Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.

Weasleys In Love

Ginny and Cho were having some tea after a very late dinner at St. Mungo's refectory. Neville had eaten with them too, but had gone back to work immediately because he was in the middle of preparing a potion for Benjamin and he didn't want to spoil it, although he had told them proudly that all of his potions had turned out ok so far. Of course, Benjamin and him had only worked on easy potions until then... Still, it was an improvement that no cauldron had exploded yet, and Neville was very happy about that.

"I'm glad we got a chance to meet again," Ginny was saying. "It's the first time that the three of us have the same training shift, and I really wanted to see how you were doing."

"Yes..." Cho said, "and it has allowed me to confirm something I've suspected from the beginning."

Ginny looked surprised. "That being?"

"Well... I don't know if I should really tell you..."

"What? No way! Now you have started and I won't let you leave me wondering. Spill!" Ginny laughed.

The truth was that Cho was more than willing to comply. "Remember when we had that little meeting with Mrs. Santos and she assigned us to our mentors?" Ginny nodded. "Well, I thought that Benjamin didn't look too happy with the last minute change, you know? He was supposed to be working with you instead of Neville, remember?"

"Oh, you noticed it too?" Ginny asked, her brow furrowed. "I thought he looked a little bit put off in knowing he would have to mentor Neville, but they seem to get along quite well, and you heard Neville, Benjamin is very patient with him."

Cho smiled amused. "Yeah, I realised too he doesn't apparently have a problem with Neville, so... I thought there could only be a reason why he didn't look happy..."

"Well?" Ginny asked, and sipped some more tea.

"I think he was upset that he wouldn't be working with you."

Ginny spluttered her tea almost at Cho's face. "What? Why would he have an interest in working with me?"

Cho was too amused to mind being spluttered at. She cleaned herself with her wand and then said: "Because he fancies you?"

"OH, COME ON!" Ginny shouted, and the people in the refectory turned around to look at her.

Both girls giggled for a moment and sipped some tea until everybody else went back to their meals.

"Remember the day we worked here as volunteers?" Cho said. "I noticed that Benjamin looked our way quite often. At the beginning, I thought he was just trying to check what we were doing without making us nervous, but I caught him a couple of times looking in your direction from very far away. I doubt he could see what you were doing with your wand from that far off."

Ginny reddened slightly. "Maybe he was just looking at something else. If he was that far away, he might have been checking another patient..."

"Ginny! Mark my words, he fancies you." Cho interrupted.

"Come on, Cho, you know it cannot be. He must be at least nineteen or twenty. Do you think he would notice a little girl like me?"

"Ginny, you are not any little girl, you are very pretty, and you look older too. And four or five years are not that much."

"Oh, I don't know... I really don't think he is interested in me... And I'm going out with Dean anyway!" Ginny added as an afterthought.

"Well, I'm sure in any case Benjamin doesn't know about Dean, and even if he did... would that be a real problem? Because excuse me if I'm mistaken, but I don't think you really care about Dean much, do you?"

Ginny remained silent and avoided Cho's gaze. "See?" The girl asked triumphantly, and suddenly both of them started laughing.

Their break was over soon afterwards and they had to go back to their respective floors, but Ginny couldn't concentrate much on her work after her little conversation with Cho.

"Hello! Hello! Earth calling Ginny! Earth calling Ginny! Anybody there?" Grace said amused. "What's wrong with you, dear? You looked perfectly normal before the break, but since then you seem to be very far away. Anything worrying you?"

"Oh, no, sorry, Grace. I... Well, Cho told me something and I can't take it out of my head. It's nothing important really... something about school," she lied.

"That's ok, we all have a weird day now and then. We need to go now and check on Mr. Marple, though, so try to stay focused, ok?"

Ginny nodded, a little bit ashamed of being caught daydreaming like that, and all because of Cho's suspicion! She didn't even have a proof that Benjamin was interested in her, although she had to admit she didn't dislike the idea. 'Ok, Ginny,' she said to herself, 'time to focus on work,' and she followed Ms. Guillaume out of her office.

