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SIYE Time:5:21 on 29th March 2024
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Harry Potter and the Nameless Man
By Brennus

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Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Action/Adventure
Warnings: Death, Disturbing Imagery, Extreme Language, Intimate Sexual Situations, Violence
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 362
Summary: Newly appointed probationary Auror Ginny Weasley wanted to do something more meaningful with her life than just play Quidditch. Newly promoted Assistant Head Auror Harry Potter has problems, not least of all that his ex-girlfriend has just moved in with another man. When a pure-blood hunting serial killer suddenly appears, will the Departments latest recruit be a help or a distraction for him?
Hitcount: Story Total: 80320; Chapter Total: 7374
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
First things first: Someone has got the identity of the killer correct! I had hoped it would take a bit longer than six chapters, but this person is entirely too clever for their own good! I will announce the identity of this astute reader during the final chapter (which might now be chapter 13 rather than 12; I keep adding bits!)

Right, chapter 7! More head-scratching, more clues and the team finally have a bit of a breakthrough. Oh, and Harry and Ginny blow off a bit of steam. Hope you all enjoy.

A massive thank you to Arnel for her speedy beta-ing of this chapter, despite doing the housework, watching documentaries , conversing with family members and doing a bit of bird-watching at the same time. That’s multi-tasking!




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Chapter 7 — Pressure and Distractions



“How the hell did he do it?” Harry demanded in disbelief. “There’s security all over this place, not to mention hundreds of people moving back and forth not ten feet from this spot.”

The Aurors were stood in a small side passage that led to one of the main corridors on the second floor of St Mungo’s. All that was down here was a small storage cupboard that contained cleaning supplies. It had been one of the hospital’s elves that had made the ghastly discovery some hours ago, and summoned help.

“I don’t think she was killed here,” Susan suggested. “There’s no blood around the body. I think she was just dumped here.”

“But why?” Ginny demanded. “Why dump a body here of all places?”

“I think our ‘nameless man’ was sending us a message,” Harry ventured. “Think where he left the last two bodies: Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. Those are two iconic locations for the magical community. Likewise this place, St Mungo’s, is known to every witch and wizard in the country.”

“So he’s committing his crimes in places important to magic users,” Susan noted. “What is he trying to tell us by doing that?”

“Think back to that note he sent to the Prophet,” Harry reminded her. “Think of the vitriol in that letter. It’s not just the pure-bloods that this bloke hates, it’s all magic users. By leaving the bodies in locations important to us all he’s telling us all how much he despises us,” Harry said grimly.

“But he talked about ‘boosting his power’ in that letter,” Ginny pointed out. “If he hates magic, why is he so keen to become a powerful wizard?”

“Beats the hell out of me,” Harry acknowledged. “Do we know who this woman is… was?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a positive I.D. She’s Fay Wellington, twenty-six years old, single and a resident of Hogsmeade. She was here for an appointment to treat her back which has been causing problems for months. The Healer reports that she attended the appointment and left at approximately eleven-fifteen this morning. One of the hospital’s elves found the body at two twenty-two. So far, no one admits to have seeing her between those times,” Susan said, reeling off her information from a small notebook.

“Blood status?” Harry asked.

“Pure-blood,” she confirmed.

Harry sighed. “I don’t think we can ignore the fact he’s only going after pure-bloods,” he admitted. “I’m still convinced he’s performing some ritual and it specifies the heart and liver must be taken from a pure-blood.”

“It’s definitely a possibility,” Susan admitted. “The killing has all the hallmarks of the previous two, apart from the body being moved. Now I know what I’m looking for, I did a quick Toxin Detection Spell and there are definitely some unusual chemicals present.”

“So, no doubt at all,” Harry said. “This is definitely victim number three.”

“And he still hasn’t left us any clues,” Ginny noted. “There’s still no magic signature on either the body or here in the corridor. How did he manage to get the body here unseen without magic?”

