AN- AU, Harry and Ginny are both still part of the Magical world, and the war happened, but they didn't know each other before it.
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Chances
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They stumbled through the door of his hotel room with their legs and arms as wrapped around each other as much as they could possibly be while still staying upright and navigating their way into his room. Since they'd reached the lift on the main floor and the doors closed, the first moment there was of total privacy, she'd made her intentions known.
Six days he'd been staying at the same hotel by the beach in Barcelona and each day he would notice her along the beach, always in a different location, always seeming to know each of the staff at the little bars along the boardwalk. She was English, that much he'd been able to tell. Her hair was a vibrant color of red and it stood out among the crowd, that and her deep green bikini.
They'd made eye contact on the first day he'd arrived in the city and she'd given him a smile as she'd approached his towel where he was laying on the sand, initially he'd thought she was headed right for him, but no, she'd been going to her own spot that was a few meters away from him. The beach was full of pretty women, but her, with her lightly tanned and heavily freckled skin, watching as she'd bobbed in the water with the waves and emerged to the shore soaking wet, she'd been his sole focus that first time he'd spotted her, and every time since.
Today was a repeat encounter of that first sighting, except she didn't continue passing him today, she crouched down in the sand to sit on her knees beside his towel today. "Espagnole? Francais? English? Italiano?" she'd asked. "Do I need to list off a few more potential languages?" she laughed after he took too long to respond.
"English," he managed. "From England."
She rolled over to lay back in the sand beside his towel then. "Brilliant, because I'm pretty shit at all the other languages save for French. Brushed up on my Spanish before coming here only to learn that they speak Catalonian in these parts."
He joined her in a laugh at that. "I haven't been having any issues with my broken Spanish, everyone seems to just switch to English anyhow because they can't be bothered with my butchering of their language."
"I've found the same. It doesn't seem fair though; back in England everyone expects tourists to switch to English, yet all along the coasts of Europe they've all got enough English down to switch over."
She caught his eyes traveling down her body then, observing how the sand seemed to make her sparkle and just how little of her was covered up behind those scant pieces of fabric. He tried to apologize for ogling her, but she didn't let him.
"I quite like the look of you as well, and I have done for nearly a week."
Her honesty surprised him. He'd never had someone be forthright about their interest in him before, or if they had he automatically assumed it was because of his name, not because they actually liked the look of him.
"Are you staying at a hotel nearby?" she asked.
"Yeah," he admitted. "Just down the beach a bit." He nodded in the direction his hotel was, less than a mile away.
"Much closer than mine. Any way you'd let me hose off in your room? I don't fancy getting naked in front of everyone on the beach."
He probably should have had a problem with it, she could have been a grifter, a murderer, a psycho, there was no way for him to tell for sure. But, what he could tell for sure is that she was hot, and he was very interested in finding out all that she wanted to do in his hotel room.
Which brings them to now, both tangled up in each other, tasting the salt from the sea on their bodies. He'd kissed a few women before, but he'd known them for quite a bit longer than he knew her. They hadn't even exchanged names yet, just appraisals and approvals that were the confirmation of attraction.
"Shower first," she panted against his lips.
"Right," he pulled back to breathe in a lung full of air. "It's just through here. You can take your time."
She stepped closer to him and gave a little nip at his lower lip, "I was actually hoping you could lend a hand with getting all this sand off."
His eyes widened at the offer and he turned the handle to the bathroom door, flicking on the light quickly. He'd only looked away from her for a moment to turn the shower on and when he looked back she'd already removed her shift she'd thrown on before they left the beach, and watched as she tugged at the strings on her bikini, letting out a breath at his first unobstructed view of her breasts. Her nipples were a light pink and the triangle tan lines brought a wicked smile to his face.
"Clothes off, you," she winked and tugged down her bottoms.
A moment later and they were both in the spray of the warm shower water. He had her pressed back against the tiles, his hand travelling up and down her torso, grasping at her breast and tracing fingers along between her legs. Her hands were busy too, her fingers were running through his hair as they snogged and the other one was very close to grasping his erection as it too traced gently from his hip to his thigh and towards the middle.
"I really do need to shower off this sand," she murmured to him. "We are dangerously close to getting it buried deep in a place I'd really rather it not be."
He gave a lusty groan then and reached out blindly to remove the detachable shower head and use it to zero in on the areas that needed attention. She took it from him and gave a small push so he would take a half step back. "Let me clean you off first." She grabbed the bar of soap then and started rubbing it along his chest, then turned him around so she could do his back. It was a very interesting experience for him; he'd never had anyone clean him up like this before and the massages that accompanied the soap and the hot water felt heavenly. Then she pushed gently so he was the one leaning back against the tiles and she dropped to her knees before him, taking extra care to wash around his cock before she cleaned it off with her mouth.
He let out a loud groan at that. She still had the shower head in her hand too and as she sucked and licked she was spraying down his legs, then he felt the spray directed against his arse and he hadn't been prepared for just how fantastic that was going to feel and let out a string of expletives. He looked down and caught her chocolate brown eyes, watching the way she could still smirk with his cock in her mouth.
He didn't last long at all before he exploded inside her mouth.
"Holy fuck!" he panted. It had grown too hot in the shower for him now. The air was thick with steam and the energy he had seemed to have melted out of him; which it kind of had.
She turned and hung the shower head back in place. "You're desperate to have a kip, aren't you?" she grinned at him.
"At least a glass of water," he admitted.
She laughed, "go on then. I'll get my self cleaned up and you can return the favor in a bit, yeah?"
He nodded and stepped out onto the bathmat, grabbing for the nearest towel in a haze. This was all a completely new experience for him, he hadn't thought people actually did this; hooked up after knowing each other for only a few minutes. He'd gotten out of England to go on a gap year type excursion with the hopes of rest and relaxation, and to ogle pretty girls in bathing suits, he didn't think he was the type of person to bring a stranger, beautiful as she was, back to his room and have sex with her.
He took the glass by the sink and filled it up with cold water, watching her in the mirror as she lathered up her hair with shampoo, seeing the way her breasts bounced slightly as her arms moved. He felt himself stirring again.
The steam was too much though, he drank down his first glass of cool water greedily, then filled it again and left to go into the main room and give her some privacy. He looked at the freshly made king sized bed and wondered if she would be staying there with him through the night.
It wasn't that he'd never had sex before, but twice with the same girlfriend that he only sort of had liked hadn't been near as earth shattering a go 'round as getting sucked off in the shower by a vixen like her.
