(A/N 2013: My apologies for the gap in posting. "The Great Email Outage" over the last couple of weeks hit me full force and I've only started receiving email from FF-net again in the last few days. I think I've responded to all PMs that were sent to me, but I'm still working my way thru the reviews. If you really want an answer to a question about the story and you've asked it since the posting of ch 27 and haven't seen a response yet, I'd suggest sending it to me again. Now that everything seems to be back to normal, I hope to back to posting 2 chapters a week again. Oh, if you don't remember ch 28, you might want to go back and read it first; it posted about the time the email outage started.)

Version: 1.0 (2006); 1.1 (2012)

Chapter 29: Dreams

By the second week in October, Ron was feeling pretty optimistic about their Quidditch team. The first game for the month was Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff. Not knowing exactly how it was going to work out, the foursome cheered for both sides any time something happened. Of course, the most important thing they did was to scout the other teams.

Hufflepuff surprised Ravenclaw and fielded a better than expected team this year. They beat Ravenclaw 280-90. Harry was impressed with Hufflepuff's Seeker, whom he thought was a fourth year. The downside to this was Ron wanted to add a fourth practice during the week. The team rebelled and pointed out their game was next Saturday and it just was not possible to fit in a fourth practice into their schedule. The captain finally relented to such logic but worked them hard during their three normal practices.

The next Saturday was Gryffindor versus Slytherin. The entire Gryffindor team expected a physically rough game, but they wondered what it would be like without Malfoy there. Going out onto the field, Harry found himself up against the little third year named Miller he'd seen in the hall at the beginning of the year. Harry smiled at him and the Slytherin seemed to gulp. Knowing that he'd beat out older kids when he was younger, Harry didn't cut him any slack.

Crabbe and Goyle were being their usual bruiser selves as Beaters, but the rest of the team played fairly cleanly. There were only eight penalty shots before Harry saw the Golden Snitch. Miller was looking the wrong way, so Harry slowly flew over to near the Gryffindor goals where the Snitch was hovering and grabbed it before the boy even realized what was happening. Gryffindor won 360-50, which included twelve goals by Ginny. It looked like Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were the teams to beat this year.


The next day, when Harry and Ginny came out of their room to go to breakfast, it was to find Neville, Ron, and Hermione waiting for them in the Head common room. The couple looked at each other and smiled about their eager friends. In the Great Hall, they found they were the first ones there; they assumed a bit too much partying had gone on the night before.

Neville had a number of pots and even a full-sized barrel shrunk in his pocket. Harry had brought two poles with him to breakfast, one purple and one hot pink. Dumbledore had given them to him when their task came to the teacher's attention. He pointed out that Portkeys were the easiest way to get a number of people to a place for the first time, as well as to bring a large plant back.

After breakfast, they walked outside so as not to bring attention to themselves and when everyone grabbed onto the "purple for Potter" stick, Harry activated it. Everyone arrived safely in the street in front of the Potter home, though Neville did scrape a hand when he fell. Pulling out a scrap of paper, Harry wrote the secret on it and showed it to his friends. Ron and Hermione already knew what to do, while he had to coax Neville along. Soon all three of them were amazed as they looked at the house.

Apparently, Dobby had done a little more work outside since the last time the Potters had been there; the walkway to the house was a little wider and the front door had been painted. Neville could hardly wait to take a look around the grounds, so the owners took their friends on a tour.

While Neville identified several other magical plants that had gone wild, he was in awe at the giant Cat's Paw vine that Harry had told him about. In fact, he was so amazed he didn't watch where he was standing and the giant vine scratched him pretty badly before he got away. Ginny cast several healing spells that Healer Davies had shown them on Neville to help him out.

"That's incredible, Harry," Neville told them reverently. "You know the reason people want these is to keep the rodent and other vermin under control, but this one is so big, it would probably eat rabbits, squirrels, opossums, and even a real cat if they got close enough."

"Are you saying it took a swipe at you because it thought you were food?" Ron was also amazed at the plant.

"Probably," Neville said. "It could feel the vibrations of my walking and doesn't really know how big I am, so I just seem like a large meal to it. We're going to need lots of milk to tame this one."

