Harry was sprawled across the couch in the Weasley's sitting room trying to concentrate on the Auror handbooks Kingsley had given him. He had promised to study them so he'd know all the rules and protocol before breaking them on his next mission. Unfortunately the red head sitting across the room in a large squashy armchair was doing a better job of drawing his attention than the handbooks. Harry watched as Ginny sat knitting. She was working on a pair of silvery blue socks patterned with fleur de lis for Fleur. Apparently the pattern was complex because she kept muttering and scowling down at the sock currently on her needles. A hank of her fiery hair fell into her face and her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth. Harry smirked and turned his attention back to his book. As the only two people in the house besides Mr. and Mrs. Weasley it was much harder to sneak away and fool around than it had been when everyone was home. Harry had returned home from his mission early this morning and since breakfast Mrs. Weasley had caught them on three different occasions. They were trying to be good now, sitting in plain sight, working on their own projects to show Molly that they weren't constantly all over each other as she'd accused them upon their last run in with her. Ginny had been furious and told her Mother, "He's been away for nearly a week, what do you expect?"
"I expect the two of you to act respectfully and keep level heads about you. I know you are in love but that doesn't mean you can't keep your hands and lips to yourselves once in a while," Molly scolded.
Ginny smirked and muttered just loudly enough for Harry to hear, "She should be glad she caught us instead of Ron and Hermione they don't keep any of their body parts to themselves."
Harry was disgusted by the mental image her words produced, he shook his head as if to erase the image before asking, "Have you heard from Ron and Hermione since they left? Everything going okay?"
"They made it to Australia fine," Ginny said, "Ron was air sick most of the flight over but they survived. Last we heard they are still in Sydney trying to track her parents down. They are visiting dentist offices all over the city trying to find them."
"How long since they wrote?" Harry asked.
"Couple days," Ginny said distractedly as she studied the pattern again and muttered, "That can't be right."
Harry went back to his book and only made it through a couple sentences before saying, "What would you think about us going out on an actual date sometime?"
Ginny looked up from her work and asked, "Why?"
"It might be nice someday to tell our children and grandchildren about our dating when they ask. I would like for our stories to be about more than me moving into your house after the war because I had no where else to go and getting caught making out all over the house by your Mum," Harry explained.
Ginny giggled and said, "Have you ever taken a girl out on a proper date?"
"No, the closest I came was taking Pavarti to the Yule Ball or Luna to Slughorn's Christmas party…oh and I took Cho to Hogsmeade once while we were dating," Harry said, "I'm not sure any of those qualifies as a proper date."
Ginny's eyes narrowed at the mention of Cho's name but brushed it off and asked, "What does a proper date consist of?"
"I'm not sure, I was hoping that you knew," Harry confessed, "I only know what muggles consider a proper date to be."
"Which is," Ginny prompted.
"Usually dinner followed by some activity like seeing a movie or a play or dancing or bowling…" Harry trailed off, "Something like that."
"What on earth is bowling?" Ginny asked.
"A muggle sport," Harry said with a grin, "You throw this great heavy ball at ten wooden pins to try and knock them all down."
"Sounds mental," Ginny snickered, "But in a fun way."
"I've always wanted to try bowling," Harry confessed with a grin.
"So, dinner and bowling," Ginny mused, "You'll need to ask me of course."
"I thought that's what I was doing," Harry said.
"You asked what I thought…like hypothetically," Ginny reminded him, "If this is to be a proper date I think you should at least go to the trouble of asking me."
Harry sat up on the couch, abandoning his handbooks and crossed over to the chair where Ginny was sitting, "Miss Weasley," he began in the sincerest tone he could muster as he took her hand in his own, "I wondered if you'd do me the great honor of going out on a date with me tomorrow evening?"
Ginny snickered and said, "Why not tonight?"
"Your Mum informed me earlier that she is making all my favorites tonight for dinner, it would be rude to make other plans," Harry said.
"Ah, well in that case, yes, I would gladly agree to a date with you tomorrow evening," Ginny said, "Pick me up in the kitchen around seven?"
"Perfect," Harry said as he dropped a kiss on back of her hand.
