Chapter Twelve: Two Scares and a Triumph.

A dilapidated street stood ahead of them, Harry thought hard and a house squeezed itself between number thirteen and number eleven.

'Are you going to be ok Harry? You haven't been here since Sirius…' Ron said.

Harry nodded moving forward, the three of them took their wands out and went to the front door, Harry waved his wand and the door unlocked, they stepped over the thresh hold in to a dark hallway. With another wave of his wand Harry lit all of the torches so that they could see where they were going.

They made their way in to the kitchen lighting more torches as they entered. To the right was a small door, they crossed to it and knelt down, Ron pushed it open. Inside was what looked like a nest made of blankets and dirty rags, surrounding it was smashed photos and jewellery. Harry reached out to a big locket and picked it up. This was it all right; the Horcrux and now he had to destroy it.

Each of the three friends tried spells and curses to smash the locket but none worked. Harry threw it at the wall out of sheer frustration; it hit and bounced off the opposite wall before landing with a loud bang on the floor. It had smashed; something flew out of it knocking Harry, Ron and Hermione all to the floor before disappearing in a bright light.

'Do you think it worked?' Ron asked helping Hermione up.

'I didn't actually plan on doing that Ron, I did it out of anger, I never expected it to be destroyed so easily, but it looks like it,' Harry said picking up the remnants of the locket.

'Can we please go then?' Hermione was holding her abdomen and breathing hard.

'I think we should, you need help Hermione' Harry replied.

'I'll be fine, I'm ok, just winded,' she replied.

When they were back in Hogsmeade they donned the cloak, once back inside the Hogwarts grounds Harry checked the Marauders Map. No one was near except Hagrid in his hut. They walked carefully to the door, checking the map as they went. They were all the way back in the deserted common room before they pulled the cloak off. People seemed to be spending less and less time in the common room these days, most preferring to study in groups at the library and going to bed early. The trio sat down by the fire, Hermione looked pale and unwell.

'Are you alright hon?' Ron asked.

'I'm…' But she had fainted.

Harry and Ron rushed her to the hospital wing; thankfully she was coming to as they reached the door.

'What's happened boys?' The matron Madam Pomfrey asked.

'We don't know she just fainted,' Ron replied.

'Well take her back up to bed, she's probably over tired,' Pomfrey answered.

'She's pregnant though!' Ron said.

'What, how far along is she?'

'Maybe a month or so,' Ron replied.

'Get her in here then Mr Weasley, how come I wasn't informed of this?' The matron asked.

'She only took the test today we haven't had time,' Ron replied.

She ignored him; busy checking Hermione over 'ow' Hermione had woken up and the matron was prodding around her abdomen.

'Did that hurt Miss Granger?' Madam Pomfrey asked.

'Of course it did, what am I doing here anyway?' Hermione replied.

'Well you fainted and Mr Weasley has informed me that you are also pregnant,' the matron replied.

'Yes I am. Why did I faint? Is it the baby?' Hermione asked.

'No Miss Granger I think it's probably just over exsertion you should take it easy from now on,' Pomfrey answered. 'Now please let me talk to you about your pregnancy. Are you planning on keeping the child?' she asked.

'Yes we are,' Ron said before Hermione opened her mouth.

'So it's yours then Mr Weasley?' the matron asked.

''Course it's mine,' Ron said somewhat rudely.

'We know of course that it means having to leave school,' Hermione said.

'Before you make any big decisions, like to leave I suggest you tell the headmistress and talk to her, tell her I'm quite happy and qualified to help you through the pregnancy, I know you don't really want to leave.' Madam Pomfrey replied.

'Yes we will thank you,' Hermione said.

'Very well then, would you mind if I did a first check and confirm everything Miss Granger?' She asked.

Hermione nodded 'go ahead' she said.

So madam Pomfrey checked over Hermione and told her she'd be due on the eighteenth of May the next year. When that was all over Hermione was allowed to go but she had to make sure she took it easy.

Ron and Hermione both wrote letters to their parents telling them about the baby that night.

Dear Mum and Dad,

I hope you're sitting down while you read this and I hope you don't mind that this news had to come in the mail but there's really no other way at Hogwarts. Well I have some news and you might not like it but I hope you don't hate me for it.

Well… I'm pregnant… I'm a month along already and I only found out today, we want to keep it. The baby is fine, even after I fainted this evening. Don't worry I'm ok its just over-exsertion and I have to take it easy. Ron and I are going to talk to Professor McGonagal tomorrow and see if we can stay at school and finish our exams, Madam Pomfrey said she'd help me out with the pregnancy so it should be all right for us to stay. Well I must go now, see you later.

Love

Hermione

Ps. Yes Ron is the father.

Was what Hermione's said, Ron's said;

Dear Mum and Dad,

Sit down! Ok now that you should both be sitting down, Hermione and I have some news… She's about a month pregnant; we're going to be parents! No joke, I'm deadly serious, I know we're really young but we want to keep it and I'm going to ask her to marry me as soon as I possibly can, I was going to do it eventually it might as well be now. Well I have to go now I'll see you at Christmas?

Love

Ron

A week later they received replies to their letters.

Dear Hermione,

This is by far the hardest thing we've ever had to do but we're afraid that we simply cannot respect your decision to keep the baby. We're highly disappointed at you, we thought you had a bit more sense but we always knew that Weasley boy you're with was bad news! You are our only child and we had high hopes for your future and we're sorry, a child at eighteen was not a part of it. Maybe after we've had some time we can see you again, for now lets take it as it comes.

Mum and Dad.

Hermione burst in to tears when she'd read the letter; Ron hugged her and patted her back. How dare they call him bad news! They'd met him before and seemed to like him, well now the truth comes out. He was almost afraid to open his letter but when he did it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.

Dear Ron and Hermione,

Are you two all right? How's Hermione feeling now, we hope the morning sickness isn't too bad it'll go away we promise. Well we can't say we're happy about this but we'll get used to it, you should have used a charm or something though that's the only thing we'll say, it's in the past, we now have to look to the future. We will see you both at Christmas and please don't forget to invite Harry for goodness sake! Hermione PLEASE take it easy. See you later.

Love

Mum and Dad.

Well that was more reassuring but Ron was worried about Hermione and with good reason, she fainted again after crying for about half an hour. She spent three days in the hospital wing because Madam Pomfrey wanted to make sure she was completely fine, she had an iron deficiency but with a dose of potion a week she would be able to carry on with her studies. Ron spent all his free time with Hermione while she was in the hospital wing.

When Hermione was out of the hospital Ron wrote back to his parents

Dear mum and dad,

How is everyone there? We're all good here, well actually Hermione needs to take it a lot easier and stress a lot less or she'll end up back in the hospital wing, she's been in twice already. The day we found out and last week for three days, the last time was because she received a fairly upsetting letter from her parents… They… Well they have basically disowned her, they won't support our decision to keep the baby and they don't want to see her. I'll attach it with this letter so you know exactly what it said. Could you please tell me what to do? I don't know what to tell her. You guys are going to support us, aren't you? Well I have to go now see you all at Christmas.

Love from

Ron.