Chapter 18: Th Half-Blood Prince

WARNING: This chapter contains graphic violence, I warn you so as not to offend people. I put the sensitive text between the long lines, so you can skip it if you want.

To Ron it was the most horrible scream he had ever heard, Ginny screaming that Harry had died as she woke him from his sweet dreams in the early morning. The entire sixth-grade dorm room woke up in a daze, no one knew what a girl was doing in their dorm room, and as soon as they managed to cover themselves in embarrassment, when they understood what the redhead was yelling at her brother, they all got up and went to Harry's bed.

The boy was drenched in sweat, with a rictus of agony on his face, unresponsive, only letting out occasional cries of pain. Together, they carried him to the common room, to report to Professor McGonagall and take him to the infirmary. Practically the entire dormitory woke up, even the girls were peeking out of the staircase leading to their rooms, Hermione's frightened face came out of the crowd and headed towards Ron.

The professor quickly left her chambers and was frightened to see Harry like this, she waved her wand and lifted him into the air, barking orders for everyone to return to their chambers and sleep as she walked briskly towards the infirmary with Harry in tow. Ron took the hand of his sister, who was still pale and horrified, unable to even move, and dragged her with him. When he turned to look at Hermione, she, who hadn't spoken to him since she'd thrown those birds at him when she saw him with Lavender Brown in a passionate kiss, rushed at him crying, Ron took her hand and dragged both girls down the hallway, following the teacher.

As soon as they reached the infirmary, Madam Pomfrey came out in her nightgown and began to attend to him, while the teacher informed the headmaster, who arrived shortly afterward. The 3 children stood at the foot of the bed watching Harry be taken care of.

Dumbledore questioned them about what had happened, and Ron explained what had happened, and how little he knew. The headmaster only nodded towards Ginny as he adopted a weird expression on his face, Ron could almost assure himself of seeing some mockery, but he soon forgot that.

After several spells and potions, the healer managed to wake Harry up, but he only looked at Ginny as he muttered something about the cruciatus curse. Dumbledore just cleared his throat and sent them to his room, telling them to let Harry rest and come visit him in the morning.

Ron nodded, obeying, and just as he had to drag the girls to the infirmary, he had to carry them to the dormitory, he had to battle especially with his sister who refused to part without Harry, but she could not beat him in physical strength. He took her to the boys' dorm room, and, as he had not done since they were children, he hugged her and slept next to her, caressing her head.

The younger Weasley man knew nothing of the ritual, that information, which was passed on to every pure-blooded wizard as soon as he turned 15, had been denied to him, not because his parents wanted to keep him in the dark, but because they had been so stressed about the return of the Who-Must-Not-Be-Named that the last thing on their mind was talking about it for the sixth time.

So, when the next day, all of Hogwarts knew what had happened, he was still in ignorance, pretending to know everything in front of the Slytherins who looked at him with mockery and morbidity every time the matter came up. It seemed that the people he hated the most knew more than he did and made fun of him.

When Harry woke up and told them what had happened, Ron couldn't help but be angry, how dare he grope his little sister, he deserved what had happened to him. But after the anger came the curiosity, they couldn't explain what had happened.

Even between the three of them they confronted Ginny and tried to force her to speak, but she gave them her usual look of contempt and looked at her brother almost impatiently as if waiting for him to explain, but Ron was just as lost as Harry and Hermione.

o-o-o-o

"Honey, we'll find them, won't we?" Harry asks as he takes her hand and looks at her desperately, Ginny nods, of course, they will be found... Hold on.

She can only curse herself and all her bloodline for not having learned to control her abilities, her visions were blurry and after her marriage they were scarce. She never knew what to do with it.

They part ways to look for their children, Harry to Scotland and she to Continental Europe, to the Dovras concentration camp, something inside her whispers that she will be able to find her babies there.

She thinks of her mum holding back tears, she hasn't had time to mourn her, and she can't do it, not even dad has been able to mourn his wife since he is also looking for the grandchildren who were torn from the Burrow.

She holds back a curse while riding the motorcycle, forcing her tears to back off, if she starts crying, she won't be able to stop. She can't help but curse Hermione for does the Big Mistake, the mistake that threw everyone into the abyss, sometimes she feels so much hatred for his sister-in-law that she can't even look at her, even though it's not her fault for everything that's going on.

