December 17th

The snow was falling quietly outside Harry and Ginny's windows that night, forming a thick white blanket to tuck them in. They had drank some warmed eggnog before crawling up to bed in their softest pajamas and bundling up in their woolen covers. Harry pulled Ginny close to him and tucked his chin into the hollow between her shoulder and neck, and she snuggled as close to him as she could. With a sigh of contentment, she fell into an easy sleep....

The screams and crying around me make me want to shut my mind to everything in the world. Looking around, I try to find something to ground myself with, and nothing in the Great Hall can help. I only see my mother, father, and George holding tight to Fred's body.... I close my eyes as tightly as I can to block out the sight of them holding his limp body... dead.

Not able to take anymore, I stand up on shaky legs. No one asks where I am going. I have to keep busy- no one had seen Harry in over an hour, and I can't think... can't let myself think of what could be happening.

A small girl is sitting on the ground, sobbing. She has given up, it seems. I kneel next to her, and try to console the poor thing, but she hardly hears anything through her tears. She kept saying she wanted to be home... and I couldn't agree more. I want to be home with my family- everyone in my family, and Harry...

I feel something brush past, and look about. Nothing.

In my daze, I couldn't have said how long it was before I go back to my family. I put a hand on my mother's shoulder, and she reached for it, holding me close to her heart. Then we hear it.

The high, cold voice booming over the castle. Everything in my body chilled. It can't be, I tell myself.

Then I hear the words I had been praying not to hear, dreading for the whole year: 'Harry Potter'... and then later, 'Dead.'

At first I didn't move. I hear Hermione scream next to me and crumple on the ground. I hear Ron yell something out, obviously through tears. I hear my mother's gasps and sobs, new and fresh, but nothing comes from me.

Then suddenly I am running, and people are yelling after me. I don't care. My heart is beating in my chest with a greater fear than I have ever known... now there was no hope! Tears pour from my eyes, and I can't see, but I run anyway. There is no hope left, but I won't give up. I will still fight. I will fight for Harry.

Ron and Hermione catch up with me, and a large crowd has followed. Pushing my way to the front of it, the sight stops my heart. Hagrid, carrying what was undeniably...

Harry.

My heart, which seemed already broken, shattered on the floor with a noise like a screaming woman, broken and destroyed. But had that been my heart? Everyone was looking around, and I see, to her great astonishment, what had made the noise. Professor McGonagall, crumpled on the ground. Suddenly it was all real.

"Harry! HARRY!" I am screaming for him, and heard Ron and Hermione too, but he was dead. He could not hear...

She jolted awake, her heart pounding. Harry! was her first thought, and she fell back in her bed, tears escaping her eyes, before she remembered all that had happened since that night. He was not dead. He was sleeping next to her. She wiped her tears and felt sweet relief wash over her, but she didn't let herself believe it until she was curled around his sleeping form, listening to his breathing and the heartbeat that was steady beneath where her ear rested on his chest.

Suddenly he felt so aliveto her: someone living, breathing, someone with blood washing through their veins and air in his lungs. To wash away her nightmare for good, she pressed her face into his chest, breathing in his Harry-ish scent, mixed with the smell of the soap Kreacher used on his clothing. His tshirt was soft against her skin, and she felt calm once more.

Sometimes she had these nightmares- she would once again visit the most horrible part of her life, the worst hour she had ever lived. It was worse than when she had been taken into the chamber. Worse than when Riddle had revealed himself to her, and worse than when she was fighting at the ministry, when all those Death Eaters had threatened them. She could have easily died in either of those situations, but they were not her worst memories. Being someone who loved passionately and with all her heart, the experience of losing her brother and her love in the same evening caused her pain beyond pain. Though Harry had lived, the initial disastrous, all-encompassing, stomach-dropping fear and sickness she had felt when she had learned of his death had stuck with her forever.

She chose not to think about Fred's death by day, but by night, sometimes her mind had other ideas.

