Title: Fall- back
Chapter twenty- one: Ginny Causes Chatter
Rating: T
Summary: After the war Harry moves to Lima, Ohio to try and live a normal life as just another invisible teenager. You know what they say about best laid plans, though. KH/HP
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise…. Isn't mine. Though I probably wish it is. Now I'm sad.
AN: I did better! I can hardly believe it myself, to be honest.
This is – in my opinion- a bit of a filler chapter. I needed this chapter to get to the next one, where one of the more important parts of the story will take place. Someone asked me on tumblr (and I do recommend you message me there instead of on here, because you're 100 per cent sure to get an answer there and here…not so much) how long this story would be. My answer: I'm not sure. I had initially planned to end the story after the next chapter, but I have more in store for them. I'm not sure what to do with that. I might write a few more chapters to round this instalment of and write a sequel (or not, what do you guys think?) or just continue on in here, so that it's all in one place. I'll need to think on that. Feel free to help me with that.
As always: enjoy the chapter and let me know what you thought of it!
If there was one thing that could be said about Ginny, Harry figured, it was that she was persistent. When she got a hold of something, be it something tangible or one of her 'brilliant' (and Harry used that adjective very loosely) ideas, she was like a dog with a bone. He figured he should have probably realised this way back in second year, when she had sent that grumpy dwarf to read him a Valentine. Still, better late than never.
"Ginny, can you please give him a break?", he asked exasperatedly when she was still quizzing his boyfriend about his life three hours after having stepped out of his fireplace. Kurt, for his part, seemed to be taking it all in stride. After the shock of seeing his boyfriend's ex- girlfriend step out of a burning fireplace had passed, he had started to humour her rampant curiosity, with only a small hint of being uncomfortable showing on his face .
Ginny looked up at him with her brown eyes enlarged almost ridiculously in an attempt to look innocent.
"Oh please, Harry, can't I play with him for a little longer?" she asked, a glint in her eyes Harry decided was a direct copy of the twins' when they were on a mission. He decided he didn't like it one bit.
"Actually, no. You really can't. I promised his dad I'd always have him home by eleven, and it's a quarter to."
From where he was sat next to Harry, Kurt sprung up from the couch immediately.
"Oh dear, is that the time?", he breathed, a hint of relief unmistakable in his voice. "I suppose I'd better run, then."
"I'll walk you," Harry offered as Kurt hastily shook Ginny's hand in goodbye, not giving her the chance to drag him into a hug.
"You," Harry continued, pointing a finger at Ginny while Kurt got his coat from the hall, "stay here. And don't wreck the place."
"Aye, captain," she saluted, before dropping back down onto the couch. "I'll just watch some of your fellytision thing."
"Television," Harry corrected her automatically, but she just waved him away. Harry followed in Kurt's footsteps and went into the hall to grab his coat.
An awkward silence seemed to hang between them as they walked towards Kurt's house. Finally, Harry couldn't take it anymore and broke it.
"So," he said carefully. "I'm sorry if Ginny made you uncomfortable. She can be kind of… intimidating, I suppose."
"She's alright," Kurt shrugged, looking straight ahead of him. "She asks a lot of questions, though."
"That she does," Harry agreed. "I'll talk to her about that later."
"Is she staying then?" Kurt asked, looking at him from the side. Harry shrugged.
"For the rest of the evening, I suppose," he answered. "She still hasn't made it very clear what she wants from me at Hogwarts. I presume I'll be bombarded with that the second I walk in when I get back."
Kurt hummed. Which was peculiar, since Kurt usually never hesitated to say what was on his mind.
"Does that bother you?"
Kurt took a few seconds to think this over, during which Harry started to feel like a right tool. Of course Kurt would have a problem with his boyfriend's ex suddenly starting to hang around. What kind of fool was he to have ever thought otherwise?
"I suppose," Kurt started, drawing Harry out of his musings, "that while I'm not exactly thrilled that your ex-girlfriend – who you are going to tell me more about when she's gone, by the way- is here I can handle having her around for a bit, provided you don't actually feel something for her anymore."
They stopped walking when they reached Kurt's house, with only a few minutes still left until his curfew.
"I'll always feel something for her," Harry replied, then added when he saw his boyfriend's eyes narrow a bit: "Nothing romantic, mind, but I've come to consider her as something of a sister, I suppose. That's feeling something too, right?"
After a few seconds of staring at Harry – who was starting to feel just the teeniest bit uncomfortable by this, especially when he thought he saw the curtains rustle a bit inside the house- Kurt nodded.
