Conflict by grangergurl
Chapter Notes: Hi, all! I tried to update as fast as I could. Oh, by the way, Joshua really is my baby brother and his speech is accurately described. Even 'Dossie'. Happy reading!
Harry gasped and broke into a cold sweat. He couldn’t tell Ginny…he wouldn’t! He felt light-headed and laid down on the couch. He felt tears rolling down his cheeks and a rock in the bottomless pit that was his stomach. He wanted to die instead of her, but he knew that there was no hope. He eventually cried himself to sleep.
“Harry? Harry wake up! We’re going to be late! HARRY!!” Ginny screeched. She had Joshua on her hip and was shaking Harry awake. “You have,” she checked her watch, “approximately ten minutes to get up and ready. My mum will have a cow if we aren’t there. And you know that Joshua wants to see Ron and Hermione.”
Harry wiped the sleep out of his eyes and took Josh away from Ginny. “Hi, honey! Are we going to go see Grandma today?”
“Yeah, we gonna go see Uncle Won and Aunt Her….Her…Herm…we gon’ go see Aunt,” Joshua said excitedly.
Harry chuckled at his son and handed him back to Ginny. He rambled up the stairs to go take a shower, when he heard Ginny’s racking cough. A lump rose in his throat as he remembered what was wrong - his wife was going to die. He rushed to his room before the tears came. After he had closed the door, his dam broke and his tears flowed freely as his shoulders gently shook with sobs. He ran to the shower and practically ripped off the curtain as he fell into the freezing water.
After his shockingly cold shower, Harry put on a false smile before skipping down the stairs. He was halfway there when he heard the shatter of broken glass and a gasp from his wife. He ran now, his smile wiped off his face as worry hit him.
However, Ginny had only backed up into a cheap vase. Harry gasped as he saw that Ginny had wandered to the far corner table and read the page that Harry had torn out that contained the heart-breaking information. Ginny looked at him, sobbing and shook her head.
“Gin? Are you alright? Look, I’m sorry, alright? I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Harry apologized over and over, his shoulders now shaking with sobs, too.
Joshua looked from his mom to his dad and back again, obviously confused at the family matter. “Mommy? Don’t cwy!” he implored as he wiped a tear from his mother’s eyes. “What’s da matter? Are you and daddy sad?”
Ginny weakly laughed at her son’s unknowingness. She set him down on the couch and ran to Harry, squeezing him as her eyes flooded.
Joshua got off of the couch and started tugging on his mother’s robes. “Mummy? Hold me. I wanna go see Uncle Won and Aunt Herm…Aunt. I wanna go see Aunt,” he was begging to leave now.
She nodded at him and looked at Harry. “Am I going to die, Harry? Is this it?”
Harry shook his head and sobbed. “I don’t know, Ginny. Don’t give up. Don’t die, please,” Harry was ready to fall down, exhausted from sobbing and overwhelmed by grief.
Ginny sniffed and held her head high. “I will not die. I will live, Harry. Come on now. Let’s go to the Burrow.”
Ginny pointed her wand at her face, and all signs of crying disappeared. After Harry had done the same, Ginny picked Joshua back up, grabbed a handful of Floo Powder, and stepped into the fireplace. “The Burrow,” and green flames enfolded her.
Harry smiled as he briefly saw his son’s eyes grow wide as they began spinning, but then they were off. Harry turned and looked at his house for the last time in what would be a long time.
The Potters would be staying at the Weasley’s house for about a month or so. They had to plan a wedding for Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. Neville had finally asked Luna to marry him, and Molly Weasley had gone ballistic. She had already planned the blueprint, so to speak, and all they needed was the dresses, the suits, the food, and finally, they needed to set up the backyard so that it was fit for a wedding.
As soon as Harry arrived at the Burrow, he ran up to Ron’s old room to find Ron. He knocked on the door, his weight shifting from foot to foot as he waited anxiously for the usual ‘Come in!’ It did not come.
Harry cautiously turned the doorknob and walked in. Ron wasn’t in the room, so Harry rambled over to the ever-orange bed to lie down. He fell onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. The posters of the Chudley Cannon Quidditch team smiled at him. Harry turned over, but the posters were everywhere.
Harry sighed and swung his legs back over the bed. He wasn’t in the mood for happy people. He wanted the whole world to cry for his wife. For heaven sakes, she was slowly dying as people were celebrating. He cursed the happy sun and the happy clouds. He cursed the flowers and birds and bees. His world was grey.
Ron didn’t suspect anything when he pushed his door open, but there Harry was, glasses in hand, looking out the window.
“Am I interrupting something?” Ron shot nervous glances around the room, knowing that Harry could have a very nasty temper sometimes.
Harry’s head snapped out of his daydream and he glared at Ron for disturbing his thoughts, but he replied, “No. No, I’m fine. I’m great. Fine. Did you see Joshua? Lovely day, isn’t it?”
Harry was pointedly changing the subject, realizing that he couldn’t tell anyone of Ginny’s illness. Not yet.
Ron stared and shook his thoughts out of his head. “Um...yeah, Josh is with Hermione. And, yeah, great day. Did you get enough sleep last night? You look really tired. Is something wrong?” Ron could tell that Harry was preoccupied with his thoughts.
Harry felt a tickle in his throat and his eyes stung with tears, so he shook his head at Ron and rushed out of the room, locking himself in the bathroom.
Later that day, Joshua was playing with Hermione in the front room. “Her-my-oh-knee” Hermione was teaching Josh to say her name.
“Er-my-mee” Joshua struggled.
Hermione laughed and ruffled his hair. “Yes, Er-my-mee is right.”
Joshua beamed at himself and said, “Yeah, I’m Dossie.”
Hermione burst out laughing and said, “Okay, Dossie.”
Joshua frowned and said, “I’m not Dossie!” he got much quieter as he said, “I’m Dossie.”
Ginny giggled at her son’s inability to even pronounce his own name. She called the rest of the family into the room. “Joshie! Hermione! Harry! Ron! Everyone, come here!”
Harry rambled into the living room to find everyone there. He looked confusedly at Ginny and pulled her to the side.
“What are you doing?” Harry inquired.
“We have to tell them sometime! They’re family.” Tears fell down her face and she impatiently flicked them away.
Harry nodded at his wife’s distressed call. He felt his own tears on his cheeks and waved them away with his wand. He grabbed her hand and led her back to the living room.
“Mom, everybody, we have an announcement to make.”
Molly Weasley shrieked and hugged her daughter. “Oh, my goodness! What shall we name the baby? Girl or boy? I thought you looked bigger, dear,” Molly continued as she patted her daughter’s stomach.
Ginny looked mildly hurt, but deeply amused, but very depressed all at the same time. “Mom, we aren’t having a baby. And it’s not fat, it’s muscle.”
Harry fought not to laugh at Mrs. Weasley’s shocked face. “You’re…not? No? Oh, dear. Silly me,” she said with a false giggle. “What’s the big news, then?”
‘Poor Molly,’ Harry thought as the smile melted off of Mrs. Weasley’s face when Ginny told her the news. Everyone was sobbing, now.
“Mom, I’m going to die.”