A/N: I believe we are hitting 100K words today for this fic? Amazing! (Not counting the author's notes) This story and Peverell's Progeny are in the running for my longest fic yet (the previous being Guiding Light at 70K). With the wedding, this fic is definitely currently winning but in my docs it's much closer in word count actually. Thank you for reading so many of my words!

I am glad you were amused by Ginny's little prank, it is indeed a very 'Ginny' thing to do. She has a little more mischief to do in this chapter as well. You'll see.
Enjoy and see you tomorrow!

Harry opened his eyes abruptly when he heard the door to his balcony close. He sat up quickly only to find Ginny in her armour coming from the balcony. She took her helmet off.

"You're not supposed to be here!" he told her, but he opened his arms for her.

She walked to him and fell into them, their lips quickly connecting as he wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey," she said, holding him tightly. "I just had to see you."

He planted kisses all over her face and on her neck until she giggled. "That's so very bad of you," he said against her skin.

"Yes, I can see you are very angry with me," she answered as she shifted in his lap.

"I am worried, but I have to ask... did you climb here?" Harry tried.

She nodded. "Getting past Bill's window was the trickiest part but I went above it," she admitted.

He chuckled and found her lips again. They kissed slowly, savouring their first few minutes of private time they had gotten this week.

"I was just dreaming of you," Harry told her. "But this is better."

She smiled against his lips. "What a coincidence, I was just dreaming about you too."

Harry's hands slid down, but the armour prevented him from getting to any skin. He resorted to pulling her closer to him. "Maybe we had the same dream," he said softly.

She hummed in reply. "Maybe." Her hands slipped up his neck and into his hair. "I can't stay long; I just wanted a few moments with you."

He nodded quietly, telling her he understood.

Ginny huffed. "This armour really gets in the way in moments like this, but I couldn't risk it." She tugged at the collar. "The staff doesn't need to see their new Queen scaling the wall."

He laughed and pulled her close. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"Are you going to teach the kids to climb up the castle walls?" he asked her.

He could feel her shake her head. "No," she told him. "It is a natural skill."

He snorted. "I should have known."

She sat up again. "I have to get back, if I am not in my room... we are going to have a serious problem," she said. She kissed him once more and stood up.

He got up too and quickly pulled on his trousers before he followed her outside. She crawled over the side of the balcony.

"Careful," he said softly.

She nodded. He watched as her fingers found their grip in the seams between the stones and she carefully started moving away. As she neared Bill's balcony, she climbed higher up to go around it. She was about halfway there when Bill stepped onto his balcony.

Harry froze and locked eyes with Bill instead. He had to make sure Bill didn't look up.

"Good morning, Bill," he said. "Enjoying the fresh air in the morning as well?"

Ginny moved sideways slowly and silently.

Bill's gaze landed on him, and he stayed quiet for a moment. "Good morning, Harry."

Harry desperately wanted to look up to check on Ginny, but it would give her position away. "Did you sleep well?" he asked Bill now.

Bill nodded. "Quite well. I hope the fresh air didn't wake you." His eyebrows rose. "Or did you... Ginny?" He turned to watch her.

Ginny cursed softly. She looked down. "Good morning, brother. Just doing a morning workout," she spoke casually. "Decided to change it up. Needed to get some climbing in."

Bill glanced back at Harry with a judging look. Harry chose to remain quiet.

"Get down here," he told Ginny.

She huffed and moved her hands to climb down. When she was close enough, she let herself drop onto his balcony. She opened her helmet. Her expression was unmoving, almost like she was daring her brother to say something.

"I am going to walk back into my room and slowly walk to your room. You better be in there by the time I get in," Bill told her.

She nodded gleefully. "Alright." She quickly crawled back over the balcony and continued her way back to her room as Bill returned to his room. He didn't spare Harry a second glance.

Bill knocked on her door. "Ginny, open the door right now."

She had thought ahead and blocked the door just in case someone tried to come in. She used the time she had gained from that to quickly pull on a dress on top of her armour. She moved the chair out of the way and opened the door.

"Good morning."

He glared at her as he closed the door. "Is this a joke to you?"

"It's not a big deal," she told him. She put her helmet into the chest where she usually kept her armour.

"This isn't a game," Bill told her.

She rolled her eyes. "No one saw and no one would have seen if you hadn't come out."

"Ginny, you need to take this seriously," he insisted.

