‘Mils, can I borrow your leather jacket for this evening. The one with the rhinestones?’
‘Why, what is on this evening?’ Milly asked, simultaneously wondering when did we start wearing each other's clothes.
‘We are having dinner with my parents. Don’t you remember?’
‘You've told your parents?
‘Of course I have told my parents. They are cool about this.’
Milly shook her head, not for the first time since she started dating Ginny.
Dating a Weasley was turning out to be the most daunting experience of her life to date and she had shared a dorm room with Pansy Parkinson, so that was saying something.
That family were as thick as thieves. The only girl in the family dating another girl and a Slytherin to boot. At least she played quidditch and was keeper for what apparently was Ron’s favourite team, the Chudley Canons, so that might be something in her favour. Of course most wizards were supporting the same hobbies and chances were that a large proportion of the wizarding families supported her team, seeing that there were only a few professional Quidditch teams in Britain.
That was how Ginny and herself had gotten together.
They had both attended the Quidditch Championships Ball and Ginny having had a bit too much to drink to fly home or even apparate accurately had accepted her offer to stay the night at her place. She lived nearby and had a spare room, so it made sense.
When she went out the next morning for her usual morning run, she pushed a note under Ginny’s door to say she would be back for breakfast later.
She had not intended to wake Ginny and had not been able to suppress a giggle when Ginny groaned, ‘Oh no, you're a Morning Person!’
Despite their different morning routines, they had hit it off remarkably well and it hadn’t taken Milly long to ask Ginny to move in on a more permanent basis.
Milly had just come back from a shopping trip for Candles, Lanterns and Fairy Lights.
She had been planning a romantic night in for the two of them and had completely forgotten about dinner with Ginny’s parents.
Well, the romantic date night and Movie Marathon she had planned, would just have to wait.
The dinner at the Weasleys went remarkably well. Molly and Arthur were very welcoming and she could see where Ginny got her quick wit and her compassionate nature.
It had just been the four of them for dinner.
‘No point in scaring you away now, is there,’ Molly had remarked, ‘Apart from that you know Ron and George already...’ The omission of Fred hung heavy in the air.
‘… and you will meet the rest of the boys soon enough. Meeting them all at once can be a bit intimidating, I am told.’
At those last words, she looked pointedly at Ginny, who had the grace to blush. She had clearly persuaded her mother not to invite her brothers, which made Milly’s heart grow even fonder. She knew how much Ginny loved her family and to have done this for her, so that she would not be overwhelmed, was such a thoughtful thing to do. Better even than the romantic date she had planned.
When they left the Weasley home, Milly spotted some shooting stars.
‘Make a wish, Ginny,’ she said, before grabbing her hand to apparate home.
Both Ginny and Milly were professional quidditch players. With Ginny playing chaser for the Holyhead Harpies and Milly playing keeper for the Chudley Canons, Game Days tended to be a bit hectic and while most couples had date nights at the weekends, their weekends were mostly filled with training or matches.
They had however discovered some time ago that their Love Language was food. They both not only loved the taste of food, but also loved cooking and they liked nothing better than wooing each other with exquisite meals. They often joked that they should start a catering company when they retired from professional quidditch. For them no soppy Poems or hand crafted cards or specially composed music. They best expressed their love and passion through the culinary arts.
The only minor bone of contention between them was the fact that Milly was a minimalist and Ginny a bit of a hoarder. So when Ginny discovered Milly’s old Slytherin school cloak in her wardrobe, her mouth fell open in surprise.
‘You kept this?’
Milly blushed slightly.
‘I know it is silly, but I always thought that maybe one day I would have a child to pass these onto.’
‘That’s not silly at all,’ Ginny said, as she hugged her friend tightly, ’but if I have any say in the matter the kid will need Gryffindor robes.’
The next date night, Ginny decided to make her mother’s famous chili dogs. ‘This is a Secret Family Recipe,’ she said, as she presented Milly with a plate full of dogs.
After a polite few bites, Milly announced that perhaps the recipe should remain secret. Very secret in fact, as in perhaps disappear for ever.
‘Wow, you didn’t have to be that honest, you know. It isn’t as if we were playing Truth or Dare or anything.’
‘Well, I think we should always be truthful with each other,’ Milly said, ‘and in truth I think it was lovely that you wanted me to taste your mother’s infamous chili dogs, but please don’t make me ever eat them again.’ She smiled as she said this and as she leaned over to kiss Ginny, she accidentally on purpose knocked over the plate of chili dogs.
