Bettyjhk

Hinny Stan for life<3 90s kid

[ginnyw-potter]

Give us some headcanons about Hinny’s first 10 years of marriage!

Oooh!

Harry feels it's too mature to call her his wife, yet gets so much excitement about it

Every new phase is something Ginny deliberately discusses as length with Harry because she knows he didn't have good examples growing up. Talking about kids takes a long time even if they agree they want to have them

There are cheating rumours in the newspaper but neither of them really ever believe it

Harry absolutely gets a kick out of seeing her fly for the Harpies with Potter printed on her back

Ginny doesn't talk about some things she had to endure with the Carrots until after they're married. Partially because she's still processing the torture

He's the only in-law who ends up calling Molly mum (and yes she cried when he did)

When they get pregnant the first time, Harry has a lot of worries about being a father but Ginny talks it through with him tirelessly and makes sure her dad sits him down for proper dad advice

During her Harpies years, his fellow male aurors often watch her walk by, sigh and feel sorry for themselves for not being the lucky bloke who gets to be with her. This both annoys him and makes him happy because she's always there to see him and he gets some satisfaction out of getting to walk her out and kiss her goodbye

Ginny tries so hard not to become her mum in the first ten years but she sees value in it later on

They get married fairly young because Harry knows what he wants and Ginny of course says yes

[constancezin]

Someone wishes to be a pygmypuff

[whinlatter]

I have a guess as to what may be revealed in the future, Molly dropped out of Hogwarts didn't she? She never graduated? If her brothers died when she was young, how could she ever have the will to graduate after that? And then she couldn't really get a job because she had no qualifications despite being an extraordinary witch. It made her dependent on Arthur financially even though she loved raising her kids. So she really wanted her kids to finish school and take it seriously. IDK. I feel like this makes sense! She prob never expected Ginny to return for her last year and was surprised (and proud) when Ginny wanted to. 🥺

ahh this is such juicy compelling headcanon, anon, but i think the timelines don't add up. fabian and gideon prewett had to have died in mid/late 1981, as they appear in the order photograph that was taken two weeks before the death of the mckinnons (both marlene and the prewetts are in the photo, and we know the mckinnons are killed just before lily and james themselves are murdered). this means that at the least all of the weasley children bar ginny had been born by the time fabian and gideon are killed, so molly couldn't have been at school at the time.

that said... i think you are right that we should cut molly a lot more slack in trying to make sure her children get on in life, do well in school and make something of themselves in terms of sourcing a stable livelihood that doesn't have them socially discounted. for me, one of the most interesting things about molly is that she is consistently torn between her stalwart commitment to the moral cause that the order represents and also acutely aware that life is going to be hard on her children because of their family's reputation, and the need to overcompensate for it through academic achievement and securing stable employment. there are several hints in the series that molly does come from some level of wizarding aristo background/faded grandeur - muriel's priceless goblin heirlooms, her big house and the promise of an inheritance - and that it is the weasley side of the family that is responsible for the broke blood traitor reputation.

i think, given these hints, we can assume that molly and her big brothers had a strong principled objection to pure blood supremacy and to the death eaters during the first wizarding war, and sacrificed a great deal fighting in its name. but it shouldn't be surprising that molly, a character who seems to have given up some amount of financial stability and pureblood safety to marry arthur and join the anti-voldemort resistance, would be aware of what it is to be without money and how much one might need a safety net as part of a family marked as armed resistors and political radicals.

would molly be proud of ginny going back to school? it is a really nice idea. a few times in early(ish) chapters of beasts i have ginny mentally justify her going back in reference to what her mum would want. but i knew i wanted a different arc for molly and for ginny's relationship with her mum. when we finally do see molly in chapter 9, not just in flashbacks but in the flesh, you can see that ginny's difficult decision to go back to school is the last thing on molly's mind; that the part of molly weasley that fretted and cajoled and lovingly nagged her children died with fred, and ginny has been in denial, engaging in wishful thinking because she hasn't really wanted to confront that her mother may never be in a fit state to fret and cajole and nag her ever again. she is trying to make her mum proud, for sure - but, increasingly, as she accepts her mother will never be the same again, her motivations shift away from maternal pressure to wanting to make life a little bit easier and more bearable for her mum knowing she is trying to set her life straight and build enough material comfort not to have to worry about surviving.

sorry for that bummer! to end on a lighter, if grumpier note... i've said this before so forgive me getting back on this soapbox, but i also don't buy the arguments of the 'molly weasley get a job' tiktok brigade, who seem to grow in number every passing week. i know you're absolutely not saying this, anon, but it comes up a lot in the online discourse, and i do think it is broadly bullshit and worth consistently critiquing. until 1991 molly is doing a huge amount of childcare full-time. once ginny goes to hogwarts, we don't know that molly does nothing for any money - she is a famously industrial knitter! - but also can assume that, after that long without formal employment in a very hierarchical (and misogynistic) society, it might be quite difficult for her to just glibly rejoin the workforce (this is, in fact, a common feature of most modern economies where the burden of childcare still falls on women; it's also clear that in lots of wizarding families women don't work at all after having children). molly also clearly lives on a property with a large amount of land and substantial upkeep requirements (have you ever kept chickens? they are a fucking minimum twice daily ballache).

it's also worth saying that the weasleys don't actually need any more money to pay for basic essentials. that they provide everything their children (and their friends) actually need whenever they need to: they just lack a great deal of discretionary income to splash the cash on material goods. and that's fine! sorry! teenagers are allowed to sulk that they have some secondhand stuff, sure. but it isn't actually material deprivation or a moral failing to reuse stuff you have and not be able to afford elite-level sporting equipment for your children. even if molly weasley never took up paid work outside the home ever in her life, i don't think anyone can reasonably claim she did not undertake essential labour. and, as of summer 1995, it is clear molly is doing missions for the order (canon is clear!), while also feeding and housing and clothing a great chunk of the wartime resistance. seems harder than most other wizarding jobs, to me!

[lucy-in-the-skiess]

This might be Ginny Weasley…

[whinlatter]

author’s note | chapter 15: beasts (i) 🗡️

now the dust has settled somewhat… it’s about time we talked about chapter 15, a chapter that sure did take its sweet time coming. at long (long) last, we are back and kicking off our flashback chapters, where we find out what went down in crookshanks’ ginny weasley’s war. a picnic it was not! let’s get into it - it being these indulgent author’s notes i love to subject you to and that you love to humour.

