A/N: Sorry for the extraordinarily long wait, but I had a Twilight fan fiction to write. You should read it, it's fantastic!

Chapter Fourteen

Happy Birthday Harry

It was Harry Potter's birthday and like most days, he was working. He had forgotten about his birthday for the last two or three years. He was not quite sure how many birthdays he had forgotten. He always remembered his friends' birthdays and of course his girlfriend's (who had taken to introducing herself as his fiancé.)

It just seemed to not be as important as it once was. There were other things to do: work, go out with friends, go out with girlfriend, (then shag girlfriend.) His birthday took the back seat to all the other things he would rather be doing.

His friends and the Weasley's always remembered. They tried to get him to go to a club or have a party, but he always refused, saying he had an important meeting the next day or he was not feeling well. When they tried to reschedule, Harry never managed to make time.

He did not do it on purpose. He just always forgot about it. Besides his friends and the Weasley's mailed their gifts to him eventually and he thanked them the next time he saw them. As far as Harry could tell everything was all right.

He did not need a party. He did not need to celebrate his birthday.

But if the look on his girlfriend's (i.e. fiancé's) face told him anything, it told him he was wrong.

"Harold James Potter," she said, her voice deathly calm. Harry cringed. Harold James Potter meant that he was in trouble. Harry ducked his head behind the report he was reading and hoped she would think he was busy and leave. A risky move that would no doubt fail, but Harry had to try. He had boat loads of work to do and getting distracted by his feisty, sexy little girlfriend (i.e. fiancé) would do him no good at all.

She snatched the paper out of his hands and placed it onto the desk of his office. "Do you know what day it is today, Harry?" she asked.

"Wednesday?" he ventured. That stopped her for a moment and gave Harry a chance to get his wits together. Was it her birthday? No. Was it their anniversary? No, that was a few weeks ago. What was she talking about?!

And then it hit him. It was his birthday.

He relaxed behind his desk. It was not anything important, just his birthday.

"It's your birthday," Ginny said. She sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk.

"I know."

"You forgot for a minute there."

Harry grimaced, "I know."

"You forgot like you have for the past two years."

"I know."

"And then when we tried to plan a party, you bailed, you always bail."

Another grimace, "I know."

"Well, not this year, Mr. Potter."

Harry sighed. "There's nothing I can say that'll put you off this, is there?"

"No," Ginny said.

"Brilliant."

"Why are you so against celebrating your birthday?" Ginny demanded.

"I'm not against celebrating my birthday, Ginny. I just have three million other things I'd rather do. You would one of those things." Ginny blushed. "And when I think about taking time out of my day to… have a party or something, it just seems like a waste of time. I just keep picturing myself in a club getting shit faced, when I need to go work in the morning and then see Teddy that evening and of course you would want some attention and-"

"All right, all right!" Ginny exclaimed. "I get it, we're wearing you a little thin, but that doesn't change a damn thing. We're having a party for you tonight and if you want to have sex with me again before we get married, then we better get going."

"Bugger."

---

If Harry liked parties, which at this point it should be obvious that he does not, he would have to say that this party was rather good. The party was at Ron and Hermione cottage and everyone that Harry would have invited had been invited. Mrs. Weasley did the cooking and Harry assumed that George got masses of alcohol.

All in all, it was a good party by Harry estimation.

"You should give a speech," Ginny whispered in his ear. Harry choked on his fire whiskey.

"Are you mad, woman? There is no way I'm giving a speech."

"Okay," Ginny said and Harry sighed in relief. "Let me rephrase that. You're giving a speech."

"This is not something you can make me do. We're getting married in January and I know you well enough to know that even if you hold out on me until our honeymoon, I'll definitely get laid then. So don't even think about threatening sex," Harry said.

"Fine, but you're giving this speech." She walked away after that and Harry wondered what her game was.

Surely she knew him well enough to know that he would never give a speech willingly. He just was not the speech giving sort of guy. Speeches, in Harry's opinion, were for people who thought very highly of themselves. And Harry prided himself on being humble. There was no way he would be giving a speech at a party he did not really want to be at in the first place.

And he had no idea what he would say or where he would even give the speech from. Should he stand on a table? Or just stay where he was? He did think that he should thank the people that made the whole party possible, but even that seemed silly.

