Everything went smoothly until around mid-October - they had been going to classes together, staying on top of their work, working on their thesis too while their classmates had quickly adjusted to a pregnant Ginny, safe for a joke or two.
It was almost lunchtime and Ginny was half-heartedly already packing up her things, waiting for the professor to be done when Harry showed a text message on his phone.
[Unknown number]
Alert: code 394
Concerning: Voldemort
Evacuate to 765
This was alarming. Ginny knew that Voldemort meant Tom Riddle; it was a codename they used within the agency. She locked her gaze with Harry and found his eyes filled with worry. She knew she could not ask here or he would have already spoken.
Harry joined her in packing up his items and she finished packing up. He looked tense as he silently stared at the professor. As soon as the lecture was over, Harry rose from his seat. She followed and he firmly grasped her hand.
They walked down three corridors without saying a word and Harry set a brisk pace. He entered a storage room and closed the door behind him before he released her hand. Ginny watched as he reached up on a shelf. He took a small case out. He put a code into the lock until it clicked open.
Ginny wasn't too surprised when he took out a gun.
"The university knows it's there," Harry clarified. "I am expected to provide additional security in case of emergency."
She had assumed as much before. He checked the gun, making sure it was loaded and then put it into his waistband.
"Stay close to me," he said.
Ginny followed him out and he took her hand again. He was looking around the campus, focused on identifying potential threats. She knew if there was a real threat, there was nothing she could do, but she still protectively curled her arm around her bump. Harry walked close to her, his hand on his gun, hidden by his backpack.
When they entered the apartment, Harry locked the door and closed all the blinds. He turned to her. "You know this is Tom Riddle. You need to trust me. We need to evacuate to a safe house."
Ginny didn't know how to feel about that and she swallowed, trying not to let worry overtake her.
"We don't know right now how serious the threat is so we need to play safe. Pack some clothes for a few days and necessities—they'll provide essentials—but anything else like medicine or your pregnancy pillow we should take. We'll also stop by the grocery store for some food on the way."
She nodded and walked to the room behind Harry. He handed her a bag where they could put their clothes in. Her mind felt numb and so she just focused on what she needed to do right now. When she felt she had sufficient clothes, she grabbed her pregnancy pillow and put it by the door. Then she walked to the bathroom for toiletries and medicine and grabbed her vitamins from the table as she passed.
Harry moved on from his clothes and took the guns that were on the top shelf of the closet. Then he opened his agency laptop. Ginny packed the last few things she thought she'd need.
Harry let out a sigh. "We will need to disconnect from the internet with any device that isn't secured once we leave. I know it's not a great solution, but I think we might need to ask Ron to cover for you in case your parents check in."
Ginny nodded; she didn't want to needlessly worry them. "Yeah, that's probably the best option."
Harry nodded. "I'll text him and explain."
While Harry did so, she walked to the dinner table and sat down on a chair. She mentally ran through all the items like a mental checklist. She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes. Harry walked up to her and when she opened her eyes, he had knelt down in front of her. He touched a hand to her bump because they shared the same worry and then kissed her cheek.
"We should go." His voice was gentle, like he didn't want to upset her.
She nodded and allowed Harry to pull her up. "Do you know where we're going?"
"I know the approximate location of some safe houses, but we'll need to check once we're in the car. We can't use GPS but there is a list and map in the glove compartment."
They didn't say much as they walked to the car, Harry carrying the bulk of their items. Ginny waited for Harry to start driving before she reached into the glovebox.
"765," Ginny muttered looking over the list.
"You remembered that?" Harry asked in surprise.
"It's the little information I have, I better memorise it," Ginny commented without tearing her eyes off the list.
"The addresses are jumbled to avoid detection if the list is found. You need to look up the first part. Seven will give you the first part of the street name. One hundred is the second part of the street name. At sixty you will find the house number and at five the town."
Ginny looked over it, putting together the address. "Got it. Drive towards Sussex."
It was silent for a few minutes as Harry drove. He glanced at her a few times. Ginny turned off her phone.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
Ginny nodded. "I'm okay," she told him. She was worried, but she was okay.
