The Origin of Ron's PygmyPuff Tattoo

"I think I'm gonna get a tattoo soon."

"What?!" Harry blinked at Ginny's sudden suggestion, wondering where the thought had come from. It was a sunny day in May and Harry and his girlfriend (a term he was still getting used to) were taking advantage of the weather and spending their lunch hour outside. Having curled up together under a small tree by the lake to share sandwiches and maybe a few kisses, they had previously just been discussing the Quidditch League tables of which Ginny's team, the Holyhead Harpies, were currently 4th.

"I think I'm gonna get a tattoo soon." Ginny repeated with a playful smile on her face. She reached up to brush some hair out of his eyes, and then moved her hand down to rest by his neck.

"That thought's a bit out of the blue, isn't it?" He asked pulling her closer to him. She was practically sitting on his lap by now, but he wasn't really complaining. She didn't seem to mind either as she attempted to wiggle closer, in a manner that Harry found most pleasurable.

"Not really. I've been thinking about it for some time now." She looked away from him to gaze out at the lake. "Charlie's had some for years but it was Sirius who really started me thinking about it when he showed me his." She glanced back at Harry, trying to gage how he had taken the reference to his dead godfather.

"Sirius had a tattoo?" Harry asked in bewilderment. While he was grateful to his girlfriend for approaching the issue quite sensitively, he was more curious as to this new information about his godfather. And how Ginny came by it.

"Yeah, he showed me at Christmas last year." She grinned at him, glad that he seemed to be taking the mention well. "There was the one of a cat on his right arm, to remind him of the first girl to ever break his heart – Her name was Catriona McCormack and she broke his heart when he was 8 and he found out she was married. There was the scorpion on his left wrist because of his star sign. He said he was gonna get it higher up, but then thought it would look too similar to the dark mark. And then there was one other. He wouldn't show me that one though."

"Why not?" Harry asked innocently. Ginny laughed a little at his naivety.

"Because," She giggled, "It was not in a place that a dirty thirty something man should be showing to a polite and innocent lady like me. "

"Innocent? You?" Harry barked out in laughter. And then he decided to prove to her just how un-innocent she actually was. They had come up for air a few minutes later, Ginny giggling, when Harry continued the conversation. "So what sort of tattoo would you get?"

"Well Charlie's are all these big brutish dragons, which he thinks are all cool and macho, but I think look really stupid. Sirius had all these deep meanings behind his, which made sense because, if you're going to mark your skin for life, it might as well be meaningful right?"

"You don't know what to get, do you?" Harry asked, with a perceptive grin on his face. She swatted at his arm in the manner of a petulant child.

"Shut up. I just haven't had anything meaningful happen to me. Well except for first year, but I'm not really gonna get that permanently tattooed on my body."

"Well what about Quidditch? You could get a broom or quaffles or something?"

Ginny rolled her eyes at the dumbness of her boyfriend. "Brooms and Quaffles are hardly feminine, Harry. It might seem cool to you, but I'd prefer something that's a bit pretty as well. Like a unicorn or something. Not that it's anything significant to me. But it is pretty."

"I saw a unicorn once." Harry remembered. "In my first year."

"Really?" Ginny asked eagerly "Ron never mentioned that to me. Was it pretty?"

"It was dead." Harry said bluntly. Ginny's mouth made a silent 'oh' and she reached out to grasp his hand in comfort. They sat there in silence for a bit, before Ginny decided it was time to lighten the mood.

"Well to be honest, a unicorn is a bit pansy-ish. Can you imagine the amount of rip Fred and George would give me for it? They'd never let me live it down. "She shuddered at the thought of her elder twin brothers. "They're still going on at Bill about the one he has on his arse."

"What's he got?" Harry asked, grateful for the distraction. "Do I want to know?"

"A pair of lips," she giggled "And just above, it says 'Kiss This'. Apparently Phlegm finds it very sexy. Of course Mum had a fit when she found out. I don't know what she was angrier about. Bill's tattoo or the fact that Fleur has seen it and they're not yet married."

"Does the whole Weasley family have a thing for tattoos?"

"Oh, don't exaggerate. It's only Charlie and Bill. If any of the others have them, they haven't told me. Although Ron did mention that he wanted one, but that was when he was 14, just after the Quidditch World Cup. He was gonna get 'Krum'…"

"..I can't see him getting that now." Harry smirked.

"Maybe 'Won Won'?"

"'My Sweetheart'?"

"Nah he'll get something to remind him of his first love."

"So a broom then?" Harry grinned down at his girlfriend as she swatted at his arm again, and hugged her closer to him. He liked how she could always make him laugh. In fact, he never seemed to stop laughing, or grinning, or just enjoying himself whenever she was around. It was as if he'd had a permanent cheering charm placed on him, which he hoped would never wear off.

"No he used to have a Puffskein, didn't he tell you? That was his first love. He called it Ronald Jr and took it everywhere with him. Then of course Fred got a hold of it, and well… Fred's never been very good with animals." Ginny shrugged her shoulders as if apologising for Fred.

"Bill has lips, Charlie has dragons, Ron has a puffskein, and what do the twins have?"

"Hearts with each other's names in." Ginny smiled as her boyfriend broke into peals of laughter. "Actually, joking aside, I can see them getting that. I'll have to mention it, next time I see them."

"Still doesn't help with your predicament though. What are you going to get? Had any ideas?"

She thought for a moment, but was distracted by yet another kiss. As they broke apart, Ginny's eyes flickered upwards towards Harry's scar.

"Actually I've got an idea." She grinned as she pulled him back down to meet her lips.

Years later, Molly Weasley had a shock when, accompanying her daughter and new son in law on a daytrip to the beach, she glimpsed her daughter's lightning bolt shaped tattoo, poking just above her bikini bottoms.

fin