To say Hermione Granger was freaking out was an understatement.

She had freaked out when Harry had finally gotten up the nerve to tell her he had feelings for her. His eyes belaying a depth of emotion she'd never seen from him before, but absolutely reciprocated.

She had freaked out when he'd proposed in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express- "Where we first met and began this crazy adventure," he had said, down on one knee, hair askew, looking every bit the boy she'd known in school.

She had freaked out when she'd sent the last of their girls off to Hogwarts. Lily and Matilda had boarded the train, Lily holding her younger sister's hand with delight and the girls had waved merrily as it steamed away.

No, to say Hermione was freaking out right now was an understatement. She was about three disasters past freaking out. Scrambling to do math in her head, which was normally second nature to the brilliant witch, counting backwards on the calendar. She paused as she heard the rush of the downstairs Floo, whirring to life as Harry returned from an evening at the Leaky with mates. Looking in the mirror and casting a quick charm to bring the color back to her pale, shocked cheeks, she rushed to meet him at the stairs.

"Hello love," he called up to her, smiling as her rounded the corner at the banister. His cheeks were a little pink, he'd clearly imbibed some, though Harry was never one to drink to excess. "How is my beautiful witch tonight? Legislation get pushed to session yet? Do we have news to celebrate?" he asked her.

Hermione forced a smile and tried to slow her heart racing, steady her breathing. She took a deep breath, then another until she felt she was composed enough to speak. By this time Harry had reached the first floor landing and gathered the witch in his arms.

"Well," she began nervously, "The legislation was tabled again. But I do have some news." She leaned back from his embrace to look at his face.

"Harry." She whispered. He looked at her nervously.

"What is it Hermione? I haven't seen you this nervous since you told Molly she couldn't cater our wedding," he joked, attempting humor.

She bit her lip, taking it into her mouth and worrying it for a few moments.

"I'm pregnant."

Harry froze, clearly not expecting news of this variety. "You're what?... but we use the charm every time, and you're on the potion. And we're OLD." He sputtered. ""We've two teenagers for Merlin's sake! What do you mean you're pregnant." His eyes were round behind his glasses, though not angry or unkind.

"I know. It's just that when we went to Rome a few months ago, and there was that wine after the theater..." she trailed off. "I must've forgotten the charm. I haven't had a spare minute to brew the potion since this big push for the next session began and you know, I'm usually so precise about these things- I guess I thought the charm would suffice. But I'm late and, I didn't even realize it'd been so long, I've been so wrapped up in work, and the detection spell turned white right away. How could I have forgotten?.." She rambled on, bitterly, as if she was solely to blame. Hermione's eyes glistened in the hallway light, as she held back her emotions from spilling over. "And I know we're "old,"" her voice was steadily rising in volume and emotion, "and the girls are half grown. This wasn't in the plan Harry. What are we going to do? A baby at our age! I can hardly believe it. What are we going to do? We can't be new parents at our age? This is absurd!" She finished a little hysterically, with tears spilling over the corners of her eyes and shamefully wiped them away.

Harry took a deep calming breath and reached to hold his wife.

"You're right. It's not planned. And it is quite the surprise," he smirked naughtily, "though, that night in Rome was rather memorable wasn't it?" He pulled back to look at Hermione and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, trying to lighten the mood, causing his wife to poke him in the ticklish spot on his ribs. Harry pleasantly jerked away. "It takes two of us to make a baby my love, and make a baby we did, many times that weekend. I could have reminded you to do the charm? Could've checked that you'd done it after. It isn't just you at fault. There's no one to blame here, 'Mione. It's just a surprise that's all." Harry gathered her in his arms and continued.

"Hermione this isn't bad news. We've done this twice before. We can manage a third. It can't be that much different than it was twelve years ago, can it?" Harry was smiling now.

She searched his eyes, expecting to see some sense of disappointment or resentment hiding there. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw only genuine affection and excitement. This was Harry, her best friend, her husband of nearly 18 years. She should have known he'd never be angry with her, she immediately felt herself relaxing and allowed herself to let go of the control she'd been hanging onto by a thread.

She smiled a secret smile and asked him, "Do you want to know a secret?" When he nodded and buried his head into her shoulder, taking in the scent of his lovely wife, she put her lips near his ear and whispered, "It's a boy."