A Long Nine Months

Telling the Family

Every Sunday since the end of the war, the Weasleys gathered at the Burrow for Sunday dinner. Attendance was mandatory. Those who missed Sunday dinner were subjected to the wrath of one Mrs. Molly Weasley. It was during these Sunday dinners that announcements were made – engagements, pregnancies, job promotions, the whole nine yards.

Ginny sat on her bed in the bedroom, she shared with Harry, thinking of how she was going to tell her family. Granted, they knew of Harry and Ginny's plan of implanting something similar to a uterus into Harry in the hopes of pregnancy.

But there was also the matter of explaining to her sons. She had explained to James that there was a baby in Mummy's tummy and when he or she came out, he would have a new brother or sister. This new baby would probably confuse James, especially when Harry would get to the point where he would be showing more and James would definitely notice that Daddy's tummy had gotten bigger.

A noise from the bathroom interrupted her thoughts. Unlike Ginny, who had a period of nausea in the mornings and would have to avoid certain foods, Harry was sick almost all the time. He couldn't eat much, in fear that once it hit his stomach, it would come right back up.

Ginny opened the door to the bathroom and found Harry sitting in front of the toilet.

"I take it you don't want eggs and bacon for breakfast?" Ginny asked.

At the thought of eggs, Harry leaned over the toilet and threw up. Ginny handed him the stomach soother as she knelt down beside him.

"What about porridge?" Ginny asked. Harry wrinkled his nose up at that. When Ginny was pregnant with James and Albus, porridge was Ginny's choice of breakfast. She ate so much of it over the two nine month periods that Harry was completely burned out on porridge.

"Plain toast is fine," Harry replied to the question. Ginny didn't want to argue with Harry, especially when the mood swings were just beginning.

Harry came home on Friday in a foul mood because the trainee instructor quit after only a month, stating that "the work was too much." One of the missions that were in the works for months turned up empty and to make matters worse, Harry had to run to the bathroom during the morning briefing because someone was sharing the details of a gruesome crime scene.

Ron took over to allow Harry to collect himself.

That was another group of people that needed to be told: the coworkers. Harry had informed Kingsley about the pregnancy, and much to his surprise, Kingsley was just as supportive as when Harry told him about the implanting procedure. However, the Auror staff was another story. They knew that Ginny couldn't have another baby and would be surprised that Harry would step in and carry a baby for nine months.

Ginny left the bathroom and headed downstairs to fix herself and the boys some breakfast. James and Albus were already awake and waiting in the family room. James looked around Ginny when she arrived, in search of his father.

"Where's Daddy?" he asked.

Ginny started fixing porridge in a pot for James and Albus. She reached into a cabinet and pulled out cocoa powder to make chocolate porridge.

"Daddy doesn't feel good, he'll be down in a little bit" Ginny didn't want to tell the boys without Harry since they had told James about Albus together.

"Daddy sick?" Albus asked. For a two-year-old who had had a dramatic birth, he turned out fine. Albus was as happy and healthy a toddler as Rose.

"Daddy just has a wobbly tummy" she eyed James suspiciously, hoping he wasn't smart enough to put two and two together. A "wobbly tummy" was how they explained Ginny's morning sickness to James when she was pregnant with Albus.