Chapter 10

()()()

Three years.

Three years they had lived together now and everything between them was easy. They understood each other, the demands that their jobs put on them, meaning time spent away from each other. It just made the time that they did have together all the more sweet. They had a rhythm between them established. Whatever one wasn't able to get done in terms of chores around the place the other did.

Harry was working his way up the ladder with the Auror's, and though he had a long way to go before his next promotion, he now had the new Auror recruits that he held more responsibility for and less time out in the field. Ginny could tell that he loved being the one teaching and training them. When he came home after a long day or a mission he always had stories of teaching the new Auror's something and his face would just light up as he spoke.

There hadn't been much of a sparkle in his eye lately though, and it had nothing to do with his work. It did have something to do with hers.

After five years of working arduously for the Holyhead Harpies Ginny had finally become a first string Chaser! They had celebrated hard with the team the night one year ago that she gained her promotion, and they celebrated even more in private after, then another weekend trip away followed that.

Harry's excitement for her started chipping away slowly though when he realized just how much public relations was involved in her being the new poster girl for the team. It started with her posing for a few photo's, her name was added to the back of the Harpy merchandise jerseys and t-shirts, then there was some fan-mail that started coming in. Then there was some stalker type letters included in that fan mail.

Slowly they both watched with amazement as over the few months after her promotion she was turned into some kind of sex symbol, and Harry seemed to be having a harder time with that than Ginny.

"I know it is a part of the whole 'Harpy' deal, but I can't help but get a little frustrated at the number of men in the stands that are still panting after you," Harry told her one night after the Harpies had just lost their last game. It had been the game that put them out of the running for winning the cup and they'd landed themselves in third place overall.

It wasn't too hard of a blow for her first full year as first string. The past three years they hadn't wound up winning the title, but they'd always got close and that had still been something to celebrate. Tonight though, Ginny hadn't wanted to go out to the commiseration drinks with the other girls. She just wanted to go home. There was something else on her mind.

Unfortunately, despite their loss Harry had still had to wait patiently while she was inundated with fan's wanting her autograph, and one bold bloke wanting her to sign his skin, on his back right above his buttocks. Harry really wasn't happy about that.

"Harry," Ginny stated his name in a whiny voice that she hated using.

"What? You're a bloody sex symbol!" he shrugged. "It bothers me a bit, that's all I'm saying." He headed to the kitchen and pulled out some flavored crackers to snack on.

"You realize that you've been a bloody sex symbol for longer than I have, and I've managed to deal with that just fine," Ginny argued and took the box away from him to eat a few of the crackers herself.

"It's different," Harry stated.

"Why, because you're a man and I'm a woman?" she asked in challenge.

"No. Because I didn't ask for the attention, nor do I have a PR executive out there making sure that everyone continued to think of me as a sex symbol." He pouted. He wasn't jealous, obviously, he had never wanted the spotlight on him, that was why he had hid out in the Muggle world for so long after the war. Now the papers had printed a few photos of them together and everyone had started thinking of them as a power couple.

Now they were a power couple spent a lot of time hiding away in their flat.

And Ginny had some new information that would make them hide away from the paparazzi even more. Information that made her grateful that the Quidditch season had just wrapped up.

"Well, you're in luck. No one will be finding me sexy a few months from now, because I don't know of anyone with that kind of fetish," she told him, trying not to let a little smile tick up at the corner of her mouth.

There was no more wondering between the two of them when it came to their future. They'd discussed future scenarios several times over while laying in a post-coital haze and she knew that this was it for the both of them. They were each other's 'people'. This new information was simply going to be hurrying things along in a different sort of order. Harry wanted to get the work finished on the Potter House, eventually get married, then have a few kids. Three kids at the most, they'd landed on.

"What? What fetish? What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I'm talking about how we seem to have messed up that bloody timeline of yours and you've knocked me up. Can't see them broadcasting sexy photos of me with swollen ankles and a huge belly."

She waited for him to react.

And waited.

And waited.

He was simply standing there and staring at her, seemingly no comprehension flashing across his expression. Not a smile tugging at the corner of his lips or anything to indicate he was happy with the news.

His lack of response was the only indicator she had that he did, in fact, understand what she'd just told him.

And, it was making her a little sad and frustrated the longer it went on.

It had been a surprise to her as well when she discovered that she was pregnant. It was also a surprise that it hadn't happened sooner when she realized exactly how it came about. Whenever Harry came back from a mission away they would immediately jump in the sack, and they wouldn't always remember to cast the Charm right away. Usually she would remember the next day, there was about 24 hours leeway with the Charm, but clearly she'd forgotten about a month and a half ago.

