AN- Muggle AU. Prompted by Sweetbabe
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Comparing Experiences
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Harry tapped the side of his pint glass impatiently as he waited for his mates, one had gone to use the loo, the other was taking a little longer than necessary to come back from getting drinks at the bar because there was a rather busty barmaid.
It wasn't that he minded them taking so long, it was just that he'd called them up to have a chat and get a few things off his chest and he hadn't found the courage to start bitching about his personal life before they'd settled in enough and finished their first round of drinks.
Because this was going to be a night that required several rounds of drinks.
"Alright," Alex said as he slid into his seat at the booth once more. 'Alright' was the way he started off every conversation. "Why is it taking him so long just to get another three pulls of, oh. Oh, okay. Yeah, she's got a nice set on her," Alex said, appreciating the healthy amount of bosom the bartender was showing as she had her arms crossed and leaned towards their mate.
Harry scowled in the direction of said mate, Tim.
It wasn't like he was desperate to share his woes, it was just that he really wanted to at least start talking about them before the bar got too crowded and the opportunity was lost completely.
"Alright, mate?" Alex asked. "He'll be back soon enough and you can start telling us about what a bitch she was."
"She wasn't a bitch," Harry automatically defended. It was reflex. He'd cared about her, maybe loved her, at one point. He'd been infatuated enough to agree to move in with her. He'd even given up his flat and was completely packed up with one week left on the lease.
"Harry, you caught her, in what was going to be your bed, with another man. Admit it for me."
Harry pursed his lips, closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.
"Repeat after me," Alex said, his posture becoming tall as though he was about to quote Dickins in the poshest of voices, "Cho Chang is a vapid cunt."
"Alex!" Harry protested. "I'm not nearly drunk enough for you to start making a joke of it." He looked back down into his empty pint glass, wishing he could will it full again. "Even in your sexy Scottish Baroque," he managed to joke.
"Ah, you'll live," Alex waved him off, clearly feeling a bit relieved that he'd gotten a joke out of Harry. "OI, TIM! EITHER START FUCKING HER OR FUCKING GET OVER HERE WITH OUR DRINKS!"
The frozen, startled expression on Tim's face turned quickly into a scowl as the bartender immediately started pouring off pints while the other patrons chuckled. When Tim returned to the table with the three pints he looked close to pouring Alex's in his lap.
"We're here for bucking up our lad, not motorboating the barmaid," Alex told him.
"I was getting somewhere with her! You could have let me keep at it a bit longer," Tim protested.
"You could have brought over the pints you promised and then gone back at it," Harry told him.
Tim took a drink of his pint and went from angry to resigned. "Ready to tell us the story then?" he asked Harry.
Harry held up one finger so he could down as much of the pint as he could manage in one go, then set it back on the table with a bit more force than necessary, made eye contact with both his mates as he mentally prepared himself, then it all started pouring out.
Five months he'd been seeing her, and at first it had been great, it was new, it was exciting, she seemed entirely too good for him. The sex was good, their schedules worked out that they saw each other four nights out of seven, texted once a day at a minimum. By the third month they'd talked about moving in together, and that's when things shifted. Harry had thought it was just nerves and he was getting in his head. He ignored the signs that maybe their relationship wasn't headed in this direction, but another. Then, yesterday he'd used his key to her place to bring over his first box of things while she was supposed to be at work.
She wasn't at work. She was in bed with a man from work though.
And she didn't make those kinds of noises in bed with him.
"Apparently she likes the 'forbidden play' or whatever. You know, spanking and roughness and all that," Harry scowled as he finished his story and polished off the rest of his pint. "I need another drink."
His friends had sat there listening with sympathetic ears and nodding their heads. That was all Harry needed from them; he wasn't looking for answers or solutions, he just needed to say it out loud and be done with it. Done with her.
He got up and went to the bar.
"Another round for your table?" the busty bartender asked, looking over his shoulder and her cheeks coloring, a shy smile pulling at her lips.
Harry rolled his eyes internally, no doubt Tim had just given her a wink or a saucy air kiss or something.
"Make it two more rounds. Throw in a shot each of bourbon." He wanted to be prepared and not getting up every ten minutes to get more drinks.
