a/n- Hey everyone, it's me again! Sorry about the issues with not updating. I've had some deaths in the family and I've gone off the college so my life's been kind of hectic. This is a new and updated version of the story. The prologue you see before you has never been posted before. I hope you like it!

Prologue: Every New Beginning…

Harry Potter walked briskly down the friendly suburban neighborhood which currently sat under a red sky filled with a blazing sunset. Work had been rather easy that day, and instead of apparating straight from the office to his house, he had decided to apparate a few blocks away to enjoy the winter wonderland around him. It was the middle of February, and all around him, the ground was covered in pearly white snow. As he approached his small, cozy, two-story house, he picked up his pace when he remembered that Melissa was at home sick.

Much had changed in Harry's life since Voldemort's defeat two years before. He no longer lived in England, or even Europe for that matter. This small town in upstate New York was everything that one would want in order to lay low. The people here didn't like to draw attention to themselves, and that was just the sort of thing Harry was trying to avoid.

He had many regrets about the turns his life had taken recently. In some ways it felt like he was missing out on this whole other person that he would have been had he remained in England. While he tried to make it back home for big events, he still didn't get to take part in everyday life back home. His life would have been different had he not decided that distancing himself from the ones he loved was the best option in order to keep them safe.

Ron and Hermione were married, and expecting their first child. Ginny, though still holding a very large part of this hero's heart was off somewhere doing her own thing. The rest of Ron's brothers were all doing what they'd always done. Except now they all had families of their own to come home to at night. Life seemed to go on without him, no matter how much it hurt him to admit. Harry had ended up in America, working with the best group of aurors on the globe. It was a great job and wonderful opportunity…he just had to keep telling himself that.

He had met Melissa shortly after coming to America. They were both in the same introductory training class. He had recently broken off a long and complicated relationship with Ginny, and perhaps he had been looking for something to fill the void. Melissa had grown up on the west coast in sunny California. She was an orphan like him, her father had died a few months before she was born and her mother died when she was three. She too had suffered greatly throughout the war, loosing almost all of her closest friends in one battle or another. She had no one, and in reality, neither did Harry. She had come to New York to join this particular group of aurors around the same time Harry had. They were friends for a very brief time before they started dating. Things between them were almost always great. They worked together and were able to come home and put all that aside to just be themselves when they were alone. They had developed a certain sense of familiarity in each other, and found comfort in having someone they were really close to amidst a sea of strangers. At any rate, Melissa was all he had left now. They'd been living together for about a year now.

Harry entered the house and hung his coat up on the hook beside the front door. Passing through the vacant front room, he proceeded to the kitchen where he found a bowl of uneaten chicken noodle soup and a medium sized flask of potion. He was about to pass through to the hallway and up the stairs when he saw something on the side of the bottle that made him stop dead in his tracks. The side of the bottle read, Take daily for proper pre-natal nutrition.

Harry stood there motionless for a few seconds. This couldn't possibly be what he was thinking, could it? He silently wondered to himself. Well, Mel had said that she was going to the healer to find out what was wrong.

Turning on his heel, he headed up the stairs to his and Melissa's bedroom. Once inside, he found the room itself empty, but the bathroom light door slightly ajar with a light glowing from inside. Walking to the door, he took a deep breath before pushing it open only to find his girlfriend violently throwing up, and kneeling on the ground over the toilet.

Taking a shuddering breath, he walked over to the sink and ran some cool water over a washcloth. He knelt down beside her, placed a comforting palm on the small of her back, and handed her the washcloth. He brushed some of her brown curls off her forehead and waited for her to respond. She looked up at him with bloodshot blue eyes and nodded her head in thanks.

"Mel, are you alright?" He asked once she started wiping her face.

"I'm better now, I think. What are you doing home so early?" She asked, trying to sound bright and cheery.

"It was kind of slow today. All I had was paperwork from that raid last week," he explained as he watched her stand up and wash her face.

Neither of them spoke while Melissa freshened up and cleaned up the bathroom a little bit. After she was satisfied her mess was gone, Harry watched her walk into the bedroom and start turning down the bed.

"I'm completely wiped out," she said as she fluffed the pillows and then turned to face him. "I wouldn't mind turning in early."

"Mel," Harry said simply in a very serious tone.

"What?" She asked, looking up at him innocently.

"How far along are you?"

