All the Time in the World.
Part 3/3.
Two days later, nearly everybody that Harry passes at the Ministry, in or around the Auror office, congratulates him on his engagement. He doesn’t really understand how everyone seems to know about it until lunchtime when Hermione hands him a copy of Witch Weekly, already opened to a certain page. And he sees a picture of himself and Ginny kissing. In the picture, Ginny’s hair is up and she’s wearing her dark green Harpies robes, with a group of girls in matching robes laughing in the background. After a moment, he recognizes that the picture is from after Ginny’s first Quidditch game. It’s no surprise to him that neither of them noticed that they were being photographed.
Beneath the picture, Harry reads the headline out loud.
“The Boy Who Lived Soon to be the Married Man Who Lived. Wow, what a creative title.”
“You’ve been engaged for two days; how do they already know?” Ron asks.
“News travels fast,” Hermione sighs.
“It is reported that Harry Potter will be tying the knot soon to none other than the newest addition to the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team, Ginny Weasley,” Harry says, reading the article aloud. “Sources reveal that Potter and Weasley dated briefly in early 1997 while both attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and then rekindled their romance shortly after the Second Wizarding War and the downfall of You-Know-Who.
“Most of Weasley’s teammates refused to comment, although team captain, Gwenog Jones told us ‘They’re both lovely people and we all wish them the best, now please go away and mind your own business.’
“The marriage will also result in Potter becoming brother-in-law to best friend and partner in defeating You-Know-Who, Ronald Weasley. There’s no word yet as to whether or not the couple has set a date for the wedding. We here at Witch Weekly would like to wish the bride and groom to-be the best of luck, but if things don’t work out, Potter can have his pick of witches to choose next.”
“Lovely,” Hermione says dryly.
“Wow, I was mentioned?” Ron grins. “Awesome!”
*
Most of the wedding plans are easy for Harry and Ginny to decide. It will be at the Burrow, Ron will be Harry’s best man while Hermione and Luna will be Ginny’s bridesmaids. It won’t be a big fuss. It’ll be small, with just family and close friends in attendance.
Harry wonders briefly what the Dursleys would do if they received an invitation. He knows without a doubt that Vernon would probably just throw it away without even bothering to read all of the details, but Petunia and Dudley, on the other hand…. Shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts, Dedalus Diggle had told Harry that as he was escorting the Durleys out of Hiding, Dudley had asked at least three times to hear about exactly what happened between Harry and Voldemort, and had then asked the question “So Harry’s alright, then?” at least another three times. Harry remembers this story as he jots down Dudley’s name on his list of people to invite.
*
On the two year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Bill and Fleur welcome the first addition to a new generation of Weasleys. They name her Victoire.
*
Harry and Ginny decide to schedule their wedding for October. Invitations are sent out and plans are made. They buy a house in Godric’s Hollow to move into when they’re married. It’s relatively small with three bedrooms, a short distance away from the graveyard with James’s and Lily’s tomb.
*
The morning of the wedding, Harry doesn’t feel nervous at all. Excited and slightly anxious, but not nervous. He doesn’t think that he has anything to be nervous about. It’s Ginny he’s marrying, after all. Ginny, who he’s known for nearly half of his life. Ginny, the girl that he is completely in love with.
The set-up of the wedding is reminiscent of Bill and Fleur’s with all of the guests outside, though there’s no marquee; just rows of chairs – to be replaced with tables and a dance floor – under the sun, with the gentle fall breeze blowing lightly.
When Harry goes to stand up at the front with Ron by his side, he glances over the small crowd of guests. Hagrid sits in the back, already looking weepy. He spots Neville, Andromeda and Teddy, Xenophilius Lovegood, Auntie Muriel, the entire Holyhead Harpies team, and then a man that Harry doesn’t immediately recognize. And then with a jolt, he realizes that it’s Dudley. Slimmed down, but still muscular, looking much older and more mature than he remembers him. He’s sitting next to a girl he doesn’t recognize that he assumes must be his date, but before he can consider it for too long, music begins to play and all of Harry’s attention is at the other end of the aisle.
He barely even registers how lovely Hermione and Luna both look in their deep red dresses because all he can really see is Ginny. It’s almost like staring directly into the sun. Harry thinks that even an entire flock of veela wouldn’t be able to distract from Ginny’s shining beauty.
Her hair is piled to one side, strands of it falling down in elegant curls onto her bare shoulders. Her dress is white and simple, straight and hugging her curves until it flares out around her knees. She grins at him as she comes closer, Arthur escorting her with watery eyes.
