A/N: I know, long wait, but I needed this chapter to be just perfect because it is the turning point in the whole story.

The first day of spring came and Hermione welcomed in with open arms. Within a few weeks it was warm enough to go outside in just a light jacket, instead of her winter coat. On one particularly fine spring day Hermione awoke at the crack of dawn. At first she was puzzled as to why she awoke so early. She'd be working a normal shift for the past couple of weeks and her body had adjusted to waking up later. A moment after, her pondering ending, nausea twinged and her mad rush to hall bathroom began.

Ten minutes later, with her stomach emptied into the toilet, she emerged to find a curious-looking, tousled haired, shirtless Draco looking at her. "You locked the door. What's wrong?" he asked.

"My stomach was just upset, that's all." She said wiping her mouth. "I've got to get to work." she said looking at him.

He put his hands on her shoulders and made her face him. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked looking at her with concern. She was very sweaty, her eyes were kind of out of focus, and she was pale.

"Yeah, just I feel a little sick, that's all."

"Maybe you should take a day off?" he asked when she leaned up against the doorframe and pressed her fingers to her temples.

"No, I've got class. It's non-venomous, but horrendously painful spider bites. Very important this time of the year."

"Are you sure?" he asked, repeating his question a second time.

"Positive." she said trying to smile. "I'm just going to go get ready."

"Alright," he said disbelieving her, but knowing that he couldn't force her to do anything. "I'm going to make breakfast."

"Okay," she said turning around at her doorway, "put a shirt on. You don't wanna burn yourself."

He smiled at her. "Maybe I do. Then guess who gets to heal me?"

She wrinkled her nose playfully and went to change into her robes.

Hermione, as the week went on didn't feel any better, so on her lunch shift on Friday, just two hours before she got off for the day, she headed to Ellen's office. She let herself in, saying the password, and quickly settled down with a book of symptoms. It read like a build-a-story book. She checked the symptoms of what she had and then at the end she would have the aliment. She quickly leafed through the book and all too quickly she came to the answer.

Her eyes grew wide as she read the page over once. Then again. She shook her head and looked at the title of the page again and thought, "this cannot be real!"

Nausea hit her like a tsunami and she found herself throwing the book down on Ellen's desk and rushing out the room. She turned right and hit the girls bathroom with a slam.

Her stomach emptied quickly enough, having nothing left in it almost from breakfast. She pulled the flush to the toilet and sat down on the lid. She leaned on the side of the stall and sighed. She was getting really fed up with this throwing up. She decided she needed to get down to the basics and find out what was wrong with her. If she'd read the paper right, one quick test would have been all she needed.

She was shaking as she pulled out her wand and with whispered words pointed her wand at herself. Minutes later she emerged from the stall with a look of wonder, guilt, shame and fear. She carefully slipped her wand back into her inside pocket and brushed her fingers across her abdomen.

Ellen walked into her office after the afternoon slump. Everything was the same as it always was that time of the day. The waiting room ceased to be filled to the brim, morning patients finally succumbed to the pain medicine and the she finally could enjoy the last sips of her morning coffee. She sat down at her desk and immediately could tell someone had been in her office. This wasn't unusual in any way for all of her students were allowed access to it, but all of them knew better then to leave a book on the desk. She picked it up, slightly miffed, and walked to a shelf to place it back into its proper place. She glanced down quickly at the page and her eyes widened. She knew in an instant who'd been in her office. Her only girl healer-in-training was in trouble.

Hermione, continued through the rest of her day, and by no choice of her own avoided Ellen for the day. Whenever Ellen would check in on Hermione, she would find her dealing with patients of her own. Taking temperatures, dressing wounds, applying potions and generally making them feel comfortable. Only when she looked deep into her eyes could Ellen see what a troubled girl Hermione actually was.

Just as Hermione was changing back into her street clothes did Ellen finally catch up with her.

"Hermione?" she asked as Hermione quickly gathered her stuff up and packed it into her bag. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

Hermione glanced up. She couldn't possibly know. "Um, no." she said quickly glancing back down, not being able to keep eye contact with her. She couldn't lie to her.

"Are you sure?" she asked. Hermione let out a sigh. That was the third time she'd been asked that question that day.

Hermione looked up at her mentor and was able to look at her. "No." she said. Her eyes began to well and she leaned back against the bed and put her hands to her face. She was sick of feeling so weak and worried. "But I'll deal with it." she said. She took a fortifying breath and stood up.

"You'll tell me if you need to." Ellen said. It wasn't a question. The drama of growing up.

"Of course." said Hermione. This woman was one of the best women she'd ever met in her life. She put a tiny smile on her Ellen's sake and strolled out of the room.

It was three thirty when she got home. She decided that she wanted to stay in for the night and so she decided to start fixing a nice dinner for herself and Draco.

