Chapter Seven: Wedding Preparations
Unfortunately for the teenagers, Professor McGonagall had been correct the night before. Mrs. Weasley going into overdrive with the wedding, and it all started by Mrs. Weasley waking everybody up at 5.30 to carry on getting the burrow ready for the wedding as it was only a week away. It was already the beginning of July and the time was just flying by for everyone even though they all had tones of work to do.
The teenagers slowly get ready and head down to breakfast. They were still very tired, having gotten little sleep the night before after all of the information that they had heard during the order meeting, as well as with the meeting with the headmistress right after. During breakfast, Hermione bade farewell to the Weasley's and headed home to her parents where she would spend the next week before the wedding, then the two weeks after it until Harry was 17. She had only come to the Burrow the previous day at the invitation of Ron, so that they could both go to the order meeting together then she could stay over before heading back home at breakfast.
They all ate their breakfast before pairing up and getting their jobs from Mrs. Weasley. Luckily for Harry, he had managed to pair up with Ginny, and was given the task of clearing the chicken coup as well as the shed. Ron got extremely annoyed with this and tried to inform his mother that they would spend their time snogging if left alone, but Mrs. Weasley would not listen to her son as she knew that Harry wouldn't snoop to such levels if they had work to do, before she gave Ron the job of cleaning the attic with Charlie.
Ron complains even more, but Mrs. Weasley stops him, telling him that Harry and Ginny know the most about Muggle devices, considering that Harry lived in the Muggle world and that Ginny had taken an O.W.L. In Muggle studies, so they knew the most about the objects that they needed to sort through, as they both had to get rid of the broken items, and there were quite a few to dispose of.
This argument caused Ron to storm out of the kitchen and stomp all the way up to the attic rather loudly, while everyone else excluding his mother sniggered.
"Too bad Hermione went home this morning to her parents, otherwise he wouldn't have said anything," Harry whispered to Ginny.
"Only because he would of wanted to snog her senseless in the attic for a few hours while they used magic to do all the work," Ginny replied, "Ron can be quite the hypocrite when he wants to be."
"Too right, I've seen that side of him more than once," Harry said.
"Lets remember to tell the twins later when they get back from the shop, they can have sweet revenge by teasing him rotten, both for wanting Hermione and to get revenge on him teasing us," Ginny said.
"Good idea, I can't wait to see which shade of red that Ron's ears go, it's bound to be a sight," Harry said.
"Yeah it will be, he's very touché when it comes to Hermione," Ginny replied quietly.
"Yeah he is, but sadly we can't stay here all day and talk about Ron and his sensitive topics, we have work to do," Harry said sadly, looking at his girlfriend.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. Lets start with the chicken coup first then we can work in the shed later on when it starts to warm up as the shed has magic on it so it is always cool," Ginny said as she and Harry made their way to the back door.
"Sounds like a good plan to me," Harry said, following Ginny through the door into the yard.
Harry and Ginny spend the next few hours sorting out the chickens which need quite a bit of tending, but have it sorted before the heat takes hold. Harry never thought that chickens needed so much work, but assumed that small tasks accumulated in the garden and often turned into a much larger task that took several hours.
Harry and Ginny took a short break so that they could catch their breath and have a drink before starting on their monumental task of sorting out the shed, which had been magically expanded into a massive room inside, which was around the size of a football pitch and was crammed with Muggle artifacts and devices.
They slowly spent the rest of the morning till lunch was ready sorting through all of the Muggle devices determining if they were broken or not. Ginny found herself out of her depth on most of the equipment that her dad had in the shed and had to ask Harry's opinion on most of it, since he knew what it all was.
Ginny felt, when she was asking Harry for his opinion on a Muggle Device that she had let everyone down since she was the one in the family who was supposed to know the most about Muggle technology. This was apart from her father of course who had made a career within the ministry knowing about Muggle devices, and here she was asking Harry every few minutes about a different item that she wasn't sure about.
During the several hours until lunch, Harry and Ginny had amassed a large pile of stuff that no longer worked or was of no use, or even duplicate stuff, since Mr. Weasley had many items that were the same, such as a very large collection of batteries. Harry had counted some of these and found over a hundred of a single type.
Mrs. Weasley decided to listen to Ron for a moment and popped in just before lunch to "make sure they were ok," although she was really there to make sure that they were both working instead of attached at the lips.
Mrs. Weasley finds them both working hard in the shed and sees that they had both made plenty of progress with sorting through all of the items.
She even took a moment to look at the Muggle Television that Harry had managed to get working, by using a Wizarding device that converted magical energy into electricity and made a Muggle device work, without actually paying for electricity. Harry had managed to get all the different channels working and the television was set to the lunchtime news on BBC1.
Mrs. Weasley calls them both in for lunch, which is ready in the kitchen, stopping for a moment to watch a news report about the resignation of the Muggle prime minister because of a scandal, before she headed back into the house after Harry and Ginny.
Ron glares at Harry and Ginny while eating his lunch, before Ginny whispers something into her brother's ear, which causes him to blush scarlet and spend the rest of lunch staring at his plate. Harry tries to question her but she shakes her head warningly.
After their lunch, Harry and Ginny get back to work as they still have part of the shed to sort out. The Muggle Television was still going and was now showing the latest episode of the Australian soap Neighbors. Harry never watched the Television show but quickly got into it as he worked, and so did Ginny by the sounds of her complaining when the show ended, as she complained loudly that there was no ending to the show and it shouldn't be shown. Harry only laughed at this before explaining all about soap operas and how they always end on cliff hangers to get everyone to watch the next show.
The afternoon sped by as Harry and Ginny finished their work in the shed. There was not too much work left to do and they had managed to easily get all of the work completed before tea and ready for one last inspection by Molly Weasley before tea arrived – which they passed with flying colours.
"Right then dears, that's practically everything done now," Molly said as they all walked back into the Burrow, "Not much else to do apart from the food for the reception but that won't get done until the day before."
"Good to know," Ginny said, "I haven't felt more exhausted since we cleared out headquarters."
"Same here," Harry murmured, "I think I'll go grab a quick shower before tea."
Harry didn't take too long in the shower and was soon back downstairs in the living room with the rest of the Weasley's who were staying for dinner. Harry's stomach was rumbling and luckily he didn't have to wait long for Mrs Weasley to call everyone for dinner.
After the usual Weasley stampede to the table, everyone was seated and were engaged in piling as much food on their plates as possible. The table groaned under the usual weight of food that was piled on it and everyone immediately agreed that it smelled wonderful and tasted delicious.
Even though Harry was happy and was finally enjoying himself, he couldn't stop the nagging feeling at the back of his mind alerting him that something wasn't quite right and that he should be alert. It had been months since he had the feeling and yet he knew that there wouldn't be any dangers at the Weasley's, especially with all the security precautions that they were taking with the wedding.
After dinner, everyone retired to the living room. Mr Weasley had brought home a Muggle board game called Monopoly and was having an enjoyable time examining all of the pieces.
Harry, who had nothing better to do, decided to take pity on the man and went over to explain the game to him. After a long discussion, Mr Weasley had convinced Harry to actually play a quick game – which of course is a normal game but with a time restriction.
The game lasted an hour and a half and left Harry as the clear winner since Mr Weasley was practically bankrupt and didn't have any properties while Harry had used his common sense and had invested in various areas of the board and took advantage of the various houses and hotels that could be bought.
After he and Mr Weasley had put the game away in its box, Harry decided to head up to bed where he quickly fell asleep, unaware of the secret meeting taking place in the living room...
