Portkeys
I got a lot more feedback for "At Last" than I expected, so I just had to write this part, too. Once again, fluffy, feel-good, innocent romance! I might not be done with this either. I've simply had too much fun with these two stories.
*****
"Hello, Harry dear!" Mrs. Weasley sang as Harry arrived in the kitchen at the Burrow. He looked around and breathed deeply, relishing in the comforting familiarity… the scrubbed wooden table, the gentle clink of the pots and pans as they washed themselves, and the ever-present sense of chaos. The Burrow was definitely high, if not first, on Harry's list of favorite places. His others included Hogwarts and Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. The latter had changed much in the last two years. A silencing charm had been placed around Mrs. Black's portrait, making her much less offensive. Also, the tapestry portraying the extensive Black family tree had been covered by a large, framed photograph of the second Order of the Phoenix, with Sirius himself front and center. Moody's small picture of the original Order had been tacked up beside it. Also, Kreacher's head had joined the collection and the place had, in general, been livened up some. Mrs. Weasley was predominantly responsible for this. She had insisted that the house do justice to Sirius's memory and proceeded to replace all of the doorknobs and the umbrella stand, and fill the house with an array of mismatched, but nevertheless lively, colors. Although the sight of the place still stung Harry to the core because of the memory of the godfather he had barely grown to know, Harry also felt strangely at peace there. He knew Sirius would be happy with the way the place looked now, and something about the cheerful air of the house made Harry hopeful that, as miserable as Sirius's life on Earth had been, Sirius might just be happy now.
"Ron's just gone up to his room, but I daresay he might not be there anymore," she added with a grin. "I daresay you know what the twins are up to?"
"Yeah," Harry said, smiling as well, "Ginny told me."
"What did I tell you?" came Ginny's clear voice from behind Harry in the living room. He turned and felt a thrill of energy run through him.
"Ginny, hey!" he said, rushing forward to take her into his arms. He allowed himself a few short moments to nestle his face into her silky, bright red hair. It was hard to believe that she was actually his, and that she had been for about 18 months now. He breathed in the now-familiar feminine scent of her hair. He couldn't help it. His mind took him unwittingly back to that horrible, wonderful night a year and a half ago.
*****
It was shortly after Christmas, and Harry was sitting in front of the common room fire, gazing out of the window at a fresh, January snowfall. As usual, his thoughts were with Sirius. It had been almost seven months since Sirius had fallen through that mysterious veil, but Harry's was finding that the healing process was a very long one indeed. Harry imagined that, if he had been at a reasonable age when his parents had been killed, the loss would have felt something like this.
"Harry Potter, you are terrible. Honestly, I know you don't have it exactly great… Ok, I'll give you that much. Your life is dead rotten, but if you would just make an effort to be happy, you would find that it's not as bad as it seems. It's actually quite pleasant most of the time."
Harry turned abruptly to see the petite form of Ginny Weasley standing in front of him. She had her hands on her hips, exactly the way her mother might have done, and her head was tilted to one side with exasperation. Harry couldn't help but smile a little at the sight of her. Since his fifth year, when she had finally begun being able to open up around him, he had come to appreciate her as more than Ron's younger sister. And he was starting to regret that she didn't seem to have a helpless crush on him anymore. Although, unless he was much mistaken, some of that was coming back…
"That's better," she said, and she sat down beside him in an armchair. She waited for him to turn and look at her before speaking again, in a much softer tone. "You were thinking about Sirius, weren't you?"
"Yeah," said Harry, his voice cracking at the confession. "I was."
"I know you miss him, Harry," she said, "but everyone goes through this loss at some point. It helps sometimes to know that you aren't alone."
"That's the thing, though, I am," said Harry. He was shocked at himself. He had never admitted these feelings aloud before, not even to Ron and Hermione. "I grew up as an orphan, and Sirius was the closest thing to a parent I ever knew. And not only that, but he was my strongest link to my parents."
"Yes, I know he was. And I reckon that he saw you as a link to James, too." Harry was taken aback by this view of things. He had never supposed that Sirius had needed him as much as he had needed Sirius. Somehow, that idea didn't help him much.
