This prompt comes from Tsunako-tan07 who requested Harry as the new DADA professor after never having gone to Hogwarts and he finds himself interacting with the assistant Medi-Witch and not liking how friendly she is with the Assistant Herbology Professor.
()()()
Creating a Successful Curriculum
()()()
"How are things coming along for you?"
Minerva's voice cut through the silence that had been surrounding him for the past several hours and it startled him so much that he immediately reached for his wand. Seeing it was only her standing there, just inside the doorway of his new office, he relaxed his hold on the wand and let out a slow breath to try and bring his heart rate back down to normal.
"You know, when you first offered this position to me, I thought you were mad. I thought that I was not nearly old enough for a posting like this, and I thought that I would be so incredibly underprepared. But this," he held up a stack of marked tests that the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professors had left behind, which he had planned on using to guide his curriculum, "is completely useless."
"Yes well, I believe if you speak to any of the current or former students you will quickly come to learn that the last decent DADA professor that held this position was Albus Dumbledore himself."
"Then I am very glad that I did not attend this school," he said miserably and pushed the stack of papers away to the corner of his desk.
Minerva's lips tightened at that and a single corner of her mouth turned up. "I believe you would have still done well had you attended. You have a natural talent, just like your parents, and your uncles."
"Uncle Remus should have been the one to get this position. He was the one that taught me most of what I know, he was great with me."
"Yes, he had been a model student and I would have loved to offer him the position. But, with the cards life had dealt him that would not have gone over well with the parents of our students. You were lucky to have his sole attention."
Harry clenched his jaw. It hadn't just been Remus that taught him, he'd been raised and taught by several members of the old Order of the Phoenix. He'd been taught everything they could collectively think to teach him that he might need to know in order to help them fight Voldemort when he returned. And return he did, but it hadn't turned out to be much of a fight. Voldemort had split his soul several times and nearly died himself the night that he'd blasted his way into Harry's parents' house in Godric's Hollow when he was just a toddler, the night Harry's parents were killed. The evil, self proclaimed, 'Lord' lived as a wraith for over a decade before one of his old followers found him and helped return him to a semi-human form.
When the time came that a war had begun again and small battles were waged, Harry finally had his chance to finish Voldemort off, but a small part of him thought that it would be better to do with him what was done with Grindelwald and gave him pause; they should lock him up or put him on display somewhere as an example of what true madness looks like. The pause that Harry gave had proved fatal for them both, but not permanent for Harry.
Now everyone in Wizarding Britain knew the story of how he had survived the killing curse twice, he couldn't go down Diagonally without someone trying to take his picture or asking him to sign something.
Years passed after the war where all he did was continue his studies, not knowing what else he could possibly do because it was all he had known.
Enter Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts, with a job offer.
She gave a very compelling argument for why he was perfect for the job, it essentially boiled down to him being qualified and how his quality of life would improve if the students of Hogwarts could have the opportunity to see him as 'no more than an antisocial shut in with nothing else to do'; those were her words.
She'd bullied him into the job.
And it worked.
He had always wanted to see more of the castle and get to wander its grounds and discover all of its secrets.
"Were you just checking in on me? I won't have a syllabus ready for you for another few days," he told her.
"No. I need you to make time to head down to the hospital wing so there can be a file started for you."
"What? Can't Poppy just do something up based on what she already knows about me?"
"No. And it won't be Poppy, it will be her assistant, Miss Weasley. All the new staff have to have a work up done when they arrive. I won't be making exceptions for you just because of your name." She turned to leave. "Oh, and make sure that you don't take more than two days to do up that syllabus, I need time to go over it before the students get here."
He rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath as she walked away, then closed the door behind her with a flick of his wand.
Seven years' worth of learning that he needed to break down. The textbook lists had already gone out and they were just the basic defense textbooks needed to pass the OWL and NEWT exams, but he needed to make sure that all the kids were ready for written and practical exams and figure out what the hell he was supposed to make their essays be about.
Remus had always made the lessons practical and then assigned the written as homework, which meant that he had to spend all of his evenings forming paragraphs and coming up with enough garbage and repetition to make the essays as long as they needed to be. He hated the written portion of schooling.
Maybe he should do half of the class as practical and half of it as written, then he could spend half of the class time doing his grading and have his evenings free to do whatever it was that the other professors around here did in their evenings.
Harry pulled out the textbook that the first-year students had been assigned and started copying down in point form what the spells were that they needed to learn and the essay questions that he would want the kids to know for why they were learning them.
This method of making the syllabus was much better than pouring through the old tests, some of which had been made by Gilderoy Lockhart and only had to do with his books, all of which were crap.
He didn't hear anyone knock on his door, but he did feel the air pressure in the room shift as the door opened. He looked up, expecting to see Minerva again, but instead it was a woman about his own age with shoulder length red hair and a buttoned up blue blouse with a white apron tied around her waist. She had big brown eyes and looked ready to scold him. She crossed her arms in front of her as he stared.
"Do you know what time it is?" she asked.
"Erm." He didn't, he had no idea how much time had passed, and looking out the window he saw that the sun was just about to set behind the forbidden forest, which meant it was well passed dinner. "Seven?"
"Closer to eight, actually. And all the other staff members have all managed to find time to come through the hospital wing for their check-ups just fine."
"All the others?"
"Yes. All the others. Every professor that is staying on for the school year has now gotten settled into their rooms, done their check-ups and even enjoyed a meal together. You though, you've been shut up in this room all day and the only reason we know that is because Professor McGonag- I mean- the Headmistress confirmed she saw you earlier. And when she told me that she asked if you'd come to see me yet, and you haven't! So, my day doesn't end until you get a looking over. And I'm tired. Now I need you to set your quill down," she told him as she uncrossed her arms and came around the side of his desk, "and pull your chair back so I can examine you."
"Here?!" he asked as he set down his quill. "I can come with you down to the hospital wing. I was just caught up and lost track of time."
"Uhuh, likely story. Now open your mouth and say 'ah'," she disregarded his protest and flicked her wand so his chair would rotate, then stuck a tongue depressor in his mouth and cast a few other spells at the same time. "Have you got any aches or pains anywhere?"
He tried to say he didn't think so, but it came out garbled because of the stick on his tongue. He felt he was being accosted by every teenagers wet dream about a sexy nurse; and it wasn't nearly as fun as he'd imagined, nor was she wearing the right uniform.
"You claim you've been sitting in this chair all day, that hasn't bothered your back, or your bum?" she asked as she pulled back from looking in his mouth.
"No, it's a comfortable chair," he answered in surprise at the question.
"And how much exercise do you typically get? Do you miss meals often?"
"I eat fine and I do normally, you know, walk around and such." He didn't enjoy getting poked and prodded like this. She was being quick about it, but her patient care could use a bit of work.
"You're underweight for where you should be at your age and height," she told him. "Come on, you can put the rest of this off until tomorrow. Follow me." She took his hand then, without consent, and started leading him out the door.
"What, the rest of that you could do in my office, but whatever is next has to be done in the hospital wing?" he protested.
"We aren't going to the hospital wing, we're going to the kitchen."
