Going To The Burrow
Disclaimer: As I'm not making any money from this, chances are I don't own the characters.
Harry walked through the Auror office to his desk one afternoon a few weeks later, noting to himself that several people seemed to be staring at him and whispering to each other as he passed them. This was nothing he wasn't already used to under normal circumstances, but it did seem strange that it would happen to him while he was at work. When he looked up at the ones who were doing it, though, they seemed to be engrossed in the cases they were working on at the moment. When he left to go home a few hours later, he felt physically and mentally exhausted. He just wanted to take a shower and see Hermione before they went to dinner at Ron and Luna's that evening. He Apparated to his backyard, pleased to see her already standing nearby.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you, Love," he said, pulling her into his arms. He told her as they walked into the house about how his day had gone. He didn't see the look on her face when he got to the part about the whispering and the stares. She kept her expression as one of concern for what he'd gone through.
She waited until he excused himself to take his shower before she collapsed on his couch. She had been going through the same thing in her department. Someone had even gone so far as to ask her, "How could you do such a thing to a nice girl like that?" before walking away, leaving Hermione confused and troubled. She made a vow not to worry Harry about it, though. She was just going to let it run its course and hope that it would end quickly.
"Ready," she heard him say as he came down the stairs a few minutes later. She turned to see him threading his belt through the loops of a dark gray pair of slacks topped off by a white dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the collar. She smiled up at him.
"You look nice. What's the occasion?"
"Nothing. I just thought that if you're going to wear that," he indicated her knee length sundress. "Then maybe we should match. No use in only one of us feeling a little overdressed."
"Harry, love, I am hardly overdressed."
"Of course you are. To me, you're overdressed even if you only have on those skimpy little knickers of yours." Hermione knew that he was teasing her, and chuckled along with him. He took her arm and they headed out to his Apparition point to leave for their dinner date. They arrived a minute later in the garden of the Burrow. Hermione looked up at the structure.
"It looks as if they've added another room or two since I was here last," she remarked.
"When was the last time you saw or talked to them?" Harry asked, looking back at her as they walked up the steps to the door.
"You mean before the island?" He nodded. "About ten months, why?"
"I take it you don't know about baby Nora, then." With that, he knocked on the door and opened it. "We're here!" he called out as he entered. Ron came into the room from the parlor and held a finger to his lips.
"Nora is sleeping," he whispered. Hermione was totally shocked, no one had said anything about Ron and Luna becoming parents.
"How come I never heard about the two of you having a baby, Ron?" Harry and Ron looked at her strangely and burst out laughing. "What? Why is that funny?"
"Nora isn't a child, Love. Ron and Luna don't have any children, yet," Harry said.
"Not that we aren't trying," said Luna as she entered the room and wrapped an arm around her husband's waist.
"Then what is she?" Ron beckoned to her and led the group through the house to where the new additions had been added, cracking the door just wide enough to show her what was on the other side.
Hermione gasped as she looked through the flora that almost overran the room in some places and saw the golden animal on the other side.
She covered her mouth to keep from scaring the beautiful creature.
"She's a baby unicorn, Hermione," Harry whispered into her ear. "Her parents were killed by a Manticore and Professor McGonagall thinks it would be in Nora's best interest to live with a Magical Animal expert until she's old enough to survive on her own. She's only been here for a few months, and can still be very skittish at times."
"Ginny and Neville stayed with her while we were on the island," Luna added. Ron closed the door, and they headed back to the kitchen. Ron noticed the newspaper lying on the table, gasped in shock and snatched it up. He tried to hide it in a drawer, but not before Harry saw that his name was on the front page.
"Ron, give me that." He held out his hand for the paper. Ron exchanged disturbed looks with his wife and reluctantly handed it over. Harry read the headline and his jaw dropped open.
"Oh, my God!"