#SEL is technically before IAL so this is answering the ask actually

[starlingflight]

i saw that tag!

BEFORE!

Okay... twist my arm, why don't you...

Deleted scene from Someone Else's Life below the cut. Picks up where chapter 14 left off(ish). Spoilers, obviously.

Ask game details here if anyone wants to send me more!

Harry collapsed against the pillows, angling just enough to give Ginny room to breath. A consideration that was more than fair, given the things she’d just done had made doing so a challenge for him.

For a precious moment their bedroom was still; filled with the sound of their mingled breaths. Harry tilted his head, eyes turning to Ginny, drinking in the image of her; eyes half closed, lips parted, chest heaving with the effort of regaining her breath. Absolutely, unequivocally alive.

Slowly, the red flush creeping down her neck began to recede and the galaxy of freckles that mapped her skin were fully visible once more. She looked at him from beneath her eyelashes; one side of her lips curved into a lazy smile. “Is my apology accepted?”

Usually, some witty retort would be waiting, poised, on the tip of his tongue to return to her, but the image of her, stiff and lifeless on the floor of St. Mungo’s was still stubbornly stuck in his mind, waiting to surface every time he took his eyes off her for more than a second. His fingers traced the line of freckles that dusted her collarbone, needing to feel the warmth of her skin. “Please don’t ever do that again.”

Ginny rolled onto her side, shuffling across the mattress until they were sharing his pillow; the tip of her nose was barely an inch from his. “The circumstances were slightly out of my control.”

A stray lock of hair spilled over her cheek. Harry pushed it back, watching the way her eyes closed at his touch. “It was the worst moment of my life.”

Ginny tried to smile again, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Technically, it wasn’t real.”

“It felt real.” His hand slid to Ginny’s waist, pulling her flush against him, banishing the memories that threatened to overwhelm him with the feel of her; whole, alive and unharmed in his arms. “It felt like an eternity – it took me forever to get to Owen’s office to get the nightshade. The stupid curse made me so slow.”

“What are you talking about?” Ginny frowned, crossing her arms over Harry’s chest and pushing herself up so she was half-laid across him. Her hair fell down around her face, enveloping them both in the floral fragrance of her shampoo, and blocking out everything but her. “I left you a bottle of Nightshade in my jacket pocket.”

“You what?”

“I left you a bottle of Nightshade in my jacket pocket,” she repeated. Her voice was calm, but her eyes shone with emotions too big for words. “I knew you’d follow me… Once I was gone, I knew you wouldn’t want to wait for the curse, so I left you some Nightshade.”

“How was I supposed to know that?” Harry’s fingers dug into her hips, clinging to her. His head was spinning from the revelation that he could have spared himself some of the interminable minutes he’d lived through thinking she was dead. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I put your wand in that pocket when I disarmed you,” Ginny said, voice soft in the quiet bedroom. “I assumed you’d find the bottle when you took it back.” -

“My wand?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Gin, I didn’t take my wand back.”

Her head tilted questioningly; eyebrows slanting together as her hair brushed gently against his shoulder. “You take your wand everywhere with you.”

“You were dead.” Harry’s tongue protested even speaking the words into existence, but he forced them out. His heart pounded erratically, despite how obviously untrue they were. “I didn’t care about my wand. I wasn’t – I don’t –”

Ginny’s fingertips stroked gently across his cheek. “It’s fine,” she murmured softly. “I’m fine.” Her head lowered, her lips brushing tenderly against his once, twice, over and over until Harry’s heart slowed and his arms relaxed around her. She pulled away, her forehead coming to rest against his. “I’m willing to admit there was a tiny flaw in my plan,”

Somehow, Harry managed a tiny huff that vaguely resembled a laugh. “That’s generous of you.”

Ginny’s smile was only more radiant for the memory of how sure he’d been that he’d never see it again. “I thought so.”

#hinny #harry x ginny #SEL #SEL is technically before IAL so this is answering the ask actually #pls don't question me