A/N: thanks for all the feedback, people! Here are some responses to your reviews:
Oonagh: You wrote the story was usual. Well, one thing is sure: later on it will be everything BUT usual. You have my word.
bluemeanies: Ron beating up Harry? Well, you'll see… maybe not exactly what you are expecting, but… let it be a surprise!
Tia'RaHu: well, other students might have been knocked up in Hogwarts' 1000-year-long history, but no books know about them, that's for sure. Speeding up or hiding the pregnancy? No way. It won't be hidden – there's a good reason for it.
mickey: you wrote that cheating on a test was OoC for Harry. Well, maybe… but making up fake predictions about his torments and death by decapitation in book four was also OoC. Wasn't it? And eventually every kid cheats a bit in school, even those who are way too into morals. (There's only one exception: Hermione.)
spitfyre: you asked a highly interesting question, but do you really, really think that I'll answer it?!
All right, enough of my blabbering, on to the show!
Enjoy and review!
Chapter 5
Dreams and confessions
Shortly after their talk, Hagrid left with Fang to teach the third-years about some vampire rabbits that lived on the meadows around the castle. Since Harry didn't have more classes that day, he decided to rest a bit in front of Hagrid's cottage. He sat on the grass, leaning to the wall of the house.
The murmur and yells of the third-years chasing the vampire rabbits didn't bother him, rather lulled him into a restless sleep. No sooner had he fallen asleep than he started to dream…
…He was back in his second year. It was 14th February. Gilderoy Lockhart was smiling in his pink robes, explaining why Valentine's Day was the most wonderful holiday of the year. Ron just told Hermione that he hoped that she wasn't among those forty-six people who had sent Valentines to Lockhart. Hermione blushed and started to look for something in her bag. Harry had the impression that there was no point in celebrating Valentine's Day at all, when a gruff-looking dwarf with wings and a golden harp in his hand shouted his name: "Hey, 'Arry Potter! You've got a Valentine!"
Harry wanted to run away, but the dwarf was quicker, overtook him and tripped him. "You are going to listen to your Valentine, 'Arry Potter!" he yelled at the sprawling boy, then straightened his back, cleared his throat and began to sing:
His eyes are as green as bright-coloured jade,
My true love for him will never fade,
He conceived my child, that can't be denied,
It was the best thing he ever made.
Harry thought he was going to faint. Every student's eyes were directed at him. Some of them had their mouths open, some were snickering, and someone stated "Well, well, well, exactly what you'd expect of the famous Potter!" it was Malfoy, of course.
"Who sent you this Valentine, Harry?" Ron turned to his friend. "Who did you knock up?"
"Who, Weasley?" Malfoy drawled. "None other than your little sister."
"What?" Ron cried, immediately searching for Ginny in the crowd. The girl managed to elbow her way out of the room. Draco yelled after her: "I don't think Potter liked your Valentine much!"
"Ah, Draco, you are worse than all the boggarts on Earth!" Hermione snapped.
"A boggart?" Ron and Harry turned to her. "We haven't learned about boggarts yet, Hermione! It'll only happen next year!"
"Who cares?" Hermione shrugged.
Suddenly the scene changed. They were in Remus Lupin's room in third year. Severus Snape raised from a cupboard. "Ridikkulus!" Neville said, his voice shaking. In the next instant Snape was wearing Neville's grandma's clothes. The class burst out laughing.
"Your turn, Harry." Lupin turned to him.
"But Professor, I'm not supposed to face my own boggart in this scene, am I? You know that it'd turn out to be either a Dementor or Voldemort himself, and you don't want to scare the class, do you? You are going to teach me Expecto Patronum later, anyway."
"No, Harry, it's time for you to face your boggart. Be prepared, it will be scary."
Harry swallowed the lump in his throat, raised his wand and prepared to shout 'Ridikkulus'.
Slowly, the cupboard opened, revealing a redheaded girl – a heavily pregnant Ginny Weasley. "Hi, Harry!" she waved with her left hand, since in her right one she was holding the largest ice-cream he had ever seen. "I've just eaten a banana-split, but I was still hungry." Ginny explained. "I'm eating for two, you know…"
Harry's mind raced, trying to find an idea how to make a ridicule of his boggart – but found none. A pregnant Ginny was simply not funny, especially because she was carrying HIS child.
"What are you waiting for, Harry?" Lupin smiled. "Go ahead, the class is getting bored."
"I can't, professor, I just cannot…" he mumbled.
"If you don't comply, all the others' boggarts will attack you, Harry." the professor warned him.
"I can't… I can't…" the boy shook his head. At that moment all the boggarts lunged at him, tearing his hair, pinching his nose…
…then he woke with a start.
