XX

The sun shone through the window onto the desk, not a drop of rain pattered against the window. That was irrelevant to the weather outside though, Ron knew for a fact there was a thunderstorm taking place as he had just been out in the weather, getting blasted around by the wind and avoiding various curses being fired at him.

Having captured the assailants and sent them off to Azkaban, he had dried himself off upon arrival and had just sat down in front the pile of paperwork that had been stacked on his desk during the several hours he had been out of the office.

Sorting through the red pieces of parchment first, he quickly wrote replies and sent them back with a light flick of his wand. He then turned his attention to the stack of parchment in front of him, and with a flick of his wand he moved it to the side, then flipped it over. He found that starting at the bottom was the best way to do it as they had been waiting the longest.

The others wouldn't be in for a few hours, he preferred to start work early, he tried not to spend most of his time at work, but it did fluctuate. Hermione was usually working all hours too, so they would spend lunch and dinner together, then apparate home when they had finished.

But Hermione had been forced to take some time off, by both of their parents. She was going to take time off anyway but her mother and Molly had insisted she had an extra month and Ron wholeheartedly agreed, as did Ginny and Harry, so there was no way out of it.

The weeks leading up to the time she was scheduled to take off, she realised that she needed the extra time as she wasn't going to last much longer, going at the same pace, working the same hours. Ron and her would take the Muggle way home as she feared apparating, just in case. She still remembered splinching Ron, it helped that she saw the scars carved into his shoulder every day. She didn't want to risk anything.

The only sound in the room was the scratching of quill on paper as Ron wrote, pausing only to dip it in ink or to glance at his watch. He could hear people talking down the corridor, the footsteps above him and the general every day sounds of the Ministry. The muted sound of owls squawking from the long distance delivery room two floors down, the inter-office memos darting through the rooms and the clanging of the lifts, the woman's voice cold and crisp introducing each floor as the lift doors opened.

Ron was halfway through the pile of parchment, having sent off and filled as he went when the door swung open and a wizard ran in with a pile of mail.

"This just came for you." The wizard said, waving his wand so that letters flew out of the pile and landed on their desks, and held out a letter to Ron, holding it by his fingertips.

Ron gave a shaky smile, grabbed the letter from the wizard and muttered, "Thanks."

"Do it fast, like a ripping off a bandaid as the Muggles say." The wizard smiled at Ron and added, "Sorry" as he turned and swept out of the room.

How bad could it be, thought Ron. No one else was here yet. Sure they would be able to hear it down the corridor and probably on the floor above and below, but still, it would be muffled. Taking a deep breath, he opened the Howler, letting it drift in front of him for a second before speaking.

"Hello Honey, you better…" Molly's voice rang out, not screaming, just a little high pitched.

She was cut off by a loud scream of pain in the background. Ron went white as a sheet, was it what he thought it was, or something else?

"you better hurry home." Molly said, her voice slightly shaking, yelling over what appeared to be Ginny's voice in the background as well as Fleur's.

"RON!" Hermione yelled, "IF YOU MISS THIS I WILL CURSE YOU!"

"The baby's coming. Come quickly, see you soon." Molly yelled over the Hermione's screams and Ginny's yelling. The letter shredded itself in front of a pale faced Ron.

Frozen for a second, he shook his head, grabbed his travelling cloak off the back of the chair, hurriedly scribbled, 'Baby's coming. Come to the Burrow.' On a red piece of parchment, sent it off to Harry and ran out of the room as if his robes were on fire.

XX