Professor Ginevra Weasley

Disclaimer: Get this pesky thing out of the way. I am in no way related nor do I own Harry Potter characters. I am however the proud owner of the plot :)

Things you should know:

This takes place 11 years after the end of the Second Wizarding War

Harry and Ginny did not date in sixth year or after the war but the "crush" days of course still exist :P

Enjoy :)

Thankyou to all the lovely people who reviewed or placed this story on Alert.

HPHP

Christmas was fast approaching and instead of the work dying down, it seemed to increase. Tis the season to be jolly indeed, thought Ginny as more papers from the Wizengamot (of which she was a member) arrived; the Hogwarts Board Members never seemed to be satisfied; Neville had come down with a very nasty case of a contagious illness, no doubt from all the hours he spent in the Greenhouses; and her mother had begun her annual ritual of nagging at Ginny about the fact that Christmas would be a lovely time to introduce a serious boyfriend to the family. The clock was ticking on a lot of things it seemed, particularly Ginny's nerves.

But through it all, Harry had been a constant source of comfort. It seemed all those years with Hermione had affected his organisational skills somewhat and he had promptly divided Wizengamot and Board meeting documents into 3 piles which he liked to call 'Like a Hungarian Horntail On Your Arse' for those that needed immediate attention, ' Like Molly Weasley and her not-so-subtle hints' for those that couldn't be ignored but could be swayed to the side for the time being and the 'Witch Weekly Harry Potter Column' pile meaning those that could be considered utterly and completely superfluous.

It was an odd system but this way Ginny knew how many important matters she had to deal with and could even deal with a few unimportant ones when she was more relaxed. Harry, she had to admit, was nothing if not a pragmatist. Of course, during the many hours spent establishing and practicing this system, conversational exchanges often took place between them, some that Ginny often found herself recollecting at the most inopportune times... such as when she was talking to the Chief Board Member, a fellow teacher or, most blushingly, whilst in the shower.

Sometimes Ginny could swear Harry was about to ask her out or better yet kiss her during one of their office hang-outs, as she called them. When he had offered to take over Neville's classes, for example, he had begun to say that Neville would have done the same thing for him but the real reason he was doing it was to see her less worried. Had he not changed the subject and turned away as abruptly as he did, she could have sworn they had leaned into each other at that moment.

Harry was jokingly referred to as the real Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts, instead of Neville. Harry thought that he may be overstepping some kind of boundary and had asked Neville if he minded. The ensuing conversation was still a little confusing to Harry.

"Of course Harry! Why ever would I mind? I've been doing this job for years. Nice to relax a bit. Feel what it's like to actually have a social life."

"Besides," Neville continued, "Ginny's always saying how tall I am. Gets a crick in her neck just by talking to me. You seem about the right height though? Not too tall, not too short."

And with a wink, Neville had gone back to potting his plants leaving Harry confused and blushing.

HPHP

Ginny stood in her office pacing, a contemplative look in her face.

"Yes, but this case is the first of its kind. No goblin, no magical creature for that matter, has ever sued a wizard for libel and slander." Ginny explained.

"Which publication is involved?" Dumbledore asked.

"The Daily Prophet."

Snape scoffed. "It perplexes the mind how that poor excuse for a newspaper never learns from its mistakes."

"I mean it's all part of the new amendments that were made to the Magical Creatures Rights Act. Of course this is exactly what pure-blooded wizards who were against the amendments were afraid of. I don't understand how prejudice between Muggle-borns and pure-bloods has subsided but not that against magical creatures." Ginny didn't even seem to notice Snape's comment.

"Yes, well, prejudice is a strange thing Ginevra. Much like a kaleidoscope, it's never exactly the same from a different angle."

Ginny stopped to ponder Dumbledore's last words. "I'm just glad for that small dose of Veritaserum they give the Wizengamot before we deliver our personal verdict. Otherwise I'd be plagued by accusations of nepotism just because Hermione was the one who worked on the amendments.

"Do they honestly think that all my integrity and all my hard work would fly to the moon just because my sister-in-law is a great legal mind."

Ginny felt herself sighing as she saw both headmasters give her knowing looks. One very old headmaster knew what it was like to constantly bear these responsible and often heavy thoughts on his shoulders. The other was equally acquainted with heavy thoughts but he held a far-off look in his eye.

"Anyways, Hermione's sitting in on the hearings, in case there are some technical glitches with what she drew up."

Snape folded his arms stiffly. "This is Ms. Granger we are talking about. I highly doubt that."

Ginny tried to hide a small smirk on her face as she set his eyes on him. Could there have actually been a hidden compliment in there?

