"Oi! Come on you two, we can't be late!" Mrs. Weasley said at Ron and Hermione as they headed out the door.
"Why is she coming with us?" Ron whispered to Hermione, not trying to cause an issue.
"I think she wanted to get a better idea of my… condition? She asked if she could come with us once so I said yes." Hermione shrugged, semi-regretting accepting the well-intended self invitation.
The three wizards walked outside and apparated to St. Mungo's Maternity Ward, Hermione leading the way in the hospital with Ron right behind her, and Molly trotting behind them. Being considered a more "high profile case" which Hermione hated to be called, they were taken directly back to a room.
As Hermione laid back on the medical bed, Ron sat next to her, just holding her hand and stroking her knuckles. It seemed to calm them both down a bit as the anxieties in the room were high.
Soon enough a Hagrid-statured healer walked in the room, ducking at the door a bit, "Well hello Hermione and Ronald! And I see we have a guest today, you must be Mrs. Weasley?"
Mrs. Weasley nodded her head, doing her best not to get in the way.
"Well I am Healer Adams, and it looks like we are doing an 8-week check up today! Well lift up that shirt and let's get going here!" the healer commanded at Hermione. As she rolled up her sweater, the Healer pulled up a chair and a seemingly decent sized book.
"Well Ms. Granger, it looks as though we saw you at about 3 weeks to confirm the pregnancy, correct? And we have just passed 8 almost 9 weeks now so this is perfect. I know we discussed some potential symptoms with your condition, so how are you doing with that?" She asked, ready to jot down notes.
"Um, the sharp pains have definitely occurred… Those are rather painful. Maybe 2 or 3 times a week? There's been a bit of bleeding, but nothing extreme, and then the stretching feeling on the inside but that's it."
"Okay good enough! Now let's get that first look at the little nugget, sounds good?" the Healer said with a big smile.
Ron's hand began to get sweaty in Hermione's, both looking at each other with a mix of excitement and fear, knowing that was really… real. Mrs. Weasley appeared behind Ron, holding his shoulders as she looked along excitedly.
With a wave of her wand, a peak at what was going on inside of Hermione became visible above her. They all seemed to stop breathing for a bit, just staring at the mysterious image in front of them. The purple blob covered in black little tethers didn't look healthy or human at all, but instead a creature being suffocated as life was being drained from it.
"Well," the healer paused, seeming to take a deep breath, "This is something new for all of us." she said in a confident tone. "This image should all be pink, with another spell being used to see the actual child. As you can see, this area is all a dark purple, which is actually an improvement from when I first looked at you six months ago."
Ron and Hermione just looked at eachother, terrified of what was to come next.
"As the baby grows, these tethers made from dark magic will stretch, and eventually break. It will be very painful and once you deliver they may reappear, I do not completely know the extent of dark curses remnant powers…"
"So what can we expect from here?" Ron questioned, seeing as Hermione was too stunned by the image to truly question what she was seeing.
"Much more pain, it will be sudden, not constant. Then there will probably be much more bleeding as the tethers are ripped apart. When this happens, which will be periodically throughout the pregnancy, you can try the muggle remedies of soaking in hot water. If it is really serious, you can always come back here and we will do our best to help." the Healer sighed knowing these were not the answers the couple was looking for.
"After we get to see the good stuff, we can also plan some dark magic detoxifying treatments and get an idea of the strength of what we are dealing with. I know there are a lot of unknowns here, but we didn't think a pregnancy in your state would ever survive this long. So we just all need to do our best here." On the last note, the Healer was talking directly to Ron and Molly.
WIth another spell, magical images were taken of the curse remnants, then came the "good stuff". The healer lifted her wand again, tapping on Hermione's stomach to slowly see a new image appear: their child.
"It's just a blob?" Hermione questioned, staring at the pink mass.
"It's our cute little blob" Ron said with a squeeze to Hermione's hand.
"Well this should make you feel better, everything here looks normal! You can see everything is forming on track and is the right size which is incredible considering the restraints around it." The healer replied, muttering the same image-taking the spell again.
