Disclaimer: I write off of JK Rowling; this is her work of art.
***
Keepsake
Without Harry
After the potion turned blue and the Muggle test returned with a lone stripe, Ginny’s life changed. She was a mother-to-be, and there was business to take care of.
Only a day passed before Ginny informed her mum and dad of her impending parenthood, and they took it better than she expected. Concern was the major problem, not anger. It was concern for how she would go on to carry and raise the child without Harry, whom they knew without a doubt was the father. Soon, another more imperative concern presented itself: would she even raise the child herself? Adoption wasn’t unheard of even in the Wizarding world, but getting rid of the child altogether was out of the question. It was certain that she would carry Harry’s baby to term, but what she would do with it after remained a mystery.
Ginny hoped that her mind would be more at ease since she knew she was pregnant now. But it was quite the opposite. She was now out of Hogwarts, which meant that it was time for her to start a career. She always planned to be a Healer at St. Mungo’s, but she couldn’t see how she would fulfill that dream now. Having a child during this time would make pursuing a career option difficult, if not impossible. She would have to delay her personal plans in order to make room for the baby in her life.
Also, Ginny would have to make a decision of where and how she would raise the baby. She knew well enough that she wouldn’t deny it a magical upbringing like Harry was; it was painful to even think about refusing their child its birthright. But would she raise it in the city? That would mean having to move away from the Burrow, an option she had never even thought of.
And right when Ginny thought that Hermione had backed out of her personal concerns for now, she forced her way back in with her ridiculous color-coded pro/con lists. In the end however, she was grateful for Hermione for allowing her to make her final decision.
The two young witches spent more time together listing the positive and negative outcomes having a baby would bring. Eventually, Ginny took a good look at all the cons and compared them to the pros. She thought to herself how meaningless it was to even make these lists. The joy of being a parent was worth a million, if not infinite pros compared to the cons. She was capable of working out all the negative aspects. If being a young mother meant having to delay her career path, so be it. It was do-able. Everything she was afraid of, she was also capable of doing.
In the end, right after Ginny spent her night ripping and setting fire to the pro con lists, she made her decision. She would keep the baby and she would raise it herself with her family and friends as her mentors.
It didn’t matter anymore what everyone else thought. All that mattered was that Ginny was going to be a mother soon, and she would have to do everything in her power to make the best life for her child. After all, it was what Harry’s baby deserved.
***
At eight months pregnant, Ginny spent most of her time trying to contact Harry. Ginny was desperately hanging onto any last shred of hope that Harry might actually respond to her letters. The mistake she made when Harry left was that she never asked exactly where he was going, so she didn’t have a clue where he was right now. It wasn’t as if Harry would have openly told her, but she never asked.
In her letters, Ginny didn’t state plainly that she was pregnant. She didn’t even hint it. First, she wanted an actual reply from him, and then she would start laying down the path to gradually tell him. Selfishly, she wished that if he found out, he might return immediately and apologize for everything that occurred between them. Their last encounter, which was their last fight, was never resolved.
However, now that the baby was undoubtedly on the way and soon to be born, Ginny spent less time fussing over Harry and instead spent time preparing to give birth.
Her stomach’s size amounting to that of a watermelon, Ginny didn’t feel as comfortable as she would have liked. The Burrow was getting too crowded, what with Fred and George coming down more often, Bill and Charlie being there for the birth, and Hermione now moving in after her engagement to Ron. She felt that anywhere she turned in the Burrow, things were crowding in on her.
Finally, Hermione and Ron made a decision; they would move to the city. Their decision was sensible. After all, it was near the Ministry and near the Daily Prophet, where Hermione had taken up a job. Also, it was their decision to move that compelled Ginny to follow suit.
Late in her eighth month, Ginny was practically finished moving everything she owned into her new flat next to Ron and Hermione’s. Living in London wasn’t all that bad for Ginny. The only thing that bothered her now was that she couldn’t travel as she pleased anymore, meaning that if she wanted to see the rest of her family, they would have to come to her as it wasn’t safe for someone in her condition to travel through a Portkey or through Floo powder.
Regardless, having Ron and Hermione next door set Ginny’s nerves more at ease. Having a new apartment made a new start for Ginny and her independence. She was really growing up.
On February fifteenth, which was a Friday and just a day after Valentine’s Day, Ginny was rushed to St. Mungo’s with Ron and Hermione by her side. At the hospital, they met up with the rest of the Weasley clan.
Ginny had a foolish sense of hope in the back of her mind that on this special day, Harry would miraculously appear out of nowhere to coach her and be by her side. Yet she knew better. She excused her tears for Harry as tears of labor.
For Ginny, labor lasted a full grueling nineteen hours, all through which Fred and George came up with numerous magic tricks to pass the time by and humor their younger sister. However, Ginny wasn’t amused. With pain from both the approaching birth and thoughts of Harry, she couldn’t imagine how labor could get any worse.
Fortunately, she was rewarded near midnight, when she gave birth to a small yet handsome baby boy. With thin strands of black hair and baby blue eyes, Ginny settled on naming her son Liam.
Following the birth, Ginny spent a short three days in the hospital, where Liam was kept in an incubator shortly due to his small size. While in bed, Ginny went through stacks of parchment trying to write a letter to Harry and inform him of his new son. But having Liam didn’t change anything; she still didn’t know where he was.