Soon she arrives in the woods, thinking with mild curiosity that it's the same place Voldemort hid in before her husband defeated him. She tries to concentrate, and, using the invisibility cloak and a levitation spell, breaks through the fence with concertina at its ends. She is surprised that there are no guards on that side.

Suddenly, she sees a large hole in the floor, she runs over, on an impulse, and she recognizes her children, James and Albus, both with their clothes torn apart, their faces like a bloody pulp, there, her children lay a cadaverous pallor, she cannot hold herself, her knees give way in horror. She hasn't even smelled feces, pipes, or rotting bodies.

Suddenly, a hand rests on her shoulder and throws her away from the pit. It's the first time Ginny sees the wolves; she backs away crawling across the earth. They look like the personification of death, they wear balaclavas, they speak in English, and they ask for her documents.

She doesn't understand, she has just seen the most maddening scene her mind can conceive.

One of them kicks her in the chest and she drops her wand.

Seeing her wand pull away from her makes her aggressive, yelling at them to stay away from her. She asks them who they are, and says she wants to talk to their leader.

They beat her, and she is only aware of their screams, she is still on the ground, and a boot steps on her, and crushes her. Suddenly, she hears a voice ordering her to get up.

They ask her what she's doing there, they ask for her documentation, and now they call her a witch.

"Get up, witch."

Ginny stands up. She feels a stabbing pain in her hand, she can no longer close it, and she has realized that no one can help her. Now she's aware of what's going on... Hear the moans inside the square gray buildings. Listen to the people trapped. Where's Lily? Harry, Percy, her father, her nephews... She feels that the sense of perception is expanding, expanding, covering several kilometers like that of animals... She has to perceive the world around her so as not to be isolated... in that nightmare, still very murky and confused.

Smell the rotting bodies, mixed with the smell of men who stink of dirt, sweat, and alcohol.

Fear has taken her breath away. The group commander orders her to undress.

Ginny is stunned, she doesn't understand what's going on, but she obeys. She has to obey if she wants to find Lily. But now she doesn't know where her arms are, her hands. She has to reach the hooks, her clothes stick to her skin because of the sweat, which fogs her eyes. Two hands reach out and rip off her bra.

Ginny sees a nipple in the torn fabric and doesn't know if it's hers or another woman's, her mother's, or a friend's.

She knows that there is no salvation, that death is there... but it is Lily. She doesn't intend to rebel, she wants to live to find her. She is filled with fear, they do this to her children? To Lily?

She feels that it has happened before, that it is not a matter of chance, that these men have done it before. They don't even seem excited, there's no confusion, and those gestures are ingrained. They insult her, and slap her without much conviction, as if they were already tired.

As if it were a kind of ritual that repeats itself, a runic ceremony performed by a handful of sad devils.

Where have they trained? What bodies have they used?

Her legs get wet, she imagines that she will end up on the floor, and she melts and mixes with that urine. That is what it desires, to leave, to be transformed into liquid, to slide through the earth, to be absorbed by it.

Not long ago she was a free witch, not long ago she was a braver girl than the others. Now it's a hole, a crater inhabited by fear. How is it possible that what she sees is happening to her? Panic has the searing taste of gastric juices. It's as if all the organs are pressing upwards against the throat to defend themselves from the ambush. She doesn't notice any bass, she feels numb... The hands that grasp it, the fingers that dig into the flesh seem to rest on a distant body. She has been laid down on the ground.

Ginny is thinking of her mother, the last time she saw her alive, one month ago, cooking her a sumptuous dinner before leaving with Harry. Think of the smell that filled the kitchen. Her brothers are at her side discussing what they should do.

She can only catch a glimpse of a white foot in the air, is it her?

She hasn't lost consciousness at any time, she hasn't had that comfort. She has remained lucid, she has swallowed all that evil, without the slightest possibility of avoiding it.

At dawn they make her walk into the building, not even letting her take cover.

She feels the rape in her bones, in her anus, in her mouth. All her organs are out of place, flesh beating against the brain.

They leave her with more women, and she searches for Lily, Astoria tells her she's in another building. They rotate them every few days, and she thinks that if she resists any longer, she will soon see her and they will be able to escape. There's a little girl, a little friend of Lily's, a girl who should be safe at Hogwarts.

When she was little she was ashamed of her hair, that strident color, having a color like that is already a destiny, you attract the attention of the birds, like an open pumpkin in the middle of a field. She touches her legs to keep them steady, but her muscles shake like sausages in a frying pan.

