Compilation of Hinny Works

by LegendDairy

I've got too many Hinny one-shots, and there are more coming. So they are all going to be posted here instead of individual stories. And Harry/Ginny pairings only, no others. Will be updated sporadically.

21. Care of the County

AN- This prompt was brought to me by Celine Gryffindor who was reading this Compilation and made a special request.

It was a long prompt I was given, but I was completely game. Harry is Muggle, Ginny isn't. (full prompt at the bottom so I don't give away the whole story you're about to read)

()()()

Care of the County

()()()

On November 1st, 1981, while the majority of the wizarding world was celebrating the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, there were also several families in mourning.

Frank and Alice Longbottom had been killed their child, now orphaned and something that little boy had done had been the evil Lord's downfall; Neville Longbottom was being praised as the Boy-Who-Lived and had been hidden away from the magical world by his Grandmother. She'd immediately put her home under the Fidelus to keep the reporters from coming in search of her only grandson and making the world think of him as some kind of messiah.

Lesser known from that pivitol night was that a four-month-old had been snatched away in all the chaos from one of the most prolific pureblood families out there. Arthur and Molly Weasley's only daughter had been taken away from them. There were no leads and the family was completely devastated.

For months they searched for sign of her and some sign of who it was that had broken into their home in the dead of night and taken her from her crib while her parents slept only feet away. But all the Death Eaters that had been captured and questioned had admitted to no knowledge of it. The case was left open with no leads. The entirety of what was left of the Order of Phoenix had done what they could to console the Weasley's and assist with their six boys while Molly, who had always wanted a daughter, was inconsolable and shut herself up in her room.

After a while, once her breast milk had run dry and her husband removed the empty crib from their room, she allowed her sons to come to her one by one and climb into her bed and cuddle with her. Day by day she stepped out of her bedroom for a little bit longer. Arthur was her rock, and her oldest boys had been so helpful with their younger siblings.

After two months Molly was making meals again. After five months she managed a smile. After a year she found her desire to make love to her husband again, insuring she had a contraceptive charm in place as there would be no more children for her.

()()()()()()()

September 1990

Harry was running away from Dudley and his gang again. Always. It was his recess ritual. The teachers must have thought they were playing tag or something since they never stepped in to stop the harassment Harry got from Dudley, Piers and the others.

He rounded the corner by the trash bins and caught someone out of the corner of his eye leaning against the wall, but he kept on running. The gang wasn't very far behind him when he got to the dead end, kicking himself again for winding up in the corner of the yard with nowhere left to go. He braced himself and stopped from colliding too hard with the wall.

"Nowhere to go, Potter," Piers said as he and the three other boys blocked him in. "You going to cry to a teacher this time?"

"Well, he can't cry to his mummy now can he?" Dudley mocked.

This was all a game to them; Pick on Potter. He looked for a gap that he could run through in their formation but couldn't see one. He gave in to the notion that they had him. They didn't bust him up too bad usually. Maybe he would get sent to the nurse again and be able to skiv off his afternoon lessons.

"Hey," came a call behind Piers.

Harry saw a flash from light reflecting off the trash bin lid just before it hit Piers across the face. Harry stood in shock staring at a petite red headed girl with a tough face and blazing brown eyes sneering down at Piers and checking that the other three boys weren't making a move toward her. "Don't you lot know that four on one isn't a fair fight?" she asked.

"You're going to get in trouble for that," Dudley said stupidly.

She pulled an innocent face. "What do you mean? The four of you just came out of no where and I was just so scared. I was defending myself," her chin quivered and she sounded about ready to cry.

"That's not what happened!" Dudley's friend Ian shouted.

She dropped her act in the blink of an eye. "Well get out of here before I start defending myself more. And then you lot can go ahead and tattle to the teachers that you got beat by a little girl," she raised the bin lid as though to start swinging it again.

"You're crazy!" Dudley said and helped Piers stand up before they all ran back to the playground.

She turned and followed them with her eyes until they rounded the corner before she turned back to Harry. She looked him over appraisingly, "you a foster?"

"A. A foster?" he stammered.

"Yeah. A foster kid," she pointed to his baggy clothes.

"No. I just. I… live with my aunt and uncle," he lowered his gaze to his ragged shirt that had once been his cousins. He hated how his clothes made him stand out in class. He looked like a vagrant most of the time.

"Hmf. And they can't get you clothes that fit?" she herself was wearing clothes that were very worn and a size or two too large for her.

"You are a foster kid?" he asked.

"Yeah. Thought I was defending one of my own. We tend to stick together," she shrugged. "We get bullied a lot like that," she tossed the bin lid down. "Your aunt and uncle not like you or something?" she asked flippantly.

"They… I don't know. I guess not. They call me a freak a lot, and don't stop Dudley and his gang from treating me like that," he pointed feebly towards the playground, having intentionally left out the other ways his aunt and uncle show they don't like him. She turned and looked towards the playground too and looked back confused about his bully's link to his home life. "He's my cousin," he explained.

Her mouth drew into a hard line. "He's your actual family and he treats you like that?" she asked outraged. "What a little shit!"

Harry smiled tentatively at that. This girl looked to be younger than him, but she was rather intimidating.

"You know. I get called a freak sometimes too," she offered. "It's sometimes why I get passed on to another foster home. Was with the last one anyways."

"You do?" he knew he sounded too happy about that, but he'd never had any friends before. If the two of them had something in common, then maybe she would be his friend.

"Yeah. I try not to cause trouble. But trouble just happens to find me." She didn't seem to broken up about being bumped to different homes, like it was simply a fact of life for her.

"That's exactly what happens to me!" he exclaimed and took a step towards her. "Usually it's more that Dudley does something wrong and blames me for it though."

She gave him a smile and held out her hand, "I'm Jenny."

"Harry," he clasped her hand. "You just transferred to the school?"

"Yeah. We'll see if I can make it through to the end of the school year at this one," she looked up at the building.

"How many schools have you been to?"

"Usually two a year. Did all of my second year at Fairlop in North London though."

"Thanks, by the way," he pointed to the trash bin lid.

"Ah. Yeah," she kicked it more to the side. "Well, four on one really wasn't a fair fight. And that comment about your mum."

"No one's ever," he stopped. No one had ever stood up for him before.

She gave him a hard look, "would you do the same for me?"

"Yes," he said instantly.

"Then we can be friends."

Jenny was a year below him, but they had all of their recess' together and ate lunch together. Neither of them got much in the way of lunches, but it was a nicer variety when they could split cookies or eat one half of a different sandwich. Dudley and his gang hadn't said anything to the teachers about her hitting Piers, and she would give them a blazing, intimidating look whenever one of them drew close.

She'd been in six different foster homes since she was three, and she was only nine. According to her, each of them had had a good and bad parts to them. There were always other kids there, that was the good part, but some of the foster parents could be abusive or neglectful. If she talked back too much or got in trouble at school, she would get passed along to another family.

She was serious about her saying that foster kids stick together. It was the number one rule for her; never betray a foster kid, and always defend them and back up their stories. She said he was an honorary foster kid to her. Harry couldn't describe the warm feeling of acceptance that overtook him when she said that. And she'd said it so casually and punched him lightly in the shoulder when she did it to downplay it for his benefit.

She didn't seem to care that none of the other kids wanted to be friends with her because she hung out with him. The other foster kids in the place she was staying now were in their teens, or not school age yet and stayed home with the foster mom, so she was the only foster kid at the school then.

Jenny said the mum at the place she was in now was nice, and always asked her politely to help her with the younger kids. Never demanding. "I think I might like staying at this one," she admitted to him a month after they'd met. "I hope I don't mess it up actually."

"How would you mess it up?"

She shrugged. They were passing a bag of grapes back and forth, "fighting is the usual cause. I can't stand to see someone getting bullied, so I step in. Like I did with you. If that ponce-"

"Piers," he corrected her.

"What did I say?" she smiled with a twinkle in her eye. Harry laughed. "If that ponce had told a teacher I'd whacked him across he face with a bin lid, I'd probably already have moved on. I've got a history of 'violent acts' in my file. So, I'm pretty much a one and done."

"I thought you said these parents were nice to you."

"They are," she assured him. "And I've had nice one's before. Really nice. But I am not their kid. They didn't adopt me or anything. And they've got a lot of kids they're responsible for…"

Harry had wondered if he would have liked to be a foster kid over living with his aunt and uncle. He'd have a network of 'sibling' types. And if his 'trouble making' would have him get passed along to another family, that wouldn't be so bad. It was kind of like starting over.

Just as summer was about to start, Jenny got in trouble at school though.

Ian, one of Dudley's friends was picking on a third year and Jenny launched herself at him. A teacher had to pry her off of him and her fists were still swinging. She accidentally elbowed the teacher in the nose and it started bleeding, which caused her to get hauled off to the headmaster's office.

Harry saw her being led out of the school by a social worker and he bolted out of class in time to catch her before she was loaded into the back of a sedan. She ran at him and hugged him tight. "I'm sorry." she said muffled into his neck.

"I'm going to miss you," he tried not to cry. She was his first and only friend.

"Me too," she whispered back. "I'll write you. I promise!"

"Jenny," the social worker called from the car impatiently.

Jenny pulled back from the hug. Her eyes were glistening, and it caused all kinds of knots in his stomach. She was the strongest, most bull-headed person he knew. She didn't cry.

Jenny kissed his cheek and turned away, not looking back at him even once.

For weeks Harry was in a state of depression. Every day he would pounce on the mail as soon as it came through the slot hoping to have a letter from her. He was due to start at Stonewall High soon, somewhere that his cousin wouldn't be, and he would possibly be able to make new friends. But he couldn't help thinking that he might make new friends a little easier if he was able to talk to his old one.

Finally. Finally, he got word from her.

A small blue envelope came through the mail slot with a collection of bills and advertisements, a blue envelope that was addressed to him. He nearly dropped it, his hands going numb when he saw the untidy scrawl there and took note of her new address, it wasn't too far away!

It wasn't until the end of the day that he managed to open his letter in private. She apologized for taking so long and promised that she hadn't forgot about him, in fact she spent a bit of every day hoping that he was doing okay and getting on alright without her.

She also encouraged him to look into finding a way to get away from his aunt and uncle.

