I want to make it clear that when I included "Star Wars" on my list of things occupying my time, I didn't mean I just went to see the new movie. I mean, I did – twice – but there was also the obligatory once-a-night movie marathon for the ten days leading up to its release. And of course there were weekly episodes of The Mandalorian, some of which were watched more than once, and a solid binge of all three animated series suddenly available on streaming, two of which were totally worth the effort.

So please know that my excuse for not writing was made in all seriousness.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Harry kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see the blank look of confusion on his best friend's face. That luxury was taken away from him moments later, however, by a frantic squeaking sound.

The wave of shock that had washed over Harry at Ron's appearance suddenly went ice cold. Wormtail. How could he have forgotten about Wormtail?

His eyes snapped open just in time to see the little rat scrambling out of Ron's front pocket. Moving with the speed years of Quidditch and Auror training had driven into him, Harry jerked his wand and fired off another memory charm, hoping his aim was true. Wormtail was a much smaller, faster target, and he wasn't likely to get a second chance.

The spell, which looked like it was flying in slow motion, hit home and Harry let out a breath he might have been holding for years. One little slip-up had very nearly ruined everything. He hadn't given everything away, but Pettigrew was sure to know that no first year should have the knowledge – or, indeed, any reason – to cast that spell, and he wasn't likely to hang around with that sort of dangerous anomaly. And him running off with reason to suspect that Harry was more than what he seemed would disrupt his plans for Voldemort and ruin any chance of freeing Sirius. An absolute worst case scenario.

He turned around, prepared to commiserate with Ginny about dodging this particularly sizable jinx, only to see her glaring furiously at him, her brows heavy and low, her face a dark thundercloud. He opened his mouth to say something – what, he did not know – but before he had the chance she stormed past him without a word, all the way to her bedroom, where the sound of her door slamming could be heard throughout the house, causing him to wince even as his heart dropped into his stomach. Ginny hadn't been this furious with him in ages.

'What's going on up there?' came Mrs Weasley's voice from downstairs. Of course she'd have heard the door slamming along with Ron's earlier outburst.

'Sorry, Mrs Weasley!' he called down, desperately trying to think of an excuse but coming up blank. 'Er, tempers flaring; it's late, I guess.'

'Harry dear, I hope they don't have you covering for them over some ridiculous argument,' she said, her voice now coming from the bottom of the stairs.

'Er, no, really, it's fine,' he called down. Ron was still a little disoriented and the last thing he wanted was for her to see him in this state. 'It was partly my fault; we'll sort it out in the morning.'

'I should hope so,' she said. 'Get some sleep, then, and so help me if I hear one more door slam...' she trailed off, her tone one of warning.

'We promise,' he called down. 'Good night, Mrs Weasley.'

'Good night, dear. And you tell those children of mine, wherever they've stormed off to, that I'll have no more of this behavior.'

Harry told her he would, then turned back around. 'Come on, Ron,' he said, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder and beginning to guide him up the stairs.

'What just happened?' Ron asked as they climbed.

'We got into a fight with Ginny over the bathroom,' he invented wildly. 'Gonna have to apologize to her tomorrow.'

'Seriously?' Ron asked. 'We fight over the bathroom all the time. So does everyone else around here.'

'Yeah, well, she was pretty hacked off,' Harry said. 'And I don't think I helped any.'

'Aw, what are you worried about?' Ron said jovially. 'Ginny's not likely to stay cross with you of all people for very long.'

'I hope not,' he muttered to himself. The look in her eyes had been absolutely livid. The worst part was, he couldn't even think what exactly it was he'd done to upset her.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Harry slipped out at the usual time that night and rode his broom to Ginny's window like usual. He couldn't remember being this nervous before talking to her before; he wasn't even certain she'd want to see him.

He tapped lightly on the glass, and a moment later the window slid open and he was met with the steely, angry stare of his ten year old fiancee. It was startlingly intimidating.

'We, er, never canceled our meet up plans,' he said lamely.