***

Although it was already quite late, Ron and Hermione were still busy trying to catch some pixies that had managed to get into the house, nobody really knew how.

"Got you!" Ron cried, as he threw himself at a scurrying little devil trying to hide under the table.

"Oh, thanks Merlin!" Hermione exclaimed, "that was the last one! I'm aching all over!" The pixies had been giving them hell the whole day.

Ron stood, holding the pixie with both hands and trying very hard to control himself and not strangle it when the insolent creature made disgusting faces at him. He threw him in the enchanted box where his companions were waiting, and then Hermione put again a blocking spell on the box and sealed it. After that, she let herself fall on the old sofa with a deep sigh and closed her eyes. "I'm exhausted!" She complained once more.

Ron joined her, he was tired too, but hunting down the pixies had been really fun, specially when one of them bit Hermione's nose. He looked at the place were the pixie had bitten her and smiled to himself, but then his smile faded as he looked at Hermione's placid face, her long curly eyelashes, her thick lips, her lovely hair... His heart started beating wildly in his chest as it had been doing for some time now every time he looked at Hermione when she wouldn't notice. The other times he hadn't been so close to her, though, and now he found it very difficult to control himself. Slowly, he tilted his head over hers, and before he realised what he was doing, he had kissed her lips.

Hermione opened her eyes in surprise and straightened so suddenly that she hit Ron's head. "Ouch!" They both exclaimed, and rubbed their heads.

"Sorry!" Hermione said very low. Both of them were as red as tomatoes, but they both knew it had nothing to do with their little accident. They chanced a furtive look at each other.

Finally Ron took a deep breath and said, "Hermione..."

"Yes?" She inquired, facing him now.

"I... I... I..." Hermione looked expectantly at Ron. "I like you," he suddenly managed.

Hermione turned even redder, but smiled too. "I know, Ron, we've been friends for the last five years."

Ron sighed exasperatedly. "You know that's not what I mean," he protested.

"No?" Hermione mocked him and put up a surprised face.

"No!" Ron tried to sound annoyed, but he couldn't help a small smile. "I like you very much," he said.

"Very much?" Hermione asked.

Ron rolled his eyes and then straightened and took Hermione's hands in his. "Hermione, do you want to be my girlfriend?" He felt quite confident that she wouldn't reject him, but still, his stomach had jumped up to his throat.

"Yes," Hermione said, and giggled, avoiding Ron's face.

Ron relaxed visibly, and then smiled at her. Hermione smiled shyly back. After a moment of silence, Hermione said: "We should probably take the pixies downstairs so that Sirius can get rid of the box."

Ron didn't answer immediately, but when he did, he sounded much more confident than usually. He lifted Hermione's chin with his hand so that she would look him in the eye. "The pixies can wait until tomorrow," he said.

***

Harry rubbed his tired eyes and looked at the clock on the bedside table between Ron's bed and his -after the incident with the twin's sleeping bags, Mrs. Weasley had thought it would be better if they just went back to their respective rooms.

It was already one in the morning. Harry had been reading a book Professor Lupin had recommended him and had lost track of time. But what could Ron be doing? If Ron didn't come to sleep soon, he would go down and see if Hermione and him had any trouble with the pixies. They had been working on that the whole day, but Ron had said at dinner that they'd probably finish in a couple of hours. That had been six hours ago. What could they be possibly doing so late at night? Surely they could catch the remaining pixies in the morning, couldn't they?

The door of the room opened slowly and Harry put on his glasses again. Ron had his head just inside the door, but not the rest of his body. "Harry, are you awake?" The redhead whispered.

"Of course I am, can't you see the light is on?" Harry said a little bit annoyed. What was going on?

Ron then entered the room, followed by Hermione. They both looked a little bit nervous and seemed to be avoiding Harry's eyes.

"Hermione? Is there anything wrong? It's already one in the morning! Did the pixies give you a lot of trouble?"

"No, not really," she said, and looked sideways at Ron. Harry followed her gaze.

"Harry," Ron said, "there's something we need to tell you." He seemed to be having some difficulty speaking. Harry was starting to get nervous.

"What is it? Has something happened? Is anybody hurt?"