"Sirius understood me," said Harry, not commenting on Ginny's idea. "He understood me like no one else has, because he understood my dad… and my mum," he added as an afterthought.
Ginny had turned her gaze from his and was looking into the fire with an odd expression on her face. She looked almost scared, but there was an emotion in her large brown eyes that was definitely not fear, though what it was, Harry could not say.
"I could understand you," she said finally. Her voice was impossibly quiet, but Harry caught every word. Did she mean what he thought she meant?"
"W – What?" Ginny took a deep breath, as though resigning herself to a difficult task.
"I said, I could understand you, if you gave me a chance, I mean. I want to, Harry. I want to know you the way Sirius did. I know you don't have a good life, and I know you aren't happy, but I want to share it with you. Maybe – Maybe I could help you to be happy?"
Until that moment, Harry hadn't realized how much he cared about Ginny Weasley. But the full weight of it fell on him in that moment, as she looked at him with that frightened look on her face and that longing in her eyes.
"Will you?" he asked.
*****
"That will be enough now," said Mrs. Weasley abruptly, jerking Harry back to the present. He pulled away from Ginny and shook his head lightly, while Ginny giggled.
"Sorry," he said, "just daydreaming. I seem to do a lot of that lately." At that moment, Fred and George appeared at the bottom of the stairs, positively beaming.
"He's taken the portkey!" George said excitedly. "We've just got to hope Hermione has, too."
"Yeah," said Fred, "But it looks like everything is perfect. We're just to – erm – nip on over to Hogsmeade. Somebody needs to be there to let them know where they are, after they – er – talk things over." Mrs. Weasley gave a snort of disbelief, though she was smiling, and Harry grinned. The twins had long since developed Extendable Eyes to got with their Extendable Ears. "Want to come along?" asked Fred, looking from Harry to Ginny.
"Yeah, sure – " began Ginny, but at a look from Harry she fell silent. She looked quizzically at him, but he shook his head lightly. "Erm, no thanks," she said.
She waited patiently for Fred and George to disapparate before rounding on Harry.
"Oh, come on, Harry. Why can't we go?"
"I – er – just don't want to, ok?"
"Of course you do! We've wanted to see this for ages!" Harry glanced down at his watch nervously. He could feel the weight of the ring in his pocket.
"I really think we should stay here," said Harry with a tone of finality, "We never get any time by ourselves anymore."
"Fine," Ginny said huffily, and she sat down on the sofa with her arms crossed. Neither spoke for several minutes. Harry was enjoying watching Ginny in her bad mood. He had never told her how irresistible he found her when she was irritated. When the silence was broken by an audible "hmph," Harry could stand it no longer.
"Ginny," he said abruptly, keeping one eye on his watch. His timing had to be perfect. "Can I show you something?"
For a moment, the harsh look in her eyes was replaced by innocent curiosity. The look soon returned, but it seemed as though she were willing herself to keep it there now.
"I guess so."
"Erm – ok. Can we, er, go up to your room, maybe? So we can have some privacy?"
"Fine," she said. She stood up rather quickly and turned toward the stairs, making a show out of swinging her hair over her shoulder. Harry followed her up the rickety staircase and into her room, where he shut the door behind him and, without speaking, leaned forward purposefully and took her by surprise by kissing her on the mouth. He was relieved to see that, when he pulled back, all pretence of anger had vanished.
"What was that for?" she asked him.
"Because, even though I don't say it near enough, I love you, Ginny Weasley."
"I know you do, Harry. And I love you," she reached out and playfully rumpled his hair. "So what did you want to show me?"
"Oh," heart pounding, Harry dug into his pocket and pulled out a navy ring box. It was then that his brain pretty much surrendered to his reflexes. Harry simply acted without thinking, doing almost exactly as he had practiced. He was vaguely aware of his heart thumping erratically in the region of his voice box and some portion in his brain heard Ginny's small gasp, but he took no notice; he just plunged on recklessly. But then, caution had never been one of his strong suits.