"Huh?" the first thing he saw was Hedwig perched on his shoulder. She had been pinching his ear gently. "Oh, my, Hedwig, I had the most terrible dream… it was maybe even worse than those ones when I dreamed about Voldemort killing people… So, you are back with the reply?"
The owl hooted friendly and let him undo the string on her leg. He unfolded the letter, and started to read:
Harry,
You were right, you and Ginny REALLY did the stupidest thing one could do at your age. Don't worry, I wasn't planning on sending you a howler – though you'd deserve it, young man. All I can give you as an advice is to be totally sincere to that poor girl. Don't start beating around the bush, get to the point. Women don't like waiting.
You wrote that getting married gave you the creeps – I understand that, Harry, but I strongly agree with Professor McGonagall – you HAVE TO marry Ginny. You mustn't leave her in trouble. And, if you really love her (as you said you did), I'm sure that you'd have proposed to her sooner or later. (OK, maybe later, but now there's no time to be wasted.) Look at the bright side of it: your child will be glad to have such young parents he'll get on well with.
Now go to Ginny and remember: honesty is the best policy.
Tomorrow write me how your little confession – and proposal - worked out.
Take care – of yourself, and of your family.
Sirius
"My family?" Harry turned to Hedwig. "Do you get it? He is talking about MY family! My own family!" the owl pushed her feathery head to his cheeks. "Yeah, yeah, Hedwig, you are also part of my family, but imagine… I'm going to have a real family soon! I mean, if Ginny doesn't freak out and is willing to marry me. What do you think? Will she marry me?"
Hedwig moved her head up and down, as if nodding.
"Thanks, Hedwig, you helped a lot." Harry pulled her into an embrace – as much as a human being could embrace a bird. "Well, gotta go and tell her that she is going to be a mother. Wish me good luck!" he smiled at the owl, then ran in the castle's direction.
* * * * *
"I haven't seen Harry since the DADA class." Ron dropped himself down into a chair next to Hermione.
"Neither have I." she answered.
"Of course you haven't. You've spent the whole time here, in the library." Ron pointed out. "Still reading Beautiful Bill?"
"Don't be infantile, Ron." she scowled at him. "I've been reading a book about non-wizard ailments. I was hoping to find something about your sister's illness."
"No need for that, Herm." Ron reached out for a strand of her hair and started to play with it. "She is okay, Madame Pomfrey will let her out of the infirmary tomorrow."
"I still have a premonition… that they are hiding something from us, Ron." she closed the book she had been reading.
"And you say I'm listening too much to Professor Trelawney…" Ron shook his head playfully. "It's you who's talking like her. Don't worry, will ya?" the boy's hand slipped from her hair to her cheek, caressing it.
"I'm not worried." she whispered.
"No?"
"No."
"Good." he closed their discussion with a gentle kiss.
"What a scene!" a sharp voice said aloud. "Aren't you guys afraid of remaining that way… glued together?"
Ron and Hermione jumped up, wearing a nice shade of crimson on their faces.
"Malfoy!" Ron clenched his fists. "Were you spying on us?"
"No, why would I be?" Draco snarled at them. "I find nothing interesting about you two. You are no sensation at all. One of the hard-up Weasleys in love with the mudblood Granger. Who would care for it?"
"Then what the hell are you doing here?" Ron frowned.
"What? You wouldn't believe me if I told you I was about to read a book, would you?" he smirked. "And you'd be right. That's not why I'm here."
"Then?" Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"As I said, you two were no sensation, guys, but your precious friend, Potter is definitely one, and I suspect that something really sensational is going to happen to him."
"Why should we believe you?" Hermione asked. "Why do you think that something is going to happen to him?"
"Why?" Draco's mouth tucked into a smirk. "Because he's just entered the medic bay, and I saw Pomfrey come out."
"And?" Ron was getting really annoyed. "What is so special about him visiting someone in the infirmary?"
"That 'someone' he is visiting right now is your little sister, Weasley." Malfoy said. "But you are right, it wouldn't be special in itself. The reason why it is special is the secrecy about his visit."
"What secrecy?" Ron and Hermione asked in unison.
"As I said, I saw Pomfrey leave." Draco explained. "But I didn't tell you that I followed her. She entered McGonagall's room, but left the door open. I managed to catch some words of their talk. McGonagall was talking about Harry having to tell Ginny something extremely important… um, maybe he found a crate full of gold and wants to give it to your sister, because he knows that you'd never accept it."
"Don't listen to this fool, Ron." Hermione told him. "Come on, let's go back to the common room."
