Chapter Nine: A Vision in Birth
Bill was out the door of Gringotts and on his way to a safe Apparition point when the owl found him. Hooting impatiently, it swooped down and landed, not very gently, on his shoulder, shoving a piece of parchment at his hand.
“All right, all right, you dumb bird. What’s so important?” Bill reached in his pocket and grabbed the necessary tip, and the owl flew off. The hastily scrawled words from Harry made him smile and then frown. Ginny’s in labor, the baby’ll be here soon. Come to the Burrow with information, as the house at Ottery St. Catchpole isn’t safe at the moment. Harry.
Running the rest of the distance, Bill quickly Disapparated to the front door of the Burrow and knocked quickly on the front door before stepping through. “Hello! Anybody around?”
Molly came running. “Oh there you are, dear! You got Harry’s message, then? Yes, of course. Good, good. I’ll run up to the bedroom and let Harry know you’re here.”
“I don’t want him to miss anything. I can wait,” Bill objected.
“I don’t think the baby will be coming anytime soon, dear…”
“HARRY POTTER! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU! I AM GOING TO WRAP YOUR INTESTINES AROUND YOUR NECK! I AM GOING TO PULL YOUR LIP SO FAR OVER YOUR HEAD IT WILL TOUCH YOUR ARSE!”
Bill choked on his laughter as he heard Harry desperately try to calm Ginny down, and then the cheerful tones of his mother informing Harry that Bill was here with some information.
Harry rushed down the stairs, sweat soaking his shirt, smiling brilliantly at Bill. “Bill! Glad you’re here, mate!”
Bill snorted. “Of course you are. I think I’ve got what you need right here, Harry. No sign that anyone’s tampered with your vault of late, but there’s plenty of interesting stuff there.”
Harry raised his eyebrows. “I haven’t really been in there since they transferred all the stuff from the Black family vault.”
“There’s a big trunk of your parents’ things in there,” Bill said casually. “Lots of important papers from the first war. Including what your mom was working on before she died.”
“Papers from the first war? I didn’t know any of the Order’s original missions had been documented,” Harry said, a little bit shocked. “What was she working on?”
“Apparently she and your dad were working on an oral antidote to the Avada Kedavra curse. They came damned close to figuring it out, too. Your mum was simply brilliant. I mean her research was…”
“An oral antidote?” Harry’s mouth dropped open. “Do you think they gave some to me, when…?”
Bill shook his head emphatically. “The last few tries proved fatal for the test subjects. Fortunately, they hadn’t graduated to testing on human subjects. Their work was what captured the attention of Voldemort the first time.”
Ginny screamed. “HARRY!”
“Go, Harry,” Bill said, clasping Harry’s shoulder. “Ginny needs you right now.”
**
The pain of labor had been described to Ginny before, but despite all the details, she’d never felt anything like this before. She keenly missed Harry’s presence from the room, and was relieved when he came back to grasp her hand.
“The contractions are coming faster,” Sarah, the midwife, said, “and they’re going to be more painful since we’re in the final stages. Soon enough you’ll be a father, Harry.”
“And I’m going to be a mum,” Ginny whispered, so exhausted that she felt she was floating between contractions. She felt Harry press a kiss to a forehead before the next contraction hit, the pain whipping through her so quickly she felt herself gasp and then moan, closing her eyes against the pain.
“You’re doing great, Gin,” Harry said encouragingly. “Push harder.”
“You can do it!” Sarah said enthusiastically. “Push, Ginevra!”
Ginny tried to arch her back off the bed in effort, concentrating until there was only the bed, Harry’s hand, and her baby in the world. Eventually, the pain ended and she sank back to the bed.
“Relax while you can,” Sarah said soothingly. “You aren’t going to be getting many breaks between…”
“Ahhhhhhh,” Ginny moaned, tears streaming from her eyes. “I’m pushing, I’m pushing, I’m pushing!”
“You’re doing well! Come on, Ginny, I can almost see the head!” Sarah’s voice was a focal point as Ginny pushed, and pushed, and pushed….
“Here he comes!” Molly shouted.
Harry pressed a kiss to her forehead as Ginny gave one last gargantuan effort, groaning from the very pit of her stomach as she pushed the head of the baby out her passage.
“Wonderful, wonderful,” Sarah muttered. “Rest until the next one, dear. Just one more big push, one more.”
Ginny bore down on the next contraction, gritting her teeth and squeezing Harry’s hand with all of her might. She felt the coolness of a pair of hands against her skin, and then a cry pierced the air.
