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Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron sat together on the Hogwarts Express on their way back to King's Kings Cross Station. The Weasley family had invited Harry to join his best friend and girl friend in visiting home for the Easter Holidays, (Hermione had been invited to stay as well, but opted to visit her own parents instead, as she had already spent the Christmas Holidays with the Weasleys and she knew they'd be missing her) and Harry had gratefully accepted, not only because he was anxious to have some alone time with his beautiful pregnant girlfriend, but also because he loved her family, and was glad to have good people to spend the holidays with, as he would never dream of heading back to his 'home' in Little Winging to spend unnecessary time with his ghastly relatives.
All in all, things were looking pretty good. Harry was happy, Ginny was happy, and Ron - though upset that Hermione couldn't come - was quite happy to be going home for a while as well. It was sure to be a fun week, the whole family was going to be there. His mother had planned a sort of makeshift family get together. Charlie was Apparating in from Romania, Bill and his fiancé Fleur were coming as well, and Fred and George had even left the shop in the hands of their clumsy assistant Verity for a week so that they could join in the gathering. Percy, of course would not be present.
As the train began to slow, the four teens stood to grab their luggage from the upper compartment. "Let me get that for you," Harry said, trying to grab Ginny's trunk for her.
"No, I'm fine, I can get it," she said, reaching up.
"You shouldn't be heavy lifting..." Harry commented.
Ginny rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Pregnancy is not a disability," she huffed at him.
Harry, not in any mood for an argument over such a silly thing - especially since Ginny almost always won - put his hands out defeatedly and stepped back so Ginny could pull down her own trunk. She gave him a satisfied grin as she managed to easily bring the heavy trunk down next to her. The train finally came to a complete stop, and the group followed a crowd of students off of the train and onto platform 9 3/4. It wasn't as busy as it had been at Christmas or New Year's, but it never was during Easter, a lot of students just stayed at school for the holiday. Harry, Ginny, and Ron all looked around for some sign of Mr or Mrs Weasley, but did not see them.
Hermione, however, knew that her parents would be waiting to meet her on the other side of the platform. "I've got to go," she said. "Mum and dad are waiting for me." She gave Harry and Ginny big hugs and told them to have a nice spring break. She gave Ron a much longer, closer hug, and Ginny saw her brother whisper something into his girlfriend's ear which was obviously quite sweet because Hermione smiled up at him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. They weren't big on public displays of affection. The lovebirds both blushed and with another wave goodbye to her friends, Hermione stepped through the brick platform post and disappeared.
A few minutes went by and the platform was starting to empty of people. None of the three friends could spot Mr and Mrs Weasley anywhere.
"Reckon they forgot?" Ron asked.
Ginny scoffed. "Doubt it. Mum's been sending me owls about us coming home for the past two weeks. She's really excited to have the whole family together."
Ron knew that she was right. If there was anything that his mother liked more than a clean house, it was having all her children in it with her. Well, almost all... Ron swallowed back some anger. Desperate to change the subject in his head, he said, "Maybe they-" but he was interrupted.
"Hey, fatty!" The loud mocking voice of his older brother Fred called. Harry, Ron, and Ginny turned to see the twins leaning against the platform post.
"You heard us, prego," George added. "Get over here before your water breaks!"
The group ran over to meet the twins, Ginny laughing at their comments. Well, that was her brothers for you. "Fred! George!" she squealed, elated at the sight of her older brothers. "What're you doing here?" She gave them both huge hugs.
"Mum sent us. She's all tied up in her cooking frenzy. Sorry we're late, we got lost coming over here. We couldn't Apparate cause we had to bring you lot back. Anyways, we best be going," George said.
"If we miss dinner Mum'll murder us," Fred added. He stared at Ginny's abdomen. "Bloody hell Ginny, you're huge," he commented as the five of them headed through the platform post portal and into King's Cross Station.
Ginny laughed, but was slightly insulted. "I'm only four months. I'm not that big."
George chuckled. "You sure you're not having twins, Ginny?"
"Positive."
"Think she's right, Fred?" George asked, looking to his twin.
"I dunno George," Fred replied. "Harry's always been kind of an over achiever."
"It's only one," Ginny said. "Sorry to disappoint."
"You should consider yourself lucky," said George. "You wouldn't want to end up with kids-"
"Like us," The twins said together.
Harry looked around. They were in a parking garage. "Who's car are we taking?" he asked, knowing that the Weasleys no longer had a car since he and Ron had crashed their Ford Anglia into the Whomping Willow four years prior.
"Bill lent us his," Fred said over his shoulder as they approached a black Honda Accord. George and Fred had a quick argument over who would drive before George finally got in the driver's seat and everyone else climbed in. Fred sat next to his brother up front and Harry, Ron, and Ginny squished together in the back.
"So Harry," George said, looking at him through his rear view mirror as he turned the ignition. "We heard Ron gave you a bit of a hard time," he smirked.
Ron flushed and gave Harry an apologetic look for the millionth time since their fight. He still felt bad about the whole ordeal. "Can't say I really blame him," Harry said, pulling his seatbelt on. "I get it."
Fred laughed. "You actually got off easy having Ron beat you up," he said.
"We were gonna rough you up ourselves, but we figured once was enough," George added.