“I believe I already asked that question, Weasley,” Harry pointed out sourly.

“Doesn’t mean it’s not a good question,” Ginny mumbled.

“No, it doesn’t,” Harry agreed. “Right, I don’t think we’re going to achieve anything more here. Tell the DMLE clean-up staff they can move the body. At least it won’t have to be taken far for the autopsy.”

“No, indeed,” Susan agreed. “What do we do next?”

“We head back to the Ministry. I have a feeling the Head Auror is going to want a little chat,” Harry winced.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The team shifted uncomfortably in their seats as they watched the Head Auror, Gawain Robards, reading the up-date report. Only Harry, who was used to the man’s gruff way, appeared unconcerned. After what seemed like hours, Robards looked up.

“So, we have no idea how the body of the third victim was dumped unobserved,” he asked.

“No, sir,” Harry admitted. “The body was left in a side passage literally feet away from a corridor that hundreds of people use every day. There was no sign of the body being dragged or man-handled, but there was no magical residue either. We’ve yet to identify the actual murder site.”

“The killer’s technique has remained the same for all three victims?” Robards asked.

“Apart from the body being move for the third victim, yes,” Susan confirmed. “The killer administers a mix of Muggle drugs which paralyses the victims. It should be noted that the delivery means were different in each case. The first victim ingested the drugs via a sandwich she ate before she left The Three Broomsticks, the second had it placed in her drink and the third had it injected directly into her bloodstream. It appears the killer has some control over how fast the drugs take effect by varying the strength of the mix. This tells us that the attacks were well planned out in advance. All three victims then had their hearts and livers removed with great skill and care using a Muggle surgical scalpel. The killer is very careful to leave no clues at the crime scene.”

“What about this situation with the missing Squib register?” Robards demanded.

“No one has any idea what’s happened to it,” Harry said. “The Records Department confirms the book was there during the last magical audit, but can tell us no more than that. I gather there’s been a lot of finger pointing down there. Everyone is blaming each other for the register going missing.”

“Fat lot of good that does us,” Robards noted. “The question is; is the register going missing a fluke or does it signal something more sinister? Could it be that the killer has access to Ministry records?”

“No way to tell, sir,” Harry admitted. “Not until we catch the bastard.”

Robards looked angry. “I’m getting a ton of shit about this case. Three pure-blood witches are butchered and we don’t have a clue who’s responsible, despite him writing us a nice little letter! It’s not bloody good enough.”

The team looked contrite at his words.

“Failure is not an option in this instance. We need a breakthrough and we need it now. The public is already up in arms and I’m hearing talk of vigilante groups being formed to patrol well known areas. I’ve spent a lot of time and effort building up this department, and I’m damned if I’ll have it all pissed away by one bloody maniac with a knife,” Robards shouted. “Bloody catch this bugger or I’ll assign the case to someone who can. Now get out there and get to work.”

The team stood and filed out the office without a word. No one spoke until they had all entered the incident room and closed the door. Gloomily, they flopped down into their chairs.

“This is ridiculous,” Susan exclaimed after a while. “What would be the bloody point of assigning the case to another team? Who would do a better job than us? We’ve even got Harry with us now, for Merlin’s sake!”

“It’s okay, Susan,” Harry assured her. “Gawain was just blowing off steam. He’s been under a lot of pressure because of this case. His neck is on the line, too, you know,”

“It’s not a great motivational style he’s got though, is it?” Sonia muttered. “Get out there and catch the killer, he says. Why didn’t we think of that?”

“Never mind that now,” Harry told them. “Let’s concentrate on the case. Has anybody got any new ideas?”

“Can we trace the Muggle drugs the killer is using somehow?” Howell asked.

“Nah, we thought of that,” Ginny piped up. “There are over a dozen suppliers in London alone and hundreds throughout the country. Almost anyone could purchase them.”

“Well, maybe we could…” Howell started to say, before he was interrupted by the door opening. One of the duty Aurors called Cook stuck his head in.

