“Harry?”
“Yes, Ginny?”
“Why are we standing out here like prats?” Ginny asked, both annoyed and confused about Harry dragging them out of the room just to make them stand in the corridor.
“You’ll see,” Harry replied mysteriously, his face giving nothing away. When Ron had told him he was planning on proposing, Harry was elated, and he still was. The two of them had been through so much together, and they definitely deserved happiness.
“Are you even listening to me? You know I don’t like being kept in the dark about things! If you don’t tell me what the hell is going on I’ll-”
“Don’t worry Gin, everything’s okay,” Harry said soothingly, using the nickname Ginny had acquired a few years ago. Ginny would only allow a select few people to use the even shortened version of her name. Ginny glared at him, and Harry took a step backwards.
“What are they-”
“No more questions, please. Ron will explain everything,” Harry interrupted, getting slightly aggravated.
“Guys, come in!”
Harry smiled and opened the door slowly after he heard Ron’s voice. As he walked into the half lit room, his smile widened as his eyes fell on Hermione, who was sitting as close as possible to Ron. Ron had an arm thrown over her shoulder, and as Harry glanced at her left hand, he saw the diamond ring on her left hand.
“What’s going on, Harry wouldn’t say…” Ginny asked, her voice trailing off as she saw the massive soppy grins on the couples faces.
Hermione grinned and squeezed Ron’s hand. She looked at Harry, her eyes sparkling.
“We’re engaged!”
The reaction was immediate. Ginny leapt towards Hermione and grabbed her left hand, with Holly not far behind. Harry grinned at Ron.
“Well done mate, I knew you’d be able to do it! Congratulations!” Harry said.
“The ring is gorgeous Hermione! I never knew my brother had such good taste!” Ginny gushed.
Ron turned and stared at his sister with his eyebrows raised, not sure whether to take it as a compliment or an insult.
“Congratulations, I know you two will be very happy together!” Holly said happily.
Ginny suddenly lowered her voice.
“How did he propose?”
Instantly, the three girls knotted their heads together as if magnetically pulled, and spoke in much quieter tones. Harry looked amused and Ron raised an eyebrow as Hermione turned away from him to talk to the others, giving Ron back his arm in the process. But neither Harry nor Ron said anything to them, they learnt the hard way one too many times that interrupting ‘girl talk’ was strictly forbidden and would result in immediate jinxing.
“So are you alright? Did everything go as planned?” Harry asked quietly, even though he had no need to talk quietly. The girls were probably so absorbed in their own conversation that they wouldn’t even notice even if Harry started to talk on the top of his voice. Ron nodded and smiled.
“Yeah, surprisingly it did. Thanks for the help and ideas. Although I think I went very pale at one point because Hermione asked me if I was sick. Just before I proposed, I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to go through with it, all I could hear was ‘I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die,’” Ron replied, laughing.
“I can’t see why you were getting so worked up about it, it’s just Hermione,” Harry said. Ron’s face darkened.
“Only a man who has never proposed could say that, because one day, you’ll be proposing to the woman you love and you’ll suddenly realise how terrifying it is!” Ron replied seriously.
“It can’t be as bad as that, I mean you knew she’d say yes, right?”
“It’s not that easy,” Ron said simply. “You’ll see.”
The two of them fell into a comfortable silence, both of them not needing to say more. Harry had Accio-ed a few bottles of Firewhisky from the kitchen and the two of them drank them in celebration. They were both surprised about how much the girls were talking.
“You know, you’ll probably have little say about the wedding, Hermione’s probably planned half of it by now,” Harry commented, smiling. Ron glanced over at the three girls.
“I don’t think I really mind. As long as I know where I have to be and Hermione turns up, I’m happy.”
_________________________________
“I don’t know, maybe you should clip some of your hair up, what do you think Hermione- or for goodness sake, please stop staring at your ring for one bloody second!”
Hermione jumped and looked up guiltily at an annoyed Ginny. Even though it had been two weeks since Ron had proposed, she still couldn’t stop staring at her ring. (Which had unfortunately, caused her to bump into quite a few students while she was on the way to her lunch or back to class at Hogwarts.) She was still amazed that she, Hermione Jean Granger, was actually engaged. It was as if she was living a fantasy, like the life of one of the girls in the Muggle romance novels she secretly loved so much. Hermione could not believe that she was getting married to Ronald Weasley, the man she had once accused of having the emotional range of a teaspoon! How times have changed, Hermione thought happily.
