One Good Day
Chapter 1: Just Harry
disclaimer: JKR owns it all, I own nothing, just having a little fun with no intentions of pulling a profit.
a/n: I start it off with a PG, but I think for a few quick scenes, I may upgrade later chapters to PG-13 (though I'm not one for real steamy stuff, so don't fret). Anyway, enjoy the story, and please don't forget to review.
Harry opened his eyes blearily and looked around. The world was both dark and blurry and he groggily reached out his right hand. After clanking around a few anonymous odds and ends (sending one of which falling to the floor with a quiet clanking noise), he found the glass and steel object he was searching for and fixed the glasses to his head.
The world came into focus, it didn't really change anything as everything was still much too dark to see. Shifting to further his search, it took him a few moments to realize that what he needed was the exact thing that had dropped to the ground.
The bedsprings groaned as he hoisted himself half off the bed, his hands blindly skimming around the floor. Finally he found it, and lay back on the bed.
“Lumos” he whispered, and the tip of the wand in his hand lit up in a soft white light. Ron’s room quickly came into focus, complete with the loudly snoring Ron in the bed beside his own. Harry smirked a little as he wondered how Ron didn’t wake himself up, before redirecting the wand towards the clock on the nightstand. 2:38am.
“Nox” Harry groaned and the wand light was extinguished immediately. Ditching his glasses and wand again, Harry yawned as he moodily noted that it was much too early in the morning for him to be awake. His eyes were nearly closed and his mind already half way into a dream before his eyes shot open wide again.
It’s my birthday, he thought.
He was seventeen, of age. Thoughts began to race through his mind. He was now legally allowed to do magic outside of school, not that he hadn’t done magic outside of school before, but this time it would be at least legal. Also, he thought darkly, the protective wards on the Dursley’s home would no longer be in place.
This thought seemed to fall dead in his mind. He seemed to see this as neither good nor bad. In truth, it only seemed to confirm the one thing he already knew. From here on out there would be no one left to protect him. He was officially seventeen, and officially alone.
That’s not true, he mused as Ron’s snores cut through his thoughts. There’s Ron and Hermione. There’s the rest of the Weasleys and the Order. There’s Ginny.
Ginny…
They had made it through the break up. That hurt but was necessary. They had made it through the wedding, and that hurt more, but at least Ron and Hermione getting together had lightened things up a little. Still, if he and Ginny understood each other as well as they claimed to, then why was Harry feeling more confused and wrong than ever?
He shook his head and tried to think of happier things. That first kiss in the Gryffindor common room. The sunny afternoons underneath the tree by the lake. As his lids grew heavier, the images in his mind drifted easily from the past to the future.
He, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione would take Sunday dinners together, their collective children running around and playing. They would reminisce over all the adventures they had that were in the past, while trying to prevent their kids from getting into as much trouble as they did. Soon a smile found its way on Harry’s face, and his thoughts drifted into dreams.
**
“Get up, Harry!”
Harry groaned. Through his eyelids he could tell that it was at least morning this time, but he still felt as though it was much too early to get up. Donning his glasses, he opened his eyes, and sat up with a jolt.
“Ginny!” he started. Looking down he realized that he had taken his shirt off in a futile attempt to keep cool in the warm summer night, and as a look of horror crossed his face, he quickly jerked the sheets up to his neck, almost sending Ginny crashing off the edge of his bed.
“Harry,” she giggled. “I grew up with six older brothers. It’s not like I’ve never seen a bare male chest before.” Even so, Harry noticed that she couldn’t look him in the eye as she said this, and a modest blush began to creep into her cheeks.
As she was sitting only inches from his knee, Harry gulped as he took her in. Even first thing in the morning she was beautiful, her curtain of red hair falling easily over her shoulders and back. She was clad in thin pink pajamas.
Shaking his head, Harry asked, “where’s Ron?”
Ginny giggled again before saying, “probably getting yelled at by Hermione.”
“What? I thought they were through all that?”
“Oh, their relationship may allow snogging now, but apparently it does not allow Ron seeing Hermione in her unmentionables,” she said with a sly grin.
“What? How?” It was much too early in the morning for Harry to be already behind the times.
Ginny shrugged. “Ron doesn’t knock. None of my brothers ever have. As a result, I learned very early on to only undress if I’m absolutely positive I’m behind a locked door. Hermione, it would seem, hasn’t learned that lesson yet.”
