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‘You’re getting pretty big now,’ Ron greeted her brightly.
‘Excuse me?’ she said flatly, her eyes narrowing. Ron’s smile froze, and his eyes snapped over to Harry with a slight widening of panic.
Harry merely shrugged. ‘You’re on your own, mate.’
‘What do you mean I’m getting big?’ Ginny asked sharply.
‘I meant… you’re getting to be a big part… of my life,’ Ron tried lamely.
She stared at him coldly. After a very long pause, she said, ‘you meant my stomach, didn’t you?’
‘I… I mean, Ginny’ he said weakly, ‘in my defense you are a few months along-’
‘Yes, I am!’ she said hotly. ‘It’s normal!’
‘I know it is!’ said Ron hurriedly. ‘It’s a good thing, you look great, you-’
‘Yeah, I look great, that’s why Witch Weekly circled my stomach and wrote “PREGNANT?” on their front cover,’ she said, slightly hysterically.
‘But you are pregnant-’
‘Only a little bit!’ she said, almost shouting. ‘Only eighteen weeks-’
‘D’you want to sit down and have some food?’ Harry asked delicately.
‘Why?’ she snapped.
‘Because we’re here for dinner…’
‘Because I get grumpy when I’m hungry?’ she shot at him. ‘Is that it? You think Big Ginny will cheer up if you just feed her?’
It was a trap. It was Ron’s fault. Harry glared at him.
‘Ooh, Harry, Ginny!’ exclaimed Hermione, suddenly appearing to join her husband at the door. ‘Ron, why haven’t you invited them in yet?’
‘I was, I just-’
‘Ginny, I’ve made cottage pie,’ said Hermione excitably.
Ginny threw her head back and groaned. ‘Oh, Hermione, you’re a star, you’ve made my day.’
She pushed past her brother and followed Hermione into the flat, leaving Ron looking befuddled and Harry still glaring at him.
‘Well done,’ said Harry bluntly.
‘What?’ asked Ron, clearly baffled. ‘I’d have thought it’d be a good thing that the baby’s growing?’
‘Yeah,’ said Harry wearily, stepping over the threshold and passing Ron the bottle of wine. ‘You would think.’ He prised off his shoes and glanced up the little hallway, and, on hearing the safety of his wife laughing with Hermione, leaned closer to Ron. ‘It’s the hormones, and the press are getting really suspicious… And, she is hungry all of the time,’ he added, in an even lower voice because he was so convinced she would hear, and hex him. ‘It’s like living with you in that sodding tent again.’
Ron snorted with laughter, then cut himself off with a ‘hey!’ and a reproachful glare at Harry. Harry shrugged at him again, and headed to the tiny kitchen.
‘I do know what you mean with the press though,’ said Ron, as he and Harry laid the table in the living room, Hermione’s rapid voice still talking to Ginny in the next room. ‘Someone came into the shop today and started chatting, and I suddenly realised they where trying to wheedle it out of me - they were pretending they didn’t know who I was, obviously, but there were all these weird pointed questions about whether our products were any good for newborns, and it was when I found myself saying no, half of them have explosives in them I realised they probably weren’t interested in purchasing anything at all.’
Harry looked at him carefully. ‘Did you give anything away?’
‘Nah, don’t think so,’ said Ron. He winced, and lowered his voice. ‘D’you not think it’s getting a bit too obvious, though? I mean…’ they were practically whispering now, ‘the rumours were flying as soon as she was put on the bench with the Harpies, let alone now, when she’s…’
He waved his hand over his stomach - quite unfairly, Harry thought, because the gesture made it look as though Ginny was carrying a beachball, when at the moment she was still quite small, just a little rounded. Carrying something between a bludger and a quaffle. Harry thought it was quite lovely, and had told her this many times, and even though when they had first found out Ginny had loudly stated she wasn’t going to be someone who got upset about that sort of thing he found that it was harder and harder to convince her that he liked it, that he wasn’t just lying to make her feel better.
‘I don’t think she looks obvious,’ he said shortly, looking down as he carefully laid the forks. ‘The magazines have always fixated on stupid little things like that.’
‘Harry,’ said Ron flatly, ‘it’s obvious.’
‘What’s obvious?’ Hermione and Ginny had entered, the food floating alongside them.
‘Nothing-’ began Harry.
‘Ginny,’ said Ron, in a loud and authoritative voice, ‘you look pregnant, everyone can tell you’re pregnant.’
‘Ron!’ exclaimed Hermione, outraged.