"No problem," Harry told him. "I've just the spell to do that. Let's look around and then we'll come back and tame this thing last so we can go right back to school with it."

Neville nodded. "That's probably best. What's in the back, Harry?" So they went that way too. Once they had seen the outer grounds, they went inside where they found the house-elves had refreshments waiting for them. Each took a cup of a juice and they toured the inside.

Ginny found that the kitchen was now totally clean and serviceable. The Potters also saw that the master bedroom was clean, but the closets and bathroom still needed some work. They also found that the elves had boxed up various items they had found in what was once Harry's parents' bedroom. That made Harry remember about the chests he'd retrieved from his vaults that he had yet to go through.

The dining room was clean now and for the first time, Harry and Ginny saw pictures of couples on the wall that they hadn't noticed before. They were paintings, but they still moved and talked like the paintings at school. It didn't take long for them to find out they were Harry's ancestors. Unfortunately, the newest addition was one of his grandparents. While that thrilled him as he planned to talk to them later, he was quite disappointed not to find his parents there.

Walking into the library, they found it had not been touched at all, dust was still everywhere. When questioned, the elves said they hadn't cleaned anything up the stairs yet either. So Harry just described it as a bunch of bedrooms and they didn't bother going.

As they had some time before lunch, Ginny suggested that everyone pull out their wand and start cleaning the library, with five people it shouldn't take long. Sure enough, by lunchtime, the room was mostly free of dust and dirt. While the others went to find lunch, Hermione stayed behind for a few extra minutes to see what was on the shelves.

After lunch, in which the two elves joined them, the four males went back outside and continued removing the overgrowth. The three females went back into the library to finish it off before they worked on the master bathroom.

When they'd finished the other two sides of the house, Harry saw they had a little over an hour left, so he directed them to the Cat's Paw. Neville expanded all the containers while Harry called the girls out so they'd have enough help.

Harry showed everyone the spell to create milk, which was similar to the Aguamenti spell. They tested it by shooting some milk at a little Cat's Paw and Neville easily transplanted the small vine to a small container.

That done, everyone looked to Neville for what to do and he realized he was now in charge, much to his chagrin. "All right, here's what we're going to do. First let's fill this barrel half full of milk." Everyone did the spell and worked on that while he finished his explanation. "Then we'll all stream milk onto the ground at the base of the plant. It will be tricky at first, but once we get going, it will quiet down a bit and allow us to get closer. After we saturate the ground, Harry, Ron, and I will have to wade through the milky mud and pull it out and put it into the barrel before it gets violent. Once in there, we'll need to fill the barrel with dirt and then quickly Portkey back to school. Questions?"

"Do we need shovels?" Harry asked.

"Either that or we levitate the dirt into the barrel."

"Why not just levitate the plant into the barrel too?" Harry didn't really want to touch the giant plant.

"We could do that, but it would take all of us, and it's quite possible one or more of us would slip or something and drop it, which would make the plant become very violent. We really don't want to do that, guys." Neville was very serious.

Harry thought about that and looked at Ginny. It was obvious they had thought of the same thing. "How about you casually touch me while I use a 'new' levitation spell?" Harry thought to her, letting her pick that up with Legilimency.

"How are you going to explain that? You know Hermione will want to learn it." Ginny raised an eyebrow at him as she thought back. He shrugged.

Harry decided to go for it. "Uh, Neville, I've been working on a new levitation spell with Dumbledore. I think I could levitate it all by myself to make it safer for everyone."

"That would be for the best if you could do that," the future botanist told him.

"Can you teach us too?" Hermione asked the expected question, and Harry could feel Ginny having to work hard to hold her laughter in, as well as an I told you so.

He temporized with, "I'm not sure. It's something Dumbledore and I made up so it's not really ready for public use yet." Hermione deflated a bit but she nodded her understanding.

"All right," Neville gathered his nerves and his troops, "let me remove a little dirt first." He levitated some dirt away from around the plant and put it next to the barrel. The plant wasn't happy about that and shook a little, but it wasn't enough to make it violent either. "Now, everyone start giving the plant some milk." Five wands started shooting milk at the plant. Soon, it started drooping and everyone moved a bit closer.