“Sorry to interrupt you, but I’ve got some bloke at the desk says you’ve been trying to contact him. Says his name is Brown,” the Auror informed them.

“Brown?” Susan repeated. “I don’t recall…”

“Wait!” Harry interrupted. “You don’t think it’s the second victim’s missing brother do you?”

“Of course,” Ginny exclaimed. “He must have read in the papers that we were trying to contact him.”

“Take the gentleman to interview room two,” Harry told Cook. “Susan, you and I will have a chat to him to see if we can find anything useful. There has to be a link between these victims.”

A few minutes later, Harry and Susan were sitting in front of the rather timid looking wizard who went by the name of Carter Brown. He was in the process of explaining why it had taken so long for him to come forward.

“I hadn’t seen Carrie since before the war,” he explained. “My parents… well; you probably already know they were Death Eaters. I didn’t want any part of that. I thought the whole lot of them were barmy signing up with You-Know-Who like that. I wouldn’t have gone near the evil bugger! No, I did the only thing I could and legged it.

“Where did you go?” Susan asked politely.

“Canada. I had no ties to the place and knew nobody there. That’s why I thought no one would suspect that I had gone there,” Brown reasoned. “I started a new life. I met a young witch and settled down. I’m happy there, you know. I only heard about Carrie because there was a news story about it on the national news. I tell you, these killings are making the papers all round the world. This murder… this horrible killing; it just shows you what’s gone wrong with this bloody country. Poor Carrie.”

“Mr Brown, I assure you that we’re trying to do everything we can to find your sister’s killer,” Harry told the man. “But we need your help. Your sister was a very private person and we know very little about her. I appreciate you hadn’t seen her for some time, but what can you tell me about her?”

“Me and Carrie never really got on well,” Brown admitted. “She always took after Mum and Dad more than me. I only ever wanted a quiet life. But Carrie was a great believer in blood purity and how pure-bloods were destined to rule. Load of crap, if you ask me. If she’d been old enough I reckon she would have been standing with You-Know-Who at the final battle. You’d have probably ended up fighting her, Mr Potter!”

“I hope it would never have come to that,” Harry responded uncomfortably. “What about Carrie’s private life? What did she like to do?”

“Well, I probably shouldn’t say this, what with her being my flesh and blood, but frankly Carrie was a complete slag,” Brown said with a hard expression on his face. “She seemed to have a new boyfriend every week. I gave up trying to remember their names. Of course, she was very careful about the type of boy she was with. Had to be a pure-blood; she wouldn’t have been seen dead with a Mudblood! It didn’t matter if they were sadists, morons or thieves; just so long as they were pure-bloods! Bloody hypocritical bitch!”

“I take it there’s little love lost between you and your sister,” Susan noted.

“Not much,” Brown admitted. “I always thought that she’d come to a sticky end, but just not like that. No one deserved that.”

“Do you know what she was doing for a living?” Harry persisted. “She didn’t seem to have any visible means of support.”

“Work for a living? Carrie? You must be joking!” Brown snorted. “That was far below her. Nah, she would have found some poor mug and taken him for every Knut he had before she moved on. And I bet she went through a few. Pretty high maintenance was our Carrie.”

“Liked her luxuries, did she?” Susan prodded.

“Oh yeah, did she ever,” Brown laughed. “And of course, the medical treatment wasn’t cheap either.”

“Medical treatment?” Harry repeated.

“Yeah, Carrie had a rare bone condition which she had to regularly take a potion for, and that cost a bit. She was in and out of St Mungo’s every five minutes as a kid and still had to have regular check-ups as an adult. So much for pure-bloods being so superior; without that potion she would barely have been able to move.”

Harry and Susan exchanged looks. Maybe this was something that warranted investigation.

After another twenty minutes of chatting with Carter Brown, Harry and Susan sent him on his way. They had taken a contact address for him in Canada, but didn’t think they would need it. He had, however, provided them with an interesting line of enquiry to follow.

