sometimes ginny wonders how the papers ever got away with it. with this idea that harry is somehow so full of himself he can hardly move for it, that he’s arrogant and unkind and flippant. she’s seen him almost crumble from self-doubt so many times it’s started to feel like some kind of sick joke. she can see him fighting that now, and it breaks her heart. he shouldn’t have to – shouldn’t have to question himself at every turn, shouldn’t have to wonder if he’s doing the right things. it breaks her heart.
❛ when have i ever demanded speed from you? ❜ ginny’s smile is warm, and only a little bit watery. even now, he’s got a whole new language to learn, a whole new set of rules. and ginny’s more than willing to spend the rest of her life making sure he has the space to do that. because it doesn’t matter to her if he can say it or not when she knows that it’s real. when she knows that he can feel it, and that he shows it in all the ways he doesn’t seem to think are as important. so if he needs the time, and space, to get the words right, then so be it.
she kisses the joke right out of his mouth, shaking her head. ❛ that depends, would you rather deal with the teasing now, or the berating when they eventually find out that we didn’t tell them? ❜ because either way, they’ll be putting up with something. but honestly – ❛ we can tell them whenever you want, ❜ because she’s prepared for whatever comes their way. it won’t be anger, won’t be upset. it’ll likely be gently, teasing ribbing, but even that can get tiresome after a while. she knows that.
but ginny realises she might just have stepped in it here, and pulls herself up a little bit, over him to lean in close and kiss him like that might help. ❛ that’s okay, ❜ because it is. it more than is. ❛ it’s…listen, i’m going to say all this and i just…want you to hear it and think about it, alright? i think, at some point in my life, in several years, i might want children. but i’m not firm on it, and i’m nowhere near ready to say ‘ let’s make a baby ‘ or anything like that. which means i’m not expecting you to say yes or no now, okay? i just…wanted to say it out loud. so you know. and so you’re prepared for when my mum inevitably hints at it. ❜
never . . . the. fact she had never demanded anything like that from him was one of the reasons he liked her so much. she only ever demanded the important thing, the things that made him better, but never forced him to move in the same way as the rest of the world. he knew ginny would wait for him to figure it out, knew that ginny would understand he was being honest when he said he wanted to. he’d always liked that about ginny, she saw the good in people, the truth in them. for that alone he’d do what he could to fulfil what she saw in him. ❝ I think you’re too good for me ❞ but he says it with a quirk of his lips, with his head tilting just slightly - not looking for pushback, just with a gentle humour that says he understands that she’s being honest, and he will be eternally grateful for it.
though that gentle smile turns into a grimace, head tilting backwards as he groans toward the ceiling ❝ the teasing, I suppose. I’ll do anything I can to avoid a berating from hermione. but I’m still not looking forward to it ❞. he knows she’s right. he can’t keep anything from them two anyway, but even if he wanted to, they had a way of needling these secrets out of harry. ginny he thinks can stand a little stronger, but harry’s had enough of secrets and lies. ❝ just lets not tell them before we decide what to say. we need to go in with some sort of plan ❞
he’d have liked to have kept joking forever - he had always enjoyed that with ginny, like the way she laughed, and the way she easily teased them out of him in reply. but he knows this is something he needs to focus on and his eyes draft back to hers, contemplative. he knows its own his fault that this had not occurred to him. honestly, so little about his future had ever occurred to him. the idea that he might grow old, or even out of teenage years, had never quite firmed up as a reality in his mind. and now he doesn’t know how to flick that switch in his brain, to make himself believe he can fill the future with anything more than just surviving the next day, week, year,
❝ I know - I didn’t want you to think I’m against the idea. I honestly just, never thought about it. ❞ some part of him, he thinks, never quite imagined himself truly, as someone who could have a family. as much as he loved the weasley’s, he wasn’t sure he’d ever shake that vague feeling of separateness that sometimes still arose. ❝ I feel like there is something I should say, but I honestly just - don’t know what. and I know you’re mum is going to ask, it’s fine, I can handle that - but I really don’t know what to think about it except that I want you to be happy - ❞