Harry Potter My Crimson Dream

**Diclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the other characters used in this fanfic. I give full credit of the original characters to JK Rowling, and full credit of the ministry workers' characters to people that I met on Pieces of this are written by a friend of mine, and the credit for some of Ginny's parts in this story goes to her. I am accountable for all other made up characters (other than the ones mentioned above) that may appear in later chapters. **

Enjoy.

-------------------------------------------------------

Late! _Again!_

A black robed figure made its way quickly down the busy London street. It was going in the direction of an old, musty store a few blocks down, a place that most non-magical folk tended to avoid. Rain was steadily dripping from the overcast sky, making the figure run a little faster to evade the droplets. When it finally arrived at its destination, the person pushed its hood down. Drops of water slid down the face of a man with short, untidy black hair. Eyes the shade of jungle green glanced about, looking for a sign that he was being watched. Upon finding that no one was looking his way, the man entered an old, broken down telephone booth.

--------------------------

"Don't worry, I'm here!" The man, Harry Potter, called down the hallway. He had entered his place of employment, the Ministry of Magic, just moments before and was now wiping his wet glasses off on his robes.

"Glad to see that you made it, Potter" A low voice said from inside an office as he passed it.

"Yeah, Aaron, my alarm clock didn't go off for some reason." He continued on, past three more offices before he reached the one that he shared with another person, Tara.

Harry had become an auror after four years of extensive, difficult, frustrating training. He'd needed extra help to control his temper, his one weakness while on the field. It had been six months after his training that he had been hired by the Minister to help control the death eaters that still ran free.

He placed his bag onto his desk. Since there hadn't been enough space on the floor, most everyone had either a tiny office, or they shared a larger one with another auror. Harry had been working at the Ministry for about a year, the same time as the lady that shared his office. The woman that he shared with was sitting at her own desk, going through a file folder.

"Seems like there's been a lot of activity going on in London" she mumbled to him as he sat down.

Tara was one of the most beautiful people in the witching world-ocean blue eyes were framed by long, wavy blond hair- and her personality wasn't terrible, either. She was unsure of most decisions that they had to make, though, and was always asking Harry's opinion on things.

He nodded in return, yawning slightly. It seemed that whenever he woke up late, he was always more tired than if he had woken up on time.

"Hey, Harry-I have a question for you..." Tara said, looking up from the folder.

Ginny Weasley sat at her desk in her tiny office, scanning over a paper for the second time. She looked almost exactly like she had durin gher late Hogwarts years, shining red hair in waves pas her shoulders. She had the same eyes as her mother, a light, emerald green color. Ginny had been there all night, going through new files on death eaters and figuring out who to assign the folders to. She had applied for a job as an auror about twelve months ago, around the same time that Harry and Tara had. She, though, unlike them, had been hired the very next week after application.

Rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands, she picked up Harry's folder. She'd heard him talking to Aaron when he'd come on, and guessed that he would be in his office by now. But as she walked toward the office door, she heard voices. She knew that it was wrong to eavesdrop-but she wanted to know what was going on inside of the large office.

"No...sorry, I've got plans already..."

That voice was distinctivly Harry's. But who was in there with him? Tara?

"You say that every time I ask you out! It's getting old!"

Yep. Definetely Tara's voice. It sounded both sweet and annoyed at the same time-Tara had to be in one of her moods.

"I'm supposed to go to the Burrow this weekend; Ginny told me that-"

"So you'll go places with that Weasley girl, but not with me?"

"No-I didn't say that! I'm not going on a _date_ with her, I'm just going to her parent's house!"

Well, Harry was being truthful. Ginny had told him the day before that Ron had asked her to tell him about the celebration that would be going on at the Weasly house.

"I see how it is." Tara's voice came again through the door. This time it sounded tearful, and Ginny could only wonder what Harry would say next.

But instead of staying, like she wanted to, she backed away from the door. What if one of them came bursting out of the door and found her there, listening? She walked back down the hall to her own office, and had just closed the door when she heard high heel shoes clicking past through the hall.

She opened the door a crack to see if Tara had left, then exited it, holding onto the folder. So...she was "just a Weasley girl"? Ginny had never really thought much of herself-she dressed simply, in plain black robes most of the time. Other workers wore other things along with their robes, but Ginny had never really had a taste for expensive jewelry or high heel shoes. It could get into the way of her job, too, if she had them. Maybe Harry should have gone out with Tara-it wasn't as if Ginny owned him or anything, and he could have gone somewhere with her Friday or Saturday, since the Weasley's party wasn't until Sunday.

The red haired girl reached a hand over to knock on the door, but was surprised to see it swing open by itself. Harry stood there, a box in his hands, blinking down at her.

"Say something, idiot!" She told herself, looking up at him. But it was him that spoke first.

"Er...hi, Ginny. I was just coming to ask you a question." Yeah. He probably wanted to ask if he could skip out on this weekend. "D'you mind sharing an office with me?" He asked, shifting the box around in his arms. "You see...Tara and I had an...argument, and I decided that since she didn't seem to want to be around me any more, that there might be someone that she could trade with."

Ginny wasn't really sure of what to think for a second or two. Hearing it put that way, she couldn't help but give her assent. After all, this was exactly what Tara _didn't_ want. Harry around Ginny more.

-------------------------------

The moment that all of Ginny's things (including a few dark detectors and her desk), had been moved into his office, an alarm went off. Every sneakoscope on their floor began spinning and whirring was well, as a second sort of warning.

