Ginny part 1
There was no pushing it off. Ginny had arrived and was growing ever more suspicious of the secret they were holding; They’d have to tell her eventually, but it didn’t change the anxiety that plagued his bones alongside exhastion and hope. Her barging into the room of requirements was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that she didn’t need to be tracked down, nor would he need to wait longer. Still, it meant he was forced to confront truths he was not ready for.
It was almost funny, though, the look of shock on her face. No doubt her older brother’s best friend indulging a tiny child was a sight she hadn’t expected to see- or at least not until someone knocked him up because there was no doubt in her mind that Harry was gay as fuck. Lucky for him, some men could carry, and given his propensity for wild luck, he would no doubt have the ability.
“Ginny,” Harry said, voice wobbling lightly. “This is my daughter Delphini.”
There was no other way to phrase it, no gentle questions or probes to ease the revelation of her parentage. It was obvious that she was his child- Delphini had definitely taken after her mother. They had the same button nose that was characteristic of the Blacks. They shared the doelike eye shape, one of which possessing the same color green as her mother. Her hair was thick like his with a curl that manifested in soft waves or ringlets depending on the weather and effort extended.
However, traces of her other parent could be found if one looked deep enough. They shared an eyecolor- a deep brown red that reflected like dry blood in certain lights. Her face, while heartshaped, possessed the same cheekbones Tom Riddle had possessed in his youth. While faint, the traces would be obvious to any who had seen Tom Riddle as a child, though he hoped more than anything no one would make the connection.
It would be safer for Delphi that way. Sure there would be some who would come after him for betraying the wizarding world, but Harry could give no fucks. The wizarding world had screwed him over time and time again while expecting him to save them in the end. His only priority was his family: Delphini, Ron, Hermione, and hopefully the Weasley family should they react well. Ginny was his first test, though he loathed to call it that.
“Harry,” Ginny started after a moment of silence. “Is her father who I think he is?”
“If her dad is who you think it is, will you treat her any differently?” He asked hesitantly, clutching his child closely. He would do anything to protect her, even if it meant leaving his baby sister no matter how much it would hurt.
She titled her head to the side, studying the closeness between Harry and his child. “Not as long as I have a niece to spoil.”
Slumping slightly, he smiled in relief, motioning to Hermione to take Delphini outside the room. There were some things she didn’t need to hear. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.”
“Harry,” she said gently. “You care so deeply and I know that you wouldn’t do anything if it weren’t for a good reason. I don’t know what led you to becoming the mother of his child, but I support you.”
“Do you want to hear the story?” Harry asked, turning serious. “It’s not exactly a pretty story, no matter how much I wish it were.”
“Of course.”
“I had returned from the Dursleys a couple of days early and ended up wandering into an old ritual room.”
“What?” She raised a brow. “I didn’t know we even had those?”
“Nor did I until I found Delphini.” He admitted. “There was something that pulled me there and the next thing I knew, Delphini was running toward me.”
“She looked so similar to me and had this look in her eyes I had always seen children look at their parents, and I just knew she had to be my child.” Harry smiled, heart and hands trembling. “She was my own child whose father had been killed for being the Dark Lord and who had seen her mother slain for daring to have the child of the Dark Lord.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” He snorted. “It doesn’t get much better though. She found this super complex ritual requiring blood and significant sacrifice to go to an alternate dimension.”
“Alternative dimension?” Ginny raised an eyebrow.
“She tried to play it off as time travel, but I found the ritual she used in the Chamber of Secret’s library.”
“What?”
“It’s a good source of information.” He protested. “Dumbledore confiscated all the good books from the castle library.”
“Okay Hermione.”
“No!” Harry screeched, pushing her off the couch.
She snickered before shaking her head. “What about now?”
“She’s obsessed with me getting with her ‘papa’.” Harry snorted, the sound bordering on a sob. It was so hard, so tough, to carry the world on his shoulders. He was so fucking tired.
“Good old snakeface?”
“Apparently not anymore.” He flushed, unable to get the image of the attractive Marvolo that had appeared not too long ago.
