Taking Steps - H/G - R
Title: Taking Steps
Author: shocfix
Pairing: Harry/Ginny
Words : 3600
Rating: R for language

Written for hpgw_ficafest's second challenge.

71. Harry has fancied Ginny for some time, but has always held back because he wrongly believes Ron would not accept a relationship between the two. When Ron realizes this, he takes steps to bring Harry and Ginny together.

Betad by my darling magicofisis, who couldn’t find any hanging predicates this time!!


Taking Steps
****
They were sitting in the common room, trying to get some revision done for the upcoming NEWTs.

Hermione was reading her Arithmancy notes. She had her hair tied back in a messy ponytail, one strand kept coming loose and had to be tucked behind her ear.

Ron was supposed to be reading Transfiguration notes, but his eyes kept straying to Hermione’s bare neck, its usual covering sheet of hair temporarily tamed.

Harry wasn’t even looking at his Transfiguration notes. He was idly shredding a piece of parchment with nervous fingers as he looked out the window, towards Hagrid’s hut. He puffed out his cheeks and sighed loudly. Hermione frowned. Harry shook himself and slammed his books closed. Hermione tutted.

“Don’t tut, Hermione, I can’t concentrate today.” He looked out the window again, then shook his head and gathered his things together.

“Harry – we’ve another forty-five minutes,” she started, but Ron interrupted her.

“Leave him alone, Hermione, we’ve got a lot done this morning. And it’s nearly lunchtime.”

Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled at his earnest expression. “Well, I could see that you were working, Ron, but Harry…”

“I said I couldn’t concentrate, Hermione,” said Harry. “Just leave it, OK?”

Ron looked closely at his best friend and narrowed his eyes with thought. “I know what you need, mate,” he said.

Hermione snorted. “Go on then, go and fly before lunch. We have another study period after lunch, though.”

“No, not flying, actually. Shows what you know, Hermione.” He turned back to Harry. “You need a good snogging session.”

“Ron!” Hermione said, aghast.

Harry sniggered.

“What?” asked Ron, looking backwards and forwards between them. “He is just stressed, Hermione. It’d do him the world of good. Yeah – that’s the plan, Harry. You need a girlfriend.”

“I can’t just…”

“’Course you can,” said Ron, airily. “There must be some girl you fancy. Just ask her out, there’s nothing to it.”

They both looked at him, incredulously.

“Nothing to it?” asked Harry.

“Just ask her out?” whispered Hermione.

Ron’s ears went pink. “OK, I know I’m dense. I know it took me three years….”

“Four,” said Hermione.

“Six,” said Harry.

Ron flushed, but waved them away with both hands. “That’s not the point,” he said. “It just shows I know what I’m talking about. You said it yourself, Hermione, I was working hard all morning. Harry just needs to do some kissing.”

“Oh oh,” muttered Harry, sliding down in his seat.

Hermione’s eyes narrowed. “Ron Weasley,” she hissed, “are you saying that I’m just some sort of executive toy to you?”

“What?” asked Ron, backing away from her glare. “What’s that?”

“Just a toy you have around to relieve stress?”

“What? No! What? I just meant it’s nice to have someone to, um, unwind with?”

Harry sniggered.

“Oh, shut up, Harry, you’re not helping! Really Hermione, I didn’t mean that’s all you’re for. I mean…”

“I think you had better stop now, Ron,” Harry interrupted.

“No, really, I’d like to know what he has to say,” Hermione said.

Ron growled with frustration. “Look, all I meant was….”

Harry went over to the window to give them some privacy. He actually thought that Ron might have a point, but had, as usual, practically swallowed his foot whole when he tried to explain himself. He looked out the window and focused on what had distracted him so badly from his revision. The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw sixth years were in Care of Magical Creatures, and Hagrid was showing them a Unicorn. The boys were hanging back by the fence, as Hagrid beckoned the girls forwards.

Standing out amongst the blondes and brunettes was one flash of red hair. He craned his head to look closer, then reared backwards and almost trod on Ron when he felt his friend come up behind him.

