A/N So some of you might notice that the begining of this chapter waspreviouslythe end of the last chapter...yousee, this chapter wasn't originally planned or if anything it was supposed to be a tack on the end of the last chapterand the beginning of the next one, but once I started writing what is now chapter 28 I realized that I needed it to be a completely different chapter so I went back and changed some things...but I figured that you guys wouldn't complain since you get an extra chapter out if it...and now that it's written I think it was necessary...there is more explanation in chapter 26 which I also changed some what so you might want to check that out as well...so without any further ado Chapter 27 Homes...

Ginny spent the next week planted on Harry's couch in various pairs of his old sweats watching bad daytime movies about Muggles with bigger problems than hers and going through several gallons of ice cream. An outside observer might think that had never moved except for the changing bowl colors.

In that time of reflection and chocolate chip cookie dough, she came to several conclusions. She realized that Mauricio was right in that they shouldn't get married, she didn't love him in the way that he deserved his wife to love him, Mauricio was a good man and he didn't deserve to be treated and taken advantage of the way she had and it was for the best that they break up. But that didn't mean that she wasn't sad to say goodbye to a relationship that had been such a huge part of her life for the past three years. While she wished things had turned out differently, she realized that they couldn't and it was time to get off the couch and move on with her life.

It was with this mentality that Ginny approached Harry one morning with a purpose, looking the most like herself that she had since she arrived at his doorstep the week before.

"I'm going today to pack up all my belongings," she informed him as he walked out of his bedroom.

Harry jumped in surprise when he saw her standing outside of his door. He had assumed that she was already camped out on the couch like she had been every other morning for the past week. "Are you sure you're ready to do that?" he asked, concerned about her and her mental state.

"Yeah, this is something I have to do. I can't keep wearing your clothes forever after all and besides, I'm going to need some of my own clothes if I am ever going to go outside again. And as much as I would like to hide out here forever, I'm going to have to face the big bad world eventually," she joked. "Plus, I've already missed a week of class and considering I have exams in two weeks I really need to get my books so I don't fail."

"Well, you know you are welcome to wear my clothes whenever you want and for as long as you want, but if you are going over there, I am coming with you," he said in a tone that left no room for her to disagree. He didn't want her to be alone with Mauricio if he was home as he was still wary of what had happened the night they broke up.

"Alright," Ginny said, silently relieved that Harry would becoming with her, "and you may not have choice about this sweatshirt, I've become rather attached to it and I may decide to liberate it from you permanently," she joked referring to the one she was currently wearing.

"And I already told you that you could keep it. It looks better on you anyways," he teased back. "Now lets eat some breakfast so we can go and get this over with."

When they arrived at Mauricio's flat an hour later Harry knocked on the door, when there was no response Ginny used her key to let them in to her former residence. A quick look around assured her that her ex-fiancé was out for the moment and she gave a small sigh of relief. She stood in the doorway to her bedroom, old bedroom, she corrected herself, not knowing where to start. She jumped slightly when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder but relaxed when she realized that it was only Harry.

"What can I do to help?" he asked. "We should probably move quickly if we want to get out of here before Giona gets back."

Ginny knew Harry was right even though the situation felt a bit surreal to her. "Would you mind packing up all of Jack's stuff? His toys are in a box in the living room and his food, bowls and treats are in the kitchen."

Harry nodded, placed a friendly kiss on her forehead and gave her a reassuring smile, knowing how tough this was for her, before leaving her to pack up her clothes.

Ginny was just grabbing the last of her clothes out of the closet and was going to place them in her suitcase when someone's presence in the doorway caused her to give a small yelp and drop her winter coats. The look on Mauricio's face showed that she was just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

"Ginny!" he said, with a mixture of shock and relief in his tone.

"Mauricio," she responded flatly as she bent down to pick up the clothing she dropped.

"I've been so worried about you," he continued, "I talked to all of our friends and no one as seen or heard from you for days. I thought something happened to you, especially since you left in the middle of that storm after hitting your head."

He crossed the distance between them quickly and took her chin in his hand and forced her to stop packing and look up at him. Ginny looked up into his eyes and even after what he had said to her and all that she had put him through, she saw love for her radiating from him.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently as he brushed a rough thumb gently over the angry bruise that was not longer purple, but now turning a sickening yellowish green color.

