Ginny may have escaped a howler at Hogwarts, but that did not protect her once safely away, safely deposited somewhere Death Eaters had no access to. "Your Grandmother took the chance to teach me what it was really like for her to yell, I was mistaken to believe that I had heard it before thanks to the twins." While her older brothers collected what important items they would need from around the Burrow, Ginny sat at the kitchen table with her Mum. Pictures shook on the walls, crockery rattled in the cabinets, and by the time it was time to leave Ginny could not hear anything over the ringing in her ears. Her father, of course, was more concerned about other things, but took a moment to show the two most important women in his life that he loved them.

For all of the backhanded compliments, the thinly veiled insults, the snide criticisms, Ginny would have happily traded almost anything to have a camera on hand when the portkey deposited her at Aunt Muriel's manor. The look on her face, so full of disdain, of incredulous horror, her normal curmudgeonly demeanor nowhere to be found. Sure, young pregnancies happened in her day, but it just was not something talked about. It was the behavior of someone slack in their morals, of naivety, lackluster supervision at the very least. For once, Muriel had not much to say, and Ginny could not resist the taunts that flowed from her like a river. Any chance she got, Ginny would find Muriel and occupy space nearby to while away the day.

"It was petty of course, but I was sixteen and tired of being belittled for things out of my control. Muriel was not one to keep her opinions to herself, even at someone else's wedding! To reduce her to being speechless brought me an unbelievable amount of pride, even if I knew it was not right of me to find joy in it."

It wasn't until after the holidays passed that things really boiled over, with perhaps one too many taunts, a few too many Ginevra's, Ginny once again found her ears ringing. This time it was both parents doing the yelling, while Muriel muttered in the background about how unseemly all of it was. The yelling stopped not when they felt their point had been made, but when the wards fell around them, and for the second time in about as many months the Weasley's scrambled to gather themselves as Death Eaters began throwing spells around wildly. The last thing Ginny saw before the familiar tug of a portkey was Muriel falling under a barrage of spellfire.

When she first arrived at her destination, she was greeted by Bill and Fleur, who said nothing while showing her into their home. Ginny stared in wonder, at Shell Cottage, absorbing the landscape around her and the sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline, before being dragged inside by another gangly redhead. The ringing in her ears was quickly replaced by the raging of her pulse as she struggled to formulate her thoughts at seeing Ron, alone.

"Mum, I thought you said he was with Dad!?" James yelped, "Uncle Ron said he was with Dad the whole time!"

"That's what I thought too, at least at the time James. Seeing him at Shell Cottage… it felt like someone just tore a hole in my chest." Ron greeted her with a wary look, causing her to freeze. "We would have heard if something had happened. If he was captured, or worse… Tom and his cronies would have announced it." Ron started speaking to her, none of the words sinking in, his explanations of why he was there, the only detail that registered was that he was alone.

Something in her belly snapped, and Ginny saw red. Pure unadulterated rage thundered in her ears as she did her best to tear into her closest brother by age, only the threat of Ministry reprisal bringing doom stopped her from hexing Ron, even if it did not save his eyebrows from being scorched by sparks. "I may have risked unfathomable harm to the one person that truly mattered to me at the time if Fleur hadn't interceded when she did, acting to save two lives that she cared deeply for." Ginny let out a huff, a wry smile breaking the line tears had streaked down her face, "it turns out that getting that angry was not the best thing for a by then heavily pregnant witch." An uneasy truce formed in the cottage over the following weeks, various factions drawing lines in the sand over issues in the world or at home. "It's almost funny how being confined in a small cottage with family can change how you feel about them in a short time." Ginny found herself often spending days with Fleur, often just whiling away the time making plans for the future, plans that were immediately dismissed the next day in favor of new ones for her baby. This did not help tensions with her mother, but any attempts to reconcile were often quick to escalate rather than diffuse the situation. Her father spent more time out on Order business as a norm than he did in the cottage, and Ginny didn't blame him for his absence. Her brothers were still distant towards her, and Ginny was not sure how to fix things with Bill, although escape came from an unlikely source. "I did not notice at first how easily we began to bond, but before long she was no longer Phlegm, but instead a sister that I did not ask for but greatly appreciated." Ron spent plenty of time avoiding seemingly everyone, often just as likely to get an earful from whoever was around as he was to claim he was hungry at an inopportune time, yet still sought advice from Bill when he could. "If there is one good thing that came from that disaster of a year for Ron, it would have to be that it forced him to grow up some. I never have been able to get details from either brother, but their time together seemed to do Ron some good." Christmas came, and as it left Ron departed as well leaving a note behind for a distraught Molly to find at breakfast.

