Chapter 7: Chancing Fate.

Authors Note: Hi. So I am finally back on track! As you will know from the many authors notes the past five chapters the day after I uploaded chapter 1, my laptop died and when it was fixed, the hard drive had to be replaced and I lost chapters 2-6. This was incredibly frustrating as I didn't write the chapters down or have a back up copy. But I have certainly learnt my lesson and I am just going to upload chapters as quickly as possible once I am done, to avoid the possibility of this situation occurring once again, though hopefully it will not. Anyway here is chapter 7!

Late March 2005

Papers covered every surface of the pinewood desk. So many that they reached a height of at least two or three inches, making miniature valley's of Paperwork Mountains. It was quite similar on the other side of the office except the mess seemed a little more under control. You could take a single look at this and see that stress, frustration and hard work were evident. This was life working at the Ministry of Magic.

"God, if only we had a bigger office!" Hermione moaned in anger as she tried to climb over a leaning tower of books. "Then, it would not look like the contents of a recycling bin in here!" She despised any kind of mess. Mess and lack of organisation due to the small amount of space made her feel livid and infuriated. However the only mess that she did not mind was as she called it… "Ron mess". Ron mess was what she would find after being away for a couple of days, muggle pizza boxes, Butter Beer bottles and stray socks. Hideous really, but it made Hermione realise just how lucky she was that he chose her and not anyone else.

"You seem particularly stressed today." Joe stated, scrambling over to his desk and clearing some space to put his feet on top of it as he sat down.

"You have no idea." Hermione sighed, running a hand through her unnaturally bushy mane of hair.

"Try me." Joe raised an eyebrow.

"It is… complicated." Hermione said not really wanting to inform him of she and Ron's current situation in life.

"Oh my God, you are trying for a baby aren't you?" He smiled clapping his hands together in both joy and excitement.

"What! How do you know?" Hermione questioned, in shock. She had never said anything remotely pointing towards the idea of children. She had thought that maybe he would believe that it was something to do with their marriage or friends, but not children or babies.

"I went to muggle night classes for a year to study psychology right under your nose." He started. "I know the signs; sudden changes of mood etcetera. And you have started drinking tea. Tea, really Hermione? I mean come on."

"Hey you know I hate tea, it is just a substitute for alcohol. Why do you know so much about this area anyway?" Hermione asked

"Never you mind. So spill, what is going on?" Joe questioned, leaning forward towards her in curiosity.

"It is just taking a lot longer than originally planned." Hermione informed him not telling him the entire truth. Only a few people knew that and she hoped to keep it that way. "A lot, longer."

"You will pull through. You always have. I mean you are one of the golden trio, you will not falter to anything."

"Thanks." She smiled "Oh, that reminds me, how is the wedding planning going?" After many years of an on again off again relationship, Joe had finally got engaged to his boyfriend, much to his delight he had also been left in charge of most of the parts of planning he regarded as fun e.g. colour schemes, table names, designing and writing invitations. So far his favourite bit had been decided who and who would not be invited.

"Good, good. We chose a date actually; the fifth of November."

"Bonfire night?" Hermione raised an eyebrow, originally thinking that he was simply having a laugh.

"You see "Remember remember the 5th of November…" We will never forget it." Joe grinned and she knew he was serious. "It was Adam's idea." Joe grinned, Adam a healer at St. Mungo's was Joe's fiancée.

"That is great." Hermione chuckled

"You have not heard the rest of it yet." He added "We thought we would write on the invitations "because if you don't come to our wedding, you'll never see December."'

Hermione's laughter was suddenly silenced by a knock on the door and a young woman poked her head around the corner of the open door. "Mrs Weasley, you are wanted in Mr Wright's office."

"Thank you Abigail." Hermione smiled and nodded towards Joe before heading down the long narrow and tiled corridor towards her boss' office.

"You wanted to see me James?" Hermione questioned into the open door.

"Hermione, dear! Please do come in." He greeted gesturing for her to take a seat. Anxiety filled every single bone and cell in her body. She loved what she did and she loved going to work but sometimes she was briefly confused by the path she had chosen. Although things had changed since Voldemort was finally killed it did not mean that people were not against them anymore. Retrospectively she had realised overtime that in some ways she was working for the people that were originally against them. Then the moment would past and she would smile, recalling just how much she truly enjoyed her job.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Hermione asked and James sighed, shuffling some papers in front of him and leaning forward slightly.

