Hi, so here is another chapter and the second to last one, I hope you all enjoy this chapter because it took me to the floor and back with my emotions and includes moments that I have been waiting for and you as well.

Disclaimer-Nothing in this story is mine other than the little first years I have written.

Also In the next chapter there will be some tweaking of the timeline JK Rowling created most specifically the age gap between the three Potter children and the ages of James compared to Albus and Lily.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think. Your support of this story so far has meant the world to me so a very big thank you.

And as always I wish everyone reading this all the health and the happiness in the world.

Beat Your Heart Out

Chapter 26-Live, Live, Live.

As we hit the penultimate chapter of this story, Ginny and Harry have their first conversation since their night together nearly a year ago and Harry gets the shock of his life. It's the first day of peace for the Wizarding War and Baby James (alongside the incomparable Muriel) makes his reappearance.

Ginny woke to birdsong.

It was so indescribably normal around the walls of Hogwarts that she didn't even realise that anything was different. For a moment she was so deliciously sleepy that she didn't remember the night before, the days before that, this whole nightmare year of loss and learning where she had and so many others had been forced to leave their childhoods behind and forge hard paths to adulthood.

For a moment she stretched outwards and curled beneath her covers and she wondered weather or not her brothers would mock her for sleeping in late.

And then it hit her.

The war.

Voldemort and Harry. Her mother and Bellatrix. Colin and the first years.

Lupin and Tonks.

Fred.

James.

She forced herself upwards.

Her clothes had been cleaned and washed and smelt like the Hogwarts laundry and Ginny could have laughed at the fact that despite taking down ten Death Eaters between them the Hogwarts House Elves had gone back to work with their usual cheerful disposition. Ginny dressed in silence, ran a hand through her hair and then raided the draw to find a hair tie to get in into a knot a the back of her head.

She staggered downstairs to see the Common Room populated in drips and drabs with the students who had stayed behind. Seamus and Dean were sat on a chair both intertwined with each other watching the fire. Dennis Creevy his face still streaked with tears was sat watching the flames as well. Parvati was still curled up on the nearest sofa fast asleep and Ginny saw in the corner John curled up his head on a woman's lap, her stroking his hair and she knew that he had gotten in touch with his mother and she had walked into intense danger to get to him. She did not know where Tommy, Grace or Alife where but she liked to think they had all found a bed for the night and that they were all safe and sound with a parent watching over them.

She staggered out the portrait hole. She had no idea where Harry was and she knew that she had to find him because if there was a time where she had to tell him it was now. He had to know about James and he had to know now because Ginny had been through hell and back and she was not going to wait any longer.

Harry had to know about James and right now in the mood that she was still in, she was going to drag him to Muriel's herself. If not then…

Well…she had survived to hold her son. That was not nothing. Harry Potter or no Harry Potter.

She entered the Great Hall to see a sight familiar and yet strange all at once.

The House Tables were back and food was spread out amongst them just as there had been this morning. Food had become more like breakfast, tea, toast, eggs. And yet there were differences. The dead had been moved and so had the wounded but the window that had backed the Teachers table had gone and a May breeze was blowing in through the open glass as well as sunlight streaming in. Nobody seemed to be sitting at the House Tables but everyone seemed to be talking loudly and laughing amongst themselves. On occasion a parent or a teacher would come in to the Great Hall and Ginny watched as the hall seemed to dim a little as the parent looked around for their child and then seemed to brighten when they caught sight of them.

There was a great deal of contrast between the Hogwarts black and other clothes. Students sometimes on the weekends or holidays lounged around in muggle clothing and many students who had fought in their uniform had clearly gone searching for clothes that didn't stink of death, decay or the nightmare that had been the night before.

Ginny pulled herself a pot of tea towards her and she drank her first cup revelling in the scalding feeling. She was looking for him.

Harry.

He was going to find out today. She was going to tell him today. And then she was going to see her son.

