I know this isn't probably my best chapter and most of you will think of it as boring... not much action but the set up for the move to Godric's little town...
Next chapter there will be more action but I realized that due to health issues and a holiday I haven't updated for a while so I had to right that...
please review, give me your ideas for how to continue maybe I can use them!
48. Too perfect?
"Harry are you sure you want to live in a town where they have a statue of you in the centre square?"
"I know, it's horrible. Maybe I can get Kingsley to remove it." Harry groaned as he watched the life-size statue of his family.
"I don't think he'll do that. It will probably be replaced by a statue of only you." I chuckled.
Harry groaned and spun me around. He was torn between glaring or laughing at me.
"Are you taking any of this seriously or not?" he demanded.
"Nah!" I said as I shook my head. I took a step back, pulled myself free from his hands and ran away. The whole morning I had been in a kiddy kind of mood. Tickling him until he finally woke up. Playing with our breakfast when Drooble served it on bed.
Harry didn't complain a lot as he got much pleasure out of my playful mood. Though it did made us very late for all other plans we had.
I giggled as I heard Harry chase after me. I ran as hard as I could in the direction of the house, knowing that in fifteen minutes we would meet with the person that would do the rebuild.
I was fast but not fast enough. I felt Harry's hands wrap around my waist and pull me back.
"You sneaky little witch." He growled. "What has gotten into you today?"
"Nothing!" I squealed as he tickled me merciless.
"Really?" he laughed as he continued teasing me. "Because you are a very bad girl today."
"I'm not!" I squealed as he found the spot that I was most ticklish.
Stumbling and playing we made it towards the house where we fell down in the grass. Both laughing loudly.
"So, what do you think of the village so far?" Harry asked after he was able to stop laughing. We had been walking through the small town for about an hour. Visiting the graves of Harry's parents, the towns square and the few shops it held. It was very much still a medieval city. It had a bakery, a post office, two shops for clothing, a dinner, a church and a pub. There were a few wizarding shops that the muggles couldn't see, which made the town a bit more alluring.
I could honestly see why Harry wanted to live here, it was quiet and people were respectful. There had only been one wizard how talked to us for a minute, just to thank Harry but besides that the wizarding community here was calm and friendly. Most of them just said a friendly hello and smiled at us as we passed.
"Gin?"
I looked up at him and sighed.
"It's alright." I said as I was very disappointed by the town. I had a hard time holding a straight face as his face fell. "I mean, I can understand why you want to live here. The people are friendly, the town is beautiful, there is a real community feel and there is a big statue of you in the middle of it."
Harry groaned loudly before his fingers attacked my sides again.
"Can't you be serious! Ginny. Honestly what has gotten into you!" He complained.
"Harry, stop!" I squealed and he straddled me and continued to tickle me. "Please, stop."
"Are you going to give a serious answer than?" He asked as he found that spot I couldn't handle and I screamed loudly.
"Harry please! Stop."
"Promise me a serious answer first."
"I will!"
He laughed and stopped tickling. "Now, tell me what you think of this town?"
I took a minute to catch my breath and stop giggling. I sat myself up against Harry and looked towards the street.
"It's honestly beautiful, Harry. I can see us living here just as easy as we do in the Summer house."
"Really?"
"Yes. I was afraid that every wizard would harass us here but it's really nice. People recognize you but somehow it's like they already are used to having you around. Maybe it's because they are used to having the greatest of wizards and witches living here."
"Okay, that's enough flattering." Harry complained quickly. "Still, I'm really happy you like it. This place feels like home so much."
I smiled and got up. My jeans were green with grass stains and there was a lot of dust on me. I took a moment to look around at the house and the front garden. There was a lot of rubble, remains of old toys were littered around the grass. Besides for the sign there was nothing that indicated anyone had been there after Lily and James had died.
The front garden would need redoing, the top half of the building had to be restored and there was probably a lot of damage and wear on the inside but all in all from the outside it looked like a really nice house.
