A/N I Own Nothing

Ao3 – Once_Upon_A_Potter

October 31st, 2000

12:03 A.M

"Ginny," Harry muttered, and, at the lack of response, he reached over and gently shook her shoulder, "Ginny, wake up!"

"Hmmm." Ginny hummed, squinting at him through the darkness of their bedroom, "Wha?"

"My water broke." Harry told her, wincing through another contraction.

There was a moment of silence as Ginny's half asleep mind tried to catch up. When it did, she jack knifed into a sitting position. "What!"

12:12 A.M

It took a matter of minutes for them to be on their way to Saint Mungoes. Ginny had called Ethan, who had advised them to go ahead and head their way, taking into account their three hour car drive.

Harry dreaded the drive. The fact that they would likely need to stop to fill up the gas guzzler that was the Ford Anglia did not help. Harry didn't know if all Ford Anglia's were like that, or if it had something to do with Arthur's tinkering.

He was glad that they had thought to pack hospital bags and put them by the door, just the other day. Especially thinking of how long it had taken them to pack them, even now, he was worried they had forgotten something.

One thing he knew for certain, was that he was in no way ready for this.

He was not ready to have a small human being depending on him.

He shut his eyes against another contraction, letting his body sway with the movement of the car.

"We need to get gas before we get too far." Ginny informed her husband, signaling to turn into the station.

Harry sighed, hoping this wasn't some kind of omen to how this drive was going to be.

12:47 A.M

"Ginny." Harry ground out, after several minutes of going fifty in a seventy. He knew what her hesitation was, the driver in front of them was not only going twenty under, but swerving around the lane, hitting the rumble strips before jerking back into their own lane. Wash, rinse, repeat. "Just, go around them."

There was a lengthy silence before Ginny sighed, flicking her turn signal on. "Screw it, I'm doin' it." She grumbled.

1:21 A.M

"You okay?" Ginny asked, glancing over at Harry as he leaned forward, bracing himself against the dashboard, pained grimace crossing his face.

In the ensuing quiet, Ginny reached out a hand and squeezed Harry's shoulder, wishing there was something more, anything more, she could do to help, as she silently timed the contraction.

"Fine! I'm fine." Harry answered breathlessly, once it had passed.

At least, Ginny supposed, they were making good time?

1:53 A.M

Harry reached up, grabbing Ginny's hand, which was still on his shoulder, and squeezing when a particularly strong contraction hit.

They had been getting stronger and stronger over the course of the past thirty minutes or so.

To the point that Harry would almost compare them to Voldemort's Cruciatus.

2:39 A.M

"Crap." Ginny muttered, glancing in the rearview mirror.

"Crap?" Harry repeated, glancing over at his wife, as their speed rapidly decreased, "Why crap? What-" he glanced back out the back window, as Ginny pulled off to the side of the road, seeing the same as Ginny, flashing red and blue lights right behind them. "Crap."

And they were only about thirty, forty minutes out, Harry thought, as the officer came up to Ginny's window, knocking on it for Ginny to roll it down.

She did, cranking the handle.

"Ma'am." The officer started, "Do you have any idea just how fast you were driving?"

Ginny did, in fact, know just how fast she had been driving. That didn't mean she was going to admit to it.

"No." She lied, "How- How fast was I going?"

Harry's breath hitched as another contraction rippled through him, trying to breath through it and not let on to the officer that anything was wrong. Though Harry could have sworn he could feel the head.

The officer cocked an eyebrow, and in a bemused voice, told her, "Eighty-five in a seventy."

"Was I really?" Ginny asked, fake shock coloring her voice.

The officer didn't seem to buy it, "Where were you headed?"

Ginny paused, contemplating, before she sighed. "The hospital. My… Spouse… is in labor. We live about three hours out, we're just trying to make it the last stretch, and hopefully not have a car baby."

The officer seemed to soften slightly, she had been there herself, and it had not been a fun time, in fact, she had sped similarly to the young woman in front of her, "I can give you a ride." She offered, "Get you there without having to fight any traffic."

"That's, awfully kind of you to offer." Ginny told her, not wanting to imagine the mess that something like that could cause with the statue of secrecy, "But, I think we've got it."

"Alright, tell what," The officer sighed, there wasn't much she could do to help if they wouldn't allow it. "You let me see your license and registration, and I let you go with a warning. Deal?"

Ginny nodded, already reaching for said items. "Deal."

2:51 A.M

"And… Now we need gas." Ginny grumbled, pulling into the station. Had they been in their car, they would've made it to Saint Mungoes, not having to fill up until they were half way home.

Though, she was glad that her parents had let them borrow the car. It was better than nothing.

3:00 A.M

"We're not going to make it." Harry said breathlessly, between voice stealing contractions.

"What?" Ginny yelped, glancing at him, gripping his hand as, breath hitching, he worked his way through yet another contraction. "No. No. No, no, no. We're only about thirty minutes out. It'll be okay, we'll make it."

