This is Not Perfection

Her eyes were wide as she stared at him, her heart beating fast as she watched his every move. His knee hit the ground and his hands were sweaty as he held hers in front of them.
"Harry…" She tried to speak, shaking her head slightly.
"No, Gin. Please let me speak," he took a deep breath, his eyes boring into hers. "I have never met anyone like you; you're funny, smart, exciting, and fierce. Every moment with you is like I'm on fire. When you smile at me I can't breathe. Ginny Weasley, I love you, and I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you… Will you let me?" He pulled out a small box with a diamond ring inside. She stared at him, then back at the ring.
"What are you…?" She could barely breathe. Harry's eyebrows contracted as she pulled away, tugging her hands from his as she stepped back.
"Ginny," he stood, taking a step forward.
"No! Stop, Harry!" She was taking deep breaths, trying to get air into her lungs. "What do you think you are doing?" She asked as she looked back at him.
"I just thought…"
"No, I don't think you did!" She almost yelled, but dropped her voice as she looked around, trying not to make a scene. "I'm barely nineteen! Harry, we're just kids." Her eyes were wide as she tried to emphasise what she meant.

Harry stared at her.
"After everything that has happened, I thought it would be best to live life like there wasn't that much left?" Harry tried to reason, fiddling with the closed ring box he now held in his hands.
"When people say that, they usually mean travel! Not marriage!" She saw the look on his face as she said it and tried to back track. "Harry, I love you but –"
"I get it! You don't want to marry me. Message understood." He turned from her and began to walk away.
"Harry!" She reached for his arm, which he ripped out of her grip.
"I have to go." Ginny watched him leave, tears springing to her eyes. She ran in the opposite direction and found herself outside Hermione's door.

"Hermione," Ginny started, her cheeks wet with tears and her nose running, "I don't know if we can make this work?" She confessed as her friend opened the door to her family home. Hermione stared at her best friend, her arm automatically wrapping around the younger girls shoulders.
"What happened, Gin?" She asked soothingly, steering her inside.
"Harry and I had another fight…" Ginny said softly, her eyes still brimming with tears as she looked away from her friend.
"About what?" Hermione asked, her voice full of worry.
"He proposed –"
"What?! Ginny!"
"…and I said no." Ginny finished, looking down at her hands. There was a silence in the room, and Hermione thought about what to say.
"Understandably," Hermione finally conceded after considering it for a second.

"Hermione, what should I do?"
"What do you want? Do you want to marry him?" Hermione asked her now less emotional friend.
"I don't know, maybe. Not now, though?" Ginny sighed.
"Then tell him that?" Hermione offered. There was another pause before Ginny spoke again:
"We keep fighting? It's like we can't go a couple weeks without one."
"I think you just need to talk about it?" Hermione said softly as the friends walked to the door.
"Thanks Hermione."
"Anytime," she smiled, wrapping her arms around Ginny before waving her off.

Ginny arrived at Grimmauld place and gave a few sharp knocks at the door, then waited. After a few seconds, Kreacher answered the door.
"Master Harry says he doesn't want to see the Weasley girl."
"Kreacher, please?" Ginny said softly as she looked down at the House Elf.
"Master is very unhappy, can you make him not unhappy?"
"I can try?" As Ginny said this, the House Elf stepped aside, allowing her to enter the house. She walked down the hall and into the living room but did not see him. "Kreacher, where is he?"
"Master Sirius' room, Ma'am." Kreacher bowed low before disappearing into the kitchen. Ginny followed his words and walked up the staircase until she stood before the open door of Sirius' old room. Inside, Harry was slouched on the side of the bed – his eyes staring straight at one of the photos Sirius had magically glued to the wall.
"Harry?" She whispered, not wanting to spook him. But he did not respond. "Harry?" She tried again, a little bit louder. Nothing. "Harry, I'm sorry," she said walking into the room and taking a seat beside him.

"You have to try to understand where I'm coming from?" She decided to just talk, since he was still ignoring her. "You have such a strong desire to find 'perfection' in everyday life. Then you fix your eyes on 'perfection' and you make almost everything speed towards it," she noticed him tense up beside her, so she reached out her hand to take his – and was relieved when he did not stop her.

"But what we have here, it's not perfect," she took a deep breath and hoped that this worked. "We're not ready for the next level, because we can barely handle this one. We don't talk about our problems until we fight – and we don't see each other's problems because we're too afraid to." She turned to face him and saw that he was finally looking at her. "I love you, Harry, more than I've ever loved anyone. But we can't handle a marriage… not until we've handled a proper relationship." Once she had finished they just sat there for a few seconds, until finally he spoke.
"You're right, Ginny. I was trying to rush this because I'm always thinking that if we don't keep moving I'll lose you," he admitted softly.
"You'll never lose me. Not by my choice, at least!"
"I'm sorry, Ginny." And with that he kissed her, and she knew that they were okay again.

A/N: Words - 1,042

Written for the Flying Lessons - Speed.

Used Prompt - A major Argument.

I do not own anything.