Mild shock and realization passed over her face. "A few weeks," she admitted, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"And that's why you've been so sick lately?"

"Yes," she said, almost sounding ashamed.

"How long were you planning on keeping this from me?" He asked, trying to keep his anger in check.

Melissa stared at him in amazement for a few seconds before standing up from the bed and walking out the door and down the stairs, with Harry hot on her tail. "I just found out today, Harry! I've had my suspicions for a while, but I just got back from the healers office a few hours ago."

"You had no intention of telling me tonight, did you?"

She stopped in the middle of the stairs and turned to look him in the eye. "I was going to wait and find the right moment to te-"

Harry shook his head vigorously. "No, you were going to hide it from me!"

She turned around and continued down the stairs, she didn't turn back to face him until they both where on the main floor. When she did, Harry could see fresh tears streaming down her face. "What did you expect me to do? Walk up to you the second you got home and say, guess what Harry? I'm having a baby that I know you don't want!"

Harry was slightly stunned that she would come out and say such a thing and couldn't help but raise his voice in response. "I never said I didn't want the baby."

She laughed cynically in response. "Oh, please! It's written all over your face!"

"Oh yeah! And what else does this look on my face tell you?" Harry asked in return.

"It tells me that you're angry and that you blame me, that's what it tells me!" She responded with spite.

"I thought we were careful," he said changing the subject slightly. "I thought we took precautions so that this sort of thing wouldn't happen."

"I guess we weren't careful enough," she said, folding her arms across her chest.

He walked over to the counter and leaned the small of his back against the edge, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. "This never should have happened."

"You act as if this is the worst thing that could possibly happen to two people who love each other!" She shouted.

"This is the worst thing that could happen to the two of us!" Harry screamed before he could stop himself.

"I can't believe you just said that," she said, meekly looking away with more tears falling from her eyes.

"Oh, come on Melissa! Don't tell me you're absolutely thrilled about this! We're not married, we're both up to our eyeballs in dark magic, and nothing about us is at all stable for a child to grow up around!"

"I'll admit, Harry, this isn't how I planned it. But I would have at least appreciated some support on this, instead of being attacked like it's my fault!"

"You're going to have to give me a minute on this one, Mel. You can't just dump this news on me and expect me to be okay with it instantaneously," he said in a sarcastic tone.

Melissa took a few steps across the kitchen floor until she stood right in front of his face. "You have to accept this, Harry. This is happening and you can't run away from it like you do everything else!"

He shook he head and walked around her trying to cool down before their tempers got out of hand. "That's not fair, Melissa!"

"Oh, and why not? Honestly, when was the last time you really faced your problems? When was the last time you went home to England and really spent some time with those best friends that you're always talking about?"

"Ron and Hermione have nothing to do with this," he countered loudly.

"Do they even know who I am?" She wondered folding her arms across her chest once more.

Harry found himself at a loss for words suddenly. He looked away from the pain in her eyes and stared at the ground. "Mel, don't do this."

"Don't do what, Harry?" She asked as tears began to fall once more. "Don't make you admit that you're ashamed of me?"

"It isn't like that. You don't understand."

She walked forward and once again was in his face. "I understand perfectly. I understand that the man I love refuses to express his feelings for me to anyone of importance in his life. Seriously Harry, they don't know anything about me, do they?"

"No, they don't," Harry replied, staring at a spot in the corner of the room.

"Why not?" She asked sounding incredibly hurt.

"I don't know why, okay!" He suddenly erupted. "I've just never found the right words to say to them! I can't explain it! And what about you, huh? Who have you told?" He took a step towards her and this time she looked him straight in the eye.

"I haven't told any of my closest friends because I don't have any left," she replied in an even tone with great sadness in her voice. She watched him for a second and then turned away with one final remark, "All I have left is you."

Harry immediately felt like an idiot. She was right. All of her dearest friends had been killed during the war. He tried to redeem himself. "Mel, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

"I wish everyday that I had some of them here to help me with things. I'd tell them all about you and how much you mean to me. I'd tell them that being with you makes everything I've gone through seem worth it. Apparently you don't feel the same."

"Please don't put words in my mouth," he half begged, turning away from her.

"What am I supposed to do when you won't ever come out and talk to me, Harry? I tell you everything and sometimes I don't think I know anything about you. Now look at me! Pregnant with a child you don't even want!"

