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‘Ginevra,’ Molly said, looking up at Arthur for confirmation. His eyes were soft, gazing at the tiny bundle that she held in her arms. He nodded slightly and Molly looked back at the expectant Healer. ‘Ginevra. That’s her name.’
The healer smiled and wrote the name down, then sent off the document with a flourish of her wand. Folding her clipboard down, she looked at the couple. ‘It’s very auspicious, you know,’ she said. ‘Seventh child, and you said that she’s the first girl in seven generations of the Weasley family?’
Arthur nodded, and the healer looked up at them both with a smile. ‘Pureblood witch too, born from two impressive magical lineages. She’s going to grow up to be quite something.’
Molly waved off the healer. She didn’t care about blood or birth order. She cared that she had a healthy little girl in her arms. Another child to feed and clothe, sure, but also another child to love and laugh with. She loved her boys, but she couldn’t deny the little thrum that went through her heart looking at her daughter, tiny pink nose already dusted with freckles, tufts of red hair already brushing around her ears.
‘Can we bring the boys in?’ Arthur asked the healer.
‘Certainly. I’ll leave you to it. Again, congratulations.’
The healer opened the door to the ward and without invitation, the rest of their children flooded into the room. Bill came first, his youngest brother held in his arms, barely one year old. Charlie bounded in after him, holding the hands of the twins, and Percy entered last, closing the door behind him.
Molly looked at Arthur with a twinkle in her eye, then shifted slightly to allow the whole family to see the new baby. ‘Boys, I’d like you to meet your sister.’
‘Sister!’ Bill and Charlie both exclaimed and looked at each other with wide eyes. They clambered forward to get a look at the baby.
Charlie looked up at his parents. ‘She looks like a boy.’
‘She looks like a baby, Charlie,’ Bill said. ‘All babies look the same.’
‘Let’s see!’ Fred tugged on Charlie’s arm and George copied him. Charlie groaned, but lifted the twins onto the bed, placing them carefully around their mother. They looked at the baby with curiosity. George held out a hand and, in a gentleness that surprised Molly, ran his hand down Ginny’s cheek.
‘Soft,’ he murmured.
‘What’s her name, mum?’ Percy spoke up, craning his neck to look at his new sister.
‘Ginevra,’ Molly replied. Bill and Charlie scrunched up their faces at the name, but Percy nodded and practiced the name, saying it slowly and clearly. He spelt it out for them, and Molly reached out a hand to brush through his hair.
‘Gin-vra!’ Fred shouted.
‘Gin-ev-ra,’ Percy corrected him.
‘Gin-e-vra.’
‘No-‘ Percy started, but his father interrupted him.
‘Why don’t you try “Ginny” boys?’
‘Ginny,’ Fred and George both said in unison, without any trouble. Molly huffed slightly, but softened as the twins repeated the name to one another, petering out until everyone was sitting quietly. They sat in silence for a while, simply watching the newest addition to their family. The way her hands still curled in on themselves, the soft breaths she took in and out.
‘I’m glad we have a sister. I was getting sick of boys.’
‘Bill!’
‘Hey!’
Before Bill could defend himself, they were distracted by a gurgle coming from the bundle of blankets that their mother cradled in her hands. They all abruptly fell into silence and leant in closer to the bed.
A soft gasp left Molly’s mouth. ‘She has Prewett eyes.’
Her daughter blinked up at her, bright brown eyes shining. Molly cooed at her. She brought a finger down for Ginny to grasp in her fist.
‘I don’t believe I was ever that tiny,’ Charlie said, looking at Ginny’s small fingers, still red and wrinkly.
Molly looked at her second eldest with a raised eyebrow. ‘You weren’t. You were a ginormous baby.’
Bill snorted, but Charlie looked proud. The smug look soon fell off his face however, as Fred pointed a finger at him and shouted. ‘Fat baby!’
‘Not fat baby, ginormous,’ Charlie corrected.
‘Fat!’
Molly drowned out the bickering of her sons. She refocussed her attention on her daughter, whose eyes had closed once more. She felt Arthur’s hand come to her shoulder and give a squeeze. She held her daughter in her arms and forgot for a moment about the war raging outside of their small square hospital room. About the newspapers that she didn’t bother to read anymore.
She focussed on the small pressure on her finger. The shine in her daughter’s eyes. The overwhelming joy that they had managed to momentarily capture in this room. They were safe, they were all right. They had a daughter, and that was all Molly could ask for.
