Compilation of Hinny Works

by LegendDairy

I've got too many Hinny one-shots, and there are more coming. So they are all going to be posted here instead of individual stories. And Harry/Ginny pairings only, no others. Will be updated sporadically.

28. Choosing Hufflepuff

AN- Smut in the Wild on the Bingo Smut card. This one is all coming from Harry's point of view. I made up the name of the company Harry works for, I couldn't find their real name in the Potterverse, just other fanfic stories with other names for it.

Those that weren't keen on the last chapter, this one will ease you back into things.

()()()

Choosing Hufflepuff

()()()

Work had never been more of a welcome sight than it was that Monday morning. It was only 8:30 and had already been such a long day.

It was all his fault of course, but he just absolutely couldn't let it go on any longer. She'd been getting clingy and leaving things at his place, dropping hints about how they should live together, mentioning how her friends were all starting to get engaged. The whole nine.

And he wasn't a complete idiot when it came to women.

A partial idiot, sure. She'd had to come onto him quite hard for him to realize she was interested in him before he'd finally asked her out.

And it had been nice at first to have someone again, he hadn't had many someone's over his lifetime. Less than a handful.

Okay. She'd been the third, and the first two hadn't lasted any longer than she did, which was three months.

This had been a full on three months though. She'd spent nearly every weekend at his, or he at hers. Even the evenings through the week had almost always included plans with her, and he was someone who enjoyed having time to himself. He'd been just himself for as long as he could remember, even when he was surrounded by people. Having a girlfriend in his personal space though was different, not a bad different, but he'd kept waiting with each of them for it to feel more natural. It just hadn't.

He was always hoping that each girlfriend and he would find this natural rhythm between them. Harry wished he had a healthy relationship in real life that he could base his idea of a 'rhythm' on, but he didn't. Even television and movies that he'd seen had ridiculous amounts of drama.

Harry had been shackled with his aunt and uncle for the formative years of his life before Hogwarts and then during summer breaks. He'd been their cook, housekeeper and gardener since he could remember and was always under their strict and disapproving eye.

Hmm, maybe 'raised by' wasn't the right term.

His aunt and uncle weren't exactly shining examples of a healthy relationship either, they just showed him what he didn't want; and image obsessed woman who put on a farce and a bulbous bastard of a man who expected to be catered to.

As soon as he was seventeen, Harry left. July 31st, 1997 he was out of their house and spent his last month before school living at the Leaky Cauldron Pub in London; The rooms weren't the best, but they were better than where he'd been. And he could afford it.

What he hadn't realized until he turned of age in the Wizarding world was that he had a massive inheritance that he came into on his seventeenth birthday. He had already moved into the Leaky by the time he found out though. He would have found a job to cover the rate of the room at the pub if he couldn't have afforded it otherwise, but there was just no way he wanted to be indebted to the Dursley's for another minute.

That had been his only 'birthday card' on his coming of age birthday; the letter from Gringotts informing him of his family vault access and the expectation that he come into the bank to go over his investments. It had been an amazing and eye opening experience to see all that had been left to him, and he essentially just left all that he now held in his possession right where it was until he had the mental space to deal with it.

His school friends were, well, they were his friends, at school. Ish. They had all really just acquaintances that he shared a dorm room with. He didn't talk to any of them now that they'd been out of school for over three years.

Now that he was out of school, out of the Dursley's, out of the Leaky Cauldron, he had his own flat and was still enjoying being on his own schedule.

Michelle, the now ex-girlfriend, had just wanted too much of his time and attention and to change too much about him so he would become the man she really wanted. As nice as it was to have a steady girlfriend for all of the lovely couple activities, such as snogs and shags, he wasn't looking for that relationship to progress. And when the time came that he was looking for that kind of progression, he really didn't think she'd be the one he would want to do the progressing with.

Michelle was pretty, relatively smart and quite nice. But she never shut up and was way too into her looks and what other people might potentially be thinking of her. It took her forever to get ready to go anywhere and she had all these expectations placed on him. So, this morning he'd decided. Her time was up, and he wasn't going to entertain her expectations anymore.

He popped over to her place with breakfast in hand and just told it to her point blank. They were done. They wanted different things, and while he'd always think fondly of her, he just saw them going in different directions. She was too good for him.

Yeah, he used all the clichés he could think of.

She'd reacted... well… she'd reacted. Her face went all stony when she realized what he was saying. To be fair he'd stumbled over his words quite a bit. Then she lost it on him, screaming and crying about all the time she'd wasted on him, how he wouldn't find anyone else nearly on her level.

Urgh, it was such a headache.

But now it was over, and he was headed for his lab. His safe, sterilized and organized workspace.

Despite the horrible professor he'd had through his Hogwarts career he'd actually excelled in Potions. He liked combining all the different, and sometimes volatile, ingredients and discovering new potions and their uses.

He worked for a Lumiere Laboratories, they were the ones that continued to produce his family's product, Sleakeasy Hair Serum, though he was sure the higher ups hadn't associated his name to the product. It was a relief to know that actually, it meant he was hired on his own merit, not because of nepotism.

With a sigh of relief upon reaching his station, Harry placed his lunch in his bottom drawer and looked at the tray on the corner of his table where his task for the day would appear every morning.

His mood dampened when he saw what his assignment was.

Training.

They had a new recruit and this kid had to be shown around the factory, then he'd have to shadow him through the process of the potion the kid would be making en mass that week so he would understand all the steps and documentation involved and expected of him. The name of the new recruit was on the paper and it seemed vaguely familiar. All the names were vaguely familiar in this world though, no doubt they were both at school together, though probably not in the same house.

And here he'd been hoping to just perform repetitious tasks all day and forget that he'd just had an ugly break-up this morning. Now he had to talk all day and answer inane questions.

Fine.

Harry supposed it was kind of nice to know he was a seasoned enough employee that he could be tasked with this. He'd done the 'show around' portion of the job to new recruits, but this was the first time he'd be doing the actual training portion.

With a resolved sigh he headed to the reception area, deciding that the first place he'd show the newbie was the kitchen so they could grab some tea for the tour.

Only one seat in reception was occupied, and it was by an eager looking guy roughly around his own age with a messenger style bag on the floor beside him. Harry recognized him vaguely from school, but couldn't quite pinpoint any interactions they might have had.

"Colin?" he asked. Yep, that was clearly Colin Creevy. Colin gave an excited grin and leapt up, rushing forward with his hand out.

"Colin Creevey," he greeted.

"Harry Potter," Harry shook his hand. "Follow me, I'll show you around." He led the way back to his station, "you can leave your bag here for the tour."

"Thanks," Colin tucked it under his bag under the desk. "Are you allowed to decorate your workspace?" he asked, noting the lack of personal touches to the walls around Harry's space.

"Uh, you can. They don't have a rule about it or anything. I just... haven't." That was something Melissa had brought up about his flat too. The lack of personal touches. She wanted to put up a bunch of tacky artworks with flowers and such, or a giant portrait of the two of them, he wasn't quite sure which. but either way, he had no interest in entertaining that.

"Okay, good," Colin followed in behind Harry as he led them to the kitchen first. "I dabble in photography and like having the inspirational photo's around."

"That's where I know you from!" Harry snapped his fingers at the connection made. "You were the Gryffindor kid, always with the camera." Colin blushed slightly. "Sorry. Not kid. Just. You were always taking photos," he backpedaled.

"Muggleborn," Colin offered as though that was some sort of excuse. "I found everything fascinating about the Magical world. At first, I was just documenting it all for my parents, then I realized how much I enjoyed it and just kept on. I've a lot of experience brewing development solution," he chuckled.

They reached the kitchen and Harry grabbed two mugs, offering one for Colin. "I can understand that. I was raised in the Muggle world too."

Colin's brow furrowed at the phrasing, "are you not Muggleborn though?"

Harry shook his head. "No, my parents were victims of the last war. I was raised by mother's sister, she's a Muggle."

That was downplaying it.

Harry learned what really happened only after he finished up at Hogwarts and met one of his parents' old friends, Remus Lupin. And that story had been confirmed by Albus Dumbledore.

The truth of the end of the last war was that he, Harry Potter, had been the target of You-Know-Who, and his parents had been killed the night that You-Know-Who also died. His Godfather had been there that night too, at his parents' house. Between the three of them they managed to stop You-Know-Who from getting Harry's infant self but lost their lives in the process.

Dumbledore had been the one to find Harry alone and surrounded by the bodies of his loved ones and the self-titled Dark Lord.

It had been incredibly hard to hear the truth of how he was orphaned. Even all these years later it was a knife to the heart. And he was still dealing with that on some level, but most of the time he tried not to think about it too much.

"Ah," Colin nodded uncomfortably, probably because he knew of the previous war and it's numerous victims and knew better than to ask more. "So, have you been here long?"

By the time mid-afternoon came around Harry had shown him around the building, introduced him to the pertinent people and given the low down on who he needed to be extra nice to in order to get certain tasks completed. They'd conversed easily throughout the brewing process, flipping back and forth between Muggle and Magical topics.