It had been a great night too. She'd got him off twice that night and once again in the morning.

They had been stupid to have both forgotten the Charm, that considered. But here they were; with her growing more angry with his lack of response, and him staring at her dumbly.

Ginny shook her head and simply turned to leave him alone in the kitchen to contemplate the news by himself. She was hungry before they started that little spat and didn't want to wait for him to come around so she took the box of crackers with her and went to the bedroom to try and get a hold of her emotions.

Half-way to the bedroom she realized that crackers weren't going to cut it. She turned back to the kitchen and shoved a few more of them in her mouth while Harry was still standing in the same spot and gaping at her.

"You're pregnant," he stated.

"Yep," she said with her back to him, her mouth still full, looking in the ice box for something to put on the crackers.

"And it's mine."

Ginny spun around at that, quickly turning her head to the sink and spitting out what had been in her mouth. "What the fuck do you mean 'and it's mine'?! Of course, it's yours you idiot!"

"No! I didn't mean," he put his hands up in self-defense. "I know that it's mine. I'm just. I'm processing! I'm sorry!" he exclaimed loudly.

She couldn't believe he would say something like that out loud! "Do us a favor and go 'process' in the other room then before I make this fetus believe it was immaculately conceived before it's even two months along."

Ginny had pictured what Harry's reaction would be over the last 20 hours since she'd found out and none of the scenarios that played out in her head involved him questioning paternity. They also didn't involve him standing there like an idiot and making her second guess whether he had even really wanted a child. They had talked about this.

Her expectations and his failure to meet them were bringing her to the verge of tears. If he said one more stupid thing she'd likely just pack up and spend a week at her parents. Her mum at least would cry with joy and give her a hug, that's what she did for all the other grandbaby announcements.

"Ginny," he took a hesitant step towards her.

"Just," she held up her hand so he would stop where he was. "I know it might not have been the best way to announce it to you, but you standing there like an idiot and then the first thing out of your mouth being basically an accusation-"

"I didn't mean it like it sounded!" he protested. "I just meant. I was saying it more to myself, I promise. I'm happy, I'm just processing." He took her hand in his and used the other to tilt her chin up so she had to look him in the eye.

Standing there and looking into his gorgeous eyes was making her resolve crumble. He was being sincere and it was making her chin warble as he pulled her closer.

"We're having a baby," he whispered and cupped the side of her face. His eyes were growing glassy with unshed tears.

"We're having a baby," she smiled up at him.

"I love you," he told her in earnest.

That was what she needed to hear. "I love you too," she said and melted against him.

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. Ginny gave a great sigh and rested her head against his chest.

This was what she wanted. He was happy about it. She could hear his heart beating loudly against her ear in a steady rhythm. It was comforting her to no end.

They stood like that for ages until he pulled away.

"Wait here," he told her abruptly and darted out of the room.

Ginny almost fell over from how quickly he had released her and run off. She heard him banging things around in the spare room, a drawer opening and items being pushed around, then his loud footsteps making his way back to her.

He walked confidently into the kitchen and fell to his knees before her.

"Ginny, I love you. I love us. I love what we have, and I love knowing that our future together will be just as wonderful. I've had this ring for a while now and I've been waiting for the right time to give it to you," he told her.

Ginny was staring down at the ring that was held between his two fingers. It had a gorgeous infinity design with two sparkling diamonds shining up at her from between the loops.

"You're it for me," he continued. "You're all I want, you're all I need. We've both known this was where we were headed for a while and I want to make it official. Ginny Weasley, will you marry me?"

That was perfect. He was perfect. She couldn't stop herself letting out a delighted and exuberant laugh.

"Yes!" she screamed, startling herself with how loud she answered.

Harry flinched in surprise at her volume, but was grinning broadly as he jumped up and took her hand to slide the ring onto her left hand.

Ginny admired the sight of it there.

He'd had the ring! He'd intended to give it to her before today, it wasn't just because she was carrying his child!

Harry captured her lips and they both clung to each other, kissing and laughing as bubbles of happiness coursed through them.

"How soon?" Ginny asked.

"How soon what?" he asked between kisses.

She put her hand to his chest and pushed him back so he would hear her response. "How soon do you want to get married?"

"Now," he told her immediately.

"Now?!" she asked in confused amazement.

"Right now," he nodded. "I don't want to make a spectacle of this. I want to marry you without a photographer trying to get some photo of us to paste over the front page of every publications."

