AN- Welcome to my newest story! This one won't be as long as the previous ones and we are post-Voldemort here, and no, I'm not getting into just how Voldemort was taken down in this version, read one of the million other variations and pick one to run with. Just know that in this version Harry did not go to Hogwarts. This is my Hallmark story; from Meet-Cute to Matrimony.

Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter. We bow down to JKR for creating these wonderful characters we enjoy playing with.

With-out further ado I give you;

Carving Out Time

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Chapter 1

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Harry found that Head Auror Robards was a fair man and a good boss; he would keep track of which Auror was assigned which case, and which type of case, so that no one Auror had a string of difficult or trying cases and no one had one mundane assignment after another. It kept his people at their best he'd found and Harry and his fellow Auror's really appreciated it too.

If someone was coming off of a mission, for example, one that had been the culmination of a long case that required a lot of surveillance ending in 27 and a half days undercover and being constantly on guard, like Harry had just been, Robards would give them some time off followed by a simple assignment.

Harry Potter though was not someone who knew what to do with a lot of time off. How many lazy days could he possibly need lounging around his flat before he would get antsy?

Two.

The answer is two.

He hadn't managed to convince his flat mate/brother Neville to get a Muggle television either. Perhaps if he had the television as a distraction from all that nothingness at home then he could have managed that full week off he'd been ordered to take. Instead Harry went back to work on his third day off asking if there was something he could assist on.

Neville hadn't been home when he got back from his undercover case either. There'd been a note adhered to the milk carton pointing out the expiration date and the fact that he was off 'On an expedition in the Forest of Whatever looking for a thing for work, he'd be back in a week-ish'.

That was legitimately what the note said and it had made Harry chuckle.

Neville knew that Harry enjoyed everything there was to enjoy about botany as much as Neville enjoyed Harry carrying on about Quidditch.

They'd been raised together after they'd lost their parents, Harry's had been killed, Neville's had lost their minds in a Death Eater attack. The two of them were raised by Neville's paternal grandmother and partly by his Uncle Algie. They'd been instructed at home too in lieu of attending Hogwarts, Grandma Augusta had insisted on it considering how some believed that Harry was still a target of the Death Eaters.

Initially Harry had felt like he was missing out, and he felt like it was his fault that Neville was missing out too, but they'd received good instruction by their professor Remus Lupin, and in the end it turned out to have been a good thing because there were in fact Death Eaters that had still wanted Harry dead, and it turned out that Voldemort wasn't as gone from this world as everyone had hoped.

Receiving instruction from home wound up being a big advantage then too since it meant that the hours were flexible and the lessons on point. They could research the origins of Tom Riddle and Horcruxes and bring about his actual downfall before there were too many casualties.

There had been some hoopla over Harry being a key player in getting rid of Voldemort properly but that was part of the reason he didn't get out much into the Wizarding world. He preferred the anonymity that he had in the Muggle world and why he wanted Muggle things in his flat; like a television.

As it was, he couldn't really bring a Muggle girl back to his place, what with all the magical plants in the windows and the broom resting in the corner of the living room not being for cleaning purposes. Which meant that a relationship with a Muggle girl could only go so far, he certainly couldn't get serious with a girl and just never have her come over to his place. He'd always played the 'my flat mate is a slob' card and pretend to be embarrassed about it.

The result being that he hadn't had a relationship that lasted longer than a month and he'd only ever dated Muggle girls.

He'd seen plenty of pretty witches about the Ministry but because of his name rather than his looks or personality, which both in his biased opinion were decent enough, he couldn't tell if their interest in him was because of him or his history so he preferred to just not deal with that.

Back to his work though.

He'd been on an exhaustive case for months that had finally come to an end. Bad guys were locked away in Azkaban, high five's all around. And now he'd had two supremely lazy days on the couch with Quidditch magazines and take-away meals, sufficed to say he was ready for work again.

Luckily enough Robards had just the mind-numbing task for him. One that every other Auror was trying to beg off.

It was inventory time at the Ministry. A time when every departments supplies were being logged and discrepancies documented. An Auror needed to be assigned to watch the cycle counters. These Aurors weren't allowed to assist with the counting either, they weren't supposed to let anyone know there was an Auror making sure they weren't swiping items or recording things incorrectly. It could have been anyone in Magical Law Enforcement minding these individuals except that the regular individuals in MLE Department weren't the best about stealth.

It was a babysitting job, but it was something to do so he took up the task.

That was how Harry found himself in the corner of a small meeting room waiting for the five people that had opted to do this job. This undertaking was only done once a year and it covered all floors of the Ministry save for the Department of Mysteries. Each department and level of the ministry had their own mini warehouse of general office supplies and items specific to their department, like a supply of brooms in Magical Sports or portkeys in Magical Transportation.

Departments could do this themselves, and they did once a month, but once a year this audit inventory needed to be done.

Harry opted to use a simple Disillusioning spell on himself rather than bring in his Invisibility cloak, while yes it was infallible, it was also a cloak and it got stuffy under there.

He had only been waiting ten minutes when the first member of the Cycle Counting team came in; a middle-aged man with sandy brown hair and a bit of a gut on him. That would be Jordan Neilson, his records showed that he had done this every year for the past ten years, other than a few brief jobs here and there he seemed to be a professional lay about just earning enough to get by. Jordan took his seat at the far end of the cumbersome desk occupying the room farthest from the door and took a bottle of water from the middle, leaning back in the chair and quietly waiting for the others.