But before Ginny could answer another voice sounded from the hallway causing Ginny to jump away from Mauricio's touch and turn back to her packing.

"Peanut, I got all of Jack's things and I also grabbed all of your pictures and other belongings that I could find, out of the living room, kitchen and study. Is there anything else that I–" Harry stopped short when he saw that Ginny was not alone.

Ginny looked up and saw the animosity between the two men flare up in both of their countenances and she knew she had to say something and get them separated before one of them lashed out sat the other. "Mauricio, Harry is just helping me pack up my stuff, we will be gone in a few minutes. Harry, would you please take the bags that I have finished packing into the livingroom and shrinking them for me?"

The look Harry responded with showed her that the last thing he wanted to do was leave her alone with her ex-fiancé, but the pleading look in her eyes broke his resolve and he moved past Giona quickly so that he could grab Ginny's bag so that he could do as she asked.

He paused on his way back out of the room and whispered in her ear, "I'll be right outside, just call me if you need me for any reason and I'll be in here in a flash."

She gave him a tentative smile in response, his reassurance just what she needed to face whatever Mauricio was going to do or say. As soon as Harry was out of the room Ginny turned back to the closet and started heaping shoes into a duffle.

"I should have known," Mauricio's voice sounded bitterly from behind her. Ginny knew what he was referring to and chose to ignore him. "Here I was worried sick about you, but I should have known you would run to your lover," he said maliciously with a laugh that conveyed anything but amusement.

Ginny picked up the now full duffle and walked past him into the bedroom, her shoulder brushing against his as she past. She didn't have to look behind her to know he was following her as she kneeled on the floor to see if she had anything under the bed.

"Are you happy now that you have what you always wanted?" he asked cruelly as she pulled out an old jumper and the left trainer that she had searching for out from under the bed. She was shoving them into the duffel when she felt him standing behind her and his hot breath against her ear. "So tell me sugar, did you fall into bed with him the night you left or did you wait a whole day out of respect for our relationship?"

That was the last straw for Ginny who then spun around and slapped Mauricio soundly across the face. Mauricio gave no physical reaction but his blue eyes flashed angrily as the pink outline of Ginny's small hand appeared on his cheek.

"How dare you speak to me that way!" Ginny yelled furiously. "You have no right to talk about things you don't know or understand!"

Harry, who had been waiting anxiously for any sign of trouble came running in when he heard Ginny yell. He saw Mauricio clench his fists in a sign of impotent fury and then look between himself and Ginny.

"I want both of you out of my home before I get back," he said in a dangerously calm tone before turning quickly and storming out of the room. Harry and Ginny both stood still, not saying a word until they heard the front door slam angrily.

Once she knew he was gone, Ginny's sat down on the bed and put her face in her hands in a show of exhaustion and defeat. It was only a few seconds before Harry was kneeling at her feet gently prying her hands away from her face.

"Are you alright?" he inquired looking up into her eyes which were welling up with tears that she refused to let fall. She nodded, not trusting her voice to speak. "Are we all done here?" he asked gently after a moment, receiving another nod in answer. "Alright then," he said standing up and bringing her with him, "let's go home."

"Home," she echoed softly as she followed him out of the flat leaving her, engagement ring, key, and a big part of her life behind her.

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"What shape do you want your pancakes in this morning?" Harry asked over his shoulder to Ginny who was sitting at the kitchen table paging through the latest edition of Witch Weekly as she shipped her coffee.

Ginny looked up at him stroking her chin as if this question required deep thought. "I think stars are the shape of the day," she told him after a moment of contemplation.

"That's a tough one, all those points," Harry mentioned as he finished mixing the batter.

"What's wrong Potter?" the redhead asked with a smirk. "Not up to the challenge?"

"Hah!" Harry said throwing his head back haughtily, wielding a wisk that he shook in her direction, "nothing is to much of a challenge for the-man-who-makes-pancakes!"

"Alright pancake man, point that wisk somewhere else before you hurt someone," Ginny laughed as she turned back to her magazine. "So some of the girls from my class and I are going out to lunch today to celebrating finishing our exams and only having one more year before we become full healers, so I probably wont be home before you get back from practice."

