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SIYE Time:12:41 on 29th March 2024
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Holding On to a Dragon
By sanidad

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Category: Best Time of our Lives Challenge 2019-1, Best Time Of Our Lives Challenge (2019-1)
Characters:None
Genres: Fluff, General
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: G
Reviews: 13
Summary: A brief glimpse into one afternoon by the lake, before Harry and Ginny's time "like something out of someone else's life" comes to an end. Canon-compliant.
Hitcount: Story Total: 1486



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:
It's kind of short, it hardly feels like a full story. It felt more like I was taking two deleted scenes from a movie and putting them to paper (or monitor, as it were). Anyway, it's always fun to have a go at these challenges.




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“Why do you do that?”

“What?”

“Trace that pattern on my chest?”

“You don’t like it?” Her fingers slowed, but continued to move under his loosened necktie. He suppressed the shiver that wanted to run down his entire body.

“I didn’t say that.”

Ginny grinned. When Harry opened his eyes and looked at her, she admired his green eyes for a moment before she finally answered him, “I’m just imagining what a dragon tattoo would look like.”

The explosion of laughter from him was infectious and she joined in gleefully. After a few minutes he took off his glasses and cleaned the lenses with this shirt before setting them back on his nose. He smiled the whole time, and then he leaned over to kiss her. Although they had been together for two weeks already, Ginny was still surprised at how affectionate he could be when they were alone. She had thought that she already knew everything about him. It was exciting to think that she would continue to learn new things about him now that they were together.

“I thought you were just giving Ron a hard time that night.”

“I was… but a girl has her daydreams…”

His left eyebrow quirked up. “Oh? Do I want to hear about these?”

“Depends… do you want to hear the one about the Quidditch changing rooms or the broom closet on the sixth floor?”

A low growl emanated from his throat as he rolled on to this side and reached around her waist to press her against him. Their intense kiss would have been followed by another, but for a shout from the edge of the lake.

“Oi, Potter! Get off my sister!”

Harry relented and rolled away from his girlfriend, raising his hand in a recognizable hand gesture in defiance of Ron’s shouts. He grinned when he heard Hermione’s indignant admonishment, and then found himself laughing again when Ginny responded with her own hand gesture. He did not stop laughing until his best friends were well on the other side of the lake.

“So, would you ever get one?”

“A what?”

“A tattoo.”

Harry paused before answering. “I doubt it.”

The light behind his eyes had darkened, and Ginny felt herself deflate. Weren’t they laughing just a moment ago? She barely noticed the light breeze that was flowing around them when Harry suddenly spoke.

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

“Bringing down the mood.”

“Not your fault.” She raised one shoulder in as she lowered her eyes and pulled up some blades of grass from between them.

“Not yours either. I just… he’s never far from my mind these days.”

“Tom,” Ginny responded after a beat. It wasn’t a question.

Harry nodded. He looked off across the lake, giving Ginny a chance to collect her thoughts. She was about to change the subject to next year’s Quidditch team when he spoke again, “Someday, I’ll have to face him again...”

Ginny looked away. She knew it was true. She’d always known. But hearing it said out loud–hearing him say it out loud made it… real.

Harry reached over and lifted his girlfriend’s face with a finger. He tried to read the emotions behind her eyes… Confusion… Hope? Maybe even.. lo–No, don’t think about that now.

“I wish I could tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Everything.”

“But…”

“Bu t…” Harry echoed. “It might be better if you didn’t know.”

“Don’t think I can handle it?” The flash in her eyes put him on his guard.

“That’s not it,” he challenged back. He hoped his voice sounded steady.

“Then what?”

“Some of the things I’ve been learning from Dumbledore…”

“Yeah?” Ginny tried to keep the eagerness from her voice.

“They… they could get you… killed.” His last word was spoken so softly that Ginny was not sure she had heard him correctly.

“Oh, go on…”

“No, really!” He sat up suddenly, and her eyes widened involuntarily. “After everything I went through with Cedric–and Sirius… if it were you, I… damn it…”

Ginny waited until he had finished running his hand through his hair before she sat up and moved herself closer to him. She took his face in her hands and kissed his lips gently. “Nothing is going to happen to me. We’re at Hogwarts. What could be safer? You’ve said that yourself.”

Harry frowned. He did not like having his own words used against him, but maybe she was right. Death Eaters would never be able to penetrate Hogwarts’ walls. He knew this. Then why did it sound like he was trying to convince himself it was true?

“Even if by some miracle they were able to get into the castle, they would have to deal with the teachers, and I’m sure the D.A. would be willing to fight.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Why does it always have to be you? Why don’t you want anyone else to fight?”

“BECAUSE I’VE LOST ENOUGH!”

Harry blinked twice as his sight drifted from her face to the ground next to her, and then he rolled onto his back to look up at the sky. Ginny scooted over and lay her head on his shoulder.

