She was looking at him like he was a baby unicorn with a broken leg who needed her help.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
There was one thing on the minds of everyone at Hogwarts as February gave way to March– the Hogwarts Scavenger Hunt. Harry had thought it was a really fun idea when it had first been announced, but he hadn't anticipated just how enthusiastic everyone else would be. The motivation of fifty house points for each member of the winning team was clearly effective, and with Slytherin holding a slight lead in the points, it was critical that someone from Gryffindor win to keep them close.
It wasn't surprising in the slightest that Ginny was taking it incredibly seriously, going to extreme lengths to prevent Harry from knowing what clues they'd already completed, which didn't seem very fair considering he'd given her a hint a couple weeks earlier. But he messed up by trying to voice that opinion to her while they were in their bedroom. Ginny suddenly needed to take a shower, and Harry completely forgot about whatever he was thinking about for the rest of the night.
Harry had assumed that having a week to solve three clues would be easy and everything would come down to the last week, but he was proven wrong at breakfast on the penultimate Sunday of the scavenger hunt.
"It's ten– we can get new clues now!" Emily exclaimed as they heard the bells ringing.
"Only six more clues left," Mia commented, smiling at Emily. Harry liked that their friends had been very welcoming of Emily, whom they ate meals with fairly often. Not that it was surprising, considering how great Emily was and how kind their friends usually were.
"Speak for yourself," Demelza grumbled, viciously stabbing a sausage link with her fork.
"You didn't finish all the clues last week?" Harry asked incredulously.
Demelza glowered at him. "No. Combs, that prick I partnered with, ruined it for me."
"How did that happen?" Ginny asked.
Demelza exhaled loudly. "Well, he wasn't happy after we destroyed them last week, but he was still doing the competition with me. But after we found our first thing a few days ago, he tried to kiss me, and when I pushed him away, he got pissed off. So he's got our team's parchment, and I doubt he did any of them himself."
"Wow, that's so not okay. But… Matthew Combs is pretty cute," Emily said, a little shyly.
Demelza blushed slightly, a rarity for her, and shrugged. "Just wasn't interested."
"That's so wrong though to quit playing because of something like that. Even if he thought you were sending him signals or something–"
Ginny was interrupted by Demelza, who looked up and said sharply, "I definitely wasn't sending him any signals."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, and Harry contemplated just leaving to find Owen and get started on their next set of clues.
"Well, since you don't have a partner anymore… maybe you could help me and Luna?" Mia proposed hopefully.
Demelza demeanor changed entirely as she grinned. "Yeah, I could definitely do that."
Harry was all in favour of that idea since it might help Gryffindor have a winner, even if he wasn't entirely sure that it was within the rules. But at the end of the day, he still wanted to be on the winning team, so he met up with Owen after breakfast to go through their clues. After finding Illyius, a wizard who cast a mouse Patronus, they had to find out who owned a crushed set of armour. It took about an hour to find Sir Scagglethorpe the Heedless' armour in the bottom floor of the bell tower.
"Alright, the last one is… where are the three bronze sisters from?"
"Bronze sisters? I've never heard of that," Owen remarked, furrowing his brow as he stared at the parchment Harry was holding.
"Neither have I. It's gotta be a statue though, right?"
Owen shrugged. "I guess? Might as well start there."
And that was exactly where they started. For over an hour, they looked at every single statue they could find, but none depicted three sisters. The portraits they asked were no help either. It was a good thing they didn't have any classes today because they were completely consumed with searching the castle aimlessly.
After walking through the same corridor for the third or fourth time, Harry groaned and leaned back against the stone wall. "I'm starting to think we're not gonna find it."
Owen nodded glumly and leaned next to him. "Maybe it's something outside? At this point, it couldn't hurt to have a look. We could even go find Neville in Hogsmeade and get his help if we needed. I don't think that's technically against the rules since he's not a student."
Harry shook his head, even though he was getting to a similar point where bending the rules felt reasonable. "McGonagall said everything was inside the castle. We'd be wasting our time as much as we are right now. And… I honestly doubt Neville's gonna have any more of an idea than we do. This just feels like a ridiculously obscure clue."
Owen sighed resignedly, running a hand through his hair. "You're probably right. I wish Hogwarts had some sort of guidebook, you know? Like Hogwarts: A History covers some stuff about the castle's design, but most of it is just kinda here without explanation."
That triggered something in Harry's memory that he hadn't considered for several months. He was about to lead Owen to McGonagall's office before realising that it was incredibly unlikely that a book that was a millennium old would have information about a random statue in the castle.
"That would probably help other teams out a lot too though, and for all we know, everyone's gotten stuck on this one," Owen added, even though he didn't sound too convinced.
"I mean, we could ask some of the other teams," Harry suggested.
"That might be our best bet at this point," Owen agreed. "Let's just make sure it doesn't get back to the girls."
Harry smiled for the first time since their futile search had begun. "Don't have to tell me twice."
They asked the first group they ran across– Dean and Noah Smith, if they'd solved that clue, but, by chance, they hadn't received that clue yet. As they were talking to them though, another group overheard them.
"You're looking for the bronze sisters?" Charlotte Scott, a third year who was on the Gryffindor reserve team and always wore an impish smile, asked them.
"Yeah. Have you two figured it out yet?" Harry asked her and her partner, a Ravenclaw girl that Harry vaguely recognised.
"We figured that one out ages ago," the black-haired Ravenclaw girl answered in a braggadocious voice, and Harry realised that this girl had been at the Gryffindor Quidditch trials, asking why Ginny was the captain instead of Harry.
"Would you mind helping us out?" Owen asked.
"Sure," Charlotte immediately responded as the Ravenclaw girl shook her head.
"We'll think about it," she corrected Charlotte with a pointed look.
"No, we can tell them," Charlotte assured her. "Don't look at me like that, Bridget. Neither of them are Slytherins, and Harry's my friend. It's in the bottom of the bell tower."
"Seriously? We were there ages ago and didn't see any sisters," Owen asked dubiously.
"Oh well," Bridget said with a very satisfied smirk.
"Trust me. It's there. Look closer," Charlotte told them, giving Harry a meaningful look before Bridget dragged her away, chewing her out for freely helping them.
"Thanks!" Harry called after them before turning and shaking his head at Owen. "We literally started there. If it's there–"
"We'll be happy because we wouldn't have found it otherwise," Owen interrupted with a wry smile. "Let's go check it out."
Sure enough, in the corner of the ground floor of the bell tower, tucked behind a staircase, was a set of three bronze bells from Argyllshire. As Harry dutifully recorded the answer, he said, "Honestly, I don't think I would've ever looked at this and thought it was the answer if we didn't know it was here."