"No, no, it's not that," Ron said, and Hermione shook her head too. "It's that... well..." He turned to Hermione and took her hand in his, and they both looked again at Harry, who was starting to understand what was going on and couldn't hide a smile. "Harry... Hermione and I are going out together." There, it had been said, and suddenly Hermione and Ron felt a lot better.

Harry jumped from the bed to hug them. "About time!" He exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Both Ron and Hermione asked nonplussed.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Forget it, ok? Merlin, am I glad!" He said, grinning from ear to ear.

Hermione and Ron smiled back, feeling much more relaxed now.

"Harry," she said, "we want you to know this changes absolutely nothing, you know? We are still friends, the three of us. We don't want you to feel left out just because Ron and I are together, ok?"

Harry looked at them both with disbelief in his face. "Don't tell me you were worried I would get angry?"

Hermione and Ron nodded awkwardly.

"No way!" Harry laughed. "I had been thinking that if non of you made a move this summer, the moment we went back to Hogwarts I would lock you in one of Filch's broom cupboards and wouldn't let you out until you had finally talked about this." He said, laughing even harder.

Hermione and Ron wondered for a moment if maybe Harry was a real seer, but didn't comment on that.

"I'd better be going now," Hermione said, "it's very late."

"Yeah," Harry said, "and Ginny must be almost here, and you probably want to tell her, don't you?"

Hermione just smiled. She knew she wouldn't sleep much that night.

When she left, Ron changed into his pyjamas and jumped into his bed.

"So," Harry said, "did the pixies really give you a lot of work or were you... otherwise busy?"

Ron chuckled. "No, we had finished with the pixies around ten."

"What?" Harry almost shouted. "You have been snogging for three hours?"

"No!" Ron threw his pillow at Harry, but he caught it easily and went on laughing. "Well... part of the time," Ron said grinning, "but we talked a lot too, mostly about you, if you want to know." Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. "We were worried you would think we couldn't go on being friends like before," Ron explained.

Harry shook his head, still smiling. "You know I'll always want to be your friend, Ron, yours and Hermione's." He said, and Ron looked very happy.

"Now..." Harry said in a conspiratorial tone, "tell me, how was it?"

***

Ginny sat patiently in St. Mungo's reception area, making a list of the things she wanted to buy with her first wage. She had the intention of giving half of it to her mother, spare some galleons and then spend the rest in small presents for everybody at home, Harry and Hermione included. She was biting her quill lost in thought when Neville approached her.

"Ginny? What are you doing here?"

"I got an owl from my father. He's still busy at work, and told me to wait for him until he comes and picks me up."

"Your father is still in the Ministry? But it's half past one in the morning!"

"Yeah, but they have been very busy since the Ministry finally acknowledged Voldemort's return. I've told him many times he doesn't need to bring me here and then pick me up everyday, but he won't listen to me."

"Well, I don't think you should walk alone either," Neville said. "It's different in my case, I live a couple of streets away, but you..."

"Yeah..." Ginny said noncommittally. Neville didn't know she was living at the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, that were in London, not that far away from St. Mungo's itself. "Why are you still here?" Ginny tried to change the subject.

"Oh, we were just finishing a potion, and I wanted to see the result. It was ok," Neville said smiling.

"Of course it was!" Ginny exclaimed. "I told you, everything you need is a little bit of confidence in yourself."

"You're probably right," Neville said shrugging. "Benjamin says I've improved a lot in only a few days. Maybe Professor Snape won't recognise me when we go back to school."

"You are going to take Potions? I thought you would drop the subject!"

"Well, I don't think Professor Snape will let me be in his classes, I'm not sure I passed my Potions OWL, and he said he didn't accept students with less than 'Outstanding', but if I want to be a healer I definitely need to take Potions, so I was thinking in begging him to let me join the classes, although only as a listener. That way I won't endanger everybody with my disastrous mixtures."

Ginny didn't know what to say. She didn't like Professor Snape in class either, although she respected him a lot, specially since he had helped her family against the Death Eaters, but Neville had a point, she should probably work harder in Potions as well if she wanted to get an 'Outstanding' in her OWLs next year. She definitely wanted to become a healer, and potions were very important in her profession.

