Chapter 36

This was not happening...for Merlin's sake, this was not happening!

I clutched at my stomach, giving a wince and looked around to try and figure out what I should do; Rose was still asleep, and I was definitely not going to attempt to wake her up again. I clambered out of bed and over to the window - Pig was outside, asleep with his head under one of his tiny wings - and found a scrap of paper; since I had no idea where Ron was, I was going to have to owl Kingsley first.

Minister,

This is Hermione Weasley: it's happening. Tell Ron soon, I need him.

Hermione

I opened the window, causing Pig to startle awake and peer at me; once he saw the letter he hooted excitedly. "Shh!" I muttered, attaching the parchment to his leg. "You'll wake Rose up... Take this to Kingsley."

Pig gave a hoot and took off immediately, flying away so quickly that he had disappeared completely within three seconds.

Okay, okay... Ginny. She'll help.

Unfortunately, with Pig gone, I didn't have an owl to deliver the message - I picked up my wand from the bedside drawer and hurriedly muttered, "Expecto Patronum!" under my breath. A small silver light appeared but faded quickly.

Happy thoughts...happy thought... I closed my eyes and thought of Ron, of what it would be like once the baby had arrived: the joy and happiness. "Expecto Patronum!"

This time my otter patronus appeared, fully-formed and silver, waiting for my instructions; I hurriedly relayed a message to send with it to Ginny and watched it scamper away. I knew that Ginny would tell Molly and Arthur immediately, so now I just had to get myself to St. Mungo's before I had the baby on the bedroom floor.

There was nothing else I could do. I carefully shook Rose awake, ignoring the contractions I was feeling, and smoothed back her hair from her face. "Come on, Rose. We've got to go."

She looked up at me blearily, not too pleased at being woken so soon. "Go?"

"To see baby brother," I told her, nodding and giving her a small smile. "Come on, Daddy will be there too."

Rose brightened up and nodded, pushing herself into a sitting position and beaming. "Daddy be there?!"

"Yes, of course," I gritted out, holding out my hand for her to take. "To do that we need to get to the hospital... You'll see Grandpa and Grandma there too."

Flooing with toddlers was not exactly the safest idea, but I couldn't apparate there: apparation could have hurt Hugo, and I wouldn't have been able to concentrate properly, what with the contractions, so there was a chance of splinching either myself or Rose.

Being early morning, there were very few people waiting at St. Mungo's for a Healer; it was only a minute later that I was hurriedly explaining to a Healer that I was in labour and that I had no idea what to do with Rose yet.

"Her grandparents should be here soon," I muttered as an older woman lead me down a corridor. "The Weasleys; it should be too long..."

"Of course," The Healer - Healer Mulroney - agreed patiently. "And what about the father of the baby? Where is here?"

I bit my lip. "I don't know; I mean, he's on an Auror mission," I added hurriedly at the look I received. "I've contacted the Ministry to try and track him down."

I was placed in a room a few minutes later, left to change out of my pyjamas and into a gown, while we waited for a family member to arrive. Rose was left to play on the floor with some toys that a Healer had brought in to keep her entertained for the time being; from across the room I could hear her chanting about her 'baby bwother. Oo-go' arriving.

"Mrs Weasley?" Someone asked timidly, and I looked up to see a different Healer than before. "There are several people in the waiting room requesting to see you; a bunch of red-haired folk..."

"Oh, yes," I said, nodding my head and getting up to pick up Rose. "Send them in for a minute, please."

The Healer nodded and set off; about half a minute later Molly and Ginny walked in. Even though Ron wasn't here yet, I was still glad to see some of the family too and sent them a small smile.

"Are you in a lot of pain, Hermione?" Molly asked briskly, taking Rose off of me and pressing a kiss against her forehead. "Have you messaged Ron? Oh, no, tell me that the baby isn't arriving too soon, because he'll be devastated if he misses it-"

"No," I interrupted, shaking my head. "We've still got a long while to go yet - and, yes, I've messaged Kingsley so that he can try and find Ron before it's too late." I sat back on the bed and sighed. "I told him not to go on that mission, for goodness sake, but no..."

Ginny gave a small snort. "I'm sure he's kicking himself, Hermione - and now you can tell him that you told him so."

The thought didn't bring much comfort - because, honestly, I was torn between wanting him to help and wanting to kill him.

Half an hour later, Ron still hadn't made an appearance - I was starting to get quite worried: what if Kingsley couldn't find him? What if something bad had happened to him and Harry? Honestly, those two put themselves in too much danger all the time.

Ginny would occasionally waddle in and out of the room, staying for five minutes until her back started to ache and she had to sit down.

"No sign of him?" I asked hopefully the third time she entered the room.

Ginny shook her head. "Not yet. When he does show up, though, I'm going to hex his balls off."

I was so exhausted that I didn't even bother commenting on that threat.

