A/N You know the drill. Making no money..doing this purely for my own enjoyment...chucking gnomes out of the window at high speed. I just wanted to make sure you were listening :) Anyway, more thanks to Brenna for betaing this fic, I am very grateful.
The early morning sunlight streaming through a nearby window awoke Ginny earlier than usual the next morning, its brilliance penetrating her lightly closed eyes. She glanced sleepily over at Hermione and Luna, with whom she was sharing her temporary quarters at Hogwarts. After ascertaining that both were still sound asleep, the fiery haired young woman pulled on a freshly laundered robe hanging from a hook at her bedside and slipped quietly out the door into the adjoining hallway.
As she made her way to the larger room down the passage, which had been converted into a crude dining room with a table and a few chairs for their stay, she heard laughter and voices echoing from within it. She could heard her parents, but she also distinguished two other voices, voices that she knew well. In a few steps she had arrived at the door to the chamber, and after pushing open the door, her eyes confirmed her earlier suspicions. Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks were indeed sitting around the table with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Lupin's hand resting affectionately on the shoulder of the pink haired young witch seated next to him.
Although the two had been married almost a year previously, Nymphadora still insisted upon being called Tonks. Ginny remembered vividly the conversation they had had on Tonks' wedding day, when Ginny had mentioned the matter of her name.
"You already know how I feel about 'Nymphadora'" she had begun, wrinkling her nose in disgust, "and people can't bloody well call me 'Lupin'; even I would get confused!".
So the decision had been made: Tonks would, legally, be Nymphadora Lupin, but would be known to all who knew her as Tonks.
All four looked up at her with smiles as she entered the room and pulled an empty chair up to the table in the space between Tonks and her mother.
"Good morning, darling!" her mum exclaimed, looking her over in a loving, but searching, glance, "Did you sleep well?" Without waiting for the answer, she continued, "As you can see, Lupin and Tonks have come to pay us a little visit."
"I can see that!" Ginny exclaimed excitedly. "To what do we owe the honor of this visit?" she continued in a jokingly formal manner.
Tonks chuckled, "Well," she replied, "life was getting a bit boring, so we decided to come and see our favorite family at Hogwarts. There's always something exciting happening here!"
Now it was Ginny's turn to laugh, albeit wryly. She very much doubted that life had been anything close to boring for the Auror, in these times of such wide spread confusion and chaos. Additionally, the quiet, kind eyed man sitting beside her was a werewolf, and used his "furry little problem" to the Order's advantage, attempting to sway other werewolves to ally themselves with the order instead of with Voldemort. Regardless, she was glad that they had come.
"Would you like some pumpkin juice?" Lupin inquired calmly, offering the pitcher to her.
"I would love some." She replied, smiling broadly as she took one of the glasses arranged in the middle of table and began pouring the brown liquid into it. While Ginny had her eyes on the pitcher, her mother and Tonks shot each other an almost imperceptible glance.
After several moments of pleasant conversation, Lupin got up from the table, announcing "I'll go wake the boys. They can't have much of a lie-in today, you all have a long day ahead of you today." Rather quickly, Mr. Weasley decided it would be useful if he accompionanied Lupin. Ginny could have sworn she heard a small thump, like that of someone being kicked in the shin.
As soon as the two men were out of earshot, the two older women rounded on Ginny.
"So…is there anything you'd like to share with us?" her mother asked suggestively.
"Yeah," added Tonks, grinning widely "any news?"
'They couldn't know already, could they?' Ginny thought incredulously. It had only been a few hours! Weighing her choices, Ginny, knowing her mother, realized that she would find out anyway, and Ginny wanted this bit of news to come from her mouth.
"If you must know" Ginny replied carefully, stretching out her words for effect, "Harry proposed to me last night" Upon saying this, for what she now realized was the first time, her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink; she felt like her face was on fire. "But we aren't making any plans yet, we want to wait until things ..calm down a bit first" she said, choosing her words carefully.
Their excitement was easily visible, written across their faces as both opened their mouths to respond. But," she added quickly, heading them off "you can't tell anyone, not even Remus or Dad" looking pointedly at the elated women beside her. "It's not that I don't trust them, but the more people that know, the bigger the chance that someone who is an informant of You-Kn….Voldemort could hear. I don't want to think on what he might do with that information." She finished, shuddering inwardly. "By the way, how the bloody- I mean, how in the world did you know?" Ginny asked, a bit confused.
There were tears glistening in Mrs. Weasley's eyes as she replied "Oh, my dear, I could see it in your face the moment you walked into the room, you were positively glowing. I obviously didn't know for sure what the occasion was, but I had a pretty good idea." "I just can't believe it, my little baby, all grown up and engaged to be married! If Ron would just-" but she stopped herself short, smiling to cover the awkward pause in conversation. However, Ginny had been around her mother enough recently to know exactly what she was trying to say; something along the lines of 'If Ron would just propose to Hermione already.." It was obvious to Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and basically everyone else who was ever around the two of them that they both loved each other, but both were either too stubborn, too proud, or too afraid of rejection to even talk of marriage.
