To all my Ron/Hermione dislikes: I'm sorry that I'm not able to write them in a way that you enjoy. I see that as something poorly done on my part. I've always loved them, but I struggle writing them. If I decide to do another Harry Potter story, I will most likely not pair them together or I would leave them in the same world as J.K. Rowling wrote them.
Anyways, Christmas break is here! A long chapter before things take a turn…
Disclaimer: I don't own it
Ginny sat at her family's kitchen table, peeling potatoes for her mother. They were by far Ginny's favorite starch, and she had no problem peeling however many her mother required if she was going to make them. If Molly Weasley could do anything, it was cook potatoes.
It also helped take Ginny's mind off of her waiting period until Gabrielle and Fleur arrived. Since the older French girl was now engaged to Bill (the news had come as quite a shock to the Weasley's) and Ginny missed her closest friend dearly, the two Delacour girls were coming to stay with the Weasley's for the few days until Christmas Eve. It would be quite a full house until that night.
Thinking on this, Ginny looked across the table at Sarai, who was working to prepare Trecle tart. Ginny had managed to convince her newest friend to stay for the holidays, not wishing to be parted for too long as their friendship progressed. Since Sarai had never spent the holidays away from home, she readily agreed.
Part of Ginny wondered how Sarai and Gabrielle would mix. Hermione and Gabrielle had gotten on well enough, but they shared a love of French literature. Sarai and Hermione had bonded over school and being bullied, so the doubtful pairing was given a basis of friendship. Ginny enjoyed them all because of various degrees of bonding and understanding with each other. Sarai and Gabrielle, on the other hand, were nothing alike and had no previous experience with each other.
Gabrielle preferred pastel, Sarai preferred blacks and darker blues. Gabrielle ate like a bird, Sarai ate like a horse. Gabrielle adored silk shirts, Sarai was accustomed to leather jackets. Gabrielle despised any form of flying, Sarai thrived flying through storm or shine on her broomstick.
The list went on. Since they'd never met before, Ginny had positively no clue what kind of meshing they would do. To be honest...it terrified her. A scene played out before her mind of Sarai being appalled at Gabrielle's refusal to do anything dirtier than gardening, and Gabrielle's horrified face at Sarai's tendency to burp whenever it pleased her (though the girl still had manners!)
"Do you know that your forehead crinkles when you think deeply?" Sarai said randomly, nothing taking her eyes off her task of making crust for the tart. "And if it's something you're worried about, you bite the inside of your cheek at the same time. To be honest, it looks like a lot of work."
Ginny raised a challenging eyebrow at her friend.
"Don't look at me like that, your magically scary eyebrows have no effect on me."
"Though, did you not just call them magically scary? If you don't actually find them scary, why name them such?"
"Moving on," Sarai grinned. "To what you're worried about."
Ginny thought for a moment.
"Uncrinkle those eyebrows, friend!"
"I'll uncrinkle if I want to!"
"Now why does that sound like such fun?"
"Don't be naughty!"
"Too late, ha."
"Not a soul would guess you are seventeen now. You have the mind of a twelve year old bloke."
"Stop diverting conversation." Sarai began to put her crust in the pan. Despite the erratic conversation, her hands were steady and her purpose firm. "What's happened?"
"Nothing's happened," Ginny spoke nonchalantly. "I'm simply concerned about what might happen."
"You potato peeling liar," Sarai narrowed her eyes. "What is it?"
"You're not going to use your magical powers to guess?"
"Oh ha-ha," Sarai rolled her eyes. "Fess up, Weasley."
"Alright," Ginny groaned. "I'm nervous about how you and Gabrielle will interact."
"Why?" Sarai asked. "You're scared she won't like me?"
"I'm scared you won't like her."
"I like you, and you're prissy."
"You're being mean again."
"Right," Sarai finished filling her pan with the Trecle filling. "I know that she's different than me, and I know that I prefer nerdy muggle novels over old English romance ones, and that I like camping and she likes castles. But you know what? I like castles too. Big, Scottish medieval castles, yes, but castles nonetheless. And I appreciate the beauty of France. That's somewhere to start, right?"
"Right," Ginny smiled. "Just...don't try and scare her with a food fight."
"I won't scare HER with a food fight..." Sarai grinned before scooping up leftover trecle filling…
And of course, throwing it in Ginny's face.
"If that's your only supplies, I'm afraid you won't go very far," Ginny said, wiping it from her eyes. "I know where all the food is around here."
"Yet, so do I!"
Ginny turned at the sound of a deep voice and found Harry with a handful of what seemed to be mushed blackberries. She held up her hands. "Darling, think about what you're about to do."
"I've got to team with Sarai," Harry smirked. "Ron's already decided he's got you. Sibling against sibling I suppose."
"Sibling?" Sarai questioned. She had a strange look on her face.