"I have a proposition for you." James said quietly so that nobody outside of the room could here the conversation.

"Am I being fired?" Hermione wondered panicked and James burst into laughter at his now friend. Over time Hermione had come to regard James as James and James had come to regard Hermione as Hermione. As time went on the formality had gone and Hermione liked it that way. She was very confused by the laughter, given that this was apparently meant to be some sort of formal situation. Hermione was more than smart enough to know that being fired was no laughing matter and she felt physically sickened by the thought that if she was fired she would not have any other work to go to, leaving her unemployed for the time being.

"No, no nothing of the kind." James reassured her kindly. "Actually quite the opposite. A promotion."

"A promotion?" Hermione raised an eyebrow in shock and sudden surprise. She loved the job she did; it was the same one that Professor McGonagall had persuaded them to employ her for and she had never imagined doing anything else. But there was also an opportunity, a huge one if it meant she was gradually climbing higher in the ranks of the Department of Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures and she knew that if it was a good one then she definitely could not deny the offer that had finally fallen within her reach.

"As you may or may not be aware a space has opened up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and I put you forward for the job if you don't mind." James informed her and Hermione raised an eyebrow, confused as to why he had offered her to another Department when she had believed she was doing so well in her current one.

"May I ask what position I would have within the department?" Hermione asked curiously wanting to know what she was getting into before the conversation proceeded any further.

"Head of Department." James grinned and Hermione's eyes widened. She clearly remembered Rufus Scrimegour asking her about a job in Wizarding law many years ago when he had read out Dumbledore's will to her, Ron and Harry. As soon as he had said that, she told him that she intended to do something good in the world. But things were different now. A lot different to the way that they had been back then and she could not throw away a chance as big as this because of memories that lay deep within the past and with lost souls. It no longer felt like she would be defying her seventeen year old self's beliefs anymore, because they had all changed, and the Ministry of Magic had changed rather a lot and perhaps this change would be a big step in the right direction.

"T-thank you." Hermione said speechlessly stuttering, "But why on Earth would you pick me?"

"You are possibly the hardest worker I have ever seen and I think you could go on to do even greater things than you have here in the Department of Control of Magical Creatures. Law is something that you have always had a passion for, it seems now more than ever. You could even take your elfish rights even further as the youngest Head of Department there has ever been. So what do you say?"

"I…I will take it. Thank you very much." Hermione beamed knowing that she would immediately regret not taking the job if she were to let it go. "When do I start?"

"Whenever suits you best… how about two weeks?" James suggested.

"Okay then, two weeks it is." Hermione agreed reaching forward to shake her boss's hand. "Thank you, really. Thank you so much." It was at that point that James embraced her warmly and Hermione hugged him back friendlily. As they let go of one another, he smiled seemingly with sadness.

"It will be a great shame to lose you in this department. You are probably one of the best workers I have ever seen. But I know that you are capable of great, wonderfully great things and I expect to hear a lot about you. Oh and also, I see that you have become rather good friends with Joe over the past few years, and he has also been offered a job, as your deputy head of department if that is okay with you and you will have to inform him of the promotion given that you will be his boss in a fortnight. You would still be sharing an office, except it would be relatively bigger than your current one. As you were saying earlier there will be less mess." James chuckled

"How do you know I said that?" Hermione questioned

"Let's just say when you are annoyed you can clearly hear your anger through the door." James grinned and Hermione laughed before leaving the room, her stomach in knots of excitement, wondering how Joe would react to the sudden news and also how Ron would. She was sure he would be pleased, and in some ways this was everything she could have dreamed of in a job. Although it would be hard work, she could now do even more work to help the house elves, should she wish to. For a few moments in her head the world was her oyster.

She headed into her office, with a large smile spread across her face. Joe's head darted up from the papers he was staring endlessly at and his eyes widened. "What's with the sudden change of emotion? Did you take something? Perhaps a Weasley's Wizard Wheezes sweet that causes you to become high?" He joked and Hermione sat on top of her desk facing him.

