AN- Another lovely prompt from Celina Gryffindor.
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Choosing for Themselves
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The party was loud and nearly everyone was at the point of falling over drunk. Not him though, he wasn't being loud and he hadn't had more than one drink. He wanted to remember everything about what was going on here this evening; he needed to know who hooked up with whom, who was the one supplying drugs to their fellow classmates and who was cheating. He needed this information because he wanted to win this time.
And how does one 'win' at gathering information, you ask?
It is by having a bet with the best sleuth at the school.
Ginny Weasley was his best friend, his primary source of entertainment, she was the girl that knew everything and everyone knew her. She was also a year older than him and in the same class as his brother, who was openly besotted with her.
This was a problem for him because he too was besotted with her, just not openly.
Their families went way back; they had fought together through the wars and made contracts with one another over land rights and loyalties through the generations. The most recent contract was made before Harry was born and it was to combine their families, because the Weasley's had finally had a girl join their gene pool.
If only he had been the first born then his best friend and the woman he was in love with wouldn't be betrothed to his brother.
That was neither here nor there right now though, it was only the constant reminder that haunted his thoughts after every time he fantasized about her. Right now he was supposed to be gathering more dirt on their fellow students than she could.
He didn't even know where she was right now. He'd seen her show up, noticed her dancing with a group of other girls, watched as she teased and joked with the table full of guys that were drinking and playing cards, then she'd vanished.
Harry prayed that she hadn't gone off with someone to find a quiet corner somewhere to snog. She might be betrothed to his brother, but they weren't married and she had accepted a few invitations to go on a date to Hogsmeade with other people. This was something that soured Geoff, but Geoff had known about the betrothal and never made a move to win her affection, he simply mooned over her and felt secure in the fact that she would be his eventually. Harry and she were closer, because they were perfect for each other. Geoff enjoyed losing himself in the stacks at the library, Harry and Ginny enjoyed seeing how long it would take for Filch to scramble from one side of the castle to the other when they set off dungbombs. Plus, Geoff didn't care for Quidditch outside of cheering for Gryffindor and Harry and Ginny were on the house team and would listen to the professional games on the wireless.
There had been so many times that he wanted to do something about the attraction he had for her that ate away at his stomach, but he couldn't. How would it feel ten years down the road when she was his sister-in-law to know that he'd kissed her, or more?
He also didn't know if she felt the same way.
"Come on," someone whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "Everyone is busy down here, he won't even notice that I'm gone. It's just a little bit of fun!" The words were slurred, but it was unmistakably Lavender Brown that was trying to coax someone to fool around with her while her boyfriend was busy with his card game.
Harry leaned back a bit from where he was standing so he could see who she was talking to, it was Geoff, and he was grinning and glassy eyed.
Harry's eyebrows went up in intrigue as he watched Geoff attempt to discretely take her hand and they snuck away together.
Apparently his brother wasn't so infatuated with Ginny that he could pass up the temptation of a woman that was willing to give him a good time.
This was very good news.
In fact, if Geoff could find himself a girlfriend then that would make Harry feel a world better; he knew if it was Lavender, or any other woman, throwing themselves at him he would turn them down instantly because of his preference for Ginny.
He had it so bad for his best friend.
He watched the two of them slip up to the dormitories and scanned the room again for sign of Ginny and saw none. She wasn't in the room. Not unless she got the invisibility cloak from Geoff's trunk and was hiding under that.
The idea gave Harry a thought and he scanned the room again, his eyes landing on the Gryffindor mascot, a plush onesie with a big, fake lion head.
Someone had to be wearing that. And there was only one person missing.
The little minx!
That mascot would appear in the middle of every party, always after everyone had a few drinks or had taken some mind-altering pill or potion. It was her! She would show up at the start of every party and make the rounds, being sure that everyone saw her, then she'd slip off and get in the mascot costume. That was how she got all the secrets!
For another hour he watched her navigating her way through the party and getting high-fives from just about everyone, then finally, she went up the stairs.
As soon as she had a good lead, he raced after her and to his own dorm. He grabbed his broom from under his bed and tried to ignore the sounds coming from Seamus' bed, then paused. Seamus was dating Lavender, but Lavender was currently occupied with Geoff, so who was in Seamus' bed with him? Harry snuck closer and listened at the curtain a moment, then heard his brothers voice saying something.
Geoff and Lavender had snuck into her boyfriends bed to mess around?
Harry didn't think Geoff had it in him!
That was neither here nor there though. Harry slipped away from them and hopped on his broom and out the window to fly over to Ginny's dorm room and got there in time to catch her stuffing the mascot costume under her bed.
He tapped on the window and grinned as she turned to him in surprise.
"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked as she let him in. "If someone catches you in my room with me, they're going to start thinking things."
"Who cares? You're in my dorm all the time. I'm here to call you out for being a sneak."
It was subtle, but there was a slight reddening of her cheeks before she shrugged, "I don't know what you mean." She turned away from him and started for the bathroom.
"Oh really? So you won't mind if I check under your bed?"
"For what? Monsters?"
"I saw you stuff it under there," he told her and started to reach down.
Ginny rushed back over to him. "Okay, okay," she said as she grabbed his hand to stop him. "You've found me out. That's how I always win at this game."
He grinned down at her; he loved how she was a few inches shorter than him. Her hair was a mess from being inside the mascot head for so long too, and she had a sheen of sweat across her brow. He raised the cuff of his shirt and wiped it across her forehead. "It gets a bit sweaty in there, does it?"
"Incredibly," she grinned back. "But it's well worth it. Gossip is currency in this school."
He blinked a few times and gave a hard swallow. "I take it you noticed what Lavender was up to?"
"And with whom," she nodded, not looking upset. "Hopefully their tryst will turn into something and he will find it in himself to broaden his horizons."
He didn't understand what she meant, and clearly his face showed that.
