Hi, so here is another chapter and the one i know you've all been waiting for. I found it very emotional to write and so i hope i got anything medical accurate. Again i have screwed around witht the timeline but i figured that was already going down the drain considering this story's AU proposal so...

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine so please let me know what you think.

Please Read and Review.

To all of you out there reading this, stay safe, stay healthy and too all of the families out there who are expecting or have had a baby recently I send my heartfelt congrats and my well wishes.

Beat Your Heart Out

Chapter 22-There's My Baby

Ginny gives birth, a baby is born in a time of war, and two people's lives are forever changed (though a certain someone does not know it yet). Again some AU tricks with the timeline. And this will be an shorter chapter with not much dialogue used.

For a moment there was silence. Again Ginny would have laughed. The last time there had been silence like this the Weasley family had found out the youngest member was pregnant. Now she had done it again. It took a lot to silence her vocal family and she had done it twice in the space of two months.

All of this occurred to Ginny in the space of a heartbeat because no sooner had Auntie Muriel commentated on the state of her rug another contraction hit her and she nearly fell to the floor had it not been for her mother on one side keeping her up and Fred on the other.

"Alright then" her mother said with a briskness that Ginny both appreciated and loathed in this moment. "Looks like that baby is ready to enter this world. George go and discreetly set the floo network up if worse comes to worse I want Andromeda Tonks here—as an ex healer she might be able to do something but only when I say. If I can deliver this baby myself then I will. Fred go take your father into the drawing room pour him a stiff drink but don't let him get too drunk, this might take a long time, the lot of you stay down here until I call you."

Ginny was hardly aware where she was going or that she was in a room off Muriel's bedroom. It was clean with white sheets and reminded her of the hospital rooms at St Mungo's. Ginny wondered if her mother had, had this ready for her when they moved here but the pain of another contraction made her scream this time and she felt like her heart would burst out of her chest the way her heart was beating.

She didn't remember getting on the bed or losing her leggings and knickers or the embarrassment that came with the fact that she was in the worst position possible with her mother staring at her. All she cared about the next wave of pain that seemed to be coming in such a way so that every time she thought she was past it, every time she thought that she could take it, it was getting worse and worse. Ginny found her hands were gripping the bedsheets and then her mother who had been staring and feeling and doing something that Ginny was in far to much pain to pay attention too stood up looking pleased.

"I'd say your progressing naturally Ginny, your at about four centimetres so you've got a long way to go before we welcome that baby into the world, but it looks as normal as I can tell. Certainly I do not feel we are in for any complications right now."

"Of course not Molly…Ginnevra follows a long line of proud Weasley women who do not flinch in the sight of pain. If I remember rightly you only went to the hospital once and that was with Ronald. Cedrella Black who married my brother gave birth to three sons and one time she did it in one of those dreadful muggle air raid shelter things. No…Ginevra was never going to be one to demand special treatment if she didn't need it"

Oh good, Auntie Fucking Muriel was here. She was the last person that Ginny needed right now and she let out another scream of pain throwing back her head as a contraception ripped through her.

"Muriel I am not sure why you are here?" her mother said tactfully which was just Molly Weasley's way of saying, "Get stuffed you old bat"

"Molly I assueme you are delivering this thing? Then who do you propose comforts Ginny during her travels? I am certainly not going to bend down to catch a baby, at my age my back would never recover not to mention now I'm harbouring a load of fugitives I cannot go and get my nails done and heavens knows what comes out of…well…"

Ginny paused staring at her feeling her legs shake from where they were up on the bed. There was something about this moment that made her want to both laugh and then to sob hysterically. She had thought about having a baby long before she had actually fell pregnant and she had never in her wildest dreams considered this scenario. Her despised great-aunt distracting her by being the same rude and cantankerous old woman she had always been and her mother's stunned look of exasperation. She had always thought that the baby's father would be here with her, that she would be giving birth in clean medical conditions and if she was being honest with herself that she was older, wiser and with a steady career as chaser of some Quidditch team under her belt.

