Chapter 35

I was fat. Honestly, I looked like I had swallowed a beach ball - or, as George often put it, a Quaffle - for Merlin's sake!

Oh, and I had such a loving and supportive family to add to it.

"Mama big!" Rose would cry whenever she saw me, giggling cheekily to herself. I would glare at Ron then: it was clearly from him that she had inherited her mischievous nature from, considering I certainly wasn't as blunt.

Being about thirty-eight weeks pregnant by this point, it was quite safe to assume that Hugo could appear at any given moment; a lot earlier than that I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks, which terrified the life out of Ron enough to take a few months off work to help out with the baby in case they popped out soon. I was also starting to worry slightly; giving birth was, as I had learnt, not as easy as I had assumed. Although, it was bound to be less painful this time considering I'd done it once already.

I told myself that, although I hadn't the foggiest idea if it was true or not.

"Oh!...Oh!" Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ron jolt up from the sofa, looking completely terrified. "I'm fine! J-Just one of those Braxton Hicks again."

He sat back, looking somewhat relieved and yet somewhat disappointed. "Right...yeah... 'course. Still, can't blame me, can you?" Rosie toddled up to him, grinning gaily at him. "Ah! There's my best girl!"

"And what am I then?" I questioned jokingly, rubbing at my round stomach.

"Err..." He went bright red. "Well, you're...uhm... You're my best woman, right?" Rose gurgled at him to regain his attention and started tugging at his shirt sleeve to follow her; he simply laughed. "What? Another adventure?"

Our daughter shook her head and pointed upwards. "No - Owl!"

It was only then that we noticed that a handsome tawny owl had been waiting at the window to be let inside, ruffling his feathers and flapping his wings every so often. "Oh, right." Ron muttered, standing up to open the window. "Bloody birds...wait, is that a letter?"

Rose reached her arms out for the owl: he gave her a slightly puzzled look, clearly not used to toddlers demanding his attention, and set off again out of the window.

"What does the letter say?" I asked, watching Ron as he scanned the letter: his eyes widened and his shoulders slumped. "Ron, tell me what's going on!"

He gave a heavy sigh. "Bloody gits..." He held up the letter. "You won't believe what this is."

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. "Surely it's not a brief for a mission?!"

"Yeah, a pretty important - and it's scheduled for next week."

"Next week?!" I shrieked, glaring at him. "You can't go on a mission next week, Ronald Weasley! I'm having the baby any day now, and I am not being left with a toddler and a new-born - I could give birth next week!"

"I know!" Ron defended hurriedly. "I mean, I told Harry that I couldn't, and he said that he'd try to arrange a different date to go... Obviously he couldn't." He shrugged uselessly. "What am I meant to do, 'Mione? It's been approved by the Minister."

This was not happening - it was not. "You are not going," I seethed, narrowing my eyes. "Kingsley is the Minister; just owl him and tell him what's going on! Tell him that you can't, he'll understand!"

"Alright, alright!" He muttered, quite alarmed by my reaction. "Fine. I'll send Pig over to the Ministry and say that I can't do it; I mean, it shouldn't be too difficult that the newbies can't do it, right?"

Apparently it was.

"How many wizards are going to attempt to repeat Voldemort's actions for Merlin's sake?" I snapped crossly, extremely angered. "He's gone - these people are delusional."

"Crazy," Ron agreed. "But dangerous to the wizarding population."

I stared at him in disbelief. "Surely you're not going, Ron."

Ron went bright red. "Look, it's not like I want to! But this guy... Hermione, he blew up five muggle homes last week. Imagine if that had been, I dunno, your parents or something..." He stopped at the look I gave him. "There haven't been any deaths yet, just injuries, but if we put it off much longer: who knows?"

"But... Hugo is arriving soon," I stressed, gesturing to my pregnant belly. "What am I going to do if you're not here when I go into labour? And you are not missing his birth, Ron: he is your son-"

"Yeah, I know," Ron interrupted. "It shouldn't take more than a couple of days though; besides, Kingsley said that he'd keep an eye on you... Like, if you do go into labour than you have to send him an owl, and then he'll try and get the message to me."

I raised an eyebrow: I was pretty sure a troll would be able to see the flaw in that plan. "Ron, the point of being on a mission is that no one knows where you are: how is he meant to message you if he doesn't know where you are?"

To that he just grinned knowingly. "He'll send a Patronus. They're pretty great at finding people." The look on my face must have shown that I didn't feel all too reassured, so he continued. "Hermione, think about it: if I do this then we'll get more money. With a baby on the way, we need that money."

I bit my lip. "But...But can't you just postpone it? Maybe until Hugo's a couple of months old?"

"This guy is bloody nuts," Ron repeated seriously. "The sooner we get rid of him the better." He put an arm around me. "Look, this will be easy: he's messy and he leaves a trail wherever he goes - plus, Harry's going too, and I don't see Ginny complaining."

"That's because she isn't due for another seven weeks," I said dryly. "This baby is due in one and a half, Ron. He could decide to arrive at any moment and you can't miss it."

Ron shook his head quickly. "I won't, I won't. Come on, 'Mione: would I really miss it?"

It was the only the next morning that Ron was dispatched for the mission with Harry; at least it was sooner than later, although I still couldn't help but worry about what would happen if I did go into labour while he was gone.

Rose immediately noticed his absence; she looked around the kitchen with a confused and sad look. "Where Daddy?"

"He's working," I told her absent-mindedly, trying to spoon some food into her mouth. She refused to open her mouth, looking more worried than ever. "Come on, Rose: it's only a couple of days-"

"I want Daddy!" She announced stubbornly, squirming in her seat.

