CHAPTER V

It was a blustery day in late autumn when the next Hogsmead visit was scheduled. Harry and Ginny skipped down the hill to the village, hand in hand, both wearing winter cloaks (Harry had decided to forgo the trench coat for the sake of not being recognized, if at all possible) and Gryffindor scarves. Ginny, for fun, wore a crimson beret perched at a jaunty angle on her auburn tresses, and was in a particularly good mood. Neither of them had had a chance to tell anyone but Dumbledore and Ginny's two best friends Colin and Lana about the good news, because sending the information in a letter was too dangerous, and everyone had been kept quite busy by their respective jobs or occupations. They were eager to see Ron and Hermione, and to tell them about the third party in the Ginny and Harry's twosome. They were determinedly not thinking about the not-so-good news, although they knew they'd have to tell their friends that as well. Dumbledore had already been informed, and had taken care to make sure a copy was sent to the ministry and kept under lock and key.

"Harry!" came a call, and Harry turned and barely had time to brace himself before a radiant, bushy haired woman in a warm coat and scarf engulfed him in a huge hug, placing a kiss on each cheek. When she pulled away he saw Ron hugging Ginny.

"Hello you two!" he said, grinning and exchanging and handshake with Ron.

Ron smiled and they all finished greeting each other. Hermione hooked her arm in Ron's and turned to them.

"Let's get to lunch, it's cold."

As they all sat around the table in one of the private sitting rooms at the Three Broomsticks, eating soup and drinking butterbeer, Hermione put down her spoon. She reached out her hand and laid it in the middle of the table.

"Look," she said with a twinkle in her eye, gazing at her own hand.

Ginny did what she was told, looked, then promptly shrieked very loudly and positively pounced on Hermione's hand, admiring the small jewel that sparkled at them all merrily.

Harry leaned in as well, looked pleasantly surprised. He laughed loudly, got up and went over to kiss Hermione on both cheeks. He then turned to Ron, punching him in the arm.

"Good on you mate!" he said , grinning, "you finally worked up the nerve!"

Ron pretended to throw his spoon at him, smiling. Ginny was still in a state of shock. She leaned back, still staring at Hermione's finger.

"It's beautiful!" she said sincerely.

"It's set in white gold," Hermione told her happily.

"Have you set a date?" Harry asked Ron, leaning back in his armchair.

Ron shook his head.

"Nah, we haven't actually told the rest of the family yet," he said, "I haven't had a chance to see any of them and I'd rather not do it in a letter," he elaborated.

Harry nodded and Hermione beamed at him approvingly.

"We're looking for a flat though," Hermione said, her voice tinted with excitement.

Ron leaned over and kissed Hermione on the cheek before taking her hand. He too, seemed excited about the prospect of having their own property. Harry swallowed a mouthful of soup and looked at his too friends questioningly.
"Do you have the money?" he asked.

This was not a very polite question, but between friends no one thought much of it. Hermione and Ron exchanged a glance. Hermione shrugged.

"Mum and Dad might loan us some, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as well, and when we start getting real auror's wages we'll pay them back. Only both of our parents are paying for auror training so we'll have to find something really modest at first," she said, sharing a very small, disappointed look with Ginny. Harry knew it was every girl's dream to get engaged, have a beautiful ring and then find a beautiful flat to match it. He stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"I know of some people through the Order who own a few flats down in wizard London, I'll make some calls by floo and see if I can't find you two a good deal," he said.

Ron shook his head.

"Flats in wizard London will be expensive as all hell," he said.

Harry sat up straight, and lifted his hand with a flourish to smooth his hair comically.

"I am Harry Potter, auror extraordinaire, Defense teacher at Hogwarts and the one who defeated the Dark Lord! I am looked upon with the highest respect...OOF!"

Harry's speech came to an abrupt halt with the presence of Ginny's fist in his side.

"Yea yea we get the point, Big Head Boy," she told him; face completely deadpan.

Harry leaned over and kissed her neck in reconciliation, watching with a grin as she blushed crimson at receiving such an intimate gesture in front of her brother. Harry turned back to Ron and waved his hand dismissively

"Of course, I'll front you some cash until you're both aurors and you can start paying me back whenever you're on your feet," he said.

Ron and Hermione both began to protest, but Harry held up a hand.

"You're parents are already paying for auror training, aren't they? I'll just be your second parent," he said.

They both looked very reluctant.

"Listen you two," Harry told them exasperatedly, "I've got more money than I could ever spend in my life, even if I was to be very extravagant, this will not hurt me at all, and I can support you long enough for you two to start paying for the flat and groceries and such on your own. Once you've figured out your budget you can start paying back in small amounts so that it doesn't come out of your rent money or your food money. I wouldn't want you two to starve!" he said.

