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The second Ginny’s first paycheque was in her hand, Harry’s bags were packed, and what had once been Ron and Harry’s bachelor pad became Ron and Hermione’s flat, and what had once been merely a dream in Harry’s head, became a reality.
Harry had, of course, insisted on putting down the first month’s rent himself when they had initially broached the subject, but Ginny -which in hindsight he should have anticipated- had raised an eyebrow at him, patting him on the cheek. ‘I’m not becoming a professional quidditch player just to look pretty, Harry. And you’re kidding yourself if we step foot in any flat that I haven’t paid my share for.’
Co-incidentally, the fact that Ginny was a pretty quidditch player had worked out in her favour, because though she had been signed on to the Harpies based on her flying skills, the Harpies management hadn’t wasted any time in pasting Ginny, who was both fit, a war hero and (unavoidably) The Chosen One’s main squeeze, on as much merchandise as they could manage.
‘Do you think they know I’m set to be on the bench for at least two seasons?’ Ginny said with disbelief when a heavy box arrived by some unfortunate owl and proceeded to deck The Burrow’s living room with green and gold. The box was accompanied by a scroll of parchment with a number printed at the bottom.
‘That’s not- surely-‘Ginny stumbled over her words as she passed the piece of paper off to Harry, who took it with trepidation.
‘What? They’ve scammed you?’ George asked, pulling his head through a jumper that cropped at his belly button, “Weasley” printed on the back.
Harry shook his head, staring at the parchment with wide eyes. ‘Let’s just say Gin will never worry about money again,’ he said.
George scoffed. ‘Not like she ever did with you throwing it at her.’ He rummaged further through the box and pulled out a pair of boxer shorts printed with the Harpies logo. ‘Oho Harry! They even included something for you!’ George laughed and threw the shorts at Harry.
‘What’s all this panic for?’ Mrs Weasley emerged from the kitchen. Her mouth dropped at the sight of the living room.
‘Take your pick mum,’ Ginny said. ‘Harry’s already claimed the underwear I’m afraid.’ She threw a look Harry’s way and he immediately concealed the shorts, feeling a hot flush creep up his neck, but Mrs Weasley was too preoccupied with everything else George was pointing out to her to hear.
‘You can have the tea set and the commemorative plate, mum.’
Mrs Weasley looked at Ginny with shock. ‘Anyone can buy these?’ she asked. ‘My daughters face is going to be on tea sets across the country?’
Ginny laughed, shaking her head, and Harry couldn’t help but laugh with her. He didn’t mind it one bit, Ginny’s face plastered everywhere. A poster in the corner of the room displayed her hard blazing look, hair fluttering in the wind, gorgeous in her Harpies robes. And then there she was sitting right next to him, face glowing, laughing with abandon. It was ridiculous, but he could tell she was pleased, he could tell she was right where she wanted to be, and she deserved every second of it.
Ginny leaned over to Harry as George donned as many clothing items as he possibly could, and her mum picked her way through the carnage. ‘Guess what this means?’ she asked, a smile tugging at her lips.
‘What?’
‘We’re going apartment shopping this weekend.’
Mrs Weasley abruptly drew up to her full height. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Budget isn’t really a problem,’ Ginny said to the realtor as they stepped inside their first showing of the day. The agent, a woman with dark roots outgrowing her yellow-blonde hair and even darker circles under her eyes, looked them up and down, finally settling on a tired look. She sighed.
‘The more commission I make, the better,’ she droned. ‘See your type a lot nowadays, young trendy couples coming to London with daddy’s money, thinking budget isn’t a problem. Love, you haven’t seen the numbers.’
Harry, who noticed an angry flush blooming across Ginny’s face, replied quickly, ‘Humour us then. I guarantee it’ll pay off.’
The realtor blinked slowly at him, then held her arm out, gesturing towards the kitchen. ‘Here you’ll see our recently refurbished kitchen with granite countertops…’
Despite the spirited conversation that had followed Mrs Weasley’s first hearing of Harry and Ginny’s plans to move in together, enough of the wrinkles concerning the matter had been ironed out to allow them to spend the whole of Sunday traipsing around the boroughs of London, examining bathroom fixtures and wooden floors. Mrs Weasley had come around to the idea so much that she had even given them a run-down of how to properly shop for a house:
‘If they try to usher you out after five minutes, don’t leave, they’re trying to hide something. In fact, leave and cross it off your list immediately. Always test the plumbing. Ask the neighbours what they think of the landlord- Oh! And make sure there was no nasty business in the flat- and perhaps an extra room for a nursery if- ‘
‘-Thanks mum!’ Ginny had proclaimed at that, promptly shoving Harry out of the Burrow’s kitchen, and shutting the door behind them.
