AN- For Sweetbabe- you requested a 'post Hogwarts' thing AU, but I went about it a bit differently.
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Case Closed
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"Harry! Time to get up. You need to be ready for your final Herbology test in ten minutes!" his mum sung out from the other side of his bedroom door.
He groaned in response and hugged his pillow a little tighter. He was ahead of where he needed to be in Herbology, he didn't need his full faculties for her test; that meant another five minutes of sleep wouldn't hurt.
"Harry!" she yelled once more. "For every minute that you're late that's another point off of your test, and you know what chores you're given when you do poorly!
Urgh, soil reclamation. Yes, that was worth him getting up now so he didn't have to do that. She got to take care of that job with a wave of her wand, but they only had one wand between them and he only got to use hers while he was doing his studies. Using his hands to do that was not enjoyable.
He got out of bed and gave a stretch before going down into the kitchen area where his mother was now seated and giving his clothes a looking over.
"You've had another growth spurt."
"I'm given to understand that is normal for persons my age. I wouldn't know that for a fact though, as I've never met another person besides you."
She pursed her lips at his cheek and didn't say anything else as he started in on the breakfast she'd prepared.
He wasn't always like this with his mother, at least, he tried not to be. It wasn't her fault that they were trapped in here, and she'd had to work hard in order to make the place livable and sustainable for them.
Initially this place they lived in was supposed to be some kind of club house, a secret hide away for his father and friends. When his mum had brought him down here as a baby she hadn't known that they would wind up trapped. Thus far it had been sixteen years.
Sixteen years of her creating a garden out of the few bits of produce that had been left, meant as a snack. Sixteen years of sewing together clothes for the two of them. Sixteen years of teaching him everything she could remember learning from her days of going to school.
He hadn't realized that he'd been missing something in his life until about four years ago, that was when he started reading for pleasure and started wondering; why were they stuck here by themselves? Why was it that she had gotten to go to school with other children her age and he hadn't?
And the biggest question; why were they trapped in here?
Then he learned that 'here' turned out to be a suitcase. And they'd been trapped because his father had insisted they hide from someone that was trying to hunt he, Harry, down and kill him. The why of that she didn't divulge to him, and she was only able to guess as to why they were trapped in the suitcase as well. She assumed that something had gone terribly wrong when his father, James, told her to take their child and hide, something that very likely resulted in the death of his father and the destruction of their home. And, for whatever reason, their home and its belongings were not repaired nor found.
Sixteen years.
Harry supposed things could have been worse; the two of them would have long since died if there hadn't been the stash of food or water, or if she hadn't had her wand on her so that she could make more of the food and water. Every now and then he would hear her cursing under her breath about what they had for their diet; apples, crisps, cookies, pepperoni sticks, trail mix, water and a bottle of red wine. The red wine he had only tried a few times, his mother tended to have a half bottle every few nights. And the trail mix she had managed to separate up into five different foods, and one of those five was what he'd had the pleasure of eating as breakfast every day of his life, along with an apple.
In the garden they had tomatoes, sweet peppers and an apple tree.
The apple tree you may be able to draw a conclusion on as to where the seed had come from for that. As for the tomato and sweet pepper, well, luckily his mother had a salad the day or two before they were stuck down there. The soil that she'd managed to mix into their 'reclamation', that had come from a pot plant. Not to be confused with a 'potted plant', which it also was, but as this had been his fathers hide away, the only potted plant she'd had available to work with had also been a marijuana plant.
Harry could hardly remember what the place had first looked like when they showed up for the beginning of their sentence. His mother was incredibly good with charms so she had expanded the space quite a bit, added a few extra rooms and created a false sun on the other side of a window that was added for aesthetic purposes only and hosted their garden area, the growing of which was facilitated by a charm.
He had needed to learn all the charms for keeping their space running properly from a very young age because every now and again his mother would find herself laid up in bed for a few days in a bout of depression. Every time she would come out of it she would praise him for a job well done and they would both pretend like nothing had happened.
Only once a month would they allow themselves to try the door at the top of the ladder to attempt to get out. It was always a disappointment, so doing it every day would have put too much strain on their emotions; hers more than his.
This month, it was his turn to give it a check.
He thought about this while he ate his breakfast, he also thought about it while he wrote the Herbology test she'd done up for him. It was always the same fantasy he had when he was thinking about what it would be like if he got up the ladder, turned the latch, and it opened; new smells, new sounds, a complete Narnia situation.
What would the world look like outside of this space? He'd only seen pictures and read stories about what the world was like; his mum didn't like to talk about it. Would the sky really be blue? And the smells, he wanted to smell freshly mowed grass and he wanted to try flying a broom, he wanted to eat cake and taste milk.
He wanted to meet other people his own age.
It was lunchtime when he finally went to check it, and as he stood at the base of the ladder he let all his high hopes go. This was going to lead to disappointment, like it always did.
One rung at a time he pulled himself up until he was at the top, then he turned the clasp to unlock it, and pushed up against the strangely flexible material that their exit was made out of.
And it lifted.
Harry froze with his hand now held higher in the air than it had ever been before. There was a small crack around the seal that had been holding him in this place for as long as he could remember. He blinked a few times as his brain registered the new musty and dusty scent that he wasn't familiar with.
Eventually he lifted his hand higher and higher, ever so slightly lifting the door until it was about to flip back.
Then he heard a sound and noticed that there was someone else in the room that their case was in. This someone was sitting on a stool, hunched over a table on the other side of the small space and hadn't seemed to have heard Harry open the door.
"Buggering, bloody, shirt-balls," the person was muttering as they tinkered away on something that Harry couldn't see.
The whole room was covered in a layer of dust and there were bits of gadgets everywhere, so many things on every surface and hanging from every possible hook. Why on earth would anyone need so many things? Harry wondered.
There were windows in the room and he thought it might be sunny out but the windows were so covered with grime that it was hard to tell. Then a shadow passed over the window in the door and it opened.
"Ron, are you nearly- ah!" A girl around his own age had come in from outside, she was wearing trousers and a very thin top and had long red hair, lighter hair than his mothers, and she was completely surrounded by a halo of light.
At least, that's how it looked to him seeing just how bright the sun was when it wasn't being blocked out by the dirty windows.
This girl was staring at him in shock and he didn't know what to do.
"What? Is it a spider?!" the boy named Ron asked and started swatting at his shoulders.
"Who are you?" the girl demanded, striding over to Ron and taking his wand to point it directly at him. "How did you get in here?"
His mouth formed all sorts of shapes as he tried to figure out where to start. "Where am I?" he finally landed on.
"What the bloody hell?" Ron asked and backed away from his table, knocking the stool over in the process. "How long have you been there?"
There were some familial similarities between the two people.
"S-sixteen years," Harry answered, unsure what else he could possibly have responded with.
The girl blinked at him and the wand lowered a fraction, her grip slackening enough that Ron took it back from her and raised it to keep it trained on him.
"Sixteen years?" she repeated. "You're saying you've been trapped in there for sixteen years?"
"What? That's bollocks," Ron protested.