"Oh, tying one on tonight then?" she asked, entirely too chipperly for how he was feeling. She started pouring the pints at least as she talked to him. "Your friend there, he seems mighty… friendly."
"Yeah, he's a good mate," Harry said absently and looked down to the other end of the bar. It was still pretty empty in here. That had been why he wanted to get out this early on a Saturday. Soon it would be overflowing with people and he needed the misery to be over with by then.
The door of the pub opened, letting some of the natural light outside in and shining directly into his face. He had to squint for a moment at the abrupt change. Three ladies had walked in, one of them headed straight for the bar while the other two went to the booth beside his. She waved politely at the bartender and waited a few seats away from where he was standing.
Hannah was the name of the bartender, as noted on the nametag pinned to her top, and she had five out of six pints poured.
"I'll just be a moment more, Flower," she told the girl.
Harry pulled out his credit card, "can we start a tab?"
"Going to be one of those nights, is it?" the woman waiting for service asked, simply making conversation.
"Yup," was all the response he gave her. He wasn't interested in making pointless conversation at the bar. He was here for venting and bucking up, but he wasn't through with the venting part yet. He'd only just told his mates what happened, he hadn't winged about it nearly enough yet to move on to the next phase.
Hannah put the last pint down on a round carrying tray for him, "three shots of bourbon it was?" She took the card he'd put down and checked his name at the bottom. He took out his ID and proved it was his name there before she set it down at the till.
"Make it four, I'll have one right now."
She poured the four shots in quick succession and he downed one of them right away.
"She's all yours," he told the other person. As he carefully lifted the tray and tried to keep it all balanced he couldn't help giving a sidelong glance of the woman's arse in the jeans she was wearing. They were snug and she had a bit of extra cushioning back there, not excessive, just… healthy.
He got back to the table and set the tray down in the middle.
"Alright, see? Took him less time and he'd got us set up for the next hour," Alex razzed Tim.
"Difference is he isn't looking to settle in with her, is he?" Tim argued, sending another look over at Hannah.
"Don't think he's looking to settle in with anyone right now, is he?"
Harry got back into his seat and pulled his new pint towards him.
"You're well shot of her," Tim told Harry. "I never really liked her. Deciding to move in with a woman, that's the sort of thing you should have run past us before you gave up your flat. We would have told you it was a mistake."
Harry looked up at Tim, surprised with that. "What?"
"There did always seem to be something she was holding back," Alex agreed. "Never quite committed to the conversation when we met up, was she."
Harry looked back and forth between his friends. "You two never liked her?"
Alex and Tim shared a look, a frown and dismissive shrug, before looking back at him and shaking their head.
"Why didn't you say anything?!"
The both of them laughed over that. "You don't tell your mate you don't like his woman, you only tell him when you do," Tim said, as though it was obvious. At Harry's incredulous look, Tim continued on to give him an example, "Jerry's wife, Jerry from work, what do you think of her?"
Jerry was a quiet guy, a good worker, a lot of fun when you got him to let his guard down. Harry had met his wife a few times and she was funny, quick to smile, always asking how everyone was doing. "She's great," Harry said honestly. "I think he got himself a good one there."
Tim nodded in agreement. "And what about Neville's girlfriend?"
His instant reaction was to scoff. "Vain, bossy, needs to spend less time with her nose in the air. Neville needs a girl that's more down to earth."
"Alright, ever told him that?" Alex asked, his eyebrows up as high as they'd go, and expression clearly saying that they'd just proved their point.
Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. "No," he admitted. Neville was a great guy and he was clearly thinking that his girlfriend was too good for him and that he was lucky to have her, meanwhile, the rest of them were hoping the relationship would be over soon so they wouldn't have to see her at any get togethers.
He would never tell Neville he didn't like her though. He'd probably not have stopped him from picking out an engagement ring, he'd just ask if Neville was sure he was ready.
"Mate, you've got to work that shit out for yourself, whether it leads to divorce or just finding her fucking some other guy in your flat," Tim told him.
Harry gave a groan and rested his head back on the cushioning behind him.
Tim and Alex continued to sit there in silent support and Harry closed his eyes for a moment, wishing he could reset the last few months and stop himself from ever going up and chatting up Cho at the Boots where they met.
