SIYE Time:17:37 on 6th November 2024 SIYE Login: no | | |
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A Taste of Honey By Gin110881
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Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Drama, Fluff, Romance
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 37
Summary: After three weeks of working without a day off, Ginny rewards herself with a latte and a chocolate sprinkle before spending the weekend with her family. Little did she know that she would meet someone in her favourite café who would change her entire life.
Probably the most AU I've ever written.
Hitcount: Story Total: 33747; Chapter Total: 2235
Awards: View Trophy Room
Author's Notes: My thanks go to GryffindorHealer, dumnonian, and KSummer for their kind support in giving the chapter a final checkover.
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With a sigh of relief, Ginny returned from her visit to Mrs Winterbottom, whose condition was stable enough that she soon could be transferred back into Ginny's care. A glance at her watch showed that she still had 15 minutes until her appointment with Harry and his godson. But first, she had to purchase the Tamiflu for her mother, and the chemist shop here at the hospital would soon be closing. "See you tomorrow. I have to hurry!" Waving goodbye to Amy, Ginny scurried for the lift, studiously ignoring an amused comment that she had always been in a hurry since she had a lover.
As she pushed open the door to the chemist shop, the doorbell sounded, announcing her arrival. Placing her prescription on the counter, Ginny nodded friendly to the chemist who emerged from a storage room. "Hello. Two packs of Tamiflu, please."
The woman shook her head regretfully. "I'm sorry. We ran out of Tamiflu. We reordered, but it may take a day or two."
"Damn," Ginny cursed and put her hand over her mouth. "Oh. I'm sorry," she threw the woman a sheepish look. "It's just..." Glancing at her watch, she furrowed her brow. "The two chemist shops further down the street will also close soon."
"They don't have Tamiflu either," said the chemist. "We called them when our supplies were almost used up, but they've already been out of Tamiflu for a few days." She raised her hands sympathetically. "I'm sorry. There have been so many cases of bird flu in the last weeks that our Tamiflu reserves were used up pretty quickly. That's why new orders are taking a little longer at the moment because everyone is ordering."
Ginny bit her bottom lip, assessing her options. The pills she bought last week would last another 1-2 days, even if her mother took some.
"If you'd like, can I reserve the Tamiflu for you?" the woman suggested.
"Oh. That would be nice," said Ginny, relieved. "When do you expect delivery?"
"Usually every day at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. In which name should I take the order?"
"Weasley. Ginny Weasley," she replied, relieved that she didn't have to chase the pills all over London. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate that." Smiling kindly at the pharmacist, she headed off to meet Harry, who was probably already waiting for her.
Her eyes immediately went to where Harry usually waited for her, and her eyebrows shot up when she found the spot empty. Biting her bottom lip, she glanced at her watch. She was almost on time, only 2 minutes late. Furrowing her brow, she glanced around and was relieved when she finally found Harry nearby, deep in conversation with a boy of about 5. Apparently, he'd just spotted her too, as his face lit up and he waved her over.
A grin spread across Ginny's face as she rushed towards him. As she got closer, she noticed that the boy had the same black, dishevelled hair as Harry. If she hadn't known better, she would have assumed the boy was his son. "Hello, you two," she greeted them, giving Harry a quick kiss and a warm smile to the boy, whose eyes were wide with curiosity as he looked up at Ginny and studied her intently. Probably some kind of aptitude test, Ginny suspected. The boy returned her smile, which Ginny took as proof she'd passed.
"Teddy, this is my girlfriend, Ginny Weasley," Harry said, gesturing to Ginny. "And Ginny, this is Teddy Lupin, my godson."
Ginny crouched down to Teddy's level, extending her hand with a cordial smile. "It's lovely to meet you, Teddy," she said kindly.
Teddy hesitated for a moment before tentatively reaching out to shake Ginny's hand. "Nice to meet you too, Ginny," he replied shyly.
"Are you ready to meet Teddy's parents, Ginny?" Harry asked, his voice brimming with excitement.
"Sure. I am looking forward to it. Let's go," Ginny replied. She swallowed as she realized that she'd soon get to know another part of Harry's life, a part that was so important to him. Ginny was so excited about it that her nervousness was almost forgotten. With a curious look, she took Harry's hand. "Are you going to Apparate us?"
"Yes," Harry nodded. "But not all three of us together. I'll drop Teddy first before I pick you up. Let's head to the Apparition Point around the corner."
They took Teddy in their middle and walked down the street. "Did you like the zoo?" Ginny asked, giving Teddy an encouraging smile.