Neville had them do that for about five minutes before he called a halt. Turning to Harry, he said, "Your turn. Try to get as much of the dirt or mud around the roots as you can."

Ginny had already come over to stand to the left of Harry. He looked at her and told her, "Ginny, will you help guide me?"

"Sure, Harry." She lightly grabbed his left arm with her hand as if she wanted merely to stay close to talk to him. They both felt the tingle. Throwing some extra useless wand movements in, he silently did a Wingardium Leviosa! and watched their combined power slowly lift the great plant up. He was actually amazed the plant hadn't gone flying like a bullet, but then it was much much bigger and heavier than the rocks and pillows he normally worked with. The plant was starting to move as he slowly put it down into the barrel, with a few "pointers" from Ginny. When the roots found the new source of milk, it became docile again. The other four quickly put dirt and mud into the barrel to stabilize the plant, and Neville shot a few ropes out of his wand to tie it in and to help finish the matter.

"Dobby, I need the Portkey." The elf brought the "hot pink for Hogwarts" stick. Harry laid it across the top of the barrel. "Quickly, everyone grab the stick and the barrel." When they did, Harry activated the Portkey and off they went. No one fell as they were all holding onto the barrel.

They landed in front of Greenhouse number five with Professor Sprout on hand to greet them. To say that the teacher was surprised was an understatement. She stood there amazed for a few moments just looking at the monster-sized plant until it twitched. "All right everyone, we've got to move quickly. This plant can stay outside, so let's move it over there." She pointed to a place not far away, but where the plant couldn't get into trouble. "Now, let's all grab the barrel and move it before it wakes up."

"Professor Sprout, perhaps it would be best if I moved it," Harry told her.

"It's too heavy for you to do by yourself, Mr. Potter ..."

"But Professor, I'm the one who levitated it into the barrel," he told her.

The professor's eyes nearly popped out at that. "Well, I ah, hmm. Give me a moment then, Mr. Potter and let me get a hole ready." Pulling out her wand, she quickly dug a hole in the ground and then stood back. "Just put the whole thing including the barrel into the hole, I'll take it from there."

"Yes, Professor. Ginny, would you help guide me again?" Harry smiled at her for their ruse. She just smiled back. He again went through the fake spell and did a simple levitation charm on it. Once it was in the hole, Professor Sprout Vanished the barrel then filled in the hole with the extra dirt.

"Very good, everyone. Now, Mr. Longbottom, weren't you supposed to have another small one?" Sprout looked expectantly at her star student.

"Oh, I forgot," he said sheepishly.

Harry smiled. "Dobby? I need your help."

The elf popped in, holding the small potted vine. "Harry Sir. Your friend left his plant behind."

Everyone smiled. "Thank you Dobby, that's just what I was going to ask you for. Excellent work as usual." The elf grinned hugely and looked bashful. "Have a good evening Dobby and no more work for today, relax with Winky."

"Yes, Harry Sir." The elf popped out. Everyone seemed pleased and they all left to get dinner.


The last Saturday in October, Harry was upstairs in the library in his Hogwarts apartment, as he thought of it, studying. He thought he finally and fully understood the spell diagrammed in his special project notebook in front of him. It had taken him a full month of part-time work to determine that it was really a combination of three spells. It was incredibly ingenious; he had to hand it to Dumbledore.

Working this out gave him that much more appreciation for the shield work he was doing with Cobb, which was going very slowly. Still, he felt like he was starting to understand spell creation so much more as he actually did it. He also owed a great deal to Flitwick and his mentoring, though Harry couldn't tell him about this secret project of his. He really wanted it done by Christmas to surprise Ginny.

The more he looked at the spell, the more he felt like he really only needed to deal with two of the three parts in order to defeat it. Perhaps a blinding charm combined with a shield spell would do it. He thought about that for a bit, as he also thought about how hard, and potentially painful, it could be to test this.

As he thought about it some more, he heard Ginny come up the pole behind him. "Hey Harry, ready to go to Hogsmeade? Ron and Hermione are ready and waiting for us."

