Sock Raid

"Potter, Weasley," the burly sergeant that led the Auror Training Section barked at them, "A word." Harry and Ron exchanged nervous looks as they rose in tandem, to walk toward the large "no-nonsense" man. Ron pulled a gold pocket watch, protected with numerous anti-breakage charms, out of his back pocket and groaned in frustration.

"It's bloody eleven-thirty, and they are just dismissing us," he complained in a disgruntled manner. Harry's eyes went wide in surprise.

"As you know," Sergeant Jonas bellowed at the pair, making them jump, "you two may be the finest pair of Aurors that the MLE has ever had. You two are much attuned to each other and because of your past," he paused in respect, "experiences in battle; you two are very firmly at the top of your class. My advisor, Miss Tonks, had made an exception for you two to graduate from the Auror academy early. You are going to leave this school in two weeks when this term ends." He smiled at the shocked looks on their faces. "I suggest you leave and get some rest. We reconvene at five o'clock sharp." With that, he turned and marched away, savoring the shocked expressions on their faces.

Harry pulled out his wand to disapparate with a sigh. His day had been so grueling that he was surprised that he was able to apparate to the Weasley's without splinching himself. He walked toward the kitchen and smiled to find a steaming plate of food resting on the counter. He was still shocked at the kindness that his surrogate mother showed him. The kind gesture brought a warm feeling to his insides. Ron groaned and pronounced himself too tired to eat. He then promptly disappeared up the worn wooden steps toward his room, completely oblivious to the look of shock that bloomed on Harry's face.

Harry finished his meal in a time that would rival the speed of Ron's and set his plate to washing itself, smiling at the simple pleasure that the spell brought him. It was unusual to find the house that was brimming with noise, so quiet. He trudged up the stairs to the room he had been given after Percy had died in the war. As he passed the door that led to Ginny's room, he looked in and was disappointed to notice her absence. Her green Healer's robes were in a heap on the ground. Her old school trunk was opened to reveal one pair of socks, which had several noticeable holes in them, even from where he was standing. He gave a small smile at this and with another sigh, he forced his weary muscles to move up the stairs to his room. Quickly, he peeled off his Auror training uniform and changed into a white shirt that displayed his muscled upper body and a pair of flannel pants. He cracked the window over his bed and settled into the familiar bed. With a muttered spell over the wood floor of his room, he stashed his wand under his pillow and relaxed. He fell instantly into a deep sleep that was filled with dreams of his past "experiences".

>*<

He was in the Gryffindor Common room, staring listlessly into the blazing fire. Though the flames warmed his face, nothing could warm his heart. It had been cold ever since he had led his godfather to his death. It was if he had fired the deadly curse himself, because Sirius's death was entirely his fault. He felt abandoned by all the adults he had known. He was still mad at Dumbledore for withholding the information that he should have been privy to. He had lost a link to his parents because he had been too selfish to practice Occlumency every night like he should have.

He was vaguely aware that his friends had tried to approach him. Hermione was more persistent than usual to get him to talk about his feelings. Everyone else gently talked to him as though he were made of glass. He just looked at the shimmering flames and said nothing in return. Eventually, Ron and Hermione gave up and retreated to their respective dorms. Harry was oblivious to the tears of worry that Hermione shed for him every night. He was unable to notice that even Ron was worried for his health. He hadn't eaten much since he had returned to the castle that he usually referred to as home. He got so tangled up in his own thoughts that it took him a few minutes to realize that a body, a female one, had blocked his view of the now dying fire. Startled, he looked up.

"Ginny!" he said in surprise. His voice cracked from disuse and he flushed in embarrassment. He studied her for a moment then shrank back into his chair. He could tell from enough experience with Ron and the other Weasleys that Ginny's short temper had flared. Her anger was directed at him but he couldn't figure out what he could have done to upset her.