Ginny had trouble catching her breath at that request. They'd been together for nearly four years now and suddenly they were going to get married and announce her pregnancy all in one go? After all the nagging they had received from her mother, the subtle glares and pursed lips of his Gran, now he wanted it all at once and right away?

And it didn't sound that bad of an idea to her at all. They could avoid the spectacle, all the back and forth over minor details that go into a wedding that no one remembers anyways.

Harry wasn't the most romantic bloke on the planet. He was a sweetheart, sure, but he wasn't one to surprise her with flowers or write her love notes. The birthday cards she received from him might as well have read 'All my best, Harry' on the inside.

This though, this was romantic.

"Where do you want to go?" she asked eagerly.

"That's a yes?" he grinned.

"Yes. Let's elope," she grinned back, feeling even more sure about it after saying it aloud.

He gave her a hard kiss then. "We could go to some church in Paris! Maybe head to Nice or something for a few days on the beach after as a kind of honeymoon?"

"Given this a lot of thought, have you?" she giggled.

To her surprise, a blush took over his face. "Yes," he admitted bashfully.

Her mouth dropped open. "You have?!"

Of course she'd thought of what she might like for their wedding day; there were a few daydream scenarios she'd thought up over the years, the only constant being Harry at the altar waiting for her. She hadn't expected him to have also thought up what their wedding would be like.

"I want a nice dress though," she blurted out. She was completely fine with running off with him, but so rarely did she indulge in getting nice things for herself, even now that she was making a good salary. If she was getting married to him, she wanted a special dress to get married in.

"Yes, anything!" he promised.

"And what about Neville?" Ginny asked. "Don't you want him there? Shouldn't we at least have one witness?"

"Well, he'd want to bring Hannah, then they'd want to bring Ivy," he said.

Neville and Hannah hadn't wasted their time 'courting', likely due to him caving to Gran's pressure. He'd proposed to Hannah after less than a year and they'd just had a daughter, Ivy, five months ago.

"What about Luna then?" Ginny proposed. "She isn't seeing anyone right now and would be able to keep her mouth closed until we got back and let our families know."

"Yes," he said and gave a kiss to the back of her hand. "You go Floo Luna, I'm going to go and pack us a bag."

He rushed out of the room and Ginny was left trying to compose herself.

They were doing this!

She wasn't going to hesitate long enough to allow any second-guessing to come up, so she headed to the fireplace right away and tossed a handful of powder in to give Luna a Floo-call. "Middlemist Red," she shouted and her head spun through the flames and her eyes came to land on the sitting room of the flat she'd shared with Luna so long ago.

"Luna!" she called out loudly so her voice echoed through the entire place.

"Ginny!" Luna's voice yelled back from another room, no sound of the girl heading towards the fireplace could be heard though.

"Are you alone?" Ginny called out loudly.

"Yes."

Still no sound of movement.

"Can you come here please?" Ginny rolled her eyes.

"I'm in the bath," Luna called back.

Of course she was. Ginny supposed she was lucky Luna hadn't just stood up in the water and walked into the livingroom completely starkers for a chat. "Do you want to go on an impromptu trip to Paris?" Ginny called out, there was no point in dragging out a conversation with Luna like this.

"Yes," she called back. "Just give me ten minutes."

Ginny chuckled. "Alright. Come over to mine once you're dressed. Can you wear that dress you wore to your dad's birthday party?"

"Is this a girls trip?"

"No."

"Are you and Harry eloping?"

"Yes."

There was silence for a moment.

"I'm getting out of the bath now. I'll be there in five minutes," Luna called and Ginny could hear water splashing around.

She pulled her head out of the fireplace and saw that Harry was coming back into the room with a small suitcase behind him.

"She's coming?" he asked.

"She'll be here in five minutes!" Ginny grinned, going over to jump into his arms and wrap her legs around him. She kissed him soundly. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said against her lips, his hands slipping down to her bum to hold her firmly there, carrying her a few steps forward and pressing her up against the wall, snogging her with all he had.

Luna came through the Floo in a burst of green flame exactly when she said she would. "Can we take the Chunnel?" she asked immediately after stepping out of the flames.

Harry let out a snort of laughter at her polite request and lowered Ginny back down to the ground. "Not on the way there, but you can take it on the way back if you'd like. Ginny and I are going to spend a few days on a beach somewhere before coming back."

"Alright," Luna shrugged. "We will be getting you two some nicer clothes though, won't we?"

