Chapter Twenty-nine
Found
"Harry!" hissed Ron furiously the morning after they had finally destroyed the last Horcrux. "What are you doing?"
"Sleeping," muttered the teen indistinctly as he burrowed deeper under the covers, pulling the person at his side even closer to him, inhaling her flowery scent.
"Hermione!" moaned Ron, not leaving the doorway of Harry's tent, much to his friend's annoyance. Soon Hermione was looking in at Harry as well, and he felt that he would soon be forced to get up, as much as it pained him to even think of such a thing.
"Oh dear," said Hermione, "I think you had better get up."
Harry was about to demand why Hermione thought he should do such a thing when there was no way that they could make it back to school that day, anyway. He sat up so that he could face her when he told her off, but was distracted when he found her staring nervously at Ron, how looked all but livid. Harry looked about him, and suddenly realised that the pair of them had discovered him sleeping with Ginny in his arms. This was bad.
This was very, very bad.
Harry wanted to start denying that anything had happened at all, (which would be the truth, since he hadn't actually slept with Ginny the previous night), but he thought that that might make him appear a tad guilty. Instead he carefully shifted Ginny out of arms, praying that she would keep on sleeping and wishing, for once, that she would cling to him so much in her sleep. It took him a good two minutes to get Ginny properly settled while Ron and Hermione watched silently. Harry then went to stand, but remembered that he was wearing only boxers, and a rather threadbare pair at that. He weighed the benefits of staying in his sleeping bag against the likelihood that Ron would yell at him and wake up Ginny, how would likely just snuggle closer to him, like she did most mornings after the alarm woke them. That would make Ron yell even more, something that Harry was keen to avoid.
"Is there something you need?" he asked in a quiet voice that he hoped Ron would copy.
"Yeah!" Ron said in a furious whisper, "I need to know why you're naked in bed next to my baby sister!"
"Hey!" cried Harry, "I'm not naked! And Ginny is in her own sleeping bag, not mine."
"Doesn't seem to matter," Ron hissed.
"Look, why don't we move this discussion somewhere else? I don't want to wake Ginny, she didn't get a lot of sleep last night," said Harry. Ron seemed to think his friend was implying something else, and so shot him a smouldering look before abruptly turning and stalking off. Harry quickly scrambled into his jeans and was trying to remember where his t-shirt was when there was a loud bang from the clearing and he decided to forget it. Harry hurried out of the tent to find Ron nursing the foot that he had apparently used to try and dislodge one of the boulders surrounding their campfire.
"Ron, you're blowing this all way out of proportion," Harry said calmly. "Ginny woke up three times from horrible nightmares last night, and she had a lot of trouble getting back to sleep."
"Yeah," gasped Ron furiously, clearly not interested in what Harry had to say at this point. He stalked off into the trees, and Hermione hurried after him, Harry trailing behind her, not entirely sure what to say. Maybe he should just come clean with the pair of them, after all, this was hardly the first time they had nearly guessed that there was still something going on between Harry and Ginny. But no, Ron would be absolutely furious if he found out that Harry had looked him in the eyes and lied to him just two days ago when Ron had asked what was going on between the pair.
Besides, Ginny really should have some say in whether or not they told her own brother about their relationship.
Harry called himself a coward, but he none the less decided to try to disguise the truth if it were at all possible.
"Ron!" called Harry after jogging even farther into the trees to catch up with his friend. "Listen, Ron, it's not at all what you think! Ginny woke up moaning and scared three times last night. I could hardly just tell her to count sheep and hope that she could catch some sleep after she forgot about what happened in the temple. I had to calm her down!"
Ron remained stonily silent, but Hermione spoke up. "Harry, I believe you that it was totally innocent, but can you appreciate how bad it looked?"
"Why?" asked Harry with a frustrated sigh, "We were in separate sleeping bags, and we both had clothes on."
"Well," Hermione said, trying to beat down a bit of a blush, "You couldn't tell that you had anything on, and the straps of Ginny's tank top were covered by her hair, and the sleeping bags are the same colour, so it looked like maybe things weren't so…um, innocent…"
"Fine, whatever," Harry said hastily when Hermione trailed off, "Ron," Harry went on, turning to face the redhead, "I love your sister, I really do, but I swear to you I didn't sleep with her," last night, Harry added silently.
