Note: I should probably warn you; the events of this chapter are going to happen a little quickly. In a sense, it will jump around various lengths of time. But as long as you are able to keep up, everything will make sense. Please let me know if I am not being coherent in my writing.

Harry went home a few days later with all the rest of the student body. On the Hogwarts Express, a lot of people congratulated him on three different things: exposing Voldemort, proving the Ministry of Magic wrong, and his impending fatherhood. As Seamus and Dean had predicted, not one of the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, or Ravenclaws judged either him or Hermione.

Of course, several of the Slytherins insulted him at every chance they had, but he didn't care what they thought; Umbridge was dead, Sirius had been exonerated, and Fudge had been disgraced. Best of all, the ruling members of the Ministry had finally admitted that Harry was telling the truth about Voldemort's return and they had been too arrogant to believe him. He would not let anything ruin his good mood that day.

However, there was one thing that was on his mind: the Dursleys' reactions to Hermione's condition. At the request of Dumbledore, he had sent a school owl to notify them in advance of the matter (Naturally, Hedwig hated going to Privet Drive on her own, so he decided to send a different owl).

Harry felt a lot more reassured when several members of the Order of the Phoenix had accompanied him into the station. Hermione went off to find her parents and Ron went to talk with Fred and George, who had just arrived at the station. Lupin, Moody, Tonks, Sirius, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley accompanied him as he approached the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were noticeably angry.

Moody and the rest of the group made their threats to Vernon and the other two about their treatment of Harry. A glimpse of Moody's artificial magical eye quickly subdued any uncooperative thoughts the Dursleys may have had in their minds.

Just as Harry and his relatives were leaving the station, Sirius met up with them. He took a moment to let Harry know that he would be temporarily living near Privet Drive to look out for him. Harry, being grateful for the care presented by his godfather, hugged Sirius good-bye and drove off towards Privet Drive.

(That was the end of the fifth book. I'll skip ahead to the third chapter of the sixth book.)

Harry was having perhaps the most enjoyable July of his life. Vernon and Petunia were treating more like a human being and less like a jar of dirt. Apparently the Order's threats had been more than sufficient in bettering the Dursleys' treatment of Harry. Dudley would not admit that the Order had intimidated him, but he and his gang did not harass Harry at all over the course of the summer.

Harry and Hermione kept in constant contact with each other during vacation. She was right about her parents' reaction; they threw her out of the house when they learned that she was pregnant. But the Weasleys were more than happy to take her in at The Burrow for the summer.

Vernon and Petunia were infuriated by Hermione's pregnancy, but Dudley was actually envious of Harry. Harry knew the reason; Dudley had never had a girlfriend in his life, much less ever had sex. Harry had suggested a way for him to get laid: "Dress nicely, be a little nicer to people, smile, shower at least once a week, and lose about thirty pounds." Under normal circumstances, Dudley would have pounded Harry for saying such things. But when he spotted a large black dog roaming around Privet Drive, Dudley just pretended to ignore Harry and went to join his gang.

One week, Harry had gone up to a ring shop and bought two rings. One of them was for himself, and the other he was planning to give to Hermione as a gift.

(Now I'm skipping to where Harry checks in at The Burrow.)

Mrs. Weasley led Harry upstairs to Fred and George's bedroom. He collapsed onto the bed that had been prepared for him and soon fell asleep.

The next morning, he was woken up bright and early by his best friend and his lover. When he saw Hermione, he embraced her firmly and placed his hand on her abdomen. She was now almost ten weeks pregnant with his baby. She placed his hand over his, smiled sweetly at him, and said "We've missed you. Both of us."

"Me too!" Ron added in with such alacrity that it made Harry and Hermione laugh.

"How have you been managing here?" Harry asked Hermione as he sat up in bed.

"Oh, Mrs. Weasley's been giving me a lot of good advice." Hermione enlightened him. "There are a lot of advantages to being a witch than to being a Muggle when it comes to pregnancy."

"Like what?" inquired Harry.

"Well, there's a type of draught that I should drink once a week called the Enhanced Stomaching Draught." she explained. "It improves my ability to digest whatever I eat. Hence, I have less morning sickness than the average pregnant Muggle woman-"

Hermione suddenly covered her mouth with her hand. She put a finger in the air, which meant "If you'll excuse me for a moment" and left the room. Harry and Ron could hear her vomiting in the bathroom.

"But not none at all." Ron finished for Hermione.

After they had eaten breakfast and the results of the O.W.L.s had arrived, they planned to go to Diagon Alley and get their school supplies for their next year at Hogwarts.

