All characters belong to J.K. Rowling….. sadly not me.
From the doorway, the mouthwatering scent of freshly baked biscuits wafts over me, and I grin stupidly. As I walk through the corridors of our old home, I tread quietly, being careful to skip the fifth step down. That one creaks loudly. I knew I'd find Ginny hustling around the kitchen. If there's one thing Ginny loves about not playing for the Harpies anymore it would be all the free time she has to bake. Ginny's always loved desserts. Recently, she's been craving them more often, so she sends me out on a mission for the ingredients required, even if it's two thirty in the morning. I can't complain though, Ginny always hides biscuits, breads, cupcakes, and so on in my Auror robes, and without fail, a note accompanies them.
I stand in the entryway to the kitchen and admire my wife. She's scuttling around with various trays in her hands. Wrapped tightly over her bulging stomach is the navy, floral print apron her mother gave her several weeks ago. On her hands, she's wearing two puffy oven mitts. I see's she's dressed in a pair of sweat pants and one of my old Gryffindor quidditch sweatshirts. The fabric of my sweatshirt is stretched across her belly due to the protruding baby bump growing there. She was humming a song from Peter Pan, the movie we watched with Teddy last night. I'd say she actually liked the movie more than Teddy, and that's saying something because he spent the rest of his evening sprinkling Ginny's sparkles on himself and thinking happy thoughts in order to fly.
Looking at Ginny, I couldn't refrain from grinning foolishly as I always seemed to do when it came to her. She really is very beautiful, even when she's angry (especially when she's angry). Everything about her is perfect- the light orangey-red freckles dotting her milky skin, her long, silky red hair, and her slightly crooked two front teeth that had a small gap between them- because these make her Ginny.
Ginny apparently knew I was present the whole time because she says without turning to face me, "Come try this Potter." I can practically hear her smiling, she knows I was shocked at being caught gawking.
Despite my momentary distraction, I recover quickly and stroll over to her grinning like mad. As I approach, she circles around holding out a wooden spoon with batter on it for me to lick. "Tell me what you think." She whispers gently to me before placing the spoon at my mouth. I licked the sweet mixture off the end. She was making peanut butter biscuits.
"Delicious."
"You think so?" she asks then scoops some batter into her mouth. A little bit catches on her top lip, and when she makes to wipe it off, I lean down and kiss her full on the mouth. I grasp her around her waist and pull her in closer to me. In response, Ginny snakes her arms behind my neck and runs her fingers through my messy hair. Her stomach is pressed against me, and I feel a sudden pressure. Ginny gasped and clutches her stomach. "Oh," she says smiling at me, "it's the baby. Here feel." And she snatches my hand and presses my palm firmly onto her belly. Beneath the cloth, I feel our child roll over. When I look back at Ginny, she's giving me a funny stare.
I quirk an eyebrow at her, "What?" I ask.
She giggles a little and cups my chin in her hand. "Nothing. You're cute." Standing on her tiptoes she pecks me softly on the lips and returns her attention to her baking.
"No not nothing." I insist. "Tell me what you were thinking."
"Really Harry it's nothing." She says.
"Come off it. Just tell me." I'm pleading now. I probably sound like a five year old.
"I was simply thinking." She's noncommittal.
"'Bout what?'
"You just look really amazed every time you feel the baby move."
My cheeks flush a little at her words. "Well, I don't get the privilege of feeling that all day like you."
She scoffs. "You wouldn't think it's much of a privilege if it was keeping you awake at night. Anyway, Teddy's coming over again tonight. Andromeda needs us to watch him. An old friend of her is in town for tonight only, and she wants to catch up with them." Ginny informs me. She's moving over to the cabinets beside our refrigerator and rifles through it in search of something.
"What time will he be over?" I say sneaking another taste of better.
"Um, she said she'd bring him over around seven, and pick him up tomorrow at ten." Now Ginny began pushing containers aside hastily.
"What're you looking for?" I ask.
"I bought a bag of chocolate candies yesterday to put on the biscuits. Teddy and I saw the recipe for these adorable biscuits in a magazine the other day; I wanted to make them for him. I just can't seem to find the chocolates." She huffs.
I glance over her head and see an unopened bag of sweets shoved all the way back in the corner. Reaching past her, I remove the small package. "This it?"
"Oh yes. Thank you Harry." She maneuvers around me and back to the peanut butter biscuits. Ginny goes back to humming as she artfully drops a chocolate on each of her warm, freshly made biscuits. Watching her, I begin to think, not for the first time, how wonderful she is. I really am the luckiest bloke on earth. All I've ever wanted was a family, and here Ginny is giving me that family. I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather be living out my dream with than her. I couldn't even begin to imagine where I'd be in my life if Ginny wasn't part of it.