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When they came to think about it, they realised that no one had actually seen the house before Harry and Ginny bought it. They certainly planned to, but training and work just got in the way. Besides, the pictures looked lovely and the location was great, they could always renovate if they needed to. They arrived at their mystery house at about 10am, new keys in hand and ready to start their new life living together.
‘I love the garden! I think I remember there being a small stream on the other side of it too!’ Ginny beamed as she looked round, thinking back to the loving but cramped Burrow, her years in dorm rooms and shared flats with the Harpies. ‘There’s so much… SPACE!’
Harry grinned back at her. Grimmauld Place had been a short stop over point, living with Ron and Hermione had been fun, but Ginny was right having their own house suddenly gave them substantially more room than either of them were used to. The sun shone down adding a happy warmth to the scene as they unlocked the door to their very first home.
Once inside they were both off in different directions, calling to each other from various rooms – ‘I think this one could be a library!’ ‘Oh my gosh, have you seen the kitchen!’ – Ginny had even sprinted upstairs to look at all the bedrooms and work out which one had the best view.
On returning downstairs to find Harry, however, she noticed everything was eerily quiet.
‘Harry?’
‘There’s a cupboard under these stairs.’
It was as though the windows suddenly blocked out the sun.
‘Do you ever wonder, Gin, why no one ever stepped in? I mean people must have noticed something wasn’t right, right?’
‘Yes, sometimes I wonder. What do you think?’ Ginny had learned, over the course of several years, that these questions were less about her answers and more about giving Harry the opportunity to talk and work through his emotions.
‘I think people must have known. I know that Dumbledore was aware, and Mrs Figg. I would have kept it a secret if she had been nice to me, it could have been at least some respite.’
Harry paused and reached out, gently touching the cupboard door with his fingertips.
‘I used to think people didn’t do anything because it was actually normal to have one child in the family that was treated the way I was. Then I saw that it wasn’t the case and people responded with shock or upset whenever I did mention something, and I worked out that it wasn’t normal. The worst part is that when I realised it wasn’t normal to treat children the way I had been, the only conclusion I could reach was that it was my fault. That I really was just a bad child and I deserved it all. Sure it wasn’t normal for good children to be locked in the cupboard or not fed, but clearly I wasn’t a good child.’
He choked towards the end of his speech and looked away from Ginny, though she could still see the light glitter off his wet cheeks. She moved and placed herself between him and the reminder of his childhood (if she could call it that).
‘Even if you had been the worst child in the world, you would still have deserved to be fed and cared for.’ Ginny stated firmly as she looked into his eyes, willing him to hear the truth in her words.
‘Yeah, I know that theoretically.’
‘One day, when this house has our children in it and we’re run ragged trying to keep our lives in any semblance of order, you’ll know it. Deep and certain, you’ll know that it was never, ever your fault.’
‘I feel like I’ll just have a different emotional crisis then about how they could have treated an innocent child the way they did.’
‘I’m sure you will. And when that happens, I’ll be here to help and so will all the other people in your life who love you the way you should be loved.’ Her hands reached up to wipe away the last of the wetness on his face.
He turned is face towards her hand and kissed her palm. ‘Sorry for having a breakdown over a cupboard.’
‘If I have to get the ‘Unnecessary Times to Say Sorry’ jar out again I will. I got such a lovely pair of boots with the money in the last one.’
‘Yeah, they were nice boots. But maybe with this one you could get some slinky underwear?’ Harry raised his eyebrows at her.
‘I take it your deep emotional moment is over then, since you’re goading me into buying lingerie?’
‘Yes, for now. Besides, all my favourite ‘deep’ moments involve your lingerie at some point.’
Ginny felt the heat of her blush as she snorted with laughter and gave his shoulder a small push. Taking his hand again she pulled him towards the upstairs of the house.
‘You haven’t seen the room I’ve decided is going to be ours. It’s huge!’
---
The next day was scheduled for ‘moving in’. They’d corralled most of the Weasley clan into helping them move boxes, as well as Hermione (for organisation) and Hagrid (for the heavy lifting). Harry had only managed to wrangle the afternoon off work, so Ginny and the others got started without him. He also used a small amount of time to fill in various bits of parchment-work for Floo connections and registering their new address for voting and owl delivery purposes.
‘Gin?’ He called as he stepped over the threshold, ‘why is there a muggle sledge hammer here?’
‘Oh, ‘Ello Harry!’ Hagrid’s broad, cheerful face popped out from the kitchen door. ‘Hang on there, fo’ a moment won’t yeh?’
Hagrid exited the kitchen and closed the door behind himself, enclosing himself and Harry in the quiet hallway.
‘Look, I know yeh don’t much like being talked about. But Our Ginny mentioned something to me – and only to me! – earlier, and I just wanted to talk to you for a sec.’
Harry groaned and rubbed his forehead. ‘Look, Hagrid, it’s fine, really. It was just a small moment and – '
‘No Harry, it’s importan’ fer me to say this as much as it’s importan’ for you to hear it. I shoulda done somethin’, when I found out what was going on with you as a bairn. I know Dumbledore, rest his soul, had good reasons for leaving you with them lumps, but there musta been something to be done to help yeh.’
Harry was already tearful again, looking anywhere but at Hagrid.
'You helped. Hagrid. You did. I… promise.’
‘I ‘ppreciate that Harry, I do. But I wanted to do something else then, and I hope you’ll be ok with what I wanna do now.’
Hagrid picked up the sledgehammer with one hand and offered it out to Harry. He nodded gently at the cupboard under the stairs.
‘G’won.’
Tentatively Harry reached out and took the hammer (with both hands, having learned a long time ago that just because Hagrid could do something with one hand didn't mean anyone else could). He looked darkly at the door beneath the bannister. It wasn’t the one that he’d spent his youth trapped in, but it would do.
Harry poured a lot of his hatred and anger and hurt into his swing. The cupboard door buckled immediately, ripping off it’s hinges and caving into the space behind it. He hit it again and again.
‘This was a brilliant idea Hagrid,’ Harry said, panting slightly from the effort.
‘Well it weren’t all mine, Our Gin has always been one to speak up or step in when there’s something bad going on.’
Harry considered this statement on Ginny’s character, thinking back to her vigilante justice during her 6th year, and all the times before that he’d seen her walk unafraid into the fray just to protect someone else or right a wrong. He’d known all of this before, but he loved her all the more fiercely for it all the same.
‘Don’t suppose you’re letting anyone else have a go?’ George’s voice called from the kitchen.
In turn, Ron, Hagrid, and Hermione – Harry’s found family – and the Weasley’s, Harry’s family by marriage and mutual affection, all took it in turns to remove the cupboard under the stairs.
---
‘Hermione wants us to turn it into a ‘reading nook’’ Ginny informed him casually later that evening, when everyone else had gone home and they were finally on their new sofa in their new, cupboard-under-the-stairs-less, house.
‘What on earth is a ‘reading nook’?’
‘I’m not entirely sure, she did make it sound quite relaxing and wonderful, but I suspect that’s just how Hermione would talk about any dedicated reading space…’
‘I want to fill it with photos. Of our family and our friends and all the good things in life.’
‘You know what Harry, that sounds perfect.’