Harry saw something pass over her eyes though, a kind of understanding. "Ron," she put her hand on his arm to lower his wand. "This was the case that dad got from the Potter site in Godrics Hollow; don't you pay attention to anything?" she exasperated.
"Yeah, so?"
"Sixteen years, Ron!" she pressed with more emphasis.
Ron looked from her to him and back again. "Oh, come on. He's just a Death Eater trying to evade arrest or something."
"Ron, look at him." She took a step closer to him. "Is your name Harry?" she asked gently.
He was so shocked that she knew his name that his foot slipped and he dropped a step, then quickly righted himself. "How do you know who I am?"
"Harry?" came his mothers voice from below him. "Harry what are you-" her voice froze at the base of the ladder, as she had clearly realized that he had gotten the door open. "HARRY! YOU DID IT! Go on! Climb out before I climb over you!"
At the haste in his mothers tone he quickly climbed out of the case and tumbled directly onto the dirty floor, only to be helped up by the girl. By the time he turned around to see his mother coming out of the case she already had one foot halfway to the ground, and then dropped onto the wood floor herself, but not by accident; there were tears in her eyes and she kept repeating 'we got out'. He quickly dropped down to his knees and put his arm around her, trying to give her comfort.
"Ron, go and get mum," the girl said.
"I'm not leaving you here alone with them, they could be mad."
"Ron!" she growled.
He heard the heavy footsteps of Ron leaving and managed to prise his mum off the floor so that she would at least be on her knees and hugging him instead of resting her head on the floor.
"Mrs. Potter?" the girl asked gently.
His mum could only shake with emotion and wasn't responding. Harry looked to the girl helplessly. She just gave him a sad smile and continued.
"Mrs. Potter, I'm Ginny. I know you've been gone for a long time, but you're out now, and you're safe. The war has been over for a few months and the last of the Death Eaters are getting rounded up. Sirius Black has been in Azkaban for years as well."
He only understood half of what Ginny had said, but it was clear from how his mum pulled away from him sharply that she understood the last sentence that she heard.
"Sirius?! Why would Sirius be locked up? He was our best friend. What happened?"
Ginny appeared shocked. "But… but he was your Secret Keeper, wasn't he? He sold you out to You-Know-Who. He killed Peter Pettigrew!"
His mum shook her head aggressively, and Ron came back into the room with who appeared to be their mother. "No, no, Sirius wasn't the Secret Keeper! Peter was! Peter sold us out. Sirius must have gone after him in revenge! Sirius would never do anything to hurt us! He's still there? I have to see him!"
"Oh Merlin! Lily Evans," breathed the other mum. "Sorry, Potter. My lord, have you been trapped this whole time? Oh dear, let's get you up to the house."
"Molly?" his mum asked through her watery eyes.
"Yes, dear. It's Molly Weasley, you remember me then?" She strode over and helped him get his mum to her feet and put her arm around her waist, leading her out of the room.
Harry watched as they disappeared through the door.
He wasn't entirely sure what was going on; his mum hadn't mentioned anything to him about a war or Death Eaters, he didn't know what Azkaban was or what a Secret Keeper did. He knew the name Sirius Black, but not Peter Pettigrew. It seemed there was a lot that his mum kept from him.
What he did know though, was that he was about to step into the outdoors.
Ron had already followed after their mums, but Ginny had started out the door and stopped when she realized he wasn't following behind them. She looked out into the outside, then back at him. "What's wrong?"
"I've never been outside before," he admitted.
She looked at the suitcase, then at him. He must have been displaying some panic or fear or something because she came over to him and held out her hand. "I'll help you. We can take it slow."
Her hand was so warm, and she smelled wonderful, he actually leaned towards her and closed his eyes so he could take more of her scent in. "What is that? It smells amazing."
She was smiling up at him when he opened his eyes. "We make our shampoo from the wildflowers around the house. You'll get a chance to smell them all, I promise." She looked down at his clothes. "And my mum will likely demand you shower and give you clean clothes before cutting your hair." She patted his hand then. "Best you start mentally preparing yourself for that now as well."
A shower.
And new clothes.
And he was about to go outside for the first time.
"This is going to be a lot."
Her grip on his hand tightened and she started leading him slowly to the door. "I've got you."
He closed his eyes as they stepped over the threshold. The sensation of the sunshine on his skin was more than anything he'd felt from the charmed sunlight that his mum had produced; it warmed him all over and he needed to squint for a while before his eyes adjusted.
The grass was so green. And there was this faint buzzing of insects that he could hear, there were birds making sounds in the distance and a breeze against his skin. And there was so much air! He took a deep breath in until his lungs couldn't take anymore and then let it all out.
It made him dizzy.
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked and put her arm around his waist to steady him.
"This is incredible," he told her under his breath. He could see now that they had a vast garden and trees all around their property. He spotted long poles in the distance with hoops at the top that were meant for Quidditch, a game he'd only ever heard stories about. And then there was their house! It was tall and magnificent. There were so many chimneys and different stories to it.
"I'm glad you like it. Now come along with me and we'll get you some stew and bread, mum will insist on it."
"Bread! I've heard about it, it's supposed to be delicious with butter. Do you have that too?"
Ginny paused a moment before continuing their walk to the house, one that likely felt a short distance to her, but was farther than he'd ever travelled in a straight line.
"We have all sorts of different kinds of food, and I've no doubt that my mum will want you and your mum to stay here long enough to enjoy a bit of all of it. She loves working in the kitchen."
"We can stay here?" He really didn't want to go back into the suitcase; it may have been the only home he'd ever known, but when there was all this outside of it, he'd prefer sleeping in their field than going back down there.
"We've spare rooms now that several of my brothers have moved out, and mum loves to have guests. I'd wager she's already told your mum you two are welcome to stay for as long as you'd like."
"That's really kind of you. You don't even know us."
They had made it to the door to her house now and when she opened it another new scent wafted over to his nose and his mouth immediately started to water. He didn't even hear Ginny's response, he was too occupied with what was going on in this new place he'd entered.
There were things occupying nearly every surface; floor, shelf, even mid air the dishes were washing themselves over the sink. And the smell! Mrs. Weasley was putting a bowl of something in front of his mum, she had another bowl in her hand and he let Ginny guide him over to the table to sit down, then he found himself with a fork in hand and a bowl of the same great smelling thing in front of him.
"What's it called?" he asked.
"Beef stew," Mrs. Weasley told him. "It's got all the protein and vegetables that you could need. My kids grew up on it and, let me tell you, they just kept on growing. The shortest of my boys is just under six feet tall."
"Have we got any rolls that they could have as well?" Ginny asked.
"Oh, yeah. Have we?" Ron asked eagerly.
Harry watched as his mum took her first bite of the food and closed her eyes while she chewed and savored it. She looked like she had made peace with the world through that single bite and he couldn't resist smiling at seeing her happy like this; then it was his turn. He brought the fork to his mouth, all the food on it was covered in some kind of brownish goopy substance, the colors of the items under the substance was varied though, there was some orange, green, off-white and brown. Then he placed it in his mouth and couldn't find a word to describe how powerfully delicious it was. It was warm and there were different textures to it, some of the different pieces of things just turned to mush under his teeth.