His anger was momentarily forgotten then. He'd been told stories of the many helpful House Elfs in the kitchen and hadn't had a chance to go exploring for it yet. "I was told about where it was, down the stairs from the main entrance and behind a painting of a bowl of fruit."
"That it is," she said happily, letting go of his hand now that he was keeping pace with her. "But don't tell any of the students. The kids need to find these things out for themselves, it's part of the wonder of coming here."
She had a cute smile on her face when she said that, it made her look endearing. "The secrets of the castle are part of the reason why I agreed to come here as well," he confessed.
"Then you should be content to work here for many years. I spent seven years here and I still don't know everything the castle has to offer. Of course, you'll have to come out of your office and classroom in order to find them," she teased.
"I wasn't intentionally missing dinner and meeting everyone," he defended. "I just got into a rhythm with making lesson plans and time got away from me."
"Good. Because everyone is looking forward to meeting you."
That didn't make him feel good. He was confident that he would be a let down compared to whatever people had drummed him up to be in their heads. "Is this your first year back after finishing your schooling?" he asked, wanting to change the subject. He was only just twenty and several students had missed a school year or two in the thick of the war.
"Yes, I was in Gryffindor and the Quidditch Captain my last year here, everyone thought I would go on to try for a professional team, but that didn't work out. I got a lot of practice healing while the war was on, and I liked it, so, I became a Healer. I didn't want the fast pace of St. Mungo's though, so I reached out to Poppy and she asked if I'd be interested coming on here," she smiled brightly.
He was caught for a moment by how lovely she looked when she truly smiled. "You like working with kids then?"
She nodded, "the cuts, the scrapes, the potions accidents, the hormones, the memories."
"The hormones?" he questioned.
"Yes. I've been talking to Poppy and the Headmistress about starting a safe sex practices talk with the third years, just covering the basics of what to expect and how to deal with it. Something I would have appreciated having when I was that age and going through puberty."
He could recall what it had been like for him that many years ago and his voice was changing and his cock had been at constant attention. He had people to talk to about it, but he didn't want to be the one bringing it up.
"That's a really good idea. They'd likely be too shy to come and ask for the information themselves."
"That's what I was thinking."
They made it to the main floor and she turned them towards another set of stairs and down a corridor until they were somewhere under the Great Hall where there was a picture of a bowl of fruit and she tickled the pear. The pear made a giggling sound and the portrait swung forward.
"Welcome to the kitchens, Professor Potter," she said to him.
There were tens of House Elfs running around and a set up of four small house tables in the large space. He looked around at all the little ovens they had and food that was already prepared and sitting on shelves as a few of the Elfs came up to greet Miss Weasley, but they called her Miss Ginny. And 'Miss Ginny' guided him over to sit at one of the tables and requested some stew and biscuits for him, taking a yogurt for herself and a cup of hot chocolate.
"You come here often then?" he grinned.
"I was a regular here, yes. I even have my favorites among the Elfs. I loved sneaking away to here when I was in school. I'd come here after Quidditch practices, normally to calm down because the team was playing so poorly."
His dinner was in front of him in a moment and he thanked the Elf, who was quick to leave the two of them alone.
'Miss Ginny' gave a chuckle. "You know, when you come here by yourself they keep hanging around asking if they can get you anything else and being desperate to assist in any possible way. But, when a couple comes in they like to give their distance because they think that it means privacy is required."
"They think we're on a date then?" It was an intriguing idea. Thus far he could certainly see her being the kind of woman he would love to take out. He hadn't gotten much in the way of a normal upbringing and his dating life wasn't high on the priority list for the people responsible for raising him. He'd dated a bit after the war, but only Muggle women. And while it had been nice honing his skills with the fairer sex, he equated dating Muggle women to how a person might feel if they were raised in a religious household and was dating outside the faith; it was okay, but couldn't turn into something real. Magic was a big part of him, how could he find a proper girlfriend in the Muggle world when he couldn't share that part of himself with her?
He hadn't expected there to be a dating prospect at Hogwarts for him though, and yet, here one sat.
It would be too obvious if he flat out asked her if she had a boyfriend though, and they had only just met. So he said the only thing he could think to say, "the stew is delicious."
"Everything they make is delicious. You should pack on half a stone by Christmas if you start eating properly," she told him as she spooned her yogurt into her mouth.
"Do you really think I'm underweight?" He ate regularly, he reckoned, but he didn't really keep track. He wasn't looking skeletal though.
"Yes. Your collar bones are more pronounced than I'd like them to be. You'll be experiencing winter in Scotland, you need to put some padding on yourself or you'll freeze to death in your sleep."
"There are such things as warming charms, you know," he pointed out.
"And those need to be reapplied every few hours, so how about you just eat more of this delicious food and then you won't be subjected to my nagging?"
They both turned as the portrait opened again and another man their age came through. This person had some weight on him, not an excessive amount, but there was a small belly on him. He looked like he'd been playing in dirt all day.
"Neville!" she greeted him brightly. "Come and join us. I was just telling the new DADA Professor about the cold winters here and how he needs to eat more."
"Oh, there's no doubt you'll be eating plenty here," Neville said happily as he took a seat beside Miss Weasley. "There's a never-ending buffet of food at each mealtime and if that's not enough, you'll have Ginny putting it on your plate for you. She and the rest of the Weasley's are all like mother hens."
Neville requested a treat from an Elf and then he and Ginny started talking like old friends, relaying a few of their anecdotes to him, but the way they were with each other made him feel like a third wheel. He did learn a lot from their conversation though, like that Neville was in his second year of an apprenticeship under Pamona Sprout in the greenhouses, which explained why he had dirt caked under his fingernails even after he claimed he'd already washed his hands.
The way the two of them were with each other, they were close. Close enough that she would put her hand over his or he would tug at her hair. Harry grew uncomfortable watching their exchanges, sullen even. He'd had her attention all to himself before Neville joined them and he hadn't gotten her to laugh the way Neville did.
"Alright," Ginny said finally. "My mission here is complete and I still have some paperwork to write up on a certain recluse before I can call it a night. So, you two enjoy each other's company. I'll see you at breakfast."
"You know, I'd hoped I would get to meet you went I first started at Hogwarts when I was eleven," Neville told him after Ginny had left.
"Oh," Harry asked in surprise. "Because of who I am?"
"No, because of who you almost weren't."
That threw him sideways. "Excuse me?"
"I assume you know about the prophesy by now, the one that sent your parents into hiding?"
"You know about it?!" That was a heavily guarded secret. Only someone deep in The Order would know something like that and Harry wasn't sure he could have picked Neville out of a crowd yet if he saw him tomorrow.
"I do," he nodded. "Because Dumbledore thought it could have been one of two children it was referring to. I was the other one."
Harry stared at him hard then, taking in all there was to see about this man across from him; this slightly chubby and happy person that had a very familiar and easy friendship with an attractive woman.
"I know," Neville shrugged and gave a shy smile. "For the sake of the entire wizarding world, I'm glad it was you too. I wouldn't have been able to do what you did."
