The Longest Day

The wedding was short and to the point. Harry regretted that almost as much as the absence of the rest of Ginny’s family; they should have been with her for such an important moment. Ginny hardly seemed to mind, though. She hovered on the edge of tears throughout the ceremony, with a faint smile permanently on her lips.

Hermione cried nonstop; Luna did her best to comfort her, and Hermione did manage to focus enough on her role as maid of honor. Harry knew that Hermione’s tears were as much because of Ron’s absence as it was out of happiness for him and Ginny. Harry felt it too; he’d imagined getting married a few times in his life, and never could he picture it without Ron as his best man. Fred did the duty, but Harry thought sadly that it wasn’t the same as having his first real friend beside him.

When Harry said “I will,” Ginny finally broke down and threw her arms around Harry’s neck, kissing him and crying. The rector smiled and waited patiently, having seen similar reactions many times before. Finally it was Ginny’s turn, and she managed to answer without choking up too much. Harry was both amused and touched that Ginny wasn’t taking everything as simply a way to get her away from her parents; he certainly didn’t feel that way, or he’d never have considered asking Ginny to marry him.

When it was over, their friends crowded around to congratulate them. Fred and George ragged Harry that he’d never even gotten his stag party; Angelina retorted that at least they didn’t have to hear details about Ginny’s bachelorette party. “I’m glad I didn’t have to hear, either,” Harry said with a chuckle. “I might’ve changed my mind!” Ginny slapped him rather hard on the arm.

Harry and Ginny both gratefully thanked the rector for his aid, and for letting them use his home. “You’re not the first couple I’ve had to marry in secret,” he replied with a twinkle in his eye. “And I suspect you won’t be the last. Congratulations, and good luck to both of you. And don’t worry,” he added, placing a finger over his own lips. “Mum’s the word.”

“Do you trust him to keep quiet?” Angelina asked Harry after they were left alone to Floo back to the House of Black.

“He agreed to have a Charm put on him, so he can’t tell anyone,” Harry answered. “Unless he’s asked about it officially, so we can prove it’s real.”

“Harry, I still don’t understand,” Neville said. “Won’t Mr. Weasley just say he never wrote that document? He could tell the Ministry to make Ginny take Veritaserum to prove it, or take it himself.”

“He can’t tell them,” Ginny answered. “He did sign it, and that’s impossible to fake. He’d have to admit he’d been pre-signing official documents; he’d definitely lose his job, they’re that serious about it now with the fight against Voldemort. He might even get arrested.”

“And the Ministry can’t force Ginny to take Veritaserum,” Harry said with a smug grin. “Ginny’s emancipated now; she’s an adult in the eyes of the Wizarding World. They can’t make her take Veritaserum unless she agrees to it.”

“And I can use magic legally now,” Ginny added with a huge smile.

“Good thing, because I think you’re going to need a few Prevention and Silencing Charms tonight,” Angelina said, and everyone laughed as Harry and Ginny both blushed.

They all Flooed to the House of Black. “Right,” Fred said, rubbing his hands together. “Time for a party!”

“No, Fred,” Harry said with a shake of his head. “It’s too late, it’s almost midnight – everyone else is already asleep.”

“But Harry!” Fred protested. “Wedding! Party! We must, don’t you see? And everyone’ll want to know that Ginny’s back!”

“Tomorrow,” Ginny said firmly. “If there has to be a party it can wait until tomorrow.”

“How about we bring you breakfast in bed?” George suggested innocently.

“I wouldn’t bother,” Ginny answered with a smirk. “We won’t be getting up until at least noon.”

“Lunch in bed, then,” Angelina suggested, laughing at Fred and George’s nauseated expressions.

“Oh, very well, tomorrow,” Fred grumbled. Then he brightened. “Well that gives us time to plan, anyway…”

“No it most certainly doesn’t,” Angelina said, grabbing Fred by the arm. “You will be busy for the rest of the night.” With that she began dragging Fred up the stairs.

“I do think it’s time for bed,” Luna agreed, taking George’s hand and leading him to the stairs. “Besides, there are other ways to celebrate. Goodnight, everyone. Ginny, Harry, congratulations.”

“Thanks, Luna,” Harry said as she and George disappeared up the stairs.

Hermione stepped forward and threw an arm around Harry, and the other around Ginny. “I can’t even say how happy I am for you,” she whispered. “Honestly, I think it was kind of inevitable…I just didn’t expect it to be so soon!”