"Congratulations Ginny!" Tonks exclaimed, giving her a quick sisterly hug. "But," she continued, "if you don't want anyone to know about you and Harry, you might want to do something about that" pointing to the ornately decorated ring woven beautifully around her finger.
"Oh, I guess you do have a point there, don't you?" remarked Ginny, laughing at her own stupidity, I will have to fix that" concealment spell that I have yet to name she said, and the ring vanished from sight, although she could still feel it on her finger.
Footsteps approached from the hallway. "Remember, not a word" Ginny hissed quietly as the door opened and Harry, Ron, and Neville walked in, looking tired and a bit annoyed at being awoken at such an early hour.
"Bloody hell, it's still the middle of the night" Ron grumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes. Harry smiled, looking directly at Ginny, who reddened slightly before smiling herself and becoming very interested in her breakfast.
The day was indeed long and hard, but it was also very satisfying. Most of the students seemed to realize that learning the kind of defense Harry proposed wasn't like their other classes, where the curriculum sometimes seemed useless, learning only for the sake of learning. Adding to this, in the last more than five years since Voldemort had returned, many of the students had been touched directly or indirectly by Voldemort, especially those old enough to recall Dumbledore's presence as Headmaster before his death. One student in particular, a fifth year named Jessica Bones, seemed to be a possible candidate for a future leader, combining raw intelligence with the drive to work hard, as well as impressive skills when dealing with other students. Their determination and willingness to learn seemed to have the effect on the four young adults of a drop of water to a man walking in a desert, providing hope where it was sorely needed. Even Harry, who, understandably, was generally the soberest of the four, was visibly thrilled at their success. As they exited the castle, Ginny asked "Hey, Harry, lets go down to Hogsmeade and get a drink at the Three Broomsticks. We can celebrate how well the DA is going."
Harry replied dubiously "I don't know. Wouldn't it be a better idea to stay inside the castle?"
"Come on, mate" Ron had said "Think how long it's been since we've been there."
Ginny grinned, knowing that Ron's main interest in the Three Brooksticks came in the form of its shapely barwoman.
"Yeah, Harry, you could do with some fun." Ginny chimed in, "It's just for one night."
Harry looked from one of his friends faces to the next, and then sighed.
"I'm not really going to have much say in the matter, am I?" he asked, a smile playing across his lips
"Nope" the other three replied simultaneously. Each grabbed one of Harry's arms and they walked down to Hogsmeade together.
When they reached the Three Broomsticks, Harry and Ginny found a seat while Hermione and went to the bar to order them all drinks. Ginny glanced around the cozy pub. It truly had been a long time since they had been here. The last time she could remember the four of them here was before Dumbledore's death, the death that had changed everything.
Suddenly, Ginny heard a voice from outside the open door.
"Ginny, Harry, help m-" came Luna's unmistakable voice from outside the door, cut off before she could finish her sentence. It seemed that Harry could hear the voice as well, for he abruptly got up out of his seat. Ginny followed him. "What do you think could be wrong?" Ginny asked him, trying to disguise the anxiety in her voice as they crossed under the threshold. As soon as they were outside, they knew that something was terribly wrong. Luna was nowhere to be seen, in fact, there was noone else in the street.
"Harry, maybe we should go back ins-" But she was cut off as a jet of red light sped past her ear colliding into the a nearby wall. Harry pushed her into a corner out of sight and whispered "Stay here! I'm going to get help". Pulling his wand from within his robes, Harry made a break for the door of the Three Broomsticks. Suddenly, another jet of red light, this time from the opposite direction came out of nowhere and hit Harry in the back, knocking him unconscious.
There was no time for thought, no time for reason. Her only conscious realization was that she needed to get to Harry to safety, for his sake, for her sake, for everyone's sake. Acting almost automatically, Ginny jumped from her hiding spot, concentrating only on Harry. Her foot was caught by a sharp stone shattered from the pavement by the rampant spells richocheting around the alley. She knew her leg was bleeding, but she didn't feel pain, only increased determination. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, she reached his unconscious body, snatching her locket from her chest and pressing it tightly into his palm, closing his unresponsive fingers around the cold metal. As the hand she clutched disappeared from his grasp, she suddenly felt several sharp bursts of pain as several spells impacted her body and her world went black.
A/N It will probably be a day or two before I post chapter 2/3 (depending on how you're counting), so...that leaves YOU plenty of time to read and review. Please review! Feed the writer!