Colin had taken a year off after school and done some travelling via portkey, worked here and there, then went to an Academy in the states for eight months to polish up his potioneering skills before coming back to England and going through the process of landing a proper job.

"Then it was kind of perfect timing when I caught up with a friend from school that had a flat mate moving out so I could move in," Colin finished up. "Really close by too so I don't have to worry about Floo or Apparating to work."

"That's great," Harry smiled. It had been pretty enjoyable to chat with Colin all day, he felt like they would get along just fine working together. "I'm not too keen on Floo or Apparation myself. Got a place that's just a quick tube ride away."

He'd managed to secure a top floor flat in the Clapham area in London. It was only two tube stops to work and just over an hour to the seaside, so he was quite happy with it. Living any closer inside London would have been a nuisance with the noise and congestion, not to mention the prices.

"You still play Quidditch a bit?" Colin asked him.

Harry shook his head, "it's been years since I've even been on a broom. Not since school really."

"Oh," Colin nodded. "You were a decent Seeker. At least, that's what I've been told," he admitted. "I, uh, never got too into the game. My roommate though is fairly obsessed with it."

"It's a pretty popular sport," Harry chuckled. "And I really enjoyed it, but I was never going to make a career out of it or anything. Kind of wish Cedric Diggory had given it up before his seventh year so I could have gotten on the team earlier. Now though, well I don't really know of anywhere I could go for a casual fly. I live in the city so," he shrugged.

"There are rec leagues," Colin offered up.

"Maybe eventually," Harry dismissed. "Okay. So, now that you're done, we're going to take a sample over to be tested and then the rest of the day will be filling out the documentation properly." He'd instructed Colin on what notes to take during the process with his own devised short hand so that it was easier to fill out all the paperwork that comes with brewing for the masses and then he didn't need to pause in his process as he went along.

"Great! So, hey. I'm grabbing a drink at The Star and Sailor after to celebrate my first day at a real job. Any interest?" Colin invited casually.

"Err." Harry hesitated. Not because he didn't like Colin, but because this was not a common situation he found himself in. Most of his coworkers didn't socialize much outside of work. They had families and other lives already going on outside Lumiere, the company didn't even have a Christmas party. But he'd had a serious morning followed by a fairly enjoyable day, so why not. "Sure. That sounds good. Uh. Do they have decent food?"

"Decent enough to soak up the booze," Colin replied with a shrug.

()()

End of day came fast enough, and Harry found himself in a dimly lit pub with two levels, the top was an open balcony style looking down over the bar area. It was loud, but it was conversation loud, not music loud which was nice.

"Oh. There they are," Colin pointed up to the second level at the far table.

Harry squinted to try and figure out who it was Colin was pointing at. There were two guys there looking down and waving, but he couldn't make out the details of them in this light. He followed Colin up the spiral staircase leading to his friends and tried to think if he'd even asked for Colin's friends' names.

He hadn't.

All through school Harry had basically kept to himself. He knew the names of a lot of the people in his year but hadn't been very social. It would have been nice to have a tight group of friends to go out to the pub with after work every once and a while, but he didn't know how to go about setting that up. Having so many years preceding Hogwarts where Dudley had made sure Harry didn't socialize, it hadn't allowed him to develop those skills everyone else seemed to pick up in kindergarten.

As they drew closer to the table, he worried that Colin might have been friends with someone that knew him and held certain opinions about him being a loner. That wouldn't be completely inaccurate.

"Harry, this is Denis, my brother, he's fresh out of school," Colin introduced. "And this is Neville, you two might know each other."

"Oh!" Harry did in fact know Neville, they'd been paired in Herbology a few times. Neville had been shy but nice. "I remember you. You really knew your plants," Harry grinned at Neville in relief.

"Right! Harry Potter. Yeah, I remember you too," Neville smiled and shook his hand.

"Harry's been training me all day, thought I'd buy him a pint to say 'thanks'," Colin told them. "Anyone order food yet?"

"Got two platters of appy's on the way," Denis told him before turning to Harry to shake his hand as well. "You were a Hufflepuff, right?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "That's okay at a table full of Gryffindor's, right?" he teased lightly.

They chuckled and nodded.

"We'll allow it," Neville told him. "You were always decent. Not like that bloke Ernie in your house," he hesitated a second. "Uh. He's not a mate of yours, is he?"

"Definitely not. Guy was a twat. Glad you don't like him really," Harry laughed.

"Got your food here," The waitress appeared with two laden down platters of delicious deep-fried items. "Drink's for the new additions?" she looked to Colin and Harry.

"I'll get a Guinness," Colin told her. "Harry?"

"Somersby Cider, please," Harry told her.

"Make that two," came a voice from over the waitress's shoulder.

The three at the table with Harry greeted the new addition with a chorus of 'hello's' while Harry felt his stomach drop and he couldn't stop himself from staring at her like an idiot.

This was her.

She.

She.

She was the one that he'd grown just a little too obsessed with in school.

He tried everything to wean himself off of searching for her head of beautiful red hair at meals. He'd only gotten his first girlfriend because he was trying to get over how attracted he was to this girl, now woman, in front of him. They'd barely even interacted at school, but the first time he'd ever properly looked at her he'd felt completely done for. Her smile, her sense of humor, the cadence of her voice. It was no wonder she had so many friends and boyfriends in school. This girl was irresistible.

And just when he'd thought he properly managed to kick his addiction to her, when he'd finally started calling up images about other woman who bore no resemblance to her in his wanking fantasies, that was when she joined the Holyhead Harpies as a reserve Chaser and suddenly he was seeing her picture everywhere.

He'd even caved and gotten one of those promotional photos himself. It was tucked in his bookshelf at home.

Here she was now. Real life. They were going to be sitting at the same table. They were both going to be drinking a Somersby Cider. And her seat was right beside his.

"Hello all!" she greeted. "Oh!" she turned her radiant smile on him, and him alone. "Harry Potter! Hello."

That smile she was giving him had been the catalyst for his infatuation with her in the first place. Now he was one thousand percent sure he'd never get her out of his head.

()()()

It was his sixth year at Hogwarts, and it had been so much easier than the previous for Harry, having got through his OWL's with respectable marks. He was in his second year on the Quidditch Team as a Seeker and doing pretty damn well if he said so himself. Being on the team had helped boost his confidence a bit. His house mates treated him with a little less indifference, and his dorm mates asked for his opinion on things he didn't actually have opinions about.

It hadn't changed his social life much, being on the Quidditch Team. Life was carrying on as usual, and he was late on his way down to the pitch to watch the Ravenclaw-Slytherin game. It seemed the whole school was already down there, save for the two girls walking a few yards in front of him, and even they looked to be bundled up and heading down to the pitch themselves.

He glanced out the window to check if he could already see any players moving about the pitch. When he looked back in front of him the sight he saw stopped him in his tracks.

The two girls were kissing each other. Full on the lips.

Well, more the blonde girl seemed to be giving the ginger girl a full-on kiss. The ginger girl eye were wide with surprise and she was standing stalk still, arms out in a gesture like she wasn't sure what was going on, but was at the ready to push the blonde girl away once she gained control of her motor functions.

The blonde girl pulled back finally.

"Your lips are very nice and soft, but I think I still prefer boys," Blonde girl said breezily before letting go of the ginger girl's coat and continuing on her way down the staircase toward the doors leading out to the grounds.

The ginger girl, who Harry now recognized as the Seeker turned Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was still frozen there in the position she'd been in when blondie was kissing her, seemingly still in shock.

Harry still couldn't move. He'd seen couples kissing before, but never same sex. And certainly never two girls kissing, particularly two attractive girls, such as what he now realized the ginger girl was.

Weasley. She was a Weasley. Ron Weasley's sister.

Seeing a pretty girl like her getting kissed by another girl had seemed to shut off all his brain function.

Slowly a disbelieving smile came to her face. Then she started chuckling. Her smile grew brighter and she laughed, wiping away a few tears of mirth before she spotted him there. "Oh!" she looked torn between embarrassment and humor. "Uh."

He couldn't look away from her or even pretend that he hadn't just seen what he'd just seen. She was absolutely radiant when she smiled. How had he not noticed that before? "Uh. I. Um," he stumbled and tried to remember how to speak English.

"You wouldn't. I mean. She just misunderstood," she managed. "Uh. Took me a little too literal."

"You. You asked her to kiss you?" he asked in confusion before the option of not asking that even occurred to him.

Her smile returned at full blast again and she shook her head with a chuckle. "It was an offhanded comment about switching sides. Luna just. She's. She's a creature of her own," she offered with a shake of her head, as though that was enough information to give on the blond girl that 'still prefers boys'.

Harry couldn't find himself caring about the reasons behind Luna having kissed her. From the way his whole body was growing pleasantly warm just from the sight of her beautiful smile, all he could think was how he'd love to be finding out just how soft her lips were.

"You won't spread that around, will you?" her smile dropped allowing a concerned line to appear in the middle of her forehead.