Harry had been periodically struck by the reality of it. In their third apartment of the day, he had stood in front of the living room windows, that had a spectacular view of London’s skyline, and been able to imagine sitting there in the evenings with Ginny, curled up together and simply gazing outside. When he opened kitchen cupboards, he imagined cooking for her, or cooking with her. Sometimes, when they stepped into the bedrooms, he felt a flush creep up his face and Ginny would notice and take his hand, smirking at him.
‘I know exactly which one I like best,’ Ginny said that night as they sat down to dinner at a bustling Italian restaurant. Her eyes shone and he raised an eyebrow at her.
‘What if I don’t want it?’ he teased.
‘Well then I’ll have to find someone else to share it with me,’ she said, keeping her eyes on him as she took a menu from the waiter. ‘Or, even better, I’ll take it on my own and you can third-wheel with Ron and Hermione.’ She winked.
Harry scoffed, thanked the waiter, and ordered two glasses of wine. ‘I’d rather live in a tent again, those two have no respect for me when I’m around. Just all over each other.’
‘Well you better like my choice then.’
‘Shouldn’t we even pretend to deliberate? That’s half the fun- ‘
‘The avocado neighbour one,’ Ginny cut him off, not able to wait.
Harry looked at her with mock surprise. There was no doubt she had liked the penultimate flat the most. It looked out onto a lush park, from wide windows that she had spent half her time at, pointing out every new dog that passed. It was modern, yet traditional at the same time. Warm and soft. Still, Harry teased her, ‘You only like it because you found out we’d be neighbours to an old man with afghans, who as you hinted at, smells like avocados.’
‘Of course not,’ Ginny refused, ‘You mentioned the “wonderful light” in every room, and did you see that en suite bathroom? Harry, I’ve never had an en suite bathroom.’
‘Really? The Dursleys fell over themselves to give me one.’
Ginny stared him down, trying herself to resist the urge to laugh and he openly grinned at her, acting innocent. She smiled begrudgingly and looked at the tablecloth, smoothing it out. ‘Come on, don’t act like you didn’t like it.’
Their wine arrived and Harry leisurely swirled his glass, sitting back in his seat. ‘I don’t know. What about the one with the mould stains in the ceiling? A bit of a fixer-upper sure, but I’ve always wanted to chase after a landlord about water damage.’
‘Harry- ‘
‘-Or the one with no lift- we’d stay fit for sure.’
Ginny leaned over the table and fixed him with a serious look. ‘Harry, come on- ‘
He put down his glass and copied her, leaning over the table. Their faces came close, and he could see every freckle on her skin, every speck of gold that shone in her bright eyes. ‘Lucky for you, I love the avocado flat.’
She smiled at him and reached for his hands, running her thumb along his knuckles. ‘I don’t think my mum expected us to find one this quick.’
‘We’ll just tell her there’s a spare room,’ Harry said, ‘For whatever she wants to think we’ll put in there.’
Ginny leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. ‘For the foreseeable future, it’s for my quidditch trophies and all your shiny medals.’
‘And that should just about be the last of them,’ Ron said as he set one final box down onto the kitchen island. It clattered with a sound that betrayed its feather-light weight, and Ginny scolded him.
‘That’s all our crockery, Ron!’ she said, opening the flaps and inspecting the plates and bowls. Ron waved her off and looked around the apartment, currently not looking like more than a storage facility. He joined Harry at the living room window, inspecting the afternoon walkers.
‘Not to be a sap, but I reckon I’ll miss living with you,’ Ron said, punching Harry lightly on the shoulder.
‘It’ll be weird, I’ll admit that. No more living like slobs, no more snoring- ‘
‘What makes you think Ginny doesn’t snore?’ Ron challenged.
