Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the characters but I have made them dance this time. No money made, no gratuities accepted except the reviews of my peers, for which I thank you.

I always answer my reviewers if they leave a name and I am always happy to chat with them over PM. Huge thanks and a great deal of gratitude as you are the reason I managed to get out of the mud and get going again.

If you have a flame to send, I suggest you do a spell check, the last couple look like they were written by a drunken kindergartener, sorry.

Another huge thanks to my BEsT betas Zarathustra46 and the Wicked Bunjhny who make this lot legible and grammatically sane.

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Chapter 19 – Potter, 2nd Gen

Boooooring! Life was so boring now that Ginny was completely restricted and not allowed to travel by Floo nor apparate. There was nothing to do and lots of time to do it in. She had straightened up the sitting room and cleaned up the kitchen after breakfast, MANUALLY. She had snapped Harry's head off when he began to niggle at her about overdoing it. What did he expect when her magic was so unreliable? That she sit around and do nothing! She felt like a beached hippogriff, looked like she'd swallowed a dose of Swelling Solution, and it was all Harry Potter's fault!

Reaching for her wand automatically, she growled again. Her magic had gone all wonky and finally, last week, it had completely departed. She now had no more magic than the average Muggle, an unexpected problem. Her mother had just sighed and said, yes, that happened to some witches in the 'family way'; not all, but the majority; which was why most purebloods only had one, or perhaps two children. They simply couldn't cope with the trauma and shame of suddenly becoming a Squib. Especially the Purebloods. It didn't upset or shame Ginny, it merely drove her crazy when she had to ask Harry to do the simplest things like lumos spells or setting the fire going, or even bringing her a glass of water if she was thirsty. Ginny swore silently that she would never take her magic for granted ever again!

Harry had been really good, running after her, at her beck and call if she so much as sneezed or tried to get up unexpectedly. Ginny's temper often turned to tears. Damned mood swings were really upsetting too. No matter how cranky or unreasonable she had become, Harry had taken it in his stride, holding her when she was upset, wiping her face when she had morning sickness. He even rubbed her feet or her belly when cramps and the sheer weight of the coming child dragged her down. When they had the terrifying scare at six months and it looked like the baby would be born far too early, Harry had been the rock to which she clung while trying to relax and breathe and not to worry so much.* He had spent all that terrible week holding her, rubbing her cramping belly and infusing her with his magic when the healers nearly gave up hope of her retaining the child.

In fact, all their friends had been very supportive and protective; rallying around and doing everything they could to make sure she and Harry were protected from the press and the curiosity seekers. The funniest thing was when Professor Snape billowed into the room, glared down the medi-witch on duty and handed Ginny a potion that looked like mud, smelled like rotting cabbage, and tasted like crushed ants. Even Harry had gagged at the smell but before the Obstetrician had managed to stop her, Ginny swallowed the entire concoction and nearly vomited. Only the sheer malicious challenge on Snape's face stopped her from throwing up on his shoes. But it was worth it. The cramping stopped, the bleeding ceased and the baby's heart rate jumped to the machinegun rattle it was supposed to sound like rather than the drawn-out, sluggish thudding that heralded its slow death.

Nodding once, Snape reduced Ginny's specialist to a quivering mess as he swept out with no further words, leaving Ginny to shake her head in weary disbelief. Bloody Snape! With friends like him... Indeed, with friends like him, you would never be left alone to suffer if it was humanly possible. You might die of sheer frustration and exasperation, but you were guaranteed not to remain alone or unassisted!

Ginny smiled at her own silliness as she slowly climbed the stairs, wondering when they had grown so steep and high. Half way up she paused to rest when a tearing cramp doubled her over. "Oh Merlin...," she gasped when she could catch her breath. "Harry!"

The study door flew open and Harry stumbled out, head turning wildly. "Where are you? What's wrong? Ginny! Speak to me!"

"On the stairs. I... Oh yuck! Nasty! I-I do believe my waters just broke," she managed to speak with a forced note of calmness in her voice as Harry blanched spectacularly and hurried up the stairs, slipping just a little as he hit the dampness.

"Are you alright? Did you slip? How are you feeling?" He groped around until he found the edge of her robes, then slid his hands up until he felt the bulge of the baby.

His touch triggered yet another contraction and Ginny moaned as she felt every muscle in her body snap rigid against her bones, worse than a full Body Bind. For a second Harry mewled in sheer unadulterated terror then good sense cut in and he gritted his teeth. If Voldemort couldn't conquer Harry, this was certainly not going to break his spirit or his courage he vowed, as he gave his hand over for Ginny to grip. She was bloody strong and ground the bones together quite successfully while in the throes of the labour pain. When the siege was over and both of them felt limp and rung out, Harry rose and helped Ginny to her feet. A wandless Evanseco got rid of the worst of the mess and he helped his bulging bride negotiate the stairs.

