Chapter 1: I'll Be Home For Christmas.
Disclaimer: Don't own em…..you know the spiel….
A/N: This is a little Christmas story I decided to write. My plan/goal is to have it up and completed by Christmas day. So I hope you enjoy it! And if you have the time review!
It was the Friday of the first weekend of December and Ginny Weasley was enjoying her last few moments of quiet. Within a few hours the burrow would be bustling with more people than should ever be in one house, no matter how many additions had been put on it. Everyone was coming home for the holidays and between her six brothers, their wives, and little ones, everyone was a lot of people.
Bill and his wife Christine had two children already and another one on the way, and Charlie and his wife Tara only had one, which Charlie had claimed, would be the only one. However at Thanksgiving Tara had announced the family that she was expecting again, and Charlie had been beaming.
Everyone had been completely surprised when George announced that he had eloped with long time girlfriend Angelina Johnson a few months after the war had ended. The too had one with one on the way, but George unlike Charlie claims he at least wants an entire quidditch team. Even more shocking however had been Fred falling in love with Hermione Granger. Hermione and Fred didn't have any little ones yet, but they had not one but two on the way. Ron had recently married his new wife Allison. They were the only Weasley couple not planning on adding to the clan in the next nine months.
Ginny was the only Weasley not married. Ginny was used to being last though. She had been the last-born, the last to attend Hogwarts, the last to grow up, and the last one left single.
Her thoughts we interrupted when a small voice called to her.
"Mummy!" a small boy with dark hair came dashing into the room.
"Come down stay-ahs and wait wif me! Dey'll be here soon!" The little boy tugged at Ginny's arm excitedly. She laughed; she hadn't been last at everything. In fact, she had been the first Weasley child to produce a Weasley grandchild.
"Alright, alright," she smiled at her sons green eyes, dancing with excitement. Even at two and a half years old James seemed to understand the importance of family to the Weasleys. As much as Ginny complained about her brothers and parents she wouldn't have it any other way. And with all of her brothers married it was like having six sisters. Theses people were the only reason Ginny ever made it through the holidays in one piece. While she got joy from seeing the joy on her sons face every December when everyone came home, it only made her wish his father was here to see it too, and made her miss Harry even more.
"Mummy put on the muuusssic," James said wiggling his body around to demonstrate music. Ginny laughed and flicked her wand at the stereo. Ginny had had grown up on muggle Christmas music. She grinned as her and her son's "song" came on. As Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Clause is Comin To Town" filled the room, Ginny snatched up James and danced him the room. After a moment she placed him on top of a table and wiggled her eyebrows at him before beginning to sing.
"He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake," she grinned. "you better be good for goodness sake," she wiggled to the ground. "You better be good for goodness sake!" she sang standing up quickly and flipping her hair in a jokingly sexy manner. As she did so she heard some hoots from behind her. She spun around to see Fred, George, and Ron standing in the front door. Both she and James had been too wrapped up in her performance to notice them come in. She grinned, not embarrassed that she had been caught. James quickly forgot all about the song and sprinted for his uncles. They all took turns picking him up and wishing him a happy Christmas.
"Where're Hermione, Angelina, and Allison?"
"Getting ready to Floo over with Angelina and Diana," George responded. Diana was his and Angelina's daughter.
"And fawning over Allison," Fred rolled his eyes.
"Allison?" Ginny questioned. She noticed Ron trying to hide a huge smile from appearing on his face. He failed.
"Alli's pregnant," he grinned.
"What?" Ginny felt a smiled spring onto her own face. She heard a noise behind her and turned around to see the three women and Diana appear in the fire place one by one. Immediately Ginny and Allison let out girlish squeals that were soon joined by squeals from Hermione and Angelina. Ginny ran to Allison hugging her and then gingerly touching her stomach.
"Honestly," George rolled his eyes, "You'd think they'd never seen a pregnant woman before."
"Yes. Trust me girls. If you feel that you haven't seen enough pregnant women in your life, you'll see plenty of them this month." Fred agreed.
"So all of us are expecting now?" Hermione pondered the thought.
"Except for me," Ginny pointed out, not sounding sad about not being the club.
"Up! Better get crackin Gin!" Ron teased. "Could you imagine if that happened? Seven Weasley grandchildren born in one year."
"Eight!" Hermione corrected pointing to her large stomach.
"Do you know the sexes yet?" Ginny inquired.
"No, but we do know that they're both the same," Hermione responded.
"Have you thought of names?" Angelina asked.
"Well if they're girls…."
"Fred no," Hermione interrupted.
"Why not Mione?" he protested.
"Because I know what you are going to say, and the names you are going to say are not going to be the names of my daughters. If they're daughters!" she scowled at him. It was clear that this was a long going argument.
"But Mione…"
"Fred I swear if you bring this up one more time you're not going to live to see what your babies are names because I'm going to rip your head off!" Hermione clenched her fists and closed her eyes. The rest of the Weasley men would have either had the sense to stop there or not have the guts to push her farther. Fred however continued on.
"Mione at least let me tell them. Maybe they'll like the names."
Hermione's eyes flashed with anger. "I don't care what they think…I am NOT NAMING MY BABIES Fredwina and Georgina!" she screamed.
"I don't know Hermione…I like it," George commented earning him a smack from both Ginny and Angelina.
"I told you! It's settled then. If they're girls, it's Fredwina and Georgina."
"And boys?" Ron asked amused by the fight.
"Gred and Forge naturally," Fred smiled proudly.
"Ohhh…Fred! Why did I marry you?" Hermione huffed out of the room in frustration. Fred flashed a smile at everyone and ran after her. Everyone just shook his or her head. The two got into about a million fights a week, but still seemed to have the closest relationships of any of the couples.
