Harry and Ron left early the next morning. Hermione had booked the morning off work and her boss had generously given her the entire day off. As she watched the boys depart, she felt tears spring to her eyes but was determined not to let them conquer her. She considered writing a letter to her mother to ask her for advice. After all, mothers were there to make it all better. Mothers were there to get rid of the bugs, nightmares and bad feelings. They were there to make everything alright.

But something was holding her back. Her friendships with Harry and Ron were at stake and she felt that she had to make this decision on her own. It wasn't something as simple as what colour to paint the baby's room; this was a deep down, emotional decision that would affect the rest of her life.

Hermione spent the day in deep thought and was surprised to hear the door open and Draco's voice. Glancing at her watch, she noted that it was almost five-thirty. Standing from her position on the armchair by the fireplace, she greeted her husband in the hallway.

"Your friends left?" he asked as they headed into the kitchen.

Hermione nodded, biting her lip. The past few hours had been really emotional and she made a mental note to get rid of all the tissues on the table in the sitting room before Draco could see them. "Yep," was her only reply.

He gave her a funny look. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Her voice faltered and she felt the heavy tears that had been threatening all day spring to her eyes. Most of the day had been filled with silent little tears but she was now a sobbing heap of mess. Draco gathered her in his arms and stroked her hair soothingly.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently, lifting her head to face him. She continued to gulp air and sob, trying to speak.

"I just feel like my friends and I have drifted apart and I don't know what to do about it!"

Draco looked somewhat thoughtful. "I don't really believe that any friends can drift apart," he told her firmly. "If you meet a good friend, you're friends for life."

"You don't know how I felt these past few days," she moaned, burying her head in his shoulder again. "You don't know what it was like to sit beside these guys and wonder how on earth they could have changed so much."

"Did you think that maybe they were thinking the same thing?"

She pulled her head up again. "What do you mean?"

Draco shrugged. "Well, maybe they aren't the only ones that have changed."

Hermione sat up, feeling angry. "I haven't changed!" she cried indignantly, so forcefully that Draco actually laughed.

"Hermione, you're a Malfoy now," he told her, smiling. "You're going to give birth in a few months to a Malfoy. Twelve years ago, you wouldn't even look at me. You don't call that changing?"

"Twelve years is a long time," Hermione replied softly.

"Maybe three years is a long time to your friends."

Hermione pondered this thought all through dinner, even though her appetite had fled. She was quiet right through the rest of the evening and lay in bed that night after Draco had gone to sleep, wondering if Harry and Ron really considered three years to be long enough to change a person. Harry hadn't really changed since she had seen him last; his major life change had occurred in their fifth year after losing someone very close to him. But she had noticed that Ron was much more careless about things than he had ever been before. It was true; Ron never thought before he spoke. But if he said something he knew upset her, like at the table the other night, he would have gone after her to make sure she was okay. As far as she knew, he hadn't asked anything about her.

She felt another fluttering movement in her stomach. Her thoughts temporarily drifted, but not for long. She was going to be someone's mother. She was going to have more responsibility loaded on her than she had when she married Draco. She had a life growing inside her that depended on her for every little thing. It depended on her for nurturing and love and care. She had to grow up and start making decisions.

But her decisions were halted the very next week. She had enrolled in parenting classes in Hogsmeade and she had enough trouble convincing Draco to go.

"You don't want to be like your father?" she shot at him when he declined her invitation to the classes.

"I'll never be like him!" he fumed. "I know better."

"Then come with me," she pleaded. "Consider it your first step to being a good parent."

After much convincing, she managed to talk him into it so the week after Harry and Ron had left, Hermione and Draco began their parenting classes. Draco found it rather humorous that the instructor of the course expected them to take home eggs and pretend they were children.

"I can't believe he actually expects us to look after this thing," he joked, tossing it in the air on the way home. "This is going to be easy."

"Don't!" Hermione cried, snatching the egg out of his hands before he could throw it again. "Are you going to throw our baby in the air like that?"

"Of course not!" Draco replied, looking indignant. "I'll wait until they're older."

The classes were held every Wednesday evening. After the first week, Hermione was ready to scream. Draco was insisting that she take the egg with her to work since his fellow workers would make fun of him.

"Leave the thing at home then!" he declared when she refused to take it to work. "They'll never know."

In the end, Hermione ended up taking the egg to work with her and had to prevent the cook from boiling the egg on several occasions.

Two weeks after the course began, Hermione came home from the class and collapsed into a chair in the sitting room. Her back was aching and she was exhausted. She found at times that she had amazing energy but other times she could barely lift a finger.

"I can't believe we have to look after this thing for another two weeks," groaned Draco, flopping down on the sofa across from her. "I mean, what's it prove anyway? An egg is very different from a baby."

"Not really," Hermione replied. "A baby is fragile, like an egg and requires constant care and attention. You can't leave an egg rolling around on the counter like you can't leave a baby rolling around on the changing table."

