help (!) i'm still at the restaurant (and my mum won't leave me alone about it)
for jily week 2025 day 4: marriage of convenience
rated M
on ao3 here x
James’ staff never shows him any respect—and he means that in the most loving way—and sometimes it drives him up the wall. Yes, he knows that hiring friends sometimes leads to this, but who wants to work in a place with insufferable people he doesn’t like? His friends are cool, and they work hard, and he likes them a lot. Still, he wishes that they would stop laughing at him in this, his moment of great distress.
“I’m having a fake date here on Saturday,” he announces, “and none of you are to give me any preferential treatment at all!”
“We wouldn’t even if you hadn’t asked,” Marlene says, “but now I’m inclined to give you preferential treatment just to see you sweat.”
I Know the End (74829 words) by pheobesaphirra
Chapters: 5/16
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Characters: Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Sirius Black
Additional Tags: Violence, PTSD, Smut (eventually), childhood crush, Romance, A little longing
Summary:
Ginny’s life after her First year was very different than a normal witch would want. Having lost her connection to her magic, her parents had no other choice but to send her to a Muggle boarding school outside of St. Ottery Catchpole. Which was fine. She finished her A-Levels with high results, which was great. Finding a job was easy enough. Working for the local newspaper kept her fed and clothed, so that, too, was grand.
So why couldn't she feel anything beyond bland apathy or despondent anger at having lived a life so… stale?
Until one day as she leaves work, she clocks a familiar face across the street.
Harry Potter.
What was Harry Potter doing in the small town of Honiton?
“The fact that Harry Potter was going out with Ginny Weasley seemed interest a great number of people, most of them girls, yet Harry found himself newly and happily impervious to gossip. After all, it made a very nice change to be talked about because of something that was making him happier than he could remember being for a very long time.”
When Harry becomes the DADA professor, kids constantly ask him for an autograph, but he refuses, saying the only thing he’ll autograph is a detention slip. Eventually, though, he starts carrying around a stack of autographed pictures of Ginny, which he gives out when people ask for an autograph. It gets really popular, so he starts mixing it up with autographs from other people, mostly Ron and Hermione. But the students love it, so he adds more. Soon he’s giving out autographs from like fifty different people, including all the teachers at Hogwarts, and a bunch of other random people like Luna, Lee Jordan, Oliver Wood, etc. He even has some fairly rare ones from Krum and Fleur. It becomes a game in Hogwarts to collect all the autographs, like chocolate frog cards. Some of them are more limited edition than others, like signatures from all the ghosts (though Harry won’t reveal how he managed to get those). George starts to offer a discount at Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes (and a prize autograph from Peeves, who will only sign Bertie Bott’s scratch-and-sniff cards) to anyone who can prove they’ve collected the whole set. Harry provides him with up-to-date lists of autographs to check against. Every Hogsmeade weekend there’s a line of Hogwarts students in WWW’s Hogsmeade branch trying to get the discount.
At some point a seventh year comes up to Harry and asks for his autograph, but not as the Savior of the Wizarding World, but because they now have the autograph of every other Hogwarts teacher and want Professor Potter’s to go with them. Harry–trying not to tear up–agrees, but only in exchange for the student’s signature. He begins offering this deal to all departing seventh years, his autograph in exchange for theirs. He tells them it’s in case they ever get famous, so he can add it as a limited edition autograph, but really he keeps them all in a big binder just for himself, to remember all his students. (A couple times, though, when a students does become famous, he will contact them and ask if they’d like to be added to the game. So far no one has said no.)
When Teddy starts at Hogwarts he begins a black market autograph trade because he has access to a lot of the people Harry gets autographs from. Harry’s other three children proudly continue the trade when they get to Hogwarts. They’re all secretly aided by Ginny.
“and then what does she think’s going to happen?” harry muttered. “someone else might kill off voldemort while she’s holding us here making vol-au-vents?”
he had spoken without thinking, and saw ginny’s face whiten.
“so it’s true?” she said. “that’s what you’re trying to do?”
“i — not — i was joking,” said harry evasively.
they stared at each other, and there was something more than shock in ginny’s expression. suddenly harry became aware that this was the first time that he had been alone with her since those stolen hours in secluded corners of the hogwarts grounds. he was sure she was remembering them too. both of them jumped as the door opened, and mr. weasley, kingsley, and bill walked in.
i really do love that this is the first time they’ve been alone since breaking up at a funeral and two things happen in rapid succession:
harry, who has been tight-lipped & on edge abt The Plan for several days now, is so comfortable with ginny that he completely blows his cover bc dry, muttered asides to ginny are apparently muscle memory for him
they mutually transition from “that’s a life-threatening mission” to “we have to make out right now immediately” in the space of actual seconds
@ginnystrophyhusband Microfics July 12th Prompt: Muster
Hermione told him he was being ridiculous. Multiple times.
Since he hadn't been able to muster the courage to ask Ron if he thought it was a good idea, much less ask Ginny the question itself, he thought his fear was justified.
