FIC: "Enough Nerve" by plaid_slytherin
To: ladychi
Title: Enough Nerve
Author/Artist: plaid_slytherin
Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, other Weasleys, Kingsley, Dudley
Rating: Older Teen
Word Count: ~7,840
Summary: After her seventh year, Ginny isn't sure what she wants to do. Spending some time working with Harry helps her decide.
Author/Artist's Notes: I am so excited to be participating in this exchange and I was equally excited to be writing for you, ladychi. I hope you like what I've come up with. I tried to include your prompt about the morality of curses, with some intrigue/mystery to go with it. As a note, it's slightly AU. Thanks go to aggiebell90 for betaing.
On the last day of Ginny Weasley's seventh year at Hogwarts, it rained. Ginny sat in the compartment she was sharing with Luna and Hermione, watching the drenched landscape blur by as the Hogwarts Express steamed toward London.
The past year had seemed like an eternity. Ginny had resisted coming back to school, leaving Harry and her family alone. Of course, they weren't really alone; they had each other, but after the last year, Ginny didn't want to be far away from the people she loved ever again.
Now that it was over, though, she wasn't sure she was glad to be leaving. She was happy to be done with school, but there was an uncertainty in the back of her mind-she wasn't sure what she wanted to do, and it seemed that everyone else did.
"Oh, I still wish Harry and Ron had come back for their seventh year," Hermione said, breaking the long silence.
"They never would have agreed, Hermione. Not when there were still Death Eaters out there."
"I know." Hermione still looked sad. "I just would have liked for them to have one more year here, to leave with us, a normal year."
Ginny smirked. "Oh, I know why you wished Ron was around."
Hermione looked scandalized. "Ginny! You know full well that's not it." Then, she added, "I could have said the same for you about Harry."
Ginny grinned. "At least I'm open about it."
"They wouldn't have enjoyed it much anyway," Luna said calmly. "It was rather quiet. Hunting dark wizards in France must be much more interesting." She paused. "I suppose I'll see myself in a few weeks."
Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh, Luna! Were you accepted?"
Luna beamed. "I got an owl from Mr. Scamander yesterday."
Hermione clapped her hands and squealed in delight. "I can't believe you'll be working with Newt Scamander. This is such an exciting opportunity. He's so brilliant. I wish I were going; I'd love to work with him."
Ginny laughed. "Hermione, you've got, what, ten things to choose from?"
"It's only five," Hermione said. "Don't exaggerate." She paused. "I don't know how I'll ever choose, though. I have an interview with the Department of Magical Transportation on Monday morning, and then another one with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures on Monday afternoon. But oh, that will all depend on NEWT results, so if I don't-"
"Hermione," Ginny said calmly. "You're going to get more than enough NEWTs to be qualified for all those positions.
"I hope so." Hermione wound a lock of hair around her finger nervously.
"What about you, Ginny?" Luna asked. "Have you heard back from Gwenog Jones yet?"
Ginny shook her head. A scout from the Harpies had come to a couple of matches, but she hadn't heard anything back from the team.
"I hope you hear something soon," Hermione said. "You're so good; the team would be lucky to have you."
Ginny thanked her friends for their reassurances, but they did little to assuage the nervous feeling in her stomach. What if she wasn't good enough? All she had ever wanted to do was play professional Quidditch. She had stumbled her way through her career advice session with Professor McGonagall in fifth year, and even now, two years later, she didn't have a clear picture of what she would do if she couldn't play Quidditch.
On top of that, now, she wasn't so sure she even wanted to play Quidditch. Was she willing to commit to one thing at her age, for the rest of her life? She wished now that she'd gone over more options with McGonagall, but she had had other things on her mind during that year. Now, she wondered if she'd missed some glorious opportunity.
**
When the train pulled in to Platform 9 and ¾, Ginny, Hermione and Luna joined the crush of students disembarking. Ginny picked Harry's face out instantly and ran to him, leaving her trunk sitting on the platform, next to a protesting Hermione.
They didn't say anything at first; they didn't need to. He grabbed her and spun her around, laughing before kissing her. For a moment when their lips met, all of Ginny's worry about having to do something with her life flew out of her head. She could just stay here and kiss Harry. Yes, that seemed like a perfectly viable career path.
"Bloody hell, you two, you act like it's been decades," Ron said.
Harry and Ginny pulled apart.
"Like you can talk," Harry said. "As if you and Hermione wouldn't have done the same."
"Hermione's not your sister," Ron said, a disgusted expression on his face.
"As good as," Harry replied.
"Ron," Hermione cut in, "I've been standing here for the past five minutes. Aren't you going to say hello to me?"
Ron went red. "Hello, Hermione."
"Hello, Ron."
Then, she kissed him, and Ron went redder. Harry and Ginny exchanged glances and could only hold it together for a second before bursting into laughter.
After he had regained his composure, Harry cleared his throat. "Ron? Your mum?"
Ron and Hermione pulled apart, both of them looking quite flushed. "She's not here, is she?"
Harry rolled his eyes and went to pick up Ginny's trunk. "No, but that'll change if we don't go out there first. She's going to think something's happened to us."
Hermione smoothed her blouse and tried to make sure her hair was in order. "All right, then," she said. "I suppose we'd better go."
The group bid good-bye to Luna and they all Disapparated.
"There you are!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed when the four approached the Burrow. "I was about to send a search party." She ran from the doorstep, out into the road to greet them.
"Hi, Mum." Ginny let her mother fuss over her. It made her feel strangely content that, even on the verge of adulthood, she had not changed in the eyes of Molly Weasley. A scant year ago, Ginny would have resented that, but Fred's death had changed everything.
"It'll be so good to have you all home again," Molly said. She paused. "I mean-" Her eyes were wet and Ginny hugged her mother tightly. "I wish he were here," she went on. "George is working-so hard. I wish he'd take a break."
"We'd give him a hand," Ron said. He frowned. "There's a shortage of Aurors, and Kingsley doesn't like sending a couple of trainees into the field so much. Auror training'll start up in September, but until then we're sort of spread thin."
"Well, that's good," Hermione said, as they made their way into the house. "It's really much better if you do it the proper way. There's a reason they do it the way they do. Really, you two ought to consider sitting your NEWTs."
"Hermione," Ron said, "we spent a year hunting down Horcruxes, and Harry defeated the worst dark wizard in history. We don't need NEWTs to become Aurors."
Hermione looked annoyed to have been proven wrong.
"Hermione, dear, you'll be staying for dinner, won't you?" Molly had already headed into the kitchen and was banging pots around. Ginny supposed she didn't want to hear any more about Ron and Harry becoming Aurors.
Hermione frowned. "I suppose," she said slowly.
"Brilliant!" Ron said.
The fire flared a moment later and George stepped out. For a moment, Ginny caught herself expecting Fred to come through after him and swallowed hard.
"Hello, George," Hermione said.
George smiled, though it didn't quite meet his eyes. "Well, well, well, it's Baby Sister and Miss Bookworm, finally fully-qualified witches." He enveloped Ginny into a hug and she flung her arms around him, dismissing her earlier thoughts. They all missed Fred, but now that she was home, she could better keep George company.
**
After dinner, Ginny went outside. She was happy to be home and she loved her family, but she also relished her alone time. She sat on the bench by the pond and drew her legs up to her chest, watching the setting sun reflect off the water.
As soon as she was alone with her thoughts, the subject of what to do with herself now that she was out of school bubbled back up to the surface of her mind.
There was always Quidditch-assuming the Harpies wanted her, but somehow, that didn't feel like a proper career to Ginny. She didn't know what other options she had, though. She didn't expect terrible NEWTs, but they were still a factor in what she could do. Ginny sighed.
"Knut for your thoughts?"
Ginny felt her heartbeat speed up. She hadn't expected anyone to follow her out here, hadn't wanted it, but now that she knew Harry was behind her, she decided that sounded like the best idea ever.
He sat down beside her and easily slipped an arm around her shoulders. Instinctively, she leaned into him and breathed in his scent. "Missed you," she murmured.
"I missed you, too." His hand found its way to the base of her neck, under her hair and he leaned in to kiss her. It was just as electric as it had been that afternoon at the station, just as it had been every time they'd kissed.
"So," he said, after they'd come up for air, "what are you thinking about?"
"Oh, I don't know," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Just thinking about… the future."
"How so?"
Ginny paused. She wasn't sure she wanted to share this with Harry-after all, he had known what he'd wanted to do with his life since his fourth year. Would he really understand what she was talking about?
"I'm not really sure what I want to do now that I'm out of school," she said. "I mean, there's Quidditch, but I don't know. I don't know if I…"
"Want to be locked into something like that?"
She pulled back. "Yeah. How'd you know?"
He grinned at her, eyes mischievous. "Because I've thought about it myself."
"You have?"
"Yeah." He shrugged. "Sometimes I think I've had enough danger for one lifetime. And then, other times I-"
"Have the saving people thing?" she teased.
He kissed her. "Yeah." He paused. "So, what sounds good, if not Quidditch. Anything come to mind?"
She shook her head. "That's the problem. I mean, Hermione and Luna, they know-I mean, well, Hermione doesn't know, but she has options to pick from."
"Why don't you come to the Ministry on Monday?" Harry suggested. "Maybe your dad can find someone for you to talk to about options. Kingsley's busy, but he might have the time."
"Oh, Harry, that's an excellent idea." Ginny smiled and kissed him. Maybe seeing her different options up close would give her some idea of what she could choose.
That decided, she and Harry got somewhat sidetracked, and before they knew it, it was beginning to get quite dark.
"We should probably go in," Ginny said. "It's starting to get a bit cold."
