Chapter Five
Removing
his glasses and setting them on the table, Harry rubbed at his eyes. He rested his elbows on the table and his
head on his hands. He was tired. Tired of moving from place to place. Tired of asking the same question over and
over again, gaining the same odd looks form strange Muggles. He looked down at the map and all the
information he had been gathering in great frustration.
He
had been in America for three months now, all the while searching for Ginny…or
Gwen, as he had been forced to call her. In the entire state of Nebraska, there were eleven Gwen Williams and
sixty-eight G. Williams listed. Harry
had managed to find all the Gwen Williams to verify that none of them were
Ginny. The G. Williams, he had done a
more extensive search to uncover which of those were females, which left only
twenty-one people as possible candidates. Harry had seen with his own eyes seventeen of these people. Apparating was easy here as things were
spaced out so well. But two of the
people were on vacation, and the other two had moved recently. None of them were Ginny.
That
brought him to a few conclusions. One,
she wasn't here, which quite frankly he wouldn't allow himself to believe. Two, she was married and had a new last
name. Harry didn't want to believe this
either, but Ginny was a beautiful, talented, and loving young woman and it
seemed very possible that she had married and moved on with her life. Even if she was married, Harry wanted to
find her, if only to make contact with his son or daughter, whichever the case
may be.
But
the option that Harry was most hoping for was one presented to him by a Muggle
at the library while helping him look for more names. The woman had suggested that perhaps Ginny was unlisted. There was a chance that she didn't have her
phone number or address listed anywhere to make it easy to find her. This was Harry's hope, as the other
possibilities were too difficult for him to bear just now. Besides, it made sense to Harry that Ginny
would try to cover up her tracks if she was hiding from the Death Eaters.
So
that's what he was leaning towards…Ginny was here somewhere, not married, and
hidden so well that there wasn't much of a trace. Harry had been told he would have greater luck if he knew her social
security number, but how was he supposed to get a hold of that? He hadn't even been able to figure out what
her profession was? Left with no other
options, Harry was now going from town to town with a picture of Ginny asking
anyone who would talk to him if they had ever seen this woman. Many people thought he was crazy. Some people thought she was some random
neighbor, which would prove to be a false identification. But Harry would always look, just in case,
because he never knew when the identity would turn out to be the right one.
His
eggs and toast were now cold. He
nibbled on the end of one of the pieces and decided he just wasn't hungry. He always ordered food, but he never really
ate. He needed to or else Ginny
wouldn't recognize him when she saw him again…if she saw him again. He sipped at the coffee…disgusting…but
that's all these Muggles seemed to drink around here.
There
were a few other customers in the café this afternoon, but Harry didn't seem to
notice them. All he could focus on
anymore was the picture of Ginny that Mrs. Weasley had given him before he left
to come to the states. She was about
twenty in the picture, just they way Harry remembered her. Her hair was down around her shoulders,
pulled back from her face with a headband. It's glorious color enhanced by her beautiful smile and deep, brown
eyes. How carefree she looked. Harry wondered, would she still look like
this? Had the years spent alone worked
any damage to her lovely smile? Would
she still be the laughable, fun woman he fell in love with?
"Hey,
look Mom! That's my teacher!"
Harry
hardly noticed the girl standing beside him, pointing at Ginny's picture.
"Don't
bother the man, honey." The mother
pulled on the arm of the girl, leading her to the door.
Realization
hit Harry like a ton of bricks as he replayed the little girls comment in his
head. "WAIT!" he called out to the
mother, jumping out form behind the booth he had been sitting in. He brought the photograph up to the little
girl and looked down at her.
"I'm
sorry, but did you say this woman was your teacher?"
"Yeah,
that's Ms. Williams. She's great!"
Hope
flooded through Harry. "You're sure
this is your teacher?" The little girl
nodded. Harry looked up at the mother
and asked, "I'm sorry, but have you met your daughter's teacher?"
The
mother was puzzled, "Just what is this about?"
"I'm
looking for this woman…Gwen Williams. I've been looking for her for a long time and I don't know where she
is."
Nodding
at Harry, the mother said, "Well, it certainly looks like her."
Harry's
heart began to race. Was it possible
that he had finally found Ginny? "Can you tell me the name of the school,
please? So that I might be able to
contact her?"
"Sure,
Northside Elementary School."
