Harry groaned and rolled over, sweeping his arm over the bed beside him. It came up empty. The clock on the dresser told him that it was somewhere near six am, but without his glasses, he could only really squint at the hands and guess their location.

Ginny must have taken my glasses off when I passed out last night. He thought, groping the bedside table and feeling the wire frames under his fingers. He held them in his hand, rubbing his eyes with the other. It was early enough that he could easily slip back asleep…

He jolted up, throwing off the covers as a shriek echoed through the halls of his apartment. His feet hit the floor with a thunk and he spun to the door, wand already in hand. Then, a laugh, deep and throaty. Harry relaxed exponentially.

He flopped back on the bed just as Ginny came bounding into the bedroom.

"You just scared me to death." He chided her, "You can't just go 'round screaming and waking up aurors in their own beds."

"Sure I can." She laughed, taking a running jump and bouncing onto the bed next to him. He heard a soft crinkle and slipped his glasses on his face to get a better look at her.

"You hate newspapers." He stated, watching as she held the Daily Prophet tightly in her fist. "If you're going to start reading them, then the Quibbler will come at seven. You can at least read something useful." She giggled and he looked closer at her face. She was very happy about something.

"I'm famous!" she burst out, hopping a bit on her knees, making the bed shake. Harry laughed.

"Yeah, Gin. For a while now. What's it been, six months since you joined the Harpies?" He broke off, watching her shake her head, gleefully.

"No! Well, yes I'm famous for that, but now look!" She thrust the paper in his face and Harry was assaulted with a large front page spread of various pictures of his girlfriend. The largest, in the center of the collage, was of Ginny walking up the steps to his building, pulling out a key, and disappearing inside.

"I didn't even realize the press was around! But now I suppose that's silly, because the Prophet and Witch Weekly still have full time Potter beats, so of course they're going to be sticking around where you live! If I'd known I would have at least done something with my hair! I should have worn that new jacket..." Ginny rambled on and Harry looked confusedly down at the headline.

"'The Chosen One's Chosen One'? What's this? We've been dating for over a year now." He started when Ginny all but ripped the paper out of his hands and scanned down the article. Her face suddenly lit up and she cleared her throat importantly.

"'We've always assumed something was going on between the two of them, but Harry's always been so close to her family, it's been hard to tell.' A close friend of the couple disclosed Friday night. Indeed, the wizarding world has been speculating about an alleged relationship between the two for some time, but now we can rest easy, knowing that the Chosen One has chosen one for himself. And from the looks of things, he's getting quite a bit closer to one Weasley than he is the rest."

Ginny looked up at him excitedly. "Famous!" She repeated and Harry scoffed at her.

"Just because they've got a picture of you walking in my door? That's hardly concrete evidence." He said, taking the front page and tossing it to the floor.

"Hey! I'm going to frame that! And besides, I came in really late last night, so I'm sure they can connect the dots."

"Frame it?" Harry had to struggle to keep his voice even, catching on suddenly that Ginny was play-acting.

"Yes." She said seriously. "Several copies. One for mum, one for Auntie Muriel, then there's Hermione, Luna, Neville, Professor McGonagall, Gwenog, all my brothers-"

"You're going to frame copies for all of your brothers, Gin?" Harry was laughing outright now. "That seems a bit excessive."

"Well, not really. I'm sure they want documentation of my accomplishments."

"All you did was climb some stairs!"

"And," She laughed with him now, "I'm going to highlight all of theirs at the section when they talk about me warming your bed and wondering what kind of sex life we have!"

"What?" Harry yelped, reaching down to pick the paper back up. Ginny snatched it out of his hands.

"You can read it when it's properly framed." She mock-scolded him, hopping off the bed. "Breakfast?" She called over her shoulder.

He grunted and lay back. He really was so lucky. When he'd been at Hogwarts, he'd thought that he'd never be able to find a girl who could live with the stress that came with his life, but Ginny seemed to be taking the reporters in stride. She was making jokes, happy as ever. It didn't even phase her that her morning had been…wait.

Harry squinted up at the ceiling, then at the clock. It read 6:17 am.

"Hmm." He hummed to himself, listening to Ginny bang around the kitchen. He grabbed his pajama pants from the floor and stepped into them, padding across the living room to lean in the kitchen doorway.

"Gin." He said. She looked up from the eggs she was beating.

"Harry."

"Why're you up so early?" he asked. She shrugged a delicate, seemingly nonchalant shoulder.

"Couldn't sleep." She added salt and pepper to the eggs, then rummaged in the fridge for the milk.

"Really?" He asked, skeptically. "because that picture," Harry nodded to the paper near the sink, "was taken late last night. And you said yourself you've had a whole week's worth of intensive pre-match training to prepare for the Ireland match. So with all that training and you got here late and after a very nice shag about," He glanced at his watch, "three hours ago, I'm wondering why you're not completely passed out."

Her hand froze on the whisk.

"And another thing. Why didn't you floo into the flat like normal? I don't think you've ever taken the front door. And why's that?" He stepped closer to her. He saw her eyes widen, but she continued to stare at the eggs. She didn't answer him.

