A/N: I'm back! Ring out the bells and rejoice! Christmas was fantabulous, got an ipod nano (soooo cool) and spent some time with my sweet baby cousin.
Anyway, I know everyone is impatient to read the story so I shall just shut up and let you get on with it.
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I looked around the warm bustling pub from a table at the back with Harry. We had decided to come for a Butterbeer after Harry complained that he couldn't feel his toes. We had been searching for Ron and Hermione but we appeared to have missed them. Not that I minded of course, spending quality time with Harry was an unexpected bonus.
Harry sat opposite me at the small wooden table, testing out his new eagle feather quill, which he had just bought. I sipped my Butterbeer happily, feeling warm and contented. Harry was my boyfriend! I still couldn't get my head around the fact that we were finally together!
We had just spent the last hour wandering round the shops and talking, comparing likes and dislikes and just generally chatting about everything from childhood memories to birthdays.
It was nice to get to know each other a bit more and as I gazed at Harry, who was currently frowning in confusion at his new quill because it wouldn't work, I felt a sudden rush of affection for him. Smiling slightly, I leant over and took the quill from him.
"You've got the nib the wrong way round!" I said, twisting the quill expertly, "There you go…" I handed the quill back to him. Harry looked impressed.
"Thanks! How did you know to do that?" he asked, trying his quill again.
"After living in a house full of boys for the past sixteen years you do learn a couple of DIY tricks," I said laughing, "Ron could never work his quill either."
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Dean and Seamus standing at the bar, watching us intently and sniggering. I looked over at them, but they instantly turned around and pretended to be absorbed in conversation with Neville and Luna, who were standing next to them.
"Do Seamus and Dean really find us that interesting?" I said, turning back to Harry, who had just put his quill back in the bag, "They keep watching us!"
Harry rolled his eyes exasperatedly, "They don't believe I'm going out with you," he explained wearily, "I told them last night but they said that I wasn't because you were 'out of my league'."
"Prats," I muttered under my breath, "You're much cooler than me! Quidditch captain of a winning team!"
Harry disagreed bashfully but looked rather pleased all the same.
"Quick, they're looking, kiss me!" I said out of the corner of my mouth, leaning forward over the table.
"What!" said Harry startled, spilling a bit of his Butterbeer, "What here, now, with all these people looking?"
"Yes, quick, they'll believe you then!" I said quietly, "Do it now, they're looking!"
"Um…Ok, ready?" asked Harry, going red before pulling me towards him for a long and passionate kiss. When we finally broke apart, Harry very red, the whole pub was looking at us. I glanced over at Seamus and Dean who were looking gob smacked as well as several Hufflepuffs who obviously hadn't heard the gossip.
Harry cleared his throat loudly, stood up and put on his coat. "C'mon Ginny," he said very clearly and loudly, "Let's go somewhere a bit more private."
I nodded, trying very hard not to laugh at the astounded (and slightly jealous) faces of Seamus and Dean. I grabbed Harry's hand and he led me out of the pub, leaving Seamus and Dean muttering disbelievingly and looking at Harry astonishedly.
Once outside in the cold snowy street, Harry and I flung ourselves down on the nearest bench, laughing.
"Did you see their faces?" I laughed, settling back onto the bench.
"I know! It was a bit embarrassing though…" grinned Harry, kicking at some snow with his trainers. He shivered and pulled his cloak more tightly around him.
"Brrr…it's freezing," said Harry rubbing his hands together, "And I didn't bring any gloves!"
I looked at him confused; "Didn't Hermione knit you and Ron some gloves?"
For Christmas this year, Hermione had knitted Ron and Harry some gloves. They were bright green and had the words SPEW on them. She had spent 6 evenings in my dormitory knitting them and chatting to me.
Harry looked sheepish, "Hmmm…well…you see…"
"You threw them away didn't you?" I said, laughing, "They took her ages to make!" Harry mumbled something about the gloves being 'not to his taste' and 'glaringly green' and grinned at me.
"You won't tell her will you?" he pleaded, looking so adorable that how could I say no!
"Of course not," I assured him, smiling at him. I snuggled up to him and rested my head on his snow-covered shoulder. Wait, snow covered!
"It's snowing!" I exclaimed delightedly as I looked up to the stormy grey sky. Sure enough, fat snowflakes were falling and I stuck my tongue out to catchy them on it. Harry looked me and started laughing.
"You look so funny!" he said, sticking his tongue out crazily in an impression of me. I grinned and shoved him playfully.
"I do not look like that!" I said laughing, "Well, you look like this!"
I twisted my mouth into a long shape and waggled my tongue whilst crossing my eyes. It was childish, but hey, we were having fun!
But of course, Draco Malfoy just HAD to spoil it.
"No Weasley, I think you'll find Potty looks more like this…" he said, walking towards us and conjuring up an image of a house elf with his wand, "Just as ugly and just as common!"
Harry yawned widely and stood up. "You know Malfoy, your jokes are getting a little old," he said raising his eyebrows, "And you know what? I honestly don't care about what you have to say because you are a spoilt git who happens to have a rich father. Oh and did I mention your father's a Death-Eater too?"
Malfoy's face darkened and contorted with rage. He stepped towards me, his wand raised and an ugly expression on his face.
"Take that back Potty or your stupid blood traitor girlfriend gets all her hair blown off!"
"Don't call her a blood traitor!" yelled Harry, taking out his wand.
I sat back in my seat, my arms folded. "You wouldn't dare Malfoy!" I said, my eyebrows raised, "You'd be expelled before you could say 'ferret'." I laughed. "Oh sorry, touchy subject?" I said grinning.
