AN- Prompt- Wanting one Muggle AU and they meet through online game
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Companionability
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Ginny nodded politely and tried really hard to act like she was interested in what her date was saying. She didn't understand half the acronyms he was using though. Her job didn't exactly require her to be up on all the financial jargon. And this guy seemed very into his job.
As he prattled on she wondered whether having to sit here and listen to him, pretending to listen to him anyhow, was harder than completing her college coursework had been. There was food here, yes, but she usually had food on her at all times anyways. Not beet and feta salad with a balsamic reduction as was currently in front of her, but a granola bar or something at least.
There was wine here! She hadn't done her course work with alcohol present, she hadn't had any money to spare for frivolous indulgences like alcohol when she was in school.
So… that was a plus on the side of a date.
Let's see. What else would be the plus side to having to sit here and stare at this obnoxious man in his dry-clean only shirt with his perfectly styled hair.
Who had time to go to the dry cleaners?
Oh. She really had to remember to throw a load on in the washer when she got home.
Why her sister-in-law wanted to set her up with this man was beyond her.
She only allowed herself one night out a month, she could have been spending that with friends, or taking in that new movie in the cinema even it was only by herself. Being in a great dark theatre right then by herself with a big bag of popcorn and a beverage that was much too large for the size of her bladder would have been preferential to this.
This guy was Audrey's type, not Ginny's.
Maybe Audrey was just feeling bad for her because she hadn't had a suitor in many years.
To be fair she had wound up having a quick snog here and there after a night out at the bar, but a real suitor, Ginny gave a mental sigh, it had been so long.
And even when she'd last had a man that she could have called her boyfriend she always knew it wouldn't last.
The closest she had to a relationship outside of her family with a man was The Seeker, and he was only known to her as that. He was her partner in World of Warcraft.
It was her biggest secret that she was slightly obsessed with that game, she'd gotten into it after taking a psychology course and they were doing a bit on perspectives. Her story was a piece on introverts and how there were those who considered online gaming to cater specifically to that type and in order to make her paper well rounded she started playing the game herself.
Then it was nearly every night that she was playing it. But it was only after she had finished everything else that needed to get done; kitchen clean, laundry done, calls returned. She was determined not to let her obsession take over, but generally from 9pm to 10:30pm she was online waging battles and going on quests with The Seeker.
She would much rather be hearing about his day right now as they then listening to Cormac start talking about his rowing team championship as he was now launching into that story. The Seeker had such a lovely voice and their conversations weren't just one-sided.
If this dud of a date finished up in a half an hour then she could probably catch The Seeker before he signed off for the night.
There was one sure-fire way that she could make the date ended before dessert but she didn't know if it was slightly mean. A guy like him though, he would probably fake an emergency phone call and bolt.
"What say we go and have a nightcap?" Cormac asked her, his smug expression clearly indicating she should have been impressed by everything he'd bragged about.
"I don't know," she began coquettishly. "I should really get home to my son."
From the slight drop in his expression she knew Audrey hadn't informed him of that little tidbit of information about her.
"S-son?" he asked. "You're divorced?"
"No," she shook her head and gave a light and fake laugh. "You have to get married in order to get divorced. I may not have been ready to get pregnant at sixteen but getting married was hardly going to fix that problem."
"You got knocked up when you were a teenager?" His eyes were bugging out now and starting to dart around for the exit. "But, Audrey said you worked for The Telegraph, she said you are on a football team and went to Middlesex and had a flat in Hampstead."
"All true," Ginny nodded. "Is that not supposed to be possible when I've a son?" She'd seen this reaction a few times before. Ginny had busted her arse and applied for every single grant and scholarship she could potentially get to help put herself through school and afford childcare for Liam.
Her parent's and brothers had not been happy to find out she had gotten pregnant at such a young age, she wasn't happy to learn about it herself. It had been the result of a drunken night that she would have rather forgotten. Liam's father didn't believe her when she said it was his baby, and refused to get a paternity test, which she wasn't going to push. She didn't need his money anyhow; she had proven that.
Initially there had been a lot of disappointed looks from her family and conversations cut short when she walked into the room. She had gone to school for as long as her pregnancy allowed and finished her diploma through online learning. She didn't want to be dependent on her family though. They had protested, but all of their warnings of how her moving away with Liam was a mistake just had her more determined to prove them wrong.
And she had.
And she had missed them all terribly.
She would still visit with them and call each of her six brothers all the time. The weekend usually involved at least one hour long conversation with her mum while she was getting food ready for the week ahead. Eventually they had all recovered from the shock that was her life turning event.
"Right," Cormac said slowly. "So, I didn't really sign up to be someone's step-father figure, but if you want a one-off," he offered.
Ginny had been taking a sip of her wine at the time and snorted into her glass. She gave a cough and cleared her throat. "Uh, thank you for the offer. But my last one-off resulted in my son, so I'll pass."
"You-you haven't had a shag since you were sixteen?" he asked incredulously, looking her over.
Yes, she looked quite fit, but she did play football and was only twenty-three. Getting pregnant in her teen years meant that her figure bounced right back to what it had been before she grew a human.
