Making Mistakes

Ginny lay quietly, watching Harry sleep. She was reminded of the month before she went back for her last year of school when they spent hours in the hammock at the bottom of the back garden. They would lay nose-to-nose and talk. Or sleep. Harry seemed to sleep better lying in that hammock with her than he did in the camp bed.

Harry looked so young when he slept. The habitually tense lines of his face relaxed and Ginny could see what he might have looked like if he'd lived a different life.

He had a photograph of himself as a newborn with his parents. Ginny thought it might be a bit too early to tell, but she fancied Bun... No, Albus, looked like Harry had as a baby.

That's going to take some getting used to, she mused. I don't think I'm ever going to understand why he had to use Severus, though. If we have another one, I'm naming it!

Ginny felt Harry stir in his sleep and watched as his eyelids fluttered open. He smiled with singular sweetness at her. 'Morning,' he murmured sleepily.

'Morning.'

'How long you been watching?' he yawned.

'Since the last feeding.'

Harry frowned. 'How long ago was that? I slept through your alarm...'

Ginny's mouth curved into a small smile. 'An hour and a half.'

'Why didn't you go back to sleep?'

'I'll sleep later.' Ginny's hands traced over the contours of Harry's face.

'I really am sorry, Gin. For not getting here sooner.'

Ginny's hand dropped down to Harry's chest. 'It's all right,' she shrugged in seeming indifference.

'I tried. I really did. It just took longer than I thought it would to get Kingsley caught up.'

Ginny tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. 'How did you know to come here the other night?'

'Percy,' Harry replied.

'Percy?'

'Yeah. He went to Kingsley's house and said I needed to come home. Kingsley said Percy was most insistent.' Harry shifted in the bed, his knees bumping Ginny's. 'We need a bigger bed in here,' he grumbled.

'I didn't know Percy had it in him,' Ginny smirked.

'I was going to leave as soon as Kingsley told me about you and the ba... Albus.' Harry made a face at Ginny. 'That's going to take some getting used to,' he said, echoing her earlier thoughts. 'He wouldn't let me leave In...' Harry stopped himself, still unsure of how much to tell Ginny. 'He wouldn't let me leave until we got him up to speed. It took longer than I thought it would.'

Ginny turned so her back was nestled into Harry's chest. 'Why are you telling me this?'

'I owe you an explanation. I promised you I would be here for you and I wasn't.' Harry buried his face in the back of Ginny's neck. 'I have to go back Sunday,' he told her, his voice barely audible, as if he didn't want to admit he had to leave again.

'I was wondering when you had to leave.' Ginny's eyes remained dry.

'I wish I didn't have to,' Harry confessed.

'I wish you didn't have to, either, but we live in the real world.' Ginny felt her eyes burn. 'And you would never leave a job unfinished, love.'

'Do you want me to stop?'

'Oh...' Ginny laced her fingers through Harry's. 'I can't ask you to do that.'

'I'm asking if you, Ginevra Potter, want me to stop being an Auror,' Harry said tightly.

Ginny took in a breath. 'I don't know,' she allowed. 'Sometimes, I wish you had a more normal job, like Bill or George or Ron. Where I don't have to worry so much. But,' Ginny sighed and drew in a quaking breath. 'But, I can't ask you to stop being you, because then you wouldn't be the man I married.'

Ginny glanced over her shoulder at Harry. 'What about you? What if I went back to playing?' She felt Harry's body stiffen in surprise.

'Do you want to?'

Ginny let herself think about what it might be like to play Quidditch professionally with small children. A nanny, possibly. Leaving by Floo to the practice pitch at the crack of dawn. Training all day and coming home exhausted. Ginny recalled being so tired on the weekends when she played for the Harpies, she spent most of Saturday doing as little as she could get away with. She shuddered at the idea of really only spending Sunday with her sons.

But the idea of making Harry wait and wonder was still oddly appealing, even though he was lying next to her. Just to give him a taste of what she had gone through since before they were married.

'Gwenog...' Ginny cleared her throat. 'Gwenog offered me a position on the team. Anytime I wanted, if I wanted to come back.'

'Oh.' Harry's fingers traced patterns on Ginny's arm. 'Are you?' he asked, almost not wanting to hear her say "yes". He thought she was much happier not playing, but didn't dare dream to tell her that.

'I don't know.'

Harry's bracelet buzzed, interrupting their quiet conversation. Ginny felt him sigh against her. 'Perfect timing,' he muttered, sliding out of bed.