The next person to come in a minute later was a younger man, he looked to be the same age as Harry, also with sandy hair. He looked rather timid and gave a nervous buck toothed smile to Jordan. This would be Colin Creevey, professional photographer. He mostly did weddings and special events, worked casually for the Daily Prophet as well. His relaxed schedule would have allowed a temporary job like this to be fit in easily as he mostly worked on the weekend or at home. Colin too took a bottle of water and sat three seats down from Jordan facing the door.

A few minutes later Natasha Spearman came in, only child of a very affluent family that owned several buildings throughout the wizarding and Muggle world. Colin was probably quite familiar with her since she was a pampered princess that could easily be spotted at the special events he photographed. Apparently, her 'daddy' wanted her to get some experience with the Ministry and this was as close to a job as she wanted. She was hitting her late twenties and was wearing something much too uncomfortable for a day long task like this; heels and skinny jeans with a tight and low-cut top. She gave the two others a forced smile and sat down in the closest seat.

The door opened again.

"And then it was just as I'd touched down again that the Bludger came crashing down on my foot," a young woman was saying as she came through the door with two others, Remus Lupin, whom Harry knew plenty well and was happy to see again, and Tyrone Jones who worked for the Ministry and was the coordinator for the group. "Broke fifteen of my bones and hurt more than the Cruciatus," she finished with a shake of her head.

Harrys eyebrows shot up with how casually she made that comparison. This girl was Ginny Weasley, of the Weasley family who were the largest pure-blood family around and all were strongly opposed to the Death Eaters and their leader, the ones of age all being in the Order during the darkest days at the end of the war. But Ginny would have been too young to join the fight and shouldn't have had the opportunity to have the Cruciatus Curse lain on her.

She was currently on medical leave from her position as a reserve for the Holyhead Harpy's, apparently due to a Bludger crushing her foot. Any bone breaking injury resulted in an immediate two week leave for recovery, the bones could be fixed back into place quick enough, but bone mending took about ten days to get back to the way they were before.

He hadn't seen her play before, she was still young and paying her dues working her way to a first-string position. As such, she didn't have as much notoriety as the first-string players and this was the first time he was seeing what she looked like.

She was cute. She looked a lot more down to earth than Natasha there, who was looking rather bored waiting for Ginny and Remus to take a seat. Ginny gave Colin a casual wave and smile in greeting.

"Glad to see you're following your passion," Remus told her. "I wondered if Harry might have opted for that rather than joining the Auror's."

"Ah yes," Ginny narrowed her eyes with a teasing smile on her face. "You've mentioned that to me before. You've also suggested trying to bring him round to the Burrow and inviting us over to a dinner party at yours, etcetera, etcetera. Tell me, Remus. Are you trying to set him up with Ron?" she joked with a raised eyebrow.

'He'd what?!' Harry wondered incredulously, trying to think of when Remus would have done this. He remembered an invite to a dinner party a few months back, but he'd been busy. Remus had also said something too about knowing someone with a Quidditch pitch in their yard that he was going to visit another time. Maybe that yard was at this 'Burrow' she was talking about, but he hadn't read between the lines on any of that to mean it was an attempt to set Harry up. Certainly not with Ronald Weasley whom worked in the Magical Games and Sports Department but with Ginny herself.

"Can't get anything past you, can I?" Remus smiled at her politely.

"Nope," she answered as she took up in a seat beside Colin, plopping herself down quite roughly. "That could have been my slogan if only I was a Keeper," she joked lamely and pulled out the empty chair beside her to put her injured foot up.

She was cute and casual and she played Quidditch. Professionally. Maybe Harry wouldn't get mad at Remus the next time he saw him off duty.

"Alright group," Tyrone started. "Welcome back Jordan." He nodded at the experienced Cycle Counter at the back. "We're going to start off on Level seven. Ginny, I'll get you to start in the broom cupboard for the Games and Sports department." She gave him a lazy mock salute and took the parchment paper he offered. "Colin, you can be in that one as well. Jordan, I'll get you to do the Gobstones Club room."

Jordan grunted and took the list.

"And Remus, you can go with Natasha and do the Ludicrous Patents Office," Tyrone finished off.

"Um," Natasha started, looking uncomfortably at Remus. "I'm sorry, but... aren't you a Werewolf?" she shivered and moved her chair away from him slightly.

All the occupants of the room stared at her while she blinked nervously at Remus.

They were all dead silent for a minute.

"How about Colin and Remus switch?" Ginny offered to Tyrone, sounding unimpressed.

Natasha looked over at Colin and looked equally unsure about him, "or I could work with Ginny."

"You'd be safer with Colin," Ginny growled at her.

Harry couldn't help but smile appreciatively at that while Natasha bowed her head and color came to her cheeks.

Remus had registered himself as a Werewolf after Voldemort fell and a properly instituted plan had come into effect regarding magical humanoid creatures. Fair laws had been implemented in regard to beings such as werewolves, like mandatory time off for Full Moons and subsidized access to Wolfsbane potion. Society was still coming around to this new way of thinking. The majority of Death Eaters had been human after all and harmed or killed far more people than any werewolves.

