Hello everyone!! Sorry for the huge wait but it took me ages to think up this chapter. Sounds silly I know but I thought it was a really big challenge. Anyways here is Chapter 8, probably thee longest chapter I've ever written in my whole life lol. Thanks again to all of my readers and reviewers I love you all to pieces!! So I hope you enjoy xxxx

Disclaimer: I only own the plot, everything else belongs to JKR

The Unexpected Baby

Chapter Eight: 8 week check up

Hermione Granger sat in her office musing over a rather long piece of parchment. As she read this particular patient's symptoms an idea formed in her head but she was interrupted from her musing before she could write down what she thought.

"Healer Granger I've brought you your mail," Kelly said brightly as she pranced into the office carrying a stack of letters. Seeing the huge pile of letters that she now had to read, Hermione sighed and scribbled something on the parchment and folded it up.

"Thanks Kelly. Would you mind sending this to Healer Jones, she asked me to take a look at it and I think I've figured out what's wrong with her patient," Hermione said to the receptionist in a very important tone. Kelly agreed, took the parchment and darted out of the room. Hermione grabbed her mail, cringing as her skirt tightened uncomfortably around her waist. She was finding that she was finally gaining some weight. Her sickness had reduced and she was only throwing up when she ate certain things or if she didn't get a slice of toast first thing in the morning. Thankfully the smell of blood had only sickened her once and she was glad as the day after the incident she'd had to tend a patient who was bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth.

"Same old stuff," Hermione muttered to herself as she flipped through the pile. The usual patient bills and payment, the dry cleaning bill of her work jacket, requests for patients to be accepted and treated by her, invitations to different medical conventions both wizard and muggle and...a personal message?

"Hold on a minute? Why is this being sent to me here and not my flat?" Hermione mumbled as she tore into the white envelope which bore her name and address on it. She unfurled the parchment and read the hand written message.

Healer Granger

It has come to our attention that you are currently 8 weeks pregnant. It is now necessary for you to receive your first check-up with the Mid-Healer. You are scheduled for your first check-up on August 4th at 2 o'clock.

Sincerely

Healer Manning

Head of Baby and Child Unit

Hermione grumbled as she put the note back in the envelope again. Why didn't Healer Manning come up to speak to her in person?

'Maybe it's because Kendra doesn't like you,' Hermione's thoughts whispered to her. It was true that Kendra Manning was a little bit annoyed by her but Hermione couldn't figure out why? She and Kendra had been in the same medical classes together. Kendra had been a mature student and had found that she and Hermione got on well together but once they entered into the real world of hospital care Kendra seemed to back off. Hermione had excelled straight away and within 2 years she was a Consultant whereas Kendra had remained a trainee Healer for 3 years and then graduated into the Baby and Child Unit. Only last year she'd been promoted to be the head of the unit.

'Complicated woman,' her thoughts whispered again as she checked her watch. It was almost time to go home. She hoped Charlie had dinner ready as she was very hungry. Charlie had settled down into Hermione's flat very quickly. Even thought he'd only been there for just over 1 week it felt as if he'd lived there forever. Hermione smiled contentedly to herself as she made her way down to the reception area.

"Where's Kelly?" Hermione asked.

"She's doing a message for Healer Marks," the other receptionist informed her. Hermione smiled, thanked the girl and handed her some files.

"Are you apparating home this evening?" Hermione turned her head and grinned at Healer Cummings who was standing beside her. He was one of her best friends in the hospital and had been for many years. When she'd just been a trainee Healer Sam had taken her under his wing even though he'd only just became a full Healer at the time and wasn't much older than her.

"I am have you got a problem with that?" Hermione asked pleasantly. Sam shook his head and winked at her, "I don't but you'd just better enjoy apparating while it lasts. I'd say once you get that 8 week check-up you won't be allowed to do it anymore."

"What? I thought I had a couple of weeks left!" Hermione exclaimed as she and Sam made their way over to the public apparation point. Sam laughed at her and patted her on the shoulder.

"I think you need to brush up on your baby knowledge again."

Hermione landed outside her front door and grumbled to herself. She'd been sure that she could apparate up until she was 10 weeks pregnant, but apparently not. She needed to get out her old notes again; maybe she'd gotten a couple of figures mixed up. Upon entering her flat she smelt something wonderful.

"Charlie?" she called out as she hung up her jacket and made her way to the kitchen. The smell became stronger and her mouth began to water. Charlie poked his head around the kitchen door and smiled at her.

"Hey dinner is almost ready, go and get dressed," he told her as Shadow bustled out of the kitchen and up to greet her. The excited little kitten followed his master into her bedroom and jumped up onto her bed to sit with Socks.