How had he played Quidditch against her last year and not realized how pretty she was? He had noticed it with Cho Chang. Though, Cho Chang was paraded around the Hufflepuff common room on more than one occasion on the arm of Diggory.

This Weasley girl had been the Seeker last year too, like Chang. He recalled her being a more challenging opponent than either of the other team's Seekers, and that wasn't even her preferred position, she'd just been waiting for a Chaser spot to open up.

It took a second for her words to register with him; She was worried he'd start up some juicy Hogwarts gossip about her and the blonde girl, Luna.

"No," he said finally. "No. Promise. It was just a misunderstanding," he nodded and swallowed hard.

Her radiant smile returned. "Thanks Harry," she said, his name sounding lovely coming from her lips, before she turned and rushed off, trying to catch up to her entirely lucky and oblivious friend.

From then on, he'd noticed her every time they were in the same room together. Every time they passed each other in the corridors too.

She had a load of friends from what he could tell. He'd seen her in Hogsmeade having one on one's with a few different boys, whether she was just friends with them, or if they were something more, he wasn't sure. But she was clearly popular, and from the happy glow that she seemed to always have it wasn't hard to figure out why so many people gravitated towards her.

He wanted to gravitate towards her.

He'd watched a few of the Gryffindor Quidditch practices too, just so he could see her in action. Because she was a stellar Chaser.

By the end of his sixth year he realized he was rather unhealthily obsessed with Ginny Weasley, and he couldn't shake off the obsession in his seventh year either.

He just couldn't manage to get the confidence required to seek her out for an actual interaction.

()()

Now she was here, right in front of him.

And she remembered his name.

"Hello," he croaked, then cleared his throat. "Hi," he managed in a normal voice.

"How did you fall in with this crowd?" she asked in humor, her beautiful brown eyes looking directly at him.

"He was the poor sod in charge of training me all day," Colin explained and started digging into the chips on the platter in front of them that had seemed so appealing to Harry just a moment ago.

Harry wasn't sure he had the room around the weight that had settled in his stomach to eat anything now.

"That's great!" she zipped off her fall coat and hung it on the back of her chair. Revealing a sleeveless tee with the Harpies logo underneath.

Harry's lower half clenched at the sliver of her bra visible below the arm hole. It was a baby blue color. She pulled the tie out of her hair and it cascaded down her back and shoulders in nice soft waves before sitting down between he and Denis and helping herself to a chicken finger. She may as well have been moving in slow motion like the women did in the movies.

"Anyone else joining?" Ginny asked Colin and Neville.

"Think this is it," Neville answered.

Harry forced his eyes away from his perfect woman and turned to Neville. He knew something about him, he should use his voice to create a flow of conversation and not look like a silent idiot beside her. "What have you been up to these past three years?"

"Master Herbologist," Neville beamed.

"He's just finished his requirements," Denis said proudly and reached across the table to touch Neville's hand. They shared a private look.

"Not misunderstanding that one," Ginny leaned close to Harry to tell him quietly.

He barely suppressed the shiver that went through him as her forearm to shoulder touched his when she leaned over.

She remembered! She didn't just remember his name, she remembered that whole incident.

His head snapped over to look directly at her in delighted surprise. Her brown eyes were twinkling mischievously even in this low lighting. "That did look a little more consensual," he commented.

Her tongue peaked out a bit when she smiled. "Never forget your first girl on girl?" she lifted one eyebrow at him suggestively.

"What was that?" Colin burst into their conversation with a bark of laughter.

Ginny sat back properly in her seat and Harry tried not to pout at the loss of her skin against his. "Harry here was witness to, uh, Luna and I... sharing a moment."

A chorus of 'What!" resounded from the other three while Ginny threw her head back for a laugh.

The waitress came back and set down the other three drinks. Ginny picked hers up and took a swig before explaining. "I'd just had it out with Dean and mentioned something about being done with men, switching sides. Then I told her she was pretty alright, so how 'bout it?" Ginny laughed and shook her head. "Then she just turned and planted one on me." She wiped away another tear of mirth at the story.

The three turned their attention to Harry while Ginny tried to collect herself. "Apparently she had very soft lips, but Luna preferred men," Harry shrugged.

"Yes! That's exactly what she said!" Ginny exclaimed in surprise.

Shit, he thought. Maybe he shouldn't have just admitted he remembered it that well. Act as though he hadn't relived that over and over again ending with him making sure Ginny still preferred men too, him in particular. "You said it," he stated cavalierly. "Never forget your first girl on girl."

Now the whole table was chuckling.

Nailed it.

As it turned out, Ginny Weasley and Colin Creevy were roommates. They'd been friends in school and caught up when he moved back to England. Her flat mate, Hermione Granger, had been moving out and in with Ron Weasley, Ginny's closest brother in age, freeing up a room for her one hundred percent platonic male friend.

Denis, Colin's younger brother and boyfriend of Neville Longbottom was working events for a swanky magical hotel until he figured out what he wanted to do next as he was just out of school. And Neville was working as an Herbologist and an Apothecary supply chain.

It sounded like the four of them all caught up together about once a week or so, time permitting. Ginny's schedule and Denis' made those meet ups change around quite a bit with her game schedule and Denis' sporadic event schedule.

The conversation never lagged, and Harry was pretty proud of how he managed to contribute so much and not overdo it with too exuberant a reaction when he was trying to cover up just how nervous he was.

After his third drink it was getting fairly late, and he didn't want to, but it was time to head home and away from Ginny.

He had the potential to see her again now though. She was Colin's flat mate, and if he and Colin were going to continue getting along like they had today, then maybe he'd get invited out to another one of these meet ups.

"Hate to be the first one," Harry started, putting his empty bottle down in a definitive manner.

"Right," Colin checked his watch. "Wow, that time already," he jutted his chin slightly to Ginny. "We should get going too. You've got an early practice tomorrow."

"Yeah," she pouted slightly.

Harry noted that she'd only had the one cider then switched to water. She was responsible. The Harpies were known for their partying ways, but she didn't come off as one of those girls. She'd been so easy to converse with and quick with the wise cracks.

Beautiful and intelligent.

If only he had found out what her love life situation was. Neville and Denis were a couple. Colin had mentioned that he had a casual romance going on with some shop girl from Diagon Alley. But Ginny hadn't mentioned anything about herself. Neither had Harry though, and he could have offered up the fact that he'd been in a relationship until that very morning. But he didn't.

"You mentioned you live close by?" Harry asked as they pulled on their sweaters.

"Yeah. Just two tube stops south of here on Northern," Ginny answered for Colin.

Harry's eyebrows shot up. "I'm the same," Colin had mentioned living close, but they hadn't gotten any more specific than that. It was amazing to him that both he and she had a flat in the Clapham area and hadn't run into each other until now.

Actually, it was amazing that she could afford something in Zone 2. From what he recalled she didn't come from the wealthiest of backgrounds, and a reserve position, even for a Nationally ranked team like the Harpies, could only pay so much.

As the three of them headed towards the Elephant and Castle station he couldn't help but marvel over how well Ginny blended into the Muggle world. She came from a well-known pureblood family, normally pureblood witches and wizards stuck out like a sore thumb, but she pulled out her oyster card and swiped through the barrier with the ease of a seasoned commuter.

"Did you manage to find a tie that'll match my dress? Or do you want me to pick one up for you?" Ginny asked Colin as though suddenly remembering she'd had to ask him that.

Colin groaned, "I didn't. And could you?"

"Yeah fine. You're doing me a favor," she answered easily.

"What's this?" Harry asked, desperate to keep a dialogue open between he and she until they had to properly part ways.

"I have a wedding to go to, Colin said he'd be my plus one," she gave her friend a playful pinch to his arm.

"Yeah. Really roped me into that one," Colin rolled his eyes indicating that it hadn't been hard to convince him. "It's for one of her brothers. Oh, actually, you'd remember Ron."

"He'd probably remember Fred and George too. They made an impression," she grinned.

She was taking a friend to her brother's wedding. That was a good sign that she might be currently unattached.

"I definitely remember Fred and George," Harry grinned. "Remember Ron too. He's marrying Hermione Granger?" he had seen that coming. The two of them squabbled through five years of Gryffindor/Hufflepuff shared classes before they finally gave into their carnal needs, to the relief of the entire school.

Now they were getting married, and they were only twenty. That seemed rather young.

"Yep. I'm the Maid of Honor," Ginny gave a playfully curtsy. "So happy that it is almost over. It's been an ordeal," she widened her eyes, clearly thinking back over Hermione Granger's renowned organizational OCD.

Harry chuckled, "I'm sure you'll enjoy the night of, even if the buildup was a bit of a nightmare." He had no way of knowing though. He'd never been to a wedding. From what he did know of them though it was a night of drinking and dancing with a few toasts in between.

"Yeah, probably," she shrugged

"Definitely," Colin corrected. "The Weasley's know how to have a good time," he said, sounding like he'd been to a few of their shindigs.

"That we do," she stated proudly. "It should be a fun night," she admitted. "It's just been an ordeal getting there. I've been bombarded with cutlery options and color swatches for too long. Bill's wedding was just as bad, but I was only a simple bridesmaid for that one and at school for most of the decision-making time."

