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To The Moon And Back
By ginpotterfiction

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Category: Post-DH/AB
Characters:None
Genres: Fluff
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: G
Reviews: 12
Summary: Come and watch a sweet and important moment in Harry and Ginny's life.
Hitcount: Story Total: 5290



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.



Author's Notes:

This is my first Harry and Ginny story. I really hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I have writing it.

I would love to take a moment to thank my beta cwarbeck. She is the best and took time out of her day to read over my story and make it glow. Thanks Cel!




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Ginny Weasley smiled softly into her napkin.

If anyone could bugger up a moment it would have to be Harry. Fight dark wizards, no problem — talk about feelings in a coordinated way, definite problem.

Still Ginny smiled. She smiled because she loved him, because he was trying. She had looked away as she smiled to give Harry a moment to regroup. Feeling a sufficient amount of time had passed, she looked up and cocked her head to the side. She felt her body flush with warmth that crept from the tight clench in her stomach up to her cheeks.

But that always happened when Harry looked at her that way.

He was smiling at her, green eyes trained on her own. Reaching across the way, he took her hand.

“Gin, what I’m trying to say is that — oh, I’m screwing this all up. I can’t think when you look at me like that.” He puffed out a breath in exasperation.

“Like what?” Ginny asked innocently as she batted her lashes at him.

“Well, not like that.”

“Hmmph.” Ginny went to pull her hand away in mock indignation but Harry increased the pressure around it.

If it had been anyone else, she would have been irritated. Ginny Weasley hated being contained, restricted, protected — take your pick, really. With Harry, and she would never admit this to anyone, it was different. Slowly, over time, she had gotten used to the way he molded his body around her back when they walked. They managed to hold hands and it was comfortable, but at first it had irritated her to no end. She had talked to Hermione about it one late afternoon sometime last year.



“Well, what bothers you about it?” Hermione had asked, sitting down next to Ginny on the sun warmed grass behind the Burrow as the boys played Quidditch.

“I just don’t like the fact that Harry still feels like he can’t trust me to take care of myself.” When Hermione laughed, Ginny stopped for a second and looked up to see Harry score a point on Ron and punch his fist in the air while performing a celebratory circle around the makeshift goal post. “Laugh all you want, Hermione, but I still don’t like it. I know why he left me behind, and I’ve worked really hard to move past my feelings about that. I just…” she paused to take a deep breath and then she let it all out in a loud whoosh, “I just thought now that everything was done — now he would start to see that I’m a capable witch.”

“Oh, Ginny!” Hermione turned her body fully toward Ginny and smiled at her like a parent would with a child who was having difficulty with the concept of how charms worked. “Harry does see you as a powerful witch. This has nothing to do with thinking you are subpar to him and his abilities, you silly girl.” Now it was Ginny’s turn to laugh.

“It’s about protecting what and who he loves.”

“Well, I don’t bloody need protection anymore, do I? The war is over and Tom is dead.” Ginny huffed as she flopped onto her back dramatically, red hair spilling over the grass giving the impression of a lava flow.

“Yes, but there are two things you are not thinking about here, Ginny, and please sit up while I’m talking to you. I can’t see your eyes and I can’t tell if you are paying attention or not.” Hermione huffed as she tugged on Ginny’s left arm.

“Oh alright. Enlighten me, oh learned one,” Ginny said snarkily.

“Well, number one, and please let me finish before you fall into a rant, there are still Death Eaters out there. Ah, stay silent! Number two, you have to remember that just because the war ended does not mean that Harry can let it go overnight — no more than we can let go of our grief for the dead that way.”

At this admonishment, Ginny looked back toward the house and the kitchen window where she knew her mother was working on making supper for everyone. Everyone except Fred. She felt the familiar pull at her heart and twist of her gut. Tears, however, did not spring to her eyes as they had so freely right after the battle. She and Harry had spent several quite afternoons holding one another, talking softly and crying without embarrassment under a willow tree near the lake. The ache wasn’t any less but her mourning had morphed into a new expression of physiological illness at the thought of Fred, Tonks, Lupin, and all the other deaths. She hadn’t talked to Harry about it. She knew she should, but he had been so busy lately. She just grabbed on to the times when he was safe and happy at the Burrow and refused to burden him with it.