He hadn't considered calling Child Protective Services as an option.

Harry had been entirely honest about his life with the Dursley's every time she'd asked; something she hadn't done until they were a few weeks along in their friendship. She knew where his bruises really came from, and why. Jenny knew that his guardians hadn't wanted him, they'd only taken him in out of familial obligation. Harry's parents had been artists, at least that was the story he'd gotten from Mrs. Figg, the neighbor that minded him sometimes. Mrs. Figg had lived on Privet Drive for decades and claimed she remembered his parents coming by for a visit a few times. It was only through Mrs. Figg that he heard any stories about his mum and dad and each one of them had been fanciful stories about their nomadic existence, even with a baby under their wing.

Going into the Foster system might be something he could look into, but things might also get better for him when he was in a different school from his cousin in a few weeks.

Harry and Jenny started corresponding once a week minimum, so he wasn't too surprised to see her waiting outside his new school on the second day of classes when he was about to head home.

"Did you know," she started as she rested back against the railing outside the doors of the miserable school, "that if one runs for five minutes straight they will make it from Chesterford Elementary to Stonewall High and only almost run out of breath?"

Harry grinned widely at the sight of her and didn't think before pulling her into a big hug.

For the full year Jenny managed to stay in the same school with out incident. She liked the kids that she was living with, and the foster parents were really nice.

It was a great relief for Harry, because having Jenny around after school sometimes had caused a few others at the school to start being friendly to him. Jenny had made Harry let his guard down a bit, and it helped that his cousin Dudley was off at boarding school. His clothes were still ten times worse than the other students, and he was still the sickliest looking kid in his class, but he had friends now, Jenny was the only one of them that knew what his home life was like though.

If Jenny managed to keep at the place she was currently living, then it looked like she would be going to Stonewall High in the coming year as well.

()()()

Albus Dumbledore sat anxiously at his desk waiting.

It was August 11th, 1992 and he was anxious because he wanted to have good news by the end of the day for people that had become quite dear to him. People who had been incredibly strong and patient and were no doubt quite a bit more anxious than he right now.

Ginevra Weasley was due to turn eleven any minute. The ancient woven scroll to the far right of the Headmasters desk was going to either answer all the hopes and prayers of many or stay devastatingly blank. This scroll had been created by the founders using a centuries old and forgotten magic that had taken decades to perfect, and Albus had been unable to manipulate.

When a young witch or wizard turned exactly eleven years-old anywhere in the United Kingdom their name and location would appear on the scroll.

There was a knock at the office door.

"Enter."

A pleasant looking woman came in wearing a standard Muggle woman's business suit; something Albus had requested, just in case. As the search for the girl through out the magical world had failed, it was to be concluded that she would be found in the Muggle world.

"Albus," she nodded.

"Thank you for agreeing to come Amelia."

"Of course. I just hope we'll have good news for Arthur and Molly. I couldn't imagine," she came to sit in front of the desk and clasped her hands in her lap. She was nervous, as head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement she'd seen her share of vicious acts; one resulting in her being the sole guardian of her niece Susan.

But this was more than a decade of tension in the making. The day would end in tears either way but having to deliver news that one's daughter or sister was lost forever when the Weasley's had been waiting so long to know for sure… Albus would be with Amelia when she delivered the news either way.

The scroll glowed faintly and they both held their breath as golden ink spread out across the page;

Ginevra Weasley "Jenny"

1302 Oval Circle, Croyden

Amelia immediately wrote it down. "That's a Muggle address," she said. "I will get to a police station and check their database for anything suspicious." This was the process for all Muggleborns attending Hogwarts, it gave them a better understanding of how best to approach the parents and the children.

"I will accompany you," he transfigured his robes and followed her to the Floo.

()()()

Jenny Smith was in her room with Tanya, her younger Foster sister, brushing her hair before she plaited it. They were going to go to the park after their Foster parents got back with the two youngest of the kids, the boys. The boys were both under the age of five, full of energy and loud. Jenny was in some trouble again and trying to make up for it by staying out from underfoot and being quietly helpful. She'd gotten in the middle of a fight again.

Growing up in the foster system really made her an advocate for the underdogs, and seeing anyone get bullied made her vision go red. Sometimes she would get so worked up that the air would literally crackle around her before she would start in on the bullies.

This time it had been two girls that were maybe two years older than her, picking on a quiet girl that had been in Jenny's class last year. There was no way the girl could have, or would have, done something to deserve their taunts and ridicule, but Jenny had gotten too aggressive with the bullies, and other parents at the park had seen what happened. It had been a long time since she flew off the handle like that; a whole year actually. The last time was when she accidentally hurt one of her teachers. Then she'd had to move away again.

Tanya had been at her new foster home when she arrived. She and the foster parents were really nice. When Jenny explained to them what happened about the fight they took it well, but had to report it to Social Services.

As a ward of the county it was mandatory.

They assured her that they'd included a note about how they still wished for her to remain with them.

The fight was a week ago, and no one had showed up yet, so it looked like it might not be an issue.

"You almost done? I want the room," Meegan was the newest addition to the house. Despite her gothic appearance she'd been pretty nice to live with. Her dyed black hair, chains on her clothes, and eyebrow piercing just made her look intimidating and angry. She was fifteen, and moody, but good to Jenny and Tanya. They all slept in one room.

"Nearly," Jenny told her and started plaiting Tanya's hair. Meegan hummed and headed back downstairs.

"What do you think she does at night when she sneaks out?" Tanya asked.

They'd both kept their mouths shut about Meegan going in and out through the window after her curfew. "Meets a boy. Probably had a Romeo and Juliet thing going on," Jenny sighed dramatically before they both started giggling.

There was a knock at the door downstairs.

"There," she finished tying the elastic in Tanya's hair, and they smiled at each other in the mirror.

"Jenny!" Meegan yelled up the stairs.

The smiles dropped off of their faces as they stared into each other's reflections. There could only be one reason someone would be at the door for her.

"But they said-" Tanya started.

"Maybe. Maybe it won't be that. Maybe it's just a check in. Maybe Harry's finally gotten away from his relatives and come for a visit," she tried to placate the younger girl unconvincingly and gave her a tight smile. Jenny made her way to the stairs and each step down felt like she was marching to her doom. She liked it here. She wanted to stay. Tanya needed her.

She came around the other side of the door from the stairs. There were two of them this time. The woman was the standard Social Services type, standard blazer, standard hair, but she looked un-standardly pleased to see her. Normally they had this fake smile and hurried look about them. This one looked happy to see her and like she truly was her only priority. It was a little unsettling.

The old man with her looked like Father Time in a suit. He too looked quite happy to see her.

"I'm Jenny," she said sadly.

"Hi Jenny, I'm Amelia with Social Services. And this is Albus. I understand your foster parents aren't home right now?"

"They should be back soon," she tried not to pout.

"Okay. Well we wouldn't come in with out their permission, but would you mind sitting with us for a chat in the garden while we wait?"

Jenny sighed and followed them out. They all got themselves awkwardly seated at the tiny plastic picnic table.

"Do you like it here Jenny?" Albus asked her.

"Yes," she was trying not to get too emotional, but it was hard. Sometimes she'd been relieved to see a social worker, but not for a few years. There had been one set of foster parents that had yelled at her all the time, smoked like chimneys and given her unfair punishments. She'd been happy to leave there. There was also the clean freak Stepford wife woman that basically boiled her in bath water and then used the strap on her bum for having dirty fingernails, that time she was happy to leave too. But she thought she could stay with this family until she aged out. "They're nice. So are the kids. I know I shouldn't have gotten into that fight. But someone had to stop it," she said defiantly. "There were parents there too, and they didn't step in. It wasn't right."

"So, you hitting those girls was what was right?" Amelia asked. She didn't sound sarcastic about it.

Jenny looked her straight in the eye. Her options were to lie and apologize by saying no or say how she truly felt. "I'm not just going to sit by and let people get bullied. I know how it feels and it's not nice," she stuck her chin out a bit in defiance.

Both Amelia and Albus looked pleased with her answer.

They were really weird.

She lowered her eyes to the blue plastic the table, "should I just go and pack now? Can you tell me?"

Amelia exchanged a look with Albus. They looked conflicted about how to proceed. Amelia turned back to her and nodded, lowering her eyes sympathetically.

Jenny clenched her jaw, stood up and ran back into the house and up the stairs.

Meegan was hugging Tanya on her bed. Jenny's chin warbled at the sight. She didn't want to leave them. It had been over such a small thing. It wasn't fair.

She pulled her duffel bag out from under her bed and emptied her drawer into it. She didn't have much in the way of things. A few clothes, and extra pair of sneakers and a few knick knacks. Just enough to fill the bag. She picked up her teddy bear. It had been a welcome gift when she got there. She loved it, despite how it made her feel so much younger for having it. Probably because it made her feel so much younger, like a child taken care of. If she took it with her to the in between facility though she'd get tormented about it.

One last hug. She buried her face in it one more time and handed it over to Tanya, "keep it safe." Tanya went to Jenny and hugged her tight, Meegan too. It was a ritual they were all, unfortunately, familiar with. They'd seen many of their kind leave, and they'd been the one's leaving. It was always hard, but they persevered.

Her foster mom Dana had been coming back in with the boys when Jenny was on her way down the stairs with her duffle bag of belongings. Daniel was a toddler and Brayden was four. "Jenny," Dana said sadly and hugged her in, "I told them we wanted to keep you."

"It's okay," Jenny gave her a hug, and a kiss to each of the boys.

Her foster dad Chris was standing with Amelia and Albus outside by the picnic table. Albus had some kind of funny stick pointed at him. "Quite amusing," she heard Albus say and put the stick in his pocket.

Chris turned to Jenny. "Alright Jenny. It was good having you girl," he said chipperly and ruffled her hair on his way into the house.

She was confused. That was a little less heart felt than she'd expected. All of her foster dads had kept a little distance with her, but she'd at least expected a hug from him after a year with her.

"Ready to go?" Amelia asked.

Jenny nodded and headed to the gate. There was a black official looking car waiting for them. Albus held the door open for her, she climbed in. There was a driver. That was weird. Something didn't feel right about this. Amelia and Albus climbed in and closed the door. Amelia tapped the glass and the car shot forward at an alarming speed.

