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Chapter Twenty-Six: Engagement Party
It seemed as though the Ministry of Magic had labeled Ginny as an endangered being as well since Harry's orders for the next two weeks were to keep Ginny in bed and make sure she doesn't over exert herself. The redhead didn't really mind the attention so much, but being cooped inside for one week does get frustrating. By the end of the week, Harry had no more plans of keeping Ginny in bed so resorted to bringing up the subject of their charitable engagement party.
"It's good to have a charity event based on us even though we never gave whoever started this permission," Harry started when Ginny was being adamant about going about doing something –checking on the table sets and the flower arrangement orders in Diagon Alley. "I suppose the only problem would be how are they getting profits from this? If they are selling tickets, it wouldn't really be a public party."
"Do you really want the entire world to come see you putting a ring on my finger?" Ginny asked in surprise. "And besides, they're commercializing this. I don't like it."
"Neither do I, but if it is a charity event . . ."
"You even questioned it yourself, Harry," Ginny warned. Events like weddings and such are supposed to be private family and friends events. Certainly Harry was the hero of England because he got rid of a dark lord and is now trying to prevent the uprising of more lunatics, but that does not make his private life a responsibility of the public. "Besides, if we have a public engagement party, that would give permission for people to put our lives under public scrutiny. And then when we have out first child, there would be a big bash for his first birthday and such."
"I understand that, but Parvati and Lavender seemed really excited about that."
Ginny ignored it. It doesn't really matter if Parvati and Lavender were excited about the engagement party. It was her wedding after all, and a Ginny Weasley wedding was one that remained private. Therefore, the engagement party should be a private affair, if there would even be one.
"How's Hermione?" Ginny asked wanting to get off the subject of a charity event/engagement party. It was more important to catch up on family news then whether or not the public liked the Ginny/Harry pairing.
"Hermione is doing well. She should be arriving with Ron in a half an hour."
"What? And you never told me until now?" Ginny exclaimed as she tried to dash around the house preparing to meet guests. It was getting difficult to move since Harry had latched on trying to get her to settle down. "Get off Harry, I know I am supposed to be rest but people need exercise as well!"
"You got your exercise in our morning walk." The auror still didn't budge and now he had Ginny in a vice grip since she stopped wriggling. As Ginny pounded on her fiancé's chest trying to get freed, Harry unexpectedly kissed her. Well, perhaps it wasn't unexpectedly since Harry had done that many times to get her calmed and it would keep her so for a while, until Harry backed off attempting to not get chopped up in pieces if he shamed Ginny in anyway.
"You've got to stop doing that," Ginny mumbled into the kiss. Harry had leaned back with a teasing smile.
"You mean you don't like it?" Ginny rolled her eyes at the drama. "This is disastrous! I need to go out and practice a bit more until I am good enough for my soon-to-be wife."
"Don't you dare Potter else you'll find yourself missing something," Ginny threatened with humor. "Besides, I think I liked too much that it is now a way for you to manipulate me. It's not fair."
"Well, you have me wrapped around your finger as well. One second display of a puppy eye and I'll do whatever you want." Ginny pouted, which made Harry laugh. "Ack, it's that face again, I suppose I would need to fight back!" With a swift combination of bring Ginny closer and angling his head, the couple engaged in another intense session of mouth to mouth acts of affection.
"Oh geez, that's my little sister!" the voice of Ron exclaimed which prompted an abrupt breakup. "My eyes! Spare my eyes!" Ginny and Harry looked at each other in confusion. Ron didn't act like that when Aurora played then into the situation of kissing.
"Oh stop being so immature," Hermione chided, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, it's as though you've never done anything worse then kissing," Harry added. "I mean, you can't be that innocent if you got Hermione to look like that." This time, it was Ginny's turn to shriek.
"My ears! My virgin ears and head and brain!" Ron got the hint and stopped his miming of an agitated person. "Ew! That was my brother you were describing!" Ginny exclaimed. Her face visibly proved the large volumes of blood rushing towards her cheeks. With one last shutter, Ginny tentatively looked at her brother and his very pregnant wife.
"How are you Ginny?" Hermione asked, prim and proper like nothing immature had happened and the redness of her cheeks were due to exercise rather than embarrassment. "So, any decision on the engagement party?" Ginny wrinkled her nose in dislike. The distractions returned to the topic of the charity engagement party.
"You know, how are they making this charitable?" Ginny asked massaging the bridge of her nose. "Would it be like free meals for all who would like to go? Auction off tickets to the engagement party so the proceeds go to St. Mungo's or what?"