"Ginny, I know we're young and you aren't even finished with school yet. And I know that some people will think I'm crazy. Maybe even you. And I'm not trying to move too fast or anything. But I want everyone to know that we belong together. I want us to know that! I want you to wear this for me." And Harry opened the box.
Ginny gasped a lot more loudly this time. The ring in the box was silver. Ginny had always expressed disgust for gold. The diamond set into it was simply beautiful. It was large enough to be impressive, but not so large that it was gaudy or pretentious. It reflected a depth of consideration usually not typical of Harry. It was rectangular and framed on either side by smaller, square diamonds. There was only one word for it: elegant.
"Oh my! Harry!" Ginny was staring at him with her mouth wide open, but Harry's eyes were still on his watch as she stretched out her hand to take the ring. 3 – 2 – 1! Ginny's hand made contact with the box at exactly the right moment. Harry felt his feet being lifted off the ground as he and Ginny were pulled along in gale of wind and color.
*****
Moments later, they were slammed forcefully into the ground. Harry's knees buckled and he fell forward, but Ginny remained standing. She tore her eyes away from the ring box in her hand to look around at their new location. They were standing on a beach of white sand that seemed to stretch on for miles all around them. The waves were meeting the sand only feet in front of her. She watched the waves break and foam repeatedly, awestruck, until it occurred to her to be puzzled. It was, quite plainly, night. A half moon was high in the sky and it seemed to form a spotlight of sorts over herself and Harry, who had gotten to his feet and was brushing sand off of his robes. A light breeze was blowing the sand around their feet and causing Harry's hair to be more untidy than was usual.
"Where are we?"
"Let's just say that it's nowhere you've ever been before. And probably nowhere you've ever even heard of." He was grinning at her in the way she loved, the way that made it impossible for her not to grin back.
"So, the ring box was a portkey? Is that what you did?"
"Yeah," he answered, still grinning. "You can thank your brothers for giving me the idea. It will take us back in five minutes. I just wanted to give us some time alone, so I could do this properly." His voice, Ginny noticed, was remarkably clear and steady. Ginny didn't feel steady at all. Her head suddenly seemed to have been inhabited by a thick, opaque fog that clouded her senses and made her aware of nothing and everything at the same time. She was uncomfortable aware of her heartbeat. She could feel her uneven pulse in her temples, her fingertips, her chest, and her toes. However, when she saw Harry take his knee, it was as though she were watching some sort of movie that could never really be true.
"So, I'll just be straight with you, to the point," he was saying. She was having to strain to listen to him, because the combined sounds of the blood pounding in her ears and the mist swirling in her mind were threatening to drown out all other sound. "I wanted to ask you," he said. "If you'll marry me. Not necessarily right away. In fact, I want you to finish school first. That's how it should be. But I couldn't wait another minute to ask you. Share your life with me, Ginny?"
And then a remarkable thing happened. The fog in Ginny's mind cleared. She could still feel hear heart pounding painfully, but it at least seemed to have quieted down a bit. She was amazed at how clear her mind seemed suddenly. She could hear the slight wind and the waves hitting the sand. Her body was no longer in her control, but her mind was. Her mind was perfectly calm. She knew that this was right and there was nothing in the world to be afraid of.
"Harry," she began, and now her voice was steady, too, "you are my life."
"Is that a yes?"
She almost choked on her imminent tears as she answered.
"Yes," she breathed. Harry stood up straight, smiling with relief and happiness.
"Don't cry," he warned her as he slipped the ring onto the fourth finger on her left hand, "I might cry if you do, and that would seriously taint my image."
She laughed as he wrapped his arms around her and held her closely. She turned her face upward and buried it the crook of his neck. "I love you," he whispered, almost inaudibly, "and I would like nothing better than to stay here forever, but the portkey should be about ready to take us back, and if we're late, you mum will worry."
"Mum?" asked Ginny, taken aback, "She knows about this?"
"Yeah, I asked your dad, well, both your parents, because I thought it would take some of the pressure off of you. They were both better than I thought; your mum said they'd been expecting this. But I daresay your dad enjoyed putting me through my paces." Ginny laughed again.
