Harry Potter After the War

by PotterFanSteve

ATW takes up the Harry Potter story on the day after the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, and will continue the story through to the DH Epilogue, and probably beyond. Years One, Two, and Four are now Complete!

26. Hopes and Dreams Come True

Chapter Twenty-Six – Hopes and Dreams Come True

"Don't fall out of your chair or anything," Ron told Harry, "but I'm good with a week or two of guard duty."

"I won't, and so am I," Harry answered tiredly. "Other than that little break to work on the Zabini case, we've been at this one for four months. Nobody would have guessed it would end up like this, but I am looking forward to having a break in the action."

Ron laughed. "Why do I get the feeling we'll be saying that regularly for a long time to come?"

"Probably because we will. How'd you get your report done so fast? I haven't even gotten half-way through?"

"Easy. I just wrote up what I did when you weren't around, and then put a note in to refer to your report for the rest of the details."

"Auror-trainee Ron Weasley, total loser, was completely useless during the fight…" Harry pretended to write while Ron laughed again.

"That's pretty funny for a guy who's only had a few hours of sleep. I'll get out of here and let you get that done so you can go home too. See you in the morning."

"Okay. Have a good rest of the day, and give Hermione a hug for me," Harry said as Ron got up to leave.

Harry watched Ron leave for a minute, and then returned his attention to the report at hand. He knew that Ron hadn't been joking about the note he'd put on his report, and sometimes he wished that he could just do something like that too, but for some reason, he was actually pretty good at evaluating operations like the one they'd just completed at Azkaban, and he knew that the effort he put into doing that was appreciated. The fact that many of his ideas were beginning to show up in new policies and procedures that helped everyone was what really made the extra work worthwhile.

The couple of hours after their six-hour, two-to-eight, Sunday morning guard duty at St. Mungo's ended up being more like four for Harry, and it was nearly twelve-thirty by the time he got home again. Ginny had stayed awake on Saturday night until after he left, so she'd slept until around eleven. She hadn't eaten yet, so they made brunch together, and then spent the rest of the day doing some shopping, stopping to visit Teddy and Andromeda, and having dinner at the Burrow before going home to a very early bedtime.

Pulling guard duty did have a lot of upside, like having fairly short work days, and getting to take care of Ginny while she got ready for her last two regular season games. The downside was on the trips where Harry, Ron, and Susan in particular were stuck for hours with prisoners who felt it was necessary to continually taunt them about everything, including losing their relatives and other loved ones, and impotently promising the most lurid and ghastly horrors that would be inflicted on them when the Death Eaters and their pureblood allies got their revenge some day. Harry had thought that they had all done quite well dealing with all of that, and even Emma had only half-heartedly, and very mildly, chided Susan for the tripping spell she'd 'accidentally' used on the Death Eater who'd made a particularly nasty comment about what they'd done to her Aunt Amelia. Susan had apologized, after all, and had pulled the old Wizard out of the sea, dried him off, and fixed the broken nose he'd gotten from hitting the side of the ferry face first before falling into the icy water.

While escorting Death Eaters, their new buddies, and the two former Azkaban guards between the prison and Ministry of Magic courtrooms kept Harry busy during the day, he left that behind when he went home each night, and focused most of his attention on taking care of Ginny, and having a little fun with her, and their family too. She studied all week, but the both took Friday night and Saturday morning off, had Teddy stay overnight with them, and played with him. There were a total of four Seeker duels during the week and on the weekend, and they went to a family dinner at the Burrow on Sunday evening that Bill and Fleur, Ron and Hermione, and George were all there for too.

Harry, Ron, Susan, and Terry ended up having four more days of guard duty, and then while Susan and Terry went back to working with their trainers again, Emma met with Ron and Harry on Friday morning, and assigned them a case investigating some Avery family cousins who were now apparently in charge of the family estates and businesses. They spent the rest of the day on Friday in Harry's cubicle, reading over the files that Emma had given them, but were taking the weekend off again before really getting started on their new assignment.

They had a beautiful, warm spring day for the game against the Magpies on Saturday, and Harry and Teddy were both excited and happy to be going to the game together. Ron and Hermione were at a Cannons game, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had brought Percy and Audrey with them. Harry and Teddy had gotten to the Yorkshire stadium early, and had been in their seats for fifteen or twenty minutes before his parents and brother in-laws, and sister-in-law to be joined them. Teddy had hugs for all of them, and then they still had another twenty minutes to go before game time to sit down and catch up on everything that Percy and Audrey were doing, and how everything was going with the wedding preparations.

The Harpies and Magpies played a pretty good match, and there were some pretty exciting moments, but the Harpies had taken a small lead early, and kept it throughout the game. Harry had been sure that Ginny would win the game right from the start too, mostly because the Magpies Seeker seemed to be having problems keeping up with her, and for whatever reason, was not on his game at all today. Ginny made that catch when the score was one-eighty to one-ten; giving her team their twenty-first win. With just one game left, they were also still in first place, and the there were really only two other teams with a realistic shot at passing them, and almost no way that they could now do worse than third place.

Once she got home after the game, the rest of the weekend was going to be Ginny's last chance to have a break until whenever the Harpies' season ended, so she and Harry planned on spending that time together. That time included a romantic night for two at home on Saturday night, and then sleeping in late on Sunday morning. Harry had breakfast ready for them by the time Ginny joined him in the kitchen; and they were both smiling happily as she hugged and kissed him before sitting down at the table.

"I guess you were right," she told him. "Staying in bed with you all day sounded like a good plan, but this smells great, and I really am hungry." Laughing happily, she pulled him close for another kiss when he set a plate down in front of her. "Not that I have to wonder why we might be hungry," she added, "and we can always go back to the other plan later."

"Yes we can," Harry agreed, "though I think we should go out for a few hours first."

"Go out and do what?" Ginny asked as he sat down at the table too, and they started eating.

"Easter is next weekend, and you'll need to work pretty much all of the time, except for the party at Christine and Bryce's, and Sunday dinner at the Burrow, so today is probably our only chance to do some shopping. We've got to pick up Easter presents; Teddy's birthday is the Wednesday after Easter, and you may want to pick up a few more things for Bill and Fleur, since the baby will be along anytime after that."

"I've pretty much picked up everything we're getting for them until we find out whether they have a boy or girl," Ginny answered. "There will definitely be some clothes shopping in my future once we do know. What are you thinking about getting Teddy this year? A real Firebolt?"

Harry laughed. "That'd be a really cool present, but no, I don't think I'd like to find out what Andromeda would do to me if I gave him something like that. Quality Quidditch does have a toy Quidditch set that I thought he'd like, though."

Ginny nodded. "The company that makes that is one of our team sponsors. The set even comes with two sets of kid-sized goals and the bludgers, quaffle, and Beater bats are all soft, stuffed plush toys. Some days, I wish we used them in our games."

"That might be fun, but the games wouldn't last long, since it'd take the Seekers about a second to catch that stuffed snitch on a Firebolt. I thought we could get him another dragon or two for his collection too, and then we can find gifts for Dawn, Jeremy, and Kate for Easter. Do you want to get anything for your parents and brothers too?"

They talked that out while having breakfast, and then, after cleaning up, they headed for Diagon Alley. While spending a few hours shopping for birthday and Easter presents was fun, it was the play time before and after that trip that had made for a brilliant, memorable weekend. It was back to the hard work and long days for both of them on Monday, and while Ginny got ready for her game against Puddlemere United, Harry worked with Ron on their new case, starting with a lot of digging through Ministry of Magic records, and some preliminary field work.

It was actually pretty quiet around Auror Headquarters while they were doing that, and while Harry and Ron weren't in the loop for any of the other cases that were being worked on, either some progress was being made on some of those cases, or their fellow Aurors were just out and enjoying the spring weather after a long, cold winter. Ron was taking the weekend off, but Harry took work home with him, since Ginny would be studying a lot anyway. He made dinner for two after work on Friday, and then they both spent the evening studying until curfew time. On Saturday morning, Ginny got back to her work, while Harry took care of the cleaning, supply shopping, and breakfast and lunch meals for them. After lunch, they picked Teddy up, and headed over to the Campbell's house for the welcome home, Easter weekend party.

"You're not breaking any team rules by hugging the enemy so close to the big game, are you?" Harry joked when Dawn welcomed them excitedly with hugs and kisses. She and Ginny both laughed as she hugged Teddy.

"I'm fairly sure that Teddy hasn't been sorted yet, so he's not the enemy at all, and that rule only applies to the players, not the House non-combatants," Dawn answered. "I'm really glad you could come today. Mum keeps me updated with everything she can tell me about work, but we seriously need to catch up on what's going on with the Harpies, Ginny."

"I would've thought that was all public knowledge," Ginny said with a laugh, and Dawn grinned at her.

"The really good stuff probably isn't," she disagreed. "Like how things are really going between Gwenog and Kirley, or Alicia and Lee. There's almost no news at all on Angelina, except that she's been seen out with your brother, George, and never without being part of a bigger group. You must have the inside scoop on all of that, and anything else that's going on."

"Are you in training to join the Aurors or thinking about a career in investigative journalism?" Ginny asked.

"This week, I still want to grow up to play for the Harpies, though that changes depending on how many bruises I have after any given practice from the bludgers. Come in, do the rounds, and get drinks, and we can talk about all of that later," she suggested. "I'm sure Teddy's more interested in going to play with the other kids instead of sitting around and talking anyway."

Harry had been more interested in playing than talking about the love lives of Ginny's teammates, and though he didn't completely escape those conversations, he did spend an hour or so playing with Teddy and the other younger kids. Having the star Seeker for the Harpies at the party was a much bigger deal for those kids than seeing Harry there, but they were quite happy to let him play with them – especially when Ginny sat down to play with them too.

"Come on, kids," Christine said as she walked into the room. "Time to put your dolls, dragons, and the rest of your toys away. Dinner's almost ready."

"They're action figures, Mum, and do we have too?" Harry asked; which had Ginny and most of the kids and teens in the room laughing.

"Yes you do, and if they're action figures, why is your Wasps' Seeker wearing a dress? I'm sure that he, and the rest of the Wasps team, would find a picture of you and Ginny playing like this very entertaining."

"Or we could just not do that," Harry countered. "After all, Ginny does have a reputation to worry about."

He and Ginny stayed and helped the kids with the cleanup, and then took Teddy with them, and followed the rest of the kids out to the dining room. Teddy wanted to hang out with Dawn and Jonathan while they ate, so Harry and Ginny were able to spend nearly an hour chatting with some of the other grownups, though most of those conversations revolved around kids and what they'd all be doing over the Easter holiday. Harry helped Bryce and some of the other guys with the after-dinner cleanup, and then it was time to head for home so that Ginny could study for a couple of hours before bedtime.

"I'm going to be busy all week, but if you and Jonathan aren't busy next Saturday, how would you like to come to my game with Harry, Teddy, and my parents?" Ginny asked Dawn as she hugged her goodbye. Dawn shouted excitedly, and hugged her back, then hugged Harry and Jonathan.

"We'd love to, and even if we are busy, we'll cancel," she assured Ginny. "Thank you!"

"If that's what you really want, it's okay with us," Bryce told his oldest daughter, while smiling at the looks of disappointment on Jeremy's and Kate's faces. "I'm sure that your brother and sister can find friends to bring along to the Wasps' match while you and Jonathan go watch that second-class game between the Harpies and United." He and Christine both laughed when Jeremy and Kate had big smiles and hugs for them on that news.

"Good timing," Christine complimented him, "though you might regret that comment if our Wasps do pull off a miracle and make the playoffs, since we'd be facing the Harpies in the first round."

Bryce laughed. "I like to dream big like all good Wasps fans, honey, but I don't think we're going to get that miracle this season. I'd put our chances of moving from tenth to eighth at somewhere between slim and zero."

