Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: As you can see, I have, in fact, been able to update! Had some health issues, but we're gucci now.

I put a lot of thought into the talk with the Weasleys this chapter. I was hearing Mark Williams in my head the entire time, which I think is a good sign lol, because I think it means I've remained true to his character. But of course, as you might suspect, this is not the last time we'll be seeing them have issues.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until the next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~daughter of briganti~

~meet me in the woods~

~chapter 14~

2 September 1995
Hogwarts, Scotland, Great Britain

The fireplace in Dumbledore's office flared to life. The headmaster himself was standing behind his desk, staring at his fireplace with an expression Hyleth couldn't quite get a read on. She couldn't imagine that the Weasleys would be terribly happy about him being here when they came through, but it was his office. And he had promised her and Ginny that he would be here, to make sure that things didn't get too...out of hand.

To the surprise of both Hyleth and her first mate, who were standing side-by-side, with Ginny's hand gripping hers so tightly that it was probably a wonder her bones hadn't snapped under the strain, it was not Mr. or Mrs. Weasley who stepped out of the fireplace first. "Bill?" Ginny asked, her bottom lip already wobbling. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Ginny. I'll tell you later," the eldest Weasley brother said as he stepped aside to make room for his parents, a gentle smile on his face. His expression became much more closed-off as he took in his new sister-in-law. "Hyleth."

He hadn't called her "Potter," or anything worse.

She supposed that was a good thing.

If it was possible, Ginny's hold on Hyleth's hand tightened. She winced. "How angry is Mum?"

Bill didn't have a much better reaction. "Ah, well – "

"GINEVRA MOLLY WEASLEY!"

Ginny's first instinct was to shirk back as her mother came through. Mrs. Weasley's face was a vivid, vivid red – perhaps the reddest Hyleth had ever seen it. She looked like she was on a warpath, and would have a long way to go before she would run out of energy.

Yet, it was not lost on Hyleth how red her eyes were. She'd been crying, potentially all night.

A guilt that felt as heavy as a cauldron settled in her stomach.

"Hello, Mum," Ginny said quietly.

"'Hello?'" Mrs. Weasley repeated. She threw her hands into the air. "You leave the entire country with only a letter in your wake, one that doesn't say why or where you're going, you proceed to get married without your father's permission or mine, and without any of us, your family, there, and when you finally come back, all you can think to say is – ?"

"Molly, dear," Mr. Weasley said, laying a hand on her shoulder. He sounded as if he had aged several years in the span of one night, and the lines on his face were harsher than Hyleth was used to them being. "I thought we said we would start off easy on them."

Mrs. Weasley seemed to shrink in on herself at his words. "We did, didn't we?" she said rhetorically. She came forwards, and Ginny did the same, if uncertainly. Her mother brushed a few strands of her hair out of her face, cupped her cheeks in her hands, before pulling her into a hug. "It's so good to have you back, Ginny. When you left, your father and I – "

"You worried a lot," Ginny said, her voice muffled. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Mum."

While they had their moment, Mr. Weasley surveyed Hyleth. She gulped under his gaze.

Mr. Weasley held out his hand to her. "I will not lie and say that I would not have preferred this to happen under vastly different circumstances," he said, "but this is a possibility I had thought about happening before."

"Because of Ginny's lifelong crush on me?" Hyleth questioned, accepting his hand. Ginny separated from her mum, a flush rising to her cheeks for multiple reasons.

"Indeed," he replied. "Sirius told us that there is no way the bond can be broken. We wouldn't have done that without Ginny's wishes even if it could be – " this, he said as Ginny's expression turned shocked " – but since it is permanent, I officially welcome you into our family. I trust that you will treat my daughter right."

"I will," she promised. "I...love her, sir. I've loved her for a long time."

He chuckled. "Not as long as you might think. Trust me, I was once your age, too. And please, call me Arthur."

"Call me Molly, dear," requested Mrs. Weasley. She did not pull Hyleth into a bone-crushing hug as she usually would've, and it stung. The older omega woman steeled her breath, examining her daughter's mating collar. "Oh, this is beautiful."

"I'm glad you think so. I like it."

"Albus," Mr. Weasley – Arthur, Hyleth corrected herself – spoke, drawing their attention to the headmaster.

"Do not mind me being here." Dumbledore sat down at his desk, pulling a stack of parchment towards himself. "I have several things that I must attend to before certain intervals today; I do not wish this was the case. Please, ignore me and even set up some Silencing Charms, if you wish. I have adjusted the wards in my office temporarily to allow it."

