Chapter 15 “ My Heart Belongs To You
“When you say that I'm one of a kind
That I'm so strong and true, I promise you
I'll try to be that kind of man
Because you love me like I am.”
- “Like I Am” by Rascal Flatts
----
“You did what?”
“I applied again,” Ginny said hotly, shuffling more papers into her bag as she tried to clear up her desk. She had no idea how it always got so messy, especially since it didn’t seem like she ever accomplished anything at her job. “Is there a law against that or something?”
Edward kept frowning, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “I thought we talked about this, Ginevra.”
“No,” her eyebrows rose as she glanced up at him, “YOU talked about it. I sat there like a coward who was letting you take over my life and make my decisions!”
“I’m not trying to make your decisions!” He looked flabbergasted. “I just don’t see what the point is any more. They’ve rejected you, what, three times already?”
She scowled up at him and closed her bag with a loud snap! “Twice.” Her voice was sharp, daring him to continue. Obviously, he didn’t get it.
“Bollocks, Ginny! How many people apply that many times? Can’t you do something else with your life rather than go off and get killed?”
Her jaw dropped in amazement at his candidness and she wanted to scream. “For your information,” she held her tongue, “Harry told me that the more times you apply, the better than looks on your applications. It shows persistence and diligence-“
“It also shows that you’re a few clicks dead in the head,” Edward interrupted, looking exasperated. “Why aren’t you just staying in this job? You’ll be promoted soon and start getting a real salary-“
“No, Edward,” Ginny snapped, moving around him to exit her small office. “I’m sick of waiting for these people to remember that I’m here. I did not graduate from Hogwarts for this type of job!”
“But this is the type of job you get!”
His almost-yell froze Ginny in her tracks. Not because of what he had said, but because of what he had not said. Eyes wide and disbelieving, she turned back to him.
“Excuse me?” she commanded.
Edward colored as he realized what he had implied and hastily tried to cover it up, but Ginny cut off his words again.
“Excuse me!? Did you just imply what I think you did?” She reached out, shoving him back against the wall with one accusing finger, ignoring his mutters as he tried to explain. “Do you think that I can’t be an Auror because I’m a girl?”
Dead silence followed her question, and she kept her gaze locked with his, daring him to tell her she had gotten it wrong.
Receiving no reply, she suddenly whirled around, storming away with her heels clicking the ground ominously in the almost empty Ministry floor.
----
“You look like you just walked out of hell.”
Draco scowled over his shoulder, pulling on his cloak and gathering the last of his things.
“I wouldn’t be talking if I were you, Potter,” he quipped, turning to face Harry. “Have you changed your clothes in the last 48 hours?”
“Ah, Draco,” Harry chuckled and swung and arm around the young Malfoy’s shoulders, starting to lead him towards the door, “life wouldn’t be right if we weren’t constantly trying to annoy one another.”
Draco rolled his eyes, shrugging off Harry’s arm and slinging his bag over his shoulders as he reached to open the door for them. “Your too chipper for my taste. Something happen while I was in la-la land back there?”
Harry got a slightly wistful look in his eyes. “Hermione had her baby.”
Draco’s eyes narrowed. “Serious? I thought she wasn’t due for another few months.”
“There were complications,” Harry said vaguely, waving at the guard as they passed the front desk.
“I take it by the fact that no one has tried to kill me, that everything went alright during the interrogation?”
Harry smirked. “Can’t remember that much, can you?”
Wanting to hit him over the head, but restraining himself, Draco just scowled. Potter knew exactly how much Draco hated this.
“You’re a free man,” Harry said, chuckling, “no worries.”
Though Draco knew that Harry was telling the truth, he couldn’t get the idea out of his head that there was a lot more that Harry wasn’t telling.
----
Ron spent about a minute slowly shutting the door, careful to not make one sound as it silently clicked into place. Turning around, he saw that Ginny was still in the waiting area, the only one left now, her nose buried in a “Witch Weekly” story.
