Ron was there? Just another thing Harry needed. Another talk, to add to the list of talks he going to have with Ginny, every single faithful Weasley, and now Ron. (A.N Note I said faithful, not including Ron or Percy.)

Mrs. Weasley led Ron in, and he blanched at Hermione's glare. Harry set his face to look as emotionless as a rock, and Ron only looked at him for a second. Mrs. Weasley hurriedly set him a place and he sat down. He didn't even eat for a minute. And that was saying a lot, for Ron. But when he looked around, and saw everyone determinedly ignoring him, he dug in. Harry, Who was looking at Ron out of the corner of his eye, rolled his eyes. Typical Ron.

The dinner was mostly awkward silence, with Harry, Hermione, and Ron avoiding the gaze of the others. Everyone moved into the den after pudding, and Molly, trying to liven the mood, passed out hot chocolate. It worked slightly, with Fred and George starting to talk with Bill, and conversation moved out. Harry and Hermione talked in whispers, and Ron just sat there. They were the only ones that weren't lively after about twenty minutes. But twenty five minutes in, Remus came over.

"Hey, Harry," he said.

"Remus!" Harry responded. "Good to see you! Anyway, how's the little baby?"

Remus glanced over at Tonks with a smile. "Healthy as can be."

Harry gave as big a smile he could. "Anyway, Remus, sorry about Grimmauld Place…"

"Harry," Remus said, cutting him off. "I didn't like it at the time, but what you did was a huge favor to me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I can't thank you enough. It took me a few days, but I completely understand your decision. Parents shouldn't leave their children unless they have to."

Harry smiled. "Those were the exact words I used when explaining my mood to Ron and Hermione."

Remus laughed. And they began talking, about mundane things at first, but gradually exceeding small talk, and just talking about life. Harry told him the bare minimum when asked about his mission.

"Sorry, Remus, but I can't tell you. It's between me and Hermione, at the moment."

Remus looked slightly miffed, but nodded.

They started talking again, and when he walked away to talk to Arthur, Harry saw Hermione talking with Tonks, and Ginny looking at him. He knew exactly what that look meant. He nodded, and she walked upstairs, no doubt to her room. She said nothing, but when Harry went up a few seconds later, he purposely walked past Ron, muttering gibberish but including the word "loo" loud enough that Ron could hear. He still hadn't forgotten his birthday.

He walked up the stairs, and stopped when he got to the first landing. He knocked tentatively, and opened the door when he heard a small "come in" from Ginny. He opened the door and found her laying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She pointed at an empty, chair, showing no emotion. He sat down and looked at her nervously. She didn't talk for a full minute, and Harry wondered if she was enjoying keeping him sitting there. But she still showed no emotion.

At last, she talked. "So."

She looked at him expectantly, as if she wanted him to say something. He was confused for a second, and she sighed. "Nothing?"

He was still confused. So she sighed once more. "Anything you perchance would like to say to me? As in why you came? Or where the hell have you been these past months?"

Harry nodded, and internally shrugged. They wouldn't go back to any of the places anyway. "Er, first where we've been. After the wedding, we went to an alley on Tottenham Court Road, and changed. We went to a cafe, got attacked by Death Eaters." Ginny looked as though she was about to say something, but Harry held up a hand. "Still don't know how they found us. I believe it was Dolohov and Rowle, and they didn't even see me. I was under my Cloak. And we wiped their memories anyway.

"After that we went to Grimmauld Place, managed to get Kreacher into a good mood by giving him something of Regulus'. Lupin came, I chucked him out." Ginny looked outraged at that. "I didn't want him to leave Tonks. No parent should ever- willingly- leave their child." Tears burned his eyes at that point unexpectedly, and he saw Ginny giving him a somewhat sympathetic look. He continued. "You might have heard about our break-in to the Ministry." Ginny looked surprised and shook her head. "Oh. we Polyjuiced and broke in to steal an artifact, something that could help us. We got it, but Yaxley flooed out with us, and Hermione had to apparate out of Grimmauld Place. It wasn't safe there anymore.

"Anyway, we arrived in the Forest of Dean, and we stayed there for a while. But then Ron got mad and left, turns out the artifact makes your temper fly.

"Next, two days ago (A.N. this is after midnight), we went to Godric's Hollow, saw my parents' graves. But Voldemort found us and we missed him by a minute. I passed out and Hermione apparated. I had some pretty bad nightmares last night though. I saw my parents dying from Voldemort's perspective. And then I asked Hermione if we could come here, and she agreed. So here we are."

