Chapter Seven - Winter Magic

Charlie and Nathalie headed back to Romania the Sunday after Christmas, and while Harry, Ginny, and the others still had another week of holidays left, it was back to work again for Molly, Arthur, and the rest of their family. Bill and Fleur got home from France on Sunday, came for dinner at the Burrow, and stayed in the evening for a while to catch up with what they'd all been doing over Christmas.

Hermione kept her friends busy on Monday and Wednesday as they all worked on their holiday revisions, though Ron and Harry were done earlier than the girls were on Wednesday. They practiced Quidditch at least for an hour or so each day, and on Tuesday, after their practice in the morning, they went to London for the rest of the day, meeting up with Neville and Luna to do a little shopping and have some fun.

On New Year's Eve, Harry and Ginny had the Burrow to themselves. Molly and Arthur were at the Ministry New Year's Eve party, while Ron and Hermione were spending New Year's Eve with her parents. While going out to some big party might have been fun, they both thought that having an entire evening for some couples only time was brilliant. They turned on the WWN, listened to music, cuddled on a sofa, got up for a couple of slow dances, and did a fair bit of snogging.

At midnight, as nineteen ninety-nine got started, while the Ministry of Magic New Year's Eve partygoers were ringing in the New Year with a major Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes fireworks display, Ginny was setting off some fireworks of her own with the kiss she shared with Harry that absolutely rocked his New Year. They were still happily snuggled on the sofa when Mr. and Mrs. Weasley got home from their party sometime after one o'clock.

"Happy New Year," Ginny told her parents, getting up to hug them in welcome. "How was the party?"

"It was really great," her mother answered. "I'm surprised you're both still awake. I hope you weren't too bored being here all by yourselves all evening," she added with a knowing smile, and Ginny laughed.

"We managed to keep ourselves entertained," she told them. "Would you like a bedtime snack or anything?"

Her parents both shook their heads. "We couldn't possibly eat anything more tonight," Mr. Weasley told her. "Between dinner and the buffet they put on just after midnight, I ate enough to tide me over for the rest of the winter."

"Or at least until breakfast," Mrs. Weasley said with a laugh. "The boys definitely got their appetites from you."

"Did anything interesting happen at the party?" Ginny asked them.

"Just the usual Ministry politics," her father answered, and then laughed. "There's probably been some interesting trips home for those fools who drank too much, and then tried to take the Floo Network home, though. Drinking and Flooing should be banned by the Ministry – Merlin only knows where those gits will end up, slurring their words like they do."

Harry, Ginny, and Molly all laughed, and Arthur went on to tell them some stories of where Witches and Wizards had ended up in past years after these Ministry parties. Pretty soon it was well past two o'clock, and they all got up, exchanged hugs and kisses, and went off to bed.

They had a three-day weekend left to go before going back to Hogwarts on Sunday. Molly and Arthur had a plane to catch in the late morning on New Year's Day, so Harry and Ginny saw them off to the airport, and then spent the rest of their day with Bill and Fleur at Shell Cottage, while their parents were off to New York for a long weekend away that wouldn't have them home again until after the kids were back at school.

Ron and Hermione stayed with her parents until Saturday morning, and then met up with Harry and Ginny in Diagon Alley for a little last minute back to school shopping before going back to the Burrow with them to spend their last night of the holidays there. They packed their trunks in the afternoon, made and ate dinner together, and then spent the evening hanging out in the sitting room before going to get a good night's sleep.

It was back to school on Sunday, and other than getting to spend time catching up with what their friends had been doing over the holidays, and the welcome back feast, it wasn't long before they were all right back into the school routine. The Professors started piling the homework on their students right from the first classes on Monday. Ron continued to have the Quidditch team practice several times a week, and would have gone every day if the weather had co-operated more. Everyone on the team had thanked Harry and couldn't stop talking about their tickets to the League Quidditch finals.

Hermione was swamped with her Head Girl duties added to all of the homework she had with so many classes. Harry suspected that Ron had begun to purposely get into trouble just so he'd be called into her office. When he thought about that for a moment, though, he realized that it was actually a brilliant strategic move. No wonder his best mate was so good at Wizard's Chess.

There was a Hogsmeade weekend on the twenty-third, and while it was a really cold, miserable day out, most of the third year and older students still trudged into town to pick up supplies, sweets, and some contraband wheezes. Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione went around town with Neville and Luna, hurrying from store to store to get their supplies. They had lunch at a very crowded Three Broomsticks, and then walked back to school as quickly as they could, wanting to spend as little time as possible outside in the freezing cold.

The first Quidditch match of the New Year was on the last Saturday in January. Harry and his team watched Ravenclaw beat Slytherin on points. Draco did catch the snitch for Slytherin, but Ravenclaw was up by two hundred points by then, and the score was getting worse for Slytherin, not better. Draco's catch of the snitch just kept the team from another blowout loss. Halfway through the season, Ravenclaw was in the lead with two wins, with Gryffindor in second place with their one win.

