Chapter 10.

"What!?" Harry asked, pausing the film.

"See! I knew you loved this film, why else would you pause it!" Ginny teased.

"Ginny, what did you just say?" Harry asked, looking at her deeply.

"I said I love you too." Ginny said softly, "Always have, always will."

"You love me?" Harry asked slowly, like a small child trying to comprehend that one and one is two.

"I just said that." Ginny rolled her eyes slightly.

"You love me." Harry grinned; he felt like a million galleons, Ginny loved him! Him! Nothing could possible bring him down from the high.

"But we can't be together until after the tournament." Ginny told him sadly.

Except perhaps that, "Why?!" Harry asked, shocked.

"Because the media are looking for any kind of scandal around me! One day I'm kissing Kevin the next I'm back together with you!" Ginny told him.

"We're not even back together and you're already putting quidditch before me." Harry muttered.

"Harry, please." Ginny looked at him, her brown eyes wide and sad.

"How about if we take it slow, dates but you leave with me under the invisibility cloak or disaparate from inside your apartment to inside mine and then we'll go from there." Harry said his voice soft.

"That sounds good." Ginny nodded.

"Really slow." Harry repeated, picking up Ginny's hand and interlocking their fingers together, letting her lean against him as he pressed play on the remote, "And beside, this is my favourite bit, didn't want to miss it." He grinned.

...

Ron and Hermione landed in the American Ministry of Magic at exactly three minutes past nine GMT, when it reality it was only three minutes past four in Massachusetts, the sun was still out and people were still bustling around, busy working for at least another hour. American wizards looked no difference in appearance that British wizards, Ron didn't quite know what her was expecting but the only difference he found was their accents.

"So how do we start looking for her?" Ron asked.

"The hospital." Hermione said, taking his arm and aparating him to the Salem Wizarding Hospital.

This however didn't seem to be as busy as usually was when Hermione or Ron visited it. It had a quite sort of lull to it as they strode up to the reception desk, Hermione in front, Ron, his hand in hers, following.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help us?" Hermione asked the woman politely, whose name badge read Lauren.

"Sure. Where you from? You don't sound like you're from around here." The receptionist asked.

"We're from England but we're looking for someone, we think she could be a healer here." Ron said friendlily at the woman.

"Well I know all the healers so..." She looked at Hermione.

"This photo's pretty old." Hermione told her.

"That's Fay, Fay Peters. She started working here eighteen years ago, she's a bit of a legend actually, started just after the dark lord you had problems with fell." She smiled at them.

"We were wondering if you knew where we could find her." Ron asked.

"I'll page her, she's here right now." Lauren pressed a few buttons and then turned and smiled at the once again, "She's on her way now."

"Thanks for your help." Hermione told Lauren, watching as a blonde woman came striding into view in a Healers uniform.

"Hi, how can I help you?" She asked Ron and Hermione, over the past eighteen years she'd developed a slight American accent though you could still hear undertones of British.

"Hi, we actually wanted to talk to you." Hermione told her, "Here." She handed Fay the photograph of her and Lily.

"Where did you get this?" She asked, walking with them to the exit and sitting on a bench out of anyone else's earshot.

"A friend, Hagrid." Ron told her, "We're friends of Harry."

The name had an instant effect on Fay, she became less alert, her eyes filled with warmth and love as she thought of the godson that didn't know her. She led them to her office and sat down, looking at the questioningly, "So why are you here?"

"We were wondering if you had any memories of Lily and James when they were really truly that Harry could see, he's never seen them truly happy." Hermione told Fay, "We were also wondering if you wanted to come back with us, so you can meet Harry."

"I would love to but-" They were interrupted by a knock at the door and a teenage girl stuck her head around the door.

"Mum, I left my charms book here last night and I need them." She spoke in an American accent and looked very similar to her mother except for the fact her hair was dark brown, almost black.

"Ron, Hermione, meet my daughter, Rose." Fay introduced them.

