Chapter 2

Hermione stared down at the test in disbelief. How was this possible? After five long years, how could she have possibly gotten pregnant now? She and Ron had been told, after they had so much trouble conceiving in the beginning, that he was unable to have children. It seemed that an old injury had taken that ability from him. At the time of the injury, Ron hadn't thought anything of it. He hadn't even told Hermione about it until the possibility that this was the cause had come up in the questioning with their doctor.

And now, somehow she was pregnant. It must be Ron's since she hadn't cheated on him, she had never been with another man. Not really anyway…The dream didn't count obviously. It was just a dream. No, something must have happened. Ron would need to be tested, maybe his injury had healed after all this time and the damage had somehow been reversed. That was the only logical explanation for this.

And yet, something about that dream still unsettled her. She just could not stop thinking about it and not just because of the sex. It had been such an amazing dream, being married and so happy, with those two beautiful kids. She loved Ron, but that dream had planted a seed of doubt in her about her own marriage. She had never been as blissfully happy with Ron as she had been in that dream with Draco.

Now that she was pregnant, she should be happy. She had thought that their lack of children was what was holding her back from being truly at peace with her life. She had a great husband, a wonderful job that challenged her everyday and now she was pregnant. The problem was she just didn't understand how it could have happened. Ron's injury was…extreme to say the least.

She sighed, as embarrassing as it was, she had accepted it. Ron had had his right testicle blown right off by a stray shot during the final battle. He, and his doctor at the time, had thought that the other one was fine. It wasn't. She was the only one that knew. He hadn't told Harry or his mother (which was why Molly couldn't believe that the problem was with Ron and not Hermione). She had come to terms with the fact that she and Ron would never have children, this new revelation had sent her reeling.

Hermione looked at the clock. It was four, hopefully Ron would be home soon so that she could tell him the good news. Even though it was Saturday, her husband was at work. Hermione worked a regular Monday-Friday job at the Testing Centre. Ron was an Auror and worked very long and unusual hours. He had left for work this morning before the sun was up and certainly before Hermione was.

Thinking of her job brought another conclusion to Hermione. She would need to call her boss and let him know that she wasn't going to be able to work in the lab for the next nine months or so. She hoped that she would still be able to do some work from home.

Hermione loved her job. She had started at the Testing Centre right out of Hogwarts as the Assistant Chief Potions Tester. While in Hogwarts, Hermione hadn't put too much thought into what career she would have after Hogwarts. People had always assumed that Hermione would go into something obscure and brainy. Hermione wanted to have a job that would continuously be challenging her. This job certainly did that. It gave matter to her brain that she just couldn't get anywhere else, especially being married to Ron.

Of course, Ron was by no means stupid, he just didn't offer Hermione the substance of conversation and intellect that she needed. He didn't understand a lot of the things that she did, or he just wasn't interested. Either way, if Hermione did not have this job, she would have no true way of challenging her brain and letting it grow.

Being a potions tester might not sound that challenging, it wasn't as if she were actually inventing the potions. She had to admit though, some of them came in so messed up that it often felt as if they were inventing the potions. No, her key job was to test the potions and make sure that they were totally safe for public or private use. If anything was wrong with the potions, she had to tweak them and then test them all over again.

It was hugely gratifying work, especially with some of the breakthroughs in medical potions in recent years. Hermione found it fascinating. Ron found it dull. His perception of the subject of potions had been marred by years of learning the subject from Professor Snape, who had no patience whatsoever for any lack of diligence. In the last five years, Hermione had come to appreciate what Snape had been pushing on them all those years. Potions was extremely tedious work and should never be taken too lightly.

The problem was, potions testing was not something that she could safely continue to do in a lab while pregnant. There was, of course the danger of explosions in the lab, but her concern ran deeper than that. Some of the ingredients that they worked with could be very volatile and often reacted in unexpected ways. Also, new research was pulling out new facts everyday. Hermione had no way of knowing how any of the ingredients and potions that she was working with on a day-to-day basis could affect an unborn child.

She wanted to tell Ron before she told anyone else though. As soon as she had told Ron, she would have to make sure to contact the Chief Potions Tester and let him know that any work she would be doing for the next little while would be from home and from textbooks. She knew that her boss couldn't deny her, it was in her contract. Her boss might be a little angry though because he, like everyone else, was under the impression that Hermione would never be getting pregnant.

Hermione sighed, she would cross that bridge when she came to it. For now all she had to worry about was telling Ron that she was pregnant. She picked the pregnancy test up from the bathroom counter and walked out into the hallway of their modest house. She decided she would leave it on the kitchen counter, that way Ron would see it on his way in. She would wait in the bedroom, that way he could come straight in and they would make love to celebrate the good news.

