"What?"
Harry and Ginny Potter were sitting in a Healer's office in the Magical Spells ward of St Mungos. The man, Mr Potter, who was standing up behind his wife's hair, was stroking her red hair gently. He looked deeply shocked about something. The lady, Mrs Potter, was sitting down in the chair, and was weeping openly into her hands. She looked was deeply distraught about the news they had just been told.
The Healer looked upon this scene sympathetically. He hated having to tell people bad news. This was worse than usual as it was Harry Potter he had to break the news to. The boy who couldn't die.
Harry moved around to sit beside Ginny, and she leaned into him comfortingly. Harry looked up at the Healer with a pained expression.
"Can't anything be done? Isn't there a counter-spell?" he pleaded of him. The Healer shook his head sorrowfully. Sometimes he hated his job.
"I'm very sorry Mr Potter, but there is nothing that can be done. These types of new cross-produced illegal Dark spells haven't been researched at all. I'm afraid there is no cure."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Ginny sat on the plush squishy chair that was positioned next the fire. Harry sat on the arm of the chair and was trying to reassure his wife.
"It'll be ok, Gin. So what if we can't have kids? We can always adopt." Ginny glared up at him, still stunning through her tearstained face.
"You don't understand! I've always dreamed of being a mother! I want to carry my baby. And if I can't have a child that's not yours." She sniffed before resuming, "Then –" she left it there. "Now this stupid curse that I just happened to be hit by has ruined everything! Who creates a curse that makes you infertile? I can't have kids. We'll never have mini Harry Jrs with unruly ginger hair and glasses, or mini Ginny Jrs with straight black hair and a mischievous streak." She gestured around the room, as if she could see their future children running around. "I'll never have kids!" at this last sentence, she burst into sobs and buried her face in Harry's chest.
Anyone could see that Harry was clearly distressed by the situation. Suddenly he stood up.
"I've got to go." He announced. He turned back to his wife and crouched in front of her, grabbing her small hands in his own worn ones.
"I will find a solution to this." He promised. "Just give me a little time. I love you." He kissed her swiftly before flooing out of the house. Ginny was left to watch the fireplace, and to mourn her unborn dreams.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Harry Potter had been working furiously for months, abandoning his job as an Auror to find a cure for the curse that had destroyed his small family. Ginny had also resigned from her job with the Holyhead Harpies, and they had told her that she was welcome back at anytime. She still was sad, and grieved about not being able to have children. It was especially hard when Fleur had her first, then second child, and Audrey was expecting. She'd accepted a job with the Daily Prophet as a Quidditch reviewer – she had her own column.
Her days were punctuated by frequent visits from her family, checking on her as they had been doing for months, keeping her from spiralling further into depression. She understood now that there was nothing wrong at all with adopting, and she respected people who did it, but she knew that it wasn't from her. She tried to ignore the nasty look a Healer had given her when she told a Patron this at their weekly check-up appointments.
Harry had chosen to set this up so that they could keep check on his wife, and to try out new cures. So far however, they had experienced no luck. Ginny wanted to have children, she really did, but they could find no way around the fatal spell.
They had even gone as far as to round up all of the still living ex-Death Eaters to question them on the curse. That hadn't gone well – as one grumpy Death Eater put it – 'We didn't exactly look at the side effects, did we?'
Ginny had almost given up all hopes. They had drawn on the help of everyone they could, even pulling strings abroad. No one had heard of a case like this before, and they we stumped.
Finally, a few days before Christmas, Harry found a breakthrough. He had enlisted Hermione to help him find the spell in all of the books she could in her free time - she was such an avid reader – and she had just found something that could be the curse. He glanced down at the owl again and re-read the triumphant message.
Harry-
I think I've found the spell! It was in a horrid book written by one of those unnamed Death Eaters that were overthrown in the Second War. Some Aurors gave it to me once it had been decontaminated of traps. They thought that I would like it. I didn't start reading it until last week – you know how my work catches up with me. Look – on page 783 – the right side effect was! Here, I'll write it out for you.
