Disclaimer: JK Rowling, God herself, owns these marvelous characters and their marvelous personalities!
Claimer: I own--*laughs* Oh, wait, I don't own anything!
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Title: Ready For What's To Come?
Time Period: Ron, Harry, and Hermione graduated from Hogwarts three years back, and went their separate ways. So they're about twenty, twenty-one.
Summary: Ginny and Harry have news to announce to the wizarding world...Will it bring their two best friends back into ties again, or simply push them further apart? Ginny and Harry fight to make peace between them all.
Shipping: H/G, and R/Hr later
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Ready For What's To Come?
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It was a warm Spring night. The moon was full, the stars shining magnificently in the velvet-like sky, and the grown couple who was treading the grounds of the Weasley home, weaving through the moonbeams and star light, talking merrily and enjoying one another's pleasant company. The night seemed, in a matter of words, magical beyond the power of imagination. Dew had begun to settle upon the grass, gently moistening his shoes, while whole-heartedly teasing her bare feet with soft chills. The branches of the trees were swaying, as if to a heart-filled ballad that only reached the ears of the lovers standing beneath.
His hand ventured into his pocket, caressing a mysterious item there that he dared not reveal at that moment. While this hand was busy, as was the other occupied, his fingers intertwined with hers. He could feel her soft and silky palm grazing against his own ever so gently, sending warmth through his soul and electricity up his spine.
Finally, as they were nearing a stone bench constructed by Arthur Weasley, the man turned to the woman, and bade her to take a seat. She complied, refusing to release his hand even as she sat and he remained standing. She looked at him curiously, as if trying to probe his mind with her soft blue eyes by judgment of his countenance.
He took notice of this immediately and with as much of his might as he could muster, strived to avoid her unspoken questioning. At last, she spoke.
"Harry," she began with concern, "what is it? Is something wrong?"
Her voice seemed to tinkle like a thousand gorgeous bells as he allowed her words to reach his ears and soothe his body as they always did. He smiled gently. "Nothing's wrong. In fact, it's all going quite right."
This, if possible, affected her facial features even more with striking puzzlement at his behavior. "What is it, then?"
"Listen, Love," he began, kneeling before her to look properly into her ocean-like eyes. "We've been together for ages, with nothing to tear us apart. We've had some sore spots along the way, yes, as every couple endures. But--Well, I suppose I'm rather bad at this sort of mushy thing--So I guess I'll be straight-forward. I love you, with everything I am." This inspired a slow, tender smile to reach her lips. His heart pounding now with nervousness and his brow becoming slightly more moist, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the delicate item, presenting it to her. At first she didn't understand, but then it seemed to dawn upon her, as she rose a tentative hand to her mouth in surprise. "Ginny Weasley--Would you marry me?"
It was like the moon suddenly shone brighter, and the stars suddenly dazzled with more excitement. The wind blew by more gently and the trees swayed to a faster beat. But nothing struck her as more extraordinary than his emerald green eyes dancing before her, with a mixture of love, admiration, and hope. She gently caressed the hand that he lay in hers, illustrating her tender feelings towards him and smiling through the unexpectant tears that she hadn't noticed were streaking her face. At long last, following her initial shock, she nodded. "Yes. I will marry you, Harry Potter."
The grin that came now across his face was unlike one she had ever witnessed before. It was as if everything for him finally made sense and was decorated with utter perfection, perfection even he could not manage to crack under the power of a hundred curses. He swept her into his arms and spun her around, both laughing with glee. He then set her down and they shared a kiss of love and wonder before making their way back to The Burrow.
Upon opening the back door and piling back into the cozy home, Molly Weasley smiled at the two from behind her cooking book, while Arthur also seemed to beam over his copy of The Daily Prophet. Both had grown in respectable age, beginning to find traces of the expected gray hairs and witnessing each of their children's growing and leaving of their long-time home. The home that had once been filled with the endless laughing and yelling and arguing, with a tinge every now and then of Fred and George's creations exploding from the upstairs bedroom and interrupting such precious scoldings, distracting either parent from their initial punishment and allowing the victim to scurry away to a safer refuge while Fred and George were blamed once again. The children had grown so beautifully that Arthur often found Molly in tears of joy, blubbering over something in regards to 'raising them properly' and 'no longer being able to watch them grow.' It was no small feat, really, to appropriately raise seven children of various credibilities and personalities, and the job was granted, just perfectly, to these two adults whose judgments and hearts were in the right place.
