Meeting Harry, PG, H/G, 1619 words
Author: poseida9
Title: Meeting Harry
Challenge: Three Column Prompt Challenge
Date: Post-Hogwarts, summer
Location: King's Cross Station
Object: Margarita
Summary: Harry meets Ginny as she gets off the Hogwarts Express. He lets her know a few things.
Rating: PG
Genre: Flangst
Word Count: 1619
Notes/Warnings: Up until about 4:00 pm today, I had every intention of submitting a completely different story, but decided to write a new one, just because I am clever like that :-P But I had to go to dinner, too. So it may be a little unpolished :)
When Ginny steps off the Hogwarts Express for the final time, she feels a loss that has already hit everyone else. She saw it written on Colin's face as he stepped out of the portrait hole; on Natalie's as she passed the Great Hall; on Luna's as the Thestrals left. There is an unspeakable weight on everyone's shoulders, hanging in the air, and what seems like it should be a carefree celebration is instead a passive regret.
She knows why the strangeness is there-it has been still only a year since Voldemort was erased, and the Death Eaters still pose a threat, although they are collapsing slowly-but there is a dichotomy that is still strange, conceptually. The period of war has been punctuated with spots of happiness: wide smiles for parentheses, laughing eyes for semicolons, entangled limbs for complicated ampersands; but it is never long before the memories descend on them again. The year has been a struggle, with so many people gone, either because of death or because they had already left Hogwarts, but she has plowed through it, and she is glad to be able to go home now and see her mother's smiling face and lie in her bed all day and pretend that she is still six years old and everything is perfect.
Her feet hit the platform awkwardly and it takes some effort to pull her trunk off, but she manages, and only moments later, someone takes the handle of the trunk and tugs it up onto a trolley.
"Thanks," she says, looking up through the hair that has fallen over her face to see Harry looking down at her, a smile pulling at the edge of his mouth, a dimple beginning to form. "Harry! It's good to see you," she says honestly. "Why are you here? Mum said you had to file stuff for that case-"
"Oh. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't have to anymore. I-I don't have to," he replies awkwardly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Well, that's good. Did Mum come?"
"Yeah, she's-" He waves his hand in some general direction, but it doesn't matter because before she can even notice her parents approaching, her mum is wrapping her into an embrace. Molly's clothes smell like cinnamon, which indicates that she has been baking, and a smile spreads across Ginny's face.
"Hi, Mum!" she exclaims, so glad to be able to hold her mother, so glad to be able to erase the nights spent curled in her bed, worrying about her family.
"Ginevra," Molly says in the tone of voice she only uses when she pretending to be strict, "you didn't owl me at all last month!"
"I know, I know, but I was really busy, really-"
"Off with Owen, I'm sure-" says Molly, and Ginny knows probably she is not supposed to do this, but she looks quickly up at Harry when her mum mentions Owen Reedling, and Harry is just staring blankly at her, so she returns Molly's hug and doesn't answer.
"Hey, you," Arthur says over his wife's shoulder. Ginny breaks to hug to grab her haggard-looking father around the middle, and she practically feels his relief seeping into her skin.
"Hi, Dad. Still building the tellyfission?"
"Telly-mission," he corrects.
"Television," she hears Harry mumble awkwardly in the background. She breaks the hug and smiles at her parents. Harry is in the periphery, and she has to force herself not to look at him too.
Molly wraps her arms around Ginny a second time, then grabs the trolley from Harry's loose grasp with one hand and Arthur's elbow with the other.
"We'll take your trunk; you two follow when you want."
"We'll be there in a second," says Harry, and she has to meet his eyes to glare at him, because couldn't he have postponed this confrontation until later? She doesn't want to let him down, or to be let down, today, when she is supposed to be celebrating.
Her parents nod and Disapparate quickly, and then it is just she and Harry and a thousand other students being greeted by their parents. The bustle is so loud she can't hear herself think, which was no problem when she was saying hello, but becomes a major impediment when she is trying to figure out a million things in a few seconds.
"So," she says awkwardly. He nods with similar awkwardness, and she feels her stomach drop traitorously.
