Knickers

Chapter 16: Forever

Harry didn’t know why he had worried so much about dating Ginny. Indeed, it had been two weeks since their first date and everything had gone so well that on this, their sixth ‘official’ date (although he certainly considered their increasingly frequent snogging sessions in Ginny’s room something akin to dating…), they had ended up ignoring the end of the movie they had gone to and alternating between refreshingly meaningless conversation and snogging each other.

Now, sitting in a corner booth at the Leaky Cauldron, he enjoyed the fact that, at least for the moment, they were relatively alone together and away from the prying eyes of the wizarding public. Indeed, he and Ginny’s relationship had somehow been able to fly underneath radar of the all-seeing-eye of the press-their intention when they had begun to date- for the past two weeks but they both knew that this wasn’t going to last long. Sooner or later it was going to get out Harry Potter had a new girlfriend and that was going to be the end of any privacy they might enjoy-including that of the Muggle world too.

Ginny sipped the Butterbeer that she had ordered, looking Harry in the eye and smiling around the mouth of the bottle. The past two weeks had gone well; she had never known that Harry could be this fun. Well, that wasn’t true. She HAD known-she just had never allowed herself to hope that she would ever be in this position with him. He had seemed too perfect at the time for Ginny to contemplate.

She was quickly coming to see how wrong she had been. Harry had faults just like everybody else in the world. He was stubborn, sometimes ignorant but above all, self-deprecating and unsure of himself. Indeed, she had known that he had been starved for affection as a boy but she was only now realizing what kind of mark it had left on him.

“So what happened with you and Katie?” she moved on from her inward thoughts, instead choosing to interrogate Harry a little.

Harry started, eyebrows raised at her forwardness tonight. He shouldn’t have been surprised; Ginny had always been one to speak her mind but tonight-with the exception of a few rare moments, she had been keeping this to herself. The polite gloves of early dating were coming off apparently. “Wow. You really get straight to the point, don’t you?”

Ginny shrugged, “Life’s too short to be subtle. Ask the hard questions and don’t regret it because tomorrow, you could be dead,” she took a big gulp of her Butterbeer.

Harry nodded, “Isn’t that the truth.”

Ginny bit her lip. Maybe she shouldn’t have said that last thing the way she had. She was talking to Harry Potter after all, Boy-Who-Lived and killer of Voldemort. If anyone knew about life being too short-even by wizarding standards-it was him, “I’ve said something wrong then?” she murmured, looking down at him self-consciously, “Something disturbing?”

“No,” Harry took a sip of his own Butterbeer and shaking his head. “I just didn’t expect that kind of thing to come out of your mouth. You’re usually so optimistic.”

“And I am, Harry,” she leaned forward, smiling. Thank Merlin he hadn’t taken offence to that... “You’re just getting to see a different side of me tonight.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” he sat his Butterbeer down on the table. “What happened with me and Katie then? Do you mean the whole thing, or are we just talking about the break-up?”

“The whole thing,” Ginny smile turned into a smug grin. “I’m curious.”

“Are you now?” Harry drawled, smiling. He loved it when Ginny displayed another side of herself to him. It just made him love her more... “On one condition though; I tell you this, and you tell me about Colin.”

Her smile drooped slightly, bolstered from losing itself entirely by the alcohol she had consumed before she had switched to Butterbeer. “Alright,” she murmured. “That sounds like a fair trade.”

Harry’s smile faltered. Both of them appeared to be pushing each other tonight and he wasn’t sure if it should continue. He didn’t want to insult her accidentally by asking too personal of questions, nor did he want the same done to him if it was done in retaliation. “Ginny, we don’t have to discuss it if you don’t want to. I was just teasing you…”

“No Harry,” Ginny shrugged. “I think I’d like to talk to you about it actually. Might do me some good. I haven’t really talked about this since it ended.”

“Oh,” Harry said awkwardly. With a sigh, he raised a hand to Tom at the bar, motioning for him to come over.

Ginny looked confused, “What are you doing?”

Harry simply looked at her wryly, “Something tells me we’re going to need to switch back to firewhiskey for this conversation.”

She smiled wryly. “That’s the best idea you’ve had all night.”

“I thought so,” Harry murmured, watching as Tom came over to them. “A bottle of firewhiskey please.”

“Coming right up,” he replied, walking back to bar and grabbing a bottle and two shot glasses, setting them on the table that Harry and Ginny were occupying and walking away.

Harry opened the bottle, pouring two shots for them and handing one of the glasses to Ginny. “Cheers.”

“Cheers,” Ginny smiled, following Harry’s lead and downing the shot, wincing as the steam that accompanied the drinking of firewhiskey came out of her ears. Her smile faltered though, as she took in the sight of two of Tom’s patrons pointing in their direction excitedly. “Um, Harry? How would you feel about taking this conversation back to the Burrow. I think someone’s spotted us…”

Harry looked over his shoulder, noticing the two people who were now going up to a large group of wizards and witches in the corner of the bar and continuing to point in their direction. “Sounds like a plan. We don’t want to bother your Mum and end up on the cover of the Daily Prophet tomorrow morning.”

