Year 3: Chapter 40

Alice had left the dorm room about ten minutes before Ginny was ready to go; she was dressed in a baby pink muggle dress that Lily had helped her to pick out. It was halter necked and flowed to the floor with a split on the left that came to her knee.

It was a bit dressed up, but Joseph had told her to make sure she was dressed up for the night. She's curled her hair so that it fell in ringlets midway down her back and had dusted a light coat of pink on her eyelids. Looking in the mirror she knew she didn't look thirteen; she looked at least two years older, if not more.

She was about to leave when she was hit with a thought, it was cold out and she could see a light flurry of snow through the window, she'd freeze heading down there. Her cloaks wouldn't be warm enough.

"Lily, by any chance do you have one of those muggle coats with you?"

She smiled at her friend and Ginny watched as Lily rummaged through her wardrobe before taking a step back.

"It's the wrong colour though, but that can be easily fixed."

Lily waved her wand and the brown changed to a pale pink and Lily handed over the suede coat to Ginny. She smiled pulling it on over her dress and hugged her friend.

"You three have a good night now, and don't wait up."

Amanda grinned as Ginny took the door handle.

"Well since you have to be back by nine, I think it's safe to say we'll still be up."

Then Ginny was gone down the stairs and into the common room. It was quiet with only a handful of young students present. It seemed that everyone from third year and up had chosen to go into town even without dates.

Ginny found Joseph easily he was standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her. Smiling she took his hand and looked over towards the sofa. She caught Remus' eye and smiled but he quickly turned away. Shrugging her shoulders she followed Joseph out into the corridors to head into town.

"So Joe, where we going?"

"You'll know soon enough."

They walked in comfort and Ginny was glad she had thought to borrow Lily's jacket. She wrapped it around herself drawing in its heat as the snow flakes danced around her. The path was dark and she skipped along a little in front of Joseph, aware of the grin he was wearing.

"Enjoying yourself?"

"Very."

All too soon they were in the town and Ginny stopped to look around. Everything looked perfect and she grabbed Joseph's hand slowly spinning around.

"Come on, this way."

They moved quickly through the streets until they reached a small building, it didn't look much on the outside but Ginny had long ago learnt that you couldn't judge these buildings from the outside.

Joseph opened the door and Ginny couldn't help but sigh at what she saw. This was the world famous Helga's Hideaway. Helga's Hideaway was the largest chain of restaurants in the wizarding world, with establishments throughout the world; the best known was the Hogsmeade based one.

The building though it appeared small was rather large with four separate dinning areas plus three function rooms. They stood just inside and waited for the waiter to come see them. He was dressed in some fancy black robes and his dark hair was pulled into a tight ponytail at the back of his head.

"May I help?"

"Yes, we booked a table under Black."

"Black, Black. Which Black is that?"

Joseph took Ginny's hand and smiled at the man.

"It's under the name Black, Wild and Dunn."

"Oh, yes Sir; your table is ready. If you will please follow me."

Than man picked up two menus and walked down the corridor opening the door on the right, he led the pair in and it didn't surprise Ginny that it was so full there. She spied Andromeda in one corner with Ted, but it seemed to be a high society restaurant.

She had heard that though she knew that Helga's Hideaway was a favourite for the aristocrats although she had never believed it, but then again they had used Sirius' name to get in. They reached their table, which she noticed was in a corner away from everyone.

Joseph pulled out her chair but before she took her seat the waiter cleared his throat and indicated her coat. She happily removed it and allowed him to take it. She saw his eyebrow raise as he looked at her and she just sat and waited for Joseph to do the same.

"He was checking you out!"

"I saw, but pay him no attention; he's too old for me."

Her date smiled and pointed at the menu.

"Shall we order?"

"I'm starving, let's."

They quickly gave their orders and waited for the meal to arrive. She looked around the room.

"It's beautiful in here."

"Almost as beautiful as you are honey, you look gorgeous tonight by the way."

"Thank you, you scrub up well yourself, mind."

He did look great; he was wearing black trousers with a white shirt. His top button was left undone and he'd combed his hair back so that only a few strands of the dark hair fell onto his face.

The meal arrived and they happily enjoyed it and before long the desert followed. Ginny looked at her dish that was filled with strawberries and ice cream; the food was delicious. She smiled up at Joseph.

"The food here is amazing; thank you for bringing me."

"You're welcome, I'm just glad Sirius could get us a table."

"Yeah, why did he?"

"As a favour, I asked him because I was trying to get us a table for weeks and he just wrote one letter signed it and he had us a table just like that."

"Remind me to thank him."

They ate the desert and then Joseph looked up.

"Gin, Happy Valentine's Day."

She smiled as he handed over a box. Smiling she opened it and grinned. There was a golden necklace in the box; she noted straight away the interlocking knot work, which gave the impression that the gold had been interlaced. In the middle of the knot was a small diamond stone and she couldn't help but smile.

"Joe, it's so beautiful! I love it thank you."

She smiled as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a box.

"It's not much compared to all this, but... well I hope you like it."

He opened it to find a solid gold chain inside and he grinned up at her.

"It's great, come on we should head up to the castle."

Joseph paid for the meal and the pair made their way back up to the castle.

Hiya guys so here's the next post I hope that you like it I'll try to update next week depends on how everything is going over here.

Annie Frank is sweet but Joe is the best, I promise you that we shall be seeing more of him, I've written some chapters from after Hogwarts and he's still there playing his part. I'll send you an email soon because I need some more of this story beta read.

Jessie yeah Roman is doing great Jess, he's in the nursery now and his next move is home, he's 4lbs 4ozs now. I went to the bank yesterday to set up a bank account for him with his mammy, he's already making money at 7 weeks old (7 weeks today) next time I see you online (if my msn will let me log in!) I'll show you a new photo of him.

Firewalker I'm glad you had so much fun. I use to love snorkelling but then I saw a fish head and nothing but a fish head now I've got a phobia of fish. Sting rays wow they're so big I'd be scared to swim with them, but that must be something. Last year I went scuba diving you should try it if you ever get a chance because that's an experience we had to do a stupid dance under the water for the camera and feed the fish (I didn't like that!)

I'm actually painting my room, I have one wall that's red (a colour called Lulu) and the other three are going to be blue (a colour called Lupin) I've done one blue wall and I'm going to do another next but I can't do anymore then until my TV is taken from the wall.

Okay so that's all I've got to say hope you like and please review.

Kris