He wasn't sure where he should be standing or sitting as he waited for her to finish up. Should he cover himself up? Yes. Wrapping a towel around his lower half seemed appropriate enough. And… maybe standing out on the balcony? But then, if she came out and was naked, he didn't want to waste any time with her needing to cover up in order to come out and join him.
He opted for sitting on the bed against the headboard with the towel on. It might come off forward, but why shouldn't it? He wanted to return the favor for her and then continue on to shagging.
By the time he settled on the bed it was too late to change his mind anyhow, because she came out of the bathroom with one of the smaller bath towels wrapped around her and sauntered over to him, wasting no time straddling his legs.
"Ginny," she introduced herself.
"Harry," he grinned back.
They spent the next twelve hours completely wrapped up in each other in his room and it was fantastic. He ordered some room service for them after they'd finished their first round of shagging and had a nap, they chatted about their travel plans while they ate and then went for round two and fell asleep again.
"Harry," Ginny whispered and ran her hand down his arm, waking him up. "I have to go."
He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and saw that she was dressed and looked nowhere near as calm as he felt. "What's wrong?"
"Er, nothing," she said nervously. "I just… I have a train booked and need to get back to mine to grab my things before I head off. I'm leaving Barcelona today."
He sat up. "For where? I thought you said you were planning on staying here for a while."
"Er, well, I just remembered something and… look, I just have to go."
"Why? What's wrong? Did I do something?"
"No. No, it's not you." It didn't sound at all like she was being honest about that. "Just… it was great meeting you. I had, well, I had a really good time."
"Ginny, wait." He sat up and made to stand but she was already heading for the door. He heard it click closed and looked around his room, perplexed. She'd said yesterday evening while they ate dinner that she was going to stay in Barcelona for several more days, weeks maybe, until whimsy caught her and she decided to move on. His things looked undisturbed, her side of the bed still had the indent on the pillow from where she'd rested her head. He checked all his drawers to see if anything was missing, and under the bed to check his wand was still where he'd stashed it. So far as he could tell she hadn't taken anything.
The room service tray was still where they'd left it, the only difference he noticed was that the room slip with their order was sitting on top of the dirty dishes now.
He couldn't find any explanation for why she'd taken off.
()()()
Five months later
()()()
He should have taken more time off before going into Auror Training Camp. Three months of intensive training, being completely cut off from the outside world and running drills every day, it was a lot. Granted, spending more time going from coastal city to coastal city along the Mediterranean and double checking every beach for a glimpse of Ginny's red hair had been getting pathetic. He figured it was time to stop thinking about his one night stand and get this next step of his future plan on track.
At least now he was back in London and starting into the real Auror work, meaning paperwork, learning how to write up real case reports. It had his hand cramping more than when he was a pre-teen.
Only a few weeks into his new routine and he was leaving the Ministry via the Muggle street exit when he caught a flash of red hair that pulled his focus from his destination to the person across the street from him and stopped dead in his tracks to stare at her while she stared back at him.
"Ginny?" he said at a volume that she couldn't possibly have heard.
She must have read his lips though because she crossed the street and came to him.
"Ginny!" he grinned. "What… do you live around here?"
"Work, actually," she smiled back at him. "I… did you want to grab a bite with me?"
"Yeah, I'd love to."
She looked off, possibly even more nervous than she'd been the morning she left his hotel room.
"Are you going to tell me why you changed your travel plans so abruptly?" he asked seriously as she guided him into a pub and made for a booth.
"Yes," she fully admitted as she sat down. "And I'm hoping you'll completely hear me out."
"Why wouldn't I?" he asked as he got comfortable across the table from her. Then he watched her pull her wand out of her bag and cast a privacy spell; he instinctively reached for his own wand and pulled it on her under the table.
She put her wand back in her bag then though.
"What is this?" he asked her, finding he was having difficulty catching breath from the shock.
"We moved pretty quick in Barcelona," she started. "I, er, I thought you looked like, well, 'Harry Potter' when I first saw you, but I didn't think you were actually, well, you know."
His jaw slackened in surprise. "You shagged me because I'm…"
She gave a nervous laugh and shrugged slightly with one shoulder, "I always had a bit of a crush," she offered. "I grew up hearing bedtime stories about you."
All that time he'd been romanticizing their liaison and she'd come back to his hotel room because of his name.
"I swear, I didn't know it was actually you," she persisted, then reached out to place her hand on his, which he pulled out of her grasp. Her hand froze mid-air and hovered for a second before she brought it back to her side. She was blushing. "I liked the way you'd been looking at me all that week and, well, just went for it."
"And you claim you didn't know who I was," he asked angrily. Part of the reason for his escape was to get away from people who would recognize him on sight. Six days they'd been crossing each other's paths, there was no way she hadn't figured out who he was, given that she was a British witch, by the time she knelt down by his beach towel. She opened her mouth to say something more, but he cut her off. "Stop. Just stop. Whatever you're going to say next, I don't believe you." He shook his head and grit his teeth. "We're done. Thanks for fucking off when you did." He stood up then and headed back for the exit, letting her next words fall on his deaf ears.
He'd had women sending him owls all the time that were full of plans for the 'two of them running off together', who was to say Ginny wasn't one of those women that had gone full psycho and acted on her deranged fantasy?
It was ridiculous.
She was ridiculous.
How was he ever going to find someone to eventually settle down with when every woman he came across knew who he was so thought they knew what he was like?
Five months it had been since they'd been together, had she been stalking him or something since then? Just couldn't get in touch with him because he'd been away at Auror Training and in isolation? And why did she run away that morning?
It didn't make sense, but he also wasn't interested in trying to make it all make sense anyhow.
So far as he was concerned, he was done with her.
()()()
Five months later
()()()
"Got another one," came the sing-song call of his partner, Geoffrey, who was waving an envelope back and forth in one hand, taunting Harry with it. "You ever going to open one of these?" he asked as he inspected the envelope and held it up to the light to try and see the contents inside.
"No," Harry growled and snatched it out of Geoffrey's hand. It was from her again. This was the fourth time she'd sent him an owl and he hadn't opened any of them.
He could only imagine what sort of excuses she was putting in these letters. He didn't get how she wasn't moving on.
"She must be really deranged to think that I'd be willing to meet up with her again," he sighed and lit the envelope on fire.
Geoffrey shrugged. "I don't know, if I was you I'd probably give them a read at least."
"Why?" Harry scoffed.
"I've seen her working at her brother's shop, she's not ugly by any means. Seems completely pleasant actually. Wicked smile on her."
