Hermione awoke a few hours later with a start. She couldn't remember where she was and she had a massive migraine. She quickly glanced to the person next to her and swore under her breath. How could she have been so stupid? As quietly as she could she got dressed, tiptoed out of the apartment, and apparated back to the flat that she and Ron shared. Hermione silently made her way into the house and saw that Ron had left a note saying that he went to bed. It was almost two AM.
"What the fuck were you thinking?!" She asked herself angrily as she splashed water on her face in the bathroom. Her heart sank as she heard Ron's soft snores coming from their bedrooms. "How could I have done this to him?" Flashbacks of her Uncle crying to her father and asking what he had done wrong came flooding into her mind. She sat on the cold tile floor and began to cry. Once she calmed herself down she glanced once again towards the mirror and contemplated using a memory charm on herself so she could forget what had happened. In the end she had decided not to. Performing a memory charm wouldn't make it so that it had never happened. She had made the mistake and she would have to live with it.
Feeling disgusted with herself Hermione couldn't bring herself to go into bed with Ron and decided to sleep on the couch. She wrote him a note saying that she had gotten home late from work and didn't want to wake him. By the time she awoke the next morning he had already gone to work, with a note saying he most likely wouldn't be home that night. He and Harry had been planning a massive raid in Brasil and she assumed that he wouldn't be home because of that. Not having Ron home for at least one night would give herself to wrap her mind around what had happened.
After throwing on her favorite robes, she apparated to work and was able to lose her mind in one of her assignments. That is, until she got an owl at around lunch time from Charlie.
We need to talk.
-C
Hermione crumbled the note up and threw it in her waste basket. Talking to him was going to make things worse and even more confusing. They both definitely liked each other, and if she spoke to him she'd want to sleep with him again.
Instead of answering Charlie's message she wrote one to Ron instead.
I hope you're having a good day at work. I love you.
Hermione
Her heart sank as watched the owl fly away, but she knew it was the right thing to do.
A month had past and Hermione still hadn't talked to Charlie since that night. This was her own doing, Charlie had been sending owls every couple of days that she kept throwing away. She was supposed to be getting ready to go to King's Cross Station for the student teaching part of her program, but instead her head was in the toilet, vomiting her brains out.
"Hermione, are you okay in there?" Ron's voice came from the other side of the door. Hermione wiped her mouth on a towel.
"Yes. I'll be right out." She called back. Her hand fumbled back to the pregnancy test she had taken before she got sick. There, before her very eyes, was one single word that made her feel like she was going to be sick all over again.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
Pregnant.
"Are you shitting me." She muttered. "How could this be happening…" Of course, she knew what had happened. She'd been there. She'd been the one who had initiated the entire thing. How could she have been so dumb as to not have used a conception charm? There was no way the baby was Ron's. They hadn't sleep together in almost two months. What was she going to do?
"This is what you get." Hermione told herself angrily and got up and walked out of the bathroom.
"Are you okay?" Ron asked, concerned when she came out into the living room. She nodded and gave him a hug.
"Just nervous about this whole trip. I'm going to miss you a lot." Hermione replied. Then, she suddenly had an idea.
"Hey, let's have a quickie before I go." She suggested with a quick smile.
Ron laughed.
"We're going to be late. It's a bad sign if a teacher misses the Hogwarts Express." He told her seriously. She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hallway towards their room.
"We won't if we go fast. I won't see you again until Christmas." She chuckled playfully as she kissed his neck. Ten minutes later they were getting in a muggle taxi that would take them to the station.
Hermione was silent the whole way. They really didn't have any chemistry. She thought back to the night that she had slept with Charlie. They had been so compatible, it had felt as though they had been together a million times. With Ron they had just gone through the motions to get it over with. She could tell he wasn't fully with it and she wasn't either. The taxi stopped at the front doors and she got out and gave Ron a kiss.
"I'll see you at Christmas!" She said with a small smile. Hermione watched the taxi until it was out of sight and then went into the station and got on the train. The train had a compartment for wtiches and wizards who were doing the program but she was the only one it it.
It felt so good to be going back to Hogwarts. She missed the familiarity of the castle. It'll be the first time she felt at home in such a long time. Her thoughts darted back to the the morning and discovering she was pregnant.
"What am I going to do?" She asked herself. Terminating the pregnancy was completely out of the question. This was her punishment for cheating on Ron. Thankfully since they had slept together that morning she could say that the baby was Ron's. He most likely wouldn't notice a few weeks difference. Besides, first borns usually came late so it would seem like she had conceived around this time. Even if this baby didn't she could say that the baby came a few weeks early. That issue was completely out of the way. But she still knew that everytime she looked at this baby she would think about Charlie and that night that they had spent together. She could avoid his messages, but she couldn't ignore the fact that she was carrying his baby and falling more in love with him and out of love with Ron by the day.
