Never Underestimate Love
Oooooo
Ooooooo
If one day you discover him
Broken down
He's lost everything
No cars, no fancy clothes
To make him who he's not
The woman at his side
Is all that he has got
Why do you ask him
Move heaven and earth
To prove his love has worth?
Harry spun me around with a flourish, pulled me back to his chest and resumed swaying from side to side with me wrapped up tightly in his arms. It was our wedding day, and we were dancing for the first time as husband and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Harry James Potter, finally! It was about time we got married; we had been engaged for five months - and now it was official. I was now Ginevra Molly Potter, and I was so happy! My dreams had finally come true! I’m not talking about my childhood dreams where Harry was my knight in shining armor and he took me off into the sunset on his broom. No, those dreams were long gone, and had been replaced by dreams of Harry asking me to marry him; and we would live semi-happily ever after. I may be a romantic, but I do have some common sense too “ enough to know that nothing is ever exactly like a fairy tale. Though I might have said otherwise right at this moment, as Harry leaned down and placed a passionate kiss on my lips, then sang along with the words to the song.
Would he walk on the water?
Would he run through fire?
Would he stand before you
When it's down to the wire?
Would he give his life up
To be all he can?
Is that
Is that
Is that
How you measure a man?
If by chance all he had to give you
Was three words wrapped around your finger
Would that be deep enough
At the end of everyday?
And how will you ever know
If the man is what he says?
Harry could be so romantic sometimes, and this was one of them. Someone who didn’t know him as well as me wouldn’t notice: for example, they would think it normal for a groom to do this to his new bride; but I know Harry, and it’s not like him to kiss me with such passion, that I feel weak in the knees, in front of other people. But he was full of surprises tonight. He had just spun me around again and was lowering me into a dip… his lips were just a centimeter away…
“Mummy, time to get up!” McKenzie and T.J, my four-year-old twins cried excitedly, jumping on my bed. Sometimes they can be a pair of pains in the arse but I wouldn’t give them up for anything. I sighed, opened my eyes and asked sternly,
“Lillian McKenzie, Trenton James, what have I told you about jumping on beds?”
“That we’re not supposed to do it. Sorry, Mummy,” they said simultaneously, plopping onto their knees with sorry expressions on their cute little faces.
“What’s going on in here? Do you three have any idea what time it is?” my mother exclaimed in exasperation from the doorway as I commenced tickling McKenzie and T.J on the stomach.
“I don’t, mum, what time is it?” I asked without pausing from tickling the kids.
“It’s four-thirty in the morning, Ginny. People are trying to sleep,” my mother, Molly Weasley, sighed.
“Sorry, Mum. It was their fault, they woke me up,” I stated innocently as I stopped tickling the two little ones to give her a sweet smile.
“Really, Ginny, how old are you?” Mum asked angrily.
“I’m twenty-four, why?” I retorted cheekily.
“That’s my point! You’re acting like you’re ten again, blaming it on McKenzie and T.J - they’re only four, for Merlin’s sake,” Mum said, trying to hide a smile.
“McKenzie, T.J, why did you wake me up so early?” I asked once Mum had left my room, closing the door behind her.
“Mummy, today Daddy comes home! We get to meet him for the first time in person. I can’t sleep anymore, I’m too excited!” McKenzie said in a rush. T.J nodded his head vigorously.
“We need to get some more sleep. Daddy won’t be home until tonight anyway; climb under the covers, you can sleep in my bed for the rest of the night. Sleep well, dears.” I extinguished the candles with a wave of my wand.
I woke up at seven o’clock and got in the shower, dressing in my midnight-blue dress robes. I was just putting on my high-heeled shoes when Hermione came in.
“Gin-Oh, you’re up already, that’s good. Mum asked me to come up here to wake you.” She sat down on the little sofa by my bed. “What time did you get home last night? I heard you asking Mum to keep an ear out for the twins at eleven, but didn’t hear you come back.”
“I got home at three-thirty this morning,” I told her tiredly. “We had three emergency deliveries last night - one was twins, one was a girl and the other was a boy - but I’ve been up since seven; my stupid biological clock woke me up.” I sighed and walked over to my dressing table to do my hair. “Hermione, can you cut my hair for me?” I asked, studying my reflection in the mirror.
“Yeah, how short do you want it?”
“Can you do it to my shoulder blades, with a layer at my collar bone and one at my chin?”
