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SIYE Time:9:59 on 28th March 2024
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An Open Secret
By CharmHazel

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Category: Post-DH/AB
Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Other, Ron Weasley
Genres: Angst, Drama, Fluff, General, Romance
Warnings: Intimate Sexual Situations, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Sexual Situations
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 57
Summary: Harry and Ginny quickly reunite following the end of the war. However, due to the pain and grief of their losses, their own family fails to recognise the love shared and growing between the young couple.
Hitcount: Story Total: 30013; Chapter Total: 5893





Author's Notes:
A brand new story for you all!

This story has been inspired by potterfan2008's story, "Happy Birthday, Ginny!", which she has kindly let me use for the basis of this story. Thank you, potterfan2008!

Thank you to Arnel, who has literally spent the past couple of days or so editing this story for me and being extremely encouraging and supportive of the new material I have attempted to cover for the first time.

Yes, this is another post-battle story, but hopefully you will love the direction I have taken it. I have concentrated mainly on Harry and Ginny's relationship, but I promise it is building up to something big at the end.

I hope you all enjoy it!!!




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Harry stood at the entrance to the Great Hall, watching the scene before him. In the hours since Voldemort had fallen, never to return, the bodies of those who had died in the battle had been removed and the house tables had been returned. The atmosphere was not as subdued as it perhaps could have been. Instead, a low chatter could be heard throughout of those consoling others, of those discussing aspects of the battle and of those celebrating the end of the war. However, one group of people stood out from the crowd. It was not because of the shared hair colour of many of the group, but it because of the lack of conversation among them. It was this group, this family, that Harry was currently watching.

The family, who Harry had come to love so much and who he was finally beginning to consider his own, had lost that spark, that happiness he admired about them. He was not surprised though, they had lost one of their own during the battle and it had hit them hard. And it was not just because they had lost someone from their large family, but also because they had lost one half of the twins. Harry knew, therefore, that life could never be the same and that it would take time for them to find their way out of their grief. It would be hard, but Harry knew that if any family could pull through, it would be the Weasleys.

Harry looked at each Weasley individually. Molly, he could see, was devastated at the loss of her son, Fred. He could see the tears streaming quietly down her face as he remembered the boggart at Grimmauld Place. Her biggest fear had been losing any member of her family and now it had come true. Arthur, on the other hand, seemed to remain stoic in his expressions as he comforted his wife, but Harry felt his eyes still gave away the grief he was feeling. Bill and Fleur sat quietly next to them, holding each other in comfort. Across from them, Ron and Hermione now sat, having walked in ahead of Harry when they had reached the hall. They appeared to be whispering furiously about something. It amused him that despite having finally expressed their feelings for each other, things had not and probably would not change between them. Next to Ron sat next to the last of the Weasley brothers. Percy and Charlie both had an arm wrapped around George, who in turn looked as if he had completely withdrawn into himself as a way to deal with the loss of his twin. Harry could not imagine how George was feeling. All he knew was that with the loss of Fred, George would never be the same again and Harry could only hope that one day he would learn to laugh again, even without his twin. That finally brought Harry to the final and youngest Weasley, Ginny.

Ginny sat quietly next to her mother. Her eyes were red and puffy from the tears she had shed from the loss of her brother. And yet, Harry still thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. For him, she truly was a sight for sore eyes. He stared at her, hoping she could feel his eyes beginning to bore into her. He desperately wanted her to turn and look at him, to give him some indication of how she felt for him now. He could understand if she was angry with him, but at the same time, he hoped that she was just relieved he had come through the war alive. All he knew was that he wanted her back, wanted to be with her. He was roused from his thoughts when he noticed that Ginny had turned her head to look at him. A small smile escaped his lips as he noticed the shy smile that she was giving him. As a result, he felt his heart skip a beat in relief.

For a minute, Harry and Ginny remained where they were, drinking in the sight of one another. Both were grateful and relieved that the other had survived the battle, despite the close calls they had both had during it. Without her family noticing, Ginny stood up and slowly began to walk towards the doors where Harry stood, never taking her eyes off him. In her head, she was thanking anyone and everyone who had allowed Harry to come back to her. As she reached him, Harry took her hand in his and pulled her into the Entrance Hall to allow them a little privacy for their first proper conversation in nearly a year.

They stood facing each other, green eyes meeting brown.

“Hi,” Harry breathed out.

“Hi, to you, too,” Ginny responded quietly.

They continued to stare at each other as Harry attempted to figure out what he wanted to say. He had so much he wanted to tell her, but he just didn’t know where to begin. Ginny saved him that worry when she grabbed his face with both of her hands and pulled him down into a passionate kiss. Harry stood in shock for a second before he quickly came to his senses and wound his arms around her waist, pulling her body closer to his as he deepened the kiss. Eventually their need to breathe forced them apart, both gasping for air as they rested their foreheads together.

“Wow!” Harry said breathlessly.

“Yeah, wow!” Ginny replied.

“I’m in love with you, Gin,” Harry quietly confessed.

“I’m in love with you, too, Harry.”

Ginny pulled Harry back down and gave him a simple and gentle kiss. As they pulled back, wide smiles spread across both their faces, both in awe of their heartfelt declarations of love. Ginny moved out of their embrace, took Harry’s hand and led him over to the staircase, where they then settled themselves on the bottom step.

