AN- DireWolf96 is credited for giving me the prompt that started off this one. (They may have been looking for something with a bit more kink with the prompt though, lol)

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Car Keys

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His hands were shaking with nerves as he placed his keys into the bowl. The party had started already; that was good because he really hadn't wanted to be one of the first ones there.

It was Stephanie's idea that they come here, to 'interject some life back into their social life'.

This was not the kind of social life he had in mind for himself though.

There was music, drinks and laughter all around the room, the room which Stephanie was already navigating around with great ease.

Had she been to a party like this before?

They'd been together for three months. Only three months. Perhaps this was her way of telling him they were done, or maybe this was something she was truly into?

Either way, he was uncomfortable and seriously considering turning around and running back out the door. Yet, before he knew it, there was a drink in his one hand and a plate of food in the other and he was pulled into conversations in the kitchen about football.

The music had seemed to grow louder by his third drink, and there was a small haze of weed smoke wafting through the house now too and just felt trapped.

He hadn't seen Stephanie since they'd shown up and was too worried about what he might find if he did run into her. He had noticed a few other women walking through the kitchen and was glad to see that all of them had their own attractive qualities.

When the fourth drink was offered to him he looked at the clock and saw it was nearly time, so he poured himself a shot of the hard liquor and downed it.

Sure enough, the lights flickered and everyone else around him started looking pretty excited. He, meanwhile, felt like there might be an ulcer forming in his stomach.

Slow as possible he made his way back to the front door, trying to be the very last person to leave because he didn't want to see what was going on out by the cars; or see how happy his girlfriend might be right then, and with whom. Mostly, he was wondering why he was even with Stephanie, if only three months in she clearly wasn't satisfied with their relationship. And, he didn't want to be in a relationship with someone that had their foot half out the door.

This whole night, this whole idea, it was just absolutely ridiculous. He wasn't this person.

There were cars pulling away from their parking spaces on either side of the street, tens of them. And then he spotted his and the woman that was resting against the passenger side, waiting for him.

He wasn't going to do this. It felt all kinds of wrong.

As the pavement between them grew shorter in distance he ran through what he was going to say to her to get himself out of it.

She was an attractive woman, he could start off with that compliment, then go on to say this had all just been a bad idea for him. She might be upset with that, scoff at him and then go off to the nearest watering hole, or perhaps back to the house to find another suitor for the night.

Once he was close enough, he opened his mouth, but didn't get a chance to say anything before she held out his car keys and started speaking.

"Sorry to put a damper on your evening, but I'm not doing this. It was supposed to be my last ditched attempt at salvaging my relationship with my boyfriend, but seeing just how excited he looked to be given the green light to shag another woman, that ship has sailed. You're an attractive guy and whatever you do to get your rocks off is your business, but it isn't for me. So, here's your keys back."

He held out his hand to take the keys before they were likely to be dropped to the ground and relaxed. "So glad you said that. Saves me from having to be the one telling you the same thing." The weight had been lifted. "Going to a Key Party had never been on my bucket list, and if it were, I would have wanted to be single for that, not attempting to find love in my current relationship." He shook his head at himself; Stephanie and he were done.

"Seriously?" she asked skeptically. "Is this the line you give to all the 'participants' that get roped into these situations? Your attempt to make the tables turn and have them change their minds."

He took a step back from her. "No," he said slowly. "This is my first time going to one of these parties, and it'll be my last. Thank you for making this easier for me. Now, if you don't mind, I've got to get home and pack up my girlfriends things to drop off at hers in the morning."

She was still blocking the door to his car and staring at him, then she started squinting at him, like she was still trying to figure out his game. "You're serious?"

"No, I'm Harry." It just slipped out of his mouth, the running joke with his family because of his Uncle Sirius.

"What?"

"Never mind," he shook his head. "My name is Harry. I just… never mind. Hope you can salvage the rest of your evening with something not quite so…" he didn't even have a word for it, so he just gestured back at the house they'd come from.

"Salacious?" she offered.

"Perfect word for it!" he told her in the tone of congratulations.

She smiled at him then, and she had a very nice smile. "No, I think your idea of packing up my boyfriends things and calling that relationship quits is a great idea."

