Disclaimer: All characters are owned by J.K. Rowling.

Hi! This is my first FanFic, so don't get mad at me for having short chapters. I've never written before either, so….. yeah. You can get my gist. I would love reviews, so please, please, please review, seeing as I don't really know what I'm doing yet. Hehe. –xoxo Kyra

Don't Let the Ship take you Away

Chapter 1- Life and Love

Ginny walked down the hallway to and into her office. My entire morning wasted by another useless meeting in which no work even got done. She knew that if Professor McGonagall could see her now, she would have been very surprised. During her years at Hogwarts, Ginny Weasley had never been quite so ambitious; granted she had been smart and clever, but never diligent and studious. Life had changed for Ginny though.

After the end of the Final War, Ginny had found her place at the Ministry, working for the Department of Magical Games and Sports. She had always been an enthusiast when it came to Wizarding sports, ever since she had played Quidditch during her sixth year at The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Ginny had gotten her job easily. During the war, it had been she who killed Bellatrix Lestrange before she blew up a muggle office building, and then she convinced the two muggles who saw her that it was just a façade. Nevertheless, ministry officials had been impressed and had given her a decent job.

Ginny sat down at her desk and started rummaging through her drawers, looking for her contact book. She had forgotten the room number of Harry's office, and needed to send him a message immediately.

Harry, who Ginny had been fighting alongside with during the war, was working at the Auror's office, as the assistant head. Ginny knew that he would receive the position, seeing as he was the famous Harry Potter, who had killed Voldemort on the last day of the battle, as had been told in the prophecy.

"Damn it!" she muttered, as she withdrew her hand to reveal a thin paper cut across her ring finger. She stared at her hand for a second longer. Gingerly placed upon it was a large, square cut diamond set in a platinum band. It was her engagement ring, from her boyfriend of 3 years (and now fiancé of 2 months), James Tucker.

James had been working in the ministry for four years before Ginny had arrived, and they had started dating a month after she received her position. He worked in the Auror's office along with Harry, though he was the head of the department.

Ginny had met him a few times before she started working, though only concerning the war against Voldemort. James had been dealing with Harry much more. However, when they met later, he became attracted to her and had asked her out on several dates. Soon, they were dating and never stopped.

Ginny had never really thought much about James. Quite the contrary, she spent most of her time thinking about Harry. The truth was, that while Ginny was engaged to James, and had spent the last three years with him, she still had the same feelings as ever for Harry. Harry, the boy who had broken up with her in order to protect her, and then never asked her out again after she was out of harms way. She knew that it was foolish to still have feelings for him, but she couldn't help it. She cared about him, and deep down, still loved him.

She couldn't do it though. She couldn't keep these feelings alive, not if she was going to marry James. But there was no getting rid of them, and Ginny knew it.

"You ready for lunch, love?" James popped his head inside her door. "I made reservations at that nice little Japanese restaurant you love." He said in a semi-proud voice. Then he swerved into the room with one hand behind his back. He looked sharp and sophisticated in his dark grey suit (James had grown up a muggle, so wearing robes weren't his forte), but cute and adorable with his soft blue eyes and muffled dark brown hair.

"James, you've already proposed to me once, there's no need to do it again." Ginny said in a teasing voice. James smiled his sweet smile.

"Aww, I was thinking of that, but then I thought, 'Hey, maybe I should wait until Monday evening when you're in a fit because you realize how long the rest of the week is going to be.'" Ginny laughed. James pulled out a bouquet of white calla lilies, Ginny's favorite flower.

Ginny beamed. "Oh James, they're wonderful, thank you." She said, and she walked up to him, got on the tips of her toes and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

"That's all I get, eh?" James said, smirking, "Maybe I should have gotten you a second ring after all." Ginny giggled and went back to her desk.

"Just give me a minute, I have to quickly send a message over to Harry and we'll be off. Do you remember what his office number is?"

"I thought that you would have memorized it by now, seeing as its right next to mine." James teased. "It's 207, and mine is 206 incase you had also forgotten."

Ginny smirked and quickly stuck out her tongue for a moment. She knew that it was a tad bit immature, but she didn't care in the least. She was only twenty-one, she reasoned to herself. There was room for immaturity at that age.

Ginny reached for her quill and jotted down the number, then swiftly went over to her owl, Magda, and attached the letter.

"Alright, I'm ready." Ginny said as Magda flew off and she had retrieved her purse. As she was walked out of the office, James grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"Hold on a moment." He said. Then he affectionately placed his hands on the sides of Ginny's head and leaned down to kiss her. The kiss was tender and passionate. Not too soft, nor too hard, but perfect. "I love you."

Ginny stared at him for a second. She wasn't thinking about that fact that James loved her. She was thinking about Harry. She realized quickly that she hadn't said anything for well over five seconds, so she quickly said "I love you too." But inside, she knew that these words she would rather be directed to another person.

