Disclaimer * See chapter one.

A/N * As i noted in my synopsis, this is a seventh year fic that was largely written before the release of Deathly Hallows, and for some reason i always thought that Gabrielle was a lot older than she was... go figure.

"I am chaste, and I am now full breasted.  And my lover is content with me." (Song of Songs 8:10)

      The summer had been long and lonely for Ginny without the Trio to spend it with.  Harry hadn't written her one word since King's Cross, and if there hadn't been the annoying but all consuming distractions of the past month's wedding preparations Ginny didn't know how she would have survived.  Harry's birthday had come and gone; Ron had written that they had some errands to run and should be arriving at the Burrow later the same day.  But she could hear the clock in the parlor chime midnight, bringing the date to August 2nd; the Trio had still not arrived and there was no indication that they were going to anytime soon.  All she knew was that Harry and Ron and Hermione had better arrive soon or they would suffer the pain of being on the receiving end of Mum's wrath.

      Ginny lay awake in the dark, her eyes open but unseeing.  She was torn about seeing Harry again:  while she desperately wanted to see how he was it would kill her to not be able to actually be with him.  How would he look when she saw him?  Happy and whole?  Or depressed and closed?  How was she to ease his burden and pull him out of his gloomier moods if they were to be apart during the darkest days of his life?  Ron and Hermione meant well, but they just didn't always know what Harry needed.  She was the one who knew what Harry wanted and what he needed and--somehow--how to tell when he was just deceiving himself.

      Still, at least preparations for the wedding were nearly over.  Tomorrow would be one mad dash to the Rehearsal Dinner, but then they would have a day of rest before the ceremony.  If she could survive these last few days, Bill and Fleur would be united in matrimony and Gabrielle Delacour would be out of her hair... if she could survive that long.  Ginny rolled over.

      "Are 'ou awake, Guinea?" asked Gabriel quietly.  Ginny mentally and thus silently groaned in frustration:  Gabi still couldn't say her name right, and she didn't know when to shut up.

      "I wish I weren't," she confessed.  She knew that she needed to be up early in the morning, that there was loads to do, but she couldn't help it if her mind was racing a mile a minute.  Harry was now seventeen:  of age.  It was incredible when you thought about it, how she would be just as old in a little over a year.

      "How does 'Arry like his breekfast?" Gabi asked, apparently still hoping that he'd be arriving in the morning.

      Gabrielle was no help when it came to Harry.  She had been overjoyed to find out that Harry was newly "single" and pestered "Guinea" with questions about him for hours on end.  Sometimes Ginny enjoyed recounting some beloved memory, but most of the time it was just annoying.  She desperately loved Harry, but no man was worth thinking about that much, especially one who would rather leave her behind on a mission to save the world...  Which, Ginny had to admit, was sweet, but still highly aggravating.

      Sometimes she wished that she could just forget Harry and get on with her life:  some possible engagement at a future time with a theoretical date that was yet unset did not appeal to her all.  But she knew from experience that a life without Harry in it would be far worse than this temporary setback followed by a future together.  Of course she wanted to be with Harry now, to face Voldemort with him, to get on with life instead of perpetually being treated like a baby, and it still hurt to know that he didn't want her with him in harms way, but Mum wouldn't have allowed it anyway.  She could just imagine the row it would cause, "She's too young!" and all the other usual excuses for anything but letting her experience life.

      "It depends on his mood," Ginny finally answered.  "If he's nervous you have a time getting him to eat bacon and toast, but otherwise he'll eat just about anything you put in front of him, though he's not as bad as Ron, thank God."  She sighed:  "Ron would eat us out of house and home if Mum let him."

      "'Es, but what does 'ee like thee best, Guinea?  Surely 'ou must know!"  Ginny hit her pillow several times; she was getting thoroughly annoyed.

      "Marmalade jam and bacon," she replied.  "He's not hard to please; couldn't be, living with those awful Muggles."  There was a long pause, during which Ginny actually started drifting off.

      "'Ou must 'ave loved 'im wery much, Guinea," Gabrielle noted sadly.  "Are you so certain there is no 'ope?  Is it okay for me to get to know 'im?  I 'ould not 'ish to displeese 'ou."  But Ginny couldn't hear Gabrielle anymore; she had finally fallen asleep.
 