From where he was sitting though, with his head resting back against the little glass partition above the cushioning of the booths, he started overhearing the conversation of the ladies in the booth over.
"My problem is, he told me he loved me," one of them said.
"Awe?" replied the other in question. "Isn't that supposed to be a good thing? Why do you sound so confused."
"Because we're only three months in! I wasn't expecting it to get this far. I picked him up at 1 a.m. in a night club, didn't even know his name until the lights came on and you asked him. I didn't even know what we were to each other until a month ago, and now this!"
"So?"
"So… it was just unexpected."
"Guessing you didn't reply in kind then."
"No. I'm not going to just say it back because he said it. I need to be sure first."
"What did you say when he said it?" asked the third lady at the table.
"What?"
"What did you say?"
"Div, I literally replied with 'what', he was getting out of the car and I kind of shouted it at him, but he just gave me a smile and a wave and bolted."
Harry listened as two of the ladies started chuckling and heard the third one join in.
"I think you can just chalk it up to reflex from him. And I know it may not have started out as one of those cheesy movies, but he's a good guy. We both like him, and if you chuck him over this because you feel weird about it, I just know you'll regret it. Trust me, you don't want to be back in the dating scene right now. And if you toss a winner like him back into the dating pool because you think he said 'I love you' on reflex too soon, I might have to disown you as a friend."
"Ginny!"
"What? Dating sucks! I want a man to keep me warm at night, but sorting the one night stand quality guys from the one's that will keep a spare change of clothes at mine 'just in case' is a bloody nightmare."
"Not regretting splitting with Dean, are you?"
"Oh, fuck no! I don't hate dating so much that I'd stay in a shit relationship, I'm just saying I wish I could find someone I'm compatible with that doesn't require a dating app to know I'm interested in hiking and football."
Harry smiled at that comment, then frowned because he realized that not only was he about to lose his flat, but he would also have to be back out on the dating scene himself.
Fuck, there were so many dating sites too!
"You guys tried those dating apps?" Harry asked Tim and Alex.
Tim started nodding just as Alex nearly yelled "Fuck, no!" as though thoroughly offended.
"You don't need a dating app! What's wrong with picking up a woman the old-fashioned way? At a pub, or in line at the grocers? You can't be thinking about signing up for a dating site already! You've been single for a day, take a look around first at least." He pushed Harry's shot closer to him. "Drink this up. If you're thinking about dating already, then lets get this going."
Before either of them could stop him, Alex had got up and gone over to the next booth. "Excuse me ladies, sorry to interrupt you but we've got a mate over here that just got cuckolded. Need some fine ladies first impressions to try and get him thinking right again. Any chance we can buy you a drink and you can help set him right?" He put his hands up, "we won't try any funny business."
"Cuckolded?" one asked.
Harry didn't know which one had asked, he was too busy burying his face in his hands in embarrassment.
"Yeah, caught his woman in bed with another man. Now he's considering 'Dating Apps' of all things." Harry could hear the eye roll Alex gave over that one.
It made Harry stare dead-eyed at Tim who also looked unimpressed with their friends antics. He didn't need sympathetic pouts from strangers.
"Oh, fuck no, we can't have that! I've got stories. Move over there." There was the shuffling sound of a bum on the bench of the booth opposite and she came around to stand at the end of their table. "Which one of you is it?" It was the woman that had been at the bar, the one with the nice arse. She had ginger hair, freckles and bright brown eyes. She was also wearing a white beater shirt with the Arsenal crest on it, stretched across her chest. "You, right?" she asked Harry directly.
He hadn't even nodded before she slid into the booth beside him.
"If you're looking for a quick hook up to get her out of your system, then dating apps are fine. If you are looking for something more than that, stay away from them," she told him seriously. "Dating apps are for those that have given up looking in the real world so there's bound to be some damage buried deep in the soul of the people in there."
"How is that different from anyone else?" Harry asked her.
She gave him a serious look then. "You don't have the profile page of random people around you so you don't go in knowing that they're interested in, say…" she floundered for a moment.
"Hiking and football?" he offered.
She stared at him for a moment, likely wondering just how much eavesdropping he'd done. "For the sake of argument," she agreed, her eyes narrowing at him slightly. He caught a tick at the corner of her lip and knew she wasn't actually upset he'd heard that.