She doesn't feel pain, but notices a liquid trail somewhere, on her head? Maybe her vagina or her anus?

They feed them during the day, and at night they visit them. Ginny hides. They take two or three at a time. They bring them back at dawn. They don't want others to look at them. They stumble to the bathroom. They also take her, who stands out for the color of her hair, she is a redfish, and she is easy to catch. Eyes fall on her in the darkness, she hears the laughter.

Ginny resists. Then, one day, they also take the little girl, a twelve-year-old girl. And it doesn't come back.

She wonders where the little girl is. When the hooded men chose her, she followed them with the same diligence she was supposed to show at Hogwarts, when her teachers call her to demonstrate a spell.

They come back to look for her several times.

Understand why the little girl didn't survive.

Ginny's body seems numb. The pain is deaf, it remains imprisoned elsewhere. It seems to pass through a body next to it.

The problem comes later, in the hours after the violence. When she realizes she can't get back into her body.

Ginny stops hearing their voices "fucking witch, bitch, freak, call your minister" laughs, she is amused.

They're monotonous, everything is monotonous. The crescendo of rape is always, more or less, the same.

One of the women has seen the little girl, what was left of her.

She doesn't scream, not until in the next rotation she sees Lily. What's left of her body shattered, raped, bitten, burned.

She screams, she screams so much that she excites the wolves.

She defends herself; she has no reason to live anymore, she just wants to kill them.

They choke her with their limbs, and one of them, especially amused by her screams, sets fire to her pubic hair. "Only sluts like you like to be so hairy, bitch"

She sees Lily's body and Ginny has their disgusting penises in her mouth. Death comes to save her, and her suffering finally ends because of the very disgust and horror she feels, vomits and chokes.

Although her life ends there, she can see Harry's suffering at finding her, how with her death, he finally gives up and prefers to be reunited with his family in the afterlife.

Ginny came out of her bed with dark circles under her eyes and dull hair, her throat was raw from the screams, and she was still shaking and feeling numb, her neck, her mouth, her vagina, her anus, her whole body hurt as if she had lived her vision. She held back tears and took a deep breath trying to calm herself, that nightmare was her fault.

She knew that her doubts had caused such a detailed vision, she hadn't seen it in years, she hesitated, seriously considering for a moment not to continue with her plans, to give up and save herself the hard years that would await her. But that vision restored her determination.

The nightmares were becoming more and more common from the time Harry had refused to share a bed with her until he knew exactly what was going on.

She was bound by blood and couldn't say anything, but she had guided Hermione on the right path to discover the runic ritual, she could tell Harry everything. She didn't want those last few months together to go by like this, so far away from each other. Not when they had been together for more than 3 years, during which they had slept together every night.

She mentally reprimanded herself again for her stupidity in not having stopped Harry when his necking became more intense, he could have died because of her, and it couldn't happen again, she couldn't allow it, a second time for Harry would be dead. She couldn't risk him for her selfishness and her comfort.

The girl took a bath and dressed in her uniform and tunic, it was very early, but she wanted to see Trelawney before breakfast. The teacher greeted her and poured her a disgusting tea and she drank out of politeness, after all, she had imposed her presence on her too early.

Strangely, being with this woman always calmed her down and also reaffirmed her being, she knew that if she turned to alcohol in the same way as the teacher, she would be rewarded with sweet oblivion and rest. The visions never entered where the alcohol already was, it was the only thing that pathetic woman had taught her.

It was unfortunate that the only descendant of the Trelawneys who had an inner eye stabbed that eye blindly. But... But wasn't she terrified by the visions herself? Didn't she ever wish never had another? She was only 15 years old, could easily live six times that age, and couldn't tell if she might ever be so desperate as to turn to alcohol the way Professor Trelawney did.

She couldn't afford to judge the only woman who could understand her, even a little.

After their talk she went out for breakfast, Harry was waiting for her outside the living room, and greeted him with a kiss, they both headed to the dining room, once breakfast was over, she separated from him and went to class, rambling in her mind about the future all the time.

The classes seemed somewhat inconsequential to her, if she doubted, in 20 years no one would know the theory behind the transformation of a living being into an inanimate object. She especially hated Professor McGonagall's class, despite being an excellent teacher she disliked Ginny and couldn't help but hide it. Of course, Ginny understood why she disliked it, Professor McGonagall made no secret of her disdain for divination and the people who believed in it. And while she did believe that Ginny could see the future, she disliked her because of Ginny's indifference to what was going on.