Jenny let out a surprised scream. She looked out the window, the car seemed to be jumping from road to road, like it was transporting itself ahead rather than driving there.

"Everything is okay Jenny," Albus told her.

"What? What's going on?" she asked in a panic.

"Jenny, we haven't been entirely truthful with you. We didn't come and get you because of your fight. We came because we discovered where your real family is. Who you really are."

"What? Who. What do you mean?" she'd had silly little fantasies about being discovered that she was actually a missing princess or something similar when she was younger, but they'd been silly little fantasies, and she was absolutely not a princess.

"My dear, this may seem very confusing," Albus told her. "But you are the missing child of a very loving family. They have been searching for you for nearly eleven years."

Jenny scrunched up her face, "eleven years and now, all of a sudden, you walk in and load me up in some kind of warp speed car to tell me I have a real family?"

"The reason we didn't know before now is because we couldn't get a proper trace on your magic until you were eleven," Amelia told her.

Jenny stared at Amelia as she slid around on her seat while the car was swerving left and right.

"You are a witch Jenny," Albus told her.

"What?" These people were completely cracked. "You're saying that I'm a witch and the missing child of some witchy family?"

Amelia pulled an impossibly large file out of her purse, the file was easily three times the size of the bag. She took out an old newspaper clipping and handed it to her.

There was a moving picture on it.

Jenny flipped the paper over a few times trying to figure out what the trick was. She stared at the photo. It was black and white. There was a mum and dad with a bunch of kids. The oldest one looked to be about her age. They were all boys, except for maybe the one-ish year old the dad was holding and the baby in the mum's arms.

Weasley Family Begs Public for any Leads on Missing Baby Girl.

Last seen asleep in her crib the night of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's downfall. Thought to be part of the violent acts that happened around the country on that very night. Ginevra Molly Weasley, the baby seen above, was not yet four months old with ginger hair on the night of her disappearance and her family is understandably devastated by the loss.

Jenny didn't read the rest. "How. How do you know I was the baby? Because I'm around the right age and have ginger hair?" she was confused. Hopeful too. Somewhere deep inside her she was jumping up and down at the idea that it might be true, but what were the odds really? She didn't want to get excited just to have it all be a mistake, or a dream.

Amelia handed her a stick.

Jenny automatically took it but didn't understand why. She felt a rush go up her arm from the stick though. "Oh!" she looked down at it.

"Picture a light at the end of it and say 'Lumos'," Amelia instructed her.

Jenny gave her a wary look but humored her. "Lumos," Jenny said and waved the stick once. The tip shone bright, like a flashlight, she dropped it in surprise. "This is ridiculous," Jenny said. "It's some kind of, like, joke shop item or something."

"Is the prophet clipping or the cars ability to get us so quickly through London traffic a joke as well?" Amelia asked, pointing out the window.

They were now barreling down a highway surrounded by country. She could see the London smog retreating in the distance. "I. I don't," Jenny paused, thinking.

"You turned exactly eleven years-old at 10:40 this morning, and your name; Ginevra Molly Weasley, appeared on my list of witches and wizards due to start school on September first," Albus told her.

"You're a teacher?" Jenny asked slowly.

"Headmaster of Hogwarts School or Witchcraft and Wizardry," he waved his funny stick over his suit and the clothes transformed into some sort of weird mans dress, like merlin from Fantasia.

Jenny chewed her lip and contemplated what he just done and what they said. "So, I'm a witch," they smiled softly and nodded. "And. And this is my family," she held up the newspaper clipping with the family photo on it. Still moving.

The mum was taking the baby's hand and making it wave. Jenny smiled at that. She studied the faces in the photo. There were twin toddlers tormenting their next oldest sibling and getting scolded by the two oldest boys. The one year old started fussing in his dad's arms and the dad coo-ed at him. Then the picture looped back. They all looked nice. The mum looked like she would be a good cook and great at giving hugs, if you could tell such things from a photo. The dad looked tired, but proud.

"Are they all boys?" she asked. "Except for the baby?"

"Yes," Amelia told her.

This. This was her… family. It was a big family.

"They only had one daughter?" she saw them nod in her peripherals. She suddenly looked up. "Are you taking me to them right now?" she realized in a panic.

"We are," Albus told her.

What if it was all a big mistake? She looked out the windows of the car again, and to Amelia and Albus' faces. They seemed so sure. She looked back down at all of the faces in the photo. The oldest boy. She did bear a striking resemblance to him. Throw a wig on him, and maybe the next eldest's nose, and that could easily be her in the photo.

"I want to believe you," she whispered. The car slowed down to a stop. 'Oh God,' she thought.

"We're here," Amelia told her and opened the door, taking Jenny's bag.

If Jenny hadn't believed that magic was real from what the two of them had shown her in the car then she certainly didn't have any doubts after seeing the home at the bottom of the hill they were looking down. It resembled some of the Lego block towers that the boys built, the one's that would topple over sideways from poor construction. However, this home didn't seem to be on the verge of toppling, it was simply one uneven piece of architecture on another.

Albus started down the hill ahead of them, Amelia stayed beside Jenny, her duffle bag slung over her shoulder.

The grounds around the house were vast and wild. There was a little forest area surrounding the property and she could make out a few animals wandering the grounds. She would have loved to have grown up in the country like this. There was plenty of room for running and having little adventures.

Her attention was brought back to the house when people started coming out from inside it. One after another the line of them never seemed to stop. A full eight gingers were standing right against the house, simply waiting for she and these two fake Social Workers to finish walking towards them.

Albus came to a stop in front of them and Jenny came to stand beside him. She was doing everything she could not to simply turn around and run the other way. This was everything that she'd ever dreamed of, and entirely terrifying.

There were EIGHT of them. Six brothers and two parents looking at her like she was what had been missing from their lives.

But what if she wasn't?

"That magic stick of yours going to make sure I'm who you think I am?" she asked Albus quietly, her eyes on the mother Weasley.

()()()

Harry couldn't believe it.

He'd been worried when he hadn't seen or heard from Jenny in several days, but when he did finally get a letter from her, well, he just couldn't believe it!

Not only was she not going to be attending Stonewall with him in the fall, but she'd moved to Devon of all places and it turned out that she was a missing child from a large family. He was happy for her, of course, but he couldn't help feeling like a piece of himself had been torn away. She was so important to him, and now there was a chance he would never see her again.

He'd cried himself to sleep that first night that he'd gotten the letter.

She had a real family now, what would she need him for? She had a mum and a dad and SIX brothers. Apparently they'd done a DNA test and proven that she was really the missing girl. Her name was Ginny now too, not Jenny.

Ginevra Molly Weasley.

She lived on a farm now and was learning to tend to chickens and such. She was having a fantastic time and would be going to some fancy school with four of her brothers come September and Harry would probably never hear from her again.

But she proved him wrong.

Every week with out fail she would send him a letter letting him know about everything that she'd been getting up to. She wrote about new friends that she'd made, and how her brothers were helping her get around her new school, and about crazy family rivalries the Weasley's apparently had with some other family call the Malfoys that went back generations and she was proudly now a part of. She told him about her new friend Colin and some boy that was in her closest in age brothers year at school that had some amazing legend behind his name. She told him about how she'd been constantly embarrassing herself around this Neville boy and how she didn't know what was wrong with her or quite why he made her blush.

Harry had been writing back to her every time he got a letter, but he wasn't sure why her letters were showing that they were coming from a place just North of Brighton when she claimed her school was in Scotland.

He finally asked her about it in one letter and she said that her friend Colin had family in Brighton, and she simply asked them to forward her letter to Harry from there because the mail service to her school was 'iffy'.

That made no sense to Harry, but he wasn't going to question it. He'd mapped out where the house in Brighton was that he was addressing the letters to in the library, and it certainly wasn't to a school.

He didn't see why she would be lying to him about it though.

When summer came around again 'Ginny' promised that she would find some way to get her 'parents' to let her come and see him, and then maybe they could manage to spend the day together before she had to go back to Devon.

As the summer went on though, he didn't believe it was going to happen. He missed her terribly, but he did have friends at Stonewall now. Mostly they just hung out at school, but they still didn't know his whole story like she did.

It was his thirteenth birthday when he heard her voice again. "Happy Birthday to you," her voice sang quietly.

Harry looked up from pruning his Aunt's rose bush and saw her standing on the other side of the white picket fence. She had grown, her face had filled out slightly and that determined look she'd always had in her eye, the one that had given her the tough girl expression, had given way to a twinkle. She really was Ginny now, not Jenny.

Harry couldn't help but think for a moment that he was simply letting his imagination get away from him. When she continued singing the birthday song he let the shear's fall out of his hand and came around the fence, pulling her into a tight hug.

Ginny's arms came around him too.

"I missed you," he said into her hair, noticing that it smelled wonderful.

"I missed you too," she stepped back from him and her bright eyes narrowed with a look of worry. "They still aren't feeding you enough," she tugged lightly at his baggy shirt.

"Luckily this look seems to be coming into style though," he offered lamely. He didn't need to pretend with her like he did with the others at school.

"Ginny," a deep voice called to her from the man leaning against the neighbors fence.

"Charlie," she told Harry, "he's my second eldest brother."

Charlie came over and held a hand out to Harry, which Harry took and looked the broad man over. "I can actually see some resemblance."

"Are you telling me I look mannish?" Ginny teased.

"Yep," Harry picked up off her tone. "Mannish and burly, that's you in a nutshell."

Ginny laughed and linked her arm through his. "Come on," she told him, "we're taking you for a birthday lunch. Going to Moe's diner and you can order whatever you want, plus a milkshake."

"But I've got to finish my chores," he looked back at where he'd left the shears.

"Then you can do it on a full stomach for once," she told him insistently.

"Do they really never feed you properly?" Charlie asked.

Harry gave a sigh. It had always sounded farfetched, no matter who heard the story. His Aunt would simply tell anyone that asked about his health that he was a growing boy and sometimes he could be incredibly picky about what he would eat. That, or that he simply gained his eating habits from her side of the family, considering the size of her husband and child in comparison. It wasn't hard to look thin around those two.

At the diner Charlie regaled him with the story of finding out what had happened to Ginny and the day that she'd come back into their lives. He'd also told Harry that Ginny had instantly had each and every one of her brothers and her dad wrapped around her finger.