"I really do wish you'd stop sleeping on my bed when I'm not home," Hermione said to the cats as she grabbed a comfortable pair of jeans from her closet. Shadow mewed at her and Socks started to clean herself in response.

"Charlie may be here but I'm not so please try to stop sleeping on my bed. Sleep on his instead," she said with a giggle as she pulled on a jumper. She then made her way back to the kitchen with Shadow in tow.

"Chicken escalope, potatoes well mashed and a mixture of summer vegetables for you milady," Charlie said happily as he set a plate of delicious food down in front of his hungry roommate. Hermione's stomach rumbled in response as she grabbed her knife and fork and immediately tucked in to the food. After a couple of moments of silent eating she stopped to take a sip of water and then addressed Charlie.

"I got a note at work today," she began as Charlie looked up from his almost demolished piece of chicken. "I have my 8 week check up in 2 days," she informed him.

"Really? What time?" Charlie enquired politely.

"2 o'clock."

"I'll be there," Charlie said cheerfully as he stabbed a piece of brightly coloured vegetable. Hermione felt her heart rise in her chest, she hadn't been sure if Charlie would have wanted to go or not, but now that she knew he did it made her feel a lot more relaxed. Charlie continued to scoff his meal and when he finished he waited for Hermione to finish and then grabbed the plates and went to wash the dishes. Hermione grinned after him; he'd insisted that for the time he was living with her that he cleaned the dishes after every meal. He'd also insisted that he performed the majority of the housework as well. Hermione had agreed to this however she'd insisted that she be allowed to do some of the cleaning too, so her job was to clean the bathroom and her own room while Charlie did the rest.

"I'm away into my room," Hermione called out to the cleaning wizard as she got up from her chair at the table. Charlie said something back to her but she didn't quite catch it so she went on. Upon entering her room Socks looked up at her from her new place on Hermione's pillow and watched as her master went to her closet. Hermione reached up to her top shelf and felt that the box with her old notes in it was just out of her reach so she took out her wand and summoned it down.

"Now where are the baby care notes?" she mumbled to herself as she rummaged through the large box. A couple of minutes of silent rummaging passed before Hermione found what she had been looking for. A rather thick file of parchment was set heavily onto the floor and as Hermione ran her hand through her hair with a sigh she started to flip through the sheets.

"I wrote a lot during those lectures," Hermione chuckled, finding a particularly large piece of parchment which had extra sheets attached to it. While reminisced about her Healer school days she remembered the awful cramp she'd get in her hand as she tried to write down every single word her lecturer had to say.

"What are you doing?" asked Charlie from the door to her room. Hermione glanced up from her position on the floor and grinned sheepishly at him.

"I'm looking through my old notes."

"Why are you doing that?" he enquired, slightly bemused at the witch who had mountains of parchment stacked around her. He had to admit that she looked considerably cute sitting there but that thought was fleeting and was out of his mind in a nanosecond.

"Well I was talking to Sam today and he said that after my check up I won't be able to apparate again until the baby is born. However I was under the impression that I could do it up until I was 10 weeks, not 8. I'm just checking my notes now to see if I got some numbers crossed in my head," she told him as she continued to flip through her mass of notes.

"Sam?" Charlie asked in a confused tone.

"Healer Cummings," Hermione said absentmindedly as she read down a sheet which had been titled 'Pregnancy and Travel'. Her eyes skipped down the lines of her own hand writing and finally she found what she'd been looking for.

"Got it!" she exclaimed in triumph. Charlie sat down next to her and peered at the parchment. Maybe he could learn something from this. Hermione cleared her throat and began to read aloud.

"Topic: Pregnancy and Apparition. Long has the concern over pregnancy and apparition been debated and over the years the limitations of the factor have been brought down. At the very beginning witches who were with child were able to apparate throughout the entire pregnancy but studies proved that this was far too dangerous for mother and baby. This resulted in the apparition limit to be brought down to 25 weeks and it remained like this for centuries. At the start of the 1900's this limit was brought down further to 15 weeks as new studies proved that it was still too dangerous. In the 1950's this limit was brought down further to 10 weeks. This limit still remains today," she read. A smug look appeared on her face but Charlie pointed to a little sentence below the text Hermione had just read.

"What's that?" he asked inquisitorially. He was actually finding this interesting which surprised him so he made a mental note to later ask Hermione if he could have a look at her old baby notes. Hermione stared at the sentence for a minute before her face fell, she'd completely forgotten about that.

"N.B. World medical leaders are currently in talks about bringing the limit down to 8 weeks however it is not yet final so use 10 weeks in the exam. Maybe make reference to the new development." Hermione felt something sink inside her and she set the paper aside. Charlie looked at her and spotted the defeated look on her face.

"What's wrong Hermione?" he asked softly. Hermione shook her head and again ran her fingers through her hair. How could she have forgotten, she never forgot important factors like that.