Ron nodded and they left Malfoy in the library. As the door slammed shut behind them, a devilish smile spread on Draco's face. "You'll be surprised, Weasley. You have no idea how surprised you'll be." he murmured.
* * * * *
"You are a bad boy, Harry." Ginny knitted her eyebrows as she saw him enter the infirmary.
"Bad boy?" he asked, confused. "Uh, why?"
"Because you made me wait so long!" she smiled and stretched her arms out for him. He sat down on her bed. "Madame Pomfrey is going to let me leave the medic bay tomorrow morning." Ginny said cheerfully. "I'm happy that I can finally leave this place. Not that I don't like chocolate, but I've been longing for some broth and vegetables, and of course I missed my studies too, and… hey, Harry, is something wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry." he gave her an apologising look. "I was a bit distracted."
"Distracted?" she folded her arms before her chest. "I thought I was the only one in the whole school who could make you 'distracted'. Really, Harry, what happened? You look concerned."
*Here we go.* he sighed and took her right hand, his gaze meeting hers. "I have to tell you something important, Ginny. Something serious… even scary. No, don't be afraid, it's not that bad… uh, well, it depends on your point of view, but… *no beating around the bush, get to the point!* okay, so McGonagall told me that you didn't really manage to accomplish that Anti-Conceptus Charm, my dear." *I've said it, I've said it!* his soul jumped for joy… for about a minute. But when he realised that Ginny was still silent, he started to feel uneasy. *Did she understand what I told her?*
"Ginny?" he whispered, squeezing her hand a bit. Maybe she was under a shock and needed to be shaken out of it.
"Mom will kill me." she said finally. "And you, too."
"If she kills me I'll never be able to marry you." Harry tried to joke.
"M…marry me?" she stammered.
"Yeah." he slipped down from the bed, fell to his knees, still holding her hand. "I'd be honoured if you married me, Virginia Weasley. I love you."
The girl was too touched to speak. The barely restrained sobs were nearly choking her, the weight of the consequences of their immature and foolish act crushing her fragile soul, the perception of the cruel truth reaching out for her like some dark, cold tentacles of a horrid magical creature.
She was pregnant.
And Harry Potter, the boy whom she had loved since she was ten, now proposed to her. He was asking her to be his wife.
The wife of Harry Potter…
"Ginny?" his worried voice broke the silence. "You can think it over. I'm not rushing you. If you cannot answer now, it's okay…"
"Shh!" she knelt down next to him, placing a finger on his mouth. "You potty Potter! How could you think that I'd need any more time to decide whether to marry you or not?… My answer is yes. I'd be glad to be your wife. I love you too."
"Oh, Ginny!" he sighed, pulling her into a tight embrace.
Neither of them knew how long they were kneeling there, holding each other, Ginny sobbing aloud, Harry trying to stifle the tears of joy and relief. Everything was all right again.
Everything? Well, everything, with the exception of having to tell their secret to their teachers, their fellow-students, their relatives and friends… everyone in the wizarding world... and there will be a terrible scandal, for sure…
But for the moment time stood still for the betrothed lovers, neither of them caring about the world outside the medic room. There was no one else, but the two of them… and their unborn child. Holding and kissing Ginny, Harry didn't think of Trelawney's prediction – that a certain birth will bring about strange… and dark things.
* * * * *
About an hour later Minerva McGonagall entered the infirmary. Harry and his new fiancee didn't notice her at once. They were sitting on the bed, with their backs turned on the door. Ginny's head was bent on Harry's shoulder, his right arm around her lithe body. They were talking about their future, of which they didn't have the vaguest idea, but still it felt so good to talk about it, to daydream and imagine an infinite happiness for the two – three – of them.
The always stern and indifferent professor McGonagall was touched by the sight of the kids sitting there, love and peace radiating from them. For a moment she just stood at the door, then cleared her throat to make them aware of her presence.
They turned to face her.
"I see everything worked out as planned, right Potter?" Minerva asked.
"Yes, professor." he nodded and stood up. Something was strange about him. Something was unusual. McGonagall couldn't really put a finger on it, but something changed in him. His face was the same: cute, looking somewhat younger than his real age – still, something was different. Maybe it was the usually soft line of his lips that now looked a bit firmer, maybe his eyes… they weren't sparkling in the usual mischievous way… they looked serious.
The professor was struck by the recognition that this boy had grown up – actually in less than twenty-four hours. It weren't the years that aged him, but the trials of life – and this one, the knowledge that he'd become a father – was the greatest trial in his life so far.
Now he looked the spitting image of his father – a man grown.
A/N2: Stay tuned for chapter six and witness the scandal break out!