Hermione and Luna reach Harry, and then Ginny is there. He wants to stand there and stare at her forever, but marrying her sounds like an appealing alternative.
It feels like it happens very fast and in slow motion at the same time.
“We are gathered here today…”
And then,
“Do you, Harry James Potter take Ginevra Molly Weasley…”
“I do.”
“Do you, Ginevra Molly Weasley take Harry James Potter…”
“I do.”
He doesn’t even hear the cheers from the guests as they’re pronounced husband and wife and they embrace, kissing, holding onto each other as if their lives depend on it. He never wants to let go of her, even though he knows that they have the rest of their lives together to do this, but in this moment, he feels a sort of happiness that he can’t really explain, even to himself. Elated, in love, infinite. And it’s the best feeling in the entire world.
*
Harry speaks to Dudley shortly after the ceremony. He greets him with a handshake, telling him that he didn’t think he would show. Dudley tells him that he had a difficult time actually getting there, as his taxi driver had no idea where to go and he had to walk quite a bit. Harry apologizes profusely, but Dudley laughs and tells him that it’s okay. He introduces Harry to his date, his girlfriend who grins and expresses her excitement about seeing real magic. Then Dudley congratulates him, Harry thanks him, and that’s all.
*
Harry and Ginny move into their house in Godric’s Hollow. They eat dinner together in their very own kitchen and they go to sleep in their very own bedroom. He comes home from work to her and she crawls into bed with him after long nights of Quidditch practice run late. It is domestic bliss and everything that Harry could have ever wished for.
*
Harry enjoys married life. It isn’t much different than before aside from living with Ginny and waking up next to her and falling asleep next to her every night. Little things somehow seem more special than they did before. Their first Christmas as a married couple, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, Teddy comes over and stays the night. For his third birthday, Harry throws him a small party and he babbles on about it for days afterwards. Ron and Hermione come over often and Harry and Ginny visit the Burrow every weekend for dinner. They fall into a kind of routine, but it doesn’t feel boring at all. In fact, Harry loves it.
*
Towards the middle of summer, George makes a surprising announcement that he’s marrying Angelina Johnson. Nobody in the family seemed to know that they were even dating, but it’s a happy occasion either way. They have their wedding only a month and a half after their announcement, and shortly afterward, they make another announcement that Angelina is pregnant.
Baby Fred is born just six months after their wedding.
*
Before the arrival of Fred, though, Harry and Ron finally finish their three years of Auror training and become real, official, trained Aurors. Mrs. Weasley has a party for them at the Burrow, during which, Ron pulls Harry aside to speak with him.
“I was wondering, since you’ve been married almost a year now…do you like it?”
“Do I like being married?”
“Yeah. Do you?” Ron asks.
“I love it. It’s incredible,” he tells him. “Why?”
“I’m just thinking, now that Auror training is finished, I think I might like to….”
“Marry Hermione?!”
“Yes. Should I go for it?”
“Are you kidding? Of course you should!” Harry says, and Ron grins at him.
“I think I will!”
*
Ron and Hermione get married in a small ceremony at the beginning of spring. Harry is Ron’s best man and Ginny is a bridesmaid. Hermione looks more beautiful than Harry can ever remember seeing her, and when she walks down the aisle, he can hear Ron mutter “wow” under his breath as he sees her.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Ron says later, after the ceremony. “I mean, ten years ago, would you have ever guessed that we would all end up related to each other?”
“Ten years ago, I think we were too concerned about getting past three-headed dogs to think about ever ending up on the same family tree,” Harry laughs.
*
It’s almost a surreal feeling for Harry when he celebrates his twenty-second birthday and he realizes that it was only, and already five years ago that he was turning seventeen and unable to imagine how wonderful his future would turn out to be.
When Harry and Ginny got married, it was nearly impossible for them to have a real honeymoon because of Harry’s Auror training getting in the way, so for their second anniversary, Harry takes a week off work and takes his wife on a real honeymoon.
They go to Italy and Greece and spend their time in Muggle towns and cities where nobody knows who they are and nobody stops them to ask for an autograph from the Boy Who Lived or the best Holyhead Harpies seeker in two decades. It’s one of the best weeks that Harry can ever remember having.
*
Shortly before the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry agrees to sit down for an interview to be run in the Daily Prophet on the day of the anniversary. It’s his first real interview since it all happened; his first real interview since the one with Rita Skeeter that ran in the Quibbler in his fifth year at Hogwarts. He’d had plenty of offers, plenty of reporters and journalists practically begging him for interviews, but he’d turned them all down, wanting to be normal for a little while. But he finally agreed to this one interview.
