Strange Seduction

A/N: I'm not so good with writing arguments but I felt like an argument needed to be included instead of just saying one happened. As such, I'm not thrilled with this chapter. But it does move the plot along a bit so it is somewhat necessary.

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Harry held James on his hip as he helped tell Ron if the Christmas tree was centered or not. James had a sugar cookie in his hand and was gnawing on it as he watched the activity around him. “A bit more to the left Ron,” Harry said gesturing with his free hand. The tree floated to the left a bit more and Harry saw Ron’s redhead stick out from behind it looking rather annoyed. Harry gave his best friend a grin. So he’d been telling Ron to move it back and forth pointlessly for a moment or two now. He just couldn’t help it. He wanted to get in some fun before Ginny showed up later on that night. “Alright, that’s great,” he conceded.

Ron nodded and put the tree down before coming over. “You’re worse’n ‘mione, ya know that?” he asked sourly.

“Oh come on, Ron,” Harry said in exasperation. “We got off easy with the tree. You want to go outside and decorate the house?” Ron thought about if for a moment before sighing in defeat. He really didn’t fancy having to do as his twin brothers were doing now and fly around in a snowstorm trying to get the decorations into the right spots.

“That’s just wonderful, Boys,” Molly said as she came into the living room that was now even more cramped. “Now we just have to decorate it up right and put the presents under it and we’ll be all set for tomorrow. I hope the weather clears up some. The house is too small for all of us to be in here at once.”

Harry glanced out the window at the white specks rushing past. He knew somewhere out there Charlie and Bill were setting up the tent. Or, they were trying to do that. If they managed to get it so that it wouldn’t blow away they were supposed to put warming charms inside of it so that the family could eat out there tomorrow night.

“Et iz perfect,” Fleur said sweeping into the room. “Snow on ze Eve of Noel! Ze girls will ‘ave so much fun tomorrow in ze snow.”

Harry nodded a little in agreement with that sentiment. If it weren’t so windy outside it would be the perfect Christmas Eve. Snowy yet the fires were blazing to warm you up once you went back inside. And Molly already had the eggnog and hot chocolate ready for later on.

Suddenly, the fireplace blazed green and a familiar redhead stepped out. Harry quickly turned to the decorations for the tree that were nearby as Ginny brushed the soot from herself. Harry heard Dean come through a moment later as Ginny greeted her mother. Harry risked looking over his shoulder. He wasn’t counting on seeing Ginny nearly glaring at him though. Dean walked past with their bags only a moment after their eyes met so Harry was able to advert his quickly. He was rather hoping that Ginny didn’t say anything about James or the divorce. Or really anything. Silence was just fine by Harry. Harry heard Hermione calling for him and nearly sighed in relief as he ducked out of the living room to go upstairs.

He found Hermione in one of the upstairs bedroom that had been designated the kid’s room for the weekend. “Where do you want James’ crib?” Hermione asked, waving to the room crammed with beds and cribs and cots. After all, it had to house Bill and Fleur’s kids, Ginny and Dean’s kids, and Percy and Daphne’s kids.

“Not in here,” Harry replied.

Hermione sighed. “Harry, are you really going to insist on keeping James with you the whole time?” she asked in exasperation.

“I don’t know what he can do, Hermione. I’m not going to risk it,” Harry said for what felt like the millionth time.

“What does the book that his father left say?” Hermione asked in exasperation. “Does it say he’s even able to do what you’re afraid of him doing? You have read it haven’t you?”

Harry sighed and shifted James to his other side. “Yes, I read it. And it doesn’t mention if he has powers like that or not. I just don’t want to take the chance.”

Hermione frowned. “Harry, there’s a dozen different monitoring charms on this room. We’ll know if anything is happening that shouldn’t be happening. Everything will be fine. So far, he’s acting like any normal baby. He hasn’t even done accidental magic yet.” Harry still didn’t look convinced. Hermione sighed. “Alright, how about for just a night? If the charms even flicker in warning then I won’t bring it up ever again.”

The savior hesitated at that before reluctantly nodding. Everyone had been after him to let go a little, convinced that he was just being paranoid. Harry still felt as if it was a terrible idea but he had seen all the spells Hermione had put on this room and was confident in his friend’s spells. They should alert him in plenty of time. Even still, Harry resigned himself to checking on James throughout the night to ensure that nothing was going on that shouldn’t. James had shown nothing but sweetness and obliviousness to being different but Harry couldn’t quite shake where he had come from.

After setting up the crib for James, Harry put the boy down for the night. It was getting late and the other parents were working on their own kids. Harry had managed to convince Hermione to separate the crib from the others at least a little though with the size of the room it wasn’t really much of a separation. It made Harry feel better about it though.

It was difficult to get James asleep with the other kids in the room. They didn’t all seem to want to sleep despite what their parents tried. Harry was suddenly struck by how little James ever seemed to complain or fuss. He could only recall a handful of times where he’d had to struggle to get James asleep.

It took nearly an hour for all of the kids in the house to collapse and get tucked in and then the house got substantially quieter. Nobody wanted to wake any of the kids upstairs. The snow was beginning to subside and instead of the near blizzard that was out earlier it was a picturesque gentle snowfall. “So, how do you like being a father, Harry?” Ginny asked before picking up another glass of eggnog.

“It’s alright,” Harry said as politely as he could. He didn’t like that the first thing his ex could say to him was about James. He knew she was upset about it but she could at least pretend. Of course she had drank three eggnogs already. Harry himself had polished off two and was feeling the effects stronger than usual. Molly had gone a bit overly strong on them this year it seemed.

Ginny frowned. “You didn’t want kids,” she accused. “Now you’re saying it’s just ‘alright’?”

Harry sighed and picked up another eggnog himself. He would need it if he was going to ignore Ginny. “It’s not like I planned it, Gin,” he said before taking a sip. He wasn’t planning on finishing the drink. He didn’t want to be that tipsy. He just wanted to block out Ginny.

Ginny scoffed some and pushed some red hair out of her almost equally red face. She had really drank too much tonight. “You sure he’s even your kid? I mean, some mystery girl says you knocked her up and you just accept it? With all the crap you made me do so that I wouldn’t get pregnant?”

Harry scowled, his temper bristling at the accusation. “I’m sure he’s mine. And I didn’t ‘make you’ do anything,” he told her firmly. “If you didn’t want to use the charm I would have just gone and got my own insurance. You just had to say something.” Though condoms were not widely used by the magical community Harry would have used one if Ginny had protested the charms. He never made Ginny do anything.

“Yes, you did! You wouldn’t even ask me what I wanted! You wouldn’t even consider it! And now some whore gets knocked up and you’re suddenly all set to be a dad?” Ginny hissed venomously.

Several Weasley’s all scolded Ginny at once. Harry narrowed his eyes and downed the rest of his eggnog in one go. “Ginny. Fuck off,” he snapped before grabbing his coat. “You ever say something like that again and I’ll curse you with the worst I can think of.”

“It’s not my fault you went and screwed everything up!” Ginny snapped as Harry started for the door.

“Harry wait! It’s freezing out!” Hermione called but Harry didn’t listen to her. He quickly left out of the back door and slammed it shut. He needed to cool off after that. He was about ready to curse his ex into next century for what she’d said. Harry fumed as he cut a line through the snow away from the house. Ginny had always had a nasty tongue when she was mad but calling Harry a whore –even unknowingly- was not something that he could just brush away.

Harry could hear them calling for him to come back but ignored them. His hand was clenched around his wand so tight he was afraid he’d break the thing. He was not about to come back until he could loosen his grip to something more normal.