Ginevra Molly. You know I’ve been thinking about your name. It’s very pretty. I was also named after my father, though I can’t say I harbour as many fond feelings for him as you may for your mother.
I hate my name. Everyone calls me Ginny, though, which is better. Why don’t you like your father, Tom?
Hmm. Fathers and sons. They have complicated relationships. I’ve been thinking of changing my name, Ginny. We should do it together, choose something more fitting.
Oh, that would be fun! What will you change it to?
I’ll tell you later, once we’ve found one for you-
‘Ginny! Breakfast is almost over, why are you still in your pyjamas?’
Ginny quickly shut her diary and looked up at her schoolmate, drawing back her bed hangings, fully dressed and with her bag slung over her shoulder. The girl raised an eyebrow at her, rolled her eyes and then headed out of their dorm. Ginny looked down at herself, still tangled in her bedsheets. She wondered how long she had been awake. She wondered if she had slept at all.
She scrambled out of bed, but before leaving for the bathroom she opened the diary one more time. The pages were blank.
I have class now! But I’ll sneak you into History of Magic for sure. Bye Tom.
She hesitated for a second.
Xx Ginny
She quickly shut the book and shot to the bathroom. She washed her hands in the sink, watching red water run down the drain. She was having a lot of nosebleeds lately. Unlike when she was little and would get them frequently, she barely woke up for them now. She supposed she wiped at her nose in her sleep and that was it. It was bizarre that she managed to wake up without any blood around her nose.
She regretted that she looked tired. Her freckles were painfully obvious against her pale skin and she rubbed a finger over them, wishing they were dirt that could just wash away. She remembered what she had heard her dormmates talking about a few days ago, before she had entered the room, and they had all hushed.
‘I don’t know why she doesn’t just spell them off. She looks so… groggy all the time. My brother said that all the Weasley’s were loads of fun…’
Ginny wrestled with her hair, eventually leaving it in an untidy ponytail. She took one last dissatisfied look in the mirror. Her stomach growled.
She wondered that if she changed her name, everything else about her would change too, and she could start over without any mothers or brothers or family names hanging over her. Would it make her a new person?
She grabbed her diary on the way out of the dorm and immediately opened it.
Back again. Ready to discuss our new secret identities?
‘Ginevra. Molly. Weasley.’
Alecto always drawled her name out that way. Landing on Weasley like it was the most vile thing that had ever rolled off her lips. Ginny tensed her jaw, staring straight ahead at the brick wall. Though they were barely into the second month of term, she had realised long ago that the best way to tick them off was to ignore them.
It was like that with a lot of things in her life. The garden gnomes always got curious if you simply sat outside and stared at them. They would walk up to you and then you could chuck them without running around. Her mum usually knew something was up when she didn’t see much of her. Harry- well, it didn’t do her any good to think of Harry right now.
‘Are you having a good year so far, love? Running around with your friendies?’
Ginny shifted slightly but still didn’t reply. Neville and Luna next to her remained just as stoic, staring ahead.
‘Are you mute? Deaf? Answer me, traitor!’ Ginny cried out as her head was snapped back, pulled by Amycus’ hand tangled in her hair. Her eyes watered and she grappled for leverage, eventually finding Neville’s arm. The she was flung back forward, forcing her to stumble blindly.
She bent over, head spinning and breathing hard. She felt like throwing up but there wasn’t much for her to bring up. The Great Hall was a joke, a playground for the teachers and wayward students. They hadn’t managed to sneak into the kitchens in days.
She felt something wet hit her cheek. Alecto had spat at her, which was not unusual. Neville retaliated at this, and he managed to land an impressive punch on the Carrow sister, but he was soon stupefied, and stuck up against the wall. Ginny sent him an apologetic look.
‘Longbottom, Lovegood, Weasley,’ Alecto started again, walking around the room. Ginny took Luna’s hand in her own as Alecto approached them, a wicked smile on her face, flourishing her wand. She dragged the tip down Luna’s cheek.
‘What a waste,’ she whispered. ‘Good pureblood families, and now you’ve gone and dirtied yourselves. Dragged your names through mud. Stomped on them, squashed them into the ground, made them unrecognizable. And here you all are, drowning in the sweltering puddle, to be buried under grime.’
‘Better than being buried under innocent bodies,’ Ginny snapped.
Alecto snarled, but then smiled sweetly at Ginny. She came so close that Ginny could smell the last meal on her breath. ‘Shame. Have they all left you? No brothers here are there? No Harry Potter.’