"You," her voice was low and venomous she accentuated the word with a hard poke to his chest. He winced involuntarily. "You had better stop wallowing in your own self-pity. Did you know that Hermione is up in her dormitory, beside herself with worry! She is so concerned she gave herself an ulcer. Over you! You are not the only one who was affected by his death. I cared about him too." Harry was taken aback though a small part of his brain said he shouldn't have been.

"Have you even taken a moment to consider how this affected Moony? He lost his last remaining friend for the second time. When you were stuck at your muggle relatives' house this summer, he would hope for a letter from you saying that you were alright. He was so happy when your two-line letters came. We very nearly threw a bloody party when you wrote him a two paragraph letter because he smiled for an entire week!" Her voice lost its hostile edge and became gentle. "Well, I have news for you, Harry; he loves you just like Sirius did. Why can't you see that you are not alone? All of your friends love you. I love you. Professor Dumbledore loves you. Tonks and Moody came to the Department of Mysteries to save you because they love you. My own mum couldn't love you more if you were a Weasley yourself. You can't shut off your feelings like this." She looked away from him and down at her fluffy-toed slippers and spoke so softly that he barely heard her plea.

"You will become just like Tom. You can't be like Tom, you can't!"

Harry desperately tried to control the tears that threatened to coarse down his face. Ginny saw this and delicately sat down beside him. She drew him into a hug.

"It's okay. I will not think any less of you if you cry. You know that," she chided him. A single tear fell down his cheek. Another and another followed it until he was sobbing brokenly. He couldn't control his racking sobs as he cried out two years worth of pain. He clung to her desperately as though his life depended on it. After he had exhausted himself, she led him tenderly up the boys' staircase to his dorm. She helped him change into his pajamas and pulled the hangings around his bed. She used one hand to run it through his hair. The gesture seemed to soothe him so she kept running one of her hands through his messy hair. She quietly sang a lullaby until he dropped off into sleep. It was the first sleep that had been nightmare free since Sirius had died.

The scene shifted to a bloody battlefield.

He was walking through madness. People fighting for Voldemort and defending the castle parted in front of him as though his awesome power was too much for them to bear. They subconsciously recognized a stronger presence in their midst and made room for him. Only one person didn't seem to be affected by this. Though curses went astray from many duels, none hit him or the faithful companion that walked by his side. He could see that several people were dead but thankfully, the number was not high. Percy Weasley and Cho Chang were already dead, victims of the killing curse.

Nearby, Neville was dueling Bellatrix Lestrange, Ron was dueling Lucius Malfoy, and Luna was dueling Draco Malfoy. Ginny was standing at his side. He calmly looked into the eyes of his enemy since childhood and gave a smile of pity.

"Your army is falling Tom Riddle. What shall you do now that you have no hope of killing me?" Voldemort smiled.

"Well then, I shall kill her. Accio Ginevra," he commanded. She reached for him but their fingertips just brushed. She gave a scream that mingled with Harry's shout of surprise and anger. Upon seeing the look on Harry's face, Voldemort started to laugh. Many of the members of the DA looked up in shock at the evil sound.

"But," he said twirling his wand languidly, "maybe I will just have some fun with her first." He raised his wand and pointed it at her heart while hissing something unintelligible. Ginny's beautiful hair that he had often compared to the color of flames, sprang to life and began to smoke. Within seconds, the bottom edge of her long hair burst into flames. Of all of the horrid things Voldemort could do to her, this had to be the cruelest by far. The simple method of torture made Harry snap and he fired off a stunning spell that was four times as bright as a normal stunner should have been.

"Tut tut, I wouldn't want you to harm your little girlfriend here," the word was spat out like a curse word. With a wave of his wand he doused the flames that had been steadily creeping up toward Ginny's head and pulled her body in front of his own to act as a shield. "Careful now or she might get hurt. Any last words between you two?" he asked with a sneer.

Harry looked into her scared brown eyes as if trying to read her soul. Her eyes belayed her absolute trust for the man in front of her. He steadied his resolve and focused his mind on the most intense feelings of love he could remember.