"It's okay if you're upset," he nudged.
She shook her head. "I'm not happy about this, but I'm not upset, definitely not with you." She felt like he needed to hear that. "Don't worry, I'm a tough cookie."
A small smile dared to break through on Harry's face. "I know that." He reached out and squeezed her hand before it returned to the transmission.
"I do have questions," she admitted, "but they can wait."
Harry shook his head. "I think we have at least an hour before we stop at a store, so go ahead. I'll answer what I can."
"This is not a long-term safe house thing, right?" She couldn't imagine disappearing like Harry had. She pointed at her belly. "Because this…"
Harry shook his head. "A few days at most. We'll know more soon. When I disappeared it was a choice we made, in the hopes of catching the guy." His hand tensed on the wheel. "We know we can't take months."
"Your parents are involved in this too, right?" Ginny concluded. It wasn't just them, but he'd be apart from his parents.
He nodded. "Remus and Sirius too most likely. It's personal, which is why we are being cautious about you too. I could help them out but someone needs to make sure you're safe—and you don't have a gun."
"What's the plan?" she asked.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I think Sirius has something up his sleeve, but I don't know if he'll use it now. Like you said, we can't afford this to take months."
"So what does Tom Riddle actually do? I know he's a CEO, and he's ruthless, but I'm not sure what he actually does."
Harry took a deep breath. "I can talk hours on this and I will fill you in more later but the basic thing is… he grew up filthy rich but his parents were never around so he's very detached from everyone. He is greedy - basically a megalomaniac multi-millionaire businessman and that's what most people know him as. He has his hands in some very deep influential pockets too, other companies, politicians… it's why we can never attack outright for fear of causing international diplomacy conflicts. It makes him very slippery too. On top of that, but this is a well-hidden fact, he ringleader of some mob involved in large-scale fraud and human trafficking. They do the dirty work for him, bribery, and murder.. The works. He also invests in some very shady technology related to cryogenics... A personal obsession I believe but he … buys people from poor families to test on…"
Ginny's eyes widened. "Test the cryogenics on?"
Harry nodded slowly. "He wants it to come to a point where they can freeze him and then unfreeze him when technology has advanced."
"Weird but okay," she said. "… And Peter? How does he come in?"
"He just switched sides, but since we were so close to him… I don't think my parents ever figured out why he did that. Was he bribed or tortured? None of us would give up the information he did. It put so many people at risk and 12 people died… and he even tried to pin it on Sirius." Harry shook his head bitterly. "He almost got away with it too. My parents had to prove it wasn't Sirius, and it still felt like a betrayal to Peter, because they're loyal, but Sirius was innocent and it had to be done."
"No wonder Sirius is so bitter about it," Ginny mused.
"Before they found out what he was doing, he'd steal ammo from the agency. When we traced the mob's bullets, we'd come up with our own data. We had nothing to go on for a while." Harry glanced at her before focusing on the road again. "I think he expected to rise in their ranks for what he did, perhaps become a board member here or there. He probably thought they could make him rich, but he's still doing the mob's dirty work."
Ginny sighed. "Couldn't he leave?"
"He knows too much, they'd never let him go and he needs their protection to stay out of the agency's hands. Not to mention I'm not sure what Sirius would do if they ever met again…"
She reached out and squeezed his hand.
"My parents were also angry Peter put me at risk. Adults are one thing, but I was just a kid. He held me as a baby, but it didn't matter to him. I don't know if it was for his own gain or fear."
Harry kept talking about the theories surrounding Riddle and his accomplices, going missing and how they had tried so hard to set a trap for Tom Riddle, but he had not risen to the bait even after months of work. Ginny almost didn't notice when Harry drove onto the parking lot of a grocery store right off the motorway.
Harry pulled into a parking spot. "In the grocery store you need to stay close to me. No wandering to other aisles. We just get what we need and leave."
"I understand," she reassured him gently.
He locked eyes with her. "I know, I just need to make sure."
She offered him a smile. She wasn't sure if it was convincing, but it would do. They walked inside together and she dutifully remained close to him, close enough for him to reach.
