-Chapter 7: Never, Not Once –

Ginny moved into Grimmauld Place that week. She set up her desk in the drawing room along with a couch she found at a second-hand store. She decorated the drawing room walls with her Holyhead Harpies awards and merchandise.

Three weeks later Luna, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny were in the sitting room after their Friday dinner, Lennox was playing with his toys on the floor. Hermione and Ginny hadn't spoken a word directly to each other since the first dinner.

James and Albus started getting hungry so Luna suggested that Harry and Ginny show Hermione around Grimmauld Place since they hadn't yet done that while Luna fed the twins. Harry led the way up the stairs to the first floor landing.

"This is Ginny's floor, I'll let her show you around on the way back downstairs if she wants."

They went up to the second floor. Hermione looked around at Harry's office. It looked the same as it had six years ago when she wrote her goodbye letter to Ginny except that there was a picture of Harry and Luna on their wedding day on his desk.

"And of course we have the master bedroom here on the left," Harry showed them up on the third floor, "and the nursery here on the right, I've put a door in between the rooms so that when we move them in there it will be easier to get to them." The nursery was pale green, there were two white cribs side by side, each had a name painted in gold at the head. They continued up to the top landing. "And these two are bedrooms that will eventually be one for James and one for Albus but right now we want them in our room then of course they will move to the nursery when they outgrow the bassinets."

"You say that now, Harry. I swore when Lennox outgrew his bassinet I would put him in his room but I ended up moving his crib into my room. I didn't move him into his own room until his second birthday when I got him his bed." Hermione laughed. Ginny smiled, she had missed hearing that laugh.

"Teddy stays in this room when he comes for weekends," Harry said, opening the door to the right. The room was fairly simple, a bed, chest of drawers, shelves with books, and a toy box. They were on their way downstairs and had stopped at the first floor landing when Luna called Harry to come help her. Ginny, Hermione and Lennox went into Ginny's bedroom and looked around. Ginny had painted it scarlet and gold, Gryffindor House colors. There was a bed to the left and centered on the same wall as the door, a fireplace on the wall to the right, the door to the bathroom was on the same wall as the bed, and a chest of drawers underneath the window on the wall across from the bed. Ginny walked around a bit, thinking.

Lennox walked up to Ginny, stood in front of her and reached his arms up.

"Up! Up!" he said, looking at her. Hermione looked at Ginny and nodded. Ginny picked him up and held him on her hip. "Pitcher!" he squealed.

"He recognizes you," Hermione said softly.

"Oh?" Ginny pretended she had no idea what Hermione was talking about.

"He uh…he likes to watch the pictures I have around."

"I see," Ginny turned her attention to Lennox.

"Ginny," he said as he touched her nose.

"That's right," she said with a smile.

"Ginny," Hermione said a bit shakily, "I…I want to apologize to you. For leaving the way I did. It was in very poor taste and I know I should have come to talk to you but my head was just swimming with so many things that all I could think of to do was leave. I'm sure Harry told you that I came here and talked about it with him."

"He did…but there's something you should…" Ginny tried to say but was interrupted by Hermione.

"I just couldn't deal with you wanting to break off the engagement. I thought that it would just be easier to leave."

"Hermione, I never had any intention of breaking off our engagement. Never, not once."

"But I heard you and Ron…"

"What you heard was me having second thoughts about trying out for the Harpies. I thought we were going to be newlyweds at that point and I didn't want to have to leave you here to work at the Ministry while I traveled around Europe."

"You…what?" Hermione looked extremely confused.

"When Harry told me you had been to see him and what you had said I wanted to find you. For the two months we heard nothing of you I made it my mission in life to try and find out where you were. I questioned people in Diagon Alley, I made lists of places you had told me about that you'd ever been. The only lead I got was that you had bought a book about Wizarding Paris. I contacted their Ministry but got nowhere, they said no new jobs had been filled and that your name wasn't on a list of new magical inhabitants of the country."

"You did that for me?"

"I did," Ginny said as she stepped closer to Hermione, "I didn't tell anyone I was doing it though. I even had my trip planned to come find you…until Harry showed me the last letter you sent him. I gave up because I thought that even if I did find you that you would want nothing to do with me and I didn't want to be heartbroken a second time. So I threw myself into Quidditch, it became my life."

"Ginny…I…I am so sorry. I am sorry I put you through all of that. Oh gods! I don't...even know what to say to you. Nothing I can say will take it back…" Hermione shook a little as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Well it wouldn't have worked out anyways though, right? You said in your letter that we were too young and that would be the best thing for us."

"I did say that, yes."

"And you have this beautiful baby boy who I know you love with all your heart," Ginny said as she smiled and tickled Lennox's stomach a little. He giggled and she put him down. Hermione smiled as she watched him run around the room.

"He is the only boy I've ever loved," Hermione said with a little laugh.

"Yeah," Ginny said awkwardly.

"Harry…Harry told me you've been dating a little. How is that going?" Hermione asked nervously.

"Oh…well…I kind of gave up on it. Not like a hundred percent though. I've just given up searching for someone. If I find the one I am meant to be with then I figure they will…" Ginny's eyes glanced up and down Hermione's body, "…sh-show up. What about you?"

"Well obviously I haven't had much time in the last couple of years. Before that I went on a few dates in Paris but I was working quite a bit and no one ever seemed to really fit what I wanted. Even if I were to date having a two year old kind of turns people off and I want Lennox to be a part of my relationship if I were to have one."

Ginny had been inching closer towards Hermione. They were standing almost shoulder to shoulder. They watched Lennox inspect the room.

"I'd like to hear more about Paris, Hermione. I've been a few times for Harpies matches but I didn't get to look around much. I did get to go to the Eiffel Tower last year though, that was nice."

"Well I'll still be here every Friday for dinner and now that…well now that we're on speaking terms we can catch up a little more."

"Hey guys, you can come back down now!" they heard Harry call from the bottom of the staircase.

Hermione moved to go pick up Lennox and her hand brushed against Ginny's. She stopped and turned around, Ginny looked down at the floor. They walked downstairs and back into the sitting room. The rest of the evening they got more comfortable and it was almost like they were best friends back in Hogwarts again. Before she left, Harry presented Hermione with a small owl he had bought in Diagon Alley so they could stay in better contact during the week.