Now and Forever

Chapter 23

After checking in at the stadium to apologize for being gone all day, Harry flashed to his quarters at Hogwarts and called Ginny on his ring.

"Hi, pretty girl," he said when her face appeared above his ring. "Did you have a nice day?"

"Hi yourself! It was OK. Why weren't you at dinner?"

Harry thought for a long moment. Nope. He didn't want to talk about the Board's decision over their rings. Better to do it in person. "I don't want to go into it now."

Her eyes filled with concern. "What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to you, but I can't see you until later."

"How much later?"

"Late." He smiled, trying to tell her a great deal without actually saying anything aloud.

"Did you have a bad day, Harry?"

"It was . . . a day. Let's leave it at that for now. I'd better go."

She knew him well enough to accept what he said and not push him. "See you later, then."

* * *

When Harry flashed Ginny into his quarters late that night and changed back into a man, he pulled her to him and kissed her as if his life depended on it at first, then relaxed into a warm, tender kiss. When he finally released her, she was gasping.

She smiled and ran her finger over his lips. "Wow! What was that all about?"

"I missed you."

"I missed you too. What's going on? Professor Dumbledore acted a bit odd when I saw him this evening, and so did McGonagall. And you weren't yourself when you called me on your ring."

"Come and sit down," Harry said, sitting in his most comfy armchair and pulling her into his lap. He told her about his day, leaving out nothing.

Ginny was livid. "They were going to make us cancel our wedding?"

Harry felt the knot of tension around his heart ease, now that he'd told her and she was taking it as he'd expected. "I love seeing you angry--as long as you're not angry with me!"

Startled enough to calm down a bit, she looked at him. "Why do you say that?"

Harry put on an innocent face. "Because I don't like it when you're angry with me!"

"No, you silly man, why do you like to see me angry?"

"You probably aren't aware of this, but golden flecks show up in the brown of your eyes when you're angry--or when you're passionate," he added, nuzzling her neck and making her giggle. "They're quite attractive, actually. And I can just imagine them changing into daggers and skewering whoever's on the receiving end of your temper!"

That made her laugh. "Daggers from my eyes. Sounds like you've been reading Parvati's romantic novels."

He grinned, glad he'd managed to make her laugh after so much bad news. "Really? Nope, I haven't, but that makes them sound more interesting than those titles they have. 'Ropes, Chains and Leather Robes,' or 'One Wizard at a Time.' "

"Those titles are tame, you know. Others are much more bizarre."

"And how would you know?" he said, continuing to nibble on her neck and ear. How could anyone's ear be so tasty? He sucked on her earlobe, careful to not disturb her earring.

Ginny gasped a bit in pleasure before answering. "I saw her reading them in the Common Room. She usually tried to hide them in her history book."

Harry straightened up and laughed. "I saw her with a hollowed-out book one time where she had several of them hidden. The two I mentioned were ones I saw her take out of that book. Hermione would've been furious if she saw what Parvati did to that book!"

Ginny chuckled, slid her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. "So this and Grimmauld Place are the only places we can snog or do anything else and get away with it, huh?"

"Until we're 'officially' married, yeah." He told her about the rules the Board had set in place, watching her face carefully to gauge her reaction.

Ginny nearly growled when he was finished. "I can't imagine--"

Harry gently tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear and sighed. "I couldn't either, but then I remembered Professor Lockhart." He rolled his eyes dramatically, which made Ginny laugh.

"Oh yeah! Lots of girls were smitten by him, even Hermione--not to mention my mum!" Ginny ran gentle fingertips down his cheek. "Well, we'll just have to make up for lost time when we're here." She rubbed noses with him. "Weren't you about to carry me off to the bedroom?"

"Your wish is my command, m'lady." He held her tightly as he stood up and carried her to the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him.

* * *

The next day, people stared whenever Harry and Ginny were together, because they were staying about a foot apart. Also, Harry took his meals at the staff table rather than at the Gryffindor table, as he'd been doing since Christmas.

"Ginny, did you and Harry have a fight?" Colin said.

"No, we're fine. Some idiot blabbed to the Board of Governors that Harry and I held hands and snogged in the corridors, so he had to deal with an angry Board all day yesterday. And now we have to stay apart, at least until we're married."

"What about after?"

"They tried to stop our wedding, can you imagine? After we're married, we can hold hands in the corridors and he can sit with me at the Gryffindor table, but that's all they'll allow. They had to write a special rule that applies only to 'Harry James Potter' and me, so nobody else could do the same thing. He's not even allowed to study with us, can you believe it?"

