The Path to be Together
By: Dueler 312
Note: J. K. Rowling owns these characters, not me.
Chapter 12
The Countdown to the Potter wedding
Christmas was definitely a good haul this year. The only thing was now that two couple were getting excited and nervous at the same time. Harry's and Ginny's wedding looked a lot closer on the day after Christmas. Ginny was so excited that she almost fired her Bat-Bogey Hex at Harry, who was wondering if she wanted anything to drink from their kitchen, that she had to take a calming draught to get back in control. Harry was just excited as well, but as he and Ron had a tough Auror training schedule, at least he had something to unleash all that excitement.
Ron though couldn't release all his excitement like Harry did. For one thing, he was going to have Harry as his new brother-in-law. But, also he was too excited that he would be marrying Hermione soon as well, even though theirs was six months away.
Still, he and Hermione also had a lot of stuff to do. As being the Maid of Honor and Best Man for Harry and Ginny, they had to help with a lot of stuff: making sure the flowers were the ones they ordered, (lilies, in case you forgotten) having all the supplies with them, and made sure they had all the dress robes. Harry and Ginny thought Ron would crack under the pressure; because it looked liked he was exhausted. Only Hermione seemed to be staying calm.
One night however, Harry came back from Auror training completely exhausted. One reason was that Mad-Eye had put him and Ron through a rigorous training course, with spells creating phony dark wizards that they had to take down without using any Dark spell. But with all that, adding to the stress of the wedding coming up, Harry was even more tired than Ron, that he had to take the Floo network to get home.
Ginny got home by Apparating and noticed that her fiancée was tired out, as she saw Harry move to the drawing room, and then just collapsed on the couch. Ginny took pity on him and went to see if she could warm his spirit.
"Hey, are you all right?" she asked?
Harry looked at her and smiled, as he said, "You wouldn't be if Moody put you through a rigorous training course." Ginny sat next to him as she rubbed his side.
"And of course, with the excitement of the wedding coming up, I'm just worn out," Harry continued saying.
"Aww, is Harry getting beat by the wedding worries?" Ginny said teasingly.
"You're lucky I can't move right now," said Harry, chuckling a little. Ginny laid down on him carefully, and said, "Luckily, I can." And she started to kiss him on the lips, with Harry receiving and kissing her back.
They were doing it for a while when Harry said, "Ginny, not that I don't want to get up, but my stomach is whining for some food."
Ginny laughed and tapped her soulmate on the arm "Luckily, I am as well," she said as she helped Harry off the couch and headed into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Ron had just Apparated to his home, waiting for Hermione to get home as well. Ron just stretched out on the couch, waiting for a while until he heard a "pop" from inside the hallway.
"Ron, are you here?" Hermione's voice called from the hallway.
"In the living room," he called.
Hermione entered and saw how Ron was. "I take it today Auror's class was a bad one?" she asked.
"Not bad," he corrected her, moving a little so Hermione could sit down. "Just exhausting. Moody put us through a intense training course."
"Yeah, I'm a little exhausted as well," Hermione admitted, laying her arms behind Ron. "It was busy at the Hospital, today."
"Really?" asked Ron.
"Yeah, unfortunately, we had a bad situation with one patient that had died there today," said Hermione, dropping her voice a little. "He got hit hard with some unknown poison spell."
"I take it you took the death so well," said Ron.
Hermione just nodded. "Hannah actually did help a little, but I think I was still down about it, until now."
"When I asked you about it?" Ron tried to confirm. Hermione chuckled and nodded. "I think though that case is going to go to your department as soon as possible."
"If it does, we'll catch them," Ron promised, rubbing his fiancée's leg. Hermione just smiled.
"Hmm. I just can't believe it," said Hermione.
"Can't believe what?" Ron asked.
"That we would be here right now, living together, and about to be married soon," Hermione explained.
"Yeah, that's true," said Ron. "Not to mention my sister and our best friend getting married as well."
Hermione nodded. Then she said, "You know, I wonder what they could be doing together?" she ended with a goofy smile.
"HERMIONE!" Ron shouted out. Hermione started to laugh out of control. Then Ron said, "You better run, girl," as he got up. Hermione saw this and got up and ran out of the front room, with Ron right behind her, both of them laughing as began a chasing game.
Things were starting to get exciting. A couple of months went by with trying to get everything done and ready for Harry and Ginny's wedding. Ron and Hermione though took some time off to celebrate Ron's birthday, which happened to be a professional Quidditch game. Ron hugged right when she showed them that she was turning blue. Luckily, Harry and Ginny turned up to get Ron off of her before he could suffocate her. Ron apologized after that.
