For Now or Forever

Harry walked down the street of Diagon Alley, hand in hand with Teddy as he tried to wrestle with the knot that was currently occupying the pit of his stomach. The lion that had inhabited it had fled in fear of this new confusing situation. He was in a position in which he just didn't know how to proceed from here. It was a feeling that he was all too familiar with when it came to Ginny Weasley. He didn't know how to express his feelings towards her when she was with Dean, or right after they had broken up, losing him many wonderful hours that he could have spent by the lake with her. He didn't know how to act after the war either. He knew that he wanted to be with Ginny, so they got back together. But he realized much later that the relationship hadn't worked because they had both grown up too much over the past year. They were much older and mature adults, maybe not in appearance but in spirit. The problem was they were trying to act like the people that they had been in sixth year. Even though everyone seemed to be pushing for it, they could not longer have a simple, carefree relationship. Too much had happened to both of them. Harry had suffered while searching for the horcruxes while Ginny suffered with the hostile takeover of Hogwarts. Neither was able to be there for the other in their time of need. In the force of trying to make a relationship for a seventeen and eighteen year old work, with the spirits of perhaps thirty year olds they poured their adult feeling out in letters, and tried to be kids when they were around each other. The result had perfectly molded their once passionate relationship into a deep and lasting friendship.

But I was fine with that friendship. Harry thought viciously to himself, yelling at the knot in his stomach.

A voice that sounded very much like Hermione's responded. But then you had to protect her again.

Was that it? Was it all about protection?

No, it's not. I know it's not. It's more than that. I love her. I've loved her for years and I didn't have to protect her.

What about the nightmares? Asked the voice again. You do have sort of a saving people thing.

But Ginny doesn't need me to save her! She relied on loads of guys!

Until last night! The voice sang in his ear.

Harry shook his head, while Teddy gazed up at him in confusion.

It was true. Until last night Ginny's nightmares could be vanquished by almost anyone, her body didn't have a reason not to trust. Until the night before last, Evan ruined her body's trust. It was now only Harry's arms that kept the nightmares away. Harry assumed that any of her brothers, Hermione, Luna, and Neville would have the same effect, but Ginny wouldn't want to share a bed with any of them.

I'm the only one she can share a bed with for the rest of her life, unless she wants to have terrible nightmares. Does that me that we're together now?

She could find someone else. Chided the voice.

But she'd have to have nightmares until her body learned to trust them. I don't know if she could take that.

She or you?

I couldn't. I couldn't wake up every night to the sound of her screaming and not do anything as some incompetent guy tried to soothe her when all I have to do is touch her and she's alright.

Harry let out a sigh. He was sick of arguing with his brain. He would just wait for Ginny. At the very least he knew that he wanted Ginny to be happy.

"Uncle Harry!" Teddy looked up at him with an innocent face.

"Yeah bud?"

"Do I really have to hold your hand? I am seven!" He glanced around at the crown embarrassed.

Harry looked around the street as well. All around him people were strolling through the streets, laughing without a care in the world. Children ran up and down past the shops, going in and out as they pleased, even children as young as Teddy were straying ahead of or behind their parents.

Harry wrapped a strong arm around Teddy's shoulders and hugged him to his leg. "Yeah bud, you have to hold my hand. You never know what could happen, and I can't lose you."

"Oh come on! You and Grandma are both so paranoid!"

"That's what happens when you fight in a war." Harry wasn't sure what to say, this was the first time Teddy had ever expressed any opposition to holding his hand. He would have to have a talk about it with him later. "Who taught you that word anyway?"

"Stinky Ginny." Teddy said in a huff.

Stinky Ginny wasn't exactly having the most wonderful afternoon herself. St. Mugo's was just starting it's summer Medi-Witch training program so as the ranking Medi-Witch on duty Ginny was showing a pile of new trainee's the storage room. She handed out diagrams and talked in a monotone about where nappy's and bottles were stored. She had been in the storage room so many times she didn't even have to think about the words that were coming out of her mouth. Instead, her thoughts wondered to Harry and the previous nights.

What's going to happen now? She thought to herself, as she pointed to a stack of gentle use wash clothes. Does this change the relationship between me and Harry? If I have to sleep in the same bed as him every night does that automatically move our relationship to a new level. Do we even have a relationship now?

Yes, a voice in the back of her head that sounded oddly like Luna and Hermione. A friendship is a relationship.

Does that change now? Is Harry my boyfriend now?

You could find someone else. The voice taunted.

And endure night after night of endless nightmares before I can trust someone completely? No, sorry, not likely.

Then you're stuck with him.

I'm not stuck with him, he's Harry. This isn't a bad thing; it's just a new thing. I would never consider myself stuck with someone unless I didn't like them.

I don't think that you have yet grasped the fact that you are going to be with this boy forever.

Forever. The word echoed back and forth in her head, as she pointed out the way the baby blankets were supposed to be folded for easy unfurling before they were put away, and sorted by color.

Does Harry think that we're together now? Was the question that was resounding in her head as she led the students back to their classroom, where Ginny knew they would receive a quiz on what she had just taught them.

Ginny strolled down the corridor towards the New Born Center, or the NBC. No witch worked in any one special department all of the time. They were assigned different departments within the maternity ward on any given day. Ginny's favorite department was the Birthing Center. She was going to become a Healer that specialized in the birth process, all the way from insemination to birth. She was assigned to the birthing center that day. She had requested to be in the Birthing Center for the next few days because Fleur was due to have her baby at any time. Since the first birth that she had got called in early for, no other "almost-mommies" as she and co-workers jokingly called them had come in. Her wand would vibrate if they did. So Ginny was going to visit the babies that had been born yesterday and last night while she continued to think about Harry.

