Still don't own Harry Potter; everything is J.K. Rowling's, alas, alack!
AN: Draco, that nitwit, will make an appearance as soon as Hermione works up the courage to tell Ron what's happened...so, sometime soon, I'd say.
"How the hell does this go…oh- ow!" I exclaimed as I pulled back and knocked my head against the underside of the table. I'd been baby-proofing my flat and had forced Ginny to come over and help me. I touched the back of my head gingerly and glared at her. She was laughing.
"It's your fault for doing this so early," she said, still grinning.
"Yes," I said and sniffed. "And Kundry was forced to wander the ends of the earth for all eternity for the sin of schadenfreude."
Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't that for laughing at the crucifixion?"
"I fail to see the difference," I replied with as much dignity as I could while waving a screwdriver around. "Now hand me another outlet cover."
"Why aren't you doing it magically?" she asked curiously while she complied to my demands.
"This way," I said, huffing as I got back under the table, "I know it's on there properly. I'll probably use a sticking charm too, just to be sure."
"Sticking charm for what?" came a masculine voice and I shot back out from under the table again, this time avoiding my already bruised head.
"Ron!" I exclaimed, tossing the cover back under the table. "Er, I didn't hear you come in!" I still hadn't quite worked up the courage to tell either of the potential fathers about the baby although it had been two weeks. Ginny was bothering me about it every second she got and I turned a suspicious glance on her while Ron gave me a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. Had she invited him over for an impromptu get together?
"Your new floo is quiet as a mouse," he said and turned to admire it some more. I'd been rather proud of it myself, as a matter of fact. "Oh, Ginny told me you two were heading out for lunch this afternoon. Said you wanted me and Harry along as well. Sorry if I should've owled first. I didn't know you'd be in the middle of something…what are you up to anyway?"
Ah ha. I raised an equally accusing brow at Ginny and she became very interested in the sofa.
"Oh, you know," I said, waving the screwdriver around a bit more. "This and that."
"And what is that?" he asked, eyeing the tool. "You haven't got some kind of new wand, have you?"
"No, no," I said, laughing. "This? It's a muggle tool- a screwdriver. You use it to do things like…"
"Put baby covers on electrical outlets," Ginny supplied and I glared at her.
"Or tighten up shaky table legs," I added quickly. Ron's handsome face cleared.
"Oh, I get it. So it's named after that cocktail?"
Ginny snorted and I reached a hand up to brush the hair from my eyes, suddenly feeling very flustered. Ron beat me to it and his hand lingered along my face, which promptly turned bright pink.
"Not exactly," I breathed. "Anyway, it's just-"
"So, baby covers? Who's the lucky bloke?" he asked before I could continue. His face had gotten serious. I wondered if it was jealousy I detected in his blue eyes.
"Er- just James and his little brother or sister, you know," I covered hastily. "Ginny's asked me to baby-sit some when the new one arrives." She stuck her tongue out at me and I ignored her in order to smile up at Ron.
"Oh," he said, then his face creased in a smile. "Well, that's alright. So, where did you two want to go for lunch? Harry's going to meet us, yeah?"
"Right," said Ginny. "I was thinking that new French place. What's it called? Petit Chou? La Bun in Le Oven?"
I refrained from tossing a hex at Ginny and settled for rolling my eyes instead. She was laying it on thick, wasn't she? Was she deliberately trying to sabotage my one chance to deliver the news perfectly? As in, after I'd already secured Ron's undying affections again? Oh, I knew Ginny said he was still mad about me, but he had just been linked with another witch that weekend of Luna's wedding, and at least two since then. And as every witch knows, just because a bloke wants to shag you does not mean he's in love. I knew perfectly well Ron wanted to shag me- he'd made it more than obvious on our few casual dates since we'd parted ways; but he'd always been a gentleman about it in the end. Most of the time I just ended up wishing he'd overcome that honorable streak and shag me into the carpet.
Like now, with him sitting on my sofa so casually, an arm along its back, red hair falling in his face while he eyed me appreciatively.
"You're looking really well, Hermione," he told me. "There's something different about you. Have you changed your hair? Looks shinier than normal, almost. I like it."
I flushed all the way to the roots of said hair and stammered out a thank you before I gathered the left over baby covers and screws and dumped them back into the shopping bag. Ginny was shooting me rude glances and mouthing things at me. I made a gesture and she crossed her arms. I knew what she really wanted to do. She wanted to shout at him, "Why yes, her hair is shinier since she started taking those prenatal vitamins. How nice that you noticed, Ron, seeing as how you're still in love with her. Why don't you ask her to marry you before she starts to show?" But of course, she couldn't say any of that without being in sudden danger of me throwing her out of my third story window.
She finally settled on recommending another little café and in short course the three of us left the apartment and headed off down the street. Ron had asked if I'd like to Apparate, but I was still feeling a bit queasy from my first bout of morning sickness and I didn't fancy being sick all over the wizard I was trying to impress.
