Two Nights Later
“I don’t care if he is the sodding Savior of the wizarding world. He’s a rotten, lousy piss-head,” Eric said angrily.
“Eric! Don’t say that. He’s a good man, he just…got a little tanked up, that’s all,” Ginny said as she removed her cloak and hung it up in her wardrobe.
“And that,” he sneered, pointing at her. “I can’t believe that you’re defending him!”
She furrowed her brow at him, “I’m not…not really. I’m just telling you that he doesn’t usually drink so much. At least, he didn’t used to.”
“Well, apparently he does now,” Eric said as he paced around her room. “I swear Ginny; I would’ve punched his lights out if you hadn’t pulled me away.”
“Which is exactly why I did,” she added. “I didn’t want either one of you regretting anything more in the morning than you already will be.”
“I wouldn’t have had to do anything if he hadn’t started in on you. Honestly, I hear he’s gone out with loads of witches. Why doesn’t he feel the need to hit on them rather than you?”
“You know he didn’t mean anything by it,” Ginny said as she crossed the room, stopping to pat his arm gently.
“No, I quite think he did. He so much as told you, loud enough for all of us to hear, that you should come back to him because I… ‘certainly am not the kind of man that you need’,” Eric mocked.
She sighed, giving up her attempts to convince him otherwise. “Okay, fine. He was very drunk and way out of line, but just cut him a little slack, will you? He’s just trying to find out where he fits in to everyone’s lives now. Harry’s been gone for so long, it’s going to take time for him to adjust to…everything.”
“I wouldn’t have had a hard time cutting him any slack…but when my fiancé’s old flame kisses her, in front of the man she’s going to marry, it makes things a bit more difficult,” he raged.
“Eric, please…” Ginny said weakly, “I really don’t want to have any more rows tonight and I don’t know what else to say to make things better.”
“It’s just that,” his frustrations were getting the better of him, “when he kissed you…it was more than a few seconds before you pulled away.” Eric had tried not to show too much concern over this, but it seemed the more he tried to push it away the more the image of them kissing ate away at him.
She looked at him disbelievingly. “You know it takes more than a second for anyone to wake from the shock of being kissed and actually realize what’s going on.”
“It just seemed like you were…”
“Were what Eric?” Ginny pushed.
“…It seemed like you were kissing him back, at first.”
“WHAT?! You’ve got to be kidding me?! What kind of person do you take me for, Eric? I’m no scarlet woman,” she said as she backed away from him and folded her arms across her chest.
“I …I didn’t mean to imply that,” his voice only calming slightly as he waved his arms about in the air. “I don’t know what I was thinking. There was just that tiny moment that I thought, ‘Shite. What if she does still want him?’”
“Do I make you question my feelings for you?” she asked, dropping her hands to her side and taking a few slow steps in his direction.
“N-no, I just…” he sighed, “I feel like I’m competing against him for your love and I’m playing a losing game.” She knew it took a lot for him to admit that as he continued to hold her gaze. “Do you really love me? Are you quite sure that you want to marry my jealous arse?”
Ginny took another small step bringing her closer to him, letting a sad smile play at the corners of her lips. There was no doubt that she loved Eric; she wouldn’t have been with him if she didn’t. But despite her attempts to force Harry’s memory out of her mind, she couldn’t. She had never been able to really push him away. Thoughts of Harry began to flood her mind as she remembered their conversation a few nights ago. She’d been far stronger than she ever would have imagined, but it killed her…lying to him, telling him that she didn’t love him anymore.
It all proved to be too overwhelming for her and she sucked in a deep breath, trying to shake the thoughts from her mind as she focused on Eric. His eyes were carefully studying her as she finally closed the gap between the two of them and reached up to hold his face. Before saying a word, she kissed him, sweetly at first and then she lost herself in the new intensity.
A few moments later, once their need for air pierced through their lungs, they parted slowly. Eric could barely move after their earth shattering kiss and Ginny seemed vaguely aware that he’d muttered, “Wow.”
