Growing Pains

Chapter Twenty

The feeling that everything was perfect lasted for exactly 23 hours and 14 minutes, which was when the Potter family was discharged from St. Mungo's.

As soon as they crossed the threshold of their house, James immediately became fussy and would not calm down. Harry and Ginny tried everything from trying to feed him, to rocking him, to changing his perfectly clean nappy. Nothing worked.

"Please James," Ginny pleaded in an irritated cooing voice.

"Here, Gin, let me take him. Maybe he wants some time with his daddy," Harry smiled widely at James, but the smile quickly fell when Ginny shot him a look then began to whimper.

"He hates me," she cried, handing James to Harry. She sat down on the floor and sobbed, and Harry, who had no idea what was happening, stood there wide eyed.

"Ginny, dear, he does not hate you. You're his mother. He loves you. The problem is he doesn't even know what he wants, so how could we?"

Ginny's cries grew softer until she had choked them all back, looking up at Harry with bleary eyes.

"I'm sorry. This must be the post partum emotions Padma was telling us about," she wiped her eyes with her long sleeves.

"I have an idea. Why don't you go take a nice, long, hot bubble bath. I can handle him. You haven't showered since before you went into labour. You must feel awful."

"You mean I smell don't you?" Ginny laughed.

"A bit," Harry rushed to compliment her before she got emotional again, "but you still look amazing, even after days of not bathing."

He could have done better, but this seemed to work and Ginny stood up from the floor.

"I suppose one bath wouldn't hurt. Are you sure you've got him? What if he gets hungry?"

"Then I'll warm him one of the bottles you pumped earlier. Go, don't worry about us."

"Alright then, I'll be quick, I promise," Ginny responded hesitantly.

"Take your time, we will be fine," Harry waved her on. Ginny walked over to James and gave him several kisses as if she was leaving for a week instead of taking a mere bath, then entered the bathroom and shut the door with a final wave.

"Phew, mommy really did smell," Harry murmured softly to James.

"I HEARD THAT HARRY JAMES POTTER!" Ginny called from behind the closed door.

"Oops. Daddy's in trouble. Mommy is scary when she's mad," Harry whispered.

"I heard that too, and thank you," she responded, this time sounding more flattered than mad.

Ginny heard Harry snickering from the other side of the door and she rolled her eyes, walking over to the side of the bathtub to begin running hot water. 

She waited and meticulously messed with the dials on the faucet until she found the perfect temperature, then put the drain stop in, watching as the water grew higher and higher on the walls of the shiny porcelain. 

The room grew warm with the steam of the water, and Ginny let down her hair from the greasy ponytail she had been keeping it in since the quick shower she had taken at the hospital right after giving birth. She then shed the yoga pants, and reached her sweatshirt over her head, throwing it to the floor with the rest of her garments.

The water made a soft noise as Ginny lowered herself into the tub, and she sighed with relief. Her body was still sore from labour, and the hot water that encompassed her body felt amazing.

She drug her hand along the surface of the water, then slid down the slope of the tub, dunking her head underwater. She gasped when she resurfaced, running her hands over her wet hair. The past few days had been extremely stressful for her and Harry, but at the same time, full of so much joy.

She lingered in the water until she began to catch a chill. A slight wave of guilt washed over her as she climbed out of the porcelain tub, but she quickly dismissed it as she ran through the list of things she did for James that Harry was incapable of doing. But still, she was already missing her baby boy, even after just fifteen minutes.

Ginny toweled herself dry and threw on a fresh set of clothes before slipping out of the bathroom. She padded down the hallway to the nursery and gently opened the door to reveal a shirtless Harry sitting in the rocker, James curled against his chest. Both boys were fast asleep.

Ginny's heart fluttered as she took in the sight of the boys. Her boys.

She tiptoed across the room and turned out the lamp that was emitting a soft yellow glow from the corner. The small digital clock on the chest of drawers read 9:23 p.m. Ginny grinned to herself and slipped out of the nursery to go lay down for a few minutes while James was asleep.

She got exactly twenty three minutes of sleep before she heard a soft cry from the baby monitor in the nursery. She leaped off of the bed, where she had just collapsed without even getting under the covers. She hurried down the hall to James' room, and picked him up off of a still sleeping Harry's chest, and before he could make another noise that may wake Harry, carried him out of the room.

She walked downstairs, cradling her son against her chest and cooing softly to him. She took a seat on the couch and allowed James to help himself to some milk. She relaxed and leaned back against the cushion.

Ginny knew Harry had not slept in at least 48 hours, and maybe longer, so she was going to make sure he got as much rest as he need to recuperate for now. While she had rested after giving birth and had slept a bit, she knew Harry had been back and forth between St. Mungo's and the house to care for her and James, but also finish up some of the final projects to prep the house for a baby. And before that, he was awake the entire time Ginny was in labour, even when the labour was stalled for a few hours and she had gotten a few minutes of sleep.

James made soft gurgling noises as he pulled away from Ginny's bosom, white foam around his mouth. She grabbed a cloth off of the table in front of her and tossed it carelessly over her shoulder, then raised James and began patting his back gently.

A rumbling burp left his mouth, and made Ginny giggle.

"That sounded just like your uncle Charlie," Ginny whispered, rubbing her nose against James' tiny one.

She watched as her son's eyes began to flutter, and she smiled as he drifted off to sleep.

"How do we deserve something as beautiful and precious as you?" She whispered, brushing her thumb over his tiny foot absent mindlessly.

"James, my dear, we love you more than you will ever know."