Chapter 24
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The 'colour wars' game the next night was a lot more fun and relaxed. Elsie had potions and herbology assessments that day so her magic was fresher and her assessments had both gone well boosting her confidence a little. None of the others seemed to take it as seriously as Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville, though Seamus and Dean were mainly focused on cursing each other. Hermione remembered her comment about scarlet knickers and assigned her the red. Harry was yellow and in the end they were all a lot yellow and a little multi colours and Elsie realised it was because his spells were often strong enough to cancel the other spells out, it wasn't just hers. Ron and Neville were able to do it too sometimes. Most of them had mastered casting a small area so you got a splash of colour but Hermione managed to surprise Harry while he was casting and Dean ended up bright glow in the dark yellow from his afro to his sneakers.
"If my dick or pubes glow in the bloody dark, you're so going to get it Potter," Dean growled as they finished the game.
"I don't know, Leanne might like it," Potter smirked.
"If I have to sleep on the couch, I'm gonna complain to Hermione so you do too," Dean retorted laughing.
"It'd make it easier for her to find," Seamus teased his best friend starting a quick battle between the two of them where Dean managed to make Seamus pink and sparkly and Seamus managed some small splotches of black to go with the yellow, before Hermione transformed their play area into a study area and shoo'd them both back to their books. Dean now howling about not being a bloody Hufflepuff.
"That was really mean, are they always like that?" Elsie asked softly.
"They've been best friends since they met on the train in first year, Dean knew Seamus wasn't being mean. Besides it was a joke, Dean's actually quite big down there, Seamus wouldn't have said it if he wasn't, he'd never have made a comment like that if it was something Dean was sensitive about," Neville explained.
"But to talk so casually about other people's sex lives," Elsie said shocked.
"Dean and Leanne, Seamus and Parvati, and Harry and Hermione have been married and living together since November and while they don't talk about it much, everyone knows that they used a sex ritual to get married, it's no secret that they sleep together in both ways of saying that. Nobody was upset or offended by our joking around," Neville replied.
"Do they all think that we're having sex?" Elsie asked horrified.
"I think that Harry and Hermione recognise that we're still getting to know each other and I doubt any of the others have thought much about it, but it's not a big deal we're married. Nobody's going to think that there's anything wrong with you having sex with your husband if you want to, it's not like they think you're sneaking around or cheating on your betrothed," Neville said flatly, feeling mortified that his wife was ashamed of anyone thinking they were having sex.
-o0o-
Elsie wasn't surprised to hear that none of the professors thought she was ready for OWLs in any of the subjects that required active magic, she did qualify in History, Runes, Arithmancy and Divination. In fact, her parents had encouraged her to read a wide selection of wizarding history so she was far better prepared than the Hogwarts students, in fact the professor who assessed her believed she could easily sit her OWL now and her NEWT in July if she wanted. Professor Flitwick believed that with some hard work she might be ready to sit her Charms OWL in July with a bit of hard work but Professors McGonagall, Snape and Slughorn believed she'd do better joining next year's fifth year classes.
"Can I be in fifth year for some classes and sixth year for others? How would that work?" Elsie asked worriedly.
"You wouldn't be with the same house for all your classes and it will take some shuffling, but I believe it can be managed if that's what you want to do, I would encourage you to take the History NEWT over the summer, you're more than ready for it. Very few students take NEWT level history and if you love history, I'm afraid that you're not going to love the way it's taught here, you could always take the NEWT and then audit one of the classes when you're free if you'd like to try it, but it would make scheduling your other classes easier if you didn't take history or took it as independent study," Minerva said.
-o0o-
"So are you staying for your OWLs?" Parvati asked eagerly.
"Yes, I'm only going to sit a couple of them but I'll be here until we take the train home with you all at the end of the year. Professor McGonagall said it would make my timetable next year a bit odd being half fifth year and half sixth year, but that it's better than being bored in half my subjects," Elsie replied shyly.
"Does that mean you're going to be in our dorm?" Romilda Vane asked. She wasn't thrilled about having to squeeze an extra girl into their space but she was hoping that becoming friends with the new girl would get her closer to Harry Potter, her fangirl crush on him had only changed a little when he had married Hermione. She knew she could never take her place but even his friends would be invited to all the best parties and stuff and they'd be in on the secrets Harry kept. She's never understand why Ginny Weasley could have turned him down.
"Of course not. She'll be in quarters with her husband," Lavender snorted.
"If she chooses not to share with Neville she'll probably board with the sixth years. There'll be more room with them," Hermione said, trying to let her new friend know that choosing not to stay with Neville would be okay as far as being friends with his friends went.