Amycus guffawed behind her and Ginny felt the hairs on her neck stand up. ‘I bet he’s dead in a ditch somewhere, with that ugly mudblood. He probably welcomed it too, coward-‘
Ginny spun around and landed a solid punch to Amycus’ jaw, interrupting him. He howled in pain, and Ginny almost did the same, flexing her hand from the force of the impact. She heard Alecto shout behind her and ducked just in time to dodge the stinging hex that had been sent her way.
‘Grab her wand Luna!’ Ginny shouted as she wrestled Amycus for his own wand, but his grip was strong. Neville looked on in horror as the two teenagers wrestled the Carrows.
Amycus swore as Ginny brought her heel down hard on his foot, then lifted her knee into his crotch. It loosened his grip on his wand just enough for Ginny to take it, not without him landing another blow to her side. She let out a puff of air, momentarily winded, but there was no time for her waste.
‘Stupefy!’ she struck Amycus right in the chest, in the middle of lunging toward her, and he fell face forward to the floor with a crack. Alecto shrieked and threw Luna off her, sending her across the floor. Ginny turned and fired a spell at Alecto, she parried it with a flick of her wand and sent a curse back. Ginny dodged it, fired a leg locker curse, and it caught Alecto’s shoulder. The woman seized up and fell over like her brother, she was still shouting however, so Ginny silenced her quickly.
She stood in the middle of the room breathing heavily for a few seconds. She wiped her brow of sweat, then released Neville from his stunned position. They both ran to Luna.
‘Are you okay? Ginny asked. There was a graze across Luna’s cheek, fresh blood running down her face.
‘I’m fine. Thank you, Ginny. That was very impressive.’
‘Amazing,’ Neville grunted in agreement. He lifted Luna with him as he stood up, one of her arms slung over his shoulders. ‘We should find our wands,’ he said, turning to Ginny.
Ginny rifled through the Carrow’s desk, pulling out files and all manner of confiscated items, she threw a bottle of clear liquid out the window, took a tube of healers paste and eventually found their wands in the last drawer. ‘Come on, let’s go.’
Neville opened the door and slipped out, Ginny took one last look around the room and went after him.
‘Longbottom, Lovegood- oh, and of course Weasley.’ Snape blocked their pathway, a sneer drawn across his face. ‘Having tea with your favourite teachers?’
Ginny closed her eyes and wondered why she had allowed herself to believe that this time they would get away with it. She tried to swallow against the lump in her throat, but today it felt impossible to go against it. Everything that had happened behind that now closed office door caught up to her, and she felt like screaming with the unfairness of it all.
‘He’s probably dead in a ditch somewhere… coward.’
They engaged in a stand-off for a long while. Ginny thought Snape didn’t look as if he was enjoying this as much as he always used to. He looked tired. More sallow that usual, if that was possible.
‘Detention. Hagrid’s hut. Seven o’clock. ‘
Ginny shared a shocked look with Neville and Luna. They stood for a moment, waiting for more, but when it never came, they made their slow way back up to Gryffindor tower. That night, Ginny fully realised how stupid she had been in that office. She also realised that maybe, she was going to have to do a lot of stupid things this year.
Ginevra Molly Potter. She ran the words over in her head, twisting the ring on her finger. She liked the way it sounded. She would be lying if she said she had never written those words next to each other, just to see what they would look like.
She hadn’t told Harry that she was here. Well, she had left a note so that he could find her when he came home, but she planned to be home before he found it. She scuffed her boots in the snow. It had fallen thick today, the first real flurry of the winter.
She withdrew her wand and gently melted the snow off the two tombstones. She dug her hands back in her pockets and blew out a puff of air, misting in the wind.
‘I suppose I just wanted you to know,’ she finally said softly. ‘We’ll come here together, but he’s busy and I- well I woke up today and wanted to come here.’
The tombstones didn’t say anything back to her. James Potter and Lily Potter. Harry Potter. Ginny Potter. Potter. Her lips twitched at the corners. ‘Now there’s going to be two Potters.’ She slid off her ring and held it up in front of her. it twinkled in the sun. ‘He said he found it in your vault a year ago. A year!’ Ginny shook her head in disbelief and slipped the ring back on her finger. ‘I was impressed, really.’
There were a few people milling about the square. From her position in the small cemetery, she could see bent over grannies walking into the church, bundled in scarves and cardigans. She saw children running between houses and shops, teenagers skulking off to the outskirts. She liked watching the other people. She wondered what they saw when they looked at her, in front of two tombstones, talking to no one.