"You alright?" came a voice to her left and she turned to see Tommy, cut on his head freshly knitted together. His hand was burnt and it was bandaged but Ginny could see the orange paste that was used to eradicate burns under the bandages. He looked like he had gotten a bath, a change of clothes and some sleep. He was decked in jeans and a t-shirt with some cartoon character on it of a black and white cat and a yellow bird and red and white shoes. He looked more like an eleven year old boy in his muggle clothes than he had done last night when he had took on Death Eaters and let the House Elves out and had fought side by side with her and other men twice his age.

"You?"

"Yeah, Dad gave me a right talking to last night" he said looking remarkably cheerful. "Told me that although he was right proud of me, if I ever did anything like that again Death Eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would be the least of my problems. He's grounded me for the first two weeks of summer but other than that I think he's rather proud"

"You got off lightly then?"

"Oh yeah, but then I found out he was a spy, so we've both been putting ourselves in danger this year. So I think were even"

Ginny snorted into her tea. Even battered, bruised and bleeding Tommy was still Tommy.

"I've seen John what about Alfie and Grace?"

"Grace went to bed and hasn't got up yet. Her Dad had to go back to the house but he's coming back. Told mine he needed a good strong drink and a change of clothes and he's bringing back one. Alfie's gone home to grab his stuff. Dad says he can come and stay with us over the summer seeing as his parents don't give a shit if he's alive or dead. Actually all they seem to care about is that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is dead"

"So it all worked out in the end" Ginny said finally putting down her mug.

"I suppose so. And…thanks…for all you did this year. Dad couldn't believe it when he saw my patronus. And…well…I think we'd all be dead if it wasn't for you"

And then he hugged her. Ginny hugged him back and felt nothing but love for him, nothing but respect for him and yet nothing but desire that this boy who had lived, and lost and loved and learnt more than she had learnt at the age of eleven could one day be like her James. She wanted that for him.

No. She needed that for him. Otherwise what had the deaths of the last day been for?

She wished she could see Remus again and tell him another James who also bore the name Sirius still existed and tell him that he would grow up knowing about the two men he had been named after knowing what they had died for, who they had died for and because of that her baby now had a father.

She wished she could speak to Fred…she wanted that so badly it hurt.

Tommy pulled back and then he was gone with one bright smile full of promise etched on his face and Ginny watching him disappear into the weak sunlight his hands stuffed with toast for his friends.

She ate her head down and not inviting of company, she wanted to go and find Harry and she stood up after forcing eggs and toast and tea down her. He wasn't in the Great Hall and Ginny knew Harry well enough to know that he was not going to come down and play the figurehead after everything she had been through. And she wanted an explanation for it. She had been to hell and back over the course of the last day and she wanted to know why. She had to know why. As Dumbledore had said knowing was the first step to understanding and once she could understand what had happened, what had taken place between Harry and Voldemort over the course of their long and bloody history together, then and only then, could she begin to even comprehend the long process of healing.

She stood up and walked towards the grounds. It was still silent but she knew where she was going. She edged around the rubble that littered the courtyard and the gates that were blown open and down the path to the grounds. The Quidditch pitch had been destroyed. Two towers had fallen down and one hoop was hanging on by sheer will, the ground was singed, the grass still smoking slightly. The grounds themselves were better than the Courtyard. There were still scorch marks, trees smoking and the air tainted the smell of burnt wood, grass and something else that Ginny had suspicions about but didn't want to dwell upon.

She walked on away from the lake and the forest and the tomb encasing her Headmaster that was smooth and untouched by soot or dust or anything else that could have passed for damage. She wondered if that had been deliberate. If the one thing Voldemort was scared off was death, of remorse, of feeling something then perhaps the idea of Dumbledore had frightened him even in death.

She looked over at the tomb as the wind blew around her face bringing in the smell of the battle overtaking the smell of fresh grass.

She carried on.

Harry was where she had suspected him, sat beneath the beech tree half in the shade and half in the summer sunlight. They had always gone here when they had been together, those golden days. It was half secluded by bushes and was one of the many spots where many teenagers over the course of the history of the school had gone to spend time alone. Ginny wondered for the briefest of seconds if five years from now Tommy would be here with Grace and there would be another couple intertwined together. Perhaps James would come here, another messy haired Potter with a redhead. Teddy Lupin and some girl he would meet at this school, a world full of endless possibilities for all of them.