She glanced up as he walked over and smiled at him. “How is she?”
“Asleep, thankfully,” Ron said, blowing out a sigh. “She’s so weak…” He looked helplessly up at Ginny. “I feel like a lousy husband.”
Ginny studied him for a moment before calmly putting her magazine aside and standing up to look at him in the eyes.
“You should.”
His shoulders drooped a bit and he looked utterly ashamed.
“But,” she continued, “You’re here now. You have a new daughter to look after. You have an ill wife to take care of…and I haven’t heard you once mention the Quidditch team.”
Ron seemed startled and taken aback by the statement, not quite understanding.
Ginny smirked, blowing some hair out of her eyes. “Ron, do you know what made Hermione upset the other day? I mean really,” she added, as he nodded. “Do you know why she didn’t want to see you, yet she still wanted to know where you were all the time? Do you know why she couldn’t think about you without crying, yet all she could think about was you?”
Ron swallowed a lump in his throat, tears gathering at the back of his eyes. How much more guilty could he feel?
Ginny reached up, laying a hand on his shoulder. “She didn’t think she was your first priority. She didn’t think the baby mattered as much to you as Quidditch did. She didn’t think that she was the first thing you thought about in the morning and the last thing you thought about at night.”
Tears were streaming down Ron’s cheeks now and he brought a hand up to hide his face. His shoulders bobbed silently and he struggled to find the words. Ginny’s arms came up around his shoulders, pulling him into a strong hug, and he cried into her shoulder.
“She’s the only thing I think about,” he admitted, his breath hitching between his soft sobs. “Since I was thirteen years old, she’s never left my mind…”
Ginny felt her own tears pricking, knowing that Ron’s words about Hermione echoed some of her own words about a certain other member of the Golden Trio.
“I wanted her to see me, to see what I could be, for her. I wanted to be who she was so determined I could be…”
He pulled out of the hug, reaching up to wipe the remaining tears away. “I guess I just went about a lousy way of showing her.”
“Not to mention, illegal,” Ginny added, with a raised eyebrow, earning a scowl from Ron.
“What if it was Harry?” he asked back. “What if you were in my place and Harry was in Hermione’s? Wouldn’t you do all you could to be the best for him?”
Ginny started a bit when Ron brought Harry into the conversation, but she recovered enough to figure out a good answer.
“Yes,” she said truthfully. “You know I did everything I could to get him to notice me. But, Ron, do you know what he told me during my fifth year when we were going out?”
Ron shook his head.
“Harry said he only noticed me when I wasn’t trying. He said he enjoyed watching me when I thought he wasn’t looking. He said he started loving me when I stopped trying to win him.” Tears gathered behind her eyes as she said the words, her heart aching in the empty spot she still held for him.
Ron looked truly sobered at her words, and she could see his understanding dawning as well as a newfound respect for Harry shining in his eyes.
“Hermione is an ambitious and brilliant woman. It’s natural that people around her feel the need to live up to her standards. But, Ron,” she reached up, holding his face in her hands, “she didn’t have any standards for you. She’s known you for too long to want you to change. She just wanted to belong to you, the real you, and live happily ever after.”
Ron bit his bottom lip nervously. “I’ve mucked it up, haven’t I?”
Ginny smiled a bit, reaching up to kiss his cheek. “Yes, you have. But don’t worry. She’ll forgive you. We always do.”
She stepped back, turning a bit to gather up her bag and cloak. “I’ve got to get back home and make sure Riley didn’t collapse on the steps after her long shift.” Smiling sympathetically at him, she reached forward to give him one last hug. “Give your daughter a kiss for me.”
Ron chuckled. “It’s still weird to hear that. ‘Your daughter’.”
Ginny’s smile brightened. “Speaking of which, did you guys ever decide on a name? I had a few suggestions that I ran by Harry-“
Ron held up a hand. “We’ll leave them there, thank you. Hermione and I have narrowed it down. Besides, maybe your suggestions should be kept between Harry and you. Who knows what’ll happen next?”