Natasha was clearly still not comfortable with this way of thinking though and Harry felt quite pleased that Ginny was essentially threatening to pummel her for her prejudice. Remus was a gentle as they come for the majority of the time and it wasn't his fault that this had happened to him.

"Alright," Tyrone too looked unimpressed with Natasha. "Colin, you are in the Patent office. Remus, you can help Ginny. Let's head upstairs and I'll let you into the rooms." He led the way out of the office.

Harry waited for them to leave first, Ginny was the last to get up, needing to brace herself slightly in order to not put too much pressure on her injured foot. It must still hurt a bit, as she was limping slightly on her way out of the room. He had to remind himself that he couldn't take her arm and assist her. He was invisible and she wasn't supposed to know they were being monitored.

"Alright?" Remus asked lightly from the corridor as she limped towards him.

"I'll be fine," Ginny told him. Harry could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "Just takes a bit to get used to putting a little weight on it."

"I'd offer you my arm, but," he trailed off. Harry could see Remus' eyes glinting in amusement from where he stood. Ginny merely growled at him in a playful manner.

Harry had to separate from them when they stood in front of the lift, opting to take the stairs one floor up instead. The lift didn't have enough guaranteed space to keep himself hidden. He rather wanted to go to the Sports mini warehouse, not just because it at least had brooms and such that were interesting, but also because it meant he would get to observe Remus and Ginny. They would no doubt have some fun banter for him to listen to while he observed them.

But Remus was as honest as they come so Harry had plenty of trust that he wouldn't attempt to knick anything or record something down wrong, he'd keep Ginny honest too. Jordan had done the job a few times now also and he was in the Gobstones room; boring. The Patent office though, that had more items that would potentially be untraceable and interesting for knicking.

Once he arrived on the seventh floor he continued down the corridor to the Patent Storage room and let himself in to find a good spot to wait for Colin and Natasha.

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"I'm just saying," Natasha said in a hushed tone. "Werewolves can't help themselves. Greyback was a complete terror during the war."

The shelving in the Ludicrous Patent storage room were lined up against all four walls with one that cut down the middle. Colin and Natasha were on either side of the room writing down what was on them. Harry was observing them with both growing amusement and irritation.

It had been clear that Colin found Natasha pretty; which she was and she knew it. She'd clearly put a lot of effort into her appearance. Some of that effort could have gone towards enlightenment however. Colin seemed to be of the same opinion as he clearly found her less and less attractive every time she opened her mouth.

"Yeah, well, Voldemort was a pretty big terror then too and he wasn't some partially different being, just a half-blood," Colin finally bit back.

Harry wanted to cheer for him and slap him on the back.

Natasha gasped, "you shouldn't say his name!"

"No, you aren't supposed to say, 'Bloody Mary' three times but you can say Voldemort as often as you want," Colin snipped, letting his Muggleborn status slip through.

Harry had heard the 'Bloody Mary' thing before from Muggle friends but still didn't understand what it meant. Something from a movie probably.

"The taboo on his name was lifted. There won't be any snatchers showing up at the Ministry for me, and Voldemort is dead. Completely dead," he emphasized placing some contraption he'd logged back down hard on the shelf so it made a loud noise. "And I know Ginny pretty well, if she says that Remus Lupin is a good person," he emphasized the word, "then I believe her."

Natasha seemed to shrink into herself slightly and pouted as she continued with her task.

Harry couldn't help looking at some of the items around him. The patent office had all manner of interesting things that he couldn't immediately tell what they were. One such item was a sort of open-faced box that a man would stick his face in after drawing how he wanted his facial hair trimmed and detailed. It wasn't so ludicrous an idea but the note at the bottom said it had nearly slit a man's throat and needed further development.

It would easily be another hour before the two of them finished logging everything. He subtly shifted around, trying not to get uncomfortable standing still in the corner for so long. Neither of these two looked like they were interested in swiping something.

"You know I'm a full on Muggleborn, right?" Colin spoke up after several minutes of silence.

Natasha's head turned towards him sharply. "Yeah," she said cautiously. "So?"

"So, a few years ago that meant I was at the bottom of the food chain. It was almost seen as being worse than being simply a Muggle."

"I'm not prejudiced against Muggleborns!" she defended, sounding shocked at the hint of accusation.

"Why not?" Colin challenged. "I have no control over my background. Just like Remus has no control over turning into a werewolf once a month. He didn't ask to get bitten as a child, and from everything I've heard he's super nice. He fought against the Death Eaters."

"I know, okay," she frowned. "I know that I shouldn't be like that, I just. It's been a lot over the past few years. I was taught that werewolves were bad. I was NOT taught that Muggleborns were less than, however. I'm not a monster."

"Neither is Remus," Colin sighed. "He's probably having a great time in the Sports storage room."

"What, counting brooms?" she asked disbelieving.

"Counting brooms with Ginny," Colin stressed. "She's a Quidditch player. He's probably in there stopping her from trying out the brooms and tossing around the balls," he chuckled.

"And you'd rather be in there with her," Natasha rolled her eyes.

Harry would rather be in there with her. That sounded like fun, even as just an observer. It had been a while since he'd been up on a broom himself. The last time was about two months ago when he was visiting Grandma Augusta for the day with Neville. Nev took Gran into the greenhouse and Harry'd taken off to the broom shed for his Nimbus to take a quick fly around the property. He missed it, there weren't too many opportunities to fly in his day to day.

