()()()
Conceived Notions
()()()
"Wait for me! No, no don't do that! Urgh, Teddy, at least ring the bell!" Harry was struggling to catch up with his godson who had bolted out of the car before it was even in park and ran towards the house that his friend's birthday party was being hosted at.
He just had no control over children.
It was easier wrangling felons.
Even if Harry hadn't been provided with the invitation showing the address for the party, it would have been easy enough to find it on the street given the complete balloon arch that was outside the house.
He followed behind Teddy, hoping that the hosts of this were okay with how Teddy had just invited himself in; and Harry letting himself in behind him seeing as the door had been left open. He looked around cautiously, waiting for someone to pop out from somewhere and greet him. It seemed that everyone was occupied in the room that all the noise was coming from.
He took a look around the boot room area and noticed how tastefully decorated everything was. Clearly these parents had their shit together. Or a housekeeper; it was a townhouse in London after all, they could likely afford it.
Why Remus and Dora insisted on Teddy going to a private prep school in London was beyond him. Remus was a professor, he could have made sure that his son was getting a proper education all by himself. And Dora, well, Dora was where the money was coming from, her mothers side was loaded and any offspring on that family tree immediately had an education fund.
Still though, that meant they would need to interact with other parents of private school kids and occasionally need to show up at homes that looked like this one, where they would stand out.
As soon as he'd seen the address for the birthday party he knew that he would need to bust out the ironing board.
And even though the kids were seven, the guardians of said kids would be expected to stay.
He slowly made his way down the corridor that lead to a great room where he spotted Teddy, already in the throws of it all and playing with some stuffed animal from a kids show with several other children from his class doing the same thing.
"Hi there," came a voice from behind him.
"Hi," he turned around and held out a hand to greet the woman. She had long dark and curly hair that was all glossy, her make-up done perfectly.
"You're here with?" she asked.
"Er, Teddy," he gestured over to where his godson had just been, but now couldn't find him. "Sorry to just let ourselves in. Teddy ran ahead of me and opened the door before I barely got out of the car."
"Oh, no problem. I've met his parents before. I'm Romilda, Conor's mother. My husband, Cormac, and I are entertaining the grown-ups in the kitchen if you'd like to come along."
"Thank you. And, I'm Harry."
She gave him a customer service smile and led him into the kitchen. "So, what do you do, Harry?"
"I work for Scotland Yard."
"Oh, how nice to have a big, strong protector in our midst," she said, turning and winking at him.
It threw him off balance at how flirty the smile was, and how her gaze lingered as she sized him up.
"No ring, I see?"
"Oh, er, no. Gave it a go, but no, divorced."
"Awe, such a shame."
He was glad she turned back around so she couldn't see the confusion and distaste on his face.
"Everyone," Romilda called for attention from the twelve or so people in the room, "this is Harry, he works for Scotland Yard, and he's single."
What the fuck kind of announcement is that, he wondered.
A few of the mothers tittered at that and he felt a flush coming over his face.
"Can I get you a drink?" the man closest to him asked, likely Cormac, Conor's father.
"I'll have one, yeah, thanks." He saw a beer in the sink full of ice and took that before drifting over to the man on the other side of the room that looked just as uncomfortable as he felt. "Does everyone get introduced like that?" he half joked.
"Nope, just you."
"Brilliant."
The man just chuckled and held out his hand. "Neville."
"Harry."
"That over there is my wife, Hannah," he pointed out.
Hannah then walked over and shook Harry's hand. These two looked like safe and pleasant people to spend time with. Before he could say anything to attempt a conversation, another woman joined them from around the corner.
"She's only got that heavily perfumed soap in the loo," she said quietly to Hannah. "I'm going to be smelling this shite until I can get home and wash it off. What's wrong with the basic soap? It does the same job and doesn't make you smell like you just walked through a perfume counter."
"Maybe that could be your next article?" Hannah teased her. "Tales of the Perfumed Nation, And How It Sucks."
The three of them shared a laugh while he was trying not to appreciate seeing this new woman before him. He recognized her, but he wasn't sure from where. There was something about the way her red hair framed her face and her smile that made him think he'd seen her before, several times in fact.
"Do I know you?" he jumped into their conversation, which had turned to food.
Her eyes shot over to him and she appeared startled to see him there. "Sorry, I'm off in my own little world over here, how rude of me. I'm Ginny," she held out her hand. "I only saw you out of my peripheral vision and thought you were someone else."
"Er, yeah, that's alright. I'm Harry." He shook her hand and noticed that she too wasn't wearing a ring.
"Ginny here is a writer," Neville told him. "She had a book on the best sellers list when she was only twenty-one, there was a cut out of her in a lot of bookshop windows."
"That's it!" he snapped his fingers. "You were on a few bus ads as well. I knew I recognized you."
"Ah, the glory days coming back to haunt me," she joked.
"You've just moved into being a different kind of writer now," Neville told her. "If inspiration hits you again, then great, otherwise," he shrugged.
It sounded like he'd said that to her a few times before.
He felt someone touching his arm and looked over to see Romilda was standing beside him. "Oh, Harry, can you just remind me, is Teddy allergic to anything?"
"No, he's all good. Not causing trouble, is he?"
"He's fine," she grinned. "Just wanted to make sure, that's all." She then cast a smile around at the others, it didn't quite reach her eyes though.
He waited for her to be out of ear shot before turning back to the others. "Are they… going through a separation or something?"
"No," Hannah scoffed quietly and rolled her eyes. "Some of the housewives get bored and start treating the divorced dads like playthings. You'll get used to it."
"I doubt it. And I'm not a divorced dad."
"Young, fit, unattached," Hannah listed off, "adds up to the same thing." Neville let out a cough and gave his wife a look. "Oh, shush you. I'm pointing out the obvious. You know I've only got eyes for you."
The pair then shared a mushy look that made him feel uncomfortable and he looked to Ginny for help. She simply pushed them aside so she could chat with him more. "They're still in love, what are we to do," she shrugged.
He grinned at that and looked back over at them in time to see them share a kiss.
"So, if you aren't a divorced dad, then who's kid did you bring?"
"My godson, Teddy Lupin. His parents planned a weekend away and asked if I'd bring him."
"Oh, I know Teddy. He's good friends with my kids. They keep getting into trouble together in the yard. I like Remus and Dora, they're a lot of fun."
"I agree. Can't help but notice you haven't got a ring on. Went through a divorce as well then?"
She held out her left hand in front of her. "No, never been married. My kids haven't got a dad. I've got loads of brothers though, so they've plenty of male role models to look up to."
He thought it was interesting how she had phrased it that her kids didn't have a dad, as though they had never had a dad, but he wasn't going to pry. "So, you're a single mum, never been married, and I'm divorced, never had kids. It should be the other way around, shouldn't it?"
Luckily, she didn't take any offense to that. "Normally, yes. What's the story with you then? Got married too young? Catfished by an Eastern European woman?"
He chuckled at the joke, then shrugged, "I wouldn't say twenty-three was too young to get married, but it turned out to be too much for me to handle at that age. We tried for a while, but neither of us was happy, and I certainly didn't want to bring kids into that situation. She'd brought it up though, like having kids would fix what was wrong with us, that was when I knew it was over."
"How long has it been now?"
"Two years."
"So that's what, five years of marriage? I'd say that's a valiant effort on your part."
"I think so." He looked over towards Neville and Hannah again, they were both leaning their heads together and whispering quietly about something. He caught how Hannah had her hand on her husband's arm and the light in each of their eyes as they looked at each other. "I've only known them for five minutes, but I'd have to say that that is what I would be looking for in a marriage and I never had it."