Ginny chuckled. “Neither did I. But I’d imagined it, plenty of times.”

“Is that so?” Harry asked with a grin, which grew wider when Ginny blushed. “Thanks, Hermione,” he said, hugging his friend tightly. “For everything. You’re a better friend than I could have asked for.”

“Oh, stop,” Hermione said, laughing shakily, “or I’ll start crying again!” She pushed the two of them away. “Now you two need some time alone, I think,” she added with a smirk. “And don’t forget what Angelina said about Silencing Charms!”

Harry went red yet again. “We won’t.”

Hermione started upstairs, but Neville called to her “Wait up a minute, Hermione; I’ll walk up with you.” He turned to Ginny. “Er…I wanted to give you this, Ginny. Congratulations.”

Ginny took the package from Neville, puzzled. “What’s this?”

“A- a wedding present,” Neville said faintly.

Ginny pulled the wrapping off and her eyes lit up. “Lemon sugar quills? These are my favorite! Neville, how did you know?”

“Harry told me,” Neville admitted. “They were supposed to be a birthday present, but- well, with everything that happened I forgot.”

Ginny hugged Neville, making him go red to the ears. “Thank you, Neville. For the gift, and for understanding.”

“Understanding what? That you and Harry are great together? That’s pretty obvious,” Neville said with a chuckle. “Night,” he finished, and walked up to where Hermione was waiting for him with a pleased smile, and they headed up together, speaking quietly.

Harry and Ginny waited until the voices of their friends faded away. Harry turned to Ginny awkwardly. “Well.”

“Yeah.” Ginny hardly knew what to say. What do you say to your new husband? Silence stretched out between them until Ginny couldn’t take it any longer. “Is it me, or is this weird?”

“Yeah, it is. And it shouldn’t be.” Harry grabbed Ginny by the arm and spun her to face him. He looked down into her eyes. “Ginny, no matter what else is going on and what other reasons there might have been, I wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t love you.”

Ginny reached a trembling hand up to brush lightly against Harry’s cheek. “I love you too, Harry,” she said with a shaky smile. “A year and a day went by awfully fast, didn’t it?”

Harry looked confused for a moment, but grinned when he recalled their conversation from two days before. “Yeah, it did. The fastest year in history…followed by the longest day.”

Suddenly it wasn’t awkward or weird anymore. Ginny grabbed the front of Harry’s robes and yanked him down so she could attack his mouth. Her arm went around his neck as her tongue slipped between his lips to meet his. Harry responded with a groan that resounded deep in his chest, reverberating into Ginny’s body and straight down to her quim. She pushed Harry back until he fell onto the kitchen table and quickly began pulling almost desperately at Harry’s clothes. “Please, Harry,” she begged, “I need you!”

“I need you, Ginny,” he gasped. “Do whatever you need to…”

Ginny yanked Harry’s trousers and boxers down to his knees, and quickly removed her own jeans and knickers. She didn’t even waste time removing the rest of their clothes; she climbed up over Harry, whipped out her wand and performed the anti-pregnancy Charm, and guided him quickly inside her. His eyes remained fixed on her as she slid up and down, biting her lip to keep from crying out. She ran her hands up under Harry’s shirt and over his muscles, never letting him drop his gaze. “It really happened, didn’t it, Harry?” she half-whispered, half-groaned. She raised her left hand and gazed at the simple gold band Harry had placed there earlier. “You really married me?”

“I did,” Harry whispered back, raising his own hand to display his matching ring. He slipped a hand under her shirt and up over her breast, pulling her bra down so he could tweak her nipple. His other hand snaked down and found Ginny’s clit. She whimpered as he ran a finger lightly over her, and quickened the pace of her rocking. “I’m yours, Ginny. I want to wake up- in your arms- every morning- for the rest- of my- life…”

Ginny sobbed when Harry came, but his pulsing inside her wasn’t what made her follow him over, it was his eyes, filled with bliss and love, and his words. For the rest of my life… Ginny collapsed, and devoured Harry’s mouth with her own. “For the rest of my life, Harry,” she gasped tearfully. “I’m yours.”

Ginny didn’t know how long they stayed there. She rested her head on Harry’s shoulder, relishing being close to him again. “Ginny…” Harry said eventually.

“Mm.”

“Ginny.”

“What.”

“I don’t think we should sleep here.”

Sighing, Ginny raised herself up. “No, I suppose not. I don’t fancy having this be how the Army finds out I’m back.”