This was the thing she had been building towards for months and yet now it was here she found that she was utterly terrified of what was going to happen, and the pain…

She had really thought all the books and all the stories that she had heard were exaggerating about the pain that she was in right now. Clearly she had been the one in complete and utter denial about the true scope of pain because Ginny had been eleven when she had nearly lost her mind, she had been thirteen when she had seen Amos Diggory screaming over the corpse of his son and she had been fifteen when she had raced through the halls of the Department of Mysteries with a broken ankle and a brother that was not all there. She had been sixteen when she had fought Death Eaters at Hogwarts and she had been knocked backwards into the wall bruising her leg and her arms for weeks afterwards and all of that, the emotional and physical toil of what she had been through was nothing compared to what she was doing now.

"I want Harry" she said finally. Both women looked at her. "He's over at Bill's I want him, I want him here, he should be here" she looked around desperately and in that moment all of her selfishness raised it's ugly head. Ginny had known what it was that she was doing, she had known that she was condemning this baby to a life where it might never know his or her father and vice versa for Harry. She had known that the mission—the desire to see the end of Voldemort would be what dominated the stupidly stubborn love of her life right until the bitter end and she had known that. She'd had the opportunity on numerous occasions to seek him out and now she knew that she wanted him because despite all that she had promised herself she was scared of what this baby meant.

She was sixteen. She wanted to know that the man she loved, loved her.

It was as simple as that. Why did Voldemort have to take that away from her? Away from all the people he had killed or hunted or taken for the sheer pleasure of causing pain. Why did he have to be the way he was? Had he understood a fraction of what she was feeling—

But then he wouldn't be Voldemort and this wouldn't be happening and that was a headache for another day not when her mother was looking at her with pity and her Auntie Muriel was shaking her head with something in her eyes that Ginny didn't want to identify.

"Ginny" her mother said finally. "You know he cannot be here. You know he has to do what he has to do. Sweetheart believe me sometimes it takes all I have to not go over their and fold Ron in my arms and tell him to take care and come home and not go out again but that is the price you pay for raising good children. Harry has to finish what he started—he is the only hope the world has for a life free of You-Know-Who and as hard as that is and as unfair as that is he has to do it. You have to make sure that when he does it and I believe whole-heartedly that he will that he has a baby to come home to."

"Besides" Auntie Muriel said her birdlike hand stroking Ginny's in a rather comforting measure if she had to admit it only to herself (there were times when the older woman could really surprise a person).

"What good could he do Ginevra? He got you into this mess and I bet he had fun doing it but he's not going to take that baby out of you. Men always want to understand and to help. This is woman's work. Why when I was young they didn't even allow them into the delivery room. Those were the days…"

"Ginny" her mother cut across with another eyeroll. "You are now at five centimetres. You still got a long way to go before you can push. Perhaps Muriel you might want to think about getting some cool water"

"Molly I hardly think liquids are going to help me in my condition. I mean my bowls are not what they used to be I am a hundred and seven after all"

"I meant for Ginny!"

"Oh. I suppose I can chase down my house elf. Won't be a second"

The door closed and her mother rolled her eyes heavenwards again.

"Right that gives us a few minutes. Ginny we've got a long way to go but I am so proud of you right now. I know you can do this and I am right here with you."

Ginny took another breath as another contraction ripped through her.

She was seriously beginning to rethink her decision about having sex with Harry. She remembered clinging to him, grasping the pleasure from him and thinking in that moment that everything and anything was worth keeping this feeling. The problem was she was now reaping what she was sowing and that sucked on so many levels.

She gritted her teeth and bared down for another sharp shoot of pain.

"How long?" she asked her mother who gave a small smile.

"Oh I imagine hours at this rate" she said. "The first generally wants to take his or her time"

Ginny sobbed.

And so it continued.

Her labour started on the 25th. It took a day for her baby to be born. On the 26th of April at eleven in the morning after half a day and a whole night of pain there was a sudden rush and Ginny who thought that she might scream out of frustration if she was told to push again felt another sliver and then her mother exhausted with the nights efforts seemed to catch something and then the pressure was gone.

Before Ginny took a second to realise what was going on and why the pressure was gone and the pain with it there was a split second of pure silence and then her mother was beaming, her brown eyes filled with tears as she handed something to Auntie Muriel wrapped who with all the reverence of a miser seeing gold for the first time took it and wrapped it in a blanket.

And then the cry wrenched the air, a thin reedy cry at first that turned into a full bellow.

It was alive.

A live baby.