It was incredible.
Then there was a plate placed by his bowl and on it was a fluffy white thing with little crests of brown on the top. He picked it up and looked over at his mum to see what she was doing with it; she'd ripped it apart and dipped a piece into her bowl, so he did the same.
"Holy Merlin, what is this?" he moaned.
"Bread and stew," Ron told him. "It's delicious, isn't it? Mum's the best cook. Even the Hogwarts kitchens aren't as good as her."
He looked up at the mention of Hogwarts. "Do you go there?" he asked through a mouth of food.
"Manners!" his mum scolded from across the table before another forkful of food went in her mouth.
"I just finished up. Ginny's still got another year though."
"Ginny," her mum called her attention. "Can you run up and get the spare rooms ready for them?"
"Told you," Ginny grinned at him before she went off up a ladder on the other side of the room.
Harry had second helpings of the stew and bread rolls while he encouraged Ron to tell him all about Hogwarts. Meanwhile, his mum went to sit in the other room with Mrs. Weasley so they could have a chat; she had a lot of questions about what had been happening in the world since they'd disappeared, and as much as he wanted to know what happened too, he also wanted to explore this house and get back outside.
Once he was done at the table, Ginny and Ron showed him which room he'd been staying in, and Ginny had found some clothes that would fit him, then showed him the bathroom; he'd needed some assistance from Ron on how everything in the bathroom worked, they hadn't had one in the suitcase.
Thirty minutes later he felt like a completely new person; he had new clothes, he was cleaner than he had ever been before, he was properly shaved for the first time, again with Ron's assistance, and he was about to go outside again.
"You look great," Ginny beamed at him, she'd been waiting in the room across the landing from his, which was her room. He stepped into it gingerly and looked around at all the green posters on her walls. "The Holyhead Harpies," she told him, "they're my favorite Quidditch Team."
"Does that mean you play?"
"Damn right! I've been a Chaser on the school team for three years. I'm hoping to get into a training camp next summer."
Speaking of which, "is it summer?" There hadn't been a way to keep track of time in the suitcase. They didn't know days of the week or seasons.
"It is. We just got back from school two weeks ago. So, if you would like to do your seventh year of schooling at Hogwarts, you've got all summer to get prepared for it."
"D'you think I could?" he asked in nearly a whisper, the idea was too fantastic for him to truly process.
"Well, I mean, have you been doing any studying down… er… there? Because you will have missed your OWLs so, you might need to take them at the Ministry or something. My brother Percy works there though, so he might be able to answer any questions you have about that."
"My mum's taught me everything she could, but I don't have a wand of my own. I suppose I'll need to get that first."
"Geez, I hadn't thought of that."
"I know something you can do without a wand," Ron said from the doorway. "Quidditch! We've got some spare brooms; they aren't great, but they still fly."
"I've never been on one before," he told them, eyes wide with excitement. "Apparently I got a toddler broom for my first birthday from my Godfather, but I don't remember it."
"Well, come on then," Ginny looped her arm around his elbow. "Let's go get you some sunshine and give it a go."
Their mums were still deep in conversation when the three of them reached the bottom of the stairs and it looked like they were still discussing very serious things; his mum had a pad of paper and a quill. For a moment he felt a flash of guilt because she was now working on how to integrate them back into society and he was about to try flying a broom. That guilt went away quickly once he was back outside again though.
"Sunshine and fresh air is amazing," he told them. "Think it would be alright if I slept with the windows open in my room tonight? I want to hear the birds and animals and such."
"That won't be a problem," Ron assured him with a laugh.
Ginny handed out the brooms and both she and Ron stood in front of him, coaching him through the process of how to get acquainted with flying, something that wound up taking him all of a minute to master. Then he spent the next hour flying around their house and down to their makeshift Quidditch pitch, trying to go faster and faster every time until he was doing it at a speed neither of them could match!
Flying was incredible!
"You're a natural!" Ron announced when they all touched back down again.
"Yeah, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were lying to us about never having done this before," Ginny said in awe.
"Time for a Quaffle!" Ron said as he ran to the broom shed.
"Are we going to play a game now?" Harry asked eagerly.
They spent the rest of the afternoon outside and in the air. It took a bit for him to figure out different maneuvers to duck around Ginny and try and get the Quaffle back from her as Ron played Keeper, but he didn't do too terrible considering it was his first time. Ginny was starting to get progressively more competitive with him as the game went on and he was relishing in the challenge.
He'd never played a game with anyone other than his mum before, so this was great.
His mum decided that two days was as much time as she would allow for them to laze around and grow accustomed to their new reality. Mr. Weasley had come home from work on their first day out and been overjoyed at their discovery, Ron and Ginny had shown Harry how to play games like Exploding Snap and Chess, and Mrs. Weasley continued to amaze them with her culinary skills.
His first full day out Ron had to go to work so Ginny stayed with him all day and they went for several walks around the property and then flew several times around it as well. He was so grateful that he had a friend like her that didn't mind answering all the questions he had, because he had a lot of questions. And he especially liked when she laughed over his questions about things that must be simple or common to her; she had such a brilliant smile.
On the third morning, his mum sat down next to him at the Weasley's table in the morning and put a piece of parchment between them with her list of things that needed to get done. The first among them was to visit Diagon Alley and go to Gringotts Bank before getting him a wand.
"I get a wand? Really?"
"Of course you're getting a wand. If we'd had another one down there with us then you would have been using that one. I didn't keep you from getting one on purpose!"
He knew that, but still, he was excited.
"How are we getting there?"
"Floo."
Oh, he got to travel to a new place by a method of travel that he'd never used. This was going to be a very exciting day.
"Then we need to go to the Ministry and let them know we're alive. We also need to get you tested for your schooling, we'll try to get that scheduled for a month or so out so you have time to study."
"For my NEWTs or my OWLs?"
At that question she paused and chewed at her chapped lips in concern. "I think it should be your OWLs. And it isn't that I don't think you would pass your NEWTs," she assured him, "it's just that… well, I've put some thought into this, and I think it would be a good idea for you to go to Hogwarts in September. You would be able to spend some time with people your own age and make friends and connections. And… truthfully, and as much as I love you, I need some time to come to terms with what happened to us. And I need to get Sirius out of Azkaban. And, well, I have a feeling I'm going to be falling a bit to pieces over the next while and I don't want you to have to see me like that again." Her eyes were welling up with tears as she told him this.
"Mum," he said consolingly and put his arm around her. "I'm completely okay with going to Hogwarts for a year, maybe even two if I'm not where I should be academically, but I'm not okay with me going off to have fun at a school while you're miserable and by yourself."
"I won't be by myself," she sniffled and found a napkin to wipe her eyes.
"You're right, you won't be," said Mrs. Weasley, who came into the room without them noticing. "Dear, you don't worry about your mum, okay?" she told him. "I'll be checking in on her, maybe stopping by once or twice a week for a lesson in the kitchen, yes?" she asked his mum encouragingly. "We'll get you sorted in a place of your own and you'll be welcome to come by here any time you like."
