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Author: critmo Story: Per Aspera Ad Astra Rating: Teens Setting: Pre-HBP Status: Completed Reviews: 19 Words: 15,170
Epilogue: Something Else July thirty-first was a brilliant summer's Saturday. This year Harry had had to spend the first weeks of summer at Privet Drive, but he bore his fate with dignity, because he knew it was the last time. It was his 17th birthday, he was legally of age now and allowed to leave the Dursleys forever. At ten in the morning there was a knock on the front door and Dudley, who had just ambled down the stairs, opened it. A red-haired girl stood there. In contrast to him she was petite. She wore a short light summer dress with large sunflowers printed upon it that exposed her creamy skin dotted with little freckles and clang to her curves. Her eyes were amber and her full lips smiled politely. "Hi, I'm Ginny. I've come to see Harry." Dudley had seen beautiful girls before, of course, but they had never knocked on the front door, or any other door, of No. 4, Privet Drive. His usual behaviour when something good happened to Harry, i. e. keeping it away from him, prompted him to squeeze himself out of the house and close the door behind him. Only when Ginny took a step back, Dudley did notice that she had not come alone. Five red-haired men waited at the garden gate, brothers obviously from the relaxed way the crowded together. Dudley had never seen the two eldest of them who sharply looked at him, but he certainly remembered the twins that were leaning against each other, evil grins on their identical faces, and he knew that the youngest and now tallest of them, just whispering something into the heftiest one's ear, was Harry's best mate, Ron. "Harry's not in," Dudley said defensively. "That's funny. He knew we'd be here." Dudley shrugged. "Can't help it." Ginny's smile had a definite steely edge. "Listen. I'm Harry's girl-friend, we haven't seen each other for a month, and I suppose he's eager to see me. I don't suppose, however, he'll take your interference graciously. And since he's seventeen today he's allowed to use magic any time he likes, so you'd better start thinking what you would like to have: a tail again or rather a nice pair of pink ears? I'm sure my brothers ..." She sent a smile over her left shoulder. " ... would be eager to help with any additional feature." Dudley had to consider himself lucky that the front door opened again at this moment, and Harry stuck out his head. "Gin, 's that you?" Her smile became radiant. "Yes, dear." He was outside in a split second, taking her into his arms. "Happy Birthday, Harry," she whispered before he kissed her. Dudley watched them with envy. It was like two parts of a puzzle locking into each other - no doubt, no hesitation from either of them. They seemed totally oblivious to the world around them as they continued to kiss. "Harry?" one of the twins said. "We left Mum and Dad at home to give you two little lovebirds some privacy, but you shouldn't overstretch the favour, you know." Harry tenderly caressed Ginny's happily glowing face and looked up. "Hey guys, you been there the whole time? Must've missed noticing you, somehow." "Are you finished with the 'somehow', yet?" asked the eldest Weasley. Harry grinned. "You might be able to bully me into stopping, but I don't know if you'd like Ginny on your back for that ...." Pretending to be scared, Fred and George jumped behind Bill, who was not looking overconfident, because he knew Ginny was a power in her own right, but she just stuck out her tongue at them, while the whole group moved over, and Harry was lost in handshakes, shoulder clapping, brotherly hugs and "Happy Birthday, mate" from all sides. Dudley felt strangely forgotten in a place where he had always been the centre of attention, but now it was Harry who not only had a gorgeous girl in his arms, but was also surrounded by friends who treated him with peculiar respect. Dudley heard one of the elder Weasleys point out to Harry, "... not safe. If Voldemort can count, he knows you're 17 today. We have guards everywhere, but we shouldn't be too long." Harry cast a knowing look across the street, nodded and obviously took over command. "I'll just need a moment. Fred, George, you've been here before. Could you get my things from upstairs? It's all packed. And don't leave any toffees for Dudley, okay? Ginny, could you come with me for a second? And you three try not to hex my cousin." He was met with grins of approval from everybody and so he took Ginny's hand and went inside the house. While the twins stormed upstairs, Ginny took in the small hall, meticulously