"Yeah," Ginny sighed. "It must be nice to have that. They actually enjoy being together, still, after all these years." She turned back to him. "You know, I talked to her after one of the parent/teacher nights and she said something about how she couldn't wait to get home and do her bedtime routine. I thought she meant washing her face and throwing on the laundry or something, but actually she was talking about how she and Neville would cuddle in bed after putting their son down and catch up on the day before snuggling in together to fall asleep. I hear shit like that and it makes me believe that the Hallmark movies are just doling out crap; there actually are love sickening couples out there that adore each other. The Hallmark part of it only shows the before, not the after." She shook her head. "I can't imagine how that must feel."
"Like they've got their shit figured out, I'd imagine," he agreed.
He didn't think he'd ever shared a look like that with Cho. He'd basically married her out of spite because his parents had kept telling him that he was too young to be settling down.
It just took him a long time to realize that they'd meant 'settling down with her'.
Looking back he realized that it had never felt quite right with his ex; not the first stages of the relationship, not the wedding, certainly not the marriage. And he grew up watching his parents being a healthy example of the type of relationship that he should have been looking for.
"I was such a fucking idiot," he murmured to himself as he thought about it.
"I believe that is the motto for a lot of divorcees." He held up her glass to clink it against his beer bottle in cheers.
"Ginny," Romilda came over to them with a child walking in front of her that had ginger hair and hazel, almond shaped eyes with a narrow face, she was a cute little girl. With icing in her hair. "I think this might require a bit of cleaning up."
Ginny laughed and stroked the side of her daughter's face, neither mother nor daughter looking as upset with the situation as Romilda did.
"And was this your doing, or someone else's?"
"Arty ate the cake with his hand and then wiped it on me," she told her mum.
"Well, let's get you cleaned up and I'll have a chat with your brother." She turned back to him, "I'll be back."
Romilda gave Harry a simpering look again, "must be difficult for her raising twins on her own. I can only imagine."
Twins would explain how both of her children seemed not to have a father, he realized. "I've only just met her, but she seems to be doing an alright job of it. Her sanity looks to be in check anyhow, and clearly she isn't sweating the small things."
From her expression, it appeared Romilda was not expecting him to defend Ginny on her parenting ability.
It was just icing, after all.
He turned to chat more with Neville and Hannah again. Before Ginny managed to finish helping her daughter clean up after the icing incident it was time for everyone to stand around and watch Conor open presents. Harry stood dutifully against the wall and wondered if he should chance having one more drink to make the fake enthusiasm stick on his face, but he'd already had one and the party was only for another hour or so.
The noise level around him was near deafening. He hoped that Teddy was expelling enough energy that he would fall asleep in the car on the way back home; he was staying at Remus and Dora's while they were gone since all of Teddy's things were there. Absolute silence in the car sounded so appealing just then.
"I really hope they fall into a sugar coma as soon as we get home," Ginny said beside him. He hadn't seen her come back into the room, but now saw her daughter was standing at the table with all the other kids, right between Teddy and a boy that looked very similar to her but with dark hair, which must have been Arty.
"I was just thinking the same thing, but about the car ride."
"Oh no, you don't want them to fall asleep in the car, then you have to carry them into the house. Though, I suppose you've only got one to deal with, and you look strong enough to handle it."
It took everything in him not to thank her for noticing in a flirty voice.
"Your daughter doesn't seem to have been bothered by what happened."
"No, Mary's made of tough stuff. She'll likely retaliate later, but it'll still be something harmless."
"People are still naming their kids Mary?"
"Sort for Marigold," she explained. "They're known for repelling pests, so I'm hoping it will be an accurate name for her. Plus, I figured if kids tease her over it a little it will help build character."
"You purposefully named your daughter something she might get teased over?"
"Yes," she stated plainly. "Haven't you heard of the song 'A Boy Named Sue'? I was listening to a lot of Johnny Cash when I was pregnant."
Harry laughed at that. "And same goes for Arty?"
"Short for Arthur, and no. My parents were less than thrilled to find out I was pregnant so young, and that there was going to be no father to boot, so I named him after my dad, hoping it would make things a bit easier."
"They came around then, I take it?"
"Oh, absolutely. They love all their grandchildren. It is mandatory that once a month they get all the grandkids together for one weekend for a sleepover at theirs. Which I really appreciate, because it means that once a month I can go out with my friends or on a date or something without worrying about what state my head will be in in the morning."
He knew it could turn out to be a terrible idea, and he certainly hadn't shown up to this birthday party hoping to meet a single mum, but Ginny was smart, pretty and she didn't fuss, not so far as he could tell thus far anyhow, so he took a shot. "What weekend is it that you've got off this month?"
She turned her attention full on him then and a sly smile came over her face. "Next."
"Got any plans for it yet?"
()()()
Ginny splurged and got herself a new dress for tonight, she also made an appointment at a M.A.C. counter to get her face done as well. It was a little over the top for a date with someone she'd only interacted with for an hour while they were surrounded by screaming seven-year-olds, but she didn't get out often and the kids had been gone to their grandparents since this morning so she had the whole day to kill before her date.
And she was excited.
Maybe a little bit worked up in other ways as well.
It had been ages since she'd gotten a leg over and the two cocktails that she'd had at the bar before her date was due to start were doing wonders at lowering her nerves.
She was just polishing off the second drink when she saw him come in.
He looked just as good as she remembered. There was an attempted air of aristocracy about him. She knew that was a weird way to describe it, but it was like he knew how to pull himself together so it appeared he was a rower but he wasn't actually a rower, he likely spent most of the day hanging out on his couch or perhaps getting sweaty as he went on a run.
Yeah, he was probably a runner.
Ginny slid off her stool and waved at the barman to show she was dropping down a few quid before walking over to Harry.
It was still a little before their date was due to start, which is likely why he seemed surprised to see her already.
"I may have run out of things to do and got here a little too early," she admitted.
"That's great, you can tell me if the drinks are any good," he grinned. It was such a cute grin.
"I don't think you'd want to be seen with the kinds of cocktails I opted for, they're fruity and certainly not manly enough for you."
"That's unfair, you know? My gender are only allowed juice with breakfast once we reach a certain age." She knew he was joking, however he was pulling off the offended look very well.
"Tell you what, once my gender have that whole female equality business sorted out, you lot can work on fighting for the right to order a cocktail without looking gay. We might have to change the name of the style of drink though; 'cock-tail' isn't going to help the case."
They shared a laugh and the hostess led them over to their table.
"I like that this place isn't too loud," she commented. "Last time I was out for a date I couldn't catch half of what he was saying because the music was loud and everyone else was talking around us. I heard more about my seat neighbors last trip to the gyno than I did about the bloke I was on the date with."
"Yeah, this is one of those places that get's crazy loud as the evening progresses. Oh, I hope you're okay with the menu, I don't know if you have any… aversions."
"Nice," she grinned.
"What?"
"You're way of pretending like you care about the whole Gluten-Free, Vegan, Organically Sourced movement going on. It was a good attempt. You failed at it, don't get me wrong, but it was nice that you put in some effort," she teased.
"Right," he smiled. "Well, are you part of the movement?"
"No. I love bread, I just try not to eat it at every meal, I grew up on a hobby farm so my parents would disown me if they found out I turned vegan, and the whole organically sourced thing? I mean, I get that it's supposed to be about how they don't use pesticides or whatever, but to say produce is 'inorganic' is not a thing. The term that whatever marketing team put together for that is just so ridiculous that I usually opt not to put anything labeled 'organic' in my cart at the grocers. Although, again, my parents have a hobby farm so they are usually my source of produce."
"Wow, you've put a lot of thought into this."
"Well, I wrote an article on it once. Let me tell you, it was not well received," she chuckled.
"Damn, I haven't read any of your articles." It seemed like he was chastising himself for that.
"I didn't expect you to study up on me, so why would you have?"
Even in the low lighting she saw that his cheeks were flushing. "I did read your book this past week."
Her elbow landed on the table and her face went into her hand. "Oh, Jesus, fuck. Why? I mean, I know it was a big success, but it's not exactly for your demographic, is it? It's more for the 'Eat, Pray, Love' types that are about to become adults."