"Take it seriously? Do you think I am not taking this seriously? I am going stir-crazy. I am allowed to be two places this week. In here, by myself or in front of a hundred people. And I have six brothers hovering over me, watching my every step instead of allowing me some breathing room," she ranted. She took a deep breath. "I want to go train in the woods, because we have a whole country to win back. I want to put my armour on and make sure no one is murdering my family or my husband-to-be. I can't do either." She stepped closer to him again. "I just went to see Harry, because even though I am marrying him, we haven't gotten a single moment alone. And while I am going crazy in here, I have all of you dumbasses coming around. Sure, you go by there and Hermione does, but he doesn't have any family. So forgive me for checking in on him." She finished speaking and dropped down on the couch. She glared at Bill.

He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. He nodded and approached her. He carefully sat next to her. "I understand you are under a lot of pressure. And the battle looming over us isn't helping anyone. I just..." He shook his head. "We are only going to get one chance like this to get Harpia back. I've already failed to make it happen, you did. I am just so worried it'll slip from our hands if we are not careful." His brows furrowed as he let out a deep sigh. "I know you are a key part of this operation and perhaps... that has caused me to put an unfair amount of expectations on you."

"Bill..." She reached out and he wrapped her in a hug. "You didn't fail. I always looked up to you. You set an example for all of us to do better. Every ounce, however small, of responsibility we possess is because of you." She felt tears well up, but she bit them back. "And you have always been a natural leader. You are meant to be King of Harpia, I just know it. We all do. If you were not on board with this, we wouldn't have done it. It has to be you."

He released her. They seemed equally tearful. "Can we at least agree that climbing the castle walls wasn't a great idea?"

She nodded. "I know that too." She smiled softly. "If you must know, being a Knight is a very serious job. And I have seen things I wish none of you ever have to see."

"I know," Bill mumbled.

"And I take my job very seriously. It's a lot of pressure. I need a little bit of fun sometimes... and Harry lets me be fun, even against his better judgement."

Bill smiled. "He doesn't know how to say no to you."

"That's..." She trailed off. "Possible."

"You just want us all in Harpia so you can do as you wish over here, right?" Bill teased.

She could tell he was joking now. "Ha. You see right through me." Her smile faltered. "I do take being a Queen seriously. How I behave reflects on Harry and the Kingdom..."

"I sometimes forget how grownup you are. You were just a kid when..." His jaw clenched; his eyes filled with regret. "I should trust you more, I know. But what you did just now was irresponsible, and you know it."

She nodded in agreement.

Bill stood up. "You should get dressed." He looked over her outfit. "Better dressed than that."

She got off the couch too. "You are not going to tell off Harry too, right?"

Bill scoffed. "I am smarter than to yell at a King who is lending me many many men to put me on the throne."

She beamed at him. "I always knew you were the smart one."

He shook his head warily and walked out instead of replying.

Ginny looked over Harry's shoulder. "There is a little Prince looking at us," she noted.

Harry stood up and neared Teddy. "Hey, Teddy" He took his hand and walked back closer to the pond between the many guests.

Dora looked over and smiled when she saw Teddy had found someone else to talk to. Harry sat back down across from Ginny and put Teddy on his lap.

Harry took up the dream paper. It was thin and almost see-through. He gave one to Teddy. "This is dream paper. You write your wishes on it, whatever you dream of achieving in the future. Then you fold it and you put it in the water. It will dissolve and it will become fish food and plant food. Then Ovtis will talk to the fish and read the plants and make your dreams blessings. That's how they come true."

"Write?" Teddy repeated.

"Yes. If you can't write yet, you tell your wish to someone else and they can write it for you," Harry told him.

"If you whisper it into my ear, I will write it for you," Ginny said.

Teddy crawled out of Harry's lap. Harry held up his hands on either side to make sure Teddy was stable before he walked over to Ginny.

She smiled softly. "Go on and tell me?"

Teddy drew a very big breath and leaned down to her ear. Ginny leaned away as he blew raspberries against her ear.

She gasped; her eyes wide. She rubbed her ear. "I think a beast just crawled in my ear, what a noise! Sorry, Prince Teddy. I didn't hear well. Can you repeat?" she asked with a smile. She leaned towards him.

Teddy giggled in anticipation and then blew raspberries again.

With a gasp, Ginny grabbed onto him and pulled him to her. "It was you all along!"

Teddy squealed happily as he tried to escape her grasp. "Nooo!" he said between his laughs.

Ginny released him and put him upright again. Teddy hiccoughed through his laugh. She signed him to come closer. She whispered into his ear. He nodded eagerly and then trod off towards his parents.

"What did you tell him?" Harry asked as he looked at the toddler.

Ginny smiled. "You'll see in a minute."

Teddy signed for his dad to come closer to him. As soon as his ear was within reach, Teddy blew raspberries into Remus' ear too. Both Remus and Teddy burst out laughing.

Harry chuckled as he shook his head.