Harry tried to think of if he knew who Bill might be. Probably another one of her brothers. He knew she had six of them, as she was the youngest of seven and the only girl.

The piped in voice over announced his stop, and what should be their stop as well.

"Crazy that we have the same tube stop," Colin said to him.

"It is, and you've lived there for a while now?" Harry asked to Ginny, knowing for Colin it had only been a few weeks.

"Two years," she nodded. "Moved in with Hermione once I got hired on with the Harpies. Her parents bought the place as a rental property ages ago apparently. They rented it out to her at a steal, now the savings are passed on to me," she said proudly. "And Colin," she nudged Colin's shoulder.

"Yeah. It's a phenomenal deal for the area," Colin added.

Harry must have had a look of understanding pass over his face that Ginny caught. She gave him a sideways smirk as they ascended the stairs to the street. "Wondering how a Weasley could manage to live in this area?"

She didn't sound offended by her accurate derision of his expression, but he was sure he blushed anyway for being called out.

"Don't worry about it," she shrugged it off. "I know I've been incredibly lucky, even if I can't get it hooked up to Floo network." They stepped out onto the street and Colin automatically headed off in the direction of their flat, which was the direction of Harry's as well. "I tried to see if we could hook it up so I could get back to my parents easier, but no. It's a Muggle building. There is a private spot close by that I can Apparate from. That's good enough," Ginny shrugged.

"I'm in a Muggle building as well. Never checked to see if I could get Floo to it though. Don't have anywhere I'd need to get to that fast. I kind of like commuting and seeing the world at large on the way into work," he admitted.

She smiled at his answer. "You lived in the area long then?"

He nodded, "bought it just out of school."

"Bought?!" she asked in surprise. "Hello Mister Moneybags."

Harry bit back a grimace at that. His affluence was something he still hadn't quite adjusted to. He'd come into the money and purchased the flat once he'd finished his last year of Hogwarts, then he hadn't pulled from the enormous vault under Diagon Alley again. He'd been living off of his wages for all his expenses and doing his best never to think about his family money. "Yeah."

"Oh," Ginny sadly caught onto something. "Sorry. I... forgot for a moment."

"Forgot?" he asked in confusion.

"About your... family history," she stated sympathetically.

Harry actually stopped walking alongside her at that and stood rooted on his spot. She knew about his family history? How? Why? And what? The Sleakeazy thing? The downfall of You-Know-Who thing?

She stopped walking too and turned to face him.

Colin must not have overheard their conversation because he continued on his way at a brisk pace.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Harry stared down at her trying not to be distracted by how beautiful her eyes were and the way her freckles dusted the crest of her nose, spilling over onto the apple of her cheeks giving her this endearing quality to her overall appearance.

"What do you know of my family history?" he managed.

She blinked several times, giving off the impression of having just been caught doing something she shouldn't have. "I. I mean, the Potter used to be one of the 28. They were one of those really well-off influential families on the Wizengamut until the turn of the last century," she said quietly. "Then they lost their seat, but not the gold or anything."

"Oh," he managed. That family history. It must have been standard Pureblood education material if she knew that. He hadn't known until he was seventeen and got the letter from the Goblin's, then he'd found a tome in the vault with the details.

"Hey," she put her hand on his arm and stepped even closer. "Sorry if I upset you. I didn't mean to. Sometimes I can't help putting my foot in my mouth." She gave him a wry look, "it's a family trait." Her hand ran comfortingly up and down his arm.

Harry gave a hard swallow. "Uh. Colin is getting well ahead of you."

She looked over her shoulder and turned back to him with a dismissive shoulder shrug, "he's got to get to the loo."

At that, he let out a laugh that broke the tension he'd built up. "Right," he nodded and readied himself for something he thought might be a rather bold move; he offered her his arm so they could continue on their way.

She accepted his offer and they followed the path Colin had blazed linked at the elbows. Colin had got so far ahead of them now the Harry could only see him when he passed under a streetlight.

The two of them walked in comfortable silence with her tucked close beside him.

Harry couldn't believe how this day had completely turned around. He'd started it off with a break up and was he ever glad he'd resolved to do that this morning rather than after work, now he was walking the literal girl of his dreams home after a night out at the pub. Things like this didn't happen to him, or anyone.

Harry couldn't help fantasizing that this was the end of a date, one where he'd been debonair and charming and she'd been completely captivated by his witty conversation and responded with just the right amount of flirtation and suggestion. And when they got to her front door, she was going to be expecting an 'end of date' kiss. He would give it to her too. The kind of kiss that had her holding on to him in order to stop herself from falling to the ground because her knees had grown so weak. And then she'd be begging for more.

But this wasn't a date, and he didn't know how to kiss like that.

From the reactions of his only three former partners his kisses were the same as any other blokes. That magical movie moment of the perfect kiss was fabricated by Hollywood and fairy tale writers.

Call it cynicism, but he believed it was the non-coupling activities that made or broke a relationship. He hadn't been able to stand certain aspects of his previous girlfriends, their perfume, the way he wasn't able to simply sit at the end of his work day but was expected to do things, certain catty behavior they displayed ; their carnal activities had gone just fine though.

"Do you actually live this way?" Ginny asked suddenly, pulling him from his own thoughts.

"Uh," he suddenly looked up and around for a street sign or business that would indicate where they'd gone while he'd been daydreaming. "No," he realized in embarrassment. "I'm over that way two blocks." He jutted his chin to his right.

Ginny laughed lightly, "well, we're almost at my building anyway."

It sounded like she was going to tell him to just leave her there, but he didn't want to do that. "May as well get you to your door then," he cut her off in offer hoping it didn't come out sounding presumptuous.

She looked quite pleased with the offer, "thanks."

Ginny slowed right down and pulled them to a stop only 100 yards down the way. "This is us," she nodded to the lovely looking building to her left.

"It's a nice-looking place," he offered feeling rather unsure now.

She pulled her arm from his. "If you and Colin wind up getting along you could be commute buddies."

Harry smiled, "that would be alright."

"Well you should pop over for breakfast then some morning. I make a mean bagel and cream cheese," she waggled her eyebrows at him teasingly.

"That would be wonderful," he told her in a daze, nearly leaning down before he remembered himself. This was real life, not the fake situation he'd been playing in his head since they'd linked arms. "Have a good practice tomorrow," he pulled back his arm.

Ginny nodded, "I usually do." Then she went up on her toes and gave him a friendly kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for walking me home." She pulled back and fished in her pocket for her keys. "And I was serious. You should stop in for breakfast some time. We're flat 3B," she pointed at the intercom system.

"I will," he promised and backed away down the short path back to the sidewalk as she pulled the door open and disappeared inside.

Harry couldn't stop the grin on his face as he turned to head back down the way they'd come, towards his flat. She kissed him. On the cheek, sure, but her soft and warm lips had actually pressed against his skin. Completely against his cheek. For about two counts as well. That wasn't a friendly peck, that was a kiss!

What a great day!

()()()

All week Harry had been trying to find an opening, some way to gently suggest to Colin that Colin should invite him out again, like he had on Monday night, but Harry was crap at it.

Colin turned out to be a great trainee and really just required the business overview of how to get reports handed in. Trainee's were all given a test before getting hired on, but that didn't mean that they were all the most competent. There had been several incidents where cauldrons had exploded and toxic mists had been created, Colin didn't seem to be in danger of being one to create that situation.

It still astounded Harry that decent potioneers came from Hogwarts after seven years with their shoddy professor.

Anyway, Harry had been trying to find some casual opening to get himself invited over to Colin's flat so he could see Ginny again, and though everything about Monday night stuck out in his brain like a beacon of flashing lights, he was pretending around Colin that it hadn't been one of the single most amazing nights of his life thus far.

Because that sounded pathetic.

"What are you getting up to this weekend?" Harry asked on Friday afternoon as they were cleaning up the station before doing reports.

"I've got that wedding to go to," Colin told him, not sounding as happy about it as he had.

"Right, yeah, I remember now. You don't seem so keen on it anymore."

"Well. Remember how I said I was casually seeing someone? Turns out she isn't thrilled that I live with a Harpy, and even less that I'm that Harpy's plus one to events like this," Colin frowned.

Harry stopped what he was doing and raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him. "She's never been in the same room with you and Ginny, has she?"

"Nope," Colin shook his head once. "We weren't taking things too seriously because that's how Marissa wanted to play things. That's her name, by the way. Then I figured if I made her a bit jealous, then she might want something more. Well, it kind of backfired."

Harry couldn't help the slight jiggle of laughter in his shoulders. Colin saw, but from his expression he was in good humor about it.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Play with fire and whatnot," he waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway. I'm going over to Marissa's tonight and hopefully she'll be cool about it by tomorrow."

"Not controlling is she?" Harry asked.

"No," Colin didn't sound quite convinced. "I'm pretty sure she's just being careful. The last guy she saw was apparently a piece of work." He drew in a deep breath, like he was cleansing himself of the conversation. "What do you normally get up to on the weekends?"

