Recap:

"You bastard," she whimpered, slamming her fists on the ground beside her. Of course she was angry and hurt and upset. She had really thought he'd changed, that he had wanted her too, not just to use her. She couldn't believe she'd been so blind, and when he told her she was so shocked she couldn't have acted upset even if she wanted to. So to save her dignity, she pretended like it didn't affect her and taunted him into leaving her to her sadness. "I trusted you and you ruined my life," she cried, and dropped her knees, hugging her belly. "What the hell am I going to do!"

Chapter 9: Good-bye Hogwarts, Hello World

Hermione sat, knees knocking, at her desk, waiting for the proctoring professor to begin the exam. All around her there were students in varying states of nervousness, from chewing on the tips of their quills to tapping their fingers and feet compulsively. And though she was just as nervous, for once it was not about the test before her.

Across the room, Malfoy sat still, his eyes cast down at his desk, not once looking over at her. Surely he must at least still want her in the most primitive sense of the word. But, as she watched him—even after the exams were handed out and she had finished, knowing she would get perfect marks—she realized that he would not even attempt to look at her. He had been telling the truth two weeks before.

Angrily she turned her eyes off him and stuck her hand in the air for the professor to collect her exam. It was the last one in finals week, the third to last day she would have to be here with him, and then they would graduate and never have to see each other again.

But she wondered just how she was going to adjust to that.

"How was it?" Professor McGonagall whispered as she bent to retrieve the papers.

Hermione smiled warmly at her favorite professor and nodded. "Easy."

Standing in an alcove of the castle, Hermione kicked at the stones at her feet, her mind swirling with thought. For two weeks her predicament had been on a constant loop in her head. She had thought of numerous options, though they had repulsed her immediately, and therefore she settled on the only option she could, the one that would mean her life was over as she knew it. But, someone, the prospect of such a drastic change didn't scare her as much as she had thought. In fact, she was almost comfortable with the idea.

Finally, after twenty minutes, Malfoy emerged from the castle, walking casually down the steps and headed right for her. She knew he couldn't see her, and she didn't want him to.

When he had just about passed her, she reached out, grabbed the back of his robes, and yanked him into the recess with her.

"I was wondering when you would beg me to take you back," he laughed.

At this Hermione smirked, despite her more than terrible mood. She would wipe that smile clean off his pretty little face.

"I'm pregnant," she said bluntly, and gauged his reaction.

He continued to laugh.

"Malfoy," she said, smacking his chest, "I'm serious."

Still he would not stop laughing. That is, until he finally looked down at her and saw the truth in her eyes.

"How the hell did that happen!" he snapped, forcing himself not to grab her and slam her against the side of the building. "There's no way possible that that could have happened, Hermione! It's not mine!" But, somehow, he knew that it was, without a doubt, his child forming in her belly.

"You are the only person I've slept with since me and Ron broke up before Christmas. There's no way it isn't yours."

"You slept with me when you were with Weasley," he hissed, trying his best to control the volume of his voice. "How do I know you didn't do the same to me?"

Hermione clenched and unclenched her fists in an attempt to calm herself. She reminded herself that she had expected him to lash out at her and deny that he was the father.

"Because," she said through her teeth, "I was only with you because I was in a bad relationship with Ron. Me and you had no 'relationship' to speak of, nothing I wanted to run away from."

"You have to get rid of it," he said, crossing his arms over his broad chest and turning his head away.

"I don't think so!" she yelled, shoving him back and almost making him fall over. "I've been thinking this over for two weeks now and I decided—"

"Two weeks! You've known for two weeks and you're just now telling me!"

"I was going to tell you the day I found out," she said, lowering her voice, "but that just so happened to be the day you decided not to see me anymore."

"You said you weren't mad," he pointed out, narrowing his brow. But all he could think was: I'm going to be a father! A father!

"I wasn't," she lied. "I just found out when you came over to me, Draco. I really wasn't in the right state of mind."

"There's no way you can have this baby, Hermione," he said seriously, and took a step forward, as if he meant to hug her. "Not my baby."

"I hardly think you should have a say in this," she retorted venomously. "I want this baby, Draco. I don't care if you're the father; that has nothing to do with it. I would have it no matter who the father was."

"Do you have any idea how much danger you would be putting yourself and the child in!" Draco snapped, losing his composure completely. "My family will hunt you down!"