Other than the Hogsmeade weekend and the Quidditch game, January had been almost all work and not much play. With the start of February, there was a lot of excitement around the school as Valentine's Day was closing in fast, and the girls especially were looking forward to the special day. Harry and Ron began spending more time together, and Ginny and Hermione suspected, correctly, that they were up to something.

Valentine's Day was on a Sunday this year, and it was a Hogsmeade weekend too. The girls weren't at all surprised when Ron and Harry left them on their own all morning and went off to do their own shopping, meeting up with them for lunch, and then still needing to go pick up the school supplies they needed after they'd eaten. There was a sort of impromptu Valentine's party in the Gryffindor Common Room on Saturday night. Ron and Hermione disappeared into her office fairly early, but Harry and Ginny stayed up late with their friends, and didn't go off to bed until after one o'clock. Harry had no idea what time Ron got back to their dorm room, since he was asleep before he returned, but he was in his bed when Harry woke in the morning.

On Sunday, the two boys started the day out by giving the girls flowers and boxes of chocolates at breakfast. They all went on to spend most of the day on their weekend homework, since they hadn't done any on Saturday, and the boys went on like the gifts they'd given the girls in the morning was all they were doing. There was a Valentine's Day feast in the Great Hall, and it was another amazing event, but the girls started to become suspicious that something was up when Ron only ate about the same as everyone else, instead of the giant sized amount he normally devoured.

When the feast was over, the two couples left the Great Hall together, but Ron and Harry split up, taking Hermione and Ginny off to the locations they'd each picked out for what they had planned for their girlfriends. Harry had borrowed the sitting room in Professor Tonk's quarters, and when they got there, he sat down with Ginny on the sofa with her. He looked into Ginny's beautiful brown eyes for a long moment, trying to calm his nerves and get his racing heartbeat under control.

"Ginny, could I have your ring for a minute, please?" he asked, motioning to the promise ring he'd given her back in August. She looked surprised and a little uncertain, but slid the ring from her finger and handed it to him. He stared down at it for a minute, pretending to look at it critically.

"You know," he said, "I don't think this is quite right for you, Ginny." She looked concerned as he looked back into her eyes. 'God, she's beautiful', he thought, getting lost just looking at her for a moment. He took a deep breath to calm himself again.

"We're going to be done school in June," he continued, and Ginny nodded, her heart starting to beat faster now too. "I'm not sure what we'll both decide to do after, but I do know that whatever I do, I wouldn't want a moment of it to be without you." He smiled, and kneeling in front of her, he took both of her hands in his. There was just a glimmer of moisture in her eyes, and his heart was so filled with emotion he thought it was going to burst.

"I love you with all my heart, Ginny Weasley. When I gave you this ring, I promised that I'd spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy." He released one of her hands, took a box out of his pocket, and handed it to her. As she opened it, he continued.

"If you'll agree to marry me, you'd be making me as happy as I hope to get to spend my life making you," he told her. She cried and laughed and threw her arms around his neck to hug him tightly.

"I love you so much, Harry," she said happily through her tears. "Yes, I'll marry you." He took the simple, yet stunning diamond solitaire ring out of the box, and put it on her finger.

"This was the engagement ring my father gave to my mother," he told her. "It's apparently been handed down through my family for generations." He held her hands again and smiled up at her.

"How do you feel about a July wedding?" Ginny laughed.

"Are we in a hurry Mr. Potter?" she asked archly, and Harry laughed.

"Not necessarily, Mrs. Potter-to-be, but I do have a cozy little cottage waiting for us, and was thinking a summer of travelling would be a lot more fun with two married couples." Ginny stared at him, and he laughed again as comprehension of what he'd said showed on her face, and her eyes lit up.

"Are you serious?" she asked, and Harry nodded.

"We were hoping you and Hermione would think a double wedding would be a good idea - maybe the first or second week of July. Then we could spend the rest of the summer going wherever we want to before worrying about what we want to do after that." Ginny pulled him up beside her on the sofa again.

"I think it's a brilliant plan, and I'm sure that Hermione will too," she told him. Putting her arms around his neck, she pulled him close to her. "We'll have to go meet them soon, but before we go do that, I have something for you." She kissed him then, a long, sweet embrace, and the last thing Harry thought before his brain turned to mush was that Sirius had been right - she was going to make his life very interesting!

When they met up with Ron and Hermione back in the Gryffindor Common Room, the girls were hugging each other, and it wasn't long before some of the other Gryffindor Witches noticed that something was going on. Ginny and Hermione were both corralled by their girlfriends, and whisked off to the girl's dormitory for some girl talk.

Harry surmised that they'd be interrogated for the rest of the night, and gave up on any slight hope he'd had about a little more cuddling time with Ginny before they'd have to go get some sleep. He and Ron sat in chairs near the fire.

"How'd it go?" Harry asked Ron once they'd gotten comfortable. They were both grinning.

