A/N: I almost forgot to include the first scene... something about how I export it, leaves it out. All fixes, and a full chapter for you :) I am currently writing the birth of the little Prince; that'll be exciting to share!

Harry looked behind him as they were coming up to the Harpian castle for the weddings. Ron and Hermione had left a week earlier to prepare for their wedding in Harpia. Ginny had switched back from the carriage to Prongs in the last stretch of their two-day trip.

He could tell she was eager to get off her horse by now, but she was not complaining. Red walked beside Lightning but wasn't saddled. They had considered leaving her at home but they assumed neither horse would have liked that, so she came along but was not carrying any loads to protect her foal.

"It's starting to look like the castle I grew up in again," Ginny noted as she looked up.

He smiled at her. "It's looking much more pleasant now."

Someone came out to help them unload. The Henrosian guards happily greeted the guards of the castle, still friends with them from last winter. Harry got off Lightning and waited for Ginny to get off her horse too, knowing better than to offer help.

He offered his arm to her and she took it gladly, smiling for a moment before they made their way inside together.

Bill greeted them and immediately wrapped Ginny in a hug. "And how are you managing your new role as Queen?"

"Wonderful," Harry answered before Ginny could.

Ginny offered him a look and then turned back to her brother. "Pretty well, I think. We've been dividing tasks based on what we're good at. Council is less dull now that I get to speak. It's almost going too smoothly."

"It unsettles her," Harry remarked.

Bill smiled at that.

"But enough about me!" Ginny told him. "Are you ready? Are you nervous? How is Fleur?"

Her brother's eyes widened. "Slow down! I am ready, but nervous. Fleur is wonderful."

Ginny beamed at him. "Lovely. Now I need to go lie down for half an hour, or this baby may actually try to escape early."

Harry let out an exasperated sigh. "The Healers told her to take it easy when travelling."

Bill chuckled and looked back at Ginny. "This is your idea of easy, isn't it?"

"Yes!" She nodded. "Thank you for understanding."

He looked over to Harry. "You are on your own for this one."

Harry waited for Ginny and then she walked ahead of him to their room. He trailed behind slowly.

After her short nap, Ginny went in search of her other brothers and caught up with them. She let them feel the baby kick, and they all surrounded her excitedly. They took turns trying to feel the kicks and mocked the person who the baby wouldn't kick for.

When she walked off to get some food, Ron caught up with her. They walked to the kitchen and picked up a few items and then they settled in a quiet sitting room. Ron sat on the couch beside her.

"I'm just nervous, you know?" he admitted. "I want to do it right." His cheeks and his ears were red.

"You're nervous about Gorphine's ritual?" she concluded, making sure she shut her mind for Harry.

"Sort of, yeah." He awkwardly scratched behind his ear. "I want to do it right. And maybe you're not the best person to ask…"

Ginny chuckled. "I'm actually surprised you've waited at all…" She quirked an eyebrow at him. She thought about it for a moment. "You have read the instructions for the ritual?"

He asked. "Yes, but…"

"You know, Gorphine said it doesn't matter that much. You don't have to follow it letter by letter—though Hermione may make you. It is a broad guideline to make sure you know what you're doing. The rest is up to you."

Ron continued to look uncertain.

"You love Hermione, and she loves you. Your body will know what to do, trust me," she suggested gently, sensing he genuinely needed to be reassured.

"Maybe you were the wrong person to ask," Ron said as he shifted uncomfortably.

She shook her head. "You have 24 hours. You don't need to rush—you can if you want to—you have time to take it slow and figure out if that's what you need."

"Did you…wait?" he asked.

"No—but this isn't about me." She took a deep breath in. "You love each other, you know each other pretty well. Just communicate, and listen to each other. Talk about it, don't assume it just works. It takes a little practice at the start. You'll be okay."

"You just know my body will know what to do!" he complained.

"Ronald." She patted his arm. "Your body will know what to do, but it doesn't know her body yet. She is Hermione, she will tell you if she wants it this or that way." She raised an eyebrow.

