Knickers

Chapter 6: Gossip

Ginny woke feeling refreshed. Indeed, all was well with the world; her career was going exactly according to plan, She was doing extremely well as the Harpies new Chaser, even having gone so far as to be proclaimed "The Newest Star of the Quidditch World" by The Daily Prophet and, according to the speculators, it was going to come down to her team and Harry's in the finals. Indeed, Ginny couldn't ignore the fact that not only was her career on track, but so was her love life. Colin and she were scheduled to get married in the garden behind the Burrow the week after the finals were played or, if the Harpies reached the Nationals, after that.

And now, as she hopped out of bed and went downstairs for breakfast, she couldn't help but feel a little lighter at heart. After all, today was the anniversary of the day that she had given up on Harry and for the first time in years, she felt no regret. She had Colin, and Harry… well, Harry had Katie. With a sigh, she stepped down the last two steps into the kitchen and stopped short at the turmoil she saw there.

The kitchen was filled with letters and owls, the latter of which were hooting plaintively because there was no one to take their letters, forcing them to perch on various places on the kitchen counter and table.

"What are you all doing here?" Ginny said, scolding them. The owl closest to her seemed to roll her eyes and merely held out the leg that held her letter for Ginny to remove. With a raised eyebrow, she complied and took letter, which was addressed to Harry. Turning to make sure she was the only one in the kitchen, Ginny opened the letter quickly, not wanting Harry or her mother for that matter, to find out that she was reading his mail. She scanned it quickly and felt all the blood leave her face.

Ginny scrambled frantically through the pile of letters on the table, searching for the current issue of The Daily Prophet. Sure enough, on the front page was the story that she was looking for. 'Quidditch Darlings to Wed!' was the headline and featured a picture of Harry and Katie smiling at the camera, their faces reflecting the joy that Ginny knew they felt when they were around each other. But why hadn't they told anyone that they were planning on getting married?

"Hey Gin, what's... Bloody hell, has Harry been declared 'Sexiest Wizard Alive' again?" Ron asked as he came into the kitchen. "What's that you're looking at, by the way?"

"Daily Prophet," Ginny murmured, her eyes scanning the article, which detailed how The Daily Prophet had gotten an exclusive interview from the couple. "It's an interesting front story really."

"Who's on the front page then? Someone wicked?" Ron leaned forward, reading the headline over his sister's shoulder. His eyes nearly shot out of his head when he saw who was on the cover. "What are they talking about? Harry is not getting married!"

"Is Harry getting married?" Molly exclaimed as she walked down the stairs and caught the last words her son had uttered.

"No Mum," Ron rolled his eyes. "Harry is not getting married."

"The Daily Prophet says he is, Ron," Ginny piped up, looking doubtfully at her brother.

Ron returned this look with an incredulous look of his own. "And since when do you believe what The Daily Prophet says?"

"Since they've got five pages of 'exclusive' pictures and interviews with the happy couple!" Ginny retorted in disbelief. Indeed, it appeared that The Daily Prophet had finally got it right, if the pictures alone were any indication. She was pretty sure that when she had flipped through the pages earlier, she had seen one that featured the couple half naked: Katie without any clothing save a pair of knickers, and Harry looking quite fine in only a pair of loose fitting jeans.

"Give me that!" Ron's eyes narrowed as he grabbed the paper from his sister. Ginny had made a convincing argument. Ron's eyes nearly bugged out his head as he read through the story that Ginny had been telling him about; his sister had been right.

"What's wrong with Ron?" Hermione asked her mother-in-law as she came down for breakfast and took in the sight of her husband furiously reading The Daily Prophet, something that she knew Ron rarely did.

"Nothing, Hermione dear," Molly said soothingly. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Fine, thanks," Hermione said hesitantly, sitting down at the kitchen table and taking in the pile of letters that sat in front of her. "The baby actually let me sleep last night." And this was true. For the first time in close to a week the baby had stopped kicking her internal organs and waking her up at odd hours of the evening. "Ron, sweetie, are you okay?"

Ron sank down into the chair next to his wife and handed her the paper. "Harry is getting married."

Hermione shot Ron a sceptical look. "Yeah, right. Are we forgetting that this is the same man who said that he was never getting married because he might 'endanger someone'?"

"No, I'm serious," he said, pointing to the front page. "He's getting married… to Katie."
Hermione followed her husband's pointed finger and her jaw dropped. There, on the front cover, was a picture of Harry and Katie, their arms around each other – and a giant emerald sparkling on Katie's left hand. "Why didn't he tell us about this?"

Ron shrugged. "I dunno; maybe he didn't want to take the attention away from Ginny and Colin. You know how he is about those sorts of things."

