Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no claims to ownership.

"Dada!" James held up his favorite book. "Cow moo!"

"Not now, James," Harry murmured. "Daddy's tired."

"Moo!" he said more plaintively, shaking the book for emphasis.

In retrospect, it might have been a better idea to leave James at Andromeda's house or maybe with Ron and Hermione. However, Harry hadn't known beforehand why Arthur and Molly wanted him at the Burrow. They'd sounded so urgent in the Patronus message that he reacted instinctively.

Now he didn't know what to do. His mind kept on circling back to one fact: Ginny had killed the baby and it was his fault.

A familiar creak on the stairs made him look up. The landing outside Ginny's old bedroom always made that sound. Harry was certain Arthur spelled it that way on purpose.

Shortly later Molly entered the room where Harry and James were waiting. Without looking at Harry, she said quietly, "You can see Ginny now."

Harry nodded and rose to his feet.

"Won't you take James?" she asked.

For a moment, Ginny's words reverberated in his head: James is a mistake. Harry clenched his hands and bit back - something. A sob. A snarl. Even he wasn't sure. His own emotions were too confusing. All he knew was that he didn't want her anywhere near their son.

"No," he said quietly, and gave Ginny's mother nothing else. He felt her judgmental gaze on his back, though, as he climbed the stairs.

Harry wasn't ever going to tell her the whole truth about his and Ginny's fight. He didn't want to ruin her image of Ginny. It was better to let her blame him.

At the top of the first flight of stairs, he had to pause. Memories suddenly overcame him of every time he'd entered this room. The majority of those visits had ended particularly well, though he wouldn't ever tell Ginny's family of them.

Before he left to hunt Voldemort, Ginny had kissed him so he wouldn't forget her; they probably would have done more if Ron hadn't interrupted them.

After the war, Ginny took his virginity so he wouldn't forget her while she was at school.

Everything about their relationship had been Ginny staking her claim on him. At the time, he'd enjoyed the feeling of being wanted and adored. Now he knew her possessiveness and occasional idolization were deeply unhealthy.

So unhealthy that she took the life of an innocent child.

Harry took a deep breath and stepped toward the door. He rapped his knuckles against it, and then, when there was no response, he called hesitantly, "Ginny? Can I come in?"

Seconds later the door opened and Ginny beamed at him.

"Harry! Come in, come in! Sorry I didn't say anything, I thought you were my parents." She flopped onto her bed and scowled at the ceiling. "They won't leave me alone."

It occurred to Harry rather suddenly that Ginny was just shy of her twenty-fourth birthday. Most people their age were just beginning to consider marriage, not on the verge of having their second child.

Harry caught that thought. He and Ginny wouldn't be having a second child because she had killed the baby.

She tilted her head toward him and patted the bed.

"Won't you join me?" she said with a grin. "I know it's small but that never stopped us before."

Instead of lying down next to her, Harry sat in the rickety chair at her old desk. In his mind's eye, he could see eleven-year-old Ginny at this same desk pouring out her heart to her new diary. He wondered how much of herself she had lost due to Tom Riddle's possession. After spending an entire year with Riddle in her head, it was possible she'd taken on some of his personality.

"Why are you all the way over there?" Ginny whined, propping herself up on an elbow to look at him. She patted the bed again and waggled her eyebrows.

"Because we need to talk," he replied, meeting her gaze at last. "We can't avoid this, Ginny."

"You're the one avoiding it," she retorted, and then she added with a lecherous grin, "You know I'll have my way with you eventually."

He wished he could deny the tendril of arousal her words caused.

"You know that's not what I'm talking about, Ginny."

"Do I?"

At a look from him, she sighed and rose from the bed. The room was so small that it took her only a single step to reach Harry. She sat on his lap, her breasts pressed to his chest and her arms wrapped over his shoulders. When she leaned down, her breath ghosted over his lips. He resisted the urge to place his hands on her hips and glanced to the side.

"The abortion doesn't matter," she whispered. "All it means is that we'll be happy again."

She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth as his stomach twisted. The abortion meant a lot more than that to him.