The other two ladies came to join them in their booth as well. Tim scootched over so he was against the back wall and a lady sat down beside him, she looked Indian in ancestry. Alex sat on the end of the bench beside her and the other lady, a tall girl with shiny brown hair that seemed resigned to have followed her friends, sat on the end of his bench, Harry moved down to give her more space as well.
"Ginny's been forced to suffer through a few different dating apps," the woman between Tim and Alex said.
"Mostly at your hand," Ginny defended and tossed a coaster at her.
"What else was I supposed to do? You were the one that shut me up in your flat to watch football," she defended, rolling her eyes. "You needed to get back out there."
Ginny sighed and focused her attention on Harry. "Sufficed to say, I agreed to go on way more dates than I should have and each guy turned out to be worse than the last."
"Tell us a few stories then?" Tim encouraged. "At the very least it will let us know what we're doing wrong."
Harry was curious too how she could have gone from bad to worse on these dates.
"Well, there was the first guy that was studying to be a dentist and that carried over into home life."
"Alright, what the fuck does that mean?" Alex asked her.
"Means he started recommending a specialized toothpaste for me and offered to check for cavities," Ginny stated. "And my teeth are just fine. I get them checked regularly; twice a year, just as is recommended!" she defended.
Everyone, Ginny included, started snickering at that.
Harry had to admit, she did have nice teeth, must have had braces as a child, or been using that new Invisalign product.
Before she continued, they went around the table and exchanged names, then she launched into the tales of all her bad dates; the guy that did nothing but show her pictures of his cat, the one that invited her out to a restaurant just to suggest they dumpster dive for their dinner, the guy who invited her to a function that turned out to be his sister's wedding.
"It's a fucking nightmare out there!" she finished off.
"Why did you continue to go on these dating app dates then?" Tim laughed.
"My fucking friends and family members kept insisting!" Ginny exclaimed. "Apparently I'm not living a fulfilling life if I don't have someone with a cock to share it with and they don't seem much bothered who that is!" She gave a death glare to her friend Div.
"Don't look at me like that! You were the one swiping right to them. I was being picky and doing a Facebook check to rule out the tossers."
"I've only tried the 'meet cute' option of dating myself," Harry told Ginny, "and it hasn't turned out much better."
"At least you can see the crazy-eyes when you bump into them at the pub."
"Not always. I was once stuck getting dragged to some kind of religious cult meeting because I didn't catch it, another time I bumped into a girl at grocers and we wound up going on a Jack The Ripper tour which ended in her asking me if I was curious what human flesh tasted like," Harry told her with a shiver of disgust.
"Oh shit! I hope you simply left her standing there and walked away," Ginny said, looking horrified.
"I probably would have offered to drop my trousers for her so she could have a taste," Alex laughed.
"Yeah, I would have been a little too concerned she'd bite it off," Harry told him wryly.
"I'm with Harry on that." Ginny told Alex. "And if she'd curious what it tastes like she clearly hasn't had much experience giving a blow job. That's a warning sign also."
"Gotta give em' to get em'," Hestia, Ginny's other friend chimed in and they clinked glasses over that.
The pub had started to fill up around them and before long Harry had stopped thinking about his woeful situation and started enjoying his night out with his mates and their company. It was fun sitting there and exchanging stories, having a few drinks followed by food, watching Hestia suggest an arm wrestle with Alex and seeing Alex try hard to turn that down and attempt not to look weak or chauvinistic.
By the time ten o'clock rolled around it was too loud in there to carry on a conversation anymore and everyone else at the booth looked ready to call it.
Harry didn't want to leave though, he wanted to keep talking to Ginny.
He may have only just split up with his girlfriend yesterday but that didn't make him blind or stupid; Ginny was attractive and single, and they'd been getting on great.
As luck would have it, they all called it a night at the same time, Ginny wishing farewell to her friends before she went to use the loo again, and his mates leaving when he went to settle up the bill and get his credit card back. This led to he and Ginny leaving the pub at the same time.
The night had settled in on the streets of London, the air was thick with heat and a hint of car exhaust and the streetlights were on. Compared to inside the pub it was quiet though.
"I'm in this direction," he pointed North.
"As am I."
