A/N I Own Nothing
Ao3 – Once_Upon_A_Potter
February 21st, 2000
"Your Aunt can leave the hospital tomorrow, but I don't want her staying in her house by herself." The Healer told Molly and Arthur bluntly. Muriel had been admitted into Saint Mungoes with a case of pneumonia and having taken a relatively bad fall down the stairs at her house. "There's a good nursing home in Godric's Hollow, I could refer you to."
Arthur sighed, shaking his head. "She's not going to go for that." He knew Muriel, it would not be pretty if they even tried to force her into a nursing home. "…We have extra rooms, we could put her in one of those."
Molly's head snapped over to look at him. Could they now?
Though, the more she thought about it, she guessed they could put her in Ginny's old bedroom, and Molly could turn one of the other bedrooms into a nursery for her grandbabies. Maybe Fred and George's…
It didn't mean she was excited about the idea of Muriel moving in, though.
February 29th, 2000
"I want you to take a pregnancy test." Ginny told Harry suddenly that morning, when they were in the bathroom, getting ready for the day.
"Gin…" Harry sighed, he honestly did not think he was pregnant, he certainly didn't feel any different, besides it had only been two weeks, would a test even be able to detect it if he was?
"Please?" Ginny asked, "For my peace of mind?"
Harry glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "…Alright. Fine, I'll go get one later today."
"No need." Ginny said, reaching under the bathroom sink and pulling out a small, white, cardboard box.
"Really?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised, as he took the box from her. Ginny just shrugged, watching as he opened the box.
xXx
"Well?" Ginny asked, looking over as Harry came into the kitchen.
Harry shook his head. "Negative."
"Okay." Ginny breathed, nodding, part relieved, part disappointed. Somehow, the more she had thought about it, the more she liked the idea of having a baby soon.
March 5th, 2000
"Is he… Okay?" Molly asked her daughter, glancing into the living room from the kitchen, seeing her son in law curled up, asleep in the armchair they kept in the corner.
"What?" Ginny asked, from where she was setting the table, before following her mother's gaze, and sighing. "…oh. He should be? Robards has been working him harder than usual recently."
Molly hummed, bustling around the kitchen.
March 9th, 2000
Harry gagged, turning and moving away from the scene they had been called to, fist coming up to cover his mouth.
He had to admit, though they had been called to Knockturn Alley, he hadn't expected the scene they had entered. Apparently it had been a business transaction gone wrong and the body had been dumped in a small alleyway between two buildings.
He heaved, squatting at the end of the alleyway, elbows braced on his knees. He didn't know why this was affecting him like this, it wasn't like it was anything worse than what he had seen while they had been held at Malfoy Manor during the war.
"Harry, mate," Ron called from in the alley, "you okay over there?"
He shot Ron a thumbs up, heaving again.
March 13th, 2000
"Couldn't sleep?" Ginny asked, coming into the living room at two in the morning to see Harry sitting in the corner of their couch, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.
Harry shook his head, looking up at her wearily, as she sat next to him.
"How come?" she questioned, brows furrowed in concern.
"No. Idea." Harry answered, leaning his head back on the back of the couch.
"Nightmare, maybe?" Ginny questioned furthered, pulling her feet up onto the couch.
"Nope." There was a long pause before Harry continued, glancing over at where Ginny was struggling to stay awake, "You should go back to bed."
"You should come back to bed with me." Ginny responded, also leaning her head against the back of the couch.
Harry stood, yawning as he let the blanket fall from his shoulders to pool on the couch.
March 22nd, 2000
He had felt almost crazy, planning on taking yet another pregnancy test, when he had just taken one not even a month ago which had been negative.
But, he had gone to the apothecary to pick up supplies for the ministry, and had seen the pregnancy tests and thought of how sick he had been feeling the past several days. They had only waited a couple weeks before testing the first time, maybe if he was pregnant he hadn't been far enough along for the test, or maybe it had been a false negative? He bought two of the tests, just to be sure.
Now, Harry stood in the tiny, postage stamp bathroom in his and Ginny's apartment, staring at the two little plus signs on the two unassuming white sticks on the counter in front of him.
He wasn't ready to be a father, he was only nineteen, and Ginny eighteen, they weren't even married two months yet, still trying to get their feet under themselves. Both were still training for their careers, still living in the tiny apartment that barely fit them and Teddy. And while they might be helping raise Teddy, they only had him two to four days a week, much different, Harry was sure, than having a child relying on them full time, all day every day.
He hadn't realized he'd started shaking until he leaned against the counter, didn't realize he'd stopped breathing until he sucked in a deep breath with a gasp.
What if he wasn't a good father? After all, it wasn't exactly like he had a good example during his childhood.
Harry sighed, pushing himself away from the counter. How was he going to tell Ginny, he hadn't even told her he was testing again.
He startled when there was a knock on the bathroom door, "Harry?" Ginny called from the other side.
"Ye-" he paused, clearing his throat when his voice cracked. "Yeah?"
"You okay?" Ginny asked through the door, "You've been in there awhile."
"I'm fine!" Harry exclaimed, sliding the tests into his pants pocket as he rushed to open the door. "I'm fine." He repeated, opening the door, to be met with Ginny's concerned expression.
