Author's Note: The beginning of this chapter is for those of you wishing to have a bit more Harry/Ginny time…namely goodygurl…she's been practically begging, so here you are, dear!

Chapter Twenty-Five

Almost One Year Later

August 19, 2005

"Harry, you don't think it's a bit cruel that we're not spending the night of James's first birthday with him?" Ginny went to the backyard of Grimmauld (which was equally as protected by the Fidelius Charm as the inside of the house was) where Harry and Draco had put in a pool earlier in the summer.

Harry was laying on his back on a raft in the pool, looking up at the stars, his hands floating in the water beside him. "Gin, we spent all day with him, I don't think he'll know the difference. Molly wanted to take the three of them for the night, remember? She was nearly begging."

Ginny walked onto the pool deck and took off her flip-flops before sitting on the edge and dangling her feet in the water. "You don't suppose she knew, do you?" Ginny asked with a mischievous look on her face.

Harry floated closer to where Ginny was. She held out her ankle and he grabbed it so he was right up next to her. "Knew what?"

Before answering him, Ginny pulled off her top, revealing the top of her two-piece, and pulled off her shorts, too. Then she skillfully climbed onto the raft so she was on top of him. "I think she knew we needed some uninterrupted alone time," she answered simply then kissed him with longing.

Harry put his wet hands on her back. "I bet you're right. We wouldn't want to waste that time that was so generously given to us, now would we?"

Ginny's hands went to her husband's face. "I know I wouldn't," she said softly right next to his ear, leaving goose bumps on his wet skin. She moved her hands slowly and seductively around his waist, and just looked into his eyes for a moment.

With no warning whatsoever, she flipped the mattress over and they were both underwater. Harry scowled at her under the water and swam right towards her, and she swam the opposite way.

They both came up for air at the same time. "Try and catch me, Potter!" she teased before swimming off again. Harry couldn't see much without his glasses, so he had to go for the Marco Polo effect and listen for her voice. Anyway, he could see a blur of red hair once and a while.

However, every time he got near her, he grabbed for her and missed by mere inches. "This isn't fair, Gin!" he whined. "I need my glasses!"

Harry noticed at that moment that he couldn't even see a red blur anymore. "Ginny? Where are you?" Harry glanced around as much as he could. "Ginny?" he called again.

He felt something collide with his legs, pulling him once again under water. Still underwater, Ginny grinned and slid his glasses on his face, allowing him to see how beautiful she looked.

She had on his favorite bikini, and of course, it had thick Gryffindor-colored stripes Her long hair was floating gracefully all around her head. He swam at her, and this time he caught her. They were right near the wall of the pool, and when he brought her above the water, he pushed her against it and kissed her fully, only needing less than a moment for his tongue to be allowed entrance.

Ginny's hands roamed around Harry's body resting eventually at the elastic waistband of his swim trunks. She slid one finger inside at his hip and started to tug at the side as they were still kissing. When her hand on the other side did the same thing, Harry pulled back out of her grasp.

"Harry, you can't tell me you're having second thoughts. Proof that we've done this before lies in a little boy named James…remember him?" Ginny joked.

As if he needed to prove that he wasn't having second thoughts, he went back to her and slid his arms around her bare waist. "You know it's not that, Firecracker," he said seductively into her ear before nibbling on her earlobe. Not moving he continued, "it's just that I'm worried about Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy up there. They could see us."

Ginny visibly rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about them," she said.

Harry put his hand in the air intending to perform wandless magic. "Let's at least put up some charms so they can't see or hear us."

Ginny knocked his hand out of the air. "No, Harry," she said as if she were a teenager looking for trouble. "No charms. Just let yourself let go."

Harry smiled at the look on his wife's face. "As you wish, my dear," he said, grabbing the back of her head and kissing her forcefully.

She obliged, and being somewhat weightless in the water, she wrapped her legs around his waist and held tight to his neck. He moved his hands under her bum, supporting her weight.

Harry moved his lips along her jaw line softly, his nose grazing her cheek. He kissed his way down the side of her neck, across her collar bone to the middle of her chest. He kissed the swell of her breast, and his right hand went around to her back to untie her halter top. He undid the bottom knot slowly, and pulled the top over her head. Almost protectively incase someone were to be looking out the window and accidentally see them, he put his hands on the side of her chest and moved even closer to her.

He massaged her breasts and kissed her mouth again. Ginny reached up and took his hands, moving them down the side of her body and letting them rest on her hips. She moved her legs from around his waist and Harry knew just what she wanted, and he went under the water and kissed his way down her stomach, licking lightly with the tip of his tongue around her belly button.

He slid his fingers under her bikini bottoms hear her hips and pulled them down gently. He came back above the water and Ginny moved his dripping hair off his face. He looked into her eyes and she smiled at him. "Ginny," he said gently.