His two counters continued some light banter back and forth and Harry had to admit that Natasha wasn't all bad. She was still a pampered princess, which was slightly off putting, but pleasant enough company.

It had taken them two and a half hours to finish up their inventory count of the room and they made their way back to the meeting room the floor below. He pursed his lips when Colin shut the door to the room behind him, meaning Harry was standing out in the hall until they all left for their next task. The room wasn't unperturbed so he could hear that the others were back as well. The door opened again, and Ginny came out, heading in the direction of the toilets. Harry took that chance and moved into the room, situating himself at the front and tapping Tyrone on the shoulder so he knew he was there.

It was unclear how long the others had been back for but Colin and Natasha were due a short break before they went on to the next level. Remus looked to be trying to engage Jordan into a conversation and failing.

Ginny came back into the room and went back around to her seat. She had to pass close to Harry as she went around the table and he caught the scent of her shampoo, closing his eyes slightly to enjoy the whiff of lavender and honeysuckle. It was a very pleasant aroma and he was glad for once that Neville had forced Herbology on him hard enough that he could recognize the different smells of flowers.

"Alright group," Tyrone started up. "Level six is next. Apparation Test Centre, Broom Regulatory Control, Floo Network Authority and the Portkey Office."

"Dibs on Broom Control!" Ginny called out.

Harry grinned. She seemed to have some impulse control issues.

"I don't know what you're assuming they have but they share a storage room with the Apparation Test Centre for all their office supplies," Tyrone teased her.

"Oh," She deflated and put on a fake pout before giving up the ghost and shrugging. "Meh, I'll take it anyways," Remus and Colin chuckled a bit.

"Alright. It's all yours," Tyrone handed her the parchment for it. "Jordan, you can do the Floo Network storage," he handed him a parchment. "And the three of you can do the Portkey office." He paused checking to see if Natasha was going to say anything, but she didn't. She looked resolved to not say or do anything that would make her look like she had a problem with it.

Harry wasn't too thrilled about this distribution. He had already known that the Portkey office was the one he needed to be present in, and though Remus was going to be there this time, he'd been hoping that Ginny would be assigned to that one. He wanted to see what it was exactly that made Remus think they'd pair well.

He had a closer vantage point of her now. He now knew that she smelled great, played Quidditch and would defend someone he considered family, all major selling points. She was rather attractive too, just not in a way that made him immediately stop and take notice. It was understated, she had a healthy glow about her of one that enjoyed being outside, her brown eyes seemed to get more color in them the longer he looked at them, and there was this one freckle on her top lip that he could see, it was growing very appealing to look at.

He could see a few reasons already why Remus would think they'd make a good match, but he would want to know more about her before he'd let that set-up happen. Dating in the magical world would be too tricky to just dive into it because the girl was pretty.

"Can I offer you my arm?" Colin held out his arm for her with an overly dramatic flourish.

"Why thank you kind sir," Ginny played along and let him help her up as she gently put her weight back on her injury.

Harry followed in behind the two of them as they were the last out.

"How much longer are you on leave?" Colin asked.

Ginny let out a moan. "It's only been three days. I have another full week before I can get back to it. Been ordered to stay off brooms and only light tasks. I can't even go for a run in case that somehow re-injures it," she complained.

"Oh, the humanity?" Colin said with a chuckle, clearly teasing her for her tone that implied her rest was a sentencing.

"Hey, if the situation were reversed and you found out that you couldn't, I don't know, develop film for a month because all the potions needed to be thoroughly tested," she countered.

Colin sucked in a breath. "Perish the thought," he played along.

Ginny chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. I'm hearing it from my mum too. At least my brother Ron understands. I need to save all my complaining for him. He's good at commiserating about this."

"I remember him being quite Quidditch obsessed-" Colin continued. But Harry missed the rest of their conversation because they'd gotten on the lift and he had to get up two flights of stairs to catch up to the group.

Observing them in the Portkey office storage room had not been a thrill either. There were thousands of different inanimate objects in there that had a series of spells placed on them they would allow travel restrictions to be lifted and locator charms placed to go different places in the world.

Hundreds of bins with hundreds of different objects that needed to be counted and tracked.

One hour of that and Colin, Natasha and Remus looked like the spark had gone out of them a bit. Ginny and Jordan came in after the first hour having completed their storage rooms and Tyrone had sent them there to finish up before lunch.

Harry was trying to shift his focus around to each of the five of them equally, but his gaze kept drifting back to Ginny. She'd opted to pull her bins to the ground and sit with her legs criss crossed as she counted through the items in her bins. It was childlike and endearing for some reason.

She was also humming to herself and wiggling her shoulders and hips slightly in rhythm with the songs in her head, it was those times that he couldn't help but let his gaze fall back to her. Neither could the others when she would randomly say bits of the song in her head out loud. She would catch herself doing it but she didn't look embarrassed. Jordon gave her a curious look after she'd started bobbing her head and let out the line of a song, she simply grinned at him and then went silent, turning back to her counting with no qualms.

For that reason, it was much more entertaining to watch her than the others.

Nearing in on the two-hour mark they all finished up and headed back down to the meeting room. "We're breaking for lunch now," Jordan told them. It was near the only thing he'd said to them the whole day.