Sitting close together, hands tightly clasped, Ginny looked up at Harry with a serious expression on her face.
“I need us to make a couple of promises to each other, Harry,” Ginny began. “This past year, especially these past twenty-four hours have been incredibly difficult for me and I know they have been for you, too. But Merlin, I was so scared. I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing. I hated not knowing, I hated being apart from you. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too, Gin,” Harry softly said. “Please don’t ever doubt that I did.”

“I could never doubt you,” Ginny responded earnestly. “But I need to us to make these promises to each other if we are going to have that future together that I know we both want.”

“Ok, then, what are these promises?”

“Firstly, I want us to be completely honest with each other. No more secrets preferably, though I know sometimes there will be things we will need to keep from each other.”

“I can promise you that. I want to be open with you about everything, you deserve to know.”

“And I promise to be open and honest with you, too.”

As if to seal that first promise, Harry bent his head down and gave Ginny a long and lingering kiss.

“So what is the second promise you want us to make?” Harry asked as he pulled back.

“I was going to ask that you never leave me again, but I figured that it wouldn’t make sense. I mean one of us might have to go away for whatever reason.”

“I can understand that. But you know I don’t plan on leaving you again, Gin. Not the way I did before.”

“I know, but I understood why you needed to leave me,” Ginny explained. “You came back to me, though. You came back and that is all that matters.”

Harry smiled, understanding what it was she needed him to promise her.

“And I promise to always, always come back to you. Always.”

Ginny smiled as she looked up at Harry, her eyes beginning to glisten with tears at his words.

“I promise to always come back to you, too, Harry.”

Harry pulled Ginny into his lap and held her close. He moved his hands into her long, red hair and pulled her in for a kiss. Ginny deepened it as she tangled her hands into Harry’s messy locks. For the couple, it was a kiss full of promises and one full of hope for their future. Eventually they parted, unable to contain the smiles on their faces.

“I suppose I should ask you if you want to be my girlfriend again, now we have made those promises,” Harry suggested awkwardly.

“You could, but I would say no,” Ginny answered with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Oh, you would, would you?” Harry replied as he raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

“Well, I didn’t really consider us broken up,” Ginny nervously confessed. “It was more that we needed to keep how we felt for one another a secret.”

Harry laughed loudly.

“You are amazing,” Harry laughed. “I told Viktor Krum at the wedding that you had a big, scary boyfriend. I guess after that kiss on my birthday, I didn’t really think of us as broken up either.”

“So my plan of giving you a kiss to remember me by worked?”

“Of course it worked. I spent so much time thinking about you this past year. Thinking of you got me through some really dark moments.”

“I’m glad. Thinking of you helped me, too,” Ginny said as she leant over to kiss Harry. “I think perhaps we should get back in the hall before my family begin to wonder where we are.”

“Before we do, I need to talk to you about that,” Harry paused to gather his thoughts. “Does your family even know we dated last year?”

Ginny shook her head.

“No, they don’t,” Ginny confessed. “Before you ask why, it was because I wanted time for us, just us. I didn’t want my brothers bothering us, bothering you.”

“I can understand that,” Harry said sympathetically. “What about now, though? I mean I don’t want to hide our relationship, but at the same time, I don’t want us to advertise it.”

“To be honest, I feel the same as you. I know you are going to have more press attention now and while I am willing to put up with it, our relationship should be for us to know about, not everyone else.”

Harry smiled in awe at her understanding for his need for privacy.

“So my suggestion is that,” Ginny continued, “we not actually announce it to my family or anyone else, but be honest with them if they do ask.”

“I like it. Hopefully, your brothers won’t feel the need to gang up on me that way then.”

“You have just defeated Tom, the Darkest wizard of our time and you are scared of my brothers?” Ginny couldn’t help but laugh at Harry’s predicament.

“Can you blame me?” Harry said just before he pulled Ginny close enough to kiss her, effectively silencing her laughter.

A throat clearing behind them caused Harry and Ginny to pull apart and look up the staircase.

“Professor McGonagall,” they both said in unison.

“Mr Potter, Miss Weasley,” she said in acknowledgement. “It is good to see you back together again.”

The young couple blushed. Professor McGonagall ignored their reaction.

“Mr Potter, if it is ok, Minister Shacklebolt would like to speak to you in the Headmaster’s Office.”

“Oh, ok, I’ll go on up now.”

“Thank you,” she responded, before she swept past them in the direction of the Great Hall.

Harry pulled Ginny back into his embrace and nuzzled at her neck as he sighed.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered apologetically.

“It’s ok, Harry,” Ginny said soothingly as she stood up. “I understand. I get that I am going to have to share your time with the rest of the Wizarding World for a while.”

Harry stood as well, bringing Ginny back into his arms.

“If I had my way, my time would be all yours,” Harry said honestly.

Ginny melted at his words. She loved this side of Harry. A side no one but her was allowed to see. He could be incredibly romantic when they were alone and it would always make her fall in love with him that little bit more.

“I know,” she responded as she lovingly caressed his cheek. “I better go back to my family, then. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“If you don’t mind, I thought I would go to bed once I was done talking with Kingsley. I haven’t really slept in forty-eight hours and I am unbelievably tired.”

“That’s ok. I am not surprised to be honest. I’m tired too.”

Harry leant down and gently caressed Ginny’s lips with his own.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, too,” Ginny whispered back.

They gazed into each other’s eyes for a few seconds, before they reluctantly pulled apart and went, for the moment, their separate ways.
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