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.

TEN: Boils and Bludgers

With Ron and Hermione off on their honeymoon, Ginny was left to sort through the mess following the wedding all on her own.

As much as she wanted to tell Harry about the conversation with Sarah, she knew that she wouldn't be able to. After having kept the truth from Harry for so long, the last thing Ginny needed to do was kick Harry's girlfriend out of the picture; it would have dealt an irreparable blow to their already fraught relationship. She knew that Sarah had to either leave of her own accord, or Harry would have to figure everything out on his own. And with Sarah seemingly determined to stay around as long as she could, Ginny relied entirely on the latter, although not too confidently. She was scared that if she upset Harry enough, he might leave their lives entirely with or without Sarah and leaving Liam without his father.

As for Wyatt, Ginny knew that she couldn't avoid the truth any longer. Perfect though he may have seemed for both Ginny and Liam, she couldn't deny that her heart still resided with Harry - that much was certain. Her desire to be near him all the time was no longer a symptom of yearning for friendship, but for something more. She loved Wyatt, but she found that the love had transformed and that, more than ever, she had been going through the motions of a relationship that should have ended when Harry came back. She longed for Wyatt to be the man she wanted, but she couldn't help it. It was Harry all along.

And so Ginny knew what she had to do. She would do it as soon as Wyatt was finished with his grading for the school year as there was no point in drawing it out longer than it had to be. She simply couldn't betray him any longer.

Harry, on the other hand, was harder to approach. Ginny didn't want to ruin the good nature of their current relationship, and she didn't want to bring attention to a problem when Harry was so blissfully unaware of what Ginny was feeling, or the conflict between Ginny and Sarah. Meanwhile, Sarah visited the Burrow more often, or so it seemed, since Ginny no longer hid in her room whenever she was around. She would be in the living room playing with Liam or reading a book whenever Harry brought Sarah over, whose distaste for Ginny was painfully apparent every time the two made eye contact behind Harry's back. The daggers that seemed to fling themselves from their eyes implied only one thing: Stay away.

Ginny obliged...for now.

By the week's end, Ginny knew that the unavoidable was just around the corner. She had thoughts of doing it at his workplace, in his classroom where she wouldn't have to see him in familiar quarters anymore and they could leave it at a clean split. However, she saw this as the coward's way out, and thought that she owed it to Wyatt to at least have the conversation somewhere he felt comfortable, somewhere he could throw her out from if he felt it necessary: his home.

She called him the night before so that he knew to expect her when he got home the next night. Ginny waited for thirty minutes in his living room, although it seemed like an eternity before the fireplace blazed with emerald behind her.

As soon as Wyatt stepped out from the fireplace, Ginny stood up and took a deep breath before facing him. Although it had only been a week, Ginny felt as though it had been ages since they had last seen each other. He looked weathered and tired from a week's worth of grading papers, and yet his face lit up when he saw her.

"I should have been home sooner," Wyatt explained as he shed his coat. "But I stopped by Diagon Alley."

"I was going to say," Ginny said. "You usually come through the front door."

"Yes, well, something different now and then is always good." Wyatt walked towards Ginny and gave her a hug.

As soon as they parted, Ginny knew that now was the moment. The words, fully formed, were practically pushing against her mouth and begging to come out; there was no more time for preparation.

"We need to talk," Ginny said seriously. "Let's sit."

Wyatt looked at Ginny curiously for a moment, as though he was expecting some sort of fake out. But when he saw that Ginny's expression remained the same, he sighed, scratched the top of his head, and then laughed meekly.

"Oh, Merlin," Wyatt said, heaving a sigh as he did so. "This is it, isn't it?"

"Why don't we sit?" Ginny asked, not knowing what to do with herself. She still didn't know why he had laughed.

Wyatt fell onto the couch and took hold of Ginny's hand, pulling her to sit next to him. She was clearly nervous, and yet Wyatt only smiled at her.

"Ginny...it's perfectly fine. I know where this is going."

"B-But I want to say it. I-I need to say it so that you know everything," Ginny stammered. Never before had she felt so uncomfortable sitting next to him.

"Alright. Go ahead then," Wyatt said understandingly. "I'm listening."

"You're everything I could want," Ginny started slowly, fighting back the urge to cry. "You're loving, you're understanding, and you've done so well with Liam. But..." Her voice started to trail off and she found herself incapable of speaking.

"Oh Ginny, please don't," Wyatt said, wrapping an arm around her shaking shoulders. "Don't force yourself to say this. I've seen this coming for a while now."

