Prompt- The Lost James- requesting an AU where Harry never went to Hogwarts and loves going out for walks with his owl, then one day Hedwig suddenly flies off…
Well, like always, I changed it slightly. This is a Muggle AU. Oh, and Hedwig is a boy in this story.
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Concerned Pet Parent
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There were several different types of house pets someone could have; dog, cat, rabbit, fish; those were the common ones. The more uncommon ones were more like; snakes and other reptiles, rodents and birds. Harry had a bird.
Not just any bird, like a budgie or a cockatoo, he had an owl.
He'd gotten it as a gift when he was eleven and the owl, Hedwig, was a beautiful snowy white one. He had been intelligent and affectionate right from their first introduction. It was like they were kindred spirits, constant companions. Harry was proud to have Hedwig as a pet.
But lately, Hedwig hadn't been behaving like his regular self and Harry was worried that something might be wrong with him.
Every night Harry would let him out of his cage to go hunting and he always came home in the morning, usually with a dead rodent in his beak, and that was still happening, but he wasn't eating the food that Harry left out for him anymore, he didn't seem interested in the treats that he had for him either. He was getting up there in age as well. Harry kept checking and double checking the life expectancy of owls in captivity on his phone and it kept showing the life expectancy for owls in the wild first, which Hedwig was nearing the end of that age range. Domestic owls though, they usually lived several years longer than that.
He had got to the point of making an appointment with the vet, just to make sure that he didn't have some kind of parasite or something and the vet said Hedwig was doing just fine.
Even after the clean bill of health, Harry worried.
Hedwig seemed to understand that his owner was worrying about him too, he would fly over to him and perch on his shoulder and give an affectionate rub of his head against Harry's cheek, as though assuring him that everything was going to be alright.
Still, for weeks his owls behavior was off with his food. He tried switching the brands of owl food, adding new vegetables. Nothing was interesting Hedwig to continue eating the way he had been.
The only thing keeping Harry from worrying too much was that Hedwig was still interested in going out every night, and still came back in the same condition every morning.
It was a Saturday morning when Hedwig came back in and was looking really proud with himself that Harry called up his Godfather.
"So, the interesting saga of the Curious Hedwig continues," he started as soon as Sirius picked up.
"Oh, hold on, let me finish pouring my coffee and you can tell me all about it." Sirius was Harry's sounding board for all of his worrying. His mum and dad were good at listening, but not so much with the calming down portion. "Alright, I'm all settled now. What's that bird of yours up to?"
"Well, he's still not seeming to be interested in any of the food I put out for him, but he came back this morning looking incredibly proud of himself and yet there is no dead rodent or anything else to prove he's done something to be proud of."
"And the vet said there is nothing wrong with him?"
"Nothing. Says he's still good and healthy."
"And you mentioned about him not eating at home."
"Of course. That was the whole reason I made the appointment."
"Do you know where he goes at night?"
The village Harry lived in had a lot of country that surrounded it so he assumed that Hedwig regularly flew off to the farmers fields and preyed on mice and such there.
"None of the neighbors have ever mentioned seeing him in their backyards and the one's that immediately surround me know that he's mine. All their kids beg me to bring him out so they can give him a pet."
It was incredibly cute having little five-year-old kids asking if they could see the owl. Hedwig was a big bird and very docile with people, so he is usually okay with kids giving gentle strokes to his back or front, so long as he isn't too tired. And he'll just sit there on Harry's arm and then give him this look when he's had enough.
"Why don't you try following him? It's the weekend, you could get in a nap today and see if you can figure out where he goes and what he's so proud about."
Harry was doubtful that he'd be able to follow Hedwig into the night, but it was as good a plan as any, so, he tried getting a nap in all afternoon. He was unsuccessful at it, but at least his eyes had gotten some rest.
"Alright boy," Harry cooed at Hedwig around 7 pm and opened the window for him to fly out.
Immediately after, Harry closed the window he went out the front door and in the direction that Hedwig had taken off.