"Pretty good for the most part," Ron answered. "I did drop the ring trying to put it on her finger, but even that was kinda fun finding it again in her robes." They both laughed, then continued telling each other about their respective proposals, though they both skipped over the thank-you hugging and kissing part of the two scenes.

Seamus and Dean came in to the Common Room and got Harry and Ron to follow them to their dorm room. Seamus pulled out a plain looking bottle, and poured five glasses, handing one to everyone, including Neville, who had been reading in bed. When Harry looked in the glass he realized that Seamus had managed to smuggle a bottle of firewhiskey into the school.

"It's normally a sad day when we lose a member of the bachelor club," Seamus told his friends, trying to look saddened and failing, since a grin was tugging at the corners of his mouth. "And today we're losing two." He looked at them in mock disappointment.

"Normally, that would be true, but since you two losers have managed to find girls so obviously superior to you to agree to marry you, we can only stand here in stunned disbelief, and offer our sincere congratulations." He held up his glass in salute, and the five boys drank to the toast, laughing at the backhanded compliment.

Getting engaged was new and exciting for the two young couples, but Gryffindor also had a Quidditch match coming up on the following Saturday. That meant that for the week after Valentine's Day, Ron worked his team mercilessly to get them ready for their game against Hufflepuff. He designed brand new strategies in case the Hufflepuff team had prepared for the way they had played against Slytherin. He made them study from notes he had made from the game they had watched in November between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Harry didn't know if they'd win this game, but he thought Ron had done everything he could to get them ready to play, and by the end of the week, was wishing for the good old days when Oliver Wood was Captain, and only worked them half to death.

When the game started on Saturday, the Gryffindor team came roaring out, and Hufflepuff didn't know what hit them. Harry was wearing the new neon purple Seeker glove that Teddy had picked out for him. When he first took off, he heard laughter from the Hufflepuff players and from many of the Professors, students, and visitors who were there watching the game.

The laughing stopped almost immediately, though. The game started, and apparently the snitch was attracted to the brightly coloured glove, because it zipped directly toward Harry when it was released. With that unexpected turn of events, all Harry really had to do was meet the snitch half way, and he was able to catch it in a record seven seconds, ending the game with a score of one hundred and fifty to naught. The crowd was stunned into silence for a moment, having expected a long, tough match, and then they erupted into cheers, knowing that they had just seen Hogwarts Quidditch history happen.

Another celebration followed the game in the Gryffindor Common Room. Ron was a little upset about not getting to put his fabulous game plan into effect, and was moping around a bit until Harry pointed out to him that it meant he also hadn't exposed anything to the Ravenclaw team, and would still be able to use his new tricks for that game.

The rest of February, and through March, all of the students had to get back to working hard on their studies, especially the NEWT and OWL students as their workload got heavier and heavier in the weeks leading up to Easter. Harry was busy, but he was enjoying every moment. There wasn't enough time for him to make it in to see Teddy every day, but he did stop in as often as he could, and he and Ginny were always entertained with every new experience they had together with his Godson.

It seemed that every time they saw Teddy, he learned something new. One day he was crawling, the next, he was pulling himself up to stand beside a table. Walking wouldn't be far away, Harry was certain. He and Ginny didn't find much alone time, but there were lots of opportunities to be together, whether studying, or out practicing Quidditch with the Gryffindor team. They spent most evenings cuddled in the comfortable Common Room sofas or chairs, usually near to one of the fires, working on the extensive reading they were assigned by the Professors.

Hermione and Ginny, after talking with both sets of parents, had chosen the first Saturday in July to hold the double wedding. Since Harry didn't have any family he planned to invite, or would want to come even if they were invited, it would mostly be Ron and Ginny's family attending, along with a few friends from school. Hermione's family did not know about her magical abilities, so her parents would be the only ones attending from her family. She had picked Parvati and Padma Patil, and Ginny had chosen Luna and Fleur as their bridesmaids, and while it wasn't really said officially, they'd picked each other as their maids of honour. Ron had asked Bill and Seamus to 'hold him up', and Neville and Dean had agreed to stand up with Harry.

The boys considered themselves fortunate when they found out that all that the girls really needed from them as they planned the wedding was to hear them say, 'yes, dear, that sounds perfect' a lot, or any of a dozen similar, but synonymous statements. Their only real tasks were to get dress robes for the wedding, and show up on time. Harry planned on getting there early.

By the time March rolled to an end, all of the students at Hogwarts were ready for a little fun, and they would get to have a little break from their studies with the Easter weekend on the first weekend in April. There was a Hogsmeade weekend the last Saturday in March, and the students went around picking up Easter treats at Honeydukes, and new Easter wheezes at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, along with the usual school supply purchases.

There were still three months left of school, and with Easter, the last two Quidditch matches of the school year, the NEWT exams in June, and a big wedding to get ready for, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and their friends were going to be very busy during their last weeks and months at Hogwarts.