Er. Sorry. I know, three months is much too long. That's really all I can say here. I understand if you never forgive me. Well, here it is. Chapter thirteen.
~Robin
Disclaimer: I'm not her. If I was her, than I would already be in Pottermore, rather than waiting impatiently for my welcome email.
April 14th 1999
The next three months passed more quickly than anybody could have expected. The second quidditch game of the season came and went, with cold and wet practices preceding it and Gryffindor pulling out a win because of Harry's spectacular catch of the snitch, bringing them into the lead for the house cup.
During February, Valentine's Day comes and goes without a hitch, except for the usual arguments in teenage relationships.
The third quidditch game comes and goes, Hufflepuff barely pulling a win out over Slytherin because of a quick capture of the snitch.
As their N.E.W.T.'s get closer and closer, more and more work is steadily piled into the seventh years' already tight schedules. Before any of them realized it, it was the evening before the start of the Easter Holidays. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all up in Hermione's room, away from the crowds in the common room.
Harry had Ginny sitting in between his legs on the floor, her head resting against his chest, as he attempted to beat Ron at Wizards' Chess, something that, to that date, had never happened. Harry was just getting hopeful that he might pull it out when Ron smirked at him across the board, moves his queen one square to the left and says, "Checkmate."
Harry swore. "I almost thought I had that one," he muttered sullenly.
"Face it, mate. You'll never beat me," Ron said smugly.
"It's true, Harry. You're just no good at this game," Ginny said. Harry stuck his tongue out at her. "Real mature, Potter," she said, rolling her eyes and turning around to give him a peck on the lips.
Ron attempted to ignore them and turned to look at Hermione, who was lying on her bed, frowning over a piece of parchment and scratching something out with her quill.
"Why don't you take a break from studying, Hermione. It's the last night before break. You'll have plenty of time this week," Ron suggested, making his way over to sit on the edge of her bed.
Her eyes flicked to him quickly before they moved back to her parchment, her cheeks looking slightly red. "I can't, Ron. N.E.W.T.'s are important, and I need to pass with flying colors to make any difference once I join the ministry. I can't just expect to be given a job because of my part in the war," she said impatiently, like she had explained it several times before. "Please, just leave me be so I can finish this," she asked.
"Fine," Ron said quietly, his eyes downcast. "If that's what you want. I, er, have to finish some packing anyway."
"Kay," Hermione said absently.
"I'll go with you, mate. I've got a couple other things to pack too," Harry said, standing up and pulling Ginny up with him. "You coming?" he asked her.
"No, I'm gonna stay up here a bit longer," Ginny said, looking shrewdly at Hermione, who's eyes, she had noticed, were not moving back and forth as they would be if she was actually reading the parchment in front of her. She gave Harry a peck on the lips and he followed Ron out as Ginny made her way to sit on Hermione's bed, taking Ron's place.
"So," she said calmly, removing Hermione's quill and parchment easily from her grasp, "are you going to tell me why you've really been pushing Ron away, and why a pair of your panties is sitting behind your lamp?" Ginny asked with her eyebrows raised.
Hermione knew that there was no avoiding the questioning and sat up to meet Ginny's eyes. There was a pink blush slowly rising to color her cheeks. "Well, I've, er, been trying to study, so I haven't really had much time for him lately," Hermione muttered, pausing several times, her blush only increasing steadily as she spoke.
"Right," Ginny said sarcastically. "Now, are you going to tell me the real reason?"
Hermione took a deep breath and started talking slowly. "Well, it was around two weeks ago. I was up here studying when Ron came in. I was perfectly happy to take a break, so I put my books and everything away and we started snogging. We were farther than we'd ever gotten before when I realized that I was, you know, ready," Hermione said.
"Wait? You didn't!" Ginny gasped. Hermione nodded, biting her lip. Ginny knew she would have been blushing even more deeply if she could have. "What was it like?" she asked.
"Er, well, it hurt a bit at first, but then it was nice, wonderful," Hermione said, grinning bashfully.
Ginny shivered. "Ew, I just remembered that we were talking about my brother," she groaned. Then she froze. "Wait, if you did that, then why have you been so distant with him lately?" she asked curiously.
Hermione looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. "I'm just so embarrassed," she whispered.
"Embarrassed? Why are you embarrassed?" Ginny asked.
"Well..." Hermione paused. Then everything just came spilling out. "What if I wasn't good enough? What if now that we've done that he doesn't want me anymore? I don't know what he thinks! It's so stupid, but I can't even look at him without thinking about it! What's wrong with me, Ginny?" she asked seriously.