“I’m sorry I brought up Fred and the others. I know today is one of our ‘happy’ days.” Hermione said, a few tears spilling past her eyes.

“No, Hermione, I think that Fred would enjoy being evoked as part of an admonishment in a famous Hermione Weasley — I mean Granger speech.” Ginny laughed at the blush and scrunch of Hermione’s forehead and lips. “I believe that you were on point two, something about Harry being a selfish prat and not being able to get over almost eighteen years of Tom in a day.” Ginny sighed as she leaned against Hermione’s shoulder.

“Yes well.” Hermione pushed back on Ginny’s shoulder and took a few deep breaths before continuing. “I think I made my point with number two, but there is an addition to number two, like an indent on an outline.”

“Hit me with it,” Ginny replied as she leaned her head back and watched the boys fly laps around the pitch throwing the Quaffle back and forth.

“Okay. But you aren’t going to like it at first,” Hermione warned. “This issue, it’s about more than just you.”

Ginny’s head dropped and red sliced through the air in all its brilliant shades. “Excuse you?”

“I told you that you wouldn’t like it,” Hermione stated plainly.

“Care to clarify?” Ginny asked as she pulled at a tuft of grass near her right thigh.

“Well, really, it breaks down to the fact that this relationship is about two people. It’s about what Harry needs and wants just as much just as much as you and yours.” She reached out to Ginny’s hand, stilling it from the destruction of the grass. “What Harry needs right now, heck, he might need forever, is to feel that he can protect you. He knows better than to outright take over, and I don’t think he would ever want to. He fell in love with Ginny Weasley. I don’t think he’s into the passive types.” At this, both girls giggled. “He is, however, going to do some things you may not like but that to him, they’re things that he does unconsciously — like cover your back when in public... when he feels vulnerable.”

Ginny looked up at the sound of Harry’s laughter and smiled. She took several minutes to digest what Hermione had said, and like always, Hermione was right.

“So you’re saying it makes Harry feel better, even safer maybe, to do these things?”

“I think so.” Hermione smiled at the awakening on Ginny’s face.

The girls looked up as the boys voices became clearer, signifying their descent.

“Your boyfriend must think it’s time for supper,” Ginny said as she pushed herself off of the grass and wiped at her trousers.

“I don’t know how we’ll ever be able to support ourselves when we will be responsible for supporting his stomach’s intake,” Hermione said with a shake of the head.

Ginny smiled at her friend but she wasn’t really thinking about her brother’s insatiable appetite. She was thinking about the smiling, messy haired, emerald eyed young man who was strolling toward her. Ginny knew that she loved him, that she would do anything for him. If that meant learning to control the Weasley pride, let him cherish her, take care of her, when he needed to — well, then, she was just going to learn how to do that.

“What are you thinking so intently about?” Harry asked as he reached her and kissed her lips softly. His eyebrows knitted together trying to deduce if she was upset.

“Just how much I love you and what I would be willing to do for you,” she said honestly and for the first time, not caring that she had just left herself open in an emotional way she never had before. It felt so easy to say. It actually felt really amazing to say. Her heartbeat raced, her stomach did somersault after somersault and she felt her whole body flush. But this wasn’t the flush of embarrassment of singing cupids or elbows in butter dishes. No, this was the flush of feeling the contentment that comes with feeling safe enough to jump off an unknown cliff knowing that no matter what, Harry would catch her.

Harry knelt down to lower his Firebolt to the ground but never broke eye contact with Ginny. Somehow this made her feel even warmer than she had from her blush or even from sitting directly under the bright sunlight with Hermione — warm in a different way, a way only Harry could make her feel.

Taking a step closer to him, Ginny didn’t know what to do next. She felt like she was about to burst out of her skin. Sweat broke out on the back of her neck and her feet itched from being stationary.

