believing (until the end)

Harry knocked softly on the door of the room and then slowly opened it. He stepped in and lowered James on the floor. "Go to Mummy," he said quietly, grabbing his son's hand.

"Mummy!" James remarked unusually quietly, and a smile spread across his face.

Ginny smiled back. "Jamie!" she replied, reaching out an arm to him.

Carefully he went to the bed, closely followed by Harry, who finally lifted him to the bed. Ginny put an arm around her eldest son's small body, making sure the tubes in the backs of her hands didn't get tangled, and hugged him tightly.

"Was it nice with Grandma and Grandpa?" she asked him, whereupon he nodded. "Do you want to meet your little brother?" Another nod. Ginny raised her head and smiled at Harry, who, smiling, lowered his arms into the crib next to Ginny's bed and lifted the baby into his arms.

Ginny moved as well as she could, so Harry could sit down with her and James.

"That's your little brother Albus," Harry said, holding his youngest son so his older brother could see him.

"Awb-," James tried to pronounce his brother's name, pointing a finger at him.

"Albus," Harry repeated laughing.

Ginny stroked James's dark brown hair. "I think you should call him Al," she said.

"He's small," her eldest son replied quietly, still looking closely at his brother.

"Yes, he is," his father confirmed. “You used to be that small."

"No, I wasn't," said James, shaking his head.

Ginny smiled. “Yes, you were. And you were in Mummy's belly, too."

"No, I wasn't," he repeated.

Harry and Ginny exchanged amused glances. “If you say so."

After a few minutes there was a soft knock on the door before healer Wilson entered. She had been with them for a while when Ginny woke up, but Ginny couldn't really remember it.

"Hello," she greeted the Potters. "And hello to you too, little man," she said to James. “It’s been a long time since I saw him. He was only a few weeks old at the time."

Harry smiled. “It seems like it was yesterday."

"How are you?" she asked Ginny.

"I'm okay," replied the redhead.

Wilson smiled. “Unfortunately, we have to start slowly reducing the pain potion dose so that you can fully breastfeed Albus as you wanted. Unless you changed your mind."

Ginny shook her head. “No, I didn’t."

“Okay, but I must warn you. Now you still feel quite okay, only that will unfortunately get worse, until your body manages to cope with the pain on its own. You will have to stay longer at St Mungos – I guess, if everything goes so well, a week. In the meantime, we monitor you so that if there are any problems, we can intervene immediately. Strict bed rest applies to you most of the day. However, since we need to mobilize you due to the surgery, so that your healing progresses faster and you do not have any movement restrictions, bed rest does not apply for this time of course." Then she turned to Harry. “It would be good if you could be here as often as possible during the week, even at night, and help your wife with the baby."

Harry agreed without hesitation and made a mental note to ask Molly and Arthur if they could take James for the week.

Healer Wilson then turned to Ginny again. "I don't want to lie to you, it's going to be hard and painful for you, but there's no easier way."

Ginny swallowed and pressed James closer to her. “Can I have another child someday – later, not now? After what happened, it's still possible for me to get pregnant, if I would like to?"

She and Harry had never really talked about how many children they wanted. Both had known from the beginning that they wanted children – more than one. But they had never made any precise plans. And even if they had made these, they would have been thrown overboard almost three years ago anyway (Exhibit A: James). Because even if they tried to plan something, it usually didn't go according to plan anyway (Exhibit B: Albus).

But the idea of never being able to have children again – aside from whether or not she and Harry even wanted one – made Ginny swallow. Even if they decided against it, which was understandable after the events of this birth, it would still be something different to know that there is really no way she could get pregnant again.

“Yes, it is possible. There should also be no problems, though we would probably take a closer look at you. It's up to you two alone to decide whether you want to have more children. From a medical point of view, nothing's in your way."

Ginny looked at Harry and saw a hint of relief in his eyes. She grabbed his hand and pressed it lightly.

~

Molly Weasley had always been emotional. Especially when it came to her children. They used to joke that at weddings you needed bowls for her tears. When she first saw her grandchildren, even buckets. But this time it was not the sight of her youngest grandson that made her cry, but that of her daughter.

Ginny sat slightly upright in bed. Her hair was tied to a loose bun, from which several strands escaped. Her hospital shirt exposed a shoulder so pale that it contrasted sharply with her freckles. Her daughter's eyes showed tiredness and exhaustion, yet she glowed. Harry and her lay side by side in bed, between them James, while Ginny ran through her son's hair and smiled at him. And in Harry's arms was the baby they'd all been waiting for nine months.