Right, well that's date over. At least she got a meal out of it.
This is the last time she'll let Audrey set her up with someone.
"I believe that's my cue to leave," Ginny said standing up. "Thanks so much for the meal. If I could leave you with one little tidbit of a suggestion; don't be such a pretentious arse to your next date. Maybe stop with the self-obsession and include her at some point in your very boring narratives." With that she pulled on her jacket and left him there with the bill.
Thirty minutes later she was at her computer with her headset on and logged into her character.
"We doing a raid?" she asked.
"Hey!" came the excited voice of The Seeker in her ear. "I thought you weren't going to make it tonight?"
"Yeah, well. Plans fall through. This was a better option than spending another second with that twat," she grinned and tried to catch up to speed with anything she might have missed out on in the game.
"No quests tonight," The Seeker told her. "Just exploring and building up our supplies."
"You going to buy me a drink then at yonder pub?" she teased, checking the map and seeing that there was actually a village close to where they were.
"It's your turn to treat actually. You owe me for going all Leeroy Jenkins in the last raid."
"Hey now, it was not that bad! You were too worried. What was the worst that could have happened?"
"Hmm, death and destruction come to mind."
"This game is all about death and destruction," she pointed out.
"Yes, well we do rather try to be the one's doing the killing, not getting killed."
"Well that time you were the one sitting around with his thumb up his arse himming and hawing for well too long."
The Seeker just chuckled on the other end. "Right, right. Woman of action you are."
"You know me well."
Their interactions were always just that candid. It had been nearly a year now that they had been teamed up together and they chatted so much that he was essentially her best friend, though they didn't know much about each other outside of the game. He knew that she had a little boy and a hectic job, she knew that he had a job he enjoyed with people he liked and he loved roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
She also loved the sound of his voice. Chatting with him about everything and nothing at the end of the day after putting Liam to sleep was her bedtime routine. Now that she was hearing that lovely tenor Ginny felt like she was actually able to relax after her uncomfortable date.
()()()
"So, how was it?" Stacy asked her, pounced on her really, first thing Monday morning.
"You could text me these questions, you know?" Ginny grinned at her friends enthusiasm but Ginny didn't like telling dating stories, not that there were many, at work.
"I could, but then I wouldn't be able to see your face when you answer them," Stacy explained with a shrug.
The two of them were executive assistants, Stacy for the Creative Director, Ginny for the Advertising Sales Director. It wasn't the most glamorous job in the world but it kept her busy, kept her moving and she learned a lot about the businesses they were trying to entice to advertise in the Telegraph and that could be quite interesting.
Today they had people from The British Museum coming in and Ginny was looking forward to sitting in on that meeting. Her boss had her pull information on all the executives coming in and The British Museum financial records and advertising budget as well as information on all events that had been held there in the past three years. There had been a lot of prep for this and she was going to eat up watching her boss in action pitching this sale. It was a work of art the way that woman could convince these major partners to level up on their marketing.
"So," Stacy stared at her in rapt interest.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I got a meal out of it, but the company I suffered through made Pot Noodles look more appealing."
"He was that bad?"
"He was that pompous. Cookie cutter stock of a boarding school brat with money that rows crew. He didn't shut up about himself from 'hello' to 'shall we have a night cap'."
Stacy gave her a pity pout. Stacy was married with three kids that were all in school. She loved her husband, but after fifteen years together they fun flutters that occur early in a relationship were gone and she just ate up any new relationship gossip that floated through the office.
"So you didn't get a leg over?" she asked straightforward.
"No Stacy. I did not get a leg over," Ginny chuckled and shook her head.
"Damn. You really need to start getting out more. William is having a birthday party next weekend. It's going to be a sleepover, why don't you drop Liam round and find another man to take you out. The boys get on and I can't very well live vicariously through you if you aren't doing anything of interest."
"My God woman! Doesn't your husband shag you anymore?" Ginny asked her incredulously. Quietly, but incredulously. "Why are you so hard up for me to get shagged? Can't you just go get the Kama Sutra or something?"
Stacy was not offended by that she just shuffled her chair closer to Ginny and lay a hand on her shoulder. "Girl, I know how much you pushed yourself to get to this point in your life. Liam is getting older and so are you. I want you to be happy. Yes, I also want to come into work on Monday's and hear that you've had an incredibly erotic and acrobatic weekend, but overall, I want you to be happy. You deserve it."
"I'm fine," Ginny stated clearly and firmly to her. "I have a full enough life as it is. If someone comes along, then great. But I will not go trolling the bars to find someone. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to get back to work."
The only person that didn't seem to care about her love life was her boss, Miranda Hopkins. She was a no nonsense woman that was a great person to work under and was willing to show Ginny what it took to succeed in this line of work. Miranda didn't care about their office gossip, she cared about other office gossip. She wanted to know when a major company wasn't happy with other publications, she wanted to keep up with the new trends in advertising and she had taught Ginny who it was in other print media who to get to know.
Ginny had contacts in all the publication houses from The Times to the Weekly Messenger and she kept her eye out in every publication for any mistakes made. She had been groomed perfectly for her job and she was proud of all she'd accomplished.