Ginny simply smiled up at her brother and eventually gave him a shove so that the two of them could have the booth to themselves to chat for a bit while Charlie had a coffee at the counter and flirted with the waitress.

"So, it's all real," Harry said morosely.

Ginny didn't look offended by how he might have been second guessing it all, it was rather fantastical after all. "It's all real," she nodded. She reached across the table and took his hand, grasping him at the wrist and sort of measuring it with her thumb and middle finger.

"Harry," she started, "I think you need to report your relatives."

"What?" he gave a start.

"They aren't feeding you properly, you're horribly underweight for your age and I can tell that you're favoring one side more than the other."

"Jen-Ginny," he stated her name quietly, hoping that that alone would be enough to make her stop.

"Harry," she replied warningly. "I'm worried about you. I think you should talk to a Social Services worker."

"I thought you were here to celebrate my birthday and catch up," he pointed out, not wanting sympathy, he just wanted to spend time with his friend whom he missed.

"I do. But I would also like to be able to stop in and see you again for your next birthday and find that you've turned into a rather dashing lad that might be capable of playing a round of football."

Harry looked down at the plate of chips in front of him and moved them around on his plate, trying to keep his emotions in check. Sometimes it had felt like she was the only person that cared about him, and he wasn't worthy of it now. She had a family and a life that was far far away from Privet Drive.

"I've asked someone to look in on you," she said quietly.

"What?!" he asked astounded.

"The lady that came to take me to my family last year. I've asked her to look in on your Aunt and Uncle and make sure that they were treating you right."

"Je-Ginny! That could really come back and bite me in the ass," he said, astounded at her audacity. "If they think that I'm the one that called Social Services on them then everything could get so much worse for me!"

"How?" She demanded. "Would they feed you even less? Beat you even more? It's all just more material for the next time Social Services comes around." She grabbed his hands again desperately. "You'd be better off somewhere else. Anywhere else."

He grit his teeth as he tried to stop his chin from quivering. Ginny came around to his side of the booth and wrapped her arms around him, letting him go slightly when he started at the pressure she put on his side, there was a bruise healing there.

"They're at your house right now," she said quietly.

"What?" he asked into her hair.

"Part of my birthday present to you," she whispered.

He barely managed to eat anything more as they simply sat beside each other, leaning on each other, for the next hour, when Charlie came over and told them it was time to head back.

Ginny held Harry's hand when they approached the house and saw that a black sedan was parked in front of the drive. He could hear his uncle yelling from inside, his Aunt tittering away and making excuses. Through the opened door Harry could see that his 'bedroom' door was open; the closet under the stairs had been his bedroom for as far back as he could remember.

The Social Worker introduced herself to Harry when she saw him, Susan Pierce, she seemed nice enough. She told Harry to say goodbye to his friends and wait in the car while she gathered up his meager belongings from his cupboard, not wanting him to have to go back inside 4 Privet Drive ever again.

"You'll write me again once you get settled?" Ginny asked. "I'm not above writing directly to Social Services to track you down."

"Thank you, Ginny," he said, leaning his forehead down on hers. Knowing that he didn't have to go back to that horrible home again had pulled an enormous weight off of him.

"Hopefully you'll get placed with a family out in the country," she said optimistically.

"Maybe somewhere out in Devon?" he said playfully, it was where he knew her family home was.

She pulled back and gave him a sad smile, "my family already have more mouths to feed than most fosters. But it would be great if you were placed somewhere near me."

After one more hug they parted ways. Harry got into the back of the sedan and Ginny began walking down the road with her brother. Harry watched as the two of them went down a little alleyway by the corner store, one that had a dead end. He looked carefully down the alley when Miss Pierce drove past but didn't see them in there.

()()()

Ginny lowered herself close to the broom and focused all her energy on getting to the snitch. It was amazing to her how easily she took to flying. It was second nature to her from the moment her brothers handed her a broom. Of course, at the time she'd thought they were simply messing with her since all of magic was an entirely new concept.

Her first year at Hogwarts she wasn't even allowed to try out for the Quidditch Team, but at that point too she only had a basic understanding of the game and next to no time spent on a broom. The twins had been quick to rectify that by taking her up with them during term, then playing two a side with she and Ron almost every day over the past summer.

Now she was the Gryffindor Seeker.

Playing the Chaser looked way more fun, but she was willing to bide her time as a Seeker until that position came available. She was still on a broom and up in the air anyhow.

It had also earned her a certain amount of popularity, which was cool. Her first year the story had circulated of her kidnapping and how she'd been raised as a Muggle until three weeks before term started. That had rather endeared her to the Muggleborns immediately.

It had also come out that the most likely culprit for her abduction was Draco Malfoy's mother. There was no proof, however. It was only circumstantial evidence that came from the fact that she'd had a miscarriage a few weeks before and had been admitted to St. Mungo's hospital a few days after Ginny's disappearance due to hysteria and postpartum depression. No one had really seen her since she'd been released from the hospital eleven years ago. The speculation had all simply added to the animosity between the Weasley's and the Malfoy's.

Ginny's fingers clasped around the snitch, securing the victory for Gryffindor against Slytherin.

The Slytherin team was a joke. The only reason Malfoy was on it was because he had bought his way on, and the fact that she had out-flown him on a broom that was at least a decade older than his shiny one had proven that fact.

That night the whole of Gryffindor did some celebrating in the tower. Her best friend at school, Colin, was nudging her extra hard when Neville congratulated her on a good job. She blamed Colin for being the one to fill her head with all the fanciful stories he'd read about the Boy-Who-Lived on their first train ride to Hogwarts.

Colin was boarder line obsessed with Neville, and it had rubbed off on her.

Neville was cute, he was quiet, and he was nice to her. He was nice to everyone, so she really didn't need to be blushing so hard simply because he was nice to her though.

She escaped up to her dorm room and lay on her bed, pulling out the letter that had arrived from Harry that morning that she hadn't had the frame of mind to open earlier because of her nerves about her first Quidditch game. Now though she tore it open.

Colin's parents had been kind enough to be the go between for she and Harry writing to each other. The Creevey's had gotten an owl on their first trip with Colin to Diagon Alley so that they could keep in touch with their son. She was very grateful that they'd kept sending her Muggle friends letters along every week.

Harry was doing amazingly she was happy to see. He'd been placed with a family a little outside of Torquay, which wasn't too far away from where her family home was. It would be much easier to convince one of her brothers to take her to see him next summer.

Harry was living on a ranch now and having a great time 'earning his keep' learning how to deal with the large animals. The Foster parents were nice to him and they were known to take in cases such as his, kids later in life that had been beat down or neglected, but were on the straight and narrow, putting in effort at school. They'd showed him the ropes and given him freedom that he'd never experienced before. He'd looked up his parents for the first time ever and discovered that they were fairly well known artists in some circles, they weren't simply dead beats like his Aunt and Uncle had told him.

James Potter the sculptor and Lily Evans-Potter the painter were Harry's parents, and Harry's inquiry about them had turned up one of their friends in the arts world that was eager to get to know Harry a bit. It was an art curator at a studio in Brighton named Sirius Black. Harry said that he'd talked to him on the phone and Sirius had almost sounded like he was crying on the other end when he realized who Harry was and why he was calling.

Ginny was so happy for Harry, and she couldn't wait to see him again and see how much better he was going to look after a year of being fed and treated properly.

()()()

"Would you stop strumming your fingers on the table?" Harry asked him. He'd been doing it off and on for nearly ten minutes, which was how long they'd been waiting at the seaside café.

"I can't help it," Sirius said excitedly. "I'm finally going to meet her."

Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes.

In the last eight months Sirius had been coming out to Torquay once a month to take Harry on an outing. One time they went to the BioDome, another time Harry took him horseback riding, they'd gone to the movies a few times. Sirius had quickly become the uncle Harry had never had.

The Sullivan's, Harry's foster parents, were perfectly okay with Harry going on these outings. Sirius had been thoroughly vetted and had no problem giving them a police check when they'd asked. The Sullivan's had only been doing their part to ensure Harry's safety, and Sirius was more than willing to comply, unfortunately he didn't have the ability to take Harry in permanently though because of his bachelor living space and lack of familial relation.

It had really touched Harry that he now had two people unrelated to him like Sirius and Ginny that were willing to go to certain lengths to spend time with him and be a part of his life.

"This is the girl that is responsible for you getting away from the Dursley's. If she hadn't have done that then we might never have met," Sirius knew the story. He'd been surprised when he'd heard it the first time, not just of her calling Social Services on the Dursley's, but about how she'd been kidnapped as a baby and found by her family again when she was eleven. It was a surprising story.

Then Harry saw her walking towards them. She was a bit taller and starting to get the slight curve to her that girls get over the years, her hips slightly wider than her waist. She had a fitted vest on and a pair of sunglasses she'd moved up from her face to sit on the top of her head, her ponytail swinging behind her and she walked quickly towards him.

"Is that her?" Sirius asked. "Damn, you didn't say she was a looker," he nudged Harry's elbow good naturedly.

Harry ignored Sirius though as he stood up and rushed towards her, the both of them throwing their arms around each other in a tight embrace.

"You look amazing!" Ginny gushed in his ear, not slackening her hold on him.

"I missed you so much," Harry told her, holding her equally as tight. A loud cough sounded, and Harry finally pulled back from her. "Ginny, this is Sirius," he introduced, "Sirius, Ginny."

Ginny kept her arms around him as she looked over at Sirius, "nice to meet you. Harry's mentioned you in his letters."

"And he's told me plenty about you," Sirius told her, taking her offered hand and bringing it to his lips rather than simply shaking it.

Ginny giggled, then stepped back, turning her attention entirely to Harry. "Alright, I want to get a proper look at you. Give us a twirl," she beamed, circling her finger in the air.

Harry blushed, but complied to her request, doing a slow turn.

"Damn, you look quite good with some meat on your bones," Ginny teased and tugged at the bottom of his t-shirt. "And clothes that fit as well." She turned her eyes up to his showing her sincerity, "You look great, Harry."

He felt himself blush even deeper. He'd been filling out alright. No one could count his ribs when he took off his shirt, and he was much less shy about his body now. Before when he had to change for gym class he would do what he could to hide himself, now he was much more confident. He looked just the same as all the other boys. No malnutrition or bruises to hide anymore, and if there were bruises it was because of an incident on the Ranch, not because he'd gotten hit.