Harry pursed his lips. He'd found out more about her after their meeting at the pub; he knew she was a Weasley and had a large family, he knew she'd been sent to Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts because of the war, he knew her twin brothers owned and operated Weasley Wizard Weezes, a small joke shop in Hogsmeade, and he knew that she worked there. He also knew that a person's crazy side isn't always obvious.
"I'm going to get a restraining order against her," he muttered.
"Are you really?" his partner asked in surprise.
Harry shrugged. "I don't have to make it an official one for her to get the hint." He gestured to the stationary around them, "I can make it look official enough for her to leave me the hell alone."
"You're right," Geoffrey nodded. "A person's crazy isn't always obvious," he teased.
Harry tossed a quill at him and drafted a letter.
After two months of not receiving anything from her he felt his letter had done the job. He did still turn his head to double check whenever he saw a flash of red hair in his vision, but it was never her, it hadn't ever been her, she'd only been sending him letters.
He had been dating since finishing up his Auror Training, none of them going very well; it seemed that no matter who he was out with he would catch a gleam of something in their eyes that made him wonder if they were only out with him because of his name.
He'd almost forgotten about Ginny completely when he found himself in Hogsmeade to meet up with a friend for lunch, then he saw her. They were at the Three Broomsticks and she came in, heading straight for the bar wearing an oversized coat due to the large quantities of snow that had been dumped on Scotland this season.
"What's got your attention?" Neville asked him, then turned to follow Harry's eyeline. "Oh, did you know Ginny?" he asked brightly.
Harry gave him an astounded look. "Do you know her?"
Neville let out a half laugh, "not nearly as much as I'd like to. She's gorgeous. There were plenty of blokes around here that have been after her, but she never agreed to date any of them-"
"D'you know why?" Harry cut him off.
"Well, for a bit I wondered if maybe she was just waiting for someone special, or maybe she had someone back in France and just hadn't told her family about him; six brothers can be intimidating to anyone," Neville shrugged, then took a sip of his beer. "Turned out that is closest to the truth. I've gotten to be somewhat friendly with her, she's super nice and really cool, kind of a sadness to her as well, but it's no wonder why now."
"What do you mean? There is some guy over seas that she's keeping quiet?" If that was the case, then why the hell had she been coming after him?
Neville opened his mouth to respond but closed it when they both heard the sound of a baby crying. "That's why," Neville nodded and held a finger in the air. "A handful of guys were trying to catch her eye and not a one of them, myself included, realized that she'd been using glamour charms to cover up that she was pregnant. Apparently, the guy she'd been seeing knocked her up and then wanted nothing to do with her."
Harry was so happy to be sitting down just then, because there was certainly a lot of lightheadedness that was going on in his brain.
"It was pretty decent of her actually, to keep politely turning every suitor away. That's a complicated situation she's in. Her family isn't happy about it at all, but, what can you do," Neville shrugged.
Harry grasped his drink and took a large sip of it.
What are the chances that it was his? She could have been sleeping her way up and down the sea from coast to coast. Maybe he was the only one that she'd gotten the name of and wanted to pass the baby off as his?
Regardless, he needed to get a look at that baby.
"Excuse me for a second. I'm just going to… go say 'hi'." He struggled a bit getting out of the booth and walked over to stand a few feet behind her at the bar, trying to figure out what to say and close enough to overhear.
"Family's come 'round to the little one?" Madame Rosmerta asked Ginny as she brought out three containers.
"They're happy to have another baby in the family, but I've screamed myself hoarse at them enough that they've stopped being so negative about how he came about," Ginny told her and pulled some coins from her pocket while she swayed and bounced slightly, calming the baby down.
"Awe, he's such a lovely little thing," Madame Rosmerta cooed. "No word from the father then?"
Ginny let out a derisive 'hah' at that. "That sperm donors only response to my many letters might as well have been a 'fuck you, it's your problem'."
Harry winced at that.
"Ah, it's the way it is for men, isn't it? All fine and dandy getting a leg over, but if a little one comes of it and it isn't ideal they'll just deny, deny, deny."
Ginny gave a sigh, "we'll be fine on our own. I'll just have to love him enough to be both mum and dad."
"Oh, I've met a fair few of your brothers, I'm sure out of the lot of them this little one will have enough men to turn to if he needs it."
He couldn't do it. It was all too real.
Harry stepped back and headed for the loo instead of talking to her. He burst into the stall and threw up. It happened so suddenly, he thought he just needed to get out of sight of her, maybe catch his breath, but no, halfway to the loo the nausea built up and he only just made it to the bowl in time.
He sat on the floor after the contents of his lunch flushed down the bowl.
He couldn't be a father, he didn't know the first thing about it, he'd never had a healthy example of one. His uncle had spoiled his son rotten and abused his nephew, that wasn't a role model. Sirius had tried to step into his best friend's shoes once he'd gotten out of Azkaban, but he'd been a roller coaster of emotions, back and forth between needing isolation and needing chaos and a potion before he was killed in the war.
She said that she and the baby would be fine on their own, she had a large family, and, hell, he didn't even know for sure if the baby was his.
He counted it out on his fingers how long ago they'd spent the night together, but that was useless because he didn't know how old the baby was.
"Harry?" Neville's voice called out. "You alright in there?"
"Yeah," he lied. "I'll be back out in a sec."
He cleaned himself up and then went back to the table, giving Neville a lame excuse before leaving the pub and Apparating home.
Three days he spent alternating between freaking out about Ginny and her baby and trying to put the whole thing out of his mind and convince himself that it wasn't his child. Three nights of sleeplessness and going over and over that night in the hotel room, over how Ginny had been behaving when they met again outside the Muggle entrance to the Ministry; she'd been trying to let him know. All those letters that she sent, she'd been trying to let him know. That last letter, that could have been telling him that his child had been born, there might have been a picture, a name, something that would have meant he didn't need to wonder about the paternity.
He took a personal day from work after those three days of freaking out and stood in the alley across from WWW in Hogsmeade, looking through the storefront and waiting to see if Ginny would appear behind the glass, possibly with a baby in a sling.
He stood there until his feet were numb from the cold and warming charms weren't making any difference, then he crossed the street and entered the store.
"Well, well," one of the twin owners announced his arrival when he was spotted. "It's Harry Potter come to visit our little shop! Ever so honored you would grace us with your presence."
Harry couldn't help but blush, hoping the reddening of his cheeks would come across as them simply warming up from being in the cold. "Nice to meet you," he nodded.
