AN- A request from 'I'll read pure hinny fics only'.
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Case of Mistaken Identity
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Everything hurt.
He didn't know where he was, he didn't rightly care either, he just wanted the pain to stop. His heart beat was racing and telling him he had the strength to try and get away if he wanted to, but they weren't hitting him anymore, so maybe they were done.
There was only a few quid in his wallet and he didn't have any expensive items on him, nor did he look anything like a drug dealer, so why did they all jump him?
They were still standing over him, that much he could tell. The sounds of their voices carried above him.
There were so many of them.
Now it sounded like they were walking away, maybe they were going to leave him alone and let him be found like this by someone else.
His legs felt like they'd been bashed, his stomach was surely black and blue and his face had likely been altered and swollen now. He just wanted to drift off to sleep.
"What did you do?!" screamed a new voice. It was a female, hers was the only distinguishable words he could make out.
He winced as he felt a soft hand come to his face.
"We have to get him to a hospital!"
Yes, he thought, a hospital, they could make the pain go away there. There were soft beds and protection from the many tall men that had done this to him.
"Shut up, all of you! This isn't him. You've just attacked an innocent man because the lot of you are too thick headed to pause a moment and think things through." She was still touching him, her hand moved down his arm and stopped at his wrist, where she paused and felt for a pulse. "You're going to be okay," she told him. "Try to stay awake."
He heard the men still talking to her, but again, it was just low rumblings of their voices that he could make out.
She said he'd be okay though, she was going to get him to a hospital.
That meant he could go to sleep now.
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Beep. Beep. Beep.
It wasn't a loud sound, however when the rest of the room was silent it made the noise infinitely more noticeable.
He felt a bit better but knew that if he moved, then the illusion of his recovery would be shattered.
The room smelled of nothing, meaning he was at a hospital and laying in a hospital bed, and the beeping was a machine that was checking his vitals. His eyelids didn't want to open when he tried to see where he was and when he tried to raise an arm to rub one of them he couldn't. He struggled for a bit to try and move his arms and legs and heard the bed protesting the movements.
"You're awake!" a woman said close by. "Don't try and move too much. You've got a few broken bones that are healing. You've one arm and one leg in a cast. Let me get you some water."
Yes, water sounded like a good idea. He hadn't realized how parched he was until she mentioned it.
A moment later he felt what must have been a straw at his lips and she guided it in so he could take a long drink.
"Not too much now. You took a few hits to the abdomen and there had been some internal bleeding so you'll be getting I.V. for another day before they start you back on solids slowly."
The drink was taken away but now his throat was lubricated enough that he felt he might be able to talk. "What happened?"
"Do you remember any of it? What you were doing before you were attacked?"
He'd been watching a football match at the pub, then he'd been heading home, hadn't he? He might have stuck around for a few extra drinks with his mates before leaving. Then he'd been walking by himself in the dark, and then, just pain.
"I was at a pub, then I got jumped." He recognized her voice now. "You were there after, you stopped them from doing anything else."
"I was. I called the ambulance and came with you here to make sure you were alright."
"How long have I been here for?"
"About ten hours. I'm afraid you're a horrible color nearly all over from the beating, but it'll fade. The swelling has already started to come down." She touched his face gently again. "Can you open your eyes?"
He tried again, but they must have been too swollen still.
"That's alright. You'll be able to soon. Is there someone I should call for you? Family, best mate, girlfriend?"
He went to shake his head but couldn't manage it. "I should probably call into work and let them know I'll be out for a few days."
"Is that it? You don't want anyone else to know about this? No one you live with?"
"Bachelor," was all he said in response. "The only being that will have noticed I was missing is my cat and he's learned to break into the cupboard for food and drink out of the toilet for water."
She chuckled. "Cats are ingenious creatures. I love them. What do you call yours?"
She sounded pleasant enough, but he was confused about something. "Why are you here? Why didn't you just leave me at the hospital and head home? You've done your civic duty in getting them to stop and seeking help." Which brought up another question. "How did you get them to stop? There were a bunch of them and you are one person. Also, sorry to say, but you're a young woman, I can tell from your voice, can't you see how potentially dangerous that could have been for you?"
She stroked his hair once, and that felt nice, then he could tell she was reaching up to somewhere beside his bed and the next thing he knew there was a sensation running through his whole body that felt incredibly pleasant and had him drifting off to sleep without another thought.
