Post by Lucius Malfoy on Dec 8, 2008 0:10:34 GMT
Summary:
Sequel to A Christmas to Remember. Rated as a precaution. In five months Ginny Potter will give birth to her twins, but can she survive through the normal chaos that follows her family?
Harry sat on a bench on the ground floor of St. Mungo’s. During the eight years of his wife’s coma, Harry had spent more time in the hospital than one person would in their entire life. Needless to say, he no longer felt like this was a safe place to be.
If there was one good reason to come here it was Casey Adams, Harry’s favourite Welcome Witch. Casey had befriended Harry during the eight years and had been very understanding of his situation, even going so far as to baby-sit Alroy for him when he needed to be alone with Ginny.
Of course, Ginny was back now, as healthier as ever. It had been almost two years since she woke up, after all. So Harry and Casey never really got a chance to see each other anymore. And neither could figure out if that was a good or bad thing.
It was nearing noon now, and Harry’s back was beginning to hurt from sitting on the hard wooden bench for almost an hour. But, truth be told, it was his own fault. Healer Lynch, Ginny’s new Midwitch, had told Harry that the check-up would take a while and to go to the hospital shop while he waited. But his reasons for not doing what the Healer said were simple. One: he didn’t want to buy anything; two: both of Harry and Ginny’s children were in St Mungo’s for their own check-ups today, so if anyone needed Harry he’d be right there; and three: Harry really didn’t like Healer Lynch.
Silently Casey walked over to where Harry was sitting in the crowded room. In her hands were two cups of coffee. She had known Harry for a very long time, and she liked to think that she knew him better than he knew himself, including what he needed. This, of course, was true.
Handing him a cup, she spoke. “How’s the family?”
Harry startled when he heard Casey’s voice, he wasn’t expected anyone, least of all her, but he took the coffee gratefully. “Fine, everyone’s fine.”
“Good to hear.” She smiled. Casey had heard about things going on with the Potters through their many family members who passed through the hospital, and she could always tell which stories were true. Unfortunately there were several true stories at the moment.
Things she’d heard consisted of Ginny’s pregnancy, this was old news, true enough, but the fact that she was having twins had only been discovered last month. Then there was the writing of Harry and Ginny’s first book. Both adults had quit their jobs as Aurors at the same time with the hopes of becoming children’s authors. Now they were at a loss for words—literally.
Last, there was Harry’s problem with Healer Lynch. This Casey had found out from Lynch herself. From what the Healer could tell, Harry considered the amount of years a Healer has been working to reflect on how experienced they are. And both of Ginny’s past Midwitches had worked for over twenty years before they hired them, where as Lynch only had ten years under her belt. This was something Casey thought she could help Harry with.
She took a sip of her coffee slowly and quietly before turning to Harry. “So, how’s Ginny?”
“Fine,” he answered.
“Any complications?”
“No, she’s just in for her monthly check-up.”
Casey laughed softly. “No. I meant are there any complications with Healer Lynch. You still don’t trust her, do you?”
Harry had gotten over being shocked by Casey’s knowledge of things long ago; he now found it comforting that someone cared enough to learn what was happening in his life. “No, I don’t.”
She laughed again. “Harry, Lynette Lynch is one of my oldest and closest friends. So believe me when I say that she’s more than qualified to take care of Ginny. And, if that still doesn’t convince you, check her stats. She’s dealt with more births than both your old Healers combined. And most of them were for twins.”
A few moments passed without them speaking. Both knew Harry didn’t have anything else he could argue about on the subject. Finally Casey decided to break the silence with a question that’d been nagging at her for a month now.
“Have you decided on the names yet?”
Harry smirked as he finished his drink. Setting the glass down beside him, he answered. “We’ve talked about it a little. But nothing is final.”
“Did you find out the genders?”
“Yeah, last month. But that was only the magical prediction ultrasound. The real one should happen later this month.”
“Well, MPU’s are pretty accurate most of the time. I’ll bet you anything that the results will be the same.” Casey looked at her wrist watch. It was 12:15 now. “I have to get back to work. Do me a favour, though.” She handed a gift bag to Harry. “Give this to Rachel, it’s her birthday present.”
“Why don’t you just come to the party? We’d love to have you.”
“I don’t want to intrude. Besides, aren’t all your parties for family only?”
“And friends and you’re one of them.” He smiled kindly at her. “The party’s on the thirtieth at my house. It should start at around ten.”
“All right, then. I’ll see you there.”
With that, Casey walked off to her work station, leaving Harry alone for another ten minutes before Alroy and Rachel arrived with another Healer.
“Everything okay, Davis?”
“Not a single thing wrong with them,” replied Davis Thorn. Davis had been the Potters’ paediatric Healer since Al was born and they had turned to him with Rachel as well. He and Harry and also become friends thanks to Mrs. Thorn, a kind-hearted woman who felt sorry for the Potters.
“Good to know.” Harry took Rachel from the Healer’s arms.
“Oh, Elvira wants to know if we’re still on for the thirtieth,” Davis went on. “I told her that people usually don’t confirm until the week before, but you know Elvira.” He rolled his eyes at his wife.
Harry laughed. “Yeah, the party’s still on. But I think I might have to change the location if more people are invited.” The two laughed again and spoke for a few more minutes before Ginny came from one of the ground floor offices.
“Good afternoon, Dave.” Ginny said to the Healer after taking her daughter from Harry.
“Hello, Ginny. Everything alright with the babies, I hope.”
“Oh, yes. Everything’s fine.” She smiled and looked at the clock. “We should be going though. See you soon.”
Harry nodded and the four Flooed to their home in Northern Scotland.
Later
It was almost nine-thirty. Harry had just finished putting the children to bed while Ginny read a book. Now they were both stretched out on an over-stuffed couch in their family room, talking.
“So,” began Harry. “What did Lynch say?” Ginny smirked, she too knew of Harry’s dislike for her Midwitch.
“She wants me to take it easy, no unnecessary traveling, no Apparating or Flooing. You know the usual.” Harry nodded. “Anyway, shall we get to work?” Ginny snapped her fingers and a large, purple binder appeared in front of her. The word ‘Rachel’ was written on the front cover. Flipping it open, it landed on a list of names; the guest list. “Okay, so far we’ve invited my parents, my brothers, their wives, their kids, Remus and Tonks, Neville and Luna, and Dave and Elvira. Is that everyone?”
“Don’t forget about your father’s old friends,” added Harry.
“Oh, yeah. Jake and Randy Winters.” Ginny said as she wrote down the names. “I have a funny feeling this is going to be an exhausting month.”
“Well, that’s what happens when you celebrate two birthdays on the same day.”
“Tell that to my mum. She’s the one that thought this would be easier than having two parties.”
The room fell silent for a few minutes while both adults were lost in their own thoughts.
“By the way,” said Harry, “I invited Casey Adams.”
“All right, is that everyone, then?”
“I guess.” Ginny turned the page in Rachel’s birthday binder.
“Next, presents. Do you know what you want to get her?”
“I was thinking about one of those brooms for toddlers.” He grinned. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re crazy.”
“Come on, Gin,” Harry pleaded. “I got one for Alroy when one his first birthday.”
“That’s because I wasn’t there to stop you. I’m sorry, but my daughter is not going anywhere near a broom until she’s ten-years-old, even if it’s just a toy. And that’s final.”
Harry crossed his arms over his chest and began to pout as his wife continued on.
“How about one of those Morgana dolls? Or maybe some books?”
“A doll?” What good can come of giving her a doll? At least if we get her the toddler broom it’ll teach her to fly. And its really safe too! It has a seatbelt and handles and everything,” he added, seeing Ginny’s glares.
“Fine. I’ll get the Morgana doll, and you get her the stupid broom,” she gave in. “But if I find so much as one scratch on Rachel I’m burning the thing. Agreed?”
“Whatever you say.” Harry then proceeded to skip happily around the room, while Ginny shook her head.
“Anyway,” she said, making the thirty-two-year-old sit down again. “We’ll have to get all the decorations tomorrow. Let’s see, Mum’s making the cake; Fleur and Hermione offered to cook dinner for me, isn’t that nice of them? And Fred and George are the entertainment, for the kids anyway. Are we forgetting anything?”
“Is time to relax scheduled?”
“Very funny, we’ve got five birthday parties to attend in the next five months, that’s eight people. Plus we’ve got Valentine’s Day and Easter.” Ginny stopped to catch her breath. “Not to mention the fact that I’m due somewhere in that chaos.”
Harry comforted his stressed wife, tossing the binder onto the coffee table. “We can get through all of it, we’ve done it before.”
“Not with twins we haven’t.”
“Big deal. Your parents had three kids before Fred and George and they went on to have two more, and they’re still standing.”
“Harry, when my parents had the twins, Bill was eight, Charlie was six, and Percy was two. Rachel’s just turning one, and Alroy will be ten before I’m due. Don’t you think they had it a little better than we do?” Harry laughed.
“Are you kidding? I know your brothers, Ginny. At least out kids aren’t complete trouble-makers.” In a more serious tone he added, “We’ll be fine, trust me.”