"Are you still dating that prat?" Harry blurts. She glares at him.
"Harry!"
"Well, are you?"
"No, I am not, not that it is any of your business," she says, not sure why she has missed him so much.
"Well, okay, it's not, but I want it to be-" he says earnestly.
"Harry, I mean it, don't you dare-" Her voice is hovering on the edge of shouting.
"I didn't mean it like that!" he protests. "Look, I have something to tell you."
"What?"
He takes a deep breath and says, "The reason I don't have to file stuff for the case is because I quit my job."
"What?" Ginny asks, shocked. "What do you mean, you quit your job?"
"Er-I don't work there anymore?"
"No, I know what you mean, but why?"
"Well, I-" he scuffs his toe on the ground, then continues bravely, "I went to talk to the owner of Puddlemere United? And I-I'm kind of their manager now? Because, you know, Amy Lewis left, and-so, well, yeah. It's kind of a job."
"No, of course it's a job!" she exclaims. "I'm just startled, that's all. Because I thought that after what Healer Ralley said, you didn't want to do anything with Quidditch-" She gestures at his right arm, which, when his hands are in his pockets, is only distinguishable from his left in its slight crookedness, but which he has not been able to raise properly since last August, when a rogue Death Eater attacked him.
"I know-I know I said that, and I did-I did mean it. But I guess… I don't know. I didn't want to be in the Magical Law department my whole life, or… or really any part of my life, I guess, is what it came down to."
"Oh, Harry," she says sympathetically, and she almost forgets about their disagreement at Christmas and reaches out to touch his arm before pulling away abruptly.
"Also," Harry begins, looking over her shoulder, seemingly distracted by something in the distance, "they have-well, there's an opening. For a Chaser, you know."
Her stomach bottoms out, because there are so many things implied in this sentence, and she is not missing any of them.
"Oh?" she says, trying to feign disinterest and failing. His eyes snap to hers.
"I know that I wasn't very understanding at Christmas," he tells her bluntly. "And I did hear what you said, and I don't really have any reason to think you would think differently now. But I-I've thought about it, and me, and I can-I can be better now, and I won't sulk around anymore, and I won't do the self-pity thing, like you said I shouldn't, and it won't be distance anymore when you get the Chaser position-"
"If I get the Chaser position," she interrupts.
"If you try out, you'll get it," he answers. His certainty makes her heartbeat hum and her skin prickle. "So," he continues. "If you don't want to-to give me a second chance, then I get it. I completely get it. It's not a big deal. Well, it kind of is a big deal, but don't worry about it. I just wanted to-" He breaks off, but she cannot ignore the desperation in his eyes, the proximity of his body. "-I just wanted to check," he finishes.
After a short pause, she says, "Just because you say something, doesn't mean it'll happen. Just because you say you'll stop hating yourself doesn't mean that-"
"I know," he cuts her off. "But it means I'll try."
And can she really say 'no' now? If she can, she doesn't know how to. She doesn't care anymore about appearing strong or weak or feminist or dependent-she only cares about the way he looks at her, and the way his mouth felt on the one occasion that they (accidentally, briefly) kissed.
She reaches out to take his warm hand out of his pocket and intertwine her long fingers with his callused ones. She begins to think impossibly that by leaving this platform behind, she will leave sadness behind as well, but corrects the thought before she begins to actually believe it. This isn't about finding perfection, about losing sadness, and she thinks that possibly she doesn't want it to be-without these months of misunderstandings and heartbreak, she wouldn't be able to look Harry evenly in the eye now. Retrospectively, it is easy to feel ridiculously grateful for such aches, and she does.
As he moves closer and she begins to lean up to his mouth, a first-year runs past and bumps into her, jostling their hands apart. Harry grins a little, almost bashfully.
"Meet you at the house?" he asks. "I'll make you a margarita." She feels her cheeks flush and she smiles at him.
"Thanks. See you there."
He winks out of existence quickly, without warning, and she is startled for a second but recovers quickly. She glances around Platform Nine and Three Quarters for the final time, absorbing every detail of the sparkling train and the bustle of children before she bites her lip anxiously and snaps into another place.