She didn't like this. She couldn't help but think back to parental and fetal mortality rates for male bearer births. Especially for unassisted male bearer births.

She shook her head, banishing those thoughts. They would be fine, they would make it. They would have a perfectly safe, assisted, birth.

Harry shook his head, "I need to push."

"Just… Try to breathe through it." Ginny told him, speeding up slightly, pushing the speed limit.

3:19 A.M

"Gin. This baby," Harry ground out, "Is not, going to wait."

"Just brea-"

"I can feel the head, Gin!" Harry snapped, he had to admit, if only to himself, that he was, indeed, panicking slightly. Giving birth in a car was definitely not in their birth plan. Especially not in his father-in-law's car. He wasn't sure what to do at this point, his brain was telling him that he could wait the ten to fifteen minutes left to Saint Mungoes, but his body was telling him he needed to push. Now.

Ginny glanced between her husband and the road, debating with herself. Should she pull over? Continue driving? It wasn't as if they had a guide for this type of thing. She would pull over, then she could assist, but that would draw attention, and she didn't know how exactly she would explain her husband giving birth on the side of the road. If she continued driving, maybe they could make it, but it was looking more and more like this baby was determined to be born in the next few minutes.

Ginny glanced back to her husband, and realized that maybe they did have a guide. "Just… Do what you need to do." She told him, not bothering to slow down or make any move to pull over.

"I don't even know what that is!"

"What's your body telling you to do?" Ginny asked quietly, figuring that 'letting nature run it's course' so to speak, would probably be the best thing they could do at the moment.

There was a tense moment of silence as he rode out yet another contraction.

Ginny slowed the car slightly, eyes almost laser focused on the road, wanting to have complete control as Harry reached down to undo his seatbelt, then hooked his thumbs in his waistband, contorting his body to get his sweatpants off.

Ginny shook her head, she couldn't believe this was happening.

3:27 A.M

Ginny glanced over briefly, as she turned onto the road Saint Mungoes was on.

And. Yup. That was definitely a head.

3:33 A.M

Harry and Ginny stared at each other in the silence that filled the car.

Ginny had parked in the Saint Mungoes parking lot just in time for the baby to be born, just barely being caught by Harry.

A loud wail broke their staring and Ginny hopped out of the car.

"Stay here!" she told her husband, slamming the car door shut. "I'm going to go get a healer!"

Harry snorted. Like he would be able to move on his own right now.

Shaking still, he cradled the babe to his chest.

"You know, James," he started breathlessly, "Most of your aunts and uncles just lost a bet."

He glanced up as Ginny led Healer Pomfrey to the car. She opened the car door, and healer Pomfrey bent down to peer in.

"What do you say we get you two inside and checked over?" The healer asked, his eyes raking over the two in the car.

3:49 A.M

Harry wasn't sure which had been more painful, labor and delivery or moving from the car into the hospital.

He had felt like crying when he was moved from the car to the wheelchair healer Pomfrey had brought with him, and again when the medi-witches helped him move from the wheelchair to the bed in room three hundred and seven of the parental ward.

Having checked both baby and father over, and finding nothing serious, healer Pomfrey set to helping Harry nurse James for the first time, making sure they had a proper latch and a comfortable hold for both of them.

As they were doing so, a medi-wizard, who was now Harry's favorite in all of Saint Mangoes despite not even knowing his name, brought in a pain relief potion.

Around five in the morning, only after James had been laid in the small hospital bassinet, and Harry was finally dozing, only then did Ginny slip out of the room to call her parents.

She used the phone in the waiting room of Saint Mungoes, dialing the number for the burrow.

The phone rang and rang, before a groggy voice finally answered.

"Hello?"

"Dad!" Ginny grinned.

"Ginny!" Arthur exclaimed, sounding much more awake, and Ginny could practically see him perk up as he started asking questions rapid fire. "Why are you calling at five in the morning? Are you and Harry okay? Do you need anything? Did something hap-?"

"Is mum awake?" Ginny asked, cutting off her father's many questions.

"Do you want to talk to her?"

"Well," Ginny started, "I figured, that both of you would want to know that your grandson was born this morning."

There was an eerie silence on the other end of the phone, all Ginny could hear was the static of the phone. "Da-?"

"Molly!"

November 1st, 2000

It was quickly becoming a tradition, to go to the burrow after giving birth, instead of going straight home, in fact, with Victoire, the entire family had gathered at the burrow while Fleur and Bill were at the hospital. The only two that had been at the hospital other than them, were Molly and Arthur. Most everyone else met the baby girl at the burrow the day that Fleur and Victoire had been discharged from Saint Mungoes.

So, Harry, while he would have loved to go straight home, powered through and went to the burrow so that Ginny's family (his family) could meet the newest edition.

They pulled up at the burrow, and Ginny, after turning the car off, reached back to grab the car seat that James was in, undoing the sticking charm she had used to help keep it in place.

"Alright, James," Ginny muttered, hooking her arm through the handle of the car seat, grabbing Harry hand with her free one, "Let's go meet this family of ours."