"Great!" he exclaimed, hearing a little too much enthusiasm behind his voice. "Er, I said that too loud, didn't I? My ears are a bit blocked from it being so loud in there," he blamed it on the pub. "Walk you home then?"
Harry knew he was fairly drunk; he could feel it. Maybe he shouldn't have had that last shot. He was at the point where he knew that a glass of water when he got home would have him feeling okay for the morning though. It was a twenty-minute walk home at least, that would sober him up.
"Maybe I should be the one walking you home," Ginny suggested.
He nodded. Anything if it meant they got to spend some more time together. She was fun, and funny.
"Why do you think your family thinks you need a man?" Harry asked her. She was still young, there was plenty of time and fish in the sea and all that.
"I've got a lot of brothers that are due to be married over the next year and a half, that might have something to do with it. Every time I get a new niece or nephew or someone I know gets engaged I start feeling the pressure. It fucking sucks," she sighed. "Venting about it to my friends doesn't help either, thus the dating apps."
He nodded. "They can't be all bad though," he thought. "I mean, if you're on them then there must be at least a handful of women that wouldn't make me question my life choices on a date."
She responded with a wry smile, "is that your version of flirting?"
He returned her look, then had a thought. "Wouldn't it be too soon for me to be looking anyhow? I mean, it's been," he looked at the time on his phone, "thirty-two hours."
Ginny bit her lip and chose not to answer that question. "How did it happen exactly? I know that she cheated on you, but was it like you walked in, found her with another man, then you turned around and walked out? That's it, we're done?"
He didn't want to relive it again, but he did anyways. "Walked in with a box of my things, heard her in the other room having louder sex than we ever did and when she realized I was in the flat she came running out in a sheet, then started crying about how she had feelings for the other guy and hadn't known how to tell me."
"Box of your things?" Ginny asked.
"Yep," he nodded. "Was going to be moving in with her."
"That bitch!"
"Yep," he nodded again.
For the next five blocks they walked in silence. It was companionable silence, and it was nice. He wasn't sure what he should have been filling the silence with, but it wasn't awkward going along the sidewalk with her.
"Are you really a fan of football and hiking?" he asked her. They were now only two minutes from his flat and he didn't want to end their interaction talking about his cheating ex-girlfriend.
Ginny gave a quiet laugh to herself before putting her hand on his upper arm and stopping him so he was forced to turn and look at her. "Do you fancy having a shag when we get to yours?" she asked him point blank.
"W-what?" he blinked at her, sure he'd heard her wrong.
"I know it's soon after you split up, but as you well know, I've had a string of dates with very un-shaggable guys. You on the other hand, you seem nice. Normal. Attractive. And I like chatting about nothing important with you. So, are you feeling up to shagging me?"
There was nothing he could say that would be quite as eloquent as that, so in answer to her question, he simply stepped forward and kissed her.
There was nothing quite like kissing someone he barely knew on the street corner. It was like having a high that just kicked in. He could feel her smiling against his lips before she returned the kiss. For a full minute they stood under that street lamp with their snog growing deeper until he felt it unwise to let his arousal make his head this foggy before they were safely in his flat.
Harry pulled back and took her hand. "I live just up here."
Her responding giggle as she allowed him to lead the way was very encouraging.
How he got them in the building and up to his flat was all a blur. He wound her between the maze of boxes around his hallway and into the bedroom, which mercifully he hadn't started packing up yet.
Ginny had her shirt off before the door was closed and started pulling his own up over his head, then their lips were back on each other, her hand was undoing his belt and the button on his trousers like he was oxygen and she needed at him desperately in order to breathe. He played with the catch on her bra until it came undone and marveled at the feel of her bare breasts in his hands. The gasp and groan he gave as her hand found its way into his pants to grasp him there was muffled against her lips. She began to stroke him and he needed to lean against her more in order to keep himself grounded.
It got to be too much though. He pulled back from her lips and started helping her out of her own trousers. Her skin was so soft, he couldn't help grasping at every bit of her that he touched as he lowered her trousers down her legs, kissing his way down her body as he went; her breasts, her stomach, her thighs. As he stood back up he picked her up by her thighs and encouraged her legs to wrap tight around him as they fell back gently onto the mattress.