The journalist comes to his house. Harry serves him tea and they sit out in the backyard and the interviewer, an older man named Bradley Douglass begins to ask him questions.
“Coming up on the five year anniversary of the end of the Second Wizarding War, how is your life different now than it was then?” Douglass asks.
“Everything about it is different,” Harry says. “There are the obvious differences, such as the fact that I’m older, married, have a job…. But then there are the other things, like no longer worrying about what Voldemort is doing and the idea of time…. Five years ago, I was certain that my time was limited and was just ticking away. When it was between me or him being the one that got to live, of course I hoped it would be me, but realistically, I wasn’t so sure it would be. All of my time felt limited, but now…it’s the exact opposite. It’s unlimited.”
“When you say that it came down to either him or you getting to live, does that put truth into the old rumours of you being ‘the Chosen One’? The only one who could defeat him?”
“In a sense. But even so, I didn’t defeat him alone or single-handedly. Defeating Voldemort was a lot more than just making his heart stop beating. Ron and Hermione Weasley and Neville Longbottom all played huge roles in getting fully rid of him, as did Albus Dumbledore before he passed, not to mention every single person that fought in the battle, especially those who gave their lives. I may have been the one who cast the spell to destroy him, but defeating him took everyone that was there.”
“You’re an impressive wizard, Harry Potter,” Douglass says, looking up at him, his quill hovering over his parchment, quite still.
“I’m really not all that impressive. A lot of stuff just…happened, and I happened to be a part of it all.”
*
During a game, Ginny gets hit directly in the head by a bludger and falls off her broom. Harry is out of his seat and running towards the field before she even hits the ground. He’s unsure as to whether he wants to rush directly to her side or go curse the other team’s beater who sent the bludger in her direction. He chooses to rush directly to her side.
She’s sent to St. Mungo’s and stays for a week. Harry hates having to leave her every night. He doesn’t know how he went so long sleeping alone and being fine with it, because he’s gotten so used to falling asleep with Ginny is his arms that it’s hard to get used to an empty bed again.
She goes home with orders from her Healer to not play Quidditch again for at least three months. She fights it, arguing that she went years without getting hit by a bludger and she can certainly do it again, but her Healer is strict and won’t budge.
The Harpies give her the three months off and hire a temporary replacement and Ginny is in a bad mood about it for at least two weeks.
During her first month off, Ginny experiments with cooking. Harry comes home every evening to a new, freshly-cooked meal made by Ginny. Some he enjoy, others he eats just so he doesn’t hurt her feelings. When Teddy comes over for dinner, though, he’ll come right out and say that one of Ginny’s meals is repulsive, but she’ll just laugh and agree to never make it again.
During her second month off, Ginny seems to go a bit stir-crazy. She complains about not knowing what to do with her extra time. She goes to visit the burrow, takes Teddy to the park, occasionally joins Harry, Ron, and Hermione for lunch.
Halfway through Ginny’s third month away from the Harpies, Harry comes home from work to a great-smelling dinner and Ginny smiles as she serves his food.
“Guess what I did today?” she says.
“Made this delicious dinner?” Harry suggests, taking a bite.
“Well, yes, but what else?”
“I have no idea.”
“You probably wouldn’t be able to guess it anyways. I’ve retired from Quidditch.”
“You what?” he asks, trying not to choke on his dinner.
“Retired. No longer going to play. You know, I expected it to be a lot harder than it really was. I have loved playing, but it wasn’t very difficult at all. I’ve had a good run. Four years, can you believe it?”
“But…I thought you hated being away?”
“I did,” she nods.
“Then why aren’t you going back?” he asks.
“Harry,” she smiles. “I’m pregnant.”
*
Hermione screams when she finds out. Ron smiles, looking shocked by happy. Mrs. Weasley cries. Fleur starts to tell Ginny about the best potions to take for morning sickness and creams to get rid of stretch marks “like zat”.
Harry feels ecstatic. Every time he thinks about it, a bubble full of happiness and excitement bursts inside of him. He’s going to have a baby. He’s going to be a father.
Even though Ginny’s stomach is completely flat, he finds himself placing his hand on it and just knowing that their baby is inside makes him swell with joy.
He tells Teddy about the baby when Teddy comes over one evening for dinner. The little boy frowns, looking up at Harry.
“Does that mean you won’t want to hang out with me as much?” he asks, and Harry can practically feel his heart shatter into a million little pieces.