Dropping the subject, though still having doubts, Ginny pulled out a large book and two rolls of parchment from her purse beside her. “Shall we move on to more important matters, then?” She handed a roll of parchment to Harry, along with a quill, and set the book down between them. Taking a peek at the book’s title, Harry laughed.
“’Name Your Wizard’?” he read. “Isn’t it a little early to pick out baby names? We don’t even know the genders yet.”
“Well, we could just pick names according to the MPU results.”
“You mean all girls names?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm, maybe we should go through all names, just in case.”
“Fine.”
Harry and Ginny then got to work and began writing down their favourite male and female names, the book only coming in use once or twice. Finally, as the large grandfather clock struck eleven o’clock, both Potter had finished writing out their lists with at least seventy names on each.
“Girls names first?” Harry asked, picking up Ginny’s list.
“Sure,” she answered, picking up Harry’s. There was a moment of silence as they looked down each other’s lists.
“Agnes? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Harry said, breaking the silence.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“’Agnes Potter’, tell me you don’t find anything wrong with that!”
“Well it’s far better than Athena Potter!”
“I’ll have you know that Athena was the goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology.”
“So what? You think it’ll make our daughter smart if she’s named after her?”
“Well, yeah,” Harry answered lamely. Ginny just shook her head as she continued to read the list.
“Beatrice, no. Belle, no. Bridget, no. Bethany, yes. I actually like that.”
“All right, I’ll add that to the joint list.” Harry then took out a fresh piece of parchment and scribbled the name down as an option, then returned to Ginny’s names. “Buffy? I’m not naming my daughter after a vampire slayer.”
“A vampire what?”
“Slayer. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a Muggle TV show.”
“Oh, I see the problem. All right, I’ll forget about it then. Hey, do you like Calantha?”
“Is that a joke?”
“Never mind.”
“How about Dana or Delia?”
“No way. I don’t suppose you’d like Danica or Demetria, would you?”
“Nope.”
“I know! Honey!”
“Honey Potter?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Fine, then no to Hannah and Hilary too.”
“You didn’t even give them a chance! At least give Ileana a little thought, will you?”
“Ileana?” Ginny scrolled down the list a little until she came to the I’s. “I love it!”
“Love? Well, that’s a step up from like, I suppose.” Harry once again added the name onto the joint list. “What do you think of Janelle and Judy?”
“Don’t like either. How about Kizzy?”
“What’s a Kizzy?”
“Forget it.”
“Do you like Natalie?”
“No, but what about Nathalie?”
“Okay. Olivia?”
“No. Oriana?”
“Nope. Ruth?”
“Ew, ugly name… Oh! Phoenix Potter!”
“That’s a bird.”
“Fine. What about Ruby?”
“What is it with you and the gem stones?” Harry asked, looking over his wife’s list. “Amethyst, Emerald, Diamond, Garnet, Onyx, Ruby, Sapphire, you’ve even got Gemma and Jewel on here.”
“It’s not a crime to like pretty names – or pretty jewellery.”
“Anyway, you like Tatum?”
“No way. Tiffany’s way better.”
“I don’t think so… Zoë’s my last name.”
“I’ve got Zara.”
“Well, we only got Bethany, Ileana and Nathalie for female names. Shall we move on?”
“Sure.” Ginny moved on down Harry list again, this time stopping at the male names. “You like Adam?”
“Yeah, very traditional.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I could say the same about you for putting Adair, Ambrose and Arnold on your list.”
“What’s wrong with Arnold?”
“You named your pygmy puff Arnold in your fifth year.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. How about Casimir, then?”
“Sorry, no. Dylan?”
“That’s nice.” Another name added to the joint list.
“Fabian? You actually like Fabian?”
“Well, no, but it’s a family name. Fabian and Gideon were my uncles. Mum’s brothers.”
“Oh, all right, I’ll add them. But I’ll only use them if we have boys. Okay?”
“Yes!”
“Do you like Henry or Hyatt?”
“No. What about Hagan and Hayden?”
“No.”
Harry and Ginny were becoming very impatient, the clock was nearing midnight and they could barely get past a letter without arguing.
“Jensen, then? Or perhaps Jasper or Joseph?”
“Joseph? Yeah, I like that one. Do you like Miles or Morris?”
“Nope. Maddox and Maurice are better.”
“No, they’re not.”
“Well, Rory and Regan are nice, we’ve got to admit.”
“A little, but I’m not naming my kids them. Maybe Ren or Riley though.”
“I’d rather have Theodore.”
“I actually like that too.”
“How about Wade?”
“Not for my son. Wyatt?”
“Not gonna happen. Zane’s may last one.”
“Zachary’s mine.”
Again the room became quiet as Harry and Ginny looked over their joint names list. So far it read:
Girls:
Bethany, Ileana and Nathalie
Boys:
Dylan, Fabian & Gideon, Joseph and Theodore
This wasn’t as helpful as Ginny had thought it would be since neither would know the genders of their twins until later that month.
The Next Morning
Mr. and Mrs. Potter walked down the crowded streets of Diagon Alley alone. Both looked tired from staying up late the night before, being woken up at eight in the morning by Alroy didn’t help either. Now Alroy was in Muggle school and Rachel was visiting Molly and Arthur at the Burrow while their parents shopped.
As soon as Harry and Ginny stepped foot in the Alley that day, Harry immediately pushed through the crowds leading to Gringotts while Ginny made her way to Madam Malkin’s to pick up the robes they’d ordered a week before.
“I’m afraid there’s been a slight problem, Mrs. Potter,” began the shop owner when Ginny asked her for the clothes. “It’s Dana, one of our interns; she accidentally gave your robes to a Ms. Greta Potter.”
“Greta Potter?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, is there any way you can get my clothes back?”
“We’re trying ma’am. Dana’s been trying to contact Ms. Potter all day. We could always make you some new robes, free of charge, of course.”
“There’s no time, we need them by the thirtieth, that’s in a week.”
“Ah, yes, that is a problem.” Ginny sighed. Of all the things she thought could go wrong on her daughter’s birthday this was not one of them. Thankfully Harry came in at that moment.
“Everything all right?” he asked, seeing her disappointed face.
“They gave away our robes to another Potter.”
“I’m very sorry, sir,” interrupted Madam Malkin.
Ginny could tell from the look on Harry’s face that he was about to do something he’d most likely regret later on, lucky for both of them, Dana walked up beside Madam Malkin with a large grin no her face.
“Good news,” she said, “I just finished talking to Ms. Potter. She says she’ll be back here in a half hour to exchange the robes. Isn’t that wonderful?!” The three adults all glared at the teenager.
“Dana, I think we need to have a little talk after we close tonight,” said Madam Malkin through clenched teeth as she led the girl to the back room, but not before telling Harry and Ginny to come back in an hour.
“Where next?” asked Harry as they stepped outside onto the cobbled road.
“The Party Palace, for decorations,” his wife answered after consulting her list.
Walking a few feet away from Madam Malkin’s, they found themselves in front of a small bubblegum pink shop which looked even smaller squished between two multiple level buildings. Though the inside looked much bigger due to the sickening shade of lime green and had pink and yellow polka dots all over the walls and doors. Beside the door sat a young man who looked to have just gotten out of Hogwarts. He was sitting behind a small desk and appeared to be the clerk.
“Can I help you?” the boy asked when he noticed his new customers.
“No, thank you,” replied Harry as he began leading Ginny to their usual starting point; balloons.
“What do you think of these?” Ginny held up a package of pink and purple balloons with white unicorns on them.
“Unicorns? C’mon, Gin, do we have to use girly stuff?” Ginny laughed.
“Well, Rachel is a girl, Harry. What did you expect we’d use?”
“I don’t know – nothing pink though. Can’t we do Quidditch or something?”
“No. We’ve already done five Quidditch parties for Alroy, though I’m sure there are more that you haven’t told me about yet.”
“But Rachel won’t even remember this birthday!”
“No, but I will. End of discussion.” Ginny then proceeded to throw three packs of the unicorn balloons in her cart, along with a couple with a numeral one on them, then dragged Harry into the next department, signs and streamers.
“Let me guess,” Harry started, “you want to get the pink and yellow stuff.”
“Oh, stop sulking. I’ll have you know I’m getting the baby blue streamers. And I’ll be making my own sign – which will also be blue.”
Two minutes later they were on a hunt for party favours.
“What do you think about a cute picture frame for the adults?” Ginny asked, this time holding up a wooden frame with bears glued on the corners.
“Not expensive enough,” said a voice from behind the couple.
“Yeah, a hundred galleons per person will do,” said another. Turning around they found Fred and George.
“What are you guys doing here?” asked Harry after Ginny finished hugging her brothers.
“It’s Cal’s birthday next month and Angelina’s making me plan the party. Can you believe it?” Fred’s voice showed more excitement than anger, and his huge grin confirmed it.
“And he recruited me to help him,” said George, the grin on his face identical to that of his twin’s.
“Please tell me Angelina’s still going to be cooking,” said Ginny.
“She hasn’t decided yet. But I’m dying to try out this new recipe I read about – Hippogriff stew.” Fred started laughing hysterically as both Harry and Ginny considered never eating again.
