Now to tell the whole fam-dam-ily. Good Luck Ginny. Enjoy!
~Chapter 10~
~Next day, after Harpies practice~
"Team," Gwenog started, "Tomorrow is the big game. We can win it, we've done it before, but I don't want any of you going in there cocky, Chloe." She says, looking pointedly at Chloe Titus, our ridiculously strong second Beater. A Hufflepuff fresh outta Hogwarts. Chloe has an ongoing bet with her long-time boyfriend, and Puddlemere Seeker, Gethro Purvis. The bet is that the Harpies will win every game this season. So far, it's happened, and we don't have all that many games left. "Bridget, I need you to work on your spiral curl saves, they could do with just a tad more spring. I know you can do it, just… do it." Gwenog continues, looking at the medium height, black haired beauty all dressed up in keeper pads. Meet Bridget Muthumala. Sri Lankan-turned-English goddess whose speciality is being the kind of annoying that you adore. She was in Charlie and Lucy's year at Hogwarts- Ravenclaw. Absolutely Fabulous at drawing, and she's the second most famous Harpies team member. Mostly because she's both amazing at her keeper position, and supermodel gorgeous. Crap, I'm late. "Anyway," Gwenog starts again, "we know that we can beat them, but that doesn't mean that -" If somebody doesn't shut her up now, we'll be here forever.
"Gwenog, we know. Puddlemere United are good, but we are better as long as we don't get too cocky. Can we pretty-please-with-coffee-on-top go now, Luce and I are late." In fact, that close to being late for a family dinner at the Burrow. Lucy's sweet, she is almost never late, no thanks to Charlie-Boy. I, however, have been late on more than one occasion. Even when I lived there, I was still late. Anyway, if I'm late again, Mum'll kill me. Realisation dawns on Gwenog's face; she has heard all about my mother from Bill, who was in the same year and house at Hogwarts.
"Sure, you two can go." She says. Two seconds later, and Lucy has Apparated directly off of the Pitch. Malheureusement, je ne suis pas ça chance. I am attacked.
"Ginny!" Miranda Tilliard, the final chaser. She was the same year as Gred and Forge, but was in Ravenclaw. She always says that she fell in love at age 10… with Quidditch. Such a romantic. Although, despite being Siriusly unlucky in love, she does have a steady boyfriend. Heh. Siriusly … Seriously. I'm just that funny. Anyway, back to the moment.
"Ginny!" She squeals again. Till's a little bit… loud. "Is that a ring? So that's the blinding sparkle that I kept seeing up in the air! Oh! Gosh, that's fantastic!" She's started a mini revolution. The whole team, minus Lucy who's escaped, and Katey Wood (yes, Oliver Wood's baby sister) who is 'too cool' (or not…) for that, were all yanking on my arm, trying to see the 'rock' resting on my finger.
"Guys! Stop it! I'm sorry to announce an engagement and run, but Mum'll kill me if I'm late again. I'm being serious; you've all met my Mother. Bye!" I need to get out of here A.S.A.P. I'll just have a shower at home. I Apparate directly into our bedroom, as there is no Floo here, and lean my broom against the wall. Harry walks out of the wardrobe, pulling a dark green t-shirt over his head.
"Gin, quick, have a shower. We have approximately 3 seconds before we're late." He says. Crappendoodle.
"Going, going," I mutter back, stripping off my Quidditch robes and walking into the bathroom, and into the shower. The thing about having 6 brothers is that I learnt very quickly to have very quick showers, and to snag them first. I'm out a few minutes later, feeling much cleaner, and fresher. What should I wear? OMG! I have nothing to wear! What shoes? Not my sneakers, obviously, uh… Oh! My WWW t-shirt (It says 'Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes' on the first line, then on the line below it, 'Wonderfully Worldly Whatsits' in white and red college-style block letters. Very cool) with my grey skinnies aaand… No. That's too casual. Not my LBD, that's too formal. What to wear!
"Harry! What should I wear?" I shout, walking through to the kitchen where he is sitting at the table reading the Quibbler. He's wearing a nice forest green t-shirt, jeans and his only pair of non-beat up sneakers. The t-shirt fits him really well, not too tight, but… nice. Very sexy, it shows off his biceps. He has come a loooong way from the skinny little eleven-year-old from the Hogwarts Express.