When the teacher was with her back to the blackboard, Ginny couldn't hide a bitter smile when she saw her and thought about her destiny, she would always be the eternal defender of the Muggles, who in all their visions ended up betraying her. Perhaps Salazar Slytherin had finally been right in listing the dangers of mixing with Muggles, the teacher was a half-blood who could never help but defend her Muggle side.

When the afternoon classes were over, Harry caught up with her halfway down the hall, if she didn't know he found her with the Marauder's map he would look like a gloomy stalker. Ginny felt like she was breathing again when she saw him, she took his hand, and they walked through the halls of the castle together.

Harry looked at her so passionately at dinner that she felt herself blushing, loved him so much and desired him so much, longed for what they couldn't have for a long, long time. She almost cried when she thought of having to be with another man, and in those moments of longing, she deeply hated Dumbledore for persuading her parents to perform the ritual.

But also, she thanked him, just thinking about all the horrors they had saved her from making her happy. She couldn't get those horrendous images out of her mind; the vision had closed another chapter in her sexual life.

As best she could, she slipped away from her boyfriend and looked for Luna, just remembering the pain of burning her pubis made her nauseous, and wanted to cry, just feeling the hairs there terrified her. Luna soon gave her a solution. A potion, to disappear the hairs, after 2 months of daily use, it would never come out again.

And, for the idea of one day having a penis in her mouth, that idea disgusted her so badly that she would rather die than do so.

o-o-o-o

If the director was surprised when his eternal companions appeared at his sessions with Harry, he did not show it in his expression.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" He said with a smile, though Harry noticed that the usual twinkle in his eye had disappeared. Harry suspected that the professor knew why they had come, he had never asked anything about Ginny or talked about her, but everyone in that castle knew that they were dating, and even more, they all knew that he had almost died being with her.

"Sorry to interrupt you, professor, we want to ask you something, if it's not too much trouble," Hermione said politely, though from Ron's expression, he wouldn't leave until he had answers, not caring if it was a nuisance.

"Of course, Miss Granger, it will be my pleasure, please take a seat, would you like a lemon candy?" Hermione and Harry refused, but Ron took one. "Please, Miss Granger, go ahead."

"It's about Ginny, Professor, under other circumstances I wouldn't even tell you this, but it worries me too much. A month ago, she and Harry found themselves in a situation... When Harry suddenly found himself under what he says is the crucio curse, he's been under that terrible curse, professor, and you know he's little given to exaggerating. I got worried and started researching." Hermione said quickly, trying not to let the professor pay too much attention to what had caused this curse in Harry.

"And what did you find, Miss Granger?" The director asked flatly.

"At first I thought Ginny had used the cruciatus curse," the girl said blushing, while her two friends glared at her angrily at those words, neither of the two young men thought of blaming Ginny for what happened. "But I read a book about the curses that torture like that, and in a list, I found a ritual that closely resembles the effects that Harry suffered."

"Lucretia castitate, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said seriously, as he had done a year ago, he ignored Harry's gaze, as if trying to avoid him. "Is that the ritual you found in your research?"

"Yes," Hermione said in surprise for a moment, as if she hadn't really expected the professor to know about it. "A ritual so obscure that there's not even any information about it in the forbidden section."

There was silence for a few seconds in the office, it seemed that the director would not say anything to them even though it was evident that he knew everything. Harry looked at him coldly and got up to leave immediately, as far as he was concerned, he would never speak to the man again.

"Did you ask Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter?" he said, stopping him at the door. Harry sighed to calm himself and forced himself to turn and answer.

"Of course, I did, and she told me she knows what's going on, but she can't tell me because of the nature of the curse," Harry said furiously, not at Ginny, but because he didn't know anything.

"Of course, you can only talk about firstly it in front of the person who performed the ritual," Dumbledore said with a nod.

"It's a curse, professor, a dark curse that forces a woman to be a virgin and causes anyone who touches her sexually to be tortured," Hermione said horrified. "And someone put a curse like that on her, it's a crime, professor, and whoever did it deserves to be in Azkaban."

"I understand your point of view, Miss Granger," Dumbledore said calmly. "What else did you find about Lucretia castitate?"