"Yeah?" she asked.

Harry pulled her closer, just to hold her tight and nothing else. What he was about to say was coming straight from the heart. Whenever he was with Ginny he always got so emotional. Not in the sobbing sort of way, but so many feelings for his wife always boiled up inside him ready to explode. This time, he was going to tell her about it.

"I love you so much, Ginny…" he started.

"I know that, Harry," she said, touching his cheek.

He grabbed her hand and put it to his mouth, kissing it, then put it on the back of his neck and held it there while his other hand was wrapped tightly around her waist. "No, Ginny. I've wanted to say this to you for such a long time, but I never knew how to put the feeling into words before. I think I do now."

Ginny nodded, urging him to continue. "I think I've loved you since the moment you asked your mum for your jumper, then ran back upstairs when you saw me."

"Why then?" Ginny asked, blushing slightly. She still couldn't believe she had once been so childish.

Harry smiled and kissed one of her flushed cheeks. "I really have no clue. I mean I was too young to know at the time, 'Wow, I love Ginny Weasley, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her.' It's just that looking back to when I probably fell in love with you, that seems like the moment I felt that there was something special about you."

"What I'm trying to say, Ginny," he continued, "is that I knew so long ago that I wanted you, that no one else ever stood a chance. Like I said, I was too young, and so were you. So even though I had crushes on other girls, like Cho, there was always going to be a part of me deep down telling me I didn't really want them."

"Was there anyone else besides Cho?" Ginny asked innocently. She was genuinely curious, and had no hidden intentions behind that question.

"Not at all," Harry said with complete honesty. "There really wasn't anyone that I had a crush on before her, but like I said, I loved you even before that. You know," he said as an afterthought, "I think that at the Yule Ball I thought I was jealous of Cedric for being with her, but I caught myself stealing glances at you and Neville as well."

"You mean while Parvati and Padma had to go find other people to dance with because their dates were losers?"

Harry stuck his tongue out at her. "I guess so, yeah. Anyway, I wonder every day why the thought never crossed my mind to ask you to the ball. Ron and I spent so much wasted energy on trying to find someone to ask, when the answer was practically slapping me in the face."

"You probably cared about what Ron thought, the same way you did during your sixth year."

Harry shrugged. "Maybe," he said thoughtfully. "I dunno, though, Gin. I just should have. We wasted so much bloody time."

Ginny could see Harry getting upset by the way he was looking past her head in stead of at her and his grip on her tightened slightly. "Harry, look at my face, please," she said in a loving voice. Harry did as he was told and Ginny put one hand on each side of his face. "If we spend all our time thinking about wasted time we'll never get anywhere. We're together now, aren't we?"

Harry nodded, Ginny's hands still on his face, and she kissed him soundly, then backed away a little.

Harry looked up at the house and saw the shadow of Hermione and Draco moving around in their bedroom behind the curtains and he had another thought. "I know I'm keeping up the depressing mood you've been trying to get rid of, but I promise I'm almost done."

"What is it now?" Ginny asked patiently.

"Hermione and Malfoy. You can say all you want about not thinking of wasted time, but they've had even more. They obviously belong together, and they wasted even more time than we did. Well actually, he did. Remember what you told me Hermione said about what he told her?"

"She told me a lot of things he told her, Harry," Ginny pointed out.

"About how long he knew he loved her but kept being awful because he was afraid of what Lucius would do if he found out Draco was in love with a Muggle-born. He told me the same thing once. He said that since second year all he wanted to do was hold her and make her feel better every time he caused her any pain. He didn't know why he said the things he did."

"When someone's threatening to hurt you, you say a lot of stupid things," Ginny reasoned.

"But they may have even less time than we do, if someone really is after Hermione for God knows what stupid reason."

Ginny didn't know what else to do to make Harry feel better. "They're making up for lost time quite well, Harry, now could we get back do doing the same? You better not tell me you're not in the mood anymore, Harry Potter."

Harry smirked. "I'm never not in the mood when it comes you, Ginny Potter."

"I love it when you call me that," Ginny growled playfully, then kissed Harry with all the love and passion she could muster. Never losing a grip on his lips, she reached down and tugged at his trunks enough so she could reach them with her feet. Harry lifted his feet off the floor of the pool, and Ginny pulled the trunks up with her toes and tossed them to the side of the pool.

Harry brushed Ginny's wet red locks away from her face. "Ginny, let's conjure a blanket and move this up to a lounge chair. This is a little difficult."

Ginny nodded and Harry conjured two towels wandlessly and he jumped out of the pool first, wrapping the first towel around his waist. Then he picked up the second one and helped Ginny out of the pool and he wrapped it around her body. Harry walked over to the first lounge chair, and enlarged it. It was already a nice lounge chair, made from wood, and it had a full length cushions on top. After it was enlarged, he adjusted the back so it laid a little flatter. Finally after conjuring a huge blanket to wrap around them, Harry held out his hand to Ginny and lay her down on the blanket.