It did not escape her how easily she referred to Harry's as home but she had to admit that in the past three weeks she had felt more at home here than she ever did at Mauricio's flat. There she always felt like she was the visitor no matter how long she had lived there. With the stress of finishing up her exams and having to tell her family and her other close friends about the broken engagement she was thankful that at the end of the day she was able to go back to Harry's flat and escape everyone's sympathetic glances and questions on to what happened, where he never mentioned her breakup and treated her like she had always been there. And it did feel like she had lived with Harry forever as they quickly fell into a comfortable routine and she couldn't have hoped for a better situation.

Harry put the plate down in front of her and she poured him his own cup of coffee, adding cream before handing it to him, never looking up from her magazine.

Harry sat down in the seat across from her took a sip of the coffee she made for him not failing to notice that she put just the right amount of cream in it before he dug into his own pancakes. The both ate in silence, Ginny still flipping through her magazine while Harry was deep in thought until seemingly made up his mind about something and spoke.

"Hey Gin, I wanted to ask you something..."

"Oh Bloody Hell!" she exclaimed in response.

"Well never mind then, it was just a question," Harry replied, confused at her vehement response.

"What?" Ginny asked, looking up at him wondering what he was talking about. "Oh no, not you...this!" she explained turning the magazine around to he could read the headline.

IS IT OVER? DID GINNY FLEE IN FEAR OF HER SAFETY?

Underneath the glaring headline was a picture of Ginny walking down the streets of London just outside of St. Mungos with a large blinking red arrow pointing to her ring free left hand and another one pointing to the bruise on her face. After looking at the picture for a moment, Harry's eyes wandered down to the article.

Can it be true, is the Wizarding worlds most watched couple over? England's favorite redhead, Ginny Weasley 20, has been spotted around London sans engagement ring, instead sporting a rather nasty bruise.

Sources close to both parties say the last time both were seen together publically was at Ginny's brother and best friend's wedding where they were seen to have an argument, one reliable source reveals that it may have been over Weasley's long time friend and Giona's 24 Quidditch rival, Man-Who-Won Harry Potter 21, whom she was rumored to be involved with during her Hogwarts days.

Weasley and Giona then dropped off the radar, both notably absent at the Nimbus X release party at which they were both expected to attend and it wasn't until reporters saw Ginny exiting St. Mungos a week after the wedding with what looked to be a week old bruise that gave any indication as to why.

Mutual friends of the couple are shocked by allegations that Mauricio may have harmed Ginny and report that there was nothing wrong in their relationship and that they were a picture perfect couple in love, but neighbors of the couple say that they have not seen Ginny for several weeks ever since she and an unidentified dark haired man were seen exiting the building with luggage. Some speculate that this man was Harry Potter and Giona might have beat Weasley in a jealous rage after either falsely accusing or finding out about and affair between the old flames badly enough to put her in St. Mungos. Regardless of what happened it seems the engagement is off.

The whereabouts of Miss Weasley are still unknown and Giona declined reporters request to comment.

See page 42 for a retroactive look at the relationship between Weasley and Giona and Weasley and Potter.

"Well look on the bright side," Harry said as he flipped to page 42, "at least you are England's favorite redhead."

Ginny was not amused, "Harry, they think we had an affair! All I can say is thank Merlin they don't know I'm living here. They would have a field day with that. And they make it sound like he beat me so bad I was in the hospital for a week! Didn't it occur to anyone that I might have been leaving the hospital because I am a healer-in-training! Like I would really allow myself to be battered like that. I'd like to see someone try! Good Gods! We had to carry out our hole relationship in front of those people, can't we at least break up without those people speculating and reporting lies!"

"Yes," Harry told her as he read the side bar that compared him to Giona, he was pleased to see that he seemed to come out on top in most categories. "You know just as well as I do that the press and tabloids come with the territory when you are involved with somebody famous. I get written about every time I get together with someone and subsequently break up with them most of the time they are wrong about the cause of the break up, you just have to ignore it. Did you know that I got three more NEWTs than Giona and am an inch and a half taller than him?"

