The Good Kind
Summary: Hermione's pregnant with Ron out of the country when Harry pays her a visit. What started as a cozy talk to catch up takes an unexpected turn…
Disclaimer: Oh how I wish I owned Harry Potter but I don't.
Chapter 2
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Everything happened really fast from then. Harry helped Hermione up and she started to panic. "Harry..."
She looked terrified and he couldn't blame her. He didn't know what to do at all.
"We can't Apparate. What are we going to do?" She asked in a high voice, showing her fear. She felt her knees give in and Harry quickly wrapped his arms around her to support her. He looked around the room and found the answer.
"We'll use the Floo Network. Come on." He carefully guided her to the fireplace. "Hermione, I'm sorry again about what I said earlier, I was completely out of line." He told her and she smiled faintly.
"It's okay, me too."
"So are you ready for this?" He asked with an expectant smile.
"Yeah, I'm gonna be a mom." Her eyes sparkled and she smiled widely at him, a smile he returned.
"Now I don't really know about this stuff but do we have a lot of time to -"
"No, not so much." She grinned. Harry took some Floopowder but Hermione all of a sudden yelped in pain.
"Contraction." She said with clenched teeth when he frowned.
"Can I do something?" He asked, cursing himself for being so helpless.
"Can I just squeeze your hands?"
He did what she said and was startled by how hard she did that. He couldn't really stand seeing her in pain. Her breathing came in heavy, short huffs like he'd seen other pregnant women do on TV. Eventually, the hold on his hands relaxed.
"It's over." She sighed in relief but Harry knew they had to go quickly.
"Come here, I'll carry you, that'll be easier." He picked her up bridal style and got in the fireplace after taking the Floopowder again.
"St. Mungos!" He said clearly and he held onto Hermione tightly when they stepped out at the hospital. Instantly, a couple of Mediwitches rushed to them.
"She's having a baby." Harry said, a bit unnecessary and Hermione smirked at him as they helped her into a stretcher.
"Who's your doctor?" One of them asked her.
"Dr. Thomas."
"Okay, she'll be here right away. We'll take you to the maternity floor. Sir, you're coming too?" She asked Harry, who glanced at Hermione. She looked at him with pleading eyes.
"Yeah, of course." She smiled thankfully at him.
She was in a private room, much to Harry's relief. He wasn't sure he could've handled another pregnant woman.
"Harry, Ron has to know. I can't do this without him. I promised him."
"But how? I suppose he doesn't have a cell phone?" She shook her head in response. "I'm not going to Apparate and leave you here alone. Besides, I'd be so nervous I'd end up in the wrong place anyway. I think owling him is the only way."
"Then he'll never make it in time." Hermione broke down in tears and Harry took her hand.
"Hey hey. Look at me." She calmed down a bit but tears still ran down her cheeks.
"Everything's going to be fine. I'll be here the whole time, I'm not leaving you okay?" He told her calmly, looking her in the eyes. She nodded in response. "I'm just going to go send off Hedwig to Ron and I'll be right back." He assured her and she laid down on the bed.
"Okay." He wrote as fast as he could and he knew that Ron would freak out even more when he saw his hastily written sentences.
'Hermione's having the baby! COME HOME RIGHT NOW!'
He stuck the note to Hedwig and she flew away. It was probably his imagination but he could've sworn she flew quicker than she normally did. When he got back to Hermione's room he noticed she wasn't alone anymore.
"Oh hi Harry. I figured you'd be here." Dean Thomas smiled as he held out his hand.
"Hey Dean." Harry said surprised, shaking his hand and now he realized that dr. Thomas was his mother. He also shook her hand and then went to sit next to Hermione's bed. She was sweating and breathing heavily and he saw she was in pain. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He knew she was lying.
"I'm just going to examine you, okay?" Dr. Thomas asked Hermione, who nodded.
"We'll just go wait outside for a second." Dean said and he and Harry left the room and went for a walk.
"Not to be rude or anything but what are you doing here, Dean?"
"Oh. Well they called my mother when she was with me and I heard her talking about Hermione Granger so I wanted to make sure she was okay." He said and Harry nodded in understanding. "I heard my mom say she wasn't due for another month."
"Yeah, thank God I was there when her water broke. She already freaked out as it was."
They stopped at the nursery and leaned against the wall.
"She was alone? But what about Ron?" Dean frowned.
"He's in Romania with his family for Charlie's wedding. He didn't want to leave Hermione but she promised him she wouldn't have the baby until he came back." He answered with a meaningful look.
"No! He'll go crazy when he hears." Harry nodded in agreement and smiled. His gaze wandered to the babies behind the glass who were sleeping or crying.
"Cute huh?" Dean asked with a smile, when he looked at Harry.
"Yeah, it's weird to think that Hermione and Ron will have one of their own in a couple hours, especially considering our past." Harry mused and Dean nodded in agreement.