It was still dusk so he could make him out pretty easily and followed him down a laneway to a trail, then had to hop a fence and wander through a grove of trees to a farmers field where he watched from a distance as Hedwig sat perched on a tall branch and waited patiently. Twenty minutes passed and Harry stood still.
The whole time he was watching his bird he was wondering if he was acting crazy. If anyone else were to tell him that they followed their… cat, say, outdoors at night then he would think they were being entirely too overprotective. His mum and dad would have pointed that out to him, as would his friends if he dared to tell them just how concerned he was about his bird. So far as they all knew, he did not have an unhealthy attachment to his pet.
Finally, Hedwig dive bombed the field and managed to catch a field mouse.
He didn't stay in the tree though to enjoy his food, instead he started flying back towards the village with it.
Harry rushed to keep up with him. He tried to stay as stealthily quiet as possible as he rushed through the trees, back over the fence, down the trail and up the lane, the whole time trying to keep his owl in his sights.
He could still see Hedwig as he passed his house and continued to follow him two streets over and one road up until the bird went into someone's backyard.
The house that Hedwig had gone to was one Harry had seen before as he went for a wander around the village, but he had never met the person that lived there. He knew those in his immediate vicinity and a few people here and there in the village, but the village had over 3000 people in it.
It was a small blue cottage and the backyard was fenced in.
Quietly, he went up to the fence and tried to look over into the backyard. If he stood on the tips of his toes then he could see the manicured lawn and a few raised gardens as well as the side of a deck that must have come off the back of the house.
"Can I help you with something?" asked a harsh female voice behind him.
Harry gave a start and spun around. "Sorry! I, erm."
The woman that was calling him out was about his age with long hair in a plait and a shopping bag over her shoulder.
"I know this looks bad, but my owl just went into your backyard and-"
"Your owl?" she asked, cutting him off.
He frowned at the inflection she chose. She sounded more surprised that the owl belonged to him, not that his choice of pet had been an owl.
"Erm, yeah. I know this sounds a bit odd, but he's been a bit off lately and I've had him looked at by the vet who said he was fine so since he seemed fine, but still wasn't eating properly I figured I'd just keep an eye on him for the evening and see if there was something to explain why he was being off."
She was absolutely going to think he was bonkers. He was expecting her to pull out her mobile and call 9-9-9 to have them haul him off.
She didn't though, instead she smiled at him. "What's your name?"
"Er, Harry. Harry Potter."
"Well, why don't you come inside, Harry-Harry Potter and I'll let you know why your owl's been behaving a bit off."
"What? You know why? And you don't think this is at all nuts?"
Again, she just smiled at him. Brilliantly smiled at him. She was very cute.
"My name's Ginny. I just moved here a few months ago. The vet mentioned that there was someone else in the area that also had a pet owl, I should have put two and two together when yours showed up," she said as she led them into the house.
Harry took a quick look around the house. It had been newly painted and there were still some boxes that she had yet to unpack. There was a desk that was set up in her sitting room though that had three monitors, a laptop, computer tower, printer/scanner, headset. He felt safe in making the assumption that she was one of the many that now had a remote work arrangement and had decided to move out of the city and to a home that was within her budget.
"Sorry about the mess. I keep rethinking how I want to have things set up and I get restless," Ginny called over her shoulder as she led them down the hall and to her kitchen.
"Your owl," he started, "is it a Snowy as well?"
"Yes, her name is Athena. What's yours named? I've just been calling him 'Hey Buddy'."
Harry chuckled. "Hedwig. And don't ask," he prefaced, "I was eleven when I named him." It was dark out now and he couldn't make out where Hedwig had gone in her backyard, or if he was still there.
"Here," Ginny started as she picked up a tablet from her counter and tapped the screen a few times, then came around to stand beside him. "This is why he's been behaving a little differently."
The screen looked like it was showing video camera footage from inside a doghouse. It showed Hedwig giving Ginny's Athena the rodent he'd caught earlier. Athena wasn't moving much from where she was, and Harry saw why.