“Of course not, Teddy!” he tells him, sitting down next to him on the couch and putting an arm around his shoulders. “Why would you think that?”
“If you have a baby, you’ll like it more than you like me, won’t you?”
“No. If anything, I’ll like you both equally.”
“But it’s your baby. People always like their babies more than they like other kids,” Teddy insists.
“But you’re not just some other kid, Teddy,” Harry says. “You’re my godson and you’ll always be special to me. Millions of people have kids, but not everyone has a godson. And most importantly, nobody has a godson as great as mine. And a baby most certainly won’t change that.”
“You promise?” Teddy asks with a hint of a smile.
“I promise.”
*
Bill and Fleur have their second daughter when Ginny is three months pregnant. When Harry holds Dominique, he realizes that in six months, it will be his own son or daughter that he’s holding. He tries to prefect his baby-holding skills with Dominique. When Teddy was a baby, even though Harry had enjoyed holding him, he had always felt nervous and unsure and scared that he was doing it wrong. With Victoire and Fred, he never held them often or long enough to really worry about it too much. But with the arrival of his own baby so close, he takes every chance to hold Dominique, trying to learn the best way to do it.
*
Harry loves feeling the baby kick. It’s like real, physical proof that there is an actual human life inside of Ginny’s ever-growing tummy. It amazes him. Ginny teases him every time he places his hand over her stomach, hoping to feel the tiny flutter of a kick, or when he talks to the baby, putting his face right up next to her tummy and saying “Hi, Baby. It’s your daddy. I love you!”
When they discuss names, a decision is reached very quickly and they know exactly what they’ll name it, whether it’s a boy or a girl.
“It’s going to be great at Quidditch,” Harry says, moving his hand over the bump of Ginny’s tummy.
“Not to mention incredibly good-looking,” Ginny laughs.
Ginny decides that she wants a boy. Harry tells her that he doesn’t care what it is and that he’ll be happy with either.
“Boys are more fun. Teddy and Fred were both more fun that Victoire or Dominique.”
“Dominique can barely even sit up on her own yet. I don’t see how she could be much fun,” Harry says.
“Okay, fine, just Victoire, then. Besides, if we ever have more kids, if one is a girl, I’d like for her to have an older brother. As much as they can be a pain, they’re also really great to have.”
“I’ll still be happy either way,” Harry tells her.
“Well, me too! I’ll just be especially happy if it’s a boy.”
*
Ginny gets her wish.
When Harry holds his son, James Sirius Potter for the first time, it’s like every good feeling he’s ever felt all combined. Being told he was a wizard, stepping foot into Hogwarts, flying, House Cups, Quidditch Cups, best friends, first kisses, falling in love, getting married… none of it can even compare to this one moment. This moment and this feeling of having created this perfect life form, this amazing, incredible, tiny person. He would be able to create the brightest and most powerful Patronus in the world right now, holding his newborn son.
*
Harry feels as though he’ll never be able to look at James enough. It amazes him that just yesterday, he had no idea what it was to be a father and now, with his son in front of him, so new to the world, he would already to anything in order to protect him and keep him safe.
He and Ginny lay on their bed, James asleep and so tiny between them. It seems so strange that he wasn’t here before, and now he is. Their lives are so dramatically different in such a short period of time.
Harry thinks of his own parents and how he wishes that they were here to meet their grandson. He laments the fact that James will never get to meet Grandma and Grandpa Potter, but he knows that he’ll know of them, just the way that he knew of them even though he had such little time with them.
But James, he’ll never know what it’s like to be without his parents because Harry will never let him. He’ll make sure that James will never feel unwanted or unloved and he’ll try his hardest to make sure that he’ll never feel sad or unsafe or limited. Harry will give him everything that he never had as a kid. He’ll give him a real home and all of the love he has. He’ll give him truth and advice and protection from anything that could harm him. When he leaves for school, Harry will send him off, write to him, bring him home for holidays. He’ll throw him parties for his birthdays, buy him broomsticks and teach him to fly and play Quidditch, allow his friends to come over during the summers.
As he stares at his son, Harry doesn’t feel like a Wizarding World hero or the Boy Who Lived or the Chosen One or anything else that everyone else may think of him as. He feels like a father. To James, he’ll be ‘Dad’. He won’t be anything else. Just Dad. It’s so perfectly normal. For the first time in his life, he feels perfectly normal.
James squirms on the bed, opening his brown eyes and blinking up at Harry. He lets out a yawn and Harry can feel his heart flutter with affection and he reaches out to touch his tiny hand. James’s little fingers wrap around Harry’s pinky, clutching onto it.
