A/N So now that our couple is solidly together, we're going to have some smaller time jumps as we watch them and their relationship grow and progress...plus what better way to pass the time than with some well deserved fluff...especially with all it took to get them together...I wanna give a huge shout out thank you to my good friend Corrin for helping me brainstorm for this chapter and letting me bounce ideas off of her…..
The autumn months passed quickly and pleasantly and before they knew it, the holiday season was upon them once more and a certain red head, unbeknownst to her raven haired boyfriend, was feeling extra festive.
The two of them had spent the morning and a portion of the afternoon decorating the flat and Christmas tree. Harry had laid down on the couch exhausted since Ginny had insisted doing most of the work the Muggle way. But as he began to stir he realized that perhaps a nap had not been the wisest of ideas.
He knew something was amiss even before he opened his eyes when he realized he couldn't turn his head from side to side and that there was some kind of blinking light very close to his eyes.
She did not do to me what I think she did to me… Harry thought as he sat up and looked at the mirror that hung on the wall opposite of the sofa. Oh yes she most definitely did.
"Finite Incantatem," he murmured at himself, only to discover that it didn't work. He sat there for a good ten minutes, trying every spell he could think of, but none of them wanted to work. He sighed when he realized he didn't have anymore options. "Oh Ginny?" he called lightly.
"Yes, dear?" she called back, amusement clear in her voice.
"Would you care to explain why I have suddenly sprung a pair of antlers and a blinking red nose?" he asked as Ginny came into view. She halted abruptly in the doorway and immediately started cracking up.
"I think it's a good look for you," the red head replied, once she had stopped laughing long enough to speak.
"And while antlers might have been a good look for my father while he was in Animagus form, they are not a good look for me to go Christmas shopping for you in," he replied.
"For me?" Ginny asked, intrigued since he had been hinting at the gift he was going to get her for weeks now, building her curiosity to a practically unbearable level.
"Yes, for you," Harry teased, knowing that was the way to get her attention. "Why did you think Ron was coming over?"
"Because his wife is six months pregnant and insanely hormonal and he'll use any excuse to get away from her for an afternoon?"
"No, that's why he agreed to come over," Harry laughed. "The reason he's coming over is to help me shop for you."
"And that's him," Ginny stated as she walked over to answer the knock on the door. "Hey, big brother," she greeted.
"Hey, Gin," Ron replied. "Hey, Harry. I like your new look, very festive."
"Ginny!" Harry exclaimed in irritation.
"It's alright, Harry," Ron said, his lip quivering in suppressed laughter. "The twins did the same thing to me last weekend. It's one of their new products, I see they gave my darling little sister one to test as well."
"Well, would someone please explain to me how I get rid of them?"
"You have to sing," Ron replied sympathetically.
"Sing?"
"Yes, sing," Ginny repeated, looking much too gleeful for Harry's comfort.
"A Muggle song actually," Ron continued to explain. "Hermione had to teach it to me. Although you might know it since you grew up as a Muggle. It was something about a deer with a cold…"
"You mean 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'?" Harry deadpanned, knowing the song from his childhood.
"Yes, that's the one!" Ron exclaimed.
"You are so paying for this later," Harry muttered, threatening his girlfriend with forthcoming retribution.
"Oh, just start singing," Ginny replied, looking grandly unconcerned.
With a deep sigh and a desire to get it over with as quickly as possible, Harry took a deep breath and began the classic Christmas tune.
Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
you would even say it glows.
All of the other reindeer
used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
join in any reindeer games.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"
Then all the reindeer loved him
as they shouted out with glee,
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
you'll go down in history!
His good humor restored as he heard a pop that signaled the disappearance of his new accessories, he gave a small bow as his best friend and girlfriend applauded his performance.
"Bravo, bravo," Ginny cheered.
"All I can say is that you're lucky that you're cute or else I might have changed my mind about what I'm getting you for Christmas," Harry jested.
"And what is it that you're planning on getting me?" Ginny asked innocently.
"Nice try, Peanut."
"Come on…just give me a hint," she pleaded.
"Nope," he replied, "I don't want to ruin the surprise."
"Is it bigger than a bread box?" she tried anyway.
"Not telling."
"Does it sing?"
Harry simply shrugged.
"Is it a turtle?"
"A turtle?" Harry asked, surprised. "Why would I get you a turtle? Do you want a turtle?"
It was Ginny's turn to shrug.
