wow, this took a lot longer than I thought it would very sorry about that.
special thanks to seekers_destny for his help
please review
{edit 7/7/18}
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Fairy Tale | ||||||
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Category: Alternate Universe Characters:Harry/Ginny Genres: Drama, Humor, Romance Warnings: Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 45 Summary: "I went to the muggle doctor and they smeared this blue goo on my stomach… I heard their heartbeat… I could barely hear but it was the best sound in the world mum… I never know how I feel anymore if I'm happy or mad, or scared, or excited or terrified. But I want to meet him or her, I want to be their mum," Even if she had to do it alone. Hitcount: Story Total: 15150; Chapter Total: 2446 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: |
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“What can I get you?” What an interesting question thought Ginny Weasley, there were many things she would like to receive, a time turner to go back to 1996, a job where her work was valued, an idea where her life was going, she would have very much liked all of these things, but considering the person asking was simply a bartender at a beaten-up tavern in France she figured he didn’t have access to these things. So instead she settled for firewhiskey. Maybe she was being a bit dramatic. Honestly, she was in good health now, and so were her loved ones. She had a decent job at Quidditch Weekly as a freshman reporter, something she’d been working toward for several years, so what if they only gave her the crappy assignments no one else wanted. She still got to travel even if it was for the tiny wizards Quidditch tournament,(a Quidditch ‘competition’ where all the player were under the age of 8 and brooms went no higher than 3 feet in the air). So what if all around her she saw her friends and family starting families and making a difference in their respective careers, while she was as alone as ever, she was only 22 and had plenty of time to achieve everything she wanted In life. So why did she feel so empty? She was jolted from her thoughts by a man about two seats away from her “Bartender, Why does the universe hate me so much? It's not like I'm a bad person, I've probably done more good than most of the people my age, why can't it just show me some favor?” She couldn’t help but smile a little at the fact she wasn’t the only on questioning life. She found herself staring at the stranger. He sat hunched over the bar, running a troubled hand through his messy, dirty blonde hair. He had on a leather jacket and dark jeans, that and the bit of stubble on his chin gave him a bit of rouge look that suited him well. He was staring up at the bartender expectantly, waiting to have his question answered. Now that she saw someone else trying she understood why the waiter had ignored her earlier. “You're barking up the wrong tree there,” she said, deciding to help the grey-eyed man, ”I’ve been trying to get this guy to answer my existential life questions for the last hour, he’s no help, just keeps asking for your drink order.” “What may I get you? “ The bartender said as if on cue. He lifted his head and smiled at her just a slightly. “Told you,” Ginny said “That’s not right, doesn't he know that answering life's questions are one of the key responsibilities of a bartender?” “My thoughts exactly, well apparently in France all they’re expected to do is serve drinks.” He laughed, “So you’re here contemplating life too?” He seemed a bit more cheerful than he had just moments before and scooted down one seat, closer to her. He was rather handsome and for some reason, she couldn’t explain she, felt very comfortable around him. “Yes, but now I'm starting to think I'm being dramatic, I mean I there's nothing particularly wrong with my life it's just-“, she gestured vaguely but he nodded, seeming to know exactly what she meant. “Not going like you expected.” “Yeah,” she stared into his eyes seeing complete understanding in them and scooted down into the one seat remaining between them. And that’s how Ginny Weasley started talking to a stranger for the rest of the night, somehow talking about nothing and everything at the same time. About things that had no meaning and were more important than everything. “So you don’t think I’m being dramatic?" Ginny asked, her new friend, they’d been talking for hours and Ginny was sharing her concern that she was being rather silly. “No, I’d be a bit hypocritical if I did, wouldn’t it, I used to think that once I defeat-… Um… I mean finished school, I thought my life would just become exactly what I wanted to be, but now all I really want now is some type of reason to wake up in the morning other than to be awake.” She understood what he meant, the need for a purpose or motivation as you went through each day. The last time she felt it she was 16 but a lot has changed since then. She was brought out of her musings by the touch of his hand against her thigh. His eyes staring intently into hers as his face got closer and closer until she could see the specs of hair against his chin. "You know I usually don’t have such