She also liked being the person behind the one in power. Ginny wasn't the one calling the shots, she was the one implementing them, and she loved it.
Another big meeting was just finishing up and when the door to the conference room opened and Ginny jumped at the opportunity to get in there and prep it for Miranda's meeting with The British Museum, and get away from Stacy so she could refocus on work.
Miranda came into the room twenty minutes later and took a whiff of the air. "Coffee?" she asked.
"Lord Davis' preferred drink," Ginny told her. "He isn't fond of tea, but he is of coffee and crumpets. He is the one that we need to win over." She went to the side table and made sure that all of their statistics were there. "He isn't fond of having numbers thrown at him, but does like to know that things have been thoroughly researched. They are getting heavily invested into technology and focusing a lot of their advertising budget on their website, but their key demographic are not yet comfortable with technology and the admission rates for school groups, which are good with technology, are not making them any money."
"Yet their demographic does read the Daily Telegraph," Miranda nodded.
"Yes, they do," Ginny said with a smile as she handed her boss a hot cup of tea. "We sell them on advertising design, our reaching their key demographic and charitable contributors. They don't need to be wasting their money advertising in the aeroplane magazines since they are always on the top ten museums to visit in London. They need to keep themselves at the forefront of the British people's mind for a place to visit and hold events. We are Britain's news source. We also have our website that we can advertise them through and link it to their website. We pitch them an advertising package that starts with doing a story on the newest addition to the museum that Lord Davis is excited about."
"Which is?" Miranda asked, already knowing the answer.
"The newest exhibition which is the drawings of Michelangelo," Ginny stated.
Miranda gave her an approving smile then her eyes flickered over to the door behind Ginny and her smile grew wider. "Lord Davis," she greeted, going around Ginny to greet their clients.
Ginny had known exactly who to expect at this meeting. It was Lord Geoffrey Davis, his assistant Katherine Smyth, the Administrative Manager Thomas Gable and their Director of Museum Technology Harry Potter. Ginny knew who Lord Davis was, and his assistant was obviously the woman, but she wasn't sure which of the other gentleman was Thomas Gable and which was Harry Potter, the two of them looked rather alike, except one of them was closer to her age and had a set of gorgeous green eyes behind his tasteful dark framed glasses.
"This is my assistant Ginevra Weasley," Miranda introduced.
Ginny shook hands with Lord Davis before greeting Miss Smyth. "We spoke on the phone. Nice to put a face to the voice."
"It is! Call me Katie, please."
"And I go by Ginny." She shook hands with the two other gentleman, noting that the younger one was Harry Potter, it made more sense that he was the Technology Director given his age and the museum hierarchy.
They all took seats and started discussing pleasantries. Throughout the interactions Ginny was doing her best not to simply let her eyes settle on Mister Potter because every time that she did look over at him he was staring directly back at her as though he found her captivating. It was both flattering to be given that amount of attention and jarring because it was forcing her not to display just how flustered he was making her feel inside.
He had barely uttered a word, he simply sat there looking at her as she and Miranda launched into their pitch of why they deserved to have a tenth of The British Museums advertising budget for the next five years.
It was near the end of the meeting that they launched into the discussion of the online advertising and Mister Potter needed to give them the scope of their investment into technology and different avenues they were interested in dipping into, such as Facebook.
Ginny was the one to assure him that they did do their own advertising through social media sites and reminded him that it was not their key demographic that visited those site.
Through their back and forth she saw this twinkle in his eye and smile tugging to his lips, even when she was telling him why his want of reaching the youth through those sites was not the way to pull them in, how they would only be interested in the museum as an event space and they'd be better off to host a celebrity wedding there instead.
The laugh that he gave at that suggestion sent a shockwave through her body.
It was a 'heh heh'.
One that she'd heard several times before.
Her eyes locked hard on his as she felt the blood drain from her face and she fought to keep her composure and carry on with the meeting. But it was difficult. She'd heard that laugh nearly every night for a year.
His voice.
She needed him to talk more.
She hadn't been paying enough attention to his voice before, just to what words he was speaking out of that lovely mouth of his. Online the voice was a little bit different but that laugh of his was exactly what she'd heard every time she made a sarcastic comment.
"That wouldn't be a terrible idea," Katie agreed. "We live in a society of gossip mongers, having a celebrity wedding or something similar would have several of those busy bodies scrambling to see the space that it happened in." She scribbled furiously in her notebook then.
"We have had Her Majesty the Queen come through on several occasions," Lord Davis pointed out.
"Yes, but she has been everywhere," Ginny pointed out, managing to compose herself after her initial shock save for a numb feeling in her right fingers. "If you managed to hold the next round of the X Factor in your auditorium however, that would have several youths flocking there."
Ginny hid her hand under the table and started flexing her fingers.
He'd simply laughed the same laugh as The Seeker, that doesn't mean he is The Seeker.
Yet when she caught his eyes again he looked like he knew and he knew that she knew. And she had to catch her breath again.