He closed his project book and put it back into his desk. "Sure, let's go."

"Your special project again?" she asked coyly, trying to worm more information out of him.

"Uh huh," he acknowledged as her hands wrapped themselves around him for a hug, which he willingly returned. After a short kiss, he told her, "Sorry luv, you'll just have to wait, though I'm sure you'll like it when I'm done."

Ginny sighed. "You tease me on purpose by not telling me, don't you?"

"What? Me tease you?" He tried to look surprised.

"Yes, you. Oh well, come on, other fun awaits." She dragged him out of their apartment to where their friends were waiting.

They walked to Hogsmeade and had a good time looking at the shops and buying the occasional item. Honeydukes definitely took up some time because they not only bought for themselves, but they bought extra for the first and second year Gryffindors that couldn't come, as well as for the party they were having that night for the fifth year prefects.

Spying the bookshop, Harry suggested they go in there for a bit. Hermione quickly seconded the idea. Ron looked at him like Harry had lost his mind, while Ginny didn't seem to care as long as she got to hold onto Harry's arm and be escorted around. She was enjoying spending the time away from school with her husband.

Inside the shop, the couples split up. Hermione and Ron went over to the Transfiguration section while Harry and Ginny went over to the Charms section. After a half hour or so, Hermione and Ron came over to where the Potters were so she could see what Harry was looking at. Ginny handed her one of the books she was holding for Harry.

As Hermione perused through the book, Harry could see her become more and more excited. Finally, she closed the book and held it while she closed her eyes. Harry had seen that look before; it was one she usually had when thinking a plan through in great detail. He let her think while he looked through the last section for any other books he wanted. Ron seemed to be looking at the books on the shelf behind them which dealt with various sports.

"Harry?" Hermione's voice was soft. "How does one set up learning lessons by Pensieve?"

He pulled two more books off the shelf that looked promising; he wanted to look at the Table of Contents in them. "Obviously you need a Pensieve." He made a face to show he was teasing her. She gave him an exasperated look and was about to say something when he tried to really answer the question. "Dumbledore gets the lessons from someplace, he's never told me from where. Apparently, the standard school lessons are restricted and can only be sold to schools. On the other hand, if you want something normal like Latin lessons, those could be bought by anyone. I don't know all the lessons that they offer, I haven't seen a catalog." She still looked thoughtful and Harry noticed Ron had stopped looking at his book and was paying attention to the conversation now.

"Do you know what they cost?"

"All the lessons I've had to buy for Ginny so far this year have been one thousand Galleons per class per year." Hermione looked surprised at Harry's statement, and Ron raised both eyebrows. "I don't know what Dumbledore paid for all the lessons last year, but I assume they were the same price."

"At current exchange rates, that's like what? A little more than five thousand pounds?" she asked.

Harry shrugged. "Not sure but probably something like that. Gringotts does it all for me automatically so I don't really know. I take it you're thinking about asking if you can do that?"

Hermione lost her thoughtful look as she told him, "Yes, I think I could talk my parents into paying for a couple so I could take advanced Transfiguration and Charms like you two are doing. I don't know if I would ever have another chance like this again."

Though Harry had forgotten about him, Ron now spoke up. "You'd leave me behind in those two classes just so you could study with Harry?"

"No, Ron," Hermione tried to explain, "it's not like that, I ..."

"Fine, I understand." Ron wasn't listening to Hermione anymore.

Harry started to try to help them when Ginny caught his attention. Looking at her, he caught her thoughts with Legilimency, "No, don't say anything, they need to work this out. Yes, we could help them out by paying for it, and I wouldn't mind doing that, but not unless they ask."

He thought about that for a second before he sent back to her, "When did you get to be so smart?" She just smiled at him and puckered up to silently blow him a kiss.

Ron noticed that and fixed his sister with an irritated stare. "Can't you two leave each other alone for at least five minutes?"

"Can't I flirt with my husband?" she replied with a bit of heat in her voice for his snapping at her.

Ron rolled his eyes and muttered, "Whatever" to everyone and walked out of the bookshop. Thrusting her books at Ginny, Hermione chased after him.