"Fantastic. I'm starving," Ginny told them, stretching her arms above her head.

"When are you not?" Colin joked.

"Right after I've eaten too much," she quipped back immediately with a grin.

They all entered the lift and Harry booted back down the stairs, coming out at the same time they did, except he was nearly out of breath and they were still talking about lunch.

"Are we meant to stay?" Natasha asked Jordan. "Or can we head out and get something that isn't cafeteria food." She'd clearly never discovered the wonder that was fresh cafeteria chips.

"I'm sure you can do whatever you want so long as you're back by one," Remus offered her, to which she smiled kindly.

"Anyone interested in Cobs then? The deli in Diagon Alley? They do really great sandwiches," she asked, sounding hopeful.

"I'll go with you, that sounds good," Colin nodded

"I'm meeting up with my dad and brother," Ginny told her then tapped Remus on the chest lightly. "You joining us? We're eating in the caf."

"Sure," he shrugged. "Was going to pop up to Level 2 first and check if a friend wanted to join me."

"Great," Ginny smiled and saw Tyrone at the door of their meeting room. "Lunch time?" she asked loudly.

Tyrone nodded, "it's 11:50 now, if you could all be back by 1:00pm."

This bit Harry didn't need to stick around for, and he had a sneaking suspicion that he was the friend Remus wanted to invite to lunch, though he didn't know if it was a good idea. While he enjoyed the culinary selection of the cafeteria, he didn't generally stick around to eat there. He had always grabbed food and went back to his desk.

Screw it. If Remus was trying to set him up with Ginny then he'd let him try.

He went back to the stairs and bolted up the six flights to get to his office, heaving a big breath at the third and second landings. He regularly exercised, but stair running wasn't exactly part of his routine. Though now, he thought, it should be. His thighs were going to be killing him by the end of the week.

His breathing and heart rate were lowering back down to normal by the time Remus was visible on the other side of the room approaching his desk. Time to play pretend. Harry grabbed a random file from his drawer and a pen (he'd never taken to quill's, thankfully Grandma didn't argue that one, nor did Remus when he was doing his studies) and pretended to be very engrossed in the paperwork.

"Harry!" Remus announced himself jovially.

He looked up at his old professor and stared at him for a moment before responding. "Remus!" he smiled, then dropped the smile. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Remus chuckled. "I've signed on to be part of the annual audit team. I'm here for about a week doing some inventory counting. Wondered if you were free for lunch?"

"Uh," he snapped his file closed. "Yes. Yeah. That sounds great." Harry smiled and stood up, being obvious of checking the time. "Wow, guess it is that time."

"Working hard?" Remus grinned.

"Always. You know me," Harry shrugged.

They chatted casually, catching up on each other's life, as they headed down to the cafeteria on the Atrium level. The whole time they were headed there Harry couldn't help this ball of nerves that was forming in his chest. He was anxious about having to chat with Ginny for real. It wasn't like was a complete dunce when it came to women but there was something slightly nerve wracking about knowing he was going to be in this set-up type situation. She seemed pretty cool. Just a cool and relaxed, confident, professional Quidditch player.

But he didn't know any of this. If he knew any of that then they might know he'd been assigned to watch them.

He did know who Arthur Weasley was though, and he'd met Ron Weasley once in passing. He could do this and ignore the pit of nervous excitement. He was an Auror for Merlin's sake, it was his whole job to remain cool, but something about this upcoming situation was making his hands sweat slightly.

The two of them got their lunch from the buffet and the whole time Harry was only half paying attention to Remus talking about his recent relationship coming to an end, the other half of Harry's focus was on a table back against the far wall with three redheads at it and he was trying not to turn and look openly.

"I've got some friends I want us to sit with," Remus said finally.

"Sure," Harry nodded and let him lead the way to the Weasley's.

"Hello all!" Remus greeted them. "Some of you know each other, but this is Harry," he introduced, "Harry, this is Arthur, Percy and Ginny."

Huh, not the brother he'd thought she was getting. At least he didn't have to pretend to be surprised about that.

"Ginny and I are doing the auditing together," Remus continued.

"Hello," Harry greeted them all and set his tray down at an empty seat beside Arthur. "It's been a while," he held out his hand for the patriarch to shake in greeting and nodded to the other two, unable to stop himself for smiling a bit longer at Ginny than he did at Percy.

"Mister Potter. Pleased to meet you officially," Percy extended his hand to him.

"Err, just Harry is fine," he reluctantly shook Percy's hand.

"Completely spiffing that you'd join our humble table," Ginny said to him, clearly mocking her brother.

"Ginny," her father warned her, to which she responded by sticking her tongue out at him.

Harry muffled a snicker and took his seat.

"Yes, Ginny here is getting some extra work at the Ministry while she's out on injury from her Quidditch team. She can't seem to stay home and recover without going squirrely," her father spoke up.

"She should get a position in the Ministry properly." Percy added. "There are several positions that would suit her."

"And yet, she hasn't succumbed to the wonderful world of paperwork just yet," Ginny brushed them off. "Crazy girl that one. Putting all of her talent and dedication into something she loves instead of losing her soul slowly behind a desk," she shook her head.

Harry caught Remus trying to fight a smile off his face and assumed that this was a regular conversation at the Weasley family gatherings.