Her stay at the hospital was her last attempt at trying to contact Harry. From then on, she remained dutifully focused on being a wonderful mother to Liam by both preparing for endless nighttime feedings and finding a job now that she had a family to take care of.
Ginny began her pursuit for a job at St. Mungo’s by first doing a few odd jobs wherever she was needed. It was the perfect environment because while she worked, one of the other nurses would take care of Liam if he wasn’t asleep in the nursery. At the time however, the money she made at the hospital wasn’t nearly enough to purchase both the diapers and baby food she needed. So when her shift at the hospital ended, she would Floo to the Daily Prophet with Liam, where Hermione would let her help with copying and typing.
But more and more problems began arising.
When Hermione was promoted, her new salary enabled for her and Ron to purchase a house, which meant having to move away from Ginny. Night was when Ginny needed her brother the most because he and Hermione would be able to take care of Liam while she was away completing her shift. Now that they were gone, she had to juggle back and forth the stress of motherhood as well as her two other jobs. Even though her duties at St. Mungo’s were getting more central and earning her more pay, it wasn’t enough to drop her Prophet job altogether.
It got more complicated as Liam grew older. Not only did he add to her impossible workload, but she tried her best to keep his knowledge of Harry to a minimum. He was getting smarter everyday and his intelligence only resulted in questions such as “’Addy?” or sometimes, after coming back from visiting with Ron, he would even mention “’Arry?”
Finally, she worked out a bedtime story that would put Liam’s questions to rest. She made Harry out to be some great hero who went out on all sorts of heroic escapades that saved many people. She would retell the story every night and every night she would end it the same way.
“And Harry the Hero left the princess with a broken heart, but with a keepsake she would love for the rest of her life.”
***
Ginny’s life finally calmed down after a while. Liam was a month past his first birthday and was capable of doing what kids his age did. His vocabulary had doubled since the start of the Harry bedtime story, which she no longer told. His crawling accelerated into walking or rather, stumbling around the flat.
Liam resembled Harry more than she anticipated. He inherited the famous Potter hair, black and unruly. She wouldn’t cut it short; it seemed an insult to Harry. His features matched Harry’s more than hers, aside from the dusting of red freckles across his cheeks. Aside from that, looking at Liam was like looking at the man she loved but lost.
However, things were going better for Ginny. She became a Healer at St. Mungo’s, which enabled her to move into a larger flat capable of allowing a proper nursery and playroom for Liam. Her family would visit often to play and talk to Liam, whose calm exterior broke whenever they visited. In fact, much to her dismay, Liam grew quite close to Fred and George, his favorite relatives. She decided to minimize his time with them.
As fulfilled as she claimed her life to be, Ginny was having problems of her own on the inside.
After Harry left, she vowed never to love another man again, especially since she was about to have his child.
But now that Liam was growing up and things had finally settled down, she realized that what she missed most was being in the company of somebody she truly loved. It was different with her family; she needed a man, as crude as it sounded. Yet it was never as easy as she hoped it to be. The fact that she had a son got in the way of most of her relationship with men she met, and she was well aware of it. To her discreet delight, she enjoyed the fact that the men were intimidated by the fact that Liam was the son of the Boy Who Lived. Still, it wasn’t enough to keep her satisfied.
That changed, however, one fateful day on the fourth floor. A man by the name of Wyatt Collins was admitted for an improperly used Vanishing Charm. It started with his hand occasionally disappearing and the reappearing. But when it stopped, his legs soon began to do the same thing until finally, he vanished altogether.
It was difficult for Ginny to heal the man, who was her first vanishing case yet. But from what she could tell, he sounded nice and seemed pleasant and she wanted to carry out a normal conversation with him without looking like she was talking to an empty hospital bed.
As Ginny gave Wyatt his treatments, the two talked. He revealed that he was a Squib, a secret he had told nobody, not even his girlfriend who cast the charm on him. He said that they were in midst of a fight when, in her anger, his girlfriend cast the charm on him and gave him adverse effects. Wyatt seemed wonderful so she couldn’t see why his girlfriend, or ex-girlfriend, would do such a thing. Then again, she also couldn’t see the man.
When Wyatt received visibility again, Ginny was amazed at how he was, in every aspect, her type. From their talks, she learned he was a Squib fitting into the Muggle world as a college professor. He explained that in his spare time, he also assisted Squib children and helped them adjust in a world where magic was all around them. Finally, to top his great personality, he had good looks.
After the occasional cup of coffee after work, Wyatt finally asked Ginny out properly. He was the first man to do so after learning of Liam.
“Are you so sure you would want to take me out to dinner?” she asked in her mild surprise.
“I thought that was why I asked you,” he said with a handsome smirk.
“I’m not so sure,” she truthfully responded. “Liam…”
“I won’t try to replace his father’s place, I can assure you that,” he told her. “Just an innocent dinner. And if you prefer the coffee better than an actual meal, then we’ll keep up with that.”
“Innocent?” Ginny asked, an eyebrow raised.
“As innocent as innocent can get,” Wyatt replied with a small wink.
Their first date ended with Wyatt spending the night at Ginny’s flat and in her bedroom. She found herself falling for him unexpectedly. To think that only a week and a half ago he was the invisible man she couldn’t see.
Ginny only hoped that Liam wouldn’t call him “Da-da” anytime soon.
A/N: Nice feedback, please? I honestly don't know if this chapter was good enough. Oh yes, and I apologize if this chapter didn't really deliver. I look at it more as a filler chapter and a verbose way of introducing the main plotline of the story.