Harry looked sideways at the glum redheaded figure. “Did you make up?” he asked, gingerly.

“Um, no. Not yet,” Ron replied. “She’s gone off to, um, to the library. Home. You know.” Ron slumped onto the window-seat.

Harry put a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder. “She’ll come round. Your heart was in the right place – even if your foot wasn’t.”

Ron snorted. “Yeah. Terminal foot-in-mouth disease. That’s me. No need to be scared of Death Eaters!”

“Yeah, but you’re right. You’ve got each other.” Harry bit his lip, nervously.

“Ha!” said Ron, turning on him. “I was right! You need to get laid!”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “Shall I tell Hermione you said that?”

“Fuck, no!” Ron squeaked.

“It’s not so much the, um,” Harry waved a vague hand, “OK, getting laid, like I know what that is like. It’s having someone. Someone who cares.” Harry grimaced.

“Wow,” smirked Ron. “I thought I was dating the girlier one of my best friends.”

“Ha ha.” Harry turned to look out the window again.

“What is so fascinating out there, anyway?” asked Ron, getting to his feet and looking over Harry’s shoulder.

Luna was sitting under a tree, with a Unicorn’s head in her lap.

Ron whistled. “Who’d have thought it? Luna can still tame a Unicorn.”

“Ron,” Harry admonished. “Luna is really nice.”

Ron’s hands closed on his shoulders. “How about Luna, then?” he asked right in Harry’s ear, and Harry could see him smirking out of the corner of his eye.

“Um, no, not Luna. You know she’d only go out with me to get closer to you.”

“Very funny, Harry.” Ron cuffed his head and they looked out of the window again.

There was some sort of disturbance among the sixth years. Harry saw Ginny’s bright red curls shaking as she tried to back away from Hagrid, but their genial giant of a professor took her tiny hand in his and drew her nearer to the perfect medieval tableau under the trees.

And the Unicorn got to its hooves and backed away from her. After a frozen moment, Ginny snatched her hand away from Hagrid’s and turned and ran back up to the school, leaving her classmates gaping after her.

Harry and Ron leaned forward to see her run up to the steps and disappear through the doors into the Great Hall, then turned to sit in the window seat and looked at each other.

“Um,” said Harry.

“Merlin, that has to be embarrassing,” murmured Ron.

“What?”

“What?”

“What happened to ‘someone has ravished my sister, he will die’?”

“What?”

“Are you just going to say ‘that has to be embarrassing’?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to do the whole furious big brother act you did when she dated Michael or Dean!”

“She was younger then, Harry.”

“Not that much younger.”

“And I wasn’t getting any.”

“What?”

“Well, it wasn’t fair that Ginny was dating before me. But now I’m with Hermione, and I know Ginny dates and I assume she slept with Terry last summer when she went to stay with him.”

“What?”

“Harry, what is your problem? Why are you doing the furious big brother act?”

“But you are always so protective of her. I though you’d never just accept her, well… that she could be… well…”

“Harry?” Ron frowned down at his best friend. “Look, Terry is a nice enough bloke, and they’d been together for months and they’re still friends now, even though they broke up at Christmas, but I can’t say I was thrilled. I mean he’s a bit boring – I really didn’t want him in the family. But I’m sure she’ll find someone better.” He gave Harry a rather shifty look through his fringe. “Are you sure you’re not interested?”

“What?”

“Don’t sound so offended – I think you’d be good together.”

“What?” Harry leapt to his feet and rounded on his best friend.

“You could do worse, Harry,” said Ron, indignantly. “What’s wrong with my sister?”

“Nothing,” Harry shouted. “Nothing,” he whispered. “She’s perfect.”

Ron raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Perfect?”

Harry slumped back down on the window seat and searched Ron’s face, anxiously. “Are you telling me you’d be OK with me and Ginny being together?”

Ron looked amazed. “Are you telling me you’d want to be together?”

“Only for about a year!”

“You’d want to be together for a year?” Ron frowned.