"The good news being that there's always next season," Christine said philosophically.

"Which me, Teddy, and every other Harpies fan will be very excited about – right after we watch our team win the Championship this year," Dawn told her parents as she hugged Teddy.

"Let's just concentrate on the United game," Ginny suggested. "Every match is big now, and anything can happen."

They wrapped up the goodbyes shortly after that, took Teddy back to Andromeda, and then went home for the night. Ginny worked for a couple of hours, and they ended their day with some play time that had them both still smiling brightly on Sunday morning while Ginny got back to her studies, and Harry went outside to do some yard work. All of the kids, and Aunt Muriel were going to the Burrow for Easter dinner, so Harry and Ginny wrapped up their work by shortly before noon, and went over there to help out with everything from de-gnoming the garden to the cooking and baking. By three-thirty, most of the work was done, and the two couples were ready to welcome the rest of their family, and enjoy spending the rest of the day with them.

"What's the problem with the rest of you?" Aunt Muriel asked in her booming voice. "Bill and Fleur finally got around to starting a family. The war's been over for two years now! I remember after the big one – when Dumbledore defeated Grindewald – that everyone and their kneazle cats were getting married and having babies."

"Aunt Muriel, the other boys aren't even married yet, and Ginny and Harry haven't even been married a year."

"Which is more than long enough for them to have figured out how things work by now," Aunt Muriel answered, and barked out a laugh when she heard Ginny's laugh, and saw Harry blushing. "I suppose you won't be getting in a family way for a while, will you?"

Ginny laughed again. "Probably not," she agreed. "Being pregnant would likely really hurt poster and toy sales, and has a tendency to end Quidditch careers."

Aunt Muriel laughed again too. "If you all looked as beautiful as Fleur does now, you'd sell more posters," she suggested before turning her attention to the other boys. "I got the invitation for Percy's wedding, but haven't heard a thing about the rest of you. Molly and I had better not hear that the two of you are just leading these two young girls on," she told Charlie and Ron. "I know you've got that lop-sided ear thing, George, but there must be at least one girl out there for you somewhere. Maybe you just need a little help finding her."

"I'm already getting more help from my friends than I need, thanks anyway, Aunt Muriel," George answered. "You and Mum should definitely keep an eye on Charlie and Ron, though. They have been dating their girls for a couple of years now, and you might be right about them."

"Not if they know what's good for them, and quite trying to stir up trouble for your brothers," Mrs. Weasley told all three of them; which had Aunt Muriel laughing again.

While Aunt Muriel definitely ruled the Burrow from the time she arrived until Harry and Ginny escorted her home, Fleur and Audrey were at the center of most of the conversations as they talked about babies and weddings. Ginny and Hermione were both happy to join in, while Harry and Ron mostly stayed out of the way, and talked about sports and work with the other guys. It was another whirlwind handful of hours together that was over too soon, and after seeing Aunt Muriel home, Harry and Ginny were both ready for a little quiet study time before bed.

The last week of April was even busier than normal. In addition to putting in long days at work, Ginny had Harry do three more Seeker duels with her after dinner on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Dean and Parvati, and Terry and Padma, were getting married on Saturday, but since Harry and Ginny couldn't attend because of her game, they went out for dinner with the two couples on Tuesday night, along with Ron and Hermione, Ernie and Susan, and Seamus and Lavender. On Wednesday, they went to Andromeda's house for Teddy's second birthday party, and spent most of the evening playing with Teddy in the back yard, including a long Quidditch match with his new toy Quidditch set that kept Andromeda, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and the other adults very entertained.

Finally, it was Saturday, and while Ginny went to work in the morning, Harry did his usual work and shopping routine, then got ready to go out, and left to pick up Teddy, Dawn, and Jonathan. They went out for lunch at one of the cafés in Diagon Alley, and then moved on to the Bodmin stadium with lots of time to wander the concession stands before meeting up with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and getting settled in to watch the game.

"I'd say that playing with Angelina and Alicia when you were all at Gryffindor is making a big difference today, but the girls practiced against Oliver back then too, and it's not helping them out there," Mrs. Weasley told Harry, Arthur, and the kids after they watched Oliver make another great save on a tough shot from Angelina.

"He does seem to have some advantage against them, though," Mr. Weasley added thoughtfully. "I don't see what it is off-hand, but he's in the right place at the right time for nearly every play."

Harry had been thinking that it was more than just a really great Keeper performance too, though he hadn't seen anything obvious either, and it wasn't like Valmai was having any more luck against Oliver. Ginny was in another tough battle with the United Seeker too, and didn't have any luck with her either when, at the four hour and forty-one minute mark, the United Seeker cleanly beat her to the snitch, and gave his team the two hundred and fifty to seventy victory.

"She won't be at all happy about that," Mrs. Weasley predicted. "It was her mistake in that first loss, but I'd say that this time, the United Seeker just flat-out won."

"United wanted this win a lot," Dawn pointed out. "For them, this will probably be the difference between playing the Catapults or Prides and playing the Kestrels in the first round. It's even possible that Glynnis didn't want to win this game, depending on whether she'd prefer going up against the Falcons or the Arrows next weekend."

"You might be right about that," Mr. Weasley told her; nodding toward where Ginny was shaking hands with the United Seeker, "but I'm sure that Ginny isn't faking how she feels about the loss, even though she is still smiling."

Harry found out later that they were both right. Glynnis hadn't been particularly upset over the loss; and Ginny definitely wasn't happy about getting beat. She was so unhappy that after going out for dinner with their parents, Teddy, Andromeda, Jonathan, Dawn, and her family, she had Harry spend two hours out on the Quidditch pitch with her before letting him help her out with the full Jacuzzi, massage, and magic bedtime treatment.

Glynnis may have been hoping for the loss to drop the Harpies to second place, but apparently the Catapults and Prides weren't interested in taking advantage of the opportunity; leaving the Harpies in first place. That meant they'd be playing the Falcons on Saturday, and Ginny didn't plan on waiting until Monday to start getting ready for that game. Part of that work included three Quidditch workouts.

"I want you to cheat!" she told Harry fiercely. "How am I supposed to get ready for the Falcons if you don't?"

Harry flew up next to her, leaned close, and kissed her tenderly. "That's as close to cheating as I'll go," he advised her, "and I don't want you trying that move out on the Falcons' players, or we'll be having a little talk after the game. Let's work on avoiding those dirty tricks, 'cause there's no way I'll do anything that could hurt you."

Ginny laughed and hugged him. "I love you, and won't try that kissing move with anyone but you," she promised. "How do you suggest that we practice avoiding cheap shots without you using any against me?"

"We've both seen the moves their players have used against you in your first two games," Harry answered with a shrug. "I'm sure that we can come up with some new defenses for those, and maybe throw in a few tricks and fakes of our own to keep them off-balance." He grinned at her. "You have a lot of different spins and rolls in your game, but I was thinking that an inverted over or under flip that puts you on the other side of your opponent might be good – especially if you suddenly weren't there when they try to ram you or block you into a bludger attack." He then demonstrated by doing a fairly slow-motion three-sixty, head-to-head flip over Ginny's head, and then another one that had his broom just brushing her feet as he rolled underneath her.

"I like it," Ginny said enthusiastically, and Harry laughed when she hugged him again.

"It'll be very cool if we can work out doing that at high-speed without crashing. Why don't you try it the same way I just did it, and then we'll start working on it while we're flying around."

They worked on that for most of the morning, and on some other moves during the two hours they worked after lunch. Ginny had George come over for dinner, and then recruited him to play Beater against them, mostly so they could try some of their new moves at full speed while dodging bludgers. Unlike Harry, he was more than happy to try his very best against them, and while Ginny only had one bruise from that practice, Harry had more than a few sore spots to prove that George could still play the game well enough.

It was back to work on Monday, but even after a grueling day of training, Ginny still wanted to go out to the pitch and work with Harry until nearly dark. After that, she took the time to have Harry and their Jacuzzi help her with the soreness and pain, and then she snuggled in bed with him, Arnold, and her Falcons' study material. That's where they were when Mr. Weasley popped over shortly after eleven to advise them that Fleur had gone into labor, and was on the way to St. Mungo's.

"I'll go to the hospital with Dad while you pop over to get Fleur's Mum and Dad," Ginny told him as they both went upstairs again to get dressed while Mr. Weasley waited for Ginny.

Harry nodded and smiled at her. "We can do that, though you've got time if you want to come along."

"Are you guessing, or is this one of those feelings?"

"Let's just say that I'm fairly sure that we're about to be given a very special miracle to celebrate May second for."

Ginny's eyes opened wide, and she threw her arms around him. "I wasn't even thinking about that!" she whispered. "This would be a pretty big day to have for a birthday."

"True, but I'm going to love having something really great to remember that will offset the memories that aren't so good."

"Most people would say that what happened two years ago was really great, but I know what you mean," Ginny said quietly as she hugged him tightly for another minute before letting him go again, and smiling at him. "Does your feeling give you any hints on whether it's a boy or girl?"

Harry grinned too. "Yes, but I'm not telling. You'll know soon enough."

Harry waited until after Ginny and her father left for St. Mungo's, and then he created the Portkey he was going to need to bring the Delacours to London before apparating to their home in France. That had been planned ahead of time, so Fleur's parents weren't surprised with his arrival. They already had bags packed and ready to go for whenever the call did come, so it only took them about fifteen minutes to get dressed, and then they took the Portkey to St. Mungo's. By the time they got there, Ron, Hermione, and George were there, but they hadn't been able to let Percy or Audrey know yet, and since it was two hours later in Romania, they decided not to wake Charlie, and would let him know in the morning.

"How are you doing, Aunt Ginny?" Harry asked as she hugged him in welcome; and Mrs. Weasley led Fleur's parents into the room Fleur was in.

"I'm fine, Uncle Harry," she assured him. "So is Fleur, but Bill's a bit of a mess."

"Since I'll probably be as bad or worse when it's our turn, I won't comment on how Bill's handling impending fatherhood. He is going to be a great Dad."

"Yes he is," Ginny agreed. "Come and sit down in the waiting room. There's not much we can do now except keep everyone company."

They had quite a few hours to wait, and Ginny spent some of that time studying, chatting with the rest of the family, and even having a short nap snuggled next to Harry. Victoire Weasley was born at four thirty-six in the morning, and was a beautiful, seven pound, thirteen ounce, blond-haired, blue-eyed charmer who immediately stole the hearts of her entire family. The proud first-time grandparents went in to see their granddaughter first, and Harry and Ginny were the last to visit Fleur, Bill, and Victoire.

"She seems rather unimpressed with her most famous aunt and uncle," Bill teased as he watched Ginny cradle his little girl.

"That's just fine with us," Ginny told him, "and we're very impressed with her. You and Fleur did good, big brother. She's beautiful. How are you, Fleur? You look beautiful too."

Fleur laughed tiredly. "I don't feel beautiful right now, but the Healers tell us that I'm fine, and the restorative should have me feeling better soon."

"That and some rest," Bill agreed.

"We'll let you get to that," Ginny told her, and passed Victoire to Harry so he could hold her for a minute too before she took her niece back long enough to tuck her in with Fleur again. They chatted for a few more minutes with Bill and Fleur, and then left to meet up with the others in the waiting room.

"We've got a few things to do first, but why don't we all meet up at the Burrow for breakfast in an hour or so?" Mrs. Weasley suggested.

"Let's make it an hour and a half," Ginny answered. "Harry and I have some running around to do too, and then we'll both need to get ready for work too."

That ended up being the plan, though while Fleur's parents left for Shell Cottage, the rest of them apparated to the cemetery to visit Fred. Ginny had been holding hands with Harry as they walked through the cemetery, but left him to go put a comforting arm around George as they gathered around the headstone.