Sisleotoupus Rioani
Spell uses: momentarily confuses the victim; causes lack of power and aiming for future spells against the caster
Side effects: may cause effects in future: memory loss; dizziness; infertility
This could be the spell they must have used! It's only illegal now because of the side effects. It's a very sloppily put together spell, isn't it? I'm not really that surprised that the Aurors didn't find it when they searched the book – 3000 pages long! I could only read about 10 pages in one sitting, it was that heavy reading.
Anyway, floo over to my place as soon as you get this. I'm hoping that it may be the right spell- I'll keep looking in the meantime, and I think that together we might be able to produce a cure – maybe in the next few weeks. I wonder how many other people have been hit by it – we'll have to inform St Mungos.
-Hermione
He threw down the letter in a hurry, and then rethought this action and folded it to place in his robe's pocket, thinking that Ginny would want to see it later. He stepped into the fireplace and called out his destination.
"The Warren!" Harry thought that it was very like Hermione and Ron to name their house after The Burrow.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
After he had arrived in The Warren, Harry and Hermione had been researching non-stop to find a cure. Their concentration was only broken on the occasional breaks that Ron brought in tea to his wife and their best friend. At last, Hermione stood up and stretched.
"Sorry we didn't find anything tonight Harry, it's annoying that it's not the right spell. Don't worry, I'll read some more tonight – we've still got 1700 pages left of spells. Don't lose hope." She winked sleepily. "We can always try tomorrow. Say, around 9? Meet you here." As Hermione walked out of the room, she glanced back at him. "At least we've got it down to 20 books for probable method for finding cures, hey? I'm going to crash now, night Harry." She yawned sleepily and disappeared from Harry's sight. He dropped the book he was scanning and ambled his way over to the fireplace. He glanced up at the muggle clock above the mantel piece as he went. 10 o'clock.
"Damn it." He mumbled. "Ginny is going to kill me." He sleepily called out the name to their home, and appeared in the front room to an angry looking Ginny.
"Harry James Potter, where have you been?" she scolded. Anyone could tell however, that she wasn't really mad at her husband. She knew that he had more likely stayed up late working, and lost track of the time, then been out doing anything else. She led him into the magically expanded kitchen and sat him down in front of the table. "Now eat." She ordered.
Harry surrendered to his wife's wishes, and ate diligently. As soon as he finished his meal, he pulled out the letter from his pocket and showed it to her. She quickly read it, and her eyes widened as she did.
"Well? How did you do?" she asked hopefully; she had been waiting for this moment for months. Harry shrugged his shoulders experimentally.
"We narrowed the search down to 20 books. I'm supposed to meet her tomorrow at 9 again." He turned in his seat so he could see Ginny's eyes, which had only slightly been clouded with disappointment. "Is that okay?"
"Of course."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Mr Potter and Mrs Weasley sat in the front room of her house, furiously flicking through books to find any trace of a cure.
"Hey, Ron!" Hermione called over her shoulder, "Come and help?" Ron agreed and ambled out of the room, plopping himself down on the floor in between the two workers. He picked up a book and started reading.
"Hey, guys?" he said, "What curse were we looking for again?"
"Sisleotoupus Rioani or anything with a side effect of infertility." Hermione said absent-mindedly. Ron held open his page and showed it to her.
"So this one then?" Hermione looked up at what he was showing her and then a beam lit up her face.
"Yes!" she pulled the open book away from him and scanned that page with her wand. "It's a spell that memorised what was on the page in my wand. It can hold 500 pages – I'll get them out later." She added when he looked confused. It should be easier now we've only got a few books left." she looked at Harry who was still too absorbed to notice their discovery. "Harry!" she waved a hand in front of his face and he jumped out of his reverie. "We found another one. Only a few more books to go!" Harry finally looked up and glanced at the page Ron was now showing him.
He grabbed the book out of Ron's hand and started scanning it, while Hermione rolled her eyes. He was like this with every spell they found; thinking that it was the one. She couldn't blame him though. A grin slowly formed on his face. He looked up at Hermione and she met his eyes.
"Hermione, this is the one." She started to protest as not to get his hopes up, but he cut her off. "No really, I can feel it in my gut." He stopped and Hermione cocked her head to the side, considering it. Wizard marriages had always formed a sort of connection. Now only if they had Ginny, they would be able to confirm it – if Harry could feel something, the Ginny definitely would be able to.