She was sitting on a nest.
"I. We're. Are there really!" he sputtered from the surprise.
"Congratulations, Grandpa," Ginny said while giving him a one-armed hug. "There are four eggs and the first one should be hatching within the week."
"Week!"
Never had it occurred to him that Hedwig might find another Snowy Owl to mate with. They weren't very common in England. It was amazing that he'd found one that was also domesticated. And now there was video feed of the nesting process.
"No wonder he seemed so proud when he came home!" Harry exclaimed.
"Oh, I'll bet. And don't worry, he's getting plenty of food here," Ginny assured him. "I've been making Athena bowls of disgusting earthworms and frozen mice. With that and Hedwig bringing her food, the pair of them are eating plenty. There's also a place I go by that has those freeze-dried crickets and I make little treats for them out of that."
"Well, this explains everything," he sighed in relief. "I can't believe Hedwig is going to be a dad!"
"I know! And Athena is going to be a mum. She's only four! Silly girl, giving it up for the first pretty boy that comes along," she shook her head.
"Is there a way for me to get access to that footage?"
"Sure. I'll give you the log in and password, you'll be able to see the feed from your phone if you want." She grabbed a post-it from her desk and wrote it all out for him. "Can I get you a drink? I was about to make food too, if you're hungry."
"Oh, I don't want to impose."
"You aren't," she waved off his concern. "It looks like our owls are going to be spending a bit of time together, we may as well get to know each other too. And, well, it's kind of quiet here," she blushed and nearly whispered the last part. "I grew up with a lot of noise, and even when I moved to the city there was a never-ending stream of it from my neighbors. Now though," she cast a hand around her, "nothing. I have to fall asleep with Netflix going in order to get some shut eye."
"Oh yeah?" he perked up. "What are you binging these days?"
()()()
'ETA 30 min. Just let him out.'
'Managed to recover the mating dance clip. Want to see?'
'Yes! I know that he has better rhythm than me, now I'll have proof'
'Here you go'
Her message was followed by a two minute video that started with Hedwig perched on a tree in Ginny's backyard, right beside Athena, and he was puffing out his chest and extending his tail feathers while making a call at her. There was a dead mouse clutched in one of his claws and then he started doing this hopping thing and turning his head this way and that before he stopped and started puffing out his chest and tail feathers again. Then Athena let him give her the mouse.
'Okay. My moves are better than his, but not by much.'
'Next time you come over you can prove it by showing me you can do that 'floss' dance.'
'Unlikely. The only kind of flossing I do is between my teeth, and trust me, you don't want to watch that.'
'lol'
It had been a month since he and Ginny first met and there were now three owlets and they were half-way to leaving the nest, one of the babies didn't make it. Ginny had been upset about that but it was part of nature; usually one egg doesn't make it. Generally that is due to all the other owls and owlets hogging all the food. Once he told her that, Harry had to talk her down from making extra food for all of them.
He and Ginny weren't going to make the new baby owls be domesticated, they were going to wait and see what they did on their own once they were old enough.
Hedwig still returned home every day, but Athena hadn't left the nest since she had lain the first egg. And because owls, even domestic ones, could get incredibly defensive about their nesting area once the young were hatched, Ginny had to be super careful when she was refilling the food bowl.
Harry had been going over there about once a week and they texted all the time.
'Do you want to go out to dinner tonight?'
'Done with my cooking then, are you?'
'Your cooking is great. Mine though is only 'okay', and I want to take you out to dinner.'
There was a long while of the bottom of his screen showing that she was typing something. He was either going to get a monster of a message from her, or she didn't know how to respond.
The longer it was taking her to get back to him the more puzzled he got. He was sure that they had developed a mutual interest in each other. The owlets had been a good excuse for them to get together regularly and keep texting back and forth, but he wanted to see her for more than just out of concern for their pets.
His phone dinged finally.
'Are you asking me on a date?'
Maybe it had just been on his end.
'I had hoped for it to be a date, yeah.'
'Okay'
Okay?