"I'm adopting you," Harry shrugged.
"Ahh."
"Then the war begins!" Ron shouted ridiculously as he appeared behind Harry with a large bowl of pudding. That bowl was immediately dumped onto Harry's head, which caused the young man to turn and smack blackberries into his best friends face. Ginny herself ducked to avoid Sarai's attack and rushed to the counter, grabbing two eggs.
The war truly had begun.
)-(
"This is absolutely unacceptable!" Molly Weasley shouted to the four witches and wizards cleaning her kitchen. "You were supposed to be helping prepare dinner, for your friends, Ginny! And instead I come back from the garden and you are destroying my kitchen, and yourselves."
"We were just having some fun, Mum," Ginny said softly. "It's been awhile since I've been home."
"You should've come home for the holidays more often!"
"You shouldn't have sent her so far away in the first place!" Ron rose to his sister's defense. "Anyways, she spent all that time in France changing her personality so she could be an aristocratic lady, which is what you wanted, wasn't it? So don't badger her about it."
While Ginny may have forgiven her parents for what they did, Ron still held quite a grudge over it. Of course, he'd slipped up a bit in front of Sarai, who sat back on her heels and ceased scrubbing the walls, watching with curiosity.
"Don't you dare comment on my parenting, Ronald Weasley," Molly spat back. "I only did what I thought best for Ginny, and we have been over this time and time again."
Harry watched on in shock, eyeing Sarai's curious expression. He wanted to stop the argument there, but knew intervening in Molly Weasley's argument with one of her children was deadly. Sirius always dealt with discipline quietly and privately; it was the aristocratic way. Mrs. Weasley's habit of yelling at her children publically proved to Harry that it was much better to privately resolved things like his godfather preferred. Since Mrs. Weasley was losing her head in front of guests, Sarai was about to know a large secret that would scandalize both families for all the wizarding world.
He trusted Sarai, of course. Harry knew she would never walk around, delving out their secrets. It frustrated him, however, that Mrs. Weasley completely disregarded the fact that a young woman outside the family was in their presence. Because of this, he stood very abruptly. "Mrs. Weasley, Ronald, I don't believe this is the time for this particular conversation. No reason to subject Sarai here to silly family drama, is there?"
Mrs. Weasley blanched for a moment, caught between anger and realization of what she and Ron had been screaming about. Instead of saying something else, she simply whirled on her heels and left the kitchen.
The foursome went on cleaning in silence. Harry was fairly confident he could reach into the air and pull a piece of the tension from it, as Sarai's lips were pursed and her eyebrow was furrowed in concentration. Whether it was to scrape the trecle tart filling from the corner of the wall, or the argument she'd just witnessed, he couldn't say.
When the kitchen was finished, the teenagers split up to shower themselves off. Ginny herself took an unusually long shower in hopes of putting off the discussion she knew would happen with Sarai. Just before Harry had stopped the conversation, Molly had mentioned that marrying a childhood sweetheart wasn't the worst thing that could happen to a girl; this was sure to catch Sarai's attention, and Ginny didn't know how to have that conversation.
Should she wait for Hermione? Should she tell the two together?
Sarai was sitting on her guest cot when Ginny stepped out of the bathroom. Sarai was twiddling with her thumbs, legs crossed crossed and staring down. She bit the inside of her cheek, but kept her lips pursed in a clear sign of anger.
"Rai?" Ginny whispered.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Sarai answered in the same low tone. "There's obviously more than I heard to the story. Only...we're always so open with each other. Always. We don't lie. I know we've only been friends for a few months but honestly, Ginny...why didn't you tell me?"
The repeated question threw Ginny. "We aren't supposed to tell anyone. It would be a bit of a scandal, and Harry's always had people prying into his business between saving the world and being one of the richest bachelor's in the wizarding world. It was supposed to only be known by family."
"Right," Sarai crossed her arms. "Though I distinctly recall you saying we were family."
Ginny sat down, heart hurting.
"I flooed Hermione," Sarai said instead of answering. "She'll be here soon and you can tell us both. I suppose we don't have to tell Miss. Gabrielle?"
"She was with me when I found out," Ginny murmured. "And after that, she was with me until I was okay with the whole thing."
Sarai said nothing in return, only laying back on her cot in wait. The dark haired girl remained that way until Hermione walked into the room, a worried expression on her face.
"What's happened?" Hermione asked. "Is everything alright? Sarai sounded angry, but you two have never been in a fight so I didn't know what to think."
"Sit down and Ginny will tell all," Sarai said firmly without looking away from the ceiling. Hermione sat at the foot of Ginny's bed and awaited the story, somewhat impatiently.
"Well," Ginny took a deep breath. "It started with two women between two very different families..."
