KEEPSAKE
Post-Seven; Harry returns from Auror training to find Ginny with a one-year-old son that she claims to be theirs.

Disclaimer: All JKR's work.


FOUR: Revelations

"Harry," Ginny uttered breathlessly.

The room became very quiet and she could feel everyone's eyes drilling holes into the back of her skull, examining every inch of her and wondering what her next course of action would be. As she became aware of all of this, she didn't have the slightest idea of what to do next, either.

Harry was still Harry, except not exactly so. Similar to Ron, he had a certain quality about him that she couldn't place, something that indicated newfound maturity but familiarity. Was it his hair? No, it wasn't; it was as messy as ever. She wondered if it was in the way that he held himself, but he was as lanky as before and as unsure of what to do with his limbs just as she remembered. If anything, he just seemed older, and it wasn't necessarily anything that she had any qualms with. The fact of the matter was that Harry was standing in front of her, his eyes meeting hers, and she hadn't the foggiest idea of what to do.

"Ginny!" Harry finally exclaimed, breaking off what seemed like an eternity of eye contact. "Merlin, you haven't changed!"

He rushed in for a hug and as she opened her arms to receive him, her eyes scanned the entire room to discover that everyone stood still, as though on the cusp of some large revelation. She ignored them for a moment and enjoyed the hug, holding Harry tight in her arms and inhaling as much of him as she could. She was pleased to see how familiar the action felt yet surprised at the butterflies that he brought about in her stomach. She closed her eyes eagerly for all of a second, and they pulled apart.

"Gorgeous as ever," Harry said, looking Ginny up and down. "You stopped writing."

"You stopped writing," she rebutted.

"America," he said simply, and Ginny just stared at him.

"Oh, come on everyone! Into the kitchen for food and American tales. Harry, Ron! Let's go!" Molly rushed as many people into the kitchen as she could. Hermione eyed Ginny knowingly as she walked past her, and Ginny knew what she had to do.

Before Harry could join the rest of the traveling crowd, Ginny grabbed his sleeve and pulled him towards her.

"You've only just gotten here and all," she said, "but do you think we could talk? It's rather important."

Harry smiled. "No worries, I'm not that hungry anyway. Where do you want to talk?"

"Just here is fine," Ginny said, indicating the now-empty living room. She sat down on one of the couches, and Harry followed suit.

The two sat in silence for a good minute, with neither one of them capable of breaking it. Ginny didn't want to ruin the moment just yet, enjoying the semblance of her life with Harry two years ago, before all of the changes that he had yet to know, of the changes that she would have to inform him. Harry didn't seem to mind either, his eyes situated solely on Ginny and nothing else around her.

"I missed you," Harry said. "Being with you now is like something out of a dream."

Ginny couldn't help but smile warmly. "I know. I missed you, too. Two years was a long time to go without seeing each other."

"Ron and I wanted to visit," Harry assured her. "But it was impossible, what with our schedules and the impracticalities of transcontinental Floo travel. We simply couldn't."

"I understand. I just wish you had written more."

"Well, your letters got shorter and shorter, and I figured you were off living your life and I certainly didn't want to get in the way of that. As long as you knew where I was and how to contact me, I didn't expect much else."

"And I wanted to," Ginny spoke truthfully. "But...I became busy."

"I gathered as much. And that's good that you did. You look more mature now. Something has changed about you, and I can't pinpoint it."

"I could say the same about you."

"I guess you could," Harry said with a laugh. "I just never expected everything to be so different yet so familiar all at once. I actually contemplated staying behind, you know."

"Really?"

"Not seriously, of course. It was always nothing more than a minute of thought. But it was always curious to me, what it would be like to start all over again."

"To be American?"

Harry laughed again. "Well, it was only a thought. But tell me! Tell me everything new with you, everything that I missed out on. We've got until everyone in there has finished eating."

Ginny's head started spinning. She didn't know how to approach the subject.

Instead, she began with, "I work for the Ministry now, although not nearly in the same capacity as I was working when I first started two years ago. I work for the Department of Magical Games and Sports."

"Blimey, that's great, Ginny! I guess we'll be seeing each other at work then."

"Yeah," Ginny said weakly, her mind still wrapped around the other subject.

"Tell me, though," Harry said, comparatively more serious compared to his previous tone. "Have you met anyone? Another bloke?"

She felt her cheeks flush immediately, and she realized that there was no way around it.

"Actually, I have," she said. "His name is Wyatt."

If she had expected Harry's face to deflate, to switch from curious to betrayed, it didn't happen. Instead, he just smiled widely at her.

"That's fantastic, Ginny. Really, that's great."

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, he's a good guy. He's a Squib, but he's knowledgeable about everything magical, and he works as a college professor in the Muggle world."

"That's good," he said. "How long have you two been together?"

"About eight months. He's outside actually-"

"Bloody hell, it's Harry Potter!"

Ginny looked up and saw Wyatt standing before them, awestruck and dumbfounded by the third person in the room. He rushed over to them.

"You're - it's - Harry Potter! You're Ginny's old flame?"

Harry stood up to give Wyatt a handshake. "I guess you could say that. And you're Wyatt!"

"Yes, I am," Wyatt said, shaking Harry's hand. "Blimey Ginny, you never told me that Harry Potter was - oh, Merlin!"

"I told you that you would recognize him instantly," Ginny said rather wearily as she stood up, too.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Harry said politely after shaking hands.

"This is - I wish I could stay longer, but I just found out that I have to go back into town for a meeting with the dean of our university. But this is unbelievable! We need to have dinner, the three of us, I insist!"

"What?" Ginny asked, taken aback.

"Of course," Harry said, looking at Ginny with a smile. "Dinner sounds fantastic."