“Anyway,” said Harry, hoping to change the subject. “ What’re you getting for party favours?”
“Lollipops for the young kids, Sugar Quills for the older kids, and boxes of chocolate for the adults. You’re not seriously considering picture frames, are you?”
“Not any more.” Ginny put the frame back on the shelf and turned back to the twins. “Actually, I think I’ve got an even better idea. Would you two give us a discount at WWW, being family and all?” Both Fred and George’s grins widened as Ginny explained her idea of giving everyone items from their shop, except for most of the kids, that is.
Nearly twenty minutes later Ginny walked back into Madam Malkin’s to retrieve her family’s robes while Harry trailed behind her with five heavy looking bags.
“Do we need to go anywhere else?” the man asked, exhaustion showing.
“Just the toy store.” At this he brightened up and quickly sent all the packages to hide in the attic.
Rachel and Arthur’s Birthday Party
“Ginny, dear, what color did you want the cake to be?” asked Molly Weasley, stepping out of the Potters’ kitchen.
“Yell – I mean green, mum,” answered Ginny after noticing Harry’s glare.
The couple was sitting in the living room awaiting their guests. Molly, Fleur and Hermione had all arrived several hours before and hadn’t dared to exit the kitchen lest they should get involved in one of Harry and Ginny’s fights over what decoration goes where. Now it was almost noon and people were bound to start arriving.
As if on queue the doorbell rang and Harry left the room to answer it, though it only turned out to be Arthur, along with his friends, Jake and Randy. The men were promptly seated in the living room with cold Butterbeer in their mugs. Almost right after Bill and Ron showed up, both looking tired and ready to keel over from being left alone with their children for a few hours. Next came Fred and Angelina, who appeared to be fighting over giving out so much candy at Cal’s party. Following a few feet behind were George and Katie. Then came Neville and Luna, Remus and Tonks, and Mr. and Mrs. Thorn arrived with Casey. And it was only once everyone had been mingling in the living room for ten minutes that Percy and Penelope finally arrived.
As it the night progressed, Ginny considered it a disaster due to all the children having sugar rushes, which she was sure to thank Fred for, and, of course, for the explosion of Molly’s beautiful three layer green cake. Something that the twins swore they didn’t do. And they were telling the truth, since it was later discovered to be Calvin. But despite all the mishaps, everyone, adults and children alike, had a wonderful time. And according to Arthur, it was his favourite birthday, much to the delight of Ginny.
‘One month down,’ she thought, once the last guest had left.
“What do you mean you can’t tell?!” Harry shouted at the Healer.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Potter. I know it sounds strange, but sometimes it’s hard to tell, and I’d rather not guess for the hell of it. We’ll just have to try again next month.”
“Next month?!”
“Calm down, Harry,” said Ginny softly as she began getting dressed from her ultrasound. “We’ve waited five months to know the genders, I’m sure we can wait one more.” Giving one last questioning look at the Healer, Harry stormed out of the room. “I’m sorry about him,” Ginny said.
“It’s all right. At least once a month I get someone who can’t understand it when I can’t do something, they’re quite common actually,” Lynette Lynch replied as she began cleaning up her work station.
“Oh, no, it’s not that. Harry just doesn’t really … Er …” Ginny paused.
“Like me? Yes, I know. I get quite a few of those too.”
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Not really. Well, I suppose its worse with first-time fathers, your husband’s being kind compared to them. Besides, I’ve wanted to meet him for years, so I can’t really be mad at him for being cautious, can I?” The women stood laughing for a moment. “Have you picked out the names yet?”
“Er, kinda. We’ve narrowed it down to a few, anyway.”
“What about the nursery? Have you decorated yet?”
“Actually no,” Ginny replied, a thoughtful expression on her face. “You know, it’s funny. The first time I was pregnant I waited until I had three weeks left to decorated, and with my second I started as soon as I found out I was pregnant. But I haven’t even thought of doing the nursery yet.”
“That’s not so odd. The first time you were probably nervous you’d lose the baby and you didn’t want to jinx it, and the second time you were confident that it’d make it.”
“And now?”
“Well, twins feel different to you.”
Meanwhile
“Good afternoon, Harry,” welcomed Remus as he walked up to the Boy-Who-Lived in the hallway.
“Hello, Remus. What are you doing here?”
“Just picking up my monthly potion.” The old werewolf held up a bottle containing the foul-tasting potion. “Ginny in for her check-up?”
“Yeah.”
“I take it it’s not going well by the tone of your voice.”
“The bloody Healer can’t determine the genders of the twins.”
“Ah, well, that’s common. Actually, that happened to your mother.”
“It did?”
“Yes. Your father was furious with her Healer too. But the poor woman swore she couldn’t tell if you were a boy or a girl,” Remus recalled. “Lily was able to calm him down, of course, but he made the Healer take a guess anyway. She thought you were a girl.” Harry’s smile from hearing about his parents disappeared as Remus began to laugh. “So, have you two decided on names yet?”
“We’re working on it,” the younger wizard continued, trying to ignore what he’d just been told. “It’s hard, though. Ginny keeps picking these really weird names. I mean, she wanted to use Buffy. Can you believe it?”
“Truthfully I like that name.”
“Thank you, Remus,” Ginny said, stepping out of the hospital room with Healer Lynch close behind her.
Five Minutes Later
“Harry, Lynette – sorry, Healer Lynch gave me a great idea today,” began Ginny once she and Harry had Apparated home.
“What? Get a new Healer?” he replied sarcastically.
“No, we should start decorating the nursery.”
“The nursery? Already?”
“Why not? I’m already five months pregnant.”
“Oh, yes. All right, then.” With that the couple began taking out all the decorating magazines they had left over from when Alroy and Rachel were born.
“What color should we paint it?” Ginny asked, flipping through her favourite magazine.
“Don’t you mean colors? We have enough rooms for the babies to have their own, you know,” said Harry.
“Okay, so what colors do you want to paint them?”
“How about blue, for both?”
“How about blue for one and green for the other?”
“Does it have to be green?” Ginny was beginning to realize how much Harry really liked blue.
“It’s green, yellow, pink or purple. You choose.”
“Fine, we’ll go with green.” The rest of the hour was used to decide on which shades of blue and green they wanted to use, along with accent colors.
The Next Weekend
“Harry, are you busy?” Ginny walked slowly into their joint office were Harry was sitting at his desk reading the newspaper and drinking his tea.
“No, why?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to go out. Rachel’s taking her nap and Al’s invited Tim and Jeremy over, so I’m sure Marnie wouldn’t mind babysitting for us.”
“What? You mean like lunch or something? Sure.”
“Er, actually I was thinking about doing a bit of shopping for nursery things.”
“All right.”
Ten Minutes Later
“Let’s try this place.” Ginny pointed to a large shop. The sign above the heavy wooden door read Eve’s Baby Emporium. The inside was a warm and calming place, the walls were a mint green and the doors and floor were wood. Fireplaces were lit at every corner to keep out the cold February air. And friendly looking men and women filled the store and each wore a pink and blue stripped apron.
Ginny immediately felt at home and she felt all her worries about the pregnancy wash away as she looked at all the baby apparel. And Harry, though not likely the shop as much as his wife, was at least thankful that it brought a long awaited smile to her face.
Walking to the back of the building, the couple stopped when they reached the cribs. Now, according to Harry, the best crib it the one in Rachel’s room, the old mahogany crib that Molly and Arthur gave them when Al was born. The same one that all seven Weasley children had used. But, that crib was being occupied at the moment by a one year old and now the couple needed to buy two new ones.
“I like this one,” said Ginny walking over to a white crib with hearts carved into both ends. Harry, on the other stood by a sturdy oak wood crib that had no decoration, though the edges were carved to look like waves.
“What about this one?” slowly, she made her way over to examine it.
“Yes, it’s very nice. I think this is the one,” she said, and Harry told the salesman to send two to their house. The next department was the rocking chairs, something Harry agreed not to argue on, since Ginny would be spending the most time in them. After finding and buying two chairs that matched the cribs perfectly, the Potters went on a hunt for two dressers that could double as change tables, which took all of five minutes. The next two hours after that were devoted to buying toys, clothes and other necessities.
Two Days Later
“I thought I told you I wanted mint green, like in Eve’s,” complained Ginny. Harry had just come home from buying the paint for both nurseries.
“This is mint. At least, that’s what the people at the store said.”
“Well, what do they know? This is sage, for Merlin’s sake!”
“Do you like the blue I got?” Harry asked, trying to calm down his wife.
“Oh, yes, it’s lovely. Well, I suppose we ought to get someone over to help you,” she said, making her way over to the fireplace to Floo someone.
“Help me?”
“Yes. I certainly can’t be around paint, Muggle or wizarding, in my condition, and I can’t expect you to paint two large rooms all by yourself. Do you think Bill would be interested in helping?”
Bill arrived several moments later wearing a royal blue jumper that had a large “B” on the front and many holes from the years of use. His long red hair was tied up in a pony-tail and he wore slippers over his boots to make sure they didn’t get any paint on them. “All right,” he said, “I’m armed and ready to paint.” With that, the two men began rolling the periwinkle blue onto the walls of the first nursery then, with Ginny’s permission, put sage in the second.
