A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews guys! I can't stress enough how much they mean to me :) I'm so pleased you are enjoying it so much.

February arrived, thawing the ice of January but leaving the bitter winds to chill the castle grounds. The ever-grey skies resembled the constant gloom that seemed to hover over the school. Although Professor Dumbledore had insisted on keeping quiet, word of the Muggle killings had spread, hints of rumours mingled with fact to cause an unspoken panic amongst the students.

Tonks was also anxious. She had not heard from her parents since they had left for Canada, and she prayed they were safe. Her worry had settled in the pit of her stomach, causing her to feel continually unwell.

The noise of her 6th Year class brought her back from her uneasiness. She offered them a half-reassuring smile.

"Wotcher guys," Tonks said with a waver in her voice. She cleared her throat and continued. "We're carrying on from last lesson. Get your wands out." The hubbub of her class filled her head, distracting her from her previous thoughts.

"Where's Hermione?" Tonks heard Ron ask Harry, who shook her head. Tonks bit her lip before beginning her lesson.

Hermione entered the lesson half way through. She sat without speaking, next to her friends and refused to respond to their questioning glances. The boys continued their practise of disarming spells. Ron, who had become too excited at being able to successfully cast the spell before Harry, flicked his wand over-zealously causing it to hit Harry in the face and knock his glasses off his nose. The boys looked at each other for a beat, then burst into fits of giggles. Harry decided to respond and rapped Ron across the nose with his wand. They guffawed loudly. Hermione gave an impatient huff (which they were used to), and then snapped at them.

"Pack it in, would you? Just grow up! This is serious! I'd expect this off Ron, but not from you Harry." The boys just stared at their friend, who they now noticed was looking rather pale and was shaking slightly as she tucked a stray piece of curly hair behind her ear. Tonks had looked up from observing Neville and Seamus.

"Are you ok Minnie?"

"Yes," came the muffled squeak as Hermione covered her face with her hands. Tonks threw an unimpressed glance towards Ron and Harry.

"How's about you go up to my office eh? We'll have a chat." Hermione's head bobbed up and down in her hands and she stood without a look towards her friends. She made her way shakily up the stone steps and closed the wooden door behind her.

"You two can get on," Tonks said testily. Harry and Ron did as they were told.

After a moment, Tonks entered her office hesitantly. Hermione was sat with her back to the door, her bushy head resting on the table. The girl gave a little sniff.

"Hermione?" Tonks voiced a quiet concern. Her student gave a little jump and look around. She gave a small laugh of embarrassment and wiped her face quickly with her hands.

"I'm sorry Tonks, I'm just a bit over emotional at the moment. I've not been sleeping well and you know what those two are like, always winding me up. Sorry if I made a scene," she rambled then rose to leave. Tonks put her hand on the girls trembling shoulders and lowered her back down to the chair. She sat on the corner of her desk and looked down at Hermione with a look of immense understanding.

"You're worried. Don't deny it Minnie, I know. I am too. How can we not be, eh? Now, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that it's all going to be ok, because I don't know that." Hermione gave a shudder of a breath but Tonks continued. "But we have to stay strong. It's hard, I know, but we have to." Tonks wiped a tear from the girl's cheek and noticed that her own hand was shaking.

"I hate this stupid war," Hermione whispered.

"Me too," Tonks squeaked in response, squeezing her eyes together and feeling tears fall down her cheeks.

"I'm so scared Tonks," Hermione admitted. "Not for me but for my parents. I wrote to them after Christmas and they replied. I wrote back but they haven't replied again. I'm so scared, I don't know what to do!" Tonks' face fell at this worrying news. Perhaps it was nothing, she sincerely hoped so. "I've been to see Professor McGonagall to ask her if I could go home and see them, to see if they're ok, but she said no. I'm trying to stay calm. I know I might be over-reacting, but what if I'm not Tonks? It happened to Dean, it could happen to me too!" Hermione buried her face in her hands once more and wept. Tonks sat silently, listening to her sniffs mingling with Hermione's sobs. After she had taken as much of the girl's heartache as she could, she spoke up.

