Chapter 8 What Now?

Recap:

"So the mudblood got herself knocked up!" She sniggered. "So tell us, who's the father mudblood?" I couldn't decide whether to throw it in her face that it was Draco's and watch all the blood leaver her pale skin or just tell her to back off before I hex her. If I tell her it's Draco's then they might hurt me…what to do???

End Recap

Chapter 8:

I look up at her and a grin flies across my face. It's not like she can hurt me or Rose. I have a protection charm. Just because they can all see that I'm preggers doesn't mean that they can harm me! This means Pansy's about to get a freaking reality check just like everyone in this place looking at me, waiting. I look over my shoulder at Pavarti and she her nervous smile lying half-hazardly across her face instead of the self-assured one I wear.

"We're all waiting!" Pansy sneered not aware fully of what she was pulling herself into.

"Okay." I say fake gulping. "I guess you should know that first of all I guess he gave up on whores like you and tried real people. And instead of taking Malfoy's last name she will actually be Rose Madelyn Granger." I watched her smirk drop completely and a look of one who might actually get physically sick replace it. She turned around and just as she was about to walk away she whispered something that even I know she couldn't do, it still scared me. "You'd better watch yourself when it's dark mudblood."

I look over at Pavarti and a grin finally breaks her nervous tight lipped expression. I real smile. I put my arm around her and hers around me and Ginny and Lav look at me impressed and I think this is the life until I feel a pang in my stomach.

"Oh MY GOD!" I screamed a look of pure joy crossing my face.

"What are you okay?" Lav and Pavarti call at the same time.

"Rose just kicked." I gave in being so mushy I almost made myself sick. She kicked again and Gin, Lav, and Pavarti had the same goofey smiles I did as they felt it with me. Everyone looked on still shocked I guess. Then I feel another pang but for a different reason. Where is he? Why isn't he here to share this with me? His unborn daughter. Soon dinner's over and I can act normal now. We walk up to our dorms Pavarti with us and we talk. We talk for hours over nothing and then the big question pops up.

"What are we going to do after Graduation?" Pavarti asks timidly.

"Well I guess Rose and I will have to find a place to live and then I'll have to make sure I keep her in a good school before she goes to Hogwarts. I won't hide her magic from her. I won't run away from this. She will grow up in the magical world." I say silently.

"I...don't know if I can." Pavarti smiles sadly. "Gabe and I may move to America and start a whole new life together you know. I'll talk to you guys everyday. I'll flew you because you guys are the best friends anyone could as for. I won't lose you but I can't stay here. It hurts to much. I mean I don't know how much I could stand seeing Padma at the market once a week or seeing her when I go shopping and know that I can't talk to her. Laugh with her. She'll walk by like we're strangers and won't say a word and I'll be left with an even hallower place inside." She looks away as a single tear falls and I wipe it away.

"I understand." I smile.

Two weeks later...

"Pavarti you've got to breathe babe." Lavender smiles and breathes that weird way pregnant women are "supposed" to breathe. "In and out."

"I'm not even going into labor you dimwit!" She smiles a nervous smile on the way to Madame Pomfrey's at five in morning. Yep you heard right! Five in the freaking morning. Six months. Three months left. That's me. The six months pregnant seventeen year old. Lovely isn't it.

"Hello Ms.Patil are you ready for today?" M.Pomfrey is smiling just a little to much if you ask me.

"Um sure?" Pavarti grimaces.

We all set a sterilizing spell over everything and Pavarti is suited up like they suit people up in muggle surgeries. Pomfrey is going to cut magical incisions in Pavarti so there will be no possibility of scarring. I watch slowly as the first cut is made and puke. I can't help it. I puke. Pavarti can't feel it or hear anything until her baby cries. That's a good thing because puking is not something you want to hear when someones cutting you open. I had to turn my back. I could still see the image of blood seeping out of that cut. I puke again. I pull out my wand and permanently remove that memory from my mind. I exhale relieved and the next thing I hear is the most wonderful thing I've ever heard. Gabriel Jackson Patil born on April 25 weighing in at six pounds five ounces. I can hear Pavarti crying and Lav and Ginny and myself. We're all crying. Even Pomfrey. I walk over and after Gabe's cleaned up I get to hold him. When he falls asleep I give him back to Pavarti and she falls asleep with him in her arms.

