Word Count: 2,728
Team: Ballycastle Bats
Position: Keeper
Prompt: Write about a pregnancy that causes problems for the relevant parties (for example, parents, family, friends, etc).
"When in Rome, right?" I blinked drearily at the fuzzy form that I'm sure was Ron at some point across from me before taking back the next shot of Fire-whiskey.
"Wassat even mea', Hermen?" Oh right, I forgot Ron didn't get my sayings. Stupid. How many years has it been since he met me? Seven? I dunno. Could be 30 and he'd never get my muggle phrases. Why did I even try to talk to him? Probably because he'd always been there? I guess? That was sad. I was dating a guy not because we really had anything in common, but because he'd always been there.
I giggled a bit as I stared at the empty shot glass I'd brought over to the Weasley's. This was supposed to be a celebration party; we'd finally graduated after the stupid war and Molly even took her hubby away for a vacation. A whole week! Just for drinking and being...kids.
"Heeeeerrrrrmen, I don't..." Ron's drone seemed to stop half way before the tell-tale sign of someone about to throw up made its way through his mouth.
"THE BATHROOM! GO-GO-GO!" I had jumped up before I tugged him out of his seat by the edge of his sweater, forgetting for a second that we weren't the only ones in the house.
"I'll be out here, kay?" I bobbed my head up and down after I released him on top of the thing that I'm about 70% sure was the toilet. I couldn't really deal with the action of someone violently throwing up without throwing up myself. The smell, the convulsions, the sounds...Disgusting. I think I need to step outside.
I stumbled outside the door and let my legs give out from under me as the world spun a little in the dim lighting of this hallway. Everything now was a little...surreal. It'd been almost a year since the war had finished and we started our final year at Hogwarts. Its funny how fast things go now, theres nothing that stops the days from turning into each other.
"Hermione?" I blinked a bit, realising that there was now a pale foot in front of me...why is it touching me?
"Huh?" I tried to shoo it away from me with an attempt at a wave of my hand. Instead, my hand just kinda flopped downwards to land against the floor.
"Wow." I mumbled as I stared at it.
"Who would have thought that the smartest of the Golden trio couldn't hold her alcohol?" I let out a low 'mhm' up until I felt everything being jerked up from some unseen force.
"Woah." I grabbed onto the smooth maroon fabric in front of my eyes out of fear of falling from whatever was holding me up off the ground. Wait...how is this happening? I forced my eyes up to see pale skin and frowned.
"Harry?" I furrowed my brow as a short chuckle was let out of my carrier.
"Not even close." If it wasn't Harry then I wasn't sure who else would be up right now, all but the two eldest Weasleys were home right now too. What time was it now? 4 A.M.? Five? I know I looked at the clock before Ron and I started our drinking contest but I can't remember what time it said it was.
"Here we are. Wake me up if you need something, okay?" I felt my body being laid down on something warm but soft so I rolled over, feeling out the edges of what appeared to be a bed.
"Kay." A single bed that creaked when I moved but something didn't feel right. I could hear the breathing of someone else which fit with what I needed to feel like I could sleep but it was so cold in here.
I rolled onto my other side and stared into the darkness of the room until I heard a low crow of a rooster. I guessed this room had some sort of charm to darken it but I couldn't keep my thoughts straight enough to filter through my mental list for its name.
Standing as quietly as I could, despite the bed and the creaking floorboards, I searched through the dark until I bumped into another bed. My fingers drifted over what were possibly a sheet and a leg up until I felt something hard. I continued moving up past what felt like a hip bone until the body moved.
"What are you doing?" A hand grabbed mine, stilling my fingers from their movements, as a sleep ridden voice mumbled to me.
"What I want to do?" I felt a lot more confident than I sounded, my statement had turned into more of a question by the time I'd finished it. This was Ron I was dealing with, so I didn't get why he was stopping me right now outside of the usual confusion he had when he was sleepy.
