A/N: OK. Here's the next chapter. I have poll up on my profile. I need your input about the direction for the sequel to this story. Check it out and vote. Also I love the reviews, especially the one that give me something to think about. Thanks guys.
Drunken Prince
Standard Disclaimer-I don't own Harry Potter. Just the stuff I make up about him.
Chapter 11-Diamonds and Anamagi
Harry returned to the castle that evening to the questions and excitement of several people including Hermione and Ginny. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had agreed to let Ginny return to the castle since the wards were reinforced and handed over to McGonagall. It had been nearly five days since they retook Hogwarts and Snape assured them the Dark Lord was none the wiser still. He estimated they had another three days before the Dark Lord would discover their possession of the castle and no more than two more days after that before the Dark Lord launched an assault. Meaning they had, at best, another five days before a true battle. The Prime Minister had scheduled an attack at Little Hangleton for the next morning and the little village was being discreetly evacuated by Order members and British Military forces even now. Harry was a little overwhelmed with all the things that needed to be done in such a short amount of time. The first thing on his mind was Ginny, but seeing Hermione and Ron standing there expectantly reminded him of several conversations that needed to be had soon.
"Guys I need to spend some time with Ginny."
Both of them started to protest then thought better of it.
"I really need a couple hours with her guys. Just give me that, ok. She deserves some answers and more than a little bit of my time and I'll be damned if she isn't going to get it. The world as we know it might end in a few days, so you two should probably spend a little time together too! Close your mouth Ron, you look like a fish. I'll tell you what mate. You promise to return my sister with her virtue intact and I'll do the same with yours. Sound good to you?" he asked with a wicked smirk on his face and a little wink.
"Uhhh right, ok," Ron replied as Hermione took her turn to gawk like a fish.
"Hermione, give me two hours, then I want to meet with the four of us and plan some things. I'm bringing Ginny in on everything, even the big stuff. I've figured a few things out over the last few days too and I need you guys to help me break it all down and sort it out ok? Two hours from now I'll meet you guys in the Room of Requirement."
With that he took Ginny's hand and dragged her to the seventh floor. He took a left turn down the corridor adjacent to the Room of Requirement and pulled up at a set of double doors Ginny had never seen before.
"What is this place Harry? I've never seen it before."
It's the Gryffindor Student Dignitary quarters. It only appears when someone who is still a student takes his place on the Wizengamot High Council. It's a perk. When McGonagall took over she opened these quarters for me. If everything would have been normal this year both Neville and Theodore Nott would have been given similar rooms. Neville's dad has been legally declared incapable of fulfilling his obligations to the council and Nott's dad is recently deceased. Actually Neville's room is right next door and Nott is now in the goblins hands so…"
"So are you asking me to come to your room Harry?" she said playfully.
"As much as I want it to be that way, I don't think we're ready for that and I'm not going to let our first time together be some rushed thing between meetings. You mean more to me than that."
Ginny's blush covered her whole body. Even her arms turned pink. "You really mean that don't you? You really are going to marry me when that bastard is dead aren't you?"
"Absolutely I mean it and yes I'm going to marry you when this is all over. We will both need to make arrangements to get our NEWT's taken care of but yes, I'm going to marry you sooner rather than later. I love you Gin. Every night this past nine months or so I've thought about you and how much I miss you. I never understood love before…Hell, I never even understood friendship before Ron and Hermione came along. But I know I love you. I know I want to have a family with you, and I know I want my kids to be spoiled rotten by your parents. I know I want to warn our kids not to follow in their Uncles Fred and George's footsteps, and I know I want at least one of them to grow up to beat their Uncle Ron at chess. I want to be happy. After all the horrible things that have happened to me and around me all my life, all I want is to be happy. I won't be happy without you, so yeah, I want to marry you if you'll have me."
Ginny was crying pretty hard and she couldn't see him stick his hand in his pocket.
"That was beautiful Harry," she stuttered through the sniffles, "but if you think I'm going to agree to marry you without a proper ring and all that, then you've got another thing coming Mister!" She was smiling and pouting at the same time. Harry thought it was cute.
"I guess I'll just have to remedy that then won't I."