Ginny started sobbing but this time it was not in pain or in terror it was in relief. She had done it. Despite all odds that were stacked against her she had brought Harry Potter's baby into the world. Despite the fact that she had been hiding in this house, in Hogwarts and had given up more than she cared to count she realised that she had done it.

"It's a boy" her mother said wiping her eyes as Auntie Muriel passed the baby to her wrapped in the little yellow blanket.

"Aye and a fine looking one at that. The lad seems healthy and a baby that always had a strong cry like that is destined for many things."

The older woman looked at her with something akin to affection—the closest that Ginny had ever seen coming from Muriel.

"You did good girl, you did good. Come on Molly. Let's give them five seconds to each other and let the menfolk in on the good news. Personally I don't think Potter should know just yet but—"

Ginny was hardly listening, she didn't want to overhear anything, instead all she wanted to do was focus on the little boy she was holding.

They had cleaned him up and though his hair was still matted with something she could tell that it was a dark brown. Not the jet black that Harry's was or the red that she was but something comfortable in the middle. His eyes were not the green she had always hoped for the same dark brown as hers, as her mother and her mother before her. He had Harry's nose and her chin she thought and his ears were all Harry's. He peered up at her with an expression that Ginny though made him look irritated that he had come into the world the way he had. He had ten fingers and ten toes and two fingers peeped out of the blanket and Ginny saw the tiny fingernails on the tiny hands.

He was utterly perfect.

And he was hers.

The baby stared up at her with those brown eyes and Ginny found that she wanted to take back all she had said and thought about the danger and the pain and the agony. She could barley move her lower legs, her breasts prickled with the milk she could feel coming and she knew that if they showed her a mirror now she must look a mess of sweat and tears but the truth of the matter was that she would do it all again for this moment right here right now.

This was utter perfection.

The war didn't matter, Voldemort didn't matter. Even her constant worry for Harry didn't matter. This baby was the great love of her life not Harry Potter.

She knew she would only have a few moments before this mother and son bonding moment was interrupted by Grandma Molly who would insist she cleaned up before the men in her family came to meet their new member though weather or not it was a Weasley or a Potter she did not know nor did she care.

All she cared about was the little boy she held in her arms.

He made a small fussing noise and she reached out to touch one of the fingernails that curled around her. The brown eyes fluttered shut and the eyelashes dark and perfect shifted and fluttered on the soft plump cheeks filled with blood and the lips that were a perfect red and in the shape of a cupid's bow.

"There you are baby, there's my baby"

She was muttering platitudes she knew but she did not care. All she cared about was in her arms.

"James" she said to the baby who opened his eyes as if he wanted to stare at her while she said this.

"Your name is James. James Sirius Potter though it might be a while before anyone calls you that. And I know that your father isn't here but I do know that when he gets the chance to meet you he will be over the moon. How could he not? Look at you? You are so perfect and your father will not wait to meet you"

Baby James closed his eyes again and then started bawling desperate for food. Ginny didn't know what to do really but she knew the logistics to it and she put her breast to his mouth. Fortunately he latched on straight away and started suckling and she leaned back hugging him close and feeling that wonderful sense of a child feeding.

Her baby was real. He was alive.

He was James.

At Shell Cottage on the outskirts of Tinworth Harry Potter rolled over in his sleep before waking. He had slept in early on account of the fact that he had, had no dreams plaguing him. The room he was sharing with Ron and Dean was empty. And he could smell chicken cooking.

He couldn't shake his thought over this dream he'd been having though. But then again dreams didn't mean much, if Voldemort wasn't hunting him in his dreams it was considered a good night.

But it had been Ginny and a baby and a life that he could not have and he had woken up feeling empty and hollow.

"Harry?" it was Dean knocking at the door.

"Fleur said lunch is ready when you want it"

Harry nodded. "Cheers Dean, be down in a sec" and then waited for the footsteps to fade before he ran a hand through his clean and now short hair before he got up putting the dream from his mind.

As Dumbledore had once told him all those years ago when he had been eleven, it was not good to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

And with that he got dressed and went downstairs.

This i should tell you is the only time that this story breaks slightly from Ginny's POV so i hope you enjoyed.

As always i hope you enjoyed this chapter and i will endevour to update sooner rather than later. A big thank you to all of you who have given this story your support.

Next Chapter-As weeks pass Ginny adjusts to being a new mother and the Weasley family adjust to a new member-otherwise known as the calm before the storm.