„How far along are you, Ginny?"
„Three months", Ginny sobbed, „I swear, I did not notice, it was just too much..."
„It's okay", Hermione interrupted, seating herself in the nearby armchair, pulling the red haired beauty with her. Close like sisters, Hermione brushed her back, and Ginny gratefully against her shoulder. "We were all preoccupied... I'm sure your Mum will..."
"Kill me", Ginny mumbled into the cloth of her robes. "Straight away. Where I stand."
"Why should she be angry with you? It was the perhaps toughest times in your life, hell, the toughest time in all our lives", Hermione tried to calm her friend, "I am sure..."
"She'll say I should have seen Madam Pomfrey before our first meeting, perhaps even before we won the Cup", Ginny cried, "It won't bother her that..."
"Ginny, now that's enough", Hermione's tone left no room for contradiction, "We almost died a few weeks ago, this battle was the worst Hogwarts has ever seen in its thousand years. You've seen the mess the Death Eaters caused, it will take months to rebuilt the only enough parts of the castle for the Ministry to allow commission of Hogwarts business, and that's going to be for a very limited number of students..."
"The school's thousand years old already, seriously?"
"Yes, you see", she continued, "Nowhere in Hogwarts, A History I found any hint that the castle has ever..."
Ginny couldn't restrain herself: a grin spread across her face, the first time since Harry died, and it stretched from one ear to another. Hermione had just sounded too much like herself.
"What I was about to say is that no one would expect you to keep a close watch on... on...er..."
"More blood than we were already dealing with."
"Exactly."
The younger with buried her face in her friend's shoulder, who loosely let her arm rest on her back. The warmth of that brought a little ease to her revolting muscles.
"By the way, why didn't you see Madam Pomfrey?", Hermione asked before she could stop herself.
Ginny muttered something into the robes.
"Sorry, I didn't quite..."
"I didn't expect us to be so... uhm... serious. I mean, you're right, it was war... you had left with Ron and I was sure I wouldn't see you for years, let alone... it just seemed too much bother for an improbable, almost impossible situation."
Hermione tried hard not to sigh. She hesitated, uncertain whether it would be too daring, almost reprehensible to question Ginny any further in that situation, then curiosity triumphed over caution.
"And did you enjoy yourselves?", she asked.
"Yes", Ginny answered whole-heartedly, relaxing in Hermione's arms instantly, "It's good that we were down at the edge of the Forest, I thought if we had decided for the dormitory, everybody in Gryffindor would've heard me."
"That good?"
"Yes", Ginny repeated.
"Do I get to know any details?"
"If you insist. But don't be jealous..."