"I can warm you up," Harry told her.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're a walking cliché." They stood and made their way back to the house, arm-in-arm.
**
The weekend at the Burrow was wonderfully relaxing. It was almost like old times, Ginny thought. They had even managed to wrangle George and even Percy into playing Quidditch with them, though with six, they were somewhat limited in what positions they could have. Even without a Beater or a Seeker, it was fun, almost worth the whole thing to see Harry try Chasing.
But even the fun weekend didn't take the edge off Ginny's nerves when Monday came.
She had visited her father at work before, so she was somewhat familiar with his office. She wasn't expecting it to be so…
"Sorry about the dust," Arthur said, stepping around her to lay his briefcase on his desk. "We're remodeling."
"That's all right," Ginny said. She took a seat in the chair Arthur pointed her to.
"You can start out organizing some of these reports," he told her, picking up an overstuffed folder. "See, they're all mixed up." As he spoke, all the parchment slid out of the folder, landing on the floor. "And now, they're even more mixed up," he added.
"Don't worry, Dad," Ginny said, reaching down to pick up the disarrayed papers. "I'll manage."
"That's a good girl. Just sort them so that they're sorted by object type and then by order of date." He looked around the room, as if he'd misplaced something. "Ink, there's no ink. I'll pop down the hall and see if they have any spare. Only be a minute."
Ginny nodded and got to work. It wasn't a difficult task, though it was utterly mind-numbing and Ginny longed to actually do something, use actual magic. She knew her father loved his job because he loved Muggle things, but Ginny had already decided after only twenty minutes on the job that Misuse of Muggle Artifacts wasn't for her.
She'd gotten so absorbed in her work that she almost didn't hear the knock on the doorframe.
"Ginny!"
Ginny looked up. "Oh, Hermione! How are you? How did the interview go?"
Hermione groaned and collapsed into Arthur's chair. "Awful. Oh, I really made several glaring errors."
Ginny didn't believe Hermione was capable of anything like that. "What did you do?"
Hermione looked down at her feet. "I confused the Trammendorf Method of Apparition and the Trammundorf Method of Apparition."
"Hermione, I don't even know what those are. I bet they don't even care."
Hermione looked at her as though about to remind her that she should know the difference, but she didn't say anything. "I suppose," she said.
Hermione was just standing up to leave when Arthur came back.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley," she said.
"Oh, hello, Hermione." Arthur looked frazzled. "I'm afraid I have some bad news, girls. There's been an attack."
Hermione paled. "Who? Where?"
Ginny felt her stomach drop. She almost didn't want to know. Her mother was at home. George was at the shop, Harry, Ron and Percy were right here at the Ministry…
"Some Muggles," Arthur said. "In Surrey. I'm going as backup. We're not sure what it is yet." He looked grim.
"Is Harry there?"
Arthur nodded. "He and Ron went on ahead with the Aurors. Then they called me because they suspected Muggle-baiting."
"Then I'm going, too," Ginny said. She had had enough of Harry leaving her behind to last a lifetime. She wasn't going to stay home and worry by herself anymore.
For a second, it looked like Arthur was going to protest, but Hermione took a step forward. "I'm going, too," she said.
"All right," Arthur said, clearly not wanting to argue. "But be careful."
**
The spot they Apparated to was a quiet Muggle street corner, with identical houses plotted out in either direction. There was a small group of wizards surrounding an even smaller group of young Muggle men. Ginny scanned the crowd for Harry and spotted him on the other side of the street, sitting on the kerb, next to one of the Muggles.
Ginny waved to him and jogged over to them. As she got closer, she got a better look at the Muggle.
He looked to be about her and Harry's age, though that was where the similarities stopped. The Muggle was much bigger than Harry, a mixture of fat and muscle that reminded Ginny unsettlingly of Crabbe and Goyle. He had thick blond hair that was plastered to his head with what must have been a whole bucket of gel. Despite all the differences, though, he and Harry were taking as if they knew each other.
"Ginny," Harry said, looking happy to see her. Ginny wondered why he was in such a good mood at a crime scene. "We were just talking about you."
"You were?" she asked hesitantly.
"This is my cousin Dudley," Harry explained.
Ginny froze. Dudley Dursley? The same cousin who had made Harry's childhood miserable. Ginny had once vowed that if she ever ran into one of the Dursleys, she would hex them, Statute of Secrecy and Muggle Protection Acts, be damned.
Somehow, she didn't think that would be appropriate now, though.
"Dudley, this is my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley," Harry went on.
"Nice to meet you," Ginny said.
Dudley nodded. "Harry's told me about you-at least, he's telling me now."
Ginny smiled. "So, what happened here?"
Harry sighed. "We're thinking this is the work of somebody we've been following for a while now. There's been a rash of Muggle-baiting and worse in the past six months and some of our best investigators think it's all the work of the same guy."
"What did he do this time?" Ginny cast her eyes at Dudley. He didn't seem to be hurt or traumatized, though she supposed that, growing up with Harry, he wasn't as surprised by magic as some Muggles were.
"Well," Harry said, "this time, we might not have made the connection. It looked like an ordinary Muggle-baiting, the kind of prank you get all the time at this time of year. Kids are just out of school, looking to blow off some steam."
Dudley rubbed his chin, looking slightly embarrassed. "Me and my mates, we thought we were buying some… some pot off this guy-it's a drug, hallucinogen, but Harry said it was… something."
"Alihotsy," Harry said.
"Right. And apparently that's what it was this bloke gave us, because it was a fucking bad trip."
"But how is that different from ordinary Muggle baiting?" Ginny asked.
"Tell her, Dudley."
"He put a… a spell on me. On all of us, I think, but I'm the only one who saw it-or still remembers it, I guess." Dudley frowned. "I guess that's because it's a-what did you call it, Harry? A Memory… Charm?"
"He Obliviated you?" Ginny asked, surprised.
Dudley shrugged. "I guess."
"And he did a fair rotten job of it, too," Harry said, "because Dudley remembers being Obliviated, but he doesn't remember anything about the wizard who did it."
"Maybe someone can lift it," Ginny suggested. "If he's already remembering something, maybe we can break it. Hermione's right over there, she might be able to help."
"Good idea," Harry said. "Why don't you go get her?"
A few minutes later, Ron and Hermione had joined them. No one else seemed to have noticed the five young people off to the side; the other Ministry workers were busy erasing all traces of magic from the area and applying last minute healing spells and second Memory Charms to Dudley's friends.
"So, Hermione, do you think you can do it?" Harry asked.
Hermione looked down at her wand, looking worried. "I don't know. Messing around with memory is very dangerous."
"How so?" Dudley asked. "Like a computer?"
"I suppose," Hermione said. Ginny couldn't follow, but Hermione and Dudley seemed to have found common ground. "Like when you try to recover a file and it's corrupted, it might not be reliable. You know what I'm looking for, so you might have created an image in your mind of that, subconsciously or otherwise. We've been talking about this mysterious wizard and we all have an image of him in our minds, however vague. Your memory could be corrupted by that image."
"Like when they hypnotize people on television?"
"Yes," Hermione said, looking impressed that her Muggle references weren't lost on her audience for once. "And you know those recovered memories aren't generally admissible in court. This is a little more reliable, but it's sort of the same principle."
"Have you done this before?" Dudley asked.
"Your parents-" Ron started.
Hermione sighed. "I didn't Obliviate my parents, Ron. It was a different spell. Based on the same theory, but it's like-well, Dudley will get this-it's like moving a file to the Recycle Bin versus permanently deleting it. One is easily recoverable and the other isn't. In fact, it may be impossible."
"Well, let's try," Dudley said. "It's worth a shot, isn't it? If I can remember what this bloke looked like."
"We'd have our only lead, yeah." Harry looked at his cousin seriously. "You okay with this? I know your mum and dad-"
Dudley snorted. "I'm not going to tell them a thing about this. I mean, for one thing-" he looked embarrassed "-it would mean telling them about the, um, pot. But you're right, Harry, they wouldn't like this."
"All right," Hermione said, "are you ready?"
Dudley swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, I guess."
Hermione held out her wand, pointing it at Dudley's nose, a look of great concentration on her face. She muttered something under her breath that Ginny couldn't make out, and Dudley's eyes briefly glazed over. Ginny watched with rapt attention. She had never seen memory work up close before and she found herself fascinated, both by Hermione's look of intense concentration and the otherworldly… something in Dudley's eyes.
Suddenly, Hermione drew back as if shocked.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked sharply.
"Nothing," Hermione said. "I think-I think it worked."
"Dudley?"
Dudley blinked and shook his head to clear it. "I remember. It's still vague, but it's clearer than it was." He was looking at Hermione with a sort of muted awe, as if he didn't know whether to be impressed or terrified by her. Ginny could relate.
"You remember what he looks like?" Harry asked.
"It's hard," Dudley said. "He had a… hood on, so I couldn't see his face." He paused. "He had a mole. On the left side of his face, by his mouth."
"That's good," Harry said. He looked at the others. "That's something to go on, isn't it?"
"Right," Ron said. He looked at the assembled crowd, which was starting to break up. "Reckon we should get going?"
"Yeah." Harry dusted his hands on his robes and shook Dudley's hand. "We ought to meet again."
"Yeah, under better circumstances."
Ginny looked at Harry. He didn't seem to be reacting to Dudley as she would have expected, knowing how he had bullied him throughout their childhoods.
She waited until she had him alone.
"So," she said, sidling up close to him. "That was the famous Dudley Dursley?"
Harry gave a short laugh. "In the flesh."
Ginny slipped her hand into his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You seemed like you got on."