I sighed; I hadn't quite anticipated this beforehand, and now I was rather stuck. I could only think of one way to get her to eat now. "Tell you what, if you eat this then we'll go and play with James and Al."

Rose regarded me for a moment, pursing her lips. "Yes," She gave in finally, allowing me to feed her. Thankfully I wasn't having to work anymore, what with the baby being due soon, so there wasn't any rush to get her to finish her breakfast; this was quite handy, considering how she suddenly became aware of what the bump on my stomach actually meant.

"Baby bwother?" Rose asked, pointing to my belly. "Oo-go."

"That's right," I agreed tiredly, giving her a small nod. "Hugo, your baby brother."

She blinked, thinking hard for a moment. "When bwother be here?"

"Soon," I answered - she probably wouldn't have a clue as to how long two weeks really was. "You know, when he gets bigger you'll be able to play with him."

Rose folded her arms protectively across her chest. "Not toys - my toys." She paused. "Daddy mine too - you mine too. Bwother not having you. Mine."

My, was she protective for such a small girl. I laughed and tweaked her nose affectionately. "Hugo can have me and Daddy too - you can both share us, you know: and I think he'll want some toys of his own, so you can keep yours."

Rose gave a nod of approval. "Good. My toys, Mummy."

"Yes, sweetie," I muttered, rolling my eyes good-naturedly. "They're your toys."

When we arrived at Grimmauld Place to visit Ginny, it became obvious that not only James and Albus were wreaking havoc - Teddy had joined in too. Andromeda greeted me, looking somewhat sheepish.

"I thought he'd like to play with James and Al," She explained, looking quite flustered. "I told him to behave, but...well, boys will be boys I suppose." There was a smashing noise and Rose giggled as she ran off to join in, running past Ginny as she did so. "I'm so sorry, Ginny: I didn't realize that Ted would be so...so..."

"It's fine," Ginny muttered, looking quite drawn and exhausted. "I can handle three little boys, you know: I grew up with six brothers, and I'm more than capable of dealing with those three."

Andromeda shook her head firmly. "No, it's not fair: you're expecting a baby, for Merlin's sake, and you shouldn't be stressed out. And Hermione," She paused, looking over my appearance. "Well, you look as if you're going to pop very soon, dear, and I'm sure you've got a lot on your mind already."

"Actually, coming over here is less stressful," I laughed, waving a hand to dismiss the previous statement. "Rose is quite a handful without Ron around; it was such a job getting her to eat breakfast this morning, and I just hope that he'll be back soon."

Ginny snorted. "Good luck with bedtime; I can already tell you that James won't go to sleep because Harry won't be there to tell him about 'the stag that lived and killed a snake'."

"That's how he tells it?" I asked, and she nodded. "Well, that's rather...he's...uhm..."

"Not very inventive, is he?" My sister-in-law smirked at me, raising an eyebrow. "What does Ron tell Rose then?"

I shrugged, not really very sure myself: apart from a few odd occasions I had never really heard their interactions at bedtime. "I think he just reads to her out of storybooks - men honestly aren't very creative sometimes."

The mess that the children had left spanned most of the corridors and rooms in the house; it was lucky that we could just wave our wands and clean up, otherwise it would have taken hours to do just one area. Finally we ended up in what I presumed to be Teddy's room; they were all running around, gurgling and yelling random words at each other. It wasn't until Teddy spoke that we realized exactly what they were playing.

"Stupefy!" Teddy yelled, laughing to himself as he pointed a finger at James.

James just giggled excitedly. "Expelli!"

Rose straightened up and pointed at Albus proudly. "Wing'ar-um 'evi'sa!"

That's my girl, I thought, pleased that most of it had been correct: the 'gar' (or rather, 'ar') not too long, of course.

"Oh, Merlin," Ginny muttered, quickly intervening. "Okay, that's enough pretend-magic for now - let's not destroy the house!"

Teddy frowned at her. "But we're not actually doing magic, Aunt Ginny - we're playing." He pointed at James, Rose and Albus. "They're students at Hogwarts because they're little, and I'm the teacher." He puffed his chest out. "I'm the best, because my parents were the best."

"Hey!" James protested, glaring at Teddy. "'m not little! I'm older than Al and Rose!"

In the end, the only way we could appease all five of them was by sitting them downstairs and using our wands to conjure magic sparks; they all gave pleased noises at them (even Teddy, who was nine) and clapped afterwards. By the time Rose and I managed to leave Al and Rose had fallen asleep while James and Teddy settled down to watch a movie of some kind on television.

I honestly couldn't wait for Ron to be finished on this damn mission.

I woke up at about three the next morning to Rose tapping me urgently and squirming on the spot.

"Mummy? Mummy?" She asked pleadingly. "Sleep with you?"

I didn't even open my eyes, patting the spot on the bed next to me. Rose immediately crawled in and underneath the covers, pressing herself against me; I wrapped my arms around her, glad that I had someone to cuddle with while Ron was gone. Granted it was somewhat of a squeeze, considering that I was heavily pregnant and my stomach was in the way, but it wasn't long until Rose was snoring softly in her sleep.

I, however, found that my stomach was starting to cramp quite a lot; I thought to myself that it was just Hugo shifting around and trying to get comfortable. No matter how much time passed though, I found that my stomach cramps just got worse...in fact, I was quite uncomfortable, more so than I had been so far.

And then I felt the tell-tale trickle between my legs that could only mean one thing.

Hugo was on his way.