"I guess things aren't going so smoothly for those two?" Harry inquired.

Ginny shrugged, "I hadn't heard anything had changed. It might just be Ron's pride about money, as he knows he couldn't afford to take those classes too. Still, this is their problem to work through." Harry nodded. "You going to take those too?" she pointed to the two books in his hands.

He looked down at them. He wasn't sure, but then again, it wasn't a big deal money-wise. "Sure. Maybe we should get Hermione's and she can pay us back later? I thought she wanted those."

"Yeah, she'd probably appreciate that." Ginny handed him all the books she was holding for him and for Hermione. Harry paid for them all, then shrunk them down to put them in his robes.

When they left the bookshop, their two friends were nowhere in sight. "I need to get some more Butterbeer for the party tonight. Let's go to the Three Broomsticks, I've already sent an owl to Madam Rosmerta so she'd set some aside for me." Ginny grabbed his hand and they walked to the pub.

They found no sign of Ron and Hermione inside either. Harry picked up six cases of Butterbeer, four for the party and two extra just because. Those were also shrunk down and stowed away. Thinking this was a good place to wait, they had a leisurely lunch. When they were done and their friends were still nowhere in sight, they decided to walk on back to the castle. Harry figured they could go ahead and prepare for the party. Though the changing trees were pretty, neither noticed them as they each wondered what Ron was really thinking and how it would work out.

— — —

The party for sixth-year prefects had been three Saturdays earlier and Harry had thought it had gone pretty well. The two Slytherin prefects had been cautious of him at the beginning, but had seemed to warm up to him as the night wore on. Harry had also pulled the Gryffindor prefects into his plan and had them be friendly, hopefully without being too obvious, to the Slytherins. All in all, Harry and Hermione were pretty happy about it.

The fifth year's party tonight would be the last one for a while. Harry thought about having another round next term, but he hadn't decided yet. There were other plans already in the air, so he wasn't sure if he really needed to do that.

Again, Harry conspired with the Gryffindor prefects and again the Slytherins responded positively. When he consulted with her privately during the party, Hermione agreed with him that these parties were a good plan and that it should become a tradition for the Head Boy and Girl.

The evening ended around half past eleven and a surprise presented itself to Harry and Ginny. Because Ron was his best mate and Hermione's fiancé, and Ginny was his wife, they were invited to the parties for the sixth and fifth years too, even though they were in the seventh year. No one seemed to mind and for Harry it was two more people to help his plans for reaching out to all the houses. As the prefects began leaving, Ron left with the Gryffindor prefects through the portal back to the Gryffindor tower. Normally he stayed around to be with Hermione and help clean up. Harry and Ginny had also noticed that Ron had spent hardly any time with Hermione during the evening, not as he normally would have.

The Potters watched as Hermione stared at the portal even after the door was closed. When the last of the prefects had left, she was still standing there and staring. Harry looked to Ginny who jerked her head in Hermione's direction. She took one of Hermione's arms and Harry grabbed the other; they led her to the couch and all three squeezed onto it.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" Ginny gently queried.

The brunette couldn't take it anymore and burst into tears. Her friends let her cry for a bit. "He's so angry at me, he wouldn't even talk to me the whole way back to Hogwarts. He practically ran back to the castle and went straight to his dorm room until he came down for the party."

Harry had noticed neither of them was at dinner, but they all skipped from time to time, and the fact that both of them were gone didn't seem all that odd as they could have been somewhere together.

"You know Ron can get into one of his down moods from time to time, you just need to hang on a little bit and let him work through whatever is bothering him," Ginny tried to encourage her friend.

"I don't know that he will get over it." She sniffled before continuing. "He thinks I don't want him around anymore."

"What?! That's stupid." Harry was surprised to hear her say that. "Anyone can see that you still care for him."

"But he said I don't want to take classes with him anymore, and that I'm too good for him." She sobbed a little bit more now.

Harry looked behind his friend to his wife with a "What?" look. She saw him lean back and thought to him, "Ron must think she wants to drop her two classes with him and be with us."