About ten minutes later, Harry broke the silence. “Sorry about that. I don’t know where that came from.”

“It’s not hard to figure out.”

“I mean… I don’t know why it came out like that.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“If it is, it’s not to me.”

“You’d been holding it in too long. It was bound to come out one way or another.”

Harry frowned. “I suppose.”

Ginny looked up and tilted his face towards her. “You don’t have to do the stiff upper lip for me, you know. I’d rather you just be yourself.”

Harry looked at her and found no trace of artifice, not that he was expecting any. Was it possible? Could she really love him? They were still young. Although, to be honest he did not feel young. He hadn’t felt young since that night in the graveyard in Little Hangleton. He did not want to hope, but if he could just get rid of Tom, maybe they could…

He reluctantly untangled himself from her arms and sat back up, pulling his wand from his back pocket. He spied a stone the size of a small gobstone nearby and placed it in front of him. After a few moments he scrunched his face in concentration and waved his wand above it. Ginny was about to ask him what he was doing when she saw the stone flatten out. When it stopped moving, she picked it up, noting it was about the size of a Galleon, perhaps a little smaller.

When Harry held his hand out, she gave it to him, wondering what he was going to do next. He kept it in his left palm while he traced a pattern on the top face with his wand. When he was done he gave it back to her. A likeness of a dragon had been etched into it.

“What’s this for, then?” Ginny asked as she admired it. She’d never known him to be so artistic.

“Just keep it with you. To remind you of today.”

Ginny closed her fingers over it. She would keep it because he made it, and because she liked it. And truth be told, she never needed anything to help her think of Harry. But, if it made him happy… No. That wasn’t it. She paused as she considered her boyfriend and the way his mind worked. The only reason she might need the coin would be if he were going away. She was about to ask him about it, when she saw his face.

He was thinking of Tom again.

She slipped the coin into the back pocket of her trousers and snuggled into him again. It could wait. Now that they were together, she was never going to let him go...

*


May 3, 1998

Harry moved the food on his plate around as he thought about the future. Not the distant future when he hoped to have a steady job and some semblance of a normal life, but tomorrow. And the next day. And the handful of days after that.

What now?

Voldemort was finally, truly gone. So, what was next? Where was he going to go? When he had finally settled in his bed last night, exhausted from the final confrontation, his last thought before slipping into oblivion was a simple longing to go home. But, where was that exactly?

A small voice whispered “The Burrow” in his head. He shook his head imperceptibly at no one. He could not get the image of the Weasleys grieving over Fred’s body out of his mind. He was not sure if he could handle seeing Mrs. Weasley–or George… Merlin, what must they think of him right now? If only he’d…

Harry sighed and leaned back. The food should have tasted delicious. How the house elves could find it in themselves to just go back to their old lives, he’d never understand, but he was grateful for it. The whole world had changed, and it was time to move on… right?

Images of the last few months flashed in his mind like watching a film at the cinema. So engrossed was Harry in his memories that he did not immediately register the stone coin that had appeared in front of him next to his plate. One with a familiar dragon burned onto one face.

He could hear Ginny shift in the seat next to him as his mind caught up to what his eyes were seeing. She had kept it. She had actually kept it.

“I wanted to give this back to you.” His eyes strayed to her face, but only briefly. This was not how he pictured their first conversation to go.

“Oh… okay…” Harry stared at the coin. Part of him was surprised it had held its shape. The other part was trying to work out why she was giving it back to him. And, he did not like the conclusion it was heading towards. He felt an overwhelming urge to pick it up and hurl it as far as he could. “You don’t have t–”

“I know. It’s just… I don’t need it anymore.”

And that was the nail in the coffin. Harry felt himself shrivel inside. “Thanks,” he said as he palmed it and stood up. “I need to speak with McGonagall, so I’ll just be on my w–”

Ginny stopped him by placing her hand over his. “Harry… I don’t need it anymore because I have you back.”

Harry stared at their hands. Did she just say… When he finally looked up, he saw it. That same look she had given him by the lake last year. Only now, there was a hint of a smile tugging at her lips.

“I’m guessing you didn’t see any Veela on your travels.”

Harry felt himself starting to smile. “Only one, but she was married. Wasn’t even a full Veela.”

Ginny let herself return his grin, but then her face turned serious. “And we ARE going to have a discussion about letting me think you were dead.”

“But, I had to. Vol–”

“Not now, Harry.” She placed her forefinger on his lips, forcing him to obey.

He gently took her had in his and kissed it. He felt her suppress a giggle and nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard someone clear their throat right behind him. When he turned he was greeted by the sight of his two best friends holding hands. Oh, right. He had forgotten that had happened. He turned his head to look at Ginny, and then back to Ron and Hermione, his smile never once leaving his face. For once, he had a feeling the future was going to be fine.


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