✨ spoilers for this chapter below the cut  ✨

writing notes and headcanons

chapter titles: these flashback chapters are called beasts because baby it’s all been building up to this! this chapter and the ones to follow are really the heart of this story - the title track, if you will. at last, ginny is talking, plunged back into last year as she testifies at the inquiry. the beasts of the chapter title, and the fic at large, are people - or, at least, the parts of a self that lies within all people; the beasts within  - but the beasts are also the memories of the war themselves, unwieldy and untameable, memories which expose all the savagery, brutality and hypocrisy on which the wizarding world is built. (these chapters have been my personal beasts to wrangle with for far, far too long.) pls be reassured, askbox anons, that calling these chapters beasts does not mean they are the final chapters! the final chapter has had a name for a very long time and is in fact something different. i suspect we have a good 6+ chapters to go yet. (and if experience has taught me anything, it’s that i will probably split some of those in two. chapter plans! who needs em! not this clown!)

writing ginny’s war: there have been many many brilliant attempts to write ginny’s war in fic over the years, and i feel very aware of the danger of reinventing the wheel. i’m also aware that there are tropes that abound (for good reason) in such fics and that are hard to avoid. nevertheless, any hinny writer worth their salt tends to want to take a run-up at writing DH from ginny’s POV, a book she spends largely off stage, glimpsed only in passing mentions of her that harry witnesses or in memories that haunt harry as he embarks on the horcrux hunt, and gosh darn it i want my turn! the trouble with writing nny’s war, though, is that you have to write chapters that are strongly anchored in plot rather than vibe, except you’re not working with your own plot, but much more tightly confined by canonical timelines and major narrative landmarks, which demands a lot more scrambling around on potter search if - like me - half the fun of writing fic is playing around with trying to write a story that is more strictly canon coherent. still, we love a challenge, and it’s just as much fun to subvert harry’s narration/assumptions of what is happening elsewhere in the wizarding world during DH (and especially what is going on at hogwarts) as it is to get stuck into the text. i set myself a series of rules, one of which is that whenever harry thinks ginny is somewhere or doing something, she has to be doing the opposite of that. he’s terrified she’s in danger at the wedding? she’s sat on the sofa with gabrielle snotting veela snot down her arm. he’s sure she, neville and luna are sat together on hogwart’s express plotting snape’s demise? she’s obviously too smart for that. yung hazza has fucked around long enough and now that young man is about to find out. more of this in future author’s notes once we’re back at school proper - let these serve as little light hints about how things might go down…  but for now:

the order and resistance: in deathly hallows, harry and co crash out of the wedding the night the wizarding state is seized in a coup by voldemort, ejecting ginny from the centre-stage narrative but also detaching the trio from the trajectory of most of the wizarding world for august 1997 - at least, until they go to the ministry to get the horcrux from umbridge - and from the workings and wartime activities of the order of the phoenix. this happens, ofc, just as the order becomes the official underground resistance. of course we know, as readers, that the plot and the outcome of the war will hinge on the trio succeeding on their quest: this is harry’s series after all. but to imagine the perspective of the order off-stage, the trio - three teenagers who have needed order fighters to rescue them from battles with death eaters two years running - are just off doing a weird dumbledore sidequest while the real business of fighting this war and actively resisting voldemort’s regime must surely fall to the order. nevertheless, the order lack an obvious general post mad-eye’s death and clear direction beyond low level sabotage and surveillance. we are told the burrow is now official headquarters and that the weasleys remain in their home and resume going about their daily business as a fig leaf for their resistance activities. 

the order and the traitor: crucial context that harry largely dismisses but that is clearly on the older order members’ minds in the summer of 1997 is mundungus’ betrayal and the idea that there might be a rat. harry is so convinced he would not be betrayed: remus calls him naive for it, which harry bristles at but ultimately decides to disregard. would the others, though? the order are still smarting from the wounds inflicting by the apparent treachery the night of the seven potters (a betrayal that cost their most seasoned fighter his life); fleur, for her part, spends the run-up to the happiest day of her life convincing hagrid is going to get binned, hop on mic and reveal harry’s whereabouts half-way through the cutting of the cake. kingsley and remus were livid at the idea of a traitor the night of the rescue; remus, of course, for obvious and deeply personal reasons, though he also makes himself suspicious by vanishing (to run out on his preggo wife), no doubt raising some eyebrows among his fellow fighters. all this adds an extra layer of tension to the summer of ’97 at order hq, especially when there are yung women wandering about who are about to go back to the den of vipers that is hogwarts under death eater control. and speaking of…

what about ginny? one can only assume, then, that under these circumstances ginny must have gone back to much the same unglamorous infantilising existence she endured in the holidays during ootp: living at order hq, barred by virtue of her age and mother’s protectiveness from order activities, only without harry, ron and hermione to keep her company as kindred spirits, underrage and overlooked. for this reason, i have ginny spend this chapter confined to the claustrophobic house, becoming much closer to a grimmauld-like space than the burrow has ever been so far in canon, and almost entirely alone: protected as is possible, but shut out, left to her own devices. it is at once a very safe position to be in but also a vulnerable one - too much time to think and stew, a lonely character whose loneliness has previously driven her to ruin, back to being lonely again. i wanted there to be shades of sirius and ootp harry in it - restless, cooped up, prowling around, growing bitter and isolated - and also (as the echoes to chapter 2 suggest) echoes of an earlier time in ginny’s life when she was lonely, and vulnerable, and ripe for the picking. too much time to think, especially to think about…

those pesky horcruxes: in revisiting late HBP/DH and preparing to write these chapters one of the things that i found most baffling was how astonishingly cavalier and clumsy the trio seem to be discussing crucial information about horcruxes around ginny or within her plausible earshot. ginny of course knows harry has gone with dumbledore the night the tower is struck. after dumbledore dies, the four of them spend ‘all of their time together’, harry carries the locket everywhere with him in his pocket (‘not as a talisman, but as a reminder of what it had cost and what remained still to do’). hermione may wait until the door up the dormitories closes behind ginny to talk about RAB, butt it’s not exactly a watertight way of remaining out of earshot (especially given ginny’s canonical curiosity and expertise at listening at doors). while at the burrow, hermione still stays in ginny’s room, presumably packing up all manner of clue-like items around her: molly may try her best to use ginny as a barrier to the trio getting together to plot next steps, hermione still manages to slip away and leave ginny in order to seek out harry and ron to plot next steps elsewhere in the house (‘Oh, Ron’s mum forgot that she asked me and Ginny to change the sheets yesterday’). what’s more, the trio openly invite order members’ views on the items in dumbledore’s will, and we know that this encounter had such a lasting impression on ginny that she commits to stealing back harry’s rightful property (the sword of gryffindor) at great personal risk having presumably stewed on it for quite some time. the most fun i had in this chapter was adding in the little hints that, had the trio invited ginny into their confidence, they might have found someone quicker on the uptake on some of their trickiest mysteries than the three of them ever were. wouldn’t ginny the quidditch enthusiast and former seeker know that snitches have flesh memories? doesn’t it seem possible - even probable - that ginny explored grimmauld place thoroughly and found the little sign on regulus’ room long before harry even set foot in grimmauld place? wouldn’t ginny, of all people, remember exactly what gryffindor’s sword was used for last time and start to wonder why it need be used again? she is so close - and yet! so far. but isn’t that always ginny weasley’s way?

