A/N: Thanks to MandyinKC and speedsONEandONLY for two details that appear in this chapter :D
()()()()
Sunday afternoon
the Hogwarts grounds
Ginny sat on a blanket on the grassy lawn near the lake, surrounded by pupils enjoying the beautiful Indian summer weather. The air had the slightest bite, but she was comfortable in her jumper in the sunshine, and the clear sky was rare enough not to be missed. In deference to McGonagall's wishes, Harry had said goodbye to the children and left shortly after breakfast. James and most of the sixth-year Gryffindors were nearby. Al and Scorpius Malfoy were on the big rocks near the shore, trying to coax the Giant Squid into the shallows. Rose and Lucy had joined Ginny about half an hour ago, each with her own book, and when Lily and Roxie ran up, Rose enlarged the blanket. Lily and Roxie were inseparable at home, and Ginny was glad to see the friendship continue at Hogwarts despite their separate houses. The younger girls began practicing color-changing charms on everything in sight, with Rose's book and Ginny's notes quickly being declared off-limits.
This was one of the unexpected benefits of being at Hogwarts: watching the children use magic. Because of the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and Harry's unreasonable enforcement of it, the only magic Ginny had seen her children perform was accidental magic when they were small. This was much better. Lily really had a knack for Transfiguration, and despite his recent struggles, James was developing the intuitive, personal style of fully-qualified wizards. Ginny kept her head down and her mouth shut, pretending to be absorbed in her writing, and soon the girls chatted freely, providing a wealth of insights and gossip that would never have been included in letters home.
The air cooled as the afternoon wore on. Used to the milder weather of southern England, Ginny had forgotten her schoolgirl habit of always keeping a scarf with her. She had just started to wonder when James would want to go in for dinner when a capricious wind blew her notes across the lawn. She jumped up and grabbed the parchments that were in reach as Rose and Lucy summoned the rest. Accepting the disordered stack, Ginny sat down with a slight shiver.
"Are you cold, Mum? You can borrow my scarf," Lily said.
"No, that's okay, thanks." Ginny couldn't help giving the green and silver scarf coiled in the middle of the blanket a wary glance. "It's just the wind."
But short minutes later the capricious wind had settled into a steady breeze, and as clouds scuttled across the sky, Ginny pulled the sleeves of her jumper down over her hands. Pupils all across the grounds gathered belongings and walked back to the castle … except her children, of course. Al and Scorpius had joined James and his friends for what looked like a football free-for-all, and the girls simply moved closer together and turned their backs to the wind. But Ginny was the type of person who, once she was cold, could not get warm again without tea and a fire, and her discomfort became more obvious despite her attempts to suppress the shivering.
"Aunt Ginny, you really should take Lily's scarf," Rose said, not looking up from her book.
"Merlin, Mum, you look like you're freezing."
"I'm fine." Ginny smiled and tucked her elbows closer to her body. "It's almost dinnertime, anyway."
Roxie, with a nice, thick, scarlet-and-gold Gryffindor scarf wrapped around her neck, looked over at the boys. "They don't look like they'll be going in soon."
"Seriously, just take it." Lily held out her scarf.
Ginny flinched away from it, and her daughter and nieces laughed.
"Come on, it won't bite you," Lily teased, waving the green-and-silver fringe playfully in her mother's face. "Or are you chicken?"
Ginny straightened up. "Of course not. But Gryffindors do not wear Slytherin accessories. Even first-years know that." She mimicked Lily's condescending tone from Friday, when Ginny had teased her about entering the Slytherin common room.
Lily's eyes sparkled.
"And don't you dare—"
But the chicken noise came from Rose, not Lily. Ginny stared at her goddaughter, so surprised she forgot to be offended, and saw her brothers in the smiling, freckled face laughing up at her.
"Give me that."
()()()()
Sunday evening
the Entrance Hall
They passed McGonagall leaving the Great Hall as they approached for dinner. Ginny tried to hide behind James, but the Headmistress had already spotted her.
"Ginny Weasley Potter!" Her voice rang through the hall, drawing everyone's attention. "What is that—that thing—" McGonagall's nostrils flared, and Ginny was sure she had nearly said abomination— "around your neck?"
