The Wedding of the Boy Hero
Disclaimer: Own zilch. If I did own Harry Potter, would I be writing fanfiction about it??
Important Note Beforehand: The new character I am going to introduce seems a bit Mary Sue-ish. But please don't get mad. This is based on Ginny's life . . . only the new girl makes things more complicated. Not to mention I cannot find any canon characters that fit the job description. If you can give any help, please e-mail me or something.
~*~*~
Chapter Two: Christmas!!!
Christmas day approached with no snow in the city. Ginny awoke with the excited hooting of her owl. Must be her Christmas presents, Ginny though wryly. She dragged herself off the bed and away from the warmth under the covers. She had a hyper owl on her hands and it's Christmas after all!
It turns out Mimi had taken the precedence of ripping apart the wrapping paper of her own presents . . . as well as some gifts to Ginny from her more associate-like friends (all of the presents from Ginny's family and friends were sent to the Burrow). The ball of fluff sat in the middle of the pile of presents and wrapping paper. Suddenly, an unknown owl dropped the Daily Prophet into Ginny's lap, causing Mimi to become indignant and hostile making the poor delivery bird fly away.
Opening up the newspaper, the Witches' Weekly had their gun pointed at Harry – like what they do every time. The front page was dedicated to holiday recipes and decorations. Though one column was for Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived Has Tied the Knot. Ginny ignored the story and preceded to look for new recipes she should collect. However, right next to the section on festive desserts, a large picture of Harry, a girl, and Malfoy that signaled the beginning of the Harry Potter story. The caption said the girl in the between Harry and Draco would be the next Mrs. Potter.
Aurora Classen, oh my. It seems like the Witches' Weekly is attacking the Ministry Trio again. Just because Aurora is one-third of the best Defense against Dark Arts team for the Ministry of Magic doesn't mean she is engaged to every single bachelor in the ministry!
Ginny immediately felt sorry for the girl. A while ago, the witches' magazine had announced Aurora was engaged to Draco Malfoy. The response was quite destructive. The girl had to be escorted by her fellow aurors so she would be able to get to work without getting a scratch. Also Mrs. Malfoy had sent a howler, which was published, to the Witches' Weekly on the journal's bad conduct. One quote Ginny liked was "These people are world famous AURORS! You do not publish their private life like, like those mindless shows the muggles watch!" Also Aurora had threatened the editor-in-chief, but that wasn't the glorious part people liked to remember. Seeing a usually happy-go-lucky girl, who is an auror as well (mind you, that is terribly rare), become a terrorizing monster was not a good picture. The editor had gotten howlers and odd packages dropped to his mailbox everyday until no Draco-lovers attacked Aurora.
Ginny had first seen Aurora on by Hagrid's hut in her sixth year at Hogwarts. The new girl was waiting for Headmaster Dumbledore. It was strange since the term was half finished. Aurora joined the students at Hogwarts in mid-January, when the war with the Dark Lord was at its peak. Her admittance to the Slytherin house didn't make it easy for her to friends. One, the students of the other houses tried to stay away from Slytherins, and two, Aurora didn't get along with Draco Malfoy. The reason Ginny actually gave Aurora a chance was because both girls happened to be mad at Malfoy on the same day, at the same time, and in the same location. Ginny was drawing pictures of the blonde boy's face and contorting them while Aurora was marking the dates of PMS-y Malfoy days.
Gryffindors were initially skeptical of the friendship, but at the time when the Order of Phoenix was busy finding the weak points about the Death Eaters, the new girl that barely anyone knew immediately plunged herself in the crisis. She joined the mediwitch training program, one that Ginny participated in as well. Then when Aurora noticed just being a mediwitch wasn't enough, she barged into an Order of Phoenix meeting – dragging Ginny along – demanding to be of more help. No one really knew what "help" Aurora meant, but weeks after her private talk with Professor Dumbledore, the Malfoys released critical information on the Death Eaters to Professor Snape, bringing a quick end to the war.
At the end of the term, which happened to be Aurora's last year, she and four other graduates of Hogwarts (Ron, Hermione, Harry, Draco) were invited to the Auror camp. After the camp, Ginny noticed the five graduates became closer friends, though the connection with Malfoy was always a teeter-totter – Draco had found out about the calendar Aurora made of the dates he was to be PMS-y. (He had gotten mad at the accuracy).
A happy hoot from Mimi disturbed Ginny's memories. The girl looked at her bird companion and noticed it was happily snacking on the owl biscuits Aurora had bought all the way from South America. Oh bother, I should tell Aurora to stop spoiling Mimi.
~*~*~
At 11 AM sharp, Mrs. Weasley called for Ginny via the Floo network.
"It's time Ginny. We have to make everything. Hermione won't be able to come since Ron said she wasn't feeling well. It is going to be only us baking today!" Ginny nodded and apparated to the Burrow right away.
