Disclaimer: OK for the first time ever I'm going just do one for the whole story, 'cause I can't be bothered with it every chapter. Harry Potter does not belong to me; it belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. Anything else that's mentioned, such as lyrics of songs, poetry, famous quotes etc., aren't mine either. I will mention their respective owners as they appear.

A/N: I have currently been inspired by a truly wonderful fic, The Past Didn't Go Anywhere by Fearthainn (story number=359608), not that I'm stealing… I just liked one of her ideas; I give her full credit. The idea is starting the beginning of each chapter with a quote, or lyric of some kind, and I really liked that.

Anyway here is it kiddies, the sequel to Caught in the Rain; I present to you Promises Kept. If you're looking at this and haven't read Caught in the Rain I suggest you check that out first, you don't have to, but it would be helpful to you. Oh and for those of you who asked, 'when's this sequel?' how about a day later, that good enough for you? ;) Also don't expect it to get into the main plot of the story straight away, I want to take my time with it…

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Chapter 1

Family Life

I took it all for granted

But how was I to know

That you'd be letting go

Now it cuts like a knife

But it feels so right

It cuts like a knife

But it feels so right

~ Bryan Adams, Cuts Like a Knife

August 2006

Lemon drops and barley sugars. A small glass bowl sat in the centre of a highly decorated table filled to the brim with Muggle hardboiled sweets. Rhubarb and custards, pineapple rock, mint humbugs, anything you could think of. Beside it there was a silver tray laid out with slabs of dark chocolate, liquorice sticks, and slices of freshly picked strawberries. And then directly in the centre sat a large frosted glass pitcher of home-made lemonade.

The garden was in full bloom, and butterflies fluttered back and forth between lilac bushes, and sweet scented white roses. Small bumblebees were busying themselves darting around in search of the brightest flower. Pink, blue, red, purple, orange, and white flowers filled the pots sat idly on the porch, and each of the beds was a sight for sore eyes.

The small flowing steam at the end of a stretch of fresh green grass bubbled madly in the late afternoon sun. Beams of sun glinting off the surface and bouncing around in small golden spots across the sweeping branches of the willow trees. The leaves rustled calmly in the gently breeze and swallows swooped down weaving in and out of the clusters of green leaves.

At night the sky was usually so clear that you could see every constellation of stars, twinkling madly in the abyss of black. You could lie there for hours and forget about the complications of real life and float away, lost in dreams, lost in hopes of a different world, lost in mercy's only God could give. There was nothing wrong with the world at that moment in time; in fact you could say it was perfect. One could be content, smile at the beauty of everything, and laugh at the silliest of things. Perfection though was different in everyone's eyes.

You can live to forget. You can forget to live. Change two things around and everything's different. Such as who you fall in love with, who you marry, who you choose to begin a family with. The person you though you'd do this with disappears, it's hard to move on at first, but it needs to be done. If you live in the past you begin to regret it, and regret is a terrible thing.

The sun was high in the sky and for August in Ottery St. Catchpole it seemed almost too hot to bear. Why Molly had chosen a hot August day for a family gathering no one knew. And why she had chosen to hold it at her daughter's house remained even more of a mystery. The entire Weasley clan now consisted of around twenty, a few more than the original nine who lived at the Burrow.

Molly, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and of course Ginny. The real Weasley family. After that there were the gained second halves of certain family members. There was Bill's wife Lana, a tall and blonde chess player, with hefty curves. Charlie's finance of three years Millie, who had flowing auburn hair almost so red it put the Weasleys to shame. Percy had surprising managed to reel Penelope in and the two were sharing a house near Hogsmeade, and only came down for holidays. The twins were still single (a surprise to no one as they were still up to their shenanigans), but looking ferociously. Ron, it seemed had had a change of heart about Hermione and they'd parted ways only in March. They were still close friends though, inseparable.

Finally there was Ginny. For two year's straight, one in Hogwarts, one out of Hogwarts, she'd been single… sworn off men altogether. Eventually she found herself her own life and settled down with Colin Creevey in June 2002. They wed six months later in December, and saved up gradually to buy a house near to her parents.

