Chapter Ten – Newlyweds

Harry and Ginny had been back home from what had been a spectacular honeymoon for about a month when they got the news that Bill and Fleur -well, mostly Fleur - were pregnant. Apparently newly married couples weren't the only ones having special nights at their wedding! Ginny got together with Hermione, and headed out for the Malls in London with another perfect reason to go shopping, even though they didn't know whether the baby would be a boy or girl, and that they still had about eight months to go until the child would be born.

The NEWT results came out that summer. Hermione and Ginny, as expected, received Outstanding marks in all of their subjects. Harry passed with two O's and the rest E's. Ron also passed everything – even Potions - but didn't really care. He was going to be playing professional Quidditch, and was in training camp getting ready for his first season. His NEWT grades weren't going to change that, and he was pretty sure that he wasn't going to need to be able to brew any potions as part of his job with the Cannons.

On the night that they had received their NEWT letters, the two couples were together at Ginny and Harry's house. Kreacher had served them drinks, left snacks that he knew Ron would devour, and had then gone back to Grimmauld place for the night. Ginny looked over at Hermione and smiled brightly at her friend.

"What do you plan to do, now that pretty much the whole magical working world is open to you?" she asked, and Hermione shrugged.

"I haven't really decided yet," she answered. "I don't think I want to work for the Ministry of Magic, and I'm still looking at my options." Ginny turned her smile on Harry, and he nodded slightly.

"How would you feel about working at a magic research facility?" she suggested, trying to sound innocent, and Hermione looked at her suspiciously.

"That depends. What research facility? What kind of research?" Harry and Ginny both couldn't help grinning now.

"The facility is called the Marauders Institute," Ginny told her. "It's in this place called Chudley. They will be doing pure research in all areas of magic - medical, socio-economic, and defensive magic. The goal is to improve existing magic, and develop new magic and products. The secondary goal is to explore and experiment with the use of Muggle sciences, and the potential benefits of using some Muggle technology, or even combining their technology with our magic." Hermione looked amazed.

"You said 'will be doing pure research'. What did you mean by that?"

Ginny laughed. "Well, they're waiting for two people to agree to come work there," she told Hermione. "A facility administrator/researcher," she added, pointing to herself, "and hopefully the new Head of Research," she concluded, pointing at Hermione, who was smiling now, and had tears in her eyes.

"Let me think about this for a while," she said, pretending to consider the offer for about a second and a half. "Yes, alright, I'd love to, and when do we start?" Ron, Ginny, and Harry were all laughing.

"How would you like to start with a tour of the place?" Ginny suggested, and Hermione's eyes lit up with excitement.

"When? Where?" she asked, and Ginny stood and pulled her friend to her feet too.

"I think right now would work for you, and the where is that new building you probably noticed down the road from your house, on the edge of Chudley." Hermione laughed.

"Maybe you should go into theatre, Ginny," she said, hugging her sister-in-law. "I never suspected a thing, and you didn't give a hint any of those times I'd wondered to you what the place was going to be." Ginny looked over at Harry.

"Are you boys coming with us?" she asked. Ron and Harry exchanged looks, and he shook his head.

"Why don't you two go play - we wouldn't understand half of what you girls were talking about anyway," he suggested. "Have fun, and we'll wait here for you." He got up and kissed her good-bye, and then the girls left, already talking shop. Harry re-filled Ron's glass, his own, and then sat down again.

"Have you decided what you're going to do?" Ron asked him, and Harry smiled and nodded.

"I've been thinking about that a lot. You know I'd always talked about being an Auror, but with everything we've gone through, it just isn't important to me anymore." He took a drink before continuing. "You're going to be the most famous Keeper in Cannons Quidditch history, and Ginny and Hermione will be world class researchers. I've decided that all I really want to do is enjoy the rest of my life, and make sure all of my friends and family have everything they'd ever want." Shrugging, he added - "We certainly don't have to worry about money. You and I have got it made, Ron. Smart, beautiful wives, a great family, and we basically get to play instead of working."

