That night, neither of them got much sleep. The babies, who had been relatively calm during the day, seemed to sense that they had been dropped into a strange situation. It kept Ginny, Dotty, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley up most of the night. Ginny secretly felt pleased that the babies seemed to settle better with her than anyone else.
The next morning, Sirius gingerly knocked on the door. "Sorry to interrupt," he said, sticking his head through the door. "Dumbledore is here and he wants to speak to all of us."
It took them almost 15 minutes to gather themselves and the babies and bring them down to the kitchen where Dumbledore was sitting, having a cup of tea and chatting and laughing with Fred and George.
Mrs. Weasley forced Fred and George to leave, and then they all sat down and looked at Dumbledore, knowing he would have something to say.
When it seemed that Dumbledore wasn't going to speak, he finally opened his mouth. "I have done some reading. I'm sorry to say, Molly, that those two babies must be the children of Harry and Ginny, or else Dotty would not recognize them as such. This raises a bigger question: Who put them here? And are they in danger?"
At the mention of danger, Ginny's hand went into the bassinet that held both babies.
Dumbledore continued speaking, "We can only assume that Voldemort is behind this. Why? I have no idea. This doesn't seem like his usual behavior." He paused, as if willing someone to disagree with him, but no one did. "I think it would be best if their existence was not widely known. As Harry Potter's children, they will be targets and the center of attention. While we are at war, this will not be good for them." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Now, Harry is the question," he added, pausing again.
"We have to tell him," Ginny said. Her mother looked at her, shocked that she would dare interrupt the headmaster. Sirius nodded in agreement, "We have to."
"It is more important than ever that Harry spends time at his aunt's place. He has been there a little over a week. He will need to spend at least another 4, if not 6 weeks there. For this reason, I must forbid any contact with him. He will be safer if kept in the dark," Dumbledore said with a tone that made it clear there should be no arguments.
"Any contact?" Sirius asked, "you can't. I will not let him believe we have abandoned him. After everything that happened at the end of the year, he needs us now more than ever!"
"It's for his own good, Sirius. I have already put measures in place so that he is not contactable. I am simply informing you so that you know not to bother." He stood up, as if he was about to leave.
Ginny stood up too, fury racing through her. "You can't! Harry deserves to know. It's his right."
"Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley scolded. "Apologize to the headmaster at once!"
Ginny turned to argue with her mother, and while her back was turned, Dumbledore left.
When she turned back to face Dumbledore, he was gone. "Coward!" she yelled out, then turned to Sirius. "You have to do something!"
"I'll try," Sirius said, sounding down. "But I don't know what I'll be able to do. I can't even leave the house," he said bitterly.
Ginny had stopped listening as the little girl had started to cry when she yelled.
"I'm sorry, baby," Ginny said gently, picking up the baby. "Mummy didn't mean to shout."
"Mummy?!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "Ginny, I don't care what that elf says or what Dumbledore says, you are not their mother!"
Ginny was about to respond when Mr. Weasley cut in, "Maybe it would be best if we all sat down to discuss this properly."
Ginny nodded, and Mrs. Weasley didn't say anything to disagree, so Mr. Weasley smiled.
"I'll leave you to it," Sirius said, dismissing himself and leaving the kitchen.
Ginny could already feel the tears at the back of her throat but fought with everything she had to keep them down.
"Okay," Mr. Weasley said calmly, "let's consider the facts first. These babies have been left in our care, with Ginny. They seem to have nowhere else to go, and all evidence seems to point to them being Ginny's and Harry's."
"I don't care what evidence there is," Mrs. Weasley snapped. "She is simply too young to be playing mother to some babies who have just appeared. She's a child herself!"
"I'm not playing mother if I'm actually their mother!" Ginny argued.
"Oh yeah?" Mrs. Weasley shot back. "And how are you going to do that when you go back to school in September?"
Ginny had thought about this already; she'd thought about it all last night. "I'm not going back to school," she said calmly.
Mrs. Weasley then spoke in such a high pitch that no one understood what she was saying. Her shrill voice did wake the babies, and it took some time to calm them down.
