A/N: Thank you to all who viewed the last chapter—please review! I take suggestions, also! And yes, I know I said "one-shot" in the first chapter, but that was a typo. Whups. Oh, and I forgot to include the disclaimer…dear me, I'm getting old!
I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING! ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO J.K. ROWLING except for the ones I make up.
So this chapter is when Harry and Ginny announce their engagement, not wedding, to the Weasley men (George, Fred, Charlie, Bill, Ron, Percy) and Lily and James.
Ginny was so happy.
Ever since having an unhealthy obsession over Harry Potter, even adulating over him—she'd finally come to realize that he was an ordinary young man with an extraordinary task in front of him.
And moreover, Harry had come to realize that love was truly the most powerful form of magic. He'd learned to love despite all the hardships he and his friends had gone through.
So, one fateful moonlit night, when the sky was clear and all was peaceful, Harry had proposed to Ginny as the breeze ruffled her hair and skirt and the smell of night flowers permeated the air.
Unfortunately, that was how it was supposed to go. In reality, Harry had been so nervous that the question had popped out at a casual dinner at 12 Grimmauld Place because Ginny had seen the box with the ring in it.
Ginny was delighted all the same, but Kreacher would forever hold this embarrassing moment against Harry.
? ? ?
"Harry?" Ginny called, wandering through the house. As there was no response, Ginny called Kreacher.
With a SNAP, Kreacher appeared, bowing low. "Yes, Mistress Weasley?"
"Do you know where Harry is, Kreacher?"
Kreacher smiled a bit. "Master Harry is out doing something secret, Mistress Weasley. Master Harry says not to tell Mistress Weasley. Would Mistress Weasley like something to eat?" Ginny nodded absentmindedly, wondering what in the bloody hell Harry was doing. They were supposed to go over for dinner at the Burrow that night and announce their engagement.
She sat down at the table, pondering for a moment, when suddenly a loud POP sounded in the houses. She immediately stood up, whipping out her wand, and in the flurry knocked over the chair.
She ventured into the hallway, only to hear Harry calling, "Ginny? Kreacher?"
She ran to him and gave him a huge hug. "Miss me?" he laughed.
"A bit," she mused. He hugged her tightly, giving her a passionate kiss until Kreacher appeared and Harry pulled away abruptly, blushing.
"Master Harry?" Kreacher asks, amused. "Would Master Harry like to give Mistress Ginny her surprise now?"
Harry nodded. "Surprise?" squeaked Ginny. "What surprise? What for?" Harry winked and led her down the hallway and upstairs to the attic. He held a finger to his lips and smirked, opening the door with a flourish like he was her chauffeur. She hesitantly peeked in and had to stifle a gasp.
"Oh, Harry…" she had no words to describe how beautiful the scene in front of her was.
Sitting in front of her were moving portraits of Fred Weasley, Tonks, Remus, Colin Creevey, Lily and James Potter, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, and Dobby, surrounded by roses and lilies (duh) and petunias (ironically) and forget-me-nots—mostly forget-me-nots. They were arranged in a little half-circle, all smiling and waving happily at her. The U-shaped table they were sitting on was mahogany and had an emerald green silky tablecloth on it. The portraits' faces were blurred with her sudden tears.
She couldn't help it.
She started sobbing uncontrollably, walking forward on shaky legs to stroke each picture, whispering their names, kissing the frames, but stopped at Fred, who was grinning from ear to ear.
"Miss me?" he asked, and Ginny wanted to slap him so badly. "A bit," she muttered, picking up the picture frame.
"Gin, I'm so happy for you and Harry," Fred had said the first serious sentence of his life—no—death. Ginny, whose tears had stopped a second earlier, turned around and buried her face in Harry's Auror robes, gasping and shaking. Harry smiled at Fred but he, too, was crying silently.
Fred watched the two, smiling a genuine smile, not a trickster one or a you-should-be-afraid-of-what-this-smile-brings smile, but a genuine one, as he realized how much Harry and Ginny truly loved each other.
Out of the blue, Gideon and Fabian Prewett let out a loud laugh. Ginny wiped her eyes hastily and snapped, "What?"
Gideon pointed at her engagement ring. "I approve—"
"—Of this arrangement!" Fabian finished for him. They looked at each other and laughed heartily, clapping each other on the back, pretending to shake Harry's hand and clapping him on the back. Fred looked at Ginny's ring, too, and whistled. "How much did that cost, Harry?"
Harry flushed. "Nothing. It was in my Gringotts vault. It used to be my mum's." At the mention of her name, Lily turned to look at the ring. "Why, yes, it is!" she agreed. "Look, James, look! That's my engagement ring!"
James scrutinized the ring carefully, then nodded. "You put it to good use, didn't you, m'boy?" James smiled at Harry and Harry suddenly found that he had to conjure a handkerchief to wipe his eyes.
"Mum, dad…" Harry muttered. "I know it's rather obvious, but, meet my fiancé, Ginny…"
Lily grinned. James fell off his chair, guffawing and wiping his eyes. Then Lily started crying hysterically.
Harry, rather afraid, was too stunned to say anything.
Ginny smiled nervously.
Lily sobbed into James' arms, crying, "Oh, our little Harry's grown up!" and "I wish we could be there with him!" at which point Harry cut in, saying, "Mum, Dad, you are with us. In here," and pointed to his heart, as Sirius had and as Dumbledore had taught him.