"Our first niece was just born," George said quietly. "I guess you'd know already; and that she lucked out and got Fleur's looks. I guess Ginny's broken the Weasley boys-only thing for good. I don't know if having Victoire join us today is part of some big plan, but if it is, thank whoever is responsible. I still miss you like it happened yesterday, but this does help all of us."

He lost it then when Ginny wrapped both arms around him and cried into his chest, and he held on to her for long minutes before gently passing her off to Harry, and hugging his mother next. Just as they'd done last year, they talked about Fred, and most of those stories were of the happy and light-hearted memories they all had of him. Harry summoned the flowers that he had picked up to put there, and when everyone was ready to go, he and Ginny went on a little tour while the rest of their family went on to the Burrow.

Those stops included delivering flowers to the cemeteries where Remus and Tonks, Colin Creevey, and Professor Snape rested, and then they hopped over to Romania to give Charlie the news, and set him up with a Portkey so he and Julianne could make a trip to visit his niece later in the day after work. By the time they'd gone home to get cleaned up, and then gone on to the Burrow, breakfast was nearly ready, the Delacours had arrived, and they found out that George had gone to let Percy know that he was an uncle now while they'd been running around.

"Will you be able to stay for a week like you'd hoped?" Mrs. Weasley asked the Delacours, and Apolline nodded.

"I can stay and help Fleur at least until Sunday," she agreed. "Grandpapa here will have to go back home later today, and come back on the weekend."

"And by then, they'll be ready to have us out of the way," Monsieur Delacour predicted. "We will need to come and visit more often from now on, though. You are lucky to be so close to them."

"We are," Mrs. Weasley said with a bright smile, "though we'll give them as much space as they need too."

"Along with more free babysitting than they'll know what to do with," Ginny added.

Victoire was pretty much the focus of the entire breakfast conversation, though only the grandparents had time to have a long visit, while Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and George all needed to eat fairly quickly, and then either leave for work, or to go home and get ready for work. Since they hadn't had any sleep, Harry and Ron decided to work in the office all day, since doing field work when tired wasn't a good plan at all. That had made for a fairly easy day for them, and Harry went home early so he could have dinner ready to go by the time Ginny got back from work.

"I'll guess that being up all night, and having a new niece wasn't an excuse for having a light training day," he surmised when Ginny walked into the kitchen. She looked fairly beat up and sore; and he could see dark bruises on both of her arms. She laughed, but there wasn't any amusement in the sound.

"The food smells great, but I'd really appreciate it if you could put dinner on hold, and help me now instead of later," she told him. "Does that give you an idea of how bad it was?"

Harry didn't hesitate, and with a wave of his hand, put a freezing spell on their meal, then gently picked her up, and took her upstairs to take care of what he soon found out were a lot of minor injuries and strains. That took nearly an hour, and then they had a quick dinner, picked up Teddy on the way, and headed for Shell Cottage, where the rest of the family had already gathered with plans to spend most of the evening with Bill, Fleur, and Victoire.

"Vic-toire," Ginny told Teddy, slowly pronouncing the two syllables for him.

"Yik-tor?" Teddy tried uncertainly, and Ginny prompted him to try again, emphasizing the sounds he hadn't quite worked out. "Victoire," he finally said successfully, and she hugged him with the arm she had around him.

"That's exactly right," she told him. "Do you like Victoire?" Ginny was holding the baby too, and he reached out to touch Victoire's cheek.

"I guess," he agreed somewhat indifferently. "I like blue eyes." He closed his eyes and scrunched up his face for a moment, and then looked up at Ginny with a grin. "You like blue eyes too?"

Ginny laughed and hugged him again. "They're very nice, Teddy, but you've made yours sort of a midnight dark blue, and I love your real eye color quite a lot, so you don't have to change it for me."

Teddy laughed too, and after another moment, had changed them back again. "Do you think that Y-Victoire would like to play dragons with me?" he asked hopefully.

"I'm sure she will when she's able to, sweetie, but Victoire won't be big enough to do that for quite a while," Ginny advised him. "I'm sure that Uncle Harry or Uncle Ron will play with you, though."

That quickly had Teddy off and running, and Ginny cuddled with Victoire until her turn was up, and it was time to pass the baby on, with Hermione getting the next turn. Harry, Ginny, and Teddy were in the first group to head for home, along with Ron and Hermione, and they took Teddy back to Andromeda first before going back to their place, where Ginny ended up studying in bed until exhaustion claimed her, and she was out until morning.

Harry and Ginny didn't see their niece for the rest of the week as he and Ron got back to working their case; and she focused all of her time and energy on getting ready for the match against the Falcons. They did Seeker duels on Wednesday and Thursday evenings after dinner, but Harry insisted that she completely take Friday night off, and rest up to be ready for a long, tough day and game on Saturday.

Season's tickets didn't extend into the playoffs, but they did give Harry and the other Wizards and Witches who did have them preferential treatment when it came to buying playoff tickets, so he was able to pick up enough for everyone in the family, and a few extras for some friends to come along to the game too. That guest list included Andromeda, Teddy, and Aunt Muriel, and Harry met up with them; and with most of the Weasley clan and the rest of their friends at the Leaky in time to have lunch before going on to Exmoor stadium for the game.

They had a great block of seats, in three rows, and Harry and Teddy were in the middle row with the rest of the 'youngsters', though he was also next to Andromeda and his father-in-law, and they had Aunt Muriel and Mrs. Weasley in the row behind them. Fleur didn't come to the game, but ordered Bill to go along, assuring him that she and her parents could handle taking care of Victoire for a few hours while he went to watch his sister's very first playoff game.

Harry had Teddy completely set up with all of the best playoff gear from the concessions, along with lots of drinks and snacks, and while Teddy did spend a lot of time with Harry, he was also quite happy to be passed around before the game and chat happily with everyone else, including Aunt Muriel. She'd found the little boy quite entertaining, and he'd charmed her at the speed of a few happy hugs.

There was nearly a half-hour before game time when they got to their seats, and other than needing to make a quick trip to the washroom with Teddy, Harry spent most of that time talking with Ron, Hermione, and the others sitting closest to him. He knew that Ginny and the Harpies had done everything they could to get ready for the game, but this was one match he really wasn't looking forward to sitting through; knowing that the Falcon's players would pull every dirty trick in the book out and weren't just out to win, but to really hurt their opponent players. When the game did finally get started, after a fairly lengthy opening ceremony, it didn't take long to see that the Falcons were out to get Ginny, and were also keying in on Angelina and Alicia too. Harry wasn't a jump up and yell kind of fan, but it he, and everyone else, soon found out where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny inherited their fire from.

"COME OVER HERE AND TRY THAT YOU DIRTY CHEAT!" Aunt Muriel bellowed. "THE REF MAY BE BLIND BUT THE REST OF US SAW THAT. NO WONDER YOUR OWN GRANNY TELLS ME YOU'RE A COMPLETE ROTTER!"

"Did his grandmother really tell you that?" Harry heard Mrs. Weasley ask her quietly, and smiled as he heard both women laugh. That smile hardened when he caught sight of a bludger coming right at Aunt Muriel, and he deflected it harmlessly away from her, and then watched both women get up and start hollering at the offending Falcons' Beater.

The entire game went pretty much like that, and while Harry still managed to be amused by his frail Aunt Muriel's unending energy and the vocal outbursts from her and Mrs. Weasley, he had to grit his teeth and watch with simmering anger as the Falcons systematically beat up on the three rookie members of the Harpies. The plays that he and Ginny had worked on were helping, and she'd obviously worked with the rest of her team on them too, but over an hours-long game, they were all still taking a lot of hard hits, and the wear and tear was showing on all of them. Trish had been playing a brilliant game, and despite everything the Falcons threw at them, Angelina, Alicia, and Valmai had built a one hundred and thirty to fifty lead, though by then, the tide in the game did seem to be slowly turning in favor of the Falcons.

Ginny finally put on a move that the Falcons defense couldn't stop, and she dodged a bludger, pulled a mid-air flip to lose the Falcons' Seeker, and caught the snitch to give the Harpies a two hundred and eighty to fifty win. She wheeled around, raising the snitch above her head in victory, and the fierce pride and joy Harry was feeling drained away as he, and everyone else except Ginny, saw the Falcons' Beater hurtling in from her blind side, and ramming her at full-speed, throwing in a vicious hit with his bat that hit Ginny so hard, the crack echoed around the stadium even over the roar of the victorious Harpies fans.

He had already been on his feet, and watched as Ginny fought to stay on her broom, her face white with pain, and her eyes flashing with anger. As soon as he saw that she was able to do that, and that Gwenog and Lysa were there protecting and supporting her as they all flew toward the ground, he turned toward Andromeda, and held Teddy out to her.

"Can you take him, please?" he asked. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Okay, Harry," she agreed, "but take a deep breath, and don't do anything you'll regret later."

Harry tried to smile, but it didn't really work very well. "The only thing I'll regret today is not turning that moron into a bludger, and letting Gwenog and George play around with him for a few months."

With that, he turned and apparated directly to the pitch, where he met Ginny as soon as she landed. She was cradling her arm, and Lysa was being very careful not to touch her along that side of her body. Ginny smiled wanly at him, though there was still that spark of anger in her eyes, mixed in with the pain he could now physically sense in her.

"While watching you play with the Falcons for a while might be fun, how would you feel about giving me and the rest of the girls a hand instead?" she suggested. "We've all had a fairly tough time of it at work today."

Harry laughed, and gently took over supporting Ginny from Gwenog and Lysa. A meaningful glance from her had him remembering to take out his wand, and then he re-directed a fair bit of the pent-up anger he was feeling into not only healing Ginny's three cracked ribs, the broken arm, and the dozens of other smaller injuries she'd suffered during the game, but healing all of those little injuries that the other six members of her team had suffered too as they all stared at him in stunned amazement.

"No, you can't have him," Ginny joked; smiling brightly again now. "He's all mine." She hugged and kissed Harry. "Thank you. We really appreciate that a lot, honey." Turning back to the rest of her teammates, her smile brightened several notches. "Shall we go shake hands with the Falcons, and let them know there are no hard feelings?" she suggested sweetly, which had the other girls laughing.

"That's so deviously brilliant," Angelina complimented her, "and it'll be the last thing they expect."

"You go have fun," Harry told her. "I'll go back and let the others know you're alright, and I really don't think I should hang around anywhere near those jerks until I'm done being mad at them. Congratulations. You all played a brilliant game today."

Ginny hugged and kissed him again. "Thanks; I love you too; and trust me – seeing us happy and healthy so soon after the game is going to bug them all through the off-season, and be a lot worse than anything we could get away with in front of a whole stadium of witnesses. I love you, and will see you back at home later." Harry nodded, hugged her one more time, and then apparated back to his seat, where he spent the next fifteen minutes being grilled by their family while waiting for the worst of the mad dash for the exits to be over.

"I'd say Ginny's right about that," Hermione suggested as she nodded toward where the Falcons' players were now all looking quite dour and sullen after the Harpies had moved on from congratulating them for a well-played match. They had all been smiling, and looking like they'd won the game instead of losing it when they'd first landed; enjoying getting to see the Harpies players in so much pain, and Harry had to agree with Hermione, even if he still had a very strong urge to blast the whole team all the way back to Falmouth.

"Maybe," Ron agreed, "but that's not nearly as satisfying as a good brawl would be, like they'd have in the old days before the game got civilized."

Hermione just stared at him in disbelief. "You call what happened out there to your sister civilized?" she asked incredulously.

Ron shrugged. "The Falcons play dirty, but that's just part of the game, and that wasn't even as bad as some of the injuries Harry had playing for Gryffindor."

"I wouldn't have had any major injuries if it hadn't been for Dementors, rogue bludgers, and idiot reserve Keepers bashing me in the back of the head with bludgers," Harry pointed out. "I'm with Hermione on this one, mate – not that I expect the game to be cleaned up anytime soon."

