Broom(b)ride

By

Sannikex

A/N: So another Hr/R moment! Not so much fluff as in the previous chapter but there will be more of that. I'm always open to suggestion since I don't have a storyboard. It's just going to be moments in our leading couple's life. So..Let's get on with it, on suggestion from Ced14.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Hermione stretched and enjoyed the feeling the sunshine on her bare skin brought. She loved Sunday mornings. She liked to work and thought it was imperative to have something to do all day, but Sundays were special, they were free. It was habit for her and Ron left over from their Hogwarts days. He had always had a Quidditch match or practise and she had had mountains of homework to do. But on Sundays they would take time for each other only.

They still did. On Saturdays they would do the boring stuff you had to do on weekends like grocery shopping, clueing and laundry. That left Sundays for them to enjoy each other's company. People had even stopped inviting them over for the last day of the week. By now they knew that the two of them wouldn't come.

Hit by a thought Hermione swung her legs down on the floor. She would bring her fiancée breakfast in bed. She turned to check that she hadn't woken him up a smile grazed her features. Ron was, as usual, spread over the whole bed, he was frowning in his sleep and mumbling something. Some things he said had Hermione laughing out loud in the middle of the night as he babbled about totally incongrous things. Harry had told her that he used to do it at Hogwarts too.

His hair seemed ablaze in the brilliant rays that found their way between the drawn curtains. He might not be devilishly handsome like Malfoy or cute like Harry but he was hers. In all his tall, muscular, red-haired glory.

She rose and swiftly pulled on one of his shirts, pushing up the sleeves that were long enough to cover her hands completely and went down the stairs to the kitchen.

She loved that room. She hated cooking and other domestic chores but the kitchen was so bright and warm that you just had to love it. The walls were painted in yellow with a border of sunflowers lining them and the cupboards and the table were polished, dark wood.

Conjuring some coffee and putting bread in the toaster she hummed to herself.

Putting it all on a tray she started to walk out as her eyes found the calendar on the wall. It had pretty pictures of Rome during all seasons that she and Ron had bought when they were there celebrating their engagement. This month it was the Fontana di Trevi and she smiled to herself. They'd been there in the winter and the tiny plaza had been nearly empty as they had sat in front of the fountain, marvelling at the sheer detail and size of the old monument. Sharing a gelato and then heated glances they had hurried back to the hotel like schoolchildren on the first day of summer holidays. She furrowed her brow, it was a long time ago now…She hadn't had her period for two months now. She had always been so punctual, almost to the hour. Maybe it was stress; Hermione had read somewhere that stress disturbed the cycle. But the last months hadn't been that hard? Because it couldn't be…No, they always had protection. But…The tray slipped from Hermione's hands and hit the floor, coffee and shreds of china spreading over the kitchen floor. Absentmindedly she stepped away from the mess as Ron burst into the kitchen.

"Hermione! Are you hurt?..." He took in the sight before him. "What is it? Hermione? Hermione!" He called worriedly as his fiancée didn't respond. Staring off into space she said,

"I've got to visit Ginny…" Staring after her Ron scratched his head. What the hell was going on?

As Hermione stepped out of the fireplace in the entrance hall of Malfoy Manor she became aware of the fact that she was only wearing a shirt. But she didn't have time to go home and change, she had to ask Ginny…A house elf spoke up from the level of her waist.

"Can Pattie help you, Ms. Granger?"

"Yes, I would like to see Ginny, Pattie," Hermione answered the creature who - against its will - was paid.

"Follow me Miss, the Mistress is in the library with Master and the children." The pair of them reached the door to the library. The house elf moved to announce Hermione's arrival but Hermione thanked her and went in herself. She heard the family before she saw them. It sounded like Ginny was reading loud and a child's voice interrupted all the time. A calm male's voice answered and Ginny chided the child gently for interrupting. Hermione crept forward silently not wanting to disturb the idyll. Turning a corner she had to smile at the sight before her. Ginny was sitting in a sofa with Malfoy beside her, his arm casually slung around her shoulders. A blonde boy was squeezed in between them and a girl with red curls in pigtails was curled up against her father.