Harry snapped out of his trance and looked at her defensively. "I have no idea how to be a parent and neither do you! How did you expect me to react?"

She shook her head and whipped away tears before responding in a hushed, weak voice, "I don't know what I expected. But this clearly wasn't it at all. Call me crazy, but I expected you to ask me how I'm feeling, if I'm scared, or angry, or confused, and I expected some support. So in case you're wondering, yes I am scared, and angry, and confused. But most of all I feel lonely and disappointed. But don't worry, Harry, I'm used to disappointment. I'll manage."

Harry opened his mouth to respond several times, but words seemed to fail him. Several minutes later he looked up and realized that Melissa had gone back upstairs. Walking soberly back to the front room, he sat in a chair and gazed out the picture window into the quiet street.

His mind drifted to what kind of advice Ron and Hermione would give him if they were here. Hermione would most definitely tell him what an insensitive bastard he was being. He really didn't know what Ron would say. If truth be told, there reason no one in England knew about Melissa was because of Ginny. He'd ended things with Ginny and started things with Melissa so close together; he didn't even want to venture to guess what they would think of him. He'd been back to England a few times since he and Mel started seeing each other, but he'd never mentioned her because he didn't want to hurt Ginny. He did still love her, but it was a different kind of love, and once which he knew he would never be able to explain to Ron in a way that would make him understand. Some days he felt that the part of him that loved Ginny was a completely different person all together. It felt like a different lifetime. Whatever the past, he knew Melissa was his future. He loved her, and he wanted to make things work.

He couldn't believe what an idiot he was making of himself. Of course would love their child. It just wasn't the way he had pictured it. With so many death eaters still on the loose, most of them operating sporadically without any kind of leadership, times were just as dangerous as ever. This was no environment in which to raise a child. And even if it was the right time and place, how would he ever know what to do? How was he supposed to be a father when he had never had one to use as an example?

If he was feeling this uncertain about the whole thing, he couldn't imagine what Melissa must be going through. They may be having a baby together, but she was the one that was actually pregnant. He'd never felt like a bigger jerk.

He took a few more minutes to gather his thoughts before he made his way up the stairs to find a pitch black bedroom and a curled up body on one side of the bed. She had her back to him, and although she didn't make any noise, he knew she was crying. She had too much stupid pride and dignity to sob out loud, even when she didn't think anyone was watching. He got under the covers and wrapped his arms around her trembling body and pulled her towards him.

"Let go of me, Harry," she protested in a hoarse voice.

He shook his head no, pulled her back tighter against his chest, and began his apology. "No, I won't let you go. I'm so sorry about what I said. I know this is something that we should really be happy about. It's just that it was kind of a shock."

"Think of how I felt to be told I was pregnant by a strange healer, all by myself. I never wanted this to happen. I was afraid to tell you because I was afraid about how you would react."

"I'm sorry I proved you right initially," Harry responded miserably, disgusted with himself.

Melissa didn't turn around to address him, and her body remained rigid in his arms. "I'm keeping this baby whether you like it or not. You can either accept that and be the brilliant father I know you can be, or you can leave and I'll raise him or her on my own. I was fine on my own before I met you, Harry. I'll be fine without you if you leave."

"No, I don't want you to do that. I'm never going to leave you. I love you, and I'm going to love this baby. I'm so, so sorry about how I reacted." Harry propped himself up on his elbow and turned her over on her back to look up at him.

"I need you to do something for me," she asked, looking him straight in the eye.

"Anything," he said, kissing her forehead.

"I need you to tell me why you're so afraid of this," she pleaded. "Is it because you don't think you'll make a good father, or is it because you don't think you'll be alive to raise this baby with me?"

Sometimes it felt like she could read his mind. "A little bit of both. You never know what the future holds, Mel."

"Let's just take it one day at a time, okay. We'll deal with tomorrow when tomorrow comes."

"I do love you, you know that, right?" He asked with a desperate expression.

She smiled and nodded her head slowly. "I love you too, Harry. You're going to be a fantastic father."

"I hope you're right, love. Now get some sleep. I'll be here when you wake up," Harry told her gently as they both settled in for a good nights sleep.

Little did Harry know just how much this child would change his life forever, or how much she too would suffer because of who she was. But Harry couldn't possibly predict all that. Neither could he predict how much he would love her.

a/n- Please tell me if you like it!