Harry climbed on top of her and pulled the blanket over them and said, "Now," he kissed her nose, "where," he kissed her cheek, "did," he kissed the other cheek, "we leave," he kissed her forehead, "off?" He kissed her lips fully.

"Right there," Ginny said, pulling him down for another kiss. Harry put his left hand behind her neck and his left hand roamed down her left side slowly. He reached her left knee and pulled it up. He shifted so his weight was more on the right side of her body.

He ran his right hand back up her chin, over her knee, and down the inside of her thigh, rubbing his thumb lightly over her heat.

"Harry," she urged, "stop teasing me before I hex your balls off."

Harry knew she was joking, but feared she was partially serious. As he moved his thumb slowly inside her he said, "You'd never do that. How would we have anymore screaming babies?"

Ginny smiled and quickly forgave him for his teasing as his thumb moved deeper and explored her. Harry bent down and kissed her as he removed his thumb and replaced it with his middle and ring finger, knowing she liked it that way because they were longer than the other fingers.

He pumped a little faster with his hands, and when he felt just the right amount of pressure on his shoulders where her hands were gripping him in pleasure, he replaced his fingers with his hard length.

He found their usual groove, and that's all either of them were looking for in the time being. They found their usual way of making love comforting, and relaxed into it. Harry had both arms out in front of him, holding him up. He moved his right arm down to his elbow, and ran his left hand down her front, using his thumb to rub her clit to help her come. After a couple minutes, his hand traveled back up and massaged her right breast and he kissed her, their tongues wrestling.

Ginny broke the kiss. "Oh God, Harry!" she shouted. They came together, and Harry released into her, risking becoming a father for the second time in his life.

Just as he collapsed onto her and pulled out, they heard Hermione shout their names from the kitchen. "HARRY! GINNY! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?" Her voice sounded panicked so they couldn't ignore her the way they wished they could.

"Shit," Harry breathed as he summoned their bathing suits from the side of the pool and pulled them on, cleaning themselves off first.

They headed hand-in-hand into the house to see what Hermione was shouting about.

Harry and Ginny rushed in the back door. "Hermione?" Harry yelled, "where are you?"

There was no answer, so Harry and Ginny ran to the front sitting room and saw none other than Lucius and Narcissa brushing ash off themselves, having clearly just Floo'd in. (Narcissa was one of the few people granted access to the Floo network that Grimmauld was connected to. The Burrow was the other fireplace connected to theirs.) Draco was staring at his father angrily, holding Hermione behind his back.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Harry blurted out, and no one stopped him. Harry hoped afterwards that Narcissa didn't think that comment was addressed at her.

"I'm so sorry to just barge in everyone, but we have important information that we didn't want to wait to tell you just incase," Narcissa explained quickly.

"Incase what, Mum?" Draco asked. "And by the way, you're always welcome here. He's not," he said gesturing to Lucius.

"Incase they act soon," Narcissa answered.

"Who?" Ginny asked, unaware that she and Harry were still in their bathing suits.

"We found out who's after you," Lucius replied, stepping forward.

"You mean you found out who the people in the hooded cloaks were?" Harry asked, directing his question at Narcissa.

"Yes, dear," she said. "We believe we know who wants to harm Hermione."

Draco's grip tightened on Hermione before he turned around to face her. He led her to the sofa and sat her down, sitting right next to her. He put his right arm around her and took her left hand with his own.

"Sit down, please," Harry said to Narcissa, assuming Lucius would do so as well. He refused to address the Death Eater, or former Death Eater, whatever he was. He directed his attention to Draco and Hermione. "Draco, will you be okay if Ginny and I go change quickly?"

"We should be," Draco answered, but hurry back.

"We'll wait until they get back to tell you," Lucius offered.

Ginny was the only one to respond. "Thank you," she said somewhat bitterly before following Harry up the stairs to their bedroom.

They were back down in a flash, probably having used magic to dry their hair. They sat down on the couch next to Draco and Hermione. "Okay," Harry said, "who is it? We've been searching the records at the Ministry for possible suspects, and the only people released that day have nothing against Hermione."

"I think this is more about their anger at Draco. They feel he betrayed the Dark side when he fell in love with her," Narcissa answered as gently as she could. She knew they'd rather not hear so much come from Lucius, so she had decided before they arrived at Grimmauld that she would answer whatever she could. "They think the best way to get back at him is by killing her."

"Just tell us who it is, please," Draco said simply, wanting to get this whole thing over with. He planned to take Harry and go kill whomever it was immediately.

"Draco, I know what you're thinking," Lucius said, "and you can't just go kill them. All that will do is get you put in Azkaban if they don't act first."

