Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

"Tell me it's over,

Love, is it over now?

Tell me it's over,

Please."

Kina Grannis - Winter

Hermione shivered when she felt Harry's hands trying to take off her bra. Nevertheless, she continued to kiss him back, amazed and confused at the same time. It was her best friend who was here, it was her best friend who was caressing her body with ease, like he had done it during all his life. She buried her hands into his black hair and couldn't help but moan against his mouth, overwhelmed by every little thing that he was doing to her.

When Harry finally managed to untie her bra, Hermione froze, not knowing what to do. Her lover moved his hands to her shoulders in order to remove entirely the last piece of clothing that was preventing him from looking at her breast, but suddenly, Hermione put her hands onto his to stop him.

Harry broke the kiss, slightly frowning. His green eyes were asking her a silent question, and Hermione shamelessly tied her bra back, shaking her head at the same time.

"Is something wrong?," Harry asked in a murmur, visibly concerned by her reaction.

"No," she retorted quickly. "No, everything is fine," she said while putting her t-shirt back.

"Everything is fine, really?"

"I just didn't expect us to go this far so soon," she admitted, looking up at him to see what his reaction to this confession would be. She was disappointed when she saw him smile a little.

"And do you think that I came here just in order to shag your brain out?," Harry let out in a chuckle, making Hermione blush.

"Of course not," she swiftly answered. "But... But I don't think that I'm ready yet for this kind of things," she finished, her cheeks red.

Harry nodded and didn't say anything back before a long moment.

"It's weird, isn't it?" he eventually asked, with no sign of amusement into his green eyes.

Hermione immediately understood what he was talking about.

"Yes, it is," she sighed. "I mean... I know you since so long, and I would never have thought about us like that. Moreover, you cannot say that the circumstances are optimal."

"They are not. And I would totally understand if you'd prefer to wait until I talk to Ginny before taking our relationship to another level, Hermione. I am not a teenager anymore, I think that I can keep my hormones under control for a week or so," Harry concluded with a grin.

Hermione smiled back, relieved to see that Harry was comprehensive about it. He had always been like that toward her, she realised. Of course, from time to time, he didn't understand her reticences about things, but even if he didn't understand, he was respectful about her decisions, and it was the most important thing to her eyes.

When he left her flat that evening with a last and chaste kiss, Hermione closed the door behind him with the most amazing feeling at the bottom of her heart: for once, she felt loved, and, even if she knew that this relationship would be made of ups and downs, she knew that Harry and her could face everything together.

XxX

"Hello?" Hermione quickly said right after picking up the phone, her left high-heeled shoe into her hand.

"Hermione? It's me, Harry," a low voice answered her.

"No, I won't be late," she sighed. I'm sorry, I admit that I spent quite some time in the bathr–"

They were supposed to have dinner together at a charming place that Harry had found earlier in the week in the heart of London, and Hermione was stressed about it. It was the first time that she had the opportunity to see him alone since their last encounter at her own flat a week earlier, and she had even asked to her boss to leave one hour earlier today in order not to be late. But she wasn't late yet, so why was Harry calling?

"No, don't worry about that," he gently cut her off, and Hermione noticed the embarrassment in his voice. "I'm the one who should be sorry to be honest. I hate to cancel things – especially when it comes to you –, but I won't be able to have dinner with you tonight."

Hermione put her shoe down, and swallowed hard to make this ball in her throat disappear.

"Oh," she muttered, doing her best to hide her disappointment through the phone. "It's fine."

"No, it's not, and I'm sorry," Harry insisted. "There's been a slight hitch."

Hermione sat on the sofa, frowning.

"What kind of hitch?"

"Ginny is about to come home. Tonight."

She quickly counted into her head: Ginny was supposed to come back from Ireland on Friday night, not Thursday.

"She managed to leave one day earlier," Harry explained, not letting her the time to ask the question that was burning her lips.

"Alright," Hermione said automatically. She wanted to ask him what he was about to say to his wife, but she didn't have the guts to do it. "Alright," she repeated in a weak voice, "I'll talk to you later then."

"No, don't hang up so fast. I just want you to know that nothing have changed between us, okay?"

She nodded, before realising that Harry couldn't see her from where he was. "Yes, I know. Good luck for this weekend. I'm here if you need me."

"Thank you. James have asked me to send you a kiss, so..."

"You liar," Hermione smiled. "But I take the kiss and I send one back to James; to him only," she specified.

"What a lucky little boy," Harry chuckled, and for one moment, he seemed to forget about the fact that he was about to have one hell of a discussion in a few moments. "Good evening, Hermione."

"Good evening, Harry."

XxX

He had prepared everything for Ginny's arrival. James had taken a bath earlier, and he had already eaten too. His son was currently on the sofa, a few toys spread in front of him, and Harry was anxiously looking at the fireplace in front of them. Ginny would be here in a minute or two, and he was thinking about everything that he needed to say to her and how he needed to handle things. It promised to be a crazy night, and Harry was relieved to know that it was quite late: this way, he would be able to put James into his bedroom soon.

When the fire turned green, harry held his breath; a second later, Ginny was in front of him, a heavy suitcase into her right hand, her red hair falling freely onto her shoulders. She was smiling, and she immediately jumped into Harry's arms right after letting her suitcase fall at her feet, giving him no time to say anything. Her lips entered in contact with his, and she had to force the entrance of his mouth before he gave up.