"Gawdy, I sound horribly like Lucy." I say aloud, by complete accident. He gives me a look that makes me want a camera.
"What? Actually, I don't want to know. Well, this is what I'm wearing, so… Uh, what about your new red pumps with your white skinnies and a t-shirt? A green one, so we are all cute-couple-matchy-matchy, as Ange would put it."
"My WWW t-shirt? Harry, you know me and my mind altogether too well." Just as I say this, I realise that I'm wearing nothing but my matching Bra and Knickers set. Nice ones, crimson red and Lacy. Fleur gave them to me, actually. I remember being curious, and worried, as to how she knew my cup size. Harry must have noticed too, because he flushes Weasley red and all but pushes me back to the closet saying;
"Go, go. We need to… go." And walks back to his paper. I hunt out my white jeans and shoes, chuck on my tee, and fix my hair, which is starting to curl already, into a loose-messy bun, and put on my favourite cherry earrings, and walk back out.
"Done! Better than my lingerie?" I give him a twirl, trip on my feet, and stumble onto a chair. "Whoa. I'm fine, fine. I'm fine." He grins.
"No, no, I love the Lacy look. Your brother's however, may not be too crazy on it." He laughs, and grabs my bright red trench coat, and his black zip-up coat. "Come on, let's get to the Burrow." We walk out the door, and link our arms, walking one leg over the other. Giggling, I walk first through the cute picket-y gate Dad installed into the gap in the hedge, and look over to the yard space.
"Look, Bill and Charlie are making the tables battle like they did when we were younger. Harry, do you reckon that Perce will stick his head out the window and yell at them to shut-the-bloody-hell-up?"
"Maybe, but it won't be for a cauldron bottoms report, if you get my drift!" He laughs. I love it when he laughs properly. It's a sound that those who love him don't see as often as we would like to.
"Harry!" I give him a friendly shove. He just laughs in response.
"Ginny! Harry!" Lucy shouts to us as she runs over. "I didn't tell anybody," She continues quieter. "I figured that you were going to tell everybody tonight. By the way Ginny, Marie, you remember her? My nosy 68-year-old neighbour who's husband died last year of cancer. Anyway, she said to tell you to tell Harry to say "Hi, darling" to Teddy." She says this extremely quickly in almost a whisper, earning her a questioning look from Ron. I, however, get a glance, only a glance, from my betrothed. Can't get good help these days.
"The girlies at Quidditch saw the 'blinding sparkle'." I quickly explain.
"No, don't believe her, Harry. I just know everything." Lucy contradicts. Don't believe me? Honestly.
"I shall leave the two of you to decide who's the most trustworthy. Bearing in mind, Ginny, that it was Lucy whom I consulted about whether or not you'd like the ring." And with that, he excuses himself to go and talk to Ron.
"So do you like his grandmother's ring then?" I nod enthusiastically,
"Yes! Of course. I adore it. My colours are going to be velvety midnight blue, silver and white." What's for dinner? I'm starving. I haven't eaten anything since breakfast, and it's now almost 7:00pm. That makes for a very hungry girlie.
"I'm hungry, Ginny. I like those colours. What's for eating?" Oh yeah. She's definitely distracted. Oh. Charlie just took his shirt off. To clean it, apparently, it got 'dirt' on it. That explains it.
"He's just so… so… so… Hot. There is no other word to describe how gorgeously hot your second eldest brother is, Ginny." Ewww! I thought that I had a pact with all of my sisters-in-law! I don't want to know about the sex, or the hotness, or kissing, or anything like that! They're my brothers, for goodness sake!
"Luuucccyyyy!" I groan,
"Well what do you want me to say? I don't care when my husband takes his shirt off, and reveals his extremely sexy, sexy, sexy abs?" I'm not going to say anything, because it'd only make things worse. And here comes Charlie.
"Put a shirt on, we don't want to see your freckly torso."
"Au contraire, dear sister of mine. Lucy here does." Smarty-pants. Though, she is practically drooling.
