A/N I Own Nothing
Ao3 – Once_Upon_A_Potter
November 19th, 2004
"Ginny!" Kate called through the Holyhead Harpies tent, "You have a phone call."
"Coming!" Ginny called back as she walked through the tent, pulling her hair up into a bun. She took the phone from her teammate, holding it between her ear and shoulder as she tugged her gloves and bracers on. "Hello?"
"Hey, Gin." Harry said from the other side of the phone.
"Hey, what's going on?" she asked, shifting the phone to her hand instead of holding it between her shoulder and face.
"Ginny!" Gwenog yelled from across the tent, "Wrap it up, two minutes!"
"Oh," Harry muttered, "I can call back later, it's not, it's not urgent."
"No, no, it's fine." Ginny assured, "We still have some time before we need to head out."
"Hmm." Harry hummed.
"Hey." Ginny said, "What's wrong?"
"Well, I uh," Harry started, "I'm ha-"
"Ginny!" Gwenog called, cutting Harry off, "One minute!"
Ginny glared, pointing pointedly at the phone.
"I can call you back." Harry said, cutting off what he was saying.
"It's okay, we have plenty of time." Ginny assured, then looking right at Gwenog, she said, "Ignore her."
Harry sighed, then took a hitching breath in. "I'm ha- I'm having a miscarriage."
Ginny's heart dropped, "Oh, Harry, no."
"I'm sorry." Harry cried, "I'm so sorry!"
"No, no, it's not your fault." Ginny told him, even as she felt her eyes start to fill, "I'm sure it's not your fault."
"I just, I don't even know why it's happening." Harry told her sniffling.
"I know, I know," Ginny soothed, what did they even do at this point? "Where's James? Is he still at daycare?"
"Yeah. He is." Harry answered.
"Ginny!" Gwenog called, heading outside to speak to the coach, "Come on, time to move!"
"Okay, uh, okay, I'll be home as soon as I can, okay?" Ginny told him, ignoring Gwenog.
"No! You don't have to do that." Harry protested, "I'll survive, I know you have a game this afternoon."
"Hey, listen to me." Ginny told him sternly, "You are more important to me. Okay? You and our family, are more important to me."
"Okay." Harry sighed tiredly.
"I'll be home as soon as I can." She said once again, "Love you."
"Hmm. Love you too." Harry murmured, before Ginny hung up the phone.
She stood still, her hand resting on the phone, having put it back on the receiver, as she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Everyone ready?" Gwenog asked, ducking back into the tent.
"Actually," Ginny started, as her teammates rushed around as they finished getting ready. "I need to go home."
"What?" Gwenog exclaimed, "You can't just leave!"
"I need to go." Ginny argued, before sighing, as she went to start packing, "Harry's having a miscarriage, I need to go be with him."
Gwenog paused for a moment, thinking, "Does this mean you won't need the time off in May?"
"That's where your mind goes?" Ginny asked, astonished, she shook her head, "I need to go home now."
"You can't just leave right now Ginny!" Gwenog raised her voice, "We're playing against Puddlemore United!"
"Then have Sarah play in my stead." Ginny told her, shrinking her trunk and tucking it into her pocket, heading toward the door.
"Ginevra." Gwenog growled, all the times she let the younger woman visit home, all the time she gave her off, and this was the thanks she got? "You walk out that door, you're fired."
Ginny froze.
The rest of the team braced themselves.
She turned slowly, an enraged look on her face.
"You think a job is more important to me than my family?" she asked incensed. "You think I'm going to stay just because you threaten to fire me?"
There was a moment of silence before she spoke again, "I quit." Ginny announced, head held high.
"You. You can't just quit." Gwenog stuttered, both in shock and uncertainty. Wasn't this Ginny's dream job? Why would she just quit at the drop of a hat like that?
"I quit." Ginny repeated, the only reason she had this job in the first place was because she wanted it, not necessarily because they needed the money. She didn't want a job that kept her from her family, especially at a time like this.
xXx
"Hey." Ginny said, when she found Harry laying in their bed, cocooned by their blankets.
"Hmm… hey." He replied, stretching.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, laying down next to him.
"Eh… Fine." He answered, shrugging, before fighting his way out of his blanket cocoon. "Have you picked James up?"
Ginny shook he head, "Not yet, I wanted to check on you first." She told him, they still had plenty of time before they were expected to pick James up. "I'll head that way here in a minute."
"How'd you get Gwenog to give you time off during a game?" Harry asked, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.
"Heh, about that," Ginny huffed, sitting back up herself, "I don't have a job anymore."
"What?" Harry spluttered, whipping around to stare at her, "Ginny, what did you do?"
"I quit." She told him bluntly.
"But, Ginny, you worked so hard for that job!" Harry exclaimed, burying his face in his hands.
Ginny gave a one shoulder shrug. "You're more important than a job, besides, it's not like we need the money." She told him, "Not that I won't be finding another job, though, because I will be. Hopefully I'll find one that won't have me far from home so much."
November 21st, 2004
"Ginny!" Molly exclaimed when her daughter came through the floo. "Are Harry and James not coming with you?"
Ginny shook her head, "Uh, no, they're not, I can't stay long either."
"How come?" Molly asked, setting a stack of plates on the table and coming over to Ginny.