"I thought it was good!" he defended.
She looked up and narrowed her eyes at him. "Really? Going to be recommending it to your buddies on Scotland Yard then?"
He paused and his hand went to the back of his neck and up into his hair. Her son did the same thing when he was trying to think of how to be nice about something. "Well, no. But only because it's a bit too much of a… sipping coffee on a Sunday morning kind of guilty pleasure."
"And we couldn't possibly let anyone know you do that," she grinned.
"Seriously, I would lose my man card," he joked.
The waiter came over and they ordered, now that the table in front of her was clear she leaned towards him. "So, now that you've admitted you studied up on me, I guess it's my turn to admit I asked Dora about you this week."
Dora and she weren't close enough to be popping over to each other's for a glass of wine, but they were friendly enough to chat by the fence at school pick up. It was comforting to see how excited Dora was by the news that she and Harry had hit it off enough to set up a date.
"I don't know what she could have possibly told you that I would be embarrassed about."
"Just how much you begin to hate your clothes as the night goes on and that she hated you when Teddy was a baby and wouldn't calm down for her, but in your arms he was a little angel."
"I'm not bothered by either of those things," he smirked.
"Yeah, neither was a deal breaker," she agreed. "I tend to hate my clothes as the night goes on as well."
She leaned back in her seat purposefully then, just so he could see how great her new dress fit her, and his eyes did wander.
The date went really well by her opinion, they never lacked for something to talk about, the conversations were tactfully interspersed with flirtations, they matched each other for drinks, all really good things. So, when it came time for their dinner plates to be cleared away and the dessert menu dropped off, she was comfortable enough with him to lean across the table and suggest they save dessert for when they were back at his place.
The expression on his face when she suggested that made her need to rub her thighs together.
It was cute watching him try not to show just how eager he was to get back to his place; he fumbled with his wallet when paying for the meal, his car keys were dropped twice before he managed to get the doors unlocked and she chose not to try to make conversation with him on the drive to his place because it already looked like he was near too distracted to drive.
He had a good sized flat in a nice area, and she would have liked to take a look around, but the poor man looked so nervous now that she decided to put him out his misery and pulled him towards her by his shoulders as soon as they both had their shoes off.
Harry didn't appear to need any further permission than that before he started kissing her back, and boy, did he know how to kiss! His hands started off in a respectful place on her hips but as the kiss grew deeper the hands started to roam. She sighed against his lips as he grabbed her arse and started massaging her there. It felt wonderful just to be in the arms of a man again; it had been so long since she'd kissed someone, and even longer since she'd gotten a leg over. And Harry was taller than her, not by much, but just enough that she only had to tilt her head back slightly. Something about his size made her feel like she was about to be at his mercy, and that turned her on.
As their hands wandered, he started guiding her through his place, their lips never parting, and when she opened her eyes to glance around, she saw they were in his bedroom. The bed wasn't made, for whatever reason that made it look very welcoming, as if to say, 'come lay here, I'm comfortable and still warm from sleep'.
She felt Harry's hand at the clasp on the back of her dress, where he paused. She nipped at his lip and started undoing the buttons on his shirt, letting him know he had her permission to get the dress off of her. When they were just down to their underclothes he surprised her by picking her up and letting both of them fall down onto the bed.
"Well, that's one way to do it," she laughed.
He started kissing down her neck, "you sure you're okay with this?"
Bloody chivalry, she just wanted him to ravage her! "I've given you more than enough indication that I'm okay with this," she told him, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. "The question is, have you got enough stamina to take care of my needs?" She rocked her hips against his pelvis then and enjoyed his responding groan.
It was all a blur of touches and the loss of their remaining clothes for the next few minutes, the man was really trying to get her worked up. Then finally she felt him reach out to his nightstand and heard the unmistakable crinkle of a condom wrapper. As he stood up on his knees to pull on the rubber, she came up onto her elbows to take a good look at what they were going to be working with, and she was not disappointed; his Johnson was an average size, but the girth on it had her biting her lower lip in anticipation.
Feeling him slide into her was like stepping into a hot bath, the sensation of it just radiated through her whole body and made her breathless for a moment. She was so wet for him that he was thrusting in and out with great ease and she locked her legs around his knees to encourage him to keep making those movements, but harder.
It had been nearly a year since she'd gotten laid and she wanted him to actually fuck her, none of that 'making love' business that might put her to sleep after. She liked Harry, but she didn't know if they'd get the opportunity to spend the night together again. She planned on taking full advantage of having a man at her disposal for the night; and if they didn't need an energy drink after all was said and done, then they didn't do it right.
He took her hint easily enough and started being a bit rougher with her, which in turn made her louder, which only seemed to encourage him to keep going.
She didn't know how long they were going at it before he rolled them over so she was on top, and now she was ready to fight for her orgasm and rocked against him until she was crying out. The glorious sensation extended as he planted his feet, grabbed her hips and started thrusting up into her in search of his own finish, which came only a minute later.
Ginny fell to the bed beside him after ensuring his satisfaction with a few more canters up and down his cock. There was no controlling the smile on her face, she'd been fantasizing about an encounter like this one for ages.
"Almost didn't have enough stamina for that," Harry breathed out after a minute of recovery.
"You make it sound like it's a one and done," she challenged. Her hand found a spot to rest on his thigh before she started tracing circles there. "I'm up for more than that, if you can be up for more than that."
The mattress shifted around and she wasn't sure what he was doing, but then he was on top of her again, this time he was kissing his way down her chest. "You're looking for a marathon session then?" he asked as his lips met her breasts.
"Absolutely. Sleep is for the weak."
()()()
Harry was still feeling satisfied, and a little drained, on Monday when he went into the office. That night with Ginny had been incredible, it was the kind of night that he had fantasized about as a teenager; the kind that involved several opened wrappers of condoms on the nightstand and a lot of water.
She had looked too hot for him when he saw her at the restaurant.
He'd found her attractive when they met at that birthday party, but wow, that was some dress she'd had on for the date.
And it had wound up on his floor, he remembered with a grin.
It was just one date, one night, but he was already wondering when they could see each other again.
He got that she had kids and they were her number one priority, she flat out told him that they had no idea what she did when they were at their grandparents and she had no intention of telling them; which he translated into him not being invited over to hers any time soon, in any capacity.
He was fine with that. He would never introduce a new girlfriend to Teddy, and Teddy was his godson, not his son-son.
It didn't mean he couldn't send her a text though.
There had been time to think after she'd left his place on Sunday, about whether he wanted to pursue something with her. He didn't mind that she had kids that they would need to schedule any dates around. They were both just thirty, most women his age did have kids or an ex-husband or the like. She wasn't bothered that he was divorced.
Plus, if she only had one truly free weekend a month, then that kind of worked perfectly for his schedule too. He'd needed to swing a few favors to get two weekends off in a row like he had, his job was not a nine to five.
With his Sunday afternoon free he'd read a few of her articles online and had practically heard her voice in his head reading them out to him. She'd been right, that they were not geared for his demographic, but he still appreciated the sense of humor she interjected into pieces on the newest trends for women and her thoughts on them.
His appreciation of her only grew over the next two months of several lunch dates and two more Saturday's of the most mind blowing sex he'd ever had in his life. Harry supposed that only having one day a month where she could manage the time away just made the anticipation and execution all the better.
Honestly, at one point on their third night together he told her that they would have made Skinemax blush.
Two months seemed like a long time to go before giving each other labels, but they finally had the conversation in the morning before she left that confirmed they were exclusive, and boyfriend and girlfriend. And he loved it.
Now it was just a countdown to when he would be invited around to hers to be properly introduced into her life.
Which he brought up on one of their lunch dates around month three.
"Harry, do you really want to see that side of my life? Of the cleaning and laundry and picking up Lego until it's time to go to sleep so I can wake up and do it all over again?" she asked him, her eyes pleading with him to say no.