"It's ok Minnie. You have me. We'll look out for each other, ok?" She took Hermione's hands as she nodded. Her student blinked at her with clammy eyelashes and mumbled an apology.

"Don't be daft… I'd better get back down stairs. Harry and Draco have probably killed each other by now." This made Hermione smile. "Take as much time as you want up here, ok?" She gave Hermione's hands a final squeeze before leaving her alone in the office once more.


Hermione spent a great deal of time with Tonks after that. They seemed to share a need for each other's company. Ron, who thought Hermione was just sucking up to yet another teacher as exams were nearing, sneered down his nose at it. He didn't feel that he had entirely forgiven Tonks for cheating on his brother either. Harry, however, was worried at Hermione's new solemnity. He voiced his concern to Ginny in the common room one evening. She had simply shrugged and replied,

"We're in the middle of a war, Harry. None of us are feeling particularly positive." Harry had had to agree.

Hermione had found it difficult working in the common room in the evenings. She found it hard to be around those who did not seem at all bothered at what was happening around them. Plus, Ron seemed to be highly insensitive to anything, more so than usual, and seemed to go out of his way to frustrate her. It was because of this that she had adopted Tonks' bedroom as her new place of study. She sat at the desk by the window, watching the sleet hit the lake in the distance, which looked as black as the sky above it. Hermione sighed and looked back down to her textbook. Tonks was lying face down on her bed with her ankles crossed in the air above her. She was leaning on a hard book and her quill was poised over a piece of blank parchment, though it appeared that she was struggling for words.

"Are you writing to your parents?" Hermione's small voice asked. Tonks looked up and shook her head sadly.

"No, I…I can't. It's not safe. They haven't been in contact either. They're probably just as worried about me as I am of them. Guess that should be some comfort." But the pain on her face told Hermione that it was of no consolation at all.

"So, who are you writing to then?" she asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Charlie." Tonks' tone hadn't lightened one bit.

"Oh right…that's…nice," Hermione ventured. Tonks gave a sad laugh.

"I miss him, Hermione. I know I screwed up, and I have a horrible feeling that I've lost him for good." Her eyes flickered with something that Hermione didn't understand. "Never mess around with matters of the heart Minnie, it only gets people hurt." Hermione gave a nod and quickly carried on with her homework.

"Has…has Harry heard from Remus?" Tonks asked after a while. Hermione noticed that Tonks had yet to write anything on her parchment.

"Yes."

"Oh." Tonks' voice held both surprise and disappointment. "Did he…how is he? He ok?"

"Yes I think so. Bored, by the sound of it. Mentioned Beaky quite a bit. He must be lonely. Professor Lupin I mean…well Buckbeak too I suppose." She trailed off, seeing Tonks' face fall. "He might have mentioned you too. Yes, I think he did."

"Don't lie Hermione."

"Well…sorry. What does it matter anyway? Like you said, it's best not to mess with matters of the heart. Now write your letter to Charlie," she said briskly. However, Tonks pushed her quill and parchment to the side and buried her face in her quilt. She gave a groan of frustration. Hermione gave a light laugh and continued with her work. The wind changed direction, causing the sleet to hit the bedroom window. It rattled as if nails were being hurled towards it at a pace. Hermione couldn't concentrate so she closed her book with a sigh. She turned to see Tonks sat up, hugging her knees with her arms. Her usually short pink hair had been morphed into its natural dark waves.

"Your hair's so nice like that. Not that I don't like pink, of course, but you're so pretty Tonks." Her teacher smiled her appreciation. She took a deep breath and then hesitated; pulling at the cuffs of the blue hoodie she kept meaning to give back to Harry.

"Minnie, I…can you keep a secret?" Hermione twisted even further in her chair, nodding eagerly. Tonks jerked her head over her shoulder, indicating that Hermione should join her on the bed. She did so. Tonks took another deep breath.

