“So, how do I look?” Ginny Weasley asked anxiously, as she looked at herself in the mirror.
Luna Lovegood sighed and looked up from the note she was reading to where Ginny was standing. “For the tenth time, Ginny, you look gorgeous,” replied Luna with a sigh. “Harry won’t know what’s hit him.” She smiled.
Ginny looked backward over her shoulder, and smiled at Luna. Luna was the only person that Ginny had told about her and Harry, a part of her felt guilty at not telling Colin and Dennis, as they were firm friends of hers as well, it just seemed that Luna would be more understanding.
“That’s the plan,” Ginny replied, as she lifted her hair onto her head, and held it up with a pin. “Up or down, Luna?”
Luna laughed, her long blonde hair flapping around her face. “Up. That was you’ll really be able to see your locket, and your hair won’t take the colour from your dress.”
“Can I have a look at the note again?” Ginny asked, but it was not really a question.
Luna nodded and stood up from the toilet upon which she was sitting; that was the problem with being in different houses, after classes has finished there were not many places that Ginny and Luna could spend time together, and even fewer places where Ginny could get Luna’s opinion on the dress robes she had picked out for the Hogsmeade dinner with Harry.
As Luna stood up and walked towards Ginny, the head of a girl floated up through the toilet seat, followed by the rest of her body. Moaning Myrtle was weeping loudly as she finished emerging from the toilet.
“Nobody ever wrote me a note,” Myrtle said sadly, her pearly face was wet with ghostly tears.
Ginny and Luna looked at each other and sighed, Myrtle was the other disadvantage of having to hang out in an out of order bathroom.
“Oh, Myrtle. I’m sure that’s not true,” Ginny said calmly.
That was the wrong thing to say.
“Oh, so I’m a liar, am I?” shrieked Myrtle, bursting into tears once again.
Ginny hastily worked to retract her comment, “No, no, Myrtle. Of course not.”
Myrtle cried even louder. “So you agree? Nobody would send me a note. Who would want to send a note to ugly, fat, moaning, moping Myrtle?” Myrtle promptly let out a loud shriek and dived back into her toilet, sending water splashing out from under the seat.
Ginny and Luna burst out laughing, they were used to Myrtle’s outbursts, as were most of the older pupils; occasionally a younger pupil would stumble upon Myrtle and then emerge from the encounter looking very shaken, it was not a nice experience to have a ghost cry all over you, and then splash you with water from the toilet.
“Anyway, here,” said Luna, handing Ginny the piece of parchment she had been looking at.
Ginny took the rolled up piece of parchment and unrolled it, her heart starting to beat a little faster as she looked at the curves of Harry’s writing, seamlessly joining into each other. Ginny giggled as the butterflies in her stomach started to fly as she thought thoughts that were most unsuitable for thinking whilst getting dressed in a toilet. Putting the thoughts out of her mind Ginny began to read the note.
Ginny,
We did it! We got him! Pettigrew is on his way to Azkaban right now.
We’ve decided to have a bit of a celebration tomorrow at the Three Broomsticks; all of your family should be there, as well as Remus and Tonks too. Make sure you dress smartly.
I’ll be arriving at the castle at 7pm to escort you there.
Can’t wait to see you.
All my love
Harry
“What time is it?” she asked when she had finished reading.
Luna pulled back the sleeve of her robes and look at the watch on her wrist. “Six-forty-five.”
Ginny felt incredibly nervous, she still was not sure whether or not it was a good idea to go, especially if Ron was there; she didn’t want a night out where she had to pretend to just be friends with Harry.
Luna was looking at Ginny as though she was a mildly interesting play. “What did McGonagall say about you going to Hogsmeade, anyway?”
Ginny swallowed; she had not yet asked the Headmistress whether or not it was even okay for her to leave the castle, she would surely be out past curfew, and Professor McGonagall was not the most lenient of Headmistress’. “I haven’t asked her yet,” Ginny said truthfully.
Luna’s blue eyes seemed to grow to twice their normal size. “You haven’t asked her yet? What if she says no?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping that I could sneak out without her knowing.”
Luna laughed. “That’s never going to work. You had better ask her.”
