A/N When I sat down to write this chapter, this isn't what I had planned. But an innocent comment from George that I thought would be funny ended up leading me down a completely different path. I realized that Ginny never told anyone other than Harry exactly what happened when she was alone with Voldemort, and that most of her siblings weren't aware of the fact that she lost the baby. So here is the chapter that I never planned on writing.
The next morning when Harry woke up it took him a few minutes to realize where he was and why. His face clouded with anger when he thought about someone breaking into Ginny's flat, but he felt the anger subside when he thought about the fact that he was going to marry Ginny. Ginny Weasley would be his wife in two weeks. They were going to move to Hogsmeade and start a new life; together. They had decided that the news of the break in was enough to spring on Ginny's family last night; they would save the news of their engagement until the morning. For Ginny's parents it was only a matter of making it official, seeing as Harry had asked for their blessing and Molly helped him pick out the ring. Harry was a little worried about the reactions of Ginny's brothers, however. He was afraid that they would think they were rushing into things. Harry would never admit it to Ginny, but another reason he wanted to keep their actually wedding date a secret was because he was scared of her brothers.
The door to the bedroom opened and Ginny's head popped in the doorway. "Are you decent?" she asked.
"Depends on your definition of decent," Harry replied with a smirk.
"Good," Ginny said as she entered the room closing the door behind her. She hopped in bed with Harry and snuggled up with him under the covers. "I can't wait until we get to wake up every day like this."
"Haven't we been doing that already?" Harry asked.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean." She gave him a small kiss.
"You need to get out of this bed before you start something we can't finish in your parent's house," Harry said, his voice strained.
Ginny grinned at him impishly. "And what would that be Mr. Potter?" she said and she trailed her hand along his chest, getting dangerously close to the elastic on his boxers.
Harry looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "Okay, you win. Let me just yell down to your mum that we're going to have a quick shag before breakfast if she wouldn't mind keeping our plates warm."
Ginny's eyes grew wide in horror. "You wouldn't dare! But I'm going regardless. I guess it wouldn't be the best idea to have a go of it with half my family downstairs."
It was now Harry's eyes that grew wide. "Half of your family is downstairs?" he whispered.
"Well, it's a Thursday so most of them had to take the morning off from work, but they were all anxious to see you when they heard you got back," Ginny explained. "Plus they all want to make sure I'm okay after the break in."
"So it's time to face the music," Harry muttered.
"Mr. Potter, why don't you sound more excited about proclaiming to the world that I'm going to be your wife?" Ginny asked angrily.
"I'm just worried about how they'll react," Harry admitted.
"As long as I'm happy they'll be happy for me," Ginny said with a smile.
"And when they find out we're going to be married in two weeks?" Harry asked.
"We'll find out in two weeks," Ginny stated firmly.
Harry grinned at her. "So you're with me on the whole surprise idea?"
"Yes, but I think we have to tell Mum and Dad, especially since Ron knows," she paused and looked at Harry mischievously. "Although I really want to keep it a secret from Hermione; I want her to not know something for once."
"Agreed."
"So get dressed; it's time to face the music as you so eloquently put it."
When Harry walked down the stairs he came face to face with Ron, Hermione, Molly, Arthur, George, Alicia, and Venus. He was half grateful that he didn't have to face the whole clan at the same time, yet the other half of him wished they were there so he wouldn't have to go through this a second time. He turned his attention from his audience and found Ginny hanging towards the back of the crowd. He ignored the strange looks from everyone else and walked straight to Ginny, never breaking their eye contact. He took her hand in his and turned to face the awaiting mob.
"It's so good to see all of you again. I've missed you all while I was gone," Harry said genuinely. "Where are the girls?"
"Outside playing, dear," Molly answered.
"You're stalling," Ginny whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
"So you do it, it's your family," he whispered back.
"Coward," Ginny whispered before clearing her throat. "Harry and I have an announcement."
"Let me guess, you're pregnant," George joked. Ginny's face paled and it was only then that Harry realized that the complete knowledge of what Ginny had been through hadn't been shared with the entire family yet.
Harry looked at Molly questioningly. "I'm sorry, it wasn't my place to tell them," Molly explained.
"What did I say?" George asked, noticing the somber mood.
Ginny felt a single tear slide down her cheek and Harry tightened his grip on her hand. Ginny looked her mother in the eye, "If I do this now, you'll have to tell whoever isn't here. I don't think I can do this many more times."
"Well Bill already knows," Molly began, "So it'd just be Fred, Angelina, and Charlie."
"If this is important Charlie can get here in about five minutes," Venus interrupted the private exchange.
