, it was an antique and rather stiff.
"Gran," Harry greeted, walking straight up to her chair and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "I want to properly introduce you to Ginny Weasley, Arthur and Molly Weasley's youngest."
"Finally," Gran said briskly. "It took you long enough to bring her around. Well, come closer dear, my eyes aren't what they used to be." She was squinting and appraising Ginny.
Ginny stepped forward and held her hand out. "Nice to meet you properly. Harry's said such lovely things about you."
"Ah, no doubt about how strict I was with he and Neville when they were growing up." She gave Harry and Neville a stern eyeing, but the two of them could see past it to the caring person she really was.
Ginny wasn't falling for that either. "I think the fact that you took over raising the two of them into the wonderful men they are today means your strict rules have proven to be just what they needed," she told her instantly. Harry had to wonder if she'd planned out what to say ahead of time. That was far too good of a response to come up with on such short notice.
Gran gave her another good eyeing up at that, her pursed and wrinkled lips were drawn tightly together but there was a twitch in her cheeks that gave away her approval of that response. Gran gave a gesture towards the empty couch across from the one Hannah was occupying, "have a seat, won't you? Hannah here was just telling me about what she does for work."
Internally Harry gave a cringe at that. He knew that Gran thought a woman should only work if she didn't have prospects. Gran hadn't been a fan of Neville's mum Alice working for the Auror's after she'd married Frank. She wasn't for any blood purity nonsense, but she was a blue blood and wanted only a quality woman for Neville, and Harry to a lesser extent. The Potter line weren't one of the Sacred 28, but as he was raised as one of her own so she did have certain expectations for what his life should settle into as well and they involved his significant other being a housewife and mother.
"Now then, you are an Abbott you had said?" Gran asked her.
"Yes, I am. My father is Greggory Abbott, the younger brother of Giffard Abbott who sits in our family seat on the Wizengamut," Hannah answered her politely. Neville took up beside her on the couch and clasped his hand with hers as a show of support.
"That is an old family. And your mother?" Gran asked.
"Gran," Neville started.
"No, it's okay," Hannah said to Neville. "We lost her during the last war. She was a Muggleborn." Hannah managed to say it evenly but gave a hard swallow.
"Ah, I'm sorry for your loss dear," Gran said sympathetically.
Harry looked over to Ginny to see if she had known that, because he hadn't. Ginny was sharing a look with Hannah though, one that told him she had known. The two of them had gone to Hogwarts together so there was a chance they had known each other then.
"And what about you?" Gran said sharply to Ginny.
"What is it that you would like to know?" Ginny asked her.
"Well, I already know about your family, tell me about yourself."
Ginny nodded. "Well, I play for the Holyhead Harpies-"
"Yes, I had heard you were a Quidditch player." Gran asked with an disapproving look. "Is that really a job for a lady?"
Harry had to bite his lip and that and made the mistake of exchanging a look with Neville. The both of them knew exactly what Ginny's response to that would have been if it were anyone other than Gran asking the question. From the expression on Hannah's face she knew what Ginny might have said as well.
Mentally he could see Ginny's eye's narrowing, a small smirk coming to her face and some comment about just how 'lady-like' she could be.
"I was raised around boys, Ma'am," Ginny said kindly. "My mother may have been a house-wife from the moment she stepped out of school, but having six boys running around telling me that I couldn't do what they could just made me determined to prove them wrong. And I have. I'm not bothered whether someone would find my occupation lady-like. I am doing what I love."
"And what of my grandson?" Gran asked.
Harry's brow wrinkled in confusion at that question and saw Ginny shoot Neville a bewildered look.
"I am speaking of Harry," Gran spelled out.
"Oh. Well… what about him?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah, what about him?" Harry asked too. "What does Ginny playing Quidditch have to do with me?"
"You should be thinking about settling down soon. You will need a woman who is capable of caring for you. How is she supposed to run your house if she's out flying around on a broom all day?"
Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"I understand that Hannah is working at the Leaky Cauldron, but at least that means she knows how to cook and clean," Gran said.
"I do know how to cook and clean," Ginny defended. "Our flat isn't a pig sty, and I might not have dinner on the table for Harry at six every night, but he's a grown man and can make dinner for me too."
Shit. Harry realized then that there was one minor detail that he had left out when speaking to both Ginny and to Gran and it was about to blow up in his face.
"Our flat?" Gran repeated that part. "What do you mean 'our flat'?"
The breath that Ginny sucked in could be heard by the entire room.
Harry gave her a pained look. "Sorry," he whispered.
"Are you telling me that the two of you are living together already?!" Gran asked loudly. "Harry Potter, that is not the way I raised you! Living with a woman without even the promise of marriage! That is an outrage."
