I wake up. The pain in my scar has long since left, and I feel much better than the night before. What if Josh is the reason behind the pain in my scar? What if there is more to that kid than meets the eye? It is a Saturday, and a trip to Hogsmeade. Ginny starts to stir, so I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep. She leaves my office, then comes back in a few minutes later. I wake up for real this time. "I knew you were faking," she says with a laugh. I get out of bed and find jeans and a hoodie for Hogsmeade. When I reach for my favorite hoodie, I see it is gone. "Ginny, have you seen my sweatshirt?" She comes out of the bathroom wearing leggings, my hoodie, and converse. I laugh. "Guess I found it" She looks at it and sees that it is darker around my heart, almost like a burn. "What happened?"I lift my t-shirt to show her the scar Voldemort gave me when he tried a second time to use the killing curse on me. She comes closer. "Is that where he tried to kill you the second time." I nod and let my shirt fall back over the scar. She wraps her arms around my waist and looks up at me. "If I can help it, nobody will ever hurt you again." I pull her into a kiss.
After I pull away, I take her hand in mine, grab a jacket, and head out of my office. I turn a corner and see a Gryffindor sitting against the wall crying as other students jeer at him. I take a few steps closer before I realize who it is. "It's Josh," I whisper into Ginny's ear. She nods and drops my hand. I walk forward closer to the bullies. They are all Hufflepuff. The ones who are supposed to be loyal and accepting, are taunting this boy who is scared of his mother above all things. "HEY!" All of the Hufflepuffs jump back in surprise. One of them is a prefect. "30 points from Hufflepuff apiece, and you will no longer be a prefect." They all look at me with mouths wide open, but I am not done yet. "Detentions with me for 2 months, every…" I think of a day that would not interfere with time with Ginny, or Quidditch. "Monday. Now go, and do not let me catch you making the same mistake again." I finish, feeling the anger leave me. "You have no right to do that!" The prefect yells at me. I spin on my heel and Ginny grabs my arm. I hold her hand, and stay surprisingly calm as I say, "I think Deputy Headmaster holds those rights actually, because Deputy Headmaster picks the prefects from a list, given to him by heads of houses." She turns red, then hangs her head. "Oh one more thing, you will not be going into Hogsmeade today, due to the fact you don't know when to stop." She storms away red-faced.
I turn to Josh. "Come with us today Josh." He looks at me. "First years aren't allowed in Hogsmeade, Professor." I look at him. "I think we can bend the rules just this once." His face glows in anticipation. "Go get a sweater," Ginny says to him. He runs up to Gryffindor tower as fast as he can. "You are going to be an amazing father one day." She says, looking up at me. I kiss her. "And you a great mother." She kisses me again, and we don't break apart until we hear a faint "Ew" from Josh. Ginny breaks away with a laugh. I take Ginny's hand in mine and an arm around Josh's shoulders. We head into the Village making small talk and cracking jokes. Our first stop is Honeydukes, I give Josh a Galleon, and tell him to go crazy, figuring he can't go very far with that much. I then take Ginny and buy us a sugar quill to share. A few minutes later, Josh finds his way back to us with his arms loaded with candies of all kinds, getting ready to go up front. I put out an arm and stop him in his tracks. I pull out the dungbombs and Puking Pastilles. "Now you can go." Ginny laughs. Once Josh finished checking out, we head down the street to the Three Broomsticks, where I buy all of us a butterbeer.
A few hours later, I give Josh to Ron and Hermione to take back to the school, and take Ginny down to a small cafe at the edge of town, to get some lunch. We sit in silence for a minute before Ginny talks. "Ok, what is wrong?" I look at her in bewilderment. "How can you tell something is wrong?" She rolls her eyes. "I've known you since I was 10, loved you since 11, you saved my life when I was 11, must I go on?" I pull her into my lap, and wrap my arms around her, laying my head on her shoulder. "I don't know if I can do this. Between Josh and you and Quidditch and my classes." She looks at me. "Are you breaking up with me?" I see tears starting to for in her eyes. "No, I am breaking up with quidditch this season." She looks at my eyes wide. "You're quitting Quidditch?" I nod sadly. I hate this fate just as much as she does, but I have to give something up, and it's not about to be her or Josh. She snuggles into my chest. "You are doing that for me?" I nod and kiss the top of her head. She stretches her legs out on the booth and plays with my hand. After about an hour of this, we head back up to the school. I kiss her goodnight, then head up to my office, falling into a deep dreamless sleep.