"It's a scarf, Professor."
"I can see that, Mrs. Potter," McGonagall said, her voice considerably quieter but no less sharp. "What I do not know is why one of my best Gryffindors is wearing Slytherin colors."
"They dared me, Professor. Rose bokked at me."
"R—Miss Weasley?"
"Yes, Professor. So you see, I really had no choice," Ginny said with dignity. "Gryffindor honor was at stake."
"Yes, I quite agree," McGonagall said in her normal voice, her eyes lingering on the scarf before looking Ginny in the face. "I'm sure Mr. Potter appreciates the gesture."
Ginny fought hard to keep her face straight as McGonagall turned and swept up the marble staircase.
"You're the worst sister ever," James said under his breath to Lily. "You're such a Slytherin."
"Thank you," Lily said brightly.
"It wasn't a compliment."
"Just because I can get Mum to do whatever I want and you're still—"
"Enough, you two." Ginny watched her daughter flounce off to join her friends at the Slytherin table, then turned to James and Al. "Do either of you have any itching powder?"
()()()()
Sunday night
the fifth floor
Ginny trailed listlessly behind James and Brad Derrick. If she had thought prefect meetings were boring, patrol duty was not much better. At least they were moving, even if there was an uneasy silence between the two boys. James had spent several minutes during this evening's prefect meeting adjusting schedules so he could cover for the prefects who had been forced to take on his duties over the last ten days. Between night patrol and supervising the younger pupils during breaks, there were quite a few people to repay. Tonight's patrol belonged to the sixth-year Slytherins, but James was covering for the girl tonight. Ginny was pleased that he was initiating some responsibility, but if it meant spending the next three nights wandering aimlessly about the castle (tomorrow for James's regular patrol, Tuesday for Louis, and Wednesday for Caitlin), she would call an evening Harpies' practice herself.
They approached a crossing corridor, and Ginny recognized the turn to the East Wing and the Portable Swamp. Perhaps sensing his mother's discomfort, James finally spoke.
"What do you think about Quidditch practice tomorrow?"
James was going to be very busy, attending Quidditch practice for two teams and taking on extra prefect duties. Maybe even busy enough to keep him out of trouble. Remembering his disappointment when she had bailed on practice last week, Ginny quickened her step to walk beside the boys and waited for an opportunity to join the conversation.
"What do you think, Mum? I know you haven't seen the Slytherins fly, but…."
"Actually, it's only Miles I've never seen fly," Ginny said. "But Lily didn't tell me who's on the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw team—any new players?"
"Several," Brad said, opening a door at random, then closing it again. "They usually have very different flying styles, and I have no idea what that's going to look like when they play together."
"Why not observe some practices?" Ginny suggested. "Between the two of you, you should be able to catch both their solo and combined teams."
Brad looked at James. "That okay with you? You've got a lot on your plate."
"No more than you."
"I'm not the one picking up extra patrols, and I'm not taking as many lessons as you are, either."
"How do you know that?"
Brad shrugged. "Everyone knows you're studying for an Auror or maybe a curse-breaker. You continued Arithmancy this year."
"Or a Healer," James retorted. He didn't seem to like the idea of "everyone" knowing what he was studying.
"Nah. No bedside manner."
James's mouth twitched, and he led the way around the next corner.
"How long do we have to stay out here?" Ginny said, opening the first door she came to. Might as well get into the spirit of the thing.
"You weren't a prefect?" Bradley said.
She shook her head. "Most of my brothers were, but not I."
"The way everybody talks, I thought…."
"You shouldn't believe everything you hear."
"You were in Dumbledore's Army, though?"
"Yes." She slipped one hand behind a tapestry and pulled it away from the wall.
"And you have an Order of Merlin?"
"Somewhere."
"Oh, Aunt Hermione said I should ask you what happened to the girl who ratted out the DA."
Ginny followed the boys up the stairs, using the handrail for support as her back protested the movement. She reached her free hand back to massage the sore spot. It had been bothering her on and off all day, but it wasn't like she had done anything this weekend other than follow James and Harry—oh.
