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The Oath
By Brennus

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Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Comedy, General, Humor, Romance
Warnings: Extreme Language, Intimate Sexual Situations, Negative Alcohol Use
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 230
Summary: Things are looking up for Harry Potter. He’s engaged to Ginny, he has some good friends and he’s finally learning how to have fun. But what adventures must he go through before he can finally recite his wedding oath? Sequel to my previous story ‘The List’. I suggest you read that one first or much of this will be confusing.
Hitcount: Story Total: 90953; Chapter Total: 9303
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
You know where to go by now




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Chapter 7 - If I could do it all over again…


The balcony was rather cramped for the two of them, but as it permitted a perfect view of the assembled crowd, they figured they could put up with a little discomfort for a while. Ginny shifted her weight slightly in an attempt to stop her leg going to sleep. She was only partially successful. She wondered how Andromeda, who was considerably older than she was, managed to stay seated on the hard surface seemingly without complaint.

Letting her mind wander for a second, Ginny pondered what Harry thought the two of them were up to tonight. They had calmly informed the surprised young man that they had decided they wanted a girls' night out and that he was baby-sitting Teddy. To his credit, he didn’t seem upset; indeed he was rather pleased that the two most important women in his life were getting on so well. He hadn’t even blinked an eye when Ginny had asked to borrow his invisibility cloak under the pretence of avoiding reporters.

Ginny was pretty sure that whatever Harry thought their ‘girls' night out’ involved, it wasn’t this. To get them in this position had taken a lot of planning and work. Andromeda had amazed Ginny with her cunning and intelligence in getting this organised. That the older woman had been a Slytherin during her time at Hogwarts had not been a surprise to Ginny, but that she had such a ruthless streak running through her had.

Currently, the pair of them were sat underneath the invisibility cloak, observing the participants of the Four Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Wizards in Business trade convention. This was basically a social event where rich business wizards and witches networked and drank large amounts of complimentary wine. The room hummed with conversation and what little of it Ginny had managed to hear nearly put her to sleep. There was, however, only one wizard that they were keen to observe tonight and he was currently stood slouched in the centre of the room, nursing a half-full glass of wine and looking extremely bored: Draco Malfoy.

Once Ginny and Andromeda had decided that the young Mr and Mrs Malfoy must pay for their attempts to blacken Harry’s name and reputation, they had worked out a plan. Ginny had insisted they hit the couple were it would hurt most: for Draco that meant his wallet and for Astoria it was her social status. Once they had their targets, Andromeda had sketched out her plan. As a former member of the Black family, Andromeda had a surprising number of social contacts and it had not been hard for her to secure three tickets to this event. Two of the tickets they had used themselves while the third had been posted to an unsuspecting person with a fake invitation. The trap had been baited, now to see if their prey would take the bait.

“Look over there, Ginny,” Andi whispered into Ginny’s ear, startling her. Looking over at where the dark-haired witch was pointing, she saw a somewhat hesitant figure enter the room. Clearly the young woman who entered didn’t appear to feel comfortable, or even sure if she should be there. The girl’s head moved from side to side as if she was seeking someone. Suddenly the girl stopped and looked straight ahead. A smile came onto her face and confidence seemed to flow into her. With a new found assurance the young girl strode to the centre of the room.

“Quick,” Ginny urged, “cast the eavesdropping spell.” Andi gave a brief wave of her wand and instantly they could both hear everything within the near vicinity of the girl. Ginny grinned and crossed her fingers, hoping for the best.

“Hello, Draco,” the girl said. The young blond-haired wizard spun around and stared at the girl in amazement.

“Pansy! What are you doing here? I mean…not that I’m not pleased to see you or anything, but I wouldn’t have thought this event was your kind of thing.” Pansy smiled.

“No, it’s definitely not the sort of thing I would attend normally, but someone was nice enough to send me a free ticket; and I thought it would be rude not to come.” Even from distance Ginny could tell who Pansy thought had sent her that ticket, judging from her expression.

“Really? Well, it’s good to see you. We didn’t get a chance to chat much at the Ministry ball the other month, did we?” Draco stammered nervously. He appeared to have completely missed Pansy’s inference that it was he who had sent the ticket.

“No, we didn’t,” replied Pansy, obviously somewhat upset. “Your precious wife made sure of that, didn’t she?” Draco pulled a slightly distressed face.

