(A/N: It took me a while to come up with the complications for this chapter, but I finally got it! By the way, this one may be really short. It depends on how much creativity can come out of my typing fingers.)
Chapter 4: Two Heads Are Better than One…Or Not
What I once thought would be the best year of Hogwarts because it was my last, turned out to be the worst. Mainly because I had to worry about my sister and her stupid irresponsibility. Still, as much as I love her and all that sisterly crap, I can't help but hate her. I was supposed to enjoy this year, hang with friends, and maybe even get a boyfriend, but nooooo! She had to go get knocked up, and me, being the twelve second older sister, has to care for her. I know this sounds selfish, but now I have to suffer since our oh-so-loving parents have obviously disowned her by keeping as much distance between them and Padma. I have a life too you know.
Well enough of my ranting, let's get back to the story. It wasn't until around her fifth month of pregnancy that she started to get hysterical again. Up until now she had been acting normally…as normal as a pregnant teen can. Luckily her morning sickness stopped around the fourth month. But you should have seen her this one Saturday Morning.
There I was walking out of the Library carrying enough books to fill Lock Ness…stupid Snape…when Padma comes out of nowhere, yanks me into an empty classroom, (causing me to drop my books) and slams the door shut. After I got over the initial shock, I got angry. "What the hell is the matter with you? A simple 'Excuse me, a moment of your time please.' Would have been enough." I said. But when I calmed down, I noticed she didn't have the pregnancy hiding charm on. "Did you forget to put the charm on this morning? Because you're showing." I told her. At this she became very panicky.
"No I purposely didn't use it to show you. Will you look?" At this point she lifted her shirt to show me her stomach. "I'm a blimp! I've seen pregnant women before and they're not this huge! Did I gain a lot of weight or something? Because I haven't being eating more then I would normally."
When I looked I noticed she did look bigger then normal. Having no experience in the matter myself, I couldn't help her. "So what do you want me to do about it? I don't know what the problem is. I don't even know if there's a doctor anywhere around here to tell you. Except maybe Madam Pomfrey, but I doubt you'd want to see her." Padma shook her head. "Thought so. OK the only thing I can think of is seeing a doctor to see what the problem is." I told her.
"But where is the nearest doctor? The closest place to Hogwarts is Hogsmeade, and there's no hospital there." She said.
After thinking for a minute, I answered her. "Look there's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow. Why don't we go to the post office there and see where the nearest muggle hospital is." I offered.
"How would they know where muggle hospitals are? And why would we go to a muggle hospital in the first place?" Padma asked.
"They would know because what if a witch or wizard needed to send something to a muggle and they couldn't do it by owl post? They would need to know addresses right? And we want to go to a muggle hospital because they wont know who we are. If we go into a wizard hospital, like St. Mungos, they'll want our name, and they'll recognize us at Jonathan Patil's kids, and how would that make him feel? Dad doesn't need a whole hospital knowing his daughter is pregnant at only 17. I can see the headlines now: Famous Ministry Wizard's Girl has a bun in the oven. Do you want that?" I asked her. She shook her head again.
"But how will we get to the hospital once we find out where it is? I don't think we're allowed to go beyond Hogsmeade." She asked.
"Now that I'll have to think about. Meanwhile, you put that hiding charm on right now before anybody else sees you. I have to go now. Snape assigned more homework then is legal, and I dropped all my books. Madam Pinch may have already found them and put them back already." When I looked at her again, she had the hiding charm on, and looked normal…aside from the paleness.
Luckily, nobody came upon my books, and I made the trek up to Gryffindor tower without dropping any. The rest of the day passed, and the next day came. Much too soon in my opinion. Everyone who was going to Hogsmeade gathered in the Great Hall waiting for the moment that they could leave. I met Padma on the stairs, and her little friends were disappointed that she was going to spend the day with me and not them. Hey family first. As we trekked towards the village, with us in the back, I whispered to her. "We have to find a muggle telephone too."
She whispered back. "Why? Who do we have to call?"
"We have to call the hospital and make an appointment. We can't just come in on a whim and expect the doctor waiting for us." I reasoned with her.
"But I don't know how to use a telephone. What if they get suspicious?" She asked.
"I learned how to use a telephone when I took muggle studies two years ago. Hermione helped me get the hang of it. By the way, has she done or said anything to you lately?" I asked.
"No. I thought she would get friendly towards me and feel sympathetic like Lavender did, but she treats me the same as before she knew. Which is not speaking to me at all." Padma said.
"Then she's handling it like someone who should handle something like that." It was at that point that we got there. "Come on. The post office is this way."
