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Beta: Roman's Sundial

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Ginny's Secret

Draco Malfoy – Present Day

April 21, 2000

Draco listened to Hermione defend him to the Minister of Magic from his guarded chair. Somehow, she had managed to get him a trial a lot sooner than he should have had one. He didn't know how she had managed it, but he was eternally grateful. Azkaban had been nothing like he had imagined. He knew what the cells looked like from his visit with his father, and he knew how eerie the effects of the Dementor's were, but nothing could have prepared him for what he had endured. The thought of living was actually a nightmare whilst in there; so many times Draco wanted to welcome death. He shivered at the thought of returning, and crossed every finger that he would not have to return. "And so, Mr. Krum was simply jealous when he found out that I was actually promised to Mr. Malfoy, and therefore couldn't marry him, which is why he wrote those untruthful facts."

"When did you have your ritual with Mr. Malfoy?" Kingsley asked her.

"Oh gosh, I don't remember the exact date," she replied. "It was a small ceremony you see, at Malfoy Manor. It was before his hearing though, probably a week or two prior."

"How did this ceremony take place if it was known that you were in fact engaged to Mr. Krum?"

"I was never engaged to Mr. Krum! I will admit that I was dating him, but my heart always belonged to Mr. Malfoy. We didn't think that the Malfoys would welcome me, so Mr. Malfoy and I ended our relationship and I turned to Mr. Krum." Draco frowned at Hermione's words; he had no idea what she was talking about. He looked at his mother in the audience however, and saw her give him a very small nod. Clearly, Hermione and his mother had come up with a plan. "Eventually, Mrs. Malfoy gave us permission to wed, and so I went to tell Mr. Krum, but he proposed," Hermione continued. "I was in shock, which is why I did not say yes or no. I still needed Mr. Malfoy to have a safe place to live, and so I was going to tell Mr. Krum after Mr. Malfoy's hearing the truth. Before I could, however, he had learned about our secret engagement, and that's when he wrote the letter."

"You may step down, Ms. Granger," said Kingsley. "Mrs. Malfoy," he said, turning towards Draco's mother. "You can confirm that the engagement had indeed occurred?"

"Yes, Minister," she replied, standing up to face him. "In fact, Dolores Umbridge of your office inspected both the engagement ring as well as the ritual knot." Draco was confused; Ritual knot? How was that possible when they never actually had a ceremony? He watched Potter stand up to speak.

"As head of the Dobwig Association, it is my responsibility to ensure that no dark witch or wizard, nor their followers, be left freely among the rest of us. Although your opinion is highly considered," – he said this with a vicious stare towards the Minister and head of the Magical Law Enforcement – "it was my office that suspected Mr. Malfoy in the first place, my office who looked into his behaviour, and my office who should make the final decision. Based on the evidence provided, myself and my office are fully convinced that Mr. Malfoy is innocent, and I am confident that you will also agree."

Potter sat down again as Yaxley from the Magical Law Enforcement stood up. "I must say that I agree with Mr. Potter, Minister," he said, looking at Kingsley. "Mr. Malfoy is of no concern for my department, either."

After a very long pause, Kingsley Shacklebolt finally stood up and faced Draco. "Mr. Malfoy, my colleagues believe that you are an innocent man. Although I do not agree, the vote is against me. You will be free to go and your wand will be returned to you, however, you will still continue to be monitored until I feel that it is no longer required. You may go."

Hermione Granger – Present Day

April 21, 2000

Hermione and Draco clinked their glasses of firewhisky together at Malfoy Manor. Along with Narcissa, the three of them were celebrating Draco's release. Once safely at the Manor, Hermione and Narcissa filled Draco in with everything that they had done while he was in Azkaban.

"Since they think we are engaged then, do we have to go through with it?" Hermione could tell that Draco tried to make the question sound nonchalant, but secretly she knew that he was hoping that he would have to marry her.

"Of course not!" answered Narcissa right away. "They think the knot is yours and we will allow them to believe that for now. You will have to keep up the charade while you are under watch though, Draco."

"No problem," replied Draco, rather excitedly.

"Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione started, with a curious tone. "What will happen once they realize that Draco and I never actually went through with the ritual?"

"How will they find out?" asked Draco.

"Well, for starters, we aren't actually going to get married! And one day, we will each marry someone and have children. It's going to be pretty obvious that the ritual never happened since neither of us would be dead."

"At that point, Draco will no longer be under review, so it won't matter. But even if someone says something then, they cannot re-try Draco on a closed case. Besides, there is no paper evidence that you completed the ritual, just Dolores' word, so we make her out to be a liar."

"Or at least an incompetent witch who cannot do her job properly!" Hermione laughed. "I'm good with that!"

"But what about right now? Won't they expect Hermione and I to plan a wedding?"

Narcissa drew in a sharp breath, but then spoke. "You will say you are waiting to wed once you have been cleared of everything," she told her son. "Until then, you will pretend that you are engaged, and that is all." Hermione could tell that Narcissa did not like the fact that her son had to pretend to be engaged to someone like Hermione, but before she could say anything, Narcissa spoke again. "Thank you for your help, Ms. Granger. I believe it is time for you to leave, however. Schedule public weekly meetings with Draco to keep up the charade. Perhaps a cup of tea at the Three Broomsticks will work just fine."

Understanding that she was no longer welcomed at the Manor, Hermione stood and head to the door. "I'll meet you at Diagon Alley tomorrow for dinner, Draco," she said, slightly grinning at Narcissa's angered face. "People will expect us to be together after all, since you were just released from Azkaban. Have a good night!" She let herself out but then froze when she was at the apparition point. It only dawned on her now that she had nowhere to live. Tears rolling down her face as she thought of her parents and her old home, Hermione apparated to Grimmauld Place, where she would curl up in the old room that she used to share with Ginny, and hope that Harry would let her live there for awhile.