The new year brought further changes, as well as visits from a pair of familiar faces. The look of shock on Remus' face when he saw Ginny was as comical as the shirt Tonks wore proclaiming the benefits of having a dog in your life. The couple brought Ginny a much needed source of distraction, as well as a trustworthy Healer in the form of Tonk's mother Andromeda. As Ginny acquainted herself with Andromeda Tonks, Remus visibly tried to wrap his head around the young witch in front of him and his pregnant wife continued to laugh uproariously. Despite her lineage, Andromeda was a surprisingly warm presence in her visits to Shell Cottage, and brought some light into Ginny's small world. For the first time in months, Ginny began to feel hope, she was having a boy, maybe even one with unruly black hair like his father's.

"Mum you're always complaining about my hair,' James whined, causing Ginny to try once again to flatten his unruly locks.

"It is messy, yes, and I may complain about it." Another smile started to form on Ginny's face, "I also am the first to mess it up aren't I?" James failed to escape as she rapidly moved her hand through his hair, causing it to stick out even more randomly than before.

February and March were spent dodging the elements with Fleur, or planning extensive pranks to play on others with Tonks when she visited. Ginny found it easy to talk with Tonks, to voice all of the things that she did not want to consider even in the darkest hours of the night, "She became the confidant that I needed but did not realize was missing." Their being pregnant at what seemed like the same time made both witches laugh on numerous occasions, even as it caused them both great worry with the circumstances surrounding their world. Tonks, now in hiding and on leave Auror, and Ginny, carrying Undesirable No.1's child.

April brought warmer weather, but also removed Tonks from the usual rotation of people in and out of Shell Cottage, much to Ginny's chagrin. Some mornings were better than others, but most days left her feeling like she would burst if she bumped into something, yet the days crawled by with no onset of labor. Neither Ginny's mother nor Andromeda were concerned, expressing their belief that it was due to her young age, or even due to her first pregnancy. Ginny waddled, despite her family's claims that she did not waddle. "I waddled, it's not possible for me to avoid at that stage." Ginny let out a snort, "the things we put up with for the ones we love." Moving around Shell Cottage slowly became more of a chore, each corner Ginny approached seeming more menacing than the one before it. Even though Bill was still not quite talking to her, he did help set her up on one floor, allowing Ginny to have a facsimile of normalcy in her day-to-day life.

Easter brought havoc to Shell Cottage, loud cracks of apparition sending adrenaline through each individual. Before Ginny knew what was happening, she found herself pushed towards the Floo with a scrap of parchment by Fleur with the Wolf's Den written on it. The spinning, paired with the flash of flames against her eyelids, combined to force the contents of Ginny's stomach out upon arrival. Greeting Remus in such a way would have been embarrassing, were she not distracted by the knot in her belly. A few days at the Wolf's Den left Ginny more than a bit aggravated with her eldest brother, not that she could get him to hold still long enough to get her stance across. When he did finally follow her through the floo, after three whole days where she went absolutely barmy with worry about everyone she could possibly think of, "Shoved out of shell cottage because of the wards alerting us to new occupants... Why wouldn't I worry?" It took Bill a couple of hours to calm Ginny down.

"What did you do to him Mum?"

"I may have given him cause to reconsider what hexes he would teach me in the future, by using as many of them as I could think of, trace be damned. Apparently thanks to some Lunar activities Remus had covered his furry behind ward wise, but it was incredibly reckless of me."

Once the bat shaped bogeys stopped chasing Bill around the room, Ginny was willing to take a moment, "or two," to listen to his side of things. Despite the alarm caused by their sudden appearance at Shell Cottage, the intruders were friendly. Former classmates seeking aid, and someone that Ginny would have probably tried anything to see. "Your father was with them, not that I was given much of a choice."

"Dad was there!?"

"He was, but..."