"Hermione, does Ron think you want to leave your two classes with him to be with us?" Harry asked.

She nodded. "I tried to tell him I would stay with him, but he wouldn't listen."

"Did you really mean that you'd drop your Arithmancy and Runes classes and take those via Pensieve to have more time for the extras?" Ginny asked.

"Of course," Hermione said in her most forceful tone since they'd sat down together. "That's obviously the best way as they are academic only."

"I see," Harry said and nodded as he thought about that. "Somehow I don't think Ron took it all quite that way."

The Head Girl sighed. "I think you're right. I tried to explain it to him, but he just wouldn't listen. He's so stubborn sometimes."

"As one of Dudley's old movies said, What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Hermione looked at Harry for a moment, then she actually started to laugh. "Thanks, Harry," she told him, "I really needed that. Of course, what I also need is a way to make him understand what I really meant, and that I want a family with him."

Ginny decided there was something else that needed to be said. "That would help Hermione, but you do realize there is another issue involved, or maybe two working against you."

The brunette looked shocked, then like she wanted to cry again. "W-What?" she finally got out, not really wanting to hear any more bad news.

"The obvious thing is that if you work all this out, which includes getting permission which may not be a given, then Ron will be the only one not taking special classes," the redheaded girl told her. "And that's going to make him feel ..." she paused to let Hermione fill in the blank.

"Left out." She hung her head. "I should have thought of that. I know that really bothers him."

"There is one other potential problem that may be aggravating all this." Hermione looked at her hopeful sister-in-law. "It's just a Weasley thing, but when you acted like coming up with a couple of thousand Galleons was no big deal, that hurt the Weasley pride." Hermione deflated a bit upon hearing that. "Even I'm somewhat affected by this, though I consider myself to be one of the least bothered by it among the seven of us. Ron already knows Harry doesn't have money problems, and I don't either now that we're married. Now you say you can pay for these extra classes, but he knows he can't. Truth is, any one of these problems probably isn't that bad, but you've got three of them all at the same time. That's hard on him, though the stupid prat needs to grow up, get over it all, and realize he's got the best thing in the world in you."

That last part brought a smile to Hermione's face. "So how to get him to grow up is the question." She sighed as she didn't have a clue.

"I say we lock both of you into a room until he acknowledges the problems and that he's wrong," Ginny suggested, "but you probably don't want to miss that many days of classes." The troubled girl smiled again.

"Now, Ginny," her husband gently chastised her. "Seriously, I think you first need to decide if you really want to do those classes. I'm sure they would be helpful to you if you did work in the Department of Mysteries. Assuming you do, I'd talk to McGonagall and Flitwick to make sure you can, because if you can't, nothing else matters."

Hermione nodded. "That makes sense."

"Second, I'd contact your parents about the money part, because if they say no, then all this is pointless." Hermione agreed.

"Lastly," Harry said, "if all that goes well, then you'll have to deal with Ron and get him to understand that you're not abandoning him in his classes, and that this is an opportunity you can't pass up for your career, which I know is important to you. And while I'm not trying to be mean, realistically, if he can't respect your dreams, what does that really mean for the two of you?"

The brunette looked alarmed about that last part.

"Harry, couldn't you have been a little more diplomatic?" his wife asked him.

"Uh, no, well maybe. But no matter how you say it, that's the way it is." Harry realized he couldn't leave it there. "Hermione, I really want to see you two together, but Ginny's right in that you both have to be happy with where you're going as a couple. Ginny and I probably have some different opportunities not available to you and Ron, but what's so great for us is that we're both so flexible. To be honest, I still don't fully know what I want to do, but I do know that as long as Ginny is there, I'll be happy."

"I want to be like that too, but I also have dreams, Harry."

"I understand, Hermione," he told her, "but you and Ron are just going to have to work this out." The upset girl just nodded and left to go to her room.

The Potters wearily got up and went to their room. As they crawled into bed, Harry reached over and grabbed Ginny and pulled her to him. Holding her tightly as if he didn't want to lose her, he told her, "I love you Ginny, I love you so much." Ginny held him tightly as well and pushed her feelings of love back at him.