"Uh, well. My last few of them have been occupied with a girlfriend. But that's done now," he shrugged. "Pretty wide-open weekend ahead of me. No plans."

"You should come over for breakfast tomorrow then!" Colin said brightly. "Help me calm Ginny down a bit when she goes squirrelly."

Inside Harry's heart gave a leap and fist pumped an artery in the air, outside he was trying to keep a pleasantly interested face. "I wouldn't mind that," he nodded happily. "Ginny said something about making a mean bagel and cream cheese."

The next morning, he woke early from his excitement.

Harry knew that there were several more like him out there, slightly obsessed with Ginny Weasley. She was beautiful, enigmatic, a star Chaser, the list went on and on. Five years now he had this crush on her. And it was a crush. There was no other way to describe it. Crushes were when one was in awe of another, holding romantic feelings and slightly embarrassed about anyone finding out, even the object of said desire. He wouldn't have hidden the posters of her if it wasn't a crush, he would have displayed them on the wall, as they were meant to be displayed.

Now it was bright and early on a Saturday morning and it was far too early to head over to Colin and Ginny's place. So, he puttered around his own flat, his nervous energy making him start in on a thorough clean of the place until it turned from five a.m. to just after eight. He didn't want to seem too eager.

The walk from his to Ginny's, er, Colin and Ginny's, happened in the blink of an eye. Not literally, he was just so in his own head about how that morning would go that he didn't notice anything about what he was passing until he was standing in front of their building door and staring at the intercom that read 3B-Granger.

That label swam a bit in front of his eyes.

Perhaps he should have eaten something while he'd been tidying his flat for the past three hours.

Steeling his nerves, he pressed the buzzer.

One second passed, then two, then ten. It was torture.

There was a chance that they were still asleep. Perhaps he'd made the journey for nothing. Maybe they'd actually gone out for breakfast. Or Colin was shacked up at Marissa's place and Ginny had gone home with a tall, dark and handsome stranger that was her new date to her brother's wedding.

A loud buzzing noise gave Harry a start as he heard the door being released and allowing him entrance.

Cautiously he pushed the building door inward and climbed the steps to the third floor. There hadn't been anyone's voice asking who it was wanting entrance to the building, but maybe Colin had just pried himself out of bed and remembered the invite he'd given, not bothering with something as futile as a conversation for a precursor to the one they'd hold inside the flat.

Door 3B was slightly open when he got to it. Knocking gently he slowly poked his head in and looked around the entryway.

"Hello?"

Shouldn't one of them be there to greet him? Isn't that normal convention for a first-time pop over such as this was?

"Come on in, Harry," Ginny called out from the other room. "I need your help."

Harry's eyebrows went up at that. He couldn't see her yet, but she sounded harried.

He kicked off his shoe's and went the direction her voice had come from, finding her at a table just off their kitchen and a disarray of potions ingredients surrounding a cauldron.

Ginny had her hair hastily tied up on top of her head and a loose-fitting t-shirt on top of checked, fitted pajama bottoms. She was a lovely sight, but not one that told him she knew he'd be coming over.

"Thank Merlin you're here!" she exclaimed. "I'm crap at potions and that bitch of a pseudo girlfriend did something to Colin. Apparently, she didn't want him to be able to go to the wedding with me today. Can you believe it?!"

Yes.

From what Colin had shared with him yesterday, he could believe it.

"What did she do to him?" he asked, coming forward to check which potion she was trying to pull together. It was the fifth-year potions book and it was turned to the page for the antidote for confusing concoction, one that Ginny was not doing a good job of preparing.

"Uh, yes. Maybe I should take over," he said gently.

Ginny turned to him with a sigh, her hand still on the ladle that was in the cauldron full of the wrong colored liquid that was bubbling instead of simmering. "You need to start over, don't you," she sighed. It was a statement, not a question. "It's alright. I was crap at potions. How there are any potioneers that came out from under Snape's tutelage I'll never understand."

"Don't worry, I was basically self-taught," he assured her and took the cauldron off the flame to clean it out. "Where is Colin?"

"I trapped him in the bath," Ginny told him.

Harry paused. "You what?"

If she was trying to hide her humor about the situation, she was failing horribly. "He tried to climb over the balcony, then took a fork near the electrical socket, followed by a few other messy or potentially life-threatening acts. So, I trapped him in the bath. He can't get past the shower curtain."

"But he could drown himself," Harry mentioned cautiously.

"He'd have to figure out how the taps work in order for that, and I'd hear the water running," she shrugged.

"That's a fair point," Harry admitted.

"Come's from having six older brothers. I've seen it all," she preened.

It was cute how proud she looked of her problem solving.

"Right then. You do this, I will assemble some breakfast for the two of us. Well, three of us, but we'll see how Colin is once he's sorted out," she moved to the kitchen.

"Er, right," he wasn't sure in what manner he should be breaking this news to her, but there were some side effects of the antidote she might not be too happy to hear. Marissa probably knew exactly what she was doing. "Thing is," he hesitated again.

"Spit it out, Harry," Ginny told him over her shoulder as she opened the fridge.

"Even once Colin gets this, he won't be in any state to go to the wedding with you today. It'll, it'll basically knock him out for ten hours."

They locked eyes and Ginny's shoulders sagged as the new reality of her day sunk in. Her face screwed up in consternation, "damn." She slammed a milk carton down on the counter.

All he could offer her was a placating smile. "He was just a plus one though, right? It wasn't a date." There was no wondering in his mind over that one. She and Colin were strictly friends, no more.

"Yeah," she groaned. "But he was my drink refiller, my dance partner, the person that talked me down from wanting to punch one of my brothers and have my mother yell at me," she frowned.

"Is there no one else you can invite last minute?" what he was really asking is if she had some side piece that she could call on. "Neville maybe?" They were friends and he was clearly gay, but it was safer than asking if there was someone she was shagging that she might call on.

"No, he's going and he's bringing Denis," she frowned.

They were silent then as she assembled some food and Harry started the antidote over again. There were a few amused looks between them as sounds began carrying from the loo. Colin was in there knocking out a pattern on the tiles before he started singing a very off-tune rendition of their school song.

"This is almost done," Harry told her with a chuckle after fifteen minutes.

"As is this," she said over her sink with her dirty dishes while checking the saucepan on the stove top.

He wasn't sure what exactly she'd just made, but it was much fancier than a bagel and cream cheese. It smelled great, that much he knew.

"Can I grab a glass?" he asked as the potion turned the correct color.

"Sure," she came over and inspected the potion curiously. "Thanks for this. It would have taken me ages to get it right."

"And there was no way that Colin would have been able to help." Colin was still singing about Hoggy Warty Hogwarts. "Err, he's dressed, right?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"He was when I pushed him in there. Who knows if he's got a stitch on him now," she laughed lightly. At Harry's expression she rolled her eyes. "He isn't one to strip off when he's drunk or anything. I think you're safe from seeing his bare bum."

"I'm more worried about having to pin him down and feed him this," he held up the cup of purple liquid.

"Oh, yeah. That wouldn't be pleasant," she cringed. Stopping in front of the loo door she pulled her wand out of her back pocket. "Alright, you ready for this?"

He couldn't help but find it somewhat funny. Situations like this were supposed to happen in his teen years, but he'd never had tight enough relationships with who he'd gone to school with, and he certainly wasn't invited to join in with Dudley and his friends with their shenanigans. This was the type of situation he'd seen in movies and wondered if he'd ever be good enough friends with someone for this to happen.

His involuntary chuckle seemed enough for Ginny. She opened the door and went straight to the tub.

"Has he been in there all night?" Harry asked her.

"Since two, yeah," she told him, inspecting through a clear spot in the pattern on the curtain to see if Colin was dressed. He was entirely quiet now and it was fairly daunting considering how loud he had been for the last fifteen minutes.

"Marissa must have dropped him off just after she'd dosed him. I woke up to him crashing around the flat and was too tired to deal with it then, so I just gave him a pillow and made him pass out in here until my brain started functioning properly."

"Love it," Harry grinned.

Ginny looked back at him, her wand at the ready, and gave him a matching grin. "Six brothers, remember? I've got my priorities, and sleep is a big one."

"Again, love it," he assured her.

"Alright, Colin?" she turned back to the curtain. "I'm going to let you out now. Harry's here and he made a potion to set you right."

"Clarice? Is that you?! How are you girl?" Colin exclaimed.

"Best we just get him out and make him drink," Harry told her.

Ginny nodded and waved her wand to remove the freezing charm, pulling the curtain back slowly.

Colin was standing there, fully dressed, and looking expectantly at the pair of them. "Have they got our reservation?" he asked brightly.

"They have!" Ginny exclaimed. "And they gave us an aperitif for our wait. Here, it's delicious." She took the drink from Harry and handed it over to Colin.

"Cheers!" Colin gave a salute with the glass before drinking it down.

It wasn't the struggle Harry had been bracing himself for, but it was still a funny story. The look on Colin's face as the potion settled down in his belly and spread out through his system was certainly funny enough. It was like he was a robot powering down.