"Hello mum, " Ginny greeted as she entered the house through the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley was frantically summoning every possible ingredients and placing them on the counter. "Mum, calm down. The guests are coming at 4:30. We still have 5 hours. You already have the chicken in the oven, and the main pies. Don't worry." Mrs. Weasley had calmed down. During every holiday season since every Weasley had graduated from Hogwarts, Mrs. Weasley had been nervous. The thought of feeding her seven children and their family, her husband, and Harry, and occasionally other Hogwarts graduates was enough to make every strand of her hair stick up. That was quite big number of mouth to feed with only one cook . . . that is why Ginny is always present to help.
"Hi Ginny. I see you have come straight over. That's good. Why don't you start on the cookies? We will make the side dishes once I get all the ingredients." Ginny nodded and worked on mixing the cookie dough.
~*~*~
Five hours later, the Burrow smelled of baked goods and marinated meats, as well as all the side dishes. At fifteen minutes until 4:30, the guests started to arrive. First was Bill's family. He married Fleur a little before Ron married Hermione. And they brought their twin girls, both with red hair and silvery highlights. Then came Charlie, by himself. Mrs. Weasley was about to escort him to St. Mungos when he said he wanted to remain single. And Charlie brought a dragon egg that he was incubating (yes, very odd. Another reason Mrs. Weasleyv thought he needed to see a doctor.). At exactly 4:30, Ron and Hermione came out of the fireplace. Followed closely by Harry Potter. Nearly fifteen minutes after, Percy and Penelope with their boy and girl was dragged out of the fireplace by Fred and George (who were also a candidate of being sent to St. Mungos).
The greetings had taken quite a long time. The line formed was similar to a factory product line. Everyone would hug Mrs. Weasley, then Mr. Weasley, then Ginny, and who ever followed. Even though the greetings took a long time, getting everyone seated at the table was a piece of cake. The delicious aroma that filled the house made everyone's stomach grumble.
Once everyone was seated, food wasn't served right away (to the dislike of Ron and the original Weasley twins – not Bill's children). There was an empty seat between Harry and Ginny.
"We don't have to wait," Harry announced. "Aurora had an emergency assignment that she had to attend to, so she cannot be here this afternoon." The females let out a simultaneous "awww."
Although the food was delicious and there were many happy announcements (Ron and Hermione are going to have a baby, and George might have a girlfriend), Ginny was feeling melancholy. Perhaps the Witches' Weekly had been correct about Harry's engagement to Aurora. After all, we were going to discuss the wedding after dinner. The feeling betrayal also filled Ginny. Her best friend was engaged to the person she had like since forever. The make things worse, she has told Aurora that she liked Harry . . . a lot . . . and many times too.
Dinner conversation composed of many different subjects. Besides the happy news, the exciting lives of families and Charlie's baby dragon hatching during dinner kept Ginny's mind off of Harry and the wedding she has agreed to plan. To Ginny's utmost surprise and to her liking, Harry didn't mention anything about his upcoming wedding. In fact, there were no hints of Harry being any where near the "tie the knot" stage; Harry was still the same Harry at the Halloween dinner. Ginny wasn't about to announce this happy event if Harry wasn't going to say anything about it.
Right after dinner, the children begged for permission to open their presents. Within one minute of getting their permission to open their presents, all the boxes were opened. It didn't take long for Percy's children and Bill's twins to be settled down. Soon it was the adults turn to go through their presents since the young ones were sent to the bed (dinner lasted a few hours . . .).
"Um?" everyone said when he or she noticed his or her present piles. Their usual number of presents was increased by one. "From Draco Malfoy?!" The Slytherin had sent every one present a gift for the festive season. That had given everyone but Harry a big surprise.
"Harry? What was the point of this?" Ron asked poking at his present from Malfoy as if it might explode. Harry couldn't help but laugh at the expression on everyone's faces.
"He had lost a dare/bet-ish thing against Aurora and I. If he lost, he would need to buy presents for any person Aurora and I wanted him to," Harry answered. Hearing Aurora's name with any pronouns that associated with Harry was painful.
~*~*~
The dinner ended at 9:30. As the tired and full Ginny extended her hand to open the door to her flat, a strong arm stopped her.
"Miss Weasley, you have forgotten our appointment!" Harry said with a smile. Ginny would have snapped at him for being so inconsiderate, but the smile made her go soft.
"Right. Why don't we let me get my notebook and go somewhere to plan?" Harry nodded in agreement. Ginny opened the door to let Harry in, but he held the door open only to let her enter first. Erg. She asked Harry to sit on the couch to wait while she went to look for a folder suitable for all the information of Harry's wedding.
Ginny took as long as she could to get everything together. It didn't take too much effort since a letter from Aurora was lying on her desk. Hmm, maybe the letter will have some answers about this wedding of Harry, Ginny thought happily. All the suspense was annoying her. During the entire dinner, the subject of who the lucky girl was kept on popping into her head. Perhaps it wasn't Aurora. The magazine's accuracy in its predictions was not believable and it just wasn't like Aurora to be engaged to Harry. They were never too close. Maybe it's some other girl Harry met at the ministry. After all, he was a heartthrob. Which probably explains why female workers at the ministry had increased by twenty percent.
