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!

36. Chapter 36 - A Magical Summer - Part One

Chapter Thirty-Six – A Magical Summer – Part One

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day 2015! It's been quite a while since I've worked on this story, but I've recently finished Magi Ascension Part One – The Ascension Begins; the third book in my Heirs of the Magi series, so I'm taking a break from that and will be working on this story for a while. My original fiction is available at Smashwords or at many major e-book retailers like the iBook store, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and many others. If you've enjoyed my Harry Potter fan fiction; I hope you'll visit the Heirs of the Magi and enjoy that epic story too!

I'll be trying to finish the next two years of storyline I have planned for After the War over the next few months; and will post chapters as quickly as possible. The entire story may take quite a while to finish, since life keeps getting in the way of my writing play time; but I will finish this story – and I'm planning an 'After the Epilogue' sequel with this storyline, just as I did for Happily Ever After and the New Marauders.

"Welcome back, slacker," Ron said as he flopped into the usual chair in Harry's cubicle. "Will you need an Auror refresher course after being off so long?"

Harry laughed. "Hopefully I can muddle along without needing to do that until I catch on again. Why don't you get me up to speed on anything that isn't in your reports, and then we should head over to the training room."

Ron rolled his eyes. "I should've known that you'd want to get back to that today."

"Haven't you been going to training every day while I've been away?"

"I know you don't need me to answer that for you, and I'm sure that Susan and Terry will be happy to turn over leading those workouts to you again. The only thing that wasn't in my reports is the fact that I was bored silly doing those stakeouts on my own for the last month."

"So much for hoping that you'd have that lot rounded up and put away by now," Harry joked. "At least we've got a bit of seniority now, and aren't stuck on nights too."

"We might rather be on nights for the next couple of months," Ron pointed out; and Harry laughed again.

"Is that because of the summer heat; daytime Quidditch matches; or problems with Hermione that have you wanting the opposite shift to hers?"

Ron grinned at him. "Yes."

"You're in trouble again?"

"No more than usual," Ron answered with a shrug. "I'm blaming you and Ginny."

"I seriously doubt that there's anything I can say right now that will help you with that," Harry told him seriously while fighting the urge to laugh again. Ron and George were both such kids that he thought they were going to be brilliant fathers; but Ron wanted to wait indefinitely, and George and Angelina weren't showing any signs of being in any hurry to even get married let alone start a family. The difference between the two couples, though, was that George and Angelina were quite happy with things as they are; while Hermione definitely wanted to join the motherhood club – especially now that Ginny was joining.

"That's never stopped you before, but we don't have time to talk about this right now – we've got a training workout to do, so we should get moving."

"You must have been confunded," Christine said; smiling as she stopped for a moment on her way past. "You should pop over to St. Mungo's and get that checked out right away. Welcome back, Harry, and congratulations."

"Thanks," Harry said; getting up to walk over and hug her. "It's good to be back. Are you counting down the days or hours now?"

"We're still on days, and Bryce and I are ready to have the kids back at home. Hopefully you and Ginny got your graduation-homecoming party invitation while you were, um, busy, Dad-to-be."

"Please don't go there," Ron pled with a groan.

"I can do that, but you'd just save yourself a lot of trouble at home if you would," she offered meaningfully. Harry didn't even try to keep the laugh in; and even Ron snorted out a short bark of a laugh before scowling.

"We got the invitation, and yes, we'll be there on Saturday," Harry assured Christine. "Are you joining us for the workout this morning; or are you bogged down?"

"I'm going to need to skip it today, but hopefully I'll be able to do that for the rest of the week. Monday mornings are always crazy for me."

"You should have taken the promotion," Ron advised her. "At least then you'd get paid more for all of that extra work."

"And be one step away from Emma's job – no thanks," Christine answered with a laugh. "I do not want to ever even be considered for Head of the Aurors."

"You'd be brilliant at it," Harry declared, "but you won't ever see us on the wrong end of your wand from recommending you." He glanced at his watch and nodded absently. "Time to get to the training room," he advised Ron.

"Alright," Ron agreed with a sigh. "Let's get it over with."

The Auror training and daily workouts had evolved quite a bit since Harry and Neville had first launched the program three years ago when they became Dennis' and Natalie's Auror-trainers. Now all of the Aurors were encouraged to join the daily morning workouts or do their own at different times at least three times a week. There were a couple of old hold-outs, and none of the Aurors worked out seven days a week, but the average of three or four sessions a week was exactly where Harry and Emma had hoped it would be. The workouts that he or Neville led were always the most popular, and the current batch of trainees almost always attended. There were apparently a lot of Aurors who were happy to see him back, since most of the Aurors and trainees were already in the training room and warming up by the time Harry and Ron walked into the room after getting changed into their workout clothes.

"How are Hannah and the girls?" Harry asked Neville as they joined him and started warming up too.

"They're all good," Neville assured him, "but some days Hannah wishes she'd joined the Aurors too." He laughed before adding – "she thinks our job is easier than keeping up with two toddlers and running the Leaky."

"I'd pick chasing after Dark Wizards over that too," Ron told him, "but let's not go there – just about anything I say that even remotely involves babies or kids seems to get me in trouble these days."

"Only because you're too stubborn to say the right things to Hermione," Neville countered. He held up his hands when Ron scowled at him. "Relax. I'm not going to ruin your whole day by going on and on about how amazing it is to be a parent – even on the days when Hannah and I don't get much sleep and the kids are driving us batty."

"I really appreciate that," Ron grumbled drily.

"You're leading," Neville told Harry next. "The rest of us are hoping that you'll be a few steps slower after being away."

They may have all been hoping for that, but Harry was fired up, and the first workout of the week was at least as challenging as always – and probably a bit tougher because of that extra enthusiasm. Harry was glad to see that nearly everyone, except for Ron, was able to keep up with both the physical and magical exercises; and there hadn't been a major drop-off while he'd been away. They did all have work to get to, and once they were finished in the training room, Harry and Ron grabbed showers; got ready to head out on their stakeout; and left Auror Headquarters with more than enough time to get settled in before the business they were watching opened for the day.

The little shop was in Falmouth, and they initially started watching the place because they were investigating the murder of the previous owner – Ferris Wheeler. Their search for the unfortunate shopkeeper's murderers hadn't immediately led them in the direction of his store until the business was all but stolen from the man's unsuspecting family. The Selwyn name on the paperwork, along with the pittance paid for the thriving shop was enough to arouse their suspicion; and Harry and Ron had been staking out the shop ever since while also working every clue they'd been digging up along the way. Building their case for the murder was now just a part of a much larger investigation. The shop now appeared to be the hub for a Dark Wizard crime network. Taking down that entire operation was now their priority, and Emma especially hoped they'd get the chance to catch some of the big fish; though the collective family leaders had gotten very good at keeping their hands clean since taking over from Voldemort's old cronies.

"Maybe I should have taken a year off," Harry joked quietly once they were settled in to their usual hiding spot across the street and down a couple of buildings from the Selwyn's shop.

"Don't even think about doing something like that to me," Ron advised him. "Merlin only knows who Emma would stick me with while you were away. I barely managed to talk her into letting me work on my own for a month."

"If we didn't have a good set-up here, she probably wouldn't have gone for that at all," Harry suggested with a nod of understanding. "We've got time for you to give me that update now, though, so why don't we get started on that while we're waiting for anything interesting to happen."

Ron reluctantly did that, and they managed to pass the time as they comfortably returned to their well-established surveillance routine as if Harry hadn't missed a day. That return to normal also meant not much real action as they continued to mostly track the Wizards and Witches who were frequenting the Selwyn's business. Harry hadn't expected a first day back breakthrough in their case; and they didn't get one. That didn't make for a particularly exciting day, but since excitement in their line of work usually meant extreme danger too; that wasn't entirely a bad thing.

That trend continued all week at work, so the only danger in Harry's life was dealing with Ginny's morning sickness and Quidditch training with Gabrielle at home – especially on the night that Ron and George came over and happily pounded bludgers at them for an hour after having dinner together. While Ginny wasn't feeling very good off and on, having Harry back at work also made her a bit restless now that she wasn't busy with her career too. Even while they were in the off-season, the Harpies players always had other activities to keep busy with – most of the events geared toward marketing the team and volunteer programs.

Since she didn't have that to do anymore, and most of her best friends were still working; Ginny visited the Burrow several times; went to Diagon Alley for lunch and an afternoon out with Molly and the kids; and puttered around the house and yard at home when she didn't have anything else to do. It was an interesting change for both Harry and Ginny for her to have dinner ready for him when he got back from work each night; but their evening and bedtime routine was pretty much back to normal right away too – and continued to be a favorite part of the day for both of them. Being pregnant was amazing and thrilling – even with the morning sickness and other normal early-pregnancy issues; but Ginny wasn't finding the whole home-maker thing very exciting at all.

By Saturday afternoon, they were both ready for some fun with their friends; and popped over to the Campbell's house near Wimbourne. They weren't surprised when Dawn met them at the door with enthusiastic hugs and kisses before she led them into the kitchen; where most of the work part of the party was happening while the main action was in the back yard.

"You guys look like you survived your NEWT exams without any permanent damage," Harry suggested to Dawn and Jonathan. "How'd they go?"

"Better for Dawn than me," Jonathan answered first, "but I probably still managed to pass mine; and managed to get through them with only a couple of minor injuries." He smiled at his girlfriend. "She aced most of hers."

"That's not any more surprising than the announcement about which team you'll be playing for will be when it gets officially released," Harry joked as he smiled at Dawn too.

"That's Ginny's fault," Dawn declared. "There hasn't been a Quidditch rookie surprise since the Harpies pulled off their little shocker with her. That was a tough act to follow; so nobody really even tries anymore." She grinned at Ginny. "I wonder if Erin Connelly is thinking that this will finally be her year now that you've retired."

"She probably is," Ginny agreed, "and there's a really good chance she'll be Victoire's toughest competition. Whatever happens; those are going to be great games to watch."

"There are going to be a lot of teams and games worth watching this season," Bryce predicted as he walked into the kitchen and came over to hug Ginny and shake hands with Harry. "Maybe our poor Wasps will even have a chance now that Ginny and Gwenog have both retired."

"You'll still be up against Gwenog," Ginny reminded him; "just not out over the pitch."

"She won't be hitting our guys with bludgers from the managers' box," Bryce countered. "That's got to help us at least a little."

"Maybe," Ginny conceded, "but if anyone underestimates her replacement; they're going to regret it."

"You could say that about any Beater in the league," Bryce countered, "but even if the Harpies had a veteran to replace her; most wouldn't be as good as Gwenog – and they'll be starting a rookie this season."

"Melody's been on the reserve team for two years," Ginny reminded him, "and she's Gwenog's pick. It may take a year more for her to develop; but she is going to be a top player soon enough."

"Quit trying to scare the non-Harpies fans here and let's go outside and socialize," Christine told Ginny. "We girls have more important things to talk about anyway – like babies and pregnancies."

"I doubt that Dad would agree with you on that one – at least from my perspective," Dawn joked, "but we can cut back on the Quidditch chat for a while if you're bored with it already."

Christine laughed while wrapping an arm around Ginny and leading her toward the door. "We know that won't be a worry while you're getting your Quidditch career off the ground, and I'm sure that you'll still spend half the day talking sports as usual; but that doesn't have to be all we talk about today."

The girls went on ahead while Harry stayed long enough to help Bryce with hauling some food and drinks out to the back yard before moving on to mingle with the other guests too. While Quidditch was one of the top conversation topics at the party, with a bunch of Aurors and Ministry of Magic employees around; work and politics were talked about nearly as much as sports with Hogwarts news right behind that on the top of the chat list. While Harry normally disliked talking politics at all, he could at least count on that not getting too heated at Bryce and Christine's; since their friends were all close – and mostly of the same mind when it came to their politics – if not their Quidditch allegiances.

While the party action was about the same as every year; it was also very different for Ginny. Her pregnancy had every girl there wanting to talk babies with her, and for the first time since her own graduation from Hogwarts; she wasn't really 'in-the-loop' when it came to Quidditch talk now that she was retired. Having to sit on the sidelines when Harry and a bunch of the teens and younger adults went off to play Quidditch for a while wasn't easy; and neither was hearing everyone else talk about work and their busy lives when she had absolutely nothing on the go at all.

"I'm really starting to feel as though I'm totally out of it now," Ginny told Harry after they got home from the Campbell's house. "Everyone else is busy with work or hanging out with their friends and family when they're not working; and I have absolutely nothing to do at all."

Harry grinned; scooped her into his arms; and headed for the stairs. "Good, because I definitely have some ideas about what you can be doing right now; so it's really convenient that you're not busy."

Ginny laughed and kissed him. "That is so not where I was going with my comment," she began to tell him before he leaned in and kissed her rather seriously; and then added – "but we can talk later."

'Later' ended up being on Sunday morning while they were having breakfast. They'd stayed, um, up late while playing together; slept in; and then played some more before eventually making their way down to the kitchen; so they were both smiling and happy when Ginny got around to bringing up the subject again.

"I am going to need to do something to keep busy, Harry," she told him seriously once they'd sat down and started filling their plates. "You're back to working long days again as usual; and I don't want to be bugging Mom all of the time when she's busy most weekdays babysitting her grandkids."

"She wouldn't mind if you were there every day; and the kids would love it, Ginny. It's not as if you'll be bored much longer. Once Quidditch training camp opens; I expect that you'll be keeping track of that – and going to as many games as you want is an option now too."

"Quidditch isn't going to be the same for me on the spectator side when my friends are playing and I'll wish I was still out there with them; and the games won't be much fun to watch if I'm doing that by myself all of the time," she countered. "You know that I was getting bored by the end of the first day you went back to work and I think that I'm going to need to get a new job sooner instead of later – though getting someone to hire me when everyone in the Wizarding World knows I'm pregnant might be a problem."

Harry shrugged. "I really thought that you'd want more time off, but if you really aren't happy with taking a break; start your own business – or see if George wants help at one of the stores. He'd probably love it if you'd just hang out at his place in Diagon Alley. That'd bring in the customers for him just to see you."