'Budge up,' she demanded tersely, and climbed onto the broom behind him as she did so. Unlike her usual warm embrace, she held on only to the degree necessary to keep herself from falling off. She remained silent as they glided over to their spot behind the pond and dismounted. Harry cast Muffliato around them, a prudent precaution, as the moment he'd done so, Ginny exploded.

'WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT, HARRY?' She screamed, her face flush and her eyes shooting daggers.

'What...' he began, but should have known better than to try to get a word in.

'YOU OBLIVIATED MY BROTHER! No warning, no discussion, nothing! Just out of nowhere! What the bloody hell were you thinking?'

'I was thinking,' he said, his own hackles raised now that he understood what was going on, 'that I didn't want to blow our cover. That I didn't want to have to answer awkward questions about why we're kissing on the stairs in the middle of the night despite supposedly knowing each other for less than a week!' He would have thought that was obvious.

'And you thought just wiping my brother's memory was the best solution, did you?' she roared.

'What else could I have done?' he asked. Ron had obviously seen them.

'I don't know; you didn't take the time to think about it, did you?' she said. 'Nor did you think for even a second that maybe I should have some input on the matter. You just went ahead and made the decision without thinking, without consulting me. We're supposed to be a team, Harry! We're supposed to be doing this together!'

'What did you want me to do, stop and have a conversation about it before having to wipe his memory anyway?' Harry was starting to yell now too. He knew it was unwise, but he couldn't stop himself. He and Ginny were both very headstrong and stubborn, and tended to get their backs up easily. They were very lucky they so rarely butted heads.

'We don't know we would've had to do that,' Ginny countered. 'We could maybe have talked our way out of it. You didn't even give it a chance!'

'Talked our way out of it how, exactly?'

'Maybe I was just being friendly. Maybe Fred and George dared me. Maybe it's none of Ron's damn business and he can just keep his nose out of it!' she rattled off.

'Come on, even you couldn't sell those,' he said, though privately he conceded the dare from Fred and George might have actually worked. Provided they never found out and contradicted the story.

'How would you know?' she shot back. 'Maybe I could have! But instead you just jumped right in without thinking. You could have seriously messed up his brain!'

'Is that what you're worried about?' he asked incredulously. 'You know we're trained how to do memory charms!'

'You're not an Obliviator, Harry!' she shouted.

'No, but this was a simple one. Less than thirty seconds. I'm more than qualified.'

'Excuse me if I don't share your confidence when it comes to my brother's brain!'

Harry recoiled as if struck. 'Ginny, come on. You know I would never do anything if I thought I could hurt Ron. You know I've had plenty of practice and training with that spell.'

She let out a long breath, and though her eyebrows were still clearly scrunched in anger, she nodded. 'You're right,' she said. 'I do know that. I'm sorry; I shouldn't have said...but you still didn't consult me on this, Harry. You did it without asking me what I thought, without even looking at me. How am I supposed to feel like we're in this together when you're just deciding things like this on your own?'

At last, Harry realized, they'd reached the root of the problem. It allowed him to take a step back and calm himself, now that he knew what was really upsetting her. Was that the impression he gave, that he didn't value her input and support? It wasn't intentional, but the thought that she'd read into things that way hurt.

'I'm just...it was a split-second decision,' he attempted to explain. 'Even before auror training, I had to make those, and then they drill it into you for three years.'

'This was hardly a life or death situation, Harry,' she said, making a visible effort to calm herself down as well. 'Didn't they also train you to recognize the difference between a situation that calls for snap judgments and one that calls for a restrained, reasoned approach?'

Damn. She had him there. 'You're right,' he said. 'You're right. I overreacted. I guess I just...panicked, and went into survival mode.'

'"Survival"?' she repeated derisively.

'Figure of speech; poor choice of words,' he said, waving his hand. 'But I did panic. And I didn't think clearly, and just...reacted.'

'Was the thought of being seen getting a kiss on the cheek so terrifying?' she asked, arching an eyebrow.