"Is it-"
"Gin, give it up, I'm not telling you."
"Fine," she grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest like an obstinate child.
Harry just laughed at her and placed a kiss on the crown of her head, finding her adorable when she pouted.
"So what are your plans for this afternoon?" Harry called as he got his coat and scarf out of the hall closet.
"I was going to see if I could finish up your present actually," she called back, flopping on the couch.
"Oh, will that mean that I will actually be back allowed into my own study?" he asked.
Ginny sighed theatrically, "I suppose."
"Well, that will be cause for celebration," Harry joked. "And I don't really feel like cooking tonight, did you want me to pick something up on the way home?"
"Sure," she called, picking up the magazine that was sitting on the coffee table. "What are you in the mood for?"
"I dunno, something exotic perhaps tonight?" he replied.
"How about sushi?" she suggested. "Don't make that face, Ron; you shouldn't knock something until you've tried it."
The red head continued to make a face at his younger sister. Ron, usually the human garbage disposal, or the "loud grumbly thing" as he called it, refused to try anything that wasn't cooked.
Harry just ignored his best friend. "What about Thai? We haven't had that in a while."
"Oh, perfect," Ginny replied, smiling. "You know what I want?"
"Of course," Harry said, returning the smile. "Chicken pad Thai, no egg and an iced chai tea."
"Yummy," she said, already looking forward to it as she tossed the magazine on the cushion beside her and padded barefoot over to the door. "I love you," she said, standing on her toes to kiss him on the corner of his mouth.
"I love you more," was Harry's usual reply.
"No, I love you more," Ginny countered.
"No, I love you more," Harry insisted.
"No, I lo-"
"No, you both love me more," Ron interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Now can we please go before I need to go brush my teeth from all the sweetness in the room?"
The couple looked at each other in amusement.
"Go get me the present you refuse to give me any hints about," she said, giving the boys both a push towards the door. "The way you've been hyping it up, it better be good," she teased.
"Oh, don't worry, you're going to love it," Harry assured her as he closed the front door behind himself.
"So," Ron asked his newly de-antlerfied best friend as they walked into the heart of Muggle London, "what exactly is this fantastic mystery gift that we are shopping for today?"
Harry glanced at Ron out of the corner of his eye before focusing on bundling his coat around him tighter to keep the cold winter wind out of it. "I have no idea," he finally said frankly.
"What?!" Ron exclaimed. "Then what was all of that back there?" he asked pointing over his shoulder.
"Well," Harry admitted sheepishly, "she has been locked up in my study, working on something for me for the past two weeks, so I felt like I should already know what I was getting her. So I might have implied that I already knew exactly what I was getting her and that she would love it… And now I have to live up to all my bragging."
"Good job, Potter," Ron laughed.
"Oh yeah? Well what have you gotten for Hermione?" Harry challenged.
Ron stopped laughing.
"That's what I thought," Harry said smugly. "You have no idea what you're getting your wife either."
"That's not true, I already gave her something" the redhead insisted.
"And what would that be?" Harry asked disbelievingly.
Ron paused for a moment, "A baby. Top that, Potter."
"Right and then when she Avada Kedavra's your arse for suggesting that her being six months pregnant and her doing all the work and having all the pain is your Christmas present to her, I'll tell her that you were just joking and tell her what you really got her," Harry replied expressionlessly.
"I'm getting her something too."
"Do you know what?"
"I have plenty of good ideas."
"Iwagontaashginwhamionmiwan," he muttered.
"What?" Harry asked, wondering if Ron was even speaking English.
"I said, 'I was going to ashginwhamionemighwan'."
"You're going to what?"
"I'm going to ask Ginny what Hermione might want!" Ron finally exclaimed.
Harry actually stopped walking in surprise at Ron's outburst as laughter bubbled up through his chest. "Oh, Ron," he said once he caught his breath from laughing, "you can't do that any more than I could go to Hermione to ask what Ginny might want. Don't you realize that women compare notes? She'll find out if you got her something Ginny suggested and it won't mean as much as something that you picked out yourself. And she might never mention anything about it, but you'll always know that she knows, and she'll know that you know that she knows."
Ron looked crestfallen and a little confused about the circles Harry was talking around.
"Face it, mate," Harry spoke again, "You're in the same boat that I'm in."
"Yeah well, then it's a good thing that we're shopping today isn't it," Ron finally relented, admitting defeat.
