Version: 1.0 (2006); 1.1 (2012)

Chapter 7: News

Ginny woke up slightly later than usual the next morning. It must not have been overly late as her mum had yet to come to get her up. She smiled to herself thinking of late last night, or really early this morning. I'm Harry Potter's girlfriend! she practically sang in her head, so Hermione saw a big smile on Ginny's face when she rolled over in bed and sat up.

The sixth year girl was already dressed. She was sitting on her bed reading a book. Ginny thought she looked like she was waiting for something or guarding something. Both would have been correct if Ginny could have read the girl's mind. "Couldn't sleep last night, Ginny?" Hermione's voice sounded so innocent.

"Maybe a little at first, why?" Ginny also tried the innocent act.

"I woke up not long after I went to sleep last night and your bed was empty, and you took a long time to return, and when you did come back, there was another set of feet on the landing a couple of minutes later."

It was time to come clean; Hermione was her most supportive friend in the matter of pursuing Harry. "I was downstairs talking to Harry." Of course there was no reason not to drag it out a bit and have some fun.

"And?"

"I decided it was time I knew the truth, did he like me or was I going to have to wait another year or more on him." It was hard for Ginny to keep a straight face, all her joy wanted to burst out.

"And?" A note of exasperation was creeping into Hermione's voice.

Ginny reached down and grabbed her letter to Dean. "Read this." She handed it to her friend who snatched it out of her hand in frustration. Ginny had to purposefully keep herself from bouncing. Watching Hermione's eyes move quickly back and forth as she read the short letter helped.

"Ginny!" she squealed, "It finally happened, didn't it?"

She couldn't help it anymore; she started bouncing as she nodded yes and let her smile grow its biggest. "Harry and I are finally dating," she sighed with contentment. "And you want to know what the sticking point was?" Hermione nodded her head. "He already wanted to ask me, but he didn't know if I liked him - as if I hadn't sent enough signals. Argh!"

"So you had to explain it to him?"

"Yeah, it was basically just an education thing. Once I explained what some of the signals were, and did a little blackmail with I've got to tell Dean something if only someone else would ask me," Hermione laughed at that, "then he asked quickly enough."

"There's one more really important thing you have to do you know."

Confused, Ginny asked, "What?"

"You've got to get Harry to pass that education along to Ron." Both girls laughed at Ron's expense.

After she was dressed, Ginny went to see Ron about borrowing Pig to send the letter to Dean. The door was open slightly, so she assumed they were up and she opened the door the rest of the way. Ron was still in bed, but Harry was standing by his trunk in his jeans and no shirt, that was being searched for. She stood in the doorway and stared, deciding she liked the new Harry in many different ways.

Ron noticed her, "What do you want, Ginny?"

Harry turned to look at her and smiled. She did her best to ignore her thoughts about Harry for a moment so she could think more clearly. "I need to borrow Pig to send a letter. Can I?"

"To send a letter to who?" Ron was not being overly cooperative.

Harry saved her. "You can borrow Hedwig. She could use the exercise, and it might help get the point of your letter across too."

She was confused for a moment before she realized he meant that Dean would recognize Hedwig. "Thank you Harry, that's a good idea."

He walked over to Hedwig's open cage and put out his hand for her to come to him. Then he held her while Ginny tied the letter on. "You better get used to her girl, she'll have other letters for you too." He stroked the soft feathers of her head. Hedwig pushed back against his hand, as if saying that was fine with her. When Ginny had finished, Harry took his owl to the window and let her go.

"What did you mean by that?" Harry had completely forgotten about Ron.

"What?"

"That Ginny will be using her to send other letters. Why would Ginny do that? There's plenty of owls at school," Ron said, pointing out the obvious.

Harry looked at Ginny to see who would tell him. Ginny smiled at her boyfriend, "Let me, I have plenty of blackmail material." Then to Ron, "Harry and I are dating."

"What?!"

"Sssh, and you will not tell Mum or Dad. We will tell them when we're ready."

"When did this happen?" her brother asked suspiciously.

"Some of us don't stay in bed as much as possible Ronald Weasley. In fact, you're lucky Mum hasn't come up to drag you out yet." With that said, she winked at Harry and threw "Breakfast Harry?" over her shoulder as she left the room.

The teens were almost finished with breakfast when four owls came through the open window, forcing everyone to grab for their juice glasses to prevent spills. Three of the owls had two envelopes each, the last had a single envelope.