It turned out the nearest muggle hospital was in some town called Green Row, which was only two miles away from Hogsmeade. How they don't know about Hogsmeade is beyond me, what with being so close and all. And the nearest muggle phone was conveniently in the post office. I made the call and lied that I was on vacation up here with my sister and she needed a doctor to check on her because she wasn't feeling to well, and was wondering if it was anything to worry about because she was pregnant. It seemed luck was on our side because they had an appointment open the next morning at 9:30am. Padma was willing to go, but she was still unsure. "But how am I supposed to get there?" She asked.
I had come up with a plan the night before. We went into the Three Broomsticks and sat away from everyone else. "Ok here's what you do. 1: You feign sick, and tell your friends to go to breakfast without you. 2: I'll give you Harry's invisibility cloak, and you leave for the Storage Shed near the Quidditch field. 3: You 'borrow' one of the school's broomsticks and head for Green Row on the broom with the invisibility cloak on. It's imperative that you keep it on so that nobody will see you. Then when you get close enough to the city without being seen, get off the broom and hide it, and take off the cloak. Then walk into town and into the doctor's office. When you're through, pretty much do the same thing. Oh and one more thing. Watch out for Hagrid when you're getting the broom and putting it back. Do you understand the plan?" I asked.
"Yeah, but will you be with me?" She asked looking nervous.
"I wish I could, but there's no way that cloak will cover us both on brooms." I said. "But don't worry. You'll be fine. Nothing can go wrong unless you don't have the invisibility cloak on. Come. Let's head back to the school now. I'll give you the cloak at dinner tonight."
When I got up to the tower, I saw Harry, along with Ron, sitting at a table doing homework. At first I wondered where Hermione was, but then I remembered I saw her with Draco at Hogsmeade. They must have still been there. I walked up to them and calmly asked. "Harry can I talk to you for a second? Alone?"
He and Ron looked puzzled, but got up the same and followed me to a corner of the common room. "Now you may find this weird, but I need to borrow your invisibility cloak for tomorrow. Can I borrow it?"
He looked surprised, but then asked me. "How did you know I had an invisibility cloak?"
"If you must know, I saw you use it last year. Now can I borrow it?" I said getting impatient. But he just kept asking questions. "What for?"
"Something that is very important, but none of your concern." I answered.
"I think that since it's my cloak, I should know what it's for." He said.
"God you're trying my patience. Look this is personal medical stuff, and that's all I'm telling you! Please, I need the cloak." I pleaded.
He hesitated a bit before answering. "All right fine. But if it comes back damaged, I'll wrap your body in it and throw it away after I kill you. Got it?" He said.
"Yeah, and I'll kill you if you tell anybody. Really I'm not kidding. Nobody can know about it. Not even Ron and Hermione." I said.
He agreed, and went up the stairs to get it. A few minutes later, he came back and handed it me. "Remember: Not a scratch."
"And you remember: Not a word."
When dinner came around, I handed the cloak to Padma with a note attached that had some pointers and a small photo of me in case she needed it. The note said also said to meet me in the library that night after dinner, so she could tell me what was wrong.
* * *
Boy that day went by so slow. It seemed to take ages! Seriously, I thought we were passing into the next Era of Earth's history. Well eight o'clock rolled around, and I was hallucinating that everyone that came into the library was Padma. Finally she came in, and after I blinked my eyes a few times, I realized it was really her. She sat down in front if me with an expressionless face and handed me the cloak. "So? What did the doctor say?" I asked.
"Well he asked me a few basic questions like how long I had been pregnant and stuff like that. Then he took a sonogram to look inside me, and realized the problem right away…" She stopped.
"And…" I said.
"He said it wasn't a problem at all. He said he could tell the gender, but I didn't want to know. Just that…that now I'm the mother of two." She said.
"What?" I asked knowing what she was going to tell me.
"I'm having twins."
Next: Parvati's reaction.
(A/N: I know a muggle town so close to Hogwarts seems odd, but this is my world, and I needed it there for the story. Sure the plan could have gone so wrong, but I'd rather have everything go smoothly. And about Harry's invisibility cloak, for a while I couldn't figure out how to get Padma from Hogwarts to a hospital that far away, so I just took the easy way out. I'm lazy like that. And if any of you recognize the place Green Row, tell me because I did get it from somewhere. Anything else you have beef about, just tell me, and I can answer. About the lingo, sorry if it sounds American, but I can't help that. When I first started to read Harry Potter, I thought it took place in America. Seriously. Besides, I don't think readers care that much. I might end this story in the 1 or 2 chapters.)