With that, the couple was given more reading material, along with the images to keep, and they were left to head on their way out. Aparating home, Hermione quickly headed upstairs towards Ron's room without a word. Ron quickly apologized to his mum for not staying to talk more as he followed her up, ready to unpack what they saw in private.
Getting to his room, Ron found Hermione laying on the bed mindlessly tracing designs over her tiny little bump.
Their tiny little bump.
"Mione… how are you?" he whispered to her, seeing she was already in somewhat of a state.
"It's just… I survived that. I made it out, and she's dead, but somehow she gets to be at every appointment with us, causing me more and more pain when I thought I already survived it all." Hermione said with a heavy exhale, seeming to release a breath she had been holding since before the appointment. "And I - we are so young. Instead of keeping it and calling it a miracle we should be terrified and doing everything in our power not to have to go through with it. I'm not saying we shouldn't and that we don't love it… But we should be being young, not planning the next 20 years of our lives. Hell, we couldn't even plan the next 20 years of our lives until the war ended!"
Ron took a second, just surprised at the honesty. "I get it… and if you want, we can still change our minds on this. I'm not saying we should or that I want to, because I don't," he said with pain in his voice, "but if you don't want this, I am sure we can be happy without it."
He looked in her eyes searching for some sign that she wanted this as badly as he did, but instead he was met with an almost numb look. The same look that was in her eyes for weeks after being tortured.
"Erm, I am going to grab a drink real quick…" Ron said lifting himself off the bed. It just hurt to look at her in this state. Running down a couple stories, he found himself knocking on Ginny's door to find Harry and his sister snogging on the bed. "Oi! Gerroff" he muttered, scaring the couple, "Harry come here…" He said as he wandered downstairs.
Confused, Harry followed suit, afraid he would be pummeled by his best friend for what he was found doing. Then he found Ron searching for the fire whisky in the cabinet.
"I'm not gonna talk about what I just walked in on, just don't be a git and end up like Hermione and I." Ron stated, pulling out the bottle. He poured two overfilled glasses as he wandered into the living room in front of the fire.
"So I'll take it that today didn't go too well." Harry asked, still confused by the situation as he sipped his own glass of fire whisky.
"It's bloody terrifying mate. Don't get me wrong, I want this, and I want this with her… But I don't know if she can take it." Ron sat up, pulling a folded up magical picture out of his pocket, tossing it at Harry, "That's the inside of her. Tell me that looks healthy! I'm just scared it will kill her. And seeing any piece of Bellatrix inside of her, she's just shut down." Ron finished, taking a big sip.
"Fuck…" Harry whispered almost to himself as he stared at the picture. "It doesn't even look-"
"I know." Ron just stared into the fire. "I'm not sure if she wants to continue with the pregnancy. And its just-"
"You want it." Harry finished, knowing how his friend felt. With a grin, Ron looked down, almost his way of answering his best friend. "Mate, get up there and be there for her. We know Hermione, the only person who is ever able to pull her out of her spiraling is you." Harry finished off his drink and watched Ron do the same, with both boys heading back to their rooms.
Ron waited outside of his room for a bit, peaking in on Hermione laying on her side in her clothes from earlier, her chest rising and falling with her hand laying over her stomach. After a few minutes of just watching, he quietly made his way into the room and snuggled up behind her, being a big spoon as he placed his hand on top of hers.
"I love you…" he whispered over her, unaware of if she was asleep or not, "and I love that little blob. And that blob will complete our little family. Then we'll get married and you'll look perfect in a stunning white dress… And our baby will get to grow up in a world that we made safe, and you'll keep working and free all of the house elves or become the minister of magic and I'll just love watching it all happen. You're it for me."
He felt her snuggle into him, maybe unable to say how she felt too, but still knowing she heard him, the couple fell asleep.
~~
I hope you guys enjoyed this darker chapter! It felt like it was time to start to understand the struggles the couple will face with their pregnancy. Let me know what you think of it!
xoxo,
J