Molly had started to cook a big wedding cake for Harry and Ginny. They were glad for that, because one, it wouldn't cost anything, and two, they knew anything that Molly made would definitely fill them up. She was even making the food to eat there. Arthur was wondering when she would be tired out from making all the food.
Even Hermione was now starting to show a little strain from all she had to do. Fleur and Luna were fitted, along with Hermione for the bridesmaids dress robes at Madam Malkin's. (A/N: Going have to wait for them.) Ron, Neville, and Bill went to a different robe shop to get fitted for their dress robes. They were all straight black, with a little white in them. Neville thought he looked real snug, and started to walk around a little, until he tripped on the robes and fell to the ground. Ron just said as he and Bill helped him up, "Never get carried away with this stuff, Neville," ending with a chuckled. Ron though made a mental note to ask Luna to make sure he doesn't trip.
Harry and Ginny also had fittings for their wedding dress robes as well. Harry went first to Madam Malkin's to get his groom dress robes fitted right, so that they could be ready for his wedding. Ginny also wanted him to go first, so that way she could get her wedding dress out and ready, so Harry couldn't see it. Harry was glad for that. He wanted to be surprised to see his fiancée's wedding dress robes on her, but he also glad that he didn't try to take a peek at it, because he had a feeling he would be cover in bat-like snot from the owner of it.
One night, six weeks before the wedding, Ginny was in the drawing room, looking at the photo album that she made for her and Harry to help remember their special days. She was looking at the pictures of Harry parents especially, and that was how Harry had found her.
"Looking at old photos," Harry said as he sat down next to her.
"Old, yes. Of us, No," said Ginny. "I was kind of looking at the pictures of your mom and dad. It's kind of like us having their wedding all over again."
Harry looked at one of the wedding photos of his mom and dad and smiled. 'She definitely has a point on that,' Harry thought. It nearly looked like they were repeating history, with Harry being James, and Ginny being Lily.
"Its kind of weird, don't you think?" said Ginny, knocking Harry out of his thoughts.
"Nearly, but there's one big difference," said Harry.
"And what's that?" Ginny said, even though she already knew the answer.
"Well, actually two," Harry admitted. "One we don't have a "Dark Lord" to try to ruin it. And two," Harry continued, "We're not my mom and dad. We're both ourselves. And nothing's going to change that." Ginny just smiled at him and flipped through the photo album, looking at a picture of the both of them, dancing at the Graduation Ball at Hogwarts a year ago; Ginny in her strapless white dress robes, and Harry in his gray dress robes. Then Ginny said, "Do you realize how far we actually came to this point, Harry?"
"Yeah, I do," said Harry. "We came to this point from being someone who found out he was famous, and being someone who had a crush on that famous person." He looked at Ginny straight when he said that last part.
"But that crush happened to turn into love, for the man I gotten to know about," said Ginny. They both just giggled and kissed a little, when Harry said, "I just can't wait for you to be my wife."
"And I just can't wait for you to be my husband. Too bad we have to though," said Ginny. They both just smiled and cuddled up right next to each other, with the photo album laying open, forgotten, as those two laid there until they had to get up and head to bed.
All of the rest of the month of March was making sure that the yards in the Burrow were taking care of. That included degnoming the garden, making sure the wards were up so no one that wasn't invited could get in, and making sure everything in the Burrow was cleaned. Fred and George were even adding little traps that they showed to Harry and the others on the second day of the yard transformation.
"Legs stickers," they both said together. "If they just manage to get past the wards, these will be waiting for them. All you do is plant one in the ground," Fred started to explain.
"And then once the unsuspecting prey steps on the trap, he or she gets his leg trapped, and then shot right back out of the wards. Then they set back, waiting for another poor victim," George finished up.
"We're thinking of putting them in a line right close to the wards, but no where close to your guys' wedding ceremony," said Fred. "No reporter or Dark wizard will get past these traps."
All four of the friends laughed, but thought that it would do well with some extra security. As they always heard from Moody, 'Its always better to have Constant Vigilance.' Harry would be glad to have that. Even though the chatter had stopped a little about him, reporters were trying to see if they could get a moment alone to do an interview with Harry, even though Arthur told the public that if anyone tried to mess with Harry, they would see themselves being punished. Harry was glad for that, but didn't want to take any chances. According to the Daily Prophet, they wanted to get a picture so they could get rich, or at least a bunch of pictures. Hagrid sent a note to see if he could bring Grawp along for security, but Arthur snapped that idea right away. Harry had to agree. It would've been nice to have Grawp for security, but they would have a hard time trying to hide him from the Muggles.