“He’s perfect,” Ginny whispers, gently stroking the top of his head, lightly covered with the shadow of soft dark hair, and Harry nods, agreeing.
“Perfect.”
Life feels perfect.
Beneath the picture, Harry reads the headline out loud.
“The Boy Who Lived Soon to be the Married Man Who Lived. Wow, what a creative title.”
“You’ve been engaged for two days; how do they already know?” Ron asks.
“News travels fast,” Hermione sighs.
“It is reported that Harry Potter will be tying the knot soon to none other than the newest addition to the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team, Ginny Weasley,” Harry says, reading the article aloud. “Sources reveal that Potter and Weasley dated briefly in early 1997 while both attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and then rekindled their romance shortly after the Second Wizarding War and the downfall of You-Know-Who.
“Most of Weasley’s teammates refused to comment, although team captain, Gwenog Jones told us ‘They’re both lovely people and we all wish them the best, now please go away and mind your own business.’
“The marriage will also result in Potter becoming brother-in-law to best friend and partner in defeating You-Know-Who, Ronald Weasley. There’s no word yet as to whether or not the couple has set a date for the wedding. We here at Witch Weekly would like to wish the bride and groom to-be the best of luck, but if things don’t work out, Potter can have his pick of witches to choose next.”
“Lovely,” Hermione says dryly.
“Wow, I was mentioned?” Ron grins. “Awesome!”
*
Most of the wedding plans are easy for Harry and Ginny to decide. It will be at the Burrow, Ron will be Harry’s best man while Hermione and Luna will be Ginny’s bridesmaids. It won’t be a big fuss. It’ll be small, with just family and close friends in attendance.
Harry wonders briefly what the Dursleys would do if they received an invitation. He knows without a doubt that Vernon would probably just throw it away without even bothering to read all of the details, but Petunia and Dudley, on the other hand…. Shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts, Dedalus Diggle had told Harry that as he was escorting the Durleys out of Hiding, Dudley had asked at least three times to hear about exactly what happened between Harry and Voldemort, and had then asked the question “So Harry’s alright, then?” at least another three times. Harry remembers this story as he jots down Dudley’s name on his list of people to invite.
*
On the two year anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Bill and Fleur welcome the first addition to a new generation of Weasleys. They name her Victoire.
*
Harry and Ginny decide to schedule their wedding for October. Invitations are sent out and plans are made. They buy a house in Godric’s Hollow to move into when they’re married. It’s relatively small with three bedrooms, a short distance away from the graveyard with James’s and Lily’s tomb.
*
The morning of the wedding, Harry doesn’t feel nervous at all. Excited and slightly anxious, but not nervous. He doesn’t think that he has anything to be nervous about. It’s Ginny he’s marrying, after all. Ginny, who he’s known for nearly half of his life. Ginny, the girl that he is completely in love with.
The set-up of the wedding is reminiscent of Bill and Fleur’s with all of the guests outside, though there’s no marquee; just rows of chairs – to be replaced with tables and a dance floor – under the sun, with the gentle fall breeze blowing lightly.
When Harry goes to stand up at the front with Ron by his side, he glances over the small crowd of guests. Hagrid sits in the back, already looking weepy. He spots Neville, Andromeda and Teddy, Xenophilius Lovegood, Auntie Muriel, the entire Holyhead Harpies team, and then a man that Harry doesn’t immediately recognize. And then with a jolt, he realizes that it’s Dudley. Slimmed down, but still muscular, looking much older and more mature than he remembers him. He’s sitting next to a girl he doesn’t recognize that he assumes must be his date, but before he can consider it for too long, music begins to play and all of Harry’s attention is at the other end of the aisle.
He barely even registers how lovely Hermione and Luna both look in their deep red dresses because all he can really see is Ginny. It’s almost like staring directly into the sun. Harry thinks that even an entire flock of veela wouldn’t be able to distract from Ginny’s shining beauty.
Her hair is piled to one side, strands of it falling down in elegant curls onto her bare shoulders. Her dress is white and simple, straight and hugging her curves until it flares out around her knees. She grins at him as she comes closer, Arthur escorting her with watery eyes.
Hermione and Luna reach Harry, and then Ginny is there. He wants to stand there and stare at her forever, but marrying her sounds like an appealing alternative.
It feels like it happens very fast and in slow motion at the same time.
“We are gathered here today…”
And then,
“Do you, Harry James Potter take Ginevra Molly Weasley…”
“I do.”