He'd grown taller as well and was sure he still had a few inches left to go in the next few years. Ginny was nearly as tall as he was.

He couldn't help but think that Sirius was right, she was a looker. And he could see that her toughened exterior had given way even more in the last year. But when they'd met up last year she'd also been planning to change his life, so that might have had something to do with how she'd held herself.

"No brothers today?" Harry asked, looking around for a burly ginger bodyguard.

She pointed towards the beach, "They got distracted by girls in bikini's."

Harry covered his eyes and squinted in the direction she was pointing. There were two gangly and identical red heads chatting up a few girls that were laying out in the sun.

"Fred and George?" he asked.

"Yep," Ginny grinned. "Now let's catch up. I've been craving a chocolate milkshake for ages."

They managed to meet up a few times over the summer, always in Torquay, though she said she'd love to visit the Ranch, and he wanted to see the hobby farm she lived on with her family, the logistics just never worked out. Instead every other weekend they managed to make it to the beach and go for walks or swims and simply be together until it was time for her to head back to her boarding school.

()()()

"You never mention anything about your female friends," Harry said.

They'd met up several times this summer, and there were only a few weeks left before she had to go back to school. She was heading into her fourth year at Hogwarts and was back in Devon with her family for the summer. Every time she managed to meet up with Harry she thanked fate that he was placed with a family not too far away from her newly discovered own.

If only Harry was a wizard though.

He was still her best friend, despite the distance between him for the majority of the year. They still wrote to each other constantly, and she'd found out that one of the Chasers on the Gryffindor team lived in Torquay and Ginny was welcome to use her Floo so she didn't need to wait on her brothers to Apparate her when she wanted to meet up with Harry.

He still didn't know anything about her being a witch, and she wished she could tell him. Her having grown up in the Muggle world had helped her hide it easily. If her brothers attempted to carry on a conversation with Harry he would have had a few questions, the lot of the Weasley's were terrible when it came to blending in with Muggles, even her dad who worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artifact's Department at the Ministry would ask her all sorts of pointless questions, his eyes glowing with fascination.

"Well, the girls in my year are nice and all, I just hit it off better with the boys I guess," she shrugged. Colin Creevey was still her best school friend, she did get on with the girls on the Gryffindor team, they were just several years older than her. "They're all starting to ask me questions though," she admitted awkwardly. "Apparently because I'm surrounded by boys all the time I'm supposed to have 'that kind' of experience with them."

"And you don't yet?" Harry asked her awkwardly.

"What?!" she asked astounded. "No. I would have written to you about it if I had a boyfriend at some point." She paused a moment. "Do you have any experience with girls?" she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Harry gaufed, "yeah right."

"Yeah right what?" she asked. "You're a good-looking guy, smart, nice, you know how to wrangle a bull and milk a cow, what more could a girl want?" she snickered.

Harry started laughing along with her and gave her a shove. "You really think I'm good-looking?" he asked nervously.

Ginny gave him a thorough looking over, even went so far as to circle around him and put her hand to her chin in contemplation. Harry let her do it, rolling his eyes. "Yeah. I'd say you're rather heading into the direction of a hottie. It helps that you've got this wild hair of yours," she reached up and ruffled his hair herself.

"Thanks," he deadpanned. "You don't need me to assure you of your good looks?" he gave her a wry smile and cocked an eyebrow.

"Nope, I'm good," she grinned and leaned on the railing of the pier, looking down over the water. After a moment she turned her gaze to him and saw he was simply shaking his head at her confidence. "Alright then, tell me I'm beautiful."

His gorgeous green eyes turned to her and she felt a slight flush come to her cheeks. The same feeling she got whenever Neville would look at her. It confused her for a moment, she shouldn't be feeling that for Harry, he was her friend.

"The only thing that's missing," Harry started, "is a bin lid."

The both of them howled with laughter. "Jenny Smith, here to def-" she started, raising her hand in a salute, but then paused.

She called herself Jenny Smith. She hadn't done that in a while.

Harry noticed the abrupt change in her. "Hey," he pulled her against him for a hug. "You'll always be part Jenny to me you know."

"It's just been a while since I thought about it," she admitted resting her face on his chest. He'd grown even taller in the last year. Turning her head she lay her ear above his heart and listened to the beats. It was calming to hear.

"Remember a moment ago when you were asking me about boys?" she chuckled, wanting to get back to lighter subject matter.

"Yes, and you are still woefully inexperienced."

"I wouldn't use the term 'woefully'," she defended, pulling her head back and looking up at him. He was so close to her then, his face turned down so he could look at her. Without thinking she rose up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

Only a split second passed before Harry tugged her tighter to him as he pressed his lips firmly back against hers.

It was no more than that. A simple touching of their lips together but it felt lovely and made her head spin slightly. Then she realized what she was doing and pulled back, staring at him with wide eyes, a blush coming to her cheeks.

"Now I really wouldn't use the term 'woefully'," she joked quietly, trying to school her nerves by turning to humor.

Harry nodded, biting his lower lip and let his hold on her slacken until he pulled away and the two of them moved back to rest their elbows on the railing side by side.

They let the awkwardness settle between them, making light conversation until it was time for her to go. They hugged once more and Ginny chastised herself all the way back to Alicia's home for potentially ruining things between them.

As soon as she got home she wrote him a letter, begging forgiveness for what she'd done and pleading that she didn't want it to make things weird between them.

()()()

"So, I'll see you in September," Neville said to her.

"Yeah, have a good summer," she grinned at him. Ginny was rather proud of herself for how she'd gotten over her crush on Neville. He was a good guy, but she realized it was all just hero worship that had made her fancy him in the first place. If only it hadn't taken her over four years to realize that. He was her friend now, and she was happy about it.

She did not expect that letting her guard down around him would in turn make him begin to fancy her. And she should have been a little quicker to step away from him now.

But she was distracted by the sight of her mum and dad coming into view on the platform to collect she and Ron and didn't catch that Neville was ducking his head towards her until he had succeeded in his mission to kiss her.

Ginny stood there in shock as Neville planted one on her.

She could feel his lips on hers, but nothing else to indicate that she should be kissing him back. There was no fluttering in her belly, no urge to close her eyes and press her own lips back against his. Only the thought that that was three boys now that she'd kissed.

Harry was the first, thankfully their strong friendship seemed to have been able to move past that and there hadn't been any awkwardness between them every time they'd met up the previous summer. Then there was Michael Corner, who she'd thought she might have been able to get on with, which was why she'd said 'yes' when he asked her to Hogsmeade and let him kiss her at the end of the date. It had been a nice enough kiss, but the boy turned out to be a ponce.

Now Neville was kissing her, and she'd let it go on for entirely too long considering she wasn't interested. Five seconds was an inordinate amount of time for her to have stood there frozen waiting for him to take a step back. Her hand came up and she brought it to his chest to push him away.

"I'm sorry," she managed. "I'm not. It's just."

"Oh," he cottoned on. "Oh, I thought you."

"I did," she admitted, "it's just that. Now, I don't really think of you that way."

"Oh," he said, defeated. "Oh, well, erm. Have a good summer then." Quickly he picked up his bags and hurried away from her.

Ginny looked over and saw that her mother was looking at her with raised eyebrows. With a sigh, Ginny secured her bag to her shoulder and headed over to her group. Ron was still saying goodbye to his girlfriend, apparently sticking his tongue down her throat the whole ride back to London hadn't been enough.

"Something you want to tell us?" her mum asked.

"Apparently I give out mixed signals," Ginny sighed.

"Not interested in him anymore?" she asked knowingly.

Ginny was grateful that her dad was at least pretending he wasn't listening. "No," she admitted. "I think he and I are just friends."

"Alright then," she hugged her close and kissed the top of her head.

It had taken a while for Ginny to get used to being cuddled by her parents, her father in particular since all of her foster dad's had been sure to keep a certain amount of physical distance between them. But the Weasley's were a physically affectionate family, even her brothers had been quick to give her a hug at every opportunity from day one. Arthur Weasley always let her come to him, then he would put his all into embracing her.

"When do you plan to meet up with Harry?" he asked, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

"He's taking part in some kind of Horse Show this week. I was wondering if I might be able to convince someone to go with me," she said hopefully.

Harry had really been getting into being a Farm hand at the Sullivan's Ranch. His letters were full of all the work he was doing with the larger animals and how he was really keen on being a Large Animal Veterinarian when he was done with secondary.

"Will they have food?" Ron asked, coming up behind her.

"All sorts," she grinned. Ron was of age and had gone for his Apparation test, so he could take her to the show no problem. He'd met Harry a few times as well and the two of them had gotten on. Of course, you hand Ron anything to eat and he's happily distracted and not asking any stupid questions relating to the Muggle things going on around him.

Two days after she'd gotten home she was standing in her Wellingtons and watching Harry brush down a horse that was about to go into the stadium. She'd donned an appropriate hat and thought she was blending in just fine with those around her.

Ron was distracted with a big serving of fish and chips and was sitting in the stands, not watching her appreciate the sight of her best friends broad shoulders and lovely ass in the fitted jeans he was wearing as he handed the reigns of the horse over to the rider.

Admittedly she was rather in shock at the sight of him dressed up like this. He looked really rugged, and just all around… delicious. Her mouth actually felt dry. Then she noticed a few other girls in the area that were also giving him appreciative looks and felt a blaze of jealously shoot through her.

Licking her lips she squared her shoulders back, trying slightly to let her chest stand out a bit more, before walking over to him.

"Hey Cowboy," she greeted, trying to keep a humorous lilt to her intentionally seductive greeting.

Harry looked over at her and his jaw slackened in surprise, "Ginny?" he whispered. "Ginny!" he said louder, a big smile stretching across his face. He rushed over to her and picked her up, spinning her around once while they both laughed.

"I wanted to surprise you!" she told him. "You said you'd be here all week and I missed you too much to wait."

"Ginny," he cupped the side of her face. "You just-" then he lowered his head and kissed her.

She instantly responded, clutching at his shoulders and kissing him back. This was everything that Neville's kiss had been missing. All of the feelings swirling around in her belly and the lightheaded dizziness that felt absolutely wonderful.