Draco snorted, but Hermione gave him a dirty look and continued. "Looking after these eggs is like looking after our children; it prepares us." She looked at Draco to see that he was almost asleep. "Well it prepares me," she said softly.

The rest of the parenting classes went well and lasted well into Hermione sixth month. By the time they finished, she was convinced she knew more about babies than she ever had before. She finally felt almost fully prepared to accept a child into their home and she could tell that secretly Draco felt the same way.

Hermione didn't have much time to ponder on Harry and Ron until her seventh month. It was then that she received an owl from Harry. "Sorry I haven't written in awhile," he wrote. "It's been pretty hectic here. The shop is really doing well and taking up most of our time. I do hope that you're well." Hermione noticed, as she rolled up the letter again, that the only time Ron was mentioned in the letter is to tell her that he said hi. She wondered what that could mean.

Mrs. Granger threw Hermione a surprise baby shower close to the end of her seventh month. The early October weather had left every scrambling for warmer clothing. The warm atmosphere that had lasted throughout September suddenly took on a brief cold spell that seemed to be lasting longer than anyone had expected.

Almost seventy women (friends of the Grangers', Narcissa Malfoy and a few of her close friends and some old acquaintances of Hermione's from Hogwarts) filled Hermione's house and threw her the grandest baby shower anyone had ever seen. Apart from being completely thrown off track, Hermione felt incredibly emotional and began crying every time she opened one of the lovely gifts.

"It's only a baby jumpsuit!" Lavender Brown joked as Hermione burst into tears upon opening the elaborately wrapped gift.

"Are you hoping for a boy or girl?" asked Padma Patil.

"Do you know yet?" questioned Padma's twin sister Parvati.

Hermione shook her head. "How can you stand the suspense?" someone from the back of the crowd cried and Hermione shrugged, wiping stray tears out of her eyes.

"I don't know," she finally said. "Waiting is half the fun."

But by the time she was halfway through her eighth month, she was ready to take that statement back. Her back and her ankles hurt. She was getting migraines worse than before and she felt even more tired than she had when she first found out she was pregnant. Dr. Haggler had prepared her to be energetic her last month but she was sorely proving him wrong. The only thing that kept her going was the kicking of her baby within her.

However, Draco seemed to be missing out. Whenever the baby chose to kick, he was out of the room. Hermione would yell to him but he would never make it in time. "I don't think this kid likes me!" he cried in frustration when he had dashed downstairs for the fifth time, only to realize that the baby had stopped kicking again. "This isn't fair!"

Hermione just laughed. It was funny to her.

She received another owl from Harry a week later. "Owl us as soon as you have the baby," he instructed her. "I wish we could be there but we can't leave the store for that long again. When we came back last time, the store was a disaster area. You're my friend, Hermione, but I'm not willing to go through that again!"

One evening in late November, while Hermione was reading quietly in the sitting room, she felt a sharp pain shoot across her lower abdomen. Instinctively, her hand darted to her stomach and she withdrew a sharp intake of breath. Draco, who was sitting on the sofa beside her, sat up quickly.

"You okay?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah." Hermione smiled to reassure her husband and tried to avoid his wary eyes. She continued to read for several more minutes before another pain, this time somewhat duller, hit her abdomen again. She leaned forward and began breathing heavily.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Draco's voice was filled with a heavy concern and Hermione didn't want to upset him.

"Uh huh," she answered, leaning back into the sofa. "Just a little annoyance, that's all." But the dull aching continued until she let out a small cry. Draco leapt to his feet and began pacing the room, his newspaper still in hand.

"Okay, I'm going to get the maid, she can help us pack for the hospital. You get outside right now. Dr. Haggler said it's easier to take the carriage because Apparating might not be safe for the baby. Move, now!"

Hermione laughed. "I think we have time," she said, struggling to her feet. "Hours, if not days, most likely."

"Right," Draco said, feigning calmness. Hermione could see the panic in his eyes and couldn't help but laughing as she watched him race around the house, collecting clothing and other accessories he thought she would need.

"And I'll need this for what?" she asked, holding up her jogging suit. Draco gave a flustered cry and flung the suit across the bedroom.

"I don't know! Why don't you help me pack?"

"I would if you would get out of my way." Hermione lowered herself to the mattress and began folding her clothes before putting them into the bag.

"We don't have time to fold!" Draco hollered, ripping the clothes from her hands and throwing them into her bag. "Just pack!"

"Calm down!" Hermione cried, not finding the situation funny any longer. She tried to restrain Draco from flying off the handle. "This baby isn't going anywhere anytime soon so just relax or else I'll leave you here. Now go tell the maid to call our driver with the carriage, but calmly." She watched as Draco fought against the excitement and panic that was building inside of him and left the room. She continued to pack her belongings, trying hard not to squeal with excitement.

"I'm going to have a baby," she muttered softly to herself. Feeling another jolt of pain, she added, "and soon."