A/N: Disclaimer in previous chapters. The third chapter is finally up, so yay! I will try to get another chapter up as soon as I can okay? Let me know what you guys thought of this bit. Thanks for reading!

Ron Weasley opened his eyes, started, and sat upright in the unseeing darkness. He groped for his bedside clock that so helpfully told the time in Ireland, France, Japan, and America as well as his time in Britain. Tonight, he cursed the bloody thing and grabbed it to find the right one. It read 2:41. He instinctively reached for Hermione, lying next to him in the bed. His outstretched fingers came up with the empty sheets and an unoccupied mattress space beside him.

Fear instantly burst into his stomach, and Ron scrambled out of bed, feeling the blood leave his face even in the dark. A shuffling noise came from the side of the bed, followed by a soft moan. "Hermione?" Ron grabbed for his wand on the bedside table, and pointed it at the floor. "Lumos!"

Hermione was curled on the floor, her arms tightly circling her belly. She was biting her lip, a picture of a delicate and acute state of pain. The ground was visibly wet next to her, but Hermione hadn't looked at Ron yet, still groaning softly. In about three seconds, Ron felt his heart cease it's beating, and he was on the floor beside her. His arm slid around her shoulders easily, and she had grabbed his proffered hand and was crushing it tightly in her own. In a few moments, she sighed heavily, and her hand relented on the painful grasp.

"Ron." Hermione managed.

"I'm here," Ron reassured her, stroking her messy locks.

"I think that was a contraction, and it's time," Hermione sighed unhappily, letting her head fall onto Ron's shoulder.

"Bloody hell," he murmured, taking her hand again; and for once, Hermione seemed to agree.

In his flat a few miles away, Harry jolted out of his half-conscious state with sleepy bewilderment, immediately aware of the hand on his forearm. "Harry!" Ginny said anxiously, clicking on the light. She was fully dressed, but her hair was tangled and mussed in a thrown back state. "We've got to get to Ron and Hermione's, hurry!"

"What? Why?" he asked stupidly, rubbing his eyes in a half-dazed stupor. He grabbed his glasses from the nightstand, pushing them on his face clumsily. Ginny grabbed his arm in an attempt to get his attention.

"Harry, Hermione's having the baby," Ginny cried. Harry blinked and stared up at her, his mouth falling open. Ginny tugged him out of bed, and he quickly pulled on trousers and shoes, wildly stumbling around in the dark. He grabbed his wand from where he had stuffed it under the mattress, and then he glanced at Ginny. She nodded distractedly, and there was a crack and she was gone. Harry followed suit, summoning the presence of mind to apparate appropriately to the right place, and then he was in Ron's living room. He could already see Arthur, Fred, Bill, George, and Lupin gathered tersely around the couch and hastily conjured chairs. Ginny strode up to them, looking excited and nervous. "How's she doing?" she stood, glancing up the stairs. Sure enough, groans and cries could be heard faintly.

"They're fine," Mr. Weasley said, but his eyes went to the stairs and cries of pain with uncertainty.

"Doesn't sound bloody well fine," George muttered grimly. A figure appeared hurrying down the stairs.

"They're fine," Molly said quickly at the looks on their faces. "She's fine," she assured Harry and Ginny. Harry nodded, accepting a butterbeer from George. He knew that childbirth was no small task, and a famous witch was once quoted as saying that women bore the greatest pain for wizarding kind while men messed around on broomsticks; but Hermione's screams made it increasingly hard to sit still and wait like a patient child.

At one point in one of Hermione's screams, they could make out Ron's name, and Molly stood, her hands rising to rest at her head anxiously. "There's a Healer up there, she'll let us know if there's something wrong," but even as Molly was saying this, Hermione screamed loudly enough for Harry, Fred, and Lupin to rise from their chairs. A half-strangled yell from Ron seemed to float down the stairs, and then the crying of someone else entirely broke out.

All hell broke loose in the sitting room; and the next thing Harry knew was Fred has clasped him round the neck, and he was laughing as George grabbed them both in a strangling hug, pulling Ginny along wildly. Molly kissed her husband, weeping a little, while Lupin congratulated them both, clapping Fred on the back; grinning like no one had seen for months. Harry was released by George only to grab Ginny in his arms and lift her from the ground, both of them laughing and spinning while the baby cried upstairs still louder. A series of haphazard thudding noises caught their attention, and then Ron emerged stumbling from the stairs, grinning ear to ear but visibly crying and sputtering like an incoherent idiot. "She had a boy," he managed to say, rubbing at his eyes madly. "We have a boy!" Ron choked out, trying in vain to wipe his tears away. He promptly disappeared into a very loud and joyous hug that everyone was pulled along into. Ron pulled away a few moments later, no longer babbling but still broadly smiling. "I've got to see Hermione," he got out before dashing back up the stairs. George happily summoned another full round of butter beers from the kitchen and then hugged his younger sister before they began to do an ungainly sort of crazy dance.

"A grandson, just like I told you," Molly said, smiling and wiping at her eyes. "And you all owe Charlie the lot, you four," she said with sudden sternness to Arthur, Bill, Fred, and George. They had the grace to like abashed, for a few moments, anyways. Harry took a moment to take in everything, his two best friends upstairs, with their son; while their family and friends celebrated in their living room like raving lunatics. He grinned, and found Ginny joining him at the hip.

"Hi," he said, still grinning madly, slipping his arm around her waist. The ring on her finger reflected a sparkling light on the ceiling, and Harry privately smiled, because in only two months he'd be married, just like his prat of a best mate who was crying upstairs. She sighed with content, fondly listening to the muffled baby cries floating down the stairs. Then all of a sudden, she straightened and looked at him; her face at first fierce, a defiant look on her face; but her eyes soon softened into a troubled indignation. Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise, and then lifted her face with concern. "Gin, what's…?"

She surprised him again by taking him in the middle of celebrations and burying her face in his chest with every air of being upset. He was taken aback by how tightly she held him, until he finally caught her speaking softly. "Harry…"

She finally met his gaze with troubled eyes. "Will you still love me enough to do this? Are you sure...you want to spend the rest of your life with me? Will we have a baby too?" The hopeful and concerned look in her eyes left Harry quite speechless. She's worried...about me not wanting this, not wanting her? And then Ginny pulled away hard, but not before he saw the embarrassment and mortification scrawled plainly across her face. "Sorry…" she muttered.

"You don't know..." Harry got out quietly before he swept her up in his arms once more. His face felt warm, but he only had eyes for Ginny, whose sudden worry had caught him unawares but also started a tug of heart-felt emotion somewhere deep in his chest. "You really don't know how much I need you...how much I want to get married, and have…" And now Harry knew his face was definitely red, but it was true what he had to tell her, so he went on softly, "And have our baby…" Ginny's eyes were wide with surprise, but she clutched at him suddenly and kissed him, quickly but tenderly.

"I just want you, Harry. That's all I ever wanted." And she smiled as he let her down to the floor, right as Harry noticed the now-obvious sniggers from her brothers and openly awkward stares from her parents, not to mention Lupin. He turned away quickly, turning a shade of red the complemented Ginny's.

"I wonder what they'll name him," Ginny said hastily, but she glanced towards the ceiling curiously. Harry looked up too. For a few moments there was silence. Then the baby started wailing again upstairs.

"We'll see," Fred said wryly.