"Let me." I wanted to mentally clap my own back for how entirely sober and confident I'd sounded. Sometimes it was nice to have a little power to wield now and then. The hand released its hold slowly, and I nibbled on my lip a little as I moved to get into the bed too.
The night rolled on into the next day with sweat on my skin, just like it always had. Though this one was a little more pleasant than that nightmares forced me to wake up in a sweaty mess.
"Hermione." I groaned at the sound of my name being said through the splitting headache I'd discovered at the same time as I woke up from a rare dreamless sleep. The sound of Ginny's girly giggling angered my headache even more so I rolled over to push my face into a pillow I'd found.
"Leave me alone to die." I spoke into the pillow I'd shoved my face into as I pulled the covers over my head.
"Mum and dad are back, breakfast is downstairs when you want it." I gave her another groan for a response until I heard another small girlish giggle and a pair of feet going down the stairs. Ginny had always walked with heavy steps and unfortunately today was no different than yesterday or the day before.
I forced myself out of the bed I'd some how found myself in with little recollection as to how, but I also didn't really care. All I wanted to do today was eat some breakfast after I dug through my bag for a potion or two.
By the time my headache and associated nausea had gone away, it was past dinnertime but I swallowed the weirdness to dig through the Weasley's cupboards for snacks. No matter how many times Molly had welcomed me into her house, I still couldn't get over just going through the kitchen like I owned the place. I picked up a box and peeked inside to see little jelly looking candies.
I reached inside and pulled a single green one out and looked at it. It didn't look like any sort of candy I'd ever seen before which had my head going for a bit of ride but it wasn't all that bad. I hadn't bothered putting as much thought into things like I had before the war. It was so tiring, overthinking everything to the point that I forced myself day in and day out to plan our every move. Not that it did anything terrific for us, Voldemort still ha-
"I wouldn't eat that if I were you." A voice from across the room gave me a scare as my head spun to look at its owner.
"It's bit of product that seems to have gotten lost." George gave me a small smirk as he came closer to hold out his hand.
"How did that even get in here?" My brow furrowed and before I could control it, my mind seemed to have started trying to figure out all the possibilities again.
"Boxes get moved. Big family, messy house." He shrugged it off easily enough, but I wasn't really buying it.
"You don't live here anymore." I raised a brow as I finally handed over the box of mysterious origin to its supposed owner.
"You realise I lived here for a good 17 years before, right?" His chuckle was low and more gravelly than I remembered it being before. Well...I guess I hadn't heard him laugh much since Fred.
"Whatever, none of my business." I shrugged robotically as I turned back towards the cabinet I'd crouched in front of.
"I guess. What did Ron think of last night?" His question made me feel like I was missing something but I shrugged again. Ron had been fine outside of our shared hangover problems.
"He was...normal?" I wasn't entirely sure how to answer that so I focused on rifling through the cabinets and grabbed a bag of crisps.
"Thats surprising. Guess he's grown up a little, his temper used to be something fierce." George's tone was oddly strained, but he seemed amused with the situation as I stood up again.
"I guess so." I had shrugged before I moved towards the doorway to get up to my bed again.
"You've grown up too though, in more ways than one." He held my eyes for a second longer than I was entirely comfortable with so I looked away and choose not to voice any of the curiosity bubbling at the back of my throat.
I gripped the bag of crisps and went to the makeshift bed in Ginny's room with them to become a giant potato. As I stumbled my way into my bed, I let out a small sigh to myself. It was quiet in here, but that didn't stop time from moving forwards without my consent.
Night turned into day and then day into night for another month before my world came crashing down around me. All it took were four words from Molly after I couldn't stomach the smell of beans one early Sunday morning.
"Hermione...are you pregnant?" She was practically grinning from ear to ear, but that didn't stop the sound of total silence from engulfing the breakfast table.
"What?" I could feel the blood draining from my face as I kept a hand over my mouth and nose to block the smell.