"Thank you, Molly, truly, for everything. You've no idea how glad I am that it was Arthur that found our case. You and your children have already done so much for us."
"Oh posh, I've been enjoying every minute of it. You've added some excitement to my life. And the good kind this time, not the kind that has me carrying around the family clock everywhere I go."
Harry looked down at the list his mum had made and sure enough, 'home' was written on it. She wanted to find them a place to live. And he wasn't sure how he felt about that. It may have only been two days they'd been staying here, but he wanted to continue staying here, maybe until he and Ginny took the Hogwarts Express to school in September. But that might have been an imposition on the Weasley family and he didn't want to overstay his welcome.
Ron came down the stairs with a heavy tread and took a seat at the table, starting into his breakfast before saying so much as a 'hello', he was not a morning person. Then Ginny came down next, much lighter on her feet and still in her pajamas. She was wearing sleep shorts and a small t-shirt, one that rode up when she stretched her arms over her head in a yawn and exposed a strip of skin at her waist that Harry found himself fascinated with. She gave her mum a kiss on the cheek and took the plate of food offered then sat down and that strip of skin disappeared under the table, forcing him to look up at her face which was still puffy from sleep. She looked warm though, and snuggly, like she could have easily just crawled into his lap and had another five minutes of sleep there.
Ron put down his fork loudly and the sound shook Harry out of his day dream and he looked immediately back down at his mum's list.
He'd only known Ginny for forty-some hours and she was literally the only girl his age he'd ever met, he couldn't be thinking about her like that.
By the time he and his mum got back to The Burrow later that afternoon he was vibrating with nerves.
"You okay?" Ginny asked when they came through the Floo.
"There were so many people," he replied, unable to articulate further on how he was feeling at that moment.
They'd made it to Diagon Alley no problem, but they'd needed to weave through crowds to get to where his mum was leading them and he was tempted to grab her hand so that they didn't get separated. It was an assault to his senses to be in a place with so many buildings and sounds and smells and people bumping into him. Then they got to Gringotts and he saw Goblins and how miserable they were, and his mum didn't have their key so he needed to cut his hand and give a drop of blood to prove he was a Potter so they could get a new key. The cart ride down to their vault had been a bit exhilarating, he was okay with that having been on a broom for the majority of the last two days. Then they got to Ollivander's and he needed to try about a hundred different wands before finding one that made him feel all warm and powerful. Next was the Ministry, first stop there had been to visit the Auror Department so his mum could yell at several different people in the department about freeing his Godfather Sirius; most of the Aurors just wanted her to talk about how they were still alive though and didn't care to focus on the potentially innocent man they'd put away sixteen years previous. Next was the Department of Education to get him scheduled for a Ministry Exam that would take place mid-August, and get him put on the list for Hogwarts, because he was going regardless of where he placed in the examination. He did enjoy the break they took for lunch at a quiet tea room, it allowed his head to stop spinning for a bit before they went to a bookstore followed by a clothing store so they could get a modern wardrobe.
It had all just been a bit much.
"Why don't you go outside and lay down in the grass or something," his mum suggested.
Ginny went out with him.
"Is Hogwarts going to be as busy or smelly as Diagon Alley?" he asked her once he'd flopped down under a tree and put his arm over his eyes.
"No," she chuckled. "The first feast is a loud, and the parties we have after winning a Quidditch game, but most of the time it isn't too bad. And you'll get used to it," she assured him.
She did something then that sent shivers down his spine and made a soft moan escape through his lips; she started stroking his hair and tracing her fingers along his forehead. It was a wonderful feeling, and one that had him falling asleep in the afternoon sun.
The next few weeks the Weasley family continued to be wonderful hosts to them, his mum started getting several post owls dropping off letters every day, The Prophet had an article about how the two of them were alive, their whereabouts unknown, and they had met the rest of the Weasley clan. The middle child, Percy, was coming over in the evenings to tutor Harry in different subjects and he was really grateful for the help.
The twins were a riot, and meeting the two eldest boys had been pretty cool, they told him all about what they did for a living and it sounded adventurous and fascinating; he understood why Ginny looked up to them so much.
Harry spent a great deal of time with Ginny, she would play one a side Quidditch with him when it was sunny out, lend him her magazines to read when it was raining and he was taking a break from studying, and she would talk to him, about anything and everything. He was learning what it was supposed to be like to be a teenager from her.
Then his birthday came around and his mum had found a place for them to move into. It was a three-bedroom cottage with two bathrooms and a decent sized yard.
He didn't want to leave but he was assured that he would be welcome to come over to The Burrow anytime, and as soon as they got their Floo set up at the cottage, he told Ginny he expected her to stop by all the time as well.
In the case of getting his Godfather out of Azkaban, Sirius Black's trial was set for August 11th, meaning Harry missed Ginny's birthday party. He was disappointed that he wasn't getting the opportunity to meet all of her friends before school started, but it was too important that he be at the trial for his mum, and for the Godfather that he didn't know.
The trial dragged on too. Sirius Black was given Veritaserum and asked hundreds of questions, then given more of the potion again when it wore off because the Aurors and Magistrates still didn't believe he was telling the truth.
In the end though, his shackles were removed, and Sirius and his mum shared a heart-felt embrace that left Harry feeling like the odd person out.
It was strange to be meeting the man he'd heard so many stories about, mainly because Sirius Black looked nothing like how Harry had pictured him. Living their years in the suitcase may have been mentally taxing on his mother, but Sirius was by far more haunted by his imprisonment.
"It's just so strange being at the new house with both of them," he confided in Ginny when he stopped by The Burrow the day after her birthday, bringing with him the new pair of Quidditch gloves he'd bought for her present. "The two of them are like ghosts around each other. They both move from room to room and just sort of sit around quietly, not doing or saying anything. I don't know what I'm supposed to be acting like."
"I've been told stories about how horrible Azkaban is. To spend so long living around Dementors and having all happiness taken away," she shook her head and gave a shiver. "I'm sorry it's so weird for you though."
They were sitting outside under a tree again. It was sunny out, but the temperature was perfect in the shade.
"How was your party?"
"Oh, it was fine. Mum made a big cake, I saved you a piece, most of my friends stopped by for dinner, the twins put on a fireworks show." She then leaned over to show him her new necklace, "and I got this. It's tradition to give men a watch on their seventeenth, girls usually get some kind of jewelry."
He focused on the necklace for all of a second before his eyes looked passed it and focused themselves on her cleavage. "Pretty," he said, trying to sound as casual as he could.
Ginny and he had been spending a lot of time together and he kept being overcome with the urge to take her hand while they walked, or tuck her hair behind her ear, just anything that would allow for physical contact. But she was his only friend; she and Ron anyhow, but Ron was busy with work more often than not.
No matter how his feelings for her were evolving, he was determined not to do anything about them just yet. And he had no idea if she was interested in him like that. She'd been helping him study, coaching him on his wand movements, being his confidant. It wasn't healthy to have one person be his everything.
He'd had his mum be his everything for over sixteen years and she'd had little emotional breakdowns because of it, he couldn't do that to Ginny. He'd had time to think over their relationship and his feelings toward her when he was alone in bed and had come to the conclusion that they were about to go off to the same school, where he would be meeting a lot more people his age. If he still felt the same way about her after a month or two at school, then he'd say something.
