Thanks very much to blueartemis07, my lovely beta – any remaining mistakes are my own.

Chapter 1

Straws in the Wind

-oOo-

Everyone seemed to think Neville was in love with Ginny. The only thing they disagreed on was whether he didn't say anything because he knew he'd never stand a chance against Harry, or if he stayed silent because she was his friend's girlfriend.

Both sides were right in a way, despite being completely wrong.

Neville knew very well that Ginny saw him in the same light as her brothers. In fairness, she probably even preferred him to Percy, even after Percy had finally come to his senses during the Battle of Hogwarts. In Ginny's eyes Harry was a hero, had always been, and plain old Neville would never be able to compete with that.

Sometimes it made Neville a little uneasy about his friends' relationship; it was always about Harry, not Ginny, but it was none of his business and he did his best to keep out of it.

It was true that Neville didn't have much time for people who didn't stick with their partner, either, and he certainly wouldn't consider making a pass for someone who already was in a relationship.

Thankfully, not many people knew the person Neville would have given his wand arm and a few spare limbs to be (you didn't really need toes, did you?) wasn't Harry. It was Ron.

Seeing Hermione again, in the Room of Requirement just before the battle, had been like seeing a stranger – she'd been paler and thinner that he'd ever seen her, and her eyes had the same look as he'd seen in his fellow DA members. They'd seen too much, and while Hermione Granger wouldn't deviate from her set course she wasn't the same person who'd left Hogwarts after sixth year.

Then she'd smiled, and he'd seen the girl he remembered in the woman she had turned into. It was the woman he'd fallen in love with: the new Hermione who was willing to admit she was wrong once in a while and who carried her scars like they didn't matter.

It worried him that Ron didn't see who she'd become, only who she once had been. Despite his losses, Ron seemed to think that everything should return to normal. Maybe the amount of time that had passed since their lives had been even vaguely normal explained why he seemed to be so angry all the time. Ron usually went for the more straightforward option when he was confused.

It was only a few weeks after the battle, but Neville felt like he'd aged several years since then. Before, he'd put all his strength into carrying on, and it was only when it finally was over it dawned on him how much of an effort it had been just to keep going.

He could see it in the others, too: Ernie seemed to have deflated and barely replied when you spoke to him these days. Seamus talked too much and joked like he always had, but it seemed mechanical, like his heart wasn't in it. Most people wouldn't have noticed anything different about Luna, but Neville thought she'd lost something at Malfoy Manor. She rarely spoke about creatures no one else could see (they could all see the Thestrals now), and she didn't smile very often.

The rubble of Hogwarts wasn't conducive to smiles, he'd admit that, but most of them managed a token grin when Seamus said something vaguely funny in that too-loud new voice of his.

Afterwards, he realised that the signs had been everywhere; he'd just been too distracted to notice.

"Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should!" Hermione's voice was so shrill it would have rattled the windowpanes in the greenhouse, had any been spared during the battle.

"You heard Kingsley, he says we don't need to sit any exams! Why would I, when I've done ten times as much as most Aurors ever do before I'm even out of Hogwarts-" Ron said, and Neville could tell he was close to losing his rag.

"I thought you said it made you sound a cooler than you really were." Hermione took a deep breath. "Ron, half of the time we'd no idea what we were doing-" It was the sort of argument where no one allowed the other one to finish their sentences, and Neville cast a quick cushioning charm to protect the surviving Flutterby bushes.

"And we survived! We did it – well, Harry did it – but there's still Death Eaters out there. Is it really so hard to understand why I want to go after them?"

"No, I guess it isn't," Hermione said more quietly and Neville thought again about leaving the greenhouse. He didn't want to eavesdrop, but all the little portents he'd spent the last month ignoring said there was a storm coming. Magic could run wild around frayed tempers, and neither Ron nor Hermione were known for restraint once they got going. He decided to stay, and continued painstakingly fishing the shards of glass out of the flowerbeds by hand while trying not to listen.

"Well, then. I don't understand why you're making such a fuss about it, when even Mum thinks I should join."

"Your mum is so relieved you survived she'd be happy for you to take up accountancy, never mind becoming an Auror."

"Why aren't you? You know I always wanted to become an Auror-"

"Did you, Ron? I thought that was Harry, not you. As far as I remember, you were going to become a professional Quidditch player."

"That was three years ago-"

"Two," Hermione cut in.

" – and a lot of things have happened since then," Ron continued.

"Exactly! And in another four or five years you might want something else. All I'm saying is that you should keep your options open-" The rest of Hermione's plea went unheard.

"By going back to Hogwarts." There was a splintering noise, as if Ron had kicked something over. Probably the bucket with the glass shards Neville had collected, one by one, from the little pond yesterday. "As a student. When I've already proved I know more than most of teachers-"

"Do you, Ron?" Hermione asked, and Neville could tell she was annoyed. "The last time I checked, you didn't even know the Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, never mind being able to heal people – "

"I knew about the food, didn't I?" Ron answered belligerently. "And – and dead people, and – " It was clear no recital of the other four principles was forthcoming.

"Even if you did, that's not the only reason to go back." Hermione cut his stuttering short. "If you want to have a normal life, you'll have to start now. You can't sail into the Aurory on – on your wartime record alone and expect for it not to matter in the future."

Neville closed his eyes in gratitude that Hermione had skirted around mentioning Harry just then – he didn't know if he'd have been able to duck quickly enough if she had. Ron was still Ron, in all too many ways.

"So you're back to telling me what to do. That's nice. Just what a bloke wants in a girlfriend."