“Do you, Ginevra Molly Weasley take Harry James Potter…”
“I do.”
He doesn’t even hear the cheers from the guests as they’re pronounced husband and wife and they embrace, kissing, holding onto each other as if their lives depend on it. He never wants to let go of her, even though he knows that they have the rest of their lives together to do this, but in this moment, he feels a sort of happiness that he can’t really explain, even to himself. Elated, in love, infinite. And it’s the best feeling in the entire world.
*
Harry speaks to Dudley shortly after the ceremony. He greets him with a handshake, telling him that he didn’t think he would show. Dudley tells him that he had a difficult time actually getting there, as his taxi driver had no idea where to go and he had to walk quite a bit. Harry apologizes profusely, but Dudley laughs and tells him that it’s okay. He introduces Harry to his date, his girlfriend who grins and expresses her excitement about seeing real magic. Then Dudley congratulates him, Harry thanks him, and that’s all.
*
Harry and Ginny move into their house in Godric’s Hollow. They eat dinner together in their very own kitchen and they go to sleep in their very own bedroom. He comes home from work to her and she crawls into bed with him after long nights of Quidditch practice run late. It is domestic bliss and everything that Harry could have ever wished for.
*
Harry enjoys married life. It isn’t much different than before aside from living with Ginny and waking up next to her and falling asleep next to her every night. Little things somehow seem more special than they did before. Their first Christmas as a married couple, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, Teddy comes over and stays the night. For his third birthday, Harry throws him a small party and he babbles on about it for days afterwards. Ron and Hermione come over often and Harry and Ginny visit the Burrow every weekend for dinner. They fall into a kind of routine, but it doesn’t feel boring at all. In fact, Harry loves it.
*
Towards the middle of summer, George makes a surprising announcement that he’s marrying Angelina Johnson. Nobody in the family seemed to know that they were even dating, but it’s a happy occasion either way. They have their wedding only a month and a half after their announcement, and shortly afterward, they make another announcement that Angelina is pregnant.
Baby Fred is born just six months after their wedding.
*
Before the arrival of Fred, though, Harry and Ron finally finish their three years of Auror training and become real, official, trained Aurors. Mrs. Weasley has a party for them at the Burrow, during which, Ron pulls Harry aside to speak with him.
“I was wondering, since you’ve been married almost a year now…do you like it?”
“Do I like being married?”
“Yeah. Do you?” Ron asks.
“I love it. It’s incredible,” he tells him. “Why?”
“I’m just thinking, now that Auror training is finished, I think I might like to….”
“Marry Hermione?!”
“Yes. Should I go for it?”
“Are you kidding? Of course you should!” Harry says, and Ron grins at him.
“I think I will!”
*
Ron and Hermione get married in a small ceremony at the beginning of spring. Harry is Ron’s best man and Ginny is a bridesmaid. Hermione looks more beautiful than Harry can ever remember seeing her, and when she walks down the aisle, he can hear Ron mutter “wow” under his breath as he sees her.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Ron says later, after the ceremony. “I mean, ten years ago, would you have ever guessed that we would all end up related to each other?”
“Ten years ago, I think we were too concerned about getting past three-headed dogs to think about ever ending up on the same family tree,” Harry laughs.
*
It’s almost a surreal feeling for Harry when he celebrates his twenty-second birthday and he realizes that it was only, and already five years ago that he was turning seventeen and unable to imagine how wonderful his future would turn out to be.
When Harry and Ginny got married, it was nearly impossible for them to have a real honeymoon because of Harry’s Auror training getting in the way, so for their second anniversary, Harry takes a week off work and takes his wife on a real honeymoon.
They go to Italy and Greece and spend their time in Muggle towns and cities where nobody knows who they are and nobody stops them to ask for an autograph from the Boy Who Lived or the best Holyhead Harpies seeker in two decades. It’s one of the best weeks that Harry can ever remember having.
*
Shortly before the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry agrees to sit down for an interview to be run in the Daily Prophet on the day of the anniversary. It’s his first real interview since it all happened; his first real interview since the one with Rita Skeeter that ran in the Quibbler in his fifth year at Hogwarts. He’d had plenty of offers, plenty of reporters and journalists practically begging him for interviews, but he’d turned them all down, wanting to be normal for a little while. But he finally agreed to this one interview.
The journalist comes to his house. Harry serves him tea and they sit out in the backyard and the interviewer, an older man named Bradley Douglass begins to ask him questions.
