Disclaimer- Don't own them. (sigh) Not making the millions for them, either.
July-
"Harry? What do you want for your birthday?" Hermione asked, watching him dip the roller into the pale yellow paint and apply it to the wall of the former spare bedroom. The window was wide open to help with the fumes and the door was shut to keep the air conditioning from going out the window in more ways than one, so to speak. He glanced over his shoulder as he spread the paint over the old faded white had been there since they'd moved into the flat. It had been his idea for them to turn the guest room into a nursery, given that it was right across the hall from his own, and when Hermione had protested, saying that she would have trouble hearing the twins during the night, he'd countered with the idea that she move into his room and they'd use hers as the guest room from now on.
"Why?" he questioned.
"Because your birthday is in two weeks, silly. I want to get you something."
"Hermione, the twins are due in just over a month, Charlie and Pausha's wedding is this weekend, and I want this room done in time for the crib delivery tomorrow. I really haven't thought about my birthday. But if you want to know, I don't want anything but a quiet dinner with you." He put down the roller and crossed the dropcloth draped floor to kiss the tip of her nose.
"Now come on, out! You really shouldn't be in here," he admonished as he returned to his task. Ron rolled his eyes from his position by the window.
"She knows that, mate. She just can't stand being away from you for more than ten minutes." Hermione stuck her tongue out at their friend as she headed to the door. As soon as it closed behind her, Ron added, "Watch. She'll be back before I finish this corner." Harry laughed. They continued painting the nursery and talking about the coming wedding. Hermione returned five minutes later.
"What'd I tell you? Not 'even' ten minutes."
"Ron, stuff it. This came for you from your mother. I thought you would want to read it now," she replied. The redhead picked his way around the ladder and paintcans that were littering one part of the floor to get to her and the letter she was holding out.
"Why didn't the owl deliver it to me in here?" he asked.
"Would 'you' come in here if you were an owl?" Harry said. "I sent Hedwig out last week with a letter to Remus and Tonks, she came back last night just after I'd started the far wall, and she wouldn't come in for anything. Must be the fumes." He wiped sweat from his paint streaked forehead with a rag, smearing the yellow color even farther into his hair. Ron and Hermione started laughing immediately. "What?"
"There's something about Harry!" Hermione crowed. He got the movie reference and lifted his hand to his hair. Sure enough, it was standing up from the paint drying in it.
"Covers up your scar, though!" Ron added, holding his now aching sides. Harry joined in their laughter, stopping only when he heard someone knocking at their front door. He attempted to flatten his hair on the way through the front room, and having no luck, pulled his wand from his pocket, pointed it to his head and muttered, "Scourgify."
Ron waited until his friend had replaced the wand to open the door as it couldn't have been one of their friends. They would just Apparate into the front room and call out to let someone know they were there. So either this was some Muggle salesman, or maybe someone they knew from Hogwarts that hadn't been given clearance to the Apparition point they'd set up. On the other side of the door stood the man from the furniture store. One of the cribs standing next to him. Hermione and Harry were shocked.
"I thought you weren't going to be here until tomorrow," Harry stated. The man shrugged.
"We finished assembling them sooner than we thought, so my boss told me to bring them over." Ron stood aside to let him bring the crib in. Hermione hurried out of the way as quickly as she could while Harry and Ron showed the deliveryman where the cribs would go. She had to grip the back of the sofa tightly when something flashed in her head, making her gasp.
Someone had been kissing her passionately, moving down her body to her...
"All right, I'll get the other one and bring it up. Back in a minute." The three men had reappeared before she could totally grasp what it was she had been seeing. Now she was disoriented. She shook her head to clear it, catching Harry's attention.
"You O.K.?" he asked, taking her arm. She nodded as he led her around the sofa to sit her down on it.
"I'm fine. Just had a bit of a dizzy spell for a second."
"I told you you're not to be in that room while it's being painted," he said, kneeling down to look her in the eye. "That does it. As soon as this guy leaves, I'm using magic to finish the walls and to clear the fumes. Until then, you stay out of there." He perched on the arm of the sofa when the other crib came in the door and through the room. The man returned when it had been put in the nursery, dusting his hands as he headed back out of the flat.
"Thank you," Harry called as Ron shut the door.
"Anytime," came the answer as the man started back down the stairs.
"Ron, stay here with Hermione." Harry stood up and moved towards the hall. "I'm going to finish the room." He was only gone a few minutes, but Ron saw Hermione get dizzy again while they were waiting for him to return.
"Harry!" he yelled as she keeled over. He caught her just as she started to fall and Harry barreled into the room. They picked her up together and carried her to the bedroom. Harry bumped the door open and handing her completely over to Ron, ran to the bed to clear his freshly laundered clothes from the covers.
"I told her not to go in there," he muttered as Ron lay Hermione on the bed. She started to come around, and realizing where she was, gasped slightly.
"What happened? How did I get here?"
"You had another spell and fainted," Ron told her. "Harry and I brought you in here." She attempted to sit up, but Harry gently forced her to remain where she was.
"Nothing doing," he said. "You're staying right here." He leaned closer to her, kissing her cheek as he added in a whisper, "You and the twins are too precious to me to be risking your health. Please stay put." She nodded and he stood. "Ron and I will finish the nursery and clean ourselves up, then I'm going for a pizza. You just take a nap until I come to get you, all right?" She smiled.
