It had been three months since Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's Anniversary Party which meant three months since Harry's life had taken a turn for the better (or so he liked to think of it).

There were lots of changes in his life now. Ginny had moved out of her parents house into an apartment in the middle of muggle London soon after the two had become involved. The apartment was a quaint little place with one bedroom, kitchen and bath, along with a small living room. It was furnished modestly, and pictures of family hung from the walls.

Yet it was all for show. Ginny really lived with Harry in his apartment near Diagon Alley.

However, the only people who knew of this living arrangement were Harry and Ginny. It had taken them a long time to decide, but finally Ginny and Harry agreed it was for the best to keep their relationship a secret. If the press found out about it they would have a field day and the couple would never have any peace. If the whole world was watching, how could they really get to know each other?

The second, and more pressing reason for secrecy came in the form of 8 redheads. Ginny and Harry felt that they should know what was going on between them before they told her family about it. When the Weasley were involved, things seemed to blow out of proportion. Whether that was intentional or unintentional, Harry and Ginny didn't intend to find out right away. Ginny imagined that her brothers would probably abduct Harry for questioning, while her mother would start making wedding plans the minute she heard the two of them were together. And neither Ginny or Harry wanted to have that kind of pressure on him early in their relationship.

They were both proud that their three month anniversary came and went without anyone else knowing.


"Ginny!" Harry exclaimed as he walked in the apartment after work the next day. "You'll never guess who I met today! And the..." he trailed off as he saw her.

Ginny was standing in the kitchen, hands on her hips, her mouth in a tight line, and one eyebrow raised in an expression of "You better have a good excuse Mister." Harry thought for a moment to try to figure out what he might have done to make her mad. Aparently he didn't think fast enough.

"WHERE were you!" she demanded, her eyebrow arching even higher.

"Um, darling...did I miss something?" he tried. He knew this wasn't the right answer but it was the best he could come up with. He had wracked his brain, but he really didn't think he had forgotten to be anywhere or forgotten to do anything.

"You're LATE!" she exclaimed. "You said you'd be home by seven, and I cooked dinner for us and now it's COLD because you decided to take your own bloody sweet time getting here!"

"But it's only 7:10!" he said, flabbergasted.

"EXACTLY!" she fumed, throwing down a dishtowel and storming out of the room.

Harry stared at the bedroom door that she had slammed seconds earlier. What had crawled up her knickers, he wondered. Quickly he cast some warming spells over the food before he went to knock on their door.

"Gin?" he asked quietly.

"Come in." Her response seemed sullen.

"Hey are you alright?"

"Yes. No. Yes. Augh, I'm sorry I snapped Harry. I don't know what's gotten into me lately. I just keep feeling like I want to bite people's heads off for the littlest things!"

"Is it...erm...that time?" As soon as these words left his mouth he knew they were the wrong ones.

"Harry James Potter! Grow up and say it! 'Are you on your period, Ginny?' or perhaps, 'Are you PMSing?' Oh God, do I look bloated?"

Harry was embarassed that the first thought that crossed his mind was that her breasts had felt larger like they usually did around that time, but he decided mentioning that would be as close to suicide as he ever wanted to get.

"No, of course not! I was just..."

"Oh forget it. Lets go eat. I'm starving and the food...well it won't really get cold. But it's waiting. I'll meet you in there," she told him before going into the loo.

Harry shook his head as he began to serve the food. Women!


As usual Harry was up earlier than Ginny the next morning. He enjoyed having time to eat a good breakfast and read the newspapers while drinking a good cup of tea. Ginny always wandered into the kitchen 30 minutes before he had to leave, grabbing some toast and gulping down a glass of juice before she dashed back into the bedroom to get dressed. This morning however he noticed that it was 7:45 and Ginny hadn't come into the kitchen.

He found her still sleeping in their room, surprisingly. Although Ginny wasn't a morning person, she never had slept through an alarm, nor was she one to press the snooze. And she especially shouldn't be tired this morning, he mused, since she had gone to bed directly after dinner, claiming that perhaps sleep would improve her grouchy mood.

"Gin?" he said, gently nudging her. She mumbled something that distinctly sounded like 'Just five more minutes!' Harry smiled. He loved how she looked when she was waking up.

"Come on Ginny, you've only got 15 minutes before you have to leave," he coaxed.

"'S time already?" she asked, sounding very reminiscent of Ron. She opened a bleary eye to look at the clock. "Augh, I'm up!"