Hermione had a combination of excitement and the possibility of living in wizard London, guilt, and reluctance. Ron, always having been sensitive about their monetary situation, still looked reluctant, but he also didn't want to run his or Hermione's parents out of house and home. He nodded halfheartedly. Harry smiled at both of them, and then looked at his girlfriend. Ginny finished her soup and sat back in her chair, looking at the newly engaged couple.

"Harry and I have some news too," she said smiling.

"Two bits of news actually," Harry corrected, not smiling.

Ginny's expression clouded.

"Uh oh," Ron said, sitting up.

Ginny waved her hand at him and shook her head,

"Good news first," she stated.

Harry nodded, grinning.

"She's pregnant,"

"I'm pregnant," the two of them said in unison.

Ron's jaw dropped down to his knees and Hermione squealed and got up, giving Ginny a hug.

"Oh that's..." then she paused, mid bend, and looked at Harry and Ginny.

"Is this a good thing?" she asked them uncertainly, not knowing how they felt about it.

Harry held up his hand and waggled it in a 'so-so' gesture.

"Excited and nervous at the same time," He told her.

Hermione nodded understandingly.

"I can only imagine," she said, but then she smiled again.

Ron, meanwhile, had remained silent.

Harry watched as Ginny fiddled with the hem of her shirt nervously staring at Ron in anticipation. She would never admit it, but Ginny very much wanted the acceptance of her closest older brother.

Ron looked up, and smiled slightly.

"I guess I better start buying baby clothes then," he told them quietly.

Harry smiled, Hermione looked at her fiancé approvingly, and Ginny burst into tears.

Ginny was in trouble. She ducked as the end of a blast-ended skrewt exploded very close to her.

"Stupefy!" she shouted.

The spell flew towards the creature and rebounded off its tough armor. She ducked again, trying to think of what she could do.

"A little help?" she shouted, dodging a swipe from one of the skrewts spiny legs.

"Impedimentia!" came a shout.

The glowing ball of magic rushed from Colin's wand, where he lay on the ground and caught the skrewt on its soft underside, disabling it temporarily. Ginny sat down, panting heavily. She looked around. Of her eight team-members, five remained, the others had been 'beaten' by the dark creatures, which meant they had been portkeyed out of the challenge. This particular challenge seemed to focus on dark land-bound creatures. Ginny suspected they would someday have to deal with air and water-bound creatures as well. They had already faced several other creatures, including a boggart and a shadowcat. Ginny reminded herself to give Harry a word or two about that particular creature. She was almost sure he'd done it in the interest of a little amusement on his part. There was a strange rushing noise, bringing Ginny out of her daze and the walls of the last room in the challenge dissolved, revealing the rest of Ginny's defense class, and Harry standing on the dewy morning grass on the grounds. He clapped his hands together.

"Well done you lot, he told them with a tint of amusement in his voice.

Ginny glared at him, and shared a tired handshake of congratulations with the remaining members of her team.

"Alright, the rest of the teams can go tomorrow, class dismissed," he called, waving his wand and conjuring a fence around the skrewts and several cages of various sizes. The creatures they had just confronted now milled aimlessly around inside the fence Harry had created, looking sinister. Some of the students remained to watch him work, while most began trudging up to the castle.

"Need some help?" Michael asked sourly, as thought he hoped Harry might hurt himself.

Harry ignored the tone of voice, hopped the fence and began ushering the skrewts into their respective cages, protecting himself with a strange type of spherical 'force-field'; a sort of almost-invisible shield that one could only see when it occasionally glinted in the sunlight.

"How come you haven't taught us that one?" came Corner's voice again, sounding mildly indignant.

Harry suspected he was in the mood to start a confrontation.

"Auror-level only, I'm not allowed to teach students it," he said, locking the skrewt cages with his wand and looking around.

Michael opened his mouth to argue but Ginny grabbed him by the back of the collar and began dragging him towards the castle.

"Shut up Corner," she told him acidly.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, "What's the big idea?" he asked angrily.

Ginny let go of his collar and walked past him, ignoring his rudeness. Colin joined her, and they went up to the castle together. When they were out of his hearing, Ginny huffed crossly.

"What is his problem?" she demanded.

Colin looked at her. She caught the stare and narrowed her eyes.

"What?" she asked.

"Isn't obvious?" Colin asked with an air of superiority.

Ginny resisted the urge to trip him.

"Well you're the boy, why don't you tell me what the deal is if you're so smart?" she asked in frustration,

Colin rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on Ginny, he's jealous!" Colin stated, looking at her with an unimpressed gaze.

"What?!"

"You dated him last year and now you're dating the famous Harry Potter, who, to top it all off, is a top class auror and is now in the prestigious position of Defense teacher! How could he possibly compete with that?" Colin explained.

