A/N: In celebration of my 10th(!) FF anniversary! I'm also having a grand ol' time on my Tumblr, hosting ask memes and sharing memories, drabbles, and spoilers during a 10 day party. Come follow the fun! keeptheotherone dot tumblr dot com

Ginny and Harry's date is Chapters Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six of Faintest, Slimmest, Wildest Chance. Molly discovering their absence is Chapter Thirty-Five of In Love and War, and dinner the day after is Chapter 15 of this fic, "Three To Go."

Victoire 17/ Dominique 16/ Molly 14

7th year/6th year /4th year

the Burrow

December 23rd, 2017

Ginny pushed open the door to the Burrow's kitchen, intent on chivvying her three oldest nieces to bed.

" … you'll just know," Molly was saying. "The heart always knows."

"Oh, Molly," Dominique said, and patted her arm.

"What do you know about it?" Molly retorted. "Your heart doesn't even remember who it fancied last Tuesday."

"Before or after lunch?"

"What do you think, Aunt Ginny?" Victoire asked before the squabble could escalate into an argument. "How do you know when you're in love, forever love? Molly thinks there will be some mystical connection—"

"I said magical, not mystical—"

"And Dom's insisting you have to sleep with the other person before you can know for certain. What about you?"

Well, this was vastly more interesting than the conversation in the sitting room, where Bill, Percy, and Hermione were arguing over the weekend's bathroom timetable. Ginny pulled out a chair. She wasn't above stirring the cauldron to find out more about Victoire and Teddy's relationship.

"Don't look at me. I slept with Harry on our first date."

"You did?" Three pairs of wide eyes stared back at her.

"Well, it was more than a year after our first kiss."

"Why?" Dominique said.

"There was a war in there, remember. We were separated."

The girls sobered and looked away from her, but Ginny didn't mind. She was glad they could forget.

"But…." Victoire frowned, and Ginny could tell she was working out the timeline in her mind. "The war ended in '98, but you and Uncle Harry got together while you were both still at Hogwarts, which would've had to have been 1996 or '97…."

"1997," Ginny said softly. "May 1997, after the Ravenclaw match."

"And the war ended May second, Vic's birthday," Dominique said. "So, why more than a year?"

Ginny traced one of the scars on her mother's scrubbed wood table. "Because I screwed things up when he came back."

All three of her nieces looked vastly interested.

"What happened?" Molly asked.

Ginny sighed. "You have to understand, it was a horrible year. Death Eaters teaching at Hogwarts, dark magic in detention…. Professor Longbottom and I ran the resistance on our own after Christmas because our friend Luna was kidnapped, and I couldn't go back to school after Easter holiday because we all—the whole family, except for Charlie—had to go into hiding after Harry, Ron, and Hermione were captured."

The girls gasped.

"They escaped the same night, but that was the first news we'd had of them in months, since they broke into the Ministry at the beginning of September."

"Aunt Hermione broke into the Ministry of Magic?" Victoire said.

"Does Dad know?" Molly said.

"Oh, yes. They made the front page of the Prophet."

The girls looked at each other, and Ginny knew they would be making a visit to Hogwart's archives when they returned.

"Anyway. You know they went on the run when the Death Eaters attacked your parents' wedding?" She looked at Victoire and Dominique, who nodded. "Harry disappeared right in front of me. I was weaving through the tent, searching for him, and I had just spotted him and Hermione when Ron joined them and they Disapparated, just like that." She snapped her fingers. "It was the last I saw of them for nine months, and most of that time—other than when they broke into the Ministry and the night they were captured—we didn't even know if they were alive."

"That sounds dreadful," Molly whispered.

"It was hands-down the worst year of my life," Ginny said flatly. "At least at Hogwarts I could fight, but once we were at Auntie Muriel's, there was nothing to do but wait. Then when we returned to Hogwarts for the Battle, Harry wouldn't stick up for me."

"What!" Dominique said indignantly. "What happened?"

"He wanted me to stay in the—stay somewhere safe, out of the Battle," Ginny said. She was not at all sure her nieces knew about the Room of Requirement. "I was still sixteen, and Mum was trying to force me to go home, and Harry wouldn't stick up for me." Even after all this time, that still rankled a bit.

"But that's because he loved you and he wanted you to be safe," Victoire said.

"I know. And I knew that even then," Ginny admitted. "But it felt … patronizing, when I'd been working with the DA all year, when I had fought with him before. Harry was the person who taught me to duel! And now here he was saying I was too little and I should go home."

Okay, maybe it rankled more than a bit.

"But … I thought they sent all the underage kids out of Hogwarts," Molly said.