They hurried back to the incident room and pulled out the file on Mary Kelly. After a few moments of hunting they found her medical records which they quickly scanned through.

“There!” Susan exclaimed. “She was admitted to St Mungo’s last year after she got injured in a bar fight that broke out in The Three Broomsticks.”

“We finally have a link between the three victims; they were all patients at St Mungo’s within the last few years.”

“It’s a bit thin, Harry,” Howell said dubiously.

“Still, it’s all we’ve got at the moment,” Harry pointed out. “Howell and Sonia, you carry on cross-checking the files to see if you can come up with something. Susan and Ginny, the three of us are going to take a little trip to St Mungo’s.”

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

A little while later, the three Aurors stood outside the main records room at St Mungo’s. Before they left the Ministry Harry had decided that they needed to stop at the Legal Department and obtain a warrant to search the hospital’s files. It was just as well he did.

From the second they had stepped into the hospital they had been hampered by the medical staff whose attitudes ranged from indifference to outright hostility. The prevailing opinion seemed to be that the Aurors had no right to start poking into confidential medical records, warrant or no warrant. It had taken Harry threatening to arrest the Hospital Administrator for them to receive any co-operation, and even then it was given reluctantly.

They had been led to the records room by one of the hospital’s administrative staff who clearly thought she had better things to do. When they eventually reached the room, having been forced to listen to her complaints all the way there, she rather abruptly demanded to know what information they required so she could retrieve it. Apparently, she didn’t trust the highly trained Aurors to look through a set of alphabetically arranged files without messing them up.

Rolling his eyes, Harry handed the admin witch the names of the three victims and she vanished off into the large room to locate the appropriate files. As the witch had strongly hinted that she wanted no distractions, the Aurors had remained in the corridor. Looking at his colleagues, Harry could tell that Susan was on the verge of losing her temper which would probably result in the admin witch getting hexed into the middle of next week. Ginny, on the other hand, just looked rather bored as she leaned against the far wall. Harry himself had dealt with St Mungo’s staff before, so he had at least been prepared for the reception they had received. Not that he was happy about it, of course, but short of arresting most of them what could he do?

So the three Aurors lounged about and waited for the admin witch to return with their information.

And waited.

And waited.

After three quarters of an hour, Harry could feel his patience was just about exhausted. Susan looked about ready to kill someone, and Ginny wasn’t much better. His tolerance at an end, Harry stuck his head into the records room.

“Are you going to be much longer?” Harry yelled. “We do have a murderer to catch, you know!”

A few minutes later the admin witch emerged with an annoyed look on her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said haughtily. “I can’t locate the files, and I really don’t have the time to look for them any further. You’ll have to do without, I’m afraid.”

“Hold on,” Susan growled, standing in the way of the admin witch who looked set to disappear down the corridor. “What do you mean, you can’t find them?”

“I mean, they are not where they are supposed to be,” the witch snapped. “I’m not responsible for every single file in this place, you know.”

“Is it usual for files to go missing like this?” Harry said quickly, hoping to head off the angry comment he knew Susan was about to make.

“Of course not,” the admin witch said, sounding offended. “What sort of place do you think we’re running here?”

“The sort of place that losses three files and can’t be bothered to look for them properly,” Susan spat.

“I’ve looked for them!” the witch protested. “As far as I can tell they’re not in the records room. I don’t know what else you expect me to do!”

“Let me put this in a way you can understand,” Harry said calmly. “We are investigating the brutal murder of three witches, all of whom received medical treatment in this hospital recently. The fact that the medical records of these three witches are all missing is far too much of a coincidence to be dismissed as a simply mistake. I must therefore assume that the files have been removed either by the killer or by someone working with him. As of this moment, everyone who has access to these records has become a suspect in a multiple murder investigation. Do you understand me?”