"Pssh. Go 'way, Charles." Lucy says, voice straining with the sheer will power it takes her not to ravish him right there. Charlie then hugs her tight, and kisses the top of her head, and her entire demeanour changes.
"You're right then, I do want to see your abs." She trails her hand down his front, and snogs him senseless. I back away slowly; I don't want to see that. I think that I will go and show Paige my new shoes. She hasn't seen these ones yet.
"Hey Gin-Gin! Love your t-shirt. Wear it more often, it's good advertising, what with your being so famous and all!" George. He gave me this t-shirt a month ago. He gave everybody one, actually, but I'm the first to wear it. I got Harry to transfigure it to fit me better. He's better at it than I am, which, I suppose, really says something about my transfiguration skills.
"I will, George. Where's Paige?" I ask, shouting the last across the kitchen, as he walked over to the back door.
"Uh, I'm pretty sure that she and Peighton are up with Perce in his room learning about Muggle science. Genetics or something." He calls back, over his shoulder. Gosh, he's tall. Never really thought about it before. Weirdness. Now that I think about it, though, he is shorter than Big Bill and Ron. He, Percy and Charlie are about the same height really. Huh. Genetics, what is Percy thinking.
"Poor Peighton and Paige, ploughing through that perilously pesky paperwork of Percy's." I say to myself, because I'm just awesome like that.
"Nice alliteration, Gin." I whirl around, and there is Harry. I smile and run up to him, grab his face and kiss him slowly, and tenderly. Just cause I can.
"Get a room!" Bill. As if he can talk, he and Fleur are always snogging.
"Puis-je avoir votre chambre?" I ask Bill cheekily.
"Nah, that's mine and Fleur's." He replies, not missing a beat despite my swift change of language.
"Grammar, Bill." Penny says softly from across the room, where she is cross-stitching a blanket for Pieter. It has trains, cars, and planes on it. Very Muggle.
"Penny!" I half-shout across to the softly spoken woman, "I didn't even see you there. What's this I hear about Mr Percival teaching my god-daughters Genetics?" I say, mock-accusingly. Paige and Peighton are Lucy's goddaughters also. Perce and Penny decided that they didn't need the over-protectiveness/possessiveness that, and I quote, "God-fathers always provide." Luce and I try to make up for it by referring to them as ours as often as we can. The twins think it's hilarious, their parents, not so much.
"I know, I tried to stop him, they're only five, but… maybe you'd have some luck. You remind him of your mother. Quite frankly, you tend to scare him." She defends. I laugh, long and loud.
"He's… giggle giggle…scared…giggle…of me?" She smiles once more, and turns back to her stitching. I turn to face Harry, and see that he has already taken his leave of absence. I shrug and make my way up the hotch-potch staircase, and walking up the two flights of stairs to Percy's old bedroom. I bang open the door; as Lucy's mother says, "If it's not grand, don't make an entrance." Lucy's mother was always saying cool things like that; sadly, she died in the final Battle of Hogwarts. Anywho, I barge into the room, just in time to listen to Dear Percy to give the twins possibly the boooringest question ever.
"See girls, here is a problem. If two cats, one with long hair, the other with short hair, had kittens together, would the kittens be born with short hair, or long hair?" This is followed by a lot of 'ummm…'s.
"Percy, Percy, Percy. That is perfectly tedious. Here's a real question. If two of Charlie's heterozygous fire-breathing dragons had baby dragons together, what is the chance that the baby dragon, whom Uncle Charlie would also look after, could also breathe fire?" I say.
"Very likely, because Uncle Charlie says that most dragons breathe fire." Paige says reasonably.
"Also, both the mummy dragon, and the daddy dragon breathe fire, so the baby dragon would have a three out of four chance of breathing fire. The bigger chance is the fire-breathing penotope,"
"Phenotype, Peighton." Percy interrupts.
"So they would most likely either be heterozygous, or a dominant gene-d homozygous." She finishes, and smiles a huge grin.