"Gran, come on. It isn't that uncommon these days," Harry told her. "It just made sense. We're both really busy and hardly ever had the chance to see each other. So, when Neville moved out, Ginny moved in."
"Then this has been going on for months and you decide to tell me about it now?"
There was silence that permeated through the room as everyone sat there awkwardly. Gran was fuming but Hannah and Neville looked quite happy to have the focus off of them.
"Dinner smells good," Ginny said finally in an obvious attempt to steer the conversation to something lighter.
"What do your parents think about this?" Gran asked Ginny, ignoring the dinner comment. "There is no way that Molly Weasley is okay with her only daughter living with a man out of wedlock."
"Well, to be frank," Ginny started and Harry cringed internally. "Any argument she could have would be shot down by the fact that she was knocked up before the wedding," Ginny replied instantly, her eyes growing wide over her lack of filter. "Shit," she said under her breath.
"Young lady!" Gran gasped. "That is not something that should be mentioned in polite conversation. And Harry Potter, I would think you would have chosen a more worthy woman to bring home for me to meet."
"Stop," Harry said firmly. "Gran, I know you have old fashioned ideas when it comes to men and women living together, but our living together works for us and I'm not going to stop living with her just because you disapprove. Ginny is a worthy woman and I love her. Any opinions you have about our cohabitation or her career you can just keep to yourself. Ginny is happy with her choices and I am happy with her."
"What about when it is time to settle down? How is she supposed to be a proper wife and care for your children if she is putting her career first?"
"You don't know what is going to happen down the line, maybe I'll stay home with the kids when the time comes," he argued. "It isn't like running around catching dark Wizards worked out so well for our dad's did it?" he said loudly and gestured between himself and Neville.
Everyone in the room froze.
He regretted saying it the moment it slipped out, but it was true. His father had been assisting with The Order of the Phoenix and it had led to his death, Frank Longbottom had been an Auror and that had lead to his permanent home on the psych ward at St. Mungos.
"Look," Harry said finally. "I apologize for how terribly this first meeting is going. Perhaps we can start over."
"No," Gran said definitively. "I am aware that the standard rules for how young people cavort with each other had changed these days. I may not approve of the two living together but it is your life." She looked as though it pained her to say it. "I can tell you are happy with her, and that is really all I could wish for you. Perhaps we should carry on and I can simply turn a blind eye to these… facts."
Harry let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding then.
"Thank you," he said. "Well then, how about a drink?" He got up and went to the drinks cart.
They all made their requests for refreshments and Harry whipped them up, handing Ginny her glass of white wine as he sat back down and Gran was asking about several members of the Abbott family that Hannah was filling her in on.
"When?" Ginny asked softly, sounding as though she was making a reference to something that he didn't remember them discussing.
"What?" Harry looked over at her in confusion. Her face was a little flush and her eyes sparkling at him with a look of adoration. He wasn't sure then what 'when' she was asking about was for but he didn't mind having her look at him like that.
"When the time comes. That was what you said."
His brow furrowed and he tried to think of what she was talking about. "What?" he asked in confusion.
Ginny simply smiled softly and shook her head. "Never mind." She then rose her glass to her lips and turned her attention back to what Hannah was saying.
Harry went over the argument he'd had with Gran and then it hit him. 'Maybe I'll stay home with the kids when the time comes', that was what he said. He said when not if. As though it was an inevitability that the two of them would have kids. Plural.
It was too soon for all that though. They'd only just moved in with each other and Ginny was only twenty now. Plus, they hadn't yet been dating a year.
But it had slipped out of his mouth so easily and so surely.
The rest of the evening passed with forced polite conversation being carried on among them all. But, after the rocky start he supposed it was the best he could have hoped for.
By eight o'clock Gran was ready to retire for the evening and bid them all goodnight.
Harry and Neville had accompanied her to the bottom of the stairs, leaving the girls in the formal sitting room with tea, and they waited until she got all the way up and closed the door to her hallway.
They exchanged a glance and both sagged with relief.
"What a nightmare," Neville said and ran a hand over his face. "I though Hannah was getting it bad before you two showed up.
"No kidding. Do you think she started liking Ginny even a little bit by the end of the meal?" He really hoped that Gran could have seen just a bit of why Harry was in love with Ginny.
"Yeah, of course she did."
Harry gave him a disbelieving look.
"No, really. Look, there was one point during dinner when you were half-way through and Ginny just instinctively knew that you wanted more gravy and another Yorkshire, she gave you this sideways look and handed them over, just knowing. I saw Gran see that too," Neville shrugged. "It brought her around a bit."
"Ginny handing me more food brought Gran around?" That sounded crazy.
Neville shrugged again. "She wants us to find women that will 'take care of us' or whatever. Ginny knew what you wanted and gave it to you without you having to ask."
"One of the many reasons I like her," Harry grinned saucily.