Her gaze continued to glide down at Ginny until her gaze reached her hands. "Merlin, what is that?" she asked, bewildered, pointing to the IVs that went into the backs of Ginny's hands.

"It's good to see you too, Mum," Ginny replied, smiling at her mother.

"How are you Gin-Gin?" Arthur asked, stepping closer to the bed.

She shrugged her shoulders. “All right. I feel a little more alert because the pain potions have been reduced, but now I'm starting to feel all the pain I've been spared before." Her eyes turned to her mother.

Hermione had stepped next to her mother-in-law and put a hand on her shoulder reassuringly. “To answer your question, Molly, these are IVs. Those are like wires going into Ginny's bloodstream. They provide her with potions and the one that is in the crook of her arm provides her with blood," she explained to her mother-in-law. “They probably copied it from the Muggles."

Molly was known to be skeptical of Muggle things, especially when it came to any medical treatment regarding her family's health. Harry and Ginny had never told her what procedures had been used on them when they were in hospital because of their jobs, as more and more Muggle treatments were being used in the wizarding world. If they had told her how many times Harry had been stitched together with a needle and thread because it had held better than magic, or how many times Ginny had swallowed Muggle pills because there was no magic equivalent, Molly would have been worried unnecessarily.

"The one in the crook of my arm will soon be taken out," said Ginny then as her mother still stared at her slightly shocked. “Once I’ve refilled all the blood I’ve lost."

"You mean the blood you lost, which almost led you to die," Percy intervened.

She sighed. “The most important thing is that everything's fine now and that Al is doing well. Can we be happy now that our family has grown?"

“I totally agree with Ginny. Besides, she looks shitty enough, we don't have to remind her why she looks like that," George agreed.

"Thank you, Georgie," his sister replied sarcastically.

Bill ignored his younger brother. "Al?" he asked instead.

"Short form for Albus," Harry explained, rising slowly from bed. “I don’t think I need to mention that we have had a boy again."

He went to his mother-in-law while all eyes in the room followed him. Not all of them, though. James's gaze was not on his little brother, but only on his mother's hospital shirt, in which he buried his face and yawned heartily. Ginny smiled at her eldest son and arranged her duvet so that he too was covered.

As she turned her eyes back to her family, she realized that her mother was now holding Albus in her arms. “Oh, he’s such a sweet little boy. And he looks just like Harry," she enthused.

"This time it's really true what Josh told me after James was born: you don't think I'm his mother," Ginny said from the bed, grinning.

Arthur shook his head smiling. "One can see something of you in his facial features, honey," he assured his daughter, as Molly passed her grandson on to her husband. “James as a baby looked very similar to you when you were a baby."

That's right. Although James definitely had his father's hair and his mouth, he looked more like Ginny every day. Even when James was a few weeks old and Molly had shown them a picture of Ginny as a baby, Harry had thought that even as a baby, except for her hair, she looked almost exactly like James. Albus, on the other hand, had some traits of her, but looked more like Harry in his baby pictures.

“Mum, Dad, is it possible for you to take James over night the next week? I need Harry's help here in the hospital at night with Al, and to be honest, I want him here most of the time," Ginny asked her parents.

"Of course, Ginny!" Molly assured her daughter.

“If it is possible, it would also be good for him to be with you most of the day, at least for the next two or three days. We may have him here for a few hours, but a hospital isn't exactly exciting for a two-year-old. Besides, we don't know how Ginny will be in the next few days," Harry continued.

But Arthur interrupted him. “That’s not a problem! We like to have him with us."

“Besides, Ginny, you have five brothers, of which, apart from Charlie, four would be willing to take James. Freddie would enjoy the company of his favorite cousin and best friend," George added.

Ginny smiled gratefully at her family. “Thank you all! I'd like to spend all the time with James, or I'd like to come straight home, but that's not possible."

"Hopefully James has a long life with his parents, so he can spend a little less time with you guys for a week," said Ron, who was next to take Albus on his arm.

Hermione nodded in agreement. “Besides, James is also our godchild and he adores Rosie, which means he doesn’t mind spending some time with us."

“Don’t feel bad about it. The most important thing is that you fully recover first, Gin-Gin," Bill replied, smiling at his sister. “I’m just glad you’re still here and we haven’t lost you."

Ginny looked around the room and saw that everyone nodded in agreement, which made her swallow..