"Nothing, there's nothing about it, only about the effects of torture, and that it can't be removed once it's launched." Ron and Harry nodded at what their friend was saying.

"It's a pretty poor definition, but I understand that it was the only thing that was within his reach." The director said, taking a piece of candy. "The curse, as you call it, Lucretia castitate, arose as a way of protecting the maidens."

"Protect? They were forced to stay away from men and restricted from physical contact." Said the girl, offended by that soft definition.

"Those are the reasons why it came about, have you heard about Lucrecia's suicide?" Dumbledore said seriously.

Hermione nodded confidently, Harry had no idea what they were talking about and Ron seemed just as confused as he was, Dumbledore turned to them and explained. "Lucretia was a Roman matron, called virtuous and pure by others, one night a guest, a friend of her husband and son of the emperor, entered her chambers and raped her. She sent for her husband and father the next day and told them what had happened, urging them to clear her honor, after which she buried a dagger in her chest and took her own life.

Hermione furrowed her brows, and a look of fury flashed through her eyes. "She committed suicide by saying; You will see what he deserves; For my part, though I absolve myself of guilt, I do not exempt myself from punishment; henceforth no disgraced woman will take Lucretia as an example to stay alive. She committed suicide as if she had been guilty of being raped."

"I only narrated what happened, Miss Granger, I'm not defending what happened," Dumbledore said kindly. "Because of her rape and suicide, her husband and father vowed revenge and as a result the Roman Empire fell and the Republic emerged."

"What does the spell have to do with that story, Professor? Regardless of the name." The girl said after taking a big sigh to calm herself down.

"It arose after the fall of Rome when there was no fixed Muggle government, wizards and witches lived in fear of constant wars and looting. And often wizards were called into battle by their lords, leaving their wives and daughters alone, unprotected. There isn't a specific date to when the ritual arose, or who did it. Slytherin is known to have used the ritual as it is known today on one of its daughters, making it even older than the founders." Dumbledore looked at them intently. "It's a powerful blood ritual, and because it's blood it falls into the category of dark magic.

"What does it consist of? I didn't find any information," Hermione asked with real curiosity.

"I must confess I don't know," he said, to the surprise of Harry and the others. "The entire ritual is passed down from generation to generation from father to son, unfortunately, my father left my life before he could pass the knowledge on to me. And because of the nature of the ritual, it is not taught to men outside the family. I only know a few elements, it is a blood ritual, with runes that are inherited, the maiden must be a virgin for the ritual to work and it must be a member of her bloodline who performs it."

"What does the spell really involve?" Harry asked as Hermione looked horrified at the thought of using blood in a runic ritual. "It's irrevocable, we know that from what Hermione investigated, but what does it imply?"

"It implies what you already know, the young maiden will be protected from men's contact and will not be able to have sexual relations until marriage. And even the marriage ceremony will be different, it can only be performed freely with the consent of the one who performed the ritual, or someone of his bloodline." Dumbledore waited a few seconds before continuing, waiting for them to digest the information. "The enchantment is never withdrawn, it passes from the protection of her father to that of her husband, and with it, her husband will be the only man with whom she can have sex, in case of widowhood the enchantment will be linked to the man closest to her by blood; son, father, brother, grandfather, uncle, cousin, and nephew, in that order. And she can only have sex again if she remarries, any attempt will be a cruciatus-like suffering for the man, and if despite the curse the same man were to try again, it would be his death."

"You must understand, Miss Granger, that this ritual arose as a way of protecting witches from rape, despite the implications and the restriction that witches had on their bodies, parents preferred that to their daughters being raped," Dumbledore said calmly, then turned to Ron. "Mr. Weasley, excuse the question, I understand you are dating a young lady at this time, did you ever try to have sex with her?"

Ron blushed, shocked and embarrassed by the question, barely able to mumble a resounding and almost horrified no. Hermione stared at him, anger written on her face.

"Pure-blood wizards are brought up not to even try to sleep with a pure-blood witch, although nothing is explained to them until they reach the age of majority, there is always the danger that a young woman has had the ritual performed." Hermione nodded a little blushing at the professor's question. "Of course, the ritual was banned more than a hundred years ago by the Winzegamot, but it is still practiced today, in fact, during the war against Voldemort there was a real peak of these rituals after the first attacks of the Death Eaters. Especially when they attacked the Bones family, it was horrible what they did to Edgar and Maryknollys, and their daughters, they were all horrified and started performing these rituals to protect their daughters after what they did to those poor girls."