Four Days Later
“Al! Al, get up!” Harry whispered in his son’s ear. Although there were five rooms between the master bedroom and Alroy’s room, Harry didn’t want to take any chances on waking Ginny up, even if that meant trying to wake up Britain’s soundest sleeper by whispering. Of course, even the Boy-Who-Lived loses his patients once in a while. Carelessly taking out his wand he put a silencing charm on the room and charmed Al’s clock to crow like a rooster, something he hadn’t down for over a year.
“I knew it!” exclaimed the nine-year-old once he realized that his father was standing in front of him with a grin on his face. “I knew you were charming my clock!”
“Yeah, yeah. Listen, you and Rachel are going to sleep over at Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione’s tonight, okay?”
“Why?”
“Look at your calendar.” Alroy did as he was told, then, with a knowing expression on his face, began nodded.
“Oh. Yeah, okay. I’ll start packing.”
“I already packed your over-night bag, and I got Rachel’s things ready too,” Harry said, still whispering despite the silencing charm. “Your uncle should be here any second to pick you up.” At that moment Ron appeared in the room wearing a Chudley Canons t-shirt and jeans.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone,” he said with a smile. “Ready to go?” he asked Al.
“Er, give me a second to get dressed, will you?” Harry and Ron left the room then and moved into Rachel’s where Harry performed the same charm.
“You’re sure this is okay?” Harry asked, handing Rachel over to his brother-in-law.
“Yeah, it’s no problem. ‘Mione and dad have to work late tonight so it’ll just be me and the girls. Mum said she might drop by later on though.” Alroy walked in then, dressed a pair of brown trousers and an orange jumper and he was carrying his bag.
“Ready to go,” he said, walking up to his uncle. “Bye, dad.”
“Bye, Al. Have a good time.” A second later Ron disappeared with Rachel in his arms and Alroy by his side. Harry went straight to work after that.
Once in the kitchen he started cracking eggs into a small mixing bowl and threw in some other things. After he got the eggs cooking the bacon and pancakes were put on the stove. And, since Harry didn’t really trust himself with toast, he decided to wait until everything was done to start it. Several minutes later two plates sat on the kitchen counter with mounds of food, more than two people could normally consume, anyway. Putting the plate with more food onto a tray, Harry added a cup of tea and a glass of grape juice. And, to top it all off, he added a white rose in a vase and began walking up the stairs.
Gently setting the tray down beside the bed, he nudged Ginny’s shoulder to wake her up. A few more nudges and still nothing happened. Eventually Harry had tried nudging, rolling, yelling and was a minute away from kicking when he decided to charm her clock too. That seemed to work.
“Was there a need to be so loud?” Ginny asked tiredly as she sat up in bed. The sleeves were rolled up on her long blue nightgown and her flaming red hair was ruffled so badly that it was at least a foot high.
Harry placed the tray on the bed, in front of Ginny, whose facial expression had gone from tired and angry to very thankful. “Happy Anniversary, honey.” Harry, wearing his burgundy bath robe with a frilly pink apron over it, then pulled a large red card in the shape of a heart from his pocket and gave it to his wife.
“Oh, Harry, thank you,” Ginny said, slowly getting out of bed and running over to her husband to give him a big hug and kiss. She then moved into her walk-in closet while Harry conjured his own breakfast from down stairs and sat down on his side of the bed. “Happy Anniversary,” Ginny said back, handing Harry a card twice as big as the one he’d made, along with a signed Quidditch jersey from Marlon Falconwood, his favourite player.
After thanking his wife the two spent the next few minutes eating breakfast in bed and talking. Which is how Ginny found out where her children were, along with some of what Harry had planned for them.
“I figure after breakfast we can go and take a walk, maybe do a little shopping. No, nothing for the babies,” Harry added, seeing Ginny’s excited face. “Only things you want, clothes, jewellery, that kinda thing. After that we can have a picnic and –“
“In this weather? It’s freezing out there!” Ginny complained.
“Yes, well, I’ve got something worked out,” replied Harry with a sly grin on his face. “Anyway, I’ve got a few other things planned after that.”
“You know, Harry, with the kids out of the house, this gives us the perfect opportunity to start writing – or at least planning – our book.” Ginny was now standing on the threshold of her closet, getting dressed.
“Good idea, perhaps we can discus it while we have our picnic.”
An Hour Later
“Oh, Harry, this scenery is breathtaking!” cried Ginny. The Potters were taking their long walk at the moment. Though, instead of being along the ocean in Scotland like Ginny had thought, Harry surprised her and took her to the Cliffs of Moher, in Ireland. “I can’t believe it’s been twelve years since we were here last.”
“Yeah, I thought you’d like to come back.” Harry smiled, he’d missed Ireland ever since his honeymoon there, and he was very happy to be back. Just then his watch began beeping. “Time to go,” he said, taking his wife’s hand.
“Aw! Can’t we stay a little longer?”
“Gin, we both know you take hours to shop, if we’re going to make out lunch reservation you’d better start now.”
“I thought we were having a picnic.”
“We are.”
Ten Minutes Later
Ginny walked through the streets of Aindeen, one of two magical shopping districts in Dublin. Harry walked three feet behind her, finding no need to block her view of the many shops that surrounded them.
“Let’s go there first.” Ginny pointed to Eimile, the best women’s clothing store around. Racks full of pre-made robes of every color imaginable lined the walls, making it nearly impossible to see the mauve color. Walking into the maternity department, Ginny held up a deep red ankle-length dress. “What do you think?” she asked Harry. “We’ve got Ron and Cal’s birthday coming up. I can wear it then.”
“What about after you give birth, though?”
“It’s easy enough to take in the waist. I doubt anyone will even know it’s the same dress.” Ginny laughed as she ran into the changing room to try on her find. As it turned out, the dress was a bit too big for her, but she got it anyway. Knowing that by Fred and George’s birthday she’d be able to fit into it.
“I like this one.” Harry held up a golden bikini.
“Harry, I’m not going to be pregnant in the summer.”
“Well I’m sure it’ll come in handy for the next baby,” Harry said, frowning as he put the bikini back on the rack. Ginny whirled around.
“What did you say?!”
“I said it’ll come in handy for the next … oops, never mind.” Harry realized his mistake.
“That’s what I thought.” Ginny continued taking ten robes into the changing room at a time until finally she’d reached her limit of three dresses, five pair of pants, ten t-shirts, two jumpers and two pairs of very comfortable shoes.
“Done?” Harry asked and she approached him near the check-out counter.
“Yep.”
Five minutes later all of Ginny’s new things were safely sent back to the house and the couple was now standing in the jewellery store.
“I’ll take it all,” Ginny mumbled as she looked at all the sparkling diamonds, emeralds, rubies, amethysts and sapphires under the glass counters.
“Very funny,” said Harry as he looked at some ruby cufflinks. “Just remember to save a little money for Al’s birthday next month. Okay?”
“Fine.” The thirty-year-old then picked out matching sapphire earrings and necklace. “All right, I’m finished.”
“So am I,” Harry replied, taking the cufflinks and a topaz necklace for Molly to thank her for all she’d done for them. “Okay, time for lunch.”
Thirty Minutes Later
“Just keep your eyes closed,” said Harry for the tenth time since they had left the Day Bus, something Ginny wasn’t happy to be on.
“All right already, they’re closed.”
Harry quickly laid out a thick blanket on the grass, then conjured a picnic basket with plates, glasses, cutlery, napkins, plus salads, sandwiches, juice and some apples. “Okay,” he said finally, “you can open your eyes now.”
As Ginny did so, she gasped, of all places she expected to go, Hogwarts was not one of them. The giant castle stood in the distance, the Quidditch pitch was off the left, the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid’s hut were to the right, she was standing right in front of the lake, and everything was covered in snow. Except, of course, for the area the Harry and Ginny stood, which the Headmistress had been so kind as to charm for them.
“Sit,” Harry instructed, placing some potato salad on both plates. “I’ve reserved the grounds for two hours.”
“Two hours?” Ginny said as she began eating a sandwich. “I won’t take us that long to eat.”
“No, but I though you might like to do some skating after lunch.” Harry pointed to the frozen lake.
“Perfect.” Ginny smiled. “Now, to work. Do you have any idea for our book?”
“Well, I did have an idea about how a young Muggle gets thrown into the magical world by accident,” Harry said around a mouthful of his tuna sandwich.
“Come on. No one’s going to read a book about a kid surviving in our world. Especially not with Voldemort and his men.”
“Fine, you got any better ideas then?”
“Yes, actually, I do. The adventures of seven siblings who try to overcome their problems, the biggest of which being poverty.”
“You know, these stories are starting to sound oddly familiar. Aren’t they?”
“Kinda. Maybe they’re in one of Al’s books. Okay, new idea. The children of some really famous wizards go to Hogwarts and have to deal with people thinking they’re really snotty. What do you think?”
“I like it.” Harry grinned as he thought of the characters going through a lot of the things that happened to him. Including the evil Snape-like teacher.