Harry could never have thanked them properly enough, despite how hard he may try. They were more like parents than his aunt and uncle had ever been, and The Burrow was more of a home than Number 4, Privet Drive. The Burrow was filled with kindness and gingerness, and the atmosphere of a loving environment. He could never find anything else to compare.
"Oh, hello, Dears, back from your walk already? That was short," Molly gushed, softly closing the cookbook.
"What do you mean, Molly? They were gone for nearly an hour--" Arthur was cut short when Mrs. Weasley indiscreetly set the book down--rather harshly--atop Arthur's fingers. He drew them back hastily, but nevertheless, kept his mouth shut.
"Yes, Mum," said Ginny happily. "It's lovely outside."
"Thank you again, Mrs. Weasley, for inviting us over for dinner," Harry added.
"Come now, Harry, must I tell you every time you visit that you may call me Molly?"
"Sorry, Mrs--Molly," he corrected, earning a swelling smile from Mrs. Weasley's lips.
Harry could feel Ginny's eyes on him, as if silently pushing him to announce the news. Why she was putting such a burden on him, he wasn't sure, seeing as they were her parents, and not his. He met her eyes, telling her all of this with his gaze, but she seemed to be persistent as ever.
"Mum, Dad," she began with a grin, and then gestured to Harry, "Harry has something to tell you."
Harry sighed and forced a smile. It hadn't occurred to him how the Weasleys might react to giving their youngest child away. But they had known and loved him for nearly half of his life, and, he concluded, should be properly ecstatic at the news. He looked upon their anxious faces with hope, silently praying that he was right in his assumptions.
"I've asked Ginny to marry me," he announced. As if for proof, Ginny raised her right hand to indicate the glowing gem upon her ring finger. Harry was, to say, quite pleased with their reactions. Mrs. Weasley squealed happily and rushed towards them, ambushing them with hugs and kisses and crying with mirth. Mr. Weasley dropped his paper onto the table in pure joy and stood, crying out, "Well, it's about time! Congratulations to the both of you!" He rushed over to join Molly, hugging and kissing Ginny as she had, and moving towards Harry. Harry put out his hand for a shake, being what he expected, but instead, Arthur pulled him into a fatherly embrace.
When the congratulations were over and everything back to semi-normal, the four settled into the livingroom in respective seating areas, Harry putting an arm around Ginny's slim shoulders.
"This is so wonderful," Molly repeated once again, rambling off ideas for the wedding, summoning various books over to her lap and thumbing through them for more suggestions.
Mr. Weasley was beaming at them proudly. "Wait until I tell the rest of the family, they'll be so excited."
Harry cut in. "Sir, if you could not tell Ron yet...That would be nice. I'd like to tell him myself."
Mr. Weasley nodded. "Of course, of course, understandable. When was the last time you saw him?"
Harry thought this through. It had been a while since he'd seen Ron or Hermione. The three had gone their separate ways, still managing to keep in touch. He was well aware, however, that Ron and Hermione hadn't been on speaking terms for years. He had never quite heard the entire story of why, though. "Last time I saw him...Had to be before he went over to Egypt to assist Bill at Gringotts."
"That was nearly three years ago," Molly explained rationally, in apparent surprise. "Does he owl you often?"
"Yeah, nearly twice a week," Harry reassured. Molly seemed much more relieved at this news.
"And Hermione?"
"I haven't seen her since she began teaching Transfiguration over at Hogwarts," Harry responded, realizing that this had occurred approximately three years ago, as well.
"Are she and Ron on speaking terms yet?" Arthur demanded, his tone indicating the ridiculousness of their spats.
"I don't think so," said Harry with about as much defeat as Arthur had had. He and Ginny exchanged worried glances. They had already assumed that Hermione and Ron would be in the wedding party, but hadn't stopped to think about how they were getting on.
"I'll visit Ron tomorrow," Harry vowed after extreme thought, softly squeezing Ginny's hand.
Harry fell to the ground, finding himself in a dark passageway lit only by torches lined in brackets down either wall of the tunnel. He straightened his glasses and recovered from this apparation, beginning to step forward towards the area he saw most light in. His path was blocked by a goblin, who had stepped in his way at the last moment. "May I help you?"
"Er--Yes," Harry said, still a bit surprised from this goblin's hasty appearance. "I'm looking for Ronald Weasley."
The goblin's face seemed to contort into even more distaste than it had previously shown. "What's your business with Weasley?"
"Tell him his best friend has come to see him, it's rather urgent, but not an emergency," he added hastily as conclusion, so as not to allow the goblin to startle Ron into a panic.
