A few days later, I was sitting in Potions class when a second year girl came hurrying into the classroom.

Professor Slughorn glanced up from his cauldron. "Can I help you?"

"The headmaster wants to see Victoire Weasley in his office," she said.

"Oh, yes, of course," said Slughorn, waving his hand in my direction. "Go on, Miss Weasley."

I grabbed my bag and followed the girl out the door. After she told me the password, I walked slowly towards the headmaster's office. I was certain that this had to do with my pregnancy. None of the staff had said anything about it yet, but my mum had written to the school about it, so I knew that they were aware of it.

I reached the office, and after saying the password, hurried up the stairs and knocked on the door.

"Come in," squeaked Professor Flitwick.

Flitwick had become headmaster the previous year, after Professor McGonagall retired.

I opened the door and walked inside.

"Good morning, Miss Weasley," said Flitwick, smiling at me. "Take a seat."

After I had, he cleared his throat. "So," he began, "I assume you know why you're here."

I nodded, blushing slightly. This was going to be awkward.

"Yes, well, to be honest with you, this conversation is quite uncomfortable for me."

"For me as well, Professor."

"But, it is also quite necessary."

I nodded. "Yes, I understand."

"There are two main things I need to discuss with you," he told me. "The first is that Madame Pomfrey has told me to tell you that you should go see her every few weeks or so. You know, so that she can do whatever tests are necessary and make sure you're doing everything you can to ensure the health of your baby."

"Okay," I said. "I'll be sure to go see her soon, then."

"The second has to do with what you're going to do after you give birth. You're due sometime in April. Which is obviously before school lets out. The staff has discussed it and we feel that the only option once you give birth is to be homeschooled."

"Homeschooled?"

"Well, you can't really keep the baby here with you. You'd never have time to get to class with a newborn on your hands. And you really shouldn't be away from your newborn for too long, so attending school while the baby stays at home with your parents is out of the question as well."

"So what would this homeschooling entail exactly?" I asked, confused.

"After you have the baby, you will go home and take care of it. But your teachers will also owl you all your assignments and you will be expected to keep up with all your reading. You will then come back to school to take your N.E.W.T.s."

I nodded. "Okay."

"Now, Miss Weasley, I'm sure you understand that this will not be easy. Caring for a baby and doing all your school work will take lots of time and effort. But, you're a smart girl and I have faith in you."

"Thanks, Professor. I'll do my best."

"I know you will," he said. "Now I think it's almost time for lunch, so hurry along now."

The next few weeks were pretty uneventful. I went to my classes, I did my homework, and I tried to pretend I wasn't actually pregnant. Of course, the morning sickness was a constant reminder that this was unfortunately not the case.

One Saturday evening, three weeks into school, I was at dinner when Roxanne came hurrying into the Great Hall.

She plopped down in the seat next to me, groaning loudly. "I don't know how I'm gonna whip the Quidditch team into shape by our first game. Bunch of lazy idiots, the lot of them."

Roxanne was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and she was passionate about it. Her friendly, happy demeanor always disappeared on the Quidditch field, where she worked her team to the point of tears. I'm not even exaggerating. I'd seen tough athletes break down and cry under her wrath.

Once, when I mentioned this to my Uncle Harry, he'd laughed loudly. "Sounds like her mother," he'd said. My Aunt Angelina smacked his arm in response. "I was not that bad," she'd argued. Harry just shook his head, still chuckling.

"We need you on the team, Vic. Everyone freaked out when I told them you wouldn't be playing this year and I had to bullshit some excuse about you being too busy with your schoolwork and studying for your N.E.W.T.s ."

I sighed. I missed Quidditch.

"And that got me thinking. When are you going to start telling people you're… you know?"

I groaned. "I have no idea. How are you even supposed to go about letting an entire school know about something like that?"

"Well," said Rox, considering this. "You could just stand up on the table right now and announce it to the entire school."

"I think I'll pass on that, surprisingly enough," I replied sarcastically.

"Well then, you could just let the news slip to someone and let it spread around the school on its own."

I considered this. "Maybe…" I said slowly.

Rox glanced around the room. "Aha!" she exclaimed. "Beth Clarke. She's a Hufflepuff in my year and she is the biggest gossip in the school. She'll have your news spread around the school in an hour, tops."

"I'm not sure if I'm ready for people to know yet," I said. But Rox wasn't listening; she was already waving Beth over.

"Hey, Roxanne, Victoire," she said, sliding into a seat across from us. "What's up?"

Rox leaned in close. "We have a bit of information we need spread around the school."

Beth looked excited. "You want me to start a rumor about someone?"

"Not exactly," said Rox. "It's true and it's about my friend Victoire here."

"What is it?" asked Beth.

Rox leaned across the table and whispered something in her ear.

Beth pulled back, shocked. "No way!"

Rox nodded. "It's true."

Beth tuned and stared at me. "Do you really want me to spread that around school? Cos I won't if you don't want me to. It'll be difficult because this is some very juicy gossip, but I've always respected you, Victoire, so just say the word and I won't tell a soul."

I smiled at her. I had no idea that Beth Clarke could be so sweet. I didn't know much about her, but what I did know basically involved her ability to spread rumors as fast as hookers could spread STDs. Apparently there was more to her though.

"Thanks, Beth. But I think you should go ahead and tell people. Everyone's got to find out sometime and I don't really fancy being the one to tell them."

"Well if you're sure," she said, standing up, "then I'll just be on my way."

I watched as she hurried back to her table and slid into her seat. She said something to her group of friends and the all turned to stare at me, mouths agape. I squirmed in my seat. This was going to be interesting.

By the time I finished dinner, the entire school seemed to know. As Rox and I walked back to the Gryffindor common room, people stopped in their tracks and began whispering in each other's ears.

"That's her!" I heard a first year girl whisper to her friends. "The pregnant one."

"Yeah that's me," I snapped, annoyed that they didn't have the decency to talk about me behind my back. "Would you like an autograph?"

The girls looked frightened and scampered away.

Rox grabbed my arm. "Relax, Vic. They didn't mean any harm."

"Well they have a funny way of showing it," I huffed as I shot a death glare at a group of Slytherin boys who were staring at me.

The next morning at breakfast was, put simply, hell. It was like nobody in the damn school had ever seen a pregnant person before.

"Ugh," I groaned, burying my face in my hands. "When will this end?"

"Well I would assume when something else gossip-worthy happens," replied Rox.

"Maybe someone else will get pregnant," I said. "But like by a teacher or something. That would definitely make me seem boring by comparison."

Roxanne wrinkled her nose. "That's disgusting , Vic."

"So I take it you're not going to volunteer for the job?" I said, giggling.

She snorted. "There's no way in hell."

I glanced up at the teacher's table. "I think Professor Grimsdyke would be happy to impregnate you. He's totally checking you out right now."

Rox makes a gagging noise. "Eww. He's like 45. And he looks like a beaver."

I nearly choked on my toast from laughing so hard. "Wow," I said. "I feel a lot better now."

"Yeah nothing like discussing being knocked up by pervy old teachers to brighten a day," said Rox sarcastically.

"That's my philosophy, yes."

"Speaking of brightening a day, did you see that next Saturday is the first Hogsmeade trip?" Rox asked.

"Really?" I asked excitedly. "I should owl Teddy and tell him to some visit me."

The day really did seem brighter.

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