"Right." He looked at her for a moment. "We will both forget we ever had this conversation, right?"

"Of course." She smiled at him.

Ron stood up. "Splendid. I have suits to try on and things…"

She let him walk off and then stood up too. As she walked out into the corridor, Harry appeared around the corner.

"Why were you so silent?" Harry asked, walking towards her. "I don't like it."

She stopped in front of him. "Ron wanted to talk to someone who was already married for some advice."

Harry looked at her for a moment, his eyes tracking down her face. "Ah."

"Yes, so let's move on from that." She pulled him along to walk with her.

"Do you miss this place a lot?" he asked her.

"I miss my childhood," she answered honestly. "That's what the castle reminds me of the most." Her hand curled around his arm and squeezed. "But I'm really fond of our home. You know that, right? And the people in it."

His expression brightened. "I think I always expect you to… not change your mind, but perhaps regret some of it." He looked at her hesitantly.

She stopped and turned to him "It's you I'd miss the most of all. You're the one person I can't part with. Our souls… have always looked for each other. I don't know for how long—but my whole body sings the closer I get to you, in more than one way."

"There are more people in your life than just me," he told her. "I suppose I simply just don't have that perspective. Every minute with you is… blissful."

She let her hand run down his arm. "Do you want to get back up to our room?"

He didn't answer but started walking again, now towards the stairs.

The majority of the first day of the wedding went smoothly. Just like Ginny, Fleur was crowned Queen on the first day. Her parents looked on proudly and wiped away a few tears.

During dinner, Ginny saw a guard standing near their table, but she had never seen him before and his armour didn't match the Henrosian or Harpian guards. She waved over one of her own guards.

Ernest walked up to her. "Yes, ma'am?"

"That man over there, that guard, do you know him?" she asked softly.

Ernest shook his head. "I assume he's with the Harpian guard? I saw him earlier this morning." He looked at the man a moment longer. "Is it the armour you find suspicious?"

She nodded.

"I'll see what I can find out," Ernest told her and then walked off.

Suddenly Harry was paying attention too. " Assassin in plain sight? "

" It would be easy to miss ," Ginny told him silently.

Harry squeezed her hand. Bill turned to them and eyed them.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Ernest and Podrick had been talking to two Harpian guards and suddenly they stepped forward together, towards the man.

"This man is not with your Harpian guard, is he?" Ginny asked.

Bill's eyes widened. "I thought he was with you."

"No."

Nearly the whole room looked as the man took a few steps back, and walked into Seamus. Ernest stepped forward and restrained the man, quickly carrying him off. The other guards returned to their previous spots as if nothing happened.

Slowly conversation picked up again. Ginny shared a look with Bill, who nodded quietly. He covered Fleur's hand and squeezed it.

"I suppose I could've expected something like this, but a guard…?" Bill asked.

Ginny shook her head. "Weddings are incredibly easy to attack. A lot of guests, happy people. You have good guards, actual guards. Nothing happened."

Fleur thanked her. "Our first meeting was not pleasant, but you do keep your family alive."

"Had you noticed too?" Bill asked Harry.

He shook his head. "Not on my own, but I sensed it."

"Do you share it willingly, those types of things?" Fleur asked with genuine interest.

Ginny shared a look with Harry. "At first I felt like it required more effort to share thoughts, but now I feel it takes more effort to actually block it off. I don't always pay attention to his day-to-day thoughts; it becomes background noise. When something significant happens or one of us gets a feeling… or gets hurt, those things we can pick up on much quicker. It begs for our attention."

Harry nodded in agreement. "I feel like it still changes, it's a bit like having a constant conversation. Sometimes it's about important things, but a lot of time it's just about very mundane things, and it's just thoughts passing back and forth. It doesn't require any energy."

"Keeping secrets…" Ginny added. "That requires energy."

Bill smiled at that. "Good to know."

Ginny watched the two spend their evening together much like she and Harry had reluctantly said goodnight to each other at midnight.

"I don't miss that," Ginny commented as she watched them leave.