The goblin seemed to take this all into consideration, and then, at last, made a questionable gesture with his abnormally long fingers. "Follow me," he grunted, beginning to make his way towards the light, the direction Harry had been heading in. Traveling down the long passageway, Harry noted that the tunnels were very similar to the very ones he had ridden through on the cart before his first year, the tunnels that had led him to the vault he didn't know he had inherited from his parents.
Finally, as they reached the light, Harry found himself in a bright, large, marble room, also comparatively similar to the Gringotts he was used to. He found himself questioning whether Gringotts was made up of chains of several offices across the continent, and made a mental note to ask Hermione about it later, not doubting she'd read it in one place or another. Goblins were jotting numbers and figures down, and tending to mountains of gold and silver and bronze were being sorted into appropriate bags and boxes, weighting coins, everything Harry was used to seeing. Except, this location seemed to harbor far more wizards working alongside the goblins.
Then, he saw it. The distinguishable red Weasley hair. Not the right Weasley, though. It was unmistakably Bill, the oldest. He was wearing a scarlet and gold uniform that every creature in the room was wearing. However, Bill seemed to wear the outfit with a certain dignity, causing it to have the potential of becoming a fashion statement. Harry had always somewhat looked up to Bill, knowing from the first conversation that he was easily one of the coolest, most easy-going guys he'd ever talked to in his life. He was slaving over a large bag of gold; he then flung it into a cart and gave it a light tap. It went on its way into one of the many tunnels.
The goblin Harry had nearly fallen over in the tunnel led him towards Bill. He curled a long, gnarled finger in Bill's direction, summoning him over. The oldest Weasley wiped his brow of sweat, and squinted his eyes, as if seeing the wizarding guest wrongly the first time. With the doubletake, he realized it was indeed Harry, and sported a grin, rushing over to greet him.
"Hullo, Harry!" he spoke happily, grabbing his hand and shaking it vigorously. "Got Mum's owl just moments ago, she told me about you and Ginny, congratulations, mate! You're the right one for her." He then clapped a large hand on Harry's shoulder, nearly knocking the younger off his feet.
"Er, thanks," Harry said, a bit taken off-guard by the gesture.
"I suppose you're looking for Ron?"
"Yeah," Harry confirmed. Bill nodded and made a hand gesture to the goblin, speaking a string of Gobbledook, and waving him off politely, causing Harry to conclude it was his formal way of requesting he fetch Ron. The goblin bowed slightly in good manners, the nastiness still present in his countenance, and he traveled off. Bill turned his attention back to Harry.
"Mum told me in the letter all about how Ron and Hermione haven't spoken since you all went your own ways. Bloody ridiculous! You three are best friends, right? What's their problems? Ron was always stubborn, it doesn't much surprise me. I feel sorry for his future wife. He'll drive her over the edge with his tendency to stick to his ways...Blimey."
Harry nodded and voiced his agreement. Indeed, Ron and Hermione were both stubborn as mules. Which was part of the reason he saw them in similar lights. They would be perfect for one another, but, both too headstrong and proud to admit that they both saw it clearly. It had been first made most apparent to Harry in their fourth year, when he witnessed the large deal made from Krum and Hermione's friendship. Ron had held a strong grudge against Krum for ages following. However, there were instances sooner than their age of fourteen. In their second year, Ron had become most distressed over Hermione's petrification, overcoming even his biggest fear in order to save her: the spiders in the Forbidden Forest.
Bill was still saying something about Ron being 'an annoying but lovable little bloke,' leading Harry over to his work so that he could continue laboring while awaiting Ron's arrival. Bill gestured to Harry, as if requesting that Harry assist him in hauling bags of gold onto the next cart, which, Harry noticed, had appeared suddenly after the last had taken off. Bill hurled bag after bag into carts, while Harry tried thoroughly to so much as lift a bag. He was having a rough time sliding one of them up into the cart, sending his glasses askew, hoping for Ron's short arrival so that he could be excused from this duty. He couldn't have thought of it soon enough--Ron returned with the goblin, looking puzzled.
He had changed some, Harry noticed. His red hair seemed much more tame, and he'd gotten a haircut, which suited him nicely, as a matter of fact. He wore the same uniform as Bill, but didn't seem to wear it as well, and it seemed to oddly clash with his hair, much more than it had on the eldest Weasley brother. Ron had also grown a small bit stockier, no doubt from the exhausting exercise of heaving mounds of gold around day after day. Harry decided, from looking at Ron's newly developed muscles, that this job may not be too bad, and he could use a bit of a workout himself. Ron had his characteristic smudges of dirt here and there across the ivory skin on his face, which wasn't unusual for him. As if reading Harry's mind, he reached up just then to wipe detected dirt from his long nose.