"You'd go nuts if anyone cheated playing Wizards Chess against you," Hermione added. "I don't know how you don't see how the Falcons played today the same way."

"It's not the same at all," Ron said stubbornly. "This is Quidditch, and it's not like other teams and players don't play dirty sometimes too, including some of the Harpies. I don't remember you guys protesting when Ginny crashed into Zacharias Smith after that one game, and he wasn't even playing that day."

"She didn't break his arm and ribs, and wasn't trying to put him in St. Mungo's," Hermione countered.

"And he had it coming to him," Harry added, "though you do have a point. That just means that we could have played a little better too."

"Stop it," Ron pleaded. "You're scaring me."

While Harry had been talking with Ron and Hermione, Mrs. Weasley had been busy with Aunt Muriel, who had still been quite vocally offering commentary on 'that brute' of a Falcons' Beater that mostly entertained everyone within hearing distance of her – which pretty much included everyone still in the stadium. Quite a few fans looked as disappointed as Ron seemed to be that a brawl hadn't started up, and there were a lot of Witches and Wizards waiting to make sure they didn't miss any fireworks between the two teams before finally making their way to the exits. George, Lee, and some of the others started leaving shortly after the game was over, and Harry had assured them that Ginny was okay, but he, Ron, and Hermione stayed with their parents, Andromeda, Teddy, and Aunt Muriel until the crowds in the aisles had thinned out considerably.

Harry went straight home after the game, and had dinner ready for Ginny by the time she joined him there. A lot of Harpies fans were likely out celebrating late, but their team was already starting to focus on the next playoff round. They'd finished cleaning up from dinner by the time that Ginny found out, from listening to the WWN, that they'd be playing Puddlemere United in the semifinals. She quickly pulled out her files on the team, and then spent the rest of the evening cuddled with Harry; studying the same material she'd just spent two weeks poring over until just a week ago. Harry was happy to snuggle with her, listen to the WWN, and talk Quidditch strategy with her for playing against the talented United Seeker.

Sunday was Mother's Day, and after ending their night on Saturday with Ginny having a rather brilliant and enthusiastic thank-you for Harry's help after the game, they were both in high spirits when they got their day started early in the morning. They were hosting the Mother's Day dinner, and had a lot of work to get done before their guests would be arriving starting around mid-afternoon. After breakfast, they went shopping for groceries, and a first Mother's Day gift for Fleur. When they got home, they spent a few hours working around the house and yard, and then got cleaned up and ready to welcome their family and start getting some of the dishes for dinner ready.

"Molly told me that they'd used a freezing spell on the place, but even so, it looks exactly like it did the last time I was here," Aunt Muriel said loudly as Ginny hugged her. She'd come over with Arthur and Molly, and they were both smiling as Ginny hugged them next and wished her mother a happy Mother's Day.

"Did you know my grandparents well?" Harry asked her as he made the rounds of hugs too.

"Well enough," she answered, "though I knew your great-grandparents and others, like Charlus and Dorea quite a bit better."

"You should tell Harry and Ginny about them sometime," Mrs. Weasley suggested. "I'm sure they'd love to find out more about Harry's family. I think that Charlus and Dorea had a son, but he was five or six years ahead of Arthur and I at Hogwarts, and we didn't really know him at all."

Aunt Muriel nodded. "They did, but he died too young, like our Fabian and Gideon did. Some years before Charlus and Dorea died too, if I remember correctly. We've lost so many of our best and brightest during these wars."

"Yes we have," Molly agreed tearfully, and Ginny hugged her again.

"We're going to have dinner indoors, but since it's such a nice afternoon, we thought it'd be nice to sit outside until then," Ginny told them. "Would you like a tour of the house before we do that, Aunt Muriel? We have made a few changes over the last couple of years."

Aunt Muriel had wanted to do that, so while she, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley did that, Mr. Weasley joined Harry in the kitchen, and they chatted while Harry continued working on making dinner. They were both smiling when Aunt Muriel led the way into the kitchen, continuing a running commentary that they'd been able to hear pretty much the entire time they'd been on the short tour.

"Ginny tells me you've a House Elf," she declared. "Why on earth are you not getting it to do all of the cooking and cleaning? Is it defective?"

Harry laughed. "Kreacher is quite old, but has proven to be a very good House Elf. We like doing the work around here ourselves, and he's quite busy enough taking care of Grimmauld Place for us."

Aunt Muriel snorted. "You'd need an army of House Elves for that place. Molly and Arthur have told me stories about what it was like when the Order was using it for a hideout. Too bad - it was a grand old place once. I still can't believe that scoundrel, Sirius, used the master bedroom to keep a hippogriff."

"That wasn't very nice," Mrs. Weasley conceded, "but Sirius had some anger issues when it came to his parents that he maybe didn't deal with very well."

"Let's get some drinks, and go outside while we wait for the others to get here," Ginny suggested. "Can I call first dibs on playing with Victoire when she gets here with Bill and Fleur, or do grandparents and great aunts get to cuddle with her first?"

Harry helped her with doing that, and by the time that Bill, Fleur, Victoire, and the Delacours arrived, Ginny had won the 'who gets to hold the baby first' battle, and happily took custody of Victoire while everyone else was doing the hugs and kisses welcome. Andromeda and Teddy, Ron and Hermione, Percy and Audrey, Charlie and Julianne, and George all joined the little party over the next few hours, with George coming over after closing the store for the day. Harry and Ginny timed dinner to be ready for then; and the next hour and a half was filled with entertaining stories about the mothers in the group.

The Delacours needed to pack and head back to France shortly after dinner, so Bill, Fleur, and Victoire went back to Shell Cottage with them, and Charlie and Julianne left for Romania then too. Ginny recruited Harry, Ron, and George to play Quidditch with her after they'd cleaned up, and their parents, Percy, and Audrey stayed to watch them for the hour or so that Harry and Ginny chased the snitch, while George and Ron both batted bludgers around at them.

Ginny studied in bed for a couple of hours after everyone else had gone home, and that was pretty much all she did every night for the rest of the week. She and Harry worked all day, he made dinner for them, and then they had a nightly Seeker duel before she went back to working on the game plan the Harpies were putting together, and going over everything about the United team until she had nearly everything memorized.

There was no shortage of Witches and Wizards willing to come to the game on Saturday with Harry, though Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ron and Hermione, and Teddy were the only members of the family at Ilkley stadium with Harry this week, and he gave the rest of the tickets he'd bought away to other friends. Lee Jordan was the only member of that group who'd come to the last game with them; and this week, he was joined by Seamus and Lavender, and Susan and Ernie, along with the other friends Harry and Ginny had invited.

When the game started, both teams came out strongly, and the action was fierce as the Chasers battled back and forth, each trio getting great chances to score, while Oliver and Trish were both playing brilliantly, and stopped everything coming at them. The fans of both teams had a lot to get up and cheer about, but as the game went on, they eventually settled in and just enjoyed the non-stop action.

The Seeker duel was just as intense as the battle between Chasers and Keepers, and while Ginny was smiling all of the time, both players had to constantly be alert for the fakes and runs at the snitch that they were both trying on each other, and for the bludger attacks that would come in waves, and unexpectedly. Oliver finally let in the first goal early in the third hour of the match, and then the lead changed hands five times over the next three hours.

Gwenog and Lysa had spent some quality time trying to soften Oliver up with their not-so-tender bludger attacks, and by the fifth hour, their efforts were beginning to pay off. The Harpies took the lead for good then, and had built up a modest two hundred and twenty to one hundred and sixty lead over United by the end of the sixth hour. Harry had needed to take Teddy to the washroom three times, and they hadn't made it back to their seats yet when he spotted Ginny making another run for the snitch, with the United Seeker quickly right there with her.

He pointed them out to Teddy, and they both stood on the steps and watched to see what would happen. One of the United Beaters whacked a bludger at Ginny, and Harry cheered as she used the side-to-side, over-the-head flip to dodge the bludger that then hit her opponent solidly on the shoulder. He'd had nowhere to go, with Ginny right next to him, and hadn't seen the bludger coming anyway. He'd been holding his broom with that hand, and lost his grip as the bludger hit numbed his arm. The little bobble and loss of speed he had while grabbing on with his other hand was all Ginny needed to pull ahead and make what was then a fairly easy catch.

"YES!" he shouted excitedly; his eyes flashing emerald fire, and his smile bright as Ginny seemed to hear him, and turned to look right at them. She had that look in her eyes that he loved seeing so much, and though their eyes only met for a moment before she was mobbed by her teammates, it was enough for both of them for now.

"I take it you got back in time," Mrs. Weasley joked when he and Teddy joined them again.

"You've been hanging around with Mum and Aunt Muriel too much," Ron added. "We heard you over everyone else."

"Can you blame me?" Harry countered. "She pulled that move off at near top speed, even after playing for more than six hours straight!"

"It was brilliant," Ron agreed, "though it's too bad she'll get all of the glory, while Oliver and Trish both played brilliantly too."

"I think they'll get their due," Harry disagreed. "I'd say that the mother-daughter rivalry might be the biggest story of the game," he added; pointing out Glynnis and Wilda. They were at center pitch with the rest of their teams, and sharing a hug that showed everyone just how far they'd come in reconciling over the past year.

"That is one of the really good stories this season," Mr. Weasley told them. "Wilda and Angelina were the two best Chasers today too; and both teams ought to be very proud of how they played."

"Especially our baby," Mrs. Weasley said proudly. "Her first season, and she's lead her team to the Championship game!"

Most of their group were going out after the game to celebrate, but once again, the Harpies players were not doing that – they'd celebrate when the season was over for them. Harry dropped Teddy off with Andromeda, and then went home to make dinner for two, and enjoy what was pretty much a repeat of the last Saturday night. The other semifinal match had already been over by the end of the Harpies-United game, and the Pride of Portree had fairly easily defeated the Caerphilly Catapults to set up what was sure to be another defensive battle between the two teams.

Harry and Ginny had finished breakfast on Sunday morning, and were just deciding whether to start another Seeker duel or have Ginny study for a couple of hours first when Neville came over to see them, and he quickly had them both forgetting all about Quidditch. Ginny had met him at the door with a warm hug, but had led him into the kitchen right away after seeing the serious expression on his face.

"What's up?" Harry asked as he waved Neville to sit down at the table. "Do you and Josh need help with your case?"

"Yes, but our case involves you and Ginny," he answered. "We decided to wait until after Ginny's game yesterday to talk with you, but now we need to have you come in to Headquarters so we can let you know what's going on and get you to help out with what we've got planned."

"Does this involve Goyle?" Harry asked. "He'd be making a big mistake by coming after me, considering he owes Ron, Hermione, and I a life debt."

"He's involved," Neville agreed. "The plot is against both of you, though, and it'd be best if we went over all of this with everyone."

"Do you know when they plan on coming after us?" Ginny asked, and Neville nodded.

"They've left that open to some degree, but hope to go ahead with their plans tomorrow."

Ginny stood up again and held her hand out for Harry. "Then let's go find out all about this. I've got a Championship game to get ready for, and having to worry about being attacked by junior Death Eater wannabes just does not work with my training schedule."

Neville smiled ruefully. "Sorry about that. We'll try not to mess things up too much for you, but thought that you'd both really like to still be around to go to that match."

"We're not worried about that," Harry told him. "Not when we've got our friends watching our backs."

Ginny went to get changed before they all went to Auror Headquarters, and Emma was in the conference room with all of the Aurors who had been working the case. That was actually cases, since Josh and Neville; Nathan, Christine, and Susan; Reggie and Dan; and Rick and Terry had their cases come together to this point. Ron was there too, but it was obvious that he'd just been brought into the loop too.

"So what's the plan this time?" Harry asked Emma after they were all sitting down. Ginny squeezed his hand and smiled at him.