"He might start paying attention to other girls now," she laid out.
"You want him to?"
"Yes! The marriage contract only holds if at least one of us is interested in it."
"What?" He didn't know that part. "So, if Geoff gets himself a girlfriend and falls in love with her, you're saying the contract won't hold because you aren't interested in going through with it?" He didn't know that! They never talked about it.
"Harry we've been best friends for years, what indication have I ever given you that I'm interested in marrying your brother?"
"Er…" he thought on it, "none."
"Exactly. And here I thought you knew me better than anyone," she shook her head at him. "You really thought I'd just be okay with going along and marrying someone because our parents decided I had to?"
"Well, no. I guess I've just known about it for so long that it seemed like it was such a sure thing." From as far back as he could remember people had been talking about how Ginny would be a Potter some day and what a smart match she and Geoff would make, that their sensibilities would balance each other out nicely, things like that.
Wait, why did she say 'brother' like that?
"Is there a rule I wouldn't break?" she grinned.
Merlin, he loved it when she grinned at him like that.
He reached up and took a piece of her hair in his hands and twirled it around his finger. "I've got a juicy little secret to share with you that you may have missed."
"Oh?" her head tilted in intrigue.
"When Lavender convinced Geoff to sneak off, they snuck into Seamus' bed."
Ginny's jaw dropped. "I thought him helping her cheat was scandalous enough for him, but to do so in Seamus' bed?" Her eyes drifted a bit. "I wonder if that's a kink of theirs?"
"Of Geoff's?" he asked, horrified.
She snorted a laugh at the idea. "No, of Lavender and Seamus. Seamus probably likes catching her in the act or something, and Lavender is the type to swoon over someone being outraged and jealous."
He made a face. "I wouldn't fancy the thought of someone I like, potentially love, being with someone else."
"Good to know," she smirked. "Now you just have to man up and make a move on someone you 'like, potentially love'."
If only it were that easy, he thought sadly, looking down at how her hair was now wrapped around his finger. They were standing so close, it would take only one step for him to be the right distance to wrap his arms around her and pull her lips to his.
"That face tells me you've got someone in mind," she prodded lightly and came a little closer to him.
"I might."
"And are you ever going to tell her?"
"What if I can't?"
Her lips parted the way they did when she just received confirmation on a theory she had. Which meant she knew. She knew and she wasn't backing away from him. "Why not? Someone finding out you that you fancy them can only be considered flattering."
Yes, she definitely knew. Yet, here she was, still not pushing him away and saying they were only friends. "And complicated," he added, because at least one of them had to be pointing that bit out.
"Let me uncomplicate it for you then," with that she closed the distance between them so her chest was pressed right against his, her fingers ran up the length of his chest and into his hair then her mouth was on his. It happened in such slow motion, yet all at once; then they were locked in an embrace and he was living his dream.
There were so many questions that he should have been asking her, but they were all swept out of his head by the incredible sensations of finally having her in his arms and being able to kiss her. He could taste the last drink she'd had on her tongue, felt the air move on his cheek as she drew in breath between their kisses, and best of all he could wrap his arms around her tighter and pull her closer to him; her strong and small body that he'd wanted to explore with his hands and mouth for ages.
He was using his opportunity now to explore her body with his hands as their snogging turned feverous. His hands ran up and down her back, each time dipping lower and lower until finally he was cupping at her lovely bum; she let out a little sound against his mouth when he grabbed her there but she didn't stop him.
Time lost all meaning as they lost themselves in each other, then they both pulled back sharply when voices were heard on the other side of her dorm door.
"Quick," Ginny nudged him backwards.
His brain wasn't functioning at top speed and he wasn't sure what to do next. "You want me to leave?"
"No!" she whispered in alarm and took his hand. "No time for that." Ginny led him over to her bed and drew the curtains, yanking him into the bed with her before closing off the last one, just as they heard the door open and two or three of her dormmates, clearly drunk, came into the room. She grabbed her wand and cast several spells at the curtains, then all was quiet again.
Harry was unsure what his next move should be.
They'd kissed, actually, they'd passionately snogged each other until both were needing to heave in breaths. But now that had been interrupted. He wanted to do it again, and horizontally this time; they were in her bed after all, what better place to do so?
"You fancy me too?" he blurted out the question.
It was still just bright enough between the shroud of her curtains that he could see her smile and nod her assurance. "And I have for a while, but nothing I did seemed to make you jealous enough to do something about it."
"What? You mean those times you went to Hogsmeade with other blokes, or when you 'accidentally' wore your uniform skirt from two years ago, that was to get my attention? I thought you were trying to get Geoff to move on by putting on those shows for someone else."
She chuckled and put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a push so that he would lay back and she lay down beside him. "Two things can be true." She lay on her side and put her head on his shoulder, her one arm across his chest and moving in slow caresses. "It just so happened that you were the someone else. And you couldn't take the hint. That's one thing you and your brother have in common."
Harry was thrown. "But… but I've fancied you for years!"
"And you were very good at hiding it, until about a few months ago."
"What do you mean?" He'd been making sure not to let his eyes linger on her for too long, or that the rare times that they did touch each other, that it would be the way he would go about patting the back of any friend.
"What I mean, Harry, is that I've known for ages that preferred you over Geoff, since before we started Hogwarts, and I started to fancy you around my fourth year. I managed to maintain just a friendship with you so that things wouldn't get complicated with our families. And I started giving up on that farce last summer after seeing the way you looked at me in my swimsuit."
"Hmm, I remember that day," he smiled, now not at all trying to hide his appreciation for how scantily clad she'd been. "Did you wear that suit for my benefit? Were there things that you did that I just wasn't picking up on?"
"Oh, so very many," she purred, then shimmied up the bed and pressed her lips to his once more.