(will post next two chapters in a second)
Sequel to A Christmas to Remember. Rated as a precaution. In five months Ginny Potter will give birth to her twins, but can she survive through the normal chaos that follows her family?
Five Months
Chapter One: January
Chapter One: January
Harry sat on a bench on the ground floor of St. Mungo’s. During the eight years of his wife’s coma, Harry had spent more time in the hospital than one person would in their entire life. Needless to say, he no longer felt like this was a safe place to be.
If there was one good reason to come here it was Casey Adams, Harry’s favourite Welcome Witch. Casey had befriended Harry during the eight years and had been very understanding of his situation, even going so far as to baby-sit Alroy for him when he needed to be alone with Ginny.
Of course, Ginny was back now, as healthier as ever. It had been almost two years since she woke up, after all. So Harry and Casey never really got a chance to see each other anymore. And neither could figure out if that was a good or bad thing.
It was nearing noon now, and Harry’s back was beginning to hurt from sitting on the hard wooden bench for almost an hour. But, truth be told, it was his own fault. Healer Lynch, Ginny’s new Midwitch, had told Harry that the check-up would take a while and to go to the hospital shop while he waited. But his reasons for not doing what the Healer said were simple. One: he didn’t want to buy anything; two: both of Harry and Ginny’s children were in St Mungo’s for their own check-ups today, so if anyone needed Harry he’d be right there; and three: Harry really didn’t like Healer Lynch.
Silently Casey walked over to where Harry was sitting in the crowded room. In her hands were two cups of coffee. She had known Harry for a very long time, and she liked to think that she knew him better than he knew himself, including what he needed. This, of course, was true.
Handing him a cup, she spoke. “How’s the family?”
Harry startled when he heard Casey’s voice, he wasn’t expected anyone, least of all her, but he took the coffee gratefully. “Fine, everyone’s fine.”
“Good to hear.” She smiled. Casey had heard about things going on with the Potters through their many family members who passed through the hospital, and she could always tell which stories were true. Unfortunately there were several true stories at the moment.
Things she’d heard consisted of Ginny’s pregnancy, this was old news, true enough, but the fact that she was having twins had only been discovered last month. Then there was the writing of Harry and Ginny’s first book. Both adults had quit their jobs as Aurors at the same time with the hopes of becoming children’s authors. Now they were at a loss for words—literally.
Last, there was Harry’s problem with Healer Lynch. This Casey had found out from Lynch herself. From what the Healer could tell, Harry considered the amount of years a Healer has been working to reflect on how experienced they are. And both of Ginny’s past Midwitches had worked for over twenty years before they hired them, where as Lynch only had ten years under her belt. This was something Casey thought she could help Harry with.
She took a sip of her coffee slowly and quietly before turning to Harry. “So, how’s Ginny?”
“Fine,” he answered.
“Any complications?”
“No, she’s just in for her monthly check-up.”
Casey laughed softly. “No. I meant are there any complications with Healer Lynch. You still don’t trust her, do you?”
Harry had gotten over being shocked by Casey’s knowledge of things long ago; he now found it comforting that someone cared enough to learn what was happening in his life. “No, I don’t.”
She laughed again. “Harry, Lynette Lynch is one of my oldest and closest friends. So believe me when I say that she’s more than qualified to take care of Ginny. And, if that still doesn’t convince you, check her stats. She’s dealt with more births than both your old Healers combined. And most of them were for twins.”
A few moments passed without them speaking. Both knew Harry didn’t have anything else he could argue about on the subject. Finally Casey decided to break the silence with a question that’d been nagging at her for a month now.
“Have you decided on the names yet?”
Harry smirked as he finished his drink. Setting the glass down beside him, he answered. “We’ve talked about it a little. But nothing is final.”
“Did you find out the genders?”
“Yeah, last month. But that was only the magical prediction ultrasound. The real one should happen later this month.”
“Well, MPU’s are pretty accurate most of the time. I’ll bet you anything that the results will be the same.” Casey looked at her wrist watch. It was 12:15 now. “I have to get back to work. Do me a favour, though.” She handed a gift bag to Harry. “Give this to Rachel, it’s her birthday present.”
“Why don’t you just come to the party? We’d love to have you.”
“I don’t want to intrude. Besides, aren’t all your parties for family only?”
“And friends and you’re one of them.” He smiled kindly at her. “The party’s on the thirtieth at my house. It should start at around ten.”
“All right, then. I’ll see you there.”
With that, Casey walked off to her work station, leaving Harry alone for another ten minutes before Alroy and Rachel arrived with another Healer.
“Everything okay, Davis?”
“Not a single thing wrong with them,” replied Davis Thorn. Davis had been the Potters’ paediatric Healer since Al was born and they had turned to him with Rachel as well. He and Harry and also become friends thanks to Mrs. Thorn, a kind-hearted woman who felt sorry for the Potters.
“Good to know.” Harry took Rachel from the Healer’s arms.
“Oh, Elvira wants to know if we’re still on for the thirtieth,” Davis went on. “I told her that people usually don’t confirm until the week before, but you know Elvira.” He rolled his eyes at his wife.
Harry laughed. “Yeah, the party’s still on. But I think I might have to change the location if more people are invited.” The two laughed again and spoke for a few more minutes before Ginny came from one of the ground floor offices.
“Good afternoon, Dave.” Ginny said to the Healer after taking her daughter from Harry.
“Hello, Ginny. Everything alright with the babies, I hope.”
“Oh, yes. Everything’s fine.” She smiled and looked at the clock. “We should be going though. See you soon.”
Harry nodded and the four Flooed to their home in Northern Scotland.
Later
It was almost nine-thirty. Harry had just finished putting the children to bed while Ginny read a book. Now they were both stretched out on an over-stuffed couch in their family room, talking.
“So,” began Harry. “What did Lynch say?” Ginny smirked, she too knew of Harry’s dislike for her Midwitch.
“She wants me to take it easy, no unnecessary traveling, no Apparating or Flooing. You know the usual.” Harry nodded. “Anyway, shall we get to work?” Ginny snapped her fingers and a large, purple binder appeared in front of her. The word ‘Rachel’ was written on the front cover. Flipping it open, it landed on a list of names; the guest list. “Okay, so far we’ve invited my parents, my brothers, their wives, their kids, Remus and Tonks, Neville and Luna, and Dave and Elvira. Is that everyone?”
“Don’t forget about your father’s old friends,” added Harry.
“Oh, yeah. Jake and Randy Winters.” Ginny said as she wrote down the names. “I have a funny feeling this is going to be an exhausting month.”
“Well, that’s what happens when you celebrate two birthdays on the same day.”
“Tell that to my mum. She’s the one that thought this would be easier than having two parties.”
The room fell silent for a few minutes while both adults were lost in their own thoughts.
“By the way,” said Harry, “I invited Casey Adams.”
“All right, is that everyone, then?”
“I guess.” Ginny turned the page in Rachel’s birthday binder.
“Next, presents. Do you know what you want to get her?”
“I was thinking about one of those brooms for toddlers.” He grinned. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re crazy.”
“Come on, Gin,” Harry pleaded. “I got one for Alroy when one his first birthday.”
“That’s because I wasn’t there to stop you. I’m sorry, but my daughter is not going anywhere near a broom until she’s ten-years-old, even if it’s just a toy. And that’s final.”
Harry crossed his arms over his chest and began to pout as his wife continued on.
“How about one of those Morgana dolls? Or maybe some books?”
“A doll?” What good can come of giving her a doll? At least if we get her the toddler broom it’ll teach her to fly. And its really safe too! It has a seatbelt and handles and everything,” he added, seeing Ginny’s glares.
“Fine. I’ll get the Morgana doll, and you get her the stupid broom,” she gave in. “But if I find so much as one scratch on Rachel I’m burning the thing. Agreed?”
“Whatever you say.” Harry then proceeded to skip happily around the room, while Ginny shook her head.
“Anyway,” she said, making the thirty-two-year-old sit down again. “We’ll have to get all the decorations tomorrow. Let’s see, Mum’s making the cake; Fleur and Hermione offered to cook dinner for me, isn’t that nice of them? And Fred and George are the entertainment, for the kids anyway. Are we forgetting anything?”
“Is time to relax scheduled?”
“Very funny, we’ve got five birthday parties to attend in the next five months, that’s eight people. Plus we’ve got Valentine’s Day and Easter.” Ginny stopped to catch her breath. “Not to mention the fact that I’m due somewhere in that chaos.”
Harry comforted his stressed wife, tossing the binder onto the coffee table. “We can get through all of it, we’ve done it before.”
“Not with twins we haven’t.”
“Big deal. Your parents had three kids before Fred and George and they went on to have two more, and they’re still standing.”
“Harry, when my parents had the twins, Bill was eight, Charlie was six, and Percy was two. Rachel’s just turning one, and Alroy will be ten before I’m due. Don’t you think they had it a little better than we do?” Harry laughed.
“Are you kidding? I know your brothers, Ginny. At least out kids aren’t complete trouble-makers.” In a more serious tone he added, “We’ll be fine, trust me.”