She took hold of him and guided him inside her, both of them giving a loud moan as they joined. She was so warm and wet. He loved that he'd gotten her as worked up as she felt. Their lips barely parted as they rode each other.
He remembered what the beginning stages of relationship sex was like, it was all caution and care and making sure that the other was okay with what was going on.
This was nothing like that. It was passionate and fire. He felt her encouraging him to grind against her and complied until she was gasping and crying out. He kept thrusting into her like that until she came down from that high and gave a giggle before forcing him onto his back.
He couldn't help but give a laugh too as she fought with the sheets, trying to straddle him and join them back together. Her foot had caught in the top sheet and the blanket was trying to roll with them.
Harry sat up and together, between little laughs, they managed to kick the blanket and sheet off the end of the bed before falling back together, their lips joined once more before their lower halves. He had to grab at her hips to try and control himself. He loved it when he was on the bottom, he felt like he could go deeper this way, and giving up some of the control made it all the better. Not to mention that there wasn't as much energy being exhausted by him in this position so it was more about simply enjoying the ride. His hands were the only part of him really working as they assisted her movements.
He didn't hold back his groan of pleasure when she sat up and gave him the lovely view of her riding him, then she got her hand involved as well, frigging herself. At one point his hand took over that job and she rested back, supporting herself on her heels as she thrust herself up and down on him harder and harder, crying out and panting in enjoyment.
It was too fucking hot for him to hold back and he lost it, feeling his cock twitching with each rise and fall of her hips encouraging more of himself to be milked out into her.
His fingers kept working her over though as she was still riding him hard. It was only a few moments later that she cried out her orgasm again.
Ginny stayed straddling him as both their bodies stilled save for their chests heaving as they tried to catch their breath.
Harry reached up onto the headboard and grabbed a few Kleenex so they wouldn't make a mess as she slid off of him, only for her to be laying with her head near his feet beside him, still catching her breath.
"In case you didn't catch it," she panted, "I quite enjoyed that."
He grinned, feeling overwhelmingly sleepy and satisfied. "I'm right there with you. And now, I'm needing a drink of water." He gathered up his remaining energy and made it to the loo before heading to the kitchen to grab some water for them, not at all concerned about modesty.
By the time he got back to his room Ginny was laying on the bed the right way and had pulled the sheets back on to cocoon herself in them. "You alright with me staying?" she mumbled into his pillow.
He was. It was surprising to him just how comfortable he was with having her there.
He drank down half the glass of water and set it on the headboard, then snuggled in against her, sharing the pillow, and drifted off into a very peaceful sleep.
()()()
There was a loud banging on the door that woke him. It was an impatient sort of banging, sounded like the person doing it had been growing progressively impatient.
Harry gave a moan of protest before rolling over and blinking at the sunlight coming in through the crack in the blinds. At least whomever it was had waited until morning to disrupt his sleep.
There was another moan of discontent that came from the other side of the bed. It seemed Ginny wasn't happy about being woken this way either.
The banging stopped and he stared at his bed partner. No longer having the haze of drink to potentially cloud his judgement, he was still happy with how his previous evening had panned out. It was the best he could have possibly hoped for. It had been fun, sexy, and had completely helped him get out of his funk.
The banging started again and he resigned to pull on a pair of boxers and stagger towards the sound. He maneuvered around all the boxes once more and got to the front door.
It was Cho on the other side of it. She had a drink tray with two take away cups in one hand and his box of belongings he'd forgotten at her place under the other arm.
"Finally," she smiled in relief at him. "I've been ringing and texting you all morning."
Harry wiped the sleep out of his eyes before blinking at her and making sure he wasn't still dreaming. "You could have just left that on my doorstep," he told her.
Her brow knit together and she gave him a sympathetic look. "I thought maybe it would be a good idea if we had a chat. You know, talk it out so we can clear the air?"
He stared at her. "What is there to chat about? Instead of breaking up with me you cheated on me, full well knowing that I only had a week left at my flat and nothing else lined up."
She had the decency to look ashamed about that. "I know, I fucked up. And I'm sorry. I was just taken by surprise that the bloke I fancied at work fancied me back and it just… happened. Then I didn't know how to tell you."
"Super," he deadpanned. "Is one of those for me?" he pointed at the coffee's she was holding.
