like a dream
They had known each other for almost twelve years. They had been together for almost seven years. They had been married for almost a year and a half.
And Harry could count on one hand how many times he had seen Ginny cry. So if Ginny was crying, it had to be something must have been seriously wrong....
~
"Ginny, I'm home!" exclaimed Harry as he came out of the fireplace and entered the living room of Ginny's and his flat. It was still the same flat they had moved into four years ago. It was small, but enough for two people.
"Ginny?" he repeated when no one answered. Normally Ginny came home after him, but today it was her day off, so Harry was looking forward to a nice cosy evening with her, since the next day was Saturday and he would be off work anyway.
That was not always the case, but it would soon change. In three months, in June, he would become Senior Auror and then his working hours would return to normal.
Irritated, Harry kicked off his shoes and hung up his cloak in the hallway. Ginny's shoes and cloak were there too, which meant she must be home. He continued down the hall, looked into the empty bedroom and then walked on until he stopped in front of the bathroom. The door was unlocked.
"Ginny, are you in there?" he asked anyway. When no one answered, he reached for his wand and slowly pushed down the door handle.
But in the bathroom he found no Death Eaters, but his wife sitting on the floor. When she heard him enter, she looked up at him. And what he saw shocked him.
She was crying.
"Gin!" he brought out breathlessly before sitting down on the floor beside her. "Gin, what's wrong?" he wanted to know.
But she was unable to answer. Instead, she merely shook her head as more and more tears ran down her cheeks.
Without hesitation, he took her in his arms and stroked her back. "Gin, what's wrong?" he repeated. "Talk to me!"
She broke free of his embrace and then reached beside her for something and placed it in Harry's hand.
The latter frowned. "What's that?"
Ginny looked him in the eye and bit her lip. More and more tears left her eyes. "A muggle pregnancy test. I'm pregnant, Harry!"
"You're what?" he asked, surprised.
"I'm pregnant," she repeated, sobbing. "I'm pregnant."
Again Harry took her in his arms but said nothing.
"What are we going to do, Harry?", Ginny broke the silence after a few minutes and broke away from him again to look at him.
Her despair broke his heart. "I don't know, Gin," he replied quietly.
"We were going to wait. By Merlin, I'm twenty-one!" She shook her head. "What are we going to do?"
Tears formed in Harry's eyes too. "The decision is yours, Gin. I'll support you no matter what you want to do."
"But, what do you want?"
"I-I don't know," Harry said honestly. "I also thought we still had time. I don't know if we're ready for that. I don't want you to give up anything for this either. I-" He broke off. "No matter what, we'll find a solution, okay?!"
Ginny looked at him with reddened eyes and nodded slowly. Then Harry just took her in his arms and wouldn't let go.
~
They didn't talk much more that day about what had happened. Each tried to process the matter and get a clear head. They both hoped that suddenly the idea would appear that could solve everything. But it didn't.
The decision was theirs, no matter how difficult it was. They alone had to decide it.
"Harry?" said Ginny quietly as he lay down in bed with her just before midnight.
"Yes?" he replied softly before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer.
Ginny instinctively slid closer to him. "I'm going to make an appointment at St Mungos tomorrow for a check-up. No matter what we decide, an examination is necessary in all cases and maybe- maybe it will help us in some way with our decision. We would have a healer by our side who can tell us in any case what to expect." She spoke softly and slowly, and moreover she chose her words carefully.
"Okay," Harry replied simply, burying his face against her neck.
She hesitated for a few seconds before speaking again. "Do you want to come?"
"For a check-up?" he asked.
Ginny nodded. "I can ask if there's an appointment next weekend so you can come. So of course, only if you want to," she added quickly.
"Hey Gin, I want to come!" He put a hand on her upper arm reassuringly. "I could take ta day off mid-week if you'd rather go then."
"No, mid-week is inconvenient. I have Quidditch training I don't want to miss it. There have been several instances, you can still play as long as you actually want if you-" she stopped short, "if you're pregnant."
It still felt so surreal and almost forbidden to say that word.
She was pregnant.
Pregnant.
At twenty-one.
"Okay," Harry said again. "We'll go to St Mungos next weekend then."
"I hope they treat this with discretion at St Mungos. I don't want anyone to know about this, especially not my mother," Ginny said, making Harry laugh softly.
"I'll deal with them personally if they spill anything," he countered.
