The curtains rustled in on an eddy of summer air. A scratch as the glass window was slid upwards.
No, it was just a tree outside.
Wood creaked against its frame. A door's protest at opening.
No, it was just the house settling.
A floorboard groaned. Harry's eyes shot open and his hand unconsciously grabbed onto his wand hidden under the pillow. He swung his legs around so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed and with a quick glance over his shoulder, confirmed that Ginny was still asleep. Her hair was spread over the pillow, her face pressed against its fabric and her legs sprawled as if they were territorial of the mattress itself.
Harry's slight smile was interrupted by the definite sound of something gently closing. A cupboard? A door? Whatever it was, it sent his heart pounding against his chest. He slipped out of the bedroom, careful not to fully close the door so as to avoid making any noise himself.
Upon first inspection, the hallway appeared empty with just the bookshelf and cabinet lining the walls. He turned back around and made his way towards the landing, then froze mid step and whipped around. The bookshelf was pressed against a corner, but the cabinet had a free wall on the other side–certainly large enough for someone to crouch behind.
He crept towards it and once he was a few steps away, lit the tip of his wand and held it aloft. No shadow spilled out from behind the corner of the cabinet. With a sigh, he walked forward and saw nothing but empty space and dust motes spiraling beneath his beam
He was being stupid. No one was here other than his family.
Harry rubbed a hand through his hair and rolled his head around, easing the tension that had locked itself in his neck. Adrenaline was still pumping soundly through his veins, so he decided to check in on everyone else for his peace of mind before attempting to chase down sleep again.
He eased open James' door and his wand's light illuminated the sight of his lanky son sprawled across his bed like a starfish, one foot hanging off the mattress and the blankets hanging on for dear life.
"Wha–?" James slurred from his pillow, stirring slightly under the sheets.
"Nothing. Everything is fine, go back to sleep," Harry whispered in reply to the vague question. He was reasonably sure that James had already complied by the time he had shut the door. James may have his hair, but that boy was turning out to be pure Ginny, through and through, he thought with a grin.
He peeked into little Al's room and looked through the bars of the crib to see his second son curled up into a tight ball, one arm wrapped tightly around his stuffed lion. He smiled and leaned against the doorstop. He wasn't sure how he had gotten this lucky, but not a day goes by that Harry didn't marvel at his new life. Seeing Al sleeping soundly, his tiny chest rising and falling, calmed the adrenaline until his heart returned to a normal pace and he began to shut the door again, hoping to avoid waking Ginny with Al's daily, yet plaintive, 'good morning' cries. He let the light at his wand tip go out and the door whisper shut.
A footstep hit the floor behind him, as loud as a firecracker.
Without thinking, Harry whipped around and cast a shield between him and his attacker, waiting for the inevitable onslaught of curses to rebound off.
"Harry?"
Harry blinked at Ginny's groggy voice. Blood was still rushing to his ears and her soft voice did not match the voice of whatever Death Eater his brain had determined was breaking into their house.
"Ginny? Is that you?" He relit his wand.
"Yeah, it's me." She hastily ducked her head and raised a hand to block out the bright light.
Harry lowered his hand, letting the light illuminate the carpet, casting them in dim shadows instead.
"Who else would it be?" she asked, stepping forward.
"I dunno."
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah." He looked over her shoulder at James' closed door. Then he reached behind him and felt the wood of Al's. "Yeah, I think so."
Harry refused to look at her in her silence. He didn't want her to see the two realities warring in his consciousness.
"Come back to bed, then. It's not even 3 o'clock yet."
Harry looked back at Al's door.
"Harry?" She stepped forward again. "Can you take down the shield?"
"What?" He turned back around and realized that he was still looking at her through a hazy screen from his protego charm. "Oh, right," he mumbled.
The instant the shield came down, he felt her arms wrap around him. His instincts took over and he reacted in kind, one arm pulling her towards him and then the other reaching into her hair.
"You're safe," Ginny whispered into his shirt. "We're safe."
Harry squeezed his eyes shut and breathed in her words.
"We're all safe," she said again, tilting her chin up, placing it against his chest.
He nodded and pressed his cheek against her forehead and she turned her head back to the side. They stood that way, wrapped in each other's arms, until Harry began to believe her.
"Come on, Harry. Let's try to get another few hours of sleep, yeah?"
He hung on to her hand for a moment longer, but shook his head. "You go ahead. I'm too awake to fall asleep right now."
"Then just come and rest for a bit."
"I think I'll rest downstairs for now."
Ginny raised her eyebrows at this.
"I'll come back up if I get tired later. I promise," he replied.
