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Harry paced in his living room with his hair sticking out in all directions and an icy waterfall of fear cascading down his spine. He shook his head, trying to make sense of what happened. The day started normal enough….
Harry felt the warmth and tingles of Ginny spooned against him as the noise of London grew to greet the day outside. She turned and kissed his neck then sauntered to the shower while he watched her go.
“Love you!” Harry called as he rushed off to work.
“Love you! See you at the restaurant.” Ginny replied as she headed to the Prophet.
~~~~~~
Their favorite restaurant was an East Indian place. After they’d got their drinks and ordered, Harry asked, “how was your day?”
“Quite good actually, I think my Editor likes my piece on the potential fix at the Puddlemere/Tutshell semi.”
“Cool,” encouraged Harry. “Maybe you’d even get a raise!”
“Yes, erm… money,” Ginny set down her wineglass and looked at it for a moment. “I love that we’re engaged,” she gushed looking back at him.
“Ya, me too,” beamed Harry, but he noticed the down-curve in her mouth and took her hand.
“Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I don’t remember the next line,
But know I love you.”
Ginny smiled, “you’re a terrible poet.”
“But what was that about money? Ask me anything, I’m an open book.”
“Wellllll,” she stammered, “perhaps we should tell each other about our income and what not?”
“Fantastic idea,” replied Harry. Just then dinner was served and they tucked in.
~~~~
Coffee arrived and Harry said, “Erm… why don’t I go first? I’ve got about 2.3 million Galleons invested plus my flat’s paid off. I make 95K a year after danger-pay. Do you want any details?”
Ginny looked at him with huge eyes and her mouth hanging open. She closed her mouth, started to say something, stopped, tried again, then left.
Harry chased after her. He was briefly relieved to see her pacing outside the restaurant until he caught sight of her face. Her eyebrows were low over her eyes, her forehead was furrowed, and her jaw was clenched. She growled at him.
“Um, Ginny? What’s going on?” He asked, bewildered. “Are you possessed?”
She stopped and asked, “all those years you ate our food, stole our car… When the burrow was damaged by the Death Eaters because my parents took you in... How much money did you have, and how much did you give my parents?”
Now it was Harry’s turn for his chin to hit the floor. “I,I,I,” he stammered, “ er, I gave Fred and George my Triwizard winnings…think of all those Pygmy puffs.” It sounded pathetic even to him.
“I thought you were almost as poor as us growing up. Came from a muggle family that abused you, where would the money come from? You never seemed to spend much more than essentials for school and a few clothes,” she said.
“I thought about giving Molly some money, of course, she’s been like a mother to me. But I didn’t think they’d accept it,” explained Harry as he recovered a bit. “I thought you knew I was rich; knew and didn’t care.”
“Did you ask? Did you try?” She looked at him with tears in her eyes now. “I’m not sure you’re the person I thought you were Harry. I’m going home.” She started walking and was quickly lost in the crowd.
Harry went behind the restaurant and disapparated into his flat.
He paced as his mind tumbled through memories about growing up…. Draco’s comments to Ron all the time about being poor. In retrospect he realized that Ron was always in a foul mood for hours after those run-ins. Harry started to feel a crushing weight on his chest that made it hard to breathe. No, Ron wouldn’t have talked about Harry’s wealth with Ginny or anyone else. He certainly wouldn’t have asked for any. “But would he have taken money from me?” He asked himself.
“Of course you prat! He took the candy didn’t he?!” Replied the scrying mirror sitting on the coffee table.
“Shut it,” he replied, turning it over. “Candy isn’t new books or clothes,” he thought. But a creeping worry was starting to build when he thought about Pig, a gift from Sirius that Ron had accepted.
His mind spun back even further and he remembered being 12 and going to his bank vault with Molly while the rest waited upstairs. Recalled ridiculously trying to hide his own wealth with his scrawny body.
“Was it likely she told her family?” He laughed at the thought. “Of course not.”
“Was it possible my own embarrassment stopped me from sharing with my chosen family?” Was the unbidden and unwelcome thought that floated to the surface. “Nonsense, Molly and Arthur were proud, competent adults. They didn’t need or want help from a kid,” he said out loud, trying to sound robustly confident.
A muffled voice from the coffee table said, “you just keep telling yourself that.”
He remembered first meeting Ginny, when he was swimming in Dudley’s old clothes. “What else would she think other than he couldn’t afford anything better? That I was into Dudley Dursley cos-play?”
He checked the time and stopped walking. There on his wrist was Molly’s brother’s watch. His heart fell. He knew what generosity looked like.
Grabbing a broom he cast an invisibility charm on himself, kicked off his balcony and lost himself in the rush.
Harry owled Ginny the next day, asking to meet and sending flowers to her desk. They were from Professor Sprout’s side line and every so often would say things like, you’re beautiful, he really loves you, and, won’t you take him back?
It was a few days before she replied and Harry’s insides had twisted into knots.
They met at the Leaky Cauldron. “You know, the coffee’s gotten a lot better here recently.” Ginny said as a way to help get over the awkwardness.
“Err, well, I bought a stake in it a couple of months ago on the condition that they bring in a proper espresso machine.” Harry said, “you wanted transparency,” in response to her sharp look.
“And there’s that awkwardness back to 100%” Ginny replied
“Listen, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days.” Harry went on. “I can see how you might not have known about my money. And I can also see how I didn’t handle the whole thing very well growing up. If I could do it over again I would.”
“Well that’s a much more meaningful response than I got the other night.” She replied non-commitedly.
They sipped some coffee and were able to make eye contact again like in a normal conversation.
“Why don’t we lay all the issues related to money out on the table. Then figure out what to do about them?” He asked. “You start.”
Ginny nodded.
“You apparently had a lot of money when my parents were helping raise you. Did you give them any?” She asked.
Harry shook his head.
“Two, what are your values about money now? I’m not sure we should marry if we’re not compatible. I don’t want to be fighting about money for the rest of my life” Ginny said.
“To be honest, I’ve spent more time thinking about money in the past few days than since I first went to Hogwarts, got steady meals and knew I had enough to buy school supplies.” Harry replied. “I’d love it if you could help me figure out what my values are. My goblin financial advisor, Hrag, tells me to focus on accumulating more wealth.” He made puppy dog eyes at her.
That got a small half-smile.
“Don’t forget, I was kind of busy saving the world. There’s bound to be a few gaps in my education. I couldn’t exactly ask Voldemort for financial advice.” He dialed the puppy dog eyes up a notch to the absurd.
She laughed.
“So, um, what would figuring out your values look like? She asked, as the tense lines of her body softened a little.
“Hmmmm,” Harry said while frantically thinking. “What if we write a list of values and throw darts at them, then do something appropriate to the one that gets hit? Try it on like a pair of jeans at M&S?” He improvised. “Although we should start with generosity and asking Molly and Arthur about accepting an overdue gift.” He added.
“Err… I’m not sure if that sounds like fun or homework, but worth a try.” Ginny replied and gave him a look that melted his insides back into their proper place.
“So… since this is our first fight, can we go back to my place and try make up sex?” Ginny asked with one of her signature blazing looks.