A/N—I officially hate snow and ice. First of all, my county has been under a level three snow emergency. This means that you are not allowed to drive at all unless you are an emergency worker. So one of my friends and two of my brother's friends were all stuck here until recently…and we were all going stir crazy. As if this alone isn't bad enough, though, our electric has been out. Thank God for batteries in laptops, that's all I have to say…Anyway, so the electric is out so this means that it is sleeting very hard outside, we have no heat, and our basement is flooding. So we have to bail water. Life sucks. Okay, I'm done bitching.

Oh, and if you don't remember Ginny's dream of marriage with Harry, you might want to skim chapter eight. Otherwise, you could be a tad confused this chapter. That's all.

Unconventional Commitments

Chapter Seventeen
Meant to Be?

I sit in bed and gaze at Harry wondrously. No way has this happened yet again. I mean, surely neither of us is this dense. And yet, here is Harry and here I am…in the same bed. Quite naked, might I add.

I didn't drink last night, though. I went home and went…to…sleep. I look around. This isn't my room. Why didn't I bloody notice this before? This is that dream. The one with me and Harry married with kids. I breathe a sigh of relief. It's a dream, no big deal. An odd horrifying dream, to be sure, but I can handle it.

I almost pinch myself to wake up…but I kind of want to see how this panes out.

I "accidentally" nudge Harry and allow him to wake up. He gets up slowly (shock, no asleep to awake in three seconds deal) and gives me a smile. He kisses my cheek nicely and whispers, "Happy Christmas, darling."

I nearly laugh. It's Christmas in my dream—how cliché. Oh well. "Happy Christmas," I return.

"Shall we go downstairs? I am sure that Eric and Zack have already found their way to the gifts."

"Shall we dress first?" I ask teasingly. To which, I have shocked myself. Since when do I tease flirtingly? Shouldn't I be more freaked out by this?

He smiles wider. "Yes, I suppose we should." He bends down and presses a kiss to my stomach, which I just now notice is rounded out considerably. "Happy Christmas," he says to the bulge in my abdomen.

I feel my breathing hasten. I think I would like to wake up now…this is getting weird. When his back is turned I look away from the bare view of his behind—not that it is a bad view—and pinch myself. Only, I am still here.

Now I am beginning to panic. What if it isn't a dream? When you pinch yourself you wake up from a dream, right?

"Gin?" Harry looks back at me, still naked. "Are you all right? You look pale, honey."

"Fine," I hear myself breathe. "Just…got lightheaded all the sudden."

He nods in understanding. "You were like that in your first pregnancy too," he reminisces. "At least you aren't quite so sick this time, right?

I say nothing in return. Instead, I continue to pinch my arm. It hurts, too. I shouldn't feel pain in a dream, should I? But this can't be real. No way can I just wake up one day married, with two kids, and pregnant. That just doesn't happen.

Shit, I don't know what to do.

Harry has covered himself with a robe and is now holding a silk one out to me. "Shall we?" he says pleasantly.

I nod dumbly and slide on the robe. He reaches his arms around me and ties the robe as if I cannot do this task myself. His hand lingers on my stomach for a moment before he lowers his embrace and leads me out the door.

I gaze around the house in wonder. This is…nice. In fact, it is exactly how I would decorate a house if I were given an unlimited budget to do so.

It's a dream, I tell myself, so of course it how you would want your dream house. I keep reassuring myself that it is only a dream as it calms me somewhat.

Finally, we stop in a pleasant looking sitting room. The sun is coming in the window just right and the tree in the center is gorgeous. The two boys sitting anxiously in front of the tree, though, are even more gorgeous.

I recognize them from the first dream I had…they are miniature Harrys, really. They are just too cute. I smile at them, much more pleased to see them when they aren't jumping on me.

"Mummy," one says excitedly, "Daddy, look!"

"Father Christmas came," the other exclaims.

"He sure did," Harry says as he sits down next to them on the floor. He pulls me down with him and sit by his side, but still in his arms.

"Can we open them now," a boy says as he looks pleadingly up to Harry and me.

"All right," Harry relents with a laugh, "go ahead."

They greedily tear into the gifts, getting more excited with each that they open. To my own surprise, I am perfectly content to sit and watch them. In fact, I even feel happy just to see their happiness. Normally I get bored with watching people open gifts. I start to drift off after a few minutes.

They get to identical boxes and open them simultaneously. "Robes," one says.

"Wow," the other adds dispassionately, "neat." They quickly throw the new robes aside and search around for "real" presents—toys. Harry smiles down at me and I quickly gather up the expensive looking robes and fold them neatly, placing them aside.