Ten minutes later found Ginny emerging from the bedroom dressed and awake, but looking exhausted.

"You alright?" Harry asked her.

"Yeaaaaa–h!" she replied, stifling a yawn. "I just can't seem to get enough sleep these days." She noticed the breakfast Harry had prepared her just then and smiled. No words were exchanged, just a kiss was before Harry apparated off to work.


It being a Wednesday, around midday Ginny apparated to the Burrow where she shared a weekly lunch with Hermione and Mrs. Weasley. Often times other members of the family stopped by for the meal, and this week was no exception. When she arrived she found Bill and Fleur with baby in tow, Hermione, George, Lee Jordan, and a very pregnant Tonks seated at the table, all immersed in different conversations. She quickly said hello to her mum and then took a seat next to Tonks.

"So have you been experiencing any discomfort at all Tonks?" Hermione asked in her usual scholarly way. "No cramping, no extra swelling? Nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Other than being exhausted all the time still there's really not much else to report...well, then again, there is that bright purple rash..." Hermione's eyes widened at this, but Tonks was laughing too hard to finish.

"Oh, Hermione, you're too easy to pull one over on!" Tonks said, grinning and grabbing another sandwich. "Anyway, I'm only 2 days away from the due date, and frankly I can't wait to hold this little one in my arms!"

Ginny was reaching for her third sandwich when the wheels in her brain started turning. Only 5 days away...but wait...I thought she was due on the...

"Tonks, aren't you due on the 18th?" she asked before taking a bite.

"Yep that's right!"

Wait that can't be right...but that means that I'm...oh god.

Ginny could be late to dinners, late to work, heck she'd even been late to a wedding once. But if there was one thing she could always count being on time, it was her period. And if she wasn't mistaken then she was 10 days late.


Ginny was a nervous wreck for the following week, waiting for her period to come. She tried to explain things logically to herself. The breast tenderness, the exhaustion, the moodiness all were signs her period was approaching. Even Harry had noticed it, hadn't he? But when she woke up seven mornings later with no sign of it, she finally admit that she might be wrong.

Well, that and the nausea that she felt all day long (which of course, she reasoned, could be because she was nervous...right?)

The end of her day couldn't come fast enough. Ginny's anxiety was gnawing away at her insides. How should she tell Harry? Should she tell Harry before she knew for sure? What would he think? Would he want this child? Was it too soon?

Ginny shook her head vigorously as if trying to shake all her thoughts out.She had yet to come up with an answer for much of anything today. All she knew was that by the end of the night, Harry would know her suspicions, and most likely they would have to be confirmed.

She busied herself cooking to try to take her mind off things until Harry returned home in an hour.

And yet in 45 minutes and 5 courses later she was thinking again. Finally she made a decision. With trembling hands she pulled Harry's copy of Advanced Potion Making off the bookshelf. She flipped to the appendix; Pregnancy Test Potion, p. 283, she read. Taking a deep breath she began to assemble the ingredients.


"Hey Gin, I'm home!"Harry yelled from the living room when he apparated in. He bounded into the kitchen, wrapped her in a tight hug and kissed her hair. "This smells lovely."

"Thanks," she managed to squeak out, trying to act normal. Harry raised an eyebrow at her, but turned to the table when she forced a smile.

Through dinner, Ginny tried to listen as Harry told her about an offer he had received from the Stratford Stags to play Seeker on their reserve team. He had been meeting with the man about an attack on the team when the conversation naturally turned to Quidditch. She knew she should be happy for Harry, but all she could think of was the travel schedule that was demanded of a Quidditch player. Now she was sure that he would not want this child...

"Ginny?" she was broken out of her thoughts by Harry.

"Mmm?"

"What's wrong? I can tell something is not right. You've not eaten a bite, nor said more than five words to me. You don't seem mad at me either, so what's going on?"

Normally Ginny would have taken offense to some of these comments, but that night there was only one thing on her mind. Taking a deep breath she knew the time had come to find out what he was going to think. She was so scared of things changing, but she knew she couldn't keep it in any longer.

"Harry...I think I'm...I think..." But she couldn't get the words out.

"You think what?" Harry coaxed, holding her hand from across the table.

A few seconds that felt like a full minute passed, and although Ginny's mouth moved, no sound came out. Pull yourself together, Weasley! She finally told herself. Here goes...

"I think I'm pregnant."