“No one will ever replace you in my life,” she said as he reached out, letting his thumb trace over her cheek. Ginny closed her eyes, relishing in the feel of his rough hands on her soft skin as she breathed in the familiar heady scent of wood and wind. “I love you, Harry.”
Eric’s thumb stopped moving and his whole body stiffened as she opened her eyes to see him.
“What did you say?” he frowned at her.
She blinked in confusion, “I said, ‘I love you, Eric’.”
“No, you didn’t,” he said sharply, withdrawing his hand.
“Yes, I did,” Ginny chuckled lightly. “Don’t be silly.”
He had already begun backing away from her and she knew something was wrong. Looking at his tense face, she saw that his jaw squared off as he restrained his voice through gritted teeth.
“You just said ‘I love you, Harry’.”
“What?! No, I didn’t.” Surely I didn’t, she thought in disbelief.
Suddenly, Eric completely understood everything. She’d been extremely temperamental over the past few days, ever since”that’s it, ever since Harry had come back. Eric couldn’t believe his stupidity. How could he have been so blind? Ginny hadn’t been her calm and collected self the entire time. She’d become off kilter.
Then it hit him; something must’ve happened the night that they had the welcome home party for Harry. He remembered that she hadn’t been in her normally playful mood and if he recalled correctly, he’d only seen her smile a few times. That’s when Eric remembered that she’d been talking to Harry that night, the night that he’d proposed to her.
“No,” he murmured to himself. She’d said yes so quickly when he asked her that he didn’t think anything of it. Eric closed his eyes, sighing as his heart broke even more”Tears had been in her eyes the entire time, but… She had been crying before I even pulled her away from the crowd for our more private conversation.
“Eric?” Ginny whispered gently.
“You…you still love him…don’t you?” he said, snapping out of his thoughts.
“Eric, I told you…Harry and I were over a long time ago.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, Ginny.” Eric huffed as she watched his breathing become heavy and his face change to a fierce look, as if it was set in stone. “Do you still love him?”
Ginny flinched at the sound of his voice. It had suddenly become harsh and brazen. She had remained silent for far longer than his temper was allowing because she could tell his patience was running very thin. He began to pace around her room, waiting for her answer and she’d never been so happy that the house was empty because she didn’t want to hear anything from her family after what she knew was about to happen.
“Answer me!!” Eric growled. Her head snapped quickly in his direction, shocked at the tone that he was suddenly taking with her. But Ginny wasn’t a fool; she wouldn’t stand there and be treated in any less way than civil.
“I don’t know! I’m not sure how I feel,” she answered him just as sharply.
“Well…obviously you still have some sort of feelings for that self-consumed tit-head or you wouldn’t be so unsure about how you feel.” He was acting like a prat now and Ginny didn’t know what to think anymore.
“I will not have this discussion with you acting like an arrogant arse,” she said matter-of-factly. “Even though Harry and I are no longer in a relationship together, he is still a good friend of mine…and I will not have you talk about him that way.”
Eric’s nose flared as he tried to calm his heavy breaths. “Unless you tell me that you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, don’t love him…that you don’t have feelings for him, then…I’m leaving and I’m not coming back.”
Ginny’s mouth gaped open in disbelief, “You’re giving me an ultimatum?” She had never seen him act like this before. He’d never once treated her unkindly nor did he force her to make any decision hastily. Eric didn’t even seem like the same person that she knew a mere hour ago. But if this was the kind of person that he was going to be, she didn’t want to be near him, much less married to him.
Ginny didn’t even wait for him to give her an answer. “You know what? Fine, I admit it. I still have feelings for him. What those feelings are, I haven’t the foggiest, but it doesn’t matter anyway.” She paused with tears of anger welling up in her eyes. “After tonight, I’m not so sure about us.”
She had never seen such a look of disgust on his face as she now saw before her.
“Of course,” he sneered. “Obviously you’d pick him.”
