Chapter Three - Another Unexpected Reunion.

Harry climbed another flight of stairs, turned another corner, reached another corridor and groaned. He leaned against the nearest wall, catching his breath and running his fingers through his hair, which had become distinctly tidier since he left Hogwarts. There was no denying it - he was lost. It suddenly struck him how ironic and embarrassing the situation was : the Captain and Seeker of the Nation England Quidditch Team, winner of the last two World Cups couldn't even find his way to the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Well, it wasn't his fault the stupid Ministry of Magic office building was built in such a confusing way. All the corridors and offices looked the same. If Harry didn't know better he would have thought he had entered a hall of mirrors.

Harry sighed and looked up. A sign above his head read "The Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures Wing." Hey! he thought, Hermione's House-Elf Department should be around here somewhere, he could just pop into her office and ask her for directions. She was bound to know where the Magical Games and Sports Department was. He'd never visited Hermione at work, but he was sure she wouldn't mind. He made his way down the corridor keeping a close eye out for any more signs or notices that might point him the direction of Hermione's office. A door to Harry's left opened and a young woman walked out, her arms full of files, one of which she seemed deeply immersed in as she crossed the hallway, reading it through her rimless reading glasses. She hadn't noticed Harry, nor had he noticed her, until they collided, sending Harry tumbling backwards onto the thinly-carepted floor, amid a blizzard of documents and papers which had all escaped from the girl's arms and were fluttering gently onto the ground like overlarge snowflakes.

"Sorry about that," Harry said, shaking himself slightly, while fumbling around for his glasses, which had flown off in the confusion.

"No, I'm sorry," said the girl, sounding it, too. "It's my fault. Are all ri -"

She stopped in mid sentence as she locked her eyes on Harry's face. No, she wasn't looking at his scar like everyone else always did, but at his eyes. As she took in his dazzlingly bright lime-green eyes she uttered a small gasp.

"Harry?" she whispered.

Harry looked up, surprised, and beheld the fuzzy outline of a petite, slender, green-robed woman with long flowing crimson hair standing over him. Hardly daring to believe it, Harry's hand found his glasses, and as he placed them awkwardly on the bridge of his nose, the figure of Ginny Weasley came into sharper focus. She was gazing at him in disbelief, holding her rimless glasses in one hand and a now empty folder in the other.

Unsure what to do next, Harry stood up, adjusting his glasses and stared back, a flurry of jumbled emotions racing through his heart as he did. For a moment, they merely stared into each other's eyes, both equally bemused. A small twinkle sparkled in Harry's eyes and a moment later, Ginny had flung her arms around his neck pulling him into a very warm hug. Harry's heart raced, though he felt slightly uncomfortable hugging Ginny like this, when after dating her for his last three years at Hogwarts, he'd gone a further five years with hardly visiting her between his travels, yet he still loved her more than ever, something he could only explain to himself.

"I missed you, Harry," she said softly.

"I missed you, too, Gin," he replied, trying to keep the uneasiness out of his voice. He wished he knew the sense in which Ginny had missed him - as a friend of the family or as her boyfriend - her tone was neutral and could have pointed either way.

They held their hug for a few seconds longer, then Harry asked, "what are you doing here?"

Ginny slowly broke away from their embrace and smiled. "This is it, this is my work-place, 'House-Elf Liberation Department'."

Harry grinned. "So you're working with Hermione, I take it?"

"Yep. Well, you know we've always been good friends, Hermione and me, and she knew I was having trouble finding a job, so when she was granted permission to start this department, she asked me if I wanted to join. We've been working together ever since."

A slightly awkward pause followed, as Harry bit his lip and Ginny fiddled with her files, both trying to come up with another subject.

"When did you get glasses?" Harry asked, feeling immediately that this was the stupidest suggestion for conversation he could have thought of.

"Three years ago," Ginny shrugged, glancing down at the rimless pair in her hand. "They're only for reading, though. I don't wear them most of the time. Dad and Percy have glasses, so I suppose it's only natural for me to have them too."

Harry nodded, and just as his heart told him to change the subject to a more pressing point, Ginny burst out, "I haven't seen you for years, where have you been?", as though she'd been dying to ask him this from the start.