Harry was staring at his wand running his fingers over it. He looked up as Ginny stood in the sun casting them both into shadow. She stared at him greedily taking in the differences. He was skinner in the sun, cuts littered his skin, his hair was cut but it was roughly done. He still managed a small smile at her and Ginny sat down next to him her privates aching at the force. If things had been different she doubted she would have left her bed right now.

"I have to tell you something" she said finally. "And it will change everything, but I need to know what you've not told me. How you did what you did last night, everything…and you owe me that much Harry"

Harry said nothing his legs outstretched and his hands in his lap and then he spoke.

"Do you remember going to the Ministry that night, the night Sirius—anyway there was a Prophecy"

"I remember. The Prophet reported that it said you were 'The Chosen One'. The one that would bring down Voldemort"

Harry snorted. "You're saying the name now?"

"Yes." Ginny said smiling a little at the look on his face. "Things have changed. So…"

"So I am" Harry said simply. "Or I was I suppose. Trelawney made the prophecy. It told a tale of two boys born at the end of July, whose parents had stood up to Voldemort three times and Voldemort would mark him as his equal and he would have power that he didn't have. And neither could live while the other survived. Snape overheard half of it, bungled the information when he told his Master and set him on a path to my mother and father. It didn't have to be me though. It could have been Neville"

Ginny took a moment to grasp the severity of a world where Neville had been the one that Voldemort had gone after.

"And the marking as your equal?"

"Scar" Harry said shortly.

Ginny closed her eyes at that.

"So he came after you" she said finally. "And your mother stood in front of you and she saved you. Then what happened?"

"When he was at school he told Slughorn that he wanted to find a path to immortality. Of course dear old Tom never used those exact words but he found out how to create a Horcrux. In essence it involves splitting ones soul into pieces and hiding them within objects. Until all the objects and the bits of his soul were killed Tom Riddle would never die. He made seven of them"

Ginny gazed at him with an expression she was not sure off on her face. She had never heard of such a thing but even imagining splitting one's soul…she felt like she was going to be sick just thinking about it.

"So you went in search of them."

"The night Dumbledore died. And then ever since, he hid them in things belonging to the Founders of Hogwarts, the snake…the diary…and me"

"You?"

"The night my mother…well…a bit of his soul fragmented and latched on the only living thing that was there…me…it's why I've been able to see into his mind, why I can talk to snakes. Why we've always been connected. A part of me lived within him."

"And he never knew of this?"

"No, could you imagine if he had?" Harry shuddered. "Dumbledore told Snape and then when Snape died I took his memories. It's how I knew I had to die. I had to go and see him and when I died or…whatever you want to call it, the part of my soul that was his died too. And…and because he took my blood when he came back…"

"Neither can live while the other survives. Neither one of you could die while you were connected"

Harry nodded at her. Ginny leaned back against the tree and tried to absorb all this new information that seemed impossible but yet explained so much.

"So…then you could kill him? Because it was just the two of you at the end?"

"I know what he's going to become. He's…he's pushed the boundaries so much, so far and the magic he's used is so dark and twisty that…the man he was…the child…there's nothing left."

Ginny nodded but said nothing.

"And you couldn't say any of this?"

"Dumbledore swore us to secrecy, Ron and Hermione and me. The more people that knew…well you were there when we fought them at the Ministry. He uses people. He went after you because you were my best friends sister. I wasn't going to give him another excuse to go after my family, your family, Lupin, the Order, my friends…the woman I love"

Ginny inhaled sharply closing her eyes. Harry gave a mournful little chuckle as Ginny opened her eyes again feeling them get a bit wet.

"I thought about you…a lot actually. Sometimes I used to wonder what would happen if I came back to Hogwarts, but…but I never expected it would take only a year. I was prepared for the long haul with this, ten years even before I found all the pieces of him scattered across the world. So…so when I ended things, I ended them knowing that you deserved better than that. And so I'm glad you found it. I'm glad that you managed to get a happy ending even if it's not with me"

"Have you been speaking to Ron at all?"

"Ron—well not after I told him what had happened last night, he was kinda funny with me whenever you were mentioned but well…he's Ron"

Ginny snorted wiping her eyes.