It was unclear how many hours later he awoke, but this time he was able to open his eyes and see the extent of the damage done to his extremities. His left arm was in a cast, the right one had a few scrapes on it and a bruise but apparently that one wasn't broken. One of his legs was suspended on a sling but not in a full cast, so he was likely going to be given a walking cast for that one. He didn't dare lift the blanket to see what the rest of his body looked like. He turned his head toward the window, it wasn't an easy task because the pillow behind him seemed to have suctioned the back of his head to it.
"Oh, don't try and move your neck," came the same voice followed by the sound of movement. Then she was there, looking down on him and gently guiding him to have his head back in the same position it had been.
This young woman that had been looking over him appeared to have been in a scrape of her own, there was the bruise of a black eye healing around her right eye and a scrape that ran completely down the other side of her face that had those thin Band-Aids that were meant to keep the skin from tugging after getting a cut.
"What happened to you?" he asked.
"It's a long story," she said sadly. "And it is unfortunately why you are in here."
"What do you mean?"
"I was attacked not long before you were, and you bare a few similarities to my attacker." She was tucking his already tucked blanket in.
"So, are you saying that…"
"Yes, it was a case of mistaken identity."
She looked him in the eye then and he could tell that it hurt her to admit that. He allowed himself a moment to take in all of her; young, pretty, delicate looking, and she appeared to be still wearing the clothes that she had been yesterday which, while they might not be screaming out that there was a nice body under them, they were still tight enough to draw appreciation from his gender.
"Your attacker," he started. "Did he-." He had no right to ask her what he'd been about to ask her. She was wearing jeans and there didn't appear to be any rips on them.
"Molestation is not rape," she said. "That's what was said to me at the police station anyhow." She bit her lip and took a breath. "Then I made the mistake of calling one of my brothers to come and pick me up." Her eyes trailed down his prone form then and her hand ran gently down his cast. "I'm so sorry. When I found out what they were… I stopped them as soon as I could. They're," she blew out a difficult breath. "They're going to do anything they can to make this up to you."
He felt surprisingly little at being given this information. Then again, how was he supposed to feel? A young woman had been attacked and her brothers had jumped at the chance to defend her. It was a case of mistaken identity and she was clearly trying to make amends.
He could appreciate her sticking around to make sure he was going to be alright, he certainly preferred it being her that was sitting with him rather than one of her brothers. He could easily get a restraining order against the lot of them for doing what they did.
"You have a lot of brothers." It was all he said.
"Six of them," she replied as she played with the side of his blanket.
"That's a lot."
She nodded and looked back up into his eyes. "Are you sure there's no one I can call for you?"
"You don't have to stay."
"That's not why I'm asking. I'm not going anywhere until I know for sure you're alright, even then I'll be making sure you're okay when you get settled at home. It's going to be a while for recovery though, your friends and family are going to find out, not just your work."
"I've got a few friends and work friends that I could call, but I don't want to burden them. I haven't got any family that would care."
"Why would your family not care?" she asked with surprise and shock showing all over her face, and even in the way she was gripping the bed rail.
"They don't like me much. My parents died when I was young and my Aunt was responsible for raising me. I got in a lot of trouble as a teenager before I smartened up, but by then she was done with me."
She gave him a sympathetic look and brought her hand to stroke down the side of his face. "How could anyone be done with those eyes?"
It was meant to be comforting, but he had been told by everyone that knew her that he had his mothers eyes, and as his Aunt had carried around her jealousy towards him mother with her even after his mums passing, it meant that every time she looked him in the eye it had been his mother she'd been reminded of and that jealousy would come out and his chores would immediately get doubled.
"You really don't need to stay," he told her again. "You look like you could do with a good sleep and a wash, something other than hospital food."
"Stop trying to push me away. It's my fault you're here so I'll be staying until I'm satisfied you're alright."
"Don't you need some recovery of your own?" She'd been attacked too, there was still some dried blood around her hairline.
"I'll fine physically. I'm just not ready to face my mother yet, so I'm going to send you off to dreamland again and we'll talk some more when you wake up again." Then she reached up to the head of his bed again and he felt the rush that came from the medication she had just pushed through his I.V.
