When Bill Met Ginny

When Bill Met Ginny

By D.M.P.

Her name was supposed to be John. Arthur and Molly had decided that from the very start. Neither of them ever thought of the possibility that John would be an unsuitable name for their newest child. But when she finally came into the world, it was quickly realized that they had underestimated the perseverance of the X chromosome.
Molly, upon hearing the midwife's announcement, first thought her exhaustion had affected her ears, but when the midwife repeated over the baby's screams, "It's a girl!" there was no denying that a miracle had occurred. On the other side of the bed, Arthur gaped, still holding the scissors to cut the umbilical cord. From his reaction, it was as if his wife had given birth to a hippopotamus.
"It's... a ...girl..." he repeated, somewhat disjointedly. He exchanged glances with Molly. "It's... a... girl..."
The midwife, frustrated, finally grabbed the scissors from Arthur and snipped the cord herself. While she cleaned the baby up a bit with a wet cloth, and then wrapped her in a towel, Arthur still stood, repeating in louder and quicker tones, "It's a girl. It's a girl. It's a girl! It's a girl, honey, a girl!" Then laughing, Arthur began to dance around the room singing in a high, slightly giddy voice, "It's a girl, Molly dear, a girl!"
By that time, the baby was handed back for Molly to hold and Arthur ran up to his wife and kissed her forehead. "And she's so tiny!" he exclaimed. "Look at that! And she looks exactly like her mother."
"Well, I won't go on to say that," muttered Molly. "Unless I'm suddenly wrinkled, red, and bald."
"But what shall we call her?" Arthur went on, crouching beside his wife and child. "We never planned-"
"Ginevra," his wife replied stoutly. "Ginevra Molly Weasley."
And that was that.

***

"Let's see, if you take beta and delta, and find the sideways equation in the house of Jupiter..."
Bill put the tip of his quill in his mouth and furrowed his brow. He hated summer assignments, especially if it had to do with maths.
The hazy August sun shone, making the withering heat of the day almost unbearable. Arthur had set up various contraptions around the house, something he called "electric fans," he which believe would help cool the air. Bill did not see the effectiveness of them, since he had five of these strange Muggle objects set up in his room and all they did was blow the hot, humid air back in his face.
He looked out the window and spotted Errol approaching the house, sinking lower and lower toward the earth. Grabbing his Comet Chaser, he jumped out of his bedroom window and flew up to the heat-stroked bird, grabbing it in his arms. "Best get you inside, boy," he said, patting the drooping feathers on Errol's head. The bird hooted faintly.

