Welcome to Chapter 20 of The Unexpected Baby. This is honestly a milestone I didn't foresee happening, so I am quite proud of this. This chapter has the big reveal that you've probably all been wondering about for a while now. Is Hermione having a boy or a girl? Read on to find out.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter. Damn.

The Unexpected Baby

Chapter Twenty: 20 Week Check-Up

Charlie stared, dumbfounded by the woman sitting in front of him. She was squeezing his hand tightly, and her eyes shone with tears. Her hair was drying into elegant curls about her shoulders. He swallowed the lump that was steadily growing in his throat and tried to speak but couldn't.

The past twenty-four hours had been a rollercoaster of emotions for him. From getting an apology from his brother at the Potter's barbeque to finally getting to physically express how he was feeling to Hermione, Charlie found himself rather drained and unable to form simple sentences. She was asking him to stay. She was asking him to not go back to Romania.

"Hermione," he began, his voice full of the shock he felt. Her eyes swam with the tears that wanted to fall, but he knew very well that she was holding them back.

"I have to go back," he replied finally, his shoulders slumping, and his own eyes starting to prickle with tears. His heart gave a painful squeeze, and his stomach lurched as the tears started to fall silently down her cheeks.

Charlie reached forward and started to wipe her tears away with his hands. She started to weep openly, her cries of sorrow stabbing him like a knife. He continued to wipe away her tears as his own fell onto his cheeks. Since starting this journey with Hermione, Charlie had never felt such emotion, and he couldn't help but register that this was his first time crying over something that wasn't dragon related, in years.

"I have to go back," he repeated again, his own sobs causing him to become breathless.

Hermione got up shakily from her seat and threw her arms around him. Charlie lifted her so that she could sit on his lap. He ran his fingers through her drying hair and rubbed her back as she cried. He let his own tears fall, hot and fast. His mind was running through so many different scenarios that he couldn't quite process it all.

"Please," she mumbled wetly into his shoulder. Charlie hugged her as tightly as he dared and then ran a hand quickly over his drenched, puffy red face.

"I'm going to fix this, I promise."

Hermione sat in her office and flipped aimlessly through the patient files that were heaped on her desk. She had finally agreed to return to work, but only on a part-time basis. She could choose her own hours and so today she was choosing to work a simple nine to noon shift. This would allow her to do paper work and assess her emergency patients. She glanced at her watch, it was almost noon, and she was meeting Ginny for lunch.

"Healer Granger?" Hermione looked up and smiled as Healer Cummings walked in.

"Hi Sam," she said with some increased enthusiasm. The wizard smiled at her and sat on the edge of her desk.

"Are you sure you should have come back?" he asked as he eyed the paper work stacked high. Hermione waved a hand dismissively at the work and smirked.

"I have been given permission to work for however long I want. In fact, I am due to leave now," she informed her colleague with a cheeky grin.

"Well in that case let me walk you to the floo station," Healer Cummings said happily as he hopped up, grabbing a couple of files from the mountain on the desk.

As they walked Hermione was able to update Healer Cummings on her health. He hadn't seen her for a long time and he wasn't fully aware why she had taken time off. The Healing staff had only been told it was due to stress, and not what the stress had done to her. Naturally he was horrified when she told him the full story.

"Charlie has been great though. He does absolutely everything for me," Hermione told her colleague, feeling a familiar tug in her chest.

"Well just go now and rest yourself. I will try my best to help you get through those files. If there are any patients you would like me to assess, just leave a note with Kelly," Healer Cummings told her in a serious tone as they stopped at the floo station.

Hermione smiled and gave Healer Cummings a swift hug. He patted her on the back and gave her an appraising look. She cocked an eyebrow at him and asked him what he was looking at her like that for. He shook his head and chuckled.

"It's nothing, I was just thinking you myself that you'll be fine. You've got this." Hermione laughed and grabbed some floo powder. She looked back over her shoulder just before she threw the dust into the fireplace.

"I got this," and with that said she threw the powder into the fire and named her destination.

The two pregnant witches sat in a quaint tea shop in Diagon Alley, waiting on their lunch. Ginny was using her wand to blow cold air onto her skin, and Hermione was using her wand to check Ginny's temperature.

"You're completely normal, you don't have a fever," she told the red head sternly. Ginny grumbled something and then reached for her water. Hermione scowled, she'd heard what Ginny had said.