"Still here?"

They both turned to see Benjamin approach them.

"Ginny has to wait for her father to pick her up," Neville said, and Ginny felt herself going red. Now Benjamin would think she was only a little girl who couldn't even go home alone. She looked at him and couldn't suppress the thought that he looked very well in his muggle clothes: jeans and a loose white shirt with the sleeves rolled up his arms.

Ginny was very angry for a moment, both at herself and at Cho. Now she couldn't look at Benjamin without turning red and wondering if he really fancied her or not. And what did it matter anyway? In any case the boy was sure to change his mind after Neville had informed him she had to wait for daddy, and specially after seeing her wearing the same old robes for the fourth time in two weeks.

Meanwhile, Benjamin looked lost in thought for a moment. To Ginny's surprise, he finally said: "You're staying at the Blacks', aren't you?"

Ginny's mouth hung open. How did he know? "Yes," she finally managed.

"I'm going that way. I could take you home, and so you wouldn't need to wait for your father."

Ginny went absolutely scarlet now. "Er... I don't know... My father might be already on his way..."

"Why don't you send him an owl to make sure?" Neville offered. Ginny didn't know if she wanted to kill him or kiss him. Both things looked very tempting right now.

"But then Benjamin would have to wait until we got my father's answer, and I'm sure he must be tired..." she tried to protest.

"The Ministry is very close to St. Mungo's, I'm sure the owl will be back in a moment," Benjamin said. "I'm not that tired anyway, I'm used to changing shifts pretty often."

Ginny couldn't find any more excuses, so she wrote to her father, and Mr. Weasly answered immediately thanking Benjamin for his kindness. He really couldn't tell when he would finish at work, and he was sorry to have Ginny waiting for him so late at night. If it really wasn't much trouble for Benjamin, he would be very grateful if he really could accompany Ginny home.

That settled, Ginny wrote another short note to her father to tell him Benjamin would be taking her home then, and the three of them left.

When they were at the door, Benjamin told them to wait for him for a second while he went for the car. When he came back, Neville ogled at the car, although it wasn't really spectacular by muggle standards. "Wow! I've never been inside of one!" He said delighted.

Benjamin laughed at their obvious interest. "It's very old really, I bought it second hand. It helps me move around muggle London without arousing the neighbours' suspicions, you know? And then London is a very crowded city, it's difficult to find a spot to apparate to without being seen by muggles." While he spoke, he stepped outside the car and opened the side door for Ginny. She smiled at him shyly and sat. The car had looked quite big from the outside, but from the inside it was much smaller than his father's old Ford Anglia. Of course, she didn't know his father had made some small changes in the Ford Anglia with his wand.

They were at Neville's house soon enough. It was really close, but Neville was thankful for the ride anyway. Maybe he could buy a muggle car too when he was older, it looked much easier than apparating.

When they were alone, Ginny asked Benjamin how did he know that she was staying at Black Manor.

"Oh, I've got some contacts, you know?" He said smiling.

"Who?" Ginny asked.

Benjamin laughed at her straightforwardness. "Well, some friends of mine visited the house a couple of days ago..."

"Who?" Ginny insisted.

Benjamin laughed some more. "Ok, I'll tell you, but don't tell anyone, right?" Ginny nodded. "I happen to know some of the fuocciris that went to Black Manor the other day."

"Of course!" Ginny could have hit herself. "You know the fuocciris that saved my brother's life, don't you? Because they are friends of Sha-adi, and she is your sister."

Benjamin nodded. "Right. I've known Yamiko and Samako since I was a child. They are friends of my sisters."

"You've got more than one sister?"

"Yes, two. They are both older than me. Sha-adi is twenty-two, and Amanda is almost thirty. When my mother died, Amanda took care of us. So she's more like a mother to me and not a sister really."

"You get on well with them?"

"Oh, yes! I used to live with them and some other friends until some weeks ago. But then... well, they had to move, and I didn't want to remain alone in the flat, so I rented a small room here in London. It's very expensive, but I don't need to apparate every day to go to work, and I like London very much."

