THIRTY-ONE

Thursday, 3 December 2020; twenty-five weeks

Hermione's mood continued to improve throughout the day. So much so that when she got home, she marched right up to the nursery. She hadn't stepped foot inside the room or so much as glanced at the door since Thanksgiving. She went over the crib where the single set of baby monitors were resting atop the blanket. They were still in their package as she hadn't felt the need to open them with her due date still a few months away.

But she threw that plan out the window in favor of the one she had come up with on the way home.

Package in hand, she went back out into the hall and straight into James' room. She knew he would be home soon. Lately he'd been leaving a tad early so that they would get home at nearly the same time. With that in mind, she worked fast. She wanted to have them set up before he walked through the door. It was just as she was plugging the receptor into the wall that she heard the front door open from down stairs. He called her name and she told him where she was as she picked up the packaging she'd had to destroy and chucked it into the bin in the bathroom.

"Everything okay?" he asked, his brow quirked as she emerged from the bathroom the moment he crossed the threshold.

She nodded, giving him a smile. She saw the moment the blinking green light indicating the monitor was on flashed and drew his attention. He did a double take at the sight of the monitors on her side of the bed. Slowly, he looked back at her, his brows furrowing slightly as he met her gaze once more.

She swallowed hard and made her way to him, taking his hands in hers. "Tell me if I'm overstepping," she pleaded, her voice trembling slightly despite how hard she fought to keep it from happening. "I couldn't have done any of this without you and I can never thank you enough for that."

The pause she took to inhale was enough to make her lose her nerve.

James picked up on it though and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles as his other hand came up to rest beneath her chin. This thumb resting against the bottom of her lower lip. "Last I checked, we only had one pair of monitors."

She nodded and squeezed his hand as she found her voice. "I know I've been sleeping in here while still having a room down the hall. And I never want to come across as presumptuous, but what you said at the hospital-"

"Is this your way of asking if you can move in?" he asked, one brow lifting just a tad.

Her nod was meek. "Yes, but I understand if you don't-"

He cut her off by slanting his mouth over hers. He let go of her hand in favor of laying it on her waist as his other hands flattened along her jaw and slid back into her curls. "I wasn't sure how you would feel about it," he murmured against her slips. "That's why I never asked. I was waiting until I was sure you were ready for that step."

"I just never wanted to intrude on your memories of Lily," she said, her voice dropping significantly at the mention of his late wife.

He stilled against her for a moment before pressing his lips to hers again. "I've never once thought of you as a replacement for her," he said carefully. "I don't want her memory to get in the way of us. Not now, not ever."

She smiled against his lips and nodded. "Then I guess I'm moving in. Officially."

"This weekend we can transfer all your stuff over."

"Not now?"

He chuckled as he dropped his hand and moved them towards the bed. "No," he replied, his gaze darkening as he reached for the hem of her dress to draw it up over her head. "There's something much more exciting I'd rather be doing right now."

Hermione didn't even try to protest as he stripped her bare and helped her onto the bed before shucking his clothes and joining her there. A laugh turned moan left her lips when she reached for him, thinking he was going to hover over her. She was pleasantly surprised to find that he decided to settle his face between her thighs instead and they spent as long as they could celebrating their new milestone until the pangs of hunger could no longer be ignored.

Saturday, 5 December 2020; twenty-five weeks

They were both late for work the next morning. Hermione wasn't sure if it was James' fault for keeping them up late or hers for keeping him pinned beneath her long after their alarms went off. Either way, that same spark of desire they both had ignited from their decision to move all the way in with one another was still there when they met for her doctor appointment later that afternoon.

And instead of going back to the office, James called in and told them he would be out the rest of the afternoon. Had Hermione not already requested the time off for after the appointment, she would have called in as well. When they both got home, they spent the rest of the day picking up where they had left off that morning. They paused only to eat and stopped when their bodies refused to do anything other than sleep.

Saturday after they both finally dragged themselves out of bed for breakfast, they began moving her stuff. Most of it was clothes since her other items were still tucked into plastic tubs. Those they left in the closet as they were trinkets leftover from her years prior to college. The things she didn't want on display, but didn't want to get rid of either. The few items she did have to decorate her room with, James was quick to up in his room.

He had a knack for finding the perfect spot for everything without needing to rearrange his things. And when it was done by the end of the day, it looked as though she had been living in his room all along. There was a brief moment where he had grabbed the photos containing Lily on his dresser, but she laid her hand over his and told him to keep them up. That it didn't bother her.

And it didn't.

She'd even found herself staring at Lily's face as she held Harry in her arms late that night and promising her that she would do her best to take care of her boys. That she always had and always would.

Late Sunday morning, Hermione had walked into the kitchen as James was hanging up the phone. She quirked a brow at him as he stared at her, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"Who was on the phone?" she asked, rummaging through the fridge for whatever peeked her interest first.

"Sirius," he muttered.

