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Within You, Without You
Chapter 13 - Across the Universe
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12
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Harry balanced on one elbow, lying over Ginny’s warm, slightly damp, beautifully nude body. With one hand lifting her hip and bum upward, he was grinding against her open legs, her knees rising up on either side of him, cradling his hips.
All this time, all these years, all day; they’d been waiting for this…
~
Harry was left alone to have a lie-in, but of course he couldn’t sleep. Still he stayed in his comfortable bed, watching the sunlight creep down the wall and slowly across the floor as the morning passed.
He felt a thrum of adrenaline rushing through him, a hint of exhilaration for what the day would bring, but it was concealed under a thick sense of calm. He’d experienced this tingling sensation many times before, but back then it was spurred by dread and fear and nauseating resignation. There was no fear or dread now, and although no less nauseated perhaps, he was purely happy.
Smiling, he listened to the sounds of Ron and Hermione shuffling around the house, having whispered arguments in the hall and clanging dishes in the kitchen more than ever, which was a sure sign that they were attempting to be quiet.
He was going to miss them and living here in their house.
As if his feelings summoned them, there was a gentle knock on his bedroom door. Hermione peeked in with a smile and a breakfast tray in hand.
“Good morning, Harry!” she greeted in an emotive shrill, full of feminine enthusiasm.
“Good morning, Hermione,” Harry chuckled, shaking his head as he reached down for last night’s t-shirt on the floor next to his bed. The breakfast tray was firmly set on his lap as he pulled his shirt on and re-placed his glasses. “So what’s this?” he asked.
“Breakfast, of course.” Hermione sat on the bed by his knees. “I tried to get Ron to make a big, special breakfast for you, but he seemed to think you wouldn’t care to eat anything more than toast.”
Harry eyed the single piece of toast and small pot of tea and contemplated his churning stomach. He looked up at Ron, who was leaning on the doorframe with his arms crossed. “Good call, mate.”
Ron snickered softly through his nose and looked at his feet. “I reckon I remember what it feels like to get married.”
“So, do you need anything, Harry?” Hermione asked, pouring his tea.
He shook his head, thinking the sound of his chewing toast sounded rather louder than it ought to.
“M’fine,” he answered, swallowing
“All right then, I’m going to help Ginny get ready.”
“Get ready? Now?”
“Yes, it’s already half nine. The wedding is at three, isn’t it?”
Harry glanced at Ron, to see if he also failed to follow the logic of needing five and half hours to prepare. Ron’s vague shrug and twitching cheek muscle confirmed his agreement of the lunacy of women.
“Oh hey, tell Ginny …” Harry started to say, but then stopped. There just didn’t seem much point in sending a message.
Hermione smiled at him and leaned up to kiss his forehead.
“I will tell her,” she assured, patting his arm. “Now I’ll trust you two to shower and dress properly, and Ron, make sure he brushes his hair, please?”
“I think we can manage cleanliness, love,” Ron answered in sarcasm, and then smirked at Harry. “No guarantees on his hair though.”
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Ginny passed her morning in reflective quiet in spite of the chattering female relatives that besieged her. Hermione’s company was actually welcome. Any of them alone would have been fine, but the whole coven together was just too much. She joined them in having a laugh at their reflections of wedding anecdotes gone by, but her focus wasn’t with them.
Mercifully, they endorsed her retreat to take a bath. They assumed she was taking in a long soak for pamper and beautification, but she spent her time in the bubbles to avoid them and enjoy her solitude.
She was going to marry Harry today. She had slept the last night in her parents; home and tonight would be spent in her own house.
With her husband.
In their bed …
Thoughts of what the night would bring made her subconsciously clench her thighs together and curl her toes. She was slightly mortified to feel the urge to squeal like a girl, which wasn’t something she was ordinarily disposed to do. But Harry made her feel like that. Something in him always invoked a reaction that surprised her. She was good with people, observing things in them that they often didn’t notice themselves, but it was her own behavior in regards to Harry that often took her off guard.
She liked that. Whatever life was going to be with Harry, it wasn’t going to be boring.
~^~
Harry arrived in his new house without quite remembering the travel there. He had entire conversations with people that he would never remember having. He felt as though he moved in slow motion, weighted down by a thickness in the air, feeling quite removed from himself.