Ginny took a deep breath. "They did, or at least they tried. Most of my classmates were allowed to stay because they had already turned seventeen, but I was a sixth year with the bad luck to be born in August. You have to understand, my whole family was at the Battle. I wanted to fight with them, to help protect them. Ev—" Her voice cracked. "Everyone I loved, family and friends and Harry alike, was at the castle, and the idea of sitting by while they were in danger, of possibly being left behind…." Forever.

"We're sorry, Aunt Ginny," Victoire said gently, squeezing her hand as Molly scrambled up to get her a serviette. "We didn't mean to upset you."

Ginny shook her head and blinked fast. "It's all right. I just—I haven't thought about that particular moment for a long, long time." She wadded the serviette Molly gave her in one hand. "As I said, it was a horrible year, and it was a horrible, horrible thirty-some hours afterward. The Battle, and losing Fred, and—I was a wreck. An emotional wreck, and when I saw Harry for the first time afterwards, I just lost it."

"Did you cry in his arms?" Molly said hopefully.

"No, I lost my temper," Ginny said ruefully. "I screamed at him across the common room, in front of Ron and Hermione and your granddad … your dads were there too, I think. People we went to school with, their parents … it was awful."

"What did you say?"

"Dom," Victoire scolded. "That's private."

"No, it wasn't," she retorted. "She just said she yelled at him in front of everyone."

"I don't even know. Something about how he'd been gone for nine months, and I was really—well, I was hurt, but at the time I felt angry—that he hadn't come to see me or even sent a message once we were at Auntie Muriel's."

The girls looked puzzled.

"But how would he have known where you were if they were on the run?" Victoire said.

"Because they were at Shell Cottage," Ginny said, an uneasy feeling spreading through her stomach. "You didn't know?"

She and Dom shook their heads.

Ginny hesitated, glancing at the door that separated them from the girls' parents. How much should she share without Bill and Fleur's consent? She hadn't expected the girls to know about the Order of Mercy, but not to have been told their uncles and aunt took refuge in their home….

"Well, you'll need to ask your parents for the details, but they ran a safe house the last couple months of the war," Ginny said, keeping it simple. "Harry, Ron, and Hermione all stayed there for a while, plus some others. Bill was the one who let us know they had been captured and moved us to Auntie Muriel's."

"So, Uncle Harry was safe, and he knew where you were, and he still didn't send word?" Molly said slowly, frowning.

"Nope," Ginny said, cheered by her niece's disapproval. "Really, he couldn't have; the Floo network was monitored, there were Fidelity Charms on both houses, security was immense. Even if he'd given Bill a note to pass to me, if Bill had been discovered or captured…."

"He'd have been killed," Victoire said quietly. "Or tortured for information, and he was the secret keeper for Shell Cottage, wasn't he? That would have endangered everyone."

"Yes." Ginny could see that now, but it had been a long time coming.

"So, what does this have to do with you and Uncle Harry … you know, getting together?" Dom asked.

Ginny smiled. "Well, Harry had it in his head that if he survived, we'd pick back up right where we left off."

All three girls gaped, even Molly.

"What?" she said. "After dumping you and not talking to you for nine months and treating you like a child, he thought you'd be okay with that?"

"Boys can be really clueless," Dominique said.

"Even the good ones," Ginny and Victoire said together, and they all laughed.

"So, the fact that I was angry took him by surprise," Ginny said. "And of course I went about it completely the wrong way, screaming like a banshee and embarrassing him in front of everyone. Some of the things I said—" She remembered more about that fight than she had let on. "I really hurt him. I—well, I basically broke up with him before we were even back together. It took some time for him to trust me again."

"Even after you apologized?" Molly said.

"Even then," Ginny said. "Trust is a valuable and fragile thing, not to be taken—or given—lightly. I had to show Harry that I hadn't meant what I said that night, that I really did care about him and and he was safe with me."

"You said it was your first date," Victoire said. "Didn't you ever go to Hogsmeade together?"

Ginny shook her head. "Not until I was a seventh year, when Harry was in Auror training. The last trip of my fifth year was cancelled when Dumbledore died."

"Merlin, the war really did ruin everything for you, didn't it?" Dominique muttered.

"My brothers didn't help," Ginny said dryly, and the girls laughed. "Harry stayed at the Burrow that summer until he and Ron started at the Ministry, but Charlie was home a lot, your parents were over all the time, and your dad lived there for half the summer, Molly. I didn't care, but Harry was conscious of it. He felt guilty about everything to do with the war, and I think especially Fred. It wasn't his fault," she emphasized, "but he worried he was taking advantage."

"Dad thinks Uncle Fred's death is his fault," Molly said. "Sometimes even more than Uncle George, I think. Why is that?"

Ginny froze, looking up at her dark-haired, freckled niece, her long fringe falling into blue eyes just like Percy's. "That's a question for your dad, love," she said. "But I can tell you this—Fred's death was no one's fault other than the Death Eater who cast the spell that exploded the wall. Your dad, Uncle Ron, Uncle Harry, and Aunt Hermione were all there, and they were all thrown. Nobody could have done anything to prevent that."

