Disclaimer: I, in no way, own the world of Harry Potter and the characters found within it. Those rights go solely to J.K. Rowling (and maybe to a few other people as well, publishers and such) and I would never wish to infringe upon her ownership. I just like borrowing and playing with the characters every once and a while.
There was a long, awkward pause as Severus, Harry, and Ron all exchanged looks between them. Harry and Ron stared at one another, attempting to decide silently whether they should keep still or run. Severus was sending death glares at first Ron, then Harry—he had long ago decided that were he to have any competition from the two dolts, it would come in the form of the red head.
Hermione looked first to her husband, uncertain of what action he would take. They had never explicitly discussed how he would react were he to ever find Harry and Ron in their living quarters, but Hermione had assumed, ever since he had walked in on Hermione and Ginny giggling over a cup of tea, that he would be quite alright with any visitor she might have. She was, she now assumed, wrong.
Ginny watched the whole situation with an amused smirk on her face. Hermione might have been the brightest witch of her age, but Ginny knew something that Hermione wasn't quite ready to admit to herself. Ginny knew that Severus truly loved Hermione and would do nothing purposefully to upset her. 'He knows that to throw them out of here would get him at least a week's worth of the silent treatment,' she mused to herself, glancing around the room at the slightly panicked face of Hermione, the expressionless face of Snape, and the pale faces of Harry and Ron.
"As I was saying," Severus finally spoke, moving to sit in a chair slightly to the right of the fireplace. It was hard backed, tall and rigid, much like the man himself. He settled down, in a flourish of dark robes and shining shoes, with his arms crossed over his chest, "we will be finding out our child's gender."
Hermione recollected herself as her husband sat down, glad he was behaving civilly and attempting conversation. She turned to look at him as he spoke again, the look of panic that had been on her face replaced with a small look of shock. "And what makes you think I'll agree to finding out?" she asked.
"Because you're itching to find out. Why torture yourself?" He replied, a look of smug correctness on his face.
"Not a good enough reason," she shot back, "I want to be surprised."
"I insist we know." He responded, an air of finality in his voice.
"Can you believe him?" She asked suddenly, turning to her guests, "It's my body. If I don't want to know what's in it, then I should have that right."
"'Mione, you know yourself, you like to be prepared. How on earth would you handle another five months of being in the dark?" Ron said, shaking his head slightly, "And why on earth am I agreeing with Professor Snape?" He asked no one in particular.
"They're both right, Hermione. You'd know the weather for the rest of your life if you could, and you know it. Why would you even consider not finding out?" Harry added.
"Sage advice coming from the gits who couldn't even decide who would knock on the door," Ginny muttered through a small laugh.
"Hermione, if these two can see reason, I would think you would be able to." Snape said.
"I just don't want to know." Hermione insisted once again, placing her hands protectively on her stomach as though at any second Madam Pomphrey might bust out and try to examine her. "I don't care either way and I'd like to be surprised."
"What about the nursery?" Ginny piped up.
It was Severus' turn to sound a bit defensive, "What about it?"
"Well, if you don't find out what the baby is, how can you decorate the nursery before it's born?"
"Neutrals." Hermione said simply, with a shrug.
"What, exactly, are 'neutrals'?" Ron said from his corner of the sofa, his facing still reading shock from having a civil conversation with his most hated professor.
"Brown, beige, yellow, red, black, or white, Weasley." Severus shocked them all by answering the question.
"You could do Gryffindor colors, 'Mione!" Ron said, excitedly, looking as though he were the first on the planet to realize Gryffindor's house colors were gender neutral.
"We won't be having a Gryffindor theme, Ron," Hermione said, firmly. She knew that Severus wouldn't relish walking into a red and yellow room every time he checked on his child in the middle of the night.
"No, we won't," Severus agreed, "I was actually thinking dark brown and yellow."
Hermione's mouthed dropped slightly at the mention of colors and the fact that Severus had actually given them some thought.
"You could do dark brown and…" Ron began, but was cut off by Hermione.
"Silver." She said, quickly, "Dark brown and silver." She had always liked the color combination and felt the secondary Slytherin color would be much more welcome than the bright primary color of Hufflepuff.
Severus looked at his wife with the closest thing to a smile on his face than had ever been there in the presence of company. "Dark brown and silver it is then." He agreed.
"But you didn't say silver was a neutral!" Protested Ron before being shushed by both Harry and Ginny.
A/n: Okay, so it isn't exactly the best chapter ever written. I'm pretty sure it's close to the worst, but I wanted to get something out there. I really struggle with writing Harry and Ron. I much prefer writing Snape, actually.
Darling readers, review, review, review! I've got another chapter itching at the forefront of my brain so let me know there's still some of you out there who want to see another chapter, please!