Chapter 11: Back to School
They arrived back at Hogwarts the following week. Harry and Ron met them in the Entrance Hall and Hermione gave them both a hug. "Hey, come on up to our common room. I've got something I want to show you."
"All right," They fell in step behind her and Draco and soon reached the Head common room. Once the portrait swung closed Hermione dug something out of her pocket and grinned at her two best friends.
"Close your eyes." They both gave her odd looks but she was insistent. "Come on, close your eyes."
Finally they complied and heard some papers rustling.
"Okay, go ahead and open them." She held out the ultrasound proudly and Harry took it, immediately recognizing what it was.
"Oh wow, Hermione. When did you get this?"
"Last week," she replied with a grin. "You can keep that if you want. We made plenty of copies."
Harry smiled and stuck the picture in his pocket. "Fantastic."
Ron, however, took the paper Hermione was handing him and looked at it with an odd expression. "What is it?"
"What!" Hermione asked, immediately becoming indignant. "It's a picture of the baby, you jerk!"
"Careful, Ron," Draco quipped. "Last person she got mad at got punched in the face."
"When did that happen?" Harry asked, his curiosity piqued.
Draco explained about their encounter with the drunk in the pub and Harry laughed.
"Wow, Mione. That guy must've really pissed you off. The last guy you punched like that was Malfoy here."
She blushed and Draco shook his head. "I try to block that out, thanks. My jaw hurt for a week after that."
"You deserved it though," Hermione informed him.
"Oh probably."
The other two Gryffindors nodded in agreement with Hermione. "No, you did."
A few weeks later Hermione and Draco were sitting in their common room doing their homework after supper. Suddenly Hermione gasped and dropped her quill, her hand flying to her stomach. Draco was at her side in an instant.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
Hermione shook her head and grinned at him. Then she wordlessly took his hand and placed it where hers had been on her stomach. "Right there. Do you feel it?"
He waited for a few seconds, about to say he didn't feel anything, when he felt a little kick. His face lit with excitement and he splayed his fingers across her stomach. The baby was still going strong. Neither one spoke. Finally the baby seemed to get tired and the kicking subsided.
"Wow," Draco breathed.
Hermione nodded in agreement.
Just then there was a knock at the door. Draco stood. "I'll get it."
On the other side he found two people he had never expected to see standing calmly side by side; Ginny Weasley and Pansy Parkinson. They both raised their eyebrows expectantly and Draco shook himself out of his shock. "Um, come on in."
The girls did so and headed straight over to the couches where Hermione was. Hermione looked surprised to see them as well but still offered them a seat. "What can we do for you?"
Ginny cut right to the chase. "Hermione, are you pregnant?"
Hermione opened her mouth and was about to deny it when Ginny pulled out the ultrasound photo from her bag. "This fell out of Draco's bag in the hallway and Pansy and I both found it. It wasn't terribly hard to put two and two together after that."
Hermione sighed, knowing they had been caught. "Yes, Ginny. I am pregnant. We wanted to wait to tell you until I started to show, but"
She was cut off when the other girls tackled her in a hug and started squealing. Hermione let them hug her, completely shocked by their reactions. She had been expecting something like this from Ginny, but Pansy too? Finally she shook herself out of it and tried to field their barrage of questions.
"Um, I'm due in June. No, we haven't really thought about names yet. We don't know if it's a boy or girl…" and on and on it went.
Finally Draco decided his girlfriend needed rescuing. "Okay girls, enough. You'll make her dizzy with the rate you're going."
The girls nodded and stood to go. "Congrats, guys," Ginny said one more time.
"Thanks. And please don't tell anyone else about this. The professors all know and Harry and Ron, but no one else."
"Got it," Pansy replied then dragged Ginny out of the room to discuss an idea with her.
Draco whistled when the girls left. "Wow. I shudder to think what it'll be like when the whole school finds out."
Hermione rolled her eyes and groaned. "I'd rather not know, thanks."
a/n: phew. 11 chapters. yay! I decided I want to dedicate this story to unperfectwolf because I got the very first glimmer of a spark of an idea for this story from reading their story called Silver Glass. I was reading it and all of a sudden THIS story popped into my head and I had to write it down! I hope you all are enjoying it so far and rest assured that there's more to come soon! toodles!
oh, ps, as a small side note and in response to a couple reviews, you really CAN feel the baby kicking as early as four months, which is where Hermione's at in her pregnancy at this point. Sometimes even a little earlier depending on how sensitive you are to things like that. I really wasn't making that up. :) once again, just fyi. toodles!