"And didn't they punish those who performed the ritual?" Harry asked looking at Dumbledore, he was slightly pale and filled with disgust when he understood what the professor was implying. He could understand the reason for the curse, Mr. Weasley would surely have wanted to protect his newborn daughter, especially when the Death Eater attacks followed Voldemort's fall.

"No one has ever been convicted of using it, despite it being prohibited, it is mostly the men of Winzegamot himself who use this ritual with their daughters," Dumbledore said, adding more information. "A witch under that ritual will always nominally belong to the man to whom she is tied, so her surname automatically changes when she takes a husband, and the laws applied to this type of marriage are specific, she could never testify against her husband and of course, separation is something impossible to realize."

The trio nodded at the information and left the office thanking him for the explanation.

o-o-o-o

Harry couldn't resist even a month; they were both torturing each other for this voluntary separation. He had looked for her a few days after the incident, but she had rejected him and refused to go back to his bed, he loved sleeping with Ginny and if she refused just because she wanted to, he wouldn't have pressured her, but he saw what was wrong with her, the huge dark circles, the long dull hair, she had lost a lot of weight and looked so pale that he was afraid of what could happen to her.

She could never rest well, and without someone to accompany her at night it was even worse, and she was only torturing herself by refusing the peace that his company afforded her and he had been a fool for not begging her to allow him to comfort her.

He apologized for scaring her and for refusing to sleep with her after the attack and also told her that he already knew about the ritual, and that they would be careful that it didn't happen again, but that she returned to the bed they had shared for years.

He was pressing the small black box into his pocket every moment, trying to combat the anxiety he felt, what if she said no? He didn't think he could handle her rejection, not when she was the love of his life and the only woman he could see as his partner and the mother of his children. He didn't care what others thought about his age and how young he was to know what love was. He loved her and wanted to be her husband, he wanted to be everything to her, he wanted to be enough to ease her fears and dreads, and the first step had to be marriage, the bond that no one could break and by which they would be bound until death did them part.

Hermione helped him buy the ring, her parents sent him the options and then they bought it and sent it in exchange for the galleons he sent them. It was a pretty gold ring with a small diamond in the center. Ron took the whole thing surprisingly calmly; Harry thought it would make a fuss like when he found out what he and Ginny had done. But surprisingly, Ron supported the proposal, contributed ideas on how to propose it, and even gladly offered to take Ginny to the place where he would do it.

In his way, Ron cared about his sister, and even he had noticed Ginny's condition. He loved her and didn't want to see her suffer anymore, and if getting married stopped everything and made her life better, he wouldn't let any complaints leave her lips.

With the help of their friends, especially Hermione, they prepared Hagrid's hut, cleaned, decorated, and left everything in a nauseating way in the style of Madame Pudipie's tea shop. Ginny wasn't particularly feminine and didn't like that sort of thing and embellishment, but Hermione insisted that every girl would expect a romantic atmosphere in a marriage proposal.

In the end, when Ron takes his sister to the cabin and leaves her alone with Harry, she just looks at him with such affection that he feels his knees buckle.

He walked over and before trying to kiss her, he took her hand and brought it to his mouth to kiss her on the warm white palm. There was no more romanticism after that.

"Ginny, I love you and I know you love me." He began in a firm voice, almost as if he were declaring war on her instead of his love. "And I don't want to be separated from you, I want to be by your side for as long or as long as I live. I've considered you my family for a long time, you're the person I chose and you chose me.

The young woman's eyes sparkled as she listened to Harry's words, really moved. And she remained silent, giving him a chance to express all his feelings.

"You are my family in my heart, and I want you to be legally family as well. Will you marry me?" Ginny was shocked when she saw him fall to one knee and showed her a beautiful ring. It took her so long to answer him because of the sense of unreality that came over her, and he became so nervous that he began to mumble apologies and promises that he would wait for her to marry him.

"I accept love." She said, her eyes shining, laughing and reaching out for the ring to be placed on her finger. Harry, ecstatic, placed it and kissed her hand, then stood up and kissed her on the mouth, gently.

It was the happiest moment of his life.

Thanks for your comments. I should clarify something now that you've reached this point, I didn't randomly put the characters in the story summary.