a/n: this chapter addresses something that began to bug me almost immediately after coming up with the phoenix blood concept. i wasn't intending for it to slip in here but i decided that arguments are rarely consistent when they're off the top of your head, they often take strange turns. anyway, thank youo to all of my readers and my reviewers! let me know what you think.

Chapter 11: Talks with Ginny and a Curious Hermione

Harry didn't realize just how long he and Ally were locked up in her classroom snogging until he checked his watch to figure out where Ron and Hermione would be. He hurried to the Great Hall and slid into the empty seat beside Hermione just in time for dinner. Ginny smirked at him knowingly which then turned into a glare. He chose to ignore her, instead concentrating on Ron and Hermione's conversation.

'Well I think it was a fantastic lesson,' Hermione said primly. 'It's not my fault you didn't get dressed this morning.'

'How was I supposed to know we'd be taking our robes off?'

'Harry managed to get dressed,' Hermione reminded him.

Harry rolled his eyes, this time he hadn't even had to say anything to get dragged into one of their arguments. He tried to ignore them as best he could but then Hermione addressed him directly and he knew she would just get pushier if he didn't answer.

'What did Professor Martin want, Harry?'

Harry very nearly asked who Hermione was talking about, there was something just plain wrong about thinking of his girlfriend as a professor. 'We just talked about the things I've studied and she tested me on some stuff,' he lied easily.

'You know,' Hermione said thoughtfully. 'It will be interesting to see what kinds of things she teaches us. I really like her take on being prepared for an attack, especially what she said about dressing appropriately.'

Harry nodded in agreement, pictures of Voldemort tripping over his robes in a fight making him smile. Ron didn't look as happy but that was mostly because he was still suffering the embarrassment of attending class in his pajamas.

'I can't believe she's pregnant!' Ron muttered. 'Do you think Dumbledore knew?'

'Of course Dumbledore knew, Ron,' Hermione frowned. 'She would have had to tell him when she went for the job. If she wasn't honest then she wouldn't even be here. Do you think she'll continue teacher after the baby is born? I wonder when she's due.'

'December 10,' Harry answered easily. 'And she is, she's got a house elf that will take care of the baby while she teaches.'

Ron looked at him funny and Hermione raised her eyebrows. 'What? I asked,' he said defensively.

'Its funny,' Hermione said quite suddenly, looking directly at Harry. 'Did you notice she has a tattoo?'

'Who has a tattoo?' Harry frowned; he wasn't paying as much attention to the conversation as he could have been because Ginny had just caught his eye and rather viciously bit the end off a pork chop. She may have been further down the table sitting with her other friends but Harry got the distinct feeling she was imagining he was the pork chop.

'Professor Martin,' Hermione answered, not taking her eyes off of Harry. 'She has a tattoo just like yours in the same place as yours and it was moving like yours started doing yesterday.'

'Really?' Harry asked vaguely, he'd just caught Fred and George giving him a knowing look out of the corner of his eye. What was with people and giving him funny looks? What it was they thought they knew was beyond him. He made a mental note to make his investment in their joke shop official, maybe see if any of the properties he or Ally owned would make for a good joke shop.

'Harry? Harry!'

Harry's focus snapped back to Hermione and he frowned at her. He really needed to start paying more attention to his bossy friend. 'Sorry?'

'Honestly, Harry!' Hermione scolded. 'I was asking you where you got your tattoo, you've never really said.'

Harry held up his wrist and studied the flaming design thoughtfully. The gentle movement made by Ally's proximity made it seem like flames were licking at his wrist. 'Oh, just this place in muggle London, I had a spell put on it later to make it move.'

Hermione scrutinized him closely for a few moments and then seemed to decide he was telling the truth, a good thing as he was lying through his teeth. But then how do you tell your friend, who has no idea what you were really up to over the summer, that the reason you and your DADA professor have matching tattoo's is because the first time you had sex you cemented you're relationship and one of the unforeseen side effects was the mark of the Phoenix that reacted to each other? Harry shook his head; there was no way he was telling Hermione that. It was bad enough Ginny knew, she'd laughed for a full ten minutes when she'd gotten all the details.

'Why'd you get it mate?'

'Seemed like a good idea at the time.'

Ron began to wonder aloud about the prospect of getting a tattoo, he'd just asked Hermione whether she thought a dragon or a Gryffindor lion was a better idea when Ginny appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and grabbed Harry by the ear once more.