After that there were the children, Bill and Lana's two, Rick aged ten and Jasmine aged seven. Charlie and Millie's daughter, Crystal aged four, and then Ginny and Colin's daughter Poppy, who had only just turned three two weeks gone.

On that particular day at Ginny's home there were a few other stragglers so to speak. Mrs Weasley had invited Harry and Hermione, I mean how could she not, they were close friends of the family after all. Naturally Harry had brought along Cho Chang, who he'd been dating for around three years now, and then they'd brought their two-year-old son, Jack. Hermione had been sitting in silence for almost the entire afternoon until her now good friend Susan Bones had arrived, Hermione worked with her at the Ministry of Magic, and they'd become rather close rather quickly. Lastly Fred had invited Angelina Johnson, and the twins were keeping her mildly entertained.

Ginny stretched out on the rug she'd been lying on, watching Ron playing with Poppy and Jack near the end of the garden, Hermione and Susan were crouched down on the grass near him calling to the children. On the odd occasion Ginny felt sorry for Ron, she knew how much he wanted children but sadly when he and Hermione had been together she'd been concentrating so hard on her career she told him that they couldn't possible have any children, not even one. Now though, he seemed perfectly content in playing with everyone else's, at least that way he could give them back at the end of the day.

In ways the vision of Poppy and Jack together reminded Ginny of herself and Harry. Not that Poppy had red hair, in fact she had strawberry blonde hair which was inkling on a mousy brown and smouldering dark eyes, but she had the trademark dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Jack was the spitting image of his father, piecing green eyes, soft black hair that fell across his face in a mess. He was probably one of the sweetest children Ginny had ever laid eyes on.

Raising her eyebrows Ginny stifled a laugh as she noticed that Ron was attempting to flirt with Susan, Hermione had just sighed overdramatically thrown her hands into the air and stomped off moodily. The two redheads were looking after her with confusion filling their faces, but soon went back to laughing and grinning at each other wildly.

Lying back slowly Ginny felt her husband wrap his arms around her waist, resting his chin on top of her head. She sighed happily and closed her eyes. They'd spent almost the entire week like this is the garden, obviously though on the other six days there hadn't been children running around madly, and parents almost burning down the terrace on the side of the house by trying to light the barbecue. You couldn't complain though, it was moments such as that that made life worth living, knowing you had so many people who cared about you.

'What time is it?' Ginny mumbled, nuzzling down a little as she began to feel the sun burning at her face. So much for not getting sun burnt. She screwed her eyes up and made a noise of protest as Colin moved his arms to look at his watch, he didn't reply though, he just got up and Ginny fell back onto the rug. She grunted and opened her eyes, immediately being blinded by the sun, she put her hand up to guard it and glanced at the retreating form of her husband with a pout. 'Hey! Where do you think you're going?'

Colin spun on the spot, his brown eyes fixing on her face. He smiled at her gently and then shuffled his feet a little. 'I'll be back in a second,' he told her quietly. Ginny raised an inquisitive eyebrow then shrugged dismissvely, burying her head in the rug, her red hair falling across her face.

After a while Ginny became annoyed with her hair and blew a strand of it away, a moment later she heard more footfalls go past her head. Then distinctive squeals come from over near the porch. It was Hermione. Opening lazy eyes she looked that way, but could only see a crowd of eager people gathered around something. Ginny moved to get to her feet, then when she was almost at standing she felt someone's arms on her waist and they lifted her up and carried over to everyone else. She glanced upward and at one of her brother's faces, she smiled at him. 'Thank you, Charlie,' said Ginny quickly.

As they neared the group she could hear Hermione's voice better, she was screeching things such as; 'Oh Harry, it's beautiful,' 'Have you told her yet?' 'Does she know?' 'She'll love it'. Ginny jumped through the crowd as Charlie put her down, she shoved George and Angelina out of the way to get a closer look. And she couldn't have been more shocked, Harry was stood grinning ear to ear, his green eyes lit up brighter than Ginny had ever seen. Hermione was beside him holding a small ring box continuing to ask her questions, Ron was stood on the other side of him smiling and occasionally doing a nice impression of a goldfish.