"Harry…James is not a boyfriend. James is…Ja…"

It was ironic really, she had been envisioning this moment for nearly a year and now she was in a position to tell Harry about his son she found she couldn't put together the words.

"Harry do you remember the night before the wedding? Your birthday when…well…when we…had sex?"

"Yeah?" Harry said flushing a little. "What of it?"

"James isn't my boyfriend Harry. He's your son"

There was a very long pause. Ginny stared at him seeing the changes that flashed before his eyes as the knowledge took hold. He went from surprise to shock his eyes doing the tell-tale sweep of her stomach to confirm that she was not hiding a baby under her shirt and then back to her face as he did a rather decent impression of a codfish.

"My err…huh?"

"You son" Ginny elaborated. "I thought I did everything right but when I came to Hogwarts I realised I was pregnant, and I thought through my options and carried your baby to term, we went into hiding at Easter and a week later James was born."

Harry stared at her with wide eyes. "James?" he said very quietly. Ginny nodded.

"James Sirius, after your Dad and Godfather. He's…oh Harry he's perfect he looks like you apart from the eyes"

"Let me guess" Harry said dryly his mouth quirking a little. "He has his mother's eyes?"

Ginny giggled.

"A baby…Ginny…I never meant for that to happen I mean…I have no regrets but I never wanted to leave you alone like that"

"I know that" Ginny said gently. "I know you would never…and I wanted to tell you, I mean when I found out that you were living at Bill's…but I knew you and I knew you would never rest till this was done and I was right. And now our baby has a future to live for free and clear of Voldemort"

Harry stared at her his eyes wide looking more like a seventeen year old than the man that had just saved the world from destruction.

"A baby" he said again. "I…I never even thought that I could…" and Ginny realised what he was saying and she felt her heart shatter for him and for love of him. Because here he was saying he had never imagined a future because he had never expected to have one. So much of his life had been wasted fighting against someone and something he had never understood, being a figurehead for something that was always bigger than him and now they had time.

"It's ok" she said gently. "We've got time"

"No we don't" Harry said grimly jumping to his feet. After a moment he held out his hand and Ginny took it. "I reckon we got fifteen minutes before they panic, that means we can go out through the gates and apparate to Muriel's house, she can send a Patronus to the school and I can meet my son? You up for it?"

Ginny grinned, the urge to meet James, to hold him again and to see him with his father was so strong she felt like she would start sobbing hysterically with the thought of it here and now.

She wanted that, she wanted that so badly she could almost taste it.

"Come on then"

And they left the grounds neither one of them commenting on what this meant for them as a couple. Ginny supposed it didn't matter. She had known all along.

Muriel had clearly not gone to sleep because as soon as Ginny had let herself into the house she had let out a shout of "Out of my house damned evil!" and had brandished her wand before she had realised it was Ginny.

"Gin—oh you" she said shortly seeing Harry. "I take it we've won then?"

"Yes he's gone" Ginny said shortly. "And the Lestranges, Snape, Avery, Nott, Crabbe, Goyle, Dolohov…all his main line"

"Good" the woman said shortly. "Give me the casualties on our end?"

Appreciating in a way she never had before, her Great-Aunt's ability to beat around the bush Ginny continued finding in it somewhere for her to speak.

"Lupin, Tonks, kids…a…a lot of kids…about fifty over all and…and Fred" she said finally.

Muriel made a noise and then regained her control instantly. She swallowed and reached backwards collapsing into a chair. For the first time she looked as old as she claimed she was.

"May their souls now be at peace" she said quietly. She shot Ginny an appraisingly long look. "Did you tell them you were coming here?"

"No. Ron's back safe and sound so…and I think they know…"

"Either way I should send them a message and then…Andromeda Tonks as well…Merlin what that woman's been through this past year. Augusta Longbottom as well?"

"Oh she got one of the Lestrange brothers so she's with Neville"

"Good" the woman said nodding her approval. "About time those people got what was coming to them—his bitch?"