“Coming up on the five year anniversary of the end of the Second Wizarding War, how is your life different now than it was then?” Douglass asks.
“Everything about it is different,” Harry says. “There are the obvious differences, such as the fact that I’m older, married, have a job…. But then there are the other things, like no longer worrying about what Voldemort is doing and the idea of time…. Five years ago, I was certain that my time was limited and was just ticking away. When it was between me or him being the one that got to live, of course I hoped it would be me, but realistically, I wasn’t so sure it would be. All of my time felt limited, but now…it’s the exact opposite. It’s unlimited.”
“When you say that it came down to either him or you getting to live, does that put truth into the old rumours of you being ‘the Chosen One’? The only one who could defeat him?”
“In a sense. But even so, I didn’t defeat him alone or single-handedly. Defeating Voldemort was a lot more than just making his heart stop beating. Ron and Hermione Weasley and Neville Longbottom all played huge roles in getting fully rid of him, as did Albus Dumbledore before he passed, not to mention every single person that fought in the battle, especially those who gave their lives. I may have been the one who cast the spell to destroy him, but defeating him took everyone that was there.”
“You’re an impressive wizard, Harry Potter,” Douglass says, looking up at him, his quill hovering over his parchment, quite still.
“I’m really not all that impressive. A lot of stuff just…happened, and I happened to be a part of it all.”
*
During a game, Ginny gets hit directly in the head by a bludger and falls off her broom. Harry is out of his seat and running towards the field before she even hits the ground. He’s unsure as to whether he wants to rush directly to her side or go curse the other team’s beater who sent the bludger in her direction. He chooses to rush directly to her side.
She’s sent to St. Mungo’s and stays for a week. Harry hates having to leave her every night. He doesn’t know how he went so long sleeping alone and being fine with it, because he’s gotten so used to falling asleep with Ginny is his arms that it’s hard to get used to an empty bed again.
She goes home with orders from her Healer to not play Quidditch again for at least three months. She fights it, arguing that she went years without getting hit by a bludger and she can certainly do it again, but her Healer is strict and won’t budge.
The Harpies give her the three months off and hire a temporary replacement and Ginny is in a bad mood about it for at least two weeks.
During her first month off, Ginny experiments with cooking. Harry comes home every evening to a new, freshly-cooked meal made by Ginny. Some he enjoy, others he eats just so he doesn’t hurt her feelings. When Teddy comes over for dinner, though, he’ll come right out and say that one of Ginny’s meals is repulsive, but she’ll just laugh and agree to never make it again.
During her second month off, Ginny seems to go a bit stir-crazy. She complains about not knowing what to do with her extra time. She goes to visit the burrow, takes Teddy to the park, occasionally joins Harry, Ron, and Hermione for lunch.
Halfway through Ginny’s third month away from the Harpies, Harry comes home from work to a great-smelling dinner and Ginny smiles as she serves his food.
“Guess what I did today?” she says.
“Made this delicious dinner?” Harry suggests, taking a bite.
“Well, yes, but what else?”
“I have no idea.”
“You probably wouldn’t be able to guess it anyways. I’ve retired from Quidditch.”
“You what?” he asks, trying not to choke on his dinner.
“Retired. No longer going to play. You know, I expected it to be a lot harder than it really was. I have loved playing, but it wasn’t very difficult at all. I’ve had a good run. Four years, can you believe it?”
“But…I thought you hated being away?”
“I did,” she nods.
“Then why aren’t you going back?” he asks.
“Harry,” she smiles. “I’m pregnant.”
*
Hermione screams when she finds out. Ron smiles, looking shocked by happy. Mrs. Weasley cries. Fleur starts to tell Ginny about the best potions to take for morning sickness and creams to get rid of stretch marks “like zat”.
Harry feels ecstatic. Every time he thinks about it, a bubble full of happiness and excitement bursts inside of him. He’s going to have a baby. He’s going to be a father.
Even though Ginny’s stomach is completely flat, he finds himself placing his hand on it and just knowing that their baby is inside makes him swell with joy.
He tells Teddy about the baby when Teddy comes over one evening for dinner. The little boy frowns, looking up at Harry.
“Does that mean you won’t want to hang out with me as much?” he asks, and Harry can practically feel his heart shatter into a million little pieces.
“Of course not, Teddy!” he tells him, sitting down next to him on the couch and putting an arm around his shoulders. “Why would you think that?”
“If you have a baby, you’ll like it more than you like me, won’t you?”
“No. If anything, I’ll like you both equally.”
