Disclaimer: you all know that HP isn't mine. as an additional disclaim: some of the text from the opening paragraphs of this are taken directly from DH, so I guess the wording is JKs too.

A/N: Hope you like. My first Hp fic. and it's not really my genre either.

They had not drawn the curtains; he saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black-haired boy in his blue pajamas. The child was laughing and trying to catch the smoke, to grab it in his small fist.

A door opened and the mother entered, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up the son and handed him to the mother. He threw his wand down upon the sofa and stretched, yawning.

The gate creaked a little as it was pushed open, but Harry Potter did not hear. A white hand pulled out a wand from beneath a dark cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open.

He was over the threshold as Harry came sprinting into the hall.

"Ginny, take James and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Hold him off, without a wand in his hand! – Voldemort laughed before casting the curse.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushed against the wall, it made the banisters glare like lightning rods, and Harry Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut.

It was like the night in the forest all over again. Harry felt the force of the blast throw him backwards against the wall. He slumped miserably to the floor, clinging desperately to the last shreds of consciousness and life. It was not supposed to end like this. He could not let it end like this.

He was trapped, it seemed, in his own body. By some miracle, he had not died. Or maybe he had. Either way, he could do no more than listen. And that was a torture worse than death.

He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped. How stupid they were, and how trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends, that their weapons could be discarded even for moments.

"Not James, not James, please not James!" He could hear his wife crying.

"Stand aside, you silly girl…. Stand aside, now." Came the all too familiar hiss of a voice in response.

"Not James, please no, take me, kill me instead – "

"This is my last warning!" The hiss cut off the pleading sobs of his sweet wife, and still Harry could do nothing.

"Not James! Please… have mercy… have mercy… not James! Not James! Please – I'll do anything!"

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

Harry had to stop this. He had too. He could not let Ginny die like this. But his body was paralyzed. His eyes and mouth closed tight. He had to break free. Heart pounding in his chest, he struggled with every fiber of his being. But deep inside he knew he was already too late. Deep inside he knew that all he could do was wait for the inevitable. His heart seemed to stop as it came.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

"GINNY!"

Harry sat bold upright. Sweat beaded on his forehead and glistened on his bare chest. His tight fists clenched around the sheets he sat on, and his mind raced as he tried to take in the darkness to which he had awoken.

"Harry?" A small voice said beside him.

"Ginny…" He gasped as he looked to his right. Ginny lay peacefully beside him, obviously just woken by his outburst. The sight was one of the most beautiful things he could have seen at that moment. Ginny – whole and unscathed, sitting with him, safe and warm. He glanced around the bedroom once more as he tried to take in the strange turn of events.

There was no Voldemort. There was no killing curse. He was not dying. Ginny was with him. The room stood as it always did, peaceful and dark. Even the sneakoscope in the corner seemed unphased.

"Ginny… James…" He whispered, sinking down to his elbows and staring back at his wife. Astonishment still lingered on his face.

"James?" Ginny tried make sense of the whole situation. "Harry… I'm fine." She tried to comfort him as he sank back into bed. He was practically shaking with fright. "Are you alright?" She grabbed his right arm and pulled herself closer to him, kissing his bare shoulder in a calming sort of way.

"I…I… It was a dream." He said at last, still recovering from the shock. "Just a dream…" He said, more to himself than to her. "Oh, Ginny." He called to her again, turning now to kiss her softly. He needed this confirmation. He could not bear to lose her like that.

"What happened?" Ginny asked her husband timidly. She did not want to disturb him further, but this was not the first nightmare that had woken him with a cold sweat or a scream. Harry had become comfortable discussing them with her. They almost always involved Voldmort, even after all this time. But Ginny was not surprised. She too had been haunted by him in her dreams.

"It… It was Godric's Hollow all over again." Harry told her unsteadily. She was about to say a word of comfort about his parents before he stopped her. "But this time… This time it was like I was dad… I was James and you… you were Lily." He placed his hand on the side of her face, stroking her gorgeous red hair.

"And… 'James'?" She asked, reminding him of his confused words, taking his hand and kissing it. She could still feel the tremble in his fingers and wanted to calm him down. "Who is 'James'?"