The other twin popped his head around the corner, "don't get all bashful, he greets everyone like that. You should see how he reacts when the Headmistress comes in."
"Woo," the first one shook his head and looked wistful, "if I were fifty years older, bet I could show that Minerva a really good time."
Harry choked on a laugh. These two would have been at Hogwarts for a few years with him but they and the other Weasley boys were all homeschooled, so he wasn't sure how well they knew Minerva McGonagall.
"Looking for anything special?" the second twin asked.
"I was just going to browse," he told them. He did intend to browse, but he wasn't so much interested in what their products were, more whether they had any new family photos put up anywhere behind the register. "Not too busy in here," he commented as he made it look like he was checking out the shelf nearest the exit.
"In the storefront, no, not with all the kids at school. In the back though we're slammed with owl orders. The little House Elf is going to be busy all day adding glamours to those packages to get them past the inspections done by the Hogwarts Caretaker."
"You have a House Elf working for you?" Harry asked. That wasn't legal, House Elf's could only work in homes, unless they were being paid the wage of a human, which no Elf so far had done.
"Naw," twin one dismissed, "that's just what we're calling our sister. She never goes anywhere and just works all the time between nappy changes."
"Baby nappy changes," twin two clarified, "not her own."
Harry feigned a chuckle and cast a glance at the door near the back of the store. If she was really fulfilling orders and such, there was a chance that she could come out at any minute.
The twins appeared to be doing a check of all their inventory counts and Harry slowly made his way around the store, not really paying any attention to what products he was picking up and putting back down as he checked for photos, praying that the door to the backroom would stay closed.
It did open though, when he was standing right behind it.
"Alright," Ginny announced. "Jordan is down for a nap and Ginny needs one too. I'm taking a break." She let out a large yawn and he watched as she stretched her arms up over her head as far as they'd go. It must have been warm in the back room because she was wearing form fitting jeans and a loose sleeveless top that's fabric clung to her sides. She did not have the figure of a woman that had just had a baby.
"Er, Ginny," twin two said and nodded towards him, trying to let her know there was a customer in the store likely.
Ginny either had her eyes closed or she didn't catch it because she carried on. "There are twenty more orders to take care of today and they shouldn't take me more than three hours to add the extra privacy charms to. Do you mind if I grab a Day Dream Potion? I'd like to pretend for a bit that I'm back on a beach and can drink alcohol again."
The twins shrugged and turned back to their work as Ginny walked over to the shelf that housed the Day Dream Potions, then she turned around and headed back to the backroom, and froze when she spotted him. She blinked at him twice. She looked tired, no, she looked exhausted, yet still pretty. "What the fuck are you doing here?!" she half yelled at him.
The twins heads popped up quickly at that question and stared at him curiously.
"Err," he really should have thought through what he would say to her. "This is a shop, isn't it? Open to the public and all that?" Great, he rolled his eyes internally at himself, get on her good side with a snide comment why don't you?
She glared at him and moved closer so that she could lower her voice enough for her brothers to not overhear. "According to the last letter I had from you, either you need to leave this shop right now or I do, and seeing as I work here and you're a horrible person, I'd say you should be the one to leave."
He gaped at her. She was calling him a horrible person?
"Er, you two know each other?" one of the twins called over.
"No," Ginny snapped at them and zeroed in on him once more. "Why are you here?" she growled.
Now or never, he thought.
"Is it mine?" he asked.
"It?" she asked dangerously. "My son is mine, and that's all you'll ever need to know. You didn't care to listen when I tried to tell you I was pregnant, you didn't care to respond to any of my letters, and to my sending you a picture of him after his birth you responded with a restraining order. So why? Why are you here?"
He gave a hard swallow.
That was exactly what he'd feared.
But that still didn't confirm whether the baby was his.
"I," he looked up and saw that the twins were still looking at the pair of them, one of them with a slightly different expression than the other, like he had understood exactly what he'd heard. "Can we talk privately?"
"You sure you don't want any witnesses to account for my psychotic tendencies?" she challenged in a whisper.
He winced and she narrowed her eyes at him. "Fine," she growled and pulled at his sleeve to drag him into the other room with her.
He'd expected them to wind up in a storage room, but it was a little flat instead. Half a storage room, half a flat actually. There was a small kitchen, a couch, a bed, a crib, a large table full of WWW products and papers and several shelves full of products.
"Do you live here?" he asked her.
"Yeah, my parents kicked me out when I wouldn't tell them who knocked me up. Told me I'd made my own choices so now I had to figure out how to live with those choices on my own." She leaned back against the table and crossed her arms, glaring at him.
"They haven't been helping you at all?" he asked weakly.
"I didn't say that. They've been helping me out as much as they've helped out the other parents of their other grandchildren. You know, the married one's who got pregnant on purpose."
That was something at least. And her brothers had given her a place for she and… her son, to stay; and a job.
"I didn't read any of your letters," he admitted to her.
She continued to stare at him upon hearing that, her shoulders did come down a bit though.
Harry was doing his best, but he could see the crib out of the corner of his eye and he was desperate to get a little bit closer and take a look.
"You didn't read any of them? Not even the last one?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"If that's true, then why are you here?"
"I found out about, er, your son, from a friend of mine, Neville Longbottom."
"Oh," she nodded. "Neville's a nice guy," she commented offhand. "So, what then? You heard I had a baby and then…"
"And then, er, I put the timeline and the letters that you'd sent, I realized there was a chance that you were trying to tell me something," he said lamely.
She cast a look over to the crib and bit her lip. "I was."
"And, how sure are you that he's… mine?" There was no good way to ask that question.
She rolled her eyes at him. "I know I was forward with you then. Trust me, I've recounted the events of that day in my head several times over, but I know. I may not have been a virgin when we met, but I wasn't, nor have I ever been, the town bicycle."
Harry wasn't familiar with that phrase, which she clearly picked up on.
"I wasn't sleeping around," she clarified. "It had been a few months before we met that I'd last been with anyone else and that was… the last time I'd been with anyone." She paced over to the kitchen area to put the kettle on. "If you'll recall, I spent a minute alone in the shower before coming into the bedroom, I cast the charm on myself, I swear I did. Thing is, the charm only lasts for so long, and we wound up having another go 'round a few hours after the first. That must have been what made Jordan happen."
"Jordan?" he asked. She'd said the name earlier, but now he could comment on it.
"I figured it would work for a boy or a girl," she told him shyly. "You can run whatever spells you want to find out if he's yours." She poured herself a cup of tea. "Or you can fuck off and strive to completely forget about us altogether."