"I don't think that will be necessary," Arthur said. Molly glanced at him; if she disagreed with him, she didn't voice it.

"Let's sit down, shall we?" she asked instead.

Ginny pulled Bill into a brief hug, then sat down on a loveseat that hadn't been here last night; Dumbledore must've told the house-elves to bring it here specifically for this visit. Hyleth sat down next to her, to which Molly frowned, yet still kept silent. "Can you tell me why you're here now, Bill? I thought you were still in Egypt."

He and the Weasley parents took the chairs Hyleth and her mates had used last night, now placed in front of the loveseat. "I was. With the Order of the Phoenix being reactivated, though, and after you...left, I thought it would be best to come back here. I put in a request with Gringotts to transfer back to England, work a desk job. As luck would have it, an opening came up within the week. Only had to use a little bit of personal leave to help try and figure out where you two went with Sirius – not that we were able to figure out much."

"You didn't have to do that."

"What else was he or the rest of us supposed to do. You were missing," Molly stated. She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Charlie came back from Romania, too. He couldn't stay for long, and he couldn't get the time off to come back again so soon. He said he should in December, for the holidays. But he came, and so did your grandmother Cedrella."

Ginny's eyes widened. "Grandmum?"

"Yes," Molly said, despite Cedrella being her mother-in-law. Now Arthur was the one whose lips were downturned. "That's how worried we all were."

"Well, I'm sorry!" cried Ginny. "I mean, I'm sorry I worried you. I'm sorry that you weren't there to – to see me get married, like what should've happened, even though the ceremony wasn't real. But this was something that I had to do."

This seemed to set her mother off yet again, that she wasn't completely remorseful. "No, it wasn't. Ginny, you are only fifteen! I know that you've felt that you've loved Hyleth for practically your entire life – "

"It's not just that, she needed me." Ginny held up their interlocked hands. "She still does."

"And what happens when you two, either with each other, or with Theo, or with any of Hyleth's future spouses, get into an argument?" said Arthur. "What your mother is trying to say, Ginny, is that you have made a choice at an age that is very young, though it might not feel that way, and it is one that will remain with you and Hyleth for the rest of your lives. We don't want you to have made this decision rushing into it, which may end up contributing to you regretting it one day."

"I won't regret it," Ginny said obstinately.

"We did rush into it, sir. Arthur. I won't tell you that we didn't." Hyleth fell under extra scrutiny of the three Weasleys; it was worth it. She felt like she needed to say something, on their behalf. "We rushed because we had to. I'm not saying that makes it right. I don't know if my dad told you this, but I did try to talk Ginny out of marrying me."

She got another chortle from Arthur, a rather dry one. "He did."

"If you know your daughter, and I know you do, then you know that she wasn't going to take 'no' as an answer from me. Not unless she knew that I absolutely didn't want it...and I already told you that isn't the case. We rushed, and there's a few more things we're going to end up rushing in. When I turn seventeen, Ginny will automatically become my Lady Consort for the Potter House. That doesn't mean, though, we'll rush in everything. Our bond is permanent, for as long as we live; it means we'll have that long to work things out if we do wind up having problems."

She didn't know whether or not Arthur or Bill were impressed by her impromptu speech; Molly's eyes narrowed. "What, exactly, other 'few' things are you rushing in?"

...Uh, oh.

She probably shouldn't have said that.

She definitely shouldn't have said that.

Ginny squirmed. "Um, Sirius did tell you what the purpose of the Ritual of Briganti was, didn't he?"

"'To preserve bloodlines,'" Bill quoted. "Wait, are you saying – ?"

"You're pregnant? At fifteen?" Molly shrieked.

"I'm sorry, Mum," Ginny whispered, looking down.

Hyleth thought any progress they'd made had most certainly ended right there.

Then, from behind them, there was the sound of a throat being cleared. "Pardon me, I do not mean to interrupt," Dumbledore began. His eyes were solely on his stack of parchment. "Yet I seem to recall Professor McGonagall informing me one night thirty-one years ago that she'd caught a fifteen-year-old Gryffindor having...ah, relations with a fellow fourth year paramour. When I talked with the two with their parents present, the girl's father was most enraged. But she had many of similar arguments as Ginny does now."

"What?" Ginny's neck shifted positions so fast Hyleth heard it crack! "Mum, is this true?"

"Things were different then," her mother replied to Dumbledore. "We weren't – we didn't get bonded then. And I didn't get pregnant!"