"My friends had a lot of questions about you," she told him as she picked at the grass.
"They know? The papers didn't mention where my mum and I had turned up."
"It didn't, but my mum mentioned yours and someone overheard, by the end of the party everyone knew that you and she had been staying here, but not how you'd wound up here."
"So, what did you tell them?"
She shrugged. "I told them all that they'd get a chance to meet you themselves when we go back to school."
"But until then, I'm all yours?" he teased, meanwhile he was silently begging her to say yes.
She did give him a smile then, it didn't quite meet her eyes. "You likely will be getting bombarded with requests for friendships when we start school. So… yes, I would like to selfishly keep you to myself until then."
"It's not selfish," he assured her. "I'm not ready for my attention to start getting pulled in so many different directions yet anyhow. There's enough that I'm adjusting to. I've got my OWLs in a week, I don't have time for anyone but you anyhow."
"Well," she preened slightly, "I did tie for second most OWLs in the family with Bill, and that's saying something."
"Going to be a Curse Breaker when you're done with school then?"
"No, Quidditch player. And I don't need NEWTs or OWLs for that, I'm only getting them to prove I can."
She lay down on the grass then and he followed suit, then she started quizzing him on History of Magic.
Ginny came over to his place the morning that his OWL results came in and he wound up matching her for number of OWLs, she even looked a little jealous at the number of Exceeds Expectations and Outstandings. That didn't stop her from taking him out and celebrating with ice cream though.
The last day of August was upon him quickly, and he only felt okay about leaving his mum and Sirius for so long because Mrs. Weasley assured him that she would continue to look in on them and send him an owl every now and then letting him know how they were fairing.
His mum took him to Kings Cross station on September 1st and they got a lot of looks on the platform.
"You won't get into too much trouble, will you?" she asked.
"I can't make any promises. It will likely depend on what sort of trouble Ginny likes getting into," he joked.
"I like her," she said solemnly.
The platform was really crowded, and seeing so many smiling or teary-eyed parents milling about was throwing a stark contrast on how introverted his mother was by comparison.
"I'm worried about you," he told her. "You and Sirius, you're both… miserable."
She didn't say anything and her gaze stayed fast on the scarlet paneling of the train car. Her skin was still so pale, and her eyes still appeared sunken in, like she'd been sleep deprived and hungry for so long.
He tilted her chin up so she would be forced to look at him. "Please take care of yourself. Find a reason to smile."
Her eyes started to well up then and she blinked away the tears. "I'm working on it." They hugged then and she promised she would be a bit better by Christmas.
It was twenty minutes to eleven when he found a seat on the train and his mum Apparated home, and he hadn't seen Ginny anywhere.
The cabin door opened and drew his attention away from the window. "Are you Harry?" asked a girl with curly dark hair.
"I am. And you are?" he asked politely.
"Romilda, I share a dorm with Ginny."
He brightened at the sound of Ginny's name. "Oh, you're a friend of hers then? I was sorry that I missed her birthday party, I had been hoping to meet her friends then, but, you know, other things came up."
Romilda put on a pout then and helped herself to the seat beside him, which unfortunately meant he had to turn his head away from the window. "Oh, I didn't make it there either, but our other friends told me it was a good time. And, well, I hope you will get used to being the center of attention for a while because you're all anyone has been talking about."
"Yeah, she warned me about that," he frowned.
Romilda gave him a consoling pat on his knee and a big smile then.
It made him wonder what Ginny and she could have had in common that bonded them. He might not have interacted with many people one on one, but he'd been to the Ministry enough times to recognize that 'political maneuver smile' when he saw it. Romilda seemed to want something from him other than just to be friendly.
He was just about to try and shift his leg out from under her hand when the door opened again and a blonde girl with funky sunglasses perched on top of her head walked in.
"Er, Lovegood, we were talking," Romilda told this strangely dressed girl.
Harry didn't think he'd seen anyone wearing so many different colors before. It was sort of captivating.
He knew the name Lovegood though.
"Luna! Right?" he asked desperately. "Ginny mentioned you. You live close to The Burrow, don't you?"
"I do. I was just going to the different carriages and seeing if anyone wanted a Quibbler for the journey." She had an armload of magazines under one hand.
Romilda snorted. "Sure, I could use a laugh."
Harry frowned at the way Romilda said that. Out of the two of them, he could imagine Luna being friends with Ginny, not Romilda.
And now it was ten minutes until the train was supposed to start moving and he still hadn't spotted Ginny. He took another look out at the platform but still couldn't find anyone with the Weasley red hair.
"I'll take one too if you don't mind. I've never read The Quibbler before."
"Oh, it's all rubbish," Romilda said with assurance and put her hand on his shoulder.
"My father is the editor," Luna deadpanned.
"I know," Romilda stated, taking the magazine Luna was handing over to him, then gesturing for Luna to continue on away from them.
Harry didn't want her to leave though, that would mean he was stuck alone in a compartment with Romilda, and she was grating him the wrong way. Thankfully, a second after Luna left, the door opened again and there was a blinding flash.
"Candid shot, perfect," a guy said while Harry was trying to blink enough times to see properly again.
"Colin, give me some warning next time," Romilda scolded.
"Then it wouldn't be candid, would it?"
"Go on then, take a seat and get a non-candid shot," she asked girlishly. Then before Harry knew what was happening the camera went off again and he felt Romilda's lips on his cheek.
"Oi! Do you mind?" he begged off of her and wiped his cheek, standing up.
"Harry, there you are," came the familiar voice of the only person he was wanting to see.
By the time he saw her properly she was giving Romilda a look he couldn't decipher.
"Ginny. Good, I was starting to worry that you were going to miss the train altogether," Harry breathed out in relief.
"Yeah, well, being last minute is sort of my signature move."
"Being last anyhow," Romilda said under her breath, but they all heard it.
Harry looked between the two women and realized he'd been duped. "She isn't one of your friends, is she?"
Romilda scoffed as Ginny shook her head with pursed lips, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else. Then Romilda left and Ginny came in and closed the door, with the Colin bloke still inside with them.
"Looks like it's going to be fun settling into my dorm room tonight," Ginny moaned.
"I probably should have done something to stop her but… Romilda can be a bit scary," Colin apologized. "Colin Creevey, by the way," he held his hand out to Harry.
From there on, with Ginny around him, he started to meet her actual friends, they all stopped by to say hi and some of them stuck around for a while. He felt better getting to know all these different people because Ginny was there in the room with him and they'd already passed whatever friendship test she had for people to pass.
He did notice that Ginny started chiming into the conversations less and less as the journey went on, but it might have been due to him feeling more and more comfortable talking to all these new potential friends of his.
Once they got to Hogwarts and off the train, he clasped hands with hers and gave it a squeeze, his way of saying 'thanks' and 'see you soon', because he had to cross the lake in the boats and get sorted. There were a few funny looks he received from all the little kids just starting out in their first year as he trotted down to the lake with them but he was too nervous to say anything. His fingers were mentally crossed that he would wind up in Gryffindor, like his parents had been, like Ginny was.
