I say, if you're born a lion
Don't bother trying to act tame
Ani Difranco
"I can't believe that idiot finally asked her," Lavender said. She eyed the small ruby ring on her own finger thoughtfully.
Hermione giggled and clapped ruby ringed hand over her mouth, "He can be such a git."
"I know," said Angelina, looking at the red ring on her own finger happily as she adjusted her cleavage. "It took him long enough – I heard he had the ring picked out for months."
"Oh, eet was for yearz reeely," said Fleur, sighing as she looked at the ruby and diamond ring on her own dainty hand.
"Charlie said it started just after the war?" Peter said, flashing his own garnet as he picked up his cup of tea.
"A few years after, actually. It's amazing that he actually worked up the nerve, considering," Penelope agreed. She examined her own ruby and sapphire ring with a snort.
The five women and lone man looked at her harshly.
"What?" Penelope said. "Imagine being married to the daughter of the editor of the Quibbler. How embarrassing!"
"What did we miss?" Ginny said. She rushed into the kitchen at Grimmauld place with Luna's ruby and sapphire ringed hand in hers.
"Nothing," six voices said back, hastily looking into their cups of tea.
"Hmmmm," Ginny said and grabbed a cup from the tea service with a hand that had naught a ring on it, though her neck was still adorned with a heavy silver necklace that she never removed. "One would think the girls are gossiping about their dearest friend, and we broke in on it."
Sounds of protest erupted from around the room.
"Now, now," Luna said. "Don't deny it. We've known all of you too long for it to have been anything else."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, we were really talking about what prat Harry is for not asking you sooner," Angelina said.
The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement.
"Don't insult Harry, Ang," Luna said kindly. "It just takes him a while to figure out what he really wants, and then when he does he can't get to it fast enough."
Ginny started giggling so loudly that Luna turned to make sure she was okay.
"What?" Luna asked, clapping her on the back.
"We should probably have a talk before the honeymoon," Ginny said, still laughing so hard she eventually had to leave the room so she could howl in peace.
"Have fun with the girls?" Severus asked when she returned home sometime later. He was sitting in his favorite leather chair by the fire, reading the Evening Prophet while enjoying a glass of Firewhisky.
"Loads," she replied. She took the paper from him and set it on the side table before sitting in his lap. "I missed you though."
"And I missed you," he said. He offered her a drink from her glass which she accepted with a sly grin.
"You're a bad influence," she said as she licked away the strong liquid.
"Are you complaining?"
She shook her head. "Never," she said, kissing his whisky flavored lips.
"What would you like to do tonight?" he asked when they finally parted.
"I thought we might go to a pub," she said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.
He bit his lip. "And do what, pray tell?"
"Maybe I could wear that skirt again, and you could do naughty things to me under the table when no one is looking," she said breathily.
His lips twitched as he unbuttoned her blouse.
"And then what would I do?" he asked, removing her blouse and running his hands under the cups of her bra.
"Take me to the back alley and shag me until I can't walk," she said, arching her back to his chest as he unfastened her bra with a flick of his hand.
"New charm?" she moaned as his hands traveled over her bare upper body.
"Divesto trousseau," he smirked. His hands slid down to her knees before sliding up beneath her skirt, disappearing under the layers of fabric.
"My knickers too?" she moaned as his fingers slid under the red lace and into her wet, waiting flesh.
"I'd vanish them, but I owe you about twenty pairs from doing that," he whispered into her ear, his breath very hot against her skin as his long fingers massaged their way into her hot core.
"I love those fingers," she whimpered as he once again proved just how good slow could be.
"So when are you and Severus going to make it official?" Healer Faith asked.
"Do we need to?" Ginny asked blandly. "It's just a piece of paper. Everyone knows how we feel about each other."
"If it doesn't matter to you, then it doesn't matter at all," Faith said gently. "I was just curious, for personal reasons only."
"It doesn't matter," Ginny said, touching her necklace through the fabric of her lime-green robes, which now bore the Potion's vial that marked her as a Fourth Year Apprentice. "I am his, and he is mine. And I love him more than I can even reason out most days."
"I'm glad you're happy," Faith said, smiling.
"I was happy before I met him, Faith," Ginny said, shaking her head. "But he does make life that much better. Not only with the love, which is just … no words … but with the amazing sex. I'm amazed I don't walk around bow-legged with a huge grin on my face."
The Healer turned completely red.
"Too much?"
Molly looked at her daughter's bare hand again and tutted.
"Don't start, Mum," Ginny said as she helped her prepare dinner.
"What?" she asked as she levitated a huge roast from the ice box to the stove. "I told you, I'd like nothing more than my only daughter to start providing me with some lovely –"
"Mum, I've been on the potion since I was fourteen. And Severus and I just started living together a few months ago. We're having too much fun to even think about things like that. I still like coming home and being able to fool around in the kitchen without little eyes watching me."
"Ginny," Molly admonished.
"Mummy," Ginny said back, using the same tone of voice her mother had used on her. "Do you know how many times me and the boys caught you and dad in the kitchen when you thought you were all alone?"
Molly flushed scarlet as she washed her hands at the sink.
"I'm just saying mother. I learned from the best," Ginny said. She looked up to where Arthur was standing at the door. "Hey Dad," she said, giving him a quick kiss on the check as she walked past him and to her old bedroom.
"Arthur, did you – "
"Oh gods, Molly," Arthur said. ''I thought we were being quiet."