A sudden stabbing pain started in the side of her stomach. She gasped. "Ow!"
Harry whipped around, eyes full of fear. "Ginny?"
"It's fine," she let out, shaking her head as she rubbed her bump. She took a deep breath.
Harry eyed her. "We shouldn't linger longer than needed."
Ginny shot daggers at him. "I need a minute," she bit at him through the pain.
Harry immediately backed down. He walked closer to her and surveyed the store from beside her. The stabbing pain hadn't left yet.
"Miss, are you alright?"
Ginny's eyes met with an employee of the store. Harry's posture grew tenser, watching the man like a hawk.
She smiled at him. "Quite alright, it'll pass in a minute," she told him, hoping he'd move away.
The man looked at the two of them for a moment. Harry did not move. The man moved on down the aisle, only glancing back at them once.
"You need to relax," Ginny told Harry. "They're going to think you're trafficking me or something if you look that angry."
Harry met her eyes and breathed out. "I just don't know what I'd do if something happened to you." His hand came to her belly. "Or her. I hate that you're involved in this now."
"You're not having second thoughts about the whole dating thing, are you?" she asked him, half-joking.
And a tiny smile appeared. "Of course not. I just want to keep you safe."
"Good news," Ginny tried bringing some levity. "The man not managing to scan a bag of peanuts is not going to try and kill us," she whispered, nodding towards the employee.
Harry glanced at him and back. "Or he's stalling to keep an eye on us."
"Not an actual threat," she concluded.
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so do you have experience and training in identifying potential threats?"
"Yes, Harry. It's called being a woman," she said with a tilt of her head. "The pain is fading, let's continue."
Harry nodded and they finished their shopping. They made quick work of putting it in the car and then continued driving.
"I'm sorry about putting this kind of stress on you while you're pregnant," Harry said after a long moment of silence.
"It isn't your fault—well, the situation isn't. Baby is," she tried with a small smile.
He looked at her, the corners of his mouth turning up just the tiniest bit.
"It's better this type of thing happens now than closer to my due date," she muttered. "Imagine having to deliver a baby in a safe house?"
Harry nodded in agreement. "If it's any comfort, I do know how to deliver a baby in an emergency, more or less."
She frowned at him, confused what he meant by that. "You know what?"
"When I found out you were pregnant, I contacted the agency's first-aid instructor. She gave me the run-down and sent me the PDF," he continued. "It's not likely, but I didn't want to take any chances."
"I can't decide if that's adorable or not," she muttered. "Before we get to that, we should decide on a name however."
"Lucy is out, right?" Harry tried with a glance at her.
"Yes!" Ginny insisted.
Harry sighed. "But why?"
She rolled her eyes. "Because you came in drunk from boys' night, talked to the bump and said 'Lucy, I am your father'. That's why."
"It was a joke," he argued.
"Well, I am sorry," she continued. "But it simply put me off the name. You have a preference between the other two, don't you?"
Harry smiled at her. "You know I do."
"Hm."
"Is it still hurting?" he asked her.
"Not really, just some achiness," she responded. "Maybe she kicked my liver or something." She pulled the map back to her to see where they were. "How do we get the keys to this place?"
"There should be a secure box nearby. It will have the address code and then my agency code name," he explained.
Ginny's eyes widened and she grinned. "Like 007?"
He laughed. "No," he said with a shake of his head. "I knew you were going to say that." His cheeks were red.
"What is it?" She leaned closer to him. "And why does it make you blush?"
"It doesn't usually—it's…" He let out a sigh. "I didn't think you would ever find this out when I was picking it. You need to listen to the logic of it first, okay?"
"Sure thing, Harry," she said, trying not to sound too excited.
He offered her a judging look before focusing on the road again. "My dad chose Prongs. That's also why when choosing a new name… Peverell, Prongs… he stuck with the 'P'. By coincidence, my mum also chose a name with a P, Passerine. Although she is often referred to as Mrs Prongs."
She nodded. "Okay."
"I decided to stick with the 'P' too and looked for an animal with a P. I wasn't feeling much inspired, but I had this new friend who—"
"Pangolin!?" she let out in surprise, both excited and amused.