'You'd look stupid with a tattoo, Ron,' she snapped and then promptly dragged Harry from the table and out of the Great Hall by his ear. She practically threw him inside the first empty classroom she found. She shut the door, locked it and rounded on Harry. Before she could say anything he held up a hand to stop her and waved his wand at the door, casting several spells that would ensure they remained uninterrupted and that no one could overhear them. When he was done he waved at her to go on. It only made her madder.

'How could you not tell me that your girlfriend is pregnant?' Ginny demanded. 'I thought we were best friends but you hid something like this from me! How could you do that? Do you not trust me?'

'Ginny I trust you more than anyone in the world-'

'-Except Ally.'

'Except Ally,' Harry agreed. 'I just…' Harry trailed off not sure how to put in to words exactly what he was thinking and feeling. Rather than yelling Ginny gave him the time he needed to think. 'There were a few things I left out before,' Harry told her slowly, unsure of how she would react to the news that there was more she didn't know. 'Ally and I worked for months together in the trunk before I made a move-'

'You made the first move?' Harry wasn't sure but he thought Ginny sounded a little skeptical. He probably should have been offended. He chose to ignore her. Ginny liked to take every moment she could to mock him for that.

'The first time we had sex was on her birthday about four months after we started, uh, training in the trunk, I told you all about it. What we weren't anticipating was the effects of that moment.'

'The baby?' Ginny guessed, glaring angrily at him. Harry sighed, Ginny was so angry she seemed to have forgotten half the stuff he told her.

Harry shook his head with a laugh. 'We were in there for nearly two years Gin, your math is a little off. No, what happened was a lot more complicated than that. We caused a major magical explosion that nearly killed Voldemort and cemented our relationship.'

'That thing with Snape and the others?'

Harry nodded.

'That was because you and Ally had sex for the first time?'

Harry nodded once more, thinking carefully over how to word what he had to say next. He'd told Ginny all about his nervousness regarding just about every part of his relationship with Ally. He'd told her, afterwards of course when he too was perfectly capable of laughing at his own stupidity. Ginny knew all about their first kiss, their first everything, she'd asked for all the details but she had never gotten all the details on the final deed. Just enough to laugh for ten minutes straight.

'We weren't anticipating the amount of raw power something like that would generate between us. Or the fact that we nearly burnt the bed down around us. Our bedrooms are always extensively warded now; we have to charm our sheets to be fireproof.'

Ginny snorted, she knew that Harry's emotions sometimes caused him to start smoking but the idea that he and Ally had nearly burnt down their bed because they were so wrapped up in sex was funny.

'This doesn't change the fact that you didn't tell me, it also doesn't explain anything.'

Harry almost growled. 'Look Ginny, I'm trying to explain to you just how important that night was, for more than the obvious reasons.'

It was then that something Harry had said earlier sank in; she didn't think he'd been referring to some silly belief that sex really changed things that much, especially at such a young age.

'What do you mean cemented?'

Harry smirked. 'Phoenixes mate for life.'

'Oh.' Ginny eyes widened and her mouth fell open. 'Oh!'

And then she started laughing. This wasn't the same kind of laughing she'd done when she'd heard about all the bumps in Harry's road to intimacy with Ally. This was an almost hysterical laugh and she was crying. Once the laughter subsided Ginny stood crying with a smile on her face.

'That's so romantic.'

Harry chose to ignore that, he'd heard Ginny saying numerous times how sweet and romantic it was how Ally spent nearly three hundred years "waiting" for him. It was something of amusement to him that tough little Ginny Weasley could still have such a fairy tale view of something like his love life after what happened in her second year. Harry held up his left arm to show her the tattoo Hermione had just been questioning.

'That's when we got these. They stay still when we're apart but when we're together they move like real flames. We can feel each other, like warmth spreading through our bodies and we can always find each other. We're magically bonded, Ginny, we're essentially married.'

Ginny slumped onto the desk behind her and took a deep breath as she tried to process everything Harry was telling her and stop her tears. She'd known from the start that Harry and Ally were different, sharing the blood of a Phoenix had changed them, but she'd never realized just how much the Phoenix influenced them. They were bonded. Married. Tied together for the rest of their lives by a magical bond that no one else had a chance of truly comprehending. For them, the rest of their lives were a lot longer than most people would experience. It was endlessly depressing in a terribly romantic sort of way. Whatever might have remained of her old crush faded away.