“I didn’t say that I was picking anyone. I just said that I wasn’t sure about us,” she stated, eyeing him skeptically. “I don’t know that we are going to work out, not when you force me to choose a life without either him or you…and especially not after acting the way that you just have.”
“I can tell you’ve made your decision. It appears that I was only ever a rebound to you from the start,” he said spitefully, angering her even more. “Evidently, you’d rather be one of his tarts than to be married to me.”
That was the last straw. Ginny had never been so astonished to hear someone degrade her. Before she could even fully comprehend her thoughts, she’d already brandished her wand and hit him with an extremely powerful Bat-Bogey Hex.
“AHH!!!” Eric yelled, falling to the floor and clawing at his face. “Damnit, Ginny! Get these bloody things off of me!” To his dismay, she didn’t move an inch to help him.
“No,” she huffed, folding her arms as she watched him flail about.
After almost ten minutes, he finally pulled himself off of the floor, stumbling about the place before eventually looking back at her. Ginny didn’t know what he’d expected to see, but her gaze on him was full of contempt and rage.
“Get out,” came her fierce voice. She knew that he probably couldn’t move for fear that she would hex him again and at this point, she didn’t care if she was taken to Azkaban for cursing his bits. “Get. Out. …NOW!” she yelled as Eric found his courage and flung the door open. He flew down the stairs and slammed the door, disappearing from the house.
Ginny chuckled to herself for a moment, amused by her latest feat until apprehension sank in. Over the past two days she’d not only driven away the man that she thought she’d loved but also realized, only too late, that she might still love Harry.
Oh God, do I still love him? she thought as tears began to stream down her face. Tonight would be another night that she cried herself to sleep, she just knew it. Why did she always do this to herself? During those four years that she waited for Harry, she cried nearly every night until she fell asleep, but after that, there was Eric. Yes, there were a few times during the first couple of months that she cried because she felt as if she was betraying Harry’s love, but what did he call himself doing? If anything, he’d been the one that let her down.
Ginny wiped the tears away roughly and briefly thought about Flooing Hermione, but she was probably just getting back to her flat, letting a very drunk Ron crash at her place.
With the option of talking to Hermione out, she cursed and stomped out of her room heading toward the kitchen.
She may not have had anything other than Butterbeer earlier tonight, but right now called for something stronger. Nothing other than Firewhisky would be able to drive the thoughts of Harry’s lips on hers out of her mind.
Ginny grabbed the bottle and walked into the sitting room, falling onto the sofa. She raised it to her lips taking a quick swig of the Firewhisky, shuddering briefly from the initial taste.
“Sodding memories,” she sniffed as the thoughts of Harry refused to go away. This is what had messed things up with Eric, remembering Harry’s gentle touch as he traced her jaw, tickling her neck lightly as he ran his fingers across it before they began to dance over her creamy white shoulders.
She shook her head, trying to focus again. At first, Ginny felt guilty for still feeling something for Harry but had she not slipped, she never would’ve seen Eric for who he really is and would’ve ended up marrying someone that she wasn’t meant to be with.
But who was she meant to be with? She’d thought, at one time, that the answer to that question was Harry but that was no longer the case. He was dating other people now, moving on with his life. But then, she thought, why would he have asked to have me back?
It was all too much for Ginny to think about right now. All she wanted to know was Firewhisky, sleep, and….her hands running down his arms, feeling every muscle twist and pull as his soft lips crashed upon hers. She sighed deeply letting the memories overcome her; there was no point fighting them anymore. Tonight, she would allow them swim through her head, but tomorrow…tomorrow would be just another day to ignore what her heart really wanted.
She lifted the bottle to her lips again, almost dropping as she heard a loud crash in the kitchen.
“Shite,” came a quiet, slurred voice. Ginny stood up and walked around the corner, expecting to see that Hermione had kicked Ron out of her flat and sent him back here. Instead, the raven-haired man with emerald eyes looked up at her through his drunken stupor and whispered, “Gin.”
Merlin, he will be the death of me, she thought as he tripped over another chair.