“No, idiot, I have wanted to be together for a year!”

“A year? Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

“Because I thought you’d flip.”

Ron snorted. “Me? You didn’t do anything because of me?”

“Yeah, you’re always so protective of her.”

“Well, I always wanted the two of you to get together.”

Harry opened his mouth but nothing came out, so he closed it and swallowed, hard. Then he opened it and tried again. “Me and Ginny? That’s what you wanted?”

“Yeah, of course. Who else would I want as my brother?” Ron looked concerned. “You really thought I’d object?”

“Yeah. I did. Your brother?” Harry smiled at him.

Ron ruffled his hair. “Of course, you git. Who else?”

“I wish you’d have said something, Ron.”

“Maybe Hermione’s right. Maybe we should talk about stuff more. I thought you knew what I wanted, and that you just weren’t interested.” Ron leant against him and Harry leant back, stunned.

“Fuck, I feel awful,” said Ron. “This is all my fault.”

Harry snorted. “We don’t even know if she’d have been interested,” he said. “Maybe it’s for the best.”

Ron sat back from him. “Are you a Gryffindor, or not?”

“Ron. You took six years to make your move on Hermione. Please don’t give me advice on asking a girl out.”

Ron waved that away. “That is so not the attitude we need now, Harry. Now, go and get the Map.”

“What?”

“The Map. Ginny hasn’t come back up to the common room. We need to go and find her.”

“Oh, no. Ron, no.”

“We have to see if she is OK, Harry. She was crying.”

“I so do not do crying girls. And neither do you. We should send Hermione.”

“Crying girls, no. But this is Ginny, that’s different – I’ve had her cry on me since I was a year old. Crying girls you have to comfort – crying sisters you can torment!”

Harry laughed. “Well, I’ll get you the Map, and you can go and see if she’s OK about the Unicorn thing. But you are not to mention me, right?”

“Of course not,” Ron scoffed. “You’re on your own on the courting thing.”

****
With the help of the Map, Ron tracked Ginny down to the Room of Requirement. Pushing open the door he was slightly wrong-footed to find himself in a replica of Ginny’s own bedroom, at The Burrow. Ginny was sitting on her bed, playing with a tattered old teddy and sniffing, but she looked up, startled, as she heard the door opening.

“What d’you want?” she asked, defensively.

Ron went and sat next to her on the bed. “Just checking up on my favourite sister.” He smiled, but she didn’t.

“What d’you mean ‘checking up’?” she demanded.

“I saw what happened in Hagrid’s class, Gin. I was looking out the window.”

Ginny flopped back onto her pillows and kicked him. “I do not need a lecture, Ron,” she muttered, grimly.

“What?” asked Ron, looking the picture of innocence as he skilfully avoided her feet and lay beside her on the bed, propped up on one elbow. “I haven’t come to lecture you – just to check you were OK.”

“Really?” she asked, doubtfully.

“I’m wounded,” said Ron, with his best earnest expression. “Why doesn’t anyone think I care about your happiness?”

Ginny frowned at him. “What have you done with my brother? My brother who lectured me about Michael, about Dean…”

Ron shook his head. “But you were so much younger then, Gin,” he said, seriously. “Not only was it my job to protect you, but it was very unfair for you to be dating before me.”

“What?” she spluttered.

Ron lay back on the pillows and she sat up to gaze down at him. “Surely you can see that’s unfair? My baby sister getting some before I did?”

Ginny wrenched the pillow out from under his head and thwacked him in the face. “You selfish sod,” she gasped, kneeling up to whack him harder.

Both hands out to defend himself, Ron laughed up at her.

“You insufferable git.” Thwack. “You insensitive arse.” Whack.

Ron grabbed the pillow out of her hands and hit her in the face and she sat back on the bed, winded and glaring at him.

Ron sniggered.

“It’s not funny, Ron,” she muttered.

He reached up and pulled her hair.

She jerked it out of his hand but grinned wryly at him. “You are an irritating bastard, Ron Weasley.”

