I know it's been a long break, I must apologize. Not only did I just move into a new house, but I have been asked to have a piece produced at a local theatre and needed to actually take care of writing that before drifting back into the entertaining world of Fanfiction. I also sustained a concussion… so life has been interesting.
Song for this chapter: Arms Wide Open by Creed
HPOV
"I'd like to tell Molly first on this one," I said as I rolled over in bed and snuggled a little closer to a still groggy Severus. "She's really become my mother in a way, and I feel like that means she should get to hear before my boss."
"That's fine," Severus agreed in a throaty voice, causing me to chuckle at how different he sounded before his morning ablutions.
"I guess the only question then is, do you want to come with me, or would you like me to tell her myself." I continued.
"Well I do enjoy time spent with you," he said, leaving the second half about not enjoying time with the Weasley's unsaid. "But perhaps it would be more efficient if you went to tell Molly and during that time I took care of informing our employer and the school healer so they are both prepared for any issues that could arise. I could also get that book of Poppy's for you."
"I find your terms agreeable," I said in a mock serious voice before promptly bursting into a fit of giggles. "Or like you said to me about a recent bit of news, you could just traipse on down and tell Hagrid and he'll probably take care of the rest for you."
"Yes, well you could stop by to see little Mrs. Weasley and let her spill the beans to the world as well," Severus chuckled. "But I imagine Molly would prefer to hear it from you, much like Minerva would also like to hear it from the horse's mouth."
"I think technically I'm the horse in this situation, which is unflattering by the way, but surely Minerva will not be upset in hearing it from you?" I said as my laughter died away.
"I think we are both the horse," Severus countered. "The phrase after all is that 'we are pregnant' is it not?"
"Perhaps in the wizarding world," I mused. "I know my mother always argued with my father that she was the one that carried me for nine months not the both of them."
"Let's put a pin in that debate," Severus said as he sat up in the bed. "For eternity perhaps. I don't want to argue over 'whose child it is' ever really."
"Neither do I," I smiled easily. "It's both of ours."
He nodded with a light smile and slipped out of bed heading in the direction of the shower. I pulled on a simple pink sweater. After pairing it with jeans and a pair of sandals I was ready to head to the Burrow. I called goodbye toward the bathroom and I climbed into the floo, grateful yet again that Minerva had opened the castle to outside connections keyed to staff members for access, and thus saved me a trip down to the gates to apparate.
I nearly fell on top of Molly as I stepped out of the fireplace and discovered that she was scrubbing the hearth. I made to hop over her with the momentum I had gained from spinning around upon my arrival, but she went to stand up at the same time putting us in an awkward position where my leg was hiked up over her shoulder and my balance was teetering and my arms flailing about to keep me upright.
"I need a camera!" Arthur chuckled as he hurried over to hook his arms under mine and help me balance while I pulled my leg back into a more appropriate position.
"I'm so sorry Molly," I said sincerely before I started laughing. "Apparently I fancy myself a hurdler."
"What's a hurdler?" Arthur asked while releasing his hold on me.
"I didn't realize that was a strictly muggle sport," I mused. "It's a person who runs and jumps over obstacles in their path. I was never very good at it when I was in primary school, so I haven't a clue why my instinct was to try and leap over Molly."
"What brought you hurdling out of the fireplace this morning anyway?" Molly asked. "Have you had breakfast?"
"I haven't actually," I answered as I started picking up her cleaning supplies for her. "But I came over to tell you something."
"Have a seat and I'll whip you something up," she smiled snatching the cleaning supplies away from me. "Has the morning sickness kicked in yet? Should I make something bland?"
"No it hasn't," I answered easily before my mind caught up with her words. "Wait, I haven't even told you yet, how did you know?"
"I knew the last time I saw you," Molly said, her face flushing with excitement. "You already had a bit of a glow, and you were obsessing with Ginny's baby bump which is just how I was at the beginning of each pregnancy I've ever had."
I stared at her stunned. Why hadn't she told me that she knew or at least suspected?