"Ginny! Ginny!" he yelled into the fire. Soon, a young red head entered the room his head was in, and crouched down in front of him, a worried look on her pretty face.
"Is everything okay?" she asked, concernedly.
"Yes!" he said, enthusiastically. "Everything's great! You've got to come over to Hermione's house right now!" he pulled his head out of the fireplace and disappeared from Ginny's sight. She grabbed a handful of floo powder and followed her husband.
"The Warren!"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"You found the cure?" Ginny recapped, after hearing all three of them explain at the same time. She'd felt the same feeling as Harry when they had told her the spell – Siecomptious Yivdium.
"We think." Said Harry uncertainly. He turned to his sister-in-law.
"Hermione, do you remember Flitwick teaching us that spell to find the counter-spell for some others?" Hermione squealed.
"Yes! I do! It's Brahno Curtinum! You just say this spell, and then the one you want the cure for. Do you think it will work?" she asked uncertainly. They'd only spent a week on the books, and after so long looking for the cure, they were wary of anything moving too fast. It would be crushing to lose all hope to go back to square zero again. It would be even worse for Ginny.
After another hour of finding out how to bring the cure to life, as they'd needed to recap on the indication and to perfect it, they had it. Harry sprinted to the fireplace and stuck his head into it, almost forgetting the floo powder in his eagerness. He yelled at the Patron who was sitting at her desk. She jumped in surprise and almost knocked over her ink bottle. She eyes widened in recognition.
"Mr Potter? What are you doing here? Mrs Potter's appointment isn't until Tuesday." Harry shook his head.
"No matter, we think we've found the cure. Thought you should know." And before she could question him anymore, his head disappeared out of the fireplace. He turned to the scene behind him.
"Well let's try it then!" Ginny was saying enthusiastically. He hadn't seen her this happy in a long while.
"Wait, Gin. We don't know the side effects yet." Ginny shrugged.
"I don't care – how much worse can it get?" Hermione pulled out her wand and then stopped. She looked at Harry, who shrugged as if to say 'it's her call'. Hermione sighed at her best-friend's stubbornness and cast the counter spell. Ginny shuddered as the effects of the spell rippled over her. She met her husband's eyes and then grabbed his hand. She twisted in thin air and they both vanished.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
After reappearing in one of the apparation points in St Mungos, the two Potters ran up to the front desk and asked for an appointment with a maternity Healer. Seeing who it was and such a hurry they were in, he granted them immediate access. It also happened to be a slow day on the ward.
When they were sat down in front of the Healer, she cast the spell over them. She looked startled for a moment and rechecked her records. She leant forwards.
"Mrs Potter, it says here, that you are infertile. However, my latest scan tells me that you are not." Ginny let out a huge squeal and hugged her husband while a massive grin formed on his face.
"Thank you so much!" she said to the Healer.
"My friend and I found a cure. Here," Harry told her, and while still hugging his exuberant wife, he tossed a piece of paper with the incantation with it over the desk. "Use this for anyone else." And with that, they ran out of the room to tell everyone the good news.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Ginny sat at home, waiting for Harry to tell the last person. She heard a loud pop behind her and spun around, wand drawn already. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was only Harry, and dropped her arm as she leant in for a hug. She shivered as his breath caressed her ear.
"Now let's make this news real." He murmured, dropping his head for a slow, intimate kiss. She wound her arms around his neck and his hands found themselves on the small of her back and in her hair. They began where they left off – with ambitions for a child.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
16 years later.
Ginny watched her three children running around with adoration. She was so glad that Harry had fought so hard for them. The oldest, James Sirius Potter, was a prankster through and through, with his father's unruly black hair and his mother's deep brown eyes. Her second son, Albus Severus Potter, was a lot more reserved than the other two. Out of all of her children, he was the only one who inherited Harry's green eyes. Lily Luna Potter, their youngest, was just like James in the mischievously way, and looked up to him. She had the Weasley hair and eyes – a mini replica of Ginny.
All Was Well.