Ginny, if pressed, could admit jealousy before her brother's wedding. Of course, she did not want to admit it, but would eventually, if only to herself. That Easter however, or more accurately the events afterwards, sparked a focused rage at Bill she did not believe possible. The father of her child was just a short trip away, and yet he refused to let her go see him, "Bill says he was trying to keep everyone safe, but at the time it did not seem that way. Shell Cottage was overflowing with people, some injured, others with… a singular focus that he did not want to distract them from. It hurt, hell it still hurts, but I eventually forgave him." A new lump formed in Ginny's throat, "I just wish he…"

"Mum?" James reached over and enveloped Ginny in a hug.

Ginny struggled to swallow around the lump in her throat, "your father, I just wish I could have seen him."

Bill was adamant that she stay where she was, despite her protests, he even managed to get Remus and Tonks to agree.

"I'm not quite sure how he managed to convince Remus to put up with two extremely hormonal pregnant witches under the same roof, especially when the two of them were rapidly approaching their due dates." Ginny welcomed the hug, "in retrospect it was quite an insane thing for him to agree to, even if he wanted to keep everyone around him safe." With a squeeze, she backed out of her son's arms, "As much as I wonder about it, it was a good thing, since it wasn't too long before things got messy."

Ginny found herself once again saying many things in the heat of the moment to her favorite brother that it then took considerable effort to apologize for, especially when paired with her famous bogey hex. It took a few weeks, and the arrival of Teddy Lupin, for Bill to spend any amount of time in the room with her.
"Mum," James winced in sympathy," are you sure he's your favorite?"

A wry chuckle wormed its way out of Ginny, "Yeah, I'm sure, not that I have ever been one to admit it in front of the others."

The latter half of April was a blur, between Teddy arriving, Ginny getting closer to her own due date, and Remus pulling her aside one afternoon before he disappeared for the evening. She could not believe it, here she was, sixteen, about to become a mother, and someone was asking her to be their child's godmother.

"So that's how I have a brother!? Mum, that's cheating!"

"Hush you, Teddy is a part of this family, just the same as you are."

Much to Ginny's chagrin, it turned out all that was needed to turn her into a hosepipe was to put a newborn in her arms. To her relief, it was a trait shared with both her own mother and Tonks, taking turns to hold the young Teddy. Together the witches, separated by generation but brought together through bonds stronger than blood alone, celebrated the new life while Remus disappeared through the Floo. That he later returned equally drunk as he was jovial brought smiles to everyone's lips, another bit of light in their dark world.

The last week of April brought some stress, only some of which Ginny was expecting. Waking one morning to new pains in her belly, some panic set in until Tonks called Molly over to calm her. "In my defense, how was I supposed to know the difference? The theory that morning was it was false labor, and maybe at that time it was." The pangs faded by lunchtime, so the three witches just waved it off as nothing. The evening Prophet arrived with the force of a bludgeoning hex, not only had someone broken into Gringotts, but it was someone that they all knew. There, on the cover of the paper, was yet another snapshot of Undesirable No1 as he flew out of the bank on the back of a dragon. Sharp pain struck in Ginny's hands as she shattered the mug she was drinking tea from, but it was paired with another feeling, one unfamiliar.
"What Mum?"

"My water broke-"

"Ewwww Mum," James leaned away from Ginny, "I didn't want to know that."

Ginny chased him, wrapping him further up in his blankets, "what, you don't want to know what it was like to have you arrive in this world?

"No! "

"Alright alright, I'll spare you all of the details," Ginny laughed, "other than how messy your hair has been ever since, and how loudly you started screaming."

Time ceased to have meaning, the only thing Ginny had any awareness of was what was happening physically, while her mother and Tonks stayed by her side. Hours, days, maybe even weeks went by, but before Ginny knew it a new voice cried out and she could finally rest. Her mum took care of her, walking Ginny through the first few hours, enabling her to take time to process the drastic change in her priorities. "I was speechless, nothing could have prepared me for the awe, just holding you, part me, and part your father..." Ginny later woke to pandemonium, the Wolf's Den was in an uproar, but no one would give her any answers. Bill and her mother were fiercely arguing in a corner, but Tonks and Remus were nowhere to be found. "You started to get a bit fussy, not that I could blame you, I really wanted to yell after a while."
As Ginny watched, a silvery wolf patronus came through a window, pausing next to Bill. His jaw clenched, and after exchanging a few more words with Molly he left, barely glancing at his sister. Molly refused to give any details, no matter how much Ginny argued she needed to know what was going on. "It was something big, it had to be, and for it to be so quiet..."