"Alright," he said. "I suppose I can live with that."
Harry smiled, relieved, and Kurt turned to look behind him at the same curtains Harry had been sure he had seen movement behind only seconds prior to this. "I need to get inside now though, before my dad comes out to get me."
"Would he really, though?" Harry wondered.
"He really would," Kurt assured him, before reaching over to kiss him quickly. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
As usual, all Harry could do after a kiss from his boyfriend was nod dumbly and smile like an idiot, so Kurt just took that as a yes. Rolling his eyes and muttering something like 'you great big doofus' he went inside, softly closing the door behind him. Harry remained standing there for a little bit longer before he squared his shoulders and made his way back home, ready to face his ex- girlfriend on whatever quest she was on.
Waking up the next morning felt like a chore. Harry groaned the second he opened his eyes, closing them immediately against the morning sun lighting into his room. He really should start looking into thicker curtains, he decided, before dragging the covers up over his head. He managed to stay that way, safely cocooned into his little nest on the bed- until Remus stuck his head in the door about ten minutes later.
"Up and at 'em, Harry," he said. "Don't you have an AP Calculus test first thing today? Whatever that is."
Harry groaned again. He had completely forgotten about that with all the things that had been going on the day before. " Please don't remind me."
"Too late," the werewolf shrugged cheerfully before grabbing the bottom of the covers and pulling them of off Harry in a single go. "Come on, time to get up. I'll put some coffee on for you."
"Thanks," the raven haired teen muttered in response as Remus left the room, still lying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. This day couldn't possible have started worse.
About fifteen minutes later though, when he came downstairs after having washed his face, brushed his teeth, made an effort to comb his hair, got dressed and packed his stuff for the day, he was proven dead wrong. Because sat at the kitchen table, his lilac haired godson on her lap, was Ginny Weasley.
"What are you still doing here?" he asked her while accepting the cup of coffee Remus handed him with a quick smile.
"That's no way to greet your guests, Harry," Ginny chided him, before continuing in a higher pitched voice to Teddy: "Your goddaddy is a great big grump in the morning, isn't he?"
Harry decided he didn't like the way Teddy giggled at that and said to Ginny: "You were my guest last night. I wasn't aware you had stayed the night. Last I recall, you were going to watch the ending of that show on the telly and then head on back home."
Ginny shrugged. "And I probably would have gone to if you had given me an answer to my question last night."
"I said I'd sleep on it!", Harry exclaimed, reaching across the table for the toast laid out on a plate. He suspected Ginny had made it, since Remus was still forbidden from using kitchen appliances.
"And well look at that, it appears you have," Ginny said, mock- surprised. "Which means you must have an answer by now."
"I really don't," Harry said, before glancing at the clock. "Besides, I really need to talk to Kurt about that first."
"Please don't tell me that boy has you whipped already," the red haired menace complained as Harry stood up to get his coat and to swing his bag over his shoulder.
"He does not," he replied, heroically ignoring Remus' snort from where he was reading the morning paper. "I would just like to get his input on this."
Ginny only responded by making a sound that very closely resembled a whip cracking. Harry glared at her.
"She wants you to what?!", Kurt hissed in the near empty choir room at the end of the day. None of their classes matched up on Mondays, so this was the first chance Harry got to talk to his boyfriend.
And he was spectacularly botching it up, too.
"Look, I know the situation's not ideal-", he started to defend himself – and by extension, Ginny-, but Kurt cut him off immediately:
"Not ideal?," he near shrieked. "No, Harry, not ideal would be you just not being here for Christmas, which I've already resigned myself to, because I know you've got a life over there. Not ideal is not you attending a party with your ex- girlfriend, where you know everyone's eyes are going to be on the two of you."
"But I'm not actually going as her date, I just told you that," Harry tried.
"I know that," Kurt answered, "but everyone else won't."
"They will when her plan works," Harry said, noticing Kurt starting to cool down some. "Besides, then you will show up and everyone will know Gin and I are not a couple anymore."
"I'm still not sure if- Wait.", Kurt stopped in the middle of his sentence, a look of wonder starting to make its way across his face. "What do you mean, when I show up?"
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Harry asked, feigning ignorance. From the corner of his eyes he could see Lauren entering the room. "I get to bring a guest, too. And I was hoping you'd be my date."
Kurt's eyes widened. "You mean I actually get to come?" , he asked excitedly, mindfully keeping his voice down, "I really get to see Hogwarts?"
