A/N I Own Nothing
Ao3 – Once_Upon_A_Potter
March 6th, 2005
Ginny groaned when she was woken up at six-thirty the next morning by two little boys throwing the door open, then jumping onto the bed.
"What are you two doing up so early?" She lamented quietly, noticing vaguely that she had been alone in the bed before the boys had come in. Though, she assumed that was to be expected given that Harry had been planning on making breakfast as a sort of thank you for letting them stay.
"We wanted a hug." James whispered to her seriously.
"I see… come here, then." Ginny told them, pulling them into her arms. Trying desperately not to think about how there should have been a third child in her arms. About whether they would have had another boy or a girl, what color hair and eyes they would have had, what type of relationship he or she would have had with James and Teddy… "This is a pretty good thing to wake up to." She commented, as her boys hugged her back.
"Should we go downstairs for breakfast?" She asked, laughing when the boys didn't even hesitate before jumping off the bed and running out the room.
Ginny sighed, taking a minute to dress and prepare herself for the day before following her sons down the stairs.
March 10th, 2005
"Wait," Harry muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Okay, can you explain it to me again?" he asked.
This was not how he expected to spend his Thursday afternoon, sitting in the headmaster's office of his godson's primary school.
"Your son was caught attempting to sabotage another student's birthday celebration." The headmaster monotoned, hands folded on his desk in front of him.
"And how, exactly, does a six-year-old," had Teddy been there, Harry knew he'd correct him by saying that he was almost seven, "sabotage the birthday of an eight-year-old?" Harry asked, the math not adding up in his head, as to why his godson would be in a class with another child that shouldn't be in his class to begin with.
The headmaster sighed, "The child in question was held back last year." He explained, "We don't know much, but she seems to come from a troubled home."
Harry sighed, "What did Teddy, a six-year-old, do to sabotage a party?"
"He dumped paint on the birthday girl." The headmaster explained, exasperated, "Causing an all-out paint war."
Harry's lips twitched, while the paint war sounded like something Teddy might do, he didn't understand why Teddy, his Teddy Bear, would target a specific child in such a way.
"So, you're suspending him?" Harry asked. The paint did explain was the child was in different clothes than he had been in that morning when being dropped off.
"Until Monday." The headmaster confirmed. "He is, as I'm sure you saw, sitting outside my office waiting for you to take him home."
Harry nodded, standing and leaving the office, coming to a stop in front of his godson.
"Come here, bud." Harry muttered, picking the child up and allowing him to wrap his arms and legs around him like some sort of octopus. "Want to explain to me why you decided to use paint as a weapon to 'attack' your classmate?" he whispered, as he walked toward his car.
Teddy just shook his head, face buried in Harry's neck.
"Teddy." Harry sighed, settling the child into the backseat, "I need to know what happened."
Tears welled in Teddy's eyes, his bottom lip trembling. "Delphi's mean!" He whined, finally breaking. "She doesn't deserve to share daddy's birthday."
Harry paused. Andromeda must have told the boy when his parents' birthdays were. Which meant he needed to ask Andromeda when Tonks' is, so he can be prepared in case something similar happens then, instead of him playing a guessing game of it.
"Teddy Bear…" Harry sighed again, he seemed to be doing a lot of that today, "I know it… sucks that someone that's mean to you shares a birthday with someone you love. But, unfortunately, that doesn't mean you can attack them with paint."
March 15th, 2005
"They're letting her out early!" Ron announced indignantly to Harry, as they walked together to their shared office.
Harry paused, turning to look at him, "Who's letting who out early?"
"The Ministry." Ron told him. "They're letting Skeeter out early. On good behavior."
"Really?" Harry asked, appalled, the woman would have only had a few months left of her measly five years, and they were letting her out on 'good behavior'?
"Yeah." Ron responded, sounding just as annoyed as Harry felt, "When Hermione found out, I tell you, she was bloody pissed, mate."
Harry snorted, "I bet. She couldn't do anything against it?" Hermione had been the most outraged of them all when Skeeter had first been sentenced.
Ron shook his head, "Unfortunately not, it was a bit of a Azkaban starting to fill and Susan, she gets first call on things like Azkaban, she wanted to have room available with the upcoming raids."
"Well, when do I need to start bracing myself?"
"Mate, as soon as possible."
"Well, hopefully, she'll have learned her lesson." Harry mentioned, as the pair stepped into their office.
"You reckon?" Ron asked, setting his bag full of paperwork he had taken home the night before on the desk. "How likely do you think that is? Because I don't reckon it's bloody likely. That woman spent a year captured in a jar, as a beetle, and yet she still put herself in a position that got her in Azkaban."
March 21st, 2005
"Oh, Harry!" Harry felt his blood go cold at the sound of the voice that was calling him from across Diagon Alley.
The woman had literally just gotten out of Azkaban, and she was already at it again.