"What do I know huh? Remember who you're talking to Ginny. I am a Healing Consultant, I think I can tell when someone has a fever," she said huffily as Ginny drained her water and plucked an ice cube out of the glass to suck on.

"I'm sorry," the heavily pregnant witch said breathily as she continued to blow cold air onto her skin. "I'm just so hot these days, I can't seem to cool down."

Hermione smiled at her with some sympathy. She could understand what Ginny was going through. She had been experiencing periods of overheating herself, but nothing sever that would cause her to worry.

"It's more common in the third trimester to experience hot flashes, you don't have long to go, you're just going to have to grit your teeth and get on with it. You're doing everything you can already, so keep at it," Hermione explained in a manner that she hoped sounded supportive. Ginny's moods were quite volatile now, and she didn't want her to have a mood swing in the middle of the café. Harry had been walking on egg shells around her for weeks now.

"Anyway, what's new with you?" Ginny asked her as she plucked another ice cube from her glass. Hermione bit her lip and looked at the table. Ginny picked up on this instantly.

"What are you not telling me?" she asked suspiciously.

"Charlie and I slept together a couple of night ago," she said in a muted tone. Ginny rolled her eyes and continued to suck on the ice cube.

"In the same bed, yeah I know. Big deal, you fell asleep together," she said nonchalantly. A subtle movement from the woman opposite her made Ginny pause, and pay attention. Hermione's cheeks had flushed a bright red and she had started to twist a napkin in her hands. Ginny's eyes widened in realisation.

"You had sex with him?" Ginny blurted out. Hermione hissed at her to keep her voice down but nodded her head. Ginny had to hold back a shriek.

"What happened?" was all she could manage to ask. Hermione frowned at her.

"I think you know how sex works Ginny," the Healing Consultant said, pointing to Ginny's large bump. Ginny huffed in an annoyed fashion and tried her best to keep herself under control. So many emotions and questions were raging about inside her, she felt like a bubbling cauldron.

"He's leaving for Romania at the end of this week!" Ginny stated as if this were the most obvious reason for why they shouldn't have given into their baser urges.

"I know that. I asked him not to go back," Hermione replied, her eyes starting to turn glassy as she remembered their talk in the kitchen the morning after. Ginny dropped her ice cube and her mouth fell open.

"Hermione, how could you?" she asked incredulously.

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked, shocked by Ginny's reaction. Ginny waved her hands in the air in front of her as if trying to fan away a bad smell.

"That is his dream job. He worked his butt off for it and has excelled in it in every way you can imagine. He loves working in that reserve," she explained as if this were the most obvious thing in the world to comprehend. Hermione felt her stomach tie itself in knots.

She knew Charlie was in his dream job in Romania. She knew he loved it more than anything. She knew what it was like to work hard at something and achieve everything you ever dreamed. Asking Charlie to not go back to all of that had been a hard thing for her to do, but she just didn't know how she was going to cope without him. Having him move in with her once she'd found out she was pregnant had been the best thing she'd ever done. Getting to know him better and been the best thing she'd ever done. Expressing her feelings for him in a physically way was most definitely the best thing she had ever done. She couldn't yet put her feelings into words, but she knew her relationship with Charlie was more serious, and more fulfilling than any she had ever had before. Ginny must have been able to read her inner turmoil on her face, because she seemed to soften and leaned forward in her chair.

"What did he say?" she asked, trying to sound as genuine as she could. Hermione glanced up at her and met her eyes for only a second before she looked down at the napkin she was still twisting in her hands.

"He said he would fix it."

"Did he say how?" Ginny asked, knowing the answer already.

"No," replied Hermione, her voice shaky with emotion.

Over the next few days Hermione and Charlie spent as much time together as they could. Charlie had written a letter to his reserve the morning Hermione had asked him to stay and he was awaiting the reply, which was late in arriving. He made dinner for Hermione every night and they then sat on the sofa, entwined in each other until it was time for bed. Now that they had gotten to know each other in a physical way again, they couldn't keep their hands off each other in the bedroom. The more they satisfied each other, the more they grew attached, and they both knew this would make things all the more difficult if Charlie didn't get the response he wanted from Romania.

The day before the 20-week scan appointment found them sitting in the kitchen, finishing lunch and chatting about baby names.

"I like Nell for a girl," Charlie said as he peeled an orange. Hermione hummed to herself and then nodded.