Ron sighed, "Harry, I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions. It's just, she's my baby sister, you know?"
"Yeah, I know," Harry said, trying to smother his guilt over Ron's acceptance of his lies, "But I'm your best friend."
Harry felt like a slug, especially when Ron reached over and squeezed his shoulder with an apologetic smile.
-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-
Ginny awoke as someone raised her hands above her head and pinned her wrists above her head. She smiled without opening her eyes and arched her hips up towards the boy above her. Ginny froze when a frosty voice met her ears.
"Slutty little blood-traitor, aren't you?" sneered the person who had Ginny pinned down. She slowly opened her eyes. Colour drained from her face and terror entered her when she recognised Draco Malfoy.
"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked him, trying to sound disdainful and ignore the subtle pain in her wrists.
"Arousing you, apparently," he sneered, grinning evilly, "Though I only meant to sneak in here and wait for Potter to get back so I can take him to the Dark Lord. I didn't know that you were in here. How long have you been sleeping with him?"
"Harry's just my friend!" snapped Ginny, trying to free her arms and wiggle out from under the weight of his body.
"Then why are you sharing a tent with him?" asked Malfoy patronisingly, he weight keeping Ginny effectively trapped under him.
"Hermione and my brother spend half their time snogging mindlessly. They begged Harry to share a tent with me so that they could continue on uninterrupted," Ginny lied boldly, still attempting to free herself from Malfoy's clutches. Her breath was coming in gasps now, but Ginny didn't care, because all that mattered was getting away from the git.
Suddenly, Ginny remember that her wand was stashed under the pile of clothes that were heaped above the pillows. She had to get to it, but she couldn't let Malfoy realise what she was about…
Ginny continued struggling, but this time trying to work her way slowly upwards. When one of her hands hit a pair of jeans, Ginny began to try to kick every part of the older teen that she could, hoping to keep his mind off what her hands were doing. After an intense moment's struggle, Malfoy managed to shift so Ginny couldn't move her legs anymore and his eyes snapped to hers in triumph. Ginny was chilled by the look, and she momentarily froze in her attempts to escape. Then there came a noise at the tent's entrance that drew the attention of both Malfoy and Ginny. Suspicion in his eyes, Malfoy sat up, pulling Ginny with him. Ginny took advantage of the distraction to point her wand at Malfoy in the exact moment as the person at the tent flap burst in and aimed their wand at Ginny's opponent as well.
"Stupefy!" cried Harry and Ginny at the same moment, and Draco Malfoy succumbed to their spells, falling in a heap back on top of Ginny's legs. Harry strode over to her and kicked Malfoy out of the way to pull her up onto her feet. For a moment they looked into each other's eyes, then Harry pulled Ginny tight to him for a moment, letting go just as Ron and Hermione pulled open the tent flap to peer in at them.
"You alright, Gin?" asked Ron anxiously.
"Yeah," she responded, crawling out of the tent.
"Had we known they were so close, we never would have gone off when you were still asleep," Hermione said apologetically.
Ginny looked around the clearing and spotted Crabbe and Goyle in a heap beside their campfire, bound by thick ropes and apparently unconscious. "Malfoy still totes along those two thugs, I see," Ginny commented, fighting the bile that rose in her throat as she thought of the jerk that was collapsed in her tent.
"What do we do with them?" asked Hermione as she waved her wand and bound Malfoy as well.
"How strong a memory charm can you do?" asked Harry.
In the end, Hermione performed three memory charms, and Ron, Harry and Ginny between them managed to concoct a potion that would induce a long lasting enchanted slumber. They dumped the three thugs outside the village, with the vague feeling that someone would probably find them and look after them eventually.
"Are we for home, then?" asked Ron as they hastily packed their things after disposing of their attackers.
"Well," Harry said hesitantly, "I'm not certain we should risk anyone coming after us again, but I thought that we might take our time on the way back to school."
"Let's time it so our entrance is even better than the last one!" suggested Ron excitedly.
"I don't really know if anyone could manage a better entrance then that," Ginny responded, remembering the night that the three before her had burst into the Great Hall during dinner, cloaks billowing and looking extremely mature and impressive.
