Ch. 16 – Epilogue

A/N: My thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed, commented and criticized this fic. My shout-out to Pettybureaucrat for the inspiration and enthusiasm for this, along with everyone else. It's most appreciated.
Harry and Ginny will be returning shortly in another fic, so stay tuned.

A/N2: My solicitors wanted me to inform the readers that they don't necessarily endorse the actions of Harry and Ginny, nor do I own copyright and IP on Harry, Ginny, or a brownstone in the West End. I do like fish and chips with vinegar but they don't like me. - DG

Harry tapped his wand on the knob to our residence. We were encouraged by the chilly wind blowing up the street to get quickly inside the brownstone. I ran in first before Harry followed. He locked and sealed it behind him.

Chimes were sounding from the parlour, greeting us with ten rings to announce the house.

"It's really that late? Wow."

I watched Harry hang up his coat on the rack by the front doors. His nice navy blue jumper, one we purchased from a shop in London, looked a little wrinkled from this evening. But I couldn't resist wrapping my arms around him, giving him a hug on his back. He turned in my arms and I felt like burrowing my face into the soft lambswool.

"Hey, what's going on?" I heard his soft words in my ears.

"It's really true, isn't it? We're really married."

Harry squeezed me tighter. "Say that again. I have no idea what you just said."

I pulled back slightly and looked at those pickled toad eyes I still love. "Everything just hit me at once. It's been a whirlwind 5 days, ya know? I just needed a moment to realize that it's not a fever dream or a moment of imagination."

"Nope, it all happened. I reckon it'll hit me again tomorrow and for many days following. You married me. Me, knobby kneed broken glasses, messy hair me. You could have picked anyone and yet you agreed to marry me. If anyone needs a moment to realize what has happened, I certainly do."

I stayed in his embrace out of sheer comfort. "We did this, didn't we? We actually eloped and got married and only just now told Mum and Dad."

"Barmy on our part, huh?"

I shook while trying to contain my mirth. "Completely mental."

I tightened my hug on him and I felt his face burrow into my neck.

"You didn't get dinner, did you, because I know I didn't eat tonight?"

"Nope. Mum and I were too busy rowing to do anything about it." On cue, much like my brother, my stomach grumbled. "Bugger this. Takeaway or do we ask Kreacher if there's anything in the cooling cabinet?"

"Takeaway from Leaky is fine. I wouldn't mind an order of Hannah's fish and chips."

I unwound out of his embrace and stepped to the fireplace. Nights like this are the reason we keep a takeaway order pad from Hannah handy. A few tickmarks on the parchment, a tap of my wand to turn it into an order, a pinch of Floo powder and away it went. I pointed my wand at the fireplace and started a regular one in there.

"She'll firecall when the order is ready."

I watched Harry settle in on his favorite chair and look at the now regular flames in the fireplace. I laugh to myself, knowing deep in my soul that marriage wouldn't change everything, just some of the fundamentals. Harry's still brooding and quiet.

I stood by the fireplace and watched his eyes grow darker in the barely illuminated room. If I didn't pull him out of his shell now he'd stay in there the rest of the night.

"What's on your mind, Potter?"

He looked up at me, looking a little lost. "We did this, we really did, didn't we? No fever dream of mine, no residual effects of getting a curse to the head of mine."

I sat down on the table across from his seat and took his callous hands in mine. "Yeah, I reckon if this is a fever dream then I'm in it too. But no, you've not gone around the twist or been cunfunded. We really eloped and got married and annoyed the fire out of my Mum for doing it." I took another breath. "But this doesn't excuse bad manners or means that I'm quitting Quidditch to get pregnant immediately or any of that silly traditional rubbish. We're still busy as hell and still have our lives to lead. We're just married now, and have other issues to deal with."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, like locking your Mum out so we can shag on the couch."

"I'm serious, Potter. Don't think I wasn't hurt by what you said. Being my husband now doesn't let you get away with calling me that name, got it?"

Harry looked away from the fire and saw the stern look on my face.

"I only forgave you because you eventually said why you were in a strop that evening. But this also means that you say that shit again and we're having it out, no matter where we are. Got it? I mean it, no secrets."