the weasleys’ dilemma: i have had a fair few very compelling messages in the askbox criticising harry for leaving ginny to it, assuming she would be safe (how could she be!) and taking insufficient interest in her wellbeing beyond pining for as a comfort for himself on lonely tent-watch nights. i have also had a few criticising the weasleys for much the same thing. i think these are very very reasonable and understandable takes with a lot of truth to them. what i will say though is that this is a period of the narrative where nobody had good choices to make, including harry, but also including ginny’s whole family. the weasleys deciding to send ginny weasley back into hogwarts when she is very obviously and publicly close to both harry potter and to the order is, on the one hand, a completely mental proposition. but the other thing to remember, and that is consistently and widely overlooked about the weasleys, is that they are a family of soldiers. they are generations of committed resistors and agents of conscience, ideologically-committed and devoted to an extremely morally worthy cause that actually really, really matters. the new state is carrying out an attempted genocide: if ever there were a time to bang on about the greater good, to not put your own family’s safety over the safety of hundreds of others of innocent victims, wouldn’t it be this one? i care a lot in this fic about making clear that although there are malicious bad actors in this narrative whose actions cause harm and pain, there’s also lots of proper goodies trying to do their best and make the best moral choice under exceptionally difficult circumstances - whose actions also cause harm and pain. often they have to make very tough utilitarian choices about what the right course of action should be: they have to live with some amount of pain being the direct result, often pain for the people they love most in the world. and so the weasleys send ginny back to hogwarts, telling themselves she will be safe as a pureblood, as their family (and the trio’s) cover: business as usual, nothing to see here. 

voices of dissent: it was important to me to have two voices in this chapter who raise doubts about sending ginny back. one i’ll come back to in a later author’s note, but is charlie, although he does not fight for ginny to stay at home, and stays silent as her family sees her off. the other one is molly weasley, the consistent voice in canon for children being allowed to have a childhood, overly protective and patronising but fundamentally trying to do something powerful and good: letting kids be kids. of course, as soon as ginny has set herself the sword quest, she is a one-track mind: she is going back to school, she is getting the trio the sword, she is helping fight voldemort, and she is not listening to her mother. would ginny weasley want to be protected, really?

reading list

not fics but real books can you believe!

the feast by margaret kennedy (fabulous devastating postwar ensemble novel, sank it in one sitting, claustrophobic and wry and searing and o the doom is building, vibes are very very very good)

silence of the girls by pat barker (silence becomes a woman)

testament of youth by vera brittain 

"I am writing this in front of an open casement window overlooking the sea. The sky is cloudless, and the russet sails of the fishing smacks flame in the sun. It is summer but it is not war; and I dare not look at it. It only makes me angry with myself for being here — and with the others for being content to be here. When men whom I have once despised as effeminate are being sent back wounded from the front, when nearly everyone I know is either going or has gone, can I think of this with anything but rage and shame?"

songs from the playlist for this chapter 

one properly stand-out song that i considered just having standalone is king creosote’s please come back, i will listen, i will behave, i will toe the line. the opening is so chilling, and the song proper is so rousing, the lyrics childlike, the protagonist pleading their way through grief (please come back, and take me with you next time). that whole album absolutely fucking slaps. but these other songs are good too! 

which side are you on by pete seeger | please come back… by king creosote | come back to us by thomas newman | tomorrow is a long time by bob dylan | oceans apart by ben crosland | precipice by jack simpson | mìorbhail nam beann by duncan chisholm 

…and a sneak peek from chapter 16, including the return of fan favourite/everyone’s favourite grouchy stoner king: 

‘What the fuck are you doing here?’  A rough hand grabs by the wrist. Two years without a word uttered to Michael Corner and now he’s dragging her by the arm down an empty corridor, iron grip as she tries to pull away. Once out of sight, around the corner, he rounds on her. ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ he hisses. ‘It’s insane that you’re here.’

[bettyjhk]

Oh my god, MICHAEL!!!

Cant wait!

[hinny-canons]

@ginnystrophyhusband's Microfics

May 14th: Impressive

Also on AO3

.

Ginny dropped the newspaper onto the counter, taking a sip of her tea.

"Latest Rita Skeeter article," Ginny clarified when Harry furrowed his brows. "She's gotten creative."

Harry put his own cup of tea down and picked up the newspaper, reading the headline.

GINNY POTTER CAUGHT WITH FORMER BOYFRIEND DEAN THOMAS.

Harry snorted. "I love how they say 'caught' as if they've found a criminal." He continued to read the article.

"I saw him briefly in passing after practice one day, and I guess that indicates 'affair' to them," Ginny shrugged.

Harry chuckled. "Look at this. She said you two were 'rather chummy and laughed together with loving gazes.'"

Ginny laughed. "Oh, her imagination is impressive."

"Not really. She's accused me of having an affair with Hermione about fifty times now."

Ginny sighed. "Yeah. And it appears she's gotten bored of Neville and made Dean her next target."

"Be careful. If I know anything about Seamus, he's going to be very dramatic about this." Harry looked up at Ginny and narrowed his eyes as he saw her hide her smile behind her cup. "And you're going to play right along, aren't you?"

"Mhm!" She grinned. "I bet he'll send me a letter, stating his deep distress at how I could betray him like this." She put her hand to her chest in mock offence, and Harry laughed.

At that moment, a pecking sounded at the window and they turned to it. An owl sat perched on the sill, an envelope in its beak.

Slowly, Ginny turned to meet Harry's eye, her smile widening.

"No..." Harry said in disbelief.

"Yes!" Ginny squealed and ran to retrieve Seamus' theatrical letter.