She reached the landing several steps behind the boys, who looked at her expectantly. Ginny forced her thoughts away from last night and back to the conversation at hand.
"When the DA was formed, Hermione had everyone sign a piece of parchment as an agreement to keep the meetings secret. What we didn't know until Marietta snitched was that Hermione had jinxed it."
"What happened?" James said, using his wand to shine light into an alcove.
"The word sneak spelled out across her face in dark purple pustules. No one, not Umbridge or Madame Pomfrey or even Professor Flitwick, the Charms professor, could figure out how to remove them. They were still there at the beginning of the next school year."
Both boys gaped.
"Aunt Hermione did that?" James looked a little nervous.
Ginny smiled. "Hermione is serious about keeping promises. You've heard her say that before. And this was very serious indeed. The Ministry controlled Hogwarts that year, remember, and did not believe what Dumbledore and Harry said about Voldemort's return. We all would have been expelled, about thirty of us, and our parents who worked in the Ministry could have been fired. Harry would have been sent to Azkaban. Umbridge tried at the beginning of the year, before school even started."
"The Dementor attack," James said.
"Dementors? Didn't they used to guard Azkaban?"
James launched into a description of the creatures, complete with details of the Patronus Charm and Harry's trial. Brad seemed genuinely curious (Ginny supposed he'd never heard anything about Harry in any detail), and James didn't seem to mind his interest. She pondered this observation as the boys walked the sixth and seventh floors, continuing to peer into classrooms and peek behind tapestries. It was crowds that James didn't like: the group of pupils asking for her autograph outside the DADA classroom; the stares from everyone in the courtyard or the Great Hall; the parliament of owls that appeared at their kitchen window for days after his O.W.L. results were published. He was so like Harry.
Speaking of whom…. Ginny stared at the familiar head of messy black hair in the cupboard she had just opened. But it couldn't be Harry; he had left Hogwarts this morning. And Harry wouldn't be snogging someone else...
"Albus?"
There was a wet sound, a feminine gasp, and Ginny found herself staring into the emerald-green eyes of her younger son, illuminated by the candles charmed to float overhead.
"Hi, Mum," Al said weakly.
She was definitely calling an evening Harpies practice tomorrow.
()()()()
"What the hell?" Al said to James under his breath.
The boys walked back to Gryffindor Tower ahead of Ginny and Maggie after a snickering Derrick left for the Slytherin dungeons.
"I'm sorry," James said, unable to keep his own laughter out of his voice. "I forgot to tell you."
"You weren't supposed to be on duty tonight," Al hissed, sending a nervous glance over his shoulder, where his mother and his girlfriend walked side-by-side in stiff silence.
"I switched with Greengrass-Rhodes. You know, because she had to take an extra duty for me. I'm on patrol tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday too."
"Bloody hell," Al muttered. "Four days?"
"I owe a lot of people. What's with the candles, anyway? Broom cupboards aren't very romantic, even with candlelight."
Al smirked. "Says the boy who's never been in one."
"Shut it." James shoved his brother's shoulder.
Ginny cleared her throat, and both boys straightened up immediately.
"Sorry, Mum."
"Sorry, Mum."
"Well, she knows now," James said in a low voice.
"And it's your fault," Al said sourly. "I could have kept the secret."
"It could have been worse. At least you both had all your clothes on."
"It's not like that," Al said, sounding angry for the first time. "You don't know what you're talking about."
They had reached the Fat Lady's portrait. Maggie walked past Al, gave the password, and climbed through the portrait hole without so much as looking at him. Al followed, looking miserable.
"Here, Mum, let me help." James held the portrait open with one hand and extended the other to his mother. She looked down her nose at it.
"What do you know about her?"
"Maggie? She's all right. She's in Al's year. You should ask CeCe. They're best friends."
Ginny pursed her lips. "Maybe I will." She still made no move to enter the common room.
"Mum? Are you coming?"
She looked at James as if just now seeing him. "Not tonight. I'll see you in the morning, all right?"
As James climbed through the portrait hole and joined his friends, he couldn't help thinking the weekend had turned out okay after all.