He gave up on the texting and just called her.
"You don't have to feel like you need to say yes just because I asked," he started as soon as she picked up the phone.
"I don't! I do want to go out with you. I just hadn't realized that you were interested in me like that."
"But you're interested in me like that?" He wanted to hear her admit it.
"Well… yes."
It was so cute; he could picture her blushing on the other end of the phone. "You know, we're both adults, you can just come out and admit that you fancy someone. It isn't like we're teenagers and it's going to get all over the school if we're rejected."
"Don't laugh!" she protested, but he could hear the smile in her voice. "Alright, look. I don't have much experience with dating, okay? Essentially… none."
"What?" he wasn't smiling anymore. She was a pretty woman that had a career and lived on her own. How had she not dated? "Wait a second. Are you telling me that you've never… dated?" He made the insinuation abundantly clear.
She didn't answer right away, but he could hear the sigh that came out of her mouth. Then it all came out at once.
"I grew up in the country with six brothers that everyone else was scared of. None of the boys there would ever dare to look at me, let alone ask me out, and I was a complete mess when it came to boys I fancied, like, couldn't string two words together in their presence. Then I went off to uni and assumed that I'd be… you know, making up for lost time there. But nope, it was like I had this 'unshaggable' sign hanging around my neck, and still I didn't know how to behave when a boy I might like talked to me. Then I joined the workforce and wound up working in a call center with a bunch of women and men that were already attached. I didn't want to join some dating app. Just when I was about to get fed up and go out in search of a guy in a pub to, you know, pull the rip cord, the whole world went on lock down!"
Wow.
"So, you've actually never. Wow, okay. So… does that mean that even if the date is crap it'll still be the best one you've ever had?"
Ginny let out a bark of laughter. "No, quite the opposite. I've got my expectations set incredibly high now, so if I haven't already scared you off, you'd better make an effort!"
()()()
Harry still couldn't believe it as he walked up to her place, flowers in hand. She hadn't ever been on a date before? And she was, what, twenty-three? She was an easy person to get on with, how intimidating could her brothers have possibly been to scare off anyone she went to school with that was interested in her?
It didn't bother him that she hadn't had any experience yet. It was kind of… interesting. It would be like being a teenager again, except one that had a credit card and wasn't stressing over whether he was doing the date 'right'. There were also no parents to worry about if the date did go well.
The only thing he wouldn't be sure of is how far he could go if the date did go well.
He remembered one date he'd had in university that had been absolutely terrible, yet it still ended with them in her dorm room having a shag before he snuck out and they just never talked again.
He already knew Ginny though, he liked her, they were both owl owners with a slightly obsessive concern for their pets; he had tried to follow his owl all night to make sure it was okay, she set up a camera to watch hers nesting.
Perhaps he would just let her be the one to make a move if the date went anywhere.
But, because of their conversation though, he was pulling out all the stops; starting with the flowers.
He got up to her door and knocked, seeing her figure coming down the hallway from the kitchen through the distorted glass in the window.
"Hi," she smiled at him, then stared down at the flowers in his hands in surprise.
"You said to make an effort," he grinned and offered them to her.
"They're lovely, thank you. I like gerbera daisies. And you've got all dressed up!"
It was true, he had pulled out a suit from the back of his closet and steam cleaned it by hanging it in the bathroom while he showered and then ran a lint roller over it while it was still a bit damp.
She wasn't dressed quite as formally as he was; skirt and a summer blouse with a leather jacket over it, the kind that was meant not to be zipped up.
"Should I be changing?" Ginny asked him skeptically. "We're not going to an opera or something, are we?"
"No," he laughed. "Just out to dinner at a nice restaurant. You're dressed perfectly."
The worry line on her forehead told him she wasn't sure.
"You swear you aren't taking me to some opera or gala event or something?" she teased and pointed at his suit.
"We aren't leaving the village, I promise you. And, if you check the village Facebook pages then you'll see that there are no events happening tonight."
"Alright. Well, why don't you come in while I put these in some water."
