Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's associates. I do not make money off of this therefore it is really pointless to sue me if you're thinking about it. I only write for the entertainment of myself and of others, although mostly for myself...I promise I will return all the characters I use in good condition ((or as good as condition I can keep them in)) and hopefully all in one piece.
Rating: PG-13 ((Might go up, not sure yet))
Summary: As a back up plan, Harry asks Ginny to carry his baby, just in case the war kills him. When the baby comes, and the war is over, Harry denies any question had been asked. Now everyone believes he's a liar, especially when his scar begins to burn again, even though Voldemort has been killed.
A/N: I think this is my favorite chapter so far. Not exactly sure what makes it my favorite...I just like it. I hope you do too!
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"I really thought he was going to change." Ron whined, spinning on top of a stool he was sitting on. Hermione glanced over from a book she had been reading.
"Me too."
"I mean, did you see his face when he was holding the kid?"
"Yes, Ronald."
"It lit up! It really lit up! I could have sworn he would have at least hung around a bit longer...don't you agree?"
"Yes," Hermione continued reading, one hand delicately rubbing her temple.
"Poor Ginny. She would have gone after him when he left...if only she had the strength to stand."
"Oh, I think she took care of that before he left." Hermione glanced up from her books and smiled at Ron. He tilted his head.
"What do you mean?"
"She was squeezing his hand awfully hard--"
"--I doubt she was."
"I was on the other side of her, mind you. You would have been crying like a girl if you were the one in Harry's place."
"He's a wimp."
"Ronald!"
"Well...he is. I mean, he faints at every little sign of pain!"
Hermione glared. "I need to get back to studying. My finals are coming up, you know." She mumbled before returning to her pages. Ron scowled.
"It still doesn't dismiss the fact that he left."
"Have you tried to talk to him?" Hermione asked, now staring through her pages, annoyed that Ron was still talking.
"Why should I? It didn't seem to work the first time."
"He showed up, didn't he? He actually gave it a go."
Ron's mouth flapped open and closed before he spoke, crossing his arms.
"You talked to him too. He probably wouldn't have shown up if it wasn't for you."
Hermione reluctantly closed her book and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her face.
"Do I have to do everything for you?" Hermione barked. Ron jumped.
"I just think that if I talk to him...we'll end up fighting." He explained.
"Are you scared of confrontation?"
Ron hastily shook his head. "No. No, I'm not."
"It sounds like you are. You get over to Harry's and talk to him."
"Only if you come with me."
"Ron--"
"Hermione!"
"Ron, I have homework! I just can't leave it."
"You have all weekend, besides, he's your friend too. There's an invisible rope bonding us all together in this mess."
Hermione glared. Ron kneeled, crawling over to Hermione with sad, puppy dog eyes, his bottom lip protruding outwards from his top lip.
"Please, come with me?" He begged. Hermione rubbed her eyes once again. She pushed her chair back and stood.
"All right. Geeze. I hope your face sticks like that, Ronald. Then you'll be sorry you ever begged for so much."
Ron grinned and stood, following Hermione to the floo.
Harry had just turned on the hot water figuring enough that a nice, hot, steaming shower would relieve his bored, aching muscles from his even more boring and painful day out on the pitch. Before he had a chance to step into the mix of liquid and steam, the doorbell had rang.
"Bloody great." He mumbled aloud and grabbed his towel. He threw it around his waist as he walked to the front door. He opened it with a scowl, which only grew deeper at the sight of Ron and Hermione. Harry reluctantly stepped away and allowed them to enter, thoughts of the shower slowly fading from mind.
"We could come back later." Ron suggested as he crossed the threshold. Hermione gave him a stubborn shove from behind.
"Or not." Ron coughed, tripping inside.
"We need to talk, Harry." Hermione announced, stepping in as well. Harry sighed and shut the door. "About the other night." Hermione continued, she looked at Ron and nodded. "Go on." She mouthed. Ron pouted and whined.
"Listen, Harry." He started, pausing a moment to form his words. "I know you aren't thrilled about the baby, but we'd like you to at least come help us."
Harry walked into the living room and sat. His hands joined together and his elbows on his knees. The others followed.
