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Ginny rubbed her eyes. “You want to what?” She wasn’t sure if she had heard him correctly. She even wasn’t sure what time it was. She had been asleep only moments ago and now…
Now Harry was standing at her doorway and looking like he’d stepped out of a nightmare.
Rough stubble lined his jaw, dark circles under his eyes. There was something about how his clothes dripped with rain, how his exhausted state sharpened his features that made him look vulnerable in Ginny’s eyes. This was a version of him she rarely saw. His soul was pressed dangerously close to the surface of his skin, just on the verge of spilling over.
“Harry?” She raised a hand to touch his cold cheek.
He took her hand in his and kissed the back of her knuckles. “It’s been a long day.”
Ginny pulled him in closer and the door closed behind him. One of his arms snaked around her waist, the other tangled in her hair. She could smell the night air on his clothes, taste the rain on his lips as they stumbled further inside.
Harry made a wounded sound when she pulled back.
“Is cuddling still on the table?” she asked. She slid her hands under his fraying jumper. “Or do you have something else in mind?”
It was after.
After they made their way to the floor with her legs hooked around his hips, after he found salvation in her touch, they basked in the afterglow.
Ginny curled into his back like a sleepy comma, her red hair pooling around her. She drew her fingers across his shoulder-blades, tracing out nonsense shapes as he relaxed fully under her ministrations. “See? I knew cuddling was still going to happen.”
“Mrph,” said Harry, agreeing.
Ginny watched him readjust himself on the floor, an arm bent behind his head, a pensive expression on his face. The haunted man from before had transformed into someone more at peace. His face soft in the dim lamplight, the steady rise and fall of his chest… She kissed his shoulder and felt one of his arms come around her.
“Thank you,” Harry said into her hair. “Thank you…”