"You really do," Harry grinned at his boyfriend. "Of course, you'll have to ask your dad first. Don't forget it's at Christmas. "
Kurt's face seemed to droop. "Oh, right. Yeah, I don't suppose that's going to happen then. It's the first Christmas we're going to be spending as a family, after all, so I don't think he'll go for that."
The wizard thought about this for a second. An idea had popped up in his head immediately after Kurt had said that, but he wasn't sure how to orchestrate it.
"Unless," he started after a bit, "unless they come too. Sure, I'm not going to be allowed to bring them up to the castle as well, but we could still sell it as a family vacation. Britain's nice in winter."
"Is it really?" Kurt asked, and Harry could see the wheels turning inside his head.
"No, not really," he replied, "It's bloody freezing. "
"Oh. Well, that doesn't matter. It's cold here all the time in winter as well," Kurt said. "I suppose we could sell dad on the idea, so long as he can get someone to watch the shop for him and Carole might still be able to get the necessary days off from work if we act quickly."
Then, a thought seemed to strike the countertenor suddenly and he whispered, noticing more people were starting to enter the room: "That does mean you're going to have to tell my dad you're a wizard, though, Hare."
Harry shrugged. "I had kind of figured I would have to sooner or later. Besides, I was already planning on that a bit since the trials are this Friday and they're being broadcast globally."
Kurt hummed. "Yeah, I suppose he'd better hear it from you then from the television."
"That's what I figured," the wizard replied. "Except that it's going to be on the radio. Wizards still haven't figured out how to use magic to make television sets work."
"Why was that again?" Kurt asked, still trying to wrap his head around all the information Harry ahd been given him since he had found out he was a wizard.
"The magic short circuits them. Too much conflicting power, or something like that," Harry answered. "You should really ask Hermione about that next time you see her, though. She's much better at explaining this stuff than I am."
"Will do," Kurt smiled at him before turning to face the front of the room, where Mr Schuester ( who was, miraculously, only ten minutes late this time) was calling for their attention.
"I need to process this," Burt Hummel sighed, sitting down heavily on the brown leather chair next to the couch in his living room. Harry didn't blame him. It had taken him nearly an hour to convince Remus that it was a good –nay, great- idea to invite the Hudson- Hummels over for Christmas , with Kurt piping up with an 'oh, please?' from beside him every now and then again. After Remus had given his approval and the living arrangements had been briefly sorted out, Kurt and Harry had left for Kurt's place to have dinner and spill the beans on the magic thing, so to speak.
Now, at half past eight, they had had dinner, talked about inconsequential things and when they had adjourned to the living room Kurt and Harry had asked them to sit down (though Burt had sprung up from his seat several times to pace) to say their part. They had taken it rather well, so far, Harry thought.
"Could you," Carole began quietly, before continuing on in a stronger voice: "Could you please get my son down from the ceiling now?"
"Aw, mom, no!", Finn , who was levitating close to the ceiling with Harry's wand pointed at him to keep him up in the air, cried. "This is fun! It feels like I'm flying. Dude can you fly?"
The last question was directed at Harry, who answered amusedly: "Yes. Granted, I need a broom, but yes. I fly."
"Awesome!", the near- giant – and though Harry had seen giants, to him Finn was like Grawp was to professor Flitwick- called down. "Can I fly on a broom too?"
I'm not sure they make brooms big enough, Harry thought to himself privately. Out loud, he replied: "We'll see. I'll need to do some research on that first. I'm going to let you down now, okay? Your mum looks like she's about to hurt me."
"Buzz kill," Finn pouted as he sat down next to his mother. Carole started patting his arm, seemingly wanting to make sure he was still there. After that, silence fell for a few minutes during which Burt and Carole seemed to hold a conversation with their eyes, Kurt kept shooting Harry and his dad nervous glances and Finn seemed to have a staring contest with the ceiling.
After a while, Burt –after seemingly having concluded his silent conversation with his wife- broke the silence.
"Harry," he said, "I hope you realise this comes as a bit of a shock to us."
"Oh, I do sir," the wizard replied quickly. "Came as quite the shock to me, too."
"That was rhetorical," the mechanic said slowly. Next to Harry, Kurt snorted. Brilliant help, he was. "Anyway, I wasn't done yet. Though this is a shock to us, I want you to know that we're completely fine with it. "
Harry waited a few breaths to make sure he was allowed to speak now. "That's great sir, thanks."
"I'm none too pleased about those people sending out kids to war though, mind," Carole cut in. Harry had had no choice but to tell them of his initial reason to go to Britain and he had already been able to tell Carole and Burt were not happy about that during his story. "And I'll be having a word with someone about that."