“No problem. It should only take a few minutes,” she said, summoning the scissors from the bathroom and starting to cut.
“There, done,” she pronounced with a flourish ten minutes later. My hair was just like I wanted it. I turned to face her. “Thanks, it looks great. Your mum taught you that, didn’t she?”
“No problem - and yes, my mum taught me; she used to cut my dad’s hair, and mine when I was little.” She paused, looking at me calculatingingly. “Ginny, are you nervous about today?”
I turned to the mirror and began doing my makeup. “I’m terrified,” I admitted, nibbling my lower lip. “I have no idea how I’m going to tell Harry that he has a daughter and a son. What if he hates me for not telling him and decides he doesn’t want to be married to me anymore? I don’t think I could live with knowing that it was all my fault that he was angry with me - and with them, by default. I just don’t think I made the right choice. Was I being selfish?” I asked, looking at the ground, then glancing at the two children asleep on my bed.
“Ginevra Molly Potter, I will not have you saying such daft things. Harry loves you and he will never stop. He may be upset with you for a little while after you tell him, but there’s no way he’ll leave you; he loves you too much to do that. He’s written to me over the past five years, you know - he told me in one of his letters that he loves you so much that it hurts sometimes, that being away from you is like having part of himself taken away. Let me ask you this: what would have happened if you had written, telling him that you were pregnant, and the letter was intercepted by Death Eaters? I’ll tell you what would have happened,” she snapped before I could reply. “They would have come after you and the twins to get to Harry. You three could have been killed. You know as well as I do that now that Voldemort is gone, his Death Eaters are even more malicious then they were before “ they’ll kill anyone who played a part in the final battle. You also know what Harry would have done if you told him, right? He would have come home, even if you told him to stay and finish his Auror training - that’s how he is. You know all of that, you told me that yourself when you first found out,” Hermione finished. I noticed she sounded a lot like her soon-to-be mother-in-law.
I nodded my head in response to her last statement and then went over to McKenzie and TJ.
“Children, you need to get up now,” I whispered. “You have breakfast waiting to be eaten in the kitchen.”
“Is it time for Dad to come home yet?” T.J asked, his green eyes bright with anticipation.
“No, he’ll be home later tonight, sweetie. Right now, you need to get up and go eat breakfast. Mama is downstairs waiting for you.” I let out a laugh as they ran out of the room and down the stairs; they reminded me of Ron and myself at that age - always running, never walking.
At five-thirty, my father arrived home from work with a loud crack.
“Evening, Weasleys and crew,” Arthur Weasley said to the rather large crowd in the living room: Bill and his wife Fleur, with their two little children, Samuel (who was three) and MeChel (who was one); Charlie and Ana and their twins, Jake and Juliet -they were two. There was also Fred and Angelina, their daughter Sara, who was two months old, - and George and his very pregnant wife Alicia; plus Hermione, McKenzie, T.J, Remus Lupin and Tonks (who, despite being Nymphadora Lupin now, refused to change her nickname), with their one-month-old son, Sirius. Percy wasn’t there; Penelope’s parents had retired to America, and he and Penny were visiting them with their three kids.
“Evening, Arthur,” said my Mother, Tonks, and Remus in unison.
“Evening, Dad,” coursed my brothers, their wives, Hermione and I.
“Evening, Grandpa,” said the grandchildren who were old enough to talk.
“Papa, you’re home!” exclaimed McKenzie as she rushed to him to give him a hug and a kiss along with T.J.
As six-thirty drew closer, the little congregation of family and friends was getting louder. At exactly six-thirty, there were three flashes of silver light, and in my, Hermione’s and Remus’ lap sat three letters. I flipped mine over and I saw the Potter family crest imprinted in the dry wax. I ripped the letter open with apprehension. It said,
My dearest Ginny,
Just kidding, Gin.
I’m sorry to write and dash, but Ron and I won’t be able to make it to dinner tonight. We’ve been called to an urgent job and won’t be done until around midnight, or so I’m told. I’ve waited too long for this day to let it be delayed more than a couple of hours.
Tell the family to eat without us, and that Ron and I will see them tomorrow morning. We’ll take them out to lunch or something. Tell Mum that I am very sorry about this, but it couldn’t be helped.
Love you forever,
Harry
I looked over at Hermione and I could tell that she had received the same kind of letter as me; then I looked around to see Remus, standing up and talking to Tonks in a hushed voice. He shook his head and kissed her on the cheek. Looking at my mother, he said,
“Molly, I’m sorry about this but I just received a letter from Mad-Eye and I have to go help with some Order business. I must leave.” With a loud crack and no further explanation, he was gone.