Harry took a seat on the hood of his car. "How long?"

"Just over a year," she told him and leaned properly against his door. "It's the longest relationship I've been in that didn't involve a bit of long distance. You know, school and work and what-not. When he first suggested it, I was shocked. I'd thought things were going okay. We weren't as hot and heavy as we had been when we'd first started out. Still, thought we'd fallen into a rhythm at least. I have been wondering if we were getting nearer our expiration point though. He's been a little… uninterested lately. Now I know what he's really interested in, and it just happens to be other women."

"You made it to the year point at least," he shrugged. "We're only three months in and apparently I'm not exciting enough for her."

"Three months?!" She looked shocked at first, then curious. "Well, maybe this is a kink of hers that she hadn't initially felt comfortable sharing with you until this point. It's not so uncommon to have open relationships these days. At least, that's what I've heard from some friends and read about."

"It's not something I'd ever be interested in though," he protested. "There's a concern of STI's and unwanted pregnancies and running into them in the grocers, and a whole list of other reasons why that would make me uncomfortable."

She patted him on the shoulder consolingly. "That may be why she suggested this, in order to try and ease you into her idea of a 'perfect relationship'."

Those words didn't do much to buck up his spirits. "Still," he said, standing up, "I can't do this, and she and I will just have to go our separate ways."

His companion stood too. "I suppose, all said and done, this is a good way to break up with a person."

"Sorry about your boyfriend."

"Sorry about your girlfriend."

He nodded, not entirely sure how to end things, so he hit the button on his key that would unlock his doors, causing her to step away.

"Any chance you know where the nearest tube station is?"

Shit, he hadn't thought about that; she came here in a car with her boyfriend, now she would either need to walk or call an Uber.

"Do you live far? I can give you a ride."

She looked at his car, then back up at him again, and he realized how that might have sounded.

"I'm not trying to pull a move," he drawled. "My parents raised me with manners, I'm not going to just leave you here on a dark and unfamiliar street."

He gave her a moment while she had a think about it, then she took out her phone and quickly snapped a picture of him, one that would clearly be unflattering by the look of surprise on his face. "Manners are one thing, but I'm still agreeing to get in a car with a stranger, so I'm texting a pic of you to my friend Mister Harry…"

"Potter."

"Mister Harry Potter; approximately 5"10, driving a burnt orange Vauxhall Corsa," she typed out.

"I suppose I should do the same incase you turn out to be some kind of femme fatale," and he took out his phone and took her picture, which she had the time to pose for with out protest, and he smiled about it as he started typing out a text to one of his friends. "Name?"

"Ginny Weasley."

"Miss Ginny Weasley, unassuming yet quite pretty, still believes in love even after a series of failed relationships, leading me to believe that her parents are still together, or she's read too much Jane Austen novels."

Ginny snorted a laugh at that and he heard her text being sent off.

"Btw, Steph and I are done," he finished, and fired off his text as well. "So," he asked her. "How far away do you live?"

"I'm in Fulham. About twenty minutes away."

"Oh, not too far from me then. Alright, in you get then."

As she was pulling open her door he got a bling on his phone and unlocked the screen to see what his mate had written. "Apparently he is entirely happy for me to have moved on already, and he never liked Stephanie anyhow." He moved the screen closer as another three dots appeared just before the next message appeared. "Also, a girl that still believes in love is perfect for me because I am a sappy-arsed twat too."

Ginny had a good laugh at that as they buckled themselves in. "Having friends that don't sugar coat things is a very good sign. I've a few like that as well. Actually, I'm usually the one that has the most trouble beating around the bush or putting on a fake smile."

Her phone let off a ding and she checked it. "What? You've moved on from Dean already? Awe, babe, I knew you were having trouble, but didn't think it was that bad. Don't go throwing your cat at everyone, but I'll give you a free pass for that man, he's quite dishy," she read out.

"Oh, she thinks I'm dishy, even with that stupid expression I had?"

"Who said it was a she?"

"Oh no, how camp is this friend of yours then if it's a man?"