She smirked into the fridge before grabbing the flat of raspberries and turning to face him. "If you want to go out, go," she said as she walked over to the table and sat. "I'm definitely passed the age of needing a babysitter," she said with a smirk as she popped a berry into her mouth.

He narrowed his eyes at her for a moment before he rolled them and moved towards her. "He wants to go catch the game at the bar."

"Have fun," she said, watching his eyes darken as she sucked the drop of juice from the tip of her finger. "Take a cab if you plan on drinking please. I'm not playing DD today."

He leaned over her chair from the back, his hair falling into her face as she tilted her head back so their lips could meet in an upside down kiss. "You sure?"

"Please go. I could use some alone time," she teased.

He stole a raspberry and slipped it between her lips, her teeth nipping at his thumb before he pulled away. "This means I'm going to miss bath time, doesn't it?"

She laughed as she swallowed and shook her head. "If I get in the tub, I'll be stuck there until you get home." She grabbed another berry and watched as he took one for himself too. "I read that they can hear us sometimes and recognize our voices."

"Ah, so a read out loud to your stomach day," he said. "Lily did the music thing with Harry."

She nodded, trying not to let the mention of Harry bring either of their moods down. "I might do that too. I heard it's good for brain function and development."

He smiled and pulled out his phone to call Sirius back. She listened fondly to them set up plans to meet up shortly as she finished off the little flat of berries. James tossed the container in the bin and returned to kiss her, making sure to do a thorough job of tasting the burst of raspberry juice still on her tongue.

"This gives me an idea for later," he murmured against her lips.

She laughed and playfully shoved him away from her. "Tell Sirius hello for me."

"I will," he said, ducking in for one last kiss before taking his leave.

James had only been gone for two hours when her phone rang. She was upstairs in their room leaning against the headboard with a slew of books spread out around her. She had grabbed a variety of topics in the hopes that some of this did take, her son would have a good head start in his academic career. She hadn't even bothered to look at the screen before she swiped the answer button and lifted the device to her ear.

"Hey."

Hermione froze for a moment at the familiarity of the voice. While it was similar to the one she had expected to hear, that wasn't who was calling. "H-hey," she returned, lifting her phone away to see the screen.

Sure enough, Harry's name and picture were on display.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. It prompted her to check her phone again, thinking maybe he decided to hang up, but the call was still up. "How are you?" she asked, careful not to push, but desperate to keep him talking.

He didn't answer her, but he didn't maintain his silence either.

"I got your message and I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner," he started. "I just didn't know what to say." A pause. "I still don't."

She nodded into the empty room and looked at her screen again for the time. "Do you…" she began, pausing to inhale slowly. "Do you want to come over for lunch? O-or maybe meet somewhere?"

His hesitation gave her an answer before he spoke. She hadn't really expected him to accept the offer, but it still stung. "I can't," he breathed. "Not yet."

She understood; she really did.

But her heart broke anyway.

"Harry, I'm so sorry," she said, unable to hold it in any longer. "I never meant to hurt you or ruin your relationship with your father. It was an accident and we just-"

"What if you hadn't… If you weren't…" She could heard the frustration in his tone from being unable to say the words, but she knew him well enough to figure it out. "Would you still be…"

"I don't know," she said, the words coming out on a breathy exhale. "I wish I had a different answer for you, but I don't."

She heard his sniffle and her lips curved into a sad smile as she pictured him sitting there, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he leaned forward on whatever it was he was sitting on. A tear cascaded down her cheek as she heard the anger in his tone when he spoke next. Especially upon hearing it accompanied with the pain of betrayal.

"What hurts the most out of all this is that neither one of you were going to tell me. That I was going to go through life never knowing I had a sibling out in the world. Whether you decided to go through with the abortion in the beginning, adopt him out, or keep him and never tell me; he would have always been my brother, Hermione."

"I know, Harry. I know."

"This wasn't some random guy at a bar. It was my fa-"

The noise that came from his end of the call made her think he had either dropped the phone, thrown it, or hung up on her. Tears flowed a bit more freely and she tried her best to keep him from hearing.

"Harry-"

"I love you. You'll always be my best friend, but this is fucking weird," he interrupted, his voice less agitated and more exhausted than she had ever heard it before. "I always thought of you like a sister and now-"

Her eyes squeezed shut and tears slipped through her lashes.

"I just need time."

She nodded again and placed a hand on her stomach where the baby started kicking mercilessly. "Okay."

Neither of them spoke for several minutes before Harry ended the call without even saying goodbye. She pressed the phone to her chest and let herself cry it out. While he had still been angry at the whole ordeal, she was hopeful that with time, he would come around. The hard part was just wondering how long before she had her best friend back in her life. She hadn't realized how much she needed him until he wasn't there. Regardless, she would give him the time and space he deserved and move on with her life until he came around.

After wiping the tears from her face, she reached for one of her books and cracked it open to a random page. And that was how James found her a few hours later; still on the bed, reading to their child with dried tears on her face and hope in her eyes.