Colin gasped. "He can't help us with our project anymore?"

"He can talk to us for limited amounts of time in the library, but then he has to leave us alone so nobody can say we're getting too much staff help," Ginny said with obvious disgust. "And we can't work in his quarters anymore, either."

"That's mad!"

"Tell me about it."

"How's Harry taking it?"

"He offered to resign, but Dumbledore wouldn't let him. Harry's not happy, but he's managing."

* * *

Harry, Ron and the rest of the Lions team were in the showers after an exhausting practice that had gone long past their normal quitting time. Their coach and captain were pushing them hard, getting them ready for the semi-finals coming up just before the Easter holidays.

Weary men sometimes get silly, and that was the case today. They emerged from the showers snapping towels at each other and telling ribald jokes.

Harry scrubbed his hair with his towel as he left the shower room, dancing away from a towel snapped at his bum by one of the Chasers.

"You missed!"

"Next time, paint a goal hoop on his bum," one of the Beaters said. "Then you'll hit the mark."

"Excellent idea!" the Chaser replied, then managed to snap the Beater on the bum with his towel. "Ten points to me!"

Harry laughed along with the others, then threw the towel over his shoulder and grabbed the other end, rubbing his back one last time. When he was finished, he wadded the towel up and tossed it toward the hamper in the corner, earning several whistles and cheers when it sank out of sight without even touching the sides of the basket.

Harry and Ron's lockers were in the row nearest the door to the corridor. Harry was nearly there when he stopped and stared, startled to see someone standing in front of their lockers, someone who was too dainty to be a man and who had long curly hair. He squinted, trying to see better, then remembered he was naked. He swallowed hard, but didn't bother to try to cover himself. There was no point. She'd had plenty of time to look already.

Feeling his cheeks burning with a blush worthy of Ron, Harry cleared his throat and finally managed to speak. "Erm . . . Hermione? Is that you?" A small squeak from her was enough for him to know he'd guessed right. "What's wrong? Why are you here?"

"Erm . . . I-I-I . . ." She gave up and just giggled.

"Oy, who's the pretty bird, Potter?" one of his team mates called.

A Chaser answered. "She's Weasley's wife, isn't she?"

"Yeah." Harry couldn't decide if he should continue to his locker or just stand where he was. He'd have to reach past Hermione to get his glasses and clothes. "Erm . . . you should wait outside. Ron's still in the shower. I'll tell him you're here, OK?" He took a couple of steps closer to her so he could see her fairly well without his glasses, then looked at her more carefully.

Her cheeks bright with embarrassment, her wide, nervous eyes flew from naked man to naked man, finally settling on Harry's familiar face again. She started then, as if awakening from a dream.

"Oh! Yes, of course, I'll wait outside. I'm sorry. My last afternoon class was cancelled and I thought Ron would be finished by now and I just . . . came in." She shook her head and dropped her eyes at last, then gasped and flashed them up to his face again, her face even redder than before. "I'm sorry."

Laughter in his voice, Harry leaned toward her and murmured, "This is payback for that time at home, isn't it?"

She gasped again, and then grinned. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." With a deliberately saucy toss of her curls, she turned on her heel and walked toward the door.

Just as she reached the door, Ron emerged from the showers and spotted her. "Hermione? What are you doing here?" He was as naked as the rest of them, although some of his team mates had managed to get at least partially dressed by now. Ron wrapped his towel around his waist and moved closer to her, stopping when he saw that Harry was still naked. "Harry! Blimey, mate, cover up!"

Harry looked over his shoulder at Ron as he dug his briefs out of his locker. "I'm working on it."

Meanwhile, Hermione had turned back. "I, erm . . . Harry can tell you why I'm here. I'll wait outside." Her eyes moved from Ron to Harry's back and slid downward. "Oh, Harry!"

He glanced at her over his shoulder. "What?"

"I can't believe your aunt didn't take you for stitches for that horrible cut," she said, staring aghast at the ragged scar on his bum from Dudley ramming him with a toy metal bulldozer when they were little.

"I'm okay, Hermione. Don't worry about it." He bent over and pulled on his briefs, then his jeans, amazed that he was as unperturbed as he was by her staring at his bum. Then again, he'd been naked in the hospital so often, he was kind of surprised she'd never noticed his scar before. "I thought you'd seen it."

"That was Ginny, not me, who saw all those scars," she reminded him.

"I was unconscious a lot of the time, so I thought maybe . . . never mind." He flashed her a grin, then tugged his T-shirt over his head.