Ginny stepped forward quickly and pulled the box from Hermione's hands, it was beautiful. The ring sat inside the box nested in red velvet, there was an exquisite sapphire cut into a heart shape, surrounded by clusters of twinkling diamonds. 'You're going to ask Cho to… to…?' It was all she could manage.

Green eyes looked at her and Harry smiled, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close. 'Yeah Gin, I am,' he said softly. 'We've been together three years, though it was about time I—'

'Of course it is,' Mrs Weasley interrupted, 'I'd had enough of the two of you living in sin.' Ginny's mother did have her morals, and having children when you weren't married was one of them. She'd been mad with Charlie of course for having his daughter Crystal, but luckily Molly had fallen in love with the child and was ecstatic when Charlie had asked Millie to marry him a year later. Now she was waiting for the wedding.

Harry brows furrowed and he laughed lightly, Ginny knew that he had very different ideas when it came to matters such as that. 'You can die happy,' he muttered then stepped away from Ginny taking the ring and heading towards the house. Cho was inside and had been for the past hour. As Harry disappeared through the door, the throngs of the Weasley family erupted into loud chatter and whispering.

Finding Colin's arms around her waist once more Ginny leant her head back a little, her cheek brushing against his as he lowered his head. 'That was a surprise, huh?' Colin mused, whispering softly into her ear. 'Oh, Dennis is stopping by tomorrow with Eleanor... I think they're bringing the baby along too.'

'Tracy?' Ginny whispered back as she searched her mind for the name of their baby. 'Oh, no… I mean Tammy, yes?' Colin nodded, so she continued, 'Will they be staying here for the night?' Again he nodded. 'Oh OK I just needed to know because Harry's staying tonight with Cho and Jack, so they'll still be here tomorrow.' Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes. 'God I'm just thinking that if Harry asks Cho to marry him… I mean what if she says no.'

Colin seemed shocked she'd even suggested it. 'I don't think she'd say no, Ginny. Come on, anyone can see how in love the two of them are. Maybe I could ask for photos later, give an exclusive to the Daily Prophet…' he trailed off gradually like he was in a dream.

'Don't you dare!' Ginny said quickly and slapped his arm. 'They're our friends! They deserve their privacy… so you better not, unless of course Harry suggests it, then I'll allow you.' She glanced up into his eyes before spinning around and resting her hands against his chest. 'Promise me, please.' Pouting Ginny stood on her tiptoes so their noses touched. 'Please.'

He looked to the sky dramatically and bit his lip; making out it was a tough decision. 'Fine, fine…. I'll leave them to it, I won't go nosing in their business, and I'll help baby-sit Jack next week when Harry and Cho go away.'

'Yay!' Ginny grinned and jumped up and down a few times before kissing him quickly on the lips. 'Thank you, I'll make this up to you.' She kissed him again gently and wrapped her arms around his neck, as he moved his arms around her waist. Ginny tried not to laugh as she heard Ron catcalling from the other side of the garden, a chorus of gagging sounds on Rick and Jasmine's behalf followed this up. Pulling away she felt her cheeks redden. 'We'll leave this until later, OK,' she whispered.

'Yeah, you can count on it.' Colin smiled brightly and let his wife go, turning his attention over to Mr Weasley who was waving him over. 'Oh look, your father's gone mad again,' he said dismissively then grinned devilishly at her, 'I'll go and talk to him.'

Ginny smiled to answer him then looked out across the garden, she was thankful it hadn't been raining; otherwise the grass would have just been a sea of mud thanks to the many people walking over it. She laughed to herself a little as she recollected an incident with the tap on the back wall only a month ago.

'This yours?' A gentle female voice came from behind her, and Ginny turned around to come face-to-face with Susan. The ex-Hufflepuff was holding Poppy tightly, the youngster balancing perfectly on her hip, where Susan was bouncing her gently. Poppy giggled a little gurgling the words, 'Mummy.' Susan smiled and handed her over to Ginny.

'Thanks for bringing Pop back; I was beginning to think my idiot of a brother was going to runaway with her.' Ginny laughed and shook her head as she lifted Poppy up onto her shoulders. Poppy wriggled a little and then started pulling at her mums hair, Ginny winced. 'Never have children,' she told Susan quickly, 'It kills you.'

