Author's note: A big thank you to mew-tsubaki for her beta work, her help with bits and pieces and for letting me use Mira.

And thanks to those readers out there for the reviews up to now. Sorry about the wait for this - real life took over!


Chapter 8

Ginny sat looking at Harry with her mouth wide open. Did he just ask me to marry him? No way! The last thing she had expected to happen that day was for him to propose to her. She eventually realised that Harry was staring at her strangely, waiting for her to say something. For some reason she couldn't get her mouth to work. She wanted to answer him. This had been a dream of hers for years. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, but nothing came out.

"Ginny, are you all right?" he asked.

She nodded and tried to speak to him. Tears were welling in her eyes.

"Ginny?"

"Yes," she eventually croaked out.

"Are you okay? You're really worrying me at the moment. I thought you would have answered me," he said nervously.

"Yes," she said louder. Then she launched herself into his arms and the tears started running down her cheeks. "Yes, Harry. That's my answer: yes. I'm all right, and yes, I'll marry you."

Harry's arms pulled her right up against him and his lips were on hers. He very quickly ran his tongue along her bottom lip, tempting her mouth open so their tongues could tease each other's. Her hands moved across his back and up and down his arms. Harry cupped her jaw with his hands and started kissing her down the front of her neck. He gently kissed her collar bone and then pulled away to look at her.

"You really had me worried there for a while, you know," he said, as he brushed some hair away from her face.

"I was in shock," she replied. "This was the last thing I expected to happen today."

Harry laughed. "Well, as I said, I actually planned on asking you at Christmas, but that didn't happen, so once I heard your story today and realised it was just a huge misunderstanding on both our parts, I decided why not."

"Why not, indeed."

Harry pulled away from her and reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. "I've actually had this for a while. I hope you like it."

She nodded even before seeing it. Anything he chose would be all right by her.

He opened the box slowly and turned it around to face her. When she saw the ring, her jaw dropped for the second time that afternoon. It was amazing, probably exactly what she would choose for herself. Harry took the ring from the box and held it out to put it on her ring finger. Once the ring was on her finger she lifted her hand to admire the ring. There were two offset diamonds randomly surrounded by small emeralds. It wasn't a showy ring that would stand out, but it was unique and beautiful.

"Oh, Harry," she said, looking at him lovingly. "It's perfect. I love it!"

"When I saw it, it just stuck out as the ring that you would love, so I got it, then and there."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," she said and she reached out and grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him to her.

A while later, Harry led her inside to the kitchen where the table was set beautifully with plates, silver cutlery and candles burning in an elaborate candlestick. She could smell steaks cooking away and her mouth watered.

"Kreacher, what…"

"Kreacher has made dinner for Master Harry's birthday."

Ginny laughed at Harry's sigh of relief. He must have thought that Kreacher had been spying on them.

"Thanks, Kreacher," he said, before helping her to sit down.

Once Kreacher had finished serving them, Harry asked the elf to leave them. After Kreacher had left the room, they started eating and talking.

"When would you like to get married, Ginny?" Harry asked.

Ginny looked at him and shrugged slightly. "I don't really know. When do you think?"

"Gin, I'd marry you tomorrow," he said, looking at her intently.

"Hmm, that may be a little hard to organise," she said laughing.

Harry stood up and took a calendar from the wall. He flicked it over to August and pointed at a date: August eleventh. Her birthday.

"My birthday?" she asked, amazed. She then needed to clarify it even more. "This year or next year?"

"This year. I'm not waiting another year, Ginny. It's your twenty-first birthday. That's a great reason to have a party. Why not add a wedding to it?"

Ginny looked at him. He was so enthusiastic about this that it made her heart melt with love. And honestly, she did not want to wait too long to get married. If it could be organised, she would love to get married on her birthday. Then she had an idea. "Maybe we could make it a surprise wedding. I could tell everyone that it's a birthday party and then tell them at the party that we're getting married."

Harry stared at her. To start with he looked a little worried, but a smile gradually grew on his face. "That's a great idea, but we'd need some help organising it."

"Mum and Dad?" she suggested.