Harry dropped to his knee and pulled out the black velvet box he had in his pocket. He opened it up to reveal an amazing white gold engagement ring with a large, perfect diamond surrounded by perfectly cut emeralds.
"Ginevra Molly Weasley you, and your family, have taught me what it means to be loved. Please allow me to return that favor for the rest of our lives. I would be honored if you would agree to be my wife!"
He waited on the hard stone floor of the seventh floor hallway for what seemed like an eternity. Just as he was starting to have real doubts, Ginny came out of her shocked state. She lowered herself to his level and tackled him to the floor.
"Of course I'll marry you! Oh merlin Harry! I can't believe…I never thought…I can't wait…I just want to…"
She finally gave up and just kissed him. After a couple minutes of snogging she backed off and looked into his eyes.
"Ok, you can put that ring on my finger now. I want to see it in all its glory."
Harry did as he was told and they both looked at for a bit while they sat on the floor of the corridor. "Do you like it? It was my mother's. I stopped and had a chat with the goblins then picked this out of my vault for you."
"I do love it….Oh merlin Harry! My mother. She's going to kill us. We're going to have to keep this a secret for a bit." She started to hesitantly remove the ring. Harry stopped her and slid the ring back into position.
"Relax Gin, I spoke to your parents this afternoon before I left. They're thrilled. I probably have bruises where your mother squeezed me nearly to death. Your dad actually gave me hug too. I was totally surprised. I knew he liked me, but I wasn't expecting that. Anyways, we have other stuff to talk about right now too. As much as I'd like to snog you rotten for a while then tell the whole castle our news, I have to fill you in and then we need to meet with Ron and Mione. I probably need to have chat with Neville too, but that can wait until tomorrow. Well, do you want to go in the room and get comfortable so I can tell you secrets no one else knows?"
"Sure, let's get this over with so we have some time to snog before I introduce my fiancé to my brother and his girlfriend!"
Harry laughed and led the way into the beautifully appointed room he'd been given.
HP+++++++++HP+++++++++HP
Harry spent most of their time sharing his story with Ginny. It wasn't a short story after all. He filled her in on everything including the horcruxes and his new theories and plans. They of course did make some time to get in a quick bit of snogging before composing themselves and heading out towards the Room of Requirement.
As they exited the room they saw Neville and Hannah walking hand in hand towards his room next door.
"Oh hey Neville," said Harry. "I was going to ask you if you had some time to chat tomorrow after breakfast? I have some things to run by you."
"Of course mate. Just grab me after we eat. Guys you know my girlfriend Hannah Abbott, right?" Neville proudly asked.
"Of course, we were in the DA together. Hannah it's great to see you again healthy and happy." He said gesturing to their intertwined hands. "And of course you know my fiancé Ginny Weasley."
"Whoa!" Neville exclaimed. "Merlin, congratulations you two. When did this happen?"
"Just this evening, and thanks. But we have to be off. I'll catch up with you tomorrow Nev. Nice to see you Hannah."
It wasn't far to the Room of Requirement and the newly engaged couple got there just as Ron and Hermione were walking up.
Noticing Hermione's disheveled hair and Ron's goofy grin Harry decided to poke at his friends a bit. "Have a nice time in the broom closet did we?"
Hermione bristled at Harry's comment. "I'll have you know that broom closets are an insult to proper girls everywhere. I refuse to fall victim to your obvious attempts to bait me into an embarrassing confession."
"Yeah mate. Nothing but the best for Hermione. We found an unused classroom on the fifth floor and transfigured a desk into a loveseat."
Harry and Ginny burst out laughing while Hermione scowled at the three of them. Hermione then noticed the glint from Ginny's ring and grabbed her hand.
"Is this what I think it is?" she demanded.
"Yes," responded Ginny while the smile on her face spread from ear to ear.
"Ahhhhhhhhh. Hehehehehehehe." Hermione squealed while Ginny joined her and the two started a several minutes long happy dance.
Ron finally picked up what was going on and looked at Harry. "Bloody hell Harry, you're marrying my sister? You didn't even ask me. Aren't you supposed to get my permission or something?"
"No offense mate, but I don't need your permission. I got your dad's blessing earlier and I have the bruises to prove your mum is ok with it too. She squeezed the air right out of me when I talked to them. Besides I figured you'd be happy. We're finally really going to be brothers. Legally."