'That still doesn't explain why you didn't just tell me Ally was pregnant.'

'I thought I'd have more time, that I'd be able to break it to you slowly. I was hoping you could meet her and we could tell you together,' Harry admitted. 'I know she'd love to tell you how many hints she had to drop before I kissed her. I know you'd love to get the whole story from her perspective. I just wasn't ready, Ginny.'

'Harry,' Ginny started but Harry shook his head cutting her off.

'It hasn't even been three months, Ginny, and I know it seemed like more for me but it's still so hard to wrap my head around. For years the only family I've ever had was the Dursley's and then when I got to Hogwarts I met Ron and Hermione. I've always just been this scrawny little kid with a scar on his head, famous for something I don't remember. And that was okay because it never really touched me. It became my life; I adjusted to being famous to having people who cared about me even if I had to go back to the Dursley's every summer. And then last June happened.'

'Voldemort.'

'Yes, Voldemort but also Cedric, I was a mess Gin. Just when I was getting used to being happy, when life was getting better it all changed. Cedric died so Voldemort could return. And then-'

'What?' Ginny interrupted sharply. 'What do you mean Cedric died so Voldemort could return? I thought you said Wormtail killed him right off.'

Harry slumped down on an empty desk looking defeated, much older than he should.

'I lied,' he told her after a very heavy silence. The last of Ginny's anger vanished at the look of remorse and guilt on Harry's face.

'Why?'

Harry's eyes took on the haunted quality they always got when he talked about that night. Gone was the happy look of someone taking pride in his family, the family he created.

'They couldn't use my blood,' he explained quietly. 'It was screaming in my head, this knowledge that no matter what happened they couldn't use my blood. Cedric was there, tied up next to me and he was nice and he was normal, everything the spell needed and I wasn't. They tried to use me, Wormtail cut my arm with the knife but my blood just, Merlin, it just melted the knife like acid, the thing that Voldemort was didn't see any of it but Wormtail knew. So he used Cedric. It was the first time any of my Phoenix traits showed but I was too scared, to confused to really take in what was happening. I passed it off as something to do with the protection my mother died to give me.

'Cedric, Cedric couldn't handle it. The spell called for the blood of an enemy and Cedric's wasn't strong enough to satisfy the stronger requirements Voldemort built into the spell. Wormtail tried to angle me over the cauldron when he realized Cedric's blood wasn't enough but I burnt through the ropes and managed to break free. I couldn't leave couldn't run, Wormtail stunned me and conjured heavy chains to hold me. We both knew what was coming, me and Cedric, and he just, he just looked at me like he was hoping I could do something, and he was bleeding into the cauldron and I knew. You can't kill something that doesn't exist. I couldn't move and then Wormtail stabbed Cedric in the neck.

'I told everyone he died quickly, didn't feel a thing, that he was happy over winning the tournament. It was what they needed, his parents didn't need to know that their son died bringing Voldemort back to life, that their son wasn't strong enough for Voldemort's purpose. I could have survived Ginny, one splash of my blood would have been enough but I couldn't allow Voldemort to exist with Phoenix blood in his veins.'

'Does Voldemort know?' Ginny whispered. She had never heard the full story of that night, only the altered version everyone else had gotten. She felt that a little of Hermione's worry was justified.

'No, his knowing serves no purpose. For now there are only four people who know the truth.'

'Does it make him weaker, having Cedric's blood?'

Harry nodded and then he seemed to shake himself out of the darker mood. 'Voldemort's not as strong as he thinks, and that half-blood murderer is going to die.'

Ginny smiled slightly, understanding the conversation was over. She moved forward to hug Harry. 'Congratulations Harry, you're going to be a great dad.'

'Thanks, Gin.' Harry released her and took a step back. 'Would you like to come meet my mate Ginny?'

'Absolutely.'

They didn't talk about what she had just learned, there was no need. It hurt to talk about and he still had the occasional nightmare but it was in the past, he had worked passed it. Ginny didn't need to hear more. She watched Harry take down his wards around the door and then she followed him, the closer he got to Ally the truer his smile became. No matter what Hermione kept insisting, Ginny knew Harry was going to be just fine.