Ginny sagged against the pillows. She had felt Harry's body tense slightly when he mentioned going back to his assignment. Not enough for most people to notice, but enough for her to tell. She had thought about what her mother had told her yesterday - that it might be best if she didn't know. Ginny had spent the silences in which she enticed Albus into eating thinking about that. As much as she longed to know where he was, she knew she would obsessively scour the paper to see if anything had happened where he was.

It was what she had done the year he was gone with the wireless and Potterwatch.

It had nearly driven her mad, in spite of the veneer she presented of calm control.

On the other hand...

Isn't there always another hand? Ginny silently snorted.

On the other hand, Ginny was tired of feeling left out. She didn't think they did it deliberately to her. If she let herself think logically about it, Ginny was certain there were things she knew that neither Ron, nor Hermione did. But they did have this... Thing. She didn't know how else to describe it. Ron and Hermione were as close as she and Harry were. Maybe even more, Ginny reflected. They've been through quite a bit the past two years. And they were Harry's best friends. Ginny often didn't know at times just quite where she fit into the grand scheme of things. She was Harry's wife, after all. But she existed in this odd, liminal plane. Part of their friendship, yet outside of it as well.

She wanted to be closer than they were.

Just this once.

*****

Harry set the bottle on the floor next to the rocking chair and slowly rocked Albus. He'd been trying for ten minutes to wake him, just to take another cc of milk. But Albus seemed to have inherited his parents' stubbornness in equal measures.

He still wasn't any closer to figuring out what to say to Ginny. Telling her he had to go back had been hard enough. Harry also knew that Ron had been right; Ginny would never ask him to quit. And honestly, Harry didn't think he could.

He gently ran a fingertip over Albus' tightly clenched fist, and it opened, then closed over his finger.

It sent a jolt through his arm.

No, I can't quit. Not yet. Not until I know that none of my children will ever have to face their own death.

Harry looked down at the small head, tucked under his chin. One day, I will have to explain your name to you.

The Albus part of the name was easy. Nobody would fault Harry for naming his son after Dumbledore. It was the Severus he was going to have to explain. And nobody, save Ginny, knew exactly what it was between his mother and Snape. He didn't think anyone would buy his rationale that Snape deserved recognition, too. And he wasn't really eager to talk about how much Snape had meant to his mum. Not even to Ron and Hermione.

That was personal.

Ginny was the only one who knew everything, and it had taken him most of an exceedingly difficult afternoon to tell her what he had seen in Snape's memories.

Ne obliviscaris.

It was engraved on the headstone under Snape's name.

Never forget.

Harry shifted in the rocking chair. He'd probably be sneering in revulsion that I named my son after him.

'How are we this morning?' Shanti's voice intruded on Harry's silent ruminations over the ramifications of naming his son after a man so many people still hated.

'Okay, I suppose.'

Shanti took the notes from Ewan, who had been on night duty. 'Do you have a name yet?'

'Albus.' Harry continued in a rush before his courage failed. 'Albus Severus,' he said quietly.

To her credit, Shanti merely blinked, and with great aplomb, simply nodded and made a note at the top of Albus' file.

'When can he go home?' Harry asked, as if he hadn't noticed Shanti's reaction.

'Depends. When he's steadily gaining weight. When he can maintain his body temperature without all the Warming charms.' Shanti trailed off as she read through the overnight report from Ewan. 'Could be in a week, could be more.' Shanti shut the file and gave Harry the kind of look that reminded him uncomfortably of Minerva McGonagall at her best. 'You're going back to whatever is you were doing soon, aren't you?'

'Yeah...'

Shanti just nodded again. 'Be careful, will you?'

'I always am.' Harry continued to rock in silence. 'Will he be all right before I leave?'

Shanti sat in the chair next to the rocking chair. 'I can't make any guarantees.' She gave Harry a cryptic look. 'Will someone know how to reach you? Just in case something does happen while you're gone?'

'I'll make sure Ginny does.' This time.

*****

Harry sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, paging through copies of the past month's Prophet. On the back page, an announcement caught his eye. He stared down at the paper in open-mouthed astonishment. Ginny walked back into the room to eat the breakfast Molly had brought earlier. Harry held the paper up to Ginny. 'Did you see this?' he demanded.

Ginny took the paper from Harry, looking at the brief article he pointed out. 'Scorpius?' she gagged. 'Are you kidding me?'

Harry took the paper back from Ginny, a thoughtful expression on his face. 'Interesting...' he remarked.

'What is?'

Harry pointed to the names of the parents. 'Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass Malfoy.'

'So?' Ginny peeled an orange.

'They're both Slytherins,' Harry said simply, as if that explained everything.

'And your point?' Ginny separated the orange into sections, and held one out to Harry.

