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Category: Alternate Universe Characters:Harry/Ginny Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Fluff, General, Romance Warnings: Extreme Language, Sexual Situations Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 725 Summary: Their nightmares and demons bound them together. Their love helped them to survive. Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley knew they needed each other; the trouble was in admitting it. Hitcount: Story Total: 277275; Chapter Total: 17430 Awards: View Trophy Room |
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Chapter 22 Professor Dumbledore stood stoically in the hospital wing as Madame Pomfrey fussed over her two newest patients. “…students beating each other up,” the nurse muttered under her breath. She stood up to rinse out the wet cloth she was using to mop the blood from a cut on Ginny’s forehead. “And while teachers sat by and watched!” “Wouldn’t have happened in my day,” she continued darkly. She ran her wand over the cut and sutures magically appeared, binding the skin back together. “In my day, we respected our fellow students!” She said this last bit while glaring down at Ginny, her wand in one hand, while she gently probed Ginny’s ribcage with her fingers. When Ginny yelped, she nodded in satisfaction. “You’ve got three bruised ribs, young lady,” Pomfrey said. “I’ll get you some muscle strengthening potion, but you’ll be sore for a few days.” She bustled off to the back of the infirmary leaving Harry and Ginny alone with the headmaster. Dumbledore stepped forward, his purple cloak swishing around him. He stood between their beds at the foot of them and fixed his twinkling eyes on both of them in turn. “I trust you are both satisfied with the results of the duel?” he asked genially. Harry nodded and Ginny gave a soft, “Yes, Professor.” “Good,” he said, smoothing his beard. “It was quite a lot of work, you know, getting two people as stubborn as yourselves to participate in such an elaborate scheme.” He ignored their shocked faces and continued, “I usually feel that less is more in such a plot, but in this case,” he smiled down at them, “a certain ingenuity was in order.” Ginny opened her mouth to reply, but found she had nothing to say. Was the whole tournament, the whole thing, for them? Just to get them to duel each other? How could he have known it would work? And what if they hadn’t agreed to duel each other? What then? “Complicated plans require a lot of timing – most of which one has no control over, but in this case, it was easy to guess how you would both behave,” Dumbledore said, guessing Ginny’s thoughts. He stepped back and straightened his hat. “Now, I expect that you’d like to be alone. I’ll leave, but I would like to see both of you some time tomorrow in my office. We’ve things to discuss.” He nodded at Ginny and winked at Harry before he was gone in a swirl of robes. Harry watched the hospital doors bang closed behind Dumbledore before turning to Ginny with his eyebrows raised. “Why do I feel like a pawn in Ron’s chess set?” Ginny snorted and said, “I think we’re both pawns actually. Wonder why he cares so much about how we get along.” Harry shrugged. “I reckon we were making everyone pretty miserable.” “It’s all my fault,” Ginny mumbled. “What?” Ginny took a deep breath and said louder, “I reckon you were right about me.” Harry looked at her curiously from his bed. “Right about what?” Ginny was silent for a moment and Harry watched as her hands fisted in the bed clothes. “What you said about me on the train in September - about me being a coward,” she said finally. Harry didn’t know what to say to that. Over the years he had seen Ginny cry, yell, rage, throw things, laugh, curse, and make stupid decisions, but he had never, ever heard her admit to being a coward. Ginny was one of the bravest people he knew. He’d heard her say she was afraid once or twice, but he’d always thought bravery was more about admitting you had fears and then facing them anyway. Ginny had always been excellent at that. “I can’t believe you just said that,” he said, blinking in astonishment. “It’s true,” she insisted. Her head turned on her pillow to face him. Madame Pomfrey appeared and gave her the muscle-strengthening potion; she had to remain very still while it worked on the ribs he’d bruised. “That’s why I ran, Harry,” she said after Madame Pomfrey left. “That’s why I left that morning and told Dean I would take him back. Tom was just an excuse.” She propped herself up on her left elbow, but