Chapter 23

T4 – A House Joined (cont.)

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Nearly an hour later, both emerged from their portals, which promptly shrunk back down to nothingness. "So?" Ginny asked.

Harry shrugged. "I think mine's ok. There were some parts I couldn't figure out, but it's pretty good for the most part."

"Oh? Such as?"

"I couldn't get the hallways to look ok. Everything just looked... well, didn't look right."

Ginny shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I couldn't get the outside to look right myself."

Harry groaned. "I forgot all about the outside! I just turned it maroon because I got tired of looking at all the white-grey surfaces everywhere waiting to be magically painted."

Ginny laughed. "It's fine. Here, let's take a look..." She pulled a green ring from the box, and carefully placed it on top of the dark blue rings lying side by side on the ground, so that it formed a pyramid. "Portus," she said once more. This time, a bloodred arc of light appeared above all three rings, creating another portal into what looked like black nothingness.

"You ready?" Ginny asked, taking hold of Harry's hand.

"Of course," Harry replied, and both stepped through the passage at the same time.

The first thing out of Harry's mouth was understandable.

"Now that is one ugly house."

Ginny laughed. "Agreed. But I suppose when you mix sky blue with maroon."

"Hopefully the inside will be better."

They both walked in through the front door.

"Ok, Harry James Potter, if I had seen this before you proposed to me, my answer might have been different."

It was debatable which thing was the worst element in sight. Perhaps it was the hideous tan leather couch and loveseat with embroidered pastel flower patterns. Maybe it was the nauseating wallpaper with red snitches flying over vivid lavender. Or it could easily be the simple fact that they barely had enough room to walk a straight path through the living room and kitchen - clutter of every sort seemed to litter the room.

"Hey, half of this is your fault," Harry said, smiling.

"Merlin's beard... What is that?" Ginny asked, pointing at a particularly egregious offender of space.

"A big screen T.V."

"Er, what?"

"Muggle thing."

Ginny looked with a raised eyebrow at the foreign device. "It's enormous! What does it do? Protect the house from any curse known to wizard-kind?"

"Er, well..." Harry walked over and pressed the power button. A movie started playing, the screen displaying a picture of the 1930's while the music of a swing band pumped from the nearby speakers. Harry looked back at Ginny, who bore a remarkably less than impressed expression.

"That's it?"

"You don't like it?"

Ginny put her hands on her hips. "Harry, my brothers can make a full illusion charm that occupy all the senses, and put it in a small candy. And heaven help us if my father saw that monstrosity - we'd never be safe in our own house again!"

Harry had to admit she was right. The last thing they needed was a five foot tall television and two four foot tall speakers running rampant through the house. "Ok, ok, no tv. But you can't blame me for the flowers on the couch!"

"Yes I can," Ginny said huffily. "A leather couch? This isn't some swinger's pad, Harry. We're looking for a home, someplace down-to-earth. A nice floral-patterned cloth-covered couch is the way to go."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Why don't you sit on it?"

"Oh yes, because when I sit on it, I'm going to say th... hey... this isn't bad."

Harry couldn't help but smile a bit as Ginny's riposte was deflected a bit. He wisely didn't say anything, though, and stood silently as he watched her scootch comfortably against the leather.

Ginny looked up at him, and almost poutingly said, "Fine, a leather couch will be ok."

"What happened to the walls, though?"

Ginny pointed a finger at him. "That is your fault, too, by the way."

"What?" Harry protested. "I thought mine looked good. It was a golden snitch pattern on dark red walls."

Ginny couldn't help but gag.

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Unfortunately, deadlines are approaching, so I'm going to be rapidly posting the rest of the book. This time 6 chapters are getting posted, and the remaining 10 chapters or so will be posted soon. Please give me whatever feedback you can, especially since while I've had time to polish the first half of the book, the last half isn't even completely done in rough draft yet – so I can use all the help I can get in refining these chapters.