It smelled fresh in the room when he woke next. There was something flowery in the air that mixed with the scent of the soap he used in the shower. It smelled lovely. And it made his stomach rumble because he always had breakfast following his shower.
Once more he tried to adjust in his bed.
"You're awake again." She was still there. "You've just missed the doctor but I can call in one of the nurses. They said that if you manage to eat your meal they provided and don't have any pain from it by the next time the doctor does rounds then you'll be okay to be discharged. And, sorry about this, but I had to tell them that I was your girlfriend in order to get them to let me stay."
She was standing over him again, her hair was damp and the cut down the side of her was not as pronounced as it had been the last time he'd looked at it; the Band-Aid strips were removed. Her bruise around her eye was changing color and there was some yellow starting to show.
"Don't you have someone that is missing you right now?" he wondered.
"My family knows why I'm here. My mum stopped by to get me a change of clothes and some things for the bathroom; I used yours for a shower. She's been laying into my brothers the entire day save for that. That, and she's been making batches of casseroles and such for you. I hope you don't have an allergy to anything, or aversion."
He frowned at her. "Your mum is making me food?"
"Yes," she sighed, "she doesn't want you overdoing anything and has demanded that the boys do everything in their power to make your life as easy as possible from here on out as well. She's worried you'll press charges. Which you are completely within your right to do," she hurried to add. "They just… they acted without taking time to think. They saw me, heard what happened as where and their bloody testosterone got going and they acted irrationally. Incredibly irrationally. They will be leaving you alone until you say otherwise though, I promise you that."
He still didn't know how he felt about being on the receiving end of an ass-kicking by six men that thought they were providing justice for their sister. He could only see the worry on her wounded face and feel like he had no right to be angry about it just then.
This could be due to him still being medicated.
"What is your name?" he asked finally.
"Ginevra, Ginny, actually."
He tried and failed to nod then. "Okay. I suppose if you're my girlfriend I should know that much." He looked out the corner of his eye and saw a phone on the desk beside his bed. "I need you to make a call for me now."
"Of course," she jumped to the task and had picked up the phone from the cradle before he could say anything more.
"Do you have the number? Who am I calling?"
"Southampton Central Police Station."
Ginny's eyes froze on him for a moment. "I-I'll have to call information to get the number," she said quietly.
"No need," and he told her what number to dial, watching her press the buttons and biting her lip. "Now can you hold it up to my ear?" And she did.
Dispatch answered on the other end. "Hi Shelly, it's Harry. Can you put me through to Sargent Shacklebolt? Thanks."
"Potter," Kingsley came through on the other end of the phone after a moment of hold music. "Can you please learn to take a day off? There must be something else you have an interest in besides work."
"That's why I'm calling. I'm going to need a bit of personal time off." He watched Ginny's eyes grow wide as she realized what this meant. "I've landed in the hospital with a broken bone in my arm and a sprain or something on one leg, I don't know for sure, haven't talked to the doctor yet."
"You have? What happened?"
"It was just a stupid mistake that I'm the lucky soul that gets to deal with it. Regardless, I'll need a few days for recovery and then I guess I'm on desk duty for a bit."
"Good," his boss stated. "You need to get some R and R. If I'd have known an accident was all it would take I would have pushed you down the stairs ages ago. You'll call if you need anything? A ride home from the hospital? Food delivery?"
"No, I've got all that taken care of. I'll get you the doctors note as soon as I can."
"You do that. Rest up kid, we'll try not to get rid of crime before you're back on the job."
Harry huffed a laugh then indicated to Ginny that she could put the phone back down.
"You're a policeman?" she asked, looking like she was trying to hold her breath.
"Yes. Constable Potter. Nice to meet you," he said dryly.
She looked from him to the phone and back again. "Why didn't you report them then? Are you going to do that later?"
"Don't know yet," he admitted. "I'd kind of like to look them in the eye when I let them know that they attacked someone in law enforcement and see their reaction."
A swelling of guilt coiled around his stomach as he watched her eyes start to grow glassy. Her breath hitched and she wetted her lips slowly before biting her bottom lip a bit. "That sounds like a reasonable request," she said with a shaky voice.
"I think it is." He then spotted his breakfast tray of semi-solid food. "How am I supposed to get to that tray?" he wondered honestly. If he had been in here by himself, how was he even supposed to call for a nurse?