"Ginny, I'm not going to run away at the sight of a dryer sheet. I like you, a lot, and I'd like to see more of you. Hell, I'd like to introduce you to my friends at least. It's a little hard to do that when the only time we can spend together is getting compressed into lunch dates and shagfests." She opened her mouth and he cut her off before she could say what she was inevitably about to say. "I fucking love the shagfests. I just think that they could start out with an evening at the pub meeting each other's friends before they start and still be equally as satisfying."
"That would be nice," she admitted. "It's just…"
"Your kids, I know. But you don't have to tell Arty and Mary who I am. I mean, use my real name, but you don't have to introduce me as 'mommy's special friend' or whatever. How about I just come over one evening and… I dunno… fix something on your list of things to get fixed around the place; tell them I'm a friend of a friend that is handy with a screwdriver, then casually ask me to stay for dinner," he offered.
"Are you serious?"
"…yes?" He wasn't sure what her expression and tone were indicating. There was a twinkle in her eye, but hesitation too.
"Er… would you actually fix something for me?" she blushed.
He let out a laugh then. "You have something that needs fixing, don't you?"
She relaxed and leaned towards him across the table. "Well, I've been asking my brothers if one of them could stop around to take a look at my shower. It keeps dripping all the time and it's driving me mad. I've done a vinegar soak of the head, so I know that's not it."
Harry grinned at her. "Ginny, I would love to take a look at your shower head."
And so, he found himself standing in front of her townhome on a Monday evening. It was an hour or so before she'd asked him to be there, but he knew she got the kids from school around three and was going to be home after that, so there was no reason not to show up now. Plus, he was actually intending on fixing whatever she needed fixed at her place and that might involve another trip to the hardware store.
He rang the bell and Arty was the one to answer it, still in his school uniform that was now untucked, his hair sticking out at all angles.
"Who're you?" Arty asked.
Mary stepped into view. "You're supposed to ask nicer than that!" she told off her brother, then turned to him. "Hello, can we help you?"
"I think both ways were effective," Harry told them. "I'm Harry. You're mum asked if I could stop around and fix something up for her." He held out his bag of supplies as proof. "I'm also your friend Teddy's godfather. I met you at that boy Conor's birthday party."
"Oh!" Arty's face lit up. "You're a 'tective. Teddy talks about you!"
"He does?! All good things, I hope."
"Yeah, he says you're cool."
"High praise. So, could one of you get your mum for me?"
Both kids looked behind them and up the stairs before looking at each other, then Mary turned back to him. "We're not supposed to interrupt her when she's writing. We're supposed to get a snack and do our homework and not play the television with the volume over ten."
He tried not to laugh as Mary listed off their after school routine. Kids are cute at this age, when they still listen to their parents and are seeking their approval.
"Tell you what, I'll text her and let her know I'm here, how about that?"
"Okay! Then it won't be us in trouble," Arty said happily and then promptly turned around and went into the other room. Mary followed behind him, leaving the open front door to slowly close by itself.
Harry pulled out his phone, letting the front door close because it would be weird to stop it with his foot and he hadn't exactly been invited in. 'Gin, I'm here. The twins answered the door and said they weren't allowed to bother you. So now I'm standing on your stoop, lol.'
He saw that his message had been sent through, but it was a few minutes before there was a checkmark saying that it had been read. In that time he had the opportunity to look around at the neighborhood that she'd chosen to live it. It was a really nice area, and it was a really nice school that she was sending the twins to. Ginny had made a decent sum off of her book at a young age and been rewarded handsomely from her book tour, that was where the money had come from to afford the tuition and the house. She'd told him that she thought she was a 'one and done' of writing her great novel, that she wasn't sure inspiration would ever strike her again for a book that was that well received, and she'd realized that not long after the money had started rolling in, so she'd been smart about what to spend it on. Now she was a freelance writer that worked closely with one or two magazines.
He was taking in the charm of the homes across the street when the door behind him opened abruptly.
"Harry!" She sounded winded. "I'm so sorry! When I saw that you'd texted I thought it was just you saying that you were on your way and didn't look at the actual message until a second ago. I'm not even properly dressed."
He turned to look at her and grinned. She had on fitted flannel pyjama bottoms with fluffy socks, an oversized jumper and her hair was pulled up on her head with bits of it sticking out at odd angles. She'd always appeared so put together when they saw each other, it was refreshing to see her like this; his girlfriend in her natural habitat.
"You look great."
"Oh, shut up. I've been in a writing groove all day."
"No, seriously." He lowered his voice, "if there was no chance that the twins might catch us I'd already be snogging you and trying to cop a feel. That jumper looks soft."
Her blush was adorable.
"Well… there is a chance, so… down boy."
He followed her into the house and she gave him a quick tour. The main floor was the kitchen, sitting room and play room area that was the intended dining room that she claimed she'd had no use for. They had a small back garden that was filled with vegetable's rather than flowers. On the second floor was the twins rooms and a bathroom and the third floor was her room, her office and another bathroom, the one with the leaking shower head.
"This is such a nicer place than my flat."
"Yeah, I was so lucky to have found it, and to have won the bidding war," she nodded.
He set his supplies down on the bathroom counter and pulled her shower curtain back to start to work.
"Did you already have the twins when you bought the place?"
"No, I was knocked up at the time though, but only a month along, so I had the time to get the place ready for it how I wanted. I'd finished up with my 'world tour'," she always said that with the quotation fingers because it was only the English speaking countries she visited, "and had nothing to do but laze around, get fat and figure out what came next."
"I can't imagine having to take care of two newborns all on my own," he shook his head. "How did you keep your sanity?"
She shrugged. "I was at that age where my body was telling me I was supposed to be out all night dancing and hooking up with strangers, so having to wake every three hours to sooth one of the two of them, or both, it didn't bother me that much. I napped when I napped. Plus, one of my parents or siblings would stop by every other day and let me get a few hours of sleep; that helped a lot. They'd clean while they were here too, which was awesome."
"In a way I'd say you were smart to get that phase of your life dealt with when you were that young. I'm still receiving wedding invitations once a month from my friends, then the baby announcements are just around the corner."
"My friends are all in that stage too. They all thought I was mad for keeping the twins, but I wanted to be a mum then way more than I wanted to go prowling for cock."
He shook with laughter at her crudeness as he went under the sink to turn the water off.
"Can I ask once more what your intentions are with this idea today?" she asked.
"Fixing your shower? I suppose it's to prove that I have that man card I was telling you about."
He was still under the sink and heard her sigh. "No, I mean with the whole 'you wanting to meet my kids' thing."
The water was shut off and he pulled his head out of the cabinet to look at her. "We've been going out for three months. I thought it was time." Ginny didn't appear convinced. "Look, we don't have to tell them that I'm anything more than a friend. You said you've never introduced them to someone you've dated before, I'm fully prepared to be 'Handyman Harry' until you're comfortable introducing me as something else. I just want to spend more time with you, with, or without your kids in tow."
He understood her concern. He'd talked about Ginny with a friend of his from uni, the smartest person he knew, and Hermione had immediately been shocked that he was planning on meeting the kids so soon into the relationship. She'd explained to him about how Ginny's kids were her whole world, and her spending time with him was likely her 'time off', and that was like them being their drunk selves, where anything goes, and no mother, no decent mother, was going to be okay with being drunk all the time around their kids.
Hermione had put it more eloquently than that, but she talked a lot and the drunk mom metaphor was his take away.
"Face it, Ginny. I like you, you like me," he said as he came to his knees in front of her. "I know that three months is kind of soon for something like this, but I thought we should test the waters."
Her eyes softened and she ran her hand down his cheek. "I do really like you."
"Good." He gave her a kiss before getting back to his feet to detach the shower head completely. "And I was already thinking that next time we should meet up somewhere when I've got Teddy with me. We could take them to one of those 'Fun Zone' type places where they can run around like mad and play laser tag or something; that should win me some points with them, I know it does with Teddy."
