It was fall. More than that, it was October, the twenty second day in October when she found out. The leaves were turning and it was beginning to turn cold. Ginny didn't especially enjoy being outside in the cold weather but she had reason enough that day.

She had left her jacket at home in her haste to make it to the appointment on time. It just sat there useless on the brown stand next to their front door. Her mother had told her not to buy a red wool jacket because it would clash with her hair but Ginny had fallen in love with the color and the texture and how dreadfully warm it made her feel, inside and out. And when she stood next to Harry in all the dark colors he fancied wearing she looked spectacular. That was the real reason.

The doctor's office had been cold, sterile, uninviting. She'd been quite uncomfortable with the whole thing but too many people would have known her at St. Mungo's. It wasn't the sort of thing you wanted everyone to know. There was really no other choice than to have Hermione help her set up a Muggle doctor's appointment.

Hermione, bless her heart. That girl was better to Ginny than she deserved, especially after the way she had let Hermione flounder after her brother for years and not given her an ounce of help. Never mind that now, though, everything had turned out the way it was supposed to in the end. Hermione was almost to term now; the baby would come any day now Ginny was sure.

When they had called her name Ginny had followed the female nurse through the door with her hands shoved in the pockets of her denim jeans. She felt silly, her palms sweating like she was about to take an exam at school, comparing it to her OWLS of all things as the door swung shut behind her and she was trapped in sterile hell.

The end of her appointment could not have come quick enough. She walked with more vigor than she had entering when she swept out of the building, her cheeks flushing in the cold wind she was hardly prepared for. Quiet tears slid down her cheeks as she passed people in the street but did not see them. Somehow she ended up at a park she had visited with Hermione on a visit to the city once. They had watched children run up and down the lawn, beaming and shouting in their joyousness.

Today there were not hordes of children. Instead there were only two others present. A mother, rubbing her hands together in the cold as her jacket hung around her, smiled largely as a small boy ran towards her, his arms stretched wide. In one quick movement the woman lifted the child into the air and spun him around in an enormous hug. There were no other people in the world that mattered to them in that instant and Ginny knew it. Perhaps they were waiting for the boy's father to finish a business meeting or meet them for dinner. Perhaps the father did not exist in their life. Perhaps he had run off to have an adventure, the never ending adventures. Perhaps she was raising him on her own.

She couldn't just sit there anymore. No more tears came but Ginny's breath was labored as she walked quickly away from that spot. Hurrying for no reason in particular, she rushed out of the park and back towards the area where she had gone to the doctors. Instead of continuing to the end of the street to the office again she turned down an alley way. As soon as she was out of site of the street Ginny turned on the spot.

There was the familiar pull at her bellybutton as she aparated back to the familiar lane they lived on. For a moment she simply stood and looked on at the cottage she shared with her husband. It was small, humble, everything she had wanted in a home. She had told him and he had listened and she would never be able to thank him enough for that. It wasn't far from the Burrow so she could visit whenever she pleased but it was just far enough away that her mother was not coming round every minute of the day. That was definitely a plus.

Walking up the stone pathway through their little garden, Ginny stopped again at the welcome mat. It was a silly thing, a muggle thing, but it had been a house warming present from Hermione and Ron and it really made her feel like she had arrived. Strangely, the site of that mat also calmed her down just a bit, making it easier for her to reach out and grasp the metal door handle to go inside.

Stepping through the threshold, Ginny closed the door behind her. Her fingers fell to the wooden stand beside the door. Someone had hung up her jacket because it was no longer there. Taking a few steps further in, she confirmed that the lights in the kitchen and the living room were off. Continuing deeper into the house she passed the door to the bedroom they had shared for the past year and hesitated for just a moment before pushing open the door to the study.

He was in there, as he always was, sitting at the desk with a light on and leaning over some book that looked like it was worn and weathered. She smiled at the sight of him. It was a natural reaction she could hardly fight. After all, it had been years since she had first loved him, years since he had saved her life from a diary, years since he had looked at her and really seen her for the first time…

As soon as the door opened he turned his head towards it, that messy black hair becoming even more unkempt if that was possible, though she didn't think it was. A smile spread across his face as well, matching her own. "Hey, you. Where've you been?"

Ginny didn't answer. She just walked over to him. When he turned his chair for her she sat carefully down on his lap and put her arms around his neck. Even in this position he had the advantage on her in terms of height, which was hilarious because her brothers were all giant compared to him. She felt like a child sometimes sitting with him like this but it was also very intimate and she loved it. Breathing in the scent of him she leaned against him, letting her head find that perfect niche in his shoulder for her head. It had been a long day.

He stroked her hair as she sat there and she cherished the feeling. "You left your jacket when you left. I was worried you might be cold." As if to check if she had been, his hand rubbed the still goose pimpled flesh on the arm that was not against his chest. But still she did not speak. Instead she just sat there and enjoyed his doting on her, as though he had been missing her all day, which she was sure he had been.

After a few moments had passed she felt his breathing becoming steady, paced, and she worried he would fall asleep like that. It had been known to happen.

"Harry?"

Immediately she knew he had not dozed off, that he had simply been comfortable. His arms laced around her, squeezing her close to him.

"Yeah, Gin?"

"Do you love me?"

She really felt that one hit him. His whole body stiffened for a split second and then his arms relaxed around her. Shifting a bit he pulled back from her and she sat up so that she could look into his eyes. The emerald spheres staring back at her seemed to be searching for something, some reasoning behind this sudden questioning.

"You know I do."

Ginny closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. A tear that had been lingering, unshed, slid out from under her eye lid, leaving a wet trail on her cheek.

"I'm pregnant."

There was a moment when she wasn't sure she had said it loud enough for him to hear her. Then there was a moment where she wasn't sure he was still breathing, the air was so still around her. Opening her eyes, another few tears slipped out as she looked at him, worried about what he would think, how he would react. They had talked about starting a family of course, especially since Hermione was about to pop one of her own out. But she had barely finished school and neither of them really had jobs yet and she just wasn't sure they were ready, wasn't sure he was ready.

But then he smiled at her, full of that boyish quality that had made her fall in love with him. And she knew.