Sorry for the lateness of this second instalment. Had to attend a funeral for a few days, meaning I only just got back to my computer.
Thanks for the reviews; every bit of advice is helpful! I hope you enjoy this next chapter, as much as I enjoyed writing it!
It took her a while to get her head around the fact that today would be the first time she had seen harry in four years. She wasn't nervous, as such, but didn't know how to act around him, especially as this was her informal engagement party and Harry, was still single.
"Honey, we need to leave now otherwise we will be late!" Ginny called upstairs, looking at her watch.
"I'm coming, I'm coming. Plus we can't be late to our own party."
"It's not a party, it's just a gathering. Make sure you understand that, okay?" Ginny replied, feeling very nervous all of a sudden.
"Look, chill out okay? Everything is going to be fine. All your family know and like me and they won't disapprove at all." Harold said, soothingly, looking Ginny straight in the eyes. "We are all that matters in this, just me and you, no one else." He said, kissing her forehead, he hated it when he did that; it made her feel like a child.
They aporated to the burrow. She loved coming back to the family home, for many reasons but mainly to see her huge family, whom were waiting for their arrival. As they walked up the path to the door, it opened and a familiar face peered round the door, eyes lighting up when Mr. Weasley realised who it was.
"Ginny, my love! How are you? I thought I heard someone! " He said engulfing her into a huge hug, and leading her inside with Harold behind. They walked inside the door. Everyone was there, including Hermione and harry. She was frozen to the spot as her and Harry made eye contact, which he broke off quickly and turned back to Ron who seemed to be talking to Hermione and trying to ignore Ginny and Harold, probably for Harry's sake.
"Gin, how are you?" George exclaimed, giving her a tight squeeze of a hug and shaking Harold's hand. "Glad you've decided to make an honest woman out of her?" He said winking and grinning at them both. Ginny was glad to see that George was slightly more like his old self. He had seemed very distracted after the death of his twin, Fred and had absorbed himself in the business him and his brother had set up before the war only appearing for Christmases and special occasions when he had to.
"Yeah good thanks, nice to see you're a bit more cheerful," she said quietly to her brother, "got someone you're not telling us about?" She said jokingly, but his face turned rather serious.
"Maybe," he said trying not to smile at her, as he moved out of the way so that others could get to the happy couple.
"Mum, how ha-," she broke off as she noticed Harry, Ron and Hermione were getting up and walking upstairs. Mrs. Weasley followed her gaze and patted on the shoulder encouragingly.
"Ron's not been feeling too good today, they probably wanted to get away from all the commotion," she said, trying to sound convincing, but Ginny was having none of it, she knew something was up and thought it was rude of her brother to ignore her completely.
She walked past everyone else, smiling and saying hello, but then made her way upstairs to the top floor where she was sure they would be. Harry and Ron still shared a room together when staying at the burrow, but it was much too small for them now. Hermione shared a room with Ginny, but hadn't spoken to her in a while as Ginny's new job meant she was busy a lot of the time.
Ginny was stood on the other side of the door, trying to listen into what they were saying, but they were all talking too quietly. She walked right up to the door, and pressed her ear against it only to be extremely shocked about what they were talking about.
"Hermione's having a baby!" Ron said, quite loudly, and definitely clear enough for Ginny to hear.
"You're pregnant?" Ginny exclaimed, pushing the door and entering the room. All three looked at her, Harry looking straight away and shoving something in his pocket.
Ginny's face went scarlet as she realised the friction in the atmosphere. It was a bit rude of her just to push into the conversation. She was barely aware of what was going on before she realised harry had pushed past her and was walking hastily downstairs. She quickly turned, not taking any notice of what her brother and Hermione were saying to her, and perused Harry. They had already reached the living room before she caught up.
"Harry..." Ginny started, Harry turned around and looked at her straight in the eyes.
"I don't want to talk about this now, not while everyone else is around" Harry said walking away/
"Fine." Ginny replied as she turned and searched for her fiancée. She was fuming, how dare harry be so rude, she was, after all, only trying to be polite. She eventually found Harold deep in conversation with Hagrid, who must have arrived late, and decided to take a seat by the fire. She was almost immediately joined by a harassed looking Hermione, who also seemed to be fidgeting more than usual. Hermione looked over her shoulder, up the stairs and then finally made eye contact with Ginny.