"Yes," she offered it forward, "and there's pastries on top in the box."
He took the box, set it down on top of another box behind the door, then took the drink tray, with both the drinks still in it, meanwhile still not giving Cho any space to come into the flat. He then rested against the door frame and only just held the door open enough for him to stand there comfortably. "Look, Cho, we had a good run. Well, actually, in the end we didn't have a good run. You've moved on and I'll find somewhere else to live. Now that I've got my stuff back there's no need for us to talk anymore. So, thanks for the breakfast."
"That's it?!" she asked, astounded.
"Yeah," he shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, I was gutted. But I spent a night silently fuming by myself and last night I went out with my mates to bitch about you and get it out of my system, the I met someone and had a round of truly fantastic sex. I figure that's the whole break-up process complete right there."
Just then the toilet in the bathroom flushed before the sound of the shower turning on met their ears.
"You have someone in there with you now?!"
"Yes," he answered honestly. "And she might be a one-night stand, might be something more, I don't know yet. I did, however, wait until I was single again to invite someone else into my bed. So, you know, at least I have the moral high ground."
With that, he shut the door in her face and locked it.
It might not have been the best or healthiest way to deal with her but it sure felt good.
He waited a moment to see if she was going to start banging or cursing at the door before picking up the coffee and brown bag of pastries to take to the kitchen.
He was halfway through his croissant when Ginny came out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around her.
"Hope you don't mind. I figured my having a shower was the best way to tip her off that you weren't alone, and it drowned out the conversation."
"No, it's fine," he smiled at her. He was glad to see that his attraction for her had not been brought on from the drink, she was quite a nice sight in the morning. Wearing only his red bath towel. "I don't know how much you heard, but I essentially told her thanks for bringing my stuff and that she could bugger off."
"Yeah, I caught that much," she laughed. "You don't seem too gutted."
"You know, I'm really not," he admitted. "She was a bad match for me, I just couldn't see it because I was too close, I guess." He gestured at the coffee. "I don't know what you take, or if you're a tea person."
She took one and popped the lid off of it, taking a whiff. "Smells like it'll do."
Still in only the towel she took a seat beside him on the couch and started drinking it.
"Guessing from the conversation I overheard, and the boxes, that you're in need of a place to live."
He felt his mood taking a dip. "Yeah. I need some place by the end of the week, otherwise I'll be stuck rooming with my godfather, or, heaven forbid, my parents."
She took a look around the place. "One room flat, loo, full kitchen, in London. I'm guessing, what, nine hundred pounds a month?"
"Close to it," he confirmed.
Ginny set her coffee down and went into his bedroom without saying anything more. Two minutes later and she walked back into the sitting room dressed in her clothes with her phone to her ear. "Were you up?... Okay… Yeah, it was fun. But, look, I've got a friend here that's looking for a flat. Currently lives nearby but his lease is up. Has 4C been spoken for already?... Really? Can he come have a look?... Right. Yeah, yeah, of course. No, he keeps it clean and doesn't have one of those obnoxious, piss off the neighbors, stereo systems… Well, that's pretty standard, isn't it?... Okay, cool." She looked at him then. "Are you free to look at a place in an hour?"
Dumbly, he nodded his head.
"Sure, we'll see you then." She tapped the side of her phone and sat back down on the couch. "Think it would be weird if we lived in the same building?"
He let out a bark of a laugh. "Are you serious? Just like that? You hardly know me."
"Well, we had a good time chatting at the pub last night, your friends and my friends were getting on just fine, and this," she gestured between them, "it still doesn't feel weird, does it?"
He gave it a quick thinking over. No, it didn't feel strange to have the woman he'd met less than twelve hours ago at his place sharing breakfast this morning. "No, you're right. It feels… totally not weird."
"Like we could be friends?" she asked leadingly.
He wondered over that a moment quickly in his head and decided to take a chance. "Or possible, something a little… different than friends?"
She picked up her coffee again. "You've just had a break-up and are uprooting your life. How about we see if you like the flat and go from there?"
Her response had him feeling more confident. "I didn't hear a 'no'."
She smirked at him. "You didn't hear a 'yes' either. Now go get dressed. My building might not be too far from here but I need to stop at the chemist on the way." She gave him a pat on his bare leg to encourage him to hurry up.
