New Beginnings
Harry sat up and looked around. He wasn't sure what had awakened him, but then he saw his friend Ron walking across the lawn with the shoulder slump that meant he was tired out of his skull.
Beside Harry, Hermione and Ginny slept on a blanket laid out on the lawn, both of them glistening faintly from sweat and with the soft shimmer of an anti-burn charm over them. Hermione was quite tan, while Ginny had opted for just a little bit of color. Both of them had on bikinis, and both had the top untied for even browning of their back.
Hope they remember to tie those before they sit up, he thought with a slight grin, and stood up to meet Ron.
Ron was stripping off his Ministry robes as he walked. Down to his boxers, he transfigured them to swim trunks, and waved his wand at the trail of clothing, which disappeared.
" 'F I leave my work clothes on the lawn, Mum'll have a fit," he said, sliding into the water of the lake. "Merlin's balls, but this feels good. You coming in, Harry?"
"Yeah, why not?" he said, and slid in himself. The lake was just cool enough to be refreshing and it cleared his head of the haze of the afternoon nap.
"So....how was work?"
Ron groaned. "You know, I was working on stuff this complicated in my third year of Charms. I was fucking bored out of my head all day long. Gah!"
"Well, at least you know how to do it," Harry said. "And you're getting paid for it."
Ron sighed. "That fact was high in my mind all day," he said. "Where's the girls?"
Harry jerked his chin over towards them. "Sunbathing, and asleep."
Ron nodded. "Must be nice...nah, that's not fair. Two more days, and Gin's back at Hogwarts, and 'Mione starts college. I shouldn't complain."
"Yeah...."
"Come to that, Harry, why aren't you up at the Ministry, or out preventing the use of underage magic?"
Harry grinned painfully. "Well, I don't know if you know it, but there's a ministry tradition of hazing the new guy. Especially if he's "the famous Harry Potter"." His tone dropped and grew cold, imitating his new supervisor. Ron nodded, wincing in memory of his own hazing.
"So they waited a month so I wouldn't expect it, and then decided to put a little something in my locker."
Ron groaned. He had learned how the younger members of the wizarding world were with jokes. There was a reason Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was making a good profit. "So what happened?"
"Well..." Harry said lazily, stretching on his back in the water..."They got the wrong locker to start with. And, you know how you're not supposed to use the slug bombs the twins developed in combination with anything else? Big old warning right on the package?"
"Yeeeesss...." Ron said, feeling a sense of dread.
"Well, the guy whose locker they did get had confiscated some Ton-Tongue Toffees from his son the day before, and left them in the locker, in the pocket of his street robes."
"Bloody hell," said Ron faintly.
Harry nodded, with a slightly smug smile. "So, until the Reversal people got there, we had massive slugs rampaging around the locker room, and then someone went in there and left the door open when they ran out screaming."
"So you've got huge slugs rampaging around the...."
"The main room, yes. And the thing is, the slugs will disappear if you just ignore them, we both know that. But if you start hexing them and blowing them up and such, well, you're stuck with them. Or, rather, the remains of them. There's a lot of people in the Aurors who are quick on the draw." Ron's mouth twitched, but he kept his face straight, and waited. "And so, to make a long story short, until they get all the slime and slug bits removed and the desks repaired, I'm off work. Unexpected mid-week three day holiday, by the boss's estimation."
Ron gave up and roared with laughter. "Oh, man, I needed that, " he said, finally swimming back to shore, and stretching. "What time is it?"
"Late enough...you want to go wake up the girls?"
"I am not stupid enough to wake up Ginny," Ron said flatly.
"All right, I'll do it."
"I'll see you inside," Ron said, and walked back toward the house at a slow pace, so as not to undo all the good done by his swim. Harry walked over, and debated with himself whether to be a gentleman and magically refasten their tops before he woke them, or not. Discretion being the better part of valor, he decided to fasten them. Ginny pissed off was not something he wanted to see again any time soon, and she guarded her privacy ferociously.
The tickle of her top tying itself together across her back apparently woke up Hermione. Harry took a moment to appreciate her curves before he stepped back and smiled at her. "Hey! Ron's home. Probably time to go in and get dinner started."
She yawned, and nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right." She knelt up, stretched (making Harry's mouth go dry) and leaned over to whisper in Ginny's ear, accompanied by a hand feathering down across her back. They spoke in intimate tones for a moment, and then Ginny rolled over, smiling at Harry.
"So, Harry, how was work?" She looked at the expression on his face, and said, "No, save it for the dinner table. It looks too good."
"Okay," he said, gathering up his chair and heading back for the house for a few more clothes than swim trunks.
When he came into the kitchen, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, Ron was wearing a loose shirt, shorts, and trainers and staring into the freezer.
"I'm not seeing anything I want," he said.
"What do you want?" asked Harry. "Your mum's been teaching me to cook wizard-style."
"Hmmm..." said Ron. "Something simple and not too warm or anything. It's hot enough outside. "
"I know just the thing," Harry said, "But I'm going to need to fetch some ingredients." He murmured something, gestured with his wand, and his wallet dropped into his hand. He opened it, checking his cash, and then slid it into his shorts. "I'm okay on money. I'll go to the store, and be back in a moment."
"All right, then. I'll see the table set and all."
"Right."
When the girls came in, there was a vast quantity of green something bulging out of the sink, where it was washing itself.
"By the Founders, Harry, what the hell?" said Ginny.
"Spinach, Gin," he said, wand directing some of it into a huge pot. "It shrinks alarmingly when cooked."
"I don't like spinach, Harry," she said.
"You've never eaten my cold spinach soup," Harry said with a grin.
