Chapter 10: Don't Talk Dursley To Me
Harry was watching with amusement as Audrey and Percy flitted about the Weasley kitchen, hollering at each other back and forth. If it wasn't for the fact that both were running about like stress cadets, one might think they were in the middle of having a row. Alas. Regarding the one row Harry knew Percy had been involved in, the one with his dad that had led to the officious Weasley son's estrangement, he had only heard the broadest brushstrokes from Ron. If not for that story, Harry would still have cause to doubt if such a levelheaded fellow was even capable of roaring at anyone in outrage, least of all his fiancée.
"Audi, have you seen my wand…..?"
"In your pants pocket!" she called, circling the kitchen table. She froze for all of a beat at the strangely raunchy and wicked grin now coming from her lover. She twittered out a mortified giggle. "I meant the wand in your back pocket! Not the wand in your…." With a quick glance down at his crotch and all while blushing furiously, Audrey snatched up her purse from where it had somehow ended up just under the kitchen table and barely in her sightline. Harry smirked at the thought of how it was so like Percy, to invoke a piece of shit Swedish car and use it as a pet name for his fianceé; the smile was gone in the next second when he heard a yowl, followed by a blur of orange fur dashing through the lower half of the swinging front door.
Audrey's startled shriek was even more high-pitched before reversing course into a growl. "First thing your brother's bookish girlfriend does when she returns is take that damn cat back to her own place! We're not kitty sitters!"
"Ooh, that reminds me, love – Hermione asked us to get kitty litter…" Percy seized on, all without looking up from where he was depositing his keys into his breast pocket.
"I said sitter, not litter! Ron's girl can buy her own bloody cat food!" Audrey snipped.
Harry pursed his lips and raised the coffee mug to his lips, content to just sit back and watch bemusedly as Audrey and Percy kept circling him without a second glance, as though he was a hat stand. Ironic as it was coming from a national hero like himself, it wasn't as though Harry didn't know what it was like to feel invisible. Why, sometimes with Aunt Petunia….
He frowned hard, suddenly bothered. He hadn't thought of his Muggle relatives in nearly a year, ever since spiriting them and then himself away from Privet Drive. Why now all of a sudden was he thinking about Aunt Petunia….?
"Percy! We're late!" Audrey bawled.
"Right, all right, keep your hair on, woman!"
Harry snorted; neither Percy nor Audrey noticed. A woman who could make Percy the more nonchalant one about tardiness – now he could see what a complement these two were too each other!
Audrey and Percy both stalked for the living room, rounding the table and an-all-but-invisible Harry as they went. The only acknowledgement either gave was when Percy murmured, "Cheerio there, Harry lad," and affectionately clapped his shoulder.
Leaning back on two chair legs, Harry observed as Audrey, in a tight business suit, bustled into the hearth and grabbed a pinch of Floo powder.
"Knockturn Alley!" Percy called out their destination. Then he suddenly yanked Audrey close by her waist and into a deep kiss. The Floo powder almost absently fell from Audrey's clenched fist as she melted into the embrace and snogged him back, the green flames whoosing about them until the lovers had vanished.
The greenish soot had barely settled in little flecks in the fireplace when Ginny came trudging down the stairs.
"Morning," she mumbled lethargically, bending to graze her lips along Harry's cheek. "Did I miss anything good?"
"Just the Chinese fire drill that is your brother and future sister-in-law going to work," Harry quipped, taking a conservative sip from his mug. "And here I thought I'd never meet someone more Type A than Perce…."
Ginny chuckled low in her throat. "Sounds like quite the morning ritual."
Smirking, Harry reached out a palm to cup the accentuated curve of her bum. "I bet you gnomes to Galleons they don't have our morning ritual…."
"Get on, you!" Ginny laughed, swatting his hand away playfully, before stepping over to the sink to fix herself a spot of breakfast. Harry contented himself with studying the picturesque countryside landscape out the front window.
"Kingsley sure got the Ministry back up and running…." he mused aloud. "…. if your brother's already back to work."
"Percy mentioned he got a promotion, and he's only at his department part-time while using up the rest helping George in the joke shop," Ginny tossed back over her shoulder absently, rummaging through the fridge. "Personally, if I was him, I would have expected something more along the lines of a medal as a commendation for war service, but what can you do?"
"Well, he's always been married to his job, your brother."
"Yes, and now he's going to be married to Audrey and his job," Ginny quipped. "Well, jobs. I shudder to think who would be the other woman in that three-way."