"Good idea," he said, pointing his fork at her as he spoke. "They would love to be in on the secret. I'd hate to keep it from them."

"Should we let everyone know that we're back together, or should we spring that on them, too?" she asked him with a cheeky smile.

"That's evil, Ginny. But it does sound fun," he replied. "So we'll only tell your mum and dad."

"Okay, it's going to be hard pretending that we're not together, though."

"We'll just have to keep clear of Ron and Hermione, in particular. Or if we do see them, we'll have to be alone, 'cause Hermione will figure things out. I've got lots of holidays stocked up, so I'll owl Kingsley and let him know I need a month off."

"A month?" she asked.

"Don't you want a honeymoon?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"Of course I do."

"Oh, Merlin! What about the Harpies?"

"I had a meeting with them this morning and was offered a new contract. It's pretty good, actually. I haven't signed it yet, so I can work something out with them. They owe me after sending me away. Don't worry about them."

"Good. The season doesn't start 'til mid-September, anyway. It wouldn't mess up their games."

"Honestly, I wouldn't care if it did. You are way more important than them."

Harry grinned at her. "Thanks, Gin."

Xx-H&G-xX

An hour later Ginny and Harry Apparated to the Burrow and walked up to the kitchen door. Harry was under his Invisibility Cloak in case any of her brothers or their respective partners were visiting. She preceded him into the kitchen to find her parents sitting enjoying some treacle tart. She could hear Harry behind her moan in appreciation at the dessert, which made her chuckle. Her parents looked up at the noise.

"Ginny, there you are," Molly said.

"Hi. Is anyone else here?" she asked them.

"No, it's just us. Charlie said he'd be back late. He was stopping off at Bill's on his way home from wherever he was going," said her mum.

"Good," she said.

Harry removed his Invisibility Cloak and her parents exclaimed in delight.

"Harry," said Arthur. "Good to see you."

Harry walked over to her dad and they shook hands. She watched her mother look between the two of them and then saw her smile get larger and larger. Her mum nodded her head between her and Harry, and Ginny smiled and nodded in reply. She was very quickly engulfed in a Molly Weasley hug. Harry was soon grabbed and pulled into the hug, too.

"I guess you two have worked things out, then," said Arthur. "That's great to see."

"Everyone will be so pleased," Molly said.

"Ah, about that, Mum," she said. "We need you both to keep it a secret for a little while."

"Why in the name of Merlin..."

Ginny stopped her mother by raising her hand. "We have a bit more to tell you."

Harry shuffled nervously beside her and her parents looked at both of them curiously. Her mum looked quite worried, but she could tell by the look on her dad's face that he had some idea what she was about to say.

"Harry and I are engaged. He asked me to marry him this afternoon."

Her mum immediately looked at her left hand and when she saw that there was a ring there, she quickly grabbed her daughter's hand to look at it.

"Oh, it's beautiful," Molly gushed. "This is...is...so...Oh, Merlin. I'm so excited."

Ginny found herself and Harry once again in a hug but this time it was from both her mum and dad. Once they were released from the hug, they all sat at the table. Ginny made sure that Harry was right next to her so she could enjoy the closeness that she had been missing. Harry seemed torn between holding her and eating treacle tart.

Arthur Weasley looked between Ginny and her new fiancé. "Are there any more surprises that you want to spring on us?"

Ginny glanced at Harry who was doing the same to her. They both blushed a little before looking back at her parents.

"All right, just tell us," Arthur said matter-of-factly.

"Well," Harry said quietly and slowly. "You see, we're planning on getting married on Ginny's birthday..."

"This year," Ginny concluded.

"But that's only just over a week away." Molly exclaimed.

"We know," she replied. "We've been apart for so long and through so much that we really don't want to wait any longer."

"It's Ginny's twenty-first birthday and we thought we could combine a birthday party and a wedding," Harry said.

"And we want it to be a surprise for everyone else," she said. "We don't actually want anyone else to know that we're back together. We'll...well, I'll send out invitations to my birthday party and tell them it's a dressy party. When everyone's there, we'll spring it on them."

