The little flower in life's garden II
"James, Albus hurry up!" Harry shouted from where he stood next to the fireplace. "You don't want to be late for Grandma Molly's dinner, do you?"
"Comin' daddy!" the two little boys answered simultaneously as they made their way down the stairs. Well, or rather crawled in little Albus' case.
Ginny watched the whole scene and just shook her head in an amused way. Naturally, she would have carried Al down the stairs – she had even convinced her usually overprotective husband that despite being three month pregnant she was very well able to carry her youngest down the stairs. But of course, the result of combining the Potter and the Weasley line were incredibly stubborn and strong-willed children.
And Albus, with the little sentences he was able to put together, had told her with a – for him – dead-serious face that he wants to climb down like his big brother.
Admittedly, it took him quite some time to take one step after the other, but it worked somehow.
Leaning her head against Harry's shoulder, both of them watched how James waited at the bottom of the stairs, shouting encouraging words and phrases to his baby brother.
"Do you think they'll still get along when the little one arrives?" The red-haired witch asked, worry swinging along in her voice.
She could feel her husband's breathing, before he reached around her and settled his hands on her slightly rounded stomach.
"Did you ever think that Jamie and Al would get along the way they do now? Exactly," he added upon hearing his wife's soft chuckle. "It will be new, but I'm sure they'll get used to it."
Ginny was about to reply, when she heard her youngest's excited voice.
"Mummy, I did it!"
"Yes, Al did it!" James joined him, hugged his little brother and tried to carry him towards their parents.
Smiling, Ginny bent down on her knees and hugged the two. "Well done!"
"Can we go to Granny Molly now, pleeeaase?"
Harry chuckled and carefully put some floo powder into James' hand. "Now, be careful and very clearly! We don't want you to end up in Nockturn Alley…"
"Yeah, like someone else we know…" Ginny mumbled giggling, tried to avoid Harry's playful nudge and instead picked up little Albus. "Now go ahead, we'll meet you there, love."
Together, Harry and Ginny watched their four-year-old vanish in the green flames of the fireplace. The witch felt her youngest shaking in her arms. He has never really been fond of this particular way of transportation. The first time they had tried it, he had burst into tears upon arriving at Ron and Hermione's place. She still remembered that it had taken them all incredibly long to calm the little boy down; and not even his favourite toy was much of a help back then.
Exchanging a look with her husband, Ginny could tell that he was thinking exactly the same.
"It's going to be just fine, Al. Just hold on tight, okay?"
There was still a lot of worry in his green eyes, but eventually Albus nodded hesitantly before he tightened his arms even stronger around Ginny's neck.
.x.x.x.
"Harry, dear, it's lovely too see you!"
Molly Weasley didn't even give Harry the choice to burst of the last remains of dirt from his robe, before the elderly woman embraced him tightly.
"It's nice to see you, too, Mum," Ginny chuckled at the fact that her mother had completely ignored her.
But the red-haired witch didn't mind. She knew that her husband had been a part of the family ever since he was in his second year. And everyone who knew the Weasley Matriach also knew that she would never stop looking out for her 'charge' – even though he was already grown up by now.
"I'm sorry, Ginny, dear, come here," the elderly woman apologized quickly and pulled her daughter into the same hug. Then she focused her attention on the little boy on Ginny's arm. To the younger witches relief, her son had taken the floo-travelling quite well. He looked a little confused, but apart from that he seemed to have handled it a lot better than the last time.
"Oh, hello Albus! How are you today? My, he's already grown so much since the last time I've seen him!" The last thing was said to Harry and Ginny, who both just smiled in return.
"They do grow up so fast, don't they?" Ginny wondered out aloud, and handed her son to his grandmother.
Molly made a couple cooing sounds, which made Albus giggle. "Indeed, and believe me, I know what I'm talking about. Even my little girl has grown up by now…"
Sometimes, Ginny wondered how her mother had managed to take care of all her children. There were times, when the red-haired witch didn't even know how to handle her two boys, let alone six and a girl.
Amazed, she watched as her mother carried Albus into the living room, where she had apparently already played with the other grand-children that were gathered around the table. It seemed like Hermione and Ron had already arrived, since little Rose and Hugo were both giggling happily upon James' and Albus' arrival. When her eyes fell upon Victoire, Dominique and Louis, her eyes widened a little.
"It seems we'll be having dinner with a lot more people than we thought…" Harry mumbled as he put an arm around his wife and led her into the kitchen – after all the kids were in the best of hands.
Ginny nodded, her heart beating a little faster.
"You don't have to tell them tonight, Gin. There's plenty of time," Harry whispered encouragingly and pulled a loose strand of red hair back behind her ear.
Ginny sighed. They had anticipated that only Hermione and Ron would be here tonight, she hadn't expected Bill, George, Fleur and Angelina to be present as well.
"I know… but I'd prefer getting the cat out of the bag today… I'm already starting to show and I'd really like to avoid Mum finding out on her own…"
And this was something Ginny dreaded more than anything. Keeping a secret from Molly Weasley was hard enough as it was, keeping a pregnancy from her was everyone's death sentence.
Harry, who was apparently thinking exactly the same, nodded slowly, but a small smile played around his lips. "Point taken. Better avoid another one of Molly's 'how could you keep this from me' speeches…"
Once again, Ginny was amazed how well her husband could read her thoughts by now. He also managed to get a smile back on her face whenever she was worried about something.