"You did know me for seven years before we got together," Hermione pointed out, and Neville thought he could finally get away. If they could joke about it –

"Yes, and I should have known you'd still be the same, despite everything that's happened. 'Don't break the rules, Ron'," Ron said in falsetto. "'Check the library'. I'm sure there's a book somewhere saying you have to go back to school after defeating a Master of Evil."

"Never mind, then. Do whatever you want, and don't listen to people who are just trying to look out for you," Hermione said and Neville admired her restraint. She'd been right most of the time before, after all.

"Fine," Ron huffed.

"Fine," Hermione repeated.

Neville knew very well it wasn't, even though he'd never had a proper girlfriend. It seemed like things had settled down for the moment, however, so he quietly sneaked out through the broken windowpanes at the back.

Neville couldn't make up his mind whether he should be hoping that they'd break up or stay together. It had always been Ron for Hermione, no matter what, and she was the smartest witch Neville had ever known. It was just that Ron so often failed to live up to what she must see in him, to what he could be if he tried. If only Neville could have been certain Ron would make Hermione happy, he would have found it in himself to wish them joy and forget about her – as much as he could forget about one of his oldest friends.

Instead, he worried.

The worst thing about staying at The Burrow was the lack of privacy. Silencing Charms helped somewhat, but you still had to face people three times a day at meals and every time you ventured to the bathroom. Mrs Weasley had banned inside Apparition shortly after Fred and George got their licenses, and it wasn't worth upsetting her over something so petty.

Hermione slept on a fold-out bed in Ginny's room, with all her belongings in a small suitcase. Her beaded bag was still there, along with an assortment of Muggle toiletries following a supermarket run and clothes from various sources. She kept her books shrunk inside the beaded bag; there wasn't much free space in Ginny's room, even when Ginny was the only person staying there.

They'd shared a room before; being the only girls in a house full of boys had pushed them together even when they'd had nothing else in common. They'd become proper friends since then. In some ways, it used to be easier to get along with Ginny than Ron – Ginny knew exactly what she wanted and didn't care much what other people thought, traits Hermione thought she could do worse than emulating.

Ginny hadn't forgotten that Hermione had gone off hunting Horcruxes with her brother and boyfriend, leaving her behind, and losing her other brother didn't make things easier. They were speaking to each other, but not about anything personal: the desultory conversation before turning off the lights at night centred around who had survived the battle and who hadn't, and what was happening to clear up the mess Voldemort had left behind. They politely ignored each other's nightmares.

Hermione didn't comment when Ginny came in late one evening, suspiciously red around the eyes. She didn't even put down Advanced Potion-Making – it wasn't too early to start preparing for a return to Hogwarts, no matter what Ron said – so Ginny took her completely by surprise.

"Can I talk to you for a bit, Hermione?" Her voice was a little gravelly, but she seemed to be holding herself together.

"Yes, of course." Hermione slipped her textbook back into the beaded bag, and pulled herself up so she was sitting with her back to the wall, facing Ginny on the bed. Gwenog Jones waved to her from the poster on the wall, but she pretended not to notice.

"I – " Ginny seemed at a loss for how to continue, and Hermione was suddenly wide awake. People don't usually hesitate when announcing good news. "Promise you won't say anything, to anyone."

Hermione had never told Ginny's secrets, and she wasn't about to start now. It must have shown on her face.

"Sorry, I know you won't, it's just that – " Ginny rushed to say, before cutting herself off again. "It's such a mess, and it'll be even worse if anyone else finds out."

"Well, I'm certainly not going to tell anyone," Hermione said drily, and it seemed to give Ginny the push she needed.

"I think I might be pregnant," she said very quickly and quietly, as if that would make it less real somehow.

"What?" Hermione could feel her mouth hanging open. It was not even a month since the battle. Harry and Ginny hadn't let any grass grow under their feet, she reflected distantly. Not like – but that didn't matter now.

"Usually I'm as regular as clockwork, but it's been more than a week now – You don't really need to know the gritty details, do you?" Ginny said with a grin that was more like her pre-war self, and Hermione remembered how much she used to like the youngest Weasley.

"No," she agreed, as she calculated dates and weeks – yes, technically it should be possible to know that you were pregnant within less than a month. It wasn't like she'd ever had to consider it before. Suddenly it rankled that Ginny had got there before she had, had been so confident in her relationship with Harry that they had – had done the deed, when Ron and Hermione didn't even seem to be able to talk to each other without having an argument. Well, there would be time to think about that later.

"Did you – "

"I told Harry tonight," Ginny cut her off, as if she wanted to get it all done with at once. "He didn't exactly take it well."

"You told him – so you know for sure, then?" Hermione asked, cowardly shying away from Harry's reaction for the moment. She'd find out in a few minutes, anyway, whether she wanted to or not.

"No." Ginny looked at her as if she had two heads (not entirely unheard of previously, when both twins had been alive and living at The Burrow). "How could I? The charm doesn't work until after three months."

Pure-blood wizards. Hermione still forgot, sometimes. "Are you telling me Harry didn't know you can get a pregnancy test over the counter? In a Muggle pharmacy," she added, remembering Ron's surprise at the existence of laundrettes. One never quite knew what the wizarding world had decided it could do without.

"He didn't say much. I think he was in shock."

That was hardly surprising.

"Well, you can. I don't know how soon you can find out, but it's a lot earlier than three months." As soon as she'd said it, Hermione realized that she'd be making a late-night trip to Central London. "I'll go now, if you want," she offered – she wouldn't want to wait until the morning, either.

"Would you?" Ginny's face was very pale, and Hermione wondered uneasily what Harry had said. He'd always been much better with action than words. She didn't stop to ask; instead, she got out of her pyjamas and got dressed, before Apparating as quietly as possible.

As usual, this story is complete and I will be updating weekly. As always, reviews and constructive criticism are most welcome.