Chapter Two. Rocks, Medals, and Lakeside Dreams.
Ginny woke the next morning and bolted up with her wand pointing at a strange figure in the corner, "Who are you? Show yourself!" she yelled, ripping the covers back standing to attention with her wand at the ready. "Constant vigilance, right?" Harry said stepping forward out of the darkness, he was already dressed, hair cut, and clean shaven. "I guess it will take a while before I get used to the fact that we're safe again," Ginny said lowering her wand and feeling guilty.
"Would you like me to wait here for you to get ready or go downstairs and start helping?" Harry asked her, Ginny shook her head and he walked to her and gave her a passionate kiss that left Ginny's knees weak, "Wow! That was unexpected!" she said as her head whirled, Harry grinned and strutted out of the room.
Harry leapt the last few steps of the stairs and saw Ron standing in front of the fire, he walked over to him, "You okay, mate?" Ron looked at him and smiled a little, "I will be. Just thinking about everything and last night," he said as he turned toward the portrait hole. Harry was right behind him, "Last night?" he asked, slightly confused.
Ron smiled at that, "Well, 'Mione and I-" he started but Harry cut him off, "'Mione?" he said with a crooked smile. "Yeah, well, we talked a lot last night and well, we're together now. But she wants to take it slow, what'd she say? Oh, yeah, "courting" is what she called it, funny word…" he said as his ears turned pink slightly. Harry clapped him on the back and said, "Good for you, Ron," Ron grinned at him than stopped, "Wait! Where was Ginny last night?" he said, Harry laughed awkwardly, Ron's eyes grew wide and his ears turned red, "HARRY! What did you do?!" he demanded.
"Now, Ron. I need you to chill out and put me down… please," Harry pleaded, for Ron was holding him up by the shirt and had him pinned to the wall after Harry had told him where Ginny had slept. "Harry…did you have sex with my sister?" Ron growled at him, Harry looked at him innocently and was about to answer when Hermione and Ginny rounded the corner.
"Ronald! Put Harry down!" Hermione cried as she stepped forward to stop them, Ginny just sent a curse at her brother that made his hands burn and he dropped Harry, "Merlin's pants, Ginny! That hurt!" he yelled at her. Ginny strolled over to him and knelt next to him as he nursed his hands, Hermione was helping Harry up from the ground. "Harry and I did nothing, you should have more faith in your sister and best friend, because if I hear you or any of our brothers do that or anything like it ever again, it WON'T be your hands that get burned next time," she whispered as she performed a spell to cure them, Ron flexed his hands and nodded his head.
Harry chuckled at Ron as they walked down to the Great Hall, "Shut it," Ron whispered whicj only made Harry laugh harder. "I'm sorry, mate. But your expression when Gin threatened you was hilarious!" Harry laughed again, pounding his fist on the wall, Ron just glared at him and walked off. Harry shook his head and jogged to catch up with him.
When the four teenagers reached the Great Hall, they all sighed in unison, it was a mess, and half the school was already down there and helping. Harry whistled when he finally noticed the damage done, Ron pulled his wand out and began helping levitating the heavy rubble away from the Great Hall, Hermione went behind others cleaning up the smaller debris made so not much cleaning would need to be done afterward.
Ginny started using her wand in the same way Hermione was when she noticed that Harry was missing, she went to look for him and found him on the front steps. He was lifting rocks and such away from the steps with his own hands, his wand sticking out his back pocket. "Why aren't you using your wand?" Ginny asked as she began levitating it and vanishing it in thin air, Harry wiped his forehead and looked to her, "I've used so much magic in my life, I want to take the time to just do the manual labor and think". "Oh, okay" Ginny said as she started to walk away. "I didn't say you could leave," Harry said and she turned to see a grin on his face.
Ginny smiled back and began lifting the smaller stones and rubble as Harry lifted the bigger. Neither of them spoke as they worked for they were lost in their thoughts, thoughts of freedom, thoughts of pain, thoughts of love, and thoughts of a future with no fear for their lives. They had been working over an hour when Kingsley Shacklebolt came outside to find Harry. "Harry, may I have a word with you?" Kingsley asked in his deep calm tone of voice, Harry set down a particularly large rock and looked up at him, "Yeah sure, you could even have several if ya like,". Kingsley smiled and motioned for Harry to follow him.
The two men walked the grounds for a few minutes before either spoke, when Kingsley did finally speak, it was slow and even, like he was weighing each word as it came to him. "Harry, you know that I consider you to be a great friend and only have you best interests at heart?" Harry nodded, all ready knowing where this was going, "And you know that until further notice, I've been appointed Minister of Magic. Well, along with being Minister, I have to do all I can to ensure that the Wizardingpublic feel safe and secure at night. Harry, what I'm trying to say is I want you to give a public announcement of what happened and the actual truth of things." Kingsley finished speaking and came to a halt, looking at Harry expectantly.