"Harry?" Ron stared from his place on the couch.
"What am I supposed to do?" It came out a little harsher than he expected, but Harry didn't blink. Ron scoffed.
"Put your part in. Change diapers. Baby-sit, for Merlin's sake." Ron answered.
"Ha. It's not Merlin's problem, is it?" For a moment, he wished it could have been. A shiver had ran down Harry's spine as he remembered the face he had seen in the mirror at the hospital.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked. Hermione watched intently.
"I mean, Ron, that just because you think it's my kid, I'm not going to put my all into it. Sure, I'm willing to help--" Harry gulped...did he just agree to help raise the kid he got mixed feelings about. Nonetheless, he continued speaking, "I have other things to do too."
Ron cleared his throat, trying to keep his temper which had started fading, and fast.
"You amaze me, Harry. The other night, at the hospital, when you were holding him. I could have sworn I saw something change."
Harry leaned back in the chair.
"Something did change." Harry suddenly spoke softly. Hermione and Ron leaned in.
"Well?" Ron probed. Harry raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well what?"
"I didn't see any change after you ran out of there."
Harry cleared his throat this time.
"I saw something. Something that wasn't right." He tried explaining. Ron nodded him on.
"As I was holding him, he opened his eyes and I didn't recognize him."
"Come on, Harry. He's a baby, how could you recognize a baby's eyes?"
"They weren't my eyes. They weren't Ginny's eyes."
"Can't he just have his own eyes?" Hermione chirped in. Harry looked over to her.
"Everyone in the Weasley's family doesn't have eyes like that. Can't say much about mine because, well, frankly, it's hard to know what their eyes look like if they're dead and it sure as bloody hell wasn't the Dursley's. The baby's eyes seemed evil and deep, like he could read me. I don't know any babies who are able to do that at a few hours old."
There was a long pause. Hermione shifted in her seat, drawing one leg under her.
"What happened? When you went into the bathroom?" She asked.
"Hmm?" The question took Harry by surprised.
"When you went into the bathroom...you were in there a while and there was a muffled bang before you came out."
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but jumped up suddenly.
"Oh my God! I forgot!" He screamed as he ran into the bathroom. Hermione and Ron following, closely behind. They entered the bathroom and Harry groaned. Ron and Hermione's arrival had taken his mind off of the nice hot, running water. He had let the water flow, expecting it to be a salesman at the door. He expected to be only a few minutes, but it had been interrupted. Now, as the water rushed over the top of the bathtub, Harry cursed himself for answering the door in the first place. He turned the taps off and pulled the drain. He watched his reflection in the water as it was sucked down the pipes. His reflection flashed once again, his eyes changing into slits and he jumped back, his feet slipping on the wet tile. Hermione and Ron threw their arms out to catch him.
"You all right?" Ron asked. Harry began to nod, but shook his head instead.
"No, no...it's happening again." Harry regained his balance and walked across the hall to his bedroom and closed his door. A few seconds later, Harry emerged wearing jeans and an oversized sweater.
"At the hospital--" He said, moving past them, back to the living room, "--when I was in the bathroom--" He began pacing slowly, Hermione and Ron watched. "--My scar began to burn again. I was looking at my reflection, rinsing my face with cold water when it changed unexpectedly...like it just did in the tub, just now." He stopped pacing as Ron stepped forward.
"What changed?"
"My nose, my eyes my face...everything! It wasn't my face."
Hermione tilted her head, cautiously.
"Who's face was it?" She asked quietly. Harry looked at her. His jaw was beginning to ache from being clenched and unclenched so much in the past few minutes. He blinked once before lightly hugging himself.
"Voldemort." He answered. Ron winced and Hermione stepped next to Ron.
"Harry. Voldemort's dead. You killed him."
"I know."
"Then how could you have seen his reflection in your own?"
"I don't know."
Ron rubbed his temples.
"It doesn't make sense. He's dead, your scar is hurting again, you're seeing his reflection...You're just looking for attention, aren't you? Because You-Know-Who is dead, the reporters aren't interested in you anymore, you're trying to bring it all back, aren't you?" Ron said, squeezing his eyes shut as he took everything in.
