Chapter Eight
By the time Ginny woke up the next morning, she had forgotten her dream and Harry had left for work. There was a note on the side table telling her goodbye and he loved her and sorry for not being able to tell her he was leaving but an emergency came up and he loved her again, but that note was the only remnant of her boyfriend remaining in the house. Ginny had the whole day to herself.
Or at least part of it. The clock read 11:28 AM, so Ginny had overslept far beyond when she had planned on waking up. She sighed and rolled over, forcing herself to keep her eyes open as she stumbled out of bed and toward the kitchen. The sun shining through unshaded windows didn't help the waking-up process much; it mostly just made her feel more grouchy than before. She sped up her coffeemaker with a spell and sat at the table sipping the hot brew. She and Harry had updated Grimmauld Place with pretty much any of the Muggle extras they could buy; the coffeemaker was just one example of the non-magical technology that filled the house. Harry had felt uncomfortable fairly quickly in a house where he couldn't call anyone on the telephone, so he'd added a telephone and a line, an internet connection and a computer, and even cable television. Ginny had never seen Muggle television before, and she'd quickly been fascinated by everything she saw. Muggles were hilarious; they seemed to have no idea that their "reality" television shows were nothing like reality. When she'd brought this up to Harry, though, he had just laughed and laughed for longer than she'd ever seen him laugh before, so she just let her questions rest and enjoyed the shows after that.
As she sat thinking purposelessly about TV, the telephone started ringing. She got up and looked at the caller ID- something that she considered pretty close to magic on the Muggles' part; she wasn't sure how the phone could tell who was calling but she loved it- and saw that it was Fleur. While Fleur and Ginny were never going to be best friends, they had gained a kind of mutual respect through the war and a kind of mutual affection through Fleur's daughter and Ginny's goddaughter, Victoire. Both women thought Victoire was perfect, and they bonded a little bit over that.
"Hello?" Ginny said, remembering to pick up and answer the phone in the right order for once. She still wasn't quite used to all this Muggle stuff, as she'd only moved in with Harry two months ago, but she was getting the hang of it.
"'Ello, Ginny," Fleur said, her light accent sounding more pretty than affected to Ginny now. "'Ow are you today?"
"Oh, you know, just woke up, so can't complain," Ginny joked. "And you, Fleur, how are you? How's Bill and Victoire?"
"Oh, Beel is doing well, although he is away right now," Fleur replied. "Victoire and I are a leetle sad without Beel, but we are managing. Actually, Ginny, that is what is was calling about."
"About… about being sad without Bill?" asked Ginny, puzzled. Not that she minded listening to Fleur unload about her problems, but Ginny was one of the least sympathetic people Fleur knew. "I mean, Fleur, I'm really sorry about Bill, I miss him too, but-"
"No, no, Ginny," Fleur interrupted, laughing slightly. "I was wondering eef maybe you would watch leetle Victoire for a few hours thees afternoon. I am going out to shop for a leetle while with my seester, Gabrielle. She ees een town for the week."
"Oh," Ginny said. "Oh, right, of course. Yeah, sure, Fleur. I don't have to work today, and Harry isn't around so the house is empty except for me. When were you thinking of bringing her over?"
"Gabrielle and I weel be meeting at two, and then I weel come pick Victoire up at five so we can get deener togezzer," Fleur explained. "Eet weel be a ladies' day."
Ginny noticed that she had been left out of the "ladies' day" proceedings for the most part, but she wasn't terribly bothered by it as it sounded like something she wouldn't like anyway. "Okay, I'll be ready."
"Thank you, Ginny," Fleur said. "I really appreciate it. See you at a leetle before two!"
"No problem," Ginny replied. "Bye, Fleur."
After Ginny and Victoire had had a wildly affectionate greeting, the question was raised of what to do. Ginny found that she didn't really mind one way or the other; Victoire was so perfectly adorable, with her strawberry-blonde hair and half-Veela childish beauty, that anything they did together would be enjoyable. Her attitude, although occasionally petulant, was generally good-humored, as was the trend among Veela children.
