Disclaimer: You know it, I know it, We all know it… If its recognizable from either the movie or from the books of Harry Potter, their not mine. sob

So this chapter is a lot longer than the usual… hope y'all aren't mad at me..

Voting is up! Hermione's one to be will make an appearance in this chapter……

CHAPTER VI

"Hurry Harry!! We're late as it is!! McGonagall is gonna kill us if we show up any later." Hermione said as she dragged a dazed Harry behind her.

Sleeping in the RoR was a nice time away from the common room with no worries of eavesdroppers coughRONcough, but they forgot to think about an alarm clock to wake them up in time for Transfiguration with their Head of House, who if given the chance could potentially be worse than Snape in a shampoo crazed tantrum.

Finally making it to the classroom a full 15 minutes late, Harry and Hermione walked in hoping they'll get lucky and McGonagall might be running late.

"Mr. Potter and Miss. Granger…How nice of you to join us today for class." McGonagall said sternly.

So much for luck. "Sorry Professor, Alarm didn't go off." Hermione said quietly. She knew she should have known better. Should have thought of something for classes the next day. Ginny got lucky that morning, having Hagrid first thing in the morning.

"Yes well, As this is the first time that you have been late this year, which I might add is quite a feat for you Mr. Potter, I will let you off this time. Do it again and that I will give you detention. Now take your seats." Said McGonagall.

Looking at each other, Hermione and Harry were relieved that they were getting off. That almost never happens. They sat down quickly so as not to jinx it and do something else that might cause their luck to run out.

"Now," McGonagall continued, "As I was saying before we were interrupted with your classmates arrival, today we will be starting something new. Something we have never done as part of the Hogwarts curriculum since the days of the founders."

At this moment McGonagall paused, taking a moment to look at the students that sat there before her. To begin teaching what she planned to would cause an uproar at the ministry not to mention her mentor. Her gaze rested on Harry Potter and Hermione Granger as they sat their in the back of her class. Looking at them she knew that she must do what needs to be done. She continued to look at them as she took a deep breath and continued on…..

"But I believe that with the current situation outside these walls, the staff of Hogwarts should do their part to ensure our safety and to ensure that we are prepared for what will come. The staff of Hogwarts will do what it must, just as its students have done what had to be done." McGonagall finished.

Looking at McGonagall, Hermione knew what she was referring to. Their Fifth Year. The year that they did what they had to when dealing with Umbridge, the Ministry, and Voldemort. The year they took their stand in the form of the D.A.

"Now we will be starting off small. Though I am sure you will be quite happy with what we are doing." McGonagall said. "We will be starting off with learning to be an animagus (sp?)"

The class was silent for a second as what she just said sunk in… Then all that could be heard was the erupting cheers of the students. Needless to say they were quite happy with what they would be starting.

Hermione herself was shocked. This particular subject she was pretty sure that the Ministry wouldn't be to happy about them learning. Fifth year was proof enough that the Ministry wasn't the brightest of people, fearing that Hogwarts was forming its own army to beat them down. Did the Ministry know about this?

Taking out some parchment and her quill, Hermione began taking notes as Professor McGonagall began her lecture on animagus.

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Harry and Hermione sat down with Ginny for lunch. Harry was still excited about learning to be an animagus. So excited he had gotten himself detention with Snape for talking too loud and causing his potion to explode.

"Hi Harry, Hey Hermione!" Ginny said.

"Hey" they answered.

Practically jumping in his seat…"Guess what." Harry said.

Catching the slight shake of the Hermione's head, Ginny decided to ignore Harry. See what it would do to him if she acted like she didn't care even though she knew he was Super Excited.

"Guess what." Harry said again.

………..

"Ginny, Guess what!!" Harry said starting to get frustrated. He was really excited about this.

………..

"Gin!! I said GUESS WHAT!!" Harry wanted so much to say what was so exciting in his life…

"Chicken Butt" Ginny finally answered.

"What?" Harry said confused. Ginny and Hermione then cracked up at the sight of Harry's confused face. Looking at his face they saw it go from confused to shocked to proud. "Hey! Ginny that was a muggle thing!! I'm so proud of you. You didn't screw it up like some others might have screwed it up. Yay!

At Harry's excited 'Yay!' Hermione and Ginny could help but laugh even more. Secretly Hermione passed Ginny a note that Ginny discreetly read.

"So," Harry continued on, "Ginny, Guess what."

"McGonagall is gonna teach you guys how to become animagus. And you were really excited about it. So excited in fact that you went to Potions afterwards with Snape and talked too loud, missed the important directions he was going over, put the wrong ingredient in your potion and caused it to explode…Thus landing you in detention tomorrow night." Ginny answered in one breath. Acting as though it was common news. And everyone knew about it.