He nodded reluctantly. "Yes."
Ginny thought back on it. She had been obsessed with pangolins for a while. Her eyes widened. "Oh no! I raved about pangolins when I was at your house! No wonder they thought you were in love with me!" She covered her face with her hands in disbelief.
"Yeah, you did. Had I known what the future held, perhaps I would have chosen something else."
She shook her head and squeezed his shoulder. "I think that's so sweet, and I still think they're neat."
"I don't really believe in fate," he started, "but it does seem the universe sometimes just puts things together."
"Future Mrs Pangolin," she said with a wink.
He beamed at her.
"And baby pangolins are the most adorable." She gasped and nearly pinched his arm but thought better of it. "Do you remember I said I wanted a baby pangolin?"
"Yeah?" he replied warily.
"Do you understand what it inferred? Considering your name is Pangolin?" She looked down. "I am starting to think this baby is entirely your fault, mister. It's all being revealed now."
His brows knitted together. "Gin, you want baby-animal anything! Whatever I had chosen, you could have said that."
"Yes," she said. "But pangolins, Harry. Pangolins."
He shook his head and took a deep breath. "Fine, my bad that you inadvertently said you wanted to have my babies."
"Thank you!"
Though their mood had been lifted by the pangolin discussion, it quickly diminished again as they neared their destination and they were reminded why they were discussing these things in the first place.
Harry parked the car by the house and unlocked the box that stood by the door, he took out the key. It was a cosy small house at the edge of a small town
He entered the house and told Ginny to wait by the door. He went to check all the rooms and then came back.
"All clear, you can go in, I'll unload our bags," Harry said.
Ginny wasn't sure if he was concerned about her carrying the bags or her safety so she decided not to argue and walked inside. He put their bags in the bedroom and then put the food in the kitchen. He returned, opened his agency laptop and stared at the screen for updates.
Harry sat down at the table and shook his head. "I really hate this… we already had enough going on without this threat." He looked defeated.
There wasn't much she could say to reassure him all would be well. She decided taking his mind off things would be better. She sat down in his lap and led his hand to her bump. They sat there quietly as Harry focused on the kicks of the baby.
"She's saying hi to dad," she said softly. She fixed Harry's fringe. "Shall we decide on a name then?"
He looked up to her face. "Are you sure?"
"I don't have a preference between those two, so if you like one more then we should settle on that."
Harry whispered the name to her belly and she smiled at it.
"Yeah, that sounds right," she admitted. She was determined to keep his mind from worrying when they were just sitting idle. "I've been thinking that we would have ended up dating sooner if you had told me about the agency sooner."
He let out a confused chuckle. "How so?"
"Can I paint you a picture?"
He nodded. "Go on…"
"We both go to university. While you are putting your stuff away, I walk in and I see a gun. At this point you actually trust me enough and so you tell me everything over the course of the weekend before classes start." She ran a finger down his arm. "I found out about the pangolin stuff and I found out that's why you don't date." She locked eyes with him and bit back her smile. "I tell you this is evidently wrong but you don't want to hear it. I start thinking about the pangolin and how odd it is to choose such a name for life because your friend likes it. I come to the only logical conclusion that you are in love with me. I start observing you and it only confirms my suspicions."
Harry smiled at her, shaking his head lightly and let her continue.
"But oh no! Do I like you? I look into my heart and find out that yes I do. And because I've only had one relationship before then, I don't have difficulty admitting that to myself. I am still very romantic at this point and so I start orchestrating the most ridiculous scheme to make you realise you're in love with me—and at this point I don't hate scheming so much."
Harry nodded along. "Sure."
"After about two weeks you figure it out too. We start dating and we are so in love and we are both virgins so everything is just nauseatingly romantic. We also care about having a perfect relationship so you refuse to propose to me until we graduate. We marry first before we have children."
"So we are agreeing that I most likely always kind of had feelings for you?" he replied.
She chuckled and nodded. "Yes. I am surprised you are admitting to it."
"When in Rome…" he replied. He kissed her cheek and then softly tapped her hip. "I need to check a few things, okay?"
