Chapter four: Enamored

Peals of laughter echoed off of the stone walls of the kitchen. "Are you sure you're ok?" Ginny asked again, making no attempt to muffle her amusement.

"Yeah," Harry couldn't help but break a smile as he swept bits of egg off the table top, herding them back onto his plate.

"So?" Ginny continued to press, grinning as she gingerly brushed egg out of his day-old stubble.

"I would love to." The darkness of the night before fell away from Harry's shoulders like a shed skin; he felt like a new man all together. Harry's eyes locked on Ginny's brown ones, and he felt a tingle crawling under his skin.

"No time to lose then." Ginny, grabbing his hand, quickly lead him out of the kitchen.

-

Harry hadn't really thought about how Dean Thomas was getting along. Of course, he had spent the last few years chasing, and being chased by, the evilest wizard of all time. His years at school had faded to the back of his mind for the most part, except for that fateful night in the fifth year. The archway still haunted most of his dreams to this day. His otherwise blissfully cheerful mind quickly discarded this negative contemplation. He was with Ginny, and they were on their way to speak with Dean Thomas.

Dean, despite Harry's lack of considering, seemed to have done rather well for himself. That is, if the neat little row house in a cozy little wizarding town mean anything.

"This is it." Ginny commented blandly, squinting down at a rather sketchy map. "I think." She added as she looked up at a house that looked much like all the rest on the block. The difference, it would seem, to be the loud wailing that was emanating from an open window on the second floor.

"Looks like it." Harry commented, looking over her shoulder at the map.

Ginny nodded and walked up to the front door and lifted the doorknocker. As it fell, another wail joined the first.

"Oh, hello Ginny." The man himself answered the door, a fussing baby cupped in his right arm. "Harry." Offering the man a polite smile, as he caught site of him a few moments later. His questioning gaze was quickly directed to Ginny.

"You said your uncle might be able to help us with a problem." Ginny hinted at Dean's perplexed silence.

"Oh, yeah." Dean looked relieved, but then lost again as the child, tiring of their conversation, began to whimper again. "Will you excuse me?" He asked, rather sheepishly. "You woke the twins." He explained, ushering them into a small entrance way and hurried off.

"He's married to Parvati right out of school; works for the ministry." Ginny explained absently, looking around the bright trim room.

"They're asleep again." A rather ruffled looking Dean reappeared at the door, pulling his robes back into alignment as he considered his two visitors. "So, you wish to talk with my uncle Fredrick?"

Ginny nodded accent.

"He lives on Knockturn ally." Dean began, his eyes straying only slightly towards Harry, finding Ginny vastly more interesting. "Right behind Flourish and Blott's; he's usually there. It was nice seeing you." Dean finished quickly as Harry moved to wrap an arm, absently, around Ginny's waist, as if he had just noticed the other man. As Dean opened the door a breeze caught in Ginny's hair and Harry caught the sent of flowers once more. Ginny really was the best thing that ever happened to him.

A/N Well, I am not supposed to reply to reviewers anymore; so a general thanks to everyone who's put up with my untimely shortness so far