Blood is Red

Disclaimer: I take credit for this plot and my own characters, but everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Note: This might go slow at first, but please be patient.  I promise everything will make sense as it gets more involved.

Chapter One

Bridegrooms and Bachelors

                Beautiful people flitted around the room like birds of paradise.  Ladies’ dresses twirled, glasses tinkled, voices laughed merrily and music ricocheted lightly off of the gilded walls.  A faint wisp of cigar smoke mingled with the various floral perfumes in the air, the combined aromas almost overpowering the hint of a delicious meal for later that was wafting into the ballroom through the kitchens.  The candlelit chandeliers cast a golden glow upon the reflective marble floor, complimenting the brightly colored fabrics of gowns as they swirled around the nimble feet of their wearers.  Applause ensued as the song ended, and a cheer went up as a tall young man with brilliant red hair leaned down to kiss the exquisite blonde in his arms.  A tired sigh, missed by all except her husband, escaped the lips of Lily Potter, whose green eyes had left the happy couple on the dance floor and had landed on the broad form of her only son.  Her husband followed her gaze and tightened his grip on her waist, a silent reminder that now was neither the place nor the time for such discussions as the one she was thinking of broaching.  Lily scowled up at James.  Would they ever come to an agreement on this subject?

            As the dancing subsided for a while and the mingling began, Lily fixed a smile on her face and absently swirled the bubbly champagne inside her flute glass.  She chatted politely with the colorful people who passed their way.  James noted her assiduous formalities and gave her waist another squeeze, and was promptly rewarded by a sharp jab in the foot, courtesy of the heel of her shoe.  He hid his wince as Molly Weasley glided over to them, her entire persona bright enough to outshine the sun.  Lily beamed and straightened as Molly approached, a shift not overlooked by James, who in response tensed his body.  When Lily and Molly got together, the results were more catastrophic than approaching a Hungarian Horntail in heat.  Tonight, he was certain, would be no different.

“Lily, darling, how wonderful for you to join us this evening!” She greeted brilliantly.  She smiled at Lily, and then her eyes found him.  “James,” She acknowledged darkly with a nod.  James unwound himself from his wife to seize Mrs. Weasley’s hand and plant a soft kiss on it.

“Molly,” He replied cheerfully as he straightened.  Lily elbowed him lightly in the ribs, Molly scowled, and James grinned all the wider.  He and Molly’s husband, Arthur Weasley, had been schoolmates together at Hogwarts School of Wizardry.  Where Arthur had been a prefect, James had been a Marauder.  Molly disapproved of his unscrupulous boyhood, but for Lily’s sake, she forced herself to tolerate him.  When she realized he wasn’t going to leave their presence, she turned back to Lily as if his existence was completely unknown to her.  He grinned and pulled Lily closer as the conversation began.

“Molly, dear, I wouldn’t’ve missed this for the world, you know that!” Lily gushed after they had exchanged a kiss.  Her eyes glanced around the shorter woman and landed on the same couple that she had been watching before.  The young man’s smile seemed to stretch to eternity as the twirled his partner in his arms.  The lady’s eyes were closed as she leaned her head against his shoulder, a contented smile crossing her lips.  “They seem happy enough.”

“More than that,” Molly confirmed as she turned to watch the pair.  “I wish he would’ve told us earlier that he was in love with her.  We could’ve married them sooner.”  She sighed and stole a sideways glance at Lily.  “My nest is almost empty, Lilums.  Whatever shall I do?”

            Lily’s eyes narrowed and instantly found her offspring.  Molly and Arthur’s first five sons had married well, and now their sixth and final boy was engaged.  It seemed, however, that the youngest Weasley, Molly and Arthur’s only daughter, Virginia, would be the hardest to marry off.  Unfortunately, Lily could relate.  James, sensing where this was going, tightened his grip on his wife, urging her to bite her tongue, but it was too late.

“Ginny’s a wonderful young lady, Molly.  You’ll find someone for her soon enough,” She said bitterly, her eyes never leaving the back of her son.