"It doesn't even mean anything until she comes of age!" Hermione had pointed out exasperatedly.
Asking Ron and Hermione had been easy enough—Ron had, after all, put down his and Hermione's names in return.
And he suspected the horcrux hunt was the last time he tried to dissuade his best friends from staying at his side. How many times had he done that over the years, only for it to be futile? When he likely wouldn't have survived without them anyway?
No. While he would always maintain that they would've been luckier not knowing him, the blank lines under 'Emergency Contacts' expectantly waiting to be filled did not cause the sullen resignation or the welling of grief for Sirius (not much, anyway) they once would have. Not when he knew he'd always have—couldn't get rid of—Ron and Hermione.
But there was someone else whose name he needed listed in it. Someone who he wanted desperately to be the centre and foundation of his new post-Voldemort life.
Even if she says no, Harry thought to psych himself up to it, she'd be at Hogwarts for the next year anyway. Maybe he could ask her again when she turned seventeen—but that was only in a couple months. He didn't want to be needy or pathetic.
Sure, they were together, but that had come with the promise of getting to know one another again, after a year apart and becoming practically new people after all they'd gone through. And yes, he loved her, but he'd also been told quite witheringly that that didn't mean he got to keep huge secrets from her or tell her what to do.
This was neither of that, of course, but still. . . . .
He needn't have worried about bringing the matter up, though, since Hermione's loud hints lost subtlety at a remarkable pace. As the deadline for the submission of the fast-tracked auror forms loomed on them, they seemed to make Ginny and Ron think he was dying.
"You. . . alright, mate?" Ron asked awkwardly after Hermione pointed out how the keeper who'd gotten bludgered in the match they were listening to would have family with him.
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"He just needs to talk to Ginny!" He shot her a betrayed look, which she answered with a pointed nudge of the chin.
Ginny gave a bemused look at her brother, before shrugging and jumping lightly onto her feet from the arm of the sofa they'd taken. "Orchard, Harry?"
"I s'pose," he muttered reluctantly, and sent another resentful look at his best friend before following Ginny out.
"So?" Ginny leaned against a tree and quirked an inquisitive eyebrow.
Harry took a moment to admire the way the white flowers framed her as he tried to muster up the words. Somehow 'do you mind getting owled or flooed when I inevitably get myself nearly killed on my new job?' did not seem particularly well-constructed.
"Ron and Neville and the others and I need to give in the Auror forms by tomorrow," he blurted out.
Ginny didn't seem surprised and merely hummed in agreement. "Yeah, I know Ron told Dad he's listing him and Mum as emergency contacts after you and Hermione. Good thing he didn't go to Mum."
Here, she sounded bitter and distant. Harry thought about the fragile and determined way Mrs. Weasley held herself these days and silently agreed.
He nodded. "And I wrote Ron and Hermione," he said.
"Of course," she said in her no-nonsense manner. "Though you know Mum and Dad and George and everyone else would love to be added, right?"
"I don't know about love," he muttered awkwardly. "But, uh. I was more wondering about ... you."
Her eyes widened with surprise and he frantically wondered if this was too early or serious, how he could brush this whole conversation off.
"But - I'll still be at Hogwarts!"
"So will Hermione," he pointed out.
"You really want me on the list too?" Her brow furrowed thoughtfully.
"Can't think of anyone I'd want or need more when it comes to 'emergency contact'," he said truthfully. "I think Andromeda would prefer it coming from one of you rather than an official notice."
He knew she wasn't too happy about someone as notorious as him being her grandson's godfather, and he agreed with the sentiment, though he refused to let it affect his interactions with Teddy.
"Not even Ron or Hermione?" She sounded teasing, but he could tell this was a serious question.
He considered it. "Them too," he said finally. "But they're inevitable - and you're. . . different, a bit. I don't know." There was a pause. "I just wasn't sure— I mean, being an Auror, it's dangerous, and you might not want to. . ." He frowned, frustrated with himself for not finding the words. "You know."
Ginny smiled, now. It wasn't that she was insecure about Harry's friendships, but it was always nice to be reassured, especially after the past year. It was one thing knowing Harry would want to be with her if he could and quite another knowing.
"I did say, didn't I, that I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting all the evil in the world?"
"I think you said Voldemort, actually."
"Yeah, that's what I said now too," she grinned teasingly.
"Well, reckon I'll stick to the low goal of the British Wizarding World only, but—" And now he gave the lopsided wry smile that had always caused Ginny's heart to skip a beat. "I suppose that's the general idea."
She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "And here you are, getting so worked up about asking obvious questions. Does not bode well, Auror Potter."
"I think it's quite fine when the answer isn't obvious, Ginevra," he mimicked her tone. He was smiling now, though, the tentative feeling loved one that always had her gooey.
"Don't be ridiculous," she scolded and tugged him in to kiss him.
(The only change that was ever made in the emergency contact list Harry handed in at seventeen was just a few years later, from Ginevra M. Weasley to Ginevra M. Potter.)
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