A Different Beginning

Chapter LXXVII - Plans

He gulped as he looked up into her eyes. "Ginny, is this ... you got a tattoo?"

Ginny blushed as she looked up into his eyes. They had darkened to a really intense green as he stared down at the horntail. He rubbed his thumb over the dragon and it shimmered, heating up on her skin. It had never done that before and she wondered if it was the tattoo or if it was just the fact that Harry was touching her. "Uh-huh," she murmured softly.

"A horntail? Dragons? Sirius said horntails can be pretty sexy and found in interesting places." He murmured.

She nodded. "He's dead, by the way. I'm going to prank him so bad!"

His eyes flew up to hers. "How the hell did Sirius find this?"

Ginny laughed. "He didn't find it! He's never even seen it! I just told him I got it and where! He's been a right arse about it though and he obviously can't keep a secret, the git! I've got the perfect plan for him."

Harry nodded and continued to run his finger along the outline of it. He had played around with the tattoo idea a bit in his mind but he hadn't actually expected to find one. It heated under his hand as he touched the skin.

"Harry?" She whispered.

His eyes met hers again. "Yeah?"

"Do you like it?"

His grin widened and he brought his lips to hers. "It's the sexiest damn thing I've ever seen. I don't know what I like better, the horntail or the bellybutton ring. And you ... damn if I'm not even remotely surprised by it."

She laughed. "Mum doesn't know about the tattoo, she'd kill me."

He nodded. "Oh, she definitely would." He leaned down to kiss it and she gasped, her fingers fisting in his hair, dragging him back up to her lips.

Harry grinned against her mouth as he skimmed his hands up her ribs, deepening the kiss as his calloused hands stroked over her skin. He hadn't been lying when he had said that her freckles amused him. All of the Weasleys had freckles but Ginny only had the small dusting of them across her nose. He was enjoying exploring her body to find out where the rest were hidden. He moved down the column of her throat, smiling as he kissed the creamy white skin and grinning when he found three tiny freckles just below her collar bone.

"See? What did I say? I find freckles in the most interesting places." He murmured as his fingers raked over her jumper and slid it over her head.

The bright red bra she was wearing matched her panties and he gulped when he stared down at her. She had never been that exposed before him before as Harry was pretty sure her swimsuit hadn't been that sexy.

Ginny blushed under his intense stare and he couldn't help but grin as he watched the blush start at her chest and work its way up to her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around his neck. "I think that you have entirely too many clothes on."

He grinned and yanked his jumper over his head before he leaned down to kiss her softly. "Better?"

She nodded, sliding her hands over his chest as they kissed. It felt good and so right to be lying in his bed, in his arms, barely dressed. She knew that she should stop him or at least cover herself up some more but she didn't want to. She wanted those rough hands to continue to slide gently over her skin and she wanted those pouty lips to meet hers forever.

Harry groaned against her mouth as she rolled him over so that she was on top. He slid his hand up and down her back, his fingers tangling in her hair as he tried to pull her closer. She was driving him crazy. All she wore was the sexy lingerie and the tattoo and bellybutton ring, just the thought of it made him hard. She pulled back to look at him and he knew that she had felt the outcome of their kisses. He grinned at her and brought his lips to her throat as he undid the clasp on her back. Her bra fell away and he gulped as he stared at the exposed creamy skin. He leaned forward to use his mouth just as a loud pounding on his bedroom door caused them to jump apart and for Ginny to bury herself under the covers.

Harry took a deep breath before he spoke but he barely got the words out before the bedroom door opened. Sirius stood there and his eyes widened, noticing the clothing strewn around the bed before he grinned at them.

"Well, well, lookie what I found."

Harry rolled his eyes as Ginny blushed and tossed the covers completely over her head. "What do you want?"

Sirius grinned. "Found the horntail, did you?"

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Go away, Uncle Sirius."

Sirius grinned at them. "I'm going. Listen, you guys got twenty minutes to get ready and I'm taking you back to Hogwarts."

Harry nodded and waited until the door closed and he could hear him walking away before he turned to Ginny. "He's such a dead man."

Ginny giggled. "Yeah, he is. I guess that was ... a little intense though."

