Chapter Three

Dinner that night at the Weasley house was very awkward. Ron was being as hostile to Ginny as possible to punish her for what he saw as unforgivable. In his eyes, the only thing that Ginny could do to redeem herself was to say that she was sorry to everyone in their family, everyone in the Order, and, most importantly, to Harry. Then, she should beg for him to take her back. It was only if she did this that he would ever forgive her, totally. Whether Harry chose to take her back was a different story. Ron thought that he had every right not to. But, seeing how Harry still loved Ginny, Ron didn't know why, he probably would take her back, but 'only if it would make her happy'. Geez! Harry was way too perfect.

Anyway, back to the dinner scene. Hermione was being as polite as possible to Ginny, but she hadn't seen her for so long and Ginny lived in such a totally different world, that they had very little to talk about. When she wasn't attempting conversation with Ginny, Hermione was glaring at Ron for being such a git to his only sister who he was seeing for the first time in eight years.

Ginny answered all the questions that Hermione asked her, but they hadn't seen each other on so long that she didn't know what they could talk about. And it didn't help that Ron kept on giving her the evil-eye, even though she had been expecting that. Ron probably still hated Draco. Having left on a not so good note with her fiancé, Ginny was finding it easier to sympathize with Ron. Then, she stopped herself and realized that if she didn't sympathize with Draco, no one would.

All the children were starring at Ginny, kind of wide-eyed. Besides their grandma, this was the only Weasley woman, with the red hair and all. By now, she was pretty sure that she knew all their names. First, there was Jessica, the oldest and eight years old. Then, there were the twins, Sirius and Albus, who were six years old. Next, was William, who was five years old. Next came the other set of twins, Molly and Allison, who were three years old. Finally, there was the youngest, Thomas, who was about eighteen month.

The kids looked as though they hadn't known about their Aunt Ginny until she had walked through the door. Or, if they had known about her, it was only her name and they didn't know anything about her, which they didn't. She really wanted to get to know them. They probably didn't know about what she had done, so she hoped. She also hoped that they would give her a fresh start. They wouldn't judge her as the rest of her family did. They had nothing to judge, to them, she was just Aunt Ginny, not the traitress who married our enemy.

After dinner, the children excused themselves to go work on homework and the such. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny sat for a while in uncomfortable silence until Hermione excused herself to do the dishes. When Ginny offered to help, Hermione shooed he away, saying that she was their guest that they hadn't seen for a very long time and that she should relax and catch up with her brother. Sure. Like that was going to happen. Ron was still glaring at her. She saw a look pass between Hermione and Ron in which Hermione seamed to tell Ron, "be nice and catch up with your baby sister." And for that, Ginny was grateful to Hermione because the death glare that she gave Ron stopped him glaring at her and he put on a sort of sheepish look. They sat for a while in awkward silence. Then, when she couldn't stand it anymore, Ginny said, "So, your kids seem really nice…" she trailed off. This was harder than she had thought. She didn't even want to think about how much more awkward it would be if her whole family were here.

She thought that he would never respond, he obviously thought that she deserved the silent treatment, then, "Yeah, they're great, 'Mione and I have been blessed." She saw him smile. He obviously loved his kids very much. She felt herself smile at just that. She so wanted to have kids, if only to have that feeling of loving someone so much that you would do anything for them.

She wanted to ask him if they knew her story, but didn't know how. She decided to just ask outright. "Do they know…" She couldn't finish. But, when he responded, she knew that he had known what she had meant.

"No. They don't know. They were so excited about meeting you. I hope that you will be a better aunt to them than you were a sister and a daughter to us." He had touched on a tender spot, but they had to have this talk at some point and get their feelings, or else they would never be comfortable with each other.

"I know how you feel, but you truly love Hermione, right?" She got a nod of acknowledgement from him. "And you would do anything to be with her, right?" Another nod. "That is just how I felt about Draco. Is that so wrong?"