"You've been a reserve for three years now," Percy pointed out.

"And you've had your lips glued to one bureaucratic arse or another for, what, eight years? Don't see you in line for Minister yet," she countered angrily.

"Both of you," Arthur warned. "Apologies Harry," he told him specifically.

"It's fine," he proffered awkwardly; unsure what else he could say. He and Neville didn't bicker like that, but neither of the siblings looked like they were particularly rattled by the others opinions. "What team do you play for?" he asked Ginny. He hadn't heard her make mention of it before. All the professional teams had one or two reserves per position, and it was impossible to keep track of all of them.

"The Harpies," she beamed proudly. "And," she started, focusing more on her brother than Harry. "I've worked my way up to be the next alternate after this injury is healed."

"She took a Bludger to the foot at the end of a practice," her father explained.

"Ouch," he commented appropriately and grabbed another chip.

"Harry is pretty decent on a broom," Remus offered.

"Really?" Ginny asked interested. "Ever played an actual game before?"

"No, it was just me and Neville growing up, and he's useless on a broom," he couldn't help snickering.

Remus let out a laugh as well. "He was terrible. But Harry's dad was a great Chaser. He was captain of the Gryffindor team his last two years at Hogwarts." He told Ginny.

"I know!" she grinned. "James Potter, 1975-1977. Won us the cup both years," she rattled off and turned to him. "I was captain my seventh year. Would have been my sixth as well with my brother Ron leaving to join-" she caught herself before making mention of the Order. "Anyways. The Gryffindor team was banned, you know, that year. But the year I was captain it was still a rough go trying to get the team in shape. Managed to get enough practice myself though. Enough that Gwenog Jones noticed anyway."

He'd heard how difficult things had gotten for the students at Hogwarts that last year before the war ended. Several of the students that were of age simply gave up school all together to fight back against the Death Eaters but the one's left behind had formed a resistance of their own to protect each other. It had been both inspiring and horrifying to hear about second hand.

"Sorry about that," he said automatically. He'd always felt like if he'd just acted faster, insisted that his role in the whole thing be explained to him earlier, then the war could have been over before it really got a chance to start.

Ginny gave him a hard and inquisitive stare then. He nearly forgot to breathe with how intensely she was looking at him just then. The light was much better in here than it had been in the meeting room, and she was looking directly at him. Now he could see just how gorgeous her eyes were unobstructed by angles and shadows.

"I don't know you very well but I know enough that if I hear you apologize for something that wasn't your fault like that again, I will smack you," she promised.

His jaw dropped just enough that he felt his lips part slightly. Yes, Remus, Neville, Grandma Augusta and a few others had laid into him for how hard he'd been on himself, but the way she said it, he felt something in the center of his chest swell slightly. He couldn't help the smile that tugged on the corner of his mouth and the low chuckle that escaped him. "Okay," he nodded.

Ginny smiled back at him. "Okay," she gave him a nod and stole a few chips off his tray. "Penance for being an idiot," she told him before popping the stolen food in her mouth.

"Ginny!" Arthur sounded exasperated.

"Yes, really Ginny. You can't behave like that," Percy added on, exemplifying his father.

"Sure, I can," she shrugged. "I just did. The chips here are fantastic. And he doesn't seem to mind," she gestured at Harry.

"No, it's completely fine," he promised.

"Do you get a chance to fly much?" she asked him.

"Must we talk about flying?" Percy moaned. "That's all you ever talk about. You and Ron."

"Fine," Ginny rolled her eyes. "You pick a topic. And do try not to bore us."

Harry looked over to Remus to see what he was making of their attitudes toward each other. Unfortunately, his dear old professor was giving him this look that was more inquisitive of his impression of the youngest Weasley. Which Harry pointedly ignored.

The rest of their lunch passed pleasantly but with less interaction between he and Ginny than he would have liked.

She was a little spitfire of quick witticisms and enough general knowledge of both the Muggle world in which her father dealt with and the diplomatic hurdles that Percy was involved in. It must have come from several years of family conversations about their careers, it had allowed her to at least adopt the impression that she knew what she was talking about when it came to the subjects that were brought up.

"We've got to get back," Remus stood up with his empty tray in hand.

"Oh, shit," Ginny checked her watch. "We'll probably all be here tomorrow too," she told Harry directly, "if you'd like to join us again and listen in on some useless banter."

"It was informative banter," he grinned and corrected her.

"Huh, Remus didn't tell me you were a polite suck up," she turned to the man in question with bright eyes.

It seemed she was trying to get Remus in trouble for the earlier mentioned attempted set-ups between the two of them. The one's that Harry was supposed to know nothing about and maintain the cluelessness he'd had to it first thing that morning. Keeping to his part Harry turned to Remus then with question in his eye. "What's this?"

"Well, we've got to get back to the rest of the team," Remus carried on evasively. "I suppose I'll see you tomorrow."

Ginny snickered and got to her feet herself and sucked in a hissing breath and stumbling as she put weight on her bad foot. All the men stared at her while she corrected her stance and cursed an impressive string of expletives under her breath from the pain before taking a deep breath and looking as though she'd simply wished the pain away and stood properly. "Okay. Let's go," she told Remus. "Bye all," she began limping slightly towards the exit with Remus beside her.