Ginny, Harry, James, and Lily fell into hysterics, crying, sobbing, hugging, into a completely disorganized mess and made Ginny and Harry an hour late for the dinner at the Burrow.
? ? ?
"What kept you, eh, Ginny?" George grinned wickedly, opening the door. "Was it Harry? Did you be like ickle Ronniekins and High-and-mighty Hermione Highness?"
Ginny glared at him. "Piss off, Georgia." George obliged, noticing the red ring around her eyes hastily covered by some concealment spells which usually meant that she and Harry had had a row.
He let her in but blocked Harry's path. "Listen, Potter, you done anything to my baby sister?" he growled. Harry, he was pleased to notice, looked horrified and terrified.
"N-no, George, I didn't!" Harry exclaimed, trying to sidestep him, but George blocked him on the other side.
"Nah-uh-uh, Harry the Hero, you are going to listen to me," George said, advancing on him. Harry looked up, terrified. "Ginny's my baby sister, you hear? You do anything—anything at all—to harm her, or hurt her, whether on purpose or not—you will be faced with a mob of very angry Weasleys. Me at the front. Understand?" George poked his wand tip into Harry's robes, making them smoke a bit. Harry nodded like a maniac. "Good!" George smiled a trickster smile, which made Harry's skin crawl a little, and stepped inside.
"Oh, Harry, there you are!" Mrs. Weasley cried, embracing him and kissing him on the cheek. Harry smiled good-naturedly and accepted her affection, relishing in her motherly habits that he had never experienced when he was a child.
"Hey, Mrs. Weasley," he replied bashfully, and greeting the other Weasley men.
"Come, come, everyone, dinner's ready!" Mrs. Weasley cried, ushering them from the living room into the kitchen, and squashed them around the wooden table.
Roast beef, chicken, potatoes, and peas were piled high on the table with some treacle tart sitting not too far away, and Harry was greedily eating his share until Ginny poked him in the elbow, hissing, "When should we tell them?"
Harry remembered suddenly that they were planning to announce their engagement that evening, and experienced a loss of appetite.
"Let's tell them like, right now," he whispered, as the family was nearing that stage when one was comfortably full and drowsy. Something like this ought to catch their attention.
They stood up.
"Er, me and Ginny want to say something," Harry stammered.
The Weasley men and Fleur, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley immediately seemed to perk up.
"Well, what is it, dear?" she asked, with a rather knowing smile, as Harry had asked permission from her parents in advance.
Ginny held up their intertwined hands, showing the engagement rings. They let that sink in a bit, then Harry braced himself for either a huge lecture from Ginny's overprotective brothers or a humongous hug from the family.
It was neither.
There was a moment of silence.
"Excuse me?" Ron said loudly. "You're engaged?"
"Well, what does it look like, you git?" Hermione hissed into his ear. She then turned to Harry and Ginny, beaming. "I knew it was coming! Congratulations, you two," and hugged them.
Ron snapped out of his reverie and stepped forward, glaring down at Harry, who in turn gulped nervously down at Ginny.
"If you do anything—anything at all—to hurt Ginny, intentionally or not, you will have me to deal with," he growled.
"And me," said Charlie, staring at them skeptically.
"And me," George added, though his eyes were twinkling madly and looked like he was trying to suppress a joke.
"And me," Percy piped up. "Although, if I do say so myself, I think it is a rather nice match, don't you think so, Mother?"
Mrs. Weasley beamed. "Of course it is! Your father and I already knew, didn't we, Arthur?"
Arthur nodded, wiping tears from his eyes, his arm around Mrs. Weasley. "Harry, and I say this honestly, no matter what kind of threats you get from them, we could have hoped for no better wizard for Ginny, right, boys?"
Bill nodded in agreement. "Yeah, mate, you're pretty much family legally, but we all knew Ginny was obsessed with you ever since she met you."
Ginny turned scarlet. "At least I'm not infatuated with dragons or with working with goblins!"
Bill shrugged, flushing good-naturedly.
Fleur moved toward them, smiling, "I am so 'appy for you, 'Arry! You an' Ginny are so pehr-fect for each uzzer!"
Harry grinned and kissed Ginny. "I know," he murmured back, and the Weasley's "aw"ed, even her brothers.
"But really, Ron," Harry looked up seriously. "And George, and Percy, and Bill, and Charlie, and Mrs. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley, and Fleur and Hermione…do you really all approve of this?"
The kitchen room erupted in a cacophony of laughter. "Of course we do, mate!" Ron roared. "I was only joking!"
"I wasn't," George wiggled his eyebrows at Harry.
"Like I said before, Harry, you are honestly the best wizard we could hope for to have Ginny," Bill laughed, wiping his eyes. "We are very happy for you."
Mrs. Weasley came over and squeezed their innards out in a hug. "Oh, Harry, darling, we're so glad that you finally proposed! We've been waiting!"
"Well, Harry didn't really propose," Ginny began, over the noise.
It was suddenly very silent.
It was Harry's turn to flush scarlet.
"He kind of blurted the question out during dinner," Ginny smirked wickedly, and Harry flushed beet red as the Weasley men clapped him on the shoulder, laughing, particularly when Ron said, "Wow, Harry, so romantic!"
"Well, Ron, you weren't much better, were you?" Hermione smirked. "Remember when he tripped in his haste to get down on his knee?"
The kitchen erupted in laughter again.