A/N I Own Nothing
Ao3 – Once_Upon_A_Potter
Some swearing in this chapter.
Also! 2 chapters in one day!
September 2nd, 2000
"…and this piece," Ginny grunted, pushing the sides of the crib together, "Goes here!"
She stepped back to look at her handiwork, pushing sweat soaked bangs off her forehead.
Her hand went to her mouth, eyes glistening.
"Gin?" Harry asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Ginny responded, quickly. "Just… It all suddenly seems so… real."
September 3rd, 2000
"Do you really need to be eating that?" Muriel asked in disgust, coming into the kitchen, where Harry was standing, talking to Molly.
"Ex-Excuse me?" Harry asked, looking down at what he was eating. It was a piece of toast. That he was eating in an attempt to help his pregnancy related heartburn.
"Don't you think," Muriel started, plopping herself down in a kitchen chair. "that maybe you're putting on a little too much weight?"
Molly paused in what she was doing, quietly turning the water off, in order to listen better.
"…No?" Harry answered hesitantly. Maybe she was right? Was he putting on too much weight for it to be healthy? He brushed those thoughts off, or tried to, at least. Any weight he had put on was literally nearly only baby. So much so, that Ethan had actually been slightly concerned about it.
"Hmm." Muriel hummed, "You may want to rethink that."
"Muriel!" Molly interrupted, before Harry could respond.
"Couldn't even wait until lunch! Honestly!" Muriel huffed, bustling out the door.
Harry stared after her.
"Don't listen to her, Harry dear." Molly told him, patting his cheek.
September 10th, 2000
"Hey Buddy!" Harry exclaimed, taking Teddy from Ginny. The two had flooed over, while Harry had driven.
"Hi!" Teddy grinned, wrapping his arms around Harry's neck, and legs around Harry's waist.
"I'm going to go help Mum in the garden." Ginny said to Harry, pecking him on the check before bounding out the back door.
Muriel huffed from the doorway between the kitchen and living room.
Harry froze, breath hitching slightly a momentary feeling of panic washing over him. He didn't even know why he reacted the way he did, at hearing her voice.
"What is it, Muriel?" He asked, turning to look at her over Teddy's shoulder.
"You shouldn't be holding him," Muriel told Harry, "He's too heavy for you."
"I assure you, he's not too heavy." Harry snapped, he wasn't an idiot, he had spoken to Ethan about things like that.
"Where were you earlier?" Muriel asked, squinting her eyes at him.
"What do you mean?" Harry responded, head tilting, as he tightened his hold on Teddy.
"Just, Ginevra and Edward have been here for half an hour already." Muriel told him, as if he hadn't already known.
"I can't floo," Harry answered, "I had to drive, but we didn't feel the need to make Teddy ride over in the car, when he and Ginny could floo."
"Hmm…" Muriel hummed, "You know what it sounds like to me? Sounds almost like you have another lady friend, or… maybe even a man?"
"I- I'm not- I am not cheating on Ginny!" Harry exclaimed, spluttering, glaring at the old hag.
"Where did you get the idea I was accusing you of cheating?" Muriel asked, taking a step toward Harry, who took a corresponding step back. "Unless you actually are?"
"You know what," Harry hissed, "you can just go-" he cut himself off abruptly, taking a deep breath, before he could swear in front of a two year old.
"I can just go what?" Muriel demanded, knowing exactly what he had been meaning to say.
Harry elected not to respond, instead turning and rushing out the back door.
xXx
"Gramma!" Teddy yelled excitedly, drawing Molly and Ginny's attention to he and Harry.
"Hi Sweetheart!" Molly giggled, taking Teddy from Harry, stepping away to give her daughter and son in law some privacy. "Do you want to see what we were planting?"
"Yes!" Teddy exclaimed, clapping his hands.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, seeing her husband's red rimmed eyes, "What's wrong?"
"Why." Harry started, voice trembling, "Does your aunt. Have to be such a bitch?"
September 17th, 2000
"Harry!" Muriel exclaimed, having watched the twenty year old come into the living room and settle on the loveseat, which just so happened to be as far from Muriel as possible, Ginny right behind him. "Be a dear and refill my water glass, would you?"
He stared at her, dreading having to force himself into a standing position again right after sitting.
"I'll get it!" Ginny exclaimed, holding her hand out to grab Muriel's glass.
"No. No." Muriel refused, holding onto the glass. "I asked Harry, besides… He does it the best."
"It's just water!" Arthur exclaimed, staring at her incredulously, "I'll do it. Or better yet, you could get it yourself."
"I asked Harry." Muriel sneered, and suddenly, Harry was having flashbacks to his and Ginny's wedding day. He shut in eyes in resigned exhaustion.
"It's fine, guys," Harry said, before the woman could escalate to a full on tantrum. "Just, help me up, would you Gin?"
Ginny did so, glaring at Muriel the entire time.
Harry none too gently grabbed the glass from the woman, wincing through a Braxton hick.
September 23rd, 2000
"Come back to bed?" Ginny said, coming to sit next to Harry on their couch.
Harry shook his head, "Can't sleep." He grumbled.
"How come?" Ginny asked, reaching over and putting a hand on his shoulder.
Harry sighed, leaning over and planting his head on her shoulder, she wrapped her arms around him.
"Your aunt." Harry eventually answered, voice muffled.
"Muriel." Ginny stated, more than asked.
"I woke up and literally felt like I couldn't breathe." Harry admitted, "Because it hit me that we would have to see her again tomorrow."
