Harry:

Crown Prince Harry looked over at Neville and held back his groan at the smirk his best friend wore. He still didn't understand what had had happened to get the Longbottoms to move to Godric's Hollow from Ottery and swear loyalty to his dad and be given places on the Privy Council, but Harry had grown up with Neville as though he was his twin. It made sense that Neville would be his companion at arms when he was traveling.

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Neville smirked as they looked around at the rooms they'd been put up in by King Arthur.

"Easy for you to say," Harry shot back. "You were able to just fall in love with Hannah and now your parents are arranging everything."

"Yes, but your parents' marriage was arranged and that worked out well for them. They still make members of the Court sick with how they dote on each other, and they're going on twenty years of marriage."

Harry shook his head. His parents had asked him to just come down here and see. Apparently, Arthur had been pestering his dad for the last six or so years to arrange a marriage between Harry and his only daughter. James had finally agreed to send Harry down for a royal visit. His mum seemed to think it was a grand idea. She kept going on and on about how cute the princess had been when she was small. And all this would be fine, except that King Arthur had completely misunderstood the purpose of Harry's visit. He kept introducing him as Crown Prince Harry of Godric's Hollow, betrothed to Princess Ginevra.

"How about we go for a walk." Harry tried to shake the aggravation from his head. "I'm not due to be anywhere until dinner."

"Whatever is going to help ease your mind about meeting your fiancé," Neville shrugged with a laugh and tossed Harry his sword.

Harry belted it to his waist and holstered his wand. He walked out of the room and ignored the way Neville whistled happily as Harry took random turns here and there as they wandered the castle. He'd only been to Ottery's capital once before when he was five or six. He didn't remember what had made it so he and his sister had been brought along. Harry now wished that he could have been brought here a few more times. Maybe then he would have actually met Princess Ginevra before her dad had started calling him her fiancé.

One of his turns led them out to the training grounds and Harry caught sight of what looked like flames dancing. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a woman, her long fiery red hair braided down her back spun behind her as she worked through her exercises. His feet moved of their own accord, and before he knew it, he was standing ten feet from her, watching captivated as she moved.

"Do you often stand and stare at women?" The fiery woman stopped and pinned him with her gaze.

Harry blinked, "Sorry, just, er, you, er, I was impressed, with your, er, your technique."

She smirked, "Impressed enough to spar?"

Harry felt a grin break across his face. He'd been training with Uncle Sirius and Aunt Marlene since he was eleven.

"Definitely."

Harry pulled his dress shirt over his head and handed it to Neville. He grinned at how it took the woman a moment to drag her eyes back up to his.

"I have something I'm supposed to do later this evening, and I need that shirt to be in good shape for it."

She rolled her eyes, "Sure, you do. Have your friend hold your sword and wand as well."

Harry nodded and Neville took the last two things. "Be careful, your parents will kill me if we bring you home broken and bloodied."

The woman laughed, "I won't hurt him too much, at least not his face."

Harry grinned but he felt his cheeks grow hot. He liked this woman; he liked her a lot.

"The first to knock the other off their feet then?" He tried to bring up his voice back to its normal level.

"Yes, and no magic," She smirked at him and then began to circle him.

Harry focused on remembering everything that Sirius and Marlene had taught him as he circled. It turned out that sparing with Marlene was the best thing he could have done to prepare for this woman. She was small, not quite as small as Aunt Marlene, but her height forced her to spar in a similar fashion as Marlene, and Harry was familiar with how she fought.

And by the looks of it, he was the first person she'd encountered who had a grip on what she was doing.

"I think you may be cheating," She panted after he blocked her most recent strike and kept her from knocking his feet out from under him.

"How in Merlin's name could I be cheating?" Harry laughed. "I've never seen you until today."

She blocked his strike and then spun around but he blocked her strike. "I don't know but you're the first person I've fought who hasn't been on their back within five strikes."

"Shame that is," Harry moved them to position himself so that he could try the only move that could knock Aunt Marlene over, and one that Uncle Sirius swore him to secrecy on, along with a promise to never use it with Aunt Marlene.

"You didn't introduce yourself; you know." She followed him directly to where he needed her to be.

Harry nodded, "How rude of me." Then he lunged forward, and to his great satisfaction, it worked! The beautiful woman landed flat on her back, her hand still gripping his wrist where she'd tried to throw him over her with his own momentum.

"My name is Harry," He gripped her wrist back and pulled her to his feet. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Ginny," She looked at him with wide eyes. "And who taught you that?"

Harry shook his head, "The person who taught me has sworn me to secrecy. I'm not allowed to ever divulge their name."

"Pitty, I'd like to send them a letter of admiration." Ginny let go of his wrist and Harry felt a bit put out as the contact between them ended.

"I could deliver a letter to them." Harry shoved his hand in his hair.

"Nah," Ginny shrugged, "But, I was planning on leaving and exploring the world for the next twenty or so years, care to join me?"

Harry felt his whole body cry out as he shook his head no. "Believe me, Ginny, under different circumstances I'd probably follow you to the ends of the earth after a match like this, but I can't. I'm Prince Harry of Godric's Hollow. I'm actually here on business from my father, and then I'll be back home."

Ginny's eyes went wide. "You're Prince Harry?!"

Harry inclined his head, "The very same."

Ginny looked like he'd knocked the ground out from under her again.

"Harry," Neville called out. "We should get going, Arthur is going to want us in our seats before the rest of his court comes in."

"Right," Harry called back and then turned to Ginny. "Thank you, know that in another life, I wouldn't have thought twice about following you around the world." He took her hand and kissed it as he bowed slightly and walked away.

He didn't dare look back as they walked back to the rooms that Arthur had given him for his stay here. He was pretty sure he'd be too tempted to go back and tell Ginny he could probably spare a few months away from the kingdom, as long as no one knew he'd left Ottery...

"This is why you have the better lot," Harry shook his head after toweling off the dust from his torso. "You and Hannah got to have a moment like I just had with Ginny, and you got to do something about it. Ginny asked me to run away with her, and I had to turn her down because I'm tied to the Crown."

"I'm sorry, Harry, but who knows, maybe Princess Ginevra will be special too. You'll never know until you meet her." Neville handed him his shirt.

Harry tried to swallow his bitterness and believe that Neville could be right. His mum thought his dad would be a toe rag and it turned out that she actually really loved his dad. Maybe Harry would get lucky too.

They sat down at the table in the seats that they'd been assigned and Harry waited for Ottery's Royal Family to join them before the rest of their court would be admitted.

He looked up when the door opened and saw King Arthur and Queen Molly enter first, then Crown Prince William and his wife Princess Victoire. But Harry's heart stopped when behind the Crown Prince was Ginny, but not like he'd seen her earlier in the day, no, now she would put the greatest marble sculptures to shame.

She came and sat next to him and Harry barely registered the way Neville tried to hide his laughter behind his hand.

"I thought that if you couldn't join me in traveling the world then maybe I could see what Godric's Hollow was like instead." She smiled brightly at him.

"Brilliant," Harry stared at her and thought that maybe he'd dismissed his mum's reassurance that he would absolutely love Princess Ginevra a bit too quickly.

A/N: I can't believe this is finished. I wouldn't have guessed this story would total 88K words in my wildest dreams. Nor did I dream that it would create the little following that it did. For all of you who have followed this from start to finish, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you! For all of you who read this now that it's finished posting, thank you! I hope that you've fallen in love with these four as much as I have. :) Until the next story friends. - Matrixaffiliate