A/N Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter 7

The best I could do for you.

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had been sat in silence for about an hour before Harry decided that enough was enough. He dried his eyes while the tears of regret continued to flow down Hermione's cheeks. He muttered and in an instant there was a new tray of hot steaming tea and a jug of coffee sat on the nearby table and he began to pour one for himself and one for Hermione.

At the sound of his mumbled words Hermione had looked up and began to dry her tears also. Her mind was numb and battered at the harsh impact of her realisations and her knowledge that she had got it so wrong. The last thing she had ever wanted to do was to hurt the man she loved, and the realisation that she had in fact inadvertently achieved this continued to send shivers down her spine as she began to sip the drink Harry had passed her. However she reflected, now is not the time to dwell, it is for practicalities she thought, as he began to speak.

"Just... tell me..."

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything Hermione... all of it."

She didn't know exactly where she should begin – it was all such a mess now. So, she took a breath [a deep one] and started-

"I found out I was pregnant about two months after my parents were killed."

Silence.

"I... Well it was obviously a surprise – I know we'd been living together for a while but we'd never talked about children – I mean we were far too young." Another breath. "I wasn't sure what to do – I really nee-wanted to talk to you about it but when that thought crossed my mind so did Voldermort."

Harry looked a little shocked – not because she'd said the name – Hermione was always braver than Ron – but because he was the reason again that something had gone wrong. She continued-

"You see – I believed Dumbledore when he came to the conclusion that Voldermort could not return in any way shape or form because of how you had got rid of him. I mean it was logical – right? You showed him what love was and his final possession of you destroyed his hate for the world and thus his power over it. Without a body he could not experience the things that had turned him so evil in the first place and so he couldn't return. It was obvious really."

Obvious? Typical Hermione.

"So I knew, you see, that you really were free... Finally you could have your own life that had been denied to you all along and I was so happy for you Harry – really I was even... even when Lucius Malfoy killed them – as sad I was I was still glad that that pathetic piece of scum was the worst you were ever going to have to deal with again. Death eaters like him were manageable – there was no real threat like when we were at school. You were so happy. Happier than I'd ever seen you. No nightmares. No pain. No anger. You were just you and happy to be so – I felt so lucky. But then I was late... I prayed I wasn't pregnant, but I thought I probably was – we weren't careful after all... When I found out I just decided- in an instant if you like – the best thing was to take the Paris job and leave you – you could be an Auror or professional Quidditch player or teacher or whatever you wanted to be – you could stay out til all hours, get drunk and throw huge parties at the weekends... You could really enjoy you're life Harry." She stopped. Reflecting, he thought.

"The point is I left. I- well I never thought you'd want a baby – I mean we were eighteen – fresh out of school without a real clue about life except for the bad stuff. It didn't occur to me t-that you would want it..."

He didn't feel any better for Hermione's words. In fact he felt worse. Looking back at all the times after defeating Voldermort, that he'd droned on to her, hours into the night sometimes, that he was finally free to live – he felt sick – with shame, with sorrow. He took a deep breath.

"Hermione."

"Yes?"

"All the things you said to me when you left. Were they true or did you say them so I wouldn't come after you?" She didn't say anything. "I just want to know."

"I said-and did- everything because that was the best I could do for you."

He closed his eyes to the tears, wiped his face and looked back at her.

"Tell me about my son."