Pretty soon, three weeks from the wedding, Grimauld Place was get stacked up with packages, with wedding gifts such as books on how to cook delicious meals, cooking tools for the kitchen, and other magical gadgets. They were getting so much that Harry and Ginny had to turn one of the rooms into a storage room for the gifts. They just hoped they didn't have to use two rooms for storage.
During that same week, Harry and Ron were having lunch with each other, during their Auror training. Ginny couldn't make it because she had to do something for the wedding. Ron was reading something funny to Harry when he noticed a story down on the bottom. He read it in silence for a minute then laughed.
"What's so funny, Ron?" asked Harry.
"You might want to look want our young Death Eater prisoner was trying to do," Ron answered as he handed the paper to Harry. Harry looked at the story, and then giggled a little, but then went to a serious face. It seemed young Draco Malfoy was trying to escape, because he heard of the wedding between him and Ginny, and tried to escape by punching a ward disc that held them in place. Unfortuantely for Malfoy, as Harry read, the only thing he got was a shaking body that wont stop for at least two days, and a hurt hand.
"Well, that'll teach him not to escape from Azkaban," said Harry.
"You think Ginny and Hermione would want to hear this?" Ron pondered.
"They may know already, considering they read the paper too," said Harry.
"He has a point, Ron," said Ginny, who was coming up. She kissed Harry, but she didn't sat down. "Hey Ron, Mom want you and me down at the Burrow tonight."
"What for?" Ron wondered.
"No clue, but she just wants us two. No offense, Harry," Ginny quickly added.
"None taken," said Harry.
"All right. I'll have to owl Hermione to let her know," said Ron.
"Okay. Later, you two," said Ginny as she walked off.
"You're going to have a good time with my sister, Harry," joked Ron. Harry just laughed as he and Ron finished their lunch and headed off back to training.
Later that day, Harry was at the Leaky Cauldron, sipping a Butterbeer, when he heard a familiar voice said, "Well, it looks like I'm not the only one who decided to get out for a while."
Harry just smiled and said "Hey, Hermione."
"How did you know it was me?" she asked, sitting down. Harry looked at her and said, "Do you really have to ask that?"
"Good point. A Butterbeer, please?" Hermione ordered from Tom.
Tom nodded to let Hermione know he heard her. Then she started talking to Harry. "Do you know why Molly wanted Ron and Ginny?"
"I know as much as you do, Hermione," said Harry.
"Well, at least were getting some time to hang around each other," said Hermione. Harry just smiled and said, "That's true. We haven't hanged around in a while."
Hermione got her Butterbeer and paid for it. Then she said, "Why don't we go out for a while, Harry?" Harry agreed to that, and the both of them went out into Muggle London, with Harry stopping only to pay for his drink.
They made sure they were in Muggle clothing before heading out. But when they were out they had a good time. Hermione was telling Harry about how Ron loved the Quidditch game so much for his birthday, that he nearly jumped out of the stands to try to play. Luckily, Hermione held him back to make sure he didn't do something stupid, as she told the story. Harry just laughed as he thought 'typical Ron.'
Finally, it was the day before the wedding of Harry and Ginny. They were so excited that they just wanted to get married right now. Too bad they knew they couldn't do that.
That night however, they had a big party for Harry and Ginny. Neville and Luna were there as well, as they were a part of the wedding. All of the Weasleys were there as well, though Molly and Arthur were keeping an eye on the twins.
Once the party was over, Harry went over to pick up a bag with his dress robes for the wedding. But before he went to floo to Ron's house, which was where he was staying since Ginny's wedding dress was put up there, and would be a hassle to move, he went over to Ginny to say good-night.
"I can't believe I'm going to be Mrs. Harry Potter in a few hours," said Ginny.
"I just can't believe your going to be my wife in a few hours," said Harry. They both giggled a little, and gave each other a goodnight kiss.
"I'll see you in the yard tomorrow," said Ginny.
"Hey, you just make sure you dress as beautiful as you can," said Harry. He gave her one more kiss before he, Neville Ron, and Bill went over to Ron' s house, where the groom party were staying. Ginny just stood there looking at the fireplace, when Hermione knocked her out of her thoughts.
"You ready to go?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah," said Ginny. "Let's get some sleep so I can be ready tomorrow. Hermione just smiled as she, Ginny, Luna, and Fleur Apparated to Grimauld Place to spend the night. But both husband and wife to be were marrying each other already, at least in their dreams.
(A/N: Sorry about this chapter being late. I've been preoccupied with other things. I'm pretty sure you know what's the next chapter is going to be. I have a little challenge though. What do you think Ginny wedding dress is going to look like? Stay tuned to find out.)