"I don't know yet where I'll be staying," Elsie admitted, blushing furiously.
"It's okay. We understand that you really don't know Neville very well yet. I wouldn't want to share with a stranger either," Hermione replied soothingly.
"Doesn't Ginny Weasley get married over the summer, so she'll be moving out if her husband is a student here so Elsie would have a room to herself," Lavender suggested.
"Ginny doesn't have to get married until the summer after this one, unless her parents have arranged a match for her or the ministry matches her with someone older, Ginny won't be sixteen until the middle of August, it would be too hard to organise a wedding over the summer if she doesn't even find out the name of the groom until less than three weeks before we come back to school," Hermione replied. "But the seventh year girl's dorms would be empty if you wanted to ask if you could room by yourself."
"You know the Weasleys won't have arranged a match for Ginny. Alicia tells me that Mrs Weasley is still indulging her little girl's tantrums about not bagging The-Boy-Who-Lived," Katie said, smiling sympathetically at Harry as he groaned.
"You're also lucky to have been able to marry people you knew. Even Ron and Eloise have a shared history and time to get to know each other without parents and grandparents listening to every word and insisting you keep to the strictest courting protocols," Elsie said.
"You should ignore the fact you're married for a while and start over getting to know each other. You know that Neville couldn't have been himself any more than you could be yourself in a formal courting under the watchful eyes of your parents, and you know some of the stuff his Gran told you about him is probably as wrong as the stuff your parents and grandparents told him about you. So you should start again. Get to know each other honestly. Because Neville is a pretty great guy once you get to know him. I'm sure you will like him," Harry suggested.
"We could have a party, that's a great way to get to know each other," Seamus suggested.
"We are not spending a whole night partying and wasting half a day hungover, I need to study," Hermione, and surprisingly Parvati told him firmly.
"I can't afford the time for a party, and the fifth years and other seventh years are likely to beat you with a beaters bat if you make too much noise right before NEWTs and OWLs, besides I don't think that getting drunk is the answer here," Leanne agreed with the other girls.
"We will have a party after OWLs, you're welcome to join us," one of the fifth years said.
"Neville and I were thinking we should have a couples colour war so they can learn to work together, just the five of us and our partners if they've time to come," Harry said.
"I'm out," Leanne said immediately.
"I'm out too," Eloise also said more relieved than reluctant. She hadn't played colour war with them before, though Ron had mentioned it, and the idea of playing any game based on defence training with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville who had fought the Death Eaters last year filled her with apprehension.
"That's a pity, it was a lot of fun, but it would be nice not to be the only beginner," Elsie said shyly.
"Perhaps after OWLs you and I could practice, just the two of us?" Eloise said softly.
Elsie smiled. "I'd like that.
"What OWLs are you doing?" Eloise asked.
"History, Herbology, Astronomy, Arithmancy, Divination and Ancient Runes now and hopefully my Charms OWL and my History NEWT in July," Elsie replied.
"I'm taking History and Astronomy of course and Arithmancy and Ancient Runes if you'd like to spend some time studying with me," Eloise offered.
"That would be good, I'd like that, Hermione's been studying with me but I get the feeling that it's to help me out and not because she needs to study the things I'm learning," Elsie admitted.
"Hemione's a sixth year not fifth and she's the top of her year in almost every subject. I doubt she really has much studying left to do. She has time to help you and me without harming her own grades, she wouldn't do it otherwise," Eloise said.
-o0o-
Molly Weasley had been very disappointed to learn that as the mother of the groom she had very little say in her sons' weddings. She was still coming to terms with the fact that three of her sons had rushed into marriage without telling her let alone inviting her to their weddings, to avoid a ministry appointed match when the new law was announced and wouldn't agree to having a proper wedding and of the three remaining none of their fiancés had agreed to get married at the Burrow, nor did they want her opinions on the choice of celebrant, marriage ceremonies, colour schemes, dresses, catering or flowers.
The only thing the brides and their families had asked her for was assistance to make sure the dates of the weddings didn't clash with her other children's weddings and for a prioritised list of the guests she would like to invite.
The only wedding she could enjoy planning was Ginny's which wasn't going to be until the summer after this, and most of the bloom had been knocked off that enjoyment by her daughter's apathy towards the whole thing since she was still in denial that she would have to marry anybody other than the love of her life, Harry Potter. It didn't help that they didn't even know the name of the groom she was supposed to marry yet and wouldn't until her birthday in August next year unless the groom was only a year older than Ginny and found out about the match first and approached her with the information.
