A/N: Here you go! Hope you like it, and please leave a review. :)

Chapter 4
- Phone calls -

Nicole let Hermione go and suddenly she looked nervous, she bit her lip and avoided Ron's eyes. Hermione looked like she couldn't stop smiling, "Nicole here – "she patted her head, "wondered you could do her the honour and give her your autograph."

Nicole blushed a deeper shade of red than her hair and looked down and her shoes. Ron couldn't fight the smile when he saw her ears reddening. Classic. Hermione must have noticed that he had seen this and said, almost shyly "Can't escape that one, huh?"

Ron chuckled and kneeled down in front of Nicole. "I would love to," he said and she blushed even more, and chewed nervously at her gum. "But I would need something to write on," he continued. She looked up and started rooming through her pockets and finally she pulled out a gum-paper and handed it over to him. "It's all I have" she said, "that ok?"

"It's perfect."

Ron glanced at Hermione who seemed to use all the self-control she had not to laugh, he then looked back at Nicole who looked straight at him and he suddenly found himself looking at a younger version of his little sister Ginny. Wow, he thought. How could she look that much like her? She had Ginny's mouth and facial form, and she had the same length on her hair that Ginny had in her age. But her eyes, they weren't brown as Ginny's or Hermione's for that matter. No, her eyes were frosty blue. His eyes. He still couldn't see anything of Hermione in her, except from her curls and height (she had Hermione's small body).

But I guess she has her brain, he though, smiling. He somehow hoped and somehow dreaded that she had gotten Hermione's brain. Yeah, of course it was better that she was smart in school than stupid like he was, but then again, sometimes things could go a little over the top… He could still remember to this day how incredibly annoying Hermione had been at times. She did get a little better the older she became though, but she still had always remained a know-it-all.

Still grinning from ear to ear he shifted his eyes to Hermione, "you don't happen to have a pen on you, do you?"

He was home again, in the Burrow. He told his mother he would be staying for another month. He said it was because of Quidditch practice. But she didn't seem to believe him.

"Seen anymore to Hermione?" his Dad said from behind the Daily Prophet.

"Oh, it was just that I was going to tell you," he started, "mom, dad, erm – Hermione she-"but how should he say it? Mom, dad… Hermione and I have a kid. I didn't knew about her until today 'cause she's been hiding her from me but I forgave her. No, it would definitely not work. It would be a big shock, maybe too big.

"Yes? What about Hermione?" Molly urged him. She was sitting in the sofa, knitting a scarf to Lily, looking at him suspiciously.

He shifted awkwardly on his feet. "Er… No, just forget about it," he said hastily and walked upstairs to think. I have to tell them… somehow.

He started pacing around his room, back and forth. He was sure it would be traces in the floor afterwards. Then he stopped, he had seen something lying on the floor. He seized it. It was a little note or rather… a gum paper. All it said was: Call me. And then there was this number...

Ah, it must be a telephone number, (Harry had finally managed to knock into him a few years ago that it was not called a fellytone) he thought. Hermione must have slipped the note into his pocket earlier. He hesitated a moment. Maybe he should call her and tell her he hadn't told anyone about Nicole yet. He felt that if he was going to tell them, Hermione should be there. Maybe even Nicole too.

But where to get the phone?

"Dad… you don't happen to have a- er… telephone do you?" Ron had been thinking that if someone around would have a phone lying around; it would be his father.

"Actually – "his father answered slowly "I think I do," he observed his son over his glasses curiously, "what are you going to do with it? I just have one, and you are not going to break it."

"I'm not gonna break it. I'm gonna call. Where is it?"

"It's in my room. I've bewitched it so that you don't need the el – eltricity?" he didn't seem certain on how to pronounce the word and waved it away, but Ron could hear him mutter silently to himself as he went up to his parents room; "elticity? No, that's not it. Eltricity? No, not that either…El-"

Ron typed the numbers quickly and waited for Hermione to answer in the other end. One beep… two beeps… Three beeps… how long was it supposed to take?

Just when he was about to put the phone down, someone picked up on the other end, 'Hello, you've just reached Brett and Hermione-'

"Hello, can I speak to Hermione, please?" he said, but the man's voice didn't seem to have heard him, he just continued talking.

'We're not home at the moment… or we simply have other things to do and doesn't bother to talk to you –'a women now laughed in the background 'Brett you can't say that!' she said and Ron wondered what the hell they were doing. He could hear it was Hermione.

"Hello? Can – I – speak – to – Hermione?" Ron asked again, slowly and loudly. Maybe Brett had a bad hearing?

'Anyway,' it was Hermione's voice in the other end now, 'leave a message after the beep and we will call you as soon as we get home. ('Or if we feel a strange need of talking to you', Brett's voice said in the back) Goodbye!'

Ron heard them laugh and then a beep. What just happened? It was like they didn't hear him. And they said they maybe weren't home…? Ron stared puzzled down at the phone. Maybe it was broken. "Erm… Hello?" he spoke into it again… no, they were not there anymore. "Bloody useless Muggle crap," he muttered and laid the phone down and walked down the stairs again, sulking.

Two days later the telephone had called; something it had never done before. Molly had panicked when the sound of the ringing phone rang through the house, she thought it was some kind of warning that the house would explode and started throwing random things they'd might need later out of the windows. But after a few seconds Ron had found out that it was just the telephone and run up to take it.

It had been Hermione. She said he had left a message. When he didn't understand what she talked about she had to explain the whole deal with the answering machine and that the thing he heard they had said a long while ago. It didn't make much sense to Ron, but he hadn't asked more about it.

She told him she had put her number in his pocked the day they met in the sweet shop and that she was glad he called. She also seemed happy that he hadn't told anyone about Nicole yet. He had told her that they had to tell them sometime and that he wanted her to be there. She had refused at first, and started rambling about Molly and Arthur hating her for it. But after five minutes of talking it through she agreed to come and celebrate Christmas at the Burrow, but only if Arthur and Molly said she could. Harry, Ginny and the kids would be there too.

"I'm sure Nicole would love some magic kids to play with, even though they are much younger." Ron had said to calm her down. It seemed to help.

After an hour of talking, Hermione had to go. Ron still found it weird talking to someone he couldn't see, but he had to admit that the whole telephone thing started to make much more sense. It was easier then Floo powder and you didn't feel any discomfort and when in the telephone, the one in the other end can't see when you blush or smile like crazy.