She gave him a big grin at that suggestion.
Once he finished up with the shower and had successfully made it stop dripping, Ginny invited him to stay for dinner; loud enough that the kids could hear her asking in her casual tone. The kids weren't too interested in why he was there, but they did ask some questions and he happily gave them the answers to how he became a 'tective' and why his hair stuck up the way it did.
They were cute kids.
Over the next three months he kept returning to Ginny's place and fixing something, he wasn't sure if Ginny was breaking things on purpose for an excuse for him to come over, but he was growing more comfortable each time he showed up at the house, and the kids were growing more comfortable with him as well. He even wound up helping the two of them with building bird houses that his grandparents had given them the kits for.
Finally, they were seven months into the relationship and Ginny told the twins that she and Harry were a couple. To which, their response was to say 'okay' and asking if that meant he was moving in and if he was then according to what Grandma says, they needed to get married.
Obviously, it was a little too soon for that.
Well, maybe it was a bit too soon for that.
This taste of domesticity that he was getting by spending time at Ginny's with the kids was what he had pictured for his first marriage; it was what his parents had and what Remus and Tonks had with Teddy. He was already wrapped around Mary's finger and he and Arty got on just the way he and Teddy did, and he'd do anything for Teddy. Plus, he was in love with Ginny, sometime between one of their once a month sex romps and fixing her shower head he'd figured that out. Coming to her house regularly and spending time with she and the kids had just made him love her and her kids all the more.
It was still too soon to be thinking about marriage though.
However, it wasn't too soon to invite her home to meet his parents.
The weekend in July that the twins were at their grandparents, he and Ginny took his car an hour North out of London to his parents' house. His mum was beside herself with excitement about meeting Ginny, apparently she'd been one of the many that bought Ginny's book when it first came out. His dad was happy because it gave him an opportunity to use the 'egg', an outdoor grill that he only had an excuse to use if there was enough company.
They pulled up to the house and Harry parked on the street because he saw that there were two extra vehicles already in the drive.
Ginny heard the sigh he gave when he spotted the cars. "What's wrong?"
"They've invited spectators," he shook his head. "I am now very sorry about this. It looks like you will be addressing a panel of judges."
"Um… who exactly?"
She looked more amused than intimidated and Harry wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
Ginny could hold her own though, she'd been through book readings and on panels of her own, plus, she had several brothers and their spouses that she'd watched go through this process. He could even picture her being the one that scrutinized any woman daring step foot in her childhood home on the arm of one of her brothers.
"Sirius, my godfather, and Hermione."
"Your friend from uni? The doctor?"
"Yeah. She and my mum are really close; like, they go shopping together."
"So, does that mean that your mum was hoping that the two of you…"
"No! Hermione and I have never had that kind of relationship, or interest in each other. She's like the sister I never had. We're both only-children and we've been sounding boards for each other since we met essentially. I imagine mum invited her here as back-up to make sure I wasn't making the same mistake I did with Cho."
Ginny looked less than thrilled about that idea. "And? Do you think you might be?"
"Excuse you!" He leaned over and gave her a kiss, then took her hand and gave that a kiss too. "I happen to learn from my mistakes. I was young then, I confused lust with love, immediately thought I'd fallen for her. With you, it's completely different."
"How? All we did when we first started meeting up was shag like bunnies."
"We also had lunch dates where we talked a lot!" he defended. "And it was during those that I realized I was in love with you. The sex was just an incredibly lovely bonus."
Ginny raised her eyebrow at him, a smile slowly rising to her face.
"What?"
"Nothing," she grinned. "Come on, they're probably watching us through the window." She patted his leg twice and then got out of the car. "You grew up here? It's a beautiful house."
"I did, and it is," he said happily.
"Do they still have your room just how you left it? Like a kind of 'Harry Shrine'? Oh! Did you have a racecar bed?!"
"Alright, calm down," he laughed. "And no, I never had a racecar bed."
"But not for lack of asking, am I right?"
He only blushed in response and she laughed loudly and hugged him close to her side as they walked up to the door.
He walked right into the house and the family had already assembled in the foyer waiting for them.
For a moment, it was like a Mexican stand-off; no one spoke, they all just raised their eyebrows up and down slightly as if in challenge.
Ginny broke the silence.
"Harry said he was denied a racecar bed as a child and he's still upset about it."
Another moment of silence passed and then everyone was laughing.
"That's not what I said!" he defended.
"Hey, don't worry. You and my brother Ron are the same age, he wanted one too. If you're still wanting one and feel like the ship has sailed, maybe get one for Arty and you two can take turns pretending to drive it."
He opened his mouth to protest again, but found her suggestion wasn't half bad; they had looked super cool when he was seven.
His pause just made the rest of them laugh harder.
"Come on into the kitchen, I've got some nibbles set out," his mum said and led the way.
Ginny smiled at his dad and Sirius, then fell in step beside Hermione and started talking to her. Sirius and dad hung back though, wanting a chat with him about her.
"So far, a much better impression," Sirius nodded in approval.
"I admit, I was skeptical when you told us she already had kids, and the jury is still out, but yeah, so far, so good," dad told him.
When they got to the kitchen Ginny was already deep into answering questions his mum, or Hermione, had asked her about her book. "Well, I was taking a gap year, right, and I'd always been a big reader, but, you know, in the world we live in I figured 'what story is left that hasn't already been told' so I didn't have my hopes and desires all pinned on becoming a great novelist or anything. Honestly, my one book might be the only one that I put out, and I'm fine with that. If inspiration strikes again, then awesome, but currently, just doing the 2,000 word articles here and there, that keeps me happy; I'm still getting paid to write."
"I loved how your book wasn't quite just about coming of age," his mum told her. "Reading it, it reminded me of when I was just out of school and had no idea what I wanted to do."
"You knew part of it!" his dad protested and held up his hand with his wedding ring on display.
"Yes, yes," she waved a dismissive hand at him. "But getting married and having Harry weren't the only things I wanted to accomplish."
"I wanted the kid portion too," Ginny agreed. "I went to school after my gap year and kept working on my book, but I always wanted to be a mum."
"Even so young?!" Hermione asked.
Harry knew that Hermione had put her education ahead of any other aspirations for her life, and as a doctor, she still wasn't finished with her education. She'd dated a few men on and off, but she'd never gotten to the point that he was at with Ginny; bringing a man home to meet the parents.
"Even so young," Ginny nodded. "Thankfully, with the book being such a success, it meant I had the financial side of things taken care of."
"But what about their father?" Hermione asked.
"He's not involved," Ginny shook her head. "I basically picked him out of a line-up, and he knew what he was getting into. There's a chance that Arty and Mary have half-siblings out there somewhere, so I'll have to keep an eye out for any of their future paramours and any similarities I see between them." She had meant that to be a joke, but the room at large was surprised to hear it.
It was the most detailed Harry had heard of the origin of the twins. He hadn't questioned her much on it and assumed that they were a result of a one night stand and the father just didn't want to be involved. Now he knew that the father had been informed ahead of time that Ginny was setting out to get pregnant.
"That's… wanting to be a mum," Sirius said, still looking surprised.
Ginny looked around the room at all their faces and simply said, "I regret nothing."
"I was about the age you were when I had Harry," his mum said finally. "He was a surprise though, but I also don't regret having him in the slightest."
"High praise," Harry said to her and raised his glass in cheers.
The tension in the room evaporated after that.
Throughout the dinner everyone got a bit of time with Ginny and he loved watching her interact with them all, she was never without something to contribute to a conversation; whether it be football or medicine or anything in between.
"Alright, jury's in," Sirius said to him when he was helping his dad clear away plates in the kitchen, the women were still outside. "I like her. Well more than I ever liked Cho."
"I like that she can carry her own," his dad agreed. "You're terrible in group situations, just stand there waiting for someone to engage you in conversation," he told Harry. "You complement each other nicely."
"Did you just call me socially inept?"