At the bottom, Harry Summoned the suitcase they had packed and stowed in the hall cupboard ready for a quick exit. Ginny stopped him and reminded him to send off the note they had carefully written, Hedwig coming immediately to hand on Harry's whistle. The note was addressed to Ron and Desiree Weasley**, telling them of the imminent birth and asking them to contact Molly. Harry's Patronus galloped off to alert Hermione and Draco while a second Patronus took off to find Professor Snape. That had been a small bone of contention between Harry and Ginny but after the man's assistance in stopping Ginny's labour, Harry felt he was the right person for the child's principal Godfather. Snape was also the person who had diagnosed their pregnancy in the first place, in his own inimitable way.

Usually getting to St Mungo's was a matter of Floo or Apparition but thanks to the delicacy of Ginny's condition, her Obstetrician had issued the couple a Portkey bandage which did not fling the users around in a whirl but simply translocated them without fuss or jostling to the pre-programmed destination, in this case the foyer of the maternity suite at St Mungo's. On the arrival of the special Portkey, alarms rang and the obstetrics team hurried to greet the patient, emergency equipment at the ready. Anyone arriving via one of the special Portkeys was bound to be in trouble as these were only issued to high dependency cases.

Medi-witch and obstetrician Juno Snape-Baden was already on duty, having just finished delivering twins to one of her ladies. The healer barely had time to toss off her soiled gown when she was summoned to the Portkey area and saw her highest profile patient arrive in the arms of her equally high-profile husband. The next on-call team was already gearing up for the action as Harry stepped out of the landing area. A touch at his elbow oriented him and he carefully settled his wife onto the gurney the brawny wardsman had positioned for him. A nurse tossed a lightweight blanket over Ginny when she shivered. A quick direction from Obstetrician Snape-Baden had the gurney hurriedly pushed down the corridor to Delivery Unit three. Harry looked lost for a second before the woman touched his arm and directed him to come along, too.

There was a frantic swirl of activity; fast, coordinated and efficient. Ginny was settled securely in the middle of the whirl as the obstetrics team removed her robes, draped her in sterile sheeting, and attached monitoring spells. Dr Snape-Baden put Harry's hand onto Ginny's shoulder before moving away and beginning the delivery part in the birthing process. The doctor smiled up at the terrified young brown eyes which met hers and nodded her head with a wide smile. "Ready for the big show?" she asked with a slight giggle in her voice.

Ginny couldn't help but smile back at the tall, thin woman who was kindness personified. Both she and Harry had come to implicitly trust the well qualified, albeit newly-practicing Medi-witch after the debacle with a more established practitioner, back when Ginny nearly lost the child in her sixth month. After Professor Snape had saved the day with his disgusting yet efficacious potion, their obstetrician had predicted doom and gloom and wondered if he should just cut the child out of Ginny in case it had been turned into a monster by Snape's potion. Ginny's erratic magic had flared hot and wild, sending the prejudiced man into a wall before Harry could hex his hand to drop the scalpel from the vicinity of his wife's stomach, which probably saved the idiot's life.

Juno Snape-Baden had been a rather recently qualified and endorsed addition to the St Mungo's specialists list at that time. She had radical ideas on the treatment of women and pregnancy and found herself thoroughly maligned by the established practitioners at St Mungo's. As a consequence, she was last on the list of specialists to be called to patients. In a rather malicious joke, the senior Registrar had called her in but it had backfired when the young practitioner and the youthful couple had hit it off rather nicely. Being the obstetrician for the Man-Who-Conquered's wife was a huge responsibility and a fantastic boost to Obstetrician Snape-Baden's popularity but she had taken it all in her stride. Her philosophy of natural childbirth with only as much intervention as was actually needed to keep mother and child alive had proved very viable. It was not a particularly profitable way to practice medical magic, as money was made on how many potions and how much spellwork went into each pregnancy, but it was much better for both mother and child in the long run.

Harry chewed his lip and gnawed his nails on the hand Ginny was not mangling during the two hours his wife laboured. Unlike Molly, who always insisted that having babies was as easy as falling off a log, Ginny was not having an easy time of it. Even Hermione, who took to pregnancy like a duck to water, had commented that Ginny had to do it the hard way. Still, as the second hour ground away, Harry became even more anxious and Dr Snape-Baden began to give quiet orders for the preparation of her patient for surgery.

"I'm sorry, Ginny, I will have to operate after all, and perhaps even operate in the Muggle style. Baby's heart is getting tired and she is not doing all that well," the Healer apologised softly.

"Whatever is necessary," Harry and Ginny said almost in chorus and exchanged sad smiles as yet another useless contraction hit.

"Very well. Unfortunately, Harry, you will have to step outside."