The boy's eyes lit up as he raved about his adventures with the elephants and the lion enclosure. All too soon, they reached the secluded spot on a side street, and Harry Apparated them to Teddy's home.
"Where are we?" Ginny looked around. They stood on a street with two-story houses on each side, some of which had shops on the ground floor.
"Hogsmeade," Harry explained, taking her hand to lead her to a house where Teddy was already waiting at the door.
"Oh," Ginny replied, surprised. "I haven't been here in ages. When I was little, we sometimes visited my brothers when they had a free weekend." She suddenly felt melancholy. "Later, I didn't want to come here anymore. There's a school here somewhere, isn't there?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah. Hogwarts is a twenty-minute walk from here. But come on, Remus and Dora are waiting for us."
Teddy had already pushed open the front door and was noisily stomping up the stairs. "There you are," Ginny heard a female voice. "I see you've brought visitors with you, Teddy."
Ginny followed Harry and spotted a woman with turquoise hair and a friendly face standing at the top of the stairs with a wide grin. "Come in. Remus has just put the kettle on." She chuckled. "He doesn't trust my cooking skills, even making tea."
She hugged Harry briefly before looking Ginny in the eyes. "Welcome to our sweet home. I'm Dora," she said with a friendly smile and gave Ginny a quick but warm hug.
"And I'm Ginny."
"Nice to meet you," Dora replied, pointing to a door where Teddy had just disappeared. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back. I'm just lending Remus a hand with tea."
Ginny followed Harry into the living room, where Teddy was already sitting on the floor, playing with his toy cars.
"Hi, Harry. How was your day at the zoo?" A man with slightly greying hair that had once been brown walked in with a teapot in his hand, followed by Dora with a bowl of scones and clotted cream. The man seemed to be several years older than Dora, Ginny noticed, remembering that he was a schoolmate of Harry's father and Sirius.
"Hi, Remus," Harry replied. "May I introduce you to my girlfriend, Ginny?"
The man placed the kettle on the table and extended his hand to Ginny. "Nice to meet you, Ginny. I'm Remus Lupin."
Accepting his hand and the warm handshake, Ginny replied, "Ginny Weasley."
Remus raised an eyebrow. "Weasley? Really? I had several Weasleys in my class at Hogwarts. I didn't know they had a sister."
"Come on, find a place and help yourself. I made the scones myself." Dora said, chuckling to herself. "If they're too hard for you, just add a little more of the clotted cream."
Ginny sat down next to Harry, across from Remus. When she felt his eyes on her and noticed the wrinkle on his forehead, Ginny cleared her throat. "That may be because I never went to Hogwarts. I attended a Muggle school."
"Ginny is studying medicine," Harry explained a hint of pride in his voice.
"That's great!" Their hosts gave Ginny an astonished look and nodded approvingly.
"I decided very early on to learn a profession in the Muggle world, and my family has always been very supportive," Ginny explained, well aware that the question of questions would arise at any moment. And indeed, Dora looked at her with fascination and Remus with curiosity.
Deciding to let the cat out of the bag, Ginny shrugged her shoulders. In the end, they'd find out anyway. "I'm a squib."
Dora's eyes widened. "Oh. That must have been hard for you. It's always hard when you're different." She nodded firmly. "We experienced this first hand. I'm a Metamorphmagus."
Dora's turquoise hair changed to a flaming red, similar to Ginny's hair colour. Her nose turned into a pig's snout, which she immediately reversed when Remus glanced at her, rolling his eyes. Ginny looked up as Teddy laughed enthusiastically, his hair equally red as hers.
"One of my brothers once told me about a girl at Hogwarts who could do that," Ginny admitted.
"You mean Charlie, right? Charlie Weasley. He was in my year. I was in Hufflepuff, and he was a Gryffindor." She smiled absentmindedly to herself and chuckled. "Once, we almost dated, but then he apparently lost his nerve." She shrugged. "Or he was into boys. I never found out. What does Charlie do these days?"
"He works at a dragon reserve in Romania," Ginny replied, chuckling. "And to my knowledge, he's never brought anyone home." At Dora's challenging look, Ginny added, "Neither a woman nor a man."
Remus watched the exchange mostly in silence. When Ginny raised an eyebrow, giving him a searching look, he hesitated briefly before admitting with a sigh, "I'm a werewolf. So if you're worried about being around me..."
"Stop it," Dora grumbled and nudged his arm.
"You're perfectly fine," Harry spoke. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have become a Hogwarts professor again after the war."