“Who keeps putting these chairs in the way?” he asked, stumbling around the table.
She sighed, “Harry, what are you doing here? You should be at home.”
“I am at home,” he said reaching out to her.
Ginny closed her eyes feeling the pain wrench at her heart, “No, you’re not. You’re at the Burrow. Your home is Grimmauld Place…at least it is for now.”
“No,” he said, trying to gather a lucid thought. His voice slurred again, “Home…home is…with you.”
She swore under her breath, silently cursing his name for what he was putting her through. All she wanted to be doing right now was enjoying her Firewhisky in the sitting room, drowning the memory of him. Instead, she was standing in kitchen, listening to his drunken self claim that his home was with her.
“Harry, you’re drunk. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Here,” she said pushing him into the nearest chair. “Let me make you a potion to help you sober up a bit.” Ginny moved over to the counter, immediately gathering a few ingredients from the nearby cupboard.
“I’m not d-drunk,” he continued protesting as she quickly began mixing the potion. The sooner she could finish making it, the sooner she would be able to send him back to number twelve Grimmauld Place, where he belonged.
“Tha’ boyfriend of yours sure ‘ad a lot of nerve tonight.” Harry could hardly keep a coherent sentence together as he watched the red-haired witch working busily.
“Don’t start, Harry. I don’t want to talk about anything that happened earlier this evening. I’m not in the mood for it.”
“Oh come’on, you can’t blame me for wha ‘appened. Certainly no’t with the way ‘e talked to you. S’not right for ‘im to treat you like tha’.”
Ginny rubbed her forehead, trying to chase away the headache that she was quickly getting. “Stop it, Harry. You don’t know what you’re talking about. He didn’t say anything wrong.”
“Like bloody ‘ell, ‘e did. Ordering you ‘round. Tellin’ you wha’ to do and no’t to do. Sodding arse, ‘e is.” Harry scowled with a disgusted look at the thought of Eric being near his Gin. “I would’ve kicked the piss’ead good if you ‘adn’t pulled ‘im away.”
“Stop it. JUST STOP IT!” she shouted as she turned to finally look at him. With tears pooling behind the anger in her eyes, she stared at him with a broken heart. “I don’t care what happened between the two of you tonight. But rest assured, you’ll be able to sleep easier now, knowing that you don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
She turned her back to him again, putting the finishing touches on the Sober Up Potion she was making. The room became unusually quiet, more than it had been since Harry had arrived. He’d suddenly become too still for his own good, and she could feel the air grow cold around her.
“What ‘appened?” The tone of his voice became sharp and stiff as he tried to push away hazy effects of Firewhisky. She couldn’t do anything but shake her head. “Did ‘e do somethin’ t’you?”
“No. It was nothing. He didn’t do anything.” Ginny poured the glass full of the thick potion and walked over to him, placing it on the table. “Here, drink this.” Harry reached out to take the glass from her, brushing his fingers against hers. The soft touch was enough to waves of emotion through both of them.
“You’re beautiful, Gin…” he sighed as his eyes met hers. She flinched at his words and pulled her hand away quickly.
“And you’re drunk. Now, drink the potion and be on your way.” She walked back into the sitting room, desperately wanting to have another sip of Firewhisky.
“’Ey! Where ah’ you goin’?” he called out to her as she rounded the corner without the slightest glance back.
Ginny felt sick to her stomach as she sank back onto the sofa. She reached for the bottle of Firewhishkey, raising it to her lips again until she caught its strong smell and quickly sat it back on the table. There was no use; she wouldn’t be able to drink the hurt away tonight. She, instead, drew her legs in front of her, pulling them tightly against her small frame. Resting her arms on her knees, she dropped her head, completely frustrated with her life. Not a single moment of it had ever seemed easy.
It was a good quarter hour later before she finally heard Harry stirring about.
Please let him go home, she thought with her head still in her arms. Please.
“Gin…” she could tell he was standing in the doorway. Obviously he was starting to feel more like himself now, since the potion helped to sober him up. “I wish you’d tell me what happened.”
