The morning had dawned crisp and chilly. Street lights flickered and autumn leaves rustled on the pavement of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place as Ginevra Potter woke for what was the fifth time in the wee hours of that morning.
Unable to sleep, she looked over to her husband as he slept with nary a care in the world. She couldn't blame him either; Harry had lived through enough nightmares and deserved some quiet. To think of it, both of them did.
Ginny smiled as she realized how of late, his beard had become noticeably scruffy and greyer and how it stood in deep contrast to how he looked three decades ago. Three decades, she thought. Three decades of being together, of having children; five of them at that and watching the babies grow up and falling in love with each other all over again. It seemed odd then, that the kids were no longer around. Not even the Twins.
Remus and Dora had begun their second year at Hogwarts barely a month ago and it still seemed surreal to Ginny that her babies weren't around anymore. She missed waking them up in the mornings, cooking them breakfast, and how they'd rush to hug her every evening she came back home. She worried if Remus was still having the nightmares that he wrote to her about last week, but then reassured herself that he wasn't alone at Hogwarts; Dora was there too, afterall!
It wasn't just the Twins she was worried about though, especially when her older kids seemed to have been going about their own lives now. She understood fully well that they couldn't always spare time for her, but her maternal instincts always got the better of her. Lily was busy with her broom business in Diagon Alley and visited once a week, James was in Africa studying wandless magic and wrote frequently.
But it was Al she worried about the most. The House Clock had him painted as being in "Danger" nearly all the time, and Ginny's heart would skip a beat each time she forced herself to look at it. As an Auror, he was perpetually tasked with dangerous missions that had him infiltrating enemy ranks under cover. She wouldn't dare admit, but she was biased towards her second son.
The morning was already weighing heavy on her, and by Merlin did she crave a cigarette. She then simply sighed and collected herself.
As she wiped a tear off her cheek and wrapped herself in a shawl, Ginny headed off downstairs to freshen up a bit. Glancing at all the family portraits, she couldn't quite help but notice how much slimmer she looked back then. But then again, she had raised five kids now and felt comfortable with the weight that she had gained over the years with all the cooking for her family. Besides, Harry seemed to love it and that's all that mattered.
Back in the kitchen, Ginny boiled some tea leaves and watched the steam rise out of the kettle, only to realize that something lay on the kitchen table that wasn't quite around last night. Picking the dusty old diary up, she couldn't quite believe what she was holding. She thought the diary had been lost, all the memories she had inked in it when she was pregnant with Al lost, and yet here it lay...
And as she stood there gobsmacked, she heard footsteps, "You forgot your glasses," said Harry's voice as he entered the room, smiling...