He grinned at her and went to the loo for a quick shower before dressing and meeting her back in the sitting room. "All set."
"Record timing! Good, let's go then," she grinned.
He followed along beside her to the chemist, chatting the whole way about nothing and everything. He liked her, more than just a friendly 'liked' as well. She was right too though, it was too soon to be asking her for something 'different' than friendship.
"What are you needing here?" he asked when they stepped into the nearest Boots.
"Well, we didn't exactly have a Plan 'A' last night, so," she inclined her head towards the pharmacy.
"Oh!" he blushed, realizing that meant she needed to take Plan B.
Ginny didn't seem bothered by the situation. "You don't have anything I should be aware of, do you?" She then held her hand up, "actually, with what I overheard last night and this morning, we should probably both get tested."
That comment had him standing still in shock in front of the toothpaste because he realized that she was right. Cho admitted to sleeping with one guy, that in itself meant he should get tested, and who knew if it really was just one other guy?
Immediately, he pulled out his phone and dialed up his doctor. By the time Ginny had come back, white paper bag in hand, he'd left a message about needing an appointment.
"Ready?" she asked.
He was feeling some anxiety in his chest. He wasn't sure if it was because this was all happening so fast or because she was currently holding a bag containing the morning-after pill, perhaps because he was feeling desperate to get himself STI tested. He didn't feel like he could even respond verbally.
She reached out and took his hand. "It's just one thing at a time, yeah?" she told him soothingly. "Right now, you just have to go and look at a flat.
The feel of her hand in his had this remarkable calming effect and he felt he could breathe again.
"Right," he nodded.
()()()
Five Months Later
()()()
"Alright, so, the thing about hanging art is that you need to take the natural light into account," Alex told him.
Harry turned his head skywards and prayed for the strength to deal with Alex thinking that he was some genius when it came to interior design. He simply got like this when he was drunk. He'd solve all the worlds problems after five drinks, and then forget them all in the morning.
"Alex, I don't give a fuck. All the wall hangings are basically in the same sized frames, I can move them around after we've got the nails in the walls. I just need to mark where to put the nails." Harry was really regretting the decision to have dinner and drinks before they got to work with putting up the pictures.
"Have you got a level?" Tim asked and started looking around.
"Course I do, it's out in my garden shed," Harry scoffed. "No, I haven't bloody got a level? Why would I have needed a level before?"
"Maybe because you knew this was what you'd be doing tonight and maybe should have thought through what you might need for that task," Tim prattled off, sounding like he was explaining it to a toddler.
"Yeah, well. I didn't," Harry frowned and looked around once more at the bare walls. He'd wanted to get this taken care of and make it look good. Ginny was officially moved into his flat tomorrow and he wanted her art to be up on the walls with his and make it properly look like their space, not just his.
They'd been officially a couple for four months now and he'd asked her to move in with him after first consulting his mates and making sure there was no hesitation in their faces or voices when they gave him feedback on her.
It turned out that they all thought Ginny was great, liked her almost as much as Harry did himself. He'd felt like everything was going great with them, being with her had been like he was hanging around with his best friend, and that hanging around had turned in to them staying at each other's place every night. He couldn't remember the last time he'd fallen asleep with her not beside him. So, when the renewal came up on her flat they talked about it, then started moving her things up the one flight of stairs to his flat because it had the nicer view and a larger storage room.
There was a dinging sound from his pocket and Harry pulled out his phone to see it was a text from Ginny. 'Div brought champers and is encouraging me to drink straight from the bottle… She may already be drunk.'
'Don't go too overboard. I have plans for you tonight ;)'
'[?] [?] [?] [?]'
Harry chuckled. His girlfriend knew he didn't have his phone set to read emoji's. 'You know I'm going to pretend that you sent me something really dirty.'
'8===D O:'
He gave another laugh at his screen then put his phone back in his pocket and saw that Alex was now standing on a chair with a rolled-up poster in his hand that had one end of the roll touching the ceiling and Tim was there beside him with another poster rolled up, the tube against the other wall and marking the spot they met with pen.
"We're improvising!" Tim told him happily.
Harry laughed, "yeah, that'll do."
()()()