I turned around to look down the street, it wasn't located in the main area of the town but a bit to the north. Farthest away from the main road in. I could smell one of the restaurants getting ready for dinner. On both sides and in front there were neighbors. I was pretty sure that the house across the street was inhabited by a magical family.
I felt Harry grabbing my hand and pull me close. I noticed somebody was approaching the house.
"Mister Potter?" The man asked as he looked at us.
"Yes, sir."
"I'm Ben Gill, the project manager for the renovation."
"Oh." Harry sighed and quickly moved forward. I was surprised to see that it was a wizard that Harry had asked to rebuild the house. I had expected him to go for a muggle company as the house was originally build by muggles.
It was been centuries ago since the Potter's build this house but back than all wizarding homes would have been build by muggles and later made bigger or more grand by magic. I was sure the Summer House was the same but I had yet to find records of the build.
"Hello sir, I'm Harry and this is Ginny."
"Good afternoon. I hope you two have had a good afternoon in Godric's little town already?"
"We have. I have been convincing Ginny that this is the place for us to live in." Harry said as we shook hands with the rather fat wizard. It was a small man but severely overweight. He looked really friendly and not fake like so many people who claim to help us.
"I saw that, I actually live across the street with my wife and three children. I saw the two of you arriving but it looked like you weren't ready for company yet, so I waited a while and had some tea."
"Really? You live across the street?" I asked surprised.
"Yes. My family has been living across the Potter ever since the Potter house was build. I was fourteen when that happened." Ben pointed to the gaping whole in the roof.
I noticed Harry looked very surprised.
"How come I don't know any of your children?" Harry asked. Making the mental calculation the children this man mentioned could have been in the first few years of Hogwarts.
"That's very easy. We started having kids late in wizarding terms, they are all under the age of six still. The oldest will turn six next month. They are the main reason why I really wanted this job. I'm sure I did seem very eager in my letters but it's a really good opportunity to work so close to home and be with my kids a bit more."
I think we were both a bit dazed by this information. To have a friendly wizarding family live so close by, to see how kids could grow up in this town… I realized that it would be awesome to have neighbors with young kids when we would live here, when Teddy would visit he would have friends to play with.
"Shall we have a look around and at the plans?" Ben asked.
"Yes, oh, sorry but I think we are both a bit surprised by the things you told us." Harry said.
"Why?"
"Well, I want to move here so we have neighbors and maybe when we are older to have kids playing with kids from the neighborhood. To live in a real community but to really be confronted with it… well, it's a bit surprising."
"Godric's Hollow has always been like that, no matter who you are if you aren't a dark wizard you are welcome here." The man shrugged and turned to the house.
Harry and I took a moment to glance at each other, both wondering if this was for real. Harry shrugged and smiled at me before turning to the builder to go over the plans.
"Do you want to restore it like it was?"
"Uhm, yes. I don't know how much magic had been used to make the house what it was when my parents lived here but I found blue prints and I really like the lay-out and all." Harry explained quickly.
"I can look up the records of what has been added magically. Back then wizards were obliged to make records of all the work they magically added to houses. It was the keep them in check so they didn't over do it and make muggles suspicious. It won't do to have a small two bedroom apartment and add rooms magically so that you can live there with a very large family, muggles would notice that." Ben Gill explained. "It's won't be hard to redo all that. The construction of the building probably has been damaged with the blast so it might take a while to fix all that. Have you ever been inside?"
"No, I wasn't sure it was safe." Harry admitted.
"The building is magically secured it won't collapse on us."
Trusting the builders word we entered the building. As we entered the hall Harry grabbed my hand and squeezed it softly. I looked up to see that he was quite emotional. His green eyes were shimmering with unshed tears.
"Mr. Gill. Could we please have a few minutes of privacy? Neither of us has ever been here since…" I trailed off.
"Of course. I'll wait at home call me when you are done."
I watched him leave before turning to a grateful looking Harry.