"Not the free food deal, I am sure of that!" Ron exclaimed with dignity.
"Tickets will be auctioned and the event would be highly monitored so no one could hurt England's national couple," Hermione explained. "I find it kind of annoying how they are auctioning off tickets. So much for it being a public event. Those who couldn't win the auction wouldn't get to go. Then you have a bunch of pompous warlocks and their wives going and probably making fun of the decorations and table arrangements."
"Hermione, that's stereotypical!" Harry exclaimed, rather offended since he worked with most of those pompous warlocks and had to attend dinner parties where he met the wives. Before he could rant, either the pointed look from Hermione or the cutting motion from Ron stopped him from explaining further.
"Fine then!" Hermione replied with a huff that seemed a much bigger movement due to her current physical state. "Do you know if we need to get tickets as well?"
"I hope not, but I need to check on that," Ginny said with a smile. It did give her an excuse to be outside. Of course, and she would get to work as well.
"Hello Lavender, Parvati!" Harry's voice sounded from the farther corner of the living room, right by the fireplace. "I just have a quick question regarding the engagement party."
"Oh, so Ginny has agreed?" came the giddy reply of Lavender. "Oh how wonderful! Okay, so what's the question?"
"Does the family and friends need to go to the auction for tickets?" the fiery head of Lavender shook vigorously.
"Nope, there's about fifty seats reserved for family and friends," Parvarti replied with her looking like she was reading something. "So we don't need to have people auction for seats unless fifty is not enough."
"There are FIFTY seats for family and friends?" Ginny shouted in shock. "How many people would be there?"
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It was normal for Ginny to be shocked. On the morning of the engagement party, the Witches Weekly made an announcement on how the engagement party for Ginny Weasley – soon to be Potter – and Harry Potter would be the biggest event since the celebration of the end of the Dark Lord. Approximately 300 people would be at the engagement party and it was planned by all the businesses involved.
"Ginny, stop gawking at the headlines!" Hermione chided. If she could stomp her foot, she probably would have since they would be ten minutes late with the meeting with the ministry if they left at that second. "Oh come on! We are already late and then Harry would get really worried, then he would have a fit and then the rest of the day wouldn't be happy. Come on! We have a tight schedule." Ginny decided to move since listening to Hermione complain wasn't her favorite pastime, especially a pregnant Hermione.
To her utmost dislike – the planner part of Ginny – the day was filled with a meeting with the Ministry Officials, followed by checking on the engagement party stuff, get primed up for the party, and then the party itself. Unfortunately, she had to do all that before 4:00 pm, when people would start going to the party.
"Ginny! You're finally here!" Ron exclaimed as he hugged Hermione. "People are getting a bit restless, especially Malfoy. I think he believed Christmas came early."
A briefing from Draco Malfoy and the other witches and wizards involved in the case regarding Aurora was what the meeting was. According to various interrogations series, the aurors found the information needed to say piece back Ginny's memory and how it connected with Aurora. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough information on what exactly happened to the auror.
"So we'll continue to search for clues regarding the whereabouts for Aurora Classen," Draco Malfoy explained in conclusion. "And before any of you Weasleys get too revengeful – and you too Potter – Annabel Cardigan and her cousin Robert Cardigan are under custody of the ministry. We are hoping to get more answers out of them. There may be a lead concerning the rebels since the two used that group to drive Miss Classen away."
"Thank you!" Ginny said with a smile. "So this is somewhat over. We just need to find Aurora and it would be the end of the story. Good. Why did that story seemed like an awful soap opera?" The entire audience laughed. With Ginny being well and very confident Classens guaranteeing the fact that Aurora Classen was safe, everyone could take a relaxing breath and focus on happy thoughts, like the upcoming wedding of one of the wizarding world's most eligible bachelor.
"Okay, so now Ginny would need to get dressed up for the engagement party," Draco started. "Well, why don't we all go to lunch and go from there?" The work he had done seemed to pull him out of his misery. No one bothered to go against what the Malfoy heir said. After all, who would want to forego a free lunch?
The café was buzzing with people. When the customers saw the famous Potter-Malfoy-Weasley group was present, the entire café filled up within fifteen minutes with well-wishers and strange ecstatic normal folk who somehow won auctioned tickets to go to the engagement party later in the day.
"The café owner better be giving me 5% of his profits from people staring at our freak show featuring Ginny and Potter," Malfoy drawled eyeing the uncomfortable couple with a smirk.