"Mum"

Auntie Muriel stared at her and then gave a great cackle. "Molly" she said fondly. "Well…I should go and get dressed. Your boy's upstairs…slept like a log woke up for a feeding and slept again. It gave me something to do…Lord knows I couldn't sleep last night anyway…I should…well…"

She moved towards the door and Ginny knew she wanted to hide her face but she seemed to summon something in her to glare at Harry who had been watching this exchange silently at the doorway.

"If there is any funny business in my house Potter, He-Who-Must-Not will be the least of your worries."

And with that she was off.

"Please" Harry said in an undertone. "I could barely stand right now never mind— "he caught Ginny's look, blushed and then looked away. Ginny bit her lip. "Give me a sec to settle him and I'll bring him down" she said softly. Harry nodded and then she was up the stairs almost two at a time.

Her room was the same as she had left it, rumpled sheets and all. James was awake and she could see him gurgling. Muriel must have taken him upstairs when the charms had been broken around her house by their arrival. He was awake and dressed in a little blue onesie that covered his toes and had white strips. He made a little noise when he saw her and Ginny took a second just to stare at him wiping her eyes again as the tears came.

"Hey my little man" she said picking him up and holding him so that he could spit up if he wanted on her shoulder. She could feel him closer this way and it was easier to rock him back and forth and smell his baby smell.

"So guess what? Mummy and Daddy won the war against the bad wizard. Though…though Uncle Fred had to go away…as well as a nice man who I really wanted you to meet…but Daddy survived, and he's here to meet you so—" she said pulling James forwards so that they were staring at each other—as much as James could stare he seemed more interested in her hair.

"So I need you to be on your best behaviour ok, so please give him a few minutes before you need your nappy changed and please don't cry, because he's here now and he's never gonna go away again"

James gurgled again. Ginny held him back in both arms so that he was looking up at her and then made it slowly down the stairs.

Harry was waiting there but his eyes were fixed on the baby she carried. He was staring at him with that hunger and desire and amazement that Ginny herself understood because she too would never get enough of James even if it was just to look at him. He had shed his jacket and she could tell that his clothes like hers had been cleaned the night before. Also she could see the weight that he had lost over the course of this year.

"Here you go" she said softly holding out James. Harry took him smoothly and Ginny positioned her son so that he was more comfortable praying James did not choose this moment to throw a tantrum.

Clearly however the Potter boys continually surprised her.

James stared up at his father his brown eyes lazily looking at him. He batted one small hand upwards and it wrapped around Harry's finger and Harry made a small noise that had Ginny looking away to get control over her emotions.

"Ginny" Harry said finally. He looked up and she knew the emotions that were on his face were reflected back in hers. "Oh Ginny he's…he's…"

"I know" she said finally wiping her eyes again. "I know he's perfect. Of course didn't feel like that when he was coming out of me but…and it wont feel like that at three, five and seven when he's screaming for a chance to use my breast as a chew toy. And trust me it wont feel like that when you see how much mess he creates. But then he does something, something even as small as raise his feet in the air and then you find you don't care and all the danger was worth it for this"

Harry cooed a little at James and Ginny doubted that he had heard anything she had said. She grinned feeling lighter than she had done in a whole year—three whole years to be exact. The last time she had felt this free of worry and pain and grief she had been thirteen and Cedric Diggory, Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour and Harry Potter had just entered the Triwizard Maze.

James let out a little cry. Harry shot Ginny a rather panicked look and Ginny smiled. "It's ok" she said reaching out so that she could lean her head against his shoulder and take one of James's fingers in his own.

"He has perfect little fingernails" Harry said finally. "I never thought of babies having little fingernails like this"

"You…I mean I did the right thing then? The name and all? I mean he's not registered or anything but it was always going to be Potter"

"You kidding? Name's perfect. Merlin Sirius would be hysterical. Probably be planning all the pranks that he would be teaching James."

Ginny smiled. "He'd be proud of you tonight" she said softly. "Both of them…all of them…"

"Remus made me godfather of his son" Harry said finally.

"And you responded by breaking into Gringotts on the back of a dragon. Teddy Lupin's got good people around him. He's got a grandmother that loves him and a godfather that will always be there for him."

