being parents
8 months later
"Come Jamie! Come to Mummy!"
The whole family was in the garden of the Burrow to celebrate Ginny's 23rd birthday. While most of the adults sat around the table enjoying the sunshine, Ron and Bill played with Victoire, Dominique and Teddy. Ginny sat on a picnic blanket with Angelina, Hermione, Neville and George and held her arms out towards her son, who was walking around the garden clinging onto Harry's hands. Or rather, he was carefully plodding along, because at 10 months he was already quite successful at walking, but he couldn't get very far on his own.
"Come on Jamie!" Ginny encouraged him.
"That would be something for Jamie to walk on his own for the first time on your birthday. Freddie could be walking for the first time on my birthday too," George said, lying on his back next to his sister with his three-month-old son on his chest.
After Angelina had been the first to tell Ginny that she was pregnant when James was a week old, George had also found out a little later and had been completely over the moon. After a moment of joy, however, he had realised what it actually meant - that Angelina was not just pregnant, but that he would become a father in a few months. This realisation had led to him running completely irritated to Harry and Ginny to ask both of them for advice, as they had, in his words, "experience of becoming parents unexpectedly" and were also in their early, not mid twenties. The conversation that followed had helped him calm down a bit and regain his joy. The rest of the family had been happy too, although Molly had been a little reluctant, as George and Angelina were not married. In response, Ginny had just rolled her eyes and backed up her brother and his girlfriend, who had decided to get married spontaneously just before Freddie was born, in the presence of only Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny (and James too), as well as Lee Jordan and Alicia Spinnet (both still close friends with George and Angelina).
To say that this put Molly on edge would be an understatement. But after a while she had realised that she had brought it on herself. To accommodate her somewhat, George and Angelina had thrown a belated wedding party in early July.
"I'm already aware that Jamie won't be walking alone today, Georgie," Ginny replied with a grin as Harry had arrived with her son, who threw himself into his mother's arms.
Hermione smiled at Ginny and her best friend, who sat down next to his wife and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You guys are really good parents," she said simply.
"We do our best," Harry replied, returning her smile.
"Being a parent is definitely easier than I imagined. That's not to say it's easy, but I imagined it would be really awful beforehand so I could only be pleasantly surprised."
Neville laughed. "When is it actually time for you guys to have your next child? No one here is pregnant right now - it's boring."
"Merlin, don't start that subject. We're very happy with James right now," Harry replied, taking a sip of his butterbeer. "First we have to manage not to spoil him."
Ginny laughed and nodded in agreement. "Well, how about you start with kids sometime?"
"I'd have to find the right one first," Neville replied calmly.
"And what about Hannah? I thought it was serious between you."
He nodded. "It is, but not baby serious yet. We're still a long way from that."
"Trust me, it'll happen sooner than you think."
"Yeah, Harry and Ginny were actually miles away from Baby-Serious too and lo and behold." Angelina pointed at James who was eating a banana on his mother's lap, or rather mashing it.
"So how are you going to sort it out with Jamie when Quidditch season starts again?" asked Hermione of her friends.
Two months after Ginny had started Quidditch again, Harry had gone back to work part-time. By the time he was at work, Ginny had taken her son to training, which was then held in the Harpies' gym, where she could keep an eye on him. When the Quidditch season was over and Ginny had convinced everyone that it was compatible to be a mother and successful in Quidditch, Harry had gone back to his job completely and she was at home with James.
"We will take turns again as best we can, but that might be more difficult now that I'm working full time again. What I can do from home, I will do and meanwhile I can look after James. And Ginny can take him to practice again," Harry replied, stroking James' head.
"Mum will probably take him from time to time too, but while he's still this little, we want him with us as much as possible. When he's two or so, we were thinking of taking him to the Ministry nursery so he can get exposure to other kids and stuff," Ginny added.
George raised his eyebrows. "Knowing Mum, she's offered to take James every day though, hasn't she?"
His sister laughed. "If it was up to Mum, she'd have James with her 24/7 and raise him on her own, just like all her grandchildren."