The Reticulation, Part II

Harry and Ginny convinced the seventh-year boys to stay clear of their dormitory for awhile so the two of them could have a very stimulating respite together. They had now both removed their shirts, although Ginny was still wearing a brassiere, and were passionately making out with each other.

When they grew tired of this, they came apart and looked at each other. Harry briefly reflected on how being able to do this with her was almost his reward for defeating Voldemort. Just kissing her didn't seem to be enough of a reward for that, though. He wanted more.

"D'you want to, you know...do it?" he suggested quietly, his face suddenly burning.

"What, just do it?" Ginny asked indignantly. "No wedding?"

"Wedding?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Well, Mum says you shouldn't have sex before marriage," Ginny explained.

"So you want us to get married?" he asked.

"Exactly!" Ginny said cheerfully. "How about sometime this week?" Harry thought about that for a moment.

"Okay," he said eventually. Ginny threw her arms around Harry and planted a huge kiss on him.

"Attention!" they heard McGonagall's magically-magnified voice say. "I want Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley to report to my office immediately."

Harry and Ginny pulled apart with identical looks of disgust on their faces.

"Great timing," Ginny said bitterly, saying exactly what Harry had been thinking.

"Well," he said tonelessly, as he pulled his shirt back on, "the sooner we see what this is about the sooner we can...spend more time together. Maybe she just wants to thank us for what we did."

"She could have done that back on the grounds," Ginny pointed out. "Besides, I didn't really do anything."

"Well, she wants us for some reason," Harry said as he got up.

At the gargoyle that led up the headmistress' office, Harry and Ginny found that Hermione was also there with her love--held tenderly in her arms was a shinny, new copy of Hogwarts: A History. Ron, on the other hand, was alone. After Hermione said "hippogriff" (McGonagall's passwords were considerably less creative than Dumbledore's) they stepped onto the staircase that would carry them up to McGonagall's office.

"What are you two so happy about?" Ron asked, noticing how buoyant Harry and Ginny seemed to be. Ginny lazily put her head on Harry's shoulder and smiled.

"Me and Harry are getting married," she said dreamily.

"Harry and I," Hermione corrected. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"What, now?" Ron asked in surprise. "I don't think you got my permission!"

"I don't believe the priest says 'and does your meddling brother approve of this union?'" Ginny retorted.

"You're sixteen years old!" Ron shouted.

"Ginny, you are pretty young," Hermione told her fairly. "Why don't you sleep on it for awhile?"

"I'll do that after the wedding," Ginny said cheerfully and with that she gleefully skipped off the staircase as it reached the top of the tower. Harry, Ron and Hermione followed at a much slower pace, but they all walked into the headmistress' office together, where they saw McGonagall working at her desk.

"Oh, hello," she said, looking up, "what d'you want?" All four Gryffindors stared at her.

"Um, you called us here," Harry told her. McGonagall looked confused.

"I don't believe I did, Mr. Potter," she said eventually. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all looked at each other and then all turned back to McGonagall.

"I'm sorry, Professor, but we all heard you say to come up here immediately," Hermione said in a very small voice.

"All I can say is that it wasn't me," McGonagall replied.

"Well, who was it then?" Ron asked impatiently.

"It was me!"

Suddenly, the door behind them evaporated and the picture of Armando Dippet grew several times in size, knocking the other portraits onto the floor, until it filled up the whole wall like a giant flatscreen TV. Dippet's face was flooded by a dark clouds and out of that fog came two thin, cat-like red shapes--Lord Voldemort's eyes.

"Oh, God, not again!" Harry shouted angrily.