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Chapter 2. 15éme Arrondisement. Paris. France May – August 1998
She would forever think of those lights. A room with a view of the Eiffel Tower, or Tour Eiffel as it was called in French. She had visited France several times growing up, but mostly Vichy, Lyon, Loire, the countryside. The room in France was a modern structure, with a large window that allowed them to see the Tour that was not so far away. She insisted they visited on their first day in Paris. He agreed, and they had snogged a bit under the eminent arquitecture, as well as some more from the top, seeing the rest of Paris look tiny.
She would always remember their first night in Paris, and their first time together. He was sweet, he did not rush, and there was something she had not experienced before. They made love a few times that night, and then settled to sleep wrapped in each other.
They settled into a routine, he had to be at work at 9 am, they woke up, shared a shower, had breakfast and then she would have the morning all for herself. She alternated between muggle and wizard libraries, and stayed away from the French Ministry for Magic, their fame had followed them, but it was not as impossible as it was in England.
She made friends, muggle and wizard alike, from people she saw everyday. The young lady from whim she bought a baguette for breakfast, Eleanor. A few acquiantances when she bothered to be friendly. In the three months of being here she had become close with two witches that befriended her over her afternoon tea. Clara and Hyacinth were beautiful, tall, slender, and smoked. While Clara had blue eyes the tone of lapiz lazuli, ice cold jewels, and black hair that reached her derriere, she was the first to laugh always. Hyacinth had brown eyes, leaning towards amber in hue, and blonde almost white hair, which reminded her of Fleur. Hyacinth had laughed when Hermione mentioned the delaCoeur girl. Turns out, they actually are cousins, on their mothers side. They had tea every Thursday, and sometimes another day in the week if their schedules allowed.
Since on the long run Harry's job would keep them traveling, she needed a line of work that she could also take with her. She knew French, and for the time being she worked as a freelance translator, writing for wizarding companies and as a translator and tour guide in the muggle world. It allowed her to express her knowledge, to be an "insufferable know it all" in a position where that was exactly what people wanted.
They would be in France for four months. When the notice came that they would be changing in a month, nothing changed, at the beginning. The packing was slow, and asides from clothes they did not have that many belongings.
Hermione had been thrilled that she bought new clothes, she had been far too thin after their time on the run. Finally having her hollowed out cheeks fill out with delicious french boulangerie. She enjoyed beakfast food the most: pain aux raisins, croissants avec fromage. Harry had a weakness for crêpes with nutella and strawberries that they bought every other day at the Champs-Elysee. He was also gaining weight, looked healthier. Asides from food, another enjoyment was shopping. Harry had never actually gone to buy himself clothes, and Hermione was happy spending an afternoon in a shop. An afternoon in Champs- Elysees was the shops and the crêpes. He bought t-shirts, trousers, button downs, shoes (he had had a single pair of shoes his entire time at Hogwarts) and delved into the wizarding section and both bought casual robes, a first in either of the wardrobes.
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Hyacinth looked positively radiant in the snug dress she was wearing today, baby pink and strappy. Hermione smiled at her.
"I have great news to tell you!" she said. Hermione and Clara smiled expectantly at her. "Etienne and I are finally pregnant!" She joyously said, her hand reaching for her abdomen. Hermione dropped her cup, it crashed to the floor, her eyes going wide.
"Bloody hell" she said.
"Congratulations!" Clara exclaimed at the same time.
"Reparo" Hermione quickly muttered. She grabbed the cup, scourgified the table automatically and then proceeded to place her hands on both sides of her face in shock.
"Hermione, aren't you happy?" Clara nudged her,
"Oh, yes, I'm so sorry, Hyacinth. I'm thrilled for you. Congratulations. I just realized something" she said, unsure what to think of this new realization. Was it a good thing to be pregnant?
"Are you pregnant?" Hyacinth looked pointedly at her abdomen.
"I'll go home and check," she replied. "But my period has been gone for over a year, from the times of camping and at some point it stopped coming. I just figured it was because I was so skinny. My body couldn't afford to… menstruate." Her voice tangled, and she looked around considering Apparating from exactly where she was before the started to hyperventilate.