Harry smiled. "Hey maybe we get a couple more and form our own Marauders"

"Like hell. Right now this one is enough to contend with. Besides if my mother gets wind of another grandchild she might combust. I don't want to even think about children until James is at Hogwarts"

"You say that now" Harry said beaming. James beamed back up at him.

"Actually" Ginny said something within her finally at peace. "I was thinking bed and then…when this one wakes us up we can take him to Hogwarts, Uncle Neville's been keeping him a secret since Christmas and Auntie Luna is gonna want to bless him with Rackspurts and he should meet Uncle Dean and Uncle Seamus and Uncle Ron, Uncle Percy and Aunt Hermione."

"He's gonna have a big family around him" Harry said softly still staring down at the baby. "I never had that. Not till I met Ron and then I met all of you. Ginny I—"

"I know" Ginny said because she did know the end of that sentence and she didn't need to hear it right now. "And I feel the same way, have done for years. And now we've got years to talk about it. But trust me Harry I might have only been a parent for a couple of weeks but I've learnt when you get the opportunity to sleep you sleep"

Harry laughed, James cooed again his eyelashes fluttering against his plump cheeks and then Harry was passing him back and heading upstairs Ginny following putting down James in his crib and tucking him in under his blanket. James would sleep and Ginny revelling in the fact that now she could use magic sent his Hogwarts houses mobile spinning around his crib so he could bat the animals before he tired himself out.

"Ginny…err…sleeping in jeans is uncomfortable…err…"

"Harry I have seen you naked, literally naked, take your damn pants of if you want to"

Harry shed himself of his jeans and slipped under the covers in his boxers and t-shirt. Ginny stripped too throwing her jeans and shirt to the corner of the room. There would be time later to clean up. She could feel Harry's eyes on her and she wondered if he could tell the difference, she was bleeding still and went into the bathroom to clean herself up and change her underwear reaching for the ratty old jumper she had been sleeping in. Her breasts were bigger, there was fat around her hips post baby and she was curvier than she had been when he had last seen her, stretch marks clear as day.

"Gin" Harry said from where he was watching her when she came out of the bathroom. "I can hear you thinking even without Occlumency…you are the most beautiful woman that I have ever laid eyes on"

"This better not be a come on for another baby" Ginny said grinning.

Harry laughed and Ginny smiled listening to it. It had been a long time even before they had been separated since she had heard Harry laugh like that. This was a new Harry Potter, a Harry Potter finally free of the darkness that had plagued him since the tender age of one and she finally got a chance to see it.

"Ginny" Harry said finally. "Can he sleep with us. I just…I want my family with me tonight" he shot her a pleading look and Ginny found she couldn't say no because there had been a time, many a time when she had wanted and craved and needed the same thing.

She lifted James up out of his crib (he gave a whimper of protest but was otherwise ok with it especially once the mobile came with them) and then gave him to Harry. She slipped beneath the covers as James rested on Harry's chest little body breathing up and down like a little weight. Ginny tapped him on his nose as his eyes fell shut again and his breathing evened out.

"I never thought I'd get this" Harry said as Ginny shifted so James was between the two of them and she could lean her head on his chest as well as his arm came around her.

"Always thought that I would be dead"

"And now you can have whatever you want" Ginny whispered as the exhaustion, the adrenaline and everything else between the last time that they had done since they had been like this together.

"Depends" Harry said finally.

"On what?"

"On whether or not I make it. Voldemort was one obstacle, facing your father and your brothers after I find out I knocked up their daughter/sister at sixteen is another thing entirely"

Ginny giggled but hushed herself before she woke James, Harry gave her a slow soft smile and then he kissed her. It was awkward due to the angle they were at but the kiss was soft and gentle and Ginny had no doubts that it would be the first of many.

"Besides" Harry said finally. "Everything I've ever wanted is right here"

Ginny smiled, James snuffed a little, and the newly formed young Potter family fell to much needed, much wanted, and blissfully peaceful sleep.

And there it is, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I look forward to getting the final chapter too you in due course.

Next Chapter-The Final Chapter-As time moves on and September 1st moves closer, Harry and Ginny put the past behind them and move towards a peace filled future surrounded by family and friends.