Harry nodded. "I'll say." He leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. "I'm not going to apologize though. I want you, Gin. I want you so badly it hurts."

She kissed him softly. "I know. I want you too it's just ... I feel like I'm ready but I'm not, not yet. I don't want to be a tease or anything but I -"

Harry placed a finger over her lips. "You're not being a tease. I'm the one that got us into this situation. But let me ask you this, how often do you wear panties and bras like these?" He asked as he held the red silk and lace bra in front of her.

She blushed. "Quite often actually."

He groaned. "Even under your uniform?"

She nodded. "Always under my uniform."

"You're trying to kill me."

She laughed and snapped her bra back on. "No, I'm not, that's just a nice side benefit."

He grinned as she crawled out of his bed and wiggled her skirt back on and then her jumper. He watched her for a moment as she dressed and then went to go stand in front of the mirror to try to fix her hair.

She sighed. "It's messy."

He laughed. "Well, my hands were in it."

Ginny rolled her eyes before she grabbed a quill of his dresser and put her hair in a complicated twist, using the quill to hold it up. "That'll have to do for now."

Harry looked baffled. "How the hell did you manage to do that?"

"What?" Ginny asked as she put her boots on.

"All that hair! You've got a lot of hair yet its holding together with a quill through it?"

Ginny laughed. "Girls are talented that way. Now hurry up and get out of bed."

He blushed. "I need a few minutes."

Ginny bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Oh, okay. I'll meet you downstairs then."

"Gin?"

"Yeah?" she asked.

"I forgot, before when we were ... well, you said something about having the perfect prank for Sirius?"

Ginny grinned wickedly. "Yup. I thought of it a few days ago. It's brilliant."

He grinned at her. "What is it?"

Ginny shook her head. "Oh no, I'm not telling anybody. This will be my little secret.""

He sighed. "That's not fair. What if I want in on it?"

Ginny shrugged. "You'll have to come up with your own prank. This baby's mine." She grinned at him, walking over to kiss him softly. "Don't be too long."

He nodded as he watched her go. Then he leaned back against the pillows and sighed. Looks like he was starting his day off with a cold shower.

**********

After Sirius brought Harry and Ginny back to school, he returned to Potter Manor with Lexy for a meeting. He couldn't help but grin on what he had walked in on. He didn't think anything serious had been happening but the only thing he knew was that Harry needed a pat on the back because from what he could tell from the scattered clothes, Ginny hadn't been wearing much. But at the same time, Sirius had an urge to punch Harry for going too fast and rushing his so-called goddaughter. He grinned and shook the thoughts from his head, turning his attention back to the room at hand. Remus and Tonks had already arrived and they had brought Frank and Alice with them. James and Lily were seated comfortably on the couch already.

"Alright, so where do we start?" Sirius asked as he made himself comfortable, Lexy curled up next to him.

Frank shrugged. "I don't even know how you can start. I feel like I'm dreaming. The last thing I remember was being nineteen and now I'm thirty-six with a grown son."

Lily nodded. "Trust me, I understand the feeling."

"So these horcruxes?" James began. "Do any of us have any idea where to start looking for them? Dumbledore seems to think that Frank knew at one time."

"The cup of Helga Hufflepuff. We talked. I don't know how much help I can really be." Frank replied, his arm wrapped comfortably around his wife.

Remus nodded. "It's not about how much help you can be, it's how much you're willing to help. We need a lot of power this time. But this time we know a hell of a lot more."

Tonks nodded. "We have to think about the horcruxes and try to organize how to destroy them and first how to find them."

"Destroying them shouldn't be too hard," Sirius replied. "I mean, James and I already destroyed two. From what I remember, it was a dark curse and once I got past it I just used a breaking charm mixed with the killing curse and well good feelings, or happy feelings. When I did that it made it fly into a million green pieces that exploded into the air. Dumbledore looked pleased even though I didn't know what the hell it was at the time."

James nodded. "Yeah, when I destroyed the one in the ring it did something similar."

"Alright, so we know how to destroy it and that takes a big chunk out of the problem," Lily answered. "But how do we find them?"

"Well, from what I understood from Dumbledore, he believes that the cup of Helga Hufflepuff is one and then something belonging to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw." Frank replied. "But we have no idea what those objects can be."