"Yes," his dad and Sirius told him together.
"And you aren't constantly fawning all over her, yet the both of you keep shooting these adoring eyes at each other. It's sickening, but also a good sign," Sirius said.
"Are you two exchanging 'I love you's yet? Because that bit's obvious," his dad asked.
"No, not yet." But then he remembered their conversation in the car before they came in the house. "Oh fuck!"
"What?" the other two asked.
"Shit!" Harry ran a hand over his face. "I did! I just told her in the car before we came in. But, it wasn't some profound proclamation, it just slipped out in the middle of a sentence; about how I fell in love with her before meeting her kids properly."
"Hang on," Sirius grinned. "You've been talking about the twins for months, and you're saying that until a few hours ago you hadn't told Ginny that you love her? Shouldn't you have told her that before meeting her kids?"
"Are you mad? After how much I fucked up last time, you think I'd just go around saying that? I told Cho I loved her about a week into our relationship and look how that blew up? I'm a thirty-year-old divorcee! Now I've got this gorgeous and brilliant woman that I'm completely smitten with, but she's got two kids and comes as a package deal. I'm not going to scare her off by making her think I'm moving too fast or leaping before looking."
Sirius picked up a carrot stick off of the tray on the counter behind them and leaned back. "Yeah, but don't kids your age just get married for the fun of it nowadays? She can't fault you for being a moron about your first wife."
"And," his dad joined in, "you'd been going over to 'fix things' at her place for how long before the two of you told her kids you were an item? And now she's out there clucking away with your mum and best friend, not looking at all like she's ready to bolt because you finally admitted that to her. So, I'd say she feels the same way."
"D'you think?" Harry perked up and shot another glance out the window to the three women that were laughing, each with a glass of wine in hand.
"Ah, you'll be fine," his dad said and patted him on the back. "And, whenever she feels comfortable, tell her she can bring the twins next time you come up for a visit. Your mum is greedy for grandkids to spoil."
When the evening wrapped up he drove Ginny back to his place to spend the night. They didn't stay at his often anymore; he was only there about two times a week now. Ginny had given him a drawer and closet space at hers and he had grown entirely comfortable at her place over time. It was getting so that his flat was essentially the place they went to have loud sex, or for him to sleep after pulling a double shift.
Ginny had too much to drink at his parents house for them to be using the flat for loud sex that night though, she fell asleep in the car on the way back to town and he had to half carry her into the flat.
()()()
Ginny woke up in Harry's bed again, the smell of his stale flat making her nose wrinkle. It wasn't an overpowering smell, but he could do with a scented candle here or there to cut through the smell of disuse.
Currently Harry was where he usually was first thing in the morning, spooning her from behind and breathing softly; It was such a lovely way to start the day.
Meeting his family yesterday had been a lot of fun. She hadn't worried over meeting his parents, but when she found out that Hermione was there she'd had a moment of panic. She didn't want to meet Harry's 'supposed' best friend and see that there was chemistry between them that extended past the rules of friendship. Mercifully, that weight had been lifted entirely when she saw the way they interacted. There were zero romantic indicators between the two of them, they may as well have been brother and sister.
Besides the two surprise additions to the evening, it went exactly the way she had expected it would; questions about her book, about her kids, about her intentions.
The intentions questions had been somewhat easier to answer since Harry had admitted that he loved her just before they went into the house.
It was amusing how she noticed that he hadn't realized he'd said it. No sweeping gesture, no making sure that she knew what he was saying, no meaningful looking into her eyes as he said it, it just slipped out of his mouth unintentionally.
Just then hadn't been the time to point it out to him though.
She was in love with him too and had been for a while.
Maybe she should slip it casually into a conversation as well, just to see what his reaction would be.
Ginny slipped out of the bed and went straight for the shower. Harry was still fast asleep when she finished in the bathroom so she headed into the kitchen to get some kind of breakfast on. He had no food available though; the produce had gone bad, the containers of take away that were meant to be eaten as leftovers had also gone bad. She checked his pantry for one of those instant pancake mixes that only required water and he didn't have any of that either.
He really was practically living at her place now, wasn't he?
The image sprung to her mind of them cohabitating permanently and it made her smile, but it also raised a few questions; questions that they should probably talk about now that things were getting serious.
She popped back into the bedroom to find something to wear, because they needed food and she needed some fresh air to think clearly.
Harry was awake by the time she got back with two takeaway coffee's and pastries.
"I am so lucky to have you in my life," he grinned sleepily at her and kissed her on the cheek as he accepted his cup.
"I love you," she blurted out.
That wasn't at all the way she'd planned to say it! He just looked so adorably sleep ruffled and grateful to her; it just came out.
Damn it. He didn't give her a declaration! She wanted to tell him the way he'd told her and watch him squirm a bit. Now that was shot to shit.
He wasn't squirming at all, he was just giving her this adoring look.
Now he was wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.
"I love you, too."
He leaned down and gave her a kiss, a long and heartfelt one, and she didn't care anymore how she'd said it, because it was out there now; they loved each other.
When they broke apart a few moments later, grinning at each other, she added a mental checkmark beside that task that was on today's to-do list.
"I think we need to talk about… down the road."
"Down the road?" he asked.
"Er, yeah." She maneuvered out of his arms and set the breakfast down beside their drinks on his table and took a seat. "Like, how I had to go out and get breakfast this morning because you have nothing edible in your place; which is due to you spending so much time at mine."
He sat down across from her and took a peek in the bag. "Are you saying I need some emergency PB&J supplies, like frozen bread, or are you saying that I should be spending more time at yours?"
"Er… neither. Well, I guess pantry supplies are a good idea at least, but I'm more saying… so… I've got kids."
"Yes, I've met them. I like them, and I think they like me too."
"They do, I know that." She gave a shake of her head and tried to remember how she had phrased this in her mind while she was out. "I'm just saying, if we do, you know, eventually decide to live together at some point."
"Ginny, obviously I'd be moving into your place when we decide the time is right," he told her.
"Yeah?" she smiled with relief.
He gave her an incredulous look. "First off, you own your home, I lease. Second off, you've got three bedrooms plus a den and two kids that fill up two of the bedrooms and most of the sitting room."
"Yeah," she laughed. "So, you've thought about this?"
"Yes. And now it's my turn to ask a question."
She put her hand in the bag and took a pastry for herself. "Okay, go."
"Would you ever consider having another kid?"
She should have held off putting food in her mouth until after the question was asked, because that made her choke a bit.
"Took you by surprise, did I?" he grinned after she'd taken a sip of coffee and stopped coughing.
"Well, I mean, it was on my list of discussion topics. But you just asked it so casually."
Harry gave a small shrug. "I've already told you how much I like Arty and Mary, love them, actually, but I always wanted a child of my own, and to experience it all from the start. It was part of the reason my marriage fell apart; Cho wasn't sure she ever wanted kids. Meanwhile, after Teddy was born I started wanting them more and more."
"Yes," she said, almost cutting him off. "I didn't mind being pregnant and I loved when they were babies. It was difficult with having two of them, but I'm still young enough to give it another go."
Harry beamed at her answer.
"Are you against the idea of getting married again?" she asked nervously.
"No." His answer was immediate. "I chose poorly the first time, that doesn't mean I'm against the whole thing. You saw my parents last night; they're happy and they work so well together."
"And you think that might be us some day?" she grinned and waggled her eyebrows at him.
"Well, we do have the hair for it."
Ginny laughed. "And, speaking of 'meeting the parents', any interest in coming with me to get the twins today? It'll involve meeting a lot of redheads."
He gave a mock gasp, "I'm getting invited to a Weasley lunch? I'm honored!"
"My mum's been pestering me to bring you around since the twins blabbed about you. She and the rest of the brood want to have you brought in for questioning."
"I'm familiar with the process. And I'm in."
()()()
It was a blur of slow transitions over the next several months until Harry found himself standing in a jewelry store with Hermione at his side, helping him pick out a ring for Ginny.