Ginny nodded and headed towards the door of the toilets, she clutched a hand to her locket as she headed out into the corridor.
The reaction was as Ginny had suspected, students were looking at her in shock, most of the boys could not take their eyes off of her - even Colm Lucas stopped and stared as he watched Ginny walk past him, resplendent in the veils of scarlet silk that adorned her body.
Now let’s hope Harry has that reaction, she thought to herself, as Lucas blinked stupidly at her as she walked past him.
Ginny headed through the corridors towards the Great Hall, where the Headmistress was likely to be, as it was still dinner time. After dismissing a number of awful attempts by awkward first and second years to talk to her Ginny arrived at the doors of the Great Hall, as she peeked inside she could see that the Headmistresses chair was vacant.
“Wow,” said a voice behind her.
Ginny felt like she was soaring as she turned to see Harry standing there, wearing his best bottle green dress robes, his untidy hair was still untidy, no amount of combing could change that, his green eyes sparkled, their colour enriched by the colour of his robes.
“Harry!” Ginny shrieked excitedly, and she ran towards him.
“Hiya, Gin, I missed you,” he replied, taking her in his arms and kissing her softly.
“I missed you too.”
Harry stared at into Ginny’s eyes. “You look…beautiful.”
Ginny could feel herself blush crimson, which must have clashed terribly with her dress she thought.
“Thanks, you scrub up pretty well yourself,” she giggled.
Harry chuckled with her, and took her hand in his, and he led the way towards the main gates of the entrance hall.
“Mr Potter, Miss Weasley?”
Ginny’s heart stopped as her and Harry turned to see Professor McGonagall standing behind them. “Where do you think you are going this time of day, Miss Weasley?” she demanded.
Harry looked at Ginny with interest. “Did you forget to ask?”
Ginny nodded.
Harry cleared his throat, and addressed the Headmistress, “We’re going to Hogsmeade, for a bit of a celebration. You see we managed to catch Peter Pettigrew last night and myself, Remus and Ron thought it would be a good idea to celebrate. You don’t need to worry Professor, she’s in good hands.” And he smiled at Ginny as he spoke.
McGonagall however, did not smile; she looked Harry up and down. “Mr Potter, its not that I don’t think you’re capable of looking after Ginny, but rules are rules, you know that as well as anybody.”
Harry allowed himself a small smile as he remembered his own rule-breaking days at school. “Professor, Ginny is of age now, and we’re only going to Hogsmeade. Surely you can make an exception this time?”
“Please, Professor?” Ginny pleaded.
McGonagall looked them both up and down again and sighed. “Oh fine, very well, not a word to anyone, Miss Weasley. Mr Potter, I expect her to be back at school by midnight at the very latest.” Then a smile began to crawl across her face. “I must say, you do make a fine couple.” And she turned on her heel, and walked back into the Great Hall.
“She’s right you know, Ginny,” said Harry, turning back to Ginny and smiling from ear to ear.
“About what?”
“We do make a fine couple.”
“Stop it, you’re making me blush again! We better hurry, we don’t want to be late,” said Ginny.
Harry and Ginny set off on the short walk towards Hogsmeade, as they passed through the rather secluded field that led to the village, Ginny remembered what she was supposed to ask Harry. “Harry?”
“Yeah?”
“Is Ron going to be there?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“Yeah.”
“Am I going to have to pretend not to be with you?”
“No,” said Harry, beginning to smirk as his one-word answers amused him.
“Well… why not!? Tell me!” laughed Ginny, even though she was a bit annoyed at Harry’s immaturity.
Harry stopped walking and looked at Ginny. “Because I told him the truth.”
Ginny gasped. “You told him… when?”
“When we were at the Malfoy’s.”
“When were you at the Malfoy’s?” Ginny asked anxiously.
“That’s where Pettigrew was hiding; we had to take Narcissa Malfoy in to Azkaban as well. I told Ron when we were there.”
“Was he okay with it?”
“Of course he was. He just wanted to make sure that I would always be there for you.”
Ginny smiled. “And will you?”
Harry smiled back at her. “Of course I will be.”
