Hey Everyone, its me, the Professor! I hope you like this story, its taken me a while to think of a plot worth writing! Please review!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and am making no profit on this story whatsoever.
*Chapter One: Vacant Coldness*
Hermione stared at the frost on the grass. Her eyes traveled to the headstone tearfully. It had only been six months but to her, it felt like yesterday. The day her husband died. She sat on the ground, touching the headstone of Ron Weasley. Tears poured freely off her face onto her belly where his child was growing. She picked up her bouquet of long-stemmed red roses and laid them against the cold stone.
"Ron, I brought you these," she said through stifled sobs. "I hope you like them. Do you like red roses? I never had a chance to ask you." With every passing word more tears fell from her blood red eyes. "I never got to ask you a lot of things I should have." She sat in a heap with her arms against his headstone, crying her eyes out.
Memories came flooding back with every newly shed tear. Memories she'd tried hard to block. With her mind's eye she played out the last few moments of her husbands life. The death eater attack, the mad glint in Malfoy's eyes as he delivered a weak Avada Kedavra curse right at Ron. Hermione screamed and Harry went right at Malfoy, killing him. Hermione didn't care about Malfoy, she didn't care that Harry was trying to pull her away from Ron. At that moment she was stronger than Harry and easily escaped his grasp to get to her fallen husband. She dived at his side. He was barely breathing but still conscious.
"Ron!" Hermione screamed. Ron looked up at her with the eyes she'd admired for longer than she could remember. She sobbed as she gathered him in her arms and held him while saying,
"No Ron, you can't leave me! I won't let you!" She felt immeasurable anger surge inside her. Harry came to his friends' side, too overcome with fear and emotion to speak.
"Hermione..." he whispered, "I love you. You know I don't want to leave you..." He looked at Harry and spoke, "Harry, you're the sixth brother I never had and I love you too." He had tears flowing from his eyes.
"You don't have to leave, Ron! Please Ron, oh God help me," she said in agony. "Ron, you're not dead already! Malfoy must not have been strong enough to- you've got to live!" She spoke fast trying to say everything. "You can't die, not when..." She hesitated a moment, but it felt like an hour.
"Not when what, 'Mione? What were you going to say?" he asked weakly, strength leaving his body quickly. She bent over him, tears falling on his chest.
"Ron, I'm having your baby. You've got to live and be- be a father," she pulled him to her tightly and he began to cry more. He raised weakly and touched her stomach and kissed it.
"I love you, my 'Mione. Never forget that..."
"I love you, Ron. More than anything but, you're not going anywhere!" Hermione screamed with sadness.
"Tell the baby daddy loves her and will forever. Just as much as I love you," he said and then she kissed him and felt his lungs exhale for the last time as his beautiful soul left his body. She sobbed harder than ever, clinging to his limp form.
The image of the cemetery came back to her through tear blurred eyes. She felt alive without her soul. But, deep down she knew she had to live for her child. His child. Hermione missed Ron so much she could hardly breathe. With a quick kiss on the headstone of her late husband, she apparated to the Burrow.
Hermione could almost feel the familiar warmth radiating off the house as she reappeared on the doorstep. She turned the handle and walked into the comfort of her mother-in-law's house. Hermione had been staying with her ever since the death of her husband.
She couldn't live in the flat she shared with him for another day. The sight of whiskers still in his trimmer sent her into hysterics. His shirts hanging in the closet, his half-eaten sandwich still in the icebox, the way his pillow smelled of him, his favorite Canon's sweater hanging on the back of her office chair where she had been finishing work from the Ministry were too much for her. Hermione couldn't go back there. Couldn't face the vacant coldness where she no longer felt his presence.
"Hermione!" Molly said cheerfully coming out of the kitchen to greet her but upon seeing Hermione's face changed her tone. "Oh dear," Molly pulled her daughter-in-law into a hug and said, "you went to see him again, didn't you?" Hermione nodded weakly. "You've got to stop doing this, you can't keep going there and getting all upset. Its not good for the baby."
"I know, I know. I just...," Hermione stopped and sniffled, "I just needed to feel him. To be close to him, even if the ground was separating us."
"Oh honey, come have a bite to eat. You know you've both have got to be hungry." Hermione followed Molly and sat down heavily on the kitchen chair, rubbing her aching back.
"How did you do this six times?" Hermione asked while trying to relieve her back pain. Molly let out a chuckle.
"To tell you the truth, love, I don't know myself. It might be terrible pain now, but you'll see. You'll see when they lay that little bundle in your arms the first time. You'll see it was worth it." Molly spoke while handing Hermione a warm blueberry muffin. Hermione thought of these words and the better part of her judgment declared they were probably true. Then her heart spoke. Her heart cried out that sure it will be an immeasurable happiness when her child is in her arms but, the won't be a father there to share the wonder. Hermione mentally slapped herself for bringing up Ron again and became determined not to start to cry again. Damn hormones. Damn Malfoy.
A knock on the door broke her out of her reverie.
"Don't worry Molly, I'll get it," Hermione said standing up. She opened the door and there was a man clad in a white suit carrying a beautiful bouquet of red roses. They seemed to sparkle and Hermione couldn't take her eyes off the exquisite display.
"Are you Mrs. Hermione Weasley?" the man asked with the toothiest grin Hermione had ever seen.
"Er- yes I am."
"These are for you, could you sign?" He held up a clip board with a pen attached. She signed and the man handed her the flowers with a card attached. "Have a good day, miss." And with that, he disappeared. Hermione closed the door and curiously opened the card, wondering who would be sending her flowers. The card read simply read:
~ I love red roses. ~