Harry laughed to himself and scratched at his jaw. ‘Well, she is my girlfriend mate, and it may come as a surprise to you that we have shared a bed- ‘
‘Forget I asked,’ Ron said. He turned around and watched Hermione and Ginny unpacking, waving their wands to load all the kitchenware into cabinets; spoons, forks and knives flying. ‘You ever feel like, forty years old?’ he asked.
‘We’ve definitely lived enough life to be forty.’ Harry patted Ron on the back. Ginny suddenly caught on to the two of them standing idle and stood with her hands on her hips.
‘Would you mind lending a wand?’ she asked, an eyebrow raised.
‘This isn’t even my house,’ Ron groaned, lazily drawing out his wand. He pointed at a box and out flew a collection of newly purchased throw pillows. He hesitated, levitating them in the air. ‘Er, where shall I put these?’
‘I think we may need to set up the couch before the pillows,’ Harry said. He considered the boxes dotted around the room for a moment. ‘As much as I love the help, maybe it’d be best if Gin and I set everything up and we do housewarming tomorrow?’ he suggested.
Hermione shut a cupboard and looked at Harry, nodding. ‘I was going to say, it is your flat after all and you should decide where you want everything to be.’
‘I feel rejected,’ Ron said, dropping the pillows back into their box, but he turned to Harry and clapped him on the back. ‘Good luck mate. You’re bloody mental to willingly live with this one.’ He jerked a thumb towards Ginny, who lucky for him was too deep in conversation with Hermione to take notice of his insult. Harry laughed and assured Ron he knew what he was getting into.
Harry and Ginny waved Ron and Hermione off at the door, promising dinner tomorrow night to celebrate the new flat. The door shut behind them and Ginny turned to Harry with a sly smile. ‘Trying to get me all alone?’ she asked.
Harry circled his arms around her waist. ‘That is a bonus, but my intentions were purely innocent.’ He brushed a hair out of her face, slightly flushed from the hustle and bustle of moving. ‘I really want to finish this all with you. Set it up just how we want it.’
She reciprocated his gesture and wrapped her arms around him. ‘Well then let’s get to it.’ She reached up and kissed him softly, then crossed her arms over her chest and assessed their living room and kitchen area. Afternoon sunlight streamed in through the windows, casting a golden glow. ‘Let’s finish with the kitchen, then we can tackle the sitting room.’
They both drew out their wands and set to work. They ducked and weaved in between one another as pots and pans went flying, in the air before they had even decided where to put them. They realised that they hadn’t bought any dishcloths or soap, nor any food of any sort. Ginny took this as a serious offense and had Harry pinkie-swear that they would get dinner from a takeaway down the road.
Harry found unpacking their living room a lot more fun, and by the time they finished it was a perfect picture of what he had always envisioned for the room. Squashy brown leather sofas dotted with blankets made by Mrs Weasley and warm toned throw pillows. The set surrounded a grand fireplace, one of the prerequisites any flat of theirs had demanded.
They broke for a quick dinner of fish and chips after this, and then the last order of the day was unpacking their bedroom, leaving the study and spare room to be completed in the morning. They laughed with tiredness as they debated where to position the bed, which side of the room they each wanted to sleep on (Ginny wanted the window, Harry only needed to be able to see the doorway). It was so late by the time they put the last necessary touches on their room that they fell into bed still fully clothed, unable to expend the extra effort to get changed.
‘You hear that?’ Ginny said softly as they looked at each other in the dark, half asleep.
Harry listened for a minute, then hummed. ‘I don’t hear anything.’
‘Exactly,’ she sighed and moved to rest her head on his chest. ‘It’s really just us.’
Harry closed his eyes and let himself enjoy that fact. In the distance he heard a few dogs bark, but otherwise it was peacefully still. A year ago, such silence might have unnerved him, but he had unlearnt a lot of things since then. It helped that he could feel Ginny beside him, her hair as it tickled his neck, the sound of her soft breaths.
‘There’s just one more thing we need,’ Ginny mumbled.
‘Yeah?’
‘A puppy.’
Though they had been dating for just about three years, discounting any breaks taken in lieu of dark wizards taking over the country, Harry could count on one hand the number of times that he had woken up in a bed next to Ginny, and so when he woke up the next morning, he confessed himself initially surprised and confused at the feeling of a body next to his. He quickly got over this, in favour of enjoying the new phenomenon.