"Our scores!" Hermione shrieked. They all untied their letters as quick as they could, and the room momentarily filled with owl wings again as the messengers all left. The three older students each opened the envelope with the Ministry of Magic seal first; Ginny waited on hers, she knew it was only the book list.

"Well Hermione?" Ginny asked.

"I got all ten! Eight Outstandings and two Exceeds, those were in Astronomy and Care of Magical Creatures of all things." She seemed a bit miffed at that.

"Harry?" Ginny asked.

"Ah, seven out of my nine, mostly Exceeds, except for Defense, I got an Outstanding in that." Harry noted the "E" in Potions. Only Tonks' forewarning on the changed standard kept him from getting depressed. He could still become an Auror if he wanted to.

"Obviously you got an Outstanding in Defense," Ron said and rolled his eyes too. "Seven for me too, mostly Exceeds but no Outstandings."

"Good one, Ron." Harry really meant it.

"I'm proud of you, Ron." No one had heard Mrs. Weasley come in, but the owls must have attracted her attention.

The envelopes with the Hogwarts seal on them were now opened. Hermione's and Ron's also contained a prefect badge. Harry's had no Quidditch Captain badge, but he was not surprised as he'd essentially told Tonks he didn't have time for it. Ginny also pulled out only a book list, the fact of no extra badge was not lost on her mother.

"Ginny? You didn't make prefect?" The expectation was obvious in her voice. All the heads turned to Ginny.

"There's no badge, so I guess not." The disappointment on her mum's face was obvious too. Ginny didn't seem to be too concerned though. As her mum walked away, Ginny mouthed "Later" to Harry who was still looking at her, as he knew she probably had the highest grades in her class after what she had revealed to him the other night.

Late that afternoon, it was all three of them who found out why Ginny didn't have a prefect badge when they were outside talking. "I knew that I might be picked for prefect," Ginny told them, "so I went to Professor McGonagall at the end of last term and specifically requested not to be picked. I told her that I did not feel I had time to take on the prefect duties and do as good a job with them as needed and as the younger students deserved. When my seventh year came, I'd accept Head Girl if the staff so chose, but not prefect in my OWL year. Professor McGonagall was disappointed but quite understanding, much to my surprise."

Hermione and Ron were both astounded, but Ron seemed to be the most upset. "Ginny! I can't believe you turned that down. You deserved it and should have taken it," he told his sister somewhat forcefully.

"I disagree," Harry calmly told them and surprised them with his disagreement. "While she does deserve the honor, I know her studies are important to her so she has good reasons. Besides, it's not that big a deal anyway. I mean, I would have liked to have been a prefect too, until I saw all the extra work the two of you had to do, not to mention what I had to deal with last year. So this was one of those things that looked bad at first, but turned out to be the right thing in the end, at least for me. Also, knowing how much importance Ginny places on her grades, I feel it's a good decision for her too."

"You're just saying that only because you want more time with Ginny," Ron accused him.

Harry continued to be very calm. "That will be a nice side-benefit, but I really meant what I said before in wanting Ginny to succeed at her goals, and this seems like the best decision to make that happen."

Ginny had said nothing during the argument, but only watched closely. The "new Harry" had returned and replaced the "old Harry" from the last day or so. The inconsistency in his transition would have been fascinating if it hadn't put her through the emotional ringer last night.

Tuesday morning Molly told the kids they would be going to Diagon Alley the following day, but the real surprise came when Hermione opened her copy of the Daily Prophet to see the large headline "FUDGE SACKED!" The article talked about a very long meeting of the Wizengamot yesterday that didn't end until very late in the evening. The result had been a vote of no confidence for Cornelius Fudge, followed by the appointment of Amelia Bones as Minister for Magic. It was hard to say who was the happiest about that, Harry or Hermione, each for very different reasons.

Wednesday morning, Tonks came by The Burrow to help Molly take the kids to Diagon Alley. Since she got there a little early, Tonks pulled Harry aside out onto the porch where they could talk in private.

"Harry, I have a piece of news you need to know about." Harry's look became one of concern. "It's not anything bad, but you need to know." Taking a deep breath he nodded for her to go on. "Sirius's will was opened yesterday by a solicitor in Gringotts, and while Remus gets some gold, you're named as the recipient of all the rest." Harry was speechless. "There's a slight problem in that the Ministry has tied the estate up so it can't be dealt with due to Sirius's convict status. So it's in legal limbo at this time, and it will probably stay that way until the Ministry can sort out what really happened fifteen years ago, or we find Peter Pettigrew. The good news is that all of his accounts, while untouchable, will continue to accumulate interest, and you are considered the trustee of the house until the final ruling is made, well actually me since you're still underage. Basically, the bottom line is nothing changes from the way it is now. Understand?"

