Author's Note: To commence Chapter VI, I would like to deal with a matter of semantics that has arisen from a review posted by 'Goose' ("You said exaggerated Weasleys...that's just another way of saying Weasley bashing"). As I read a lot of stories that are Hermione with other male characters excepting Ron, I see a lot of stories which are labelled as Weasley bashing. The opinion I have regarding that term is that it features Weasley characters that are actively evil or conspiring against Harry/Hermione. In this story, the Weasleys are not malicious or driven by spite. They are caricatures of Rowling's Weasleys: Ron who is jealous of Harry and obtuse; Ginny who fell in love with The Boy Who Lived before she met him; Molly who will do anything for her offspring's happiness. Therefore, I defend my nomenclature of this story and I just invite Harry Potter fanfiction readership in general to be more discerning when applying terms so that everyone reads the type of stories they're expecting.

DAENERYSTARGARY3N

As Hermione, Harry and Teddy smoothly landed in Harry's front garden in Hogsmeade, the world seemed to shudder along with their bodies as they hit a time and place where they had severed all ties with their surrogate family. True, they were overbearing, presumptuous and self-involved to a fault but neither could forget that the family was the first Harry had met in the strange wizarding world as an innocent eleven year old or that the Weasleys had taken her in when she could not return to her non-magical home.

"Come in, 'Mione," Harry eventually sighed, "I think we've got something to discuss."

Hermione balked at the accusation in his voice but nodded and followed him into the the living room of his cottage. She rested her hand on her still-flat belly as if seeking some form of strength from the child whose father was about to interrogate her.

"So that's what it was all about? That fainting spell with McGonagall and hiding the truth from me?"

Harry turned away from Teddy's play area and shot daggers into his best friend's auburn eyes. He knew the child was his. There was no doubt. Hermione was not the type to sleep around or whore herself out for simply physical pleasures, no matter what the Weasleys believed of her. Besides, with the timing of their tryst at her parents' old house, it fit that she could be in the early stages of pregnancy since they had lost their virginities together. The sight of her petting her stomach that greeted him as he looked towards her made something quicken in him: the knowledge that she was the mother of his child and she was his family now and would be forever.

Hermione nodded, unable to form words as her mind was engaged in an attempt to analyse the intensity behind Harry's glare.

"So, though I know the answer to this already, I do feel that the question needs to be asked anyway. Is the baby mine?" Harry asked, his voice serene and unyielding to the tumult within him.

"Yes."

The pair of them let out breaths together that neither realised they were holding in. Just the admission of the unborn baby's parentage lifted the tremendous burden from both of their shoulders. Now, it was just a matter of deciding how they were going to proceed.

"What do you intend to do? Are you going to keep it?" Harry asked, fully desirous of hearing her plans for their child as she had the benefit of longer to think about it.

"Of course! How could you ask such a thing of me?" Hermione roared at him, unable to consider terminating a life that was already more precious than all the gold in Harry's vault to her.

"I didn't ask because I thought you might...God, Hermione, I can't even say it! I just wanted to hear if you had planned anything. I mean, I found out accidentally, because you wanted to get one up on your ex-boyfriend! You didn't even tell me yourself. Were you ever going to tell me?"

Hermione sobbed and descended to the floor to hug her knees about her belly, "Oh, I'm sorry. I am so sorry, Harry. I didn't know how to tell you yesterday. I just couldn't find the words. I was actually planning to tell you after lunch today, but when Ron and Ginny said what they did, hormones just got the better of me. This baby wasn't planned or expected but I want it. I already love our child."

"So do I. I want to be a father to it, 'Mione. It's why I want to know what - or if - you've planned. Are you still taking up your professorship? Is it wise? I can't bear to think of our child being injured because of a stray spell, sweetheart."

And there it was - everything Hermione had hoped for since she learned she was expecting - Harry's care for her and their child's future.

"I am going to. The one thing I did have time to research while I was in the hospital wing was protective charms for babies. There is one that I can cast that will safeguard the child from any magic except Unforgivables, but I am not about to go off chasing errant Death Eaters in Hogwarts. Anyway, I want to teach and I'm ready."

Harry nodded, accepting the provisions she proposed to make to protect their child, "Then please consider this. Move in here with Teddy and me. I know we didn't plan to conceive but I can't lie. I am happy you're pregnant and that I'm going to have a son or daughter. I want to be a family and I know we're not in love and we've done everything in an odd order, but we can make this work, I know we can."

Hermione witnessed the hope in Harry's emerald eyes, eyes that had known pain, sorrow, fear, anger but never true love. She could not give him that vision yet of herself but she saw the longing those eyes had to see it in the child resting in her womb. That she could give him. She could quite contentedly live with him and Teddy and divide her time between Hogsmeade and the castle.

"I'll come and live here," Hermione replied, a demure smile turning up the corners of her lips, "and we'll make a go of it, but I am not coming back to bed with you, Harry. I will come back and help you with Teddy, getting ready for our child and whatever else but I do not want you to misunderstand me. I am not coming to live with you in the hope that we sleep together again or have a romantic relationship."

Harry smiled, ecstatic that she had granted his wish for them to cohabitate so readily. He acknowledged to himself privately that he did envision a future for Hermione as his lover since finding out that she was mother to his child but he would not rush her nor plan her decisions or feelings for her. He would not make the same mistake as Ron and Ginny had with both of them. For, if he lost her, he would also lose part of his son or daughter. He had no doubt that should the unlikely event of them falling out occur, Hermione could not be so cruel and vindictive as to separate him from his child, but they would not be a proper family in that case. No, he would not rush her. They had already been rushed into parenthood by their own thoughtless actions, but Gryffindor-willing, feelings of love and lust would rise up again with time.

"I won't force you or pressure you, 'Mione. I am truly glad that you want to come and live with me in this madhouse. Don't hope that we sleep together or fall in love, don't have any sense of that pressure. Just come and stay and allow the future to make our choices, for you know that I will never push you into anything you don't want with all your heart. I want to be your partner, in parenthood, in raising Teddy, in living together here, not your tyrant."