The First Year

Finding Common Ground

'You shouldn't have to.' Harry settled her back against him. 'You're not my mum. You're my...'

'What?'

'Girlfriend...?' Harry glanced at Ginny. 'If you want to be...'

Ginny reached back and patted Harry's thigh. 'I'll think about it...'

'I guess I deserve that,' Harry sighed.

'What?'

'Waiting.'

Ginny carefully shifted in the hammock, so she faced Harry. 'It's not that I don't trust you or anything...' She bit her lip as Harry visibly flinched. 'I do trust you,' she said. 'It sort of depends on you.'

Harry's brow furrowed in confusion. 'How does it depend on me...?'

'You're going to be an Auror for real,' Ginny stated. 'And even though he's gone, there will always be people who were dropped on their heads as babies, or should have been hugged more as small children, or are just downright psychopaths. If we're together, and someone has it in for you, I'm still a target, just like before,' Ginny explained. 'So, my question to you is: can you manage to do both – have me and do your job?'

Harry felt his pulse begin to race uncomfortably in his ears. 'I don't know,' he admitted slowly. 'I've never had a relationship I care about where he's not hanging over my head. Not with anyone. It's sort of unexplored territory. I don't really know how to act.'

'That's why I'm going to think about it,' Ginny said. 'I can't put myself through that again.'

Harry stiffened slightly. 'Yeah, I get it.'

Ginny took his chin in one hand and forced him to look at her. 'Don't be a prat about this and think that I don't love you,' she told him forcefully. 'I can't go into this with you again, and have that thought niggling in the back of my head that something will come up, and you're going to let me go, because it's for the best.'

Harry nodded stiffly, biting his lip against the stinging in his eyes. 'Yeah...' he whispered hoarsely. He climbed out of the hammock. 'I'll see you at dinner,' he said with forced casualness, before heading for the end of the paddock.

Ginny sighed and threw her arm over her eyes, shielding it from the sunshine that snaked its way through the leaves overhead. She knew when Harry got into a mood, it was best to leave him be for a bit. He wouldn't listen to anyone right now.

Ron poked his head into Ginny's room. 'Hey, Mum says dinner's ready.' Ginny nodded, closed her book, and threw it on her desk.

'What's got you in such a strop?' Ron asked.

'I told Harry that I wanted to wait a bit before getting back into a relationship with him,' Ginny said, pulling a brush through her hair with unnecessary force, yanking out several hairs, making Ron grimace in pain. 'He got upset,' she finished succinctly.

Ron refrained from heaving a sigh and slipped into the room, closing the door firmly behind him. 'What did you say?'

Ginny pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail. 'I said that I didn't want to risk starting it up, then having to stop it again, because he thinks things might get dangerous,' she huffed.

'Right,' Ron said quietly. 'You could have said that differently.'

Ginny slammed her brush down on the desk and spun to Ron. 'Since when did you become the relationship expert?'

'Never said I was. But I've known Harry longer than you,' Ron told her. He pulled out the chair from her desk and straddled it, resting his arms across the back. 'He probably thinks you don't want him.'