It was really a bit too early to be deciding on the details but Molly was already feeling disgruntled about the planning. There was no point colluding and scheming to get all her favourite plans included when Ginny simply let her have her own way on everything because none of it mattered to her at all if she couldn't marry Harry.
Molly was torn between wanting to organise a late summer wedding before the teenagers went back to school or asking for permission for them all to leave school for the weekend of the wedding, which would mean a much smaller affair. Having it the weekend before they went back to school was a little unfair on the groom's family who might only have two weeks' notice of the wedding and the name of the bride if Ginny was older than he was, but it also insured that the arrangements would all be made by Ginny and Molly without the mother of the groom interfering.
Arthur was in favour of putting the planning of Ginny's wedding off and holding the ceremony as late in the year as they could so Ginny and her groom would have time to get to know each other and hopefully at least become friends before the wedding if they didn't already know each other and to get used to the idea that they were going to be married to each other if they were already friends. He also suggested if the were muggleborn most of his family would be unable to come to the Burrow for the wedding and it would be better to allow them to marry in the muggle world. Arthur was hopeful that by the time Ginny turned seventeen next summer she would have gotten over Harry and be ready to commit to a new relationship. Molly in her heart was afraid that even a year from now, a couple of months getting to know whoever he was wouldn't make much difference to the broken hearted young witch. She'd known for months that she wouldn't be marrying Harry and that was still all she wanted and dreamed about. (They hadn't been told she had been dating someone new).
Molly couldn't wait to have her daughter home where she could fuss over her and hopefully interest her in the new dress for her brothers' weddings and her own wedding gown if nothing else, she was determined with fourteen months to plan, her daughter would be the most beautiful bride of the summer and have the perfect family wedding, and would make Harry Potter regret his hasty marriage to Hermione that prevented him from being Ginny's groom.
-o0o-
OWL examinations began and tempers grew short as the fifth years stressed out trying to remember every single thing they'd learned in the past five years. They didn't have the time to remember to be nice and make friends with the newcomer and Elsie was glad to spend most of her time with Neville's friends. The sixth year exams were still more than a week away and while everyone was working hard they were mostly able to keep calm and to make an effort to include her when they could. Elsie was more nervous than any of the fifth years, she knew the professors had approved her to take the OWLs she was taking but what if they'd been too optimistic, or simply been trying to be kind since so many other professors had said no. She really didn't feel prepared for any of them and she wished (probably for the millionth time) that her parents had sent her to Hogwarts. These students could have been her friends since she was eleven instead of being alone among adults she could have played and pranked and gossiped and learned how to talk to wizards. Then she wouldn't have so much trouble knowing what Neville wanted from her, or even what she wanted him to want from her. He was perfectly polite to her at all times and never asked her for anything. In fact, they barely spoke except about mundane trivialities and she could tell he was trying to be supportive and to give her space, in spite of sharing a room and a bed. She was grateful for his consideration but if she was honest with herself she didn't know what she wanted from her marriage at this point and Neville trying to be all gentlemanly only made her wonder how he really felt about her. He hoped that he didn't think she was too stupid or too magically weak to have children with, not that she wanted a child anytime soon, but she did want at least two or three eventually. She knew that they'd have to produce an heir and if the ministry didn't revoke the marriage laws they'd have to have at least two children, and she didn't want Neville to regret having to have them with her. He hadn't tried to have sex with her since their wedding night which had been a relief at first since it was painful and terribly embarrassing to have someone she didn't really know touch her like that. Sharing a bed wasn't so bad because he always tried to be busy while she got ready or if she was in the common room until late studying with Hermione he'd be in bed asleep (or at least pretending to be) by the time she returned.
Part of her wished that she'd never met him, not had to get married at all and was still at home with her parents with her mother tutoring her and no pressure to take her OWLs until she felt she was ready. Another part pointed out that Neville was quite attractive and he seemed a really nice guy, his friends were all nice and they thought he was a good man, and maybe she should be glad that her grandfather had arranged the marriage before the ministry had the chance to match her up with someone worse. She was glad not to be alone all the time, for the opportunity to make friends, she wasn't sure that any of them were her friends yet though most people were trying to be nice to her because of Neville. She kept resolving to make the best of it. The problem was she had no idea how to begin doing that and her frustrations and self consciousness about not being ready for OWLs in spite of being a year older than most people took them kept distracting her from her goal of trying to get to know and be less afraid of what Neville thought about her.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.
Stay safe everyone.
