A/N: Hi all! This is going to be the last chapter. I've had so much fun writing this and I'm so grateful for all the feedback. Thanks again to everyone who's been reading along - enjoy!
We went to the Burrow in the early afternoon the next day, finding the house already fairly full of Weasleys: Bill, Fleur, Victoire, and the new baby, plus George and a still sullen Ginny. Harry was due shortly, and Luna, Neville, and Hannah would be arriving later on for dinner. I tried to lend a hand to Molly and Fleur in the kitchen, but Molly quickly shooed me out, insisting I was the guest of honor, and then shooed Ron in the opposite direction, out the back door, with a request to clear out the garden gnomes.
Ginny was alone in the living room flipping through Quidditch Monthly with her feet propped in front of her. She waved a quick muffliato towards the kitchen and set the magazine down. "Mum's treating me like a cripple," she complained. "Won't let me lift a finger."
I sat down beside her and mirrored her position. "I think you'll be grateful for that in about seven months or so." Ginny grimaced at my statement. "How are you feeling?"
She shrugged and looked down at her still-flat stomach. "Doesn't feel like anything, really, yet."
"I meant emotionally."
"Oh. There you go with feelings again." She cracked a smile, so her spirits were at least marginally better. "The shock's worn off, at least. I'm still terrified to tell Harry. He doesn't even know I'm out from Quidditch yet. I'll probably have to tell him after dinner." So close. So very, very close.
"Why don't you just enjoy tonight?" I suggested. "Tell him tomorrow."
She shook her head. "He's got something planned for us tomorrow, some belated Valentine's thing. I don't want to spoil it." She sounded so nonchalant about it, and I couldn't believe she had no idea what Harry's plans were really about.
"Telling him tonight isn't going to have less of an impact on the mood tomorrow," I pointed out. "Though for the record, I still don't think your news is going to spoil anything."
"I suppose that's true." Ginny sighed heavily. "I'm terrible with babies. Dominique cries every time I hold her."
"Practicing, are you?"
"Got to, sometime. You ought to see Ron, he's a natural at it." Ginny shot me a wink.
Practically on cue, Ron entered the room holding Dominique, Victoire trotting alongside clinging to his trouser leg. He shook his head as he walked through Ginny's muffliato charm, like he was trying to shake water from his ears. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked, looking curiously at the two of us.
Ginny waved her wand again to lift the charm. "No, 'course not." She stood up and straightened her jeans. "Going to get a drink. Want some pumpkin juice, Vic?" Victoire let go of Ron to take Ginny's hand, allowing herself to be led toward the kitchen. Ron took her vacated spot beside me on the couch, sitting down gently so as not to jostle the baby in his arms.
"Ginny was just telling me how good you are with the girls," I said, watching him. Dominique, unlike her sister, had inherited the Weasley red hair. George and Angelina's baby almost certainly wouldn't, and I couldn't help but wonder whether Ginny and Harry's would. It seemed likely, with Harry's mother having been red headed as well.
Ron smirked at my comment. "Giving you second thoughts about our timeline?" he teased.
We had agreed that, even though we were both feeling quite certain as to where our relationship was headed, my moving to London was enough progress for a while. I wasn't feeling any rush to worry about a wedding or the children I'd accidentally confessed to wanting, especially knowing we would be dealing with both from Harry and Ginny soon enough.
I laughed. "Not yet. Although you do look rather adorable." I leaned over to give him a soft peck on the cheek. "Besides, I think your mum is dealing with enough grandchildren out-of-wedlock without you and I adding on."
Ron frowned slightly. "It's just George and Angie's." Damn. Why could I not stop putting my foot in my mouth on things?
"Of course," I said quickly. "But one's plenty enough for your mum, isn't it?"
Ron chuckled. "S'pose so." We sat in comfortable silence a few moments, and then Ron shifted suddenly. "Internal."
I blanched. "What?"
His eyes flickered from me, to the baby, to the direction Ginny had gone, and I could almost see the pieces sliding into place in his brain. "Ginny isn't hurt..." he said slowly. "Is she?" Ron looked over at me, and I knew the truth was all over my face.
"Oh, please don't be angry with me." I rested a hand on his leg. "She asked me not to say anything to you. She's telling Harry tomorrow, and then she planned to tell the rest of you after."
Ron looked up at the ceiling and drew a deep breath. Ginny walked back into the room with a large glass of pumpkin juice and no sign of Victoire, took one look at Ron and me and our expressions, and blurted, "Ah, fuck. I knew he'd get it out of you." She set the glass down and put her hands on her hips, looking very like her mother in the moment.
Ron carefully handed Dominique over to me and stood to face his sister. "Ron," I said warningly.
The siblings stared at each other for a long moment, until finally Ron crossed the room to her and wrapped her in a hug. "I love you, Gin." I let out a sigh of relief. He let her go and turned to me. "Can I murder Harry when he gets here?" I raised my eyebrows at him.
"You'd better bloody not," Ginny retorted before I could answer.