"I should have thought of this before." He whispered.
"I didn't either. We will just go slow."
Harry squeezed my hand again and looked around the hallway. It was clear that seventeen years neglect wasn't doing much good to the building but thanks to magic the important bits were persevered really well.
The colors were the same as in the other houses, light and happy. A mirror still intact hung on the wall in the hallway. Coats that ones longed to Lily or James still hung under the stairs. They were an eerie symbol of the past.
As we entered the living room we saw that most of the furniture had survived the years. The whole room looked warm and welcoming. Just as they had done in the other houses. The paintings on the wall needed to be cleaned but they were still beautiful. It was like seeing the whole Potter family lined up. Some of them smiled and waved at us others were too dusty to see us.
On the mantel a large collection of pictures were standing. It was a mix of muggle and wizards pictures, all of them showing at least one of Harry's parents, either with friends or with baby Harry. They were all looking so lovingly.
The room was bigger than that was physically possible based on the outside of the building, it had been made bigger by magic and the charms still worked really well. It wasn't as grand as I expected the Potter family home to be but everything looked reasonable. Humbleness seemed to be a Potter trait.
Harry stared at a pointed between the living room and the front door, his face hard and tears rolling from his eyes.
"What is it, love?" I asked him.
"That's where my dad died." He whispered.
I looked at the bit of floor he was pointing at, there was nothing that indicated that a murder had been committed there. There was only dust on the light wooden floor. I wondered how he knew it but I wouldn't ask. I was sure he would tell me when he was ready for it.
"He died protecting my mum and me, hoping to fight off Tom." Harry said slowly. "My mom took me and ran upstairs. I don't know why she didn't ran out the back and apparated but I'm sure she had a good reason."
"Probably, maybe she was just scared and didn't think clearly, or maybe she thought Death Eaters would be waiting outside."
"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Harry asked.
"No, all that matters is that they did everything they could to protect you. They loved you. These pictures with you in it made that very clear." I pointed at the pictures of them on the mantel.
We walked through the living room into a large kitchen. A massive old wooden table was standing against the wall, it was surrounded by six chairs. A candle still set on it. It looked so perfect, I could almost imagine James, Lily, Sirius and Remus sitting around the table, chatting happily while watching Harry play but I almost immediately remembered that with the Potter's in hiding behind a Fidelius charm Remus and Sirius weren't like to visit them much after Harry was born.
Two large glass doors opened onto a patio with behind it a large garden.
"This house is just was beautiful set as the others." I breathed.
"This is absolutely perfect." Harry said a bit shaky. "Shall we look upstairs?"
"Do you want to?"
Harry looked at the stairs that were visible from the kitchen. Beyond that lay a world of hurt for him and he knew it.
"Yeah, lets get this over with." He sighed.
I nodded and followed him up the stairs. I held onto his hand and slowly felt him starting to quiver.
As we climbed the stairs I wondered what must have been going through Lily's mind when she went upstairs. Was she trying to hide, to escape or was it blind panic that had her running upstairs.
Up on the landing were a large numbers of doors, guest bedrooms, study, master suite and nursery. Harry immediately walked towards the nursery. A name plate on the door said 'Harry', it was heartbreakingly sweet to see that small sign which was decorated with small snitches.
Slowly Harry opened the door and light flooded in, this part of the house had been completely destroyed by the blast. There was a gaping hole that covered the nursery, the master bed room and a part of a what must have been a beautiful on-suite bathroom.
The nursery was completely destroyed. There wasn't even a crib left, only some pieces of white painted wood. In the corner closest to the door was laying the remains of a child's broom. Everything was torn to pieces.
"She defended me here." Harry whispered. "she stood in front of the crib, pleading with him. He offered to let her survive, for Severus Snape, I don't think she even considered that option."
Harry cried softly as he looked around the room. There wasn't much else that I could do but hold him and wait for him to deal with his grief.