He was only twenty two for crap sake, why the hell should he give a speech? Twenty two is not a terribly important birthday, or anything. Nothing like turning seventeen or a hundred. He would give a speech when he turned a hundred, Harry decided, but not a day sooner.

Then again……

He had been thinking a lot about how he was going to ask Ginny to marry him. Hell, he had been thinking about it since last Christmas, but even more so recently. The timing felt right and that had been what Harry had been waiting for. The reason he had not asked her already was because she knew he was going to ask her.

Which made absolutely no sense to Ron, who was the only person who knew Harry planned to ask Ginny any time soon.

Since Ginny knew that Harry would eventually ask her to marry him, Harry wanted to make the proposal something she would always remember. Something that would make Ron and every other man who had asked the woman he loved to marry him look like a fool.

And all because Ginny knew she was being proposed to…… eventually.

"Damn it," Harry muttered.

Ginny would never expect to get proposed to at Harry's birthday party. He hated to admit it, but this was the perfect time to ask her. He would thank her, profess his undying love for her and then ask her to be his wife.

He had her engagement ring in his pocket, he was set. Now he just had to find the nerve.

"Damn it," Harry muttered, again. He had all courage in the world when facing down a dragon, but throw speech and a proposal his way and he would nearly wet himself.

Perhaps he should go to the loo first. Just to be safe.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

"Are you all right, Harry?" Neville asked.

"No, Neville. I'm freaking myself out for no bloody reason. I thought for one second that I was going to ask Ginny to marry me during my speech, but thought better of it," Harry said.

"Well, why?"

"What d'you mean, why?"

"That would be the perfect time to ask her to marry you," Neville explained. "Just imagine it from her perspective. The man of her dreams giving her the perfect gift on his birthday in front of a crowd of her favorite people. You have the ring right?" Harry nodded. "Great, there's nothing stopping you."

"There's plenty stopping me, Neville," Harry mumbled.

"Like what?"

"Like what if she says no?" Harry asked. Neville laughed.

"You're joking right? She introduced herself to my date as your fiancé. I think it's pretty much a sure thing that she'll say yes," he said. "Speaking of my date, I've got to get back to her. Your fiancé just cornered her and I'm not interested in becoming a married man anytime soon. But you should be. You're more mature then everyone in this room put together."

Neville walked away after that forcing Harry to confront his own incomprehensible cowardice. Had he been putting off asking Ginny merely because he was worried she'd say no? It seemed silly now that Harry thought about it. Ginny loved him, he loved Ginny, she was already planning their wedding and Harry doubted that she'd involve him in that planning once they were actually engaged. So what exactly was stopping him?

Harry was drawing a blank. He couldn't think of one reason to put it off. And Neville was right, damn it. Ginny would always remember this moment, his birthday surrounded by her beloved friends and family when he asked her to be his wife. Harry walked over the couch where George and Luna were snogging and shooed them away. He stood on the cushions and cleared his throat. It didn't do much good but thankfully he'd gotten George's attention with a few fireworks George got everyone else's attention.

"Hey," Harry said, slightly uncomfortable to be the center of everyone's focus. "I'd like to make a toast to a few people." Everyone reached for their glasses. "First of all I'd like to thank all of you for coming. It means a lot to me that you lot still care about the day I was born, cause Merlin knows it caused me no end of trouble." A few people laughed, but most just shook their heads and smiled knowingly. "I'd also like to thank Mrs. Weasley for cooking and she'll no doubt be cleaning as well. As for my toast I'd like to dedicate that to my lovely girlfriend, if she'd be so kind as to come over here." Harry hopped down from the couch as soon as Ginny was close.

"Ginny Weasley you've known just about the whole time we've known each other that one day I'd pull my head out of my arse and make an honest woman out of you." That did get quite a few laughs, but Harry didn't pay much mind to that. He was too focused on the pretty blush on Ginny's cheeks. He got down on one knee and Ginny began to tear up. He pulled the velvet box holding her engagement ring from his pocket. "Ginerva Weasley, will you marry me?"

"If you promise never to call me Ginerva again I will happily marry you, Harry Potter!" The party went a bit wild after that, but Harry was too wrapped up in his fiancé to notice.