"I'm sorry." Ginny whispered, closing her eyes, and tilting her head, so her cheek touched the top of Harry's head.
"Not your fault." Harry assured her.
"I know." Ginny told him, "But still…"
"Not your fault." Harry insisted, wrapping his arms around her.
"Wake me up, okay?" Ginny asked of him, "If that ever happens again."
Harry nodded, sniffling.
September 24th, 2000
"Why did you drive, Ginevra?" Muriel asked, having watched Ginny and Harry come up to the house.
"Because I wanted to." Ginny deadpanned, seeing how tired Harry had been that morning, she had decided to drive so he could sleep on the way over, if he wanted to. He had been so tired that morning, that he had been nauseous.
xXx
"He looks exhausted," Molly commented to Ginny, after Harry left the room, having excused himself to the bathroom.
"Yeah. Well," Ginny shrugged, "He didn't sleep much last night."
"How come?" Molly asked, glancing at her daughter in concern.
"He was worried about today." Ginny admitted quietly, "And how Muriel might treat him."
Molly went quiet at that, something needed to change, someone she saw as a child was losing sleep because he was worried about coming to her house.
She stared determinedly at her hands as she diced the chicken, and, if she was more forceful with her knife than usual. Well, nobody needed to know.
October 1st, 2000
"Are we putting on a baby shower?" Audrey asked suddenly, during a lull in conversation.
Harry and Ginny glanced at each other at the suddenness of the question.
"I mean," Harry started, "It wasn't in the plan…?"
"Oh, come now!" Molly said, folding her hands on the table and leaning forward. "You're having your first baby, it's tradition to have a baby shower!"
"I wouldn't exactly call this our first baby." Harry told her, "We do have Teddy."
"I would still like to throw you a baby shower." Fleur said, tilting her head.
"I know, I know." Harry told them. "I just… You know, if you girls want to do something, go for it!"
"Is there anything you guys need?" Angelina asked, leaning back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other.
"Well," Ginny started, as Harry shifted uncomfortably, glancing at her.
"We already have everything we really need." Harry finished, they had it set up and everything.
Ginny nodded in agreement.
"Humph." Muriel huffed, pointing at Harry with her fork. "Being ungrateful now, are you?"
"Go." Vernon had snarled, pointing at a seven year old Harry with his fork. "Cupboard. Now." He continued, punctuating each word by jabbing the fork in Harry's direction.
"Yes, Uncle." Harry had responded, pushing his chair back from the table with a loud screech, all he had asked, was if he could eat some of the food he had made,
instead of the stale bread.
Uncle Vernon's voice rang in his ears as he went to his cupboard,
"And stop being such an ungrateful little shi-"
"Harry?" Ginny asked, noticing her husband's silence and reaching over to squeeze his knee.
Harry shook his head, standing from the table, and going out the back door.
Ginny stared after him for a moment, before following him.
"Muriel!" Arthur snapped, turning to his wife's great-aunt.
xXx
"Harry?" Ginny asked, finding her husband sitting on under a tree in the orchard, eyes closed, fingers on his temples as if to ward off a headache.
"Gin." Harry responded, glancing up at her with bloodshot eyes.
"What happened in there?" Ginny asked, sitting cross legged beside him.
"Nothing. I just," Harry sighed, dropping his hands to his lap. "I had thought… Every time I think I'm not effected so much by my childhood anymore, it just… Hits me?"
"Oh." Ginny breathed.
"One of Vernon's favorite things to call me is 'an ungrateful little shit'." Harry continued, shaking his head slightly, a tiny self-deprecating smile on his lips.
"Oh, Harry." Ginny whispered, holding her hand out for him to take, if there was one thing everyone knew Harry was not, it was ungrateful. As weird as it may be to hear her husband swear, she didn't react to it.
xXx
"I think I need a moment alone with Muriel." Arthur stated, his eyes boring into the elderly woman's.
At that, his entire family moved nearly as one, fleeing to the living room, with the exception of Molly, who went out the back door.
Ever since Arthur had first seen a twelve year old Harry Potter sitting at his table, he had been one of Arthur's. And, if there was one thing you didn't do, it was treat one of Arthur's children how he and Molly had repeatedly witnessed Muriel treat Harry.
Once the room was clear of all but them, Arthur turned to Muriel.
"You," Arthur started in a misleadingly calm voice, "are not to treat my son as you have been."
Muriel raised an eyebrow.
"Last I checked," She responded, "that boy wasn't of Weasley or Prewett blood."
"Family doesn't end in blood, Muriel." Arthur stated, even if it did end in blood, Harry was still married to his daughter, and carrying his grandchild. "And blood?
Doesn't necessarily have to be family."
"If even blood doesn't have to be family," Muriel started nastily, "Then why are we having this conversation?"
"Because Harry?" Arthur started, "While he may not be blood, he is my family. And you? You are currently living under my roof."
"So I am." Muriel agreed, sneering.
"That, is an arrangement that can quickly change." Arthur told her, staring at her sternly, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You say that like I ever wanted to live here in the first place." Muriel snarled, puffing out her chest slightly.
"You have two options. You can't live alone anymore. Your Healer has put their foot down about that." Arthur continued, as if she had never interrupted. "You," He pointed at her, "either learn how to treat my son," he told her, "Or we put you in a nursing home."
There was a moment of silence, where the two stared at each other.
Arthur, his eyes boring into Muriel's, daring her to disagree with him.
And Muriel, sizing Arthur up, debating whether not Arthur was serious.
"Understood?" Arthur eventually asked.
Muriel deflated, "Understood."