Ginny looked down at what she was wearing. She knew she was going to be picking up a dress at a shop before they found a church but walking into said shop wearing her Harpies jersey would look out of place. Harry was also wearing a novelty Harpies jersey.

"Okay. Quick game plan then," Ginny started. "Harry and I are going to switch clothes, Luna, you make a sandwich. I'm starving!"

"How exactly are we going to get to Paris?" Ginny asked Harry once they were stripping off their clothes in the bedroom. They couldn't just Apparate there, it may have only been a short distance away but there were laws that prevented them from doing that legally.

"I may have a portkey in my possession that will get the three of us to an Apparation point on the Seine," Harry said as he pulled on a white button up dress shirt.

"You do?!" Ginny asked in amazement. He really had thought about this before.

"Yes. I didn't know if or when I would ever wind up using it, but I had it just in case and now seems like the ideal time."

She couldn't argue with that.

Slipping a blouse on and pulling up a pair of dress trousers she rushed to the other room where she kept her nice shoes and grabbed some kitten heels that wouldn't kill her feet, but would go with a white dress, and pulled them on while walking back to the sitting room.

"Ready?" Harry asked her, his hand held out with an empty mug in it that had been sitting on the top shelf of their cupboards in the kitchen that she had never used. Luna had one hand grasping the rim of the mug and her other holding a sandwich that she passed to Ginny before taking the suitcase from Harry.

Ginny grinned, taking a big bite of the sandwich before coming forward to grasp the bottom of the mug.

"Portus," Harry said with his wand pointing at the mug.

It glowed bright and warm in their hands and they were suctioned away from the flat, a moment later they landed hard on a cobbled street having felt like she'd just gone through a wind tunnel.

The sound and smell of Paris was all around them and Ginny felt a bubble of something rise up in her throat, and it wasn't her food. It was giddiness that was putting her at the brink of having deliriously happy tears spilling down her face.

Harry tossed the mug into a nearby bin and turned back to Ginny. She could tell he was making sure she wasn't looking to change her mind.

She wasn't though.

She smiled up at him. "Let's do this," she said. She took another bite of the sandwich before offering the rest to Harry, who simply grinned and took the offering.

Thirty minutes later and Ginny was wearing a white dress that was worth as much as she usually paid in rent for two months and Harry was standing across from her before the altar of a Presbyterian church, the closest and prettiest church they'd come across. The Reverend agreed to marry them and provide them with a 'Livret de Famille', which was their proof of marriage.

Ginny couldn't stop grinning through the whole thing. She had no idea what the Reverend was saying, partly because she wasn't really listening because her entire focus was on Harry and the adoring way he was looking at her, partly because the Reverend was speaking in French.

When Harry leaned towards her for a kiss to seal their bond she felt their magic recognize the bond. She'd heard that could happen to some couples but hadn't realized just how amazing it would feel. It was like sinking into a warm bath after a fantastic orgasm.

From the moan that Harry gave against her lips she knew that he must have been experiencing the same sensations.

"Congratulations," Luna said and threw a handful of confetti in the air at them, "and best wishes to the bride!"

Ginny turned to say thank-you to her best friend, but was baffled to see her holding her wand out and pointing it between she and Harry, directly at the Reverend.

"Luna! What," she started.

"The both of you were glowing quite brightly when your magic bonded you," Luna explained. "Don't worry, he won't think twice about what he saw."

Ginny turned abruptly to the Reverend who was looking blissfully dazed, then turned to Harry.

"We're married," he grinned and wrapped his arms around her.

"We're married," she sighed happily.

"Mrs. Potter," he whispered in her ear.

"Mr. Potter," she purred back.

Luna cleared her throat. "I'll be getting a ticket on the Chunnel home now. Have a lovely honeymoon, and Ginny, you might not want to imbibe alcohol. The Nargles around you are indicating that you're pregnant. They like to float around a woman's belly when she's with child. Congratulations." She came forward and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek, then gave Ginny one full on the lips before turning and sauntering down the aisle towards the exit leaving the newly married couple shaking their heads at her.

"Now then, where would my wife like to go next?" Harry asked her.

Wife, she liked the sound of that.

And only yesterday morning her only concern had been Quidditch, now she was married and pregnant!

The End.

()()()

AN- Yep. That's the end. Not anything ground breaking. Just the sweet story of the awkward hurdles of a new relationship that resulted in a happy ending.

And, just a reminder that all your favorite Hinny fanfic writers banded together to create their own original short stories and have released two books thus far! Available on Amazon you will find 'Into the Mystic' and 'Into the Forest' available in paperback or for your eReader!