"Judging from the way that stuffed-shirt snogs, I'd say he'd toss a situation before ever tossing away his girl!"
"Wow," a blinking Ginny stood up to her full height, swinging the fridge door closed and now with a carton of milk in her hand. "He really has come a long way from being a 'pompous prat' – his words, you'll remember."
Harry chortled, the laugh dying in his throat as he contemplated the view outside. He could feel his girlfriend watching him, yet he didn't acknowledge it.
"You can glare out at Mum's front garden all you want, love…"
"If I am glaring, it's because Crookshanks isn't earning his damn keep and keeping the gnomes away."
"No – you're glaring at that window like it's insulted you because Hermione hasn't sent you so much as a postcard yet!" Ginny chided, trying not to smile knowingly.
Harry angrily slapped his open palm down on the wooden tabletop. "A month," he ground out through clenched teeth. "Almost a full damn bloody month and nary a peep from those two. Hermione can't be that busy riding your brother like he's a hippogriff…."
"First of all: thank you so very bloody much for placing that mental image in my head. Second of all: who is the other woman in this three-way, I wonder?"
"Oh, shut up…." Harry muttered darkly, even as he turned red.
"Because from where I'm sitting, said other woman has glasses and a very bad case of bedhead. What's the matter, Oh Great Chosen One – get up on the wrong side of the mattress today?"
"Course not – I got up on the wrong side of you," Harry volleyed back, scoffing. "What cheek…." He was satisfied, but only just, to see how his girl's cheeks burned pink at his innuendo.
Ginny finally took real pity, rather than the mickey out, on him. "What I was going to say was – you can stare all you want, but it isn't like an owl is just going to get summoned into being…."
As if on cue, there was suddenly a THUMP as a tiny owlet abruptly rammed its beak headlong into the half of the window that had its pane closed. It was almost funny how Ginny jumped, startled.
"Bloody karking hell….! – PIG!"
Harry ignored her, rocking his chair back on all four legs while his own sprang out of the seat and dashed for the window, helping a bruised but alive Pig over the sill. "There's a pretty bird… You got something for me, mate?"
Behind him, Ginny rolled her eyes, arms folded across her chest. "He's getting more and more like Errol every day, Merlin rest that bird's soul…."
"Yeah, except Errol at least knew how to stick the crash landing," Harry pointed out, settling Ron's owl into the palm of his hand. From the number of things clutched in its talons, it was a wonder Pigwidgeon hadn't wiped out somewhere near the Rook or even farther afield. Spotting the picture of a white sandy beach and skyline staring up at him, Harry seized the postcard along with whatever was under it and flipped Pig a gold coin, even as Ginny started to protest.
"Pay him in Knuts – Pig can hardly lift himself carrying a whole Galleon….!"
"Blimey! Cheers, Piggy!"
"What?" Ginny drifted into him, attention suddenly piqued. "Harry, what is it?"
"Sodding finally! I was worried they had been kidnapped or something!" Harry just about cackled, waving the thick postcard in his girlfriend's face. "It's them! Hermione finally got off her arse and…." Then he looked again, frowning accusatorily at the back of the postcard.
"Blank. Now the wench is just taunting me! The least she could have done was put it in writing: 'Hullo, there, love – we're having such a grand not-a-honeymoon without you! We're here on this beach and you're not!'…."
"Don't get your glasses all askew…" Ginny chided, smirking. She tapped on the envelope that had been underneath the postcard. "This one's got my best mate's handwriting on it too! Here! Actually go through your post properly, git!"
Recognizing Hermione's loopy cursive, Harry tore open the envelope and greedily scanned the contents line by line. By the time he reached the end, however, he was still frowning.
"Her parents have got their memories back…. It's been quite a time getting their affairs in order and closing the dental practice…. Not sure how soon they can catch a flight back…." Harry tssked. "Bother that Hermione! At least give me something I can work with, old girl!"
"Well, her parents remember themselves and her again! That's wonderful, isn't it?"
"Yeah…. I suppose so…." Harry held out his arms and Ginny sagged into them for a hug. "I just…. I miss them so much, you know?"
"Ssssh…. There, there, love…. I know…." Lifting her head to rest her chin on his chest, Ginny's blue orbs twinkled. A beat, and then she asked: "Are you going to need a tissue or shall I dust off my violin for its solo?"