Dropping the subject, though still having doubts, Ginny pulled out a large book and two rolls of parchment from her purse beside her. “Shall we move on to more important matters, then?” She handed a roll of parchment to Harry, along with a quill, and set the book down between them. Taking a peek at the book’s title, Harry laughed.
“’Name Your Wizard’?” he read. “Isn’t it a little early to pick out baby names? We don’t even know the genders yet.”
“Well, we could just pick names according to the MPU results.”
“You mean all girls names?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm, maybe we should go through all names, just in case.”
“Fine.”
Harry and Ginny then got to work and began writing down their favourite male and female names, the book only coming in use once or twice. Finally, as the large grandfather clock struck eleven o’clock, both Potter had finished writing out their lists with at least seventy names on each.
“Girls names first?” Harry asked, picking up Ginny’s list.
“Sure,” she answered, picking up Harry’s. There was a moment of silence as they looked down each other’s lists.
“Agnes? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Harry said, breaking the silence.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“’Agnes Potter’, tell me you don’t find anything wrong with that!”
“Well it’s far better than Athena Potter!”
“I’ll have you know that Athena was the goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology.”
“So what? You think it’ll make our daughter smart if she’s named after her?”
“Well, yeah,” Harry answered lamely. Ginny just shook her head as she continued to read the list.
“Beatrice, no. Belle, no. Bridget, no. Bethany, yes. I actually like that.”
“All right, I’ll add that to the joint list.” Harry then took out a fresh piece of parchment and scribbled the name down as an option, then returned to Ginny’s names. “Buffy? I’m not naming my daughter after a vampire slayer.”
“A vampire what?”
“Slayer. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a Muggle TV show.”
“Oh, I see the problem. All right, I’ll forget about it then. Hey, do you like Calantha?”
“Is that a joke?”
“Never mind.”
“How about Dana or Delia?”
“No way. I don’t suppose you’d like Danica or Demetria, would you?”
“Nope.”
“I know! Honey!”
“Honey Potter?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Fine, then no to Hannah and Hilary too.”
“You didn’t even give them a chance! At least give Ileana a little thought, will you?”
“Ileana?” Ginny scrolled down the list a little until she came to the I’s. “I love it!”
“Love? Well, that’s a step up from like, I suppose.” Harry once again added the name onto the joint list. “What do you think of Janelle and Judy?”
“Don’t like either. How about Kizzy?”
“What’s a Kizzy?”
“Forget it.”
“Do you like Natalie?”
“No, but what about Nathalie?”
“Okay. Olivia?”
“No. Oriana?”
“Nope. Ruth?”
“Ew, ugly name… Oh! Phoenix Potter!”
“That’s a bird.”
“Fine. What about Ruby?”
“What is it with you and the gem stones?” Harry asked, looking over his wife’s list. “Amethyst, Emerald, Diamond, Garnet, Onyx, Ruby, Sapphire, you’ve even got Gemma and Jewel on here.”
“It’s not a crime to like pretty names – or pretty jewellery.”
“Anyway, you like Tatum?”
“No way. Tiffany’s way better.”
“I don’t think so… Zoë’s my last name.”
“I’ve got Zara.”
“Well, we only got Bethany, Ileana and Nathalie for female names. Shall we move on?”
“Sure.” Ginny moved on down Harry list again, this time stopping at the male names. “You like Adam?”
“Yeah, very traditional.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I could say the same about you for putting Adair, Ambrose and Arnold on your list.”
“What’s wrong with Arnold?”
“You named your pygmy puff Arnold in your fifth year.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. How about Casimir, then?”
“Sorry, no. Dylan?”
“That’s nice.” Another name added to the joint list.
“Fabian? You actually like Fabian?”
“Well, no, but it’s a family name. Fabian and Gideon were my uncles. Mum’s brothers.”
“Oh, all right, I’ll add them. But I’ll only use them if we have boys. Okay?”
“Yes!”
“Do you like Henry or Hyatt?”
“No. What about Hagan and Hayden?”
“No.”
Harry and Ginny were becoming very impatient, the clock was nearing midnight and they could barely get past a letter without arguing.
“Jensen, then? Or perhaps Jasper or Joseph?”
“Joseph? Yeah, I like that one. Do you like Miles or Morris?”
“Nope. Maddox and Maurice are better.”
“No, they’re not.”
“Well, Rory and Regan are nice, we’ve got to admit.”
“A little, but I’m not naming my kids them. Maybe Ren or Riley though.”
“I’d rather have Theodore.”
“I actually like that too.”
“How about Wade?”
“Not for my son. Wyatt?”
“Not gonna happen. Zane’s may last one.”
“Zachary’s mine.”
Again the room became quiet as Harry and Ginny looked over their joint names list. So far it read:
Girls:
Bethany, Ileana and Nathalie
Boys:
Dylan, Fabian & Gideon, Joseph and Theodore
This wasn’t as helpful as Ginny had thought it would be since neither would know the genders of their twins until later that month.
The Next Morning
Mr. and Mrs. Potter walked down the crowded streets of Diagon Alley alone. Both looked tired from staying up late the night before, being woken up at eight in the morning by Alroy didn’t help either. Now Alroy was in Muggle school and Rachel was visiting Molly and Arthur at the Burrow while their parents shopped.
As soon as Harry and Ginny stepped foot in the Alley that day, Harry immediately pushed through the crowds leading to Gringotts while Ginny made her way to Madam Malkin’s to pick up the robes they’d ordered a week before.
“I’m afraid there’s been a slight problem, Mrs. Potter,” began the shop owner when Ginny asked her for the clothes. “It’s Dana, one of our interns; she accidentally gave your robes to a Ms. Greta Potter.”
“Greta Potter?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Well, is there any way you can get my clothes back?”
“We’re trying ma’am. Dana’s been trying to contact Ms. Potter all day. We could always make you some new robes, free of charge, of course.”
“There’s no time, we need them by the thirtieth, that’s in a week.”
“Ah, yes, that is a problem.” Ginny sighed. Of all the things she thought could go wrong on her daughter’s birthday this was not one of them. Thankfully Harry came in at that moment.
“Everything all right?” he asked, seeing her disappointed face.
“They gave away our robes to another Potter.”
“I’m very sorry, sir,” interrupted Madam Malkin.
Ginny could tell from the look on Harry’s face that he was about to do something he’d most likely regret later on, lucky for both of them, Dana walked up beside Madam Malkin with a large grin no her face.
“Good news,” she said, “I just finished talking to Ms. Potter. She says she’ll be back here in a half hour to exchange the robes. Isn’t that wonderful?!” The three adults all glared at the teenager.
“Dana, I think we need to have a little talk after we close tonight,” said Madam Malkin through clenched teeth as she led the girl to the back room, but not before telling Harry and Ginny to come back in an hour.
“Where next?” asked Harry as they stepped outside onto the cobbled road.
“The Party Palace, for decorations,” his wife answered after consulting her list.
Walking a few feet away from Madam Malkin’s, they found themselves in front of a small bubblegum pink shop which looked even smaller squished between two multiple level buildings. Though the inside looked much bigger due to the sickening shade of lime green and had pink and yellow polka dots all over the walls and doors. Beside the door sat a young man who looked to have just gotten out of Hogwarts. He was sitting behind a small desk and appeared to be the clerk.
“Can I help you?” the boy asked when he noticed his new customers.
“No, thank you,” replied Harry as he began leading Ginny to their usual starting point; balloons.
“What do you think of these?” Ginny held up a package of pink and purple balloons with white unicorns on them.
“Unicorns? C’mon, Gin, do we have to use girly stuff?” Ginny laughed.
“Well, Rachel is a girl, Harry. What did you expect we’d use?”
“I don’t know – nothing pink though. Can’t we do Quidditch or something?”
“No. We’ve already done five Quidditch parties for Alroy, though I’m sure there are more that you haven’t told me about yet.”
“But Rachel won’t even remember this birthday!”
“No, but I will. End of discussion.” Ginny then proceeded to throw three packs of the unicorn balloons in her cart, along with a couple with a numeral one on them, then dragged Harry into the next department, signs and streamers.
“Let me guess,” Harry started, “you want to get the pink and yellow stuff.”
“Oh, stop sulking. I’ll have you know I’m getting the baby blue streamers. And I’ll be making my own sign – which will also be blue.”
Two minutes later they were on a hunt for party favours.
“What do you think about a cute picture frame for the adults?” Ginny asked, this time holding up a wooden frame with bears glued on the corners.
“Not expensive enough,” said a voice from behind the couple.
“Yeah, a hundred galleons per person will do,” said another. Turning around they found Fred and George.
“What are you guys doing here?” asked Harry after Ginny finished hugging her brothers.
“It’s Cal’s birthday next month and Angelina’s making me plan the party. Can you believe it?” Fred’s voice showed more excitement than anger, and his huge grin confirmed it.
“And he recruited me to help him,” said George, the grin on his face identical to that of his twin’s.
“Please tell me Angelina’s still going to be cooking,” said Ginny.
“She hasn’t decided yet. But I’m dying to try out this new recipe I read about – Hippogriff stew.” Fred started laughing hysterically as both Harry and Ginny considered never eating again.