“I told you, nothing happened,” she mumbled, not moving an inch.
“I’ve known you for far too long, Red. You’re lying.”
“So what if I am?” she finally looked up at him. “Frankly, I really don’t care to talk to you about anything in my life.” He seemed unable to do anything but stare at her, completely affronted, as she huffed with amusement at her statement.
“You used to want to talk to me,” he said with a hushed voice.
Ginny sighed, “Yeah, I used to. That was until you decided not to talk to me for five years.” A look of guilt crossed Harry’s face as he held his ground. “I can’t believe it myself. After five years of wanting nothing more than to talk to you, now that I have the chance, I don’t want it anymore.”
“Gin, I--”
“No, Harry. I don’t want to hear anything. Nothing about your life in America, nothing about the girls you’ve dated or are dating. Which, I guess, is kind of why I’m surprised to see you here. You could be partying it up with the loads of girls that are always fawning all over you…yet you choose to come chat me up. Well, let me save you the time,” she let her feet drop to the floor heavily.
“There’s no need for apologies because I don’t want to hear them either. What we had has been over with for years, so feel free to walk away without any sense of guilt.” Ginny picked up the bottle of Firewhisky and brushed past him harshly without so much as another word. She walked back into the kitchen, placing the bottle back in Ron’s secret hiding place.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” he insisted on continuing.
“Save it, Harry. I don’t care anymore.” She walked past him again to clean up the sitting room. “You know your way out.”
She was just about to walk upstairs to her bedroom when he stopped her. “I’m not seeing anyone.” She froze with one foot already on the first step and chuckled lightly to herself. He had to be lying.
“Well, congratulations, Harry. Neither am I.”
“What?”
“Never mind…just go.” She started up the stairs again.
“Just talk to me…please,” he begged.
“I tried that before, but you didn’t want to listen to me then. What makes you think I’d really believe that you care now?”
“Oh come off it!” Harry was getting frustrated.
“NO!” Ginny shouted as she turned and pushed her way into the sitting room again. “I only ever asked for one letter from you. All I wanted to hear was ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I love you’. That’s it.”
“I did write to you,” he was quiet as his head fell. She sat down on the sofa, straining her ears to hear what he’d said.
“I’ve heard enough of your lies, tonight.”
“Damnit, Ginny!! I’m not lying. That’s why I came here after Hermione dropped me off at home…to tell you everything. To tell you that I never dated around at all. I went out with one witch a couple of times but that was it. Even then, I didn’t do it because I had feelings for her or because I just wanted to have a good shag. I went out with her because I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I only told Ron that I was seeing other women to make him think that I was doing okay.” Ginny couldn’t move, couldn’t say anything as he continued pouring out his soul to her.
“And just because you didn’t get an Owl doesn’t mean that I didn’t write to you…because I did. I wrote to you every day for the first three months that I was gone. After that, I wrote one letter a week. Eventually, I just stopped writing because I knew that I’d never send any of them to you.” He waited for her to protest, saying that she didn’t believe him, but she didn’t. “You can choose not to believe me, if you like…but it won’t change the fact that I’m telling you the truth.”
Harry reached down and picked up a rather large bundle of letters, tossing them onto the table in front of her. She jumped at the loud thud and watched some of the letters begin to spill out from the loose corners, falling to the floor.
She sat on the sofa in absolute shock as he pulled out a letter from his coat pocket. He moved to stand next to her, slowly opening the letter.
“This letter is the one I wrote to you after I called things off with Amy--she’s the witch I was talking about. It’s when I realized that I’d been completely blind about everything. But I couldn’t…” She could hear the pain in his voice. “How could say anything to you after all that time? After I pushed you away?” The letter fell from his hands, landing on top of the others. She looked at it warily until she heard him sniffle slightly and turn away from her.