"When we had the twins, I couldn't stand being around beans." Molly motioned towards the plate in front of Ron who sat next to me. We both looked at each other with equally pale faces. Ron and I hadn't...not since last month. We didn't even sleep in the same bed anymore; his night terrors were too much for me to be around.
"No. Not possible." Ron let out a small nervous laugh as he sat his fork down on the plate.
"No?" Molly's face fell a bit at his denial but mine remained just as clammy feeling while my heart beat started to thump in my ears.
"I mean...she'd be showing by now right? Three months is a while." His voice dropped down to a whisper as though that would some how keep the rest of his family from hearing this. What did he mean three months?
"Ronald...Wha-" My head spun around to stare at him with confusion before the words died in my mouth. I glanced around the table, eliminating the possibilities based on their expressions and where abouts last month.
It was hard to remember much of anything all, but I knew for a fact it couldn't have been Arthur and Har- George. No. That couldn't possibly be. He was dating Angelina last I'd heard and we so rarely talked, I mean he barely even looked my way since I'd found his box of weird jelly candies. He was always in his shop.
"Ho-" George cleared his throat before continuing.
"Hm?" Molly's and the rest of the table's attention turned to him, while my heart continued to deafen the silence.
"Um. How did you figure out th-that you were um. Pregnant, mum?" His hand was still holding onto the fork he'd been using, but his knuckles were turning white. He had to be thinking along the same lines as I had.
"Well...I was pretty exhausted, and I couldn't stop myself from eating salty things. Oh! And of course, I'd vomit if I came anywhere close to beans." She laughed, but I felt more like digging my own grave at the moment.
"Right. Of course." He was mumbling to himself, but I could barely hear it over the sound of everyone starting to eat again now that the shock was over and done with.
"Sorry, dear. It's an old lady's wishful thinking." She smiled at me then turned to continue talking to her husband.
If I were...pregnant. It'd have to have been him; we hadn't left the Burrow except for when the entire family had gone to Diagon Alley and Ron slept in George's old room. I glanced at George until he finally looked back up from his plate and shifted my eyes at the kitchen to give him some sort of signal that I wanted to talk in private.
I stood without saying much and moved to clear off my plate in the kitchen sink. It didn't take long for George's plate to appear next to me so once I'd finished methodically scrubbing, I picked his up.
"I need to go to London, or a store or something." I kept my voice low as I scrubbed at his plate.
"Right. Right. Um. Okay. I'll tell mum that I need to drop by my store and uh...I need you to..." He struggled for words.
"Check your accounts. You need to me check your accounts." I supplied them readily without paying much attention to the clean plate I continued to scrub.
"Right! Um. Hermione..." He seemed to have something else he wanted to say so I just continued to scrub.
"What are we going to do if we are..." My throat seemed to close itself up somehow as I considered that possibility.
"I'll figure it out. Angelina is your...situation, not me." I forced the words out of my mouth with some hint at being totally calm and in control of the situation, despite how helpless I felt at the moment.
"Hermione...what does our child have to do with my ex-girlfriend?" He sounded confused, but his words were all but static to me. I couldn't have a kid right now; I was trying to figure out my life. It wasn't the time to add another life into the equation.
"There isn't a kid right now. Theres at most a couple of cells and I'm just bloated and tired right now. I have a stomach bug and some back pain. Thats all." I accidentally dropped the plate forcing me to jump as it shattered on top of the pots at the bottom of the sink.
"Hermione? You okay?" I swear Molly had an innate ability to know when something in her house was broken, which might have been thanks to having so many boys in her house.
"I'm fi-" I wasn't prepared for the aroma of beans she brought with her into the kitchen and ran for the bathroom to avoid any more chaos than I'd caused already. I hadn't realised I'd been followed in until a hand came around to pull my hair back from my face as I lost the sausage I'd had for breakfast.
"Thats some stomach bug." George's sarcasm was the last thing I wanted to deal as I grabbed toilet paper to wipe my mouth.
"Shut up." I hated throwing up. The sound, the convulsions, the smell...it was disgusting.