The castle was beautifully illuminated by the moonlight as they crossed the lake, and the Great Hall looked the epitome of majestic when he entered with all the others. Standing a foot and a half above the rest of them had him feeling a bit self-conscious though. As soon as the hat was on his head and calling out Gryffindor, he didn't care anymore, he beamed brightly and headed down the steps towards the table that was clapping the loudest. His aim was to sit beside Ginny, but his new dorm mates had other ideas as they quickly moved over to make space for him, putting him two people away from his best friend. He made a point of leaning over so he could catch her eye and give her a grin, which she returned, but that was all the interaction they wound up having throughout the feast.
Ron had been right, Hogwarts food wasn't as good as Mrs. Weasley's, but boy was it filling.
Harry fell in line, following behind the other boys he was sharing a dorm with up the many steps to Gryffindor Tower, then up to the dorm room, where he was told which bed was his and he promptly fell into it and asleep.
His last thought before sleep consumed him was to wonder if the house elf's dosed the desserts with a sleeping draught.
His first full day at Hogwarts was also the first day of classes and it surprised him just how many people were offering to show him around the school so he could get to his classes. When he'd pictured how his first day of school was going to be it involved Ginny showing him all the secret passages so that they could get everywhere faster; she'd been telling him stories of all the trick steps and moving staircases and hidden tunnels out of the school all summer, and he'd wanted to explore them with her. Problem was, everyone else kept getting in the way of him finding her, catching up with her, even sitting with her. His new classmates kept pulling him along with them, and he didn't want to be rude by turning down their offer of friendship, so he wound up sitting with other seventh year students in his classes, usually near the back and quite often leaving him with an unobstructed view of the back of Ginny's head.
He'd managed to catch her eye a few times, but for the first few days of classes that was all the attention of hers he managed to get.
His new friends were nice, he liked them just fine, but thus far, socially, school was not panning out how he'd expected, because the person he'd been wanting to spend all his hours with was constantly on the other side of the room from him.
The first Saturday arrived and his plan had been to try and get Ginny alone so they could spend some time together, but he'd searched for her and came up empty until late afternoon, which was when he realized that it was a nice day outside, so she wouldn't be laying about somewhere in the castle, she'd be out at the Quidditch Pitch.
Harry was in his dorm room when he realized this and had his new Nimbus 2001 broom with him there. The school rules didn't explicitly say there was a rule against students leaving their dorm rooms via the window, so instead of trying to sneak through the common room unseen by everyone and potentially getting waylaid again, he took that avenue and flew directly to the pitch, where he found Ginny sitting in the stands, likely taking a break, and flew directly for her.
"Now that I'm not getting distracted by my adoring fans," he started when he landed a few feet away from her, causing her to give a jump because her eyes had been closed as she rested back on the bench seats, "how has your first week been?"
Ginny lifted her head up, glanced at him for a moment, then rested it back and closed her eyes again. "You know, food, classes, food, classes, food, sleep; same routine I'm used to. And you?"
"It's strange having all these people around me, but I think I'm adjusting well."
She gave a snort of a laugh there. "You've quickly become Mister Popularity."
"Well, you did warn me that might happen. I wouldn't have thought that my mysterious disappearance and growing up in a magical and secluded suitcase would mean this many people would be interested in getting to know me. It's not like I have a great many tales of adventure."
"No, just the one," she agreed. "It's more than a lot of them have though."
"This is true. You've got a lot of stories though."
"About my brothers and their adventures, sure."
"About you as well," he argued. "I particularly enjoy the one's that involve you getting the upper hand on them in a tussle and sticking their faces in the mud."
She smiled then. He really appreciated the sight of her here, laying down in the sunshine with it reflecting the many different colors of red in her hair. Ginny was likely as tanned as she could be given how long she'd been outside during the summer months and it made her freckles stand out. She wasn't wearing her school uniform today, instead she had on a pair of trousers that hugged her hips and a long sleeved shirt that was also hugging places; showing off the places underneath the shirt that were also covered by her bra.
Merlin, he would have loved to just climb over her now and start kissing along those bra lines.
This past week of him being surrounded by other girls his age, he kept waiting for thoughts like this to pop in his head about them so he could justify that it was just his hormones that had him wanting to… do things… with Ginny, but they didn't come. He'd noticed a few chests here and there, appreciated the skirts and the smiles that were thrown in his direction, but none of them compared.
"I am good at winning in a tussle," she admitted.
He had no doubt, and wouldn't mind having her conquer him one of these days.
He opened his mouth to say something more, possibly find a way of seeing if she might reciprocate, but how one went about going from friends to something more without jeopardizing the friendship he didn't know.
"I got an owl from my mum this morning," Ginny told him. "She said she stopped by your place and gave your mum a lesson in the kitchen, made sure she knew how to do everything from start to finish, including the trip to the grocers."
His eyebrows went up with interest. He'd received one letter from his mum, just checking in on him and congratulating him on being in Gryffindor. Sirius had added to the letter as well, letting him know how to get into the kitchens and where the Prefects bathroom was in case he felt like 'going for a dip'. The letter hadn't mentioned anything about how the two of them were actually faring now that it was just the two of them.
"I'm glad she's forcing mum to get out of the house."
"I think she's pretty glad of herself too. She likes trying to make a difference in people's lives."
"She's certainly made a difference in ours already. Well, she and you, and all your family really."
"We're happy to."
He knew that was true, and he wanted to make Ginny happy. She was happiest when she was flying though. "Care to race me a few laps around the pitch? I need to practice if I'm going to make it onto the Quidditch Team."
As usual, Ginny zipped around the pitch effortlessly faster than him to start, but then he started gaining on her, getting quicker and quicker with each lap until finally he outstripped her, pumping his hands into the air in victory. It wasn't something she looked particularly thrilled about but applauded him with a slow clap regardless.
The following Saturday at the pitch was the only time he'd managed to get her alone again, hell, the it was the only time he'd managed to say more than a 'hello' to her, since he was still being pulled in different directions by all his new friends.
Harry liked the new handful of core friends he'd made that he sat with through the classes, but they still weren't Ginny. Between classes and at meals he always found himself only half listening to the conversations going on between the guys in his dorm room because he was watching Ginny out of his peripheral vision and the way she was carrying on with her core group of friends; which usually involved talking to them one at a time, but she did have a lot of them.
She also had a fair number of guys coming up to her and chatting with her, something that made Harry's gut twist.
Their Saturday's at the pitch together became his favorite time of the week, then it was time for Quidditch Try-outs, and he made it on the team as the Seeker. Ginny landed the spot as Chaser again, which he knew she would, and he told her such as well; he whispered it in her ear when he hugged her tight in congratulations.
She was an excellent hugger.
And now that they were on the team together, that meant that meant that there would be more scheduled time that they would spend together!
At least, that was what he thought.
It turned out that there wasn't much time for a private chat when they were doing separate drills, and Ginny was always walking back to Gryffindor Tower with their team captain, Demelza, talking her ear off about strategies; leaving him unable to get a word in edgewise with Ginny.
