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Author: Kathryn Story: Beyond the Proposal Rating: Teens Setting: Post-DH Status: Completed Reviews: 10 Words: 26,721
Disclaimer: All characters, places, spells and objects that are in JKR's books are hers. I do not own them. I am just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.
Damn it! They must have been following her yet again; she hated bloody reporters. Even more, she hated what seemed to be the newest game amongst them: Let's follow Ginny Weasley and watch her every movement so we can fill the gossip pages and write about how her misdemeanours meant that she was not good enough to be Harry's girlfriend, let alone his wife. When would they just get a life of their own and leave her to hers? Back-page headlines were one thing, but the front pages were another altogether. She didn't care how many newspapers and magazines it sold, she was just bloody sick of seeing her photograph on the front pages of newspapers with comments about her conduct. She was more than a little tempted to hex them on sight, if only to stop them following her. It would be so tempting just to raise her wand and aim it at the reporters as if she was playing some zapping game. And, since she was in front of the wizarding hospital, they would not be left to suffer for too long — just long enough, maybe, for them to regret tracking her this intensely. She found her hand reaching for her wand and thinking of several hexes that she could use, but before she could even tighten her grip, she stopped herself; it wasn't worth it and they weren't worth it, either. The headlines in tomorrow's pages would see to that. "Ginny," Rita's words spoke first through the crowd of reporters, "what are you doing here?" "No comment," she said in a well-rehearsed tone of voice as a flash from a camera went off. Ginny had said 'no comment' so many times to reporters it was a wonder they had not got the hint yet. She had learnt early on that any other words could be twisted. Not that the reporters didn't have fun writing the phrase, 'Miss Weasley refused to comment leading to speculation that...' in their articles to back up their preposterous claims. She was not going to openly help them with these articles. She may sit down at Quidditch press conferences when she was expected to, but she was not going to tell them anything about her private life, especially the parts of her private life that involved Harry. There was a very good reason why that stayed private! She couldn't help letting a small smile form on her lips, a smile that grew when more reporters asked questions about why she was here. She always did love it when she managed to get one over on them, especially after all the rubbish they printed. They didn't seem to know about Harry, which was good. He was even worse at dealing with reporters and ending up on the front page of the newspapers than she was. At least when she had taken up a career as a Quidditch player, she had known that she was going to get attention, even if she had never imagined that it would be this bad. Quidditch players usually just hit the back pages but then, as she was constantly being told, she was not just your average Quidditch player. A fact that, at times, made it hard to get recognition as many a reporter, Rita Skeeter included, made clear in their articles that she was only in the team for her relationship with Harry and the press attention that that gave the Holyhead Harpies. Although it was going on into her second season, those articles were being greatly reduced with each passing match and the back pages just talked about her like any other player. Unfortunately, whether she liked it or even accepted it, the same could not be said for the front pages, although at least she had put herself in the limelight. Harry, however, had never wanted any of that, and done his best to stay away from it all, although he was often still regarded in the papers as the hero of the wizarding world who could do no wrong and he hated every word of it. He very much wanted their life to be kept quiet and, for the most part they managed it, or at least Harry did. However, if the newspapers knew half of what Harry got up to in his private life, he would not be the golden boy and she would not be the one who was corrupting him, which would make a very nice change. But since her mum read all the articles that concerned her and Harry, and she already disapproved of so many of them, maybe it was much, much better that they didn't know all those details. Besides, she wanted to keep up the illusion that she was still innocent and perfectly entitled to wear a white dress on Friday. Not that it wouldn't be funny to see the reporters' faces and their headlines if she came out dressed in red. They would have a field day with the 'scarlet woman' comments, but since it would probably take several mediwizards to help her mother recover from her stroke, and no doubt the backlash would go further than that, it was not a good idea. "And what about the fine that the Professional Quidditch Association gave you this morning, have you got any comment?" Rita pressed. She clearly wanted a quote she could twist or to see her temper flare again. She would get a good by-line on a story like that especially with days to go to the wedding. "I believe it was two weeks' wages, wasn't it, for your actions at the weekend?" "No comment," she growled again. This had been grating against her all day. She had played the match at the weekend, scoring fourteen goals, talked to