"From the story that Harry related to me, Voldemort seemed to have a thing for collecting trophies. He wanted memories or valuables. Hogwarts was really his first home therefore the four founders would be of importance, also, there's the fact that he's the heir of Slytherin and I think that plays a role in his choosing such obvious objects. However, we don't know for a fact that a horcrux can be found in the cup of Hufflepuff, it's only a theory. Besides, up to now, everything had been an artifact of Slytherin. The locket, the ring, and the diary was in a way an artifact of Slytherin as well." James explained.

Lily nodded. "That makes sense. So where do we start?"

Remus sighed. "I guess we research."

Sirius groaned. "Homework! You're going to assign homework! I thought we got out of this phase!"

Lexy elbowed him lightly. "Prat! This is important."

He nodded and sighed as if he was giving in against his will. "Alright, so how are we going to do it?"

Tonks grinned. "Let's assign each couple a topic. James and Lily can look into all of the known artifacts of Godric Gryffindor as well as the history. Frank and Alice can look into the same thing but for Rowena Ravenclaw. Sirius and Lexy can look into horcruxes themselves and the possibility of it being in a living thing. Dumbledore seems pretty sure that the last one was placed in Voldemort's snake."

Lily smiled. "That's a good idea. But what are you and Remus going to research?"

"Hufflepuff," Remus answered. "We don't actually know if there's a horcrux placed there but by looking into Helga Hufflepuff's known relics and history we might get a good starting point."

Sirius nodded. "That makes sense."

Frank nodded. "It does, it's a good plan. Anything that we can do to make sure this bastard is gone once and for all is worth it." He smiled at his wife as Alice stayed on his shoulder.

Alice spoke for the first time now. "Then we have to work on gathering up the Death Eaters."

Tonks nodded. "This time we're going to capture them all."

Remus grinned. "That's the plan."

James let out a deep breath and sighed. "Well, now that that's out of the way. Where are you two living?"

Frank grinned. "Leave it to you to lighten the mood."

James shrugged. "I was just wondering."

Alice laughed, her eyes lighting up. "You haven't changed a bit, James Potter! Still a rogue."

Sirius looked offended. "Hey! I thought I was the rogue!"

Alice shrugged. "You were both rogues."

Frank grinned. "Well, anyway, we're staying at my mother's house for now but I saw some property a few blocks from here with an incredible house. Al and I kind of fell in love with it. So, we'll see how that goes."

Lily nodded. "What did Augusta do with your home before?"

"She kept it but neither one of us wants to live there again." Frank explained.

Alice shivered. "Too many bad memories. We'd like to start over. Live our life from new." She grinned as she looked up at her husband. "Maybe even have more children."

Frank looked surprised by this. "Yeah, that'd be great."

James smiled. "I bet Neville would get a kick out of having a little brother or sister."

Alice smiled. "I hope so."

Sirius grinned, placing his hand on his wife's stomach. "Man, I still can't get over the fact that I'm going to be dad."

Lexy laughed. "You're going to be a great dad!"

Remus smiled. "Yeah, so, you guys want pizza?"

*********

When Ginny returned back to school, the first thing that she did was seek out Demelza and Luna. Her head was still spinning from the intense snogging session that she had shared with Harry only an hour before. Sirius had just brought them back to school with a portkey and she had left Harry with Ron and Hermione fairly quickly. She had dragged Luna and Dee into an empty classroom and after making sure it was private with the proper spells turned to grin at them.

Luna's eyebrow rose slightly. "You're practically bubbling."

Demelza's hand covered her mouth. "You had sex with Harry!"

Ginny blushed. "No! But, well, we did ... it was intense. He found my tattoo."

Demelza squealed. "And?"

Ginny laughed. "He really likes it! I wasn't sure at first, I mean, he was just staring at it and touching it and he wasn't really saying much, murmuring to himself. But he likes it."

Luna laughed. "Well, we knew he was going to like it!"

"I guess, yeah. Oh! It was just so ... Merlin, it was intense! I love him so much!"

Luna nodded. "I know. I've got some news to share as well, which leads up to what we need to discuss."

