All's Fair
In Love

It was odd, Harry thought, to be giving something away on his birthday, but it felt right.  Slipping the silver chain over his head, he looked at the reflection of his green eyes in his only other inheritance from his mother.  He'd carried the plain band of silver for eight and a half years now, since the day he'd received it, a scarce week after the creation of the Pack-Pendant that had consumed his parents’ wedding rings.

“You'd be proud of me, Mum,” Harry whispered, taking the ring from the chain and putting it into a small, black box, which he dropped into his right trouser pocket.  The chain itself, he dropped on top of the chest of drawers.  It wasn't important now, and after tomorrow, come what might, it would just be another thing.

Draco watched his brother, and offered a silent scent-touch, which was accepted just as silently—saying something in that moment would, he knew, have been wrong.  Harry had come to an important decision, and Draco knew it would cost him dearly; Lily's engagement ring was the only tangible memory of his parents that Harry'd had since the making of the pendants all those years ago.  After a glance at his own right hand and the Black family ring he'd recovered from Kreacher, Draco holstered his wand and checked his dagger, actions mirrored by Harry's own; the Pride would meet up at Hogwarts tomorrow, and Draco couldn't wait.

Ginny looked up as Harry walked into the Den-room, followed by his brother.  Greeting them, she moved along the table edge, opening a gap between herself and Luna that would accommodate two young men—not without a bit of a squeeze, but that was the idea, wasn't it?

The two new entrants looked at each other, and Draco shrugged and sighed loudly.  “The things I do for my alpha!” he declaimed, bowing low, arms extended towards the table and, not coincidentally, towards Ginny.  Harry pushed his brother's shoulder, making him stagger into Luna, as he crossed the room not to stand at the table, but to kneel before Ginny.

“Um,” he said eloquently as the eyes of the Pride, the Pack-adults, and all the other parents of the Pride went to him.

“Um?”  Ginny replied, her red eyebrows arching high in query.

“Um…” Harry struggled to remember what he'd rehearsed in the privacy of the bathroom, as well as with Hermione's and Luna's help.  In the glaring spotlight of the moment, though, it all fled from his mind, and his cheeks started to burn.  He yanked the box, gracelessly, from his pocket and presented it to Ginny, lid closed.  “I promised I'd marry you once all this Voldemort business was over… erm… and since it seems like that'll be tomorrow night… er…” Harry felt sweat prickling on his brow; glancing around the rest of the Pride, he saw that the girls were all gazing starry-eyed, whilst Ron was thunderstruck, Neville was smiling gently, and Draco was…

Draco was amused.  Harry pulled himself together; there was no way his brother would get a laugh at his expense, not this time.  “Ginevra Weasley, if we both live through tomorrow, will you marry me?” he went on, speaking slowly and pulling open the box with his left hand.

Ginny blinked a few times, looking at the simple silver ring.  Something on the inside of the band caught her eye, and she pulled it free from its cushion to get a closer look.  Finely engraved, a single character could be made out… it looked like a T, except with two stems, and the right half of the crossbar bent to look more like an inverted J. She turned the ring over, and gasped; it wasn't a T at all, but two letters intertwined… an L and a J.

Sliding the ring on, Ginny took Harry's hands in her own.  “Of course I'll marry you, Harry!” she whispered, tears running down her cheeks as she pulled him to his feet and stepped into his own tearful embrace.  The rest of the Pride began to cheer wildly, and nine adults added their approving congratulations to the mix.

Eventually, the crying and laughing and cheering and hugging started to end, and Remus cleared his throat.  “Much as we'd all love to stand around celebrating my son's engagement to your daughter all day,” he said, apparently talking to Mrs Weasley, “that marriage is conditional on his surviving tomorrow, and a bit of planning to make that as likely as possible might be a good idea…”

“And I'd certainly prefer it,” Draco cut in caustically, “seeing that I'm his best man, and Luna's told me in no uncertain terms that certain parts of me will belong to her and no one else… one way or another.”

This sparked another wave of laughter, but was at the same time a sobering reminder that, like his parents, Harry was engaged in both love and war.  Pack, Pride, and Order members gathered around the table and started to argue, fingers and wands jabbing at the map of Hogwarts spread there.  More than once, Harry had to step in to stop Ron and Draco coming to blows over strategy, Draco's insistence on a strong defence directly countering Ron's preference for a more balanced battle-plan; eventually, Remus brokered a mixture of Ron's plan and one of his own, and the group came to slightly reluctant agreement.

Calling cheerful good nights and further rounds of congratulations, the adults drifted out of the room.  The Pack-parents were the last to go, and each hugged Harry tightly, murmuring a few words of love and pride before they departed.  Harry watched them down the hall and out of sight, then shut the door and returned to his Pride, who were settling in to the comforting ritual of Den.

“Be welcome, all, to this Den night,” Draco began when everyone was settled.  “We are Pride now.  Pride together.”

Once all the Pride had chorused their reply of “Pride forever,” Ginny took up the thread with more confidence than she or Hermione had ever shown before, her voice clear and her words proud.  “Who will tell a story?  Who will remind us of what it is to be Pride?”