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A few floors away, Harry Potter sat at his desk, flipping through the pages of a Quidditch magazine, QLW: Quidditch Lovers Weekly. As he reached up to take a sip of his tea, a light brown owl flew over and deposited a letter in front of him. It then proceeded to fly over to the perch where Harry's owl Hedwig, stood waiting. Hedwig was Harry's most loyal companion, and although she was getting to be very old, she was still alive. Harry smiled.

He then looked down at the letter, and addressed to him by no other than Ginny Weasley. To him, Ginny was the once love of his life, and at the same time, his best friends' sister.

Ronald Weasley was one of Harry's best friends, along with his wife Hermione Granger Weasley. Hermione, Ron and Harry had been best friends through all seven years at Hogwarts, and once they had defeated Voldemort in the war, they had remained friends with their jobs at the Ministry. Hermione and Ron had gotten married the year before, after three years of dating. The engagement had been long awaited, Harry remembered.

It was a picturesque day, when Ron had apparated them himself and Hermione to the island of Capri, off the coast of Italy, bringing her to a dinner set up at the top of the mountain. There were lights everywhere, and as the sun was setting, Ron proposed. It had been the most romantic event in Hermione's life.

I wonder what Ginny had to say if she needed to write me a message about it… Harry mused. Normally she just comes down and tells me anything.

It was true though, ever since Ginny and James had gotten engaged, she had acted distant from Harry. It was puzzling to Harry, he didn't want James, who happened to be his boss, to be taking Ginny away from him all of the time.

He opened the letter and read:

Harry, I was wondering if you would like to go to dinner on Saturday, there are some things that I wanted to talk to you about. James is going to be away on his business trip to New York, so I thought that it would be a good time. Tell me if you can make it later.

-Ginny

Harry sat there looking at the letter. What does she need to tell me? Surely she could've told me in person.

He sat there for another few seconds until he got up and went out of his office. He was supposed to have lunch with Hermione and Ron, so he marched over to Hermione's office. Hermione worked in the Department of Muggle Relations, which was an easy job for her, seeing as she was raised a muggle. Ron, on the other hand, worked in the Department of International Magical Cooperation (during his seventh year, Ron had taken up five different languages, and after realizing that he could learn them easily, began to learn more).

"Hello Harry!" Hermione said cheerfully. "You ready for lunch? Ron should be down in just a moment."

On Hermione's wall above her desk stood a picture of her and Ron at their wedding. Granted, being in the Wizarding world meant that the picture was moving. It showed Hermione, in a long, white chiffon dress facing Ron, who was wearing a sharp black tux, looking into each others eyes and then kissing, and coming apart again. It was a beautiful picture, and Harry could tell that every few minutes, Hermione would look up and watch it for a second.

A few moments later, Ron burst into the room, carrying a bottle of champagne.

"GUESS WHAT!?"

Hermione stared at him incredulously. "Ronnie, dear, what it is?"

"I'VE GOTTEN PROMOTED!"

"Promoted!!!" Hermione squealed. "Ron that's great! I'm so happy!!" She leaped up from her desk and ran over to him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately on the lips. "I'm so proud of you! What position do you have now? Don't tell me…Did u get assistant head?"

"How did you guess?" Ron said in mock-shock. "It happened like this, right. I walked into Walker's office, and found him and McLeevey sitting down. They told me to take a seat and then went on to say, 'Ronald, we've noticed that you are doing very well here in our department. You converse easily with every wizard or witch that comes in! Your amiable and at the same time very quick and knowledgeable." Ron looked at both of them with a cocky grin. "And that's when they said, 'Now, based on the progress you've made, and how much hard work and effort you give every day, we've decided to promote you to Assistant Head of the department.'" Ron stared at the both of them with a wide grin across his face, his eyes gleaming with happiness and pride.

There was a moment's pause as Ron and Hermione stared at one another. Harry could tell that they were having what he referred to as a "moment".

" Well, why don't we celebrate, eh? I'm in the mood for Japanese." Ron suddenly said. Harry smirked and walked over to Ron and gave him a nice slap on the back.

"Good job, mate!" he said enthusiastically. "Maybe now you'll be able to take that vacation to China you and Hermione have wanted."

"That's what I was thinking!" Ron said. Judging by the tone of his voice, Harry could tell that he was more than ecstatic. Ron was down-right in heaven.

The three of them left the office with Ron rambling on about everything he had heard about the Chinese wizards. "You know Harry, they're the ones that first discovered invisibility charms…"

Harry just kept smiling, but didn't pay all that much attention to Ron. He had heard these facts too many times to care.

Once outside of the Ministry, they hid behind the telephone booth which served as the Ministry's elevator, and apparated to the restaurant.