The antidote to a Confusion Concoction essentially made one fall into a coma for around twelve hours.

Colin's face fell and he was struggling to keep just one of his eyelids cracked open enough to see the two of them, then his shoulders sagged and he listed forward. Harry lurched forward to catch him under the elbow and brace against his weight.

"Alright then, lets get you to bed," Harry coaxed.

Colin gargled something in response that sounded a little like, 'I'm flattered, but I don't like boys.' Ginny snorted at it anyhow, and took Colin's other elbow.

"He's straight across the hall," she told Harry. "How long will he be out like this?"

"Ten to twelve hours," he told her. "He'll probably be wide awake when you get home from the wedding."

"Good, I'll be able to rail off at him for leaving me hanging then," she said wryly as they dumped him into the bed.

Harry stood back as she tucked Colin in and removed his socks. That was unnecessarily sweet of her.

"Alright then," she said as they got back into the hallway. "Looks like it's just you, me and frittata."

Harry's footsteps faltered slightly as they were headed back towards the kitchen. She'd made him frittata? He hadn't been paying close attention to what she was doing, he was concentrating too hard on getting the potion right. Frittata sounded complicated and special.

"How is it you can make frittata, but not a simple potion?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.

He wanted to kick himself for blurting that out. What if she got offended and kicked him out? He was just about to get alone time with her. That's what he had wanted for the past five years!

Ginny simply swung around and stood directly in front of him with her arms crossed defiantly and a smug look on her face, "can you make frittata?"

"Er, no?"

"Do you want to eat some of the frittata I made for you?" she asked with mock sweetness to her voice, cocking her eyebrow.

"Er, yes."

Ginny took one small step towards him. "Then I suggest you shut up about my potion making skills," she almost whispered.

Harry felt his heart faltering slightly. If the woman of his dreams made him frittata, he was going to eat the fucking frittata. And he was going to tell her it was the most amazing thing under the sun even if it tasted like someone else had already eaten it.

All he could manage was a nod though.

Ginny tilted her head and gave him a preening smile before twirling around and going back towards the kitchen. He couldn't help but chuckle at how she was.

Harry started cleaning up the potions area while she went to the kitchen and started plating their breakfast. "Do you drink coffee or tea?" she asked. "I should have offered when you first got here, but I guess you could say I was distracted."

"Understandably so. I'm a tea drinker, thanks." Harry looked around for an obvious home for the supplies he'd packed away in their proper containers and utensils and cauldron.

"The light blue wardrobe," she called out without him having to ask.

Harry saw the wardrobe by the window and pulled open the door. It was a perfect potions storage space, Colin must have used a spell to keep the temperature inside it regulated as well. There were a few photo's stuck on the inside of the door, but they were mostly of redheads. Weasley's. There was one photo of seven of them in a row, all using one hand to tousle the others hair while Ginny, at the end, was just glaring at the rest of them before reluctantly smiling. She looked about fourteen in the photo.

"Was it nice growing up in such a large family?" Harry asked her wistfully.

"You know, it didn't always suck," she said softly from right beside him.

Harry gave a slight start. He hadn't heard her come up beside him with his tea.

"Food's ready," she pointed her thumb back towards the table he'd just cleared.

"This is really nice of you," he commented as he sat down. From the looks and smells of the dish he wouldn't have to lie about how amazing it would taste.

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's ingrained in my genetics. My mum would have invited in stray orphans to live with us if they were magical, and that's only because of the Statute of Secrecy," she waved a dismissive hand.

"Geez, wish I'd been sorted into Gryffindor and befriended Ron then," he said after taking a bite. It was delicious. There was kale, or spinach or something with sundried tomatoes, parmesan, noodles and a few other seasonings that made the dish amazing.

"You were raised by Muggle relatives of yours, right?"

"Yeah, they weren't so keen on magic though. I left as soon as I turned seventeen," he said, in a hurry to take another bite.

As he was finishing off the dish he realized that Ginny wasn't as eager to finish her own food. He looked up and saw this look in her eye. One that he didn't want to see. He'd only told part of his story to a few people, and they always got that pitying look in their eyes.

"Don't," he stopped her before she could say anything. "It's done. I'm fine."

"Don't what?" she asked, her shoulders shrugging up in an obvious show of trying to cover up whatever had been running through her mind.

"I'm an orphan, I've had plenty of time to adjust to that fact. You don't need to go all doe eyed on me," he told her straight.

"Hey, I'm just sitting here," she put another forkful of food in her mouth. "So, what are your plans for the day?"

He shrugged, "don't have any. This was all I had on the docket."

"Really?" she dragged out the word slowly and gave him a speculative look. "Do you have a suit?"

()()()

There was no way he could have foreseen that this would be the first opportunity he would have to wear this suit. It had been hanging in his closet since he'd received his first bonus cheque after his first year of working at Lumiere.

He had hoped he would have an occasion to wear it, but it hadn't come until now.

As he stood in the middle row on the far side of the aisle, beside Neville and Denis, Harry watched Ginny walk down the aisle in front of her future sister-in-law and tried not to swallow his tongue at the sight of her.

Bridesmaids dresses were supposed to be garish and unflattering, but not Ginny's. It hugged her and complimented her just right, and the soft green color didn't clash with her hair, which was much shinier now than it had been over breakfast, when she'd asked him to be her date.

After she'd asked him to be the one to accompany her earlier that day he wondered if his nerves would allow him to last long enough to arrive. It was a miracle that he hadn't splinched himself upon arrival at 'The Burrow'. When Neville and Denis had spotted him, they'd immediately pulled him over to their circle of people, and Harry was hanging off them like a lifeline. He was no good with socializing, and these two were great at it. Apparently, Ginny had filled them in briefly on her change of escort and told them they better help him out.

Harry's job was to keep hold of a few pertinent items of Ginny's in his pockets, which Neville supplied to him, keep ensuring her drink was full and be her 'important dance' partner.

He was more than happy to be and do all those things for her. Like a real date would.

He couldn't take his eyes off of her throughout the ceremony. The way she attempted to stealthily wipe away a tear as her friend and brother exchanged vows, the way she whooped and celebrated when the bride and groom were officially announced as mister and missus Weasley. She was just gorgeous. Her whole energy just called out to him.

Harry gave a start when he felt a tap on the bottom of his chin.

"Roll it in Romeo," Denis told him.

"What?!" Harry's eyes went wide. Had he been that obvious?

"Relax, Harry," Neville told him. "She likes you too."

He probably would have yelled the word 'what' had he not had that minuscule hold on his faculties.

Ginny like him too?!

As in, Neville and Denis knew that he, Harry, liked Ginny, and that she liked him right back?

"How," was all he could manage to get out.

Denis let out a scoff, "even I remember the way should would watch you when you were the Hufflepuff Seeker."

This was what if felt like when reality was slipping into something else. He'd been crushing on her, not the other way around. There was no way.

"Merlin," Neville exasperated. "Remember what she was like near the end of her sixth year?" he nudged his boyfriend. "She was so bummed you were leaving, and she'd never gotten the opportunity to get to know you better. Remember that, Denis?"

Denis shrugged, "I wasn't as close to you guys then, but I remember her being a little wistful during a drinking night in her seventh year and bringing it up."

"She likes me?" Harry said slowly, a smile tugging to his face.

"Whoa, look at that," Neville commented, staring at Harry's face curiously.

"No kidding," Denis regarded Harry the same way.

"I. I. I just. I mean, she was so popular, I never assumed," Harry stuttered.

"Well, ship up. She might rethink it if you're just drooling all the time," Denis gave him a light punch in the shoulder.

Harry couldn't believe it. She liked him!

Thank Merlin she'd made Neville and Denis agree to stick by him, because he didn't know if he'd manage to find his way to the bar otherwise. Ginny was busy doing pictures of the wedding party and family and would probably be tied up for a while, so he only had that long to collect himself.

It didn't seem like the other two minded being his crutch. He hoped they were okay with it anyhow. They looked okay enough and hadn't said anything to warn him against inadvertently hurting Ginny somehow by being a prat. That meant they were alright with the match, right?

There were a few other students from Hogwarts milling about that he knew enough to hold brief conversations with about where he worked and what he'd been up to. It only sort of felt like the same conversation over and over again.

Then he ran into Dean Thomas, Ginny's ex-boyfriend. It made sense that he was there, because he had been Ron's dorm mate for seven years, but Harry wasn't too keen on finding out that Dean had come to the wedding with-out a date, and was even less keen when Dean brought up the fact that he was looking to hook-up, proceeded by casually bringing up Ginny.

Harry had just stopped himself from snarling at Dean when Neville turned Harry back towards the bar then and that was when he spotted someone he hadn't seen in a while.

"Remus?" Harry tapped him on his shoulder.

"Harry!" the older gentleman beamed. "How are you! Great to see you here!"

"Good to see you too," Harry told him sincerely before he was pulled into a hug.

"My goodness, you still look just like James, save for the eyes."

Harry had heard that before, from anyone that had known his parents. But Harry hadn't known them, and it still stung from time to time to remember that fact.

