Author Note: This story does NOT follow DH canon. It is the inbetweens of my two previous fics "Derailed" and "Adventures in Dress Shopping". This is pretty much canon through HBP and takes certain things from DH, however, I've put together different pairings and kept certain characters alive because I love them, and that's just how it is going to be. Reviews are more than welcome and I'd love constructive criticsim. I really hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am not JKR. I do not own any of the characters. This story is merely my own interpretation of events based in the Universe that she created. Please don't sue.
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Ginny was getting ready to leave for another Christmas at the Burrow. She was just happy to have managed getting a present for everyone and getting them wrapped in time. Well, almost in time, anyway. She was just finishing up wrapping the smaller part of Ron's gift (a watch with a hidden compartment for messages she'd found in a muggle shop.) and then she'd be finished with everything. After finishing the bow on the package, she shrunk it with a flick of her wand and packed it neatly in the small bag she was planning on carrying everything in. Just a quick run through her flat to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything for the kids and she was through the fireplace and on her way to her parent's house.
"AUNT GINNY!" She heard Felicity squeal as she bumbled over, nearly toppling on her way. She was still getting a handle on that whole walking thing. The Burrow's messy nature certainly wasn't going to help it. The redhead smiled and leaned down to pick up her darling god-daughter and hugged her tightly.
"And how is my favorite god-daughter, hm?" She asked, dropping a kiss on the girl's head. Felicity giggled and changed her hair color from the Christmassy green it was to the exact shade of red that Ginny had.
"I am well. Damien and I got into a fight before but he 'pologized so it's okay now." Hmm, somehow it was always Damien's fault.
"Well I'm glad to hear that it's okay now. Why don't you go run and tell everyone that I'm here and I'll get to putting the presents under the tree, okay?" Ginny coaxed as she crouched to set Felicity down and also get to work on un-shrinking the presents in her bag.
"Okay. Everyone's in the kitchen. They're all here already. Mummy said that she had to tell you something, secret. Well she didn't tell me it was a secret, but she was telling Daddy and I heard 'em talking and when they saw me they got real quiet like and I dunno what it was about." The little girl babbled for a moment before realizing that she had a mission. "I'll go get her!"
Ginny smiled after the girl and shook her head vaguely as considered what Tonks could possibly have to talk to her about that couldn't be mentioned in front of the kids? Christmas presents? Maybe. Most likely. Owls were a bit dodgy when it came to keeping things from the kids. It was probably just making sure that Ginny hadn't gone completely overboard…like last year. Which she had, but that was because she needed to spoil her god-daughter. And her nephew and niece. It wasn't like she had any kids of her own to spoil. She needed an outlet. Besides, she had to beat out Fred and George, who were worse than she was by far. At least Ginny's gifts were well-intentioned.
"Ginny-love!" Tonk's bright voice broke through the redhead's thoughts. "Happy Christmas! It's about time you showed up. What took you so long? Everyone else is here already!"
"Happy Christmas, Tonks." Ginny replied chipperly, taking the last present out of her bag and putting it back to normal size before standing up to give her friend a tight hug, careful to mind her very pregnant belly. "I had presents left to wrap still." She shrugged. "Ron and the kids, which really, is symbolic in a way, I think." As she talked she moved the presents to under the tree which was really too big for the spot it was in. "I hear from your charming daughter that there is something you need to talk to me about in secret?" Ginny looked over her shoulder at Tonks who suddenly became quite uncomfortable looking. "Because if it was about the presents, I swear I kept it to a minimum like you warned me to do. Or I tried to and then I just well…It's as minimum as I could manage."
"Oh, it's not about…Right…erm, Felicity wasn't supposed to know about that. And certainly not tell you about it." Tonks frowned for a moment. "Er, there's a bit of a Christmas surprise in the kitchen, which is why I'll be taking your wand." The older woman held out her hand for Ginny's wand expectantly.
Confused, Ginny gave a small laugh. "Tonks, what do you mean you need my wand? What's in the kitchen?" The redhead made a move to get around her friend, but Tonks, even pregnant was quicker and simply kept her hand held out.
"Gin, I love you, but I am a trained auror and I need your wand right now before I can let you into the kitchen." She had a very serious expression on her face and so Ginny did as she was told.