Ginny waved the paper. "So how many of those are we putting down on paper?"

Harry looked back at her happily. His brows furrowed ever so slightly. "I think it's dangerous to put a number to it."

Ginny scooted closer to him. "Go and write ours. I leave the honour to you."

He took up the quill and dipped it in the special ink. "Shall I write 'A long and happy marriage with a few little ones' or do you have a better wish?"

She sighed happily. "Sounds good to me."

Harry wrote it down carefully and then put it aside to dry. Ginny took up another paper to write her personal wish.

"What are you writing?" he asked her.

She shook her head softly. "I don't know yet. I think perhaps ask to make the dream I had last night reality; it was pretty good."

"And is Ovtis supposed to know what you dreamed about?" Harry asked.

She looked around until she spotted the High Priestess and signed for her to come over. Tassia stood up and walked to them.

"If I ask to make a dream I had last night come true, will Ovtis know what I mean?" Ginny asked.

Tassia smiled warmly. "Of course he will. He is the God of dreams after all." She kneeled down. "Give me your hands."

Ginny hesitantly put out her hands. "Can you see what I dreamed?"

Tassia shook her head and carefully took Ginny's hands in hers. She closed her eyes for a moment. Ginny waited expectantly.

Tassia opened her eyes again and released Ginny's hands. She stood back up. "I think writing about your dream is a good idea if it makes you that happy." She almost turned to leave but then faced them again. "Ovtis sometimes leaves visions of the future in dreams as well. Be on the lookout for those." She smiled and walked away.

"It felt like she just looked into my soul," Ginny commented.

Harry looked at her as he took up a paper of his own. "That's more or less her job, Gin."

"I know," she mumbled. She put ink on her quill and wrote about her dream on the paper.

She put it down to dry and took up the paper Harry wrote before. She folded it carefully, first diagonally, then folded the triangles together and turned it over. At the end she twisted the centre until it looked like a flower. Harry looked at her in surprise.

"It's a rose," she said as she happily showed him.

He smiled. "I can see that. Knightly skill?"

"Not exactly," she replied. "Fun pastime more like." She leaned over. "What are you writing?" she asked softly.

Harry didn't look up from his paper as he replied. "My own dream, if we can do that, then why not?"

"You are not going to tell me what the dream was about, won't you?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No." He kissed her cheek. "I'll tell you when it has come true."

"Me too," she said.

Tassia called everyone to stand up a little while later. They gathered around the pond, all with their dream paper prepared.

"May your dreams be blessed!" She pointed to the two of them. "You first."

"I wrote, so you can throw it," Harry told her as he took her hand.

She took the dream paper into her hand and tossed it. It soared in an arch and then landed on the water. The flower shape twirled a few times on the surface. A big fish swam up from the depths and ate the paper whole. The crowd cheered because this meant good luck.

Tassia signed for everyone else to put their paper in. People stepped forward and put their paper in or threw it. The crowd watched the papers starting to sink and fall apart as fish nipped at the pieces.

Ginny looked over at Bill and signed for him to come closer. "Something tells me you wished for some peace and quiet," she said when he was within earshot.

Bill laughed. "Oh, you bet." He watched her carefully. "I enjoy the noise. It means you are all here."

She smiled softly. "Yeah."

"Did you have trouble agreeing on what to write together or did that go smoothly?" he asked.

Ginny looked over at Harry beside her and he smiled. "Pretty smoothly," she told Bill.

The rest of her brothers walked over too. Ginny was about to ask Ron about his wish but he looked at his paper and then locked eyes with Hermione. She shared a knowing look with Harry.

She looked over at Charlie. "So how many dragons did you wish for?"

Bill chuckled as Charlie looked offended.

"I am not telling you," he mumbled.

Fred came to stand beside her and she pushed her fist against his and he pushed back. "I am sure your wish was really cool?" she asked him.

Fred shrugged. "I just want next week to go well, really."

"You have to be more ambitious, Freddie," George told him. "If you wish for a happy long life, it implies we won."

"I am sorry I am concerned about our immediate future," Fred retorted.

Ginny put an arm around his waist. "We all are."

Fred looked at her. "Sure, but you were probably too busy wishing some cute shit."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "It's my wedding! I had to."

"I'd be careful," Percy said, coming up behind Fred. "Pissing off the Queen on her wedding day seems like a terrible idea."

When Ginny turned around to look at Percy, he winked at her. She responded with a grin.

Her free hand reached out to Harry again and pulled him closer too. She signed him to come closer to she could whisper. "You're the cute shit," she said softly so only he could hear.

When she leaned away he grinned at her. She thought maybe she heard her brothers complain again in the background but she ignored it.