Her parents sat quietly at the table for quite a while. Ginny could tell that her mother was already making plans in her head. It was hard to tell what her dad was thinking. Harry looked at her with a worried look. He obviously thought that her parents were against the idea. Ginny knew that they weren't; if they were against the idea they would already be discussing this, probably quite heatedly.

Arthur was the first to speak. "Who will you get to marry you? You're going to have to let someone else know, so that the proper paperwork is organised, and secretly, too. You don't want that news released to the public."

"Merlin, no," Molly said. "That would spoil all the plans."

"I knew you were planning away there," Ginny said to her mum.

Before Molly could reply, Harry interrupted them: "Kingsley."

"What about him?" Ginny asked.

"He can marry us," Harry replied. "He can get the paperwork done without anyone finding out and he'd probably love to be in-the-know."

"Great idea, Harry," said Arthur. "He's a perfect choice."

"Excellent!" Molly exclaimed as she Summoned parchment and a quill. "Harry, you can talk to him about that, and you and Ginny can sort out who you're inviting, and Ginny, you'll have to write and send those."

"Mum's in her element," Ginny said to her fiancé as they both nodded at her mum's request. Harry laughed in reply and leaned over and kissed her gently.

"Arthur, you can make sure the garden is ready. The weather is nice just now, so hopefully we won't need to Charm shelter. Ginny, you and Harry will have to organise what you're going to wear..."

"Mum, calm down," she said. "Harry and I know what we need to do. We would love you to organise the food for us and get the Burrow ready. We'll get flowers and our clothes and all of the other things ready. Okay?"

"The cake?" her mum asked.

"You can definitely do the cake," Ginny stated.

"Cake, who's making cake? I'd love cake," Charlie's voice sounded from the doorway.

None of them had heard Charlie arrive. Charlie was looking at Harry and Ginny sitting close together with a gleam in his eyes and a cheeky smile.

"Well, well, well," Charlie drawled. "What's going on here?"

The four sitting at the table all groaned together. Ginny dropped her head to the table in frustration.

"Should we tell him?" she asked Harry after turning her head on the table to see her fiancé.

"Of course you should," her brother replied. "Who's been helping you on your mission the past few days?"

Harry nodded at her. He then waved his wand around setting silencing and warning Charms. "I should have done that to start with."

"Have a seat, Charlie," Ginny said. She flourished her wand at her brother. "You are not allowed to tell anyone who is outside of this room anything about this. Understand?"

Charlie nodded as he stared worriedly at the end of her wand.

Ginny and Harry filled Charlie in on what they had already told his parents. When Ginny told him that she and Harry were going to be married in eleven days, Charlie wrapped them both in a huge hug.

"So Mum's making the cake and planning the food, and Dad's getting the Burrow ready. Do you need me to do anything?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Ginny replied, looking at Harry to see if he had any ideas.

Harry nodded. "You can run interference," he said to his soon-to-be brother-in-law. "You can help stop anyone else finding out. Do whatever you need to do, but we want this to be a surprise."

Charlie smiled. "I can do that."

"Excellent," said Arthur, "It'll be easier with Charlie knowing, especially as he's staying here for a couple more weeks."

Ginny turned to her brother, gave him a hug and whispered in his ear. "Thanks, big brother. You really did help this happen. I don't know how to thank you properly."

Charlie moved back away from his sister and sat at the table, helping himself to the remainder of the treacle tart. "You have thanked me," he said with his mouth half full of tart.

"Merlin, Charlie. You're as bad as Ron," she said, looking at her brother's eating habits. "And how did I thank you?" she asked.

"Mira," Charlie replied.

"I guess you saw her then," Harry said.

"Yes, I did," Charlie said, smiling brightly.

"And it went well?" Ginny asked.

Charlie nodded. "I went into Flourish and Blotts just before closing time and there she was checking the shelves. So I placed myself in a row that she had not been to yet, which just happened to be the dragon section and kept myself busy looking at the books. When she came to that section and she saw me, she said hello and that it was lovely to talk to me again after seeing me at the pub the other night. She asked how you were, Ginny, and told me to tell you that she'd love to catch up. Then she saw the dragon book in my hand, and we started talking about dragons for ages."