He could only watch as she made her way toward him, she somehow didn't seem to have aged a day in the five years she was locked away. What did they do, give her a make over when she got out?
"I have just been waiting to speak to you again!" she exclaimed, pulling out her will and note pad as she stopped in front of him.
"Looks to me, like you actually wanted an interview." He deadpanned, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
"So, you wouldn't mind, then?" she asked, not waiting for an answer before she flicked her wand at her notepad, causing it to come to life alongside the quill, "Wonderful, I have so many questions to ask, five years is a long time, after all!"
"I, never agreed to do any interview." Harry protested.
Rita, however, didn't seem to notice. Not that she would have cared had she.
"I just simply couldn't believe it when I read that you'd had a miscarriage." She told him, jumping right into the topic she had had her eyes set on. The couple had been tight lipped about the subject, not even talking about it with their trusted interviewers, it hadn't been confirmed as truth for the public.
Harry stared at her, a feeling of fiery anger rising in him. Only Rita, everyone else had had the decency to not approach them about it, but of Rita would do it just days after getting out of Azkaban. He shut his eyes briefly, attempting to compose himself.
"I noticed that you haven't ever spoken about it to the public. Even though it's been four months already." Rita stated, "Would you mind telling me about that?"
Harry peeled his eyes open, only to glare at her and her quill. Reaching out, he snatched the quill and note pad from the air before it could invade him.
"You come near me with this again, and I will hit you with harassment charges and a restraining order so quickly, that your head will spin." He muttered, meeting her shocked gaze with his glare, reluctantly shoving the items back at their owner before turning on heel and walking away. "And I better not see a word of this interaction published in any newspaper." He called over his shoulder.
Yes, magical restraining order that another auror had told him about all those years ago was sounding better by the minute. Especially as it could keep her physically however big a distance away from him and his family that they decided on. Even better, was that he had been assured that they would, indeed, be eligible for it if need be.
March 29th, 2005
"Harry, Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed that evening, as she threw open the door to her and Ron's home.
"Hermione." Harry greeted, laughing as he returned her enthusiastic hug.
"Come in." Hermione told them, pulling back from the hug and gesturing inside. "Come in."
The couple followed her in, Harry feeling a nervous energy that he'd had off and on since being invited over returning.
It was just Ron and Hermione's house, they had been there several times since they had moved. But what was off setting to him this time, was that James and Teddy weren't there, as per Hermione's request.
Which just told him that Hermione had something to tell them that she didn't think a child should hear, which usually meant bad news.
"What'd you have to tell us?" Ginny asked bluntly, as the four of them sat in the sitting room.
Harry felt strangely relieved that he wasn't the only one to find the circumstances off.
"I- Well, that is to say, I don't know how to tell you." Hermione huffed a laugh to herself, looking down at her hands as she twiddled her fingers. "It's funny, I had this entire conversation planned out, and now that we're sitting here, I don't know what to say."
"Nobody died, right?" Harry asked, eyebrow raised.
"No!" Ron exclaimed, sharing a look with Hermione, "No, it's nothing like that."
"Well then," Harry started, "What is it?"
"We, well, I-" Hermione paused, gaze flicking back forth from Harry to Ginny and back again. "We, thought it would probably be best if you were the first ones we told that, well, that I-" she sighed, "I'm pregnant."
"Hermione, that's great!" Ginny exclaimed, but it wasn't Ginny Hermione was watching for a reaction. She watched as Harry's face cycled through many emotions she couldn't identify, before settling on a gentle, but genuine smile and hesitant… something that Hermione couldn't quite make out, but the pit in her stomach screamed that it was something wrong, something bad.
"When are you due?" Ginny asked. Harry leaned back in his seat, arms wrapped loosely around his stomach.
"Oh, uh, November eighteenth." Hermione answered, her eyes snapping back to Ginny. "We just found out a couple days ago."
X
"Maybe we shouldn't have told them yet." Hermione muttered to Ron that night, after the two had left.
"Why?" Ron asked, "I thought it went pretty well."
"…We upset them…" Hermione finally whispered after a short pause.
"Hermione, love," Ron sighed, pulling her into his arms, her head tucked under his chin, "there would have been at least some upset no matter when or how we told them."
Hermione scoffed, "And how could you possibly know that?" she asked heatedly, though her voice was slightly muffled by his shirt. "We should have waited."
"They're coming up on what they're due date would have been." Ron answered bluntly, "May fifteenth, the closer we get to it, the worse their reactions would have been." Not that he thought either Ginny or Harry would have it in them to be truly mad or upset about something like this, but he had seen what grief could do at times.
Hermione huffed but didn't speak, even she had to concede to the fact of what her husband had just said.
X
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked, later that evening after they had put Teddy and James to bed.
Harry hummed, leaning his head back against the back of his chair, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You've been awfully quiet." Ginny pointed out.
"I'm fine, Gin." He sighed, a bone deep exhaustion seeming to sink in. "Just- I'm fine."
