Ginny woke up to a room full of feathers. With a jolt, she looked down at her hand. Her wedding ring was gone.
She peered blearily around the room. Harry always did get too hot at night and had yet again opened the windows. The bloody owls had gotten in for the third time that week. The letters of congratulations and charmed confetti littered the floor under a thick layer of feathers of all colours and sizes, lit by the soft dawn light.
It was only a couple of days since they had announced the pregnancy to the public and the letters had flooded in. Harry's celebrity had yet to die down, even five years after the war and everyone wanted to celebrate.
Merlin's hat, what the hell had Harry done with her ring this time? Last month, she had caught him trying to place a tracking charm on it. The month before it was a Auto-Apparition charm, an experimental spell that would automatically apparate the wearing of the ring to wherever he was. The only reason she found out is because Ron had mysteriously Apparated into her living room, splinched and howling. Withholding pain potions had loosened his tongue, despite the warning glare her husband had tried to throw his way.
Maybe telling Harry about the pregnancy was a mistake, she thought. Perhaps she should have used a concealment charm on her belly until she went into labour and tossed the little sprog into his arms with so little warning. His overprotective nature had reached new heights. And it was suffocating her. To think had another six months of it.
"I can't believe he's done it again!" Ginny leapt from the bed and sprinted down the stairs from their second floor bedroom. She leapt agily over the last creaky step as she reached the ground floor careful not to wake the portrait of Walburga Black. They still hadn't been able to unstick her from the wall.
That's another thing Ginny had to talk to Harry about, this Slytherin den of a house.
She raced down into the kitchen, expecting him to be sitting at the kitchen table, tinkering away with her ring. In fact, he wasn't there. Ginny let out a frustrated snarl and kicked a wooden chair over.
Shuffling feet appeared from the tiny cupboard at the back of the kitchen. "What can Kreacher get for Mistress? Is Mistress hungry?"
"Oh, Kreacher. Sorry for waking you up. I was wondering if you knew where Harry was."
"Master is upstairs in the attic, Mistress."
"Ugh," she moaned. Running a couple of flights was fine, but climbing up six flights of stairs was really too much. Besides, she wanted to catch him out and he would surely hear her coming.
An idea occurred to her, and she smiled. "Actually Kreacher, there is something you could do to help me."
"Of course Mistress, anything."
"Apparate me into the attic."
Ginny smirked at the way her husband jumped at the loud pop of her appearance. He scrambled for his wand and pointed it where she had appeared. Her time as Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies was surely not wasted. She had already moved several feet to the right before Harry had even swung his wand around.
"Hello, husband."
With a hand clutched to his chest, he panted, "Hello, wife."
"What are you up to at this very early hour?"
Harry immediately blushed and shuffled rolls of parchment on his makeshift workbench until his left hand was buried underneath his scribbled notes. "Nothing important, just something for work."
"Is that so? I didn't realise the Auror department had need of your wife's wedding ring."
Harry grinned sheepishly. "Robards hasn't asked for your ring. I, erm, I just wanted to give it a bit of a clean, that's all. You did bake some of your delicious bread yesterday and I was worried you had some dough stuck in it."
"Potter, don't you dare lie to me," said Ginny, pointing a finger in warning at him. "You know I always cast an anti-sticking charm on my hands before I start kneading." She walked to him and put her hands on his chest. He couldn't help but flinch. She really was terrifying when she was upset.
He sighed. "I was trying to find a way to put a shield charm on it. I asked George how they made the Shield Hats but I think he might have not given me all the instructions." He lifted his hand. "I put it on but I'm experiencing some side effects." His left hand flashed in multitude of different colours, from red, to blue, to purple, to green. The finger he had put the ring on was swollen and flashing the most vibrantly.
"Oh, Harry. You blithering idiot! We have our interview with the Daily Prophet today. Take the ring off."
"I can't, my hand is too swollen."
"Have you tried a Shrinking Charm?"
"Yes. But that's what caused all the colours." Harry pushed his glasses back up his nose. He ran a hand through his hair. "I've tried loads. Nothing seems to work."
"We'll have to find a way to fix this before ten o'clock." Ginny sighed.
"Or we could just cancel?" he said, hopefully.
"You can bat your eyelashes at me all you like, dearest. We have rescheduled our appointment several times already."
"I know. I just really hate talking to reporters."
Ginny sat on his lap and wrapped her arms gently around him. "I know you do. But it's not about you this time, it's about the baby." She kissed his cheek and leaned her head against his. "You have a famous wife with fans to please. And if my meeting next week goes well, I'll be one of those reporters too."
"You'll be nothing like them! Pushy, yes. But always honest. I don't believe you would ever post the same nonsense that awful woman did."
Skeeter. Ginny narrowed her eyes. If there was ever anyone who could ruin a perfectly lovely day, it was that woman. There's nothing quite like an unfounded rumour to spoil a girl's wedding day.
"Let's not talk about that wretched woman." Ginny stood , pulling Harry up with her. "Show me the spell you used, maybe we can solve this by working together."
They couldn't. Thank Godric Hermione was an early riser.