orokid: Anyway, this is kind of something I thought up while over the summer- and yes, I know its winter, but I don't really have too much of a life to type, so leave me alone.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. Even my soul belongs to my best friends and I just can't get it back. cries

I Ain't Goin' Down

Chapter One

Harry fidgeted as he waited for Hermione to show, wondering briefly why he was there. From out of nowhere during lunch, she had approached him with a small smile, slipping something into his palm before dismissing herself away without so much as a word. The note he had received had told him to meet her in the Room of Requirement at an hour before lights out.

Unsure what to expect, he had turned the ever changing room into a small common-room, a fire blazing heartily in the corner. He hoped that this would seem cozy enough for her, because whatever she needed to say was probably going to make her very nervous.

Glancing at his muggle watch, which had once long ago been Dudley's (when it had been able to fit around his fat ten year-old wrist), he noticed that she was beginning to run later than she had probably assumed she would have, leaving him alone in this room, sitting before the fireplace in hopes to warm his lonely heart.

His mind concocted differing thoughts about what she had brought him there for, and what she was going to tell him. All of his current thoughts seemed to be more than promising for him, and he just couldn't help but turn beat red at the images in his mind.

He mentally slapped himself, knowing that what she had come to tell him was most likely more about something else than anything like that.

She couldn't have possibly called him here for… that, right? Ron and she had dated in secret for two months and hadn't even had the decency to tell him about it until they had broken it off. He felt like an idiot for not noticing it before, and he felt angry towards his best friends for a while for not trusting him enough.

But since Ron was being a complete and total prick towards Hermione, Harry had ended up forgiving her in seconds. Now, three or so months later, he had yet to forgive his red haired companion.

For a moment, he remembered the Department of Mysteries, watching as the young woman he called his best friend fall to the floor, seemingly lifeless. The memory seemed to do nothing but kill him on the inside.

With a quick shake of his head, the memory jumbled away to be thought of again some other time. Or otherwise he hoped not to see the bloody thing again.

Slowly, the door opened, a fifteen year-old young woman rushing inside, rubbing at the fragile skin beneath her eyes. He knew what she was trying to do- she was trying to hide her tears from him, not that it helped her all too much that she was trying too hard to hide it.

Her loose clothing shifted around her until she had finally settled herself down in the chair across from him. He strained himself not to get up from where he sat and hold her until whatever pain she had went away.

"Hello Harry", she said to him softly, smiling at him weakly. This only cracked the hold he had held upon himself, shattering it milliseconds later. The dark haired young man got to his feet, moving to her side to wipe the left-over streams from her beautiful face.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly, his thumbs massaging her wet cheeks, his emerald orbs staring into her cinnamon eyes. He could see the pain embedded within and it scarred his soul to even see such a sight.

The soft skin of her hands touched the top of his, pulling them away from her face. "Harry", she whispered straightly, as if whatever had happened hadn't affected her at all before. "I've… run into a… strange occurrence, I guess you could say. Well, it's not entirely strange since it's the effect to the actions Ron and I have done. And it had been an irrational decisi-" Harry put a finger to her lips, silencing her babbles with the soft placement. He smiled softly at her, unsure what she was talking about exactly. Something about an action that seemed totally irrational between his two best friends.

He only spoke one word, knowing that it would get across to her, that his evident confusion would be more known. "What?"

She took in a breath as his index finger fell away, carefully using her internal mile-high dictionary to choose different words, just so he could understand what she was telling him. "About four months ago, Ron and I… we had sex."

Harry's brows furrowed and rose at the same time. They-? What-? Why-? What the Hell!

His mind quickly worked to figure out the hidden meaning within her words- because why would she tell him now after a few months had passed? Irrational… Action… Had sex together… Strange occurrence…

Somehow, no matter how much he didn't want to believe it, he had come up with a conclusion. It struck at his heart like an Avada Kedavra curse as he thought back to the last couple of months. Those early mornings he couldn't sleep and found her exiting the girl's bathroom, last month's beginnings of strange food combinations, and, finally, the extra moodiness she had somehow brought upon the world. Everything finally fit together, like some big puzzle.

Truth be told, he hated puzzles. He had always been kind of good at them.

"You… You're pregnant, aren't you?" he questioned, trying to force the depressed tone out from his normal voice. With a hesitant look, she gave him a slow and guilty nod.

Questions raced excitedly through his brain while he felt the organ that pumped blood through his veins lurch at the find. He felt sick to his stomach, and he just hated the idea that she was carrying the other guy's child inside her.

"How far along are you?" he asked her softly, hiding his hurt and hate within himself as usual, feeling as though it hadn't been him who had let the words flow.

She bit her lower lip, gripping the bottom of her dress shirt tightly as she carefully pulled it up. Her stomach had a nice sized bulge, but it was nothing that some loose clothes couldn't hide. "Four months," she whispered, her face red with embarrassment.

"Does Ron know about it?" He gained a glare that most likely would've sent Voldemort to the grave himself, and it all but verbally cursed at him for saying that horried name near her. Once again, Hermione's mood swings were aimed straight at him. He could only wonder why she had the ability to say the man's name while he remained mute to the word. "I suppose that's a no, then. Do your parents?" Her angry glare was cast aside at the mere mention of her mother and father, tears already collecting in her cinnamon eyes. Without thinking, which seemed to be a normal thing for Harry most of the time, he had wrapped her into his arms, giving her as much emotional and physical support as he could and she would allow. "What happened?" he questioned, his breath at her ear. The tingle made her shiver slightly- a strangely good shiver too- and she had no reason as to why it had happened. "What did they say?"