'What? No! Of course not!' he said, willing himself not to get annoyed again. 'It's this whole situation; you can't say you don't know what I'm talking about. I live in constant anxiety that we're going to do or say something that will reveal we're not who everyone thinks we are, and we have no way of knowing what will happen if that happens. How people will react. The pressure just got to me and I freaked out.'

'I do know what you're talking about,' she said. 'And if I'm honest, I probably overreacted too. It's possible to be cross with you without screaming like a banshee and I'll try to remember that. The stress must be getting to me as well.'

'I'd be worried if it wasn't,' he said. 'I'll try to remember to stop and think more, and to talk to you first if possible before taking action. But Ginny, you know when I go back to school there are going to be times when I'll have to make snap judgments and won't be able to talk to you beforehand.'

'I understand that and I accept it,' she said. 'You've already done it a few times. It's just...I don't...' she bit her lip and hugged herself, looking down and away from him. He stepped forward and placed his hands on her arms, and she didn't shake him off.

'Hey, what is it?' he asked softly, gently rubbing her upper arms, which were showing the beginnings of gooseflesh in the chill night air.

'I don't like feeling like I'm being left behind,' she said, lifting her head to look him in the eye. A sharp pain shot through his heart and he gathered her up in his arms. She allowed this, and burrowed her face into the crook of his neck.

'Hey, I'm sorry,' he said, rubbing circles on her back. 'I never meant to make you feel like that. I don't want you to ever have to feel that way again. I told you; it's just you and me this time. The two of us against Voldemort and the world. I'll try to do better; I promise.'

'Thank you,' she said. It was slightly muffled as she was still pressed into his chest. 'I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have screamed at you.'

'We've both been under a lot of stress; it was bound to happen eventually,' said Harry.

'Still,' she said. 'Anyway, I'm glad you still came to get me. Mum and Dad always said we should never go to bed angry with each other.'

'I remember. Best advice they ever gave us.'

'We should probably go back to bed now, though,' she continued. 'Give ourselves until the morning to finish cooling off. But tomorrow night we need to seriously rework out strategy. If tonight showed anything, it's that we haven't thought this whole thing through nearly as much as we thought we had.'

'All right,' he said, releasing her. 'We were still planning on going into the village tomorrow, right?'

'Last I heard. it's probably a good idea; a change of scenery might do us good.'

Harry removed the anti-eavesdropping charm and they climbed back onto his broom. She was much more relaxed holding on to him than before, but she still wasn't snuggling up to him as she usually would.

They said good night at her window and Harry returned to his camp bed in Ron's room, his mind swimming with all the things Ginny had said. Was he leaving her out of important decisions? He'd never considered his ability to make important choices in the heat of the moment to be a bad thing, but what if he really was being too controlling of their situation? He of all people knew that no one person ever had all the answers, and certainly not himself. Yet this was the first fix he'd ever found himself in where he didn't have Ron and Hermione there to help him. Ginny was the one and only person he could rely on, and according to her, he wasn't doing it enough. Worse, he hadn't even realized he wasn't doing it. It would be a long time before he found any sleep this night; he had a lot to think about.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The next day in the village was something of a vacation within a vacation. They wandered the streets, threw rocks in the River Otter, got chased by a swan, loaded up on sweets in the corner shop, and stopped for lunch in the pub. Harry offered to pay, but of course Mrs Weasley would have none of it. He couldn't even convince her to let him pay for his own, which he at least would have been able to manage (probably) as an adult.

If anyone noticed that he and Ginny were acting a bit cooler toward each other than they had been the rest of the week, they didn't comment on it.

When they returned to the Burrow that afternoon, instead of playing Quidditch, they took turns riding Harry's Nimbus 2000. Each of them would perform some sort of trick or maneuver on the broom, and anyone who couldn't replicate it took a penalty. Harry and Ginny won handily of course to the continued frustration of her brothers.