"I missed you," she breathed against his lips when she eventually let go of him. "And I missed you too, Jamie," she said with a wide smile before taking James into her arms. "Mum missed you so much my little darling," she mused next to his ear while James started to play with her hair.

"Old habits die hard," Ginny laughed before freeing her hair from her son's little fist.

"Have you already eaten?," Harry asked, his hands buried into his trousers' pockets.

"Yes," she answered with a smile. "Which is a good thing, because we have a lot of things to talk about."

Harry simply nodded in answer, and he let James play with her until it was nine o'clock. Ginny put him into his crib, and when she came back into the living room, the smile that she had when she was playing with James was a memory.

"Do you want something to drink?" Harry asked, not knowing how to start this conversation.

"I'm at home, Harry, you don't have to ask me if I want to drink something."

"Sure. I'm sorry, it's just that I haven't seen you since a long time, and..."

"And you think that acting like I was a stranger is a good idea," she cut him off, before sitting on the sofa, right next to him. "You didn't even properly answer to my kiss," she sighed.

"What did you think would happen? You cannot come home and pretend like nothing happened."

"As far as I am concerned, it was what you were doing when you came back from your Auror's missions."

"For Merlin's sake..."

"I know," she interrupted him again while rolling her eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. It's just... You didn't even answer to most of my letters, Harry. What am I supposed to think about our relationship? About what you are feeling toward me?"

Harry hadn't thought that this moment would happen that soon in the night. They were supposed to talk casually during quite some time, he was supposed to ask her about her training, to be nice to her. But now, Ginny was the one who was asking these things to him, she was the one who was acting like she was the victim of this situation, and he was sick of seeing her eyes full of sadness, he was tired of everything about her.

"Are you serious?," he asked in a low voice, trying to contain himself. "These two questions, these two fucking questions are the ones that I've asked myself during three long months. I questioned myself about our so-called relationship, I wondered what your feeling toward me were made of. Pride? Love? To be honest, Ginny, I still don't have the answer to this question."

She raised a surprise eyebrow, offended by what he was telling her.

"Come on, Harry, it happened three months ago. Alright, I did something wrong when I didn't tell you first about my departure, but I didn't know that it would happen before you left for your missio–"

"Please, don't lie in front of my face, not now. We both know that you have to audition around February to have the chance to be enrolled for a Quidditch training," Harry spat.

"And so what?," she shouted out. "Now, you are going to ask me to tell you everything that I plan to do?"

"When it has an impact on our lives, on our son's life, yes, it is the least that you can do."

Ginny didn't answer right away, but she eventually sighed.

"Alright, I get it: you are pissed because I made something without telling you first. Now, can we just forget about it and think about the future?," she asked, moving on the sofa to be closer to him.

"You don't get it. I don't want to go through this situation again, Ginny. You did it again when you accepted this three-years contract with the Harpies; you didn't think about me, or James. You didn't even take some time to call me during this period, you were just waiting for me to send you a letter while you were the one who had all the informations. You just want things to be like you want them to be, without even thinking that maybe – just maybe – I can't do everything that you want me to do."

"So you can leave for three months and come home without any consequences and I can't?," Ginny asked, fuming.

"This isn't about me. You knew that this period of travelling wouldn't last long. As you may know, I've even stopped working to be with James. So yes, if it was a problem for you, you just had to ask and I would have quit, or at least stop travelling for my job. But you didn't do anything because you were happy to live with a famous Auror, weren't you?"

"What's the problem with that? Of course, I was happy, because you seemed to be fucking happy! Because you were well-known in the Wizarding World, and it shone all over our family. And now you are just pissed because I can be as famous as you, is that your problem?"

Harry ran a tired hand all over his face.

"You still don't get it," he sighed. "You are the one who asked about my feelings about you, when you obviously don't love me for what I am, Ginny."

He saw her swallow hard, and he realised that she was finally understanding what he was about to say. Her hands were shacking, and she started to shake her head in denial.

"No, no," she mumbled. "You can't do this to me. We have James, we are a family, Harry, just think about it..."

"I had plenty of time to think about it, Ginny. You can have everything, the house, half of my fortune, I don't care anymore. I just can't pretend to be the happy family that you think we are."

A silence settled between them, and eventually, Ginny whispered something, and Harry had to prick up his ears to understand it.

"Are – are you breaking up with me?"

Thinking about something as painful as this was one thing; saying it out loud was another, and Harry just managed to nod in the first place. After a few moments, he finally confirmed Ginny's worst fear.

"Yes," he muttered. "Yes, I'm breaking up with you."

It was quite weird for me to write this chapter: I realised that, so far, this story - and especially Ginny and Harry's relationship - was a reflection of my own life. Unconsciously, I think that I wanted to put on paper what I really thought about these people who think on their own, who take such a heartbreaking decision alone when, obviously, you are two in a relationship. But oh well, so far, I am still with this damn boy, so... I can only blame myself here.

Anyway, thank you SO MUCH for your reviews on last chapter. I was thinking that it would take a couple of chapters to reach the 150 reviews' mark, but hey, you are more amazing that I thought.

Can we go to 200 reviews now? Haha, just kidding. Just know that I love to hear from you, and it always makes my day. Seriously, I smile from one ear to the other when I read your reviews and your opinions about this story. Some of you were concerned about how fast Harry and Hermione's relationship was, I hope that you are all satisfied now. :)

Thank you for all the love that you send me.