And in a total twist of the conversation, Ron reached over, kissing her surprised cheek and walking back into Hermione’s room, leaving Ginny ridged in the hallway, unable to figure out how the subject had changed so quickly, and why his words meant so much to her.
----
Harry had expected her to be there when he got home, but it we still so tempting to blast her with a hex before she could open her mouth. But that would set Dobby off in a nervous rant, and he had no desire to deal with a crazy house elf at the moment.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” Emily said happily, sitting upright on Harry’s kitchen table with her legs crossed, and her eyes focused solely on him.
He walked passed her without looking and started making himself some coffee. Merlin, he was tired! Couldn’t she taunt him another day? Like, maybe, when he was locked into a lifetime marriage with her?
“How did you get in here?” he asked, already knowing the answer, but not wanting to bring up any other subject.
“You have the most charming house elf!” She squealed, sliding off the table and walking over to the other side of the counter that he was working on. “He adores you. Well,” she paused, glancing up at him innocently, “who wouldn’t adore you?”
Harry raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “You are so twisted.”
She squelched her nose cheekily and shrugged. “There have to be people like me in the world, Harry. Otherwise no one would realize how great people like you really are.”
“Your logic astounds me,” he said truthfully, grabbing a finished mug of coffee and downing half of it in one gulp, instantly feeling more awake than he had for the past day and a half. “Did you need to say something to me, or can I go to bed?”
“Well, I could follow you there,” Emily said with a wink. Harry didn’t honor her with any response, but continued downing the rest of his mug. “Oh Harry,” she came around the counter to stand next to him; “you left that one wide open!”
Harry shrugged off the hand she tried to lay on his shoulder and stepped away, putting his mug in the sink and attempting to leave the room.
She blocked the exit to the stairs, looking dubiously at him. “What kind of host are you, Harry? Walking out in the middle of our conversation?”
“I believe you were the only one talking. I was leaving.”
He tried again to leave through the other door, but she grabbed the back of his shirt, catching him off guard and twisting him around till they faced each other again. Without time to think, she had placed her lips soundly on his, her grip holding him tightly to her.
A full five seconds later, five seconds Harry would never forgive himself for, he managed to shove her back, looking at her with disgust and reaching up to purposely wipe his mouth. She laughed at his expression, a twisted laugh.
“Come, Harry, we are adults. I happen to know that you enjoyed that kiss very much.” She smirked, daring him to contradict her.
“You can keep living in that world all you want, Emily, but leave me out of it.” His voice was sharp and annoyed, giving her the impression that she was winning. He knew she wouldn’t back out that easily, and if he turned to leave again and she even thought about touching him, he would probably use his wand on her.
Now would not be a good time to get the authorities involved in this.
He scowled at his lack of options, seeing that she was, in fact, still standing there, looking triumphant.
“Look, you’ve already played your cards, Emily. The match on Saturday will tell us both if you’ve played them the right way.”
“Don’t let us forget, Mr. Potter, that you have also played your cards.” She smiled sweetly up at him and walked forward. He didn’t give her the pleasure of seeing him squirm, but merely looked disgusted as she ran a finger down his jaw. “Played them with me, as a matter of fact.” She chuckled deeply, her face drawing closer. “I wonder what Mr. Weasley would think if he actually knew the card…Or even pretty little Miss Weasley.”
She quickly jerked his head down for another kiss, but he was ready this time and snapped his hand up, grabbing hold of her arm and shoving her, partially with just muscle but also with a bit of wandless magic, towards his front door. Her comment about Ron, and Ginny especially, poured anger through him.
“I believe your business with me is concluded,” he scowled. He snapped his fingers, grateful for one for Dobby’s promptness as Emily gasped in surprise at the house elf’s sudden appearance. “Dobby, show this woman out and never let her in my house again.”
Without another word and feeling more defeated than victorious, Harry turned towards the stairs and did not look back, hoping beyond hope that he would never have to see her face again.