*
Losing Harry is the prequel to this fic.
Title: Meeting Harry
Challenge: Three Column Prompt Challenge
Date: Post-Hogwarts, summer
Location: King's Cross Station
Object: Margarita
Summary: Harry meets Ginny as she gets off the Hogwarts Express. He lets her know a few things.
Rating: PG
Genre: Flangst
Word Count: 1619
Notes/Warnings: Up until about 4:00 pm today, I had every intention of submitting a completely different story, but decided to write a new one, just because I am clever like that :-P But I had to go to dinner, too. So it may be a little unpolished :)
When Ginny steps off the Hogwarts Express for the final time, she feels a loss that has already hit everyone else. She saw it written on Colin's face as he stepped out of the portrait hole; on Natalie's as she passed the Great Hall; on Luna's as the Thestrals left. There is an unspeakable weight on everyone's shoulders, hanging in the air, and what seems like it should be a carefree celebration is instead a passive regret.
She knows why the strangeness is there-it has been still only a year since Voldemort was erased, and the Death Eaters still pose a threat, although they are collapsing slowly-but there is a dichotomy that is still strange, conceptually. The period of war has been punctuated with spots of happiness: wide smiles for parentheses, laughing eyes for semicolons, entangled limbs for complicated ampersands; but it is never long before the memories descend on them again. The year has been a struggle, with so many people gone, either because of death or because they had already left Hogwarts, but she has plowed through it, and she is glad to be able to go home now and see her mother's smiling face and lie in her bed all day and pretend that she is still six years old and everything is perfect.
Her feet hit the platform awkwardly and it takes some effort to pull her trunk off, but she manages, and only moments later, someone takes the handle of the trunk and tugs it up onto a trolley.
"Thanks," she says, looking up through the hair that has fallen over her face to see Harry looking down at her, a smile pulling at the edge of his mouth, a dimple beginning to form. "Harry! It's good to see you," she says honestly. "Why are you here? Mum said you had to file stuff for that case-"
"Oh. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't have to anymore. I-I don't have to," he replies awkwardly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Well, that's good. Did Mum come?"
"Yeah, she's-" He waves his hand in some general direction, but it doesn't matter because before she can even notice her parents approaching, her mum is wrapping her into an embrace. Molly's clothes smell like cinnamon, which indicates that she has been baking, and a smile spreads across Ginny's face.
"Hi, Mum!" she exclaims, so glad to be able to hold her mother, so glad to be able to erase the nights spent curled in her bed, worrying about her family.
"Ginevra," Molly says in the tone of voice she only uses when she pretending to be strict, "you didn't owl me at all last month!"
"I know, I know, but I was really busy, really-"
"Off with Owen, I'm sure-" says Molly, and Ginny knows probably she is not supposed to do this, but she looks quickly up at Harry when her mum mentions Owen Reedling, and Harry is just staring blankly at her, so she returns Molly's hug and doesn't answer.
"Hey, you," Arthur says over his wife's shoulder. Ginny breaks to hug to grab her haggard-looking father around the middle, and she practically feels his relief seeping into her skin.
"Hi, Dad. Still building the tellyfission?"
"Telly-mission," he corrects.
"Television," she hears Harry mumble awkwardly in the background. She breaks the hug and smiles at her parents. Harry is in the periphery, and she has to force herself not to look at him too.
Molly wraps her arms around Ginny a second time, then grabs the trolley from Harry's loose grasp with one hand and Arthur's elbow with the other.
"We'll take your trunk; you two follow when you want."
"We'll be there in a second," says Harry, and she has to meet his eyes to glare at him, because couldn't he have postponed this confrontation until later? She doesn't want to let him down, or to be let down, today, when she is supposed to be celebrating.
Her parents nod and Disapparate quickly, and then it is just she and Harry and a thousand other students being greeted by their parents. The bustle is so loud she can't hear herself think, which was no problem when she was saying hello, but becomes a major impediment when she is trying to figure out a million things in a few seconds.
"So," she says awkwardly. He nods with similar awkwardness, and she feels her stomach drop traitorously.
"Are you still dating that prat?" Harry blurts. She glares at him.
