Chapter Nine

At about five fifteen, a very made-up Harry opened the door to his sister-in-law, who almost fainted with laughter as she came inside to pick up her daughter. "Ginny told me zat you would not be here, 'Arry, but I am glad zat you are," she laughed, collecting her daughter into her arms. Ginny had taken the precaution of washing Harry's absurd makeup job from her goddaughter's face to save Victoire from her mother's anger.

"Victoire did my makeup, Fleur," Ginny said, smiling up at Victoire in her mother's arms. "You've got a little cosmetician on your hands."

"Ahh, mon petit chou, your aunt looks beautiful," Fleur said, pinching her daughter's cheek and smiling at her. "Per'aps we shall practice at 'ome more often."

Victoire gasped in complete joy, hugging her mother's neck tightly. "Merci beaucoup, mama," she said, laughing. "I will make you look even lovelier!"

Fleur smiled at her daughter, then turned to Harry and Ginny. "Thank you for watching Victoire," she said. "'opefully I weel see you soon, my dears."

"Of course," Harry said, putting his arm around Ginny's shoulders. "Bye Fleur. See you later, Victoire, honey."

Victoire waved good-bye as her mother spun on the porch, and the two disappeared in the blink of an eye as Harry shut the front door with a sigh.

"I love that girl, but she's so exhausting," he said, and Ginny nodded in agreement, looking up at her boyfriend and smiling slightly. "What?" Harry added, wrinkling his brow quizzically.

"I'm just quite proud of your makeup job," Ginny replied, giggling as she pecked his blush-smeared cheek. "You look cute. I love seeing you play with Victoire, you're both so adorable."

Harry smiled down at Ginny, kissing her soundly on the lips. "You're always adorable," he said. "But maybe we should both wash up."

As they made their way to the bathroom, Ginny frowned up at her boyfriend curiously. "Not that I think this is a bad thing," she began, "but why are you home so early?"

"It's kind of funny, actually," Harry said, flipping on the bathroom light and turning on the sink to allow the water to warm up. "There was a small fire in the Auror offices today."

"Is everyone all right?" Ginny asked, splashing water on her face in an attempt to wash away her niece's elaborate makeover job.

"Oh, yeah," Harry said, scrubbing at his own face, "everyone's fine, it was really small. But of course, being the Ministry of Paperwork and Unnecessary Investigation, the office is closed down for the rest of the day while the Wizengamot inspector tried to figure out why on earth there was a fire. I'm guessing it was the fact that our office is stuffed to the gills with forms and hot as hell."

"Sounds logical to me," Ginny laughed, turning off the water and rubbing at her face with a towel. "God, I'm worn out. Victoire is so energetic now."

"Tell me about it," Harry replied, slumping against his girlfriend's back and starting to fake-snore in her ear. "She's just too young for us, Ginny," he added between deep circular saw breaths.

"I know," she sighed. "Wanna take a shower and then just eat dinner in bed?"

Harry's eyes snapped open and he kissed her on the cheek. "You are the perfect woman," he said, pulling his tie out and unbuttoning his shirt.

"I know," Ginny replied, grinning at her boyfriend and following his example.

When the two of them were tucked up in bed with ice cream (pretty much the only thing Ginny felt like "making" after her long afternoon with Victoire), Ginny looked up at her boyfriend. "Do you want to watch one of your Muggle films or something?"

"It's up to you, dear," he said, kissing her forehead.

"Thanks for not getting ice cream in my hair," Ginny said, grinning up at him. "And let's watch something; I feel like falling asleep quickly today. I'm tired as hell."

"Agreed," Harry said. "The question is which one?"

"Anything," Ginny said, slumping down on her pillow, and Harry cast a Summoning Spell at a random section of their DVD rack.

He laughed when he saw the cover. "You're in luck tonight, dear. Pride and Prejudice."

Ginny sighed happily and snuggled up to her boyfriend as he sent the disc flying into the DVD player with a flick of his wand and started the film. "Today was so good," she said.

"It was," Harry agreed, wrapping his arm firmly around her shoulders. "You're so good with Victoire, Ginny."

"Well, she's a good kid," Ginny replied. "I doubt I'd be as good with a kid that had two normal parents."

"You would be," Harry said. "I think you'd be a good mum no matter what, Ginny. I mean, look at your mum. She managed to raise all seven of you guys and you turned out fine."

Ginny was silent for a moment. Within the past month, Harry had mentioned parenting, marriage, and children about a hundred times more often than usual. She wasn't really sure what he was trying to hint at; she'd been clear just as many times that she wasn't ready for marriage or kids yet and that she would let him know when she was. Or, at least, he'd be able to tell. "I don't know," Ginny said dismissively. "Mum had way more talent with kids than I have, and we didn't come out too well, honestly."

"I think you're the best," Harry murmured, kissing her head, and Ginny sighed. There was no winning when he did his cute-puppy voice, as she called it. She couldn't resist smiling up at him, and for a few minutes there was comfortable silence between them as the Bennett sisters chattered on the screen.

"So," Harry began after a moment, "how was that painting class yesterday? And how's Oliver? You and I got so caught up afterwards that I completely forgot to ask." He followed this up with a wink. As if them getting it on was some kind of weird secret. Ginny sighed.

"Painting was surprisingly good," she said. "I really like it. I'm going back on Thursday. Oh, and while I'm thinking of it, Oliver, Hermione and I will be going out to play catch-up after class so I won't be back as early this time."

"Works out," Harry said. "I've got to work later because of the fire. Ministry incompetence doesn't mean I get unaccounted for time off, apparently."

"Aww, poor baby," Ginny teased.

"It's fine," he responded. "So, why did you like painting so much? You've hated everything else Hermione wanted to take you to. You don't even like going to the cinema much."

"Well, I'm actually good at painting, so there," Ginny said. "But seriously, I don't really know why exactly I'm so keen on this class. Oliver teaches with a lot of energy and student involvement, which isn't very typical of the art teachers Hermione tends to favor, as I'm sure you can imagine."

"Mmm, always the same Hermione," Harry agreed. "And Oliver, how is he? We've been shamefully out of touch basically since school, so I was pretty surprised when you told me he was teaching a painting class."

"I don't know, we didn't really talk," Ginny said. "Ask me again on Thursday after we catch up a little. Maybe I'll get him so heinously drunk that he tells me the full, tragic history of his fall from Quidditch stardom into impoverished teacher obscurity."

"I'm sure he won't even need to be drunk," Harry said, smiling and kissing the top of Ginny's head. "You're so irresistibly charming in a bar."

"So you say," Ginny replied, suddenly feeling exhausted again. The sugar rush from her ice cream must have run its course, and in the morning she only felt slightly irritated for missing Mr. Darcy's proposal.

Author's Note: There may be a break in updating after this, I'm rather crammed at the moment. I promise I'll be back soon! :) Thanks for reading!