“But you can’t suspect anyone from the hospital,” the witch cried in shock. “No one here would do such awful things!”

“Then explain why the files have gone missing?” demanded Susan, getting in the witch’s face.

“I don’t know!” the witch squeaked, finally starting to realise how serious the situation was.

“You find those files,” Harry told the witch coldly. “I don’t care how long it takes you or how many people it requires. Unless I get them by tomorrow, I’m going to start tearing this hospital apart until I get answers, got it?”

“Y…yes,” the witch stuttered before vanishing back into the records room, presumably to restart the search.

Harry turned and began to stomp back down the corridor with a face like thunder. Susan and Ginny fell into step just behind him.

“So, more information we need just disappears with explanation. What’s going on here, Harry?” Ginny asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied grimly. “But I’m getting the distinct feeling somebody doesn’t want us to find this killer.”

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Ginn y stretched out on the coach and sighed contentedly. The weather outside was typically cold and miserable for November, but she was perfectly happy curled up in front of a roaring fire in her new room.

She had moved in the previous weekend following the anticipated uproar from her family. Her mother’s reaction to the news that she was moving out had been pretty much what she had been expecting. First, Molly had begged her to stay at the Burrow and then, when that had failed, she’d demanded Ginny provide her with full access to her new home so she could ‘make sure she was alright’. Ginny had explained that she would be sharing a house with a work colleague and, due to security issues, access would be restricted. Somehow, Ginny had ‘forgotten’ to mention that she would be sharing a house with her single, male boss who just happened to be incredibly sexy.

Surprisingly, her father had been rather resigned to her leaving. They had been through this before when she had joined the Harpies and Ginny assumed he had gotten used to the idea his daughter had flown the coup. Ron had been his usual disagreeable self, making cutting remarks about the Burrow not being good enough for her now. Ginny interpreted these comments as meaning that as he couldn’t afford to move out he didn’t see why anyone else should.

The move itself had gone surprisingly smoothly, aided by the fact that Ginny had a rather disappointing amount of personal items to transport. She’d packed up her meagre belongings before shrinking the boxes and stuffing them in her bag. She’d then said her goodbyes, with the promise she would return for dinner one day the following week, before taking the Floo to Grimmauld Place. To her immense embarrassment, seconds after she arrived the wards at Harry’s home repelled an attempt by someone without the necessary permissions to access the house. Clearly, her mother had decided to try and follow her through the Floo. Fortunately, Harry had actually found the incident funny, although Ginny silently vowed to have a few choice words with her mother shortly.

The rest of the day had gone smoothly and by the late afternoon Ginny was unpacked and able to relax. Harry had even cooked a welcome meal for her that evening. Although it had been a simply dish of spaghetti bolognaise, the gesture had been much appreciated, particularly after he had cracked open a rather nice bottle of red wine for them to share.

Since then, she found settling into her new living arrangements had been pretty painless. The house was warm and bright, her bed was large and comfortable, and Harry had proved an amenable housemate. Despite the pressures of work, without the family dramas she had previous experienced most mealtimes, she found herself a lot more relaxed. Moving into Grimmauld Place was proving to be a good choice.

“Ginny, can you come down here for a second?” Harry’s voice called faintly through her door.

Wondering what he wanted, Ginny put down the trashy romance novel she had been reading and got up. She made her way out of her room and down the stairs. As most of the house’s activities revolved around the kitchen, she made her way there. Sure enough, she found Harry in the room standing next to the wicker laundry basket that served the house.

“What’s up, Harry?” Ginny asked, eyeing the laundry basket.

“Um, have you been putting your dirty laundry in this basket, Ginny?” he asked rather carefully.

“Err… yeah, I have… oh! That’s your laundry basket, isn’t it?” Ginny exclaimed, suddenly realising what she’d done wrong. “Oh, I’m sorry, Harry. I got so used to just throwing my stuff with everybody else’s at home, I didn’t even think about it. I wasn’t trying to get you to wash my clothes for me, honest!”