“Yeah, um, sorry about that. Astoria means well but she does get a bit over-protective.” He shuffled uncomfortably.

“She means well?” Pansy repeated in disbelief. “All she wants is to keep you under her thumb. You used to be top-dog, Draco, feared and respected. Now you’re just a henpecked shadow of your former self.”

“I AM NOT HENPECKED,” shouted Draco angrily, before realising where he was and forcibly attempting to get control of himself. “Look, I’m not henpecked but I do need to stay on Astoria’s good side. You know how depleted the Malfoys' fortune became after the war. We were Knut-less! Father was in prison and mother and I only escaped Azkaban by the skin of our teeth. We needed the Greengrasses’ money and we still do. They didn’t just give us the money to rebuild our fortune, you know. The slightest word from Astoria and suddenly all their investment is withdrawn and the Malfoys will be ruined! I can’t afford to take risks.” Pansy just nodded at this, looking sad.

“But are you happy with her, Draco?” she asked quietly. For a second Draco looked at her angrily, as if she had just asked the stupidest question imaginable. After a second, however, his expression mellowed.

“No, of course I’m not happy with her, Pansy. But we both knew I would have an arranged marriage. It was just a bloody shame that the Parkinsons lost as much in the war as the Malfoys.” Pansy’s eyes had gone wide and her lower lip trembled.

“Do you mean that, Draco? Would you rather have had me rather than Astoria?” she asked intently. Draco didn’t seem to be able to look her in the eye.

“Yes. I still love you, Pansy. I just can’t be with you,” he said, sounding like his heart was breaking. Slowly and nervously, Pansy reached out and took Draco’s hand in hers. Draco looked up in sudden panic.

“Pansy, we can’t! If anyone ever found out I’d be ruined.” Pansy just closed the distance between them even more.

“We’ll work something out, my love,” she said simply. A shy smile crept onto Draco’s lips.

Up on the balcony, Andi waived her wand and cancelled the eavesdropping spell. She turned to her red-haired friend. “Well, I think that’s stage one accomplished. Next, I think we have a letter to send.”

“Absolutely, Andi,” Ginny agreed. “But first I think we should get out of this stuffy place and have a drink. I think we’ve earned it.” Andi grinned back at her.

“I think we have, Ginny my dear, I think we have.”

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Next morning, Ginny entered the kitchen at Grimmauld place on unsteady legs. Harry was already sat at the table, alternating between scooping up forkfuls of scrambled eggs and reading the morning paper. He smiled at her as she took the seat opposite him.

“Morning, Gin. So, did you enjoy your night out with Andi? We didn’t get a chance to talk much last night,” Harry enquired with a smirk. By the time she and Andi had returned home both witches had been a little worse for wear. Their celebration drink had expanded in scope somewhat to point that walking was proving difficult for both of them. On their return home, Harry had taken one look at them and decided to stay at Andi’s house to keep an eye on Teddy, while the boy’s grandmother slept it off. He had Floo’d back about an hour ago and was clearly finding the whole thing hilarious.

“It was great, Harry. Now I need breakfast, a hangover potion and a large cup of black coffee, not necessarily in that order,” she moaned. Harry just grinned and was no help, but Winky was up to the task. Ginny knocked back the hangover potion first before tucking into her bacon with enthusiasm. By the time she had cleared her plate and was on her second cup of coffee, she was starting to feel quite human again.

“How was Andi this morning?” she enquired, now she had reached the point where she was capable of conversation. Harry smirked.

“Not so good. I hope you enjoyed your evening out with her because I don’t think it will be repeated. After she got up she just sat at the kitchen table with her head in her hands muttering ‘never again’ and ‘it’s all Ginny’s fault.’ Have you been leading Teddy’s poor granny astray?”

“Don’t look at me,” she complained. “It was Andi who started us on the tequila shots. Actually, I’m a bit hazy about how we ended up in that Mexican restaurant anyway.”

“Well, that does explain how you came home with guacamole all down your blouse. I did wonder.” Harry was clearly enjoying this far too much. “So, what are you up to today?”

“I have a few things I need to do,” she replied. “I can’t believe we start Quidditch training again next week. It only seems like two minutes ago that the last season finished. Oh, that reminds me. I need to send a letter today, can I borrow your owl?” Harry looked up sharply.

“I don’t own an owl, you should know that,” he said, sounding rather hurt. Ginny looked confused.

