A/N: Arg, I am so sorry! It's been a week at least since I updated (not sure on the exact count) and I don't even have an excuse except for that I've had awful writer's block. I wrote like, six versions of this, was horribly annoyed with all of them, and I'm not even sure I like this one. At all. So I'm slower on the update than usual, and I apologize. Well, without further ado, I give you… Chapter Eight!

The Time It Takes

Chapter Eight

"Bloody hell…" Ron groaned as they made their way into King's Cross Station, "It's Attack of the Fan Girls."

Harry looked around warily, and sure enough, a group of ridiculous girls, giggling hysterically were approaching, headed by sixth-year Romilda Vane.

"Best get Ginny before they get to you, mate." Ron grinned, slapping Harry on the shoulder.

"What about you? Shouldn't you be fetching Hermione to save you?" Harry retorted irritably, looking around the station for his absent fiancée.

"Why? They don't want me, they want the famous Harry Potter… maybe she could wave her ring around, while loudly discussing those… Chinese things." He suggested, helpful as always.

"China patterns." Harry muttered, ashamed of himself for knowing such things, "And we were going to keep things quiet-"

"Well, that's not very likely to happen, is it?" Hermione interrupted from behind them, "Honestly, Harry, half of those silly girls would be saying you were engaged even if you weren't seeing each other."

"And that ring on Ginny's finger, that's a real good way of 'keeping things quiet'…" Ron snorted. "You're engaged, mate. Might as well take advantage of it.

"Right." Harry said, eyeing the girls, who were getting closer and more determined looking by the second. "As if I'd take advantage of-"

But at that moment, Ginny appeared, and looking desperately from her to the girls, who were now merely yards away, Harry felt he had no choice in the matter.

He drew her to him immediately, and when she opened her mouth to speak, Harry pressed his lips against hers. She was still for a moment, her eyes widening a bit, but after that she responded involuntarily, sliding her small hands into his unruly hair and bringing him closer. It was not long before the were kissing so deeply that it was much too private for Romilda and the fan girls not to mention all of King's Cross Station. Harry didn't seem to know or care much about that, however.

It was only Ron's cries of objection that pulled him reluctantly back to reality.

"OI! MATE! THE GIRLS ARE GONE! YOU CAN STOP NOW- OI! DON'T FORGET, THAT'S MY SISTER-"

They broke apart suddenly, Harry looking slightly ashamed of himself, Ginny fierce as ever.

"Oh, shut up, Ron." She said sharply, "As if you're so conservative and innocent." She smirked, glancing at Hermione apologetically before adding, slowly, "Lavender Brown."

"Come off it, Ron." Harry said as Ron continued to glare at him. "You told me to get the girls away. You said, 'You're engaged, mate, take advantage of it'."

"What's this?" Ginny cried angrily, but Ron, of course, ignored her.

"I meant that you could… I dunno, announce your engagement verbally. You didn't have to go and snog for ten minutes!" Ron said indignantly, and Hermione laughed.

"Really, Ron, what would you have done?"

Ron looked from Harry to his girlfriend, alarmed, and he sighed, "I- I dunno- I'd-"

"Snog her senseless and you know it." Ginny said. She was more annoyed then amused, but she seemed to have decided that being used in such a manner was a bit better than having her fiancée mauled by rabid fan girls. After all, she reasoned to herself, that Romilda Vane looked like she meant business.

O.o.0.o.O

Harry had forgotten how much he loved the Hogwarts Express. The moment they had broken the barrier into Platform 9 ¾, he had felt his face break into a wide smile, and it only go bigger as they made their way onto the scarlet steam engine.

Noticing his expression, Ginny laughed. "You'd think you'd never seen this place before."

Hermione smiled understandingly at him, taking Ron's hand as they searched for a compartment, and Ron grinned at Harry, taking in the train happily.

"Good to be back, eh, mate?"

Harry nodded, unable to get rid of the seemingly permanent grin on his face, and they walked on.

Eventually, they found a compartment occupied by Luna Lovegood, who was balancing on her head.

"'Lo, Luna." Ron greeted, sitting down next to the place where she was balancing as if this was perfectly normal behavior for a train compartment.

"Hello, Ronald." She said serenely, tumbling over onto her feet and sitting across from him. "Ginny!"

"Yes?" she replied, a bemused expression on her face, "Something wrong?"

"On your finger, that's a Heliosiron!"

Hermione looked a bit put out, and sighed, "It's a ring, Luna."

"Oh, but those are very dangerous, they attract heliopaths to unsuspecting travelers- I've told you about heliopaths, haven't I? Cornelius Fudge, the old minister of magic, he had an army of them." She informed them solemnly.

They were all silent for a moment, not quite sure how to respond to this. Ron, finally, said,

"Harry and Ginny are getting married." He said this with a very casual sort of limited enthusiasm, as if he had just announced that they would be serving mashed potatoes with dinner that night.

"That's very nice." Luna smiled, "A wedding sounds lovely. I hope you've picked your flower arrangements carefully…"

Hermione looked a bit tempted, but no one dared asked why they should be wary of any certain type of flowers.

Harry smiled. He'd missed Luna the previous year. Her extraordinary beliefs and quirky behaviors had grown on all of them in the years since they'd befriended her, and had often lightened even the worst situations. He looked out the window, watching the passing countryside, as the train gradually neared the place he had called home for the past seven years. There had been so much he had missed.

O.o.0.o.O

Though the train seemed to move slower than usual this year, eventually it became evident that the castle was drawing near. Harry grinned happily as he changed into his familiar school robes, proudly adorning the Quidditch Captain badge that McGonagall had sent him, and even putting on the pointed hat that he had barely touched since first year. Oddly enough, his head didn't seem to have grown very much, as it still fit fine.

He joined the others in the compartment, Hermione wearing the Head Girl badge that she had received despite not graduating with her class. Ron was still wearing his old Prefect's badge. Ginny had on a badge as well, and as she was not a prefect, that was what struck Harry as odd.

He frowned, taking a closer look at the golden badge pinned to her chest. Ron snickered at this, but as Harry looked away, he was rather confused.

"Why've you got a Quidditch Captain badge?" he asked, frowning down at Ginny, who was smiling mischievously.

"Ginny's been Captain of the Gryffindor team since last year." Luna said, "They did an excellent job, you know. Until teams were banned, of course… but Gryffindor had quite a lot of spirit."

"You couldn't exactly expect us to sit around and wait for you to show up." Ginny smiled, "Though the seeker we got wasn't nearly as good, we had to score tons of goals before he got around to catching the snitch."

"I'm Captain this year, though." He frowned, "McGonagall sent me the badge with my book lists."

"Harry." Ginny grinned, "How carefully have you examined the badge?"

Hermione, looking at the badges on Harry and Ginny's chests, smiled. "Take a look, Harry."

Frowning again, he unpinned his badge, and stared at it for a moment. There was the hoop, snitch, and club insignia, and the words sloping around the badge as usual: Gryffindor Quidditch Team. Co-Captain."

He glanced at Ginny as he pinned the badge back to it's place, and she held up her identical badge, smiling. "Co-Captain?"

Well, there it is. As I said before, I'm not crazy about it, but please review. I'll love you forever… not that I won't already, of course, but reviewing would greatly improve my moral and probably cause me to update sooner. I need inspiration. Anyways, I do rather like the idea of Harry and Ginny captaining together. I think they'll make a pretty good team, don't you? How about you tell me… in the form of a review!