A/N: Here is another chapter, for those of you who've stuck it out with me. Here is the Weasley Family Dinner.
Hermine took a deep breath as she stood in the middle of her flat, mentally preparing herself for what she was sure was going to be a nightmare of an afternoon over at The Burrow. It was to be the first time that her and Bill showed up together, the first time that anyone would find out about their relationship. She thought back on Harry and Pansy's reactions when they'd found out the week before; yeah, it wasn't going to go well. She was adjusting her black trench coat, and putting a red wool fedora on her head to stave off the chill that she would surely feel once they were outside. She didn't even realize that she was fidgeting with her hat until Bill distracted her.
"Would you stop worrying, love?" He came up and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her back to his front. "I'm sure things will be a bit strained at first, but you know mum loves you. She can't possibly stay mad at you forever."
Hermione winced at that. Mrs. Weasley was known for holding a grudge, most notably against herself back when she was only fifteen. The papers had been plastering lies about her relationship with Harry and Victor Krum all year, and when Molly'd shown up at the Triwizard Tournament at the end of the year, she'd implied that she'd believed all the stories about Hermione being little more than a trollop.
"Yeah, she sure was quick to forgive the last time she thought I was the whore of Babylon…" She was mumbling to herself, but of course Bill heard her and had to stifle a laugh at her clear nervousness.
"It'll be fine, things will work out." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head before turning her around to face him. They stood in each other's embrace for a long moment before Hermione stepped back from with a long suffering sigh.
"I suppose we should go, everyone's probably already wondering what's taking you so long." She stepped toward the floo, grabbed a handful of emerald powder, and threw it into the fire. She was gone in a swirl of green flames, ready to take on his family head-on like the Gryffindor she was back in school. He really did love that woman.
—
Bill followed Hermione through the floo, he'd thought relatively quickly, although he stopped to put a cloak on, but she was already gone from the sitting room that the fireplace resided in. He didn't hesitate to walk into the kitchen, assuming that she would have offered her assistance to his mum in preparing dinner. She wasn't in there either, but he still wasn't worried; The Burrow was a big place and there were plenty of places that she could have disappeared to by now.
"Good afternoon, mum," Bill greeted his mother, brushing a kiss across her ruddy cheek. His mother patted his shoulder in greeting before motioning him out the door.
"Your brothers are all here already, I think them and Harry were setting up for a game of Quidditch. Perhaps you could make sure your father has the tables all set out for dinner? We are expecting Kingsley, Hagrid, and Minerva tonight, as well." He nodded his head in acknowledgement, knowing that Hermione wasn't going to be happy about the additional company.
He stepped outside to a beautiful, if not a bit chilly, November day. There were sure to be scads of warming charms all around the tables that they'd be sitting at, as well as the garden and the field where they played Quidditch. He looked around for his mate, starting to get uneasy that he'd not seen her since he arrived. He spotted her over with his father, already setting the spells to keep any errant snow fall off of their heads while they eat, and the warming charms necessary for sitting outside for dinner in the middle of winter.
He walked over that way, his mother had told him to after all, and offered to help them. His father sent him off to play Quidditch with Harry, Ron, and Ginny, completely missing the saucy wink Hermione threw at the man as he walked off. He smirked to himself, enjoying the secrecy for the time being. He knew it wouldn't last, he wouldn't want it to anyway, but perhaps he could sneak her away for a bit before his family would effectively kill any mood there was between them.
"Oy, Bill! You're with me!" He looked up to see Ginny waving at him from above; looks like they were going to be playing two on two for the time being. It did cross his mind that his little sister's boyfriend was nowhere to be seen, but he thought better of asking.
—
Hermione was enjoying Arthur's company; the man was so excitable about anything Muggle. He was currently asking her questions about an electric tea kettle, understanding, of course, the tea kettle part, but not what the electric part meant. He was detailing a plan he had for tinkering with Muggle artifacts while surrounded with so much magic; he didn't want a repeat of the car incident he'd had back in 1992.
"Do you have any ideas for spells that would cut down on magical interference around Muggle artifacts?" Arthur was asking.
"Um… Well, as far as I can see, any spell used would defeat the purpose of getting away from magical interference. I can run the idea by Draco though, he's got a head for business endeavors and may already have something like that in place to deal with his contacts in the Muggle world." Her mind was wandering, and not in a wholly appropriate direction when talking to ones boyfriend's father.
"Yes, quite right you are. I hadn't thought about it in that way. Please, let me know if your friends have any suggestions. I may even bring it up to George over dinner," he was trailing off, already lost, once again, in his thoughts. Hermione decided to use that moment as a distraction for her to get away for a moment. She found herself walking in the direction of the ongoing Quidditch match. She took a moment to enjoy the way Bill's muscles rippled beneath his shirt before Pansy walked over to join her.
"I see you came. I wasn't sure if you would." The other witch was looking at the manicure on her fingers, inspecting them for non-existent chips.
"Gryffindor, remember?" Hermione stared resolutely overhead at the three Weasley siblings plus Harry swerve, duck, swoop, and dive around each other. She would never be caught dead on one of those brooms.
"Well, Slytherin, remember? We appreciate self-preservation. Harry and I will do our best to support in any way that we can once you tell everyone. Perhaps it would be best just to let everyone figure it out for themselves?" Pansy's right hand drifted down toward her slightly rounded stomach, hardly noticeable unless you squinted.