'But you love me really, mummy,' Poppy said in a singsong voice as she tugged hard on one of Ginny's curls in her hair.

Batting at her daughters hands Ginny screwed her eyes up a moment before turning her attention to Susan again. 'You seem to be getting rather cosy with my brother so I saw.' She smiled and arched one of her brows a little. 'Don't help him get at 'Mione, it's not nice.'

'I wasn't... Ron and I just get along rather well.' Susan casually walked over one of the flowerbeds and bent down a little to smell one of the yellow rose bushes. 'It's not my fault he constantly flirts with me… I suppose he does it more when we're around Hermione but—'

'Wait,' interrupted Ginny. She shrugged slightly and then put Poppy down on the grass, the young girl immediately made a dash over to the other children. Ginny watched her for a second and then looked back at Susan. 'You see him constantly? I never knew… he kept that one a secret.' Shaking her head she chuckled with amusement.

'We meet for coffee sometimes when he's over by the Ministry, I don't know how it happened. He dropped by the office one day looking for Hermione and she was out, so I told him he could wait and we got talking,' Susan explained, 'all purely coincidental.'

Ginny laughed again, her amusement growing. 'I'm sure it was, and the fact that he used to date 'Mione doesn't bother you in the slightest?'

'Why should it?'

'I mean come on, if you're going to shag anyone why does it have to be your colleague's ex?' she asked rather reprimanding. 'Seems like you—'

Susan removed her hand from the rose she'd been looking at and eyed Ginny suspiciously as she cut her off. 'Ron and I, we're not dating… we've never even talked about it. We're just friends.' The redhead's green eyes clouded a little and she bit down on her lip before continuing. 'He asked me out about two weeks ago actually but I told him I couldn't because of Hermione. She is my closet friend and it wouldn't be fair to her, I know she's still getting over the break-up.'

'She is, yeah,' Ginny agreed and gave a stern nod. 'Do you like him?' she ventured, 'you know in that way, because if you're not doing it to get at 'Mione or anything… well, I guess you have my blessing so to speak.' Smiling genuinely she crouched down to scoop Jack up into her arms; he'd been crawling towards them for the past few minutes. 'Are your mummy and daddy still inside, hun?' she asked him softly then turned her attentions to Susan. 'I'll talk to you later, better take Jack back to his daddy.' Ginny held Jack against her chest, and he laid his head against her shoulder. 'Good luck with my brother... I doubt you'll need it though.'

Smiling gratefully Susan went back to examining the roses as Ginny trotted off across the garden towards a group of her family. She stopped next to them, looking around the faces, Bill, Lana, Millie, Percy, and Penelope. 'Has anyone seen Harry since he went inside to Cho?' she asked. 'Where's Charlie?' she added quickly looking at Millie.

Millie rolled her eyes and shook her head, her silky red hair falling across her forehead. 'He's talking to your father and Colin, your dads raving about Muggle cameras or something. I got fed up of listening to them.'

'Oh.' Ginny groaned a little and shifted Jack on her shoulder as Lana came over and ran her fingers through his black hair. Everyone had habits of fussing over Jack, he was just the kind of kid you looked at and thought, I need to hug that child. 'Seen Harry?' she asked again.

'No sorry, wished I had though; I want to know what Cho said.' Millie smiled brightly and detached herself from the group, as did Lana. 'That girl's lucky.'

Lana nodded enthusiastically. 'I mean come on, what girl can scream to the world, "I'm marrying Harry Potter", it's got to be a thrill a minute ride with him.' The blonde was smiling so brightly Ginny felt a little intimidated, so she just bit her lip and nodded. Trust her to fall into a Harry Potter appraisal, all she wanted to know was where he was.

'Well thanks for your help,' she huffed and turned away from them and thren over towards the house. As she reached the patio she spotted Ron headingr towards Susan. 'Ron!' called Ginny and she jogged over. Her brother spun around and smiled at her then down at Jack. 'I need to talk to you about something,' she said wheezing slightly.

Ron raised an eyebrow and took Jack from her arms, cradling the black haired child against his side. 'Think you should stop running around, Gin,' he said staring at her.