"I know, it's just crazy to think about. You sure you're ready for this? You sure she is?"
"I'm sure. So is she. Besides it's not like we're getting married tomorrow. I still have a Dark Lord to get rid of and we both need to get our NEWT's taken care of. I love her Ron. I always will. Besides when you marry Hermione we'll complete the circle."
Ron blushed. "Easy, mate! Let me take her on a proper date first then maybe we can start thinking along those lines huh."
Harry just laughed while Ron grabbed his best friend in a manly hug. "Take care of her, yeah? Now you don't have any choice but to live through this fight. She'll kill you if you go and die on her."
Harry laughed again turned and told the Room of Requirement what he wanted. As he opened the door he looked Ron in the eye and said "I'm going to beat that bastard and then I'm going to take care of Ginny forever."
"Tall order brother. I don't know which is scarier the Dark Lord or the ginger."
Ginny and Hermione had finished their happy dance just in time to hear Ron's comment. He got smacked by both girls for his efforts.
They all made their way into the room and sat down on the two couches facing one another that the room had provided in front of the fire. Harry quickly dove in to the meeting. He told them all about his meeting with Kingsley and the Prime Minister. He told them about the progress the goblins had made and updated them on what else he had learned about his powers.
Hermione stopped him and asked a question that she had been thinking about. "Harry, has the Altor Regnum magic changed you physically besides your eyesight?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm taller and stronger than I was two weeks ago."
"I thought so," she responded. "Harry did the goblins tell you if there could possibly be more Altor Regnum?"
"Yeah they said there could be one more. Why?"
"Neville," she replied confidently. "Have any of you noticed how huge he is getting? He's well over 2 meters tall and he's built besides. Plus Griphook said the Longbottom's were one of the original Altor Regnum."
"Yeah Ragnok told me that Neville could be one, but they didn't know for sure. I was going to talk to him about it tomorrow."
Ron harrumphed. "Well that makes our surprise seem kind of lame then doesn't it?"
Hermione smacked his arm. "Don't put yourself down Ronald. You should be proud of yourself and your surprise is awesome."
"Well what is it guys?"
"Well after you transformed the first time Ron and I started talking and we decided to see if we could become animagi. I found the potion in one of my books so we can discover our forms. We took the potion a couple days ago."
"Well what are your forms?" asked Ginny while Harry nodded.
Hermione answered. "Well I'm a red fox. After I found my form I tried to see how far I could get in the process. I've read all about it…but I can only get my finger nails to lengthen into claws so far and maybe a little red hair on my arms. But something different happened when Ron took the potion."
Ron took over the story. "When Hermione took the potion she passed out for about ten minutes and when she woke up she knew her form. I expected it to be the same for me, but when I took the potion I never passed out. I saw my form in my mind right away. Hermione read the passage about it in her book and it said if that happened you were likely a naturally occurring animagus. So…"
Ron stood and walked over to the open area then closed his eyes. His arms lengthened and his body shortened. After just a few seconds he opened his eyes and looked at his friends.
"Ron you're an eagle! That's awesome. We can fly together mate."
"He's a Golden Eagle actually," said Hermione. "And he's way bigger than a normal eagle. I looked it up and normally Golden Eagles have about a two meter wingspan and weigh somewhere between eleven and fourteen kilograms. Ron has a wingspan of almost five meters and he weighs almost forty kilograms."
At this Ron spread his wings out. She was right he really was big. Obviously nowhere near as big as Harry was when he changed into Talon but Ron was definitely big enough to do some serious damage if he wanted.
"Ron this is amazing. You need a marauder name mate." At this Ron ruffled his feathers and looked at Hermione.
She spoke up for him. "We knew you'd say that Harry so we talked about it already. We decided the name we liked the best was 'Raptor'. What do you think?"
"It's perfect!" Harry was smiling so big he didn't know what to do with himself. "This is seriously the best day ever.
Ron changed back and walked back to the couch smiling.
"Ok," Harry said bringing them all back to attention. "One more bombshell."
All three of the others looked at Harry expectantly.
"I am pretty sure I am now the Master of Death."
A/N: The plot thickens. Let me know what you guys think.