"All because of some stupid blood?" she scoffed, turning her nose up at him.

"Yes, Hermione, because of blood! I can't let you put yourself or our child in danger!"

Hermione went to speak, but then, as his words sunk in, a wide smile spread across her features.

"You care about me, Draco. Don't you?" She had to stop herself from giggling. The very idea was just too much for her.

He frowned and turned away.

"Don't you?" she pressed, touching his arm lightly. He flinched and jumped back, as if she'd scalded him with her fingertips.

"Shut up Granger. There are more important things going on right now."

"I don't care what you say, Draco, I'm having this baby, with or without your consent. No one has to know it's yours. I'll tell everyone its Ron's, or a muggle from home. It doesn't matter. You don't have to be involved. I never expected that."

"You expect me to just ignore the fact that I'm going to father a child?" he demanded, baffled.

Hermione nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Screw you, Granger. How can you think that!"

"What!"

"Why wouldn't I want to be there for my child!"

Hermione was dumbstruck. Well this was certainly a huge surprise.

"I…er…I'm sorry Draco. I just didn't think it would be that big of a deal to you. Most guys would jump at the chance to be let off the hook."

"Merlin…" he muttered, shaking his head.

"Well…what if…" She took a step forward and gently grabbed his hands. He didn't even attempt to resist her. "What if I tell people its someone else's baby, but you can still come see him or her in secret?"

"You're insane, Granger," he sighed.

"But?"

"But it's the only thing that will work."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And you care about me."

"Shut up," he said, lacking all of his usual conviction. He closed the gab between them, cupping her face in his hands. "This really came back to bite us on the ass," he laughed sourly, chancing a kiss.

"Draco," she whispered, pulling her head away just before their lips touched. "I don't…I think we should keep from going down that road again."

He stepped back, his lips curled in an almost snarl.

"You're already pregnant, Hermione. What else could happen?"

"That's not the point and you know it. You told me two weeks ago that you were only using me. Why would I knowingly put myself back into a situation like that? We're just going to have to raise this baby like divorced parents."

"But—"

"There's no other way to do it, Draco."

He opened his mouth to retort, but then only sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"When are you going to tell people?"

"I don't know yet..."

"Scared?"

"T-Terrified…"

Graduation came and went, the weeks following it filled with parties and dinners and last minute visits with friends before everyone went off to begin their own lives. Most of the muggle-born children were going to attend colleges and then go on. Others, like Harry and Ron, knew exactly what they wanted—which was to be Aurors—and therefore they would go to train for that. Everyone else, like Hermione and Draco, really couldn't think of anything more productive than applying for positions at the Ministry or Hogwarts Castle. Not being much of a people-person, Draco chose the Ministry, and got the job immediately; he would be starting sometime in July. Hermione, on the other hand, had always wanted to be a teacher, and after being accepted to Hogwarts, wanted nothing more than teaching there. But, in her condition and with no available positions, she was forced to go for second best—a Ministry job. And if she knew Draco half as well as she thought she did then it would be hell day after day with him making advances on her. Hopefully a job at Hogwarts would open up in a few years and she could work there. By then her son or daughter would be in school and so there would be no reason she couldn't get the job.

As the days rolled by, Hermione grew more apprehensive and skittish. She was just about a month pregnant and still hadn't seen a doctor or—worst of all—told a soul other than Draco. She would tell her parents first, and they would be a breeze compared to Harry, Ron, and Ginny. After much consideration she had decided to tell everyone that she made a huge mistake with a muggle boy from her old high school that she happened to bump into. She'd been feeling lonely and sad after her break-up with Ron because she didn't have anyone. The boy—whose name she won't even both to make-up—had only been in town for a few days to visit someone, and now lived somewhere else. When they would inevitably ask her who he was and why she wasn't involving him, she would say that he wasn't exactly the best of guys for her to be with and that she knew he wouldn't want the burden of a child and someone like that was not going to be around her baby.

It was a mild day in late June when Hermione finally worked up the courage to sit her parents down at tell them. It took her a good ten minutes to even begin to her the words out, and when she finally did, she was completely shocked to silence when she found that they already knew and weren't really so much mad as concerned for her.

"You knew?" she stammered, hugging her soon-to-be-swollen belly. "How!"