"It sure is," Harry agreed. "Come on, I'm sure we can find something for them here."
Ron nodded and followed Harry into Harrods.
"Why are women so hard to shop for?" Ron asked, discouraged after an hour and a half of browsing without finding anything particularly wonderful. "What about this?" he said, picking up a box and showing it to Harry.
"It is your first Christmas as a married couple; you can not get her a foot bath."
Ron sighed as he put down the box, "You're right, but this is your first Christmas with Ginny as a couple so you have the same pressure."
"I noticed," Harry replied. "What did you get Hermione your first Christmas as a couple?"
"We were sixteen, she didn't expect that much from me," Ron admitted. "She was happy with the leather bound journal I got her."
"Hmm," Harry said, disappointed that this didn't help him much. "You know, I think I'm just going to get her some jewelry. After all, you can't go wrong with diamonds, right?"
"Right," Ron agreed nodding, although neither of them seemed terribly confident in what they were saying.
Making their way to the jewelry department, the pair was just as lost as they walked past the rows of fine gemstones encased in glass.
"So do you think that she would like something like this?" Harry asked, pointing to a row of diamond tennis bracelets.
"These are nice too," Ron replied, not even bothering to look at what Harry was pointing to.
"Ron, those are engagement rings," Harry said pointedly, not paying any mind to the two overweight men that were on the far side of the redhead, looking in the same case.
"I know, Harry," Ron replied in the same tone.
"What are you trying to say, Ron Weasley?"
"What do you think I'm trying to say, Harry Potter?"
At the sound of Harry's name, the two aforementioned men whipped around, turning the two way glaring match into a four way glaring match. Once they had identified each other, the four men looked at each other with barely concealed, or in some cases, overt disgust.
"If it isn't freak boy and his freaky friend," Dudley Dursely remarked.
"Oh, I'm so insulted," Harry replied sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. "Dursely, we're twenty two, aren't we a bit past the name calling stage? Or if you're not, hasn't your vocabulary grown since you were eight?"
"What are you doing here?" Vernon interjected before Dudley could respond.
"I'm buying a Christmas present for my girlfriend. What are you doing here?" Harry shot back.
"We're picking out an engagement ring for Dudley's girlfriend," Vernon bragged.
Harry and Ron looked at each other, surprised that Dudley had managed to get a girlfriend that would potentially marry him.
"Well congratulations, have you told her about the tail yet?" Harry asked as if he was genuinely interested.
"I had that removed," Dudley said quickly. "And how the hell did you get a girlfriend? She must be a freak just like you."
"That's my sister you're talking about, Porky," Ron said, getting riled up.
"Figures," Dudley snorted.
Harry had to reach out and grab his friend's arm before Ron whipped out his wand to give his cousin another tail.
"So not worth it," Harry muttered to the angry redhead. "Let's just pick something out for Ginny and go."
Ron nodded, knowing that as an Auror he really couldn't afford to get in trouble for doing magic in the middle of a Muggle shopping mall. The pair went back to browsing the cases, pointedly ignoring Harry's uncle and cousin.
"Could we get some help over here?!" Vernon bellowed.
Quickly a short man with thinning hair walked out from the back room. "How may I help you, sir?"
"Yes, I'm looking for a very special engagement ring to give to my girlfriend for Christmas," Dudley replied pompously. "The bigger the better."
"Of course, sir," the salesman replied with only a trace of disdain in his voice as he pulled a tray of rings out of the case for the men to look at. "These are some of our largest rings we have at the moment, but I warn you that some of them are quite pricy."
"That shouldn't be a problem," Dudley replied, looking over his shoulder at his cousin, hoping for a reaction.
The salesman followed Dudley's line of sight to Harry, who happened to be running a hand through his hair, clearly exposing his scar.
"Harry Potter?!" the older man exclaimed excitedly, taking the tray and sliding it back into the glass case just as Vernon was about to grab a ring to look at.
Harry looked up in surprise as the salesman rushed towards him, hand outstretched, while the Dursley's watched in shock, Uncle Vernon slowly turning purple.
"Jason Manning," the man introduced himself. "It's such an honor to meet you."
"Well, thank you," Harry said graciously, wondering what the odds were that he would come across probably the only Wizard jewelry salesman in Muggle London. Usually he would have tried to do down play who he was and make sure he wasn't given special treatment, but as he glanced over at his 'family', he figured he could make an exception just this once.