Ginny Weasley – Present Day

April 21, 2000

Ginny paced back and forth across the flat that she shared with Harry. Since she had been woken up, they had spent almost every minute together, locked in each other's arms. While Harry was at the Ministry for Draco's trial, Ginny had spent the day with Phlegm (she still couldn't bring herself to refer to her sister-in-law as Fleur). Phlegm had been bothering her to come over for a cup of tea since she woke up, so since she couldn't put it off for much longer, she decided to go today. Phlegm had spent the entire time talking about the baby that she was about to have. "Ze Healers say it could be any day, but it shouldn't pass mid-May," she had told Ginny. "You Weezleys have so many boys zat Bill zinks it will be a boy, but I know in my heart zat it is a girl." Ginny nodded as she rubbed her head. She has had a migraine for four days that just wouldn't go away. "Are you alright?" Phlegm asked her.

"This horrible headache just won't go away, it's starting to make me nauseous," Ginny told her.

"I know all about zat!" replied Phlegm, putting the attention back on herself. "Ze nausea is everyday and ze headaches make me so dizzy. Ze worst is when my feet are so swollen zat I can't even fit in shoes!" Ginny listened to as much as she could possibly handle before finally apparating back to the flat. After spending a few moments in the bathroom (the nausea was no longer just nausea) she sat on the couch and put her feet up. She couldn't figure out why she was so exhausted. At first, she thought it might have been because her body was asleep for so long that it wasn't used to her being active now, but it didn't seem very logical since it was only just starting now, not when Harry first woke her. She heard Harry walk in, but as she made to sit up, the room started to spin.

"Ginny!" said Harry, rushing to her side. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, just dizzy, very di-" Ginny froze; oh dear, she thought.

"As long as you're okay," Harry said, not realizing that she hadn't finished her sentence. "Well, good news! Draco has been released! Hermione still needs to pretend to be engaged to him, but something tells me she doesn't mind." Ginny was only half listening to what Harry was saying. Surely, there couldn't be any truth to what she was thinking, yet a nagging voice inside of her was telling her that she knew exactly what was going on. "I'm off to the Ministry tomorrow to wake up Tonks," Harry continued, oblivious to Ginny's change in behavior. "I can't wait to wake up Remus, but Hermione thinks we should wait because we don't know how the werewolf inside of him will react, so she wants to do some more research first."

"Harry…" Ginny said, as realization started to hit.

"I think it will be fine as long as we aren't near the full moon, but-"

"Harry…" Ginny said again, a little louder.

"What?" he asked, finally realizing that she was speaking.

"Harry, I… I think I'm pregnant."

Lily Potter – The Past

October 31, 1981

It was a rainy day outside when Lily Potter woke up and looked out of the window. She had gotten up to get a crying Harry from his crib, only to see that James already had gotten up and went for him. "Hello, darling!" said James, as he came in and gave her a kiss, while little Harry reached out for her.

"Hello, James, hello my little Harry," she said, picking up her eldest child. "I didn't realize that it was going to rain today," she said, turning to James.

"It will probably stop later on," he responded.

"I hope so; I wanted to take Harry out and show him the muggles in their costumes for Halloween."

"Lily, I don't want you taking any risks, it isn't safe!"

"Just in the front yard! The fidelius charm goes right up to the fence, I'll be sure not to get anywhere near it. Besides, I want to spend as much time with Harry one on one before the new baby arrives."

James walked up to her and rubbed her very large belly. "It should be any day now, shouldn't it?"

"Yes, it should. Dumbledore is sending a Healer over tomorrow to stay with us until the baby comes. He doesn't want us to risk anything at all by going to St. Mungo's, so he's bringing everything to us."

"It will be fine. Harry's birth was very straightforward, I'm sure our second son's will be too."

"Or daughter," Lily said.

"Nah, I know it's a boy; I don't make girls."

Lily laughed. "Well, even still, we've agreed on Charles for a boy, but we should still have a girl's name decided in the off chance that it is a girl."

"You can pick it, then," James said, taking Harry from Lily and throwing him up and down in the air.

"I was thinking of Daisy," she said, grabbing Harry mid-air and silently scolding her husband.

"Daisy?" James repeated.

"Yes, I think so. Me and my sister were named after flowers and I thought it would be nice to continue that tradition."

"Sure, whatever you like," replied James. "It's going to be Charles anyway!"

"And we are agreed that Remus will be the Godfather?"

"Yeah; he's been down quite a bit lately. I think this would really cheer him up."

"It's settled, then. Will you tell him today?"

"I, uh, kind of already did."

"James!"

"Sorry, Lily! But he had a really hard transformation last moon and I really wanted to cheer him up!"

"I should scold you, James, but I won't."

James kissed his wife. "That's why you're the best!" He smiled sweetly at his wife and son. "I can't wait until we become four," he said, rubbing her belly again.

"Soon, my love," she responded. "Very soon."

Author's Notes: Where to begin! I suppose I will remind you all that as stated at the beginning of this story, I am staying true to the epilogue in Deathly Hallows entitled "Nineteen Years Later". With that said, keep in mind the date we are currently at in my story and let your mind wander from there!

Someone in a past review guessed that Lily had been pregnant.. I didn't reply obviously as I did not want to give it away, but great job on the guess; you were correct!

Next chapter focuses on Ginny's newest secret; enjoy!

Looking forward to your reviews; thanks!