He frowned at that suggestion. He might not have felt ready to be a dad but he had never run away from responsibility and he wasn't going to start now.
The door to the room opened suddenly and one of the twins barged in.
"George!" Ginny hissed.
"It's him, isn't it?" George asked angrily. "He's got the same eyes. I should have bloody caught it as soon as he came into the shop."
"Same eyes?" Harry asked.
"As Jordan," George told him and poked him in the chest. "Your son. How could you leave her alone like that? Do you have any idea what it's been like for her? Forget about dealing with the pregnancy and birth on her own, but all the sidelong glances, how you can tell that people are judging her for being on her own with a baby."
"I didn't know!" he put his hands up defensively.
"How could you not know?! She told me she'd told the father and Ginny doesn't lie."
"George," Ginny cut in, "he didn't read any of the letters I sent him."
"You said you went to see him in person!"
"I walked away from her before she could tell me then," Harry told him. "I was too pissed off to find out she'd known who I was when we first met."
"I didn't though!" Ginny defended. "I only found out you were… you, when I saw the name on the room service tray. I thought it was just a coincidence that your name was Harry, you know, before then."
He stared at her. "The… room service tray?" Then he remembered, the dinner tray they'd shared that night, the room service slip had been left on top of their dirty dishes and it had the room number and his surname on it.
"Yes. I thought you were a Muggle. I mean, what are the odds? Then when I put two and two together I freaked out and got out of there as quick as possible."
"Why though?" He asked her. "That was one of the most fun nights I'd ever had, we'd been getting along great. I thought you were interesting and beautiful. If you'd have stuck around then we could have, I mean, I would have," he gestured over to Jordan, "and then you wouldn't be," he gestured around the room. "Just… why?"
"You seriously didn't know?" George asked him, looking less threatening than he had a minute ago.
"No," they both told him in unison.
"Okay then," he nodded and started walking backwards toward the door, looking awkward. "I guess I'll just let the two of you have a nice chat."
After George left them alone again there was silence hanging in the air for nearly a full minute. It felt suffocating to him, he needed her to say something.
"My brothers would read to me when I was a little girl," Ginny said finally, "my favorite story was about The Boy Who Lived. I think I liked it best because it was true. Well, with a few liberties taken obviously. I would play pretend that I was some damsel in distress and The Boy Who Lived would come along and rescue me. Then the war started and I was shipped off to France and away from all the mess, I would get all the news second and third hand about what was going on over here and how you were leading the charge and all that. It didn't help my imagination for pulling up those little scenarios. I guess you could say you were my 'celebrity crush'," she smiled, then cringed. "I'd seen some photos of you in the paper when you were younger, the newspapers and magazines from the UK weren't making it across the channel much in the later years so when I saw you on the beach in Barcelona I didn't realize that you were you. I guess when I woke up after our fantastic… I mean, our night together," she blushed, "I just freaked out because I'd realized I'd thrown myself at you. Like, actual you, not some guy with the same first name that I knew nothing about but found very attractive. I just bolted." She put her cup down and grabbed onto the counter with both her hands, bracing herself. "By the time I realized I was pregnant I'd heard you were in Auror Training and knew there wasn't a way to contact you. I tried to tell you in that pub. I guess it should have been the first thing out of my mouth but I didn't want to just spring it on you. You looked so happy to see me that I'd hoped that you would be able to hear me out before I laid it on you."
"Instead, I was the one that bolted," he frowned. "Sorry I didn't stay and listen. I thought you were admitting that you'd been playing me or something." He looked over at the crib again and could see some dark auburn hair on the baby's head. "Does he really have my eyes?"
"Yes. Apparently it's common for babies to have their fathers eyes at birth, sort of like evolutions way of making the fathers know the kid is theirs. His eyes might change later on."
"But, when he wakes up, I'll be able to see he has my eyes?"
"If you want to stick around, I guess."
He wanted to take her word for it, but if it turned out that she was lying and he found out down the road that Jordan wasn't his, he'd be crushed. He pulled his wand out, he knew the spell, in his three days of isolation he'd looked it up and practiced it. Ginny visibly tensed when she saw him pull his wand out, but she didn't stop him. He pointed it at himself and said the words that caused a shimmering thread of light to radiate between himself and the baby.
Then he felt his heart clench in his chest.
The spell was designed for parents to be able to track down their children in a crowd, but it worked as a paternity test as well.
"I'm sticking around," he told her firmly.
She nodded, then glanced over to her bed beside the crib.
She was tired.
"Have your nap," he told her. "If you don't mind, I'm just going to pull up a chair and… watch over him a bit."
She chewed her lip a moment, then nodded and went to make herself comfortable in the bed as he pulled a chair over.
Jordan was so small. Harry still didn't know exactly how old he was but he couldn't be much more than two months old. He was wearing a blue and white striped onesie and was laying on his belly with his arms stretched out on either side of his head, his little hands in fists. His dark auburn hair was so thin that Harry could see the pink of his scalp through the strands, and he had this adorable button nose and dark red lips. He made no noise as his body moved slightly with his breathing.
He was gorgeous.
When he managed to pry his eyes away from his son he looked over to find that Ginny was completely knocked out on her bed. He'd noticed that when she first lay down she was turned away from him, but now she was on her back with her head turned toward him and their son, her breathing nearly in sync with Jordan's.
He should have opened at least one of her letters, he'd regret that forever, but there was nothing he could do to change that now. But their living situation, he should help her out with that. She said her family was helping her a bit, but she wasn't just a single mum anymore and he wanted to be in his sons life. He'd been deprived of parents, he didn't want to be an absentee father to his kid, or just some guy that popped in once a week to check in. He should be helping out, it wasn't fair that this was all on Ginny, she'd done some of the hardest part already.
He hadn't remembered to cast the charm on himself at all, she'd at least claimed to have done it before their first round. He was as much responsible for the little angel in front of him as she was. And he had plenty of space at his flat, it was a two bedroom, Ginny and Jordan could move into the spare room, then she'd have more room to stretch out and use a proper kitchen and sitting area; she wouldn't have to live where she works and literally bring her work home with her.
Two hours went by of him mulling over what life changes were going to have to happen before Jordan started stirring and made this incredibly adorable cooing noise before moving around more and starting to sound distressed.