Molly nodded dutifully.

"That must have been some first date," Victoire said.

As a child who attended memorial services before her birthday parties, who celebrated her birth the day of her uncle's death, Victoire was far too experienced at lightening somber moods. Ginny took the cue even as she resented it.

"He took me into Muggle London to see a film and arranged room service at a hotel." Which they ate after they had made love, a detail she had no intention of sharing.

"Still, it must have been romantic," Molly said.

Ginny could see her starry-eyed niece wasn't going to give up, so she gave her what she wanted. "The film was about a Muggle fairy tale, and the hotel staff surprised us both by lighting the room with candles. Harry had told them it was my birthday."

Molly sighed, clasping both hands under her chin.

"You said Dad and Uncle Charlie and Uncle Percy were at the Burrow all the time that summer," Victoire said. "How did you get away?"

"Yes, well, that part's not at all romantic," Ginny said. "We just left. Other than telling your granddad he was taking me into Muggle London, Harry gave no explanation for our absence."

"Didn't you stay the night?" Dom asked.

"We did."

All three girls goggled. "Uncle Harry didn't have a cover story?"

"Nothing," Ginny said, enjoying shocking her nieces much more than she had enjoyed being shocked herself, nineteen years ago. "Mum got up during the night, noticed we were gone, and woke the house. And Floo-called your dad—" She indicated Victoire and Dominique. "And yours—" She turned to Molly. "And Uncle George."

What Ginny hadn't known until she was pregnant with James was that her mother had had time-sensitive monitoring charms on each of her children while they lived at the Burrow, and when she and Harry were not back by the specified time, the alarm had woken her mother. Her sisters-in-law would not thank her for sharing that little tidbit.

"Godric," Dom said in an awed voice. "That's everyone except Uncle Charlie."

"He was already home for my birthday. Dinner that night we came back..."

The girls laughed.

"I'm serious," Ginny insisted. "Think how you'd feel sitting right here for Sunday dinner if everyone knew you had sex the night before, and the boy you'd had it with sat beside you."

That sobered them up, although Vic looked more thoughtful than horrified. Ginny made a mental note to make sure none of the kids Flooed to Teddy's uninvited.

"Wait a minute," Dominique said, pushing her long strawberry-blonde hair behind her back. "If you and Uncle Harry just—whatever—on your birthday, then you had less than a month before you were separated again!"

Ginny nodded. "I went back to Hogwarts, and then we had a few weeks the following summer before I started training with the Harpies. It's basically why we got married when we did—we were tired of sneaking around. As a married woman, I could live off-site with my husband, but while I was single I was expected to board with the team."

"But you weren't single, not really," Molly said.

Ginny smiled. "No. It was always Harry."

"See?" Molly said, elbowing Dominique. "She knew long before London."

"Did you ever date anyone else?" Dom asked.

"Oh, yes." Ginny picked the relationship she knew would get the biggest reaction. "I went to the Yule Ball with Professor Longbottom."

"What!"

"No, when?"

"Did he kiss you? Was there mistletoe?" That was Molly, the perpetual romantic. Ginny had no idea where she got it from.

"I was thirteen and so excited. The Yule Ball was only for fourth-years and up, you see."

"Uncle Harry was a fourth-year," Victoire said, somewhat accusingly.

"Uncle Harry was a prat," Ginny said flatly. "Ron was worse, although that's not saying much. Hermione is the one who has the interesting story from that night. I won't spoil it for you."

The girls begged and pleaded, but Ginny was resolute.

"Come on, Aunt Ginny, can't you give us at least a little hint?" Molly wheedled.

"Quidditch."

"Don't change the subject," Dominique said.

"I'm not. That's your hint—Quidditch."

"What year was that?" Dom asked her sister.

"Er, if Uncle Harry was a fourth-year … 1994-95."

"The Quidditch World Cup was played in 1994," Molly said.

"Was it now?"

"England hosted," Dom added.

"Did we?"

"And Ireland won, but Bulgaria took the Snitch," Molly said. "Everyone who knows anything about Quidditch knows that."

Victoire had not joined in the speculation and would not meet Ginny's gaze. Best to shift their attention before the younger girls realized she had put Yule Ball, 1994, and Quidditch together and come up with the Tri-Wizard Tournament's Bulgarian champion, with whom her mum still corresponded.

"I thought you wanted to hear about my other boyfriends," she said.

"Wait—boyfriends, plural?" Dom asked.

Much to her father's dismay (and an amusing revenge of fate, in Ginny's opinion), Dominique was more fond of the process of dating than the boys she dated. The constantly changing names in her letters and rotation of young men at the door were a frequent source of friction at Shell Cottage.

