The relief he felt at finally completing his destiny was short lived, as a fiery, very angry red head cornered him in his godfather's home, merely a month after the end.
"So?"
Harry squirmed under her questioning gaze, stunned into silence.
"Harry, now you're done, and I'm safe and save for a few rogue Death Eaters you rid the Wizarding World of evil."
Ever the modest hero, he replied with his usual negation of his greatness, "It wasn't just me you know, Ron and Hermione...."
Ginny shook her head, tired of hearing the same thing over and over. He was Harry Bloody Potter for crying out loud, and he was her hero and she was going to make him see it.
"I don't care about Ron and Hermione. I care about you"
"Ginny, this is not the time...."
"It's been a month! A month since it happened and I'm tired of waiting for something you promised me a year ago."
Harry put his hand on her shoulder, trying to provide a small comfort, "Ginny...I never promised you anything. I wasn't even sure I was going to be alive to keep any promises."
She shook her head, not willing to hear the words coming out of his mouth. "You said, you said we couldn't be together because you were worried about my safety. Well, I'm bloody safe! Now we can pick up where we left off and everything will be like it used to!"
"Ginny, nothings like it used to be...I don't think--"
Just then, his saving grace appeared, in the form of his best friend. "Harry, I've been looking everywhere for you! Ginny, I didn't know you were here, I wasn't expecting anyone..."
Ginny glared at the brunette witch, a year's worth of anger building up in her throat. "Its not your house Hermione. I'm Harry's guest, I don't need your permission to be here."
Hermione flinched at the steel in Ginny's voice, and Harry started, taken aback by the young witch's words.
"Ginny, this IS Hermione's home. It has been for a while, and you know that perfectly well."
Ginny just fumed, too angry and upset to talk back.
"Harry, I need to speak with you, if that's okay?" Hermione started to move away from the pair and Harry started to follow.
"That's fine, we're done, right Ginny?" He received no verbal response, just more glaring from the witch.
Harry followed his best friend down the hall, wondering how long it would take Ginny to see what was right under her nose. Ron figured it out pretty quickly, though he had some trouble of his own dealing with Dean's interest in Luna after the war. As soon as she had chosen the red head, he had become "enlightened in the ways of the heart," or so he claimed. Though he had opted not to live with his best friend at Grimmauld Place, Ron was a regular fixture in the once gloomy home.
Harry had asked Hermione to help fix up Grimmauld Place, and a weekend had turned into a fortnight and that had turned into stay-as-long-as-you-want. The renewed proximity had had its perks, to say the least.
"Hermione, where are we going? The library's the other way and-" Hermione dragged him into a spare bedroom which he hadn't known she had finished fixing up. It was now a study of sorts, with a desk and a pensive, and a familiar bowl of lemon drops.
"How did you...?"
"Harry! I found them." Hermione's voice mirrored her flushed face, the gleam in her eyes lured Harry closer as the meaning of her words brought out his own excitement.
"When? How? Where are they? Are we leaving now? We can go right now, I just need my wand and I'm-" Hermione raised her hand, and his voice faded away.
"I was thinking I would go on my own..." At Harry's crestfallen expression, she wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed. "It's not that I don't want your company or your help, I just don't want you to feel like you have to go on another mission so soon...It won't be easy, reversing those spells...and after the Hunt I just couldn't bear to see you that way again."
Her words hit his heart like arrows, pain and memories swirling around in his mind.
"You know I'd do anything for you, Hermione. Anything."
She nodded, the movement making her hair tickle Harry chin, and his chuckle broke the tension building in the room.
"And Hermione, above everything, whatever happens, whatever we do...you're the girl who I saved from a troll and who saved me from myself. You're the girl that taught me how to hug, and how to study, and you're the girl who kept me alive for seven years. You've never asked me for anything, and I keep asking you for things everyday. So, Miss Granger, if you think I'm about to let you wander off to Australia without me you're quite mistaken."
"Harry-"
"Just think of all the unsuspecting Muggles there that don't know I defeated Voldemort and that you're untouchable. Would you want them to face the Boy Who Conquered's wrath?" Hermione playfully slapped his chest and pulled back from his shoulder.
"Harry, I know what you're doing, playing jealous to soften me up but honestly-"
"Honestly? Honestly you'd be doing me a favor taking me with you. Can you imagine spending however long you'll be gone being tracked down by Ginny, and hounded by the Prophet? At least when you're here you can save me from them."
"There will come a time, Harry James Potter, that I won't be enough to drive them away. You're a big boy now, Potter. Too scared of a little girl, but brave enough to take down the Dark Lord?"
"Too scared to be away from you." The emotions in his words took Hermione by surprise, and as she looked into her best friend's eyes she knew he was being completely honest with her. He would miss her, and he didn't want her to leave him behind.
"Oh Harry, you know I'd never permanently leave you right?" He nodded, and she drew him into a hug. "I'd never leave you because I'm a selfish little bookworm who can't bear to be away from you for more than a minute. And frankly, I don't fancy having Ginny get you alone while I'm gone."