"Not camp at all. Most don't realize he's gay until he brings it up. Get's hit on by all the women when we go out."

"Well then, I'll take that as a compliment."

"Are you really going to box up all her things when you get home?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah," he shook his head, still upset at himself with letting her talk him into going to that party. "I think I was hoping we'd get to the next level of our relationship so much that I wasn't seeing things clearly. I'm seeing pretty clearly now, and I'm not liking what I see."

"Only three months though, how much stuff could she possibly have at your place?"

"A few changes of clothes, a few potions in the loo-"

"Potions?" Ginny interjected.

"You know, make-up, lotion, brushes, whatever you lot use to get ready to go out. I call them potions."

She chuckled again, "well, I suppose some make up can work magic, but I've never learned how to apply it properly to look completely unlike myself. I've watched those videos of women, or men, applying make-up and completely transforming themselves and they are completely on a different playing field than me."

He grinned. "Yeah, so 'potions'. Anyhow, there's a bunch of things she's left at my place. Come to think of it, she might have gotten a bit too carried away too soon with all the crap she's left at mine."

Ginny shrugged. "I'm actually looking forward to being able to reclaim a lot of my space. I feel like he was treating my flat like a storage facility with all the crap he's left at mine. I think there's even a box of stuff from his childhood that his mum sent him he brought over one night and just left in my closet. I think I'll pop down to the corner store and grab a few drinks to have while I move everything down to my storage locker, I'll give him two months to get it from there before I donate it or sell it online."

"Fair timeline," he nodded.

As they grew closer to her place she started directing him down the streets. It turned out that she didn't live all that far away from his place, just about ten streets away. He pulled into a parking spot near her place and she paused with her hand on the door handle. "Did you want to join me for a bit? Have a drink at least?"

He raised his eyebrow at her, "is this the part where I'm supposed to start questioning your motives?"

"Oh, ha ha, very funny. No, I just wouldn't mind some company and don't want to be drinking sad beer by myself while I pack up Dean's stuff. It'll be depressing hauling it all down to my storage locker in the middle of the night by myself."

He couldn't argue with her there.

And so he found himself, an hour later, sitting on her couch with a video game controller in his hand while the two of them played a round of Mario Kart on her ex-boyfriends gaming system before they packed that too away in the storage unit. They'd stopped at the off-license down the street and she ordered a pizza after the first ten minutes of him playing a guessing game of what was hers and what wasn't. It turned out, he wasn't very good at the game because a lot of the things he had deemed 'not hers' turned out to be.

Ginny was part of the Fulham Football Club on the woman's team, so there was a bit of sports equipment that was her property. She also had a lot of brothers and her parents lived on a hobby farm, so the jacket and boots by the door that he'd taken as too masculine for her, also turned out to belong to her; the jacket that was too large for her had been one of her brothers that she'd taken ownership of. She also preferred men's shaving cream over women's because it smelled better and she grew up with it.

By the time the pizza had arrived he'd helped her move a few boxes down to the storage area and a bike. The gaming console had been something she'd forgotten about until they sat down, then he'd gotten all nostalgic about Mario Kart, so they started playing it.

And she kept winning.

"You are a super aggressive driver!" he exclaimed as she hit that particular spot on the Rainbow Road that had her bypassing half of the track and putting her solidly in the lead.

"You didn't notice it on the way over here, but I was hitting the invisible pedals on the passenger side of your car wishing you would have gone faster and been more diligent about when it was appropriate to start applying the brakes."

"Ah, you're a reckless driver and a terrible passenger. Quite the combination. I feel safe," he joked.

"I'm also… a… WINNER!" she pumped two fists in the air as she came in first place.

"My goodness, you're competitive! Should have guessed that right away with all the siblings you have." It took him another thirty seconds to finish his third lap, then he just put the controller down and took another slice. "Think this is the last evidence of him then?" he indicated to the gaming system.

Ginny looked around. "Oh, I'm sure I'll have missed something else, but I feel like I've made the effort at least."

"Now it's just getting your things back from his place."

"There won't be much," she shrugged. "He's sharing his flat, so at the most I've got a change of clothes and perhaps a tube of lotion and some ear buds, nothing that I don't already have back-up of here."