"Wonderful," Wyatt said, still somewhat startled. "I have to go now, but I'll see you soon, Mr. Potter."

"Harry," Harry clarified, shaking Wyatt's hand once more to say goodbye.

"Of course." Wyatt turned to Ginny and kissed her on the cheek before whispering in her ear, "Lee's outside with Hermione. And you've got some explaining to do, miss." He smiled at her, made an awkward little bow in Harry's direction, and left the house.

Ginny sighed. "He's a bit starstruck, obviously."

"Looks like a good guy, though," Harry said.

"Thanks. He definitely is...I should have told you, though."

Harry shook his head. "It's perfectly fine. It's only been a couple of months."

"I promised you, though. I know you would have done the same."

"Only if there had been anyone noteworthy to report," he clarified.

And suddenly, Ginny felt a pang of guilt. A part of her wondered if, in spite of his emphasis on her happiness, Harry had expected something to start again once he got home. She knew that, inside of her, there was the same expectation, and yet she was almost certain that he would meet someone on his travels and that she would be the one left pining for him.

"There was no one?"

Harry shrugged. "No one serious enough. For the first few weeks in America, I met someone from Britain as well and I thought perhaps, but she was transferred to another branch and I never talked to her again. That was it."

"I see."

"Don't feel guilty, Ginny," Harry added immediately when he saw Ginny's slight frown.

"I'm not," she insisted.

"I can tell," Harry reminded her. "I'm happy for you, I really am."

"Thank you, Harry."

"Hey, the two of you," came a voice from behind them. "What're you doing out here?"

Ron walked into the living room, looking immensely relieved that he had escaped from the kitchen.

"Mum's been begging me to start the slideshow, but I don't know where the damned laptop is, much less how to operate it. I'm telling you, everyone's gone mental in there. You'd think we'd been gone for centuries."

"We can set it up later," Harry told him. "Did you meet Ginny's boyfriend?"

Ginny's face flushed once more.

"Oh yeah, the bloke came through the kitchen just enough to make a brief introduction. Who is this Wyatt character, Ginny?"

"Oh, hush Ron," Ginny said. "Give it a rest and you'll get to meet him in a proper light soon. Mum and Dad know, at any rate."

Ron grumbled something under his breath before plopping down on the couch. "It's nice to be back home."

"Yeah," Harry said, sitting down beside Ron.

Ginny's thoughts turned to Liam once more, who was outside with Hermione. She hoped that Ron hadn't seen him yet, or that anyone in the kitchen had mentioned him. But from the looks of it, it wasn't a problem. However, she wouldn't be able to keep Liam outside for long, and Hermione would have to bring him inside eventually, meaning that she couldn't hold off any longer on telling Harry the truth. He had met Wyatt, and she was just grateful that Wyatt hadn't mentioned anything to Harry about his son. Now was the time to do it.

"Oi, what's the matter, Ginny?" Ron asked. "You've got a look on your face."

Ginny looked over at Harry quickly, who was eyeing her curiously as well.

"It's nothing. I mean, it's - well, I've just got to - Hermione - out in the back-"

"What?" Harry and Ron asked in unison.

But before Ginny could answer, the door behind them opened once more, and another voice replied.

"Sitch! Sitch!"

Liam tumbled awkwardly through the door in search of his golden plaything, his legs not so used to walking just yet. He crawled a couple feet towards Ginny before quitting altogether and staying rooted to his spot, arms extended eagerly outwards.

"My sitch?" he asked, grabbing at the air.

Oh no, Ginny thought as rushed to her son, panic swelling inside along with motherly instincts.

"Here Lee, I have the snitch!" she said as she pulled her son's toy out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Don't worry, baby. Where's your Aunt Hermione?" She could feel Harry and Ron's stares piercing the back of her neck.

"Damn! He got away from me!" Hermione cried out as she ran into the room, obviously realizing the magnitude of Liam's escape from her custody. "He said he was hungry, so I brought him in for a bite and before I knew it, he was out of my sight. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Ginny said as she scooped her son into her arms.

There was no avoiding it now. This was the only way. From his mother's arms, Liam looked at Ron and Harry on the couch, both obviously shocked and confused by what had just transpired, neither fully certain of what it was that they were seeing.

"He's - um, Ginny?" Ron managed to get out, absorbing the image of his younger sister holding the nephew he didn't know. The unruly black hair was unmistakable, just as the brown eyes that echoed Ginny's were. Yet in his shock, he had nothing more to say.

Harry, on the other hand, didn't know what he was seeing. All he gathered was that Ginny was holding a child and acting rather maternally. That was all he was capable of processing, and yet that was enough.

"You had a child," Harry croaked.

Hermione brushed past Ginny as she made her way to pull Ron off the couch and into the kitchen behind her, where she would undoubtedly fill him in on the finer details that Ginny would rather explain only to Harry at the moment. Ron wasn't too keen on leaving at first, nor was he entirely capable, but Hermione managed to pull him off and drag him away, leaving Harry alone with Ginny and Liam in her arms.

"I had a child," Ginny told him. Liam cooed playfully in her arms, dangling the snitch by its wing as she stared Harry straight in the eye.

Harry stood up and approached Ginny slowly, his eyes switching between looking at her and looking at the toddler in her arms.

"Wyatt's?" he asked initially. But as he moved closer and observed longer, he knew otherwise. Everything was self-explanatory. Appearances alone were telling; Ginny had red hair and Wyatt had brown. Black was not a byproduct of either.

Finally, Harry looked Ginny knowingly in the eye and she understood that Harry knew.


AN: This chapter update is delayed by a year, and I apologize, but I hope you guys liked it, and I can assure you that I'm writing more!