When Draco walked in at a quarter after five she'd fixed a nice salad, had cookies cooling on the window ledge, green beans boiling with bits of bacon and onions in it, potatoes sitting, steaming, in a bowl and a chicken just coming out of the oven.

"It smells good in here." said Draco hanging his black Auror's robes up on the rack by the door. Hermione smiled at him, trust it to be a man to be the one who always thought about his stomach. She heard his shoes hit the wall as he kicked them off and then the sound of his lazy stroll into the kitchen. "Hello, what's all this?" he asked kissing her cheek as she sliced into a chicken breast with one quick slip of her knife. She smiled when she saw it perfectly white and with juice.

"Dinner, what does it look like?" she asked. "Set the table will you?"

"Sure." he said whipping out his wand. He aimed a quick spell at the cutlery drawer and two sets of silverware came flying out and began to arrange themselves on the tiny dinning room table. He himself went to the cabinets and selected two plates and set them on the table.

"I made sweet tea to go with it." Hermione said when he poked his head into the refrigerator to grab drinks.

"You've got this whole thing planned out huh?"

"Nah, it was just sort of spur of the moment." she said carrying the chicken to the table. Hermione made small talk over the dinner.

She couldn't quite find the right way to say what she wanted to say. All too soon for Hermione dinner ended and she'd missed her chance during dinner. They quickly wrapped leftovers and stuck them in the refrigerator. She poured another two glasses of the tea and he grabbed the cookie tray and they went outside to sit on the swing.

The sun was just setting. Down the street they could hear the faint tinkling of the bell at the Three Broomsticks and judging by the laughter that erupted into the air from the pub Madam Rosemerta was doing very good business tonight. Across the street an old witch sat on her rocker on her porch and watched her four grandchildren run around, enjoying the warm night, catching the lightning bugs.

They both ate two cookies each and set the rest back. Hermione leaned against Draco and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She was curled up next to him and he gently rocked the both of them with a lazy push of his foot.

She rested uncomfortably, shifting. Draco laughed at her third roll over, "Hermione, can't you lay still?" he asked.

"No." she said rolling over again. This time she laid flat, her head in his lap, looking up at him. He smiled and ran his hand along the side of her face, brushing her hair behind her ear. She smiled and then sighed. "Draco, I've got something very important to tell you."

Draco looked at her weird. The last time she said this to him it was when she got into St. Mungo's, he couldn't imagine what it would be this time. "Okay." he said slowly.

She opened her mouth, shut it, wrinkled her brow and then stood up. Draco tried to follow but she put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "No, you wanna be sitting for this, trust me."

"What is it Hermione?"

"Draco," she said sighing, hoping that this wouldn't go in the wrong direction. "I'm pregnant." she said looking at him, her eyes full of concern, gazing deeply into his.

"What? A baby?" asked Draco, how brow wrinkled.

"Yeah, a baby." Hermione said in a half-whisper.

"A baby? A baby!" he said excitedly. He leapt up from his seat and grabbed her shoulders. "A baby?"

Hermione drew her head back from his to look at him in wonder. Was he really that excited? "Yeah, Draco, a baby. I know we haven't talked about having a family, but you know, you know I cannot possibly get rid of it..." she said quickly waving her hands, stuttering just a bit.

"Get rid of it? What crazy things your saying! I would never want you to get rid o fit! It's a baby!" he said. He then roughly kissed her before leaping off of the porch and into the grass.

Hermione didn't know whether to laugh or cry so she ended up somewhere in the middle. She cried as she watched Draco spin in circles, do cartwheels and generally go crazy. She hugged herself and laughed through the tears.

Across the street the old witch was no longer looking at her grandchildren, but Draco as he whooped happily to the evening sky.

Hermione strolled down the porch her hands in her pockets. Just before she stepped off of the walkway to the grass, Draco fell backwards and looked up at the sky. He was breathing heavily and had a huge smile on his face.

Hermione waded her way through the grass, just barely in need of a cut, and sat down at his head. He looked up at her. "Hermione, I want a family more then anything."

Hermione smiled at him and ran her fingers through his hair. "Me too." she said simply.

They laid there until the sun had totally set. Draco stood up and pulled Hermione gently to her feet, pulling her close and kissing her softly.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they leisurly strolled up the walkway. Hermione picked up the glasses and he grabbed the cookie tray.

Before the door could shut behind them, the old witch across the street could hear Draco ask, "can you tell yet? Come here and take off your shirt." Hermione's laugh floated through the night air and mingled with the laughter of her grandchildren. The old witch couldn't help but crack a smile.

A/N: Well there you go, 5 pages, and it took me forever to write I know. I'm sorry, and it hurts me to say that the next update might not be until after June 6th or 9th. I've got AP Testing, Graduation Project Presentation, Prom, many hours of studying, Finals, Graduation and my Graduation Party coming up. Plus I've got some good old fashioned bonding time with my new car (graduation present from my mom.) It's awesome. And you know who else is awesome, you guys. Keep up with the reviews!

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Courtney Dax