Ginny struggled through the rest of the meeting but in the end it appeared that she and Miranda had really given The British Museum team something they were very interested in. They all shook hands one more time and Miranda gave her kudo's for her work, leaving her to tidy up the conference room. That was when she saw that Mister Potter had left his portfolio on the chair next to the one he'd been sitting in.
Had he done that intentionally? Looking for a reason to come back and see her alone?
For a minute she simply stared at it trying to work out if it might have been a ploy.
"There it is," came his voice from behind her and she jumped.
"Oh! Yes, I was going to rush it out to you," she told him in a hurry.
"Were you? It looked like you were more confused by it," he grinned at her and she melted a little bit.
"Confused by how intentionally it was left," Ginny stated boldly.
His grin widened. "I recognized your voice right away. Always with that hurried manner and decisiveness."
Ginny could do no more than blink at him. He was confirming her suspicion. "The Seeker," she said in barely a whisper.
"Good," his form relaxed. "Was worried for a moment that I could have been completely wrong and you'd just think I was some sort of leering idiot through that whole meeting."
An involuntary chuckle rose up out of her. "For the first bit mainly. It helps that you're," she gestured to his whole form before her brain caught up with her mouth and she realized what she'd just done. She'd admitted to him that she found him attractive.
He was her closest friend outside of work and now she'd just gone and done that.
Was it going to be weird playing with him now?
He looked flattered by it though. Relieved even. "I've been trying to picture what you might look like as well and I must say, I didn't do you justice."
She felt her whole face flush at that and she looked down at the paperwork in her hand as she bit her lip. Flattery had always made her bashful, particularly if it was sincere as that had sounded.
"Can we meet in person again?" he forwardly asked.
The question came out of him in a rush but she caught every word. She looked back up at him and tried to figure out if this was a friendly request of something a little more.
"I know you had a crap date just on Friday. Maybe I could try and, erm, make that up to you a bit."
She couldn't help the wide grin that was now threatening to break her face in two. It was something more than friendly. "I'd like that," she managed in a whisper.
"Great," he breathed out. "Uh, look. I've got to go but we'll talk more later? Tonight?"
Goodness he has such beautiful and expressive eyes.
"Same time as always," she promised.
It looked for a moment like he might have wanted to lean in and give her a hug or a kiss on the cheek or something. Instead he just rocked on his heels for a moment and then gave her another smile and a nod, taking his portfolio and leaving.
Ginny was walking on air as she finished cleaning up the conference room and went back to her desk, a goofy smile not leaving her face for even a moment.
"What's got into you?" Stacy asked.
"Just a really great meeting," Ginny told her. "And if the offer is still on for you to mind Liam on Friday I'd like to take you up on it."
Stacy's eyes went wide as she caught on to what that meant. "Tell me everything."
()()()
Ginny had never tried Bao before. He'd mentioned it to her a few times over their headsets but she'd never tried it.
"This is delicious," she exclaimed after swallowing the first bite. She had to force herself not to simply shove the rest of it in her mouth. It was this sweet doughy bun with some kind of pulled pork on top of it. Simple really, but so freaking good.
"I knew you'd like it," he smiled across the high top at her.
She hadn't been sure how to dress for this date when he told her 'casual and comfortable'. Ginny hadn't done 'casual and comfortable' on dates, they had always been to stuffy restaurants with French sauces. He knew that though and told her as much. He'd also said that she hadn't had any fun on the previous dates that he knew about so he was going to at least attempt to make it so she still wanted to talk to him the next day.
That had made her laugh out loud.
Skinny jeans, boots with a low heal and a cowl necked sweater had her blended right in with everyone else in this tiny restaurant with the high turn over in customers.
"You were so right," she shook her head in amazement. "I don't know how I've gone twenty-three years without having this in my life."
"Perks of having to schmooze with several international types," he commented, holding up his Bao to cheers her own.
They met up at a tube station for the date. She wasn't sure she wanted him knowing where she lived just yet. Liam was over at Stacy's for his sleepover and he'd been completely keen on the idea as Stacy's son was a year older than Liam and that made him cool. Harry was flexible with when the date was going to be as well since he knew she had that responsibility to take care of.
Harry checked his watch, "we've got twenty minutes till the play."
"Play?" Ginny asked as she took another bite.
"At The Globe," he told her. "Haven't got a clue what they're putting on right now, but that's half the fun!"
Her eyebrows rose in interest. It had been ages since she'd been to The Globe for a play. It was only five quid to watch from the theatre floor, and that was where you wanted to be since the actors would do part of the performance while weaving in and around the audience.
After they'd finished up their food they started walking towards the theatre and talked the whole way. Really talked, not the veiled questions that they asked in WoW with vague answers so that they didn't give away any more details about their personal life than necessary.
Harry had led an interesting life, which is exactly what he said of her own. He'd grown up with his Aunt and Uncle after his parents died in a car crash. They'd been nice to him but had noticeably favored their own son. They hadn't been able to help him out through school and he'd been driven to prove himself so he studied what he thought would make him the most money straight away. It had been a move to attempt to prove to his relatives that he was better than their son. After his first year of uni though he realized he didn't need to prove anything to them and found himself really enjoying his courses. He worked part time at The British Museum through school and during the summers he was a guide. Once he finished with his education he was hired on full time and as the tech industry was evolving so fast he wound up getting promoted fairly quickly.
