Late one morning about a week later, Hermione was propped up in bed reading a new book, The Magical Birth Experience. Lucius was with Narcissa for the week, and the young woman had decided to spend a lazy day in bed catching up on her reading.
Hermione found that the further she got into her pregnancy, the more she craved rest and she gave in to her desires for lazy days more often. She made more of an effort to be active when Lucius was in residence, but, more often than not, she indulged herself when he was with Narcissa.
Just as she was about to shut her book and take a nap, she heard a soft knocking at the bedroom door.
"Come in," she called calmly.
"Begging Mistress Hermione's pardon," Breezy said timidly as she hesitantly entered the room. "But Breezy has an owl message for you."
"Thank you, Breezy," Hermione said with a smile, taking the envelope from the tiny hand.
After the elf left the room, Hermione opened the small envelope and quickly scanned the contents. It was from Luna, who had asked Hermione to have lunch with her, as she had something urgent she needed to discuss with her. Knowing that the normally placid Luna usually never felt that anything was "urgent", Hermione was curious to find out what the other witch had to say.
Rising from the bed, she went into the bathroom to quickly freshen up, then dressed. At this advanced stage of pregnancy, she had ceased wearing muggle clothing altogether, as she found muggle maternity clothes to be nothing short of ghastly. She slipped on a set of comfortable, loose summer robes that made her look elegant, rather than dumpy, as muggle maternity clothes would have done. Lucius had picked them out and, as usual, he had an uncanny sense as to what would look good on her.
The young witch stepped across the hall to the library, where she quickly penned a note accepting Luna's invitation. Not wanting to bother Breezy, she went to the owlery and sent it off herself.
Luna had asked to meet her at Ollivander's wand shop, where she had been working as an apprentice since her graduation. Hermione decided to walk there after apparating from the penthouse to the Leaky Cauldron's brick courtyard, instead of apparating directly to Ollivander's front door. The young witch knew it was important for her pregnancy to get some exercise every day, knowing she'd have an easier time with labour and delivery that way.
Hermione enjoyed the warm sun on her face as she ambled contentedly toward the wand shop. Diagon Alley full of people shopping, taking advantage of the rare, rainless day. Though her bond with Lucius was old news and the overt hostility displayed toward her after their relationship had became public was now a thing of the past, several people gave her frowning, sidelong glances as she passed by. Hermione was oblivious to them, knowing that no matter what she did in her life, that there would always be someone who didn't approve.
As she opened the door to the dusty, overstocked wand shop, a bell tinkled above her head, announcing her arrival.
Old Mr Ollivander was alone behind the counter, inventorying a new shipment of wands as she came through the door. Looking up, he smiled warmly at her.
"Mrs Granger-Malfoy!" he said. "How nice to see you again. How is that cocobolo wand I sold you working out for you?"
"Very well, thank you," she replied. "I'm so glad you decided to stock in a supply of exotic wood wands."
"They've worked out well," he told her. "They're not usually suitable as beginner wands, but experienced adults tend to get good results with them, when used for specialized magic. I'm glad Luna persuaded me to broaden the selection of wands." After mentioning Luna's name, he clapped his hands together once, then said, "Where are my manners! You are here to go to lunch with Luna, and here I am holding you up by prattling on like a dotty old man!"
"That's perfectly all right, Mr Ollivander," Hermione said, smiling up at the old wizard. "I'm in no hurry. I enjoy talking with you."
"Well, I'm sure Luna is hungry, so I'll not delay you any longer," he told her. "Luna is in the back studying her wandmaking textbook. Just go right on back."
Following his direction, Hermione made her way to the back of the store, where she found Luna sitting at a battered old table in a dusty corner of the back room, hunched over a book.
"Hello, Hermione," Luna said serenely, thankfully closing her book. "I got your owl just a few minutes ago. I'm so glad you could come."
"You said it was urgent, so I came right over," the other witch said. "What's wrong?"
"Let's not talk about it here," Luna warned. "We'll talk about it at lunch."
"Where do you want to eat?" Hermione asked.
"I thought we'd go to that little out of the way cafe near the entrance to Knockturn Alley," the other witch replied briefly.
"That grubby little hole in the wall?" Hermione asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Don't let appearances fool you," Luna cautioned. "They really do have good food there. And even better, we'll be able to have a private conversation there."
"All right, then," Hermione conceded, now concerned about what Luna would say.
A short time later, the two witches had taken a seat in a secluded booth in the dark recesses at the rear of the cafe, a spot carefully chosen so that no one passing by on the street would see them.
Once the waiter had taken their orders, Hermione turned to Luna. "So, what's gotten your robes all in a twist? It's not like you to be so secretive."
"You've got to promise to keep it to yourself," the younger witch began. "It's something I need to talk to another woman about."
"Of course, dear," Hermione said. "You can trust me."
"I'm pregnant," Luna stated baldly.
"Oh, that's wonderful!" Hermione said. "I'd have given anything to be a fly on the wall when you told Draco."
"That's just it; I haven't told Draco yet," Luna admitted.
"Why on Earth not?" Hermione demanded. "He'll be so thrilled to find out that he's to become a father."
"Yes, I know he will be," Luna said with a shy smile. "But it's not him I'm worried about. It's Narcissa. I know she'll be disappointed in me for getting pregnant before the wedding. It's just not done among high society pureblood families."
"I'm sure she'll understand," Hermione consoled her. "She's been amazingly accepting of my relationship with Lucius, even though that sort of thing was most definitely not done until the Ministry's order."
"Well, she's been planning that huge production of a wedding for me," Luna explained. "I never really wanted such big wedding to begin with, but I was willing to go along for her sake and for Draco's sake. But now that I'm pregnant, I'm even more sure now that I don't want to go through the stress of a big pureblood wedding." Heaving a loud sigh, "What I'd really rather do is have a simple wedding down at the Ministry, then a small gathering for family and a few close friends only."
"I can see where that would be problem now," Hermione conceded. "Narcissa has been rather excited about planning your wedding, to say the least."
"I hate to disappoint her as she's been so nice to me," Luna said.
"I understand how you feel," Hermione said. "But, ultimately, it's your wedding, not hers. The first thing you need to do is talk it over with Draco, and then tell Narcissa and Lucius. I really don't feel comfortable keeping this from Lucius, so the sooner you tell them, the better."
"You're right," Luna said with a sigh. "I'll go see Draco right now."
"Let me know how it goes," Hermione said.
"I will," Luna promised, rising from her chair to leave.
After saying goodbye to Hermione, Luna went to the Diagon Alley post office to send an owl to Draco, telling him to meet her at the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade; that it was urgent. Before apparating to Hogsmeade, she went by the wand shop and told Mr Ollivander that something had come up and that she was taking the afternoon off.
That done, she apparated to the edge of Hogsmeade nearest the Hog's Head. She hurried the rest of the way on foot, only to find Draco already waiting for her near the entrance.
"Oh, you're here already!" Luna said, stating the obvious. "I wasn't sure if you'd gotten my owl."
"You said it was urgent, so I dropped everything to get here," Draco explained, just as concerned as Hermione had been by her uncharacteristic urgency.
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A/N: Many thanks to all my readers and reviewers. I appreciate all of you.
A/N New blog entry: Malfoy Manor Library
A/N Next Chapter: A Reasonable Compromise