"I'll help you." She jumped at the chance to do something useful and asked with only raised eyebrows if he wanted the jello first.
He ate slowly only because Ginny was feeding him slowly, one half spoonful at a time. He would have easily devoured the entire contents of the tray had he felt okay about raising his arm that wasn't in a cast, however that arm had the I.V. in it as well as the heartrate monitor pinched on his finger.
It was cute how she responded to his grumbled protests about her speed by scowling at him and repeating 'doctors orders' again and again.
When the tray was completely polished off the nurse came in and gave him a checking over and assured that the doctor would be in soon.
It was a whole 36 hours that he'd spent in the hospital and then he was free; his internal bleeding had not been severe and he was well out of the danger zone of having any organ issues, he had a walking cast for his injured foot and an arm cast in a sling for his injured arm, his face wasn't swollen anymore, just discolored. Ginny was the only reason they had let him go this early, however. If the doctors had known that he actually lived by himself in a flat that had stairs, there was no way they would have let him leave without at least a four day hospital stay.
His neck was fine though and he didn't have to stay in a semi-reclined position for sleeping; he wanted his own bed.
Ginny rang up a taxi to take him home, he had not been expecting her to come with him though. She helped him get into his flat and he thanked her at the door, but she let herself into the rest of the flat and went about finding saran wrap and told him she was going to wrap his cast up so he could have a shower.
"You don't have to do all this," he protested. "You could just leave your number or something and go home. I don't need to be minded." Telling her this while simultaneously trying to take off his one shoe with his good hand while bracing his shoulder against the wall did not turn out to be convincing, particularly when he lost his balance and would have fallen over had she not caught him.
"Tough shit, Constable, I'll be here for a full day, minimum, until I see that you're capable of doing daily tasks by yourself."
"Like what? You're going to help me in the shower?" he scoffed. Now that the medication had truly worn off, he was growing more irritated about the state he was in due to her brothers.
"If you need it, yes. And you certainly need someone to wrap up that cast, you can't get it wet." Luckily for him, Ginny was immune to his snarky comments. "Why don't you go into your bedroom and see if you've got any clothes that will be easy enough for you to slip on and off, then I'll wrap you up and you can see how much progress you can make on your own in the shower?"
He bit his tongue and did what she said. A nurse had helped him get into the clothes that had been brought to him by Ginny's mother, courtesy of one of her thick-headed brothers, he'd been asleep again when the mother had stopped by. The clothes were clean, but they were worn, and there were buttons on the trousers that he was having difficulty with. Harry fumbled with them until he finally got them undone and attempted to shimmy them down his body, where the leg of one promptly got stuck on his walking cast. He gave a disappointed sigh and looked at the shirt that he had to deal with next. "Ginny," he called out in resignation.
She popped her head into his room.
"This is a two-person job," he admitted with a sulk.
He put his good hand on the bedpost for balance and lifted his leg with the cast on as Ginny dropped down to her knees in front of him to help guide the trouser leg off. For this he tried not to look down. He was irritated, hungry and in desperate need of a shower, but she was an attractive female on her knees before him, he didn't need 'little' Harry getting any ideas.
She worked them off and he was now standing in his boxers and shirt.
"Shall I help you with the shirt too?"
He let out a breath through his nose. "Please."
Now her delicate fingers where holding onto either side of the bottom of his shirt and slowly raising it up. She guided his un-plastered hand through the arm hole and helped get the shirt over his head, then gently pulled the remaining sleeve over his cast.
Now it was just his pants that were left and it was obvious that she was finding this predicament amusing. "Want help with that also?"
"I'll figure that one out, thanks."
She shrugged. "If you say so. I will suggest you go without for the next few days though."
"Are you finding this amusing?"
Did she just wink at him before she turned around and headed for the door? Was it a tactic of hers to make sure that he wouldn't put more consideration into whether he was going to lay charges on her brothers? He still didn't know her surname.
Harry struggled to get the boxers off and heard Ginny moving around in the sitting room and in his bathroom. She was certainly making herself right at home. Considering the circumstances he would have expected her to just take a seat and wait until he told her what he needed help with.
Finally, the boxers came off and he took his towel from off the back of the bedroom door and finagled it around his waist. A shower would help him feel a world better.