A few hours later, Harry flew back into his dorm and made a bee line for the bathroom. Hours of laying with Ginny and snogging had gotten him well past the point of being riled up and he was in desperate need of a wank. She'd undoubtedly been able to feel it against her thigh several times but made no mention of it, he could only feel her smile against his lips when he would grasp at her hips to silently beg her not to make matters worse and have him embarrass himself.
Quick as possible he locked the door and turned on the shower, then stripped down and stepped into the water before it was properly hot. He had to bite his lip to stop the groan of relief from taking himself in hand and starting to stroke. As the water poured down over his head he fantasized about what it would have been like if Ginny had slipped that small hand of hers into his trousers while they were snogging and moved it up and down his shaft like his was currently doing. He would have lost control so easily if she had, he would have snogged her more passionately than they'd been doing, he would have groped at her chest and started pulling off her shirt and bra, latched his mouth to her breast and marked each of them in turn while she moaned with pleasure. Then it would have been her turn to get off after he'd cum all over her hand. How he wanted to plunge his fingers into her and have her ride them while she cried out his name. He could picture them both naked and covered in a sheen of sweat, wrapped around each other on her bed, trying to recover but also fueled up and ready to go for another round.
His hand pumped hard and fast as he pictured the image of her straddling him and grasping onto the headboard as she slid that fit little body of hers down his own until his throbbing cock was poised right at her entrance, then she would slide down farther and begin taking him in a fraction at a time until he was completely buried inside her warmth.
That image sent him over the edge and he grasped the soap shelf so hard with his free hand that he thought he might break it.
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It was on the way to breakfast the next day that he ran into her in the corridor; most from Gryffindor fifth year and above were having a lay in after the party last night. Ginny was always an early riser though. There were a few students passing around them and Ginny said something to him about needing his feedback on an assignment, an excuse he wasn't listening to properly because she was dressed in the Muggle jeans he loved so much that hugged her legs and showed off what a nice bum she had. He would have followed her anywhere for any reason so long as she was walking ahead of him wearing those jeans.
When she led him into an empty classroom and locked the door, she turned to him to say something, but he cut her off with a kiss. She could have led him in there to tell him it had all been a mistake, if that was it, he didn't want to hear it. He wanted to have her know for certain that he wanted more than a friendship with her.
She tasted like some kind of red fruit or berry this morning, likely from whatever gloss it was she put on her lips to make them look so inviting. She was kissing him back too, that was the main thing.
"Harry," she said his name between kisses and then pulled back, giving him ample access to her neck. "Oh, Harry," that time she sighed his name and her hand went into his hair, encouraging him to carry right on doing what he was.
He walked her backwards until they were at a table, then lifted her up so she would sit on it, her legs coming up to wrap around his waist and he groaned loudly at how good it felt.
He was going to need to head right back up to the shower for another wank after this.
"Wait! We have to talk," she panted between small gasps.
"There are so many better things our lips could be doing though," he grinned and nipped gently at her collar.
At that she gasped loudly and pushed back against his chest. "You have gotten dangerously cocky in the last twelve hours," she chastised, the twinkle in her eye and swelling of her lips clearly indicated that she was enjoying it.
"Did you know that you taste delicious?"
Her lips parted at that statement, the color of her eyes darkening ever so slightly at the innuendo. He then realized what he had said, and just how much he wanted to taste her there.
A blush rose up her neck and to her cheeks.
"We need to talk about this," she pushed passed the moment. "What are we going to do about Geoff?"
That cleared away some of the haze in his mind. His brother had fancied her in some way or another since they'd met. That had only gotten worse after their parents had told them about the betrothal when they were thirteen; Harry could recall Geoff saying that evening how lucky he felt, just as Harry was realizing how jealous he felt.
"If only I'd been born first," he muttered.
"That would have complicated things less," she agreed. "Not that I'm saying I'm looking to marry you, just that I'm not wanting to marry Geoff."
"Yeah, I get it, it's too soon, we're too young, all that," he dismissed. "But Geoff finally got swept up with someone else last night, so maybe he'll start exploring other options and then you can both agree to nullify the contract."
"That would be wonderful. But that does leave us with the question of 'what are we' and 'do we tell anyone'?"
"Well, fuck." She had a point, they certainly couldn't start walking around hand in hand and snogging in the corridors right in front of Geoff. Everyone knew about the betrothal because of his brothers big mouth. "Should we? If we thought people here liked gossip before, this will certainly get everyone talking."
Ginny bit her lower lip while she played with the buttons on his shirt. "I don't think we can tell anyone. Not yet. We're just transitioning from being friends to being… something else."
"Something else," he repeated softly, then a slow smile came on his face. He'd been wanting to be 'something else' to her other than a friend for so long. He leaned forward again and kissed her, then pulled back. "As this 'something else', it means I can do that so long as no one else is around?"
She grinned at him, then wrapped her legs around his thighs and pulled him closer. "I'm sure we can come up with all kinds of ways to find ourselves alone together."
The combined grumblings of their stomachs finally overpowered the want to continue snogging in the empty classroom and they headed to the Great Hall for breakfast. The fact that they were near inseparable as friends before last night had happened meant that it was not out of character for them to be found wandering the castle or hanging out together. They couldn't walk in there hand in hand like he wanted to, but he still felt like he was walking on air with her beside him.
Unfortunately, the first thing he saw when he got into the Hall was Geoff sitting near the end of the table, and he looked like he'd had a hard night.
Ginny exchanged a look with him and they both went over and sat down with his brother.
"Alright?"
Geoff gave Ginny a look that told them he was uncomfortable saying what was wrong in her presence.
"I already know about you and Lavender," she told him point blank. "Is that what your mood is all about?"
Geoff tucked in his chin and looked down at his food before he began talking quietly. "She used me to get back at Seamus."
Harry nodded, "I thought they might have some kind of kink in their relationship." Ginny's slight kick to his shin was a reminder that it was her who told him as much.