Ginny felt her eyes well up with happiness; he was really hers now, and he was not ever going to leave. Ginny drew him close to her and kissed him gently, he responded, meeting her kiss and putting more intensity into his, his lips soon left hers and moved down to her neck, Ginny moaned softly as Harry’s lips continued to work their magic upon her skin, while his hands were working their magic upon the zip on her dress.
At half past seven Harry and Ginny arrived outside the Three Broomsticks; they could hear a great deal of laughing and good-natured shouting coming from behind the door of the building.
“Looks like the party started without us,” Harry said, running a hand through his hair; he was still finding blades of grass in it.
“We shouldn’t have taken that detour then,” said Ginny, giggling madly and squeezing Harry’s hand.
Harry smirked at her. “That was your idea.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining.”
“Of course not, it was a very enjoyable detour.”
Ginny took a deep breath as Harry pushed the door open and led her through it. Hand in hand they walked through the door. As they entered Harry looked at Madam Rosmerta and pointed to a table towards the back of the building; she need not have bothered for as soon as Harry and Ginny had looked upon the table then they were weighed down as a crowd of people descended upon them.
“Harry, Ginny, so glad you decided to grace us with your presence,” sniggered Fred Weasley, clumsily grabbing hold of Harry’s hand and shaking it with vigour.
Harry smiled at Fred’s overexcited handshake; he had a slight smell of Butterbeer to him, Harry suspected that Fred, and George if his equally enthusiastic hug of Ginny was anything to go by, had been in the Three Broomsticks far long than the others.
“Harry!” shouted George, and he grabbed Harry and gave him a hug, while Fred shook Ginny’s hand, causing her to giggle madly.
“Hi, George,” smiled Harry, as he struggled to draw breath over George’s crushing hug.
After shaking hands with Mr. Weasley, Bill, Percy and having Fleur swoop down on him to kiss him on both cheeks, Harry felt exhausted by the time he got to his seat next to Ron and Hermione, who greeted Harry with enthusiasm, and were opposite Lupin and Tonks, who had her hair in her preferred bubblegum pink colour.
“Wotcher, Harry,” said Tonks, reaching over the table to shake his hand, and promptly knocking over a couple of bottles of Butterbeer.
“Hiya, Tonks. How are you?” Harry replied, as he quickly pulled his robes out of the way of the Butterbeer, before vanishing the spill with a wave of his wand.
“Oh, not bad, Harry, not bad. Nice spell work there by the way.”
“Thanks,” said Harry. “What have you been up to since you left the Ministry then?” Harry asked. Tonks had left the Aurors office soon after the fall of Voldemort.
“Not much to be honest with you, Harry.”
Lupin laughed. “Come now, Nymph. Tell Harry what you’ve been doing.”
Tonks blushed, but she immediately covered it up by screwing up her eyes and turning her hair a darker shade of red than the shade she was blushing. “I’ve been working on a reversal of the anti-Werewolf legislation.”
Harry looked at her, impressed. He would never have thought that Tonks would have turned her attention to anything like that. Still, he thought, when you are living with a Werewolf I suppose your priorities change.
Before Harry could reply however, he was joined at the table by Ginny, who was looking very flushed and out of breath, it appeared she had not managed to escape the barrage of hugs quite as quickly as Harry had done. Ginny sighed as she slumped into her seat, Harry put his arm around her and saw Ron stiffen slightly.
“Ron?” Ginny asked.
“What?” said Ron defensively.
“Are you sure you’re fine with this?” Ginny asked, pointing between Harry and herself.
Ron immediately loosened up and acted as though nothing had happened. “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Ginny smiled. “You tell me.”
Ron stuttered and stumbled over the words he tried to get out, eventually he relented, and simply smiled. “I’m happy for you two okay. It just took me by surprise to actually see you together again.”
Ginny smiled as she felt Harry squeeze her hand, she looked at him and saw that he was smiling as well. “Anyway,” she said, turning to face Hermione, “How are you, Hermione?”
Hermione looked up from her Butterbeer. “I’m fine thanks, Ginny. Just a bit preoccupied, that’s all.”
Before Ginny could ask why Mrs Weasley had talked talking to her. “Ginny, dear, I forgot to ask, how are your classes going at school? With all the excitement we’ve not had a chance to ask you and find out.”
