Disclaimer: JK Rowling would never do this to her characters

AN: After reading New Moon and Eclipse: Stuff Edward… Jacob Black!

"Sh, 'Mione."

Ron stroked Hermione's hair, trying to figure it out.

"But," he said. "I don't understand…how?"

"It's not you…it's Bill," Hermione wailed. "I'm s-sorry! He just really wanted a child, and he seemed really upset and lonely and I wanted to help."

"So that makes it okay to do it this way?" asked Ron, trying to keep his anger to a minimum.

Hermione sobbed harder, making Ron instinctively reach out and hug her.

"I want to talk to Bill," said Ron, taking out a quill and some parchment. "Pigwidgeon!

Bill.

Come here. Now

Ron

He put the letter in the owl's beak and watched him fly out the window, patting Hermione comfortingly.

………………………………………………..

"Mummy, when can I go and see Daddy?"

Cleo looked up at her mother through her curtain of dark brown hair, her big grey eyes pleading.

"Not today, dear," said Alicia with a sigh.

"Mum, why can't I see him?" whined Cleo. "Angie's allowed to see her mum whenever she wants and her mum's locked up in Muggle prison."

"Aunt Zoe's coming over tomorrow," said Alicia brightly, changing the subject a little too obviously. "We're going to go to Diagon Alley; you can stop by at the ice-cream parlour."

"Okay," said Cleo gloomily.

…………………………………………………….

"I didn't know that you were so against Muggle technology," said Hermione with a sniff.

"Muggle technology? Hermione, now I'm really confused."

"Er, well, there's this Muggle technology called IVF-"

"That thing," said Ron, relieved. "You mean you and Bill used IVF…why didn't you say so?"

"I never thought you'd think…what kind of wife d'you think I am?"

"I'm sorry," said Ron, placing a soft kiss on Hermione's forehead. "Well," he said, suddenly excited. "When's he or she due?"

"Six months, in September," said Hermione, now smiling. "Oh, Ron, thankyou."

"Anything to make Bill happy, so long as I get to keep you," whispered Ron against Hermione's ear.

Knock.

"Come in," said Ron as he and Hermione sat up.

"What do you want then?" asked Bill, stepping into the room while swinging his wand around. "I've got some forms to fill for work tomorrow."

"Don't you want to know whether it's a boy or a girl?" asked Ron, stepping up and taking a few potions ingredients out of the cupboard.

Hermione walked over to Bill and gave him a hug before catching up with Ron, kissing his cheek and helping sort the ingredients. Bill went to fetch a cauldron and in next to no time an Infant Gender Potion was bubbling away, the green smoke concealing the roof of the room.

Using her wand, Hermione cut off a bit of her hair and dropped it into the cauldron before stepping back and grasping the hands of both Bill and Ron with hers. Slowly, the potion changed colour to a light blue.

"Boy," said Hermione excitedly, letting go of the men's hand and clapping excitedly. "Oh that will be so much easier for you, Bill."

She embraced Bill in a bear hug, still ranting about how awful it would have been if the child was a girl.

"-and imagine how awkward the talk would have been," said Hermione as she let Bill go.

"Hermione," said Bill, cutting her off, "thankyou, for giving me a family."

"Oh, it was nothing, really," gushed Hermione, though she seemed a bit teary. "Now, we'll have to take all the baby stuff out of the shed, Ron, and get it all cleaned up. Bill, you better go and tell Mum and Dad."

"And what about you then?" asked Ron.

"I'm going to get some sleep," said Hermione, "before all this pregnancy stuff kicks in."

As she climbed into bed, Hermione shuddered at the thought of morning sickness before reminding herself what, or rather who, she was doing this for. Ron was by her side in an instant, bending down to kiss her cheek.

"Night love," he whispered, before hurrying out the door with Bill.

……………………………………………………..

Alicia lay in bed that night struggling to get to sleep. Her thoughts seemed to be locked on the conversation she and Cleo had a few hours ago.

"Mum, why can't I see him?" Cleo had asked.

Why? What was the cause of Alicia's prevention of her daughter seeing her father? It wasn't fair, and she knew it, but what was keeping her from doing what was right.

You're afraid, a voice in her head answered.

The voice sent a wave of defiance down Alicia's spine.

"I'm not," she told herself. "I'm just trying to protect Cleo."

From what?

"From a shabby future," said Alicia. "George was a bad influence."

Then why do you love him?

"I liked him because I was deluded."

And you liked the Muggle down the road because he was hot.

"So?"

You loved Fred.

"You have no proof."

"Mum?"

Cleo took a step into her mum's room, looking confused.

"Ma, stop talking to yourself, I'm trying to get to sleep."

"Oh," said Alicia, having realised what she had just did. "Sorry, Cleo. Night."

She kissed Cleo, watched her leave and tried again for sleep.

"Goodnight George," she mumbled against her pillow before she surrendered herself to her dreams. "I love you."

A pair of grey eyes from the doorway danced with delight, before Alicia's bedroom door shut quietly. Light footsteps made their way to the smaller bedroom of the house, only silenced when their owner lay in bed.

AN: Woah that chappie sucked. I'm addicted to flashing to and from scenes now – sorry. Bill&Hermione is not as bad as what I had originally planned, but I think this way they're more in character and it's more believable – but wth this story would never happen anyway – at least not the HPGW bits.