She sighed. "It all kind of feels like a dream. And I just don't know if I want to wake up from this dream, or keep dreaming it."
~
"I assure you that this appointment and all subsequent appointments of any kind will take place under the strictest discretion. No one except the healers treating you will know anything about this."
"Thank you, that is really important to us."
"I understand," the healer said, smiling at Ginny. "So you are unplanned pregnant?"
Ginny nodded.
"And you're not sure what you want to do yet?" she continued.
Again Ginny nodded.
"I would suggest that we do some tests first to officially confirm the pregnancy and to check on your health. After that, I'll fill you in on your options, okay?"
Again, just a nod.
The healer smiled soothingly, which automatically put Ginny at ease. She drew her blood and then left the room to get the blood results.
A large hand reached for Ginny's, causing her to look to her husband.
"Hey, everything's going to be fine, okay?!" said Harry, giving her a small smile.
Ginny swallowed. "Thanks for being here with me." Not that she had expected anything else. Harry would always be there for her when she needed him. And even when she didn't actually need him.
It was only a few minutes before Penny Wilson, the healer, re-entered the room. "The blood results show, firstly, that you are perfectly healthy and, secondly, they confirm that you are pregnant." She sat down next to the bed Ginny was sitting on. "Next, you would need to lie down and expose your abdomen so we can see the progress of your pregnancy."
The Healer hadn't said the word "baby" once yet and Ginny was grateful to her for that. She didn't want to think about the fact that there really was a baby in her uterus yet, until she wasn't sure what she was going to do.
So she lay down and pushed her jumper up so that her flat stomach could be seen. There was still no sign of pregnancy.
The healer ran her wand over her belly and it wasn't long before a picture appeared on the wall of the room, mostly black. There wasn't much to make out, but that changed as the healer moved her wand further and muttered something, bringing the image into sharper focus.
"Here we go," Healer Wilson said with a smile, rising from her chair to point to the picture on the wall. "There's the head and here's the body."
But Ginny was no longer really listening to her. Her eyes were glued to the picture. On the picture that showed her baby. Her baby that was growing inside her. Her eyes filled with tears.
"Can- Can you find a heartbeat yet?" asked Harry quietly. He too could not tear his gaze away from the wall.
The healer hesitated for a moment, but then returned to her place beside the couch and murmured to herself again. And then the heartbeat sounded.
Ginny drew in an audible breath and now her tears ran freely down her cheeks. She looked to Harry and their eyes met. And without saying a word, they talked it off. They knew what had to be done.
Then the picture disappeared and they both looked to the healer. "I can print out the picture later and give it to you. Do you want me to fill you in on your options now, or is that no longer necessary?"
Harry squeezed Ginny's hand and they both exchanged another look. "I don't think that's necessary anymore," Ginny replied and then looked back at her husband. "We're having a baby!"
"We're having a baby!" he said as tears also ran down his cheeks.
Wilson smiled. "All right then, congratulations to you both. Mrs Potter, you are currently in your tenth week of pregnancy. The expected due date is the second of October. In the beginning, examinations will take place every four weeks, towards the end of the pregnancy more often. After the twelfth week, the risk of miscarriage goes way down, but since you are perfectly healthy, you have nothing to worry about."
Ginny nodded. "Is it possible to continue playing Quidditch or is it too dangerous? I play professionally, which means I have practice four or five times a week for eight hours, and then there are the games on top of that."
"As long as you feel fine, you can play Quidditch as long as you want. Your coach has to be okay with it, of course, but with various safety spells, there's actually nothing that could stop you. It's just that you need to be aware that it's going to get more and more exhausting."
"And she can continue playing after the birth?" asked Harry.
"Of course. Your wife should just give herself and her body some recovery time and start training again no sooner than six weeks after the birth."
"And Harry and I can still-" Ginny didn't finish her sentence, but she didn't have to.
"You can continue to have sex without hesitation," Healer Wilson answered her question with a knowing smile. "If you have no further questions, I'll give you your baby's picture to take with you and then I'd say I'll see you again in four weeks."
She stood up, shook hands with Harry and Ginny, handed them the picture and left the room.
"Look at this little thing," Ginny said softly, smiling at her husband. She pointed to the ultrasound picture in her hands.
"I can already see the resemblance to you," Harry joked.
Ginny laughed softly. "We're going to be parents!" she said incredulously.
Harry nodded, looking equally intrigued. "Yes, we're going to be parents!"