Ron laughed. "Speak for yourself on the not working, mate. Between studying playbooks and Quidditch practices, I'm working my tail off. These guys even use a pensieve to have us watch games and learn about our competition. Do you have any idea how many Chasers I have to learn everything about?" Harry smiled at him.

"Since there are twelve teams in the league besides the Cannons, I'd guess thirty-six, and double that if you have to learn everything about the reserve team players," he answered, surprising his brother-in-law. "You love every second of it though, and you know it."

They talked Quidditch for the next couple of hours until Hermione and Ginny returned, and then tried to look and sound interested as the girls talked excitedly about what they would do with their new jobs. When Hermione expressed some concern over the cost of running a place like that, Ginny told her that Fleur was certain the place would make a big profit from marketing the Institute's new discoveries, and that Hermione didn't need to worry about the money end of the business – her job was to run the research lab and let Ginny and Fleur worry about the rest.

Ginny and Harry were snuggled close together in bed later that night. "You and Hermione are going to be able to do amazing things with your research," he predicted. "I don't need any talent for divination to see a couple of Orders of Merlin first class in your futures." Ginny hugged him tightly.

"I'm way past being amazed by anything you can make happen," she told him, and Harry laughed, rolling to face her with a decidedly impish glint in those emerald eyes.

"Really?" he asked as he ran a hand slowly and softly along her side, down her leg, and back again. "That sounds like the kind of challenge I could sink my teeth into. Let's find out if you're right about that," he added, and she laughed as he started nibbling her neck, and spending the next couple of hours proving her wrong.

Ginny was away shopping with Luna and Hermione for the day, and Ron was practicing with the Cannons, so Harry had asked Neville to spend the day hanging out together. They'd decided to head into Godric's Hollow for lunch, and were having drinks while they waited for their orders.

"What are you and Luna going to be doing now that we're done with school?" Harry asked his friend. Neville looked uncertain and shrugged.

"I haven't really got anything yet. Gran's been pestering me about it a bit, so I'll have to do something about it soon, I guess. Luna's going to work for her father at the Quibbler."

Harry smiled and nodded. "She'll probably have the Quibbler outselling the Prophet within a year. What would you like to do?"

Neville shrugged again. "If I could do anything, it'd be to keep studying herbology - there's really so much we don't know about it. Hardly anybody does exploration, looking for undiscovered plants. So I guess it'd be to study and explore." Neville stopped, looking at Harry a bit sheepishly. "You probably think that sounds really dumb," he added. Harry thought that might have been the longest he'd every heard Neville speak at one time.

"I don't think it sounds dumb at all," he said. "You know what Ginny and Hermione are going to be doing?" Neville nodded. "I don't think Marauders Institute could possibly have a complete research operation without having herbology research. The girls had suggested that you work there too, but I kinda thought you might be looking for a little more adventure than being stuck in a lab all day." Harry smiled as Neville looked surprised that Harry had thought about what Neville would and wouldn't like to do for work at all.

"So instead of offering you a job there, the Institute wants to offer you a research grant," Harry continued, and Neville's eyes and face lit up. "You can study and explore whatever you choose, and in return, the Institute gets the rights to market your discoveries. You would, of course, share in any profits from those products." The food arrived, and Neville was actually shaking with excitement.

"What do you think, Neville? Are you interested?" Harry asked, and Neville laughed.

"Definitely. Where do I go to sign up?" he asked, and Harry laughed.

"Right here," Harry answered. He pulled a parchment out of his robe and handed it across the table to his friend. "Here's the contract for your grant. The money was transferred to your account this morning." Neville was taking a drink as he was reading the contract over, and Harry had to get up and pound him on the back when he started choking after reading the amount of the grant. Harry was laughing when he sat down again.

"Don't worry, Neville. When you've used up that grant, I'm sure they can give you another one if you need it," he said, though they both knew that there was enough money there to allow Neville to work for years and years to come.