"Tribuo ultum diligo!" he shouted as loud as he could. Time seemed to slow down as he looked from Voldemort's smug face to Ron's horrified one, and then he saw Ginny's openly trusting face and Hermione's comprehension. Ron let out a strangled yell of furry that nearly made him lose the duel he was fighting. Voldemort clutched the redheaded girl closer to him in order for her to get hit with the curse instead. Time resumed its normal speed in a flash. The red colored curse exploded from his wandless hands and sped directly toward Ginny's heart. Her eyes glowed red before the curse traveled straight through her and directly into Voldemort's disbelieving face.

Voldemort looked into his archrival's face and he brought about his final sneer before he exploded from the inside into a pile of dust. A strong wind picked up and scattered the ashes around the grounds of the battlefield. All of the duels had stopped with the explosion. The remaining Death Eaters quickly lost heart and the duels were slowly won. As the last duel stopped a resounding cheer went over the field. Ron, Hermione and Harry all rushed toward the spot where Ginny was lying, unmoving in a carpet of grass. Ron took one look at his sister's still body and turned toward Harry.

"You killed her! You killed my bloody sister! My only sister! Stay away from my family; this is all your fault! My family is going to KILL YOU!" he screamed. He swung back his fist and hit his best mate in the jaw. Harry winced as he heard his own jaw crack and tried to tell him that she wasn't dead. But before he could do that, a pathetically weak voice interrupted Ron's tirade against him and halted it mid word.

"Ron, stop," Ginny said softly. She was sitting up on the ground looking pale but extremely happy. She gave a brilliant smile to all those that had gathered around the group and happily accepted a piece of chocolate from Professor Lupin.

The dreams shifted to the hospital wing at Hogwarts.

Hermione was holding Ron's hand and Ron was holding Ginny's hand while Harry looked on. They were questioning her about the spell Harry used to defeat his parents' murderer.

"What was it like?" Hermione asked softly.

"It was like I was looking at a bunch of memories of times when he felt love. There were short memories of a Muggle teacher who gave him some Christmas candy, a lot of memories of you two, some talking to me, hugs from mum, handshakes from our brothers and then there were..." she trailed off uncertainly. She glanced in his direction and blushed the famous Weasley red before averting her eyes.

"There were also," she paused to choose her words, "flashes of what he hoped for in love. Like what he hoped was to come." She furrowed her brows in frustration and buried her head in her hands.

"Like what?" Hermione said eagerly in her thirst for knowledge.

"Hermione," Ron said amusedly, "you graduated Hogwarts a few days ago. This will not show up on some homework assignment and you won't get any house points." Hermione blushed in acknowledgement of his point and squeezed his hand.

"I'm just curious," she retorted with a haughty air. They all turned back to Ginny in anticipation. They were surprised to see her blush get deeper.

"That is between Harry and me because it is rather personal for him. I don't want to reveal all his secrets." She was twisting the sheet on her hospital bed anxiously.

The scene shifted again. He was looking at his room in the Burrow on his eighteenth birthday.

He had decided to take his presents upstairs after his raucous party in an excuse to be alone for a few moments. He desperately wanted to escape the happy atmosphere so he could hide his disappointment. Ginny had not bought him a gift and this hurt him deeply. This hurt was intensified by the budding feelings that he had begun to have for her after the final battle nearly two months ago.

He deposited his gifts on the familiar bed that was under a window that overlooked the party. He gazed out of it morosely. He allowed a brief smile as he watched Ron pull Hermione into a long kiss. It still made him happy to see that his two best friends had admitted their feelings to each other. His smile faded and turned into a frown. He really wanted to be able to have that sort of a relationship with someone. That someone was Ginny. He was hoping she would make the first move somehow but made a silent resolve to do it himself if nothing had happened before she had to leave for Hogwarts for her seventh year. Sighing, he turned around to rejoin the party and almost ran into the very person he had been thinking about.

"What are you doing here?" he asked incredulously. Ginny was biting her lip from nerves and looked into his eyes shyly though she looked slightly hurt by his harsh question.