He and Ginny had decided to have an informal wedding. Harry was vaguely aware of flowers, fairy lights and candles but his sense of detachment prevented him from focusing on extraneous details like decorations. His private little universe was struck with crisp clarity the moment Ginny arrived. He sensed a flurry of activity around them, but everything was peripheral to the stillness that he felt between Ginny and himself.
“Hi there, beautiful,” Harry greeted Ginny as they met each other in the center of the living room.
“Hello.” They clasped hands and stared into each other’s eyes, sharing a small smile.
“You two save the snogging for later,” George said as he, Fred and Lee walked past.
“Yeah, keep your hands where we can see them, too!” Fred added.
They smiled to each other but otherwise ignored the comments.
“You doing okay?” Harry asked in a low voice only meant for her to hear.
“I’m fine. But Harry, the next time we get married, let’s do it first thing in the morning so we don’t have all day long to fret about it, okay?”
Harry sniggered in agreement. “Right. You got it - next time.”
Ginny licked her lips and Harry pushed up his glasses and they shuffled awkwardly, knowing that people were beginning to gather around, watching them.
“You look fabulous, by the way,” Ginny whispered, appraising him in his black trousers and white oxford. “According to the nagging I’ve received all morning, the ladies are annoyed at our choosing to be informal. Apparently we’ve deprived them the opportunity to dress in uncomfortable clothes for the day.”
“Something else to remember to do differently for our next wedding, then,” Harry joked nervously, and only then noted the simple cream-colored summer robe she wore.
“All right you two, everyone’s ready,” Remus said quietly, putting a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “You remember all the words to the spell? Do you have any questions?”
They both shook their heads. Harry had been repeating the words to himself incessantly for weeks.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley approached them with last minute instructions as well. Harry wasn’t sure if it was just the rushing sound in his ears, or if the room had begun to quiet.
“Ginny, dear, I know you didn’t want all the fuss,” Mrs. Weasley wheedled, “but please tell me you aren’t really going to get married wearing those tatty trainers.”
“Oh, I forgot! No worries, Mum, I’m not.”
Ginny toed off her dingy gray and scuffed trainers, and kicked them clumsily off to the side. As Ginny stood before Harry with bare feet, Mrs. Weasley made a disapproving clucking sound, but Harry was glad that she let the topic of Ginny’s attire rest.
Harry tried to commit to memory everything about the moment, but he knew he couldn’t. They each took turns uttering the matrimony spell, which bore words of commitment, honor, and trust. The decorations, the clothing and the food weren’t things he would remember, but he would remember the tension in his throat and the buzz of magic as he invoked the spell that bound their lives together. He would remember her tiny fingers giving him squeezes of encouragement, and how the golden flecks in her eyes sparkled when she teared up.
And then, quite abruptly, the spell was complete, the tension eased, emotion swelled, and they were married.
~
After being congratulated, back-patted, hand shook and cheek pinched for over an hour, he and Ginny had managed to dash upstairs. Needing to use the loo was as practical an excuse as any to get a moment’s peace. They took their turns and met again at the landing at the top of the stairs.
“I didn’t expect more gifts. Can you believe that?” Ginny said.
“Yeah, after all the furniture we’ve been given already, it was kind of embarrassing.” Though ‘embarrassing’ wasn’t exactly the emotion he felt about some of the gifts.
Mrs. Bentley from the bed and breakfast in the village had brought the little black owl, Castor, with her and presented him as a gift to them, well, to Ginny he thought. He had maintained a polite smile, but he really didn’t want anything to do with the bird. Seeing how Ginny’s face lit up when she held the scrawny creature in her arms was enough to keep him from saying anything about the matter. A part of him knew he was going to have to deal with it sooner or later.
Ginny ran her hands up the outside of Harry’s arms, clutching him as she went up on her toes to kiss him. He tensed his arm and tried to mask a slight grimace.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said quickly, not meeting her eyes. “Did you want to go dance?”
“Nothing, my wand! Let me see that arm.” Ginny held Harry’s left wrist and pushed up his sleeve. Her jaw dropped and eyes narrowed as she discovered the ugly red and purple bruise that marred the outside of Harry’s bicep.
