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SIYE Time:18:15 on 28th March 2024
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steady as the stars
By lazyweekendmornings

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Category: Post-Hogwarts
Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley
Genres: Romance
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 78
Summary: The war is over and Ginny returns to school, but it isn't easy to pretend like everything is the same as before.

[sequel to 'all your fumble words']
Hitcount: Story Total: 33723; Chapter Total: 2151
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
hope everyone's doing well and staying safe. sending lots of love




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The first thing Ginny sees when she gets off the Hogwarts Express is Ron. The second thing she sees – unfortunately – is Hermione running to Ron, wrapping her arms around his neck, and kissing him in a blur of bushy hair.

“Ugh,” she mutters. It’s almost as bad as Bill and Phlegm, honestly. Not the most fun start to her Easter holidays.

“Hi, Gin,” says a pink-eared Ron when he pulls back from Hermione. “Congrats on winning the Cup, that was incredible.”

Ginny cheers up a little at that. “It was too bad you and Harry couldn’t have come to the match,” she says.

“I know,” Ron says. “I hated missing it.”

“Where is Harry?” Hermione asks. Ginny’s glad she asked, so Ginny doesn’t have to.

She also knows the answer before Ron says it. “Ministry,” he says.

“He works too hard,” Hermione says. She and Ron share a look, the kind of look Ginny’s seen them share a thousand times before. It’s their I’m worried about Harry look. She’s used to seeing it, and she’s used to feeling a little left out, but what she isn’t used to is feeling in on it with them. She’s as worried about him as they are.

“He’s been working late every day this week,” Ron says, reaching over and taking Ginny’s trunk for her. “So, I was thinking we could go and see him, convince him to come home for dinner.”

“At the Ministry?” Ginny asks.

“Why not?” Ron says. He frowns with concentration, and then taps her trunk and then Hermione’s with his wand. After a second, they disappear.

“Where’d they go?” Ginny asks.

“The Burrow,” Ron shrugs. “Been practicing that one.”

“That was really impressive,” Hermione says. Ron’s ears go pink again. “I suppose we have time for lunch before we go, but we really must get started on NEWT revision,” she adds.

Ginny suppresses the urge to roll her eyes. If she has to hear Hermione say NEWT revision one more damn time…

“Let’s go,” she decides. She’s grumpy and tired from the journey, and she doesn’t think she can handle seeing Ron and Hermione snog on top of being worried about Harry.

“We can get a taxi from here, I think,” Hermione says, and Ron levels her with a look.

“A taxi? Are you a witch or not?” he said, and for some reason, that makes Hermione’s eyes bright and happy. “Gin’s passed her Apparition test now, haven’t you?” he adds, and Ginny nods, but wrinkles her nose. She hates Apparition.

“Let&rsqu o;s go, then,” Ron says, and then leans over and takes Hermione’s hand. Hermione takes Ginny’s as well, and the three of them Apparate off the platform.

*

The Ministry’s crowded, which Ginny supposes make sense; it’s six pm and everyone probably wants to go home. Not Harry, of course, because he’s a workaholic, Ginny grumbles in her mind.

Ron leads them expertly through the hallways, into a lift. The last time Ginny was at the Ministry was at the trial of the Carrows. She hasn’t been back since, and she has to admit that she didn’t miss it one bit, not at all. She doesn’t know how Harry handles coming here every day. Or Ron, for that matter.

As a function of her avoiding the Ministry like the plague, she’s never seen Harry’s office before. Ron leads them down a long corridor and then opens a door.

Harry’s the only one in the office. He’s hunched over a piece of parchment, and he doesn’t so much as look up as they enter. Ginny can’t think of a time recently when he hasn’t noticed someone walk into a room. That’s how she knows the depth of his concentration.

“Oi,” Ron says loudly.

Harry jumps. He gets to his feet in one fluid motion, holding his wand out to them.

“Relax, we’re too tired after the train to kill you,” Ginny says, and then steps up to him, wraps her arms around his neck, and kisses him.

She feels him relax around her, and his arms slowly come to wrap around her waist. “Hi,” he mumbles, muffled against her lips.

“Do you have to do that here?” Ron demands. He’s such a fucking hypocrite, Ginny thinks. He has no right to protest, especially after his and Hermione’s display at the station.

Instead of saying any of that, though, she closes her eyes, rests her head down on Harry’s shoulder, and takes a deep breath. Fuck, she’s missed him. She hasn’t seen him in February, and the last few months have possibly been the slowest of her life.

“You alright?” Harry asks her quietly.

Ginny shrugs, pulls back, and gives him a smile. “Should be asking you that, Potter,” she says.

“I’m fine,” Harry says, too quickly for Ginny to believe it, but she’s known for a while that Harry has realms of emotions hidden in his fine. “Hi, Hermione,” he adds with a wave.

“What have you been working on so late?” Hermione asks, instead of returning the greeting.

“Nothing,” Harry says, but he sounds frustrated. “It’s just… we still haven’t caught them all, you know.”

“The Death Eaters?” asks Ginny.

“I thought you were here finishing the paperwork on the Bones case,” says Ron.

“So you’ve been pursuing an independent investigations?” asks Hermione. They both have their concerned about Harry expression again.