"I know I wouldn't have. We're just lucky they helped us out," Owen agreed.
"On the bright side, that's it for the week. Next Sunday's the last one."
"We've still got this," Owen replied, giving Harry an encouraging fist bump. "I've gotta go find Astoria, but this was fun. Next week will be even better."
"Yeah for sure. I've gotta find Ginny anyways, but I'll catch you later," Harry told Owen before they went their separate ways with three less clues to worry about.
In bed that night, Harry was half asleep when he remembered something that he'd almost forgotten again. "Hey, Gin?"
"Hmm?" Ginny breathed out sleepily.
"Are you awake?"
He smiled as he heard her yawn before answering dryly, "I am now."
"When I was working on the clues with Owen, I remembered that McGonagall told us before school started that we could use that really old book about Hogwarts whenever we wanted. We should probably do that before the year ends, you know?"
Ginny yawned again. "Yeah, that's a good idea. I'd forgotten about it."
"Me too. But I think there's a lot of–"
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Go to sleep," Ginny said, sounding like she was already falling asleep again. Harry chuckled as she kissed his cheek.
"Alright, then. I love you," he replied, kissing the top of her head as he pulled her closer to him.
The last thing he heard before falling asleep was Ginny mumbling, "Love you too."
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
"Close the gap!" Ginny shouted at Natalie, who'd just made a key positioning error. Ginny darted over to cut off Dean, but he had Charlotte open ahead of him. She collected his pass and was in alone on Zoe, who made a tremendous kick save to keep the Quaffle out.
"Timeout!"
Ginny flew back to the ground and waited for the rest of the team to join her. "Sorry, Ginny," Natalie apologised once she landed.
Ginny shook her head. "It's fine. You know how we train. Try to not make the same mistake again. But let's talk about everything else– Dean, Charlotte, and Ryan, you three are doing a great job mimicking Slytherin's Chasers. We've all seen their first two matches. They play fast and direct. We obviously want to dictate the pace of the game, but when they do get the Quaffle, we've got to defend as a unit so they don't get chances alone with Zoe like Charlotte just did. Harry… how do you feel about our Beaters staying away from you and Harper?"
Ginny hadn't ever known Harry to be overconfident about anything, but there was something appealing about the way he easily shrugged with assurance in his abilities. "I don't mind it. They usually get pulled away from me in the match anyways. I can dodge Bludgers if they start trying to focus on me."
"The problem is they might do that if they see Harry has no protection. It's what we would do if we saw a Seeker by themselves," Ritchie said.
Ginny nodded. "You're both right. Let's plan on Ritchie and Jimmy focusing on helping the Chasers break up Slytherin attacks, but when the match does come, if you see Harry under too much fire from their Beaters, you'll break off and help him. Now let's go up and run it again!"
An hour later, Ginny and the rest of the team walked back to the castle. Everyone else was heading to the Gryffindor common room, but Ginny had somewhere else to be, to Harry's dismay.
"I was thinking we could turn in early tonight," he said with a suggestive glint in his eye that made Ginny regret making this appointment.
"I'm sure you'll find something else to keep yourself busy until I get back," she assured him.
He sighed. "I do still have to finish that Herbology essay." He suddenly looked up hopefully. "D'you think–"
"No, you can't copy off me," Ginny stopped that train of thought immediately. "We can work on it later tonight if you want."
Harry shook his head. "No, I'll finish it. There's plenty of other things I'd rather do tonight."
Ginny grinned at his boldness and kissed him quickly. "I'll be back soon. Astoria and I have been rolling through these clues recently."
"Well if you get stuck, you can't copy off me since that's how we're playing this now," Harry teased her. She stuck her tongue out at him as he laughed before turning and following the rest of the team up the stairs.
Still shaking her head at her boyfriend, Ginny went to meet Astoria in the Entrance Hall. "How was practice?" Astoria asked, seeing Ginny still wearing her training gear.
"Really good. Sorry that Slytherin won't have a chance against us."
Astoria laughed. "I guess we'll see. Although, considering we're playing against a future professional, I suppose it wouldn't be too embarrassing for us to lose."
"I guess everyone's been talking about the scouts at the match last weekend?"
"Just a bit. You know how it is. I'm so happy for you though. I'll have to come see you play next season!"
Ginny grinned. "Definitely. And I suppose Slytherin's still feeling good about the House Cup right now?"
Astoria shrugged noncommittally. "I don't know about that. It's still close enough that the Quidditch Cup and the Scavenger Hunt will affect the standings significantly. Not counting our basilisks before they hatch, you know?"
Ginny's smile faltered briefly, but she composed herself quickly as Astoria looked curiously at her. "Yeah, I get that," Ginny said after a pause that was slightly too long. "Speaking of, we should probably get to work on our clues."
"Right. The first one asks for the country that the romantic Gorgon is from. Does that mean anything to you?"
"No point in continuing practice with only one Beater and no Keeper. Let's just call it tonight," Angelina said in a flat voice before grumbling to herself and stomping off.
Ginny didn't need the extra encouragement. She quickly took off her gloves and shin and arm guards before walking glumly back to the castle with the wind whipping around her. Nobody on the team seemed interested in talking, not that she was surprised. Without Fred, George, and Harry on the team, things definitely seemed bleak, even though it was amazing to finally have an opportunity to play Quidditch.
She was stopped by Filch as she walked into the castle, and for a second, she panicked, thinking she was going to get detention for tracking mud inside or something like that. Instead, he just dropped a decently sized box, sloppily wrapped in brown paper, into her arms.
It figured that Umbridge would've gone through their annual chocolate Easter eggs from Mum. Ginny wouldn't have been surprised to find that Umbridge had eaten one of them, but the box still seemed heavy enough to be holding eggs for herself, Ron, Fred, George, Harry, and Hermione. She supposed it was up to her to deliver the eggs now, which was a fine enough distraction from the disappointment of practice today.
Ron would still be with Jack in the Hospital Wing, and everyone else would probably be in Gryffindor Tower, but Ginny wasn't really in the mood to go see her teammates up there. There was a decent chance Hermione would be in the library though, so that's where Ginny went first.
She was very surprised to find that Harry, not Hermione, was alone at a table in the library. He was staring intently at a book in front of him. Ginny was pleased to note that she didn't actually feel nervous at the prospect of approaching Harry when he was by himself. Things really had changed.
"Hey, Harry," she said as she sat across from him, but he didn't look up. "Harry. Harry, I'm talking to you, can you hear me?"