When Ron arrived home three hours later, Hermione was curled up on their bed reading a book. She heard the front door bang shut and the clang of Ron dropping his keys down onto the counter. Hermione put her book down and looked at the door with anticipation. Any second now Ron would come bursting through the doorway and pull her into his arms-

"Hermione!" Ron said, bursting through the doorway.

"Hi Ron," she said, setting her book aside and giving him a big smile.

"You would not believe the day I've had!" he said, stomping over to the bed and beginning to unlace his boots.

"What?" Hermione said, ignoring the fact that she hated it when he wore his boots through the house.

"A Death Eater, Rabastan Lestrange, got away from us again today!" he said, throwing his arms up in the air in frustration. "We've been trying to catch this bastard for five years and this morning he was sighted in South Africa. He was living in a shack on a bloody mountain surrounded by natives, can you imagine?"

"No," Hermione said slowly.

"So, of course, we get a team together and get right over there and what do we find? He's torched the place, nothing left! So we spend the whole day trying to figure out where this asshole has gone, but of course he is so long gone by now the trail is totally dead. We're going to have to start tracking him all over again. I guess it was too good to be true to think that we could catch him just weeks after catching his brother," Ron put his head down.

Hermione didn't know what to say. She wanted to sympathize with the bad day that Ron had had, but this was supposed to be the most exciting day of their lives! She was finally pregnant, she wanted to tell him that!

"Did you see what I left on the counter for you?" she asked him.

"What?" Ron said, looking at her like she was crazy. "After everything I just told me about my day, you think I had time to look at the counter?"

"Sorry," she said. "I'm not being very sympathetic am I? I promise you though, what's on that counter is going to make all of the bad things about this day go away."

"Is it chocolate?" Ron said, looking over at her with a small smile.

"No, come on, I'll show you," she said, getting up from the bed and taking his hand.

Once in the kitchen it took Ron another few moments to look at what was sitting on the counter. Hermione wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him. She had waited hours for this moment and he was too worked up about a bad day at work to let her have it.

"What is that?" Ron said, eying the pregnancy test. "A thermometer?"

"It's a pregnancy test Ronald," Hermione hissed.

"What?" Ron looked at her, his eyes growing big.

Hermione snatched the test off of the counter and held it up in front of his face. There, now the excitement and the hugs and kisses would come. But Ron just stood with his feet frozen to the floor.

"I don't understand," Ron said after what felt like an hour.

"Neither do I, but I don't think it can be wrong. I'm pregnant Ron."

It was now that Hermione finally got her wish for the day. Ron swept her up in his arms and buried his face in her neck. He squeezed her tightly and she laughed along with him. He was as happy as she had hoped he would be. Why didn't she feel as happy as she thought she would be in this moment?

Before Hermione had a chance to call her boss, she needed to whip something up for dinner. Ron, although he was very excited about her news, still had a very empty stomach that needed to be fed. Hermione put a pot of water on the stove, she could boil up some pasta quickly for Ron and then call her boss after.

She could hear muffled voices coming from the other room. After she and Ron had celebrated together, he had immediately gone into the other room and stuck his head into the fireplace to call Harry. Hermione smiled to herself, one thing that would never change was the friendship that they all shared. She turned the burner on and then walked into the living room herself.

"Hermione!" Harry's voice came out of the fire. "Congratulations!"

Ron stepped back from the fire so that Hermione could see Harry's face in the fire. He was grinning from ear-to-ear. Harry had been sorry to hear that Ron and Hermione couldn't have children, even if he didn't know all of the details. He and Ginny already had one son as well as another baby on the way.

"Is Hermione there now too? Move over Harry!" Ginny's voice came through the fire behind Harry.

Hermione smiled as Harry's head was shoved to the side and Ginny's red head became visible. Her hair was so bright it looked like it was a part of the fire. She was grinning out at the two of them.

"Hermione!" she gushed. "When are you due, we're going to be pregnant together!"

"I'm not sure yet Gin, I just found out today," Hermione laughed.

They all talked and caught up for the next hour or so. Hermione ran back and forth between the fireplace and the kitchen to finish off Ron's dinner.

"You'd better not be too used to that Ron," Ginny cajoled him. "Soon she'll be the one sitting and you'll be waiting on her hand and foot!"

Hermione laughed and then explained to Harry and Ginny that they should probably go so that she could get that talk with her boss over with. They all said their goodbyes and Ron and Hermione promised to contact them as soon as they had anymore news. After Harry and Ginny were gone, Ron left the room so that Hermione could talk to her boss alone.

"Warn," she said, when he came into the fire.

"Hermione what's wrong?" he asked. He knew that she wouldn't contact him on a Saturday evening unless it was something important.

"Nothing is wrong Warn, quite the opposite in fact."