"I'll tell you why." He continued, "Because there are reporters out front almost all the time. You've never even used your key before. Because you always floo in. And you said if you'd known the press would be there, you'd have done something with your hair. But in the picture, you hair's down. And you always wear it up after practices."

Ginny winced and gave up all pretence of breakfast.

"Know what I think?" He stepped closer again, now intimately close to her. "I think you came in from the front last night on purpose. To get seen by the press. And I think you woke up early on purpose to see if the papers had gotten it or not. What I can't figure, is why, Gin?"

She rolled her eyes and turned to face him squarely.

"Ok fine." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Auror Potter's done it again. All that detective training really paid off. Yes! Yes, I got seen on purpose, but it was for you!"

Harry shook his head confusedly. "What? For me? Ginny what do I have to gain from an article about you in a trashy paper?"

"About us. It's an article about us. And your problem lately is that you can't get anybody at work to work with you properly, because you're so intimidating. They only think of you as 'Harry Bloody Potter' not a real, approachable person! But romance is universal!" She shook the whisk around, slinging egg on the cabinets. "Everyone can relate to that!"

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. His feelings were flipping between amusement at her antics and annoyance at her interference. He dropped his hand and looked at her. She looked guilty and the whisk was resting uselessly at her side, slowly dripping egg hopelessly onto the tile.

"Are you mad? You're mad. I'm sorry! It's just that I hate seeing you really upset, and you've been so stressed out that I thought I could help but didn't want you to know! And I figured if I worked through the press then you wouldn't tell it was me, but I forgot that you're the best bloody auror in the world and I should have known better but-"

He pulled her to him and kissed her, effectively cutting her off. They kissed for several minutes. Long enough that when he pulled back, she was panting and look rather dazed.

"You're perfect. I'm not mad." He rubbed her arms. "I don't really think it'll work, but your heart was in the right place." Ginny breathed out roughly, clearly relieved.

"Well, I think it will work."

"We'll see, love." He kissed her nose softly. "Now, back to those eggs." She laughed as his stomach rumbled and he retreated back to the living room. He paused, turning back.

"Gin?"

She looked up at him.

"Let's try and keep the press releases to a minimum from now on, yeah?"

She nodded fervently.

Monday morning:

Auror Department

"Auror department." Said a smooth female voice. Harry took a deep breath before stepping off the elevator.

He had serious doubts about Ginny's little plan. If anything it'll get me more attention because now I'm publicly dating a quidditch player. Harry shook his head disgustedly, walking slowly towards the small break area. The little kitchen was a hangout for the aurors, but Harry only went there for coffee, because every time he walked in, conversation seemed to cease.

Sure enough, as soon as he walked through the door, all talk stopped. Harry sighed inwardly and crossed to the coffee pot. Rogers was there, slowly stirring his mug. Harry jumped a bit when Rogers clapped him on the back.

"Interesting Prophet article this weekend." The older wizard looked mischeiviously at Harry, who blushed.

"Er. Yeah." He didn't know what else to say, but apparently he didn't need anything else. Suddenly Rogers laughed loudly.

"Look at 'im, boys! Red as a tomato! Over a little girl." The other men in the room began to guffaw good-naturedly.

Harry chuckled shakily, not used to this insider's treatment. "Er, yeah. Not something I love to see splashed over the front page."

"She's got brothers hasn't she?" Rainier, another rookie asked from the table in the corner.

"Yeah. Tons." Harry's dry tone slipped out before he could stop it, but the men laughed again. Rogers loudest of all.

"Well, now it's all out in the public, we'll have to keep you inside and busy and out of their way! No doubt they'd all love a shot at you." Rogers winked at him.

It was on the tip of Harry's tongue to say that the Weasleys were actually fine with he and Ginny's relationship, but he held it in when Rogers slung his arm around Harry shoulder, guiding him into the hallway.

"You can help me with some paperwork."

Two hours later, Harry sighed happily. He was sitting in a conference room with four other Aurors, filing paperwork. This was something that Harry had never done before, because everyone had thought it was too menial.

I'll have to think of some way to thank Ginny. He thought, reading over a boring public dispute case. She's going to get something very sparkly for this.

Across from him Rogers stretched and glanced at his watch.

"Almost time for lunch, boys." He paused and glanced at Harry. "Potter, I think we're going to the cafeteria, if you'd like to come."

Harry blinked at him, but smiled and nodded quickly, making the men laugh.

"Need a bit of protection from Father Weasley, I bet!" Rochester said next to him. "Don't worry, kid. You've got us. We'll protect you."

This comment sent the other men into hoots of laughter, and Harry joined in, rather touched by the comment. They gathered their things and began to make their way to the door. Rogers came up next to him.

"My son's got your girl's poster on his wall at home." He said. Harry sighed.

"Great."

Rogers chucked, clapping him on the back again. "He told me to ask you how a skinny bloke like you can get someone like that." The other men quieted and Rogers blushed a bit. The comment had apparently slipped out before he could stop it. He looked sideways at Harry, expecting him to be upset.

But Harry was thinking about what Ginny would say to the whole encounter, and burst out laughing. The other men twittered nervously until Harry could choke out:

"Because I'm Harry Bloody Potter!"

With that, the other men in the room let out roars of laughter and guided him to the cafeteria.

Yeah, definitely something sparkly. Harry thought.