Nothing has changed. She mused. Harry has always made my meals for me, and kept them warm, and packed my lunch. He's always been a flirty best friend. He's always given me kisses on the cheek and the forehead, even occasionally on the shoulder. He does that to Parvati and Lavender as well.

But those could easily be steady relationship things as well. Things a husband does for a wife. The voice returned.

Yeah but even if we were in a relationship, it would not be a steady relationship yet. And we're certainly not married.

You might as well be if you're going to be with him forever. The voice reasoned.

No. Ginny shook her head, as one of the babies stared up at her in what appeared to be amusement. We're not married, we're not boyfriend and girlfriend, we're just friends, that's our relationship.

For now. The voice stated getting the final word in, that Ginny could not bring herself to argue with.

As soon as Ginny bent down to pick up a little girl that she had helped deliver just before the end of her shift her wand began to vibrate.

"Of course," she declared to Eleanor, the healer in charge of the New Born Center. "As soon as I go to pick a baby up I've got to go pull one out of someone!"

Eleanor snorted, and the baby she was feeding beamed up at her.

"Bye, Leanne." Ginny said, tickling the baby's stomach with one finger, before she turned and left the ward.

Ginny was more than pleased when she saw the flowing whips of brilliant blonde hair that indicated Fleur was there. What was more obvious was what she was yelling. She was refusing to go into her room.

"I want Ginny. Where 'ees she? I will not do this without 'er."

"I'm right here Fleur. I'm right here!" she yelled as she came sprinting down the hallway, eager to get Fleur into her room. She had helped Fleur with the births of both Molly and Lucy. She had been in the room for Victorie's birth, having been chosen over Fleur's own sister Gabrielle.

"You are a woman of the world," her mother had explained to her. "Fleur values your life experience and support when it some to this sort of stressful situation. You and Fleur have been through much more than she and Gabrielle together in these past years. She needs you now."

Ginny smiled at the memory. That was the night she and Fleur had stopped being sister-in-law's and became sisters.

Three hours later almost the entire family was in the waiting room. Hermione was entertaining Molly and Lucy; while Teddy and Victorie were playing a game they had title "Whose Card is Highest?" with a muggle set of playing cards. Harry had removed the face cards and had used the cards to help the children learn the order of numbers one through nine when they were younger and he would babysit the two. The cards were now very worn and the rules had become more complicated with their years. It was impossible for any adult to play with them for the rules continued to change according to the whims of the children.

Arthur and Fleur's father were occupying the chairs closest to the door and had taken to nervously checking their watches. They were currently comparing the times on each other's watches with the time shown on the clock above the entry way in the waiting room, and muttering quietly to each other.

Harry was sitting in the chair closest to Teddy and Victorie who had chosen to play their game sprawled on the floor. Hermione was sitting in the middle of the floor with Molly and Lucy, who all were playing with the dolls that Fleur had knowingly packed in her hospital bag.

Two hours ago when Molly was unpacking Fleur's bag and lying out her pajama's she had stumbled across the dolls.

"Did the girls help you pack dear?" she asked with an amused smile on her face, holding the dolls up to Fleur.

"No, they are for the girls. They will get bored without them." Her accent disappeared through her clenched teeth.

Ginny had laughed, but knew what a wonderful mother Fleur was for thinking of her little girls when she had packed her bag. She only hoped that she would be that good of a mother one day.

Ron was slumped in a chair reading the Evening Prophet, while Charlie was snoring with his head on Ron's shoulder. Molly had sent him a patronus that has said "Come quick, Fleur hurry!" And he had quickly fled from Romania only to find that there was no real emergency. He was currently dealing with the exhaustion that came with the exertion that it took to apperate across a several countries.

Percy was working late, but Penelope was sitting in the chair farthest away from the door, wringing her hands and glancing nervously down at her small baby bump every few seconds. George was pretending to flirt with one of the new Medi-Witches for Angelina's amusement, a large engagement ring shone on her finger.

Molly, Fleur's mother, and Bill were all shoved into Fleur's room with Ginny two other Medi-Witches and a healer. At this point Ginny was continually making complicated wand movements over Fleur's stomach to monitor the baby throughout the birth. Fleur was getting ready to push. Ginny ordered one of the other Medi-Witches to take over for her as she bent low near the Healer.

The baby was in his hands, and then it was in Ginny's. The Healer declared the baby a boy, as Bill sliced the umbilical cord with his wand. Ginny held the baby and moved her wand over him, determining that he weighed seven pounds five ounces and was forty-nine centimeters long. She wrapped her nephew in a blue blanket and placed him in Fleur's arms.

"Look at our boy." Bill whispered in his wife's ear, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"'E is beautiful." Fleur breathed.

"He had red hair!" Molly exclaimed in excitement.

"'E has his grandfathers nose." Fleur's mother declared regally.

Ginny smiled as she stood back and watched the scene unfold. "He's perfect. Oh, what is his name?" she asked.

Fleur looked at Bill and he gave a firm nod.

"Ronald Fredrick Weasley." Bill said.

"But we shall call him Ronnie." Fleur added. "To match our girls, Victorie, Molly, Lucy, and Ronnie." She said with a matter-of-fact nod of her head.

"Can I?" Bill asked Fleur, motioning towards the door with his head.

"But of course." She replied, handing their son to Bill.

Bill strode across the room, the grandmothers in his wake and entered the waiting room.

"I'd like to introduce you all to Ronald Fredrick Weasley," he said to the room as he gazed intently at the baby.