"Who are you here with?" Remus asked. "Or are you friends with Ron and Hermione?"

"Er, no. I knew them in school, but not very well. Hermione was in most of my NEWT level classes," he shrugged. "I'm here as a plus one. Erm," he swallowed, because he still couldn't quite believe it, "Ginny Weasley's."

"Ah, Potter's and their red heads," Remus said knowingly.

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Don't know how much of a Potter I am, I did wind up in Hufflepuff after all."

"What's wrong with being a Hufflepuff?" a woman asked as she came up, slipping her arm through Remus'.

"Harry, this is Nymphadora Tonks, my fiancée," Remus introduced.

"Just Tonks, thanks," she held out her hand for Harry. "You Harry Potter?" she asked. "Remus has been talking about wanting to reach out to you."

Harry turned to Remus then, who was nodding solemnly.

"We chatted a bit when you got out of school, but I can't help feeling like we should get to know each other better. Wondered if you wouldn't mind meeting up for dinner every now and again. I was really close with your dad, he and I were like brothers at one point and I've always regretted not reaching out sooner."

Harry was immediately overcome with a feeling of warmth spreading through him. He would have loved to have some connection to his family when he was younger that didn't include resentful relatives that had tried to "squash the magic out of him". "I'd like that," he told the man honestly.

"Harry," came a sweet voice to his right. Ginny was back from her photo's looking exhausted, but happy. "Hi Tonks!" she stepped towards the woman and gave her a big hug. "So great that you two could make it! Charlie's been looking for a chance to catch up," she pointed over to a tall redhead by the marquis that looked very built.

"Great! Come on Remus, let me introduce you to my first boyfriend," Tonks pulled Remus along as he shook his head and chuckled.

"Do you know Tonks?" Ginny asked him.

"Remus was friends with my dad actually," Harry told her.

"Really?" she beamed and pulled him a little closer by the pockets of his jacket before plunging her hand inside and rooting around.

All he could do was stare at her as she felt around in his pocket. He probably should have been asking what she was doing, or looking for, but he didn't rightly care. She was so close to him.

And she liked him, he thought dreamily.

"Ah! Got it," she pulled her lipstick out of his pocket and applied a light layer to her already perfect lips before popping the cap back on and slipping it back in his pocket.

"Time for a drink then?" he asked. Harry knew he needed to be more vocal and get to actually know her if he wanted to have a proper relationship with her.

Which he did.

He so absolutely did.

"I can probably swing two before we get called into the tent," she took his arm and they went to the bar. "My mum's been asking about you, FYI."

"What, er, what did you tell her?" he asked hesitantly.

"That you work with Colin, we caught up the other night and you agreed to come with me here just this morning."

Harry nodded. That did basically sum it up. "She was alright with that? You bringing someone you don't really know?"

Ginny shook her head lightly with a smile on her face, "she thought it showed a lot of promise that you would just drop everything and come with me today."

Harry couldn't help the snort that came out of his mouth. "That was made all the easier by the numerous number of things that needed dropping. I'm just glad I had the sense to get a properly fitted suit 'just in case' two years ago. Probably should have double checked I removed the tags."

Ginny giggled and put her drink down. "Here, let me check."

Then her arms were around his neck and she was pressed against his chest. His hands immediately settled on her waist. Then in slow motion she went up on her toes and her lips moved towards his, at the last moment before he was about to lean forward her head moved to the side and she pulled on the back of his jacket, checking the tag.

"Kingsman," she commented with approval. "No wonder, class with-out ostentation."

"Glad you approve," he almost whispered in her ear.

Ginny lowered herself back on her heels, her hands sliding down his lapels, the weight of them there felt so lovely. "Harry," she started.

His name sounded so wonderful on her lips.

"Ginny!" a booming voice interrupted their moment from behind Harry.

"Gin Gin!" came a nearly identical voice.

"Shit," she murmured. "It's the twins. Don't believe anything they say, and don't take anything they offer."

"Not to worry. I remember them well enough from school," he assured her.

"Hello," one of the twins clapped him on the shoulder. "Who's this with you then?"

"Why it's that Potter lad, was Seeker for Hufflepuff our last year!" the other stated. "What brings you here this fine day?"

"Shove off, both of you," Ginny told them, sounding unimpressed.

"Come now little one. Just making sure that your date here is good enough for you," the one that was holding on to Harry's shoulder said.

"Fred," Ginny gritted out through her teeth in a warning.

"George actually," he corrected her.

Ginny dove her hand back into Harry's jacked pocket quickly and pulled out her lipstick, yanking off the cap and going at him with it, managing to make a line down the side of his face.

"Oi!" he rushed away from her with his hand over his lined cheek.

"Attention guests," Ginny yelled. "The twin with the line of lipstick on his cheek is FRED!" she glared at Fred menacingly.

"I'll just wash it off," he growled at her.

"Go right ahead, but it isn't coming off for at least three hours," she told him proudly. "Leave my date and I alone."

Harry stood there awkwardly while the two of them glared at each other, unsure what to do. But Fred's lip twitched and then the two of them were smiling at each other and she gave him a kiss to the cheek.

That was it. Fight over.

Harry did not understand sibling relationships.

"I'm assuming you did know that was Fred and not George?" he asked her when she came back to get her glass and the twins wandered off.

"He wouldn't have corrected me if he wasn't Fred," she said breezily before she took a sip.

Harry's jaw dropped a bit and he let out an involuntary laugh. "That's it? That's all you needed? It wasn't because he had a freckle on the apple of his cheek or anything?"

"Nope, that's all I needed," she grinned.

"Amazing," he said in wonder.

"I get that a lot," she said playfully and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"For good reason."

She gave him a private smile at that. He wished they hadn't have been interrupted before, but it was inevitable. There wouldn't be many opportunities to spend proper time with him here, but hopefully he could drum up the nerve to ask her to spend more time with him.

"Incoming," she said, looking over his shoulder. "Mind if I put my arm around you for this one?"

"Not at all," he told her immediately. Her arm was around his waist before he had a chance to see that the 'incoming' was actually Dean Thomas, her ex.

Harry didn't mind being used to deflect Dean's attention elsewhere in the slightest.

Moving around the reception area before dinner with Ginny was as easy as breathing. She knew everybody and managed to get Harry talking more than he had ever done before. There were loads of really nice people that she knew, and interesting one's too.

He met all of her brothers now, and the two eldest were certainly intimidating, but they seemed to give him silent approval. Harry wasn't sure whether it was his manners or his obvious reverence for their sister. It could have been the way he had called out Dean Thomas for being a dick and putting his hands on Ginny when she obviously didn't want them there, that would have been due to his third drink's influence. Either way, he had approval from her family. It was an odd feeling for him when he realized that, because he'd never met a girls family before, and this girl wasn't even his.

Yet.

He was praying to all the Gods that that was a 'yet'.

Neville and Denis truly believed that she had a minor crush on him in school, which he still couldn't wrap his mind around, but there was always the possibility that they were messing with him. Harry sat with the two of them through dinner and the speeches and he couldn't help feeling like if he'd made a different choice at the Hogwarts sorting that he could have been a part of this lovely circle of people well before now instead of just existing as pretty much a loner.

Once the plates vanished Ginny came over to sit with he and the other two. "Looking forward to getting these heels off."

"This wedding isn't nearly as stuffy as some of the events I've seen at the hotel," Denis commented. "And nowhere near as tacky. Did I tell you about the strip tease that one of the brides did the other week?"

Harry nearly choked on his drink at that one. The three of them leaned in to get the full details from Denis of some of the raunchier weddings he'd overseen, and they were hysterical.

"Alright, dancing is starting," Ginny tugged on Harry's hand. "You can dance, can't you?" she asked him.

"I can sway I guess," he offered. "I'll do my best not to tread on your foot, but you can't judge me for it if I do."

"Deal," she beamed.

The first few songs were slow, so Harry didn't need to do more than simply have his arms around her and smile down into her eyes.

"You've an amazing eye color," Ginny told him.

"Can't take all the credit. I got them from my mum," he told her in jest.

"I got mine from my mum too," she said happily. "And her 'take no bullshit' attitude."

"I love that about you." He hadn't meant to say that. It just slipped out.

"I loved how you refused to change your ways to try and fit in with Ernie MacMillan and the other tossers you were stuck rooming with," Ginny said in response.

"Justin wasn't so bad," he defended immediately. "Wait, you noticed that?"

Ginny nodded. "It was the same with Neville," she pointed to her friend at the other side of the dance floor with his boyfriend in his arms. "He wasn't the bravest or the brightest in most subjects, but he was himself. Never put on a farce." She looked back up at Harry. "I like that."

"I wish I'd chosen a different house," he admitted. "No offense to Tonks, who seemed defensive of her house earlier, but Hufflepuff was a little lonely for me."

"Lucky for you us Gryffindors and Weasley's have a thing for taking in orphans and loners and making them one of us," she smiled.