Neville gave a snort and they started heading back to the girls. "Alright, who thinks we need to go and do something a little less serious?" he offered to the girls.
Both Ginny and Hannah raised their sherry glasses in the air in agreement with that idea.
"Did you have anything in mind?" Hannah asked.
()()()
When Ginny had first suggested they give this a try he had thought she was joking and said 'yeah, sure'. But she'd brought it up a few times over the past few months and they simply hadn't found the time nor the inclination when they did have the time to head out and actually do this. It was also something that you should do with a few people so given how they could rarely find the time for them to go on a date with each other, trying to get together with another pair of people seemed impossible.
"Axe throwing," Neville grinned and shook his head. "We're a little overdressed, don't you think?" he asked while taking a look at the other patrons.
They hadn't stopped to change or transfigure their clothes before heading straight to the Muggle facility just outside of Brighton Beach. Ginny had simply been too eager to give it a go finally. She'd gotten Hannah interested in the idea as well. That and Ginny knew what kind of food they had on offer because she'd gotten the brochure while out shopping with Hermione in a touristy section of London. Harry and Neville were outvoted.
They didn't mind that though. It looked quite fun. Neville paid for them to get their own area where they took turns standing behind a wire fence while they each took turns throwing axes at a giant wooden block on the other end of their area. It was like darts for lumberjacks, Harry supposed.
"Can I get you folks something?" the waitress asked when she came over.
"Yes! We'll get two orders of the brisket, nachos, and a round of Becks to start off," Ginny told her instantly. "Been having dreams about their brisket on bao," she told Hannah.
"We did just eat dinner," Hannah reminded her.
"I doubt it will be here instantly," Ginny dismissed the objection. "Start throwing your axes, that'll get your appetite going." She nudged Hannah into the area.
Hannah just chuckled and picked up her first ax awkwardly, clearly never having wielded one before.
"So, you and Hannah," Harry asked Ginny as he slipped his arm around her waist. "Were you friends in school?" Hannah had just thrown her first ax and it had barely made it to the block of wood at the other side.
"We weren't close and personal friends, but we were in the same group of people that banded together when things got bad to help take care of those that had been put in detention. You know, that kind of detention," she said sadly. "We had to work together once to get supplies from the school nurse once. She was my look-out." Hannah threw her second ax with a little more force and it landed hilt first and fell to the ground.
"So, you guys weren't friends, but you have a bond," Harry discerned.
"Yeah. She's good people," Ginny said more to Neville. "I like your choice in woman Neville."
"Cheers. It all rested on your opinion, so that settles it," he joked.
"Well, so long as it doesn't all rest on your Gran's opinion," Ginny laughed. "And what about you?" she turned to Harry. "Your Gran doesn't seem too keen on you being with me with my career goals and all."
She was trying to act as though the question was a joke, but he could tell that it wasn't. Gran hadn't responded well to her, but he wasn't going to let that tear them apart after how long they'd worked to get where they were.
Hannah had thrown her fifth ax and not a single one of them had landed properly, but she was smiling when she came out of the fenced area. "That is was sort of freeing," she grinned. "Who's next?"
Harry inclined his head for Neville to go ahead, and it was clear to Nev that Harry needed to chat with Ginny a bit longer.
"I'll give it a go," Neville said and gave Hannah a kiss before switching places with her.
"Do you remember how my Gran had been the one to encourage me to do something special for our second date? She was so pleased that I had finally met a nice witch that I fancied instead of a Muggle that she barely asked me any questions about you." Harry hadn't told Ginny that part. "She knew it was you that I was dating, but only in the sense that you are a Weasley. She's barely asked me anything about you besides to inquire if we were still 'going steady'."
"So?" Ginny asked.
"So, I was pretty surprised by how she reacted tonight. I think she'd sort of expected us to be further along in our relationship than I think we are."
Ginny stared at him blankly while Neville grunted loudly and launched his third ax through the air to the target only for it to make a large 'thunk' and fall to the floor.
"But she was shocked to find out we were living together. Exactly how far along do you expect she- oh!" Ginny's hand came to her mouth and her eyes grew wide. "No! No, it's much too soon for that!"
"Exactly." He was so glad she saw what he was trying to say.
"She's not okay with us living together, but marriage is on the table by her opinion," Ginny asked incredulously.
"It is an old way of thinking, but then again, consider the source," Hannah chimed in wryly.
"Was she interrogating you when we arrived?" Harry asked her.
"Oh yes. Wanted to make sure I was the best possible choice for her grandson."
"Who's next?" Neville asked coming out of the cage.
"My turn!" Ginny exclaimed and went in. She was smiling, but Harry could sense some frustration in her body language.