"But surely it has come back! You've been here and eating quite right for a while now." Clara dubiously answered.
"Yeah, it should have come back, I agree. Only it has not" she replied.
Clara stuck her hand in the air and asked the garçon to bring them the check. "We are all going to buy you a muggle test and a wizard test. The muggle test is infallible, and the wizard test will corroborate the magical levels and the sex" Hermione mutely nodded as they helped her to her feet.
Twenty minutes later they were at her house, waiting for the tests to be ready. She had already peed on a stick and the wizard test was calibrating her core magic.
Harry found the three women in his kitchen waiting.
Hermione paled when he arrived, and opened and closed her mouth like a fish several times, not sure how to explain.
"Hi," he ignored her pale complexion, and greeted Hyacinth and Clara before kissing Hermione and allowing her to explain. He knew them, but had never seen them at their apartment before.
"You look pale, love" he asked. Hermione looked behind her to the counter were the tests were waiting. Harry glanced towards where she was looking at.
Pregnant. Magical. Female.
"I'm pregnant" she managed to cough up the words, and then started to cry. Harry took her in his arms, and then glanced towards her friends.
"I'll take it from here, femmes" he asked nicely and they left. "Thank you"
"When? How?" he asked after he heard the front door close. They had had sex a few times since arriving in Paris.
"I don't know" she sobbed into his chest.
"Had you taken any sort of contraception?" he asked, not really remembering watching her take a potion nor perform a charm.
"No, my period was gone since October last year, it never came back…. But," she took a deep breath, tried to control her breathing and continued. "Hyacinth announced today that she was pregnant. I would not have noticed otherwise."
"Love, I'm thrilled to have a family with you. And our child will have everything she will ever need. Now, we should go to St. Siméon and check everything, get planning, see how far along you are too." he said to her. She nodded. He took her to bed, and she fell asleep quickly against his chest, he would get an appointment in the morning.
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Dr. Guerin received a young couple, british, and expecting. The couple also happened to be some sort of celebrities back in Wizarding Britain. She had heard some stories, but honestly she did not really keep up with international news, her work kept her busy, and she dealt with a lot of loss and sadness already. The both looked healthy, she had curly brown hair and he had unkempt black hair and a scar across his forehead. Lightning bolt shaped, how curious.
She asked Hermione about her family history of sicknesses, her mothers birth, her own sickness and her menstrual cycle. That was the point where the story got difficult.
"My last period was in October" she replied. She started making numbers, if her period was in October, nine months later… birth would be around last month.
"Come again?" she asked.
"I had lost a lot of weight, and my period stopping coming. It hasn't come back yet, but I already have my normal weight back. It should have come back my now… So, a friend mentioned she was pregnant… and well, I guess it clicked then" she replied.
"Right. Ok. Don't worry. There are other methods asides from your last period to determine gestational age." She asked Hermione to lie back in bed, checked her uterine height, which gave her 14 cm, and measurements of the head and abdomen gave her 12 weeks. Both were nutritionally fine.
"Okay, you are over three months, you are already in your second trimester, which means the gestational age is less trustworthy than if it had been noticed during the first trimester. You are barely starting your second trimester, you are fourteen weeks along. Based on this, you will most probably have your baby at the beginning of February next year, from my current calculations February twenty, but there is a two week window for that date, can be one week before or one week after. And you are both perfectly healthy. Just make sure to keep gaining weight, Hermione" she explained. Her husband seemed relieved. She started a prenatal care card for the couple, and instructed them to take it to each of their next visits with an obstetrician.
"Um, we move to Barcelona next week," her husband said.
"Don't worry, Mr. Potter, these cards are used in the whole continent, they are protocol and any obstetric can follow up" she replied.
"She can perfectly well travel by Apparition, Floo, Portkey or any means. She might sometimes grow tired in the later months, but for the time being, just be safe" he told them. Finally Hermione seemed to smile at that.
"Would you like to hear your baby's heartbeat?" she asked.