"What?" Harry asked weakly. " How did you know?"

"Ginny I think you burst his bubble." Hermione said laughing.

"Yes I think I did." Ginny said.

"Ha Ha, very funny you guys." Harry said. "And yes you did burst my bubble. But that doesn't explain Malfoy."

"Harry," Hermione said, in voice that suggested Harry wasn't exactly right in the head. "Why are you thinking about Malfoy at a time like this? We weren't talking about him, yet you bring him up.."

"Harry your not…y-your not?…." Ginny said fearfully. "Am I dating… am I dating a gay guy?!"

Looking horrified, Harry answered back strongly "NOO!! I'm not!! That's…That's worse than 'the sex talk'!" Harry said

"Whew! Thank goodness for a second…." Ginny said.

"Not that there's anything wrong with being gay though." Hermione added

Ginny nodded. "No, Nothing wrong with it at all. So long as your…"

Harry interrupted, "Not Gay!! Got it? Good. Now, I mentioned Malfoy because he's been looking over here."

As if on cue, all three of them looked over to the Slytherin table, where sure enough Malfoy was looking at them.

Catching Hermione's eye, he gave her a slight nod and held up his book in reminder of their meeting later.

Understanding what he meant, Hermione nodded back. She then looked back at Harry and Ginny only to see them giving her a look. "What?"

"You talk about me having a gay affair with Malfoy when you clearly just had a moment with Malfoy yourself…" Harry said.

"That wasn't a moment Harry. That was a reminder of our meeting later to plan the Masquerade Ball this weekend." Hermione said.

"Oooh can I go?" Ginny asked hopefully…

"Yea me too?" Harry asked. He didn't really want to go to divination. He hated divination.

"Ginny yes. Harry no. Harry you very well know you have divination to attend." Hermione said.

"But I hate divination. All that ever happens is the prediction of my horrible death and Ron's volcanic eruption snoring." Harry said pleadingly. "Will you please let me skip?"

""Stupid question Harry." Hermione said. "You should have dropped divination and taken arithmacy instead. You can come afterwards and help me look up some stuff on what I told you guys about last night.." Hermione said referring to when she told them about being pregnant.

Finishing up the rest of her lunch, Hermione thought about what she was gonna do. She had never had a baby before, obviously. And now wasn't exactly a good time to have one considering everything that was going on. Abortion was out of the question. She could never do that. Was she going to give the baby up? Give it someone who was more prepared to handle it and could give it all that they needed. That was probably the best way to do things. She would just have to get all the information she could and decide later on what would be best for the baby.

What's best for one may not be best for another. But in this case the baby is much more important and deserves more.

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"If you will not be quiet than I will have to band you from the library!" Madam Pince said to the group for the second time that day.

Trying to quiet their laughter the group went back to planning the Ball.

It was awkward at first. Ginny and Hermione had gotten to the library first and were waiting at a table with some parchment and quills ready. And in walked Malfoy and Zabini. Two Gryffindors and two Slytherins in a library. Not exactly a good match. But surprisingly after getting started on the planning things relaxed and they were all having a pretty good time. Which was enough to annoy the Madam Pince who didn't want her library to become either a dueling center or a party room.

Trying to focus on the task in front of them. Hermione said, "Okay so what else do we need to worry about for this Halloween Ball?"

Looking through the parchments, "Well we just need to tell the house elves about the food, put up the decorations on the day of and show up." Malfoy said.

"And buy our dresses!!" Ginny said.

"Yes buy our dresses!" Hermione agreed. She knew that for Ginny the dressing up part was one of the most important part of the ball. Growing up in a house as the only girl besides Mom was hard. And getting to dress up and really show off as a girl meant a lot more the Ginny than it did for others.

"We'll have to set up a day for that. Cuz I don't think that there are enough fairy godmothers to turn all the girls rags into dresses. " Zabini said.

"What are you saying our clothes are rags, Zabini?" Ginny asked with an evil look in her eyes.

"N-Noo. I just.. I just meant you know…" Zabini stuttered. Looking to Malfoy his fellow Slytherin he gave a pleading look for help.

"Sorry Mate, you waltzed yourself into that one.." Malfoy said smirking.

A few more jokes were made and so were the finalizations of the ball. The two Slytherins then left while Hermione and Ginny stayed to work on some homework.

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Carrying their hot chocolates Hermione and Ginny laughed as they watched Harry carry the books they had checked out of the library.