The next few days were strained for the foursome. The Potters plus Ron worked, the Potters plus Hermione worked, the four of them together didn't.

By Friday afternoon when this had been going on for nearly six days, Harry couldn't take it anymore. At three o'clock when Harry knew Ron's last class for the day ended, he told Ginny, "I need to borrow your broom." She could tell he was in one of those moods where it was best to agree with him for anything easy, so she just pointed to it in the corner next to his. He grabbed them both and left. She had an idea what he was going to do, and she hoped that not only would it work, but that she still had a working broom when he was done. She opened the window a crack and felt the cool air come in while she stood there watching the grounds towards the Quidditch pitch, which she could barely see out to the side.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, she could see Harry and Ron walking that way. She sighed and went back to her homework. She had only a couple of more weeks of Pensieve lessons and homework left, and she couldn't wait to get that over with.

Harry walked through the portal to Gryffindor tower, he waved at a few people with his free hand. Not seeing Ron in the common room, he headed up the stairs to the dorm room for the seventh year boys. Fortunately, Ron was there and he didn't have to search the castle for him.

"Hey Ron, let's go flying. I've even brought Ginny's Firebolt for you to borrow." Harry held it out.

That got Ron's attention. He grabbed it, though that action caused him to look at Harry very thoughtfully. "Why?"

"Because we haven't spent any time together, just you and me, since summer. I don't know about you, but I've missed that."

Ron gave him a wary look but he started walking with this friend. "Just us two?"

"Yeah, just us two." They walked in silence to the front doors. Once outside, Harry took a deep breath of cool barely October air. The Halloween feast was tonight. "Ah, I needed this. How about you?"

"Maybe." Ron seemed to be pretty non-committal about everything.

"Close enough," Harry said as they neared the Quidditch pitch, "come on." He got on his broom and took off. Ron followed suit and gave chase. An hour later, two laughing boys landed in the Gryffindor stands.

"That was funny," Ron told his best mate. "I thought you, the great Seeker, were going to fall off your broom."

"Yeah, but I didn't," Harry smirked. "That's all that really counts, at least as long as Ginny didn't see it. I gotta maintain the image there." Ron chortled at that. Harry still wasn't sure how to go about this, but he had to do something. "So, have you figured out what you want to do after you graduate?"

"Maybe." Ron turned a bit more serious. "I'd like to play professional Quidditch and I think I may have a shot at it if we play well our last two games. I've been doing some research about all the teams and I'm guessing four teams will need to recruit a Keeper."

"Interesting, I thought they recruited from all over Europe though."

"They do, but about half of the players come from the U.K., or so my research shows," Ron told him.

Harry thought about that for a moment. "Did you uncover anything about the need for Seekers next year? That's one of my thoughts."

Ron harrumphed. "Harry, you can get onto about any team you want just because of who you are, surely you know that." His friend gave him a questioning look. "Come on Harry, any team would like to have The-Boy-Who-Conquered just for publicity if nothing else."

That made Harry a little angry. "I don't want that and you know it."

"Hey mate, calm down; I know that, but that's just the way it is."

Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, Harry almost laughed at the irony of the situation. Ron was having to calm him down when the purpose of this talk was for Harry to get Ron to calm down about Hermione.

When Ron saw a friendlier face on his best mate, he went on. "Anyway, yes, I'm guessing there will be the need for about five to seven Seekers. It's a rough position and it takes its toll on the players faster than most positions at the professional level."

"Any on the same teams? That would be fun." Harry grinned at the thought.

His friend grinned back. "Yeah it would be, and yes, there are a couple of teams that should need both."

"Cool," Harry told him as he thought that through. Then he realized he needed to get on with it. "So it sounds like you're really leaning that way."

'Yeah, I think so. Maybe I'll go for coach too after my career. I can't play forever, you know."

Harry nodded his acknowledgment. "Well then, if you're pretty happy with that, are you also OK with Hermione working in the Department of Mysteries?" Ron's face clouded and he moved as if he was going to get up, but Harry put his hand on his friend's shoulder to stop him. "Come on Ron, I care about both of you and want you both to be happy."

"Yeah, that's fine for her," he snapped.