"We uh," Ginny stuttered, she had antagonized on how to tell her family, yet here she was, tripping over herself, "We lost the baby, Mum." She finally whispered.
"Oh Honey." Molly said, enveloping Ginny in her arms, "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry."
Arthur ducked into the kitchen, making eye contact with Molly over Ginny's shoulder, 'What's wrong?' he mouthed.
'I'll tell you later.'
xXx
"Wait, he miscarried?" Hermione asked, look and sounding absolutely heartbroken.
Molly nodded, "Ginny told me just today." she had also asked if she could let the rest of the family know, Molly had agreed to have one less thing Harry and Ginny had to worry about.
"But, what happened?" George asked.
Molly shook her head, "Ginny didn't say much before she had to leave, it's… likely it's just one of those things where nothing could be done to prevent it."
"Do they need anything?" Fleur asked after a few moments silence.
"They're not the only ones to have lost a pregnancy." Muriel huffed, "They'll live."
November 23rd, 2004
"Everything okay?" Ginny asked drowsily as Harry came back from the bathroom. "You were in there a while."
"Yeah, just cramping." He told her, crawling back into bed, "Thought maybe things were going to start moving…"
"Hmm." Ginny hummed, "Might need to think about that potion."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "Maybe."
November 25th, 2004
"Ethan," Harry said into the phone a couple days later, "Yeah, I think we'd like to try that potion now."
xXx
"So, you take this potion," Ginny said, sitting at their kitchen table and holding up a deep purple potion, "it'll help the process along, then in a couple weeks when the… when the miscarriage is complete… we can start trying again?"
"Well, Ethan said he'd recommend waiting at least six weeks after." Harry told her, taking the potion from her, sitting down next to her, "But, essentially, yes. Though, I'll have to take the rest of these potions," He gestured to the many light purple potions in the box the apothecary had given them, "or wait up to six months."
"So, six weeks with the potions, six months without?" Ginny asked.
Harry nodded. He looked to her seriously, "I can't, Ginny, even if I take the potions… I can't promise I'll be ready to try again in six weeks."
"You don't have to be, we can wait." Ginny told him, reaching out and brushing his hand with hers, "I just want you to heal."
"Well then," Harry sighed, "I guess, bottom up, then?"
December 1st, 2004
Ginny had applied for many, many jobs, both wizarding and muggle, and this was the first person to offer her a job? Had she known that the manager of the small muggle shop was such a sleaze she would never have applied here in the first place.
On the outside, it was a small niche coffee shop, with a welcoming atmosphere to anybody. But, when she met the owner, Richard, he was a balding, rotund man wearing a supposed to be white but was clearly stained yellow wife beater, gray sweatpants, and slippers, with a gaze that made her feel almost violated.
She had been prepared not to get the job, had hoped, even that she wouldn't be offered the job. It hadn't even taken him five minutes to offer her the job.
And, well, it was offered, and Ginny wasn't one to back down from a challenge.
"When do I start?" she blurted, before she could really think about it.
"Now." Richard told her, throwing an apron in her direction.
Ginny caught it, staring straight ahead for a moment, processing what she had just signed up for.
"Well?" the man snapped, "What are you waiting for? A written invitation? Put it on!"
Ginny scrambled, tying the black apron around her waist. "Now what?" She asked, looking up at the man.
"Go out there and take orders." He told her, waving toward the front of the store. "It's coffee, you'll figure it out. Besides, Astoria's out there if you need any help."
Ginny turned dazedly and stepped back out into the front of the shop, the intoxicating aroma of fresh coffee washing over her.
"-ave a nice!" Ginny heard the girl working the register call in a sugary sweet voice, "Asshole." The girl muttered to herself once the customer was out of earshot.
Ginny cleared her throat.
"What?" the girl snapped, whipping around to look at Ginny. "Oh. You must be a new hire?"
"Uh, yeah, I am." Ginny told her, taking in the vaguely familiar face. The girl was obviously younger than Ginny maybe nineteen or twenty, paler and shorter than Ginny was as well, with piercing blue eyes, sharp cheekbones, plump lips, slightly upturned nose, and hair that fell out of the bun the girl had pinned it in, framing her face with dark curls. "What was that?"
The girl huffed, "That was just one of our regulars." She told her, "He likes to tip depending on a girls' looks, and if you're a man, well, he won't even bother ordering. I've seen him walk out when Ernie was running the counter. Didn't even order anything."
"Wow." Ginny muttered, using a loose hair band from her jeans pocket to pull her hair into a ponytail.
"Don't worry," the girl said, handing Ginny a towel before rounding the counter to wipe off the few tables in the place, "You'll see what I'm talking about, we get a lot of those type here. If you last long enough to see them. Wipe off the counter for me, would you?"
"That's not going to make me not worry." Ginny quipped, getting to work on the counter.
The girl huffed a laugh, pausing and leaning against the table she had been wiping, she eyed Ginny as though sizing her up, "I must admit, I never thought I'd see a Weasley working in a place like this." The girl commented flippantly.
Ginny froze, whipping back around to face the younger woman.
She smirked, "Yeah, I recognize you." She told Ginny, walking over and offering her hand to shake, with a twinkle in her eye, "Astoria Greengrass."
