Moving On From Harry Potter by padfoot2002
Summary: Harry and Ginny never got together during HBP instead grew a solid friendship. Ginny, however, hasn't moved on even when she's sure he does't feel the same way about her and never will. What happens when Ginny decides to take matters into her own hands? Eventually HG.
Rating: G
Categories: Post-Hogwarts
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2017.05.16
Updated: 2020.07.28
Moving On From Harry Potter by padfoot2002
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Author's Notes: Chapter 1
It was a cool and breezy May, Sunday afternoon at Ottery St. Catchpole. The sun had yet to set leaving a mix of colors in the clear sky, and all the Weasley family members and their close friends were scattered inside and outside the Burrow.
Molly Weasley along with Nymphadora Tonks were in the kitchen busily cooking everyone a huge feast and chattering happily about their families.
In the living room was Arthur Weasley excitedly interrogating Mr. and Mrs. Granger about everything Muggle-related not unlike he had been doing on every single opportunity he could find. Bill and his wife Fleur Delacoure, Percy and his wife Penelope Clearwater, and Charlie were sitting on the other side of the room talking about their jobs and their families as well. Upstairs, in what used to be Fred and George's room, were Victoir and Dominique, Bill and Fleur's three and one year olds; Molly Jr., Percy and Penelope's two year old; Fred Jr., George and Angelina Johnson's two year old; George Jr., Fred and Alicia Spinet's two year old; along with Teddy Lupin, Tonks's only child, were tucked in the magically multiplied cribs and beds taking their afternoon naps.
In the backyard, there was a very vicious Quiditch match that was scheduled to begin in about half an hour, and the tension between the two teams was as if they were competing for the Quiditch World Cup.
Each team was made up of a beater, a keeper, a chaser, and a seeker. The first team was made up of Lee Jordan as keeper, Fred Weasley as beater, Alicia Spinet as chaser, and Harry Potter as seeker; the whole team was present and discussing their game techniques for the hundredth time which wasn't really necessary given that this would be the thousandth time they were having a Quiditch match. Harry Potter seemed to be the only person on the team who didn't seem to have all his concentration on the game that was going to take place seeing that he was occasionally sending quick glances towards his girlfriend Amber Hastings who was sitting under a tree peacefully reading a book, responding to Harry with her discreet yet beautiful smiles which just made his insides melt.
The other team however was a little bit more relaxed, Ron Weasley, the keeper, was sitting next to his girlfriend Hermione Granger and was awfully distracted on how the sun was being reflected by her eyes making her as beautiful as ever; and George Weasley and Angelina Johnson, the respective beater and chaser, were checking if their children, nephews, and nieces were still quietly enjoying their little nap. Consequently, none of the team members noticed that their seeker was missing.
Ginny Weasley was sitting by the pond next to her house like she had always done whenever she felt like being alone. The water was not warm enough for Ginny to swim in, yet it was just about the perfect temperature to be able to slightly dip her toes in the clear and dazzling liquid. With the cool breeze beautifully messing her gorgeous red hair and the sun giving a particular glimmer in her deep chocolate brown eyes, the whole scene looked stunning for the passerby.
She initially found this spot not long ago on a walk in an attempt to clear her head and think about 10 minutes away from the Burrow. Since then, she frequented this desolate spot when she needed to escape the chaotic atmosphere of her family home and mostly to think and read, well mostly read.
Today, she went there with a picnic blanket and a copy of “The Book Thief” to keep her company. She had picked the book up from her recent trip to the muggle bookstore she had become a regular at on the search for a new historical fiction book.
Ever since the Battle of Hogwarts and end of the war, Ginny had grown a liking towards stories that had taken place in the past, mostly during some of the most tragic events both muggles and wizards alike had ever lived. Her obsession had actually started by her need to know more about the way the wizarding world had previously recovered after previous wars when it seemed to her that there was no way to proceed and get over the losses everyone had suffered. After going through pages and pages worth of books and articles, she started to grow a liking to the testimonies of people who had gone through war and knew exactly the meaning of loss and tragedy. She loved reading their experiences and seeing the strength that these people portrayed after going through hell and back. She even grew an interest in fiction as opposed to biographies and started going through wizarding bookstores instead of history books and archives of newspapers. When she started reading about the role the wizarding world played in the first and second world war, her interest piqued in learning about the muggle world’s perspective. Eventually, she got to the historical fiction section and has been on the lookout for new releases in that genre since.
Some might say her obsession with war and tragedies was morbid, but for her the characters pulled her in. she was invested in seeing if the girl would get the guy or if he would die heroically in battles. She rooted for the families that are separated at the beginning of the story to find each other at the end.
The Book Thief had been a great read up until now, and she only had a few pages left. She planned on quickly finishing up with the book and then catching up with the rest for the long anticipated quidditch match.
This is how she found herself on a beautiful Sunday, sitting by a pond with her heart breaking once again for the characters in one of her stories. The ending broke her, and quickly she felt tears falling down her cheeks.
Suddenly she felt weary and fatigue took over her, probably her sleepless night reading using the light of her wand was catching up to her.