"But still," Hermione shook her head and laid a hand onto her burgeoning belly. "We're his best friends. We should have at least known that this was coming."

"Well, we didn't," Ron shook his head and shrugged again. "But we have been rather busy, haven't we?"

Hermione frowned, still confused as to why Harry hadn't told them that he was going to propose. "Yes, we have. School begins soon and we're moving back to Hogwarts within the next few days."

"So we will," Ron sighed. He turned to Ginny, who was looking a little peaked. "It's a shock, isn't it?"

"What?" Ginny had been broken out of her shock-induced trance by her brother's voice. At that moment, she was in a state of turmoil , her emotions churning unhappily as the feelings she had thought were gone were now suddenly thrust into the forefront of her mind.

"Harry getting married, I mean. It's a shock," Ron continued, oblivious to the basket case his sister was turning into right beside him. He patted the unoccupied chair to his right, for his sister to sit in.

"Yeah," Ginny deadpanned, sitting down.

"He didn't even mention he had bought a ring, let alone that he was going to propose." Molly had decided to join into the conversation, sitting down on the opposite side of the table and gathering together all of the owls that still carried letters. They began to form a line so that she could first take off their letter and then give them one of the owl treats that sat on the kitchen table. "And, my goodness, he should have warned us; it's not sanitary to have this many birds in the house!"
Their light conversation was interrupted by the sound of Harry and Katie rushing into the kitchen through the crowd of reporters who waited outside of the Burrow. Many of them hadn't been lucky enough to go to the interview the night before and so had come to see them there.

Harry took in the sight of all the owls and groaned. Not again. Why couldn't he have had a simple interview, albeit one in which he had announced his surprise engagement...? No, everything in the life of Harry Potter apparently had to be a big deal. He also took in the sight of the people at the table and, judging by their shocked faces, realised that Katie and he had been out-ed as a couple quite publicly; apparently, his friends and surrogate family had read about it in The Prophet that morning, along with the rest of the Wizarding World.

Truth be told, he hadn't planned to tell the press that he and Katie were engaged; it had just slipped out in an impulsive attempt to prompt Oliver to action. Fortunately, Katie had caught on quickly and managed to contain her look of shock until they had turned away from the reporters and Oliver. Indeed, she had been extremely angry when she had confronted him later, when they had found a moment to themselves. Katie was still a little peeved at him, mainly because the reporters had spread the word of the 'engagement' and informed a slew of other members of the press, who were, even now, camped out outside her front door....

"Well, if it isn't the happy couple?" Ron said, a genuine smile on his face as his best friend and his fiancée came into the kitchen. "When were you going to tell us this, anyway?"

Harry sat down across from his best friend at the table and pulled Katie down into his lap, catching Ginny's eyes as he did so. She looked a little ill, but he reckoned it was probably from something she had eaten. After all, the only other reason she would be reacting at all to Harry's engagement was either if she really hated Katie or if she had feelings for him like those he had for her. But this, of course, couldn't have been true. Harry didn't think that she'd be marrying another man if she had had feelings for him. He shook his head slightly and pulled Katie closer when she tried to get up, her hand coming down onto his shoulder and showing off the emerald ring that he had bought for her birthday a few days before.

Well, Harry HAD bought it for her birthday with the intention of giving it to her in a purely platonic way. Instead, he had ended up whipping it out and shoving it onto her hand as they had stood and answered questions for the press in their effort to speed up the evolution of Oliver's feelings for Katie. Katie, needless to say, had not reckoned his plan would succeed, but, when she had seen for herself the look that Oliver sported immediately upon the 'announcement', she had agreed that it had been a good idea.

"Sorry Ron," Harry said, shrugging boyishly. "It was really rather a surprise, actually."

Katie rolled her eyes. Surprise to say the least. SHE hadn't even been aware that he had had a ring with him for such 'surprising' occasions where one might have to pretend to be engaged. Katie eventually accepted his excuse; after all, her birthday WAS next week. A smirk gathered on her face as she remembered exactly how Harry had dealt with the situation the evening before, somehow convincing her to go along with his crazy plan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Katie, it's the only way," Harry had argued in protest. Here she was, so close to getting what she wanted so much, and she was ready to turn it down, because she hadn't felt comfortable demonstrating their relationship in the public sphere – and had even gone so far as to agreeing to enter into an engagement with him.

"How is it 'the only way'?" she had asked, confused by Harry's adamant attitude and greatly discomfited by the fact that the reporters to whom Harry had just announced their surprise were closely observing their 'chat'. Katie knew this was going to be a shock to the Wizarding World. After all, it wasn't as if they had even known that she and Harry had been dating each other, let alone that they were now engaged, a fact that Katie wasn't sure was even true.

