Chapter 32: questions and answers

Ginny awoke early the next morning. Deciding to let Harry sleep in for a bit, she quietly climbed out of bed and slipped on her dressing gown before making her way outside to fetch the muggle newspaper. Harry had insisted in subscribing to the paper ever since he made the decision to live in muggle London. It had become somewhat of a weekend ritual for them. She would do the crosswords while Harry searched the paper for anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Ginny blamed this on him being an Auror.

Once back inside, she busied herself in the kitchen making a pot of coffee. Although she could have done it with magic, she normally chose to just use the coffee maker Harry had purchased when he moved in. It was one among many muggle things he had purchased when he moved in. He had said that if he was going to live in a muggle community, it would be a good idea to have a few 'props'. While she set the coffee to brew, she searched the kitchen for something to do the crossword with.

"I know Harry had a bunch of those pencil things around here somewhere," she said out loud to herself. "Ah, his study."

As quietly as she could, Ginny made her way down the hall and into Harry's study. She flipped on the light and walked over to his desk. Careful not to disturb anything, she pulled out a few of the drawers in search of a pencil.

"He's got to have some around here somewhere," she murmured to herself. Not finding anything in the first few drawers, she moved her search towards the top. However, when she reached the very top drawer, it refused to open.

"Alohomora." Nothing. "That's strange."

Before she could try anything else, she saw movement from the corner of her eye. Harry was standing in the doorway. "Morning," he mumbled sleepily. "Whatcha looking for?"

"Oh . . .uh . . . one of those pencil things so I can do the crossword," said Ginny.

"Oh, they're in the filing cabinet over here," he said as he entered his study. He walked over to the tall filing cabinet that was in the far end of the room and bent down to open the bottom drawer.

"Why is this drawer locked?" asked Ginny. It was unlike Harry to hide anything from her.

Harry stood and handed Ginny a pack on pencils. "Oh, that. Confidential documents from work," he lied. Ginny knew that there were some aspects of his job that he couldn't share with her and it was the only thing he could think of at that moment. He hadn't expected to wake up to find Ginny trying to open the drawer where he had hid the ring.

"Oh," she said before standing up on her tip toes to give him a kiss. "Do you want some coffee?"

"Sure," said Harry, relieved, as he followed her out of the study, closing the door behind him, and into the kitchen.

"So what do you want to do today?" he asked as she handed him his mug.

"I don't care," she said, settling in at the table to work on the crosswords. Harry sat down next to her and pulled the paper in front of him.

"I was thinking that we could go to the London Zoo," said Harry as he perused the paper.

"The zoo? Really?" asked Ginny excitedly. "I've never been to a zoo before."

"I went once. It was before I knew I was a wizard. It's the first time I spoke parseltongue."

"Is that when you set that snake loose on Dudley?" asked Ginny.

"Yeah, I might have to explain that to him one day," he said, laughing. "So what do you think? Do you want to go to the zoo?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Ginny. "Let me go get ready." She abandoned her half finished crossword and dashed back into the bedroom to get dressed. Harry took this moment to sneak back into his office to retrieve the ring.

An hour later, Harry and Ginny apparated into an alleyway within walking distance of the zoo. Harry smiled to himself as they stepped out in the sun. London wasn't known for having the best of weather, especially this time of year. They made their way to the gates of the zoo where Harry pulled out his muggle money to pay for their admittance.

"What do you want to see first?" asked Harry.

"Hmm . . . the rainforest sounds fun," said Ginny, looking up from the map she got at the entrance.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with Ginny excitedly pulling Harry from exhibit to exhibit, but he never once complained. Finally, after about four hours of running around non stop, Ginny flopped down on an empty bench.

"I'm starving," she said as Harry sat down next to her.

"There's a great little café not far from here," said Harry. "We could go grab a bite to eat."

"That would be great. I was so excited about coming here that I completely forgot about breakfast." She glanced down at her watch and added, "And lunch."

"That's okay. Lets go," he said. He stood and pulled her from the bench.

The café Harry had mentioned was located next to Regent's Park. Perfect, thought Harry as they took their seats at a small outdoor table. Harry was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice a man approach their table.

"Harry?"

Harry was pulled from his thoughts and looked up at non other then Dudley Dursley.

"Dudley!" said Harry in surprise. He stood to shake his cousins hand.

"I thought that was you," said Dudley. "It's good to see you."

"You too. Dudley, this is my girlfriend, Ginny," said Harry.

"It's nice to finally meet you," said Dudley, shaking her hand.

"You too. Harry and I were actually just talking about you this morning," said Ginny.

"Really?"

"Yes, we just went to the zoo. Harry was telling me about what happened there when you two were kids," said Ginny.

"Oh, yeah. The snake. I almost forgot about that," said Dudley with a grin. "I never could figure out how it got out."

Harry laughed nervously. He wasn't sure how his cousin would react knowing he was responsible for it.

"Care to join us?" asked Harry.

"Oh no, I can't. Thanks though. I'm actually meeting someone here," said Dudley.

"It's not your parents, is it?" asked Harry. He didn't want anything ruining this day.

"Oh, no," assured Dudley. "I'm actually meeting this girl I've been seeing." Harry let out a sigh of relief.

"I'll let you two get back to your dinner. It was nice seeing you. Maybe we can get together sometime. Double date or something," said Dudley.

"That would be great," said Ginny, smiling up at him.

"Give me a call sometime. You still have my number right?"

"Yeah, we'll have to do that sometime soon," said Harry

With that Dudley turned and walked into the café.

"Dudley seems nice," said Ginny. "It seems like he's changed a lot."

"You could say that again," said Harry.

The sun was just beginning to set when they were done with dinner. Harry stood from the table and took Ginny by the hand, pulling her to her feet. Hand in hand they made their way through Regent's Park and around a small lake until they reached Queen Mary's Gardens. Ginny gasped when the vast rose garden came into view. "It's beautiful," she whispered.

Harry spotted a bench in the middle of the garden overlooking the lake and surrounded by thousands of roses of every color and led her to it. The setting sun reflected across the lake as the roses blew gently in the early evening breeze.

"This is beautiful Harry," breathed Ginny as she gazed across the lake and watched the setting sun. Harry, however, only had eyes for her.

"Ginny, you know I love you right?" he asked.

"Of course I do. I love you too," said Ginny.

Harry reached up and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "I love you more then anything in this world. You're the reason I'm alive and the only thing I live for now." He stood and reached into his pocket with trembling hands, pulling out the small black box. He took Ginny's hand and looking into her eyes, knelt down on one knee. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" He opened the box to reveal the simple diamond ring, which caught the light reflecting off the lake.

Ginny gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, tears forming in her eyes. "Of course I'll marry you!" she said, the tears falling freely now. With shaking hands, Harry removed the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger. Without warning, Ginny flung herself in his arms, causing them to tumble backwards into the grass, and kissed him full on the mouth.

"I love you, Harry"

"I love you too"

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I've enjoyed writing it! Please let me know what you think!