Like the ring, Ron was her perfect match and she wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life with him. She smiled contentedly and thought back over the last two weeks. They were all improving slightly in the training sessions Holly was still leading; they were growing in confidence and skill. Harry no longer hesitated to practise fighting with Holly and they were always left exhausted with a good share of bruises each. They could scarcely believe that Holly was actually younger than they were, as she had natural leadership skills.
As Holly had predicted, Fleur had gone into labour the Friday before last, giving birth to a healthy baby girl who was named Victoire. (Ron was initially shocked, the name sounded too much like Viktor for his liking, but the moment he had set his eyes on his niece, it was all forgotten.) She had obviously inherited her mother’s beauty, her eyes were bright blue and she had a small tuft of strawberry blonde hair that had a unique shade of red to it as well. It was also extremely clear that the child would be spoilt rotten by her proud parents, loving grandparents and doting uncles and aunt. Within half an hour of being born, she had already turned all the men to putty and had them all wrapped round one of her tiny pink fingers. Fleur had insisted that all of her adorable daughter’s clothes had to be pink. She already had a lot of baby clothes sent from her family in France. Evidently, Fleur had been utterly convinced she was carrying a girl and had instructed her family to stock up on girls clothes. (Bill and Fleur had decided they wanted to wait until the baby was born, though it sounded like it was more Bill’s decision than Fleur’s.)
Ginny was currently helping Holly chose a hairstyle for Ron and Hermione’s official engagement party. Ginny had already taken the two of them out shopping for new dresses. (Hermione had taken Ginny Muggle shopping years ago and she had fallen in love with Muggle dresses) All of them were already dressed, Hermione had chosen a floor length dress in a pale blue colour that glittered as she moved, with a modest sized slit down either side of her legs. Her tamed curls were loose on her shoulders with a few strands clipped back out of her face. Ginny was wearing a halter neck, knee length, figure hugging dress with her hair half tied up and half left down. She was also wearing high heels. Holly was wearing a striking black dress that was a similar length to Ginny’s, and much to Hermione’s shock, it was backless. Her locket was displayed on her chest and every now and then, she reached up and fiddled with it. All three of them looked very different and very pretty.
“I’ve got an idea…why don’t you try changing your hair colour?” Ginny suggested, quite at loss at what Holly actually wanted to do with her hair. All she said was that she wanted to try something different.
“Sure, what colour do you think would suit me?” Holly asked, putting her hands on her hips.
“Try darker,” Hermione said, speaking for the first time in about ten minutes. Holly smiled and changed her hair to jet black with a blink of an eye.
“Oh nice! Very striking! It suits you!” Ginny complimented her. “But it makes you look slightly scary with that black dress.”
Holly laughed and pulled at a strand of her hair. Then she turned blonde, which looked so awful on her, that Ginny scrunched up her nose.
“No, that doesn’t look right at all! No offence,” Ginny said hastily after seeing the offended look on the blondes’ face.
“Why don’t you try…red?” Hermione asked after a moment. Holly looked at Ginny for a split second, then her hair became red, a few shades darker than Ginny’s. The two girls instantly nodded approvingly.
“That really suits you!” Ginny exclaimed.
“And the way it contracts with that black dress really works well. I like it,” Hermione said cheerfully. Holly grinned, then turned towards the mirror to look at herself.
“Also, I think you should leave your hair down, I think it looks better like that,” Hermione concluded, unconsciously tucking a curl behind her ear. Just then, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in Harry,” Ginny called out, not turning round. The door opened and Harry Potter walked in with a puzzled look on his face.
“How did you know it was“wow -you all look beautiful!”
Hermione beamed at Harry and hugged him.
“You don’t look so bad yourself,” Ginny replied, her eyes sweeping over Harry’s neat dress robes. Harry smiled sheepishly at Ginny; he was never really good at taking compliments. It was then that he noticed Holly’s hair.
“I didn’t know you had a twin, Ginny! Holly, is that you?” Harry asked incredulously. Holly laughed and nodded.
“We thought we’d take advantage of her abilities and try a new colour. It really suits her, doesn’t it?” Ginny said. It was Harry’s turn to nod.
“It really does suit you,” Harry agreed.
“Thank you,” Holly said cheerfully, tugging at a strand of her newly coloured hair.
“I’m so jealous, you know how much that would cost at the hairdressers or if you bought some of the hair dye?” Ginny said enviously, a small smile on her face.
“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never had to go to the hairdressers…I can just think the split ends off!” Holly said, batting her eyelashes. Ginny playfully pushed her.
“It never really works as well with glamour charms, or at least mine don’t…” Ginny said, trailing off her sentence as everyone stared at her. “Okay okay! I once tried to give myself brown highlights, but it didn’t work that well…”
“Oh, I remember that! It started to fade after a little while and went green!” Hermione laughed. Ginny turned pink.
