Chapter Three
Hermione was hesitant to Apparate this far into her pregnancy and Ron didn't see the logistics of how she could fly on a broom, so that morning he asked Bill for the use of his car.
Bill raised his eyebrow. "Of course, you can use the car, but do you know how to drive it?"
Run blushed. The last time he had driven a car it had crashed into the Whomping Willow. Harry grinned at him from across the table.
"I can drive you two," Bill said. "But we need to have a talk."
Ron nodded. He knew this was coming. He didn't expect to show up at his older brother's house with his pregnant girlfriend and not get a talk about responsibility.
"I know, I know. We're were stupid and irresponsible. I can hear Mum already."
Bill shrugged. "Not really," he said, leaning in so Harry couldn't hear. "Between you and me, I wasn't born early."
Ron blinked in surprise. Maybe his parents would be more understanding than he imagined. "Then what is this about?"
"I think you're being too cautious now. Hermione and Luna's bedroom is right above ours and she was crying all night. Stay with her at night, Luna can have my place with Fleur, and I'll sleep in the room with Harry."
This was news to Ron. She had seemed fine when he left her last night. But he agreed.
Bill let them off as close as he could get them to the maternity center in the downtown area. There was a hospital down the road where Snatchers would be swarming, looking for wanted witches or wizards trying to get treatment at the Muggle hospitals, so they kept close together as they walked, Ron's arm thrown over Hermione's shoulders.
"Hermione, I've been trying not to smother you, but Bill heard you crying last night."
"Shit, I was trying not to be loud."
"Look, it's fine. I'm sure if he were pregnant right now he'd be crying too." He cleared his throat. "I don't think you were crying over me or anything—"
"I wasn't," Hermione said, somewhat a little too defensively.
He ignored the little sting of pain in his chest.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that, that came out rude."
He stopped and withdrew his arm from across her shoulder. "I know. But I'm just tired of all of this, this whole thing where we pretend like we aren't in love with each other. Or at least the part when I pretend like I'm not in love with you." He put his hands on her stomach, rubbing his thumb over the bumpy stretched skin. "And if you're crying at night, I want to be there for it. You don't have to love me back, just let me be there for it."
Ron expected her to reject him or take a few days to come up with a list of pros and cons before she gave him an answer. He didn't expect her to break down crying right now, in broad daylight, in the middle of the street. "Yes, I love you. I just feel so awkward around you now. I'm not used to you taking care of me. I feel like a burden. Like some silly child that can't stop crying and needs help putting on her shoes." She sniffled, pulling herself together, as the Muggles were starting to stare. "But you're right. You deserve to be there. And I really need you there."
"I owe you for all the help with schoolwork." He grinned.
Despite their heart to heart outside, the inside of the clinic had them sobered up completely.
"Did you know you could get that big?" Ron asked, eyeing a woman struggling to sit down in the corner. Hermione had trouble bending over, but she wasn't that ungainly yet.
"You can't come with us if that's going to happen to you, it's not safe."
"I've been realizing the same thing. It's been getting harder and harder to get around."
"You can stay with Bill and Fleur, they won't mind. I can Apparate back and forth and visit you."
Hermione nodded, but she still looked unsettled. The bell on the door dinged as another woman came in, her stomach bigger than any of the others.
"Bloody hell."
"I think that woman's having twins, Ronald."
Ron's heart dropped as they both had the same thought. "Do twins carry on the father's or mother's side?"
"I have no idea." Hermione's face was white as a sheet. "I think the mother's, but I'm not sure."
Ron breathed a sigh of relief. "You'd know if you were having twins, right? Like you'd be able to feel two of everything?"
She shook her head. "I don't think so. I can't really tell anything unless it presses against the outside of me."
Just then the nurse called out the fake name Hermione had given them, and they stood up. He guessed they'd find out soon enough.
"Now your vitals look good, but here are some vitamins, I want you to take this prenatal one and two of these iron pills." The nurse pocketed three vials of Hermione's blood before she handed her two glass bottles, a cup of water, and a bottle of thick orange liquid. "Leave your sample for us and we'll come back for your glucose test in an hour and then you can get your sonogram."