"Right. See Percy? They got that one." Mostly because it had to do with the glorified 'Uncle Charlie', but that's completely beside the point. Ooh! Teddy and Andromeda are here. Victoire will be pleased. I'm no Seer, but I predict that they'll fall in love, and get married, and have 14 little blonde kiddies and live in a shoe. Like the old lady who didn't know what to do. That was my favourite Muggle nursery rhyme as a kid, although I always thought that the old lady was a little bit silly. Maybe she was a Squib.
"Come on Paige, Peighton, That's enough Muggle science-y stuff for now." I say, getting up from the desk chair I was sat at, and stand by the door while they both get up from the bed, where they were seated next to Perce. I usher them forwards, wave goodbye to Perce, and run after them down the stairs.
"Aunty Ginny, did you bring anything for us?" Paige says as soon as I reach the bottom of the stairs. I smile at her, and begin to speak, when Vikki runs up to me, Teddy hot on her tail.
"Ooh! That's a pretty ring, who gave it to you?" She asks, grabbing my right had. I change my ring to the other hand, so as not to draw attention to it.
"Hmm, somebody very special to my heart gave it to me. It's pretty, isn't it? Paige," I turn, facing her, "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't bring anything for you…" Her face drops, and I grin. "Except for these!" I whip a jumbo packet of multi-coloured balloons out of my jean pocket. They all immediately start requesting various colours,
"May I have red, Aunty?"
"Ooh! Green! Green!"
"Aunt Ginny, can I please have blue? To match my hair?" Turquoise Teddy today. My, my; I do have a penchant for alliteration.
"Teddy-Bear, any colour matches your hair" I smile at him. He pulls his patented 'cute' face; I've taught my nieces, nephews and god-son-and-daughter's very well. I am the master of the cute face.
"I s'pose so… Can I have blue anyway?" I just have to laugh at this. He has so much Dora in him.
"Of course you can, darling." I pass out balloons to all of the kids, and helped the younger ones blow them up. Once I'm done, and everyone has at least one balloon, I look up to find an audience! Charlie, Bill, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ange and George are all sitting on the steps, and standing next to them, watching me. Weird.
"What?" I ask, most of them just smile and shake their heads. "What?" I repeat. This time Big Bill speaks.
"Just watching you play with our kids. Aw, Ginny, sweetheart, you're all growed up!" My Big Bill has gone soft. He gets up from his spot next to Charlie on the bottom step, and hugs me tight like he did when I was a little girl. I love my Big Bill. "And you'll have your own kids, and you'll be a wonderful mother." He continues, apparently he was talking to me while I zoned out.
"Big Bill," I tell him, "thank you. But, you've gone soft since becoming a daddy." He grins back and goes off to round up his balloon popping troublemakers. Just then, Mum walks in, donned in her 'family-dinner' apron.
"Everyone, get your legs moving to the table, dinner is ready." Yum, she made her nice potato salad. "Harry, you there, Ron, no, you sit there. Here you go, Victoire dear. Freddy! You gave me a fright. Too much of your Uncle in you. Teddy darling, have some lettuce. George! Why in the world did you think that giving them 'harmless' fireworks was a good idea?" Ahhh, Mother Mode.
"I didn't," he says. "I just love the look that you give me. Reminds me of my childhood." He grins. Cheeky bugger. Only he could really say something like that and not get his head bitten off. It's a talent, I tell you. Dinner carries on much in this fashion; Mum found six more of Georges Whizbang Wheezes, managed to stop Percy from drinking the Pumpkin juice that Paige successfully slipped the business end of a Puking Pastille into, and brought out still more food. When they were finished eating, all of the kids were sent upstairs to 'go to bed', i.e. play-shout-and-scream-without-being-heard-due-to-Uncle-Ron's-and-Uncle-Harry's-silencing-charms-that-Mum-doesn't-know-about-on-the-walls. Andromeda had gone home, leaving Teddy (who begged and pleaded) to stay for a sleepover with Vikki. All of us 'Adults' and I use the term loosely, had re-convened in the lounge after it got too dark. Most of us are sipping mugs of tea; of course, Lucy and I had retrieved our Mocha stash up in Charlie's room, and made ourselves a mug of it each. Everybody is chatting, and catching up. Despite being a close family, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, we tend to simply miss one another. Lucy is leaning on Charlie, Bill and Fleur are sprawled together on a couch. Mum and Dad are sitting in their armchairs, but she and Dad are unconsciously angled towards one another. I always think it's sweet, how in love they still are with each other. Ron is sitting on the smaller couch, with Hermione's head in his lap, with him stroking her hair absently. George and Ange are sitting on an armchair; Percy is leaning on the chair Penny is sitting cross-legged in. I'm sitting on Harry, my back against the arm of the slightly-bigger-than-usual armchair that I claimed at the young age of 3. Harry leans down, his mouth against my ear, and whispers to me.
