Promises & Reunions

“Oh…hi, dad,” Ginny said awkwardly.

After Mr. Weasley’s initial surprise his face closed. “Ginny. Harry.”

He made to walk off, but Ginny reached out to him. “Dad, wait. Please…I’m sorry, all right?”

“Sorry?” Mr. Weasley stopped, his eyes resting on Ginny; he had the same expression of disappointment he’d had earlier that day. “Ginny, you’re our only daughter and we did what we had to to try and take care of you. You lied to us; you disobeyed, ran away and got married using a form of consent forged to look like I had written it. How long have you known I’ve been pre-signing documents for work?”

“Two years,” Ginny whispered.

“Two years. Which means that at some point you snuck into our private room and went through our belongings without permission.” Mr. Weasley’s jaw stiffened. “I could be sent to prison if the Ministry found out; you knew that, and you’re holding it over me so you can continue your farce of a marriage.”

“I’m not holding it over you!” Ginny insisted. “You know I’ll never tell anyone!”

“I don’t know,” Mr. Weasley said shortly. “I have no idea what I should expect from you now. I-” Ginny was shocked to see tears in her father’s eyes. “I always thought you were the least prone to rashness of any of our children except Percy. And yet you allow Harry to talk you into a fake marriage, just to get away from your mother and I!”

“Harry didn’t talk me into anything!” Ginny cried. “I chose! And I didn’t marry Harry to get away from you! I married him because I love him!”

A lengthy silence was broken by Harry muttering “Well, I guess we’re not keeping this a secret any more…”

“The name Harry Potter is on a marriage license on file at the Ministry,” Mr. Weasley said stiffly as Ginny looked around at all the people on the street who’d overheard her declaration of love. “I doubt it would have remained a secret for long.” He glared at Harry. “You saved my life, Harry; that’s the only reason I’m not revealing what you did to the Ministry, and to hell with what happens to me. Maybe Ginny did choose to marry you on her own, but all it means is that both of you betrayed our trust and affection.” Without another word, Mr. Weasley Apparated away.

Ginny’s face twisted up; Harry drew her closer, ignoring the stares and whispers around him. “Ginny, come on,” he said quietly. “I’m Apparating us out of here.” Ginny nodded shakily, and Harry squeezed her tight and Apparated.

They appeared in a dark cellar; only a thin ray of light coming from the nearby stairwell gave any illumination. “Wh-where are we?” Ginny choked out as Harry led her to a corner.

“The basement of Honeydukes in Hogsmeade,” Harry answered. “They’re closed now…I didn’t want to stay anywhere near Diagon Alley at the moment.”

Harry sat them down on the floor, leaned back against a crate and pulled Ginny close. Her tears were falling faster now. “Harry, I’m so s-sorry!” she cried.

“Sorry? For what?”

“I know you w-wanted to keep the m-marriage secret, and I blew it !” Ginny sobbed. “I was stupid enough to sh-shout it out in the middle of Diagon Alley!”

“Stop it, Ginny, I don’t care about that!” Harry insisted firmly. “I want everyone to know – I want to tell the whole world you’re my wife! I only wanted to keep it a secret because I was worried you’d be in more danger!” He raised Ginny’s head so she was forced to meet his eyes. “Now everyone will know, and it scares me so much I can’t even describe it; but at the same time I feel like- like it doesn’t matter, because at any time I might have been shouting it out myself.”

“Don’t you dare,” Ginny said with a weak laugh. “It’s b-bad enough that I did.”

Harry held Ginny while she cried a bit longer. He had been waiting for this since getting her letter agreeing to slip away and marry him. She wasn’t really upset about her carelessness in Diagon Alley – it had finally hit her what it was going to mean for her life. The damage she had done to her relationship with her parents went far deeper than she’d really believed it would; as close as Ginny was to her parents, it was no wonder the animosity her father had shown hit her hard.