 
 

* * * * * * *
 
 
 
      Ginny was surrounded on every side:  Ron, Luna, Neville, Hermione, and before her Harry.  His back was to her, his body and a glass orb all that was between her and Lucious Malfoy's wand.  Lucious, the one who had given her Tom Riddle's Diary.  Bellatrix, the one who had tortured Neville, beside him.  Other faceless individuals who had peformed innumerable crimes, all in the name of their Dark Lord.

      The sextet turned as one and fled, glass spheres exploding about them, white figures droning on and on in whispers, whispers.  Harry went one way and she was forced another as they dodged the Death Eaters curses.  Harry called her name, but he sounded so far away...  and then she stopped, the object before her driving everything else out of her mind.

      It sat on a shelf at the end of row eighty-one.  She knew she should keep running, that there wasn't time to stop, but her fingers itched to touch it.  C.T. to H.W. = Weasley daughter(?) Ginevra.  Ron called her name, urging her onward.  Her fingers tingled as she took the warm ball into her hand; she cast an unbreakable charm on the delicate glass and ran after Ron, dove weightless through the darkness.  A voice called out Accio Prophecy and the orb slipped from her fingers, she was drifting helpless through space...

      ...and dove into water, cool and deep.  Harry met her there, underneath, and they kissed before they surfaced together.  He lay her back in the dark water, holding her, his left hand under her head, his right arm embracing her.  Harry kissed her over and over and over again.

      They lay together under the apple tree where she had picnicked with Mum and learned how to knit, listening to stories about her parents' and siblings' past.  Mum had told her that Dad had been building the first addition onto the Burrow when she was pregnant with Bill.  She had labored under this tree, too stubborn to allow Dad to take her to St. Mungo's, to waste money on her.  Mum always said that she never wanted to leave this place, that she wanted to spoil her grandchildren here, that she wanted to be buried under the tree.

      Harry stopped kissing her, and her gaze move from the branches overhead to his green eyes.  He brushed her hair out of her face with his right hand, then moved it to lie over her stomach...
 
 
 

* * * * * * *
 
 
 
      Ginny awoke with a start.  Mum was standing over her, shaking her shoulder:

      "Up and at 'em, love," she beamed down at her, obviously wide awake despite the fact that the sun was not even all the way up.  "I need you downstairs..." she shut the door behind her.

      Ginny glanced at Gabrielle, careful not to make a sound and wake her as she got dressed.  She checked her appearance in the mirror, walked downstairs... and quickly got enlisted peeling potatoes for potato salad.  As the rehearsal was this evening the Weasleys were obligated to host dinner.

      Even hours later Gabi was curiously absent; she supposed that she was off somewhere with Fleur being bossed around just as much but that didn't ease the sensation that she was getting the short end of the deal.  After the potatoes Mum set her to onions and before long she was crying.  She still hadn't had anything but a bit of tea and she was starving.  As soon as that was out of the way she made herself a sandwich and snuck down to the pantry for a pumpkin juice but by the time she got back the sandwich had been stolen.  Now she knew Ron was about.  Where were they hiding and why hadn't anyone said so much as a hello?

      After finally getting something to eat she was sent out to the garden to put up streamers and set tables in the awful heat.  She was finally almost finished when she saw Harry walking with Gabi, who was talking a mile a minute.  She could actually feel all the blood rush to her face as he made sure that Gabi didn't fall when she tripped over the spare rusty cauldron.

      "Oh, there 'ou are Guinea," Gabi said pleasantly.  "'Ere 'ave 'ou been?"  Harry wouldn't look at her.  Ginny wanted to scream.  Instead she merely resumed her work:

      "Oh, doing this and that.  And you?" she asked, hoping she sounded non-chalant.  Her blood was boiling.  Flying boogers sounded promising...

      "Ron and 'Arry were setting up chairs for the wedeeng..." Gab Gab Gab, "... and of course 'e was nice eenough to 'elp me with the fairees," Gab Gab Gab!  "We were just coming up to see if 'ere is anytheeng to drink."  Gabi of course proceeded to pull Harry indoors; Ginny of course was still working alone.

      "Ginny!" Mum yelled from inside not ten seconds later.  "Why haven't you set out the centerpieces?!?"  Ginny turned and strode towards the house purposefully:

      "Just what do you think I'm doing?" she ranted under her breath,  "Enjoying a stroll?  Swimming, perhaps?  Cutting my throat?"  She strode into the house only to find Gabi complimenting Mum on her choice in flowers.  Harry, for his part, was looking at the flowers, of all places, his hands thrust into his pockets.