"And what's this?" The old potion master's eyes seemed to gleam as he asked.

"Ron and I found out today that we're pregnant, so I'm going to need some time off."

"I see," he said.

"Yes," Hermione said hesitantly. She was having trouble gauging what her boss was thinking.

"I thought that you and Ron couldn't conceive?" he asked, a look of confusion entering his wrinkled face.

"So did I," she said with a grin.

"Well, I can't deny you the leave of course," he said. "I hope that I can still count on you to do some work from home. If I send you reports would you still be willing to do the research from home?"

"Of course!" she said. "I'm going to need something to keep me busy for the next nine months!"

And thank God she had that something. The first few weeks were very busy and exciting. They made many trips to the doctor, to get Hermione and Ron looked at. They also made many visits to their family to let them know what was going on and so that Molly could dote on her son. Since Hermione's parents were still living in Australia, she hadn't gone to see them, she had just called them on the phone.

After the war was over, Hermione had gone to Australia to fix her parents' memories and to bring them back to the UK. Her parents had been so happy and settled in Australia that they had decided to stay there and start up a new dental practice. Hermione was happy that they were so content there, but it meant that she didn't get to see them very often.

After all of the initial excitement of the pregnancy wore off, about a month after they found out and during the sixth week of her pregnancy, Hermione began to find herself getting very bored. She had never been as inactive as she was now. Sure, she was doing some minor research for the Testing Centre, but other than that she was doing nothing.

Ron was always at work and was increasingly exhausted by the time he got home. Hermione spent her day in the same way every single day. She tried to sleep in but usually ended up waking up at about nine in the morning. After she made herself a small breakfast, she got to work on the research that Warn sent her daily.

Usually it was pretty simple stuff. Since she couldn't do any lab tests, he mostly just sent her the lab results that he had found and asked her for any advice she could add to it. Sometimes he asked her to research the different properties of a certain ingredient. It was mostly just whatever little work he had that he himself didn't have time to do. Normally this work would be done by one of the lower assistants, but these assistants were too busy making up for the work that she would normally be doing.

Around noon she generally had all of that work completed. She spent the afternoon reading and cleaning up their house. Ron usually got home at six-o-clock or later, never earlier, so she would begin preparing their dinner around five-thirty. There were many nights recently though, that she ended up eating dinner alone and Ron had to heat his up when he got home.

Towards the end of the pregnancy, Hermione began to feel even more useless. She wasn't able to clean around the house anymore and she couldn't even really go out. She was too huge! She was miserable with no one to talk to all day and only Ron for company in the evenings.

The tests that the doctor had done on Ron had come back with strange results. As far as the doctor could tell, Ron should not have been able to impregnate his wife. The doctor was as baffled by the pregnancy as Ron and Hermione were. Ron never brought it up though, he just accepted that it was what it was and that they had been given some kind of miracle. He never accused Hermione of cheating and she was grateful for that.

Hermione never told Ron about the dream she had. It would have been too embarrassing to repeat and she knew that it would only hurt Ron's feelings to know she had dreams about other men, especially when that other man was Draco Malfoy. Ron would be outraged to find out about that. She still thought about the dream quite often though and she still couldn't remember having sex with Ron the night that the baby was conceived. She knew that it was impossible to have become impregnated by a dream, so the baby must be Ron's.

She thought a lot about the way she felt in that dream too. She hadn't even known what was going on for a good part of the dream, but she was still so content and happy, more so than she had ever been with Ron, even in the beginning of their marriage. Since feeling that in the dream she had started to notice more and more what was lacking in her marriage.

Ron was a good man, he just wasn't all that considerate sometimes. He loved her, but he usually thought about his own needs first. It wasn't that he was selfish, he didn't mean to make her feel that way. He just felt that the things he was doing were very important and he felt Hermione should feel the same way. It didn't matter that Hermione thought the things that she was doing were important too.

For example, if Ron came home after a very long day of work, he expected Hermione to sit and listen to him talk about his day. She did this because most of the time she enjoyed hearing about Ron's job and his day. The problem was, if she wanted to tell him about a difficult potion Warn had sent her or the research that she had done that day, he didn't want to hear it. It wasn't exciting enough to keep his attention occupied.

Little things like that had begun to eat away at Hermione for the last few months. She realized that nothing had changed about their marriage, they had always been this way. The problem was she was only starting to notice these things now. Hermione could only hope that things would change when the baby was born.

AN: So I hope that you all enjoyed Chapter 2! Thank you all so much for the reviews and the encouragement! It really helps me get to writing. I don't like to make promises about when chapters are going to be released because I often have trouble keeping them, but for now I'm going to. The goal is to add a chapter every Tuesday evening, so look for them then! If that changes, I will let you all know!