The boys finally appear to be done. For a moment they just sit back and stare contently at their mounds of gifts.

"Just a minute, boys," Harry says, "I think you forgot something."

Their eyes immediately widen with interest.

"I think they got everything," I say with confusion. There isn't a single gift left under that tree.

Harry winks at me before standing. "Well, I think these gifts might be somewhere else. You'll have to excuse Father Christmas, boys, your mum and I bought these."

They follow him to a closet in the hallway and I stand a few feet behind them. Harry opens the door and triumphantly pulls out two badly wrapped gifts. Before the boys even touch the wrapping paper, I know what resides underneath.

I feel my eyebrows shoot up without my consent. Why should I care, right? It's just a dream…

Harry grins sheepishly at me as the two little boys reveal their brand new brooms. They both appear to actually be speechless.

They recover after a moment, though, and both leap on Harry shouting their praise. As soon as they have thanked him, they each grab their broom and tear off into what I assume to be the backyard.

"Sorry to keep it from you," Harry says with an innocent look on his face, "but I knew you'd object."

"Did I say anything?"

He laughs and hugs me, "I know that look. The boys will fine, though. The brooms are charmed to not go above fifteen feet."

"They can still die at fifteen feet, you know. There are children's brooms for a reason, Harry Potter. You bought them full brooms…you know they aren't old enough."

"They are," he argues. "They are very responsible. I will be monitoring them every time they fly, anyway."

"You aren't monitoring them now," I point out.

He grimaces at his mistake and quickly grabs my hand and leads me into the backyard. "It'll be fine, Gin. They are great fliers." A look of extreme pride flashes across his face as he spots the boys zooming around the large yard.

I have to smile. It is just so obvious how much he loves them and how happy having a family makes him…And I actually feel happy too. This whole weird morning was nice, really. I could see loving those little boys; it'd be easy, really. And Harry has been—

Black spots appear in front of my eyes and I feel dizzy all of the sudden.

"Gin?!" Harry's voice is concerned, but I can barely make out what he is saying.

The world seems to be fading farther away and soon it is only blackness…

I sit up abruptly and find myself back in my room. I clutch the sheets that surround me. It was a dream. I mean, I knew it was but…it all just felt so real. And you shouldn't be so aware of yourself in dreams, should you?

Something is off about all this. I need to talk to someone. I just don't know who. I mean, this really worries me. Someone may have put a spell on me or something. I dress mutely and decide to go visit my mother. She always knows about these sorts of things for some reason.

I apparate over to the Burrow decisively and look around for Mum. I really hope she is here…For once I desperately want to see my mother. Shocking, right?

"Mum," I call out, "are you here?"

"Ginny?" she answers. She walks out of the kitchen. "Is something wrong, Ginny?"

"No," I say quietly. "I just wanted to see you."

"Oh. How nice," she responds with a smile.

I nod and we sit in the living room. "How is your hand, dear?" she asks.

I look at it dumbly. "Its fine, Mum."

We sit silently for a few minutes before I decide that I should just get on with it. "Hey, Mum…" I begin awkwardly.

"Yes, dear?"

"Have you ever…" just spit it out, I decide. "Have you ever had any dreams that you are fully aware of everything? Like, it seems like you're visiting the future, or something. And even though you know it's a dream and try to wake yourself up you can't." I look at her desperately, "Am I making any sense at all?"

"Oh, yes," she says seriously. "You are making perfect sense to me, Ginny. I remember when I had my first dream like that, it scared me senseless. It was right after I fell in love with your father. I dreamed of you, actually."

"Me?"

"Yes. I woke up in bed with your father and we went downstairs—with me thoroughly confused, might I add. And there you were, this perfect little girl sitting in the kitchen. You had made an absolute mess, and your father was just laughing. I didn't know who you were or what was going on, but I still reprimanded you for making such a disaster of the kitchen. You started crying and explained to us that you wanted to make breakfast for everyone…it obviously didn't work out for you, dear. So I cleaned you up and your father and I helped you make breakfast."

I look at her in confusion. "But didn't that actually happen?"

She smiles back at me, "Many years after I had that dream it did. I talked with my mother about it, actually. She explained to me that witches often have dreams like that when they fall in love with the man they are meant to marry. Dreams of their future, she called them. That's one of the reasons I kept pressing your father for more children," she says happily, "because I just knew that my adorable little girl would come along eventually. When I was pregnant with you, I knew that you were her. Everyone thought me mad, for there had not been a girl born into the Weasley clan for many, many generations. But I knew that you would be my little girl, Ginny Bean. And you were."

"How come you never told me that before?"

"Oh, I don't know. I suppose I thought it wouldn't interest you. Why do you ask anyhow, dear?"

