Harry Potter: Another Chance

Chapter 441: Good News, Everyone!

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 441: Good News, Everyone!

A few days later, Gryffindor's common room.

"Congratulations!" Luna said in a cheerful voice.

"You wha… ouch!" Lyra fell from the couch, the shock too much for her to handle.

Neville hurried to help her up. "Are you okay?"

"Harry… this isn't a joke, right?" Even Ginny had a hard time believing it, despite knowing very well that Harry wasn't one to make things up for attention or any other vain reason.

Astoria looked down, focusing on her book.

"You already knew, didn't you?!" Lyra pointed an accusatory finger at Astoria as Neville helped her up.

"No comment…" Astoria looked away.

"So it's with Daphne!" Lyra exclaimed.

"Who else…?" Harry glanced at his sister like she was an idiot.

"Isn't it too soon to get married?" Ginny asked, noting that Harry had said "married" and not "engaged." He seemed unlikely to have made a mistake like that.

It wasn't strange for students to get engaged before completing school, especially among wizarding families, but marrying was a different story.

"When's the wedding?" Luna asked calmly. She was the only one who seemed unfazed by the revelation.

"Around mid-April," Harry answered.

"What?! That's just one month from now. What's the rush?" Lyra was still in disbelief. She may have been aware of their relationship, but this had come out of nowhere.

"Lyra's right," Neville said. "Why so sudden? Even among traditional pure-blood families, getting married this young is unusual. Is something else going on?"

Harry had to admit he'd expected the question but not from Neville. "I can't talk about that right now, but I—"

Everyone went silent as they heard noises from above. The door upstairs opened, and people began coming down.

"Who's making so much racket this early in the morning?"

The voice was unmistakably Lavender's, as the girl was always speaking.

"I'll take anything that gets you out of bed a bit faster," Hermione spoke.

Lavender was the first to descend the stairs, giving the group a passing glance. "How unusual to see this lot so animated… wait." Her eyes landed on Luna and Astoria. "Aren't those two from Ravenclaw? What are they doing in our common room?"

Luna perked up. "The door was open," she said without missing a bit.

"Seriously? Who could have left the door open?" Lavender asked.

"You idiot! You can't leave the painting open...it closes by itself," Parvati scolded her friend. "They must have sneaked in."

"By the way, I think I heard someone say something about getting married," Hermione mentioned. "Did I hear that right?"

"Married? Who's getting married… a professor?" Lavender asked.

"My brother." Lyra pointed at Harry.

"Lyra!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Oh… was I not supposed to tell anyone?" Lyra made an expression of regret.

"Well, I didn't want the entire school to know, but… I didn't expect you to keep a secret like this for more than a day anyway. I knew the consequences when I decided to tell you," Harry said.

"Hey, that's not fair," Lyra muttered.

"He's got a point, Lyra," Neville added. "You have a hard time keeping things to yourself."

She turned to him. "I haven't told anyone that you still sleep with a teddy bear in your bed… have I?"

"Seriously?" Hermione glanced at Neville.

"Ha!" Lavender pointed at him, bursting into laughter.

Neville's cheeks turned bright red. "It's not a teddy bear! It's a unicorn…"

"That doesn't help as much as you think, Neville," Ginny said.

"Yes, it does!" Luna intervened. "Unicorns are much cooler than bears."

"It's not even on my bed, just resting on the night table…most of the time." Neville muttered.

"Okay, can we talk about Neville's teddy bear later? I want to know more about Harry getting married," Parvati said.

"It's not a teddy…" Neville muttered again.

"Yes, I want to know too!" Lavender perked up. "Who's the… wait! Was that rumor true then?" She suddenly remembered something important.

"You mean the one with the Slytherin girl?" Parvati asked.

"That one!" Lavender nodded.

"Didn't you make that one up?" Hermione asked her.

"No! I just heard it and chose to ignore it. It seemed too unbelievable," Lavender scoffed. "I have standards, you know."

"Didn't you tell everyone that our first-year Defense professor was a vampire?" Hermione retorted.

"Can we focus, please?" Parvati approached Harry. "Is it true? Are you marrying Greengrass?" She glanced at Astoria briefly.

"Yes, it's true," Harry admitted. There was no point denying it now. Still, he kind of wished he hadn't returned to school. Perhaps he could have pretended to be sick for a few more months.

On the other hand, being here gave him a chance to spend more time with his mother, his sister, and Daphne. So, there were some upsides.

"This has to be the juiciest rumor I've ever heard!" Lavender was excited.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"But it's not a rumor if Harry confirmed it," Ginny pointed out.

"That's right. At this point, it's just news," Hermione added.

"The juiciest news, then!" Lavender concluded.

"Okay, now we can talk about Neville's teddy bear," Parvati teased.

"No!" Neville exclaimed.

"Merlin! Those girls are always screaming," they heard Ron complain as he came down the stairs, looking sleepy.

Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were right behind him.

"Whoa… there are a lot of people already awake," Dean noted.

"Hold on…" Seamus glanced at Luna and Astoria. "Those two aren't Gryffindors."

"Eh? That's true!" Ron realized. "How did you two get in here?"

"The door was open," Astoria replied simply.

"Really?" Ron turned to his friends. "Who was the idiot that left the door open?!"