A/N: When I was coming up with this story, I was a lot, and I do mean a lot, of I Didn't Know I was Pregnant. I've never been in a situation where I didn't know. Actually, of my six pregnancies the LONGEST it took for me to figure it out was 5 weeks.
So, to me, watching this show, I thought wow this is wild and it made so much sense to me. Just going through all the different things, if you honestly believe that you couldn't possibly be pregnant, well then that's not going to be something that you'd even consider.
Then I read like five different fanfics where Hermione wasn't able to have kids, thus forming the idea of, WHAT IF she THOUGHT she couldn't have children and then it happened anyway!
Also, the amount of things I've read and seen for entertainment that include pregnancy and child birth tend to not be as accurate as I'd like *insert way too much pregnancy and birth education* and now we have a story that I felt MUST be written.
Alright, I'm giving an anime shout out today, because season two has FINALY restarted without me noticing and I got to watch a handful of episodes the other day…. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. My husband bought season one because the name was just too funny. One night while we were sitting working on a puzzle he said "hey, so I bought season one of this anime, it's hilarious, we have to watch it."
Oh, okay. He restarts it since he's already like five episodes in. Now we're obsessed, bought the manga, I spend WAY too much time rewatching every scene with Benimaru in it because they bring me so much joy.
Maybe I should warn you that I watch a lot of anime and there's no rhyme or reason behind what I find entertaining. THOUGH, I'd love it love it love it, if there is anyone with an artistic talent who's enjoying this story to draw something? Oh, that would be so greatly appreciated. I found one Charmione drawing that I loved and it totally fits in my head with this story.
www. deviantart adalovelaced/art/Hot-Dragon-872352406
fanfic will NOT let me put the whole web address in my docs, but that bit above should be able to get you to the right place and find what I'm laying down. Shout out to that artist because DAMN I love it.
Alright I'm done with my tales, here's a short chapter. The next one is a lot more and will be published tomorrow, maybe tonight. We'll see.
So, Here's the Thing
Hermione had taken the full day off from work for her appointment with the healer. It was a good thing too, because there was no way that she could get anything done after the appointment she just had.
Hermione was pacing back and forth in front of her fireplace, contemplating floo calling Charlie. It'd been a week since his birthday. A full week of her knowing that she was pregnant and a full week of avoiding him since his birthday dinner.
Okay, she was Hermione Fucking Granger. She had helped take down the darkest wizard of all time. She sure as hell could tell her not boyfriend, but romantic partner, that she had feelings for, that she wasn't wanting to dig too deep at, that she knew wasn't wanting to have kids, that she was pregnant.
Hermione turned towards the fireplace, before promptly turning back around and walking into the kitchen to make herself some tea. Tea was a good idea. Calm the nerves and get ready to get this over with.
Ginny had agreed to keep this quiet for a week, and Hermione knew that her time was up.
Holding the warm mug between her hands, Hermione shifted the weight between her feet. Taking one sip, Hermione set the mug on her counter and straight to the fireplace.
Throwing in a handful of floo powder she called for The Burrow.
"Charlie? Are you here?" Her Gryffindor courage did not give her enough strength to just floo straight over. Plus, it was rude to just let herself over, and she wasn't about to be rude.
"Hey, Hermione. What time is it, are you at work? Is there something you need help with for the sanctuary?" Charlie had appeared in the sitting room just wearing a pair of grey joggers hanging off his hips. Hermione's mouth went dry as she couldn't take her eyes off him. No matter how many times she saw him, she was never going to become immune to Charlie's naked chest.
"Er, well no. I took the day off. Is anyone else home? I need to talk with you really quick." Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself, no matter his reaction she was going to deal with it.
"Um, no. What's up?" The look of concern that cross his face broke Hermione's heart into pieces. "Come on over, I'll get us a cuppa, you look like you could use one."
"Yeah, right. Okay." Hermione pulled her head out of her fireplace once Charlie had spun on his heels and had starting walking towards the kitchen.
"Fuck, okay. This won't be awkward. Just going to say. Like ripping off a plaster. Yeah, just like ripping off a plaster, okay Hermione. Damnit." Hermione's pep talk to herself was not going well. It was times like this that she needed Ginny. Ginny had a way of making things that Hermione was dreading not seem to be so colossal.
Throwing another handful of floo powder in the fireplace, Hermione stepped fully into the sitting room that she had just been looking at.
"Hey, I was wondering what was taking so long." Charlie came walking towards her carrying two mugs of steaming tea. Once he reached her, he handed her one of the mugs and leaned in to press a soft kiss on her lips.
"Charlie, you need to sit. Now. Well, hurry up and sit down." Hermione was snapping at him, knowing that she was being bossy, but her nerves were leaving her.
"Okay, I'm sitting. You're worrying me, Hermione." Charlie set his mug on the table next to the plush chair that he had perched himself on and was waiting for Hermione to speak.
Hermione set her own mug down and began to pace back and forth in front of him. Her composure was leaving her, but at this point she didn't care that she looked slightly crazy.
"I need you to not say another word until I'm done, because if I don't just do it, fuck. Well, I might not be able to, and damnit Charlie, I love you. Like love you. I didn't even know how much I loved you until last week when I saw you for your birthday. I know we've said I love you; you know on my birthday and everything, but last week it was even more obvious and powerful and just overwhelming the amount of love I have for you, and bloody hell that's not what I'm saying, but that's what I need you to know before I say anything else. Well, speak. You understand that I really do love you, correct?" Hermione snapped her head up and stopped walking to make eye contact with Charlie.
Unable to say anything, Charlie just nodded his head in response to her little rant, waiting for her to continue. Hermione looked back down at her hands and began to continue her pacing.