Who would've thought that Malfoy of all people would fall in love and be loved in return? But when you saw Ginny and Draco together there was no doubt that was the case. Ginny suddenly looked up and spotted her friend.

"Hermione! What's the matter?" She asked, taking in the woman's upset state.

"Could I speak to you in private?" Draco immediately rose, lifting his daughter and leading his son out of the room. Hermione had to be grateful for his swift departure. She knew it wasn't very polite but she needed answers. Ginny rose as well and Hermione noted that the first signs of her third pregnancy could be seen. The redhead made her friend sit down and eyed her carefully. What on earth could make the ever-composed Hermione Granger so out of sorts?

"I think I'm pregnant," the brunette said bluntly. Ginny didn't ask if she was sure. A woman knew best herself.

"Have you done the spell?" She asked instead.

"Spell?" Hermione managed bleakly.

"To be really sure to a hundred percent?"

"What spell?" Hermione was one of the smartest witches in the wizarding world and knew more spells than just about anybody but there was apparently one she'd missed out on.

"Follow me," Ginny said gently and led her friend to the Mistress' chambers.

Ten minutes later she stated, "You are pregnant! Congratulations!" Before giving Hermione a hug.

"But we didn't plan…" Ginny laughed inwardly, a very typical reaction from Hermione. If it wasn't written down in a schedule it couldn't be true.

"Is that so bad? You and Ron have been together for a long time and are engaged to be married. You were going to have a child at some point? I think it's wonderful. A new life, living proof of your love," Ginny said and then wrinkled her nose. Her husband was right, she could sound disgustingly mushy, or as he put it, Gryffindor. "Sorry, I didn't mean to push. You have to decide when the time is right for you and Ron."

Carefully, Hermione put a hand on her stomach. There was a baby in there…Her baby, Ron's baby.

She hadn't been very good with kids in general. It had happened that a stressed mother had asked her to hold their infants for a moment and it always dumbstruck her. How did you act? She wasn't natural with babies like Ginny who had become a perfect mother at the age of nineteen. And not being perfect had always scared Hermione. What if people thought she wasn't enough? So she had become the top student, the perfect co-worker and the best at everything. Only together with Ron could she afford to make mistakes, he wouldn't like her less if she did something wrong. But now there was a new little human being who depended on her being perfect. She was going to do everything in her might to do this right!

Ginny saw the changing emotions in her friend's eyes but when they finally settled in a burning look of determination and, was it a shy light of happiness in there?

"I have to buy books!"

"Books?"

"Yes, I know they have s section for it in Flourish and Blotts," Hermione said, already making a list of all she had to know. The thought of such intense studying and reading made her giddy.

"Don't you think you should tell Ron first? And get dressed?"

"Ron! Of course!" Ginny sighed wistfully and followed her friend to the floo fireplace. She had never herself had the chance to be giddy about her first pregnancy. The seemingly endless months before David's birth was now a haze of waiting and worrying, as she was tossed between hope and despair, not knowing if the baby's father would live to see his child. And not three days after the birth he had appeared at her doorstep.

"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked grabbing a fistful of the floopowder from the pot

"The day Draco came back…" Hermione nodded. It sure had been a day to remember. She and Ron had been at the Burrow where they lived until they found something of their own. It was hard finding something in the ruins after the was that was at the very least habitable.

The sun had been shining and Ginny could be heard cooing over the newest addition to the Weasley clan. The child without a father, David, who had been born three days earlier. His nineteen-year-old mother and his proud grandmother were already up fussing over him. His grandmother had been shocked when she found out about the scandal. Her innocent baby girl was going to be a mother. Which meant that she had…well, before her wedding and no father was to be found as Ginny refused to tell her family his name. But since the day she had accused her daughter for having a baby with someone so awful that he had left her all alone to raise the baby on her own, ruined her she had put it, and gotten the answer that there was no one in the world Ginny rather gave a child to than her baby's father, Molly Weasley had awaited the child's arrival with happiness in her heart instead of shame.