"That poor girl, Charlie," said Molly, who was busy at the sink, but obviously listening to their discussion.

"Why?" Charlie asked.

"You didn't need to bore her with dragon stories to impress her," the Weasley matriarch said.

"I didn't," Charlie said, almost defiantly. "She likes dragons." He then turned to Ginny. "This is something you failed to tell me, little sister."

"I forgot, Charlie," she replied. When she saw his disbelieving face, she continued. "Honestly, I did. But Care of Magical Creatures was one of her favourite classes."

"Do you know this girl, Ginny?" her mother asked.

"Yes. We became friendly in my seventh year. Hermione was busy studying so much, that I needed some other company. The only problem was that she was in Hufflepuff so we couldn't meet after curfew."

"She's a 'Puff?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, is that a problem?" Ginny asked, ready to stick up for her friend.

"No, no, not at all," Charlie replied, with a secretive smile.

Harry started laughing. Ginny was a little confused at why Harry was laughing.

"What?" she asked.

"Oh, Gin. I'm sure that Charlie is just going over some old memories of a Hufflepuff girl."

"I don't want to know about your sordid love life," she replied.

"Who did you go out with from Hufflepuff, Charlie?" Molly asked. "I don't remember hearing about you and a Hufflepuff girl."

"Maybe there was a good reason for that," said Ginny. She saw Harry raise his eyebrows questioningly at Charlie, and her brother mouth a name in reply, which she couldn't make out.

"Really?" Harry replied, with wide eyes. "Whoa, how was that?" he asked.

"Harry!" she exclaimed.

He looked at her sheepishly. "Sorry, Ginny. It just…I…oh, Godric! You know I love you, Gin. I just had to ask, though. I have a few friends who would be well and truly interested in that answer."

Charlie laughed. "She was great…in fact, she was fine," he drawled. "Tell your friends that."

"Charles Weasley!" Molly exclaimed. "Show some respect."

"Sorry, Mum," Charlie replied, trying to sound remorseful, but at the same time winking at Harry.

"So, did Mira go and have a drink with you?" Ginny asked trying to change the subject.

"Not today," Charlie replied. "But she said that if I meet her when she finishes work tomorrow, she may be able to."

"Good," she replied.

"Yeah, good work, Charlie," Harry replied.

Xx-H&G-xX

Later that evening, Ginny and Harry Apparated back to Six Phoenix Path. Ginny could tell that her mother was not overly impressed that she planned on staying overnight with Harry, but there was no way she was staying at the Burrow and letting Harry go home alone.

They sat themselves on the comfortable couch in Harry's sitting room and cuddled together.

"Harry, this day has ended up being so much better than I could have possibly imagined it would," she said to him quietly.

"What did you imagine would happen today?"

"Honestly, I was just hoping that you'd accept your present and maybe let me talk to you a little about what happened at Christmas."

Harry chuckled. "If you hadn't sent that photo, that probably would have been all that would have happened."

"So the photo was a good plan?"

"Merlin, yes," Harry replied, rubbing his hand over her shoulder and nuzzling into her neck.

Ginny sighed.

"Actually, to be honest, this probably would have happened with or without the photo. It was what we talked about that helped me make up my mind, not the photo."

"Really?"

"Yes, as I said earlier, it wasn't like we did something horrible. It was a huge misunderstanding, and now that it's sorted out, we need to move on."

"Thanks, Harry, for being so understanding."

"Mmmm, that's okay," he said placing small kisses along her jawline, resulting in chills travelling down her spine.

She turned her face to his, bringing her lips in line with his. They quickly pressed their lips together in a long, sweet kiss. A while later, Harry pulled away from her slightly.

"Gin?" he asked with a husky voice and glazed eyes.

"Uh huh," she replied, rubbing her hands over his chest.

"Can I go dragon hunting now?"

Xx-H&G-xX

Fifty points to Hufflepuff for anyone who knows who Charlie and Harry were talking about!

Thanks for reading.