Demelza grinned. "I wondered when you would get around to telling her." She turned to Ginny with a grin. "I caught them in a broom closet snogging each other's brains out."

Ginny laughed. "Luna! You vixen!"

Luna shrugged. "I try. Well Morag and I broke up before Christmas right, I mean we were not right for each other. So I took your advice and I paid a bit more attention to Neville. He's so shy and cute so one day I just asked him if he liked me. He stuttered and stared so I kissed him and asked him out."

Ginny's mouth dropped open. "You didn't! What happened?"

"He said yes. We're going to Hogsmeade together and we've been inseparable ever since." Luna replied, a dreamy smile on her face. "But he did tell me what you did."

Ginny nodded. "It was so ... I can't quite explain it Luna but it was powerful and I saw everything they did."

"Who?" Demelza asked.

"Frank and Alice Longbottom," Luna supplied. "Their minds were damaged and they didn't know who Neville was and Ginny brought them back. She gave Neville his parents back."

Demelza glanced at Ginny in surprise. "Like you did with Harry's mum? Wow."

"Double wow. It was huge and now he has his parents back and he can live happy and ... well I'm just glad he's happy." Ginny replied.

Luna nodded. "Me too. You know, once you get Neville going, he's quite the wild man."

Ginny laughed. "Wild man? Neville?"

Luna nodded. "Oh yeah. He's got clever hands and a really great mouth and not to mention his sense of humour. We sort of caught Ron and Hermione falling out of a broom closet when looking for a good snogging place."

Ginny laughed. "My brother and Miss Perfect in a broom closet? Please tell me you took pictures!"

Luna shrugged. "Sorry, my hands were busy tugging Neville inside of the closet."

Demelza laughed. "Isn't she wild?"

Ginny nodded. "Speaking of guys, anything with Colin yet?"

Demelza shook her head. "No, but ever since you talked to him he's been nicer when it comes to guys that I'm interested in. He caught me looking at Geoff Hooper and he offered to find out if he liked me. I don't know what he said but Geoff asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him."

Ginny smiled. "Dee that's great! Congratulations!"

"Well, I know I can't wait around. He's never going to see me as anything more then a friend and I have to understand that. I accept that."

Luna shrugged. "Well, you can always sneak alcohol into a party and get drunk and then snog him."

Demelza blushed. "Luna!"

"Just an idea."

Ginny laughed. "You two are too much sometimes!"

Luna nodded. "Well, we're going to be a whole lot more because you have some explaining to do."

"Yes," Demelza replied. "You told us about how intense it was when Harry found your tattoo but you didn't tell us how he found the tattoo?"

"Yeah and isn't that tattoo in a bit of a private place."

Ginny blushed. "So?"

Luna shook her head no. "Oh no, no, no, no, no, spill it, Gin."

Ginny grinned and sighed. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

************

Neville sat in the Room of Requirement curled up with Luna a few days later. They had spent the last few days talking and snogging and spending as much time as possible together. Neville enjoyed every minute of it. He closed his eyes as he held her close, she was sleeping in his arms and he couldn't say he blamed her as she had been attempting to read a seventy page chapter on goblin rebellions. He grinned at the thought and then even as his mind wandered he drifted off to sleep.

The dream started the same as always. He was happy and then the fear came as he watched the horror of what was done to his parents. He woke up, gasping for breath, startling Luna who was snuggled next to him.

"Neville?" She asked sleepily.

He simply shook his head and leaned forward to bury his face in his hands. He took deep calming breaths as he felt her hand run along his back in smooth strokes.

"I'm alright," he replied, his voice hoarse.

Luna nodded. "I never said otherwise."

"It's just ... a dream I have ... often."

"Want to talk about it?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Come here," Luna said softly, pulling him down so that his head was in her lap. "Now stretch out."

He did as he was told and sighed softly when she began to rub his temples gently. "I'm alright, really."

"I never said you weren't. Just lay here a minute."

He wasn't sure how long he stayed like that just listening to her even breathing as her soft hands rubbed the headache away that had formed at the memories. But it didn't take very long before he was pouring everything out.

"It's the night my parents were driven into insanity."

Her fingers froze for only a moment before she continued to rub gently.