'I still don't understand how you managed to get so good just flying by yourself,' Fred complained after trying and failing to recreate a reverse nosedive with a corkscrew twist that Ginny had performed.

'I didn't have anyone to play with really,' she explained, 'So all there was to do was toss a ball around to myself or practice tricks. I got pretty good at both after a while.'

'No way,' said George, shaking his head. He hadn't been able to do the move either. 'Fred and I are pretty good. You could give Charlie a run for his money. It's unreal.'

Ginny preened.

Mrs Weasley called them in to eat at the exact moment Ron's stomach growled. They laughed and trooped back into the house. After dinner, Ginny challenged Ron to a chess match, surprising everyone.

'You're not going to reveal that you've secretly been practicing chess for the last five years too, are you?' he asked with an arched eyebrow as he set up the pieces.

'No,' she said. 'I've just been watching you and Harry play all week and I wanted to try.'

The game didn't last long. Ron won in just sixteen moves, but Ginny insisted on playing again. When she didn't do much better, Ron suggested she and Harry play. She shrugged and began setting up the board again. Harry, however, immediately spotted a problem. He knew Ginny inside and out. He knew how she thought, and from years of watching her play Quidditch, he knew how she strategized. Harry knew enough about chess to know how to tailor his own strategy based on this knowledge, but while most people wouldn't notice, Ron most certainly would, and he would likely be curious how Harry had come by this level of insight.

It was an easy enough problem to avoid; if he just pretended he was playing Ron – or really, anyone else at all – it wouldn't look like he was privy to any sort of knowledge he shouldn't have. The real problem, of course, was that Ginny knew him as well as he knew her. He had to trust that she would realize the same thing he had and would act accordingly.

It was also possible that he was severely overthinking the whole thing, but telling himself that didn't make the anxiety go away.

The game started simply. Ginny went first, and there was nothing too different about her opening than when she'd played Ron. Incredibly tense and certain someone was going to notice him sweating any moment, Harry moved forward a pawn of his own.

The game continued, agonizingly slowly, it seemed to Harry, and he started taking some of her pieces. Ron asked her once if she wanted any advice and she turned him down, so he contented himself to watch in silence.

By the time Harry had taken Ginny's second bishop, Fred and George had made their way over to watch as well.

'If she'd turned out to be brilliant at this too, I would have lost it,' said George.

'Tell me about it,' said Fred.

'Shut it, you two,' Ginny snapped at them, concentrating hard on her next move. Harry saw that he could win in five if she took the bait of his knight that he'd laid out for her. There were several tense seconds of silence as she deliberated, but she finally made the move and took it. Harry tried to give no outward sign, but he saw from the slight shift in his posture that Ron had seen it, too. He played out the rest of the game much more relaxed, confident now that neither of them had given anything away.

'You did pretty well,' Ron told his sister as they were putting the pieces back into their boxes. 'Of course, Harry hasn't been playing long, but you held on a lot longer that time.'

'Thanks,' she said earnestly. 'I can see why you like the game so much, but I don't know if it's for me. I'm glad I tried it, though.' The five of them cleaned up the sitting room and began getting ready for bed. Harry was feeling nervous about his midnight talk with Ginny. True, they'd worked out most of their issues the night before, but there was still an underlying bit of tension there that he wasn't sure how to broach.

Harry apparated into the backyard the instant he was sure Ron was asleep. He knew he was pushing his luck with regard to Mr or Mrs Weasley – or even Fred and George – catching him, but he couldn't make himself wait more than a minute longer than absolutely necessary. When he knocked on Ginny's window, it was with nearly as much trepidation as the previous night, but her calm smile when she opened it put him at ease a little.

She climbed onto the broom behind him and encircled her arms around his chest, leaning up against his back. Nervous tension oozed out of him like a rapidly thawing steak, and he heaved a great sigh.

'I've been wanting to do this all day,' Ginny confessed in a whisper as he flew them out to the pond. 'I didn't mean to be distant or anything; it's just that it's been a long time since we've seriously fought and it felt...weird.'