“Harry,” she sighed. “How do you even know that?”
“I saw him in the Room of Requirements.” Harry paused before continuing hesitantly. “He was very flirty and expressed a desire to court me.”
“Damn.”
He inclined his head.
“So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” He grimaced. “It’s so hard to know what to do.”
“Well the Tom Riddle I remember meeting was extremely nice to look at,” she drawled with a rather suggestive look.
“Are you really that okay with this?” It was something he had to ask, something he had to make sure of. Ginny had been dealt a horrible hand by the enigma that was Tom Marvolo Riddle, and if she wasn’t okay with it, he’d figure it out. He wasn’t quite sure what ‘it’ would be, but he would make it work.
“Harry.” She said, grabbing his face with a fondness he had seen directed at Ron and the twins countless time. “You are a good person and if ‘he’ makes you happy and protects you, then I trust your judgement.”
“Protects me?” He protested, electing to ignore the ‘happy’ part. “I don’t need that.”
“Harry.” She groaned as she threw herself on the couch. “You have Dursleys who deserve to burn at the stake, you have Dumbledore who refuses to do anything about blatant discrimination and abuse, a professor who used to verbally abuse you, and everything that can go wrong has gone wrong in your life.”
After a moment, her face turned gentle in a way he felt he didn’t deserve. “You deserve happiness, and if this brings you happiness, I want you to have it.”
“That’s the thing. I don’t know if it will bring happiness,” he admitted. “I have this amazing snapshot and idea of a possible future knowing of Delphini, but there’s no way of truly knowing a relationship would work out. There’s so many things we both want, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to work through some of it.”
“You won’t know if you never try.” Ginny chided. “Isn’t it worth trying?”
“Part of me wants to say yes. The Tom Riddle we met in the diary was charming, and he promised me a happy ending with a family.” He smiled wistfully. “I believed him and I naively thought that he would save me from the Dursleys and we could have a life together.”
“Harry-”
“It’s okay,” Harry said with a grimace. “I’m glad he revealed who he really was. It just hurt so bad to know that he had lied about so much, that the family he promised me would never come to pass, and that he would one day become a mass murderer. It hurt so much, and it still hurts to think about it sometimes.”
“I know he was never to me what he was to you, but I understand to some degree the disappointment and pain his lies cost.” She admitted, staring unflinchingly ahead. “He was attractive and new how to play with his toys to get what he wants to happen.”
“I didn’t let him.”
“I know,” she said gently. “And I’ll forever be greatful for that.”
“Even though I should have realized something was up sooner?” He asked hesitantly. “I could have taken care of it, kept you from being hurt.”
“Harry,” Ginny laughed, something gentle and soft, “He sunk his claws into me long before you got ahold of his diary. I was lucky that you noticed when you did and intervened. It’s not your fault. It was never your fault.”
“I didn’t kill him.” He admitted. “I made him go away and I left his diary on the chamber floor but I never destroyed it.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“What?” Harry reared back.
“You have a deep care and love for others, even when it’s not deserved. You are loyal to a fault and want to help everyone you can.” She smiled softly. “You’re very nurturing and protective of those that you care for. I’ve hardly ever seen you raise a wand at someone in anger and you wouldn’t hesitate to take care of any offenders.”
“Gin-”
“And it’s not like you brought the diary up here, right?” She shot him a narrow eyed look.
“Of course not!” He protested. “I would never.”
“I know.” Ginny said. “I know that only Ron and Hermione have the ‘full’ story, but I know enough to know that you shouldn’t blame yourself for what you did or didn’t do.”
“Do you want to?” He asked, hesitating before settling himself. “Know the whole story that is?”
“You’re fifteen, almost sixteen, and I think that was around the age Ron and Hermione found out,” he continued.
“Heavens yes,” she breathed.
“I had been hearing strange voices in the wall. I half thought I was going crazy, but followed them anyways. They led me to the girls bathroom, the one with Moaning Myrtle, and that’s how I found the diary.
I thought it was strange that it was empty and had been tossed in the water considering the expense of the book. The leather binding and imprint of the name,” he shook his head. “It would have cost a pretty penny.”