She felt his grip get tighter, but he didn't release his hold on her. Emotions flashed on his face. Did she see hope in his eyes? But as quickly as she thought she had seen it, his face returned to an unreadable mask. Finally Harry spoke.

"Are you sure?" he squeaked.

"I just made the potion," her voice was barely above a whisper. "It takes two hours to brew before there's a result." There was another minute of silence.

"So, do you...do you want it?"

She shouldn't have been so surprised to be confronted so quickly, but yet she was. However, there was only one answer in her mind, and she knew it.

"I...I do," she confessed. A small smile played at the corner of his lips, and he interlaced their fingers together.

"Let's go for a walk," he told her. "A watched cauldron...well, lets just go."


Harry led her to a nearby park that she had been to a few times before. It was a beautiful place, with trails that surrounded a lake and a light airy forest to one side. There was a path that Harry told her was for Busicles or something like that. Those two wheeled things that Muggles rode.

They walked along that path, their steps illuminated under the lamplight in a comfortable silence. Finally as they crossed a stream over a bridge, Harry pulled Ginny to one of the benches lining the path.

After a few minutes of simply enjoying being in each others arms and gazing at the stars, Harry spoke.

"I wish you hadn't been so scared to tell me, Ginny. I wish you feel like you can tell me anything..."

"Oh, Harry, I don't know why I was. I just...I just have come to realize...well, what I'm saying is...I just...I didn't want to lose you. I was afraid that any change would drive you away, and I love how things are now."

"What if I want some things to change?"Ginny looked at him strangely. There was something familiar in that phrase, and the twinkle in his eye when he said it confused her.

"What do you mean, Harry?"

"What I mean is, no...What I know is that I love you. Since you've been back in my life I've been happy again. I was so foolish to let you slip away after the war. I should have told you how I felt then, not waiting till now. I feel like everything in my life has just been setting up for the moment when I truly found you. That everything before that didn't matter, not until we were together.

But yet here we are, and I guess I'm glad that things turned out the way they did, even if I wish I hadn't wasted time we could have had together.

Ginny, no one's made me happier than you have. And I'm sad to see you had thought that I might not want this child, because there is no greater gift you could ever give me. Well, except if you said yes." By now Ginny's eyes glistened with unshed tears.

"Said yes to what?" Her mouth formed a tiny O of realization as Harry got off the bench and down on one knee in front of her.

"Ginny Weasley, would you do the honor of marrying me?" he asked, pulling out a small black box from his pocket. As he opened it he said,

"I've been carrying this around for two weeks now, waiting for the perfect moment to ask you. And whether you're a mother in 9 months or 9 years, there's no other person I'd ever want to share that experience with."

Ginny was too stunned to say anything.

"So?" he finally prompted, growing a little less sure of himself as the seconds passed.

"Oh gods yes!" she replied, letting the tears fall. Harry picked her up and spun her around, grinning from ear to ear.

He couldn't believe it; no only had he beaten the bad guy, but he'd gotten the girl too.


Harry and Ginny made their way back to the apartment some time later. As they neared

the building Ginny's anxiety came back more and more with each step. Ginny made it to the living room before she stopped.

"Harry,are you sure? What if we aren't ready? We're so young..."

"And we've got each other. Come on, you said it yourself, you want this child." He took her hand, and after giving her a gentle kiss, pulled her into the kitchen.

Slowly they leaned over the sink and looked at the cauldron that held the answer.

When she looked in Harry's eyes she knew everything would be alright.

"Well," he said, grinning. "I guess it'll be 9 months then."

"Actually," she said shyly as a smile crept onto her face, "Closer to 8!"


Note:

So it's been a while, huh? This story isn't over, and while I wanted to finish it in this chapter, I feel there's just too much to tell all in one part. And plus, I finally finished this much, the least I could do is put it up, right? Sorry it's been so long, I just haven't felt like writing, and I've been waaaaay too busy for my own good. There is so much more to tell here though, and while I'm not making any promises, I'm going to try to finish this soon! After all, the Weasleys still don't even know about Harry and Ginny!

I hope what I've put out is at least enjoyable. I have no idea how my writing compares to what it was (sometimes I read my stuff and can't believe I wrote it...not that it's genius or anything, but occasionally I'm surprised that my thoughts are translating as well as they are into words...) But I hope that you all like this chapter. Thanks for reading!

Zoë

...I solemnly swear I am up to no good...