"He can't!" Ginny exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Exactly."

They walked in silence for a few moments.

"Boys are stupid," Ginny said finally

"If you say so," Colin said, his voice betraying his amusement.

Harry woke up with a start at sometime in the middle of the night to a sharp beeping. He groaned at turned his head groggily to the source of the noise. His summoner was projecting bright red holographic letters the read Auror Headquarters. Harry cursed and rolled out of bed quickly. Ginny stirred, and then stretched. She frowned, looking around in sleepy confusion as to the noise. She then noticed Harry out of bed, naked but for his underwear, searching frantically for his pants.

"Your not on duty," she half-whispered half-croaked.

Harry found his pants and slid into them. He gave her and apologetic look.

"I know Gin but it's a red alert, they'll need me."

He summoned a shirt and his coat, slid his feet in to his unlaced boots, leaned in and kissed Ginny deeply and grabbed the summoner.

"Love you," he told her, and then he was gone.

Ginny sat up, worry beginning to take over the sleepiness. She sighed flopped back down onto her pillow and tried to fall back asleep.

Harry arrived at Headquarters a little later than everyone else to find a surprising number of aurors grouped around the Commander as he described the situation. Harry nodded to Aegidius over the backs of his fellow aurors and immediately there came a small twinge in his scar. He stepped over to one of the intelligence aurors monitoring a screen floating in the air, which seemed to be a birds-eye view of the deatheaters. They were standing in a circle in a clearing in a forest, and through his magical vision, Harry could see that they were concentrating there magic on a specific area. Instantly, he was alert, and he felt himself begin to get queasy.

"...they seem to be clustered around a specific area," the Commander was saying.

"Our intelligence team has not yet been able to determine the reason for this, but the theory is that they are performing a ceremony of some sort..." Aegidius was cut off abruptly.

"Not a ceremony, just a procedure," Harry interrupted.

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise. He ignored them, and continued to look at the screen.

"A procedure for what Potter?" the Commander barked; Harry knew not to take offense at his tone.

Harry bent down, tying his shoelaces.

"I only have a hunch," He said evasively.

There was a universal indignant muttering around the room, as most of its occupants became irritated that they had no idea what he was talking about. Sometimes Harry's reluctance to reveal information struck them as him considering himself superior to them, as though they weren't good enough to know. Aegidius watched the young man and remained silent. He had a feeling Harry was simply reluctant to start anything before he was entirely sure of his suspicions. The Commander turned to the men in the room and began barking orders.

"Alright kiddos we'll stake it out! Take your packs and some provisions and move out on the double!" he said loudly.

Harry sighed and tapped his wand impatiently against the log he was leaning on. Spreading out on either sides of him were men and women doing similar things in their boredom. The fourth company (the one currently on duty) had formed a loose circle around the deatheaters, far enough away for them to go unnoticed. Harry had told them that there was no point in rushing things, because they would undoubtedly have wards up, and trying to break through them would cause unnecessary casualties. As a result, they had been sitting on the damp leafy earth for goodness knows how long waiting for some sort of sign as to what was going on, so that they could regroup and plan accordingly. Harry was waiting for a different reason. He was waiting for the blast of air that would accompany the summoning of a portal into a different realm, thereby confirming his worst fears. If the Dark Lord were to achieve the goal of transferring himself, and most likely his heir, to a different dimension, it would give him a distinct advantage. He would not only have the freedom to plan his next move against the world without pesky disturbances, but magic in other realms reacted differently than how it did in theirs. It was hard to say in what way magic would function in the world Voldemort was trying to reach, as every realm was different, but Harry guessed that it would be a place where things like complicated spells could be easily achieved and the forces of nature easily manipulated without the use of too much energy. If Voldemort had these things, there was no saying what he might try to do. Harry had told all this to the Commander, who stood calmly and few feet away, hands clasped behind his back and one foot resting on the stump of a tree. Aegidius had not liked the idea any better than Harry did, but neither had enough proof or information, and planning an attack could be dangerous when they were so unknowing of the situation. Harry himself hadn't the faintest idea what he planned to do if his suspicions proved to be correct, so instead, he waited, still tapping his wand impatiently. Abruptly, the air filled with a high-pitched whine, so high in pitch as to be almost out of the hearing range of human-beings, but audible enough to drive one insane. Harry clapped his hands to his ears, ineffectively trying to block out the sound, and lurched to his feet.

"Wands!" he shouted to everyone around him. "Wands at the ready!"

Around him, aurors were stumbling to their feet, every face a grimace of discomfort. Harry whirled, signaled wildly to the Commander to start an attack, then turned and plunged into the trees sprinting as hard as he could.