Chapter XIV:
The last couple of days of term involved a lot of lounging around by the Black Lake with her friends and trying not to think about the future for a little while. There would be time enough for that. Ginny was ginormous by this point, and getting sassier by the day. Draco and his friends usually hung out on the other side of the Lake, but on the last full day of term Blaise landed beside his wife and slung an arm around her shoulder, which she promptly shrugged off and told him where to stick it for making her so fat and useless- she'd had to miss several Quidditch matches and was panicking about recruiters not seeing her skills. Daphne lay down on Harry's lap, still apparently thinking she was skinny rather than heavy and weighing him down, thankfully missing the distressed look he cast to his friends, but not the surprised "oof!" Draco positioned himself a respectable distance from her, closer in fact to Pansy, Goyle and Nott. Ron looked a little depressed not to have someone to cuddle up with, but that didn't stop him from joining in as the two opposing houses argued about who would win the House Cup. The beads in the hourglasses were so close it was impossible to tell: Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup overall but Slytherin has bested them in the match against each other, and Draco hadn't shut up about it since! "With your biased headmaster gone there's no way you'll get it this time!" Challenged Nott.
"Gryffindor has always won fair and square!" An outraged Neville protested. Luna was inspecting his palm and her relaxation was quite a contrast to his sudden horror.
"Like that time Dumbledore gave you ten points for what, standing tall?" Pansy scoffed, her expressive eyes telling Neville what she thought of that truimph. "And it won the cup!"
Ginny was too tired to fight so she looked at her husband expectantly. Unfortunately for her, he just shrugged. "Sorry cara, she's right. If we'd gotten points for displaying the traits of our house in the minisculest of ways we'd have won for sure!"
"Well everyone knows McGonagall may have been a lion, but she plays fair," said Draco. He levelled her with a challenging look. "We'll see who's won soon enough."
At the End of Term Feast that night Harry and Ron should have been savouring the magical (in every sense of the word) food for the last dinner time, but they could barely eat anything. It was rather disconcerting. Honestly, it wasn't that big of a deal, who even-
Hermione completely lost her train of thought as McGonagall stood up and clinked her glass to call them to attention. She leaned forward on her elbows expectantly, not really listening to anything except "this year's winner is..." Peeves cane cackling through the hall mimicking a drumroll sound. "Gryffindor!" Hermione screamed indulgently, throwing herself into a group hug across the table with her friends, despite all the obstacles in their way digging into her currently rather plump body! She turned over her shoulder and arched an eyebrow and cocky smile at Draco rather than giving him the rather unladylike hand gesture she'd rather have done, but daren't, despite her days as role model for the younger students being practically over. She could hold out until they were alone in the common room.
At breakfast the next morning Harry and Ron's appetites were back in full force. Thank Godric. They certainly weren't the sneakiest- she caught them sneaking food into their bags for the train ride, or possibly to bring home and stare at like the masterpieces they were until they rotted. Her boys were lame like that- it was a reason she loved them. Hermione grinned at them lovingly, at everyone at every table, at the teachers, at the Slytherins even. She couldn't believe it was all over.
Her parents had arrived for graduation on the Hogwarts Express with the other muggle parents. The wizards were apparating to Hogsmeade and walking up to see their children become fully fledged adults. After she'd eaten breakfast and gotten changed into her dress robes and pointy wizard hat she lay down on the sofa with a big sigh. Her speech was perfect and memorised, her bags were packed, the common room ready for whoever would be Head Girl next year, but she didn't feel ready to go. "Need a hand up there, beachball belly?" She cast Draco a scathing look, but she did need one actually, so she reluctantly took his proffered hand. "Ready for the next chapter?"
"Not at all," she laughed nervously. "I'd stay here forever if I could. This is my home. When I was younger I always wanted to get out of school and grow up, but now that's the furthest thing down my wish list."
He gestured at her stomach. "The future's pushing forward, whether we want it to or not." He grabbed his own hat and swivelled it jauntily on his head like the graduation caps her muggle classmates would have worn when they graduated. "To be honest I'm so done with all this. I just want to start fresh." She bit her lip, knowing he wasn't only talking about school. "You don't have to say anything," he sighed. "It's fine." It clearly wasn't, but she couldn't say anything definitive yet. He would just have to accept that. She would be friendly with him of course, but she wasn't ready for anything more, for totally forgetting about it. Sometimes she could, other times it felt like all that hung between them.