"Death eaters at Privet Drive" Harry heard Tara call down the hall. "Aaron, Ginny, why don't you-"

"No, I want to go." Harry said, glaring down the hallway at her..

"Isn't that where your aunt and uncle used to live?" Ginny asked, pulling her wand out of her pocket.

"Yes, but they ended up moving to London" He replied, holding his wand into the air. In a second he was gone, Ginny dissapearing right behind him.

Now. Why were they here? Harry looked around for a moment, unsure if Tara's warning of death eaters had been accurate. There didn't seem to be any sort of a disturbance here, but things like this had happened before, and it was easy for death eaters to conceal themselves. He felt the inside of his robe pocket, keeping his hand clenched around his wand. The sound of footsteps was slowly coming closer and closer, but he wasn't afraid of anything that could show up around here. Harry had scored very highly on his OWL's and NEWT's, and the auror training had been for situations like this.

His eyes glanced about, taking in everything, when he saw a person come into view. They were short, round, and wearing muggle clothing. It would be hard to get around anywhere in Privet Drive if there were muggles walking around...It would probably be best to pretend that they were just talking or something.

"So...Ginny.." He started, turning toward her, "Sunday's the right day for everyone to come to your mum's house, right? It's going to be a celebration for your dad's 10-year anniversary for his job?" Arthur Weasley had been appointed into the position of Minister ten years ago, in Harry's 6th year at Hogwarts, when Fudge had at last resigned. There were too many accusations and too much unsettlement for Fudge to remain Minister for very long after Voldemort's return had been pilicly annouced, and Arthur had been elected by the other Ministry workers. Some of the workers wouldn't have been pleased, Lucius Malfoy for one, but many of the higher ministry officials had left after voldemort's return. They had been annouced to have been death eaters, aand hadn't been able to stay in office.

Ginny too had looked to the slightly overweight muggle, a small smile tugging at the edges of her lips as she slowly turned to face Harry, wand still clasped tightly in hand, safe in her pocket. She didn't think that they would stick out too much, though, at the same time, she was wearing her traveling cloak. Better not bring any more attention to herself, then...

"That's right. Mum's gone mad, honestly. Last time I checked she was dashing around the kitchen trying to find her spell book. Seemed to think a nice large cake was in order, not that I minded." Ginny grinned, glancing around the neighbourhood from the corner of her eyes. "I've always been fond of cake." She looked to Harry suspiciously, a single eyebrow raising. "And you? Do you think you can come? Mum's been verbally attacking Ron and me.." She gave a shrug, looking mildly amused.

Harry was watching the muggle out of the corner of his eye, and was surprised when the man stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, three feet away from them.

"Harry? Harry Potter?"

He knew that voice. The man before Harry had certainly grown over the years, becoming larger and heavier than ever, but his face hadn't changed very much. How could he not have noticed it before? Even though the muggle's voice had deepened with his age, it was still very recognizable (eh..sp?). "Dudley...?" The plump man's face broke into a grin, one that quickly turned into a frown. "It's been a long time, Harry. Why are you here?" Eh...Well, he couldn't really explain exactly why he was here, at Privet Drive, so a quick lie would be needed. "I..uhm..just came here to see the house, you know? Brought a..uh..friend along, too" He said, nodding toward Ginny. "Oh-that's right. Ginny, this is Dudley Dursley, my cousin. And Dudley, this is Ginny Weasley."

"Dudley? Dudley -Dursely-? Your cousin?" Her gaze scanned the unfamilar man, remembering the 'fond' stories told by Fred and George. Recalling manners, she quickly extended her hand, her cheeks reddening with embaressment. "Ah, how do you do?" Ginny watched him curiously, noticing the obvious difference in appearance towards the two men. She looked to Harry for guidance. Was she to be polite to him? Ginny wasn't sure how to treat someone who had made one of her best friends life horrible for so many years. It didn't seem correct, in her opinion, to curtsey and place on a plastic smile. "That's right, I'm Ginny Weasley. I've heard.. about you."

Dudley shook her hand vigerously, nodding.

"Yes, Yes-any friend of Harry's is a friend of mine. Dudley Dursley's the name, lived with Harry for the first part of my life, you know. A joy to meet you"

Well. That comment certainly hadn't been expected. A look of slight bewilderment crossed Harry's face for a moment-Dudley wasn't acting like the usual bullying git; Harry would have expected that after school, Dudley would have turned out to be very much like his father, stout, arrogant, and controlling. So what had changed? Was Dudley being truly nice? Or was the over friendliness due to the fact that he had guessed that Harry's "friend" was a person of magic, just as Harry was? That had to be it. No, Dudley hadn't changed much.

"er..right, then." Harry said. Well. Dudley was being civil for the most part, so Harry could be no less. But if anything did happen, or if even one rude comment was directed toward either of them...

A reluctant smile crossed her features, and she shifted nervously from one foot to another, her eyes wandering as she tried to hold Dudley in her gaze while still keeping the neighbourhood in view.

"The neighbourhood is lovely, very nice." She glanced back to Dudley, her head tilting slightly. "Do you still live here? Or merely visiting as well?"

"Only visiting" Dudley answered Ginny, nodding. "It's been quite a few years since my parents moved from here to London, but I still remember things from this old place. It hasn't been the same since dad died.."

well, I don't think that the first part of the story came out too bad. 

**If you review, I will update . **

saiyan-


End file.

Harry Potter, Drama, Romance