Ginny sat in shock for a moment before shaking herself out of it. "You're so stupid!" she exclaimed. "Of course you were good enough! And he loves you! Even if you weren't good he wouldn't leave. You just need to talk to him. There is nothing wrong with that, but if you didn't talk about it afterwards, then you might be in a bit of a situation. You are going to march down to that dormitory, snog him senseless, and tell him that you need to talk!" she commanded.
Hermione just stared at her friend. "Thank you!" she exclaimed before giving Ginny a huge hug and running out of the room to go talk to Ron. She rushed into the boys' dormitory, ignored Harry's questioning look and launched herself at Ron, kissing him full on the lips and wrapping her arms tight around his neck to bring his mouth lower and closer to hers'. When she finally released him, she turned his head and whispered, "Come to my room tonight. I have something I need to tell you," seductively into his ear. Then she walked out of the room and left him standing there, dazed.
She burst back into her room to see Ginny waiting eagerly for a report. She sat down on the bed. "Well, I snogged him and then whispered to him to come here tonight and that I had something to tell him," Hermione said, waiting for approval.
"Perfect," Ginny said with a sly grin. "Now, we just need your outfit," she said, flitting to Hermione's wardrobe. Hermione was extremely confused until Ginny said, "You can wear your bathrobe over it until you start snogging and he removes it," she said. Hermione blushed deeply again, but agreed to put what Ginny had given her on later, ready to make her silence the last couple of weeks up to the boy she loved.
Later that night, Ginny was lying in bed with Harry when she heard Ron get up from the next bed over. She followed the sound of his footsteps over to the door, which clicked closed softly behind him.
"Why is Ron leaving the room?" Harry asked Ginny in a whisper, causing her to jump. He had been quiet for around ten minutes and she thought that he had actually fallen asleep.
"Merlin! Don't do that! I thought you were asleep," Ginny scolded him. "And why do you think that I would know?" she asked.
"I'm not stupid. I know you talked to Hermione about something and then she came in here and snogged Ron right in front of me," Harry told her.
Ginny turned to face him. "You're too observant for your own good. And I can't tell you. It's not my secret to tell. One of them will tell you when they're ready," she said stubbornly.
"Fine," Harry sighed. He kissed her gently for a second before starting to pull back. Ginny, however, had other ideas. She pulled his mouth forcefully back to hers before slipping her tongue into his mouth. Harry groaned quietly before they lost themselves in the kiss.
April 16th 1999
"Why should I be the one who has to tell them?" Harry asked.
"Well, it is your house," Hermione said, the other two nodding in agreement.
"But there's no way that they'll let Gin come with me to my house for three days!" Harry objected.
"They might, as long as you make sure that they know that we're going too," Ron said, gesturing to himself and Hermione.
"Yes, and if you think that I can't get them to let me go, you are sadly mistaken, Mr. Potter," Ginny said to him. "I am of age, technically, I can leave this house whenever I want to. I'm only asking out of sheer politeness," she reminded him.
"Alright, fine!" Harry exclaimed hotly, leading his friends down to the sitting room where Molly and Arthur were conversing quietly.
Harry cleared his throat and they turned to look at him. "What is it, Harry, dear?" Molly asked him, smiling.
"Well, you see, Molly, over Christmas break the four of us went to Gringott's to see to my accounts, and I was told that I have lots of properties. One of them is the Potter Manor outside of Godrich's Hollow, and I haven't exactly seen it yet. It might also need some fixing up, so I was wondering if it would be alright for us to go over there?" he asked uncertainly.
"Of course you can go, dear. You're of age and we're not your parents. You don't have to ask us, although its nice to be told," Molly said. "And Ginny, I was wondering if you could help me around the house tomorrow. There are a couple things that I need to do..."
"Er, Mum," Ginny cut in. "He meant all four of us going," Ginny said, gesturing between them all. Molly looked at them all and started to say something, but Arthur stopped her.
"You can't really stop them, Molly. All four of them are of age and mature enough to handle themselves for a few days alone," he reminded her.
"I wasn't going to disagree, Arthur. You don't have to jump to conclusions," Molly scolded. "Of course they can go. How long are you planning on staying?"
"Er, three or four days probably. We're leaving tomorrow morning," Harry said, surprised at how easy it had been.
"I'll have breakfast ready for you early, and make sure that you do your packing tonight. You don't want to be running around in the morning trying to find everything at the last minute," Molly reminded them as they left the room.
They walked back up the stairs to the first landing and Hermione said, "See, Harry. It wasn't that bad at all. In fact, they agreed fairly quickly," she mused.