“But you have that stand for an owl upstairs. And a cage. Why don’t you own an owl?” she asked. Harry sighed.

“The stand and cage were Hedwig’s. After my godfather rescued me from Aunt and Uncle’s house, Hedwig was the first thing he bought for me. You have to remember that as a kid we moved around a lot and I was home schooled. While Sirius and Remus and everyone were great I never really had any friends my own age. Hedwig was more than a pet; she was like a friend. She was the only constant in my life and I swear she could understand every word I said to her.” He smiled at her memory.

“What happened to her?” Ginny asked, suspecting she already knew the answer.

“She was killed during the war. We were attacked when we were moving from one safe house to another. I don’t think she even knew what hit her. After Hedwig, well, I never really felt right getting another owl.”

Ginny nodded sadly. “You could really do with one though, Harry. When I move in permanently we’ll definitely need an owl and, well, you have to let go sometime. She sounds like she was a wonderful friend, but maybe you’ll find another that you’ll love as much. Hedwig was your childhood owl but if you get another bird now it would a family owl. I’m sure that when we get around to having kids they would love having one.”

Harry’s head shot up and he looked at Ginny strangely for a second. Then, slowly, he started to smile. “Yeah, that would be great wouldn’t it? An owl round the place for the kids to fuss over. Yeah, I’ll think about it. Who do you need to write to anyway?” he asked, remembering the whole point of the conversation.

“Oh, no-one important,” Ginny replied innocently, “just about something that I was hoping would get printed in the press.” Harry failed to notice her evil smile. She mentally reminded herself to thank Percy properly for those copy documents he had slipped her the other day.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Rita Skeeter watched as her assistant cautiously pushed open the door of her office. By force of habit she scowled at the girl, even though she had proved to be the best assistant she had employed for a long while. The girl was efficient, organised and knew when to keep her mouth shut. The girl entered a little self-consciously, holding a plain brown envelope.

“This just arrived for you, Ms Skeeter,” the girl stated. Rita looked down her nose at it.

“And just what is this meant to be? You know I only deal directly with important correspondence,” she sneered.

“Well, that’s just it. Some of the stuff in here is on official Ministry headed paper. It looks legitimate to me.”

Frowning slightly, Rita reached out and took the envelope the girl offered.

Her task complete, the girl retreated out the office rapidly.

Rita looked up approvingly; she liked to instil fear in her staff. Turning her attention to the envelope, she pulled the contents out and spread the paper across her desk. Her eyes widened as she read the cover letter.

Dear Ms Skeeter

I am a concerned citizen who is worried about the disgraceful conduct of one of the wizarding world’s oldest families, namely the Malfoys.

As I am sure you are aware, Lucius Malfoy is currently justly serving time in Azkaban for his crimes and his wife narrowly escaped a similar fate. Well, sadly, this punishment does not appear to have dissuaded the family from continuing to act in a shameful and shocking manner.

Please find attached several pages from the yet to be published Ministry report into the conduct of the press in recent years. I think the transcript speaks for itself and such disgraceful behaviour needs to be brought to the public’s attention. The whole situation is made worse by the fact that the male accused in the report is indulging in exactly the sort of behaviour that he accused the hero of the Wizarding world of perpetrating in the first place!

Did we fight a devastating war only to allow such revolting people to continue to prosper and be allowed to spread such vicious lies while flaunting well respected marriage laws? I, for one, do not think it should be permitted that they continue in this manner and I’m sure that you will agree.

Trusting that you will use this information for the best,

A friend

Rita quickly scanned through the three page Ministry transcript and studied the photograph that had also been included. An evil grin came onto her face and she suppressed an urge to shout out loud with joy. It was clearly her lucky day.

“Get back in here!” she screamed and a second later her assistant barrelled through the door. The girl stood awaiting orders with a quill and parchment in hand. Rita nodded in approval.

“Right, I’m going to need a few things done. Firstly, we need to use our contact at Gringotts to start digging into the Malfoys' finances. I need a copy of all recent financial transactions under the value of two hundred and fifty Galleons. We’re looking for evidence tying the family into bribes made to that idiot Rastilus Travis. I want something concrete, alright? Secondly, I want the one the junior reporters to put a tail on Draco Malfoy. Try and pick someone who’s not a complete Muppet. Got that?”

Her assistant nodded and sprinted out the office.