“Well, you’ve cheered up a bit,” he wheedled.

“Haven’t.”

“Have.”

“Oh, Ron. In front of the whole class. Blasted Hagrid. As soon as I saw the Unicorn, I knew what would happen – why the hell does he show them to anyone above fourth year – it’s asking for trouble!”

“Girls should be able to get a note from their mothers,” suggested Ron. “‘Please excuse Ginevra from Care of Magical Creatures, as she has shagged her boyfriend.’”

Ginny gasped and moved towards him, fists raised.

“Wanna know a secret?” Ron asked.

Ginny narrowed her eyes and grudgingly said “What?”

“Swear you won’t tell?”

“Ron.”

“Ginnyyyyy.”

“OK, I swear. Now, what is it?”

“Hermione only went all the way because she’d given up Care of Magical Creatures after our OWLs. I’d still be waiting – and punching your boyfriends – if she’d taken it at NEWT level!”

Ginny’s eyes went wide as galleons. “No!”

“Oh yes. Can you imagine her if Unicorns came up in the NEWT practical and she couldn’t get near them?”

“But.. but they wouldn’t, would they? What would the boys do?”

“Not good enough for my Hermione. Sometimes I like to think she gave it up just because she wanted to sleep with me….” He leered at his sister, who snorted with laughter.

“Oh, you really think you’re that irresistible?” she giggled.

“It’s the Weasley charm,” he stated firmly. “And anyway. You’re cheered up now, right?”

“Right. Thanks Ron. But it is true? You didn’t just make it up because I was sniffling?”

“No. Absolutely true. Hermione’d kill me for telling anyone - even Harry doesn’t know.”

Ginny’s face fell.

“Now what? You’re not getting any other details of my love life.”

Ginny sighed. “No, you prat. I was just thinking of everyone gossiping about me running out on the class – and of Harry finding out.”

Ron’s ears went pink and he looked away.

“What?” she asked him.

“What?”

“Ron? You told Harry?”

“He was with me in the common room – we both saw it out of the window.”

“Oh, no! What did he say? No, I don’t want to know! Yes, what? Oh, Ron!”

“He was really rather odd about it.”

“Odd?” she whispered.

“Yeah. He was sort of furious on your behalf – plus furious with me for not going and punching someone. Kept asking why I wasn’t doing my protective big brother act.”

Ginny chewed her lip. “Was he shocked? About me?”

Ron looked thoughtful. “No,” he shook his head. “He was shocked about me. He thought I should be more upset. Then I used the line about you getting some before I did and he was too gobsmacked to go on. But you know what?”

“What?” said Ginny, nervously.

“I’d say he seemed sort of jealous. Not that you’d… well. Jealous of the guy. Almost like he fancied you, or something. How’s that for crap timing?” Ron tried rather unsuccessfully to look just vaguely interested. Luckily Ginny was freaking out too much to notice.

“Me? Ron, you have got to be kidding. Yes, that is horrible timing. Harry couldn’t. No. Dammit.” She grabbed the pillow and whacked him again.

“Hey! What’d I do? I just said that it was a shame, that, you know, it’s too late. You’re over him.”

Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “Who said I was over him?”

Ron gave her an exasperated look. “OK, one, Hermione said you’d given up on him, and two, you have had three serious boyfriends, and unimaginable amounts of sex!”

“For your information, Ronald, I gave up because there was no point in going on as I was. I was miserable and I was making a fool of myself. I had two long-term, but casual, friendly relationships. And then Terry, well, it was hardly unimaginable. Imagine once! And now this. Well, not that it would have made a difference if I’d still been pining over him. Except that I’d have looked like a complete moron by now. But what if he… Ron, are you sure? Did he actually say so, or are you just winding me up? Because if this is a joke, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” he interrupted her ramblings.

“I’ll tell Hermione what you told me about the Unicorns!”

Ron gasped. “That’s just not… I came here to help you. Look, about Harry. Yes, I am sure. He is interested. But he thinks it’s too late. There. And I promised him I wouldn’t say anything. So you had better do something pretty special with this information, or he’ll be furious with me.”