He'd never held a baby before but he understood the basics, supporting the head and all that, so he gave it a try and managed to hold Jordan in his arms. Jordan's eyes hadn't opened yet though and Harry was desperate to see what color they were. His little mouth kept opening and closing, his head turning towards Harry's chest. He must be looking for food, he realized, then looked around the room for something resembling a bottle and found nothing, so he stuck his pinky in Jordan's mouth on impulse and Jordan latched onto it, then opened his eyes and Harry was frozen.
They were the exact same color as his.
It was striking to see such brilliant green eyes on a baby.
And with the red hair inherited from his mum, Jordan probably looked very similar to his grandmother as a baby too.
His eyes didn't stay open long though, probably due to being tricked into sucking on a finger rather than getting food. Jordan started crying and Harry looked helplessly over to Ginny, who was now stirring.
"Give him here," she groaned as she sat up in her bed.
"I'm sure he just wants food," Harry said apologetically. "If you could just tell me where it is I can get it for him."
"It's attached to my chest," she told him as though he was a moron. "I'm going to be involved in this either way."
Breastfeeding. Right. That was how babies ate for the first few months.
He awkwardly handed Jordan over and then didn't know quite what to do with himself when she unabashedly pulled up one side of her shirt and exposed her breast to settle Jordan against. She didn't seem to care about privacy for this at all, or she was just to tired to care at that moment.
He just stood there, unable to move and unsure where to look until Ginny spoke again. "You've seen them before," she told him plainly. "Granted, they weren't this big near a year ago."
"Right. Guess this'll just take some… adjusting."
Ginny gave him sympathetic eyes. "I told you, it doesn't have to if you don't want it to. I don't know how long I napped for but I'm sure it was long enough for you to have a little panic."
"I wasn't panicking," he told her honestly. "I've been panicking, for the last several days, but now that I know for sure, I'm not panicking. I was just thinking things over, about how much him being in my life will change things."
"And what is it that you've been thinking will change?"
()()()
Three months later
()()()
It took quite a lot of convincing to get Ginny to agree to move herself and Jordan into his flat, actually, it took quite a lot of convincing to make Ginny believe that he was going to be as involved as possible in his sons life, and that he wanted to step up and change nappies and give baths and wake up at three in the morning for feedings and such.
They'd got into a routine now though, on alternate nights they would each sleep in Jordan's room so they could have turns being 'on duty'. The household chores were being shared among them and, though his flat was actually owned outright by him, Ginny was chipping in rent for herself. Harry refused to let her pay anything that she considered 'extra' for Jordan being one of the flat occupants.
It had been difficult to figure out a rhythm to cohabitating and coparenting, and it was a month before Ginny had felt comfortable enough to invite some friends over, even with Harry assuring her that she was welcome to since it was her home now too. Getting her family to understand their situation hadn't been easy either; Ginny assured him that he didn't need to explain his disregard for her letters to her any further but that didn't mean her family wasn't constantly asking for an apology from him for his 'behavior'.
Ginny was still taking Jordan to work with her when they both needed to work, and when one of them was off they did the solo parenting job, so that was their daycare covered.
Honestly, the first few months of him learning about Jordan had passed in a haze of taking care of one of Jordan's needs to the next while intermittently passing out on the couch with Jordan napping on one of their chests because the crib was too far and they didn't want to chance waking him up.
Then things began to settle, Jordan started to sleep for longer and longer periods at night instead of during the day. The haze was lifting and neither of them constantly looked tired, and now he was standing in the entryway to the kitchen watching as Ginny bopped her head to the sound of a song he couldn't hear, and she was moving her hips, wearing a pair of pyjama shorts that really hugged her bum and a sports bra.
She was still just as captivating as the day that he first saw her, and, damn, her curves were even more lovely now. He'd been noticing his attraction for her on and off for the past several months, but now she was shimmying and shaking in front of him dressed in the scant amount of clothes that she was and it was pretty undeniable that he wanted her.
"Merlin!" Ginny yelped when she saw him there. "I thought you were working this morning!"
"Er, no, tomorrow. I'm off today."
"Oh. Well, did you have something planned for today? I'm off as well and was going to take Jordan to the park."
She was fully facing him now and had he not known she had a baby six months ago he couldn't see a sign of it by just looking at her. How had she managed to make her body bounce back so quickly? She is so fit.
"I wouldn't mind spending the day with both of you," he told her.
She gave him a teasing smirk, "we're going to be doing mum and baby yoga in the park. Does that change your plans any?"
He smiled widely. "You mean I get to watch you be all bendy with our adorable son? I wouldn't mind having a coffee and watching that show."
She took a wooden spoon from the counter and gave him a light smack with it. "Do that and I'll tell all the other mums there that you're just some random guy that's been following me around."
He captured her wrist and gave a gentle tug to get her to come closer so they were in a sort of hug embrace. "You wouldn't want to get your baby-daddy locked up now, would you?"
Ginny looked alarmed by how he was behaving now and her breath hitched. "Harry, what are you doing?"
He loosened his hold on her. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you're being… flirty."
Silence hung between them for a moment.
He was being flirty. There was an obviously established attraction between them, he didn't see the harm.
"And that's bad?" he asked.
She pushed against his chest and took a step back. "Well, it's not good."
"Why not?" he asked, feeling rejected.
"We're raising a child together, walking a delicate balance here. We can't just… be flirty and potentially hook up again. It would be too complicated."
"I'm not trying to complicate anything. It's just, Jordan is at a point now where we're both able to get a decent amount of sleep every night and I can think clearly enough to realize that I still fancy you."
She sighed, "yes, we've both been walking around in a daze for months now, and I'm so grateful that you asked us to move in here with you so that we can coparent. But, Harry, we're coparenting. We can't just jump into a relationship with no foundation other than our son. Sorry, but the one and only time I jumped into bed with someone with no forethought, it resulted in our son. If we start up something without actually knowing each other first and it all goes to shit, it means I'll be moving out, and I'll be taking Jordan with me."
That last bit stung him. Yet, what she was saying made sense. They'd both been solely occupied in taking care of Jordan that they hadn't had much time for just the two of them together.
"You're right. I don't want to jeopardize our raising Jordan the way we are." She looked relieved to hear it. "But I think we should spend more time together, and not just the three of us. You and I need to get to know each other better too."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I think we should ask your mum to babysit so you and I can go out and get to know each other properly, without Jordan."
"Harry, that's a date."
He leaned his head to the side as he tried to think of another term for it. "Not quite. When a date is over I would be giving you a kiss outside your door. This would be more like… team building."
"Team building?" she chuckled.
"Yeah," he grinned. "Team building. We're going to get to know each other the way we should have if we didn't already have a baby. We're going to find some 'friend foundation' to go beside our 'family foundation' that we've got."