She shut the book, held it close to her chest as if the book was Liesel and holding her close could ease her pain of losing so much all at once. Quickly, she fell into a restless sleep full of dreams with loud bombs, German streets, and little girls stealing books.
_____________________________________________________________
When Ginny woke up, she was startled to see Charlie, Bill, Ron and her parents looking straight at her. It was already dark so Ginny could barely make out the expressions on their faces. She saw a bit of relief spread over her mother's features but was quickly replaced with worry. Ginny realized that her mother must have noticed her tear strained face along with her puffy red eyes. She sent a quick glance towards her brothers and her fathers and saw the same expression of worry on their faces. She didn't know what to say, so she just looked straight through them to watch the dark sky now filled with stars and the moon. It was a quiet night, the only sounds heard being the chirping of crickets and rustling of leaves and the occasional hoot of an owl.
Ginny decided to break the uncomfortable silence and said, "Beautiful night, isn't it?" without looking at anyone in particular, just vaguely looking at the pond. Her mother couldn't stand it anymore and just blurted what everyone there was dying to ask:
"Ginny, are you okay? We have been searching for you for hours, we thought something might have happened to you!"
"Yeah mum, I'm okay I was just a little tired and fell asleep earlier."
"Ginny, you are obviously not okay", blurted out Ron. "We have been worried sick! You just disappear like that, and we find you two hours later asleep under a tree, looking like you have been crying your eyes out! How do you expect us to believe that you are okay?!"
Ginny looked at her brother for a long time trying to figure out what she was supposed to say next, but she was lost for words. She wasn't mad at him for being worried nor for indicating that she had been crying since she thought it would be quite obvious. But, she didn't know how she could explain that she had been crying because of a fictional story. Before becoming a reader, Ginny was not much of a crier and barely anything could get through her, but stories had turned out to be her soft spot but she surely wasn’t going to admit that anytime soon, especially not now when her family clearly thought that something terribly grave had happened.
She was about to swallow her pride and tell them the truth when she heard footsteps approaching, which was weird because no one was supposed to know about this little hideaway. "Saved by the bell" Ginny thought to herself. She turned around to wipe the signs of tears off her face since she wasn't prepared to have to explain herself to yet another person.
She was even more surprised to see non-other than Harry making his way to the lot of them with a confused look on his face.
"Am I intruding?" he asked.
“Nope!” exclaimed Ginny quickly getting to her feet. “We were actually just about to make our way to the Burrow to finally have dinner. I am famished.”
“Not so fast young lady”, berated Molly, “this conversation is not over. You gave me and your father a fright!”
“Calm down, everything is fine I promise,” insisted Ginny, “I just got a little too invested in one of the books I was reading that is all,” she added she added on a lower note. She knew Ron would not let her hear the end of this.
Her thoughts were confirmed when she heard him snort.
“Please can we go now? I have to get food inside of me,” she continued upon noticing how thrown her parents were at her confession.
Without waiting for an answer she strolled past the lot of them and made her way to the Burrow. The rest were quick to follow.
However, she hadn’t made it out of the clearing yet when she heard Harry call after her: “Ginny you forgot your book!”
“Coming!”
Quickly she hurried back and grabbed her book and blanket from Harry.
“Thank you”.
Her brothers and parents had outpaced her which left her and Harry kind of awkwardly looking out at the pond.
“Nice place you’ve got here,” said Harry breaking the silence. Ginny didn’t know why she felt rooted to her place. The others were probably going to ask themselves what was taking them so long. Before she could try to move her legs from the spot they seemed to be stuck to, Harry abruptly asked: “Did you know I used to have a habit of coming here too? It felt like a nice place to come and think”
She didn’t and was quite surprised at his confession. “I didn’t actually. I always thought of this place as my secret spot.”
“Don’t worry, I have no problem with sharing.”
With that he started making his way back and after a quick wistful glance at what had only a moment earlier been her secret, Ginny followed.
The walk home was silent, not uncomfortably so, but Ginny couldn’t but feel that she had to say something.
Harry and Ginny had grown to be friends after her fourth year, but she felt that they didn’t have a relationship outside of their group. For example, if they were in the company of Ron and Hermione or even Neville and Luna, conversation flowed quite easily. But Ginny’s anxious nature all things Harry made it impossible for her to be a hundred percent comfortable when she was alone with him making it hard to develop a significant one on one friendship. Neither one of them minded the fact too much seeing as they barely had one on one contact at all. Plus, it wasn’t like they weren’t friends. It is just that their friendship focused more on a group dynamic.
Rarely did Ginny ever think about this. Occasionally, the thought of Harry did cross her mind and, not that she would admit, but he made the random appearance in her dreams, but Ginny dismissed that as a manifestation of her younger self in her dreams and her silly infatuation with Harry which she had now grown out of.
Sure, she probably would always have a crush on him, but who could blame her? Wasn’t it the norm for girls to have crushed on their older brothers’ best friends? Especially when they were cute and well the savior of the wizarding world. Hell, maybe even Ron had a crush on him.