"Well, I'm his only daughter, aren't I? I suppose he had to make the best of his one chance to do that."
"Yeah, he – Oh, it's time to go." He fished the ring box out from where he'd recently deposited it in his pocket and held it out for Ginny to take hold. She had only had her hand on it for a couple seconds when she felt the jerk and knew she was going back.
*****
Mrs. Weasley was waiting for them in the living room when they arrived. She jumped to her feet almost instantly and rushed forward as though to hug them, but miraculously held herself back. She stopped a few feet from them, rocking backward and forward on her toes, waiting for them to speak first.
But Ginny wasn't speaking; she seemed to be enjoying watching her mother struggle. So Harry followed her lead and fixed his face into what he hoped was an innocent, blank expression.
"Well?" Mrs. Weasley said finally, looking at Ginny. Her voice was extremely high-pitched and hopeful, Harry noticed, not to mention loud. She looked as nervous as he had felt just minutes ago. "Did he ask you? Did you ask her, Harry? Out with it, out with it! What did you say?"
"I SAID YES!" Ginny exclaimed, matching her mother's volume. Ginny was visibly bursting with excitement. Harry didn't think she could have held herself in one more second. "Of course I said yes! We're getting married!"
"Oh!" Harry smiled broadly as he watched Ginny and her mother rush toward each other, Mrs. Weasley dabbing at her eyes. "I'm so happy," she was saying. "Just so happy…"
"Me too, Mum, but I'd be a whole lot happier if you'd let me go, so I can breathe. And I need to visit the loo, too."
"Oh, of course," said Mrs. Weasley. She waited for Ginny to go upstairs before she turned and enveloped Harry in one of her trademark bone-crushing hugs.
"Harry, this is just wonderful," she said in his ear. "You're just perfect for Ginny; she loves you so much." She pulled back, holding him by the shoulders at arm's length, and looked him directly in the eye. "If I had to create the perfect person for my only daughter," she said, "I don't think he'd be anywhere as perfect as you. You've always been part of our family, Harry; it's just going to be official now. It is just wonderful."
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," said Harry. Even to him, the words sounded lame, but he meant them completely.
After a few moments, Ginny reappeared at the bottom of the stairs, and Mrs. Weasley retreated to the kitchen.
"Ron and Hermione should be back soon," she said. "Do you want to tell them or should I?" Harry grimaced at the thought of what Ron would say when he heard the news. It had been hard enough to get Ron to accept Harry and Ginny as a couple.
"Maybe…" he thought aloud, "…if I start pretending to be all protective of Hermione…" He and Ginny laughed together. There had been a lot of laughter that day.
At that moment, there came four soft popping sounds from the kitchen, announcing the arrival of Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George. Harry and Ginny exchanged one happily nervous look and, brimming with joy, walked toward the kitchen, steeling themselves for the announcement.
*****
I would like to thank everyone who reviewed "At Last" and motivated me to write this one: The Marauder's Map, mardonmepadam, StAr ShAdOw, Ron-Is-Mine, Dncr119, animezebra, Blue.Rose.Marcella, Araanaz, Ron Weasley, Sayra Louise, highlandgurl, Phoenix Feather, and E.M. Gonzalez.
E.M.Gonzalez: your review was very helpful, thank you!
Highlandgurl: I agree that a lot of things in Book 5 seemed pointless. That was one of the things bothering me, but I think that we'll find that JK used Book 5 to plant a lot of clues for the next 2, so a lot of stuff just kinda had to be there, you know? I don't think anyone will be able to fully appreciate OoTP until they've read the Books 6 and 7…
I had as much fun writing this as I did writing "At Last." It also gave me a chance to express some of my own feelings about Sirius through Harry and Ginny. Ron-Is-Mine suggested that I write about Ron and Hermione at Harry and Ginny's wedding. I love that idea and I just might do it, because I'm really enjoying these little fic-lets. (Can you imagine Ron making a speech? *shudder*) Anyway, all in favor? J Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance if you are one of the wonderful people who reviews this!