She was already awake and had obviously tried to sneak back into bed quietly after coming from the loo. She made a face and bit her lip at seeing one of his eyes crack open. ‘I didn’t mean to wake you.’
‘It’s all right,’ he said, voice thick from sleep. She settled on the pillow next to him, their faces close together, and he smiled at her. ‘Good morning,’ he mumbled.
She grinned back at him. ‘Good morning to you too. Have you tried the en suite? It’s to die for.’
‘Is it as good in the morning as it was in the evening?’
‘Absolutely, I expect I’ll be going back there in no time.’
He laughed and pulled her close, so that she ended up straddling him. He fiddled with a tie on her overalls from yesterday, and she laughed with him. ‘Good start we’re off to. Can’t even change into pyjamas.’
‘I wouldn’t blame us, moving is hard work.’
‘It is,’ she agreed, then slid slightly down him so she could rest her head on his chest. ‘Did you sleep well?’ she asked.
‘Best in ages,’ he answered truthfully. ‘Don’t know why people go on about struggling to sleep in new houses.’
She hummed against him, and he saw her lips quirk in a passing smile. A passing thought that had entertained her. As quick as that fleeting motion, she sat up and looked at him with a smirk, poking at his stomach. ‘Someone’s hungry. I just heard an earthquake in your stomach.’
He stretched his arms above his head and curled his toes, then patted his stomach and looked at her lazily. ‘You should make me breakfast.’
Ginny scoffed and hopped off him. ‘You’re sorely mistaken, I’m going to have a long hot shower and you’re going to make breakfast. I thought we agreed on this when I let you move in with me?’
‘Oh, you let me move in with you, did you?’ Harry raised an eyebrow at her, coming to sit at the edge of the bed. She walked across the room and started scratching in their cupboard for clothes and a towel. ‘Here’s an idea,’ he started, closing the gap between them. ‘What if we shower together and then make breakfast together?’
Ginny finally found a towel and slung it over her shoulder, then turned to face him, tapping her chin in thought. ‘I don’t know, your stomach might bring the bathroom crumbling down.’
‘Not willing to risk it?’ he asked.
She grabbed the ends of her towel and then hooped it over his neck, drawing him close to her. ‘You’re evil. You know that a Weasley can never back down from a challenge.’ And with that she dragged him off to the bathroom.
‘You know I just realised-‘Ginny said as she spat toothpaste into the sink, looking at Harry in the mirror ‘-we don’t have any groceries whatsoever, so your deal to make breakfast together was phony. I’m such a fool.’
Harry, who was very happy with how the morning had turned out so far, gave her a foamy grin. ‘You’re not telling me you regret it?’
‘No, but now I’ve really worked up an appetite and we have to leave this lovely flat to go into the ugly outside world and find food.’
Harry rinsed out his mouth and commiserated with her. She left the bathroom listing off a myriad of foods that they had to get, but he lingered one second longer to look in the mirror, leaving the space where she had been while they brushed their teeth. Their toothbrushes stood together in a dish, and he couldn’t help but find great satisfaction in the sight. A sure sign that they lived here together, that every morning he would wake up and stand in the bathroom with her, making faces while their mouths foamed up, grumbling incoherently to one another.
‘Oh! And all the basic spices of course. Oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary- though maybe we should buy one of those little garden sets- you know, we can put it on our balcony.’ Ginny appeared at the door, dressed and ready for the day. She looked him up and down, still clad in just a towel at his hips.
‘As much as I love that,’ she said, ‘I might tear apart a pillow and eat it soon. Do you need me to dress you?’
Harry tore his eyes away from the toothbrushes and ran a hand through his wet hair. Ginny’s eyebrows furrowed in concern for a moment, but he quickly placed a smile back on her face when he walked past her, placing a kiss on her cheek. ‘Just a second.’
He soon joined her at the front door, where she had procured a piece of parchment and was examining it closely. She tucked it away as he arrived. ‘I was thinking maybe we just get basics today- or what we need for breakfast lunch and dinner at least- and leave the rest for tomorrow.’
‘I like the sound of that,’ he said. ‘we still have two whole rooms to finish.’
Ginny opened the door and winked at him. ‘And a dog shelter to visit.’
‘What now then?’ Harry asked after they had banished groceries to their kitchen, leading them back out into the main square, where Saturday morning shoppers flitted between the shop fronts. Ginny looked around the square thoughtfully, then pointed out a bakery across the road.