They went ahead and finished all of their homework. And surprisingly Harry finished up his homework too when he arrived at the library. Which was unusual for him since he usually procrastinated. They then searched the library from top to bottom, side to side, the whole place excluding the restricted section. If a book contained anything to do with babies or pregnancies it was taken.

Of course, with Hermione's pregnancy being a secret to everyone but Harry, Hermione, and Ginny a few spells were needed to ensure the safety of the secret. Walking out of the library you couldn't tell the books they had with them were books filled with babies and pregnancy.

Currently they had just finished up telling the house-elves the food they would need for the ball and took some hot chocolate with them on their way back to the common room.

Harry the unlucky boy, was not used to carrying so many books. Hermione who carried that many on an almost daily occurrence, was used to it. But in order to prevent the argument that was about to happen she relent and let Harry carry the books to the kitchens and then back to the common room. Of course, now he was regretting carrying all of it. Maybe I should work out more. Harry thought.

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Ginny ended up staying with Hermione in her dorm. They hadn't just hung out in a while and since there was no school tomorrow., they decided to have a sleep over.

"That went really well I thought." Ginny said.

"What did" Hermione asked. They hadn't said anything for a few minutes.

"The meeting with Malfoy and Zabini." Ginny answered.

"Oh, I know. I'm kind of surprised, but not really since Malfoy was kind of the same way yesterday when he told me we had to plan something. " Hermione replied. "They were surprisingly refreshing. It was nice not to be fighting with them."

"Not to mention there was no name calling." Ginny added. "Do you think something is up? Should we be worried?"

"We probably should be worried. This is a sudden change for them. But right now. I don't feel like worrying about it. We'll just be on a look out." Hermione said.

Looking at Ginny, Hermione continued. "I'm kind of surprised at you too, Gin."

Confused Ginny asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well its just that," Hermione took a breath. "Usually your more hot-tempered. And never get along with Malfoys of any kind. You and none of you family get along with them. At least never before. I was worried that we would all end up fighting more than working."

It took a moment for Ginny answered. "Yea." she said. "I know what you mean. But I mean, people change right? And even though you thought you knew someone, you might actually not know them at all.

It was as if a light bulb went off in Hermione's head. She had been so caught up in her own problems to even bother thinking about others. Ginny wasn't as angry at Ron as she was hurt by him.

"Your also talking about Ron, aren't you?" Hermione asked quietly.

Whispering, Ginny answered. "Yea. Its just…. He's my brother, but I hate him so much for leaving us like that. Just walking away from us and not, not seeming to care about us. To not care about me!"

"Do you miss him?" Hermione asked.

"Yes." Ginny answered. "I know its stupid to miss someone who leaves like that, but you wanna know something even stupider? I keep hoping I can find some sort of explanation for it. He's done so much against me, yet I want to prove he's really not that kind of person. I want to defend him. Yet I am the accuser. I want to protect him. Yet I am the attacker."

Hermione said fiercly. "Its not stupid to hate him yet love him at the same time. But you listen to me, and listen well. You are not the accuser. He is the one who turned away from you. You are not the attacker. He is the one who threw pointed words at your heart. Defend him, Yes. Protect him, Yes. But do NOT, do not find yourself to be the one at fault. Do not blame yourself."

Taking a breath she continued on. "I know his change is sudden. And I know it hurt you deep inside. Betrayal of the family is the worst kind of betrayal of all. But there's always a reason for it. And I will do everything I can to figure it out for you, Gin. I figure it out so you won't have to tear you heart apart between love and hate over your brother.

"Thank you." Ginny said quietly. Just as Harry said, Hermione was always there for us. No matter what the problem.

Moments later Ginny's soft snoring could be heard throughout the room. But Hermione was still awake. She lay on her side as she though about what Ginny said. Even though her brother had hurt her more deeply than Voldemort's possession of her own body did, she still wanted to defend and protect him.

Ginny didn't know it, but Hermione could relate to family betrayal more than Ginny would ever imagine possible. And then the urge to still fight for the one who betrayed them. Even though her father, and her mother, and her brother had hurt more than possible. They had destroyed her, and yet she loved them.

And as he days went passed. She began to hate herself a little more. Was she really so wrong? She knew she wasn't, but it didn't make it any better. They were her family. Her life. She still loved them. Still cared for them. And if the moment should come, she would protect them, defend them no matter the attacker or accuser. She would look past and forget whatever they had done to her in order to help them.

So here's chapter six. Sorry I took so long to update. Hope you liked it. And that it wasn't to long for you. I hadn't actually planned to make it this long, but it just kept going.