"Do I get to know what I'm walking into without my wand? Or are you simply going to let me come up with a thousand ridiculous theories as to what could be in my kitchen right now?"" Ginny asked, her mind already racing with possibilities, each more unlikely than the one before it.
"Well…" Tonks hesitated. Bugger, she was rubbish at this. Why couldn't Remus come in and talk to Ginny? He was so much better at this sort of thing. He was all calm and collected where she was all…wordless. "Erm, I think it'll be better if I just…It's not the sort of surprise I can readily explain?"
"Tonks, you're not making any sense at all." Ginny sighed, giving her friend a confused look. "I'm going into the kitchen. With or without my wand, and with or without a heads up for what I'm going to find in there." The redhead made another move to get past the pregnant Auror, but was once again blocked.
"Ginny, wait." Tonks grabbed her friend's shoulders and held her steady looking her in the eye and taking a deep breath. "Just…you know. Keep in mind you're at your parents' house and that there are small children in the room as well. So…Be gentle?" With that Tonks reluctantly stepped aside allowing Ginny to move into the kitchen, following close behind her.
Rounding the corner towards the doorway, Ginny glanced over her shoulder at Tonks when she heard the muffled voices. "Honestly, what has got you all in such a sta-." She stopped short when she set eyes on the one thing she hadn't considered while her mind was racing in the other room. He was far too conspicuous among her family to be able to properly hide and it was no surprise that Ginny's eyes had gone straight to him. The teasing smile that had been on her face was replaced with a look of shock and when everyone realized that she was standing in the room, it went oddly silent.
"Surprise!" Felicity and Damien yelled together tossing their hands in the air playfully, oblivious to the emotions coursing through their aunt or the tension that had suddenly come into the room.
"Told'ja we could keep a secret, Uncle Harry." Felicity said in her best 'I-told-you-so' voice.
"Yeah! We're brills at secrets!" Damien piped up.
Heart pounding something fierce Ginny had only one option at that moment. "Happy Christmas, everyone. It's time I left. I'll stop by tomorrow. Presents are under the tree." Her voice was shaking and she was already turning to leave before anyone really grasped what she'd said.
There were calls of her name from behind her, but she didn't hear them, she was too busy trying to get a grip enough on herself to apparate back to her flat. Instinctively she began digging for her wand, then cursed under her breath and turned instead to the door. She just had to get out of the house. That was the first priority. Get out of the house before anyone could try and calm her down. She didn't want to be calm. She wanted to be the opposite of calm. She wanted to scream and to yell and to hex something into oblivion, but she couldn't do that in the Burrow on Christmas Eve and so she was going to get out of there as quickly as she could manage.
The air was bitter and cold and the snow was deeper than she'd anticipated. She cursed again as she wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm and she kept walking, despite the fact that her pants were getting soaked. She was numb enough from that blow that she could hardly tell anyhow. All she had to do was walk. If she kept in motion, she'd be alright. She didn't want to think about how this simply proved everyone right. She didn't want to think about how it was months' work of moving on undone. She didn't want to think about how she'd just walked out on Christmas Eve with her family because she couldn't face him. All she wanted to think about was how quickly she could get away from it all. She couldn't stay there.
"Ginny! Gin!" She heard her name being called from the doorway but she couldn't pick out the voice above the wind and she'd be damned if she was looking back now. Damn Tonks for taking her wand. Of course now it all bloody well made sense. The secrecy, the wand taking, why Tonks could barely look her in the eye. A lot of bloody good hindsight did her.
In her seething and self-pity, she didn't hear anyone come up behind her and was subsequently startled by the feeling of warm hands on her shoulders.
"Ginger…" Charlie started in his best big brother voice, but Ginny didn't want to hear it. She had spent far too long burying this as deep as she could and just when she was able to pretend things were normal, the rug was pulled out from under her.
She pulled away from Charlie's touch and kept walking. Charlie, however was not one to give up so easily and kept up with her pace.
"It's cold out here, Gin. You can't very well walk back to London in the snow." He tried teasing.
"You could always give me my shagging wand back and then I wouldn't bloody well have to walk back in the snow." She pointed out, her tone as biting as the wind.