“I do hope so,” Molly began heavily.  “My boys gave all married nice, respectable women.  Fleur, Charlotte, Hannah, Angelina, Katherine, and now Luna...all picturesque wives, but Ginny isn’t a thing like any of them.  She’s too...fiery.  I’m afraid she has too much spark in her to attract a suitable gentleman...”

            Her voice trailed off and both of their eyes found Molly’s said daughter.  Dressed in an extravagant blue gown that set off her flaming hair, Ginny was in the middle of a group of young men and women, her hazel eyes dancing as she narrated a joke.  Judging by what she was seeing, Lily could not understand Molly’s fear.  If anything was keeping Molly from marrying her off, it was the same problem Lily was facing with her own child.

“Harry simply refuses to settle down,” Lily fumed, her gaze returning to her son.  A crowd like Ginny, only a great deal much quieter and full of more women, surrounded him.  She sighed audibly, and it took everything she had not to stamp her foot in exasperation.  After all, she and James were not getting any younger, and Harry was their only son.  James said that at twenty-one, Harry had a lot to learn about life before he began to family, but Lily wanted to know that when she was gone, she had secured that the Potter name would last another generation.  She was itching to find a suitable wife for her son, but he had shot down nearly eligible young lady this side of Godric’s Hollow.

            James caught Molly’s eyes and recognized the glimmer they held right away.  “Molly,” he began, apprehensively.  Both women turned to look at him, but before he could change the subject away from the eligibility of their children, he was recognized and dragged away by some authority from the Ministry of Magic.  Molly’s smirk went unnoticed by Lily, who was watching her husband be unwillingly led to a table full of stuffy-looking witches and wizards.  As she turned back to Molly, her gaze swept over first Ginny, then Harry.  When she looked back down at her friend, she understood the silent message Molly was sending to her. 

“We’ve been through this before, Molly,” Lily said as she lowered her voice and glanced around.  “We’ve been trying since they were twelve and thirteen, and to no avail.  They simply aren’t compatible.”

“Nonsense,” Molly countered, as she had so many times before.  “They’re perfectly compatible.  And now that they’re older, perhaps they’ll pay more attention to each other.  Wisdom comes with age, dearest.”

“Ginny can’t stand him, you know that as well as I,” Lily warned.

“That’s because she knows him as a brother,” Molly said nonchalantly.  “If we introduce Harry to Ginny as someone other than Ron’s best mate, perhaps she’ll see something in him she overlooked before.”

“And Harry?” Lily demanded.  She was determined not to lose the battle this time.  “You know I love Ginny as if she were my own flesh and blood, but Harry…he’s ice to her fire, Molly.  She’ll forever be just a sister to him, she’ll…” But Molly was shaking her head, her face patient, as if the answer was painfully clear and Lily simply could not see.

“Harry and Ginny are more like each other than they realize,” she began.  “Both of them are restless; why else do you think we can’t settle them down?  They both need challenges in their lives, and they both are challenges.  They’ll keep each other on their toes; each day will be a new adventure.  Neither can lose.  They’ll compliment each other – Harry is the silent, brooding type, and Ginny is loud and vivacious.  How can it not work?”

Lily thought for a moment, looking for any possible way out.  She loved the entire Weasley clan like her own family, and she certainly couldn’t complain about a pairing of her only son with the well-bred daughter of her best friend.  And she needed to secure the bloodline before she died…

Lily sighed and nodded.  She would try once again.  Molly smiled and clapped her hands.

“This’ll be the wedding of the century, Lily Potter, just you wait!” She cried, and then spun away to fulfill her duties as hostess, shining brighter than she had before.

“If we can convince them to fall in love…Merlin, help us,” Lily whispered.

~*~

            The raucous laughter of men filled the air of the Leaky Cauldron later that night.  Following the engagement party, the groom-to-be, enthusiastic with the reality that he was marrying the love of his life, had suggested a round or two with his closest friends.  They sat in a circle, throwing back shots of Fire Whiskey or downing bottles of butterbeer and tankards of Tom the bartender’s oldest mead.  Tom chuckled as he cleared their empty beverages.  He had known the entire group since they began their schooling at Hogwarts ten years ago, and he had enjoyed watching them grow up.  Albus Dumbledore had never produced finer students than Ronald Weasely, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Harry Potter.