Harry was trying to absorb all the information, but his emotions kept getting in the way. "I think so. Though to be honest, I'd trade everything just to have him back." He had to blink hard to keep the water in his eyes and not trickling down his cheeks. Thinking hard, he tried to rewrap his thoughts about Sirius and put them back on the mental shelf. They were still too painful to deal with.

Tonks saw his pained look and put her arm around him and pulled him into a sideways hug. "I know, Harry, me too. But you know what? Even though we go on with life, we'll always have a part of him with us." Harry nodded and had to wipe his eyes with a finger. "If you ever want to talk about it, you know you can always come to myself or Remus, right?"

Harry told her "Uh huh, and Tonks?" She looked at him as he continued, "Be sure you talk with Remus about all this, I want you to be OK too."

"Don't you worry about me, I'll be fine."

"I know, but I want you to be more than fine, and I think Remus does that for you."

As the point of his words hit her, she told him in an outrageous voice, "You rascal!" Laughing, they both went back inside. Harry noticed that she hadn't denied what he'd suggested.

Ginny had noticed Harry and Tonks talking outside. He'd looked a little sad for while, but then came in happy. She liked Tonks and thought the Auror was good for Harry. Of course, Ginny wanted to be good for Harry too; she thought she could help him with his difficult times. She hoped he would let her, as she had noticed he'd had troubles letting people get close to him in the past.

That he looked great dressed in his black jeans and a black T-Shirt with his green boots was a nice thing for her, or as Harry said, a nice side-benefit. The only problem at the moment was her mum. Eventually she'd tell her they were dating, but Ginny didn't think it was a good thing to tell her now. An idea slowly came to her and she examined it while they waited to Floo to get their supplies. When Harry walked away to talk to Ron, Ginny quickly went over to Tonks and whispered, "Harry and I want to spend some time together today, will you help us with Mum?"

Tonks shrugged and told her, "I will if I can."

When they had Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron, Ginny put her daring plan into action. After her mum had arrived and was nearby, Ginny turned to Harry and with a mischievous look and a very sweet voice asked, "Harry, would you be so kind as to escort me around today? It would be terribly nice of you to help me seeing as you don't have to buy any books."

Harry wasn't sure what to do, then a wink from Ginny helped to clue him in to play along. "Sure Ginny, it would be my honor to escort you and help where I can." Hoping it was the right thing to do, Harry stuck out his left arm a little and Ginny reached up and grabbed it and steered him towards all the shops.

They walked by a very stunned looking Molly Weasley, who didn't say a thing to them. When Tonks came by playing rear guard, Molly walked next to her and hissed, "Escort? Do you know what's going on with those two?"

"Harry didn't say a thing about it, but I think it's quite sweet. You don't see many young people do that anymore do you?" Tonks smiled at the older woman.

"But she's only fourteen!"

"Molly, if memory serves, she'll be fifteen in a few days, and she's definitely the young lady; you've done a good job raising her. That she knows the customs is a tribute to you." Tonks was serious in her comments, but she also recognized that Molly was overly protective. So if Harry seemed to want to go along with this, she was going to see that he had the chance. Beside, she liked Ginny and thought she'd be good for Harry. She thought Ginny might be just the spice in life the Harry needed.

Now Molly was giving her a look like she'd lost her mind. "Relax Molly. I'll be watching him like a hawk all day. Besides, he's so clueless around girls it's amusing to watch. You really have nothing to worry about." Molly's look said she didn't agree.

Hermione steered them all to the bookshop first. Harry stayed with Ginny and carried all her things for her. He also made sure no old diaries came home with them.

Madam Malkin received them and happily worked to get four sets of robes quickly. Harry caught Ginny going to the second-hand robe rack to see what was there. He put his arm around her shoulder and steered her back to be fitted for new ones.

"Harry," she argued quietly, "Mum didn't give me enough money for new ones."

"Doesn't matter. I'll make up the difference, or better yet I'll get them and you can use that money for something else you need."

"You don't need to do that, I can make do with the used ones," she protested.