"Giving you your birthday present," she replied as if it should be obvious. She quickly steeled her resolve and reached up and gave him a kiss. Harry was so shocked at the sensation of her lips on his that his senses exploded. Ginny was pulling away when he came to his senses. He brought a hand up to caress her cheek and placed the other on the small of her back to keep her from running away. He proceeded to snog her senseless and enjoyed every minute of it.

"You remember the conversation we had in the hospital wing after the battle, about the visions I had through you?" she asked him when she had regained coherent thought. He nodded his assent. "It was of you and me and," she looked at him shyly again, "we had a little toddler running around with red hair and you had your hand on my, definitely, pregnant stomach. I want that Harry. I could just see how happy and peaceful we were; it simply radiated from us." He looked at her with unbridled love.

"I want that too. I love you, Ginny." Her eyes welled up with tears. Why did he always have the ability to make girls cry? "I'm sorry, Ginny, I didn't mean to make you cry," he said desperately.

"Do you know how long I've waited for you to say that? I love you, too!" She threw herself at him and kissed him over and over wherever she could reach.

His wonderful dreams were interrupted by the sound of a floorboard creaking and he awoke instantly, Auror reflexes on the ready, keeping his breathing even like he was sleeping. He gave sigh of anticipation and rolled over getting a brief glimpse of a barefooted Ginny. It was time to put his detailed plan into action. He murmured a reminder to get himself a bigger bed and then waited for the fun to begin.

>*<

The only discernable sound was silence. The crooked house was silent. The snow-coated woods were silent. Every person was asleep, except one. A petite redhead stole through the stairways in her house. Her bare feet made no noise on the wooden stairs. She had her eyes glued to the floor trying to avoid all the older boards. She knew that one creak could wake the house. She inwardly cursed her bare feet, they were cold. She had waited a whole week since her last sock raid and her bare feet were the consequence. She stopped outside the second floor landing. It was Harry's room.

'It's funny how I don't think of this room as Percy's anymore,' she thought to herself. Ginny rested her hand on the brass doorknob and turned it gently. She pushed the door inch by inch until she could fit her thin frame through the opening. Once she was inside the room, she took stock of her surroundings and winced, the window of his room was open just a crack but it was enough to make the floor freezing and drafty. Harry was sleeping on his back and mumbling in his sleep, oblivious to the cold. The room had a lived-in quality that it had previously lacked. There were a few of his Auror training shirts scattered about the floor. Other than a few books, the floor was clean. The bookshelves, that had once contained books that told of the regulations for cauldron bottoms, now held albums of Harry's friends and Quidditch books in haphazard order. She had already been up to Ron's room and all possible socks had been scattered about on the floor and it was impossible to tell if he had worn them or not.

Ginny's eyes lit when they rested on his school trunk that he used for all of his socks. She was so intent on getting socks for her cold feet that she took her eyes off the floor.

The wooden floorboard she stepped on groaned in protest at the sudden weight she placed on it. Her body tensed while she silently spoke every curse she knew toward his heightened Auror reflexes.

Ginny didn't dare to move. She didn't dare to breathe. She stared intently at Harry. His breathing hitched and then evened out and he mumbled something about needing "a bigger bed". Ginny let out an inaudible sigh of relief. She cautiously padded forward until she was at the base of his bed. As she knelt down, she smirked at the sleeping boy. Just because he was her boyfriend of one year and the most powerful wizard in the world, having recently defeated Voldemort, didn't mean he could get out of having his socks stolen. With expert fingers, she undid the clasps on his trunk and pulled the lid up slowly. What she saw made her nearly scream in frustration. There was only one pair of socks in the entire trunk. They were old, probably from his first year at Hogwarts, green, and lumpy. They looked even worse in the moonlight that filtered through the old window. It was the very pair she always avoided taking.

She looked up with a start as Harry gave a little moan and rolled over and turned himself around so that his head was buried in his pillow at the foot of his bed. Ginny mentally cursed her luck at this turn of events. With an increased effort to be silent, she gingerly lowered the lid of the trunk and redid the fastenings. She made a quick decision to run for it but was stopped by Harry's mumbling.

