I Saw My Lady Weep

Chapter 20: Missing What's Gone...

"So... what sort of things are you looking for?" Ginny gave Harry's hand a squeeze. Holding hands, the couple rounded a corner onto the main street in Hogsmeade. They'd Apparated into one of the village's side alleys, to avoid any Muggles seeing them appear out of thin air.

"I really have no idea. I've never bought furniture before. Never needed to, have I?" Harry shrugged. "I've never owned a house of my own before."

"And now you have five. I suppose you'll be buying a lot of furniture." She smiled at him again. They were doing that a lot as they walked... every other second was spent looking at each other. It was almost as if the volume had been turned up on their relationship.

"Not really. The house in Douglas... That's the one the Dursleys are at, yeah? That one's already furnished. And I don't even count Malfoy's house." Harry's face suddenly became dour. "I don't like what happened to them, to tell you the truth."

Ginny lost all humor. "I don't know why you're being so sympathetic. If you ask me, they deserve everything that's happening. Lucius and Draco in prison, Narcissa a pauper... couldn't happen to a better set of folks." She let go of Harry's hand and crossed her arms across her abdomen, in classic "Ginny-defense" pose. It told Harry just how upset she actually was... not to the point of screaming or hexing him, but definitely not ready to start a snogging session.

"Ginny..." Harry sighed and stopped walking. "If it weren't for Narcissa, I'd likely not be here. I owe her a life-debt. And Draco... I admit I hate him. He's always been an arrogant, bigoted, wart on the arse of the Wizarding world, but he's not his father. I don't think it was ever in Draco to really be a Death Eater, and I think he only joined out of fear. It was either that or be killed... or worse watch his parents be killed because of him." He rubbed his forehead absently. "Look, can we discuss this later? I'm sorry I brought it up."

He held his hand out to her, a neutral expression on his face. After a long moment, she took it and they continued walking. The silence grew thicker and thicker as they went. Absently, Harry began randomly looking into the shops they were passing. Half of them he'd never been to. While he was at Hogwarts, if it wasn't one of the inns, or Honeydukes, or Zonko's, the other buildings might as well have not existed to Harry. They were still walking quietly when the boy ran up to them out of nowhere. He was small, perhaps only ten or eleven years old, and seemed to have the nervous energy and boundless enthusiasm of all children that age.

"'scuse me... but are you Harry Potter?" The boy was nearly bouncing up and down in excitement. The entire thing caused Harry to smile, and a quick look at Ginny revealed that she was having a hard time keeping her face straight.

"Er... Yes, I'm Harry Potter. What's your name?" Harry knelt to bring himself to the child's eye level.

The boy's face lit up. He twisted around to yell at a pair of adults who were hurrying up behind him, embarrassed looks on their faces. "Mum! Da! It's him! It's really him!" He spun back around to face Harry so quickly that for a moment Harry thought the child might actually hurt himself. "I'm Ernie Stebbins! That's me Mum and Da! Would you sign this? Please?" A pentagonal card was abruptly thrust at Harry, who took it in surprise.

"What is it, Harry? Oh my, look at that... It seems you're famous, Mister Potter." Ginny was obviously suppressing a case of the giggles.

Harry stood, and once again rubbed his forehead. In his hands was a Chocolate Frog card bearing his own name and likeness.

HARRY JAMES POTTER

Order of Merlin, First Class

"The Boy Who Lived"

Considered by most to be the Savior of the Wizarding World, Harry Potter is best known for twice defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, once when he was an infant, the second and final time as an adult. Mister Potter is an avid Quidditch player, and was the youngest player on the Gryffindor House team in a century.

"I don't remember posing for this picture..." Harry said, blankly. He felt as if the ground had been pulled out from under him.

Ginny took pity on him. "He'd be glad to sign it for you, Ernie. Do you or one of your parents have a quill?" Ginny said, enjoying Harry's confusion. The boy looked to his dad. Ernie's father, who, along with the child's mother, was now smiling at Harry and Ginny, nodded and reached into his jacket.