"I guess the both of us have more than proven ourselves," he grinned down at her as they stood in the queue outside the theatre.
"How do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, I mean, you've done a more inspiring job, what with defying all the assumptions of single teen mothers and building this great life and career for yourself."
"It was super hard," she said in reflection.
"Is it still?" he asked curiously. "Or have you more fallen into a routine that you're both comfortable with?"
"Routine I guess," she agreed. "I get all the challenges and inspiration I need through work, then I come home and have my time spent with Liam that brings me down from the day, then I finish off with chatting to you nearly every night. It is comfortable. There's a rare occasion where I'm wishing for a little more."
"Like what?" he asked.
"Like, well, this," she gestured to the theatre. "Just going for a fun night out and trying to know what it feels like to be an unburdened woman my age, not worrying about if he's doing alright through the whole thing."
"Are you worrying about him now?"
"I'm always worrying about him. But you are doing a great job of taking my mind of it," she told him bashfully.
Harry grinned down at her.
The Globe Theatre was packed and the two of them grew more sandwiched against each other as the actors began making their way through the crowd.
Ginny was pressed right against Harry's side and his arm came around her, resting on her hip. When he asked if that was okay by whispering it in her ear she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time; desire.
She had not been searching for a romantic attachment since she was sixteen and that had blown up in her face. It left her with the most precious gift, but she hadn't been at all focused on finding a partner since, that had been everyone else's goal for her. Each date she'd been bullied into had left her jaded, they had simply been experiences she could turn into anecdotes for coworkers or The Seeker.
Now there was Harry and he was pressed right up against her side, his arm was protectively around her and he was whispering into her ear with that soft voice of his that she had grown to love and it was sending a wave of pleasure through her whole body.
She nodded to let him know that he was more than welcome to keep his hands on her. His arm tightened around her slightly at her permission and she wrapped her own arm around him too.
Ginny only half paid attention to the show going on. She was more interested in pulling up scenarios in her mind of where this date might lead. She could picture them walking out of the theatre and going for a stroll along the Thames, then they would say goodnight at one point and he would lean in for a tentative kiss, but when he pulled back she would simply pull him closer. Soon they would be full on snogging against the closest hard surface, be it a wall or a tree. He'd beg her to come back to his and she'd cave because her lady business would be demanding it. They'd get back to his place and all clothes would immediately wind up on the floor then they'd shag until dawn.
As that scene played out in her mind she lost all focus on what was going on with the show and was surprised when everyone in the theatre started leaving. Harry was guiding her towards the exit and she hadn't even caught the gist of what the play had been about.
"Did you enjoy it?" Harry asked once they were back outside.
"I did," she assured him. It only sounded believable because she was referring to the close proximity they'd shared instead of the entertainment.
"The weather is rather agreeable," he pointed out. "I was planning on stopping into a pub if it wasn't, but did you want to go for a lazy stroll instead?"
A stroll along the Thames is what he was suggesting? Just like her pretend scenario? Yes, please.
"Sure," she managed.
So they wandered and Harry told her about all the short business trips he had to take to mainland Europe to different museums and conventions. Ginny had only got to go to one convention in France when she was relatively new into her job and it had been an eye opener to realize it wasn't so much about the speeches but the mingling after.
"And the amount of affairs that go on!" she told him. "I couldn't believe it. It was like 'whatever happens at the convention, stays at the convention'. I saw two well known people that were each heading into their second decade of marriage to other people falling over each other and not being covert about it at all!"
Harry laughed. "Yeah, seen a bit of that as well. Was heading down to use the gym in the morning on my last trip and saw someone I work with heading out of another's hotel room. She was looking well embarrassed so I didn't say anything."
"Not your thing though?" Ginny asked.
"I had enough of that in my uni days. Not interested in one offs anymore."
He was looking at her when he said it. She knew that he hadn't been seeing anyone for nearly a year now and his last relationship had fizzled to the point of them barely acknowledging they were in a relationship. Not that either had cheated, so far as Harry knew, but it was at the point of him forgetting when the last time was he'd chatted with her.
"So then, this thing we're doing here," she started.
"I get upset and worry that I won't hear from you on the nights that Liam requires a bit of extra attention in order to go to sleep," he told her boldly. "And I was very glad that your date went poorly last week because I worried that if it did then I wouldn't hear from you as much."
He was putting everything out there.
"The scariest part of finding you in real life is that I might mess something up between us and we just won't be able to recover," she said honestly.
"When I stepped into that meeting on Monday and saw you for the first time I was instantly attracted to you. When you started talking and I heard your voice, recognized your voice, I was completely blown away." They had stopped walking and he'd come closer to her so that there was only a whisper of space between them. "I don't want to ruin our friendship, but I also really want to give this a try."
"I do to," she admitted as she leaned forwards so they were pressing ever so lightly against each other.