Ginny pulled on his hand drawing him close enough to brush her lips against his. He felt his desire for her flare and deepened the kiss. Naturally Mrs. Weasley chose that moment to appear with a basket of laundry perched on her hip to fold. She cleared her throat loudly alerting them of her presence. She rolled her eyes and proceeded into the kitchen.
Harry retreated to the couch and his handbooks and Ginny, with a sour expression, went back to her knitting. Surreptitiously Harry watched Ginny mutter and grumble as she worked. Knowing that if they didn't succeed in getting some serious time alone without Mrs. Weasley's interruptions soon Ginny was going to go on a real rant. Harry had an idea; he pulled the dog tags from beneath his shirt and manipulated the letters to read, "How about an informal date tonight….flying, after your Mum and Dad go to bed?"
Harry watched as across the room Ginny pulled her dog tags from beneath her shirt and after reading them grinned over at him. She pulled out her own wand and manipulated the letters before sending him a message back, "YES! I will send you a signal using these tonight when the coast is clear."
Harry and Ginny remained in the sitting room until dinner time working on their projects. When Molly called that dinner was nearly ready he rose quickly and hurried to the bathroom before the meal. As he returned to the dining room he could hear Arthur and Molly talking quietly.
"I'll be Ginny is happy to have Harry back in the house," Arthur commented.
"I'll say," Molly said with a snort of laughter, "I've caught them snogging on four different occasions today."
"Don't go too hard on them, remember what we were like back when we were their age," Arthur scolded.
"Oh I'm not," Molly said, "I act stern and disapproving but really I think it is sweet. I just don't want them to get too carried away."
Harry smiled to himself as he purposely approached the kitchen loudly, announcing his presence. Dinner was marvelous, as Molly had promised she'd prepared as his favorites in honor of his return home from his first mission, including Treacle Tart. He had second helpings of everything before helping Ginny with the dishes. As she washed and he dried he whispered, "I have a secret for you tonight."
After the dishes were finished they returned to the sitting room where Ginny and Molly sat knitting and Arthur was studying a muggle car manual. Harry pretended to study his handbooks but he was really focusing on the slow moving of the clock's hands. It seemed as if the time that Arthur and Molly normally retired to bed would never come. Occasionally his and Ginny's eyes would meet across the room and she'd grimace or roll her eyes indicating that she too could not fathom how slowly the time was moving. Harry would be glad to have Ron and Hermione back at the Burrow to take some of the scrutiny, even if it was only for appearances, off of him and Ginny.
Finally, a half an hour later than they typically went up to bed Molly yawned loudly and after a glance at the clock said, "Oh dear, is that really the time? Arthur, time for bed." Harry could have sworn that he saw a mischievous glint in Molly's eyes as she said to him and Ginny, "Now you two don't stay up too late." He was almost sure that she had delayed their bed time on purpose knowing that they had plans to sneak off on their own.
Harry and Ginny sat silently concentrating on their own activities until they heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's bedroom door close.
"Should we go through the trouble of making it appear that we're heading off to bed?" Ginny whispered.
"Nah," Harry said, "We don't fool your Mum for a minute and even if we did she doesn't mind." Ginny shot him a questioning look and he continued, "That's my secret. I overhead your parents talking about us earlier and your Mum told your Dad that while she acted all stern she actually thinks we're very sweet."
"Seriously?" Ginny asked.
"That's what she said," Harry said, "She doesn't want us to get carried away but thought it rather sweet that she caught us so many times today."
Ginny smiled happily before saying, "So, flying?"
"Yes," Harry said excitedly dropping his handbooks onto the couch.
Out in the shed they debated on one broom or two. Since this was really an excuse to get away from the Burrow to have some private time together one broom made more sense but there was something about chasing Ginny around on a broomstick that made Harry insist upon two.
"Have you ever played tag?" Harry asked as they pushed off into the sky.
"What's that a muggle game?" Ginny said.
"Yeah, but muggles can't fly so they just run. One person is it and they have to try catch and tag the others, then they are it," Harry explained.
"Hmmmmm," Ginny said, "Sounds fun, you're it." With that she bent low over her broom handle putting on an extra bit of speed.
