Bravery is in the Eye of the Beholder

By

Sannikex

Chapter 21

A/N: I can't believe my little story is turning 21, it semmed such a short while ago it was just a baby idea in my head. Haha, anyways BIG and IMPORTANT chapter ahead!

June 2000

A row was raging in the Burrow kitchen. Again. A week didn't pass, not even a day, without tempers rising in a family of nine, all with the urge to shout at one another at least once a day. But this time it was more heated, more vicious than usual. Even the twins had gotten tired of commentating the shouting match and had returned to their apartment to their wives and less inspired anger than that of Molly Weasley and her daughter.

"…and on top of all this you couldn't even find a man decent enough to stand by you after he plants his baby in you! I'm tempted to say you deserve nothing better than such scum for being so imbecilic, so, so thoughtless!" Ginny knew she had a bad temper but she had never felt such rage as her mother spoke ill of the man she loved more than life itself. With a voice so cold it would have made him shiver she replied,

"Mother, there is no man in this entire world I would rather have this baby with. He is not here because of reasons that are none of your business but I trust him enough to let him near me mother and you should love him instead of hate him, not because of anything else but the fact that I do. It should be enough. I want this baby, mum, because it's his. And mine, ours." With that she left the kitchen and her dumbstruck mother and once again, for the umpteenth time, retreated to her room.

****

Later that night, Ginny tiptoed down the stairs, skilfully avoiding the creaking steps. The baby was kicking and keeping her awake and instead of restlessly lying in her bed she had opted for a walk in the quiet gardens. Perhaps she'd sneak out and lie down on the cot in the playhouse. As she reached the kitchen she saw the light seeping in from the living room and thought one of her brothers had neglected to turn off the light again. She crept forward to put it out and yelped when she saw the figure in the chair she'd so often sat in to watch over Draco through the night.

"Mum! You scared me half to death!" Her mother was sitting, head bent over her knitting, revealing the first greying hairs in the violently red so alike her own.

"Ginny, what are you doing up?"

"I…" She remembered she wasn't at terms with her mother at the moment and closed her mouth again.

"What do you think?" Her mother held up what looked like a small tube of green yarn.

"What is it?"

"The beginning of a new Weasley sweater." Instantly Ginny felt her eyes tear up.

"Oh, mum." She came in and sat as she had done when she was a little girl, with her head on her mother's lap. Although, she sat somewhat heavier than she had, with the extra weight. "I'm so sorry. Not about the baby but all the things I've said to you."

"I'm sorry too, Ginny. I guess I just focused on the bad side of it to not have to think about the war and my baby daughter being all grown up and mature, your brothers moving out, the constant worry. It's just so much. If you really love this man and the child he has given you, then I will too." Ginny sighed as her mother's needles started clicking again.

"I do. I really do."

*****

31st July 2000

In the kitchen it was dark. She sat with her back to the sink, staring out the window where there was nothing but more darkness. Silence prevailed but in her head she was imagining thousands of voices screaming, saw friends and family bleeding on the ground. The final battle was raging and she could do nothing. In the last month of her pregnancy she would be of no help in the battle and she couldn't risk the life of her unborn child. So there she was, hiding. She had been able to help for such a short while, and had to admit in shame to herself she was glad. Glad that she instead had had the time to learn to know Draco Malfoy. She spun in her chair when her mother wobbled into the room.

"It's over. He did it. Harry did it."

******

August 26th 2000

She was so sick of being pregnant. She looked like a whale, moved like a duck and had a temper like bull. She wanted to feel human again. Her mother had been incredible for the last month, supporting her, comforting her and shooed off her brothers to stop them from pestering Ginny until she confessed who the father was. All of them, thank God. They had all survived and she was eternally grateful to Draco who in so many ways had helped her keep her family safe. Lying to Voldemort took more than guts, it took bravery and nobility. She knew he'd hate that she idolized him but couldn't help it. The man had a heart of gold hidden under that cold demeanour. That was incredibly sexy.

The closer she got to the day of the birth, the bigger she became, the tenser her brothers became. They wanted to beat up whomever had gotten their baby sister pregnant and then left her. However the non-existent man was nowhere around and they settled for pacing, watching over Ginny like a hawk. All but Harry who was rather uncomfortable in her presence. He was different after the defeat, calmer, cooler, more distant. He looked as if nothing could reach him. He'd been unconscious for a week after the battle and had woken up only to leave his two best friends for solitude. The only one who seemed to reach him was Luna Lovegood, to everybody's mixed relief. Of all people the strange and caring Luna was the one who could get him to enter the real world for a moment.

She stretched to ease the pain that had been plaguing her the whole day, gnawing and pounding at the small of her back. She rose out of her chair and felt a slashing pain in her abdomen. It couldn't be, not yet! She wasn't ready for this, she was only nineteen two weeks ago. As the scared little child she felt like at the moment she called for her mother.

"Mum! Mum! MUM!" She heard scrambling steps and Harry entered, wildeyed, with his wand at the ready.

"What's wrong?"

She looked at him, the boy she had loved for so long, the face she knew as well as her own and swallowed the tears. Harry was brave. Draco was brave. Now she would be brave.

"The baby's coming." Panic flashed in his eyes as he leaped forward.

"You should maybe sit or is it walk or…"

"Harry, where is mum?" He swallowed heavily.

"She went grocery shopping." Ginny fought the panic. She would be strong, the baby needed her. Her baby needed her. It was like a key turned in her head and she was suddenly calm and everything was clear.

"Harry, you'll have to help me until she gets home, okay. I need to get upstairs and…" Her voice crumbled as a wave of pain crashed over her. Before she could say anything more Harry had scooped her up and started for the stairs. She wondered briefly how a man who probably weighed about the same as her could so easily carry her up the stairs when more pain hazed her brain and she was rendered half unconscious. For a moment she thought it was Draco carrying her, that she could smell him, feel his chest pressed to her. She smiled.

"Draco", he looked down on her and smiled, that special smile he reserved just for their private moments. She felt warm and safe and happy and…

"Ginny! Ginny! Ginny, you have to wake up!" A voice seemed to call from far away. Suddenly a pain like heated knives cut through her abdomen she was torn from her pleasant dreaming as he body rose off the bed.

Suddenly she hear someone screaming and realized it came from herself, then her mother's voice mixed with her own and…

A/N: I'm not only doing this to be mean, I' running out of time, I'm going away for a couple of days but I wanted to update so there you go.