FIC--When You Figure Out You, Come Back to Me: Epilogue by almond_joyz
For ithinkiamlost
Title: When You Figure Out You, Come Back to Me: Epilogue
Pairing: Harry/Ginny
Rating: PG13
Summary: Accrued vacation time, an injury, and two people who never really got over one another make for an interesting scenario.
Warning: All dialog.
Betas: queenb23more and lunalovepotter
Author Note: I know I said that the last one was the final part, but Harry and Ginny kept pestering me to do this. So, it's a bonus chapter, ithinkiamlost Enjoy!
"Can I ask you something, Harry?"
"Yeah, sure. Anything."
"Can I ask you several questions? Like…twenty?"
"You wanna play Twenty Questions? Only if I can, too."
"Well, that's only fair."
"But it’s getting late…how about ten each?"
"Sure."
"Go ahead. I can handle it."
"Did you ever think about me after…I mean…well…after you defeated him?"
"After the battle? Yeah, why wouldn't I? The funerals were hard. I wanted to hold you while you cried. I wanted you to tell me things would be okay. It was hard, but I respected what you asked of me. I knew that whatever your reasons were, I couldn't push you."
"Your turn."
"Did people treat you okay your seventh year? Hermione was pretty vague in her letters when it came to you."
"Yeah…for the most part. I mean, everyone had either lost a family member or knew someone who died-"
"That's not what I meant. I meant…about me."
"Like wondering why we weren't together? Harry, that doesn't matter."
"You're not answering my question."
"Fine. No, they didn't treat me differently because we weren't together. My turn. Why did you have sex with Romilda?"
"Gin…"
"She's in the room every day, just like a big elephant. Might as well put it out there."
"I wanted to make a move on you that night. But then you were talking to that guy."
"David."
"Whatever. You looked too cozy with him."
"He was talking to me and after you so rudely left, we went dancing next door. I went back because he got handsy with me. And you're avoiding the question."
"I got myself drunk at the bar. Mixed my liquors. I…I thought that she…I thought she was you."
"Pardon me?"
"Merlin, don't make me say this!"
"If we don't talk about stuff like this, things'll never work out."
"I thought she was you. There were things I noticed that were off but I didn't really care. I went back the next day and the bartender told me that Romilda paid him to put some low-strength love potion in my drinks."
"She didn’t!"
"She did. Now me. Who did you date at Hogwarts?"
"Oh hell…it's only fair, I suppose. Um, Ryan King….John Bradley…Ethan Stebbins…uh….Michael Summerby…Christopher Harper and um, Graham Pritchard….Harry, say something."
"Sure you didn't forget anyone?"
"Stop it! You asked and I answered. I'm not proud of it and it didn't do anything except earn me a reputation."
"You're right. I'm sorry. Your turn."
"Was she your first?"
"Romilda?"
"Yes."
"Ummm, yeah. What other girl would have been around me enough to get close? Hermione? Ewww. I just wish my first time had been something different. Something more…"
"Horizontal?"
"Er…um, yeah, that too. Did you have sex with any of those boys?"
"No. And that's why I was called a tease, a slag, a whore, and whatever else you can think of."
"I'm sorry they said those things about you. I wish I could have been there."
"But you weren't. It was my choice and I really didn't care about what others thought. Even if you had been there, it wouldn't have mattered. I still would have told you I wasn't ready. I needed to grow up and-"
"Figure out you."
"Exactly. Can you tell me about Sylvia? It's okay. I didn't let myself get to know her real well."
"She was great. She told me that she didn't want to know about the things I'd done because she read about it all and that I was….what was it…a man and so much more than the legend."
"Sounds like she wanted to get into your knickers."
"It worked."
"Smart girl."
"Well, she did teach me a lot."
"I look forward to gaining from her tutelage."
"Oh, you are bad! Why Zach?"
"Um…he had really nice shoulders? Honestly, I don't know. He made me feel feminine and beautiful and never tried to tell me what to do. We had great conversations-he's pretty smart, actually. Zach just liked being with me. He didn't know about what went on my seventh year and he paid attention to me…"
"What? You want to say something else."
"He paid attention to me when you didn't."
"Ginny, I wasn't around because you walked away."
"I know that. I'm not claiming to be perfectly logical in all my answers or behavior, but that was the reason at the time."
"That's understandable, I suppose. I don't like it, but I can live with it."
