INTERLUDE:Ginerva Molly Weasley
Random Restaurant
London, England
Seven Hours after Diagon Alley Slaughter
"This is what you call a date?" Ginny's voice was incredulous as they both sat at a table, waiting for the waiter to bring their food after ordering.
"It's what most people call a date," Harry shrugged, looking a bit less confident than normal. "Dinner, talking, strolling I believe it used to be called. No movies playing that are really worth seeing. No shows that I have tickets to. If you really want, suppose I could take you on the Ferris Wheel..." Seeing her eyes light up, Harry mapped out the rest of their evening, regaining some of his confidence.
"Why do you look so nervous?" she asked him after a minute of silence. "If anyone, I'm the one that should be feeling nervous! Look at me! I'm hardly dressed appropriately for an outing, let along going on a date with the Hero of the Magical world."
Harry chuckled, grinned at her and said, "You look fine. Besides, this isn't that kind of restaurant, and jeans and a sweater are sort of the Weasley's style. If it helps you any, just take a look at me, or any of the rest of the customers sitting around here."
Ginny graciously took his offer, looking her boyfriend up and down, almost licking her lips as she said, "Oh yes, you're completely mundane with tight navy blue denims, tight muscle shirt underneath a black silk dress shirt that looks like it was painted on and brings out the color of your eyes. Now I don't feel frumpy at all," she grumbled.
Harry laughed, shaking his head.
"Y'know, I never realized," he started to say.
"What?" she asked.
"How much of my life, all my lives really, that I never really got to have a childhood," he told her. At her shocked look, he continued, "Oh, don't get me wrong or anything like that. For one childhood I got to live like a slave with the Dursley's, only getting enough food to eat to survive, sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs, doing all the chores and menial house-cleaning tasks that a maid would have to do from the age of two and up. Constantly getting yelled at and called a freak and berated and Vernon was never really lenient with physical punishments until I was five years old and strange stuff always seemed to happen whenever he was about to hit me."
"Then, in another lifetime," Harry paused to take a sip of water, "I was an orphan boy dropped on the steps of what equated to a monastery and was in a world where instead of having to worry about things like late homework or not paying the bills on time, the concerns were more involved with possible wars, pirate attacks, and surviving from day to day. Then they found out I had magic and I started studying very early on. I was a fully acredited mage before I was 11."
"So, not much of a childhood, or a normal life," he concluded. "Which is why this is so refreshing."
"This?" Ginny croaked, her throat tight with emotion.
"Being on a date with a beautiful girl, both of us insecure, worried about what the other thinks of us, and fretting over our own appearance and behavior. A perfectly normal date," he laughed, this time she joined in.
"So what else happens on a perfectly normal date?" she asked him with a Twins-inspired smirk.
"Let's find out together, shall we?" he offered. She smiled and nodded. "Let's," she accepted.
Ferris Wheel London Eye
Riverfront, London
1 Hour Later
"This. Is. Amazing!" Ginny exclaimed as she stared out of the window.
"I know," Harry agreed, looking back and forth between the view and the expression on his girlfriend's face. At the moment, as part of their First Date, they decided to go up in the giant ferris wheel, something Harry had seen only a few times before in his life, but always from a distance. Ginny had never seen it period, what with the Wizarding World being so isolated from the rest of the world.
At the moment, thanks to Harry having, discreetly, made a sizable withdrawal from his account in Gringotts, not to mention sold a single galleon as some kind of old Spanish medal he found on the beach somewhere to a goldsmith for quite a bit of cash, they were able to rent an entire car on the ride all to themselves. It wasn't thrilling or adrenaline-packed and it certainly wasn't Quidditch, but there was just something about seeing the city from on high and the altitude that was exhilarating in its own way. Plus, having the car all to themselves was kind of romantic.
After a few minutes of just watching the city go by under them and all the twinkling lights, Ginny moved from the window closer to Harry, who automatically wrapped her up in his arms. It was comforting, for both of them really. Harry, well all of the Harry's were just a bit chauvinistic and wanted to be the protector and provider in the relationship. Half of that was growing up watching Vernon Dursley preach on and on and on and on and on and ON about all that strong men, alpha male garbage that he tried to shove down Dudley's throat growing up, but at the same time, he saw how Petunia Dursley was naturally submissive and seemed to support Vernon's preaching with silent approval. The other half of it was just simply Harry's nature. He was an alpha male by genetics, even if his environment had worked to beat that out of him at every opportunity.
Ginny, on the same side of things, was raised as a witch in the Wizarding world, which is a few centuries behind the rest of human society, and likewise had it preached into her how women were supposed to be submissive to men and make themselves pretty to attract a husband so he can knock her up as quickly as possible, leaving her barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen popping out a baby a year, preferably sons.
On the other side of the coin, Harry Potter of Hogwarts had learned the hard way that all people deserve respect, women and men equally, while all the Harry Potter of Winding Circle literally grew up around strong women and knew they were just as capable, if not more so, as many of the "alpha males" preening themselves out in the world. In fact, Harry could not imagine finding a sycophantic fangirl baby-maker attractive in the slightest, quite the opposite really. He preferred his desired mate to be just as strong and capable as himself, impossible as that might sound at present, but there's no denying instincts. He still wanted to be the protector.