"Absolutely not! Don't you remember? I was trying NOT to draw attention to myself?" Harry replied. Ron opened his eyes.
"I don't believe you."
"You're beginning to sound like Cho."
"I don't blame her."
"Isn't there any part of you that believes me?"
Ron shook his head. "No."
Harry nodded once before going in his room. He returned carrying an item that looked like a top made of glass and set it on the coffee table. He pointed to it, staring angrily at Ron.
"Remember that?" He asked. Ron nodded.
"The Sneakoscope." They watched it for a few seconds as it sat still on the table top.
"You know what it does." Harry said after nothing began to happen.
"You could have disabled it." Ron pointed out.
"Check it. Take it home, give it to Rita Skeeter, I don't care."
Ron growled.
"Listen, Harry. I don't care if it's not whirling around or whistling or spinning. I know what I saw. I know someone is lying and I know it's not Ginny." Ron turned and walked to the front door and opened it.
"I'm leaving. You coming 'mione?"
Hermione stared at the Sneakoscope, then to Harry oddly.
"No...I want to talk to Harry alone." Her voice was quiet and her words were formed slowly. Ron sighed then left with not another word. Harry sat, half glaring at Hermione.
"What? You going to yell at me too?"
"Harry." Hermione said earnestly, sitting on the couch and patting a hand next to her, signaling Harry to sit as well. Harry slumped his shoulders and obeyed, his mind returning to a nice hot shower that awaited him.
"Now, I'm not fully taking your side, Harry." Hermione cleared her throat, Harry rolled his eyes. He avoided looking at her as she began to speak again.
"But the fact that your Sneakoscope didn't go off gives me the hint that you are telling the truth...unless, of course...you did disable it."
Harry cleared his throat and blinked.
"I don't even know how to open the damned thing, how am I to disable it?" Harry spat.
"Can we just talk about this without being offensive towards each other?" Hermione pleaded.
Harry sighed and looked over to Hermione.
"Sorry." He apologized. Hermione nodded curtly.
"It's just that I've found out all these 'talks' have led to fighting." Harry explained.
"I understand, and I want to get down to the truth as much as you do. I want to believe you, fully believe you. That's going to take a lot of cooperating and honesty and I need you to comply." Hermione sat sideways, one knee on the back of the couch. She collapsed her hands together.
"Now, where to begin."
"The beginnings always nice." Harry sated, mirroring her. Hermione's eyebrows furrowed together, deep in thought until questions started forming in her mind and her forehead smoothed out.
"Did you ask Ginny to carry your baby?"
Harry frantically shook his head.
"No!"
Hermione jumped, startled at his outburst.
"Please, Harry, I know you've answered some of these questions before, I'm just getting the facts " She reminded. Harry scowled and dug deeper into his side of the couch. Hermione thought some more.
"The first time you heard that she was pregnant was when Ron approached you."
"Yes."
"Did you suffer any memory loss after the war? I mean, you remember everything that happened after you defeated Voldemort?"
"I remember everything."
"Mmm-hmmm." Hermione nodded, biting her lip. Harry smiled. An idea formed in his head and he thought it couldn't hurt. He pulled out his wand from his back pocket and waved it at Hermione and the arm chair next to them. The armchair flattened out in which he happily changed seats, lying down. Hermione now sported glasses and held a pad of paper with a long, fluffy quill.
"What is this for?" Hermione asked. Harry put his hands behind his head and smirked.
"Well...you just reminded me of a shrink and thought that the decor might help move this along faster."
"We need to be serious, Harry."
"Hey, this is helping me, all right?"
Hermione glared before she asked her next question.
"What does Cho think about all of this?"
"Not much. She thinks I fooled around with Ginny, that's why I don't claim the baby...once again, back to attention seeking and--"
"--You were together then?" Hermione interrupted. Harry nodded, a bit bashful.
"Yeah, we didn't want anyone to know...didn't want it to be official quite yet."
"Wow. You two did a great job keeping it quiet for so long."
Harry nodded and adjusted his head. Hermione's forehead shriveled up again.
"It was Christmas break when Ginny broke the news to us. You had left to go back to Hogwarts...something about a meeting with Dumbledore."