It wasn't that Harry didn't think this guy could have endured all that he had, it was just that… no, that's exactly what he was thinking; Neville seemed like a really nice guy, and nice guys didn't win wars.
"Had you wanted it to be you?" He couldn't imagine anyone wanting his fortune put on their shoulders. He grew up piecing together family and away from people his own age, wishing that his life could have had a lot more of a different kind of adventure, one that involved exploring castles with his friends and getting into the fun kind of trouble.
"A little," he blushed. "But on the whole, no. I was there at the final battle and helped evacuate a lot of the younger students, got a few shots at several Death Eaters. I wish I could have taken down Bellatrix Black though, she's the one that went after my parents."
That sounded ominous. Harry knew what Bellatrix Black liked to do with her captives.
"Are they…"
Neville gave a single nod. "St. Mungo's, Permanent Ward, ever since that Halloween."
He didn't know if that was better or worse than losing them altogether.
"But you got to go to school here. That in itself means you were better off not being the one chosen."
"Yeah," he shrugged. "I wasn't too sure about that for my first few years here. I got bullied a lot. My dormmates would stand up for me when they were around and it happened, but the three of them were close friends and I was just kind of there. It got better after my OWLS when I was able to drop the courses I was bad at and started tutoring some students in Herbology, it's how I got my first girlfriend; that helped a lot with my confidence."
"I bet," Harry grinned. "I spent my teens wishing there was someone around I could call my girlfriend. It wasn't until after the war that I was able to get in some of that experience."
"Yet another reason I'm grateful it was you that was chosen," Neville grinned.
"Thanks," Harry laughed.
They wound up talking for a bit longer in the kitchen and then Neville took him for a walk around the castle, showing him where most of the students liked to try and hide when they were getting up to one kind of trouble or another. He introduced him to a few ghosts and several of the people in the portraits, as well as showing him where the entrance to the different houses were.
Harry had fun with Neville and listening to his stories, the jealousy he'd initially felt at having to share Miss Weasley, or Ginny, with him was long forgotten by the time he got back to his room and tucked in for the night.
()()()
"Thank you for joining us, Mister Potter," Minerva greeted him at breakfast in the staff room the next morning. Before the school started up for the year the meals for the staff were taken in the staff room instead of the Great Hall because it was less formal.
"Sorry I missed everyone at dinner last night," he apologized and nodded in greeting at the other professors that were gathered there. "Miss Weasley found me afterwards and told me off about missing my check up, it was only then that I realized what time it was. On the bright side, my syllabus is almost done!"
He received a few laughs for that one.
"I knew bringing her on was a good choice," Madame Pomphrey said happily. "The students will be receptive to her as well, she was well liked by her peers when she was a student here."
"And no doubt they will still listen to her when she tells them to shut up and take their potions," a man said from behind a copy of the Daily Prophet.
"This is Benson Knox," Minerva told Harry, "he is the Muggle Studies Professor."
Benson lowered the paper so they could make eye contact and gave a nod, then promptly went back to reading. Minerva then went around the table and introduced everyone. There were a few professors that weren't there, including Neville, and Miss Weasley, but neither of them were technically professors.
He took a seat and started assembling his plate, making sure to take something from each food group so that Madame Pomphrey might notice and then report back to Miss Weasley that he was eating properly.
Everyone around the room was making small talk and dropping a few hints to him about best practices when it came to certain students, then Neville showed up and told the story of his first day as an assistant professor and how horribly that went, which set everyone else off telling their stories. It was very amusing and got him wondering how he was going to approach each year. It sounded like they all started off their first lessons talking about the importance of their OWLs and NEWTs, which was a good way to bore the students to death in his opinion.
It looked like he and Neville were the only professors in their twenties and Harry joined him when he left, wanting to spend more time with him and also wanting to stretch his legs before being stuck in his office for several more hours.
"I haven't seen the greenhouses yet, or the grounds," Harry told him.
"Then you haven't seen all there is of the castle yet," Neville grinned. "The Black Lake is a mystery on its own, with the Giant Squid and Merpeople. You should have a visit with Hagrid when he gets back tomorrow," he said pointing at the little hut beside a large vegetable patch at the edge of the forest. "He knows all the secrets of the forest and all the beings that live in it."
"I've met Hagrid before, a few times. He's … interesting, like a gentle giant that has feelings as big as he is."
"And a soft spot for any creature that is the slightest bit lethal," Neville agreed. "He's great to have a drink with and he's got all the stories from back when our parents were students. He's been around for decades and has had basically every one of the Ministry higher-ups in detention with him at one point or another."
"Oh! Detentions, I'm going to be in charge of those on rotation with everyone else, what am I supposed to be making the kids do?" He'd never experienced a detention before, just chores. In books it was things like banging chalk erasers together, but he didn't need that.
"Every professor has their own way to do it; Flitwick, the old Charms professor, would stick gum under the tables in his class and get you to chip it all off, the old Potions professor would make you clean out cauldrons, the caretaker will have them cleaning off the trophies in the trophy room, Hagrid would get them working in the vegetable patch, things like that."
"And what's the-" he forgot what his question was going to be when he spotted movement at the Quidditch Pitch. "Is someone flying over there?"
Neville followed his eyeline. "Oh yeah, that'd be Ginny. She likes to get in a fly whenever she can. She's a wicked good flier. I still think she should have tried to go pro, but there's no talking her into anything she doesn't want to do."
Harry started walking towards the pitch, watching as she tried some wild flips and turns through the air just above where the stadium seats would have cut off his view. He hadn't been on a broom in ages and his hands felt tingly as he watched her soar, he remembered his first time on a broom when it didn't have a governor on it, it was incredible. "I thought she was busy with work in the hospital wing, or having a lay in."
"Nope, just out here trying to relive her best matches. I think she might take over as referee for the matches this year now that Madame Hooch has retired."
Neville said a few more things as they now made their way to the Quidditch Pitch, but Harry wasn't listening, he was watching her dance through the sky. When they were only a few hundred meters away from the entrance she must have spotted them because she turned the broom towards them and shot their direction at top speed and pulled up just in front of them, hopping off the broom and landing on her feet perfectly only five feet away from them.
Merlin, she was beautiful. Her cheeks were red, her hair was swept up in every direction and the smile on her face was so bright.
"Showing off just for us? How did we get to be so lucky?" Neville teased her.
"By being the only two people here," she told him. "Tell me you know how to fly," she said to Harry.
"I do, but it's been ages and I never got the chance to do anything like what you just did."
"Well, here you are then if you want to give it a go," she held her broom out for him. It wasn't anything fancy, just a former top model Cleensweep that was about five years old.
But when he took it in his hands he felt his whole body vibrating with excitement, like a kid at Christmas who got exactly what he'd asked for. He straddled the wood without a word to either of the others and shot up into the air.
The feel of the wind on him and the lightness in his chest, there was only one thing to compare it to; a bird that had been caged for ages and is finally set free. He looped around the Quidditch Pitch, then the castle, dipped low over the Black Lake and around the edges of the forest. He was in the air for so long that he'd completely forgotten he'd left two people waiting for him back on the ground, and they had stopped waiting for him.