I knew I was being silly in some ways- Ron and I had known each other for ages and we'd certainly done more than kiss on many occasions, but I suddenly felt shy around him. And why shouldn't I? He hadn't called or owled once for two weeks after our exchange at the wedding, despite our agreement that it had been fantastic. What was a girl supposed to think when the guy she'd had great sex with didn't call? Besides which, knowing that I might be having his baby, knowing that we might be tied together for the rest of our lives in that manner, whether we liked it or not, well…it did funny things to me.
Like sent my heart flopping this way and that, especially when he reached down and casually took my hand while we walked, Ginny chattering along beside us. It was a beautiful fall day, just the sort of weather I liked and I decided now would be as good a time as any to find out just what he'd been up to recently.
"It was really nice seeing you at the wedding," I said softly while Ginny spoke to the head waiter of the small restaurant. "How come you weren't at my birthday party?"
Ron's ears turned a little red. "Actually, I'm pretty embarrassed about that," he said hesitantly. "You got my present, didn't you?"
"I did," I said, then added, "It was lovely," because it was. He'd given me a charmed broach in the shape of an otter amidst a swirl of water. The blue enamel of the water sparkled just like sunlight off of real waves and the otter was charmed to spin about every time you touched him. I could tell he'd put some real thought into it; there were a few semi-precious stones in the design and the enamel of the otter's fur felt soft and slick to the touch; although I knew it had simply been painted. I loved it, of course, though some of my girlfriends had seen it and turned up their noses. It was as nice as any tennis bracelet, to me.
"Well," he began, then stopped. Ginny had turned to us and was pointing to a little corner booth. We followed her over and took seats and she promptly got up again, claiming she needed to visit the ladies' room. I turned back to Ron.
"There was an accident at training, Tuesday after," he went on. "One of the new players got angry at Captain's decision and started tossing off hexes. I got hit with one."
"Oh, Ron, I'm so sorry!" I cried. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"It was embarrassing," he insisted. "Bloke tried a Conjunctivitis Curse and miscast- I was in Mungo's with a kidney infection for a week before they realized they needed to try some of those anti-bacterials the muggles use."
"Antibiotics?" I suggested and his face brightened.
"Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, I was in a lot of pain. Honestly, I thought Ginny would have told you by now."
I shook my head. "Sorry, she didn't say a word. I'm surprised George didn't try to rat you out."
He grinned wryly. "Yeah, that is a surprise." We were both quiet for a moment and he looked at me again. "Look, Hermione, I'm really sorry I didn't owl you or anything after that. I was in the hospital for so long that I thought I'd missed my chance to say anything."
"About what?"
"You know-" his ears turned red again. "When I saw you at the wedding, that day- I meant what I said, Hermione-"
"Hermione, Ron!" Harry exclaimed as he walked up to the booth, interrupting whatever tender moment I'd been about to have with Ron. I tried not to be too glum about it and greeted Harry, who sat down across from us. The wedding band on his finger glinted its evil eye at me and I shifted some. It was bad enough seeing the rings on Ginny's fingers catching the bloody sun all the time- I was surrounded by lovers who were having babies together and here I was, stuck not even knowing how mine felt about me.
"So, what have you been up to? Where's Ginny? Have you ordered yet?" he asked us cheerily before he noticed my long face. He frowned and looked at Ron. "What've you been talking about?"
"Ron was just explaining why he couldn't make my party," I offered.
Harry looked at him sharply. "Oh, yeah, speaking of that- the Wizengamot is having him up for trial in a few days. There's talk they want to send him to Azkaban for at least a year for attempted murder."
Ron looked grim. "Yeah, well. Don't suppose I can change their minds. The poor kid didn't mean it. It would've been an easily cured curse otherwise-"
"Well it's not up to you, thank heaven," Harry replied coolly. He turned to me just as Ginny came back. "So you didn't know about Ron's near brush with death?"
"What?" I gaped, my jaw dropping. "He said it was a kidney-"
"Not just an infection. If he'd been taken to a regular hospital they would've caught the infection sooner, of course, but if it weren't for Mungo's he might've lost one, or even both, from the magical backlash."
"Loss of organs? From a miscast curse?" I asked and looked at Ron. "Oh, Ron- that's serious!"
He brushed it off and drank some of his water before waving for the waiter. "It's nothing. I'm perfectly healthy now."
"Yeah, after nearly losing your organs. Mum did all this research on those awful transplants just in case," Ginny said to Hermione.
"Why didn't you tell me? And there I was at my party, wondering why Ron and your mum weren't there when the whole time you were ill-"
"Ron," Ginny said primly, "Didn't Want You To Know."
I frowned at him. "In the future I hope you have the common sense to tell me when stuff like that is happening," I chastised him. "I did worry some when I didn't hear from you, you know."
He cocked his head at me and a crooked smile perched on his lips. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I'll run everything by you from now on."
"You'd better," I warned him. He looked funny, as though he wanted to laugh the way Ginny and Harry were just then, and instead buried his nose in the menu. I watched him for a few moments longer before turning to my own. I needed to contemplate this new turn of events.
Fish and chips would suit my contemplation just fine.
AN: This is fun. I like pretending to be Hermione. :)