Rita leaned back in her chair with a satisfied smile. She knew a good, juicy story when it presented itself; and this one had all the hallmarks of a classic. She was going to enjoy this.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The house had definitely seen better days, Harry thought. The wallpaper was peeling at the edges, the furniture all looked second hand, and a few cleaning charms definitely wouldn’t have gone amiss. Of course, it was hard to get too worried about such things when there were bits of decapitated wizard spread all over the front room.

They had been called to the small house in Birmingham after a pair of wizards from the DMLE had investigated a report of unusual activity and had discovered the body. Or at least, what was left of it.

“No sign of a break-in, boss,” Robbie reported, having just returned from checking all doors and windows. “I’ve also cast the standard detection spells and no sign of Apparition or a Portkey activation either.”

“Looks like an inside job. Whoever did it was sure pissed off at this bloke,” Malcolm commented while trying to avoid standing on any of the various body parts spread about the room.

“Och, I’ll give you odds his wife did it,” Robbie stated with confidence.

“Bloody typical of you, Robbie,” Suzie snapped. “Just assume the wife did it. Do you know if he was even married?”

“It must have been the wife,” Robbie replied. “Just look at the violence involved in the killing. Only someone who was married could attack a person with this level of viciousness.”

“Yeah, thanks, Robbie,” Harry deadpanned. “You do remember I’ll be getting married in a few months?” Robbie grinned evilly.

“So you are, boss, I forgot. Have you set a firm date yet? Oh, have you got a best man yet? I’m still available.”

“Umm, thanks, Robbie. I’ll keep that in mind,” Harry replied absently. Malcolm started sniggering at Robbie’s scowling face. “So, any clues who did this?”

“There doesn’t appear to have been anything taken,” Suzie piped up. “I found jewellery untouched in the bedroom.”

“Oh, would that be the wife’s jewellery?” Robbie asked with a smirk.

“Probably. I found woman’s clothing in the wardrobe,” Suzie replied with gritted teeth, “but that doesn’t instantly mean that this bloke was killed by his wife. Anything could have happened. It could easily have been someone he knew, a friend or relative.”

“Nah, find the wife and you’ve found the killer, that’s what I say. Look, statistically, how many of these domestic murders turn out to be the victim’s partner? It’s always the same. You think you love someone, you marry them and then, after living in their pocket for a few years, you find you can’t stand them. And worse than that, you realise you’re stuck with this person for life. You know how strict Wizarding divorce laws are. Most time, murder is the only way out. And, of course, if the wizard is worth a few galleons as well you might as well paint a target on his back. Say, boss, what are you? The third or fourth richest wizard in the country?”

Harry looked at Robbie with an unfriendly eye. “The third, actually. Not that Ginny needs the money. She is a very well-paid Quidditch star, after all.”

“Not really in your league of filthy richness, though, is she? And she’s a Harpy as well. Nasty temper some of those girls have,” Robbie persisted.

Harry thought for a second. It was true that he was much richer than Ginny, and as soon as they were married, everything he owned would become jointly hers. He also couldn’t deny she had a temper, a vicious one at that. He remembered how his fiancée had dealt with his ex-girlfriend Sharon recently. Harry shook his head.

“Robbie,” he stated, “if Ginny does ever decide to bump me off, I can guarantee I’ll have done something to deserve it.”

Suzie giggled. “Age is bringing you wisdom, Harry,” she smirked.

Harry paused for a second. “Okay, thanks for the vote of confidence. One of you could have assured me that I won’t do anything to arouse murderous tendencies in my future wife,” Harry sulked.

The three Aurors looked at him for a second before shaking their heads.

“Thanks, guys,” he mumbled, before being interrupted by a DMLE wizard hustling into the room.

“The murderer has just handed themselves into the local DMLE office,” he reported breathlessly.

“Who was it?” several voices enquired.

“The bloke’s wife.”

“Bugger,” said Harry, as Robbie started chuckling in the background.


Authors Notes

Not a great deal to say about this chapter as most of it is self-explanatory. We shall see how Ginny and Andromeda’s revenge plan pans out in the next chapter.

BTW, to explain the strange chapter title, this is in two parts with the second part being the title of chapter 8. To be honest, even when you see the second part it won’t make a lot of sense, but that’s never stopped me before.

Thanks as always to MinistryMalcontent for his attempts to make me write in something approaching proper English and stomping on my misguided attempts to start every sentence in this chapter with the word ‘suddenly’. What goes on in my head is a mystery to me sometimes.


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