"Well…the thing is…I'm pregnant Hermione." The girl's mouth dropped.

"Oh my god!" she squealed, grinning for the first time in weeks. "That's great." Her smile faded as she saw the troubled look on Tonks' face. "Isn't it?" Tonks gave a shrug. "Well, I guess this means you'll have to make it up with Charlie!" Tonks gave a slight cringe of regret and shook her head slowly. Hermione's eyes widened slightly. "Except it's not Charlie's baby is it." Tonks shook her head again. "Well then who? Not…oh my god…Professor Lupin!"

"Don't say it like that, it makes it sound so much worse!" Tonks cried. There was a stunned silence. Hermione opened at closed her mouth several times, reminding Tonks of a goldfish. She finally found words.

"I don't believe this. Harry told me you two had kissed, he never said anything about…you know."

"Harry doesn't know, and I'd really appreciate it if you kept quite about this."

"I will, I will. Does Professor Lupin know?"

"Remus, Hermione! And no he doesn't."

"Well you have to tell him!"

"You think!" Tonks said sarcastically and Hermione laughed. "This is such a mess," Tonks sighed.

"Why is it?"

"Why? Why! Well I'm pregnant with my best friend's baby, I'm still in love with Charlie, I've not heard from my parents for nearly two months now, and there's this whole other issue that I'm still dealing with –"

"What issue?"

"And we're in the middle of a war!" Tonks continued, not wanting to share with Hermione all that had happened with Bellatrix Lestrange. "So I have come to the conclusion that, yes, my life is a mess. And if you can't see that then you're a daft twit aren't you!" She folded her arms across her chest, as if to emphasise the end to her rant. Hermione smiled ruefully.

"I'm sorry Tonks. It's just I've been so down these past few weeks. And it's nice to finally get some good news. I'm happy for you, even if you're not." She pulled her friend into a hug and rested her chin on her shoulder. "I hope you can be happy too, whatever you decided to do. How far gone are you?"

"About 6 weeks," Tonks mumbled into Hermione's frizzy hair.

"When are you due?"

"September 19th."

"That's my birthday!" Hermione shrieked. Tonks pulled away, wincing slightly.

"Steady on Hermione," she laughed. She girl blushed. "Well, it's getting late. You should be heading back to you're common room now. Pleeease don't mention this to Harry. Or Ron. Or Ginny. In fact just keep it zipped ok?" Hermione nodded with a grin and pulled Tonks into another embrace. She collected her things, bade her teacher goodnight, gave a final squeal at the door and left for the Gryffindor common room.


Hermione entered the portrait of the Fat Lady five minutes later, with a smile still evident on her face.

"Good evening boys," she sang to Harry and Ron, who glanced at each other in puzzlement.

"What's wrong with you?" Ron mumbled. Hermione brushed his feet off the coffee table and went to sit in the armchair by Harry.

"Nothing, I'm fine." She gave them a look of superiority, and then gazed across the room in the pretence of being interested in who was still awake. "Seriously Hermione, what's going on?"

"Nothing that concerns you Ronald," she said shortly. He crinkled his nose at her and rolled his eyes to Harry. "Let's just say that I know something you don't."

"You know a lot of things that Ron doesn't," Harry commented, and received a clout on his arm from his friend.

"I would tell you of course, but I'm not supposed to say," Hermione teased with a grin. "Anyway, I'm off to bed now. 'Night boys." She left Harry and Ron alone, feeling rather bemused.

"Mental, that one. I've always said it," Ron admitted, shaking his head in confusion. "Wish she'd sort out her mood swings. I can't cope with her, I seriously can't! What do you reckon she was on about?" Harry shrugged.

"It was probably nothing. She's just trying to make us feel stupid." Ron turned to him.

"Harry…Hermione has always made us feel stupid. And she usually succeeds!"

"Speak for yourself," Harry muttered.

"What?"

"Err…Nothing," Harry said quickly with a smirk. "I'm off to bed, too. Have fun with your essay, won't you." Harry rose quickly, leaving Ron once again baffled.