"You don't have to like everything about my past. You just have to accept it and move on. I have."
"I know. It's just difficult imagine you with him. Did you know the poncy bastard pushed over first years to get out of the castle the night of the Battle?"
"He did what?"
"I saw him. He's a bloody coward."
"He never told me that. If I knew that...things would have been different. So what happened with Sylvia? I read some trash in the papers and magazines but you know how they can be."
"It's really embarrassing, to tell you the truth."
"You can trust me."
"I know. I just…I never really told anyone what exactly went on."
"You don't have to-"
"Yes, I do. If I don't, this'll never work out with us. Syl and I used to meet at Fortescue's for ice cream after work. One day, I think it was a Tuesday, I finished work early and headed out to Diagon Alley. She wasn't sitting at our usual spot outside so I sat down and waited for her. No one else came round for a while, so I went inside. Some noise came from the back room and I went to check on things and I saw her…and…Julian-"
"Oh…"
"She…she was sucking him off and her top was on the floor and…"
"Harry…you can stop."
"She told me it had been going on for a while. That she didn't know how to tell me. She said that she'd outgrown me and that Julian was her soul mate and I was a wonderful guy but ultimately not for her. I felt like an idiot. She didn't even try to cover it up. Julian stood there smiling the whole time, like he was proud of stealing her away from me. He'd always been such a pompous git. And then that weekend….I…went to the Burrow and you were there with Zach."
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know all of that happened. You were acting so strangely that night and then you got drunk."
"Ron took me home and told me I'd been blowing my chances. He said you were happy. So I had to leave you alone. I began working a lot after that."
"Long enough to accrue five weeks of vacation?"
"Apparently. Did you love him?"
"Zach? I don't know. I mean, I told him I loved him but deep down, I guess I really didn’t. When you and I were together, I couldn't stop talking about you with my friends. I wanted to be around you all the time and blabbered on about how you made me feel. I never did that when I was with him. The only way people knew I was seeing him was through the papers or whatever. I only told my parents so they wouldn't hear about it that way. There….there was no joy in my voice when I talked about him."
"So you stayed around because he was good in bed?"
"That's not fair. I genuinely liked him. And yes, he was an adequate lover-"
"I get the picture."
"You asked."
"Yeah, if you loved him. Not if he made the earth move with his boudoir skills."
"Drop the jealous boyfriend act before you get to be my boyfriend, Harry."
"Do you want me to?"
"You only get one question at a time. How adventurous were you and Sylvia?"
"Ginny! Tha-that's personal."
"And it's supposed to be. We've been talking about everything tonight. No sense in censoring ourselves now."
"Shelikeditroughsometimes."
"What was that?"
"Gin-"
"What'd you say? Honest, I didn't hear you."
"She liked it rough sometimes, okay?"
"Wow. How rough? Harry, come on! Did you tie her up? Fuck her hard against a wall? Blindfold her?"
"Rough. Yes, yes, and yes."
"Interesting. Were you the submissive ever? Don't look away from me!"
"Merlin, it's hot in here! Mind if I open a window?"
"It's your flat."
"That's better. What made you want to try again with me?”
"I think it was the photo of us in your bedroom."
"I don't have a photo of us in bed."
"Bastard. You know what I mean."
"The one Colin took? When did you notice it?"
"That first night. I remembered how happy we were and then how stupid I was to let you go. I talked to Hermione about you a lot during my baths."
"You thought that the first night?"
"Yeah. You kept that picture all this time and I put mine in the bottom of a box."
"I just couldn't do that. It would have felt like I buried you."
"And what about you? What did it for you?"
"Hmm…I think it was when I decided stopped trying to make you jealous by flirting with Serena."
"I knew it! I knew you were doing that!"
"I…incorrectly assessed the situation, as we say at the office. All I got was a kick in the chest."
"It was involuntary! I told you that. It was a twitch."
"A big twitch, if you ask me. My bum still hurts."
"Harry, that was four days ago. And you can stop with the puppy dog eyes. I don't buy it."
"Damn, I can't get anything past you, can I?"
"You never could."
"That's why I can't stay away. You know me too well."
"You better believe it. Why did you become a hermit after Sylvia? It isn’t like you didn't have friends."
"A hermit? I was not a hermit."
"You were. You sent Kreacher out to get groceries, you dropped out of sight and stopped showing up for Weasley functions. Mum was hurt, you know."
"I'm sorry about that the most. I burned some bridges, didn't I?"