"Yeah," Harry said, running his hand through his hair and making it stand up even more than usual. "Alright, I guess we should all go pack then," he said, giving Ginny a quick peck before going up the stairs to Bill's old room, where he liked to stay with Teddy during the holidays in order to spend as much time with his godson as possible.
April 17th 1999
Harry felt lips on his, and, thinking it was a continuation of his dream, reached out and pulled the warm body in front of him down around the waist, so that Ginny was lying on top of him. Their kiss deepened, but soon Ginny pulled away. That was strange. That never happened in his dreams. "Harry, wake up," Ginny whispered, giggling slightly as she sat up off of him.
Harry's eyes opened to see his girlfriend sitting on his bed and he sat up to give her a good morning kiss. "You can wake me up like that everyday, if you like," he told her huskily.
"Yes, I can see that you're happy to see me," Ginny said with a giggle, her eyes traveling downward a little farther than he normally would.
He flushed, embarrassed, and sat up more fully, causing the blankets to fall down around his waist and reveal his bare torso. Ginny sucked in a breath, causing Harry to smirk in her direction. "Like what you see?" he asked innocently.
"Shut it, you prat," she said, standing up. "We're leaving right after breakfast, by the way. Oh, and bring your swim trunks," she told him. "You have no idea what's going to be at the manor. I'm bringing mine," she finished with a saucy wink, before exiting the bedroom, swinging her hips a little more than was strictly necessary a contented smirk on her face.
Harry groaned as soon as the door shut behind her. The little minx! Was she trying to kill him? He thought for a moment and then deduced that this was probably the case before standing up. He needed a cold shower before he got dressed.
Ten minutes later, Harry emerged from his room once again, hair wet and messy on top of his head, before making his way downstairs. He would have brought Teddy with him, but he had been sleeping so peacefully that Harry hadn't wanted to wake him up yet. It wasn't even seven thirty in the morning yet anyway, and he knew that babies needed a lot more sleep than adults.
He smelt the breakfast before he walked into the kitchen. Molly saw him and loaded up his plate with food before handing it to him. "Make sure you eat up, dear. You won't have anybody to cook for you for the next few days, you know," she reminded him.
"We'll be fine, Molly," Harry said after taking a bite of his eggs. They were delicious, as usual. "We can always order in, and I at least know how to make breakfast," he added with a shrug.
Molly tutted and muttered something under her breath, but went back to busting around the kitchen. Harry shared a look with Ron, who was sitting across from him at the table, and rolled his eyes. Ron grinned before going back to his food, scarfing it down with his usual enthusiasm.
A little while later, the four of them were ready to go. Hermione had put all of their packing into her charmed beaded bag so that they could carry it easily. Harry took a deep break before taking Ginny's hand and spinning on his heal, think Potter Manor desperately in his head. After being sucked through the void of apparation he landed hard, Ginny landing beside him, still holding his hand. Ron and Hermione appeared with a quiet crack a moment later.
Then, to Harry's great surprise, two more, louder cracks sounded, and two house-elves appeared in front of them.
The six looked at each other for just a moment before one of the house-elves, who appeared to be female, collapsed, sobbing hard, in front of Harry. "Master James!" she squealed. "But you were dead! We was told that you and Mistress Lily were dead! Gone!" she sobbed.
The other house-elf, however, was looking at Harry more critically. "Annie," he started, obviously talking to the house-elf that was howling in front of Harry. "Annie, I don't think that this is Master James. You know Master James is gone, for a long time now. He has Mistress Lily's eyes."
"Er-" Harry cut in, extremely confused. "If you don't mind me asking, who exactly are you?" he asked.
"Oh, we is sorry, sir. But I am Glen, and she is Annie. We have been house-elves for the Potters since Master James started at Hogwarts. And, if I may ask, is you his son, Master Harry?"
"Er, yeah, I am," Harry said, startled. He hadn't even known that his parents had had house-elves, although he supposed that they hadn't lived at the cottage and had probably been taking care of the manor while nobody had been living there for the past almost twenty years. "Oh, and these are my friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley. I found out about my inheritance a few months ago and thought that we should come see the manor, since I'll be living here after school is over in June," Harry explained, pointing the other three out as he introduced them.
"Yes, sir, we is very happy to have you, sir," Annie said. "And I is very sorry for getting upset in front of you."
"It's alright," Harry told her. Then a thought struck him. "Er, so I actually have another house-elf, Kreacher, that I inherited from my Godfather, Sirius Black. He's working at Hogwarts right now, but would it be alright it I asked him to come here instead. It's probably tough on just the two of you to keep this place clean by yourselves," he mused.