" I'm really sorry about what just happened," Hermione began, still fidgeting. "Me and Ron don't know how to act around you and Harry together, and we don't want to hurt your feelings but we feel that-" she was cut off by an annoyed looking Ginny.
"What? That you should take sides with harry? That you should just ignore me completely?" She hissed, glaring at Hermione.
"No, but harry is a complete wreck, he just doesn't want to talk to anyone properly. He's even been off with Ron recently, and they are always on good terms," Hermione paused. "We don't think it is really anything to do with you, or your old relationship, there's something else going on but we can't figure it out." She stuttered, finding it difficult not to burst into tears, after all she didn't want to make a scene here, in front of everyone.
"Why? I thought he was okay now, I thought he was seeing someone?" Ginny replied, suddly very concerned.
"We did too, but he hasn't mentioned anything about it in weeks, and when we try to ask him, he just shrugs it off, like were interfering..." trailing off towards the end, a tear coming to her eye.
"Not here Hermione, let's go somewhere else," she muttered, dragging Hermione up from her seat and pulling her outside into the garden.
As the two walked out, Ron, George and a concerned looking Harold noticed the two women looking very distressed and followed them out into the garden, making quite a crowd of people gathering outside the Burrow.
"Oh god, just what I need," Ginny muttered, seeing Harold appear from the house.
"What going on Ginny? Why are you out here?" He said. "Is something wrong?"
"Harold, stop with the bloody questions. I am fine." She snapped, looking rather frustrated. "Go back inside and I will join you in a minute, I just need to talk to Hermione about something."
"Then who do these two need two be out here?" He said, looking from Ron to George sounding aggravated.
There was a long silence.
"They don't, you two can go inside as well." Hermione finally said.
"But-" he started, but seeing the look on Hermione's face, turned and dragged George inside with him, Harold slowly following looking extremely baffled.
It was a while before either Ginny or Hermione dared to speak in case someone was listening, but finally, Ginny broke the silence.
"When did all of this start?" she frowned, looking perplexed.
"Basically, Harry always used to come around to our house after work with Ron. They has usually had very long tough days, being Aurors and we used to have a great time. Then All of a sudden, Harry stopped coming, and many weeks, because harry and Ron had been put on separate cases, they never saw each other at work as well. Until one night, it was mine and Ron's 3rd anniversary and he took me to a restaurant in Hogsmead." She paused looking round to see if anyone was looking. "We saw harry, and he was with this strange looking woman, having dinner. They were both dressed quite smartly, and he wasn't acting particularly flirty so we couldn't decide whether it was work related or not," Hermione paused. "Well, our table was at the same restaurant and we had to go inside, but harry spotted us and very quickly got up and left, leaving this poor woman sat on her own looking very confused."
"That's odd, why did he just leave?" Ginny said.
"Well, were not sure, but Ron then went and looked on the ministries files," she paused looking embarrassed. "And found a woman of the same description, who works in the Department of mysteries," she said, finishing very slowly.
Ginny raised her eyebrows, thinking about what Hermione had just told her. Why would harry be meeting a woman from the department of mysteries? Why did he act so suspiciously when he saw Ron and Hermione? She was very confused.
"Not only did he find that out, but their meeting wasn't recorded," Hermione added.
"Presumably it was a date then?" Ginny replied, wandering why her Hermione, who was very intelligent hadn't thought of this.
"But in the ministry, even if the meeting is personal, it has to be recorded, it's against the law if they don't." Hermione said, looking straight at Ginny who was trying to work out a solution to this odd situation. Ginny was sure there was more that Hermione could tell her but before she had time to say anything else, Mr. Weasley came out to usher the two back inside, as they were about to start eating.
Hermione looked very suspiciously at Ginny, who returned the look as they walked back inside. The same questions kept going round Ginny's head, who was this woman? Why did she meet with harry? Why did they try so hard to keep it a secret? But only one person could answer all these questions.
Harry.