"Huh?" Harry's head jerked up, and he looked around in complete confusion before his eyes settled on her. He smiled a little when he saw her, even though he still looked sort of out of it. "Oh, hi. How come you're not at practice?"
Ginny grimaced. "It's over. Ron had to take Jack Sloper up to the Hospital Wing."
Harry's eyebrows raised. "Why?"
Ginny had to keep herself from making a snarky comment about her teammate. The story was bad enough as it was. "Well, we're not sure, but we think he knocked himself out with his own bat." She sighed heavily at the memory of Jack falling off his broom, unconscious, even though there wasn't a Bludger within fifty feet of him. How on earth were they supposed to compete for the Quidditch Cup now?
The weight on her lap reminded her of why she came to the library in the first place. "Anyway… a package just arrived, it's only just got through Umbridge's new screening process…"
The heavy box landed with a thud on the table. Harry looked at her curiously, so she explained, "It's Easter eggs from Mum. There's one for you." She dug around in the box before finding the one that was obviously meant for Harry, decorated with iced Snitches. "There you go."
Harry took it and stared at it for several seconds. He looked like his day had been ruined by the oversized egg.
"Are you okay, Harry?" Ginny asked in a quiet voice. She wasn't really sure why she was asking. He wouldn't talk about it anyways. He'd just say he was fine and brush it off.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Ginny almost snorted at how he responded so predictably. Something was bothering him though. The only thing Ginny could think of was… she didn't really want to think of that. She looked around the library, mainly just to avoid looking at him. Her gaze landed on a portrait of a man kissing the hand of a woman with snakes for hair. Ginny remembered hearing about those creatures– Gorgons that could turn anyone who looked at them to stone. She'd felt like that for a long time around Harry– completely petrified any time she was in the same room as him. But things had changed. She had a boyfriend she liked, and she was friends with Harry now, and Harry was having girl problems. Hermione would be proud of what she knew she had to do.
She exhaled slowly. "You seem really down lately." She almost gritted her teeth as she added, "You know, I'm sure if you just talked to Cho…"
"It's not Cho I want to talk to," Harry answered immediately. Ginny did her best to pretend that didn't affect her, but she didn't think she'd hidden the sudden levity in her voice all that well.
"Who is it, then?"
"I…" Harry began before looking around, like he'd just realised where he was, and Ginny remembered that he wasn't going to talk to her about anything important. He'd save that for Ron and Hermione. "I wish I could talk to Sirius," he whispered abruptly. "But I know I can't."
Ginny was so surprised that he'd just admitted that to her that she helped herself to some of his chocolate egg after he took a bit. He didn't stop her though. "Well, if you really want to talk to Sirius, I expect we could think of a way to do it…"
Harry didn't seem convinced in the slightest. "Come on. With Umbridge policing the fires and reading all our mail?"
Ginny looked back at the portrait of the Gorgon again. It certainly seemed impossible that someone could fall in love with something like that, but the portrait showed it happening. Ginny had been seeing impossible things happening for years now. It was honestly harder to think something was impossible than to find a way to make it possible.
She replied slowly. "The thing about growing up with Fred and George is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
Ginny could feel her cheeks heating up at the intense look Harry was giving her. His green eyes seemed to be piercing through her. He'd never looked at her like this before, and she knew she wasn't restraining herself in the way she was looking at him. Her boyfriend probably wouldn't like it if he found them like this, but she was so caught up in Harry that she couldn't even remember his name. What was making him look at her like that? And how could she–
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"
A shrill voice shattered whatever had just happened. Ginny jumped to her feet, flustered by everything. "Oh damn. I forgot–"
Harry was a little slower on the uptake than she'd been, and it wasn't until Madam Pince was on top of them that he seemed to realise what was happening. "Chocolate in the library! Out– out– OUT!"
Ginny snatched up the box of eggs and ran with Harry to the exit, ducking as they were bombarded from the air by Harry's books and bag. As they left the library, Harry's ink bottle collided with Ginny's head, and she saw spots briefly before she felt something wet in her hair. She didn't stop to inspect it until they were clear of the library and Harry's supplies stopped chasing them.
"What the hell?" Harry asked, looking back at her.
Ginny raised her fingers to her head. "No food or drinks in the library." When she looked back at her fingers, they were covered in a dark liquid. "Hey, um… I'm not bleeding, right?"
Harry's eyes widened as he saw what she was talking about. A second later, he was standing very close to her, and his hands were in her hair as he looked at her head. Goose pimples ran down her arms, and her breaths came in shallow puffs. She could practically feel Harry breathing on her head as he looked closely. She clenched her fist, mostly to distract herself.
"No, I think it's just ink," Harry finally said, and Ginny remembered why he'd been touching her hair in the first place. "Sorry about that."
"It's fine. I'll just wash it out. Not like my hair looked good anyways after playing Quidditch in the wind."
"It looked good," he said offhandedly before coughing and looking down at the ground. Ginny's cheeks were burning again, and she chanced a look at Harry, who seemed very embarrassed. "So how do you think we can talk to Sirius?" Harry asked quickly.
Ginny tried to pretend that she hadn't even heard his compliment. "I think… I'll need to talk to Fred and George about it. We'll work something out though."
Harry grinned, buoyed by the hope of speaking to his godfather soon. "Thanks, Ginny. You're the best," he said before walking away, probably to the common room, leaving Ginny to wonder if he knew that he'd just said that.
She reached up to her head again and coated her fingers in another layer of the black ink. She needed to wash her hair before seeing Michael later at dinner. And she had eggs to deliver. But most importantly, she needed to hatch a plot with her brothers so that Harry could talk to Sirius.
"Yeah, I actually know exactly where that is."
Ginny led Astoria to the library, where they learned that the Gorgon was from Greece. Their next clue led them to the Whomping Willow outside, which had thirteen swinging branches that took forever to count since they had to get close enough to see which branches swung when activated.
Very tired from dodging the Whomping Willow, they trudged back to the castle, and Ginny read the last clue. "Who is Pangur Donn?"
Astoria grinned brightly. "I know this one! He's a cat statue between the bell tower and library."
Ginny laughed as she wrote 'cat'. "How did you know that?"
Astoria shrugged. "I like cats."
"Fair enough," Ginny replied. "Only three more clues left."
"We are so gonna win."
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
Sunday morning couldn't have come fast enough. Literally everyone was up early, strategising with their partners ahead of the release of the last set of clues.
"I hope you win if we don't," Harry told Ginny before they separated.
Ginny grinned wickedly before walking away from him. Over her shoulder, she said, "I hope we win too."