the press as requested and signed autographs. She had done everything that was asked of her before going to meet Harry, but those damn reporters and photographers just could not leave them alone. No wonder she had sworn at them. She had actually been amazed at her restraint; these reporters at times were lucky that they didn't end up on the other end of hexes. Not that that had helped her case this morning. She had been hauled up in front of the Professional Quidditch Association, yet again, for bringing the game into disrepute before facing the same dressing down from both her manager, Hope Johnson, and the Holyhead Harpies legendary captain, Gwenog Jones. Apparently, she was becoming a public figure and needed to learn to behave as such, even if she thought that she had behaved reasonably well. When you were a role model, scoring goals and having good games were not enough, as Johnson had told her at length. A role model for little girls should not be seen openly swearing, no matter the provocation. Or so she had been told. "What do you think about the comments that you should be banned?" Rita continued without pausing for breath. "Or maybe just a suspension until your behaviour befits that of a professional Quidditch player?" "No comment." "Well, do you really believe yourself to be a suitable wife for the hero of the wizarding world?" Rita was not getting the hint or, more likely, she was trying to get her temper to snap so she had another article for the front pages of the newspapers. "Surely he deserves someone better." "Look..." She stared at the older woman and felt her hand reach for her wand and this time her fingers did tighten around it; she wanted to hex her so badly right now. She had to get out of there before she did something stupid and lost her temper. "I'm busy and I'm late, so just leave me alone to get on with things. I happen to be getting married on Friday and there's still a lot to do." With that, she closed her eyes, spun on the spot and Apparated out of there. She really did not want to be tested any further and she found it grossly unfair that Harry, who had a temper to match her own, never got brought up for it in the news. He was their hero and she would never be good enough for him in the eyes of some people. They wanted Harry for themselves, so why would they want Harry with her? And that was exactly what Rita was now using to sell her articles. Bugger her! It was a wonder, with all this and her mother's attitude to her marriage, that she had not been lying in St Mungo's herself. Soon enough, surely, she would lose it completely and end up in a bed next to Harry. The idea of eloping had been a joke at first; Harry had first suggested it as a way to calm her down after she had paced around his living room ranting, but it was getting more tempting by the day. If the wedding was any later than Friday, surely she wouldn't make it. Friday really couldn't come soon enough, when they would get all this mayhem out of the way. She took several deep breaths, trying and failing to calm down. It did no good to get herself into this state, especially with the reporters no doubt following her. Thank Merlin that she had decided to have her hen night away from it all in Muggle London. Finally, she reopened her eyes and looked up to see herself in the centre of Diagon Alley. As the popping noise came from behind her, she found any anger that she had let die away come back. Without turning around, she pushed open the door to the nearest shop and saw Hermione standing in the centre of it. At last she could let some of the pent up anger out — anger at reporters, the Professional Quidditch Association and her mother, without it ending up on the front page of the newspaper, fined yet more wages or being forced to apologise yet again. Hermione knew her only too well, and she had had to deal with Harry's temper too; she'd be safe blowing now. "That Skeeter cow!" Ginny fumed to Hermione as they walked into the bridal shop in Diagon Alley, pulling off Quidditch gloves. "I swear I'm going to find a nice new hex to use on her when I get home tonight and then I'm going to hex her into next week." "Ginny," Hermione started as she made her way over towards her friend, using those calming tones in her voice again. "Don't "Ginny', me!" she spat as she threw her gloves down onto the floor near Hermione's bag. "She should have just stayed as a bug, kept in a jar." "That would hardly be fair," she said, but despite Hermione's words there was a clear smile on her face from the memory. "You just need a bit of patience when it comes to her." "She wore all that out and I think I've actually been very good on that front, considering how much I hate being patient!" She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and started to undo the straps for the pads on her arms. "Between her, the press in general, and my family, my patience has gone." She threw one pad on top of her gloves, and started to work at the pad on her other arm. "Why isn't Harry getting all this grief?" "Because Harry's the hero of Britain, they respect that," Hermione explained in a well-practiced voice as Ginny found herself groaning. It always sounded worse out loud than in her head. "And as for the rest, you're your mum's only daughter. She was always going to make a bit of a fuss." "A bit of a fuss? A bit of a fuss does not spend three hours on seating plans every bloody Sunday, besides other things like spending six hours the other night going through the menu that was planned weeks ago. I swear, all