"That would be fine, sir, but we should get you settled in first. Maybe it would be best to wait for tomorrow?" Glen asked uncertainly.
"Yes, that sounds good," Harry said. The other three had stayed silent the entire time. "Er, could you take our things and set rooms up for us all?" Harry asked. "We're only staying for a few days, but it would be nice to be unpacked a little bit more. And," Harry blushed at this, "could you put mine and Ginny's stuff in one room, and Ron and Hermione's stuff in another?" he asked uncertainly.
"Of course, sir. We will start right away," Annie said, taking the beaded bag from Hermione as it was handed to her. "If you wait here for a few minutes then we can give you a tour of the manor and grounds after we is done," she told him. Harry nodded and the two elves apparated away again with two loud cracks.
Harry turned around to see Hermione glaring at him. "Harry!" she demanded. "How could you not have told me that you owned two more house-elves! Just Kreacher is bad enough, but-eurgh-I can't believe you!" she scolded him.
"Hermione, look," Harry said quickly before she started ranting again, "I didn't even know until we got here and they showed up. I mean, I thought it might be possible, because of the amount of money in the Potter family, but I never knew for sure. Anyway, I'm sure that they're treated much more kindly than Dobby and Kreacher and Winky were. If you want, you can even ask them about it later, all right," Harry told her, cutting off all of her arguments.
"Fine," she huffed.
In the temporary silence, the four of them took a good look around the entrance hall that they were standing in. On one wall was a fireplace that was obviously meant for flooing, as it was a good foot taller than even Ron. On the other was was a large double doorway that Harry assumed led to more rooms. In front of them, was a large, sweeping marble staircase that lead up to the second floor, and another large set of doors to the left of it.
"Wow, this is amazing, Harry," Ginny said to him.
Harry wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to his side before whispering in her ear, "Yeah, it is, and some day you're going to share it with me." As soon as the words came out he realized just how true they were.
Two cracks interrupted the moment and Annie and Glen reappeared in the entrance hall. "Your rooms are set up," Glen told them. "We is ready to give you a tour now. Would you like to start with the manor or the grounds?" he asked.
"Let's start with the manor and then work our way outside," Harry said after a moment of thought. Glen bowed his head and lead them off to the doors leading to the side first.
Through them was a large office. One wall was covered in bookshelves, some of which were filled, but most were empty. There was a large desk in each corner that were neat and orderly. On one wall was another set of doors that into a huge library. Hermione let out a gasp and Harry grinned at her. Every shelf was full of books of every size and color imaginable. Harry knew where she would be spending a lot of time in the next few days.
After the library, they were lead into a formal sitting room and a formal dining room, along with a large ballroom that took up most of the left side of the house. They then reentered the entrance hall through the doors next to the staircase. There was a door under the stairs that lead to a half-bathroom with a small closet inside.
Harry noticed that this part of the house seemed to be very formal.
The next floor, however, was quite different. This was obviously where the family spent most of their time. On the left side of the staircase was a large sitting room. There was a huge couch in the middle of the room along with some armchairs grouped around it that were gathered in front of a fireplace. This reminded Harry greatly of the Gryffindor common room and he grinned to himself. Towards the back of the room, there were two steps up that lead into a kitchen. It was a little on the older side, but Harry figured that it could be renovated easily. It was huge and in the middle was an island for chopping and storage. In one corner, there were some booth-like window seats and a table with some chairs on the other side that Harry assumed most family meals would take place at.
Off to one side of the kitchen was a door leading to another half bathroom. They were lead through another door that had a bunch of armchairs and a few more bookshelves that were filled with pleasure books. It was a reading room is what Annie told them. Glen lead them back out to the stairs and to the right side of the house. "The master suite is the bedroom at the end of the hall," he said in his squeaky voice. "That is where you, sir, and Miss Ginny will be staying. Miss Hermione and Master Ron with be in the room the last door on the left," he told them.
"Thank you, Glen," Harry said awkwardly, not used to being called sir. "Erm, how many bedrooms are in the manor?" he asked.
"There is the master suite, and then there is six other suites with a bathroom and a sitting room. All of these have the sitting room below with the bedroom up above. Then, upstairs there is six more bedrooms with bathrooms in the North Wing. You can also get to the bedrooms from upstairs," he told them.
There were thirteen bedrooms. That was more than Harry had ever heard before. And seven of them were suites! It was strange to think that he owned a house that could hold so many people. "Thank you, Glen," Harry said. He looked at his watch, it was already eleven thirty. That tour had taken much longer than he had thought. "Erm, could you two get lunch ready?" he asked. "We'll take a look in all the bedrooms and then go to the kitchen to eat."