the movement was apparently too much. She winced and flopped back down on the bed. “But I wasn’t afraid of you or what we had done,” she said miserably to the ceiling. “I was afraid because I didn’t want to lose you. I had finally admitted what I’d been denying to myself, and I just knew that meant something was going to happen to destroy it. Whether it’s Tom coming for you or me screwing it up, I was afraid something would happen to you, and I didn’t want to be so close that it would hurt when you were gone.” Her confession shook him. Harry had been so certain that she hadn’t really meant what she’d said that night – about loving him. It had been easier for him to think she was a liar than afraid of what they meant to each other. It was harder for him to accept that she’d left that morning because of her fears. That path had led towards hope that she could get over her fears, and he couldn’t let himself hope that what happened between them wasn’t over. “So…um…what is that you’ve been denying to yourself?” he managed to ask. She turned to look at him, irritation hiding the vulnerability in her eyes. “That I’m head over arse in love with you. You big prat.” They weren’t the most romantic or even the most poetic, but they were the sweetest words Harry had ever heard. She’d admitted it…again. And they’d already established there were no takebacks for such a thing. Relief washed over him. “There’s no takebacks for that,” he warned. Harry would be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid now. Afraid to trust her. Afraid that she WAS going to take this conversation back. Her face softened. “No takebacks,” she repeated. “I know. And it scares the shite out of me, but I realised something while we were beating the bloody hell out of each other. Tom wasn’t there that night; he only showed up when I woke up the next morning and started, you know…panicking.” Harry’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What are you saying?” “I think Tom can’t stand it when we’re…you know…thinking about…love…or whatever.” Ginny felt awkward. “It was only when I began to question myself that he swooped in and... you know.” She wasn’t sure how to say what she was thinking without sounding like a cliché. She chanced a look at Harry and saw recognition dawn on his face. She should have known he’d get it without her having to explain further. He sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Ginny, we need to talk about this. You can’t just expect me to forget about everything that happened. What you did-” he stopped and swallowed heavily, “-it messed me up. It messed us up and we are something that I’ve always been able to count on. That I need to be able to count on.” “I know,” she said quietly. “And I know you can’t forget. But I’m hoping that with time maybe you’ll forgive me?” She looked at him anxiously, her heart in her eyes. Harry wanted to be strong, he wanted to be able to go slowly and rebuild the trust between them. But the truth was he’d already forgiven her. Maybe that was really stupid of him and maybe she was going to turn right around and break his heart again but all he knew was his life had been shite the past six months without her. “I have,” he said shortly. “I have forgiven you.” “You…you have?” “Yes. I’m just not sure if I can trust you. And I won’t pretend that I understand why you did what you did; but I believe that you’re sorry about it.” She nodded fiercely. “I AM. So sorry. Harry, I’ve been miserable without you. You were so right – I was letting Tom mess with my head. I should have known better. Sometimes I-” she looked down at her hands twisting in her lap, “-I can’t believe I did that to you. That I was so cruel. I was such a coward.” “Hey,” Harry said softly. She looked up and met his eyes. “I get being scared, okay?” he said softly. “I get that what’s between us scares you. It scares me too.” “It does? But you seemed so sure…that night by the pond.” He smiled ruefully at her. “I was terrified. Terrified that I was going to ruin our friendship. Terrified that you didn’t feel the same. I’m not sure I would have had the nerve if Fred and George hadn’t snuck me that Firewhisky.” She grinned. “Don’t ever tell them that. We’d never hear the end of it.” He grinned back. “No problem.” They were smiling at each other, and for a moment it felt like things were as they used to be, but then Ginny shifted and the pain around her ribs reminded her that she’d hurt him badly enough that she’d had to force him to beat her up just to get them talking again. She let out a deep breath. “So. Where