"All right, Harry." As soon as they were gone, she looked toward the window, watching the rain that had started to fall. She attempted to recapture the second flash she'd had, the one that had caused her to pass out.
"Hermione? Dinner's here." Harry's soft voice whispered near her ear. She turned her head to look at him.
"How did you do that?" she asked, seeing he was now clean and had changed his clothes. "You were only gone a few seconds." Harry looked worried.
"Hermione, it's nearly six. We brought you in here almost two hours ago." She sat up slowly. "Love, I think you need to start your maternity leave now." She looked up at him with shock. "You're scaring me, having two dizzy spells in less than ten minutes, falling asleep and thinking that I'd only been gone for a few seconds, the stress of the Ministry is too much for you." She frowned, knowing he was right.
"O.K.," she conceded. "I'll send them an owl tomorrow letting them know they have to replace me for the next few months. I'm not happy about it though, Harry." He smiled as he helped her off the bed.
"That's fine, just get a decent amount of sleep tonight, and 'I' will be."
Harry watched Hermione across the table. It was his birthday, and he'd gotten one wish already. Their quiet dinner. She was looking over the menu in her hands, still trying to decide what she wanted to eat. When she moved her eyes farther down the page, he slid a hand into his jacket pocket and withdrew the item he'd been obsessing about for the last week. He placed it just behind her plate and waited.
"I think I'll have the grilled salmon steak," she finally said, closing the folder and putting it down. Her eyes landed on the object and she gasped audibly. Harry picked up the box, opened it and withdrew the ring. Hermione's hands flew to her mouth.
"I thought I was going to do this after the wedding the other day," he said as he moved to kneel by her chair. They were recieving stares from the few other couples that were in the restaurant. "But I changed my mind when I thought about what you asked me in the nursery. What I want for my birthday is for you to make me ecstatically happy and say you'll marry me." Hermione, totally speechless and tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, could only nod her agreement. Harry grinned widely as he took her hand and slid the diamond ring onto her finger, then kissed every knuckle on her hand.
She giggled slightly when the others around them began applauding. Harry stood and returned to his own seat just as the waiter arrived to take their order. His heart swelled with love and pride as she stared at the gem all the way through dinner and then dessert. When they'd paid their bill, he took her hand and asked if she wanted to walk home. She shook her head as they left the building.
"No, I don't think your present is going to wait that long."
"We only live two blocks from here," he said before he caught the glimmer in her eye. "Oh! Well, then, we'd better find a place where we can Apparate without being seen as quickly as possible." He saw a street lamp than had burned out a little ways up the street, leaving the pavement below it in almost total darkness. "Come on." They reached the spot, Harry looked around to make sure no one was going to be able to see them, and they Disapparated from the street, reappearing in the living room of their flat. Hermione, apparently not caring that Ron was watching television in the room at the time, started tearing at the buttons of Harry's shirt. He stopped her with a kiss, gently took her hand and led the way to their bedroom.
"Harry, please," she begged as he locked the door. He remembered to cast 'Silencio' as Ron still hadn't let up on his teasing when he'd told them he knew about their relationship in the first place. He'd seen the look on the redhead's face when they headed down the hall, and knew he was in for a healthy dose of it in the morning as it was. He stripped her dress from her body, kissing her shoulders as it hit the floor. When he'd made her comfortable on their bed, he removed his own clothes and his glasses and lay next to her. She squirmed out of her undergarments as rapidly as she could, given that her swollen stomach made it very hard for her to move with any speed. She got them off and rose to her knees, finding the position that was most comfortable for her, on her hands and knees, with a pillow placed under her breasts, which Harry now slid underneath her.
He moved behind her and slid into her already drenched opening, groaning loudly when he reached his hilt. He thrust slowly and carefully, not wanting the pleasure to end, but build until neither one could bear the height and toppled over to the other side into oblivion. Hermione's hand reached back to take hold of his and pulled it to her center, touching the tip of his middle finger to the swollen nub and shuddering with the delicious shocks it gave her. Harry lay his torso over her back, bracing his weight on his free arm. He removed his hand from her clit only long enough to wrap it around her just under her breasts and pull her gently upright, sitting her on his thighs and knees. He returned his fingers to her slick sex, rubbing the hidden button with the pad of his thumb as his other fingers smeared her juices over his rigid cock sliding in and out of her. The sensation of having his member pressing against her in this new position and the knowledge of what he was doing, made her series of small orgasms start, setting the stage for the one she knew would come when he found his own release.
"Hermione," he groaned against her neck. "I think we should have tried this weeks ago." She nodded her agreement, wanting to reach the peak with him soon. She didn't know how much more she could take. He started shuddering a minute later, burying his face in her hair to stifle the scream he let out when he began shooting his load into her steaming velvet sheath. Hermione braced her hands on either side of his legs to ride out her own ultimate wave.
They collapsed to one side, panting and shaking from their exertions. Hermione started to fall into a light doze, barely aware of Harry pulling a summer weight blanket over them both and slipping the forgotten pillow under her head, before settling down and finding sleep himself.