"I also had a feeling that the marriage had been consummated, and in my experience the forging of a complete soul bond tends to also lead to the birth of a child," Molly continued as she shuffled her supplies into the cupboard under the sink. "I wasn't sure if it would be the case for you and Severus, so I didn't say anything when you spoke to me about your suspicions."
"I never found anything about that in the books I read," I said stupidly, slipping into a seat at the table.
"I'm sure there is a lot that hasn't made it into the books," Molly sighed as she started to scramble some eggs. "And there is always the chance that couples haven't realized the two things are connected. I'm fairly certain they were as in our case two different methods of birth control failed rather spectacularly."
"That's probably enough about our sex life," Arthur chuckled, though his cheeks had grown a bit red. "Tell us, how are the two of you feeling about being pregnant?"
"Awed," I sighed happily. "Happy, excited, surprised, and perhaps a little overwhelmed."
"Sounds perfectly justified to me," Arthur smiled. "I struggle to picture what excitement looks like on the features of Severus Snape."
"Quite nice," I laughed. "He would never allow someone to see him as having gone soft, but I swear to you he was like a teddy bear last night. I think he is far more excited about this than he thought he would be."
"Have the two of you thought about how you want to approach childrearing?" Molly asked as she plated the eggs.
"Only in vague terms," I told her as I took the plate of eggs eagerly. "We talked about children once as we walked around the lake, and we discussed that neither of us wanted to raise children in the castle. I have to talk to Severus to see if we are still on the same page, but I think I'll be turning in my resignation so that I could be a stay at home mother."
"I've always supported that choice," Molly smiled as she joined me at the table. "I have never liked the idea of children being home alone. Though I suppose you couldn't really be alone in a castle."
"I'd like to get a real house to live in if I am not going to be teaching at the castle." I said, daydreaming of a yard with a tire swing. "Maybe in Hogsmeade, or the outskirts of London?"
"There is a property nearby for sale," Arthur offered lightly, not looking up from the paper he had collected from the center of the table. "It only houses a one bedroom farm house at the moment, but if a witch and wizard were to buy it that would be remedied rather quickly."
"I will mention it to Severus," I said, offering him a beaming smile.
I thought it was sweet how he didn't want to seem too possessive, but still wanted me nearby at the same time. I found I loved the idea of being so close to my surrogate parents, but who knew if Severus would be pleased with the idea. I would have to bring it up while he was in a very good mood.
"Mum, are you making eggs?" Ginny's voice called down the stairs, and my interested peeked, had she slept here the night before.
"Yes honey, I'll bring you some up," Molly called, and I notice that her brow constricted quickly. "Why don't you get back in bed?"
A partially muffled grumble floated down the stairs, but there were no steps coming down to the kitchen, so it seemed she had listened to Molly and gotten back into bed. I turned curious eyes on Molly and saw her fretting around the stove, clearly upset by the fact that Ginny had gotten out of bed though she wasn't saying anything.
"Is Ginny having a vacation?" I asked delicately, not wanting to ask the question that I was actually concerned with.
"She and Harry are staying her with us for the rest of the pregnancy," Arthur explained while Molly continued fussing with the eggs. "Work is forcing Harry to travel quite a bit right now, and we didn't want Ginny to be left alone considering."
"Considering?" I asked lightly.
"Ginny has been very ill," Molly said stiffly, her back still turned away, though it didn't hide the emotion in her voice. "The healer detected possible heart issues with the baby."
"She's supposed to be staying in bed," Arthur explained as Molly started viscously attacking the eggs with a spatula. "You know how Ginny is though, even dizzy spells can't keep her tucked away in bed for very long."
"It's not some cute little personality quirk Arthur, they could both die, and she's too stubborn to admit that a trip down the stairs for breakfast just isn't worth it," Molly snapped, slamming the pan onto a cool burner. "I can't handle this Arthur, she needs to listen."
"Do you want me to talk to her?" I asked quietly, trying to hide how nervous Molly's reaction was making me.
"No, I will talk to her, I need to take her breakfast up to her anyway," Molly snapped before she rounded on me and the anger fell out of her face. "I'm sorry Hermione, I don't mean to be snippy."