"You're my son's hero," Mr. Manning gushed. "He has your poster hanging above his bed at home. He just started at Hogwarts this year and was sorted into Gryffindor, his dream is to follow in your footsteps and become Seeker next year, just like you were."
"I certainly hope he makes it," Harry smiled.
"But enough about all of that," the older man said, realizing that he was rambling. "How may I be of service, sir?" he asked sincerely, adopting a more professional tone.
"Well, I was looking at these tennis bracelets as a gift for my girlfriend for Christmas," Harry explained.
"Oh no, no, no!" Mr. Manning exclaimed.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked, genuinely surprised.
"These bracelets are much too plain for such a lovely woman as Ms. Weasley. You need something extra special for such an extra special lady," he explained. "Let me go in the back and get the trays that we only show our most important customers."
Before Harry could protest, the salesman was gone, leaving Harry trying to hide his smirk as he glanced over at the two, now ignored, men who were glaring at him suspiciously.
"How did he know who you and your girlfriend are?" Dudley said in an accusatory fashion.
"Everyone knows who Mr. Potter is and you would have to be living under a rock to not know that he has been dating Ms. Weasley," Mr. Manning said matter-of-factly as he walked back into the main show room, his face hidden by the piles of trays he was carrying.
Harry spent the next twenty minutes being shown piece after piece, each more grandiose than the last while Ron watched Vernon get progressively more purple with each necklace and ring, and Dudley's eyes bug further out of his skull with each bracelet and pendant.
Finally, Mr. Manning reached the last tray which held a single extravagant diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald necklace.
"Wow," was the only word that Harry could say as the older man handed him the necklace.
"Yes I know," Mr. Manning agreed. "It's simply breathtaking isn't it? It's truly the pièce de résistance of our store."
"It's something alright," Ron interjected, "I think Ginny would fall over if she put that on."
Harry glanced over at his stunned cousin and uncle before turning to the salesman and exclaiming, "I'll take it."
"What!?" Ron, Vernon, and Dudley exclaimed simultaneously, albeit for different reasons.
"I said, I'll take it," Harry repeated.
"Excellent choice, sir!" Mr. Manning exclaimed happily. "Of course, I didn't expect anything less from you, Mr. Potter. How would you like to pay for the piece?" he asked as he began to wrap it up.
Harry couldn't hide his smirk as he heard his uncle give a gasp of disbelief as he pulled out his wallet and replied, "Will cash be alright?"
"Merlin, Midas and Morgana!" Ron laughed as they walked out of the department store. "The look on their faces when you pulled out all those piles of hundred pound notes out of your wallet was priceless. I wish I had a camera, I thought your uncle was going to have a heart attack right there in the middle of the store."
Harry laughed as well as he too remembered the looks on their faces. "I'm just glad that my wallet is charmed directly to my Gringotts account. I was not planning on spending that kind of money today."
"Yeah about that, Harry," Ron said, looking slightly irritated. "I'm glad you love my sister that much, but do you have to set the bar so high for me and the rest of my brothers? You said yourself that the women trade notes right? It's just not fair."
Harry just laughed in response. "Come on Ron, we have to go to another jewelry store before we go find something for Hermione."
"What?" Ron asked. "You just spent more than most people make in a year - more than most people make in ten years - on that monstrosity of a necklace, why do we need to go to another jewelry store?"
"Right," Harry replied as if that was the answer. "Did you see this thing?" he asked holding up the bag. "This thing is huge! It's the gaudiest, most ostentatious, vulgar piece of jewelry I have ever seen in my life. Ginny would never wear this thing in a million years."
"Oh thank Merlin," Ron said, grateful he wasn't the only one who thought so.
"I'm going to take this to another jewelry store so I can have this thing broken apart and made into several other much more tasteful pieces, things that Ginny would actually wear," he explained. "I mean, I know I have plenty of gold in the bank, but I'm not stupid. I'm planning on getting three Christmas', four Valentine's Days, a couple birthdays, and maybe an anniversary or two out of this thing."
"You know, by the time you finish giving her that necklace she's going to be sick of getting jewelry," Ron joked.
"Well then," Harry said resignedly, "I guess after that I can always get her a footbath."
A/N Sooo whatcha think? As you can tell by the title, this is a two parter since it was getting ridiculously long….the next chapter it about half finished and includes what Ginny got Harry, what Ron got Hermione and a whole lot of glitter….
Also this story is now being illustrated…more info and the link to the pictures are on my author page…