[atheonora]

Hinnyweek: anniversary of Hinny's first kiss

[whinlatter]

Of course, she’d seen it. How could she forget? Waking up on the Chamber floor and there it was, gripped in Harry’s bloody hand. She remembers now how it glittered, how it shone, with rubies the size of eggs, the long expanse of the blade, the handsome curve around its grip. Who else had even seen it that close? And if the sword was still at school - if it was in the office - I can get it for you, she tells them all, in her head. In her head, it’s an oath. I’ll do it. I won't let you down. [ beast, n.: a wild animal, not human; a violent person, inhumanly cruel; someone brutish, untamed, depraved ]

🪶 read the new chapter | read from the beginning 🪶

🪶 read the author’s note for this chapter (coming soon!)

🐾 listen to the playlist

🪺 watch the trailer 

🦉 thoughts & questions? ask me anything!

[bettyjhk]

My heart stopped for a min.

[silverquill101]

My favorite flavor of Hinny is when it's absolutely HAUNTED by Tom Riddle. Both of them were touched, changed by him in ways nobody else could ever understand. The whole world knows Voldemort, but the two of them know Tom. And deep down, a part of them both will always love him. They both know that about each other, and they both pretend not to know.

[ashotofogdensoldfirewhiskey]

Ambiguous

@ginnystrophyhusband Prompt 11

Word count: 403

She’s a bit of a show off. 

They’ve stolen down to the Quidditch pitch after dinner to fly. The season’s over, no need to practice any longer, but Harry reckons they’ve both managed to intertwine freedom and flying, both made it their little form of escape. 

Ginny's diving and looping and toeing the line of recklessness with the dangerous maneuvers she’s pulling, and Harry watches her at a safer speed. Her bright red hair is streaming behind her in the wind, her legs wrapped expertly around her broom, and he likes that he’s free to appreciate her unabashedly now, unlike during those furtive moments at practice when he stole looks at her like a fucking criminal. 

But then she pulls up, slams to such an abrupt halt that Harry sucks in a breath, and turns to him with a wicked gleam in her eye.

“Are you going to concede, yet?” she calls.

Harry didn’t know there’d been anything to concede. “What?”

“That I’m the better flyer.”

Harry stares at her - all freckles and bluster and mischief - and thinks she’s the best everything: flyer, girlfriend, thing that’s ever happened to him. But doesn’t say it, not yet. “I didn’t realize we were competing.”

She grins. “Life’s a competition, Potter.”

He likes the way she calls him that. And then it hits him all at once as he looks at her - Chaser, show off, competitiveness baked into her bones, banter that lives on her lips. My dad would’ve liked you, he thinks. No, he knows. 

He chokes on it, the knowing. Because he’s never known anything about his father before, not really. His father’s just an idea of a person, cooked up from snippets of anecdotes from Sirius, photographs from Hagrid, memories from Snape. He doesn’t have anything of his father that isn’t ambiguous, wasn’t given to him by someone else, but this - this. 

He would’ve liked you.

This, he knows.

She’s still staring at him, hovering midair, and he wants to close the distance between them, wants to press his thanks into her lips for giving him this tiny piece of James Potter, but doesn’t know how to bridge the gap. Instead, he says, “Reckon I’d better keep you on your toes, then.”

And he flashes forward with a burst of speed, past the sound of her delighted cackle.

She chases after him, heckling, and Harry grins toward the purpling sky. Glad you approve.

[cathyzean]

[hinny-canons]

“Never you mind,” said Harry roughly.

“There’s no need to take that tone with me,” she said coolly, “I was only wondering whether I could help.”

or

“Keep going!” said Harry sharply, because Ginny showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg’s progress back into a bird.

“You dawdled enough by that old arch!” she said crossly, but followed him past the bell jar to the only behind it.

moody ootp harry and firey knock-some-sense-into-you ginny are one heck of a duo.

mind you, this is the first year she’s openly talking to him and they’re just bickering like an old married couple.

[waltzreprise]

Play to win, even if you can't lose.

April Hinny Microfic — Prompts by @ginnystrophyhusband

Prompt 8: Beam ~ 441 words ~ references to sex

"One more," he said breathlessly.

"One?" she replied, her tone too smug for hanging from a beam. "Weak."

"Fuck. Ginevra."

"Whatever the other wants, Potter."

Many things could be said about Harry and Ginny's relationship, but it could never be said that they didn't enjoy their sex life. The problem was that they sometimes had too much imagination and, above all, an immense sense of competitiveness.

And that led them to this moment, with both of them doing pull-ups on a beam, trying to earn the right to do whatever they wanted with the other. Or rather, the loser would have to do whatever the other wanted.

As they were two Quidditch players, it wasn't an easy game. They'd been at it for at least ten minutes.

"I'm going to win," Harry said, doing another pull-up. "But the reward won't come until a few hours later because I'm going to pass out by the time we finish this."

"If that's true, do you really deserve to win?" Ginny asked, but there was at least some effort in her voice.

"I'm winning by two, Weasley. Stop talking and flex your arms."

If you asked Ginny, she'd say that she was simply going to win, that it was obvious; if you asked Harry, he'd say that he had the advantage, that victory was simply there, but he made a huge mistake.

He looked.

He looked at Ginny, her ponytail exposing her entire face, her cheeks flushed, and her sweat running down her forehead and neck. He looked at her sports bra, which molded her chest perfectly, at her muscular abdomen and the waistband of her leggings.

He looked at her, and, as always happened when he looked at her, his mind wandered to another planet, and one of his hands gave way, causing him to fall to the ground.

"Ha!" Ginny exclaimed, falling gracefully to the ground, but had to pause for a second to catch her breath. "Well done, Potter!"

"Yes..." he whispered, walking over to her and hugging her waist. "Now we need some water."

"And a shower," she said, stroking his hair with her fingers. Harry nodded and kissed her jaw, but then she broke the embrace.

She licked her lips as she watched him, awed by the sight of his abs and the beginnings of his happy trail peeking out of his sweatpants. She smiled and ran a finger up and down his chest.

Then she looked him in the eye. "And you need to take a nap. It's going to be a long night."

[thepersistenceandthevision]

I loved the fanfic Beasts by whinlatter so much, I made an 8-tracks style playlist about it.

What makes it an 8-tracks style playlist?  Because it has 16 songs – 8 tracks for Side A and 8 tracks for Side B.  No more.  No less.

