Chapter One - Chocolate Frogs

"I'm sorry, Miss Wooding, but I have nothing to say other than the truth. All of the blood tests came back, and there's no other explanation for the way they were. The symptoms you described to me match up perfectly with the results. You're pregnant."

In my entire life, I had never been as scared as I was in that moment.

It had all begun innocently in the summer, when he'd moved in next door. I remembered the moment he'd formally introduced himself to me as clearly as if it were yesterday.

"You could borrow my old Nimbus 2001, if you fancy a game."

Those words started it all. I looked up from where I was carving stick figures in the dirt and saw him standing above me, his head blocking the sun and a broomstick in his hand. There was half of a Chocolate Frog hanging out of his mouth, and when he caught me examining it, he pulled another one out of his pocket and handed it to me.

It was love at first sweet, sweet bite.

His name was Cormac McLaggen, and I got to know him during the two months before our seventh year at Hogwarts began. He was, to me, one of the most incredible people I'd ever met. Sure, he had some faults, but the stars in my eyes were too big for me to see them. He was a great kisser, funny, and always managed to make me feel wanted - beautiful, even. From that first day, he was always there, with open arms for me to curl and a story to tell. Most of the time, he talked about his many amazing feats, and I loved to watch his lips curl over two rows of pearly white teeth as he spoke. It was Quidditch he told of and Quidditch we bonded over, with him alert at the goal posts we set up in his backyard and me trying not to fall off of the broom I always used.

We spent every moment we could together. I told him my secrets and that I loved him, and things moved quickly from there. He asked me to be his girlfriend, "officially," and I accepted. It went from brushing tongues on his balcony after everyone went to sleep to him leading me into his bedroom on my seventeenth birthday. I was stupid, I was reckless, and I was in a state of bliss during every moment.

I had stayed feeling that way until now, as I clutched the sheet on the cot closer to me and watched Madam Pomfrey told a student not to come into the infirmary right now because all he had was a tiny cut on his arm.

This could not be happening. Not to me.

What was I supposed to do? I was only seventeen. I wasn't ready to take care of a baby; sometimes, I could hardly take care of myself. I still had things I needed to do with my life before settling down with a family. I wanted to spend time with my friends and get an excellent career, but a baby would ruin all of that. And what about school? The year had begun just a month ago, and I didn't know if I would be able to finish up the year. Were pregnant women even allowed at Hogwarts? And what would people do when they found out? Would I be shunned, lose my friends? Would my position as Head Girl be removed? Head Girls were supposed to be role models, supposed to help the younger students succeed, but nobody would look up to me in this condition.

Even another pressing issue was Cormac. I had no idea how I would tell him. Somehow, I couldn't see him taking the news well. Would he help me with this or leave our baby without a father? I honestly couldn't answer that question, and it scared me. I thought I knew Cormac like the back of my hand, but I did not know this. What we had was perfect, and a baby wasn't.

All of these thoughts came crashing down at once. I didn't know what I was going to do, how I was going to deal with this, and automatically my mind went into panic mode. I started to hyperventilate. The waterfall of tears gushing out of my eyes made me blind. The sweat rolling down my body didn't cool me down from my feverish state at all. I felt like I could barely breathe, and this room was way too small -

"I'm going to have to ask you to please calm down," Madam Pomfrey said in an infuriatingly tranquil voice, sitting me back down on the bed after I tried to make a run for it. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you don't need to hurt yourself now. You have options, Miss Wooding. You don't have to do this alone."

"B-but everyone will h-hate me," I cried, running a finger over the bronze-and-blue badge on my chest. "They won't l-let me finish s-school."

Madam Pomfrey looked surprised, her eyebrows flying straight up. "Of course not! Expecting students are allowed at Hogwarts until a week prior to their due date. You're about six weeks along, so you should be able to finish out most of the school year and most likely your exams. That is, if you wish to continue your education." She looked down at my Head Girl badge. "Hogwarts staff has no reason to take that away from you, either - nor do they have permission to be rude to you because of the state you're in. That is a direct violation of school policy, and I must ask that you come to me or Professor Dumbledore at once if that is to happen."

I decided right away that I would stay at Hogwarts; I had to finish my education, child or no child. Of course, the other students might make it a terrible experience. I sent an angry glance towards my stomach. I wasn't so stupid that I hadn't expected this before I came to get checked up on by Madam Pomfrey; the vomiting, exhaustion, and missed period had all pointed me in this direction. I had hoped so badly it wasn't true, however, and now my worst nightmare was here with me, invading my world.

"I can't…I c-can't have a b-baby. I c-can't raise one right n-now…" I stuttered at her in response.

"That's something you don't have to decide on right now, my dear." The nurse patted my leg. "In the meantime, I'm going to create a nutrition chart for you. And it would probably be a good idea to order a book to explain what is going on in your body right now…"

I wasn't listening.

"…I can pull the father out of class right now, if he goes to school here," she finished, finally catching my attention. My head jerked up.

"Please. His name is C-Cormac McLaggen and he's in…Charms, I think."

She bustled off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. When she came back a few minutes later with my boyfriend in tow, I nearly lost it. He looked confused as he sat down next me. Madam Pomfrey went into her office to give us some privacy as I dropped the bomb.

"I'm having our baby, Cormac."

He stopped running his hands through his straw-colored hair and looked at me with a pair of wide green eyes. For once, he had nothing to say.

"I'm six weeks pregnant… I don't know what we're going to do with it," I said, and still he was speechless. I wished he would hold me and tell me that everything was going to be alright, but he didn't. My sense of fear was increasing; this was not going well. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?" I asked.

Finally, he responded with, "Not anyone?"

"Well, I guess you can tell one person you really trust if you want to, but I don't want it all over the place."

I should have made it clear by 'one person you really trust' I didn't mean that prat Zacharias Smith. By the next day, everyone in school knew I was pregnant with Cormac's baby.

And thus, my trip through Hell began.