“I never hated myself more than I did at that moment…until tonight. Gin, I never meant to hurt you. You have to believe that I’d never want to do that for as I long as I live. I’m arrogant, self-centered, stupid…and I’ve wasted five years of your life and mine being just that.” Ginny picked up the letter as he continued. Reading his words on the parchment seemed like a dream, one that she’d wished would come true so many times.
“I know that saying the words won’t make a bit of difference now, but…I am sorry. And even though I have no chance of having you back in my life, you mean more to me than anything in this world.” Harry sighed, straightening his coat as he gathered himself. He started walking to the door and turned his head to see her with his letter in her small hands. “I love you.”
Turning the doorknob, she stopped him. “Harry!” She was crying now and he could hear it in her voice. “Why?”
He looked back at her with a furrowed brow. He didn’t understand what she meant.
“Why didn’t you send any of the letters before? You could’ve.”
“I told you; I know you far too well, Red. You would’ve given that letter one look and taken me back without question.” There was a pitying look in his eye as the tears began to illuminate his emerald eyes. “As much as I love you, I couldn’t let you to do that. I…I didn’t want you to end up with the likes of me. Not a man who’s killed someone. You deserve to have someone so much better than me.”
So that’s why you pushed me away? she thought as they both stood there quietly, too afraid of where this conversation would take them.
“As much as I hate to say it, you’re better off with someone like Eric instead of me.” He was starting to leave again, Ginny noticed. After all this, him finally telling her the truth about everything, she couldn’t let him go…not again. She wouldn’t lose his love a second time.
“I’m not with Eric anymore!” She said quickly, noticing the look of hope in his eyes as he met her gaze. “I broke things off with him after we came back here, tonight.”
“What?”
Her mind argued whether she should tell him the entire truth. “He was still upset about you kissing me, at dinner. I tried to defend you and I thought I’d managed to finally calm him down a bit, but before I knew it, he was making me choose between not having a marriage with him or having a life without your friendship.” She frowned and let her gaze fall from his. “He’s never done that to me before. Never made me choose how I wanted to live my life…and I didn’t like it at all.”
Harry didn’t like how this sounded and the anger that he had towards Eric earlier came flooding back. “Did he do something to you? …Did he hurt you?”
“No…not physically. But he did have a few choice words for me.” She saw the intense flare of energy in his eyes. “He got angry when I told him that I wasn’t sure if he and I would be able to continue to have a relationship. That’s when he accused me of already choosing you and said that ‘I’d rather be one of your tarts’ than to be married to him.”
“I’ll kick his sorry arse!!” Harry yelled, ready to storm out of the house and Apparate to Eric’s flat.
“There’s no need for that! I hit him with a pretty powerful Bat-Bogey Hex when he said that.” Ginny let out a small chuckle for the first time in what felt like ages. “It was quite funny, actually.”
Relaxing a little, he mumbled, “I’ll still kick his arse. He had no right to make you choose a life with or without me.”
She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. “I- I didn’t tell you everything that happened.” Merlin, give me strength. “The reason he got so upset was because…because I said ‘I love you’, she began to mumble, ‘Harry’.”
“I’m sorry…what did you say?”
Just spit it out, she thought. “When I told him that I loved him…” Ginny took a deep breath, “I said your name instead of his.”
He couldn’t do anything but stand there, too dumbfounded for words. He didn’t know what this could possibly mean. Does she still love me?
“I…I don’t know what’s come over me these past few days. I’ve tried so hard to push the memory of you out of my mind. And I thought I was doing okay, at first, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop reading the letters that you would send to Ron. Even after I started dating Eric, you were still there.” She let her gaze fall to the letter still in her hands, “When you came back the other day, I was in a terrible state. I thought that I’d finally reached the point where I wouldn’t want to think about you anymore…but then, I saw your face. At that moment, it didn’t matter how angry I was with you or how long it had been, the memories flooded my mind as if the moments had only been minutes ago.” Despite her attempts to hold back the tears, Harry could see them slowly begin to roll down her creamy white cheeks.
“Oh my Gin,” he breathed, causing her to inhale deeply.