“So, Ron saw Hermione naked…”
“In her underwear.”
“Okay, in her underwear, and you left them alone?”
The smile on Ginny’s face began to fade. As thousands of different scenarios played out in both of their minds, Ginny mumbled, “it wouldn’t have been so bad if he didn’t just stand there and gawk at her like an idiot. Maybe I should go check on them.”
But before she could even leave the edge of Harry’s bed, the door to Ron’s room flew open. A thoroughly nonplussed (and fully dressed) looking Hermione entered with a very chastised looking Ron, but when they saw Harry, they painted on smiles and said in unison, “Happy Birthday Harry!”
“Thanks,” he muttered.
“Why aren’t you dressed yet?” Hermione asked with exasperation.
“Yeah, mate, we got a big day planned for you,” Ron followed up. “Didn’t Ginny tell you?”
Cracking a wicked grin at Ginny, Harry said, “the only thing she told me about was the romantic interlude you two shared this morning.”
Ginny shot him a scandalized look but it only lasted a second before Hermione barked, “she told you WHAT?”
As small as Ginny was, it had looked very much as though she were trying to grow even smaller. Harry had to bite his lip to not laugh out loud at the scene before him. A wild-eyed Hermione glared holes into the cowering Ginny while Ron looked as though he was again being subjected to the slug-belching curse.
Not taking her eyes off Ginny, Hermione said, “it was NOT a romantic interlude, it was…”
“An accident,” Ron finished. “Honestly.” Without segue, Ron immediately tried changing the subject.
“Well, since Ginny didn’t tell you, I may as well. For your birthday Harry, we’re going to grant you your wish.”
Straining not to let the laughter into his voice, Harry managed, “what wish?”
“Well,” Hermione began. “We know how you’re always wishing that you could just be a normal kid, so that’s exactly what you’re going to be today. Only, in the wizarding world, you’re no longer considered a kid, so…”
“For today, you’re not going to be a wizard, Harry,” Ginny finished with a triumphant smile on her face.
Realizing that he was being far more clueless than normal, all Harry could manage was a bewildered, “huh?”
“The four of us are going out for the whole day just like Muggles. No wands, no magic, no wizarding communities, nothing. We’re not even flooing anywhere. Hermione got her driver’s license only about a week ago, so she Apparated home last night and borrowed one of her parents’ cars,” Ron explained.
The concept began to sink into Harry’s still sleepy mind, and he cracked a smile. But as soon as the smile appeared, it was gone. “Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” he asked. “What about Death Eaters and Voldemort?”
“Volde-who? Death-what?” Ginny asked mischievously. Before Harry could protest, Ginny explained, “security’s already been taken care of. All you need to know is that we’re taken care of, we’ll be perfectly safe, and you aren’t to worry about it.”
His worries not completely assuaged, Harry moved to speak, but before he could, Ron cut him off. “Right then, so you better get ready, we need to leave soon.” Ron and Hermione both left before their friend could express any more concerns about security.
Harry looked questioningly at Ginny, but she only shook her head. “No Voldemort today. No Death Eaters. No prophecy, or chosen one, or anything of the sort, Harry,” she whispered.
“And Harry,” Ginny added, leaning closer to him. “Since you’re just Harry for today, and not some stupid noble hero, you’re also my boyfriend. Just for today.” She closed the distance between them and kissed him gently on the lips before leaping from the bed.
“Now, I’ve got to get ready myself. I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” she all but squeaked as she darted out of the room, closing the door behind her.
Harry stared into the empty room with a dumbfounded look on his face. Soon, though, that look was replaced with a smile as he quietly said, “this is going to be brilliant.”
One Good Day by Grimmrook
Chapter Notes: A Note On Continuity: I am honored and elated that you have chosen to read this story, however; if this is the first of my stories that you have sat down to read, I encourage you to stop now. All of my stories are written in one single story arc, and One Good Day is the second story, not the first. I believe it necessary that to get the full benefit of this story and those after it for you to begin first with Right Here. Then come back and read this story, move on to Epilogues, Part I, and then to Epilogues Part II. After you are done with Epilogues Part I, you can also read Everybody Does It, which is in the same story arc, but much much further down the road.
Thank You, and I hope you enjoy my stories.