"What Mum? What was it?"

"Hogwarts, it was being attacked." Ginny let out a shaky breath, "Your father had gone, our friends and family had gone, all to see about ending the War."

Hours crawled by as Ginny traded barbed looks with her mother, while also trying to distract herself with her first real hours of motherhood. "You were so small, demanding attention and insistent on getting whatever it was that you wanted, even if I had to guess multiple times to get it right. Shame on me for thinking I could just assume it was time for a new nappy or if you wanted milk, you taught me quickly that it wouldn't be that easy… it was often both."

The Floo roared to life shortly before dawn, startling both witches, and releasing the spinning figure of Fleur into the home. The blonde witch was covered in grime, other substances that reminded Ginny of the Chamber, and what she sincerely hoped was not blood.

"There was almost a sense of relief at the sight of someone bringing news, at least until I was able to process why she looked so different in the early light." Ginny brushed away tears, struggling to keep her voice level, "she wouldn't look at me, could barely look at my Mum, I thought that I had felt fear before..."

"Mum?"

Fleur took a bit of time to get the words out, her accent accentuated by the emotion welling from her making some words blend together. The Battle of Hogwarts was won by friends and family, among those defending the school, standing up to the tyranny of the Death Eaters. "Ice grew in my stomach, as she still would not look at me, the inhuman sounding sob that emanated from me finally caused her to meet my gaze."

The fighting may have been over by the time Fleur made the trip to the Wolf's Den, but that did not bring much relief to the Weasley women she joined. Among the combatants, many were dead or missing, although the more personal concerns were solidified in moments.

"Your uncle Fred died laughing, or so I was later told. If there is only one thing I knew about him growing up, it's that he would almost have it no other way given a choice."

While Molly shattered at the news of her child's untimely death, Ginny felt the ice in her stomach spread to the marrow in her bones as Fleur's focus once again shifted to her. "Your father gave his life battling Tom, the self-styled Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard known to our world."

Ginny would not call it pleasant to hear the news, but once the words sank in, the ice in her bones sparked into a burning resolve. As bad as learning the truth was, not knowing was much worse.

"Mum, what.."

"Your father was a brave man, one that did what he thought was right, even at the cost of his own life. He could not just stand by and let bad things happen if he had the ability to even try to relieve the suffering of those around him. The only real regret I have about that year is-" Ginny bit back a sob, "I never got the chance to tell him about you."

"Uncle Ron once told me that Dad knew something was off that spring, do you think he knew?"

"I don't know for sure, the only people who could have told him haven't mentioned it in the years since. What I do know, is that there was really only one thing your father wanted from life, other than to be left to live in peace. He wanted a family to call his own, the mere idea of it was worth more to him than anything else in the world, even the inheritance he had received from his parents was worth less to him."

James' eyes widened in wonder, "is that why he-"

"Yes. I don't know who told him, or if he was only trying to plan for anything… but your father managed to set some things up with the goblins that winter."

Receiving an owl from Gringotts at the end of May had Ginny's world spinning on a new axis, a summons addressed to one of the least wealthy witches in all of wizarding Britain did not make sense to her. The latter half of the letter made even less sense, as the presence of both her legal guardian and her child were requested. The goblins were intimidating, but after everything in the previous year, Ginny was not impressed.

"In a seemingly rare bit of forethought, your father made up his will, leaving his family's wealth to us. He loved you so much that he was unwilling to accept the possibility that you would not exist."

"Why would he do such a thing?"

"James Sirius Potter, your father had such a capacity for love that he refused to accept the way the world had treated him his whole life. He was more than willing to fight for the life he wanted to live, the quiet life with a family of his own, it was a dream he refused to let die. He did not do things by halves, he gave it his all. Tomorrow, you start your own Hogwarts journey, and I know you will love it as much as he did."

James lay back, stretching out as he began processing what he had heard. Ginny patted his knee, trying to pass on some comfort, before getting up off of his bed. Brushing some of the familiar unruly hair, she placed a kiss on his brow, before heading towards the door.

"Mum?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for telling me."

"Of course, now get some sleep, you have an exciting day ahead of you."