"Yeah, he wanted to give me a bit of the insider information he was receiving through Severus. Wait...what does that have to do with this?"
"Ginny said that it was during the snowball fight when you had asked her."
"I was sleeping."
"But you came out to join us, you said your headache wasn't hurting anymore."
"No, I slept until morning; when I left to go see Dumbledore."
Hermione tilted her head.
"But we saw you and Ginny talking behind the bushes."
Harry shook his head.
"I never went out."
Hermione narrowed her eyes and glanced at the Sneakoscope that rested soundly on the table in front of them.
"Harry? Do me a favor, say that you were outside during that time.
"But I wasn't."
"Just say it."
"Why?"
"Harry!" Hermione shot her glance over to Harry, placing the notepad and quill beside her. She rested her arms on her knees and looked at Harry pleadingly.
"Just say it."
Harry sighed, raising an eyebrow.
"I was outside and told Ginny to carry my baby."
A shrill whistling filled the room and both of their heads snapped over to the coffee table where the Sneakoscope danced wildly upon it, threatening to fall off the edge of the table. Hermione's eyes opened wide and looked back to Harry.
"Well...you didn't disarm it...that's for sure."
"Told ya." Harry halfway smiled before sitting up. He reached out and grabbed it, the whistling stopped.
"Then if you're telling the truth, it had to have been something...or someone else." Hermione stated. Harry sighed.
"But who?"
"I don't have a clue." Hermione shifted in her seat.
"You didn't go see any doctor with Ginny did you?"
"No." Harry placed the Sneakoscope back down on the table where it sat quietly once again.
"Then whoever it was had to have been close enough around to know when you wouldn't be around the family."
"That's not hard, figuring Ginny was still at school when we were elsewhere." Harry added. Hermione nodded. A moment of silence passed by until Harry spoke.
"Why Ginny?"
"What?" Hermione tilted her head, running a hand through her hair.
"Why did...whoever it was, pick Ginny?"
"Because you were close to her, maybe?"
"I wouldn't have picked her." Harry shook his head. Hermione looked quizzically to him.
"What do you mean?"
"If I did ask someone to carry the baby, I wouldn't have asked Ginny."
Hermione smiled. "Who would you have asked?"
Harry smiled too, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink and put his chin down.
"You." He answered quickly. Hermione coughed, surprised.
"Me?"
"You." Harry repeated and looked up at Hermione.
"Why me?" Hermione asked, puzzled.
"Come on, Hermione. You're smart, pretty, talented in everything you say and do. You're everything I'd want to see in my kid."
"But Ginny's smart--and pretty--"
"Hermione, you're one of a kind. Even Ginny wouldn't outsmart you. Sure, she can hold her own, but you can hold twice that. It runs in the genes, you know."
Hermione became quiet and a thoughtful look passed over her face. She bit her lip and checked out her finger nails before looking back up at Harry.
"They named the baby, you know." She said. Harry tilted his head.
"Really? That's great! What did they name it?" Harry asked.
"Tod."
Harry smiled.
"Cute."
Hermione smiled again, as well. She brought her hands up and clapped them.
"Well, I'm convinced that you aren't the father. Now...to make the others believe that as well, but I have an idea that just might work."
"What's that?" Harry stretched, happy that someone has changed their minds in believing.
"A DNA test."
"Think it'll work?"
"The baby does have DNA too, Harry."
"It's worth a try."
They sat there with contented looks on their faces before deciding to go out to The Three Broomsticks for coffee and further discussion, both glad to have things pretty much settled on Harry's behalf.
A/N: Hey guy's! I'm sorry that I haven't updated in FOREVER, but I hope this chapter will keep you until the next posting. I am almost finished writing the story, have just a few more chapters to go...it's the typing up that gets me...takes too damn long...Lol. Sorry that the break lines didn't show up in the past few chaps...hopefully they'll show up on this one, it'll make the story a little more easy to understand. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm gonna make this a/n time short as it's two fifteen am and I work at ten forty-five am. I hope you enjoy! Please keep the reviews coming, have your friends read too! Let's try to make 30 reviews this chapter!! If so, I'll treat you to a two chapter update at once...three chapters if it can reach 40 reviews! Teamwork! Woot!