"...my sweet Ginny..." He was having a dream about her. Her heart swelled in happiness. "No. Hermione is better..." The happy feeling left her instantly. She sat down on the lid of his trunk, her cold feet momentarily forgotten. "Yes, Hermione is so nice..." Ginny felt tears blur her vision. He really didn't love her like he claimed. The childish insecurities she hadn't felt for months came rushing back after eight words. Angrily, she began to unfold the pair of socks she had in her hand. "Ginny..." she paused, "will you..."she put one of his socks on her left foot. She looked at the other one and noticed a lumpy package she reached her hand inside the sock, curious as to what you would put in a sock for safekeeping. "Ginny, will you..." Her fingertips brushed a velvety box. She pulled the box out of the sock and gasped. She looked up at Harry who had propped himself up and was gazing at her intently with passionate green eyes. He plucked the box out of her limp fingers and tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear.

"Ginny, will you marry me?" Ginny blinked at him stupidly. "I know that you are the person I want to be with. You're smart, funny, you are," he grasped around for the right word, "so full of life. You make me so happy when I am around you and I can't get you out of my head. You were always there for me when I was depressed with Voldemort, invading my mind. You were there in the final battle when I needed the love of my friends. I didn't even realize at the time how deeply my love for you went. You have always been there for me and I want to always be there for you." Ginny had tears streaming down her face. "Gin," he used her nickname that he had given her. She had a random thought that he was completely serious. He only used her nickname when he was serious. "I love you so much it hurts. I want to grow old with you and complain about the weather in rocking chairs as our children and grandchildren play. A mere two weeks ago I didn't think I was going to live to see the future. Now any future I imagine has you right there with me." He was so emotional that his voice broke and he paused a moment to compose himself.

"Ginevra Molly Weasley, would you do me this great honor and marry me?" He reached over and cupped her small face in his large hands. He wiped the tears off her cheeks with his thumbs while his eyes showed his adoration for the woman he had in front of him. He then removed his hands and opened the box. Inside was a gold ring with a sparkling diamond. On the right side of the diamond was an emerald that matched the intense color of his eyes. On the left was a ruby that shimmered like her hair, which he constantly commented on its beauty. Ginny looked from the ring up into his eyes and nearly started crying at the love she saw there. She knew that it was reflected in her eyes. Suddenly realizing that her failure to answer was making him nervous, she threw herself at him. She kissed every spot on his face she could reach while he smiled at her energetic actions.

"Of course I'll marry you." She gave him a long kiss as her lips met his. He broke the kiss to slide the ring on her finger and she admired it.

"I do admit, that ring looks much better on your finger than it does in that box," he said in a throaty voice.

"I agree." She suddenly remembered her cold feet, which were nearly numb from the cold. "Harry, where did your socks go? My feet are so cold." Harry chuckled.

"Well I placed a spell that when you stepped on a certain combination of boards, all my socks, except that pair," he indicated the sock she still held in her hand, "would be banished to your room so you wouldn't miss the ring." She grinned evilly.

"So now I have all your socks?" The smile left his face as he realized his mistake.

"Err- yeah."

"Well, I hope you like going barefoot." She stuck her tongue out at him and got up off of his bed, no longer caring if she woke the entire house.

"I think we should go downstairs and get something to celebrate," he said firmly. He got up and guided her down the stairs to the kitchen and flicked his wand so a roaring fire illuminated the kitchen. The kitchen contained all of her family except Percy and her brother's various spouses. Her mom was at the front of the group. Mrs. Weasley took one look at her only daughter's beaming face and burst into tears. She rushed forward to hug them both with an intensity that far surpassed her normal hugs. Both Harry and Ginny were passed around and received hugs or handshakes from the whole clan. Finally, Harry came to a stop before Ron. Ron eyed him critically before breaking into a large grin.

"Welcome to the family mate."