"Malfoy!" Hermione chided.
"Just joking Granger. And besides, if it were for us, the man would not be striking it rich today. I chose this café because I thought it would be a nice quiet place to have lunch."
"Ginny!" two voices squeaked from behind the diners. "We hear from people on the streets that the Potter couple were receiving well-wishes in Ben's Café so we came over. Why are you still here? You need to get ready for the engagement party as well as checking everything. The business people have been having cows because they are afraid you might not like it." Lavender and Parvati each took an arm of Ginny's and dragged her out of the café.
"Erm, bye everyone. I'll see you tonight!"
~*~*~
Ginny looked around the outside hall. It seemed as though the party was a maypole party, but of course, it was already in May and the sun was bright making everything glitter like fairies blessed each and every object un the dinning hall. The centerpieces on each table were meticulously placed and arranged. When Lavender and Parvati brought Ginny to look over the arrangements and such, people were still organizing the centerpieces, by hand too!
"Do you like it Miss Weasley?" someone asked. Ginny was preoccupied with looking at all the decorations. Everything was elaborate yet it was simple at the same time.
"Gin, you might was to answer since the man is about to have a heart attack if you don't answer soon," Parvati whispered.
"Oh? Yes! It's beautiful!" Ginny exclaimed with a smile. Then the rest of the workers looked up.
"Pardon me Miss Weasley, but we know it's beautiful," someone from across the room shouted. "But do you like it?" Ginny nodded.
"I do, but I don't think we deserve to have everything so elaborate." The crowd of decorator cheered.
"Now, about the food," another businessperson started. Ginny smiled again and shook her head.
"You might want my mother to try them. She is the food expert!"
So everything was settled. While Ginny was slightly late for the inspection, the time saved from trying all the various food catered shortened the time. In fact, she now had more time to get ready, under the supervision of Lavender, Parvati, and some world famous cosmeticians and beauticians. Whether or not the arrangement was a good idea, Ginny wasn't sure, but she was sent to different so-called booth for various part of her makeup.
"You know, you are pretty much the princess of the wizarding realm since Mr. Potter is the prince according to everyone," one woman said.
"Yeah, so you would need to be all primed up and pretty. No matter what you would like to make of that title, a part of your job would always be the pretty one next to him," another supplied while she fiddled with Ginny's dress.
"Ladies, it's not like I'm marrying into a royal family. Honestly, this isn't the fifteenth century," Ginny complained. The hair stylist twisted her head back in place when she tried to move.
"Now, don't you look beautiful?" the hair stylist gushed. "Mr. Potter would be so pleasantly surprised."
Ginny frowned at the circle of fickle women around her. Was she supposed to play the role of Jacquelyn Kennedy – being pretty and smile? Harry obviously wouldn't let her do that. The very feminist-powered Hermione probably would have a fit if she heard what the beautician ladies were discussing.
"Wow Ginny!" Lavender exclaimed. "You look absolutely wonderful! And jus tin time too. It is three-thirty. You should be with Harry welcoming people and such as well making some impromptu speeches about stuff."
"Speech?" Ginny asked in shock. "Now? Impromptu? What am I going to say? This is supposed to be a family event and I don't really like the feeling of being a social puppet?" Lavender shrugged.
"Sorry Ginny," Parvati replied after she made a mad dash into the room. "Your brothers came with your mother and I think they are going to give Mr. Hartman a heart attack with their threats about pranks and such. I caught them sticking in some canary creams around the decorations of the lemon squares."
"So am I done here?" Ginny asked. "I believed I need to prevent my brothers from being immature." As though on cue, a blood-curling scream emitted from the outside hall.
"YOU DESPICABLE, MANGY, UGLY, REDHEADED BEASTS!" an Italian voice shouted. "YOU HAVE RUINED MY BEAUTIFUL CAKE! Who changed my jasmine essence to dungbomb smells?" The ladies in the room all looked at Ginny.
"So you see, I am needed out there," Ginny concluded with a shaky smile. "Thanks for the lovely makeover, tata!" The redhead ran out the room with another shout from the kitchens and the ladies shaking their head about how the run was going to ruin the entire beautifying procedure.
"Well, I guess she didn't even need all that makeup and such anyhow . . ." the ladies trailed off with Lavender and Parvati nodding their heads.
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"Fred and George Weasley!" Ginny screamed at the top of her lungs. "Get over here right now! This is supposed to be my engagement party. Everything is supposed to be orderly. I do not need you to cause a series of heart attacks nor do I need you to ruin the decorations. Now, get over here right now before I get Mother to spank you."