“Bloody twats!” she spat. “Those small-balled bast-”
“Now calm down! It’s not what you think,” Harry implored, re-adjusting his sleeve then reaching for Ginny to calm her down.
“It’s exactly what I think! I’ve seen marks like that in this family before! Charlie once snuck out during summer holidays and all the boys were punished for trying to cover for him. He sported a bruise just like that one for a week afterwards. And that’s not the only time. Of all the stupid-”
Ginny turned, fury obvious in her small frame but she only managed a single step before Harry caught her around the waist and hauled her back again.
“Wait a second now, Gin, please. You’re right, okay? It was a stupid brother thing.” He set her down and glanced away with a slight flush before looking back, giving her a deep, imploring look. “But it was a brother thing,” he repeated, raising his eyebrows, hoping she would appreciate his meaning. “Don’t say anything about it, okay?”
Ginny softened to Harry’s plea. As ridiculous as her brothers’ ways were, she understood some of the rites of passage between them.
“Fine, then. I promise I won’t say a thing,” she swore. Harry looked at her calm, unreadable expression and then with some caution, leaned down to kiss her.
“Thank you.”
She and Harry went downstairs into the living room again. As Ginny slipped her arms around him while they danced, he felt her remove her wand from his back pocket and just as he gave her a questioning look, all the Weasley men in the room let out a yelp and began rubbing their left arms.
“Ginny!” Harry scolded.
“I didn’t say a word, Harry,” she responded, blinking with sarcastic innocence.
“Witch,” he growled, digging his fingertips into her waist, tickling her.
“All right, who taught her that one?” Percy demanded, still rubbing his arm.
“I did,” Bill confessed, wincing down at his own arm, while Fleur peered up his sleeve at the Bee Sting hex Ginny had cast on them all.
“Well, you taught her well, Son,” Mr. Weasley’s airily amused voice responded. He was also rubbing his left arm.
“Oh shite.” Ginny whispered the epithet. “I’m sorry, Dad,” she said sincerely. “I didn’t mean to get you too.”
“That’s all right, sweetheart,” Mr. Weasley chuckled. Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips looking annoyed and cast a healing charm, patting her husband’s arm. He kissed the top of his wife’s head and then winked at Harry.
None of the brothers’ hexes were healed however. Their respective spouses and partners seemed to think Ginny’s sibling-justice was as suitable as their own.
Harry looked down at Ginny and raised an accusing eyebrow.
“I promised I wouldn’t say anything, and I didn’t!” Ginny exclaimed quietly.
Harry grumbled something incoherent about ‘women’ and pulled her close.
“Hey,” Ginny said softly, her arms wrapping around his neck while she ran her thumb over his forehead, pushing around his messy hair back. “It’s you and I together now, right? Your battles are my battles too.”
“You’re right.” Harry nodded, resting his forehead against hers, and whispered, “My hero.”
While the rest of the guests were paired off and dancing, George and Lee were sitting around the end of a table, their heads bent together in conversation.
Harry had yet to see any outward display of their relationship, until now. Lee had one foot hooked around George’s ankle under the table. He also recognized the look of two people who would rather not be where they currently were.
Ginny observed it as well.
“I suppose everyone is still not sure how to act around them,” she said under her breath. “Which makes them feel out of sorts, too.”
“I know what it’s like to feel like everyone’s watching you. … How about we give them a break?”
Harry sidestepped and turned them around so that they were right next to the two men.
“’Lo,” George said, looking up at them. “Er, if you two came over for wedding night advice, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong table.”
Lee reached over and pinched George on the arm while Ginny flicked his other.
“Think I’ll manage that all right, mate,” Harry said, hoping he could justify his bravado when the time came. “I just, we just wanted to let you know you two are welcome here, at our place, anytime, you know?”
George opened his mouth with no doubt another smartarse quip, but Lee put his hand firmly on George’s arm. “We appreciate that Harry, thanks.”
“Say, Lee,” Ginny said. “I’d really like to see all of my brothers dancing at my wedding, and George is the only one still seated...”
Lee and George looked mildly taken aback and glanced at each other.
“Well,” Lee answered slowly. “We wouldn’t want to disappoint the bride on her wedding day…would we?” He put his hand over George’s and squeezed.
“Ah, no, I believe that’s in the rule book,” George agreed. “The bride and groom get what they want.”