"Well, Weasley's don't do subtlety, so it will have to be some sort of announcement, I'm afraid. By the way, when do you plan to make an appointment to see me? I'll understand, of course, if you don't want to see me, given how close we are, but I can arrange for Theo or Dean to examine you." She meant the offer sincerely, wanting to make sure that everything was going well with Pansy's pregnancy, but the other woman scoffed at the suggestion.
"No offense, Hermione, but I have no intentions of letting one of my oldest friends poke around in my lady parts, nor my potential brother-in-law. It'll be you. I just-don't-I'm-," Pansy seemed unable to form a sentence all of a sudden.
"Are you afraid of bad news, Pans?" Hermione hadn't even thought that Pansy might be scared to find out how the baby was doing, it was usually difficult for pureblood women to have children. She almost missed the nearly imperceptible nod from the woman. "There could be something whether you find out or not; and if we do catch it early, most things are fixable at the early stages of fetal development. Please, make an appointment."
"Alright, alright; I'll have Harry set it up tomorrow for some time this week. He'll be thrilled that I've finally agreed, he's been trying to talk me into this for months." The two witches shared a smile, they both knew Harry well enough to know that he'd been more than a little nervous about Pansy since he first found out that she was pregnant.
"I'm going to step inside and help Molly with the food, I'm sure she's about done cooking, if not already done. Go ahead and have a seat at the table, it's rather warm over there." Hermione walked back toward the house, waving at Hagrid over in the garden, and nodding to Percy as he and his wife walked past on their way outside.
She walked into the kitchen just as Mrs. Weasley was pulling a couple of pies out of the oven. "Need any help in here, Mrs. Weasley?" She looked around the room at the dozens of dishes full of food sitting out.
"Oh, perfect timing, as always, Hermione, dear. Can you help me bring everything out to the picnic tables, and how many times do I have to remind you to call me Molly? I'll be right along behind you, I have to bring out the flatware yet." Hermione wasted no time in levitating bowl after bowl, and platter after platter full of food outside. By the time she was done arranging everything, the table was, predictably, bowing under the weight of everything. Mrs. Weasley was quick at setting up the place settings with just a flick of her wand. Years of practice made her more than proficient at taking care of her family.
Hermione found a seat about half way down the table, Bill slipping in to take the seat next to her. She shed her jacket in the magical warmth, taking note that everyone else was taking off their winter wear, as well. She found herself facing Harry and Pansy, she was sure that wasn't an accident. Just as everyone was starting to dish out the wonderful looking food onto their plates, Dean decided to grace everyone with his presence.
"Sorry for being so rude, everyone, I've spent the better part of the day at the hospital." Hermione perked up at this. She knew it was Dean's weekend to be on call, and she trusted him implicitly, but the department would always be her offspring, and curiosity peaked her interest.
"What had you in nearly all day, Dean? You could have called for help, you know." Hermione smiled kindly, scooping some cranberry jam onto her plate.
"Oh, there was just a patient having some bleeding. She's too early to give birth yet, so I did what I could to prevent anything from happening, sent her home on bed rest, and told her to come in no later than Friday for a follow up." Dean just shrugged as he took a bowl of green beans from Ginny and put some onto his plate before passing the bowl around the table.
"Well done, then. I'll see her at the follow-up this week and double check your work, but I'm sure everything is fine." She cut a piece of round steak and dipped it into the smashed potatoes and gravy before putting the bite in her mouth.
"Thank-you, Healer Granger. How was that charity event you went to? I hadn't gotten the chance to ask about it this week, and I'd heard a rumor that you and Bill Weasley were quite close there." Dean took a drink of milk from his goblet, not noticing all the looks flying around: shock, confusion, anger, happiness, suspicion.
"How lovely of you to accompany Hermione to her charity event, William, I'm sure she appreciates having someone to help it not be so awkward that she didn't have a date." Mrs. Weasley viciously stabbed a piece of cauliflower with her fork and jammed it into her mouth, silently daring anyone to contradict her.
"Mum, I was there as her date." Bill calmly continued to eat as if there wasn't an awkward undercurrent surrounding the table.
"Bill, could you pass the applesauce, please?" Ginny held her hand out for the bowl, everyone seemingly in agreement not to provoke the matron any more.
"You've just gotten divorced, Bill! Surely you can't be ready to date already?! Did you leave Fleur for her? Hmm? And Hermione, was there really no way to save their baby, or did you just tell them that so you could swoop in and steal my son away from his wife? I'd thought better of you that that, I've brought you into my home, practically raised you…" She was going on and on, each thing she said more horrible than the last. Hermione just sat there crying silent tears, having expected as much from the older woman.
"Mum, will you just leave it. They're adults and can do what-" Ginny was starting to speak up for her friend, but was cut off by that same person.
"It's alright. I'm aware how this all looks. I dreaded coming here and telling anyone because I know it looks bad." She stood up and began to put her jacket back on. "I will not be returning, Mrs. Weasley, I know how you feel about me now, probably should have realized it was sooner. Thank you for dinner, it was lovely." She walked back into the house to floo back home, not bothering to look and see if Bill was following her, knowing that he would be.
He appeared in the grate not ten seconds after she did, immediately pulling her into his arms. She sobbed into his chest for quite some time, neither bothering to move from their place in the middle of the floor. After a time, Bill scooped her up bridal style and took her into the bedroom. He took off her shoes and her jacket, laying her back on the bed for a nap. The last thing she heard as she drifted off to sleep was a very dry "Well that went well."
A/N: I didn't get a very big response to the last chapter that I posted, but I do appreciate knowing that there are at least a few people still reading. Thank you to everyone who reads and reviews, reviews are what makes me want to keep writing.