𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 | 𝑁𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑏𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑚

Chapter 12 - Post from Potter and Lovegood

Harry had insisted that before he disclosed anything about his day, the three of them should take to the Room of Requirement for a bit of privacy. Neville and Helena obliged this--they were so curious to find out about Harry's day that their entire conversation from before was completely forgotten. Helena even managed to fail to remember her desire to explain the events of the fight in her classroom earlier. Sitting down in their plush seats before the fire, all attention was completely transfixed on Harry--and for once, he didn't seem to mind it.

For a moment he just sat there, grinning almost drunkenly, glancing from them to the fire, almost as if he were trying to form the right words but was failing to cough them up.

"Well?" Neville urged him on, impatient. "What is it, Harry?"

"I--oh--well, best to spit it out then--" Harry stuttered, still looking lost for any sort of vocabulary. There was a twinkle in his eyes as he looked at them. "Ginny's pregnant."

Immediately, Helena's mouth dropped. "You're serious?"

"Does it look like I'm joking?" Harry giggled. "Of course I'm serious. She's two months along already, and only just decided to tell me."

"Two months?!" Neville's eyes bulged. "Why on earth did she wait so long to tell you?"

"Oh, well, she said--she said she didn't want to worry me while I settled into my new job, because she knew I'd want to come back straightaway. She wanted to let me know that everything was fine and she's past the biggest risk stage, so I sent her a letter back saying that I'd stay away, so long as she sent lots of pictures."

"Yes, lots of them!" Helena nodded vigorously. "Oh, Harry, I'm so happy for you."

"Yeah, mate," Neville jumped in. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," Harry gushed. "I'm hoping it's a boy."

"Oh, could you imagine," Helena smiled, and she pictured Ginny Potter back at home, in a quaint little cottage, a baby bump just barely visible beneath her shirt as she scribbled out a hasty letter, finally sharing the splendid news to her beloved husband. It was hard to believe that the two of them had been in the same year, Helena thought then, as Ginny's life was so much different than hers by this point.

"What're you thinking about?" Neville asked then, and it took Helena a moment to realize that he was talking to her.

"I'm sorry?"

"You just seemed very intent on those flames, is all."

"Oh. Nothing, really. I suppose I just got lost in them. They are quite mesmerizing."

"Hm." Neville propped his head against his fingertips and nodded, as though unconvinced that he was being told the truth. Helena didn't budge from her fire story--she didn't feel like explaining anything right now. In fact, the silence around them was quite welcome to her. Harry looked between the two of them with an amused expression before turning back to the fire himself.

"What would you want to name the baby?" Neville asked Harry after some time. Harry smiled, still looking drunk with his emotions running so high.

"I dunno." He continued to stare into the fire. "Probably something like. . . like Lily, if it's a girl, or Arthur, if it's a boy."

"Arthur?" Helena asked. "Is that another namesake, like Lily, or do you just like the ring of it?"

"It'd be after Mr. Weasley," Harry confessed. "Mrs. Weasley deserves a namesake too, if I'm being honest, but not before my own mother. Of course, this is all theoretical--I'll have to take Ginny's ideas into account, too."