(Now I'll skip to where they are shopping in Diagon Alley)

Sirius accompanied Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys to Diagon Alley. The last time he had been there was the time he had purchased Harry's Firebolt for him. There were still a great many people who felt a little nervous around him, but that didn't matter; the majority no longer looked at him with contempt.

Sirius especially enjoyed confronting Malfoy and his mother in Madame Malkin's. People were being kinder to him than to them.

When Malfoy and his wife were insulting Hermione (both for being Muggle-born and being pregnant), Harry stood up for her, but Sirius handed out most of the insults.

"I think I know why you feel the need to pick on Hermione and others." he had begun. "It distracts you from your real problems, like your idiot husband being thrown in prison and disgracing the family name- even though the name itself wasn't all that prestigious to begin with."

"You should probably watch your back wherever you go." Narcissa had threatened him. "If not, then one day something so terrible may happen, that you'll wish you had never left Azkaban."

"I can assure you, Lucius is probably having the time of his life there right now." Sirius snickered. "I bet Azkaban is much better than your house."

"At least I did not betray my family by ending up in a house at Hogwarts full of imbeciles and weaklings." commented Malfoy, referring to how Sirius had wound up in Gryffindor while the rest of the Black family had wound up in Slytherin.

"I'd rather be an imbecile or a weakling than a dark moron whose only talent is persistently launching tedious insults at others." Sirius jeered.

"Oh, I have plenty more talents than that." said Malfoy angrily. "In fact, how about you and I find an empty room with no furniture? I could demonstrate for you there."

"No, I don't want you to embarrass yourself." Sirius mockingly replied. "I imagine you're already suffering from enough humiliation with dear Lucius in prison."

"Mark my words well, Black." Narcissa said darkly. "Lucius will escape one day just as you did, and there is nothing you can do to prevent that."

"Well, unlike me, he will never be proven innocent." Sirius came back, winning the verbal fray.

Harry grinned in satisfaction when he saw that Sirius' last comment had seriously offended Malfoy and his mother.

After Malfoy had left with his mother, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were up next to have their measurements inspected. Harry had grown significantly taller over the summer; so much so, that he was almost the same height as Ron. Hermione needed to be refitted around the waist. Her baby bump had started to show visibly.

After this, they headed off to Fred and George's joke shop. The place was doing remarkably well.

Fred and George had just about every possible joke item on sale, plus a diverse selection of their own creations. Sirius laughed more there than he ever had for the past fifteen years.

Fred and George gave Hermione a container filled with little tablets. They explained that the tablets were originally something you would slip into another person's drink. Once the person had consumed his or her beverage, they would experience very bizarre changes in behavior for several hours afterwards. Fred and George had modified them to help Hermione control her mood swings. They told her "free of charge" and she gratefully accepted them.

After they had completed their shopping in Diagon Alley, everybody returned to The Burrow. For the last week of summer, Harry and Hermione went shopping for supplies for the baby. Mrs. Weasley joined them in this errand, and gave them advice on what they should or should not purchase.

"It's always better to use cloth diapers than those disposable diapers Muggles have come up with." she told them. "For one thing, the former is better for the planet. Some Muggles don't use them because they are hard to clean. But with magic on your side, cleanliness is neat and simple."

Harry and Hermione were taking notes in their heads. As neither of them had grown up in a household run by magic, they had always believed childrearing to be one of the most difficult tasks presented by life. But magic seemed to make everything so much easier.

They didn't need to buy much. Mrs. Weasley still had plenty of baby equipment leftover from when Ginny was an infant for them to use. Granted it had been at least fourteen years since that time, most of the equipment was still in pristine condition. The only things that they had to buy at stores were baby clothes, diapers, bottles, a few pacifiers and a crib.

Harry and Hermione still had one issue that needed to be resolved: Where would they keep the baby after he or she was born? Hermione's parents wouldn't accept, and the Dursleys' were out of the question, as Harry had said "It wouldn't be kind for us to torture our child in such a harsh manner."

They had considered letting Sirius look after the baby, but then, of course, there was Kreacher and the portrait of Sirius' obnoxious mother. Sirius' mother would probably keep the baby up all night with her endless shouts and insults.

Mrs. Weasley had offered to take care of the baby. Harry and Hermione found that to be a reasonable suggestion, but decided to take some more time to think about their options.

The day before the gang rendezvoused at the Hogwarts Express, Harry took a moment to speak to Hermione in private. He pulled the two rings he had bought out of his pocket and placed one of them in her trembling hands.

"What is this, Harry?" she asked in confusion.

"Think of it as a promise ring." he elucidated. "With them, I want to make a promise that someday you and I will be married."

There was silence between the two of them at first, and then Hermione slammed her lips against Harry's. They both closed their eyes and spent some quality time together one last time before their next year at Hogwarts.