Harry could only laugh at her as she looked back and winked at him, turning the corner to wherever she and Astoria had planned to meet. Harry and Owen had agreed to meet on the fourth floor, by the Grand Staircase. It was impossible to predict where the new clues would send them, and this was as close to a central point as there was in the castle.
Along the way, he passed Mia, Luna, and Demelza on the second floor and Emily and her Hufflepuff partner on the third floor. Emily beamed when Harry wished her luck before climbing one more set of stairs to find Owen already waiting for him.
"Only a couple minutes to spare," Owen commented with a grin.
"We're fine," Harry replied. "Any ideas on what the last ones are gonna be?"
"I'm kind of wondering if they're all the same this week. Nobody's really sharing their clues, but it feels a little unbalanced if someone gets something like what we had last week with the bells."
"You're probably right. I suppose if we don't know where to go, we just look for a crowd of people."
Owen chuckled. "Maybe, but we're not gonna need that. We've got this."
A minute later, the next clue was revealed, glowing on the parchment for a moment before settling into McGonagall's neat scrawl. "What animal is a friend of Baruffio?" Harry read aloud.
"Baruffio?" Owen asked, and Harry nodded. The clue tickled at something in his memory, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "That name sounds familiar."
"I feel like I've heard it before, but I haven't the slightest idea where."
They stood silently, racking their brains before Owen said, "Should we start looking for a crowd and hope for the best?"
Harry shrugged, already starting to feel disappointed. "Might as well."
They raced down two flights of stairs before hearing voices in the South Wing. Figuring that was better than nothing, they started walking down a corridor in search of the source of the voices when Harry heard Owen gasp behind him.
"No way."
Harry turned and saw Owen staring at a portrait on the wall with a wide smile on his face. Harry looked closer and saw that there was a wizard lying on his back with a buffalo on top of him. "No way," Harry repeated. "That's Baruffio."
"And his animal friend is a buffalo. Merlin, talk about luck," Owen said with the relief evident in his voice.
Harry was shaking his head in disbelief at their turn of fortunes as he wrote the answer. But the next question was somehow even more difficult. "Who is Pangur Donn? I've literally never heard that name before."
Owen interrupted him, bent over laughing loudly. "Oh, she's gonna be so pissed off," he worked out, still laughing.
"What are you talking about?"
Owen chuckled again. "Astoria showed me this statue a few months ago. Pangur Donn is a cat."
Harry laughed now too. "You're right. She's gonna be really pissed off." He had no clue where this cat was in Hogwarts, but he didn't particularly care as he wrote down the answer to the clue. He and Owen watched as the final clue was revealed.
Harry couldn't believe it. "What the–"
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
"– hell? How are we supposed to know what McGonagall's favourite thing we found was?"
Ginny had half a mind to kick the statue of Lachlan the Lanky. After all their searching, they had to guess on the last one?
"I… have no idea. And we only get one guess. I imagine everyone has this for their final clue," Astoria replied, chewing anxiously on the end of her quill.
"She likes Quidditch," Ginny heard a very familiar voice coming down the staircase.
"But does she like it enough for it to be her favourite? We only get one guess, you know," Ginny heard Owen say in response, but he and Harry kept walking straight after dismounting the stairs and didn't see them.
"At least we know they're stuck too," Ginny commented, even though that wasn't much consolation.
"Was Harry right about McGonagall liking Quidditch?" Astoria asked.
Ginny nodded. "I think she's a Magpies fan, and she loves watching it here too."
"There was that broken broom on the west side of the castle. Or we had to find the date on the base of the Quidditch Cup. That might be it," Astoria suggested.
"I… yeah, that's not a bad guess. We just need to put something down," Ginny agreed, even though she wasn't totally convinced.
Astoria went to write the Quidditch Cup on the parchment, but she frowned when she held it up. "It's blank."
"What?"
"The parchment. It's blank."
Then they heard the cheers coming from back near the Great Hall. "Shit," Ginny muttered.
Astoria huffed, shaking her head disappointedly. "I don't think it was right anyway. That's so frustrating!"
Ginny nodded, very unhappy with how things had ended. "Let's go see who won," she said flatly. They walked together towards the Great Hall. Ginny was more than a little frustrated at losing. It wasn't as bad as losing at something like Quidditch, but it still pissed her off that they had a chance and got stumped on the final clue. Really though, it was a ridiculous question.
A crowd had formed outside the Great Hall around a first year Hufflepuff girl that Ginny didn't recognise and… Emily. Ginny forgot a lot of her disappointment at losing, seeing how happy Emily and her partner were. Besides, Gryffindor would get points anyways.
"Well, if it couldn't be us…" Ginny heard Harry speaking behind her.
She nodded. "She deserves it. I don't know how she knew what McGonagall's favourite clue was though."
"Neither do I. We wrote the Quidditch Cup, but that wasn't it. Our parchment went blank as soon as we finished writing it."
At that moment, Professor McGonagall swept through the crowd to reach the winners, wearing an approving expression on her face. "Congratulations to Miss Brooks and Miss Cruz for winning the Inter House Hogwarts Scavenger Hunt, as well as astutely guessing my favourite clue. Fifty points are awarded to each of your houses, and your plaque will be presented to you at dinner tonight."
The conclusion of the scavenger hunt felt a little anticlimactic, and the crowd began dispersing quickly, but Emily didn't seem bothered by it at all. She was still grinning from ear to ear when she saw them and moved to speak to them.
"Congratulations!" Ginny exclaimed, hugging her young friend.
"That's brilliant!" Harry added, high fiving her.
"Thanks! I can't believe I just got fifty points for Gryffindor!" Emily almost squealed giddily.
"You deserve it. I have no idea how you solved that last clue," Ginny replied.
"You didn't know that one? It was easy! We just remembered Professor McGonagall's first transfiguration lesson. She loves cats, so her favourite clue was the statue of the cat we found in the second week."
As soon as Emily explained, it felt so obvious that Ginny could've smacked herself, unable to believe that she'd missed it. Next to her, Harry, Astoria, and Owen all seemed to be feeling the same thing.
"Pangur Donn… unbelievable," Astoria muttered, shaking her head.
"I guess it wasn't that easy?" Emily said apologetically.
"Nah, it was. We're all just a bit stupid sometimes," Owen responded, making Emily laugh. "Congrats by the way. And thanks for helping Hufflepuff get points too."
Emily told him how helpful her teammate, Lucy Cruz, had been, and Ginny realised that Hufflepuff had taken the lead in the House Cup standings, while Gryffindor was still in third, but they were less than ten points behind Slytherin. As long as they won the Quidditch Cup, they'd have a really good chance at winning the whole thing.