September rolled around, and while it seemed a little weird to not be heading to Hogwarts, they were all keeping busy. Harry and Ginny had Teddy come to stay with them for the first week or two of school to make getting back to school easier for Andromeda. Ginny was gone most of the day getting the Institute up and running with Hermione, so Harry and Teddy spent their days playing and having fun together.

Harry would run around for seemingly endless hours while Teddy played on his broom. They'd go exploring in Godric's Hollow, playing at the park, and usually getting ice creams while they were in town. They went to have lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in Diagon Alley one day, and then spent the afternoon wandering through the shops. Harry, Ginny, and Hermione took Teddy to Ron's first Professional Quidditch game. The rest of the family came to the game too, including Charlie and Nathalie, who came over from Romania just for the game.

The Cannon's lost the match, but Ron didn't allow a single goal. The Harpies' Seeker caught the snitch, ending the game, and winning it for her team, with a final score of one hundred and fifty to ninety. Despite the loss, the whole town of Chudley celebrated, finally seeing their team playing like they actually had a chance to win.

The Weasley family and respective girlfriends or fiancées went to Romania in early October for Charlie and Nothalie's wedding. Mrs. Weasley had tracked down a lovely country property near the Dragon Reserve, and Harry had a house built there that Fleur and Mrs. Weasley then went to town on, decorating and furnishing the place. Bill stood up with Charlie, along with Nathalie's brothers, and Fleur, her pregnancy just beginning to show, stood with Nathalie's sister and friends.

Harry and Ginny had a great time, getting to have all the fun, and pretty much none of the work to do. The bride was supposed to be the most beautiful girl at the wedding, but Harry personally had to disagree. When he'd first seen Ginny when they were ready to apparate to the wedding, it was touch and go as to whether they'd make it on time - and a lot less touch than Harry had wanted. The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and everyone had a wonderful day, sending the newlyweds off on their honeymoon.

Harry and Ginny went to every Cannon's home game, and most of the road games too. By the end of November, their team had a twenty year best two win and four loss record, with the two wins also tying their best season wins total for the past ten years. Ron wasn't very happy to have two losses for every win, but everyone around him urged Ron to be patient – their team was a lot better, and the wins would eventually come.

They were sitting down for breakfast on December first when the Owl Post from Gringott's arrived. While Harry was opening the letter, Ginny had walked around the table, put her arms around him, and looked over his shoulder as they both read.

Mr. Potter,

I am pleased to send your annual financial statement, as per your instructions of nearly one and a half years ago. The accuracy was independently verified. The attached statement reflects what was a record-breaking financial year for any account holder in Gringott's history. The six incentive authorization forms are also included, and the Owl will wait for your return post.

With sincerest regards,

Griphook, Molly and Fleur Weasley

Harry flipped to the financial statement. Ginny gasped in astonishment. "That can't be right!" she exclaimed, shocked at what her mother, sister-in-law, and the other account managers had accomplished. Harry just laughed in answer, and happily went through the six authorization letters, adding short personal notes to each as he signed the parchments that would transfer two million galleons to each of his account managers. He handed them to Ginny so she could also add any personal notes to the letters if she wanted to.

"Just be glad we have such a good team doing this, Ginny," he told her. "These are our finances now, not mine, and your Mum and Fleur are obviously worth every single knut we pay them. They did this even with all the start-up expenses of the new research facility."

Ginny hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek. "First of all, if it's our finances, then it's certainly now our Mum, not just mine," she told him, and Harry laughed, conceding the point. "My second point is that I love you, Harry. You're amazing, and I don't have to absolutely be to work for another hour - maybe two - if you have any better offers for me this morning."

Harry quickly dispatched the owl, and Ginny laughed as he swept her into his arms, kissed her, and then carried her back upstairs where they worked on making another really great memory together. That made for a brilliant start to their December, and getting to give out millions of galleons to their account managers was a great way to start the Christmas season too.