"It's different! Ginny, Hermione wasn't a Death Eater who betrayed us and got Dumbledore killed! Hermione was on the good side! Also, it wasn't just what you did; it was the effect of what you did on Harry, also! Did you even think about he would feel when you just up and left with the traitor when you and he had had plans for after the war. Luckily, he didn't find out until after he defeated Voldemort, or else he would have let himself be killed. He still loved you and still defended you when we were talking about what you did. No matter how you say it, you ruined how he felt about love. He hasn't gone out with anyone since, not because he didn't have the opportunity, But because he was too scared to get hurt again. At the begging, he hoped that you would come back, but he soon lost hope. Lucky for him, he has the Weasley family and our kids!" He let it sink into her. She had known all this, but had stored it in the back of her mind. Whenever it came up, she would push it deeper, giving herself excuses. Now that it hit her in the face, she felt like the dirtiest, most selfish person in the world.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so, so, sorry," she moaned. She knew it didn't do anything.

"Sorry doesn't always fix things, Gin. Anyway, you shouldn't apologize to me. You should apologize to Harry." And beg him to take you back! Ron thought to himself. She seemed so bewildered as if she had never thought of it that way before. Ron had no sympathy for her. She deserved it all.

"Daddy?" a small voice said from the door. "Why are you yelling at Aunt Ginny?" Oh, no, thought Ginny. He's going to tell her.

"Oh, it's nothing, Ally. We were just… discussing something. What is it, dear?" Hinny was so thankful that he hadn't told her. She sighed with relief.

"They sent me to ask you guys something'" She seemed nervous and a little shy.

"Well, what is it, sweetie?"

"Since Uncle Harry isn't here, we were thinking that, maybe, Aunt Ginny could read us our bed time story?" She seemed satisfied with herself. She looked up hopefully at Ginny.

"Sure, Allison! I'd love to read to my nieces and nephews." This was her chance of escape.

"Thanks, Aunt Ginny!"

"Ally, you go on up and help everyone choose a book. Aunt Ginny will be up soon, 'k?" Ron wanted to say one final thing to Ginny. Ginny wasn't looking forward to what her older brother would say.

Allison smiled and ran up stair. As she reached the top, they could just hear her triumphant voice saying, "See! I told you that she would!" Ron turned around and looked at Ginny. "We're not done here. This conversation will continue later." And with that, he turned and went back into the kitchen. She heard Hermione say to him, "It's okay, Ronnie. Don't be so judgmental." She decided that this must be the time of night that they were usually alone, when Harry was reading to the children. She made her way up the stairs.

As she reached the top of the stairs, Ginny had to blink and check to make sure that she was seeing things correctly. From the stairs, it had seemed that the upstairs was kind of small with about six small rooms and a bathroom. But, when she reached the top of the stairs, she saw that the upstairs was actually quite big. There were still six bedrooms, but they were a lot bigger that they had looked from the stairs. And there were two bathrooms, the one that she had seen from the stairs and the master bath off of the master bedroom. She thought that maybe she had just not seen it right the first time, but then she remembered that she was in a magical hose. It must have been like the wizard tents that they had used camping and at the Quittich World Cup when she was a girl. This brought back a flood of memories. She had to stop and lean against the wall, the emotions were running so high. Then, a voice behind her said, "Aunt Ginny? Are you okay?"

She turned around to find the oldest child, Jessica, behind her. "Yeah, I'm fine, Jessica. Have you guys chosen a book that you want me to read to you?"

"Well..." Jessica looked a little embarrassed. "We were hoping that maybe you could tell us a story of when you and Daddy and Mum and Uncle Harry were younger. See Mum and Dad always say that they will tell us and they never do. And we're not supposed to ask Uncle Harry, at least, that's what Mum and Dad said. So, could you?"

Ginny knew that Ron and Hermione might get mad at her, but she couldn't resist the looks of her little nieces and nephews who had come up behind their sister. "Sure. I would love to. What do you guys want to hear about?"

"Well, we were wondering if you could tell us about the Triwizard Tournament. We heard about it once and we heard that Uncle Harry won it…" Ginny hesitated. "It's okay if you don't want to…"

"No, it's fine. I would love to tell you guys about it." And when she saw their little faces light up, she knew that it was worth any of the pain it would cause her.

She went into what appeared to be Sirius and Albus's room. She sat down on one of their beds. The kids sat around her on the floor. "The first thing that you need to know about the Tournament is that there weren't only three wizards in it, as the name suggests. There were four.

There we go! Chapter three! Yay it's up! What will the kids learn? Keep reading to find out. Sorry this took so long to get up! My goal is to get up a chapter up every week. But, exams are coming up… I'll try my bestest! You guys deserve it! Thanks for the reviews! I now have seven! Wow! Seven! Thanks again!

JessFantasy16