He turned to me and gave me a hard look. "You know I can't share much about work."

"But I'm your wife, and you can share a little more, right? You said so when you took your Oath. The same goes for Ron with Hermione. Spouses have more privilege than girlfriends and lovers." I pulled his hands to my lips and kissed the tips. "I don't want to know much of anything, just when you've been hurt or had a bad day or anything else that can help make our marriage work. No secrets and no hold backs: that's all I ask. I don't think I'm asking much of you, knowing those things about my husband."

Harry looked at me with those solemn fizzy drink bottle eyes. Bugger, if we weren't waiting on dinner. "Will you do that for me, talk with me first and not go running off when you get upset with me?" His voice was quiet in the dark parlour.

But I wasn't going to let him walk over me again.

"I will, but can you handle rowing with me, and not giving me the silent treatment and pouting about things? You know that bugs the fire outta me." There, I said it.

Harry started smiling and it turned into laughter. "Merlin, I never thought I'd see the day when we're acting like responsible adults. We're having a conversation I swear your parents wrote for us."

"Who says we're responsible adults? We did run off and get bonded and only had your best friends there. And I did argue with Mum while you and Dad went for a walk. Speaking of, what did you and Daddy talk about?"

The Fireplace flared from orange to green and Hannah's voice erupted through. "Y'all order dinner? It's terribly late."

Harry stood up from the couch and knelt at the fireplace. "Yeah. We had a long day and didn't get a chance to eat until now. What do we owe you tonight?"

"Five galleons will cover it. Anything left will go towards a future tab."

Harry fished in his pocket and pulled out the coins and handed them through. A paper sack full of hot fish and chips wafted back through the den. He pulled his arm out with the huge sack and handed it behind him.

"You need anything else tonight? It's rather slow this time of the evening, at least until the other places start closing up shop."

"Nah, we're good. Thanks Hannah. Tell Neville I'll see him tomorrow afternoon."

"Night Harry. Night Ginny."

Harry watched the flames turn back to orange before he locked the Floo for the night. "Finally, just us."

I pouted. "But Hermione was supposed to call."

"Do you really think that she's free this time of the night to call?"

I sighed and picked up my wand to summon dinner plates. "They're either rowing or shagging or Ron's listening to a replay of a match and Hermione is studying. Either way, probably not." I plated dinner and handed his over. A quick flick and the newspapers and sack were banished to the kitchen for later. "I'll clean up the kitchen in the morning."

We tucked into dinner and barely a word was uttered. "Anything else on your mind tonight, husband?"

It's strange still. But then we'd only been married 2 days after being engaged three months. I reckon I'll get accustomed to it eventually. Calling Harry my husband still hit me like a Bludger, maybe, someday.

"I reckon I'm tired tonight. I don't suppose we could skip the shagging for one evening. For some reason, my back is sore." Harry grinned at me. Maybe twice in a day was pushing his limits.

I laughed between bites of chips drenched in vinegar. "Sore? It's a good thing that Mum didn't tell me to take my jumper off and look me over like a midwife, just to verify I wasn't pregnant. Merlin's silk pants, she'd have seen all of the bruises. Explaining that would take a panel on the Wizengamot."

Harry chewed and talked at the same time. "Well, that's what you get for being so rough with me. I would have preferred sweet and tender to raw, violent fucking against that door, on the floor, and even in the shower."

I chewed the last bit of fish in my mouth before properly responding. "Well, I dunno about you but I certainly enjoyed this weekend."

"You enjoyed all that? I felt like a git being rough with you, like you begged me to."

I turned and put the plate behind me on the table and turned back to him. He was still eating his fish. "Well, I don't enjoy the rowing. But I also won't back away from it when it's something important, especially with you, and certainly now that we're married. But the energetic make-up/hate sex we had this weekend? Absolutely. This weekend was the first time I've really felt…. completely free with you. I admit that Riddle fucked with my head, and we've had our share of problems. But it was that unrestrained passion, that raw sex you show, that was so bloody hot. Just thinking about it now gets me randy."

Harry nearly spit out the fish he was chewing. "You're serious, not taking the piss tonight."