‘I hate you’, Ginny said, as she threw a tea towel at Milly.
‘Ah, but you don’t really. I love you too’, she said as she threw back the dish cloth.
‘Speaking of dogs, when are we going to that animal shelter you were telling me about?’
‘Have you thought any more about whether we should have a cat or a dog?’
‘I suppose a cat would make more sense with our busy schedules, as long as it is nothing like Mrs Norris or Crookshanks. I really hated those two cats.’
‘I prefer it also not to look like Professor McGonagall, if you don’t mind,’ Milly said, which had the two girls in convulsions laughing.
Later that evening, as they sat down with a cup of tea, Milly looked Ginny in the eye and said, ‘Did you know that your eyes are a window to your soul?’
Ginny started to giggle. ‘I did actually, and what are you seeing when you watch through those windows?’
‘A soul that matches my own,’ Milly said in earnest. ‘Did you ever think you would meet your soulmate, Ginny?’
‘You mean in the Romeo and Juliet and Samson and Delilah sort of soulmates? I didn’t think I believed in soulmates, especially not after the whole Chamber of Secret thing,’ Ginny said with a shudder.
‘I really didn’t want to think about souls for a long time afterwards, but if there is such a thing as a soulmate, you are the closest thing to a soulmate I could imagine.’
Milly’s bottom lip started to tremble when she heard Ginny say this.
How did they get to this point in their relationship so fast?
‘I think it is time for hot chocolate,’ she said to change the subject, ‘with or without marshmallows, Gin?’
That night Milly could not sleep. She was twisting and turning. Eventually she asked Ginny to tell her a Bedtime Story.
Ginny looked embarrassed.
‘I actually don’t know any bedtime stories,’ she said.
‘Just make something up,’ Milly said, as she made herself comfortable in the bed.
Ginny sat up straight and pulled her eyebrows together in deep thought.
She looked very cute.
Milly reached over to give her a kiss.
‘What’s that for?’
‘It’s a Kiss for Good Luck. By the look of your screwed up face, you may need it.’
At that, Ginny threw her pillow at her partner and began her bedtime story.
It featured twenty-seven knives and being captured by incompetent Death Eaters and escaping a Dragon and seemed to feature a beautiful red-haired heroine who sounded remarkably like Ginny herself. When she finished the story, she turned to Milly and asked ‘Have you heard?’
By the sound of Milly’s regular breathing, it was doubtful Milly had heard much at all.
For an Outsider, Milly and Ginny’s blossoming relationship may have looked just like a close friendship. They weren’t into elaborate displays of affection and as far as they were concerned they could give each other all the hugs and cuddles they liked in the privacy of their own home.
It wasn’t until they were invited again to the annual Quidditch Championship Ball that some people noticed the subtle signs of their relationship, as they took to the dance floor for the First Dance of that evening.
When Harry and Ron mentioned their observations to Hermione and started sprouting their concerns about Ginny dating a Slytherin, she gave them both a clip around the ear.
‘You are such wet blankets,’ she said, ’Be glad that they are happy. We’ve all been through too much to have house affiliations and rival quidditch teams come between us.’
‘Yeah, Ron,’ Harry started, which earned him another clip around the ear. This time from Ron.
‘You just want permission to make out with that silver-haired snake friend,’ he said. It had not gone unnoticed that Harry’s green eyes had been lingering on one former Slytherin seeker much too often at the recent Hogwarts reunion, but each time Draco returned his stare, panic had set in and Harry had averted his eyes to look at other far less interesting things.
‘This is not about me at all,’ Harry said, trying to bring back the conversation to Ginny and Milly.
‘Do you know what the significance of those leaves is that they are both wearing?’
‘No idea, mate,’ Ron answered, ’I never understood chick fashion.’
‘It symbolises Growth, Progress and Hope,’ Hermione sighed, ‘something you two have no concept of,’ she continued exasperatedly. ‘Do you two ever read anything at all?’
That night Ginny opened the brand-new diary Milly had given her for their first anniversary.
After the whole soulmate conversation, Milly had felt that Ginny needed to form a more wholesome association with Diaries, that did not involve being possessed by a dark soul.
‘Dear Diary’, she wrote and paused, half expecting for the diary to write back or for her to be sucked into it, but nothing happened.
She continued writing and felt a weight being lifted from her.
Tomorrow she would make Milly her most favourite dessert, she deserved a Sweet Treat for being such a fabulous friend and partner.