Without a second thought she jumped up at Harry and locked her arms around his neck. He had caught her with ease and squeezed her tightly. Ginny kissed his forehead, down his nose and finally reached his lips but didn’t kiss them; instead, while painfully close, she whispered, “I’m in love with you, Harry.” She giggled and repeated louder, “I’m in love with you, Harry and you don’t have to say it back I just want — I need you to know — to know that I love you.” Then she kissed him softly. The desire behind the kiss was full of the love and the hope she had for Harry and a future with him.

His eyes still never having left hers, Harry smiled and kissed her back. “Gin, you really are the silliest witch. If you don’t know that I love you by now then we have a problem.” he said with a gruff voice as he adjusted her weight in his arms to better kiss her.

If this was what it felt like to let go and give in then she was going to be a lost cause. She had never felt as happy, loved, or content as she did wrapped in Harry Potter’s arms snogging him without a care; right in clear view of the kitchen window and in the same air space as Ron.

“Oi! You love him, he loves you. What’s so bloody new about that?” Ron bellowed.

“Ronald, I think your mother said roast beef was on the menu tonight. The sooner you get clean, the sooner you can eat,” Hermione said, choosing to ignore his ignorant comment — she was learning when to pick her battles. Grabbing his hand she started to pull him away.

“But I just don’t understand Mione, what’s so amazing? This isn’t anything new?” Ginny could hear Ron grumbling as he was lead away.

“I think it’s bloody amazing,” Harry said when he broke the kiss a minute later.

“And I agree,” she said, kissing his nose. “Now put me down. We really need to get in and cleaned up for supper.

Harry placed her on the ground and squatted to pick up the Firebolt. Ginny saw an opportunity and grabbed it, jumping on his back.

“Oi! I thought you just said you wanted down?” Harry said in mock pain.

“I changed my mind,” Ginny said, reaching around and kissing his cheek.

“Good enough for me.”

With that, Harry secured Ginny on his back and started walking back toward the Burrow. The silence that fell around them wasn’t awkward but full of two people dreaming about the future, and their roles in it with each other.



And now Ginny sat here in the back corner of the Burrow that had become their spot, eating a picnic that Harry had brought over, although Ginny suspected she knew who had packed it and it wasn’t Harry. No, he was someone far smaller and surprisingly nicer then ever.

Ginny scootched closer to Harry and put her head on his chest. She could feel his pulse under her cheek and smiled once again. While she didn’t enjoy causing discomfort in Harry there was something to be said about having the ability to make his heart race. She was glad that it was reciprocal.

“Harry, whatever it is, just spit it out, will you?” she said, pushing his shoulder, trying to ease the tension around his face.

“Well that’s the thing, Gin, I don’t want to just spit this out. I want to, I want to do it right. I want it to be something you always remember,” he said with sincerity and determination set in his eyes.

“Trust me, I don’t think either of us is going to forget this,” she said and reached down to lace her fingers through his hand. She squeezed it to show him her support.

How could this be so hard?

It’s not like he didn’t know what her answer would be.

Right?

That was it, Ginny realized. The daft idiot thought she might actually…

“Harry, do you know how much I love you?”

“Well, yeah. Of course. You make a point to tell me all the time,” Harry said a smile playing over his features and his body relaxing down at the thought.

Here goes.

One push.

“You know, when I was little I asked my dad why he always said, ‘To the moon and back Molly,’ and do you know what he said?”

“No,” Harry said, his eyes locking with hers.

“He said that it was because when he knew he was in love with my mother was when he realized that he would follow her anywhere, go to any lengths to be with her, find her, care for her. So when he told her he loved her, he said he loved her all the way to the moon and back.”

Harry smiled - a knowing smile.

“When I was really little, I used to think it was the ultimate in romance. Then I got a bit older and I thought it was kind of silly. A few years later and it was just this weird thing my dad did, you know?”

Harry nodded.

“Well, now it’s been a few more years and now I’m old enough to get it. I understand what it feels like to know in no uncertain terms that you would follow someone anywhere because…” Ginny took a cleansing breath. She realized that she was shaking only after Harry had reached up and brushed her cheek. “Because I need to be wherever you are. Harry, you’re my best, well everything. My internal compass will always find its way to you because you are… you’re my home.”