"Same for Fred and Angelina," George added.
Ginny sighed. "You might as well go and get them at this point." Molly disappeared out of the room to go round up the rest of her children.
"So who does know about this?" Alicia asked, obviously feeling a little excluded.
"Only the people who witnessed it and their spouses," Ginny answered.
"Witnessed what?" Venus asked.
"When I was yelling at Colin with my wand aimed at his heart," Ginny answered softly. The silence was deafening. Although everyone hadn't heard about Ginny's loss, they all knew about Colin's betrayal. They all sat in uncomfortable silence until Molly reappeared with Fred, Angelina, and Charlie on her heels.
"What's this all about?" Charlie asked nervously. "Does it have anything to do with the break in?"
Ginny shook her head and looked at Harry helplessly. "Well, I suppose we should start with what we came here to tell you initially," Harry began. "Last night I proposed to Ginny and she accepted. Of course after that we realized that someone had torn apart our bedrooms." Harry stopped and blushed when he saw the twins snicker. He realized the implication of what they were going to do after becoming engaged.
"Congratulations," Venus exclaimed, ignoring the twin's comments.
"Yes, congratulations and all that," Charlie said quickly. "But I think I speak for everyone when I say that we saw that coming from a mile away. What's the news you got us all here for today?"
Ginny sighed. "I honestly had no intention of bringing this up today. Actually, I felt sure Mum would have told you all before now. Or at least Hermione and Bill would have."
"It wasn't our place," Hermione said gently.
"Well, I guess it all goes back to that night on the cliffs. I know you all know by now that Colin had been involved in a plot to get rid of Harry, and he thought that if he had to bring me along it would teach me a lesson about loving Harry." Ginny sighed. "I said I didn't remember what happened that night, but I lied. I didn't want you all to worry about me, what was done was done."
"Ginny we would have helped you," Fred said in a rare moment of seriousness.
"Regardless, it was a burden I thought I had to bare alone." Ginny closed her eyes as she continued to speak. "When I woke up after being stunned, I was with Malfoy. He taunted me, so I spit in his face. He slapped me." Harry could see the fury in her brothers' eyes and was grateful she decided not to include the part where she thought Malfoy was going to rape her. "But he left. I was temporarily grateful, until Tom came in. He began to torture me, I don't know for how long. I really only remember pain, and Tom laughing. But then he performed a curse," Ginny paused unable to continue. Everyone was looking at her intently; even the few who knew about the baby hadn't heard about the night in detail. Only Harry knew exactly what had happened.
"Ginny and I," Harry spoke up, trying to help ease Ginny's pain. "Please don't kill me, but we had, um, been intimate before I left Hogwarts. I doubt that comes as much of a surprise after the implications of that Daily Prophet article." Harry paused, half expecting all of the male Weasleys to jump across the room and kill him, but they all sat frozen in disbelief. "Ginny and I didn't know, but Voldemort could sense that Ginny was pregnant."
"The curse felt let it cut my stomach open and ripped my baby out," Ginny whispered. She buried her face in Harry's shoulder, and felt someone hug her from behind. It took a few moments, but she realized that her entire family was surrounded around her and Harry in an embrace in the middle of the kitchen. She looked around and saw that almost everyone's face was covered in tears and couldn't help but laugh. The embrace slowly broke apart and everyone looked at her strangely. "I'm sorry, but this isn't what I had pictured for today. I wanted everyone to be happy and laughing. Or at least threatening to kill Harry for rushing into a marriage with their only sister." Everyone laughed at her last comment.
"Gin, you shouldn't have kept this in for so long," Ron said quietly.
"I know that now, but at the time I thought I was doing the right thing for me," Ginny responded.
"Well, for some more good news: we've finally set a date for the banquet," Arthur spoke up. "Two weeks from tomorrow."
"Anything we can provide to help?" Fred asked innocently.
"You'll have to talk to your sister about that, she's pretty much running the show," Arthur answered with a proud smile.
"I'll tell you what, if you come down to the hotel with me after breakfast I'll consider what you have to say," Ginny said genuinely.
"Deal," Fred and George said together.
As everyone one began to leave to go about their normal daily lives, Venus held back to talk to Ginny. "Gin, I really am so sorry about all of this," she said quietly.
"You have no reason to be. None of it was your fault," Ginny said.
"If I had just figured out whom it was Draco had been meeting with," Venus said, frustrated.
"Venus, you did your best. You saved so many lives as it was," Ginny assured her. Ginny looked at her sister-in-law thoughtfully. "Do you have any idea when Draco started having those meetings?"