After Draco's surprisingly personal Head Boy speech where he revealed that Hogwarts had always been his driving force, the place he'd wanted to come and the haven from his home, his father, who was a little late if he was there for appearances' sake, scowled at them both, and at his treacherous wife beside him as well. Lucius was sure Narcissa had helped them escape and was providing them with resources now. Which was true. But it didn't mean he should treat the mother of his child the way he did.
Draco came to sit down in a chair by the side of the raised platform the teacher's table was usually on whilst she stood up from beside him. The Grangers beamed up at her from the back of the room, the Malfoys glaring on the other side. There was so many students from lower years here to wave them off, the most famous year group Hogwarts had seen. In front of them her peers, not dressed in coloured ties but the same black robes. Harry and Ron each gave her a matching thumbs up. "This year was not what I expected in any manner at all. But I think that's rather fitting for a whole scholastic experience that hasn't been either. In First Year I prepared by thumbing endlessly through Hogwarts: A History, so I knew that the ceiling would be enchanted to reflect the weather outside, but I didn't expect to make two fantastic friends who I'd face a three headed dog with." Her audience laughed, and she smiled back, memories flooding over her. "In second year I was prepared for a new teacher whose favourite colour was lavender, but not to be petrified for my 'mudblood' status." The laughter trailed off, although she saw Lucius' smirk grow. "In third year I was allowed to use a time-turner to attend my ambitious number of classes, but I didn't suspect I'd use it to save a creature and a man both wrongly sentenced to death." His failure caused the blond man's expression to flip back again, quite hilariously. "Before fourth year I saw Viktor Krum play in the World Cup, but I didn't expect for him to show up at my school and fight against my best friend in a deadly tournament, or to ask me to the Yule Ball." She blushed a little. Ron had been so jealous then, now he just looked at her a little mournfully, but happy for her nonetheless. She didn't turn around to see Draco's reaction at the reminder. She would have been surprised. "As my O.W.L examination year, the fifth was always going to be hellish, but I couldn't foresee the loss of Sirius," Harry nodded to her sadly but thankfully for the tribute to his godfather. Daphne looked at him curiously, as if this was something they'd been discussing. "By my sixth the Ministry had acknowledged Voldemort's return." The mention of You-Know-Who by name had parents and students alike glancing at the Slytherins. "I thought we were in some way garnering support and trust. I didn't expect for our greatest supporter to be gone and our faces on wanted posters the next year." She focused on her two best friends now. They shared something deep and personal that would eternally connect them. It wasn't just that year on the run, but that had been a culmination of everything. "I spent what should have been my final year searching for and destroying slivers of Voldemort's soul rather than taking my N.E.W.T's or patrolling the corridors as Head Girl. The end of the year should have been a celebration but instead it was a mass funeral. When I finally got around to my seventh year it started with a test not about knowledge but to determine my husband. The result was entirely unexpected, the experience difficult, but my time at Hogwarts has been more formative than I could ever have imagined. More happy, more sad, more learnt, more experience than seems possible. It's only seven years. I suppose it's not a long time for someone who's lived a long life. But it's been jam-packed with two hundred times more than I experienced before hand and, I suspect, will experience afterwards. I'll always remember this as the best time of my life. It's the struggles in between that made all the good parts that much sweeter." The crowd leapt to their feet, cheering. Only Lucius didn't, and he could stick it. Even his wife was applauding in an uncharacteristicly unabashed way. His laser eyes were telling her to sit down, but she ignored them, maybe she didn't even notice them.
When she went to sit down beside Draco he was grinning as well, shaking his head in surprise and amusement. "Maybe you should consider a career in politics, Madam Minister in waiting."
She folded her arms over her chest and thought about that. "Maybe I should."
The ceremony of riding boats the reverse way they'd come across the Lake than when they'd arrived was so beautifully symbolic Hermione's eyes began to leak. She wasn't the only one. Hagrid had joined them on their little boat as he had when they were eleven. He was sobbing, and he wasn't even pregnant! "I don't know what I'm gon'ter do without you lot 'ere!" He lamented. "I can't remember such a time!" They engulfed him in a group hug and just stayed there for a moment so that by the time they reached the other end they were the last ones over. Ginny was waiting, rather impatiently, as she called out to them to stop being whiney babies, but she was smiling pretty good-naturedly- until she yelled "bloody hell!"