"Hey, put your ring on the other hand, Gin. We'll see who notices first. I bet it is Hermione." I smile; not a chance with the legendary Hawk-Eye Mum in the room.
"Nah, Mum." I whisper back. Twenty minutes later, Mum glances first at Bill and Fleur who are both almost asleep. She looks at Ange and George, who are whispering to one another in between chaste kisses. Aww, they're so cute! She turns to Percy and Penny, who actually are asleep. Turns out six kids can be exhausting. She glances at Ron and Hermione. Hermione's eyes are closed, but she is talking to Ron, who is obviously not listening to the words, but more to the timbre of her voice. Mum looks to Charlie and Lucy. Lucy is talking animatedly to Charlie and me, although, about what, I'm not too sure. I'm such a good listener. Note the sarcasm. Next, Mum looks at me and Harry. I can almost see her eyes bug out.
"Ginny!" Mum shrieks, effectively wakening Perce, Penny, Big Bill, Fleur and making Ron jump up in surprise with his wand out.
"Ronald! Sit down!" Hermione is the only person I know who calls Ron Ronald. Not even Mum does. Bill thinks that it's hilarious.
"Ginny, do you have something that you want to tell us?" Mum says slowly, like I'm in trouble or something. Ha! I told him that Mum'd be the first to notice!
"Harry, get up." He does. Without warning me, of course. I fall off of him, and land on the floor.
"Harry! That hurt!" I moan, rubbing my hip. He picks me up off the ground, and hugs me, kissing the top of my head. Lucy makes gagging noises.
"I'm better than you, Luce. Honestly, drooling just because Charlie-Boy took off his shirt." Mum will be scandalised! I singsong in my head.
"To reveal his extremely gorgeously toned and sexy abs!" Lucy defends herself. Charlie blushes, (blushes!) and Bill sniggers.
"Charlie! I… oh, never mind. What was it that you were going to say, Ginny dear?" Mum shuffles to the front of her seat, clutching Dads hand.
"Well," I start, looking at Harry, who gives me a small, imperceptible by anyone except me, nod to say 'go on, you tell 'em.'
"Mum, Daddy, Family, Harry and I are getting married!" As soon as I say this, Mum, Lucy, Hermione and Ange are quite literally hanging around mine and Harry's necks. Ron is just sitting there, looking rather shell shocked, I must say.
"Ginny! That ezz Wonderful!" Fleur gushes. She's a bit like Mum, and has an inclination to gush.
"Now you won't be living together unmarried!" Mum says, genuinely ecstatic at the idea. I had no clue that it bothered her so much! It's not like anything happens.
"Congratulations mate. But, if you hurt her, you're mincemeat." Charlie says, once everybody is sat down once more.
"Thanks so much!" I start, "Lucy, would you be my Maid-of-Honour?" I was going to ask Hermione, but really, I'm closer to Lucy.
"I'd love to, Ginny." She smiles softly.
"Hermione?" I ask, "Will you be one of my bridesmaids?" She nods, being lost for words as she is. This is a very proudifying moment. I struck her speechless.
"Ange? What do you say?" I smile hopefully at her. I'll ask Luna to be my last Bridesmaid, I think.
"Sure." She smiles and shrugs. "Wait, I won't have to wear pink will I? I don't do pink." Trust Angelina…
"Don't worry, Hun, neither do I. Weasley hair." I grin hugely. I'm so happy! I love my family.
Wow. Over 3000 words! How was that? Review and let me know!