Author's Note: I had a very strong idea for how I wanted this to start, but the ending surprised me. My vacation was wonderful and my business trip went well. I'm back home now and will be back to updating on a more normal schedule instead of last week when I updated half a dozen times in a few days. Are there any other characters you'd like to see get a 1-shot in this story?
The kitchen at the Burrow was full of all the usual household smells—there was the lingering smell of breakfast, the fire on the hearth, and Molly's rather dated perfume. When Ginny had let it slip at breakfast that she had the day off, her mother had insisted that she needed a hand with the household potions. She never bothered to buy the ones that she could make herself—it was the way things had to be when you were raising seven children. And even when most of them were grown and out of the house, well, it still made sense to be thrifty.
"After all, when Harry has an upset stomach, you won't want to tell him that you're out of Sotheby's Soothing Solution. You can just go to your pantry and say, 'Don't worry, love, I have just the thing, I made it last week," she said. "Now, bring me the shrivelfigs that were drying in the window and we'll get started on that Shrinking Solution. It's excellent for swelling. Harry will have so many aches and pains and sore muscles from his Auror training, he'll practically be living off this."
Ginny ground her teeth and said nothing, going to the window instead. She hadn't quite found a way to tell her mother that she had broken up with her preferred choice for son-in-law-to-be weeks ago. It had been an amicable break up, but it would still come as a hard blow to Molly. She brought the shrivelfigs over but tried to find another task for herself to keep her distance from her mother.
"Now, another important thing to remember is that there are some of these potions that you absolutely should not handle while pregnant. I know you're still young, but it's better to start sooner rather than late, and you have the hips for it to make it easier." She continued rambling on about potions for a moment before getting a fond smile. "You can see it all over the boy's face when he's playing with Teddy. He's going to be such a good father. He already can't wait to have his own."
"Harry is Teddy's godfather, Mum. He wants to be there for him. It's one of his biggest regrets that he and Sirius didn't have as much time together as they should have," was all she said, trying to ignore the very vivid description of pregnancy her mother launched into, covering everything from the swollen ankles and morning sickness to how long through the pregnancy she should be fine to keep working if she had a nice job at one of the Ministry offices, and really, how long was she planning to keep working at the joke shop? It couldn't be safe.
She couldn't take it anymore and slammed the bowl she was holding down on the counter. "Mum, Harry and I broke up weeks ago. You're right. He does want babies. Several in fact. I don't want to be a mother, and I didn't go to that interview you arranged for me at the Ministry, because I don't want a boring Ministry job. I want to fly for the Harpies. I've told you that and told you that for years, but you just don't listen. I don't want to be you. I don't want to stay at home and raise kids. I know that's what you're expecting but that's not who I am. I got into the general league tryouts that are happening next week and even if I don't make it this year, I'm going to try again next season. That's who I am, Mum. Ginny Weasley. Not Molly Weasley. And I'm exhausted from trying to live up to your expectations." She pushed a chair out of the way as she stormed out of the kitchen and into the backyard, heading straight for the broom shed.
"Ginerva Weasley, you stop right there!" her mother screeched, banging open the door with a clatter. "I fought in a war so that you could chase your dreams. So that you could raise your family in better conditions than what we brought you up in."
"Your dreams aren't my dreams, Mum. I want to chase mine."
They proceeded to have a shouting match that would have had every one of her brothers with his head craned out the window to watch…but Ginny was the youngest. No one else still lived at home. Finally, tempers cooled to where they could glare at one another and hurl their accusations in tones of voice only slightly louder than the one one needed to use to make yourself heard from one end of the Weasley table to the other.
"Ginny, I'm your mother, and if you don't tell me these things, how could you expect me to know them?" she demanded. "Of course I was going on about Harry since you hadn't told me you'd broken up. And if you didn't want that Ministry job why didn't you say something when your father offered to set up the interview? If you don't tell me these things, how am I to know?"
"Mum, you stopped listening to me a long time ago, so of course I stopped talking. There was no reason to waste my breath."
Slowly, and mindful of her aching knees and back, Molly sat down on the back step and looked up at her daughter, still several yards away, with a broom clutched in her hand. "I just want you to be happy. Bill's a curse-breaker. Charlie works with dragons. Godric only knows what's in the concoctions the twins brew up. Ron's an Auror. Yes, I'd like you safe behind a desk at the Ministry like Percy, but did you really think I wouldn't support you if you had your heart set on something else? Even if it was dangerous?" Pure hurt radiated from her eyes.
"I'm your only girl. And the baby," Ginny pointed out, her voice much quieter than it had been. She came forward a few feet, looking at her mother. "You always seemed to want me to follow in your footsteps. You've been teaching my household spells and potions for as long as I can remember."
"And if I could have gotten any of your brothers but Percy and Charlie to learn them, I'd have taught them as well. They're good things to know," she said gently.
"Charlie?" she asked in surprise.
"He does have to manage for himself quite a bit. A dragon reserve doesn't exactly have takeout around the corner the way the twins do in London," she said. "And with all the scrapes he got into…he had to learn healing charms young." She got a far off look in her eyes, remembering when all of her children were home, and the house was full of noise. Now, the ghoul in the attic made more noise than anything else, and one of her boys would never come home. She still said the twins, but George was alone now. "Ginny, the only thing I expect from you is to tell me the the truth, and live a good life."
Ginny closed the gap between them and hugged her mother. She wasn't quite sure she believed her—she knew how much she wanted grandchildren to spoil, and she'd heard her say often enough that she wished more of her children had picked a solid, quiet career like Percy—but she did believe her mother wanted her to be happy, and she could do that. Not with Harry. And not working at the Ministry. But happy…she could make that happen.