Taking the family owl back inside, Bill put him back in his cage and gave him some water. He removed the message from the bird's leg.
He was in charge of Burrow since his parents had left for St. Mungo's a few days ago. At fifteen years old, Arthur had deemed him mature enough to control the household while they were gone. Molly protested, saying that poor baby Ron would be fit to die if there was not one female in the house to care for him. She wanted to call Aunt Glenda to come over and mind the children. But at that particular moment, water was all over the floor, and neither she nor her husband were in the most stable of mindsets. So, having dubbed Bill man of the house, his parents Disapparated in a flash.
Bill thought that he was fit enough for the job. After all, he was the oldest, and, having been around for the last four pregnancies, he thought he knew everything there was to know about managing the home while his parents took care of the baby business. He ruled over his brothers with an iron fist.
"Aaaaaaiiiiiiiii!"
Percy sailed past him on an ancient, dusty Persian rug, his Coke-bottle glasses falling off his head.
"Percy!" Bill tossed the message on the table and ran out of the kitchen door after his little brother. With a miraculous leap, he caught the trailing shag from the rug before it could bolt into the sky. He was dragged several yards across the lawn before yanking the cracking carpet down to the ground. He remained on the grass for a few minutes, feeling each scrape along his arms and legs burst alive with pain.
Percy toppled sideways from the carpet like a stone statue.
When Bill finally caught his breath, he sat up and snapped, "You know we're not supposed to touch this!"
Behind him, the twins' clambering voices were heard. "Didya get to fly? Didya, didya, didya??" The twins bounced up and down around five-year old Percy, who had not even blinked from his frozen position on the ground.
"No, he did not!" Bill roughly folded up the carpet, as it struggled vainly to unroll itself again. Taking his wand out from his belt, he gave a quick flick and said, "Petrificus Totalus!" The rug stiffened and fell limp in his hands. "Where did you get this? From the attic? I told you not to go up into the attic!"
"We didn't go up into the attic," Fred said innocently. "Percy did."
"We just dared him to fly the carpet," George added.
"Oh, just shut it and go back in." Hoisting the still traumatized Percy over one shoulder with the rug, he grabbed both twins by the back of the shirt with his free hand and dragged the entire lot to the kitchen.
He dropped the flying carpet on the linoleum floor, plopped Percy in the chair, and dumped the twins into another. "Where's Charlie?" he demanded. "He was supposed to watch you in the garden while I did my Arithmacy."
Both twins shrugged. "He's playing bouncy with the gnomes," answered George as he swung his stubby legs against the tall chair legs. "Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy..."
Fred and George went into chorus mode, slipping from the chair and beginning to jump up and down around the kitchen.
A line of dribble started from the corner of Percy's mouth. "Gah..."
"Oh Merlin's beard," Bill muttered, picking up his glasses from the floor and sticking them on his face. "All of you. Come here. Now."
With the chanting toddler duo and a semi-conscious child in tow, Bill stamped outside and yelled, "Charlie, did you have any idea what-"
"Huh-yah!" Another garden gnome went flying over the hedge. Charlie put a hand over his eyes as he watched the gnome disappear behind the hedge. "Hey, Bill!" he shouted. "Look at this!"
In a moment, the gnome shot back over from the other side, and Charlie jumped, mutt-like, and caught the flabbergasted creature in his arms. Billy saw that the gnome had a little red bucket tied around its head for a makeshift helmet, and Charlie did a smart kick right to the pail as he sent the gnome back over again.
"It's a new game I just figured out," he said. "Gnome-Ball."
"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy..."
But Bill was not in the mood for Charlie's antics. "Charlie, didn't I tell you to keep an eye out while I finished my summer work?!" he shouted, raising a fist. "And what do I see but Perce nearly launched into the second hemisphere and the twins running wild?"
"Sorry," Charlie said sourly. "I thought they were right here with me, watching."
Thump! The gnome landed, headfirst by his right foot, and waved his limbs awkwardly in the air as he tried to get his head out of the bucket. The twins laughed and hauled the gnome out by its legs.
"Well, I thought that you were going to be helping me, Char, not running about making up stupid games!" He paused. "How did you get the gnome to bounce back here anyways?"
"I put a Spring Charm on the ground outside the fence," he explained. "Isn't that wicked?"
"Whatever." Bill sighed, then looked around. "Um, where's Ron?"
"He should be right here-" Charlie halted in mid-gesture. The swinging cradle under the oak tree was empty.
"Uh-oh," Fred pointed out. "I think you've just got the gnomes angry, Char." He pointed to a vengeful group of gnomes marching away, supporting a sleeping Ron over their heads. One of them with a dented bucket over its head led the way.
"My gods!" yelled both Charlie and Bill and both older boys ran headlong toward the fleeing kidnappers. The group quickly disappeared behind some magnolia bushes. Bill pushed Charlie out of the way and dived towards the entrance of the gnome burrow. Digging up clods of dirt and tossing it behind him, he shouted, "Give me back my baby brother, you miserable little wankers!!"
Charlie attacked from the other side, digging with equal fervor and avoiding the fists of dirt from Bill. "Mum's going to murder us," he said worriedly.
"Shut up and DIG!"
Bill felt someone yanking on his sleeve and turned around to see Percy. "What?"
"Mum and Dad are here," he said with a knitted brow. "They've got the new baby."
"WHAT??"
"They said they sent an owl half-an-hour ago. I thought you got it."
"Boys, didn't you fetch Errol?" Molly said as she came out the backdoor with a bundle in her arms. "Come meet you new little sister Ginny."
Arthur followed, beaming. "It's a girl. First girl in generations!"
Both adults froze as if they hit an invisible brick wall. One long look at the situation told it all: the twins were dancing around in circles singing, "Gnomes stole away Ronnikins! Gnomes stole away Ronnikins!" while a frazzled Percy with glasses askew knelt by Charlie and Bill, who were covered in dirt, looking like they were trying to uproot the entire garden.
Then, only one shout was uttered, so loud and so terrible that even the garden gnomes stuck out their knobby heads to hear:
"WILLIAM CLAUDIUS WEASLEY, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??"