“As much as I loathe Eric now, what I did to him was horribly wrong of me. To have dated him to forget about you…he was right. I was only using him as a rebound and I denied it. But gods, Harry, when you kissed me tonight, it was as if the world had slipped away, as if it hadn’t been five years or even five months since I’d last been with you. It’s all I’d wanted for so long, but I was too afraid to admit it. Too afraid to admit that I still loved you, especially knowing that I might never see you again.”
Harry took a deep breath to steady himself. Merlin, he’d missed her for so long and seeing her these past few days on someone else’s arm, it was sheer torture. But now, things were taking a turn for the better and …did she say that she still loved me?
When she finally looked up at him, Ginny saw a familiar intensity in his eyes and it made her heart flutter with both excitement and nervousness. She watched him clear the distance between them in three strides. Reaching his hands up, he cupped her face, pulling her lips to meet his in a searing kiss. She didn’t think that she was breathing at first, and she certainly could’ve sworn that her heart had stopped beating. But she was still alive, and she could very much feel Harry’s tongue gently tracing her lips, begging to taste her. Just before she could respond to him, he pulled away.
“I’m sorry, Gin. I shouldn’t have…I mean, that was wrong of me to…oh gods, I’ve made a mistake.”
“Bloody hell, you will. If you walk out that door, that’s the mistake that you’ll be making. What just happened was not a mistake. You think I would’ve let anything happen that I didn’t want to?” She pulled his chin up, forcing his emerald eyes to study her chocolate ones. “Now…kiss me again.”
He smiled hesitantly for a moment, before an intense look washed over him. This time, he didn’t meet her with ferocity. Instead, he let his fingers brush through her hair, falling to her shoulders as they slowly slid down to rest on the small of her back. He pulled her tight against him and she inhaled a sharp breath. She felt as if the air was charged with a beautiful magic and every feeling between the two of them seemed to be intensified. She could feel the strong desire for her pulsing through his body, yet he was restraining himself, moving achingly slow.
She tried to calm herself, not wanting to appear over anxious and certainly not wanting to rush things that had been a long time coming.
This time, his gentle lips met hers, caressing them with tenderness, nearly making her cry at the beauty of his desire. He felt her mouth form a small grin and he teased her bottom lip with his tongue, asking her once more to open herself to him. Without any second thoughts, she opened her mouth as his tongue met hers.
He heard a low moan echo from deep within her and felt her body sigh, resting against his. He wondered if this was all just another dream. It felt too good, too right to be real…but he had to know.
“Gin…” he mumbled against their pressed lips.
“Hmm?” Don’t pull away. Please don’t pull away. Bugger, he pulled away.
“I just want you to know,” he said, running his thumb across her cheek, “there’s nothing I can do that will bring these past five years back to us and I am beyond sorry for that…and for everything else that has happened.”
“I know, Harry. I’m sorry too. You’re not the only one who’s made mistakes here.”
“Do you think there might be any chance that I could have you back in my life?”
She gave a small, relieving chuckle. “You think I kissed you like that to say goodbye?” This time, her tiny hand smoothed its way up his broad shoulder, resting on the nape of his neck. Ginny watched him carefully, trying to read the meaning in his eyes.
“I love you, Gin,” he answered her unspoken question.
The tears that were falling now were not those of sadness or regret. Instead, they were of happiness and forgiveness. She turned her head, resting her cheek against his chest as she breathed a sigh of silent relief. His familiar heartbeat soothed every feeling of loneliness that she’d had for so many years, bringing a gentle smile to her face.
“I love you, too, Harry.”
Fin
A/N: This is honestly, one of my more favorite pieces that I've written because of the range of emotions in the characters. Some readers may think that things were resolved too quickly in this last chapter, but I am leaving the rest of the story up to your imagination. Just because things ended on a happier note doesn't automatically mean that it'll be smooth sailing in renewing a relationship. You can make your own judgements about how things work out. This is simply my take on a small sitution.
I hope that you've enjoyed this rather short fic. Be kind and let me know what you think. Thanks!!