When he touched back down it must have been an hour that had gone by. He landed on the steps to the entrance of the school with her broom in one hand and the same smile on his face that he'd seen on hers earlier.
Then he caught the time.
He still had work to do.
For half a second he considered riding the broom up to the Hospital Wing so he could return it, but knew that would be a bit much, particularly for a brand new professor.
She wasn't at the Hospital Wing when he got there, it was just Poppy, so he left the broom for Healer Weasley and went back to his office to finish up his syllabus and went back over what he'd already come up with to interject some fun into the ones he'd already completed.
()()()
"Jinx Tag?" Minerva read off his submission for the curriculum, which they were now going over.
"Yes," he nodded. "For the second and third year students. They won't have anything dangerous they've learned that can't be undone. I thought it would be a great way to revise right when they are returning from summer break. We break the class into two groups and one team tries to jinx the other and each team is responsible for removing the jinx placed on their own team members. I would need a large space to turn into an obstacle course of sorts. It would certainly be more exciting than a questions and answers thing. Then, for the second half of the class we would go back to the classroom and they would all have to write out which Jinx's were used and their counter-jinx."
She offered him a skeptical look and gave a single nod of her head. "Jinx tag," she repeated, then her lips drew thin. She muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like 'this is what I get for hiring a child'.
He wasn't offended though.
"They are kids," he told her. "They are full of energy and their minds have turned to mush while they've been on summer holiday. This will get them focused and expelling that energy. I think it will be a great way to start off their year and get them excited about Defense Against the Dark Arts."
She took a deep breath and adjusted her neck before nodding slowly and giving the idea her stamp of approval. "I will ask that you please see either Professor Slughorn or Madame Pomphrey to get a few healing potions in case this turns into a disaster. Maybe Miss Weasley can be present for it, just in case?"
"Great idea," he smiled.
And it was a great idea. The kids all came back from their summer breaks, had their first school feast of the school year and came into his classroom the next day expecting the worst, but he'd made a game out of each years revision, a verbal and demonstration game for the higher years, which went over well with the Fifth-Year students, which was the only higher year he had on day one, and the Jinx Tag game for years two and three, which they all found great fun and he got to spend the time watching them all running around with Ginny, which is what she asked him to call her, or Healer Weasley if a student was present.
But, at the end of the Third Year Jinx Tag game between the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, Susan Parks tripped over her cloak, rolled her ankle, braced herself badly on her wrist and broke her nose.
"I think you need to mandate that cloaks be removed before the game now," Ginny told him as she wiped the rest of Susan's blood away from the girl's face.
It was the only major incident, so, still a success to him.
He'd been nervous about how his first week of being a professor was going to go, but it felt incredibly natural to him. The Slytherin students weren't completely respectful, not all of them, but they weren't outwardly hostile. He only had to give out one detention and take away a total of thirty house points in the first week, and some of those were from two bickering Ravenclaw girls that were getting on his nerves.
He didn't get much time to socialize with the other professors though, and now he was wishing he had done more socializing with them before the school year started. Neville would sit beside him at the Great Hall for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner he didn't always show up. Hagrid had come back to the school just a few hours before he needed to guide the first-year students across the lake and Harry had sat with him for a few dinners. There weren't any of the fellow teachers that milled about in the staff lounge in the evenings though. And there weren't many papers or things that he could use to occupy his time after dinner because of the way he'd sorted the classes into two sections so he could leave his evenings free.
So, he bought a broom.
He invited Neville to join him for a fly but was politely turned down because apparently Neville didn't take to brooms well.
There were only a few weeks before the weather would turn cold and the Quidditch practices would start up, so Harry took full advantage of that and tried to keep himself as hidden from the student population as possible when he went for his flies. Then, when the sun would begin to set, he would soar around the grounds and up over the trees of the Forbidden Forest.
It was mid-September when he was returning to the school from a fly when he caught sight of Ginny and Neville walking back to the school from one of the Greenhouses. He paused to watch them, feeling that same jealousy he had when he had first seen the way they interacted with each other when she'd brought him down to the kitchens.
Was it a friendship between them that made them so at ease with each other, or was it something more?
He wanted to be as at ease with her as he saw Neville to be, but not in quite a friendly way.
She was such an interesting person, it was always an experience when he was around her, which wasn't often, but often enough to know he would have a smile on his face before he was done interacting with her.
They bumped into each other a few times while he was exploring the castle at night, exploring meaning 'patrolling', and she would walk with him for a stretch and introduce him to the paintings that he hadn't spoken to yet. He didn't question the 'how' of it only being her that he came across during his evening walks because he was too glad for her company.
Then it finally happened, a legitimate excuse for him to visit her in the Hospital Wing. A pair of students were caught snogging after curfew and in his haste to run away, the boy from Hufflepuff tripped and knocked himself good against the stone railing of the moving stairs. Harry told the crying girl to go back to Hufflepuff and levitated the boy toward the Hospital Wing, ringing the bell on the way into the hall to call whichever matron was on duty for the evening, then let himself in and settled the boy down on the closest bed.
"Harry?" Ginny asked as she poked her head out from the room at the end of the wing. She then saw the boy with blood on his forehead. "Atherton," she sighed. "Let me guess, he tripped?"
He watched the way her housecoat swayed as she hastened across the room and pulled out her wand. Her hair was down and she looked a bit disheveled from sleep so he was a tad bit distracted and took a moment before answering.
"I caught him and his girlfriend necking and he momentarily forgot how to climb stairs. Hit his head against one of the stone railings. It did not make a very pleasant sound." He had assured the boys girlfriend that the boy was going to be okay, but that was a very nasty knock he took. He didn't recognize the boy from his classes, so it had to be a sixth or seventh year that didn't take his class.
Ginny was doing her scans and summoning potions, working quickly with her wand movements and wiping away the blood. "He's fractured his skull but he'll be alright."
"Whew, that's a relief."
"This one is a frequent flier. I remember him as being accident prone from when he was a first year. I damn near needed to throw him over my shoulder to get him out of the castle when we were all evacuating because he kept tripping and bumping into things."
"Evacuating? Because of the Battle?"
She was now applying potion along the boy's hairline where he took the knock. "Only time in recent history that it's needed to be done. It was incredible and awful all at the same time. I started helping Pamona then, it's why I decided to go with Healer training as a career choice." Her nimble fingers were so fast, she was now wrapping Atherton's head. "He'll be alright by morning, but he'll be bed bound all of tomorrow." She turned to him then. "I'm surprised McQuat isn't here, did she not see it happen?"
He blinked at her. "Who?"
"Jennifer McQuat, his girlfriend," she said. "She'll be a mess knowing that he was like this. Did she not see it happen?"
"Oh! The girlfriend. Sorry, neither of them are in my classes so I don't know their names. No, she did see it, I told her to go back to her dorm."
Ginny looked up and gave a sigh. "I'll take that to mean you were never a teenager in love then?"
He blinked at her again, this time in amazement. "I… what?" No, he'd never been given the luxury of having a girlfriend growing up, much less one that he was 'in love with', so he had no idea what she was sighing about.
"That girl will be up all night crying if she doesn't know that he'll be okay," she explained.