So then, while everyone watched but no one looked, George and Lee joined the other pairs dancing to the song that played that first night last summer, when Harry had chased after Ginny, promising that he’d never let her go.
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Harry and Ginny were finally alone when the last of the guests Apparated away. Ron and Hermione were the last to leave, and with imminent wedding night implications in the air, they were all left blushing and giggling like kids again.
There was nothing stopping them from tumbling into bed to immediately do all the things they’d denied themselves until now.
They looked around their empty house and shuffled awkwardly.
“I uhm, I think I’ll lock up,” Harry suggested.
“Right, I’m ... going - to take a bath!” Ginny replied and they each darted in separate directions.
~
The charmed bubbles in the bath calmed Ginny’s thoughts and soothed her muscles, but something in the steam gave her clarity of thought as well. She scrunched her face and pressed her hand to her burning cheeks at having suddenly felt nervous downstairs.
The bathroom door swung open slowly with the sound of a gentle knock. Harry stood in the doorway with one shoulder on the frame, looking at her with a sweet, sheepish smile, chewing the corner of his lip.
Ginny sunk into the bath slightly, her bent knees poking out of the water. There was no rational reason for her shyness, as Harry was well acquainted with her body, but she felt so very naked while he was so very dressed.
Although she did notice he was barefoot now.
“So …” Harry said slowly with a weak laugh. “Not, perhaps, one of my better Gryffindor moments down there.” He nodded his head back toward the stairs.
“That’s all right,” she snickered. “My inner Godric failed me for a moment too.”
The sounds of the water licking the sides of the tub and a lonely drip echoed in the silence between them. Harry took a breath and pushed his glasses up, taking a few hesitant steps into the room.
“Your first bath here, eh? Is it nice?”
His expression, the combined boyish timidity and grown wizard’s lust, twisted a brilliant pang of desire in her belly.
“The bath is lovely. … Care to join me?”
He smirked and cocked his head. “I was considering it.” Harry’s hands fidgeted with the hem of his shirt but found his pockets instead.
All of Ginny’s former apprehension slipped away seeing Harry’s nervous smile.
“Well then, husband, let me help you make up your mind.” Ginny stood up and carefully stepped out of the water.
Standing before him wearing only bubbles, she lifted Harry’s shirt over his head.
He re-adjusted his glasses, and then quivered as she ran her damp fingers down his chest, teasing over his nipples before setting to open his fly. Harry wriggled his hips slightly as she pushed his trousers down, exposing his bare, ivory skin.
Ginny gasped in faux shock. “Oh… I like you with one less layer.”
Harry sniggered as he stepped out of them. “You seem to prefer no pants. Thought I’d try it.”
“Yes, I certainly do.” She smirked and tilted her head, blatantly surveying the lines of his torso and prominent hipbones, causing his resting cock to twitch under her gaze.
They sank into the bubbles together. Straddling Harry with her knees on either side of his thighs, Ginny hovered over him, pouring water over his hair. Her breasts swayed in front of his slightly parted lips as he tilted his head backward.
Ginny bit back a smile and arched slightly, allowing him to take the bud of her breast into his mouth. His attentions intensified while she washed his hair. The unexpected apprehension from earlier rinsed away with the almond scented lather.
Harry’s face was flushed from the warmth of the water and his body responding with arousal. His hands slipped from her waist to her arse and back to her hips again.
“You feel better now?” Ginny asked, sitting down carefully on his thighs, feeling his firming erection pressed between them.
“To be honest … it’s occurred to me that there’s been an awful lot of build up to tonight … and maybe.” He cleared his throat. “You see, there are certain phrases that have been used, to describe me.”
“Oh?” He looked away from her speculative face. “You mean the one about how you’re ‘The Most Powerful Wizard Alive’ …?”
Harry let out a slightly high, babbling laugh. “That’s the one. It’s important to remember that’s just conjecture of sorts, and not really, er …”
“Oh, hush.” Ginny kissed his rambling to an end before climbing out of the tub wrapping a towel around herself, beckoning him to follow.
The bedroom was dark, glowing only with the moonlight that shone through the high windows and the candlelight from the bathroom.
“I’m not afraid,” Ginny said.
