Disclaimer: Even though I wish I owned these characters, the sad truth is that I do not. They belong to the brilliant J.K. Rowling!
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He had been hanging around for weeks, watching, waiting for the right opportunity. Of course, he didn't know when that might be; he didn't know if he wanted to risk exposure just yet. But he hung around anyway. He made it his mission to look after her, and he told himself it was just to see how she was doing, and he would also check in on Ron and Hermione as well. However, once he'd gotten a glimpse of her, his chances of ever being able to turn around and walk straight away were shot.
Especially since he had seen her a few times with that Grayson bloke.
Harry knew that he had no right – no right at all – to be jealous. He had made the decision years ago to walk away so that they might all have a fighting chance at leading a happy, normal lifestyle. He knew that Ginny wouldn't wait around forever, but he had to disagree with her love interest now. He noticed the way she always smiled at him, and one had to be blind not to notice the way he mooned over her. As he watched the pair of them, Harry found it exceedingly difficult to suppress an eye roll every now and then.
The longer he watched Ginny, the harder it was to keep himself hidden, and Harry had been trained by the best when it came to the art of concealment.
When Harry had left that evening five years earlier, he hadn't had a feasible plan in mind. He didn't know where he was headed to, or what he was going to do once he got there. He was going to roll with the punches that life threw at him until he met a man by the name of Xavier Hewitt. Xavier had told Harry that he'd heard all about him, and thought he'd make an excellent Auror. He had offered Harry a once in a lifetime opportunity and it was then that he started training. He had to go through several training courses; transfigurations, potion-making, and charms, as well as stealth training, for he would be completing many tasks during which he would need to stay hidden.
A sodding lot of good his training was doing him now. He hadn't been trained specifically to stay away from Ginny Weasley, but he had to even though he proved to be a blundering idiot on more than once occasion. Some things he did had been intentional, like getting close enough to where he could touch her hair, and making sure she got home okay, then tucking her in and turning out her bedroom light once she was asleep. He'd been able to carefully take down the barrier charms she'd set, and put them right back up again when he left before she woke. There had been a few times when his invisibility cloak nearly slipped off when he was around her, and once his shoe accidentally popped out from the bottom, but she hadn't appeared to notice.
And he certainly hadn't meant to make such a mess of everything back in the storage room of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes shop, but, alas, he had. The box, in his opinion, has been ill-placed, he told himself over and over again in his head as he realized he'd caught her attention. Cursing himself for being so clumsy, he tried to tip-toe around the boxes to slip out of the room before her. He had almost made it, too, and he had glanced back at her over his shoulder when he caught her gaze, and she shocked expression on her face. He glanced down at the ground and noticed his cloak pooled at his feet.
'Bloody great,' he thought. 'They should most definitely revoke my Auror license.' He could hear the breath leave her in a whoosh as the box she had been holding fell to the floor. He closed his eyes and grimaced when he heard everything shatter, and peeked out at her through slatted eyelids when silence was the only thing that rang in the air. When he fully opened his eyes, he watched her as she took a step forward.
"Harry?" she breathed, her voice barely a whisper. The look on her face told him that she definitely wanted to believe it was him, but wasn't getting her hopes up. She reached out and cupped his face gently in her hands, running her thumbs over his lips and feeling his face to make sure it was really him. Her hands slid down to his chest and she splayed her fingers out, looking to them briefly then lifting her eyes to meet his again. Without another word, she closed the distance between them, sliding her arms around him and pressing her cheek into his chest. He embraced her, resting his cheek atop her head, closing his eyes and inhaling her scent. Merlin, how he missed her.
They stayed like that for a while, just standing there holding one another, until she slowly pulled herself away. Harry noticed the tear streaks down her cheeks immediately and felt the lowest of low. He reached a hand out to wipe them away. She averted her gaze, looking down at the floor and pursing her lips. Harry shifted nervously from one foot to the other and was about to ask her if everything was okay, when she looked back up at him again. There was something different in her eyes now; the looked harder, and they told Harry that, most definitely, everything was not okay. He thought about taking a step back, just in case, when her hand shot out and connected with the side of his face, leaving a loud, ringing sound hanging in the air (although, he was fairly certain it was possible that he was the only one that could hear the ringing).
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Authors Note: I realize the chapters are a little on the short side, but I needed to set all this up for the next one, which should be a bit like the first one. Happy reading, all, and review please! I love hearing what you've got to say!