Ginny was on the other side of the door again when he stepped out of the bedroom, saran wrap in hand along with a roll of sellotape.
It took a few tries to figure out how to wrap it properly enough that water wouldn't get in, then it was the moment of truth and he was standing in front of his bathroom mirror and staring at his face and torso and all the wonderful colors of the rainbow they were now covered in. His hair was matted with something on one side and it was just all together not a pretty image.
He wasn't quite sure what Ginny had been doing in the bathroom until he stepped into the shower and saw she'd placed a little plastic stool he had for getting up to the high shelves in the kitchen there for him to rest his knee on on his bad leg. Then he saw that the cap for the shampoo was open. After managing in the shower he saw she'd unscrewed the toothpaste as well so he didn't need to fiddle with that to get his teeth cleaned properly.
Maybe it was a good idea that she got him home and stuck around a while.
"I hope you don't mind," she announced from the kitchen. "I've got pot noodles ready for you. It's mostly liquid and easy on your stomach, like the doctor recommended. I can put in a bit more effort for your dinner."
Now he just felt like he was getting pampered, or infantilized, he wasn't sure which.
"You really don't need to do all this."
"Um, I really do. Plus," she sighed, "I'm not keen on going anywhere sporting a shiner, so think of it like I'm hiding out here and just happen to be of use to you. We're doing each other a favor."
She came out from the kitchen and set the cup of noodles down on his coffee table. His cat then popped out from beneath the couch and onto the table to inspect it.
"Hey you!" Ginny cooed at him. "What's his name?"
"Pickles."
"What? Why?" she asked while scratching Pickles gently behind the ear, thus quickly gaining favor with him.
"He was already named when I adopted him."
Ginny looked over to him then. "Want me to help dry your hair a bit more?"
Harry ignored that and just turned around and went to his bedroom to find the loosest option of clothing he had.
They spent the rest of the day on the couch where Ginny proceeded to try and make him as comfortable as possible. He found it very strange having his needs taken care of by someone else. She had gone through his selection of movies and put on whatever one he asked for, kept refilling his drink, even found a chopstick in the back of his cutlery drawer to turn into a scratcher for his arm cast.
She was very pleasant company. Had their circumstances been different he would have counted himself lucky to spend this much time with her. Yet, as things were he wasn't sure whether she was simply trying to make amends by being friendly or if she was enjoying his company as well.
He woke up on the couch the next morning, she was on the other end of it, it was an 'L' shape couch and they both had room to stretch out without encroaching on each other's space. Harry gave a stretch and noticed movement from her side of the couch, it was Pickles popping his head up from where he had cuddled up to Ginny near her legs.
Harry's faculties returned to him just in time to hear the phone going off on the coffee table, where Ginny had set it for him to have easy access.
"Hello?"
"Oh, is this Harry?" a woman asked.
"It is."
"Oh, good morning, dear. This is Molly Weasley. I'm just checking in on you."
He pulled the phone away from his ear to frown at it in confusion, the set it back to his ear. "Sorry, are you calling from the hospital?"
"Oh no, I know you've got home now. Ginny gave me a ring as you were settling in yesterday. I've got that 'caller ID' thing so I made sure to note down your number. Has she been taking good care of you? She's still there, isn't she?"
"Er," he looked over at Ginny, who was now rousing from the sound of his voice. "Yeah, she's still here. Did you want to talk to her?"
"No, no, I talked to her plenty at the hospital when I came to drop things off. I'm calling to check in on you. I've also got several dishes here for you to stock up your fridge and freezer and wanted to see if you were okay with me getting your address to drop them off? Or, if you prefer, Ginny could come and get them and bring them to you." She lowered her voice then, "how is her eye healing up, by the way?"
Ah, this was the mother.
Harry wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to respond. This woman's daughter had taken on the job of being his caretaker after the woman's many sons had beaten him to a pulp. Getting irate and telling her off for raising her children to turn out the way they did hardly seemed right, inquiring about whether she thought her sons were feeling remorse would also sound accusatory. So, he just took a moment to think over what to say next and simply answered her question.
"It's looking better all the time. Healing up. I, I guess I'll let Ginny decide what to do about the food. Erm, thanks for that, by the way. And yes, she's turned out to be pretty helpful."
