A month on from their confrontation outside Draco's bedroom and things remained bitter and hostile between Ron and Hermione. Ron kept to his best behaviour in lessons after being threatened with being sent home but in the hallways and in Hogsmeade he always seemed to make a beeline for Hermione. Despite all her bravado whenever he asked her about it, Draco could see just how badly Hermione was hurting at the change in her former best friend.
One night after a particularly bad fight at Hogsmeade, Draco asked Hermione to accompany him on a walk. She complied silently, still dwelling on what had happened earlier that day, and only really came out of her thoughts when they stopped outside Remus' office.
"Why are we here Draco?" She asked, tugging her arm away slightly as he knocked on the door.
Draco said nothing but led her into Remus' office where, along with the professor himself, sat Ron who also looked confused; confusion which quickly turned to anger when he saw Hermione and Draco enter.
"What is she doing here?" He demanded. "You said you were going to be tutoring me because my grades were rubbish" he accused, turning now on Remus.
Remus nodded "I'll admit that I deceived you into coming here tonight Ron but myself and several other Order members agree that this has gone on long enough. At first we allowed you to act in the way you did without too much chastisement because we knew you were grieving. But this has gone past that now and it's too much on Hermione."
"But it was her fault!" Ron exploded, jumping up and moving towards Hermione. He was immediately blocked by Remus and Draco, the latter of whom had drawn his wand and was pointing it at Ron's throat.
"Give me one reason Weasel and I'll do it" Draco growled.
Remus lowered Draco's wand arm and was about to speak when Hermione's voice broke over his words.
"It was never my fault. I could never have done anything. I would have if I could Ron, you should know that."
"He was my brother" Ron tossed back angrily "and you did nothing; you couldn't have cared. You should have known something, anything, that would have saved him."
Hermione bit her lip and glanced at Draco. He nodded and smiled sadly at her, knowing what was coming.
"There was nothing I could do" she repeated "but if there had been, I would have done anything. He wasn't just your brother Ron."
Ron snorted "he was never like a brother to you so don't try that. You two hardly ever spoke."
"I never said he was. He was more than that to me. We were in love."
Ron opened his mouth to respond but all that came out was gasping breath as Hermione's words sunk in. Beside him, Remus looked mildly surprised.
"I did wonder" he said, shifting his gaze from Ron to Hermione for a moment. "I'm afraid I may have overheard you both talking in the kitchen one night at Grimmauld Place. I wasn't sure who it was so never mentioned it in the morning. It didn't really seem my place to."
Hermione's hands drifted unconsciously to her stomach and Draco wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she continued. "We knew you'd heard us. I always wondered why you never said anything to either of us. That night we were talking about our future, a future after the war. We didn't want to be a distraction so close to the battle so we didn't tell anyone, but I was pregnant. We were going to get married…" she trailed off and wiped the tears that had started falling "and I tried finding him that night in the castle but I couldn't find him anywhere until it was too late. I watched it happen and I knew there was nothing I could do but I tried Ron, I swear to you I tried. Ask George, I was there with him trying to get Fred out, trying to save him. He was still alive when we got there. He told us he loved us. He told me he was sorry. And then he was gone."
She stopped then, unable to speak anymore and allowed Remus to take her aside and comfort her.
"What happened to the baby?" Ron asked "we would have noticed if you'd given birth."
Draco stepped forward wearily "my aunt would have had something to do with that." He explained. "When you three were caught Bellatrix worked out Hermione was pregnant and performed a curse that essentially kills the baby inside the womb. It's why she was so weak and bloody when you finally got to her."
Hermione sobbed louder at Draco's explanation. "I tried to stop, I tried to help her. But I was too late, so I let Harry take the wands back. That's why Hermione trusted me when I came looking for help from the Order. She'd seen me trying to block the curse even if nobody else did."
Ron stared incredulously from Draco to Hermione before passing out.