Hermione could feel the warm rays of sunlight break through the tent windows. Summer was quickly dying, each morning had been colder than the last since the beginning of the month. With Mabon being less than a week away, she knew it would usher in a thin layer of frost that would cover Wizarding England in the mornings going forward. Reaching up, her hand moved to rub her eyes, trying to pull the sleep from them as she sat up in the lumpy bed.
Harry had somehow convinced her to go camping for her twenty fourth birthday. She had gone a handful of times in her youth with her parents, and of course, their experience Horcrux hunting but she never thought of herself as an outdoorsy person. She much preferred the safety of their home, curled up in front of the fireplace with a good book, but Harry insisted.
When they had Apparated to the Forest of Dean, her heart had raced. This place held so many conflicted memories for her. Happy and terrible, and she was half tempted to run from there until he had told her why they needed to come back here. Harry had wanted to fill this place with good memories. He wanted to replace the terrible ones they both had about that time in their life with better ones. (although, he if thought she would ever set foot in Malfoy Manor again he had another thing coming.) It was partility selfish, he had admitted, but it was also for the life growing inside her womb. For their future child to have a place like Hermione had in her youth.
So here she was, five months pregnant sleeping on a twin sized bed in the middle of the Forest of Dean with her husband on her birthday. If someone would have told her back then that this was her future, she would laughed until she cried. But now? Now she couldn't have been more pleased with the way the fates had entwined their lives together.
"Lay back down," Harry's gravely morning voice cut through the bird's chirping outside. He cracked on sleepy green eye open to look up at his wife before reaching his hand out from under his pillow to captured her wrist and tug her gently towards him.
"Harry," Hermione laughed, allowing herself to be tucked carefully back in his arms. When his palm slipped under the henley she wore to bed to curl around the soft swell of her stomach, her heart fluttered. Two years into their marriage and he still gave her butterflies. "I've got to wee. You're spawn is pushing on my bladder." She protested weakly.
"But you're supposed to stay in bed. I already told you, breakfast in bed….foot rubs….and relaxing." Harry's mouth pressed open kisses against the back of her neck, moving her braids out of the way so he could access her skin.
"That all sounds lovely, but it doesn't prohibit me from using the bathroom." When his hand slipped higher up her stomach, making a beeline towards her achy breasts, she reached up to catch his wrist to prevent it from it's goal. "Harry James Potter!" she scolded.
"Hermione Jean Potter," He clipped back in the same tone before nipping at her earlobe."Fine...fine...I'll let you go, but when you come back I get give you a proper birthday good morning." He relented, sliding his hand from her shirt before rolling on his back in the bed once she'd scooted from his hold.
Hermione rolled her eyes as she shook her head, sliding from the warmth of the too small bed their were sharing to make her way across the tent towards the restroom.
On her return, she found Harry in the middle of the mattress, his hands resting behind his head with his elbows out. He managed to fetch his thick framed glasses from the nightstand during her absence and from what she could tell, he'd gotten out of bed as well because sitting in his lap was a small wrapped box. It was no bigger than the palm of his hand from what she could tell and there was a beautiful golden bow sitting on top of it.
"I told you not to get me anything," Hermione reminded him, her arms crossing over her bust as she leans on the door frame. "We're spending too much money on the nursery already-"
"I know. I know," Harry dropped his hands to push himself up to a sitting position. "But before you lecture me about finances, just come open it, okay?" Emerald eyes twinkled at his glowing wife from across the room. "If you absolutely hate it, I'll take it back immediately."
"Promise?"
"Auror's Honor."
"That's not saying much," She mumbled under her breath before padding over to him. She sat opposite of her husband curling her legs underneath her as she held out her hand to him for the gift. When he eagerly placed it in her hand, she could not help but notice the way he bubbled with excitement. The box was light, which led her to believe it wasn't jewelry. And when she shook it no sounds came. Knitted her brow, she glanced between Harry and the box skeptically. It wasn't until he said her name that she finally relented and pulled the lid off.
Inside, sitting amongst a small amount of white tissue paper were a pair of blue knit booties, The handy work of Molly Weasley, no doubt. Hermione gasped, her fingertips lifting to her lips as she felt tears well in the corner of her eyes. "Harry...we said we were waiting!" Brown eyes glittered as she looked up to her husband, biting her bottom lip.
"I know. I...I just couldn't wait," he replied sheepishly. Reaching out, he pulled the small booties from the box and placed them against her growing belly. "Happy birthday, Hermione."