From Across the Great Divide, Chapter 9

[tartanboxers]

Rated: R

Summary: A post-Hogwarts H/G fic. Strange circumstances draw Harry and Ginny closer together. But are they in danger? Romance, adventure, Monty Python, and tartan boxer shorts abound.


Ginny stared at the contents of her wardrobe and sighed. It was Saturday afternoon, a full week since Ron and Hermione’s wedding. An hour earlier, she had received an owl from the twins which asked her to come down to the joke shop later in the day. Harry, upon reading the note, had said he’d come along, and then, she had watched as a slow smile spread over his features. She had practically been able to see the wheels turning in his head. He’d obviously had some sort of plan in mind, but he hadn’t told her what exactly it was. He’d only said she should dress up Muggle-style. Then he’d gone out.

Ginny had no idea why she should dress up to go see her brothers. She was also sure her wardrobe contained nothing appropriate. She’d have to transfigure something. Taking out her nicest dress robes, she concentrated on a mental image of a simple cocktail dress she’d once seen in a Muggle fashion magazine, pointed her wand, and cast the spell. She considered the sleeveless forest green velvet frock she’d produced, and hoped it would be all right. She then transfigured a pair of shoes to match, and proceeded to put up her hair.

She was adding some finishing touches to her subtle make-up, when she heard Harry return. Going into the living room, she saw him set down a bulky package and put a long, white box on the coffee table. He looked up at her and opened his mouth to say something, but the words never came. Instead, he paused and gaped for a minute. Finally, he found his voice. "Wow, Ginny, you look wonderful!"

Ginny felt a blush creep over her cheeks. Harry cleared his throat. "Well," he said. "I need to get ready myself then."

"Get ready for what, Harry?"

Harry smiled enigmatically. "You’ll find out soon enough."

As he disappeared into the bathroom, she noticed he had a small garment bag slung over his shoulder. He must have gone to his flat to retrieve some more clothes, along with whatever else he’d brought back with him. She sat down on the sofa to wait. Soon, she heard the noise of water running and knew he was in the shower. In vain, she tried to block the mental images that insisted on passing through her mind. In an effort to think of something a bit less disconcerting, she wondered what could be in the oddly shaped package he’d set on the floor. Should she have a look? Would it have anything to do with whatever he was planning? She was just giving in to the impulse to snoop, her hand reaching for the package, when she heard the bathroom door open. She immediately snatched her hand back and assumed what she hoped was an innocent expression. Harry emerged from the bathroom dressed in a charcoal grey suit and an emerald green silk tie. It was Ginny’s turn to gape. "Harry," she tried again after a moment, "why do we need to dress up to go see my brothers?"

Harry grinned. "It’s a surprise. Now stop asking. You’ll know by the time the day is over, I promise. By the way, that box is for you." He was pointing at the white box on the coffee table. Ginny reached over and tugged on the ribbon which was tied around it. She removed the cover and gasped. There, wrapped in green tissue paper, were a dozen long-stemmed red roses. "I had to buy them," Harry said. "I didn’t want to take them from your garden."

Ginny was speechless. No one had ever given her flowers before. She stood and walked over to Harry, looped her arms around his neck, and kissed him. "Thank you," she whispered. She held his gaze, saw his eyes burning into hers, felt him place his hands at her waist. She thought she could smell a subtle scent of after-shave. She leaned in for another kiss, but he only brushed her lips quickly with his own. She tried not to look disappointed when he released her, saying, "Come on. We’re due at the joke shop."

"We’ll leave in a minute. I want to put these in water first." Ginny got out a vase, filled it with warm water, and carefully trimmed each stem before arranging the flowers attractively. Placing them on an end table, she said, "Now we can go."

They Apparated to Diagon Alley, arriving in front of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Entering the shop, they were surprised to see both Fred and George there. It was a rare occurrence to find them both in their shop at the same time. If the twins were startled by Harry’s and Ginny’s apparel, they did not show it. Instead, both of them grinned in a positively evil manner, a grin Ginny recognised from her childhood as indicating a certain amount of teasing was imminent.

"Well now, what have we here?" asked Fred, walking over to Harry and Ginny.

"Seems to me we just invited Ginny, eh Fred?" put in George, as he come over in his turn, looking her up and down.

"Yes," said Fred, "and here she is, looking absolutely ravishing, I might add."

"Looks like she’s getting plenty of that," said George.

Ginny cut him off, a blush rising in her face. "All right, just get to the point. What did you want to see me for?"

"We don’t want to get to the point just yet," answered Fred.

"Nah," added George, "too boring. So where are you and Harry off to? Hot date?" Here George nudged his brother with his elbow and waggled his eyebrows.