----
Ginny barely had the sense to figure out where her key was before she managed to fumble it into the front door and stumble into the small foyer of their home. The lights were all off, but she could still see from the light that came through the windows that the steps were clear. Obviously Riley had made it to her bed alright, which was a relief to Ginny. She couldn’t count the number of times she had come downstairs in the morning to find Riley collapsed on the stairs or couch, too tired to make it to her bed. Probably as many times as Riley had nursed Ginny in bed after she had drunk too many pints.
Letting out a long sigh and relieving herself of her cloak, Ginny started towards the small couches in the living room. Without thinking, or looking, she tossed her purse into one of the couches, only to be startled instantly by a surprised yelp and a body tumbling off the couch and onto the floor.
Ginny screamed before she could think about her reaction. It wasn’t everyday you came home to see a strange person sleeping on your living room couch. But suddenly she realized that it wasn’t a strange person.
“Bloody fine ‘Hello’ there, Ginny,” Edward grunted, gathering himself off the floor and rubbing his leg where her purse had hit him. “What do you keep in there, bricks?”
Ginny colored with embarrassment, moving over to help him sit back on the couch. “Well, I didn’t expect you to be laying on my couch. Usually that’s Riley, and she can sleep through a Death Eater attack after she’s been on a long shift.” She sat next to him, looking concerned, but actually annoyed with his presence there. All she really wanted to do now was get some sleep, not have another long debate with Edward.
“Sorry,” Edward had the gall to act embarrassed. “I didn’t know where you were, but I waited till Riley got home and she said you were coming soon, so I decided to wait.” He looked doubtfully at the couch. “I guess I just got a little tired waiting.”
Ginny felt a stab of pity. Riley had gone home hours before her, getting off shift right after Hermione delivered the baby. Ginny had stuck around to visit with family and hold her niece. He must have waited all night.
“Well, I’m here now,” she said, unnecessarily. “Did you want something?”
For the first time since she had met him, Edward suddenly looked uncomfortable with himself. His eyes would not meet hers and he stood up, so that they were not sitting together anymore.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about what we, er, talked about the other night.”
Ginny frowned. It had been as close to a “talk” as Pigwidgeon was to Fawkes, but she remained silent.
“I realize that a lot of the strain in our relationship has been my fault. My, well, overprotectivness.”
She had to agree with him there.
“And then I realized that there was only one way to really get rid of that for us…”
Ginny had expected a talk like this soon, even hoped for it a bit. Their relationship had been rocky from the start and she knew that if one of them didn’t end it soon, they were going to drive each other mad.
But to her surprise, the next words out of his mouth weren’t “I think we need to see other people.” Instead, he swiftly knelt on one knee in front of her, pulling out a small box from his pocket and holding it open in front of her.
Ginny’s mouth went dry and her eyes widened in shock. What in all of Merlin’s names was he doing?
“I realize that I love you Ginny Weasley. I’ve loved you for quite some time now. It leads me to be suspicious of others, for I want you only as my own. It leads me to argue sometimes, for I only want what I think is best for you. It leads me now, to ask you this question.”
Ginny gulped, wishing she could remember at that moment how to apparate, but for some reason, the knowledge escaped her and she felt stuck.
“Ginny Weasley, will you marry me?”
It was the second time tonight he had called her Ginny. He must have done it on purpose, for she didn’t instantly flare up when he talked. His voice was low and soothing, so much like it had been when they had first started dating. His eyes shown with….something. She didn’t know if it really was love or not. She believed that he believed that he was in love with her, but she knew for sure that there was no way she was in love with him.
A weaker girl might have rationalized that this was her last chance. A weaker girl might have rationalized that Harry Potter’s skull was too thick to get any hopes up. A weaker girl might have created love in her heart for Edward. A weaker girl might have said ‘yes’.
But fortunately, Ginny Weasley had never been a weak girl.
Head Over Feet by Liisa
Chapter Notes: This is one of my favorite chapters so far. I hope you all enjoy!