The Miranda Priestly of the Wizarding World
Ron entered the room and smiled fondly. Hermione was sprawled over the bed and the sight of such a small person taking up so much space was quite comical. He lay down next to her and kissed her forehead. He drifted off to sleep, but only a few minutes later, he felt a gentle but firm poke on his chest. After about 5 pokes, he could ignore it no longer. He jolted awake and throatily asked, "Whassgoinon? Izthebabycominout?" Hermione's eyes were still shut, but she clearly stated, "Ron. I want…" She broke off, and for a moment, Ron thought she would fall back asleep again. He had been bringing her buckets of ice cream and piles of food on command for the past month, which Ginny said was quite normal for a pregnant witch. He really didn't feel like going to get her ice cream at about 3 in the morning, so he was a little disappointed to see that she hadn't fallen asleep mid-sentence after all. "I want… uh… I want Hogwarts: A History." She finished groggily. Figures. She craves books. "Alright, ill get it from the other room." Ron breathed a sigh of relief. He raised his wand to summon it when he heard Hermione's half-asleep whisper again. "No, no. Go get a new one. From Diagon Alley. Go." Ron stared at her incredulously. "Mione. We got you an updated version of it a few months ago. You even got one for your birthday recently. The ones at Flourish and Blotts are going to be the same version. I'll get you the one we have, okay?" Much to his horror, Hermione burst into tears. "You don't love me anymore! Why did you marry me Ronald? If you don't love me? I s'pose you'd rather have Lav-lav?" She pushed a bewildered Ron away. "GO AWAY!" Then she pulled him back with his shirt. "No. Stay here. Why do you hate me?" Ron was feeling shock, disbelief and tons of confusion. "Alright. Okay. I'll go get you a copy. That's what you want, right? I'll be back soon." He pulled his coat on and apparated to Diagon Alley. He truly didn't know what he was doing. No one would be awake at this hour anyways. There really wasn't any point. But he had a wife at home that simply HAD to have yet another copy of her favorite book. He stared at the window of Flourish and Blotts for a couple of minutes, rubbing his eyes and stifling a yawn. He inwardly sighed and walked away from the dark lifeless store. He wandered for about a minute, hoping that his solution would come to him magically, preferably in fairy godmother form. While wandering, he suddenly got an idea. "Wow, I should've thought of this a while ago…" He apparated back home and got the most recent copy of Hogwarts: A History that they owned. Hermione couldn't tell the difference in between them, could she? It looked pretty new. He entered the room cautiously and gave the book to Hermione, looking at her anxiously, waiting for her response as she opened the book. "This…. Is not new." His heart skipped a beat. "THIS IS NOT NEW, RONALD." She had resorted to crying once again, and threw the book at Ron with murmurings of "my own husband lying to me…" and "deceit, treachery, betrayal…". He fell back into the door, but caught the book. He opened the cover and cursed himself. On the inside cover, words etched out, "To Hermy, with love. Ginny 3 " He mentally slapped himself for being an idiot, then stared at the name in the book. No matter how much teasing he would have to endure, he knew what he had to do. He was stuck. It was the only way. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I'll go get you a new one, I promise." After 2 more apologies, Ron set out to find another copy. He had to make her stop wailing, or he would be a dead man. Killed from her, her neighbors, or her drowning tears. He had apparated to the porch of Harry and Ginny's house. He rang the doorbell and eagerly waited. When Harry opened the door, he looked unsurprised, almost bored. "Yup. Knew you'd be here sometime. Come on in." Ron was flustered. Harry had expected him to show up at his house at 3:30 in the morning? Apparently so. "Gin, Ron's here." He heard rustling from the room on his left and Ginny appeared at the door moments later. "Oh hey! We were wondering when you'd drop by. Finally crack under Hermione's pregnancy, I see. What d'you need?" Ron hesitated, slightly offended that they would assume that he couldn't handle it. But then realizing his purpose for being there, he got on with his request. He told the pathetic story with blush creeping up on his cheeks slowly throughout. "And so… I was wondering if you had a copy?" Ron finished somewhat lamely. Ginny and Harry almost snorted with amusement, but helped out the worried Ron. "Here. It's good as new. By the way, you could have just erased the writing in the book and given it to her once again after pretending to go out, you know." Ron with a bit pride, questioned, "You think my Hermione would fall for that? She would already be suspicious and she would've found me out with one quick charm." Ginny inaudibly agreed, as did Harry. Ron, with their book in hand, disapparated. He smiled longingly. Perhaps he could finally go back to sleep. He triple-checked the pages for marks before entering the bedroom as if it was the entrance to hell. As soon as he did, he let his outstretched book-clutching arm flop to his side. Hermione was sprawled over the bed once again, deep in sleep. He carefully put the book in the other room, next to the other 6 copies, and crawled back in bed, careful not to wake her up. The last thing he thought of as he was finally falling asleep was, he could not wait for Rose to be born.