"You're not actually suggesting that I do that, are you?" Ginny asked with a laugh. "School's out, and I'd mostly have the teen boys drooling all over me if I was at George's store – at least until I start getting fat with our baby. I'll be lucky if I can walk around Diagon Alley without having a pack of them nearby for the next couple of months."

"Okay, maybe you should go with your own business," Harry conceded. "What if you set up a Quidditch website for the new Wizarding World Web that you, Hermione, and the others have been working on? It's supposed to be ready to go on sale in time for Christmas; so this would be a good time to do something like that – and be one of the first to use it for something other than Hermione's libraries and government information."

Ginny took a minute to think about that while eating; and then nodded approvingly. "That's a really good idea. Lee's talked to me about doing Quidditch shows with him, but he puts in nearly as many hours as you do some weeks; and I won't be able to keep up with that kind of schedule for much longer. A website might work out great – and I could watch most of the games from home too once I'm far enough along that I won't want to sit in the stadiums for hours at a time – especially during the winter." She smiled at Harry and shrugged. "I'll talk about that with Hermione and see what she thinks. I'm not doing anything with that anymore, and she's only involved in a little fine tuning now that they're working on everything they need to make the Wizarding World Web work. It'll be making the new mirrors of all types that'll take up most of the time between now and then before they go on sale, and while I haven't really thought about the website development side of the web; I know that Hermione and lots of other Witches and Wizards have been working on it. That'll take a decade or two to develop; though that might depend on how well it goes over in the Wizarding World. It's possible we'll be wrong about how great we think it is – even if the wireless mirror network and multi-way mirror communicators have been a huge success for us." She laughed suddenly; and her smile brightened. "It might be fun to get a jump on the Daily Prophet sports department for a website. Those clowns usually do such a terrible job with their Quidditch reports that the sports section is number two only to Rita's column for use as owl cage liners."

"True, but Rita's Inside Azkaban column will always be number one for our owls," Harry dead-panned; laughing too. "I'd have suggested a Quidditch reporter job with the Daily Prophet; but the editors wouldn't last long with all of the hexes you'd hit them with in the first week – not that I'd have a problem with you doing that. In fact, we could use a bit of that at the Ministry of Magic. Maybe you should think about joining the Wizengamot."

"I might get away with a job like that one thanks to some connections I have with the Aurors; but I definitely don't want to go into politics. We'll leave those careers in our family to Percy and Hermione. I don't have the patience."

"Me either," Harry agreed; "though people keep trying to push me in that direction. I don't really want to go there, though; so let's talk about what you'd like to do for the rest of the day instead?"

What they ended up doing was a whole lot of nothing more than taking it easy and enjoying a nice day together. They went for a late-morning walk; hopped over to Diagon Alley for lunch at a cafe and a bit of shopping; had dinner with Ginny's parents at the Burrow; and had a quiet evening at home that included some quality play time for two before they turned in early so that Harry could rest up ahead of another busy work week. He was up early on Monday morning while Ginny only woke up long enough to wish him a good day before he left. He and Ron had done their morning workout and meeting at Auror Headquarters, and had been on their stake-out assignment for hours by the time the big news of the day hit the wireless mirror network.

While it wasn't news for them, most of the Wizarding World sports fans were at least mildly surprised to find out that Laura Madley's brother, Jonathan, and his girlfriend, Dawn Campbell, had been hired by Puddlemere United already – and that they were expected to be starters on the team with his now-famous big sister. Though most sports commentators had no idea what they were talking about; the reviews on the deal and predictions for what that would mean for the team this season were diverse to say the least. Some idiots predicted a worst season in decades, while there were a couple of reporters at the other end of the spectrum predicting greatness for Puddlemere despite having two rookie Chasers.

The old guard reporters do have the valid point on their side that Jonathan and Dawn will need to fill the void left by Wilda Griffiths' semi-retirement; but Wilda was still going to be a reserve team Chaser and the new team manager; so those reporters ought to be wondering why she thought that was a good move for the team from the manager's perspective – not from her player and captain role. Oliver Wood was stepping in as new team Captain too, and thanks to their Hogwarts experience with Oliver as captain of Gryffindor; Harry and the other players were going to be able to sympathize with his Puddlemere team mates.

That news was one of the topics that Harry and Ron discussed to keep themselves entertained while dealing with another tedious day of stake-out work. After having a long, happy vacation with Ginny, Harry wasn't finding it easy to get back into work mode; though he was as dedicated and serious about his work as always. The whole father-to-be thing was coloring his perception of everything too – including work; the family and friends side of his life; and his priorities for both. Long hours of surveillance gave him time to think about all of that too; though he hadn't come up with any life-changing epiphanies in that process so far.

Harry did put more emphasis on spending time with Ginny and taking care of her as much as he could when not at work, though; and the highlight of the week was Arthur and Molly's thirty-fifth anniversary and dinner party on Wednesday evening. The party was at Ron and Hermione's house, and while Ron couldn't help out much with the work for that while he and Harry were busy; Hermione did get extra help from Ginny, Angelina, Audrey, and Fleur. Ginny had taken on babysitting duties for part of the day too so that her mother could have the day off from her usual grandma daycare service – and enjoy a little pampering in London. She took the kids along when it was time to help out at Ron and Hermione's, and by the time that Harry and Ron got there; most of their family and friends were already there and enjoying a social hour ahead of dinner.

"You're here!" Teddy exclaimed excitedly as he ran up to the two men and threw himself into Harry's arms. "Will you play dragons with me – and fly brooms – and play Quidditch?"

"I noticed that right away; yes; yes; and yes," Harry answered while hugging Teddy and then setting him down so that he could hug Victoire next. She'd been right behind Teddy – a fact that wasn't uncommon; and generally annoyed Teddy to no end. He frowned at her; and shook his head.

"You're getting girl germs all over Uncle Harry," he protested.

"Careful," Ron warned; "or she might decide to get some on you instead." Victoire giggled, and then turned toward Teddy as if to do just that the moment Harry set her down too. Teddy took off running; Victoire followed; and Ron and Harry laughed as they watched them go.

"Was that the voice of experience?" Harry asked; and Ron nodded and laughed again.

"Ginny used that on me for years before I wised up," he explained. "Our brothers were too old for that to work on them; but she had other ways to get what she wanted from them too."

"She probably needed every trick to keep a step ahead of the lot of you – at least until she came up with her own special bat-bogey hex."

"Don't remind me," Ron said fervently. "Just be glad you haven't experienced it for yourself."

Harry laughed. "Actually, I have, but that was just while we were practicing so that I could learn how to block or counter it; and Ginny reversed it right away anytime I didn't get it right." He laughed again. "I do still think about that fairly often anytime I'm in danger of getting her mad at me, though; so maybe Ginny suggested that dueling practice for other reasons than what was obvious to me at the time."

"Could be," Ron agreed. "Let's go and wish Mom and Dad a Happy Anniversary and then I expect that we'll need to join the work crew if we want to keep our girls happy tonight."

"You've come a long way, young Jedi knight," Harry joked. "It wasn't that many years ago that you'd be oblivious to things like that – or doing your best to avoid the work even if it did get you into trouble."

Ron shrugged. "Ginny's not the only Witch around with a bag full of hexes. It's called self-preservation." He sighed as he caught sight of Ginny with a group of women. One of the girls had a hand on her stomach; apparently searching for a baby bump that hadn't appeared yet. "Would you like to make a prediction on how many times I'll be asked about when I'll 'finally' get around to getting Hermione pregnant?"

"No, but I will predict that George will offer to help you out with that at least once or twice – as usual when those comments start flying."

"That wouldn't bug me at all if it wasn't for the fact that he's only half-joking," Ron groused while grinning and looking over to where George and Angelina were hanging out with a couple of the girls from the Harpies.

"You just wish you could throw that joke right back at him," Harry disagreed; and Ron nodded, snorted out a short laugh, and conceded the point.

"True; and I don't think that it's at all fair that Angelina would blast me or get one of her Harpies' Beater buddies to bash me with their bats or a bludger if I made that kind of offer while Hermione just laughs when George suggests it to me."

"That doesn't seem fair," Harry agreed amiably; but then let the matter drop as they joined the party in progress and started to work their way toward Arthur and Molly.

That took about ten minutes to do by the time they exchanged greetings with everyone along the way and then they spent a few minutes wishing their parents a happy anniversary and having a little blast of fun with Aunt Muriel giving them her usual best greetings and commentary that included a back-handed compliment to Harry for finally getting around to getting his wife in a family way and an offer to give Ron some more advice if he was having problems in that area. Once that was done, they moved on into the house; where Hermione was working on dinner and had at least a few helpers with her doing different jobs and keeping her company. Ginny was back in the kitchen by then too; and greeted Harry with a hug and kiss before handing him a tray of appetizers.

"Put this on the table with the other trays of appetizers please," she ordered; and then handed another tray to Ron once he'd finished hugging and kissing Hermione. "Ditto; and bring back empty trays if there are any yet."

"Take it easy on us sis – we work for the Ministry of Magic; and that sounds suspiciously like multi-tasking," Ron warned. "We'd normally need twice as many Aurors to do this much work."

"And someone to supervise," Harry added with a grin and wink for Ginny.

"You've got all the supervision you need," Ginny countered; "and I'm fairly sure you can handle the work without needing the extra help." She turned back toward Hermione in tacit dismissal of the boys. "What's next, Hermione?"

That first little job led to dozens of others before and after dinner; so the only break for the next few hours was while they sat down to enjoy the meal. Teddy had only temporarily forgotten his play requests for Harry when Victoire had chased him off; but the games had needed to wait until after the post-dinner clean-up was finished. Harry, Ron, and some of the other guys had been in charge of that; mostly because the girls had done most of the work before dinner – and they'd wanted to be with Arthur and Molly while they opened their anniversary gifts after they'd all finished having dessert. Those presents had ranged from wheezes to thoughtful and unique; and the top gift of the day went to all of their kids for the all-expenses-paid vacation to Romania that was going to give the happy couple a chance for a nice long visit with Charlie and his family – and some quality time at a villa on the Black Sea.

While that gift and surprise had been a highlight of the party for Arthur and Molly, and the dinner had been great too; the best part of the evening for Harry was the play time with the kids – particularly Teddy and Victoire. He had lots of adult company for that too; but he was also definitely still a kid at heart when it came to playing with the coolest Wizarding World toys and games. He got teased about that fairly regularly, but didn't care; and he could only hope to be as good a parent as so many people predicted he would be whenever they saw him play with Teddy or his nieces and nephews.

The anniversary party was the only real fun break in the work week for Harry or Ron; and they put in long days between their stake-out and the work they did at Auror Headquarters both before and after those hours of collecting endless information on 'their' bad guys and anyone associating with them – though that information hadn't led to any breakthroughs in their case. Though he did some work on Saturday too; Harry took most of the weekend off to spend some quality time with Ginny; and then it was back to the stake-out grind again on Monday.

Nothing exciting at all happened at work or home as June ended and July began; but the week ended on a high note with another party after work on Friday – this one to celebrate Dennis Creevey's and Natalie McDonald's promotions to Auror after finishing up their three years of training under Harry and Neville. They'd been working on their own most of the time for more than a year, and while Harry and Neville had continued their training as needed; the promotions had really just been a formality. They'd proven their skills countless times over their years as trainees; and were now one of the very best Auror teams. That didn't mean it wasn't a big deal, though; and Dennis and Natalie were in a fairly exclusive group of Aurors to achieve the promotion since the end of the war.

Harry and Neville were hosting the party; they were having it at the Leaky Cauldron; and Hannah and her staff took care of all of the work for it while Harry took care of the bill and even had help from Ginny, Hermione, and Hannah to pick out 'graduation' gifts for their two friends. They still all needed to get through a normal work day; but they also knocked off a bit early; and there was an official ceremony at the Ministry of Magic that Minister Shacklebolt presided over as Dennis and Natalie received their Auror badges and the well-deserved official recognition and media attention.

Then it was time to head over to the Leaky and get started on the partying!

"What are you going to do with all of the extra time on your hands now that you're trainee-free?" Dennis joked as he joined Harry, Ron, and Neville. While some of their guests were sitting down already; most were just mingling while enjoying a cold drink and some chat time.

"According to half of our friends, I should use the time to rest up for impending fatherhood," Harry answered with a smile and glance toward Ginny. She was with Hermione and a group of girls; and they'd mostly split up because Ron hadn't wanted to talk weddings or babies. "We both know I haven't really had any extra work with your training in quite a while, though, so nothing is going to change for me – unless Emma gives Ron and me extra shifts when you're on your honeymoon with Natalie the end of this month and start of August."

"Maybe she'll give you a new trainee," Dennis suggested – "unless she's not as happy with me as she's said," he added with a laugh.

"She's happy with all of her new Aurors; but it isn't my turn again for a while," Harry advised him; and then grinned at Ron. "Maybe it'll be your turn this year. You haven't been in Emma's doghouse in months."

"Only because you were on vacation for a month and didn't get me into any trouble," Ron shot back; and then shook his head. "There are other Aurors due up for a turn at training too; and we don't really need another Wizard around to help with everything we're not getting done right now anyway."

"Then maybe you should get a Witch for your trainee," Natalie suggested as she joined them and put an arm around Dennis. "It's possible that you just need a woman's perspective on the case to solve it."

Ron snorted a laugh. "Emma would not risk Hermione's wrath by assigning me a Witch for an Auror-trainee," he scoffed dismissively; "and if she did, I'd have to turn her down if I know what's good for me."

"She won't have to worry about that this year," Natalie told him seriously. "From what I've heard, there aren't any Witches applying to the program this year."

"Then there probably won't be unless someone is keeping a secret from their girlfriends," Harry said with a nod. "You've got the best non-family connections to the girls at Hogwarts; and Christine's kids haven't heard anything either."

"If you really are hitting a wall on your investigation; Natalie's suggestion about getting a Witch's perspective might be a good one," Neville told Ron and Harry.

"We've been getting second opinions on our case fairly regularly," Harry assured him with a nod; "though that hasn't helped much either so far."

"Are you talking shop?" Ginny asked; coming up next to Harry and smiling as he put an arm around her waist for a half-hug.

"Not really," he answered with a shrug. "We just got a bit off-track while Dennis was joking about me having extra time on my hands now that I don't have a trainee anymore."

