Egg Plant (A Harry Potter Fan-fiction)

And so they stood, and began their journey home.

A/N Last chapter! I've really enjoyed writing this. I hope you liked it!

(Ginny and Harry's POV, 3rd person)

"Harry!" Hermione's shriek was the first thing he heard as he stepped inside the cramped kitchen, followed closely by Ginny. Hermione got up to fling herself at him, but was beaten by Teddy, who enveloped Harry in a bone-crushing hug.

"Dad, you're ok!" he cried, ignoring Harry's look of surprise that had appeared when being addressed as 'dad' by his godson. Harry quickly recovered as his face broke into a grin and he returned the hug, feeling for the first time in a while that he was glad to be home. That was, until he heard: "Where the bloody hell have you been! Do you have any idea how worried we've been?"

Harry managed to pry himself out of his godson's unyielding grip and look up at his brother-in-law, whose face seemed to be a battleground for anger and concern.

"Yeah… Ginny told me. Really sorry about that, didn't mean to worry you." Harry explained sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding their eyes.

"Didn't mean to worry you?" Hermione repeated near-hysterically, eyes glinting before taking a deep breath. Harry inwardly cringed, knowing what was coming, in the typical Hermione fashion: "Didn't mean to worry you!" she cried. "I think we were a little more than worried, Harry, as we've been going out of our minds, wondering if you're alright - and we looked for you everywhere and we tried so many times to contact you and we were so, so worried because anything could have happened to you! You could have been captured, for all we knew, or lying unconscious in some remote ditch somewhere or maybe even-"

"Hermione!" Ginny cut in suddenly, effectively stopping her mid-rant, though more harshly then she meant to come across as she didn't really want to think about such things right now - or for that matter, ever.

Ginny sighed as her face softened somewhat at the look of mild reproach on her friend's face, the brief argument they'd had in Ginny's fifth year in which she'd defended her boyfriend against Hermione's lecture tugging at her mind, but she brushed it aside along with her annoyance. It was so much essayer to be calm with Harry at her side, giving her silent support, she mused. Though, right now, for once, it seemed, he needed hers. "He's just got home, Hermione, and he didn't go out to worry us. He feels guilty enough as it is" Harry nodded and shot her a grateful look. Her hand found his and gave it a quick squeeze.

Hermione and Ron exchanged glances at the gesture but looked away quickly hiding their smiles, Hermione looking a bit sheepish. Whatever happened to Harry tonight, at least some good came out of it.

"Really though, where were you? What happened?" Teddy asked impatiently, eyeing his godfather up and down as though checking for injures.

"I'm fine, Teddy" Harry told him trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice.

"You didn't answer my question" Teddy reminded him sternly, no longer looking him over at least, but instead steadily meeting his gaze. If the situation had been different, Harry would have laughed at the ironic role-reversal. He sighed instead, shooting Ginny a look of desperation. She just returned the look with her own rather unhelpful but somewhat apologetic one.

"I, er, met someone I know at the market and well...I...we got into an argument I guess" he explained awkwardly his eyes fixated on a rather interesting crack in the wall to the left of Hermione.

"With who?" Ron asked, frowning as Teddy asked at the same time: "About what?"

Harry looked between his brother in law and his in-every-thing-but-blood son. He didn't really want to go into the details of his uncle's taunts and so went for the lesser of two evils, turning to Ron.