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Godfathering | ||||||
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Category: Post-Hogwarts Characters:Harry/Ginny Genres: General Warnings: None Rating: G Reviews: 7 Summary: After the War, Harry gets to know his godson, with a little help from several important people. Hitcount: Story Total: 3586; Chapter Total: 1292 Author's Notes: A/N: The older I’ve gotten, and my kids have gotten, the more I’ve thought about the relationship between Harry and Teddy. I have a couple of seventeen-year-olds in my own life, and I know how overwhelming this situation would be. I also know that we don’t always give teens enough credit to rise to the occasion when necessary. ☺ |
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Harry was thoughtful as he Apparated back to the Burrow. The Burrow, and not Grimmauld Place, where he was ostensibly living now, because Molly Weasley had insisted that she wanted her family close this entire, terrible week. “Harry, you’ll be up with Ron, of course,” she’d said before Harry could even consider whether he was to be included or not. And so Harry was there, trying to be both helpful and unobtrusive as the Weasleys tried to learn how to navigate the new normal of grief and life without Fred. As he walked from the Apparition point to the Burrow’s back door, Harry decided to wait until after Fred’s funeral, three days hence, to try to talk to Ginny. Three days would give her time with her family; it wouldn’t seem like Harry was trying to take advantage of the situation or showing any disrespect. Three days would give him time to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. Feeling relieved about his decision, Harry pushed open the back door, intending to offer his help to Mrs. Weasley however he could. His eyes fell instead on Ginny, sitting at the kitchen table, quietly cutting up vegetables. Her shoulders were hunched and her eyes were red, but she looked up and gave him a watery smile. “How is Teddy? And Andromeda?” she asked quietly. Harry promptly forgot the decision he had just made. He swallowed. “Andromeda is holding up,” he said thickly. “Teddy . . . Teddy’s brilliant.” He shuffled his feet, speaking quickly before he could change his mind. “Ginny . . . can I talk to you for a second?” He glanced across the room, where Molly was silently stirring something on the stove, not even bothering to use magic. “In private?” Ginny seemed to have been waiting for him to say something; she nodded quickly and stood up. “The garden?” she asked. “I need more carrots and things for the stew.” Harry followed Ginny outside, careful to keep at least an arms-length distance from her as they walked. He thought she glanced at him once or twice, but neither of them spoke as they walked past the heavy stone walls and among the neat rows of vegetables. In the center of the garden, Ginny stopped and began tugging carrots out of the ground dropping them carefully into her basket. She looked up at Harry. “Can you dig up some of those turnips?” she asked, pointing. Harry did as he was told, carefully using his wand to unearth the vegetables and brush off most of the dirt. Ginny was crouched down over the basket, arranging tomatoes, and Harry knelt next to her with the turnips. He put his hand carefully on top of hers. “Ginny,” he said quietly. Ginny froze. A silent heartbeat went by, and then she twisted her hand under his to thread their fingers together. Harry looked at their clasped hands. He squeezed them and felt Ginny squeeze back. He didn’t look at her. She squeezed again. “Thank you,” she said simply. Harry nodded, his eyes still on their hands. “I . . . I wanted to. Before this.” He finally dared to look at her. “I just wasn’t sure. . . .” "I know. I did too," she replied softly, and Harry knew that he really didn't need to say much more about it. She smiled, and Harry could see a few unshed tears still glistening on her lashes. One snaked down her cheek and Harry hesitated only a moment before brushing it away with the pad of his thumb. "Tell me about Teddy," she said. They walked over to sit on the old wooden bench that leaned against the garden wall. “He’s so small,” said Harry. “Not much bigger than a Quaffle when he was curled up in my arms.” He smiled in remembrance. “He grabbed my shirt, wouldn’t let go. And he kept smacking his lips while he slept. Andromeda says he does that all the time.” Ginny reached out and took his hand again. “Can he change his appearance like his . . . him mum?” Her voice broke and Harry knew her thoughts were in the same place as his. He nodded. “He can,” he confirmed. “He did, when he got comfortable with me; his hair turned pink at the tips. Although Andromeda said it will be some time before he can make purposeful changes.” Harry scooted closer to Ginny, closing the space between them on the bench. “I told him about his dad, and mine,” he said quietly. “I promised him lots of stories. He won’t have to grow up like I did, not knowing . . .” Harry took a deep breath. “. . .not knowing that there are people who love him.” Ginny twisted sideways on the bench and put her hand on Harry’s cheek , turning his head so that he faced her. “But you know now, don’t you? How many people love you? Because they do,” she said fiercely. “Not only the people you’ve lost, people right now.” She ticked