Harry wished Arthur and Percy a good day and went towards another exit, making sure no one was looking before he disillusioned himself and headed for the meeting room after Ginny and Remus.

()()()

Level 5 held the Department of International Magical Cooperation. The supply rooms were full of stationery and tomes. Reference materials and files upon files upon files upon files of this, that and the other thing. Unfortunately, that meant that the items being counted were uninteresting, but vitally important. There were three small supply rooms with the stationary material and one enormous room that resembled a library that was full or rows that were lower half filing cabinets, upper half books.

Harry was more easily allowed to pace here and keep an eye on his cycle counters in this room.

Jordan and Colin had started off in the room and were later joined by the other three who immediately went to occupy their own section for counting and verifying. It was as he was observing Ginny make her way through her aisle that he caught it; the reason she was humming different songs and doing these little dances.

He was watching her as she'd been tracing her finger along the high shelf of books looking back and forth between her sheet and the books there when she paused and set her clip board down. She gave a discrete look around before pulling something from her pocket. He watched carefully and curiously as she removed something from the object and pulled something else from her other pocket to replace the other thing. Then she pressed her thumb on it and slid the items back in her pocket and adjusted something in her right ear before picking her clipboard and sheet back up.

Harry couldn't believe it! She was listening to music! That was a muggle device. An MP3, he thought he remembered them being called. And somehow she'd gotten an earbud or something that was nearly invisible and didn't require a cord or anything.

That was genius!

For such a mundane task like this that didn't require one to be using their full brain power having some music would absolutely make the time pass more enjoyably.

Her dad was in the misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, so she would have a better knowledge of these devices and how to use them but she was still a pureblood witch. Most purebloods didn't bother with Muggle anything, even after the war. Harry couldn't get Grandma Augusta to understand the convenience of a telephone, not that she'd know anyone else that has one, so it wouldn't really be convenient for her, but still.

Maybe he wouldn't say anything at all to Remus about his set-up attempts, clearly the man had put a lot of thought into this.

But why would a great girl like Ginny be single?

There had to be something off putting about her if she wasn't in a relationship. And how long ago had Remus started attempting to get the two of them together? The dinner invite was easily six months ago.

Harry shook his head to get himself back on task. He had to check in on all five of the counters, not just stare at Ginny.

He moved over to check on Jordan then started rotating through all of them, watching for roughly five minutes and then moving on to the next.

It was a very good thing that he didn't opt to wear the invisibility cloak as it had grown quite warm in the room. He had to tug up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows in an attempt to cool himself off. Remus had tossed his blazer on the back of a chair at the end of his aisle. Jordan's pull over quickly joined.

Each of the counters had a big job in each aisle with all the files. They had to guarantee the labelled files were where they said they were as well and required more sifting. As such it had meant that Natasha had kicked off her heels to get comfortable. For a seemingly spoiled girl Harry was surprised she wasn't voicing any objections or whining about her task; she'd simply taken her lists as they were handed to her and got to it.

He went to check in on Colin who looked to be halfway done with the filing cabinets in his aisle and intermittently fanning himself with his list. Colin didn't look at all interested in what he was counting.

Then he came back around to where Ginny was.

Just in time too.

It was a good thing no one could see him because he undoubtedly had the dumbest expression on his face as he made it to her aisle just in time for her to be making herself more comfortable.

There were parts of movies he'd seen where a girl is pulling her shirt off in slow motion and it would cut to a fantasy sequence of her flipping her long hair back or sticking a finger in her mouth and giving this pouty and attractive look or whatever. He'd only been to two or three movies at the cinema that had such a scene and they'd just been fillers announcing to the audience that they were supposed to be attracted to this lady character; so stupid.

But as he was watching Ginny pull her shirt over her head to reveal a grey tank top underneath it was as though he was watching it in slow motion. The way it was sliding up her sides and over her chest. The way her hair was pulled through the hole of the top and wound up gracefully falling to one side.

Then, oh, then she bent forward to flip her hair forward and pull it up into a messy sort of bun on her head and he got a nice view of her stretching her arms up to secure her hair tie and showing him a very lovely silhouette.

Yet another reason he was grateful to be invisible right then, his trousers were growing a little tight.

It might seem rather perverted for him to be standing there staring at a pretty girl with an erection growing in his trousers and unwilling to look away, but it wasn't like he was touching himself or anything. And he was supposed to be watching her, er, them. He hadn't come over specifically because he knew she'd be stripping off her shirt just then. It was simply her turn to be observed in his rounds. He just happened to enjoy the little ten second show that he was replaying in slow motion in his brain while she'd already picked up her clip board and continued with her task, shimmying just a bit to the music in her ear.

He forced himself to stick to his self-imposed schedule of checking in on all of them in short shifts until they finished up with the room entirely and it was time to call it a day.

It was a very mundane task he'd taken up but it had been rather enjoyable simply being a spectator for the day. And he was looking forward to doing more Ginny watching, er, observing tomorrow. His job for the day done as well, Harry decided it was time to head home. There wasn't any paperwork or anything to fill out and grabbing some take-away and hitting his couch sounded appealing.

()()()

"Heyya Harry," Neville called out from the kitchen when Harry came through the door.

