I'll Be Home For Christmas

Chapter 11: Rockin Around The Christmas Tree

Disclaimer: Don't own them!

A/N: Okay I'm rollin along. I can make it! BTW sorry about the length, or lack there of, of the last chapter. It wasn't really an important chapter plot wise, but Christmas lights and sight seeing has always been a part of Christmas for me, and I just HAD to include it somehow. Well keep up the reviews today. Once again I have my email alert on so I know every time one comes in. Help me keep going!

            The Saturday before Christmas, the Burrow was abuzz as those attending prepared for Oliver Woods party. Angelina was chasing Diana around trying to get her into her party robes and Ginny had assigned Harry to keep an eye on James to make sure he didn't do anything that involved getting dirty.

            Ginny opened the oven door and pulled out a sheet of cookies. She quickly dropped the sheet down onto the countertop and waved the hand she burned in the air.

            "You know Gin, you do have a little thing called magic at your disposal," Hermione commented. Hermione was cooling off after an argument with Fred over whether he and George were allowed to go to The Weaze to "pick up a few things" for the party. Hermione's answer had been a firm no, but Fred was still trying to come up with ways to convince her to let them.

            "They don't taste the same if you use magic," Ginny explained. She then saw a hand reach out for the tray. She quickly slapped it with a spoon. "No," she scolded Harry. "They're for the party." She then looked down and saw her son pouting his lip at her.

            "No!" she held her ground. James face then turned to defeat and he turned to his father. "It didn't work dad," he said.

            "I don't know why buddy. I know I couldn't have resisted that face. Try again."

            James again turned to Ginny and looked up at her with a puppy dog face.

            "No! Shoo!" she swatted them out of the kitchen.
            James continued his act even as he exited. "Mummy's mean," he pouted.

            "He's turned my own son against me in three weeks," Ginny shook her head.

            "You guys have become such a family so fast. It's like you've all been together all along," Hermione noted.

            "Harry really loves James," Ginny replied.

            "And you."

            "I know…"

            "He'll do it Gin. He's probably still getting used to being home, being a father…"

            "I know," Ginny answered. "I know he will eventually. And maybe now isn't even the right time yet, but I guess that night…. when he took me to the Shack…I though he was going to do it, and then nothing." She paused and then put let a grin spread across her face "Well it wasn't nothing…."

            Hermione laughed.

            "Anyway, I guess ever since then I can't stop wishing he'd just do it. But I know he'll do it when the time is right. I waited this long to see him, I think I can wait it out."

            "He'll do it soon Gin," Hermione said. "I'm going to go start getting ready Gin. And I suggest you do the same unless you want to be several hours late."

            "Yeah, I'll go get started in a minute"

            Everyone left for Oliver's at the same time, arriving one by one in his fireplace.

            "You guys made it!" Oliver greeted them with a smile. He eyed Hermione and smiled.

            "Mione' I thought we agreed at the wedding that the world didn't need a Fred Weasley offspring," he teased.

            "And yet it's getting two," she warned jokingly.

            " Lord help us all," he smiled before kissing her on the cheek.

            He continued to greet the rest of them and then showed them around his extremely large house.

            "Mione and I were looking at a house for sale just down the street Wood," Fred told him as he finished the tour.

            "So were George and I," Angelina added. "God forbid those two live too far away from one another," she rolled her eyes.

            "Really? Well get Potter in on that and we'd have quite a Quidditch neighborhood. Katie and Alicia both live a street over. They're here somewhere."

            "I didn't realize you lived so close to them Olli!" Angelina exclaimed. "Where are they? I'm going to go find them. I haven't seen them in ages!" Angelina grabbed Diana and left to go see her friends. Ginny, Hermione, and Allison, left Ron, Harry and the twins together with Oliver as the started to discuss Quidditch. As much as Ginny loved playing Quidditch , it wasn't nearly as interesting to talk about.

            Later Ginny was talking with Oliver's wife again about James and their daughter Katy, when she spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting in a corner chatting. Ginny was elated to see them getting sometime to spend together. Between rekindling his relationship with her, and trying to be a father to James, Harry probably hadn't had as much time to reunite with his two best friends, as he would have liked.

            After awhile Ginny wandered over to sit with Harry and James. He, Ron, the Twin, Hermione, Angelina, Allison, and a few other former Gryffindors, were congregating in a sitting room.

            "So Potter what are you going to do with yourself now that you're back in the real world? How are you going to support your beautiful family?" Oliver asked Harry.

            "I haven't really thought about it," Harry responded as if the thought had just struck him. "I guess I'm still a little amazed that I'm even home right now. The future isn't an easy concept to grasp at the moment."

            "Ever thought of professional Quidditch?" Wood raised an eyebrow.

            "About everyday when I was in school. But I'm too out of practice now," Harry waved off the idea.

            "Potter you could be forty pounds over weight, playing without your glasses and still be one of the best damned seekers in the country. Owl me after the New Year and we'll talk."

            "Leave it to Wood to make a business deal at a Christmas party," George teased.

            "It's not business, it's Quidditch."

            "It's business when you add in how much having Harry Potter on the team you're captain of will boost your income," Fred laughed.

            Ginny could tell that the idea that he could actually play professional Quidditch excited Harry. His face had brightened and he was suddenly more animated than he had been before. The conversation the progressed once again completely to Quidditch, and Ginny watched Harry talking with their old friends. It felt just how it had before the war started.

            Ginny yawned as she climbed into bed that night.

            "Did you have a good time?" she asked Harry, who was already under the covers.

            "It was amazing seeing people again. I'd forgotten how much I loved everyone at Hogwarts."

            "Yeah," Ginny agreed. "You don't realize as much when you're there how much the people really become your second family."

            "They were my only family then," Harry reminisced. "But I have to say, I love my new family even more." He pulled Ginny closer to him and closed his eyes.

            "I don't think we could have asked for a better one," Ginny concurred.

            "Definitely not," Harry said quietly as he drifted away. Ginny smiled and closed her eyes too. 'Definitely not,' she thought.

A/N: Two down, two to go. I hope you all are enjoying the final installments of the story. I'm working hard to get them done. I've gotten a few reviews while I've been writing and they truly have helped me keep typing. I'm almost 100% sure this will actually be done by today. Amazing, I'm actually going accomplish a goal I set?? I don't know if I've ever done that before! He he. Well, keep up the fantastic reviews and I promise to have the last two chapters out soon!

Love and Kisses,

Bella