"It's Granger-Weasley, Severus."

Snape scoffed again as the door to the Headmaster's office could be heard opening and Neville, who had returned from his bout of sickness fully recovered, showed his head.

"Erm Ginny, I'm not entirely sure this is Head business, but there's a bit of a situation down in the kitchens."

Ginny's eyes widened immediately, worrying that something had happened to a student. "What's wrong?" She asked alarmed.

Neville noticed how bad he had made it sound and tried to undo her alarm. "Oh no, nothing bad, well not exactly." He sighed. "You know this is more of a seeing is believing kind of thing."

They hurriedly made their way down to the kitchens. As soon as they were about to tickle the pear, both Ginny and Neville could hear repeated loud crashes coming from inside the kitchen and what sounded eerily like a banshee screaming. Ginny went in first, wand at the ready, but stopped dead, speechless at the sight in front of her.

On either side of the wooden table where the house-elves cooked desserts stood Reggie and Lavender. The former was ducking and cowering behind every kitchen utensil known to man, his current preference being the star-shaped cake tin, while Lavender had a seething look on her face as she grabbed every plate she could quickly get her hands on.

"You rotten scallywag," she accentuated 'scally' with a flying plate. "I give you the best years of my life and you can't so much as get down on one of your stupid defective knees and propose."

Reggie moved his head to the right as the fifth tea cup in half an hour was thrown at him. "Honey, I hurt my knees in a sports injury, you know that?"

Ginny rolled her eyes at how stupid men can be, as Lavender did her best impression of a highly irritated Veela and hurled three more cups at him.

"Mistress Lavender, please. Those are our finest china. Winky cannot replace those." Ginny looked to her right and saw the distinct figure of Winky, all wrapped up in her tea towels, her head in her hands, clearly distressed.

"Winky, what's going on?" Ginny asked.

Winky looked up, barely acknowledging Ginny. "Oh Headmistress Ginny. I'm sorry. Winky will be right with you." While the house-elf said this, she climbed on top of a shelf, just above Lavender's head. As soon as the woman raised the expensive milk jug, Winky swiped it from her hand. Lavender looked confused for a moment but quickly resumed her battle stance as she spotted a ladle not too far ahead.

"Now, Cookie, you're being unreasonable," Reggie stopped the ladle's course with the star-shaped tin.

"Unreasonable, I'll show you unreasonable Hale. Once I feed your face to the Blast-Ended Skrewts, then you'll know the true definition of 'unreasonable."

Ginny had had enough. Poor Winky, Head of the House-Elves, seemed like she was about to die of hyper-ventilation.

"Alright, you two, that's enough. You're acting like children. Is this really the way Hogwarts Professors behave?"

Lavender didn't even turn her head towards Ginny as she prepared to throw another plate. "It is if one of the Professors is thicker than a Troll."

Ginny turned to Neville who shrugged. At that moment, Harry walked in.

"Winky, the door was open. You think I could get a...Godric's galloshes, what the hell is going on?" Harry cringed as a plate nearly missed him and landed at his feet.

"War of the plates mate. Let me give you an update. Lavender's pissed Reggie won't propose. Winky's close to having an aneurysm and Ginny has no idea how to solve this." Neville offered.

Ginny glared at him, "I know how to solve this. It's just very difficult when I'm doing it on my own," obviously referring to her distaste for Neville's lack of help. She jumped and squealed as an enormous pot nearly missed her head. "Lavender! If you want to kill the man I can understand but for Merlin's sake, there's no need to take me out as well."

Harry grabbed a stool and sat down calmly in a yet unused danger zone and cleaned his glasses. He turned around and spotted an opened packet of cookies. Neville stared at him.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm enjoying the show. Cookie?"

Neville shrugged. "No I think I'll go get some Firewhiskey from Hogsmeade."

"Why?"

"Because if I'm going to have to hear the whinings of post-breakup Reggie tonight, which I fear may include intimate details on Lavender Brown, I'm going to make ruddy sure I'm sloshed."

Harry chuckled, taking a bite out of his cookie.

"I don't know what you find so amusing Harry. If I'm going down, I'm taking you down with me."

Harry replied with a very disgruntled look on his face. They both suddenly glanced back at the farce taking place when they heard Winky's squeaky voice screaming out, "No the PLATES," and lunging at Lavender. "Those belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw."

Ginny, whose hair was popping out like it had emerged from one of the twins' famed experiments, glared daggers at the both of them.

"Harry! Do something!"

"What do you want me to do? I teach Defence Against The Dark Arts, not Defence Against The Scorned Woman. If I taught that, I'd be a millionaire."