His hand came up to cup her cheek and her eyes slipped closed as his face came down so their lips could meet in a sweet and gentle kiss. It was tentative and warm and had her hands quivering as they grasped the front of his jacket. Slowly the kiss progressed into more.
The evening did not turn into her fantasy though.
He gave her a brilliant snog but left her wanting more as they said their goodnight at the tube station with the promise of catching up tomorrow night at their usual place and time.
()()()
Ginny didn't want to pawn Liam off for one night every weekend, but boy was she tempted to. She and Harry still caught up nearly every evening through playing WoW and that had now progressed into them trading texts throughout the day but they had yet to manage meeting up again and it had been two weeks since their date.
"Another Friday night, and you know what the rest of the world is doing?" The Seeker asked. Ginny could hear the smile in his voice.
"Not slaying dragons?" she offered as she raised her sword and slashed before dodging falling rubble and jumping down a level in the castle they were raiding.
He gave a laugh, "no. Not slaying dragons. They're getting up to real trouble. Putting themselves out there and making bad decisions that turn out to be brilliant."
"What you're saying is that you want to put yourself out there and turn up at my door with a bottle of wine so we can make a bad decision together?" she asked demurely.
That suggestion was met with silence on his end and his character has stopped fighting, just standing there frozen. They'd been doing quite a lot of flirting back and forth these two weeks since their date and every time she'd signed off for the night she'd been left wanting more.
"Is… is that an option?" he asked quietly.
Ginny had to think for a moment if it truly was an option or not. Did she want him coming around to her flat? Could she entertain him in the living room while Liam slept just a door away? She hadn't ever done that before. She'd had study sessions held at hers while she was in uni, but Liam had been much younger then and it hadn't been a romantic interlude, it had been statistics and business management strategies.
She desperately wanted to see Harry again though if only to make sure that she was still as attracted to him as she had been the last two times they'd seen each other.
Quickly and before she could change her mind she grabbed her cellphone and texted him her address, then set it back down feeling slightly sick with nerves.
She knew he got the message when a moment later his character was offline.
He was coming over.
It was only 9:30 at night, it wasn't late at all for a Friday. The clubs wouldn't have even started picking up at this point so having a suitor over at her flat for a glass of wine this early in the evening wasn't entirely racy.
But her flat wasn't entirely clean either.
"Bugger!" she said out loud and shut down her computer before she raced around picking up all the little pieces of Lego and stuffies that were strewn here, there and everywhere. She did a quick sweep of the entire place, including a wipe down of the loo, in record timing.
There was a man coming over.
It was twenty minutes for there to be a knock at the door. Ginny didn't know where exactly Harry lived, but getting anywhere in London in twenty minutes required serious dedication to that task.
She opened the door and saw him standing on the other side, not at all dressed for the occasion but with a bottle of wine in hand. "I was already half-way here before I realized I was in this shirt. Please don't judge," he stated with a pained expression.
She couldn't help herself. He looked so out of breath and eager to see her that she didn't want to play this game anymore. They already knew each other, their first date had been like jumping in at date number ten in this relationship of theirs. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and brought her mouth to his as she yanked him inside her flat.
He was kissing her back right away and she managed to shut the door and set the wine bottle down on the closest flat surface with their mouths still connected and she guided him further into her living room and back to the couch.
"Mmm, Ginny," he started.
"Shh," she didn't want them to be loud and in the dead silence of her flat his deep voice was very loud to her ears.
"Ginny," he said in a whisper against her lips. "I didn't just come over for this."
She pulled back from him then in shock and gave a hard swallow. "You don't want to?" Her heart was sinking into her stomach. Had she just made an absolute fool of herself?
"Oh God I want to," he told her desperately. "But I'm really trying to be respectful here. I've, er, I've been, you know, reading up on our situation."
"Our situation?" she asked. "What, meeting online and then in person? I'm pretty sure that is quite common place these days."
He blinked at her. "What? No. I mean, er, you being a single mother and probably not wanting to introduce me to Liam until we're, you know, further along. Which means you probably won't want me to stick around until morning just in case and I really don't want to push things too much because I really like you."
Ginny stared at him as his words sunk in. "You looked up the psychology of a single mother?"
"Er, yes?" There was quite a bit of red coloring his cheeks.
She hadn't been thinking about Liam accidentally stumbling upon them, nor about whether Harry would still be there in the morning. She'd just seen Harry standing there and wanted him.
"So you didn't come over here in the hopes of a shag?" It wasn't a question that needed to be asked, there was a small nudge she felt against her thigh at the word that told her he did want a shag.
He must have known she felt that. He sat up and they both moved to lean back against the couch facing each other. "I really want to be here," he managed to get out. "I don't want to leave, but I don't want to do anything that could upset your life."
He was trying to be respectful and she could appreciate that but she would also have appreciated him ripping her clothes off and being perfectly stationed between her legs as well.
"Wine," she said. "I'll go grab the bottle and some glasses." She moved quickly back towards the kitchen by the front door and willed herself to calm her hormones down. She fought back a snort. Red wine probably wasn't going to allow for either of them to cool down their hormones.