Ron leapt out of the boat and over to his sister. "What is it Gin? Merlin's beard, is it birth? Oh my Godric I am not ready for that bloody video to become reality-"
"Shut up Ronald!" Hermione slapped him around the head. "Obviously she's in labour!" She pointed down to the pool of water below Ginny. Ron looked like he was about to throw up.
"Go make yourself useful and get that useless gi- ow!" Ginny clutched her stomach as another contraction hit. "That useless git Zabini. He's probably playing exploding snap or eating a chocolate frog without a care in the whole fucking world!" She said angrily. Harry decided to accompany the ginger rather than stay with his extremely emotional ex. Meanwhile, Hermione told Ginny she was going to levitate them back to the hospital wing. Hopefully Madam Pomfrey hadn't left for the summer holidays yet. "Bloody anti-apparition charms," Ginny cursed, and then used some rather more choice words to add to her flavourful description of the charms to protect them.
By the time they reached the Hospital Ward Hermione had learnt some new words and earned a new appreciation for Ginny's vocabulary. The matron was wearing a floral print summer dress rather than her usual medical uniform and dragging a suitcase, but when she saw the two pregnant girls she dropped her holiday gear with a groan and directed them to a bed. It was clear Ginny had been experiencing contractions for quite some time as they were now very close together. Apparently she hadn't wanted to ruin their graduation, and hadn't been sure if they were the same fake thing Hermione had been experiencing either. The brunette hugged her friend for that sweetness, Ginny's response being quite a lot tighter than her own embrace. When the ginger finally released her Madam Pomfrey instructed her to use those breathing techniques they'd practised. "In... and out." Ginny did so, not without a few interjections of her own.
"What in Godric's name is keeping that good for nothing Italian?"
"I'm here bella!" Prementioned good-for-nothing-Italian called out after one such outburst.
Ginny threw her head back against the pillow in a frenzied cackle. "For the end, of course! I do all the hard work!"
"I think it was somewhat a team effort", an affronted Blaise observed.
Ginny glared at him. "I'm never banging you again shithead."
He rolled his eyes. "Of course not."
"Have you found Molly, Arthur and Mrs Zabini yet?" Hermione asked Ron. This time he bopped himself on the head, then grabbed Harry's arm and hurried away, his voice fading as he berated himself. "Stupid! Mum's gonna kill me if the baby's born before she..."
Ginny was still gripping her hand on one side and Blaise's in the other when Madam Pomfrey told her to push. "I'M USING THAT EPIPEN NEXT TIME!" She screamed. Hermione didn't bother to correct her. It didn't seem like the smartest thing to do at this moment in time.
Blaise grinned. "I knew there'd be a next time!"
"STAI ZITTO, TESTA DE CAZZO ARROGANTE!"
"So my Italian lessons did pay off," Blaise wiggled his eyebrows.
"ARGH!" A frustrated Ginny pushed hard and out came a shrieking babe. The three of them beamed, all earlier insults forgotten.
"It's a boy!" said Madam Pomfrey. She was relieved, just like they were, excited to get away at last probably, but also looking genuinely happy for the couple.
"Oh Ginny!" Molly called out from the doorway, racing towards her daughter. "He's so handsome!"
"Isn't he just?" Mrs Zabini was right behind her.
Hermione stood up to leave, feeling a little out of place, but Ginny reached the hand that wasn't cradling her son out to grab her hand again. "Hermione, will you be Luca's godmother?"
She turned back, surprised and honoured. "Wow, Ginny, are you sure?"
The ginger nodded joyfully, looking down at her son. "I wouldn't trust anyone else with him." Ron, returned, gasped. "Oh shut it!" She scoffed. "Two is more than enough for you to handle." Madam Pomfrey had been suspicious about how quickly Sally-Anne's stomach was growing and had found out that she was pregnant with twins. "Besides, it means that Blaise's best friend can be godfather as well."
"Come on in mate!" The Italian called out. "I know you're hanging around here somewhere!" Slowly, Draco poked his head around the door, looking unsure why he was there. Hermione was as well. She was sure he would have left on the train.
"I saw you heading back up to the castle," he said in a low tone as the others began to chatter around the baby, all begging to hold him.
"You were waiting for me?"
He shrugged. "Alright, time for the godparents to hold him now!" Ginny declared. Blaise handed Luca over to his best friend, who looked a little less confident now that it was a real baby he was holding rather than a doll. She felt selfishly glad for a moment, then she began to find his expression sweet. He was going to be a great father, whether he was confident holding the child or not.