"Did you forget about that?"

"What sort of a Consultant am I? How could I have forgotten that they changed the limit down to 8 weeks?" Hermione growled, more to herself than to Charlie. He placed a hand on her slumped shoulder and caressed it slightly.

"So you forgot one little tiny detail, who cares? No one's perfect," he whispered to her as Socks jumped down from the pillow and made her way over to Hermione's lap. Hermione felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment; did he honestly know who he was talking to?

"I'm supposed to remember everything, that's what consultants do. They research tonnes of information and they are not supposed to forget it in a hurry," she grumbled, scratching Socks behind her ears causing her to purr lightly.

"Do you work specifically with pregnant witches?" Hermione glared up at him, so angry with herself that tears pricked in her eyes. "No," she forced out.

"Well then you don't have to know absolutely everything about being pregnant. You need to worry more about deadly diseases and people coming in with their limbs severed off, not when a woman isn't allowed to apparate or how much weight she should put on in 18 weeks," Charlie told her gently as he shifted to put two arms around her in a comforting hug. She felt the anger being washed away by that warmth that engulfed her only when Charlie hugged her. She still didn't know what it was but it was a real comforter.

"I suppose you're right," she muttered as she snuggled into his embrace. Charlie couldn't help but smile as he felt her head nuzzle into his chest.

"Most of the time I am," he murmured, stroking her hair. Socks got up from Hermione's lap and practically glared at Charlie for taking her masters attention off her. She stalked out of the room with her tail high in the air as the two continued to embrace each other.

The 4th of August arrived and Hermione was found in her office at work clearing up her stuff. She'd been given the rest of the day off by Healer Kensington which Hermione thought was very nice of him. It had been a great shock to her when she'd arrived in at 8:30 to find Healer Kensington waiting on her.

"You finish at Noon today Healer Granger." Hermione had stared at him for what seemed like ages before she'd asked him why.

"I understand that it is your first check-up today so I am giving you the rest of the day off. Healer Marks has been assigned your classes and I will take on your day's paper work." Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing but jumped at this chance nonetheless. It wasn't very often that the senior Healers where nice to her. So now she was heading to the Burrow for some lunch with Molly, Ginny and Fleur and as she prepared herself to apparate she couldn't help but feel sad that this could be one of the last times she would get to apparate before the baby was born.

"Hermione!" exclaimed the three women as the Healing Consultant arrived in the Burrow kitchen. Molly immediately stood up and ushered her into a chair and set about placing her immaculate lunch on the table.

"Big day today then," Ginny said with a snigger as Molly placed a huge tray of sandwiches in front of her. Hermione sighed contentedly and nodded her head.

"Yeah, my first check-up. I'm a little nervous to say the least," she informed the ladies seated around her.

"You ave' nothing to woory about," Fleur said delicately as she sipped on a glass of pumpkin juice. Ginny agreed with her and so did Molly however Hermione eyed Ginny sceptically.

"If my memory serves me right I think Ginny you were far more nervous than I was about going to your first check-up with the Mid-Healer," she said coyly causing Ginny's face to turn a soft shade of embarrassed pink.

"Well I didn't know what I was up against as no one decided to tell me. You on the other hand know everything." Hermione felt her stomach drop a few spaces, "Well not everything. I need to know more about deadly diseases and severed limbs in my line of work," she said echoing Charlie's words from 2 nights ago.

"So what? You still know more than I knew at the time," Ginny muttered glaring at her mother and at Fleur who had neglected to inform her about the first check.

"Did something appen' Ginny?" Fleur asked as Molly sat down as the table and told everyone to tuck in. Ginny grabbed a handful on sandwiches and ate most of them before she decided to speak again.

"Yes something did happen," she murmured glumly. Hermione's head snapped up from her plate and her eyes locked on the blushing witch. Ginny had never told anyone apart from herself about what had happened that first time.

"What darling?" Molly asked soothingly, seeing clearly that something was upsetting her daughter.

Ginny sighed and her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I knew this would always come back to haunt me. I went into the shocking white room that they put you in and waited for the Mid-Healer to come and see me," she started as the other three ladies listened intently. "I was sitting on the comfy bench when she came in and introduced herself. Everything seemed okay until she came at me with her wand. I freaked and backed away from her. In fact I forgot that I was on a bench and backed away that much that I fell off," she finished, her face a beetroot colour and gaze set firmly on her plate.

"Oh darling why didn't you tell me that you were worried!"

"Ginny I am so sorry," Fleur said with empathy in her French accented voice. Hermione smiled softly at her best friend and continued to eat her lunch; she knew that story had to come out some day. After the apologies had stopped the women continued to eat, drink and chat merrily to one another until Charlie strolled into the kitchen.