"Oh good," Mrs. Weasley said with relief. "At least that's one child I raised right. She called me all in a panic from the hospital after what happened to you, and told me about her own encounter as well. The fact that she could go from being attacked like that to focusing solely on you, it's probably been helpful, giving her something else to worry over. And I am sorry about my boys. Once you're feeling up to it you can go about dealing with them in whatever way you see fit. I know they were trying to defend their little sister, but honestly, there is a right way and a wrong way, considering they targeted the wrong man, well, that was most certainly the wrong way in more ways than one."
He appreciated where she was coming from, but this was a lot for first thing in the morning.
Ginny was sitting up now and had clearly recognized her mothers voice on the other side of the phone. She was holding her hand out and Harry simply passed it over to her.
"Mum, it's first thing in the morning, can you please take a breath?"
Nature was calling now and he wriggled around into a sitting position and got up to head to the bathroom.
"No! I will come and pick it all up. I'm encroaching on his space enough as it is and we both know how you can manage to dominate a room once you enter it. Just make sure that none of them are there when I stop by, yeah? I don't want to spend anymore time in the hospital than I already have and you just know I'd break my hand on one of their jaws."
Harry heard that part before he closed the bathroom door and chuckled. He was grateful she insisted that there not be anymore visitors at his place. Having Ginny there was enough of an interruption to his lifestyle.
"Harry?" she called through the door as he finished up with the toilet and was at the sink. "Are you a coffee or tea drinker in the morning?"
"Coffee. But you really don't have to-"
"On it," she cut him off.
Despite her saying it would just be one day of her being there, for the rest of the week Ginny stayed camped out on his couch. She kept making him meals and running errands. He asked her why she didn't have a job to get back to, it turned out she had called into her work as well and requested PTO. She worked with a real estate company and a lot of her job called for interacting with people, something she didn't fancy doing with a shiner that would require her either telling her story or making something up.
He got used to hanging out with her over that week. He grew more comfortable having her around and he'd given up on telling her she didn't need to do his laundry or make his meals, or clean his entire flat like she had done. He felt more pampered than he had been in his entire life having her there; she did this head scratching thing when he mentioned he had a headache and it felt so good he couldn't help but get aroused.
It was easy to admit to himself that having a fine looking woman like her around his flat wasn't such a bad thing. He'd accidentally walked into the living room twice while she'd been changing her shirt and didn't mind that one bit. He was going to miss it when she eventually went back to her own place. Now that her bruise had healed up enough that it was barely noticeable it was just a matter of time before she left. He was able to figure out how to get things done one handed and maintain his balance now, and in three more weeks his arm cast would be off so it would just be his one leg that he needed to be careful about.
"Not trying to kick you out or anything," he brought up after they'd shared a few slices of pizza on Saturday evening, "but won't you be wanting to get back into doing your own routine and staying at your own place in a day or so?"
"Yeah," she said regretfully. "I have to get back to work on Monday. I've also got to go to a, er, family lunch tomorrow."
He stared at the television screen then and nodded, jaw clenched. "I take it that means you'll be seeing all of them then?"
She tossed her pizza crust back in the box. "I have to see them at some point or another. May as well get it over with when they are all together. Anything you'd like me to say, or do, to them for you?"
"I still haven't decided."
And that was the truth. A few minutes of taking a beating and it resulted in him getting the royal treatment from their sister for over a week, and delicious food stuffs from their mother.
"Have they given up on beating up unsuspecting persons that have the unfortunate circumstance of slightly resembling your attacker? Because if they didn't learn their lesson with what they did to me, then maybe you should find a cricket bat and take a few swings at them," he said bitterly.
"I talked to their wives and girlfriends and they've all been withholding sex, intimacy of any kind actually, and mum has been laying into them verbally at every opportunity, so I'd say they've learned their lesson."
God, why did she have to bring up sex? It made thoughts pop into his head of other ways she could be helping him out. He hadn't been comfortable enough with her around the flat to have a wank. He was one more head scratch away from messing up his shorts. And he'd taken her advise about not wearing boxers for the time being, so it would be very noticeable if he got an erection.
"They've all got partners then? And how long are these women going to be holding out on them?"
Ginny shrugged. "Until you say otherwise essentially."
A loud laugh escaped him then. "Why didn't you tell me that bit sooner? Having that kind of power over their happiness is helping with my hatred of them."
