Author's note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights

Hogwarts: Assignment #1, Arithmancy Task #2: Write about someone turning 17

Content Warnings: NA


Low Bar, High Success Rate

Harry was already in bed reading a battered copy of Quidditch Weekly when Ginny joined him and pulled the covers tightly over herself, staring at the ceiling numbly.

"Do you want me to turn off my light?" Harry asked, turning the page of his magazine.

"No, that's fine," Ginny said, still not looking away from the ceiling. There was a stain there that she somehow hadn't noticed before that looked suspiciously like the chocolate milk stain Jamie had left on the kitchen ceiling when he'd been five years old.

Harry rolled onto his side and looked at her, eyebrows furrowed. "Are… are you alright?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"So no."

"I said yes!"

"No you said mmm-hmm," Harry said.

"Just… tired from the party," Ginny said. It had always been almost impossible to throw a small party in the Weasley family, but they had only gotten bigger and bigger since all her siblings had started reproducing. Harry had pointed that out when they'd bought the house, selling the backyard as a winning and possibly life-saving feature, and he'd been right. Where else were they supposed to store three kids, ten nieces and nephews, two grandparents, far too many siblings and in-laws, and one Teddy? Not to mention that today, Lily's friends had also been over of course—and Al had dragged Scorpius Malfoy along, not to mention Jamie's boyfriend...

"Yeah, it was a big one," Harry said absent-mindedly, eyes scanning the page of his magazine again.

"It was the biggest one," Ginny said.

Harry looked up at her again.

"I meant… I meant that the party was big and so I cooked a lot," he said. "What do you mean?"

"I meant that our baby turned seventeen," Ginny said. "And not just our baby—our baby baby. Our last baby. She's an adult now!"

"Yeah," Harry said. "Yeah, she sure is. Seventeen, graduated, starting her wand-making apprenticeship in the Fall and everything..."

"Oh, Merlin," Ginny sighed, staring at the ceiling again. Lily had looked so grown-up and beautiful too, in a mint green dress that was only a few shades off from the onesie they'd brought her home from St. Mungo's in.

How had she not noticed that stain before?

She flipped over to stare at Harry again.

"They're adults now—all of them! Even Jamie was wearing a shirt with buttons today, didn't you see that? They can hang out without us. They don't need to come here, we'll barely see any of them anymore," Ginny said.

"That's what we said about Teddy, but he's still eating our food three to four times a week so I think we're good," Harry said. "And it's probably genetic. I mean, your mother is still feeding me regularly."

Ginny stared at the ceiling again.

"I mean, doesn't it make you… kind of sad?" Ginny said. "That they're all grown-up now?"

"Not really," Harry said. "I mean, that was the goal wasn't it? To get them all grown-up safe and soundly, fed and clothed and housed and loved every day?"

"I… I suppose it was, if you're going to list it out like that," Ginny said with a smile pulling at her lips.

"I know the bar is low, but I wanted their childhoods to be better than mine," Harry said. "So it's not really sad that we got them there—with absolutely zero encounters with the dark arts, might I add. It's happy to see them all grown-up and ready to go."

"Yeah," Ginny said, biting back a smile. "When you put it like that, it is."

Harry twisted around to put his magazine on the nightstand before reaching out for her. She snuggled against him. And the happy nostalgia was so much better than the anxiety that Ginny almost forgot about the stain.


WC: 625