“I was thirteen, Hermione! It wore off after, like, three hours anyways!” Ginny said defensively. Harry and Holly had collapsed in a fit of silent laughter that abruptly stopped when Ginny gave them a deathly glare. Harry tried to make his face serious, and when Ginny looked away, he caught Holly’s eye and smirked at her. A minute or so later, the two regained composure and Harry’s eyes fell on the backless part of Holly’s dress.
“Why have you choose such a…suggestive dress?” Harry asked uncertainly. Holly let out a short bark of laughter.
“Well, I’m not really one to wear dresses, but when I do, I like to wear something a bit different,” Holly said, shrugging.
“It’ll certainly catch people’s eyes.” Ginny smiled, looking at Holly almost enviously. “Not many people can pull off that type of dress and even less can change their appearance at will. You’re very lucky.”
“Why, thank you,” Holly said, taking a pretend curtsey towards Ginny.
“I actually came here to ask you whether you’re ready to leave,” Harry said sounding slightly nervous as he interrupted the two girls.
“Hang on a second!” Ginny said, rushing over to grab her handbag, and at the same time picking up a cherry coloured lip gloss that she quickly slid across her lips. Holly rolled her eyes as Harry stared, transfixed, at Ginny. A moment later, Ginny threw her lip gloss in his handbag and swung round towards the others.
“What?” Ginny asked as she caught Holly grinning.
“Nothing…Let’s go.”
Then the four of them left to join Ron downstairs. Ron’s dress robes were very similar to Harry’s, they had both bought their robes together a few months ago for special occasions. It was a simple black dress robe (with absolutely no lace) and an open collar. Ron was gaping like a goldfish out of water as his eyes fixed on Hermione.
“You look…wow…I mean…” Ron breathed, his eyes fixed on the blushing Hermione.
“I hope the ends of your sentences are good,” Hermione giggled, walking over to her fiancée and allowing him to wrap his hands around her waist. Ron swallowed.
“The best,” was all Ron was able to get out. Hermione smiled and then placed a lingering kiss on his lips. Harry suddenly felt a pang of loneliness as he watched his two best friends, and he wished that he could slip his arm around Ginny’s waist….
“Shall we go?” Holly asked, smiling at the couple. This time, instead of using Floo Powder to get to the Burrow, they were Apparating into a designated part of the garden. One by one, the three of them Apparated to the Burrow. (Ron and Hermione were quickly popping over to Hermione’s parents’ house to pick them up.)
When they all arrived at the top of the gardens path, Harry was delighted to see that the Burrow was as wild as ever. He was worried that Mrs Weasley would decide she wanted to clean the garden up in preparation for the party, but he was grateful that she didn’t. He loved the Burrow just the way it was; it was homely, like a house should be. Ron and Hermione had decided to have a small celebration, with only family and a few friends. Harry looked forward and smiled as he saw Mrs Weasley rushing over to them, her vivid red hair was tied back in a loose bun and she was wearing an old cooking apron with her wand poking out of the pocket.
“Oh you’re here, where are Ron and Hermione?” Mrs Weasley asked after she had given the three of them a warm hug.
“They’ve gone to pick up her parents,” Ginny replied. “They said that they’d meet us here in a minute.”
“That’s good, I haven’t talked with Hermione’s parents in a while. Arthur’s so excited, you know how much he loves them,” Mrs Weasley said, looking amused.
“I haven’t met Hermione’s parents before, what are they like?” Holly asked.
“They’re nice, I know where Hermione got her love of books from…Dad really hit it off with Hermione’s Dad. They must have spent almost an hour talking about Elektiky,” Ginny said. Holly laughed.
“Its electricity,” Holly corrected her.
“Sounds the same to me,” Ginny shrugged.
“I hope you’re all hungry, I’ve spent all afternoon cooking. Remus and Tonks are already round, so are Fred and George. Fleur, Bill and Victoire should be round soon and Charlie…should have been here by now,” Mrs Weasley said as she glanced at her watch. Harry chuckled as he heard what sounded like small explosions.
“You can always hear the twins before you see them,” Ginny said to Holly, who laughed.
Just then, there were two pops and Ginny jumped. Standing beside her were Ron, Hermione, and Hermione’s parents. Hermione’s father was a stern looking man with curly brown hair which had a hint of red in it. Hermione’s mother had short, wavy dark brown hair and was a good deal shorter than her husband, who was almost as tall as Ron.
“Oh, good afternoon,” Mrs Weasley said, sounding a little bit flustered. She then bustled over to the two of them gave them a hug.
“Thank you for inviting us,” Mrs Granger said.