Dear Ginny –
First of all, Merry Christmas if this letter arrives on time, though it might be late since this owl looks dubious.
Ginny looked at the owl that had carried the letter and had agreed with her friend completely. It resembled how Errol looked like.
I am currently on an assignment with Draco in the worst yet best place possible. We are currently below the equator and there is absolutely no chance of snow! But I suppose the beaches and other sunny activities are nice. As far as I know, I probably will spend Christmas swimming at the beach will Mr. PMS-y instead of building snowmans and snow angels with you and the rest of the Weasleys. I was supposed to join you for dinner but that blasted ministry just had to send me on an assignment in a place whose residents have never built a snowman! Now I am here with a blonde and pale man that attracts too much attention. The minute he walked out of our hotel and headed for his morning swim, I could hear high pitched squealing emitting from the pool. Honestly, why was I sent on this trip with him? Be sure to hurt Harry for me – even a light smack is fine. The excuse he made was 100% O2. Harry cannot lie for the life of him.
Ah, enough about my complaining. I don't know when I will be back, so you have to write back and tell me all about the snow that you have seen. I miss it already.
Hugs and Kisses,
Aurora
PS: Did Mimi like her present? Did you like yours? And tell me soon since I already have my eyes on another gift for you.
Ginny closed the letter and smiled to herself about the oddness of her friend. No information about any wedding was included. A crash in her living room made Ginny rush down the stair.
It seems Mimi had finally noticed Harry's presence. The ball of feathers had given the man a shock and he fell backwards in his chair.
"Oh my goodness. Are you alright Harry?" Ginny asked unsure of what to expect. The chair Harry was sitting in empty and the person that was using was a hump on the floor. There were no moans of pain actually Harry made no sound. "Eh . . ."
Moments later, Harry Potter finally showed signs of being alive.
"Oww . . ." Ginny had taken a seat right next to Harry and she was flipping through the folder arranging the paper. When Harry made the complaint, the redhead merely looked at with a smirk.
"The Dark Lord couldn't even touch a hair on Harry Potter but a wimpy oak chair was able to make the Boy Who Lived faint for oh lemme see," Ginny pushed the sleeve of her right arm back and looked at the watch. "Wow, a whole half an hour." Harry looked indignant – with his mouth wide open and a bruise was forming on the left part of his forehead, where he landed.
"Excuse me, but you owl could be the next Voldemort if she can hold a wand!" He joked back. "I could arrest you for harboring a potential dark lord."
"I am not going to argue with you about my owl. First of all, a half an hour has passed and we did nothing. That doesn't mean the service charge is free," Ginny retorted. She really wasn't in such a good mood about Harry or the wedding. Couldn't he see that I like him?
"You'd think the genius Harry Potter would notice these things when he had ended so many dangerous dark arts groups," Ginny muttered under her breath.
"What?" Harry asked finally standing up. He swayed a little, but quickly recovered when he extended his hand to help Ginny up.
Without looking up, Ginny continued to grumble, "Maybe it was Malfoy and Aurora that planned their missions." The expression on Harry's face when Ginny looked at him was confusing. He had looked like he was confused beyond comprehension and Ginny was confused since it looked like he had actually heard what she had mumbled.
"Now we plan," Ginny announced ridding the air of discomfort.
~*~finis for now~*~
Omni's Rambles:
That was supposed to come out on Christmas, but when I started writing it, there were too many revisions and it just got sort of long. Never expected this to be 5 and a half pages . . . The next chapter probably will be much later. Seeing as I can't eat anything and my head feels compressed yet consists of too much air, I have no clue if I can write any thing that makes any sense. =P
The Usual Thanks/Answers to Reviews:
Sara Lee: Who is Harry's bride? That is the question we all want to know . . . and therefore, I am not telling. But it won't be Cho. For some reason, it think it is immoral for people to stick her with Harry after Cedric died . . . not that I want her to mope or anything. The relationship would just be weird. Her current boyfriend saw her ex die. *shivers*
Marajade3081: Goody! At least I am not alone in this. Though as for the H/G shipper, I actually have no preference for pairings. I only opinions on who shouldn't be paired. So don't assume anything. And you are right about keep your guess unknown to me. Since I might change the story if things get too obvious.
Mars777 aka Poetrygoth777 aka Traci Laneta: Um, not telling. So from the next chapter your guess might be proven wrong. To give you a warning, I have very twisted logic. Besides, I'll have to introduce the other female candidates first. Ginny will be kept in the dark . . . and I will try to keep my readers in the dark as well. (That will prove to be difficult since I can't keep a secret present secret . . .)
Santa Claus: Create something?? Hmm, I'll look into that. Thanks for the reassurance on the title. I still don't like it very much though . . . it seems too blatant? But the story isn't blatant. Oh well. . .
Jennyo Turkey: Are you 100% certain how this will turn out? But I am glad you chose to continue reading this. ^^
Sweetevangeline: Thank you! I have always had problems on the endings. And I am very happy you are enjoying this.