When the notice for the first Hogsmeade weekend went up, he thought that was going to be his perfect opportunity; he'd ask her to show him around the town. It would be a casual request and she could take it in whatever sense she felt comfortable with. Maybe they would wind up ending the trip taking turns showing off what their purchases from Zonko's were capable of, maybe he'd manage to sack up and tell her he wanted something more out of their friendship.
When he went to ask her though, another girl got in the way.
Jemma Pike, she was a Ravenclaw in their Transfiguration class, a class that he was doing really well in.
Harry had spotted Ginny in her seat in class the morning the notice went up on the bulletin and he'd managed to shake off his friends so he could head over to Ginny, then Jemma stopped him and flat out asked him if he was interested in going to Hogsmeade.
If only he had a little more sense he would have realized that him saying 'of course' meant that he'd just agreed to go with Jemma; it didn't mean 'of course I'm interested in going to a village I haven't been to before, just not with you, because I'm on my way to ask the person I am interested in going with'.
But it was too late to take it back after it had come out of his mouth.
Everyone in the class had just heard him agree to go out with Jemma Pike to Hogsmeade.
Including Ginny.
Dumbfounded by what he'd just done by mistake, he avoided eye contact with Ginny, who had turned around in her seat and witnessed his monumental stupidity for herself, he went back to his seat and begrudgingly accepted the pats on the back his mates were giving him.
Jemma was a pretty girl, she was smart too, nice, polite, forward, all good things. She was a catch; that's what everyone was telling him.
Their date in Hogsmeade was pleasant, she carried on the bulk of the conversation which he appreciated. They visited all the shops that he'd been interested in going to and then they wound up at The Three Broomsticks and joined a table with their friends and had a butterbeer.
It had been a very pleasant experience.
He had no complaints.
Not until they got back to Hogwarts and were about to go their separate ways; when she kissed him.
He froze when she did it.
They were on the second floor where everyone could see them and she just went for it.
But he didn't want to kiss her. It was his first kiss. His whole teenage life he'd been wondering what his first kiss would be, many of those wonderings including the thought of what it would be like if he ever got his first kiss. But the last three months, that kiss fantasy hadn't involved Jemma Pike.
Now that first kiss experience he'd been wondering over, it was gone. She'd taken it from him.
When she pulled back from it, granted she'd only had her lips on his for about five seconds, it was clear from her expression that she knew he hadn't been reciprocating.
"You aren't interested in me like that, are you?" she asked. She looked disappointed, but not devastated.
"I… I'm sorry. You're great and I had a lot of fun, but I did kind of agree to go with you by accident."
"Accident," she repeated. "How was that an accident? I asked you to go and you said 'of course'."
"Actually, you asked me if I was interested in going, and I was, so I said 'of course' to that, but I hadn't put it together that you were asking me to go with you until it was too late." It was a cad thing to say to someone who'd just kissed you, but it was the truth.
Thankfully, Jemma didn't take it to heart. She gave a small laugh and covered her mouth, her eyes going wide. "Oh my God! You're right! I guess I just read into your response what I wanted to!"
"You and everyone else," he shrugged and smiled back at her.
"So…" she took a step away from him and held out her hand, "just friends then? And we can forget about the whole 'me just having kissed you' bit?"
He was so relieved to hear her say that, he shook her hand and they each headed off in different directions.
His dorm mates asked him about it and he just said that they were friends, nothing more. Which they didn't believe and started creating all sorts of different scenarios that may have taken place, one involving he and Jemma in a darkened alcove and him cumming in his pants after a minute of snogging. After a lot of back and forth between the four mates he shared the dorm with, he just left, taking his assignments with him.
There was a disused classroom not far from the Gryffindor Common room where the more serious students went to quietly get their homework done, and this was where he found Ginny.
"Thank Merlin," he said as he sat down. "Someone that won't be making up lewd reasons as to why my date with Jemma won't be resulting in another one."
Ginny looked up from her assignment and it took her eyes a moment to focus on his. She looked around at the other tables available and saw that they were alone.
Yet another reason he was grateful for her, she didn't want anyone to overhear their conversations.
"From what I saw, it didn't look like it ended too bad. So, what happened?"
"From what you saw?" he asked, his heart beating faster against his chest. She hadn't seen Jemma kissing him, had she?
"The way she was the one to lock lips with you, I'd say she enjoyed herself just fine."
Fuck! She had seen that.
"Er, well. She's really nice and all, and I made sure to tell her that. It's just that I hadn't enjoyed it quite as much as she had. It was fun," he hurried to say, "but I wasn't actually looking to have a date to Hogsmeade. And I'm not looking to date Jemma either."
"Oh." Ginny tapped her quill against her parchment a few times, clearly at a loss for what to say next.
"Did you go? I didn't see you down there anywhere."
"Er, yes. I was asked by a sixth-year and figured, why not. But then he insisted we go to a tea room."
His stomach dropped. She'd gone to Hogsmeade with a date too? And to a tea room. Didn't proper dates to Hogsmeade involve a tea room? She sounded disappointed though.
"Not your kind of haunt then?"
"Absolutely not. And we had nothing to talk about, so I went to the Hogshead by myself after saying goodbye to him and had a drink, then came back to the castle and saw you… well, get assaulted I guess. Then I came here to work on my assignments."
"I didn't get assaulted," he protested in jest.
"Hey, it's okay," she put a hand on his, meaning to mockingly comfort him. "This is a safe space."
"Yeah, yeah. So, are we going to help each other with our assignments, or what?"
He finally got his time alone with her that he'd been wanting for several weeks, they may have only been doing homework, but it was just the two of them, and that was good enough for him then.
It wasn't a surprise to him that other guys at the school would take a shine to her, but he didn't like hearing just how many of them were interested. And he did hear about it. It appeared that all of his new friends had simply forgotten that she had been the first person he'd met when he and his mum finally got out of their bunker. He'd counted five guys in sixth and seventh year that had mentioned that they found her attractive, and it bothered him.
On Saturday's was when he managed to find her alone somewhere and they'd spend a few hours together getting their assignments done, and every Saturday he tried to psyche himself up enough to tell her how he felt, and every Saturday night he chastised himself for not being able to do it.
December came around and Christmas was drawing near. His mum and Sirius had both been sending him owl post regularly now and he was getting a better sense of who his uncle Sirius was now through the letters. From the difference in correspondence it seemed that the two of them were in a better state emotionally, but they still didn't seem to have any plans for their immediate future; no jobs or hobby prospects.
Ginny would give him the occasional update from her mum when they met over their homework dates, which was what he called them.
He was looking forward to spending some more time with them over Christmas Break. And when Ginny came up to him in the Common Room after his other friends had all gone up to the dorm, carrying a letter from her mum for him to read, he was looking forward to it even more.
"We're having Christmas Dinner at yours? Excellent! I've never had a Christmas dinner before. I imagine my mum would be overwhelmed trying to make it perfect on her own for the three of us." He handed the letter back to her, beaming. "Are we going to brave the elements together and get in some Quidditch play over the break at yours as well?"
"As if you need the practice," she rolled her eyes.
