Chapter 11 – Chamomile Tea

"Fiancé?"

"Yes, mother, my fiancé. We've been engaged for two weeks now."

Mrs. Weasley was still gaping, flabbergasted. Ron had told Harry that things were still on edge in the Weasley household when it came to Percy. He had stopped sending back his mum's gifts but wasn't sending replies either. Plus, he had taken to occasionally talking to his father at the Ministry. Mrs. Weasley finally found her breath.

"Yes, well, wonderful to meet you dear! I'm Molly Weasley, Percy may have told you about me…though I'm not sure," she added under her breath. She was clearly still a little confused. She welcomed the girl inside, "Arthur? Arthur come quick, Percy's here!"

For that quick moment when Mrs. Weasley was at a loss for words she was making up for now. She shooed Percy and Cassidy inside and asked them to sit, as Mr. Weasley came in and shook hands with his son.

"Percy! Wonderful to see you! And who's this beautiful young lady?"

Mr. Weasley was not mistaken. Cassidy was extremely attractive. She seemed sweet tempered as well and smiled a lot. It must have been true that opposites attract because she was clearly the exact opposite of Percy.

"This is Cassidy, father. My fiancé."

Harry had only just realized that he was witness to a probably private conversation. Not that you could really have one of those in the Weasley household. Hermione had gone to talk to her parents. With Hermione's reasoning and persuasion skills, they would be thrilled with Ron as an appropriate boyfriend for their daughter by the time Harry saw them again.

Speaking of Ron, he was still standing right beside Harry, his arms at his sides limply, a vague, blank look on his face. He was staring off into space at his parents and Percy and Cassidy sitting at the table. It seemed the intensity of what had just occurred was too much for someone who, at least at one time, had the emotional range of a teaspoon.

Ginny, on the other hand, had her arms crossed across her chest and was glaring at Percy with a look of disgust and fury. In fact, it was rather close to the look she had glared down Malfoy with only two months before back at Hogwarts.

Harry decided to end the little…whatever it was that was going on. He turned to Ron:

"Do you think we should, uh, leave?"

"Why?" Ginny asked, "So he can hurt mum some more?"

"No, Gin. Let's just leave them alone for a while to catch up."

Ginny grudgingly led Harry upstairs. Harry had to poke Ron a couple of times to awaken him from his shock induced daze. They walked up the stairs after Ginny, well, she stormed, but they walked. They entered Ron's room and Harry and Ron sat down. Ginny, however, paced.

"So," Ron started, finally speaking, "Mrs. Granger was a little quick to judge, wasn't she? Or was it just me? Do I really look like I would put pressure on Hermione to do anything? She had to make the first move for god's sake…"

Ginny stole a quick glance at Harry, winked and looked away, "No, Ron you don't, of course not. But don't worry about that, Hermione will take care of it."

"Well, I can't just sit here!"

"Yes, you can! We have to figure out what we're going to do about Percy!"

"What are you on about? He just came to visit." Ron retorted.

"Well, he obviously didn't just come here," Ginny said, ignoring Ron, "He must want them to pay for the wedding. Well, I won't let him get a knut out of mum and dad!"

"How can you say that already?" Harry asked, "You haven't even talked to him yet!"

"And I won't be anytime soon. I don't care what anyone says, I'll never be able to forgive him even if you all can."

"Can what?"

Hermione had just walked in the room, as casual as ever. Harry replied:

"Ginny just said she doesn't plan on talking to Percy soon. Ever, rather." He corrected himself.

"Why?" She asked, sitting down, "He just made a mistake, he's still your brother."

"Yeah, my brother the prat. Apparently all of them are!"

"Hey!" Ron interjected, "I thought I was your favorite brother!"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, waving her arm casually, "after awhile you all start to make the same stupid mistakes."

"Like what?" Ron asked disbelievingly.

"Like staring at other women when you've got a perfectly beautiful girlfriend standing right next to you! What's wrong with you?"

Ron blushed and everything was quiet for a second. Then Harry interjected:

"Oh, so that's why you were staring so blankly. You were staring at Cassidy!"

"What?" Hermione stood over Ron, glaring down at him, "After what I just went through to persuade my parents you were halfway decent?!"

Harry decided to chime in on Ron's behalf. "Well, she was really pretty, Hermione."

"No kidding," Ginny spoke, "Perfect figure, deep, hazel brown eyes, golden brown locks cascading below her shoulders." She paused, "That's not pretty that's gorgeous."