"Thanks, Harry Potter!" The boy was all but bouncing in place as Harry signed the card. "Wow... fink of it! Meeting Harry Potter! None of my friends are goin' to believe it!"

"Well..." Harry began, finally finding his footing, "... none of my friends are going to believe I met the famous Ernie Stebbins!" He knelt again and handed the boy his card. "So, are you going to Hogwarts yet?"

"I was supposed to start last year..." Ernie was busily studying the card. "... But my Da took us to Spain instead and I didn't go to school at all. I fink my Mum was sick, because Da said sumfink about the climate in England wadn't good for her."

Harry looked over at the boy's head toward his mother and father. He met her eyes and nodded, understanding completely. "Well, I'm glad she could come back now that it's better for her here."

"Yeah, me too! Now I can go to Hogwarts like my friend Drew!" Ernie tucked the card into his pocket. "He's going to be a year ahead of me, because he got to go to school last year, but that's okay. He's a Huffiepuff, like my Da, but I fink I want to be a Gryffiedor, like you, Harry Potter."

Behind him, Ernie's dad began to look distinctly uncomfortable. "Ernie, we should let Mister Potter and his friend go on with their business." The man put a hand on his son's shoulder.

Harry smiled and ruffled the boy's hair. "Being a Hufflepuff wouldn't be so bad. Some of the best people I've ever known were in Hufflepuff, in fact. I'm sure whichever house you end up in will be glad to have you." Harry held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, Mister Stebbins. Mrs. Stebbins."

"Oh, the pleasure is all ours, I'm sure." Stebbins's handshake was a bit more enthusiastic than the situation warranted. "I can't tell you how thankful... My wife, you see, she's a... Well... That's all over now, I suppose. Don't have to worry about such things, all because of you."

Inside, Harry was cringing, but he kept it off his face. "No, it's my honor. I only did what anyone would have done."

Ernie's mother looked at Ginny while she briefly took Harry's hand. "Is this... um... is this the young lady I read about recently? The one you... um... I read an article in Witch Weekly that said..." She was obviously embarrassed to be asking, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Harry nodded. "Yes, this is my fiancé, Ginny."

Ginny smiled. "Very nice to meet you."

"Well... I'm sure you're very busy, so we'll leave you alone. Thanks for..." Stebbins waved toward his son. "We just bought him the Chocolate Frog at Honeydukes just now, and when he saw you, he... well..."

"I understand, and it's no worry. Have a good day!" With that, Harry took Ginny's hand. With a wave to Ernie Stebbins, they continued down the street.

"I suppose I'm going to have to get used to being the wife of a celebrity," Ginny said with a grin.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Being a celebrity has never been something I've been overly fond of."

"And yet you handled it perfectly," Ginny pointed out. "I'm sure it's not the first time you've been asked for an autograph."

"No... the first time would have been second year. Colin Creevey took that picture and asked me to sign it." Harry sobered a moment at the thought of Colin. "In hindsight, maybe I should have just signed the bloody thing for him."

Ginny looked thoughtful. For a long time she was simply quiet. "Harry..." She fell silent again, as if dreading what she was about to say.

"Yes, Gin?"

"Why... Oh, Merlin, I shouldn't be asking this." Ginny bit her lip. "Why do you want to marry me? I mean... you're the Boy-Who-Lived. You could quite easily have your pick of any witch in Britain and you bloody well know it!" She wagged her finger at him as the grin spread across his face. "I don't come from a wealthy family; I might be pretty but I know I'm not beautiful; I'm not all that feminine when it comes down to it; I'm covered in freckles everywhere..."

"This is true... I have first-hand knowledge of that," Harry interrupted. He was finding this amusing, and it was obviously beginning to annoy her.

"Shut it, you! I'm serious!" Ginny sighed dramatically. "I've got a horrible temper; I have no idea at all what I want to do with my future... You could do so much better than me. Hell, you have done better..."

Harry stopped laughing, finally realizing that this was actually worrying Ginny. "Well, let's see..." he said as nonchalantly as possible. "You're kind; you go out of your way to protect and care for those you love; you're amazingly talented; you're clever; and whoever told you that you weren't beautiful lied to you. I know that I could have my pick of any girl I wanted, for the most part. What does it tell you about yourself that I chose you?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

She stared at him for a long moment, and then leaned in to kiss him. "It tells me you're a nutter."

