Ginny, it turned out, had done her part well, when Harry apparated into the Leaky Cauldron beside Remus Ginny was already waiting at a table with Hermione whose eye's widened and skin paled when she realised who Harry had brought with him, if Remus noticed the reaction he didn't let on, and Harry felt vaguely uncomfortable as he recognised that his friend was probably subject to a lot of reactions like Hermione's, but for worse reasons.
"Ginny, Hermione, it's good to see you both," Remus said smiling lightly and taking a seat at the table as Harry leaned over to press a kiss to Ginny's cheek before sitting down opposite her and next to Remus.
Harry and Ginny had planned out topics of conversation to bring up that would interest their two friends, that would show off their likes, dislikes and force them to talk. There was a shaky moment while they were waiting for their orders to arrive, when house-elf control was brought up as an adjunct to a throwaway comment Ginny had made, but Remus himself smoothed it over by suggesting that though he thought house-elves did not want the freedom she wished to offer them, he thought that those elves who wanted wages should be allowed to negotiate for them.
As the main course plates were being cleared away by a harassed looking waitress Ginny gave Harry a hard nudge in the shin with her foot, he might have thought of it as a kick, but the significant 'look at them, look at them!' head tilt-nod distracted him from where he was surely forming a bruise.
Obedient to his wife as ever, he casually looked over to Hermione who was blushing, a dusky pink splashed across her cheeks, and looking directly at Remus, who, though not blushing, had a shy sort of smile and was looking right back. Turning back to Ginny, Harry grinned, the plan was clearly working, better than expected too.
Ginny set down her wine glass and smiled at the waitress who returned to take their desert orders, while Remus and Hermione were distracted she leant forwards and gave Harry a smile that he immediately noticed as her 'you've been very good, let's go home early, huh?' smile and added two and two and came up with four.
The waitress repeated back their orders of three coffees, one black tea, one piece of fudge cake, one slice of strawberry cheesecake and two ice cream sundaes, then left when Harry replied, "Yup, that's it."
" – So you can see why they feel it's necessary, but really, wouldn't it be better just to allow the centaurs to self govern?"
"Oh, I don't know about that, it isn't like they take full notice of anything but the movement of the stars, certainly they pay very little attention to whatever some politicians at the Ministry say they must do, so having such things on paper doesn't make much difference."
While agreeing with what Lupin had said, Harry slid his hand across the table and took Ginny's in his own. The conversation drifted on from centaurs to the Quidditch League without Harry really noticing how it got there, he was about to point out to Hermione who had responded to something Remus had said with a very sure 'no' that actually, with certain stipulations it could be a 'yes' when Ginny tugged lightly on his hand and glanced towards the exit. So he stayed silent and gave a big grin.
"Er, right, so, we'll just be leaving," he said standing up and laying down more than enough galleons on the table to cover their order.
"It was nice to see you both again," Ginny said beaming, slipping her arm around Harry and grabbing her bag up with the other.
As they headed for the exit they heard Hermione's "Pfft, newly weds." And Remus's agreement of "James and Lily were just like it." Harry was wondering whether the others might leave too when he heard "Oooh cheesecake!" and decided that really, he shouldn't worry about that.