"I told you, I've been roaming up and down the country going from one Quidditch team to the next," he replied. "Didn't you get my letters?"

"Yeah, I got your letters," Ginny nodded slowly, "but it's not the same, is it? How come you never came to visit? You haven't been to see m- I mean, the Burrow for ages."

Harry felt his stomach knot itself guiltily. "I dunno. I was going to come and see you, but then I got accepted to the National Squad, which was so demanding, I hardly got any time to myself. Then when they elected me Captain last year, I had even more work to do and less time to do it..."

"Oh, you poor, poor thing," Ginny smiled warmly, running the tips of her fingers along his bottom jaw the way she used to at their Hogwarts dates, making Harry stare. In the past, this gesture had been Ginny's preview to Harry of an upcoming kiss. Harry loved the feeling.

"I know it's no excuse," he said quickly. "I mean, how long does it take to Apparate? But I..." Harry suddenly shook himself mentally and cut himself across. HE knew why he hadn't been to see Ginny all these years, why he'd left for so long in the first place, he just wasn't about to admit it to her yet. "...I did offer you to come with me on my travels, didn't I?"

Ginny sighed. "I know you did, but I couldn't leave Mum. She's been so weak since Ron's disappearance...."

"So you've still got no new leads?" Harry asked soberly. "No new information as to what might have happened to him?"

Ginny shook her head sadly. "Nothing. Not a scrap of news for years now. All we know is he wrote home four Decembers ago saying he'd caught his biggest catch yet and he never wrote again. When we went to his flat, all his stuff was gone and his Gringotts account had been emptied, though the goblins wouldn't tell us by whom, no sign of anything, not even Pigwidgeon. It's like he never existed."

They both stared at the carpet at their feet solemnly for a few moments, unable to speak. Then Harry suddenly raised his eyes to Ginny's.

"Ginny, do you ever think about our Hogwarts dates?" he blurted very quickly.

Ginny looked up. "Sorry?"

"Do - do you ever think about those three years, in...in Hogwarts when, you know, we were going out?" Harry stammered, avoiding her eyes.

"Why, do you?" she asked.

"I asked you first."

Ginny gave a small, slightly embarrassed smile. "I...I do, actually."

"You- you DO?"

"I think about them a lot," Ginny's eyes were twinkling. "Those years were very special to me. You were my first boyfriend, Harry...and my last."

"Your last?" Harry repeated bemused. "I can't believe that. Why....?"

"I've been waiting for you, Harry," she smiled. "All these years, I turned down everyone who asked me out because I was waiting for you to come back one day and tell me you still loved me, and we could pick up the old threads from where we left off on the last day of your seventh year. Everyone thinks I'm out of my mind, still waiting, but I don't care…"

Harry gaped at her, unsure he'd really heard what he thought she'd said.

"Why d'you ask?" Ginny inquired with anxiety in her tone, as though she was teetering on the brink of taking it all back, should Harry's answer differ from the one she'd been dreaming about for five years.

"Because that's exactly why I came back," said Harry quietly.

Ginny's files carpeted the floor again as she flung her arms around his neck again. As Harry held her, he whispered, "So, how about continuing from where we left off tonight at around seven o clock tonight?"

Ginny stared at him for a moment, with mingled surprise and admiration, before her face split into the same gorgeous grin Harry had been dreaming about all these years.

"You're on!"

Harry hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward and gave Ginny a very quick, light kiss on her lips. When he pulled away, Ginny looked like she wanted to retaliate, but thinking seven o clock would be a better time to do so, she contented herself with winking at him and whispering "See you tonight."

"Seven o clock. Be there."

" I will."

Harry walked back down the corridor feeling lighter than ever before. He jumped slightly as Ginny called him again.

"Harry!"

"Yes, Gin?"

Ginny had popped her beautiful head out of the doorway, her long hair swaying slightly. "The Department of Magical Games and Sports is upstairs, second door on the right."

Harry grinned at her. "Thanks, Gin."

She blew him a kiss in reply.

A/N Okay, a bit flimsy. It's back to the Ron/Hermione part next chapter. Please please please reveiw.