She nodded in reply and sucked in the air rapidly, trying to catch her breath. 'I'll – be –OK – in – a – minute.' Pulling her red hair back off her face Ginny crouched down. 'Jesus Ginny, you're only twenty-four get some exercise,' she told herself.

Her brother laughed a little and patted her on the shoulder sympathetically. 'What did you want to talk to me about? Is it important?'

'Not important as such.' Ginny straightened up and clipped her hair up onto her head. 'I just wanted to say something to you about Susan.'

'Oh?'

Staring blankly a moment Ginny realised he wasn't going to say anything else, just turn all his attention to Jack and whisper things to him which made the two year old squeal with excitement. 'Well if you're not going to listen to me, I won't bother.'

'I'm listening,' Ron replied impassively.

'Good.' Ginny nodded and looked at him seriously. 'Susan likes you Ron… and I know that you asked her out and she said no, but I think you should ask her again, because she does really like you… and I mean she likes you a lot.'

Ron went to cross his arms but then realised he had Jack clinging to him, so he chose to just glare at her instead. 'And how do you know that?' he asked bitterly. 'She said no to me Gin, I think I got the point the first time… so I'd rather save myself the embarrassment.' He laughed dryly. 'I could just imagine it you know, Harry goes home engaged and I go home with another rejection… I'd rather not.'

'Ron stop being stubborn and ask her!' growling Ginny placed her hands on her hips. 'Don't force me to do it for you, because that's just pathetic.' She tapped her fingers against the thin fabric of her robes. '4th year, Hogwarts, Yule Ball, ring any bells…? Harry had to find a date for you because you acted like such an idiot after asking Fleur out.' She sighed closing her eyes, and then put on her most understanding voice, 'Poor 'Mione…'

'Don't start that again…' He threw an idle glance to Jack. 'Were you looking for Harry, because I can take Jack back to him if you would like, got nothing else to do.'

'Oh yes you do,' Ginny insisted then marched forward and practically prised Jack from Ron's side. 'Go ask her!' she growled at her brother once more before turning around and heading into the house.

Ginny walked in through the back door and was immediately met by another group of people, this one being her father, Colin, and Charlie. She sighed heavily as she passed them and shook her head; Colin was explaining how a Muggle camera worked to her father. Ducking through the archway into her chintzy living room she almost walked straight into Hermione, who smiled at her brightly before heading out to the garden. She continued her journey and then found her mother, Harry, Cho, Fred, George, and Angelina crushed around the dinning table talking loudly.

Placing little Jack down carefully the youngster called out immediately, 'Mummy! Auntie Ginny found me!'

Cho turned around her black hair falling down across her face in a majestic sweep, and her chocolate brown eyes glittering. She looked down at Jack and held her hand to him, Ginny couldn't but help stare at Cho's hand, Harry's ring was sitting neatly on her ring finger, it seemed to look so right there. Little Jack half crawled, half walked over to his mother, and she picked him up effortlessly. 'Thanks, Ginny,' she said quietly.

Ginny smiled a little but soon noticed they weren't going to say anything else to her, they seemed so wrapped up in everything. She cast a glance to the window to see Ron and Susan sat on the swing in one of the trees at the end of the garden, they looked deep in conversation. She only hoped that he'd asked her or was talking everything out at least. Shuffling her feet and digging them into the carpet as she walked Ginny moved back into the kitchen and perched herself on the counter, watching her father and husband engaged in some stupid wistful conversation about how Muggle pictures didn't move. She hadn't seen her father that excited in a while, unfortunately Colin only encouraged him.

She sighed, and a little more heavily than she'd wanted to. Charlie looked up at her and smiled as he walked over to her. He lifted himself to sit on the counter beside her. 'Is everything OK?' he asked her gently.

Ginny shrugged. 'Oh you know, it's fine… I'm just being ignored like usual, no one to talk to, and everyone's wrapped up in their own stuff. Want to explain why this always happens to me at family gatherings?' She glanced up at his face hopefully. 'No one else, it's just always me.' Sighing for around the fiftieth time she leant her elbows on her knees and watched her husband grinning brightly. 'Sometimes think that…' She closed her eyes and trailed off.

'That…?' Charlie pushed. 'Think that, what?'