"Don't you want to be happy, Harry? That's what you said when we got married." She smiled and kissed him again, this time on his cheek as he turned his head away. "Right in our vows, you said I was the only person who could make you happy. Remember that?"

"I do," he replied with reluctance, "but back then, I didn't know how much we were lying to ourselves."

"Lying?" She undulated her hips. "Does that feel like a lie to you?"

"Anyone can achieve that," he said a bit sharply. "As you proved with Zacharias Smith."

She groaned and let her head drop against his shoulder. "Why bring him up? The problem's solved. The baby is gone. I'm sorry it ever happened but can we please just move on?"

Harry threaded his fingers into her silky hair and lifted her head. Her lips parted and she moved against him again. Pushing down his natural reaction, Harry asked, his tone both soft and cold, "Are you sorry James happened?"

"I-" She stuttered. "What are you talking about?"

"You called him a mistake, Ginny. Do you not want him?"

"Of course I do," she snapped. "You love him so much -"

"I love him so much?" Harry said quietly.

"We love him so much," she hastily corrected. "And you know I'll do anything-"

"To be with me?" He chuckled darkly. "Yes, you've made that abundantly clear."

Her voice rose. "Stop interrupting me!"

Ginny's cheeks were flushed and her eyes were blazing. He wished it wasn't such an attractive look on her.

"No, I didn't want him," she admitted. "He ruined my Quidditch career and he looks-" She choked on the words, shook her head, and started again, her tone plaintive, "I know he makes you happy, and that's all I want for you. So please, please, tell me how to fix this."

"You can't."

The words fell into the space between them, dark and forbidding. It wasn't until he spoke that he realized how true they were. Perhaps in the future he could forgive her, but there was no hope of ever repairing their relationship.

"You can't," he said more gently as Ginny reared back, her eyes wide and disbelieving. "You have to know that James means everything to me - yes, even more than you. I can't risk his happiness just because I love you."

He put one hand on her cheek as her lip trembled. She was blinking back tears and his heart broke a little more. He hated doing this to her but it was necessary, not just for James but himself, too.

"You did the unthinkable, Ginny. I would have raised Albus as my own son, I would have even consented to the Cloning Potion… But I won't stand for anymore death, not for my sake."

"Are you-" Her voice broke, her chest hitching. She sounded incredulous. "Are you breaking up with me?"

Harry drew in a breath before he answered. "Yes," he said quietly. "I am. I want a divorce."

A strangled sound escaped her. The tears were slowly spilling out now but she didn't wipe them away. Her hands fisted in his shirt, as if to keep him against her, but he lifted her from his lap and removed her hold on him. He heard a repressed sob as he kissed her forehead.

"I'll be back in a few days for the memorial," he told her.

She finally spoke when he'd reached the door. He looked back at her to see her eyes blazing again and his chest tightened.

"I won't leave you," Ginny said fiercely. "Not ever. We belong together, and you know it. Everyone knows it. Even Hermione agreed!"

He shook his head. "Hermione always put me above herself," he said, realizing it only as he spoke. "But I doubt she would've approved of cheating. Goodbye, Ginny."

"Harry-"

He slipped out the door before she could fully respond and locked it with a spell. As he'd expected, he heard Ginny's fist slamming against the wood followed by a shriek of pain and anger. Then she started shouting desperately, "Harry, please, I love you, I'll do anything for you!" and each word was like a dagger through his heart.

"I'm sorry," he whispered and turned for the stairs.

Harry stopped as he heard Arthur's voice coming from the room where he'd left James.

"If the bird says 'Caw,' what sound would a hippogriff make?"

There was a significant pause.

"See here how they both have beaks… What do you think, James? If the bird says 'Caw,' what sound would a hippogriff make?"

"Caw!" James said with delight. "Caw, caw, caw!"

"Yes, that's it! You're a smart little boy, aren't you?"

Harry closed his eyes as James giggled. This, he thought. This is what I'm destroying.

He just hoped Ginny's family would be able to forgive him.

AN: Sorry this is coming out right before Christmas, a time of happiness and loving family. The Teenager, as it turns out, takes up quite a bit of my time.