Chapter 14: Waffles

The sound of birds chirping outside woke Ginny the next morning. Sighing, she opened her eyes, the bright light causing her to squeeze them shut again with a groan. Hearing a chuckle next to her, she forced her eyes open again. She had fallen asleep on the couch and was leaning against Harry. He was awake and smiling at her. Ginny reluctantly sat up, leaving the warmth of his side to stretch her neck.

"How long have you been awake?" She asked, not seeing anyone else in the room.

"A while. I didn't want to wake you." Harry took her hand and laced his fingers through hers. "You looked comfortable." Ginny looked up and smiled. Her breath caught at the expression on his face; his intense gaze combined with those darker emerald eyes made it difficult to look away. It looked like he was on the edge of saying something, so Ginny tipped her head in question.

"What is it?" Ginny asked, nudging him in the side. He ran his hand through his hair, messing it up as usual. Ginny hid a smile as she waited for him to talk.

"It's just, you're something else, Gin. I'm sorry it took this game for me to realize it. But I am grateful for it."

Ginny smiled and leaned back against him. "I'm glad, too. It helps to actually spend some time with someone, and realize they were worth the years spent crushing on."

Harry chuckled, running his hand through his hair again. He wrapped his other hand around hers, absentmindedly toying with the ring on her finger. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, until Harry spoke up again. "It's hard to figure out this place."

Ginny moved so she could face him. "I agree, but what were you thinking about?"

Harry looked around again, and Ginny followed his gaze. It was still fairly early, so not very many people were up. There was a girl in the kitchen area, humming to herself as she went through the fridge, as well as a boy sitting at a computer desk in the other room, typing angrily. He looked as if he had been up all night with dark circles under his eyes.

"It's just seems like some things are so real, and others are not. Like those birds." Ginny glanced out the window to see if she could see any. "Did you notice how in the classrooms, it was quiet outside? But not here. And everyone else." He gestured to the young man and woman. "Some people seem fine, others not. Sometimes it's hard to tell which ones are real and which are a part of the game. It's just hard to figure out."

Ginny nodded. "It is strange. It's like whoever designed this, put a lot of thought in some areas, and just didn't care about others." She leaned back into him. "You do have to admit, though, after last year, isn't it nice just to sit back and let someone else direct you? Especially in a place like this, a place that's not real."

Harry faintly smiled as he thought about it. "I guess you're right. As long as they keep me following this path I'm on with you, I'm happy." He leaned forward and kissed Ginny, pulling her back against him.

Hermione woke feeling very warm and comfortable. For a minute, she forgot where she was, choosing not to try to escape the fuzziness sleep brought upon her. She lay there, content, until she heard someone's voice come from outside the room. Suddenly, memories from the night before flooded her mind, and her surroundings quickly came into focus. The empty room stood around her, dark except for a single small window in the corner that must have been placed during the night. As she became aware of everything around her, she realized that part of her warmth was due to the fact that a long arm was draped over her. Ron was asleep next to her, and surprisingly not snoring. Her momentary panic subsided and she softly smiled. Sighing to herself, she carefully extricated herself from his arm, trying not to wake him. He just rolled over and sprawled out on the other side of the bed. Hermione put her hand to her mouth, stifling a laugh. Sitting up on the side of the bed, she looked around again, her smile fading as she thought about the night before.

She sat there, resting her forehead on her hands as she tried to recall how pregnancies worked in the Muggle game. Was it a week long? Four days? They must be almost finished with their Senior year, at least, so it might not interfere. A couple days left at most. And she would have to tell Harry and Ginny. Even if it was just a game, it was still fairly embarrassing that the cursor cheated just to do this to her.

Hermione toyed with the bottom of her sleep shirt. Gingerly, she lifted it up slightly, looking at her still-flat stomach. How in the world would this work out? Would the baby be like a real baby? Or some kind of charmed…thing?

Caught up in her thoughts, she didn't notice Ron wake up until his hand brushed her back. "Hey," he said, voice slightly muffled by sleep. He slowly propped himself up on his elbows and scooted over near her. "How're you doing?"

Hermione grabbed his hand and squeezed slightly. "I—I'm not sure."

Groaning slightly, Ron sat up completely and swung his legs over the side of the bed next to her, looking at her and waiting for her to continue.

"It is a bit silly, I suppose. To worry about a fake pregnancy in a fake game." She laughed, though it was a bit high-pitched with a hint of hysteria. "I mean, I don't remember anything. I'm sure there are books in the game, but I can't imagine any of them being here at University. I'll need to go to a bookstore, but I'm not sure I can do that without the cursor directing me. What am I supposed to do, wave my arms with a book in my hand to ask? And then what about –" Her ramblings were cut off as Ron tipped her chin up and caught her lips in a kiss. Hermione's eyes flew open in surprise, but soon closed them again, yielding to his touch.

When Ron pulled back, Hermione kept her eyes closed, taking a few deep breaths. She opened them a minute later, eyeing him. "You won't always be able to calm me down by just kissing me, you know."

Ron gave a nonchalant shrug before his lips quirked up. "Maybe not, but I'll keep doing it until it stops working."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop her smile. "Well, I guess I won't complain."

Ron grinned, pulling her back into his arms. "Sorry, Hermione. But you do worry too much. I'll turn out fine."

Hermione felt her eyes start to water as she smiled at him. "Well, as long as I have you here to remind me, I supposed it will."

As if called by her words, the cursor appeared.

Ron opened his mouth, but it shut again tightly, and he stood up abruptly. Hermione saw him struggle briefly before being forced to walk out of the room without a word. She watched the cursor leave the room behind him. Frustration washed over her. Of course.

She was still sitting there on the messed-up sheets in her night clothes when she heard voices outside the room.

"—you were so right."