Hermione and Ron had been sitting in the kitchen listening to the two women; mother and daughter play with the baby when there was a knock on the door. Ron had opened and faced a man in robes that once must have been black but now were grey and brown. He had had mousy hair and he was sickeningly thin. But Ron had recognized him anyway in spite of his worn state.

"What the hell are you doing here, Malfoy!" In a rusty voice he had croaked, "Is Ginny here?"

"No," Ron had spat at the Death Eater and slammed the door shut. Ginny had come in with an alert David in her arms.

"Who was it?" She asked curiously.

"Why would Malfoy ask for you?" Ron had answered and Ginny had looked up from her child.

"Was he here?" Ron just stared grimly at her but she didn't seem to notice. She had almost thrown David to Hermione before dashing out through the door. They both followed her, confused by her behaviour. And dumbfounded they became witnesses to a tale the wizarding world still did not believe.

Malfoy had collapsed, it looked like and he was lying still on the lawn as Ginny threw herself down to the ground turning his limp body towards her. He had opened his eyes and she had kissed him. Hermione could still recall the gagging sound her fiancée had made. Shaking her head to clear her thought she threw the powder into the fire and watched them turn emerald green. Now it was time for her to tell her love about the same thing as Ginny had told hers that fateful day four years ago with the sun shining making her read hair shimmer as it spilled around the couple. It was when she had realized that Malfoy was actually crying she could accept what she was seeing and slowly she had approached them as Ginny assisted Malfoy to sit, leaning against a tree trunk. She had watched as the young mother took her baby from Hermione's arms and put him in the arms of Malfoy. Malfoy the cruellest, meanest and pettiest of all school bullies. Malfoy the Death Eater She had put the treasure she valued most in the world in the arms of that man. And he had held the child with such wonder, his grey eyes shining in disbelief.

Hermione had seen that look and she had been the first to accept Malfoy as Ginny's choice. She hastily caressed her friend's cheek, happy for her sake. Malfoy was the only one who could make Ginny whole. Then she said her destination clearly and stepped into the flames.

"Ron! Ron!" Hermione didn't even take her time to brush the soot from her face as she rushed through their house looking for her fiancée. She found him in the kitchen where he was putting away the dishes Hermione had broken that morning. Reparo was a really useful spell. A blur of brown hair and very exposed legs threw itself on him.

"Hermione! What happened this morning? You just disappeared and I…" He was interrupted by his fiancée pressing her lips against his and wrapping her legs around his middle. If this was the feared mood swings of the dreaded "cycle" his Auror colleagues complained about at work he was more than willing to take them. In desperate need of air they separated but Hermione still clung to his waist, which was totally fine with him. More nervous than she wanted to think about Hermione breathed the words that would change their lives.

"We're going to have a baby!" Ron almost dropped her. His blue eyes were perfectly round and he was staring at her like she had grown an extra head. Or that time when she had tried to explain a video to him…

"I'm going to be a father?" He said weakly.

"Yes. I mean, don't you want to…?" Hermione had always thought that people in films who tugged at their hair when they were frustrated were ridiculous but now she was nervous enough to feel an urge to pull her hair.

"Want to? There's nothing I want more!" He kissed her thoroughly when the sound of someone coughing discreetly interrupted them.

"Is this a bad time?" Harry smirked from the doorframe. He had seen his two best friends snog enough times to not be embarrassed any longer.

"Yes," Ron told him before returning to his fiancée.

"Okay, just come to the dinner at the Burrow on Wednesday or Molly will have my head!" Hermione just waved impatiently with her hand behind her back. Harry retreated in defeat, sniggering as he went. Those two were like teenagers.

A/N2: I think I'll write a companion piece to this from Draco and Ginny's POV. Anyway, please review!