Harry walked into what surely would be certain death. Ginny, close beside him, squeezed his hand tightly. A subtle but affectionate gesture, Harry noted.
Before going through the door, Harry stopped. Ginny waited patiently for him to collect himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and imagined the positive outcome of the situation. After a minute, he opened his eyes and nodded to Ginny. They continued into the house.
He was briefly greeted by several family members while continuing onto the dining room. The large oaken table seemed to encourage him somewhat as he pulled out a chair and sat down, with Ginny taking a seat beside him.
The food was delicious, and it was easy enough to eat forkful after forkful without much thought to it. The people around him made mild conversation. Instead of joining in, he went over what was going to happen over and over again, and each time he was still in doubt.
Finally, dessert was served, but he wouldn't have been able to eat any more anyway; his stomach was too full of butterflies.
Before anyone could take a bite, Harry stood up on shaking legs. The crowd at the table looked up at him, curious about what he was going to say.
Harry took a deep breath and said, trying to keep his voice steady, "Ginny and I have an announcement to make." At this, Ginny rose from the table. She slowly held up a trembling left hand.
A diamond ring glinted on her fourth finger that had not been there during dinner.
There was an outbreak of applause and cheers. Everyone that had been at the table stood up to congratulate them: Mrs. Weasley, with tears in her eyes, Ron, who was pink in the face, Hermione, smiling profusely, and Mr. Weasley, who winked at Harry after shaking his hand.
Bill, Fleur, Percy, and George all looked happy and excited at what was to come. Even Victoire, Bill and Fleur's three-year-old daughter, laughed in pleasure.
A bottle of Firewhiskey was unearthed from a cupboard, and there were many toasts on the new couple. A few lawn chairs were conjured and everyone went outside to sit and talk about the future, like all families do at one point or another.
Harry enjoyed the acceptance into the Weasley family, but in truth, all he wanted was to spend some time with the woman he loved. Ginny was bounced back and forth between family members' conversations so fast that it was like a game of Ping Pong.
A few minutes later, Harry saw a flash of red disappear into the house. He excused himself from the conversation he'd been in and found Ginny sitting on a couch in the living room, her legs pulled up to her chest. She looked up when he entered the room and sighed.
"There are just too many people out there," she said.
"I know the feeling," he said, sitting down beside her. He put his arm around her lithe figure and smiled. He could see his reflection in her eyes.
She put her legs down off the chair and moved towards him. She leaned her head down on his shoulder. He stroked her arm tenderly.
Ron walked in. He spotted the two sitting together.
"Hey, don't do anything funny, ok? I'll have my eye on you." He did a cliche finger motion, with two fingers pointing at him, then at Harry.
"Ron, we're getting married!" Ginny said fiercely, "and for your information, Harry can do whatever he wants with me." Harry felt his face go hot.
Ron threw up his hands in defeat and walked out of the room.
"Can I really?" he asked her in a mock-surprised voice after a minute, and she laughed and kissed his cheek. Even still, after all the years they had spent together, it sent shivers up his spine.
They looked at each other for a moment, and leaned in for another kiss, on the lips this time. Harry felt both their pulses go wild, and he wrapped both arms around her.
There was no Ron or anyone else to disturb them for the endless seconds that they kissed. Her hands tousled his hair, then slid down his back to rest there. He wanted to be there until the end of time, that flowery scent crashing over him like a tidal wave.
For minutes on end they sat there, joined by the lips, until Ginny surfaced, gasping for breath. She was beautiful, even though her hair was messy and her cheeks were bright pink. Harry wanted to keep kissing her, quite possibly forever, but he held in his desire and waited to catch his breath.
They sat there for a moment longer, panting, when Ron decided to come back in the room.
"Darn, guess I missed it, my internal clock must be off..." he said to himself, looking at his watch after glancing at them. He continued out the door.
Their eyes lingered on the door for a few seconds. They could hear people talking on the other side, many conversations going at once. Mrs. Weasley must have invited the Lovegoods to celebrate.
Just as he had the thought, Luna came through the door. She took a look at their appearences, whirled, and ran right back out.
"Bet she's going to go tell everyone we've been snogging," Ginny said playfully.
"Your mum is not going to like that," he said, serious.
"Not if she can't find us," Ginny said excitedly, jumping up off the couch and dragging him by the hand to her bedroom.
Not much had changed since he had been there on his 17th birthday. A picture of himself, taken by Ginny under the beech tree, now accompanied Gwenog Jones and the laughing photo of Fred.
He admired the simplicity while Ginny ran over to her desk and muttered, "Alohomora." The bottom drawer opened, and she put one foot into the drawer.
Harry looked at her in surprise as her leg sunk clearly past the normal depth. He walked over to the desk and peered down past Ginny. Rungs of a ladder continued down into darkness.
"In here," she whispered, and Harry stepped in after her, climbing slowly down into oblivion. After a minute or two, Harry's foot hit bottom and he stepped off the ladder into a small dimly-lit room. There were a couple of potted plants in a corner, with a small couch and quilt. There was a bookcase next to it. The walls were a dark yellow, with a few lamps in the corner opposte the plants.
Ginny watered the plants with her wand while Harry admired the room. When she was done, he was sitting on the couch, reading a book he had taken off the shelf.
She curled up beside him as he finished the page, then put the book on the table next to the couch. He sighed as she caressed his ear with her forefinger.
After a minute of silence, he said, "We need to talk." She nodded and waited for him to continue.
"I mean, the future holds a lot of stuff out there for us, and I think we should take some time to think about what we really need to live a good life together. If you wanted, we could live at Grimmauld Place, but of course with some new decorations, I don't think the house elf heads would be very attractive to guests, but we could have the wedding in a few months, and children..." He trailed off. He had tried to bring up the topic of children nonchalantly, but it immediately brought a new light onto the conversation for Ginny.
A few minutes passed.
"So you want them?" Ginny asked. He couldn't read her expression.
"Want what?" he said, although he knew where it was going..
"Children," she replied.
His heart skipped a beat.
"Well, yeah," he said slowly.
She kissed him on the cheek. "That's what I was hoping for."
Her lips found his again, pulling him closer, and he wove his hands into her hair, breathing in her sweet aroma.
"Mrs Potter," he said into the hollow of her throat, and from that moment on he knew that there was no turning back.
Well, this is Harry and Ginny's engagement... I might to a few chapters on the wedding in another story. Hope you enjoyed it! NOTE: Harry was talking about not turning back on their wedding, not anything else. Just to clear that up.
Reviews always appretiated, constructive critism accepted and taken into consideration!