Chapter Four; Making Our Own Choices
Ron turned over to look at Hermione. "Hermione, you've hardly said anything this entire time." He pointed out.
"That's because I really don't think there's much to say to tell you the truth." She told him.
"Look Hermione, I don't want to go with those weirdos any more than you want me to. But they basically just said that the end of the world is falling upon us and there's so much more that I want to be able to do with my life and to be able to spend it with you and Harry and everyone else that we know and love." He told her.
"I know, it's just that well,.. I think we should go and talk to Snape about this before we do anything else." She said.
"You're joking right?" Ron questioned her. "What are we supposed to tell him? These two aliens basically told us that Christ is coming back and left Harry to deal with the concept of raising their daughter if they manage to escape and oh yeah the world's coming to an end. I mean I'm all in for wanting to go to Heaven someday to see Jesus, I'm just not ready to bite the big one this soon." He told her before realizing that her eyes were full of tears.
"Fine! Just go then!" she shouted at him before she grabbed a handful of floo powder and disappeared through the fireplace.
"Wait Hermione!" Ron cried as he chased right after her. That's when suddenly they found themselves back in Harry's living room. From the looks of things Teddy and Heather were already in bed as Harry sat upon the chair feeding Carole a bottle. He glanced up at his friends as they came through his living room.
"Ron? Hermione? What are you guys doing here?" he asked them. "I thought that you were at Hogwarts."
"We were." Ron began. "That's when we ran into Karen's parents and they told us that the world's coming to an end." He told him while he pointed at the baby who was continuing to suck her milk while she placed a tiny little hand against it and slowly started to fall asleep. Hermione simply just rolled her eyes at him.
"Her name's Carole Ronald." She told him impatiently.
"Whatever, that's not the point." He began again. "The point is now they want me to go up into space with them." He said.
"What?" Harry questioned with uncertainty but Ron waved a hand at him.
"Forget Harry, if you don't want to take care of Carrie you could always dump her in an orphanage." He said. "Otherwise it looks like you're stuck with her then." He told him as Harry glared at him.
"First of all her name is Carole." He told him hotly. "Second of all, I would never do that to her. I might not have expected to enter fatherhood this soon but I'm not a monster." He told him.
"I never said that you were, I just feel sorry that her mother basically dumped her on you without giving you a choice in the matter." Ron said as Harry finally set the bottle down on the coffee table.
"I better get her to bed. Clearly she's not going to eat anymore. Teddy and Heather have already been in bed for hours now."
"Really? I thought that they're usually in bed at nine." Ron said looking at the clock realizing it was a quarter till eleven.
"Yeah, but they went to bed early tonight because Heather told a lie to her teacher and Teddy started talking back to me when I scolded him for cheating in class." Harry told him as he stood back up and started carrying Carole towards the hallway.
"So what are we supposed to do now?" Ron questioned him as he and Hermione started to follow him.
"Well first of all I'm going to have to get a babysitter since I have to go to work tomorrow and second of all it really is up to you to decide if you want to save the world. Why are you asking me about it anyway?" Harry asked him.
"Because you do it all of the time!" Ron exclaimed while Hermione placed a finger to her lips and hushed him. Harry laid Carole down inside the crib before he quickly turned around and quietly shut the door again behind him.
"Correction, I've only saved the wizarding world before, not the whole entire world. But I'm going to bed now so you'll have to do what you feel in your heart is right." Harry told him as he turned around and walked away leaving Ron and Hermione standing there by themselves looking at each other.
"Look Hermione, you know that I love you and my only priority in life is to make you first." He told her.
"What about the fact that we're all going to die?" she asked him as Ron just simply scoffed at her.
"We don't know that for sure, we don't even know if they're really aliens. For all we know they could very well be a couple of loonies. Besides, even if we were going to die at least we'll die knowing the fact that we both really love each other. Then we'll have all of eternity to spend together." He told her as Hermione smiled at him.
"Oh Ron, you might not be the wisest person on the planet but you sure can be romantic sometimes." She told him as he smiled back at her.
"Thanks,.. I think." He told her.
"Well anyway, the choice is entirely up to you. If you want to go to outer space and become a spaceman hero, I say go for it. I'll be there to support you whatever you decide." She told him.
"Thanks Hermione." He told her while he took ahold of her hand and leaned forward to give her a quick kiss on the lips which she exchanged. Then they both turned back towards the fireplace and grabbing ahold of some floo powder Ron commanded it to take them back to Hogwarts.