"Good afternoon ladies," he said suavely as he entered the kitchen and stood behind Hermione's chair. Hermione turned and smiled up at him as he placed a tender hand on her shoulder. Ginny eyed the pair suspiciously and for the briefest of seconds she thought she'd seen a spark between them.

"Hello dear," Molly said brightly to her son. Charlie grinned at everyone and then looked down at Hermione.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you from the company of these lovely ladies. We have an appointment to go to." The other three ladies tittered in excitement as Hermione got up from her chair and headed with Charlie over to the fireplace. Just as she grabbed a handful of the powder a loud pop filled the kitchen. Everyone turned round to see Ron and Lavender standing at the doorway to the kitchen. For a moment he didn't notice Hermione and Charlie but when he did a dark mask slid onto his face.

"Where're you going?" he asked, sounding as if he could growl. Lavender placed a hand on his forearm and shook her head slightly.

"I have a check-up today," Hermione told him sternly. She'd gotten fed up with his disapproving attitude towards the whole situation and was now in no mood to explain her actions to him.

"You'd better go then," the youngest Weasley boy said with an edge of bitterness to his voice. Hermione glared at him and then threw her powder into the fire, just as she announced where she was going and the fire licked up around she heard Molly say something that sounded very menacing to her son.

"Miss Granger we're ready for you now," said a snobby looking receptionist to the full waiting room of pregnant witches and their partners. Hermione grumbled under her breath and Charlie sniggered lightly as they both made their way into a shockingly white room with a comfy looking bench in the middle and a soft seat beside it.

"I can't believe the nerve of these people," Hermione said scathingly as Charlie helped her onto the bench.

"Why?" he asked already knowing the answer to the question.

"Miss Granger! Can you believe it? Miss Granger! I may not be working at the moment but even so they still have to address me properly when in the hospital vicinity. That's Kendra Manning for you, doesn't teach anyone how to respect their superiors!"

"The very nerve of her," Charlie said with a laugh as Hermione continued to rant and rave about the fact that she had been called Miss Granger instead of Healer Granger.

Ten minutes passed before the door to the room was opened and a tall, tight lipped, grey haired woman entered. The blazing red embroidery on her white jacket told Charlie that this woman was Mid-Healer Manning; Head of the Baby and Child Unit.

"Nice to see you Healer Granger," the woman said in a stern sounding voice. Hermione's eyes darkened and Charlie just knew that she was thinking something along the lines of 'Oh sure you'll address me as Healer but you're stupid staff won't.'

"Likewise Mid-Healer Manning," Hermione said courteously although Charlie was sure he picked up on a hint of loathing in her tone.

"Let's not dillydally shall we," the Mid-Healer said snottily as she took her wand out from inside her coat. Hermione could understand why Ginny had been spooked by this whole procedure, Kendra Manning looked positively foreboding when she pointed her wand at her stomach. The 50 something year old witch muttered a spell under her breath and glared at Hermione as multi-coloured bubbles erupted from her wand and floated gently into Hermione's currently flat abdomen.

"Oh my," Hermione whispered as she felt the bubbles move insider her. She couldn't help but let a giggle escape from her mouth as they moved in circles in and around her womb. Charlie beamed at her and took one of her hands in his and caressed it gently. The bubbles floated back out of her abdomen and popped onto the clipboard the Mid-Healer was holding. Hermione knew that once the bubbles burst text would appear and information about her baby would be gained.

"Everything seems to be in order. The heart rate is normal, growth is happening at a regular pace, you've gained just enough weight, no abnormalities or signs of disease and enough blood is being sent to the baby. Would you like a picture?" Kendra said dryly and in a bored fashion as she read from her clipboard.

"Yes please," Charlie said as Hermione rubbed her abdomen tenderly. Kendra pointed her wand at Hermione once again, muttered another spell and a white flash filled the room. It took about 3 minutes for the flash to fade completely but when it did the result was a picture of their baby on a piece if parchment. It wasn't able to move like normal wizarding pictures could but even though it remained stationary Hermione and Charlie couldn't help but stare at the little bean that was their baby.

"It's so beautiful," the expecting parents both said in unison, which caused them to laugh and hug each other.

"I'm so proud," Charlie said brightly as he kissed Hermione on the cheek. Hermione felt something inside her jump eagerly at the touch of Charlie's lips on her face. She hesitated for a moment and then kissed him on the cheek in return.

"Me too," she said feeling her heart flutter. After they grabbed their picture they headed back to the Burrow to show everyone their baby, needless to say Molly smothered them both.

A/N: I know you're probably thinking 'What was so tough about that,' but believe me it took me ages to come up with the whole Bubble Charm thing...sad I know but I just couldn't think lol. Okay so REVIEW and tell me what you all thought :D xxxxxxxxxxxx