This plot bunny has been swimming in my head for some time. Let me know if you like it and if so I'll continue it. I've been having a reoccurring nightmare and I thought writing this story may help make it stop. I have consistently struggled writing Hermione, so I feel like this story is non-canon compliant AND she will seem very OC to some. Hope you enjoy, and Goddess Rowling owns all the characters, I just wanted to play with them.

Hermione sat face against the toilet seat. She'd been throwing up non-stop for a few weeks and wasn't sure how no one had noticed yet. Being in the burrow, there wasn't exactly much privacy. They'd been back from the battle for exactly a week today and she still hadn't had more than five minutes alone with Ron to talk to him about the situation. How could this have happened? I was sure the charm worked. she thought to herself exasperatedly. Hermione stood up and went to the sink. She fixed her hair and brushed her teeth before heading down to the kitchen for lunch.

Ron came in from the back garden with Harry, Ginny, and George, carrying his broomstick over his shoulder. They'd been out playing two on two quidditch all morning as part of the plan to keep George up and moving during his grieving. They all sat down to the lunch Mrs. Weasley had prepared as four owls came through the open window. Each landed on the table, delivering their respective letters to Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny. Ron continued to shovel his lunch in while reading the letter. Professor McGonagall was inviting all the dropouts from the previous year to come back and complete school. Those like Ginny, who had their previous year interrupted, were being given a chance to redo their Defense against the Dark Arts class in an expedited fashion and to catch up the time missed from the previous year so they could take NEWT's on time. Harry and Ginny sat glancing at the letters and up at each other in their own form of wordless communication. Hermione's stomach clinched, she couldn't hide it any more. She stood, folding her letter, and motioned for Ron to follow her up the stairs.

Hermione shut the door and waved her wand, using muffliato to hide their conversation from the rest of the household. "So I'm guessing you want to go back and finish school?" Ron stood next to her, hugging her against his body tightly.

"You don't want to?" she glanced up, trying to read his face.

"No, not terribly, we have already been offered jobs at the ministry as aurors. It seems a waste of time to go back to school for another year, just to get a job I've already been offered. But, I know you want to, we don't have to do the same thing. We can make it work if you want to go back, and I stay here and be an auror."

Hermione put her hands up to his mouth. "Ron, you're rambling. Slow down. We've got a lot bigger problems than where we will be come September."

Reaching up and taking her hands in his, he kissed her knuckles. "Hermione, we have helped defeat the most dangerous wizard in history and I have you at my side despite all the pigheaded, idiotic, things I have done to you. There are no problems too big for us to handle." Hermione didn't even realize she was crying until he started wiping the tears off her cheeks. "Hermione what is wrong? We will be fine. You have to tell me what is wrong so I can help you. Please, please stop pushing me away." He was pleading now. Their relationship was both stronger and more strained than ever all at once. She had seemed distant ever since the events at Malfoy Manor, but he tried to push the image of a tortured Hermione being nursed back to health in Shell Cottage.

"Ron, you need to sit down." Hermione was bawling at this point, but she was almost sure he'd pass out upon hearing this news and she didn't want him hurting himself. He walked over to the bed, pulling her behind him. Ron sat down on the bed with Hermione standing between his overly long legs. Still holding her hands, he kissed her, and waited for her to start. "Ron, do you remember when we were on the horcrux hunt?"

"How could I ever forget?" He smirked at her, but waited for her to continue.

"Do you remember your birthday? That night specifically? When Harry was on watch?" She was starting to hyperventilate now and had his hands in a death grip. Eyes locked on the ground, she waited for his response.

"Of course I do Mione. How could I ever forget that night. It was the most amazing night of my life, one I plan on repeating many times with you for the rest of my life. What's wrong?"

"Ron, the charm didn't work. I'm pregnant." It came out easier than she had ever thought uttering those words could.

Ron's face drained of color, his freckles and hair standing out in stark contrast to his now chalky skin. He felt he'd taken a bludger to the gut. "But it was only that once….how?"

"Do you really want me to explain how it works right now?" Hermione's voice cracked as she started crying again.

Ron stood up, shaky on his feet. He wrapped his arms around her, her tears were beginning to cover his shirt. "I'm taking the auror job. There's no discussing it now. And you're going back to school. You won't be due until what, December almost? You will takes your NEWT's I'll make sure of it. Bloody hell Hermione, you could homeschool yourself and still do better than over half our class come NEWT examinations."

She was crying even harder now, and shaking so badly he was afraid she was going to collapse. Ron scooped her up and sat her on the bed holding her close against him while she cried. Eventually, she cried herself to sleep. Laying her on his pillow, and covering her with a blanket, he quietly slipped from the room and headed to the bathroom where he promptly lost his lunch.