“It’s okay, Ginny,” he said with a smile. “I was just a bit confused as to how I had created so much dirty laundry.”

“Pull my stuff out and I’ll find somewhere to put it,” she told him.

“Well, I was about to put a wash on, so we can do it together,” Harry offered as he reached into the basket. He withdrew the first item. “Hmm, a set of Aurors robes. Obvious who’s these are, isn’t it?”

“I should imagine yours are a bit longer than mine,” Ginny pointed out, rolling her eyes.

Harry held the robes up against himself. They came down to his knees.

“Yours, I think,” he said grinning, before dropping the robes over to the side. He continued to separate the items into two separate piles until he paused. He carefully reached into the basket and withdrew another item.

“So, whose are these then?” he asked holding up a pair of Ginny’s knickers. They were pale green and rather skimpy. Harry held them against himself. “Hmm, rather a snug fit, but they could be mine, I suppose.”

“Put them down!” Ginny said blushing. “Like those would fit you!”

“Are you saying that I can’t get into your knickers?” Harry asked innocently.

“Bloody put them down, Potter! I’m warning you,” Ginny threatened, deciding to ignore Harry’s innuendos.

“But they’re so nice,” he protested. “They look quite clean, too. I wonder if they smell fresh?”

“Don’t you dare!” Ginny shrieked and launched herself at him. Unfortunately for her, Harry just held her panties high above his head and Ginny had no hope of reaching them.

“You give me my knickers back, you pervert!” Ginny yelled, jumping up and down in an effort to reach them.

“What’s it worth?” he countered.

“How about me not hexing you to bits?” Ginny yelled. “Gimme!”

“Nope!” Harry called and darted away from her. Ginny gave chase as he ran around the kitchen table, but it was clear to her that she would never catch him with his long legs. Sneakiness was required here!

She waited until Harry had run around to the opposite side from her, before Ginny leapt up on to the table. From her vantage point, she then leapt onto his back as he ran past. Wrapping her arm around his neck, she the used her other hand to try and grab her stolen underwear. Unfortunately, Harry had been unprepared for her manoeuvre and he stumbled. A second later, he was laying flat on his face with Ginny on top of him.

Seeing her chance, Ginny scrambled forward, literally climbing over his prone body. She then grabbed her knickers out of Harry’s hand and stood triumphantly before him.

“Ha! That will teach you!” she crowed. “I would remind you, Mr Potter, that I grew up in a house with six older brothers. You will never, ever get the better of me, so I suggest you save yourself a lot of pain and don’t even try.

“Ow,” moaned Harry from his position lying on the floor. “That was a sneaky move you pulled.”

“Hey, a girl has to protect her modesty, you know. I can’t allow any old letch to start fiddling around with my unmentionables,” Ginny said with a wide grin on her face.

“Old letch? Thanks,” he muttered, pulling himself up. “Okay, I’ve learnt my lesson. No more teasing Miss Weasley unless I want to end up flat on my face.”

“Damn right,” Ginny replied buffing her nails on her t-shirt. “I’m glad you recognise my superiority.”

“Oh, absolutely!” he confirmed in a contrite voice.

Gingerly, he made his way back to the laundry basket to continue separating their clothing. He looked into the basket and a small grin came onto his face.

“So whose is this, then?” he asked hold up one of Ginny’s bras up against his chest.

For a second their eyes locked. They stared at each other mentally seeking dominance over the other. Muscles tensed in anticipation of action. Then, without warning, he smirked and, before Ginny could react, he sprinted out the kitchen door waving her bra above his head. In a second Ginny was on his heels alternatively threatening him with disembowelment and laughing her head off.