There were two songs that initially inspired this playlist, and it would have been easy to make a 5 or 6 song long playlist.  Or I could have every song that had a lyric that fit, and would have made a 20-30 song playlist.  But 16 songs exactly?  That was the challenge… and the fun. I wanted to make sure every song fit lyrically with the story and musically with each other.  Sometimes I chose covers rather than the original artist, not because I liked the song better, but because it fit with the other music. It got me to dig through old songs I half remembered and discover new artists I'd never heard before.

But I’m talking too much.  See below for each song and why I thought it fit.  Whinlatter has done beautiful work writing a story that is melancholy and hopeful, dark and funny, about characters that are broken and hurting each other and loving and strong all at the same time. I looked for songs that carried the same spirit.

“Side A” is Ginny trying, and somewhat idealizing her relationship with Harry, and everything up to New Years and their fight.  “Side B” is the fight and fear and hurting and growing and trying.

(The quotes don’t always line up in that order because sometimes characters have beautifully concise thoughts in later chapters about their earlier actions.)

Side A

i, Carrion (Icarian) // Hozier

Notes: This is one of the two songs that made me want to make a playlist.  When I first heard this song, I took all the references to flying and falling very literally and thought of Ginny struggling with Quidditch after the war.  However, after many re-listens and reading the lyrics more closely, I see this song as Harry’s and his unconscious dependence on Ginny being “light” for him, and so we start the playlist with his POV because we enter fanfics in general from the POV of the source material.

Lyric: Once I had wondered what was holdin' up the ground / But I can see that all along, love, it was you all the way down

and

 Lyric: If I should fall on that day / I only pray / don’t fall away from me

2. Dead Girl Walking // Jensen McRae

Quote: ‘And your name?’

She hesitates, a fraction too long to lie. ‘Ginny,’ she says stiffly. ‘Ginny Weasley.’

[…]

‘But [..] she – she died, didn’t she?’ he asks anxiously, turning to Tuft for clarification. ‘In the Chamber of Secrets debacle? In 1993?’

-Beasts, Chapter 12: scarecrow by whinlatter

and

Sometimes I worry all I have to show for seven years of school are a lot of nightmares and bad memories. I don’t want to feel like that. I think I keep coming back because I think I can make it different, this time. 

            -Beasts, Chapter 12: scarecrow by whinlatter

Lyric:  Aches in my body like I stayed up boxing / I’m a dead girl walking / but I’ve walked this far.

Notes: Jensen McRae is a really amazing up-and-coming singer.  I love this song in particular but there are many others you should check out and enjoy!

3. Landslide // Dagny

Lyric: Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? / Can the child within my heart rise above? / Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides? / Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Notes: A classic song about the struggles of growing up and life not being what you planned.  I knew I wanted this song on the playlist for a while and honestly the hardest part was figuring out if I wanted the original or a cover, and if so, which cover!  Ultimately, I went with Dagny because I thought her sound best fit with the rest of the playlist. 

4. Brooklyn // Emily James

Quote:  ‘Yeah. Sometimes. I mean – I know we joke in letters, and stuff. But it’s just – if I’m having a bad day, or it’s all a bit – much.’ His face twitches slightly. ‘I sometimes just go to a shop and buy something. That we could have in our house one day. I don’t know. It’s just nice. To buy us some egg-cups, or whatever.’

Beasts, Chapter 11: hatched by whinlatter

Lyric:  When I'm alone, I hold you like a locket / Next to my heart where you'll never get lost as / We run through moments we don't know yet

and

Quote:  It’s stupid how happy it makes her, seeing him all cocky, flirting with her in the old kitchen, letting him snog her up against the rough stone walls and hoist her up on the counter top.

Beasts, Chapter 9: wintering by whinlatter

Lyric:  I wanna wake up in my sheets and your T-shirt

Notes: Just pretend the singer is daydreaming about meeting up with her boyfriend in London instead of in Brooklyn.

5. Hope – Acoustic // Tom Rosenthal, Lizzy McAlpine

Lyric:  Can you hold me from afar? / Pretend that you are closer / Keep all our memories in the jar / And place it right beside you

and

Lyric:  You are in my heart when it has hope

6. Let Light Be Light // Lizzy McAlpine

Notes: Lizzy McAlpine might win the award for the most songs that are almost perfect for this playlist, but then had one or two lines that really changed the tone.  I switched many of her songs in and out but ultimately picked “Let Light Be Light” in honor of how hard Ginny was trying to be light over Christmas.

Quote:  ‘We’ve been writing a lot. Every day, pretty much. I’ve never – with anyone – I dunno. It meant a lot to me, hearing from you. But it’s weird to think you didn’t write down anything that was actually happening to you. That you were leaving stuff out, I mean. You must have been scared. But you never said.’

She looks past him, to the crack in the door to Regulus’ room, to floorboards covered in ink. Imagines childish handwritten words on a page, the rattle of the Boggart cupboard. To the Dark Lord. Dear Tom.

‘I just find it hard,’ she says, finally. ‘To say this stuff. To write it down. How I’m feeling, what I’m scared about. Especially to someone else. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. It went so wrong, before.’

Beasts, Chapter 11: hatched by whinlatter

Lyric:   I don't like getting attached / It makes me feel like I've done something bad / 'Cause I'm not dependent and I know that / So why am I scared I'm reliving / That part of my past?

7. Speak // Ben Abraham

Notes: Another song for Harry – I think this song is a great fit for the room at the top of the house by whinlatter, which serves as a little “missing moment” from Beasts.

Quote: he loves her letters. no-one’s written to him since 1996, not since sirius. and now the funniest loveliest most magical girl in the world writes him five times a week. they sail through his window, like little guiding balls of light from forever ago, pure illumination. they're the best bits of his week, her letters, paper proof of her love.

she's lying to him, though. she keeps saying she's fine. he knows that's not true.

the room at the top of the house by whinlatter

Lyric:  You're hiding like a memory / Teasing like a girl I used to know

and

Quote:  all he wants to say is: gin, stop laughing a sec. stop lying. he wants to take the box of photos off her and put it on the side and hold her hands and say come on, stop this, tell me. he imagines crouching before her, asking: what's going on? what's up with you? and what did you mean, when you said it’d be ok, if i left and did christmas without you? did you think that’s what i want? paranoid thoughts: are you trying to hurt me? why would you not tell me the truth?

the room at the top of the house by whinlatter

Lyric: I panic as you try to disappear / I reach out with my fingers / And try to pull the letters back in line / But your words spin out of order / And the pounding in my chest is out of time / And I just want to speak

8. The Archer – Live from Paris // Taylor Swift

Notes: Forgive me, I still remember listening to Taylor Swifts first album in middle school and must include her in almost all my playlists.  I think this song fits ridiculously well, though.  Look at all the parallels!

