Chapter Text
Harry closed his eyes, closed the book in front of him and shut down, just for a moment. There was no way around what he'd just discovered, and he only wanted a short moment before having to deal with the horror of it.
Unfortunately, that moment didn't last.
His nine year old son, Albus, ran through the door to his library, his blue eyes sparkling in excitement. No matter how often Ginny told him not to run in the house, inevitably he was dashing around the second her back was turned. Despite his never-ending reserves of energy, Al was generally quite a calm kid, he just didn't understand the concept of patience. What child does?
Wrenching away from his thoughts, Harry forced a smile, hoping Al wouldn't see through it and question him.
"Hey Al, what's going on?"
"Dad, come and play with me! I wanna play quidditch! C'mon!"
With an inward sigh of relief, Harry smiled - more genuinely this time - and stood up, brushing off the crumbs from his lunch. It seemed that, for once, he had managed to keep something from his smart son. There was no need for the boy to worry about his problems - he'd talk to Ginny soon enough.
X
Dinner was over, the dishes were done, and Ginny seemed ready to relax, like she ever did anything else.
That was probably a bit harsh of him, but he did have to wonder what Ginny did while he was at work, at Uni, at the grocery store, etc. She didn't really seem to get anything done in the fairly long periods she was there without him, while he was doing everything in the house.
Since their impromptu marriage at the end of the war, things had been... different in the Potter household. He had been trying to find things to do since the war was over, and had started studying in the muggle world, since he never paid too much attention in the magical one. Nonetheless, he worked in the ministry - not as an auror as everyone had expected - as a ward master. He was highly sought after to ward new homes, but he always wondered how much that was to do with his fame rather than his actual abilities.
Anyway, he only worked in late afternoons, doing a maximum of three jobs a day. He wasn't just playing 'hard to get' with his clients, he spent the rest of his time at muggle university. He was studying physical education, as that was one of the few subjects he didn't need too much previous knowledge for. What he hadn't realised was quite how much biology he needed to be able to understand his written tests. Therefore, he was also studying biology at the university, though he was currently playing catch up at about GCSE level.
Earlier that day, he had been reading through one of his biology textbooks for a test he would have the next day. It was explaining genetics and familial inheritance, things he actually found quite interesting. Until he read the random example which almost stopped his heart.
At the time, he was reading about genotypes and phenotypes, how certain characteristics were recessive, meaning that both parents had to either have or be a carrier of that characteristic for there to be any chance of the child having it. The example had been blue eyes. The only way for a child to have blue eyes was if at least one family member in the last two generations from both sides of the family had had blue eyes.
Al had blue eyes. Ron did, and Molly did. Harry did not. Neither did his parents, or even his grandparents, as he had taken the time to find out rather than accusing Ginny of adultery.
It seemed, though, that there was no other option.
"Ginny." Harry spoke softly but firmly, interrupting her babble about Mrs whoever's dress at the ministry ball. "We need to talk about Al."
As soon as he said it, she paled and sat down slowly. She seemed to know exactly what he meant, and set her glass of wine down to cover her face with her hands. There was only one thought running through her mind.
Shit.