X. The Fix

(Harry)

"To be your… I dunno, fake boyfriend," he said. "If you'd managed to ask, I would have agreed."

Patches of pink blossomed upon Ginny's cheeks, and her doe eyes widened in surprise. Harry was struck again at how pretty she was, and had he not been leaning on the wall of the little alcove they were enclosed in, he surely would have been knocked off his feet.

Her silence as she stared at him, however, was concerning. Embarrassing Ginny had not been on his agenda. He'd only been hoping to fix this- them -so that they may scramble away from the strange dance they'd been performing and sink back into normalcy, or as close to it as they could get, what with him being head over heels for his best mate's sister and anything- everything -could go very, very wrong if she allowed him to be hers even for a second.

A tense silence had descended around them, and Harry broke it by tersely adding, "It's what friends do, right? Help each other out?"

The expression on Ginny's face flickered, but before he could read it, it was gone.

"Right," she said, her voice overly cheery, and the color on her face now matched her hair. "Right. Of course. That actually reminds me..."

Ginny easily roped him into tutoring her and some friends in Defense tomorrow night, literally penciling him into her planner then and there. From what he could see of it over her shoulder, not a day went by without a little note or reminder.

"Quite a full schedule," he said as she shut the book and tucked it back into her bag.

"OWLs are no laughing matter." She began to walk backwards and away from him, jamming her witches' hat onto her head again. "I don't know how you managed to get so many."

The teasing lilt in her voice was off, but it was closer to their usual banter and brought a relieved smile to his face.

"I wonder the same thing all the time," Harry agreed, following her out into the corridor.

When they reached the stairwell, Ginny gave him a little wave as she started down. "Thanks again for everything. It's a good thing Ron kept you around."

Harry leaned against the landing banister and watched her go, the end of her plait swinging against the small of her back.

"Is that all you really want from me," he called down to her semi-jokingly, "my Defense expertise?"

Ginny's form disappeared from view, and her response echoed up to him hollowly, "Got it in one."

XI. One Step Forward…

(Ginny)

Her dorm mates said they'd be here, but as the minute hand on her mum's old watch struck ten past seven, she knew she'd been deceived, and nothing made her more furious than being tricked into an empty classroom with the unrequited love of her life .

"Those bloody bints!" Ginny cursed.

From the teacher's desk at the front of the room, Harry said, "We can start without them."

"But they…but I…you believe me, don't you?"

She didn't want to be alone with Harry. Not after yesterday, not after last week, not after all these years of pining and hoping and dreaming about him and her together like this.

But not like this . No. Closer. Much closer. And preferably with less clothes.

FUCK .

They were friends, just friends. Nothing more, nothing less. This was it, this was all it would ever be. Just friends, just friends, just friends .

"Believe that your dorm mates are bints?" said Harry, amusement in his tone.

At the mention of them, Ginny was reminded once more of their betrayal and burst out, "The nerve of them!"

"Come on." Harry's mouth was curled up at one corner, but she could see the nervousness in his stance when she looked over at him. "Show me what you need."

The phrase was innocent enough, but her daft brain thought otherwise, sending lightning-fast signals through synapses and nerve endings, frazzling her traitorous body into an instant reaction, all cold sweat and pounding heart and Merlin , why could she not fill her lungs with enough air?

Ginny stepped over to Harry with gritted teeth, firmly ignoring the way the seams of his shirt strained at the shoulders and how the top-most button of his shirt was undone to reveal the lovely hollow of his neck.

Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it.

It was a fool's errand indeed; she was eye-level with perfection .

A quick, mental shake and inward reprimand– he's not a piece of meat! -and Ginny opened her Defense Against the Dark Arts book, focusing on the page numbers until she'd found the second to last chapter.

It was a difficult lesson, and Snape absolutely no use. He'd been supplying only the Slytherins with useful tips on how to master the most challenging spells during practical lessons all year, whispering in their ears and smirking at the Gryffindors through a curtain of greasy hair. Nothing had changed as the fifth years neared their OWLs; the only ones who'd managed to keep themselves from failing the class outright were those who had been in the DA.

Harry had the answer to every one of her problems, naturally. Stances and pronunciations to several counter-curses were quickly corrected, and a helpful trick to get the most out of a hex-deflection charm was instantly doled out in the form of a heel-step forward when casting.

Her Smokescreen Spell needed the most help.

"It's the way you're holding your wand," said Harry after Ginny demonstrated the spell.

He took the wand and pushed it almost completely down the length of her arm. The tip was barely visible beneath her fingertips.