He toed off his shoes and followed her through to the kitchen, going straight for the tablet so he could check on Athena and see if Hedwig was there with his most recent offering from the field. The three owlets were getting big and Athena wasn't sitting on them anymore, she was hopping around beside them and bringing them food from the dish that Ginny had put out.
"Only a few more weeks before we know for sure if they're leaving or staying," he said sadly.
"Don't remind me. It's become my routine to check on them throughout the day, even when they're sleeping. They're just so cute!"
"Does Athena look like she's been losing a few feathers to you?"
"She has. Stress of being a new mum, I guess. She hasn't been eating as much either, been giving it to the little ones."
Ginny set the vase of flowers down on the counter beside him where they would get some light from the window. Harry looked down at her as she stared at the screen, then she turned her head up to look at him. She'd put a bit of extra make up on for tonight, and her hair held some extra shimmer to it. There was a gloss on her lips too that was in a color that really suited her.
"You look really lovely."
She blushed. "You know, I didn't mean for you to give me flowers and get all dressed up like this. I would have been fine with just a walk and something off of a food truck."
"I'm not doing that!" he scoffed. "My first date was terrible and awkward, I want yours to be something that you remember fondly. That means flowers and wine and a sit down restaurant."
He could tell that she appreciated that and was still embarrassed about how she'd admitted to him about her lack of dating history.
"You admitted that you've never dated, or dated," he added gently, "but, have you been kissed before?"
"Does a round of Spin the Bottle when I was twelve count?"
"No."
"Then… no."
He raised his hand to cup the side of her face, his other going to her waist. "Can I?"
Her lips parted and her eyes looked down at his own lips, then she gave a nod and he leaned down. Her lips were soft and sweet, he made sure not to put too much pressure behind it because he was hoping that this wouldn't be their only kiss of the evening.
She was a natural at it. If she hadn't have told him she'd never been kissed before, then he wouldn't have been able to tell. Ginny smelled good, tasted good and responded to him perfectly. He wanted to carry on like this and skip the dinner, but he couldn't. She deserved a proper first date and he wanted to give her that.
So, he pulled back.
Ginny's hand had come up to lay overtop of his wrist by her cheek. Her lips were a bit fuller, her lip gloss much less apparent and there was this glow about her now. It seemed like some of her anxiety had been alleviated from that kiss. Then she opened her eyes and grinned at him.
"That light brown isn't really your color," she chuckled, looking at her gloss that was now on his lips.
He grinned. "Worth it though."
Their dinner date went perfectly, the fact that they already had the underlaying relationship meant that they were able to carry on about anything and everything just as they had been doing, but it was interspersed with these looks that they gave each other and small smiles.
When he walked her home they stood on the doorstep.
"Are you coming in?"
"No. That's not how first dates end," he told her.
"Oh, and how do they normally end? I thought this was when I was supposed to invite you in for a drink so you could get the opportunity to kiss me again?"
"No, this is the part where I tell you I had a great time, then I lean in ever so slowly," which he did, "and say that I really hope that we can do it again sometime soon."
"And am I supposed to lean in slowly as well?" There was a great amount of amusement and interest in her eyes as she stepped closer to him.
"That's the hope." He put his hands on her hips and leaned in a little closer to her.
Their noses were touching and he could feel her breasts grazing his chest when she took a breath. "And at what point to you finally close the distance between us?" she asked quietly.
"I don't."
"You don't?" she frowned.
"No, that's your decision to make."
"Oh."
She brought her arms up around his neck and ran her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck. Her fingers were a bit cold from the night air and it sent a nice chill down his spine. It felt good to have her touching him there.
Finally, she tilted her chin up so that they could kiss again. It was better than the last one, she'd had two glasses of wine at dinner and the reservation that he'd felt from her earlier in the kitchen wasn't there anymore. He could taste the wine and chocolate from her dessert, and it tasted wonderful.
Reluctantly, Harry pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. There was this warm sensation in his belly and a lightness in his head that was almost making him dizzy. "Did I manage to meet some of the high expectations you had?"