“Oh, it’s no trouble at all, it’s Hermione and Ron’s engagement party after all,” Mrs Weasley said, smiling. Ron looking decidedly nervous around Hermione’s father. He kept shooting worried glances at him as if he would suddenly turn on him and tell him to stay away from his daughter. Mr Granger then proceeded to shake hands with Harry and give Holly and Ginny a kiss on the cheek. From the few times they had met Hermione’s parents, they had all realised that Hermione had got her brains from her father. Although he was just an ordinary dentist, her was an avid reader and spent many evenings discussing many different literature texts with his daughter. Hermione had also inherited her mother’s stubbornness and brilliant logic.
“I never really understood why Muggles, oww! Gerroff!”
Everyone stopped and stared at Ron, who was flailing his leg around and hopping around. On his calf, there was something small, ugly and vicious looking.
A garden gnome had decided to attach itself to Ron’s, sinking his teeth deep into his leg. Harry, Ginny and Holly instantly collapsed into fits of laughter.
“Stop-laughing-you-gits-and- help me get it off!”
Hermione and Mrs Weasley seemed to be the only ones who still had a straight face. Both of Hermione’s parents looked like they very much wanted to laugh, but were able to control their laughter to a more respectable (although abnormally large) grins.
“Stand still Ron, hang on…”
Hermione pulled out her wand, then looked hesitant.
“Oh please, if you make a gnome version of-ouch- S.P.E.W I might scream!” Ron half yelled, looking like he was in pain. Wincing, Hermione shot a spell at the gnome, who flew through the air at a surprising speed, making the sound of a balloon being let go.
“Oh, I hope its okay,” Hermione said as she watched it fly and hit the floor with a thump.
“Who bloody cares, that thing tried to eat me,” Ron grumbled, rubbing his leg and glaring at Harry, Holly and Ginny.
“Well maybe he liked the smell of you, thought you smelt tasty,” Ginny teased him.
“Shut up!” Ron said, his ears turning red.
“Are you alright? Do you want anything?” Hermione asked, looking his leg. Sensing that he could take advantage of the situation, Ron sighed dramatically.
“I guess I’ll live,” Ron said, putting on a face of fake modesty. Ginny rolled her eyes.
“They really are getting quite out of control,” Mrs Weasley said worriedly, looking at her son’s leg. “The garden hasn’t been properly degnomed in quite a while.”
“We’ll come round later this week or something and do it if you want,” Harry offered.
“We will?” Both Holly and Ginny muttered to Harry at exactly the same time.
“Oh, that would be wonderful dear! Ron, when we get in, I’ll put something on your leg so it won’t get infected,” Mrs Weasley said, smiling merrily now. Ron was still looking disgruntled and kept on looking at his leg. Then, much to Ron’s shock and horror, Mrs Weasley pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and rubbed a lipstick mark off his cheek, then (just to add to his mortification) his lips.
“Pink doesn’t really suit you dear,” Mrs Weasley said. She looked like she was enjoying embarrassing her son. In the background, Harry sniggered. Then Mrs Weasley turned away, sniffing as putting the handkerchief back in her pocket. Ron threw Harry a glare from behind his mother’s back.
“I can’t believe my little Ronnie’s getting married, it only seemed like yesterday he had just started to walk!” Mrs Weasley sniffed, turning round again and looking at her son through watery eyes. Ron fidgeted on the spot, half expecting his mother to add to his embarrassment. But it seemed that she was finished, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she turned to Ginny.
“I think that you should find yourself a nice young man for yourself, Ginevra.”
Harry swore that Mrs Weasley winked at him after she had turned away from her daughter to leave for the house.
___________________________________________________
The meal, or for a better word, feast, was magnificent. (Not that any of them expected anything less) When Voldemort was defeated, the Ministry had awarded special honours to the Weasleys to thank them for their considerable help in the war. This included a substantial amount of money, a lot of which was used on fixing up the Burrow. They now lived comfortably, although they were no way near as rich as Harry or the Malfoy’s once were, but were no longer poor and considered quite respectable in the Wizarding community.
Many people had complimented Holly’s new hair colour, which Ron only noticed about half an hour into the party when he thought that Ginny had changed her outfit and started to scold her for wearing such a revealing dress, only to then notice that his actual sister was chatting enthusiastically to Luna.
The evening went very smoothly, the twins only blew up a few things and turned only one or two people into something else. Though they did avoided ‘testing’ anything on Holly, as they remembered what happened the last time. Everyone spent a lot of the time cooing over baby Victoire, who, when passed to Ron, promptly filled her nappy with something evil smelling. (“What the bloody hell do you feed that kid? The stuff that’s coming out of her is dangerous!”) Ron had instantly turned slightly green and gave his niece back to her mother.