"Ours or theirs?" Emma joked.

"Let's start with theirs," he suggested.

"Okay," she agreed. "Why don't you give them the bad news, Christine?"

"This really isn't funny, so try not to laugh," she warned them. "Gregory Goyle, Colby Warrington, Lester Montague, and Tracey Davis have gotten together, and decided to avenge their families by abducting and killing Ginny, and then going after you, Harry."

"That doesn't sound funny at all, and I'm totally opposed to the plan," Ginny told her, and Christine laughed and nodded.

"So are we," she assured her friend. "The funny part of the plan is that right now, as we're in this meeting, they're busy putting very large wagers on the Championship match – betting against the Harpies. Apparently they think that making millions on what they believe will be a sure thing when the Harpies have to play without their star Seeker is a brilliant financial coup."

Ginny and Harry both laughed. "Alright, so that is pretty funny," Ginny conceded. "Is that a first for the Aurors?"

Emma answered that question. "We're fairly sure this is the first time for a case like this. There have been betting scams on Quidditch before, though those usually involved injuring players or making them disappear, not killing them."

"How are they planning on abducting Ginny, and how are they coming after me?" Harry asked Christine.

"They've been watching outside of the Harpies practice pitch, and except for Glynnis and Gwenog, Ginny's usually the last to leave, and almost always by herself," Christine explained. "The plan is for Goyle and Warrington to grab her there. While they're doing that, Tracey's job is to use polyjuice and impersonate Ginny to get close to you. Depending on how that goes, she's either supposed to play sick all week, either by fooling you, or by getting you to go along with it by threatening to kill Ginny if you don't. If it doesn't look like that's going to work, she and Montague are to kill you."

"I'm totally against that plan too," Harry declared. "Have you got a better plan?"

Christine laughed again. "We think so," she confirmed. "There are going to be several Ginny Potters running around tomorrow, and Neville and Josh think that we should have at least two Harry Potters too, though that part of the plan is flexible."

"I think that you should let us handle this one," Neville told him. "You could back us up, or what I'd really prefer is that you just stay with Ginny and take care of protecting her in case anything goes wrong with what we're doing."

"We can do that," Harry agreed, "but I'm telling Hannah this was all your idea if you get caught snogging my wife – even if it would be an imposter."

"The guys want to draw straws for who gets to snog the Ginny-imposter," Neville joked. "Seriously, though, we're not planning on dragging out the ruse, so whichever one of us poses as you will just tell Tracey right away that we can tell they're not really Ginny. All we want to get from them is the admission they've abducted Ginny, and the threats to kill her if you don't do what they want. We've got everything else we need to put Davis and Montague away. We'll catch Goyle and Warrington as soon as they've met up with Tracey and Lester after they've 'caught' Ginny, and they've gone on to your house."

"You're going to be Ginny?" Harry asked Christine.

"Yes, but we know where they plan to take her, Nathan and the others will be able to track me if that's a problem, and I'll have a couple of backup wands," she answered. "Don't worry – I'll be fine."

Harry closed his eyes for a moment; trying to sense anything about the impending confrontation, or at least whether there was any danger to himself, Ginny, or the others in the room. "I'm not so sure you will be," he countered when he opened his eyes again. "A lot could happen to you before anyone could get to you, and I'll guess that they'll at least have anti-apparition shields and other defenses around that place they'd take you."

"I don't like how sure you sound about that," Christine said seriously. "What can we do to improve my chances?"

Harry grinned at Ron. "How would you feel about being Ginny's equipment bag for a little while tomorrow?" he asked, and Ron laughed.

"I'd be fine with it, though Christine might find me a bit heavy to carry around over her shoulder."

"We can lighten the load for her once you've transfigured," Nathan told him. "They would likely bring the bag along so Tracey could take it from there, and that'd give us one more Auror there until she and Lester left, and then Ron would be there to back up Neville and Josh at Harry and Ginny's house too. I like the idea."

"That works for me too," Emma agreed. "Any other suggestions?"

There were several, and they discussed them, and worked on their plans for nearly another hour. Harry and Ginny learned that Goyle and Warrington were going to be using Polyjuice too; and posing as fans looking for Ginny's autograph. Montague was going to use an invisibility charm to follow Tracey around, and there were a number of other details that the eight Aurors working the case passed on to them. When they were finished, Harry asked for Emma and Christine to stay behind while everyone else left, and was smiling at the three Witches once they were alone.

"I've got one other suggestion for tomorrow," he told Emma and Christine, "but you'll have to be brought in on a little state secret first."

"Should we sit down again for this?" Emma asked, and Harry shook his head at the same time as he sealed the room so they wouldn't be disturbed.

"I think you'll be able to take this news standing up," he assured them, and then changed into his Animagus.

"That was not exactly what I expected," Emma told him with a laugh as she reached down to scratch him behind the ears. "Since you said this was a state secret, I'll take it that this little trick is one of the Minister's eyes-only secrets, since that's the only way that you'd be able to hide an Animagus registration that I can think of."

"How exactly will this help us tomorrow?" Christine asked, and Harry's tongue fell out of his mouth as he grinned at her and then levitated several of the chairs and the conference table. All three Witches laughed, and Ginny picked him up for a hug. "Okay, I'm convinced. Have you used this much on other cases?"

Harry yipped out an answer; and the girls all laughed again. Ginny put him down, and he changed back; laughing too. "Sorry about that. Yes, I've used it a few times with Ron on our surveillances. You're the first outside of our family and the Minister, besides Josh and Neville, who've been told about this. I'll have to advise Minister Shacklebolt that you're in the loop now, but this seems like a very good reason to use it to make sure you're safe, Christine. You can just tell them that you're dog-sitting for a friend when they wonder why you've got me with you tomorrow, and you'll still have backup after Tracey takes Ron with her."

"Unless they decide to send you along too," Ginny suggested.

"I can make sure they don't," Harry told them. "They won't try taking me along if it looks like I'll be a problem to control, and I'm not against the idea of biting one or two of them to prove that."

"If he does, save that memory for me to look at later," Ginny told Christine.

"I can do that, but I hope he doesn't," she answered with a laugh. "He probably wouldn't like the taste of them much at all."

With that addition to the plan decided, Harry and Ginny went home again, and Ginny got back to focusing on her game against the Prides. Harry did an afternoon Seeker duel with her, and they had George over for another dinner and Quidditch night. Ginny might have had two wins against Erin Connelly and the Prides, but she knew that for Erin, any game against Ginny and the Harpies was going to be big, and there was nothing bigger than the Championship game. She was going to make sure that she was ready to meet that challenge. They went to bed early, and Ginny studied for a while longer before they both found something more interesting to end their weekend doing.

They didn't want to tip off Goyle and the others, so on Monday, Harry and Ron went to work as normal, and spent the day out in the field on their own case. It wasn't until they were ready to go home for the day that Neville took Harry's place; leaving from Headquarters as Harry, and going home to his place while Harry left under cover of his cloak, and he met up with Ron and Christine at Ron's flat. They waited for Ginny to advise them that everyone except Glynnis and Gwenog had left using their mirrors, and then Harry changed into his Animagus, and then they apparated straight into the locker room at the Harpies' practice pitch from there.

"You've talked with Glynnis and Gwenog already?" Christine surmised as she saw the grim looks on their faces.

"Yes, and we'd both like to come along and teach them a lesson that wouldn't be nearly as gentle as a long stay in Azkaban will be for them," Glynnis told her.

Christine laughed. "We might enjoy letting you do that, but the Minister and Auror Ogden have banned that kind of extra-curricular activity. I'm not so sure their stay in prison will be very gentle – at least for the three guys – once their families find out they've bet all of their combined estates against the Harpies on the hope their plan would work, and lost all of it."

"I wonder who's going to get rich on that bet?" Gwenog wondered aloud; and Christine laughed again.

"Let's just say that the Ministry won't need to raise taxes again any time soon," she answered; which had everyone grinning broadly, including her little dog, Paddy.

"We would still need to win for that to pay off for you, though," Glynnis pointed out, and Christine nodded.

"True, but there wouldn't be a payoff for them even if the Prides win, and the Ministry would probably confiscate the collateral for the bet anyway. Time to get the show on the road."

She pulled out the little bottle of Polyjuice potion, and Ginny soon had an identical twin. It took Ron another minute to transfigure into an exact copy of her equipment bag, and then Christine put a charm on him to make him lighter before throwing the bag over her shoulder.

"Why've you got the dog?" Glynnis asked; reaching out and scratching Harry under the chin. "Aren't you worried it'll be in danger?"

"He'll be fine," Christine assured her. "There's a chance they'll search me, so the dog's collar is what the other Aurors will be tracking."

"And he can always bite the bad guys to protect Christine," Ginny added; giving Harry a scratch too and laughing. "It's probably very hard to point a wand and fire if you've got a dog clamped onto your hand."

Harry licked her hand, which had all of the Witches laughing, and then Christine left the locker room carrying both Auror-trainees. She'd just gotten outside when two young-looking Wizards approached her. Goyle and Warrington were doing a lousy job at looking shy and innocent, but Christine smiled as if they were exactly what they were trying to appear to be.

"Could we get your autograph, Mrs. Potter?" one of the men asked in a rush that sounded more like a demand than a humble request. They were both holding quills and posters of Ginny out to her, and Christine nodded as she reached out to take the quill and poster from the Wizard who'd spoken first.

"Of course," she agreed cheerfully. "What's your name? Have you been a Harpies fan for long?"

"I've got her!" the second Wizard said in an exultant whisper as he grabbed Christine's arm. "Go and I'll meet you there." With that, they both apparated out of sight; with Christine, Ron, and Harry getting pulled along for the ride.

"You did it!" Tracey said enthusiastically as she held the door to the house open to her. She had already used the Polyjuice potion, and looked like Ginny, though Harry was sure she'd have never fooled him, since the dark expression on her face would have never been on his wife's face.

"Don't even think about doing anything stupid," the Wizard holding on to Christine growled at her. "Keep your mouth shut, and keep your hands where we can see them."

Christine held her hands away from her body, and allowed herself to be roughly shoved through the door while the first Wizard and Tracey kept their wands pointed menacingly at her. The door was slammed shut when they were all inside, and equipment bag Ron was yanked off of her shoulder and dropped unceremoniously on the ground.

"What's up with the dog?" That was Montague asking the question, and he joined his three partners.

"Dunno," Goyle said as he waved his wand and returned to normal. He'd been the one who grabbed Christine. "Where'd the mutt come from?" he demanded. Christine kept her mouth firmly shut.

"Answer him!" Warrington demanded; shoving his wand in her face.

"A friend asked me to watch him for a couple of days," she answered curtly.

"We didn't see any dogs being brought in all day," Goyle pointed out suspiciously.

"Except this one," Tracey said with a laugh, "though she walked herself in, so I guess that doesn't count." She tossed her hair and sneered at Christine. "It was all I could do not to throw up when I looked in the mirror after taking the potion."

"How'd you get the dog?" Warrington asked; ignoring Tracey's comments.

"I went and picked him up at lunchtime," Christine explained. "Using the Floo network," she added when they still looked doubtful.

"What do you want to do with it?" Goyle asked.

"Leave it here," Montague told them. "Get her wand, though. We'll need that, and then we need to get going."

Christine had left the wand sticking a few inches out of her pants pocket; and Goyle grabbed it and tossed it over to Tracey. She slid it into the same pocket on the pants she was wearing, and then walked over to where Goyle had dumped the equipment bag. Grabbing the strap, she had to try several times before getting it over her shoulder the same way Christine had been carrying it.

"Any words of advice for me before I take over being you?" she asked Christine.

"Don't do it," Christine answered. "Harry will know you're not me the second he sees you."