Ron, meanwhile, was standing there staring at his wife as she held a fairly normal conversation with his best mate, who'd been completely naked until a moment ago. "'Mione?"

Hermione's cheeks flamed anew. "Ron, I'll be outside. And the rest of you, I'm very sorry! I was just so surprised, I, erm, simply couldn't move for a while."

One of the Beaters laughed. "Got herself a real eyeful, she did, Weasley!"

The other men joined his laughter, but Harry was watching Hermione's face, which had gone from a fetching pink blush to completely drained of colour. "It's OK, Hermione. Next time, stop at the front office to see if we're dressed yet, OK?"

Her eyes huge, she nodded and backed away, finally disappearing from view outside the door.

Ron turned to Harry. "What's going on? Why's she here? Were the guys rude to her?"

"No more than you heard, mate," Harry answered. "And I don't know what she wants. She just said her afternoon class was cancelled, so she came here to see you."

Ron was pulling on clothes as fast as he could. He didn't bother to comb his hair, but ran into the corridor with his socks, shoes and belt still in his hands. Harry watched him go and hoped that there was nothing wrong. It wasn't like Hermione to just come in like that.

Harry finished tying his shoes and took the time to straighten not only his locker, but Ron's as well. Most of the team had left by now. He'd heard their teasing comments as they'd passed Ron and Hermione in the corridor. Why had Ron and Hermione stayed? He shook his head, reminding himself that he had enough of his own problems to worry about. He didn't need to take on their worries as well.

Satisfied at last, Harry picked up his ever-present book bag and swung it over his shoulder, then walked out of the locker room. He expected the corridor to be empty. He didn't expect to see Ron and Hermione locked in an embrace.

Ron pulled back and grinned at Harry. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"Hermione came to tell me we got the flat we were hoping for! It's brilliant, really. It's near the twins' shop and it's big enough for us to have parties once in a while. Come and see it!"

Harry looked at Hermione and saw that she was beaming as well. "That's great! Of course, I'd love to see it."

The three friends fell in step as Hermione explained why getting this flat was such an accomplishment. "There were so many homes destroyed during the war, nice flats that are reasonably priced are hard to find. We were very lucky to find this one just as the previous tenant was letting it go."

Before long, they were climbing the stairs from a small doorway by a shop that sold household goods like self-stirring saucepots and sets of kitchen knives spelled to slice, dice and julienne on their own. At the top of the stairs, Hermione turned left and led them to a door near the front of the building. "This is it." She unlocked the door and swung it open, revealing a large room that was probably meant to be both living room and dining room. A small galley-style kitchen was on the far wall. A narrow hallway led to two bedrooms and a bathroom. "See?" Hermione said after giving Harry the tour. "It has everything we need!"

Harry thought about all the comforts of Grimmauld Place they'd be giving up for this little apartment. He swallowed hard, not wanting to spoil their pleasure in the apartment. He had to be careful what he said so he wouldn't slip and make a mistake that would hurt them.

Ron and Hermione explored their new flat hand-in-hand, talking about what colour to paint the walls, the curtains they needed to buy, and what furniture they'd need.

"Furniture?" Ron said after Hermione brought it up. "I suppose we could use some of Mum and Dad's old stuff. Or we could buy new stuff."

"We shouldn't waste money on new furniture right now," Hermione said. "We should save as much as we can to build our house in Godric's Hollow."

"Yeah, you're right, but we'll be living here for a few years," Ron said. "We should be comfortable."

"We'll work something out," Hermione said, leaning her head against his shoulder and smiling. "Our own place. Won't it be fun?"

"Yeah."

Harry watched this exchange and smiled. Hermione's parents' house had sold recently, and her mood had been improving ever since. Now she seemed to be genuinely looking forward to starting her own little household. He wondered if there was any way he could help, then smiled. "Erm, would you like to use your bedroom furniture from my house? At least until you can find something you like better."

Hermione turned to him, beaming. "Oh, Harry, thank you! That would be wonderful!"

"There's a lot of furniture in the house Ginny and I won't need for a while. Some of it might be useful for you. We can go through the house and choose which pieces you want this weekend." Harry looked around the apartment, which had an air of shabby gentility as well as some very odd-coloured walls. "And if you want help with the renovations, painting, that kind of thing, Dobby would love to help you, I'm sure. He has my house in good shape now and told me recently he wished he could find more ways to use his tools."

"That would be brilliant, mate," Ron began.

"Oh, no, Dobby can't work for us unless we pay him!" Hermione said.

Harry grinned. "He'll like that."