Sighing deeply, Harry kissed Ginny and squeezed her hand before he allowed the nurse to lead him away from his wife. At his departure, bustling occurred as Ginny was hurriedly prepped for surgery.

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Noise and movement hit Harry hard as he was led into the corridor, people yelled questions and jostled him until he lost contact with his guide. Before his magic could explode outward and do any damage, an especially familiar voice swore loudly and a most welcome hand landed heavily on his shoulder.

"Alright there, Harry?" Ron asked as someone let out a squawk of indignant hurt. Ron's encircling arm over Harry's shoulder jerked slightly as the tall redhead obviously gave someone an exceptionally firm shove away.

"Where did the circus come from?" Harry asked casting wandless Muffilato to protect his privacy.

"Probably one of the nurses was paid for a tip-off."

"A pity Gin wasn't well enough to be attended by Madame Pomfrey; none of these privacy problems would have dared to occur at Hogwarts."

Ron merely snorted in agreement as he led his friend to a reserved private room a few paces down the corridor. Harry let out a sigh as the outside hall noises were cut off by the solid door closing and he gratefully sank down into a padded chair. Someone put a glass of water into his hand. By the scent, he decided it had to be Hermione who was ably casting silencing spells on the door and walls and what sounded like an obscuring spell on the window.

"How is she?" Molly asked from the far corner of the space, her voice even holding a little animation for once. The War had been hard on Molly Weasley - the devastation to her family and the loss of her husband cut the heart out from the older woman and left a dazed shell in her place. Nothing the family did or said seemed to break through the armour in which she isolated herself. Healers called it depression or shell-shock or melancholia but in reality, it was a slow death for the once vibrant woman.

"Juno is going to operate because the baby isn't doing too well at all," Harry told them, accepting the quick hug Hermione gave him and using her shoulder to hide the tears that sprang up. Ron moved to his other side and they huddled on the couch in the tight-knit group they had often presented to the outside world since early school days, until the door opened again and a light voice called to Harry.

"It's a trainee Medi-witch, Harry," Draco informed him from across the room as his best friend rose, blind eyes rolling uncoordinatedly, cocking his head in the direction of the noise.

"What's wrong? What's happened?"

"Nothing, Sir, nothing is bad. All is good! You have a daughter to greet," the girl hurriedly assured them, her wide smile doing little to alleviate the fears of the father who could not see it and was too overloaded with outside stimuli to pick it from her voice.

"Come on, Harry, let's get you to the greeting," Ron laughed, hauling his friend to his side in merriment and relief. "Lead on, nurse, we'll keep the press at bay. Hermione, Draco, would you like to clear the crowd out?"

"Of course, Auror Weasley, not a problem," Draco assured him with a malicious grin and drew his wand in preparation for the upcoming fun and games.

The Press bellowed questions, photographers flashed cameras in their faces, and quick quills danced across paper as the group moved down the corridor and even tried to push their way into the room the nurse indicated to the friends and father of the child. However, an armed and smiling Malfoy was more than enough to keep the hordes at a respectful distance. Inside the delivery suite was a quiet haven of calmness, the last of the delivery team leaving by the far door as the relations entered. Ginny looked up and smiled tiredly as Harry was led forward and reached out a hand to stroke her hair.

"How are you, Gin girl?" he asked softly, bending to kiss her.

"Fine, well; mostly fine," she amended when something twinged in her nether regions. "We have a daughter, Harry, a little girl."

"Yes, I know but... I had you first, so you are my first girl and I can't survive without you, Gin. Where is she?"

Ginny tinted a pretty peach colour at the sincere, heartfelt complement, then dropped a kiss on Harry's forehead. "Flatterer. Here is the little girl, now. Thank you, Nurse. Isn't she beautiful, Harry? She had dark red hair and the tiniest nose. Here, do you want to hold her?"

Harry smiled and held out his arms, allowing the stranger to arrange something warm and surprisingly heavy for its size in his crooked elbow. He kept the smile on his face, cooing and nodding as the others came and exclaimed over how gorgeous she was, how tiny, such pretty eyes, what long fingers. He could feel his daughter move and stretch against his chest, smell her soft, powdery scent and other things heralded by warmth that were not quite so pleasant. He could hear her yawn and make sucking noises. When she cried, she sounded like a lost kitten. Yet, he couldn't see his child, his firstborn, his baby. That sense was forever removed from him and, although he coped fairly well as a rule, on occasions like this he missed it with all his might!

Thinking his discomfort was unfamiliarity with holding such a young child, Hermione plucked the baby out of his arms and cooed to her, brushing a finger over the downy fluff on her head. Hanova, Hermione's and Draco's second child, was barely two months old yet seemed to be huge in comparison to this tiny bundle of Potter.

