New chapter,

Merry Christmas to you all.

Mikki88 welcome :)

xx

...

...

As the days passed, Hermione got used to a new routine. A routine that did not involve Death Eaters, Voldemort, macabre plans or facing death every other day. She was simply, day after day, enjoying the little pleasure of life.
She was still partly working at the Ministry and helping the twins on the afternoon, so she could spend time with Fred. Her life had not changed that much, yet she felt that it had changed a lot.

Hermione was, often, having lunch , at the Leaky Cauldron, with Harry, and Ron, who had finally decided to burry the hatchet, for good this time, and let Hermione be a part of his life again. She was also delighted to have lunch with Alicia with whom she was getting closer. She had misjudged the young woman, Alicia was not Angelina. Fred was right, she and Alicia had a lot in common. As Alicia's parents were both muggle born, Alicia's knowledge of the Muggles' life was as good as Hermione's so there really was not anything that they could not talk about.

They even went shopping an afternoon, at Oxford Street, not Diagon Alley. They spent an hour in H&M.

...

Another thing that was making Hermione happy was : her upcoming roadtrip to the Scottish highlands with Fred, a week before going back to school. She was already working on their itinerary, there was so many things that she and Fred wanted to see.

They were also going to travel at the beginning of August to Paris, where the Quidditch World Cup had started, a week before Harry's birthday. They were only going to the final game as they did not have enough time or money to spend a month in France.

Well Fred and George had money but had many projects so they were being careful. A thing that was surprising many, specially their mother.

The twins had made an offer to buy Zonko' shop, papers should be signed before the start of the new school year. Seamus and Lee would work there. Seamus had applied to the job's offer as Dean was going back to school, for his seventh year. The two best friends did not want to be apart from each other, again.

Fred and George had also signed a partnership with Gwendoline Babcocke, the magical greengrocer. The twins needed help at the farm and Gwendoline was definitely the best choice, with Neville whom they had also hired. The young man had left the aurors as soon as the last Death Eaters had been behind bars.

...

It seemed that everybody was finally working or studying what they really wanted to which helped Hermione to feel less and less guilty, as the days passed.

Nevertheless, there was still one thing that Hermione had some difficulty to deal with: Ginny.
Unlike Harry had told her the morning after the last battle, Ginny was, as Hermione had suspected, mad at her. It was true that she was glad that Hermione had saved Fred but she was considering Hermione and almost all of her brothers as the responsible of this mess. For days, Ginny refused to speak with her, Fred, George, Percy and even Charlie.

Hermione did not know what to do, she liked Ginny a lot and she was missing their friendship. Fred had told her that Ginny was just pig headed and that deep down she was just mad at them not because of what did happen but because they had not counted on her to help them.

« She has a big ego, being the only girl in the family did not help. I mean we are speaking about the girl who stated when she was four that she was going to marry the boy who lived. She is hurt but she will come around. Soon, she will fight with Ron and then she will have to talk to us agin, it's mathematics. » was the sentence that Fred kept telling to Hermione

Hermione believed Fred yet she had not expected the days to turn into weeks.

...

...

Harry's birthday was aroundthe corner. Mrs Weasley and Andromeda had decided to organize a big party for Harry's eighteenth birthday. It would be more than just a birthday's celebration, they wanted people to have fun and to laugh. They wanted it to be a surprise for Harry but to keep it secret, they should not have asked for help. Anyway, the organization of the party had forced Ginny to speak to her brothers and Hermione again but she was only speaking with them when it was needed.

Andromeda had promised to help Hermione. She had told Molly that Hermione and Ginny should go gifts hunting together as they knew Harry best. Ron had not liked that comment but curiously, he had understood, alone, why Andromeda and his mother were insisting on sending his sister and best friend alone.

As for Harry, he did not ruin their efforts, he pretended to know nothing and even put his best surprised face the day d.

...

...

The party was at its height. It was the first real party since Bill and Fleur's wedding, a year ago, minus one day. Only three weeks had passed since the last battle, some thought that it was too soon for such party, well the guests did not care. They were young and had already been robbed of a year of their life, they did not care about what old bats, as Fred and George called some of their uncles and aunts, were thinking.