"These Muggles sure are resourceful, aren't they?" Ron said, reading over a handout that explained all about the tests and procedures. "I can't believe I just said that, I already sound like my dad."
He looked to Hermione who had finished getting dressed after a pap smear and was snow lying back on the exam bed, hands cradling the bottom of her stomach. He had been expecting at least a snort, but she was zoned out, staring at one of the posters on the wall. The poster was beyond campy, an expectant mother in a flowery field in a white dress, hand over belly. He didn't see why she'd be paying it any attention at all.
"You good?"
"I haven't been inside a maternity ward since my mother miscarried," she said. "I was six, so I remember that one. I think there were others before then. I came with her to find out the sex."
"You're not going to miscarry," Ron told her. "Most miscarriages happen in the first trimester, and you're already in the third. It's very unlikely at this stage."
Hermione tore her eyes away from the poster to look at him. "How on earth do you know that?"
"Try to tone down the surprise," he said, smirking. "I'm can read, for one." He held up the literature provided by the clinic. "And Mum helped a lot of pregnant women in town. I remember some things."
"What else do you remember?"
He shrugged. He liked holding knowledge over her head for once. "I know that you probably have hemorrhoids."
"Ron!" she gasped, a high pitch sound that he hadn't heard since they were last at school.
"Okay, I know some less gross things as well." He held his hand up so he could tick the his fingers down for emphasis. "Your feet may permanently grow. Your hair is thicker because it's not falling out at all, but everything that should have fallen out these last nine months will fall out all at once later. You might have fake contractions, but they're just practicing. Your water breaking doesn't happen in real life." He grinned wickedly. "And you one-hundred percent already have a ton of stretchmarks."
He reached out to lift her shirt up and ran his fingers over the striped skin on the lower half, where she couldn't see. "I didn't want to tell you in the tent."
Her mouth hung open.
Hermione had made him watch some Muggle film one summer a few years ago and the film had had this machine in it. He hadn't been that impressed by the baby on the monitor then, but now he didn't want to tear his eyes away. There was a little profile with an upturned nose, some feet, knees, a femur. A steady swishing sound filled the room and the technician said that was the heartbeat.
"It's going to be harder to complete the anatomy scan because the baby is very squished in there," the technician informed them. "The scan is normally done at twenty weeks."
Ron nodded but didn't say anything. Hermione hadn't even known she was pregnant then. He calculated that at twenty weeks they were infiltrating the Ministry of Magic. He hoped the Polyjuice Potion or the Apparition didn't do anything to the baby, but he couldn't very well bring this up with a Muggle doctor.
"Do you want to know the sex?" she asked.
Ron said "Yes" at the same time Hermione said "No."
"Can you give us a moment to discuss it?" Hermione asked the ultrasound tech, who nodded and exited the room.
"You haven't had enough surprises?" Ron asked, bewildered. He'd been dying to find out.
Hermione shrugged. She was lying on a reclined chair with her feet up and the lubricant still smeared on her stomach. "I'm just scared to get attached. And I'll overthink it. I'll either be worried because I have no girl friends or freaked out because I don't know what to do with boy parts." She talked down at her stomach. "I just don't want to over complicate things."
Ron realized he hadn't even thought about the actual child part of pregnancy. He'd been focused on making amends with Hermione and keeping both of them physically safe that he hadn't even thought to picture how life with them would look.
His face got hot and his throat started tightening as he thought of what to say. "You know I have to keep going with Harry." He paused. "And if I don't make it—I want to know. I want to know as much about my kid as I can."
"Oh, Ronald." Hermione was teary eyed too and she picked up his hand and kissed it. "Of course, you should know. You don't need my permission, it's your baby. We can get the technician to write it down for you."
I'm actually using this to cure some writer's block for another project. If you are already leaving a review, please also comment on the romance! I have trouble figuring out how much is too much and what scenes come across as suffocatingly cheesy and which ones come across as dry and not romantic at all. Feel free to roast me to pieces! Thanks!