The next morning, when Harry had woken up, she reached over and held him tightly and for a very long time. Finally she let him go, just to pull him closer again and kiss him lovingly.

"What was that for?" Harry asked when she had finally let him go.

"I had nightmares again last night," she said. "And I remembered again how much I love you."

He smiled and pulled her back towards him, his lips soft and warm against hers. Her heart jolted every time their lips moved together, in a kind of choreographed dance that they were both getting better and better at. She felt them turn over, so she was lying on her back with Harry above her. His hand slid beneath the hem of the tshirt she was wearing, and she felt his fingers exploring the soft skin of her stomach. She reached over and pulled his shirt off, and soon hers joined him on the floor next to their bed. Wrapping his arms behind her back, he held her to him, feeling the electric velvet of their skin together. He was the only thing in the world to her, his tussled hair, his arms around her, his strong chest against her own...

Their pajama bottoms joined their tops on the floor, and then Ginny didn't feel so lonely anymore...

Later that day, they were packed and ready for Hogwarts. They both had time off from work now, and were going to Hogwarts early to set up for Ron and Hermione's wedding. The students had just left for their holidays, and it was time to get started on the final preparations. The other guests were set to arrive either on the day of the wedding, Christmas Eve, or right before.

They arrived into a tizzy of activity, joining the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione in the planning and direction. The house elves, much to Hermione's displeasure, were put to work. She was only consoled when she had asked McGonagall if they were all offered pay and sick leave first, and had even gone into the kitchens to tell them personally that she did not mind if they took time off- they could take as many breaks as they liked.

With the house-elves working on the food and getting the rooms ready for the guests who were staying overnight, there was not as much to be done. Hagrid and Flitwick had offered to help out with the Great Hall decorations.

"Oh, it will be my pleasure!" Flitwick had said, smiling and bobbing up and down a bit. "To see two of my students marrying right here at Hogwarts- oh, it's a treat! The normal Christmas decorations will be put to do, of course, but then we shall add some for the wedding as well!"

He had set off excitedly.

It was to go like this:

They would marry in the Great Hall, with the house benches seating all of the guests. Then the benches would be charmed out of the way, and the small tables used for the Yule Ball would inhabit the giant room, already decorated and ready for use. The students who had planned to stay at Hogwarts over break were welcome to attend the wedding.

That night, Harry and Ginny were shown to a guests chamber behind a rather ugly portrait of a bearded lady. The corridor behind it held rooms for all of the Weasleys, and Harry and Ginny's room would be between Bill and Fleur's and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's, and across the hall from... Ron and Hermione's.

That night as Ginny was throwing the pillows off the bed, she huffed and had a rather scowled look on her face.

"What's wrong, Gin?" Harry asked, a bit amused.

"It's just not fair! Before you and I were married, I was constantly getting the talk about not sleeping with you- my mother didn't ever miss a chance to bring it up. And I don't even know why- I even after we were engaged and everything. And you knew- every time you would visit, there would be people watching us like mad. When I'd go to your house for dinner, I could practically sense Mum and Dad waiting for me to get home and check up on me. And I did everything they asked!"

Harry smirked. "Only because we couldn't find a way around your family. Plus you didn't exactly argue- didn't we both have an agreement to wait, just to make it easier on both of us?"

She raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh? So you think I just did what my parents asked to be a 'good girl'?"

He laughed, but smiled at her. "No. I'm saying you can hold your own against your parents and you'd have done what you wanted anyway."

She shrugged.

"Anyway- what's your point?" he asked. She perked up, glad to be given a reason to complain again.

"Well, we were always given the responsibility to not sleep with each other and all that- and there's Ron and Hermione, sharing a room right under Mum and Dad's noses, and they don't even care!"

"Gin, they live together. I think your parents know they're sleeping together," Harry pointed out. Ginny just huffed.

After a few minutes in silence, Harry thought back to the year before he and Ginny married, and he began sulking as well.

"We should have thought of that," he said.