Ron put his hands on Ginny's shoulders and stooped to look her in the eye. "You happy?"
"Im happy with Harry, yes, but I'm bloody well terrified of having one of those—" She pointed over at Dominique. "—and reckon I need all of my big brother's love and support. That includes not murdering your best mate, and not being cross with Hermione. It's not her fault I saddled her with this information."
Ron sighed, but told her sincerely, "You have it, Ginny, always." He returned to sit next to me. "And I'm not cross with you." He kissed me softly. "Just surprised."
Ginny folded her arms. "Yes, well, join the club," she quipped with a roll of her eyes.
"Ginny, Harry's arrived!" Molly called from the kitchen.
Ginny took a deep breath, steadying herself quickly. "Not a word," she said sternly to us before disappearing.
"Look at you, holding onto all the surprises." Ron settled back against the couch and nodded after Ginny. "Reckon she'll be more or less of a head case after he proposes tomorrow?"
"Oh, I imagine things are only going to get crazier." Ron stretched his arm across the back of the sofa behind me, and I leaned into him contentedly.
His fingers curled around my shoulder. "For the record," he said, inclining his head down to the baby, "that's not a bad look on you, either."
I chuckled. "Someday."
"Someday," he agreed, placing a kiss to my forehead.
We spent most of the next day trying to get all my things unpacked. I wanted to be settled before I started work on Monday, but I was quite distracted, in part by Pig and Crookshanks tearing through the house, chasing each other in alternate turns, and in part wondering how things were going with Harry and Ginny. I wasn't particularly concerned for Harry, knowing what Ginny's answer would be. I was less certain about what Harry's initial reaction to Ginny's news would be, though I still felt confident having told her he would ultimately be happy about it. I just wasn't sure how quickly happy would replace the shock.
We were in the bedroom in the afternoon, working on an extension charm on the closet while Ron gave me a detailed rundown on everyone who worked in the DMLE, when two faint pops sounded from the front of the house and Harry's voice called out our names. "In here!" Ron yelled back.
Ginny walked in very dramatically covering her eyes. "You two aren't shagging in here, are you?"
"Merlin, Ginny." Ron rolled his eyes.
"Can't be too careful now that you're living together."
I rushed over to her and yanked her hand from her face to examine the ring now sparkling on her third finger. "Oh, Ginny, it's beautiful!" I exclaimed, wrapping her in a hug.
"Dunno why you sound surprised, I heard you helped pick it out," she said with a smile and a glance over her shoulder at Harry, who was hovering in the doorway. I tried to subtly raise my eyebrows at Ginny, a silent question. "Yes, I've told him."
"And I haven't been this sure I'm walking into certain death since Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest," Harry said darkly, shooting a half-hearted glare at Ron.
Ron crossed his arms over his chest but grinned back. "Sorry, mate. Standard brother procedure. You understand."
"I'll be sure to remember that," Harry quipped back, glancing pointedly at me.
I groaned. "Can you two idiots stop pretending to hate each other so we can celebrate?"
Ron crossed the room to Harry, giving my hand a squeeze as he passed, and gave him a hug. "Congratulations, Harry. On all of it. Really."
Harry lowered his voice and said seriously to Ron, "I'll take care of her."
Ron's voice matched Harry's as he replied, "Ditto."
"Sexist gits," Ginny muttered in an aside to me, but she was looking at the two men with the same tender affection that I was. "Well, then, shall we celebrate?"
Ginny and Harry stayed for a couple of hours before heading off to the Burrow to share all of the news with Molly, though I knew only the pregnancy would be a surprise. Ron had assured Harry that the rest of his brothers would be easier on him than Ron himself was, though Harry still looked apprehensive by the prospect of telling them all. Probably due to the sheer number of them.
Ron very proudly ordered Muggle takeout for us for dinner, and we settled close together on the couch in the now-unpacked living room. Most of my things were in the office or the bedroom, but there were throw pillows, and a couple of things on the wall, and Crookshanks' bed, that had been my additions to the room. Miraculously, everything just sort of blended together so the house felt seamlessly like us, like home.
"Ron?"
"Mm?" He was peeking into each of the little takeout cartons on the coffee table, trying to sort out what was what.
"I love you."
He sat up to look at me, looking slightly confused but smiling nonetheless. "I love you, too, but what brought that on?"
"I'm just...happy." It was the simplest of feelings, but so often elusive. "It feels like, finally, everything has fallen into place, you know? Everything we worked so hard for, fought for...this is it. You and me...Harry, Ginny, the baby..." His eyes softened as he listened to me talk. "We actually made it, didn't we, after everything?"
Ron rested his hand gently against my cheek. "Yeah, reckon we did," he agreed softly. He leaned in and gave me a lingering kiss, and I kissed him back, considering placing a warming charm on dinner until his stomach grumbled between us. We pulled apart with a laugh, the moment broken for the time being.
"Today was a good day," I said as I reached for a carton and a set of chopsticks.
Ron grinned and tapped his carton against mine, a makeshift toast. "And here's to many more."