He'd received the stamp of approval from the Weasley family and had given up his flat when the lease came up for renewal. Now he and Ginny had a joint account for household expenses and he had a section of the basement that was half for his belongings and half for his exercise equipment. He picked up the kids from school on his days off and was in charge of making sure their backpacks had all the things necessary for their day.
All that was left now was to make it official.
"I'm so excited for you," Hermione gushed. "Do you think it's going to be a simple ceremony? Oh! Does she seem like she'd be up for a hen night?"
"How about I propose first, then you can ask her these questions yourself if she says yes." He was too nervous to think about what the actual wedding would involve.
"Oh, she'll say yes," Hermione waved him off. "You two are practically married already. Oh, I like that one." She was pointing at a single, small ring on a thin golden band.
Harry frowned at it. "I'll let any perspective future husbands for you know that. I want something that is a bit more of a statement for Ginny though."
Hermione wasn't offended, she just kept looking. "Do you think the twins will start calling you 'Dad'? Will that be weird?"
"I'd love it if they called me Dad."
"They are cute, and you were so good with them at their party."
She'd been invited to their joint birthday party and had the opportunity to meet some of Ginny's brothers and her friends. Remus and Dora were there, and Teddy, obviously, and Hermione already knew them. Ginny, Dora and Hermione wound up having a glass or two more of wine than they probably should have, which resulted in he, Remus and Fred, Ginny's brother, doing most of the clean-up.
"You know, it's funny, the twins already have some of your idiosyncrasies down. Like, Arty does the whole 'scratching the back of his head' thing the way you do. And Mary, she seems to have adopted your temperament. It's almost like they are your kids."
"They have been like that since I first met them," he dismissed. "But I fancy the idea that someone new to the fold would get the impression that they're mine based on your limited comparisons."
It took three jewelry stores before he found the ring that made him think of Ginny, and after he'd purchased it he hadn't bothered getting it sized, he just thanked Hermione for her help and went straight home, unable to wait another minute before asking Ginny.
He knew Ginny wouldn't want anything over the top by way of a proposal, so he just dropped to his knee beside her desk, where she was in the middle of writing a piece on something about the impressions of the London Underground, and asked her.
It was a resounding 'yes' followed by a truly exceptional shag on the floor of her office.
When they told the twins after they got home from school, they were excited about it and asking what role they would be playing in the ceremony. As they talked, Harry thought about what Hermione had said, about how the twins and he shared some idiosyncrasies, and he couldn't help noticing a few features they shared as well; Mary had the same freckle in her left eye that he had and her face was narrow like his, Arty made the same kind of lazy gestures that he, and his father, made without realizing. Arty was also slight and seemingly undersized for a boy his age, the same way that Harry and his father had been also.
Actually, aside from the freckles, Arty looked just like his dad did in a few photos from when he was a child.
When he and Ginny went to bed that night he continued thinking about how the twins resembled he and his family.
It was a wild idea to think that they might be related somehow though. He knew everyone he'd slept with, the list wasn't too long. He'd never had the experience of waking up in a strange place and not remembering the night he'd had either.
Around the time the twins were conceived he had been in a committed relationship with Cho anyhow.
Picking out a ring for Cho hadn't been as difficult as it had been for Ginny. He didn't know much about Cho's taste in jewelry because she had so many different kinds of jewelry already, none of it the same style, so he'd just gone for whatever he could afford.
The things he'd done to manage to afford something decent though; he'd been paying off student loans, had just started at his job, needed to buy things to furnish their flat. Money had been tight so he'd needed to get creative.
His eyes popped open then and all the drowsiness left him as his heart rate elevated.
He slipped out of bed, grabbing his phone off the side table, and tread lightly down to the basement.
The phone rang several times before it was finally answered.
"Shouldn't you be passed out from having newly-engaged sex right now?" Hermione grumbled.
"Do you remember what I did to afford the ring I got for Cho?" he asked in a hurry.
She groaned and he could hear her moving around. "Say that one more time, but slower so humans can understand."
He took a deep breath. "Do you remember what I did to afford the ring I got for Cho?"
"Um, well, you did a lot of things, didn't you? You were a sappy sod that thought you knew what you were doing with her, so I remember you delivering food for a bit, slipping out in the mornings to work down at the fish market, stuff like that."
"Uhuh, and do you happen to remember you telling me that I could get paid for signing up for genetic testing at that clinic you were interning at?"
"Oh, right. Yes, you did that too. What of it?"
"Well, it wasn't just a genetic testing facility, if you recall."
"No, it was also a fertility clinic, but what has that got to do with… No! Harry! You didn't!"
She'd caught on.
"You just said, I was a sappy sod who thought I knew what I was doing! I needed cash and after my genetic tests came back saying that I wasn't a carrier for this, that and the other thing… well. The money was good! It was just one time and I earned enough to buy the ring."
"So you could have some… why are you telling me this now?" she changed directions mid-sentance.
"Because you put it in my head that the twins and I share a lot of similarities. Hermione, what if there is a reason for that?"
She let out a gasp. "Oh my God! And Ginny said that she 'basically picked a guy out of a line-up'. What if… no, no. Just no, we're getting ahead of ourselves. It could all just be a coincidence. What are the chances? She was so young to be going to a fertility clinic to be impregnated. And even if she had, what are the odds that she'd gone to that same one."
"Pretty fucking slim. But it's enough of a chance that I want to check. Can I get you something from one of the twins? A hair, or a swab of spit or something? Will you check for me?"
"You want me to do it?!"
"Your specialty is genetics! You must have the equipment for it! The ability to tell."
He could hear her frowning through the phone.
"Please! I need to know."
"Why don't you confirm with Ginny if that's how the twins were conceived? If it is, ask her what clinic she went to."
"Because! I'm already hoping that they turn out to be mine, if they aren't, then I don't want Ginny to be disappointed like I'll be."
"Awe, Harry! This isn't something you won't be able to get over. You love them no matter what."
He couldn't say anything, he could only focus on trying to keep breathing steadily. Now that there was a chance the twins were genetically his, he was going to be crushed if they weren't.
"Please," he begged again.
There was a pause, "okay."
He hadn't been able to sleep that night, not properly anyhow. He'd wandered around the house, trying to be as quiet as possible, then figured if he started doing some cleaning up here and there, then no one would find it odd that he'd replaced the twin's toothbrushes for new ones. He did a full clean up of their bathroom while he was at it, then caught a few hours of shut-eye on the couch.
When Ginny questioned him about it in the morning he'd sited nervous energy and excitement as his reasoning.
After dropping the kids off at school he went straight to Hermione's work and given her the toothbrushes in a Ziplock bag and she took a swab from his cheek, telling him she'd have the results by lunchtime and give him a call.
It was his day off, so he went back home and flopped down on the bed, Ginny was already shut in her office and typing away. She woke him up a few hours later.
"What is it? Is it my phone?" he shot up and looked over to his still cellphone on the table.
"No, not your phone," Ginny smiled. "I wanted to let you get another hour or so of sleep because you were so tired, but I have some news. I was going to tell you yesterday, but then you proposed," she beamed, "so I let yesterday be about that good news."
He blinked and sat up.
"You remember how you said that you wanted to be a father?"
Oh shit! She knew! She knew the twins were his.
For a wild moment he wondered if she'd known who he was all along and when they finally met at that kids birthday party she decided to seduce him and their whole relationship had been orchestrated.
Then she held out a white stick and he stared down at it.
It was a pregnancy stick, one that said very clearly 'Pregnant'.
"What?" he whispered in shock.
"I used two of the cheap ones to make sure before I bought this one. Showing you a stick with two blue lines on it wouldn't have been as straight forward."
"You're pregnant."
"I'm pregnant!" she grinned.
He tried to get the words out about how happy he was, but he couldn't find them and inexplicably started welling up.
"Are those good tears?"