Ginny had actually seemed like she had sympathized him during the story, especially the parts when he mentioned his parents, and the nightmares. But now she seemed as emotionless as a brick wall. "So- Tottenham Court Road, Grimmauld Place, Forest of Dean, Godric's Hollow, then here."

"Yes."

"And, in all this time, you never even tried to contact us, let us know you're okay."

"Actually, no. I talked to your dad at the Ministry, but he didn't know it was me. Told him what I had found out. You guys are being watched."

He had expected her to look surprised, but she didn't. "So you were Albert Runcorn. Who were Ron and Hermione?"

Harry looked momentarily surprised, but he quickly got over it. "Ron was Reg Cattermole and Hermione was Mafalda Hopkirk. Reg is Magical Maintenance and Mafalda writes the Underage Magic letters."
Ginny nodded. "And I presume you aren't going to tell me what this supposed 'artifact' is?"

Harry nodded. "Sorry Gin, Dumbledore told me to only tell Ron and Hermione. I didn't even tell McGonagall."
Ginny nodded, slight disappointment on her face, but she quickly stifled it. "You also haven't answered my first question. Why'd you come here?"

Harry's face started to turn a slight shade of pink, and Ginny's eyes narrowed. "I just wanted to be with my family on Christmas," he said.

Ginny's mouth dropped open, but unlike before she didn't stifle her emotions. Shock showed in every feature of her face, and she looked like she was going to say something but didn't. It might have been comical in any other situation to see her acting like a goldfish. After about a half a minute she finally spoke.

"I'm sure mum would be very touched."

"And you?"

"I'm surprised that you would consider us your family."

Harry looked at her. "Who else would it be?"

Ginny looked at him as if he were daft. "Your actual relatives."

This time Harry did smile, then start to chuckle. This evolved into a laugh, and finally into a gut-wrenching howl. He was surprised nobody had barged in yet.

Ginny was still looking at him as though he was an idiot. It took awhile for Harry to calm down, and he wiped tears of laughter off of his face. "Good one," he said.

Ginny looked extremely confused. "Why don't you consider them family?"

Harry suddenly turned serious. "Did you know," he said. "That the first hug I ever got that I remember, actually, was from your mum."

Ginny looked extremely surprised. "When? She never said anything about meeting you as a child."

Harry sighed. This was going to be difficult. He looked at his feet. "Third Task," he muttered unintelligibly.

"Come again?"

"After the Third Task," Harry said, louder this time and looking up.

Ginny gasped. Harry could only imagine what she was thinking.

"So… You– never got a hug until you were 14?"

Harry looked at his feet once more, and nodded. And Ginny did something that surprised him and probably her as well. She hugged him.

Now they had hugged before, in those amazing months in Harry's sixth year, but nothing they had done before had come close to this. Before they had hugged because they had liked each each other, and because they could. This was different. This time Ginny put every single ouch of love, sympathy, pain, thankfulness, pity, everything, that she had ever had for him.

The surge of emotion made Harry gasp slightly. He felt his eyes burn with unshed tears, and he hugged her back.

He tried to make his hug just as emotional, but he doubted his came close to Ginny's.

Finally she pulled away. She sat on her bed again, and just looked at her feet. Harry spoke first.

"Ginny–"

She looked up at him, and she looked like she felt extremely awkward.

"Ginny." He continued. "Will you go out with me again?"

Harry could see her eyes light up, but Ginny kept a straight face for about five seconds until she grinned. "Well it's about time you asked." She said.

Harry laughed. "I'll take that as a yes." Ginny nodded. And she kissed him.

If it had seemed as if it had been a long time before their last kiss on Harry's birthday before this day, this made it all worth it. It was good if not better than the one on Harry's seventeenth, and this time there was no Ron. It was a while before they pulled apart.

They smiled at each other, before Harry frowned. "I'm going to have to leave again."

Ginny frowned as well, but nodded.

"And I have to talk to Ron before the night is over."

Ginny nodded and shrugged. "But not now." And what they did do at that moment was quite obvious. It was as innocent as the time spent by the lake the past year, but just so. And it was quite a while before Harry knew that Ron must be getting suspicious. So he left hand in hand with Ginny, so Ron would know straight off the bat he had lied, and leave him at it.

So they walked out and down the stairs.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, not everybody but many people looked at them, and a few looked shocked but most seemingly internally shrugged that Harry and Ginny were holding hands. Harry made eye contact with Hermione first, they exchanged nods, and Hermione stood. And Ron suddenly looked fearful as Harry, Ginny, and Hermione started the walk to his doom.

Okay, sorry I ended it here, but I'll publish the last part on Christmas! At least Christmas in western USA, probably mid-afternoon. So if I publish something on this story before then, it's not the last part.