His Little Girl

"Harry..."

"Leave me alone."

Ginny closed the door behind her and walked into their bedroom. She sat silently on the bed where Harry was lying. He was still in his pajamas and he was staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Harry, please don't do this."

"I don't want to talk about it," he muttered, close to tears.

"We're already late, and you're not even dressed."

"I'm not coming," he whispered, still not looking at her.

"Come on, Harry!" Ginny said, getting irritated. "What do you think people will say if her own father doesn't came to her-"

"Stop! You think I want to come to this stupid ceremony that will only make it official that I've lost her?" He turned his head and appeared to wipe something from his eyes.

"It's hard for me too, you know!" she replied angrily. "But we have to go!"

She stood up and made her way to the door. "I'm going now and you'd better be dressed when I come back."

She went out to the hallway to find her mother, Ron and George waiting where she'd left them minutes ago.

"How is he, dear?" asked her mother sympathetically.

"Heartbroken," answered Ginny.

"He'll get over it. He just needs some time," said Molly softly.

"I know," said Ginny. "But it's hard enough without him behaving like a child!" She turned to her brothers. "Will you go and talk to him? Drag him out of there if necessary."

"Sure," said Ron.

Harry turned at the sound of the door opening again and saw Ron and George coming in.

"What do you want?" he asked.

George smirked at him. "Oh, don't mind us. We just came to watch you mourn your daughter for a bit."

"It's not funny." Harry glared at him and then went back to staring at the ceiling. "I should have expected that Ginny would send reinforcements."

"But it is funny, mate," Ron pointed out. "You all but locked yourself in here and refused to come when everybody is waiting for you to-"

"Don't say it!" Harry shouted.

"Come on, Harry," added George. "Smile a little-"

"Smile? SMILE?"

"Okay, let me rephrase that," said George. "Just don't look like you're going to a funeral."

"Yeah, mate," said Ron. "If I can accept Rose marrying Scorpius then you can accept Lily marrying Goldstein!"

"He's taking her away from me!" Harry exclaimed in desperation.

George raised his eyebrows clearly amused. "And by 'away from me,' I suppose you mean 'two houses down the road?'"

"That's not the point! And stop making fun of me! I thought of all people you two would understand!"

"Well, I don't know where you got the idea that I would, since Roxanne hasn't even moved in with Jerry yet," said George. "But I'm sure Ron knows how you feel. It is common knowledge that all those tears during Rose's wedding weren't of joy." He smirked at his younger brother who glared at him.

"That's not true," said Ron.

"Of course it is! And I don't mean to say that Malfoy was any happier, but at least he had the decency not to cry when his son said 'I do,'" replied George.

"Okay, stop it! Harry is our problem now!" Ron pointed out.

"Right. Look, Harry, either you'll get dressed and come now, or one of us will have to walk Lily down the aisle. Do you really want that?" asked George.

"Of course not! I'm/i her father! I should be walking her down the aisle. But it's too soon! I'm not ready to let her go!"

"Mate, we've been planning this wedding for seven months. It's not like you didn't have enough time to get used to the idea," said Ron.

"She's too young!" cried Harry. "She's only nineteen! It seems like it was yesterday when she was only born…"

*** Flashback ***

Harry looked in wonder at the small form between the pink blankets that the nurse placed gently in Ginny's arms.

"Congratulations. It's a girl."

His own daughter. He was barely aware that he was grinning like mad as he stared at her tiny fingers and her cute little nose. She was so small and so pink and so… beautiful.

"Harry, look," whispered Ginny, and he looked up to see her smiling face. "She's got my hair."

Sure enough, Harry could already see some soft orange hair on the top of her head.

"Of course, she does. She'll look like her mum." He beamed at his tired wife. "What should we call her?" he asked.

"She's Lily." Ginny said at once, and she didn't regret it when she saw his eyes shining with unshed tears. "Do you want to hold her?"

Harry reached out and took her carefully in his arms. She was so light he was afraid that the smallest movement would break her. She looked so vulnerable.

"Why don't you go and bring the boys?" suggested Ginny. "They'll want to meet their sister."

Harry nodded in a daze and walked to the adjoining room where his sons where with the nurse that was watching over them. Two-year-old Al was fast asleep on the couch while the nurse was looking horrified at a shirtless James sprawled on the wooden table in the center of the room. He was wearing a Healer's mask and singing Celestina Warbeck's latest hit at the top of his lungs.

"Erm, thank you. I can handle them from here," Harry told the nurse who practically ran out of the room in relief.

He approached his son thinking that if this was the result of Molly's latest babysitting, then James would never be left alone with her again.

"Keep it down, son. Now, come and meet your sister," he said, sitting down on the couch next to a now wide-awake Al, who looked at the bundle in his arms with wide green eyes.

James stood up slowly and walked over to the couch. He looked at the newborn baby critically for a couple of minutes before stating, "She looks like a mushroom."