Likewise Ginny, who grew up with six older brothers and is the daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley, a wizard that breaks the mold by respecting all beings that deserve such respect, most especially muggles, and a witch that has a temper and will of fire to rival a dragon's flame, both of whom had gotten so used to raising boys, they didn't really change much in the way they raised her, except giving her her own room of course. In the normal world, Ginny would be called a tomboy, and probably ridiculed for it had she any female friends beyond Luna Lovegood growing up that is. Nevertheless, she was only just now discovering how nice it felt to be protected and loved and held. It reminded her of when her father held her after she'd had a nightmare and told her stories until she fell asleep. It also made her feel very feminine, and she liked that feeling.
"Harry," she whispered in his arms.
"Yeah?" he said softly in return.
"I'm having a really great time with you," she said. "I hope all our dates are like this."
"Well, see, that right there makes this infinitely better than my first date," he chuckled.
"With Cho?" she asked, feeling suddenly vulnerable and upset.
"Uh..." he rolled his eyes up in thought, "Actually, I had completely forgotten about that... that. Honestly, we passed... that... on the scale of dates back when dinner was first starting. Cho was... a mistake. One that I kind of regret... in that I ever went on the date in the first place."
Ginny smiled against his chest, feeling a whole lot better all of a sudden.
"No, I was referring to my first date that happened to my Battle Mage part. It was with this wood nymph, Cherry tree I believe, her name was Sakura." Harry continued.
She suddenly felt her heart sinking and getting heavier with every word. First date? Wood nymph?
"Yeah. Anyway, I had just finished a heavy day of training and she came along and asked me straight up if I wanted to provide her... entertainment. That's nymph-speak for a date, foreplay... pretty much everything preceding, and a few things following sex of any kind."
Her heart just reached the soles of her feet and her stomach felt like renting out and decided to move up to the vacated space in her chest, bringing dinner with it.
"So, I took her to a nearby village, got us both some food, then she took me on a small trip, walking over a rainbow if you can believe that. Sat and watched the stars for a while, talked, walked along a magical multi-colored bridge and nymphs pretty much go everywhere naked, so she most definitely had my attention."
Her heart shattered, stomach decided not to stay and turned to stone shortly before dropping back to where it belonged. Tears began to fill her eyes, but she didn't want Harry to see.
"Then we walked to the end of the rainbow and found ourselves on a beautiful crystal-sand beach, the waves and water the color of flame as the sun began to set along the horizon and the moons rose over the waters. Pictures would just take away from the reality of it and words can never hope to describe just how beautiful it was at that moment. Then, she took me to her tree, the leaves a deep penetrating green, while petals bloomed all over, a soft pink that was breathtaking to behold. And she plopped right there and pretty much threw herself at me."
Forget shattered, her heart was absolutely and forever destroyed! A silent sob almost escaped her lips, but she held it in through sheer force of will.
"I'd have to say this date, so far, tops that one by a full ten points, on the date scale of 1 to 100," Harry finally said to her, having been staring out at the cityscape the entire monologue.
Ginny blinked away her tears, confusion settling in to her emotion-rattled brain. "Huh?" she articulated.
He looked down into her brown eyes and smiled, and instantly her heart reformed and was beating a thousand beats per second, and she knew everything was all right. She couldn't explain it, it's just how she felt.
"That was a fun time, don't get me wrong. But nymphs are fickle creatures. She had fun, but she didn't really enjoy it the way I enjoyed it, most certainly. No intimacy, for starters. Plus, enjoyment is always better when it is shared, like with now." He kissed her forehead. "I've had fun on this date because it was with you, Ginny. Not because of the food we ate or where we went or even what we saw, what we're seeing," he gestured outwards at the window. "But because you were with me, and you were having fun and enjoying yourself. I also don't expect anything from you, in fact, I would appreciate it if you didn't try and throw yourself at me."
She giggled, blushing fiercely, but did not look away from his penetrating green stare.
"You're one of my best friends, Ginny," he told her. "And... I feel that you could become more. Not yet, but there is the potential. I care about you a great deal. Today proved that to me more than anything else. You almost died, and I almost let it happen."
"Harry—" she started to protest, but he put his finger over her lips.
"No," he quieted her, "I need to say this. I do love you. But, and I know you're going to hate me for saying this, but right now it's the same kind of love that I feel for Hermione. I... love you like a friend, like a sister. I do find you attractive, but at the same time, I'm not blind and Hermione is a year older..."
Frowning, she punched him in the arm, still in his embrace, and snapped at him, "Prat."
He chuckled and smirked, but didn't deny her accusation. "Anyway," he continued, "I cannot honestly say that I am in love with you. Yet. But I'm willing to find out some day."
She closed here eyes and leaned in against him, feeling his strong masculine body against her own.
Finally, she sighed and leaned back so she could look him in the eye once more.
"I suppose I should say now that I've loved you since I was a little girl, and that I will always love you like that," she said to him. "But to be perfectly honest, I can't say that. What I felt as a little girl is nothing compared to what I feel now, and it's not even sexual! When I'm in your arms like this, Harry, I feel like I'm in my father's arms."
Confused, he tilted his head at her and arched an eyebrow.
"Not like that, you idiot," she snorted, annoyed. "I meant that I feel safe, protected, like when Dad used to hold me after a nightmare and tell me stories. But I also feel a great deal of caring for you, and something else. Something so much... more than I can honestly handle at the moment. I can't really describe it. I never felt anything like this when I was little so I can't say that I loved you like this, because I don't really know what this is. But I know I like it. So... whatever this is, however long it takes for the both of us to figure it out... I'll wait. Because I want to find out some day too."
He smiled, and then leaned in and kissed her senseless. She smiled, then kissed him right back.
END INTERLUDE