Consequences
Part 2
It had been three days since Ginny had kissed Harry and told him she loved him. Three days since she had blurted out her deepest secret. Three days of barely sleeping and desperately wishing Hermione had kept her time-turner. Why did she have to go and open her big mouth? She hadn't even told Dean yet and now his friend knew he was going to be a father before he did. A friend she had betrayed him with. Her boyfriend trusted the both of them and not only had she kissed Harry, but she had said 'I love you'; words that had once been reserved only for Dean. She hated herself for feeling this way. She really did love Dean, but what she felt for Harry was deeper and more intense than anything else she had ever felt.
"Ginny." At the sound of her name, she looked up and saw her boyfriend standing by the chair that she had not moved from since she got back from dinner.
"Room for one more?" Dean asked with a glint in his eye that once upon a time would have made Ginny want to drag him into the room of requirement and collapse together onto the bed they had often found there. Now she just felt guilty.
"Of course," she replied, shifting in the armchair to allow space for Dean to slide in next to her.
"Neville just ran into McGonagall. Hermione's being allowed out of the infirmary tonight," Dean told his girlfriend once he had maneuvered himself so that she was practically sitting on his lap.
"Is someone going to meet her? Does Ron know?" Ginny felt yet another twinge of guilt as she realized that with all that had happened in the past few days, she had all but forgotten about her best friend being in the hospital wing and her brother's heartbreak on discovering the formers' relationship with Draco Malfoy.
"Malfoy's with her. I still can't get my head around those two. I mean, Hermione and Malfoy? That's like Harry going out with Pansy Parkinson."
"How's Ron?" Ginny asked firmly, trying to convince herself that her impatience was down to concern for her brother rather than irrational jealousy at the idea of Harry going out with anyone who wasn't her, Pansy included.
"Last time I saw him he was still successfully convincing himself he fancies Lavender. Again," Dean said with a laugh. When Ginny had finally returned to the common room after fleeing from Harry three days before, she had arrived there to discover that, whilst she'd been gone, her brother had decided to ask his ex-girlfriend if she wanted to pick up where they left off. Apparently, Lavender had been so thrilled to have Won Won back that the significance of him wanting to get back together less than an hour after discovering Hermione was in love with someone else was lost on her. Since nobody had the heart to point this out to her, they instead choose to hope that Ron had genuine feelings for her and that the timing was pure coincidence. As if on cue, Lavender's voice came booming down the staircase leading to the boy's dormitories at the same time as a rather flustered looking Ron emerged through the doorway at the bottom.
"You're nothing but a good-for-nothing love rat Ronald Weasley. I can't believe I ever let you anywhere near me!"
"I…I…I'm," stammered Ron as Lavender emerged, red faced and furious, into the Gryffindor common room.
"You're what? Sorry? It's too late for sorry. I should have known all along this was never about me." By now all eyes were on the feuding pair and throughout the room students were suppressing fits of laughter as they got a good look at them.
"I'm wearing your robe," Ron blurted out. Lavender, not expecting this response, looked her once again ex-boyfriend up and down before looking at her own ensemble. Sure enough, Ron was wearing her robes and she his. The difference between the male and female Hogwarts' robes was far from obvious to an untrained eye; or, for example, when they were lying in a crumpled heap on a dormitory floor, but it was clear to everyone watching that Ron and Lavender had somehow switched.
"Keep it," she yelled, her eyes glistening, before spinning on her heel and rushing back up the stairs. A moment later she reappeared in the doorway, looking more than a little embarrassed, yelled "Parvati," ran across the common room and disappeared up the girls' staircase with her best friend in tow.
"What on earth did you do Ron?" Harry asked, walking over to his friend as he performed a quick spell to transfigure Lavender's robe into a male one. The result wasn't perfect but at least the chest area was no longer quite so obviously female and the robe became an inch or two longer. Ron murmured an incoherent response as he collapsed in the nearest vacant seat.
"I didn't quite catch that," said Harry, sitting in the chair next to Ron's.
"I called her Hermione," Ron grumbled.
"Is that all? And here I thought you'd dumped her again."
"Well we were, you know, at the time." There was a spot on the arm of the chair that Ron seemed to find so interesting he refused to look up from it. Harry didn't have to know everything he did about Ron to guess what 'you know' meant.
"You're kidding? No wonder she looked like she wanted to cruciate you. If you ask me, you're lucky you're still walking." Before Harry could tease his friend any further, the common room was filled once again with a female scream. But this time it wasn't filled with anger. The colour drained from Ron's face as he turned to the source of the scream.
"Ginny!" Harry and Ron yelled, leaping from their seats and rushing simultaneously to her side. Dean was crouching by the chair and looking terrified as his girlfriend wrapped her arms tightly around her body. She was paler than any of them, Ron included, had ever seen her and even though she was no longer screaming, she was clearly in a lot of pain.
"What is it Ginny? What's wrong?" Dean asked.
"Is something wrong with the baby?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Harry regretted it. Despite the pain Ginny managed to give Harry a furious look.
"What baby?" Ron looked from his sister to his best friend confusion.
"You're pregnant?" her boyfriend asked, his fear now mingled with shock.
"I wan…agh," Ginny howled in pain before managing to continue, "I wanted to tell you. I'm…agh…so…I'm so sorry." She was looking directly into Dean's eyes, silently pleading with him to know that she meant it.
"Is it coming now?"
"No. It's too soon."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Harry didn't know who to answer first as both Dean and Ron turned on him.
"It wasn't my place to tell you. Either of you."
"How long have you known?" Demanded Dean.
"She's my sister," roared Ron.
"Only a few days. I know that but she told me in confidence," Harry spoke to each man in turn. What on earth had possessed him to go blurting it out like that?
"You should have told me," Ron said, turning his attention on his little sister.
"I'm here." For the second time in a few minutes, Ron and Dean had spoken as one.
"Get away from her," the red head growled as he put his arm protectively around Ginny and helped her to her feet.
"But…it's my baby too."
"Meaning that if it wasn't for you she wouldn't be going through this. It's ok Ginevra. I'm taking you to see Madam Pomfrey now. She'll know what to do." With that, the Weasley siblings walked out of the common room, the older of the two supporting his only sister all the way. Dean and Harry began to follow but a hex from Ron slowed them right done. As soon as they were able to move again they sprinted through the portrait hole.
Neither of the four stopped moving until, halfway to the infirmary, Ginny collapsed, screaming, in the middle of the corridor in front of a startled Hermione and Draco.
"My baby! Something's wrong with my baby."
A/N: Sorry if the end seems a bit abrupt, I just figured there's no point repeating everything since this is where the previous chapter ended.