"Have you tried to take something away from Tonks, ever? I mean, you could try if you want, but keep in mind that she's all knocked up like and really oughtn't be kicking the shite out of you. Which she'd still do mind." He was trying to keep the mood light, but it wasn't working particularly well.
"I'm not going back in there." She said, finally stopping to turn and look at her brother. "I don't care if it's cold and I don't care if you lot all hate me for ruining Christmas. I'll stop by tomorrow and then that'll be that. But I am not going in there." Her voice was cracking and she could feel that lump rising in the back of her throat. "Buggering hell."
"Right, well, we should've expected this, I'm sure." Charlie murmured, mostly to himself. He hated seeing anyone in his family this upset, but especially Ginny. She'd had to grow up entirely too fast and this simply wasn't fair to put her through. He let out a sigh and took off his jacket to put on her shoulders. It was entirely too big for her, but it was at least warmer than that jumper she was wearing. "Look, I know that you're upset and you feel left out of the loop and Merlin knows iI/i know how much you hate that." He started, he glanced down at his boots in the snow and sighed again. "But I wouldn't have let him in the house if I wasn't entirely positive that he was sorry for what happened after Tonks's wedding and how he took off and all. Remus is the only reason he even got past the twins. They were ready to skin him alive, you know." He put a gentle hand on his sister's shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. "He said he's back for good. And you know, you might be peeved," He paused when Ginny gave him a look reminding him that that was probably the understatement of the century. "Bit more than peeved," he amended quickly. "But if he is back like he says he is, you think it's going to be easy to simply flee the house every time he's over? Or what about when you go and stop by 'Mione's or Ron's? Hmm? You can't simply avoid him forever, love. He wasn't out to hurt you intentionally, I can be sure of that. He just needed his time and his space to deal with everything too, yeah? I'm not saying you have to forgive him, but I iam/i saying that you've got to at least give him the chance to earn your forgiveness. "
Ginny took all of this in, arms folded tightly across her chest and a set expression on her face. She knew Charlie was only trying to help. She couldn't very well fault him for that, but she wasn't sure she could go back in that house. Not yet. She couldn't deal with him. Not in the Burrow in front of her entire family. Because what she had in mind involved quite a number of expletives that she wasn't sure the kids should be made aware of until they were at least in their fifth year of Hogwarts. What she had in mind involved showing a side that some people in that house had never seen and only a few had seen back when this had first started. She remained very quiet for a very long moment before shaking her head and then began walking again.
Charlie let out an almost defeated sigh at his sister's silence. "It's Christmas Gin. Peace on Earth, Good will towards man, you know?" He was pulling out all the stops that he could think of. "Forgiveness and embracing the New Year?" Okay, he was running out of material. "Would you just come inside? I'm freezing my bits off out here! I'll stick by you and whisper dirty jokes in your ear all night, or we can put Fred and George up to the task and that way you won't have to think about it all. And if it's really all that horrible, I'll floo you home and make Tonks give you back your wand."
It was Ginny's turn to sigh. "When did you get all responsible and mature, hmm?" She demanded, her face still showing just how upset she was. "And how am I supposed to bloody well argue with 'It's Christmas' and all that other seasonal shite, hmm? Completely unfair. You're as bad as Bill." Her tone didn't show any softening but Charlie knew well enough that she was teasing and he cracked a small smile. "Mind you, you're all lucky it's bloody well Christmas, otherwise I'd be an only child for the crap you pulled sneaking behind my back with this." She gave him a pointed look which told him that she meant business, but it really only made him grin wider.
"That's my girl. Now hop on." He said crouching to give her a piggy-back ride.
"Charlie, I'm a big girl now, you're not going to give me a piggy-back ride. Honestly. I can walk back to the hou-AHH" She was picked up, unceremoniously and thrown over her brother's shoulder. "CHARLIE!"
"I'm faster than you! Besides, you're never too big for me to carry around like a kid. I don't know if you know this Gin, but you're kind of tiny." Charlie laughed as he jogged back to the house. He made sure he was holding her securely, but he knew she'd be having a right fit no matter what. It wasn't like he was going to drop her. Compared to the baby dragons he'd had to wrestle, she weighed absolutely nothing.
"Prat." Was all she managed as she clung to him tightly. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to not think about him dropping her.