Ginny giggled as she walked into her bedroom, where Severus was waiting for her.
"So you've always been a huge Harpies fan, I take it," he said, looking at the posters on her wall.
"Only all-female team in the league," Ginny said. "I adore them."
He smirked secretly as he moved his gaze to the pictures on her desk.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"It's nothing," he said, eyeing a smiling picture of Fred with a little sadness.
"Severus, what?"
His cheeks flooded with color. "I just always wondered about girls in Quidditch. All the broom riding and … showering together and all," he said, trying to sound uninterested even though he was looking at her like she was a piece of his favorite candy.
"Hmmm," Ginny said. She warded the door and cast a Muffling Charm. "Did you want to hear about the time that I accidentally walked in on Katie and Angelina in the shower and joined in?"
"Did that really happen?" he asked, his voice strained as she started to cup him through his trousers.
"Does it matter?"
He shook his head. "Put on your old jersey, though."
"Whatever you'd like," she said seductively, finding it quickly and pulling it over her head. She sank to her knees and licked her lips as she unbuttoned his fly.
2 May, 2004
Ginny stared in the mirror as she finished getting ready for the Victory Ball.
This year, Madam dressed her in deep, dark garnet red, the color of the red wine she liked to drink when she and Severus went to Muggle pubs and restaurants around the city. The color set off her pale skin to perfection, and brought out the paler, blonder highlights in her hair. It was made of the same damask silk as last year, and if possible was cut even lower than her previous dress had been, the low sweetheart neck dipping low into the deep swell of her cleavage. A new chemise was underneath, and she hoped that this one would end up just as hopelessly torn from her body as the one did last year when they got carried away pretending …
She blushed, even though some days she was surprised that she was capable of it. The best thing about Severus is that he really had just as dirty of a mind as she did. She smirked in the mirror, looking very much like her lover, when she put the final couple of pins in her hair, which was gathered into a complicated design of braids and twists low on the base of her neck.
Her necklace, still present on her neck, shone in the soft candlelight of their bathroom. She rubbed the serpents, warming them with her bare fingers before placing the black opera length gloves on her arms once more.
He walked in behind her, looking dark and delicious in his dress robes, and kissed her shoulder as she applied a little lip gloss to her constantly red lips.
"Your father is going to kill you," he said as he ran his own gloved hand over her breasts until they just broke free from the fabric.
"I may really have to do a stasis charm this year," she said, panting as his hand dipped into the fabric to squeeze gently. "Stop that, or we'll never make it to the Ball."
"I could think of more fun things to do than meeting to old stodges at the Ministry," he said as he withdrew his hand reluctantly.
"I'd like to actually finish that waltz this year." She met his eyes in the mirror and smiled as she straightened her dress back to where it was (almost) decent again.
"And maybe a tango," he whispered lowly, reminding her of the time she pulled him to the seductive dance when they were walking through Diagon Alley.
"I'll have Angelina put in a request," she said, biting her lip.
"I love you, Ginny," he said, more seriously now.
"I know you do, Severus. I love you too," she said, turning around to face him.
"No, Ginny – I mean. Oh, fuck it," he said, dropping down to one knee.
Holy fucking Morgana.
"I've had this night planned out for months, and I wanted to do it when we came back home, but I don't want to wait anymore. I want everyone know that this is for life. I want you to know it too," he said, taking a box out of his pocket.
"I know it's for life, Severus. I'm … oh, dammit, I'm bound to you, you sentimental old man."
"I know you know. But, I can't help it if I want to give you everything. Marriage, children if you want them, a home in the Cotswolds if it makes you happy. And a ring to make things … official."
He opened the box and showed her a ring that had nothing to do with House affiliations. It was a large, oval tanzanite set in platinum. He slid it onto her gloved hand and seemed to relax when it fit snuggly.
"Holy shit," she said.
"Ginny," he said, laughing as he took her hand in his and kissed it.
"Sorry, Severus – yes of course I'll marry you," she cried, dragging him up to his feet and snogging him rotten. "You didn't have to … oh, hell, never mind. I love it," she said, eyeing her hand as she pressed her lips against his.
"Hopefully it will calm your mind a little," he laughed when they broke apart.
"What will?"
"The stone – it's said they calm the mind and bring peace to your heart," he said, looking a little shy.
"I think that's … pretty apt actually," she said, looking down at the violet blue stone again. Then, a little lightbulb went off in her head, and she brought her hand to her neck. "This didn't mean what everyone thought it did, did it?" she asked suspiciously.
He tried to look innocent but failed miserable. "No," he admitted.
"Talk, my sneaky Slytherin," she said.
He touched the necklace thoughtfully, tracing the braided serpents around her neck until his hand rested just above her cleavage. He sighed happily before he began to speak.
"The serpent," he said, sounding very much like the old Potion's Master she once loved to hate, "is actually symbol of protection, which you would have known if you'd paid more attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts, young lady."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Thanks sir, I guess I was too busy helping Harry, Ron, and Hermione save the world that day. What about the 'S'?"
He hesitated before he answered. "It's Turkish. Sevgili," he said carefully, the foreign word gliding off of his slippery tongue like the silk of their sheets.
"Which means what?" she asked, her breath catching in her throat as she finished.
"Beloved."
Shameless
A/N: I just hate not being able to follow directions. I hope you liked it, NinaSays. I had a blast doing it. I may ask you for prompts again sometime, if you don't mind.