"Ginny," her secretary, Lori, whispered, "Rise and Shine…you have a meeting in fifteen minutes. Come on, beautiful, it is time to wakey wakey…"

"Unhghghgh" Ginny replied.

"Wakey…wakey…" Lori continued quietly as she began lightly rubbing a tissue over Ginny's nose.

Ginny mumbled in her sleep, haphazardly rubbed her nose and returned to her slumber.

Lori's body shook from her laughter and the fact she was trying not to laugh out loud.

She leaned over with the tissue again, and ran it across Ginny's nose again as she said, "Wake up, Ginny. You are going to be late."

Ginny did not even respond. Lori decided it was time to take drastic action. She moved as close as possible to Ginny and placed a fake wand, from Fred and George's store that spewed water, by her wand hand. She backed carefully away. Then, she did the horrible.

Loudly, Lori said, "Ginny, wake up. The Press is coming!"

Ginny jumped up, grabbed her wand and did a cleaning spell on herself and her clothes. Only, she had grabbed the fake wand that her secretary had evilly placed by her hand, so she was drenched by the water shooting out the end of the wand.

"Ahhh! What in the hell?" Ginny screeched.

Lori would have answered, but she was too busy laughing hysterically.

Taking the cue from Lori's reaction, Ginny looked at the wand in her hand and groaned.

"I have been foiled by my secretary and my prankster brothers."

"Yes, you have. Do you KNOW how long I have been waiting to use that on you? Your brothers, Fred, George and Charlie, gave that to me the evening after your inauguration."

"You have had…wait a minute, Charlie? Charlie was in on this?"

Lori just nodded. She did not trust herself to speak; the words would be lost in her laughter.

"That…that…that traitor! Oh! He is so dead! I am going to…"

"Ummm, Ginny you have a meeting in," she paused to look at her muggle watch, "seven minutes. You need to get your groove on, M.O.M.!"

Ginny rolled her eyes and said, "Would you NOT call me M.O.M, please. It makes me feel twenty years older than I am."

"I only do it because Minister of Magic breaks down to M-O-M… See? M.O.M. It is not a statement about your age or how old you look. Although, now that we are on that topic, you do dress like an old spinster; you look ten years older than you are. No one would guess that I am actually older than you! Geez Ginny, you need a life. You know, something that gives you meaning besides this place"

"Now who sounds like a Mom?" Ginny asked with her eyebrows severely arched.

"Meeting?"

"Going"

Ginny reached over for her real wand, did a drying and cleansing spell on her person and walked to her desk. She picked up the report needed for this meeting and walked out of the room.

Ginny made the short walk to the executive conference room and took her usual chair far away from the door. She placed the bound report in front of herself on the table. She flipped the report open and began re-reading the contents to refresh her memory.

"Hi Ginny! Feeling better this morning?"

Ginny looked up and saw that Hermione had walked into the room with her own copy of the report and a bright smile. Hermione took the seat next to Ginny and looked at her expectantly.

"Hi Hermione! Certainly, I chalk it up to lack of sleep." Ginny said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Hmmm- and here I thought it was because your mother tends to be overbearing while insisting on interfering in your life. Of course, that was just me. Now I'm not saying I don't love Molly Weasley, because I do; but I am saying that she tends to be a bit much at times. Are you sure you are okay?"

"Hermione, this is nothing new. I have been through this with my mother a million and one times. I simply believe that it is a generation gap issue, nothing more. She does not get how I could want to have something other than a husband and kids. What she does not get is that for so long I wanted the same thing; however, I know that will never happen. I loved. He did not love me. Shoot, whom am I kidding? I never even bleeped on his radar of possibilities. Thus, I rely on my job to feed my nurturing needs."

"Ginny…" Hermione began, but was cut off by the wave of Ginny's hand.

"No, this is neither the time nor the place."

Hermione began to speak again, but stopped when a few other people walked into the room.

The meeting began five minutes later.

"Not bad," thought Ginny, "this started only a few minutes late. Wonder if I should hope for getting out early?"

In the end, Ginny sat there for the entire allotted time plus ten minutes. She walked back to her office lost in her thoughts about the meeting. It seemed to have been fairly productive.

As she passed Lori's desk, she realized that her secretary was not there.

"She must be at lunch." Ginny thought.

Ginny realized that she was wrong when she walked into her office. There sat Lori, parchment in hand, ready to jot down Ginny's comments about the meeting.

"Amazing…sometimes, you are really amazing." Ginny said to her secretary.

Lori shrugged and said, "I know."

"Modest too…" Ginny teased.

"I know."

Ginny snorted and thought, "What would she do without this crazy secretary of hers?"

Ginny sat down in her comfy work chair, spread out her notes all over her formal mahogany desk and began going through them.

Soon, Ginny and Lori were lost in all of the notes and ideas from the meeting.

A few hours and several decisions later, Ginny thought she and Lori had accomplished quite a bit. They had come up with what they thought to be a good compromise between the groups and made it beneficial for everyone.

Lori gave Ginny a 'thumbs up' and said, "Good Days work, boss. Why don't you head home and finish that nap you were taking earlier?"

"Hardy-har-har! How can I sleep when I have three more of these reports to read, prepare for the looming meetings and start on my own ideas for everyone because I am the Minister of Compromise?"

"MOC?"

"You are just the regular punster, aren't you?"

"Me?"

"You win. I am out of here. I'll see you tomorrow. Don't call me either. I will not answer. I need some sleep."

"Uh-huh"

"I'm serious."

"I said 'uh-huh.'"