Thinking back a couple of years, the red-head remembered the time when she had first been pregnant with their first child James. And how she had dreaded telling her mother because of all the unwanted advice she knew she would get from her mother… However, Ginny would have never thought that it would get even worse after the birth of her child. Merlin, she really loved her mother dearly, but that was indeed something she had to avoid with their next one or she'd most certainly kill the elderly red-haired witch...
"Ginny, dear! What in Merlin's name are you doing?"
The new mother had looked up just in time to see the Weasley matriarch march into the Potters' living room; her wand held high.
"Mum?" The younger witch had asked in a tired voice and sat the book she had been reading to her newborn aside.
True, she wasn't used to the lack of sleep, but she was slowly getting used to her new role as a mother. And just because Ginny was the only girl of seven, didn't give her mother any rights to pop up unexpectedly and correct every single step she took.
"Ginny, hon, you cannot read that kind of book to little James Sirius."
Closing her eyes, the younger woman tried to control her rising temper. Harry had – reluctantly – left for a very important auror mission, and of course, Molly had heard that her little girl was completely on her own with the child.
"Mum." Ginny really tried to sound as nice as possible and cradled her son closer to her, which always calmed her down a little. "what's wrong with the book?"
Molly made a 'how can you not know that'-face and shook her head in disapproval. "He is not old enough to be read something like that."
The younger red-haired witch raised an eyebrow. "It's a fairytale, mum, I doubt he'll mind hearing about a sleeping princess."
The Weasley matriarch looked as if someone had just told her something bad about her cooking-skills. "Ginny, dear, the princess is cursed, guarded by a nasty dragon and the prince has to fight! Where did you get a book like that anyway?"
Trying not to wake her sleeping son, Ginny got up to be eye to eye with her mother. "If you must know, Hermione gave it to me."
"I'm surprised she would do such a thing… She should know better than giving you such dreadful stories to read," Molly pursed her lips. "Let me give you some piece of advice, my love."
"Mum, I really don't need – "
"From now on, stick to the common night-time stories. Here, why don't you take this copy of 'Beedle the Bard', hmm?"
Ginny flicked her hand and sent the book flying onto the living room table, then she looked at her mother with questioning brown eyes. "Oh, and you think the tale of the three brothers – where they make deals with the death by the way – is more suitable to read to an infant?"
.x.x.x.
"So, how's everyone doing?" Bill asked as he put some salad down on his plate.
George laughed. "Fleur taught you how to make small talk already, brother dearest?"
Everyone laughed.
"Ah, eeven iif I tried, 'e would not liisten to mee," Fleur added in her French accent.
"He can't be worse than Ron," Hermione chuckled and nudged Ron softly, who just grinned. "And it seems like he passed on some of his bad manners to Rose. She keeps pranking Hugo, I swear, you should be happy to have only two boys that get along, Gin…"
Both Harry and Ginny exchanged amused looks and tried to nod without giving too much of their soon-to-be family addition away, but of course, Molly immediately picked up on something.
"What was that?"
"What was what, Molly?" Harry asked innocently.
"That look! The two of you always have this unspoken communication…"
Arthur patted his wife on the shoulder. "Molly-polls, leave the kids alone."
At her defeated look, Harry and Ginny once again glanced at each other, agreeing on 'now or never'.
"Well, you know, dad, Mum is right, there was something we wanted to tell you," Ginny spoke and tried to ignore George's joke in the background.
She felt Harry taking his hand in hers and after another shared look, the red-haired witch took a deep breath to steady herself.
"Harry and I… well, we'll be having another child."
A moment of silence in the Burrow usually never meant something good. Ginny could feel everyone's eyes on her and she clutched Harry's hand tighter.
The first one to speak was Hermione, who got up from her chair and hugged both Harry and Ginny, whispering a "that's wonderful, congratulations!" into their ears.
After that, all hell broke loose. Molly screamed excitedly, pulled first her husband into her arms at the prospect of yet another grand child, then hurried over to the expecting couple and pulled both of them into a bone-crashing hug.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny could see Bill handing George a couple of Galleons and she shook her head. 'How in Merlin's name did they make a bet about that?'
Once the money had changed the owners, both of them hugged their little sister and simultaneously said "Congrats, sis," and "Well, done," to Harry, before clapping the black haired wizard on the shoulder.
.x.x.x.
Later that evening, Harry and Ginny stood in an incredibly crowded room in their house, which was stuffed with all kinds of unused things.
The black haired man had once again his arms around his wife, and for a moment, they just stood there in silence.
"Dinner went better as we thought, didn't it?"
Ginny nodded and leaned back against his chest. "Indeed it did. Mum didn't even try to give yet another piece up unwanted advice like she usually does."
"She was probably far too excited," Harry speculated and searched the room with his emerald eyes. "You know, I think once all this stuff is out of here, it will be a nice nursery."
The red-haired witch felt how her husband once again placed his hands over the little bump, where their child was slowly growing.
"Me, too."
"Maybe a little bit of paint on the walls to freshen things up?"
Ginny glanced at her husband, smiling brightly. "What about green? Plants, trees, gardens, the colour of life."
Harry returned her smile. "Green, the colour of a new life."
"Yes, I'm sure it will turn out to be the perfect place to live."
Words: 2,208
Written for the March Event: Mother's day at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry #11. A new mother getting unwanted advice from everyone.
Written for the TV-Show Episode Monthly Competition #9. Save Henry: Write about a mother and her child.
Written for the 365 Drabble day Event at Hogwarts #46 dreadful