Neville wasn't Harry. It was as simple as that.

She didn't care that Harry was a Muggle and they only got to see each other two months of the year. She should have realized she liked him like this when she kissed him last summer. He had been more than just a friend for several years now.

"I, mmm," Harry started to pull away, but didn't seem to want to pull his lips away from hers, "I have to work still," he laughed against her lips.

Ginny pulled back, biting her lower lip and giggling. Actually giggling. She couldn't help it, and her hands were shaking from excitement. "I'd apologize, but I'm not sorry."

"Good," he leaned down and kissed her again. "I'm so happy you came to see me."

That summer they spent the bulk of their time together. Most of the time they simply hung around the beach, but he managed to borrow a truck one day and bring her out to the Sullivan's property to show her around.

It was funny. She knew he was their foster kid, but he was really just more of a hired hand. They even started paying him for all the work he did around the farm.

It got awkward when he said he could drive her home though. The Burrow would look entirely strange to him. It was held up by magic, how was she supposed to explain why the lopsided structure wasn't in peril of toppling over?

She couldn't think of a single logical reason for him to not drive her home though. 'Sorry. My house is clearly magical and it would be too much of a give away for you to see it,' wasn't going to fly. So, she let him drive her and hoped for the best.

"Huh," was all he said when he saw the rickety structure.

She brought him by the hand to the animal shed and her mum came out to meet him finally, bringing them lemonade and biscuits, and Harry simply didn't ask about the 'funny' aspects of the Weasley homestead.

()

"Why do you have to go to boarding school," Harry asked, his hand coming up her side under her shirt, his mouth had just been fastened to her neck.

"Mmm, family tradition apparently," she moaned, appreciating his efforts in making her brain go fuzzy.

This was their last night together before she had to catch the Hogwarts Express back to school the next day and they were trying to make the most of it. They'd found a secluded spot along the beach to let their hands and mouths wander all over each other.

All summer they'd been getting more and more adventurous with each other, stopping before they went too far.

She was really going to miss his hands on her through the year, but they'd decided they were going to try and stick it out long distance. He'd asked if there was a phone number he could call to at least talk to her once and a while, but there wasn't.

She had claimed that even if he did manage to call through to the Headmaster's office, by the time someone tracked her down he'd have to run off and assist birthing a calf or something. It was feeble at best, but he wasn't prying.

Ginny had told him what her school was like, that it was a castle in Scotland and they had fun extra curricular classes like Botany (Herbology) and Astronomy. She simply left out all of the magic, or the fact that she played a sport and was keen on the idea of playing it professionally. She wasn't happy about having to hide her true heritage from him, but they were spending less and less time talking these days anyway.

"You think that if we both wound up staying in Surrey and going to Stonewall that we'd be doing this right now?" he asked, his hand boldly cupping her breast under her shirt while he lowered his mouth to nip and kiss along the side of her neck.

"We'd probably have done much more than this by now," she answered, giving a little rock forward of her hips.

Harry groaned and moved his hand to her hip to stop her doing that again, "dangerous move Weasley."

"I know," she pouted wistfully. Sex was something that had been on her mind a lot lately, but she was only just sixteen, and they'd technically only been together for two months. As much as she wanted to, it was too soon.

She could feel that he wanted to as well. His interest in that had been very obvious whenever they'd been snogging for more than a few minutes.

"Can I," she started, his head coming up and his green eyes locking on hers. She gave a swallow. This was Harry, she assured herself, you can ask him anything. She couldn't form the words though, instead her hand trailed down to the button on his jeans and she heard his breath hitch.

He didn't stop her though. She pulled his zipper down and slowly slipped her hand under his boxers, her eyes widening with how large he felt.

That was supposed to be able to fit…

She felt herself clench between her legs at the thought. She gripped him properly and started gliding her hand up and down. He was still leaning over her and she watched as his eyes slid closed and his jaw went slack with her movements.

Every pant of breath from him she took as a sign of encouragement and kept up her movements until he made a few small grunting sounds and thrust into her hand sharply, spilling himself onto her forearm.

Harry sucked in a few deep breaths while Ginny tried to calm her racing heart. She couldn't believe she'd just done that, nor how thrilling it was for her to have touched him like that and brought him to completion.

She turned her head to the side and looked at her bag, reaching over with one hand she almost grabbed her wand to clean up the mess he'd made, but remembered herself and took out a napkin she'd tucked in there from their ice cream earlier.

"Ginny," he whispered heavily, "can I?"

He had come to lay beside her, and his hand was flat against her stomach, and lowering infinitesimally towards her own jean button. His eyes were boring into hers, he seemed rather desperate to return the favor.

She nodded, willing herself to relax as his fingers came lower and lower against her skin. The simple pressure of his palm against her under her knickers was making her eyes close from the pleasure. It didn't matter to her that he was fumbling a bit, seemingly unsure of what it was he should be doing, it only made it feel more right. She was the first girl he was doing this with, the only one he'd been intimate with.

"Ginny," he asked quietly, looking for guidance.

She put her hand down her jeans as well, over top of his, the restriction of the material making him press harder against all the right places. She gasped silently as his fingers pressed against that special spot just between her folds. Her back arched as his fingers circled around it and she was only able to register the feelings shooting through her and his breath coming out hot against the side of her face.

She removed her hand from her jeans and Harry's fingers slipped lower, dipping inside her properly. The both of them let out a moan at that, Harry let out a string of expletives and buried his face in her neck, Ginny started rocking her hips against his fingers, stars shooting off behind her eyes.

Her hand went back to her clit as his two fingers kept moving inside her. This was all rather foreign sensations to her, but as the desperation to find her climax mounted she was caring less and less about how this was Harry that was touching her and that they were essentially doing it in public.

Unable to control the sounds coming out of her mouth Harry had to cover her lips with his own and she cried out her finish, gasping for breath as she kept clenching around his fingers before finally relaxing back against the ground beneath her.

"Whoa," Harry let out.

"Yeah," she agreed.

()()()

Ten months. That was a long time to go without seeing your girlfriend. Particularly when you had just started getting intimate with her.

By the second half of the school year their letters to each other were getting incredibly racy and he'd spent most of his evenings with his hand down his pants imagining it was hers. He was desperate to see her face and hear her voice.

That was why he drove out to 'The Burrow', as she'd called it, to be there to greet her when her parents brought her home.

He had arrived there before they did and went for a small wander around the property. As a farm hand it was second nature to him to check the animals. He didn't go into the house though, he knew that that would be crossing a line. He didn't want to be coming out of the house as they were driving up, that would look bad.

Harry grabbed a basket outside the chicken shed and collected eggs, he had already looked over their two pigs for anything that might possibly be distressing them. He hadn't mentioned it to Ginny yet, but he'd been accepted into a Large Animal Veterinary Program in Glasgow and had managed to get several scholarships to cover his fee's and living costs in the dormitory. He'd had to tell the story of his life before the Sullivan's and how much he'd learned from his foster family, but it had all been worth the invasion of privacy in the end.

The sound of a car rumbling down the drive suddenly gave him a jolt. He'd expected to hear their approach long before that.

A car door opened before he'd gotten out of the chicken shed. "Harry?!" her voice called out.

He was already grinning widely when he came out of the shed and put the basket of eggs down before he hopped the low fence and ran towards her.

"Harry!" She screeched in excitement and flung herself at him, her long hair swinging wildly behind her.

"Oh, I missed you," he nearly cried. It felt so wonderful to have her in his arms again.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming out here?" she asked, pulling back from him with tears in her eyes.

"I wanted to surprise you," he said, wiping her tears with the pad of his thumbs.

"You succeeded," she told him, reaching up on her toes to give him a watery kiss. "I missed you," she mumbled against his lips.

"I missed you," he mumbled back, linking his fingers together behind her back to lift her up against him tighter.

"We missed you too, Harry," her brother Ron called out mockingly from the other side of the car.

Harry and Ginny both started chuckling at that and pulled apart to see that the three others that had been in the car with her were watching the reunion with looks of amusement.

"Were you wanting me to greet you the same way?" Harry quipped.

"No thanks, I've got a girlfriend," Ron grinned and went around to collect his trunk from the boot.

"Mum, I'm going to take a walk with Harry," Ginny said and tugged on his hand.

"Dinner in an hour, and Harry dear, you'll stay for that, won't you?" Mrs. Weasley invited.

"I'd love to!" he called behind him as Ginny pulled him along. "I collected a few eggs for you!" he managed to shout back to them before the two of them were out of sight.

Ginny tugged harder and pulled him into a run, laughing with delight and heading towards the pond at the back of the property. Once they were completely out of sight in a semi-private area she turned to face him and pulled her top over her head.

Harry gaped, he'd had many dreams that started out this way.

She'd developed over the year. He licked his lips as he came forward, instinctively reaching out to cup her breasts over her bra. "Ginny," he whispered. She did no more that give him this look in her eye that was begging him to continue right on touching her.

Apparently, he was going too slow though, because her hands shot out and pulled him flush against her, tugging on his shirt to pull it over his head as well.

"We, mister, are going to pick up right where we left off last summer," she told him breathlessly as they pawed at each other.

"You saying you missed my fingers?" he teased, tracing them down between her legs.

"I'm saying I want your mouth on me," she told him boldly.

Harry groaned and they both lay down on the grass. Ginny was quick to take off her shorts and cast them aside so she was only in her bra and knickers, he pulled off his own trousers and lay over top of her, settling between her spread legs and thoroughly enjoying the feeling of less restrictions as his erection pressed against her.

"Fuck," she exclaimed, "I missed you so much." She pulled his lips down to hers.

"Please tell me you weren't just talking when you said you wanted my mouth on you," he begged. They'd written to each other about what they got up to when they were alone in bed and thinking about each other. He'd wondered many times what she would taste like, regretting that he hadn't had nerve enough to give his fingers a lick after that time on the beach.

"I want it," she panted, then took either side of his face so he would look straight at her. "Then I want you to shag me."

His body responded to that before his brain did, thrusting against her almost forcefully and causing her to arch herself against him. "Ginny," he said painfully, "I don't have a condom. I didn't think that-"

"Don't worry about that," she assured him, rocking against him. "I'm on the po- the pill. I knew I wouldn't be able to control myself when I saw you again. Particularly not after that last letter," she grinned.