Ron said, "Well, now you didn't have to get all detailed and make yourself feel worse, Ginny. Ow!" Hermione had punched him, "I was just kidding! I didn't mean to stare Hermione, honest! I was in shock! You're mum had just totally beaten me about being a bad person and taking away your innocence and crap…shut up, Harry!"

Harry had cracked up and Hermione blushed.

"And for the record," he continued, "To my knowledge I have not taken away your innocence, Hermione."

They were all cracking up now until Hermione stopped them, "Come off it, she didn't mean it like that!" She glared down at Ron with a disbelieving and skeptical face. Ron tried a different route.

"She was the second most beautiful girl in the room, of course!" He said this with a large, fake smile and thumbs up.

"Nice try," Hermione added, "but I'm still mad. Not particularly at you but at the situation."

"I need something to calm myself," Ginny suddenly interjected, "Some chamomile tea, yeah, that'll do it." She left the room.

"That wasn't random or anything!" Harry said, laughing slightly in spite of himself. He could see Ginny was genuinely upset about Percy. He followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. Presently, her parents had moved their conversation with Percy and Cassidy to the living room.

Ginny set the kettle up to the stove and went to an opening in the wall to listen to them talk.

"So, my father's always worked at the ministry, for as long as I can remember. I kind of got tied into it, but I'd much rather get a teaching position or another job. My mum passed away when I was quite young, but she was a teacher."

"I'm sorry dear," Mrs. Weasley spoke, "I'm sure she'd be very proud of you now though, working right under the Minister of Magic!"

"Yeah, she would be." Cassidy spoke blankly, and Mrs. Weasley said no more, leaving her in her thoughts and memories of her mother.

Ginny stepped away from the opening, a frown upon her face. She looked to Harry. He spoke:

"I feel kind of bad for her, Gin. Can't you give her a chance?"

"Yeah, I guess so. She's been through a lot of hardship. There's nothing worse than losing family, right?"

"Right."

It was quiet for a moment before Ginny spoke again, "But this does not mean I have to like Percy or talk to him. I'll take pity on this Cassidy girl just for that: getting landed with my brother as a groom."

Harry laughed. A realization dawned on Ginny and her eyes lit up.

"Oh my gosh! I'm going to have a big sister!"

The tea kettle whistled in the kitchen.

Later that night, everything blew over and, though dinner was a little awkward with the Grangers, Ginny was making up for lost time with Cassidy. They had so far learned where she had been born, her favorite food, where she grew up, and the name of her cocker spaniel: Veronica.

"I lived in America when I was really young. Right after my mum died but before I went to Hogwarts. I graduated a year after Percy."

They conversation turned more Percy related soon after that and Ginny would hear none of it. She, Hermione, Ron, and Harry excused themselves from the table and went into the garden. They sat on the benches and held hands. It was freezing outside and there were tons of gnomes running around but no one really minded. Harry and Ron kept Hermione and Ginny warm.

Hermione, red in the cheeks from the frosty weather, suddenly jumped up with an epiphany, "Let's do something tonight!" she said.

Everyone looked slightly confused by the out of the blue comment.

"Talk about random," Ron said.

"No," Hermione sat down again. "I meant let's go on a double date!"

Ron and Harry exchanged glances but Ginny's face lit up, "What do you want to do?" she asked. "It has to be something romantic."

"Yeah!" Hermione agreed, "We can wait until after our parents go to sleep and then, well, what should we do?"

"Hermione! Why don't we go to the Leaky Cauldron?" Ginny was very excited.

"That's a good idea!" Ron said, "And we can roam Diagon Alley!"

"No, "Ginny said, "I was thinking of something a little different."

"What?"

"Let's roam Muggle London!"

"Are you crazy?" Ron asked, "We're at war with You-Know-Who and you want to go gallivanting somewhere where we can't use magic?"

"Why is it so crazy?" Hermione asked, "We can't use magic away from school anyway and Voldemort won't even think to attack where a Muggle could see him! And there are plenty of muggles in London."

"Okay," Harry said, "so we wait for your parents to go to sleep and then floo to the Leaky Cauldron. Won't it be too loud though? They'll hear us!"

"Hmmm…" Hermione thought, "We need someone who can apparate so we can do side by side apparition."

"No," Ron said, "What about someone to just be there in case our parents wake up. You know, convince them nothing happened, that they were hearing things or something."

There was a rustle from behind the house and Cassidy appeared. She spoke:

"I'll cover for you guys!"