"How disappointing," Tracey said mockingly. "I was hoping for, you know, some bedroom advice, but then I'm going to be quite ill for the rest of the week, so there'll be none of that happening." The three Wizards laughed, and she grinned at them. "Shall we go?" she asked Montague, and he nodded. They quickly left the house, and presumably walked outside of the anti-apparition charm so they could apparate to Harry and Ginny's house.

"Whatever should we do while we wait to hear back from them?" Warrington asked Goyle. Both Wizards were now leering at Christine. "I'm surprised that you were so easy to get, if you know what I mean. Being a war hero and all, we expected at least a bit of fight out of you."

"Maybe she's just sick of being stuck with that loser husband of hers and wanted to spend some time with a couple of real men," Goyle suggested. "We could help her find out what that's like."

"But then she'd never want to go back to Potty," Warrington said with a laugh.

"She won't be going back anywhere when we're done with her," Goyle reminded his friend. "We'd be doing her a favor – kind of a last request thing."

"Those are good points," Warrington agreed. "Should we flip for who gets her first?"

Harry growled at them, and Christine scratched him gently as his growl got both Wizards' attention. "I don't think my friend's dog likes your comments at all," she told them.

Warrington and Goyle both laughed. "Well, if the dog doesn't like what we're doing, I guess we just won't do that then," Warrington said derisively.

"Or we could just kill the dog and do what we please," Goyle countered, "and I'd really like to find out for myself what the Chosen Chump sees in this little blood traitor."

"That's not a very nice thing to say about my friend Ginny," Christine told them.

"What?" Goyle asked dumbly.

"You heard me," Christine said in an authoritarian tone of voice. "I'm Auror Christine Campbell, and you, gentlemen, are surrounded, and under arrest. Hand over your wands and surrender." Both Wizards jumped back and pointed their wands at her. "You really don't want to do that," she warned them.

"What are you going to do to stop us?" Goyle said with a sneer. "Nobody's getting past our shields, and you're unarmed."

"Put her in a body bind," Warrington told him. "If this is just some stupid trick, we'll make her pay for playing games with us."

"Petrificus Totalis!" Goyle said loudly, and then stared open-mouthed when his spell bounced harmlessly off of the shield Harry threw up to protect Christine; giving her time to pull out her own wand and counter-attack.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Warrington shouted.

Harry met that attack by throwing a chair between them to intercept the spell, while Christine blew apart the shields protecting the house. Those shields had been built to defend against attacks from the outside, so doing that from the inside was actually fairly easy.

"We've got to get out of here!" Warrington yelled, but by then, it was already too late, and the Aurors outside had put up a new anti-apparition shield.

"Last chance to surrender peacefully," Christine warned them as they all heard the running footsteps coming quickly toward the door.

"Kill anyone who tries to come through the door," Warrington told Goyle. "I'll deal with the Witch and her little dog too."

Harry lashed out with a cutting curse, and sliced Warrington's wand in two, and Christine blasted him across the room. The door burst open at the same time, and while Goyle fired off several killing curses, Nathan, Susan, Reggie, and Dan met those attacks with flying objects and engorgement charms before their combined counter-attack hit Goyle so hard that he was actually thrown through a door into an adjoining room.

"Having fun?" Nathan asked Christine. "We'd give you a round of hugs and kisses, but maybe we should wait until you're you again."

"Or not," she told him before hugging him. "Good timing. "Things were getting interesting for Paddy and me. We had to draw the line when they started talking about playing games that I just did not think were appropriate for a happily married Witch to play."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Susan asked. "They were lewd and disgusting when they were at Hogwarts too." She handed Nathan Goyle's wand. "Would you like me to check them over, or would you like it done right?"

"I'll do it," Christine told her. "Warrington's likely alright, but Goyle took quite a hit, so I won't be surprised if he'll need to make a visit to St. Mungo's. Any word from Josh yet?"

"No, but we didn't expect anything yet," Nathan answered. "Emma decided to go along, so with Rick, Ron, and Terry there too, I don't expect that Josh and Neville will have any problems."

They needed to deal with their own prisoners, and Reggie and Dan took Gregory Goyle to St. Mungo's, while Nathan and Susan took Warrington to Auror Headquarters. Christine promised to meet them there after dropping the dog off to its owner. She apparated to Ron's flat, where Harry changed back and then he went to join Ginny, and Christine apparated to the Ministry of Magic.

"Is everyone okay?" Ginny asked as she hugged him tightly, and Harry grinned at her.

"Are you the real Ginny?" he countered, and she laughed, pulled him close, and kissed him for a long minute. "I'd say that's a yes," he confirmed while Glynnis and Gwenog laughed. "Everyone in the group I was with is. We hadn't heard from Ron or the others yet when I can here. They'll send word to us here as soon as they find out."

"We'll stay with you until then," Gwenog told them. "Why can't that lot leave you alone? The war's been over two years now, and they lost. Time to get over it and on with their lives; pitiful as they are."

"That would be nice," Harry agreed, "but we're not quite there yet, and I don't expect to run out of enemies anytime soon."

They sat down and talked for nearly another hour before Susan came to let them know that the other team had captured their two prisoners and brought them in. Ginny had hugs for her Manager and Captain, and then went to Auror Headquarters with Harry. By the time they arrived in the Atrium, there was a group of reporters and quite a group of Witches and Wizards gathered there trying to find out what was going on with the Aurors as word spread about a big operation, arrests, and at least one injury.

"Maybe we should have come here instead of staying at the practice pitch," Ginny suggested once they were in the lift and alone again.

"It sure didn't take long for word to get out," Susan said with a nod. "Hopefully this won't make it harder for you to stay focused on your training, but I'm sure the sports media will be all over this once the rest of the story gets out."

"The Harpies will deal with that for me, and when we're done here, I'll have no problem getting back to concentrating on the job again," Ginny assured her.

When they got to Headquarters, Emma was there to meet them, and had hugs for Harry and Ginny before leading them into the observation room next to where they'd put Warrington, Montague, and Davis. They all got drinks and then sat down. The rest of the team was there, except for Reggie and Dan, who were with Goyle at St. Mungo's; and Josh and Nathan, who were in the interrogation room with their prisoners. The Polyjuice hadn't worn off for Christine, Neville, or Tracey, and it was very odd to have two pairs of Potters in the observation room, and another Ginny sitting with the other two prisoners.

"Will the Polyjuice wear off before you guys go home tonight, or will Bryce and Hannah be in for a really strange evening?" Ginny asked as she sat down next to Christine. "You'll definitely start some rumors if Hannah's seen snogging Harry in front of everyone at the Leaky, Neville."

"We'll be back to normal within the next hour or so," Christine answered, while Neville and the others in the room laughed.

"How'd it go at our place?" Harry asked Neville. "Will we have any repairs to make, or did they come quietly?"

"There was a little damage in the kitchen, but we fixed that up before we left," Neville answered. "They definitely didn't want to come quietly."

"I'm just glad that you're all okay," Ginny told them. "What happens now?"

"We thought you might both be interested in watching Josh, Nathan, and I talk with them," Emma answered," and after we've finished here, Harry and Ron are getting first watch at St. Mungo's, and need to relieve Reggie and Dan. Mr. Goyle will be spending a day or two there before we'll send him off to join his father and friends in Azkaban."

"I'd love to watch this," Ginny agreed enthusiastically, and smiled at Harry. "Harry gets to watch me work all of the time, so it only seems fair that I should get a turn to see you in action."

Emma laughed. "The action is pretty much over with now, but this should at least be entertaining. Sit back, and enjoy the show."

With that, Emma left the room, and a few moments later, walked into the interrogation room. She sat down next to Nathan, who slid a folder to her; which she opened up and pretended to read over, since she already had the full details of the crimes each of the three prisoners. Nobody in the room had said anything since she'd walked in, and it was Tracey who broke the silence.

"Why are you holding me here?" she asked, trying to look confused. "How did I get here?"

"That's pretty good start," Emma complimented her. "Are you shooting for the 'I've been Confunded' story, or are you going all out and using the 'I've been Imperiused' defense? That one is a fine line to walk, since your partners in this little scheme of yours would be facing a lot of extra years on their sentences for using an unforgivable on you, along with everything else they've done."

"It's not a story – it's what must've happened!" Tracey said vehemently. "Everything's just a blur right now, and I feel like I'm just waking from a bad dream."

Emma laughed. "The bad dream is just getting started for you. Would you care to hazard a guess why they'd go through all of the trouble of Confunding or Imperiusing you for this? If all they wanted was a Ginny look-alike, they could have used Polyjuice themselves."

"I have no idea," Tracey answered. "For all I know we're all just being used by someone else."

"You're not being used by anyone; and neither are they," Emma said with a sigh and shake of her head. "If I didn't still have a lot of work to do, I'd let you play this out, but I'm too busy to do that." She held up her hand when Tracey opened her mouth to protest again. "Give it up, Tracey. We've been on to the four of you for quite a while now. You've been watched day and night for weeks, and thanks to your own actions today, we've got enough evidence to put all of you away for a very long time."

"That's ridiculous," Tracey shot back, though her face – Ginny's face – had paled considerably.

"I'd say by the look on your face that even you don't believe that," Josh told her; smiling as Tracey glared at him. "You should listen to Auror Ogden. We've got stored memories of every meeting you've had with the others, with most of them being from more than one Auror. Trying this as a defense plan is just a bit under-baked, and rather childish."

"I'd say their whole scheme was half-baked," Emma told him. "We get why Goyle, Warrington, and Montague have a beef with Harry, but other than the fact that he was one of the Aurors who caught your ex-boyfriend for murdering his own mother, why on earth would you get involved in this idiocy, Tracey? I'd say Harry and the others did you a favor by catching Zabini, and Ginny had nothing to do with any of this. Going after her was colossally stupid."

"He ruined my life!" she spat back angrily. "Blaise was going to marry me."

"Sure, and it never occurred to you that if he could kill his own Mum, that he'd have no problem at all killing you someday too?" Emma asked. "He did learn all about things like that from his mother, after all, though he didn't quite figure out how to do it and get away with it like she did."

"Blaise loves me!" Tracey told her hotly.

"He loves money and himself," Emma disagreed. "You'd have been a fat insurance policy and the minimum waiting period away from being a memory if you'd married him – especially after he'd found out that his mother had hidden the majority of her various husband's inheritances and left him nearly broke."

"That's a lie!" Tracey screeched, and Emma smiled brightly at her.

"It's true, and while that information wasn't needed in his trial, it was quite useful when that money was split up and returned to the families of each of Mrs. Zabini's former husbands a few months ago." She shrugged. "You'll have a chance to ask Blaise about that soon enough, and if he really does love you, I'm sure the warden at Azkaban will be happy to perform the ceremony and set you up with a nice double cell in the couple's wing of the prison."

"That does explain why she got involved, though it's a pitiful excuse to risk throwing your life away over," Nathan told Emma. "Why don't we move along, tell them what we have on them, and then give them the chance to make a deal? Maybe once they've figured out that they're all looking at spending the next fifty or seventy-five years in Azkaban, along with blowing the majority of three family fortunes, they'll smarten up and do something to help themselves before it's completely too late."

"What are you talking about?" Montague demanded; suddenly looking truly scared.

"We know everything," Nathan answered. "Win or lose on Saturday, those bets you placed will not be coming through for you. The Ministry does appreciate your donation, though. I'm sure the money will be put to very good use." Montague and Warrington were now both looking at the three Aurors in horror; and Montague started to shake slightly.

"Let's get started," Emma said with a nod. "I think that at least two of our young prisoners are figuring out that what we have on them isn't even close to being their biggest problem anymore."

Harry, Ginny, and the others spent the next two hours watching Emma, Nathan, and Josh lay out their case to the three prisoners, and soon had them falling all over each other to be the first to make a deal. Warrington and Montague wanted protection from their families and the other Death Eaters, they all wanted lighter sentences, and were willing to give up a lot of information about other Witches and Wizards they were networked with to get those concessions.