Ginny sighed. Harry WAS a phenomenal cook. "I agree to keep an open mind," she said, and Hermione laughed.
"Is that the one you've been working on?"
"Yes indeed. I think I figured out the final perfect balance."
"Ooh," said Hermione. "Fabulous. I agree not to say 'I told you so', Gin, when you ask him to marry you after the first bite."
"Riiight," Ginny said, smiling back at her. Their eyes caught, held for a long moment, and then a cough that might have been a disguised laugh from Harry broke the tension.
"It won't be ready for a while, girls," he said, "Go get the skin potions off and get dressed." Hermione caught the knowing twist of his mouth, and rolled her eyes before she pinched Ginny's ass firmly and directed her toward the stairs.
"Like we all don't know they're going to shag each other silly in the shower," said Ron, entering the kitchen and flopping into a chair.
Harry laughed. "I think it surprises them sometimes."
"Yeah," Ron said, and grinned in happy memory. Harry's smile was gentle, but shadowed slightly as he turned back to the spinach, giving it a stir. Ron caught it, and put his hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Hey," Ron said. "You going to be all right, mate?"
"Yes," Harry said, and then something in Ron's direct gaze made him drop the mask.
"It just gets so bloody hard sometimes, Ron, you know that? And it doesn't make it any easier having those two walking around and trading smouldering glances."
"Or having a best mate get sappy smiles when he talks about his girl," Ron said, quietly, agreeing.
"And I'm not jealous of any of you. I want you to be happy, I really do. I just wish..."
The wistful words hung on the air, and there were tears in Harry's eyes, before he turned decisively to the stove. Ron saw the tension in his best friend's shoulders, and said, "You want a bit of Quidditch after you get that made?"
"Yeah. I need...to get back to work. Or something."
What you need, my friend, thought Ron, is to say the hell with it and get some bird in bed. And it needs to be soon, or you'll be impossible to live with.
He turned and went up to his room. Harry didn't notice him leaving, and a muffled moan from the bathroom just made a sour look appear on Ron's face. He went upstairs, lay down on his bed, and let his thoughts chase each other around in circles without too much guidance. There was something vague in the back of his head, and Ron knew that if he didn't look at it or pretend interest it would eventually come out where he could look at it. Eventually, his name was yelled up the stairs, and he went down to practice Quidditch moves with Harry. What the hell, he could swim again when he got done, he thought, and grabbed his broom.
* * *
Harry flew out his bad mood, and Ron let him do it, recognizing what was going on. Finally, Harry said, "Swim, Ron? The soup's not properly chilled yet, and I want to get cooled off before I eat anyway."
By now the trees were casting long shadows across the lawn, shading the lake. The water felt like satin on the skin, and both Ron and Harry deliberately went looking for the cool spot where the underground spring fed it.
Harry leaned back in the cooler water with a sigh of happiness, and Ron found himself staring at the sharp profile, the wet hair plastered flat, and the lazy expression in his green eyes. The thought in the back of his head chose this moment to bound teasingly across the front of his mind, and he turned away from Harry, casually, so he wouldn't see his face. People do tend to ask questions when one suddenly assumes a poleaxed expression, after all.
It's nothing much, really. So I think he's got a nice body. Big deal.
Ah, admit it. You like guys too. Not a surprise, with Bill and Ginny both gay.
Fooling around in the dorms is one thing. I like girls too much, thank you.
What will it hurt? You said it yourself....Ginny and Hermione are going to be making up for lost time ahead of time, and he'll get tenser and tenser. Do you REALLY want to get in another fight with him?
Well, no. But won't this start a fight?
His inner voice chuckled. Whose wish is he cooking dinner for? He could have just gone for cold chicken sandwiches...there's enough left over from last night's dinner. And he's making that fiddly cold spinach soup? Open your eyes, Mister Weasley. It might not be enough for forever, but it's enough for right now. Offer him a friendly hand, same as you did for Dean last year.
All right. Tonight. Shut up, though.
His inner voice just laughed, until Ron silenced it with a long dive, holding his breath until his lungs burned, and shooting to the surface in a long fountain of spray that flicked Harry and made him complain.
"Woke you up, anyway," Ron said. "Come on. I want to go try the soup."
The soup was creamy and pale sage in tone, a dusting of a few brown specks across the top contrasting, and Ginny looked at it doubtfully.
Hermione had picked up her spoon immediately, and had a blissful look on her face as she took the first bite. "Harry, I thought you couldn't make it any better. You proved me wrong."
Harry blushed in pleasure, and took another spoonful of the soup. "So, what's your opinion on this version, Ron?
"Shut up, you all, I'm enjoying an intimate moment here," Ron said, swallowing with a look of great enjoyment. "You've added something else, Harry, but damned if I can tell what."
Harry grinned. "And I'm not telling, either," he said. "I have to have some secrets."
"Go on, Ginny," said Ron. "It's excellent."
"Please, Gin," said Harry. "I'm always wanting to hear other people's opinions."
Ginny sighed, and took up her spoon. Cautiously, she took a bare half-spoonful and raised it to her mouth, and sipped. Her eyes shut involuntarily. Oh, my. This is spinach? It was cool and creamy, a slightly warm and sweet middle note against a very slight sharpness that kept it from being cloying, and it all blended together into a lovely chord on the tongue. She needed another spoonful. And another.
Ron snickered. "Told you so," he said.
Ginny shot him a dirty glance. The current rapture of her tastebuds was keeping it from achieving its full nastiness, and so he wasn't at all cowed.
Hermione laughed. "I said I wouldn't say 'I told you so'. I didn't say a thing about him."
And in light of laughter and friendship, the tensions of the day left them all.
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