"Well, don't go too power mad, the only reason I got them all to agree to it was by confirming that you are a decent bloke, if they see you're hellbent on getting revenge I might not be able to convince them for much longer."
He gave her a sideways smile. "I suppose they're alright with missing out as well?"
"Oh, I didn't say they couldn't get theirs, only that my brothers shouldn't be afforded the same courtesy."
Fuck, now he was in too deep.
And there went his ability to stop his dick from getting any ideas.
He tried to be stealthy about it, but it was already hot in the flat and he'd reached for a blanket to put over his lap, something which Ginny clearly noticed.
"Been a while for you, has it?" she teased.
"Can you not?" he pleaded. "It's hard enough with you opting to change in the living room instead of the bathroom, plus you making it smell so damned good around here all the time."
Ginny smirked at him, a twinkle in her eye. "And here I was trying to do everything I can to not make things too hard for you."
Ginny was there to get him breakfast the next morning before heading out to her family lunch, and stopped by to see that he was all set for dinner again in the evening, but then she said farewell before going back to her place for the night by giving him a gentle hug and a kiss on the cheek and telling him she'd stop by again the next day. She lingered with her lips by his ear for a second longer than necessary after kissing his cheek and he did his level best to remain stationary.
He hobbled to his room as quick as he could after he locked the door behind her to crank one out, then he was able to breathe again.
He fancied her, there was no denying it; she smelled great, she was a great conversationalist, she was smart, he was attracted to her physically and they'd essentially be shut up in this flat for a full week without driving each other mental.
Now he just had to figure out what the hell he was going to do about it.
He had called up his Sargent again and they chatted, he still didn't disclose exactly what had landed him in his current state, but another week of PTO was approved and Harry tried not to get too restless around his flat; he couldn't walk or do any other kind of exercise too much because it hurt, his foot was the worst of it.
The most difficult part was taking his walking cast off for his shower; the smallest bit of pressure he put on his foot when it wasn't inside its protective shield was torture. His foot and lower leg looked disgusting as well.
True to her word, Ginny kept showing up at his place every evening with dinner in hand with a smile on her face. He was starting to dream about her showing up at his flat with food in hand, except it was not business casual that she was wearing.
Sunday, the day before he was going back to work to be on desk duty for a month or two, Ginny came to his directly from her weekly family lunches.
"Are you all set for tomorrow? Do you know what you're going to wear and how you're going to get into it?"
"Why, are you offering to stay the night and help me get dressed in the morning?" he teased easily.
"I might be," she grinned.
He shook his head and grinned back at her. "You know, I don't think anyone else could possibly have been as attentive as you've been these past two weeks."
"Well, you've made it easy for me now that you've stopped protesting. Plus, we get along really well, so that is another reason I keep on coming back."
He took a look over her shoulder at what she was putting into his fridge that her mother had packed up for him. "Does that mean that you'll keep on coming back once I'm all healed up?"
"I hope so."
He looked down at the back of her head after she said that.
Did she really want to keep coming over after her 'debt' or whatever she considered their circumstances to be, was covered? And if she did, why? Because they were friends? Or had she grown to fancy him as well?
He took a step back as she finished putting the dishes away in the fridge and turned around.
"Why?" he asked.
Say it, he pleaded in his head. He needed her to be the one admitting any feelings. After how they came to know each other, he needed her to feel absolutely no pressure from him to make them something other than whatever they currently were.
Ginny took a small step towards him, a small provocative smile coming to her lips, her eyes alight with question of whether he wanted her to keep moving forward.
She continued moving forward, likely because she could sense the way his entire body was screaming the word 'yes!'
()()()
"Harry!" Sargent Shacklebolt greeted him at the lift on his first morning back. "My lord, you look like you got hit by a car!"
Harry grinned at him. "Not exactly the story, but I did feel like it for the first few days there."
"Have you been managing to get around okay? You could have asked one of us to pop over to the grocery store for you or something, you know that, don't you?"
Harry waved at his fellow colleagues as he made his way to his desk. "Thanks, but I've managed."
"Did you have any help at all?"
His grin grew wider then as he remembered how Ginny helped him get his pants on that morning. "Yeah, a lot of help. My new girlfriend was helping me out."
"Girlfriend? When did that happen? How'd you meet her?"
"Er… through her brothers."
()()()