"No, but as your father told you, without proper protection, you very well could have."

Bill ogled her. "Is this why you threatened to send me a Howler when I wanted to bring my girlfriend home with me in sixth year?"

"That has nothing to do with this!" she snapped.

"Alright," Arthur said. His voice was soft, yet carried the full weight of his status as father of his family. His wife and children settled down at once. "I know you'd like to continue this further, Molly. But Albus has loaned out his office to us for a decent time now, and I suspect that we will not become any more productive. Ginny," she straightened, "you are our daughter. We will always be here for you, and your children, regardless of the circumstance; you being bonded and emancipated does not change that. We love you. We are not thrilled with how things have turned out, but what's done, is done."

"Arthur – "

He held up a hand, silencing his wife. In the time since Hyleth had last spoken, the lines etched into his face had become even more apparent than before. She hadn't known it was possible. "Hyleth, your father has told us about some possibilities for your other spouses. I know it is not my right to interfere; I only ask that you please, whoever you choose, make sure that they will not bring harm to your family, for your family is now mine."

She nodded. "I will. I promise."

"Good." Arthur patted Molly's back. "Come along, dear, let's go."

Very stiffly, Molly got to her feet. She grabbed some Floo powder off of the mantle of the fireplace and left without another word, not so much as a goodbye. Arthur sighed, hugging Ginny. "Give her some time. We love you," he said lowly into her ear, before he, too, was gone.

Bill was last. "Err...congratulations. Never thought that you would be the first one to have a baby out of us lot."

Ginny burrowed her head into his shoulder. "Me, either."

"I suspect Fred and George have already done their part," he said to Hyleth once they'd separated. "Just in case: if you ever harm Ginny or your children with her, or if you do anything else that would make you undeserving of them, do not think that I wouldn't make you pay for it, because I would. I've learned a lot in my years as a curse-breaker for Gringotts, and I won't hesitate to put that knowledge to the test if I feel that I have to."

"Bill!"

"Understood," Hyleth said.

At least he wasn't beating her up.

Bill said his goodbyes and followed after his parents. In their wake, and after several beats of silence, Hyleth sarcastically mused out loud, "Well, that could've gone worse."

Theo wasn't in the married wing when they went back there briefly, so they assumed that he was still with his friends. Hyleth asked Ginny if she wanted to hang out with theirs, but she shook her head. "I don't want to back to Gryffindor Tower right now. Ron'll basically be a repeat of Mum, unless he's run out of steam," she moaned.

As it turned out, this was a wise decision – some of their friends came to visit them. The sound of the portrait hole opening caused Ginny, who had been laying down with her head in Hyleth's lap as the female alpha was reading a chapter of Animagi book out loud, sitting up.

"Hyleth? Ginny?" Hermione said. Along with her, surprisingly, was Luna. "I hope you don't mind. The painting said you were in here."

"No. Not at all." Ginny rubbed at her eyes. "Where's Ron?"

"I think he's hanging out with Neville. Ron left not long after you did, and Neville said he was going to go after him," she explained. "I thought about following after him, too, but Luna caught me as I was leaving the Great Hall."

"The nargles told me that we should visit you. They've decided to be helpful, for a change," Luna said.

Hermione gave her a look at the mention of one of her "imaginary creatures."

To be fair, they were imaginary. Yet, the more time Hyleth had spent talking with Luna, the more she'd become convinced there was something else going on there. What, exactly, she wasn't quite sure. Not insanity, Luna wasn't crazy or anything; of that, she had no doubt.

"How did the meeting with your parents go?"

"About as well as it could've gone," Ginny answered Luna. They gave her and Hermione a brief rundown of what had transpired.

"I didn't realize we forgot to tell you Bill had come back to England," Hermione said.

"It's alright," Ginny assured her.

The beta girl chewed her bottom lip, obviously debating something. "There's a few things that've happened that I think you should know about. First...erm, actually, do you want the important or not-as-important news first?"

Hyleth raised an eyebrow. "The not-as-important news, I guess."

"I don't think that Malfoy's going to be as much of a problem this year as he has been." Hermione wrung her hands nervously. "Lavender told me earlier that...apparently, he presented as an omega over the summer."

"You're joking," Ginny said.

"Oh, it's quite true," Luna responded. "I couldn't sleep after our meeting was over last night, so I wandered around the castle for a bit. I came across him in the second floor bathroom. I don't think he knew I was there. He was crying, and Myrtle Warren was talking with him. But he was most definitely an omega." She tapped her nose. "I could smell his pheromones. I left rather quickly; he deserved his privacy."

