A/N: Just so you are aware, some of you have made me cry. And when I say this, I don't mean bad crying. I mean, 'omg, they really like this and my writing' crying. My family has told me for years that I should start writing books, but I always thought they were being biased. I've never thought anything I've written was good enough and with that have deleted many original stories without even finishing the first chapter... But, wow, you guys are amazing and I love you all. And I wanted to congratulate Adrienne L. Mendal for passing your classes! =) Also for those who want to know yes, you might, maybe, possibly, I'm not sure yet, find out who McGonagall's son is. I've been thinking over baby names and have come up with one, but if anyone has suggestions, I'm willing to consider them! Now onto the story! Oh, and sorry that there hasn't been any lemons. It will come, I promise.

Chapter 20

February 27th, 1997

The days passed by like a blur and Hermione was being spread thinly between school-work and friends. Harry was back in her life, not like he had been before the summer, but they seemed a little bit closer than before, they understood each other on a more mature level if one needed to pinpoint it. They didn't hang out every day and sometimes things were so busy she didn't even notice him at meals or when they happened to share a class together. It wasn't that she was purposely ignoring him, she was just so engrossed in her studies and trying not to overexert herself at the same time, she didn't have time to lift her head and smile his way.

Today though, Hermione was walking with Harry to lunch. But his talk of Quidditch was boring her quickly and she was tuning him out. She really didn't understand the wild fascination boys had with the sport. Then again, Ginny loved it too... She didn't get it, maybe it was her fear of flying that put her off.

She gasped when her shoulder rammed into another and she began apologizing immediately, but stopped when she saw just who it was she bumped into. His hair was as red as ever and it took a moment for the shock in his eyes to fade and be replaced with a glare.

"Watch where your going, slut!" the acidic tone of Lavender Brown's voice cut through the air and Hermione watched as the blonde pulled Ron away from her like she had some disease and he would catch it. Wow, well, it seemed people were still thinking of her as nothing more than a Slytherin whore... With a sigh, she figured she didn't really care. It didn't surprise her at all.

"Watch your fucking tongue, Brown!" Hermione was, however, very surprised when Harry stepped in front of her, putting himself between her and the duo.

The color of Lavender's face changed drastically, shifting from one shade of red to another. Her mouth fell open to say something, but maybe the cat caught her tongue, because all she could do was blubber out nonsense, unable to make out a single word.

Ron stepped in front of his girlfriend, crossing his arms over his chest. "What the bleeding hell is wrong with you, Harry? Sticking up for her now, are you?" he said giving Hermione a once over before snorting in disgust. "She's a snake lover."

"Merlin's balls, Ron," Harry said, and Hermione could tell he was holding back, watching as the vein in his neck ticked with tension. She briefly wondered just what he would do to Ron if he wasn't controlling his anger. "Grow the the bloody fuck up!"

She didn't glance back when Harry grabbed her hand and led her into the Great Hall, passing by the Gryffindor table completely and turning to the last table on the left. They walked up to the rest of the group and seething, Harry didn't notice the looks he got when he sat down. Hermione shrugged when she got an incredulous expression from Theo and then she turned towards Draco and told him, "I'll tell you later," when he glanced at her inquisitively.

/-/-/-/

"So, what the fuck was wrong with Potter today?" Draco asked dropping his books on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Classes were over and dinner was a hour or so away.

Hermione sighed and sat down on the sofa, resting her hands over her belly and inadvertently started caressing it. "We bumped into Ron and Lavender on the way to lunch. She called me a slut, Harry told her to watch her tongue... Then Ron- Well, Ron was Ron and Harry told him to grow up."

She chanced a look at Draco to gauge his reaction. There was a scowl and his nostrils were flaring. "She called you a slut?" he nearly hissed.

"It didn't bother me, I've been called worse," she shrugged. "And Harry stuck up for me, so calm down."

He sighed and sat down next to her, grabbing one of her hands and threading their finger together. "I don't like people calling you names," he relented, still scowling even at the thought, as he stared across the room. "Potter should have hexed the both of them, at the very least he should have given Weasley a fat lip."

She snorted. "Ah, yes. Violence is the way to go," she spoke sarcastically, giving him a critical eye. "Come on, Draco. Let's just leave it. It happened. There's nothing we can do. People will think how they want to think."

"Well, I don't like how people think," his stern, matter of fact tone made Hermione laugh and she leaned her head against his shoulder sleepily. "Tired?"