“The Death Eaters, yeah,” Harry tells Ginny, ignoring Ron and Hermione. He sounds absolutely exhausted. “I’m worried about it. The Lestrange brothers are out there. They’ve been evading us for nearly a year now…”

“You have no idea where they are?” Hermione says, drawn in despite herself.

“No,” Ron answers instead of Harry. “We thought we had a lead on Rodolphus last month, Robards sent me and Harry to check it out—”

Which was why they couldn’t come to the last Hogsmeade visit of the term, Ginny remembers.

“—but it was a false lead.”

“They’r e out there. I just… I know it,” Harry says. He looks sincere, and frustrated, and angry, and exhausted. Ginny slips her hand into Harry’s.

“We’d know it if someone spotted them,” Ron says.

“Would we?” Harry says. The two of them share a long look.

“Anyway. No point thinking about it now,” Ron finally says. “Mum’s expecting us home for dinner. We should go.”

Harry lets out a sigh and nods. With his free hand, he taps the parchment he’d been looking at, and then a few folders on his desk. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“What was that spell?” Ginny asks Harry, as they start following Ron and Hermione out of the office.

“Encryption spell,” Harry explains.

Ginny grins up at him. “Yeah? What other fancy Auror spells have they taught you, Potter?” she teases. Before he can answer, she leans up and kisses him again. When she pulls away, he’s smiling, his first genuine smile of the evening.

“You know,” Harry tells her, just loud enough for her to hear. “There’s a little room here, at the end. Meant to be a breakroom, but… reckon we’ll have a bit of privacy there.”

“Which we definitely won’t have in the Burrow,” Ginny says quietly.

“No, we won’t,” Harry says, and smirks.

Ginny squeezes Harry’s hand and then looks up. “Harry and I will join you at the Burrow in ten minutes,” she calls out.

Hermione lets out a noise that sounds suspiciously like a snort. “Don’t take too long,” Ron warns, and then he’s tugging Hermione into the lift.

“He probably wants some alone time with Hermione, too,” Ginny muses.

Harry wrinkles his nose. “Don’t much want to think about that,” he admits.

“No, me neither. Besides, we’ve got better stuff to think about, don’t we?” she asks him.

He looks down at her, bringing up his hand to cup her cheek. Who would’ve thought, muses Ginny. Harry Potter, the Chosen One, capable of the kind of tenderness that would make Rita Skeeter explode. “Yes,” he says, “we do.”

*

Later, once they get home and eat dinner and Harry’s snuck into Ginny’s bedroom and climbed into bed with her, once it’s just the two of them under her duvet, she rests her head on his chest, closes her eyes, and lets herself relax for the first time in what feels like years.

“Try-outs are next week,” she tells him.

She feels his hand slip under the t-shirt she’s wearing, trace circles into her back. “Yeah?” he says.

In her fifth year, she dated Dean for months. He used to tell her that trying to get information from her was like pulling teeth. Whenever she was sad, he would ask her, over and over, what was wrong, until she felt almost as if she was being interrogated. One of her favourite things about Harry, she thinks, is that he doesn’t do that. He’s always quiet, never pushes her. Lets her talk at her own pace. Merlin, she loves him.

“Yeah,” she says, and then, “I haven’t told anyone.”

“That try-outs are happening or that you’re going for it?” Harry asks.

“Both,” Ginny says, and then considers. “Well. I’ve told McGonagall. She told me about it, and she asked me if I’d be going. I mentioned it to Hermione, but she doesn’t know it’s next week. Mum and Dad don’t know, either.”

“Why haven’t you told them?” Harry asks.

Ginny keeps her eyes closed. It’s easier to be honest like this, when she doesn’t have to look into his eyes. It’s easier not to laugh it off, the way she would with anyone else. “I don’t know,” she finally admits. “But… I don’t know if I want to. I mean, Mum won’t approve. You know she won’t. And Dad will try to be gentle, but he’ll try and convince me to go to a Ministry job or something. And it’ll be a whole thing, there might be a row. And what’s the point if I don’t get on the team, you know?” She’s rambling now, she thinks, but Harry doesn’t stop her, so she keeps going. “And I don’t want to be responsible and think about back-up jobs now, or sensible options, or everything that Hermione’s been saying, or that my mum will say. I just want to try, and I want to focus on trying, and not on what everyone will be saying.”

“Gin,&rdquo ; Harry says, impossible soft.

She stops talking, forces her eyes open, and looks up at him.

“You’re going to get on the team,” he tells her.

“You don’t know that,” she says.

“I do,” he says.

She doesn’t say anything, but she lets him pull her closer. “So. When next week?” he asks.

“Tuesday,” she tells him.

“So,” Harry says, sounding thoughtful, “we need an excuse to get you out without anyone suspecting where you’re going, right?”

Ginny nods. “I had a plan, actually,” she says.

“Of course you did,” Harry says, with a little smile.

Ginny leans up and kisses Harry’s cheek. “Reckon you could get the day off then?”

“Of course,” Harry says without hesitation. “Death Eaters can wait until after my girlfriend gets on the Harpies.”

Ginny laughs and settles down under the duvet with him. “Night, Potter,” she says.

“Night, Weasley,” Harry says, and it sounds impossibly fond.

 

 

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