A sudden idea struck Ginny. "Black Manor is protected by a Secret Keeper. How will you find it?"

"I won't," Benjamin admitted. "I know it's in Grimmauld Place, but don't know exactly where. You tell me when we are close and I'll drop you. Then I can wait in the car until you go into the house."

Ginny nodded thoughtfully. She wasn't sure if this had been a good idea after all. No one was supposed to know where Headquarters was... but then she shook herself. Benjamin was perfectly reliable. He had helped her family and he was a healer, and she doubted very much a Death Eater would ever feel inclined to heal people and save lives.

While she thought, Benjamin's brain was reeling too. He looked sideways at Ginny and seemed to make up his mind. "You've changed a lot," he finally said, in a casual tone.

That took Ginny out of her musings. "Changed?"

"Well, since last time I saw you. I remember when Percy made you drink that Pepper-Up Potion and you looked like you were really on fire." He said jokingly.

"Oh." Ginny didn't know what to say. It was a little bit mortifying that Benjamin would remember that, she was sure she had looked absolutely ugly with smoke coming out of her ears. Well, who wouldn't?

"I didn't recognise you at first when I saw you in St. Mungo's, you know? The day of the attacks. But I was sure the Weasleys had no other sisters, just you, and when I looked at you again, you didn't look really different to me anymore, just more... grown up."

Ginny was staring at the car ahead of them, trying to hide her nervousness. "Well," she finally said, "you left school some time ago..."

"Yes, two years already. Time flies!" Benjamin joked.

"And have you been working as a healer ever since?" Ginny didn't know why, but she felt she needed to change the subject.

Benjamin laughed. "Yes, I have." Ginny was going to ask him if he really liked it, but Benjamin wasn't going to give up on the previous subject so fast, so before she could speak again he said:

"Yes, yes... You've turned out a very beautiful girl in the last two years. Who would have thought so, so small as you were back then." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, Ginny's face was almost as red as her beautiful hair, and she looked tongue-tied. "I'm sure you are breaking a lot of hearts at Hogwarts, am I right?" Benjamin asked.

"No, no," Ginny muttered, and couldn't say anything else.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" The boy asked.

"No," Ginny said, and was amazed at her own cheek.

"Ever had one?" Benjamin asked.

"Well, I went out with a Ravenclaw a couple of times last year." It had been considerably more than a couple of times, but Ginny thought Benjamin didn't really need to know all the details.

"A Ravenclaw!" Benjamin exclaimed. "Of course, you are a Gryffindor, aren't you?"

Ginny relaxed visibly, and answered him with a very proud 'Yes.'

"I suppose Slytherin boys don't stand a chance with you then?"

"No!" Ginny almost shouted before she could check herself, and immediately felt the overwhelming need of slapping herself. How could she be so silly? Benjamin was a Slytherin!

Benjamin whistled. "Merlin! Aren't I lucky?" He said when he stopped in the next red traffic light, looking at Ginny to weight her reaction. She went on staring in front of her, though, and didn't seem to be going to talk any time soon, so he decided he could as well be hung for a dragon as for an egg. "Yes, lucky indeed, because since I finished school, I'm not a Slytherin any more, strictly speaking, I mean."

Ginny chanced a sideways look at him and was distressed to see he was smiling mischievously at her. The traffic light changed to green, and Benjamin concentrated on the road once more. He turned left and stopped the car. "Grimmauld Place!" He announced. "Where to, now?"

"It's just a couple of houses ahead," Ginny almost whispered. She felt like crying. Not that she was really interested in Benjamin, she hadn't given him a second thought until Cho mentioned him during dinner, but she had to admit he was very handsome, and nice too, and certainly clever. And he had really behaved as if he was interested in her, and she had spoiled it all.

Benjamin drove a little bit further down the street and then stopped again. "Here?" He asked.

"Yes, perfect, thank you," Ginny muttered without looking at him, and turned to try and open the car door, but she realised she didn't know how to open it.

"Here," Benjamin said, and she almost fainted when his hand barely touched her arm before going to the door handle. He didn't open the door, though, just kept his hand on the handle.