"I may have taken to it easily enough, but its still fun to play Chaser every now and then."
"Hmm, if I'm not careful I think you might take over my position on the team."
"Never." His exuberance dropped a fraction when he realized that she didn't look like she was kidding.
"Well, you're certainly doing better than me in our classes. And you came here with no formal education," she said. She was leaning back on the couch beside him, looking morosely at the fireplace before them and toeing the table between as though she was uncomfortable.
"Ginny, what's going on?"
"I guess I'm just in a mood, that's all," she mumbled. "Anyhow, I'm going to head up."
He grabbed her arm to stop her. "No, that's not all. What's wrong?"
She looked down at his hand, then glanced around the empty common room. "Careful there, someone might see us and get the wrong impression."
Now he was all out of exuberance. "What are you talking about?"
She sat back down and shifted away from him. "It means that I'm being petty and unreasonable, that's all."
"About what?!" He had no idea what she was going on about.
"Look, I'm used to getting put in this position, alright? My brothers were all the same way; I'm a completely fine person to hang around with for a chat when there's no one else available, but heaven forbid they talk to me in sight of their friends."
His jaw dropped.
"I'm used to being one-upped in all my classes, used to being challenged on the Quidditch pitch, used to my friends all being more interested in my brothers than they are in me, save for a select few. It's just… I didn't think last summer that when we got here, that I would still have to deal with all that."
Setting aside the fact that she'd just compared him to one of her brothers for now, he focused on the other thing. "Are you saying you're jealous?!" Ginny reluctantly gave a nod, not meeting his eye. "Of me?" Now she rolled her eyes, gave a sigh, then a nod.
That was preposterous.
But it wasn't the part of her admission that hurt the most.
"You think that I don't want to talk to you when I'm around my other friends?" he asked sadly.
She'd been reading into that completely wrong, but now that she mentioned it, that was the only time that they talked. He hadn't ever changed seats to sit by her in the Great Hall, he didn't wiggle his way in to join in with she and her friends in the common room when they were all hanging out, and there hadn't been a group project in class that they wound up partnered up for, because someone else always partnered up with them first.
"It's true, isn't it?" she accused.
"No!"
He said this so loudly that she gave a small jump and finally met his eye. "It's not?"
He moved closer to her on the couch and took her hand. "Ginny, I seek you out in order to get time with you. There's no one else around us when I do find you because I selfishly want you to myself. I won't apologize for being good at Quidditch or doing well in class because I would never hold back just to make someone feel better, even if that someone was you. I'm sorry I made you feel that way, but it wasn't my intention."
"You seek me out?"
There was a sparkle of hope that shone in her eyes. Her big, beautiful brown eyes.
"Yes," he stated, moving a fraction closer to her.
"But why do you just want me to yourself when you do? Why don't you ever call me over to spend time with you and your new friends?"
The fire was reflecting light on her hair, it looked so silky and soft. Her lips looked so pink and inviting.
"Why don't you ever ask me to join in with you and your friends?" he asked, turning the tables. "Why didn't you insist I sit with you in the Great Hall on my first day here? Wave me over to sit with you when our classes first started? I was new to socializing, I didn't know that the seats that I was invited to sit in on my first day meant I was making a permanent choice."
She was leaning in closer to him now, her hand came up to idly play with the buttons on his shirt. "I suppose I didn't realize that."
"Apparently there's quite a bit that neither of us realized." He rested his forehead against hers.
She could have taken this movement as a friendly gesture, but he didn't want her to. It was clear to him now that there had been months of intimacy lost between them because he felt the need to be sure that his feelings for her weren't simply him not knowing anything else.
"Can you do me a favor?" he asked her quietly. He was still looking at her, their foreheads still touching; her eyes were closed and her expression turned peaceful. She hummed an 'mmhmm'. "Never compare me to one of your brothers again."
She opened her eyes then and he only waited a full two heartbeats before leaning forward and kissing her. She responded to it immediately. It was obvious right away that this was nothing like what had happened with Jemma; they were both committed to this kiss. Her hand that was on his chest was gripping his shirt now, keeping him close. His hand moved up her arm and pulled her closer.
The kiss took on a life of its own from there. Months of suppressed desire for her was unfurling, encouraging his hands to wander all over her back, up into her hair, gripping at her waist to pull her closer. And her hands weren't still either. He'd never been touched like this before; his hair was being pulled, his lip was getting gentle nips from her teeth, her breasts were being pressed up against his chest through their clothes as she straddled him.
It was all incredible.
He wanted to have her closer to him, flip them over so they could lay down on the couch and have her wrap her legs around him, carry her over to pin her against the nearest wall, and have her legs wrap around him. He wanted to slip his hand under her shirt and feel the weight of her breast, he wanted her to throw her head back and moan as he kissed and sucked at her neck.
While the first few options might have been pushing things a bit too far, kissing her neck was something she might be okay with.
He fisted his hand in her hair and gave a small tug, she pulled back with a small gasp. They were both breathing heavily as they stared at each other, pupils very dilated. He wondered for a moment if he was pushing her too far, but then he noticed just how plump her lips were then and thought about how he had been the one to make them look that way.
Half a second later his lips were trailing down her neck and he was growing painfully engorged from the sound of her gasps and pants.
Fuck, she tasted so good.
She started rocking her hips against him and the sensation caused him to move one of his hands to her lower back to attempt and push her harder against him.
She gasped his name then and it nearly pushed him over the edge because it sounded so good. And she kept right on rocking against him. His eyes were crossing behind their closed lids from how good it all felt. He grew more aggressive about his assault on her neck as their rocking and grinding movements continued.
"Ginny!" he gasped in warning, his lips still affixed to her neck.
Her responding pant of 'yes' was doing nothing to help calm him down and the pressure building up between his legs was getting too all consuming to keep on kissing her there. He leaned back against the couch, his head thrown back, hands now firmly affixed to her hips as he assisted in her movements until finally the sky and stars came crashing down around him in a wave of pleasure.
He was able to open his eyes in time to see her bottom lip slip out from between her teeth, her mouth then forming a perfect 'o', and her one hand came down hard on his shoulder so she could brace herself. The flush that came to her cheeks was the most brilliant thing he'd ever seen.
After a moment of recovery he shifted them so they could lay down cuddled on the couch.
"I don't know about you, but this has easily been the best night of my life so far," he whispered to her as he played with a lock of her hair.
"Mmm," she sighed. "I think it's safe to say that our friendship has gone a completely different direction."
"That is what I was hoping for. And, according to you, we weren't that good of friends anyhow," he smiled stupidly. She pushed her bum back against him in retribution for his words, a move that only served to make him hum with pleasure. "I guess it needs to be asked though, just so we're clear; will you be my girlfriend?"
She snuggled back against him and let out a contented 'yes'.
He smiled and kissed the back of her head, basking in the warmth of it all.
And whatever concerns Ginny had had about him trying to keep their 'friend' relationship a 'secret', their 'more-than-friends' relationship was very clear to everyone the next morning when they were discovered sleeping together in the common room.
Well, that, and all the hickeys he'd given Ginny the night before.
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