Sometimes It Be That Way

... To Tell Someone That You Are Pregnant

*

Her hands shook slightly as she sat down on the chair across from her parents. She had no idea how to start it off. Does she speak it happily, pretending to be cheerful? Does she outright tell them and look regretful, keeping her eyes away from theirs? Does she just tell them?

It felt so surreal. She felt like she was floating in a dream where her subconscious was controlling her and she was the puppet. She knew that her parents would not take her news lightly and she felt helpless to stop their reactions from coming when she told them she was pregnant.

So Ginny looked up at her parents who looked back at her anxiously, eager for news straight from the daughter, eager to find out the real reason why Ginny ran away. Molly's eyes looked worried and happy at the same time. Arthur just looked plain ecstatic to find out the his only daughter was all right. So Ginny plunged herself into her situation and said...

"I'm pregnant."

The reactions were spontaneous. Arthur's face went from happy to angry and red. Molly just went white and said nothing as Arthur, putting on a façade of calmness, said, "What?"

Ginny took a deep breath and said it again. "I'm pregnant. I've known for two and half months." She tried to plead with them as her father got off the couch and began to pace around, trying to vent his frustration into doing something physical and non-violent. "It was a mistake, it should never have happened, I know. You don't have to tell me."

"Yes, I think we do have to tell you," Molly suddenly said. She turned to Arthur and said reproachfully, almost as if it was his fault, "Sit down!" Arthur jumped and sat down beside her, although not right beside her. She turned back to Ginny, and with her lips in such a tight line that they became white, said, "How could you do this? How could you get yourself pregnant? You're only fifteen!"

"I'm sixteen, mum," Ginny told her wearily.

Molly scowled. "That is hardly an appropriate age for someone to have a baby," she said, "especially you. You have no experience with babies! How do you think you are going to take care of this baby?" This time, Molly got up and started pacing around.

"I can try," Ginny protested. For some reason deep down inside of herself, she did not think that she would be able to take care of a baby, but she couldn't let her mother know that. She looked up from the floor she had been staring at as she said this and saw her mother's incredulous expression. "I can try!" she persisted.

"Who's the father?" Molly suddenly asked, her eyes wide in desperation Ginny could not fathom. When Ginny did not answer, she said again, "Who's the father? Please tell me that that bastard Malfoy did not take advantage of you."

Ginny shook her head. "It's not Malfoy," she told her, noticing that her father had looked up in anxiety at the mention of Draco Malfoy's name.

"Then who is it?" Molly demanded. "Ginny, tell me! Tell us!"

Ginny looked down, unwilling to say Harry's name. She shook her head curtly and said, "You don't need to know."

Molly shook her head and put a hand to her mouth, almost in grief. She shook her head again and closed her eyes before rubbing them. When she finally spoke, she spoke so low that Ginny was hard-pressed to hear what she was saying. "I am not going to let you go down the same road that I went down."

Ginny shook her head this time and asked, "What are you talking about?" When her mother did not answer, she looked towards her father who had his eyes fixed on a spot on the floor. "Dad?"

She saw a couple tears fall from her mother's eyes. She took a deep, shaky breath and said, looking Ginny straight in the eye, "I don't want you to go down the path that I went down. I don't want you to drop out of Hogwarts like I had to."

"There's something we did not tell you," Arthur took over, his voice low and calm. "Bill was born while we were in our seventh year."

Ginny gasped. How could she have not know this? It had always seemed a little odd to her that her older brother, when his age was subtracted from her mum's, seemed to have been born when Molly had been a teenager, but it had never ocurred to Ginny that her mother could have had her eldest brother while she was still in Hogwarts.

She closed her eyes for a second, trying to clear her head. First, she sleeps with Harry and gets pregnant. Then, she finds out that her parents went through the same thing, except they were older. What did she do? A single tear slipped down her cheek as she tried to find out how she could do such a thing to herself and to her parents. Why had she had that stupid crush on Harry for so long that she had to go and sleep with him because he had been lonely? She put her face in her hands and shook her head, the tears falling more freely now. How could she do such a thing?

Suddenly, her mother was in front of her and had wrapped her arms around her, holding her tight. She looked up as her father got off the couch and held onto both of them. She let go of her head and let her mother and father hug her, putting her head on her mother's shoulder, letting the tears come.

"It's alright, baby," her mother murmured, stroking her hair in comfort. "Everything's going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine."

Amidst tears and sobs, Ginny choked out, "It's not going to be fine! How- how could I be so stupid? How could I just let him take me like that? How could I be so stupid?"

Fifteen minutes later, Ginny managed her way into the kitchen where she found Hermione sitting patiently, her fingers curling nervously on the counter. Hermione looked up as Ginny came in, her face full of worry. Ginny managed a weak smile to her now that she had finally calmed down. She gestured to her red eyes and explained, "Crazy hormones kicked in."

Hermione didn't find that funny, and even though Ginny spoke it as a joke, neither did she. Hermione asked, "Ginny... how did it go?"

"Mum wants me to go home for the rest of the holidays," Ginny told her slowly. "She thinks it best." She decided to tell Hermione about Bill later and asked, "Do you want to come?"

Hermione nodded wordlessly. She looked down at the counter where her cold cup of tea sat with a look of thoughtfulness. "Harry will be there, won't he?" she asked.

Ginny's tone took a hard edge. "Unfortunately," she said icily.

"Are you sure you can handle him right now?" Hermione asked. She thought a little more and a look of panic crossed her face. "Do your parents know about him?"

"To the second question, no I didn't tell them," Ginny replied. She looked down at her hands. "I couldn't. He's been in our lives so much ever since he and Ron became friends and Molly and Arthur love to take care of him. You know, him being the Boy Who Lived and all. I think it would break their hearts if I told them it was him.

"As for the first question, I really don't know." Ginny began picking at her nails in nervousness. Just the thought of confronting Harry again was frightening. What would he say? What would he do? "My parents were pretty adamant that I go home, back to the Burrow. So I have to go. I think I'll just play it by ear and see what happens. Cross that bridge when I come to it."

Hermione nodded. She got off the stool and said, "I'll go pack and call my mother to let her know that I'm going."

Hermione walked around Ginny and Ginny remained where she was before whipping around just as Hermione had reached the door. "Hermione," she said. She paused as Hermione turned to look at her, one hand on the door. Ginny opened and closed her mouth before saying, "Tell your mother thank you for letting me stay here." Hermione nodded and left the room, leaving Ginny alone in the kitchen to ponder what had happened to her life.