"Alright Joe. I have an offer for you." Hermione smirked and Joe put the papers to one side and turned to look at her in the muggle spinning chair, it was one of the only muggle things that they had in their office but when Hermione told him that muggle office chairs rotated, he had a similar reaction to one which Ron would probably have had and insisted that they bought one each. Although at times he tended to spend more time spinning on the chair than doing his work.

"Shoot." He said leaning forward to over exaggerate the fact that he was listening. "I am all ears."

"I have just been offered a job." Hermione said feeling slightly smug and pleased.

"Oooh, where and what?" He enquired.

"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement. As head of Department." Hermione said "And I have been given the chance to give you a promotion into that department too."

"Go on." Joe said seriously.

"You do not have to take it if you do not want to but James said it would be a great opportunity with you having buckets full of potential andI certainly agree with him. He told me that if I wanted to I could offer you the job as deputy of the department. And I wanted to, so that is my offer." Hermione smiled

"I would love to, thank you." Joe said standing up and hugging her before breaking away and sitting back down. Oh and congratulations! What do you think Ron will think?"

"I think he will be pleased, there are no flaws in the plan and it means that we will get more money each month, he will definitely be pleased about that. And hey, you could use any extra money towards the wedding." Hermione suggested and Joe grinned.

"I was thinking that. Well, I had best get going. I will see you tomorrow and thank you once again." He informed her before pulling his jacket on and heading out of the office. Maybe this was the silver lining she had been looking for for the past eight months.

XXXXXXXXXX

A few hours earlier...

Ron sat at his desk twiddling a muggle pen through his fingers. It was silent in the office, and all that could be heard was the rather peaceful sound of heavy footsteps clunking and pacing along as the person or people passed by. This was actually typical in the Auror Department as unless anyone was going on a mission or there was a meeting, the majority of the time was spent reading and signing paperwork. Although Ron loved working with Harry there was always something that never felt quite right as working in the Auror office. It was great and he loved it, but it was not the perfect job. Maybe he would not find the perfect job for him like Harry, Hermione, Ginny and the rest of his family members seemed to have done so but he had a good idea of what the next step in his career would possibly be.

There was a sudden knock on the door and Ron raised his head quickly, quick enough that he expected to get whiplash. Given how silent and calmingly quiet it had been it was rather surprising to hear any sudden sounds. It was not a frequent normality for people to come into other people's offices and if it was Harry, given that they shared an office he normally just walked straight in, and so did he so it was then very clear that this was somebody else. So Ron approached the door and slowly opened it, delusional as to who may be on the other side.

"Hello Ron." Ginny smiled before the brother and sister embraced one another, which what appeared to be much difficulty. "Do you mind if I come in?"

"Of course not Gin, please have a seat." Ron replied cheerfully as he closed the door and sat back in his chair opposite his sister. "Are you sure you are meant to be up and about?" He questioned and Ginny raised her eyebrows sternly at him.

"As I have said to Harry, I am eight months pregnant. I am not an invalid. Besides I still have nearly three weeks to go." Ginny said flopping down into a chair and sighing.

"Sorry." Ron gestured "So what brings you here? If it was Harry it is his day to get lunch. I did it yesterday."

"Yes I am fully aware of your lunching schedule and find it quite amusing. Actually I came to see you." Ginny informed him. "How are you both? Hermione I mean."

"We are both fine. I assume she told you about what happened at St. Mungo's?" Ron questioned and Ginny nodded. "Well, after we saw you on Valentine's Day she told me she was happy to start trying again."

"And?" Ginny prompted.

"We have not done so yet. But we agreed that it would happen when the moment is right and that moment has not happened yet." Ron told her. "Ginny?" He then asked, thinking of something to add that he felt he had to say, not just for himself, but for Hermione as well.

"Yes?" Ginny asked shifting awkwardly to find a comfortable position which sadly, was getting harder and harder to find.

"Thank you." Ron said, his voice croaking slightly. "You have really helped. If you had not said anything to Hermione, I do not think she would have been persuaded at all to keep trying. If you had not said anything to Helena, I do not think we would have managed to even get to St. Mungo's. I know you never had to help if you did not want to, but you did and I am really grateful for that and I am sure Hermione is too."