"But you said 'it was always Harry'!" Molly cried.

"I also said your uncle Harry was a prat," Ginny reminded her. "Besides, it started out as hero worship of a cute and famous boy when I was just a little girl. I didn't actually know him. Like you lot and Lars Lundekvam."

Just the mention of the (admittedly gorgeous) Norwegian Chaser was enough to melt all three teenagers, who looked as though they might swoon despite their seated positions.

"He's so beautiful," Victoire sighed.

"Have you seen his last photoshoot?" Molly asked.

"The one with the Quaffle?" Dom said.

"And the dimples?" Vic added, and they squealed.

"All right, all right," Ginny said, resisting the urge to rub her ears at the noise. "Now imagine your brother brings him home for an unannounced visit and you wander downstairs in your nightdress—"

Vic gasped so sharply she choked, causing Dom to slide her cup of formerly-hot cocoa across the table. Ginny waited for her to recover before adding,

"And stick your elbow in the butter dish at breakfast."

"Nooo," Molly moaned.

"Oh, yes. Whenever Harry was around, I was clumsy and tongue-tied, for years. I barely said two words in his presence."

Victoire scoffed.

"Ask anyone. It took me a long time to learn to relax and just be myself, but that's when we started to become friends."

"But you were going to tell us about your other boyfriends," Dom said.

"Well, that's my point. I stopped pining after this poster-Boy Who Lived image and dated a couple other boys who asked me out."

"But … why?" Molly asked. "If you still fancied Uncle Harry, why go out with someone else?"

"Why not?" Ginny returned. "I was fourteen when I had my first boyfriend, Molly, just like you are now. I wasn't going to marry him or sleep with him or even snog him, but I enjoyed having a boyfriend for Hogsmeade visits, and I started learning what it meant to be in a relationship. Harry paid me no attention whatsoever then. I mean, he wasn't rude, but we didn't hang out at Hogwarts and it was always just him and Ron when we were home from school, you know? Or him and Ron and Hermione. Sometimes he and Ron and the twins would play Quidditch in the orchard, but they didn't include me."

"Why ever not?" Dom said indignantly.

"Because at that time, no one knew I could play Quidditch."

"What!"

"Don't distract her," Victoire said.

"Look, girls … you're young. Go out with your friends, meet other people, try something new every once in a while. This is your opportunity to learn about friendships and more, to make mistakes while you have the safety net of your teachers and family and parents. You don't have to find your 'one true love' before you leave Hogwarts."

"You did," Molly said stubbornly. "And Uncle Harry, and Aunt Hermione, and Uncle Ron, and Aunt Angelina, and—"

"And Maman," Victoire added. "She first saw Dad at Hogwarts, before the last task of the Triwizard Tournament."

"But not your dad," Ginny reminded them. "He lived and worked in Egypt for years before he met your mum … at Gringotts."

"You're saying Maman wasn't his first girlfriend … or even his first love," Dominique said shrewdly.

"Mm-hmm. I met two of them myself."

"Who?"

"Does Maman know?"

"What about my dad?"

Ginny spread her hands. "That's my point, girls—we all dated other people, for different lengths of time at different levels of commitment. Explore your options, have fun. Just make sure the decisions you're making are exactly that—your decisions, your choices. Most importantly, make sure you wait for sex—" She ignored the nervous giggling. "Until you're ready. All right?"

Three bowed heads nodded obediently.

"Everyone knows how to cast a contraceptive and disease charm, yes?"

Groans and protests all around.

"Aunt Ginny, we asked about love, not a lecture." Victoire scowled.

Ginny gave her adult godson's adult girlfriend a very pointed look. "That is not a yes."

She blushed. "Yes, of course."

Ginny turned expectantly to the younger girls.

"Yes, Aunt Ginny."

"This is not just theory?" she pressed. "You've actually cast the spell before?"

"You've obviously forgotten our maman is French," Dom said.

Ginny laughed. "What about you, Miss Molly Two?"

Molly gave her a wry expression exactly like Percy. "Have you met my father?"

"Oh, no, he didn't!"

"He did," Molly said grimly. "Well, he tried—Lucy and I started yelling for Mum and then the two of them started rowing. But yeah, I can cast the spell."

"All right then," Ginny said, standing up and floating the girls' mugs to the sink. "I have one last piece of advice."

The girls hesitated, uncertain whether or not she'd finished her lecture.

"If a bloke takes you to a hotel and tells you there's a restaurant inside, you are not there just to have dinner."

a/n: Ginny and Harry's date is Chapters Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six of Faintest, Slimmest, Wildest Chance. Molly discovering their absence is Chapter Thirty-Five of In Love and War, and dinner the day after is Chapter 15 of this fic, "Three To Go."