      "Oh, there you are, dear!" Mum greeted her when she finally noticed she was there.  "Done setting the tables yet?"

      "No, Mum, it takes an eternity seeing how I can't use magic.  I've come to see if I could have a glass of water if that's okay with you."

      "Don't take that tone with me, young lady!  I have quite enough going on without... Ron!  Those butterbeers are for the party!"

      Mum was of course forced to wrestle the bottle from Ron, while Gabi apparently had decided to take over the centerpieces.  She handed Harry two first (he caught them just in time) and then Ron got three, and she frog-marched them outside, Ron trying to balance one on his head.  Gabi squealed.  Harry laughed.  Ginny couldn't stand it; she ran.

      She didn't know for sure how she got to the pond.  She knew that the paddock would be full of depressing reminders that this wedding business was real and she was about to lose Bill forever, so when she reached the fork her feet found the other path, the one towards freedom from this annoying heat.  She ran until the water came up to her knees, then dove in without a second thought.  The water was blissfully cool, and she stayed under until she needed to breathe, her lungs burning as she surfaced.  She removed her shoes underwater and threw them to shore.  Unfortunately Mad-Eye Moody chose that moment to stroll up and it was a narrow miss.

      "What are you up to, Missy?" he asked gruffly.  "Causing a disturbance when I'm trying to work!  How do you know that there isn't anything dangerous in that swamp?"

      "Leave her alone, Mad Eye," Tonks strolled up, wand in hand.  "She's not disturbing the wards."  She looked at Ginny quizically as Moody limped off:  "Bad day?"

      "You have no idea," Ginny retorted.

      "At least you don't have to work with him," Tonks replied.  "He's not happy about lowering these wards for anyone, especially not a party, but then I doubt he'd be happy raising wards somewhere else, would he?"  Tonks morphed her face into Mad Eye's and mouthed several choice words making outrageously grumpy expressions.  Ginny laughed and Tonks morphed back into herself, the self she had started wearing more and more often since she had fallen for Remus Lupin.  Only now Tonks looked happier and healthier than Ginny had ever seen her; since Lupin had finally given in and let them at least be classified as going out Tonks had blossomed and become more beautiful than ever before.  "Well, better get back to work," Tonks said glumly, "before he comes back and bites my head off."

      Ginny waved her goodbye in considerably better spirits than before.  Well... about as good as they were going to get given the state of things.  She flipped onto her back and swam for a while, gazing up at the sky.  The weather was actually nice if you were wet.  She wished she didn't have to go in...

      "What are you doing!?!" Gabrielle's voice called across the water.  Ginny sat up and started treading water but didn't dignify the question with a response.  "The re'earsal is in an 'our and you are getting muddy!"  Ginny started swimming back towards the shore.  Gabi continued gabbing:  "Your mother will be ever so angry, will she not?"  Ginny climbed out of the water unceremoniously, squeezing her hair out:

      "I don't care," she replied.  "I needed to take a bath anyway."

      "By the time 'ou get back 'ere 'ill be no 'ot water!" Gabi pronounced water as watt-air, sounding extremely snooty and pretentious.  Ginny rolled her eyes:

      "I find it hard to believe that there could be a shortage of hot water on a day like this," she returned.  She suddenly realized that Harry was blushing profusely:  "And what's your problem?" she demanded.  He didn't answer.  "It isn't enough to break up with me, you have to ignore me, too?"

      Ginny picked up her shoes and started strolling towards the house, incensed.  It wasn't until she had ran upstairs, slammed the bathroom door behind her, and looked in the mirror that she realized that her wet blouse was now completely see-through and certain parts of her anatomy had been stimulated by the cold water she had been enjoying.  She blushed, half wishing she could just die, half glad that she had done something to rub Harry's face in what he was missing.

      There was just one more thing more to add insult to injury, though:  unfortunately, Gabi had been right about the hot water.
 
 
 

* * * * * * *
 
 
 
      Ginny's body still hadn't fully recovered from the cold by the time she forced herself downstairs half an hour later.  It had only taken her so long (she hadn't wanted to linger in the freezing water, after all) because she had been forced to rethink her outfit.  The skirt Mum had laid out was from prepuberty (what, when she was eleven?) and hadn't wanted to close (it was hard to believe that her hips had spread, but she knew that, while she didn't have a six pack, her stomach was flat from Quidditch).  The blouse was too tight and gapey to be decent.