off names. “Ron and Hermione, my parents, all my brothers.” Ginny’s voice dropped. “And me,” she said in no more than a whisper. “Of course.” The silence stretched. Without even thinking about it, Harry leaned in until his forehead rested against Ginny’s. “I should have said it when I first knew,” he said. “I thought it would make it harder for me to leave. Or if it had ended . . . differently.” He trailed his free hand down her cheek. “I wish I had told you.” “Since then?” She leaned into Harry’s palm. “I think I knew, anyway,” she said. “Just to be clear,” Harry said softly. “I love you. And not in the way I love all the other people you named.” Ginny gave a small chuckle. “Ron will be relieved.” “And . . . I love Teddy too. Already. Is that crazy? I just met him.” “It’s not crazy at all, Harry,” said Ginny softly. “Remus knew what he was doing when he made you Teddy’s godfather.” Harry was quiet for a minute. “Do you think he knew? Remus, I mean. Do you think he knew that he wasn’t going to be around to . . . raise his son?” Harry had been thinking a lot about this in the last days, what Remus and Tonks must have discussed when they’d chosen Harry as Teddy’s godfather. “Maybe they figured I’d just be like a fun uncle who showed up with inappropriate gifts and things,” he said. “Not someone who would have to be . . . whatever it is I’m going to be.” He made a helpless gesture and finally gave voice to the worry he’d been trying to suppress ever since he’d seen Teddy’s parents lying lifelessly in the Great Hall. “What if I’m terrible at this? I don’t know anything about babies, Andromeda had to show me everything, how to hold him, how to feed him, how to burp him. I didn’t know a thing.” Harry ran his hand through his hair. “I owe it to Teddy to be what he needs, I know better than anyone what it’s going to be like for him. What if I don’t do it right?” Too restless in his worry to sit, Harry jumped up off the bench and walked a couple of steps towards an arbor covered with tangled vines. He rested his hand on it for a long minute, looking at the tiny flowers that hung between the leaves. And then Ginny was there, wrapping her arms around him from behind, speaking into his back. “Exactly,” she said. “You know things that no one else knows about what Teddy needs, and is going to need, as he grows. Anyone can burp a baby. It’s much more important that he’s going to have you in his life to help him . . . “ “Grow up without his mum and dad,” Harry finished. He turned around. “I just hope I can figure out what that means.” Ginny still had her arms around him. “Didn’t you say you already starting telling him about Remus and your dad? And that he was comfortable enough with you that his appearance changed? I think you already know what to do. And what you don’t, you’ll figure out as you go along.” She squeezed his waist. “Mum always says that anyone who thinks they know everything about raising kids has probably never raised a kid.” Almost unconsciously, Harry wrapped arms around Ginny too. “Andromeda will be raising him,” he said fairly. “I just plan to be there a lot.” He looked down at her. “I hope you’ll come with me, at least some of the time. Andromeda wants to meet you.” Ginny looked up at Harry. “You already told her about me?” She sounded shyly pleased. “Of course I did,” said Harry with a grin. “It’s only you I had trouble telling.” He grew more serious. “And your family, of course. D’you think we should wait to let them know? Until after, umm, you know. Fred’s funeral. Ginny resolutely shook her head. “They will be happy to know,” she said simply. Harry suddenly understood how right that sounded. “They will, actually,” he said. “I didn’t really think about that.” He was quiet for a moment. “I guess it’s like with Teddy,” he finally said. “What happened is horrible, and there are going to be times that it feels nearly overwhelming.” Ginny shuddered in his arms and lay her head against his chest. Harry kissed her hair. “But we can’t let that sadness define the rest of our lives. We have to figure out a way to include it. It’s the only way to really honor Fred and Remus and Tonks, and everyone.” Ginny gave a watery chuckle. “Ten minutes ago you were upset that you didn’t know how to burp a baby. Now you’re beginning to sound like Dumbledore.” “For so long, I thought his unyielding faith in the power of love was rather unrealistic and overly simple,” Harry admitted. “I think I’m finally starting to get it now. He just told me . . .” he stopped, and looked down at Ginny. “I haven’t even told you, have I? What happened at the battle?” It was a big story, of course, and he wasn’t sure this was the time. Ginny seemed to get that. She shook her head. “I know you will when you — and I — are ready,” she said. “I suspect it’s not something you casually discuss over pudding.” “That’s definitely true,” said Harry. “I think, if it’s okay, I need a couple more days. I just want to be able to focus on family right now.” He gave her a shy smile. “And maybe on kissing you? My seventeenth birthday was a long time ago, you know.” “So I guess you didn’t run into any Veela, then?” Ginny tilted her head up a fraction. She licked her lips and suddenly Harry couldn’t look anywhere else. “Not a single one,” he said softly, leaning down to find her. |
| Reviews 7 |
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