"Kingsley, interviews have never exactly worked out that well for me" Harry said, looking around the grounds, "Which brings me to this, since I knew you would say that; I will interview you myself," Kingsley said. Harry looked up at him surprised, "You will interview me?" Kingsley laughed, "Yes, I know you well, and I won't ask any questions of you that you don't wish to answer, and I will make sure that the Prophet prints exactly what you say." Harry sighed and lifted his eyebrows and thought for a moment before saying, "Yeah, sure, but you'll need to interview Ron and Hermione too, I couldn't have done it without them"
Kingsley nodded and waved his wand and a patronus came forth and headed for the Great Hall, before Harry could ask Ron and Hermione had appeared next to them with confused looks on their faces. Kingsley asked them if they would let him interview them and that he would be sure that the truth was printed, both of them agreed after knowing Harry was okay with the matter. "Another reason I have you three out here is because I know you hate the spotlight and attention, so I thought I would tell you now," he looked at the three confused teenagers before saying, "You've all been awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class."
After impromptu celebrations had been had by the Weasley family when they heard that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had earned the Order of Merlin for the efforts during the war, they decided that it was probably time to eat and take a break from cleaning the castle.
Ron and Harry had decided to take a walk around the grounds after their chicken and ham sandwiches that Kreacher had made them, Hermione and Ginny had decided to take showers even though they would be working after their two hour break. "Ya know, Mate it's hard to think that everything is normal now. No more war, no more death, no more fearing that the people you love are going to die… It'll be difficult to be…normal again, have a normal life." Ron said nonchalantly as he kicked a pebble on the ground and stared at the Black Lake, Harry nodded and replied with, "I know, how do you go back to being normal when after seven years all we've known is war and death and trying to kill Voldemort…"
Ron took a deep breath and sighed and threw a rock at the water, "I think we take it a day at a time, just, you know, clean this place up, do our interviews or whatever Kingsley asks of us, then go back to the Burrow and try to figure it out there what we should do next." Ron said looking at Harry, who shrugged and sat down on the waters edge, Ron followed him. "I don't think I'm going back to the Burrow, Ron. I think I'm gonna go to GrimmauldPlace and try to clean it up and make it a real home again, a home that Sirius or I never knew, I think that'll be a good place for me to live my life," Harry said slowly and he looked to Ron to see his reaction.
Ron was resting back on his elbows with his eyebrows raised as he looked at Harry, "You sure. Mate? I mean, Mum won't like it, she'll want us at home till we die," Ron laughed. Harry smiled and laid back on the cool grass, "Yeah, I know. But I think being alone, well, for part of the time at least, will be good for me, it'll give me time to heal and get over all this…well for lack of a better word, shit we've been though the past several years". Ron tilted his head in response and laid next to him. Both men stayed silent as they laid there and watched the clouds roll by.
Harry had drifted off to sleep as he laid there and started to dream…
Harry was walking down a long corridor when he head Ginny's voice calling his name, worried, he quickened his pace, finally opening a door at the end of the hall to find her standing in a room with a large fireplace and large canopy bed in front of it, Ginny laughed nervously as Harry's eyes fell on her. She took a step forward and twirled around and laughed at his expression, for he looked dumbstruck at the sight of her. She was wearing a long light green silk night gown that had lace at the neckline and hem, it was very sheer and very low cut, Harry could see her nipples through the shiny fabric if he looked hard enough. Her hair was curled and fell gracefully down her back, she was wearing little makeup, maybe none at all, she looked radiant.
Harry walked to her and held her by the waist as he looked into her dazzling brown eyes, "What's all this about?" he asked. She smiled and kissed him long and passionately, "I wanted our first time to be special and I think the Room of Requirement is a pretty good spot" she sighed. Harry smiled and kissed her again, letting the kiss go farther than they ever had before, he licked her full bottom lip and she sighed and let him in. They continued these ministrations for over ten minutes before he picked her up and brought her over to the bed bridal style, Ginny giggled as he laid her down and started undressing himself, she bit her lip hard when he unbuttoned his pants and let them fall to his ankles, he raised his eyebrow when he noticed Ginny's heavy breathing when she saw his excitement, she blushed.
Harry crawled onto the bed and they started kissing in a more fervent way, with an uncertain urgency they began to touch each other, Ginny sighed and moaned as Harry caressed her in certain places, till he finally raised up on his knees and started to pull her dress over her head. When he had finally pulled it off her and looked down to see her, he gasped. She was perfect, her breasts were exactly the right size and her pink nipples were perky and alert, her stomach was soft and flat as a board, her skin was a perfect peaches and cream ivory, and her green panties was the only thing wrong with thi otherwise perfect picture.
She lifted her hips and he slowly pulled them off her, when he had removed them she raised up and tugged at his boxers, she pulled them down and he lifted himself over as she pulled them off and threw them aside.
"Are you completely and totally sure about this?"Harry asked in low voice as he positioned himself at her entrance, she nodded slowly, never leaving his eyes, he lowered himself and was about to plunge into her when he heard "BLOODY HELL, HARRY! WAKE UP!!!"
Harry awoke to see a very shocked and revolted Ron staring at him, Harry looked down to see that his dream had a definite and very obvious reaction on his anatomy, he had a raging hard-on. "Oh, my God! Ron, I'm sorry!" Harry said as he sat up and tried to conceal himself, but the damage was already done, "All right, I'm gonna pretend I never saw that, and I'm gonna try as hard as I can to not think of the fact that it was more than likely about my sister, so I think we're good." Ron said as he shut his eyes and grimaced.