Quote: You ask Ginny Weasley if she thought of herself as a child and see what she says. By her own description, she was a combatant. She was a soldier. She had her own war to fight. 

Beasts, Chapter 14: the vulture by whinlatter

Lyric:  I’m ready for Combat // I say I don’t want this, but what if I do?

and

Quote: …she can’t bring herself to pick up the quill and tell him. It’s so lonely up here. I’m so scared about this inquiry. I’m so scared I’ll let everyone down. I’m so scared you’re going to change your mind.

Beasts, Chapter 12: scarecrow by whinlatter

Lyric:  I've got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you

and

Quote:  She’s sat up in her bunk, cross-legged in her old Quidditch jumper, eyes scratching from lack of sleep. Under her bare legs, the sheets are still slick from the sweat she woke up in, retching and shuddering, kicking furiously against the bedclothes. Sleep: always the first thing to go, the first comfort to leave her when storms are brewing.

Beasts, Chapter 3: nocturnal by whinlatter

Lyric:  I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost / The room is on fire, invisible smoke

and

Quote: ‘You think they tortured you so badly you think they might have broken something in your brain. ’

‘That makes it sound loads worse than it is. I don’t think that is what it is – ’

‘Like Neville’s parents.’ 

Beasts, Chapter 11: reared by whinlatter

Lyric:  All the king's horses, all the king's men / Couldn't put me together again

Side B

9. Sick of Losing Soulmates // Dodie

Quote:  ‘I wasn’t lying. It wasn’t like that, it’s not like I was trying to lie to you, to get some kick out of it – ’ 

‘No. You just didn’t tell me anything at all. Loads better.’ 

Beasts, Chapter 11: hatched by whinlatter

Lyric:  Brave face, talk so lightly, hide the truth

and

Quote:  ‘All those endless letters to you, how were you ever going to feel like you could be honest with him? Having all that to deal with.’ Hermione looks exasperated. Crookshanks flexes his claws, as if to back her up. ‘You know, sometimes I think he forgets it’s not your job to drop everything and look after him.’

Beasts, Chapter 12: scarecrow by whinlatter

Lyric:  Watch how a cold broken teen will desperately lean / On a superglued human of proof

Basically, Harry and Ginny are both - Lyric:  I can finally see / you’re as fucked up as me / so how do we win?

10. Talking to Myself // Gatlin

Quote: […]there’s no letter. She’s not heard from him in ten days.

Beasts, Chapter 12: scarecrow by whinlatter

Lyric:  I got used to your voice / Like it was my own / Now there's kind of a void / I'm totally fine though

11. Fear of Water // Noah Kahan

Quote: She sits down on the bed, the weight of it all hitting her all at once. Puts her head in her hands, starts to cry.

[…]

‘The inquiry. The stupid inquiry. They’re going to do it in March. It’s - it's not a big deal, I don’t know why it’s all made me feel like this – sorry, I need to get some tissues – ’

Beasts, Chapter 12: scarecrow by whinlatter

Lyric:  These tears aren't some sweet response to tragedy / Today I can't say why they fall / Honey, it's all chemical

12. Summer’s End – Spotify Singles // Phoebe Bridgers, Maria Taylor

Quote: ‘How was your Christmas, Ginny?’

Her head’s pounding. Her ankles keep buckling in these stupid boots. ‘It was shit,’ she shouts back, over the the thudding of the music, the laughter and shouting, far-off smashing of glass. ‘How was yours?’

Beasts, Chapter 9: wintering by whinlatter

Lyric:  Well I can see that you can't win for trying / And New Year's Eve is bound to leave you crying

and

Quote: There’s [a photograph] of her, one she hasn’t seen before – […] Strange, to see her own eyes soften, the scowl fall away, as she looks at the boy behind the camera, watching a feeling she has only ever felt and never seen.

Beasts, Chapter 8: bones by whinlatter

Lyric: The moon and stars hang out in bars just talking / I still love that picture of us walking

Note: The voicemail in the beginning is like a little bonus for Ginny’s forgotten birthday in Chapter 10.

Additionally, I think the resounding chorus of "come on home" can be read in multiple ways, Harry wanting Ginny to live with him, Ginny wanting her mother to pull through grief, and even Ginny talking to herself, to "come home" to her own body, which is why it's on Side B, not Side A.

13. Shine – Acoustic Version // Anna Nalick

Quote: Ginny –The inquiry is DEFINITELY happening. […] You’ll be offered anonymity for any testimony you give because you were underage. Don’t take it. The others won’t testify publicly if you don’t, you’re the one who can tell them what really happened and to properly make them fucking listen. The time for sitting on the fence is over. I want us to tell the world exactly what happened, I want to bring them down, I want them to pay for what they’ve done to us. So can you start replying to our letters please??? – Michael

Beasts, Chapter 12: scarecrow by whinlatter

Lyric:  Isn’t it time you got over how fragile you are?

Note: Anna Nalick’s song is much more supportively encouraging than Michael Corner’s letter, but, alas, Ginny does not get perfect mentors, just friends and allies trying to muddle through as best they can.

14. Better Days // Menna

Lyric:  When I break in the same place /And I′ve made the same mistakes / Wonder if I'll ever change / Or my heart′s just meant to ache

and

Lyric: I know there'll be better days / Even when I don't know how

Notes: I really wanted an anthem that wasn’t a love song on this playlist, because while her romance with Harry is important in Beasts (because, after all, romance is important in real life) it’s not the whole plot.  Ginny gets to be a full person with dynamic friendships and allies and goals, and she ultimately decides to keep trying for the future in every sense – trying with school, trying with quidditch, trying with Harry, and trying with the inquiry – even when she’s not sure how any of it will turn out okay in the end.

Also, Menna is a fantastic artist!  She’s got a number of really great songs – I especially recommend Sex in Public, Dynamite, and Didn’t Peak in High School.

15. I’m A Man // Nathan Evans, Foy Vance

Notes: This was the first song that made me want to make a Beasts playlist.  In a reversal from “i, carrion”, I originally thought of this as a Harry song, but ultimately realized that it’s Ginny all the way.  Yes, the lyrics are extremely male-gendered.  But it’s Ginny’s song.

Quotes: The entire letter Ginny sends to Harry in Chapter 12 [feels too long to quote]

and

She reads through both copies of her statement again - one for the court, one for Harry.