"You have no idea," she whispered. "My back is aching like mad and my feet are swollen, from what Pans tells me. Since, you know, I can't even see my toes," she complained with a sigh. "And I'm fat..."

"What?" she could feel Draco's eyes on her and she only looked up when his finger under her chin urged her to. She looked up into his beautiful silvery gray eyes, seeing his brow crinkled low. "You're not fat, Hermione. You're pregnant, you bloody nit-wit," she rolled her eyes, but caught him as he eyed her body. "You're beautiful," he murmured, and very slowly his eyes locked with hers.

Her whole body flushed at the sudden dark tint in his irises and she gulped when his finger left her chin to trail along her jaw and cheek. Her eyes closed, enjoying the tingles his touch brought along her skin and up her spine. It was almost like how Viktor had made her feel. Only she couldn't quite remember feeling this much for the Bulgarian. It had been nothing but a petty crush, he'd been the first boy to ever make her feel special and now Draco was doing the same thing, but this time... This time she felt she was falling in love with him.

Oh Merlin...

Draco's touch was suddenly gone, aside from one of his hands still holding onto hers tightly, and her eyes snapped open. He sat there, one leg crossed over the other, while his head was thrown back against the couch and he squeezed his eyes closed.

"Draco..." she started, but he shook his head. She remembered a similar moment with Viktor. They had been sharing a couple of kisses when he pulled away suddenly. Thinking she had done something wrong, she asked him. He, of course, explained the situation to her, much to utter embarrassment and horror. That night she did not forget. But now? Draco was... Well, he was turn on by how she looked now? She flushed a deep scarlet. They hadn't even kissed and she was as big as a beach ball!

"Sorry," Draco then said and she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. She was slightly afraid that he thought of her like that, but then she reminded herself; this wasn't Dolohov, this wasn't Cormac... This was Draco.

"I-It's okay," she stammered and inwardly rolled her eyes at herself.

"Do you believe me now that you're not fat?" he asked her, although, when she glimpsed his way, she saw him staring intently at something on the other side of the room.

She could only nod.

/-/-/-/

March 3rd, 1997

"And then what happened?"

It had taken a couple days before Pansy or Ginny could get a word out of her, but apparently they knew something was up. 'Woman's intuition' was what Ginny called it. They were all sitting out by the lake, the boys off somewhere else doing only Merlin knows what... And finally they got it out of her. It took long enough!

"Well, then he went to the bathroom for ten minutes and when he came back we studied," Hermione told them all truthfully. Looking at Luna curiously when the girl giggled dreamily. "What?"

"Nothing," she said and looked out over the lake.

Hermione looked at Pansy and Ginny to find that they too were finding interest elsewhere, while looking as if they were trying desperately not to laugh. She cringed when she finally understood. Oh, so that's what he had been doing... And in her bathroom, no less! It was just- It was just gross that's what it bloody well was. She frowned and leaned back on her arms, looking down at her large stomach.

Two more months. That's all she had left and then she would be giving birth to her. She still hadn't found a proper name. She was wanting to use her mothers name in it somehow and while she liked Nora she liked her mothers middle name better. Charlotte rang nicely, but she didn't want her child to be nicknamed Charlie. So, the possibility of it as a first name was gone.

She still hadn't even talked to Draco about it, and maybe she'd been waiting for him to bring it up, but he never did.

"So, you and Harry seem to be getting along?" Ginny said, raising an eyebrow.

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, he's still not a fan of Slytherins but I think he's coming along."

"You forgave him then?" Pansy asked, seeming a little confused.

Hermione thought about it for a moment, getting uncomfortable when the other three girls watched her and waited for an answer. "I don't know. I mean, I'm still hurt by what he did and I'm afraid that he'll turn his back on me again. But on an internal level, I think I have," she said, almost surprised at her revelation.

"I wouldn't tell him," Luna said, smiling euphorically. "Keep him on his toes."

"I agree," Ginny nodded.

Hermione shrugged, looking out back to the lake. Maybe they were right, maybe telling Harry she forgave him wouldn't be the best thing. Looking back on when she forgave both him and Ron the first time, she made the decision to keep him in the dark.

"Hello, ladies," Blaise flopped down beside them, laying his head in Pansy's lap. Hermione looked around, but she didn't see Draco, Theo, or Neville around at all.