"It’s none of your business," replied Ginny a bit peevishly.

"Don’t you mean to say none of our affair?" asked Fred cocking an eyebrow and placing particular emphasis on the word "affair".

Ginny felt her face flame even more at this. She inwardly cursed her redhead’s complexion that could so easily give her emotions away. She knew the blush could easily be misinterpreted, and that her brothers would not hesitate to cast things in the worst light, if it suited their sense of humour. She also knew she shouldn’t be taking the twins’ bait, that she was reacting just the way they wanted her to, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. And why wasn’t Harry saying anything? she wondered suddenly. She glanced over and saw him suppressing a grin. She opened her mouth to protest, but George cut her off.

"All right, Gin, the reason we asked you to come down here is we have a, well, proposition for you."

"So you may just be getting two today…"

"Fred!" Ginny cut him off before he could add anything more embarrassing. "God! You’re as bad as Mum at jumping to the wrong conclusions."

"I’ve come to the conclusion our little sister has taken a new interest in sport," said George.

"Yes, I’d say she must be quite fond of Quidditch now," said Fred.

"So has Harry taken you for a ride on his Firebolt yet, Gin?" sniggered George.

Ginny knew her face was as red as her hair by now. Just then, a bell tinkled, as a customer entered the shop. Harry obviously saw less humour in the situation at that point, because he asked, "Do you think we could find somewhere a little less public to discuss this?"

"Haven’t you been spending enough time somewhere less public?"

In spite of this parting shot from Fred, the twins must have agreed, since George immediately took Ginny and Harry into the office at the back of the shop, leaving Fred to see to the customer. Ginny wondered if they’d spoken with Molly since yesterday; she knew it was highly unlikely they’d been reading Witch Weekly.

Once everyone was seated in the office, George began again on a more serious note. "Here’s the thing, Ginny. Mrs. Teal owled us today and said she wasn’t coming in any more. Said she was quitting. Wouldn’t give a reason. So we find ourselves short-handed here at the shop. We were wondering if you’d be able to give us a hand here, since you’re out of a job at the moment."

"Me?" asked Ginny incredulously. "Work here? Why would I want to do that?"

"Look, Gin," said George. "In a way, it’s our fault you got suspended from the Ministry…"

"You’ve got that part right," Ginny interrupted him, a certain amount of bitterness creeping into her tone.

"We’re both sorry about that . We had to let you take the fall. That part paid off, actually. So anyway, we thought we could make it up to you by offering you…"

"No, thank you!" Ginny cut in. "I don’t need charity."

"It wouldn’t be charity," replied George. "We’ll pay you a decent wage, but you’ll have to work for it. And it would only be temporary. If you find something better, we’ll let you go, no questions asked."

"I’ll think about it." Ginny’s first instinct was to turn the offer down, but the problem of her rent raised itself in her mind. Even if Harry did pay half, she still had to come up with her share. And certainly her brothers would treat her better than Mafalda Hopkirk had, even if they were prone to teasing. The hours would be better, as well, she thought. There was no need to man the joke shop on a twenty-four hour basis.

Ginny was brought out of these musings when she heard Harry speak. "George, what exactly did you mean about letting Ginny take the fall paying off?"

"It means we have a good idea who took the files and Confunded the Dark Magic Detectors."

"Are you allowed to say who? Or is that classified?"

"Sorry, it’s classified."

"Could you possibly make an exception and tell us? Because there have been more strange things going on." And he proceeded to tell George about the Dark Mark and the Witch Weekly photo. "And Ginny pointed out the missing photo credit to me," he concluded, "and said it meant someone was watching her place. I have to agree with her on that. I checked around the house and never saw anyone, but I don’t suppose that means anything."

George let out a low whistle. "No, it doesn’t… I can give you some information but on two conditions. One, it goes no further, and two, you and Ginny don’t do any sort of investigating on your own. Let us handle it. Agreed?"

Harry agreed a bit grudgingly, Ginny thought. "Look," she said, "just tell us, and we’ll do whatever you want."

"When the files turned up missing so quickly after you discovered them, Fred and I had to conclude it was an inside job," began George.

"Yes," said Ginny, "you’ve already told me that."

"From what you told me the other night," continued George, "your boss discovered the files lying out on your desk rather quickly. And she put them away. It was only after that they turned up missing."

"Yes, that’s right," agreed Ginny.

"Don’t you think it’s odd she’d notice those particular files so quickly? I mean, how many files are there in that office? Hundreds? Thousands? All of them pretty much alike and really rather boring?"

"Yes, that’s all true. Are you saying Ms. Hopkirk was somehow involved in those files going missing?"