"It was… weird, being the one in the middle. I was a bit drunk last night and was just going along with whatever she said. I don't have that much experience with… you know," he blushed and pointedly did not look at Ginny.
"So you didn't think anything of it when she brought you to Seamus' bed to mess around?" Harry resisted the urge to smile and tease.
"All I was paying attention to was the fact that she was kissing me. I wasn't watching where we were going, nor did I notice which dorm we wound up in, let alone which bed."
"Did you shag her?" Ginny asked out of curiosity.
"No! I swear I didn't," he assured her, a tone of pleading in his voice.
Ginny shrugged, "you're single and of a certain age. It may have been cheating on her part, but you're a free man."
Geoff blinked at her. "Not… really," he pointed out, imploring with his eyes that she recall the reason why he believed that.
Ginny scoffed under her breath and looked away from him.
Harry wisely kept his mouth shut but did grind his teeth together a bit. Geoff had taken this piece of information and decided his future was set with it, like he didn't need to bother exploring other options, he didn't even need to try to win Ginny's heart, because neither of them had a choice in the matter according to Geoff.
If it was him, if Harry was the first born, he would have done everything he could to make Ginny fall in love with him despite the contract. Or maybe because of the contract, he would hope that his future wife would love him completely, that they would be a happy couple.
Ginny had never taken to Geoff though; Harry had watched her make small attempts to befriend him, and now they were sort of friends, but Geoff always saw these attempts as her confirming she too wanted to be part of the arrangement.
Well, she didn't.
Geoff just wouldn't let her go though.
"Geoff," Ginny exasperated. "We've two months left of school here, you should be making more mistakes like you did last night. Take risks! Be a complete cad. You've always been so…" she stopped talking then.
Both Harry and his brother were staring at her then.
"I've always been so what?"
Ginny gave him a hard look then. "Boring."
"Boring," Geoff repeated. "You think I'm boring?"
"Well, out side of last night, when was the last time you did anything of note?"
"I'm the top of our class! I've got offers already from several departments at the Ministry for after school."
"Oh right, my mistake. Oooh, so exciting," she rolled her eyes. "With all that going for you how could you possibly start having any fun now."
"I may not be as impulsive and reckless as the two of you are with your Quidditch and trying to own the gossip mill at the school, but one of us needs to be the practical one! It's how it works in both our families; my mum is the one to keep our father on track and vise versa at yours."
"Would you stop putting so much stock in that stupid piece of paper?! It is an archaic concept that should have died out years ago. Neither of us were consulted as to whether we wanted it and I'm determined to do what I want while I still can."
"Which includes playing all the Quidditch you want and accepting any offer of a date that comes along?" Geoff snarled.
"At least my dates didn't wind up with me getting caught nearly shagging someone by the person they were already dating! And why on earth would I stop playing Quidditch if I do wind up getting shackled to you?"
"No wife of mine is going to be risking her life playing Quidditch! It's a dangerous sport and we'll have the children to think about."
This time Harry joined in with Ginny gaping at Geoff.
Inexplicably, Harry started laughing at Geoff. This caused both his brother and his secret girlfriend to turn to him to see what was so funny. A tear of mirth came to his eye and he wiped it away, "you expect to be able to dictate to Ginny what she can and can't do? Mate, do you know her at all?"
Ginny's fury turned to amusement at that comment, Geoff though was standing his ground. "She's just getting her wilding out now. Once we're married and have a kid on the way she'll calm down."
That was an effective way to get the amusement wiped off her face.
"Don't talk about me as though I'm not here," she told him dangerously. "And I'll state this plainly now, since you haven't picked up on any of my hints before, I don't want to marry you. Ever."
A dangerous look crossed Geoff's face as he glowered at her. "You don't have much of a choice, now do you?" With that he took an apple off the table and walked out of the Great Hall.
"I think our relationship just got a little more complicated," Harry said quietly a minute after his brother had left.
"I'll run away before I ever get forced to marry him," she stated as she stabbed a sausage in the middle of the table.
"He'll calm down, I'm sure he will. He'll see reason eventually." His brother was a stickler for rules, yes, but this was the rest of his life he was talking about. Geoff couldn't possibly consider forcing Ginny to marry him; how would he even go about that?
"Please don't defend him right now. I'm too angry to listen anyhow."
Under the table, Harry put his hand on her knee, "please don't run away from me then."
She gripped his hand back and gave it a squeeze. "No matter what happens, you'll still be my best friend."
"So you won't run away without telling me?"
She took a moment to finish chewing the food in her mouth before answering, then finally said, "I'll need your input on where to go and what to pack."
For the next few days, every time he saw his brother his stomach would start feeling funny. He couldn't talk to him after what he'd said to Ginny. He had a hard time talking to Ginny about it too, because lately all they'd been talking about when they were around other people was Quidditch, and when they weren't around other people their lips were occupied with much more interesting things.
Slowly, what Geoff had said drifted away and Harry put it out of his mind, dismissing the idea that Geoff would do anything stupid like declaring his intentions formally.
Before Harry felt like he'd even blinked it was the end of the school year; Gryffindor had won the Quidditch House Cup, exams were done and Ginny had already packed up her trunk, save for the necessities.
Her dorm was where they found themselves once more in her bed while her dorm mates had gone off for a last trip to Hogsmeade as students. They'd locked and silenced the door to her dorm room and had been snogging and slowly removing articles of clothing for the better part of an hour. Now his hand had found the clasp of her bra, Ginny was smiling against his lips as he struggled with it until if finally came open.
"Good job, I think you get a reward for that," she grinned and pulled the straps down her shoulders, tossing the thing to the floor and letting him take in the sight of her fully topless.