"You did," she grinned, her eyes were still closed, and he could see the rosiness in her cheeks, from the light coming through the window in the door. "Were you serious about not coming in for a drink?"
Oh God, did he ever want to go in for a drink, and more. But it had been her first date, he was okay with taking things slow with her. They'd been growing closer over the month that they'd known each other, and he hadn't expected to fancy her this much, but he did, and potentially pushing her farther than she was ready to go wasn't right.
"Not tonight." He leaned down and kissed her once more, briefly. "I want to, but I also want you go into your house with a big smile on your face and keep thinking about just how good that kiss was."
"A little presumptuous, are we?" she teased.
"Are you in need of a little reminder then?"
She tilted her head up again. "Yes," she told him, with her lips already against his.
()()()
Harry's phone rang while he was at his desk and it was Ginny's face that popped up on the screen. It had been two weeks since their first date and he'd been over to visit a few times and taken her on another date already. He was really happy about how things were progressing with her. She made him happy, kind of deliriously happy, truth be told. He'd experience that early relationship happiness before but he didn't remember ever feeling this involved with a girl this early on in the relationship.
"Hey, Gin."
"Nanook is gone!"
"What?"
"Nanook! The one that I'm pretty sure was a girl, she's gone! I checked the video feed after breakfast and there's only Boris and Oden there."
"Ginny! We said we weren't going to name them."
"I couldn't help myself. They were so freaking cute and they needed names!"
"Nanook, Boris and Oden though?"
"They're Snowy Owls, they needed wintery names."
"And yet you called Hedwig 'Hey Buddy' before you found out his name."
"Yeah, well, he knocked up my pet daughter. I wasn't going to name him until I could judge his character."
Harry snorted with laughter into the phone and looked over at Hedwig who was sleeping with his head tucked under his wing on his perch in the shadowy corner of the room. "How's Athena looking?"
"Like she's less concerned than I am that one of her babies has left the nest." He could hear her pouting through the phone. "And stop laughing at me!"
"I'm not laughing," he lied. "Look, we knew this day was going to come eventually, and what did we tell each other?"
Ginny's sigh was audible. "That we wouldn't name them and we would let it be the owlets decisions."
"And now you've gone ahead and named them. I know they're cute, but Nanook will be fine. Maybe she'll come back, maybe she won't. It's probably a good thing that she's taken off and is striking out on her own. There's a great big world out there full of field mice for her to attack."
There was a few seconds of dead air. "I've just gotten so used to checking in on them through the day and evening. I've grown attached."
"Hedwig and Athena will still be around for you to coo over, I promise."
"Will you come over tonight? It might be the last time we see the boys before they bugger off too."
"I'd love to."
"K, I'll talk to you later then."
"Bye."
He was still chuckling over it as he put the phone back down. Nanook, Boris and Oden. He should have known she would cave and name them. He wasn't as gutted about the baby girl taking off from the nest as he thought he might have been. If Athena and Hedwig were fine with it, then so was he.
Ginny though, they did live at her place, and she'd been the one making sure that they had plenty of food and warmth. She was likely making it a bit too hospitable for them, probably in the hopes that the happy owl family would all live together forever.
Five was a lot of owls to care for though.
And if Hedwig and Athena had another nest of eggs next spring then they could wind up with a whole house full of owls.
Think of the smell.
Harry gave another glance over to Hedwig, still asleep, and wondered if it was too late for him to be castrated. Although, Snowy owls were on the 'watch' list for endangered birds. Maybe he and Athena could simply do their part for their breed and help replenish the population.
That evening Harry picked up some takeaway and brought it over to Ginny's place. They always wound up hanging out at her house. She'd been to his, but he hadn't done much in the way of making it homey, he had furniture and crockery, but his space still looked like it had when it was staged by the realtor before he moved in, whereas Ginny's place was bright, slightly crowded with things and fully furnished with older pieces that had been passed down to her from her Great Aunt's second cousin or some such person. She had art on the walls and blankets on the back of the couches and chairs; it was just more comfortable. And they had the visual on the owl house, not just the black and white screen.