"Okay," Mr. Weasley cut back in once the babies were calm again. "Let's try and stay calm. Ginny," he turned to her, "you've only finished 4th year. That is not enough of an education. How do you plan to learn if you don't go to school?"
"I'll be staying in a house full of witches and wizards," Ginny pointed out, "and I'll still have all my books. I can learn here and then take my exams."
Mrs. Weasley was shaking her head as tears rolled down her cheeks. "You are a child. Children do not get to make those kinds of decisions. If I say you're going to school, you are going to school."
Ginny became upset, partly at seeing her mother upset, and partly because her mother didn't seem to think she could be a mother.
Ginny's emotions rose, and she knew she'd have to do something to convince her mother. She burst into tears and ran from the room. She ran up the stairs and went through a random door, hoping for some empty space to think.
Instead of finding empty space, she found a library. She decided to search through it for a book on motherhood; she thought that would be as good a place to start as any to convince her mother that she was fit for the job.
She eventually found one and read it as quickly as she could, skimming over parts that didn't apply to her. The book was slightly out of date but contained a lot of information.
By the time she finished reading it, she was angry with her mother. She was angry that her mother wouldn't trust her with her own babies. She knew she loved the babies more than anything in the world, and she knew she'd do anything to keep them from being separated.
Then Ginny got an idea. She flicked back to the section on breastfeeding. There was a spell there that would help a witch lactate if she didn'tnaturally when her baby was born. There was also a line underneath it that said it could be used on a witch who had not been pregnant but wished to lactate for other reasons.
Ginny thought this was perfect. If she breastfed the babies, they would have to stay with her. She read through the spell several times, trying to familiarize herself with the wand movements and incantation as much as possible.
Then she pointed her wand at herself and said the spell loudly and clearly. Her breasts swelled and suddenly became heavy and painful. The spell had worked.
She rushed down to the kitchen where she had last seen the babies but only found her three brothers deep in conversation.
She ignored them as they shouted out questions to her and rushed up the stairs to the nursery Dotty had created. There she found her parents and her babies.
"Can you give me a minute?" she addressed her parents. "I want to feed my babies."
"We can give them a bottle," Mrs. Weasley said.
"I don't want them to have a bottle. I want to feed them," Ginny argued.
"Ginny, all you can do is give them a bottle anyway," Mrs. Weasley rolled her eyes.
"No, I can feed them as their mother. I did a spell," she couldn't bring herself to say "breast" in front of her father.
Mrs. Weasley paled. "You stupid, stupid girl," she gasped, then suddenly stood and rushed from the room.
"Ginny, that was a very rash thing to do," Mr. Weasley said before following his wife out of the room.
For the first time, Ginny was left alone with the two babies. Her breasts were now very sore, so she picked up the little girl who was lying awake, looking at her, and lifted her shirt.
Ginny had no idea what she was doing, but the baby latched onto her and started to eat.
Ginny was amazed by the sensation and the emotions that ran through her as she fed her daughter. She stroked her hair and spoke to her. "I'm going to look after you, you and your brother. And I'll get your daddy here somehow. In the meantime, you'll have me, and I love the two of you more than I've ever loved anyone." She continued to gaze down at the baby. "You don't have a name yet," she said suddenly. This had been bugging her at the back of her mind all day. "I've been calling you Layla in my mind," she admitted. "What do you think? Do you like Layla?" The baby continued to suckle, so Ginny took this as a yes and smiled down at Layla.
When she had finished, Ginny burped her and set her down next to her brother, who was already asleep.
She picked up her son and tried to feed him too. He had trouble figuring out what to do, but after a minute, he latched on like his sister.
"That's a good baby," she said softly. She was amazed at how much he looked like Harry. "I've been thinking of a name for you too," she admitted to him. "I was thinking Joey. I know Mum is going to say I should call you Joseph, but I like Joey better. What do you think?" The baby didn't react. "Joey is good," Ginny decided.
Ginny finished feeding Joey, burped him, and set him down next to Layla.
She then sat at the end of her bed and looked down at Layla and Joey, thinking about how quickly her life had changed. She knew she should be struggling more with the changes, but she had an overwhelming feeling that she should put Layla and Joey before herself.