"Team building," she nodded this time. "Okay. I'll ask my mum or one of my friends to mind Jordan for an evening and try to phrase it so they can understand that."
They did wind up spending the day together, with Harry enjoying the sunshine and fresh air in the park while Ginny attempted to hold Jordan in the correct positions through her mum and baby yoga class, then they took him for a walk through a farmers market and along the river.
They chatted quite a lot and talked about their school years and what it had been like growing up.
They never stopped finding things to talk about actually. He found Ginny an incredibly easy person to chat with about anything. Though she had grown up in a magical household she hadn't been phased by any of the Muggle things around them; she understood the currency, the uses for each electrical device they came across and she'd even chatted with one of the vendors about a Muggle celebrity.
When they got back home Ginny went to feed Jordan and put him down for a nap and he got started on making dinner for the two of them.
"That smells nice," she commented when she came into the kitchen.
"Thanks. It's just spaghetti, but I got creative with the sauce and added some veg from the market." He wasn't a culinary genius by any means but he knew that frying up some diced onions and adding pinch of basil after adding the sauce made it taste much better. Plus, you could never have too much parmesan.
He pulled out a bottle of red wine from the cupboard and held it up in question.
"Yeah, alright," she smiled. "Just a small one."
They settled in at the table comfortably across from one another and started in on their food.
He'd had a really great day with her and Jordan. It felt like a family outing, which it was, but it felt like a proper family outing. Like, he could imagine repeating the day over and over again for years to come.
They might be young, but whatever plans they'd had of eventually settling down, he felt like the 'eventually' part was gone.
Ginny was bright, and funny, and beautiful. She was the exact kind of match that he would hope was out there for him to settle down with. And yet, they were still so young.
"Your plans," he asked, "after Barcelona, what had they been?"
She finished the food in her mouth and took a moment. "Well, I'd just finished up with school a few months before we met. I'd gotten an apprenticeship at St. Mungo's, not as a healer, but as a nurse. My marks in school were all well and good, but there is just so much commitment needed to be a Healer and I wasn't convinced that was the path for me, so nursing is where I was going to start."
"Then, why didn't you? You could have still been a nurse."
She shook her head. "Not with the kind of pay that was going to be offered to me. I needed a job where I was going to be able to save up enough to take a few months off less than a year in. I knew as soon as I found out I was pregnant that my mum and dad weren't going to just let me stay at home for free, and it wasn't like I could have hid it from them for long; I'd feel too guilty."
"Wait, so they would have let you stay there for free if you were working, but not if you were working and pregnant?"
She made a face like that was going to be a long explanation and took a sip of her wine. He patiently waited for her to continue.
"My mum got pregnant before she finished up Hogwarts," she started. "She and my dad were already planning to get married, but though they tied the knot as soon as possible, her family still knew she got pregnant first and they told her that she and my dad needed to start figuring their lives out on their own then and there; and they did. So, they told me the same thing." There was a hint of resentment in her voice. "But, the twins took some mercy on me and let me work at their shop. They needed a hard worker, two actually, but I told them I would work from open to close doing whatever needed to be done and they could pay me what they thought was fair and let me live in the flat to compensate for anything extra. I pushed myself pretty hard actually," her brow furrowed at the memory. "There were some extra supplements I needed to take so that nothing would wind up going wrong with Jordan. I was using glamour charms all the time so that no one would catch on that I was pregnant and make any comments about me working that close to my due date. Everything worked out well though, I made more than I would have if I went straight into nursing and was able to get back to work quicker after having him."
It sounded like they were both working their arses off at the same time then, he just didn't have the extra stress of pregnancy on top of his training and shadowing.
"And what about now?" he asked. "Did you want to look into the nursing apprenticeship again?"
She stared at him in thought. "I'm not sure."
"We could make it work," he assured her. "Find someone to help care for Jordan if we're both working."
Her cheeks gave way to a slight blush and she looked down at her plate.
"What?" he asked.
She looked up again. "I never thought I'd be one of those mums that wanted to stay at home all the time with the kids, like my mum did, but the thought of missing out on any of his 'first' moments really tugs at my heartstrings. He's growing so fast right now. He'll be managing to sit up on his own any day… I think I want to continue on as we have for at least his first year."
He smiled at her. "I'm glad," he said and put his hand over hers. "You know the story about my parents and how I lost them so young, I just couldn't imagine having any less time with him now than I already do, so it makes me really happy to hear that you feel the same way."
She grinned back at him.
"But, that being said, as soon as you think you're ready, we'll make it work."
"Thanks, Harry."
They ate a bit more and he felt there was something else that needed to be brought up. "Er, you said 'kids'."
"What?"
"When you were talking about never thinking you would be one of the mums that stayed home with their children, you implied multiples?"
She nodded. "I did. I've always thought that when I decided it was time to start having kids that I'd want two or three. Though, I never thought I'd have my first one by the time I was nineteen."
"And, er, what's that timeframe looking like for the second one?" he asked. And who was she thinking of the father being? That was the bigger question he had.
Ginny laughed, "I'm expecting Jordan will be the much older brother by the time I'm wanting to get pregnant again."
He nodded, but still wanted to know who her hypothetical future child's father might be. They were a team right now, but they weren't married, they weren't a couple, yet the thought of her meeting someone new and Jordan having a stepfather and half siblings, it didn't sit well with him.
"What about you?" she asked, casually twirling her spaghetti around her fork and bringing it to her mouth.
"What? My plan for kids? I didn't have one. My mission, if you want to call it that, was to find a girlfriend and go from there."
"Mhmm, I remember seeing some photos in the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly of you attempting to find a girlfriend. None of those pan out?"
"Not a single one," he confirmed. "And none of the guys that were trying to pick you up at work had any success?"
She rolled her eyes. "I knew there would be nothing but disappointment then if I did agree to date any of them. It takes a special kind of guy to be alright with dating someone pregnant with another mans child. Plus, I was much too busy and exhausted to have a social life that involved meeting new people." She took another sip of her wine. "Have you still got women trying to get you to ask them out?"
He shrugged. "If I have then I've been too preoccupied to notice. And I think I let you know clearly enough this morning that you are who I've got my sights set on."
Her blush was adorable, and watching her try to fight off the smile that was working its way onto her face was also hopeful. "What I said this morning still stands," she told him quietly.
"And I'm looking forward to our 'team building'," he told her, making sure she heard the innuendo in his voice.