      She finally settled on an old red dress that didn't hold her in at the wrong places but did hold her in at the right ones.  She clipped her hair up so it would stay off her neck, decided not to get upset by the few tendrils that were hanging down to frame her face, but tucked the ones behind her ears that she could.  As she checked her appearance in the mirror one last time before strolling downstairs she dabbed on some tinted lip balm and found that she actually felt the slightest bit beautiful.  Upon descending back into the mayhem she found Mum was still bustling about the kitchen:

      "Why on earth are you wearing that old thing?" she demanded.

      "I didn't have much choice, seeing how nearly all my old things don't fit anymore," Ginny retorted.  "This was the best that was available."  Ron suddenly appeared from the pantry, carrying cartons of butterbeer via manual labor.

      "I think Ginny needs to change," he stated decisively, looking her over from head to toe.

      "Leave her alone, ickle Ronniekins," Bill stated decisively as he entered the room.  "She looks nice and has a point:  she has had that dress since the summer she turned twelve."  Ginny had forgotten that she had picked it out for the trip to visit Bill.  Now that she thought about it she realized that it had hung nearly to her ankles and because she couldn't fill it out yet she had been forced to wear a blouse over it.  "Can you help me outside, Gin?" he asked, turning to her.

      She followed him outside, wondering just what else needed to be done, when he turned to her and smiled:  "You look nice, Gin."

      "Thanks," she blushed.  He offered her his arm, which she took, and he led the way towards the paddock:

      "Come on, be my best girl for the evening; it looks like you could use the break."

      "What about Charlie?" she asked.

      "He's too busy trying to impress Harry and his date," Bill said gruffly.  "I saw you tell them off when I was working on the wards."  She blushed.  "Serves him right."

      "Bill, about that:  you really don't know the whole story."

      "I know enough to see that you were really happy together and that he's a fool to break up with you."

      "Yeah," she allowed.  "But it's not like that exactly.  He wants to be together, but he's too worried about what might happen to me."  Bill frowned, summoning a couple of apples from the tree they were standing under and handing her one:

      "Doesn't seem very Gryffindor of him," he answered.  "If he really wanted you, he'd find a way."

      "I know," she answered softly, "and deep down I agree with you, but Harry doesn't exactly know how to be a proper boyfriend.  He didn't exactly have good examples of how to shower a person with affection when he was growing up."

      "Stop making excuses for him, Ginny," Bill told her as they resumed their journey to the paddock, passing the sign that had been erected for the guests that now read Share-a-homey this way and Deception that.  "Good to see the twins made it..."
 
 
 

* * * * * * *
 
 
 
      The Rehearsal Dinner really hadn't been as bad as she had expected it to be.  It was still unbearably hot, but the twins got all their antics out of the way (much to everyone's delight except Mum's and Fleur's), Lupin and Tonks made excellent dinner companions, and the finale of fireworks turned out to be quite excellent.

      All insanity temporarily out of the way, everyone settled down to a rather boring thirty-six hour period that lay between the rehearsal dinner and actual wedding, which was set for August 4th.  Ginny had no trouble falling asleep after the exhaustingly horrible day.  The next day Bill made an incredible effort to spend time with her, mostly because he had been banned from being within the length of a Quidditch pitch from his bride until the ceremony.  Still, it was nice that Bill was making sure she felt wanted when the Trio were still shutting her out.  He was even sweet enough to tell her that he had chosen this date so when he forgot his wedding anniversary every year Fleur would get angry and give him enough advance notice to not forget her birthday, which was a week later.  Harry was also kind enough to borrow a couple of house elves from Hogwarts for the day of the wedding (show off) so Mum could actually relax and enjoy herself which of course would let make it possible for everyone else to enjoy the same luxury.  Ginny, for her part, couldn't wait for everything to be over, and had decided that when (if) her turn finally came that she wanted a very small, very private wedding that had little if anything to do with the month of August.
 
 
 

Chapter Four - Husband and Wife

Lumos Nox ~ source ~ rogue.fire.angel@gmail.com
494 since 03 - 29 - 06 ~ fic completed 08 - 15 - 05 ~ final edit 11 - 11 - 06