I panic. I don't want her to know about my dream…I haven't even decided what it means yet. "Umm…Hermione had one," I mumble pathetically. "She was telling me about it."

She clasps her hands together in delight, "How wonderful! I always knew that Hermione and Ron were meant to be together, of course, but this just makes it definite. What a great wedding gift that is for her, to know a piece of her future happiness."

"Yeah," I respond numbly, "how wonderful. I think I should be going, Mum. I have work."

"Yes, of course. Don't forget that we are having a dinner this weekend, Ginny."

"I won't," I say quietly. "Bye, Mum." I disapparate back into my bedroom and sink into the mattress feeling ill.

That was a glimpse into my future? I marry Harry? We have twins? I don't know how I feel about all this. All I know is in my dream it just felt…right somehow.

I feel tears spring to my eyes; I am just so confused right now.

I hear a sudden knock on my bedroom door and I quickly wipe the tears away.

"Ginny?" I hear Hermione call through the wood, "Are you in there?"

"Yeah," I respond, "come on in, Hermione."

She opens the door and looks as though she has been doing some crying of her own this morning. "Do you have a few minutes?" she asks. "I really need to talk to you about something."

I pad the spot next to me on the bed, "Of course."

She walks in and sits down.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"This entire wedding," she says as her eyes fill with tears.

"Oh, Hermione," I say sympathetically as I wrap my arms around her and pat her back.

"I just can't take it anymore," she cries. "My mum is pressuring me to have a muggle wedding, but your mum won't accept the idea of anything other than a traditional wizard wedding. And it's just this endless fight and," she begins hyperventilating almost, "and I just can't take it!"

I'm really not sure what to tell her. So I just hug her reassuringly and attempt to be soothing. I should have known she'd have this problem…I just haven't thought about her wedding to be honest. Now I feel like a horrible friend.

"What do you want, though?" I ask her finally.

"I just want to marry Ron. But no matter what I do…I'm going to have people angry with me. And I just…" she breaks off as she sobs.

I bite my lip and hope Mum won't kill me for planting the idea in Hermione's head. "So marry Ron, then."

"But I don't know how. We can't have two weddings."

"Just marry him. Elope."

She pulls back and looks utterly shocked. "Elope," she repeats slowly. "We…I suppose we could, couldn't we?"

"Of course you could. They'd forgive you for not inviting them to your wedding after a little while. It's your wedding, Hermione. If you want to marry Ron, then marry him now. If that makes you happy, then do it."

Her tears stop. "You're brilliant, Ginny. I wouldn't have to plan the wedding. We could just be married…I have to find Ron!"

I smile encouragingly at her, "Go find him, then."

She starts laughing hysterically, "It's just that simple, isn't it? We can just get married."

I nod and she apparates without another word. I only hope Ron will feel as favorably about it as she does. I have a feeling that he will, though. Ron's impulsive, he should love the idea.

I lay back in the bed and attempt to clear my head. I don't want to think about anything for a while. It's driving me nuts, all this thinking. I just need to be at peace for a few minutes…

I close my eyes for no more than five minutes and Hermione is back in my room. She looks ecstatic.

"Ron agreed?" I ask needlessly.

"Yes, he loved it! We want you and Harry there, though. As witnesses and just because you are our best friends. How soon can you be ready?"

"An hour?"

"Okay. Okay, so in an hour we'll all go to the proper office of the Ministry and Ron and I will get married." She looks overwhelmed for a moment, "Oh my. An hour. I'm getting married in an hour. I need to get ready." She sprints across the hall and slams her door shut.

I smile and stand. So I guess I won't go back to sleep then.

A/N—So this isn't the last chapter. Lol, this was just getting long and I have so much left…so I thought I'd just end it here. But don't worry, I have a lot more written and I will finish and post it tomorrow. Not that any of you are actually worrying, lol, more like I was worrying about making my update time…and never mind. I'll just stop now because I'm sleep deprived. Merry Christmas! I'll be posting tomorrow afternoon after I finish family stuff. Review please…lol, I've had a shitty couple of days. No heat makes me cranky. Oh, and if anyone cares, I've revised this entire story. So it's new and improved or something like that. Lol.

Oh, and to Jessie McDonald, since I don't know your e-mail I thought I'd just mention it here. I used your idea in chapter fifteen when Harry and Ginny were doing role playing. I hope that's okay. If not, let me know and I'll take it out. Lol, but I've had that happen to me on a date, too, and I just had to throw it in. So thanks and great idea! And while I already had the Draco/Harry confrontation planned in my mind, good guess on that being in the next chapter, lol.