"Me neither," Harry agreed. He stood up. "One more dance and then off to bed?"

She smiled and let him pull her up. "I won't say no to that."

The remainder of the week went by smoothly, and there were no other attempts, but she made sure the guards remained vigilant. It needed just one moment of carelessness for someone with bad intentions to slip through.

While some guests left after Bill and Fleur's wedding finished, a lot of them remained another week to attend Ron and Hermione's.

When it was the evening before Gorphine's ritual for Ron, she walked up to him.

"And?" she asked him.

Ron took his eyes off Hermione for a moment and looked at her. "I'll be fine, I guess."

"If Bill and Fleur can figure it out…" She nodded towards her brother.

Fleur was in his lap, whispering something in his ear while holding onto him. His hand was firmly resting on her waist.

Ron looked at her. "You were fighting a battle the week after your wedding. You never had the time to… enjoy that newlywed phase."

"That's true." She sighed lightly. "Not that we didn't cosy up in that tent, but it doesn't scream romance. It was a necessary choice to make."

Her brother nodded and took a sip of his drink. "I know we all had a tough life, but I felt like you're always dealt the worst hand out of all of us."

Her brow furrowed. "Perhaps. I think that's the flip side of being 'favoured' by a god. Big highs and big lows."

"Maybe 'favoured' isn't the right word?" Ron thought out loud.

"That's what people think." Her hand tucked against her belly as the baby kicked. "I know what I got in return for making those choices. To give you all the possibility to experience it properly. I think that's worth a lot." She looked over at Harry. He turned his head and smiled softly at her when he noticed she was looking at him. She focused on Ron again. "I am not sure we will ever be truly out of our newlywed phase. Don't feel too bad for me."

He chuckled. "I won't."

"I'll leave you to talk to a few more people before midnight strikes," she told him. "I am really happy for you and Hermione."

"Thank you."

She hugged him and then walked off. She sat down next to Regulus. "You have been distracted all week; what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," he told her. He offered her a smile.

She frowned at him. "Is it Sirius?"

"No!" Regulus said. "It's not that."

"So there is something," she concluded. She stared at him.

Regulus' expression turned cold. "There is nothing, please drop it." He pushed off his chair and walked out of the room.

Ginny watched him go in surprise, baffled by his reaction. Sirius appeared and took the spot Regulus had vacated.

"It's not your fault," Sirius told her.

Ginny turned to him. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Sirius took a moment to reply. "I can't betray brotherly trust. I do have to tell you that Mary has been visiting us in Orion and that she sends you, Neville and Colin her regards." He held her gaze, a hint of amusement dancing around his lips.

"He brought her home with him?" she noted, even more interested.

Sirius gave the slightest nod. "She is visiting us. Unclear for how long. She's quite pleasant, I don't mind it."

"She is great," Ginny agreed. Mary taught her many things and was the only woman she could talk to when hardly anyone knew. She tried to connect this new information with Regulus' behaviour. "Does he want to go back? Or is he pondering over the meaning of marriage?"

"Could be either," Sirius responded, continuing to give her slivers of information. "She'd have to be a Lady of course, which she is not."

"We both know that can be done." She raised an eyebrow.

Sirius glanced at Harry and back. "We were all very pleased Lily was made a Lady by King Fleamont. We knew she belonged there, and we knew what it meant to James. After all, we just want what's best for our brothers, blood or not."

Ron and Hermione stood up to leave. They said goodbye to Fleur and Bill, who would leave on their honeymoon tomorrow.

"Give my regards to Mary, and please continue to have your brother's best interests at heart," she told him.

His smile reached his eyes. "Will do."

Ginny stood up to wave them off with the rest of her family. Harry wrapped an arm around her as she joined them. She watched the couple leave with a few guards. Bill and Fleur said goodbye too.

"We've got a long day ahead of ourselves," Bill said. He looked a little emotional. "These two weeks have been wonderful and filled with so much love and laughter."

Ginny squeezed Harry's hand on her waist.