           

            When the laughter subsided, Ron set down his glass of Fire Whiskey, folded his hands on the table, and looking across the table with as serious a face as a tipsy man in love could muster, said, “So, Neville, what’s taking you so long?”

            Dean and Seamus nodded in agreement and looked at Neville, who was blushing furiously.  Seamus had married Lavender Brown shortly after his graduation, and about a year later, Dean had proposed to the lovely Parvati Patil.  Now, with Ron’s wedding a few short months away, the bachelors in their group were quickly becoming the minority.  Harry leaned back in his chair and sipped his butterbeer, silently watching Neville struggle for words.  After a good two minutes, he decided to supply the answer himself.  “He hasn’t found the right one yet.”

Neville nodded appreciatively at Harry.  “Yes, like Harry said,” he began quickly, attempting to make up for lost time.  “I’m just...waiting for the right one to come along, I suppose.”

“Well, you’d best start looking harder before they’re all taken, Neville, m’boy,” Seamus said wisely, earning nods from Dean and Ron.  He turned his dark eyes to Harry then.  “And what about you, Mister Potter?  Lavender still swoons when you walk by.  The women are lining up to marry you, whether they’re taken or not.  What’s keeping you from settling down?”

“Harry couldn’t spend the rest of his life with one woman,” Dean laughed.  “Not unless said lady was constantly in need of being saved.”

“He’s probably looking for ‘the one’ too, aren’t you, mate?” Ron asked, his eyes glazing over as he did.  Harry smiled at his best friend; He would’ve never guessed that the eccentric Luna Lovegood would be the one he chose, but then, Harry had never seen Ron so sincere about anything in his entire life.  He took another swig of his butterbeer, then got to his feet.

“This is an enlightening conversation, mates, but I really must be going.  Mustn’t let mummy worry,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

“I’ll go home for you, Harry, if you don’t want to,” Seamus said brightly as he stood.  Harry glared at him and Seamus sat back down with a sheepish smile.  Harry shook his head and laughed.  All four of his friends had been madly in love with Lily Potter at least once in their lives, and it seemed Seamus had never recovered.

“You watch what you say about my mother, or I’ll go straight to the missus,” Harry warned, and Seamus covered his mouth with his hands to suppress his fake gasp.  He swung his cloak onto this shoulders, agreed to give their regards to his parents and bid them all farewell.  After leaving a handsome tip for Tom, he disappeared into the cool April night.  Bracing himself against the  bitter cold of the rain that was drizzling on him, he began his walk to Godric’s Hollow.  He hadn’t left the Leaky Cauldron for five minutes when he heard his name being shouted through the dark rain behind him.  He turned around in time to see Neville’s silhouette against the receding light of the bar as the door closed.  Harry stopped and waited for him to catch up.  When he did, Neville produced a large umbrella and graciously offered to share with Harry.  He took the offer and, seeing as the Longbottom’s estate was relatively close to Harry’s, they fell in step beside each other.  For a while there was silence, but Harry could sense there was something on Neville’s mind.  He didn’t ask what, though; He was sure Neville would speak when he was good and ready.

            Something hard collided with his shoulder.  His opposite hand instinctively reached up to nurse it as he turned to find the source of the pain.  Her outline was black against the night as she hurried away, apparently oblivious to he she had just walked into.  Twenty-one years of the societal rules of his kind had trained his eyes to immediately recognize a Muggle when he saw one.  The collision had caught Neville’s attention, and he sneered abhorrently as she turned into a shadow against the rainy mist. 

“Oi, Muggles.  Honestly, I don’t see why we should have to live with them.  Breathing the same air is bad enough, don’t you think?”  Neville said in disgust, but Harry ignored the comment.  They continued in silence, listening to the rhythmic patter of the storm.