Carrying the bottle and the glasses back to the couch she sat down opposite him again and poured the wine holding her glass in front of her like a shield and she looked at him. He looked so good and like he belonged in her flat. The shirt he was so embarrassed to have been wearing was worn and comfortable looking she could already imagine herself stealing it for a night shirt. Ginny wasn't familiar with the band that it was advertising.
"Who are they?" she asked, her eyes pointedly looking down at the graphic design.
"Oh," he looked down at it. "They're an American band. They had one hit that played on the radio. It was a cover song but it was good enough that I bought their CD, then I realized I liked all their other songs better. I play them in the kitchen while I'm cooking most of the time. Good rhythm, great lyrics."
Ginny nodded and struggled to find something else to talk to him about.
They knew each other well but somehow him sitting in her flat across from her looking like he wished he hadn't stopped himself from carrying on a few minutes ago was making her draw a big blank over what they could talk about.
"Have you lived here long?" he asked clearly searching for something they could talk about as hard as she was.
Ginny just grinned at him then and set her wine glass down before moving his to the coffee table as well. "You might not want to push things too far or whatever, but I'd really rather snog you right now."
"Oh thank God," he breathed out and pulled her back against him by the waist.
()()()
"Mmm, I like your place," she murmured between kisses as they worked their way through his flat.
"Yeah, you want a tour?" he asked as his lips worked their way down her neck and he continued directing her further into the flat and towards his bedroom.
Technically they'd been dating for over a month at this point. He'd gone over to her place twice in the evening after her son had gone to bed but they hadn't allowed their hands to travel below the belt yet. It was at his instance and he was a stupid, stupid man for having put on the brakes. She hadn't asked him to stop so why did he?
Because he liked her.
A lot.
That was the answer he'd given her every evening when they met up playing WoW, he was trying to be respectful and she'd had enough of that. Liam had gone back to her parent's place for the weekend and she wanted to spend every minute of her free time with Harry.
She wasn't interested in waiting any more. She would have insisted that they skip dinner and just go straight back to his if it wouldn't have made her come across as desperate. So instead she'd suffered through dinner, well, not suffered as it was delicious, but the whole time they'd been sitting in the restaurant she'd had a need building between her legs.
Now they were back here. He'd asked if she wanted to catch a movie after they'd left the restaurant and she nearly gave a laugh/growl in his face. He took the hint. By the time they got to the other side of the door to his flat she couldn't stop herself from pouncing on him.
Ginny gave a laugh at his offer of a tour. "Sure, do you want to shag on the sofa or in the bedroom?"
He gave only a desire filled groan as a response.
Their clothes were slowly stripped away as he wound them through his place and she only caught glimpses of this and that before she was laying back on a soft mattress. She had anticipated this and consulted many a women's magazine for what was now the trend in terms of female grooming and what men like and respond to. She'd also heard her brothers mention on several occasions that they didn't rightly care about all that so long as they got laid. That didn't stop her from putting in some effort and having to get a little acrobatic in the shower earlier.
It was only the street lights below that were illuminating the room through his blinds though and Harry certainly wasn't standing back and observing her handiwork. Instead his lips were trailing down her chest, his hand tugging down her knickers and had her panting and squirming. His mouth met the dip by her hip bone and her eyes opened wide as she realized what he was about to do.
She'd never had a mans mouth on her there!
Slowly his kisses were trailing lower and her legs were moving apart of their own accord and then he was there. Jolts of pleasure kept cascading over her entire body as his mouth worked over her clit. The sensation was incredible and her head was thrown back as she clutched at his pillows, trying to control herself somehow.
He knew what he was doing too! His tongue ran over her in just the right way again and again, both his hands were occupied with her breasts and there were sounds escaping her mouth that she hadn't known she could make.
With how wanton she'd been before it wasn't taking her long to reach her climax and she cried out. His mouth stayed where it was between her legs as she slowly came down from her high, his tongue moving down slightly to trace more lazy circles around her entrance and it added so much more to the experience.
Her heart rate was starting to return to normal when he began moving back up her body. His lips met hers and there was a different taste on them now. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't too appealing either.
He still had his boxers on and she needed them off right now. Her hand slipped underneath the waistband and her fingers wrapped around his length. He gave a small grunt as she began moving her hand up and down. He was so warm and the skin there so soft.
Now it was her turn to move her kisses down his frame and he rolled onto his back to allow her to do so. He had a very nice amount of chest hair, not too thick and not completely covering his chest. Her nerves began getting to her the lower down his frame she moved. She'd never done this before. He probably didn't know that though.
It was with determination and a slightly shaking hand that she made it to her destination and directed the tip of him toward her mouth. Tentatively she took a lick. It didn't taste like anything. This time she lowered her mouth over the head as her hand stroked his shaft up and down and that too didn't really taste of anything, but it did make Harry give off several sounds of pleasure.
Giving head wasn't so bad. She'd seen it done plenty in pornography, always ending in that awful way of the man exploding all over the woman's face, that bit she certainly wasn't going to do. She also didn't feel compelled to make those terrible choking noises, then again she wasn't sliding him as deep into her mouth as the girl on film did.