“Part of me is sure that this will blow over,” Ginny said quietly when she got herself under control. “I’ve fought with mum and dad before, plenty of times, and it’s been bad…really bad. But we...it was kind of understood that nothing could be bad enough to be permanent. In the back of my mind I knew it was going to go away. But this doesn’t feel like that. I-I’ve never heard dad talk like that, not even about Percy. He’s always the one who calms mum down, and now-” A few more tears slid down her cheeks. “Now he’s as mad as her.”

“He’s not really mad…just hurt,” Harry said. “He really loves you; he and your mum thought they were doing to right thing. And…I can’t help wondering if they were right.”

“What?” Ginny looked up in horror at Harry. “You ch-changed your mind?”

“No, of course not!” Harry said quickly. “I’ll never regret marrying you, Ginny! I mean that by this time tomorrow, Voldemort will know we’re married, and you’ll be number two on his list of targets after me. Your parents were right about you being in greater danger when you’re around me! And if I hadn’t suggested we get married right away-”

“-then I’d still be stuck at the Burrow waiting for Voldemort to come finish me and my whole family off!” Ginny interrupted sharply. “Don’t try that ‘You’re better off without me’ crap again, it didn’t work last time and it won’t work now! You’re not getting rid of me!”

Harry stared, stunned at Ginny’s outburst. “I’m not trying to get rid of you, I swear. I’m just s-scared; more than ever before. Because now it’s really clear to me what I’d lose if anything happened to you.”

Harry and Ginny sat in silence for a long time, clinging to each other tightly. “I’m really sorry I put you in this position, Ginny,” Harry said eventually.

“You didn’t,” Ginny replied with a sigh. “A lot of things led to this, but in the end I put myself here. And it may not be the happiest or easiest path, but it is the right path. I meant what I said to mum; this is where I have to be.”

Harry smiled slightly. “Dumbledore told me years ago that we’d all have to make that choice. I’m glad you chose the way you did.” Ginny nodded her agreement. “Do you think your mum and dad will forgive you- forgive us?? Harry asked.

“Yeah, they will. Eventually. Probably.” Ginny grinned slightly. “It may take a bit longer than the time I replaced the Floo powder with muggle Itching Powder.”

Harry shivered, suddenly feeling the need to scratch about seventeen places on his body. “I wish you hadn’t told me that – now I’ll be nervous every time I have to Floo somewhere.”

“Speaking of not telling each other things…how come I never knew you’d used Polyjuice Potion before?”

“Er…it wasn’t important, really. Hermione spent a month brewing the stuff, and all we got from it was proof that Malfoy wasn’t the Heir of Slytherin.” Harry chuckled. “Actually, Hermione got a bit more out of it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She accidentally used a cat hair in her potion, and went furry, with ears and a tail and everything,” Harry said, chortling.

“Oh!” Ginny exclaimed in surprise. “So that time my first year that Hermione was in the hospital wing-?” Harry nodded, and Ginny smiled. “Did stuff like that happen to you three a lot?”

“All the bloody time,” Harry confirmed ruefully.

“So why haven’t I heard the stories?”

Harry shrugged. “Honestly, I think it’s just because we were worried the teachers would find out and expel us. The Polyjuice is the least of the trouble we got into – you never heard about Hagrid’s pet dragon Norbert, did you?”

“Norbert?”

“Yeah. And the time I snuck into Hogsmeade third year under my cloak, despite all the teachers trying to ‘protect’ me from Sirius. Scared the piss out of Malfoy. And- well, there’s a lot more stuff.”

“Well, I want to know about all of it,” Ginny said with a stern look. “All of it, in perfect detail. I want to know all the fun I missed.”

“A lot of it was no fun at all,” Harry insisted. “But I’ll tell you all of it, promise; although it might take a while, there’s so much to tell. Hermione can help, and-” He swallowed. “And when Ron wakes up, he can fill in the details.”

Ginny bit her lip hard. “Harry, the Healers haven’t got a clue what to do to help Ron…do you really believe that he’ll wake up?”

Harry hung his head. “I have to, Ginny,” he whispered. “I can’t believe he won’t. If I let myself think Ron is gone forever, I wouldn’t be able to keep going.”