"And here I didn't think you could get any hotter," he salivated. Her skin looked so smooth, her breasts so perky and soft. Most importantly, her nipples were so hard from how he'd gotten her worked up. He moved down her body, kissing his way until he had his lips pressed against her warm mounds. He ran his tongue along the underside of one of them and enjoyed the sound she made and the way she arched her back as he did it.
Her name slipped out of his mouth several times while he worshipped her chest, his hips grinding into the mattress beneath him. Ginny's hips too weren't stationary.
He tucked his teeth gently around her nipple and gave a slow tug on it, Ginny cried out softly at the feel of it.
"Harry," she panted. "I want to shag."
He was dizzy from arousal and unsure if he'd imagined she said it. "What?"
"I want to shag," she repeated. Her hands found the waist of his trousers and she pulled him up, reaching around to the front to release the button desperately. "I want you inside me, right now."
He couldn't even manage to ask if she was sure; he was too randy to think straight. When she got the trousers undone and reached under his pants to grasp his erection all bets were off. They were absolutely doing this.
Harry flung his arm out to feel around the bedside table for his wand and cast the charm on himself, then tossed it back and immediately set about removing the rest of her clothes. Having full access to her naked body was like a dream. She too was touching him everywhere she could reach, he groaned loudly when her hand moved down his shaft to fondle his balls.
"Keep doing that and this'll be over before it's started," he warned.
"You'd better get a move on then," she grinned and nipped at his bottom lip.
He pulled at one of her legs behind the knee to spread them apart properly and settle himself between them, then they both assisted in guiding him deep inside of her. Their mutual moan of the word 'fuck' as he did so was not helping his reserve.
"So full," she whispered as her head pushed back against her pillow.
"So tight and hot," he panted before he started moving gently in and out of her. It was by far a million times better than wanking. The way that they moved together and made it like a dance for just the two of them, he was completely lost in her and overcome by the sensations.
It wasn't long before her fingers started digging into his back and he felt her gripping his cock like a velvet vice. "Oh, fuck that feels good!" he groaned loudly right before she cried out and a new feel of lubrication coated him, causing him to lose control and start driving into her with all he had until he too cried out a few moments later.
It couldn't have lasted more than a minute, but it was the best minute of his life thus far.
He collapsed on top of her while they both caught their breath.
"I'll run away with you if we have to," he whispered once they'd recovered some. "There is no way I'm letting anyone experience that with you if I can help it."
Ginny hummed and smiled. "So territorial."
"Would it be cliché to tell you I love you right now?"
"Yes. But I love you as well, so let's just enjoy that shall we?"
And they did. They enjoyed it through the summer when celebrating Ginny making it onto her first choice Professional Quidditch Team, they enjoyed it after all the joint family dinners where their parents were still trying to encourage Ginny to show more interest in Geoff, they enjoyed it the night before he had to head back for his final year at Hogwarts several times so that he needed to nap the whole train ride back to school.
He had 'borrowed' the paired mirrors from his dad and uncle Sirius so that they could still see and talk to each other. For so many years they had been able to find each other in the school throughout the day, it was hard being away from her. She managed to visit a few times when he had a Hogsmeade weekend scheduled, and she showed up to show her Gryffindor pride for the Quidditch game against Slytherin.
Nothing could compare though to the few months at the end of her final year when they could lose themselves for hours in each other's arms. He missed her terribly all the time and she assured him she felt the same way.
Now, finally, it was his turn to be done with Hogwarts. His parents and uncle Sirius met him at Kings Cross, his dad had borrowed a car to drive them home instead of using Floo or Apparation; it was tradition to leave Hogwarts for the last time in the same manner you arrived the first time, and this was how they'd done it.
"Any regrets?" his uncle asked him from the passenger seat in the back, beside Harry.
"No. I'm glad to be done with it, but I'm also sorry it's over. I know I've got the job lined up to start in two weeks, but now I have other decisions to make about where to live and what to do for meals and such."
"There's no hurry to move out!" his mum called back from the front seat. "Geoff is still at home. It isn't like we'd impose a curfew on you or anything."
"Thanks mum, but I do want to be out on my own."
"Geoff is doing the practical thing and saving up what he can for a house for when he's married," Sirius pointed out. "Harry here is a bachelor, he won't want to be bringing women home to his childhood bedroom." He included a wink in Harry's direction with this statement.
Harry caught his father's eye in the rearview mirror. "Is there someone you're seeing? Anyone serious enough we should know about?"
He rolled his eyes, "you already know my main group of friends, they're the only one's I ever wind-up spending time with. I want to get my own place because it's what you do when you're done with school and making money for yourself."
His father had always been good at reading him and Harry knew that question would be coming, so he had the answer ready and as close to the truth as possible. It appeared that they all bought it.
It was a two-hour drive home, with the help of magic, and he had been probed by each of his parents and Sirius about all manner of things. By the time they spotted the drive Harry was about ready to roll down the window and launch himself out of it just to get to his room faster.
He levitated his trunk out of the boot and followed behind the others up to the front door. The moment he stepped through the threshold there was a loud popping sound and he was blasted in the face with crepe paper then several voices shouted out their congratulations.
He should have expected this; he was the youngest out of the Potter's and the Weasley's of his generation. The previous year there had been a joint party for Ginny and Geoff.
Despite himself, he did start laughing once his heart rate had returned to normal.
His brother came forward to give him a hug, then Mrs. Weasley followed by Ginny; the only person he really wanted to see then.
"You did a good job, Harry," she grinned. "And I've been told about your job at Nimbus! That's amazing!" She already knew, of course, but they had gotten good at this game.
"Cheers," he grinned at her.
Three of the six Weasley boys were there and his uncle Remus had showed up with his girlfriend that Harry had yet to meet. He greeted everyone in turn then took his trunk up to his room. He hated surprises, they gave him anxiety.
"I tried to tell them not to," Ginny said as she slipped into his room behind him and closed the door.