"Yeah, Nell is nice. I like Ruth, or Rose," she mused, holding her hand out for an orange slice. Charlie frowned deeply as he handed her a piece. She cocked her head to the side and gave him a funny look.

"What?" she asked incredulously, "something wrong with one of my names?"

"Ruth, I like, Rose…no," he said finally, popping a piece of the fruit into his mouth. Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

"What could you possibly have against the name Rose?" she asked, taking another slice of orange. He shrugged his shoulders and continued eating.

"There is a dragon called Rose at the reserve and she is an absolute nightmare. For me the name would practically be cursed, and if we had a baby girl named Rose, she would most likely be a nightmare like that dragon," he explained rationally. This made Hermione pause for a moment and then she sighed.

"Alright I can see where you're coming from on that one, but at least you like Ruth. What about boys?" she asked. She noticed how his face lit up even more at the mention of boy's names. She could tell he really wanted a son.

"For a boy I'm drawn to the names Arthur, after dad, Ollie, Thaddeus and Woodrow!" Charlie listed with excitement. Hermione started to laugh so hard she nearly choked on her orange slice. Charlie looked at her, mildly shocked at her sudden outburst.

"What?" he asked trying not to laugh himself. Hermione tried to control her laughter before she spoke, but she found it difficult.

"I'm sorry, but no child of ours is being called Woodrow!" she gasped out, her laughter starting anew.

"Woodrow is a cool name!" Charlie said defensively, crossing his arms across his muscular chest. Hermione wiped tears of mirth from her eyes and tried to breathe again.

"His nickname could be Woody!" Charlie explained haughtily, but this caused her to burst into another fit of laughter. Charlie frowned and crossed his arms tighter across his chest.

A light tapping on the kitchen window brought Hermione's attention back into the room. She wiped her face as Charlie quickly got up from his seat and let the large, tawny owl into the room. It dutifully held out its leg and waited patiently for Charlie to untie the message. Charlie conjured a bowl of water and a snack for the owl and let it rest itself while he read the message.

He unfurled the letter and quickly read the contents. He read and reread the words on the parchment and as they began to sink in, his face fell and his shoulders dropped. Hermione could tell in an instant that something wasn't right. A tight band formed around her chest and she was finding it hard to breathe all of a sudden, and not because she was recovering from laughing.

"Charlie?" she asked warily.

The Dragon keeper lowered the parchment and stared at the floor. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't speak, he was sure the reserve would have given him a different answer.

"They've denied my request for a transfer. I have to go back tomorrow."

Hermione and Charlie sat in silence in the examination room in St. Mungo's. They had just come from The Burrow, where Charlie had said goodbye to his family. The previous day, just after he had received the letter, he had suggested that he and Hermione visit her parents first. This had been hard enough as the Grangers had become quite attached to Charlie. Hermione's father in particular had been hit hard by the news. The experience in The Burrow had been just as bad, if not worse. Molly had cried the entire time as Hermione had stood, like a hollowed-out shell, watching Charlie say good bye to his siblings.

"Will you be able to come back when the little Potter is born? It's not that far away now!" Ginny had cried into his shoulder. Charlie had had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop from bursting into tears.

"I'll see what I can do," he had murmured to her, all the while looking at Hermione. His brothers had given him a mixture of hugs and handshakes as they waved them goodbye from the fireplace.

Now that they were in the examination room, awaiting the big check-up, Hermione and Charlie couldn't find the words to say to each other. Hermione lay on the bed and rubbed her stomach in slow, gentle circles. Charlie stood beside her, a hand running through her hair. She savoured every tingle in her scalp, not knowing when she would feel his touch like this again. Her heart thumped painfully.

"Healer Granger," came the stiff voice of Healer Manning from the door to the room. Hermione looked up and gave the Mid-Healer an emotionless smile.

"Healer Manning," she replied in a monotone. Hermione was not in the mood for Kendra Manning today, but she would just have to get over this feeling and get on with the check-up.

"We'll be doing two exams today, one on the baby' health and one to reveal the baby's gender. You can request for the baby's gender to be kept a secret from you. If you would like to opt out of knowing the baby's gender please tell me now," Healer Manning explained as she flipped through Hermione's medical notes on her clipboard.

Hermione looked up at Charlie and tried to read his face. The twinkle in his eyes told her that he really wanted to know the gender of the baby. She searched her own feelings. That morning she had been adamant with herself that didn't want to know, but now, knowing Charlie was leaving in a matter of minutes, she finally made up her mind.

