SO: i had a little more free time than i thought i would today. yay! heres the ginny you all have been waiting for. love you all! kisses! you're the best readers ever!

Chapter Twenty One

"Ronald, airplanes are made with the soul purpose of staying in the air." Hermione looked across the sitting room from her eyeing her suspiciously.

"Okay, okay, lets just think here for a minute. There are magical ways to get to Australia. I don't know if I feel comfortable flying on a plane…or with you making all those 'phone calls.'" He was talking about the cellular phone that Hermione was holding in her hand.

"I have to call the airline to arrange our tickets! How else would you do it?" She questioned him.

"Umm, an owl?" Ron knew he was losing this battle, but muggles were still very odd to him. Hermione got up from her chair and sat next to him on the couch.

"You have to trust me ok? Since we are going to have to fly back with my parents, it's just easier to arrange muggle travel both ways. I have already contacted the Ministry and they are going to be sending you a muggle passport in a few days. The reason I am making all of these phone calls is because we have to pay for the tickets, plus book a hotel to stay in." She patted him on the knee as if that would make him feel secure about air travel.

"How do you pay for it over the phone?" He asked. His naivety was constantly amusing to Hermione.

"It's called a credit card. It's kind of confusing, but it's a way that muggles pay without having to carry their gold around with them all the time. Anyway, I opened one last year with Mum and Dad's permission, but I had them put it under my name so I could use it when they were, well you know." She looked a bit worried, but Ron's arm around her was reassuring.

"Don't worry so much babe, you won't have any problems once we get to Australia. We'll be there together."

Hermione put her arms around his neck and kissed him slowly and tenderly. "You know I was thinking we could do a bit of sightseeing before we find my parents. I mean we've got the hotel and all…." Her hands were now roaming down Ron's back and he was trying not to freak out or squeal like a little girl all at the same time.

"Absolutely. We've got to make up for tent-time." He responded by kissing her back in earnest.

Hermione look a break from her exploration of Ron's mouth to look up at him and smile slyly. "You know they have fantastic beaches in Australia." She was looking at him suggestively, but he wasn't quite catching on. "It would be so nice after a year of living in the woods to put on my favorite bikini and get a nice tan."

Now Ron was reading her message loud and clear. His eyebrows shot up in response to her pressing her body even tighter against his. "Yeah, a nice little holiday for us. Well deserved don't you think?"

"Absolutely. It's basically a mini break and then we have to go find my parents."

"Hot." He smiled back at her. Then it dawned on him, "Umm, 'Mione, what are we going to tell 'my' parents?"

"Come on do you honestly think I didn't already think of that? I told them that we would be headed straight to Sydney to reverse the spell and then maybe go sightseeing with them, but after that we'd head straight back here. I also told them that it would take about three days to get there on an airplane, so they won't wonder whats taking so long to get there and back."

Ron was slightly shocked at Hermione's plans, but very impressed with her attention to detail. "Truly the brightest witch of our generation," he said as Hermione began kissing him again, this time with even more enthusiasm.

…

Harry and Ginny were about to walk in the living room when Ginny suddenly stopped short and grabbed Harry's hand to stop him in the hall. He turned to look at her as she put her finger in front of her mouth and gestured for him to be quiet.

What they heard in the other room was definitely news to them, but it was not altogether shocking. They looked at each other as the details of Ron and Hermione's little mini-break plans were revealed. Ginny's eyes grew large and Harry was straining very hard to stop himself from laughing. When it was apparent that Ron and Hermione were done talking and had moved on to a good snog, Ginny silently grabbed his arm and guided him out of the hall and eventually out towards the garden.

When they were far enough away from the house not to be heard or observed by anyone, Ginny exploded with laughter. She stopped walking and sat down under a large oak tree to collect herself. Harry sat down across from her and finally let out the laughter that had been building inside of him for the last ten minutes.

When Ginny was finally able to catch her breath she looked at Harry, "I don't know why its so funny!"

Harry responded, "Me either. But I'm impressed. Hermione has all the loop holes covered doesn't she?"

"She didn't even mention it to me! She actually hasn't mentioned Australia at all come to think of it." She thought about her recent conversations with her friend, and nothing had been mentioned about her parents.