Clearly he was enjoying it and kept saying her name in a whisper again and again. Now growing louder in warning of what was about to happen. Sure enough there was a sudden excess of fluid in her mouth that was mingling with her own saliva and she managed to swallow it all down.
Huh.
Ginny felt rather proud of herself for successfully doing that for the first time.
She kept working at him gently until he grew limp in her hand and she let him go, kissing her way back up his body to lay beside him.
That hadn't been the shagging she had anticipated but the night was young and thus far had been thoroughly enjoyable.
"That was wonderful," he sighed.
"You're telling me," she agreed.
He rolled to his side and pulled her close. "I just need a minute to recover, I promise you we aren't done yet though."
Ginny grinned and settled back against him as she savored the feeling of having his naked flesh pressed up against her own.
When she awoke the next morning she found herself in the most relaxed state she could ever remember being. And her nose had caught the smell of coffee and bacon.
Harry had not only taken care of her three times last night but now he was making her breakfast? This was heaven.
Getting out of his bed she found her clothes from last night and was about to put them on when he walked in holding two plates in one arm and a steaming coffee mug in the other. "You aren't getting dressed already, are you?"
She held her dress up to her front in an attempt at modesty and grinned at him. "Well I had expected we were eating in the other room."
"We aren't," he grinned. Harry was only dressed in a pair of boxers and inclined his head back at the bed in a request for her to get back under the covers.
She tried to hide her form as much as possible by dropping the dress as she lifted the sheets to slide herself under them. Harry, ever the gentleman, merely looked down at the plates he had set on the bed and pretended he hadn't been watching her out the corner of his eyes.
On the nightstand beside him beside where he'd set down his coffee was proof of their activity the night before. Two ripped foil packets sporting the word Trojan had yet to be disposed of.
Two!
They'd had sex twice. Actual sex and not just the kind that was considered foreplay in some circles.
That was double the amount she'd ever had before. Liam had been a result of her first and only experience. Now she knew the joy of sex was a real thing because Harry had certainly made it a joyous experience. He'd been so tender and yet firm with her. He'd made sure that she was enjoying herself and boy did she enjoy herself.
"Now then. Liam is at his grandparents for one more night, so what would you like to do?" Harry asked.
Ginny just gave him a slow grin and bit her lip.
()()()
Four Years Later
The sun felt so wonderful on her skin. This was the perfect place to go for their honeymoon. What had really sold her on it were all the kids activities that Liam was rearing to try. It meant that he could be off doing his thing with the other kids on one end of the resort and she and Harry could be locked in their room taking part in activities of their own through the day. They'd made a nice routine of it; wave farewell to Liam at breakfast then boot it back to the room for a round or two, or three, before heading to the beach.
A full week of this in the southern coast of Portugal was wonderful.
"You're going to burn," Harry said in warning before his heavily moisturized hands were rubbing more sunscreen on her shoulders and working their way down her arms and back up to graze over her chest.
"You know I have the spray kind," she said with a smile.
"Where's the fun in that?"
Many times she'd found herself staring at Harry and wondering if he would have asked her out after that meeting over four years ago if she had never started playing World of Warcraft somewhat obsessively. It had been a while since either of them had logged back onto the game. Before she and Liam had moved in with Harry the two of them had still played in the evenings as a way of catching up with each other. Once they lived together their evenings consisted more of wine and cuddling on the sofa to watch the telly.
It didn't take long for Harry to become one of Liam's favorite people either.
Ginny could still remember the first time Liam had called Harry 'dad'. She'd been in the kitchen getting their dinner together and Harry had been helping Liam with a science project and it had just slipped out of his mouth so naturally. Liam had been nine at the time and when Ginny heard it her eyes shot over to gauge Harry's reaction to that. He had a soft smile on his face and gave her son an adoring look. Ginny herself nearly burst into tears she was so happy and immediately started chopping onions as a cover.
Yes, they had been living together at that point but it was then she knew that she wanted to marry him. Liam had given his seal of approval and that was it for Ginny.
It took the man another eleven months to finally ask her though.
"So, what's next?" Ginny asked him while she sat back and enjoyed his massage that had migrated down to her legs.
"A sibling for Liam," Harry said bluntly.
"What?!" Ginny's eyes popped open and she looked down at her husband of five days.
They'd talked about having kids eventually. Harry said he loved Liam but he wanted to go through the parenthood experience and one that involved changing nappies, one that had she and he arguing over who's turn it was for the midnight feeding. She hadn't expected he wanted to start that on the honeymoon though.
Harry was down at her feet now and working his fingers through her toes while his thumbs were rubbing the pads. This must have been his plan. Get her to a tropical wonderland and wait until she was the most relaxed she could possibly be and then suggest they get her knocked up.
"You want to put a baby in me?" she asked.
"Please?" he asked with a dorky and sheepish grin that she couldn't help but love.
Her own grin forced its way onto her face and she lay back down on the chaise with her head shaking side to side in amusement. "I'll stop taking the pill today then."
Three weeks later the stick in the bathroom confirmed that she had been pregnant before they'd left the resort.
()()()
AN- Still working my way through prompts, just getting distracted by shiny things lately :)