'People in this family are sore at me still… over that thing.' She dropped her head onto her hands and frowned grumpily as her father laughed loudly, throwing his head back a little. 'Not like I blame them though.'

Charlie raised a brow and placed his hand on her back gently. 'Ginny, you didn't tell everyone remember, half of the people here today don't even know… Mum and dad don't, Percy, Lana, Millie—'

'I know that…' Ginny rolled her eyes and sat back up abruptly, chewing on her lip she slapped her legs before jumping off the counter. 'It doesn't matter; I'm going to go find 'Mione.' She paused halfway to the door and spun back, scratching her arm. 'You don't think Harry and Cho could stay with you tonight do you…? I mean I'd ask Ron but I think he wants some time with Susan.' She grinned at him expectantly. 'Colin and me, we need some quality time.'

'As much as I'd love to help my sister to get her quality nookie time, I'm not going home tonight. Millie thought we could stay in a hotel and then take Crystal over to mums tomorrow.' Charlie smiled genuinely and shrugged a shoulder. 'Sorry, Ginny.'

She shook her head dismissively. 'Doesn't matter. When are you heading back to Romania?' she asked with a laugh, 'I know how Crystal loves her dragons.'

Charlie laughed and got down off the counter walking out into the garden along with Ginny. 'She's worse than I was at her age… worse than me at this age, and I love them.' He chuckled. 'Last week she asked Millie if she could have a Norwegian Ridgeback for her fifth birthday, Mill almost had a heart attack. This was after Harry had told her about Hagrid's dragon back in his 1st Year, Crystal loves Harry to bits.'

'Everyone does though don't they,' she said rather bitterly.

'Am I detecting jealousy, Gin?' laughed Charlie as he hugged his sister a little.

'No!' she said quick to protest. She wasn't jealous of Harry, she was just annoyed that her family made more of a big deal over things Harry did than things she did. Obviously she loved Harry like brother, acted as an Auntie to his son, and acted as civil as possible towards Cho, although Ginny was sure Cho didn't like her. 'Why is everyone more fussed that Harry's getting married than they were when I was? I mean surely as I'm the only girl of the family it should have been a big deal… Guess I don't understand is all.'

'You do know that mum wanted you to marry Harry back when you were dating?' Charlie sat down at the picnic table out back resting his feet on the bench; he looked at her for a minute before continuing. 'She had the whole thing planned out… where it was being held, which dress shop to take you to, who to invite… she was at a loss when you broke up with him.'

Dropping her head onto the table, Ginny rested her hands down flat on either side of it. 'I couldn't stay with him, he was smothering, I told mum that! It was only three months, anyone would have though it was serious.'

'Wasn't it?'

'Don't know Charlie, didn't then, don't now.'

'Anyway,' he began, getting off the subject quickly for her, 'that's why all the fuss, mum wanted that to be you.'

'Well, it wasn't.' Ginny looked back up sighing as she surveyed the scene playing out in her garden. 'She needs to get over it, I moved on, I'm happily married, have been for almost four years… I have a three-year-old daughter, whom I love with my heart and soul. My life's just peachy.' The last comment came out so questioningly Ginny even shocked herself; she closed her eyes and waited for Charlie to say something. But he didn't, he stayed silent waiting for her to speak again. 'I don't want to talk about it,' she said quietly and got up walking across the garden.

Wrapping her arms around herself Ginny came to a stop by the steam and crouched down to sit on the soft grass. Settling herself she put her head in her hands laying down on her front, and then watched the water flow across pebbles and rocks. It kept her occupied for around five minutes until she started getting bored. The redhead rolled over to lie on her back and closed her eyes just feeling the evening sun against her skin.

Seconds passed into minutes, minutes into hours and she gradually drifted to sleep lying there. She heard one last thing before she drifted away...

'Fred, drop that child!'

It was Hermione.

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More A/N: Like? Hoping so. Well I'm trying to make each of the chapters a lot longer for this sequel, and I actually really enjoyed writing that. It's something different for me, and there are lots of new characters to play with. Anyway REVIEW and stay tuned!

I'm thinking I'll bring our Draco back next chapter, what do y'all think? Yes? No? Don't care either way…? Well you're all just gonna have to wait and see anyway…