Venus scrunched her face in concentration. "I'd have to say after the first Hogsmeade weekend. I think he got in trouble when I spoiled their plans. Actually it may have been during the first Hogsmeade trip. I lost track of him for a bit that day. Regardless, after the attack on Hogsmeade Draco became much harder to keep track of."
"Colin didn't go to that first Hogsmeade weekend. I felt guilty for going with Ron, Harry, and Hermione instead of him, but it was mine and Harry's first official date," Ginny mused.
"Do you think that this information could help?" Venus asked hopefully.
"Not in the way you think," Ginny answered. "I think the problem we've been having is that we've been asking him the wrong questions." Ginny looked frantically around the room. "Dad! Come here!"
"What is it dear?" he asked as he walked over followed by Harry.
"You need to question Colin again." Her father looked at her curiously. "You asked him if he had plotted to kill Harry. That's the problem; he wasn't plotting to kill Harry, he was plotting to get me away from Harry. He really was quite clever in all his plans; he made sure that he wouldn't admit to wanting to kill Harry."
"Gin you're brilliant!" Harry exclaimed wrapping her in a hug.
Ginny grinned sheepishly. "If I was so brilliant I never would have trusted him. Do you think this will make a difference Dad?"
"It could be just the thing," Arthur replied with a smile. "In fact I'm going straight to the ministry right now to see what we can do about this."
Ginny looked at Harry nervously. "Before you do, Dad, can Harry and I have a word with you and Mum in private?"
Venus smiled. "I'm just going to go gather the girls and get going. Congratulations again you two."
"Why don't we go sit down in the living room?" Arthur asked. "Molly, dear, the children have something they'd like to talk to us about." Arthur and Molly walked into the living room, followed by an anxious Harry and Ginny.
"What is this about?" Molly asked nervously.
"No more bad news Mum, I promise," Ginny assured her.
"The thing is, Ginny and I want to get married soon. Like in two weeks soon," Harry said quickly.
"I know you might think it's too soon, but we love each other and we've wasted too much time already. Life is just too short," Ginny added.
"You want to get married at the banquet?" Molly asked.
"Yes, and we want to keep it secret until the last possible second. I don't want the press messing with our relationship anymore," Harry said.
"We just want your approval," Ginny said quietly.
"Why are you two so worried? Of course you have our approval!" Molly exclaimed.
"In fact I think this is a very good idea. I know how the press has interfered in the past. I would feel better though if you both continued to stay here in the mean time. Afterwards we don't have any problem with you going back to your flat," Arthur said.
Ginny looked at Harry questioningly and he nodded slightly. "Okay, we'll stay here. Although you should know we won't be going to my flat after the wedding, at least not for very long."
"Why not?" Molly asked.
Harry grinned. "Well we need to go house shopping; in Hogsmeade."
"Won't that make the travel to work a bit longer, Ginny? I think you're having enough problems going in on time as it is," Molly said.
"It won't be a problem since I'm quitting my job at St. Mungo's." Ginny paused long enough to let her mother get worked up but started speaking again before she could explode. "I'm going to work with Madam Pomfrey at Hogwarts; first as her apprentice, then as her equal, and hopefully one day as her replacement."
A smile lit across Molly's entire face. "You got a job at Hogwarts?"
"So did Harry," Ginny said proudly. "He's going to be the new Defense professor."
"Well it sounds like you two have got your futures all planned out," Arthur said.
Ginny looked at Harry adoringly. "We like to think so. We just need closure on the few remaining painful memories from our past."
"I'm going to do everything I can sweetheart. So on that note I'm going to head into the office," Arthur said.
When Arthur left the house Molly turned her attention to Ginny. "Now what can I do to help you turn this banquet into a wedding without making anyone suspicious?" Molly asked.
"You can come with me to the hotel to give me your opinions," Ginny said. "Fred and George should be there by now, but I don't want them to know about any of this. We'll just say you came with me to make sure they didn't start booby trapping the place."
"Alright dear, let's go. Harry will you be okay here by yourself?" Molly asked.
"I'll be fine. I think I'm going to go to Hogsmeade to start looking at houses. I'd love to have you come with me Gin, but it'd raise suspicions. Besides, you need to focus on planning our wedding."
"Okay." Ginny gave Harry a small kiss. "I'll see you around dinner time?"
"Dinner time," Harry said nodding. "Bye love."
A/N Thanks again for all of your reviews. They really keep me going. I'm getting anxious to finish this story though; my mind is starting to drift towards that new plot I keep mentioning. Although I've decided I need to find a beta before starting another story, my school work is starting to pile up and that would definitely lessen my load a bit. If anybody would be interested in working with me, just drop me an email.