Ginny looked up at him with tears beginning to streak down her face. "You have?"

Wyatt nodded. "I knew ever since you were so worked up over Harry's new girlfriend. I admit, I tried my best to ignore that little part, but when I saw the two of you looking at each other at dinner - oh yes, I saw - I knew it was only a matter of time."

Ginny thought of a million different reasons, but she didn't mention any of them.

"I thought that I didn't feel the same way anymore," Ginny admitted. "When you said that I just wasn't used to change, I was so sure that I didn't feel the same way anymore."

"And yet," Wyatt said thoughtfully, "you can't help yourself. Feelings are feelings, not rational thought. And if you feel this way, it's nothing that can be helped. Not by you, and certainly not by me. I understand."

Ginny shook her head. "God, it's not fair. I love you, Wyatt. I really do. Just not-" Her voice broke off.

"Just not in the same way," Wyatt finished for her. "It's okay to say it. I love you, too. But perhaps it's a love better suited for friendship. You know?"

Ginny wiped her eyes. "Friendship?"

Wyatt laughed earnestly. "Yes, friendship. We can stay friends, can't we? The only way that I could possibly be upset with you in this whole situation is if you were to say that we couldn't be."

"Of course, of course we can stay friends," Ginny said, the possibility of keeping Wyatt in her life exciting her.

"Good." Wyatt leaned against the back of the couch. With his eyes closed, he said, "I'd still very much like to see Liam, though."

"I'd like that, too," Ginny said. "We'll have to take him out once in a while."

"Excellent."

"So..." Ginny took a deep breath. "Are we...are we good?"

Wyatt thought for a minute, and then said, "Are you still trying out for the Holyhead Harpies?"

Ginny nearly forgot. Try outs were coming up in a matter of days, and the stress of everything else had pushed them out of her mind.

"Yes! Yes, I am," Ginny replied confidently.

"Then yes, we're good," Wyatt said with a smile. "You're an excellent Quidditch player, Ginny, that shouldn't go to waste. Come here." He extended his arm again, and wrapped Ginny in a sideways hug. "Don't let this Sarah woman get in the way. Make it work with him, Ginny. If it were me…I'd do anything."

Ginny nodded slightly, still wrapped in the comfort of Wyatt's hug. She made a mental image of the next couple of days, and hoped that she hadn't just made a mistake.

Rather than directly Floo-ing from Wyatt's place back home that night, Ginny decided to take a cab and walk the remainder of the distance to the Burrow. Once upon a time, walking after nightfall would have been a dangerous endeavor, but these days, it was nothing more than a means of gathering thoughts, sorting them out, and altogether relieving oneself. On the walk through the beaten path and the subsequent fields, Ginny couldn't deny that the anxiety that had swelled up inside her over the past couple days had disappeared entirely, leaving her feeling fresh and freer than she had in a long time. Now, she was in charge of what she wanted to do.

When Ginny entered the front door into the Burrow, she was surprised to find that the living room was empty, save for one person.

"Sarah," Ginny said, taken aback. "What are you - what are you doing here?"

Sarah was sitting on the couch, legs crossed, with a rather impatient look spread across her face. When she saw Ginny walk in, an expression somewhere between displeasure and mild excitement replaced it. She even smiled slyly.

"I'm supposed to meet Harry," Sarah replied. "He ought to be coming back from the Ministry any minute. We're having a late lunch, you see."

"Oh, nice," Ginny said softly, wanting more than anything to just ignore Sarah and head back upstairs. Yet as she motioned to head for the stair case, Sarah called out to her.

"Not so fast," she said, standing up and straightening out her top.

"I'm going to my son, if you don't mind," Ginny said acidly.

"He's with your mum at the moment," Sarah explained to her. "She said he was 'too busy' to play with visitors, honestly, a toddler 'too busy...'"

Ginny felt gratitude towards her mother swell within her.

"Regardless," Sarah continued, "at least we can have a little talk."

"What about?" Ginny asked wearily. "I was under the impression that we'd talked about everything that needed to be discussed."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? I just thought it imperative to remind you once more to keep away from Harry."

"I have been, in case you haven't noticed," Ginny said coolly.

"That doesn't mean I haven't seen the desperation in your eyes every time he walks by," Sarah snarled. "Honestly, could you at least make an attempt to seem less needy? Harry is still my boyfriend and he loves me, although I could hardly say the same for yours."

Ginny kept silent, anger surging through every part of her body. She refrained from mentioning her break up with Wyatt, not wanting to give her any more unneeded ammunition.