"Absolutely correct!" Harry laughed. "Oh, hold on... let's step in here real quick..." He dragged her through the door of Honeydukes. "I'm a bit peckish and haven't had any sweets in too long for me to remember. Thought I might pick up a couple of Chocolate Frogs... I hear Harry Potter has a card now, and I need him for my collection!"

XxxxxxX

"So... when do you want to get married?" Ginny's question, coming out of the blue as it did, caught him by surprise. He nearly choked on his candy. They'd emerged from Honeydukes noshing; he was popping Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans into his mouth, one at a time, while she made short work of a square of peanut-butter fudge.

"What?"

"When do you want to get married, Harry? We really should be thinking of dates, seeing as we're engaged." Ginny took another bite of her fudge. "It's a bit of a tradition, actually, that when a couple gets engaged they decide on a date by which they'll stop being engaged and actually becomes a married couple."

"I... er... haven't really thought about it, yet." Harry carefully examined his last Every-Flavor Bean, holding it between his thumb and fore-finger. It was an odd, off-yellow color. In his experience, off-colors usually spelt bad news. Pure white, like the white of snow, for example, was usually coconut or whipped cream, or milk... something tasty, in other words... while egg-shell white was almost always something like spoiled milk. Pure, bright yellow might be banana, or lemon... an off-yellow... If I'm lucky, it's some unusual fruit flavor, or maybe some kind of cheese. "Why? When do you want to get married?" If I'm not lucky... it will turn out to be something like urine.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "How about tomorrow?"

Ugh! Squash! Harry controlled the urge to spit the bean out and stopped stock still. "Tomorrow? Molly would kill me!"

"Well, maybe not tomorrow, then. But the sooner the better," Ginny said. "Give it some thought, please? Some serious thought? This is important to me."

"Ginny," Harry began. He discarded several different thoughts before continuing. "I promised Arthur that we'd wait until you were out of school, at the very least, remember?"

"I remember, Harry. You made that promise without asking me what I thought or what I wanted," Ginny said.

"Come on, Ginny... you don't really want to be the only married student at Hogwarts, do you?"

"No, but..." Ginny sighed. "... Maybe I don't want to go back to Hogwarts. No one asked me... they just assumed I was going to go. Everyone just assumed, even you."

Harry was dumb-struck. "Well, of course you're going back. We all are!"

"Are we?" she asked. "Are we really? I don't know if you've talked to Ron, but every time the subject is broached, he gets very, very quiet and avoids answering any questions. I don't think he wants to go back to school, Harry, and I don't think I want to, either."

"But... you have to go back to school, Ginny," Harry said, finally.

"Why?"

"Because you... um... well... N.E.W.T.s. You have to get your N.E.W.T.s, right? You need them to get a good job." The idea of Ginny not being at Hogwarts when he returned to finally complete his seventh year -- a year in which they both would be seventh years - disturbed Harry greatly.

He stopped walking and turned to her. Ginny looked to be on the verge of tears and he hadn't noticed in his surprise. He pulled her into his embrace. "Ginny, it's okay. Just... tell me why you don't want to go back."

"I just... can't, Harry. I can't. I can't go back and study and pretend that everything didn't happen. What am I supposed to do? Walk down a corridor and somehow not think 'Oh, this is the place where a Blasting spell hit Colin Creevey, knocking him through a hole in the wall where he fell five floors to his death', or 'Oh, this is the exact spot where the wall exploded, killing..." she trailed off.

She was quiet for a long moment before she spoke again. "I just can't go back there."

Harry could feel her tremble. He stroked her hair, gently. "Shhh shhh shhh... It's okay. It's okay. You don't have to go back if you don't want to. You're old enough to make up your own mind about things, and if this is what you've decided, I'll... I'll not go myself. You were really the only reason I ever considered it in the first place."

She pulled back and wiped at her eyes. "Mum's going to kill us both."