"It's okay Molly," I assured her, watching her with growing worry as she hurried up the stairs.
"It's not as dire a situation as it appears to be," Arthur explained quietly as he turned his attention to me. "She needs to stay in bed so she doesn't stress herself or the baby, but a trip from her bed to the top of the stairs isn't going to cause enough stress to either of them for any real issue. Molly is just struggling to understand the situation."
"Isn't there some potion that she could take, or a spell?" I asked, my eyes wandering to the ceiling, as if I could see the above room through the construction that separated us.
"There are surprisingly few things that a healer can do whilst a baby remains unborn," Arthur sighed. "I read up on a few muggle options but Molly doesn't even want to hear them. I have sent them along to Harry so he can try and bring it up with Ginny and perhaps have a little more luck."
"Is there anything I can do?" I asked.
"Honestly, just visiting with her would help, I know she's bored out of her mind," he said with a light chuckle, though I saw there were still lines of worry around his eyes.
"Do you think I should perhaps hold off telling her my bit of news," I asked him quietly as Molly's footsteps on the stairs.
"You should tell her," he said with a smile. "She suspected as well as Molly, so she'll be quite happy to hear she was right. She could use a bit of cheering up to be honest."
"Ginny wants you to go up and see her," Molly said as she joined us in the kitchen. "If you need to get back for lessons I can let her know."
"There are no muggle studies lessons today," I said with a grin. "I will eventually have to go back to the castle to talk logistics with Severus, but for now I can devote my day to Ginny."
I slipped out of my chair and hurried up the stairs. I wondered vaguely if stairs would become a probably as I grew larger, but for now they seemed just fine as I jogged up them to check on Ginny. The door on the leading into Ginny's room was propped open, and I could see her sitting back against a stack of pillows with her breakfast in her lap before I entered the room. She was a little pale, but other than that you could hardly tell that there was anything wrong with her.
"Don't just hover in the doorway," Ginny chuckled. "Despite what my mother says I am not knocking on death's door. Come sit with me, I'm dying for a bit of girl talk."
"So you have to stay in bed for the next four months?" I asked her with a quirked brow as I followed her instruction and went to sit on the foot of the bed. "You're going to lose your mind aren't you?"
"It's not so bad when Harry is here," she sighed as she scooped up a bit of egg on her fork. "Besides I won part of the battle. I have a doctor's appointment and Mum has agreed to let me walk down to the car to make the trip."
"I won't annoy you by asking if that's safe," I said lightly but with an air that reminded me quite a bit of Severus. "Instead I will ask how you and the little mister are feeling."
"Not too bad this morning," she said her hand going to her stomach as if it were second nature at this point. "I haven't had any dizzy spells at all this morning."
"Are you scared?" I asked.
"I go back and forth between terrified and resigned honestly." She admitted quietly. "I've been doing some reading, and it's a bit disturbing how high the infant mortality rate is."
"Well amongst magic folk anyway," I said lightly, laying a bit of the ground work for Arthur and Harry. "At least that's what I hear. Severus and I are planning to seek magical and muggle medical care."
"So you are pregnant then?" Ginny asked her face lighting up like a small child on Christmas.
"Yes," I gushed. "I'm just about a month along now, assuming I have the conception date right of course."
"And when would that be?" she asked with an evil grin.
"I assume its April 10th, the same date as the proposal but don't you dare tell Molly," I told her conspiratorially. "I suppose I won't know for certain until we have our first appointment and talk about due dates and all of that."
"My first appointment was so exciting," she mused, rubbing circled on her baby bump. "It took me long enough to realize that I was pregnancy rather than having a flu that at my first appointment I got to hear the heartbeat even though you are supposed to have to wait quite a while for that."
"What was it like?" I asked her my voice going all misty without my permission.
"I should probably say it's just like any other heartbeat, save being a little fast," she explained. "But it isn't. It's like... the first spell you ever cast, except its multiplied by about a thousand."
"What does it feel like?" I asked, somewhat embarrassed. "I already feel… different, but what will it be like later."