"Harry!"
"Well, are you?"
"No, I am not, not that it is any of your business," she says, not sure why she has missed him so much.
"Well, okay, it's not, but I want it to be-" he says earnestly.
"Harry, I mean it, don't you dare-" Her voice is hovering on the edge of shouting.
"I didn't mean it like that!" he protests. "Look, I have something to tell you."
"What?"
He takes a deep breath and says, "The reason I don't have to file stuff for the case is because I quit my job."
"What?" Ginny asks, shocked. "What do you mean, you quit your job?"
"Er-I don't work there anymore?"
"No, I know what you mean, but why?"
"Well, I-" he scuffs his toe on the ground, then continues bravely, "I went to talk to the owner of Puddlemere United? And I-I'm kind of their manager now? Because, you know, Amy Lewis left, and-so, well, yeah. It's kind of a job."
"No, of course it's a job!" she exclaims. "I'm just startled, that's all. Because I thought that after what Healer Ralley said, you didn't want to do anything with Quidditch-" She gestures at his right arm, which, when his hands are in his pockets, is only distinguishable from his left in its slight crookedness, but which he has not been able to raise properly since last August, when a rogue Death Eater attacked him.
"I know-I know I said that, and I did-I did mean it. But I guess… I don't know. I didn't want to be in the Magical Law department my whole life, or… or really any part of my life, I guess, is what it came down to."
"Oh, Harry," she says sympathetically, and she almost forgets about their disagreement at Christmas and reaches out to touch his arm before pulling away abruptly.
"Also," Harry begins, looking over her shoulder, seemingly distracted by something in the distance, "they have-well, there's an opening. For a Chaser, you know."
Her stomach bottoms out, because there are so many things implied in this sentence, and she is not missing any of them.
"Oh?" she says, trying to feign disinterest and failing. His eyes snap to hers.
"I know that I wasn't very understanding at Christmas," he tells her bluntly. "And I did hear what you said, and I don't really have any reason to think you would think differently now. But I-I've thought about it, and me, and I can-I can be better now, and I won't sulk around anymore, and I won't do the self-pity thing, like you said I shouldn't, and it won't be distance anymore when you get the Chaser position-"
"If I get the Chaser position," she interrupts.
"If you try out, you'll get it," he answers. His certainty makes her heartbeat hum and her skin prickle. "So," he continues. "If you don't want to-to give me a second chance, then I get it. I completely get it. It's not a big deal. Well, it kind of is a big deal, but don't worry about it. I just wanted to-" He breaks off, but she cannot ignore the desperation in his eyes, the proximity of his body. "-I just wanted to check," he finishes.
After a short pause, she says, "Just because you say something, doesn't mean it'll happen. Just because you say you'll stop hating yourself doesn't mean that-"
"I know," he cuts her off. "But it means I'll try."
And can she really say 'no' now? If she can, she doesn't know how to. She doesn't care anymore about appearing strong or weak or feminist or dependent-she only cares about the way he looks at her, and the way his mouth felt on the one occasion that they (accidentally, briefly) kissed.
She reaches out to take his warm hand out of his pocket and intertwine her long fingers with his callused ones. She begins to think impossibly that by leaving this platform behind, she will leave sadness behind as well, but corrects the thought before she begins to actually believe it. This isn't about finding perfection, about losing sadness, and she thinks that possibly she doesn't want it to be-without these months of misunderstandings and heartbreak, she wouldn't be able to look Harry evenly in the eye now. Retrospectively, it is easy to feel ridiculously grateful for such aches, and she does.
As he moves closer and she begins to lean up to his mouth, a first-year runs past and bumps into her, jostling their hands apart. Harry grins a little, almost bashfully.
"Meet you at the house?" he asks. "I'll make you a margarita." She feels her cheeks flush and she smiles at him.
"Thanks. See you there."
He winks out of existence quickly, without warning, and she is startled for a second but recovers quickly. She glances around Platform Nine and Three Quarters for the final time, absorbing every detail of the sparkling train and the bustle of children before she bites her lip anxiously and snaps into another place.
*
Losing Harry is the prequel to this fic.