"Men are all the same. The all want what they can't have," Harry continued, determined to get his way. "If he realises that you're engaged to me, he's going to go in the exact direction we want him to. Now, are you with me or not?"

"No, I'm not. Harry, what...."Katie continued to argue, agreeing with his logic but reluctant to go through with this sort of plan due to its deceptive nature. Indeed, she would rather expose Fleur for the slut that she was and have Oliver come to her naturally, than have her future with the man she loved shaped by half truths and calculated moves.

Harry decided to try another angle and appeal to Katie's mercenary side. "I'll let you keep the ring."

Katie paused at this, staring down at the opened box in her hand, which held the biggest and most gorgeous emerald ring she had ever seen in her entire life. Still.... "No, Harry, and besides, this is my birthday present, remember? I was going to keep it, anyways."

"But why not?" Harry asked in a furious whisper. There had to be some way to convince her. After all, not only would this plan help Katie out with Oliver, but also it would sufficiently distract Harry enough so that he could at least function emotionally again, especially when he was at home and not travelling with the team. Indeed, it was becoming quite the challenge for him to live at the Burrow with all the wedding planning going on and still maintain his sanity. Ron and Hermione were, at the moment, the only things keeping him sane, and they would soon be leaving for Hogwarts for the start of the school year in a few days.

"Because I don't want to be married to you," Katie protested, purposely keeping her voice low in order to avoid creating a more sensationalized story for the reporters to witness.

"Who said anything about marriage? I'm only talking about an engagement," Harry murmured back, taking the hint to be quiet as the walls in this case DID in fact have ears – and quills.

"But I don't want to be engaged to you," Katie said adamantly. The truth of the matter was that if she couldn't be with Oliver, she would probably choose to be with Harry, but she knew that if they ever were to actually marry that it would be a disaster. They were friends; at times, it seemed like they were the best of friends, and she couldn't argue that the sex wasn't fantastic, but she wasn't in love with Harry and he wasn't in love with her. In addition to this, Katie wanted children in the future, and she knew that she would rather have them with a man she was in love with and not one that, truthfully, was merely a consolation prize.

"But you want to be engaged to Oliver, don't you?" Harry broke her from her thoughts with a shot at the truth.

"What does that have to do with anything Harry?" Katie said tiredly. She was confused, her nude picture was shortly to be plastered onto the front page of The Daily Prophet, and in addition to this, she had just gotten the shock of her life when Harry had shoved a ring on her finger as they had been having their interview and, out of the blue, announced that they were engaged: something that Katie hadn't known herself.

"Everything," he said. "Men always want what they can't have and Oliver's no exception." He paused a moment, thinking yet again to appeal to Katie's mercenary side in order to get her to co-operate in this elaborate ruse. "I have the rest of the set at home. How about that?"

"Set?" Katie deadpanned. The more this conversation continued, the more confused she became. Indeed, her head was spinning from the overwhelming nature of the whole conversation.
Harry nodded, thinking of the emerald set he had purchased for Katie's birthday that was sitting in his dresser drawer at the Burrow. He had been planning on giving her one piece a day interspersed with lilies (her favourite flower), but Katie didn't have to know this. "There are also a bracelet, earrings, and necklace to match the ring in your hand."

Katie starred down at the ring and winced. What she was about to do was entirely unlike her and reflected badly on her mercenary side, but emeralds WERE her favourites and Harry had made an excellent point about Oliver. Judging from the looks he was now shooting her and the fact that Fleur was close to being found out for who she really was, he had feelings for her but damned if he was moving on them... "So when's the wedding?"

A wide grin spread across Harry's face. "Excellent. I knew you'd come around. I was thinking July..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katie was broken from her memories of the encounter the previous evening by the conversation that was still happening while she sat on Harry's lap.

"Well you still should have told us something, Harry," Hermione broke in. "I think you nearly killed Ron this morning with the shock."

"Again, I'm sorry," Harry said sheepishly. "It just sort of... happened."

"Yeah," Katie chimed in, thinking that if they were going to make this believable than she was going to have to help Harry convince his friends that there was going to be a wedding when, indeed, they had already planned the break-up. "We were in the locker room yesterday, and we got to talking as we normally do..."

Ron snorted. "Doesn't look like talking to me," he said, opening up The Daily Prophet to the second page, where Katie's nearly nude body was plastered up against Harry's, and they were making out. This must have been the moment before Harry had noticed the press was in the room.

Katie shot Ron an indulgent look. "Well we WERE talking; that happened after. Anyways, before I know it, Harry's down on one knee in front of me, with this in his hand." She took this opportunity to share with the women in the room the large emerald that currently graced her finger with its presence.