She slipped off his lap and explored the cottage while Harry checked reports. She found some canned food, pasta and other basic items in the kitchen. She unpacked some of her clothes and put her pregnancy pillow on the bed. Then she walked back into the room and settled down on the couch, watching Harry.
Eventually he turned to her.
"And?"
"It appears a threat was sent out by a newer hire of Riddle. Now there is no trace of this man for the last four hours… This was sent through a text that was received to Peter's old phone number—they are aware we have it. They've used it before to send out fake plans to mislead us," Harry continued. "Since it was a very specific threat, we can at least go after the man who sent it and go from there. The threat was to the agency as a whole, but since our involvement, and the fact it was sent to Peter's phone… all of us were put on alert."
"Could this be a fake threat?" she asked.
He nodded. "It could be, but Riddle isn't that stupid. This is incriminating, they'd never take that gamble to get us to react."
"And your parents are investigating?" she asked.
"Yes, as is Remus, but Sirius was asked to lay low after what happened with Peter—I'm sure he isn't happy about that." He sighed and glanced at his laptop. "My parents know we've arrived and are safe. They'll call if and when they can."
"I know this is their job but…"
He nodded. "It's a bit more high stakes than usual."
"Yeah."
He looked at her. "I'll see what we can whip up for dinner."
"I'll join you."
Ginny followed him into dinner and they managed to get a decent dinner together with what they had bought at the store. They were in the middle of dishes when Harry's phone rang.
He picked it up quickly. "Hi mum." He sounded relieved.
"First things first," she started. "How are you and Ginny?"
"We're alright, mum. We are safe, until there is a craving Ginny has that I can't provide for and she decides to eat me instead."
Both his mum and Ginny laughed at that.
"How are you?" Harry asked.
"Fine," she said with a sigh. "I'm at the agency checking things with Dora. I'll probably sleep here to be safe. Remus is investigating a trail and your dad went to check up on Sirius."
"I'm sure he wasn't happy about being sidelined," Harry told her.
"He wasn't," she confirmed lightly. "They wouldn't have normally done this, but with how the threat was worded, Kingsley thought it was better that way."
"If there is anything I can do—" he started.
"No," she said quickly. "This may be hard on Ginny. Manage there first."
Harry turned to Ginny, who was finishing up the dishes and offered him a soft smile when she caught him looking. "Yeah, I think quite frankly she is handling this better than I am."
His mum didn't seem convinced. "You think?"
"Pretty sure, yeah," he responded.
"Get your shit together, Potter." Her tone was teasing. "Honestly…"
He chuckled lightly. "We'll manage over here. If there is anything, you let me know."
"Yes, Harry. For now nothing truly alarming has come up, so just sit tight. Say hi to Ginny for me," she told him.
"Mum says hi," he told Ginny.
She walked a little closer. "Hi, Lily! We're fine, take care!"
"There you go," Harry said.
Lily sighed. "She does sound alright, that's reassuring. Love you, be careful."
"Say hi to dad for me. Love you."
The call disconnected and he put down his phone. Ginny waited for him to speak.
"Nothing major has come up so we'll just have to wait for new information. Everyone is fine," he told her.
"Good," Ginny said. She walked to him and looked up at him. "Considering we don't have access to the internet, how should we fill our evening?"
He grinned at her. "There is a TV."
Her smile slipped off her face. "There is nothing on."
"Okay." He kissed her cheek. "Let me check all the locks and I'll be right there."
She nodded approvingly. "That's more like it." Her hand came around his waist and squeezed his butt. "I'll consider you my bodyguard for the moment. Are you going to protect me?" She looked at him innocently.
He brought his face closer to hers. "Does the bodyguard have to do your bidding?"
"Of course." She kissed his lips. "Five minutes for the locks, no more."
"Yes, ma'am," he said. He took another moment to look at her walk into the bedroom and then made quick work of the locks.
A/N: We are getting into some Tom Riddle backstory. I considered what muggle equivalent there is for pursuing immortality, and I think cryogenics comes closest.
Because I am taking a little break, you won't get the next chapter until the 18th of June, so please be patient!