It took Harry a long time to deal with it all. After a while he sank through his knees and kneeled down to cry even more. I heard him whisper words but it was too soft to hear what he said. His whimpered and moans revealed the pain he was going through and I felt utterly helpless.
I sank down next to him and gently rocked him back and forth, hoping to ease his mind a bit.
"Why did she do it, Ginny?" Harry whimpered.
"Because she loved you, Harry. She wanted nothing more than for you to have a life." I whispered.
"I'm not worth such a sacrifice."
"Of course you are." I yelped. "Harry, you are worth every life that has been given for you. You father, your mother and Sirius, they all died because they loved you enough to sacrifice their lives for you."
"Is it really all worth it, Ginny? I don't see why my life should be worth that."
"Because you bring happiness to our world. Because of you, our world, the world they loved and fought for can exist in happiness."
"It still doesn't make sense to me. Why would the life of my mother, a witch, so smart, beautiful and kind be worth less than mine, why would she willingly give up everything she had for me."
"I don't know, Harry. Maybe time will tell."
I let him cry for a long time, it was hard to fight my own tears but I felt the need to stay strong for Harry. He would feel bad if he saw me cry and forget about taking the time to deal with the pain this place brought.
Fifteen minutes later Harry suddenly stopped crying and looked at me.
"Crying isn't going to change anything but it does make me feel better." He whispered.
"This is a sad place, Harry. This place will always be that, are you sure you want to live here?" I asked again.
Harry looked around and seriously considered my question.
"Yes." He whispered. "I want to live here, build happy memories and hopefully live the family life my parents never got the chance to live."
Harry and I left the house in search for Ben Gill. The house across the street where he said he lived looked very friendly. It was an old small cottage, with wooden shutters and a small front garden. The wards that surrounded the house against intruders felt friendly and let us through. After a deep steadying breath Harry knocked on the door.
"Mister Potter!" A friendly looking tall woman said as she opened the door. "Come in, come, Ben told me what you were doing, I made you some strong tea. I though you might need it."
"Oh, well…" Harry stammered.
"There is no need to be shy. Come on in." the woman waved happily as she opened the door further.
"Thank you, Mrs. Gill." Harry said softly.
"Oh, please, call me Epheny. Mrs. Gill makes me sound so old."
The woman lead us into a small but welcoming home. Magic was present everywhere and was done very subtle.
"Ah, Mister Potter, I hope you are well." Ben Gill said as he saw us walking in.
"Yes, thank you for giving us a moment. We should have done that before you arrived."
"It's no problem Mister Potter. I expected this rebuild to be an emotional one, for all of us."
"It is, and please just call me Harry. I don't like the sound of Mister Potter that much."
"You must be Ginevra Weasley?" the woman asked.
"It's just Ginny, madam." I answered as I shook her hand.
After insisting on being called Epheny she went to get us tea and scones she had baked.
"Where are your children?" Harry asked as he sat down next to Ben.
"The youngest is sleeping, the other two are at school."
"School?" I asked surprised.
"Yes." He chuckled. "I take it you were home schooled?"
"Yes, mom didn't thought it was save to have so many wizarding children at a muggle school."
"And it is." Epheny said as she handed us a large mug of steaming tea. "here in Godric's Hollow there is on primary school, the head and two of the teachers are magical, they take care of any accidents involving the young wizards and witches but besides that it's a normal muggle school."
"This town is completely adapted to the needs of the magical community as well as the muggle community. We work hard to live in peace with each other." Ben explained.
"Are there any flaws in this town?" I asked. It all sounded to good to be true. I mean what wizard wouldn't want to raise his family in this town.
"Oh there are but not many and not often. Death Eater came here as well. We did what we had to do to protect the town and every now and than you have fights between people but most of them are solved easily. Maybe the major flaw of this town is it's name, every kid who has grown up here feels the pressure of being a great wizard or witch, it's expected from those who live here. Even when it's isn't realistic." Ben said thoughtfully. "the only person I knew who could deal with it was James. He grew up here but he never felt the pressure, he just was an exceptional wizard."