The Atherton boy gave a moan then as he came around to consciousness.
"Easy there Evan," Ginny told him soothingly. "You'll be alright, Jennifer is alright. You've taken a hard knock to your head but it's healing. Drink this down and you'll sleep through it all." She gave him a potion that he gave no protest to swallowing and fell right back to sleep.
"Alright, he's fine," she said once putting the empty phial down and turning her attention once more to him. "Now, you come with me and we'll tell Jennifer that he's going to be fine," she said, touching his elbow just enough to lead him back around to the door.
"Do you just know every student in the school and who they are involved with?" he asked in amazement.
"Not every student, but every one that has 'questions' that they are too shy to ask Pamona about, and that is essentially everyone that is fourth-year and above. And every second-year and above with problematic skin."
"And they're all comfortable coming to you with those questions?" he asked. He couldn't imagine that anyone would ever come to him with their teenage problems.
"I'm still young enough to remember what it was like to freak out over a pimple and remember how shy I was with my first boyfriend. Sometimes I will reach out to the student subtly, I'd rather they talk to me than take all the advice in Witch Weekly or something. There was a girl a year ahead of me in school that had a terrible complexion and she went overboard with the Bubotuber Puss and wound up burning off half the skin on her face, she was in the Hospital Wing for a week. I try to get ahead of that sort of nonsense."
From the route she was leading he took it that Jennifer McQuat was in Gryffindor.
He gathered from that explanation that Jennifer had come to Ginny with questions about safe sex, and from the sounds the two students had been making behind that tapestry, she'd suggested a very safe option, as no buttons or zippers had been undone when he'd come upon them.
"It is amazing to me that people as likable as you actually exist in this world," he told her.
She chuckled. "I'm not always so nice. I can be downright vicious if the situation calls for it, but, when you've been through some truly terrible things it's hard not to be happy about the small things like a full stomach and a job that mostly requires socializing and gossip."
He couldn't picture her being vicious at all.
And it was no stretch of the imagination to conclude what the terrible things were that she'd been through.
He was haunted by the terrible things he'd been through, and now he was making a career off of it.
"Discovered anything interesting in the castle yet?" she asked him.
Strange time to be making light conversation, but he'd take it. "I've been through all the floors now, found the spots that these kids prefer to snog in, things like that. You were the one to show me the kitchens, but there was one spot I found while I was out flying one night; did you know Ravenclaw tower has its own little owlery?"
She turned to beam at him and it made his stomach flutter for a moment. "I did, but only because I have an old boyfriend from my school days that was in Ravenclaw."
"Have you been in all the common rooms?" he asked, trying to move right passed thinking about her past boyfriends.
"Yes. I had a few friends in Hufflepuff and they weren't as secretive about their common room. The only reason I've been in the Slytherin one though is because of the evacuations. Those little shits thought that there was no way either side of the fight would hurt them; it would either be their parents or people that were 'too good' to hurt children. I had to blow apart a section of their ceiling then point out to them that it wasn't necessarily a person that would be doing the harming. There were giants involved in the fight, they didn't give a shit who those little bastards the kids were."
As she spoke it was as though she was reliving the day and he saw what she meant about her vicious side. The language alone was well more crass than what he'd heard her use before.
They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and Ginny gave the password. Harry followed behind her, crawling into the common room. He hadn't been in this room before either and his first impression was that it was comfortable. There were warm red curtains that hung all around the room and a roaring fireplace. Except for the girl sobbing on her friend's shoulder, he could picture what it might have been like if he had been allowed to be a student and study there.
"Jennifer," Ginny said, sweeping across the room to comfort the girl. "Hun, he's going to be okay. You've known him for ages, you know he injures himself, but he heals up fast."
"You're sure?" Jennifer asked through her tears. "I saw blood!"
"Miss Weasley took care of that straight away," Harry told her. "And he came to before he was given a potion to knock him out for the night. You'll be able to visit him tomorrow."
He watched as Ginny stroked the girl's back and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. She was very good with the students. He wished he had a reason for her to touch him like that.
Ginny leaned towards the girl's ear and whispered something that got Jennifer and her friend to chuckle, then gave them each a pat on the hand and indicated to him that it was time for them to leave.
"What did you say to them?" he asked when they were back on the stairs heading down to the Hospital wing.
"Healer/Patient confidentiality," she winked. "And it is also a girl thing, so, not in your wheelhouse, Professor Potter."
He wished she'd stop calling him that. It sounded indecent when she did it.
The next day he ran into her at lunch and she handed him a piece of parchment in passing. Upon opening it he saw it was a list of all the places he needed to discover in the castle. Some of the places she had on the list he already knew of, like the Prefects Bathroom and several of the shortcut passages, some he didn't, like ways out of the school and a place called the Room of Requirement.
Four months he spent at the school searching around and trying to find all the places that she put on the list, and in that four months he did manage to find them all, but it required the help of House Elf's and Neville, because Ginny was being of no assistance. He would ask her for hints whenever they worked detentions together or would sit beside each other at mealtimes and she would just smile that pretty smile of hers and refuse.
"I've got the last one ticked off," he told her proudly the day the students that were heading home for Christmas departed on the train. There were only a few kids that were sticking around the school for the holidays, and, lucky for him, Pamona was taking the holiday off too, so Ginny was staying.
"And which was your last one?" she asked.
They currently had the staff room all to themselves, she was sitting down and enjoying a tea and he was leaning against the counter right beside her table.
"The last exit out of the school grounds, the one that leads to the Shrieking Shack. And I'm kicking myself for not realizing it sooner because I know the person that the tunnel was made for. It was my uncle Remus."
"Seriously?" she asked in shock. "The exit was made for a specific person? Why?"
"He was a w-," he stopped himself short and took a look around to make sure that no one would be overhearing them, not even a portrait. They were completely alone in the room but he still felt compelled to move closer to her and whisper it. "I can trust you not to share this information, right? I know that Pamona knows about it and Minerva, but it really shouldn't be spread around."
"Of course you can trust me!" she said in earnest and leaned closer toward him. "He was a what?"
"A werewolf," he said at a barely audible volume.
"And a student?! That's incredible! It must have been Dumbledore that allowed it, no other Headmaster would have been so open minded."
"You don't think it's crazy? They don't have a good reputation."
"Yeah, and the one's setting the president are likely quite uneducated. It isn't like a school can be started up for them, imagine all the targeted hate they would be receiving."
"Merlin, how are you so kind?" he asked in admiration. She was so empathetic, so sweet, so brilliant, and still leaning her head so close toward him. They'd talked about a lot of things since they'd first met but not once had she brought up a boyfriend, and he'd never asked anyone, let alone her, if she was single. Until now, "I hope your boyfriend realizes how good he has it."
Her eyes twinkled with a glimmer of something after he said it and she grinned at him. "Wow," she chuckled. "I can't believe you just said that."
He leaned back, unsure what was going on but feeling a sinking sensation in his stomach. "I- I was just pointing out that, you know, you're kind of… great."
"I know, I got that," she assured him, then put her hand over his as though to stop him from moving any further away from her. "It's just that it sounded so cheesy!"
