The Long Wait

Chapter 3:

Harry woke the next morning with a smile on his face as he rolled over--to an empty bed.

"Another damn dream," he mumbled as he got dressed.

He walked across the small corridor to Al's room, but the door was already open and Al wasn't inside. Harry heard Al's laughing coming from the kitchen and the sound of sizzling bacon in a pan.

Harry ran down the stairs, shouting as he did. "Alroy James Potter! I've told you not to fool around in the kitchen!"

But as he ran into the kitchen, he found Ginny standing at the stove making eggs, bacon and pancakes with her wand while Al was buttering the toast at the table.

"Forget about me already, Harry?" Ginny asked with a smirk.

"N-no, I was just joking."

"You called me Alroy, you weren't joking," said Al, now setting the table.

"Has he asked about the party yet?" Harry whispered in Ginny's ear.

"No; I gave him chores to do before he could," she replied, grinning.

After breakfast they all Flooed to the Burrow. The house was decorated with red and gold streamers, balloons, and banners that flashed different sayings for both Al and Ginny. And since there was so little furniture and so many people, everybody simply stood and shouted "Surprise!" when Al stumbled out of the fireplace.

Surprisingly, all of the Weasleys had made time in their now-busy schedules to come to the party, Neville and Luna had come from the Quibbler head offices in Liverpool, Remus and Tonks made a small appearance, and the whole house was overrun by children.

The party continued for hours with everyone going back and forth between welcoming Ginny back, congratulating Harry on making the right decision, and watching Al open his presents.

It took Harry, Ginny and, Ron three trips by Apparation to get all of Al's presents to his room - he had gotten everything on his list including five bags of candy from the twins, dragon hide boots and gloves from Bill and a Snowflake racing broom from Harry and Ginny.

~Later~

"I told Tonks I want to go back to work tomorrow," Ginny said to Harry as they got into bed.

"Ginny, you're still getting better," Harry said. "I don't think you should be going anywhere on a regular basis for a couple of months, at least."

"A couple of months?! Harry, I don't need to be quarantined for dragon pox," Ginny protested.

"I know, but still, you haven't worked for eight years, and going back to being an Auror after only four days might be worse for your health than it would be if you were to just stay in bed a little longer."

Ginny stayed quiet for a minute, thinking. "Harry, I know this is going to sound crazy, but . . . I feel like something is missing from my life."

"Well, of course you do. It's only been three days. Please, Ginny. Just stay at home for a month."

"Fine, but if I still feel like this in a month, I'm going back to work."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Each day was as perfect for Harry as the last. Breakfast was always ready by the time he got up and he got to work on time since Ginny was now taking Al to school. It was easy for Harry to get used to; coming home at seven, spending time with Al, eating dinner and, talking to Ginny when Al went to bed.

The weeks passed quickly and Harry noticed Ginny smiling and laughing more with each passing day.

It's passed, he thought. She's not going back to work!

It's not that Harry was old-fashioned and wanted his wife to stay home and cook and clean all the time, but he knew it would be safer for Ginny, better for Al and he would be able to get to work on-time as well.

Harry came home one Tuesday to find the house dark and quiet. Then he saw light flickering in the living room. He walked in to find Ginny lighting candles on the coffee table. She was wearing nothing but red lingerie with gold trim. Harry recognized it from their honeymoon in Ireland.

"Happy anniversary," Ginny said, turning around to face Harry. "I figured we could skip dinner tonight. What do you think?"

"I think I should ask where our son is," Harry replied.

"He's staying over at Ron and Hermione's tonight. Yes or no?"

"If you're ready," was all he said before waving his wand to extinguish the candles and follow Ginny up the stairs to their bedroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next week passed as quickly as the others had, and soon it was the last Sunday of the month.

Only a half-hour after Alroy had gone to bed, Harry was sitting on the couch in the living room reading the evening Prophet while Ginny did the dishes the 'Muggle way'. Ginny left the kitchen when she was finished and sat down next to Harry.

"Harry, I sent Tonks another note. I'm going to work with you tomorrow."

She said it quietly, but he caught every word.

"What?"

"It's been a month, Harry. I haven't felt any side effects from the healing, and I'm completely used to everything. But I still feel like I'm missing something."

"Well, it's nothing you're going to find by chasing murderers again."

"Maybe it is. It's like playing Beater in a game of Quidditch and forgetting your bat, you know something is wrong, but you can't figure out what. I think I just need things back to how they used to be, with me working. And even if it doesn't work at least it'll keep my mind off of thinking of what could be wrong."

"And what about Al? Who's going to pick him up from school and take care of him while we're at work?"

"I'll work part-time. And with the extra money we can buy a bigger house."

"We don't need the extra money or the bigger house." Harry sighed. "There's nothing I can do to change your mind, is there?"

"Not really. But thanks for caring," she said as she leaned over to give him a kiss.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny finally went back to work the next day. Kingsley Shacklebolt, she discovered, was now the Head of the Auror Headquarters. He kindly welcomed her back while giving her a tour of the updated offices. And when he noticed that she was a bit more relaxed he sent her straight to work at a desk, annoyingly close to Harry.

"Have you found the 'bat' yet?" he asked her for the tenth time that day.

"Not with you asking me every five minutes," she said, exasperated, as she got ready to leave. "I thought you said I'd barely see you."

"No, I said you'd barely miss me."

"Well, this isn't going to help anything. We never worked this close before."

"You never worked at a desk job before either, but I don't hear you complaining about that."

