Ginny Potter has had it. For the last two hours, she has unsuccessfully been trying to wake her husband up. Yelling, shutting the door and smacking him with today's morning issue of the Prophet didn't help, but she'd like to see him sleep after being attacked by five feet of ginger. She took a deep breath, ran across the hallway and into their room before jumping on top of Harry.
"OW! What...Gin? What...Okay? Sleep..." Ginny's face went beet red as she started to throw every object she could place her hand on at Harry. "Harry...Potter! You...are...getting up! We...are supposed to...go house hunting...today! We've talked about this, Harry! I've been looking for a nice house for the last two months! I'm giving you six minutes, and if I have to go back upstairs to wake you up again, I swear to Merlin there will be unidentified objects growing from your head!" She stomped out of their room, a whirl of red flying after her. Harry grunted and picked his glasses up. He vaguely remembered them having a talk about moving out one evening after visiting Bill and Fleur.
Harry dragged his feet into the Burrow's kitchen. He was exhausted after an entire day of tagging along after Ginny and Hermione who just had to visit every toy shop in London to find gifts for little Victoire's birthday. Ron was conveniently busy running the shop the last Saturday before the start of the school year, so he was left to carry whatever the two of them bought around. And on top of that, he spent the afternoon discussing things he didn't really want to remember with Percy. His stomach growled as he went through the various pots on the stove. "Hey Gin, do you think there's some cottage pie left from lunch?"
She sighed and turned around to face him. "This is pathetic, Harry."
"What? Okay, I know I've gotten a little weight during the summer, but I'll just have a little slice..."
"I'm not talking about that! I'm talking about the fact that we're two married adults who both got jobs, but we're still living with my parents. Doesn't that just spell pathetic?"
"Well, maybe-"stated Harry stuffing his mouth with pie "-but what's wrong with us living here? There's plenty of room, your Mum cooks and does our laundry...I've got to tell you, I'm not really seeing the pathetic side of it."
"Really? You don't think that a 22 year old who has survived seven encounters with the most dangerous dark wizard of our time, killed a grown dragon and a sixty feet snake and is going to have a child in eight months living with his mother in law who basically treats him like he's three is pathetic?"
Harry shrugged sleepily. "You don't have to insult me, you know. If you really want to move out, we'll found a new flat...house, whatever you like." Ginny grinned and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, honey. I'm off to sleep, goodnight!"
Harry silently cursed himself for agreeing to this. But he knew Ginny had a knack for jinxes and that combined with pregnancy hormones...well, let's just say he wasn't risking to find out what she had in her sleeve if he wasn't ready in time. He put his clothes on in record time and brushed his teeth before literally jumping down the stairs. Ginny was sitting at the kitchen table, silently looking at her wrist watch. "30 more seconds and we wouldn't be able to check any Muggle houses." Harry shivered before helping Ginny up. "Oh, you wouldn't really..." the deadly look she sent in his direction made him shut up.
They made their way out of the front yard and side apparated. He looked at the bright yellow two story house in front of them with blue smoke coming out of the chimney. "Let me guess, not a Muggle house?" Ginny looked puzzled. "This wasn't here when I came here for the first time..." They walked up to the door and knocked shyly. "Billy, Emma, WHAT have you done? ROGER, you were supposed to look after them! Emma, no, don't open the door!" However, the door did open to show them a little girl of about 6, blond curls framing a face red from running. Her little mouth formed a perfect 'o' as she saw the couple. "MUUM, it's Ginny Potter! From the HOLYHEAD HARPIES!" Just then, a short slender woman stormed in, tying her black curly hair in a pony tail. "That is not how we greet guests, Emma. What do we say when we meet new people?" The little girl pouted and extended her arm out. "My name is Emma, it's nice to meet you." Ginny smiled at her and shook her arm. "Hi Emma, my name is Ginny this is my husband Harry, and this –" she pointed to her stomach " is James." The girl gave a shy smile to Harry before focusing on Ginny. "The Harpies are my faaavourite team! Daddy takes me to every game and I'm getting a Harpies jersey with my name written on it for my birthday next week! He promised to have all the players sign it, so I guess you'll see it soon, then! Ooh, would you mind taking a picture with me and my Dad? He can take it, my Mum isn't good with the camera" she exclaimed, pointing at Harry. The woman picked the little girl up, silently giving her a look meaning to say 'Slow down.'