She picked up the first ax and he observed carefully as she took her stance and swung the ax back over her head with two hands grasping the handle and the launched it forward with incredible force. It swung through the air faster than he could follow and imbedded itself deep in the wood.
Neville and Hannah cheered.
Harry had a different reaction to seeing his girlfriend dressed to the nines and swinging that weapon through the air with deadly force and accuracy. For fucks sake, she was doing it in heels! She picked up the next ax and did the same thing again with this look of determination on her face like some warrior goddess.
They absolutely should have done this sooner.
He wasn't even looking at the target on the other end of the enclosure, just at Ginny and her overall silhouette as she swung her third, fourth, and fifth axes through the air with the same vigor. He'd seen that look on her face before when they had played a few pick-up games of Quidditch but he'd never had the chance to appreciate what it did to her for long. She was always on the move on a broom when she adopted this look.
Now though.
All her axes were used and she turned beaming brightly at them all, taking a mock bow at the applause Neville and Hannah gave her before turning to the drinks and food that the waitress had just dropped off.
"Your turn," Ginny said, looking quite satisfied with her performance and well less tense now that she had been when she stepped into the cage.
Harry didn't want to take his turn though, he couldn't take his eyes off Ginny. "Hannah, why don't you take another turn," he suggested and took Ginny by the hand.
A minute later he had her pressed up against the side of the wall in the loo having first sealed and silenced the door. He was kissing her ferociously as the lion in his chest roared and demanded that he take her. She wasn't putting up a fight as her hands ran through his hair and she purred at the attention his hand was paying to her breast through her dress.
"What's brought this on," she asked breathlessly as his lips trailed down her neck, nipping and sucking along the way.
"So," kiss, "fucking," lick, "hot!" He thrust up against her to show the full extent of what she'd done to him. "You," his hand lowered to start bunching up her skirt, "in this dress, being so in control of those axes." He pulled his face back and locked eyes with her, "it did something to me."
He pulled her skirt high enough that his hand easily swept along the smooth skin of her upper thigh and hooked his fingers under her knickers to stroke her there.
"And now you're going to do something to me?" she asked in a sultry voice and rocked against his fingers.
She was already wet.
His other hand went to his belt and zipper, quickly lowering them enough so he sprung free. Like a man on a mission he didn't waste any time before pulling her knickers to the side and plunging himself inside of her.
She gasped at the sudden intrusion, but instantly started rocking back against him and working up a good rhythm.
Him taking her in a dirty public loo was not something he had ever anticipated happening but the way she was completely into it was spurring his want further. He'd been inside her more times than he could count now but the feel of her with her legs wrapped around him like this, knowing that it was he and the wall that were the only thing holding her up; like his dick was the only thing holding her up. It made him feel powerful.
She liked it when he gave her his all, he'd learned. She got really loud when their sex turned from love-making to fucking, and this that they were doing right now certainly wasn't love-making.
He wasn't going to last long, not just due to his muscles in this position, but because it felt so good to be buried deep inside her at this angle again and again. There was only one thing he could do for her in this position to help delay his end and get her there sooner.
He was already holding her up by her arse cheeks, slowly with each thrust he moved one of his hands further inwards until she gasped and groaned at the feel of him applying pressure against that one forbidden spot they hadn't discussed. He knew she liked it when he did this, but it was only something he'd done in the moment a few times. Usually it set her off like a rocket and this time was no different.
He felt her walls clench against him in that delicious way they did. "So fucking tight," he growled as his thrusts grew well more lubricated from her cum.
"Fuck, Harry!" she cried after she'd caught her breath from her silent scream.
"Fuck is right," he said through gritted teeth and started thrusting into her at a rapid fire pace that had him giving his own silent groan ten seconds later.
He milked it for all it was worth and then his knees nearly gave out as his energy was completely zapped.
Ginny quickly lowered her legs to the floor as it was mostly the wall that was keeping her upright at that point. "That was amazing," she sighed.
He was leaning against her with his head buried in the crook of her neck as he caught his breath, sure that if he stood up properly just then he would simply be seeing stars. He could only make an illegible grunt of agreement.
"So, am I to take it that your Gran's opinion of me has no sway over our relationship then?" Ginny asked.
He managed to raise his head for that and saw there was some concern in her eyes. "None," he assured her. "Ginny, I'm not ready to entertain the idea of marriage yet, but whether we get there eventually or not has absolutely nothing to do with what Grandma Augusta has to say about it."
Ginny closed her eyes and gave a happy sigh hearing those words. "Good," she whispered and gave him a soft kiss. "Now come on, it's your turn to throw and I really want one of those appetizers."
"Geez, from one appetite to another, eh? You can really turn it off that quick?" he teased.
"Of course," she grinned and pulled away from him. She adjusted her knickers and straightened out her skirt. "Come on, stud." She gave him a saucy wink.
()()()