"We'll think of something, and can talk about that later; but you should let Dennis and Natalie move on – there are a lot of people waiting for a chance to congratulate them."

That not-so-subtle hint had them all moving on, and everyone at the party enjoyed the dinner and evening of fun and entertainment – something that the Aurors didn't get to do as a group all that often while busy working on diverse cases and assignments at all hours of the day and night. Harry and Ginny were there right up until the last guests left the Leaky; and they helped out with the clean-up too so that Hannah and her staff didn't need to stay up half the night to get the place ready for business again on Saturday morning.

Harry didn't take the weekend off because he was planning on taking next weekend off so that he could spend those two days with Ginny while they celebrated their fifth anniversary. They didn't have any big plans because they had taken the extra time off after Ginny retired from Quidditch, but there was going to be a party at the Burrow; sleeping in – or alternate favorite bedroom activities that started with 'S' – was an option both days; and there was a lot to be said for celebrating anniversaries in the privacy of your own home! Having that to look forward to made the work from Saturday through to Friday afternoon easy enough; though still very tedious as Harry and Ron continued to come up with absolutely nothing relevant to their case. Their quarry had gotten much more careful over the years, and that had a lot to do with the drop-off in Auror-trainee recruits. The Aurors weren't in the news all of the time anymore; and the job didn't seem nearly as glamorous as it had been in the first few years after the war.

After finishing work on Friday, Harry brought dinner for two home with him so that he and Ginny could stay in for the night and not have much work to do either. They enjoyed their meal, and then spent most of the evening keeping entertained with some clothing-optional play time before Ginny ran out of steam and fell asleep. That's why she didn't feel like sleeping in on Saturday morning; and Harry was happy to begin their official anniversary celebration with more play time in bed and then while having a fairly magical – and hot – shower together before getting around to making breakfast for her by mid-morning. They exchanged gifts too; took care of a bit of yard work after eating; and then popped over to London by lunchtime – though they didn't do that to go out for lunch. They instead wandered around a Muggle Mall; picked up a few things they needed in Diagon Alley; had an ice cream break there; and then went home again in time to get ready for their anniversary party before moving on to the Burrow.

"Happy Anniversary!" Molly told them enthusiastically in welcome. She hugged Ginny gently – by her standards – and had a crushing hug for Harry. "Have you had a good day so far?"

"Thanks, Mom, and yes; Harry's made sure that I've had a really great day so far," Ginny assured her mother. "Don't you have any help around here? I thought that half the gang would be here by now."

"We had help earlier; and the girls are working at home and bringing food with them. Fleur and Audrey are trying to get the kids to have afternoon naps so they won't be cranky tonight."

"They'd likely need to give them sleeping potions to make that happen when they know there's a party," Ginny suggested; and Molly laughed.

"Fleur was seriously considering that; and Audrey just joked about getting Percy to read Ministry reports to their kids until they fell asleep."

"That'd work," Harry said with a laugh. "It still works for Ron."

"And that happens when he's checking over his own reports," Ginny joked. "While I'm thinking about the kids, though; I was wondering if you'd like to go along with me to the training camp opening day festivities on Monday, Mom. If you don't want to take all of the kids; I could probably handle Teddy, Victoire, and one or two more. There aren't any big surprises happening this year; but they will get to see Gabrielle's big moment; a first-look at the new toys and merchandise; and meet some of the new players at the luncheon."

Molly nodded and smiled. "Let's talk about that with Fleur, Audrey, and Andromeda later. The kids would love that; but Lucy and Louis are a bit young; so we might not want to take them along – especially if they're having a fussy day."

"Is Dad hiding in his workshop?" Ginny asked next; and Molly nodded again; this time with a hint of exasperation.

"As usual. He's probably getting his toys ready to play with for the kids; though he could have gotten diverted with one of his projects too."

"Why don't you go and remind him that he has incoming guests, Harry, and I'll keep Mom company in here," Ginny suggested. Okay, it wasn't actually a suggestion, since she gave Harry a quick hug and kiss goodbye before nudging him in the direction of the back door; but he was used to that and knew that Ginny sent him instead of going herself because it always seemed to take her longer to get him out of the shop than it took Harry.

That didn't actually end up being a problem because Arthur was already carrying his remote-control planes and a helicopter out of the workshop and getting them set up on his little 'airfield'. He'd built all of his planes; re-built the ones that he hadn't crashed beyond repair; and had become a fairly competent operator of his toys – though he still crashed them now and then when he forgot about the little things – like keeping track of how close they were to running out of fuel. It was a bit amazing how often he even forgot to just use magic to save his planes when those things happened; though he claimed that it just didn't seem right to do that if he really wanted to fly them the way that Muggles would. Harry helped him out by carrying one of the last two planes he planned on flying with the kids today; and then they took a little loop around the yard on their way back to the house.

Though Harry and Ginny were the guests of honor for the day, they still helped out with the work in the kitchen and yard until the other guests began arriving; and then Molly fired them and they were free to have fun for the rest of the day. Their entertainment got loud and strange when George and Angelina arrived with Aunt Muriel. She was as formidable as ever, and wasn't showing any signs that her one hundred and fourteen years was slowing her down at all – except when it worked to her advantage.

"It's about time you got around to getting our Ginny in a family way," she told Harry loudly enough to be heard in town. "I was beginning to wonder if you had it in you or not."

"That was never a problem," Ginny assured her with a laugh as Harry tried not to blush; "and you know I wanted to wait until after I retired from playing Quidditch with the Harpies." She and Harry both ignored the fact that her aunt was repeating her opening comments for Harry from Arthur and Molly's anniversary party. That happened fairly often; and it wasn't always clear if she was doing that because she truly forgot or because she found it amusing. Everyone in the family pretty much just went along with her litany of pronouncements and tried to enjoy the ride.

"Well, I guess you didn't wait long after that," Muriel conceded grudgingly. "Is that what you two are waiting for too?" she demanded of George and Angelina. "Your father had three boys already by the time he was your age – and had your Mom pregnant again with you and Fred."

"We're afraid that we'd end up having kids just like me and Fred were," George joked; and Muriel barked out a laugh.

"As well you should be," she agreed; "not to mention your lop-sided ear problem. Hopefully your children will favor Angelina."

"I'd say their kids would have more to worry about from George than the other way around," Ginny teased, "but I can't blame Angelina for wanting to keep playing Quidditch. I'm going to be even more bored than I have been starting next week when the Harpies are back in training camp again and I'll be sitting at home with nothing to do."

"Rest up while you can," Fleur recommended as she joined them and then leaned over to hug Muriel. "Bill and I haven't had many good nights of rest in about four years."

"Are you saying that's because of the kids – or do you have three kids because of those sleepless nights?" Angelina asked innocently; earning a round of laughs that Muriel led with another of her loud guffaws.

"Both, if they're lucky," she chortled with a knowing, wicked little grin.

"Hello, Aunt Muriel," Bill said as he caught up with Fleur. He was carrying Louis; and smoothly settled the baby into his aunt's arms. The almost nine-month old little boy looked up at her with wide eyes; but lay there contentedly enough as she began to rock him without even thinking about it. "Have I missed any of the roasting for Ginny and Harry?"

"We haven't even started," George advised him; "and that would be a lot more entertaining than the current subject for some of us."

"Definitely," Angelina agreed. "It's hard to believe that you've already been married for five years." She smiled when Muriel snorted another little laugh – though it was slightly muted so that it didn't startle Louis too much. "It is a fifth of their lives; even if that doesn't seem very long to you."

"It seems like yesterday when Ginny was a babe in my arms just like this one," Muriel told them. The entire Weasley clan was shocked that they finally had a baby girl. At least that streak seems to have ended with you now that your brothers have managed to have some girls too."

"Well, that's starting the roast back a bit farther than I expected; but we can run with it," Bill offered with a smile for Ginny. "We should have known right from the start that she was going to be something special – being the only Weasley daughter in fifty generations."

"It was seven," she corrected automatically; and Bill nodded agreeably.

"Right – the seventh child of the seventh generation; born during the seventh moon in the seventh minute of the seventh hour and all that."

"That'd be a great story if you weren't making up the last three parts of it," Ginny told him blandly; and Bill laughed.

"How do you know? You were pretty young then and can't possibly remember it."

"True, but Mom and Dad were there; and we've all heard the real stories. Don't you have enough material to use without making stuff up as you go along?"

"Probably, but why let that get in the way of some bonus entertainment?"

Bill and George were happy to continue with a little roasting, but Harry and Ginny needed to mingle too; so the story time for them was a bunch of cameo moments with their family and friends – at least until dinnertime. There was an 'official' roast as part of the dinner entertainment that Bill, George, and Ron led with help from other guests. There were a few little gifts too; a cake; and some party favors that were mostly for the kids – and from George's stores, so that couple of hours was filled with non-stop action and fun.

Harry and Ginny weren't allowed to help with the post-dinner clean-up too, so they played with the kids instead. That included playing with toys; helping the kids with flying their brooms; watching the airplane and helicopter action when Arthur was ready to do that with the kids; and playing a game of Quidditch with Teddy's toy set. It was time for parents to take their younger kids home by dark; but Harry and Ginny stayed for another hour or so to enjoy drinks and some quiet chat time with Arthur, Molly, George, Angelina, Ron, and Hermione before the three younger couples were ready to head home for the night too. Harry and Ginny were the last to leave; and he apparated them home after one last round of hugs with Ginny's parents.

"Look out!" Harry shouted as he sensed the danger and threw up shields even as the attacks were launched at them – at Ginny! "REDUCTO!" he bellowed in fury and rage as he lashed out at their unseen attackers.

Pain seared through his body in so many places that he didn't try to even think about it; but he knew that Ginny and their baby were unharmed because he'd used his shields to protect them and used his own body to get in the way of the few spells he hadn't reacted to fast enough. An anti-apparition shield had been thrown up around them the moment they'd arrived, but his counter-attack had obliterated it even as it blasted every Witch and Wizard attempting to hold it in place. Ginny had her wand out by then too, and her eyes blazed with as much fury as his as she joined Harry and they both went on the attack. They still couldn't see their attackers in the darkness, but there were shouts and a few screams of pain before they could both sense their opponents apparating away at nearly the exact same time. They protected themselves from the flurry of curses that were fired at them as the Witches and Wizards tried to hit them again as they left – or cover their escape; and then it was suddenly, shockingly over.

"Are you okay?" Harry demanded; turning to face Ginny and lighting the area around them so that he could look her over and see for himself. Her face drained of color, and he took a step toward her – reaching out; and then the pain hit him and he fell, mercifully, into an abyss of blackness.

"Ginny!" Harry's mind raced out of the dark to fully awake in an instant; and he tried to sit up; but found that he couldn't move.

"I'm fine," she assured him; and Harry looked in the direction of her voice because he could only move his eyes. She stood up; leaned over the bed; and smiled at him. "Relax, Harry," she continued soothingly. "I'm fine, and so is the baby. You're the one having a very bad time of it right now."

He took a few moments to calm down and collect his thoughts while Ginny put a hand to his face and leaned in for a soft kiss. "How long?" he asked her after she straightened again.

"Half a day, give or take," she advised him gently. "One of the healers predicted a month, though; so you're a bit ahead of schedule."

"Do I want to know how bad it was? Why am I in bindings?"

"You're under arrest," Ron told him; and Harry looked to the other side of the bed; noticing Ron and Hermione for the first time. There were tears in Hermione's eyes. "Sorry about that mate, but it's all over the news that you attacked an innocent group of Witches and Wizards; put six of them are here in the hospital fighting desperately for their lives; and it was pure luck that the others escaped before you did them in too."

"You're in the full-body bind to make sure the parts of your skeleton that they've been re-growing don't get messed up from having you move around – like they would have if you'd tried to get up just now," Ginny answered seriously; though she smiled at Ron's joke. "How are you feeling?"

Harry took a moment to think about that before answering. "I don't feel anything right now. If they've dosed me with skele-grow; that doesn't seem right. Should I be worried?"

"The Healers have dosed you with a lot of things," Ginny advised him. "We'll ask when they check up on you next; but I'll guess they've just tried to numb the pain."

"We did," Kellie Kendrick told them as she approached them from behind Ron and Hermione. "Hello Harry," she added as Ron stepped behind Hermione and made room for her. "It's been a while since you've needed your bed here, and while I like you and Ginny quite a lot; I was hoping that we wouldn't see you for quite a while longer."

"Right now, I'm thinking that seeing you is great considering some of the alternatives," Harry quipped; though he wasn't really joking. "What did I break this time around?"

Kellie laughed. "It might be easier to tell you what you didn't break, but I'll leave that for Ginny to talk to you about; and I'll just check you over and see how the skele-grow is coming along. We've healed up everything else that we can for now already; but you're going to be out of action for a little while, Harry." She smiled at him fondly. "You have seriously got to stop letting the bad guys bash in your head."

"I've managed to go more than two years since the last one," he reminded her; and Kellie laughed again.

"Well, at least that proves you haven't seriously damaged your long-term memory." She spent nearly ten minutes checking over Harry's injuries, and while she didn't give him the details; the fact that she started with his head and didn't stop until she reached his knees wasn't a good sign from his perspective. When she was finished, she strongly recommended that Harry get in some more nap time once he'd had a chat with Ginny – and with the Head of the Aurors; since Emma was likely already on her way to the hospital.

"Let's start with how you are and what happened after the lights went out for me," Harry told Ginny softly. He couldn't even hold her hand, but she stayed net to him and kept one of her hands resting and caressing his cheek.

"I don't have even a scratch on me thanks to you," Ginny assured him. "The only thing that happened immediately after you passed out was that I called for help; and then Ron, Hermione, and a gang of your Auror buddies came to help us."

"You looked like a ghost last time I saw you," Harry advised her; and Ginny nodded.

"Probably, but that's because I was just getting a look at what had happened to you. We'd be having a long talk about this if you'd gotten hurt like this in any of your Auror operations, but you saved us; so I can't exactly let you have it for taking all of those hits for us." She'd put her other hand over her stomach by then, and while there were still tears in Hermione's eyes; Ginny's were clear and fierce with pride and love – and more than a hint of the rage that was beginning to return to Harry's conscious thoughts.

