Title: Once Upon a Time
Summary: "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Ginny Weasley." Harry jerked, frowning. Ginny tells Harry a story.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing at all.
Author's Notes: Inspired by a Buffy fanfic.
It was a night for jubilation all over the wizarding world. Fireworks hissed and sang in the air and the witches and wizards generally made merry, drinking, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs to their heart's content. Voldemort was gone, the Death Eaters had been vanquished, and it was all thanks to Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and Dumbledore's Army.
In Hogstmeade, everyone was so busy celebrating, in fact, that they didn't even notice when Harry slipped away. Everyone, that is, except for one Ginevra Weasley.
Shaking her head, the dark-eyed witch trailed after him. The boy-hero retreated into The Shrieking Shack, slumping down onto a diplpdated couch, head between his hands.
Ginny rapped sharply on the doorframe, then stepped inside.
Harry looked up, flinching when he saw who it was. He and Ginny had never really spoken since Dumbledore's funeral, he hadn't known what to say to her, and she hadn't bothered to seek him out. "Ginny..."
"Wanna play cards?" Ginny held up a normal muggle deck and a bottle of firewhiskey.
"Huh?"
"Wanna play cards?" She repeated, holding back a smile. The look of confusion on Harry's face when she'd asked that question...He expected her to say something about his promise to her last year. Well, she would. But not yet. He had to get used to her again.
"Sure."
"Ok." Swiftly, Ginny moved to sit across from him. "Go Fish all right? I don't know anything else." The redhead smiled sweetly at him. That was such a lie, but he didn't need to know that.
"Uhm...ok." Harry replied, completely at a loss. Since when...Ginny was being really weird.
Beginning to shuffle the cards, Ginny spoke in a low voice. "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Ginny Weasley." Harry jerked, frowning. "Ginny wasn't a special girl. She was just like everyone else, really. Except for one thing. One thing, Ginny had, that almost no one else did. Do you know what that was, Harry?"
"What?"
"Love." Calmly, she dealt out seven cards each, then began to sort her pairs. Two Jacks, two aces, one two, one four, one king. A nice start to the game. "Ginny was loved by everyone in her family. And she loved them all in return. But that wasn't enough." She paused in her story telling. "Got any twos?"
"Huh?" The dark-haired wizard frowned. He certainly hadn't expected that.
"Any twos?" Ginny repeated herself patiently.
"Oh, no. Uh, Go Fish."
Chuckling, Ginny picked up a card from the pile. Queen of Diamonds. Damn. "Your turn." She prompted, smirking.
"Got any queens?"
Poking her tongue out, Ginny handed over the card. "But that wasn't enough." She continued. "Ginny wanted more. She felt...empty. As though there was something missing from her life. Perplexed, she asked her mother, Molly, what was wrong with her.
"'Oh, Ginny,' her mother said, smiling. 'Don't you worry. I was exactly the same. It's the Prewett blood. We constantly search for our soul-mate until we find them. I found your father in my fourth year.'
"The dreamy happiness on her mother's face made the ache in Ginny's chest all the more noticeable. She wanted so badly to feel that happiness." Ginny picked up the bottle of firewhiskey and took a swig, wincing slightly as it burned a trail down her throat. She handed the bottle to Harry.
"Thanks."
Ginny watched the way he tossed the alcohol back, the way his adam's apple bounced when he swallowed, and shivered. It wasn't fair that he had such an effect on her.
She coughed softly, shaking the blush from her cheeks. "And then, when she was ten, the most amazing thing happened. She met the guy of her dreams. He was perfect in her eyes. She didn't see what everyone else saw, the golden hero, the one who saved their world. No, she saw the scared, scrawny little boy, no bigger than she, for all he was a year older. She saw the intelligence and care in his eyes, and something that even he didn't know about, a thirst for love as strong as her own."
Harry flinched again, obviously unable to deal with this story. Seeing this, Ginny quickly changed tacts.
"Got any kings?"
Harry handed over the King of Spades. "Any fives?"
"Hum...go fish."
The green-eyed wizard took a card off the deck. "So what happened next?" He asked, taking a drag of the bottle.
"In the story?" Ginny carefully subdued a smile.
A short, sharp nod. "Yeah."
"Well, the boy, Harry his name was, went to Hogwarts and Ginny went back home to work on her drawing skills. The end."
"That's it?"
"You were expecting a happier ending?" Ginny teased. "It doesn't happen that way in real life. The rich steal from the poor, the guy chooses the villain over the girl, and the princess wakens from her enchanted sleep to find her entire family dead and the prince eating potato chips on the couch while watching the sports-" Her last word was cut off when Harry kissed her.
With a soft sigh, Ginny wiggled her arms out from underneath his and looped them around his neck. Harry tasted of whiskey and chocolate, and it wasn't the alcohol that was heating her stomach now, but him. Slowly, Harry pulled away, settling the redhead into his lap.
"But what Ginny didn't know," he said in a soft, warm voice, "was that Harry had seen the yearning in her eyes too, and it had struck a chord in him. And though he never admitted it to himself, he loved her just as deeply as she did him-"
"Whoever said she loved him?" Ginny asked indignantly.
"Artistic licence."
"Oh, ok. Go on."
"He loved her just as deeply as she did him. And he proved it, over and over again, while they were at school. Then, one night, just when he'd given up hope that she could ever return his affections, she came to him. With a sassy smile on her face and mischief in her eyes, she said the three words which changed his life forever.
"'Wanna play cards?'."
Laughing joyfully, Ginny pulled him close again, peppering kisses across his face. "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!" She shouted, the words ringing through the shack.
"I love you too, Ginny Weasley. I love you, too."
End