Desiree Weasley, who was also due to deliver her and Ron's first child within the next two months, hung over Hermione's shoulder with Ron holding her waist and laughed as the child began rooting at Hermione's breast. Hermione, much shorter than Desiree, shrugged the pair off her shoulder with a laugh and handed the new baby back to Ginny. "I think someone is hungry," she commented as Molly drew closer and began to advise Ginny on how to attach the baby to her breast.

Ron blanched and Draco politely drew Ron and Harry aside while the women took care of the mechanics of baby care. Children as heirs and the continuation of a man's Line were all very fine but the day-to-day care should be discretely left to House-elves. Draco had blithely informed Hermione of that assumption on one memorable occasion, and ended up having his head nearly handed to him after a washing. Hermione did not believe in House-elves being 'forced' to care for children while their parents jaunted out and about and completely ignored their offspring. Babies and children were the joy and the responsibility of their parents to raise and care for, to bring up as happy healthy adults and not spoiled little swine who did not even know what decent company was! Draco had wisely shut his mouth and never voiced such sentiments again.

Oh, they now had House-elves again. After all, the breeding colony in the tunnels under the cellars had finally recovered from his Mother's gas attack, the vapours not entirely penetrating into all of the nesting sites. The elves were needed on an estate as big as Malfoy, along with the villagers and human household staff, to run the place and keep it in good condition. Hermione had become used to the discrete service the Malfoy people provided, as much or as little as was required. She had even, very surreptitiously, sent a house-elf to the Burrow to help out Molly until the poor creature had been discovered and was sent away. Ginny had agreed to accept the loan of a House-elf to help out after the birth while she was recovering and even Potter had agreed to it, but all in all, this mad ring of friends preferred to do their own baby care and household work. Even Draco, Pureblood to the core, was beginning to see the benefits. He knew and loved his own children and his own children knew and loved him! The relationship was personal and intimate, not the distant and cold thing he called 'love' that he received from his parents.

"Now people, it's time for the visitors to leave and let Mother and Father have Baby to themselves for quiet time," a cheerful voice said loudly enough to make Harry jump nervously.

After the hustle and bustle to get everyone out without allowing the Press in, Harry and Ginny were left breathless until the door clicked firmly shut.

"Well!" Ginny gasped, then giggled tiredly. "I wasn't quite ready for that," she remarked as she leaned over and tucked the soft pink rug more firmly around the tiny scrap of humanity's shoulder. "So, what do you think?"

Harry swallowed hard. "She's so little. Can we do this? Bring her up properly, I mean? Look after her and care for her, give her a happy home and enough to eat?"

About to scoff at his silliness, Ginny realised he was deadly serious and bit her lip. "She will never be ill-treated or left to fend for herself, Harry. We have good friends and have put in as many legal safeguards as we can. Hey, I even have put up with having Severus bloody Snape as her first Godfather and my prat of a brother the Auror as her second Godfather with Hermione Granger-Malfoy as her Godmother! We will never treat her as anything but the favoured child of two loving parents. She will have enough to eat, a room of her own, and plenty of toys to play with. She will have clothes to wear that are clean and new, shoes that fit and are warm in winter and cool in summer. She will have chores..." she paused as Harry stirred restlessly. "All children need some chores to teach them responsibility, Harry, but not an excessive number of heavy chores, nor will she be treated like a House-elf. Most of all, she will be loved and cared for all the days of her life, witch's honour!"

Harry swallowed thickly and nodded slowly. "I know, Gin, I know. I've thought about it and listened to everyone and I know in my head that everything is set up to keep her safe but here, in my heart..." He thumped his chest quite solidly. "I-I can't help worrying, you know? Did my mum and dad think the same things, that I would be safe and cared for if they died? Did they take all the precautions they could to ensure I would be safe if they were killed? After all, they had more reason to think something could happen to them with Voldemort hunting them and all."

Ginny had a very firm opinion on that matter but was wise enough not to say what she thought of Dumbledore and his blind spot where families were concerned. "We have placed our wills on time delay so they will not be able to be hidden in secret if anything happens to us. We have chosen magically powerful Godparents, both Dark and Light, Pureblood and Muggleborn, briefed them all on what is to happen to the children if we are killed and arranged for each person to have a copy of our wills. Quite frankly, I can't think of any more precautions we can take at this time and I don't think any more will be necessary, really. So, for Merlin's sake, just enjoy your daughter while you can and don't let vague alarms spoil that enjoyment, okay?"

"Okay," Harry agreed reluctantly, then put away his worries, at least for a little while. "Can you describe her to me again, please?"

Ginny nodded and made sure her tears did not sound in her voice as she described her beautiful daughter to her loving husband in minute detail.

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*: "After the SVW – Brewing for St Mungo's"

**: Desiree Weasley – Ron's Muggle wife introduced through "After the SVW – Meeting a Muggle"

: "After the SVW – Elegantly Wasted"

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