Harry knocked on the door before letting himself in and kicking off his shoes. "I grabbed some Thai food," he called out to her.
"Sounds delicious," she called from upstairs. "I'll be down in a minute."
"I checked my link before I came over and saw the boys were still there."
"I know. I couldn't resist looking several times again through the day."
He pulled out two plates from her cupboard and started dividing up the food and had just finished when she came down the stairs.
"Sorry about that, something exploded at work today and I couldn't get away until a few minutes ago."
He smirked at her, "so that means that you ran upstairs to get dressed before I got here?" One of the many benefits of working from home was being able to work in comfortable clothes, meaning Ginny admitted she rarely gets out of her pajamas unless she has to leave the house.
"I am still trying to make a good impression on you. It's a little early for me to be parading around in bunny slippers."
"Bunny slippers, yes, but I wouldn't mind seeing you in one of those little night dresses." He then gave her a kiss in greeting.
"Maybe I sleep in one of those animal onsies," she corrected, grabbing a plate for herself and sitting down at the table.
He opened his mouth to say something along the lines of 'maybe I'll find out for sure soon enough,' but wasn't sure she'd be okay with a comment like that yet. Instead, he just sat down in the chair beside her and they started in on their dinner, sharing a few work anecdotes and talking about the newest meme's that were filling up their social media feeds.
They moved over to the couch after and she put on a time travel show that they were both interested in. They didn't watch it though, instead they started snogging. It was getting really hard for him to try and control himself around her when they wound up laying horizontal on her couch. He hadn't snogged this much since he was sixteen and he had to keep trying to keep himself in check. He didn't know if she wanted things to progress further because she hadn't said anything to him about wanting to go up to her bedroom or anything along those lines.
He was fine with waiting, but God, he wanted to shag her.
"Ginny," he panted in between kisses, "do you want to-"
"Yes," she responded immediately.
He was about to finish off his sentence with 'slow things down', but if she had other things in mind then he was all for it.
"Really?" He pulled back to look down at her. Her hair was all disheveled and her lips were bruised, there was also a hickey forming on her neck from his earlier work, twenty minutes ago. "Here, or… upstairs?"
"Upstairs," she whispered.
Thirty minutes.
He'd managed to drag it out for thirty minutes. She'd gotten hers and he'd gotten his. And thank God that condoms made it feel not as good as it could. It had been a while since he'd been with anyone and if there hadn't been that layer of latex then there was no way he would have lasted that long. He'd gotten really worked up down on the couch, coming up here and undressing her, kissing her body all over to try and get her comfortable, he was nearly there before the condom was needed.
"I knew I'd been missing out on something major," she grinned against his chest while snuggled up to his side.
"You know, on the one hand, I'm really glad that I could give you that for your first time. But, on the other hand, I wish you had something to compare it to, so you'd know just how excellent a lover I am."
The vibrations of Ginny's laughter reverberated through his chest and he smiled. The feeling of her skin against his was wonderful.
It was the first time he'd been in her bedroom. It was nice, a bit messy with her clothes hanging on her closet door and the back of chairs, some that were on the floor that hadn't quite made it all the way to the laundry hamper, but the size of the room, the large window that looked out over her back garden, it was a really nice place.
"Will you stay the night?"
"If you're alright with it, yeah, I'd like to."
"I'm alright with it." She snuggled in closer and he gave a kiss to the top of her head.
Harry held her close and grinned. He hoped he'd be spending a lot more nights like this with her.
()()()
"Harry, Harry, you've got to wake up."
He managed to garble out a 'why?' with his face pressed against the pillow.
"Because Hedwig isn't on his perch and it's nearly eight."
"Oh fuck," he flipped over onto his back and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eye and going for his dresser.
Ginny had needed to get creative with the space when he moved in. It was a bit cramped but they made it work. He hadn't had that much stuff to move in with, and he did keep a storage locker with some of his things as a fail safe in case this turned out to be a colossal mistake, which, thankfully, it hadn't been. Fingers were crossed that it stayed that way.
