LbN: Sorry about the wait, guys! I had gnarly writers block on this one...Oh, and this chapter's rated M. It mentions pregnancy issues related to Ginny and Tonks :).
"Again???"
Hermione laughed as her two best friends did their best impression of school girls, complete with squealing. She nodded at them and they rushed to hug her, slipping a little on the snow. "I told the boys last night, and they agreed to finance our afternoon out so they could have time to fix the nursery up again. We still need to tell Bianca, though."
"Do you think she'll understand?" Tonks asked as they walked into the small café. "I mean, I know you're not planning on giving her all the gory details, but still…." She grabbed their drinks from the counter and followed the other two to the table.
"Oh, she'll be fine." Hermione chuckled for a second, remembering her conversation with the three year old. "We've been dropping hints about it for a while now, just to see if she's ready. I asked her point blank the other day how she'd feel about being an older sister."
"What'd she say?" Ginny asked, taking a sip of warm cocoa.
"She said she wanted to, as long as her younger siblings weren't as crazy as Uncle Fred and Uncle George…."
Tonks snorted some of her mulled wine and Ginny laughed. "Smart kid," Tonks said, nodding.
"Indeed. So you know what this means, right?" Hermione asked.
"What?"
"You two are the only ones lagging in the Weasley takeover plot." Hermione grinned as they laughed. "Get a move on, Tonks."
"We have to handle ours with more delicacy than you guys," Tonks said with a smirk.
"And that's saying something," Hermione said.
"All of us younglings know Ginny and I can do this biologically, but we're all trying not to think about it. And if the baby definitely looks like me…" Tonks morphed her hair a few different colors for emphasis, "we're going to have some serious explaining to do."
"They probably know too," Hermione said.
"Yeah, but they're going to play stupid. You know our parents," Ginny said.
Hermione just laughed. "Are you guys thinking about it?"
"Seriously considering is the stage we're at," Tonks said. "We've just got to get over nerves."
"We've been thinking about it since George and Katie had Othello last Easter. And then Fred and Angie had Avigdor and Jaeger—" Ginny began.
"Can't believe they named that child after a drink…" Hermione said.
"I know, right? Well, after they had the twins, this one started having baby envy." Ginny nodded at Tonks. "So, you know, we're thinking about it."
"That's great, guys," Hermione said, beaming at them. "So I think that puts Fred and Angie in the lead with three. What's scary is we might actually have a hostile Weasley takeover, even if we don't all have seven kids."
"Then George and Katie have two, Percy and Penelope have one—and Penelope said that's how it's going to stay. Bill and Fleur have two, you're about to have two. Charlie's got one. We really are going to take over the world!" Tonks said, laughing.
"That's the plan!" Ginny said. "Shall we get going? The snow is really starting to pick up, and I still want to shop."
*
Hermione whistled as she walked into the house, but stopped when she saw their daughter. She smiled and walked over to the couch where the little girl was sleeping, surrounded by stuffed animals.
"We had an eventful afternoon," Harry said, coming down the stairs.
"What's that mean?" Hermione asked.
He motioned for her to follow him and walked back upstairs. They entered the nursery to find Ron sitting on the floor. "We got caught," Harry said, sitting next to him. "We'd told her we were working on the room just to redecorate it, and that it was a surprise for you. Well, that worked for a while, but she got bored with planning her puppet show and came up to see what we were doing. There's absolutely no way to explain this away." He motioned to the crib and walls, which were decorated in a bright Circus Animals theme.
Hermione sat down with them, smiling. "What did you guys tell her?"
"The truth," Ron said. "We were the ones that ended up giving the puppet show."
"Oh god…"
"It wasn't bad!" Ron laughed. "We did the kiddies' birds and bees talk, nothing graphic. But a few of the puppets had tissue added to their shirts to show 'baby bumps'. She liked the performance."
"Why are there so many stuffed animals out? Did the bear family have septuplets?"
"She wanted us to show different families," Harry said. "We had to base a family on us, the lion, bear and cat family. Fred and Angelina were the turtle and octopus couple. George and Katie were both jaguars. Er…who else, Ron?"
"Percy and Penelope were both owls. Bill and Fleur were the fish and the monkey. We even explained adoption! Charlie is the moose. Ginny and Tonks fell into the adoption category as well, because I don't want to have that conversation with our daughter."
Hermione laughed and shook her head. "Wow, that's…an interesting afternoon. Which animals were Ginny and Tonks?"
"Otter and peacock," Harry and Ron answered.
"Nice," Hermione said, nodding. "Since we're alone for a second—"
"NO!" both men said with matching grins.
"There's nothing we want to talk about," Harry said.
"Nothing's bothering us," Ron added.
"Okay," Hermione said, laughing. "Just thought I'd check."
The first thing they'd done when Hermione got the pregnancy results back was to talk. They'd sent Bianca to Fred's house to play with Mirella, and then they'd talked. And talked. And talked. For three hours, they'd laid every fear, every hope, and every moderate worry on the table and discussed it. They couldn't say they'd figured everything out, but they had their eyes completely open now. They'd decided, among other things, to find out paternity before the baby was born this time. Ron had found out accidentally, having seen the birth certificate after the doctor ran the paternity test, and it had taken a meltdown for Harry to find out. This way would be easier. Hopefully. With everything out in the open, the pregnancy was running smoother than any of them had hoped. However, Hermione had taken to asking them if they were upset about anything or wanted to talk. She did this about twice a week, just in case.
"We're fine," Harry said, kissing Ron on the cheek. "See?"
"Hey! I want one too!" Hermione said, fake pouting.
Automatically, Harry and Ron leaned over and kissed her cheeks. From the doorway, they heard,
"Eew, Daddies! Stop being mushy!"
"Ah, the princess has awakened, I see," Hermione said. "I guess that means it's time to start dinner. Pork chops and gravy?"
"Woohoo!" Harry cried, jumping to his feet. He helped Hermione up as well.
"Come on, Little B," Ron said. "Let's go downstairs. You can help make the potatoes."
"Yay!" Bianca said, bouncing a little. She walked up to her mother and hugged her, putting an ear to her stomach.
"Whatcha doing, B?" Hermione asked.
"Listening for the baby," Bianca whispered.
Hermione smiled and tried hard not to tear up. Damn emotions, they were already taking the reins…. "The baby's too small to hear yet. You'll be able to in a few weeks, though. Come on, let's go help your dads with dinner."
LbN: Hope you liked it! Send reviews!!!
