I'm always in awe of someone who can make a world (or worlds) appear out of nowhere. Good Sci-Fi authors do it; good fantasy writers do it. I can't. J.K. Rowling created the fascinating world of Harry Potter right down to the characters' foibles and created a backyard of our world for them, and us, to play in. These characters I write about, in my bumbling way, belong to her. They are the children of her imagination.
I thank Ms. Rowling for having these children and giving us this backyard to play in.
This is my first foray into fan fiction. I have ideas for one or two more. They, like this one, will be short, focusing around a single event. We'll see how thing go.
This story takes place a few months after Ginny graduates Hogwarts.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The beach was romantic in the twilight. The gentle waves lapped onto the sand, the distant clouds just starting to turn soft pink. The air was still warm but the ocean breeze cooled the man and woman walking hand in hand. He was of average size, with glasses and a head of black hair no comb could tame. She was trim and wore her long, red hair in a thick braid straight down her back. The only other people in sight were another couple climbing the rocky cliffs that abutted the beach.
Harry pulled Ginny into an embrace. "I love you," he told her. "I can't believe we're finally alone together."
"I've loved you for a long time," she responded. "You just took a while to notice. And when you finally did, you weren't able to focus too much attention on it. After all, you had other things to do."
"True," he agreed wryly. "But sometimes I imagined you naked and in my bed." He turned serious. "That dream helped me get through tough times. I'd fantasize about how you'd look and how you'd feel. Boy, was I wrong!"
"Wrong?" Ginny exclaimed. "What's wrong with me?"
"Not a thing. It's just that you're better than I expected. I guess I don't have much of an imagination."
Ginny turned in the circle of Harry's arms and they looked out at the water. "Too right," she muttered. Ginny looked around and didn't see anybody, except the couple on the rocks. She took his hands from her waist and placed them on her breasts. "Even I couldn't imagine how good it is," she said, snuggling against him.
The moment was shattered by a woman's scream. They looked to the rocks where they saw the couple surrounded by four men. A flash of light from one of the men hit the woman and she fell to the ground. Her companion tried to fight their attackers but was hit by a spell.
Ginny looked up Harry. "Let's go," she cried and reached for her wand.
Harry grabbed his wand from his pocket. "Ready." They apparated to the top of the rocks, facing the four masked attackers.
"Stupefy!" they both yelled. Ginny's spell hit one of the attackers and he slid to the ground unconscious. Harry missed with his spell when his target leaped to the side and fired off a return curse. The other two attackers fired off spells at the same time. Harry shouted "Protego!" to block the incoming spells.
A disarming spell from Ginny missed her target. She followed up quickly with a Bat-Bogey hex momentarily distracting the attacker, allowing her "Stupefy!" to take him out of the action.
"Two down," Harry shouted as he dodged a hex from one of the two remaining attackers. "Obscuro!" he cried, then "Stupefy!" knocked out the third attacker. Harry turned to help Ginny with the fourth attacker and couldn't help laughing. She had sent a couple "Avis Oppugno" charms at the guy and he had small birds flying madly around him and pecking at his head.
Harry caught his breath and sent a series of spells at each of the attackers to tie them up. "You ok?" he asked Ginny.
"Yes. You?" she replied.
"Yeah. I wonder what this was all about," Harry said. "The masks don't look like the ones Death Eaters wear."
He crossed to Ginny and hugged her. She tilted her face up for a kiss.
A series of pops alerted Harry and Ginny to others apparating in. They spun around with wands at the ready, facing six men and women in uniforms, all pointing their wands at them.
"Police," one of the men shouted, "put up your wands."
"Identify yourselves first," Harry shouted back, without lowering his wand.
"I'm Sergeant Derek Wilson, Office of Magical Enforcement," the man called and showed his badge. "What happened here?"
Harry and Ginny lowered their wands. "We're Aurors on holiday from the British Ministry of Magic. We were walking along the beach by the cliffs and saw these two get attacked by those four masked men. We pitched in to stop it."
"Just you two? Against those four?"
"Right," Ginny said, "though they didn't put up much of a fight. I don't think they were very well trained."
"Hanson," the sergeant said, "check the Muggles and see who the captives are."
"Right, Sarge," one of the men responded. "The Muggles are ok," he said after a moment. "We'll need to do a memory charm on them. I'll take care of that and see that they get back to their car." He peered at the four bound wizards. "I don't know these three," he said, "but this one is Clive Baker. We've been searching for him for a year or so."
"Baker? There's a reward out for him." The sergeant turned back to Harry and Ginny. "You need to come with me so I can get official statements."
They nodded and, after getting coordinates from the sergeant, they disapparated.
* * *
The view was breath-taking from the Office of Magical Enforcement. "You're looking at the Sierra Nevada Mountains, probably the youngest mountain range in the world. That peak there is Mount Whitney, the highest point in the forty-eight states." The sergeant pointed southeast, "About eighty miles that way is Death Valley, the lowest point. Both are worth visiting.
"Now, let's get the paper work done so you folks can get going." He took a pad of paper and a quill from his pocket and tested it. It reminded Harry of Rita Skeeter's poison-quill. The sergeant asked Harry and Ginny to tell the story in their own words. When they were done, he made copies and had them sign the statements.
"Ok," he said, "I think that's it."
"What was that all about, anyway, Sergeant?" Harry asked.
"We've been having trouble with raiders along the coast for the past few years. They prey on Muggles, mostly."
"I was kind of surprised they weren't using a killing curse," Ginny said.
"I'm not," the sergeant replied. "Clive Baker is strongly against magic that will hurt someone, even accidentally, like falling of a cliff.
"I take it you've had experience with killers if you were involved in that Voldemort thing in England."
"Yes," Harry said tersely. "We were there."
"Well, it's a good thing that's over. I want to thank you both for your help today. If there's anything I can do to make the rest of your stay here in the California enjoyable, just let me know."
"Thanks," Harry said. "But we leave tomorrow for Hawaii."
"Well, have a safe trip and I hope the rest is less, er, energetic." They all shook hands and the sergeant watched as they walked away. "By the way," the sergeant shouted, "where do you want us to send the reward?"
Harry and Ginny looked at each other and grinned. Harry shouted back, "Donate it to whatever benevolence fund you have for families of officers injured or killed in the line of duty." They waved and disappeared.
"Sarge," said officer Hanson. "It's funny that they didn't want the reward. It's a lot of money."
"Not to them. They're loaded. According to the license they showed me, those two are Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley-Potter, married last week at the Wiccan Chapel in Las Vegas."