Her train of thought came to an abrupt halt when she noticed the fairylights lighting the garden where everyone was sitting to be served. At one end of the table was Arthur Weasley on his right were Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger, Bill, Fleur, Fred, Alicia, Ron and Hermione and an empty seat next to her. On Arthur's left were Molly, Tonks, Charlie, Percy, Penelope, George, Angelina, and Amber, the empty seat next to her being the seat opposite to Arthur was empty as well. The children, now wide awake, were sitting on a miniature table nearby.
Harry and Ginny made their way to their usual seats, their presence going unnoticed because every single person on the table was having a conversation with another one. Amber didn't even notice when Harry placed a soft kiss on her cheek before taking his seat. Harry and Ginny exchanged amused glances not knowing what to do next. They were interrupted from their thoughts when Molly Weasley cleared her throat making everyone turn his or her attention to her: "Seeing as everyone has finally decided to join us, she said shooting glances towards Harry and Ginny, I think supper can be served." She waved her wand and instantly about a dozen dishes came flying in from the Burrow. As soon as the dishes had been set perfectly on the table, a mix of wonderful smells started to fill the air. Everyone at the table started to serve him or herself with quite generous servings of food. Soon all that could be heard was the clatter of forks and plates and some distinct conversations. Occasionally, someone, mostly one of the Weasleys, would complement Molly on her exquisite cooking with a mouthful of food which would make everyone chuckle.
The dishes in the middle were getting empty quite quickly, and soon everyone was full. Ginny felt a cold breeze make her shiver and discreetly slipped from her chair to head to her room and grab a jacket.
She went into the Burrow and up to her room, opened her closet, grabbed the first hoody she could get her hands on and was making her way back to the door when something on the table next to her window caught her eye. She made her way over there and took the picture delicately from its place.
It was a beautiful photo of her and Harry sitting under a tree next to the Black Lake at Hogwarts, one of the rare times they could be found together and alone.). The picture was taken by Colin Creevey during Ginny's fifth year, he had assured her that he hadn't been stalking them at the time. He had told her that he had been taking pictures of the Black Lake for some assignment and he had seen them so peacefully sitting under the tree in such a beautiful scenery and couldn't resist snapping the picture. She had to admit that he had a point, the picture was gorgeous which is why she had it framed along with countless others in a magical frame gifted to her by Bill which rotated through different image each 24 hours. The frame hadn’t shown this picture in a long time now, so Ginny let herself be transported back to that day.
…
Harry had been having a rough time mourning Sirius so he had gotten up early that day to clear his mind. He headed down to his favorite spot under a huge tree next to the Black Lake when he had seen a familiar red-headed witch sitting in his usual place with her eyes closed. He had gotten quite used to Ginny's company so he hadn't thought twice about joining her. He quietly sat next to her and she barely acknowledged him clearly engrossed in her own thoughts. They say there quietly next to each other for a long time.
At some point, a breeze had wend out of nowhere making their hair dance in the wind as well as the autumn colored leaves of the trees, contrasting the color of the fresh green grass. The sun was just rising so the sky was a mix of red yellow and orange. The lake was as clear and blue as ever.
The picture altogether was a beautiful and delicate mix of colors.
…
That perfect moment. Ginny smiled at the memory. She looked out of her window which was just above the backyard where everybody was sitting. She let her eyes wonder off to where Harry was and saw him talking in what seemed to be a whispered tone with Amber. Then he got up cleared his voice so that everybody would turn his attention to him and said:
"I have an announcement to make. I wanted you all to hear this from me and not read it from the Daily Prophet as I'm sure that what I'm going to tell you will soon be public knowledge seeing as the press can't seem to get bored with the subject of my personal life". At this most of the people at the table let out knowing laughs, even Ginny let out a chuckle.
"So, without any further ado…"
He motioned for Amber to get up and held her hand in his, they both nodded simultaneously and instant smiles spread on their faces. Everybody was getting quite intrigued and Harry could see the impatience in their expressions. He was about to open his mouth to talk when Amber interrupted him:
"Oh Harry would you please wait a minute, Ginny isn't here and you did say you wanted everyone present for the announcement."
"I'm up here, you two." Ginny called out from her window with an amused look on her face making everyone turn their gazes away from the couple and towards the Burrow. "Go on now we are getting quite impatient", she added with a laugh.
"OK fine, let's get this over with", whispered Harry to himself then he cleared his throat making everyone return his/her attention back to him. He gave Amber's hand a last squeeze and said: "We're engaged."
Cries of joys were heard from all over the table and instantly people started congratulating the young couple. Even the children who didn't understand anything that was going on started to laugh. Most of the women had tears in their eyes and were overwhelming the couple in big hugs, and the men were patting Harry on the back with the exception of Fred and George who were wiping fake tears from their eyes: "Our little Harrykins is all grown up. He has no idea what he's getting himself into Gred", said George enveloping Harry and his twin brother into a hug. "I'm afraid he doesn't Forge, call it off while you can Harrykins it's not too late you know", continued Fred in the same mock tone." Harry let out a bark of laughter at the twin's comments.
Over all the commotion, no one had noticed the sound of glass shattering from the upstairs bedroom; nor the surprised gasp. Ginny had still been holding the now broken frame and had dropped it in the shock of Harry's announcement.
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