Harry
thanked them and colleted his things in a rush. He hurried over to the local library and began looking up
information on the school. The
librarian led him to a collection of yearbooks at the back of the
building. Running his finger over them,
Harry stopped at the one labeled for last year. Slowly he pulled it out and flipped through it, finding the
faculty page. There, at the bottom, as
the second to last teacher listed, was Ginny's picture. He had found her!
His
hands were shaking as he ran his hand over the page. I found you, he kept repeating, I found you! But then something else occurred to
him. The baby would be about seven or eight
years old now. American children went
to local schools most of their lives. Could there be a picture of the baby in this book, too? Nervously, Harry flipped to the section
featuring the smaller children skimming the list of names for a
"Williams".
Turning
the page to the next group of first graders, his eyes froze on the image in
front of him. His jaw dropped as he
looked at the picture of the last boy on the page; Jimmy Williams it said his
name was. Jimmy…James…oh my God! Harry brought a hand up to his mouth in a
mix of surprise and fear. This boy was
the spitting image of him. He couldn't
tell from the black and white picture what color his hair was or if his eyes
were green, but it didn't matter. This
boy was so obviously Harry's son that Harry could feel his soul ache at the
sight of him. He wanted to touch him,
to hold him, to hear his laugh, to tell him he was sorry that he had never been
there for him. So much emotion…and
today was Saturday…School wouldn't start back until Monday. Harry didn't know if he could wait that
long.
***
Harry
spent most of Sunday wondering the town, hoping to see Ginny somewhere in the
crowd, but it didn't happen. He had
located the school and had decided to go in and find her classroom as soon as
school started. He didn't care anymore;
he wanted to see her so badly…and he wanted to see Jimmy as well. Hopefully, they would want to see him,
too. For there was something else the
little girl in the diner had said that had cheered Harry up a bit. She had called Ginny MS.
Williams…not Mrs.
Harry
didn't sleep well Sunday night from all the nerves and anticipation of what
would happen the next day. So he
decided to just go ahead and go to the school early. He arrived at there as students were filling into the building. Harry waited a while out side, nervousness
spreading to every inch of his body. His hands were shaking again and the palms were a bit sweaty. Looking down at his watch, he read the time
at 9:00 and made up his mind to head on into the building.
He
found the front office easily and waited for the receptionist to take care of a
few late students and a parent picking up information on some up coming
activity. Harry wanted to push them all
to the side and yell at them to hurry up, but he waited his turn. He was growing restless and noticed himself
pacing a bit and bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet. Stop it, Harry, he thought.
"Can
I help you, sir?"
Stepping
forward, Harry clasp his hands in front of him. "Yes, I need to speak to one of your teachers; Gwen
Williams."
"I'm
sorry, Ms. Williams is in class."
Harry's
smile dropped. What? Of course she was in class! Did this mean they weren't going to let him
speak to Ginny? "Yes…I know…but I
really need to speak to her."
"How
about you leave a message for her with your phone number and she can call and
arrange a meeting with you later on in the week after school?" The receptionist, although being very
polite, didn't know how close she was to being cursed.
"No,
this can't wait. I have to talk to her
now!" Harry said, feeling the anger
starting to rise, but fighting to remain calm.
"I'm
sorry, sir, but we don't allow parents into the classroom without prior
notification from the teacher. You
can't just go in there."
Harry's
chest heaved. "Why not?"
"Well…It's
against the rules."
Harry
had had enough. "Listen, if you don't
let me talk to her now…if you don't let me go and see her now….if you make me
leave a message for her, I guarantee she will be thoroughly upset with
you for keeping me down here one minute longer than necessary!" He raised his voice at the woman, stunning
her.
"Sir,
I'm going to have to ask you to leave!"
"Not
until I see her!"
"SIR!"
"NO!
You don't understand!"
"I'm
calling security."
Harry
charged out of the office and headed towards the classrooms. "Ginny!" he yelled out, not caring if anyone
thought him mad. He paused and looked
in a few of the classrooms for her, but didn't see her. That yearbook had said she taught the older
children. Harry had to find the older
children. He ran up the stairs,
"Ginny!", but again nothing. Down the
hall, checking rooms as he went, all the while calling for her. He ran down the stairs at the other end of
the building and rounded the corner…and froze.
At
the end of the corridor, looking around the corner cautiously was Ginny. Her back was to him, but would know that
hair anywhere. "GINNY!" he cried out
and she spun around. Their eyes met,
and he heard a gasp escape her throat.
"Harry?"