"That's probably why he wasn't chosen as a prefect," Hermione added. "Davis is a theta, but Snape would have to choose a male alpha if he could, and Zabini is a better student than Crabbe or Goyle."

"Zabini is a better person, period," Ginny retorted.

Hermione was slightly taken aback. "Yes. Hyleth, you need to make sure that you give him as wide a berth as possible."

She rolled her eyes. "That won't be a problem."

"I'm serious," her best friend insisted. "Like I said, I don't think he's going to try and do anything...but you can't risk it. Once You-Know-Who finds out how many times you're going to have to marry...he may try to make Malfoy attempt to convince you that he's changed and wants to marry you."

"Yes, like I'm going to give him a chance when he's called you a slur I don't know how many times and – "

"This isn't about me, it's about you – and your mates and children."

Something cringed within Hyleth, hearing how Hermione said that. At the same time, staring into those dark brown eyes, she had to admit there was almost nothing she wouldn't do for her. "Fine, I promise. What's the second thing?"

"It's about – "

Hermione jumped in her seat as the portrait hole opened once more.

Maybe we should see if we can get the painting to check before she lets someone through, Hyleth thought, her mood diminishing some more. She'd hate for them to have to deal with something like they had in third year, except this time which someone with actually had intentions managed to get ahold of the password, and not just her father trying to make right a mistake he had made a mistake he had made all those years ago.

Cedric popped into view. "Oh. Bad time?"

Ginny gestured him over. "No, we've only been talking for a little bit. Please, come sit."

He looked at Hermione. "Have you told her – ?"

She shook her head.

"Tell me, what?" Hyleth asked. More likely than not, he was referring to her.

"I told Hermione that I wanted to talk to you, that's it, though I expect she already knows. I think Fred and George placed a bet on it." He ran a hand through his hair. "I've decided I also want to be one of your spouses."

"Cedric – "

His lips twitched. "Before you say anything, part of it is pragmatism. I'm the only child of my parents, the Heir Apparent for my House. I'd have to find a spouse willing for at least one of our children to take on my name, anyways. That's not a guarantee, unless I'd become a second spouse. Being one spouse of thirteen isn't much difference there, is it?"

"I don't know, I think a lot of people would disagree with you," Hyleth said sardonically.

"Part of it is that you saved my life, too. I know, I know, you believe that I saved yours, so that makes us even. But if it wasn't for you, I could've ended up a lot worse that night than mostly recovering, 'cept for some lingering damage." He held up his right hand for emphasis, which was shaking a little. "I'll never be a Potions Master; then again, I never wanted to be.

"You are my friend, but I could see us becoming more than that, one day." He smiled. "You are a very easy person to fall in love with, Hyleth Potter. So if you want me, you'll have me. And I will take some time to think about this, as you told Tonks to, and I'll tell you if I change my mind. I just don't think I will."

"That's five confirmed now, and potentially eight," Ginny said, counting off on her fingers. "You know, maybe this is going to be easier than we thought."

Hyleth's stomach was twisting itself into knots. Too much had happened since yesterday, since July. She'd prepared herself for Cedric, more so than Tonks, to ask to become one of her spouses; she'd known everything he'd said, and that he'd at the very least think about bonding with her. He was an easy person to fall in love with as well, because maybe she did know from experience.

Nevertheless, she didn't want to take another thing from him. The Triwizard Tournament had been bad enough.

She couldn't afford to be picky, either.

"Okay," she agreed, after a moment. She let out a puff of air. "How are we going to tell your parents?"

It was a gamble on how Amos Diggory was going to react. He'd been a fan of hers, up until the Tournament, especially the Third Task. Then he'd cooled considerably. Helen Diggory had been more than nice the few times they'd met, from what she could remember.

"Let me handle it," Cedric suggested.

The portrait hole opened a third time. This time, it was Theo. He looked tired, yet otherwise none the worse for the wear. "Alpha, Ginny, how was your – ?" he yawned. Whatever else he was going to say was stopped in it's tracks as he took in the other occupants of the room. "Oh. Hi, Luna. Granger. Cedric." His gaze sharpened on his fellow male omega. "You asked her to marry you, didn't you?"

"I did."

"Thank the gods," Theo groaned. "I won't be the only guy in her harem anymore."

"It's not a harem!" Hyleth complained.

"Really? What would you call it, then?"

Word Count: 3,588