"You could have mentioned it last night when we talked so I was prepared," he said, narrowing his eyes at her playfully.
Her hands came up in defense, "I was only told about it an hour ago and you were already in the car. Now quick, come over here and give me a kiss before someone starts looking for us."
He crossed the room in a hurry to take her up on that offer. He'd missed her lips so much, and the smell of her.
"I told them I was going to be looking for my own place right away," he said after giving her a good and thorough snog. If they kissed for any longer then they would have been pushing their luck. "I know you're set up with a flat share with the Harpies, but it'll be much easier to sneak you into my flat than it would be to go to yours, you've told me how they gossip."
"Yes, there's no way I'm bringing you around there before everyone else knows. Forget them finding out that you're my boyfriend, even if I try to pass you off as just a friend the girls would be hitting on you and asking me for dirt."
"You just automatically assume I'd be getting hit on?"
"Yeah," she told him from the bed and gestured to him, waving her hand up and down, "that would go over very well at my flat."
He made a show of flexing his arm for her, not that she could see it through his sleeved shirt. "Think I'm fit, do you?"
"Mhmm, and I've already come up with several excuses as to why you and I need to head out somewhere, just the two of us." She waggled her eyebrows at him. "A few lunch dates, a trip out to the pub, those sorts of things."
"Any chance of a few late night calls after your flat mates head out?" he inquired.
Ginny grinned and bit her lip.
Then there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Harry called out and started pulling things out of his trunk to put them away.
"Hey," it was Geoff. "Oh," he paused when he saw Ginny sitting on the bed. "Mind giving us a minute?"
The way Geoff smiled at her, he still appeared to be completely smitten. It made Harry's guts get all twisted.
"Sure, I'll just go see if there's any food out yet. See you both in a few."
Harry watched her walk out, allowing himself a moment to appreciate the sight of her bum. Then he noticed that Geoff was doing the same thing and got annoyed.
"What's up?" Harry asked him.
"I wanted to congratulate you, I heard about what good marks you received in your NEWT's. Mum mentioned you were wanting to move out almost right away, I wanted to tell you that if it's because you think the house will be too crowded, I'm planning on putting an offer down on a house in the next month or so, so there's no need to be hasty."
Harry stared at him in shock for a moment. "You're putting an offer down? On a house? Already?"
"Well, I don't think there's any point in delaying things further. I'll want her input on the place as well," he shrugged. "Which brings me to my next thing; I know you and she are good friends, but she wouldn't want to go modern and have you stand as 'Man of Honor', would she? Because I'd quite like if you stood with me as Best Man."
Harry blinked at him, processing what he'd just heard, then took in a deep breath, about to say something, then paused again. "This is Ginny you're talking about?"
Geoff laughed, "of course I'm talking about Ginny. Who else? We're a year out of school now, she's had her fun playing professional Quidditch, now it's time to get serious about our marriage and talk about the wedding and future plans."
"Have you at all talked to Ginny about this?"
"Well no, but I am going to incorporate it into the proposal."
"Proposal?"
"Yes, I thought it would be a nice gesture," he said proudly. He then pulled a ring box out of his pocket and showed it to him; a family heirloom with a diamond in the middle and little emeralds and opals around it. "What do you think?"
What did he think?
He thought his girlfriend was going to shit a brick if Geoff tried to pull this off.
Then an errant thought crossed his mind; what if Ginny and Geoff had talked about this? What if he, Harry, was the clueless one?
No, that wasn't possible. All those wonderful times they'd spent together, those hadn't been a farce.
"When was the last time you broached the subject of the betrothal contract with her?"
Geoff scoffed and closed the ring box, tucking it back into his pocket. "Honestly, can't you just be happy for me? Ginny is a catch, surely you see that."
"I do see that, I'm just very sure that she doesn't want to get caught by you."
"What a ludicrous thing to say. We've known this was going to happen eventually for nearly a decade. I gave her time, I gave her some space to 'see who she was as a person', or whatever. Now it's time to do this properly. Why can't you just be happy for-"
He stopped talking then, his eyes had latched onto something in Harry's trunk. Harry followed his eyeline directly to the newly uncovered pair of pink knickers that had 'Property of HP -GW' with a heart on a piece of paper that was pinned to it. Ginny had sent them to him for Valentine's Day as a joke.
"You aren't," Geoff started and took a step back towards the door. "You haven't? You and… she? You're just friends. You've only ever been friends!"
Harry had no words as he watched his brother's face turn red, and he was too slow on the uptake after Geoff bolted for the door in anger to stop him before he began descending the stairs to where everyone else was. "Geoff! No," he called after him, then jumped over the banister to stop him going into the living room, but Geoff dodged him and went straight for the kitchen.
"You were supposed to be saving yourself!" Geoff yelled out.
Harry finally caught up with him and saw he was leering across the countertop at Ginny, who was wide eyed and shocked, staring at Geoff.
"What?" she asked. Her eyes moved over to him and Harry tried to telepathically explain what just happened.
"I thought we had an understanding!" Geoff yelled at her again. He put his hand in his pocket and yanked out the ring box, then slammed it down on the counter. "I was going to be giving you this today. And now I've just seen a pair of what is clearly your knickers in my brother's trunk. So, you tell me right now, have you been shagging my brother?"
Harry closed his eyes tight as he heard the sharp intake of breath from both mothers that were also in the room. He could feel the looks he was getting from the men that had wandered into the kitchen from the other room at the noise as well.
When he opened his eyes he saw Ginny glaring at Geoff. She pushed the ring box back towards Geoff and lay both her hands down on the edge of the counter to brace herself as she leaned forward towards him. "I never wanted to marry you. I've never given you any inclination that I wanted to since we were told about the little arrangement, told you that flat out as well, but you wouldn't listen." She turned her head to everyone else in the room. "None of you would listen!" She turned back to Geoff. "I tried to get you to move on, I encouraged you to get out there and play the field. I was trying to be nice," she said through gritted teeth. "None of this, however, has anything to do with how Harry and I have been together for fourteen months. So, yes, I am shagging your brother and I have been for a year. Because I love him. Is knowing this enough for you to finally break it off?"