By dinner time Percy, Charlie, Bill and their respective families had arrived and the burrow was filled with the bustle of getting dinner ready and trying to keep the herd of children out of the kitchen. Fred and George had proven to be experts in keeping the bunch occupied, and while Hermione and Angelina claimed it was nice to have to have the children watching over their husbands, Ginny had caught Hermione watching Fred playing with the kids with an adoring look on her face several times, their earlier fight long forgotten. Everyone knew that Fred would be an excellent father. He'd always been great with James. All of Ginny's brothers had been. Both Charlie and Percy had been a little awkward at first, but quickly became accustomed to him. This had always comforted Ginny. Even if James couldn't meet his father yet, he had six uncles trying to fill the void until he could. Every Christmas all Ginny hoped for was that James would get to meet Harry, and every year as Christmas approached she found herself having trouble going to sleep, hoping that he might come home in the middle of the night. She dreamed of him coming through the burrow door, home, just like he promised.
~*~*~*~*~*~ Flashback~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It was mid November and Ginny was sitting in the Great Hall working on some potions work as she ate. She was just closing her book when a familiar snowy owl flew in and dropped a package and a note in her lap. She tore open the letter which had her name scrawled on it in handwriting she recognized in an instant and began to read.
Ginny-
Use the enclosed item and the map and meet me in our spot.
Love, Harry
Ginny smiled and then opened the package. It was Harry's invisibility cloak. She stroked the luxurious fabric before tucking it along with her books under her arm and exiting the Great Hall. As she prepared to go meet Harry she found herself feeling both excited and scared. She was excited because she hadn't seen Harry since her 7th year bad begun. Her fear however as hard as she tried to push the idea from her head, was the though that this could be the last time she ever saw him.
Ginny laid, wrapped in Harry's arms, her head resting on his chest as she listened to his heartbeat. She found it ridiculous that she could find such peace and comfort just from the small bu-bumps of his heart. Harry stoked her hair and then traced his fingers up and down her smooth bare back.
"Ginny I love you," Harry said softly.
"I love you too," she whispered back.
They then continued lying in silence, the way they had many times before. Harry and Ginny had found during their time together at Hogwarts was the refurbished Shrieking Shack. After Sirius had been proven innocent, he and Remus fixed up the old house. That way they could stay there when they needed easy access to Harry at Hogwarts, or when it was a full moon they could go there to be comfortable.
"What do you think Sirius would do if he caught us like this?" Ginny asked curiously.
"Last year? He would have flipped. Tonight? Well I'm pretty sure he knows where I am, who I'm with, and exactly what we're doing." Harry smiled a little.
Ginny didn't smile back. Instead her eyes started to water. "He knows we're saying goodbye."
"Ginny this is not goodbye."
"Then what is it? Harry you're leaving to go fight Voldemort tomorrow. All of my brothers have been fighting in the war for months now and they won't write me about it because its too horrible. And they haven't even been near Voldemort himself. If this isn't goodbye Harry than what is it?"
"I havn't seen you since you left for school, I didn't want to wait another month before I could see your face, because I love you. That's what this is."
"I'm sorry Harry. But I can't seem to shake this feeling that you're going to leave me in the morning, and your not going to come back."
"Ginny, don't be scared. I'll be home for Christmas. Just wait and see."
Harry left the next morning after escorting Ginny as far as he could back to Hogwarts. Two weeks before Christmas Ginny had confirmed that she was pregnant, only causing her to become more anxious about Harry's return. Days passed and there was no news from Harry or anything about the defeat of Voldemort. Christmas grew closer and closer and the war seemed to grow worse and worse. Her brothers had stopped writing weeks ago, making everything even harder to bear. There was no news about any of them until Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve Ginny and Hermione, who was with the Weasley's for Christmas, fell asleep on the couch. Late that night Ginny drifted awake to the sound of hushed voices.
"Should we wake them?"
"No. Let them sleep."
"I don't want to!"
She would have known those voices anywhere. She sat up quickly and her heart leapt at the sight of six redheads standing in front of her. She could here the booms of fireworks going off outside. People were celebrating. The war was over. Tears of joy sprung to Ginny's eyes and she couldn't have stopped smiling if she tried. She stood up and quickly found herself smothered by all of her brothers, who were trying to hug her all at once.
"I missed you so much," she said through the tears as they let her go and allowed her to hug them each individually. She moved from Fred to George to Bill to Charlie. As she was moving from Charlie to Percy she heard a small gasp from behind her as Hermione awoke, flinging her arms around Fred in tears. Ginny was slightly to see Fred too had tears on his cheeks. Ginny moved on from Percy and finally go to Ron. Her youngest older brother quickly embraced her in his arms.
"I can't believe you're all home," she told him. "When's Harry going to be here?" she asked him.
Ron gave her and empathetic look. "I don't know Ginny. I wish I did. But I don't."
"But…"
"None of us were fighting tonight. No one was supposed to be, and then we got word that the war was over and to go home to our families. I asked about him but no one would tell us anything. I just hope he didn't do anything stupid, trying to get everyone home for Christmas. He always put everyone else before himself."
Ginny felt her heart drop and her smile fade. Ron sat up with her the rest of the night and they talked about the war. Ginny also took the opportunity to tell him that she was pregnant, something that up until then she had not yet told anyone. Rather than having an angry outburst, Ron had remained calm and told her that Harry would be home soon.
~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry never came home. Ginny however still refused to give up on him, replaying his promise in her head.
"I'll be home for Christmas. Just wait and see."
A/N: So what'd you think? I hope you liked it. Like I said before I'm hoping to get the whole story posted between thanksgiving and Christmas. Whether that will actually happen. Well we'll have to just wait and see. So read and review. And the next chapter should be up soon!
Love and kisses,
Bella