She settled down on a bench at the end of the cemetery, under a snow laden tree. She cast a warming charm and sat back, watching the world go by.
Harry had proposed to her two days ago, but it hadn’t come as much of a surprise. They had been talking about marriage for the past two years. Casually discussing the future they would have together, both knowing that there was no doubt their relationship was going any other way.
Harry had asked her once- noble git- whose name she wanted to take after they got married. Ginny had known that he would’ve taken her name, it scared her, actually, how willing he was to do that. But she had decided long ago, and the look on his face when she said she was going to be a Potter whether he liked it or not, well, Ginny was never going to forget that face.
Of course no one had batted an eye when they had announced it. Of course she was going to take the man’s name, what else would happen? But it meant a lot to her, that Harry had asked, that she could have still been a Weasley. Which she was of course. She always would be, she always wanted to be.
Though she wouldn’t have Weasley written on all her Harpies merchandise anymore. It wouldn’t be the name boomed through the stadium as she made her exit onto the pitch, but she anticipated the day when Potter would be written on her jersey instead, when she would come off the pitch and smirk at him. ‘At least one Potter had the mettle to make it professionally.’
A cold gust of wind picked up through the cemetery, biting her skin even through the warming charm she had cast. Ginny shivered. She didn’t bother to cast another charm. She sat for one moment more, then got up, rubbing her hands together. She trudged out through the tombstones, making sure once more that James and Lily’s were clean. The kissing gate squeaked as she opened it and it shut with a clang.
Some children almost ran into her as she made her way out of the church courtyard, through the small garden, and out onto the street. As she approached the old Potter residence a man stepped out from behind the overgrown hedge wall and she experienced a moment of fear before she quickly recognised him as Harry. She smiled ruefully at him as she approached and he held up the note she had left, concern in his eyes.
‘You okay?’ he asked as she stopped in front of him.
‘Perfect,’ she replied. ‘You’re home early.’
‘Well, Robards found out that we were engaged and sent me home, something about having fun for once in my life.’
‘He’s definitely coming to the wedding,’ Ginny said. Harry groaned and shook his head. ‘Oh, come on, I love him.’ Ginny insisted.
‘I have competition?’
Ginny laughed at him. ‘Not at all.’
Harry gave her an assessing look, then wrapped his arms around her waist. He looked over her head, down the street. She could tell when his eyes wandered over to the church. To the cemetery. ‘Why’d you come here today?’ he asked softly.
Ginny leaned into him, tucking her head under his chin. ‘I just woke up and wanted to come here today. Talk about things.’
His lips tugged in the corner and he brought a hand to her hair. ‘Go well?’ he asked.
‘Fairly. It’s a nice town, you know. I people-watched for a bit, but it’s actually not the same without someone to whisper snide remarks to.’
‘Shame, it’s a tough life.’
‘It really is.’
They were silent for a moment, before Harry pulled back from their embrace and looked her in the eyes. ‘You’re sure you’re fine?’ he asked.
She looked back at him for a moment, then pulled her hand out of her coat pockets and slipped off her ring. She held it up between them, twisting it in her fingers. ‘It was hers.’ She said plainly. ‘She became a Potter. She was called Mrs Potter.
‘Now it’s going to be mine and I’m going to be a Potter. I wanted to make sure they knew. I wanted them to know that I feel really lucky to be joining their family.’
Harry quirked an eyebrow. ‘You were a part of… my family,’ he stumbled over the word slightly, ‘long before I gave you that ring.’
‘And you mine,’ Ginny said. ‘I like to visit them. We’ve only come a few times, but I do like it.’
Harry reached down and kissed her gently, then drew back slightly, their foreheads still touching. ‘Well, I’m glad. We should come together again sometime. Before the wedding chaos gets the better of us.’
‘That’s a deal,’ Ginny whispered. She brought their lips together once more, then withdrew from their kiss. ‘We can stay a while longer,’ she suggested, ‘look around.’
Harry looked back at the house behind them, then down to the town square. He took her hand in his and started heading for the sculpture at the end of the road. Their boots crunched in the snow, leaving clear footprints behind them. Ginny put her ring back on, fitting snugly on her finger, then she looked up at Harry with a sly smile.
‘So,’ she said, ‘Do you think Robards will understand that you need to have so much fun as to stay at home tomorrow too?’