"Oi! Ronald!" Bill called from their spot, waving his brother over. Ron spotted Harry, and did nearly the same thing Bill had done. He squinted in concentration, taking a moment to register, then broke into a large grin, hurrying over.
"Harry! How you been, mate?" he asked cheerily, sharing a brotherly hug with Harry.
"I've been grand, and yourself?" Harry replied, gesturing to Bill to excuse him from bag-hauling, silently grateful. Bill simply nodded in farewell as Ron led Harry towards a small tunnel.
"I've been splendid," Ron responded, coming across a door in the tunnel. He opened it, and Harry realized that this was a small office. There were a few moving wizard photographs on his desk. One from Hogsmeade, sixth year. He noticed, but kept to himself, that there was an untidy tear on the side of the picture; Ron had ripped Hermione out of the photograph. The picture version of Harry kept glancing to the right, as if puzzled at not seeing Hermione there any longer. Photograph Ron looked pleased though, trying to re-divert Harry's attention back to waving at the camera and displaying their sweets from Honeydukes.
Harry's eyes wandered around the remainder of the office, from the photographs to the paperwork, to the awards and achievements proudly framed and placed around the walls, which, Harry was pleased to see, where electric orange to match Ron's former bedroom at The Burrow. He also spotted a poster of the Chudley Cannons, Ron's favorite wizarding Quidditch team.
He glanced at the bookshelf, which harbored few books, seeing as Ron wasn't too keen on reading. And all the books that were there were in regards to Quidditch, and one thin volume about Gringott's, probably for reference if nothing else. The rest of the bookshelf held various things, such as letters and cards. From a small perch near the back wall, Harry spotted Pigwidgeon, looking quite a bit more aged than he had been when Sirius first awarded the owl to Ron.
"So, what can I do for you, Harry?" Ron asked, taking a seat at his desk, his position of importance and authority. Still grinning, he gestured to a chair before the desk, indicating that Harry was to take a seat. The standing man did so, clearing his throat. It was quite apparent that Ron was incredibly happy with his job. It made Harry quite pleased, really, to see Ron so proud of himself and his accomplishments. Harry knew that it was something Ron dreamed of, day after day, and that working alongside Bill was no damper. He and Bill got along marvelously, from what Harry had been told, and Bill treated him as a friend rather than a brother.
"I thought I'd drop in," Harry began. He cleared his throat once again and continued. "You know that Ginny and I have been dating for a while now..."
"Of course. Smashing couple, you two make," Ron confirmed, his smile growing larger with every second. He'd ripped open a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, offering Harry a handful. Harry smiled feebly, aware that he was probably turning slightly red at this compliment, accepting the sweets.
"Thanks," he muttered. "Well, Ron, I'm happy to announce that Ginny and I are getting married."
Ron dropped the box of Beans he'd been holding, causing them to spill and roll across the mahogany desk. Before Harry had time to react to the flood of sweets, Ron had leapt up and practically across the desk to shake Harry's hand in congratulations. "Bloody brilliant, mate! That's wonderful! How long have you been engaged?"
"Only since last night," Harry explained. It made him quite happy to see Ron react so joyously to this news, not knowing what exactly to expect from him previously.
"Splendid! I'm the best man, aren't I?" Ron said, as more of a statement than a question. He knew the answer, and Harry knew this.
"Who else would I ever pick?" Harry asked rationally with a grin. Ron gave him another brief hug of congratulations, and then something seemed to dawn upon him. His smile faded slowly.
"What?" Harry asked hastily, disappointed that Ron's excitement was wearing away. "What is it?"
"It's only..." Ron began, glancing briefly at the ripped Hogsmeade picture. "Ginny'd be asking Hermione to be her Maid of Honor, wouldn't she?"
Harry sighed, having been expecting this confrontation, but dreading it. "Listen, Ron..." But Ron had seen a lecture coming from far away, and sank into one of his chairs, looking sulkily at Harry. He's hardly changed a bit, Harry thought to himself as he witnessed this somewhat childish but distinguishable characteristic of Ron. "It's been nearly three years since you two have spoken. Isn't it about time to put an end to this childish rivalry?"
"You don't get it, Harry," Ron said, seemingly dazed, lost in his own thoughts. "You don't get it, at all."
"Why don't you explain it to me then?" Harry asked hopefully. Ron released a sigh of defeat.
"All right. Here goes..."
A/N: Please review with your thoughts, questions, and concerns! What's To Come: Ron spills his guts to Harry about the Hermione situation...Ginny has a similar talk with Hermione...