‘Why don’t we grab a bite to eat there, and then eat as we walk to the shelter.’
Harry agreed on the first part, his stomach rumbling enough to convince him, but further than that he wasn’t so sure. ‘Gin, we’ve just moved in, do you really think we can handle a puppy? We’re both at work all day- ‘
‘-Vanessa brings her dog to the stadium all the time, and he just plays around on the pitch below us,’ Ginny said. She took Harry’s hand in hers and looked at him seriously. ‘Imagine coming home every day to someone that just wants to love and lick and jump up at you.’
Harry narrowed his eyes at her, positive that she knew what she was saying. ‘I thought that I already did,’ he played into her game and Ginny smiled devilishly. But he knew what she was doing, she was trying to distract him, throw him off track. ‘What if it’s a menace?’ Harry asked.
‘Good practice I suppose,’ she quipped.
‘For…?’
‘For when we have a human puppy, maybe.’
Harry drew in a breath. She really was pushing all his buttons today. He realised the total disadvantage he was at, arguing with her, and he pushed a hand through his hair then pointed a finger at her. ‘Fine. We’ll go look, but I’m still not completely on board with this.’
Ginny jumped up and kissed him on the lips, then he blushed as she darted her tongue out to lick his nose. Harry wiped at his face, but couldn’t help but laugh at her, beaming at him. She promptly dragged them over to the bakery, where they bought croissants. They found another quiet alley to apparate from and popped out of sight, en route to the nearest animal shelter that the phone book had provided.
‘Guess what, Harry.’ Ginny said as they found themselves much farther from the hustle and bustle of London, on a narrow road lined with lush green grass. They had apparated a good distance away from the farm that doubled as a pet rescue centre, to allow for a short stroll through the countryside.
‘What, Gin?’
‘We slept in our own flat yesterday,’ she said excitedly, sending pastry crumbs flying as she did a little spin on the road.
Harry had found out, after the war only, that this was something Ginny did, and it was something he rather loved about her. When she got new shoes at the beginning of her seventh year at Hogwarts, she kept walking past him to stretch out her leg and say, ‘Oh have you seen? I got new shoes.’
Days after she had received her official contract from the Harpies, and sent it back with her loopy signature, she would still come up behind him and wrap her arms around his waist to whisper in his ear. ‘Did you hear the good news?’
‘No, what happened?’
‘I got signed to the Holyhead Harpies.’
The first few times he had taken her seriously, thinking she had something new to tell him, but he soon learnt that when Ginny had unbridled enthusiasm for something, she was going to share it. It wasn’t bragging, it was just excitement, joy for even the smallest of things.
‘Hey Harry, guess what?’
‘What, Gin?’
‘I won a game of exploding snap against Ron.’
So, when he had really caught on to her, he started doing the same. He watched as Ginny strolled lazily a few feet in front of him, appreciating the open fields and overgrown hedges they passed. A few minutes of silence passed before he spoke.
‘Oh, Gin, did I tell you?’
She turned around, walking backwards. ‘I don’t think you did, what is it?’
‘We have an en suite bathroom in our flat,’ he said.
They shared a look with each other, shaking their heads with smiles plastered on their faces, and Ginny slowed down enough to catch up with him and clasp his hand in hers. The sight of a brown bricked farmhouse soon came into view and Ginny increased their pace.
There were few other couples and families arriving at the gate, drawing up in cars or on foot like Harry and Ginny. The entrance was decorated with a banner that welcomed all visitors. It all seemed rather festive to Harry, and he supposed they had advertised an open day for adopting pets.
‘Merlin what if they all run out?’ Ginny asked as they ventured inside the property, following the path of the small crowd.
‘They’re pets, not candy bars,’ Harry said with a laugh.
‘Welcome to Puppy Haven,’ a woman greeted them at a table set outside. Behind it, an array of large kennels gathered puppies and dogs in groups, spread across a large lawn. Harry took a pen from her hand and started filling in their details. ‘Looking for anything specific today?’ the woman asked.
‘Not at all,’ Ginny said, ‘Whoever catches our attention is fair game.’ The woman nodded and when Harry straightened up, she gestured behind her, letting them through to the kennels.
