Hermione Weasley gazed blankly across her living room, her mind filled with worry. She had been preparing for this evening for days, but now that it had finally come she was anxious. There were so many questions swimming around in her head. How would Ron take it? Would he be pleased? Worried? Angry? What would she do if he wasn't happy about it? She had been so certain up until then that he would be thrilled- why wouldn't he be? They had been married for almost three years now- surely this was just the next stage in their relationship?
Her worries were momentarily paused by a loud popping sound, as Ron Weasley Apparated into the living room with an irritable look on his face.
"Hi, sweetie," Hermione said, trying to keep her voice steady, with only limited success. "How was work?" This was precisely the wrong thing to say.
"Dreadful." Ron replied grumpily, plonking down beside Hermione on the sofa. "I was rushed off of my feet the entire day- I didn't even have time to eat lunch!" Hermione wasn't sure why he sounded so surprised- he had known perfectly well when he started working in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes that it was a demanding job. "Twelve different call-outs, including one case where these three kids- couldn't have been any older than perhaps 7 or 8- managed to explode a roundabout in a Muggle park, though god only knows how! Well obviously everyone saw- it injured six people, and it took us hours to sort it all out! And because we had to do all these Memory Charms on Muggles, we had a ton of paperwork to sort out! Honestly," Ron scowled, " I don't know what those kids were thinking! People shouldn't be allowed to have children if they can't keep them under control! I'm so glad we haven't had any. I'd expect we'd probably be the worst parents in the world!" He sighed. "Anyway, how was your day?"
He looked over at Hermione, whose eyes were filling with tears. "Hermione? What's wrong?" Hermione didn't reply, but instead stood up and dashed out into the hallway, slamming the door behind her. He immediately went to follow her, but when he open the door he found that she had Disapparated.
He closed the door slowly and walked back over to the sofa, shaking his head. What had he done now? All he had done was come in, sit down and tell her about his day. Nothing so awful in that, was there?
He ran over what he had said again, but drew a blank. Maybe she was fed up with him moaning about his work? No, he reasoned, if that had been it she would just have yelled at him like normal. So what the hell could it have been? he thought angrily. She'd been acting really strangely recently- going off in a mood for no reason and crying over the stupidest little things. What if she wasn't well? He suddenly remembered that she had been sick every morning for the past few days, which definitely wasn't normal. The only people who throw up that often are either really ill or…
Suddenly the answer hit him between the eyes like a pile of bricks. "Oh my god…" Ron breathed. "She's pregnant."