Kurt, ever so much quicker on the uptake than his boyfriend, caught on immediately.
"You'll have to go to Britain to have a word with someone about that," he said. "Does that mean we're going?"
Burt sighed, rubbing a hand over his nearly bald head.
"I guess we could," he replied. "Roger has been asking to work more hours anyway, and I'm sure Martin wouldn't mind a few extra hours, either. "
"I wasn't really planning on going in to work at Christmas, anyway," Carole put in. "I had requested the week off so that we could spend our first Christmas as a family together. Might as well do it abroad."
"Wait," Finn jumped in, finally tearing his eyes away from the ceiling, "we're actually going to England?"
Kurt grabbed Harry's hand while his father started to answer Finn's question. The auburn haired boy's eyes were bigger than usual, almost as if he couldn't believe his dad was actually about to give the okay for this.
"We'll need to see if we can afford to go first, Finn," Burt said. "Plane tickets and accommodation aren't exactly cheap, especially not if we're flying across the ocean. If we can, though, we're going."
Both Kurt and Finn seemed to sag at that, but Harry had already thought about that and asked Remus for his input on this matter.
"Actually," he began, squeezing Kurt's hand softly so that the boy looked at him with a smile starting to build on his face, "if you don't mind doing things the magic way, travel and accommodation can be completely free of charge."
"I don't mind doing things the magic way!" Finn immediately piped up, thrusting a hand up in the air for extra effect. Harry suddenly had a flash back to Hermione's classroom behaviour in their first year, but shook it off just as quickly as it had jumped on him.
"Where would we stay?" Carole asked, sending an apologetic look at her husband for interrupting whatever it was he was about to say. Burt, who had just opened his mouth to speak, shut it again to listen to the answer.
"A townhouse in London," the wizard answered. "My godfather left it to Remus and I in his will. It'll be Teddy's someday, but we're the legal owners at the moment. Granted, it's a bit gloomy, but I've got a small clean- up crew working there as we speak."
Which was not, in fact, a lie. After Kurt and Harry had talked things over with Remus, Harry had called on Kreacher to clean the house. And had apologised to Kurt profusely for not only scaring him half to death with a creature he had never before heard of and for the House Elf's rudeness. Now, Kurt only let out a brief laugh at the mention of the 'small' clean- up crew.
"Alright," Burt nodded, "I guess that would be alright. How are we getting there?"
Here, Harry winced a bit. Next to him, Kurt groaned in sudden realisation.
"Oh no," he said. Burt's eyes were immediately fixed on his son. Kurt looked at his boyfriend from the side.
"We're going by fire, aren't we?" Kurt asked of him.
"We're what?" Carole asked, a deceptively calm tone in her voice. Burt's eyes narrowed.
"Pretty much, yes," Harry answered. Kurt sighed. Burt and Carole exchanged a look of confusion. From his seat next to his mother, Finn only grinned.
"This is going to be so awesome."
"Ginny," Harry hissed, his head appearing in the fireplace of the Gryffindor Common Room in Scotland. He had just gotten back from Kurt's house (after a rather detailed interrogation by the Hudson- Hummels about what all they could expect to encounter in Britain, and the magical part in particular) and was kneeling in front of –and partially in- the fireplace at home, waiting for Ginny to answer his call. The red head had promised to be in the Common Room four o'clock in the morning till when she had to leave for class. So far though, there was no sign of her.
"Ginny!", he then called, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Suddenly, a blurry figure sprung up from the sofa in front of the fireplace. Harry looked at her in disbelief. "Did you seriously fall asleep?"
"Of course I fell asleep," Ginny huffed indignantly, "It's half past four in the morning, what else would I be doing right now?"
Harry raised an eyebrow at her: "What happened to "Sleep is for pussies, I can't function if I've had more than three hours of it at night!"?", he mockingly asked.
"I do not sound like that," the youngest Weasley said. "But that doesn't matter. What did he say? What did his parents think?"
The wizard grinned.
"They're in."
Harry was pretty sure Ginny's evil cackle could be heard all the way to Ottery St. Catchpole, where he was sure Ginny's hand on the old grandfather clock had just sprung to 'up to no good'. If it wasn't permanently there already, that is.
Largest chapter yet! Yay!
As always, I'm curious to know what you thought of this chapter. Please share your thoughts with me, be it via review, PM or tumblr message. Also, please take a look at the AN above if you haven't already. I would love some input on that matter. Thanks!
So, leave your thoughts, and I'll see you lot next time!
Till then!
-Robin.