He just nodded and pulled her close.
"Does it tell you how far along you are?" he asked after he'd composed himself.
"Only a few weeks, and that's based on my timeline."
"Does that mean we're going to set the wedding for before or after?"
"You wouldn't mind having it before? That could be a lot of wedding prep in a small amount of time."
"Gin, I've done this part before, I just want it to be what you want. Having a hen party where you can't get wasted and throw up on your friends shoes won't be a possibility this way."
She laughed loudly. "Well, I could still go dancing, then maybe I'll be nauseous enough to throw up anyway."
The doorbell rang and Ginny bounded out of the room, light on her feet, to get it, and he followed after her.
He couldn't believe his luck, yesterday he got engaged, today he found out they were going to have a baby. He was walking on air.
Then when he got to the front door and saw Hermione standing there, reality hit him all over again.
She would have phoned if the test came back saying it wasn't a match.
"Holy shit," he breathed out.
Hermione met his eye and gave him a nervous nod.
Ginny was standing between the two of them, holding the door open, with no idea what was going on. "What's this about?"
"Er, Ginny, Hermione helped me with something this morning and we should probably sit down to talk about it."
"It was a wild theory," Hermione told her, stepping into the house. "I'd thought it was a wild theory. But, as it turns out, it wasn't."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds serious," Ginny said as she closed the door, worry now creasing her forehead.
They moved into the sitting room and Hermione turned to him, asking him to start them off.
"Er, so, when I was, what, twenty-two? Yeah, twenty-two, I was doing what I could to earn extra cash. I wasn't selling drugs or anything, all legal stuff. At the time, Hermione was working at the Lister Fertility Clinic doing genetic testing." He watched as Ginny's eyes went wide at the name of the clinic. "They had just received a grant to do some extra genetic testing and I signed up as a donor. First it was just for the genetic testing, but then I, er, saw how much they were paying for sperm donation."
Her face had gone pale. "That's where I…" she trailed off and looked above his head where there was a picture of her with the twins, then looked down at him again and over to Hermione.
"I only did the one contribution, then I put it out of my mind. I guess I figured if I never thought about it then I could pretend that it just never got used."
"But then I mentioned the other day about how he and the twins share a few traits," Hermione joined in. She pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket that had been folded over a few times.
"I couldn't sleep last night because I'd just remembered it and connected the timelines. Then I called Hermione and begged her to run the test." He blushed, "it's the real reason I cleaned their bathroom and swapped their toothbrushes."
Ginny was staring at the folded piece of paper. "They're his?" she asked quietly.
Hermione nodded and unfolded the paper, then handed it over to her. "I ran the test against both samples twice, just to make sure."
Ginny took the piece of paper from Hermione. It was full of numbers and words that read like gibberish, but there was a number that was circled and that number showed that there was a 100% chance that he was the father.
No one said anything for several minutes, then Hermione got up and let herself into the kitchen.
"I guess this means I chose you twice," Ginny said quietly.
"I'm as shocked as you are." He was still staring at the paper.
"It's just… I mean… wow. I know this doesn't really change anything, but somehow it feels like it changes everything."
His heartbeat picked up again. "What do you mean by that?" She couldn't be rethinking their relationship because of this, could she?
She locked eyes with him. "Did you want this to turn out how it has?"
"Yes," he admitted. "I've felt like those two were part mine since before I officially moved in here. I don't think having it confirmed that they are is going to change how I feel about them, or even how my parents treat them. And now they've got a little brother or sister on the way and it isn't even going to be a half-brother or sister. I'm kind of… thrilled."
"Thrilled," she repeated, nodding her head dumbly. "I'm going to need a bit more processing before I get there.
He watched her walk out of the room and saw her feet disappearing up the stairs, then he turned his eyes towards the kitchen.
Hermione had assembled herself a sandwich. "I hope you don't mind, but it is my lunch break, and I'm starving."
He waved her off and started assembling one for himself.
They sat in silence as they ate, then he walked her to the door and gave her a hug. "I'm a dad," he grinned.
"I always knew you'd make a great one."
()()()
She was sat at her desk and staring at the picture of her with the twins when they were about two years old; She was sitting in an armchair in the picture and Arty and Mary were each vying for her attention and giving her wet toddler kisses on her cheeks.
Never had she told someone how exactly it was that she'd found herself pregnant.
Her parents assumed it was from a one-night stand. Everyone did. The closest she'd ever come to telling the truth was to say that she'd 'picked out' the father. And she always said 'father' not 'donor'. She had picked out the donor.
Ginny remembered sifting through the options of donors available to her and remembered landing on the one belonging to the guy that was six feet tall, dark hair, green eyes, only child, aspired to help the world in some way or another and whose hobbies included spending time with friends and family. It had given his age at the time he donated his sperm; she didn't know when it had been donated though.
The picture had been formed in her head of what a potential future 'special' person might be like, and that option was the closest she thought she'd get to it.
The clinic had made her fill out loads of forms and the doctor had asked her several questions before going ahead with the insemination. It was because of how young she was. The nurses and doctor had recognized her name and knew she'd just been through a life change of going from no one to a best-selling author; that was most of what the doctor had focused on.
Ginny convinced them in the end and never regretted it. She even sent the doctor a picture of her and the twins on their fourth birthday that simply said 'No Regrets'.
Meeting Harry had been her third life changing event, the second being her twins, and he'd been her fantasy person come to life.
She looked at the ring on her left hand, then back up to the photo of the twins, then put a hand over her lower belly.
This was a lot of surprises in one earth rotation.
Well, the pregnancy she'd had an inkling of before taking the tests. Harry proposing, they'd talked about what their future would look like and marriage had been included in that, so it was an eventuality.
How would the twins feel to know that Harry was biologically their father though?
They'd been really excited yesterday to find out there was going to be a wedding; Mary had even asked if they were going to all change their surname, and started repeating Mary Potter, Marigold Potter, before the question was answered. Arty jumped on that train of thought and said he wouldn't mind being an Arthur Potter, since there already was an Arthur Weasley.
A laugh escaped her, then another, then she was lost in a fit of giggles that progressed into crying and not knowing why she was crying.
She moved over to the loveseat and lay down once the tears stopped.
There was little that had really changed with this information. She had already considered taking Harry's name, particularly because of the baby. She didn't want the twins to have a different name than her though, so changing their names to his she was going to be checking in with him about.
This new information didn't mean she didn't want to marry him either.
So, why was she so worked up about it?
She'd chosen him to father her children, twice.
She loved him, the twins loved him; they were going to be thrilled.
Ginny found herself growing thrilled about it too.
"The Potter family," she said out loud and the image of them all, perfectly smiling and clean, sitting on the stoop with a baby in her arms came to mind. She frowned at that mental image, then pictured Mary with dirt on her face and jabbing Arty with her elbow while Harry chuckled and she put her forehead in her hand; there, that image was much more believable. That too made her chuckle.
Calm now, Ginny got up and went down the two flights of stairs where Harry was sitting at the kitchen counter with a bottle of beer. He looked worried.
She moved to stand beside him and climbed up the stool to sit across his lap and kissed him soundly.
"Alright?" he asked with his forehead pressed against hers.
"I think we should tell the kids about the baby by getting shirts done up that say 'Potter #1' and such. Mine can have the number 2 with a small number 5 on the belly."
"You want everyone to take my name?" he grinned.
Ginny nodded. "There are already enough Weasley's." He captured her lips then.
"And the wedding?"
"The sooner the better. We should let our mums plan an engagement party and just invite an officiant."
She could feel how receptive he was to that idea against her bum. Her eyebrows rose up. "The idea of a party turns you on?"
"The idea of being married to you turns me on," he corrected. He took hold of her wedding style and moved them over to the couch where he started snogging her like a hormonal teenager and stripping off a few articles of clothing at a time until they were down in their birthday suits and unwittingly giving the post man an eyeful through the open window.
()()()