"I don't know how much of it actually happened. But I was just there, crawling around on the floor, standing up and walking a few steps. They were talking over me about what happened to Harry and how Voldemort had disappeared. My mum was upset over what happened. Lily Potter was a good friend of hers. Then there was this crash. Three Death Eaters broke through the window. I know who they were now; Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange as well as Crouch Junior. They wanted to know where Voldemort was and they were looking for a cup or something. My parents didn't know the answers so they started to torture them." He replied quietly. "I just cried and cried because I didn't understand what was happening. Then they took me into a separate room and left my mum alone with Rudolphus. Nothing happened really I just ... I was alone with these strangers and I was crying and crying. She hit me. She got fed up with my yelling and she backhanded me. I flew across the room and I hit my head. I don't remember anything that happened after that."

Luna moved her fingers to his hair, running her fingers through gently. "It's alright to have nightmares, Neville. You were hardly more then a baby, what could you have done?"

"How much of it is true though? How much of it all really happened?"

"I don't know. I guess you're parents would be the ones to ask." She leaned down to kiss him softly. "I know how you feel. I saw my mum die in front of me when I was nine. I have nightmares about it often."

Neville sat up and looked at her. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know."

She shrugged. "It's alright, it happened a long time ago."

"What happened?"

"She was experimenting with some new spell ideas and well one went horribly wrong. There was so much blood and ... I just remember standing there, covered in blood and the potion that had exploded screaming at the top of my lungs until my father rushed in. I dream about it from time to time." She took a deep breath. "But my mum's death was an accident."

Neville nodded. "Luna, I don't know what I'd do without you lately."

She smiled and pulled him close to kiss him. "Well, you would certainly have a lot of trouble snogging yourself."

He laughed. "You're different then I thought. I mean, you're always so aloof and kind of dreamy-eyed around everyone else. How come you only open your true self to certain people?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Habit I guess. You're one of the privileged ones."

He grinned. "Yeah, I guess so. Listen, thanks for listening."

She smiled. "That's what girlfriends are there for."

"So you're my girlfriend then?" Neville asked, a lopsided grin on his face.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Well, after the snogging sessions we've had, I better be!"

He laughed and leaned in to kiss her. "Good."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled. "Now it's my job to make you think of better things."

He smiled. "Good plan." Then he captured her lips in his again.

*********

Ginny knocked on Lexy's office door the next afternoon and grinned when she opened the door. "Hey Lexy."

Lexy smiled in surprise. "Ginny! This is a surprise, please come in."

Ginny closed the door behind her and looked around. The office suited her. It was decorated with pictures of family and friends and had some modern funky colours. She turned to look over at her and took a seat in one of the chairs. "I hope you don't mind me interrupting your break."

Lexy laughed. "Of course I don't mind. What can I do for you?"

Ginny smiled. "Well, first I'd just like to thank you for picking me to me godmother."

"Sirius wanted it and I don't think he could have picked a better choice. The two of you hit it off as fast friends and I can't explain it."

"Me neither. Actually, my friendship with Sirius is the thing that I want to talk to you about."

Lexy nodded. "Sure, what's going on?"

"Well you see, I got a tattoo in New York."

Lexy's mouth opened in surprise before she laughed. "Wow, that's impressive. What did you get?"

Ginny grinned. "A Hungarian horntail on my thigh."

Lexy nodded in understanding. "Ah, 'Harry, seen any dragons lately?' I get it."

"I don't even know why I told him but I did, before Harry even knew about it. I told him where it was and what it was and ever since then he's been teasing Harry about it. Harry had no idea what he meant. He does now and well ... oh, I'm so mad at him!" Ginny exclaimed.

"I don't blame you. Got anything interesting planned for him?"

Ginny grinned wickedly. "Actually, I've got what I think is the world's perfect prank."

Lexy leaned back in her chair with a grin on her face. "Well, no one deserves to be pranked as badly as my husband."

"I'm glad you feel that way because I kind of need your help."

"Do you really think you can prank him? I mean, he is a Marauder."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "He may be a Marauder but my brothers are Fred and George."

Lexy laughed. "Good point. Alright, I'm in. What do I have to do?"

Ginny grinned and clapped her hands together. "Great! Okay, listen up; this is what we're going to do ...