The dogs barked and wagged their tails happily, eager to meet the newcomers at their fences. Ginny couldn’t decide where to go first, darting around the lawn and petting every dog she could reach. Harry strolled behind her, walking up to a few dogs here and there and letting them sniff his hand.
‘Okay. Let’s do this methodically,’ Ginny said, stopping back outside the first enclosure. She opened the gate and stepped inside, soon overtaken by a wave of puppies. Harry followed her, by which time she was already on the ground, barely visible through the sea of fur and ears and tails.
‘Harry!’ Ginny gasped through a laugh. ‘Help me!’
Harry, taking care not to step on a stray paw, found Ginny’s forearm and pulled her upright. She was still laughing, smoothing out her hair and righting her clothes. ‘I think I saw my life flash before my eyes,’ she joked.
‘Death by puppy,’ Harry remarked, picking a piece of grass out of her hair. She smiled at him, then turned back to the puppies and bent over, cooing at them. They had fun playing with them for a while, throwing around a ball and playing tug-of-war, but none of the puppies really stood out to them. The same happened in the second and third kennels that they visited, but the fourth one had them sure they had found the one.
‘Ah Harry,’ Ginny said, looking up at him with a soppy expression. In her hands she held a tiny bundle of a puppy, fast asleep on her shoulder. It had long shaggy hair, colouring like a collie, with a big brown spot over one of its eyes. ‘We just have to,’ she said.
Harry moved closer to her and ran his hands over the puppy’s fur, still new and soft. It was one of the smallest that they had seen so far, tiny and fumbling among the rest of the boisterous puppies. Ginny had picked him out almost immediately, and it seemed the little guy had been just as keen on her as she was on him.
‘What about the bathroom? Where will he go? We’re on a third floor flat.’ Harry brought up his argument one more time.
‘We’ll train him to go when we take him outside. Or, even better we’ll charm the flat to clean up any messes as they happen- Demelza told me once about her house having that. Think, Harry; our neighbour has two afghans, our building is old with huge fireplaces. I can guarantee almost half the tenants are wizards. They found a way around it, so can we.’
The puppy yawned on Ginny’s shoulder, then settled back down, snuggling into her neck. Harry shared a look with Ginny, and he knew right then that he was done for. He turned around and held the gate open for them. ‘Come on then.’
‘Really?’ Ginny said, not moving.
‘Really.’ He smiled at her.
Ginny let out a little squeal and all but danced out of the enclosure. Harry closed it on the rest of the puppies kept inside, still wagging their tails.
‘You hear that Bumblemump? We’re taking you home.’ Harry heard Ginny whisper to the puppy on her shoulder. He abruptly stopped and turned to her.
‘We are not calling him Bumblemump.’
‘Why not?’ she challenged, covering the puppy’s ears. ‘Don’t listen to your dad Bumby, he doesn’t mean it.’
‘Gin, do you hear yourself?’ Harry asked. ‘Why can’t we name him something normal like… like Spot?’ he said, gesturing towards the brown fur covering the puppy’s eye.
‘Spot?’ Ginny exclaimed. ‘That’s so unbelievably boring, Harry.’
‘Well, what about something like Arnold?’ Harry suggested. ‘At least something semi-normal.’
Ginny considered him for a moment. ‘Fine. How about Patrick?’
Harry tested the name. They could call him Pat for short. That was normal. That was something he wouldn’t mind shouting in the middle of the park. He held out his hand for her to shake. ‘Deal,’ he said. He continued walking back to the desk, where they could finalise the adoption. Ginny whispered again behind his back.
‘Sorry Paddy, sometimes Harry is just such a grump. I know you liked the name Bumblemump but Patrick is good too, yeah?’
She joined Harry at the desk, where he was listening intently to the woman telling him what exactly they needed to buy first, what they should do to introduce a pet to a new environment. Ginny listened with him, nodding along and asking questions. He glanced at the puppy in her arms once more and couldn’t help a smile flitting past his face. Another thing that was now theirs. Harry and Ginny’s.
‘And here is your adoption certificate,’ the woman at the desk handed over a thick piece of paper, modelled after a real birth certificate. A cartoon dog was pasted in the middle, below the words “Thank you for adopting me!”. She pointed out the blank lines. ‘Just write your names here, and the little pup’s name here.’