"I'll be right back. I have to get something out of my room." I know it's silly but I knit. Yes I knit. Everything from baby booties to hats to scraves to blankets. I started when Draco and started to go out. The best thing I had ever knitted he now owned. I am going to knit a pair of cute little blue booties for Gabe. As I make a left I suddenly feel like something's not right. When I turn around a shadow moves and I wip out my wand. I feel someone's arm snake around my neck and then someone's breath on my ear.

"You're going to pay mudblood." I'm so scared I can barely breathe. I want to scream out but I can't find my voice. My heart is beating erratically in my ears. Pounding. I feel the air move as a hand nears my face, ready to punch the living daylights out of me and is stopped merely a cinemeter away from my face. The protection charm!

"What the hell?" Pansy screams.

"Nice try Parkinslut." I smirk and walk away until I feel myself falling back wards. My falling is slowed so that when I hit the floor it feels as if I had laid myself down instead of being pulled down backwards. I stare up at the ceiling and Pansy walks away. Thinking she's hurt me. I pull myself up and get the yarn and hurry back to the hospitaly wing before I can have anymore confrontations. I knit until I can't anymore. When I wake up there's a letter on my lap. Written in nice script. Draco's script. My name is scrawled across the front.

Hermione,

I thought that leaving you would make it easier for me to forget you. I thought that ignoring you would help ease all of my pain but I was wrong. I thought not saying good bye would kill the hurt inside of me but instead it made it stronger. I can't tell you where I am or what's happening to me. Don't try to send anything back. Just remember something for me: I love you. With everything that I am I love you. When I find away out of this I will come for you. I will find you. I promise.

I am forever yours.

I start to sob uncontrollably. Ginny looks up at me concerning flooding her every feature. She picks the letter up off of my lap and reads it. She hugs me and cries as well. Suddenly nothing seems to matter. What's happening to him? What if they kill him? Whoever they is. What if he never sees Rose? What if Rose never gets to see him? Yes he acted like a royal ass the day he left but I mean...now...it seems so far away. I can't even take the emotions that fill me now. I can't sit here and think about how he left me. I know I'm over emotive because of my pregnancy but this sucks far beyond anything else. I want to throw stuff. I want to scream. We graduate May 8. Two weeks away. They can't come fast enough. I look at the letter and fold it up. I stick it in the pocket of my jeans and walk away.

(G)R(A)D(U)A(T)I(O)N (D)A(Y)

I sit in these pews almost seven months pregnant. Almost. Give me a week and I will be. I can't look at Gin or Lav or Pavarti because if I do looks of pity will but donned upon me and I don't want it. Their pity I mean. They're great friends don't get me wrong but I just don't want their pity anymore. We even have burgundy and gold graduation robes. I look at Slytherin and think about how Draco's not going to be there to graduate. I want to break into tears right now. Here at graduation but I know I won't. I know I can't. McGonagall is standing up there giving this speech on and on blah di blah and then she calls me up because I had the highest grade average. Figures. I give some stupid speech I wrote about how the year ended too quickly, about how we made it through the war, and how we would now make it on our own in the world and I was sure everyone of us would. Of course I said all of this with a stupid fake smile plastered across my face. The only thought that managed to cheer me up was that Rose was arriving in less then three months. I'm taking all of my graduation money, because that's what I asked to have for graduation, and put a down payment on a house, buy stuff for Rose, and stuff for the house. Lav and Gin are living together after Graduation and I feel so envious of them and then sometimes I don't. I can see them whenever I want. They're only an apparation away.

"Hermione Jane Granger." I am pulled from my thoughts and walk across the stage and except my diploma. I am no longer a student at Hogwarts. It's not like I can go to university. I give a small sad smile and step off the stage. After everyone's graduated I don't stick around for the party. Pavarti can't either but I don't go with her either. I grab my bags and apparate to a small muggle inn and ask for my key. Room 508. When no one's watching I apparate. I accio a copy of the Daily Prophet for the ads for houses. I can only afford a small thing. I have to find work soon. I get a small five hundred galleon check in the mail everyother month for my services in the war. That will only get me so far. I magically put away all of my things and then write down all the addresses of house that I can afford in wizarding London. I end up finding a fourteen hundred squarte foot flat that rents out at three hundred fifty galleons a month a week later. It needs a lot of repairs but they can all be fixed magically. My rent includes all of my utilities thank god. I finally leave the hotel room and settle all of my things into my new flat.

August 1 I start to feel cramps. More like freaking contractions. I call up Ginny, Lavender, and Pavarti since we all bought cellphones and they apparate over to help me with all my crap. Overnight bag. Check. Friends, check. Draco, not check.