She sobbed in immediate reaction, overwhelmed with relief and joy.
“Congratulations, Ginny, Harry. You have a beautiful little boy,” Sarah announced, and Ginny felt the press of Harry’s lips on hers.
“Here you go, Ginny dear,” Molly said softly, laying Ginny’s daughter on her chest for the first time. Ginny was unable to stop the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Do you have a name picked out for this child?” Sarah asked, brandishing a quill.
Ginny looked up at Harry and smiled.
“Yes, we do,” Harry said, stroking his son’s cheek gently. “James Sirius Potter.”
**
A shout went up in the kitchen of the Burrow, where the entire Weasley clan had gathered as Harry traveled down the stairs. He stopped for a moment, shocked to see everyone. Bill had retrieved Fleur and their children, Fred and George had brought Katie and Luna, Charlie had arrived with Cho, and Ron and Hermione had brought Andrew, who was sitting on his grandfather’s lap having a story read.
“Well, what’s the news Harry?” Fred asked, shouting over the noise.
“It’s a boy!” he called, tears welling up in his eyes.
“What’s his name?” George asked.
“James Sirius,” Harry responded as Ron charged through the crowd and caught him in a one-armed hug.
“Congratulations, Harry!” Ron shouted, and raised a goblet. “To James Sirius!”
The rest of the Weasley family rose to their feet and raised their goblets. “To James Sirius!”
Harry swallowed past the lump of emotion rising in his throat. “Thanks, Ron.”
“No problem mate,” Ron said, squeezing Harry’s shoulder. “How’s Ginny?”
“She’s doing well… she fed James and then she sort of fell asleep,” Harry said, rubbing a hand through his hair. “Molly’s up there holding the baby, so she sent me down here to let everyone know the news.”
“How’s he look?” Bill asked, rubbing Fleur’s neck slowly. “Does he have the Weasley red hair?”
Harry shook his head. “He’s got a full head of the Potter black. Hopefully it styles more like his mum’s.”
“No kidding!” George shouted. “Cigars, men?”
Harry grinned and shook his head at the troupe of Weasley men heading outdoors at that announcement. Hermione laid a hand on his shoulder. “Not going outside to smoke?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think I’m going to go back upstairs and have another look, actually,” Harry said, blushing a bit.
Hermione smiled. “I knew you were going to be a good dad, Harry. You’re off to a great start. Love’s really the only thing you need.”
Harry shrugged. “I certainly hope so.” He shuffled a bit on his feet. “Hermione, I… That is, do you want to go up and see the baby with me?”
Hermione’s eyes widened. “I’d love to, Harry!”
As they trudged up the stairs, Harry stopped her outside the door. “Thanks, Hermione.”
“For what?”
“The Weasleys, they took us both in, didn’t they?” At Hermione’s nod, Harry pressed forward. “I just – I always felt like you were my sister, you know? I want you to know that.”
Hermione enveloped him in a hug. “I feel the same way, Harry. Why don’t you go up and introduce me to your son?”
“I’d love to.”
**
The Daily Prophet released a special edition of the paper, much against the wishes of the Potter family, with a headline that boldly read, “The Boy Who Lived Now A Father”. Owls full of well wishes flooded the Potter family home, which, thanks to the concerted efforts of Ron and Bill, were thoroughly scanned for hexes and jinks before being passed back on to Harry and Ginny.
“I don’t know what to do with all these,” Ginny said, looking at the stack of letters. “We certainly can’t read them all.”
“Neville sent some seeds,” Harry said, pulling out a piece of parchment and a small bag and displaying them for Ginny. “He said they’re supposed to bring luck, or something.”
“Or something,” Ginny muttered, and marked that down on the sheet of parchment they were using to track who had sent them what.
“Kingsley didn’t send anything but his well wishes,” Harry noted.
“That’s a relief,” Ginny said, and dutifully wrote that down. “I think we should hold off on writing the thank-you notes until James is old enough to help.”
“That gives me five years to find an excuse to be somewhere else, doesn’t it?” Harry asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Don’t be ridiculous. We can’t both sod off our responsibility, and I’ve suddenly had something pressing come up in five years.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Harry teased and stuck his tongue out. At that moment, James’ cry pierced the air.
Immediately, they both jumped to their feet. “Guess naptime’s over, then,” Ginny said as they climbed the stairs to Ron’s old room, which they were using as a nursery while they stayed at the Burrow.