"I remember my mom talking with Mrs. Potter shortly before they got killed. Mrs. Potter said that she wished James had a more difficult time at school so he would learn to appreciate working for something." Ben said after a few seconds of silence. It was like he tried to remember things that he hadn't thought about in a long time.
For a while I listened to Harry asking all kinds of questions first about his father and what Ben remembered of his grandparents, later it was about the town and the people living in it. Ben seemed to know a lot of history and a lot about the families living here. Harry asked questions about the Dumbledore's and about the Pervernell brothers.
"I saw you were going to play professional Quidditch." Epheny commented softly.
"Oh, yes. In two days I leave for a week long training."
"It should be exciting."
"It is. I never realized how much I enjoy playing Quidditch but with the Harpies it's so much fun."
"I wanted to play professional are well, at school I was a good beater, because of my length I had a lot of extra strength and my aim was good."
"Why didn't you?"
"I got severely injured in my last match at school. I have never been able to play as well as I did before."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, if I hadn't had that injury I would have never found my true calling."
"Which is?"
"Charms. I work as an unspeakable at the ministry, my expertise is charms and the invention of them."
"Did you work during his reign?" I asked carefully.
"Good Merlin, no. I can honestly say, no matter how much I love my job I was happy I was on maternity leave during those months. After the battle and Harry won, my boss who had always been on the good side asked me to come back. He understood why I stayed away longer."
I nodded and took a sip from my tea. I honestly had forgotten all about those who worked at the ministry that weren't supporting Voldemort. I never thought about how hard it must have been for them to do their job. I only ever considered my dad's struggles, I appointed is terrible issues there to the connection he had with Harry, in my eyes during those days all the other employees were on the wrong side.
"Enough about the bad stuff." Epheny said brightly, "How has your day in Godric's little town been?"
"Good. Harry as been trying to convince me that Godric's Hollow would be a really nice place to live."
"But you aren't convinced?" she asked calmly.
"I don't know." I sighed. "I mean, it's a lovely town, from what you and your husband are telling us it's an ideal place to live and raise children but nothing is ever really ideal."
"What is holding you back than? What are you afraid of finding here that you haven't where you live now?"
I thought about that for a second, it were the questions I have been asking myself. Maybe it would be easier to answer them to somebody else, maybe Epheny could give me some real insight.
"At the moment we are living in the Potter's Summer house. It's located in a very rural setting, no neighbors, no traffic, no muggles, just peace and quite. It's a place where we can hide from all the attention. I'm afraid that we would never find that peace living here, it's a famous town, a lot of wizards and witches are living here and coming to visit this place. I'm afraid that we could never really be a part of the community here because of all the attention the wizarding world is giving us."
"So you just want to hide and remove yourself from the world you belong in."
"It's wrong, isn't it."
"Yes, and no. Ginny, I can totally understand why you would hide. The Prophet hasn't been very nice to you and Harry in the past, that gossiping Skeeter woman hasn't written a nice word about the two of you since the war and people would always look at Harry as some sort of god but you are talking about moving to Godric's Hollow."
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
Epheny laughed loudly. Her voice was bell like and happy.
"This is Godric's Hollow, don't you think people here aren't used to living with famous and powerful witches and wizards?" she chuckled. "During the past centuries famous wizards like, Godric himself, Merlin, Dumbledore, the Pervernell brothers and Bathilda have all lived here and there are many more. People here are used to the power that lives here and treat everybody like equals. We watch out for each other, make sure that nobody gets bothered by an other."
"It all sounds to good to be true." I sighed.
"You'll see it isn't."
"Godric Gryffindor made this a very nice place." Epheny said with a smile.
I stayed with Epheny while Harry and Ben went over the drawings and the rebuilding program. Epheny was a very nice and smart woman. We talked a bit about her work. Nothing specific of course but more about her fascination with charms and the theory that went with it. I couldn't completely understand it, I always saw charms as a bit of a soft subject but with having Harry as your boyfriend your couldn't help but getting interested in the healing charms and Epheny did know a lot about it.