"Oh, I'm gonna go write a letter to my parents. They're gonna be so happy!" Emily exclaimed suddenly.
"You should. Feel free to use Eirwen like usual. I know she loves when you visit her," Harry said, and Emily nodded happily before leaving, not needing any further encouragement to visit Harry's owl.
"I suppose we tied, then," Astoria commented as they watched Emily moving down the corridor.
Owen sighed. "So much for that free dinner."
"So much for bragging rights," Harry agreed.
Ginny laughed and took his hand. "Yep, there goes the only thing you could ever brag about. Guess you'll have to settle for a humble life."
Harry grinned. "If I must."
"You must," Ginny replied as she squeezed his hand when an idea popped into her head. "Hey, it's not even noon yet… wanna go back home and surprise everyone at dinner?"
"I'm never gonna turn that down," Harry assured her, so they quickly said their goodbyes to Owen and Astoria, who were apparently trying to decide on something new to bet on, and left the castle.
When they arrived, they learned Percy was manning the store today, and Charlie had to stay in Wrexham because a new dragon was coming into his reserve, but otherwise, the rest of the family was present and very surprised to see them.
Bill and George wanted to hear all about last weekend's Quidditch match, so Ginny and Harry, with occasional input from Ron, gave them a play by play breakdown of their dismantling of Hufflepuff. By the end, Bill seemed to be feeling sorry for Hufflepuff.
"You shouldn't feel bad for them," Ron assured Bill. "It was a good thing that they were such rubbish since it helped Ginny look better in front of all the scouts."
"Scouts?" Bill and George asked in unison.
Ginny almost could've hexed her brother. He'd developed a horrible habit of blurting out secrets inadvertently, and now Ginny's plans for her career had been revealed before she was ready to tell the rest of her family. Then again, he almost certainly hadn't realised how secretive she'd been with that news.
"Yeah," Ginny replied. "It seems like there's a pretty good chance I'm gonna be… playing professional Quidditch next year."
The enthusiasm of her brothers' reactions made her question why she hadn't wanted to share the news. They broke into wide grins simultaneously.
"That's brilliant!" Bill exclaimed.
"Knew you'd be the best player out of all of us," George added happily.
Ginny raised an eyebrow at him. "Since when? You never let me play Quidditch with you when we were growing up."
George shrugged, unperturbed. "Since you started playing. When you put your mind to something, you're kinda unstoppable."
"Oh," Ginny said, a little taken aback by the compliment. "Thanks."
"Sure thing. Just don't forget it when I ask for tickets to your first professional match," George replied with a wink.
"Your first professional match?"
Ginny winced, hearing her mum's voice as she entered the room with her dad. Yet again, she was seized by nerves that her parents would disapprove, but then she saw how everyone else in the room, who already knew, were looking at her. None of them had laughed at her or condemned her for her dreams, starting with Harry, who'd been the first person she'd told. Squaring her shoulders, Ginny answered the question.
"Yeah. Sorry you didn't know before, but after I graduate from Hogwarts, I'm… gonna play Quidditch professionally."
Her father chuckled affectionately. "I've been waiting to hear this for about ten years now. That's wonderful news, Ginny."
"Dear, are you sure–" her mum began, with a different look on her face than her dad.
"Sure that this is what I want to do? Yeah, this is all I've wanted my whole life. Sure it's gonna work out? Several teams have already expressed interest, and more are gonna be scouting my last match. Sure it's the right thing to do? Yeah. I am sure. I'm completely sure," Ginny answered firmly, trying to cut off any criticisms her mum may have before she voiced them.
Her mum smiled at her a little, which Ginny hadn't been expecting. "Actually, I was going to ask if you were sure that we didn't already know. Truthfully, I'd be more concerned if you told us you had some other career ambition."
"Wait– you knew?"
Her mum smiled proudly. "I do know my children. And you, my dear, have wanted to play Quidditch since before you learned how to fly. I figured it was only a matter of time before you made the decision officially."
The surprise she felt at her mum knowing faded into surprise at how well she was taking the news. "And you're okay with that?" Ginny asked, almost unable to believe her luck.
"Maybe I wouldn't have been a couple of years ago," her mum began with a wistful look in her eye. "But… not much is the same as it was a couple years ago. Your brothers helped you out, dropping out of school and opening a joke shop. Playing professional Quidditch doesn't seem as risky as that," she said, smiling at George. "And… all things considered, as long as you're happy, I couldn't possibly be upset at what you choose to do."
Without even thinking about it, Ginny rushed off the sofa and hugged her parents tightly. "We're proud of you, Ginny," her mum whispered, and Ginny only tightened the hug, incredibly grateful for how understanding and loving her entire family had been.
A couple hours later, Ginny was surprised when there was a knock on their back door, interrupting the heated game of chess she was locked in with Ron. She hadn't beaten him yet, but he'd privately told her that she was much better than Harry. Not that she needed that reassurance; it was sort of obvious.
"That'll be Andromeda," her mum said, hurrying to the door.
"Andi's coming?" Ginny asked, standing up from the floor.
"Andi's here," her mum corrected before opening the door and hugging Andi. "I'm glad you could make it."
Andi smiled. "When was the last time I missed a Sunday dinner?"
Her mum didn't have an answer to that, and they were interrupted anyway by Ginny, who'd eagerly stepped forward to greet Andi and take Teddy out of her arms. He was sleeping– Ginny never understood how he managed that through apparition– but she was more than content to hold him while he was asleep. She sat down on the loveseat, and she was quickly joined by Harry, who'd been sitting on the sofa with Hermione before standing to greet Andi too.
"You know, he's pretty cute," Ron commented, although he seemed disappointed that Teddy wasn't awake. And though she tried to hide it, Ginny saw Hermione's small smile at that.
"Yeah, we think so too," Harry agreed, grinning at him.
They sat like that in silence for a while before Ginny sent Harry to the floor to finish her match against Ron, who'd been growing more restless, clearly wanting to get back to it. The match finished much faster than if she'd been playing, but, mercifully for Harry, there wasn't time for a rematch with dinner being ready.
After dinner, they all ended up in the living room again. However, Teddy had woken up to eat, and he was in a very playful mood now, so Ginny was on the floor with Harry, Ron, and Hermione while Teddy crawled between them, giggling and changing his hair colour as he did.
He crawled over to Harry and put a small hand on his knee. Then, without any warning, he pulled himself up so that he was standing, a little wobbly, next to Harry. Ginny's jaw dropped as Harry grinned proudly at his godson.
"You're getting better at that, aren't you?" Andi asked Teddy.