Harry picked up one of her bare feet and began rubbing without thinking. "Ron hasn't mentioned it either. Actually he hasn't mentioned Hermione at all. Whats going on with them?"

Ginny smiled and relaxed with her foot in Harry's lap, "Well I'd say that they are planning a nice little holiday for themselves to finally get it on, and they are either embarrassed or they think we are too stupid to figure it out."

Harry tried to get the image of his two best friends 'getting it on' as Ginny so eloquently put it, out of his head as he picked up her other foot and began working on it. "Well it's about time. I suppose that it will be nice for them to just be alone together, especially since they won't get to spend much time together next year, with Hermione at school and us in training…" as soon as he said it he knew that it was too late. Ginny jerked her foot out of his lap and sat up on her knees. In this position she was slightly taller than him.

Before she started screaming he saw a look of rage on her face that could only be described as crazed. He had seen it before and the results were never pretty. "WHAT? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" before he could respond Ginny's wand was placed directly under his chin and he could feel the heat imitating off of it.

"YOU'RE NOT COMING BACK TO SCHOOL? WELL WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME? WHY AM I ALWAYS THE LAST PERSON TO KNOW ALL THE DETAILS OF YOUR LIFE HARRY POTTER?" there was no use in pointing out that that was indeed incorrect, no one other than Ron knew his current plans, but he thought letting her yell it out would probably help.

"HOW DARE YOU? ARE YOU CRAZY? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITHOUT A DIPLOMA? WHY WOULD YOU GO THIS FAR AND NOT FINISH SCHOOL? HOW THE BLOODY HELL WILL WE WIN THE QUIDDITCH CUP WITHOUT YOU?" At this she paused as if waiting for him to respond, so he finally had the nerve to lift his hand up and grab the end of her wand and move it slowly away from his neck.

She allowed him to do so but still held her wand about ten centimeters away from his chest. "Umm Gin, I had been trying to figure out a way to tell you. No one else knows, so don't be upset that I didn't tell you sooner, please." She finally lowered her wand and crossed her arms in front of her chest, wordlessly saying 'explain.'

"Ron and I are going to become Aurors. We got letters from the ministry a few days after the battle saying that they really wanted us for the department and that we could skip our last year at school. I've talked to Kingsley about it and he thinks that our real life experience makes up for the NEWT levels we would need to be accepted into the program. It's going to be really hard, but it's a two-year training program and its really intense. He told me that the first year basically consumes all of your time and that the second year is slightly less awful. I thought about going back to school so that we could be together, but then id be doing the program the next year so we'd be apart for another year either way. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. Please don't hex me." During his speech she had lifted her wand back up to the same level as his face.

At this she dropped her wand in the grass next to him, much to Harry's relief, and sat back against the tree. She took in a deep breath and on her exhale she looked into his eyes. "I suppose it's better if you get that training over with while I'm still in school," she said quietly.

Harry crawled over to the tree trunk and put his arm around her. "Ginny, I know it's going to suck, but it would suck more if you were out of school."

She leaned into him and to his utter shock, she began to cry. "I know it has to happen, but I'm going to miss you so much."

He held her to him tightly and rocked her back and forth slightly. "It won't be like last year Gin. You can owl me whenever you want. I'm sure we'll have some weekends off, I'll come to Hogsmeade every chance I get, and to every quidditch match."

She continued sobbing into his chest, "I knew this was too good to be true…"

At this Harry pulled her away from him so that he could look into her eyes. "No Ginny, I'm not going to let you do this. We are for real. What did you think? That we would spend next year frolicking around Hogwarts and then get married and live happily ever after?"

She sniffled, "yeah something like that."

He smiled at her. "As much fun as it would be to have one more year with you at school, I think this is whats best for me."

She couldn't call him selfish for that. He was after all, willing to sacrifice his life so that Voldemort could be defeated. "But I'm going to miss you so much."

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder." He replied, tucking a stray hair behind her ear.

"That's for damn sure." She smiled and let out a small chuckle.

"So you're not going to hex me?" he asked.

"Not this time."