"I… what?" He was truly confused about what was going on.
"I mean, you may as well have asked what a girl like me is doing in a place like this!"
He wanted desperately to find a way to rewind this conversation. He was too old to be feeling this embarrassed about being rejected like this! And with a skeleton crew of staff that were remaining behind for the holiday he thanked the heavens that the ghost of Professor Binns floated through the wall then and took up residence in his favorite chair by the fireplace just then.
Trying not to appear too hasty about it, he stood up and headed for the door, ignoring her request for him to wait for her.
He could hear her leaving the staff room behind him as he hastened to turn around the corner. If he hadn't felt like an insecure teenager before he certainly felt like one now. He couldn't just pick up the pace and run away from her, it was too childish of a move.
Four months he'd been growing steadily more attracted to her. Of course he had to bugger it up with a stupid question like that!
In no time flat she'd caught up with him and grasped his hand hard to the left, pulling him into the empty Charms classroom, and he let her.
"Look," he started. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm just going to do the mature thing and tell you flat out that I am very attracted to you, but I have enjoyed our friendship too, so if you aren't interested then I can deal with that. And I'm sorry I used such a stupid way of letting you know I fancy you."
"Don't be," she told him, and took both his hands in hers so they were held together between them. "The thing I'm concerned about is that I'm the only eligible girl around here for you, so how are you supposed to trust that you actually like me like that? I wouldn't want to get involved with you romantically simply because you don't have any other option."
"What do you mean only option? I'm not trapped in this castle. Hogsmeade is literally down the road. I could use the Floo to go anywhere. I would hardly be hitting on my coworker just for shits and giggles. You've mentioned several past boyfriends to me before, just because I haven't mentioned any of my past girlfriends doesn't mean they never existed. I mean, they were never anything serious, but I know when I'm actually attracted to someone and not just shrugging and going 'well, she'll do for now'."
She gave him another small laugh over the last sentence. "Well, if that's the case then we've got to set some ground rules; because I don't have a boyfriend, and I am attracted to you too."
And just like that the weight in his stomach evaporated, leaving him feeling light and tingly.
"You are?" he asked happily.
"I am," she said, tugging on his hands so he would take a step closer to her. He could feel some of her body heat against his skin, that's how close they were. "Now, about these ground rules of mine."
"Yes?" he asked, lowering his head just enough that their noses could touch. He could feel her breath on his chin.
"Let's keep this between us, at least for the holidays. And even after, we can't let the students know."
Something private? Just between the two of them? He was certainly okay with that, it had been a while since the papers printed anything about him, but something like this was sure to make his name pop up in print again. "I am so very okay with that."
"Good." She ran her hands up his arms and over his shoulders so he did the same. Their bodies moved closer together so they were hugging each other now and it felt wonderful to be embracing her like this. "And, I won't be having sex with you right away."
"What?" He pulled his head back so he could look down at her and gauge how serious she was being.
"You said you'd never had the chance to be a student in a relationship at school, so, I'm going to give you the experience that you missed out on."
"There are definitely students at this school that are shagging. You said so yourself."
"Well, when I was a student at this school I started out with the small relationship things, like perfecting my snogging abilities, then letting my hands wander." To emphasis this she reached between them and undid the clasp on his cloak before tucking her hands beneath it and wrapped them around his back.
Her hands were slightly cold and they literally sent a shiver up his spine, but he didn't mind.
"In essence, you want to drive me mad with want before you'll spend the night in my bed?"
"Oh, I didn't say I wouldn't be spending the night in your bed. I happen to enjoy cuddling," she leaned forward again and rubbed her nose against his once more, "and what wandering hands can do when two people are cuddling."
That was good enough for him, no need for her to go on.
He leaned down further then and finally pressed his lips against hers. She responded immediately and the feel of her plump lips against his own, the way they moved against his and gave a slight suck to his bottom lip as they snogged, it was unlike any other experience he'd had.
Perhaps he really had missed out on developing his snogging skills because Ginny was teaching him a few things that were thoroughly enjoyable. Her hands slid easily up and down his bare back as he pulled her closer, trying desperately to keep his hands on her waist while they very much wanted to move down to cup that lovely bum of hers.
Several minutes, nearly a half hour, had passed before they pulled away. He was panting, starting to sweat and obviously aroused. From the sight of her, Ginny was in the same boat. Seeing her hair messed up and the buttons near the top of her blouse undone, both of which he didn't recall doing, it made him want to dive right in and start snogging her all over again.
Which he moved to do but she turned her head.
"I've really been away from the hospital wing for too long," she said with heavy breath.
Her head being turned merely changed his target from her lips to her neck. She whimpered as his lips worked their way down from her ear to her clavicle. He heard her sigh his name, likely in an attempt to gain his attention, however he could only focus on kissing every exposed piece of her flesh that he had access to. When he found his face buried in her chest his tongue poked out and ran along between her breasts. The gasp that came from her lips then made him smile.
"Harry, really, I need to go."
"We've barely started though," he complained, grinning and running his hand up her side to where he could feel the band of her bra.
She vibrated with laughter then and put her hands on his chest to put distance between them. "Here I thought we'd made a good dent in 'starting things'. We've already gone from you using an incredibly tired line on me to us doing some heavy petting in the Charms classroom, I'd say you've jumped from fourth to fifth-year level experience pretty quickly."
He grinned and sat down on the desk behind him. "And what would a fifth-year do after you leave?"
Her smile grew wider and a little wicked then. "He'd find a private place and take care of that," she indicated with her eyes to his trousers, "all by himself."
He had plenty of experience doing that in his suite over the last several months. "And then he'd find you later?" There wasn't much that was going to be keeping him occupied while everyone was on holiday. The two of them starting this up on the first day of break was a fantastic way to bring in the Yule Tide, she could possibly make up another list of things for him to discover, like where on her body he could kiss her that would make her purr the loudest.
"You've got rounds after dinner. Why don't you check in on me last and we'll see what happens?"
()()()
He was so glad that the castle was nearly empty, it meant that any students that were getting up to mischief were doing so in empty dorm rooms or common rooms instead of out and around the corridors and classrooms where he would have to waste precious time reprimanding them.
His mind kept wandering throughout his journey through the halls, thinking about what information Ginny had been passing along to the students about safe sex and alternate ways of pleasuring each other.
She'd been right, he had gone back to his suite after their snog session and taken care of himself, that didn't mean he wasn't standing at attention again in anticipation. He was only twenty after all, it didn't take much.
There were two suites that were attached to the Hospital Wing, Pamona's had been inhabited by her for several decades and the one that Ginny now lived in was only used for a few years here and there over the last several centuries, usually for a year or two by someone learning the trade, like Ginny, and sometimes used for dignitaries or other people of importance that might require special medical attention during a visit to the school. Previous to Ginny using it, it had been occupied for two years in the eighties by Bathilda Bagshot when she was doing a revision to her 'A History of Magic' textbook and using the school library so much that Dumbledore had set her up there in case she felt too tired to journey home.