Remus raised his hands in defeat and chuckled somewhat painedly. "At least Teddy inherited Dora's talents and not mine."
"How did you two actually meet?" Dora asked. In addition to her obvious curiosity, she probably wanted to change the subject.
Ginny glanced at Harry and raised her chin questioningly. When Harry gave her an encouraging nod, she chuckled and grinned at Dora. "It was a complete coincidence. I was sitting in a cafe just around the corner from my work, had to go to the loo, and when I came back, my table was occupied."
"I didn't know anyone was sitting there," Harry objected, giving her an irritated frown.
"No. You didn't," Ginny admitted. "But I felt sorry for him because all the other tables were taken. So I offered him to share my table."
Dora chuckled, flashing Harry an amused smile, while Remus followed the conversation with interest, his eyes constantly moving back and forth between Ginny and Harry.
"In the end, of course, he asked me for my phone number," Ginny said innocently.
"Ginny, that..." Harry tried to object.
"Don't tell me that's not true." Ginny gave Harry a challenging look.
"That... Well, yes," Harry stuttered and finally admitted. "If you take it that way, that's how it was."
As Dora burst into a hearty laugh and Remus chuckled, shaking his head, Ginny reached for Harry's hand and squeezed it. "We both still thought we were Muggles. And to be honest, I had my doubts he would call me."
"You never mentioned that," said Harry, dumbfounded.
Ginny squeezed his hand again and looked into his eyes. "I didn't want to get my hopes up too high, and I wasn't sure if dating a Muggle was a good idea, but..." she smiled dreamily. "I just couldn't get you out of my head, no matter what I did, and then... yeah, then I was glad you hadn't forgotten me," Ginny smirked and gave Harry a mischievous look. "He actually called my colleague and flirted with her. Then I had to call him back."
"Ginny!" Harry cried. "That's not true. I never flirted with your colleague."
"In any case, Amy was completely smitten with you. She always calls you my lover," Ginny confessed. A blush crept over her cheeks as she winked at Harry.
Dora's eyes sparkled with emotion. "How wonderful it is to be young." Glancing at her husband, she grabbed his hand and wiggled her eyebrows.
"You're still young, Dora. But you've got an old man," Remus grumbled.
"I've got the old man I wanted, Wolfie." Dora grinned. "And I'm glad I have you. Never forget that."
Rolling his eyes, Remus got up. "I'll make us some more tea."
"Bring the bottle of Firewhisky, love. We have to drink to young love," Dora called with a broad grin.
Ginny gave Harry a questioning look, which he answered with a shrug. "Okay. One drink is fine, but I have to stop at the Burrow later."
"Of course, I'll take you there," Harry said.
"You can also use our floo," offered Dora.
Ginny hesitated for a moment but then nodded in agreement. "Yes, why not." She winked at Teddy, who was sitting at a small table in the corner, busy with a colouring book. He beamed at her, and his hair, which had once again been pitch black, suddenly turned flame red again. Ginny had to laugh.
Remus came back from the kitchen and refilled their tea mugs whilst Dora conjured four glasses and started pouring the Firewhisky Remus had brought. "How did you find out you weren't Muggles?" Dora asked and raised her glass when everyone had their drink. "Slainte!"
They all raised their glasses. "To young love," cried Dora, taking a larger sip and looking at them both expectantly.
Harry cleared his throat and put his glass down, "I met Ginny's brother. He works for Gringotts, and... Yeah, I knew then."
Ginny shook her head. "You didn't know anything. You thought I was a witch." She glanced from Remus to Dora, smiling. "And when I told him I wasn't a witch, he said he didn't care if I was a Muggle or a Squib."
"That's not true," Harry interjected. "I said I love you because you are you, no matter what else you are."
Ginny sighed and admitted. "Yes. You did." With a nod towards Dora, she asked, "Do you know how the two of them got together?"
Harry grinned. "That's a long story."
"Because he surrendered to my charms," Dora explained confidently, grinning at Remus.
"It wasn't your cooking skills," Remus revealed with a grin.
"I have other qualities," Dora insisted, wiggling her eyebrows.
"No details, please," Harry interrupted with a frightened look.
"My people skills and judgment," Dora explained, giving Harry an accusatory look. "I don't know what you were thinking. But I paid attention during my Auror training. It's not for nothing that I'm one of the chief interrogators."
"You're an Auror?" Ginny asked, surprised.
"Yes, but after we had Teddy, I only worked part-time for a while."
Ginny nodded in understanding. "Do you know my brother? He's also an Auror. Ron Weasley."