Beasts, Chapter 14: the vulture by whinlatter

Lyrics:  I'm a man, therefore I'm proud / And I hide away all my fears and doubts / And I hope that you'll never find me out

and

I've been struggling, I've been hurt / Guess that's what I thought I deserved / I got drunk to try and pretend I didn't care / And now I'm calling you for a truce / Finally ready to tell the truth / I can face it as long as I am here with you

16. Orpheus // Sara Bareilles

Quote: [….] ‘Is all that true?’

She swallows, mouth like sandpaper, finds she can’t speak.

‘Ginny, I’m serious, what was he talking about?’

[…]

She looks over at Harry. His head is in his hands.

Beasts, Chapter 14: the vulture by whinlatter

Lyric:  You miss the world / The one you knew / The one where everything made sense / Because you didn't know the truth

and

Don't stop / Trying to find me here amidst the chaos / Though I know it's blinding / There's a way out / Say out loud / We will not give up on love now

Notes: Whinlatter’s story is still ongoing, so this last song is where I think the story is heading.  I wanted to end on a song of hard-won hope, of not everything being okay but knowing you’re going to work towards it. 

~*~

Lastly, I just want to say that reading Whinlatter’s work has been an absolutely delight, and I’ve had so much fun putting together this playlist. I hope you get some enjoyment out of it, too.

[ashotofogdensoldfirewhiskey]

Fire

She didn’t care what Cho Chang had been on about - Harry was an excellent snog. 

His lips were all soft, and sweet. He was just the right height so that she could pull herself up to meet them, and he had to bend down, just a bit, his hands pulling up at her waist or - more commonly - tangled in her hair. He liked her hair, she thought, seemed right obsessed with running his fingers through it. He smelled so good, all cedary and clean, and Ginny found herself breathing in the scent of him that he left clinging on her jumpers at inappropriate times, like in the middle of Potions. 

No, all in all, Ginny had no idea what Cho’d had to cry about, because if it were up to Ginny she’d skip all her classes and hole up with Harry somewhere on a quiet corner of the grounds just to make up for all the moments she’d wasted kissing blokes who weren’t him. 

NSFW below the cut!

But, after two weeks of stolen moments between classes, long walks on the grounds, lingering goodnights on the dormitory staircase, her heart singing, lips stained with the feel of his, Ginny was developing something of a complex. 

With both Michael, and more with Dean, Ginny’d had to track their wandering hands, had to keep half a mind on quickly calculating boundaries so that she could enforce them when they came too close. She’d gone some places with Dean, of course, but never too far, always fighting the little voice in her head whispering wrong. They’d wanted more from her than she ever had from them, and that had been fine with her, really.

But with Harry, she wondered if she hadn’t coveted some sort of cosmic karma, some unfortunate tip in the scales in the wanting department, because his hands weren’t wandering. They were solid and warm and sure, pulling her up against him, always, but never drifting toward hemlines or lingering anywhere lower or higher than her waist.

He kissed her tenderly. Sweetly. Softly. She tasted every single one on her lips for long afterward. But he never took it further, never deeper, never more. 

She was going to explode.

Now she was policing her own goddamn hands, trying not to show her cards that spelled out I want you in bright red ink, because what if he didn’t want her, too? What if this smoldering, flickering fire that he’d lit in her didn’t exist for him? What if this was all he wanted? 

Every day she swallowed more want for Harry than she’d ever felt for Dean, and he hadn’t even touched anywhere more daring than her cheek. It was humiliating. Vulnerable. Excruciating. 

As she slowly burned, she developed a new empathy for Dean. Wondered if she should offer him some sort of apology in the dawn of her enlightenment, but then thought better of it. 

That night, she and Harry had a rare window of time alone: Ron and Hermione had a prefect meeting, and Ginny had finished all the homework she had due tomorrow. She and Harry had secretly decided to take a detour up to the Astronomy Tower after dinner, bringing cups of hot cocoa along with them because it felt cheeky and date-like. 

The grounds sprawled below them as they leaned up against the stone wall, moon reflecting in the inky black waters of the lake, and yet nothing looked quite as good as he did, with his messy soft hair and lean forearms and hands she wished would just touch her already. 

“I smuggled a dragon up here once,” he said casually into the night, wry and witty like he always was, and she cackled, demanding the full story. He told her - about dragon eggs and invisibility cloaks and Charlie’s mates on their brooms – and she loved the way his eyes sparkled, the dimple he had in his left cheek that only appeared when he really smiled, like he did so often with her.

“Reckon Charlie’s mates thought we were mental, two little eleven year olds sneaking out in the middle of the night with a Norwegian Ridgeback.”

“Harry,” she replied, smiling. “You were mental.”

“Well, we couldn’t let Hagrid get arrested, could we?”

Ginny snorted. “You’ve got a very strange life, d’you know that?”

“Yeah.” His eyes softened when they landed on her. “Doesn’t feel so strange, with you.”

Ginny’s breath hitched in her throat. He couldn’t keep getting away with it, saying things like that to her. “Oh yeah? That a good or a bad thing?”

He was sucking her in with his gravitational pull, like he was a planet and she was that stupid moon floating out over the lake, trapped in his inescapable orbit. “Good,” he whispered, and then he was kissing her. 

Soft lips. The scent of cedar. Strong hands pulling her close, so that he surely must feel her hammering heart against his chest. Fingers lacing through her hair. Teetering, always, on the edge of more without deliverance.

The fire burning under her skin roared, singed her nerves so that she felt raw and exposed. Enough was enough. Ginny had always fancied herself brave. She was going to do something or she was going to burn alive trying. 

Ginny unwound her hands from where they were clasped around his neck, drawing them slowly down the lines of his chest. Slowly, she grasped at his shirt and began pulling it free from where it was tucked into his trousers with precision, so that he could have no doubt about what she was trying to do, could stop her if he wanted.

She felt his lips still on hers momentarily, and her heart was in her throat. 

But then he was pulling at her shirt, too - thank Merlin thank Merlin thank Merlin - and her hands were on the warmth of his back while he set her spine ablaze as he traced his lovely fingers over her skin. 

She deepened the kiss, tentatively brushing her tongue over his lips, and he responded eagerly, fiercely. 

Then, without warning, he was steering her, slowly rotating her so that he had her shoulders pressed up against the parapet. She sucked in a sharp breath at the feel of his body pressed against hers and kissed him more fiercely. His hands were certainly wandering now, slowly brushing up and down her back, caressing her waist, and tentatively lingering closer and closer to her bra. 

