"Are you ready?"
Harry looked up to see Ginny stood by the door, holding a bouquet of white roses. A lump formed in his throat so he just nodded.
She passed him his cloak, "It'll be fine," she said squeezing his hand.
He nodded again.
Every year, on the first day of snow that winter, Harry would go visit his parent's graves. He wasn't sure what it was about snow that made it feel right, it would make more sense to go on Halloween perhaps or Christmas Eve, but ever since that visit with Hermione, when the snow started sticking he had the urge to go.
This would be the first time he took Ginny.
The snow was always pure in Godric's Hollow. He liked that. He liked to think it stayed that way for his parents, perfect and unblemished like them. He'd once had the wild idea of removing all the footsteps in the graveyard so the snow would stay untouched but then thought better of it. Better to keep those tokens of love, of people trudging through the snow to reach their loved ones.
"I'll wait here until you're ready." Ginny murmured when they reached the iron gate leading into the graveyard.
Harry always struggled to speak at this point so he just looked into her eyes, hoping she'd understand.
She kissed his forehead then stood back, letting him walk on alone.
The snow had begun to stick on his parents graves but he let it stay there.
"Merry Christmas Mum, Dad." He whispered, crouching down. He felt conscious that Ginny was watching him and looked back at her. As if understanding he was uncomfortable, she immediately looked up at the sky, watching the snowflakes.
A sudden warmth went through him and he turned back to his parents.
"Things are going really well for us now. Really well. I've started training new Aurors in Defence, Ginny won the league with the Holyhead Harpies this year. Things finally seem the way they should be." He looked down for a minute and bit his lip. His urgent desire to be under the snow with his parents when he first visited them always made a reappearance at this point and in previous years, he'd expressed this wish out loud, tracing his name out in the snow.
But it felt different now, he had plans, a real future; it had taken time after a war but he was finally ready to admit that he did have a family, that that initial feeling of loss and emptiness after the war was slowly beginning to disappear.
And that was because of Ginny.
"I live with Ginny now, not in Grimmauld Place, in our own cottage near Bill and Fleur's." He laughed slightly, "Ron and Hermione got married in the summer and lived near us for 3 months before Hermione went insane with the lack of activity and had to move back to the city. But me and Ginny like the quiet and the walks in the sea…." He trailed off then thought for a moment.
"I think I'm going to ask Ginny to marry me." His voice was trembling and not for the first time, he looked at his parents names, almost pleading with them to react or say something.
"I think I might do it on New Years Day." He continued, "then it'll feel like a new beginning, like the reason I visit you when it snows." He could feel his eyes starting to water now, he hadn't told anyone else about proposing to Ginny, not even Molly or Arthur. "I think you'd have really liked her, she's amazing at Quidditch and is fierce and strong and just everything I wish I was." He could feel his words beginning to come out in a rush now, "Whenever she goes anywhere, I just want to sit and watch how she lights up a room, I like to imagine that she's similar to you in that way Mum…."
His eyes were beginning to sting now and he coughed slightly, "Anyway, I just wanted you to know first."
Suddenly a gust of wind, blew the snow across his feet and Harry laughed which came out more of a sob.
He took off a glove and touched the headstones. "Thank you" he whispered.
He wiped his eyes and jumped to his feet. Ginny, who had been determinedly not looking until now, took this as her cue began to make her way over. Harry watched her footprints in the snow, side by side, next to this.
"Mum, Dad," he said, loud enough for Ginny to hear, "there's someone I'd like you to meet."