Chapter 2

"Has anyone seen my wand? My wand. I've lost my wand, that's wonderful," Ginny had been running around like a mad woman all morning setting up for this party. Dudley had been there since the night before. He had originally not wanted to impose with the overnight but after they had told him to put his hand on the strange empty beer bottle at his house and he'd somehow arrived here moments later, he was extremely glad for the time to recover. He made up his mind that he would walk home if he needed to but he was NOT going through that again. It had felt like someone had put a vacuum in his belly button and somehow managed to suck his entire body into itself from there. He shuddered just recalling it.

Shaking his head, he looked around. There was a wand in front of him on the table. Must be hers. He picked it up and swung it around to hand it to her but as he swung it, a burst of light went off and the two porcelain yard gnomes in front of him jumped to life and began dueling each other. He dropped the wand like it had seared the flesh from his hand. His eyes went as wide as saucers and he turned his head looking all around with his mouth hanging off its hinges. Harry was behind him and when their eyes met, he burst out laughing. He was clearly the one that had done the spell casting.

"Sorry D, I couldn't resist," he got out between gasps of laughter. He pointed his wand at the gnomes and with another burst of light they resumed their leisurely and unmoving positions.

"Harry, that was not funny," but he couldn't keep the smile from his face as he scolded him. "I damn near wet my knickers" he picked up the wand, this time a bit more cautiously, and handed it to Ginny who had strode over, far too stressed to be either amused or angry about the antics of the cousins.

"Did you set up the tables inside for the food?" she asked them.

"Yes," they replied in unison.

"And the table for the kids in the backyard?"

"Yes"

"And the tent f-"

"YES," they both firmly got out before she even finished. She'd been like this all morning.

"Sorry, it's just that this is-"

"Your first party to host by yourself and you want to make sure everything is perfect," Harry intoned gently, gripping her shoulders affectionately, "yes dear, I know. But let's stop being Hermione for a minute and go back to being Ginny. They're coming here to eat great food and gather with great people. Everything else is just extra. It's going to go wonderfully."

She sighed. He was right. She was going way overboard. But in her defense, she never went overboard like this. It was kind of fun in its own stress inducing way. She saw now why Hermione enjoyed planning and lists so much. Ginny had thought it all a bit much and had graciously taken Hermione up on the offer to take over the planning for the wedding when she and Harry had gotten married but now she wished she'd been more involved rather than ceding the reigns to Hermione. She had done a really beautiful job though. Ginny's musings were cut short when she heard a small pop from just behind her. They all turned to look as their first guest arrived.

"Neville!" Ginny shouted and caught him up in a warm hug which he returned just as fondly. "I'm so glad you're here. Where the wife?"

"The Leaky Cauldron has been particularly, well, leaky since yesterday and she's had to call in a repair wizard. She's waiting on him to get there now. She should be along later if she gets it all squared away in time," he and Ginny walked off to chat more and Harry and Dudley turned at the sound of broomsticks approaching. A group of three dropped in and Harry offered to take their brooms to the broom shed and he and Dudley then escorted them in to where the appetizers were. The party picked up quickly from there.

"Oh no. Who invited her?" Ginny intoned with mild disgust to Harry as she pointed out an auburn-haired witch who had just touched down and was making her way across the lawn toward the party. Dudley was walking toward her. Presumably he meant to show her the broom shed and Hors d'Oeuvres.

"Is that-"

"Melinda Minstrel," the beautiful woman introduced herself as Dudley led her to the broom shed out back. She was captivating. He couldn't place why but something about her was just stunning. Something more than simply her looks, though those were quite enthralling on their own, "but you can call me Linny. Everybody does. And you are?"

"Er, Dudley Dursley, I'm Harry's cousin," he opened the broom shed and she placed hers alongside a very old looking one with the letters Fir—olt wearing off on the handle.

"Oh! I wasn't aware Mr. Potter had any magical relatives still alive. You MUST tell me all about yourself," she looked at him eagerly and Dudley knew in that moment that he would give anything at all to get to know her more, but just as he was opening his mouth to respond that the two of them could find a spot to chat, Ginny came up with what he could only describe as the most obviously fake smile he had ever seen in all his years and that included all the ones his mother had given to the neighbors while he was growing up. He was momentarily stunned into silence.

"Ms. Minstrel, how," Ginny paused for a split second as if gathering herself, "nice," her lip curled, "to see you. I wasn't aware you'd be gracing us with your presence at such a small gathering," Dudley may be a little thick sometimes but even he could feel the tension in those words as she had struggled to get them out. "I see you've met my cousin-in-law, Dudley."

"Yes, I was just marveling in how I've never heard of him. I suppose even a family as famous as the Potters still has some secrets to unravel," she was smiling warmly as she said this. Nothing in her demeanor gave Dudley any indication of malice or ill-intent. He wasn't quite sure why Ginny appeared to harbor some hate for the woman. Perhaps her and Harry had dated. They never really discussed their respective love lives with each other. For all he knew, Harry had dated half of the witches in London before he settled down. Dudley and Harry had only really gotten reacquainted when he'd received the invitation to his and Ginny's wedding.

"Looking for a story? You won't find any juicy gossip here and I'll thank you to leave my family out of your writing," Ginny could be quite scary when she wanted to be. She wasn't pulling out all the stops here but she certainly made it clear that she meant business. Linny put her hands up in a gesture of peacekeeping.

"Now, now, I didn't mean any harm. Curiosity is the nature of all journalists. Just because the Daily Prophet has saddled me with the gossip column does not make me the next Rita Skeeter," in a move that would have been comical if either had noticed the other doing it, they both wrinkled their noses simultaneously at the mention of Rita Skeeter. Dudley wasn't sure who this Rita lady was but he was sure that he didn't care if Linny wrote an exposé on his entire life as long as he got to talk more with this intriguing woman who had captured his attention so fully.