Ginny Weasley had given up looking for her twin brothers who were more like mischievous spirits than twenty-some years old businessmen. In the middle of the outside hall, among many people making last minute arrangements, the redhead decided to teach everyone what a redhead with a temper really looked like. The first generation of mischievous Weasley twins bashfully walked out of an obscure corner hoping to not infuriate their little sister more, especially when she sounded so much like their mother.
"Yes our beautiful, smart, almost-married, little sister?" Fred and George said together like two boys found with their hands in the cookie jar. "You know, you would be a very good mother since you sounded so much like our mother for a moment there." Ginny looked at her brothers silently.
"Well, it was compliment really," George amended.
"Yeah, you don't nag as much as Mother," Fred concluded. Ginny still remained silent.
"You know," Ginny started not looking at her brothers in the eye, usually a sign of Ginny trying to control her temper. "This is an engagement party for the entire England, I don't think it would be such a good idea to annoy the rest of the country by playing tricks on them. After all, you probably don't want people to start a campaign to outlaw your projects, right?"
"But Gin," Fred whined. "I thought you didn't want this party. We could make it so interesting. Wouldn't it be nice to see some pompous git get turned into a canary?"
"Yeah, we worked so hard on making it look like a delicacy." Ginny looked around for Harry since he was supposed to be with her soon to welcome guests. "You know, Harry even liked it idea of making people look like canaries at an engagement party."
"Virginia Weasley!" a lady who looked and acted like the epitome of an upper class woman with many divorces at the young age of thirty-five waved. The three Weasleys looked at each other and groaned.
"So about that canary cream . . ."
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Um . . . I am at a loss actually. Judgment on what I write is welcome. In fact, I am at a slight crisis – how do you define writing well? Pfft! Well, I think there would be one more chapter left, obviously about the wedding. I was thinking of more canaries, some false alarms, a massive campaign for the W.W.W. shop, and some bouquet accidents.
Maybe some fluff, if I am in the mood.
Hmm, to all the people who made this possible, meaning made it possible for me to finish this story. Remember I welcome comments of any sort. Please tell me what's on your mind. It would be lovely to get lots of input so I might be able to fix my slight crisis.
Thank yous:
Loopyloony: No problem. I don't mind advanced warnings when I have time. I only worry about annoying people with them ^^. Well, I suppose you could say Draco's dilemma is fixed.
Beauty Eclipsed: Thanks! It did make me feel a lot better about the chapter.
LuthienGranger2004: Thank you, glad that you like it.
Rara: Hm, Ginny lost her memory due a memory charm, and that memory was during the time she was kidnapped. So I guess the chunk of memory was about a month worth of events. Basically who were involved in her kidnapping.
Simple Confusion: I liked the proposal too, especially embarrassing Harry Potter. I think he deserved to get a healthy dose of that in the books. Too much fame needed to be countered with humility.
stellar7blue: Nope, reading for 8 hours for a graduate student with tests coming up wouldn't be good, but I have to say I am very flattered that you took the time to read all of it. The advice you gave, well, it certainly did a lot for my ego. And thanks so much although I don't think I really deserve the high praise. As for being a writer, let's just say I'll see if I could publish one book. I have an omnipresent reality check – a close friend of mine's mother is a writer. She knows how difficult it is for books to get published and be successful. As for Aurora, she's kind of like a symbol, I guess. There's a reason why she's American, but that's really a personal POV, one that I won't impose on anyone else. Well, good luck on your studies!
CollegeSmurf: Thanks for being the hidden reader. ^^ Well, wedding is coming up next.
Aindel S. Druida: Ah, mi amiga en los tiempos malos. Don't even bother to try to understand that. I am not sure if I have the proper grammar. Anyhow, it's only two days until Christmas Eve. I have started on your special story, I suppose Draco's epilogue. Hm, have fun watching Les Miserables . . . I envy you. *sniffle*
Shahrezad1: Thanks, not to sound immodest, but I tend to be interesting. I have had various words that related to that word to describe me by many people already. Not sure if it's good news.
Purple Spotted Hedwig: Thanks for the suggestion. I think I could finish this story. Besides, when I do finish, it would be officially the first story I have ever completed, at least multi-chaptered ones. ^^ See why I am hesitant to as for help?
Serenity55: Very reassuring – not sarcasm – thanks!
Well everyone, three days until Christmas! Yeehaw!
~Omnifarious