"All of those curses were directed at you – and the baby," he declared; his voice turning a bit hoarse. His expression hardened. "There's going to be hell to pay for this if I have anything to say about it."

"You said a bad word," Ron advised him; and Harry settled for a weak laugh when bobbing his head wasn't an option. "I'd say that you made a start on that last night, mate. We do have six injured Wizards and Witches down the hall to prove it."

"That's a start," Harry agreed; "but I don't have any idea how many got away. It might have been dozens."

"It was," Ginny confirmed for him. "Emma and Christine took a look at my memories and counted up as many of the apparitions as I'd sensed – though I probably didn't get them all; and some were likely side-alongs."

"We're lucky that none of them came back for the others and found you there on your own," Harry said; and Ginny shrugged.

"Did I mention that I didn't have a scratch on me?" she reminded him with a hard look in her eyes. "It's a good thing that none of them did – for them. I was not amused by then."

"That's an understatement," Ron agreed helpfully; grinning at Ginny with pride. "If you hadn't been in such tough shape, mate; I think she might have just gone hunting for the lot of them right then."

"I'd have helped her," Hermione said; speaking for the first time and looking as though she'd gotten a handle on her emotions again. "That was a nasty business, Harry. I can't believe that they went after Ginny and the baby like that. It's just horrid."

"Yes it is," Harry agreed. "When Ron and I find the rest of them; I think we'll spend some quality time explaining how I feel about that too."

"Or not," Emma told him firmly. She had Christine with her as she walked into the room; and they quickly joined the group around Harry's bed. "Welcome back, Harry. You gave us yet another scare with this one."

"Sorry about that, and I'd get my report right to you; but that's going to be a bit of a problem for me right now unless someone wants to do the writing for me."

Emma laughed. "We didn't expect you to wake up for a week or more; so I was going to give you an extension on the usual deadline," she teased. "You seem to be feeling okay; though I have to tell you that you look terrible. Do you remember what happened?"

"The attack – yes; the injuries – no," Harry answered. "We haven't gotten there yet in the story time we're having. We're just up to Ginny calling for help and getting Ron, Hermione, and a gang of Aurors showing up in response."

"Ginny gets priority service – even in the middle of the night," Christine advised him. "Aren't you glad that you were there with her?"

"Definitely," Harry agreed with a laugh and smile. "Thanks for being there for her."

"You're welcome," Emma answered first. "I haven't got much time to visit; so would you mind if I do a condensed version of the story from there and we can take care of a few other issues before I need to move on?"

"Works for me. I might not last through the full story right now anyway."

"Ron and Hermione got there first; and Hermione and Ginny dealt with your triage while Ron kept watch over all of you until the rest of us arrived."

"You really wouldn't have wanted me botching that for you," Ron interjected; and then kept his attention on Harry while ignoring Emma's momentary faux-glare at his interruption.

"True that," Harry had time to say before Emma continued.

"Once we had the area secure, we found the six injured attackers and needed to begin triage on all of them." She smiled grimly at Harry. "Don't feel guilty about them – all of their injuries were either power flashover burns or their own rebounding curses from when their shields were blasted."

Harry didn't hesitate to answer that comment. "I'm going to make an exception on that general rule this time," he promised. "Apparently, I'm finding out that being a father-to-be is changing my opinion on things like that when it comes to the bad guys attacking my wife and baby."

Emma sighed and shook her head. "I hope you get over that," she said quietly. "That's one of the things that we love most about you, Harry." He looked away for a moment; and didn't say anything more. She sighed again; but moved on. "It took a while to get Healers there and have all of you ready to move here to St. Mingo's. You were in good hands; so other than leaving a few extra Aurors here to keep an eye on you and the others; the rest of us went back to your place to take a look around."

"Did you find anything interesting?"

"Not a clue," Emma admitted in disgust. "Sure there were some footprints and some signs that your attackers had been waiting there for a little while; but not as long as I would have expected."

"Which means they probably had someone watching the Burrow yesterday too," Harry surmised; and Emma nodded again.

"Probably; though we didn't find any clues in the area when we went to look this morning; so they must have covered their tracks."

"Do we have anything yet on the six we have?" Harry asked next; and Emma nodded.

"Just names and the usual records so far. They're not in any condition to talk; but it looks like we have another group of poor relatives doing the dirty work for their rich masters."

"Sh-oot," Harry exclaimed; and then laughed ruefully. "On second thought, I meant what I was going to say there; so let's pretend that I didn't change it at the last second as usual."

"That'd be two bad words in less than a day," Ron pointed out. "Are you sure, mate?"

"Very sure," Harry confirmed while the girls laughed. "I'm not at all happy right now – and not just because I have to wait for my bones to grow back before hugging Ginny again." He sighed and then looked toward her. "If you don't mind a side-trip; how bad is it – other than the fact that I apparently look terrible."

"You probably remember jumping in front of the curses that you didn't have time to shield me from," Ginny began; and Harry nodded; and then said "Yes" when he remembered that he couldn't actually nod while in the binding spell. "Kellie wasn't really joking about it being easier to list what wasn't broken, honey. That's why they're pretty much re-growing about half of every bone from the top of your head to your waist. There were a lot of internal injuries too; and most of your injuries hit you in the back or left side."

"Then my wand arm is still good?" Harry asked. "Can you get them to release it? I might be able to take care of a few things from here in the bed while I'm waiting for the rest of me to heal up."

Ginny laughed, leaned in, and kissed him for a soft, tender, moment. "That's my boy, but no; it isn't an option. Your arm's mostly in one piece, but it's connected to other parts that are being re-grown."

"Not to mention that you might not be moving around very well even after you've got all of your bones back," Christine added. "You're a bit on the black and blue side of things right now, Harry."

"Can you ask George to send over a jumbo jar of his bruise remover, Ron?" Harry asked; and Ron laughed.

"He's working on it already, mate; but that's a lot of bruises. You might want to think about just having a bath in the stuff."

"That's an idea," Harry agreed. "Anything else, Ginny?"

"Yes. Thank Hermione for keeping you alive until the Healers got there and took over. I did already; but we should think about getting her a very nice thank-you present."

"You did just as much as I did," Hermione protested; and Ginny laughed.

"I'll admit to being subconscious motivation; but we both know I was a mess and just pretending to hold it together until I could have a good cry on my Mommy's shoulder."

"You did way better than that," Emma told her while smiling at the two girls; but you can talk that out later. Since you've covered a bit of the injury report; let's move this along." She returned her attention to Harry. "We have some of our Aurors out in the field trying to pick up any bad guy chatter; but nobody has even checked in with me yet; so I don't have anything new there."

"Are they keeping an eye out for any other injured Witches and Wizards?" Harry asked; and Emma nodded.

"Both here and out in the field," she confirmed. "There haven't been any suspicious new patients here, and like I said; we haven't heard back from anyone in the field yet."

"We probably won't for that today," Christine suggested. "Anyone with serious injuries will likely be lying low – or they're unable to go anywhere yet."

"You could keep an ear out for people calling in sick from work," Hermione suggested; "though that'd be a mess of paperwork to sift through just at the Ministry this time of year. People are always calling in sick on Fridays and Mondays during the summer."

"Then why won't you let us do it every time I suggest it?" Ron complained while giving Hermione a squeeze and grinning at Harry.

"Because you'd want to do that every work day from May to October," Christine countered with a laugh – "plus for every Cannons game."

"That's a good idea," Emma said next, and then added – "checking for people calling in sick – not Ron's personal issues with the topic" after seeing his reaction. She smiled at Harry. "Maybe we could drop all of that paperwork off here so that you can do all of that sifting while you're recovering."

"I feel better already. Take me home, Ginny."

"Funny, but not happening quite yet," Ginny advised him with a laugh. She looked at him critically. "You're about done in already. Do you have anything else for him, Emma?"

"We were told not to risk trying to get any memories from you yet," she told Harry; "but I was wondering if there was anything you saw or remember that Ginny might not have that could help us with the case."

Harry closed his eyes and took a long minute to replay the scene and think about that before opening his eyes again and answering. "We might be able to get voice matches if we find them, but there weren't any voices I recognize; and most of the curses were shouted anyway so that'll be even tougher to match. It was too dark to see any of them for as long as they were there with us – which wasn't more than a handful of seconds. I didn't get a precognition – one of them was doing something and I sensed the magic as we arrived. I'm still not sure how many attackers; and don't want to think about just how many curses and spells they hurled at Ginny..." He trailed off for a moment; and then his eyes blazed for a moment with renewed fury. "Many of those attacks were directed at her stomach and lower back," he continued; his voice quiet, but filled with a shaking rage. He looked up at Ginny; and saw that she'd already deduced that too.

"That's why so many of those curses hit you in the back," she advised him. "Probably taller Wizards aiming down."

"Can you put me in the same room with those other six, Emma?" Harry asked. "Strictly to make life easier for the Healers, you understand."

"No, but I'm sure they'd appreciate your concern for their work overload this weekend."

"You could tuck my wand in my hand and leave me there on guard duty," Harry tried next; and Christine laughed.

"That's probably a first for you – offering to do guard duty. You might want to be careful about what you ask for, though."

"No guard duty tonight either; but probably more than a bit of it coming your way soon," Emma said; smiling at Christine. "Keep it up and it'll be night shift duty too."

"Shutting up now," Harry said; conceding defeat quickly.

"Not quite yet; unless that's all you remember for now."

Harry closed his eyes again for a moment before resuming his memory review. "I used the usual multiple shields around Ginny, but couldn't react to all of the curses fast enough. You know how I dealt with the ones I didn't get blocked; so let's not go there. That sucked, but I was fairly ticked off by then. Blasting their shields was mostly to blow up the anti-apparition charm. I wanted to get Ginny out of there; and that seemed to be the best way to do that instead of standing and fighting. I would have gotten us out of there if they hadn't started running off first. They threw some covering curses at us as they left; but Ginny helped me with those. That's about when the lights went out for me; though I'm pretty sure that they were all gone first."

"They were," Ginny assured him gently. "You did what you had to do and kept us safe as long as we needed you." She leaned in a kissed him again; and Harry seemed to settle back in relief – even if he couldn't actually move anything more than his face.

"Okay, that's it for right now then, Harry," Emma decided. "Get some sleep; and I'll keep in touch if anything comes up."

"Thank-you," Harry said gratefully; and then seemed to get more fired up again. "Do you have help booked for Ginny while I'm stuck in here?"

"Don't you worry about that for a second," Emma told him firmly. "Your family and Auror friends are not going to let anything happen to Ginny – and we're nearly as mad about this as the two of you are." She laughed and then smiled. "Sorry, I was just thinking about a few comments that Molly had last night when she and Arthur got to your place. She said some bad words too; so you're not the only one who has been saying things they normally don't."

"They're sleeping right now – hopefully," Ginny advised Harry. "Mom wouldn't leave until after she was sure you were going to make it." She smiled at Emma and Christine. "They're not the only Witches and Wizards in need of some sleep right now, though; so hopefully Emma will make everyone else get some sleep sometime soon too."

"Starting with you?" Emma suggested; and Ginny laughed.

"I've had two naps already."

"For a total of about forty minutes," Hermione added. "You're past-due for nap number three – even if we know there's no way you'll leave Harry alone yet."

"Harry and I will both have a nap if you guys agree to go home and get some rest too," Ginny offered; and Hermione rolled her eyes and said something under her breath.

"I heard that," Ron advised her with a grin; "and I'm so proud of you!" Hermione laughed and he hugged her. "We'll make that deal," he told Ginny. "Don't argue, Hermione. We need the rest – and at least one of us is a bit overdue for a shower as well after all of this excitement."

"Your plan for both is approved," Emma advised him. "Be back here at midnight for guard duty. I'll decide later if that'll be here with Harry or with our prisoners."

"Assign him to the prisoners," Harry told Emma. "He snores when he falls asleep on guard duty."

"I do not!" Ron asserted; laughed; and then added – "fall asleep on guard duty."

Emma had smiled, but then looked at Harry for a longer moment. She suddenly laughed too. "Nice try, Harry, but even if I do put Ron in here with you; he will not be allowed to help you to escape and pay that lot a little late-night visit."

"It was worth a try," Harry answered unapologetically; earning more laughs. "Thank everyone who is helping out on this for us."

"I will," Emma promised. "Get some sleep, Harry – and get well again."

"He'll do both," Ginny assured her – "or else."

"Yes, dear," Harry agreed; and then he closed his eyes and decided to let the darkness claim him again for a while.

It was nearing dusk when Harry woke up again, and he kept his eyes closed for a few minutes while just listening to the sounds of quiet conversation coming from across the room. Ginny was there; and so were her parents, George, and Angelina. If there were others; they hadn't spoken yet since he'd regained consciousness; but still he decided to just listen for a while longer.

"I still can't believe they tried to hurt our baby," Ginny said; her voice the hushed whisper that hospital visitors always try to use around sleeping patients. "It was one thing when it was just Harry and me; but now it's all changed – and I'm afraid for our baby."

"We are not going to let anything happen to the baby – or to you," Molly promised; her voice a fierce whisper that was tinged with more than a hint of outrage that reminded Harry a lot of her protectiveness when she faced off against Bellatrix Lestrange at Hogwarts. "Emma told you that their prisoners are more of the poor purebloods that the Dark Wizards and Witches have been using these past few years to do their dirty work; but we all know which families are involved; and I think that they've made a big mistake this time. Your husband is not going to sit back and let them get away with this – and neither will any of the other Aurors."

Ginny was quiet for a long moment before saying anything in response to that. "I know that he won't quit the Aurors, and I guess I don't want really want him to do that either; but sometimes I wish it didn't have to be him – or us – with the targets on our backs for every bad Witch and Wizard out there. It scares me even more to think that our kids will have to deal with that their whole lives too."

"Your father and I can relate to that better than most, Ginny, but your family – and his – have been in the thick of it when it comes to fighting Dark Wizards and Witches for a very long time and that isn't likely to change – even if we might wish it would." Ginny sighed; and it sounded as though she shared a long hug with her mother.