Harry nodded solemnly, though his grin betrayed his mocking tone, "Ah yes, you never know, as soon as you'll be gone she'll show up and I'll have to trade you back, Granger."
"Watch it, Potter, you still owe me for the whole saving your life since you were eleven deal."
Harry pulled her closer and whispered in her ear, "That and the whole, snogging my brains out every five minutes since we didn't die deal."
Hermione blushed, a shiver running down her spine as she pulled back and saw his face. "Well, Potter, how about you even things up?"
Grinning like mad, Harry pulled her flush against him, his arms encircling her waist. "Game on, Granger."
Their lips met almost desperately, as Hermione's arms snaked around his neck, one of her hands unconsciously ruffling his hair, as she had done long before they'd been together. She sighed contently as Harry deepened the kiss, and everything they felt was hot opened mouth kisses, and warm breaths on equally warm faces. Hands on skin, hands on hair. And Harry, it was Harry who made her tremble and shiver, and it was the eighteen going on eleven year old that made her heart laugh and her mind blank at the same time.
For his part, Harry could only think about how even though they'd shared kisses before, each time it was a new experience, a new wonderful feeling he'd been deprived of for far too long. She was his home, and after his disastrous turn with Cho, and the still confusing fling with Ginny, his heart had decided for him, that Hermione was the one, she was the only one who could make him feel this way. With Ginny, with Ginny he had felt like he was drowning in firewiskey, but Hermione made him feel like he was flying....
Alas, breathing started to become absolutely necessary and they had to part.
Which was wise, since at that very moment, Ginny Weasley, little Ginny Weasley who had sent her eleven year old crush a singing Valentine, was ready to explode. She had followed them, heard every word they had said. They had discarder her as a mere fleeting thought, not an actual factor in their lives.
He had discarder her.
She had betrayed her, though they were never the best of friends.
"How could you?!" Ginny's voice echoed through the silent room.
"Ginny!" Harry pulled his best surprise face, and Hermione tried to hide her smirk.
"Does my brother know?" Ginny paced in the doorway, though her eyes remained steadfast on Harry and Hermione.
Hermione simply nodded her head, making no apologies for her choices.
Just as Ginny was about to explode once again, Harry released Hermione from his embrace and took her hand in his. He walked to Ginny, bringing Hermione with him.
"I never made you any promises Ginny. Never. Hermione never made you any promises either, did she? You are not the center of the universe Ginerva, and no matter how many hexes you throw at us, or how many times you yell, I've made my choice, which was never really a choice." Harry looked at Hermione briefly, his face softening. "It was never really a choice, and I think you knew that Ginny. I think you always did but tried to force me out of something that had been building up for the better part of six years. And the battle, everything...this past month has confirmed it all. Hermione has been my friend. For me. Just Harry. You...you've thought I've been a hero since I was a baby. I'm sorry Ginny, not for being with Hermione, but for having been the object of your childhood fantasies for so long."
Harry knew Ginny had a horrid temper, so he chose his next words carefully, making sure he would not get caught off guard. "And if even after everything I've said, you can't handle the fact that we are now together, don't you dare hurt my wife, Ginny Weasley, or I will be forced to act like the Boy Who Lived and protect her."
Wife. Wife? "YOU GOT MARRIED?! How could you do this to me! It has been a month! She can't have…you couldn't have…there is no possible way she won you over me! She doesn't even like flying!"
"Ginny, insult my wife again, get out of my house. I've been cordial, and I've nothing to apologize for. So think before you do anything rash." Harry's steely voice was something neither women were prepared for, Hermione hadn't heard him like that since the Battle and Ginny had never seen that side of Harry.
Ginny was a Weasley. She knew in her logical mind that he was right, that she had been a spoiled little brat when it came to him, but her heart was set and her blind rage took over every ounce of her body at that moment. She raised her wand and started to hex Hermione, but Harry was much too quick for her.
Ginny Weasly did not know that Harry Potter could do wandless magic. She also did not know that he could Apparate a person without having to Apparate himself. Which is how she found herself suddenly on her bed, with a bad case of her own, Bat Bogey Hex.
"That might not have been the best idea, now that I think about it." Hermione was now sitting on Harry's lap, waiting for Ron to drop by to tell him the news about her parents, and to ask him to stay in Grimmauld until they returned from Australia. After all, Luna adored Kreacher.
"Nah, I gather she had to see it to believe it. Otherwise we would have spent years convincing her that you did not bewitch me into falling in love with you, Mrs. Potter."
"Quite true, Mr. Potter. It feels so good to be able to say that now!" Hermione kissed her husband, but Ron's ever-perfect timing interrupted the moment. His eyes fell instantly to the ring finally visible on her finger and he exclaimed, "Does this mean you can put me out of my misery and tell the bloody press so they stop harassing me about you two?"
Harry held his wife closer, and smiled. "Yes, Ron. We're ever so sorry our marriage has caused you so much strife. Ginny now knows, so feel free to shout it from the rooftops."
"Wonderful. Fantastic. Let's go have that cake you promised me!"
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