"Well, we can try, can't we?" asked Ron with a grin.
"I don't know if we want to go too over the top," Harry said with a frown, "McGonagall has been exceedingly understanding, and I don't really want to push her too far."
"I guess you're right," Ron agreed with a disappointed sigh. He had been picturing swooping onto the grounds on broom amidst firecrackers and cheering students.
So, after stretching travel to last the rest of that day and part of the next, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny arrived at Hogwarts' gates just before lunch.
"What do you think? Do we want to make our entrance for lunch or dinner?" asked Harry, looking up at the school.
"Dinner," said Ron, "I don't really want to go to potions this afternoon."
"Okay," Ginny agreed, not minding missing Defence Against the Dark Arts, "But can we eat soon?"
"Let's go down to the Three Broomsticks," suggested Hermione, not even giving Ron a disapproving look for wanting to skive off lessons.
The four teens ambled down to the village, looking forward to a leisurely afternoon before they returned to school that night. Hermione glanced down at her watch and then looked up at the others. "Are you sure you want to eat right now?" she asked, "It's only 11:30, we wouldn't normally be eating for another half hour."
"I'm hungry now," Ron said, looking around at Harry and Ginny for support.
"How you three manage to eat all you do…" Hermione muttered shaking her head.
Harry couldn't help it; he had to laugh at that. Ginny joined him immediately, and soon Ron and Hermione were laughing right along with them. They entered the bar, still engulfed in the bubble of happiness that had come upon them so suddenly. They made their way over to a table in the back and ordered a big lunch from the man behind the bar. They sat consuming it leisurely, laughing, joking and talking, as they hadn't in the longest time. They were so consumed with their own conversation that they didn't even notice when, forty-five minutes after they had first come in, the bar's door opened again. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny didn't even realise that the person who had entered the bar was standing right behind them until he spoke up.
"Look at the four of you, just sitting there, laughing it up!" he hissed.
"Bill?" exclaimed Ginny in utter shock while Ron, who was beside her chocked on a mouthful of butter beer. Hermione went very white, but Harry managed to meet Bill's eyes calmly.
"What the hell do the four of you think you're doing?" the oldest Weasley brother nearly screeched. "Have you any idea how long we've been looking for you?"
"Well," Harry began when no one else answered, "I'd guess about four days, maybe a bit less."
Bill looked ready to hit someone. "Mum's been bouncing off the walls ever since McGonagall told her you'd pulled a disappearing act!"
"What did McGonagall tell mum for?" asked Ron in mild outrage, "She didn't last time!"
"Last time?" asked Bill dangerously.
"Er," said Ron.
"You mean that the four of you have run away from school before now?" cried Bill, "And McGonagall didn't tell Mum?"
"Well," began Ron.
"Nope, the four of us have only ran away once," said Harry, trying to appear cool and having remarkable success with it.
"Harry," admonished Hermione, who thought it rather pointless to lie at this point.
"Ginny wasn't along with us last time, so it was really only the three of us," Harry said, "Which is probably why McGonagall chose to keep quiet last time and not this time around."
"Maybe she's just mad that we didn't stick around to clean up after the mock-battle," Ginny suggested, following Harry's example and putting up a calm front.
"I never took her for a particularly vindictive person," argued Harry.
"Maybe she just realised that she couldn't run her school without her Head Boys and Girls," suggested Hermione, catching on to Harry and Ginny's game plan and attempting to affect the same cool appearance.
Bill and Ron were now little more than silent observers of this conversations, the former because he was dumbfounded by the sudden return of the missing four and the latter because he was worrying about what he was going to say to his mum when he next saw her. Ron knew that this would somehow all come down to his fault in his mother's eyes. He should have convinced Harry not to go, he shouldn't have let his sister tag along… The list his mother would have for him would likely go on all night.
"What do you reckon, Ron?" asked Ginny after a good five minutes debate about what had motivated McGonagall's actions when she had informed Mrs Weasley on them.
"I reckon that the only thing that really matters now is telling Bill what sort of flowers he should send to our funerals," moaned Ron, "Mum is going to kill us all!"