"What were you doing?" Ginny asked, crossing her arms as she tilted her head to the side, frowning, her brows furrowed.
"Well," He started, he could tell her now, that could very easily be an opening, if he chose to take it. He gave a quiet, near inaudible sigh. "I'm pregnant." He blurted, wincing right after, that definitely wasn't quite how he thought he would tell her, nor did he think he would tell her while they were standing the doorway to the bathroom.
"What?" Ginny asked, arms falling from where they had been crossed as brown eyes met emerald.
Breathing deeply, trying to steady shaking hands, Harry pulled the test, both tests, from his pocket. "I'm pregnant." He repeated, showing her the tests.
"No way." Ginny whispered, staring at the tests. If there was anything she had been expecting, that had not been it. Especially not long after the negative test just a couple weeks prior.
"I'm n- I'm not sure we're ready." Harry told her, looking anywhere but her eyes, while he wanted children, he had thought they would have more time before it happened.
"Neither am I." Ginny answered, moving forward to wrap her arms around her husband, "But, ready or not, I guess this is happening." It didn't even feel quite real to her, yet.
"I guess so," Harry responded with a weak chuckle, hugging Ginny tightly.
March 24th, 2000
"It looks like you're measuring around five and a half weeks. Which should make your due date… November twenty-first." Ethan said, looking at the ultrasound machine in front of him. Ethan Pomfrey was a healer that specialized specifically in male bearers and high risk pregnancies. He had to admit, if only to himself, that he had been rather excited when Carissa Greengrass, the Potter family healer for decades now, had referred the young Potter couple to him, it having been so long since he had gotten to work with a bearer. "Let's see if the little one will let us hear a heartbeat."
March 26th, 2000
It was surprisingly hard not to tell the family when they saw them next. Mother's Day was right around the corner, though, and Ginny wanted to wait until then to tell them. They had both warmed up significantly to the idea, the reality, of the baby ever since that first appointment. They may not have actually been able to hear the heartbeat, but seeing it seemed to have helped.
Ginny was pulled from her thoughts by Percy's girlfriend, Audrey Greene, asking her a question about the planning of Ron and Hermione's upcoming wedding in July.
April 2nd, 2000
This was, Ginny realized, as Harry parked their car on the edge of the burrow wards, one of the most nerve wracking thing they had ever done. How had Bill and Fleur seemed so calm when telling the family about Victoire? She wondered, as they, hand in hand, started the long walk up to the burrow.
The family, sadly, wouldn't be the first to know, as Harry had had to tell Robards not long after he and Ginny had found out. As they weren't in the middle of a war, Robards had moved Harry strictly to paperwork duty, instead of laying him off as would have been done in the past.
For Mother's Day, they had, as a family, decided to renovate the burrow's kitchen and dining area. Planning to replace appliances, flooring, repaint the walls, the works. Then they had each, individually, gotten their mother separate gifts as well. Bill would likely go to the burrow and make breakfast alongside Fleur and Victoire, Charlie would as always, take Molly out for dinner, Percy would have a bouquet made, George usually got a subscription service of some kind, and Ron would decide to clean the house and rope the rest of them into helping him. Ginny and Harry had simply gotten Molly a card this year, which they had put a copy of the sonogram in. Simple, but hopefully effective.
"Ginny! Harry!" Molly exclaimed as her daughter and son in law came in through the side door.
"Mum!" Ginny bounded over to wrap her arms around her mother's waist.
One thing she did know for sure, was that they were glad they had explained the bearer situation to the family shortly after they had gotten engaged. One less thing either of them would have to think about today.
xXx
"We have something for you, too…" Ginny said, shuffling through her purse for the envelope, once her siblings had given their mother their gifts and Harry had come back from being sick in the bathroom. She breathed out a little 'Aha!' as she finally pulled the envelope from her purse.
Bill and George raised their eyebrows, glancing at each other when they saw the envelope Ginny was handing their mother. Ginny could understand her family's confusion, she usually made or found something for Mother's Day (and Father's Day), one year it had been a small quilt, another when she was really little, had been a rock she had found and liked outside the burrow, once, just a few years back, had been a batch of cookies. The last time she had given a card had been when she was five.
Molly pulled the card out of the envelope, opened it, and stared incomprehensively for several seconds before her eyes slowly widened.
"Molly?" Arthur prompted, after several seconds of silence and his sons, Fleur, Audrey, and Hermione watching Molly curiously, sharing confused glances. Muriel was seemingly tuning everyone out, reading a magazine, Arthur didn't know which one and didn't bother asking, last time he had asked, though he would never admit it to anyone, he had nearly been bored to sleep. Molly slowly lowered the card to look at her daughter and son in law, obviously fighting a smile.
"Are you pregnant?" Molly asked, eyes flicking between Harry and Ginny who shared a grin as everyone turned to look at them.
"Yeah." Harry answered softly, looking up at his mother in law.
Molly stood, moving over to pull Harry and Ginny into a hug, shedding tears of joy. Were they young? Yes. Was she going to judge them on it? Well, she and Arthur had been barely older than them when Bill had been born.
Muriel huffed disinterestedly, turning the page in her magazine, muttering, "You Weasleys breed like rabbits."