"Why do I put up with you?"

"Because I am the best secretary you have ever had. I can read your mind, anticipate your needs and leap tall buildings in a single bound."

"Lori, you need to stop immersing yourself in all things muggle. I think you are losing you brain…"

"Jealous…just jealous…" Lori sang in the most annoying sing song voice ever.

Ginny rolled her eyes, gathered her belongings and headed to the fireplace. She grabbed the necessary floo powder, got in the fireplace, gave Lori a wave 'goodbye,' and called out, "Ginny's home."

She bounded into her living room. She did not fall, but it was close. She grabbed hold of the mantle and steadied herself.

"Thank goodness I never did that at a formal function. That would be all over the news for weeks." Ginny thought, giggling to herself.

She put her 'Minister' robe, purse and brief case in her entry closet. She kicked off her low heeled pumps, wiggled her feet and took great pleasure walking through her luxurious carpet.

Next, she pulled her dressy silk shirt from the waistband of her linen dress trousers and flopped down on her sofa with her left arm splayed dramatically over her eyes.

She was drifting off to sleep when a head appeared in her fireplace.

"Ginny, are you there?"

"Mmmmmm…" Ginny responded.

"Ginny, I am serious. Wake up. I need to ask you something."

Ginny pulled herself to her knees on the sofa and looked at the fireplace. There was a very concerned looking Hermione Weasley.

"Hermione, I do not want to continue our decision from this morning. I was almost asleep and I need some sleep!" Ginny emphatically said.

"No…no…this has nothing to do with this morning's conversation. Well, okay maybe something to do with it, but…"

"Hermione, I said no. I am not going there again. This is my first night home before 10pm in almost 2 weeks. I want to relax. That topic is not relaxing."

"Fine. Ginny have you seen your brother?"

"Which one?"

Hermione sighed loudly and said, "Ron, the one you did not see last night."

"No. Hey, what was his surprise? Whom was it? His new girlfriend? Let me guess, he finally told Lavender after all these years that he thinks she is better than sliced bread." Ginny said, while laughing at her own joke and smacking the back of the chair in slapstick fashion.

"Ginny, this is serious."

Ginny gave Hermione a long appraising look.

"No, it can't be."

"It is."

"You must be mistaken," Ginny said firmly.

"I saw him with my own two eyes. It was him."

"I can't deal with this right now."

"So you have said, thus, my friendly call to let you know. I think Ron plans to head over to your flat with him after dinner at the Burrow."

"No…" Ginny whispered and her face paled.

"Yes. George and I thought, with this new information, you might like to come over for dinner. We have both seen Ron and him. They have no reason to come over to our house."

"Oh Hermione, what would I do without you! You are the best friend ever! I'll be right over!"

Hermione nodded and ended the floo call.

Ginny ran to her bedroom and threw off her shirt and pants. She grabbed a casual cotton dress and slipped on a pair of house slippers. She walked into the bathroom, opened her drawer with all her hair accessories and grabbed a simple ponytail holder. She pulled her hair back and kept it back with the band.

She gave herself a small smile and walked out. She rushed to the fireplace and headed to George and Hermione's home.

"Hi Guys!" Ginny called to her sister-in-law, brother and her nephew.

Daniel jumped out of his chair at the table, ran to his aunt and threw his small chubby arms around her. Ginny leaned over, picked him up and covered his face in kisses. Daniel giggled loudly.  

George smiled at his sister's antics with his son. It was nice to see Ginny relaxed and smiling. She had not been so carefree since before the war.

Hermione looked between brother and sister and smiled. They had all suffered through the war. It was still hard to think about. The Weasley's had been lucky. They had not lost any parents or children, but they had lost many good friends, including Professor McGonagall, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.

Hermione winced when thinking of the last two. The loss of those two had caused many of Ginny's problems.

"Hello…Hermione, where were you? I've been trying to get your attention for several minutes."

"Sorry, thinking about some things I have to do tomorrow at work."

Ginny laughed and said, "And you all think I am a workaholic!"

Hermione gave her a mocking smile and said, "Let's eat!"

"Can I help?" Ginny inquired wanting to do something besides reading reports and sitting in meetings.

"Yes, you can help me carry the bowls to the table."

"Aye-aye, Captain!" Ginny said while mock saluting.

Hermione shook her head and pointed to the kitchen.

Ginny helped Hermione bring the food to the table. They had a nice, lively dinner conversation that had many topics.

Soon, after a scrumptious dessert, they were pushing back from the table and heading to the family room. Daniel asked Ginny to read him a story. She said yes and they headed upstairs to his room.

After she had put him to bed for the evening, she came back downstairs. George and Hermione were cuddling on the sofa. From their vantage point, they could not see Ginny. Ginny watched them for a few minutes. She thought about how cute they looked, how good they were together. But most importantly, she thought about how she would never have this.

She lightly cleared her throat and entered the room. Hermione and George jumped apart.

"We –umm- were just- umm…"

"You were doing what happy couples everywhere do. It is refreshing to see." Ginny said with a smile.

"Ginny, do you want to play some chess?" George asked.

"Nope, I want you to spend some time with your lovely wife. I am going home to sleep!" Ginny said as she walked over to the fireplace.

"Ginny, you don't have to leave." Hermione said.

"I know. I really want to go to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow at the office. Bye guys! Thanks for dinner; it was great!"

She traveled through the floo network to her flat. She was still smiling as she walked into her living room.

The smile quickly faded when she saw who was sitting there.

"Hello Ginny, it has been a long time."