“Mum, Harry sent word that he and Ron won’t be home until about midnight and he says that we should eat without them. They’ll see you all in the morning; he and Ron will take us all out to lunch tomorrow- or at least that’s what he wrote,” I said and Hermione nodded her head, indicating that Ron’s letter had said the same thing.
It was after eight-thirty, when my mother sent all of us into the den to have hot chocolate. Pretty soon all the adults were having separate conversations and the children were trying to entertain themselves. I was just listening in while holding little Sirius; I heard lots of different topics of conversation going on around me.
“Bill, dear, why don’t you let me trim your hair for you? It really is getting ridiculously long. What do they say at the bank?” my mother asked, fingering her wand and looking at Bill’s hair with distaste.
Bill rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Mum, no! I like it as it is and they don’t give a damn about it at the bank just as long as I do my job well.”
“Hermione, have you and Ron set the date for the wedding yet, or are you waiting until he gets back to do the planning?” Alicia questioned
“We haven’t set the date yet, no, but Ron told me to start making the plans if I want to. As long as he gets a say in what he and his groomsmen wear then he’s totally fine with it. Isn’t he so sweet?” Hermione gushed.
Charlie’s gleeful voice was heard above the din: “Ha! got another one of your chessmen, Fred. That would be checkmate. And you thought that you could beat me? You owe me five galleons. Pay up, mate!” Charlie exclaimed.
“Charlie, I thought I told you not to bet with him when you’re playing that game; you know that you can kick his arse any day of the week at chess,” Ana scolded. “Fred, you don’t have to pay him - Angelina looks like she wants to kill you for betting in the first place, anyway.”
“Fred, what did I tell you? Merlin, when will you learn not to bet with your brothers? I feel like I am talking to a two-year-old,” Angelina raged, then stormed into the kitchen, Fred running after her, apologizing profusely.
“Dad, who told you we’re opening a shop in Italy?!” George sounded amused.
“We’re opening on in Hogsmeade so that we can attract business from the students,” he explained.
“I heard it through the channels in the Ministry, that’s all. I just wanted to check t if I had my facts right. I thought that you opening a shop in Italy was a bit unbelievable “ even you two aren’t that much off your rockers,” Arthur chuckled.
“Hey, we’re not off our rockers, we’re just… high-spirited!”
“George,” Bill interrupted, “do you want to play me in a game of wizard’s chess?” Bill asked.
“Sure, as long as we don’t bet on it. Alicia will have my head if I do that,” was the whispered response.
“You better believe it, Mister. I will not tolerate any more betting, George Weasley,” Alicia proclaimed from her spot on the sofa.
There seemed to be some sort of unspoken agreement that they would all stay here, together, for as long as possible, as the evening wore on, the children were tiring and eventually fell asleep on the floor or in their parents’ laps - but everyone called it a night when little Samuel fell asleep at the coffee table and spilt his hot chocolate all over the place. After rounding up the scattered children and after the goodbyes, everyone who wasn’t staying left, either by Portkey, Apparition or Floo. I picked up my sleeping children and carried them up to their room to change them and put them to bed for the night. Having gotten the kids settled, I went into my room and changed into some Muggle clothing that Hermione had helped me pick - I didn’t want to be stuck wearing robes all night. It was only ten o’clock, so I grabbed the paperwork I brought home with me and went down stairs to work on it. About half an hour later, I heard McKenzie yelling for me - I ran upstairs to keep her from waking her brother and found her crying.
“McKenzie, honey, what’s wrong? Talk to Mummy; did you have a bad dream?” I asked as I picked her up, rocking her while I walked us around the room.
“Mummy, I had a dream that Daddy was hurt really bad and that he wasn’t going to come home. It was scary,” McKenzie sniffed.
I soothed her, “Oh honey, Daddy will be just fine. Let’s go back to sleep, you’ll see him in the morning. Don’t fret on it, baby…” but my murmurs fell on deaf ears; she was already fast asleep.
As I was putting her back in her bed, my Mum stuck her head in the door.
“Is everything alright in here? Is she okay now?”
“Yeah Mum, she’s fine - just a nightmare. She’s asleep again now.” I looked at the dark circles under her eyes. “You look tired, why don’t you and Dad go on up to bed?” I suggested. “I don’t think that Harry and Ron will mind; they did say not to wait up for them.”