deep conversations with strangers I meet in pubs in France.” “Me either, I usually save these conversations for taverns in Spain.” She joked for one moment, before closing the distance between them in the next. She couldn’t describe that kiss to you, not because she didn’t remember it, they both probably would until their dying breaths, but because the proper words did not exist to describe a feeling so intense. He pulled away from her slowly, “You know I just realized we don’t know each other’s names.” “Let's leave it like that, I mean we've just spent the last 3 hours saying we're not quite happy with who we are, so if only for tonight, let's be somebody else. People who know where their lives are going and happy with where they are now. Whoever you were when you walked in, forget about them. You’re somebody new now.” She came up with the idea without thinking too much on it, she wanted to escape all the problems with her life for a bit longer. She wanted to extend the amount of time she wasn’t just Ginny Weasley. “And who would that be?” her new friend smiled big seemingly enjoying the prospect of being a different person for a little bit. Ginny, however, was looking around rapidly trying to think of a name which was not as easy one might think. Caught off guard by the question she looked wildly around for the room for help.“Uh, your name is…um… John …Glass.” “I'm sorry, did you just name me after a cup+ and the toilet?” he seemed to be trying to look upset but the smile made it very unconvincing. “Of course not! John Glass is a very respectable name. He’s a custom broom designer who is currently traveling the world looking for inspiration. He loves what he does and is a bold risk-taking individual.” She said dramatically. “Really, well I don’t I sound like a very interesting person.” He joked “I don’t suppose I get to name you too?” “I suppose it's only fair” she swirled the amber liquid in her glass, pretending to be indifferent. “Good, then I think your name is Madeline Whiskey.” He responded with a smirk. “Oh really, how creative,” she smiled, taking a swig of the whiskey in her glass. “It’s a gift, Madeline is an aspiring magizooligist who believes she is on the edge discovering a new magical creature and is traveling in the hope of finding proof of its existence. Now, she's a bit vain but once you get past her tough outer shell, she’s really a big softy.” “Aww, don’t I sound delightful,” her voice was laced with sarcasm. They spent the next 60 minutes flirting and trying cultivating each other’s alternate personas. “If you make Madeline hate Quidditch, then ’'ll make John allergic to chocolate.” “You’re evil!” They were so engrossed in one another they didn’t realize how much time had passed until the bartender pointed out it was closing time. “I can't believe how late it's gotten”, said Ginny as she gathered her bag and rose from her seat. “Time flies in good company,” John said. They both stood there, glancing towards the door but not taking a step towards it. Both unwilling to end the night that had been better than so many before. “So I guess once we walk out the doors that’s the end of John and Madeline.” “Not necessarily, we could uh… I mean if you want… to keep talking I mean…we could uh… we could go back to my hotel room, just to talk.” Ginny had to pause at the offer. It wasn’t the first time somebody had asked her to go home with them. Back when she had just finished Hogwarts, and she was ready and eager to face the world, her and her brother/best friend Ron spent most nights clubbing. Ron only really wanted to see friends and since he was already in a serious relationship with his now wife Hermione and often had school in the morning, but Ginny would spend lots of time dancing and would grab the attention of more than one person. Sure enough, eventually somebody would come up to her and start what she was sure they considered an interesting conversation, eventually they would comment on how noisy it is and suggest they head to his place so they could talk better. Never once did she actually believe that’s what they wanted, they always had a cocky smile and eager glint in their eye that only served to make Ginny annoyed more than anything else. Just talking to them in the bar for a few minutes was painful, and the only reason she did it was that she and Ron had made a game out of it where they would critique each guy as if they were at a Quidditch game. The thing is that standing there in front of ‘John’ she honestly believed that if all he wanted to do was talk. She didn’t think he would be opposed to engaging in other activities but she didn’t believe that the prospect of those other activities was why he was inviting her back. He wasn’t cocky if anything he seemed really nervous like he was afraid he had done something terribly wrong. There wasn’t an uncomfortably sexual gaze in his eye. Only a friendly if slight hopeful look. The more she thought about it she realized she had no problem leaving with him. She had apparently been silent for too long and was shaken from her thoughts when ‘John’ said, “It is fine if you don’t want to honestly… I only asked because it seemed like you wanted to talk more, …” he continued to nervously