'Awkward,' Harry supplied.

'Tremendously,' she agreed, tightening her grip around him momentarily. 'I don't like it when we fight.'

'Neither do I,' Harry said, touching down and stepping off the broom. She quickly followed. 'And I meant what I said; I'll try to be better about not doing everything on my own.'

'I know you did,' she said. 'And I understand that when you're at school by yourself, you don't always have a choice. But I think I have a way to help with that.' She reached into a pocket in her robe and pulled out two journal-sized spiral-bound notebooks.

'I bought these in the corner shop today,' she explained at his questioning look. 'Give me your wand.'

Curious, but willing to wait for an explanation, he obediently handed over his wand. She laid out the two notebooks on the ground next to each other, concentrated on them for a few moments, then made the incantation and motions for a protean charm.

'There,' she said, picking them up and handing one to him, along with his wand.

'What are you planning?' he asked.

'We haven't been taking this seriously enough,' she declared firmly. 'Oh, we've been making our plans and tossing out ideas, but there's more than we can possibly keep track of, and if last night showed us anything, it's that we need contingencies for any number of possible problems that might come up, as well as agreed-upon protocols that we should follow in various situations, such as one of my brothers catching us snogging on the staircase.'

'We were hardly snogging,' Harry put in.

'Not the point,' she waved her hand impatiently. 'We're going to write down everything we want to do in any scenario we can imagine. What's more, we're going to write down everything we remember from each year of school, with every detail we can remember about every single thing or event that's important to the plan. The diary, the sword, the Chamber, Wormtail, the tournament – everything. And then we're going to lay out every step of our plan from start to finish. The protean charm is so that anything I write in mine will appear in yours and vice-versa. I've had enough of this planning out the gist and then playing it by ear.'

Harry was impressed by her determination, and had they both been older, he probably would have been more than a little turned on. Still…

'I thought we agreed not to write too much down in case someone saw it?' he asked.

'Yeah, well, that didn't exactly work out, did it?' she said, arching her eyebrow at him. He wisely did not press the matter.

'We should at least put passwords on these then to make sure no one else can read them,' he said.

'Good idea,' she said. 'What were you thinking?'

'Well, it would have to be something that no one else would ever think to guess, right? Something no one would ever have any reason to even think of.'

'That should be easy,' Ginny said. 'It's not like there are a shortage of things only the two of us know about.'

'That's true,' said Harry, a wave of melancholy washing over him as he once again though back on all the people he'd lost. None of them would work as a password though, since they all existed in this new reality as well.

Then it hit him.

'I've got it!' he exclaimed. 'The perfect password that no one on this Earth would ever think of in a million years. And if anyone does, we'll know they're just like us.'

'What is it?'

Harry allowed himself a sad smile. 'Teddy Lupin.'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

There, another one done. This chapter is much shorter than what I usually do, and that's by design. I realized I'd been holding myself to an arbitrary standard when it came to chapter length, due to the feeling that anything less was somehow insufficient or unworthy. I'm trying to rid myself of such a pointless compulsion; please bear with me.

One common thing that people mention in reviews is my use of the single quote marker instead of the double. This is a deliberate stylistic choice, since that is the publishing standard in the British editions of the books, which are the ones I own and read. I do apologize if it's confusing for anyone, and I can understand why it would be, but I'm not going to change it. Sorry.

Hope everyone's been holding up all right during quarantine. Especially now that a lot of places are starting to loosen restrictions, I hope everyone is working hard to stay healthy and safe. Keep your distance, wash your hands, you know the drill by now.

One other thing that I do want to mention is the recent remarks on Twitter by J.K. Rowling. You all know the ones. They were deeply hurtful to many people, and deeply saddening and disappointing to many more, myself included. I refuse, however, to let the real world opinions of the author affect my love and enjoyment of a series that has been with me for half my life. She cannot take that from me.

Reviews are appreciated and loved. Thank you!