“It was second year and I was so angry with Dumbledore and so tired of dealing with the Dursleys. Hermione was trying to figure out what was petrifying people, I was trying to figure out what I was hearing in the walls, and Ron going back and forth between us to make sure we weren’t neglecting ourselves.” He smiled fondly at the memory.
“I found the book and I started drawing. I drew the life I dreamed of.” He looked up with a wistfulness he couldn’t put into words. “I drew Hogwarts in all her glory, and the founders as they once looked. I drew a house I wanted to live in. I drew the parents I always dreamed of. I drew children that I one day wanted. I drew the family I had already gathered. I drew a safe space where I could be just Harry, where I lived with my loved ones.”
“That’s sounds beautiful.”
“It was. And he thought so too.” He murmured, before continuing louder. “He started drawing as well, sneaking little details that I didn’t notice at first. He began drawing more and more, adding his perspectives and dreams to the pages, though I hardly noticed at the time.”
“How so?”
“I was so stressed and terrified that Hogwarts would be closing. I couldn’t bear to return to the Dursleys and my drawings became darker. They weren’t as hopeful as they once were, and he reached out because he was concerned. Can you believe?” He laughed in disbelief. “The dark lord reaching out to someone because they were concerned?”
“Weren’t you worried?”
He shook his head. “Maybe I should have been, but nothing felt wrong. I honestly felt relief because I could be honest about the Dursleys and there was no way he would ever tell anyone. I felt that the truth was too great of a burden for anyone, especially with Dumbledore on the way. But Tom?
He told me his story. He told me about the orphanage he had grown up in, about the attempts to exercise him. He told me how Dumbledore had let him return to a setting that did nothing but hurt him. We were so similar and he promised to get me away from the Dursleys. He said he would save me, get rid of Dumbledore, and help me gain everything I had dreamed of, and fuck I believed it.
We spent so much time together. Tom taught me how to get into the chamber and showed me the library there. We talked about hopes and dreams. He told me that he would get out of the diary, I just had to wait and trust him.”
“Harry-”
“He said he loved me, and I believed it. I fucking believed it like a fool.” He blinked back tears, hating himself for the feeling even as he continued. “Then the diary disappeared, and when I saw the warning painted on the wall in blood, I knew something had happened. So I went into the chamber and you were passed out and growing pale, and-”
“You don’t have to do this.” She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “
“Yes.” Harry said, staring ahead unflinchingly. “I do.” If he stopped he wouldn’t be able to start again.
“I called him out on his bullshit and told him I would kill him if he didn’t stop.” He laughed, chapped lips twisting in a mockery of a smile. “He said I wouldn’t, and he was right. I couldn’t kill him, but I could kill myself.”
Ginny flinched. “Would you have?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I knew that if I died instead, since I had the diary so long before you took it back, he would come back and you would live, and I guess he couldn’t live in a world like that, because he let it all go.”
“Fuck.” She swore. “That’s one hell of a story.”
“Yeah.” He agreed. “It still fucks me up sometimes, because clearly he felt something if he refused to let me die for him to return. He lied to me about so many things but I can’t help but to want what we had dreamed of together.”
“And that’s okay.” She leaned against him. “You’re a good person, Harry, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be happy.”
“Even if it’s with him?” He laughed, the noise wet with sorrow. “He’s not the dark lord for shits and giggles. He’s a powerful asshole and dark wizard, regardless of Dumbledore’s own manipulations.”
“People are a product of their upbringing,” Ginny reminded him, gentle as always.
“What about me?” He whispered, heart pained. “If that’s true, why are we so different?”
“You have us. You have Ron, Hermione, the twins, me, and several others who care deeply for you. You live in an environment that is welcoming, and for the most part, understanding. Tom Riddle didn’t have that. He lived in a cruel environment where there was no true welcoming from Slytherin, nor were there any supportive staff at the time. Don’t you see?” She urged. “Your upbringing is similar, but it’s not the same.
“Yeah.”
“It’s okay to be happy, to go for what you want.”
“Okay,” he whispered, “okay.”