Hermione gripped his shoulders tightly as she recalled the memory, tears beginning to leak from her eyes. Whatever they did or said to her, it obviously wasn't good. He made a mental note to hex them both later- a mild hex that would only scare them into better behavior. Really. Nothing more than a small to mild hex to just scare the muggles into realizing that they were making a stupid mistake.

"They… They told me not to come h-home…" she sobbed into his embrace, and Harry felt his whole body burn at once.

Scratch that last thought. A strong hex would do. Maybe even a potentially lethal curse. An unforgivable curse might be just what they were looking for if this was how they were going to treat their only daughter.

Harry understood one thing about parenting, even though he never had a true esample other than the Weasley's- no one ever deserved this kind of punishment. Especially not her. Especially not now.

Thoughts circled through his head as he held her tightly to him, letting her cry out all her uncried sorrows. Where would she go? Maybe she could-

No, she'd refuse the idea immediately. She was the type of woman who did not wish to impose on others. That was just who she was and Harry didn't really care that it she was like that, although it did give him more to work with over the years, he grudgingly admitted to himself.

Although she wouldn't be imposing on him, though. Not if he wanted her to be there, to share his home with (since that was in the whole love plans after all, even though this was a purely plutonic thing for her). Maybe he should just ask her and try to convince her to do it from there. No harm, right?

"'Mione," he whispered softly, pulling away slightly so he could see her face. "You could, well, live with me. I have enough money to buy us our own home, so there wouldn't be any of the Dursleys or anyone really to problem us." She immediately opened her mouth to protest, like he thought she would, but he only placed an index finger on her lips to stop her. "I won't let you do this alone. You mean too much for me to just do that to you."

She was silently, considering the pros and cons about the situation. And it seemed as though there were too many cons to see the positive side of what he was protesting, at least to her.

But there was only one that stood out the most out of them all- he was risking public humiliation. If they lived together, reporters would immediately believe that her baby was his. Everyone in school would think lower of him, and Ron would shun him even more, being the baby that he is. She didn't want that to happen to her best friend.

But it was easier. That was true. She wouldn't be living out on the streets and would always have someone who cared for her nearby, even if it wasn't more than a plutonic way.

Harry was very forward on the fact that he wouldn't allow her to do this on her own, and she knew that he wasn't lying. He was so stubborn that he would most likely just keep asking until she accepted. He was too kind to leave her at such a crucial time in her life. He was just too… Harry-ish to leave her all alone.

The dark haired teen kissed the top of her hands, smiling up at her with hope in those beautiful emerald orbs of his. For some reason beyond her comprehension, she couldn't refuse Harry Potter anything when he smiled at her like that.

"Fine," she told him with a huff that she hadn't truly meant. His eyes brightened noticeably for the first time since his godfather's death, his smile widening to it's full extent for the first time in what felt like years. And she couldn't help but think that she liked it when Harry smiled like that. It meant that he was back to his old self, if even for a little bit.

He got up from his chair and gave Hermione a tight and loving hug, although he was careful not to hurt her or the child within her womb. The bushy haired young woman hugged him back, a broad smile on her face as she snuggled her head into the warm nape of his neck. She wanted to just stay there and smell his purely Harry scent- which smelled like sweat, broom wax, and a light Egyptian musk smell mixed in with… strawberries and melons (Merlin, she was hungry for fruit now)- forever.

She pushed the thought away, afraid what that meant. Why would she want to smell her best and closest friend for the rest of existence?

The young man held onto her sleek, with a little barely noticeable bulge, body, silent as he just… thought. To his best female friend, he just seemed to be too silent. She pulled away from him, staring intently at his formally excited face. The man before her now was crestfallen, and the usual gleam in his bright emerald eyes was missing in action. Now, more than ever, all she wanted to do was return his room-brightening grin to its place upon his face.

"Harry, what's wrong?" He looked away, pulling his depressed gaze to a part of the floor beside her chair. She placed her palms on his warm cheeks, forcefully directing his eyes to look at hers, which seemed both worried and a little scary. "Answer me now, Potter," she ordered him in a voice that would have made Malfoy shiver in fear, not disgust. She was like a wildfire, ready to trample anyone in her path, it seemed. Hermione really wanted to know what was going on with him, and he knew that she wouldn't stop until he told her what was on his mind, like how he was with her and her child's safety at his home instead of elsewhere. "What's wrong?"

Guiltily, he met her gaze, emerald flowing along with her chocolate, which seemed to have simmered from the blazed that had been there. "We leave to go home tomorrow," he told her softly, forcing himself to smile up at her, although you could tell he was putting a lot of effort into it. "There's no time at all to look for new homes right away or anything."

His explanations suddenly made everything she knew about him and how he had acted make sense. She knew what he feared, what he's wanted out of life, and knew what he did in drastic measures. And both he and she knew how drastic this was at the moment.

Their living destination was now clear to her:

The Black Estate, the home of his dead godfather. It was the only home that he actually owned by right.

Hermione wrapped her arms around her best friend, giving him the comfort needed the best she was able to. Harry hugged her back before his body began to shake with the tears that he couldn't help but shed, her shoulder waiting for him to do what she had done with him so many times before.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: This is just a new idea I'm trying, so I just want to know whether you like it or not and whether I should continue. I appreciate all reviews and the critics out there as well. Thank you.