Fic: Thaw (Harry/Ginny)
To: biggrstaffbunch
From: jenadamson

Title: Thaw
Author: jenadamson (website)
Recipient's name: biggrstaffbunch
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Harry/Ginny
Warnings (if any): Abuse of the word 'and'.
Author's notes (if any): Thanks to C. and S. for the smashing betas. *hugs*


You dream of cold.

The night air presses in on you from all sides, dark and lonely, with only a smattering of fading stars to offer any companionship. Wind swirls angrily, as if reminding you that you are always unwelcome.

You fight for every painful, icicle-laden breath as you trudge through the thick, white snow blanketing the frozen earth. Moving, must keep moving. If you sit, you will fail, freeze, die.

Her face swims before your eyes. All cinnamon-heated eyes and too-pale skin, surrounded by a halo of hair like liquid fire. She’s laughing, the cold moonlight playing against her bare shoulders, and she whispers against your ear, turning your insides to ice.

You sigh and convulse and cry out. The stars have abandoned you completely.

*

Your teeth are chattering. You say the curse over and over and watched it whip and curl toward his serpentine eyes, blue and ice and cold cold cold.

But it never reaches him, only hits her square in the chest. And with it all promises of sunshine and warm, inviting yellow fade away.

All you have is white and white and white. It is bitter and hard and bruising. It is blinding.

You hear your name through the cloud of chill. See a flash of red, of fire, and reach out to grasp it. It is hot beneath your touch, and slippery, gone before you can wrap your hands around it.

You shudder one more time and slip completely into the frozen fog.

*

You dream of a fire in the distance. It dances red behind your eyelids. And you move slowly through a swirl of crystalline ice and wet, fat flakes. There is heat somewhere, out beyond the tips of your fingers. It dances on the wind and if you close your eyes you can imagine it kisses your skin.

But the cold is pressing in on you, stealing your breath with a winter that never leaves, and always, always the warmth is just beyond your reach.


*

You imagine you will never be warm again.

*

You open your eyes and shiver out of habit and move to pull the blankets laid upon you more fully across your body. Your limbs are stiff and numb. There is a window to your right, darkness cut by white moonlight, and fat, white flakes that drift slowly by. You ache and burn and for a moment imagine you must be dreaming. A fire crackles loudly.

Only then do you notice her next to you. She’s soft and sighs in your ear and sends a trickle, like hot liquid cream, down your spine. You shift to find her watching, and search out her eyes: brown, you can’t help notice, like dark, warm tea.

The smile that curls her lips is happy and full of something unfamiliar and warm. Firelight bounces off her hair, sending a prism of colour against the wall behind her. You shiver again, but it has nothing to do with the cool air that glances across your skin, and everything to do with the determined, wide gaze that’s leveled at your lips.

Her body radiates heat, as if a thousand tiny suns are within her, and you reach for it, for the warmth that burns against your fingertips. Her breath is sweet against your skin, and her mouth wide and wet. She tastes like fire, like something rich and inviting, like home. You graze your teeth against her bare neck, white like a column of ice, and she trembles, sighing into your open mouth as you nip and bite against her.

You melt against her then, letting your hands move on her warm skin, shedding clothing in their wake, desperate for the feel of her, hot and wet and heavy against you. Her giggles fall softly against your ears. Her hands dance against you, turning your numb, stiff limbs to liquid as she removes all traces of cold from your lungs, from your body, takes you deep into her candy mouth to leave your blood coursing like fire in your veins. She is flames, burning and hot and red and red and red as she maps your body with her tongue.

She slides up your body, laughing all the while, and leans over, whispering your name in your ear, sending sensation ping ponging through you. Her skin is soft as she rises above you, and she breathes, oh, as your hand rests on her bare belly. Yes, as your tongue presses her heat. You smooth your fingers along freckled, pale skin, letting your mouth follow, wet and ravenous, while she bends to your will, offering herself in supplication.

You push in hard, needing touch and skin as your lips fall where they will: a warm brush against her collar bone, her cheek, her eyelid. Your fingers find purchase in her hair and hold, never let go as you pound against her, as she falls apart beneath you, as she shatters like ice against the floor, her whole body suffusing with colour, lust-burnt brown eyes staring right into your soul.

You’re hot here, too hot, surrounded by a slipperytight fire that threatens to send you over the edge. You’re burning up from the inside, and you murmur incoherently against her skin, smelling the promise of spring on her as you finally shudder against her, red and orange bursting behind your eyes, and you combust, crush her and bruise her and let yourself seep into her, until you are empty and whole.

Her breath is warm against your ear, and you fall alongside her, letting the feel of her calming heartbeat send you somewhere soft. In the firelight, she is golden, like the sun, and her eyes, surrounded by spiky cinnamon lashes, crinkle when she smiles.

She relaxes on her side and watches you then, letting her fingers trail slowly up your arm. You smile, and feel your eyes slide shut as warmth and comfort settle within you. She brushes her lips against your hair line. “Are you cold?” she asks, moving to pull the blankets up around you.

You catch her wrist and curl your fingers against her. She moves willingly as you pull her up. You shake your head no against her skin, sinking into her warmth and drifting into a soft, dreamless sleep.