They were both still working remotely so when Ginny started to clear out the room that she had been using for storage so one of them could use it as an office, she wound up needing to put some of her things in the storage locker too.
It had been two years they'd been together now and they'd met each other's families, been on a holiday and seen each other at their best and their worst, so all their friends had approved of their plan to move in together.
What had actually given them the push was Hedwig though. He and Athena had now created 10 little baby owls and they'd all flown off, never to be seen from again. The problem was that Hedwig was getting older. Almost too old to hunt, and he was seeming to get confused, sometimes he would come back to their old house, before Harry moved, and be limping or looking like he'd got in a fight because his feathers were all out of sorts on one side.
Harry and Ginny had talked about it and come to the same conclusion that if both Hedwig and Athena lived in the same home, then maybe it would make things easier for Hedwig.
That's right, they moved in with each other out of concern for his bird.
And Ginny waking him up right now because it was eight in the morning and Hedwig wasn't there, it meant that Hedwig had gotten confused again and probably went to Harry's old house.
He pulled on his clothes and went downstairs. Ginny handed him a piece of toast with peanut butter on it and a travel mug of coffee, then stuck a few treats for Hedwig in his shirt pocket while he was trying to stuff his feet into his trainers.
"Fanks," he said through the toast.
He kept his eyes half on the sky while he walked down the streets to his old place, and there he was, perched on the windowsill and staring in through the window, giving a slight ruffle of his feathers every now and then, showing his indignancy at not being granted immediate access through the window.
"Hedwig," Harry called out.
His head swung around and he gave a hoot at Harry before turning back to the window and giving another hoot.
"Come on buddy, we don't live here anymore. Remember?"
Harry let himself in the gate and approached the window. It didn't look like the current owners were up yet. This was the fifth time he'd been back to the house to get Hedwig, so the current owners were familiar with the owl, their daughter thought he was fantastic. They also had Harry's number just in case situations like this came up.
The last time he'd moved with Hedwig to this very house there hadn't been this confusion Hedwig had. He had been like a cat then; just show him where the food was, where the toilet was, and how to get out. That was it. He'd started going out every evening and coming home every morning.
These little lapses were at least coming fewer and farther between.
"Come on, Hedwig," Harry patted his shoulder and fished one of the treats for him out of his pocket. "Pretty sure this one is made of that dried cricket powder Ginny gets for you."
Hedwig cocked his head at the treat and Harry stepped right up to the windowsill, so Hedwig only needed to step onto his shoulder. Harry gave him the treat once he was properly seated there.
"Alright, let's get you home. Athena is probably wondering where you got off to," Harry told him and gave him another treat.
Hedwig had nearly fallen asleep on his shoulder by the time they got back to the house. He'd hardly ruffled his feathers when the passersby pointed and commented. Though, it wasn't too unusual a sight for this area anymore to see Harry walking Hedwig home.
Getting through the door, Harry brought Hedwig over to his new perch which was right beside Athena's. She opened one honey brown eye and gave a little trill sound, like she was scolding her mate, and then closed her eye again and went back to sleep.
"All fine otherwise?" Ginny asked, giving him a kiss as she went from the sink to the table to start into her second cup of tea.
"He's getting old," Harry frowned and topped up his coffee.
"We knew that."
It was the same conversation they had every time he brought Hedwig back. It was cathartic to get it out though.
"Babe, there will come a time and Athena and I will be here for you when it does."
"I know," he slumped down in his chair.
"Cheer up," Ginny said as she leaned forward and patted him on the leg. "It's Saturday and he's home and happy. That's all we can do for now."
"And at least he found Athena before he started going downhill. Yeah, he and I have had a really good last few years," he admitted.
"Can you make it sound more like you'll be leaving when he does?" Ginny asked him dryly.
"I love you," he said with a cheesy, apologetic grin. It was how he made up for everything, and it worked.
()()()