Harry took the orange section from Ginny. 'I just never thought about Slytherins, you know... Reproducing.' He gestured at the announcement with the orange, dripping juice all over his pajama bottoms. 'It's just not natural.'

'I'm sure they say the same thing about Gryffindors,' Ginny said dryly around a mouthful of orange.

Harry took another section of orange from Ginny. 'I mean, is it safe for Slytherins to...' Harry blushed a particularly rich shade of magenta. 'Um, have sex?'

Ginny exploded into gales of laughter. 'Oh, Harry... Why wouldn't it be?' she spluttered.

Harry's shoulders hunched and he shoved the piece of orange he held in his hand into his mouth. 'I dunno,' he muttered. 'I always thought they were sort of like praying mantises, where the female kills the mate afterward.'

'So, what? Someone stands by and throws up a Protego in the afterglow?' Ginny scoffed.

'Maybe...' Harry folded the paper with machine-like precision. 'It would be funny if it were true,' he smirked. 'Awkward, though.' He looked back down at the paper in his hands. 'Hey, he'll be in the same year as Rose and Albus.'

'Yeah.' Ginny grinned. 'Talk about history repeating itself.'

'You can say that again,' Harry muttered.

*****

'Why don't you come to see James with me?' Harry suggested, as he ran Ginny's hairbrush through his wet hair.

Ginny cast a doubtful glance at the door and into the other room. 'I don't know...'

'Just for a couple of hours, Gin,' Harry coaxed. 'You won't get much one-on-one time with James much longer. He really misses us.'

Ginny shook her head, hair flying around her head. 'I can't,' she whispered. 'I can't leave him.'

Harry sat on the chair and tied the laces of his trainers. He knew it was pointless to argue with Ginny once she had made up her mind. 'I'll be back in a few hours.' He kissed Ginny and began to walk out the door.

'Harry?' Ginny's voice stopped him, and Harry turned around. 'Maybe you could bring him up here? Just for a little bit?' Ginny couldn't keep the yearning out of her voice.

'Of course.' Harry walked out into the lobby and headed for an Apparition point. He re-appeared in the lane outside the Burrow, and opened the gate to the back garden. He was earlier than he had been the previous day. Walking up to the back door, Harry saw something that surprised him: Molly sitting slumped at the table, head tiredly propped up in one hand. James was sitting in his chair, picking at some potatoes and mushy peas.

That gave Harry pause. Molly was nothing if not indefatigable. Even in the days after Fred's funeral, Molly was the one who refused to lie about in a funk. Harry still didn't remember much about the weeks after the battle, but the image of Molly tirelessly cooking for all the Weasleys flashed into his memory. Harry opened the door, and Molly glanced up in surprise. 'Dahdee!' James slid out of his chair with only a minor bit of difficulty, and ran to Harry, chubby arms wrapping around Harry's knee.

Harry reached down, and hefted James into his arms. 'Hi, James. Let's go finish your lunch, all right?' James nodded vigorously and let Harry put him back into his chair, happily using his fingers to push peas onto his spoon.

Harry reached over and gently touched the back of Molly's hand that was lying on the table. 'Are you all right?'

'Didn't sleep much last night,' Molly sighed. She gave Harry and opaque glance then shot a look at James. 'He was rather... Upset, I suppose, when he woke up from his nap and you weren't here.' Molly rubbed her hands over her face. 'Poor chap was inconsolable for a while. Cried himself to sleep, then woke up a few hours later, crying for you or Ginny.' She poured herself a glass of cold lemonade, then pushed the jug toward Harry.

Harry felt his eyebrows rise in alarm. 'I was going to see if I could take him up to see Ginny later,' he said. 'I'm not so sure I should now.'

'No, take him,' Molly said quickly. 'He needs to spend a little time with the two of you.'

'And you can have a nap?' Harry guessed.

'Am I that transparent?' Molly asked, letting her mouth quirk in a hint of a smile.

Harry shook his head. 'I can come back here at night to help out with James,' he ventured, but Molly waved him off.

'Ginny'll be home soon. Arthur and I can handle it for a few more days.' Molly glanced at James, dragging his spoon through the peas. 'I think he's done there.' She pulled herself to her feet and ducked into the scullery, reappearing a moment later with some fresh clothes. She picked up a wet dishcloth, and gave James a hasty wash with it, while James protested mightily. Molly just ignored James' howls. She pulled the clean t-shirt over James' head. 'You want to look smart for Mummy, don't you?' James' hasty ablutions completed, she handed James to Harry. 'Don't forget his nap, all right?'

'Wouldn't dream of it,' responded Harry. He carried James outside and out into the lane. 'Hang on, mate,' he said into James' hair, and turned.