Harry shook his head with a grin, as he watched her streak away from him. He bent low over his broom handle too and gave chase. While her broom was no match for his speed-wise she had lots of tricks up her sleeve. Every time he thought he'd caught her she'd dive, loop or barrel roll away from his touch. It took him nearly half an hour to catch her the first time. He'd finally had to resort to some tricks of his own. He'd dipped lower in the sky so that he could camouflage himself in the trees. When she lost track of him and slowed in the sky to look for him he'd sped out from beneath and behind her and touched his hand to her hip. "You're it," he called confidently as he speed away.
It only took her twenty minutes to catch him the first time, despite the outright speed he was employing to keep away from her. Surprisingly she had more stealth than he did and when he realized he'd lost track of her he knew he was in trouble. She caught up with him from behind and tagged his shoulder.
They played for nearly an hour and a half before becoming bored with it and deciding that their need to be touching was more important. Ginny led Harry down to the banks of the lazily flowing river near the Burrow.
"That was a good work out," Harry said.
"Yeah and our flying got more precise the longer we played, that was why we could catch each other faster every time," Ginny said, "Maybe playing tag would be a good drill for Quidditch practice sometime."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "Something fun but beneficial."
"Exactly," Ginny said. She pulled at the neckline of her shirt and said, "I'm a sweaty mess though."
"Me too," Harry said wiping the sweat off his brow.
"We could go swimming," Ginny suggested, pointing to the river.
Harry looked at the river with longing; the cool water would feel heavenly right now on his sweat sticky body. "I don't have a suit," Harry said.
"So, go in your underwear," Ginny said, 'That's what I'm going to do." As Harry pulled his eyes from the glinting river he noticed that Ginny was half way stripped down to her bra and underwear. He admired her taut body as she shucked off her jeans and left them in a pile with her tank top and sneakers.
"Harry," Ginny said, "Coming?" Harry stood quickly and stripped down to his boxers and left his glasses on top of his clothing.
Together they moved to the edge of the river. "How cold do you think it is?" Harry asked.
"Don't think, just jump," Ginny commanded. He watched her red head disappear under the surface of the slowly moving water. Hesitating only a second longer he drew in a breath and jumped too. While the water was cold enough to be shocking, he had been right, it felt absolutely heavenly to feel the cool water envelope him in its depths. When his head broke the surface and he drew in a deep breath he swiveled to look for Ginny. His heart clenched in fear for a moment before she broke the surface beside him. Relief flooded him as they grinned at one another.
For a bit they just treaded water in the middle the river, letting the cool water work its magic. Eventually Ginny swam toward a shallower spot near the bank and Harry followed. When each had firm footing on the sandy bottom of the river their arms wound around one another and their mouths crushed together. They kissed with the abandon they had not dared to all day for fear that Molly's eagle eyes would catch them. Harry's mouth moved to Ginny's neck and collar bone as her hands roamed his chest in the silky water. His hands moved between her belly, hips and back as his mouth continued its work at her neck. Ginny made quiet noises of pleasure at his efforts and moved her mouth to his chest, softly kissing and biting her way across his collar bone. He moved his hands up her stomach to cup her breasts; through the wet material of her bra he could feel the hardness of her erect nipples. While he ached to touch her further he knew it would only complicate things. Sensing that Harry was hesitating she pulled away and asked, "What?"
"No further tonight," Harry said.
Ginny frowned and asked, "You said soon."
"I know," Harry groaned, "But I've had second thought since then."
"Why?" Ginny demanded, clearly irritated.
"If we continue to…er… explore at the rate we are now there will be nothing left by the time we go back to school and I think it would be better if we've not gotten that far by then," Harry said.
"What? Why?" Ginny said.
"Think about it, I imagine that once we've gone that far it will be hard to resist doing it over and over again. Can you think of many good places at Hogwarts to do that?" Harry said.
"Not without running the risk of getting caught," Ginny said, finally understanding.
"Exactly," Harry said, "Do you want to get caught doing that?"
Ginny shivered and said, "Imagine getting caught by a teacher. They'd send a letter home to Mum and Dad…"
"Exactly," Harry repeated, "So, as much as I want you and long to experience every part of you, I think we should wait."
"Wait until when?" Ginny asked.
"I don't know," Harry said, "What do you think?"