"No, dear, I'm not kidding. My brother isn't the only one with an appetite. Fortunately I prefer skinny boys with dark messy hair who, when I take his glasses off, can't see. It's almost as good as a blindfold on you. Throw in tying you up Saturday made it that much better."

"Ginny, is there something you're not telling me?"

I took the plate from his hands and put it on the table behind me. "We're married and I'd love to shag you rotten, as often as you are amenable. I get it that you're not comfortable out in public or even out of our bedroom. I also understand that sweet and gentle and loving is us, most of the time."

I shifted positions and knelt in front of him. Just looking at him was turning him on. And to think, I hadn't touched him yet, either. So I did. I put my hands on his knees and ran then up and down his splayed thighs.

"It's also the first time you've let go, given in, and held nothing back from me. This weekend, I think I saw the Harry I've been waiting to see for years. What I saw was the one who is broken, hurting, and still stumbling along wondering where the next problem is going to crop up."

I sat up on my knees and took his face in my hands. "You don't have to hide from me, not anymore. I'm not going to break. I think I proved that almost a decade ago. So be real, with me. If you're in a sulk, be in a sulk. But know I'm going to try and yank your scrawny arse out of it. If you've had a shite day, then tell me. If you're randy and gagging for it, I'm game too."

I leaned in close and kissed him softly before pulling back. If I get too close, even with his glasses on, he can't see me. "I married you, all of you. Getting married was only the first step. You needed security. You now have it. I wanted you, all of you. Now will you give it?"

I sat back on my knees and waited. Fleur was wise that way, counselling me that he needed time to make his own decisions. And she's right. He can be stubborn as a mule when pushed. But if you give him time and encouragement, he'll come around to what is being suggested.

"You mean all that? Really mean it?"

I looked up and saw his hands and how he was wringing them. I took them in mine and they settled down. "I do. I don't bond anyone on a whim, that's for sure."

Harry kept looking at the fireplace and everywhere else in the room.

"Look at me."

He did and saw the concern etched in his features. "How long did I wait for you to realize I was someone other than Ron's little sister?"

"Quite a while," he said sheepishly.

"And how much longer did you make me wait until we agreed to see one another, the second time?"

"Months," he whispered while looking at our hands.

"And how long did we wait to shag, out of a promise to my father?"

"Even longer," he said while looking at my chest.

"Up here, Potter."

He looked a little higher and saw my smiling face. "You made me wait entirely too long for what I've known I wanted since I was 10. Sure, what I've wanted has changed, but not my love for you. It's grown, breadth and depth and intensity, but it's still there."

I took a deep breath. He needed to know everything else, what little hadn't been shared already.

"Face it, Potter. I want all of you, cracks, bad days, pissed off, everything. Be real with me. If that means a hate fuck after a bad day at the office, just for you to burn off the frustration, I'm game. You're not going to break me. We've been through too much already to let the petty stuff wear us apart."

I pulled my wand and pointed it gently at his enthusiastic groin. I leaned forward and kissed him, starting on the forehead, then the nose, and finally his slightly chapped lips. "But if you call me a slag ever again, outside of sex with me, I will bat bogey hex you that the healers of St. Mungo's won't be able to heal it. Understand?"

Harry grinned. I stowed my wand once again. "I just wanted that clear going forward."

"So it's fine if I tie you to the bed and call you a slag?"

I winked at him. "Take me to bed, Potter."

I stood up from his lap and let him up. As I knew, he was excited by my suggestion. "Carry me up?"

He smirked. "I got a better idea."

He pulled me into his arms and with his wand in hand, apparated us to outside our bedroom door.

"But you did this yesterday."

"Oh I know. But I find that I'm not that tired right now."

I leaned back into the sheetrock next to the bedroom door. "Getting an appetite now for shagging now?"

Harry stepped right into my arms and thrust a knee between my legs. He took my face in his hands and seared me with a brutal kiss. "We're just getting started. We have a lifetime to get sick of shagging."

I reached behind me and found the doorknob. I turned it while he was peppering my neck with kisses. "Come catch me."

He ran after me and slammed the door behind us.