she thinks about is that damn wedding and she thinks it's all I should think about, too. I mean, it's just a day; there are other things to life. Surely it's better to focus on the other things that come after it." She frowned, throwing the other pad to the floor, changing the subject; she was not going to win this argument with anyone. "Where's Luna anyway?" "Since you were running late," Hermione said as she gestured to the curtains at the end of the room, "she went through for her final fitting first. Where were you, anyway?" "With Harry." She found a smile lighting up her face. She always loved answering that she was with Harry. Being with Harry, spending time with him, had always led to the best times in her life, right from that first kiss to his unusual suggestions on how to treat her black eye the other night. She doubted that qualified Healers would say that a black eye needed bed rest but she was not going to argue with that. Maybe she should go over to his flat tonight and check that he stayed in bed after that St Mungo's visit today. She was sure she could think of ways to stop him getting bored as well. Hermione sighed, "Really." "Hmm," Ginny replied, forcing herself to snap out of her daydreams about possible nighttime activities. "Ginny," Hermione broke through her thoughts again. "Where's Mum?" she asked, changing the topic of conversation; she would rather not go into details with anyone other than Harry about all that. "She's had to leave already. She said that Fleur was expecting her and she would talk to you later." Ginny smiled briefly. She may get it in the neck later, but at least she was not going to have an argument now. Her mother would accept no excuse for her being late, as she had shown so many times before. Actually that was wrong — her mother would probably accept the excuse that she had today, but there was no way that she was going to put Harry through all that. It wasn't fair on him. She could hack it for a few more days. "Well, at least one thing has worked out today." "Hello, Ginny," Luna's voice floated airily through the curtains as she emerged. Luna walked into the room in the light blue dress held with a simple belt tied by a bow with the long ribbon falling down the back. The cut of the strapless dress suited Luna, resting just above her breasts and sweeping all the way to the floor. She truly looked beautiful but Ginny couldn't help missing some of the quirks that truly made her Luna. If it wasn't for the fact that she was currently resting her wand behind her ear, you would have had a hard job knowing this was the same girl that had told her all about Nargles in her second year at Hogwarts. Ginny's bad mood, that had been growing, all but disappeared. This was what life was about and not overbearing mothers or damn right intrusive reporters. And this Friday was about her, Harry, family and those friends that were damn near enough family. "Luna, you look fantastic." "I believe the look is very acceptable." Luna's penetrating blue eyes met her brown ones. "How are you feeling? It sounded quite like a group of dragons had burst in." Hermione laughed and Ginny couldn't help but smile. Luna had helped her so much since becoming her friend, whether it was by reasoned argument or just one of her unique Luna expressions that made her smile. Besides, if she forced herself to look at things objectively, that statement was probably not too far away from the truth. "I'm good." "That is excellent news," Luna continued before using her knack for uncompromising honesty, "and are you ready to become Mrs Potter?" Hermione looked at her as well. No doubt she wanted to hear the answer to that as well and Ginny found herself pausing. She was not ready for that question. Trust Luna to come up with something that would actually make her examine her feelings. She had never really thought about becoming Mrs Potter, the name just sounded so alien to her. She was a Weasley, not a Potter. Nor did she want to admit to herself that behind all the anger and frustration there was something very scary and real about what she was doing. It was very uneasy to enter the unknowing future and start looking at things objectively, despite what she may feel. She had thought about how much she loved Harry, she knew that only too well. Every other thought she'd had, had been caught up with getting ready for the day itself to allow her to think of anything else. What with the obsessive plans, the start to the new Quidditch season, and catching stolen moments with a just-as-busy Harry, she had been too busy to have time to think. And it was amazing how quickly, especially when you had so much to do, time started to fly by so fast. She barely even thought about becoming Ginny Potter. Even as she thought of the new, alien-sounding surname, she shrugged it off. It didn't matter, she was just, maybe, a little nervous and she loved Harry more than she had thought could be possible. Besides, she had too much to do to allow herself to get caught up in irrational nerves. "I love Harry," she replied softly as she stepped into the changing rooms, very aware that she had not answered Luna's question. "Ginny?" Luna's voice floated back to her. Damn Ravenclaws. "I can't imagine life without him," she said, a little stronger, "and I'm sure I'll get used to signing my name 'Potter'." She stripped down to her underwear and tried on the white dress for the final time before Friday. She was yet another step closer to becoming Harry's wife.
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