“Anyway,” said Harry, hoping to change the subject. “ What’re you getting for party favours?”
“Lollipops for the young kids, Sugar Quills for the older kids, and boxes of chocolate for the adults. You’re not seriously considering picture frames, are you?”
“Not any more.” Ginny put the frame back on the shelf and turned back to the twins. “Actually, I think I’ve got an even better idea. Would you two give us a discount at WWW, being family and all?” Both Fred and George’s grins widened as Ginny explained her idea of giving everyone items from their shop, except for most of the kids, that is.
Nearly twenty minutes later Ginny walked back into Madam Malkin’s to retrieve her family’s robes while Harry trailed behind her with five heavy looking bags.
“Do we need to go anywhere else?” the man asked, exhaustion showing.
“Just the toy store.” At this he brightened up and quickly sent all the packages to hide in the attic.
Rachel and Arthur’s Birthday Party
“Ginny, dear, what color did you want the cake to be?” asked Molly Weasley, stepping out of the Potters’ kitchen.
“Yell – I mean green, mum,” answered Ginny after noticing Harry’s glare.
The couple was sitting in the living room awaiting their guests. Molly, Fleur and Hermione had all arrived several hours before and hadn’t dared to exit the kitchen lest they should get involved in one of Harry and Ginny’s fights over what decoration goes where. Now it was almost noon and people were bound to start arriving.
As if on queue the doorbell rang and Harry left the room to answer it, though it only turned out to be Arthur, along with his friends, Jake and Randy. The men were promptly seated in the living room with cold Butterbeer in their mugs. Almost right after Bill and Ron showed up, both looking tired and ready to keel over from being left alone with their children for a few hours. Next came Fred and Angelina, who appeared to be fighting over giving out so much candy at Cal’s party. Following a few feet behind were George and Katie. Then came Neville and Luna, Remus and Tonks, and Mr. and Mrs. Thorn arrived with Casey. And it was only once everyone had been mingling in the living room for ten minutes that Percy and Penelope finally arrived.
As it the night progressed, Ginny considered it a disaster due to all the children having sugar rushes, which she was sure to thank Fred for, and, of course, for the explosion of Molly’s beautiful three layer green cake. Something that the twins swore they didn’t do. And they were telling the truth, since it was later discovered to be Calvin. But despite all the mishaps, everyone, adults and children alike, had a wonderful time. And according to Arthur, it was his favourite birthday, much to the delight of Ginny.
‘One month down,’ she thought, once the last guest had left.
Chapter Two: February
“What do you mean you can’t tell?!” Harry shouted at the Healer.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Potter. I know it sounds strange, but sometimes it’s hard to tell, and I’d rather not guess for the hell of it. We’ll just have to try again next month.”
“Next month?!”
“Calm down, Harry,” said Ginny softly as she began getting dressed from her ultrasound. “We’ve waited five months to know the genders, I’m sure we can wait one more.” Giving one last questioning look at the Healer, Harry stormed out of the room. “I’m sorry about him,” Ginny said.
“It’s all right. At least once a month I get someone who can’t understand it when I can’t do something, they’re quite common actually,” Lynette Lynch replied as she began cleaning up her work station.
“Oh, no, it’s not that. Harry just doesn’t really … Er …” Ginny paused.
“Like me? Yes, I know. I get quite a few of those too.”
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Not really. Well, I suppose its worse with first-time fathers, your husband’s being kind compared to them. Besides, I’ve wanted to meet him for years, so I can’t really be mad at him for being cautious, can I?” The women stood laughing for a moment. “Have you picked out the names yet?”
“Er, kinda. We’ve narrowed it down to a few, anyway.”
“What about the nursery? Have you decorated yet?”
“Actually no,” Ginny replied, a thoughtful expression on her face. “You know, it’s funny. The first time I was pregnant I waited until I had three weeks left to decorated, and with my second I started as soon as I found out I was pregnant. But I haven’t even thought of doing the nursery yet.”
“That’s not so odd. The first time you were probably nervous you’d lose the baby and you didn’t want to jinx it, and the second time you were confident that it’d make it.”
“And now?”
“Well, twins feel different to you.”
Meanwhile
“Good afternoon, Harry,” welcomed Remus as he walked up to the Boy-Who-Lived in the hallway.
“Hello, Remus. What are you doing here?”
“Just picking up my monthly potion.” The old werewolf held up a bottle containing the foul-tasting potion. “Ginny in for her check-up?”
“Yeah.”
“I take it it’s not going well by the tone of your voice.”
“The bloody Healer can’t determine the genders of the twins.”
“Ah, well, that’s common. Actually, that happened to your mother.”
“It did?”
“Yes. Your father was furious with her Healer too. But the poor woman swore she couldn’t tell if you were a boy or a girl,” Remus recalled. “Lily was able to calm him down, of course, but he made the Healer take a guess anyway. She thought you were a girl.” Harry’s smile from hearing about his parents disappeared as Remus began to laugh. “So, have you two decided on names yet?”
“We’re working on it,” the younger wizard continued, trying to ignore what he’d just been told. “It’s hard, though. Ginny keeps picking these really weird names. I mean, she wanted to use Buffy. Can you believe it?”
“Truthfully I like that name.”
“Thank you, Remus,” Ginny said, stepping out of the hospital room with Healer Lynch close behind her.
Five Minutes Later
“Harry, Lynette – sorry, Healer Lynch gave me a great idea today,” began Ginny once she and Harry had Apparated home.
“What? Get a new Healer?” he replied sarcastically.
“No, we should start decorating the nursery.”
“The nursery? Already?”
“Why not? I’m already five months pregnant.”
“Oh, yes. All right, then.” With that the couple began taking out all the decorating magazines they had left over from when Alroy and Rachel were born.
“What color should we paint it?” Ginny asked, flipping through her favourite magazine.
“Don’t you mean colors? We have enough rooms for the babies to have their own, you know,” said Harry.
“Okay, so what colors do you want to paint them?”
“How about blue, for both?”
“How about blue for one and green for the other?”
“Does it have to be green?” Ginny was beginning to realize how much Harry really liked blue.
“It’s green, yellow, pink or purple. You choose.”
“Fine, we’ll go with green.” The rest of the hour was used to decide on which shades of blue and green they wanted to use, along with accent colors.
The Next Weekend
“Harry, are you busy?” Ginny walked slowly into their joint office were Harry was sitting at his desk reading the newspaper and drinking his tea.
“No, why?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to go out. Rachel’s taking her nap and Al’s invited Tim and Jeremy over, so I’m sure Marnie wouldn’t mind babysitting for us.”
“What? You mean like lunch or something? Sure.”
“Er, actually I was thinking about doing a bit of shopping for nursery things.”
“All right.”
Ten Minutes Later
“Let’s try this place.” Ginny pointed to a large shop. The sign above the heavy wooden door read Eve’s Baby Emporium. The inside was a warm and calming place, the walls were a mint green and the doors and floor were wood. Fireplaces were lit at every corner to keep out the cold February air. And friendly looking men and women filled the store and each wore a pink and blue stripped apron.
Ginny immediately felt at home and she felt all her worries about the pregnancy wash away as she looked at all the baby apparel. And Harry, though not likely the shop as much as his wife, was at least thankful that it brought a long awaited smile to her face.
Walking to the back of the building, the couple stopped when they reached the cribs. Now, according to Harry, the best crib it the one in Rachel’s room, the old mahogany crib that Molly and Arthur gave them when Al was born. The same one that all seven Weasley children had used. But, that crib was being occupied at the moment by a one year old and now the couple needed to buy two new ones.
“I like this one,” said Ginny walking over to a white crib with hearts carved into both ends. Harry, on the other stood by a sturdy oak wood crib that had no decoration, though the edges were carved to look like waves.
“What about this one?” slowly, she made her way over to examine it.
“Yes, it’s very nice. I think this is the one,” she said, and Harry told the salesman to send two to their house. The next department was the rocking chairs, something Harry agreed not to argue on, since Ginny would be spending the most time in them. After finding and buying two chairs that matched the cribs perfectly, the Potters went on a hunt for two dressers that could double as change tables, which took all of five minutes. The next two hours after that were devoted to buying toys, clothes and other necessities.
Two Days Later
“I thought I told you I wanted mint green, like in Eve’s,” complained Ginny. Harry had just come home from buying the paint for both nurseries.
“This is mint. At least, that’s what the people at the store said.”
“Well, what do they know? This is sage, for Merlin’s sake!”
“Do you like the blue I got?” Harry asked, trying to calm down his wife.
“Oh, yes, it’s lovely. Well, I suppose we ought to get someone over to help you,” she said, making her way over to the fireplace to Floo someone.
“Help me?”
“Yes. I certainly can’t be around paint, Muggle or wizarding, in my condition, and I can’t expect you to paint two large rooms all by yourself. Do you think Bill would be interested in helping?”
Bill arrived several moments later wearing a royal blue jumper that had a large “B” on the front and many holes from the years of use. His long red hair was tied up in a pony-tail and he wore slippers over his boots to make sure they didn’t get any paint on them. “All right,” he said, “I’m armed and ready to paint.” With that, the two men began rolling the periwinkle blue onto the walls of the first nursery then, with Ginny’s permission, put sage in the second.