"We'll find a way to keep our kids safe, Ginny," he said quietly; "and we'll teach them to be strong enough to handle living in this sometimes-crazy world of ours – and hopefully do that even better than we have."

Ginny laughed softly at that; though there wasn't really much of a sense of humor in it. Harry had opened his eyes as he spoke; and was able to watch her as she hurried over to his bed; followed by her parents, brother, and Angelina. "I'd say we've done well-enough – all things considered. I just wish we could spare our children from all of the awful we've lived through even while I hope they'll get to have as much of the good as we've had."

"Me too," Harry agreed; "though the first part of that isn't very likely. The Dark Wizards and Witches won't give up – and there always seems to be more of them ready to join the ranks for every one of them that we send to Azkaban."

"Or two," Ginny added a bit morosely; and then seemed to give herself a shake. "We're all okay," she said more for herself than Harry – "or we will be once you're better again. I'll be more careful now that we know we have a problem again; and when Emma lets you go back to work again, you can go out there and make life miserable for the bad guys so that they'll leave us alone; and we are not going to let them mess up our lives by being too afraid to do anything."

"Yes, dear," Harry agreed immediately; and she leaned in and kissed him for a long moment before straightening again. "Hi all," he said next; meaning everyone else with Ginny while looking at Molly. "I didn't expect to see any of you for the rest of the weekend when we headed home last night; but I've managed to botch the last half of our stay-at-home anniversary weekend plans."

Molly laughed and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "You did well-enough, all things considered. George tells me that I can't hug you because it might mess up your healing; so I'll save that up for later."

"We definitely don't want to do that," Harry agreed. "Whatever they gave me before is wearing off; and I'm quickly remembering why I don't like skele-grow at all."

"Funny, we're beginning to think that you like it a lot for as often as you've needed it," George told him with a lop-sided grin.

"Did you let Rita quote you on that one?" Harry shot back; and George laughed.

"No, but that'd be tame compared to what she does know from the buzz from Inside Azkaban. The mildest is that you really just got run over by a Muggle truck while in your animagus form."

"That's actually funny; if a bit ridiculous," Harry said with a snort. "How are you, Angelina? All set for the big day tomorrow?"

"Yes, though I'll have to get home soon. The girls will be glad to hear that you're going to make it; but I don't get out of training curfew even for something like this."

Harry smiled. "Maybe I'll get out of here in time to go to the opening day ceremony with Ginny, Mom, and the kids."

"That isn't happening; and I'll be staying here with you," Ginny told him firmly. Harry couldn't shake his head; but Ginny knew that's what he would have been doing when he looked at her.

"If I'm still stuck in here tomorrow, you definitely still need to go, Ginny. Teddy and Victoire will not want to miss it – especially when it's also Aunt Gabrielle's big day." She was about to answer that; but Harry locked eyes with her and added – "promise me you'll go whether I can too or not."

Ginny sighed and then caved in. "I promise; but only because I don't want you getting worked up about it."

"You can promise that all you want, but if Emma doesn't like it; I'll be on her side," Molly warned them. "We've also promised to keep you safe while Harry's in here; and I'm not sure that major public appearances are a good idea."

"I think it's a perfect idea," Angelina said quietly; getting everyone's attention. "Can you think of a better way to send a perfect message to the lot of those gits that did this to you?"

"That'd be the right message to the rest of the Wizarding World too," Arthur added; earning a scowl from Molly. "If Ginny's able to do something like that already tomorrow; then everyone will know that Harry is going to be just fine," he explained; and then grinned at Angelina. "The fact that it'll drive the Dark Wizards who did this batty too is just a nice bonus."

"I'm sold, but Mom's right; and I'd better run this past the Aurors too," Ginny decided.

"I'll go talk to our guards and they can pass a message along," George offered; and then left the room for a moment after getting a nod of approval from his sister.

"Has there been any news from the Healers about how my treatment is coming along?" Harry asked Ginny; and she nodded.

"Yes, but nothing you'll like to hear. At the rate it's going right now; it'll be most of another day before your bones are back to normal. They'll need to do a few more things after that; so it could be Tuesday or Wednesday before you can come home."

"It sure sucks to be me at times like this," he joked; and Ginny leaned in to kiss him again. "Or not," he added; smiling up at her. "I love you."

"I love you too, Harry. Before you ask, there isn't any news from the Aurors, but Christine is going to stop in on her way home; and Ron will probably have an update when he gets here later too."

"Christine's probably right about finding any injured Witches or Wizards – and we have no idea if any of the others even did get hurt at all; but maybe someone will talk to us – or get caught shooting their mouths off in the wrong place." He smiled at Ginny. "For some reason, I have mixed feelings about that, since it might be nice if nothing comes up between now and when I feel better so that I can go and find that bunch of lousy cowards myself."

"I'm not going to say anything to that," Ginny advised him. "We both know that you should leave this investigation to other Aurors; regardless of what we'd really like to do."

"I'd say we're all thinking that," Arthur told them; "but leave that for now and we'll make sure that Harry fully recovers – and that you're both kept safe until we know for sure that whatever the bad guys were trying to do with this is finished."

"I don't know if there was more to it this time," Harry told him thoughtfully. "If there is; I'm not getting any sense of it."

"You're lucky to have any senses at all right now," Arthur pointed out. "It seems that attacking you has been part one of most of the Dark Wizards' big plans to regain power ever since the war. For some reason; they seem to believe that they need to get you out of the way first."

"I wonder why?" George said drily as he rejoined them. He was grinning when he said that, but then his expression became more somber. "Do any of you know if the Aurors have considered the possibility that this had anything to do with some new prophecy? That might be a reason for why this attack was aimed at Ginny and the baby instead of Harry – and have nothing to do with any power plays."

"I don't know," Arthur answered first. "It wouldn't hurt for them to check on that in the Department of Mysteries, but if there is a prophecy about Harry and Ginny's children that's specific enough to point to their first child; it would have been brought to the Minister's attention long before now."

"Let's hope that it isn't anything like that," Molly said fervently; if softly. "I don't even want to think about something like that with any of our grandchildren."

Ginny gave her a quick hug and smile. "Don't worry, Mom. If we do find out about something like that for our kids; Harry and I will just change the prophecy."

"Sure, no problem," Harry joked.

"Let's not go borrowing trouble," Arthur told them. "We'll likely just find out that the truth about all of this is something simple – like the Witches and Wizards who attacked you must be to do something so stupid."

They talked for a while longer, but then one of the night shift Healers stopped in to check on Harry; and George and Angelina took that cue to head for home so that she wouldn't be late for her training curfew.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Harry?" the Healer asked once he'd made sure that his patient's healing was progressing as expected.

"Any chance that I can have at least a little use of my arm that isn't totally messed up?" he asked; and then smiled at Molly's sudden look of worry. "Strictly to deal with the itchy nose I've had for the past hour," he explained. "I'll promise not to try any wand work – tonight."

"Not quite yet," the Healer answered, and smiled as Ginny leaned in and scratched Harry's nose. "Maybe that shoulder will be far-enough along for us to do that after the next check – or the one after that. I'll make a note about it on your chart."

"And Ginny will keep your wand safe for you – just in case you forget that promise," Molly added. "Arthur and I should go now too and let the two of you have some time alone while you can. Are you staying here overnight, dear?"

Ginny shrugged. "I'm not sure yet. Hermione invited me to stay with her while Ron's here tonight – or stay with me if I'd rather be at home."

"You should definitely do one of those things instead of staying here with me," Harry told her quickly. "Now that the potions have worn off; I'm not going to have a fun night – and you wouldn't get any sleep hanging out around here with me."

"And you need some sleep if you and Molly are going to keep up with the kids at the stadium," Arthur added. "Teddy and Victoire will be especially fired up."

"Do they know about all of this?" Harry asked; and Ginny nodded.

"Yes, but we couldn't let them see you at first; and now we'll wait until you're out of the body-bind before letting them visit." She laughed when he wrinkled his nose in annoyance; reached in; and scratched it again. "Are you sure that you want me to go home tonight? There's no way Ron will help you out with that if he's assigned to your room."

"He wouldn't," Harry agreed; "but I'm still sure. I'd like to have a mirror here to watch the show tomorrow if you could drop one off for me. Lee's doing the show; so the comments should be entertaining when they see you there – especially if any of his guests start shooting their mouths off about it."

"I can do that," Ginny agreed with a laugh. "I'd rather be left alone and let the spotlight be on the players; but that's probably too much to hope for."

"We'll do what we can to discourage the news hounds from bothering you," Christine told her as she walked into the room. The Healer had quietly left the room already; and Christine was smiling as she joined them.

"We?" Ginny asked as she welcomed Christine with a hug.

"Nathan and me – and the other Aurors that will just happen to be at the stadium tomorrow too," Christine explained. "Emma was nice enough to give us the time off so that we could take the kids and be there for Dawn and Jonathan. It's just a nice coincidence that you'll be there for Gabrielle too."

Ginny smiled and hugged her again. "Thank-you. Did you just set that up now?"

"We were working on it before getting the message," Christine explained. "Neville seemed very sure that you'd still be going there. He seems to think that the bad guys will be very unhappy to find out that they haven't totally messed up your life and scared you into hiding like they did with so many families during the war."

"That's close to the mark for one of our best reasons for going ahead with our plans," Ginny confirmed. "Is there any news from Auror Headquarters?"

"Not much. It's as though every Witch and Wizard on the shady side of things is in temporary hiding; and the few that aren't are not talking to us right now. The families of our six prisoners are so scared that they aren't even coming here to visit them – and they sure aren't willing to talk with us."

"Put them in body binds and then wait until they need their noses scratched," Harry suggested. "They'll talk."

Ginny joined in for the laugh – and scratched his nose again. "I haven't done this so often at one time since you first showed us your animagus," she teased. She smiled when Christine laughed again.

"I was just thinking that Rita's drivel about this being an animagus accident with a Muggle truck is even dumber when you realize that if Harry had been in his animagus at the time that he still would be now."

"Too bad I wasn't – the healing would have gone faster with the smaller skeleton," Harry joked; and then groaned. "I wish that I hadn't gone there. Now that I'm thinking about it; this really sucks."

"Yes it does," Christine agreed. "I'm heading home to bed now, though, so let's move on. Ron's going to be your guard for the night; though he'll have back-up from the others who are staying with the prisoners. You'll have Dennis or Natalie here tomorrow, and before you ask; yes, that's mostly because Emma isn't taking any chances with them when their wedding is less than two weeks away. The Auror-trainees are splitting the shifts for the prisoners, and while Nathan and I are Ginny's escort during the day tomorrow; others will be taking the night shifts too – including tonight." She smiled at Ginny. "We've booked Susan and Anna to meet you here for midnight if that works for you."

"It's fine," Ginny agreed. "I was going to stay until Ron got here anyway." She smiled at Harry; and then turned back to Christine when she saw that he'd fallen asleep again. "That's probably for the best right now," she suggested in a quieter voice. "Thanks, Christine. What time do you want to meet up with us in the morning?"

They worked that out with Molly too, and then Christine, Molly, and Arthur all left while Ginny resumed keeping her mostly-silent watch over her husband. There was one more Healer visit and drinks and snacks were dropped off for her by two Aurors; but it was fairly quiet through until Harry woke up again about an hour before midnight. While still having Ginny there when he woke up was great; Harry was nearly as grateful to have the use of this right arm – at least up to his elbow – the compromise that Ginny had gotten from the Healer to help make things a bit more comfortable for Harry for the rest of the night.

Having that quiet chat time was nice too; though Ron was a bit early; and Hermione had come along with him – and was going to spend the rest of the night with Ginny. The four of them continued the chat time until Susan and Anna joined them; and then the four Witches said their goodbyes and headed for Harry and Ginny's house – leaving Ron there to keep Harry company.

"Okay, they're gone. Help get me out of here," Harry only half-joked; and Ron laughed.

"You know that I'm not crazy enough to go against Mom, Ginny, Hermione, and Emma and do that, mate, and even if we did; there aren't any leads to chase down right now anyway. We'd just be running around and getting nothing done."

"I've been considering a new approach," Harry told him. "We could cut the heads off of all of the Dark Wizard families' chickens and then watch them run around for a while and see what happens."

Ron snorted out a laugh. "That'd be brilliant – and totally not an option." He grinned at the expression on Harry's face. "You've only got yourself to blame for that. Half of these new Auror rules were your idea. More than half of them."

"I've changed my mind," Harry groused; and Ron laughed again.

"Only temporarily," he predicted. "It ought to scare you that we're on opposite sides of this little chat compared to normal."

"The jerks who tried to do this to Ginny and our baby should be the ones who are scared right now," Harry said seriously. "If you think that you hate it when I get those feelings; you're really not going to like how motivated I am by the feelings I have right now. I suddenly have an entirely new perspective on how your mother felt at the Battle of Hogwarts when it came to protecting her kids."

Ron was quiet for a minute; and then nodded. "I get that, Harry, but you'd better keep that to yourself; or you'll be working a desk job until Emma is convinced that she can trust you out in the field again."

Harry laughed then; but there wasn't any amusement in it. "I'd quit first and have a go of finding them on my own."

Ron shook his head. "You can't do that – though your aunt and uncle would love it if they thought that you were an unemployed rotter like your Dad was." Harry laughed again; and grinned at Ron.

"Okay, you win that round. Thanks – I needed that laugh."

"You're welcome, mate. Since we're not going to do anything we shouldn't; what do you want to do for the rest of the night?"

"Trade places," Harry joked. "What did those idiots do – bash in half of the back of my head?"

"About that, yeah," Ron agreed. "I hope that goes alright, or George won't the only Wizard in the family getting teased about being lop-sided."

"How'd anyone be able to tell the difference under hair as impossible to manage as mine?" Harry countered; earning another laugh from Ron.

"Maybe you just need to try growing it out longer."

"As if that wouldn't just start a whole new batch of rumors about me."

After sleeping for most of a day, and while dealing with the unpleasantness of re-growing so many of the bones in his body; Harry didn't get much more sleep for the rest of the night. Ron kept him company, and they passed the time with a bit of late-night mirror network viewing along with the ongoing conversation and a few visits from other Aurors that were either on-duty with the prisoners or just stopping in to check up on Harry while doing other jobs. His healing continued far too slowly for his liking, and there wasn't any good news from the Aurors either by the time that Dennis and Natalie relieved Ron at eight o'clock.