“I think I will do that. Merlin knows we’ve all had a long day. Can you tell your father that I’m going to bed and I expect him up there in no more than five minutes?” Mum said. I nodded my head in acquiescence as I descended the stairs, finding my father talking to Hermione.
“Dad, Mum says that she’s going to bed and that she wants to see you up there in no more than five minutes. Don’t kill me, I’m just the messenger,” I added in response to the looks on their faces. My father went upstairs, pausing to give us each a goodnight hug.
After about five minutes, I had finished my paperwork and just about to put everything away when I noticed Hermione gazing fixedly at her engagement ring with a dreamy look on her face.
“You do realize, Hermione, that staring at that ring isn’t going to bring your fiancé home any faster, right?” I teased.
“I know that, Gin, but I wish he was home right now. I don’t think I can live much longer without seeing him,” she sighed.
“I remember when Ron asked me to help him pick out that ring for you. Of course, that’s not the one I picked out -’ I laughed, ‘- he just wanted to know what I thought you would like best. I chose one that had a bigger stone and less detail, but he said that you wanted a smaller stone and so he chose that one in the end.” I remembered when Harry had finally proposed to me just as clearly.
It was exactly one year and four months since Harry and I had got back together. Harry had just defeated Voldemort, and he found me not too far from where he was. He asked me if it was too late for him to ask to have me back and I told him not to be silly; it would never be too late. Harry had picked me up from The Burrow and taken me to the Potter Manor in Godric’s Hollow; he had inherited the house when he turned seventeen. It had been snowing, and Harry led me to the small lake that was on the grounds. We stood there, looking out at the sunset. Harry had noticed I was shivering from the cold and so he stood behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, then nuzzled my temple and said, “Gin, do you love me?”
“Of course I love you, Harry!” I exclaimed.
“Would you do something for me?” he asked as I turned around.
“Anything,” I wondered where this was going.
Harry took a deep breath and took my hands in his.
“Then will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to be my wife?” he asked, while dropping to one knee in the snow and opening a black velvet box. He held his breath as he waited for my reply.
I stood, stunned, for a few seconds, looking at the beautiful ring that sat in the box. It was gold and had three stones set into it. The middle and largest stone was an emerald with a ruby on each side of it. Realizing that I hadn’t answered him, I took a breath and fell to my knees in front of him, threw my arms around his neck and whispered in his ear over and over again, “Yes, yes, yes!”
Harry picked me up when he stood and swung me around in a circle, kissing me. We were married five months later, but he had to leave for Auror training four months after that. It was after Harry left that I found out that I was pregnant.
As I came out of my thoughts, I noticed that Hermione was looking at me funnily.
“Ginny, where were you? You had this far-away look on your face.”
“I was just remembering how Harry proposed to me,” I giggled while looking at my ring, which now had a wedding band attached to it. Hermione just shook her head, while grinning broadly. We both jumped when the clock struck twelve, and the hands on the Weasley clock labeled Ron and Harry (every new member of the family had been added and the clock was starting to look quite crowded!) moved from work to traveling, then to home, in the space of five seconds. We heard a thud in the kitchen, followed by an, “Ouch, Ron, get off me. I’ve got enough injuries without you adding more to them, you git.”
Hermione and I jumped up from where we were sitting and ran into the kitchen just in time to see Ron and Harry picking themselves up off the floor and to hear Ron say, “It’s harder to Apparate when you’re tired, mate.”
Hermione and I stood in the doorway, looking at our men getting into chairs at the table, and watching as Harry summoned a rag to hold to the very nasty, heavily-bleeding gash he had on his arm.
“If you don’t clean that, Harry, it’ll get infected “ we might have to cut it off; it looks nasty…” Trying, but failing, to keep a straight face, I burst out laughing at Ron’s horrified expression.
Harry looked around for the source of my laughter. His eyes fell on Ron. “Ron, it was a joke. Ginny was joking.”
Hermione finally realized that Ron was also bleeding and rushed to his side. She and I fixed them up in a jiffy, as good as new. As soon as I had finished mending Harry’s broken arm, he took me in to his arms, pulled me onto his lap and kissed me passionately. Ron made sounds of disgust, but was soon silenced by Hermione as she drew him into a kiss to rival the ones he had shared with Lavender in their sixth year. Harry removed his lips from mine and whispered in my ear, “Hi there, Beautiful, long time no see.”
