My Baby

Chapter 1: Realization

Ginny discovers she's pregnant, and it completely thrown about how to feel. Thrilled, or horrified for her husband's reaction? She soon learns what to do, with a little help from Mum. - Dedicated to pittstick1


Ginny stared at the pregnancy stick in her hand, shaking with uncontrollable emotion. At this very moment, she was finally pregnant. Although she hadn't actively been trying, or anything, she had been a little slack on her birth control over the past few months. When she first started easing off, she genuinely wanted to get pregnant, and explain to Severus that there was nothing he could do about it once the baby was there. However, with the amount of fighting they had been doing over the issue, Ginny decided that becoming pregnant might not be the best option for their marriage at the moment. In fact, the best thing to do, despite how much it hurt her, would be to drop it and bring it up in a few months, once the dust had settled and he wasn't so sensitive to the issue. Unfortunately, she forgot she had been so irregular with her birth control, and after a drunken romp with her husband after a gathering with her family, she started to notice some symptoms.

It wasn't anything that couldn't be chalked up to something else. The morning sickness could be food poisoning. Her breast growth could be linked with her oncoming period. The moodiness could be, well, Ginny being Ginny over certain issues. However, as all the symptoms persisted and intensified, she knew she couldn't ignore it for much longer. Severus was oblivious to any kind of change in her demeanour, and although he was a little tense after some fights, he seemed to think everything was normal. Ginny knew better. She had watched other wives fall pregnant over the years, and had heard the stories from her mother, and she was observant enough to know something might be wrong. So, while Severus was out for the day with Lucius, Draco and his sons, she rushed out to the nearest drug store and purchased a pregnancy test. It was a Muggle kit, but she didn't want to leave magical traces around the house for him to find. Even if it was a negative, she didn't want Severus to think she was still fixated on getting pregnant. Which she was, but on the inside.

So, after locking herself in the guest bathroom on the first floor, she peed on that silly little stick, the whole thing seeming a bit ridiculous, and waited the full five minutes like the package instructed. When she retrieved it, she saw it was positive. From there, she repeated the test on four different sticks, anxious that it might have been a false positive. My, that would certainly set off some drama! However, each time she waited, and each time the stick said she was pregnant.

She slid weakly down the wall and sat on the cold, tile floor for a long time, her stomach a mess. Half of her wanted to jump up and down, run around the manor screaming to the high heavens that it had finally happened. Half of her was ecstatic! However, the other half was completely horrified. Severus would be furious that she had gotten pregnant because she was irresponsible with her birth control, and it could break their marriage for a little while. He wasn't a man who let the differences between them damage their relationship, but this seemed like something so serious to him that she was actually terrified of his reaction. She could always terminate the pregnancy, mind you. After all, she wasn't that far along, and it could be done quickly and quietly. But how could she get rid of something that could change her life?

From a very young age, Ginny always knew she wanted to be a mother. Although her own mother seemed haggard during the majority of her childhood, she seemed fulfilled. After all, she raised an entire army of children who went on to have successful careers, and was still in excellent health. If there was anyone in this world that Ginny looked up to, it was her mother. So, it made sense that a certain Molly Weasley would know exactly what to do in a situation like this!

A little numbly, Ginny rose to her feet and left the bathroom. She strolled quickly into the front hall and grabbed her winter cloak, and then asked for the house elf to fetch her wand. The creature had it to her in a heartbeat, and moments later she vanished, turning up on the front step of her childhood home. She glanced down at her feet, and realized she had apparated without changing her shoes. Her house slippers were now soaked from the snow on the front step, and she hastily pushed open the door and slid inside. The Burrow seldom changed. Even though there weren't hundreds of people living in it anymore, her parents hadn't reduced the number of floors, nor had they shrunken any of the extended rooms down. For now, they remained filled with her and her siblings' childhood paraphernalia, ready to be slept in and used at any given moment.

After setting her slippers in front of the fire, which was in full throttle at this point in the late afternoon, Ginny hung her cloak up near the front door, and stepped into the kitchen. Oddly quiet in the house, but she simply set to busying herself in the kitchen. She put on a kettle, and began rummaging for some homemade cookies in the cupboards.

"Arthur?" she heard her mother call, her footsteps on the rickety staircase, "Are you home already? They really mustn't have needed you for the day…"

She trailed off when Ginny poked her head around the banister and grinned, spotting her mother on the first floor landing. The woman beamed back and hurried down the rest of them, "Oh, Ginny dear! I thought your father came home too soon… I was in the middle of cleaning."

Ginny said nothing as her mother approached, only held open her arms and happily accepted the soft, yet solid, embrace of her mother. She seemed the same as always, and was finally putting all the weight back on she had lost during the war. All that stress was just awful on the poor woman, and she looked like a shell of her former self when it finally came to an end. With her father now officially back at home, she knew that Molly could breathe easy, and finally settle back in to her old routine as a homemaker.