‘I know,’ said Ginny, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. ‘Thanks, Captain Obvious…’
‘I’m just saying, if you’re going to get all stressy about magazines putting big red circles on you and stuff, why don’t the pair of you just a release a statement about your open secret?’ Ron said.
There was a long pause. ‘It’s none of their business,’ said Harry stiffly.
‘Yes,’ said Ginny testily, taking her place at the table. ‘It is none of their business and we should be allowed to have it to ourselves a little while longer.’
‘Fine!’ said Ron, raising his hands in surrender as Harry poured him out some of the wine. ‘Fine, I was just saying - read out a little statement saying yes we’re having a baby and we’re very excited, and then they’ll stop speculating-’
‘No they won’t,’ said Harry darkly. ‘They’ll only start trying to analyse if it’s a boy or a girl, or what the name might be, or whether it’s really mine or something stupid like that.’
‘That might be nicer though,’ said Ginny vaguely.
‘What, if it wasn’t Harry’s?’ asked Ron.
‘For them to stop circling my bodyparts,’ said Ginny.
‘It’s awful that they do that,’ scowled Hermione. ‘I had half a mind to write into the Daily Prophet today to tell them off for that ghastly article this morning, but I thought that would only encourage the rumours even more.’
Hermione had not seen Harry’s frantically shaking head, nor Ginny’s shocked expression, nor Ron wincing again, and so she continued dishing up the cottage pie for a few moments until she looked up at the silence. ‘What?’ she asked.
‘You mean Witch Weekly,’ said Harry, emphatically. ‘You’ve got them mixed up.’
‘No, I - yes,’ she said firmly. ‘Yes, I meant Witch Weekly.’
‘I didn’t know you read Witch Weekly, Hermione,’ said Ginny coolly.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Hermione, with an unconvincing giggle. ‘Guilty… guilty pleasure.’
‘What did the Prophet write about me?’ demanded Ginny. She pointed her fork threateningly at Harry. ‘I knew it was bullshit that the owl didn’t come, what did they say about me?’
He hesitated. ‘It was just the usual red circles,’ he said.
‘And?’
‘And a picture of you drinking pumpkin juice at the pub the other night.’
‘And?’ He hesitated again. ‘And, Harry Potter?’ she demanded again.
‘Some… hack ex-Healer suggesting it could be twins,’ he said, very quietly.
She let out a growl of frustration. ‘Right! That’s it! We’ll release a statement tomorrow-’
‘No, a little bit longer-’ he pleaded.
‘We’re releasing a statement to say that I am having one - one! - very normal sized baby!’
‘Oh, we can hold out a little bit longer!’ he said. ‘It’s not that bad! I mean why do we have to say anything at all? Once it gets really obvious they’ll stop speculating on that anyway, won’t they? They’ll just be like, well it’s really clear she’s expecting a baby now, look at the size of her!’
***
The journalists gathered excitably at the gate, bunching together and jostling to try to get to the front. The news that Harry Potter wished to make a statement had been made only twenty minutes prior, but had spread through the various wizarding publications like Fiendfyre; even some of the foreign press had sent their British correspondents, and some publications, like Transfiguration Today, had no real reason to be here at all, but were ready with cameras and quick-quotes quills and wireless recorders all the same.
Eventually, the tall dark haired young man came through the front door of the house, and started to walk down the long garden path towards them. They exploded with questions and shouts and the air was suddenly filled with the bangs and puffs of smoke from the cameras.
Irritatingly, the journalists realised, his hair was completely hiding his scar. He stood before them for a few moments, keeping the gate and the waist-height garden wall between them, and looked down at the sheet of parchment he was carrying.
‘My wife and I are delighted to announce that we are expecting our first child, due in the spring. We have been working closely with a midwitch from St Mungos who confirmed to us that we are expecting one baby, and though all signs point to this being a healthy and easy pregnancy it is for this reason Ginny has been unable to play this season. We hope you can respect our privacy during this special and exciting time. Thank you.’
‘Mr Potter, Mr Potter!’
‘When is the due date, Mr Potter?’
‘Do you want a boy or a girl?’
‘Are you happy to finally have a family, Mr Potter?’
‘How is Mrs Potter finding pregnancy, Mr Potter?’
‘Do you have any names planned yet?’
But he was already walking away back up the garden path. ‘Ah, shit,’ said Andy Tinsley, lowering his camera.
‘He never fucking answers any questions, that one,’ said Kevin Pepys.