"Do you know what I found out this morning? It's been exactly 6 years to day that you guys rescued me and Luna out of Malfoy Manor."
Harry looked at him in surprise, he'd never really known what had happened on which days. That had been the least of their worries back then.
"Yeah, I realised it when I ran into Luna this morning." He said as they started to walk back.
"Wow, it seems so long ago. A lot happened that day. Ron came back and I finally convinced him that Hermione and I had always been just like brother and sister. And then the whole Malfoy Manor business.." His voice trailed off when the memories came flooding back and he unintentionally shivered. "God that day was horrible for Ron and me, I can still hear Hermione's screams clearly in my head, it still haunts me sometimes."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I still don't understand how Malfoy could just stand by and watch and do nothing. I mean, she was his age, he knew her. Plus, Hermione was always the one who was still somewhat decent to him. That just.." His sentence broke off, making his disbelief and disgust clear.
"I know, Dean, me too." Harry sighed, shaking his head. "Thank God he changed."
Harry and Malfoy were now colleagues and had been for 6 years. Harry hadn't liked it at all at first because he still didn't trust Malfoy. But there'd been no getting out of it and they'd learned to be okay around each other. They were close to becoming friends but not quite there yet or as Harry liked to call it 'on a semi-first name basis'.
Dean's mom was still there when they got back to Hermione's room. "I'll come check again in an hour." They heard her say before she left.
Harry frowned when he heard a thumping sound. "Is that...?"
"The baby's heartbeat, yeah." Hermione smiled and Harry stared at her with amazement. He noticed she looked a bit better than before, her smile was brighter.
"I'll leave you two alone now, I'll just come back when the baby's born." Dean said and he squeezed Hermione's hand. "Good luck, okay?"
She chuckled. "Thanks. See you later."
He winked and said goodbye to Harry before he left too.
"That's pretty amazing." Harry said, gesturing towards the machine that recorded the heartbeat. Hermione smiled happily and relaxed a bit. "So how you doing?"
"A little better, I had an epidural so the pain's less but the contractions are still murder. And I'm only 7 cm dilated so I have some time." Harry nodded in understanding and leaned back in the chair. "Have you heard from Ron yet?"
"No honey, I'm sorry." He replied with a sad smile and she looked like she could cry.
"He's not going to make it, Harry." He was pretty sure of that too but didn't want her to feel even worse so he stayed quiet. "I'm glad you're here though." She smiled sweetly, holding out her hand.
He held it and stroked her fingers with his thumb. "Maybe you should try to get some rest while you can." He suggested because she already looked fairly tired.
"You don't mind?"
"No of course not."
But after a couple minutes she woke up, her face turned in pain and she was puffing. "Oh, another contraction." She groaned and her grip around Harry's hand tightened.
He found it amazing that Hermione didn't scream or cry considering the amount of pain she must've been in when he judged by his hand, which was almost completely crushed. When it passed, she laid back against her pillow and sighed.
"I really have new respect for women." He said in awe and Hermione managed a chuckle.
"Do you know what today is?" He asked, trying to make her think of something else and she looked at him. "6 years ago, we escaped from Malfoy Manor."
"Really?" She said surprised and he nodded. "Well it seems appropriate. This pain is almost equal to the pain I felt that day."
"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't mean to remind you." Harry answered upset but she smiled.
"That's okay. It's also the day we found Luna, Dean and Olivander and it's the day Ron came back so I'll remember that instead."
"I'll always admire you for what you did that day. Without that story you made up we never would've gotten out of there. Actually that's true for a lot of situations." He grinned and even now, Hermione blushed at that.
"I just did what every friend would've done."
"Do you really believe that? I think only you and Ron would've done that kind of thing for me."
One day he'd be able to tell them just how thankful he was for all those years but he still hadn't thought of words that were precisely accurate. Hermione smiled warmly and squeezed his hand. He was about to ask her if she wanted to sleep some more when Dean's mother came back into the room.
"You still doing okay?" She asked Hermione, who nodded in response. "You can stay if you want Mr Potter, this won't take long." She said to him when he got up.
"Oh." Hermione shot him a pleading glance. "Okay, I'll just keep looking at you, Hermione." He answered, feeling a bit awkward as he sat back down.
"Any pain?" Dr. Thomas asked and Hermione raised her eyebrows, giving her a 'did you really just ask me that' look. It was so familiar to Harry that he laughed, countless times she had looked at Ron and Harry in the same way.
The doctor laughed too and added: "I mean any other pain?"
"I don't think so, I'm just a little tired. Feel like I ran a marathon actually." She said with a slight smirk.
"Well I'm sorry to say it but there's no more time to rest, miss Granger. Looks like we'll have to take you to the delivery room."
"What?" Harry's head shot up to look at her too in a blank stare.
"10 cm. You're about to become a mom." Harry looked at Hermione with amazement and she just looked terrified.
AN/ I think this story will be about 4 to the people who read and reviewed, enjoy! :)
- Jana