"Shall we have a pillow fight, Vicky?" Ginny asked; she was only allowed to call Victoire "Vicky" when her mother was out of earshot, and she took full advantage of every opportunity.
"Is Uncle Harry here?" asked Victoire, her diction absent of many toddler mispronunciations but still possessing the charm of her age. "He's loads of fun, Auntie Ginny."
"No, he's not here today," Ginny replied, "but we can still have lots of girl time together, right? Auntie Ginny is at least a little entertaining, hmm?"
Victoire giggled. "Yes," she said, "you are. Let's go have a pillow fight! And after can we do makeup?"
Ginny sighed. Fleur's influence on the little girl was never more perceptible than when discussing any type of beauty products or routines. "Of course, Victoire," she said. "But whoever wins the pillow fight gets to do the makeup first!"
Victoire's laughter followed her down the hall as the two raced toward Ginny and Harry's room. Thankfully, Ginny had had the foresight to change the sheets after last night's somewhat messy escapades, and the two were soon laughing and rolling around, trading pillow blows and dancing around the room out of the other's reach. They continued this for a surprisingly long time; Victoire never tired, and Ginny was eager to engage her for as long as she could, knowing that Victoire would be most temperamental if she were allowed to be bored.
Just as Victoire climbed on top of Ginny, ready to announce her victory with a resounding blow to her godmother's head, the bedroom door opened and Harry appeared. Ginny was somewhat surprised; a glance at the clock told her it was only just past 3:00 and Harry was rarely home before five. However, she was pleased to see Victoire's and Harry's faces light up in almost mirrored grins.
"Uncle Harry!" shouted Victoire, not moving from her strategically advantageous position atop Ginny's stomach but reaching her arms out toward her uncle eagerly. "Come be on my team! I'm going to win, Auntie Ginny is beat."
Harry grinned at his niece, putting down his briefcase at the door and removing his shoes. "I don't know, Victoire," he said. "I think today I like Ginny a little more than you."
"No fair!" screamed Victoire gleefully as Harry swooped down on her and lifted her from the bed, tickling her as Ginny rolled out from underneath them. "No fair!"
"I think it's fair," called Ginny, bopping Victoire gently on the head with her newly-recovered pillow. "Harry and I are a team."
Harry smiled at Ginny from over his squealing niece. "You bet we are," he said softly, expression completely changing for a moment as he looked at his girlfriend. Then, suddenly, he returned to tickling Victoire, who had just caught her breath and began to scream with laughter again. "And little Miss Victoire is the enemy!"
A little bit later, after Victoire had won in a surprising come-from-behind victory, she began to negotiate the makeup deal with Ginny and Harry. "You both lost so you both have to do makeup and I want to do Auntie Ginny's."
"And I want to do Harry's," added Ginny mischievously, winking at her boyfriend, who groaned.
"But that means I do Victoire's and you both know I'm no good at makeup," he said.
"Then it will look silly and we can all laugh," said Victoire slightly impatiently. "Come on, I want to do it before my mummy comes back."
"Does your mummy let you wear makeup?" asked Ginny.
"Well… no, not really," Victoire admitted heavily, looking down at the floor in preemptive disappointment. "But I thought maybe since I was at your house we could maybe do it just one time."
Ginny looked at her boyfriend, who smiled at her. "You're right, Victoire," said Harry. "You're with Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry, so just this once we can do makeup together, all three of us."
Victoire's face lit up and she clapped her hands delightedly. "Yay!" she shouted. "I'm making Auntie Ginny's face first!" And she raced for the vanity table where she knew Ginny kept all her makeup supplies.
Ginny smiled at Harry and took his hand as the two of them made their way out of the tangled bed clothes and over to the vanity table. She felt a surge of warm feelings for her boyfriend and leaned gently against his arm as they walked. "You're cute, Harry," she said.
Before Harry could respond, Victoire made a puking noise from her stool at the vanity. "Yuck," she said, "stop being lovey-dovey."
"Don't want to end up like mum and dad, right, Vicky?" Ginny giggled, releasing Harry's hand and plopping onto the floor in front of her childish makeup artist. "Come on, make me look lovely."