Broom(b)ride
By
Sannikex
Chapter Five
Surprises
A/N: Hello! I'm back in business since I have holidays for a week. I'll see what I can do for all my dear little stories but this one is updated now (and it's just Monday!). A new part in this series has been added, "Bravery is in the Eye of the Beholder" is the newest addition to the family containing this story, "Rainbow" and "Toujours". If you have an idea, just tell me, this story has no plotline so I am very flexible. I just won't break the ships, they're set in stone :D
Now, on suggestion of Shaggy37!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything owned by others.
"Ron, it's just a check-up, I'm not in labour or anything! Stop pacing and sit down." However cute his nervousness was it was starting to get really annoying. He pushed a hand through his bright red hair.
"I know, I know! I just can't seem to stop thinking...What if something goes wrong...What if I do something wrong?" Hermione's eyes softened and she patted the chair next to her. They were in the waiting room of Frank Yorsch Center of Maternity Welfare, in a white-walled corridor with meekly coloured paintings. The furniture was cheap and all magazines provided were over three years old.
With a sigh he sat down and leaned his elbows on his knees.
"Don't worry, Ron. All your brothers except Charlie have been through this and managed, why wouldn't you?" Ron smiled.
"Well, they were pretty close sometimes. I recall Percy having a nervous breakdown before Hazel and Bill got a blue eye when he tried to lock Fleur up so she wouldn't go out and strain herself. And Fred, he was ridiculous, he showed pictures of the baby inside Angelina to the customers in the shop. It feels like I'm just waiting for something to go wrong. Nothing can be this perfect!"
"Oh, Ron, of course it can! You know just as well as I do that nothing is wrong with the baby and that we're not going to do something wrong. People have had children for thousands upon thousands of years, why would we fail? Have some faith, Weasley." He grinned at her and raised an eyebrow.
"And just where, Ms. Granger, did you read that pep-talk?" She blushed, how could he know her so well? "It's because you get a special tone in your voice when you quote stuff." Amazing.
"Ms. Granger!" A nurse called from a door further down the hall. Hermione rose and Ron sprang up from his seat.
"I'll be right back and then we'll get the results together." He nodded and gave her a peck before sitting down. Hermione didn't doubt that he would bite his nails and damn it if she didn't feel like doing that herself. The nurse smiled and let her pass into the room.
They sat down in front of the doctor's desk with joined hands. The doctor who had rectangular glasses and a graying beard looked up from his papers and smiled kindly. Hermione appreciated the reassuring smile and was glad she had followed Molly's advice and gone to the Frank Yorsch clinic.
"Well, Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley we've got some news for you." Hermione felt Ron's hand tense and she put a hand to her still flat stomach. "It seems like you are not expecting a baby, you're expecting two." Hermione, who had felt a chill creep down her spine and her stomach sink like she'd been in a falling elevator felt the elevator come to a sudden stop and make her tummy come up somewhere near her ears. She heard as if from afar Ron's voice.
"Pardon?"
"Twins, Mr. Weasley, you're expecting twins. Very healthy as it seems but we'd like you to come in a bit more regularly so we can check everything. It should be alright, after all twins are common in your family, Mr. Weasley." Twins? Not one baby but two? At the same time? Ron was never going to stop fussing now!
"Do you want to know the sex of the children?" Hermione felt like she was dreaming, she had a strange feeling as if she was floating above and looking down at herself.
"Well, we didn't want to know...but we thought it was just one...Now..." Ron looked lost and Hermione understood his thoughts. Two babies changed the whole perspective.
"We'd like to know, I think..." said Hermione weakly and Ron nodded in affirmation.
"Very well, it's twin boys and they should come along in late September."
New male Weasley twins?
"Are they going to be...alike?" Ron asked beside her.
"Yes, Mr. Weasley."
"Oh, my God."
When Harry had stopped laughing he bought Ron a drink and clapped him on the back.
"Not bad for being the first time." It took Ron half his beer before he could see the amusing in the situation.
"Maybe we should name them Gred and Forge."
"What a great idea. I'm sure Hermione will love it."
"Sure she will."
At Malfoy Manor it was girls only as they had many important matters to discuss. The two women and the mistress of the manor were in what Ginny had named the Red Parlor. It was richly decorated with dark wood and deep red fabrics in a luxurious, yet cozy, way.
Ginny laughed so hard that tears streamed down her face when Hermione told her and Luna about the check-up.
"I'm sure Ron's delighted. Twins. Male. Weasleys. Merlin!"
"How do you feel about it, Hermione?" Luna asked and Ginny sobered immediately.