"Got it in one," said George. "We were almost certain she did it. We brought her into our office and questioned her. Couldn’t get much out of her at all. However, we do have more than one way of finding things out… Before you ask, it’s classified. But it seems Ms. Hopkirk has been acting under the Imperius Curse for some time now."

"What?" exclaimed Ginny.

"As I said, we have ways of finding these things out," said George. "She’s been Confunding the Dark Detectors in the Improper Use of Magic Office so that certain dark activity has been passing unnoticed. But somehow you stumbled onto Vincent Crabbe and Millicent Bulstrode and sent them owls before Ms. Hopkirk was able to stop you."

"I don’t even remember what they did to get an owl. But it couldn’t have been very much. Dark Magic would have had to have been reported to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, at the very least. Likely your department would have been notified as well."

"In any case, you’ve obviously stumbled onto something you weren’t supposed to."

"And that’s why all these things are happening to me? You’d think they’d at least tell me what business I’m supposed to keep my nose out of. Believe me, I’d gladly do it. But all they’ve succeeded in doing is scaring me."

"We have no idea what their motives might be right now," said George. "But you do need to be careful. There has been an increase in dark activity in Europe, and now we know it’s happening here as well. They’ve just been able to cover it up until now."

No one spoke for a moment, although they were all well aware that not all the Death Eaters had been caught after Voldemort’s defeat. A handful of them had been able to Disapparate before they were apprehended, and they remained unaccounted for. It seemed obvious to everyone who was likely to be responsible for the increasing dark activity.

"One other piece of information I can give you," said George, breaking the silence. "There’s been a rumour that some of Voldemort’s old supporters have been seen in England recently. It’s just a rumour for now, there’s been no hard confirmation."

"Do you think," said Harry, who up until now had been merely listening, taking it all in, "that Death Eaters could be behind all this?"

"I can’t answer that," said George. "We don’t even know for sure if there are Death Eaters in England at the moment. I can only say it’s a strong possibility. If it is them, we’ll catch them. They have a lot to answer for."

"So, Gin," George continued after a moment, the teasing grin coming back to his face, "when you told Fred you’d taken some security measures, you didn’t say what they were…"

"George, I’m sure you know very well that Harry’s staying at my place. And you also know the reason why, so please keep your comments to yourself."

"You know, Gin, Mum’s quite upset…"

Ginny sighed. So her mum had been talking… "I know she’s upset, but what can I do? She’d be just as upset, if she knew the real reason behind all this. Listen, could you do me a favour and say something to Dad?"

"Shouldn’t you be doing that?" asked George.

"How can I do that and avoid Mum? If I go to the Burrow, we’ll just get into another row and accomplish nothing. And I can’t go to the Ministry, since I’ve been suspended. Just say as much as you need to, to explain the situation without worrying him needlessly."

"I suppose we could do that, then. Now you think about the job offer…"

"I’ve thought about it. I’m willing to give it a go."

"Good then. You start bright and early on Monday. Be here at half past eight."

As Harry and Ginny rose to go, Harry said, "Is there a back way out of here? I’d rather not be seen if I can avoid it with everything that’s been happening." Ginny had a feeling he didn’t want to be the object of any more gossip. George showed them to the back door, saying they could Disapparate from the alley behind the shop.

Once they were back outside, Ginny looked up at Harry questioningly. He would need to give her an idea of where they were going now. But Harry only said, "We’ll Apparate to the courtyard of the Leaky Cauldron. We can walk from there."

They hurried through the Leaky Cauldron with a quick nod to Tom. Once they’d reached the street, Harry offered Ginny his arm, which she took to avoid them being swept apart by the crowds on the pavement. They began to walk along Charing Cross Road, heading in the same direction as they had the day they’d gone to Oxford Street.

"I know it’s a bit early," Harry said after they’d walked a while in silence, "but what do you say to dinner before, well, you’ll see…"

"Harry, when are you going to tell me where you’re taking me?"

Harry grinned down at her. "After dinner."

Ginny sighed. "Well, let’s go eat then, so I can find out your secret."

It was only around six, and many of the restaurants they passed were just opening for the evening. They’d reached the theatre district, another part of London Ginny had never seen. Arriving in Frith Street, they entered a bar, nearly empty at this early hour, and headed to the restaurant upstairs. They were shown a table, and the waiter, when he arrived, flirted outrageously with Ginny, complementing her in a false French accent, and making her blush. They were enjoying their meal of fresh fish prepared Provençal-style and sipping glasses of dry white wine, when Harry said, "From the sound of things, your mother has mentioned our arrangement to the rest of your family. Am I going to have to worry about your brothers descending on me to defend your virtue?"