Yes, Mrs Weasley had also invited her family as on the following day Fleur and Bill would renew their vows. Their wedding party had been interrupted or better said destroyed by the Death Eaters, the previous year and both had a feeling of incompleteness so a new party was very much welcomed.

...

Mrs Weasley had been anxious since George had said that the nurse had said that Fleur was pregnant, she was waiting for Fleur and Bill to officially drop the bomb and she was convinced that they would do it on the following day. She desperately wanted to know and being alone with Fleur in the kitchen was being unbearable. They were putting the last details on the cake when Mrs Weasley broke the heavy silence.

« Fleur, we did not have much time to talk lately. We all had been so busy that I did not have time to check on you. Is everything alright. » asked Mrs Weasley who was trying to notice if Fleur looked any different.

She had used an old spell in her kitchen that made flowers bloomed if a pregnant woman stepped into the room. The flowers were all blooming so Mrs Weasley had all the reasons in the world to push to get an answer from Fleur. She would not wait another day.

Fleur answered politely and then, for Molly's surprise, she affirmed that she was not pregnant. She knew of that old spell and wished that the flowers had bloomed because of her but it was not possible, she had got her period days ago, after weeks of delay.

« But I don't understand, the nurse said that you were pregnant. George said she did. » replied Mrs Weasley with a pitching voice

Fleur confirmed that George had not lied, the nurse had just mixed up some results. Fleur had gone to see her a few days ago, after having her period. The nurse apologized, she had informed the witch who was pregnant but had forgotten to send an owl to Fleur.

Mrs Weasley swore that she would have a chat with that nurse. She opened her arms and hugged Fleur tightly. They had tears in their eyes, Mrs Weasley wanted to become a grandmother as much as Fleur wanted to be a mother. Mrs Weasley comforted Fleur until another thing hit her. She had a pregnant girl in her house. She looked the window to check on her guests and frowned.

...

Obviously, she first thought about Hermione so she called the young woman and Fred to the kitchen. Hermione who like Fleur knew about the old spell swore that she was not pregnant. She even asked Andromeda to come to the kitchen to confirm that she was not pregnant.

Mrs Weasley was looking at the young couple and the older witch. She did not know what to believe. She was still ranting when a feminine voice coming from the stairs interrupted her.

They all looked to see who was coming downstairs. They had no idea that someone was actually upstairs, everybody was supposed to be in the garden.

It was Alicia, she was pale and looking sick yet none of them had expected such statement from the young auror.

« Hermione is not pregnant Mrs Weasley. The flowers bloomed for me, I am pregnant. Your spell is very efficient, they opened the moment, I stepped into the kitchen. I had to run to the bathroom, nausea. » explained Alicia with a quivering voice

Mouths and eyes wide opened, the quatuor was staring at the brunette. Hermione because she had put two and two together, Fred because his best friend had just won the announcement of the year and the older witches, simply, because they were shocked, after all Alicia was, as far as they knew, single and those kind of things were still hard, for them, to understand.

Mrs Weasley quickly regained some control and asked Alicia if she was ok.

Unease Alicia nodded. She blushed and walked away.

...

She was heading to the door when Fred spoke to stop her. He asked who was the father. Hermione had told him what had happened between his older brother and his best friend and just like Hermione, he did not need a picture to put two an two together.

Alicia looked at Hermione, feeling red-handed, had turned red but Alicia was not looking at Hermione with anger. It was more like a cry for help.

Hermione tried to help but Fred was already furax.

« It is him, right? Does he know? »

« Fred, please no. He doesn't know and I am not going to ruin his life for a one nightstand. You know that it would ruin his life. » answered Alicia calmly

« Well he does deserve it. You are not going to raise that child alone. » affirmed Fred who would not let his brother escape easily from this one

Mrs Weasley agreed with Fred. It made him chuckled as he was wondering how his mother would react once she would know that she would indeed become a grandmother, that Charlie would become a father. It was no mystery for any of them that Mrs Weasley had accepted the idea, a long time ago, that Charlie would stay single forever. With his siblings, they even suspected their mother to have sensed that Charlie did not like women.

He could not wait to see his mother's face. She was going to choke.

If the woman, that his brother had knocked up, would have been a stranger, Fred would probably be laughing his arse off in that moment. If only it had been a stranger...

...

...

next chapter very very soon.

Xx