Hermione is 29, and Ron is 28 in this atroy. I don't think you really needed to know that... but oh well :)

I hope you enjoy-

Parents

I sit on the couch of our brightly lit living room, chewing on my nails and staring unblinkingly at the white front door. It is 7:00 p.m. exactly, and Ron is supposed to be home. I'm positive that it is 7 because the grandfather clock by our fireplace is chiming. Why isn't he here yet? Did I get the arrival time wrong? Is he hurt?

I close my eyes and breathe deeply like all of the mothering magazines tell me to do when I am stressed. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale…

He can't be hurt. It's not possible. Ron promised! He hasn't broken a promise before, so it is not possible for him to do it now. I will erase that thought from my mind.

Maybe Harry needs to talk to him. Maybe he needs to tell Ron that he left the red roses he is going to give to me on the campground! Yeah! Maybe he is wishing Ron good luck for telling me that he has gotten a promotion! Absolutely!

Or maybe Ron got murdered by a death eater and all of the other aurors are too nervous to tell me.

No… Ron promised!!!

I decide to check that today is the correct day for his arrival, so I walk into the kitchen. I stare at the light-blue wall that is closest to me and frown. The calendar has October 5th circled in red five times. "Maybe it isn't the 5th…" I mutter to myself as I look more closely at the 2008 calendar. October 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th have a huge X mark on it. "Oh no."

I walk all the way inside the kitchen and glance at the clock on the microwave. All of the blood from my head starts to rush through my body and I feel nauseous as I see it read 7:20. It's not from the frequent morning sickness I've been having, but from deep in the pit of my stomach, making me feel like I'm doomed.

My eye sight is faltering as my whole world starts spinning around me. I can hear my heartbeat pound in my ears repeatedly as I slowly descend to the cold stone ground.

"Oh no, no, no! This can't be happing. Ron has always had trouble apparating! That has to be why he's late! Or he could have stopped at a pub with Harry! He loves beer!" I start gasping for air as tears stream down my face and pour onto my stretched and faded blue jeans.

My weak and burned out body can't support itself so I scoot to the middle of the room and lean into the white wood island. I lean my head back against the cold, smooth wood and try to relax, stroking my lower belly with my left hand. My golden wedding band gets stuck on the Chudley Cannons t-shirt that Ron gave me for my birthday, so I start to cry even harder.

I put my fingers to the temple of my forehead and open my eyes slightly. Dirty denim covered legs are in front of my eye-sight.

Tilting my head upwards blearily, I see a red haired and muscular man frowning down at me. "Hi Hermione," Ron says softly as he leans down towards me and onto the ground.

I open my mouth to reply, but can't think of anything to say so I just lean my head into his shoulder. "Hi Ron." I sigh in relief as fresh and happy tears start rolling down my face.

He kisses my cheek. "I'm sorry I'm late, Honey. My boss had to lye us some 'ground rules' for me and Harry's next mission." Ron smiles apologetically at me as he wipes away my tears. "Why are crying, Love?"

I roll my eyes at his lack of emotional sadness for me "Ugh! I thought you had died, Ron! You better contact me if you are late ever again, or there won't be a next time!" I hug him as tight as I can and start kissing him roughly all around his face, down his neck, up his arm, across his chest, everywhere.

"I missed you so much, Hermione!" Ron says in-between giving me sloppy kisses "I hope I don't get such a long mission again," he tells me as he strokes my long and curly golden brown hair.

"I missed you too, Ron!" I say hysterically with my voice cracking from lack of use.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in years, Hermione." Ron hugs me tightly, then leans his head on mine, both of us sitting on the ground with our feet straight out in front of us and our backs leaning against the island. "I saw the living room. I think it looks great with the new paint. And I think the couch looks really good in the middle of the room. I am sorry I didn't help you finish remodeling the room."

"It's okay," I mumble.

"So what have you been doing since I've been gone, Honey?" Ron asks as he lets go of me and starts to stand.

"Oh… not much. I helped free another house-elf named Tobles." Ron offers me a hand and I get pulled up into a standing position.

"Really? What is Tobles doing now?" he looks at me curiously.

I smile at Ron proudly. "I convinced him that he is just as important as a human, if not more, and that he should get a job. Now, Tobles is the third house-elf to be working for the Ministry of Magic!"

"Wow, Hermione! Good job! I guess we both accomplished something big while I was gone!" Ron leads me to our loveseat in our small living room that faces the fireplace.

"What do you mean?" I look at him anxiously

"Well," he starts as we sit down facing each other, "my boss Ms Mckinley gave me a promotion yesterday! I figured out the math so now we can remodel our bathroom, too, like you wanted!"

"That's great, Sweetie!" I squeal, and then grin. "About the bathroom… can we save up the money for another bedroom, instead?"

Ron looks at me confused. "I don't know, Hermione… I mean no one actually visits our house, anyway, so why would we want to waste money on that?"

I bite my lip in excitement. "But what if this room isn't for a visitor? What if the person will live with us?"

He scratches his head. "Ummm… I don't really get what you're hinting at, Hermione… Is your grandma moving in or something?"

I pick up Ron's huge and un-bathed hand, placing it on my lower abdomen, looking at him convincingly.

He scrunches his eyebrows and then makes his eyes get bigger and bigger from shock. "Oh!" Ron laughs "Wow, Hermione! Seriously???"

I just look at him innocently as he starts to process this. He grabs my shoulders and starts hugging me and kissing me everywhere, not moving his hand off my stomach. "How long have you known?" Ron asks with me sitting on his lap.

"For two months, but the little baby is 3 months old. I didn't want to tell you over floo… I just felt it was right to give you the news once you were done with the mission." I grin at him because Ron has just waved at my tummy.

"Now it makes sense why you were crying so hysterically!-"

I cross my arms "I thought you had died, Ron! It wasn't some overly emotional pregnant mood swings act! God, you make me sound so dumb sometimes!" I pout.

"I was only twenty minutes late, Hermione! It's not like I didn't show up for a whole day! Twenty minutes!" Ron rubs my stomach "I can't believe I'm gonna be a daddy!"

"Me neither" I say as I lean my head against his chest and close my eyes, tired. "I can't believe I'm going to be a mummy!"

"I can't believe we are going to be parents!" he says as Hermione drifts to sleep and Ron strokes Hermione's lower stomach over and over again with his hands, drifting to sleep as well.

This was random, wasn't it?

I'm so upset... my sister and I were going to rent HELP from DVD-To-Go, but someone was already renting it so we ended up getting 10 Things I Hate About You. The Beatles are waaaaaayyyy cooler! Grrrrr...

10 reviews and I update =P

i know that is a lot, but I have other stories I need to update and a book report due this Thursday that I haven't started... has any of you read Dreamland? I'm doing it on that. It is a really good book, but the book report questions are really stupid so I can't flow through the questions. It's really bad B(

remember: reviews=love=Harry Potter or The Beatles or both

-Maia