Harry stood outside her door for a moment, wondering why she hadn't come out as soon as he passed through the main doors into the wing; she would have had an alert go off in her suite to let her know someone was there. He pressed his ear close to the door to try and hear if she might be using the shower or something on the other side.
"Are you going to knock?" her voice carried through the wood.
He lurched back away from the door and gave a chuckle, then raised his hand up to give two raps at the frame.
Ginny opened the door and gestured for him to enter.
"Wow, you've really made this place your own," he commented. There were several photos lining the walls, mostly landscape or things he couldn't quite recognize but looked very pleasing to the eye, a few of them were pictures of her family and friends. Her suite was smaller than his, but not by much, she had a sitting area with a little kitchen that comprised of a few cupboards and a kettle that could swing over the fireplace for heating up. There were two doors off of the room that went to the loo and to her bedroom. She had all manner of quilts and pillows tucked in every corner and over each of the chairs. "I take it you like quilts?"
Her face turned a bit red and she rolled her eyes at him. "My mum makes them, she keeps giving them to me as though it was the first time I'd received one. I can hardly throw them out or regift them, so," she shrugged, "now I have a nap corner. Guess I should probably think about getting a dog so it could get more use."
"I'd love to be able to have a dog," he admitted and made himself comfortable in one of her chairs. "I never had one growing up but when I was a kid and letting my imagination carry me away I pretended that I did have a dog and I would run all over my room and get up to make-believe adventures with him."
"That is adorable," she smiled. "I never had a dog either. We had a few cats though, and chickens, and pigs. I couldn't get attached to any of them though; the chickens and pigs would eventually wind up on our table and the cats would go missing. It was a mad house with all my brothers, especially when everyone was still living at home. The year that Ron went off to school and I was by myself I tried to talk my mum into getting a dog but she said it would be too much trouble since I'd be gone off to school myself a year later. I still say we should have got one though, she was the one left alone after I'd finally gone, she needed someone to fuss over." Ginny had made herself comfortable in the other chair and crossed her legs.
Harry reached out and took one of her feet in his hands and brought it into his lap to give it a rub. She closed her eyes and hummed with pleasure.
"Please tell me you don't have some kind of foot fetish so that I can enjoy this more."
"I can't say I've ranked all my favorite parts of you but I guarantee you that your feet would likely not make the cut." He rubbed a little harder and she sank further down in her chair.
"So tell me, Professor Potter, before my mind turns to mush, what is it you expect we'll be labelling this thing we've started?"
"Are we on to labels already?"
"Fifth-year students generally have a label on things after the first kiss, yeah." She opened her eyes then for the sole purpose of being able to give him a wink.
"I wouldn't be opposed to this turning into something serious. I certainly wouldn't have made an arse out of myself earlier in the staff room if I didn't have a serious interest in you."
"Glad to hear it, because I've been doing all I could think of to not show just how interested I am in you."
"Think I'm fetching, do you?" he grinned.
"I knew what you looked like, obviously, I just didn't know what your personality was going to be like. Knowing that Minerva McGonagall trusted you enough with the precious students of this school said a lot about your character." She opened her eyes now and gave him a curious look. "Are you aware of just how badly she wanted you to be the DADA Professor?"
"What do you mean? She just sent me a few letters asking me to consider it."
"Which she didn't do to anyone else. I was in her office a week before you said yes and there was a stack of letters on the corner of her desk with resumes from other people that were interested in the job. I don't think she'd even opened some of them."
It was shocking to him how touched he felt by that. She'd been keeping tabs on his progress with Remus for his schooling and would poke her head in on him from time to time like a concerned grandmother, he didn't realize that she'd been holding out on filling the position in the hopes that he'd throw his hat in the ring. "The curriculum was a mess over the last several years," he said, mostly to himself.
"And you've been doing a bang up job of catching everyone up on where they should be, while making it fun in the process." She pulled her foot out of his hands and unabashedly offered him the other one.
He smirked at her and started rubbing her other foot. "Speaking of curriculums, did you make up that list of 'stages of a relationship' that I get to work through with you?"
"All in good time," she sighed. "Right now you're doing excellent at the adjustment stage and being comfortable simply touching each other."
"Are there many stages?" he asked cheekily.
"Mhmm, and while in this stage it'll be your turn next."
"I'm not sure I'll be able to sit here and let you rub my feet." He wasn't ticklish, he just thought it would be weird.
"Don't worry, it wasn't your feet I was going to rub." His eyebrows perked up hearing that. "Have you ever had a head massage?" That deflated his hopes a bit as he was pretty sure she actually meant the head on his shoulders.
()()()
"Did you enjoy your holiday here at the school?" Neville asked on his first morning back, he'd returned from his break that morning, a few hours ahead of when the bulk of the students were due to arrive.
Harry nodded his head, trying not to give away just how much he'd enjoyed it, while also trying not to let his mind wander to how much he'd enjoyed last night and this morning. Waking up beside Ginny in her bed was his new favorite way to wake up, and this morning was likely one of the last times that he would be getting to wake up with her for a while, seeing as Pamona was going to be back today as well. Sneaking into Ginny's suite wouldn't be so easy anymore.
The whole break had been fantastic; Ginny had shared with him all the information that she gave to any curious students that weren't ready to go all the way with their significant others. She had created an 'Outercourse Curriculum' and turned it into a to-do list for him, just like she'd done with discovering the castle; snogging, massaging, rubbing, grinding, touching, licking, it had been the seven days of Christmas build up to when they wound up combining all of it on Christmas Day and melting into a sweaty and satisfied puddle on her bed after finally having intercourse.
Every spare moment they'd spent together getting to know each other better in their little cocoon of privacy together.
Now they had to figure out how they would be able to deal with sleeping apart again and Harry didn't know how much he was going to like that, or how he had grown so attached to her so quickly. Even the little things that she did that were somewhat annoying were kind of amusing, like how she could wind up using all of her tea cups in a matter of two days and leaving half drunk cups all over her suite before gathering them up and cleaning them, or how there was so much clutter but if he dared to move any of it she would grumble at him because it was her mess and she knew exactly where she'd left everything so if he moved it she'd likely never find it… yet, again, she couldn't remember her tea cups.
Nothing about her was even close to a deal breaker though.
This next phase of their relationship was going to be interesting though. Ginny fully admitted she was curious to see how long it might take them to slip up, or for their coworkers or the students to start guessing. Harry figured they could make it to at least Valentine's Day without anyone catching on, and he was already thinking about Valentine's Day, which was never a day he had given much thought at all about until now.
He nearly opened his mouth to ask Neville about the perfect flowers for a new relationship, but that would most certainly lead to a few questions and potentially giving it all away.
"What did you get up to for the holidays?" Harry asked his friend, which sent Neville off on a long dialogue of occurrences in his greenhouses over the last two weeks, conveniently stopping Harry from sharing the only subject that was on his mind.
Late that evening Harry was back in his suite, bored and yet unable to get to sleep. All the students and professors were back and the professors that had taken the holiday were on the schedule for patrols and such for the next two weeks, essays weren't going to start getting turned in until tomorrow so he had nothing to read over or mark, and he knew he couldn't just head over to Ginny's now that Pamona was back so he was simply sitting on his couch and staring at the fire.