"Well, Harry and I already discussed this at length, and there is simply no way that I can die before I go to his funeral, no matter who wants to murder me," Ginny told her brother, "I have to say nice things about him and then confess to the world at large that we have had a secret affair of epically romantic proportions."
"And I promised Ginny that I would say nice things at her funeral, and then confess that I too had been part of the aforementioned secret affair," Harry told him, "So I simply can't die before she does, or even at the same time as her."
"How exactly to you both plan to be at one and other's funerals?" asked Hermione, who was mildly interested. Knowing the strange things these two thought up, they probably had some sort of plan to get around that roadblock.
"Well," began Ginny, "Harry is going to fake his own death in a few months, and I shall have my turn to confess everything, and then, just as I am about to dramatically plunge a dagger into my own heart, Harry will awaken and admit that the funeral was all a clever ruse designed to lure Voldemort into a false sense of security and to get a lot of lovely floral bouquets, like the splendid one that Bill plans to send. Harry will get his turn to say nice things and confess our affair when I die in a tragic cleaning accident at the age of forty-three."
"Maybe you should both fake your deaths now, so mum is too upset to bother murdering Hermione and I," suggested Ron, "You'd be doing us a great favour."
"I don't know," began Harry, "We had a timeline all worked out for this, and I'm not sure I want to be put off schedule…"
"Not even to save your best friends' lives?" asked Hermione melodramatically.
"Enough!" growled Bill, "It's time you four got back up to the castle!"
"We've got to settle the bill, Bill," said Ginny, smiling angelically at her brother.
"Get on with it, then," he grated out, watching Ginny and Harry go up in the direction of the counter.
Hermione, Ron and Bill waited twenty minutes in tense silence for the other pair to return. "Don't suppose they've run off, do you?" asked Ron eventually.
"They wouldn't do that!" exclaimed Hermione. "Would they?"
"You tell me," Bill said, sounding dangerously frustrated.
"Maybe we had best go check," Ron suggested a bit nervously.
Meanwhile, Harry and Ginny had settled the bill and then been promptly waylaid by the Weasley twins, who had rushed into the bar just as the other pair had made to return to their friends.
"Harry!" cried Fred.
"Ginny!" cried George.
"We've been looking everywhere for you," Fred said.
"Mum's in a right state, and so is McGonagall," continued George.
"We had some urgent business to conduct," said Harry airily.
"Where are Ron and Hermione?" asked George suddenly.
"Or did the pair of you give them the slip so you could go elope, or something?" asked Fred suspiciously.
"Nah," said Ginny, "It was the other way around."
"Yeah," said Harry, "Ron and Hermione left school the other night with plans to run away and get married. We've been trying to track them down ever since."
"Planning to try to stop them?" asked Fred sarcastically.
"No, of course not," said Ginny, "We just know that they will need witnesses for the ceremony to be legal, so we thought we'd volunteer."
"Look," said George, "No one appreciates the need to skip lessons more than we do-"
"But you need to realise that there's a certain line," Fred went on.
"And disappearing from school for four days crosses that line," finished George.
"Alright then," said Harry, "I hadn't realised that. We'd best go gather our things from the table, Gin."
"I suppose you two will want to come along and escort us up to the school?" Ginny asked the twins.
Both nodded firmly. "No way are we going to have to tell mum that the pair of you gave us the slip," said George grimly.
The four walked back towards the table where Ginny and Harry had left Ron, Hermione and Bill, only to be met half way by the other group. Ron tossed Harry and Ginny they're jackets and Hermione passed them their packs. Ginny stepped forward to hug both Ron and Hermione enthusiastically. "Why there you two are!" she cried. "I'm so excited for you!"
Harry stepped forward and solemnly shook Ron's hand and kissed Hermione's cheek, "Congratulations, you two. I hope you'll be very happy together."
"Er, yeah, I'm sure we will be, Harry," said Ron before he turned to the twins, clearly deciding to ignore Harry and Ginny's odd behaviour as usual, "What are you two doing here?"
"Making sure the four of you get back up to school so mum will get off our backs," answered George. Fred was shaking his head at Harry and Ginny, clearly under the impression that the pair had lost their sanity entirely.