"I do think it would be very romantic to wait until our wedding night," Ginny said softly, "But once we get started it is easy for me to lose sight of that."
"Me too," Harry said, "Can we wait that long?"
"Let's try," Ginny said. Harry nodded and kissed her. She pulled away and added, "It might mean that we need to get married as soon as school is out though." Harry laughed and pulled her into his arms. He could imagine nothing he'd like more than to marry Ginny as soon as reasonably possible.
The next evening at seven Harry and Ginny met down in the kitchen. He was wearing black jeans and a sage green polo shirt. In his fist were clenched a bouquet of pink lilies that he'd conjured up in his room. Ginny was wearing a black knee-length sun dress with pink flowers along the hem. He handed her the bouquet with a chaste kiss on the cheek. She blushed accepting them as Molly cooed over how sweet they were. She went as far as taking out the camera and snapping a few shots of them together before they left on their first proper date. Molly took the lilies from Ginny and put them into a vase of water on the kitchen table. "Don't be out too late now, dears," Molly said as they went out into the yard to apparate into London.
Harry had done a little research and decided to take Ginny to an Italian restaurant in London called Biagio's. He wrapped his arms around her and apparated them to a side street near the restaurant. They were seated at a good table by a window. In silence they scoured their menus and took in their comfortable surroundings. Once they had ordered their food they smiled across the table at each other almost nervously.
"This is nice," Ginny said.
"Yeah," Harry agreed.
"Why are we nervous?" Ginny asked, "We went swimming together last night in our knickers, but having dinner tonight is make us nervous?"
"We just need to be ourselves," Harry said, "We're putting too much pressure on tonight being our first proper date. Tonight doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be fun. Right?"
"Right," Ginny agreed as she reached across the table to take his hand.
"Were you serious about getting married next summer?" Harry asked.
"Well, we'll both be out of school. I'll be almost 18 and you'll be almost 19. I imagine that next summer after school is over you'll get your own place instead of moving back into Mum and Dad's house, so we won't be in the same place anymore," Ginny explained, "I imagine that I won't want to wait long to be able to move in with you and my Mum would be so disappointed if I moved in with a boy before I married him."
"You've given this some thought," Harry said with a chuckle.
"Well, deciding to get married is a big decision," Ginny said.
"And you're sure that I'm the one?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Ginny said simply.
"Care to expand on that at all?" Harry said.
"Harry, I can't imagine my life without you. I would go anywhere or do anything if I knew that I'd be with you," Ginny said, "The things that we have already experienced in our lives made us grow up fast. I know what I want."
"What about what you want to do after school," Harry asked, "Like as a career?"
"Are you trying to wriggle out of marrying me?" Ginny asked.
"No, not at all. There is nothing more that I want to do than marry you as soon as possible when school is out, I just want to make sure that is really what you want too," Harry said.
"I can be a Quidditch player or a healer or a dragon slayer or whatever and still be your wife," Ginny insisted, "Right?"
"Of course," Harry said, "I just want you to explore all your opportunities and not settle for marrying me because it sounds like a good idea now."
"I could say the same thing to you," Ginny said, turning the tables, "You are the youngest Auror the Ministry has ever employed. You are on your way to big things. Are you sure you want to tie yourself down with a wife as soon as school ends? Just think of the amazing women someone like you could get."
"Please," Harry scoffed, "No one could ever measure up to you. You understand me and love me for me, not because of who I am or what I've accomplished in my life. You are my family, my home, my life."
"Why can't you accept that I might feel the same way about you?" Ginny asked.
Harry kissed the back of her hand before saying, "Because when I look at you I wonder what I did to deserve someone as great as you."
Ginny blushed and said softly, "Me too."
Their food arrived and all discussion of getting married was dropped. As they ate in companionable quiet for a few minutes Harry did wonder how soon he should propose to Ginny to give Molly enough time to plan a June wedding. He also wondered how rare it was for students to get engaged while still in school. The food was amazing and they sampled each other's entrees. After the meal Harry ordered a slice of decadent chocolate cake with two forks. They savored it and took turns feeding each other bites.
"Oh my gosh, this is so good," Ginny said around a bite of cake.
"I know," Harry said, "I could eat this cake everyday, for every meal."