"Where are the others?" she asked.

"Neville is visiting his plants, Theo is in the library, and Draco is meetingwiththeheadmaster."

He said it so fast Hermione only caught 'headmaster'. "Dumbledore? What's he doing with Professor Dumbledore?" She was suddenly nervous. Did he get into trouble? Was something wrong?

Blaise looked sheepish. "Please don't make me break the man code..."

"Blaise," Hermione said through a sigh, closing her eyes briefly. "I am pregnant and extremely hormonal. Do you want me to yell at you? Better yet, do you want me to cry? Is the man code really that important?"

She watched as Blaise's eyes grew wide and he looked towards the castle before back at her. "He got into a fight with Weasley," glancing at Ginny he amended. "The male Weasley. He said some rather crude things to Draco, and you know how Draco gets whenever you're talked about badly..."

"What did he do?" Hermione stressed, clenching her teeth.

Blaise actually smiled. "Ponce has a bloody fat lip, now," he said and once again glanced at Ginny. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Ginny scoffed and shook her head. "Ron deserves it. He's such an ass."

"Not talking about me I hope..." Hermione jerked her head sideways and leveled Draco with a glare. She took in his appearance. His robes were spick and a span, not one single wrinkle... Of course, the cut above his eyebrow nearly made her growl. But! He deserved it now, didn't he. He's the one that hit Ron first.

"What did he say?" she asked, her jaw going rigid as she looked back out to the lake, trying to school her features so he couldn't see she was angry, but failed.

She felt him sit next to her, felt him take her hand into his own, and she couldn't even make herself wrench it out of his grasp. Because, she wasn't really mad at him. She was mad at the whole situation. Ron was stupid, there! It was plain and simple, and there was nothing more to it.

"You don't want to know, love," she looked at him, her frown disappearing at the endearment. Before she could reply, however, someone was yelling out towards them.

"Hey, Zabini!" Hermione looked around Draco to see Seamus walking towards them with a couple of other Gryffindors. Oh, wonderful. She noticed Blaise standing up out of the corner of her eye and she nearly pulled Draco back down when he too stood. "I hear you mum's getting married, again!" he cackled, and all the others around him joined in. "What's that make, step-daddy number seven?"

Hermione frowned and looked at Blaise, of course, he would know nothing about this. Draco, Blaise, Pansy, and Theo had all been cut off from their families after Snape got to them. Being released from the Imperius, they didn't want to ever set eyes on their relations again. Hermione knew this. But, the rest of the school, aside from the Slytherins who were in with the Death Eater crowd, didn't.

"I haven't talked to my mother in quite a while, Finnegan," Blaise replied, managing to keep his tone neutral, while Blaise's situation didn't reach the spectrum of Draco or Theo's, not to mention Pansy's, he had deep emotional wounds that hadn't, yet, closed.

"Oh?" Seamus' eye danced dangerously and Hermione kept looking back and forth from one boy to the other. "Would have thought your mommy would have told you all about her Death Eater amore." She watched the Irish boy take out a rolled up copy of the Daily Prophet and threw it down to Blaise's feet. "Have fun, it's a fantastic read," he said sarcastically and then walked off with his group of chuckling dunderheads.

Blaise didn't move, so Draco stepped forward and picked up the periodical. Quickly flipping from page to page before he finally and way to suddenly came to a jolting stop. Hermione watched as he tensed, his shoulder becoming stiff, the muscles in his neck twitching, and his fingers clutching so tightly that the paper crinkled and tore under the duress. She knew it must have been really bad, why else would she see the ripple of a shiver run through Draco's otherwise cool and composed body.

However, he turned his head toward her. And his eyes... they weren't the bright silvery gray she was used to, they were a storm of anger and sheer fury, but behind that she could see the anxiety. The disturbing horror and panic. His trepidation scared her, and she trembled with fearful anticipation.

"Draco?" Blaise asked, his voice small and nearly taciturn. "Who is it?"

He didn't look at his friend, he just stared at Hermione with masked alarm, his camouflage a wall of animosity for whoever he'd seen on the page. And it continued to fuel her consternation.

"Draco?" she asked, managing to keep the wobble out of her voice.

She noticed the other where all looking at them, mostly at Draco, rather expectantly. And she raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to answer, but almost not needing him to say a word. She knew who Blaise's mother was marrying. She knew.

"She's marrying Antonin Dolohov."

TBC