Harry scratched the tip of his nose. "He's not so bad. Not anymore. He grew up a bit. During the war, they were all in hiding, the Dursleys, at an Order safehouse, and I think Dudley got a little taste of the wizarding world. His parents want nothing to do with it, but he understands a little bit more now."
"That's good, I suppose," Ginny said. "I just hate the thought of what they did to you."
Harry was quiet. He looked down at his feet. "That's in the past, Gin. I just want-" He paused. "I just want my-our kids to have a family they know loves them."
She stopped and stepped in front of him, placing her hands on his shoulders. "They will," she said firmly, surprised at how she wasn't nervous about the fact that he'd said our kids. She kissed him, then, and it felt just as reassuring as it had every other time since she'd gotten home. Harry's hand slid down her arm, sending shivers up her spine. No matter what happened, she knew she'd always be able to depend on Harry-and that he could depend on her.
"D'you really need to do that here?" Ron said. Ginny winced, preparing for him to start ranting, but he didn't. "We ought to get back to work."
Harry gave Ginny one more kiss and stepped back, smirking. "Are you going back to your dad's office?"
"Maybe." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Actually, I was wondering if I could come with you."
Ron was the first to object. "Is that even allowed?"
"I'll be fine," Ginny said flatly. "It's not like you're even official Aurors yet."
"Yeah, but we're more official than you."
"It's not like it's dangerous or anything," Ginny said. "I'll just be… shadowing. At the Ministry. Like I did with Dad this morning." She thought the Auror office seemed a lot more interesting than Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, and now that she had seen part of this case, she had the strong urge to follow through with it.
"Oh!" Hermione gasped. "My second interview." And with that, she Disapparated without preamble.
"What do you think, Harry?" Ron asked, cutting his eyes to his friend.
Harry grinned. "If Kingsley says it's all right, I'd love to have Ginny around this afternoon."
**
When she got to the Auror office, Ginny decided that it didn't outwardly seem any different than she'd seen upstairs. It, too, was populated mostly by bored-looking wizards, sitting at desks, shuffling paper.
Ginny followed Harry to his desk, which was set in the corner. Really, "his desk" was a misnomer, as he shared it with Ron. Harry Summoned a chair for her and tried to awkwardly position it against a section of the desk where chairs were not exactly meant to go.
"Sorry," he said, smiling apologetically. "Best I can do for now."
"This is fine," Ginny said. "Anything I can do for now?"
Harry and Ron exchanged glances.
"I'll go talk to Kingsley," Ron volunteered.
"I guess we can add this to the file," Harry said to Ginny. He sat down next to her and drew a binder closer to him.
Harry didn't need to consult the list very closely as he began assembling the notes that would go in the file. Ginny watched him, thinking.
"What's the next step of the investigation?"
"Well," Harry said, "since we think what happened today fits in with the other, similar cases, we're going to guess we're looking at the same suspect. Dudley's identification will help a lot."
"What were the previous incidents?"
Harry handed her the report. "Muggle-baiting, but always a little more dangerous than usual. Not that any kind of Muggle-baiting's acceptable, but there's a difference between selling a Muggle a book written in invisible ink and-"
"Selling a Muggle drugs they can't handle."
"Exactly. There's real maliciousness here, not some prank."
"And he Obliviated them so they wouldn't be able to identify him." She paused. "Did he Obliviate the Muggles in the other cases?"
"We didn't think so, but there's no way we could have known for sure-they obviously wouldn't remember, and our Obliviators had to go in, too, before the memories of us getting there had gotten too set in."
A terrible thought occurred to Ginny. "He isn't one of the Ministry Obliviators, is he? I mean, he obviously knows how to do a Memory Charm, and-"
"We thought of that," Harry said. "After last year, we instituted a screening process that all Ministry employees had to go through. We had to figure out who was working for Voldemort, who had been Imperiused, who had just been laying low."
Ginny nodded. "What happened to…?"
Harry ran a hand through his hair, apparently remembering the stress of these interrogations. "Well, depending on the severity of their involvement, they were either sacked or put on trial." He paused. "Some of them are actually still waiting in Azkaban. I mean, I'd hate to think-"
Ginny laid a hand on his arm. "I'm sure you were very thorough," she murmured. "There's a very low chance that they're innocent and even if they are, they'll only have spent a couple of months in there, not years, not like Sirius."
He gave her a wan smile. "You're right. As always."
She grinned. "So, what else?"
"Right." Harry pushed his glasses up on his nose and turned back to the file. "We monitored the ones who had been Imperiused, but generally, it's easy there to tell who's been lying from who is telling the truth. Family and friends can corroborate your story, or you can accurately describe what being Imperiused feels like. As for the ones who laid low…" Harry stopped. "Some people wanted to get rid of them, too. You know, if you're not with us, you must be against us. But I think there are some people who just don't want to be heroes, who want to hold on to their normal, day-to-day lives."
"I imagine that's most people," Ginny said. It was certainly how she probably would have felt once, but Harry had changed her. As soon as she'd realized what lay ahead for him, she'd known she was going to be with him until the end, be it as a member of the DA or something more. But her life had been completely normal compared to Harry's.
"Right, then," Harry said, reaching for another paper. "Our suspect obviously isn't in Azkaban, so he's not a known Death Eater. More than likely, he's not even a Ministry employee, at least, not one who's come to our attention so far."
Ginny nodded. "What about the mole Dudley mentioned?"
"That narrows it down a bit, though there's always the possibility he could be using a glamour spell."
"Yeah." There was a lot to think about. Ginny wondered how the Aurors ever caught any criminals at all.
**
Ginny liked working beside Harry, though they didn't make much progress. Ron seemed to think they were distracting each other, but Ginny didn't think so, though there were moments she caught herself just looking at Harry.
The year he'd been away hunting Horcruxes, plus this past year when she had been at school meant that she had spent almost two years away from Harry. She'd seen him of course, during school holidays and such, but she hadn't really seen him, hadn't really looked at him.
Those two years had aged him, and while Ginny had always thought he looked older than the other boys she'd dated, but he was definitely a man now. It was evident in the way he carried himself and in the slope of his shoulders and the curve of his jaw. She loved this man.
Not in the same way she had before, her crush in her first year, or the last few weeks of her fifth. She loved him as a woman now, instead of as a girl, and she was quite certain, as she'd been thinking for the past several days, that she'd like to spend the rest of her life with him.
"Ginny? Earth to Ginny?"
She blinked. "Sorry, what?"
Harry gave her one of the crooked smiles she loved and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. Muggle expression. I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner tonight. You know, we might actually have a proper date."
She grinned. "That sounds brilliant."
**
The Leaky Cauldron was surprisingly crowded for a Monday night, but Harry and Ginny were able to get a quiet table in a corner.
"Harry Potter always gets a seat in my bar," Tom had declared and Harry had grudgingly allowed the old barkeep to give them a seat.
"I hate doing that," Harry muttered.
"I know," Ginny said, kissing him. "But I like sitting here. It's cozy."
"Harry! Ginny! Hi!"
"Hannah!" Ginny jumped up to hug the former Hufflepuff. "You look good! How have you been?"
"Great! As you can see, I've gotten a job here. Old Tom's getting on in years and he's said he's looking for someone to take over. So…"
"Hannah, that's brilliant," Harry said. "You'd be a great proprietor."
She blushed. "I hope so. How are things at the Ministry?"
The three of them chatted for a few minutes and Hannah took their orders. When she left them alone, Ginny looked up at Harry and caught his eye. She grinned. She was glad she'd learned how to feel comfortable around Harry.
"So, tell me, Miss Weasley, what did you think of the two jobs you did today?"
Ginny pretended to think hard about it. "Well, Mr. Potter, I think I found downstairs to be more to my liking. It was a tick more exciting."
Harry laughed. "You ought to come back on one of our really busy days. This was downright peaceful."
"I think I'd like that," she said.
"I don't see why you couldn't," Harry said. "Ron and I are there in an unofficial capacity. Kingsley likes you. And if you decided you, er, wanted to, you could-"
She smirked. "Proper Auror training begins in September?"
"Yeah."
"Do you mind?"
"Nah." Harry grinned. "I think it'd be fun. You'd make a great Auror, if that's what you wanted to do."
Ginny felt something twist in her stomach. "I don't know. I mean, it's only been one day, and well, I thought it was interesting, I mean, this guy, the suspect, what he's doing, it's wrong."
"I know," Harry said darkly. "I grew up with Muggles and while the Dursleys weren't the best sort, not all of them are like that-that would be like saying all wizards are like the Malfoys."
Ginny nodded. "I think a lot of wizards don't really… know that about Muggles. I mean, we say things about equality and acceptance, but I'm not sure a lot of people really know what that means."
Harry nodded. "You'd be surprised how many wizards don't go so far as to want the Muggles dead, but still think it's funny to do things like-"
"Give them bewitched candy?"
"Right," Harry said. "I mean, Fred-" He stumbled. "Fred and George, they knew Dudley was a git, but they didn't realize that it's different to use a magical prank on a Muggle than it is on a wizard."
"Yeah." Ginny paused. "Not very many people take Muggle Studies."
"Maybe more should."
They were interrupted by Hannah bringing their food, and they didn't talk much about work during the meal, which was fine with Ginny. She was still mulling over in her mind all the things she had seen that day, trying to figure out what to do. There was something oddly appealing about being an Auror, being able to stop people like the Muggle Obliviator, as they were calling the suspect.
Then there was the part of her who just saw how wrong it all was, the way wizards treated Muggles. Dudley had been helpful because he understood magic, at least a little bit, but all the other Muggles had been Healed and then summarily dismissed. The cleanup crew hadn't asked them any questions, hadn't done anything to help them other than wipe their memories once again. Ginny knew that they couldn't remember anything now, so they were probably fine, but still, she couldn't imagine how terrified they must have felt while all these things they couldn't understand were going on all around them.
After dinner, Harry and Ginny went for a walk in the Alley. It was nice to see the rebuilding efforts were going well. The new façade on Gringotts was almost completed and the shops nearly all seemed to be back in business. They passed the darkened Wheezes storefront and Ginny paused.
"There's a light on upstairs," she commented, pointing.
Harry squeezed her hand. "Lee's been helping out, and Ron and I mean to come down this weekend."
"Okay," she said quietly. "I'll come, too."
There weren't a lot of people around, so it was no surprise that Harry and Ginny soon lost track of time. Living at the Burrow meant very little alone time, and they were enjoying having a bit of privacy (even if that "privacy" was in a public area).
They had been in a secluded corner, near Flourish and Blotts, when Ginny caught movement out of the corner of her eye.
"Harry," she whispered. "Look."
There was a man coming out of the shop, a package tucked under his arm. It was hard to see his face, but for a second, in the light from one of the wall-mounted torches, Ginny could see it.
He had a mole. On the left side of his face.
"Harry."
She knew he saw it, too, because he shifted against her, drawing his wand. "We can't," he began. "We don't know."
"I know," she said, as she watched him move out of sight. "It could be anyone; I'm just a little… on edge."
"I understand." He squeezed her shoulder. "There was a time when I would have followed him," he mused.
Ginny grinned. "I remember."
Harry laughed. "How did you ever put up with me?"
She slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him again. "You have your benefits."
**
The next day when they got to the Ministry, Ginny had a new determination to find the man with the mole.
She went to the records room and asked the witch there for the files on the Ministry employees who had been let go (but who hadn't had criminal charges pressed against them). This included both those who had been fired due to what Kingsley called uninspiring attitude, and those who had been sacked for other reasons.
The stack of files was larger than she expected and as Ginny levitated it in front of her on the way to a reading room, she wondered if there would be any point to doing this. Harry had said it fit the profile, though, so it was worth checking out.
The reading room looked little-used. The desk and chair were very wobbly and Ginny set her stack of files down with some trepidation.
It only took a few files before she found her attention drifting. She could eliminate the witches immediately, but she needed to study the wizards. She knew it was stupid to be specifically looking for the man she'd seen last night-she hadn't gotten a good look at him, and there had to be hundreds of men with moles. Dudley hadn't been able to provide them with any additional description, either, so there was no telling what other features he had.
Ginny was astonished at the number of Ministry employees who had been sacked when Kingsley took office. Most of the firings had been justified; Ginny couldn't find any she disagreed with. After a while, they became tedious to page through. Many of the employees were Death Eaters, who had simply been officially fired as a formality though they had been in Azkaban since the battle.
After at least an hour, she found herself wishing the reading room had a wireless set so she could listen to some music. All of sudden, she was interrupted by a fluttering behind her. She turned to find a charmed note batting at the back of her head. Ginny plucked it out of the air and unfolded it.
Gin -
Going out on another call in Surrey. Nothing serious. Taking Ron with me.
- Harry
Ginny set the note aside. She'd go down later to see if they'd gotten back. Maybe they could all get lunch together.
Fifteen minutes later, Ginny was ready to give up. She was getting nowhere fast, and at this rate, the suspect would die of old age before they found him, and that was assuming he even was in this stack of files.
She was so near giving up that she almost couldn't believe her eyes when she pulled the next file off the stack.
It was him. The man from Diagon Alley, the man with the mole.
Ginny was suddenly overcome by a wave of dread. Harry. Harry was in danger.
She didn't know why that thought had leapt to her mind, but she read the rest of the file with shaking fingers. His name was Waldemar Hogle, pureblood, Ravenclaw. He'd left school almost thirty years ago and had been working at the Ministry his entire working life, starting out as a clerk in the records office and then moving on to an Obliviator position.
She began skimming.
He'd claimed to be under the Imperius curse, and while they had found no evidence he had been lying, he had tortured several Muggles and helped capture many Muggle-borns during the year Voldemort had held the Ministry. Despite his Imperius defense, he had still been let go for comments made about Kingsley's half-blood status, and Harry's "special treatment."
Harry.
While he was supposedly under the Imperius, he'd been especially instrumental in the search for Harry, and his current address was listed as being in Surrey.
He wasn't under surveillance.
Ginny leapt for her feet, grabbing the file with one hand and pulling her wand out with the other. Her heart in her throat, she tore down the hall to the Auror office. She found Kingsley there, as he often was, seemingly reluctant to leave his old office behind.
He saw Ginny come in and looked up with concern.
"What's wrong?"
Ginny was grateful for his calm manner. He didn't treat her like she was some hysteric girl who didn't know what she was talking about.
"Where did Harry and Ron go?"
"We had a flare in a Muggle area, not far from the incident yesterday. It didn't seem-"
Ginny handed Kingsley the file. "I think it's a trap."
His face clouded as he skimmed the parchment. "Merriweather," he barked at one of the nearby Aurors, "get a team together and-"
"I'm coming, too," Ginny declared.
There was a brief flash of hesitation in Kingsley's eye and then he grinned. "Didn't think I could keep you away."
**
Ginny wasn't sure what they'd find when they Apparated to the spot. She was expecting the worst, and thus, thought she was prepared, until she saw Ron lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
She uttered a strangled gasp and someone yelled, "Ginny!"
She dodged, bringing her wand up for a Shield Charm just in time. Quickly, she took in the scene around her. Ron was down, and Dudley Dursley was kneeling beside him, looking queasy. The Aurors were securing the perimeter, as several curious Muggles had assembled to watch the strange battle. Ginny felt her stomach turn over again when she saw that two of them lay on the ground.
Dead, she knew, from a Killing Curse, their faces twisted into masks of confusion.
Harry was furiously dueling Waldemar Hogle. Ginny darted forward to help him.
That was when Harry realized she was there. "Gin-" He began, and that was the opportunity Hogle had been waiting for.
"A-"
"Stupefy!" Ginny screamed. She had put all she had into the spell and it hit Hogle in the stomach, knocking him back several feet. He hit the ground, unconscious and Harry got over his moment of shock.
"Petrficus Totalus! Incarcerous!" He stood there for a moment, breathing hard, as Merriweather and Kingsley approached Hogle's unconscious body.
"Ron!" Ginny said quickly.
"Stunned," Harry explained, and a moment later, they were both by his side.
"Ennervate," Ginny murmured and her brother blinked blearily.
"Gin? What are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask the same question," Harry said. He still seemed surprised, as though he hadn't processed the events of the past few minutes. His expression was unreadable.
"I found him," she said, pointing at Hogle. "In the records." She went on to explain what she had learned about him and what had caused her to run to Kingsley with the information.
"Wow," Harry said when she was finished.
"So what happened here?" she prodded.
"Flare of magic," Ron explained. "Seemed accidental, like a Muggle-born kid too young for Hogwarts, but when we detect something, we check it out."
"And we walked right into a trap, like you said," Harry finished.
"He came back," Dudley said. He looked completely shell-shocked. He'd been so quiet Ginny had almost forgotten he was there. "Just like the other day, it's the same bloke. Definitely the same bloke. He pulled us aside and said he needed help and then-then it all went barmy." He was clearly shaken, especially by seeing two of his friends killed.
Harry put a hand on his shoulder. "The cleanup team's going to want to ask you some questions. You want me to stay with you?"
Dudley nodded.
Harry turned to Ginny. "Can you take Ron back Side-Along? He should be fine but I think he ought to be looked at."
"You'll be all right?"
"Yeah, Gin, I'll be fine. Nothing but clean up from here on out." He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, then started to walk away. Ginny watched him go, then took Ron's hand and turned on the spot.
**
Ginny didn't get to see Harry again until dinner that evening. Molly fussed over the three of them non-stop throughout the meal and Ginny wasn't at all looking forward to telling her mother that she might officially join Harry and Ron in entering Auror training in September.
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do it. Today had been exhilarating and terrifying and after, now that she was able to reflect on it, it was even rewarding. There was a man awaiting trial in Azkaban that Ginny had helped put there. He'd killed and tortured Muggles and now, because of Ginny, Ron and Harry, he wasn't going to do it anymore.
That felt good.
After dinner, Ginny was finally able to get away from her mother's constant questions ("Why did you have to go with them, Ginny? You could've been hurt!"). Unsurprisingly, Harry joined her in the garden.
"Hey," Ginny said.
"Hey, yourself." He kissed her on the forehead. "You were absolutely brilliant today."
"And I'll never hear the end of it from Mum and Ron."
Harry shrugged. "They'll get used to it."
Ginny felt a chill. "They'll get used to it if I actually end up doing this for the rest of my life, you mean."
"Is that what you want?"
Ginny thought about it.
"You don't have to decide now," Harry reminded her. "I'm sure your NEWT results, on top of your war and DA experience will more than qualify you. Kingsley would recommend you. I'd vouch for you."
"I appreciate that."
"So, Miss Weasley, have you reached a decision?" Harry began stroking her hair. It was very comforting. It would be nice to actually spend time with Harry. She tried to picture herself working with Harry. She knew Neville's parents had been a much-renowned husband-and-wife Auror team, though Ginny obviously hoped to avoid their fate.
"I think I'd like to do it." She turned, looking up at him and smiled. She was nervous, was probably still a little high on adrenaline after the day she'd had, but she was as certain as she could be. "Let's do it."
Harry grinned, his eyes mischievous behind his glasses. "You'll be brilliant."
Ginny reached out to take his hand, twining their fingers together. She leaned up and kissed him. "We'll be brilliant."
Title: Enough Nerve
Author/Artist: plaid_slytherin
Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, other Weasleys, Kingsley, Dudley
Rating: Older Teen
Word Count: ~7,840
Summary: After her seventh year, Ginny isn't sure what she wants to do. Spending some time working with Harry helps her decide.
Author/Artist's Notes: I am so excited to be participating in this exchange and I was equally excited to be writing for you, ladychi. I hope you like what I've come up with. I tried to include your prompt about the morality of curses, with some intrigue/mystery to go with it. As a note, it's slightly AU. Thanks go to aggiebell90 for betaing.
On the last day of Ginny Weasley's seventh year at Hogwarts, it rained. Ginny sat in the compartment she was sharing with Luna and Hermione, watching the drenched landscape blur by as the Hogwarts Express steamed toward London.
The past year had seemed like an eternity. Ginny had resisted coming back to school, leaving Harry and her family alone. Of course, they weren't really alone; they had each other, but after the last year, Ginny didn't want to be far away from the people she loved ever again.
Now that it was over, though, she wasn't sure she was glad to be leaving. She was happy to be done with school, but there was an uncertainty in the back of her mind-she wasn't sure what she wanted to do, and it seemed that everyone else did.
"Oh, I still wish Harry and Ron had come back for their seventh year," Hermione said, breaking the long silence.
"They never would have agreed, Hermione. Not when there were still Death Eaters out there."
"I know." Hermione still looked sad. "I just would have liked for them to have one more year here, to leave with us, a normal year."
Ginny smirked. "Oh, I know why you wished Ron was around."
Hermione looked scandalized. "Ginny! You know full well that's not it." Then, she added, "I could have said the same for you about Harry."
Ginny grinned. "At least I'm open about it."
"They wouldn't have enjoyed it much anyway," Luna said calmly. "It was rather quiet. Hunting dark wizards in France must be much more interesting." She paused. "I suppose I'll see myself in a few weeks."
Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh, Luna! Were you accepted?"
Luna beamed. "I got an owl from Mr. Scamander yesterday."
Hermione clapped her hands and squealed in delight. "I can't believe you'll be working with Newt Scamander. This is such an exciting opportunity. He's so brilliant. I wish I were going; I'd love to work with him."
Ginny laughed. "Hermione, you've got, what, ten things to choose from?"
"It's only five," Hermione said. "Don't exaggerate." She paused. "I don't know how I'll ever choose, though. I have an interview with the Department of Magical Transportation on Monday morning, and then another one with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures on Monday afternoon. But oh, that will all depend on NEWT results, so if I don't-"
"Hermione," Ginny said calmly. "You're going to get more than enough NEWTs to be qualified for all those positions.
"I hope so." Hermione wound a lock of hair around her finger nervously.
"What about you, Ginny?" Luna asked. "Have you heard back from Gwenog Jones yet?"
Ginny shook her head. A scout from the Harpies had come to a couple of matches, but she hadn't heard anything back from the team.
"I hope you hear something soon," Hermione said. "You're so good; the team would be lucky to have you."
Ginny thanked her friends for their reassurances, but they did little to assuage the nervous feeling in her stomach. What if she wasn't good enough? All she had ever wanted to do was play professional Quidditch. She had stumbled her way through her career advice session with Professor McGonagall in fifth year, and even now, two years later, she didn't have a clear picture of what she would do if she couldn't play Quidditch.
On top of that, now, she wasn't so sure she even wanted to play Quidditch. Was she willing to commit to one thing at her age, for the rest of her life? She wished now that she'd gone over more options with McGonagall, but she had had other things on her mind during that year. Now, she wondered if she'd missed some glorious opportunity.
**
When the train pulled in to Platform 9 and ¾, Ginny, Hermione and Luna joined the crush of students disembarking. Ginny picked Harry's face out instantly and ran to him, leaving her trunk sitting on the platform, next to a protesting Hermione.
They didn't say anything at first; they didn't need to. He grabbed her and spun her around, laughing before kissing her. For a moment when their lips met, all of Ginny's worry about having to do something with her life flew out of her head. She could just stay here and kiss Harry. Yes, that seemed like a perfectly viable career path.
"Bloody hell, you two, you act like it's been decades," Ron said.
Harry and Ginny pulled apart.
"Like you can talk," Harry said. "As if you and Hermione wouldn't have done the same."
"Hermione's not your sister," Ron said, a disgusted expression on his face.
"As good as," Harry replied.
"Ron," Hermione cut in, "I've been standing here for the past five minutes. Aren't you going to say hello to me?"
Ron went red. "Hello, Hermione."
"Hello, Ron."
Then, she kissed him, and Ron went redder. Harry and Ginny exchanged glances and could only hold it together for a second before bursting into laughter.
After he had regained his composure, Harry cleared his throat. "Ron? Your mum?"
Ron and Hermione pulled apart, both of them looking quite flushed. "She's not here, is she?"
Harry rolled his eyes and went to pick up Ginny's trunk. "No, but that'll change if we don't go out there first. She's going to think something's happened to us."
Hermione smoothed her blouse and tried to make sure her hair was in order. "All right, then," she said. "I suppose we'd better go."
The group bid good-bye to Luna and they all Disapparated.
"There you are!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed when the four approached the Burrow. "I was about to send a search party." She ran from the doorstep, out into the road to greet them.
"Hi, Mum." Ginny let her mother fuss over her. It made her feel strangely content that, even on the verge of adulthood, she had not changed in the eyes of Molly Weasley. A scant year ago, Ginny would have resented that, but Fred's death had changed everything.
"It'll be so good to have you all home again," Molly said. She paused. "I mean-" Her eyes were wet and Ginny hugged her mother tightly. "I wish he were here," she went on. "George is working-so hard. I wish he'd take a break."
"We'd give him a hand," Ron said. He frowned. "There's a shortage of Aurors, and Kingsley doesn't like sending a couple of trainees into the field so much. Auror training'll start up in September, but until then we're sort of spread thin."
"Well, that's good," Hermione said, as they made their way into the house. "It's really much better if you do it the proper way. There's a reason they do it the way they do. Really, you two ought to consider sitting your NEWTs."
"Hermione," Ron said, "we spent a year hunting down Horcruxes, and Harry defeated the worst dark wizard in history. We don't need NEWTs to become Aurors."
Hermione looked annoyed to have been proven wrong.
"Hermione, dear, you'll be staying for dinner, won't you?" Molly had already headed into the kitchen and was banging pots around. Ginny supposed she didn't want to hear any more about Ron and Harry becoming Aurors.
Hermione frowned. "I suppose," she said slowly.
"Brilliant!" Ron said.
The fire flared a moment later and George stepped out. For a moment, Ginny caught herself expecting Fred to come through after him and swallowed hard.
"Hello, George," Hermione said.
George smiled, though it didn't quite meet his eyes. "Well, well, well, it's Baby Sister and Miss Bookworm, finally fully-qualified witches." He enveloped Ginny into a hug and she flung her arms around him, dismissing her earlier thoughts. They all missed Fred, but now that she was home, she could better keep George company.
**
After dinner, Ginny went outside. She was happy to be home and she loved her family, but she also relished her alone time. She sat on the bench by the pond and drew her legs up to her chest, watching the setting sun reflect off the water.
As soon as she was alone with her thoughts, the subject of what to do with herself now that she was out of school bubbled back up to the surface of her mind.
There was always Quidditch-assuming the Harpies wanted her, but somehow, that didn't feel like a proper career to Ginny. She didn't know what other options she had, though. She didn't expect terrible NEWTs, but they were still a factor in what she could do. Ginny sighed.
"Knut for your thoughts?"
Ginny felt her heartbeat speed up. She hadn't expected anyone to follow her out here, hadn't wanted it, but now that she knew Harry was behind her, she decided that sounded like the best idea ever.
He sat down beside her and easily slipped an arm around her shoulders. Instinctively, she leaned into him and breathed in his scent. "Missed you," she murmured.
"I missed you, too." His hand found its way to the base of her neck, under her hair and he leaned in to kiss her. It was just as electric as it had been that afternoon at the station, just as it had been every time they'd kissed.
"So," he said, after they'd come up for air, "what are you thinking about?"
"Oh, I don't know," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Just thinking about… the future."
"How so?"
Ginny paused. She wasn't sure she wanted to share this with Harry-after all, he had known what he'd wanted to do with his life since his fourth year. Would he really understand what she was talking about?
"I'm not really sure what I want to do now that I'm out of school," she said. "I mean, there's Quidditch, but I don't know. I don't know if I…"
"Want to be locked into something like that?"
She pulled back. "Yeah. How'd you know?"
He grinned at her, eyes mischievous. "Because I've thought about it myself."
"You have?"
"Yeah." He shrugged. "Sometimes I think I've had enough danger for one lifetime. And then, other times I-"
"Have the saving people thing?" she teased.
He kissed her. "Yeah." He paused. "So, what sounds good, if not Quidditch. Anything come to mind?"
She shook her head. "That's the problem. I mean, Hermione and Luna, they know-I mean, well, Hermione doesn't know, but she has options to pick from."
"Why don't you come to the Ministry on Monday?" Harry suggested. "Maybe your dad can find someone for you to talk to about options. Kingsley's busy, but he might have the time."
"Oh, Harry, that's an excellent idea." Ginny smiled and kissed him. Maybe seeing her different options up close would give her some idea of what she could choose.
That decided, she and Harry got somewhat sidetracked, and before they knew it, it was beginning to get quite dark.
"We should probably go in," Ginny said. "It's starting to get a bit cold."
"I can warm you up," Harry told her.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You're a walking cliché." They stood and made their way back to the house, arm-in-arm.
**
The weekend at the Burrow was wonderfully relaxing. It was almost like old times, Ginny thought. They had even managed to wrangle George and even Percy into playing Quidditch with them, though with six, they were somewhat limited in what positions they could have. Even without a Beater or a Seeker, it was fun, almost worth the whole thing to see Harry try Chasing.
But even the fun weekend didn't take the edge off Ginny's nerves when Monday came.
She had visited her father at work before, so she was somewhat familiar with his office. She wasn't expecting it to be so…
"Sorry about the dust," Arthur said, stepping around her to lay his briefcase on his desk. "We're remodeling."
"That's all right," Ginny said. She took a seat in the chair Arthur pointed her to.
"You can start out organizing some of these reports," he told her, picking up an overstuffed folder. "See, they're all mixed up." As he spoke, all the parchment slid out of the folder, landing on the floor. "And now, they're even more mixed up," he added.
"Don't worry, Dad," Ginny said, reaching down to pick up the disarrayed papers. "I'll manage."
"That's a good girl. Just sort them so that they're sorted by object type and then by order of date." He looked around the room, as if he'd misplaced something. "Ink, there's no ink. I'll pop down the hall and see if they have any spare. Only be a minute."
Ginny nodded and got to work. It wasn't a difficult task, though it was utterly mind-numbing and Ginny longed to actually do something, use actual magic. She knew her father loved his job because he loved Muggle things, but Ginny had already decided after only twenty minutes on the job that Misuse of Muggle Artifacts wasn't for her.
She'd gotten so absorbed in her work that she almost didn't hear the knock on the doorframe.
"Ginny!"
Ginny looked up. "Oh, Hermione! How are you? How did the interview go?"
Hermione groaned and collapsed into Arthur's chair. "Awful. Oh, I really made several glaring errors."
Ginny didn't believe Hermione was capable of anything like that. "What did you do?"
Hermione looked down at her feet. "I confused the Trammendorf Method of Apparition and the Trammundorf Method of Apparition."
"Hermione, I don't even know what those are. I bet they don't even care."
Hermione looked at her as though about to remind her that she should know the difference, but she didn't say anything. "I suppose," she said.
Hermione was just standing up to leave when Arthur came back.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley," she said.
"Oh, hello, Hermione." Arthur looked frazzled. "I'm afraid I have some bad news, girls. There's been an attack."
Hermione paled. "Who? Where?"
Ginny felt her stomach drop. She almost didn't want to know. Her mother was at home. George was at the shop, Harry, Ron and Percy were right here at the Ministry…
"Some Muggles," Arthur said. "In Surrey. I'm going as backup. We're not sure what it is yet." He looked grim.
"Is Harry there?"
Arthur nodded. "He and Ron went on ahead with the Aurors. Then they called me because they suspected Muggle-baiting."
"Then I'm going, too," Ginny said. She had had enough of Harry leaving her behind to last a lifetime. She wasn't going to stay home and worry by herself anymore.
For a second, it looked like Arthur was going to protest, but Hermione took a step forward. "I'm going, too," she said.
"All right," Arthur said, clearly not wanting to argue. "But be careful."
**
The spot they Apparated to was a quiet Muggle street corner, with identical houses plotted out in either direction. There was a small group of wizards surrounding an even smaller group of young Muggle men. Ginny scanned the crowd for Harry and spotted him on the other side of the street, sitting on the kerb, next to one of the Muggles.
Ginny waved to him and jogged over to them. As she got closer, she got a better look at the Muggle.
He looked to be about her and Harry's age, though that was where the similarities stopped. The Muggle was much bigger than Harry, a mixture of fat and muscle that reminded Ginny unsettlingly of Crabbe and Goyle. He had thick blond hair that was plastered to his head with what must have been a whole bucket of gel. Despite all the differences, though, he and Harry were taking as if they knew each other.
"Ginny," Harry said, looking happy to see her. Ginny wondered why he was in such a good mood at a crime scene. "We were just talking about you."
"You were?" she asked hesitantly.
"This is my cousin Dudley," Harry explained.
Ginny froze. Dudley Dursley? The same cousin who had made Harry's childhood miserable. Ginny had once vowed that if she ever ran into one of the Dursleys, she would hex them, Statute of Secrecy and Muggle Protection Acts, be damned.
Somehow, she didn't think that would be appropriate now, though.
"Dudley, this is my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley," Harry went on.
"Nice to meet you," Ginny said.
Dudley nodded. "Harry's told me about you-at least, he's telling me now."
Ginny smiled. "So, what happened here?"
Harry sighed. "We're thinking this is the work of somebody we've been following for a while now. There's been a rash of Muggle-baiting and worse in the past six months and some of our best investigators think it's all the work of the same guy."
"What did he do this time?" Ginny cast her eyes at Dudley. He didn't seem to be hurt or traumatized, though she supposed that, growing up with Harry, he wasn't as surprised by magic as some Muggles were.
"Well," Harry said, "this time, we might not have made the connection. It looked like an ordinary Muggle-baiting, the kind of prank you get all the time at this time of year. Kids are just out of school, looking to blow off some steam."
Dudley rubbed his chin, looking slightly embarrassed. "Me and my mates, we thought we were buying some… some pot off this guy-it's a drug, hallucinogen, but Harry said it was… something."
"Alihotsy," Harry said.
"Right. And apparently that's what it was this bloke gave us, because it was a fucking bad trip."
"But how is that different from ordinary Muggle baiting?" Ginny asked.
"Tell her, Dudley."
"He put a… a spell on me. On all of us, I think, but I'm the only one who saw it-or still remembers it, I guess." Dudley frowned. "I guess that's because it's a-what did you call it, Harry? A Memory… Charm?"
"He Obliviated you?" Ginny asked, surprised.
Dudley shrugged. "I guess."
"And he did a fair rotten job of it, too," Harry said, "because Dudley remembers being Obliviated, but he doesn't remember anything about the wizard who did it."
"Maybe someone can lift it," Ginny suggested. "If he's already remembering something, maybe we can break it. Hermione's right over there, she might be able to help."
"Good idea," Harry said. "Why don't you go get her?"
A few minutes later, Ron and Hermione had joined them. No one else seemed to have noticed the five young people off to the side; the other Ministry workers were busy erasing all traces of magic from the area and applying last minute healing spells and second Memory Charms to Dudley's friends.
"So, Hermione, do you think you can do it?" Harry asked.
Hermione looked down at her wand, looking worried. "I don't know. Messing around with memory is very dangerous."
"How so?" Dudley asked. "Like a computer?"
"I suppose," Hermione said. Ginny couldn't follow, but Hermione and Dudley seemed to have found common ground. "Like when you try to recover a file and it's corrupted, it might not be reliable. You know what I'm looking for, so you might have created an image in your mind of that, subconsciously or otherwise. We've been talking about this mysterious wizard and we all have an image of him in our minds, however vague. Your memory could be corrupted by that image."
"Like when they hypnotize people on television?"
"Yes," Hermione said, looking impressed that her Muggle references weren't lost on her audience for once. "And you know those recovered memories aren't generally admissible in court. This is a little more reliable, but it's sort of the same principle."
"Have you done this before?" Dudley asked.
"Your parents-" Ron started.
Hermione sighed. "I didn't Obliviate my parents, Ron. It was a different spell. Based on the same theory, but it's like-well, Dudley will get this-it's like moving a file to the Recycle Bin versus permanently deleting it. One is easily recoverable and the other isn't. In fact, it may be impossible."
"Well, let's try," Dudley said. "It's worth a shot, isn't it? If I can remember what this bloke looked like."
"We'd have our only lead, yeah." Harry looked at his cousin seriously. "You okay with this? I know your mum and dad-"
Dudley snorted. "I'm not going to tell them a thing about this. I mean, for one thing-" he looked embarrassed "-it would mean telling them about the, um, pot. But you're right, Harry, they wouldn't like this."
"All right," Hermione said, "are you ready?"
Dudley swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, I guess."
Hermione held out her wand, pointing it at Dudley's nose, a look of great concentration on her face. She muttered something under her breath that Ginny couldn't make out, and Dudley's eyes briefly glazed over. Ginny watched with rapt attention. She had never seen memory work up close before and she found herself fascinated, both by Hermione's look of intense concentration and the otherworldly… something in Dudley's eyes.
Suddenly, Hermione drew back as if shocked.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked sharply.
"Nothing," Hermione said. "I think-I think it worked."
"Dudley?"
Dudley blinked and shook his head to clear it. "I remember. It's still vague, but it's clearer than it was." He was looking at Hermione with a sort of muted awe, as if he didn't know whether to be impressed or terrified by her. Ginny could relate.
"You remember what he looks like?" Harry asked.
"It's hard," Dudley said. "He had a… hood on, so I couldn't see his face." He paused. "He had a mole. On the left side of his face, by his mouth."
"That's good," Harry said. He looked at the others. "That's something to go on, isn't it?"
"Right," Ron said. He looked at the assembled crowd, which was starting to break up. "Reckon we should get going?"
"Yeah." Harry dusted his hands on his robes and shook Dudley's hand. "We ought to meet again."
"Yeah, under better circumstances."
Ginny looked at Harry. He didn't seem to be reacting to Dudley as she would have expected, knowing how he had bullied him throughout their childhoods.
She waited until she had him alone.
"So," she said, sidling up close to him. "That was the famous Dudley Dursley?"
Harry gave a short laugh. "In the flesh."
Ginny slipped her hand into his and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You seemed like you got on."
Harry scratched the tip of his nose. "He's not so bad. Not anymore. He grew up a bit. During the war, they were all in hiding, the Dursleys, at an Order safehouse, and I think Dudley got a little taste of the wizarding world. His parents want nothing to do with it, but he understands a little bit more now."
"That's good, I suppose," Ginny said. "I just hate the thought of what they did to you."
Harry was quiet. He looked down at his feet. "That's in the past, Gin. I just want-" He paused. "I just want my-our kids to have a family they know loves them."
She stopped and stepped in front of him, placing her hands on his shoulders. "They will," she said firmly, surprised at how she wasn't nervous about the fact that he'd said our kids. She kissed him, then, and it felt just as reassuring as it had every other time since she'd gotten home. Harry's hand slid down her arm, sending shivers up her spine. No matter what happened, she knew she'd always be able to depend on Harry-and that he could depend on her.
"D'you really need to do that here?" Ron said. Ginny winced, preparing for him to start ranting, but he didn't. "We ought to get back to work."
Harry gave Ginny one more kiss and stepped back, smirking. "Are you going back to your dad's office?"
"Maybe." She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Actually, I was wondering if I could come with you."
Ron was the first to object. "Is that even allowed?"
"I'll be fine," Ginny said flatly. "It's not like you're even official Aurors yet."
"Yeah, but we're more official than you."
"It's not like it's dangerous or anything," Ginny said. "I'll just be… shadowing. At the Ministry. Like I did with Dad this morning." She thought the Auror office seemed a lot more interesting than Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, and now that she had seen part of this case, she had the strong urge to follow through with it.
"Oh!" Hermione gasped. "My second interview." And with that, she Disapparated without preamble.
"What do you think, Harry?" Ron asked, cutting his eyes to his friend.
Harry grinned. "If Kingsley says it's all right, I'd love to have Ginny around this afternoon."
**
When she got to the Auror office, Ginny decided that it didn't outwardly seem any different than she'd seen upstairs. It, too, was populated mostly by bored-looking wizards, sitting at desks, shuffling paper.
Ginny followed Harry to his desk, which was set in the corner. Really, "his desk" was a misnomer, as he shared it with Ron. Harry Summoned a chair for her and tried to awkwardly position it against a section of the desk where chairs were not exactly meant to go.
"Sorry," he said, smiling apologetically. "Best I can do for now."
"This is fine," Ginny said. "Anything I can do for now?"
Harry and Ron exchanged glances.
"I'll go talk to Kingsley," Ron volunteered.
"I guess we can add this to the file," Harry said to Ginny. He sat down next to her and drew a binder closer to him.
Harry didn't need to consult the list very closely as he began assembling the notes that would go in the file. Ginny watched him, thinking.
"What's the next step of the investigation?"
"Well," Harry said, "since we think what happened today fits in with the other, similar cases, we're going to guess we're looking at the same suspect. Dudley's identification will help a lot."
"What were the previous incidents?"
Harry handed her the report. "Muggle-baiting, but always a little more dangerous than usual. Not that any kind of Muggle-baiting's acceptable, but there's a difference between selling a Muggle a book written in invisible ink and-"
"Selling a Muggle drugs they can't handle."
"Exactly. There's real maliciousness here, not some prank."
"And he Obliviated them so they wouldn't be able to identify him." She paused. "Did he Obliviate the Muggles in the other cases?"
"We didn't think so, but there's no way we could have known for sure-they obviously wouldn't remember, and our Obliviators had to go in, too, before the memories of us getting there had gotten too set in."
A terrible thought occurred to Ginny. "He isn't one of the Ministry Obliviators, is he? I mean, he obviously knows how to do a Memory Charm, and-"
"We thought of that," Harry said. "After last year, we instituted a screening process that all Ministry employees had to go through. We had to figure out who was working for Voldemort, who had been Imperiused, who had just been laying low."
Ginny nodded. "What happened to…?"
Harry ran a hand through his hair, apparently remembering the stress of these interrogations. "Well, depending on the severity of their involvement, they were either sacked or put on trial." He paused. "Some of them are actually still waiting in Azkaban. I mean, I'd hate to think-"
Ginny laid a hand on his arm. "I'm sure you were very thorough," she murmured. "There's a very low chance that they're innocent and even if they are, they'll only have spent a couple of months in there, not years, not like Sirius."
He gave her a wan smile. "You're right. As always."
She grinned. "So, what else?"
"Right." Harry pushed his glasses up on his nose and turned back to the file. "We monitored the ones who had been Imperiused, but generally, it's easy there to tell who's been lying from who is telling the truth. Family and friends can corroborate your story, or you can accurately describe what being Imperiused feels like. As for the ones who laid low…" Harry stopped. "Some people wanted to get rid of them, too. You know, if you're not with us, you must be against us. But I think there are some people who just don't want to be heroes, who want to hold on to their normal, day-to-day lives."
"I imagine that's most people," Ginny said. It was certainly how she probably would have felt once, but Harry had changed her. As soon as she'd realized what lay ahead for him, she'd known she was going to be with him until the end, be it as a member of the DA or something more. But her life had been completely normal compared to Harry's.
"Right, then," Harry said, reaching for another paper. "Our suspect obviously isn't in Azkaban, so he's not a known Death Eater. More than likely, he's not even a Ministry employee, at least, not one who's come to our attention so far."
Ginny nodded. "What about the mole Dudley mentioned?"
"That narrows it down a bit, though there's always the possibility he could be using a glamour spell."
"Yeah." There was a lot to think about. Ginny wondered how the Aurors ever caught any criminals at all.
**
Ginny liked working beside Harry, though they didn't make much progress. Ron seemed to think they were distracting each other, but Ginny didn't think so, though there were moments she caught herself just looking at Harry.
The year he'd been away hunting Horcruxes, plus this past year when she had been at school meant that she had spent almost two years away from Harry. She'd seen him of course, during school holidays and such, but she hadn't really seen him, hadn't really looked at him.
Those two years had aged him, and while Ginny had always thought he looked older than the other boys she'd dated, but he was definitely a man now. It was evident in the way he carried himself and in the slope of his shoulders and the curve of his jaw. She loved this man.
Not in the same way she had before, her crush in her first year, or the last few weeks of her fifth. She loved him as a woman now, instead of as a girl, and she was quite certain, as she'd been thinking for the past several days, that she'd like to spend the rest of her life with him.
"Ginny? Earth to Ginny?"
She blinked. "Sorry, what?"
Harry gave her one of the crooked smiles she loved and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. Muggle expression. I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner tonight. You know, we might actually have a proper date."
She grinned. "That sounds brilliant."
**
The Leaky Cauldron was surprisingly crowded for a Monday night, but Harry and Ginny were able to get a quiet table in a corner.
"Harry Potter always gets a seat in my bar," Tom had declared and Harry had grudgingly allowed the old barkeep to give them a seat.
"I hate doing that," Harry muttered.
"I know," Ginny said, kissing him. "But I like sitting here. It's cozy."
"Harry! Ginny! Hi!"
"Hannah!" Ginny jumped up to hug the former Hufflepuff. "You look good! How have you been?"
"Great! As you can see, I've gotten a job here. Old Tom's getting on in years and he's said he's looking for someone to take over. So…"
"Hannah, that's brilliant," Harry said. "You'd be a great proprietor."
She blushed. "I hope so. How are things at the Ministry?"
The three of them chatted for a few minutes and Hannah took their orders. When she left them alone, Ginny looked up at Harry and caught his eye. She grinned. She was glad she'd learned how to feel comfortable around Harry.
"So, tell me, Miss Weasley, what did you think of the two jobs you did today?"
Ginny pretended to think hard about it. "Well, Mr. Potter, I think I found downstairs to be more to my liking. It was a tick more exciting."
Harry laughed. "You ought to come back on one of our really busy days. This was downright peaceful."
"I think I'd like that," she said.
"I don't see why you couldn't," Harry said. "Ron and I are there in an unofficial capacity. Kingsley likes you. And if you decided you, er, wanted to, you could-"
She smirked. "Proper Auror training begins in September?"
"Yeah."
"Do you mind?"
"Nah." Harry grinned. "I think it'd be fun. You'd make a great Auror, if that's what you wanted to do."
Ginny felt something twist in her stomach. "I don't know. I mean, it's only been one day, and well, I thought it was interesting, I mean, this guy, the suspect, what he's doing, it's wrong."
"I know," Harry said darkly. "I grew up with Muggles and while the Dursleys weren't the best sort, not all of them are like that-that would be like saying all wizards are like the Malfoys."
Ginny nodded. "I think a lot of wizards don't really… know that about Muggles. I mean, we say things about equality and acceptance, but I'm not sure a lot of people really know what that means."
Harry nodded. "You'd be surprised how many wizards don't go so far as to want the Muggles dead, but still think it's funny to do things like-"
"Give them bewitched candy?"
"Right," Harry said. "I mean, Fred-" He stumbled. "Fred and George, they knew Dudley was a git, but they didn't realize that it's different to use a magical prank on a Muggle than it is on a wizard."
"Yeah." Ginny paused. "Not very many people take Muggle Studies."
"Maybe more should."
They were interrupted by Hannah bringing their food, and they didn't talk much about work during the meal, which was fine with Ginny. She was still mulling over in her mind all the things she had seen that day, trying to figure out what to do. There was something oddly appealing about being an Auror, being able to stop people like the Muggle Obliviator, as they were calling the suspect.
Then there was the part of her who just saw how wrong it all was, the way wizards treated Muggles. Dudley had been helpful because he understood magic, at least a little bit, but all the other Muggles had been Healed and then summarily dismissed. The cleanup crew hadn't asked them any questions, hadn't done anything to help them other than wipe their memories once again. Ginny knew that they couldn't remember anything now, so they were probably fine, but still, she couldn't imagine how terrified they must have felt while all these things they couldn't understand were going on all around them.
After dinner, Harry and Ginny went for a walk in the Alley. It was nice to see the rebuilding efforts were going well. The new façade on Gringotts was almost completed and the shops nearly all seemed to be back in business. They passed the darkened Wheezes storefront and Ginny paused.
"There's a light on upstairs," she commented, pointing.
Harry squeezed her hand. "Lee's been helping out, and Ron and I mean to come down this weekend."
"Okay," she said quietly. "I'll come, too."
There weren't a lot of people around, so it was no surprise that Harry and Ginny soon lost track of time. Living at the Burrow meant very little alone time, and they were enjoying having a bit of privacy (even if that "privacy" was in a public area).
They had been in a secluded corner, near Flourish and Blotts, when Ginny caught movement out of the corner of her eye.
"Harry," she whispered. "Look."
There was a man coming out of the shop, a package tucked under his arm. It was hard to see his face, but for a second, in the light from one of the wall-mounted torches, Ginny could see it.
He had a mole. On the left side of his face.
"Harry."
She knew he saw it, too, because he shifted against her, drawing his wand. "We can't," he began. "We don't know."
"I know," she said, as she watched him move out of sight. "It could be anyone; I'm just a little… on edge."
"I understand." He squeezed her shoulder. "There was a time when I would have followed him," he mused.
Ginny grinned. "I remember."
Harry laughed. "How did you ever put up with me?"
She slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him again. "You have your benefits."
**
The next day when they got to the Ministry, Ginny had a new determination to find the man with the mole.
She went to the records room and asked the witch there for the files on the Ministry employees who had been let go (but who hadn't had criminal charges pressed against them). This included both those who had been fired due to what Kingsley called uninspiring attitude, and those who had been sacked for other reasons.
The stack of files was larger than she expected and as Ginny levitated it in front of her on the way to a reading room, she wondered if there would be any point to doing this. Harry had said it fit the profile, though, so it was worth checking out.
The reading room looked little-used. The desk and chair were very wobbly and Ginny set her stack of files down with some trepidation.
It only took a few files before she found her attention drifting. She could eliminate the witches immediately, but she needed to study the wizards. She knew it was stupid to be specifically looking for the man she'd seen last night-she hadn't gotten a good look at him, and there had to be hundreds of men with moles. Dudley hadn't been able to provide them with any additional description, either, so there was no telling what other features he had.
Ginny was astonished at the number of Ministry employees who had been sacked when Kingsley took office. Most of the firings had been justified; Ginny couldn't find any she disagreed with. After a while, they became tedious to page through. Many of the employees were Death Eaters, who had simply been officially fired as a formality though they had been in Azkaban since the battle.
After at least an hour, she found herself wishing the reading room had a wireless set so she could listen to some music. All of sudden, she was interrupted by a fluttering behind her. She turned to find a charmed note batting at the back of her head. Ginny plucked it out of the air and unfolded it.
Gin -
Going out on another call in Surrey. Nothing serious. Taking Ron with me.
- Harry
Ginny set the note aside. She'd go down later to see if they'd gotten back. Maybe they could all get lunch together.
Fifteen minutes later, Ginny was ready to give up. She was getting nowhere fast, and at this rate, the suspect would die of old age before they found him, and that was assuming he even was in this stack of files.
She was so near giving up that she almost couldn't believe her eyes when she pulled the next file off the stack.
It was him. The man from Diagon Alley, the man with the mole.
Ginny was suddenly overcome by a wave of dread. Harry. Harry was in danger.
She didn't know why that thought had leapt to her mind, but she read the rest of the file with shaking fingers. His name was Waldemar Hogle, pureblood, Ravenclaw. He'd left school almost thirty years ago and had been working at the Ministry his entire working life, starting out as a clerk in the records office and then moving on to an Obliviator position.
She began skimming.
He'd claimed to be under the Imperius curse, and while they had found no evidence he had been lying, he had tortured several Muggles and helped capture many Muggle-borns during the year Voldemort had held the Ministry. Despite his Imperius defense, he had still been let go for comments made about Kingsley's half-blood status, and Harry's "special treatment."
Harry.
While he was supposedly under the Imperius, he'd been especially instrumental in the search for Harry, and his current address was listed as being in Surrey.
He wasn't under surveillance.
Ginny leapt for her feet, grabbing the file with one hand and pulling her wand out with the other. Her heart in her throat, she tore down the hall to the Auror office. She found Kingsley there, as he often was, seemingly reluctant to leave his old office behind.
He saw Ginny come in and looked up with concern.
"What's wrong?"
Ginny was grateful for his calm manner. He didn't treat her like she was some hysteric girl who didn't know what she was talking about.
"Where did Harry and Ron go?"
"We had a flare in a Muggle area, not far from the incident yesterday. It didn't seem-"
Ginny handed Kingsley the file. "I think it's a trap."
His face clouded as he skimmed the parchment. "Merriweather," he barked at one of the nearby Aurors, "get a team together and-"
"I'm coming, too," Ginny declared.
There was a brief flash of hesitation in Kingsley's eye and then he grinned. "Didn't think I could keep you away."
**
Ginny wasn't sure what they'd find when they Apparated to the spot. She was expecting the worst, and thus, thought she was prepared, until she saw Ron lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
She uttered a strangled gasp and someone yelled, "Ginny!"
She dodged, bringing her wand up for a Shield Charm just in time. Quickly, she took in the scene around her. Ron was down, and Dudley Dursley was kneeling beside him, looking queasy. The Aurors were securing the perimeter, as several curious Muggles had assembled to watch the strange battle. Ginny felt her stomach turn over again when she saw that two of them lay on the ground.
Dead, she knew, from a Killing Curse, their faces twisted into masks of confusion.
Harry was furiously dueling Waldemar Hogle. Ginny darted forward to help him.
That was when Harry realized she was there. "Gin-" He began, and that was the opportunity Hogle had been waiting for.
"A-"
"Stupefy!" Ginny screamed. She had put all she had into the spell and it hit Hogle in the stomach, knocking him back several feet. He hit the ground, unconscious and Harry got over his moment of shock.
"Petrficus Totalus! Incarcerous!" He stood there for a moment, breathing hard, as Merriweather and Kingsley approached Hogle's unconscious body.
"Ron!" Ginny said quickly.
"Stunned," Harry explained, and a moment later, they were both by his side.
"Ennervate," Ginny murmured and her brother blinked blearily.
"Gin? What are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask the same question," Harry said. He still seemed surprised, as though he hadn't processed the events of the past few minutes. His expression was unreadable.
"I found him," she said, pointing at Hogle. "In the records." She went on to explain what she had learned about him and what had caused her to run to Kingsley with the information.
"Wow," Harry said when she was finished.
"So what happened here?" she prodded.
"Flare of magic," Ron explained. "Seemed accidental, like a Muggle-born kid too young for Hogwarts, but when we detect something, we check it out."
"And we walked right into a trap, like you said," Harry finished.
"He came back," Dudley said. He looked completely shell-shocked. He'd been so quiet Ginny had almost forgotten he was there. "Just like the other day, it's the same bloke. Definitely the same bloke. He pulled us aside and said he needed help and then-then it all went barmy." He was clearly shaken, especially by seeing two of his friends killed.
Harry put a hand on his shoulder. "The cleanup team's going to want to ask you some questions. You want me to stay with you?"
Dudley nodded.
Harry turned to Ginny. "Can you take Ron back Side-Along? He should be fine but I think he ought to be looked at."
"You'll be all right?"
"Yeah, Gin, I'll be fine. Nothing but clean up from here on out." He leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, then started to walk away. Ginny watched him go, then took Ron's hand and turned on the spot.
**
Ginny didn't get to see Harry again until dinner that evening. Molly fussed over the three of them non-stop throughout the meal and Ginny wasn't at all looking forward to telling her mother that she might officially join Harry and Ron in entering Auror training in September.
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to do it. Today had been exhilarating and terrifying and after, now that she was able to reflect on it, it was even rewarding. There was a man awaiting trial in Azkaban that Ginny had helped put there. He'd killed and tortured Muggles and now, because of Ginny, Ron and Harry, he wasn't going to do it anymore.
That felt good.
After dinner, Ginny was finally able to get away from her mother's constant questions ("Why did you have to go with them, Ginny? You could've been hurt!"). Unsurprisingly, Harry joined her in the garden.
"Hey," Ginny said.
"Hey, yourself." He kissed her on the forehead. "You were absolutely brilliant today."
"And I'll never hear the end of it from Mum and Ron."
Harry shrugged. "They'll get used to it."
Ginny felt a chill. "They'll get used to it if I actually end up doing this for the rest of my life, you mean."
"Is that what you want?"
Ginny thought about it.
"You don't have to decide now," Harry reminded her. "I'm sure your NEWT results, on top of your war and DA experience will more than qualify you. Kingsley would recommend you. I'd vouch for you."
"I appreciate that."
"So, Miss Weasley, have you reached a decision?" Harry began stroking her hair. It was very comforting. It would be nice to actually spend time with Harry. She tried to picture herself working with Harry. She knew Neville's parents had been a much-renowned husband-and-wife Auror team, though Ginny obviously hoped to avoid their fate.
"I think I'd like to do it." She turned, looking up at him and smiled. She was nervous, was probably still a little high on adrenaline after the day she'd had, but she was as certain as she could be. "Let's do it."
Harry grinned, his eyes mischievous behind his glasses. "You'll be brilliant."
Ginny reached out to take his hand, twining their fingers together. She leaned up and kissed him. "We'll be brilliant."