She turned her head to the couple standing outside, giving them a warm smile before addressing Harry. "My name is Bridget Beckett, pleased to meet you. Come on in, it's hot outside!" Harry and Ginny followed her into the big blue kitchen. "Sit down, I'll get you some lemonade. My husband should be down any second, I sent him off to change from his pajamas." She rolled her eyes as she poured lemonade into what were supposed to be cups, but looked more like painted clumps of clay. Bridget discreetly pointed at her daughter. "She made these herself, so we'll have to use them for a few days until they disappear." she whispered, mimicing exclamation marks with her hands. Harry waved his hand, trying his best not to spill the lemonade on his shirt. "Oh, they're charming, really." A rumble was heard from the living room when a boy of around fifteen and a strongly built man came running to the room. "HA! Beat you again!" The boy shouted, running his hand through a mess of black curly hair. He was laughing and searching the room for something when his eyes got fell on the couple sitting at the table. "You're Harry Potter!" He exclaimed, his jaw falling open. "And you're Ginny Potter! My sister's obsessed with you. Not as much as Slughorn's obsessed with you, though." He said, pointing at Harry. "I'm Billy, by the way." He added, blushing a bit. His father shook hands with Harry and Ginny, introducing himself as Roger before picking Emma up and placing her on his lap. "Excuse my son for his behaviour, we blame puberty." He said, playfully messing his son's hair. "So, I hear you are interested in buying the house?" Ginny nodded taking a sip from her cup. "I was actually here two months ago, and I really like it. I was just wondering, why are you selling it?"
"I'm the head healer at the spell damage department in St. Mungo's," Bridget explained "and a few months ago I got an offer to work at du Pont Broussard's clinic in Paris, so we're moving therewhen the school year starts, so Billy can still go to Hogwarts, and we'll probably send Emma there to when she's old enough. Now, would you like to see the rest of the house?" Harry and Ginny nodded and followed Bridget up the stairs. "There's four bedrooms, we converted one into an office for Roger, here-" she opened the door showing them a room filled with stacks of papers "so Billy and Emma each have their own rooms." She led them to Emma's room, with a picture of Ginny on the wall. "She really is obsessed with you." Bridget smiled. She opened the next door to discover a room twice the size of a normal living room. Half of it was cluttered with cauldrons, test tubes and jar with potion ingredients. "We had to cast an extension charm to make room for all of his projects. Don't worry, I'll take it down once the room's empty." Harry just stared in awe. "So that's why he mentioned Slughorn?"
"Oh yes, he got an invitation to a dinner party on his second of school. My family owns a large chain of apothecaries, you see, so he figured he should make friends with Billy. It wasn't long before he also found out that he had a talent for potions, so now he's a regular guest there." Ginny's eyes opened in realization. "So that's why he looked familiar, he was in the Slug club!" Bridget laughed, nodding. "He's always torturing Emma because he's seen you in person, but I have a feeling he's not going to use that anymore." They casually chatted through the bedroom, two bathrooms, and the rest of the house for the next half an hour, Ginny took a picture with Bridget and secretly signed her jersey hidden in her parents' wardrobe, and soon they were walking out of the yard.
"So, what did you think?" Ginny asked carefully.
"The kitchen was great, and that's all I need, love." Ginny grinned playing her arm around Harry's waist. "That's great, since I didn't really like any of the other houses."
"That's great, since I'm not really in the mood to look at houses all day." Harry smiled and kissed the top of his wife's head. "Hey, do you think our kids are gonna be like Billy and Emma?" Ginny asked. "Well, I'm not sure they'll be particularly into potions, but if we have a girl and she doesn't have the exact same personality as Emma, I've got to admit I'll be a little disappointed." Ginny smiled and shook her head. "Don't worry, all Weasley girls are like Emma."
"But she'll be a Potter."
"Yes honey, of course." She grinned, crossing her fingers behind her back. Sometimes it was just better to keep Harry oblivious to all the things she already knew.