Come Back
Chapter Eleven
The Date
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"Be careful you two, keep your wands close by. Don't wonder off the main road and be home before dark." Mrs. Weasley said as she handed Ginny a small container with a light green powder in it.
"Mum, incase you forgot I'm an adult now, I'll be alright and Harry will be with me." Ginny said.
"I know but I just don't like you two walking around everywhere when people are trying to hurt Harry." Mrs. Weasley said now handing the floo powder over to Harry.
"Don't worry Mrs. Weasley, I won't let anyone hurt Ginny, and I promise that we will be back before it gets dark." Harry said. "And it's the weekend, the streets will be packed, a Death Eater would have to be mental to attack me in broad daylight."
"I know, but look at what Snape did." Mrs. Weasley said nervously.
Mrs. Weasley was the only one who seemed to be having a hard time getting over the previous nights events. She was very jumpy, Ron had hiccupped during breakfast and Mrs. Weasley shrieked and tried to stun him. He had to duck to miss her spell and ended up with a few scorched hairs. Hermione spent the rest of the meal watching Mrs. Weasley to make sure she wouldn't harm Ron again.
Harry was making good on his promise to take Ginny out on a date and they were heading out to Hogsmead for drinks at the Three Broomsticks. Mrs. Weasley had been trying everything she could to stop them from going. Harry had to remind her that their goal was to bring Death Eaters out into the open so the more public appearances the better. In the end she decided to let them go but not without an hour long speech about safety and in the words of Moody "Constant Vigilance!"
"Mrs. Weasley, we will be fine, we can take care of ourselves. In case you have forgotten already, I was the one who took down Snape yesterday. I can handle myself, and I won't let Ginny leave my site." Harry said giving Ginny a tiny wink. "We better go, before it gets late."
And with that Harry stepped into the fire place and looked at Ginny. "I'll be waiting for you in The Three Broomsticks." He dropped his floo powder and said, "The Three Broomsticks."
Harry vanished and arrived in the back of the shop. He was greeted by Madam Rosmerta as he stood back to give Ginny room. Moments later (Harry suspected that Mrs. Weasley tossed a few more warnings at Ginny) she arrived and started dusting soot off of her shoulders.
"You know Harry, I think today would be a good day to practice Apparition, I'm getting tired of flooing everywhere." Ginny said huffily.
Harry smiled at her and brushed more soot off her back, "Maybe later, let's get a table first."
There was a vacant table towards the front of the shop, as Harry and Ginny made their way through the large crowd enjoying butterbeers, Harry couldn't help but smirk as people pointed and stared in his direction. Years ago, this would have bothered Harry, but the more people talked about him, the more it would infuriate the Death Eaters.
Harry went to the bar and ordered two glasses of wine for him and Ginny, paid for them and returned to Ginny.
"Oh, thanks Harry, Mum never let's me drink at home even though she knows I'm old enough. Honestly I wish I could move into my own place, I love my Mum but I just can't take it any more." Ginny said while running a finger around the rim of her glass.
"Why can't you move out?" Harry asked. "I mean your old enough."
"I haven't been able to get a job, I've been applying at the Ministry but I keep getting turned down. I've thought about applying to be a healer at St. Mungo's, I did all the right N.E.W.T's back at Hogwarts, I just don't know if that's what I want to do. I can't afford to move until I get a job. Fred and George offered me a job but I don't want to work in a shop either."
Harry thought for a moment, he wanted to just jump up and tell Ginny that he had enough money for both of them and that he could buy her a house or anything else she wanted. But he wasn't sure if she would want that, they had only been back together for a few days. He didn't want to rush into anything that she wasn't ready for. Besides, even though he wanted Death Eaters to know that he was alive, he didn't want anyone to know where he lives so he had to be careful.
"Well, I have been thinking about getting my own place somewhere, maybe you could stay with me until you get a job." Harry said, trying to keep calm in his voice.
Ginny's eyes grew very large and a small smirk was forming on her face. "Harry, did you just ask me to move in with you?"
"Well, only if you want to, we could find a nice big place so you could have your own room and…" Harry was cut off; Ginny had thrown her arms around him and pulled him in for a hard kiss.
"Harry, you are the best! I would love to move in with you!" Ginny squealed.
"Great! Well, we have a few things to deal with first, and then we will start looking for a place." Harry said allowing his excitement to get the better of him. "This is going to be so much fun!"
Ginny moved away from Harry and looked down at her now empty glass. "I almost forgot, we need to deal with the Death Eaters first. We also need to start looking into who was in that casket when we thought you were dead."
"Well, that is one of the reason why I wanted to come into Hogsmead today Ginny, I hadn't had a chance to tell you. Your Dad said that this is where they buried the body; I asked him a few days ago. I have a funny felling as to who is in that casket and why they thought it was me." Harry said.
"Who do you think it is then?" Ginny asked moving to the edge of her seat.
"Well, I have a few questions to ask first before I'm absolutely sure, but I think it may have been Draco Malfoy, and I think he may have been using polyjuice potion." Harry said. "But I want to go into the Daily Prophet's office and see how much they will tell me, I need to know if his body was ever found."
"That's a pretty random guess; do you have a reason for this?" Ginny asked slightly amused and interested at the same time.
"Well, I had over three years to think about things you know, and I always found it funny that nobody ever came looking for Mr. Malfoy. All that time, he was the only Death Eater I ever saw. If Draco was still alive I know that he would have looked for him, but why didn't he? I only ever saw one other person, and that was shortly after Voldemort died. But I never thought much about it until recently."
"Who did you see?" Ginny asked eagerly.
"Well, I thought I saw….me." Harry said lamely.
"What? You saw yourself?" Ginny asked.
"I was so weak and tired I just assumed that I was going crazy, but I think it may have been someone disguised as me. And if that's true I'm sure it was the polyjuice potion" Harry said.
"But they would have needed some of your hair, wouldn't they?" Ginny asked now holding Harry's hand on the table.
"That's why I think it was Draco, because that last night, I broke his wand so he tried to punch me and at one point he pulled out a clump of my hair." Harry rubbed a spot on the back of his head, as if he could still feel the pain of that event. "I think either Draco staged my fake death or he disguised himself as me to get his Father to follow him back home. But neither one of these ideas worked cause his dear old Dad never saw him."
"None of that really makes a whole lot of sense Harry, it almost sounds as if you think Draco was trying to help you, but we know he was a Death Eater." Ginny looked confused.
"I know, it's just a theory, that's why I need to know if Draco's body was ever found, then I think we need to open that casket to find out who is in there."
Ginny stood up and grabbed Harry's hand. "Well, then let's go and see what we can find out. The sooner we know, the sooner we can move in together."
"But Ginny, we were supposed to have a date first. Don't you want to go out to eat or something?" Harry asked.
"Oh no, this is much more exciting, I think this is the perfect date, a few drinks and a mysterious dead body." Ginny smiled.
Harry couldn't help it; he put his hands on the side of her face and kissed her once more. "You know Ginny, you really are perfect, how many other girls would rather dig up a casket then eat dinner, I love you."
Ginny blushed, "Yeah, I'm crazy like that…let's go." She took his hand once more and dragged Harry out into Hogsmead.