WHO: Ginny Potter and OTA WHEN: July 28, 2004 WHERE: Ministry of Magic RATING: TBA STATUS: Incomplete SUMMARY: In order to finish Harry's birthday present, Ginny needs a permit which requires a trip to the MOM.
If there was one thing that was fairly difficult in life it was managing to keep a secret from Harry. He was a trained Auror and generally exceptionally good at figuring out when someone was hiding something. Generally Ginny had to rely on Hermione to help her surprise him by either hiding things at her flat or The Burrow. The trouble was that she couldn't very well hide this birthday present because it didn't fit into a box.
Blueprints and plans had all been things that Ginny wasn't really able to part with as she needed them, and the constant owls from the contractor wasn't helping towards keeping her secret. Harry had actually been home when the last one had arrived, and Ginny had to practically sprint to the window to keep him from getting to it before her.
She felt sure he knew something was up, but the concealment charms she had convinced Bill to put against the back yard of the house were holding up their end of the job to keep him in the dark. Of course having charms up meant she had to hope and pray that Harry didn't decide to go into the backyard before Friday night, he was smart enough to take the charms down within half an hour or so. If they came down he would get an eye full of the regulation quidditch pitch that was currently being built, and that would just ruin the entire surprise.
The construction was nearly complete, only the final touches to the small building that would house a changing room if they ever decided to have their friends over for a full game and the last step to make things official required a permit from the Department of Magical Game and Sports that stated the pitch conformed to the standards required - Ginny wasn't going to build a pitch halfway, she wanted everything exact.
Getting the permit had been easier than she expected, and she was waiting on the lift to arrive so she could go up to the lobby and use the Floo to take her into Diagon Alley. She still had to visit Audrey to talk about the cake for Harry and Neville's birthday party.
Stepping into the lift just after the doors opened Ginny wasn't expecting to see anyone she knew, but that wasn't the case.