"And don't even start getting ideas about seeing him at work," Sarah proceeded, clearly enjoying this roll she was on. "If you're even thinking about cornering him with any clandestine meetings without my knowledge, I'd advise you to stop now. Not only am I at the Ministry most of the time that you are, but Harry reports everything back to me. He's rather loyal, you know..."

"He's not a dog," Ginny said, secretly grabbing the side of her coat pocket, where her wand resided.

"When I'm done with him, he might as well be," Sarah said, with a cruel smile on her face. "And once he's fully devoted to me in a way that he was never devoted to you, I'll make sure that he never returns to this filthy place again, where he'll never have to deal with you ever again, or Liam, for that matter, once he's had his real children-"

Ginny would have wanted to hear the rest of what Sarah had to tell her, but everything happened so quickly that she never got the opportunity. She plunged her arm into her coat pocket and immediately whipped out her wand, slashing at the air towards Sarah as she cried out,

"FURNUNCULUS!"

The effects of Ginny's curse were noticeable immediately. Sarah, who must have been rendered silent in the moment, stood before Ginny completely still, her eyes wide in shock. As she did so, large boils began sprouting out from nowhere all over her face. Red and bulbous, the wave of boils spread across Sarah's face, neck, arms and - from what Ginny could assume - her back and legs. When she realized what was happening, Sarah yelped in pain and grabbed at her face, immediately flinging her hands aside from the pain.

"You monster!" Sarah cried aloud, pointing a trembling and boil-covered finger at Ginny.

Ginny, realizing what she had just done, ran up the stairs as fast as she could toward her room, flinging the door open and slamming it behind her before realizing that there were two people in there with her.

"Ginny!" Molly exclaimed, standing up from the bed where she was sitting. "I heard yelling. What happened?"

Ginny was breathless. She saw Liam's sleeping figure on her bed.

"I - I, erm, I just cursed Sarah," Ginny said, panting. "She's downstairs now..."

Molly flung into action and though Ginny knew that she didn't want to, rushed out the door and downstairs to tend to Ginny's victim.

The next day, Ginny found herself wanting to avoid everybody. In the morning, she considered bring Liam to work with her simply out of fear of being alone and confronted by whoever it was that she might see later on in the day, but she knew better. Instead, she left Liam in Molly's care once more, feeling something other than remorse yet something very similar.

"From what it sounds like, she wanted some sort of reaction out of you," Molly said, carrying Liam in her arms. The toddler was playing with his snitch once more, although he watched his mother's worried face from time to time, aware that something was wrong.

"But I shouldn't have given her one," Ginny said as she prepared to go to work. "I can only imagine what Harry thought."

"I fixed her up and sent her away before Harry could arrive," Molly explained. "I told her she ought to get some rest, but I can't assure you that she didn't tell Harry the moment he rushed to her side. In fact, it was probably the first thing she did."

"Damn." Ginny grabbed her bag and gave Liam a swift kiss on the cheek, who started laughing immediately. "I've got to get to work - Holyhead Harpies try outs are today and I thought...well, maybe."

Molly set down Liam on the floor and gave her daughter a big hug before grabbing her face and looking her directly in the eye.

"You'll do fine, sweet," Molly said soothingly. "If you see Harry...talk to him."

Ginny shrugged half-heartedly and stepped into the fireplace.

For the first half of the day, everything went smoothly. Try outs weren't until later in the afternoon, around five, and by one past noon, Ginny still hadn't run into Harry or Sarah. However, by two in the afternoon, Ginny's fortunes had changed.

Ginny was walking down the hallways of her department when she saw Harry turn a corner ahead of her. He looked as though he had been searching for her.

"There you are," Harry said exasperatedly, heading towards her.

Ginny wanted to run and hide, but she knew that there was no way to do so right now. She had to face Harry eventually. With this in mind, she put on an expression comprised of bravery, conviction, and slight obliviousness; in an ideal world, she would be able to get away with pretending like she didn't know what had happened.

"Were you looking for me?"

"What do you think?" Harry asked, folding his arms in front of her. "Did you believe that you could hex Sarah and get off acting as though nothing happened?"

Ginny was thankful that the hallways were empty; this wasn't an argument that needed to be publicized.

"I'm not pretending here, Harry." She had both hands on her hips and felt more empowered than she had in a long time. For the first time in a long time, she didn't feel like she was looking up at Harry to speak. "I had good reason."

"Good reason to attack her with your wand, when she didn't even pull hers out?" Harry narrowed his eyes at Ginny.