do we go from here?” Harry opened his mouth to respond, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by an enraged Hermione who’d apparently just gotten past Madame Pomfrey. “Harry Potter! Ginny Weasley! What on earth did you guys think you were doing! You could have killed one another!” Harry and Ginny turned their heads to see a simmering Hermione marching towards them, her bushy hair practically sparking with indignation. Ron was walking less intensely behind her, his face unreadable. She stopped at the foot of their beds, her hands on her hips and glared at them furiously. “I have never seen such a display of childish behaviour in my life! Do you have any idea how awful it was to watch you guys try and KILL each other? I can’t believe Dumbledore let that continue!” “He couldn’t stop it, Hermione,” Ginny said, interrupting her tirade. “It’s a magical contract, you know that. We had to fight it out.” “Oh! Of course, by all means, let’s beat the bloody hell out of each other then!” their friend threw up her hands in frustration. “Did it never occur to either one of you to just concede? Or forfeit?!” Harry looked at her blankly. “No. Why would we want to do that?” “Because you’re supposed to be friends!” she shrieked at them. “You’re not supposed to beat each other up!” “Hermione,” Ginny said patiently. “It’s fine. We’re fine. It…er…helped actually.” “I suppose it didn’t occur to you either that maybe you could have settled your argument by talking about it? As opposed to settling it with a duel?” “We tried that,” Harry said shortly. “It didn’t work very well.” Hermione opened her mouth to respond but shut it quickly. Harry was dismayed to see tears in her eyes. Shite, she wasn’t going to cry, was she? “Hermione?” Ginny said uncertainly. “Are you okay?” Their friend nodded but pressed a hand to her mouth. “I’m fine,” she squeaked after a moment. “It’s just that,” she cleared her throat and lowered her hand. “It’s just that it was awful – watching you guys do that to each other. I felt so helpless.” “Hermione, what happened had nothing to do with you,” Ginny told her, shaking her head. “Harry and I had to work things out on our own.” “I know, I know,” Hermione nodded. She wiped away a stray tear. “I just…just love you guys so much and -” She broke off and turned around to bury her face in Ron’s chest. Ron rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend’s trembling torso. Unlike Hermione, he understood a little more about what had happened in the ring. It hadn’t been easy to watch Harry beat the living shite out of his little sister; nor had it been easy to watch his sister beat the shite out of his best friend – but he sensed that it was helping them to work out whatever the animosity was between them. Ron had a pretty good idea as to what had happened between Harry and Ginny but both had been closemouthed about the subject and he hadn’t wanted to press the issue. “Hermione, why don’t you go back to the dorm?” Ron suggested in a low voice. “I’ll be along in a minute.” Hermione lifted her head and nodded at him, still sniffling. She smiled shakily at Harry and Ginny and left the hospital wing. Ron watched her go and when the hospital doors closed behind her, he turned back around to face his sister and his friend. His expression was suddenly hard, and both Ginny and Harry gulped. “Hermione might be a little emotional, but she has a point,” he told them. His face was thunderous. “I can’t believe you both let it get this far. You both need to grow up and stop being such stubborn gits. If I ever — EVER - see the two of you go at it like that again, I will -“ “Ron, you have no idea what happened,” Harry interrupted. “If you did know, you -“ “I’ve my own ideas about what happened between you,” Ron said firmly. “And I’m not sure I even care to know anymore. I just know that if ever see my sister and my best friend hurting one another like this again, you are both going to have bigger problems then each other.” He glared at them, meeting both pairs of eyes with a fierceness that surprised Ginny. “We’re sorry Ron,” she said, not really sure why she was apologizing. “I know all this must have been hard on you and Hermione.” “Yes, it has,” he nodded. “The past six months have been difficult for everyone, for all your friends. You guys don’t understand how much people look up to you. How important you are -” he broke off, shaking his head. “There’s a bloody war on,” he said. “And you two are more important than I think we’d all like to admit. But none of that, not even being scared that