By then, Ginny was awake again after getting a bit more than six and a half hours of surprisingly decent sleep that she suspected Hermione might have had a hand in – though she didn't ask; and could only be grateful for the help if she had added something to Ginny's bedtime drink. Susan and Anna had stayed in the house with them, and while they hadn't gotten any sleep; Ginny did at least make sure that they were fed before Hermione went on to work and the two Aurors escorted Ginny to the Burrow. Bill and Fleur had already dropped the kids off by then, but her Auror-protectors stayed with Ginny until Christine met up with them there when it was time to head over to Ilkley stadium. She didn't bring the kids with her; but they met up with them – and Bryce, Nathan, and his kids – at the stadium. Susan and Anna stayed with them until them; and then went home to get some well-deserved rest.

"We're on duty too, so hand over the babies," Kate told Ginny after welcoming her with a hug and bright smile. "It's a junior Auror training assignment for me; and Pauline's here because we drafted her."

Ginny laughed and handed Louis to her while Molly gratefully surrendered Lucy to Pauline. "Thanks, guys," Ginny told them. "Are you sure that you still want to be an Auror after what happened on the weekend?"

Kate bobbed her head emphatically. "Yes, and you should be glad of it – your husband seems to need someone watching his back all the time; and Mom and some of the other Aurors won't be able to do that for him forever."

"That's a good point," Ginny agreed with another laugh. "Hi, guys," she continued; directing that comment at Bryce, Jeremy, and Aaron. The two younger teens were next to their respective girlfriends; and they looked fired up to be at the stadium for the opening day festivities. "Since Kate didn't include you; does that mean that you won't be doing any junior Quidditch player training today too?"

"Think about that one before answering," Bryce warned. "It's a trick question."

"Actually, I was going to suggest that Teddy hang around with Aaron and me," Jeremy advised his father; doing a pretty good job of sounding as though he hadn't just come up with the idea on the spur of the moment. "We'll be happy to leave the dirty parts of the babysitting job to Kate and Pauline, though – if you know what I mean."

"Yes, you can," Ginny assured Teddy when he started jumping around. "Don't wander off too far from the rest of us – we don't want to need to round everyone up when it's time for the team introductions."

"Why don't you go with them, Bryce?" Nathan suggested. "Christine and I will stay with Ginny." He smiled at his own kids – fifteen-year old Alex and going on twelve-year old Lena. "You're welcome to go with the other guys, Alex; but I'd like you to stay with me, Lena."

"We're staying with Ginny too," Kate advised the younger girl. Maybe you could help us out with the babysitting – unless the risk of dirty diapers scares off Gryffindor girls as well as they frighten the not-so-brave Ravenclaw boys."

Lena grinned at her while Ginny, Molly, and Christine laughed. "I can help," she agreed quietly. Compared to the other teens and tweens in the group; she was definitely the quietest; but she seemed pleased with Kate's invitation.

Ginny and Christine had needed to finish the round of hugs and kisses; but then they had time to wander around the snack and vendor booths for a while before getting back together with the boys and going to find seats for the Quidditch training camp opening ceremony. While she'd expected to have at least some reporters pestering her, that wasn't a problem for her at first – either because of her Auror escort or due to the fact that there were only the usual group of sports reporters covering the event. Ginny was happy about that; though that was mostly because she hadn't wanted her appearance there to take away from what should be a special day for the teams and players. It was definitely different to be on the spectator side of the show for the first time – and that was a first for her; since she'd only been to the opening day ceremony as a player.

"We knew that you'd be here."

Ginny turned to look behind her; and then stood up to hug Trish and Lysa. Her former teammates were both smiling at her; and it had been Trish making the comment. "We wouldn't have missed it," she agreed with a bright smile. "You both look great. How are you and the baby doing, Lysa?"

Lysa Horton – now Lysa Graves – had married a cousin of one of Kirley Duke's band mates a year ago; and she was six-months along with her first pregnancy. Trish Murray had gotten married last year too; and had also fallen for a famous Wizard's cousin – though in her case; it was one of Oliver Wood's cousins. They hadn't started a family yet; but Ginny was sure that was only a matter of time.

"We're fine – and glad to hear that you are too," Lysa answered. "How's Harry doing? The news reports don't seem to be very reliable."

"I can assure you that the Healers at St. Mungo's are not treating him in his furry form," Ginny joked. "Harry is going to be just fine – and should be out of there in a day or two if all goes as expected. I wouldn't be here if he wasn't on the mend."

"You might be, if only just for show," Trish disagreed quietly; "but it's good to know that he's going to be okay."

The three friends needed to sit down again because the ceremony was about to begin; and Ginny soon had Victoire in her lap while Teddy stayed with Jeremy, Aaron, Alex, and 'the Dads'. As usual, the team introductions were done alphabetically, so once the VIP speeches were taken care of; the Appleby Arrows' Manager started the player introductions with his starting team for the oh-four-oh-five season. While Ginny knew all of the returning players and quite a few of the new recruits too; the top introductions for their little group didn't start until it was the Harpies' turn.

"Aunt Gabrielle!" Victoire shouted enthusiastically while standing on Ginny's lap and waving her hands to try and get Gabrielle's attention.

Gabrielle smiled and waved back; did a barrel roll; and then flew down to the stage and landed next to her teammates and manager. While Victoire had succeeded in getting her aunt's attention, Ginny groaned inwardly as they were on the receiving end of a lot more attention from other spectators; and worse – a few reporters that had apparently come to the stadium after finding out that she was there. They hadn't tried approaching her yet while the team introductions were still in progress; but it was only a matter of time.

"She looks a lot like you did on your first day," Molly leaned in and told Ginny. "You've left our Harpies in good hands."

"I think so," Ginny agreed. "Some of the teams have caught up with us, and the game is a lot faster now too; but Gabrielle is going to be brilliant."

"She'll be the best Seeker," Victoire predicted. "Can we go and get her new doll now?"

"They're action figures," Teddy told her loftily; and Victoire stuck her tongue out at him.

"I'm getting the doll and the action figure – right Aunt Ginny? Mommy said I could."

"You are," Ginny confirmed. "We have to wait for the rest of the teams to be introduced first, but then we'll do that – and we can get the dolls and action figures for Dawn and Jonathan too if you'd like."

"I would," Kate told them with a grin; "and I'll bet that Jeremy can hardly wait to see Dawn's posters plastered all over the walls in the boys' dorms in Ravenclaw."

"Jonathan survived when the other boys did that with Laura's posters," Bryce reminded them. "You might want to take it easy on your brother, though – just in case he's in the show next year and you have to deal with his posters in the girls' dorms."

"I know that I'll put one up," Pauline promised with a grin that had her best friend laughing.

"And probably cuddle with his doll every night while you're spending that school year apart," Kate added; "but I'll cut you some slack on that." She looked up at the stage and nodded. "They don't get much time to enjoy the spotlight, do they? Is there anything the non-Quidditch players in our group should know about the new Kestrels' team?"

Ginny advised her that there wasn't; and the action settled down again for a little while – until it was Puddlemere United's turn in the spotlight – and then their entire group was standing up and cheering as their new manager, Wilda Griffiths, proudly introduced her star-studded team and possible rookie sensations – including Oliver Wood, Laura and Jonathan Madley, and Dawn Campbell.

"They've got a good-looking team up there," Christine said proudly – "and I'm not just saying that because my daughter is up there with them."

"It's just too bad that they're not playing for our Wasps," Bryce interjected. "United might even give the Harpies a run this year for best Chaser trio, though; and we can cheer for them in every game except the ones they play against our team."

"I'll be cheering for them then too," Christine promised him with a laugh. "The Harpies could still have the edge over United; but only because their Chasers are veterans now."

"We'll see," Ginny said with a grin. "It is going to be the best from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw against three Gryffindors; so that should be a lot of fun."

"United has a former Gryffindor Captain too," Nathan reminded her; "and your girls probably have more to worry about from Oliver. He really wants to win a championship."

"I wonder how he feels about that this year compared to the year he found out that Harry was a fair Seeker?" Ginny asked; though she knew the answer to that better than anyone in their group.

"Daughter number two is a year old now," Lysa leaned forward and suggested with a grin. "He might do well this season just from getting to sleep through the night."

"If he is," Trish added; grinning too. "Doesn't that just mean that he and Katie are due to start working on baby number three?"

"Probably," Ginny agreed. "I expect that they'll keep growing their family at least until Oliver has a son."

"I wouldn't change a thing with that, but hopefully he won't have to wait until number seven," Molly joked; earning laughs from the girls in the group.

"Well, Oliver may be hoping for a son, but if I were Gwenog; I'd keep an eye on those adorable girls of his for future Harpies teams," Ginny suggested. "He and Katie are both fair Quidditch players; so their kids are bound to have some talent for the game."

"We could say the same for your baby," Lysa told her; and then laughed and put a hand over her own stomach. "How cool will it be if our kids play Quidditch together when they go to Hogwarts – or in the show?"

"Very cool," Ginny agreed – "though that might not be so much fun for our kids if yours aren't in the same house at Hogwarts. You probably scared half the kids into not playing on the other teams when you were there."

"I scared half the kids in my house not to play on our team," Lysa advised her half-seriously. "They didn't want to practice with me."

"I wonder why?" Trish asked knowingly. "We felt exactly the same way about you and Gwenog more times than I care to even think about."

"We all would have put up with a lot worse to play for the Harpies," Ginny told them; "and Gwenog and Lysa kept the rest of us ready to play against the best Beaters that any other team could throw at us; so I was okay with all of our training."

The player introductions had continued, and the Campbell clan was particularly interested in the players for the Wasps – the final team to be revealed. There weren't any surprises for them either, and though they loved their hometown team; even Bryce had to admit that they didn't stack up very well compared to the top teams this season.

"At least we'll have something to really cheer about this time next year," Bryce offered; smiling at his son.

"If I'm lucky," Jeremy agreed. "We'll need Kate to talk Aaron into playing for our team after he graduates too, though, if we really want to make a run for some championships."

Bryce laughed and shook his head. "I love our team, son, but there is no way that I'm going to ask my daughter to snog any boy until he agrees to play for our team."

"I wonder if he'd feel the same way if Pauline was the future star Seeker in our group instead of Aaron?" Kate asked innocently; and Bryce laughed again.

"If that were the case, I wouldn't have to ask – Jeremy would take that hit for the team on his own – and willingly."

"Dodged a bludger there, I'd say," Nathan told him with a grin. "Maybe Kate feels the same way about Aaron, though; so all hope is not lost for the Wasps."

"Look at the time!" Bryce declared in mock-astonishment. "We should get to those vendor booths before they start running out of stock for the toys and everything else they'll have out for sale by now."

Harry was still in a full-body bind then, and Natalie was currently hanging out with him in his room while Dennis was doing some break relief for the Aurors watching their six injured prisoners. They'd been watching Lee Jordan's show live from Ilkley stadium, and while Harry wished that he could be there now; he actually wouldn't have been if he hadn't been injured in the ambush anyway. He'd missed having Ginny around too, but they'd talked once using their mirrors with some help from Dennis; and she hadn't ended up stopping in because they'd decided not to keep Susan and Anna running around with her any longer than needed.

"That was fun," Natalie told him as she sat down after the Wasps' team had left the stage and the ceremony had ended. She left the WWMN mirror hanging in the air above Harry's bed so he could still watch the ongoing action in the stadium; but wasn't all that interested in the expert opinions now being offered by Lee's guests. "I'm glad that they didn't make too big of a deal about Ginny being there – though that might have just been because Lee wouldn't let them do that on his show."

"Probably," Harry agreed. "That's why I'm good with not watching the news or any other Quidditch shows today. We won't be that lucky with the usual group of reporters that love to bash us."

"Then don't read Rita's column tomorrow either," Natalie suggested. "She's bound to have a lot to say about this. I was a bit surprised that Bill, Fleur, and her parents weren't there with Ginny today. Couldn't any of them get away from work?"

"Gabrielle talked them out of going," Harry explained. "She's hoping they'll save up any time off for her games this season instead. We've kept our same block of season's tickets; and we'll give them first shot at using at least half of them – though they might not be able to take all of the kids to every game."

"The younger kids won't mind; and that won't be an issue for the winter games," Natalie suggested. "So, what do we do now to keep you entertained?"

"You could wheel me down to the prisoners' room and we could have a little chat with them," Harry offered hopefully; and Natalie laughed.

"Sorry, but we're under strict orders not to let you do that – not that most of them are in any shape to talk right now anyway. Bad guys always seem to forget that their own curses are just as bad for them when they rebound like they did with your counter-attack. You'd think that they'd learn to consider that when using them."

"They know that," Harry disagreed. "The problem is that too many of them have a superiority complex that gets in the way of common sense." He frowned at something he saw in the mirror. "It seems that Ginny isn't going to escape the media attention after all." Natalie stood up again and looked into the mirror too.

"Christine and Nathan won't put up with that lot for long," Natalie predicted. Lee was still doing his interview with the experts, but the view on the mirrors had been switched to a stadium view – and moved in on a close-up of Ginny and a small group of reporters that seemed to be peppering her with questions while she'd been trying to buy some of the toys for the kids. "Relax, Harry," she began to say; and then her eyes went wide and she couldn't help but let out an astonished laugh. "Merlin!"

"That's my girl!" Harry said enthusiastically; grinning now too. "I don't know what that idiot said to her; but he must've had it coming to him." He laughed too when they saw the Wizard scramble to his feet; draw his wand; and then get blasted off of his feet again. "I'd say that interview is over."

"Thanks, Mom," Ginny said while taking a quick moment to hug her mother. "It's a good thing that I'm retired now. That sort of thing is so against the rules for Harpies players – though it would've been worth the team fine and suspension in this case."

"That git deserved all of it and more," Molly told her. "How dare he ask you questions like that at all – let alone right in front of all of our kids!"

"How is he?" Ginny asked when Bryce rejoined them. Christine was still with the reporter; but Nathan had stayed with Ginny.