"And besides," Fred finished. "Knowing Ginny, she probably pressured you into it."
"Bet you she's a tiger in bed," they said together.
Ginny's face went red as the colour of her hair, and she looked down embarrassedly. Harry put great effort into not laughing at this, but he was unsuccessful. He grabbed Ginny's hand to comfort her, but he realized that she was struggling to hold back a laugh as well. Fred and George did not hold back. In fact, they found this so funny that they continued to laugh about it all the way back to the Burrow.
The moment they arrived, Ginny felt the same sick, twisted feeling in her stomach that she'd felt before breaking the news to her parents. She knew that her mother and father, as promised, had already told her brothers about the baby for her (she remembered when she'd gotten an owl from Fred and George after they'd found out) but she still dreaded seeing her family face-to-face.
Her nerves were calmed slightly as she entered the house and was greeted with the sound of cheerful discussion and laughter in the kitchen. Harry took her hand and smiled at her.
"Mum?" George called.
Mrs Weasley, still laughing at something quite funny, called back, "In the kitchen dears!"
Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, and Harry kicked off their shoes and made their way into the kitchen. It always baffled Ginny how so many people always somehow managed to fit into such a small cooking area. Her whole family seemed to have squished themselves into the space; her mum stirring a pot on the stove, her father sitting at the table with Charlie, Bill, and Fleur, and now she, Harry, and her three other brothers had crammed themselves in.
"Ron! Ginny! Harry!" Bill called, standing to greet them. He gave his little sister a tight hug and patted Ron on the back in a brotherly fashion. He then shook Harry's hand. "Good to see you again," he said with a warm smile.
Bill looked down at Ginny's protruding stomach awkwardly. "Wow, so we um, heard about the news." He wasn't sure if he should be worried or happy for them, they were only fifteen and sixteen. But he decided that they'd probably been reminded of their ages many times already, and expressing his worry to them wouldn't do much for comfort, so he took his mother's advice and decided to treat Ginny and Harry's situation as a reason for celebration. "Congratulations!" He said. "I mean it, Gin. You'll be a good mum."
Fleur now stood right behind her fiancé and she pushed past him to hug Ginny. Ginny was shocked, she and Fleur didn't have the best relationship, and she'd definitely never hugged her before. She hugged her future sister-in-law back awkwardly. "Congratulations!" Fleur said with a bright smile. "Zis eez vunderful! When are you due?" Her hands remained on Ginny's shoulders as she beamed at her expectantly.
"Um, the end of August..." Ginny said uncomfortably. Why was she being so nice?
"Zat's vunderful!" She said. "You and 'Arry must be so excited! Oh Ginny, you'll be such a good muzzer!"
It seemed that the whole room was as surprised as Ginny about Fleur's behaviour, because everyone was staring at them curiously. Mrs Weasley bustled over to hug her daughter. "Oh darling, you're showing!" she said, pulling away and feeling her daughter's belly. "And you look absolutely beautiful!" she remarked.
Fleur jumped in again. "Oui! er- yes! She 'as ze... oh 'ow do you say...?" she looked to Mrs Weasley to help her out.
Mrs Weasley smiled, also quite shocked by her soon-to-be daughter in law's behaviour. "Glow," she said. "You've got the pregnancy glow." Ginny blushed. "And look how you're carrying," Mrs Weasley added, with and even brighter smile. "All up front, it's going to be a boy."
Ginny already knew this. She'd known from the day she'd found out that she was pregnant. She wasn't sure how she knew, she just did.
"More boys from the Weasleys? Shocking," Charlie joked. "Congratulations sis."
Molly Weasley turned back to her stove, and called, "Dinner's ready!"
The group moved outside and took seats at the long table. It was much too beautiful weather to be staying inside to eat. Dinner was a joyous occasion. Ginny, Molly, and - to their surprise - Fleur, spent most of the time gabbing about the baby. Harry and Ron laughed with Fred and George about new products they were designing for the joke shop, and Arthur, Bill, and Charlie were discussing quidditch.
After everyone had stuffed themselves to maximum capacity, Ginny watched as her mother levitated glasses, cutlery, and plates into her kitchen sink, where floating sponges were scrubbing the dishes. "So I've put Harry in your room," she said as she swished her wand left to right in a scooping movement, somewhat like that of an orchestra conductor.
Ginny was pleased, but utterly shocked. "What?"
Molly kept her eyes focused on her wand. "Well, I was going to have him stay with Ron, but Fred, George, and Charlie are all staying in there because Bill and Fleur are staying in the twins' old room, and I can't put him in Bill and Charlie's old room because that's a just a storage room now, and Perc-" she paused painfully for a moment. "Percy's old room still has that locking charm on it." She was quiet for a moment and then shook herself. "Normally I would have just figured out some sort of other arrangement, but I just figured, I mean, you can't get more pregnant."
Ginny jumped up and hugged her mother. Harry would be sleeping in her room, they'd finally have some alone time. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said.
"Don't thank me so fast," she said. "Just because you're pregnant does not mean that you two can just go around fornicating all the time. This is still my house, and you are to follow my rules. No sex."
Ginny, her mood somewhat squashed by this, but still generally happy, smiled, kissed her mother's cheek, and said, "No sex, I promise." Ginny didn't like lying to her mother, but this was one promise she knew she couldn't keep.