Ginny stared.

She inwardly felt torn between slapping Lavender, congratulating Lavender, warning Bruce not to hurt her (again), and hugging Ana. Needless to say, she was torn in so many directions. She settled on hugging the happy couple.

"That's wonderful." Ginny told them. Lavender and Bruce were oblivious to the tension and beamed. They glanced at each other for a moment and she pulled Ana close. "This is not about you." Ginny whispered sternly. The other girl nodded into her shoulder slightly.

"Let me see the ring." Ana said, finally speaking. Lavender quickly thrust her hand forward and wiggled a small band at them. "That's so pretty. When are you thinking about the date?"

"When we settle down, but it won't be for a bit. We're leaving in a few days to another town." Lavender said. Ginny winced as Ana's hand tightened around hers. "Merlin, this is just so exciting! He asked me a few days ago at the orphanage, had Aratia bring me a map and he was waiting with the ring at the 'X'. It was so romantic." She beamed again and leaned over to kiss Bruce on the cheek. "Oh, I almost forgot! I won't be able to go with you guys, but you need to go to America, it's important. We'll meet you there in a few years, and you guys will have been found, whatever that means." She suddenly leaned forward and grabbed the hands of the girls. "The puzzle is changing, but it soon will be solved."

They smiled sadly back at her and nodded. "Take care of her." Ana said. Bruce nodded.

"I will."

"Don't led your sassy side come out too far, too much." Ginny warned.

"I won't."

"Always remember where you came from." Ana.

"We will."

"Always remember who you came from." Ginny.

"We will."

"And congratulations."

Ana and Ginny walked out of the train station, walking into the cab hailed for them. "Central Park, please." Ana requested. The cabbie nodded and pulled away from the curb.

Ana leaned back to see Ginny looking at her with an eyebrow raised. "The house is hidden in a tree. Apparently, when the American colonies were founded, the Lord Black of the time was close to the king. He gave Lord Black a lot of property, which Lord Black hid all of within a tree. The tree couldn't be cut down, so the city built a park around it. Plus, the American Ministry thought that it would be a good treaty for the sprites to have a place to play." Ginny nodded, turning to look at the buildings towering over the cab.

"Everything is huge. It's much bigger than the places we've been to recently." She breathed. Ana laughed at her expression. After India they had done what Lavender had asked and headed to America. They had gone up and down the country, spending a day in every amusement park that they passed.

Ginny was still terrified of people dressed up in banana suits after the fiasco at the second one.

It had been fun break, but Ana wanted to open a pub and Ginny had wanted to go to New York. "Turn up here."

Ginny said suddenly, the cabbie nodded and the car swerved violently. Ana braced herself and looked at the red head. "I want to go to the pub. Jetlag can wait for tonight. Let's just see it and I'll set everything up if you want. You can just sit on your arse and I'll do all the work." Ana nodded slowly. Ginny was acting strange.

Ginny continued to feed the driver directions and they drove up and parked in front of a row of businesses. Ginny hopped out and Ana slipped the money to the front through the small window. "You wan' me to wait? Won't even charge ya extra." The man asked. Ana told him no.

She climbed out of the cab and it sped away. Ginny was slipping through the door, her wand sneaking back into her purse. Ana quickly walked up to the door and pulled out a key to cover for the spell. Honestly, what was wrong with the other girl? She was becoming almost as sloppy as before the main of the war.

Ana locked the door and turned to see Ginny sweeping the floor. For a moment she was flung back into the past, watching as Flinch pushed the rubble around the floor. There had been so much dust and rock that it had taken nearly months just to get the entry hall clean enough to be able to use magic to fix the rest. She shook her head slightly and was brought back to the present.

"You know you can do magic, right?" Ana said. Ginny blushed and tried to subtly put the broom down. Ana laughed at the other girl and pulled out her wand. They began to clean the room and add some air freshening charms. As Ana waved her wand, she felt slightly ridiculous.

When she had started Hogwarts the exact precision of wand-work needed to make the actual magic seemed too over the top. Then, when she had spent a bit more time in the wizarding world it wasn't as bad. Yet now that she had mastered wand-less magic, it was getting to be ridiculous again. She finally gave up and stuffed the wand back up her sleeve and began casting without it.

There weren't going to be anyone from the American Wizarding World looking in anyway. Western ministries were always so odd about windless casters.

Hours passed, enlarging the furniture and setting spells to move in before Ana gave up and collapsed on a purple cushy chair in front of the fireplace. "I'm done." She yawned. "Let's find the tree and sleep. Travel is finally catching up to me." A sniffle made her look up, startled and she blinked in confusion at the younger girl. "Ginny? What's wrong?"

Ginny was staring forlornly at the fireplace, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. "It just feels wrong. I mean, without Lavender here it feels like somethings missing, you know?"

Ana stared at her. "Ginny, this isn't the first time Lavender hasn't been here. She's been with Bruce for almost a year now." Ginny sent her a small, halfhearted glare along with another sniffle.

"And you say I'm the emotionally stunted one." Ginny huffed. "This is the first time that we've settled down with out Lavender. The other places we were just passing through, but here we're going to be staying a while. What if we go years without seeing each other. Like you said, it's almost been a year and we haven't seen nor heard of them. What if something happened? What if they need help? You know Bruce gets sassy and there's no holding him back, and then he always gets all moody the day after. What if he left her thinking she would be better without him? She loves him, it would leave her crushed, and there's no way for her to contact us." She was crying by the end of her speech and Ana was startled.

Ana went over to hug the other girl, inwardly shrugging this off to be one of the emotional things that the Dursleys didn't teach her. They always seemed to pop up at the most inconvenient times.

"Come on, cheer up. I'm sure Lavender is fine. She's tough. Plus, if she wasn't alright she would owl us, or go to Luna and Neville who would able to tell her where we are." Ana said. Ginny nodded, still crying slightly. "Now, how about I fix us a cup of tea and we can think of names for this place?"

"You said you were tired, though." Ginny weakly protested. Ana sent her a stern look.

"Ginny, I have to name this place before it can open, which it will, either tomorrow or the next day. I simply refuse to have people sitting in here without a clue in the world to call where they are. Plus, Merlin knows we have enough chairs to seat an army so if we get tried we can try a few out. Maybe get crazy and nap on a table to test that." Ana said. She got up and walked back to the kitchen. "What do you think about the name, Kettle Corner? Any promise? We could make both works start with the same letter if it convinces you more."

"Absolutely not."

What do you think? Worth the (way too long) wait?