“Right,” Ginny agreed, nodding. “I just wanted to be sure that you were serious, because if you’d given up on Ron I’d kill you myself. Well, if Hermione didn’t beat me to it.” Harry smiled weakly.

Harry and Ginny collected themselves and Apparated back to Fred and George’s shop; fortunately there was no one in the back room to startle. As they headed to the Floo, Ginny stopped and made an annoyed sound. “Bloody hell, Harry, we forgot to get me an owl so I could write to Bill and Charlie!”

“Well, we were a bit distracted,” Harry pointed out. “Just borrow someone else’s owl; we’ll go get you your own tomorrow. But don’t use Luna’s owl, your mum might recognize it.”

Ginny nodded. “I’ll ask Sally-Ann if I can borrow hers.”

Sally-Ann was in the main room of the shop helping Fred and George close up for the day, and happily agreed to lend Ginny her owl Figaro. “He should be in my room at the house. Just give him one of these,” she said, handing Ginny a bag of owl treats, “and tell him I said it was okay. He’s the only owl I know who likes this kind of treat, so he’ll know they’re from me.”

Harry and Ginny Flooed back to the House of Black. As they picked themselves up off the floor, Dean came rushing over, grinning hugely. “Harry, guess what! I finally heard from Seamus!”

“Really? That’s terrific!” Harry exclaimed, surprised. They’d been trying to contact Seamus Finnegan for close to a month with no luck. “Where has he been?”

“In Ireland,” Dean said, grimacing. “I should have known, right? He probably told me and I forgot. He’s visiting relatives, and that letter I sent just got to him a couple days ago – guess the owl got all confused.”

“Did he say anything about joining us?” Ginny asked.

Dean shook his head. “Harry helped me put together a letter to Seamus that hinted at what we’re doing but didn’t say outright,” he told Ginny. “I’m pretty sure Seamus got the idea, his letter said he wants to see me and ‘everyone else, too’ when he gets back next week.”

“Next week? Great!” Harry said happily. “Send back to him to meet you at your job at Quality Quidditch Supplies. You can bring him back to Fred and George’s shop, and we’ll get the Veritaserum out of the way quick and see what Seamus thinks.” He clapped Dean on the shoulder. “Good job, Dean. It’ll be good to have Seamus in the Army.”

“In more ways than one,” Ginny muttered amusedly, and Dean glared at her. “Come on, I need to send those letters,” Ginny added quickly, dragging Harry to the stairs. “Bye, Dean!”

“What did you mean ‘In more ways than one’?” Harry asked as they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

Ginny smirked. “Promise you won’t tell anyone?”

Harry shrugged. “Okay, I promise.”

“Dean and Seamus were…um, intimate.”

Harry gaped at Ginny. “What? But you and- I thought Dean liked girls!”

“He does. He likes boys, too.” Ginny shrugged. “I think the only reason they didn’t make a pair of it years ago was that Seamus was worried about his parents; they’re pretty traditional. But once he gets back, who knows?”

“Wow. They were good at hiding it; I roomed with them for six years and never noticed.”

“Does it bother you?” Ginny asked. “Afraid they might have been checking you out in the shower?”

Harry flushed and shook his head. “No, not really. Dean and Seamus are good blokes. I don’t know why it’d be wrong if they’re happy with it. But it does make me wonder. I mean, who else…” he trailed off thoughtfully.

Ginny looked sideways at him. “Promise you won’t tell this too?” Harry’s eyes widened and he nodded. “Lavender and Parvati, and Padma too. Ernie MacMillan. Terry Boot. Um, a couple girls from my year, and I know that Romilda Vane has at least kissed a girl, if you count that. Um, actually, if you count that…” she blushed. “Then include Luna and me.”

Harry stopped dead on the stairs and stared at Ginny. “You…and Luna?”

“When we were thirteen,” Ginny replied with a nod, looking horribly embarrassed. “I’ve known her a long time, Harry. Neither of us had ever kissed anyone before, and we just…decided to try it.”

Harry grinned. “Did you like it?”

Ginny looked slyly up at Harry through her lashes. “You’d like me to say yes, wouldn’t you?”