"Oh." Dora nodded. "Yeah. Let's say I know who he is. He started when I took a break because of Teddy, and now I only do office work while he's mostly out in the field."
"Ron Weasley? He was one of my students, too. I remember him," Remus said. "That must have been about ten years ago."
"After the war, the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, hired Remus again as a teacher," Harry clarified as Remus was apparently uncomfortable talking about himself. "He's even Head of Gryffindor now."
"And one of the deputy headmasters," Dora added proudly, patting Remus' hand. "Since last school year, he's also responsible for the Hogwarts birth register and delivering the invitations to new students."
"I remember," Ginny said quietly, a little wistfully. "I think it was Professor McGonagall who visited us at the Burrow and brought my brothers their first Hogwarts letters, at least my younger brothers. I don't remember Bill and Charlie. I was too little then."
Harry sent her an encouraging smile and squeezed her hand.
"Oh. I'm sorry, Ginny," Dora said contritely.
Ginny returned Harry's smile and then looked at Dora. "It's okay. That was ages ago and long forgotten." She looked up as the grandfather clock struck seven times. "Oh. It's already seven o'clock. I think I have to get going," she said, glancing at Harry.
He nodded. "Let's just say goodbye to Teddy. Then we'll take the Floo to the Burrow. Is your mother at home or with your father?"
Ginny grimaced thoughtfully. "She's supposed to be home. I wanted to bring her the pills." She sighed. "But I won't get them until tomorrow. I should at least let her know. We don't have to stay long."
Before Ginny could protest, Remus poured another round after Dora nudged him. "Until next time," he said, raising his glass. "It was nice to have you."
** HG **
On Monday afternoon, after work, Ginny was relieved when the friendly chemist handed her two boxes of Tamiflu.
"You were lucky," she announced. "We only received half of the goods we ordered and had to reorder again."
"Thank you so much," Ginny replied gratefully. "I hope I can get by with the two boxes and no other family members getting sick." She put the boxes in her bag and made her way to the exit, where Harry was already waiting for her. She couldn't help but grin. Hardly a day had gone by lately when they hadn't met, and she found she'd gotten used to it and really enjoyed his company. She gave him a peck on the lips and asked with a smile, "How was your day?"
"Oh, great," Harry replied, taking her hand. "I'm supposed to say hello to you from your brother."
Ginny shot him a questioning look. "Bill or Ron? You don't know the others yet."
Harry smiled. "Bill, of course. I met him at Gringotts this morning. He was going to visit your dad this evening. Maybe we'll meet him there."
Arriving at St Mungo's, Ginny went into the waiting room with Harry and looked around carefully. "It's best not to touch anything here, Harry. And when we leave, we wash our hands. It won't do us any good if we get sick too. I'll hurry, just bring the pills to Mum and check on Dad."
Harry nodded that he understood, and Ginny hurried into her father's room.
"How are you two?" she asked as she entered. She raised her eyebrows in surprise as she noticed her father looking at her and waving at her.
"Arthur is doing much better," her mother replied. "He no longer has a fever and isn't that sweaty anymore."
"Excellent," Ginny said, relieved and glanced at her mother. "And how are you doing?"
"It's okay." Her mother waved her off.
"This means you're not so well," Ginny stated. "Did you take the pills?"
Her mother nodded. "Yes. The box is empty now."
"I brought new ones," Ginny said, and placed the two boxes from her bag on the bedside table.
"Is Harry with you?" your mother asked.
"Yes. He's waiting outside," Ginny replied, surprised. "Why?"
"Now that he's feeling better, your dad wants to meet your boyfriend, my dear."
Ginny hesitated for a moment but then nodded. "Of course. I'll ask him."
Harry was surprised to see her return so quickly but raised his eyebrows when Ginny brought up her father's wish. "Sure. D'you think I'm allowed to visit him?"
Ginny just shrugged. "Dad's doing a lot better. Just don't touch anything in there. They don't take preventative measures too seriously here."
She led Harry to her father's room, who greeted Harry with a warm smile. "Hello, Harry," he said. "It's nice to finally meet you. Molly has told me so much about you."
Harry gave Ginny's mother a surprised look but then smiled. "The honour is all mine, Mr Weasley. I'm also happy to finally meet you. You've been hiding here in this room from me for long enough. I'm glad you're doing better."
Ginny's father chuckled. "Let's not overcomplicate things, Harry. My name is Arthur."