Deciding to remove all question from his mind, she extricated her hand from beneath his shirt and found his, tracing fire along her side. 

He froze immediately, clearly thinking he had crossed some invisible line that she was correcting, and he pulled back from her lips. She saw the apology in his eye, but she shook her head and held his gaze determinedly as she slowly, deliberately guided his hand up to her breast. 

For a moment they were suspended in time, breathing deeply, eyes locked, chests heaving. Then, he gently caressed her, muttered a muffled “Christ,” and then he was kissing her again. 

No longer sweet. No longer chaste. Frenzied, burning touches everywhere, breathy sighs between snogs, the delicious pressure as he pinned her more and more firmly against the wall. Ginny had the momentary wherewithal to search her mind for boundaries to enforce, realized she had none whatsoever, and was just lucid enough to think that’s a problem before his thumb brushed over her nipple and there were no more thoughts to be had. 

She could feel him, irrefutably hard against her leg. She was aching between her legs in a way that she’d never felt before, and without thinking, without even consciously deciding to, she rolled her hips against his. Harry groaned into her mouth, and she swallowed her own whimper.

This, finally, broke the spell, and Harry had the fortitude to pull back from the kiss abruptly. 

He rested his forehead against hers, breathing deeply, eyes closed. For several long moments they stood there, frozen, fighting to regain control of themselves while totally unable to separate - she, pinned against the wall, his hand on her breast, her mind having long ago taken a swan dive off the tower.

Harry finally opened his eyes and they were wild, dark and blazing and wanting. “Christ,” he said again, the Muggle expletive sounding irritatingly attractive on his tongue. 

Her heart was still hammering, the fire was now an inferno that had consumed all her insides, but at least now she knew she wasn’t alone, at least now she knew without a doubt - he wanted her too.

“Were you waiting for my permission, or something?” she breathed into the paltry space between them. 

Harry blinked. It seemed like he was having difficulty processing her question just now. Finally, he said, “What?”

“To touch me,” she clarified, feeling much braver now that the evidence of his desire was pressed up against her leg. 

Harry stared at her, his expression a muddled combination of amused, dumbstruck, and bewildered. “What, did you think I didn’t want to?”

“Well… yeah,” she admitted. 

This admission hung in the air for several hammering heartbeats. And then, he laughed. He leaned his forehead against hers again and fucking laughed, silent, breathless, shoulders shaking. Before she could admonish him further, his lips were pressed against hers again, less frenzied than before, but still firm and deep and wanting. 

He pulled back, stared her dead in the eye and said, “I want to. I definitely want to. Do I have your permission then?”

She laid her hand over his, still woven under her shirt and caressing her chest. “Think it’s a bit late for that, mate.”

And then they were both laughing. Harry slid his arms down around her lower back, and he pulled her up into a hug. She clung to him as they both snickered, giddy in the revelation that they’d both wanted this but been too afraid to have it.

Ginny was still on fire, but it wasn’t so terrible.

She hugged him closer, felt him press a sweet, soft kiss to her hairline, and she sighed happily.

At least she was warm.

[ginnyw-potter]

More than Quidditch

for @ginnystrophyhusband microfics, prompt: souvenir

“What do you mean that’s not what they meant when they asked to bring back a souvenir from vacation?” Ginny teased as she lay on the bed, wearing nothing but the sheet wrapped around her body.

Harry wasn’t wearing much more as he walked from the bathroom to the closet with a towel wrapped around his hips. He turned towards her. “I think they wanted something physical they can keep. This one they can’t keep.”

“The gift of a grandchild is as much metaphorical as it is physical.” She bit her lip teasingly as she slipped her leg to the side and used her hand to brush the sheet off it.

Harry seemed to have changed his mind about getting dressed—a good call from his side, Ginny thought—and turned towards her, leaning against the desk. “I thought we were taking a break on trying because of you couldn’t possibly miss the end-of-the-season game against the Stillgate Storks?”

“Storks,” Ginny repeated. “You see the irony?”

Harry snorted. “But really?”

She leaned on her elbows as she sat up a little, the sheet threatening to slip down her body. “My priorities changed.”

“You want this more than you want Quidditch?” He walked to the bed. “That is serious.” He got on it.

“It’s very serious,” she told him as he came face to face with her.

He pulled the sheet down to reveal her upper body. “Should I cancel our spa afternoon, then?”

“No!” She pushed his hand away. “It’ll be a nice break before I bring you back after dinner. Take your towel off.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He sat back up and pulled it off.

She lifted the sheet and he crawled under with her, immediately pulling her close. He smelled like soap and a bit of shaving cream lingered by his jawline. She swiped it away swiftly and pulled him closer, draping her leg over his hip.

“More than Quidditch?” he asked again. “More?”

Ginny pulled him closer. “Yes. Is that so hard to believe?”

“A little,” he admitted. “You really love Quidditch.”

She guided him to lay on his back and sat on top of him. He smiled up at her.

“Yes,” Ginny told him. “Very much more, in fact.” She kissed him. “So unless you have a really good argument…”

“I don’t.”  His hand slipped down her back and squeezed her ass. “I want it too and I aim to please my wife.”

She looked at him under her, hands ready to give her all the pleasure she could imagine and that’s all she needed today.

“You are rethinking the spa, aren’t you?”

She smiled at him. “Maybe.” She kissed him. “Maybe I just want your hands on me today…”

[ginnyw-potter]

Dress

@ginnystrophyhusband prompt: impossible

Harry followed her up to the hotel room. “No, that’s impossible. I don’t believe you have underwear on.” He eyed her dress again to confirm. “None.”

Ginny opened the door to their room and glanced at him over her shoulder. “I guess you’ll have to prove me wrong.”

He scoffed and closed the door. Ginny took her shoes off by the bed and he was quick to come up behind her and grab her hips.

“Time to find out,” she teased, pushing her ass into his front.

“This only convinces me more,” he muttered.

He quickly pulled the dress up as Ginny helpfully bent over just a little. He pulled it all the way up, revealing nothing but a cute ass and no panties.

She pushed back into him.

He moaned lowly, taking hold of her hips.

“I guess I owe you a galleon,” she said cheerily. “Unzip me, will you?”

She righted herself and he pulled the zipper down.

“I would have been absolutely shocked to find out you wore a bra.” His hands slipped over her shoulders and pulled the dress off them before tugging it down.

She turned around to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing herself up to him enticingly. “I knew you already had figured that one out during dinner.”

“Not as subtle as I thought?” he tried.

She smiled and shook her head. “It would have been pretty impossible to miss.”