It was so good that when the first piece was gone they ordered another. Feeling full to bursting Harry paid the bill and led Ginny down the sidewalk.
"So bowling?" Ginny asked.
"Actually, I thought we might go see a movie instead," Harry said, "Classically dinner and a movie for the first date; bowling is more a second date kind of thing. We need to impress each other this time…we can embarrass ourselves bowling in front of each other on our next date."
"Afraid I won't be interested in you anymore after I've seen you bowl?" Ginny asked with a chuckle.
"Yeah," Harry said jokingly, "I've never bowled before, I might be terrible at it. No, actually I found out that there is a movie theater just down the street that shows old movies and thought that sounded perfect for tonight."
"Sounds good," Ginny agreed with a happy smile. It didn't matter to her what Harry decided they should do, as she had explained to him earlier she just wanted to be with him.
They walked to the theater and were greeted with the choice of three old movies: Roman Holiday, Casablanca or Gone With the Wind. Harry let Ginny choose and without benefit of any knowledge about what any of the movies plots were she choose Casablanca. Harry purchased the tickets and a large tub of popcorn when they entered the lobby. When they were seated Ginny asked, "Have you ever been to a movie?"
"I saw them on television at the Dursley's all the time," Harry said, "But only once in a theater like this. See Aunt Marge came for a visit and wanted to take the family out to see a movie but they couldn't find anyone to take me for the evening and they didn't trust me in the house alone so I got to go too." Ginny frowned at him like she often did when he shared stories of his childhood with her, admittedly his childhood had been much more depressing than most. "What about you?"
"No, I've heard of them from Dad of course, but never seen one," Ginny said, "I did see a TV in a store window once in London, but Mum wouldn't stay there long enough for me to watch it for long."
They continued talking until the theater lights dimmed and the screen in front of them flickered to life. Harry watched Ginny; her eyes alight with excitement as she watched the screen. He loved sharing new things with her. About half way through the movie Ginny leaned toward him, kissed him on the cheek and said, "This is amazing, thank you."
When the movie ended they apparated back to the Burrow and lie together on a blanket in the back garden staring up at the stars overhead. They discussed the movie and what parts was their favorite.
"That was the best date ever," Ginny said.
"How can you be sure, wasn't that your first real date?" Harry asked.
"Yes, but it really was perfect. I had a wonderful time," Ginny said.
"So we can do it again soon?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Ginny said, "I really want to see you bowl," she teased.
"Okay," Harry said, "Just let me know when you're free."
"You know what would be fun?" Ginny said, "When Ron and Hermione get home maybe we could go on a double date with them."
"Yeah," Harry said, "We could try that sometime."
"You don't think it would be fun?" Ginny asked.
"Sure," Harry agreed, "I just like my alone time with you."
"I'm not saying every time, but we could try it once," Ginny persisted.
"You're right, that would be fun," Harry said.
Harry and Ginny lay on the blanket watching the stars and talking about everything they could think of until the sky started to glow lighter. "We'd better get to bed before your Mum realizes we've been out here all night talking," Harry said.
"I'm sure she'd be happy that we were just talking, we could have been doing other things all night long," Ginny said.
"True," Harry agreed, as he helped her up off the ground he continued, "Let me walk you to your room."
In the kitchen they took off their shoes and tiptoed up to Ginny's landing. Harry pulled Ginny into his arms and kissed the top of her head, "I love you, Gin," he whispered.
"I love you too, Harry," she whispered back before she gently kissed him.
"Good-night," Harry said as he released her and headed up to the attic.
"Sweet dreams," she called after him as she closed the door behind him.
Harry knew that he would have nothing by sweet dreams about their future.
Ginny changed into her pajamas and settled on her bed to write about their first date in her journal. It was a night she never wanted to forget. She smiled as she noticed that the vase of lilies had been left on her bedside table for her. She never would have imagined that things could feel so perfect.
Author's Note: I needed to write a really fluffy chapter after the two mission chapters that I struggled with. I hope everyone enjoyed. If you have date ideas for Harry and Ginny or a double date idea let me know. The pace will probably start to pick up…I will do their birthdays, school shopping, another mission (probably from Ginny's POV) and then back to school. Let me know how I'm doing and if you have suggestions please let me know. Thanks for reading!