July 21st 2005

It was official, Hermione was old. She had no idea where the last five years of her life had disappeared to but somehow she had become 26 and managed to raise a five year old in what felt like the blink of an eye. It was extremely disconcerting. On the plus side, there were no newborn babies this year to remind her just how much her little boy had grown.

This was also the first year that he had opted for an activity that wasn't chasing gnomes. He had been having lessons in chess from Neville over the past year and had actually become quite good, considering his limited years. He still hated wizards chess, though, which gave no end of material for Ron and Harry with which to mock her.

She smiled at Ginny and Angelina who came to sit down on the sofa with her, where she was watching the game between her son and now Hogwarts professor. Turning her attention to the two girls she found them both staring at her.

"What?" She asked, frowning at them.

"That boy," Angelina whispered as she pointed at Arty, "has got Weasley eyes."

Hermione eyes widened in horror as she turned to Ginny who shook her head, letting Hermione know that Angelina had figured something out without her help. She sighed and turned to Angelina, giving the smallest nod she could and the dark skinned woman gasped before gesturing to the stairs and Hermione rolled her eyes but nodded.

Once they had reached Ginny's old bedroom, Angelina locked and silenced the room before turning to Hermione and raising her eyebrow.

"He's not George's?" She asked suddenly and Hermione snorted.

"Oh god, no!" She exclaimed, "uh… no offense?"

"None taken," Angelina grinned, sitting next to her on the bed, "now one of you needs to start talking."

Hermione glanced at Ginny who shrugged and shook her head. She sighed as she realised that she would have to tell Angelina the truth and dropped her head into her hands, groaning before she looked up and frowned at her friend and may as well be sister in law.

"You tell no-one what I tell you. Not George, not anyone, ok?" She said and Angelina frowned but nodded. Hermione sighed again, closing her eyes before she spoke. "Arty's father is Charlie."

"Charlie?" Angelina clarified, "Charlie Weasley?"

"No, Charlie bloody Chaplin," Hermione snapped, standing from the bed and starting to pace, "sorry, Angelina, yes Charlie Weasley."

"So where the hell is he?" She asked in shock and Ginny thankfully answered for her.

"Hermione wrote him when she found out she was pregnant," she explained, "but she hasn't heard from him since. He made the decision not to be a part of Arty's life."

"But…" Angelina frowned, "he's a Weasley!"

"Yes, thank you, we are aware." Hermione muttered and Angelina snorted.

"No, I mean, I've never met him but aren't all Weasleys insanely loyal?" She asked and Ginny shrugged.

"There are exceptions," she sighed, "Look at Percy, he was hardly loyal when he abandoned us to get a leg up in the ministry."

"And Charlie has always been all about his dragons," Hermione shrugged, "he never wanted a family of his own, so I'm not surprised he hasn't been around for Arty."

"That's bloody awful!" Angelina snapped, "so we're you two together or…?"

"It was the night of Ginny's wedding to Harry," Hermione sighed, "Ron had just broken up with me when I thought he was going to propose and Charlie… he cheered me up."

"Yeah, knocked you up too!" Angelina frowned, turning to Ginny, "and you knew? All this time? Why haven't you tried to make him see sense?"

"Hermione made me promise not to." Ginny shrugged and both women turned to Hermione.

"I'd only want him to be a part of Arty's life if he truly wanted to be, not because he was forced into it by his little sister." She shrugged and Angelina nodded.

"That makes sense," she agreed, "still, he's a bloody idiot. Has Arty ever asked about him?"

"Of course he has," Hermione sighed, "as far as he's concerned, the dragons needed daddy and he's ok with that. For now at least."

So far, Angelina was taking this much better than Hermione had expected, and she had to admit that having someone else to talk about this with was a relief. Not that Ginny hadn't been utterly fantastic to her throughout the years, but it's always good to get another opinion. She couldn't help but wonder, though, and her thoughts quickly became paranoid and panicked. If Angelina had noticed the Weasley eyes in the face of her son, had anyone else?

"Do you think anyone else knows?" She asked, biting her lip in her anxiety.

"I doubt it," Ginny snorted, "they're not exactly known for their subtlety, they would have asked you long ago I'd they suspected anything."

Hermione nodded and continued to pace. This is why she had been so thankful that Arty had come out with her brown hair, as it had meant avoiding this conversation for 5 years. At least it was Angelina, who could be easily trusted not to mention this to anyone else.

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As the party wound down a little later, Hermione was curled up on the armchair with her tired son on her lap, telling her all about his latest game of gnome hunting, which he had eventually joined Victoire for at some point while she had been upstairs with Ginny and Angelina.

"One bit my finger," he told her tiredly, holding up his finger in front of her face and giggling when she snapped her teeth at it, "But uncle Bill fixed it for me."

"That was nice of him," Hermione yawned, "did you say thank you?"

"Of course, mummy," he yawned himself, "it's polite to say thank you."

"It is indeed," came the voice of Bill, coming into the living room and ruffling Arty's hair as he walked past on his way to the sofa, "have you had a good birthday, buddy?"

"Mmhmm," Arty hummed tiredly before turning to Bill, "uncle Bill? Why are you my uncle? In school we were taught that uncles and aunties are your mummy or daddy's brothers or sisters, but mummy doesn't have any and I don't know who my dad is, so how are you my uncle?"

"I think your daddy probably has lots of brothers," Bill said, raising an eyebrow at Hermione whose jaw dropped as she realised one thing: be knew! "But I'm your uncle because your mummy is very close to our family and feels like a sister, does that make sense?"

"Yes uncle Bill." Arty nodded and Hermione tried to clear her panicked expression but couldn't. Bill must have sensed this, because he spoke.

"Go and tell grandma that I said you could have another slice of cake for being such a good boy, ok?"

Arty nodded excitedly and jumped off his mum's lap, without looking back, and ran into the kitchen where she could hear him talking to Molly. She watched as Bill crouched down in front of her and smiled as he took her hand.

"He told me you slept together at the wedding," he explained, "I guessed from the dates as soon as you told us you were expecting."

"Why have you never said anything?" She whispered and he shrugged.

"It wasn't my place," he admitted, "don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you, Bill."