You-Know-Who is going to kill your sister and your best friend, was as scary as watching you two go at each other like that. I can’t watch something like that again.” Harry nodded silently. He didn’t trust himself to speak. “So fix it,” said Ron harshly. “Fix this. Whatever happened, it’s not worth throwing your friendship away. So get over it.” “We will,” Ginny assured him. “We’re working on it.” “Good,” her brother nodded. “’Cause it’s a sad day when I’m the mature one.” Harry snorted and Ron grinned. “I’d better go make sure Hermione is all right. I’ll see you guys later.” After Ron left, Harry turned to Ginny in amazement. “Can you believe him?” “He’s really growing up, isn’t he?” she mused. She looked back at him. “You didn’t tell him what I did.” Harry shook his head. “I didn’t tell anyone.” “Why?” she asked, tilting her head at him. “You were so angry with me -“ “It was just…private, I guess.” “But you were the man scorned. I’d have thought you would have told everyone.” “I don’t talk about my friends behind their backs, Fury. You know me better than that.” “Friends,” she repeated blandly. “So we’re um…friends again then?” Harry opened his mouth to respond, but was once again cut off by a shriek from the hospital doorway. “Harry!” It was Parvati. Harry rolled his eyes. Great, just what he needed. He’d been about to tell Ginny that he wanted to be more than friends – that he was ready to try; and that he’d barely touched Parvati in the last six months because he couldn’t get the taste and smell of Ginny out of his head. The last thing he needed was his increasingly annoying girlfriend there. Ginny’s eyes widened when she saw that Dean was right behind Parvati. Bugger. Dean’s eyes were fixed on her as Parvati fussed over a suddenly grumpy Harry. “Are you all right?” he asked quietly. She nodded quickly. “I’m fine.” She realised she was going to have to break up with Dean. And sooner, rather than later. She hadn’t treated him fairly. She’d used him and led him on – all in an attempt to ignore what she felt for Harry. It was time to stop running. Ginny took a deep breath. “Listen, Dean -” “Actually I need to say something first,” he interrupted. He sat down in the chair beside her bed and scooted it closer. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped between them. “I really like you,” he said honestly. “I’m not going to pretend about that. But I can see that you don’t feel the same. And I’d rather be with someone who likes me for me, not because I give her a reason to ignore feelings she may have for a certain roommate of mine.” Ginny smiled weakly. “I do like you. You’re kind and smart and funny and very, very sweet. But -” “But, yeah,” he smiled briefly at her. “Guess it wasn’t meant to be, huh?” “I’m sorry,” she said earnestly. “I’ve treated you so awfully.” “Nah,” he said, getting to his feet. “You were a pretty decent girlfriend actually. You never made promises you couldn’t keep and when you weren’t occupied with other things -” his eyes shifted to Harry’s bed, “- it was fun.” Dean leaned down and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “I hope everything works out, yeah? Don’t be stupid about things. I don’t want to see you resolving your issues in a duelling circle anymore.” Ginny swallowed past the lump in her throat and smiled. “I’ll try not to. But you know me, if I can find a way to bollocks it up I will.” “That’s not true,” he said sternly. “You need to have more faith in yourself. Others do. You should believe them.” “Dean,” she said softly. “Thanks. For everything. I mean it.” He grasped the hand she held out to him and squeezed it gently before letting go. A loud sniffle from the next bed distracted them, and Ginny looked over to find Parvati sitting beside Harry’s bed with tears in her eyes. She was staring at her knees while Harry spoke intensely, her hands twisting in her lap in obvious distress. Ginny and Dean watched while a tear dripped down her face and Harry stopped talking and grabbed his wand to conjure a white handkerchief which he handed to her. She accepted it quietly and stood up regally. He said something in a low voice to her and she nodded again, smiled briefly, turned on her heel and walked slowly out of the room. Dean looked at Ginny apologetically. “I should probably go and make sure she’s all right,” he said. Ginny nodded encouragingly. “Thanks for coming. And for being so understanding.” He smiled brilliantly at her and for one brief moment, Ginny was reminded of why she’d been attracted to him in the first place. She watched him chase after