"I...I don't know, really. It was huge enough to imagine having one child and now it's two...I guess it's just surreal still. I'm just worried that I won't make it. I mean I've never been good with children and now...I bet I'll just be the worst mother ever!" To her horror Hermione felt the tears rising in her eyes.
"Of course you won't. Lily loves her Aunt Hermione and she wants to go and visit you all the time. Harry has to tell her you're busy and you know how he dislikes telling Lily 'no' about anything at all." Ginny nodded and bent over the corner of the table and put a hand on Hermione's knee.
"David loves when you draw with him. He loves your dragon sketches so much he made Draco put them up in his room. Juliet loves when you read to her. Both Draco and I have been degraded since we don't do the voices right in books. Only Aunt Hermione can read her fairy-tales right. They both love that you listen to them, always."
"Oh, stop, you're only making me cry harder. I mean, all the practical stuff...I'll probably forget who is who of my twins and forget one at the library or...or I'll drop them? What if I do? They could die!" Ginny and Luna exchanged knowing smiles over Hermione's head and handed her a box of handkerchiefs.
"You'll see, Hermione, it's going to work out fine. The first time you see your child..ren your whole perspective will change." Ginny smiled warmly.
"But I'm not like you, Ginny. You had David when you were nineteen and you didn't do anything wrong, you're the born mother. Your children adore you. And Luna, you always seem to know everything about people's feelings; you make Lily's life a fairy-tale with magic beasts and happily ever after stories. And I, what can I do? Recite my Potions book from my fifth year?" Discretely Luna nudged the box of chocolates closer to Hermione.
"Well, that'd undoubtedly put them to sleep. Better than lullabies." Ginny said and Hermione giggled through her sobs.
Twenty minutes later Hermione had calmed down.
"I just keep doing this. I know it's hormones but it's so annoying. I gave Ron the scare of his life this morning when I started crying because my toast burned. I don't think he's ever been so quick to leave for work as then, after he'd comforted me and made me ten perfectly toasted slices. It makes me feel so silly."
"It's the same for all of us. Imagine Harry's distress, there's nothing he hates more than seeing someone unhappy. And I had almost daily breakdowns. Poor him, he thought it was his fault. He even asked me if I regretted anything." Hermione couldn't help but laugh. Harry was so sweet towards Luna and she knew that he loved her to pieces. It took someone extraordinary to help Harry with his not very simple emotional life. And he had found someone too. They were just too cute. Feeling better knowing that they were all in the same boat Hermione turned to Ginny.
"Did you cry all the time, Ginny?" She saw her friend's eyes darken and almost smacked herself. Ginny had been alone when she expected David. Draco had been in hiding so she hadn't been able to contact him. She hadn't known if he was dead or alive and he didn't know how she was, just that she was pregnant with his child.
"I did cry a lot. But it was mostly because I worried about Draco. And because of gratitude. If he would..." She swallowed, "die, then I would still have a part of him." She shrugged as if to shake off the dark memories and smiled, "But he came back to me and nothing can take him away from me again. I don't think I'd be able to survive."
When Hermione came home she found her fiancée sitting on the couch, staring into the flames of a merrily crackling fire. When she entered he sprung up.
"You didn't Apparate, did you?" It was dangerous to Apparate for pregnant women; it was easier to get splinched if you forgot that you had to do Sidealong Apparition to get the child with you too.
"No, I didn't. Ginny had a Portkey." She leaned into his open arms and breathed in the smell of him. Like warm apples and sweet memories. With a fond smile she remembered her 6th year when she'd almost said aloud in front of the class that what attracted her most was the smell of parchment, freshly mown grass and Ronald Weasley.
"Ron?"
"Mhm?"
"Ron, do you really want twins?" He caught the seriousness in her voice and stepped back so he could look her in the eyes. He wrinkled his brow as if he couldn't find the words.
"I was expecting just one and it was so amazing in itself that you and I were going to have a baby that I never went further, like having more children. Then when the shock had worn off after getting to know it was twins I started to think. Fred and George may be right pains in the ass but I love them and they are among the happiest and most harmonious people I know. They always have each other. They'd trust the other with their lives and never let the other down. I think it's good for a child to have that unconditional love in a person of the same age. Our children will never have to feel lonely, Hermione and that makes me happy there's two of them. Do you want twins?"
"Until today I wasn't sure. But now I know that it doesn't matter how many of them there are, I'll love them just the same. They'll give me a hard time, they're Weasleys after all, but I have lots of people to help me and I think I already love the little runts."
"Settled then", Ron smiled that warm smile only he could, the one that made his eyes glitter and Hermione's heart tingle.
The young couple on the couch slept peacefully as the warm light of the cheery fire played over their faces and in the golden rings on their entwined hands resting on the woman's belly.
A/N2: So how was it? Author is thirsty for reviews!