“Why haven’t you married yet, Harry?” Neville asked abruptly after some time.

“I don’t know, Neville...I just haven’t.”

“Are you...you know...waiting for the right one?”  Neville turned sanguine eyes to Harry, hoping  to find in him a kindred spirit, another hopeless romantic, but Harry was not skilled when it came to wooing women.  He shrugged.

“Not sure I even want to be married.”

“Why not?” Neville asked, aghast.  Harry shrugged again.

“I don’t know...I just...I want to live my own life.  I don’t want to have to worry about someone else, don’t want to chase children around the house.  Besides, none of the eligible women around here are my type, anyway.”

“Your ‘type’?”

“I suppose.  Look, they’ve all been to that finishing school, Beauxbatons, haven’t they?  So they know spells for cooking and cleaning and...Neville, that school domesticates them, it breaks   them and makes them what society wants them to be.  If I were to settle down, I think I would want it to be with a woman who isn’t afraid to be my equal...someone who tells me to make my own dinner every now and then.  But those types don’t exist any more.”

            Neville opened his mouth to speak, but Harry pointed out that they had come to the fork in the road where they took separate ways.  After thanking Neville for his company and the use  of his umbrella, he stepped into the rain and trudged the gloomy path to Godric’s Hollow.  Marriage, no matter how wonderful it was for the bride and groom, was a depressing subject for him.  As if his mother wasn’t bad enough, now his friends were pestering him to start a family. 

            There was so much to do, so much of the world to see.  He was young, he was able-bodied, he was in his prime.  He could do anything he wanted and then some.  Why jump straight into weddings and then babies?  No, no, he wanted more than that, so much more.  Cold and wet, he took the stone steps of the sweeping staircase that led to his front door two at a time.  He shed his cloak and handed it to a house elf, then wearily made his way to bed.

~*~

“Why can’t you just let him be?” Demanded the darkness later that night.  Lily winced, then pursed her lips and turned to face him.  With a flick of his wand and a silent command he lighted the room and glared at her from his position against the wall.  She had thought him asleep, therefore she could silently slip in bed and avoid arguing with him.  Apparently she had been wrong.

Planting her hands on her hips she said, “James Potter, what’s so wrong with a mother wanting her only son to settle down and start a family?”

“He’s only a boy, Lily.  He knows nothing about the world.  You need a foundation before you can begin building the house, and Harry doesn’t have the experience it takes,” James’s voice was tired, as if he had preached this to her a million times before, which he had.

“We were a year younger than Harry when we married, and you weren’t complaining about foundations then,” Lily countered as she raised a slender eyebrow.  James flushed and glanced at the ground, then sighed and moved to meet her in the middle of the floor.

“That was different,” he said softly, reaching under her hair and cupping the side of her face.   “We were madly in love, we were ready for it.  But Harry hasn’t found what we did, and you can’t force him to, darling.  He needs to decide on his own to whom he wants to spend the rest of his life with.  Like we did.”

Lily sighed and leaned into his caress, defeated.  “I know,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and turned her face into his neck.  “I’m just worried that if he doesn’t settle down now, he never will, and then...”

“Then what?” James asked, kissing the top of her head.  “It takes a lot to tie Harry down to something, you know that.  The boy hates anything confining.  He needs time to be a bachelor.  His day will come, don’t you worry.”

Lily sighed again and nodded.  James took her chin in his hand and turned her face up towards his so he could kiss her.  Her mouth accepted his and she melted into him.  Married twenty years, and no matter how heated they got with each other, they still felt that brilliance when they came together.  She felt James’s hands on her waist as he pulled her closer, felt him pull away, and heard him whisper in her ear, “You know, if you’re really that worried about continuing the lineage, we’re not too old.  We could have another and pray that one isn’t as headstrong as Harry.”

Lily lightly smacked his shoulder and gave him a playfully admonishing look.  James grinned boyishly, kissed her once more for good measure, and with another flick on his wand, extinguished the lights so they could finally get some rest.