Parvati, but felt only relief when he caught up to the girl and put an arm gently around her shoulders. “Regrets?” Harry asked her quietly. She turned her head back to face him. “No,” she said honestly. “Only that I hurt him. He ended it with me you know. Apparently he’s not as blind as I thought.” “Parvati wasn’t either,” Harry said sheepishly. “She said I’d been wasting her time and that I treated her shabbily.” He shrugged. “She was right.” “So, regrets then?” “No,” he shook his head. “Only that I used her. I can’t believe we let things get so out of hand.” “It was my fault,” she said miserably. “If I hadn’t been such a coward and listened to that bastard…” Harry didn’t know what to say to that because it was mostly true. “I’ll take my share of the blame for the past six months,” he said finally. “I wanted to hurt you like you hurt me.” Ginny smiled and shook her head. “This is weird. We’re usually trying to blame each other; not the other way around.” She shifted on the bed and cleared her throat. “I want you to know that…um…well, I didn’t…you know…with Dean. I couldn’t. It wasn’t even an issue with us. We…um…well, we’re not that close, if you know what I mean.” She chanced a look at him. She wanted him to understand that he was the only person she’d ever want to be with like that. Harry’s eyes flared as he met her gaze. “That’s good to know, Fury. Very good to know.” “Is it?” she squeaked. He nodded. “Parvati and I didn’t either.” “No?” He shook his head ruefully. “How could I? After what you and I had shared? I knew it would never compare. Plus, I didn’t want her to think we had that much of a future.” Ginny opened her mouth to respond, but just then, Madame Pomfrey came back over to check on Ginny’s ribs and Harry’s knee. She examined them with a somewhat cross look on her face and grumpily admitted they could leave. “As long as you both take it easy,” she warned them. “Ms. Weasley, you need to keep that tape on your ribs for another week. That potion will work faster if you don’t get in any more strenuous physical activities.” She stared pointedly at Harry. “S’not my fault!” he protested, getting to his feet and reaching for the cane the nurse was handing him. “She started it!” Madame Pomfrey frowned at Ginny whose face quickly adopted an innocent expression. “Regardless, I don’t want to see either one of you back in here the rest of the semester.” They grinned at her and left the hospital wing. Harry turned to the left like he was going to go back to the Gryffindor Common Room, but Ginny hesitated. “What? What’s wrong?” He stopped and looked back at her over his shoulder. “I just…don’t think I can go back there right now,” she said. “Everyone is going to be staring at us and asking questions. I just…” she sighed. “It’s been a really long day.” “Okay. How ‘bout the Room of Requirement then?” He turned around and headed in the opposite direction. “Really?” Ginny said, hurrying after him. “You’re going to go with me? You don’t mind?” Harry halted in the corridor and looked at her incredulously. “Have you missed the last hour? I know we kept getting interrupted, but I’ve been trying to tell you that, despite your best intentions to prove otherwise, I’m pretty certain that we belong together.” He reached out, grabbed her hand in his and laced their fingers together. “Beginning right now.” Ginny stared at their clasped hands and then back up to meet his eyes. “Are you sure?” He took a step towards her. “More certain than I’ve ever been about anything.” “’Cause the chances that I’ll bugger this up are pretty great.” Harry shrugged. “No greater than me screwing up.” “We’re probably going to be fighting like cats and dogs in three months.” He laughed. “Gin, if we go three weeks without fighting it’ll be a bloody miracle.” He took another step towards her. He slid an arm around her waist and mindful of her ribs, pulled her gently against him. “It’s time you accepted something. I know it’s scary and your first instinct is going to be to run but here it is. Are you ready?” She nodded, eyes wide and bit her lip. Harry bent his head, put his lips right next to her ear and whispered: “Harry Potter loves Ginny Weasley.” He pulled back to see Ginny’s eyes shut tight; a small smile gracing her lips. He hovered near her mouth tempted to kiss her, but wanting her to open her eyes first so she could see the truth in his eyes. When she finally opened them, they were soft and filled with something he was pretty sure was love. For him. Ginny lifted a hand and cupped his cheek. Her thumb stroked his cheek just beneath a