Four Days Later
“Al! Al, get up!” Harry whispered in his son’s ear. Although there were five rooms between the master bedroom and Alroy’s room, Harry didn’t want to take any chances on waking Ginny up, even if that meant trying to wake up Britain’s soundest sleeper by whispering. Of course, even the Boy-Who-Lived loses his patients once in a while. Carelessly taking out his wand he put a silencing charm on the room and charmed Al’s clock to crow like a rooster, something he hadn’t down for over a year.
“I knew it!” exclaimed the nine-year-old once he realized that his father was standing in front of him with a grin on his face. “I knew you were charming my clock!”
“Yeah, yeah. Listen, you and Rachel are going to sleep over at Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione’s tonight, okay?”
“Why?”
“Look at your calendar.” Alroy did as he was told, then, with a knowing expression on his face, began nodded.
“Oh. Yeah, okay. I’ll start packing.”
“I already packed your over-night bag, and I got Rachel’s things ready too,” Harry said, still whispering despite the silencing charm. “Your uncle should be here any second to pick you up.” At that moment Ron appeared in the room wearing a Chudley Canons t-shirt and jeans.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone,” he said with a smile. “Ready to go?” he asked Al.
“Er, give me a second to get dressed, will you?” Harry and Ron left the room then and moved into Rachel’s where Harry performed the same charm.
“You’re sure this is okay?” Harry asked, handing Rachel over to his brother-in-law.
“Yeah, it’s no problem. ‘Mione and dad have to work late tonight so it’ll just be me and the girls. Mum said she might drop by later on though.” Alroy walked in then, dressed a pair of brown trousers and an orange jumper and he was carrying his bag.
“Ready to go,” he said, walking up to his uncle. “Bye, dad.”
“Bye, Al. Have a good time.” A second later Ron disappeared with Rachel in his arms and Alroy by his side. Harry went straight to work after that.
Once in the kitchen he started cracking eggs into a small mixing bowl and threw in some other things. After he got the eggs cooking the bacon and pancakes were put on the stove. And, since Harry didn’t really trust himself with toast, he decided to wait until everything was done to start it. Several minutes later two plates sat on the kitchen counter with mounds of food, more than two people could normally consume, anyway. Putting the plate with more food onto a tray, Harry added a cup of tea and a glass of grape juice. And, to top it all off, he added a white rose in a vase and began walking up the stairs.
Gently setting the tray down beside the bed, he nudged Ginny’s shoulder to wake her up. A few more nudges and still nothing happened. Eventually Harry had tried nudging, rolling, yelling and was a minute away from kicking when he decided to charm her clock too. That seemed to work.
“Was there a need to be so loud?” Ginny asked tiredly as she sat up in bed. The sleeves were rolled up on her long blue nightgown and her flaming red hair was ruffled so badly that it was at least a foot high.
Harry placed the tray on the bed, in front of Ginny, whose facial expression had gone from tired and angry to very thankful. “Happy Anniversary, honey.” Harry, wearing his burgundy bath robe with a frilly pink apron over it, then pulled a large red card in the shape of a heart from his pocket and gave it to his wife.
“Oh, Harry, thank you,” Ginny said, slowly getting out of bed and running over to her husband to give him a big hug and kiss. She then moved into her walk-in closet while Harry conjured his own breakfast from down stairs and sat down on his side of the bed. “Happy Anniversary,” Ginny said back, handing Harry a card twice as big as the one he’d made, along with a signed Quidditch jersey from Marlon Falconwood, his favourite player.
After thanking his wife the two spent the next few minutes eating breakfast in bed and talking. Which is how Ginny found out where her children were, along with some of what Harry had planned for them.
“I figure after breakfast we can go and take a walk, maybe do a little shopping. No, nothing for the babies,” Harry added, seeing Ginny’s excited face. “Only things you want, clothes, jewellery, that kinda thing. After that we can have a picnic and –“
“In this weather? It’s freezing out there!” Ginny complained.
“Yes, well, I’ve got something worked out,” replied Harry with a sly grin on his face. “Anyway, I’ve got a few other things planned after that.”
“You know, Harry, with the kids out of the house, this gives us the perfect opportunity to start writing – or at least planning – our book.” Ginny was now standing on the threshold of her closet, getting dressed.
“Good idea, perhaps we can discus it while we have our picnic.”
An Hour Later
“Oh, Harry, this scenery is breathtaking!” cried Ginny. The Potters were taking their long walk at the moment. Though, instead of being along the ocean in Scotland like Ginny had thought, Harry surprised her and took her to the Cliffs of Moher, in Ireland. “I can’t believe it’s been twelve years since we were here last.”
“Yeah, I thought you’d like to come back.” Harry smiled, he’d missed Ireland ever since his honeymoon there, and he was very happy to be back. Just then his watch began beeping. “Time to go,” he said, taking his wife’s hand.
“Aw! Can’t we stay a little longer?”
“Gin, we both know you take hours to shop, if we’re going to make out lunch reservation you’d better start now.”
“I thought we were having a picnic.”
“We are.”
Ten Minutes Later
Ginny walked through the streets of Aindeen, one of two magical shopping districts in Dublin. Harry walked three feet behind her, finding no need to block her view of the many shops that surrounded them.
“Let’s go there first.” Ginny pointed to Eimile, the best women’s clothing store around. Racks full of pre-made robes of every color imaginable lined the walls, making it nearly impossible to see the mauve color. Walking into the maternity department, Ginny held up a deep red ankle-length dress. “What do you think?” she asked Harry. “We’ve got Ron and Cal’s birthday coming up. I can wear it then.”
“What about after you give birth, though?”
“It’s easy enough to take in the waist. I doubt anyone will even know it’s the same dress.” Ginny laughed as she ran into the changing room to try on her find. As it turned out, the dress was a bit too big for her, but she got it anyway. Knowing that by Fred and George’s birthday she’d be able to fit into it.
“I like this one.” Harry held up a golden bikini.
“Harry, I’m not going to be pregnant in the summer.”
“Well I’m sure it’ll come in handy for the next baby,” Harry said, frowning as he put the bikini back on the rack. Ginny whirled around.
“What did you say?!”
“I said it’ll come in handy for the next … oops, never mind.” Harry realized his mistake.
“That’s what I thought.” Ginny continued taking ten robes into the changing room at a time until finally she’d reached her limit of three dresses, five pair of pants, ten t-shirts, two jumpers and two pairs of very comfortable shoes.
“Done?” Harry asked and she approached him near the check-out counter.
“Yep.”
Five minutes later all of Ginny’s new things were safely sent back to the house and the couple was now standing in the jewellery store.
“I’ll take it all,” Ginny mumbled as she looked at all the sparkling diamonds, emeralds, rubies, amethysts and sapphires under the glass counters.
“Very funny,” said Harry as he looked at some ruby cufflinks. “Just remember to save a little money for Al’s birthday next month. Okay?”
“Fine.” The thirty-year-old then picked out matching sapphire earrings and necklace. “All right, I’m finished.”
“So am I,” Harry replied, taking the cufflinks and a topaz necklace for Molly to thank her for all she’d done for them. “Okay, time for lunch.”
Thirty Minutes Later
“Just keep your eyes closed,” said Harry for the tenth time since they had left the Day Bus, something Ginny wasn’t happy to be on.
“All right already, they’re closed.”
Harry quickly laid out a thick blanket on the grass, then conjured a picnic basket with plates, glasses, cutlery, napkins, plus salads, sandwiches, juice and some apples. “Okay,” he said finally, “you can open your eyes now.”
As Ginny did so, she gasped, of all places she expected to go, Hogwarts was not one of them. The giant castle stood in the distance, the Quidditch pitch was off the left, the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid’s hut were to the right, she was standing right in front of the lake, and everything was covered in snow. Except, of course, for the area the Harry and Ginny stood, which the Headmistress had been so kind as to charm for them.
“Sit,” Harry instructed, placing some potato salad on both plates. “I’ve reserved the grounds for two hours.”
“Two hours?” Ginny said as she began eating a sandwich. “I won’t take us that long to eat.”
“No, but I though you might like to do some skating after lunch.” Harry pointed to the frozen lake.
“Perfect.” Ginny smiled. “Now, to work. Do you have any idea for our book?”
“Well, I did have an idea about how a young Muggle gets thrown into the magical world by accident,” Harry said around a mouthful of his tuna sandwich.
“Come on. No one’s going to read a book about a kid surviving in our world. Especially not with Voldemort and his men.”
“Fine, you got any better ideas then?”
“Yes, actually, I do. The adventures of seven siblings who try to overcome their problems, the biggest of which being poverty.”
“You know, these stories are starting to sound oddly familiar. Aren’t they?”
“Kinda. Maybe they’re in one of Al’s books. Okay, new idea. The children of some really famous wizards go to Hogwarts and have to deal with people thinking they’re really snotty. What do you think?”
“I like it.” Harry grinned as he thought of the characters going through a lot of the things that happened to him. Including the evil Snape-like teacher.
(will post next two chapters in a second)