“Too long if you ask me; I missed you, Harry,” I breathed.
“I missed you too. Look at you, you’re even more beautiful then when I left - your pictures didn’t do you justice. What do you say we head up to bed? They won’t notice if we slip out, they look a little busy,” Harry chuckled, gesturing to Ron and Hermione. They did look a little busy “ no, make that a lot busy; it looked like they were trying to suck each other’s faces off. I buried my head in Harry’s neck and said, “I think you’re right. Let’s go.”
Once we were locked in our room, I turned to face Harry, my hands on my hips, and asked what had been on my mind all night long. “Harry, why were you and Ron called out to work? Remus said that he had to leave for Order business; and that’s all he told us, but I assumed he was in the same place as you.”
“We were called out because we were ‘the only ones right for the job’; Moody’s words, not mine,” Harry said, holding up his hands. “We had to go Death Eater hunting. The Order had found out where some Death Eaters were hiding and we went in to get them.”
“Who did you catch? Why were you three the only ones right for the job?” I asked, frustrated by his lack of answers.
“You know, you’re beautiful when you’re angry.” I turned to him, my eyes narrowed, and he hastily added, “We caught Pettigrew, Snape, Avery and some others. And the three of us weren’t the only ones to go; Shacklebolt, Moody, and Hestia Jones came too. We caught them and took them to the Ministry for questioning, and I do believe that Snape and Pettigrew will be given the Dementor’s Kiss for what they have done. Oh, and Sirius’ name will be cleared. We made sure of that before I left.”
“Babe, that’s great!” I exclaimed. “Three of Tom’s most loyal Death Eaters in custody and Sirius seen for the good man that he was…” I pulled him into a hug.
“I know exactly how you feel. Hon- I know that I’ll sleep and breathe easier knowing that those lot are in Azkaban tonight,” Harry proclaimed, then kissed me. His kisses became more aggressive and more passionate. How could they not, when we hadn’t seen each other in five years? He moved from my lips to my down jaw, then along it, and down to my neck, before returning to my mouth. That was when I heard a small cry. I pulled away from him and turned around, battling with myself whether or not to check on the twins, but the made decision was made for me when I heard soft snoring coming from the next room. Harry wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and kissed a line along my neck, before asking, “Gin baby, what’s wrong?”
“Harry, I need to tell you something really, really important. I need you to just listen, without interrupting me,” I led him over to the sofa and sat down facing him.
“Ginny, what’s going on? You’re shaking,” he said anxiously, pulling me to his chest and holding me tight.
Once I had my emotions under control and had stopped shaking, I pulled back from him and said, “Harry, do you remember how I wrote you about McKenzie and TJ?’ Harry nodded his head. I stood up and walked over to my dresser; I opened the top drawer and pulled out two picture frames, and holding them to my chest. “In my letters I never really told you who they were - I led you to believe that they were my younger siblings.” Harry nodded his head again and I handed him the frames face down. “Look at them,” I said simply when Harry gave me a questioning glance. He turned the first over:
Name: Trenton James Potter.
Weight: 4.5 kg
Date of Birth: June 16, 2001.
Height: 50 cm
Mother’s Name: Ginevra Molly Potter.
Father’s Name: Harry James Potter.
And the second one:
Name: Lillian McKenzie Potter.
Weight: 2.5 kg
Date of Birth: June 16, 2001.
Height: 48.5 cm
Mother’s Name: Ginevra Molly Potter.
Father’s Name: Harry James Potter.
To my great surprise, Harry rushed over to me lifted me up off the ground, swung me in a circle, lowered me to him and kissed me. “I’m a father? I’m a father! Wait, why didn’t you tell me? Did you not trust me? I would have come home so I could help with them!”
“And risk having Death Eaters intercept my owl? Besides, I wanted you to finish your training…” I looked at him apprehensively. “Do you want to go see them?”
“No, let them sleep “ I can see them in the morning. I want to be alone with their mother right now,” Harry said with a devilish grin.
“Why, Mr. Potter, why ever would you be looking at me like thaaaaaaat?” The last word was more like a soft scream as Harry pushed me onto the bed and began tickling me mercilessly, which led to much more. Life was going to be great. That night I learned a very important lesson: never underestimate love.
Never Underestimate Love by Ginny_Weasley_316
Chapter Notes: It's Jo's playground I'm just playing on it. the song at the first of the fic is sung by Clay Aikin. No copy write infringment is intended.