“Bloody hell, of course I would!” Harry said.

“Well,” Ginny said casually, turning to head upstairs again, “If you’re really, really, really good, Harry…maybe I’ll let you see something like it some day.”

Harry followed behind her, muttering “I’ll be good…I swear I’ll be good!”

They climbed the stairs to the second floor, and walked down the hall heading toward the stairs to the third floor. As they passed a stretch of blank wall, a door appeared and Hermione came out of it, revealing the hidden room. “There you are!” she exclaimed, looking both annoyed and relieved. “Are you all right? Where have you been? Did you know there’s a rumor about your marriage going around Diagon Alley? Some people came into the shop talking about it!”

“We’re fine, Hermione,” Ginny told her. “And we know about the rumors – they’re my fault. We ran into dad outside of Gringott’s, and I kind of…accidentally mentioned the marriage. In a really loud voice.”

Hermione’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “Oh, no! So a lot of people overheard-?” Harry and Ginny both nodded. “Well, we’ll have to be extra careful from now on, won’t we?” Hermione insisted. “Ginny, once Voldemort finds out about this…”

“Yeah, I know,” Ginny grumbled.

“Are- are you all right?” Hermione asked tentatively, her eyes flicking back and forth from Harry to Ginny.

“Fine, forget it,” Ginny said. “Mum and Dad can deal with it themselves; I’ve got bigger things to worry about. Find anything out from the chest?”

“Oh, come in here, I’ve got loads to tell you!” Hermione said to them, tugging at Harry’s sleeve.

“I have to write letters to Bill and Charlie,” Ginny said.

“Well then, bring the parchment and write while you listen!” Hermione insisted. “It’s important!”

Harry and Ginny went up to their room and dumped their things, and then went to Sally-Ann’s room to retrieve Figaro before going back down to the conference room. Once inside, Hermione shut the door behind them. “So we were right, Harry,” she began, walking over to where the chest sat, its lid still up. “Dumbledore did separate information about the different Horcruxes. I’ve marked the drawers so we’ll easily know which is which.”

“Great,” Harry said. “And did you mark the ones we’re certain are destroyed?”

“Of course,” Hermione said, waving Harry’s comment impatiently away. “And the final drawer was general information about Horcruxes, and about Voldemort, like we’d thought. But there’s one thing…” Hermione opened the top left compartment in the chest, and drew out a small object. “This was in with the general information,” she said.

It was a small chest, very similar to the large one it had come from, but only about a foot wide. “What’s in it?” Harry asked, reaching for it.

“That’s the thing, it won’t open,” Hermione said nervously. “I tried everything I could think of, but it stays sealed. And Finite Incantatem didn’t do anything, so I think this is its full size.” She looked at Harry. “I thought Dumbledore might have made it so that only you can open it.”

“Huh. Well, let’s try it,” Harry said. He stood and placed the chest on the ground again. Standing back, he pointed his wand and said “Finite Incantatem!” But nothing happened to the chest. “I guess that is its normal size,” Harry agreed. He tapped the box with his wand. “Horcrux!” he said, but the box didn’t open.

Harry tried a few more things, and Hermione and Ginny both made some suggestions, but no matter what they did the small box remained firmly shut. “I think we’ll have to put this aside for now,” Hermione said finally, clearly frustrated and dying of curiosity.

“I suppose,” Harry agreed, leaving the small chest sitting in the middle of the table. “We can keep trying to thinking of ways to open it, or you two can get me to try your ideas since it might be keyed to me.” he sat down again. “Anything else I should know? What happened while we were gone?”

“Well, Mundungus finally arrived with the Last Rites plant, and everything went smoothly with it,” Hermione told them, “and Fred and George wanted to talk to you in private about something Mundungus said. They wouldn’t tell me what…they insisted it was personal and not their place.”

“Since when are those two discreet?” Harry pondered vaguely, causing Ginny to grin. “All right, I’ll grab them after I’ve had some supper.”