“Oh they’re fine, Mum. Professor Flitwick keeps telling me I’m a natural at Charms. He thinks I could easily get an ‘Outstanding’ at N.E.W.T for it.”
Mrs Weasley beamed proudly at her daughter, then turned to Lupin, who was chatting animatedly with Ron. “Remus, are you going to return to the school now?”
Lupin turned from Ron, leaving him to try and join in the conversation that Harry and Hermione were having about Goblins. “Of course I am, Molly. I’ll be returning tomorrow,” he said, then added, when he noticed the look on Ginny’s face. “Don’t worry, Ginny. There isn’t that much to catch up on. I’ve already covered just about everything with the O.W.L and N.E.W.T students to enable them to get through the exams.” He smiled reassuringly at her.
Ginny smiled back and nodded her head, before turning to her father, “Dad, could Percy not make it tonight?”
Mr Weasley was deep in conversation with Bill and Fleur; they seemed to be discussing the possibility of grandchildren, so it fell to Mrs. Weasley to answer, “He wanted to come, dear, but he said he had a lot of work to do, the Minister is working him extremely hard. It doesn’t seem fair.”
“Oh. And Charlie’s back in Romania?”
“Yes…he tried to get some time off, but his boss yelled at him, said he’d already had too much time off this year.”
Ginny opened her mouth to reply by was distracted by Fred and George, who were taking it in turns to see who could turn the other into the most impressive canary.
“Fred, George, stop it!” hissed Mrs Weasley, looking mortified as the twins drew a variety of strange looks from the other patrons.
“Come on, Mum, don’t be a spoilsport!” slurred Fred, as he fell into a seat next to Mrs Weasley, and promptly grabbed her and gave her a huge hug.
“We love you, Mum,” said George, who had just returned to his usually human form, and had proceeded to hug both Fred and Mrs Weasley.
After Fred and George had been persuaded to sit in their seats and be quiet for a few minutes, and after everybody had enjoyed a hearty laugh at their antics, Ginny sat down next to Bill, Fleur and Mr Weasley, and was soon deep in conversation. Ron was talking with Lupin and Tonks, and was answering a lot of Tonks’ questions about how the Auror Office had changed since she had left, which, as Lupin pointed out, was not a lot, seeing as she only left nearly two years ago.
Harry, meanwhile, was talking to Hermione. “So how are things between you and Ron?”
Hermione grinned from ear to ear. “They’re fine, Harry, couldn’t be better in fact. I have no idea why we didn’t become an item sooner.”
He didn’t have a clue about you then. And that thing with Krum did nothing to help matters, Harry thought to himself.
“That’s really great. I’m happy for you guys.”
Harry opened his mouth to talk some more when Ron shouted across the table to Hermione, “Tell everybody the news!”
“No, Ron, not yet, shut up!” hissed Hermione, but it was too late, everybody had stopped what he or she were doing and were looking keenly at Hermione, who had flushed a deep shade of crimson.
Ginny moved from her seat next to Bill and Fleur and walked back to where Harry was sitting, she pecked him on the cheek as she sat next to him, both of them were watching Hermione, who was now on her feet and still bright red.
“Ahem. Well, as you know I was up at the school when Ginny got hit by that bludger,” Ginny winced and raised a hand to the back of her head as she remembered how much that it had hurt, ”And whilst I was there I was talking to Professor McGonagall. I mentioned that I was looking to move into teaching and if she would have any objection to me applying at Hogwarts. Needless to say, she had no problem with it, in fact, she was rather enthusiastic and she explained to me how she was going to have to step down as Transfiguration as the workload of that, couple with being Headmistress, is simply getting too much.”
“So?” said Fred, quite rudely.
“So…from the start of next term I will be teaching Transfiguration as Hogwarts!”
For a little while nobody spoke, all of them simply stared at Hermione, it was Mrs. Weasley whoever, who broke the silence. “Aren’t you a little young to be a teacher, dear?”
Hermione’s face fell, and for a moment she looked as though she might cry, however, she composed herself and spoke up once again, “…Well, it is true that Hogwarts have never had a teacher so young.”
“What about Har…?” started George.