Ginny reached for the pen first and signed her name above the line labelled “my mum” she handed the pen over to Harry and he shared a glance with her before copying her, signing his name above “my dad”. Then he filled in Patrick’s name, which he begrudgingly wrote out in full, even though Paddy sounded much better, he knew he would get it from Ginny if he wrote “Paddy” on the very official adoption certificate.
‘Well that’s all that then,’ the woman said. ‘We’ll pop up in a few weeks to check on the living situation and to see if you’re coping.’ She looked down at the details Harry had filled in once more and tapped the box where Harry had written their address. ‘You’re sure this is right?’ she asked.
Harry nodded. There was no denying their flat resided in a nicer part of town, and it wasn’t unreasonable for her to be sceptical of how two people that barely looked out of their teens could afford it. ‘We’re both at work during the day, so you’d need to come in the evening,’ he said.
She wrote that down on the form he had filled in and then nodded and greeted them, wishing them a good day. Harry and Ginny set back off out the farm and down the road, then tucked themselves behind a row a bushes.
‘Reckon we can go back to this flat I’ve heard we’re living in?’ Harry said, taking her hand in his.
‘That sounds nice,’ She said. she looked at Paddy, then turned to Harry with a questioning look. ‘Do you think dogs can apparate?’
Harry rolled his eyes and laughed at her. ‘And so it begins.’
‘I think we’re finished.’ Ginny slowly stepped back from the painting she had just hung, a muggle landscape of white cliffs and rolling green hills. Harry reached forward to straighten it, then stepped back with her. They took a turn about the room, assessing it.
After doing the study, they had finished up with the last room, which they had decided to turn into a spare room. Instead of a glorified trophy room. ‘For when Teddy comes to visit of course.’ It was tastefully, if not sparsely, decorated at this point.
Announcing his entrance before it happened, the sound of paws pattering across the floors indicated Paddy’s approach. He whizzed around the corner, still fumbling and unco-ordinated, then jumped at Harry’s legs. Harry bent down to pick him up.
‘What do you think, Pads?’
Paddy licked his face all over, and Harry laughed. ‘I think he approves,’ Ginny said. She removed Harry’s glasses from his face and cleaned them on her shirt for him. Placing them back on his face, her own face came into focus, eyes crinkling at the corners.
‘Thanks,’ he said. He put Paddy down and the puppy ran out the room to explore some other corner of his new home.
‘We should take him for a walk later,’ Ginny observed, sitting down on the spare bed, smoothing her hands over the sheets. ‘I can’t wait for Teddy to meet him.’
Harry joined her, sitting down at first, but then she laid on her back to stare up at the ceiling and he joined her, meeting her body from shoulder to where their hands entwined together. ‘Should we invite them over this week?’
‘Yeah. Though we’ll have to draw a roster, because we need to have mum and dad over too,’ Ginny replied. ‘Then all my brothers. I suppose we can double up Bill and Perce, and Ron and Hermione are coming tonight, but we must have George over all on his own.’
‘I’m starting to think we didn’t exactly do enough shopping,’ Harry mused. Ginny’s shoulders shook next to him as she laughed.
‘And then there’s all my quidditch teammates, all of your co-workers, our old professors,’ Ginny streamed off. ‘We’re going to have a never-ending rotation of guests in here, Harry.’
Harry turned his head to look at her with a raised eyebrow. ‘You know me so well. I love hosting dinner parties,’ he said with false sincerity.
Ginny shrugged her shoulders, acting modest in her receiving of his praise. Then she turned on her side and pulled him closer by his shirt. Before their lips met however, a crashing sound came from the kitchen and Harry immediately bolted upright.
‘Paddy!’ Ginny groaned wiping her hands over her face. She sat up and glared at Harry’s smirk. ‘Not a word, Potter.’
Harry held up his hands. ‘I didn’t say anything!’ He softened his face and reached out his hand to pull her up. ‘Come on then, he’s no larger than a bludger, what’s the worse that could’ve happened?’
‘I don’t think a bludger is the best example to use in this case,’ Ginny said. Harry laughed, then started for the doorway. It was only when Ginny called out to him after a moment that he realised she hadn’t been following him.
‘Hey Harry, guess what?’
He turned around to see her still standing at the foot of the bed. His lips twitched in a smile. ‘What?’
She walked slowly up to him, then reached up to whisper in his ear. ‘I love you.’