"Most definitely."
"Sylvia humiliated me. Never before had anyone done that. I could handle Rita Skeeter and her lies. But Sylvia played me….she stomped on my heart and then she got married to that git a month after. If I went out, there was press everywhere, asking me about the 'developments' and how I felt. They intruded into every bit of my life. When they hurt Teddy, that was it. I couldn't take it anymore. I figured if I just worked, no one would bother me. I set up wards to Apparate right into my office from home. I hated my life outside of work, so work became my life."
"Vicious cycle."
"Mmm hmm. What's it like playing Quidditch professionally? I thought about it for maybe a day."
"It's bloody great! The whole world just disappears when I fly and the way the air rustles through my hair makes my body tingle with energy. I have my own little fan club that comes to all the games and sends me gifts at my birthday. It's pretty fantastic."
"Do they bother you?"
"You mean like stalking bother me? No. The team management makes sure that all correspondence goes to the team HQ. They set up fake addresses in case people research where we live and we're encouraged to always travel in pairs."
"I've set up some of those fake addresses."
"Mine?"
"No. And before you ask, neither did Ron."
"Why do you stay in the Auror office? I know Moody told you that you'd be a great Auror, but I mean, you've already done everything you set out to do when you were fourteen…."
"Well, like you always told me, it's my noble streak. No, no…let me finish. I remember you always talking about wanting to play Quidditch. You felt it deep down from when you were little. Ginny, you were more obsessed with the Harpies than Ron is with the Cannons. I always knew you'd choose that path. It's the same with me. There's something inside me that has to do it. It's got nothing to do with my parents or my history. It's a…a calling. I'll know when it's time to stop, if that ever happens."
"Even if it kills you?"
"Even if it kills me. Look at you. You were hit in the back with a Bludger, couldn't move your legs, and just started walking again with a cane. Does that mean that you're not going to go back when you're completely recovered?"
"No."
"It's the same with me. It was the same with Tonks and Moody. They couldn't not be Aurors, even if it meant their death. It was something they couldn't deny."
"I know."
"What do you like to do in your free time?"
"That's out of the blue."
"I wanted to lighten things up."
"This is embarrassing but…I knit. Shut up! It's relaxing and I've become quite good at it."
"When did this start?"
"About a year ago. I wanted a jumper I saw in a Muggle fashion magazine, but it was WAY too expensive. I showed it to Mum and she said it wouldn't be that difficult of a pattern, from what she could see. She offered to make it for me, but Christmas was coming and she didn't know when she'd be able to get to it. So then I asked her to refresh my knitting spellwork and show me some of the hand stitches and voila! I knit."
"That's…wow. I never would have imagined."
"Why all the books? I never pictured you as much of a reader."
"This is actually pretty funny. Hermione picked up a book and thought I would like it….The Chronicles of Narnia-The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe…and I did. Reminded me a lot of what I'd been through. I picked up the rest of the books in the series and read them. Then, I saw some films that were based off other books and read them. Films never do the books justice, by the way. Once I 'went into hiding,' I came across a flier for a mail order book club. Six books for one quid…and got myself a post office box. Kept ordering once I fulfilled my obligation and now I have a room full of books. Muggle books and Wizard books. Fiction, non-fiction, self-help, and reference. I could be my own library branch, I suppose."
"Harry Potter…The Boy Who Read. Not very catchy."
"Ha. Ha."
"Did you put The Notebook on the bedside table for me or were you reading it?"
"I…I read it awhile ago and thought you might like it."
"I read a few pages but it wasn't my cuppa."
"Well, you're welcome to check out the bookshelves."
"I think I'll need a reading list. I'm no good at picking them out myself. So where does that leave us?"
"Is that one of your questions?"
"I guess it is."
"I've been honest with you, and I assume you've been honest with me."
"Of course."
"So, I guess we…go with it."
"Go with it?"
"Yeah, you know, hold hands, cuddle…go on…dates."
"Can I get back on my feet…literally, that is…before we do that?"
"Well, I guess so. We do have three weeks to get ready."
"And…you'll … help me?"
"That's what friends are for, right?"
"Is that your last question?"
"No."
"Then it would be fair to say that we're a little bit beyond friendship. In a good way."
"Of course. I have one more question, though."
"Okay."
"Can…can I kiss you?"
"That's the silliest question you've asked all day. Especially since I think you know what my answer is."