"He's been doing that?" Ginny asked.
Andi nodded. "He's been doing it for a week or two now. He's very determined when he finds a new thing to do."
"Does he walk yet?" Ron asked, looking very excited at the prospect.
"He's only eleven months, Ron. You didn't start walking until you were seventeen months old," Ginny's mum replied, and Ginny stifled a giggle, knowing from her research that that was rather late for an infant to start walking.
"He hasn't yet," Andi added. "But I wouldn't put it past him. Nymphadora was about his age when she started walking."
Not really expecting anything from it, Ginny held up Teddy's favourite toys– a stuffed lion and badger that had been Christmas gifts from her and Harry. "Teddy, do you wanna walk over here and get your toys?"
The entire family watched as Teddy seemed to understand exactly what Ginny was saying. He grinned and giggled happily as his hair changed to a vibrant red. Then he took a step forward.
"That's it, Teddy," Ginny said in an encouraging but breathless voice.
Teddy took another unsteady step forward, holding his hand out like he needed help. Harry was there immediately, extending his hand in front of Teddy. Teddy wrapped a small fist around two of Harry's fingers and walked more confidently towards Ginny while Harry crawled next to him. When he reached her outstretched arms, he giggled once more before falling into them, grasping for his toys.
"Zat was amazing," Fleur gushed, beaming at Teddy before looking at Bill, who had a very warm look on his face.
"That was… we just saw his first steps," George said disbelievingly.
"He did so good," Hermione added in a doting voice, moving over to kiss Teddy's head, even though he was oblivious to it, trying to gnaw on the lion's tail.
"He'll be running around here pretty soon," Ron said with a wide smile.
Ginny smiled too before looking at her parents, who had tears forming in their eyes, still captivated by a moment like this even though they'd seen it seven times before. Andi was openly crying while Ginny's mum patted her shoulder reassuringly. Then Ginny's eyes found Harry, who had a nearly inscrutable expression on his face, looking between Teddy and her. The one thing she could see very clearly in his eyes was a rush of love that Ginny thought she could drown in. She kissed Teddy's head and smiled proudly, thinking that, as lucky as she'd been with how well her family had taken her news earlier, she was infinitely more lucky to have been here for Teddy's first steps.
Unfortunately, Ginny and Harry couldn't stick around much longer. They were already pushing Hogwarts' curfew, so they had to tell everyone bye and made them promise to send a letter if Teddy took any more steps while they were gone. It wasn't a long visit, and Ginny wished they had more time with the family, but they'd be back for the Easter holiday in two weeks at least.
As they were leaving, Hermione gave Ginny a knowing wink that she didn't understand at all. Then she nodded towards Harry, who still seemed to be a little dazed after seeing Teddy walking for the first time. Ginny thought she knew what Hermione was getting at now and agreed. It was very cute how taken Harry was with Teddy.
They left their family and apparated back to Hogwarts soon after, hurrying to McGonagall's office to sign back in, making it with minutes to spare. It was their second visit together to her office recently. The last time was a couple days after the match against Hufflepuff, when Ginny brought the black book that had been left in her locker. McGonagall had been as perplexed as they were, even if she agreed that the most likely explanation was that someone had seen her boggart and was trying to throw her off her game. However, she did promise to investigate both the book and the changing rooms, but they could tell she wasn't expecting to find anything. Not that they were really expecting anything either. It seemed like that was how things had been going all year, and it would've been a surprise for anything to change now.
Ginny was very happy to put thoughts of that disturbing present in her locker out of her mind though as they walked at a slow pace back towards Gryffindor Tower. "That was pretty incredible," she said, seeing that Harry's expression still hadn't changed much.
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah it was."
Ginny squeezed his hand. "Hey, are you okay? You've been acting kinda weird ever since Teddy walked."
Harry stopped and looked seriously at her. Ginny raced through possibilities in her mind at what might be bothering him but couldn't land on a probable one before he said, "I– no, I'm fine. I'm just really happy about Teddy," he confessed, smiling a bit more easily than he had before.
"Me too," she agreed. They continued walking, and Harry seemed a bit more back to normal, but Ginny couldn't shake the feeling that there was still something more bothering him. Even when they were getting ready for bed, something still seemed a little off. She thought she heard him muttering something when she went to the loo, but she didn't want to press it any further.
"You know I love you, right?" Ginny asked before they fell asleep.
She felt better, seeing him give her the biggest smile he'd worn since they got back to Hogwarts. "Yeah. I know. I love you too, Gin."
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
Hermione was standing with her hands on her hips at the gates of Hogwarts when Harry rushed down to meet her. Her eyes were narrowed, like he was a puzzle she couldn't quite solve, and he gave her a sheepish grin.
"McGonagall said you could come in," he told her, having just gotten permission for the slightly odd request from the Headmistress, who surprisingly hadn't asked any questions.
"Thanks," Hermione said sarcastically before crossing over into the grounds. "So do you mind telling me what was so urgent to warrant sending me a Patronus at midnight, asking me to meet you here?"
"It wasn't midnight," Harry protested defensively, but he recognised his mistake when he saw Hermione's eyebrows rise. "Sorry," he quickly added, holding up his hands apologetically. "Come with me."
"Harry, I really don't have a lot of time. I need to get back to work."
"Yeah, and I've got no idea how long Ginny's gonna be working on Care of Magical Creatures with Luna. Let's just sit down over here." Harry gestured to a shaded knoll a hundred feet to the left of the entrance.
Hermione sighed, and Harry knew she'd come with him. She had apparated all the way up here without knowing anything other than that he needed to talk to her. Still, he didn't want to draw this out and annoy her when she'd been nice enough to come in the first place.
"So… what is it?" Hermione asked once they sat down.
Harry exhaled slowly, running his thumb along the outside of the watch that he used to look at pictures of Ginny more than to tell the time now. "I wanted to get your opinion about something."
Hermione's expression grew more exasperated. "Harry, I really don't have a lot of time. What do you need my opinion on so badly?"
The words tumbled out of his mouth before he could think about it. "Would it be crazy for me to propose to Ginny?"
All of Hermione's annoyance disappeared, replaced with a bright smile. "Harry! You're thinking of proposing to Ginny?"
"Er– yeah. I– I've been thinking about it for a while, to be honest. But… well, I dunno if it's too fast, or if she'd think it's too fast, or if her family would. You're the only person that I thought I could talk to about this."
Hermione's expression almost made him want to squirm. It felt like she was looking at him like he was a baby unicorn with a broken leg who needed her help. Sympathy, pity, and care were all rolled up in her voice. "Harry, it's so adorable that you're worried about that."
He rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Hermione. I was hoping you'd think it was adorable."
She huffed loudly, losing some of that pitiful look. "At least let me finish. I was going to say that, in my opinion, it's not too soon. You're young, but you're both adults and very obviously in love. If it's what you want, why wouldn't you get married?"
Harry could think of about seven red headed reasons. "Well–"
Hermione seemed to read his mind. "And her family loves you, Harry. You know that. Molly and Arthur got married when they were your age, and they're still happy together. Her brothers may poke fun at you, but you know they love that the two of you are together. Some of them may be a little uncomfortable with it at first, but they'll all come around. To tell you the truth, I think Charlie and Percy are going to be the only ones who might have any issue with it, and really, they would just be messing with you… mostly."
Harry smiled slightly. "Yeah, I can definitely see that. But… last summer, Molly was concerned we were moving too fast, and then that made Ginny panic a little. I just don't want that to happen again."
Hermione nodded. "I remember. But both Molly and Ginny changed their minds, and Molly's been completely supportive of you since then, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Exactly. And… Harry, you can't possibly think Ginny would say no."
He shrugged. "I– I don't think she would. But if she does think that would be too fast, then…"
"You two haven't talked about it?"
He shook his head. "No, we have, a couple of times. It sorta came up at the end of the summer. She told me she'd say yes whenever I proposed, and then it came up again with that whole Veritaserum mess last term. And then we joked about me proposing on Christmas or Valentine's Day, and– oh, I guess we agreed to move in together officially after we graduate, but… I dunno. I just– are you laughing at me?"
Hermione was indeed giggling behind her hand, which she'd raised to conceal her apparent amusement at Harry's predicament. "I'm sorry, Harry," she worked out. "But you have to hear yourself. You've talked this much about it, and you're worried she wouldn't say yes?"
He rubbed the back of his neck. "I… no? I don't know, Hermione. That's the problem. I'm pretty sure she'd say yes, but… we haven't ever really talked seriously about the future, other than saying that we want to be together no matter what."
Hermione's smile was much kinder and less amused now. "Okay, Harry. I'll tell you the truth. I've pretty much known since our fifth year that you and Ginny would get together. I've known that you loved her since the day you had to break up with her. And I've known that you'd marry her if you had the chance since I saw your face after she kissed you on your birthday almost two years ago. It's not some spontaneous thing for either of you. You both clearly want this. All that needs to be worked out are some details. You should talk to her seriously about it. Be honest with her about wanting to propose to her."
"I want to surprise her, though," Harry replied, wondering how she'd forgotten that.
"She shouldn't be surprised that you're proposing, Harry. She should be surprised about the time and place, but she should know that you're planning on proposing. And when you propose, you should already know the answer, without any doubt. The proposal's just a formality."
He furrowed his brow as he thought about it. "You're sure about this?"
"Didn't you ask me for my advice?" Hermione countered.
Harry sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Okay, I'll talk to her about it then. Wait– how did you know we were going to get together when we were fifth years?"
Hermione laughed. "I have my ways."
Harry looked at her, but she apparently wasn't going to reveal any more information, so he nodded. "Alright, then. Thanks, by the way. I know it wasn't easy to come here, but–"
"You don't have to thank me," she interrupted. "I'm always gonna be here when you need me," she promised, with a resolved look in her eyes.
Harry smiled and put his arm around her, pulling her into a hug. "Same here, Hermione. But still… thanks."
After dinner that night, Harry and Ginny were relaxing in the common room with several of their friends, laughing and talking about anything they could to avoid thinking of school. Exams were creeping closer and closer, and some of them, Mia especially, were growing anxious about it.
"Relax, you'll do fine. And if you don't, you'll get to come back and do seventh year with me," Demelza joked with a grin.
Mia huffed loudly and threw her head back against the cushion of the sofa, which made them all laugh.
"Really though, they can't be too bad," Elliot reasoned. "When have you ever heard of a seventh year failing their N.E.W.T.s and coming back for another year?"
"Maybe it's a one time thing. Like you only get one chance, and if you fail, that's it," Dean considered aloud, which didn't help Mia at all.
"Great. I'm gonna fail, and I won't even get a chance to make up for it," she bemoaned despairingly.
Demelza nudged her with her shoulder. "Seriously, you're gonna do great. You always get nervous like this, but then you always end up killing it. And besides, if you're gonna stress about them, wait until it's at least a little bit closer. I won't be able to handle being around you if this is how the next three months are like."
Mia smiled, a little flushed from her exasperation with school. "Whatever. Like you could handle being away from me."
Demelza shrugged. "Don't make us have to find out."
Mia looked curiously at Demelza, who didn't actually seem to be joking. A second later, Demelza yawned loudly. "Damn. Think it's time for me to go to bed. I'll see you all tomorrow," she said before hurrying up the stairs to her dormitory.
It was rather late, and the rest of their friends, other than Mia, excused themselves soon after. Mia was looking into the dying fire, and she didn't seem to register that Ginny was talking to her until she said her name a second time.
"Huh?"
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked.
"Oh. Yeah, I'm okay. Just the whole school thing, you know? Guess Demelza's right though. I'll drive myself crazy if I keep worrying about it this far in advance."
"Is that all?" Ginny asked. Harry gave her a curious look, but she was focused on Mia, who looked at the fire for another second before nodding.
"Yep. I think I'm gonna go up to bed. I'll see you two tomorrow."
"That was weird," Harry said after Mia left.
"A little," Ginny agreed, watching as Mia walked up the stairs before turning to look at him. "Kinda like you yesterday," she added pointedly.
He chuckled. "You don't give up, do you Blaze?"
"Never," Ginny replied brightly.
That was enough to encourage him. "D'you wanna go for a walk?"
Ginny tilted her head slightly. "Right now?"
He nodded. "You're not scared about getting caught, are you?"
She stood up immediately from the sofa. "Nope. Let's go."
He laughed and stood with her. They exited the mostly empty common room, and he decided to pull the Invisibility Cloak over them to walk through the castle. He wasn't actually afraid of getting caught, but he still preferred staying out of detention. It turned out to not be necessary though. The closest they came to running into anyone was hearing Peeves wrecking a classroom down a corridor adjacent to the one they were in. Once they made it outside, Harry took the cloak off and was very grateful that it wasn't too chilly.
Ginny took his hand. "Where to?"
"We'll see," Harry answered, having a feeling that he knew where they'd end up.