"That was fun," Ginny said as she hugged Christine goodbye. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Christine assured her. "If I don't see you before Saturday, good luck in the big game."

"Thanks," Ginny said with a nod as she moved on to hug Neville next. "Give Hannah a hug for me when you see her later. Thanks for taking care of us this time." There were a few more hugs, and then Harry, Ginny, and Ron went back to Harry's cubicle.

"Are you guys going straight to St. Mungo's now?" she asked, and both Wizards nodded.

"Yeah, but I'd rather make sure you get home safely and that everything's okay back there first," Harry told her. "You'll have all of those reporters hounding you too."

"I'll leave with you guys, and if it'll make you feel better, I'll get Hermione to go along with me in case I have any pushy reporters trying to bother me at home."

The boys thought that was a very good idea, and Ron used his mirror to set that up with Hermione before they started making their way out of the Ministry. It took nearly a half hour to get through the Atrium, even though by then, the Minister's office had issued a statement on the arrests; assuring the public that Harry and Ginny were at no time ever in any danger during the Auror operation and captures. Harry and Ron went with her to Hermione's flat, mostly so Harry and Ginny could have a private goodbye, and so Ron could see Hermione for a few minutes, and then they left the girls there, and headed for St. Mungo's.

"Lunch is on you this Saturday," Reggie told Dan when Ron and Harry joined them in Goyle's room. "I knew that Emma would give them first watch. Did Susan and Terry get stuck with second?"

"Yes they did," Ron confirmed, "and that was a lousy bet, since I'm pretty sure that lunch on Saturday is on Harry and Ginny for everyone going to the game with us."

Reggie groaned while Dan laughed. "I so have to keep up with things like that. We'd stay and chat, but we need to get started on our reports, and I expect we'll be back here in the morning. Goyle's out right now, but should come around fairly soon. I know it sounds impossible, but apparently going through that door softened that thick skull up a bit, along with having quite a list of internal injuries. I'm sure one of the Healers will be in eventually to give you the full report."

"How did things go with the other prisoners?" Dan asked them.

"Tracey tried pretending that she was Ginny, and that they'd confunded her," Harry answered. "Once Emma, Nathan, and Josh laid the case you had on them all out, they all caved in, and spent the rest of the time trying to give us anything and everything that they thought might get them lighter sentences."

"The bad news with that being that we've probably got years worth of new leads to chase down," Ron added. "Maybe we should just talk with the kids of all of the bad guys. Their parents seem to shoot their mouths off around them about secrets they shouldn't trust their children to hear." Reggie and Dan only stayed for another few minutes, and then left for Headquarters.

"We've got some time," Harry said as he and Ron sat down. "Why don't you tell me all about what happened over at my place?"

Ron grinned at him. "You'll love this story," he predicted. "Montague used an invisibility charm before he and Tracey apparated to your house, though it wasn't very good, and I could see the shimmer from it as he followed us up the lane. We all went inside, and Tracey called out an idiotic 'Honey, I'm home,' that you'd have seen through without having even gotten a look at her yet. I could smell the cooking, but she still called out to ask where you were."

"Maybe they didn't know enough about the house to be sure where the kitchen was," Harry suggested, and Ron nodded.

"Wouldn't surprise me," he agreed. "Anyway, so Tracey dumped me in the hallway, and she and her shimmering shadow headed for the kitchen after Neville answered her. I waited until they were with Neville, and then changed back." He reached into his cloak and handed Harry his invisibility cloak. "Before I forget," he added. "Thanks. That came in handy today."

"You're welcome," Harry told him as he put it away in his own pocket. "It must have been crowded in the kitchen with all of the invisible Wizards."

"I went through the dining room and stayed in the doorway into the kitchen so I wouldn't be in the way – or the line of fire," Ron explained. "By the time I was in position, Neville was already telling Tracey that he knew she wasn't Ginny. Since Christine had just told her that she wouldn't fool him for a second, she seemed a bit ticked off that she'd been right about that."

"Was that before or after the usual welcome home songfest?" Harry asked, and grinned when Ron rolled his eyes.

"We've talked about that before, mate. Stop doing that to me – it's too much information. There was no snogging involved, and while I wasn't there right at first, I'm fairly sure Tracey didn't even try to hug and kiss Neville."

"Which would have been another total giveaway that it wasn't Ginny," Harry added, and laughed when Ron groaned again.

"You're seriously starting to bug me," Ron told him. "Keep that up, and I'll let you wait until the next time you see Neville to hear the rest of the story." Harry waved for him to go ahead, and Ron snorted once before continuing.

"Tracey tries to deny it, and tells Neville he's imagining things, and it's probably just because she's coming down with something and isn't quite feeling herself. She gave up on that right about the time that Neville pulled out his wand, and demanded to know where Ginny was right then, or they'd take a little trip to Auror Headquarters, and get the answers out of her the hard way."

"Did she buy that, coming from me?" Harry asked curiously; and Ron laughed.

"It's not like you've got a great reputation with their lot," he reminded Harry, "and they wouldn't think twice about doing the same thing. Yeah, she bought it, and that's when she told him not to even think about touching her, or her partners would kill Ginny before he ever found her."

"Which is exactly why it was a good thing Neville was there instead of me," Harry said with a nod and grim smile. "Even knowing what was going on, that might've just had me losing it."

"Neville and I weren't all that happy either," Ron assured him; then grinned. "She didn't look quite so smug when Neville asked her if Ginny might be exactly where they had Christine. Things quickly went downhill from there, after he also advised them that they were surrounded and under arrest, and that Goyle and Warrington were being arrested right then too."

"I imagine," Harry said dryly. "So what happened then?"

Ron shrugged. "Tracey and Montague both started firing curses while trying to escape. Montague actually got the back door open, but it was over for him after that, since Emma and Josh were there waiting for him. Once Tracey saw that he was down, she tried for the front door, but I shielded the doorway, and Neville and Emma disarmed and bound her after she ran into it full-on. That was pretty much the end of it, though Emma did find some bottles of poison on her, along with enough Polyjuice to keep her playing Ginny for at least a week. I'd say she had some plans for you that were going to be fairly unpleasant, had she been able to pull it off."

"Give me back my wand, and fight me like a real Wizard, Potty, and I'll be happy to show you just how unpleasant dying can be." Harry and Ron both stood up, and walked over to the bed; where Gregory was awake and staring daggers at them.

"You're one to talk about acting like a real Wizard," Ron said derisively. "If all you wanted was a fair duel, you could have just come and demanded one. There are rules for such things, you know." He snapped his fingers. "Oh right – you can't do anything to Harry, or me, or Hermione yourself, can you? That whole life-debt thing is getting in the way."

"I don't owe you anything, traitor," Gregory snarled, and Ron laughed.

"You'd find out soon enough you were wrong about that if you tried," Ron disagreed. "Life debts aren't something you can choose to ignore. In fact, I was wondering if you'd really thought that whole plan through. This is a foreign concept to you, but Harry would give his life in a second to save Ginny, and since he would do that, if you'd harmed her in any way, that might have been enough to trigger your life-debt by trading your life for hers."

"That's an interesting theory," Harry told Ron, "but I don't think it's one I'm willing to test out with Ginny's life on the line." He gave Gregory a hard look. "I heard about what you and Warrington were going to do to Ginny after the others left. Be glad that the Aurors investigating you were on top of your plot the whole time. If you think this had turned out badly, it's nothing compared to what would have happened if you'd actually abducted my wife instead of Auror Campbell."

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Gregory asked, laughing coarsely. Harry pulled out his wand, and smiled at Ron.

"Just so you know ahead of time, I'll take the heat for this, won't be sorry, and we'll be right back."

With that, Ron stared open-mouthed as Harry, the hospital bed, and Gregory Goyle all disappeared. They were only gone about two minutes, and then they were back again – along with about a foot of snow piled on the bed, while Harry was fairly covered with it too. Goyle was shaking, and Ron was sure it wasn't just from the cold. Harry waved his wand again, and the snow was gone, and he and Gregory were both warm and dry again.

"Not much snow in these parts in May," Ron pointed out; grinning at Harry. "Where'd you go?"

"The Arctic," Harry answered; grinning too. "I'd have stayed a while longer, but Gregory seemed to have gotten the point of the lesson fairly quickly, so I dug him out and we came right back."

"Emma won't be happy about that," Ron suggested. "She'll be impressed, but not happy."

"Like I said before we left, I'll take the heat, and won't be sorry," harry assured him. He turned to face Goyle next. "Your buddies have been busy making deals with Auror Ogden, and you'd be smart to do the same, but whenever you do get out of Azkaban, remember this little lesson, and stay far, far away from me, my family, and my friends. You definitely don't want to find out what would happen if I was really angry with you."

"I'd say this is a good time to send you for snacks and drinks," Ron told him. "Would you like anything, Goyle?" he asked solicitously. "Maybe an ice cream or a snow cone?"

That little conversation and demonstration was about the only excitement for the rest of the night. They were relieved by Susan and Terry at three o'clock, and then went home to get a few hours of sleep before going back into Auror Headquarters. Harry had secretly hoped that he'd get suspended for a week or two for taking Goyle on that little Arctic adventure, but Emma had only given him a verbal reprimand, and sent him back to work.

On Tuesday, he and Ron had spent the day working on reports, and ferrying prisoners to Azkaban. Goyle had idiotically and stubbornly refused to make a deal, and spent Tuesday night in a holding cell while waiting for his trial, but the other three had taken deals, confessed, and were sentenced in the early afternoon before Harry, Ron, and Neville took them up to the prison. They were on guard duty again on Wednesday for Goyle's trial, and again headed up to Azkaban late in the afternoon after he'd been given a fifty year sentence by the Wizengamot.

Josh hadn't done any training with them in a while, so he decided to work with his three trainees on Thursday and Friday before he and Neville would start their next case, and all of that worked just fine for Harry, since he was able to spend each evening and morning taking care of Ginny while she got ready for the biggest game of her Quidditch career.

The Championship match was being held at the Quidditch World Cup stadium, and the tickets had sold out in just days. Harry had bought quite a block of seats; and everyone met for lunch at the Leaky. Fleur had decided to come and bring Victoire too, so the whole Weasley clan met at the Burrow before going on to the Leaky, joining all of their friends there; spending an hour or so having their meals, and then going on to the World Cup stadium.

While her family and friends had been having fun together, Ginny had been working all morning; including warm-ups at the stadium, and a long, last team meeting. She was getting more and more nervous, and excited, as game time got closer, and then finally, it was there, and she, and the other Harpies walked out to the home team entrance into the stadium, and waited, just out of sight of the spectators, to be called out for their fly-around.

"Just pretend this isn't the biggest game of your life," Gwenog told her; smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Play like you're out in your back yard pitch, having fun with Harry, and ignore the hundred thousand or so fans."

Ginny laughed. "I'd do that, but I promised Harry I'd never try snogging the other Seekers to try and get the win," she joked. Gwenog, and the rest of her teammates all laughed, and Gwenog gave her a hug.

"You promised, but maybe one of us should try that," Angelina suggested. "Don't try it on Meghan McCormack, though. I seriously doubt it would work, and she wouldn't be amused."

They were called out then, and Gwenog led them out and around the stadium. Ginny was able to find 'her' fans just by listening for her mother's loud cheers, and she smiled brilliantly as she made eye contact with Harry for just a moment as she flew past where they were sitting. He had Teddy in his arms, and their Godson was decked out with the League Quidditch Championship hat, banner, and shirt. He waved wildly at her, and she waved back before she and the rest of the team were past them, and then needed to get ready to land on the pitch.