"It's not like she needed a wand, not when her words were poisonous enough," Ginny said coolly. "You should have heard the awful things she said! She was making it seem as though you were her pet, as though you were under her control-"

"Her pet?" Harry looked at her suspiciously. "Sarah said that you were threatening her!"

Ginny might as well have flung her wand out and hexed Harry as well out of the anger that she felt. "Me? Threatening her, and stooping down to her level? What a laugh! She was the one who was telling me to back away, that with time, she would take you away from me and Liam so that you could have your 'real family.'"

"My 'real family?'" Harry appeared to be offended. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Hell if I know!" Ginny cried out, her voice reverberating down the hall. "She seems to be under the impression that I'm desperate for your attention, Harry, that I'm encroaching on her territory. Well, I have news for both of you. Not only am I not interested, but the fact of the matter is that you and I are only friendly solely for Liam's sake, and if your loyalty lies with her as opposed to me and Liam, then so be it!" Ginny hadn't been angry with Harry before this, but as soon as she saw whose side Harry was leaning towards, she couldn't help it.

"Is that it then? You and I...we bother with each other solely because of Liam?" Traces of disappointment lingered in Harry's voice, but they were quickly masked by impatience and bitterness.

"Why else would we be? You've got Sarah and I've got..." Ginny's voice trailed off before she gave a little cough and finished quietly with, "...Wyatt."

When Harry spoke next, he spoke softly.

"I wanted to hear your side of the story."

Ginny sighed. "I was going to give it to you, but you hardly gave me the chance. Not that it would have mattered anyway, not when you've grown so used to my lying. Isn't that it? If I couldn't tell you the truth about Liam, then why would I be telling you the truth about what happened last night? Is that what's running through your head?"

Harry frowned and shook his head. He looked defeated.

"I...I can't do this, Ginny. It's too difficult."

Ginny wanted to add something, but she figured there was nothing left to say. She stood there, resolute.

"I'm going back to my office," Harry sighed, turning around and leaving Ginny alone in the hallway.

Guilt crept up on Ginny throughout the afternoon, even as she waited for her turn during the Holyhead Harpies try outs. But before it ever brought her to the point of wanting to actually apologize to Harry, Sarah's face would suddenly emblazon itself in her mind, and anger tore through her once more. And so, sitting there with the other waiting witches, Ginny felt like she was in a stalemate.

"Ginevra Weasley!" came a resounding voice. "Ginevra Weasley, you're up!"

Ginny didn't check to see if the voice was Gwenog Jones's, her favorite Quidditch player and childhood idol. Even now, she would have toppled over to have just met Gwenog rather than reporting on her, but the tumult of emotions stirring in her mind distracted her from everything around.

Ginny stepped out of the shed she had been waiting in and onto the pitch, touting her broom at her side. Once out in the orange sunlight, she straddled her broomstick and kicked upwards, flying towards the goalposts where she was designated to wait for instructions. Other players flew from nowhere, surrounding her.

"Ginevra Weasley, we see hear that you are trying out for the position of Seeker," came the voice once more, this time amplified and booming across the pitch. "For the position of Seeker, your try-out will consist simply of obtaining the Golden Snitch, during which you must maneuver through the goings-on of the surrounding game. Your skill and technique will be especially observed during this time."

Ginny nodded, although she didn't know if they could see her.

"On our whistle...3, 2, 1!" The whistle resounded throughout the pitch and everyone around her leapt into action as the Quaffles and Bludgers were released.

Ginny caught a glimpse of gold out of the corner of her eye, and sped towards it with deliberation.

Whenever she flew, Ginny thought of Harry. She still remembered seeing Harry during her first Quidditch game, shuttling between waiting and then sudden speed whenever the Golden Snitch made its appearance. She hadn't flown in a while, she realized when she narrowly avoided a Bludger. During her sixth year, Quidditch had been banned under Snape's regime, and so her last real memory of flying with Harry happened to be her fifth year, when he was captain. She still recalled when Harry couldn't play during the Quidditch Cup because of his detention...and the kiss they shared immediately after in the common room when he discovered they had won...

How different she had been back then. Bolder. Braver. Brazen. These were all words that she had heard people describe her before, and how disappointing it was to have realized that she had fallen from such status. Who was she now? She was a mother and, sure, that came with its own set of changes. But she didn't think she would have changed that much. Was she bound to be tormented by thoughts of Harry, by Sarah's threats, for the remainder of her life?

"Oi!" called one of the players with urgency.

But it was too late. When Ginny spun her broom around, the last thing she saw was the Bludger, hurtling in her direction.

AN: Hope you guys enjoyed it!