"Yeah, I told you there were a bunch of cute girls here." The two young men came into view as they walked in front of the door. Just as they almost passed, one of them happened to glance in the room and catch Hermione's eye. He paused, and she saw him look at her ruffled clothing. A grin slowly appeared on his face. "Speaking of…" The other guy slapped a hand on his shoulder.

"I've gotta get going, Liam, see you later. Have fun." Hermione clenched her jaw as the one who was apparently Liam sauntered into the room. If only she had her wand, then it would be easy to send him running away from her. She was not in a mood to deal with this right now.

"Hey there, what are you doing in this room all by yourself?" Hermione pulled herself up off the bed and faced him, arms crossed.

"I'm about to leave, actually." She looked quickly at her need bars, and was thankful to see her hunger low. That meant she could go to the kitchen on her own. She made to walk past Liam, but he moved over, blocking her path.

"Oh, don't leave yet. I haven't learned your name yet." She went to turn around to leave through the door to the stairs, but irritatingly, she felt herself being held in place. Liam grinned at her. "I learned that once you start an interaction with someone, they stop what they're doing and need to wait you out. And my controller isn't here. Hold on, I've been working on my pick-up lines." He paused, tapping his chin. "Are you a parking ticket? You have fine written all over you." His eyes travelled down her body, and she just glared at him, frustrated that she couldn't change out of her night clothes. Liam tsked, eyeing the red negative signs appearing over their heads. "Ooh, yeah, that one didn't work. Hold on, I'll just go for it."

He moved forward suddenly, aiming for a kiss. She was relieved that their daily relationship was already nice and low, as that allowed her to cringe back. She brought her hand up, and her slap echoed in the room.

"Don't touch me," she growled out.

He sneered at her, and she brought her hand up again. This time, he grabbed it.

"Hey, you," Ginny stood at the doorway, looking incensed, "Let go of her."

Liam released her hand, but glowered her. "Bitch," he bit out. "It's just a game, you can play along." He turned around swiftly. On his way past Ginny, he slowed down, shooting her a wink before he left.

Ginny stared at Liam's back with disdain before she shut the door, turning back to Hermione. Shaking slightly, Hermione got up and went to the window, pulling up the blinds to let some light into the dark room. Ginny went to her and gave her a tight hug.

"Are you ok? Did he do anything?" Hermione shook her head. Ginny let her go and they both sat on the edge of the bed. "Good. Great slap, by the way, I could hear it out in the hall." Hermione smiled slightly.

"Thanks. I'm just glad you came in; I wasn't sure what else the game would let me do."

"Yeah, I saw him walk this way." She looked around the room, then at the unmade bed. "Why were you in here? Did it make you sleep here?"

Hermione took a deep breath. "Yeah, the cursor brought me in here last night…and Ron too."

Ginny took another look at the bed, and her eyes widened, her mouth forming an 'o' shape. "Wait, it didn't force you to…" Hermione cringed, looking down and playing with her shirt. Ginny gasped, bringing her hand to mouth. "Well," Hermione amended, "yes and no."

Ginny hesitated before asking her next question. "You mean you weren't forced?"

Hermione turned pink. "No, no, that's not what I meant. It chose that option, but the game didn't actually make us do anything except kiss."

Ginny felt relieved at that. "That's good, I'm glad." There was something still somber about Hermione's expression. "What's wrong?" A thought came to Ginny's mind, and she found it easy to ignore the fact that Ron was her brother, when it came to comforting Hermione. "Did you…did you want to?"

Hermione's head shot up. "Oh no, no that's not—that's not what's wrong. It's the cursor. It sort of cheated."

"What? It can cheat? Cheated how?"

"Well, normally, the game doesn't let it happen until we get out of University and age up, but there's this tombstone, and it's used for spawning characters and changing relationships and things to do with life and death and—"

"Hermione," Ginny interrupted, her head spinning, "—let what happen?"

Hermione took a breath. "Well…I'm pregnant."

Ginny's mouth fell open in shock. They sat there quietly for a couple minutes until Ginny could form her thoughts. "You're…wow, I was not expecting that." Hermione snorted.

"Yeah, me neither."

"Damn. So, this game really goes through the life stages. Huh. So, wait, how does pregnancy work here?"

Hermione got up and started pacing. "I don't know exactly; I think it's only a few days to a week long."

"A week? That's it?" Ginny rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on with all of the new information, as well as the implications for the future of the game.

"I think so. As for the actual baby?" she shook her head. "I have no idea, outside of the basic interactions."

After being forced out of the room, Ron was led angrily out to the kitchen and told to make waffles.

"Seriously?" He yelled, grabbing random things from the refrigerator. Egg cartons, milk, cheese, hell if he knew how to make waffles. He dumped the milk and cheese into a bowl and attempted to crack the eggs. He threw the smashed eggs, shells and all, into the bowl. Then he grabbed a bag of flour from the counter and dumped the whole thing in. A bad idea, he discovered, as a cloud of white powder exploded up from the bowl and covered him in white. He froze as it snowed down around him. Angrily, he shoved the carton and milk back into the fridge. Turning back to the counter, he paused again. "Where the hell did chocolate milk come from?" he muttered, grabbing the newly appeared jug of chocolate milk and dumping some into the almost-full mixing bowl.

Grabbing a spoon, he mixed up the strange concoction, smashing the egg shells against the side. Opening the strange muggle device marked "waffle maker," he dumped the chunky mixture into the opening. He put the top back on, managed to find a button that was so helpfully labeled "On," and waited until the timer dinged.

"Teach you to have me make waffles." He muttered again, shoving the device open. And to his shock, sitting there on the black plates of the waffle maker sat two perfectly made waffles.

"Bloody hell."

Original A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I enjoyed writing it! Reviews would great! This story continues plugging on! :)