"Ron, you do realize that she would still have all the same classes with you next term as she does right now, don't you? She'll still be sitting in seventh year Transfiguration and Charms, right next to you." Harry watched an interesting set of expressions cross his friend's face.

"She will? But I thought that, uh ..."

"No Ron, she'd stop taking Arithmancy and Runes, and use those time slots for her extra classes." Ron started to become worked up again so Harry tried to nip it in the bud, "This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity for someone who wants to be a researcher. It's her dream, Ron, just like you have a dream too, and those dreams can work together."

The redhead sat there for a minute taking it all in. "I don't know, Harry," he finally said. "How can she have a big career like that and still have a family?"

"Ron, women do it all the time in the Muggle world. It's my understanding they have to take a few years off the job while the kids are young, or else work at home, but it can be done. In fact it should be even easier in the magical world, especially if you have a house-elf or two to help out. But you're missing the most important part, Ron: she wants to be with you, she told me so." Ron shot him an intense look. "And while she didn't quite say it, she implied she wanted kids for a family with you too. Let me tell you, with a wife who loves you, you can take on the world."

"I guess you'd know," Ron muttered.

"Damn straight! OK, she wasn't my wife at the time, but we were engaged. With Ginny beside me, I knew we could beat Voldemort, and we did. Now, I feel we can do wonderful things, no matter what ugly stuff the world throws at us, even if it's thirty foot monster vines that try to eat me."

Ron now started to chuckle. "OK, I get the point." He sat there thinking some more. "You know, I guess I can live with her taking the classes because she is really good at that stuff and I know she likes challenges, I mean, look at me, I'm a real challenge." Harry chuckled at that. "But I don't know how to deal with it being the three of you together there without me."

Finally, it was coming out, Harry thought. He'd only had one idea how to deal with this and he hoped it worked. "Ron, just because you're not in the class doesn't mean you're left out. We can teach you all the stuff anyway, and it would probably be good for Hermione too, you know how she likes to help us with our homework no matter that she complains at the same time."

Ron nodded about the truth in that. "I guess that wouldn't be too bad."

"I think you should ask her about it. In fact, I think you need to ask her about a lot of things, figure out some details in your and her future together. I'm sure she'd like that you know," Harry told him.

"Yeah, she may already have the next twenty years planned out for all I know."

Harry laughed. "Yeah, she might, but then again, you might also find out that she doesn't because she doesn't know what you want yet. Go talk to her, OK?"

"I will, and thanks mate."

"No problem. Let's fly up to the door and you can go find her."

Ron handed Ginny's broom back to Harry after they landed at the main entrance. "Thanks. One day I'll have a broom just like that."

"I doubt it, Ron." Ron gave him a puzzled look. "One day you'll have a better one." A smile crossed Ron's face as he thought about that. "I'd look in the library first if I were you," Harry told him. Ron just continued to smile as he walked off.

Back in his apartment, a much happier Harry than a couple of hours ago found Ginny still doing her homework. She looked up at him and smiled, "Not only am I glad to see you happy again, which means you must have talk some sense back into Ron, I'm glad to see my broom still in one piece." Harry laughed at that. She got up from the desk and pulled him over to the couch. Pushing him down so she could sit on his lap, she then commanded, "So tell me all about it before we go to dinner."

To the Potter's surprise, Ron and Hermione weren't at the feast. They were found the next morning sitting on the couch in the Head common room. When they noticed the Potters come out of their room, Harry saw Hermione whisper in Ron's ear then get up and come over to them.

Hermione walked over and looked at Ginny for a moment and said, "Excuse me, Ginny, I need to borrow Harry for just a second." Ginny wasn't sure what was going on and only shrugged. Taking that for an OK, Hermione stepped up to Harry and gave him a fierce hug, which he only mostly returned because of his surprise. "Thank you Harry," she whispered to him. "Thank you for getting him to talk to me. If you ever don't know what to do, I think you should also consider being a marriage counselor." She finally let go and walked back to Ron on the couch and held out her hand. "Maybe we should go to breakfast too." Ron grinned and got up to follow her. They had a foursome again.


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