Incredulous, Ginny started, "But how the bloody hell am I–"

"-supposed to switch back to a starting position?" finished Harry, rocking on the balls of his feet and grinning.

He was in his element, excitement thick in his voice, and Ginny found herself grinning back at him.

It wasn't a choice, falling back into that rosy, soft place she held for Harry in her heart, inhibitions melted, walls crumbled, heartbreak lurking behind every corner. She'd fought this feeling for years, but there was nothing for it now, not as he shared his passion with her, showed her the several ways to get her wand firmly in hand again, carefully man-handling her here and there, crooking her fingers, holding her arms, clasping at her elbow, pushing softly on her shoulders. Ginny savored him–she'd be an idiot not to–breathing him in as he lingered in her personal space for seconds outside the norm, her heart rampant and wild beneath her ribcage.

They shared a look after her third, successful attempt of the spell, a brief, shining moment in which she beamed at him triumphantly, and Harry's eyes were crinkled and sparkling with pride and something else, indescribable yet thrilling, something that maybe mirrored hers. Before she could further analyze it, or boldly close the space between them to find out once and for all if he felt anything for her, anything at all, they were engulfed in smoke, stumbling out of the classroom in hacking coughs and laughter.

Somewhere in the rush of it all, they clasped hands as together they escaped the darkness.

XII. High Potential

(Harry)

They held hands down the length of the corridor, both red faced and grinning. Harry could not remember ever feeling so exhilarated before. Sure, flying and Quidditch were comparable, but this was different. Holding hands with Ginny made him feel like he was invincible, on top of the world, like taking one more leap could plunge him straight into the most blissful oblivion.

He turned towards her, squeezing her hand as they rounded the corner at the end of the hall.

"Do you want to maybe… I dunno… talk somewhere?"

Ginny nodded at him, her eyes twinkling like starlight.

"Yes," she said with a relieved smile. "Where do you have in mind?"

Before Harry could gather the hazy, half-formed plans in his brain, he and Ginny came upon some of her dorm mates, and they all stopped in their tracks.

"Annie! Betsy!" said Ginny. "What are you two doing here?"

Harry was not sure which girl was which. The Gladywn twins were nearly identical, both brown haired and fair skinned. One girl had blue eyes, though, the other brown, and both pairs quickly dipped to look at Harry and Ginny's conjoined hands.

Harry and Ginny pulled apart.

"Betsy and I waited for you in Greenhouse Six," said the brown-eyed girl, Annie. "Remember, we were meant to feed the Chinese Chomping Cabbages at seven?"

"But you never showed," said Betsy. "We waited a bit, but decided to head up for the study session a little early. Don't worry, we fed Wilhelmina for you."

"Well, thank you, but…" Ginny looked over at Harry with her eyebrows pinched. "I thought the Greenhouse meeting was for eight."

Harry could see in his mind's eye Ginny's school planner, and her marking the Defense lesson with him for eight right beneath a little scribble of green ink. He couldn't recall what that little scribble was, but he could remember the flowery smell of her hair as he'd leaned in over her shoulder, and how desperately he'd wanted to press his nose against the crown of her head.

He also remembered Ginny earlier today at breakfast, and how she'd touched his arm to get his attention (although it was hers the moment she'd sat down) and had said, "See you at seven?"

"I think you got your times confused," Harry said gently.

"But just this morning," said Ginny, recalling the same moment he had, "why didn't you correct me?"

Harry shrugged. "I figured you had changed your mind."

"What if I hadn't shown up at seven?" demanded Ginny.

"I would have waited for you."

"Oh."

The Gladwyn twins were giggling as the rest of the Gryffindor girls from Ginny's year then joined them there. Harry did not look away from Ginny, though; his heart had begun racing as he watched the realization of his affections spark in her warm brown eyes.

"Damn, did we miss it?" said Demelza, her voice sounding very far away.

"Harry…" said Ginny, stunned, and looked blankly over at the girls.

Harry took Ginny's hand again and led her a few steps away from the small crowd, choosing not to be disappointed at this minor setback. He could wait one more day, even if it had already felt like a lifetime.

"We can talk tomorrow," said Harry.

Ginny began to protest at once. "But this isn't fair to you! I got my schedule all mixed up and now you have to suffer. I have to suffer."

Harry laughed, pleased with how she'd shown her hand. She wanted this– them, together –as much as he did.

"It's all right." Harry smiled down at Ginny, squeezing her hand once more before letting go. "I don't mind," he continued, and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "I got to spend almost an hour alone with you."

Ginny's face went that pretty pink again, and he almost lost all sense of propriety and kissed her right then and there.

But there was the promise of tomorrow, and he would hold onto its high potential tightly.