Malfoy yelled and brandished his wand violently, but before he could open his mouth to speak the spell, a large snowball hit him in the face. Spluttering and wiping the snow from his eyes, he looked around wildly to see where it had come from, WHAM; only to have another one hit him in the face again.
I looked up the street; coming towards us were Ron and Hermione, Ron making the snowballs as he went and Hermione bewitching them to fly at Malfoy. Ron guffawed loudly as Malfoy swore and tore off down the street, several snowballs zooming after him.
"Hi Harry, hi Ginny," said Hermione innocently, seemingly oblivious to the fact that her snowballs were currently bombarding Malfoy just metres away up the street. Hermione always relaxed her strict non rule-breaking attitude whenever Malfoy was involved!
"We've been looking all over for you two!" said Ron indignantly, "We looked in Zonkos, the Post Office, the Three Broomsticks…"
"Oh well, it doesn't matter, we've found you now," said Hermione, swiftly cutting off Ron's tirade, "And it looks like we found you just in time! What on earth was Malfoy doing?"
"Oh the usual," said Harry unconcerned, "Empty threats and insults. He called Ginny a blood traitor!"
Ron looked murderous and made to go after Malfoy but Hermione held him back.
"Ron, stop it, he's not worth it! You'll just get into trouble!"
Ron seemed to calm down as Hermione said these words and sank down onto the bench, grinding his teeth. He leapt to his feet suddenly as if struck by an idea.
"Oh yeah, guess who we saw?" exclaimed Ron excitedly. Not waiting for anyone to even attempt to make a guess, he rushed on. "Ruby Gold and Viktor Krum!"
I looked at Hermione, a questioning gleam in my eyes. "Did you speak to them?" I asked Hermione.
Hermione sniffed. "Yes I did, and that Ruby Gold is horrible! She was wearing loads of fur and treated us like 3 year olds! Viktor was more friendly."
Ron was still waiting for Harry's reaction.
"Ruby who?" said Harry blankly. Sometimes I forget how cut off Harry is from the wizarding world at the Dursleys.
"Ruby Gold!" said Ron disbelievingly to Harry, "You don't know who she is? Blimey mate…only one of the most famous witches of today!"
I rolled my eyes and led Hermione over to a nearby bench to talk while Ron continued to go on like an article from Witch Weekly.
Hermione turned to face me, a determined look in her eye. "Ginny I know what you're going to say!" she said, before I had even opened my mouth. "And to save you asking me, Viktor was here just because his horrible fiancée was promoting her new perfume! Not to see me at all!"
"Oh…right…" I replied bewildered. In fact I had been going to ask a completely different question, more along the lines of 'did anything happen between you and Ron today?'. But obviously not.
I looked down the street. People were starting to pour out of shops and cafes with their purchases and sweets because it was nearly time to go back to school. Harry and Ron came over to us, Ron still babbling on about Ruby Gold and showing an unimpressed Harry the spot on his arm where she had accidentally '…Touched me! Can you believe it?'.
"C'mon," said Harry to Hermione and I, "We'd better start going back otherwise we'll miss lunch."
Ron and Hermione walked on ahead but Harry and I lingered, walking slowly up the path in a tide of people.
"Thanks for this morning by the way," I said quietly, "I had a really good time."
Harry grinned and pushed his glasses back up his nose, "We should do this again next Hogsmeade- without Malfoy spoiling it!"
"Yeah that would be great!" I agreed, brushing my hair back from my face. I smiled and gestured at Ron and Hermione up ahead on the icy path, "And maybe next time those two will want to be alone!" Hmmm…not likely, with Ron's fantastic communication skills. Not.
Harry made a face and laughed, "As long as they don't snog all the time! I hate it when people do that!"
"Eurgh, I know what you mean," I said grimacing, "It was bad enough seeing Ron with Lavender!"
We both looked at each other, grinned and simultaneously burst out, "Won-Won!"
(A/N: Yes I do know that the whole Ron/Lavender thing was in HBP. I added it into the story after I read it. It's just so funny and fits in with the story well!)
Laughing fit to burst, Harry put his arm around me and we walked back up to the castle, snow falling on the wintry landscape.
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"Yuck!" said Jane, wrinkling her nose, "Dad and Professor Brown went out with each other!"
Lavender Brown was now the Divination teacher at Hogwarts. She was very emotional, and constantly bursting into tears at the slightest thing, mainly due to her divorce from her ex-husband Seamus Finnegan, the creator of the immensely popular, 'Finnegan's Irish Firewhiskey'.
"Yep," said Ron grimacing, as if the mere memory of it was extremely painful. "Just for a little while in sixth year." he added hurriedly.
"Well," said Hermione, swiftly trying to move on, "Your Dad and I were to get together the very next day!"
"Oh good," said Mark, stretching his legs, "It's about time Dad started acting sensibly! Oh ur…not that I was paying attention to this slushy romantic story of course…" He trailed off and looked embarrassed.
Ginny smiled and said, "Well who should tell the penultimate part, your Mum or your Dad?"
"I think Uncle Ron should," said Sirius, "He hasn't actually told anything yet, just read from his diary!"
There was a general murmur of assent from around the room.
"Well…" said Ron hesitantly, "Only if your Mum tells a bit as well!"
Hermione agreed exasperatedly. "Just get on with it!" she said, sitting back in her chair with Crookshanks on her lap.
"Ok…" began Ron, "I was sitting in Potions…"
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A/N: The final chapter is the next one! I know I said it would be 15 chapters but I seem to have miscalculated!
Stay tuned and whatever you do, don't miss the next chapter, it's going to be a good one!