"Holy shit, Harry," Ron muttered under his breath. He looked up from the ring. "You're making us all look bad."

"Isn't he?" Katie drawled. "Well, how I could I say 'no' when he handed me this..." She chuckled and shrugged. "Besides, I love him." She didn't add on that she wasn't IN love with him. Somehow Katie thought that this would defeat the purpose of the show she was putting on for his friends.

Hermione sighed. She was happy for Harry, but instinctively, she knew that something was up. A person just didn't haul out a ring and decide to get married, especially if he was Harry Potter. No, the Harry she knew wasn't nearly that impulsive and would surely have taken either her or Ron under advisement if he were making such an absolutely gigantic decision about his life. Beside all that, hadn't Ron told her that Harry had some mystery girl that he was in love with? This seemed like a rather strange move for a man who was supposedly infatuated with someone other than his girlfriend. Hermione wasn't going to argue with Harry's logic, though; if he wanted to marry Katie (a woman that Hermione knew would take care of him both physically and emotionally), then she would support him.

Beside her, Ginny was shooting Katie an incredulous look at what she had just said. Honestly, Ginny liked Katie. She just didn't think that she was the right woman for Harry. With a sigh of her own, Ginny made a show of looking at her watch and acting alarmed, her heart breaking a little bit as she watched Katie settle comfortably back against Harry's chest. "Oh, Merlin, is that the time? I need to get to practice."

Harry smirked and moved a hand to Katie's hip, tickling her slightly and making her squirm before answering Ginny's comment. "Afraid of the game tomorrow, then?"

"No," Ginny shot back assuredly. "We're gonna show you Cannons how to play Quidditch. I have nothing to be afraid of."

"We'll see about that, won't we?" Harry said playfully, shifting his hand lower down to Katie's thigh, subconsciously trying to make Ginny feel something in response to the attention he was lavishing onto his fiancée.

Ron and Hermione exchanged worried looks, not seeing Harry's action but instead focusing on the potential disaster that could occur tomorrow. Indeed, this would be the first game that Ginny and Harry played against each other, and while it didn't mean much now, when the Quidditch season was young, it could mean something later, as they got closer to the finals and selections for the National Team began.

"Kids," Katie broke in playfully, sensing that this potential argument would soon get out of hand, if she didn't intervene. After all, she knew that the hand Harry currently was resting on her thigh had nothing to do with physical attraction to her and everything to do with making Ginny jealous. Judging from Ginny's barely veiled annoyance, it was working. She couldn't tell Harry about this quite yet, though; there was no reason to get his hopes up. Why, it was possible that Ginny might just not like Katie, which would make sense, considering the fact that both women were star chasers on rival teams set to play each other in 24 hours. Katie had learned early on in life that speculation only got a person so far, and that sometimes further research was needed. Katie would happily comply. "Let's not fight now, shall we? We all have practice to get to, and I, for one, am excited about showing the rest of the team my new ring." She got up off of Harry's lap and smoothed her clothing down. "Shall we go then, Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry shot Ginny a strange look, noting her aggressive behaviour, and stood. "I'll see you all later, then?" Everyone nodded, unsure of how to break the silence without it being awkward. Katie and Harry then left the house after he grabbed some more clothes and his equipment from his room, braving the hoards of reporters still camped out outside the Burrow.

Ron chose to take the plunge. "What was that all about, Ginny?" he demanded, genuinely wondering why she had lashed out so aggressively at Harry.

"Nothing Ron; just nervous about tomorrow, I guess," she said quietly, standing up from the table and clearing her throat, her good day completely ruined by the last half hour or so of conversation. "Look, I need to get to practice; can we continue this conversation later?"

"No Ginny, I..." Their mother cut him off, "Ron, let your sister go to practice and stop interrogating her. She's allowed to be in a bad mood." Molly had an inkling as to why her daughter was in such a snit and got up from the table, having collected all the letters from the owls, and went to the sink to wash her hands. "Now, what would everyone like for breakfast?"

"Thanks, Mum, but I'm late," Ginny cut in, no longer having an appetite. "I'll see everyone tonight, then?"

"Sure, Ginny," Hermione smiled. "Have a good practice."

And with that, Ginny left the kitchen to get her equipment for practice, knowing instinctively that it was going to be a rough day. After all, she had never been known to play well with a broken heart. She just hoped that tomorrow, broken heart and all, she and her team could overcome the threat that the Cannons provided to their future in this season of Quidditch. Indeed, much more than Quidditch was now riding on the outcome. Ginny was pretty sure her emotional well being was on the line, too.