"Of course not. Kingsley's not going to send me into the field on my first day back. It'll probably take a few months before I can go on missions again. And until those few months are over I never want to work this close to you again. Do I make myself clear?" Ginny said, giving him a stern look.

"Oh, fine. You should get going if you're going to pick Al up from school."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day Harry moved as far across the room as he could. He had switched places with a kind, elderly witch; who graciously agreed to keep an eye on Ginny for him. And after a week it began to get a bit easier for Harry not to take little walks around the offices.

Ginny was in charge of reading the notes that came in every morning. The 'tips' were normally about people who were either dead, in Azkaban or did such trivial things that they weren't important enough for the Aurors to bother with right now.

She went through over a hundred tips a day, sending the few she thought were genuine to Kingsley, who would then sort them out to the Aurors assigned to the respective cases. But no matter how many real tips she gave to Kingsley, Ginny still felt something was missing.

"Maybe its Malfoy," suggested Hermione as they had tea that Saturday while Harry and Ron played a less dangerous game of Quidditch with the children outside.

"Malfoy? I think my life is better without him."

"I didn't mean that. Maybe the reason you feel like this is because he put you in that coma and you're worried because he's not locked up--or dead," Hermione added hastily.

Ginny found herself dwelling unnecessarily on this thought for the rest of the week.

Another annoying thought, she said to herself.

It was possible, of course, but for some reason she didn't believe it. She hadn't thought of Draco since she had started working again. And even then it wasn't with fear or worry. She had nothing to fear or worry about except Harry and Al.

Al. That was the problem; she had missed him growing up. She had missed his first word, first steps, first everything. And that was because of Malfoy.

That's what's missing, Ginny thought, awakened in the middle of the night after having one of her secret nightmares. Revenge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny worked as hard as any other employee in the Auror offices that week. She was now opening more than two hundred tips a day.

I've got to keep looking, she told herself as she worked.

Harry had noticed a change in her.

"She looks happier going to work than she does coming home," he told Ron. They were picking up owl treats at Eeylop's while Ginny, Alroy and Rona window-shopped in Quality Quidditch Supplies, and Hermione had taken Colleen to Flourish and Blott's.

"That's nothing," Ron said, putting three Galleons on the counter for the clerk. "Hermione was like that after she had Rona and Colleen. She said something about it being 'a sense of accomplishment'. I wouldn't worry about it; she'll be begging for days off before you know it."

But Harry soon realized how wrong Ron was. He saw the bags under Ginny's eyes when they were making breakfast the next morning, and couldn't stand by any longer.

"Are you sleeping well?" he asked her.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" she answered quickly, thinking Harry had somehow found out about the nightmares, which had become more frequent and were now keeping her up at night.

"I think you should relax for a few days, Ginny. Maybe take a week off--you're working too hard."

"I know, but we're getting more tips and . . . er . . . we're short a couple of people. I have to work harder to--keep my job," Ginny lied. She couldn't handle telling Harry the truth right now; he was already over-protective of her.

He would only be worse if I told him that I'm in search of a Death Eater, she thought.

But even though Ginny worked harder the next week, nothing surfaced, not one tip on Draco Malfoy.

Finally Harry asked Kingsley to order Ginny home for a while. If not to sleep and rest, then to spend time with her husband and son.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's no good, Ginny said for the fifth time that first night alone. She couldn't sleep anymore, and on top of it all, her back was killing her all the time.

"It's from those damn office chairs," Harry said two days later when he saw Ginny lie down on the bed and firmly press her back into the mattress.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny went back to work after three days of awful silence while Harry was working and Al was at school.

Then it came. It looked as plain as any other tip, but Ginny knew it was different before opening it; she could sense it. It took her a minute to register what it said before she stood up and speed-walked to Kingsley's office.

Ginny went into the surprisingly large room, walked over to the desk Kingsley was seated at, and, before the door had time to slam shut, threw the small piece of paper on his desk and said calmly:

"Liverpool."

"What?"

"He's in Liverpool."

"Who is? Harry? I told him to stay at his desk for a couple of days."

"Just read the note."

Kingsley grabbed the paper and read it quickly.

"I'll send someone over right now," he said a minute later.

"May I suggest someone, sir?"

"Ginny, I think Harry would be a really bad choice for this job."

"Actually, I was talking about me."

"You? But you just came back to work. Besides, I promised Harry-"

"You did what?!"

"I had to. He threatened to quit, and you know better than I do that Harry, Tonks and I are the best Aurors that we have right now. I'm sorry, but I can't afford to lose anyone, especially not The Boy Who Lived."

"I understand. Just don't tell Harry about this case, will you? I don't want him to worry about me."

"Sure. Don't worry about Malfoy, though. I'll send Tonks over with a few others."

"Thanks, Kingsley. But I do expect to go back into the field by next month," Ginny said, a determined look on her face.

"We'll see. Just get some rest and keep giving me the good tips." He laughed before escorting her out and calling Tonks and two Aurors that Ginny didn't recognize into his office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ginny thought about Draco for the rest of the day, which really wasn't that much of a change now. But by the time she was getting ready for bed she had already been late picking Al up from school, burnt dinner, and nearly slipped while getting out of the bath.

I can't let them catch him, she said, getting out of bed at three in the morning and having a cup of tea to calm her nerves from the nightmare. All they'll do is disarm him and lock him up in Azkaban. I've got to get to him first. Harry won't like it, but these feelings and nightmares won't pass until I do.