"Better than he deserves," he answered with an angry glance back toward the idiot. "I'd have left that bat-bogey hex on him and let the Healers deal with it – eventually." He grinned at Ginny. "I hadn't heard that you had a Beater bat version of it. Does it have a twist too?"

Ginny grinned at him. "Yep, but I'll save that little secret for another day."

"Are you sure that you don't want to join the Aurors, Molly?" Bryce asked next. "It's never too late to start a second career. You beat Christine and Nathan to the defense by at least a second or two – though it is possible that the oaf was just trying to counter Ginny's hex and not attack her."

"Maybe, but I'm not in the mood to take that chance – especially after what happened on Saturday night," Molly said seriously. "That'd be a first career for me, but no, I'm not interested in joining up. I'm quite happy to stay at home and play with my grandkids. The Aurors will do just fine without me."

"I'd say that the Harpies dodged one there – and got rid of her just in time," one of Lee's 'expert' guests said pompously. "That sort of display would've likely gotten her suspended from the league for the entire season!"

"Weren't you just telling us about fifteen minutes ago that the Harpies didn't stand a chance this season after losing the best Seeker they'd had in their history?" Lee asked him pointedly; and the Wizard glared at him.

"I'm not saying that she can't play the game – just that if she's come un-hinged that the Harpies are well-rid of her."

"That's quite the pronouncement, considering that we have no idea yet what led up to that little incident," Lee told him. "It's time for a word from our sponsors, though, and when we come back; we'll continue our analysis of this season's Quidditch teams – with one fewer experts to help us out with that!" Lee was grinning; but his guest suddenly frowned; then turned red and opened his mouth as if to shout something at Lee just as the camera cut off and the advert began.

"That'll be mild to what the noon news will be like," Harry predicted. "You can put the mirror away now – I've seen all I want to for the rest of the day – it's going to be all downhill from there."

"Maybe not," Natalie disagreed with a grin. "Lee's regular show tonight should be very entertaining. That whole scene is perfect for one of his skits or monologues."

Harry laughed and groaned. "That's good and bad for Ginny and me," he pointed out. "Lee does not have a problem with poking fun at his best friends any more than he has an issue with doing that for the bad guys."

"True, but at least he still makes you laugh either way – and we definitely shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. Did Gwenog help Ginny out with that Beater bat-bogey hex?"

"Probably," Harry agreed; "though Ginny didn't say one way or the other the first time she told me about it. She took it easy on that guy countering it after Mom blasted him too. He'd have been black and blue by the time the Healers dealt with it – or worse if they'd messed it up."

"Maybe Emma should hire her on as an advisor,' Natalie mused. "We can always use a few new tricks in our arsenal for fighting the Dark Wizards and Witches – and Ginny and Hermione have helped out with that before."

"They teach Ron and I most of the things they come up with," Harry pointed out; "so Emma gets all of that eventually for free anyway."

That little incident at the stadium gave them – and most Witches and Wizards – something to talk about off and on during the rest of the day. Ginny was busy with the kids for a few more hours while they stayed at the stadium for the meet and greet and luncheon with the players and managers; so it was mid-afternoon by the time she got back to St. Mungo's. They hadn't been taken to Auror Headquarters, but Molly and Ginny had both given statements to Neville at the Burrow after they'd gone there because the Aurors had started an investigation into the incident as demanded by the hapless idiot reporter.

While hearing Ginny's side of that story had been great, the best part of Harry's day had been his release from the full-body bind shortly before dinnertime. He wasn't fully healed by any means; but he did at least have a complete skeleton again – and everything seemed to be working properly. After being immobilized for nearly two days; just being able to move at all was welcomed – and Harry was up and walking around less than an hour after dinner. He did that fairly gingerly at first; and there were more aches and pains than he wanted to think about; but the worst of it was being ordered to spend at least one more night at the hospital – or two if he didn't do exactly as Ginny and Molly ordered. They did at least let him have his wand back; though that was likely more because they knew they couldn't stop him anyway if he really insisted on it. Ginny did get him to promise not to do anything magical at all to the six prisoners – a concession that he thought was very unfair considering the way she dealt with her little reporter problem at Ilkley.

A round of visits from family and friends kept him busy for a few hours in the evening; and the highlights for that were the visits from Teddy, Victoire, Dominique, and Louis. Percy and Audrey decided to keep their kids away until after Harry was home again – but that was mostly because their girls would have gotten very upset to see their Uncle Harry with all of the injuries that were still visible or bandaged up while the healing continued. The skele-grow was taking care of the worst injuries, but unfortunately for him; it was actually some of the lesser injuries that would take the longest to heal properly. When visiting hours were over, Harry managed to convince Ginny to go home and try to get more sleep, and though she was reluctant to do that, Ron had been there since about eight o'clock to spend a second night with Harry; so she agreed to do that – and really did need the down time by then. She had Susan and Anna with her again for the night; but Hermione was back at her own home again instead of spending another night with Ginny.

"Okay, let's go and see them," Ron told Harry once he'd returned from seeing Ginny and Hermione out. "I know you won't be happy until you have."

Harry grinned at him grimly. "I won't be happy until we've tracked down everyone involved in this and dealt with them."

Ron shook his head. "I hope we're not going there again tonight, mate. I don't blame you for being mad, but it's been a long time since you've done the revenge-talk thing – like not since the war ended."

"It's been a while since the bad guys gave me enough reason to feel that way," Harry said angrily; and then shook his head. "I'll be good tonight, though – I promised Ginny I would be. Let's go. I'm sure they are as excited about seeing me as I am to see them."

Ron snorted. "I seriously doubt that – and half of them are still unconscious anyway."

It took Harry a few minutes to get out of bed and moving; and they took their time walking down the long hallway to the other room. The separation had mostly been done to keep from clogging the hallways with too many people that either wanted to know about Harry or the prisoners; though there hadn't been any family or friends visitors for the prisoners – just reporters and a few others that were looking to take advantage of the situation. Even those Witches and Wizards were careful about it when any interest in the prisoners also meant bringing Auror interest in them. Derek Summers and David Gudgeon had drawn the night shift guard duty; and both Wizards got up and met up with Ron and Harry before they'd gotten to the first bed closest to the door on the left.

"Good to see you up and around," Derek told Harry; shaking his hand carefully and smiling at him. "Have you decided to take a guard shift so that we can go home and get some sleep?"

Harry grinned at him. "Yes – go ahead and have a great night. Take Ron along with you; and I'll take care of this lot for you."

All three Wizards laughed; and Ron shook his head. "Not happening, mate – I'm not quite sure that you'd be able to keep that promise to Ginny if we left you here alone; and I seriously doubt that you'd like to find out how she'd feel about that."

"I'd have thought that you'd welcome the chance to see me in trouble with Ginny for a change," Harry joked, but since that's apparently out; why don't you guys tell me about our prisoners – and what you know about them so far instead."

"We can do that," Derek agreed. "First up, we have Richard Pritchard; or Rich as he prefers according to his Hogwarts records. We'd ask him, but he hasn't come around yet. You're familiar with the family, I'm sure; but they're denying any knowledge of his involvement in the ambush on you and Ginny. There haven't been any attempts at suggesting an imperiused defense yet either; but that could be because they don't know what he – or the others – are supposed to do if captured."

"Does he have any connections to other investigations we're working on?" Harry asked; and Derek shook his head.

"Nope, and ditto that for the rest of this lot. None of them were on our radar at all before now."

"That's too bad, but I guess we can't watch all of them all of the time," Harry said with a sigh. "I'll guess that we've come up blank so far looking into their connections so far too?" That wasn't really a question; but Ron answered it anyway.

"You know we don't have any decent leads yet; and we'd tell you if we did. Let's keep this moving, though; since I expect you'll be tired out sooner than you expect."

David led the way through the introductions and some of the medical prognosis for the other five prisoners – Hector Higgs, Yvonne Nott, Danny Derrick, Frank Stebbins, and Ethel Urquhart. Three of them had regained consciousness, but only two of them were awake while Harry was there. Ethel and Danny spent some quality time glowering at Harry; but refused to say anything too him when he tried asking them a few fairly blunt questions. That wasn't a surprise to him; but it was refreshing to have the bad guys decide not to try taunting him as usual.

He was ready to go back to his room and rest again by the time they were done the little tour; though Harry waited until he was back in his bed to show anyone but Ron or his Healers just how weak he still was. While the skele-grow was still running its course, that part of his healing wasn't really uncomfortable anymore; and Harry's own magic began kicking in to help with the overall healing process – though the Healers didn't really know that was the reason explaining why his healing was speeding up beyond their expectations. Harry had a few naps overnight; played a couple of matches of Wizard's chess with Ron; and did another late night visit to the prisoners' room that was more to hang out with the other Aurors than to see if he could get any information out of them.

Ginny came over in time for breakfast; and brought some contraband food along that she shared with Ron too before he went home to see Hermione before she went to work – and then to get some sleep. While the Healers tried to convince Harry to stay for at least one more day; he'd had enough of the place by then; and Ginny hadn't really been interested in pushing him to stay either once it was clear that he was mobile and healthy enough to get around for at least a couple of hours at a time. She was sure that they could do a far better job of finishing his healing from home – just as they'd usually done for most injuries she'd received while playing Quidditch.

They left St. Mungo's by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, and after making a stop at the Ministry of Magic to check in with Emma and visit with some of the other Aurors; they went straight home. Getting past the gauntlets of reporters and spectators at the hospital and ministry had been annoying and tiring; and Harry was ready for a nap that Ginny happily joined him for while Hermione and Molly came over to help with family and friends crowd control and keep an eye on them while they slept. That extra help was mostly because Harry had convinced Emma to drop their Auror protection detail so that she wasn't tying up her best Witches and Wizards when they could be doing more good out in the field trying to track down the rest of their attackers.

That first evening back at home was a bit of a blur for Harry. He was glad to be there, but his continuing anger over what his enemies had tried to do to Ginny didn't have him in a very good place when it came to dealing with his well-meaning family and friends. Everyone noticed and tried to help him; but that really just made it worse. He tried to do better with Ginny, but he didn't even feel in sync with her – though he was fairly sure that she was dealing with some of the same issues – only better than he was doing. Molly and Hermione put on a late dinner with about half of the family there; the visiting and dinner were both done outdoors; and then Molly made sure that everyone was sent off by dusk so that Ginny could take Harry up to bed early and help him with a bit of non-magical healing – though they'd ended up doing that too along with some gentle, clothing-optional play time and a long soak in their magical Jacuzzi for two.

It can be shocking just how quickly a life can be changed by a single event, and while Harry didn't think about it that way at all; there was no doubt that the ambush attempt on Ginny and their baby had changed him – and not in a good way. He was off-duty for at least the rest of the week, but went into Auror Headquarters for at least a while each day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to observe the interviews for three of their captured attackers. The Aurors didn't get any useful information out of them, and it was a waste of time; but Harry couldn't resist going anyway and at least feeling as though he wasn't totally out of the loop.

Though hiding his feelings from Ginny was equally pointless and impossible, he still tried to go through the motions of enjoying the extra time off from work. In truth, he was always worried for her; constantly watching out anywhere they went; and thinking about the case all of the time regardless of pretty much anything they were doing. He did mostly manage to hide his problems from Teddy, Victoire, and the other kids whenever he and Ginny were around them; but their weekend sleepover for Teddy and Victoire was really just tough for him to get through instead of the fun and adventure those sleepovers usually were for him.

While he was off work, Ron had been temporarily paired up with Neville; and they were continuing their current investigation and stakeout; mostly because their case involved a major Dark Wizard network – even if they didn't have enough on the group yet to take them down. Harry wanted to be there, and more than that; he wanted to do a lot more than just run their stake-out. What he wanted to do was tear the place apart – and every Wizard in the place – until he got what he wanted. Minister Shacklebolt probably wouldn't give him approval to round up the lot of their ambushers and put them in a brand new Wizarding prison he was envisioning somewhere in the arctic and a mile or two under the ice; but then he was fairly sure that nobody would miss the lot of them if they just happened to disappear one night anyway. The Ministry of Magic didn't necessarily need to be in the loop – and he'd save loads of time and money that would just be wasted on the extra costs of keeping the prisoners in Azkaban.

On Monday, Emma allowed Harry to come back to work on light duty; taking the day shift job at St. Mungo's guarding the three still-recovering prisoners. That certainly wasn't his preference, but when option number two was running down paper trail leads within the Ministry of Magic; he quickly conceded defeat and did as ordered. The work wasn't any fun for him; though he wasn't having a problem with watching his prisoners deal with the unpleasantness of their ongoing recoveries. Dark curses could be like that – as well he knew; and they didn't have his rather extraordinary magical advantages to help out with that. Absolutely nothing at all exciting happened while he was on guard duty; but he wasn't particularly surprised that none of the prisoners attempted to cause any trouble while he was there. They glowered at him and fairly regularly cursed him under their breath; but all he needed to do was let the fury he was still feeling show in his eyes while glancing at them and they'd shrink back from him in fear. Deep down, he knew that was wrong, but in his current frame of mind; he didn't have a problem with them being afraid of him.

Emma had let Harry come back to work earlier than she'd wanted, but that was mostly because Dennis and Natalie had almost half the week off ahead of their wedding on Saturday; and she needed the help. With his obsessive preoccupation with finding the Witches and Wizards that had ambushed him; the lead-up to their wedding wasn't the only event going on around him that Harry was almost oblivious of. He pretty much ignored the Quidditch news coming out of training camps around the league; he barely paid any attention to what was going on with the Weasley clan; and didn't have the slightest clue about what any of his friends were doing during the middle two weeks of July. Ginny was being very patient and understanding with him; but she also knew that it was time to start taking steps to help Harry out of the dark place he'd been in when they were getting ready for the wedding and he looked as though he was going to a funeral.

"Do you like what I've picked to wear today?" she asked; and smiled when Harry didn't even look at her before answering.

"You look beautiful, honey," he assured her; and she laughed throatily.

"Turn around and look at me, Harry," she ordered. He was still getting dressed too; but had been staring out of one of the windows at nothing while lost in his thoughts as he'd been far too often over the past two weeks. He did that, and then smiled ruefully when he realized that she was standing there in her underwear – very lacy, revealing underwear. She closed the gap between them and put her arms around his neck before pulling him into a long, deep kiss.