"At first I just felt changed because I knew I was pregnant," Ginny said. "But a few weeks into the pregnancy my magic connected to the magic growing in my son and it was like suddenly I could never be lonely. There is this person that is always with me. I wouldn't say that I can read his thoughts, but I can sort of feel what he feels as he grows and begins to experience more of the world around him."
She paused and I mused about how that connection would differ from the one I felt with Severus.
"I remember the change that happened when he was first able to hear," Ginny said and there was such reverence in her voice that she hardly looked the same girl I had gone to school with anymore. "We were sitting in the living room and Harry was talking to me about quidditch. Once minute it was just a normal evening, and the next minute our little James heard him and there was this striking wave of possessiveness and love. He hadn't even been born just yet, but he clearly already knows who his father is."
"Is it hard," I asked, this time feeling guilty. "Morning sickness, and a changing body, and everything that comes with creating life?"
"It's not easy, but there is no question as to if it is worth it," she beamed. "I've graduated Hogwarts, I've made it on to a competitive quidditch team, I have fought in the war against Voldemort, but nothing has felt as monumental as this does."
I was struck by how very different our lives had become. I could never say such a phrase as she had just done, but perhaps one days I would say something that equated to the same thing. Would I one day be speaking to a nervous young mother and telling her that nothing had changed my life as much as this? Not discovering I was a witch, or the horrible and destructive attack that had torn my soul from my body for such a long time, or perhaps even my return to the wizarding world. Would I find it more moving than my soul bond to Severus, or would it fall on the same level? I wanted all of the answers to my questions, but I would not have the answers for many months yet.
"What are you most worried about?" I asked Ginny quietly.
"This illness," Ginny admitted, and for the first time she looked feeble. "I've tried to play it cool with Mum, but I'm terrified. I've never had cause to try and understand how the human heart works, but now it's all I can think about. How it is supposed to work, and how my little James's doesn't seem to do that."
"What is the issue with his heart?" I asked her quietly, delicately.
"There were a lot of words that I didn't understand," Ginny said quietly, continuing the gentle circles on her stomach. "But what they all mean is that half of his heart it just too small. It's working double time to try and keep everything pumping."
I found no words to respond with. What did you say when someone told you that their child had a potentially fatal birth defect? How was it even possible to look them in the eye and think of how much pain they must be in? It wasn't. I couldn't.
"Oh Ginny," I groaned.
"I just keep telling myself that it will work out," she said, her eye fluttering closed at the threat of tears. "Something will work out, somehow the stars will align or magic will come through, or just something. I can't let myself think anything else of I will just stop."
"Keep the faith," I said with a smile even though neither of us were religious, it just seemed like the right thing to say.
"Hermione could you help Ginny down the stairs," Molly called up the stairs. "We'll need to head out soon if we are going to make it to St. Mungo's on time."
"Should be fun, it's like trying to maneuver a bloated hippogriff," Ginny chuckled as she shuffled herself out from under the blankets.
"I don't know, I've not ever seen a hippogriff wearing a dress that manages to look both cute and comfortable." I shot off with a giggle of my own.
I understood a little better what she meant when it was time to maneuver the stairs. The Burrow stairs had always been cramped but they seemed to shrink when presented with the already very pregnant body of Ginny. In the end I had to walk backwards down the stairs while holding onto her arm that wasn't latched on to the railing. She could walk just fine, but I understood better why she wasn't allowed to use the stairs on her own when she got dizzy near the bottom and swayed on her feet before she latched onto my arm tighter and I helped her to regain her balance.
"Okay there?" I asked her quietly as we managed the last few steps with less speed.
"Yeah, just tired." She whispered. "Please don't tell mum or she'll levitate to the car again, and I swear I would kill to feel the grass beneath my feet for just a second."
"Is grass worth the risk?" I asked her in a hushed whisper as we shuffled the last bit of distance before we would enter the kitchen.
"That spell was just for a second," she replied easily. "It's the longer ones that we really have to worry about. Muuum, I said I wouldn't put on shoes until we got in the car!"
I turned to see what had set her off, and there was Molly advancing on us with a pair of sandals in her hands.