Harry, who had yet to understand James' strange way of thinking, refrained from asking him in what ways his baby sister reminded him of a mushroom. He didn't need to though, as his son continued with a deep frown.

"Not the ones with the dots. Those are poisonous," he added.

"Well, that would be a great consolation if we were planning to eat her," Harry answered carefully. "But as we're not, you'd better not let your mother hear you say that."

*** End of Flashback ***

"Surely, you didn't expect her to stay a baby forever?" asked Ron.

"No, I just thought I'd always be the only man in her life," Harry murmured miserably.

"I don't want to break your bubble, Harry, but even if Bryan didn't exist, between her brothers, uncles and numerous male cousins you'd hardly be the only man in Lily's life!" George supplied with a grin.

"I just don't think anyone's good enough for my angel."

"Harry, Bryan is a great guy," said George.

"That coming from the man who blew up his sister's wedding cake?" Harry spat at him angrily.

"No, that coming from the man who gave you the Marauder's Map," George shot back. "And do you know what that minx that you call your 'angel' did to him? You know how he gave her complete freedom to do everything the way she wanted it for the wedding?"

He paused to see them nod before continuing, though he was sure he heard Harry murmur something that sounded suspiciously like "lazy git."

"Well, your precious daughter thought she'd play a joke on him and announced to him that he was to wear a pink tuxedo with matching shoes and hat! And do you know what he said?" he asked incredulously, and then waited until both Ron and Harry shook their heads.

"He said 'yes!' He thought she was being serious and still he said 'yes!' I mean, that man would wait starkers at the altar if it meant that he'd marry Lily! He's whipped!"

"That's one thing you've got in common with him, mate," Ron said sniggering.

Harry glared at him. "I'm not whipped!" he shouted.

"Yeah, right! Lily's got you wrapped around her little finger!" Ron told him.

"No, she doesn't!"

At that moment the door opened and Lily Potter walked in holding up her long white wedding dress. Harry stared at her beautiful face and her long wavy red hair. She looked so much like her mother.

"Daddy! You're not dressed yet?" she asked him, her hands on her hips. At that moment she looked so much like her mother.

"I was getting to it," Harry muttered, hurriedly standing up and avoiding looking at Ron and George, who he was sure were exchanging knowing smiles.

"We're already half an hour late!" she said impatiently. "If we don't get going in five minutes..."

"He'll leave?" asked Harry hopefully.

"Daddy! Of course not! But the guests might!" Lily pointed out and then turned to George. "Uncle George, you're not planning anything for the wedding, are you? Because I already had to talk James out of blowing up the cake! Actually I took his wand for the evening, just to be sure."

"Blowing up the cake is so cliché!" George said as Harry glared at him. "I'd do something more original!"

"Uncle!"

"Don't worry, Lily. Just some fireworks, ok?"

"Okay, I guess," she replied reluctantly as she helped Harry loosen his tie. "Ready, Daddy? Let's go!"

Harry sat at one of the many white-clothed tables, decorated with Lily's favorite flowers, which was reserved for the bride's family. He distractedly watched his daughter dance with her grandfather. It was late at night and most of the guests had already left the wedding reception, leaving only the family and the closest friends of the couple. All that Harry could remember from the whole ceremony was his daughter's smiling face glowing with happiness as he led her down the aisle.

The sky was clear and full of stars making the conditions perfect for George's fireworks, which didn't turn out to be just fireworks but whole messages varying from "Congratulations!" and "Best Wishes!" to "Dad, put the muggle camera away!" and "Rose is snogging Scorpius' brains out behind a tree!"

Harry turned his gaze back to the dance floor just in time to see Bryan cut in Lily's dance with her grandfather. He put his hands on her waist, and they started dancing slowly on the spot. Lily wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her head on his shoulder tiredly. Harry could see him whispering in her ear and had to admit that the goofy smile on his face left no doubt that he was in love with her. Those hands of his, though, were slipping far too low for Harry's liking…

Just in time a bright green message appeared on the sky saying "Watch your hands, Goldstein! Remember who her father is!" Harry relaxed in his seat, with Ginny's head resting on his shoulder, relieved by the thought that he didn't have to watch. If anything of importance happened George was sure to write it in public view.

Half an hour later, he was still staring blankly at the sky and he was sure he'd have fallen asleep if a message written in neon pink hadn't gotten his attention.

"LILY IS PREGNANT!"

Harry was about to stand up and march to the dance floor, but Ginny held him back while a new message was formed on the sky.

"Just joking, Harry! Let the bloke live to see his wedding night!"

Harry sank back in his chair forgetting all about killing George as the two words hit him. Wedding night. No matter how happy Bryan made Lily this was something he'd never come to terms with.

-Fin-

A/N: The idea at the beginning, with Harry behaving like it's Lily's funeral, is based on the first episode of the greek TV series 'Peninta- Peninta' (in English 'Fifty- Fifty') so I don't take credit for that.