It took longer than usual to get there. They didn't talk much, but somehow, they mutually and silently agreed to walk past the phoenix statue by the lake, stopping for a moment to look at blazing tail feathers, before continuing on. As he expected though, they ended up at their tree. The darkness was broken up by the faint glow of the statue and lanterns from closer to the castle. It was at least bright enough for Harry to see Ginny's expression as she looked expectantly at him.
"I'm guessing you wanted to do more than just take a walk and sit down for a bit."
He smiled. "Yeah, I did. I– well, I know we've joked about it before and said we should talk about it more, and I'm ready for it if you are. I really want us to talk about what comes next– our future together after Hogwarts."
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A/N: So yes, it is a cliffhanger, but a good one! At least, in comparison to the last cliffhangers being Harry having a panic attack in the Forbidden Forest and Harry and Ginny running away after he duelled Grimhall, it's a good one! And, because I like to be mean sometimes, you'll all be missing this kind of cliffhanger soon enough (insert maniacal laugh here).
In creating the Hogwarts Scavenger Hunt, there was one incredibly invaluable resource that I used a lot– Hogwarts Legacy. I played the entire game several months before I started reading or writing any fanfiction, but I did occasionally open the game up and wander around the castle while writing ToG, just to try my best to capture the feel of the castle because it does feel very much like how I imagine Hogwarts to be like, at least on the inside. But more specifically, Hogwarts Legacy had something called Field Guide Pages, which were basically markers of locations or items of significance, and a lot of them were attached to statues and portraits. Pretty much everything the characters found in this chapter, including Pangur Donn and the Bronze Sisters, came from the game and are in the location described as well. I don't think that counts as cheating, but it would've been much harder to come up with everything if I'd been inventing all the items to be found in the scavenger hunt myself!
One important thing Harry and Owen find is the portrait of Baruffio with a buffalo. This was in the game, but I chose this specifically to highlight the fact that Harry doesn't remember everything from their first year. Flitwick taught his class about Baruffio in PS, which is also the only time that McGonagall being an Animagus really comes up as something important. So them not remembering Baruffio is sort of meant to explain why they don't immediately think of cats when it comes to McGonagall like Emily and Lucy did since they're younger. And really, it was way more fun to give them the win than to choose between Harry and Ginny!
Ginny's memory in this chapter is one of my favourite canon Hinny moments because I felt like the books hinted at so much more than what we actually saw, with Harry starting to feel good about things for the first time in ages, specifically because of what Ginny says and how she makes him feel. Moments like this are the reason I decided to write the memories like I did, in a narrative that makes sense in the greater story as well as removed from the story. And, in case it wasn't clear, all the dialogue from when Harry and Ginny start talking until they're chased out of the library is directly taken from OotP. But I had to add in an extra Hinny tease at the end because it just fit so well! I'll also acknowledge that this memory doesn't actually add anything to the context of the scene of Ginny and Astoria working on the scavenger hunt, but, firstly, I liked the parallel between the Gorgon and Ginny with Harry. Secondly, I also felt like this was a really good memory to have before Harry decides to talk to her about their future since it's one of those moments that Hermione talks about where they'd been destined to be together since his fifth year.
I put some really weird stuff into my search history in the name of research. Just looking back at my very recent search history, there's some stuff that never would've been there if I wasn't writing this series. Unfortunately, most of it is spoilers, but I did have to look up 'hierarchy of British police' recently for… reasons that are definitely unexpected. Anyways, I am way more familiar with and babies in general than any childless guy in his early twenties should be. I had next to no clue about anything related to babies before I started writing, including at what age they would start walking. There's a really big range, really from like 9-18 months, so Teddy's a little earlier than what would be average, and he should be! He's a very exceptional baby!
The last note I have is that it always bugs me in fics when Molly isn't supportive of Ginny in her Quidditch ambitions. Molly can be overprotective sometimes, for sure, and she's shown that in bits and pieces in my work, but it's impossible for me to imagine Molly seeing how happy Fred and George were with the shop, losing Fred, and refusing to support Ginny's dreams. It's part of the perspective shift that the war finishing had to bring. And really, I like Molly already knowing it's what Ginny wants to do even more than if Ginny had surprised her.
So that brings us to the end of Chapter 21! A ton happened in this chapter, especially considering it was mostly focused on the scavenger hunt, and I hope you all enjoyed it! I promise the wait will be worth it for the next one, which is very appropriately named…
Coming Friday: Really Talking- Harry sat up, rubbing his head gingerly and blinking slowly, thinking that he might have passed out for a moment.
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Percabethforever: Es demasiado fuerte para dejar que nada, ni siquiera algo tan mezquino, le impida dar lo mejor de sí misma. Y tengo que decir que me encanta tu nombre de usuario... por mucho que me guste Hinny, Percabeth es la primera pareja de la que me enamoré.
(I had to use a translator but wanted to reply in your native language before giving my English response. Thanks so much for the comment!) She's too resilient to let anything, even something that mean, keep her from playing her best! And I have to say, I love your username... as much as I love Hinny, Percabeth is the first pairing I fell in love with!
Merendinoemiliano: Thank you so much! I love continuing to play with these characters, and there's so many fun character moments to come!
Finnspa23: That uncertainty about whether or not I'm misdirecting all of you is what's so fun for me haha! Although, as the end of this chapter indicates, we will start to get more clarity on their future in the next chapter... even though I have to say there's still a lot left in this story that could change things (sorry not sorry haha)! You're definitely right though, if they were on different teams, which would almost certainly be the case based on how things are going with the Harpies, it would present a whole new set of challenges for them to work through, which could definitely be interesting...
Hermione defending soul eating demons just felt like the next logical step from defending house elves, you know? Really, a lot of it goes back to Dumbledore telling Fudge at the end of GoF to remove the dementors from Azkaban. Since he says remove instead of destroy or kill, it implies, to me, that he knows of a way to relocate them without putting anyone in harm's way. Since it isn't common knowledge, I assume it was something that Dumbledore uniquely knew, and Hermione's trying to figure it out. Reforming Azkaban felt like something important for the new Ministry, and since Harry isn't there to be a part of it, it felt like it made sense for Hermione to be the one leading that charge. And as much as she wants to do it so the prisoners are treated more humanely, she does have a soft spot for things that nobody else does, as crazy as it is!
Scrappy8: Harry can get a break with a newspaper as soon as he starts actively taking credit for everything he's done... which isn't ever going to happen, unfortunately lol
Melissa Cox: Thank you so much, that means a lot to me! I promise I try my absolute best to make sports-related stuff as accessible as possible in my writing, and even when Quidditch is the big focus, like in this chapter, I try to provide plenty of other places of interest within the chapter to hopefully keep readers like you engaged, and I'm so glad you enjoyed this chapter!