Ginny turned a bit. Benjamin's face was really close to hers, and for a moment she forgot about anything else as she looked into his almond-shaped blue eyes.

"You have free tomorrow, am I right?" He asked.

Ginny nodded, she was sure she wouldn't be able to utter a single word.

"Ever been to the muggle cinema?"

Ginny's heart was in her throat. She shook her head.

"Would you like to go? With me?" Benjamin asked.

Ginny tried very hard not to jump and put her arms around his neck. After behaving like a silly girl, he was still asking her to go to the muggle cinema with him! Ginny wasn't sure what a cinema was, but she would have gone with Benjamin to a torture museum if she had to. She cleared her throat and even managed a shy smile before saying: "Ok."

Benjamin smiled.

Ginny thought he had the most beautiful smile in the world.

"I'll pick you up here at four. Maybe we can go to a fast food restaurant or something after the film if you want to."

"Ok," was all that Ginny was able to say, but then she suddenly realised maybe meeting in front of Sirius' house wasn't very clever. Her mother could see her, and she had no intention of telling her, in case she insisted on one of her older brothers joining them. Ginny wasn't sure her mother would approve of her date. "Just wait for me around the corner, ok?"

Benjamin nodded. "Ok," he said. "Good night!" And he opened the door for her.

"Good night!" Ginny answered with a smile, and stepped out of the car. She walked to where she knew Black Manor was, and the house suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She was very tempted to turn. She was sure Benjamin was still looking at her, making sure she was safe inside. She could feel his eyes on her.

"GINNY!"

Ginny jumped and whirled on her feet. Benjamin was driving his car straight at her! Incapable of moving, she screamed. She screamed as she had never done before.

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks all for reading and reviewing!

Hehehehe... ::evil grin::

Virtual chocolate frogs for hermionegreen, because she guessed Benjamin was interested in Ginny. Congratulations!

What do you think? Is Benjamin evil or not? Does he really care for Ginny or did he only want to use her to know where Black Manor was?

I guess there's no need to tell you in the following chapter there will be some action again... ;-)

And let me know what do you think of Ron's declaration! :D

Kadi Rilla Wholi: I'm glad you liked my version of Draco and Narcissa. We'll go back to what happens in Malfoy Manor after some more chapters. Let's say that for now they are just enjoying themselves a bit. ;-)

angel6-101: Thanks a lot for your review! Sandrine and the other girls were already in my head before reading OotP. I had been thinking for a while that there are certainly too many single eligible men in the HP series, and they needed some female company. I had some ideas of how they could meet, but I didn't really like any of them. Thus, it wasn't until I read OotP that I found the way to link them to Rowling's characters. I hope you liked this chapter too.

hermionegreen: I'm not sure Narcissa would approve of Sirius as Amanda's husband... Imagine their family dinners! Draco and Harry would both be there too... :D You were right about Benjamin! Well done!

Starfire: Thanks for reviewing again! It's really encouraging to know people are reading my story. As I was telling angel6-101, the story was partly already in my head before reading OotP. I must admit Sirius has never been my favourite character -although I like him very much, I've always preferred Lupin-, but I didn't want him to die. It was such a shock! So his death was really the final push I needed to start writing this fic. I'm afraid I haven't read Purpose. I'm a little bit dejected that you find my fic similar to another one, I really thought my idea was quite original -not very modest, I know. :-( Well, I guess it's really difficult to come up with a really new idea in the HP fandom. When I checked FanFiction.net this morning, there were already 95321 fics registered! Some fics are bound to be similar in one way or another, specially as the main characters are probably gonna be the same. I think I will not read it just yet, because if it's similar to my fic, it might influence me somehow. And if it's really similar, I might just get depressed! I'll read it when I finish Finding Allies, though, thanks for the recommendation. ;-)

Lily Skylo: Hi! I'm glad you liked Draco. I hope Amanda will be successful too, but it's going to be a difficult task, we'll see... You are right about Sirius and Amanda, maybe Sirius is not ready to accept the fact that Amanda likes his cousin Narcissa. Sometimes, ignorance can be bliss. :D