Strawberries and Pickles
by hasapi
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Prologue
At least, Ginny Weasley reasoned to herself, she wasn't married anymore. Being sued for adultery was not a good thing, especially in the Wizarding world. A divorce process usually took at least six months, sometimes as much as two years if one of the parties were earning more than sixty thousand galleons a year. Not to mention the talk. If there hadn't been any adultery on either side and there weren't any children, it was immediately speculated that someone didn't have the biological capabilities to create life. And seeing as how Seamus Finnigan had always been seen by the general Hogwarts population as a very 'virile' young man, the blame had been placed on her.
Even though she had half-believed the rumors herself, that she was barren, she now knew that to be impossible. And how did she know that? Well, it was very simple, really. Even the spell said so. Ginny glanced down at the page again, cringing. Are You Pregnant? A Simple Spell Is All It Takes to Know! Well, she'd performed the spell, and two seconds later the tip of her wand had glowed blue, indicating that she was indeed pregnant.
She sat down on the bed. Hard. It couldn't be true. It could NOT be true. There was no way she could be pregnant for the first time after five years of marriage with the child of a man she wasn't married to! Then again, as she'd realized earlier, at least they hadn't been married when she'd gotten pregnant. Seamus may have been able to appeal, though for what reason she really had no idea; she didn't have any money, and he knew that. She'd been a housewife during their life together, and had enjoyed it. At least for the first few years. After three years and no child, however, things had started to get tense.
At first, Seamus would come home in a wonderful mood and sweep her into his arms, pecking her on the forehead while she giggled. Then they would eat dinner and talk about things, anything—but mostly about their family, or what would be their family. They'd been ready to get started right away, and they had. After their third anniversary, however, things had started to break down. Seamus was no longer in a wonderful mood when he came home, and their discussions tended to stop about five minutes in, usually when she mentioned something about children.
It stayed like that for another one and a half years, though they still slept together and ate together and appeared in public together, like a good couple should. Finally Ginny confronted him about it, saying they should act like adults and discuss the subject. They had realized that the reasons they had gotten married no longer existed—quite frankly, they didn't love each other anymore. So Ginny had moved in with her parents and Seamus had kept the house, and they had started the divorce proceedings.
She had never expected it to take so long. Seamus wasn't very helpful, letting his lawyer do all the talking. Ginny struggled through it the best she could, but by that one Monday afternoon, she just could not take it any longer: she had to get out. So she went to the Hogshead, where she knew they had a harder liquor than what she would be able to find anywhere else.
And very unexpectedly, she had met someone else there, coming for a similar reason, though it was much more innocent than hers. She was only grateful that they hadn't used one of the rooms in the Hogshead, as she knew how disgusting they were.
Why? She wondered. Why had she done it? He had been one of her best friends at Hogwarts, he'd helped in the Order of the Phoenix later, he had been one of the people primarily responsible for the fall of Voldemort and the later capture of the rest of his Death Eaters—and he was now a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where they had both been students for seven years, albeit not the same seven years. One scene of their meeting—one of the only ones she could remember—came back in very clear detail…
"So," he said uncomfortably, "What have you been doing the past five years?" He was buttoning his shirt, not looking at her.
Ginny crossed her arms, answering, "Oh, you know, the usual; I was married for five years, got divorced yesterday, slept with you last night. That about sums it up," she said, glancing around his bedroom for her shoes. She spotted one of them halfway under the bed and went after it. "What about you?"
"Not much," he said. "So you were married five years, then? Seamus, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," Ginny replied, tying her shoe and looking for the other. "Right out of school and not a thing to show for it," she said bitterly. "Do you know I earned three NEWTs? Transfiguration, Muggle Studies, and Charms. I never did a thing with them."
"Hey, Ginny," he said, putting a hand on her arm. "It couldn't have been that bad. I'm sure you and Seamus loved each other."
"Sure," she replied, looking away so he wouldn't see the tears gathering in her eyes. "We did for the first few years at least... But when we didn't have any children, he just... He just didn't seem to love me anymore," she said, unable to suppress a sob.
She suddenly felt his arms come around her, and she leaned into him. "It's all right, Ginny," he whispered, rubbing her back.
"Thanks," she said when she'd calmed down, and pulled away.
"No problem," he smiled lopsidedly at her.
So what was she supposed to do now? It had been five and a half weeks since they'd parted ways, and only now had she had the presence of mind to perform the test. According to the book, she would have been able to tell after one week at the latest, but she hadn't even remembered (because they had talked about it) the possibility until now. She'd already performed the test five times, and she had no doubt she would be performing it at least ten, if not fifteen, times more.
He had made her promise that if there were any 'consequences' of their night together that she would tell him immediately. So she knew she would have to adhere to the promise, because she was a Weasley and that was what Weasleys did. But she couldn't…she couldn't tell him yet. She had to get her thoughts under control first and figure out how she was going to do this.
How, she wondered, yet again, was she going to tell Neville Longbottom that she was pregnant with his child?