ramble until Ginny stopped his lips with her own, savoring the returning desirable sensation. “I’d really like that, besides you were about to tell me about my rebellious phase,” she smiles up at him. “Oh, It was crazy, you wrote bad sonnets and charmed your hair blue.” He smiled back his body visibly less tense than it had been moments before. He took her hand and led her out the door. Later on, as she drifted off, with his arms tight around her, pulling her flush to his bare chest she was far more peaceful than she had been in a long time. It was the cold that woke her up the next morning, the loss of the wonderful warmth she had experienced all night. Daring to crack open one eye she looked around the room, seeing if ‘John’ was there. She didn’t see him anywhere, neither did she see his suitcase that had been in the corner of the hotel suite yesterday either. Obviously, her companion from the night before had left the middle of the night, she rose fron bed attempting to hold back the disappointment she felt when he wasn’t there. It wasn’t herself she was disappointed in, she had enjoyed herself last night, having felt a lot more content than she had in a long time. No, it was him she was disappointed in. The least he could have done was wait until the morning and say goodbye. Really, it was was just bad manners. But honestly, she thought with a sigh, what was she expecting, she had spent her night with a stranger she meets in a bar (although it felt very strange to think of John as such). Isn’t this how these things normally go, with one person leaving before the other woke up to avoid an awkward conversation? She got up to use the restroom and maybe take a shower before she set out for her home and was startled by her reflection in the mirror. She'd forgotten that she had turned her hair black before traveling to France, to avoid the press who followed her because of her past relationship with Cleve Bridges. She was wondering if she should shower now or take a port key straight home and shower there when the door banged open, and in walked John with two of hot drinks, a Breakfast tray and a velvet bag levitated in front of him. “Hey, you're awake, I was hoping to get back in time to surprise you’’. He set the food down on the small coffee table and came back up to her dropping a kiss on her cheek. “I am surprised, honestly, I thought you ran off before I woke up.” But she was incredibly pleased that she hadn’t. She walked over to the coffee table to see what he had brought with him. “Really? That’s ridiculous, why would I abandon my hotel room without my shirt,” she hadn’t thought about the fact the suite was his and hadn’t even realized that she still was wearing his dress shirt from last night, “especially when it still has such a stunning woman in it,” he joined her at the table where they enjoyed their breakfast. He was staring at her intently his mouth fidgeting as if he wanted to say something but didn’t think he should. “Is this how you wake all the girls in the morning?” She was only teasing and hoped that starting a conversation would give him a chance to say whatever was on his mind. “No you’re the first I promise,” John said with a nervous smile, he made no effort to continue the conversation and started to fidget much like before if not even worse. Ginny could only take about 2 minutes of it before she snapped, “Ok, what is it? You won't stop fidgeting.” “Promise to keep an open mind.” she raised an eyebrow, curious to see where this was going. The look on his face was both excited and reluctant. “I’ve been thinking about everything we said last night and I realized that while we complain about not being happy the way things are but we’re not doing anything to change it so I thought... let's go to Greece.” "What? I'm pretty sure I missed a step in your train of thought there.” “Greece, let's go, let's live our lives the way you want them to be, for the rest of this week lets actually be John and Madeline, let's see what the world has to offer. You can search for magical creatures and I’ll make brooms,” he reached across the table for the velvet bag he had brought in with him. “The portkey in here leaves in 2 hours Madeline… come with me.” The offer had come out of nowhere and it seemed like a ludicrous idea to travel around with a man whom she had just met while they both pretended to be people they weren't. All of that considered there was no way in hell she was going to say no so instead she said, “Yes.” By noon they were all packed up and held onto a pair of safety scissors as they started to glow and reappeared in Athens Greece. Ginny had never been passionate about astrology back at Hogwarts but staring up at the night sky in Rome, Italy she felt an immense appreciation for the glimmering stars above her. That being said if in each of professor Sinistra’s lesson a charming man had held her in his arms she might have continued it into her 6th year. She and John were standing in on the balcony of there suite in Grand Hotel Palazzo Della Fonte. They only had a few hours left in Rome and she had no idea how she could go back to her life before this week. What had started as a trip to Greece had turned into a world tour packed