Harry wanted desperately to sink into the floor right then, but she'd just announced to their family that she loved him, and that was enough to help him find his footing. He crossed the room and came to stand beside her. They both wrapped an arm around the others waist and he felt the tremor she had in her wrist as she did it; she too was scared to find out what the reaction to this was going to be.
Geoff scowled at her, then turned to face him. "How could you do this to me?"
Harry just shook his head at him. "I tried to tell you to move on too; so many times. I'm in love with her as well. I didn't want to hurt you-"
"Well you did." With that, Geoff turned around and pulled open the desk drawer behind him and opened up the small vault inside. He withdrew the contract the betrothal was written on and turned back around to rip it in half for the lot of them to see. "Now, I'm leaving. And I don't want to see either of you again."
Geoff stomped out of the room and Harry watched him go. They might not have been the best of friends, but he was still his brother and he was hurt and upset by how furious Geoff was at them.
"I- I'm free of it?" Ginny said in a whisper.
Harry looked down at her, she was staring at the ripped paper that was the contract. She turned to their parents that were on the other side of the room, beaming at their dumbfounded faces.
"This mean's I'm free of it?!" she asked them louder.
"It does," Sirius answered for them. "I too had a betrothal contract. It might not have mattered what you thought about it, but him doing that," he gestured to the papers, "mean's it is simply scrap paper now."
"What do you mean it didn't matter what she wanted?" Harry's mum suddenly stood up straight. She then turned from looking at Sirius to looking at Ginny. "Have you wanted out of this the whole time?"
From the looks on everyone's faces, the Weasley's all knew. There was a chance that his father did as well.
"Yes," Ginny nodded.
"But Geoff," she looked at the empty doorway that Geoff had disappeared through. "He said…" She shook her head then and pointed her finger between Ginny and Harry. "Hold on, the two of you have been in a serious relationship for a year and never said anything to any of us?"
"How exactly was that conversation supposed to go?" Harry asked his mother. "'Hey, I know you all decided to treat Ginny like a piece of property, but I've really grown to fancy her, so can we just forget that you promised her to Geoff? Because I'd like a go.'"
Ginny elbowed him in the ribs and he wisely shut his mouth.
"Is this why you had your heart so set on getting a flat for yourself?" his father asked him.
Harry felt the blush creeping up his neck. He certainly didn't want to answer that question in front of Ginny's family.
"Well, I for one think that Harry and Ginny are much better suited to each other than she and Geoff ever were," Ron shrugged.
Harry was glad to hear that; Ron was Ginny's closest brother in age and had been their Quidditch Captain the year before he'd left school and they'd grown friendly. Harry didn't want to get on Ron's bad side. It was a relief to see that the twins were also nodding their agreement with that assessment.
There was a crashing sound from upstairs and Harry winced upon hearing it.
"I'll go talk to him," Sirius volunteered. Harry's father followed him out, pausing at the door to say something to Harry, but simply closed his mouth and kept on going.
"Look, I'm sorry that we didn't tell you lot sooner, but Harry's right, I'm not a piece of property and I don't understand why you made that bloody contract in the first place. We may be Purebloods, but we aren't that kind of Pureblood family," Ginny told her parents more than anyone else.
"There was a war going on, Ginny!" Her father told her. "You-Know-Who was snatching Pureblood children from wherever he and his Death Eaters could get their hands on them. We were trying to protect you. We've told you that."
"Why keep the contract though?" Harry asked. "Once the war was over you could have destroyed it so the two of them weren't bound to it anymore."
"Tradition," Harry's mum answered for them. "It thought it was archaic when they asked if the contract could be made, but Arthur had been instrumental in saving our lives one night and he feared so much what would happen to you," she said to Ginny. "You and Geoff were the same age and even if you two would be taken away from us because of the war, even if you didn't love each other, having to marry him would have been much more preferable to the alternative."
They'd heard this before.
"But, still," Ginny started.
"But still," his mother repeated and continued on. "It was a contract in a drawer that Geoff was so adamant that you both wanted. I wish you would have said something to me before now. If you would have simply mentioned you didn't want to marry him to me then I could have talked to James and Geoff about it, rather than having this drama."
"My parents knew," Ginny pointed out and turned to her mum and dad. "Even after all the times I voiced my displeasure, talked about disappearing rather than being forced to go through with it, you just wouldn't talk to the Potter's about how unhappy it made me, would you?"
"Ginny," her mother sighed, "we thought it was a good match. Geoff is such a lovely boy."
"You should see if he want's to marry you then," Ginny interrupted. "Are you willing to give up dad and have a go?"
Harry squeezed her waist to tell her to keep her snark in check.
"Ginny, really," her mother exasperated.
"You didn't set up matches for any of your sons," Ginny pointed out. "And you and dad met when you were still in school and fell in love."
"With help," her father announced.
Several heads turned to him and frowned in confusion.
"We had a betrothal contract," he admitted. "It was made when we were less than five years old, we found out after we had started at Hogwarts and when your mother was in her second last year we decided to start seeing if there was any way we could make things work between us. And we did. And we have a lovely life and family because of it."
"Your marriage was arranged?" Ron asked. "Why didn't you ever tell us that before?"
"It was, and is still, common to have these arrangements for daughters," he told Ron.
Harry looked over to his mother and wondered for a moment if his father had been promised to anyone before he met her. He had heard the story of how in love his dad had been with her through their school years and would imagine he would have ripped up his own betrothal contract before his mum had even started thinking about giving in to his advances.