"Of course, sir. We'll have lunch ready in one hour," Annie said with a curtsy before disappearing with a crack to the kitchen. Glen followed her and Harry and the others were alone again.
"Harry, this whole house is incredible," Hermione said. "I can't believe that library. Think about how many generations of knowledge was held in there," she said, trailing off, a distant look in her eyes.
Harry chuckled. "Earth to Hermione," he said to her. "Let's go take a look at those bedrooms."
"Yes, let's," Ron said, winking at Hermione, who blushed and smacked his arm. Ginny smirked at her, but Harry was already leading the way down the hall and hadn't noticed anything.
The other three quickly followed him as he opened the door to the first room. It lead into a small sitting room with a fireplace on one wall, bookshelves on the other, and a narrow staircase set in the corner. The furnishings of the room were all bright green and blue, and the wood appeared to be oak. They went up the stairs to the bedroom and saw that that room was done in the same colors. There were two doors leading off of it. One lead into a private bathroom with a tub and shower, and one lead into a walk-in closet.
They moved through each of the rooms one by one. The one across the hall had blue and silver furniture with cherry wood and a wrought-iron spiral staircase that lead up to the next level. The one after that had green furniture with walnut wood and a normal staircase again. After that was a red and gold one with ebony trim and a ladder leading up to the next level. Harry had a feeling that this had most likely been his father's bedroom and felt a slight twinge in his gut. He shook himself and moved on to the next one, which was all different shades of purple with white painted trim. It also had a ladder leading up to the bedroom. The last room had dark blue and white decor with mahogany trim and another spiral staircase. That was where the elves had put Hermione and Ron's things.
After they exited that room they were facing a set of double doors that lead to the master bedroom. He assumed that this would be where he and Ginny were staying, as their things hadn't been in any of the other rooms. He took a deep breath and opened the door.
The sitting room was larger than any of the others had been, with a large couch and a couple of armchairs gathered around the fireplace, which was smoldering and casting a warm glow into the room. The decor was mostly black and white, with hints of color everywhere. The couch was black leather and the armchairs matched. The walls were white and there were pictures in black and white hung on them. Harry recognized a few of them as ones that he had copies of in the photo album that Hagrid had given to him at the end of his first year.
He pulled Ginny with him up the white marble spiral staircase in the back of the room and up to the bedroom. The bed was huge, was Harry's first thought as he entered. It was king-sized with black silk sheets and pillow cases and a fluffy black and white patterned comforter. The wood was dark and was hung with black hangings forming a canopy. There was a white carpet covering the whole floor. Harry and Ginny made their way to the first of two doors. It opened up into a huge closet, lined with shelves on one side and bars on the other for hanging things up. There was also plenty of little cubbies that were obviously supposed to be filled with shoes. Ginny grinned at him and they retreated from the closet and moved to the next door.
Seeing it, both their mouths literally dropped. It was a huge bathroom. There was a toilet in one corner and a counter-top with two sinks in it in front of a huge mirror. That, however, was not what had caught their eyes. There was a huge, glassed-in shower that had several different heads, so that you could get sprayed with water from several directions. But, even better, next to it was a huge tub. It must have been almost five feet deep and ten feet long in both directions with countless spouts that Harry guessed would fill the tub with different types of bubble-bath, similar to in the Prefect's bathroom at Hogwarts.
"What's taken you guys so long?" Ron asked from behind them. "Wow, this is amazing. I mean, Hermione's and mine isn't bad, but this is brilliant," he said, gaping at the bathroom.
"We should get down to eat, you two. It's almost twelve thirty," Ginny said, suddenly shaken from her thoughts of what she might be able to get Harry to do, using this bathroom, in the next few days. She smiled inwardly at the thought.
"Yeah, you're right," Harry said, checking his watch quickly. The three of them went down to see Hermione waiting on the huge leather couch and the four of them made their way downstairs, absolutely delighted by what they had seen of the house so far. And that was only the inside!
Okay, yeah, I know, not a great ending, but I wrote most of this chapter in one sitting and I kind of wanted to save the grounds for the next one, so that I can actually have something a bit more interesting happen.
Anyway, I've been losing a bit of interest in this story. I am, of course, going to finish it, but its not going to be as long as I originally was going to make it. It'll only stretch to graduation, rather than more time after that. I'm sorry about the huge time skip too, but I really was looking forward to this part and just couldn't wait, plus I find the stuff at Hogwarts to be kind of repetitive too. Please leave a review. And feel free to yell at me for not updating for such a long time.