"Okay, well now that's been established. Okay, well I need to tell you I never though this could happen and okay. Yes, well." Hermione against her instincts to not make eye contact, stopped and looked into the dark brown eyes that she had come to love so much. "Charlie, I'm sixteen weeks pregnant."
The words had tumbled from her lips and before she could stop, the tears just began to flow. Charlie's jaw hung open and he wasn't speaking, he just looked in shock.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I never thought this was possible and it just happened and it wasn't supposed to be able to happen." Hermione's tears intensified as she felt them free falling down her face.
"Can you, just. Um, I'm going to need a minuet." Charlie finally muttered, his eyes still in shock and he was still not moving.
"Yes, of course. Um, well, I'll see you." Hermione nodded at Charlie and moved to the fireplace. Throwing in a handful of floo powder, Hermione called her address and stepped back into her flat.
Hermione ran to her bedroom and threw herself onto her bed and let the tears continue to flow freely. She couldn't hold back the sobs that were escaping from her chest. She had expected surprise, had been hopeful that maybe this wouldn't be horrible news. Maybe even having him yell at her, just any sort of emotion.
Instead, she had put a man who regularly went toe to toe with dragons, dragons for Merlin's sake, into shock. This had not been on the list of possible reactions that she had prepared herself for.
It wasn't much longer, before Hermione heard her floo activating. Ginny knew that she had her appointment today and that she had taken the day off to start a long weekend. Everyone else thought she was at work.
Rubbing her eyes, she called out "Back in my room, I'm not getting out of bed right now, Ginny Potter."
"Hermione?" The deep voice that rolled across her body did not belong to Ginny. Sitting upright, she came face to face with Charlie. "So, I guess your potion failed then? Was it because of the attack? I'm sorry, we should have used the charm as a backup."
Charlie was standing in the doorway of her bedroom. He had changed out of his joggers and was wearing a pair of jeans and a red jumper. His hands were shoved deep into his front pockets, but he wasn't moving.
"No, actually I wasn't on the potion." Hermione admitted and instantly regretted the sentence as soon as it left her lips.
Charlie went from impassive to angry in an instant.
"You weren't on the potion? Are you fucking kidding me? Hermione, then why the fuck have you told me that we didn't need to use the charm? Bloody hell, Hermione. I'm thirty-six years old, and now you're telling me that after being so careful to avoid a pregnancy that because I put my trust in you that we didn't need the charm, I'm now looking at becoming a father, when I didn't even want kids of my own." The red of his face was something that Hermione had seen more times that she could count cross Ron's face. On Charlie, however, she had only seen him this angry the time she was attacked by the vampires.
Except this time, Hermione was equally mad. His outburst lit a fire deep inside her that she hadn't been anticipating. No longer was she nervous and timid, now out came the lioness that people feared.
"You will not speak to me like that Charles Weasley. You will not, and you will shut up and not say another word until I've had my say." Charlie began to open his mouth to protest, but Hermione held up her hand. "I'm not done. Now, you need to understand and realize the only other person who knows this is Ginny." Charlie's facial expression stayed hard, but he nodded and crossed his arms against his chest.
"Now, I'm sure you remember that I was tortured by Bellatrix during the war." Charlie again nodded, saying nothing else. "Okay, well she used the cruciatus curse for such a long time that it did internal damage. It wasn't apparent at first, that's why when we were recovering at Shell Cottage, Fleur didn't know. She did an excellent job and I seemed fine so we all thought there was nothing more to be done.
"After the Battle of Hogwarts, I moved into your parents' house for the summer. Mine parents were gone, but I had to come up with a plan on how to restore their memories. I spent the summer researching and was able to restore their memories with the help of the healers in Australia. After getting back, it was just me and Ginny home relaxing since Harry and Ron had left for Auror training.
"I started bleeding out, Ginny rushed me to St. Mungo's and they had to do emergency surgery. The magical strain from restoring my parents' memories and international travel had caused my left fallopian tube to burst. They had to remove my left ovary and the fallopian tube.
"They told me that prolonged exposure to the cruciatus curse can occasionally have this effect. Even though my right fallopian tube was still intact, it was heavily damaged. The healers made the decision to leave the damaged reproductive organs because doing a full hysterectomy on an almost nineteen-year-old girl didn't sit right with them.
"After that, I was told that it was highly unlikely that I'd be able to conceive children of my own. So, I just had to accept that, at not yet nineteen, I would have to give up any thoughts or ideas of becoming a mother. After that my period became irregular and I kept thinking, maybe they were wrong. After two years of thinking they had to be wrong, I finally accepted that my missed periods weren't a pregnancy and just a curse that I would have to live with.
"If I was going to live with it though, I was going to enjoy my sex life to the fullest. When I use a charm, I don't have an orgasm. So, I just opted out of using them since it didn't make a difference, or so I thought.
"But Charlie, I'm not ending this pregnancy. I thought about it and this is a miracle that I never thought was going to happen for me. I hope you understand." Hermione felt the fire starting to quench as she had continued her story. She needed Charlie to understand.
"I had no idea; I didn't realize what all had happened. I'm so sorry." Charlie's eyes had softened. He no longer looked angry, he looked tired.
"I don't except anything from you. I knew this wasn't something that you were wanting and I never wanted you to feel obligated to me and this." Hermione looked down at her hands in her lap.
"Hermione, I'm not going anywhere. It's just going to take me sometime. I already wanted you, Merlin help me, I'm crazy about you Hermione. Head over heels in love with you, and damnit woman, if being with you means that it's you, me, and our baby, well I'm in." Charlie's word made Hermione lift her gaze and tears filled her eye.
"Babies, actually. Um, Charlie, we're having twins."
That's the sentence that made Charlie Weasley faint.