“There’s- there’s something else, Harry,” Hermione said in a small voice. “I- erm, I got curious about what was in the chest and I didn’t have anything else to do, really, so…Iwentaheadandreadsomeoftheinformation,” she finished in a rush.

Harry chuckled. “That’s okay, ‘mione, I thought you might. You’re way too curious for your own good.”

“That’s right,” Ginny said, fighting to keep her face straight. “Curiosity killed the cat, you know!”

Hermione gaped at Ginny for a moment, and then rounded on Harry, her cheeks bright red. “You told her about the- the Polyjuice?” she squeaked indignantly.

“Just be glad it happened before you got Crookshanks,” Ginny insisted with a chuckle.

“Oh yes, very funny,” Hermione grumbled.

Harry held up his hands, placating. “Sorry, Hermione; Ginny wants to know about our, er, misadventures from before. Polyjuice came up, and, well…”

“Never mind,” Hermione said, still quite red.

“You can tell me all the embarrassing stuff that happened to Harry in retribution,” Ginny suggested.

“That sounds like fun,” Hermione agreed, smirking at Harry.

“So what did you find out from what you read?” Harry asked quickly.

Hermione chuckled a bit. “Not much. I didn’t get very far. But I found one interesting thing. Dumbledore spent a lot of time searching for a particular book that he thought would help with understanding and identifying Horcruxes. The book is called Sawol Immortalis. But Dumbledore never found it; it’s an ancient text full of Dark magic, and although it’s not technically illegal to own a copy it is frowned upon. Most people wouldn’t admit having one even if they did.”

Harry’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “All right, but what does it matter? If Dumbledore can’t find it I can’t imagine that we will.”

“Well, Dumbledore chose to use conventional methods of tracking down the book,” Hermione continued. “He mainly researched and tracked, but he didn’t consult the help of experts, which I thought was a bit odd, considering how important it was…”

“No, I get why he didn’t,” Ginny said, raising her head from the letter she’d been composing. “Dumbledore wouldn’t have wanted word getting back to Voldemort that someone was looking for that particular book.”

“Of course!” Hermione agreed, smiling in surprise at Ginny. “Voldemort would have figured out that someone was researching Horcruxes!”

“Hermione, not to be rude, but what’s the point of this?” Harry asked.

“Well, I was thinking about it, and when I read that Dumbledore hadn’t questioned some more…unsavory people looking for the book, I realized- if I was looking for a barely-legal book with lots of information about Dark magic, one of the first places I’d think to look would be Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley.”

Harry thought about that, and nodded. “That’s a good idea. It sounds like the sort of thing Borgin would do anything to get his greasy hands on. And he’d probably keep it hidden away because almost no one would be able to afford the exorbitant price he’d set for it.”

“Lucius Malfoy could have, though,” Hermione pointed out, chewing on her lower lip as she thought. “Wouldn’t Voldemort have sent Malfoy to get the book so no one else would?”

“No,” Ginny said thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing Dumbledore was thinking, but in reverse. If suddenly Voldemort’s looking for that exact book, maybe someone notices and wonders why. I think Voldemort would let it be, since he wouldn’t want to give the impression that the contents of that book mattered to him.”

The three friends considered for another moment, and concluded that Ginny’s take on the situation made sense. “So it is possible that Borgin has a copy hidden somewhere,” Hermione concluded. “If we could only get our hands on it…from Dumbledore’s notes I gather it would be a huge help. But we can’t just waltz in there and ask for it!”

“I think I might know something we can do,” Harry said, surprising Hermione and Ginny. “Hermione, did you and Pansy ever figure out a way to make that other potion safer – the Truth serum that’s more powerful than Veritaserum?”

“I…no, we haven’t,” Hermione said, hanging her head. “I’m sorry, Harry, I just can’t find anything…many potions masters have tried over the years, so I suppose it’s no surprise Pansy and I haven’t had better luck.”

“Forget it,” Harry said gently. “Is Pansy still here?”

“She was just a few minutes before you got back,” Hermione answered. “She’s probably still in the basement. Why?”

“Let’s head down there now. I need to ask her about another potion.”