"Hi." She smiled, entering the office and picking up the charms book, "I'll see you later?" She asked her mum.

"Yeah." Fay smiled, "See you later."

Rose left the office and Fay turned her attention back to Ron and Hermione, "I have a life here now, a husband and a daughter who I love more than anything. All my best friends are dead, there's nothing left for me, I'll give you the memories but it's easier for everyone if Harry never finds out. What would happen? We'd meet and then I'd go back to America?"

"I still think he'd want to meet you, just once." Ron disagreed.

"Lily was like my sister, she begged me to leave, wouldn't tell me where they were hiding and James agreed, to him I was a little sister who he wanted to protect, they both did so they tried, they knew that Remus and Sirius would never leave but if all of them tried they could get me to leave, and then one of our friends was killed because Voldemort suspected them to be the secret keeper and it seemed to put it all into perspective, loads of people were leaving so I did too." Fay looked down, ashamed of what she'd done, "In some ways I wish I hadn't, but in other ways, I met Andrew and I fell in love, got married and had a kid but none of my best friends were there."

"Remus was alive." Hermione told her, "He got married and had a son before he was killed."

"Remus got married and had a son?" She asked, surprised and happy.

"Yeah, he was so happy when Teddy was born; they died together in battle, leaving Teddy alone." Ron told Fay.

"If you're trying to guilt trip me into this you're doing a good job." Fay muttered, wiping away a tear that had fallen.

"We don't want to do that." Hermione said softly.

"I'll come back with you, but only for a few days." She told them.

...

Harry looked down at Ginny who was asleep on his lap, her red hair was covering her face and he was gently playing with it, twisting it around his fingers and letting it run loosely through. It was strange how different he felt in that moment to two weeks ago, it was as if his happiness depended on her and that wasn't necessarily a good thing, to have all your hopes and dreams within one person, but after all didn't someone once say that love is giving someone the power to destroy you...and trusting them not too. He and Ginny had practically destroyed each other last time but they wouldn't do that again...would they?

Harry muttered a spell and carefully levitated Ginny off him and towards her bedroom, deciding she'd be much comfier in her own bed. As her pulled the covers back and let her fall softly onto the mattress her eyes fluttered open, "What...?" She mumbled.

"I thought you'd be comfier here." Harry told her, pulling the covers over her.

"Stay." Ginny told him.

"I was going to sleep on the settee." Harry told her.

"Stay here." Ginny told him, catching hold of his hand, "Please."

The one word triggered something in Harry, he'd been so determined that he'd sleep on the settee and not next to her but hearing her ask him, sounding so small as she looked at him with pleading eyes broke whatever resistance Harry had formally had. He kicked off his shoes and pulled off the jacket he was wearing and pulled off his jeans so he was only in his socks, boxers and t-shirt and climbed into the bed, "So much for taking it slow." He mumbled.

"I haven't jumped you yet." Ginny teased.

"You're injured otherwise I wouldn't be so sure." Harry teased back.

"I'm not injured." Ginny huffed.

"Whatever." Harry laughed slightly and wrapped his arms around Ginny tightly, and she buried her face in his chest.

"I'm really not." She mumbled sleepily.

"Whatever you say." Harry smiled slightly, stroking Ginny's hair as they drifted off to sleep.

...

"So what's the American Ministry like?" Hermione asked Fay as the returned into the building and towards the port key that would take them back to England.

"Not a lot different to Britain." Fay shrugged, "The school here is different to Hogwarts, a lot of the kids live locally, it's a really big Wizarding society, everything's out it the open and disguised from muggles, so they can come home at night but some of the kids from other places board but there're magic schools across the US, it's just Salem is the best so they're a few that board but the majority are day students."

"That would be weird." Ron said, "Going home after a day at school!" He said it like it was the most absurd thing in the world.

"Ron never went to primary school." Hermione explained to Fay.

"My mum taught me from home." He added.

"Yeah, a lot of my friends did that, more the ones from the more traditional families whereas my dad wanted me to get to know muggle ways." Fay nodded.

