"SHE'S WHAT?" shouted Ron, jumping to his feet.
Harry and Hermione had gathered with Ginny and Ron in the front room of the Gryffindor common room. They had gotten comfortable on the couches in front of the fireplace. Harry and Hermione sat on the one positioned in front of the fireplace, and Ron and Ginny sat on the one to their right.
At that time, the four of them were the only ones in the room. All the figures in the paintings were fast asleep, but Ron had almost woken a few of them up when he shouted. Harry and Hermione had decided to tell them that they were expecting a baby as quickly as possible. Therefore, they saw it fit to tell them just a few hours after they themselves had discovered the truth.
"He said I'm pregnant, Ronald." Hermione responded calmly and clearly.
"I know he said that!" said Ron, sitting back down. "It just seems a little hard to believe."
"You're telling me." said Harry. "I fainted when she told me."
"It was funny at the time," Hermione commented, "but you almost scared me out of my wits, Harry."
"I'm sorry." he said jokingly, snuggling closer to her on the couch. "I won't do that again.
Ron watched his two best friends get closer together. He still could not believe that they were
"What are you planning to do about this?" asked Ginny, who seemed to be handling the news a lot better than Ron.
"We have decided to keep it." Hermione answered. "Harry doesn't have to take inventory of his vault at Gringotts to know that we have more than enough to support a baby."
"When's your due date?" asked Ron.
"Sometime in February." said Hermione. "Madame Pomfrey estimates it will be sometime around Valentine's Day."
Not another word was spoken between the four of them for a long time. In the end, Ginny could only say "Well… I guess congratulations are in order."
"Thank you, Ginny." said Harry. "I just hope that we'll be able to balance school and parenthood equitably for our last year and a half at Hogwarts."
"For what it's worth, I admire your decision." Ron assured them. "Is there anything we can do to help?"
"Well, I think that my parents will throw me out of the house when I give them the news." Hermione admitted. "I'll just need a place to stay for July and August."
"You can always come stay with us at The Burrow." Ron offered. "Mum would be happy to help out in any way she could."
"I'll take whatever help I can get to prepare." Harry looked at Hermione. "The Dursleys will not take this well at all, but quite frankly, I don't care about their opinion."
The two of them firmly embraced each other. Ron and Ginny just looked at the pair, and then they looked at each other and grinned.
Ron and Ginny went to bed about twenty minutes later. Harry and Hermione were left alone in the front room, sitting on the couch positioned directly in front of the fireplace. The two of them sat close together and gazed into the flue full of burning logs. Hermione was resting her head on Harry's left shoulder; he had his left arm around her and was rubbing her arm gently.
Another thought suddenly occurred to Harry. He looked down at Hermione and addressed it to her "I wonder how Sirius and the rest of the Order will take the news."
"I don't know." she replied. "They'll probably be shocked at first. But I don't think they'll judge us for this. Most of the Order seems to be very understanding."
He knew she was right. But the assurance he had received with that answer was very short-lived. Just a few seconds later, a much more unpleasant thought came to Harry's mind. He said "Hermione, what if Voldemort or the Death Eaters find out about this?"
This thought had not occurred to Hermione either. Both of them had been so busy with planning for their child that they had forgotten about the problems going on in the world at that time.
Harry was Lord Voldemort's greatest enemy. He knew very well that the brutal mass murderer wizard would exploit every weakness presented by Harry. The baby was definitely one of them. Harry was sure that if news of this were to reach Voldemort's ears, he would have more of his Death Eaters out hunting for Hermione than for even Harry himself.
Hermione, too, was deeply troubled by this sudden thought. She and Harry spent a good few minutes thinking about how they would protect the baby both before and after birth from anything Voldemort and his followers had up their sleeves. Eventually, they remembered that the Order of the Phoenix was there to help them and protect them. They also remembered how the members of the Order never let one of their own people fall victim to Voldemort. After they had remembered this reassuring fact, they managed to calm down again.
After this, they began to discuss subjects that the average expecting couple had. They had decided to go shopping for all the materials and equipment they would need for childrearing over the summer, even though it would still be six months before the Hermione's due date. They believed in "being prepared." In Hermione's case, it was "being prepared long in advance."
Hermione planned to ask Mrs. Weasley for advice on motherhood, and about what she should do during the course of pregnancy. She felt that Mrs. Weasley would be able to tell her a lot about pregnancy. After all, she had gone through six of them, and she had twins in the fourth one.
Harry decided that while they were at it, he would ask Mr. Weasley for advice on fatherhood. Mr. Weasley himself was a very kind and honorable man, and he had helped him get off from that hearing before the school year had even started. He was definitely the kind of person that could be characterized as supportive, caring, and reasonable.
But there was one major problem that they still hadn't addressed yet: Umbridge. If Umbridge found out about this, she would probably use it to get the two of them kicked out of Hogwarts. After all, she had made getting Harry suspended her top priority for the entire year she had been teaching there.
Both of them were holding out hope that Umbridge would be sacked long before news of Hermione's condition became public knowledge at Hogwarts. But even so, they were not going to let that disgraceful bitch get in the way of their parenting responsibilities.
Voldemort himself couldn't separate the two of them, so they sure as hell wouldn't let some deranged skin-cutting egotist get in the way of their relationship. If it meant that they would have to leave Hogwarts, so be it. But nothing and no one could keep the two of them apart from each other.