It was a week later that they had arranged a sitter for the evening, and that week leading up to it there had been more heavy looks, more hands grazing on arms, just every interaction between them felt heavy with a building desire for what was to come.
Saturday night he was off and planned to pick her up from the shop after she dropped Jordan off at Bill and Fleur's. He didn't have anything crazy planned for them, just something fun; a scavenger hunt of London. They were going to see how much they could tick off of the list.
They got street food and he bought a Polaroid camera for it so they would have proof of seeing buskers, black cabs, walking across Tower Bridge, hearing the tube announcer say 'Mind the Gap', and a whole slew of other London sites and places. Their spirits were high when they got back to the flat, and it was still before midnight.
"That was the most brilliant date idea!" Ginny announced as she kicked off her shoes. "Who knew you were this much fun?"
"Excuse you, I am a lot of fun. Had you not been scared off in Barcelona we could have done the same thing there," he grinned at her.
"Are we going to do Edinburgh on our next date?" she asked eagerly.
"I'll let you decide, I'm just happy you're calling it a 'date'," he said as he put his hands on her waist and pulled her against him.
"I have no choice but to call it that," she told him as she gave her lip a little bite and put her arms around his neck, her hand moving to play with the hairs at the base of his head.
"Why's that?" he asked, leaning down a bit so he could rest his forehead against hers.
"It fits, according to your definition you gave me last week. If this were just a team building event then you wouldn't be about to tilt that chin of yours down further and kiss me, would you?"
"And you're not going to stop me from doing that?" he asked with a smile.
"No."
It was a nice and slow kiss, a re-introductory one, if you will. He wanted to ease her into this new type of relationship they were entering. The first time they'd kissed it was hot, heavy and immediately leading somewhere; this time he wanted them to take their time with it. It still led to them stumbling a bit down the hallway connected at the mouth, but he purposefully bypassed the bedrooms and led her into the kitchen where he leaned her gently back so she would make contact with the counter and then pulled away.
"Wine?" he asked.
"What?" she appeared dazed.
"Would you like some wine?" he grinned.
"No, I don't want a drink right now," she laughed and pulled him back to her.
"Hey now, I thought you wanted to take this slow," he said, taking her hands and holding them up so they were between their chests, insuring there was some distance kept between them.
"That was a week ago when we'd seemed to both have just exited 'the haze'. Now you've been flirting with me for a week and my hormones have reawakened." She pushed her hands upward, forcing his to follow, and wrapped them around his neck again to pull him back to her so they could continue their previous activity.
"Ginny, I don't want you regretting anything."
"Harry, do you want me for more than just a shag?" she asked.
"Yes," he told her honestly.
"Can you see us being together? Together, together, not just coparenting but also co-sleeping?"
"I think Jordan having a room of his own is a great idea," he agreed and pulled her closer. "And this time, I think we should both use the charm."
Ginny came up onto her toes to kiss him. "That's a great idea. And I'm already on the potion too."
He pulled back in surprise. "When did you start taking the potion?"
"Two weeks ago," she told him honestly. "I was watching you playing on the floor with Jordan and you just looked so damn attractive then that I just started feeling," she ran her hands up and down his chest before gripping his shirt to pull her down to him, "needy."
He dove for her with a passion then and their clothes started flying, both of them hastily pulling their wands and casting the charm before chucking their trousers off and shagging right there on the kitchen counter. It wasn't as good as it had been in the bed of his hotel room, but it took care of their immediate needs before they made their way to the bedroom for round two, which they also remembered to cast the charm for.
()()()
One year later
()()()
"She is just never going to let up," Ginny complained when they got home from their monthly family visit to the Burrow. "You're living together, you've got a child together and you're a couple; what are you waiting for?" Ginny said in imitation of her mother. "Could she not just let it go for even one visit? Just one time I'd like to come home from over there not being angry with her."
"Ginny," Harry started with a sigh.
"I know, I know, she means well. Whatever, broken record. But we're doing really well though! I've got my apprenticeship starting in a month, you've just got promoted, Jordan is loving it at preschool. Things are going great for us, why should we rush to make any changes?"
He frowned at that question and set Jordan down, who immediately ran off to his room at his adorable toddler speed to get his favorite toy, a bear that lit up and sang the ABC's which he could barely live without. Yes, their life was going great, everything that Ginny was saying was true, there had been a few bumps in the road since they'd gotten together but nothing they hadn't worked through. However, everything that Molly Weasley had been saying was true too, and she wasn't the only person that questioned why they hadn't got married yet.
He had been wondering that himself for the last two months. At least, that was how long ago he'd decided to start looking for a ring.
He'd woken up one morning to find Ginny and Jordan in the sitting room, Ginny was flipping through her course catalogue and Jordan was at her feet playing with something and they'd both looked up at him when he came in and smiled at him, and it all just clicked; he was in love with her and couldn't possibly think of anything else he wanted more than to live with her forever and eventually make a few more babies.
"You wouldn't want to make any changes?" he asked. "Any at all?"
She regarded him for a moment. "I just want her to stop asking and understand that when y- we're ready, if, you know, that time comes, then, you know, que sera, sera."
She slipped up. She nearly said when he was ready. That meant that she knew it was an eventuality as well.
He nodded and went over to the mantle above the fire and picked up a vase with fake flowers, pulling out the flowers and tipping it over into his hand, then set the flowers and vase back up on the mantle. "I don't suppose that might mean you would be interested in this, would you?" he grinned and held his palm out to show the ring he'd found for her.
She stared at it in shock. "Y-y-you, you had a ring here for me?"
"I knew you'd never check there, and hiding it in my sock drawer certainly wasn't going to work since you keep nicking my silk boxers to sleep in."
She held a hand to her chest, "oh my god, I'm actually lightheaded."
"Do you need to sit down?" He took her arm to guide her over to the couch, feeling a little nauseous himself. It wasn't the most romantic of proposals, he'd just seen the opening and took it.
"No, I don't need to sit down," she shook her head, smiling with tears in her eyes. "Did you just know that everything I just said was crap?"
He laughed. "I had hoped, but you also just slipped up a bit there." Now he dropped down to one knee and held the ring up properly. "Ginny Weasley, will you marry me?"
They both gave a start as Jordan's bear started singing out the ABC song from the hallway as he brought it into the sitting room.
Ginny laughed. "Yes, of course I'll marry you!" She helped him slide the ring onto her finger and pulled him up to his feet to give him a kiss.
Jordan came over and sat at their feet, celebrating with them by carrying on a conversation in toddler babble with his bear.
()()()