"I had no idea about magic until I was 11." Hermione laughed, "Weird really to think that now it's such a huge part of me and before I was 11 I had no idea it existed."

They talked easily until they were transported back to the Ministry of Magic in London, the familiar surroundings materialised out of nowhere as they landed.

"Welcome back." Ron grinned.

"Wow." Fay muttered, it had changed so much since the last time she'd been there.

"I was hoping we could go check on my sister, Ginny, she got a bludger to the head in a game and I-" Ron as cut off by Fay.

"Your sister's Ginny Weasley?!" She asked excitedly, clearly a quidditch fan.

"Yeah, you follow quidditch?" Ron asked as they walked out the Ministry.

"Religiously, I watch the British league because it's where all the good players are, I actually saw the game on the IQC, that hit was pretty gruesome." Fay nodded.

"Yeah and Harry's supposed to be looking after her, I'll just check they haven't killed each other yet." Ron told them, taking Hermione's hand and Fay's arm as he disaparated, reappearing on Ginny's doorstep.

"Where does she keep the disguised key." Ron muttered to himself, "The locks charmed so alohomora doesn't work."

"Here." Hermione pulled out a set of keys and found a key that Ginny had given her.

"How come you have a key?" Ron asked, unlocking the door.

"She gave it us ages ago." Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's forgetfulness.

"So either Ginny's killed Harry or I'm about to." Ron muttered upon not seeing Harry on the settee.

They made their way quietly down the hallway and towards Ginny's bedroom; Fay was lingering in the kitchen area, obviously not feeling comfortable as Ron pushed open Ginny's bedroom door and peered inside, "I thought they hated each other," was the whisper that reached Hermione as she looked in.

"Aww." Hermione cooed, looking at Harry who still had one arm draped loosely around Ginny's shoulders as she slept on his strong chest. His eyes snapped open at the noise and he looked at them, shock on his face.

Carefully he moved himself out from under Ginny and slid out the bed, "I thought you two went away?" Harry asked them quietly.

"So we have a confession." Hermione started once they were in the hallway, "The past few weeks we've been looking for someone, your mums best friend, because we thought she might have some memories of your parents you'd like to see, happy memories, and we found her."

It was then that Harry noticed Fay as they entered the kitchen. There was something familiar about her, as if he'd seen her in a dream or known her in another life. Either way he knew that she wasn't a threat. "Why?" Harry asked.

"We thought that you deserved to see your parents happy," Ron shrugged, "Also that you'd like to meet Fay and she could maybe answer any questions you had."

"You did this for me?" Harry asked, looking from Ron to Hermione, who both shuffled around a little.

"Yeah I guess." Ron mumbled.

"Thank you." Harry told them sincerely.

"Hi, I'm Fay, I was your mother's best friend." Fay introduced herself.

"I never knew you existed." Harry told her.

"I know you didn't." Fay nodded, "I'm sorry I've never been there."

"It's really late and I'm shattered, how about we do this tomorrow. Where are you staying?" Harry asked.

"The Leaky Cauldron...that is if it's still around." Fay shrugged.

"Yeah it is." Harry grinned, "I'll meet you there at twelve o'clock tomorrow and we'll grab lunch."

"Sounds good." Fay smiled, "I think I'll be leaving now. It was nice to meet you two." She told Ron and Hermione before leaving the flat.

"So you and Ginny?" Ron asked.

"We're giving it a try, taking it really slow and not making the same mistakes." Harry said, smiling happily, "I can't believe you found someone who knew my parents well."

"You deserve it mate." Ron told Harry, for the first time in over nine months he addressed him as 'mate'.

"Thank you, really." Harry smiled at them.

"We better get home, I'm seriously tired." Hermione told them, stifling a yawn as she said it.

"Night." Harry told the two of them, watching them leave the flat and walking back into the bedroom, climbing back into the bed and slipping his arms around his Ginny...

...

So...? Review!

How long do you think until they have another fight?

How long before people find out?