"Yeah, I think it's the same for me. I'll also need to change my Netflix password and Spotify and all that."

"Oh, that was a serious three months you had if she already had access to that."

"I figure it's a one-month anniversary type thing," he nodded in thoughtful gest.

"Are you tired? I think it's only fair that I help you sort things out at yours after you helped me here."

"I'm feeling pretty invigorated actually," he said as he checked the time on his phone. "I'm also thinking I'm a bit too drunk to drive."

"So… more Mario Kart?" she suggested with a big grin.

They kept playing until he didn't feel drunk but did start feeling pretty tired. So tired that he fell asleep on her couch and woke up with the sun shining on his face. His eyes opened to see the empty pizza box and empty bottles of beer. It was giving him flashbacks to his uni days.

Harry got up and went to the loo, catching sight of the time on the microwave as he passed her kitchen and saw that it was only just past eight in the morning. By the time he stumbled out of the bathroom a few minutes later, Ginny was already in the kitchen and filling a kettle.

"Sorry I fell asleep on you there."

"Not a problem," she dismissed. "I actually fell asleep on the couch too, but then woke up and moved to the bedroom." She finished filling the kettle and set it on the electric holder. "So look, I was serious last night about my offer to help you with her things. I could use a good walk after eating half that pizza last night, and I haven't got any plans for today except to let Dean know that we're through."

He found himself very pleased that her offer still stood. "Yeah. And you know what? I had a lot of fun last night. I'd expected to have a terrible and guilt-ridden evening, instead, it was kind of great."

"Same here," she beamed.

Looking at her in the morning light, he didn't think she needed any potions to make herself gorgeous. Ginny was kind of a perfect fit for him.

He kept thinking that over and over again as they made their way down the streets of Fulham, him never pointing out to her that they could have taken his car to his place, because that meant that he could walk her back to hers after he'd packed up Stephanie's things. And more time with Ginny sounded very appealing.

Her exclamation from the loo at his place that Stephanie must have been a share holder in MAC and Sephora had him chuckling. Ginny had been entirely too good at knowing what was his and what wasn't, though that didn't stop her from holding up two types of deodorant and asking if he was an Irish Springs man or if he was more in favor of Coconut and Vanilla Organic type pit stick.

It didn't take them long to collect Stephanie's things from his place, and it all fit in a single box that he left by the door before locking his flat back up and beginning to walk Ginny back home. Once they reached his car he wanted to find some excuse to see her again, and the best way he could come up with making that happen was to tell her the truth.

"I'm really glad I went to that party now."

"Oh? Thinking of hitting up another one next weekend?" she joked.

"No, never again," he laughed. "But I got to meet you, and I've had a really great time with you."

"Is this you asking for my number?" he could hear a sense of pleading in her question.

"Yes, absolutely. And whenever you're ready for it, I'd like to take you on a proper date."

She was pleased, he could tell, there was a rosy blush that rose up onto the apples of her cheeks and she was biting her lip in an attempt not to smile.

"How about next weekend?"

"That would be enough time for you?" he worried. "To, you know, mourn the end of your relationship or whatever?"

She shook her head. "I really don't feel like I need to mourn it. Last night had just been the final nail in the coffin. That relationship had been dying for a long time, I just hadn't realized it. I can't imagine he still thinks that we are right as rain. And I'd like to see you again too. I think a week to get over the stigma of the circumstances with which we met is all the time I'll need."

"Ah, that." She had a good point there. "But you won't mind me texting you throughout the week to check in?"

"I wouldn't mind that at all." She took out her phone, and he did the same, taking her phone and dialing himself so she could save his contact info that way. They swapped phones back and she stepped forwards to him. "And I'm not going to kiss you today, even if I might be tempted to. Not on the lips at least." Then she came up on her toes and gave him a kiss on the cheek, one that felt like it might have lasted much longer than it had.

They went their separate ways then and he watched her disappear into her flat from his seat in the car, and called his friend that he'd texted last night, who answered on the third ring.

"Guess which 'Sappy-Arsed Twat' might have just started something real with a like-minded, and very attractive, woman?"

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