clean, slightly unfashionable green and white walls, and a cupboard under the stairs with a sliding bolt on the outside. She nodded at it. "Is that it?" Harry smiled sadly. When she opened the door, the space behind it was empty. Harry's mattress was gone. A naked light bulb dangled from a wire. "It's so ... tiny." Harry was still smiling. "I'm not that tall. Come on." He could hear her mumbling something like, "Tall enough for me," and grinned. In the kitchen they found his aunt and uncle. "Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, this is Ginny Weasley." Uncle Vernon simply gave a deep grunt that expressed his displeasure, while Aunt Petunia looked shocked. The last time she had seen a red-haired girl and a black-haired boy holding hands, it had been Harry's parents. "I'm leaving now," Harry said. Something like relief crossed his aunt's gaunt face, while his uncle gave a sarcastic grin. "Going back to the weirdos, are you? 'Bout time, too - pestering us with your depraved life. I won't mind never seeing that scar of yours again." Harry was stone-faced, and suddenly Ginny understood. In a clumsy sort of way he had tried to introduce her, his love, to the only relatives he still had. People who had taken the place of his parents, but had never shown him the love he needed. Decidedly she pulled his head down and kissed his scar. "I love you, Harry. Everything about you. And you must understand that you cannot choose your blood relations, but you may choose your family. Mum and Dad are at the Burrow waiting for you. Hermione and Fleur are with them, and they are preparing a birthday feast for you. Remus will be there and Tonks. Hagrid is coming down from Hogwarts and others as well. And there are five mischievous brothers waiting for you outside." When he answered her, his voice was almost choked with emotions, but she could also see a cheeky smile behind that. "If those guys are my brothers, will you be my sister, then?" Ginny hit him playfully. "Never, Potter. If you need a sister, ask Hermione. I prefer to be something else." He kissed her tenderly not caring for the angry puffing sounds coming from his uncle, or the offended gasp of his aunt. "You certainly are ... something else." Harry put a note on the kitchen table. "Just in case. If you want to contact me, write to this address." He held up his hand. "Don't bother to get up. I'll find the way out. Farewell." Harry opened the door for Ginny, and he never looked back. "You know," he told Ginny as an after-thought, "I'll suggest it to Ron to ask Hermione if she wants to be my sister." Ginny beamed at him. "He will, eventually. Just don't press him...." * * * * Dudley had been in a most uncomfortable situation. The remaining Weasleys were not really cheerful company, but rather intimidating, especially the youngest of them who was shoting daggers his way. Dudley didn't feel very daring, but on his father's own ground he couldn't admit that, of course. The return of the twins after a few moments did not help, though. One of them (Fred, if he had known) smiled winningly at him and said, "Dudders, mate! Absolutely smashing to see you again." "Pity we never really had the chance to talk before," his twin chimed in. "Don't mind my calling you 'Dudders', do you?" Fred asked. "Or Duddikins?" suggested George. "Anyway," said Fred, "we owe you." "Big!" George confirmed. "Harry's told us how you were always there for him." "A bastion of help and understanding -" "A firm rock in a sea of troubles -" "The only muggle he could trust." Dudley looked increasingly panicked. "We should really pay you back for your ...." "Loyalty." "Years of allegiance." "Faithfulness." At this moment Harry and Ginny left the house. "... took him long enough to ask her out in the first place," Ginny ended her sentence. "Seen a ghost?" Harry asked his cousin. "The ghost of truth," Fred and George said in perfect unison. "Goodbye, Dudley." Harry turned unceremoniously and led Ginny away. The Weasley brothers surrounded them loosely like an escort. Dudley watched them piling into a car (Seven people in one car?) and drive off. Suddenly, he felt lonely. Harry was going to a life that seemed to be mysterious and even dangerous, but still ... he was with friends and a lovely girlfriend. Dudley - in a fit of honesty - had to admit that he had neither. For the first time in his life, Dudley saw that Harry might be happy. (A/N: That’s it, folks. Thanks to Jenadamson for her help. See my profile for a disclaimer. - There’s a variant story to this coming up, it’s called “Per Asperissima Ad Astra”. Please, r/r.)
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