Ginny grumbled something at them, once again evaluating how best to take away all the weapons from Lavender's reach. She prayed she wouldn't have a decapitated Potions professor by the end of this.

"Did Ron's little sister just call us daft prats?" Neville asked shocked.

"Oh you're not used to that?" Harry continued to take bites, his eyes never leaving Ginny. "What a blissful life you must lead!"

"Alright, that's it!" Ginny yelled.

"This should be good." Harry leaned closer, almost like a little boy about to see a fight in the playground. "You can't tell her face from her hair anymore. Always pity the receiving end of a Weasley blowout when you can't tell the red face from the red hair anymore."

Neville gave him an odd look then shrugged. At least, it was entertaining. It seemed both students and teachers at Hogwarts enjoyed break-up drama.

"I've had it up to here with the both of you. I overlooked Lavender requesting students to leave wedding dates at the end of her classes. I even overlooked when you two came to the Halloween party dressed as Antony and Cleopatra. Seriously, of all the couples in history, Antony and Cleopatra? But now you have crossed the line. What if a student had come down and seen you in the middle of this disaster? Tell me how we could have explained that.

"You," pointing at Reggie, "are a right twit. I don't know how she puts up with you but, heavens help her, she does!

"And you," turning abruptly to Lavender who had a smug look on her face, "you're a raving lunatic!

"I don't care how you fix this mess between the both of you but I want it done and I want it done soon. Now clean up the kitchen! Winky," she turned to the little house-elf sympathetically, "all the house-elves have the rest of the day off."

Winky, who was still clutching the pile of plates, tears almost falling and still hyper-ventilating, made a move to protest. She would have much rather cleaned the kitchens herself, but something told her not to argue with Headmistress Ginny.

Ginny turned to look at Harry and Neville who were trying desperately to hold back their laughter. She scoffed at them and with billowing robes, she was out the door.

HPHP

Later that evening, Ginny was at her desk going over some papers when she heard a knock. Harry hesitantly made his way into her office.

"All quiet on the red-headed front?" He offered, testing the waters.

Ginny rolled her eyes and glared at him. "Oh, you know me, all smoke, no harm."

"I think you should tell that to the house-elves. Winky said something about this not being good for your blood pressure."

Ginny groaned. This was not the impression she wanted to leave with the staff. Harry chuckled, moving closer to her side of the desk.

"But all's well that ends well. Plates have been repaired, organised and otherwise replaced and the house-elves are happily back to cooking entirely too much food. Which reminds me…" Harry pulled a small package from behind him. Ginny opened it and found freshly-baked cookies.

"Thank-you gift from the house-elves," he smiled at her.

Ginny immediately took a bit out of one. She closed her eyes and sighed happily.

"Delicious."

"Aren't you going to offer me one?" Harry asked teasingly.

"Why?" Ginny asked clutching the cookies tightly. "It's your kind's fault for that battle cry re-enactment earlier."

Harry put on a hurt face. "I am offended that you are taking out the mistakes of one man on all of us. I did bring you the cookies and helped clean up the kitchen."

"Hmm yes well, alright." Ginny slowly looked up at Harry, while he was fiddling with something from her desk.

"Besides, Lavender was the one throwing plates like she was the primadonna at a Greek wedding." Harry laughed at the glare Ginny threw at him.

"It was justifiable. I mean every loving girlfriend deserves a happy ending, don't they? Even if she was dropped on her head as a child."

Harry let out another laugh. "Goodnight Gin." Harry leaned down, aiming to give Ginny a quick peck on the cheek. However Ginny didn't realise and moved her head to look up at him. As a result, Harry gave her an odd-sort of one-sided kiss on the lips.

"Erm, right," Harry stuttered, trying to clear his throat.

"Goodnight." Ginny tried to raise her voice but it only seemed to remain at a very low volume.

"Goodnight." Harry gave her one last small smile and was out the door.

Ginny mirrored his smile and subconsciously raised her hand to where their lips had touched.

Behind her Snape rolled his eyes. "I'm perpetually stuck in a Potter-cretin time loop," he mumbled.

HPHP

A/N: I know, I know, focus wasn't that much on Harry and Ginny, but believe me, I actually have a plot and a plan... things that I rarely ever have... tricky little buggers aren't they?

Before I may or may not be bombarded with reviews of outrage, Snape does NOT have a thing for Ginny. He's a portrait for Pete's sake. But there is a certain fondness. And I love writing that.

That being said: PURPLE BUTTON PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASSSSSSSSSSE :)