TIme of Their Lives Ch 13

Chapter 13: Secrets and Seekers

The next day when Harry and Ginny met Hermione outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts it was all they could do to keep straight faces. Her hair was thrown into a messy ponytail and she looked like she hadn't slept in a few weeks.

"Hey Hermione…looking good." said Harry with a smirk.

"Ohh... not so loud…" she moaned and put her hands on each side of her head.

Hermione spent the entire class period with her head down on her desk and after it was over she made her way to Harry and Ginny's room where she flopped on the couch and groaned.

"If I ever even think about touching a drop of Firewhisky for the rest of my life, promise me that you will slap me silly." she said.

Harry laughed and went to the kitchen to make her a cup of strong tea; he heard that sometimes that would help. Ginny came over and told him that she would be right back and then she hurried out the door.

"So how's Ron?" asked Harry in amusement.

"He's slightly better than me… he can hold his liquor a bit more than I can." Said Hermione miserably, just then Ginny came back in and she had a small bottle which she poured into Hermione's tea.

Harry gave her a questioning look.

"Potion I got from Bill, he said it should put her right in about ten minutes." explained Ginny, "hey what's that?" she added pointing to the window sill.

There was a very funny looking bird sitting on the window ledge, he was snowy white but he had a bright yellow comb that he kept fluffing up on the top of his head making him look positively hilarious. Hermione sat up to look at the bird as Ginny brought her the cup of tea. Harry went and opened the window, and the bird flew happily in and gave a high pitched trill which cause Hermione to groan and sink back onto the couch. The bird held out its leg, which had a note attached to it, and Harry reached out to take it.

"Here you go!" said the bird, and both Harry and Ginny jumped.

"Harry did that bird just talk?" said Ginny.

"He's a cock-a-too..." said Hermione weakly from behind them, she had gotten up and come over, she still looked rather weak but since drinking the tea her color was returning.

"Cock-a-too's can be trained to say certain phrases but they're just repeating what they hear, they don't actually know what their saying." she explained.

"Here you go!" said the bird again, still holding out its leg.

Ginny took the note off and unfolded it. As soon as she did she rolled her eyes and began to laugh.

"I should have known… he belongs to George." she said, and she handed Harry the note.

Hello all,

This is George here, I was wondering if the four of you could pop down to the store on Friday night around nine o'clock, we're having a bit of a celebration. Don't dress up it's casual, though birthday suites are frowned upon. Send me a note back with Freddie McFeatherton. He may look a bit funnier than an owl, but he's very dependable, and he never shuts up, just like the original. Cheers!

George

Harry laughed as he handed the note to Hermione and then he looked back at the strange bird.

"So you're Freddie are you?" he said.

"Freddie!" said the bird bobbing his head up and down and squawking.

"I wonder what that's about?" said Hermione.

"Dunno but I guess we should go and find out." said Harry, he wrote a hasty note telling George they'd be there and tied it to the leg of the bouncing bird, who took off through the now open window.

"You'll let Ron know that we're going tomorrow night?" said Harry to Hermione, she nodded slowly and then headed for the portrait still looking slightly ill but much surer on her feet.

The next night at eight forty five the all met at Ron's flat. They had been trying to figure out what George might have up his sleeve for the past thirty six hours but none of them had come up with anything particularly good.

"Maybe they have some new invention we get to try first!" said Ron for the third time.

"Maybe we should just go and then we'll find out!" retorted Ginny.

Ron made a face at her but then they all Apparated to the spot in front of George's shop. They could see that lights were on inside but not the main store lights, there was a softer glow coming through the window. They entered and saw that the shelves had been pushed aside to make a wide open space in the middle of the room and there were fairy lights strung all around the room to give it a soft magical feel. George and Charlie were standing towards the front of the room talking. The large picture of Fred that had been at his funeral was also there, and it was interjecting comments where it saw fit. To Harry's surprise the small wispy haired man who had presided over Dumbledore's funeral and Bill and Fleur's wedding was also there. Suddenly Harry was starting to get an idea of what was goin on here.

"George, what the bloody hell is going on?" said Ron.

George looked up and saw the four of them and a big smile came to his face.

"Ah so glad you could join us! See Angelina and I decided we're going to get married. We needed two witnesses, we already had Charlie here, but seeing as I couldn't decide on one of you I just invited you all" said George brightly as if he were informing them that there was a sale on Fanged Frisbee's.

They all stood there in stunned silence, they were so overwhelmed with information, that they had no idea what to do next. It was Fred's photo that finally broke the silence.

"What do you mean only one witness here? What am I chopped liver?" said Fred.

'No... You're a painting…" teased George, "so pretty equal to chopped liver in this instance."

"if I could get out of this frame…." said Fred threateningly.

"then I'd still kick your butt because I always did when you were alive.." said George, then he turned back to the rest of them, "Now you lot come stand by Charlie if you don't mind."

Harry finally remembered how to walk and he led everyone else forward. Now that he was getting over his shock, he found the whole situation absolutely hilarious. Of course this is how George would get married, he shouldn't have expected anything else. Suddenly they heard the door to the back room open.

"Are you ready for me yet?" called Angelina.

"Yeah we're ready!" said Charlie, who then began to hum his own rendition of 'Here Comes the Bride' loudly while Fred conducted him with grand motions from inside the portrait.

Angelina stepped out of the doorway wearing a simple white dress that complimented her dark skin beautifully and little flowers in her hair. The minute she saw the antics of Charlie and Fred she began to laugh hysterically, and soon everyone was laughing. They finally regained composure as she reached George and took his hand to stand before the little man.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate the glorious union..." the man began but Angelina cut him off.

"Excuse me, not to be rude. But we're getting married in the middle of a joke shop. We don't really need the formalities, just skip to the really important stuff." she said.

The little man looked highly affronted but George gazed at her in admiration, and everyone else began to laugh again.

"Very well," said the little man, "Do you Angelina Marie Johnson; take George Richard Weasley to be your husband?"

'Don't do it! You have so much to live for!" whispered the picture of Fred and they all chuckled as George aimed a kick at the edge of his frame.

"I do." She said smiling at George.

"Do you George Richard Weasley take Angelina Marie Johnson to be your lawfully wedded wife." said the man.

'You bet I do!" said George with a big grin.

"Rings?" said the man, and they slipped them on each others fingers.

"I know pronounce you bonded for life." He tapped his wand and a golden chord bound their hands together.

"George you may kiss your bride."

George wrapped his arms around Angelina and dipped her low with flourish as he planted a big long kiss on her while they all clapped and cheered.

"All right break it up! You'll have plenty of time for that later!" said Charlie after a few more moments.

George and Angelina broke apart and looked around at everyone and grinned then Angelina waved her wand at the back of the store and a table covered in food came flying into the room and plopped down in the middle of the floor.

"Let's eat!" said George, and they all sat down around the table.

"So George what on earth brought this about so quickly?" said Hermione as she reached for a roasted chicken leg.

"Well…" said George, who was leaning back in his chair with his arm draped across his new wife's shoulders, "we were talking the other day… about how trading off whose place we stay at every night was getting to be a bother. So I said to Angie, almost jokingly at first, that we should just get married and then everything would be simpler. Well she said, 'do you want to?' and well here we are..." he shrugged and grinned.

"We were just going to elope," said Angelina, "but we thought why not just get married here in the joke shop and then we go on holiday to France for our honeymoon."

"You're going to France?" said Ron incredulously.

"Yup we're leavin tomorrow..." said George happily, "We'll be there for two weeks and then we'll be coming back to the Burrow to spend Easter with the family and let Mum and Dad know we're married."

Harry choked on the piece of roast beef that he was eating and looked up at the two of them in disbelief.

"Mum and Dad don't know you got married? And you're going to wait two whole weeks to tell them?" he said in astonishment.

"Well of course they don't know. Do you really think Mum would have let us get married without her here if she had known?" said George.

"We're planning to fib and tell them we eloped, so that you all don't get in trouble, for being in on it." Angelina assured them.

"Thank goodness for that!" said Ron, "I wouldn't want to be anywhere near you when you tell Mum."

"You're a braver man than I was George…" teased Fred's photo as he shook his head mockingly, and George shot him an amused glare.

They all stayed in the joke shop late into the night. They had a fantastic time, the ate until they felt like they would burst and then they played games and finally George put on some music and they all danced around like crazy. As the music played George's cock-a-too began to swoop around the room making hilarious noises that almost sounded as if he were trying to sing along.

"Where did you find that thing anyway George?" said Harry as the bird swooped low over him making him duck.

"Angelina found him actually, in a Muggle pet shop. We weren't one hundred percent sure he would be able to figure out how to carry letters for us at first but he does just fine. And he's quite a laugh most days. Aren't you Freddie?" he said this last part to the bird, who had just landed on the top of his head and was sitting their affectionately while George danced looking like a ridiculous hat.

At about one in the morning Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione decided it was time to leave, they walked out of the shop to Apparate and they were still all talking animatedly about the evening.

"I cannot believe them…" said Ginny, "well at least we know that Easter Break won't be boring." She added with a laugh.

'Oh great scot!" said Ron stopping in his tracks, "That reminds me, the second week of your Easter break I have to spend in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian National team just won their last game of the finals so they are going to the Quidditch World Cup, and Lee wants me to do a week long exclusive where I interview each member of the team in depth. I was wondering if you all wanted to come with me. We'll get to stay in a nice hotel and you guys can go see the sights. What do you say?"

"That would be so amazing Ron!" said Harry eagerly.

"Oh yes Ron that would be so much fun!" Ginny echoed.

They all Apparated back to Hogsmead and Ginny and Harry left Hermione and Ron at the door to the Hogs head as they headed back up towards the castle talking excitedly.

"Harry dear if you don't watch what you're doing there will be no potatoes left!" said Molly Weasley.

It was Easter at the Burrow and Harry had been assigned the job of peeling the potatoes which he was finally able to do magically but he was so distracted by the imminent arrival of George and Angelina, that he had let potatoes almost peel themselves into non existence.

"Sorry Mum," he said as he quickly fixed the potatoes.

Ginny who was sitting next to him chopping up carrots leaned over as soon as her mother had turned away.

"You'd better snap out of it unless you want her to realize we know something's up." She whispered in his ear.

He nodded quickly, the last thing he wanted was for Mrs. Weasley to have any inclination that they had been involved in George's crazy scheme in any way, this was going to be a dangerous enough situation to watch without being caught in the cross fire. A moment later they heard someone coming through the garden and Mrs. Weasley looked out the back window.

"Oh George is here! And he's brought Angelina what a lovely surprise!" she said as she happily ran out the back door to meet them.

Ron and Hermione were seated across the table from Harry and Ginny peeling apples, as Mrs. Weasley ran out into the garden Ron met Harry's eye.

"Here we go…" he said with a sense of grim amusement.

Mrs. Weasley walked back into the kitchen with George and Angelina.

"It's so very nice to see you Angelina," she was saying, "Charlie's been saying how you and George are inseparable, but we so rarely see him anymore with how busy he is in the shop, and now he's running off to who knows where for weeks at a time." She shot George a reproachful look.

"I was actually in France Mum." Said George, "and Angie was with me." He put his arm around her shoulders as he said this.

"What on earth were you doing in France?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh I just needed a bit of a break…" said George as he sidled over and casually grabbed an apple from the pile next to Ron and Hermione, and plopped down in a chair to eat it.

"Oh and we got married…" he added as an afterthought, as he took a bite of the apple.

Hermione put her head in her hands and sighed, but Harry had to try very hard to suppress a laugh. George always had a knack for winding his mother up.

"YOU WHAT?" screeched Mrs. Weasley so loudly that Mr. Weasley came running in from the living room where he had been tinkering with a Muggle toaster.

"Molly what on earth is wrong?" he said looking around for whatever had upset his wife so badly.

"YOUR SON RAN OFF AND GOT MARRIED! THAT'S WHAT!" she yelled.

"Which one…" he said looking around the kitchen.

George raised his hand half heartedly and gave his father a goofy grin before going back to eating his apple. It was easy to tell that he was thoroughly enjoying this. Angelina had taken a seat next to Harry and while she was not being as blatantly care free as her husband, Harry could tell that like him, she was trying very hard to suppress her laughter. Mrs. Weasley looked like she might explode on the spot.

"Oh Mum, calm down…" said George still enjoying himself far too much, "I'm an adult with my own respectable business and I wanted to get married to the girl I love. Elopement is a Weasley tradition it's only fair that someone carried it on."

"He does have a point there Molly." Said Mr. Weasley but he quickly stopped talking when he saw the look his wife was giving him.

"Now Mum…" said George as he got up and went over to put his hands on her shoulders, "if you keep yelling like this you're going to make your brand new daughter-in-law feel like she's not wanted."

Mrs. Weasley's expression softened immediately as she looked at Angelina who was still sitting in the seat next to Harry working very hard on arranging her face into a serious expression.

"Oh but of course your wanted dear!" she said, "I'm thrilled that you've joined our family. It's just you two gave me such a shock!" she gave them another reproachful look.

"Oh Mum…" said George giving her a one armed hug, "you know that this scene wouldn't have been complete without me finding some way to get you screaming at me."

Mrs. Weasley gave him an affectionate slap on the side of the head, and glared up at him but she returned his hug, and then began to laugh, everyone in the room relaxed and began to talk with George and Angelina about their trip to France.

They all had a wonderful Easter with the Weasley's, after her initial shock Mrs. Weasley was overjoyed to have Angeline join their family. They had a decadent Easter feast and they each got their delicious Easter basket with chocolate eggs and treats.

A little less than a week later, Harry was standing outside of a huge hotel in the capital city of Sofia, in Bulgaria. To Harry's great surprise they were standing outside of a Hilton Hotel, a famous chain of Muggle Hotels. They all walked into the plush lobby and Ron walked straight to the desk.

"We have suite under the name of Weasley?" he said.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley your room is ready, you will be on zee twelfth vloor, if der is anything you vant, please just call." Said the young woman handing him a key with the number twelve oh six printed on it.

"Could I actually get a second key? Since there are four of us?" He asked.

"But of course..." she smiled and handed him a second key, which he tossed to Harry and they all headed for their room.

When they had all gotten into the elevator, and Ginny had pushed button for the twelfth floor Harry turned to Ron and gave him a confused look.

"Ron why are we staying in a Muggle hotel?" he said curiously.

"Security reasons mate. Whenever someone from the Ministry is going to be interviewing famous people, they make them stay in Muggle lodgings, so that the celebrities don't attract too much attention when they're coming and going. I had to take some lessons in blending in with Muggles; you know learning Muggle money and such, before Lee would let me come here." Ron explained.

"And learning how to talk on the telephone." teased Hermione as she squeezed his hand and giggled.

The elevator stopped at the twelfth floor and they all got out. The door in front of them read number twelve fourteen, they looked both ways and saw that the numbers were ascending down the hall from left to right, so they turned to the left and began to walk. They reached door number twelve oh six, and they went inside. The suite was large and airy, the first room that they walked into was a beautiful living room with plush couches and chairs, and Harry watched in amusement as both Ginny and Hermione gasped and pressed ran to press their faces against the floor to ceiling windows on the far edge of the room which gave them a spectacular view of the city twelve stories down. Harry chuckled as he watched them chatter with excitement, and then he turned to Ron.

"Pretty nice Ron..." he said with a smile and Ron simply shrugged.

They uncovered a pull out sofa bed in the couch and Ron was going to suggest that they flip a coin to decide who got the bedroom but Ginny and Harry insisted that Ron and Hermione take it, this was after all Ron's business trip. They all began to unpack and after about five minutes, Ron snuck back out into the living room and went over to Harry.

"Hey Harry!" he said, "Hermione was telling me that those funny black boxes," he pointed to the TV, "Show you some kind of moving talking pictures, but I don't get it.. why is that so entertaining?"

"Well I guess we'll have to show you." said Harry with a laugh.

After about ten more minutes they were all unpacked, Ginny and Hermione announced that they were going back downstairs to ask about sight seeing, and Harry decided that he would take a shower. He hopped in and let the warm later relax all his tension, he was very excited to be in a new country having these new experiences with his friends, the weight that had been in his heart seemed to be completely lifted. It was hard for Harry to even remember why it had been so strong in the first place, he had a purpose again, and this time he was going to help people, and make their lives better.

Harry stepped out of the shower and pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt, he doubted they would go anywhere that evening so he wanted to be comfortable. When he walked out he saw that the girls were not back yet, but the scene that met him made him start laughing. Ron was sitting on the couch with the TV on, and he was staring at it with such wonder and intensity that Harry thought he might start drooling. He went over and plopped down on the couch next to Ron.

"Found out what's so interesting about TV have you?" he said with a smirk.

Ron jumped, he had even realized that Harry had been sitting there. Then he turned to look at Harry with a look of awe and excitement on his face.

"Harry this is amazing! Look you use this little thing." He held up the remote, "and you push the little CH button, and it puts hundreds of different moving pictures on for you. This one is about someone committing a murder, and now the Muggle police are trying to find who did it. I think it's that guy right there, but they seem to think it's his brother. Oh! And this one," he switched the channel, "in this one that bloke thinks that he likes her, but her best friend likes him. Oh and then there's my favorite." he changed the channel again, "this is what they call movers, which means they are longer, and more complex I think, this one's been on for about forty-five minutes and it only looks about halfway done. It's about these people that are trapped in a mall by what look like Inferi, but they eat people, and if you get bit you become one too! It's disgusting but brilliant!" Ron grinned at Harry.

Harry threw his back and laughed and then he patted his best friend on the shoulder, and took the remote out of Ron's hands.

"Ok, first a few things," he said, "This? Is called a remote control." He held up the remote. "The little CH stands for channels, and the different pictures you see are different channels, just like on the Wizarding Wireless, and the thing your watching is called a movie. Other than that you've pretty much figured it out on your own, well done Ron. Oh yeah one other thing, things on the Telly aren't real, there just like plays, you know being acted out."

"Oh good I was wondering about that," said Ron just as a zombie on the T.V screen attacked a girl.

The boys settled into to continue watching the movie.

"What do Muggles call those things anyway?" Ron asked Harry.

"They call them zombies," said Harry, "and you're right they are very similar to Inferi, except that they are undead because of some kind of virus or disease, and they feed on live humans, and if you get bit you are infected too."

'Brilliant…" said Ron with a smile.

Just then Hermione and Ginny came back into the room laden with brochures and also with food. Ron smelled the food immediately and perked up.

"Ugghh... what are you two watching!" said Hermione, as she noticed the grisly zombies, but at the exact same moment Ginny said, "cool!" and joined them on the couch.

They spread the food out in front of them and began to eat, Hermione resigned herself to watching the movie but she screamed and hid her face on Ron's shoulder anytime something scary happened.

The next day was Sunday and since Ron didn't have to start his interviews until Monday, Hermione decided they should all go to an amusement park right outside of town for the day. Ron and Ginny had never even heard of one, and Harry had never been to one due to the fact that whenever the Dursleys would go anywhere remotely interesting they would leave him with Mrs. Figg.

The day was immensely enjoyable, Harry and Hermione thought they were going to laugh themselves silly the first time they got Ron on a roller coaster, he yelled so loud that people on the ground looked up in alarm. They rode rides until they could barely see straight, and they ate a whole bunch of carnival food. Ginny had a particular fondness for caramel apples, which she had three of. They even took a turn at some of the board walk games. Ron knocked down all the pins in a baseball throwing game, but towards the end Harry caught him nonchalantly putting his hand in the pocket were his wand was, so Harry suspected that he had cheated. This didn't seem to bother Ron much though, as he handed a huge blue stuffed bear to Hermione, who laughed.

The next two days Ron stayed in the Hotel room taking interviews, while the other three went out to explore the city of Sofia. One Wednesday Harry decided that he was going to stay in with Ron. Hermione and Ginny had decided to visit the largest unicorn nursery in Europe which was only an hour away from where they were staying, and since baby unicorns seemed to have an aversion to boys, Harry decided it would be more fun to stay home and watch Ron's interview.

"So who are you interviewing today Ron?" Harry asked as he ate a piece of bacon from the breakfast tray they had ordered.

'Their Seeker," said Ron trying to sound casual, "He'll be here at ten o'clock."

"You're interviewing Viktor today?" said Harry with surprise.

"Well I had to get it over at some point…" said Ron with a shrug.

About a half hour later there was a sharp knock on the door. Harry quickly turned off the television and retreated to a chair in the corner of the living room with the Quidditch book that Hermione had gotten him for Christmas, he would of course be listening to the interview, but he also didn't want to appear rude. Ron cleared away their breakfast and then got up and went to the door. He opened it and Viktor Krum shuffled into the room. Ron took his hand and shook it professionally.

"Thank you very much for coming Viktor." He said cordially.

"It vas my pleasure." Said Viktor and they both took seats in the living room.

Ron smiled and then motioned for Viktor to wait for a moment. He sent his Patronus flying out of his wand, his terrier darted through the wall and a moment later he said,

"Lee we're all ready over here, just give us the ok and we'll go on the air."

After a few seconds another Patronus loped into the room, it was a rather adorable chimpanzee.

"Ready here when you are," it said, and then it vanished.

Ron put his wand to his throat and muttered an incantation. Then he smiled brightly and began to speak.

"Hello everyone! And welcome back to the Daily News, I'm your Quidditch correspondent Ron Weasley and I'm on location in Bulgaria talking with the Bulgarian National team about their upcoming participation in the Quidditch World Cup. Today I am talking with the world renowned Bulgarian Seeker Viktor Krum. Viktor it's nice of you to join us!"

"It's nice to be here Ron." Said Viktor.

"So Viktor how long have you been playing Quidditch?" said Ron.

"Since I vas eleven. Dats ven my fader first taught me the game." said Krum.

The questions went on like this for about an hour. Ron asked him about his life as a Quidditch player, his opinions about who would likely play against them in the cup, his opinions of his other team mates, Harry was extremely impressed at the level of professionalism these two men were showing they were talking casually and even laughing together at some points, to the ignorant listener there would be no way to tell the rivalry that still brewed under the surface for these two. After an hour Ron began to do his wrap up.

"Well there you have it folks. A Bulgarian Seeker with high hopes for his team's victory at the Quidditch World cup. Tune in tomorrow while I interview Keeper Kushnikov on which strategies he might be using this time around. This is Ron Weasley for the Daily news saying, have a great day." Ron put his wand back to his throat and then he cleared it loudly before talking normally.

"Right well thanks for your time Viktor, that was a really great interview." Said Ron and he reached to shake Viktor's hand again but Viktor did not move, he was looking at Ron with determined intensity.

"Weasley I vish to talk to you off the record. About Hermione." He said purposefully.

At these words Harry abandoned all pretense of reading his book and began to listen, he knew whatever was about to happen it was going to be important.

"Ok..." said Ron rather stiffly, "What about her?"

"Weasley, Hermione is yours now, you haff von her. But I know dat there are still some questions in your mind, about her and I. I think dat you are a good man, so I haff decided I vill answer any question you may haff of me concerning her." said Viktor, he sat back and looked at Ron expectantly.

Ron looked absolutely dumb founded, Harry could tell he was having an internal struggle between not wanting to give Viktor the satisfaction of knowing that he had been wondering about Hermione's relationship with him, and his burning desire have his questions answered.

"I think I just have one," said Ron slowly.

"Yes?" said Viktor.

"Did you ever kiss her Krum?" said Ron.

Viktor chuckled and shook his head in amusement before he looked back up at Ron.

"May I be completely honest with you Weasley?" he said, and Ron nodded. "I believe that I vas in love with Hermione dat year I vas at Hogwarts. But she never loved me the same vay. She is so logical, she said we could not be serious because I vas leaving at the end of the year, and we had no future. But truly I believe a part of her heart already belonged to you, ven I met her… No Weasley I never kissed her, I only ever held her hand. She said she only vanted to kiss someone if she loved them, and she couldn't love me. I believe you are the only man she has ever kissed, or loved."

As Viktor said these things Harry saw Ron's face falling to the point were he looked completely miserable, when Viktor had finished Ron looked up at him and gave him a half hearted smile.

"Thank you Viktor..." he said and he stood to shake the man's hand.

"Not at all Weasley, just promise me that you vill take care of her." said Viktor seriously.

"That's a promise I can definitely keep." said Ron fervently.

Ron let Viktor out the door and then turned and flopped on the couch with a thoroughly disgusted look on his face, Harry moved into the chair closest to his friend but he was unsure what to say to Ron in this particular situation.

"I'm scum…" said Ron morosely, "I cannot believe I did that to her."

Harry knew what Ron was talking about, in their sixth year Ron and Hermione had been about to start dating when Ron decided that he was going to date Lavender Brown instead to get back at Hermione for allegedly kissing Viktor two years earlier. His actions had completely crushed Hermione's feelings and she had barely spoken to Ron for the whole year.

'Why am I so stupid Harry!" said Ron, punching the back of the couch in anger, "she waited for me! and I had to go and completely mess that up, I'm such a lousy git.. I don't deserve her."

"Hey now…" said Harry, "While I will admit you were a pretty lousy git during sixth year, you aren't one now. You love her very much and you make her very happy. I know that what you heard today must really feel awful, but you can't take back what you did. All you can do is try to make her happy from this day forward."

'Yeah… you're right." said Ron, 'I'm just so disgusted with myself…"

"I know... but it'll be ok… she's already forgiven you." said Harry bracingly.

Ron nodded his head slowly and then sat up on the couch to turn on the television. Harry could tell his friend was done talking about it so he joined him in watching an action show and they ordered some lunch. Ron did a sports re-cap for the news around three oclock and then around four the girls arrived home.

"Oh I wish you could have seen the baby unicorns!" gushed Hermione, "they were so sweet they let us hold them and everything!"

Ron got up from his seat and walked straight to Hermione, he wrapped her in his arms and gave her a long hard kiss.

"I love you more than anything else in the world, you know that right?" he said to her.

"Yes of course I do Ron... I love you too." she said still looking shocked, "What was that for?"

Ron shrugged and pulled her over to sit next to him on the couch, Ginny came and snuggled into the chair next to Harry and they both began to talk excitedly with the boys about all they had seen that day.