"I was pregnant with you when I was your age," her mother confessed, giving a small shy smile.

"What!"

"I acted the same way for about a month or so, until my parents finally pulled my aside and asked me what was wrong…And let me tell you," she laughed, "they were quite a bit more upset."

"Wait a minute," Hermione said, still unsure of what she was hearing. No, it couldn't be right. "You're telling me that you were pregnant with me at seventeen? And you're not mad!"

"We understand what you're going through," her father said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "How could we be mad?"

"Is Ron the father?"

"Mom!"

"Well is he?"

This was not happening!

"No, he's not," she sighed, looking down. "Me and Ron are…are just friends." Even if they weren't angry and screaming at the top of their lungs at her, it was still hard to not feel ashamed. Here she was, seventeen years old, and telling her parents that she not only slept with her ex-fiancé Ron, but another man who got her pregnant with a child that she intended to keep.

"Then who is it?"

"I…" she began, then looked up, forcing herself to look at her parents. She took a deep breath, then told them the story she had worked out in her mind, taking no pauses or breaths. When she finished, there was a deep and agonizing silence. "Say something," she begged, casting her eyes down again. "Please."

"You don't want him involved?" her mother asked, purposely keeping her voice neutral.

"He's not a good person," she said, not lying entirely. This was Draco Malfoy she was talking about after all. "Like I said, he doesn't even live around here, and, even if he did, I wouldn't want him involved in his or her life. I mean that."

"This is what you really want?" her father asked, showing her nothing but pure sympathy. She knew he wanted there to be a father, another man he could confide in, a father for the child. How she wished she could tell them the whole truth, that the father was going to see his child and raise him or her with her, be there for every special moment. When had she become a secretive daughter?

"Yes daddy," she sighed. "I really do."

Ron walked into the Leaky Cauldron and took a seat at the bar. He was early for their meeting, so he ordered a butter beer and grabbed a handful of peanuts.

"Ron?"

He turned around abruptly, dropping the nuts on the counter when he came face to face with Harry and his little sister Ginny.

"What are you two doing here?" he all but demanded, though he didn't mean to sound rude.

"Hermione told us to come," Ginny said, hoisting herself on the stool beside her brother.

"Me too," Ron said, furrowing his brow. If she didn't want to speak to him in private about their relationship, then he had no clue what this could possibly be about.

"Did she tell you what was going on?" Harry asked.

"No," came a voice from behind them. They whirled around to find Hermione standing, her hair still wet from her shower, with a sad smile playing on her lips. "I didn't."

" 'Mione," Harry beamed, kissing her cheek quickly. "What's going on? You look like hell."

"I can always count on you for a compliment, Harry," she laughed. Then her face darkened and she glanced at the staircase to their left. "I rented a room upstairs," she said, catching their attention immediately. "This really should be in private."

After about five minutes of stalling, and with everyone settled, Hermione could no longer remain silent. Her three best friends in the whole world sat, ears perked, on the bed; she opted to stand by the door, just incase she felt the need to flee during the inevitable argument. She knew that immediately they would think it was Ron's child inside her. Even Ron himself would think that in his baffled confusion, though he knew full well that they hadn't slept together since before Christmas and there was no way he could possibly be the father.

"First of all," she said, clearing her throat, "I love you guys. You're the best thing in my life. Without you I don't think I would have been able to make it seven years at Hogwarts. Especially with Snape on my back all the time." She chuckled uncomfortably, and looked up. Her friends' faces were stone cold and solemn. They knew this was completely serious now.

"What's going on, Hermione?" Ginny asked; the question that was on the tip of everyone's tongue.

"Before I tell you, you have to understand that I can't tell you everything." As if on cue, they all raised their eyebrows in question. "You'll understand when I tell you."

"Hermione?" She looked to Ron, whose face said all he was thinking. "Tell us."

"You have to give me a chance to explain," she said quickly, as if they were denying her that chance even before they knew what she was talking about.

"Right now," Harry said, "all we want to know it what you have to say. We can put our input in when you're done."

"Ok," she sighed, closing her eyes in an attempt to prepare herself for the end.

The entire room seemed to tense.

It was so quiet Hermione swore she could hear everyone's individual heartbeats.

"I'm pregnant…"

That wasthe worst cliffhanger in the history of the world! Hahaha! Now you have to come back for more :P Evil author!

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