Harry put his hand between them, sliding it under her knickers and beginning to kiss his way down her body. "Mmm, tell me," kiss, "what part in particular?" lick.

"You, fantasizing about what I'd taste like," she said in a husky voice as his lips kissed just under her belly button. "I've been wondering how you'd taste as well. Thinking about how big you felt in my hand and how much bigger you'll feel inside me."

Harry gave a deep groan, yanking her knickers down and simply burying his face between her legs. He'd read all sorts of articles in his porn mags about how to get a woman taken care of this way. He'd gone so far as to practice the tongue movements that the articles suggested.

He was so desperate to get inside her that he had to mentally attempt to cool himself so that he would actually get the chance to last long enough to get her off before he came. He pulled his face back and looked at her, saw what it was he'd be working his tongue over. He'd seen pictures, but to have the real thing right in front of him, he was fascinated.

He used two fingers to spread her lips apart and came forward, pressing his tongue firmly against her clit before moving it around in a circular motion. Ginny's heavy breathing above him was telling him he was doing this right.

Think, Harry, what are you supposed to do next? He inhaled the scent of her. She didn't smell sweet or sour or any of the other scents that he'd read women tasted like, it was a scent unto its own, and it smelled comforting. It was a strange description, but that's the only way he could describe it. She smelled of comfort.

As she started rolling her hips with his tongue movements he brought a hand up under his chin and pushed one finger inside her, just a little. Her gasp let him know how much she liked that. He added another finger.

She was so hot and wet there, he knew he would be able to push another finger inside her too, but then she might not feel as tight when he got the chance to slide the more eager part of his anatomy in there, hopefully rather soon.

"Fuck!" she cried out and bucked hard against his face, his fingers slipping out of her from the movement. There was an extra bit of moisture he felt coating his chin and letting him know that she'd just finished.

He kept up his tongue movements, going slower now as she came back down to earth.

"Ginny?" he asked, pleadingly, his erection had grown almost painful.

"Yes," she nodded, not needing him to ask anything more.

He climbed back up her body, shifting his boxers down as he went. He braced his arms on either side of her and they locked eyes as her hand gripped the full length of him, guiding him inside her.

It was so tight. He pushed himself into her slowly, centimeter by centimeter, thoroughly enjoying the amount of pressure and heat that was surrounding every bit of his erection and waiting to feel that bit of resistance that girls have.

He didn't get any resistance though and he was completely inside her. He gave her a quizzical look. "Did you? Was there," this wasn't exactly what he wanted to be worried about in this moment. He was having sex for the first time, but he'd thought she was too.

Her face turned bright red, and not due to the activity. "I may have gotten a little carried away when reading your letters," she admitted.

He cocked an eyebrow at her, "You mean you," he couldn't finish it. She'd masturbated to the point of breaking her own hymen, because of something he'd written to her. That was so hot. He started moving in and out of her, his body taking charge of the situation and forcing his brain to shut off.

Ginny gripped his hips and met his thrusts.

He tried to hold out, wanting to get her again and feel her cum around him, but it felt to fucking fantastic and his orgasm was ripping through him before he could stop it. His whole body reacted as though it had just had an electrical shock as he jerked on top of her, his toes curled and mouth agape at the sensation.

"Holy fuck," he gasped as he came down from the high like a feather floating back down to earth. "I'm sorry," he apologized between gasping breaths, "I wanted to get you again, but."

She ran a hand down his back. "Don't apologize. I still liked it, and I promise I'll let you try again a few times this summer."

He could hear her wide grin in her tone.

"That can't have been comfortable for you," he realized pulling back. She was on the hard ground, not a soft mattress.

"I'm okay," she assured him. "But maybe we should at least pull our underthings on and go for a little swim," she tilted her head towards the pond.

"Yeah," he grinned, groaning pleasurably at the feeling of himself withdrawing from her. "That felt a million times better than I could have imagined."

"It didn't hurt as much as I'd worried it would," she admitted.

He tugged his boxers on and watched as she pulled up her knickers. "Did you really accidentally break your hymen because of something I wrote to you?" he asked, feeling proud.

"I'd really rather not tell you the full extent of what I get up to when I'm alone and missing you," she said with a bright face.

"I've heard things about hairbrush handles," he waggled his eyebrows at her. She blushed brighter and he knew he was right.

They both dipped into the water and she wrapped her legs around him while they floated. "I got into Glasgow," he told her. "Full ride."

"What?!" her eyes went wide with excitement. "That's amazing! Congratulations." She wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"I know it's still a little far from your school, but maybe we can actually meet up during the year?"

Ginny bit her lip while she stared at him, the gears turning in her head. "I could probably spend my Christmas break there," she realized, grinning ear to ear. "Maybe you'll even have your dorm room to yourself that whole time," she said in a sultry voice, intentionally puffing out her chest to press her breasts against him more.

"That would be fantastic," he breathed out. It would mean nearly two weeks of it just being the two of them. Waking up beside her, trying out the whole 'uni life, living on Poundland groceries, and shagging at every opportunity while the BBC plays on the telly in the corner.'

"Have you told Sirius yet?" she asked.

Sirius was still maintaining a pretty active role in Harry's life, but now that Harry was working more and behaving like a teenager less their opportunities to meet up didn't occur as often, but they did chat on the phone regularly.

"I have, and he's offered to drive me to school."

"That's great," she breathed out. It didn't sound like she meant it though, her face was turning red and she looked on the verge of crying.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "This is a good thing."

"I know," she said, a tear escaping down her face. "I'm sorry. These are happy tears, I promise," she sniffled. "It's just that. Well, everything has really turned around for you. I'm just so bloody happy that you're doing so well."

"And it's all because of you," he said, kissing her soundly until the tears went away.

Eventually they got out of the pond. Harry gave a quick look around to make sure none of the other Weasley's were in sight before he shed his boxers to wring them out. Ginny was grinning at the sight of him naked and he returned the favor by giving her a good looking over while she bent over to pick up her shorts.

"What's that?" he asked, seeing a stick poking out of her pocket.

"It's one of those hair things," she told him. "You know, accessories," she shrugged.

He knew what she meant, those chopstick things that some girls were walking around with stuck through their ponytails, but hers didn't look like that. It was more like a stick, or a replica of a Lord of the Rings wand.

She might just be a closeted Lord of the Rings fan, so he didn't pry, he just shook his head and picked up his clothes. They'd be expected back at the house for dinner soon.

Once back he saw that her family had set up the table outside in the garden. More of the Weasley boys had arrived and they all greeted him with a tight handshake. They were all celebrating Ron's last year at school before he went out into the working world and Harry was pleased that they let him join in on the festivities until it grew late and he needed to get started on his hour long drive home.

()()()

Ginny and Harry were squished tightly together in the back seat of Sirius' car. It was the only way that they had managed to fit Harry's belongings and three passengers. Really, she should have been on the Hogwarts Express right then, heading back for her final year, but she'd begged her parent's to simply send her things along to the school, saying that she'd Apparate to Hogsmeade and make her way up to the school after she and Sirius got Harry settled.

This was a huge moment for Harry, and there was no need for her to sit through the sorting ceremony. She'd still be there before curfew. Harry and Sirius believed that she had to catch the 9:00p.m. train to Perth and then was catching a ride with a friend from there.

Their summer together had been fantastic. At every opportunity they'd met up. Harry had stayed at the Sullivan's, even though he'd aged out of foster care, and worked full time all summer as a proper Ranch Hand. His weekends and evenings were free and the two of them had made the most of it. They'd barely been able to keep their hands off each other.

Even now, in the back of the car they were constantly running their hands up and down each other's legs and into their hair, exchanging kisses. All to the point of Sirius saying he'd make one of them get out at the next train stop and find an alternate way to the University.

It was a seven-hour drive, so that wasn't too much of a threat the closer they much as Ginny loved Harry, sitting half in his lap was rather uncomfortable near the end.

They made it to Glasgow in record time and pulled up outside Harry's dorm building. The whole area was a flurry of people and excitement, and Harry seemed rather beside himself and overwhelmed with the situation.

Ginny and Sirius merely handed him a bag and told him to talk to someone and find where his room was while they started grabbing his belongings and followed behind him.

The building was only a few years old and looked very modern. His dorm was a sort of flat share with a large open kitchen and seating area that had two wings on either side with three bedrooms each. Harry's personal bedroom wasn't large, but it was still bigger than Ginny's room at the Burrow, and he had much more privacy than she did in her dorm room at Hogwarts.

It was only two trips back to the car between the three of them, and it didn't seem like any of his other dorm mates were there yet, so Sirius decided they all needed a meal together before he settled in to his hotel room for the night, winking when he mention leaving Harry and she alone for their 'goodbye'.

When they got back to his dorm they could hear that one of his other dorm mates was there, but whom ever it was were shut in their room, so he and Ginny simply went into his and locked the door.

"Do I still have to send my letters to Brighton? Or can I send them directly to the school now we're both in Scotland?" Harry asked as his breathing returned to normal and he came to lay beside her, pulling her against him.

Ginny bit her lip. She should have put more thought into this. It had been six years now that she'd been fielding letters through Colin's mum and dad, and Harry had questioned it before. He's also asked about the exact location of her school and her wand and the structural stability of her parents house and a bunch of other little things that were completely out of place to Muggles.

She was saved from answering though when there was a rap at his door.

"Just a second," Harry called out and they quickly pulled their clothes on. He looked back at her to make sure she was good before he unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Ginny turned to open his suitcase and at least attempt to look like they hadn't just been shagging.

"Hey, mate," the voice at the door greeted him. "Just wanted to introduce myself, wondered if you were interested in… Ginny?"

Ginny turned around in surprise. There wasn't anyone that she knew of that was going to Glasgow University besides Harry. With Harry's shirts clutched in each hand her mouth dropped open as her brain registered that Dean Thomas was standing in Harry's doorway.

"Dean?!" the clothes fell out of her hands and to the floor. "Dean!" she grinned, an astounded laugh coming out of her mouth.

They'd been friendly at school, ran in the same circle of friends and played on the Quidditch team together for two years and he was on in, and he was pretty close with Ron. Not close enough that he'd told Ron what he was up to after Hogwarts apparently, or perhaps Ron simply didn't make the connection.