By the end of her story, Sarai and Hermione we both slightly opened mouthed, staring in surprise at their friend. Hermione took a moment to absorb it all and shot to her feet. "That's ridiculous! It's almost the twenty first century for Merlin's sake, women shouldn't be forced into arranged marriages! Even if it is magically binding...Mr. Black shouldn't have done that."
"He wanted to secure Harry's future." Ginny tried to ignore how strange 'Mr. Black' sounded coming from someone who didn't know him very well.
"In the strangest way in the world," Hermione huffed. "You're only seventeen—just barely!—and they expect you to just pack up and get married? You'll never have the chance to live your own life, to choose the person you spend the rest of your life with. Harry is spectacular and he clearly loves you, but he wasn't your choice."
Ginny laced her hands together. "I could have ended up with him anyway. I do love him, Hermione, in a way I never thought I would love someone, and despite our coming together I think we're going to be very happy."
Hermione pursed her lips and sat back down. "I support whatever you do, but I don't accept that this is your fate."
"Well when Harry proposes, please don't have that sour look on your face."
"If you so insist."
Ginny looked to Sarai. "Are you still upset with me?"
"Don't think so..." Sarai tilted her head as if in deep thought. "I simply find it interesting that your love story is out of a novel from the 1800's, that's all."
Ginny put her head in her hands.
Sarai chuckled. "It's so cliche, I mean. The magical betrothal of a beautiful pauper to a handsome, rich, bachelor. Come on!" She continued to laugh, her voice rising. Ginny eventually joined in, her own giggles at the situation seeming slightly stressed but altogether amused. Hermione tried to resist the laughter; she bit her lip and looked down, but had to give in and laugh just as loudly. Soon, all three girls were laughing at nothing in particular.
"So am I forgiven?" Ginny asked Sarai. "If I swear to never lie to you again? That there will never be anything but honesty between us?"
"Of course," Sarai smiled. She hopped from her cot to Ginny's bed, doing what she called 'tackling in affection.' "But only if you come to my house at some point during break so I can show you Star Wars."
"I still think it seems strange, but yes."
"Hmm. I bet you'll be a Luke girl."
Hermione laughed. "Very good prediction, I agree."
"Who is Luke?!"
"Never you mind," Sarai smiled. "You'll understand soon enough."
Ginny felt a smile grace her features as she huddled close with her friends. Soon Gabrielle would be there, completing the company of the people she loved most, and all would be well.
)-(
Christmas Eve brought much joy to the Black and Weasley households on that snowy December Night.
There had been many gifts exchanged. For surface presents, Harry had given Ginny a framed ancient-looking map of the world, with the locations of their planned travels marked. Ginny was touched by it, as well as the inscription on the back of the frame that read "To my future wife, and all that we will do together. Xx Harry."
She in turn gave him a photo album full of small sketches and paintings of his parents, Sirius, and the Weasley family. There were more sketches of their family friends, and many of his Hogwarts life.
"There's a spell that makes wizarding pictures stay still," Ginny explained. "I performed the spell on most of your photo album and took them to a muggle artist."
"This is brilliant," Harry murmured. "Mum used to do things like this..."
"I know," she smiled in return. "In one of the journals she left in the vault for me, she said how she hoped she could draw the important people in your life, and have something that resembled her own muggle sketchbook."
"Ginny," Sirius blinked tears away. "This is exactly something Lily would have done. Truly remarkable."
Ginny blushed, and the little friend group from Hogwarts continued their exchanging of gifts. They all watched in affection as Ron gifted Hermione with a beautiful glass rectangle. Inside the three-dimensional glass was a rose that glowed with a soft, enchanted light. Ron scratched the back of his neck. "It's supposed to be like Beauty and the Beast, except the rose will never die. That's the muggle moving picture you always spoke about liking, so Sarai helped me out."
Hermione looked closer and saw the inscription along the bottom and read aloud "Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove…my favorite Shakespeare quote."
"Yeah…"
"My gift is not nearly as touching," Hermione blinked affectionate tears from her eyes and squeezed Ron's hand. "But I still think you'll like them."
And she presented him with two Chudley Cannons tickets. "I thought I'd go with you, and you could teach me a bit more about how quidditch works at a real game."
In the background, Fred could be heard muttering a comment about the legitimacy of a Chudley Cannons game being a "real game."
But that comment was soon ignored when Ron gathered Hermione in his arms and planted a firm, slow kiss on her mouth. She responded with the same enthusiasm. Everyone cheered and clapped, laughing loudly at the look of pure joy on the new couple's faces.
"Blimey, Hermione," Ron muttered. "Please say you'll be my girlfriend."
"You shouldn't even have to ask," Hermione touched his face affectionately.