Harry looked in her eyes and then dropped them to her lips and kissed them with gentle authority.
“Maybe I’m a little afraid,” he whispered.
Ginny giggled and the sound of her ease and happiness loosened the knot that had tied up his emotions all day. He scooped her into his arms and carried her the last couple of steps to the bed. She squeaked and laughed again as they flopped down.
After he tucked his glasses under a pillow, they kissed, shyly at first, lips meeting in a well-practiced routine, and after a moment of methodic snogging, some intensity sparked between them. Harry focused on their mouths, feeling the slick, raspy rub of their tongues together and the way Ginny would curl the tip of hers just at the end when he pulled away. She would suck on his bottom lip and he would tease her top one.
She smelled positively edible and every movement she made was comforting and encouraging. As his anxiety from the day faded away, his desire grew.
Harry threw the towel around his waist onto the floor. Ginny did the same, and then slid back on the bed.
“You’re beautiful.”
“So are you.”
They rolled together, kissing and touching and clinging together, not allowing any space between them.
Harry, feasting at her breasts once again, sought between her legs, highly mindful of the need to be gentle. She was already slick enough for his fingers to slip inside with ease. He moved two steadily within her, very slowly adding another, pushing deeper than he ever had before.
“Oh!” Ginny groaned. “Harry, I … I …” She was thrusting onto his hand, while he was thrusting a near painful hard-on into the bed covers.
“I know, I know. Me too,” he muttered, shifting up over her.
Their chests heaved with deep, anticipatory breaths that made them gasp between short kisses.
Harry balanced on one elbow, lying over Ginny’s warm, slightly damp, and beautifully nude body. With one hand lifting her hip and bum upward, he was grinding against her open legs, her knees rising up on either side of him, cradling his hips.
~
Harry eyes met hers and she tried to give him a smile and a slight nod. She opened her knees wide and closed her eyes, feeling him reach down. The soft, rounded head of his cock teased against her opening. She clutched his shoulders, and felt it, him, slide inside.
He paused, pulled back and then surged slowly forward again. The deeper he went, the tighter she gripped him, inhaling more. She was gently and steadily stretched, filled in a way that was gentler than his fingers, but so much deeper. Ginny squeezed Harry through the intensity of the moment, her cheek pressed against his chest and her eyes shut tight.
When Harry stilled, they both took several gasping breaths and Ginny fell back onto the pillow, her nails still digging into his shoulder blades.
“Ginny, please open your eyes,” he whispered, which she barely heard over the slightly manic voice in her head flaily saying ‘This is sex! I’m actually having sex!’
When she did open her eyes, her heart ached with the vision above her. Harry’s eyes were bright in the moonlight and etched with concern. His shaggy black hair was beginning to dry and was positively wild around his face.
Gleaning no pain or fear in her eyes, he smiled, looking relieved.
“I love you,” he whispered, soothing away tension creases on her forehead and kissing her face.
Ginny willed herself to relax again, wrapping her legs around his, stroking the back of his thigh with her toes. When her hands reached his arse, she felt it flex as he pressed into her.
“Ah!” She gasped, feeling the slight sting of his entry give way immediately to a wave of pleasure. “Oh … do that again,” she said.
“Gladly,” Harry whimpered. Bowing his head to her shoulder, he began slow, thrusting movements, which Ginny felt inside of her as well as from his small muscular buttocks contracting under her hands.
“I - I - oh god I’m so close,” Harry’s voice strained. He pressed a kiss behind her ear and along her jaw and then pulled his knees under himself to sit up but remained inside of her. “Have to stop.” His eyes were closed and he breathed heavily, trying to calm down.
Harry opened his eyes and the corner of his mouth rose in a slight smile, but his eyes were soft with concern.
“You still feeling all right?” His voice was quiet and husky.
Ginny swallowed. She couldn’t find her voice but nodded, making an encouraging ‘hum.’
She reached down and touched Harry’s taut stomach, scratching her fingernails through the soft black hair that grew around the base of his cock and lightly wrapped her thumb and forefinger around it.
Harry made slow circles on the insides of her thighs with his hands. He rocked his body, pulling out of her an imperceptible amount and pushing back in again, trapping Ginny’s fingers where she was feeling their joining bodies.