The Prides were already on the pitch, having been called out first, and the Harpies lined up on the other side of the officials and dignitaries that were there for the opening ceremony. She couldn't keep from smiling brightly as the speeches got started, and she was thrilled by the immensity of the moment, and just how much bigger everything was in the World Cup stadium now that she was seeing it from a player's perspective. The nerves were gone now, and she couldn't help but feel like this was her day and moment to shine. Her smile brightened even more when Gwenog nodded at her approvingly.

It was nearly twenty minutes before they were finally allowed to get the game started, and Ginny shook hands with Erin Connelly as they lined up for the start. The other Witch looked irritated to see Ginny smiling like that, but there was a competitive fire burning in her eyes too, and she looked focused and determined.

The snitch and bludgers were released, and the referee threw the quaffle into the air, and they were off! Ginny's takeoff was better than Erin's but there was no sign of the snitch, and it wasn't long before they were right into the battle for position as they each looked for the snitch, and dodged bludgers and the other players. Being in a non-stop battle with the Prides' Seeker didn't leave Ginny any time to sit around and enjoy the rest of the game, but both teams were playing great. The Chasers were throwing everything they had against Meghan and Trish, but the two Keepers stopped everything, and both Witches looked like they were having a blast.

Trish gave up the first goal shortly before the end of the second hour, and had given up three before Angelina put one past Meghan as the fourth hour started. Each time had scored just one more goal each, and the Prides had the slim forty to twenty lead as they came up on the end of the fifth hour.

Ginny spotted the snitch first, and it was zipping along maybe six or seven feet above the pitch, heading toward a spot nearly directly below where she and Erin had been fighting for position. She dove straight down, and wasn't surprised when Erin wheeled around to make a run for the snitch at a much different – and safer – angle of attack. Blocking out the sudden roar of the crowd, and everything else, there was only her, the snitch, and one hard-hit bludger that she dodged on the way down.

Throwing her broom into the one-eighty flip, she held on for dear life as she quickly decelerated, while reaching out with one hand and grabbing the snitch on the way past. She didn't look down – didn't dare to – and instead looked up to where she wanted to go, and put all of her effort into making that happen before crashing to the pitch. Erin blasted past, and below her; since by the time she reached that point, Ginny was already thirty feet above the pitch again, and accelerating away. Wheeling around, she searched for Harry, and her heart leapt with joy as she saw the victorious, 'that's my girl!' look on his face. His eyes blazed emerald fire, and the joy and love she saw there was exactly what she needed to make that a perfect, remember forever moment.

She literally only had that moment to share with him, and then her team was mobbing her in mid-air, and the enormity of it all crashed in on her. The Harpies were League Champions, and she'd won the match for them! Gwenog had been the first one to reach her, and she practically lifted Ginny off of her broom with the huge hug she had for her friend.

"I knew it!" she said with fierce pride. "Right before the game, I saw the look in your eyes, and I knew we'd win today!"

Ginny laughed. "Funny, that's exactly what I was thinking then too," she answered. "Thanks for taking a chance on me, Gwenog. This is just absolutely brilliant!"

Gwenog had time to assure her that she was welcome, and then the rest of their team was there, and the mid-air gang-hug was on. The fans of both teams were on their feet, cheering, and when the Harpies landed, there was another round of hugs and handshakes with the Prides' players and Manager. The awards ceremony was started shortly after that, and if everything else hadn't been enough, Ginny was completely floored when she was given the Championship MVP award.

"You do deserve it," Trish whispered when she rejoined her team after being called forward to receive the award; and Ginny put an arm around her and squeezed affectionately.

"I'd same the same thing about you and Meghan too," she whispered back. "Do these things drag on long? We've got some serious celebrating to do tonight."

"No, they don't, and yes we do," Trish answered. "We do still have an hour or more of post-game interviews to deal with, though, so relax, and try to enjoy the ride."

Harry, Teddy, and the rest of their group had been on their feet a lot during the game, and he'd loved watching Ginny as she played a brilliant match, and then won it with what she probably didn't even yet know had been a spectacular, impossible-looking catch. He'd held his breath, and it felt like his heart had stopped for what had felt like a long time as he, and everyone else, waited to see if she'd complete the daring move, or crash into the pitch. Her broom tail wasn't more than three feet above the pitch when she started rising again, and though he'd had one of those flashes of insights, that hadn't diminished the moment in the slightest.

His attention was focused on her, but he didn't miss seeing and hearing the reactions from their friends and family to Ginny's catch, the Harpies win, and everything that happened after that, including Ginny's MVP award. There were lots of hugs, kisses, and more than a few happy tears. Ginny was able to exchange a few more waves and fiery, exhilarated looks Harry, but the rest of the time, she was busy celebrating with her team, and dealing with the awards ceremony. When the press was finally set loose to begin interviewing the players and Managers for both teams, the fans began filing out of the stadium.

"Hey, aren't you Ginny Potter's husband?" Hermione teased as they waited for the crowds to thin before heading out, mostly for Aunt Muriel's benefit.

"I could get used to being the second best-known Potter," he answered with a laugh.

"You might be that for the next day or two," Ron told him. "Just be glad you're not competing with a whole family full of over-achievers."

"Yourself included," Harry added. "I'm fairly sure that your chocolate frog card won't say 'famous for being Ginny Potter's youngest brother'."

"No it wouldn't," George agreed, leaning in to talk with them. "That's a great idea for a new wheeze though."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked. "Like some kind of card set for un-famous Wizards and Witches?"

George laughed. "Exactly – or of relatives or friends of famous people. Do you think Aberforth would be offended if he was on one, for example?"

Harry was glad for the diversion, and enjoyed listening to Ron, George, Lee, and some of the others discuss that, and other, possible new wheezes. When they decided to pack up and leave, they were all heading for the Burrow, and the celebration party that their parents were throwing for Ginny. She and Harry would only be able to stay for a short visit once she was able to join them when she was done at the stadium, but then they had the team party to attend at Glynnis' home for the rest of the evening.

"You're amazing!" Harry whispered as he picked Ginny up and spun her around when she got to the Burrow. Everyone was outside in the yard, and there were a few catcalls, whistles, and a lot of laughter as everyone watched the happy couple share a long, enthusiastic kiss. "How was work today? Did you have fun?"

Ginny laughed and hugged him tightly. "Definitely top five ever so far kind of day," she agreed. "I hope you're rested up, because we are definitely going to celebrate, and I don't have to worry about curfew again until training camp starts in July."

"I'm good with celebrating with you for the rest of the weekend, but keeping the party going for the next nearly two months won't be an option, since I'll still have to go back to work on Monday." He stepped back, and held his hand out to her. "Come on. Your adoring public is waiting to get that celebration started with you."

Once Ginny was surrounded by her parents, family, and the rest of their friends, Harry stepped back and mostly watched the show as his incredible wife was cheered and toasted by the people they loved the most. He'd had a couple of hours to visit with everyone while they'd waited for Ginny, but since she wasn't going to be able to stay that long, after doing a first round of hugs and kisses with everyone, they both spent some time talking with Luna and Rolf. They'd taken the weekend off from their current excursion to be home for Ginny's big game, and the two Witches were very happy to get to see each other again, even if it wasn't for very long.

"You've got time now," Harry reminded Ginny when she was getting ready to say goodbye to Luna. "We could get away for a long weekend at least, and meet Rolf and Luna somewhere so you can spend a few days together." He grinned at their friends. "If they're not studying some kind of Wizard-eating magical creatures, we could even take our tent along, and join the excursion."

"We're not working with anything too dangerous right now," Rolf assured him, "and we'd love to have you join us for a few days if you could manage that."

"Then we'll definitely get that set up soon," Ginny promised as she hugged Luna again.

It took another half hour to do the goodbyes, and then Harry, Ginny, George, and Lee all apparated to Glynnis' estate. Lee was Alicia's date for the party; and they'd badgered Angelina into inviting George to come too. The rest of the team was there by then, though there were still some other guests arriving over the next hour or two as various VIP's stopped in to either stay for short visits, or join the party.

Ginny had kept Harry with her while they made a first pass around the yard to chat with everyone who'd been there, and then she was pulled away into some conversations with the other Harpies, and to do some PR work with their sponsors' representatives. Harry had been amused by that, but understood why the Harpies wouldn't waste this opportunity to promote their team.

"I'm learning a lot tonight," George told Harry as he came and sat down at the table next to Harry. "The girls don't talk about how much money they make, but their team has the whole marketing thing down to a science."

Harry laughed. "Are you going to start selling wheezes sponsorships? The all-new no-body robe; brought to you by our good friends at Gladrags."

"That's a great idea," George said enthusiastically. "For the robe, not the sponsorship," he added. "When I was talking about the marketing, I meant from having my stores be a sponsor. Quidditch teams probably aren't quite what I need, but they've got great ideas that I can use for sure."

"Why am I not surprised?" Lee asked as he sat down next to George. "You're here with a beautiful date, there's soft music, and dancing is an option, and here you are talking business. What else can we do before you'll get the hint?"

"Nothing would be good, and Angelina and I both get all of the hints, since they are rather obvious. We just have other priorities, and aren't interested in having a serious relationship with each other, or anyone else."

Lee shook his head. "This isn't the time for it, mate, but that's a load of hippogriff droppings. You both have the same problem. That stupid rule you guys had doesn't apply anymore, she loves you as much as she loved him, and he'd be happy for both of you." He held up his hands when George glared at him. "I'll drop it – for now – but somewhere down deep, you know I'm right."

"Somewhere down deep, I know that you need to spend less time hanging out with girls," George shot back. "Next thing you know, you'll be asking me to go shopping for clothes with you, like they do all the time, and asking for help with your hair and makeup."

Lee laughed. "A real friend wouldn't have a problem with letting me know if a pair of pants makes my butt look big, or if certain colors don't work with my eyes or skin tone."

George groaned and rolled his eyes; then stood up. "I've changed my mind. Dancing with Angelina would be way better than listening to that rubbish. I'll let Harry talk fashion and shopping with you. Talk to you later." With that, George left them, and Harry and Lee were both grinning as they watched him go over and ask Angelina to dance with him.

"I do hope they'll come around eventually," Lee said; almost to himself, and then smiled at Harry. "Was that little chat a news flash for you?"

Harry shrugged. "Yes, but I'm not surprised. They're just not ready to move on yet, though I do think they will." He watched Angelina laugh at something George told her as they started dancing, and laughed too. "With you, Alicia, and Ginny helping them along, they don't stand a chance anyway, so they might as well start getting used to the idea." He stood up too and put a hand on Lee's shoulder. "You've promised to drop that with George for now, and I'm fairly sure neither of us really wants to talk Wizard's fashion, so I think we should follow your advice, and go dance with our girls."

"No wonder I thought that was such a good idea," Lee joked as he got up too. "It was mine."

Now that the season was over, Ginny and her teammates were seriously ready to have some fun, and it was after three before Harry and Ginny got home. Even after an incredibly long day, Ginny was still in a celebratory mood, and had no problem convincing Harry that the private party she had planned for them was worth, um, staying awake for. When they did finally snuggle close and drift off to sleep, they were serenaded by the birds, and had ended their amazing day by watching a glorious sunrise together.

While that Sunday morning really wasn't anything different than any other day for the rest of the Wizarding World, as his mind happily floated along in that place between being awake and asleep, Harry mused that it was another of those endings and beginnings for them. He vaguely remembered reading somewhere that there were long periods of time in history when nothing much happened at all, and then other, shorter times when big events happened that would shake the world. There'd been the suggestion that those world-changing times were when you wanted to be alive, since that's when all the exciting things happened.

There was no doubt in his mind that they were living in one of those exciting moments, and the last two years with Ginny had been brilliant, but he thought it might be nice to have a little quiet time too – at least for a while. He was smiling as he fell asleep, his last thought being another of those insights, and it was telling him that there wasn't going to ever be a time that life was not going to be brilliant, fun, and exciting for them.