A New Life

Chapter Five

The Club

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"Ginny, where are we going? Don't we need to go to Diagon Ally for butterbeer?" Harry asked as he followed Ginny out of their building and out onto the street.

"Don't be silly Harry, we can go over here." Ginny pointed down the street.

Harry was confused, "Muggles don't sell Butterbeer." Harry thought. But Ginny continued to plow down the street then, taking Harry by surprise she stopped and entered the small pub Harry could see from his bedroom window. Harry followed and entered The Club behind Ginny, and to his amazement the entire bar was covered in witches and wizards.

Harry grabbed Ginny's wrist, "Ginny, why is there a wizard pub on a muggle street? I thought this entire village was muggles?"

"No Harry, there are a lot of Wizards that live around here. Luna Lovegood's Dad owns this place, and her aunt runs it. See, that's Deana Lovegood at the bar."

Ginny pointed to a tall thin woman, with curly blonde hair and protruding blue eyes just like Luna's. She was talking to another witch at the bar while cleaning a glass. Ginny started to head to the counter when she was stopped when Luna Lovegood came around counter and hugged her.

"Hi Ginny! It's so good to see you, how have you been? I'm working at the bar with my Auntie for the summer. Are you going back to school this fall? I saw your name in the paper when they were talking about Harry, Ron and Hermione. Oh, hello Harry, how are you?" Luna said very fast while bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Hi Luna, were fine, were just here to get some butterbeer. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I got a place across the street. But don't worry, my Mum is forcing me to go back to school." Ginny replied.

"Oh, here, let me get you some butterbeer. How many bottles?" Luna asked while walking behind the counter.

"Um, can we buy a whole case, were having a bit of a house warming party." Harry asked.

"Yeah sure, a case has 30 in it and is one Galleon." Luna replied.

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out some money, then handed it to Luna. She smiled then said, "Which apartment Harry, I'll send it on for you, no need to carry it."

"We're in 702 of the Waterford apartments, thanks Luna." Harry said as Luna flicked her wand under the counter and Harry assumed a case of butterbeers had just disappeared. "So you're of age then?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes, I turned seventeen a few weeks ago." Luna replied. "Won't you be seventeen soon Ginny?"

"Yeah, on August eleventh." Ginny said. "Happy belated birthday Luna, well I guess we should get back to our party. We will come down soon and hang out."

"That would be great, bring Hermione and Ron too." Luna said while walking them towards the door.

"Oh, hey, Luna what do muggles see when they walk by this place?" Harry asked, still amazed that this was an all magical pub.

"They see an old abandoned building; my Dad had fun with that charm." Luna said as Harry opened the door and took a quick glance up and down the street, apparently looking for muggles.

"Well, see you soon Luna, and thanks for the butterbeers!" Harry said, as he ushered Ginny out the door.

"Wow, so that must have been why Ron was so interested in having a view of this pub, I wish he would have told me." Harry said to Ginny as they crossed the street. "I mean, it's nice to know that were not the only magical people around hear."

"Yeah, well, Ron's an idiot. He doesn't think about other people." Ginny said, apparently still mad at Ron, Harry was hoping that she had clamed down.

"Ginny, I don't want you to go back to the party mad at Ron. Besides, it really was between him and Hermione. Can we just sit here and talk for a bit." Harry asked pointing to a bench in front of their building.

Ginny gave him a glaring look, but decided that she did need to cool off so she sat down, Harry followed. "I'm not really mad at Ron, it's just I had a talk with Hermione yesterday and she thinks that things are serious with Ron but Ron doesn't seem to be returning it. And it's really upsetting Hermione and so it's upsetting me."

"Well, Ron is pretty nervous about being with Hermione, he's afraid he's going to screw something up." Harry said not looking at Ginny.

"How do you know, did you talk to him?" Ginny asked.

"No, but…but I know how guys work." Harry said slightly nervously. The fact was that Ron was acting the same way that Harry was feeling. Harry still had feelings for Ginny but he wanted to make sure that he didn't mess things up with her. "Guys do funny things around girls that they really like."

"Yeah, boys are dumb that way." Ginny laughed.

"Hey, that's not fair, girls are not that easy to figure out you know." Harry said slightly hurt.

"Harry, can I ask you something."

"Sure as long as it doesn't involve insulting men." Harry said with a smile.

"No, I'm being serious Harry. I wanted to ask you about…about us." Ginny stumbled.

"You want to talk about what happened before Hogwarts closed, before Hermione, Ron and I left." Harry said avoiding Ginny's gaze.

"Well, that brings up two conversations, but we can talk about what you three did last year later. I was just wondering sense Voldemort is gone…" Ginny trailed off.

Harry's mind was racing, was it possible that Ginny still cared for him. All he had thought about over the past year was her. Her ginger hair and fair skin, the way she got fired up about things she was passionate about. Harry wanted to tell her so many things but was too afraid that he couldn't go back with her. That everything that had happened with Voldemort and the Horcruxes had put too much of a wall between them.

"Ginny, I didn't know if you would want to talk about what happened. It seemed so long ago, I figured you had moved on."

"No Harry, I've sorta been waiting for you." Ginny blushed then looked away from Harry, turning her body away as she did so.

Harry's heart seemed to stop beating, and he suddenly found himself covered in sweat. "So, you're not upset that I broke up with you?"

"I was at first but I know that you just wanted to keep me from danger." Ginny said still not looking at Harry.

"Ginny, do you want to date again?" Harry said as a sudden daring washed over him.

Ginny didn't answer him; she still had her back turned to him playing with a piece of string that was coming off of her t-shirt. Harry got off the bench and knelt down on the ground, took Ginny's hand and looked her strait in the eyes. "Ginny, I know that you're still hurt that I left you, but the whole time I was gone all I could think about was you. I want to be with you but I didn't want to do anything that you don't want me to do, that's why I haven't talked about it until now. Ginny if you don't want to be with me I'll understand, but…" Harry couldn't bring himself to finish his thought.

Ginny finally brought her eyes up to meet Harry's, she put her hand on the back of his head, pulled him into her and kissed him. At first Harry was surprised by her actions, and then he relaxed and deepened their kiss. Harry could have stayed there with Ginny the entire night and he would have if Ginny hadn't pulled away.

She smiled at him and said, "Come on Harry, we have a room full of people to tell that were back together." She stood up, took Harry's hand and walked them into their building.