"Neville! You're back!" Harry grinned. Neville always had interesting stories about his adventures in Botany when he got back from these trips. It was entertaining how clumsy his pseudo brother was, and the locations he'd had to go to were always remote and essentially undiscovered. "Where were you this time?" Harry asked with a big grin as he came into the kitchen and set down his take-away, quickly casting a spell to double the amount of food.

"The Sahara," Neville replied, pulling his head out of the ice box and turning to him properly.

Harry bit his lip in an effort not to laugh too hard. Clearly Neville had suffered through several days in the sun; the poor man was severely sun burnt, his nose was completely red and there were some blisters on his forehead and cheeks. It did look as though they were starting to heal.

"Ah, cheers," he eyed up the food and took a good whiff. "Mind making a bit more though? There's um, actually. There's someone else here." His red cheeks went a little bit darker.

"Really?" Harry asked quietly with wide eyes. "You met someone?"

Neville wasn't a complete slouch with the ladies but he had as much interaction with them growing up as Harry did, meaning none essentially. They'd both stumbled their way through the dating scene after the war, Neville sticking to the Magical world though. He'd casually dated a girl named Everly for seven months and Harry had never even met her, so for him to have a woman over was big news.

"She's really great," he grinned shyly. "I'd worked with her briefly before but had thought she was a little crazy. This trip we were basically side by side the whole time and it turns out she's brilliant. And she's just. She's great."

He sounded quite smitten. It looked good on him.

They heard a door open down the hall and a lovely looking blond woman wandered into the kitchen. "That smells wonderful," she came up to the table and stood by Neville, holding up a container in her hand. "I've whipped up a salve for you, should help you heal faster." She put some on her fingers and began spreading a goopy light blue cream on Neville's face. "Hello Harry," she looked over at him.

"Harry, this is Luna Lovegood," Neville introduced.

"Neville has told me so much about you," she continued, turning back to concentrate on evenly distributing the cream. "You sound like a wonderful friend and brother. But perhaps a bit of a shut in. Have you considered joining a recreational league of some sort to broaden your social circle?" she paused her rubbing to look directly at him.

"Uhh." Harry started. She was very direct, it wasn't anything that his Grandmother or Neville hadn't said to him before, but to hear it in her calm manner and considering she had met him all of five seconds ago he wasn't sure what to do with that.

"He usually replies with the fact that his work pulls him away at odd times and he can't commit to a team when he's gone half the time," Neville told her.

"Oh, is that the same reason you use for not having a current sexual partner as well?" Luna asked, peering at him with her big blue eyes and seeming expecting a response.

As Harry gaped at her he felt the blush rise to his cheeks, the apples of which were growing rather warm. "Um. I," he coughed. "It's maybe been a while." Five months since he'd last had a shag, and it hadn't been spectacular. Both he and his lady friend of about three weeks had more been simply going through the motions and he'd left right after because it was too awkward. They didn't see each other again.

Luna moved over to the sink to wash the cream off her hands and brought plates over to the table for the three of them, settling herself down comfortably. Neville raised his eyebrows once at Harry with a twinkle in his eye.

This must have been what he'd meant about finding her crazy initially. She must be someone you just got used to with prolonged contact and he wasn't going to insert any animosity here by being rude or excusing himself, so he took up a seat as well.

"Did you find what you were looking for in the Sahara?" he asked, trying to move the conversation along.

"I didn't, no, but Luna did," Neville pulled the caps off the Butterbeers and distributed them.

"Yes, poor Neville got completely sun burnt and didn't even have a Saharan Dream Palm to show for it." Luna rubbed her hand on his forearm, "maybe on the next adventure."

"And what was it you found?" Harry asked her.

"The Bedouin Water Nymphs," she told him. "Though they don't look like regular Water Nymphs. They look like Xercole's while they travel but transform into aquatic beings when they find an oasis in their travels," she told him.

"That's where we were camped out," Neville told him between bites of his Pad Thai. "In the Sahara at an oasis. It was pretty amazing."

"It was rather larger than a standard desert oasis," Luna stated. "I expect it was due to the number of magical creatures that had accumulated there. It must have been their combined magical core's that called life to the area. It was nearly a full acre including the watering hole that the Nymphs were splashing around in."

"And, what exactly is a Xercole?" Harry asked.

"It's like a desert fox," Neville explained.

They told him more of their adventure, Neville examining every tree and plant that there was in the acre sized piece of land and Luna splashing around with the Nymphs. Apparently she was naked while she did that and Neville had found it rather distracting until she simply climbed into his cot and shagged him to 'help focus his attention'. Harry assumed that had been very effective and Neville hadn't even looked slightly embarrassed about it.

By the time dinner was over Harry had found both Neville and Luna's company enjoyable. It was sweet to see the way they were already doing that couple thing of feeding off each others stories. Their tableside chat carried on into the evening and when Harry finally excused himself to settle into his room for the night Neville and Luna were made their way over to the couch in the sitting room.

Harry didn't feel like he was desperate for some female companionship for himself, but it would be nice.

And there was now an image of a certain bright-eyed, smirking and sassy ginger-haired witch that was popping into his mind as he brushed his teeth.

()()()

AN- Will be flipping POV each chapter.

Also, if you haven't already, make sure to check out Into the Forest and Into the Mystic, a collection of original stories from your favorite fan fiction writers like deadwoodpecker, smeyers, K.D West, myself and more. Into the Forest and Into the Mystic is available on Amazon in paperback and for your e-reader.