"Ginny, I'd expect this from your brother, but not you." That got a fiery look from her. "Don't worry about this. If you must spend the money, buy me a present; but I'd like it if you spent the money on yourself for once. Maybe some more of this nice perfume you're wearing, or a new journal, or whatever you've been wanting and haven't been able to get."

She'd lost the fire, but still wasn't sure. "Harry, we've only just started going out together. Are you really sure?"

"I know that my girlfriend would accept presents from me when I give them to her because she knows she deserves it, not because she trying to take advantage of me." Madam Malkin came over to them next having finished with Hermione new robes and adjusting Ron's second-hand robes. When Ron moved away, Harry quietly told the proprietor, "I'll pay for both of us". Ginny had new school robes and one new dress robe for the first time in her life.

By this point, Ron couldn't take it anymore and had to drag everyone over to Quality Quidditch Supplies to ogle the new Firebolt II. "Whatcha think Harry? Want one?"

Harry had been thinking that very question since shortly after he saw it in the catalogue. "It would be nice, but no, Ron. I don't really have a need for one or want it." Ron looked at him as if he'd gone insane. "I already have a Firebolt, Ron, and it was a special gift from a special person." He turned around to find Ginny and join her.

He found her looking at the Cleansweep line. "You left the Firebolt II display awfully quickly."

"It is nice, but it's not for me. I can't get one of these either, at least not now, but it would be nice to have a decent broom when I go to the team tryouts instead of having to use a school broom."

He agreed with that. "Would you like an original Firebolt like I have? I think you'd do well on that."

"Sure Harry, but even though they're cheaper now that the Two's have come out, they're still expensive. Maybe for Christmas," she said as she ran her hand up the handle of the Cleansweep Eleven in front of her, "then I'll have it for the last half of the season."

"Or maybe your parents will get you one for your birthday," he suggested.

"I doubt it, but one day I'll have a decent broom." She was so wistful in speech and beautiful in how she looked at the quality broom, he wanted to buy it for her right there; but after the incident with the robes, he held back. He didn't want to push her and have her think he was throwing his money around.

"One day Ginny, I'm sure you will. Where do you want to go next?"

"Lunch sounds good. I bet Ron will agree with me too," she joked with him and grabbed his arm to walk with him. It took a few minutes to pry Ron's eyes off all the new brooms, but soon they were walking back to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch.

On their way, they passed by a jewelry store. The girls stopped to look in the window. Harry wondered if maybe something from here would make a nice birthday present, but what to get? "Um, Ginny, do you like gold or silver jewelry better?"

She gave him a shy look. "Thinking of birthday presents?" His eyes went wide and she laughed at him. "That was an easy guess. Gold to answer your question; I think it goes better with my complexion and hair."

"Uh, thanks, that's good to know."

"You're welcome. By the way, good job. That's a very important thing to know about your girlfriend." She made a funny face at him to let him know she was teasing him.

They sat next to one another at the big table. The food was almost as good as Hogwart's, Harry thought. He also noticed that Mrs. Weasley seemed to be looking more at him than anyone else at the table. He quietly mentioned this to Ginny, who fortunately had a good view of her mum.

"Actually I think she's watching me, or maybe both of us," she whispered so others wouldn't hear, while sitting normally so it didn't look like an intimate conversation. "I'm hoping to slowly get her used to seeing us together, so when we break the news to her, she won't make such a big deal out of it."

"How about your dad?"

"He'll be fine. He likes you, well, mum does too; they both think of you as their unofficial seventh son. Mum still sees me as a ten year old little girl."

"I don't." Harry raised his eyebrows up and down a few times. Ginny had just taken a drink and choked on it. He pounded her on the back to help her breathe again.

When she felt normal, she turned to him and told him, "Thanks," and very softly purred, "and thanks, though your timing could have been better."

Harry smiled at her and considered himself lucky that she liked him.

As they were about to leave, Tonks came over and stood behind the couple and put her hands on each of their outside shoulders and her head down between them. Very quietly she asked, "So are you two an item or just working on it?"

Harry was surprised, but Ginny immediately whispered back, "Are you asking as Tonks or his Godmother?"

"I'm asking as your co-conspirator."

"In that case, yes, we're dating." Harry nodded his agreement.

Tonks smiled and whispered, "Good." Then in a normal voice, "Don't you forget what I told you, Harry."

"Yes, mum," he played along. Molly seemed none the wiser.

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