"You are welcome. Besides if I had not said anything you would have or maybe even Harry would have, though I doubt it given that at times they are more like brother and sister than we are. You two are like pasta and gravy, you are meant to be together." Ginny told him and he laughed.

"Do you still like random combinations?" Ron chuckled.

"No, I am serious. Pasta and gravy is really nice. Given how much you eat I would have expected that you would know that too." Ginny reasoned.

"Hmm, I might give it a try, thanks." Ron said and Ginny grinned before beginning to laugh. It was at that point that there was another knock on the door before Harry entered the room, a large paper bag in his arms Ron started to wonder how on Earth he had managed to knock and open the door.

"Ginny? What are you doing here?" Harry questioned incredulously and Ginny glared sternly at him so fiercely Ron thought that steam might come out of her ears.

"Hello to you too love." She replied, "I just came to see Ron. Anyway I best get going, see you later." She added quickly before slowly getting up and heading out of the room.

"What was all that about?" Harry wondered aloud and Ron laughed loudly as he handed Harry one of the sandwiches from within the brown paper bag.

"Apparently, pasta and gravy are meant to be together." Ron sighed, still chuckling and Harry's head darted up and he frowned.

"She is not wrong you know, actually the combination is rather like you and Hermione." Harry replied and Ron looked surprised, now really wondering how much Harry and Ginny were alike if they shared thoughts.

"Hmm."

XXXXXXXXXX

It was rather late into the evening when Ron arrived home. The sky was pitch black and all that could be seen as he walked down the road to he and Hermione's house was the warm bright lights on and the muggle street lamps that elegantly stood tall and lined every avenue and lane. The air was cold and chilly in spite of it nearly being April, but it was clear and clean, like London was suddenly purer and fresher than it had ever been before. As he arrived at the end of the drive of number 26, it became evident that Hermione was already home as the lights in the living room were on and glowing softly.

"Hermione, I bought dinner." Ron called and Hermione opened the door and flung her arms around him into a warm embrace. Her wild, untamed bushy hair surrounded both of them and the strong smell of apple shampoo hit him as he hugged her back.

"What was that for?" Ron enquired chuckling.

"Always the tone of surprise." She replied. "What did you get for dinner?"

"A pizza. What has got into you? You seem so happy."Ron wondered and he enchanted the pizza to go and sit on top of the kitchen table. Hermione took his hand and pulled him towards the sofa where they both sat down. Ron looked at her questionably, there was a realm of possible answers to what was going on, and he was seriously starting to wonder which one was Hermione's.

"I have something to tell you." Hermione informed him and Ron listened silently.

"Go on." Ron prompted intrigued to know what the situation was.

"I was called into the Head of Department's office this afternoon."Hermione begun. "He told me that there was a job up for grabs in another department and during a meeting of the heads of departments he had requested that I got the job. And they have given it to me."

"What is it?" Ron asked

"Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Hermione beamed and a grin spread across Ron's face as he hugged her tightly.

"Hermione that is fantastic, I am really proud of you." Ron said and Hermione nodded

"Thank you." She said before she leant in and kissed Ron. She had expected them to break away from one another straight after but he kissed her back and soon enough neither one of them wanted to stopped and simply continued. Pure silence echoed throughout the house as they sat there, embracing one another. After a few minutes, when they finally broke apart Hermione stared at Ron. And he gazed back, directly into her eyes, nor Ron or Hermione lifting their gaze from one another.

"I love you." Ron said and Hermione smiled, still both of them remained staring.

"I love you too." Hermione replied as she reached for Ron's hand and squeezed it lightly before he squeezed hers back.

"Are you sure? What about dinner?" Ron asked raising an eyebrow in concern as to whether she thought she was ready or not.

"Let it go cold. We have magic. It can be reheated." Hermione whispered giggling, before kissing him once again before he took her hand and led her up the stairs.

And the pizza went cold.

Authors Note: This chapter took a lot less time than I thought it would as I wrote the first 800 words back in June when I was using my brother's laptop, but once I added detail to that part it was a lot easier to get back into the swing of things. I can't actually remember why I called this chapter Chancing Fate, I think it just seemed to fit and you will soon find out why. Also as you can now see, in my version of the events during those 19 years, Harry and Ginny's son is to be born around mid April. Thank you and PLEASE REVIEW!