"I know. I'll be there with you when you tell them." He kissed her. "It'll work out."

"How?" she asked.

"I have no idea, but I have faith that it will." He smiled at her. "So... are you okay? Should we call off the trip? Because we seem to be here." Harry waved behind her, toward the sign that read "Ragsdale's Fine Furnishings."

"Sure... let's go in. I'll be fine." Ginny gave him a weak but genuine smile. He smiled back and held the door open for her. From inside the shop came the slightly musty odor of wood varnish. Inside the shop were seemingly endless numbers of tables, chairs, dressers, sideboards, chests, wardrobes, cabinets, and beds. This was certainly the place to go.

A sales clerk appeared from behind a full-length mirror. "Welcome to Ragsdale's! Come in, come in! My name is William! I assure you, if you're looking for furniture, we have what you Holy bloody Hell you're Harry Potter!"

Ginny turned to Harry and smirked. Harry brought his hand up and rubbed his eyes.

XxxxxxX

"...And he comes up to us with a big, smarmy smile and goes into this speech that I am sure was rehearsed in front of a mirror several times when he suddenly blurts out, 'Holy bloody Hell, you're Harry Potter'!" Ginny laughed. "You should have seen him...The moment he recognized Harry we couldn't get rid of him. He offered us butterbeer, and biscuits, and was so ridiculous..."

Harry was glad Ginny found it so amusing. He looked around the Weasleys' dining table, looking for someone who could soothe his embarrassment, but unfortunately it was not to be. Arthur looked as if he was going to explode from suppressed laughter. Molly was covering her mouth with a dish-towel and looked to be on the verge of crying. Ron was howling, not bothering to hide it at all, and Hermione, like Ginny, had a bad case of the giggles.

Harry took a sip of his pumpkin juice and dug back into his dinner. He tried to keep up the demeanor of scandalization, but couldn't keep it up. Eventually, he too broke down into laughter.

"The worst bit..." Harry added, "... was when he had me sign a blank receipt, just in case he lost the original. If he wanted an autograph, he should have just asked." He chuckled at the thought. "As it was, though, I think I got a nice discount on the furniture."

"Do tell them about Ernie, Harry," Ginny prompted.

"Oh? Was Macmillan in Hogsmeade, Harry?" Ron asked.

"No, no... We were walking through Hogsmeade, looking for the furniture shop, when this boy ran up to us. His name was Ernie, and he wanted me to sign his Chocolate Frog card," Harry said, hurriedly. "He seemed like a nice enough kid. His parents were okay, I suppose."

"He wanted you to sign a Chocolate Frog card? Whatever for?" Hermione was puzzled.

"No, not sign a Chocolate Frog card. Sign his Chocolate Frog card." Ginny nodded toward Harry. Every eye at the table turned toward him, and he blushed to his toes.

"Harry..." Arthur began, "... do you mean to say that they put you on a Chocolate Frog card?" The Weasley patriarch smiled as wide as he could. "That is simply brilliant! Absolutely marvelous!"

"That's very nice, Harry," Molly chimed in.

"Well, one more thing, I suppose." Even while happy for his best friend, Ron looked a bit disgruntled.

Ginny stood from the table and walked into the parlor. She was back quickly. As she sat back down next to Harry, she slid a Chocolate Frog card across the table to Ron. "We stopped off at Honeydukes and picked up a couple of things." She slid a similar card over to Hermione.

Ron picked it up the card, and his jaw fell so far in surprise it nearly hit the table. The card read:

RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY

Order of Merlin, First Class

Ronald Weasley, Best Friend and Constant Companion to Harry Potter, was one of the central figures in the war against He Who Must Not Be Named, and was one of the leaders among student forces at the Battle of Hogwarts. Mister Weasley is noted for having been a Keeper on the Gryffindor House Team, and is recognized for his skill with a chessboard.

Hermione, reading her own card, laughed. "Now I know what Professor Dumbledore meant when he said that everything was fine as long as they didn't take him from his Chocolate Frog card."

"It is a bit like Christmas, yeah?" Ron said.