"I'm just coming to take Hermione's place," Molly grumbled. "Don't get yourself in a tissy. Honestly Ginny I don't know what's gotten in to you today."
"She's going to an appointment without Harry," Arthur pointed out quietly as he opened the door for the group. "If all we get is a fit over shoes I think we should count ourselves lucky."
And just like that the fight disappeared from Molly, and though Ginny looked a little sheepish the tightness of her shoulders released. I wondered if Arthur had read his wife before offering such a comment or if he was just simply that intuitive. Would Severus handle me just as easily if I worked myself into a fit? Could I do that to him?
I was still pondering the innumerable ways that a soul bond could change the way I maneuvered through my life when we stepped out into the yard, and I saw a Ginny that I hadn't seen in nearly a decade. It didn't matter that she was round with child or paler than I had ever seen a Weasley be, he face was suddenly years younger as she tilted her head up to the sun with a beaming smile and slid her feet smoothly through the grass beneath her.
"You can come along to the appointment if you want," Arthur told me quietly as Molly helped Ginny into the car. "We don't want to just run you off or anything."
"No that's okay," I told him with a soft smile. "I don't think I am composed enough, and the last thing she needs right now is for me to burst into tears while she's confronted with more information about congenital heart defects."
"It's pretty scary," Arthur admitted as he started to work his way towards the car. "We're still trying to perfect the game face so that we don't increase the anxiety. Harry is much better at it."
"Harry Potter?" I asked with a bit of a scoff. "The boy famous for his fiery temper?"
"People change," Arthur shrugged, and I wondered if he was talking about me too.
"Yes they do," I nodded, but my mind wandered to a softer Severus instead of lingering on the ways that I had hardened. "I'll try to stop by soon, and maybe I can drag daddy along."
"We'd love to have Severus over again," Arthur chuckled. "Maybe this time he will actually take a seat at the table."
"Oh I don't know, that's a bit of a venture, three feet away from the wall?" I chuckled. "Is it alright if I floo back from the kitchen?'
"Of course Hermione," he called back before slipping into the car and starting the engine.
"Well it looks like you're due date is roughly January first," healer Jones said as she folded the blanket on the bottom of the bed and tapped my legs in a silent announcement that I could put them down.
"A New Year's baby," Severus chuckled light and dark at the same time. "I'm sure he or she will really appreciate us for that one."
"It could lead to some very entertaining birthday parties," I offered with a shrug. "Besides, I always thought that Baby New Year was adorable."
"All babies are adorable," healer Jones pointed out as she started producing vials of potion from her pockets. "There however are not cute or tasty, but they are full of vitamins that all growing babies and their mother's need. It's very concentrated so just three drops a day. These should last through the duration of the pregnancy."
She stopped speaking, for which I was grateful because I was distracted by the sound of Severus's thoughts whispering in the back of my mind. Not a drop of that until I've tested it he was thinking, and I could feel his growing discontentment over ceasing to brew for the hospital. Clearly he didn't trust whoever was brewing for them to do a good job, but after my visit with Ginny I wasn't so sure I wouldn't rather be taking plain old prenatal vitamins.
"I'd like to see you back in a month, but don't hesitate to floo call me or come in if there is anything out of the ordinary or disconcerting," healer Jones said as she stepped towards the concealed opening in the privacy screen.
"Thank you," I told her with a smile and as soon as she was gone I turned to Severus. "How long do we have before we have to be at the other appointment?"
"About ten minutes," he told me as he produced my clothes for me to put them back on. "We'll be cutting it close without apparition."
"Well healer Jones didn't seem to think it would be detrimental," I conceded. "Perhaps I've been a bit over cautious after my visit to the Burrow."
"I wish I had gone with you," he sighed in frustration. "At least you would not have been alone while hearing a horror story about pregnancy."
"Well you're with me now," I said with a soft smile. "And you're a potion's master, and we are going to the best doctors either of our worlds can offer, I have faith that we will not suffer the same fate. Besides little James will be fine. He can't be anything else."
"Certainly not," Severus said with conviction, but I didn't miss the twitch of his brow that betrayed what he really thought.