"He… We had a son, Ginny. Named James…" He answered. Now that he thought about it, he wondered why he hadn't pondered this before. But in the dream it had seemed perfectly natural. Besides, that was the least of his worries. "V-Voldemort came." He said, frightened. "I told you to run… I tried to hold him off. He… He killed me, I think…" Harry's voice trailed off as he stared into space. Ginny looked at him attentively, not wanting to interrupt. "And then I heard you upstairs." He continued, turning to look her in the eye. "You were…crying. Begging. Pleading with him for James… And I… I couldn't save you…" Tears welled up inside Harry's eyes, and Ginny lifted her hand to wipe them away, stroking his cheek and running her fingers through the tussled hair behind his ear. "H-He… He killed you." The sound barely escaped Harry's lips.

"Oh Harry…" Ginny pulled him closer and lifted his head. She kissed him lightly on his brow, her lips caressing his lightning-shaped scar. "It's over. I'm safe. Voldemort can't get us." She comforted, holding his head in her hands. "You made sure of that." She smiled at him.

"Thank you, Ginny." Harry feebly smiled back and kissed her hands gently, trying to banish the horrible memories from his head. They were not in Godric's Hollow, and no one was going to die. Not him or Ginny or his parents or…James. Voldemort was gone. Even after all this time, sometimes he had a hard time believing that. He leaned forward and kissed his wife on the brow, then placed his forehead next to hers and simply stared into her peaceful brown eyes.

"What did he look like?" Ginny asked, quite unexpectedly.

"What?" Harry's brow furrowed. "Who? Voldemort?"

"No – Our son. James." She said the name with a special kind of affection only a mother could posses.

"Oh… He looked… Well I guess he looked a bit like both of us. He had dark hair, but not like mine… He had your eyes… your smile." Harry tired to remember. In the dream, the boy had been barely a year old. But now that he thought about it, he could remember more of the boy's face than he had seen. "Why do you ask?"

"Just because… Well because…" Ginny took Harry's hand into her own once more. "Harry, what would you say to… to… to having son. Or a daughter?" The last words seemed to stumble out quickly – too quickly for Harry to comprehend their great meaning.

"Wha-? Well… I mean - Do you mean that..." Harry could only stutter. He didn't know what he thought about it, to be honest. But the more he thought about it, and more and more wonderful the idea seemed.

Ginny took Harry's hand and laid it gently onto her own stomach, locking her eyes with his own. She did not have to say another word.

"You mean… You're… We're… Going to…" Harry was utterly speechless. He seemed barely able to breath for the sudden rush of excitement in his heart.

"Yes!" Ginny exclaimed, grabbing him at once and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Yes!" She cried again, kissing the astounded man underneath her.

Harry could do nothing more than kiss her back with all his heart. He could barely believe his ears. Was this not a dream too? He almost wanted to pinch himself to make sure that this was really happening. That it was really true.

"I was going to tell you tomorrow – on your birthday. But when you mentioned it I just couldn't wait!" Ginny told him, smiling down.

"What'll we name him? Or... her?" Harry asked. It was the only question he could think of.

"Hmm… I like the name James." Ginny told him with a small laugh. She had already thought through all of this, and the mention of the name in Harry's dream had exited her more than she could say. "And if it's a girl – Lily." She added for good measure.

Harry smiled up at her. He didn't know what to say. He wasn't sure he could say anything even if he wanted to. But he didn't want to, not right now. Wrapping his arms around his wife again, he kissed her once more, closing his eyes and rubbing his hands over her belly, dreaming of the little life inside it. It was the best birthday present he had ever received.

He did not know how long they spent holding each other thus, but by the end they were both quite ready to fall back asleep.

"Happy birthday, Harry." Ginny said softly, laying her head on his chest and she pulled herself even closer beside him, hugging his right arm.

"Thank you." He whispered earnestly, kissing her lightly on the head. "Thank you."

Harry's eyelids closed slowly, a smile on his face. As he felt back asleep, the memory of the dream came back to him. But this time he was ready. If Voldemort came to the door again, he would open it wide, wand at the ready, and say that he loved his family. And no one could take them away.