Ginny nodded, standing up and watching as Harry went over to the bar and paid their tab. She picked up the firewhiskey bottle and slipped it into her purse.

“You ready then? Tom says we can use his floo to leave,” Harry came back over to Ginny and said quietly, leading her to a door behind the bar.

Ginny simply followed, knowing what Harry’s fans-and the fans that she too had accumulated-would do if they caught them at the bar. Their date would officially be over as autographs were signed and people were greeted and she wasn’t ready for that. Tonight had been too nice to end that way.

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They emerged from the floo sooty and breathless, and soon settled themselves on the couch with the bottle of firewhiskey.

“Now,” Ginny drawled, pouring the alcohol into one of the glasses she had retrieved from the kitchen, passing it to him. “Where were we Mr. Potter?”

“I believe I was about to tell you about my relationship with Katie,” he took a sip and leaned back against the couch. He furrowed his brow in thought. He didn’t know how to start, not with Ginny anyways. Should he go with the truth for this one or, alternatively, did he simply want to tell her what she wanted to hear….

“Take your time Harry,” Ginny took in his hesitancy, inwardly kicking herself for needing the emotional well-being that came from knowing that Harry’s relationship with Katie had all been a sham. This was just the second week they had been dating-she shouldn’t need this kind of assurance this early on in their relationship…

Harry sighed. He wanted to tell her everything but how was he to do that? Did he tell her that, before they were lovers they were friends (and still were) or that he had started sleeping with her before there had been a plot to get Oliver and Katie to notice them? These were things that Ginny didn’t have to know, but that he wanted her to hear. With this in mind did he begin to talk, conscious of the fact that he could very well ruin what they had, fragile as it was, in the stretch of a sentence but genuinely wanting Ginny to know the entire truth about he and Katie.

He just hoped she could forgive him.

“It started about the same time that you started seriously dating Colin….”

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Harry sat back against the couch, silently sipping his glass of what was left of the firewhiskey. He and Ginny had talked for hours, the truths of both their previous relationships spilling out of them in blissful relief. It was good to finally be telling the truth again. He felt, rather than saw as Ginny’s body stirred against his on the couch as she finished telling her own tale.

“You’re not disappointed in me, are you?” she murmured, head lifting off his chest to meet his eyes.

Harry raised his eyebrows in disbelief, “Are you serious? Why would I be disappointed in you?”

Ginny shrugged, “I don’t know. I gave up on you rather fast…”

“Ginny, you had every reason to,” Harry protested. “I was with Susan, and I wasn’t brave enough to go after you when I found out you were dating Colin. Even Katie was angry with me for that. This was entirely my fault and if anyone needs to be angry, it’s you. Merlin, you’ve been so forgiving since you found out what we did to get you and Oliver. I just…”

“Harry,” Ginny interrupted him as giggles of relief made their way through her body. She put a hand up to cover his mouth, “Stop. We’re on even ground now and now’s not the time to dig yourself a hole you can’t get out of again. I forgive you. Truth be told, I think I forgave you the morning after I broke my engagement with Colin.” She shrugged. “I should have thanked you for that actually. From what I hear, he and Laura are shagging like rabbits, even at the office. It’s a good thing I didn’t marry him. So, thank you.”

Harry fell silent again, simply looking at Ginny in wonder. What had he done to deserve such a wonderful woman? He watched as she returned the smile, shaking her head and laughing quietly as if she had made some kind of decision before standing up from the couch.

“Where are you going?” he asked, the firewhiskey making his voice husky.

“Up to bed,” Ginny murmured, holding a hand out to him and helping him up from the couch. “You coming?”

Harry raised an eyebrow, not sure if he was hearing correctly and not willing to follow until he knew for sure what she had meant by her last words.

Ginny Weasley laughed again as she took in the unsure look on Harry’s face. She had listened to his story intently tonight and had come to one conclusion: she should be angry; he had completely manipulated her into a relationship with him. At the end of the day though, Ginny could only think one thing: he had done it all for her, and that was the sexiest thing she had ever heard in her life. Harry had done enough grovelling to her.

She leaned forward, pressing a kiss to his lips, waiting for him to reciprocate, “Do I have to spell it out for you Harry?” She laughed again.

Harry sighed into Ginny’s mouth, taking it and returning the kiss passionately. They stood there for a moment, simply kissing-nothing more, until Harry broke apart from her.

“Ginny,” he murmured against her lips, “Are you sure this is what you want? We can wait…”

“I think we’ve had enough foreplay, don’t you Harry?” she moved her mouth down to his neck, placing kisses on it gently. She felt him groan quietly as she found a particularly sensitive spot. “We’ve had years of it after all…”

She gave a surprised yelp as Harry finally snapped out of his hesitant trance, taking the initiative, finally, and lifting her up into his arms. “This isn’t like Katie you know,” he said. “If we do this, it won’t just be about now-it’ll be about forever.”

“I know,” she kissed him gently on the lips, swollen from her previous kisses. “Now take me to bed. I want to get started on forever and I think we’ve wasted enough time already.”

Harry, thankfully, complied with her wishes.