*****

Harry set James down in Ginny's room. 'Don't move,' he warned. Ginny wasn't in the room, so Harry went to check the other room. Ginny was in her usual spot in the rocking chair. 'Hey, Gin.'

Ginny looked up, scrubbing at her tear-stained face.

'What happened?'

'He stopped breathing. Three times while you were gone.'

Harry took a few steps into the room, looking over his shoulder. James was still sitting in the middle of the bed, playing with a few of Arthur's plugs that had been tucked into his pockets. 'Is he all right?'

Ginny nodded, running her hands through her hair. Harry didn't blame her for being upset. Even though they knew what was happening, it still made for a rather frightening experience.

'Are you all right?'

Ginny nodded. 'Just a little hormonal, still.'

'I brought James. He's in your room.'

'Will you stay in here?' Ginny rose from the rocking chair, and gestured at the vacated seat.

'Sure.' Harry waited until Ginny had gone into her room. He could hear James' cries of 'Mummmmeeee!' as Ginny crossed the threshold into her room.

*****

Harry laid Albus back into the cot and swiftly buttoned his shirt, one-handed. He found if he held Albus in the kangaroo pose, he often lost track of time, lost in the rhythm of the rocking chair and the feel of Albus' tiny back rising and falling under his hands. Harry caught the trainee's eye. What was her name again? Sarah... 'Sarah? One of us will be back in a moment. I'm just going to take James home.'

Harry stole quietly into Ginny's room, and found Ginny and James, curled up together in the bed, sound asleep. Harry leaned over Ginny and patted her leg until she woke up. 'I need to take James back,' he whispered.

'Okay,' she said groggily, nestling back into the pillow, and returning to sleep. Harry managed to lift James into his arms and Apparate the two of them back to the Burrow without waking James.

*****

Ginny closed the door and slid gratefully into bed. Harry was lying on his back, looking at the ceiling. 'Are you really going to take Gwenog up on her offer?'

'I don't know. All I know right now is, I'm going to at least take the six months the paper automatically gives me, maybe even a year.' Ginny rested her head on Harry's shoulder. 'I'm going to think about it, though, Gwenog's offer,' she admitted. 'Maybe when they start primary school in a few years... I might consider talking to Gwenog.' Ginny's shoulder rose and fell in a shrug. 'I just don't really know...'

'You'll go spare taking a whole year off,' Harry predicted.

'I'm just taking a year off from the grind of the paper. I'll still do a few freelance pieces for Quidditch Quarterly or Which Broomstick. Keep my hand in.'

Harry turned so he faced Ginny in the small bed. He rested his forehead against hers and took a deep breath. 'I'm in Inverness,' he confessed nearly soundlessly.

To Ginny it seemed as if that simple pronouncement sucked all the air out of the room. Her eyes widened and she found herself unable to breathe. 'Why?'

Harry brushed a kiss across her cheek. 'Because that's where the idiot lives who was threatening Hermione and Percy.'

'No, why are you telling me?'

'I've always told you before. And your dad kidnapped me the other night. Gave me quite an earful before he let me come back.' Harry's hand slid down Ginny's arm to lace his fingers through hers. 'I heard your mum yesterday, too.'

Ginny's hand closed around Harry's in a spasm of surprise.

'Your dad said you deserved to be treated like an adult. He said that by leaving you so in the dark about everything it was demeaning to you.' Harry paused to take in a shaky breath. 'And your mum's right, too. Maybe it's best not to know anything, but that's what I've been doing all along with this, and it's obviously not working well this time.

'So I'm going to try both.'

'How's that going to work?' Ginny asked skeptically.

'I will tell you that mostly I'm in Inverness, but I can't tell you where exactly. If you need me in an emergency, go to Kingsley. If I'd told you that before I left, I would have been here sooner. I wasn't thinking properly before.'

Ginny nodded, thousands of questions flying to her lips, but staying silent, her nose brushing Harry's.

'Whoever this is, they don't like Hermione trying to regulate house-elf treatment. Or that Percy's helping her with the legal stuff.'

'All right.'

'They get these notes. The most prosaic, derivative thing possible. They cut out letters from magazines and stick them to parchment to make words. It's something out of a bad Muggle mystery novel. If you get one, I want you to take it to Kingsley immediately.'

'Do you know who it is?' Ginny breathed.

'Yes.' Harry looked over his shoulder at the door. It was firmly shut and Harry had added a Muffliato to the Silencing charms that were already on it. He bent his head, until his lips brushed against Ginny's ear and whispered a name.

Ginny reared back, her face white with shock. 'No...'

Harry laid a finger over Ginny's lips. 'Yes.'