"So we're just supposed to sit here and wait for them to attack so we have a reason to attack them in self defense? How do you know who it is, anyway?" Draco asked angrily.

"They came to him thinking he'd help, Draco," Narcissa said. "I wasn't home, at the time, so they assumed he was alone. He turned them down, so we saw only enough to know who they are. We don't know any of their plans, or where they're hidden."

"How noble of you to turn them down," Draco said icily.

"I really do only want to help, Draco, whatever you might believe," Lucius said. "I don't expect you to let me into your lives, and I can understand Hermione not wanting to be near me, I really do. Just let me help; it's the least I can do."

"The very least," Draco said. "Anyway, we'll allow you to tell us what you know."

"The people after you are Alecto and Amycus Carrow."

"Why them?" Harry asked. Hermione was still completely silent in the presence of Lucius. She was looking at her hands the whole time everyone was talking.

"They're just angry," Narcissa said. "That's the only explanation we can think of for them specifically doing it."

"So you have no idea what they'll do?" Ginny asked.

"We haven't the slightest," Narcissa said. "We just wanted you to know incase you see them somewhere," she explained. "So, it's probably a good idea that you lot don't go anywhere except The Burrow. Harry and Ginny can go out to Diagon Alley and such if need be, but please, Hermione, Draco, don't go anywhere."

"Okay, Mum, nowhere except The Burrow. I promise," Draco said.

"We should be going now," Narcissa said, standing from her chair. Draco stood as well to give her a hug goodbye, then Narcissa walked to where Hermione remained sitting. "Are you alright, love?" she asked.

Hermione nodded so Narcissa said, "Okay, well, you take care of yourself, Hermione." She kissed her on the forehead, and waved to Harry and Ginny. She waved one last time as she followed Lucius into the fireplace and they were gone.

Draco went back to Hermione and sat right next to her, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "This is all my fault," he said as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"It's not, Dray," she said, speaking for the first time since before Lucius and Narcissa arrived. She put her arms around him as well and kissed him gently on the lips. "I wouldn't trade you for my life. There will be no more pretending to help the Death Eaters to save my life. You're going to stay here and just be with me and the twins."

Draco nodded. "We'll find a way to stop them, Princess. I love you," he said as he kissed the top of her head.

Later that night when Ginny and Hermione were watching television with the babies (who were all actually asleep, Miley and James once again next to each other on the blanket), Harry and Draco sat on the back porch with a bottle of firewhiskey.

"What the hell am I gonna do, man?" Draco asked finally.

Harry simply shrugged and took another swig from his glass.

"I can't keep telling her everything's going to be fine when I have no fucking clue if it will be or not. I don't know how to stop them."

"That's probably true," Harry agreed. "But we really will do everything we can, so that's not a lie."

"That's just it, we'll do everything we can, but how much can we do? We can't just sit around and wait for those two to die of old age."

"Well, at least we know who it is. We can have Aurors looking for them. I think that's the most we can do…at least for now," Harry said. "Your mum's right, though. You two can't go anywhere but The Burrow."

"I know," Draco said. "I just hate to coop the three of them up in this house all the time, but I don't have a choice. I still feel like this is all my fault. Sometimes I think about what life would be like if I continued to suppress my feelings for her."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, what would happen if I never told her I love her seventh year?"

"Are you asking what life would be like now if you had just continued to call her Mudblood the rest of her life?"

Draco shrugged. "Yeah, I mean her life certainly wouldn't be at risk right now."

"I'll tell you what her life would be like. She'd probably be married to Ron, and she'd have a bunch of little red-headed babies running around. She'd be content, but she wouldn't be with her soul mate. As for your life, well you would have run into her one day in Diagon Alley, seen her with her husband that wasn't you, and wanted to kill yourself for never telling her how much you loved her. Then, after you greeted her once more as 'Mudblood' you probably would have actually killed yourself because you would have been so angry with yourself." Harry took a sip of firewhiskey then looked at Draco. "Either that or you'd be in Azkaban."

Draco raised both eyebrows at the perfectly calm Harry, speechless.

Harry spoke again. "Are you telling me that you'd trade the life you had up until now for that?"

"Damn, Potter. You're right, I guess. But that doesn't change the fact that I hate what my past is doing to her."

"Don't, just live the life you have for all it's worth, which I'm guessing is a lot." Harry looked at Draco waiting for a reaction.

Draco took a deep breath, let it out and said, "Thanks, Potter." He then drained his glass and stood up. "I'm going to go heed some of that advice."

Harry smiled and sat back. He wasn't sure what the future held, but somehow, he wasn't settled that everything would be peachy, but it wouldn't take long before it was all over. They definitely had hard times ahead.

(Only a couple more chapters coming up, everyone! Stay tuned and press the little purple button!!)