Ginny put down her fork and laughed. "Well, you don’t have to worry about Ron for another week." She began counting on her fingers. "The twins know what’s going on, and we’ve just seen their worst. With any luck, they’ll fill Ron in before Mum does. The worst Percy will do is give you a lecture on responsibility. Bill’s back in Egypt. I think if there’s anyone you need to worry about, it’s Charlie."

"Charlie?"

"Yeah, Charlie. He actually lives nearby me and knows a lot about quite a few nasty beasties."

Harry had just enough time to realise she was teasing him and to start to laugh, when another couple was seated near them. Soon, they couldn’t help overhearing the conversation between them and their waiter, a conversation which revolved around a dirty fork, and which resulted in the head-waiter and the restaurant’s owner being notified, and the entire washing up staff being sacked. It struck Ginny as absurdly funny when even the chef came out of the kitchen and got involved. After this episode, they decided to forego dessert, so Harry paid the bill and they went back out to the street.

Now, Ginny thought, now he’s going to tell me where we’re going. But he didn’t say anything immediately, he just offered his arm again, which she took. And they walked again until they came to Shaftesbury Avenue and the Palace Theatre. Then, Harry turned to her, and asked, "Have you ever been to the theatre before?"

"No, I haven’t."

"I’ve got us tickets for Les Miserables. I’ve never seen it, but it’s supposed to be very good. It’s been running for ages now."

Ginny smiled at him. "Let’s go then. I’m always curious to see what Muggles do for entertainment."

What Muggles did for entertainment, Ginny decided, once she was seated and the musical had begun, was quite impressive. She would never have imagined the sort of effects that could be carried off without magic. In fact, she was sure that there must have been some magic involved somewhere. On top of that, the music was breathtaking and the story very moving. She felt tears spring to her eyes after a stunning solo sung by Eponine. She could understand just how Eponine felt. Turning to Harry in the darkened theatre, she saw he was looking back at her, his expression indicating he was just as moved by the performance. She gasped as he reached over to her and wiped an escaped tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

At the end of the performance, both remained in their places, waiting for the crowd to thin. Neither said a word until they were out in the street again. The evening was now well advanced, although Ginny had not been aware of time passing, as wrapped up as she had been in the musical.

"Thank you, Harry, for that. That was absolutely beautiful." Ginny said, once they’d begun walking away from the theatre.

"Yes, it was." Harry replied. "Who could have imagined Muggles being capable of such magic?"

"I’m sure there was magic there somewhere." Ginny said. "There just had to be."

Harry took her hand and led her onto a darkened side street. "Come on," he said.

"Where are we going now?"

"Back to the park we went to the other day. I think we can Disapparate from here all right. Do you remember where it is?"

Ginny smiled at the memory. "Oh, yes, I remember."

They appeared under the tree beneath which they’d shared a picnic and found the park deserted. The evening had grown chilly, and Ginny shivered a bit in her sleeveless dress. Harry must have noticed because he took off his jacket and handed it to her. She draped the expensive fabric over her shoulders gratefully. She looked up at Harry, who was standing very near to her now. "You know," she said, "Marius reminded me a lot of you."

Harry chuckled, looking at her rather sceptically. "Marius? But you’re nothing like Cosette." He ran the back of his hand over her cheek. "You’re much more like Eponine."

"What?"

"Well, she was very noble, wasn’t she?"

It was Ginny’s turn to laugh. "She may have been noble, but she also died. Besides, I’ve never loved anyone in vain…"

She trailed off as Harry’s gaze became very intense. He caressed her cheek again, whispering, "I hope you never do love in vain."

Ginny’s breath caught. She had no time to answer him, because she suddenly found herself being kissed passionately. She lost herself in the sensation, and an indeterminate time later, when conscious thought returned, she found herself pinned tightly against the tree. Both of them had to pause and catch their breath.

Much later that night, Ginny lay in her bed unable to sleep. She and Harry had stayed in the park a while longer, but when the time finally came to return home, he’d kissed her chastely good night at her bedroom door. She wasn’t too sure what to make of his actions. In the park, he’d kissed her with abandon, but here at home, he seemed to be holding something back. She was slightly annoyed with herself for this train of thought. She’d just spent the nicest evening out she’d ever experienced. Why should she spoil it for herself worrying about her feelings and Harry’s?

But one part of her brain insisted on wondering what would happen if she went into the living room and slipped into bed with him. The thought was becoming very tempting; he was lying out there only a few feet away. With any luck he wouldn’t be asleep yet, either… She shook herself. This train of thought was doing her no good. It certainly wasn’t helping her get to sleep. She pounded a fist into her pillow and rolled over. By rights she should be tired, but she had a sinking feeling it was going to be a long night.

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