They untangled themselves and cast a few quick Cleaning Charms. Then Harry pulled Ginny close, and she melted against him. Harry kissed the top of Ginny’s head. “Welcome back, Mrs. Potter,” he whispered.

“Ginny Potter.” Ginny contemplated for a moment, and then shook her head. “No, it just doesn’t have the same ring as Ginny Weasley. Sorry, Harry, I don’t think I’ll change my name.”

“What?” Harry pulled back and stared at her. “You- you really don’t want to-?”

“Harry, I’m teasing you,” Ginny said with a laugh. “I’ve been daydreaming about being Ginny Potter for years.”

Harry sighed. “You’ll be the death of me, Ginny.”

“Probably. And you’ll enjoy every second of it.”

“Probably.” Harry smiled. “Shall we retire to our house’s honeymoon suite?”

“Our house?” Ginny gave Harry an odd look. “What do you mean, our house?”

Harry looked surprised. “Ginny, we’re married. And we didn’t sign any pre-marriage agreements. Everything I own is yours now, or half of it is, anyway. The House of Black, all the other properties, the Gringott’s vault- both the Gringott’s vaults,” he corrected himself. “Half of everything. In fact, we should go to Gringott’s tomorrow and tell the goblins to give you access to everything.”

“But- but Harry, you’re…”

“Rich?” Harry chuckled at Ginny’s expression. “Didn’t you know I was a great catch, Ginn?”

“Yeah,” Ginny replied shyly. “I did. I just didn’t think of that. I mean, I’ve never had money before.”

“Well, you do now.”

“I guess so.” Ginny grinned. “Can I buy Honeydukes?”

“If you really want.”

Ginny stared. “Harry, I was kidding. Can we really afford that?”

“I told you before, Ginny, there’s more money than I could possibly spend. We could probably buy most of Hogsmeade if we wanted.”

Ginny swallowed. “I never really understood exactly how much…”

“Do you really want to buy Honeydukes?”

“No!” Ginny exclaimed. “I was kidding! But there is one thing I want to get first thing tomorrow.”

“What’s that?”

“My own owl.” Ginny sighed. “I need to send letters to some people. Charlie and Bill, especially.”

“That’s a good idea. I don’t want them showing up to beat the stuffing out of me.” Harry yawned. “I think it is time for bed, Ginn.”

“No, Harry, not yet.” Ginny gently took Harry’s hand. She met his eyes, and he saw determination there, and sorrow. “There’s something we have to do first.”

*****

The door creaked open a bit. “Harry? Ginny?” Hermione said, trying to surreptitiously wipe her tears away. “Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Ginny replied. “Can we come in?”

“Of course!” Hermione stepped aside and Harry and Ginny walked in, shutting the door behind them. “What’s happened?”

“Nothing happened,” Harry said.

Harry, it’s your wedding night. If you two are here instead of…you know, alone together,” Hermione pointed out with a bit of a blush, “Then something must be wrong.”
Nothing’s wrong, Hermione,” Harry insisted. “We just thought maybe you-”

“Hermione,” Ginny interrupted, “what’s that?”

She was indicating a piece of parchment sitting on the edge of Hermione’s bed. Hermione went to snatch it away, But Ginny got to it first. She gaped at it, her face ashen. “Wh-where did you get this?” she whispered.

“I f-found it,” Hermione choked out, “in the b-back of R-Ron’s clipboard.”

Ginny stared. On the parchment was a simple portrait done in pencil, just like the one Ginny had of herself. Except this one was of Hermione; clearly done within the last year, and as perfectly rendered as a photograph. “He- he did a portrait of you!” Ginny gasped.

“So- so it was Ron who did this?” Hermione asked anxiously. “I thought maybe Dean, he’s such a good artist…”

“No, Hermione, it was Ron,” Ginny said with certainty.

“You’re telling me Ron drew this?” Harry gasped.

Ginny nodded. “I have a picture he drew of me when he was eight,” she told them softly. “It looks a lot like this. But as far as I knew, he hadn’t done any more since then.” She tore her gaze away from the portrait and met Hermione’s eyes. “He gave this up completely, Hermione,” she whispered. “But he went back to it for you.”
Hermione wailed and fell to her knees, howling. Harry and Ginny immediately kneeled beside her and wrapped their arms around her, adding to her sobs. The three of them held each other, sharing their grief and fear, for the rest of the night.

FIN

Part Six of the Harry's Seventh Year series: http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=544207307