Ginny felt a tear fall from her left eye and huffed internally. Why did it have to be so difficult sometimes to keep her composure around him? When Harry reached up and traced the path the tear traveled, she felt all the tension that had been building up in her rush out down through her body and into the soft grass beneath her.

She hadn’t thought it would be so hard, so emotional to give Harry a push and let him know that she loved him and wanted him to ask his question already.
Somehow, she now had more respect for his fumbles while they ate, and the clumsy, halted conversation.

Then Harry kissed her lips, and fireworks went off inside her body as she pushed against his. She sought out more from the kiss. Breathlessly, they broke apart minutes later. Ginny sensed that something had already changed between them — something that needn’t even be spoken.

“You are amazing. You do know that, don’t you?” Harry asked as he played with a stray strand of her hair.

She loved it when he did that. She never felt more adored.

“Of course I know that,” Ginny said in the smug way that was only endearing when she did it.

“Always taking care of me and helping me out…” Harry rubbed the back of his neck with his unoccupied hand.

“That’s my job, Harry, to help you when you need me to,” she said solemnly.

“You do a bloody good job of it, Gin,” he said as he kissed her hand. “I suppose I’ve messed this up a bit. You know, since you seem to know my intention, and you making the love-filled declaration and all.” He blushed as he looked up into her eyes and scrunched his glasses up his nose.

“I think that this has been a wonderful afternoon. I wouldn’t change a thing, Harry.”

“The thing is I keep thinking that I wish I could change things.” He sighed. “There are a lot of things I wish didn’t happen, things I wish that I could have prevented.” He silenced her with a look. “But the thing I really wish is that I could go back in time and be friends with you earlier, realize my feelings earlier, admit them.”

“Not be a pompous, noble git and leave me behind,” Ginny added for him with a wry smile.

“No. I’ll never take that one back. You know my reasons why. I just wish that we could have had more time before, been closer — oh hell!”

Ginny laughed lightly as he dropped his face into his hands with a grimace.

“I understand everything you just said, Harry, but in the end, I wouldn’t change a thing. Who knows if we would be the same people, or if we would have ended up together.” She reached down to his chin and pulled him up to eye level. “We can maybe pause sometimes, fast forward even, though I think I don’t want to chance missing anything - but we can’t rewind, Harry. Maybe there’s good reason for that.”

“I guess so.”

“Of course. I said it, so it has to be right.” Harry’s laugh was welcome in the stillness that had fallen around them.

“Gin?”

“Yes, Harry?”

“Will you marry me? I don’t ever want to be without you. I know that I can annoy you, I know that. I’m hoping however that my positives out weigh the negatives because as much as I hate saying something so cliché — I think I would die if I ever had to be without you.”

And there it was. Simple but full of meaning — full of love. Just like the man himself.
Ginny was shocked at how heavy her heart felt. It had never been filled with so much love, happiness or admiration for Harry. Another tear slipped past her lids.

“Oh Harry, of course I’ll marry you.” Reaching forward, she felt their lips meet and electricity warm her from the point of contact outward. Harry was smiling against her kiss and she felt a bubble of excitement — no, make that a balloon — fill in her chest.
“I, uh, this is for you,” Harry stated as he pulled a box from his pocket. Opening the blue and gold engraved box, he extracted a ring with an emerald much larger than her mother’s engagement stone and slipped the cool platinum band on her finger.

It felt good. It looked right.

Mrs. Harry Potter.

Ginny Potter.

She giggled and Harry looked up at her. He had been staring mesmerized at the ring on her finger.

“Something funny, love?” Harry asked as he pulled her closer to him.

“No, not at all. As a matter of fact everything seems pretty spot on right now.” She leaned over and kissed his messy mop of black hair.

“I love you more than anything, Gin. I don’t know how or why we were lucky enough to find each other, but Merlin, am I thankful for it.”

Ginny leaned back against Harry’s chest and felt his arms encircle her.

“I love you too. All the way to the moon and back, Harry Potter. To the moon and back.”
Reviews 12
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