with the most beautiful destinations in the world. They’ve seen the colosseums of Greece, then swam the reef of Australia and skied the Alps in Switzerland. They'd hula-ed on the beaches of Hawaii and were currently relaxing after dancing the night away in Italy. They had one last port key that would take them back to France later that night. “Stop it, Madeline,” said John, “Don’t think about it, just enjoy where you are now.” “It all ends tomorrow. How am I supposed to go back to life before, when I've seen what life should be now?” John sighed “I think we both need to learn a lesson from this week, I mean there's nothing stopping life from being like this all the time if we want our lives to be like that.” A silence followed his statement as they considered it. No, technically there wasn’t anything stopping her from traveling more, but she had responsibilities, a job, a mother who would hunt her down if she went more than 3 weeks without visiting, not to mention the fact that she could never afford it. John had covered most of their expenses, which Ginny wasn’t quite comfortable with and wouldn’t have allowed but he somehow managed to pay for everything before she could. Besides, there was a big difference between Ginny and Madeline. Madeline had ambition and drive, she wanted to discover new magical creatures. Ginny had had those things once but that was a long time ago and she was just letting life happen to her at this point. “I'm gonna miss you,” Ginny said. They had never told each other their true names rather submerging themselves in the pretend personalities of their imaginary personas. This was the only actually the first conversation that they acknowledged they were not John and Madeline and would have to return to their real lives. “Stop acting like we're dying,” he laughed, “we’ve just experienced a week of adventure that most people will only ever dream of, we should be overjoyed.” Though John seemed to be trying to cheer her up the slight strain in his voice made him seem as unenthusiastic her. Ginny realized her mood was ruining what had been a wonderful night. "Sorry I'm just not looking forward to leaving Madeline behind, she's far more interesting than the real me.” “I'm sure the real you is more amazing than you realize,” turning her in his arms so she could look him intently in the eyes, she gave him a look that said she extremely disagreed. “What makes you say that,” she asked. “Lots of things, you’re kind, adventurous, gorgeous, just spectacular in the sack,” he listed, not moving fast enough to avoid her fist. “I meant it as a compliment,’’ he said rubbing his arm where she’d struck, “I'm serious though, the other me he would never do any of this, he is more of the stay home and order in type, he would never have done half the things we’ve done this week,” He tightened his arms around her, bringing his chin to rest atop her head, and not for the first time she could have sworn he was sniffing her hair. “You made me want to, I don’t know what it is about you but you make me want to try to live the most lively way possible.” He dropped a kiss on her lips, and she could feel it in her toes. There they stood passionately embracing under the stars of Italy until they heard the loud beeping letting them know that there portkey would be activated in 20 minutes. They quickly changed their clothes and grabbed their bags before both picking up a small checkered notebook. As they waited for the portkey to go off John said “We still have tomorrow, we have all of France to experience. Maybe we can experience it as ourselves, our real selves. And the moment he finished his sentence, they felt the now extremely familiar tug at their navels. Her alarm went off at 10 am the next morning and John wasn’t next to her but that was to be expected they had developed a routine over the week. Every morning John woke up and went out to get breakfast for the 2 of them, they could have gotten room service but John said he liked the early exercise and it allowed them to try the local cuisine. Ginny usually woke an hour after John did and would have time to brush her teeth before John came in. When it was an hour had passed and he hadn’t shown up she figured he was just trying to do something elaborate since it was their last day and decided to take a bath now to save time later. As she thought of what John said last night, about spending today as them, she considered that the real her didn’t have black hair and so she cast the quick counter-charm and watched as her hair slowly returned to its natural shades of red orange and gold. So at 11:15 am she was fully dressed on the bed playfully annoyed waiting for John to arrive with breakfast so they could start their day. It wasn’t until 12:45 that she noticed that all his things were gone. It wasn’t until 3:38 that she actually considered he wasn’t coming back. It wasn’t until 8:13 that she packed all her things. It wasn’t until 2:27 am that she moved from that spot on the bed, to go to the magical republic of France offices for a portkey home. Leaving only a note on the bedside table, because she really believed he would have come back. |
| Reviews 45 |
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