Harry Potter and the Year After

Chapter Eighteen: Unexpected Fates

Chapter 18: Unexpected Fates

When Harry's vision returned, he was sitting on the floor of the second floor hallway in his house. He stood and paced to the end of the hall where a stained glass window gave a view of a quaint square. A church wasn't far away across the square, and off in the distance to the left stood a little cemetery.

When he heard the quiet click of an opening door, he spun hurried back down the short hallway. He faced his wife.

"It's positive," Ginny said, grinning. It had taken eight months to hear those words.

Harry pulled her into a hug.

"Pregnant," he whispered. "Are you sure?"

"Yep," she said, grinning as she leaned back to look up at his face. She giggled. "You can't tell anyone. Not even Ron and Hermione. Not until three months are up."

"Your mum will figure it out," Harry said, shaking his head. He kissed her nose.

"Yeah, she probably will." She rested her head on his chest. He pulled her tighter to himself.

"Mmm." He rested his cheek on the top of her head. "We're going to be parents."

"Yes, how boring."

"I don't think I know how to be a parent," Harry said. He'd never admitted it aloud before but he'd thought it a hundred times since they first started trying to have a baby.

"If you love this baby half as much as you love me and our family, you'll do just fine." She rubbed his back. He loved it when she did that.

"Well, you'll be parent enough for both of us if I'm horrible at it," Harry tried to joke.

"Are you trying to say that I'm like my mother? Because if you're telling me that--"

"You may be a bit like your mother, but I mean it as a compliment. You're sexier than your mum. Just a bit, anyway."

She smacked his back where she'd been rubbing it. "Oh, don't tell me that you've had fantasies about my mother. I'll puke on you even if I don't have morning sickness yet."

He dropped his hold on her.

Harry's vision returned.

"Huh," he said. He hadn't been expecting that. It was possible that he'd get back together with Ginny?

"What did you see?" Hermione asked him. She was sitting up ramrod straight.

"You tell me yours first," he said. He didn't want to tell her what he saw. Oddly, he was worried about offending her.

"I don't want to say," she said. "It was weird."

"It couldn't have been that bad. What? Did you like, watch your own funeral or something? Were you a lesbian?"

Hermione made a noise like a hissing cat. "You're turning into Ron, I swear."

Harry wondered if it had anything to do with the fact he was attracted to her now.

"I saw us, together," she said quietly after a moment had passed. She glanced at him and their eyes met. "Together together."

"You and me?"

Hermione looked away. "You and me and someone else."

Harry had no idea what to say to that. "Oh. That's interesting."

"Well then? What did you see?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Woah, wait a tick. You can't say that and then not tell me who this 'someone else' is."

"You tell me what you saw and then maybe I'll think about telling you who it was."

Harry knew it must have been Ron. After Ron drunkenly tried to kiss him the other night, a thought had been itching the back of Harry's mind: was Ron really attracted to him or was it just the alcohol?

Hermione was looking at him expectantly.

"I was living in my parents' old house in Godric's Hollow. It was fixed up. I was--I was married to Ginny."

"I see. Well, that makes sense."

"Does it? I don't think it makes sense at all. I never made a decision to--"

"Like you mentioned before, it's not always your decision to make. She broke up with you. You never stopped loving her."

"I don't know if I ever started loving her."

"You only watched her every spare moment on the Marauder's Map while on lookout in the woods." Hermione glanced at him again. He looked away from her.

"So you're saying that she must have decided that she wants to get back together with me?"

"Yes. Probably. She didn't tell me that, but it would make sense."

"Right."

"Well, we should really get going. People will start wondering what we're up to." Hermione hopped up from her seat on Ron's bed but Harry grabbed her wrist.

"You have something to tell me first. Or a certain someone to tell me, that is. Who were we with?"

Hermione was blushing. She shook her head.

"It was Ron, wasn't it?"

"Yes," she squeaked. Harry let her go. He listened as she hurried down the stairs.

Harry could only wonder: who of the three allowed that Fate to be a possibility? All three? Wouldn't all three of them have to be willing on some level for that to be a possibility?

Harry definitely did not feel like he was open to that possibility. Ever. Unless maybe he'd take an accidental love potion someday.

He stood and, stuffing the burnt-out joint back into its baggy, he dropped the bag back onto Ron's dresser.

He didn't ever want to do Wizard's Weed again. It messed with your head too much.

He went downstairs. She was waiting at the door for him.

"I'm surprised you're not going to change into a dress. Ginny was wearing a dress," Harry said. He was looking at the floor, not a Hermione.

"I am wearing a dress," Hermione said. Harry glanced up from the floor.

"Oh, so you are. Sorry."

"It's okay. I just changed. Transfigured my clothes."

"Hm," Harry said looking up at her again. He hadn't known that she could do that. "Well, you look nice."

"Come on." She grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the house. As they jogged down the steps, she flicked her wand over her shoulder and the door shut and locked behind them.

Hermione was about to Apparate, Harry knew, but he grabbed her hand.

"Listen, Hermione. Before we go--"

"What?"

"I want you to know that..."

She only stared at him and patiently waited for him to finish his sentence. He glanced around them. They were alone.

"I want you to know that I love you more than anything. If it weren't for your cleverness and your, your caring about me, I would have died a thousand times over by now. I owe you everything."

"Harry, please don't--"

"If Ron had... if he'd never come back to us over the winter, I don't know, maybe things would be different. But I just can't keep doing this to him."

"I can't either, but--"

"And I want the best for you. I want you to be happy."

"But, Harry," Hermione whispered, "Don't you see? You saying things like that..." Hermione shook her head and then Disapparated. Harry let out a huff of breath that he'd been holding. Then, he Disapparated too.