"Ginny!" Harry called after an other hour. "We need to go or we won't make it in time for our reservation at the restaurant."
"I'm sorry Epheny, it's Harry's birthday and he made plan." I excused myself.
"Oh, goodness, if I had know that I would have offered you some cake."
"That's not necessary. Harry and I wanted to celebrate it quietly. My mom is insisting on making a cake when we give a party." I told her quickly.
Epheny was still ashamed on not knowing about Harry's birthday and she made it up by giving Harry a surprise big birthday hug.
After a while we said goodbye to the Gill family and headed towards the restaurant.
Harry had made reservations at a muggle restaurant in London for us. All I knew about it was that it was supposed to be good and very romantic.
"Are you having a good birthday?" I asked Harry as we walked towards the restaurant. To our left was the Big Ben telling us loudly that it was half past seven. Harry had shown me a bit more of muggle London before going to the restaurant. He showed me Hyde park and a strange art exhibition that was shown there. There were all these statues littered over the park. Some were nice but most I really didn't like.
After that he took me on side-along apparition to the Queen's castle. It was beautiful and I fell in love with it but Harry claimed it was a bit too grand for him to live in. Sadly I had to agree, the Summer house was grand enough already.
"Yes, it's nice to do something fun and not being ignored nor over celebrated." Harry answered.
"I still don't understand why I wasn't allowed to buy you a present." I grumbled.
"Because I have everything I want." Harry shrugged. "What could I have asked?"
"Oh, I don't know."
"Did you had something in mind for me?"
"No, not really." I admitted. "But I would have spend some time searching for something good."
"You don't need to. I'd rather have a day like this with you for my birthday." Harry said as he pulled me towards the restaurant.
It was indeed a very romantic setting. The restaurant was located directly insight of the Big Ben and it had a balcony from which you could see the towering clock. We were seated in the best and most secluded area of the balcony, which had the best view.
The menu was very complicated. I didn't know much about muggle food, Harry had to explain a lot. According to him it was all Italian, so the only thing from the menu I knew were the small pizza's they offered as a starter.
We both ordered a started and a main course. For me that meant a melon with Italian ham as a started and a Lasagna as the main course. Both I had chosen after asking advise from the waiter. I had asked him what there specialties were and he advise for a first time to an Italian restaurant we should take it easy and go for the more general things.
The food was really, really, really good. It was gone before I felt that I had even started to eat. When Harry told me that Lasagna would be on Gwen's approved food list I decided to ask Drooble if he would mind cooking muggle dishes every now and than.
"What time will Teddy arrive tomorrow?" I asked Harry when we were eating desert.
"Andromeda said she would drop him off around ten. Her day out with Mrs. Longbottom starts at eleven but she wanted a bit of time so she could get ready."
"So it will be a day out in the park tomorrow?"
"If you don't mind. I want Teddy to grow up comfortable between muggles as well as magical people. I thought a day in a play ground and park could be nice. Drooble will make a picnic basket."
"Do you think it's wise to take Teddy to a muggle area, he changes his hair color all the time. I don't think muggles won't notice that."
"I'm thinking on placing a glamour charm on him so that the muggle will see only one color." Harry mused.
"If you can make it a strong one it might work but if Teddy is very powerful he could break through it easily."
"We'll see, if it doesn't work at home we will have to think of something else to do."
"The weather will be nice, I'm sure it will be a nice day tomorrow. If we are going to the park we should get some muggle money so we can by him an ice cream and muggle toys." I mused.
"I have already enough muggle money for tonight and tomorrow. Don't worry about it. Though Meda won't be happy if you spoiled him too much."
"I'm his aunt, of course I can spoil him rotten." I laughed.
Harry laughed with me. "Alright I'll give you that but not too much. We don't want to create a monster."