He stood up, and with one last tweak at her hair, strode from the room, leaving Ginny chewing her lip and frowning into space.

****
By both staying up in their dorms the next day and missing breakfast, they managed to avoid each other until Gryffindor Quidditch practise on Saturday afternoon.

Harry changed quickly and kicked off on his broom. Luckily, Ron didn’t insist on any warm up exercises, and he was soon up high above the other players, pretending to scan the stadium for the Snitch, but watching Ginny fly.

Her hair streamed behind her as she ducked under a Bludger and closed in on Ron in front of the Gryffindor hoops. He watched her feint her brother and score and he watched Ron’s half furious, half proud reaction as he headed back away from the goal.

What if he said something to her? Right. Like what? Hey, Ginny, I know it’s been seven years, but I finally fancy you? He shook himself and tried concentrating on the practise.

Ginny played the most intense practise of her life. She was still mortified by what had happened in Care of Magical Creatures, so she had to try to stop herself thinking about that. And then there was the Harry thing. Ron wouldn’t make up something like that, surely? Maybe she should say something? Right. Like what? Hey, Harry, seeing as you already know I’m a slut, how about we do it? She threw the Quaffle so hard at Ron that he nearly lost his grip on his broom.

Ron called it a day after two hours and they spiralled to the ground. Although they both clearly wanted to leave, he casually called out “Harry, Gin, help me with the equipment, will you?” and turned towards the changing rooms with the Quaffle under one arm.

They both glared at him, but each silently accepted a Bludger from Kirke and Sloper and followed him.

They walked side-by-side and caught up with him just outside the changing rooms, just as the Slytherin team came through the door, changed for their practise.

Malfoy’s eyes narrowed as he saw Ron, but flared open when he saw Ginny behind him.

“Well, well,” he sneered, “I didn’t think you’d dare show your face in public, Weaslette, not after everyone knows what a slut you are. Though I assume you do it for money – if you even know what that is.” There were sniggers from the team behind him.

Ron took a step forward but Harry was too quick for him. Putting an arm around Ginny, he pulled her closer and said, “If only he wasn’t in Azkaban, I’m sure that your father would have paid someone to sleep with you, Malfoy. But that doesn’t mean the whole world works like that. And what Ginny and I do is our own business.”

Malfoy sneered, but took a step backwards as he saw Madame Hooch approaching. “I should have known only you’d be desperate enough to fuck a Weasel,” he hissed and led his team away towards the Quidditch field.

Ron’s face was scarlet and his fists clenched as he whirled round to face them. Harry let his arm fall to his side and looked at Ginny, biting his lip.

“Sorry, Ginny,” he murmured, “I shouldn’t have said that. It’ll be all around the school now. I just thought it’d look better if you were with someone,” he blushed, furiously, “uh, not that there’s anything wrong with not, um…”

Ginny smiled, tentatively. “No, Harry. That’s OK. It was kind of you to stand up for me like that.”

“Oh, well, you know. What are friends for?”

Ginny raised her eyebrows. “Do you claim to sleep with all your friends, Harry? Does Ron know about this?”

He laughed, nervously. “No, I guess he hasn’t heard the rumours about him and me.”

Ron looked backwards and forwards between them and finally snorted. “OK. At this rate we are going to be here all night. Harry, do you fancy my sister?”

Harry turned to glare at him, but Ron nodded, so he took a deep breath and turned to Ginny and said, “I do.” Ginny giggled.

“And Ginny,” Ron continued, grinning widely, “do you still have feelings for Harry?”

“I do,” said Ginny, smiling, but flushing slightly.

“OK. So I now pronounce that you are boyfriend and girlfriend,” sniggered Ron. “You may kiss the, um, girl.”

Harry punched Ron’s shoulder, but Ginny stepped closer and nodded, encouragingly, so he bent his head and claimed her lips in a tender kiss, as Ron punched the air and yelled, “Yes!!!”