The guests included Luna Lovegood, who was now chief editor of the Quibbler since taking over from her father and spent much of the year travelling the country looking for a variety creatures, and Neville Longbottom, who was now a very successful Herbologist. Neville and Luna had also struck up quite a close (and seemingly unusual) friendship. Although Neville confessed that he found her alarmingly strange sometimes, he still valued her friendship and Luna had calmed down slightly since being closer with Neville. She had even stopped wearing her radish earrings and a variety of other unusual jewellery. Hermione spent a lot of her time with her mother, Mrs Weasley and Tonks talking about wedding details. Holly and Ginny had also been included earlier but Holly was kicked out when she suggested a naked wedding instead of all this fuss and Ginny started to get bored a while afterwards. Too much talk of frill and lace. Ron spent most of his evening trying to steal Hermione away from the wedding planners for a while and talking to Harry and his brothers.
As the evening progressed, they all settled down in the living room, where Fred and George gave an astounding display of indoor fireworks that amazed Hermione’s parents, and wrote out ‘Congratulations’ in glittery letters, which ended up whizzing towards the happy couple and encircling their heads twice. (Ron had ducked, automatically assuming that the fireworks were going to ram straight into his face.)
As enjoyable as the show was, Ginny suddenly felt uncomfortable. All around her were couples. Tonks was holding onto Remus’ hand, Fleur was tucked into Bill’s lap, Ron had his arms around Hermione’s waist, and even her parents were sitting close together, exchanging loving glances. She was all alone. Not wanting to sit there any longer, she quietly got up while everyone else was occupied with a story that Mr Granger was telling everyone about when Hermione was younger, and slipped out into the garden, unnoticed by everyone apart from Harry. The garden had a cool breeze running through it that bit into her bare shoulders and made her teeth chatter. She walked a few steps away from the house and then stopped, hugging herself and looked up at the infinite stars. She felt completely at peace at she gazed up at the never-ending sky, the millions of tiny specks of light. It was almost as if all of her problems had been washed out of her. Just looking at the stars made her realise something that she would usually forget, just exactly how small she really was. She was less than a speck of dust in relation to the world, to the universe, which, in a way, seemed to make her problems shrink. They were all so small compared to the universe. She was so absorbed in thought, she didn’t hear the crunch of footsteps approaching her.
“You don’t mind if I join you, do you?”
Ginny jumped as a familiar voice spoke to her. She turned away from the stars and looked at Harry.
“No, I don’t mind,” Ginny said quietly. Harry took a step forward until he was standing next to her. Ginny shivered, but this time, not from the cold. Harry’s arm had just touched her bare skin briefly.
“You’re shivering,” Harry said tenderly. He automatically shrugged off his cloak and draped it over Ginny’s shoulders. Ginny froze as the sudden pressure fell onto her shoulders, and she was suddenly filled with warmth and a smell that was utterly Harry. She couldn’t help but smile. Then she looked up at Harry and suddenly realised that he was a lot closer than she realised. His face was mere inches from hers, he was staring directly into her eyes. His hand was still resting on her shoulder.
“Is that better?” Harry asked softly. Ginny nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She felt like an eleven year old again with a hopeless crush on the hero Harry Potter, the girl who couldn’t so much as look at him without blushing. Now, over ten years later, that same person once again had her tongue tied. Only Harry Potter could reduce her to that.
“Why are you out here anyway?” Harry asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“To think,” Ginny replied after a moment. Harry was still gazing at her. The intensity of his gaze caused her breath to catch in her throat. Then everything seemed to move in slow motion. She was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to close the gap between them, to kiss him. She just wanted to touch his lips with hers again, to taste him once again, something she had yearned for, for years. The feelings she had for Harry were too strong, too deep within her, part of her. As if by instinct, Ginny started to move towards him. She would be kissing Harry Potter again….
“Ginny, where have you-? Oh no I’m so sorry! Did I interrupt something?”
Harry’s head snapped away from Ginny and he looked around for the source of the interruption. Hermione had stopped in mid-walk. Harry promptly removed his hand from Ginny’s shoulder. They both shook their heads even though both of them were thinking the exact opposite and were cursing Hermione silently.
“I’ll come back in a minute,” Ginny said, just about to stop herself snapping at her. She had been so close…Ginny then turned away from both of them. Harry frowned and went to walk back towards the house with Hermione, pausing only to give Ginny a lingering look. Ginny was left alone, like she was at the beginning.
Nobody saw the single tear that rolled down Ginny Weasley’s face as her heart started to break all over again.