Harry’s eyes fluttered and lips opened in a small gasp. “So perfect,” he whispered, watching the minute movement of their coupling. “I knew we would look good together.”
“Yes,” Ginny agreed, subconsciously tightening her muscles around him. Harry grunted, his torso bowing as he responded by thrusting into her with sudden enthusiasm.
“Sorry,” he gasped, still making an effort to control himself.
“It’s okay,” Ginny soothed, placing her hands along his ribs, pulling him over her once more. She’d just realized that she had been lying back, blissfully enjoying the sensations of love making for the first time, and hadn’t done anything in return for Harry’s pleasure.
He gave into her encouragement and shifted forward, rocking his body once again. She tightened her slick walls around him, smiling over his shoulder as he moaned in reaction. She experimented with pulling her knees up higher, her toes just grazing the bottom curve of his now perspiring buttocks and he fell heavier onto her chest, thrusting with greater vigor.
“Uh, Merli-Gi-I-oh-I,” Harry spluttered tersely and his body tensed and trembled and he went silent.
Ginny continued to tighten around him, pulling him down on her, holding him close with her arms and legs as he struggled to catch his breath.
“Feels good,” she told him, squinting her eyes. The movement of him sliding in and out of her center wracked her body with an intense pleasure that forced a litany of uncontrolled and ungraceful noises from her throat.
Ginny felt Harry’s body trembling and his pelvic movements became erratic. She knew well the sound of his strained, forced breathing, having brought Harry’s climax from him so many times before. Hugging him tight, she clenched her muscles around his achingly firm cock until he shuddered, whimpering garbled words into her hair. He lost himself, clutching her, as he came until his body went slack and heavy on top of her.
~
They lay facing each other with their legs scissored together for several minutes. Her forehead was bent to his shoulder, and he pressed nuzzling kisses into her hair.
The quiet closeness felt good, but Ginny remembered how the women that morning had gushed romantic about the tender endearments shared in their wedding beds and couldn’t help feeling a frustrating lack of flowery things to say.
She didn’t feel any ‘different’ for the loss of her virginity. There was no soreness, aside a minute sense of being ‘worn’. Harry was her husband now, her lover in the truest sense of the word, and as far as she could tell, he was a good one at that. She was grateful for his instinct, which allowed her to avoid the pressure of trying to achieve an orgasm during this first time.
What she did know was that it was fucking fantastic, that she wanted to do it again as soon as possible.
And that she was hungry.
“Want something to eat?” she asked - so much for romance.
“Uh … actually, yeah,” Harry chuckled.
“Me too! I’ll use the loo and meet you in the kitchen.”
Ginny kissed Harry quickly and hopped out of the bed.
~
Harry lit the overhead lamp when he shuffled into the kitchen, startling slightly when a pair of eyes glowed at him from the corner of the room. He instantly remembered that Castor had been given residence of a perch by the window.
“Don’t go making a habit of staring at me, you hear?” Harry grumbled.
The bird blinked at him and then looked at its feet.
Harry put a small pot on the stove and began heating beans.
“I wasn’t planning on you being here, so you’ll have to wait until I adjust the charms on the windows so they’ll let you come and go.”
Castor fluffed a bit in acknowledgement.
“Hello sweetheart,” Ginny said as she entered the kitchen. Harry looked up with a smile until he realized she was talking to the bird. He had an urge to behave petulantly, but an unexpected wave of maturity kept his tongue in check.
“Beans on toast all right?” Harry asked.
“Yum - I’ll get the bread.”
He wasn’t sure what Ginny was feeling about what they’d just done upstairs and really hoped he hadn’t been dreadful for her.
“Harry,” Ginny said, with a sound of hesitation that made his throat constrict. “Can I be honest with you about something?”
He tried to swallow, but couldn’t. She was going to tell him that sex was rubbish and that he was an utter disappointment and that he had hurt her and - but he contorted his cheeks into a smile and nodded his head. “’Course,” he choked out. “Anything.”
“Mm, I’m a little embarrassed after what we’ve planned all this time,” she said slowly, fidgeting with the buttons of his dress shirt that she was now wearing.
“Don’t be embarrassed, really. You can tell me anything and I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll try to make it better,” Harry promised, fumbling to spread the heated beans on the toast.