Until there was a knock on his window.
He turned his head and saw Ginny sitting on her broom right outside, he stared at her in surprise for a moment before hurrying over to open the window and let her in.
"Thank you," she said, quickly touching down to the floor and shrugging off her cloak. "I was going to suggest a night fly but after only being out there for a few minutes I can assure you that it would be a romantic idea only, the execution of it would only lead to pneumonia."
He grinned at her, "well then, let me lead you over to the couch by the fire and we can get you warmed up."
She hurried over and hung her cloak over the back of his armchair, placing her gloves and hat on the hearth, then snuggled up against him when he sat back down where he'd been moments ago. "Hmm, you're nice and warm."
"Glad to be of help," he smiled. "And I guess now we know how to get in to see each other without having to wander the halls."
"It'll be an ever better way when the weather is nicer."
"You staying here for the night then," he asked hopefully.
"I'd like to." She sat up some and took a look around his suite. "This is nearly double the size of mine, but not nearly as cozy." She put her hand to the back of the couch and gave a pat, "not a blanket in sight."
"You've got plenty to spare if you want to help me cozy this place up. I certainly don't know what to do with it." The only things he'd brought with him were clothes, toiletries, his own pillows and bedding and a few books. He'd gathered a few items since moving in but that still only amounted to pantry items and more books, the walls were still bare.
"I might do that if we make it a habit of my coming over here, if that's alright."
"I'm very alright with that," he assured her and gave her a kiss to the top of her head as she snuggled back in against him.
And gradually over the next month she did wind up bringing two quilts over to his suite, and leaving a toothbrush and change of clothes at his suite, and he did the same at hers since he stayed there on the nights she was on call.
There was a break in the weather one night and they wound up going for a fly over the forbidden forest, each pushing each other harder and harder to go faster and try more daring moves, it ended with the two of them needing Pepper-Up Potion but was still worth it.
He was sure that Neville had caught on about their relationship before February had arrived, and Pamona had caught him leaving through Ginny's window one morning and he'd given her an awkward smile and wave, to which she responded with a small smile and a shake of her head. By mid-February the entire staff was aware of it, which was helpful since he wanted Valentine's evening off so he could take Ginny out on their first proper date and that was much easier to make happen if Minerva knew why.
Getting a reservation at a Muggle restaurant on Valentine's Day had been a bigger ordeal that he'd expected, they had wound up with an 8:00pm dinner time at a Gastro Pub in Edinburgh with a set menu.
"I appreciate the gesture, but we could have gone to one of those faster food places with the items I can pronounce and I'd have been perfectly happy," Ginny grinned at him across the table.
Harry glanced around the room at the shear number of tables that had been squeezed into the space. It didn't look all that romantic, it looked overrun, just like the poor waiters did. Ginny looked stunning though, she'd gotten dressed up and made her hair look lovely, a fast-food joint wouldn't have required this level of effort from either of them. He himself was wearing a collared shirt and jacket. His tie felt too tight though, he wore one throughout the day, but it wasn't pulled right up to sit properly at the top button like it was now.
"Seeing as how loud and crowded this place is, a quick meal at McDonalds might have been a less trying experience, but I was trying to make an effort," he frowned.
Ginny put her hand on his and leaned forward, "it's appreciated, I promise you. I just hope the food is worth it. More for your sake," she added.
"Why more for my sake?"
"You're paying," she shrugged with a grin.
He laughed at that and raised his glass of red in cheers to her.
Thankfully the food was alright, not amazing, but alright. It was a wider range of flavors than they normally had at the school. After dinner they walked hand in hand around the older parts of the city near the castle.
He didn't know why he thought that them going out for a date would wind up feeling different than when they were just spending time alone in one of their suites; he had assumed that there might be some kind of change felt in their dynamic, that they might struggle to find things to talk about, they didn't though. Everything was as effortless as it had been since they started seeing each other.
They went back to his suite after the date and were snuggled up in bed, him playing with a strand of her hair as she rested her head on his bare chest and he felt so completely content with everything.
"I think I'm in love with you," he blurted out.
"Think?" she replied sleepily. "That isn't really something you should bring up until you're sure."
"Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm in love with you. Is that better?" he smirked.
"Not particularly," she said and then gave a stretch before nuzzling into his chest some more. "Tell me again when you know and I might say it back."
He chuckled. "Do you have another list of 'to do's for me that'll help me figure it out for sure?"
"Not off the top of my head, but I'm sure I could come up with some. We haven't even had our first fight yet, we should get through one of those before you go throwing the word 'love' around."
"You saying you don't think you love me?" He was wounded by the thought that she might not feel the same way about him. It had been months, he'd been closer to her than he had been to anyone. If what she felt for him wasn't even close to love then maybe this whole thing had been a bad idea.
And that would be heart breaking.
"No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I'm not going to tell you whether or not I love you when we're only two months in." She got up onto her elbow so she could look at him. "I've told my friends and family I love them, that's it, I've never said it to any of my boyfriends because when I do I will be sure that it isn't just a passing thing. Can you honestly tell me right now that you think we're going to be together for years, possibly forever?"
"Well… no, I'm not thinking that far out." He wasn't even making plans for summer break yet, nor Easter, and that was coming up soon too.
"Okay, so it sounds like we're on the same page. Once one of us are thinking long term then maybe one of us will say it to the other but putting pressure on either of us about this doesn't seem fair."
She was right, of course, he didn't want to force her to say it, he also didn't want to feel pressured into saying it either, because he had also never told anyone outside of those who raised him that he loved them either, and even with them it was rare that he said it.
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, "you can't fault me for bringing up the subject today of all days, can you?"
She gave him a smile and a kiss. "No, I suppose today of all days would be the one to bring it up."
She settled back in against him and they lay there in silence for a few more minutes.
"Bringing up the important topics might be a good idea at this point though," he started again.
"Like what?"
"Well, we've already covered the sex part, but what about kids? Do you want some eventually?" He hadn't thought too hard on the subject but she'd mentioned about having a few nieces already and she came from a large family.
"Eventually. Not nearly as many as my parents had though. I figure maybe start with one and then see what happens. My mum worked until she had Percy, the third son, then stayed home because it made more sense; I can't see myself ever wanting to be a housewife and mother with no job or career for myself."
"Think you'll want to continue on with a career here at the school through all that?"
The night continued on with the two of them talking over the big things, future plans for themselves, not mentioning anything about future spouses, comparing how they grew up and what they would have wanted to happen differently.
It wasn't until after Easter break, after Ginny had brought him home to meet her family, that he knew for sure he loved her, yet he didn't tell her until the school year was up.
Then it wasn't until two years later that they moved into a larger suite at the school together, as Mr. & Mrs. Potter.
On the wall of their suite Ginny had hung up two pieces of paper in a frame, the first one was the list she had given to him of places to discover in the castle, the second one was given to him on the night of their wedding, a list she'd made for herself after their first Valentine's Day together of all the things she thought a couple should go through before deciding to commit to each other, and every box was checked off.
There was another framed note full of checkmarks in their bedroom of her sex-ed curriculum.
()()()