When they reached the nursery, they found Molly already there, fussing over the baby. “I think someone wants a bit of a snack,” she said when she turned around to look at Harry and Ginny.
“Hello love,” Ginny said in a low voice as she bent over to pick up James. “How’s my baby doing today?”
Harry leaned against the doorjamb and watched with a short of fascination as Ginny interacted with their son, who, over the past few days had grown to look less and less like an alien and more and more like an actual human being – which was a good thing, because initially, he’d been a bit worried.
James’s face pinched, and he let out an angry wail.
“Oh, someone’s hungry,” Molly announced and took a step away from the crib. “I’ll let you feed him, dear.”
“Thanks, Mum,” Ginny said, and picked James up competently before walking over to the rocker.
Molly patted Harry’s shoulder as she left the room. “All right there, Harry?”
“Never better,” Harry answered, though his eyes stayed fixed on Ginny.
She opened her shirt and began to feed his son. Ginny had initially been a bit shy about doing so in front of Harry, but the sight of her and his child was nearly intoxicating to him. To a boy, now a man, who had never had any family in his life, the feeling of completeness was almost overwhelming.
“I think the visions will stop,” Ginny said, stroking James cheek gently while he nursed.
“Hmm?”
“The visions. I haven’t had one since I’ve given birth to James,” Ginny said. “Do you suppose they’ve stopped completely?”
“The centaurs thought the visions might have been linked to the pregnancy,” Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Maybe we really don’t have much to worry about, then.”
“I really hope that’s the case.”
**
“The Potters survived the attack intact, sir,” said a nervous-looking man, who had once held great power in his hands. “We believe they might be in hiding at the Burrow. And the wards the Ministry is insisting on at the Potter house are much stronger than the ones they had previously.”
“Ah, they do seem determined to protect their war hero, don’t they?” A very thin man stepped out of the shadow. “We’ll have to increase our efforts, then.”
“With respect, sir… what’s the point in going after the Potters? The Weasleys would be much easier to get to, if you want to make a grandiose statement.”
“Weasley didn’t watch my son die. Potter could have saved him, but he didn’t. I want nothing more than to see Potter endure the same things I did.”
“What do you want to us to do now? It’ll be more difficult to access Potter’s wife, now that she’s not pregnant. Women are more open to that kind of magic when their defenses are down.”
“She’s still nursing. Up the power on the spell. Do what you have to do. Once we break her mind, then we go after the child.”
“Yes, sir.”
“No more failure, Fudge. I won’t tolerate it.”
Cornelius reeled as though he’d been punched, and ran down the corridor away from the madman he’d come to serve.
**
“James,” Lily stood at the doorway of the nursery and looked in at her husband. “You really should stop staring at the baby and come to bed.”
James raised his head, a bit startled at the intrusion into what had obviously been a personal reverie. “I’ll be there in a bit.”
“He’s going to be there in the morning, you know,” Lily teased.
James turned to look straight at her, and his true smile took over his face. It wasn’t his mischievous grin… it was the smile that took time to develop, the one that wasn’t complete until it reached his eyes. “I know. That’s the beauty of it, you know?”
Baby Harry opened his mouth and gave a tiny yawn before going back to sleep. Lily couldn’t stop herself, she was drawn into the room.
“Sometimes I forget that what we’re doing means something,” James said in a low voice, snaking his arm around Lily’s waist. “Then I come in here and I look at Harry. We’re going to fix this whole bloody mixed-up world for him, aren’t we, Lils?”
“That seems a bit grandiose, love,” Lily teased, unwilling to be serious.
“Well, no one ever said I was the least bit sensible. I don’t believe in doing anything halfway,” James said, leaning over to kiss Lily’s cheek.
“I know,” Lily responded, drawing him in for a real kiss. “If anyone can ‘fix the world’, it’s you, James Potter.”
“Well, I’ve got plans on a much bigger scale tonight, my love,” James said, and drew Lily to the bedroom.
“Ah,” Lily muttered, a slight blush on her cheeks. “This is where your habit of not doing anything halfway comes in handy, my love.”
“I knew you only kept me around for the snogging.”
“Damn straight,” Lily shot back.
“Well then,” James said, and there was no talking from that point on.
**
Ginny woke with a start, and blinked rapidly. The visions were supposed to end when the pregnancy did. Surely this was just a dream.
**
Author’s Note: If you can’t tell, we are now barreling down the road to completion. Thanks go out to Kat Morning and Daily Prophet Reporting for the outstanding betas.