Harry's tongue felt twice the size it should have, and he wasn't sure if he was about to bungle this up, but he would never forgive himself if he didn't take a shot. "I'd like that," he whispered, looking her straight in the eye and hoping she knew what he meant.

"Harry," she started softly, "I've wondered what it would feel like if you asked me out for a long time now. How much longer are you going to keep me waiting?" There was a twitch at the corner of her lip and a twinkle in her eye, but he knew she was serious about her question.

He was fighting down the smile that was threatening to break his face in two and trying to calm his nerves enough to finally get this out without stumbling over his words. "Ginny, I've wanted to ask you out for five years now. From the first time we spoke to each other properly, you've been who I was comparing every other girl to. I'd love the opportunity to see how great you are in real life. Would you please go out with me?"

"Five years?" she asked weakly.

He gave a hard swallow as he nodding in minuscule head movements.

"Wow, that's a lot of wasted time between us," her head was shaking side to side in wonder. "You know what this means?" she asked seriously.

"Uh," he was at a loss. Was that a yes? Was it a no, because he was pathetic to her now?

She gave a slow lick to her bottom lip as she pulled herself forwards and pressed her chest against his, her hand going to the back of his head to pull his ear down to her mouth. "I noticed you first."

Whatever it was he thought she might say, it had absolutely not been that!

He pulled back from her abruptly with his eyes as wide as saucers. "You," he started off too loudly and managed a swallow to collect himself. "You mean," he lowered his voice to a reasonable conversing volume. "You mean you've been… interested in me since before we first spoke in the corridor after Luna, you know."

Ginny gave a silent giggle. "Yes," she said. "You were the cute Hufflepuff Seeker that was wicked talented on a broom. You had this whole tall, dark and broody thing going on. I think you had a few admirers in your years at school. I thought I was just one of them."

"Then, the start of my fifth year is when you... We had already played a game against each other and you were… God, I'm such an idiot," he shook his head. "Wait. That was a yes, right? You'll go out with me?"

She ran her hand down his arm and clasped it in his, pulling him off the dancefloor and out the tent.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"Pond," she said easily as she blazed their trail to the pond several yards away.

"This mean's it's a 'yes', right? Because if this is how you say 'no', then I'm completely lost," he joked.

"This is a 'Hell yes'," she assured him. "I just didn't want to finally kiss you for the first time in front of everyone I'm related to."

He had absolutely no more questions for her after that admission. He was going to kiss her! She was changing their location for the sole purpose of them kissing in private!

His heart was racing as she led them around the pond and into the woods behind it a little bit. He was slightly concerned with how far they were going away from everyone else, but this was where she grew up, so he assumed she knew it well.

Finally, they broke through a bit of thicket in the copse of trees and into an area that was still surrounded by trees, but you could look up and see the stars. He could hardly hear the music from the tent where they were.

Harry removed his eyes from their surroundings and focused them back on Ginny, who was tucking her wand away in her garter belt and flashing him a bit of leg.

She'd conjured them a blanket.

Ginny Weasley wanted to snog him. Laying down on a blanket.

He moved forward to wrap his arms around her waist and pull them closer together before his heart gave out.

"Maybe we should try and lower expectations," he worried. "I mean, I know I've built this up in my head over the years, even more so since I first saw you again in person on Monday."

"Same here," she admitted. "Okay," she rolled her shoulders back, like she was getting ready to do some serious expectation lowering, then gave a little nervous shiver.

He was relieved he didn't seem to be the only one that was nervous.

"I, uh. I use way too much tongue," Ginny said. "Like being licked by a Golden Retriever really."

Harry let out a laugh. "Right. And um, I've got terrible breath. You're going to regret this immensely."

"That's okay. It'll be one of those learning experiences," she chuckled.

His hand slid up her arm to cup the side of her face. He was done joking now, he'd been pining for ages and they could be interrupted at any moment.

She pressed in closer to him and was the one to make the final amount of space between their lips disappear. He inhaled the scent of her as she came forward, it was the same scent that was all around him. The wildflowers at her home were what she smelled like, and it was his new favorite smell.

Her lips were soft against his and perfectly plump. They fit against his just right and it was nothing like being licked by a dog. Little explosions of nerves being satisfied were firing off in his head and belly as they moved together, her mouth like a magnet for his own. It was nothing like how he'd felt with the other girls he'd known. Ginny fit against him exactly how he'd fantasized she would. And she was reciprocating everything he was giving her, and he was giving her his everything. If ever there was a time to hold back, this wasn't it.

Ginny moaned softly against his lips when his hand massaged the middle of her back. He dared not go any further than she would allow, but as her own hands began to wander he took that as a sign that she would allow more than his reservationist voice in his mind was initially telling him.

Her fingernails in his hair sent a shock wave of warmth and pleasure through his entire body. As their hands wandered both of them began clutching at each other desperately. He hadn't anticipated this sweeping of emotions that was driving him on, but she was likewise affected, and it was spurring him further.

"Down," she panted. "Lay down."

To the ground they went and he instantly noticed that she had not only conjured a blanket, but added a cushioning charm as well.

"Why, Miss Weasley, are you trying to seduce me?" It was completely out of character for him, but it just slipped out. He would have been mortified if she'd pulled back then and looked offended, but she didn't.

Instead she pulled him closer and rolled them over, so he was on top of her. "Would you think me fast and loose if I were?"

"No, but I don't know if I'd be able to control myself if you say 'yes'." His lips were already back on her, leaving a trail of open-mouthed kisses down her chest while she arched her back like she was giving him more room to play with.

"Lose control!" she breathed out. "Dear Merlin, please lose control."

Her hand went to the back of his head and pulled on the hair there to get his lips back to her own. He was already straining against his trousers at this point, and now she was asking him to shag her in the woods. It was a miracle he hadn't already cum!

He thrust himself against her and she moaned against his lips. She wasn't playing. Her hands came down to her dress skirt and she began pulling it up as his own hands flew to his belt. They were doing this. This was happening.

It wasn't completely dark out yet so he could see her knickers when her skirt was bunched up around her, thankfully it wasn't a poofy dress she'd been forced to wear, but she wasn't moving to take her knickers off.

"Did you want me to?" he pointed down at them.

Ginny shook her head. She didn't want them off. "Just pull them to the side," she breathed out. "I don't want to lose them."

Somehow, the idea of simply slipping her knickers to the side instead of having full access was hotter. He latched his mouth back on hers and his fingers went between her legs, rubbing her there until she was good and wet, which didn't take long.

"Please," she groaned against his mouth. "I'd rather cum when you're inside me."

Harry let out his own groan then and immediately moved his hand to his own boxers, shifting them down far enough for him to spring free. Not abandoning her mouth for a second he maneuvered his fingers to slip under her knickers and tug them over to the side and guide himself into her.

The pair of moans that emanated from their mouths at the satisfaction of him filling her was music to his ears.

This was Ginny Weasley. He was shagging Ginny Weasley for the first time in the woods behind her childhood home.

And she felt so fucking tight.

He slid in and out of her with ease and great appreciation. Her legs hooked around the backside of his knees and she set the movement that kept him almost fully seated inside her the whole time, just swirling around inside her and loving the way her moist walls were hugging his dick like they were welcoming him to his new favorite place it would be visiting often.

Being inside her like this felt absolutely incredible, but if he didn't pull himself upright just a little bit he was going to suffocate himself in her neck. While death by shagging was probably the best way to go, he'd leave that for when he was later in life and he and Ginny had managed to discover a few things the Kama Sutra left out.

"Ginny," he gasped as he felt her starting to squeeze tighter around him.

"I'm going to," she panted out, and couldn't manage any more than that before he felt her cumming around him.

Victory won he started pumping himself into her with the vigor he required until he too reached that point and stars exploded behind his eyes as he exploded inside of her.

He collapsed on top of her, clutching her close and rolling them over so that she wouldn't be crushed by his weight while they both caught their breath.

He lay there in a daze for several minutes.

This had surpassed his wildest dreams.

Well, not his wildest dreams. But this was reality, and he'd still shagged her on their first 'date', on a blanket in the woods no less.

And he'd been a successful shag for her too. He was mentally high-fiving himself for that one.

Ginny hummed and sucked in a deep breath that he knew meant they would have to detangle themselves shortly so she could get back to her Maid of Honor duties, so he moved his hands from their position wrapped around her, to merely resting against her hips and let her pull back.

"Thank you for that," she grinned down at him.

"Worthy of a repeat?" he asked, only somewhat nervously, as he did up his trousers.

"Many times over," she assured him, leaning forwards and sealing it with a kiss.

Harry knew he had a dopey and dazed expression. After several drinks and a quick, but successful first shag with the girl of his dreams, he wasn't sure he had much control over what his face was doing. "So five years ago, if I'd just asked you to Hogsmeade?" he started.

"Oh, I would have been over the moon," she sighed and gave him a lovely smile. "But instead you gave me many years to build you up in my mind."

He still couldn't wrap his mind around it. She had liked him before he'd even noticed her.

He held her hand as they went back to the tent knowing that it would be obvious to everyone what they'd just been up to from the smile on his face. But he didn't rightly care.

()()()