“FULL TIME teacher,” hissed Hermione, George looked like he had just been slapped in the face, and promptly elbowed Fred, who had been laughing at him, hard in the ribs.
“Anyway, as I was saying,” Hermione started again. “I would be the youngest teacher they have had at Hogwarts. Minerva thinks that I am capable, and I know that I am. So there is no problem.”
“But…” started Fred and George.
“There is NO problem,” Hermione said, putting a great deal of weight behind her words.
“Well congratulations, Hermione. I think you will make an excellent teacher,” said Lupin, reaching forward to shake Hermione’s hand.
“Hear, hear!” said Harry and Ron, clinking their glasses together in a rather pitiful toast.
“I agree, well done, Hermione. Too bad I leave at the end of the year,” said Ginny, as she stood up and gave Hermione a hug. “Come on, let’s give her a round of applause!” Ginny said, looking at the other members of the table.
At Ginny’s request the Weasley family, Harry, Lupin and Tonks all clapped and cheered Hermione, Mrs. Weasley still looked slightly pensive about the whole thing, but she still joined in with the applause. When the applause and hearty cheering subsided, Hermione sat back down next to Ron, looking more than a little pleased with herself.
The next hour or so passed in a flash, a blur or laughter and merriment, at half past ten Mr. Weasley got to his feet, stumbling slightly as he did so, he had drunk quite a bit of Butterbeer after all.
“Can I have your attention please? Everyone? Anyone? CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE?” Mr Weasley shouted, causing most of the table to jump.
“No need to shout, Dad,” said Ron, who looked very pale, just like he always did when something made him jump.
“Well, if I could just have everyone’s attention?”
“You’ve got it, Arthur, now hurry up!”
“Now, Molly, don’t be like that,” Mr. Weasley said to his wife. “Okay, have I got everybody’s attention?”
“YES!” shouted the rest of the table, this time causing Mr Weasley to jump.
“Well, that’s better. Now, as I was about to say. I would like to propose a toast to…Oh for heavens sake what now?!” Mr. Weasley cried as the lights went out in the Three Broomsticks.
Assorted voices all said “Lumos!” at the same time. Nothing happened. No light became visible at all.
Suddenly Fred’s panicked voice rang out in the dark, “Its Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, it must be!”
Harry heart skipped a beat and he immediately searched for Ginny. “Ginny? Ginny!? Where are you?”
“Harry!” came Ginny’s frantic reply, “Harry! Help me! It’s Mal…” she screamed.
“Where are you?!” shouted Harry, smashing his kneecaps against the table in the darkness.
No reply.
“Ginny!” he shouted again.
No reply.
Then the lights came back on.
The Three Broomsticks looked exactly has it had done before, with the exception that the patrons were now looking very worried, and a number of bottles of Butterbeer had been knocked over and were running across the floor. But something else was different as well; Ginny Weasley was no longer in the building.
“Ginny!?” yelled Harry, as he searched frantically for his love.
“Where is she!?” roared Ron, as he prowled around the room, looking for her.
“She’s gone, my baby daughter is gone!” wailed Mrs. Weasley, who was looking unusually white. Mr. Weasley rushed over to comfort her, a grave expression on his face. He ushered her outside.
Fred, George, Ron, Lupin and Tonks all followed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley outside the Three Broomsticks to search the rest of Hogsmeade. Hermione was sitting very still; a shocked expression on her face. She was snapped back to her senses when a chair came flying past her left ear, courtesy of a furious, and worried Harry.
“Harry! Stop it!” she cried, as she watched Harry start flipping the tables of the bar over.
“Where. Is. She?” He yelled, each word coinciding with the flipping of a table.
Hermione cringed as another chair flew past her, smashing through the window of the Three Broomsticks, showering the ground outside with glass. Hermione had not seen Harry lose it like this in a long time, and to see him in such a state was frightening.
“Harry, calm down, maybe you go into the Ministry, and see if you can find anything out there.”
Harry stopped flipping over tables and glowered at Hermione, for a moment she thought he was going to yell at her some more, instead he nodded his head, turned on the spot, and disappeared, leaving Hermione standing alone in the empty, wrecked pub.
A/N - Chapter 17 down, Chapter 18 lies with my beta - enjoy!