"This is unexpected," Molly mused lightly in her ears. "Is everything all right?"

She bit her lip to keep it from wobbling, but she couldn't hold it in anymore. Ginny clutched her mother tightly and sobbed into her hair, completely overwhelmed with emotion. Her mother rubbed her back gently, hushing her the best she could, but let the younger woman hug her for as long as she saw necessary.

"What's he done now?" her mother inquired when she finally pulled away. Ginny ran a finger under her eyes, collecting the tears, and then rubbed them on her pants. She frowned, taking a moment to realize what her mother was asking about, and then shook her head.

"No… No, Severus hasn't done anything," Ginny explained, her voice uneven with all the crying. "I just… Mum, I'm pregnant."

"Oh!" Molly gasped, her hands covering her mouth, eyes wide, "Oh, Ginny, that's wonderful!"

"It is," she agreed gloomily, "but it isn't… Severus… He doesn't want any children."

"Don't be silly," her mother chuckled, taking her gently by the arm and sitting her down at the table before fixing them up two cups of tea. "I see how he is when he visits with Ron's children… He's lovely with the Malfoys, from what you've told me. He may not think he wants any, but I'm sure he wouldn't object to them."

"We've been fighting for months about it," Ginny argued. "Well, really it's been an issue for years."

Her eyes watered again, and she felt her lips quiver, but she took a deep breath to calm down. Ginny wasn't someone to cry at the slightest thing, but all the pent-up emotion and underlying drama that came with this problem was starting to become too much. She thanked her mother quietly when Molly set a steaming cup of tea in front of her, and she fiddled with the handle for a few minutes.

"Does he know?" Molly finally asked, and Ginny shook her head.

"I just found out today. Literally ten minutes ago. I… I couldn't stay at home. I don't know what to do," she explained weakly. "Severus will be furious with me, and he'll think I did it on purpose. I haven't been the best at keeping up with my birth control, but I didn't mean for it to happen."

"I find that's the case most of the time," her mother laughed, dropping two cubes of sugar into each of their mugs. "After all, Fred and George were not planned."

"No?"

"Your father and I had our hands full with three boys already," Molly insisted, her eyes twinkling at the memory, "but when they came along, we knew they did for a reason. I wouldn't have it any other way."

She stared at the table as her mother continued to make her tea, and once she was finished, she nudged the cup toward Ginny. Wrapping her slightly sweaty hands around it, she brought the drink up and took a delicate sip. It was still a little too hot, but it was just perfect.

"He'll kill me, Mum."

"Don't say that," her mother scolded lightly. "While he may not be the most… pleasant man I've ever met, you know that he loves you."

She nodded, "That… he does."

"Just because you're fighting over the issue doesn't mean you can't discuss it now," Molly carried on. "After all, it's much more real now."

"What if he leaves me over this?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Ginny," her mother snorted. "He's hardly that type of man. He might go sulk for a little, but from what we've seen in the past, he always comes home."

That was certainly correct. Whenever the fights turned into screaming matches, as they had become on a few occasions, Severus left. Ginny usually didn't know where he would go, but he always came back at some point the next day, never a day longer, and they could have something of a civil conversation. Sometimes the problem would be fixed, and other times they decided to just sweep it under the rug. After all their years together, she had no reason to think he would ever abandon her. Nothing in his history gave her any reason to think otherwise.

"I don't know what to do, Mum."

She sounded hopeless. Defeated and broken by all these fights, Ginny no longer knew how to feel about having a baby.

"Before you answer my question, I want you not to think about anything," Molly said after a moment or two of silence. "Now, what do you want to do?"

"I want to have a baby," Ginny replied without hesitation, "but-"

"That's that," Molly said quickly, cutting her off as her hand touched her wrist. "You want to be a mother, something I understand so very well. Severus will need to adjust his expectations for this marriage, because your family will expand no matter what."

"But-"

"Ginny," her mother continued, forcing her to make eye contact. "We both know that once your mind is made up, there's no going back. Now, I'm not telling you to completely disregard the feelings of your husband… In fact, I think the two of you need to have a very long discussion about this and find ways to make it work."

"What if he-"

"You won't know until you actually talk, now will you?" Molly laughed gently, taking a sip of her tea, "Oh, that's just right."

"Mum, I don't-"

"Stress isn't good for you now," Molly decided conclusively. "I know you're worried, but let's do something else for the day. Finish your tea, and you can help me with the cleaning. Now that I can't get you children to do the chores, it takes ages to get this house clean!"


AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I love you Molly Weasley. Best fictional mum ever. This will be a two-parter, I think. The next one will get chucked up soon.