"Just because it worked out for the two of you doesn't mean my objections shouldn't have been addressed before Geoff went ahead and did this," she reached over and nudged the ring box farther away from her. "I'm not ready to get married right now and even if I was, you chose the wrong Potter for me."
Harry was startled by that comment. He wasn't thinking marriage yet either, but to hear that she would consider marrying him in the future was a welcome idea.
"And how is that going to work out?" she continued. "Geoff is going to take turns with Harry and I at who gets to come to family dinners? He doesn't want to see either of us anymore!"
"I'm afraid we won't need to worry about that for quite some time," Harry's father said coming back into the room. "Geoff has decided to take his savings and go on an extended holiday."
"He's really left?" Harry asked. "Does he hate us that much?"
"It's a fresh wound," James Potter frowned at him. "Some time away may help him come to terms with this."
Time, right. Harry looked down at Ginny and saw the regret she had over hurting Geoff, it was the same he had.
Once more, he hoped his brother would meet someone and finally move on.
It was a very awkward evening at the Potter house after that.
()()()
Three years later
Harry was staring into the ice box to see if there was some inspiration he could draw from its contents that he could use to assemble an evening snack for himself. He wasn't even hungry, he was just nervous and felt like he needed to be doing something to pass the time.
Ginny was staying at The Burrow for the night and he was going to see her in the morning.
He had trouble sleeping without her.
They'd spent a few nights apart here and there when she had to travel for her matches and she always took to putting the pyjamas she'd last worn and sticking them on her pillow so he would have 'girlfriend-pillow' to cuddle with all night. It was cute and always made him chuckle, and he would wind up waking up spooning it. Today was no different; upstairs in their room he did have girlfriend-pillow decked out in one of his favorite night dresses she had.
He didn't want to go to bed yet though, he wasn't tired enough. If he went upstairs to lay down now then he would just be staring at the ceiling and thinking too hard about tomorrow.
There was absolutely nothing appealing in this ice box.
He closed the door with a sigh and checked the cupboard above it where they generally kept the crisps and found a bag that was stuffed right at the back.
He had just opened the top of the bag when there was a knock at the door. He was silently grateful that he was about to have company, but opening the door and seeing his brother standing there was the last thing he expected.
Geoff looked older and tanned; his arms looked muscular like he either worked out or had found himself in a profession where he needed to use them regularly. His hair was cut short and there was a groomed beard on him.
"Geoff! What. How did you know I lived here?" They hadn't spoken since Geoff had left their parents house three years ago. Harry had tried sending him a few owls, but there was never a letter returned.
Geoff had been in touch with his parents and kept them up to date on where he was in the world.
"Mum told me."
They were still standing with the doorway between them and for a wild moment Harry wondered if this was the end for him, that Geoff may have come back to kill him before disappearing again.
"Relax, will you? I'm not mad anymore," Geoff smiled easily.
"You aren't?"
"No!" he laughed. "It took a while, but as it turns out, I've come to realize that marrying her when I was that young would have been a massive mistake. We would have been miserable together. Let me in, I'll tell you what I've been up to."
Harry did step aside and Geoff looked around the entryway, then spotted the liquor cabinet in the sitting room and headed over to it. "Do you mind?"
"Help yourself," Harry shrugged, still puzzled about his brothers sudden reappearance.
Geoff poured out two generous portions of whiskey and handed one to Harry, then took a seat, had a drink and sighed contently as he enjoyed it. "I've been in Australia for the last year."
"Yeah, mum and dad mentioned," Harry nodded and took up on the couch across from him.
Geoff nodded. "When I first got there, I joined in with this Muggle group of tourists that were going on a Walk-About. I thought it would be a life-changing experience for me, but it was actually just uncomfortable; sleeping in tents, eating poorly prepared meals, being stuck in the outdoors all day in the baking sun. I wouldn't recommend it. But then, I parked my arse on a beach near Bondi and I met a woman. Oh, she was crass and beautiful, legs for days. The exact opposite of me personality wise, and regardless of that, we hit it off. We've been together for months now and I'm so ridiculously happy with her that I now realize how absurd I was about the contract I had with Ginny." He shook his head. "I'd truly believed that because we had that stupid piece of parchment that that was my future, conveniently decided for me by our parents." He leaned back in his chair and took another sip. "Ginny is a great girl, also beautiful and crass, but I never loved her like I love Claire, and we had years of spending time together at school and at home that should have amounted to at least a tenth of what I currently feel for my girl, but it never did."
Harry grinned at Geoff and felt an enormous weight lift off of him. "So, you really aren't mad at us anymore?"
"No, and I should have told you before now and I'd been putting it off, but I knew I had to come and let you know, particularly with what you're doing tomorrow."
"Does that mean you'll come?"
Geoff nodded. "And I've brought Claire here with me, if you've got space for one more."
"Of course we do!" Harry grinned.
"Great! That's settled. Now then, it is my job as the elder brother to get you drunk the night before the wedding, isn't it?"
"Oh God, not too drunk please."
"Sure," Geoff said unconvincingly. "But if you pass out before me, I will draw on your face."
They had several refills of whiskey and Geoff told him about his time in Salem, Massachusetts before he moved on back to Europe to travel along the Mediterranean and down into Africa, finding himself in Kenya before moving over to Australia. He'd taken up a few jobs here and there and was now managing the books for several tourist restaurants along a beachfront. A few of these things Harry had already heard from his parents, but enjoyed hearing it directly from his brother regardless.
Harry told him about his work at Nimbus and how well Ginny was doing with the Harpies, something Geoff admitted he couldn't help himself keeping tabs on as well, and about when they decided to move in together and how he had bungled up the proposal, but she said yes anyhow.
"So, who is standing with you tomorrow?" Geoff asked when it was getting very late.
"My friend David, I work with him and we hang out regularly."
"Pressing my luck here, but, do you have room for one more?"
Harry grinned. "Yeah, there's always room for you."
()()()