"Very funny," Harry laughed facetiously. He turned back to the third piece of mail. It was addressed to him, and interestingly on Ministry stationery besides. He creased his brow. He had a mail cubby at the Ministry for his post from work, and this was a rare day off from Auror training – who could possibly be….?
Curious, he opened it, reading slowly.
"Here now…. what's all this, then?" Ginny asked aloud, nosy as usual.
"It's from Daedalus Diggle…." Harry breathed.
"That old charmer who Hermione has working on house elf emancipation legislation with her?" Ginny frowned, intrigued.
"That's the one." Harry kept reading. By the time he got to the end, he had turned an odd color – maybe even blanched completely, from how Ginny was peering at him.
"Harry? ….. Love, what….?"
"It's my…. it's the Dursleys. They've…. they've been brought out of the protection program Kingsley set up. They're…." Harry turned to his lover. "They're alive and safe. And…. well…. they want to meet."
For a long moment, there was silence. Ginny stonily drew back from her boyfriend. Well, more specifically, she drew back from the Ministry-sealed envelope in his hand, glaring at it hatefully as though it might be diseased.
"Gin…"
"You're not going."
Harry gaped at her, twittering out an offended little chuckle. "Who says….?"
"I do! I know you, Harry! You're all set and ready on going! Well, let me tell you something, Mr. Boy Who Lived…." And she pointed a shaking finger at the envelope, quivering with rage. "You owe them nothing!" She hissed, and her voice actually broke with emotion; Harry was touched to see tears forming at the back of her blue orbs. "You hardly even owed them their lives, saving their worthless hides! After what they did to you!"
"The Death Eaters would have used them to get to me, Ginny – I've explained this! To Ron. To Hermione. Now you. Merlin, I'm kind of getting tired of it, really…"
"And would it have been so bad, if you had just let Voldy's goons snatch them up and Cruciatus them silly?" Ginny arched an eyebrow. "I would have loved to have seen your whale of an uncle under an Unforgivable, writhing and whimpering for his mummy…."
Harry had to hold in a laugh, even though the picture Ginny now painted was far from funny, even for the likes of Vernon. From the way she discussed the Cruciatus Curse, he could almost swear that she knew something about…. Feeling a churning in his gut, Harry uneasily set that aside.
"Besides, it's not like they would have known anything anyway, about where you were, to give up under torture…." Ginny was ranting.
"Better it was to not even chance the risk," Harry cautioned her. "No matter what they did or didn't know."
"So why think about taking this meeting?" Ginny demanded glowering at him. "Fine, they got through living off the grid, roughing it for a year! I hope your cousin shed a few pounds in the experience – Merlin knows he needed to lose them!"
"Gin, come off it…. be serious…."
"I am being serious! Look at how serious my face is right now. And believe me when I tell you that you are not going! You don't have to meet with them! No one's making you! You're 17; they're no longer your guardians, and thank heavens! It's in the past, so be done with it, and them! Good riddance to bad rubbish! It's better if you never have to see any of their worthless faces again…."
Harry sighed, smiling gently as he gathered a shaking with anger Ginny back into his arms. "Perhaps. But I think I still owe them an explanation."
"What? To tell them that you're alive?" Ginny peered up at him. "Do you really think any of those… those…." She spluttered, trying to think of a monstrous enough pejorative befitting the Dursleys, but words failed her. "…. would care if you had died? You should be caring just as little that none of them croaked, crouched in a hole somewhere and eating beans out of a tin!"
Harry smirked, almost amused and certainly moved at how Ginny was being so caring. Even showing it through hellion outrage was in character for her. He knew just how protective she could be, especially over her family and the people she cared about.
"Leaving aside for the present how eating beans out of a tin is not the punishment you think it is – I know because sometimes beans were all Ron and Hermione and I ate on the Hunt, most nights…" Ginny gazed up at him. "…. I understand how you feel." He kissed her, chastely. "And I'm touched how much you care, truly. But while you are right that it would be for the best if I never saw the Dursleys again…. there are some things that were left unsaid, even back last July. I'd like to have my piece with them before going our separate ways."
Ginny studied him, finally nodding slowly. By degrees, her frown upturned into a grin, and a wolfish one at that.
"If you'd like, I can teach you some choice swear words that would give my Mum a heart attack!"
"You talk dirty enough in bed for the both of us, love," Harry smirked. "But thanks anyway, though."
Ginny smiled in spite of herself. "Prat," she whispered, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him fiercely, letting him know that she would remain there at his side, whatever and however he decided to deal with his Muggle relatives.