"Ginny," he too laughed. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Hogwarts by now?"

Harry's eyebrows went up in surprise. "You went to Hogwarts?" Harry asked him. Aside from Ginny's brothers he hadn't heard of anyone else that went to the school. Then again, most of his friends were either also foster kids, or farm hands like him.

"Yeah!" Dean told him, coming into the room to give her a brief hug. "Oh, mate," he said to Harry. "So relieved I don't have to keep it a secret from everyone here." He turned back to Ginny and she gave a hard swallow, "is this him? He's the reason you turned down Neville?"

"Neville?" Harry asked, cocking a cheeky eyebrow at her. "Still have some competition at your school that I should know about?"

Ginny opened her mouth to tell him 'no', but she didn't get the chance.

"Oh, wouldn't worry about that mate," Dean cut in. "Neville was my dorm mate, doesn't go there anymore. And every attempt someone had made to get with your girl here had been thoroughly rebuffed," he grinned. "Now I have the visual proof as to why."

Ginny cringed a bit. She wasn't keen on Harry thinking that she was getting asked out, not that she was, a lot, just once or twice a year when there was an event or a Hogsmeade visit planned. She was mostly just focused on Quidditch and getting through her NEWTS with out her head exploding from the pressure.

"Dean, this is Harry. Harry this is Dean." Ginny properly introduced.

Dean held out his hand, "I'm an Art student."

"Veterinary," Harry accepted his hand. "Hey, maybe you can assist me with getting letters to her directly this year."

Ginny felt her heart stutter at that.

"Sorry, I don't have an owl," Dean said easily. "But, Ginny, you could still send one of the Hogwarts one's here."

Ginny's eyes closed and she gritted her teeth in response. Whispering one word to him during his greeting hug would have stopped this from coming up.

"An owl?" Harry asked in confusion. "What, they have them trained like carrier pigeons?" he laughed.

"What?" Dean asked, not catching on.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Oh!" Dean realized and turned, wide-eyed, to Ginny. "He doesn't-"

"Nope," she answered shortly.

"I thought you'd been with him for,"

"I have."

"But you still haven't."

"I'm still in school, Dean. That didn't seem like an ideal time to bring it up."

"Ginny, I've heard you mention Harry for as far back as I can remember. From all I've heard from you, and from Ron, he's more than simply your boyfriend," Dean told her honestly.

"What is going on?" Harry asked them both.

"Ginny?" Dean cocked his head at her.

"You don't think I've wanted to tell him? Properly explain away all of the unexplainable he's asked me about over the years?" she threw up her hands.

"Explain what?" Harry asked.

"Look, I won't tell anyone that you told him," Dean assured her. "And I've plenty of experience in fielding questions from Muggle's, I am a Muggleborn after all."

"What's a Muggle?" Harry's patience was wearing thin.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at Dean before biting her lip and casting her gaze between the two men while she mulled it over. She did want to tell Harry, it had been killing her that she'd kept this huge secret from him for so long. It would certainly make things easier when it came to communicating with him.

"You swear you won't turn me in or anything?" she asked Dean for assurance.

"Turn you in?!" Harry asked incredulously. "What the fuck?"

"I promise," Dean told her sincerely.

"Alright," she drew in a deep breath. "Harry," she turned to him. "I'm a witch."

Harry stared at her blankly, as if waiting for the punchline.

"Seriously, Harry," she told him. "All the questions you've had over the years about the little things; why you can't call me at school, why the school doesn't have a direct address, how it is that I never seemed to have a 'ride' to Torquay for our meet-ups. It's all because I'm a witch. Hogwarts doesn't have telephones, nor do they receive Royal Mail. We have our own special ways of transportation as well."

She searched his face to see if he was believing her at all. All she saw was the gears turning behind his eyes and incomprehension.

"Look," she continued. "I didn't find out about it until I was eleven. That's how old you have to be to get accepted to Hogwarts, and the old magic they have to find the magical children,"

"Like me," Dean added humorously, which fell rather flat in the current atmosphere of the small room.

"It was how they realized that I was the missing Weasley girl. That I was Ginny, not Jenny."

"You're a witch," Harry repeated.

"Yes," she told him decisively.

"You're a witch too I suppose then," Harry said to Dean.

"Wizard, actually," Dean told him.

Harry just looked back and forth between the two of them. "What the fuck?" he asked simply.

Dean pulled his wand out of his back pocket and summoned Harry's wallet to him from the Headboard of the bed, on the other side of the room. Harry's mouth fell open as Dean simply held it up.

"What?" Harry kept looking back and forth between where his wallet had been, and where it was now. Then he snatched it out of Dean's hand. "How… you two are serious?"

"Dean, can you leave the 'bonding with your new dorm mate' thing for later? I've got to Apparate to Hogsmeade and get up to the school before curfew." It was already getting on to 7 p.m.

"Can do," he nodded. "And if you decide you want to Obliviate him," he offered.

"No," Ginny managed a strained smile in appreciation of the offer. "But, thank you."

Dean shut the door behind him, and Ginny pulled her wand out of her purse at the foot of Harry's bed.

"You asked me what this was at the start of summer," she began. "It's a wand. I got it when I was eleven and it's what I use to do magic. That's what I learn at Hogwarts. It turns out that my whole family are witches and wizards. Was a dead shock to me when I found out too."

"This. This is real," he managed.

Ginny nodded solemnly, "yes."

"So, you can do what Dean just did? With the levitation thing, or whatever?"

"That was basically child's play," she admitted, and for the next hour she gave him a not too detailed run down of the magical world and what it was she actually learned at school. She told him about Quidditch and about the Statute of Secrecy that she and Dean had just violated. "And that's why I didn't tell you before."

"Were you planning on ever telling me?" he asked seriously.

"Yes," she admitted honestly.

"When?"

There were tingles that shot out through her entire nervous system at that questions, and she could feel the heat rising to her face. She didn't quite know how to tell him that she saw them together in the 'forever' kind of way and was waiting for proof of the possibility of forever before she told him.

"At least once I was done with school," she offered.

"No," he said, drawing out the word in a knowing way that she knew meant he wasn't mad with her about hiding it. "I may not have known you were a witch, but I know when you're hiding something. What was the real answer?"

Ginny sucked in a deep breath and found herself unable to meet his eye. Looking down at her fingernails that were fiddling nervously she muttered, "once I knew we were going to make it."

The silence in the room was deafening to her, drowned out only by the blood pumping in her ears.

"Ginny," Harry said finally, his one hand resting over top of hers and the other coming up to force her attention directly on his face. He was looking at her with complete openness. "You're it for me," he told her firmly. "There's never been anyone else. I've been in love with you years, probably on some level since you first jumped to my defense. I can still picture it perfectly, that blazing look in your eyes when you were taking on my attackers," he grinned widely at her, with all the sincerity behind what he was saying. "I have about a million more questions about this secret world you live in, but I have no questions about whether you and I will be together forever."

"Really?" she asked desperately, with tears starting to well up in her eyes and roll down her cheek as she tried to blink them away.

"Really," he promised and pulled her closer.

()()()

"Hey," Charlie greeted as Harry came to stand by him, handing him another beer he'd brought over from the house.

"Hey," Harry tilted his head at him in thanks before turning his attention back to the field. "I know I've seen it several times already, but it is still so cool to see," he shook his head in awe as he watched his wife of four months play a game of pick-up Quidditch with her brothers and friends.

They were still rather young to have gotten married, he still wasn't done with school, but they'd moved into a flat together in Glasgow as soon as she'd gotten signed by the Holyhead Harpies, an all woman's Quidditch team, and they were able to swing the funds to get a place.

They might have put off getting married until they were a bit older and more prepared by society standards to do so, but a few time's Ginny had used magic in front of him and received a warning owl from the Ministry of Magic. According to them she wasn't allowed to use magic in front of a Muggle unless it was someone that was a part of her immediate family.

So, Harry became a part of her immediate family.

It might have seemed a rather overly simplified solution to the problem, but they loved each other, and they were going to wind up married eventually anyways, so they just did it.

It hadn't been a large ceremony, it had taken place on the beach in Torquay and they'd simply reserved a special room at a restaurant for the thirty people that attended, promising that they would have a larger celebration at some point down the line, perhaps once Harry too had a paying job twelve months of the year, they'd joked.

It had been a lot to take in, the differences between the magical and Muggle world, but there were a surprising number of magical things around their flat that he too was able to use. Like the Floo for instance. It was absolute madness to hop into a fireplace and call out a secret code word for a destination then be suddenly transported there, but he could. And he was secretly desperate for someone to name their house Voyager or Enterprise, not that he was a Trekkie, but he would still find it ridiculously funny. Once he and Ginny got a place he was going to beg her to call it 'Beam Me Up'.

Dean had been really helpful that first year he was at GU. Dean got the magical version of the newspaper and would lend it to Harry so he could read through it and ask questions to get a better understanding of their world.

Harry had been welcomed into the Weasley family with open arms as well, and finally shown the inside of their house. It was no wonder he hadn't been inside before as it was much larger on the inside than it should have been, and there were several 'things' in the house that were self-automated, like the knitting needles and kitchen knives.

He never tired of seeing magic being done, and he and Mister Weasley, or Dad as he preferred to be called, had a sort of trade going on; Dad would ask him something about the Muggle world and Harry would ask something about the Magical world. It was as hilarious to Harry the questions he was asked as it was to Dad the questions Harry asked, because they were just basic everyday things to the other man.

"God, I love her," Harry said aloud as he watched Ginny score another goal past Ron.

"Yeah," Charlie rolled his eyes, "I know."

"Did I ever tell you how we met?" Harry asked with a wry grin. He knew the answer to that, but he never tired of telling the story of meeting his amazing wife.

()()()

Prompt- AU, Harry is a Muggle. He and Ginny are childhood best friends, then Ginny goes off to Hogwarts. Neville is the "Boy Who Lived" and Ginny has a small crush on him, yet she and Harry share their series of firsts, eventually falling in love. Harry suspects that Ginny is a witch but doesn't say anything. Ginny pursues a career as a Quidditch Player, Harry becomes a Veterinary student.

Anyone else that might want to give me a prompt, go right ahead.