beautiful green eye. “I don’t deserve you,” she whispered. “And I don’t deserve this chance. But I’m going to grab it anyway.” “We deserve each other. And you’d better,” Harry said, just before his mouth captured hers. He kissed her slowly and thoroughly, his tongue sliding in and out of her mouth with ease. Ginny just…melted. Her arms slid up around his neck and his cane clattered to the floor as he wrapped his other arm around her waist. She moaned and pressed against his chest. He kissed her harder, his mouth slanting over hers, and every reason why she’d run from him in the first place flew out of her brain. Three minutes later they were pacing back and forth in front of the portrait that guarded the Room of Requirement. When the doorknob appeared, Harry lunged for it and ushered her inside. Once inside, he pressed her against the wall, held her in place with his body and kissed her again. “I thought we should go slowly,” he said, breaking the kiss to press his lips underneath her jaw. “We just beat the effing hell out of each other after all. Some people might think that would ruin the mood.” “This doesn’t feel like going slowly,” she gasped when his mouth found her ear lobe. “Slow, past tense,” Harry said, tracing the shell of her ear with his tongue. He knew they should go slow, but he was damned if he could stop himself now. The one night they had together and the subsequent morning haunted him and he wanted to replace the images with something more…permanent. “I think it bears repeating that there’s no turning back after this. After this, you’re mine and I won’t let go,” he cautioned, lifting his head. His eyes met hers while his hands slid down her sides to grip the hem of her tank top. “I don’t want to turn back,” Ginny said quietly. “No more running. I promise.” “No more running,” Harry repeated. He pulled her shirt up until it was bunched just underneath her breasts. His fingers traced the edges of the tape Pomfrey had used to secure her ribs. “For either of us.” He carried her over to the bed against her protests about his injured knee and quickly divested her of her clothing before laying her in the centre of the bed the room had supplied for them. He stepped back to remove his own clothes, his eyes fixed on the glorious picture she created. “You look like a goddess,” he murmured while unfastening his pants. Her skin was a glowing ivory, her crimson hair spread over the pillows like a fan. When he was finally moving inside her for the second time in his life, that was when he decided he’d found a home at last. “Promise me you’ll be here in the morning,” he breathed, lowering his head to her shoulder. “I don’t ever want to wake up without you again.” “I promise,” she murmured, arching her hips to meet his thrusts. Tears sprang to her eyes and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know you’re going to doubt me but I promise I won’t ever run again.” She whimpered when his teeth fastened on the spot where her neck met her shoulder. “Ginny Weasley loves Harry Potter,” she whispered. “I love you, Harry.” She gasped when he moved deeper and pressed frantic kisses to his shoulder. “I love you.” It was only much later, when Harry woke up the next morning to find Ginny lying on her side and facing him, that he really believed her. He smiled sleepily and stroked his hand down her side, caressing the dip at her waist and coming to stop on the curve of her hip. When his thumb rubbed softly over her hipbone she opened her eyes and smiled slowly at him. “Hey,” she said softly. “Thank you,” Harry whispered. He scooted across the few feet separating them and wrapped his arms around her, rolling her over onto her back. He buried his face in her neck and breathed deeply. “Thank you.” “Can you believe how sappy we’ve gotten,” she murmured, resting her cheek on his head. “It’s just a matter of time before I send you flowers,” he said, his voice muffled in her hair. “And hey, isn’t there a Hogsmeade weekend coming up? We’ll have lunch at Madame Puddifoot’s.” She cursed him rather eloquently in parseltongue. He smiled into her skin and slid a knee between her legs. One hand trailed down the outside of her thigh and grasped her knee, pulling it up to wrap a leg around his waist. “Mmm,” Ginny moaned. “We should probably get back to the common room soon. Everyone is probably wondering where we are.” Harry shifted his hips, lifting his head just in time to watch her eyes roll back in her head. “Okay,” she gasped. “I guess they can wait a little longer.” |
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