"We'll still see you tomorrow morning," Charlie cut his speech short. "Get going." The emotion in his voice couldn't be hidden.

Bill looked over at Charlie and smiled. "I just want to thank you all for being here, I am so glad we can do these things with our family. I do not take it for granted. I'll wait for tomorrow to tell you to behave."

The group chuckled at that. With a final wave from Bill and Fleur, they left too to go up to their room.

Harry kept his arm around her. His lips came to her ear. "Shall we go up soon?"

"Should we?" she teased as she met his eyes.

He bit back his smile. "I do recall you saying something about never getting out of our newlywed phase. We should live up to that then."

"Eavesdropper," she whispered.

His expression brightened further. "You could have closed your mind but you didn't. I am pretty sure you wanted me to hear that."

Her face neared his. "I'd never do such a thing." She pecked him on the lips. "Let's go."

Harry looked around. "Should we say goodnight?"

Ginny took his hand. "No, we'll just sneak off." She smiled teasingly at him.

"Okay." He let her pull him along.

They walked up the stairs by themselves and quickly made it up to their room. Harry's mouth was on hers as soon as the door closed. His hand slipped under her dress. He hiked up her leg until he found the dagger. He pulled on the strap and loosened it. He took the dagger and put it down on the nightstand.

Ginny's hand snuck under his vest until her fingers found his own dagger tucked away there. She took it off him and put it with hers.

"Unarmed?" he asked her while he pulled her back into his arms.

She smiled teasingly. "Not quite."

Harry and Ginny saw Bill and Fleur off for their honeymoon on Sunday and then stayed around until Monday to say goodbye to them too.

Ron and Hermione were already down at breakfast with a few others when Harry and Ginny arrived. They settled down.

"Ready for your honeymoon?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded. "I am so excited to show some places I discovered before to Ron, and it will be wonderful to explore the new Henrosian land as well."

"Be careful," George said. "The land is said to be unusually fertile." He waggled his eyebrows.

Percy nearly choked on his tea as the newlyweds turned red.

"Don't listen to those idiots," Ginny told them. "I am sure you will have a wonderful honeymoon and I wish you great travels." She shot a brief look at George. "And whenever you're ready to come home, Henrosia's castle is waiting for you."

Hermione cleared her throat. "Thank you."

Ginny eyed Ron for a moment but he just smiled at her, and she knew she didn't have to ask.

" I think they figured it out ," Harry told her.

Ginny looked at him. " I think so. "

" I am sure Hermione told him all the things she read and how they should go about it, " Harry continued.

Ginny couldn't help the laugh escaping and promptly pressed her lips shut. "Sorry." She continued to Harry only. " This is your fault! "

Harry grinned at her. She shook her head at him.

After breakfast, they said goodbye to Ron and Hermione too and watched them leave in their carriage. Then it was time for them to pack and head home. Ginny was aware this was likely the last time she was in Harpia before she had the baby. She hugged her brothers tightly.

"Keep the country running while Bill is off, won't you?" Ginny told Charlie.

Charlie shook his head. "They won't be gone that long."

"Then you'll have no trouble," she said with a wink.

He bowed his head. "Queen Ginny."

She gave him a final hug and then got into the carriage for the first stretch of the journey. Harry joined her and kissed her cheek, before relaxing against the seat. Red and Lightning were ahead, following the guards riding in front.

"It's been about a year since we've met," Harry told her. He squeezed her hand.

She looked at him in surprise. "That can't be right. I feel like I've known you all my life."

"You were a Knight hiding your identity a year ago and now look at you." His eyes twinkled and his hand caressed her cheek.

"Thank you for hiring me," Ginny said softly. She kissed him. "This has been the most incredible year. Even with challenges ahead, I am optimistic about our future."

"Me too," he said. His hand touched her belly. "There are far more good things to look forward to than bad things. And I get to experience all of them with you."

She sighed happily. "I love you."

"Love you too, my soulbound Queen."

She kissed him again and then rested against him, watching the trees slip by slowly as they travelled towards their Henrosia.