"But you go through girlfriends like the rest of us go through chewing gum!" she cried dropping her forehead to the table. "You're used to this, I'm not! And to say that I cheated on him and then he beat me! Come on, that's ridiculous. And I know that you are taller than him and I could have told you how many NEWTs he got if you had asked me."

"And did you know that I capture the Snitch 96 percent of the time while he only captures it 79 percent of the time?" Harry said still reading the sidebar.

"And he prefers Spearament toothpaste while you like Wintergreen, Harry I know both of you. Can we please stay focused on the problem at hand. Like what I'm going to do about this!"

"Also according to a poll Witch Weekly did, 84 percent of readers think that we make a better couple then you and Giona. Ironic since we were never a couple huh?" Harry asked looking for the first time to see that Ginny did not share his opinion.

"Peanut...You're acting like you haven't been dealing with the press for the past four years. You know how to handle this. Owl Giona's publicist and have him release a joint statement from both of you stating that you did not have an affair with me or anyone else nor has he ever laid a hand on you in anger and that while you have jointly decided not to get married that you remain close and devoted friends that continue to care for each other deeply," Harry rambled off the top of his head as if this was old hat, which for him it kind of was.

"Some how I don't think we are going to remain any kind of friendship, let alone a close and devoted one," Ginny said sullenly.

"I know that, if I had it my way he would move back to Italy and none of us would ever have to see or hear of him ever again, but that's the kind of dribble the press will eat up with a spoon and help dispel all the rumors." Harry told her as he reached across the table and lifted her chin with two fingers that she was looking at him. "And then you know what you are going to do next?"

"What?" she asked.

"You are going to come spend the summer with me in Paris to avoid the press completely," he told her matter of factly.

"What are you talking about?" Ginny said confused.

"I was actually going to ask you to come with me anyways. In fact that's what I was about to ask right when you found this article. I'm going to Paris for the summer to be a coach at a Quidditch camp for young and underprivileged Witches and Wizards and I thought you might want to come. And now I think it is the perfect time to get out of not only the city but the country for a while until this all dies down. We would be back before you start your classes back up since I have to be back for Quidditch preseason anyways. And I talked to Ron and Hermione and they said they would be happy to watch Jack for the summer and I already had my hotel room upgraded to a suite so you already have a room. All you need to do is pack," he explained.

Ginny was a little dazed by all of this, "When did you start planning this?"

"Basically when you moved in," he responded.

"And when would we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"HARRY! You have been planning this for weeks but you wait to tell me until the day before we leave! I have so much to do today get ready in time," she gulped down the rest of her coffee quickly took a big bite of star shaped pancake and got up from the table, "I need to pack, write down a list of instructions for Hermione about Jack, go to lunch with the girls and tell them I'll be gone all summer, let my parents know, go shopping for some things I'll need–"

"Don't forget to owl your publicist!" Harry called after her as she walked down the hall.

Ginny hurried back into the kitchen gave Harry a hug from behind from where he sat in his chair and a kiss on the cheek, "Thanks fir reminding me, I'll do that first. And thanks for the trip, I think that this is exactly what I need. And thank you for being here for me through all of this, I feel bad you have to deal with all of this but, I really couldn't ask for a better friend."

"Ginny," Harry replied looking over his shoulder up at her, "in comparison with everything you went through with me for so many years, this is nothing. I remember when I was feeling guilty about putting you through all of my troubles you told me that this is what friends are for and that you had no problem supporting me because you knew that I wouldn't hesitate to return the favor when you went through hard times. This is simply me returning the favor. Although I don't think we will ever be quite even since I've never sat by your bedside for a month while you were in a coma," he joked with a laugh.

Ginny chuckled as well and gave him another kiss on the cheek. "Well I still think you're the best. Now I really have to get started on my day," she told him as she rushed off to write to Mauricio's publicist.

Harry watched her leave the kitchen then turned back to his own unfinished breakfast as he flipped through the magazine with a self-satisfied smile gracing his lips.

A/N So what did you guys think? I know this is just kind of a transition chapter and not to much happens but I think it is important to the flow and pacing of the chapter of the story...So Harry and Ginny are of to Paris...and I think you are all going to like the next chapter so give me some review love to inspire me to update...