"We would like to know the gender please," she said resolutely. Charlie grabbed her hand and gave it an appreciative squeeze. She smiled despite herself and couldn't help but feel excited. She was finally going to know if she was having a boy, or a girl.

"We will perform the health check first," said Healer Manning. She muttered something under her breath and the bubbles shot out of her wand and into Hermione's body. It was odd sensation, just like it had been the first time she'd had this charm placed on her, but it was strangely ticklish.

The bubbles reappeared and floated over to the clipboard and then popped the information required onto the parchment. Healer Manning scanned down the contents and smiled warmly, which surprised Hermione.

"The baby is doing very well. Everything is right on track, as it should be. Now it's time to know what you're having. Are you ready?" the Mid-Healer asked the awaiting couple. Hermione glanced up at Charlie again, who nodded his head at the Mid-Healer.

"We're ready," Hermione said confidently.

Healer Manning murmured another charm under her breath and this time the bubbles that erupted from her wand were pure gold in colour. They glinted in the light of the room as they floated over to Hermione's abdomen and disappeared inside. These bubbles were slightly warmer than the previous bubbles, but they tickled just the same. Hermione let a giggle slip past her lips, and then caught herself. She regained her composure and waited with baited breath. The first bubble reappeared from her stomach and she gasped in delight.

"It's a boy," Charlie whispered as he watched the blue bubbles float in the air around them and then pop on the clipboard in Healer Manning's hands.

"A little boy!" Hermione breathed as a single tear slipped down her cheek. She looked up at Charlie again, who leaned down and placed a tender kiss on her lips.

Hermione felt lighter than air as she walked towards the floo station in St. Mungo's. She and Charlie were having a baby boy. Her vivid dreams had been correct. A fleeting glimpse of Professor Trelawney mumbling about the "inner eye" flitted across her memory, but she slapped that image away and concentrated on her baby. Her baby boy.

"You never did tell me the boys names you liked," Charlie commented as they walked. He was very aware of where they were walking to and what was going to happen next, but he wanted Hermione to not think about it, so his tactic was to distract her.

"I really like the names Hugo, and Max," she said as she walked. She rubbed her stomach gently and felt her baby boy give a small kick. He must have woken up when the bubbles had entered her stomach. He hadn't kicked since early that morning.

"Max yes, Hugo, no," Charlie said with a laugh.

"What is wrong with Hugo?" she asked him with a pout. Charlie merely winked at her.

"Nothing at all, it's a good name, but if I'm not allowed Woodrow then you're not allowed Hugo," he said with a cheeky grin on his face. Hermione laughed and playfully punched him on the arm. He caught her fist and then intertwined his fingers with hers. It was only then that Hermione realised they had stopped walking. They had reached the floo station. Beside the floo station was the area where people could apparate, and that was where Charlie would be leaving her.

"Please don't cry," Charlie murmured as Hermione's eyes instantly went glassy. He ran his free hand down the side of her cheek and she grabbed it and kissed his palm.

"Please don't go," she sobbed, moving into the protective circle of his arms. She hugged him tightly and inhaled his scent, trying to imprint it in her mind.

"I have to," he said with a moan, trying desperately to hold back his own tears. He hugged her back almost and hard as she was hugging him.

They held each other for several minutes, not wanting to be the first to let go, however Charlie eventually had to be the one to pull away. He leaned down and kissed Hermione softly, tasting her tears.

"I need to get to the portkey," he said finally, wiping away some of the tears on her cheeks. Her face was red, and she was breathing quickly. He hugged her one last time.

"I will fix this. I will do everything in my power to get back to you," he said into her hair. The smell of her shampoo made him feel lightheaded but he inhaled deeply nonetheless.

He pulled away from her and moved to the area where he was allowed to apparate. Hermione hugged her arms around her body as she watched him. She tried to memorise every detail of him, from his flaming red hair, and his intense blue eyes, right down to the way he walked. He turned to look at her and he raised a hand to wave goodbye.

"I love you Charlie," she called out to him. Charlie gave her an award winning, albeit a slightly wet, smile.

"I love you too Hermione," and with that he apparated out of sight.

A/N: I don't know about you but I got quite emotional myself with this one! But it's a boy! Yay! Tell me what you thought of the chapter in a review. *Apologies for spelling and grammar errors*