The door opened, and Healer Korngeable entered, a file folder under his arm. He gave Harry a bewildered look, obviously surprised to see someone unknown, then turned to Ginny's mother. "Molly. Do you remember why you were here at St Mungo's with your daughter?"
Ginny's mother hesitated, clearly taken aback by the question, but then thought and nodded slowly. "Yes. I remember. It was a bit strange. I was told that our midwife, Madam Pudsworth, was ill, so another midwife came to the Burrow to check on Ginny." She shook her head. "It was about a medical exam Madam Pudsworth had done on my other children at home, but the midwife, I forgot her name, wanted to call in a specialist. We even had to come in twice. In hindsight, it's a bit strange. But the examination showed that everything was fine with Ginny, so we didn't worry about it." Ginny's mother shot Korngeable a perplexed look. "Why do you ask, Frank. Is something wrong?"
Healer Korngeable fidgeted nervously, grimacing as if he'd bitten into a lemon or something extremely unpleasant had happened to him. Pointing at the file he'd brought, he finally glanced at Ginny. "We found your magical medical records, Miss Weasley, and…" he hesitated.
"And?" Ginny asked, not understanding what the man meant. "Is there anything wrong with the records?"
"I'm so sorry," Korngeable said, looking contrite. "But I must admit that your records have been tampered with."
"What?" Ginny blurted out. "Why would anyone do that?"
"For what reason would anyone tamper with her records?" asked Harry, visibly worried.
"How could this happen?" Ginny asked, curious. "As far as I understood, these records are maintained automatically by magic when a spell was performed on the patient."
"Yes, that's the way it works," Korngeable confirmed. "It appears the recordings were subsequently erased."
Ginny stared at Korngeable, trying to process what he'd just said. Someone had erased her medical records? But why? At her hospital, the fraud would have been fired on the spot. If they found out who it was.
"Do you know who's responsible?" Ginny asked.
"No, we don't know yet who did it and why," Korngeable admitted. "These are just the copies I made. The originals are already being examined, and I hope we know more by tomorrow." He gave Ginny a penitent look. "I admit, something like this should never have happened. We'll do everything in our power to find out what happened. Molly, do you really not remember the midwife's name?"
"No, I'm sorry." Her mother shook her head. "She was a thin blonde with short hair, maybe in her mid-thirties. After a few weeks, Madam Pudsworth was back, and I never saw her again."
"That's odd", Harry muttered.
Ginny raised her eyebrows when she noticed his distraught expression.
"Later," Harry said quietly. "Something is wrong here."
Ginny nodded, unsure what to make of everything she had just heard. But she remembered that she actually wanted to ask Korngeable something else. "When can my dad go home?" she asked the man.
"Erm. What do you mean?" Korngeable looked at her, confused.
"My dad is feeling better, but I think my mum is getting sick. I want them both home," Ginny said firmly. "St Mungo's isn't the safest place right now, with all the sick people around. And from what I've seen here, nothing is being done about it. You're just watching people die. How many deaths did you have last week?"
Healer Korngeable paled. "There's another point I wanted to talk to you about, Miss Weasley," he admitted cautiously.
"And what would that be?" Ginny asked curiously.
From the look on his face, the man didn't seem comfortable with the topic, but after taking a deep breath, he finally asked, "I would like you to meet with me and two of my colleagues to talk about these cases of illness. We would like to know more about your experiences."
"Oh." Ginny's eyes widened, and Harry seemed to follow the conversation with interest, too.
Unsure if she'd understood correctly, Ginny blinked her eyes several times. Noticing Korngeable's expectant look, she assumed she'd heard right and finally nodded. "Of course. If I can help. How about tomorrow afternoon? Five o'clock?"
Korngeable smiled, relieved. "Perfect. I'll wait for you downstairs at reception, and I better book a meeting room."
"I'll come with you," Harry said, more of a statement than a suggestion.
Ginny gave him an irritated look.
Harry sighed. "I know you can handle this on your own. I wouldn't even ask if this were your Muggle hospital. But this is not your hospital, and I'd like to... watch your back." He raised his eyebrow.
Ginny met his eyes, and a small smile flashed over her face. She nodded and turned back to Healer Korngeable. "Okay. Meet us at the reception at five o'clock."
Korngeable breathed a sigh of relief, obviously relieved that the problem was solved.
"But that doesn't change the fact that I'm now taking my parents home with me," said Ginny.
"I wouldn't recommend that," the man replied but raised his hand when Ginny tried to object. "But I won't stop you if you insist."
"Thank you, Healer Korngeable," Ginny said with relief, shooting Harry a smile as he took her hand and squeezed it.
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