“Er,” Ginny chuckled slightly at Harry’s vehemence and continued talking while she sliced a tomato. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d really like for us to go to the dragon reserve with Charlie and Naama instead of to Italy for our honeymoon.”
Harry’s shoulders slumped with relief, and he rolled his head around. “Is that all? I want to do that too! Only I thought it would be terrible to suggest camping for a honeymoon. I’m no expert, but I’m sure it’s not very romantic.”
“Who cares about ‘romantic’? I’ve wanted to go see what Charlie does for as long as I can remember. And I’m sure we’d have fun, and Ron and Hermione are going too. It’ll be our first adventure together.”
Harry beamed. “This is great, Gin!” He leaned in and kissed her with toast crumby lips. “I’ll send a letter to Charlie, right now.”
Harry looked around the kitchen, not knowing where parchment or quills might be. He Accioed, and a set flew neatly onto the table in front of them.
He scribbled a note off, rolled it and approached Castor with it. Wizard and owl surveyed each other suspiciously for a moment before Harry spoke.
“I assume you can deliver post, yeah?”
Castor looked very tiny in Harry’s shadow but he defiantly stuck out one foot to receive the letter.
“For Charlie Weasley at Bill Weasley’s house, got it?”
Castor seemed to stretch and shrug, causing the black feathers on his head to stand on end before he faced the window. Harry sighed and opened the window.
“Dunno what you see in that animal. He’s a wreck,” Harry murmured, remembering how elegant Hedwig had been when she took off in flight.
Ginny ran her hand through Harry’s hair, it sticking out on ends, and she snickered. “Oh, I can’t imagine.”
They continued eating their impromptu late night breakfast.
“I also want to …” She sighed. “To thank you.”
Harry grinned but then toned it down to a smirk. “Why is that, exactly?”
“For the waiting. I’m glad. Tonight wasn’t just another night’s shag. We can stay here, in our own house. I don’t have to go back to my parents’ place now. No avoiding the topic with my family. No family walking past the bedroom door … No family hovering outside the window. No family anywhere…” She rolled her eyes at the ever-present existence of her family in their lives.
Harry hugged her, rubbing his hands up and down her back and down her bum, discovering that she was, as usual, lacking knickers.
Ginny let a soft laugh escape her nose as she ran her fingers up and down Harry’s torso. He was highly aware of his relative nudity, standing there in only his underpants, and he could feel the tell tale rush of blood that was about to reveal how easily she could rouse him.
“I want to … do you want…?” Harry lowered his gaze. “Are you interested in going back upstairs with me? I’d like to spend some time making that better for you.”
“Mmm,” Ginny purred against his chest, mouthing one of his pink nipples while circling his hipbones with her thumbs. “Not sure I want to wait to get upstairs.”
“Oh bloody … It’s hard to believe just a few months ago all I could do was ache for the day you came home from school.” He took her face into his hands. “I’ve loved you for so long. Thank you for marrying me, for loving me.”
If he couldn’t be an emotional sap on his wedding night, when else could he?
“You’re easy to love, Harry. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love you.”
He pressed a kiss to her and lost all hope of concealing his arousal as she tugged on the waistband of his pants and let them fall. The idea of going anywhere else was clearly out of the question as they lowered onto the knit wool rug in front of the sink.
They kissed and held each other, moaning with their gratification, and laughing quietly as they explored new ways to pleasure each other. Ginny made love to him from above this time, feeling secure and confident with his gentle encouragement.
And Ginny knew now with certainty, what she’d always known about herself; she had been written into the pages of existence to love and be loved, by Harry Potter.
~^~
A/N - If you have taken the time to read this entire story, I would really love to hear your comments. There is more I would like to do with this universe someday, but being on the verge of the Deathly Hallows release, it seemed appropriate to close this with Harry and Ginny’s wedding.
I really appreciate the readers who have supported this story - thank you!
I would like to thank the Beatles who gave me the story and chapter titles. I appreciate
mrsquizzical,
gwen1170 and
lnalvgd who patiently pre-betaed this final chapter for me.
There is not enough I can say about
belovedranger! She has helped me improve as a writer and enhanced the crafting of this story immensely. Thank you so much for working with me!
If you are interesting reading George and Lee’s story in this ‘universe’, you can find The Glass Onion here.