In the end, the chase lasted a good three quarters of an hour and dissolved firstly into an extended game of hide-and-seek around the house, and then into a water fight when Ginny had used her wand to squirt the retreating form of her new landlord. He’d retaliated and pretty soon they were both soaked. Ginny had only, finally, managed to retrieve her underwear after she retreated to the kitchen and fished out several pairs of Harry’s boxer shorts from the laundry hamper. After transfiguring them pink with red love-hearts and then adding pictures of cute little ponies on them, Harry surrendered.

They eventually settled down and actually finished their laundry. A job that normally, by magical means, took a quarter of an hour had taken nearly an hour and a half. Frankly, Ginny couldn’t remember when she’d had so much fun.

As it was now nearly dinnertime, and it was her turn to cook, Ginny started their evening meal, while Harry finished drying and folding their clothes. Harry had previously mentioned a liking for Sheppard’s Pie, so that’s what she decided to serve. The end results, while not being a patch on her mother’s creations, were quite edible and certainly seemed to please Harry, who had seconds, despite her rather lumpy mash potato.

As they sat at the table finishing their meal, a thought occurred to Ginny. After their playful afternoon, she was a little reluctant to bring the matter up, but curiosity won out.

“Harry,” she asked carefully, “why was Susan so adamant that I shouldn’t move in here?”

“What?” Harry asked surprise. “What do you mean? What did Susan say?”

“Well, she did kind of imply that the house was dirty and unpleasant,” Ginny said carefully.

“Ah,” Harry exclaimed, looking slightly relived. “It was, to be truthful. I only thought about hiring cleaners after she left. I guess some of her criticisms hit home. Of course, the cleaning firm took one look at the house and wanted to charge extra. That kind of shamed me in doing some modernisations. I hired an interior decoration firm to come in and gut the place. I guess I previously resisted changing anything as I wanted the house to remain the same as when my godfather was alive. It took someone else telling me I was living in a hovel to get me to do anything about it.”

“Well, that explains it, I guess,” Ginny acknowledged. “But hasn’t Susan seen the place since it’s been done up?”

“Nah, she hasn’t been in here for well over a year,” Harry said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Maybe Harry and Susan weren’t as close as she had assumed, Ginny thought. Encouraged, she pressed on.

“She also said that you weren’t the easiest person to live with. Personally, I think you’ve been really easy-going. So far I’ve really enjoyed living here. When you’re not stealing my knickers, of course,” she added with a grin.

Harry smiled back. “I’ve really enjoyed having you here, too. I don’t know quite what to tell you, Ginny. Susan and I seemed to clash over the stupidest things when she was here. Everything was just the biggest deal to her. I didn’t fold our clothes right, or I didn’t clean the bathroom properly. Oh, I fully admit I was just as bad. I used to get so angry when she tidied up and I couldn’t find things. It was ridiculous when I think about it.”

“I always imagined Susan would have a set way of doing things,” Ginny admitted.

“Oh, did she ever!” Harry agreed. “But it wasn’t her fault things didn’t work out. Actually, I’m not sure it was mine either. We just weren’t ready to live together. We were set in our ways and too immature to learn how to compromise. I think we’ve both grown up a bit since then. I’m glad she and Ernie are so happy together, I really am. It just goes to show that we weren’t right together. I mean, I think he’s a much better match for her than I ever was. He’s a bit more stable.”

“That’s one word for it,” Ginny snorted.

Harry looked at her funnily for a second before he smiled. “I forgot, you probably know him from Hogwarts, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Ginny confirmed. “He actually asked me out once, but I turned him down. He was a bit pompous for me.”

“Yeah, he can be, can’t he?” Harry agreed, smiling mischievously.

“I certainly can’t imagine him running about the house waving items of female underclothing around his head,” she pointed out with a wicked grin.

“Ha! No, I can’t either,” Harry laughed. “Mind you, I wouldn’t have imagined me doing it either. For some reason you bring out my silly side, Miss Weasley.”

“All part of the service, Mr Potter,” Ginny replied.

Yes, she decided, moving in here wasn’t proving to be a bad idea at all.


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