Finally, at about five in the morning, there was some news: a Healer rushed in and gave me a letter. "This arrived for you from the Ministry, Mrs Weasley."

"Thank You," I muttered quickly, not even waiting until she left to rip open the letter; the writing was quite neat, and I immediately knew who it would be.

Hermione,

I am currently waiting for my message to reach your husband and Harry Potter; I have told them to abandon the mission and apparate to St. Mungo's (presuming that is where you are) as soon as possible.

Congratulations and Good Luck.

Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minster of Magic.

"They haven't even found him yet?" I asked myself under my breath, quite worried by this news; the way this was going, Ron wasn't going to be here to see Hugo being born. I sighed and set the letter down on the table next to the hospital bed I was in: the contractions were getting longer and more intense, and I knew deep down that it would only be another hour or so until I had to start pushing.

"The whole family's outside," Ginny told me ten minutes later when she wandered in again, hands over her stomach. "It's funny - everyone but Ron himself is here for this."

"That's hardly funny," I snapped icily, not even looking up.

Ginny's smile faded and she gave me a hard look. "Fine then. Sorry for trying to lighten the mood."

"Sorry," I gritted out heavily, shaking my head apologetically. "I just... I need him to be here. I mean, I know what to do but...but he can't miss this! This is our son, for Merlin's sake... And I told him not to go on that damn mission!"

My sister-in-law just gave me a sympathetic look. "He'll be here soon, Hermione - do you really think Harry's going to let him miss it?" She gave an amused laugh. "And imagine what Mum would say if he missed it; she's still rather skilled at sending Howlers, you know."

The thought of Molly sending him a Howler did, admittedly, cheer me up.

Ginny and I talked for another twenty minutes, and I was extremely glad that she was there; it really helped me distract myself, and she even managed to get a few laughs out of me. She was in the middle of telling me a rather dirty wand joke when the door to the room slammed open and cut her off.

And there was Ron, covered from head-to-toe in dirt and looking extremely untidy.

"Bloody Hell!" He exclaimed, rushing forwards to envelope me in a hug. "I only just got the owl, I swear-"

"It's fine," I managed, giving him a small squeeze. Ginny just sent me a look before leaving the room, clearly wanting to give us a moment to catch up. "Nothing too interesting has happened yet... Although, I would like to remind you that I did tell you that Hugo was going to arrive very soon."

Ron cowered slightly at my glare. "Yeah, but...I'm here now, right? I didn't miss it!"

"Hmm," I conceded, raising an eyebrow at him. "I suppose that's true. How was the mission going anyway?"

"A bloody waste of time," Ron muttered, looking quite annoyed. "We were camped out in a ditch for twenty four hours waiting for the guy to leave his...well, this place he was using to hide... We were about to break in when Kingsley's patronus arrived." He eyed the bathroom to the left of the room for a second before looking back at me. "Uhh...maybe I should...you know..."

I nodded in approval. "Yes, go and clean yourself up; I'm sure the healers won't let you stay in here with all of that dirt on you."

It seemed that Ron had arrived just in time; half an hour later I had not only gone into labour but also delivered baby Hugo safely.

"Congratulations," One of the Healers who had been assisting us said, smiling at us radiantly. "A very handsome and healthy little boy."

I lifted my arms up to hold him and immediately smiled when he was placed into them; he really was adorable, with his freckles dotted across his face already and a peaceful look on his face while he got to sleep.

"Blimey," Ron muttered, looking quite awestruck. "He's...He's got a full head of hair already."

"Yes," I agreed, chuckling to myself. "A full head of red hair, just like his big sister." I brushed some of the hair away from Hugo's face and gave a content sigh. "He's so amazing, Ron - he looks like you."

Ron gave a small snort, not too loud in case it woke our son up. "You said that about Rosie, love - besides, I don't want him to look completely like me." He looked between Hugo and me, nodding slowly to himself. "Yeah. Maybe he'll get your eyes or something."

Even though I was utterly exhausted - and Ron probably was too, considering the fact he'd been on a mission for the past two days - I couldn't have been more content than I was then, sitting on that bed with Hugo in my arms.

A bit of cheese to cheer the Romione fandom up :D

No, but honestly, here's my two cents: she never said she regretted Ron/Hermione OR that she shipped Harry/Hermione - she's saying that Romione got together because SHE wanted them to, not to prove a literary point (the whole 'sidekick-gets-the-girl-and-not-hero-for-once' thing).

LONG STORY SHORT: Rowling is merely saying that she wasn't trying to make a literary stand and possibly that it's not what would occur in real life. Either that, or this story is completely false and made up by the newspapers. The news is over-dramatizing this so much it's ridiculous.

Well...that's what I believe anyway. Of course, being a Romione shipper, I'm slightly biased, so...yeah. That's just my opinion: based on the fact that JK Rowling is one of the biggest Ron/Hermione shippers out there as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll try to update soon!