She sighed and pushed her unkempt hair out of her face. "Alright, we'll take turns then." Still holding his hand, she walked forward and led the way towards the stairs.
"Take turns?" He held her back, bewildered, their arms stretched out like a swaying bridge.
"I can't expect you to keep watch all night alone. That's just not good teamwork." She tugged Harry forward for a few steps before turning to look over her shoulder, a sly grin stretched upon her lips. "That's what you've been doing every few nights, right? Keeping watch?"
He ducked his head sheepishly. "Only when I can't sleep."
"So then we'll take turns. I'll watch for these next two hours and then I'll wake you and you can take the last few hours."
"And what's to stop you from just falling asleep instead of actually watching over anything?"
Ginny gasped dramatically. "How dare you accuse me of such a thing!"
Harry rolled his eyes and couldn't help a small smile escape the panic still fighting for control. "Look Gin, I appreciate the sentiment. I do. But you don't need to stay up all night just because I'm being paranoid."
She turned around and continued to pull Harry towards the kitchen while she walked backwards. "So you admit it? This is just paranoia? You know all of our safety wards will hold against pretty much anything and even if not, all of the alarms we've got set up will make it far more obvious that there's an intruder."
"Part of me knows that. The other part refuses to accept it." He placed his lit wand on the kitchen counter between them and they both leaned back against the counter's edge.
Ginny crossed her arms and nodded thoughtfully. "So how do we get the former to convince the latter?"
Harry sucked in a deep breath and shrugged. "I don't think we'd be standing here in the middle of the night if I already knew."
A few more moments of silence passed before Ginny mentioned in a voice of careful calm, "And why has it been getting worse lately?"
Harry's eyes darted from dark window to dark window. "Worse?"
"I've been feeling you getting up more often these past few months."
"Sorry, I don't mean to–"
"Don't apologize. I just hate seeing you still think you have to battle everything on your own so do me a favor and don't dance around the question. Why is it worse now?"
He sighed. "I have more to lose now. Plus, I'm not used to all of the sounds of the new house so every little thing sets me on edge."
"Trust me. If something ever threatens to take away any part of this little paradise we've created, I won't just be sleeping through it. We'll take it on together, okay?"
He finally looked her way to see her eyes peering back at him intently. "Yeah, okay."
"So if I were to move your wand away, just a little bit… that wouldn't scare you?"
Harry shot a quick glance at his wand, lying innocently beside them both. "I mean… I wouldn't love it."
"What if I told you that I have my wand right here?" She lifted up her T-shirt to show her wand sticking out from the waist of her shorts. "If anything were to happen, one of us is still prepared."
Harry decided it was best not to answer.
Ginny raised a pointed eyebrow and very slowly reached out and rolled his wand until it was behind Ginny and out of his reach.
"We're still okay, right?"
Harry dragged his eyes off of his wand and back towards her. "Yeah, but I'm still not going to go to bed so why don't you just–"
"I know, I know," she interrupted. "I can go back to sleep while you so valiantly keep watch over our family." Ginny flicked her hair over her shoulder and shoved herself off the kitchen counter, instead, standing right in front of Harry with that same mischievous grin.
"You can't keep watch all alone," she whispered.
"That's usually how it works, actually."
"You can't keep watch against the entire night alone."
"I'm not. I'm just keeping watch over the house for a few hours."
"But that's still so boring."
"It's not meant to be fun. It's meant to be safe."
"Well personally, I enjoy having fun." She slid closer. "And I think we both know how to be safe."
Harry let out a short bite of laughter. "Oh yeah?"
Ginny grinned. "Only two slip-ups so far, and they're both fast asleep upstairs."
Harry uncrossed his arms and placed his hands on the countertop on either side of him. "We are doing quite well statistically-speaking, aren't we?"
"I'd say so. And statistically-speaking, we have a few hours on our hands to put our streak to the test."
"That's true."
"And you know what they say–"
Harry grabbed Ginny's wrist and pulled her towards him. Their lips found each other's and his hand was in her hair once more. The familiar tingles erupted in his stomach, chasing away any of the fear that had settled in earlier. He shut his eyes, blocking out his view of the windows, and lost himself in the feeling of Ginny in his arms. Ginny beneath his hands. Ginny against his chest.
Ginny's hands slid down his back and found his shirt hem. She pulled it up and over his head while his slid beneath her shirt. They stumbled towards the living room together until they bumped into the couch.
He paused and smirked. "So, what is it that they say?"
"Oh, who cares?" she replied breathlessly.
"'Cause I say you're terrible at keeping watch."
"But I am great at distracting you."
Long time no see, everyone! I hope you liked this short angsty, yet fluff-filled blurb :)