The moment died down. Sirius and Arthur began serving everyone egg nog and hot chocolate. There was a light hum of chatter over the room, but Ginny was focused on the sight of Tonks lowering herself onto a chair by the fire, her pregnant belly making it slightly difficult. Remus had his hand in hers to help in the most loving way. Ginny's heart squeezed in emotion when he leaned down and kissed the baby inside her belly, then kissed Tonk's lips softly.
One day, Harry will be looking at me that way.
"Can I propose a toast?" Harry called attention to the room, his glass of eggnog raised. He moved by the fire where Ginny was and pulled her to her feet. "Ginny, I want to propose a toast to you. You are beautiful, inside and out, with the biggest heart I've ever seen. You have such determination, it motivates me to be better, and something about you draws me to you in the most wondrous way. I love you, sweetheart, and I know that I always will. So..."
He set aside his drink and knelt before Ginny, eyes set to hers with a small smile. "Ginerva Weasley. My love, my sweetheart, my beauty. Would you do the honor of becoming my wife?"
A single tear fell from Ginny's eye. She barely noticed Sarai taking a picture, or Lavender's astonished face, or Dean's knit eyebrows, or Seamus' look of confusion. No attention was paid to her mother's tearful gasp, her brothers' slight discomfort, or Hermione's small squeal. Gabrielle and Pavarti's giggles at Harry's speech flew right over her head. All she could see was the wide, hopeful green eyes of her boyfriend.
Ginny knew that every word Harry spoke was heartfelt, and that made her realize this proposal was real. And, despite them both knowing what was to come, they were both severely nervous. Maybe it was the attention of their closest friends and family, maybe it was the way they'd been brought together, but it was truly intimidating for both.
"Yes," she whispered lightly. "A million ways in a million different languages, yes...oui...si...just, yes."
Lily Potter's silver band set with diamonds and rubies was slid onto her feeling. Ginny felt a sob of happiness escape her as Harry bounced to his feet and kissed her soundly, encouraging much applause around them.
"May I present," Sirius bellowed. "The future Mr. and Mrs. Potter!"
)-(
They watched the Burrow from a distance, all uncommonly quiet and awaited the wishes of Malfoy.
"We take the girl," the white haired man said. "It's public knowledge that he cares deeply for her. He's got a hero complex as well. It will work to our advantage."
"And Sirius Black?" Peter Pettigrew whimpered. "He'll be wanting to kill me if I'm discovered."
"The past two years, Black has let Potter visit the grave of his parents on Christmas morning, by himself. Potter will be easy to take on his own. If necessary, we'll snatch the girl separately. Something tells me they'll be together that morning, if Draco's tales of their romance are true."
The Death Eaters then disappeared in sync, all leaving the Weasley's property with a unified 'pop!'
That is, except for unfortunate Pettigrew who was, as always, only a few seconds behind.
)-(
As Gabrielle had warned her, the first time was beautiful, the second time fun.
Ginny shook her head at herself and how her reflections always got ahead. She back tracked, remembering how they'd decided in early December that Ginny would stay the night at Grimmauld Place so that Harry and Ginny could have their first Christmas morning together as a couple. Then, when the trio had returned to Grimmauld Place, Sirius had told Harry he was going to stay the night with a lady friend he hadn't seen in years, meaning the two were alone in the ancient house.
Ginny wondered if Sirius knew her plans.
Looking over at Harry, Ginny smiled at the memory of him first seeing her in the navy blue and silver laced set she'd worn. He was sitting in bed, in nothing but pajama pants when she called for him. He found it a little strange and came into her room to find a candle lit. Ginny was standing by the window. Watching the snow fall with glistening eyes, she gave Harry a small smile and motioned down her body.
"Happy Christmas, Mr. Potter."
The first time was beautiful. Harry was slow, intimate, and gentle in his touches. Before they joined together, he worshipped her body with kisses and caresses. Ginny had never felt so cared for, so emotionally tied to someone as she did when she and Harry became one. A single tear slid down her cheek, both for the discomfort and for the overwhelming emotions, but Harry held her near and kissed it away.
They'd fallen asleep in each other's arms. When Ginny awoke, it was only four o'clock, and Harry still snored lightly beside her. She'd gone to the loo and then returned to bed, trying to fall back asleep. It was futile, however, as Harry soon got up to use the loo as well and made a bit of noise.
He slid quietly under the covers, before laying behind her and pressing a kiss to her cheek. He wrapped his body around her, securing himself with his arm.
"Harry?" Ginny whispered after a few moments.
"Yes, love?" Harry replied. He didn't sound sleepy, but his voice was husky. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder.
She shivered. "I don't want to go back to sleep."
"No?" Harry inquired. She shook her head in the dark. "I suppose that's good because nor do I."
The second time was fun. She was in control, the discomfort was majorly lessened, and the experience was almost...playful.
As Ginny lay in bed that night, she wondered if the rest of their lives would be so wonderful.