"You do look beautiful," he breathed with a smile; "but we won't make it out the door to this room if you're serious about wearing nothing but that all day. I can call Hermione and tell her to pass on our regrets, though."

"I just wanted to get your attention," Ginny told him; and laughed when Harry grinned at her.

"You did that – in more ways than one,' he assured her; pulling her close for a hug while leaning in to nibble her neck.

"Save that thought for later," she told him. "The reason I wanted to get your attention was to remind you that we're going to a wedding for two of our friends – and this is supposed to be a best-ever kind of day for them. I know you're furious about what happened, Harry. I am too, but we can also deal with that and still get back to enjoying the really great things in our lives. If we don't, then they win; and you know that better than anyone."

Harry pulled her close and didn't say anything, but after a moment, his hands began to roam and gently caress her; and he nuzzled her neck again. She could feel the soft smile against her skin before he whispered – "Maybe I just need a little reminder or two."

"Maybe you do," she agreed; and then helped him out with making that thought a fairly brilliant new memory before they then needed to hurry to get ready for the wedding – again – and then get to the Creevey's home.

They arrived with just ten minutes to spare, and while their unplanned play time for two hadn't resolved Harry's current anger issues; it did have them both smiling brightly and he was ready to genuinely try to enjoy the rest of the day and celebrate with their friends. Natalie was Muggle-born, and while her parents and sisters were at the wedding; they were the only Muggles attending – just as Hermione's parents had been the only Muggles at her wedding. Harry had met them a few times since Natalie had joined the Aurors, so they weren't overwhelmed at seeing him or Ginny anymore; but Natalie's mother and sisters were still a bit wide-eyed as they were attending their first Wizarding World wedding.

"We don't want to know," Ron told Harry and Ginny as they sat down next to them; and at the same time that Hermione whispered to Ginny – "I guess we don't need to ask why you barely made it here in time." She smiled at Harry. "Are you feeling better today?"

"I'm getting there. Have we missed anything?"

"Probably not by comparison," Hermione joked; and then laughed softly when Ron groaned and rolled his eyes. "You haven't missed anything since we've been here. I love that dress, Ginny. You look great."

"Thanks, and so do you," Ginny told her with a quiet laugh. "I'm glad to have any chance to dress up like this while I can before getting to the maternity clothes stage. I don't even want to think about what I'll look like all winter when I have to bundle up to go to Quidditch games our out shopping."

"Like a red-haired snow person if you wear white, I'd wager," Ron offered helpfully; and then grinned when the music started and Ginny didn't have time to do more than stick her tongue out at him.

Their attention was directed toward the back of the pavilion, where Natalie's bridesmaids were lined up – and they began the processional toward the Wizards waiting for them on the low platform at the front that would make it easier for their guests to observe the ceremony. Harry didn't actually know Natalie's closest non-Auror friends very well, since they didn't hang out in the same circles; but each of them still nodded and smiled at him – and Ginny – as they neared the row they were sitting in. He was used to being picked out of a crowd like that, but for things like this; he didn't actually mind the attention if it made his friends – or their friends – happy – even if he didn't really get why just having him in the room did that.

Ginny's timely – and hot – reminder to him that they needed to keep enjoying their lives despite his desire to put everything on hold and deal with the Dark Wizards who had tried to destroy them did allow him to sincerely do what he could to help their friends celebrate the day. What it didn't do was make him any more observant or attentive when it came to the wedding ceremony or everything else going on around him. Maybe it was just a guy thing, but he couldn't help but think that the officiating Wizard or Witch at weddings could just skip all of the chatter; do the vows; exchange the rings; bond them for life; and be done with the whole thing in about three minutes – five tops.

He smiled when that thought ended up being timed for a teary-eyed moment for both Ginny and Hermione; and he started passing out tissues. Okay, there was no 'maybe' involved – it was definitely a guy thing.

Dennis was fairly nervous-looking – something that generally didn't happen on the job; but Harry wasn't busting him for that mentally or otherwise; since he'd felt the same way when it had been his turn to wed his amazing bride. Natalie looked beautiful and happy, and if there was one difference between her and Ginny; it was that she looked a bit nervous too while Ginny hadn't felt like that at all. Natalie's walk down the aisle with her father and the rest of the ceremony was pretty much just a blur for Harry as he was as intent on his wandering thoughts; but he did pay attention to those most-important parts; and the ceremony really didn't take that long anyway. Once the bonding was completed, it was time to have fun with their friends; and Ginny helped him to do that – and occasionally coaxed him along anytime he did seem to mentally wander off for more than a few moments.

There were some nice bonuses that came with attending a wedding or event for true friends of theirs – with one example being that Harry and Ginny were put at a table with other Aurors and their spouses instead of at VIP tables; which usually happened to them at things like Ministry of Magic parties. Ginny always did well at any big gathering; but Harry was still uncomfortable anytime he needed to play nice with politicians – or anyone else who only tried to get close to him for personal gain of some sort. Getting to spend the evening hanging out with Ron, Hermione, and some of their usual group of friends was good, though; and every happy moment helped Harry just a little bit more on his journey out of the dark places he'd been wallowing in since the attack.

While the dinner, the play time with their friends, and a fair bit of dancing with Ginny were his personal highlights at the reception; there were a few cameo moments that were pretty good too. He normally wanted to stay far away from any cameras, but Natalie's Muggle family had heard all about him from both Natalie and Dennis; so he could hardly refuse when they wanted pictures with him – and with Ginny. His wife also decided that it would be fun to set him up to dance with Natalie's mother, Valerie, and both of her sisters. Ginny may have had an ulterior motive with that, since the one thought running through his mind while spending time with Natalie's family was that he wished he'd been as lucky as she'd been to have such a great one. His own childhood would have been much nicer than it had been with the Dursleys!

Going home after the reception exactly two weeks after the ambush had Harry on edge again, but he and Ginny had both an escort and an advance quartet of Aurors that apparated over to their house first before giving them the all-clear to come along too. That meant that there was an extra round of goodnight hugs and kisses outside of their house; but then Harry and Ginny were left on their own for the handful of hours he had left before needing to get to St. Mungo's to take the Sunday day shift on guard duty. He didn't get a lot of sleep before needing to go and do that, but since Ginny's ideas about what they should do instead were so much better than sleeping; he was happy to make another couple of hours of very hot – and occasionally wet – memories.

Sunday was a busy day, and not just because he was working at the hospital. Molly and Arthur left for their vacation in Romania, and since Harry couldn't get away to visit with them at the Burrow, they stopped in to see him before using their international portkey for the trip to the Black Sea coast villa that they'd be calling home for the next two weeks. Ginny had come with them, and after seeing them off; she spent a couple of hours with Harry before moving on to wander around Diagon Alley and London with Hermione and Ron. The four of them wrapped up the day at Harry and Ginny's; and they had dinner together before Ron and Hermione went home to have an early night ahead of the start of another busy work week.

It was a work week for Ginny too, though Harry was already at St. Mungo's by the time that Bill and Fleur dropped the kids off with her for the day. She was taking care of them for the next two work weeks while Molly was on vacation. She was going to have Teddy a couple of days a week too; but Percy and Audrey had made other arrangements for their girls so that Ginny wasn't overloaded – particularly if she had any morning sickness days to deal with too. Harry did cook breakfast for her first – after starting their day with a water-saving shower for two that had their day off to a fairly magical start.

Monday was Harry's last day on guard duty, and the last prisoner-patients at St. Mungo's were moved to the Ministry of Magic; brought before the Wizengamot; and then sent on to Azkaban. All six of them would still be healing for quite some time; but they'd been moved on to Azkaban as soon as they were well-enough to no longer require constant medical care and monitoring. Harry was glad to be rid of the last prisoners when he and Terry Boot saw them into the prison; though there wasn't as much satisfaction in that as there usually was for him. They were just the cannon fodder for the Dark Wizard elites; and it was that lot that he really wanted to see brought to justice. He stopped back into Auror Headquarters after getting back from Azkaban, and while it took a bit of convincing on his part; Emma did reluctantly agree to let him get back to work as normal with Ron on Tuesday.

Normal wasn't actually going to last long for Harry and Ron; and the reason for that was actually one of the news stories around Auror Headquarters for the day. Ron was being assigned his very first trainee; and Casey Fawcett was going to start work in a week – on the first Monday of August. While Hermione probably didn't have anything to do with Emma's decision on that, Harry did wonder if the fact that Casey's older sister, Serena, worked with Hermione and that they were good friends had anything to do with the decision to have Ron train her little brother.

While he was glad to be back on the stake-out with Ron, and highly motivated to work their case – and hopefully get some leads on his own new pet project; they made absolutely no progress at all between Tuesday and Friday. As seemed to be happening everywhere else with the bad guys; there was noticeably less action going on around the shop that the Selwyn's were using as a front for their criminal activities. Ron and Neville had already noted every no-show Wizard and Witch that had been AWOL since the ambush on Harry and Ginny; there was almost no activity going on around the shop; and that made for long, boring days that just had Harry restless and a bit desperate to be doing something – anything.

He'd planned on working the weekend either with or without Ron, but found out on Friday morning that Ginny had other plans for him. She put on an early birthday breakfast with the available members of their family there as guests, and she did that a day early because his top gift was a weekend away for two at an undisclosed location. The little breakfast party was fun too, and Harry especially loved the new Quidditch action figures that Teddy and the rest of his nieces and nephews had for him – including the ones for Gabrielle, Dawn, and Jonathan.

Ron had orders to wrap up their work day early too, so after going home by mid-afternoon, hitting the shower, and getting dressed for a play weekend; Harry let Ginny lead the way on to their weekend home away from home. She apparated them to the seaside cottage she'd rented for them in southwestern Wales. He brought their luggage along to join them once he knew where to put it; they checked out their little cottage first; and then Ginny had absolutely no trouble convincing Harry that they should go for a swim and walk on the beach before taking him out for a late dinner at a Muggle Bistro.

"This was a great idea," Harry told Ginny after they were in the water and swimming around. Quality time with his beautiful wife in a swimsuit was definitely helping him to forget all about work and his ongoing anger issues with the bad guys.

"I have a lot of great ideas for you and me this weekend," Ginny promised him with a flirty little smile. "We're also going to stay completely out of the Wizarding World for the next two days – though making a little magic of our own is totally okay with me."

"We can do that," Harry agreed; smiling happily too. "How did you find this place?"

"I got Hermione to ask around – including with some of her parents' friends. We checked out some of the places on the Muggle internet; and picked this place."

"I'm surprised that you didn't invite Ron and Hermione too. It's beautiful here."

"Maybe we'll do a family vacation here with them some day," Ginny suggested with a shrug, "and Hermione might think about this for them if we give the place good reviews; but we're due for some quality me and you time – and away from the stress you've been dealing with lately."

She hadn't mentioned the ambush specifically – and didn't all weekend. What Ginny did instead was to help them both to make a weekend full of amazing, remember-forever memories that ranged from play time on the beach and in the water to hot, romantic nights in their cozy little cottage. Their meal on Friday night was of the fine dining variety; the meals on Saturday were all quick and casual; and both nights were filled with long hours of joy and passion. That was what Harry knew was Ginny's greatest birthday gift to him – showing him the way back to where happiness, joy, and love overwhelmed the darkness that could consume even the best of people at times.

"Welcome back," Fleur told Harry with a bright smile as she hugged him in welcome – "and I mean that in more than one way."

"Thanks, and it's good to be back – in more than one way," Harry joked; smiling happily too as Fleur, Ginny, and Bill all laughed. "I'd suggest that the Healers at St. Mungo's could learn a thing or two from Ginny; but wouldn't want her to personally be involved in that training for them."

"And I seriously doubt that she'd want any of those Healers doing that job for her," Fleur added with another laugh.

"How has your big day been?" Ginny asked both Bill and Fleur. She'd been first to the hugs; and was currently holding Dominique in her arms.

"Just fine, but we're not making a big deal of it this year. Bill and the girls made breakfast in bed for all of us, which was nice; but a bit messy. We packed a picnic, and spent most of the day on the beach. You're welcome to stay for dinner; but we're not doing anything fancy."

"Thanks, but we're just stopping in to drop off you anniversary gifts," Ginny answered. "Harry and I still have a little time left in our weekend off; and I should turn in early tonight so that I'll be ready for my second week of babysitting." She gave Dominique a bright smile and tickled her. "For some reason, I'm finding it exhausting to keep up with my adorable little nieces and nephew for full days. I have no idea how Mom managed it with seven of us."

"Not to mention that she only had one little angel in the lot," Bill added with a grin. "Percy was the only one of us that didn't give her more trouble than most."

"You didn't get to be Head Boy in your year by being a hooligan," Ginny reminded him; and Bill nodded.

"True, but I had more than my share of moments – if not as many as Fred and George did."

"They did have a knack for driving Mom batty," Ginny agreed; switching Dominique for Louis. "How's Gabrielle doing? Is she feeling good about her first game next weekend?"

"She's been working all weekend to get ready for it," Fleur answered. "Except for coming over to have lunch with us; she's been practicing and studying all day today too."

"I wonder where she would have learned that kind of dedication from?" Harry joked; grinning at Ginny. "She'll be up against a top Seeker in Aidan Keily, though; so I don't blame her for wanting to get ready for that."

"This could be a good test for her," Ginny agreed; "though the Harpies should be the better team. The Kestrels have a good squad; but they still rely too much on Aidan winning the games for them."

"Then let's hope that Gabrielle can help to disappoint the Kestrels and their fans next weekend," Bill suggested.

Harry and Ginny ended up spending nearly an hour with Bill, Fleur, and the kids; mostly because Victoire needed some play time with her favorite aunt and uncle before she was ready to let them leave. After getting home again, continuing their weekend play time had to wait while they both did some work around the house – and cooked dinner for two. That took a few hours, and it was near-dark by the time they were ready to head for bed – and end their night and weekend by making a few more hot, brilliant memories.

It was only the beginning of the month, but they'd definitely ended July and started August with a brilliant, magical weekend adventure, and when they eventually drifted off to sleep; they were both certain that the second half of their summer was going to be just as amazing!