“But it’s your baby. People always like their babies more than they like other kids,” Teddy insists.
“But you’re not just some other kid, Teddy,” Harry says. “You’re my godson and you’ll always be special to me. Millions of people have kids, but not everyone has a godson. And most importantly, nobody has a godson as great as mine. And a baby most certainly won’t change that.”
“You promise?” Teddy asks with a hint of a smile.
“I promise.”
*
Bill and Fleur have their second daughter when Ginny is three months pregnant. When Harry holds Dominique, he realizes that in six months, it will be his own son or daughter that he’s holding. He tries to prefect his baby-holding skills with Dominique. When Teddy was a baby, even though Harry had enjoyed holding him, he had always felt nervous and unsure and scared that he was doing it wrong. With Victoire and Fred, he never held them often or long enough to really worry about it too much. But with the arrival of his own baby so close, he takes every chance to hold Dominique, trying to learn the best way to do it.
*
Harry loves feeling the baby kick. It’s like real, physical proof that there is an actual human life inside of Ginny’s ever-growing tummy. It amazes him. Ginny teases him every time he places his hand over her stomach, hoping to feel the tiny flutter of a kick, or when he talks to the baby, putting his face right up next to her tummy and saying “Hi, Baby. It’s your daddy. I love you!”
When they discuss names, a decision is reached very quickly and they know exactly what they’ll name it, whether it’s a boy or a girl.
“It’s going to be great at Quidditch,” Harry says, moving his hand over the bump of Ginny’s tummy.
“Not to mention incredibly good-looking,” Ginny laughs.
Ginny decides that she wants a boy. Harry tells her that he doesn’t care what it is and that he’ll be happy with either.
“Boys are more fun. Teddy and Fred were both more fun that Victoire or Dominique.”
“Dominique can barely even sit up on her own yet. I don’t see how she could be much fun,” Harry says.
“Okay, fine, just Victoire, then. Besides, if we ever have more kids, if one is a girl, I’d like for her to have an older brother. As much as they can be a pain, they’re also really great to have.”
“I’ll still be happy either way,” Harry tells her.
“Well, me too! I’ll just be especially happy if it’s a boy.”
*
Ginny gets her wish.
When Harry holds his son, James Sirius Potter for the first time, it’s like every good feeling he’s ever felt all combined. Being told he was a wizard, stepping foot into Hogwarts, flying, House Cups, Quidditch Cups, best friends, first kisses, falling in love, getting married… none of it can even compare to this one moment. This moment and this feeling of having created this perfect life form, this amazing, incredible, tiny person. He would be able to create the brightest and most powerful Patronus in the world right now, holding his newborn son.
*
Harry feels as though he’ll never be able to look at James enough. It amazes him that just yesterday, he had no idea what it was to be a father and now, with his son in front of him, so new to the world, he would already to anything in order to protect him and keep him safe.
He and Ginny lay on their bed, James asleep and so tiny between them. It seems so strange that he wasn’t here before, and now he is. Their lives are so dramatically different in such a short period of time.
Harry thinks of his own parents and how he wishes that they were here to meet their grandson. He laments the fact that James will never get to meet Grandma and Grandpa Potter, but he knows that he’ll know of them, just the way that he knew of them even though he had such little time with them.
But James, he’ll never know what it’s like to be without his parents because Harry will never let him. He’ll make sure that James will never feel unwanted or unloved and he’ll try his hardest to make sure that he’ll never feel sad or unsafe or limited. Harry will give him everything that he never had as a kid. He’ll give him a real home and all of the love he has. He’ll give him truth and advice and protection from anything that could harm him. When he leaves for school, Harry will send him off, write to him, bring him home for holidays. He’ll throw him parties for his birthdays, buy him broomsticks and teach him to fly and play Quidditch, allow his friends to come over during the summers.
As he stares at his son, Harry doesn’t feel like a Wizarding World hero or the Boy Who Lived or the Chosen One or anything else that everyone else may think of him as. He feels like a father. To James, he’ll be ‘Dad’. He won’t be anything else. Just Dad. It’s so perfectly normal. For the first time in his life, he feels perfectly normal.
James squirms on the bed, opening his brown eyes and blinking up at Harry. He lets out a yawn and Harry can feel his heart flutter with affection and he reaches out to touch his tiny hand. James’s little fingers wrap around Harry’s pinky, clutching onto it.
“He’s perfect,” Ginny whispers, gently stroking the top of his head, lightly covered with the shadow of soft dark hair, and Harry nods, agreeing.
“Perfect.”
Life feels perfect.