Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling does. I'm not J. K. Rowling. Please don't sue.

Author's Note: If you're wondering why the heck my chapters are so short, it's because I have a short attention span, and I'm sure some of you people out there are the same. I'm working on it, sorry. Once I've published enough chapters, you can skip ahead to the exciting stuff. I don't blame you, I'm a terrible rambler.

Until then, here's the fifth chapter of the Moonlight Stone.


Chapter 5 – Finding a Spell

The next day at lunchtime, instead of going with the mass of other students to the Great Hall, Hermione went straight for the library. If there was a chance she could find some information on pregnancy there, she was going to find out. In all her studying, magical pregnancy wasn't something she was an expert on.

Inside the librarian didn't look up when she passed, but said, "Good day, Hermione."

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Pince," she replied, not stopping her quick stride.

As she had expected, she couldn't find anything on the normal shelves on the subject she needed. It looked like Hermione would have to come again at night.

Heading back to the common room that evening for bed, Hermione whispered to Harry, "Can I use your invisibility cloak?"

Harry nodded without questioning her.

In his dormitory, he took the cloak from the bottom of his trunk and told Ron he'd left a book in the common room. Ron was nearly asleep already, so he just grunted.

Harry handed the cloak to Hermione at the bottom of the dormitory stairs.

"Thanks so much, Harry," Hermione said, taking the silver fabric in her arms.

"No problem," he said, but Hermione had already disappeared beneath the cloak.

In the library Hermione made a beeline for the restricted section. Once between the dusty shelves covered in creepy-looking leather-bound books, Hermione pulled out her wand.

"Lumos," she whispered, and she could just make out the titles written on the spines. After less than five minutes she found a book titled Healthy Pregnancy in the Magical World. It was light pink and had flowers on the cover. Hermione blew the dust off it and slid it into her bag. She rearranged the books surrounding the one that was now missing so it wouldn't look too suspicious with the displaced dust. Then she crept across the castle, back into the astronomy closet. She didn't want to be seen in the dormitory room reading this book at night.

Most of the contents of the book disgusted and terrified Hermione. The side effects of pregnancy were awful: vomiting, weird food cravings, dramatic mood swings… not to mention the discomfort having one's stomach stretch and balloon up to accommodate for the "little bundle of joy". The delicate flowers on the cover of the book did nothing to make this female process look less scary.

But Hermione had known about all that already; what she needed was an indicator to find out if she would have to go through all of it at her young age. There must be some kind of test somewhere, she thought, losing hope by the second.

Finally she flipped a page and found just what she needed: a spell to determine what was happening inside her body. Femina Proscenda Ostendia, it said. Just what she needed. The wand movements were diagrammed beside the key words.

It was that easy? Hermione read some details. She wouldn't be able to use the charm for a week.

"Oh, hell," she said out loud. There was no way she could have a baby, especially as a student at Hogwarts. This could ruin her grades, her reputation, her friendships - pretty much her whole life. She shivered. Whatever she could do to keep this from happening, Hermione had to know right now. Having an abortion was possible in the magical world, and it was easier than muggle abortions, but if she could prevent it now, she would.

She frantically started flipping pages again. There must be ways to prevent pregnancy at this point, before it was too late to do anything. There it was - she found a list of potions that were supposed to help encourage the fertilization process, as well as other ones to neutralize it. There were a few spells with similar purposes a few pages later.

She was going to need to break into the potion stores.


What do you think so far? Please review and tell me! Chapter six coming up!