I'm trying to bring some of the other characters back into the story, as I noticed as I was rereading that it had become very Dramione-centric and that I had started to develop other characters and hadn't finished. Hope you like where this is going, it's also going to hopefully help move the story along to other stages of their marital journey. :) Happy reading, and creds to JK Rowling!

Ginny Weasley's period was late. Very late. She'd never been late a day in her life, and here she was, a week after she was due. Due. Gasping, she began counting backwards in her head, mouthing the numbers as she went. When she was finished calculating, her jaw dropped into a round O as she realised what was probably causing her predicament. It had been a few weeks ago, on Halloween, after the celebratory dance. Harry had gotten down on one knee and procured a stunning ring. There was something about actually having a ring, a symbol of their love and commitment, not to mention his words of love as he officially proposed, that erased any doubts and eradicated any warning signs she might have had. They continued their celebrations in the privacy of their room later on. Panic washed over her as with dread she stiffly performed a spell she had hoped not to use for a while to come. Waving her wand over her belly, she looked on with horror as a blue mist poured from her wand tip and settled over her stomach like some perverse flag, announcing her pregnancy.

xxxxx

A shrieking cry of "HERMIONE!" jerked Hermione from the standard trance she fell into when reading.

"Ginny!" she said, concerned. "Whatever is the matter?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" asked a worried Parvati, who, along with Luna, had been drawn to the scene of commotion by Ginny's cry.

"Come in here," Ginny said as she pulled the two girls in and quickly closed the door before casting a silencing charm over it. She now had the other three girls extremely nervous by her odd, secretive behaviour.

Turning to face her three friends, she observed the concern and caring on each of their faces, which gave her the courage to blurt out the words before she lost her nerves, or worse, began to cry. "I'm pregnant."

You could have heard a pin drop. Total silence greeted her statement. It was broken by a typically odd statement by Luna, which somehow saw past all the drama to the simple fact of the matter.

"How unsurprising," she stated simply.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Ginny retorted hotly, both annoyed by the anti climactic reaction to her dramatic statement as well as by what Luna had unwittingly implied.

"Well it's very clear that you and Harry love each other very much, and you have to get married anyway, so I imagine there didn't seem to be any reason to wait." Luna said serenely. "Besides, it would appear that you got pregnant around the time of your engagement right? It makes sense."

Ginny simply stared at her bemused, taken aback once more by the other girl's quiet deductions.

"Well, no judgement here," Parvati interjected. "I mean, I'm a bit surprised that you two didn't use birth control. I mean, I know that we're all expected to get pregnant in a few months anyway, but Blaise and I agreed to use protection until after the wedding because, even with this new law, the wizarding world is still fairly conservative and there would be talk if people found out. Sorry Ginny." she added hastily.

The other girl didn't seem to notice however as she gasped, "You and Blaise are having SEX?" almost before Parvati had finished.

Blushing, Parvati explained, "Well yes. I mean he finds me attractive, and Merlin knows he's gorgeous, and we have to do it eventually anyway, so why wait?"

Hermione felt as shocked as Ginny sounded. She also felt betrayed somehow, as she listened to her two friends who were clearly much more comfortable with their respective fiancées than Hermione was. Ginny was one thing, marrying Harry whom she had been with for a couple of years and who she had loved for even longer. But Parvati was also marrying a Slytherin and here she was sleeping with hers.

It was then that she felt a gentle hand on her arm.

"Are you okay?" Luna asked her quietly, though she needn't have as Ginny and Parvati were jabbering loudly about details that Hermione wanted to hear none of.

"No I'm not," Hermione answered honestly. She really wasn't sure if she wanted to talk about the cloud of emotions fogging her brain, but there was something about Luna, her earnestness and sincerity, that made Hermione want her as her confidant. "I feel...alone. And prudish. Ginny and Parvati are having sex with their fiancées, Ginny's pregnant for Merlin's sake, and Draco would do it with me in a heartbeat if I allowed it,...but I want to wait until we wed." She paused here, not quite sure if she was ready to divulge why.

Luna smiled kindly at her as she spoke. "Theo and I haven't done anything yet. We're just not ready. I like him, but a couple of months ago we hated each other. It seems a bit premature to give everything just yet. Besides, it also feels that by choosing to wait, I'm retaining control over at least one aspect of this whole debacle. It's one very important decision that the ministry can't make for me." Luna told Hermione seriously.

Hermione smiled in wonder at her Ravenclaw friend. "Thank you." she exclaimed fervently. "My feelings exactly."

Luna gave her an absent minded pat on the shoulder. "I'm glad. Now we should probably see why Ginny is crying. I wonder if the swarm of wrackspurts has returned."

Trying to keep herself from chuckling, Hermione looked up to see that Ginny was indeed sobbing on Parvati's shoulder. Immediately sobered, she asked in concern, "Ginny?" placing a consoling hand on her teary-eyed friend's shoulder.

"Parvati's right," Ginny wailed. "Marriage-law or not, people won't be accepting. MY MOTHER WILL BE FURIOUS!" She was now nearly hysterical. Sensing the need to intervene before this became a full-blown panic attack, Hermione's clever mind went into overdrive.

"Ginny, we can fix this. You and Harry are supposed to get married New Year's Eve right? Why don't you two go to Professor McGonagall and tell her that you don't want to wait any longer, and that you want to get married in a few weeks time? Everyone knows how in love you are, they won't find it out of the ordinary. It shouldn't be too much trouble either, seeing how much planning you've been doing for the course. Then when the baby comes, you can just tell people that you conceived during your honeymoon, again not out of the ordinary given this law's time line, and that the baby came early. You'll have to go to Madame Pomfrey now of course, but she's sworn to confidentiality so that won't be a problem. If you do start to show before the wedding which is highly unlikely, we can cast a couple of glammers to hide the signs. It'll all work out Gin, you'll see," she added softly, giving her friend a reassuring smile. Her words seemed to have had the desired effect on her friend, for her fanatical jabbering, along with its message, had lulled her friend into calming down, so much so that Ginny even flashed a good-natured smile when Parvati snickered and said,

"Yeah and if you hit the mood-swing stage, no one will find it abnormal!"

As Hermione watched Parvati guide a still slightly bemused Ginny off to inform Harry of their impending new-addition, she heaved a great sigh.

"You should take your own advice, Hermione." Luna said quietly. "It'll all work out. Don't forget that at the end of the day, you and Draco love one another. And isn't that what marriage and...all that comes with it are about?"

Hermione tried to keep that in mind later that night as Draco kissed her passionately, clearly not satisfied, in his stinking Quidditch gear which he then promptly discarded on the floor of their room before going out to hang out with Blaise and crack dirty jokes and jeer at people they disliked. Perspective. She had to keep it all in perspective, she thought as she saw a nervous, yet happy Harry lovingly stroking his pregnant wife's hair. Love was all you needed, right?