Chapter 13: Just a Game

As the last few tinkling notes faded away, Ron watched Hermione as her face turned pale white in the bed where she now sat beside him. If the sight of Hermione's distress hadn't captured his entire attention, he would have been thinking about how beautiful her tussled hair looked in the dim lighting. But the look of pure fright on her face drove all other thoughts from his mind. He scooted over and put his hand on her arm.

"Hermione, what's wrong, what do you mean it's cheating?" Hermione continued to stare at the dark tombstone that still sat near the bed. She jerked her head up to look at Ron, panic clear on her face.

"Why would it do that? We're still in University, it doesn't make sense! I don't know what I'm going to do, I can't do anything!" Her voice grew in pitch as she sped up, tears forming as she babbled.

"Hermione-" Ron tried to cut in, but she continued speaking nonsense in her panic. Ron quickly glanced around to find the cursor. Seeing it nowhere, he tried something else. "Hermione," he repeated, then pulled her into his arms.

Hermione's shoulders shook against him, and he felt her sobs slowly start to recede as he held her, running his hand soothingly along her back. Ron pulled back to lean his forehead on hers, wiping the remainder of her tears away.

"Hermione," he said quietly, "What's wrong?"

She sniffed, locking her eyes with his. "Oh Ron," she whispered, her voice hitching "I think I'm pregnant."

Returning downstairs after spending time rebuilding their fake-but-real relationship, Harry and Ginny made their way back to the main living room, taking Hermione and Ron's vacated spots. As soon as the cursor disappeared again, Harry reached over and took Ginny's hand. She smiled up at him, but he saw something off in her eyes. "You okay?" He asked. "I'm sorry again about earlier, I tried—" Ginny waved him off.

"No worries, it's not that." She stared off towards the corner of the dorm. "It's just that room; it's weird, that bed just appearing. Do you think the cursor can build things like that?" Harry looked down at her small hand enclosed by his and squeezed it.

"I would guess so, but I don't know. I mean, there must be other controllers here, right? For all of the other people staying here? Laura talked about hers, at least."

Ginny glanced around the room. Two girls sat on another couch across from them, though they were both reading and not paying attention. She thought they might not have been real, based on impressions she had gotten previously while watching them around the house. On the other side of the room were two guys at a study table, one of which was doing homework on the desk. She recognized the first one, but not the other. It wasn't too surprising, as the people staying with them tended to rotate out when they finished the schooling. When she focused on him, she realized belatedly that he was staring at them – or rather, staring at her. When she met his eyes, his mouth rose in a slow smirk. He waggled his eyebrows at her, causing Ginny to scoff and look away, irritated.

"What is with the people in this game today?" Harry eyes darted over to the table she had been looking at, scowling. Ginny looked over again, seeing the guy now with a sneer on his face as he leaned in to say something to his friend.

Ginny refocused on Harry, taking a deep breath to settle herself. "You know what, though? This is just a game, and when we get out, this will all disappear, and we can move on to more important things."

"Yeah," Harry responded, squeezing her hand, "—just a game." Now if only he could stop thinking about how real everything felt in this supposed game.

Ron stared open-mouthed at Hermione for a few seconds before more tears formed in her eyes, snapping him out of it. Once again, he pulled her into his arms. But apparently, everything must have gotten too overwhelming for Hermione, as she burst into a fresh round of tears.

"Hey, it's going to be okay," Ron whispered, holding her against his chest, "- it's just a game. You've said that, don't forget it. It's not real" He went silent, continuing to hold Hermione until her sobs quieted into sniffles.

"J-just a game…" She managed to choke out. Ron let out a breath, resting his head on hers, happy to see her calming down.

Original A/N Surprise! Bet y'all didn't think I'd ever update again! But here I am! I said I wouldn't leave it! Only took me a…couple years to get my desire to write back! Bad news: Sims 3 is now out! (Wait, that's good news :P) And I'm gonna have to figure out if I want to try to incorporate that into the story (since I don't even have sims 2 on my new computer, I won't be able to figure out the exact interactions anymore). Good news: I might write a bit better now! What really encouraged me to continue this, besides a few recent reviews (yay!), was the fact that this story still gets quite a few hits every month, despite my absence. I was very surprised to see this upon my returning to the world of FanFiction (after the 7th movie part 2 came out!), and I became inspired to continue! Anywho, I hope you enjoyed this short chapter that will hopefully jump me back into writing again!