The days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months and soon it was nearly time for me to return home. And nearly time for me to give birth.

I wandered into the common room once Friday evening and sat down next to Aidan. "My back hurts so freaking bad," I told him.

"Yes I know, Vic," he replied. "You've mentioned that already. Quite often in fact."

"My boobs hurt too," I moaned.

Aidan looked so horrified that I had to stifle my laughter.

"They've gotten so big too," I mused. "Have you noticed?"

I could tell that Aidan was deliberately looking anywhere except my chest. "Erm… no… I haven't… I don't…"

Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Somehow I managed to keep a straight face. "I mean, they were average size before," I continued, "but now they're just huge."

"I hadn't noticed," he stammered. "I have a girlfriend. I only look at her boobs. I don't even notice anyone else's. In fact, I didn't even know other girls had boobs 'cos I was so caught up in only looking at hers."

The only thing that could possibly make the situation funnier was if Grace herself was there.

"Hey, guys."

Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear.

"Hey, Grace," I said, smiling widely.

"What are you two talking about?" she asked.

"Nothing," replied Aidan.

"My boobs," I said at the exact same time.

Grace's eyebrows shot up in the air. "You were talking about your boobs?"

"Don't be jealous, Grace," I told her. "I was just messing with him. His face was hilarious."

I looked over at him. His face was still bright red. "Poor thing. I didn't realize he was so sensitive about discussing female anatomy."

"Shut up, Vic," he mumbled.

I laughed.

Grace sat down next to Aidan, resting her head on his shoulder. I watched as he took her hand in his and she smiled up at him adoringly.

"I'm leaving in a week," I said suddenly.

Grace's head immediately popped up, her smile gone. "A week?" she asked.

I nodded. "Flitwick told me today."

"I'm gonna miss you," she said.

"I'll miss you too," I whispered. I don't know how the mood had gone from so carefree to so somber in such a short period of time, but it had. And I felt the tears welling up in my eyes.

"I don't know I'm gonna do this," I whispered. "Keeping up with my schoolwork and taking care of a baby? How am I supposed to do that?"

"You'll be able to, Vic, "said Grace, squeezing my hand. "I know you will."

"But all that schoolwork? Without any teachers around?"

"Teddy can help you," said Aidan. "He's really smart."

"I suppose so," I replied.

The both gave me encouraging smiles.

For some reason, this made me even sadder.

"I have to pee," I said, standing up. "The baby's putting pressure on my bladder, you know."

I quickly hurried towards the loo, nearly running in to someone on my way.

"I'm so sorry, that was my fault," I exclaimed, looking up.

It was Roxanne.

I froze.

She was staring at me, eyes narrowed.

"Hey," I mumbled, trying to remember when I'd last spoken to her. It had been at least two months.

"You should watch where you're going," she said simply, before turning and walking away.

"Right, I'll be sure to do that," I replied, even though she was gone.

A random group of second years all looked at me like I was some crazy pregnant girl who was talking to herself or something.

Oh wait…

I was.

The next week passed by faster than I wanted it to. The night before I was to leave, I was up in the girl's dorm, finishing my packing, when Grace came up and sat on my bed.

"Hey," she said. "How's the packing going?"

"Almost finished," I said, Accioing some socks out from under my bed and tossing them in my trunk. I closed the lid and sat down next to her.

"I can't believe I'm leaving for good," I said, looking around.

"You'll come back for a week in June to take your N.E.W.T.s," she replied.

"Ah yes, the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. That will be just what I need after a couple months of caring for a newborn."

The baby gave me a sharp kick, like she knew I was talking about her.

"Have you thought about names?" asked Grace.

"A little," I said. "But nothing seems right. Do have any ideas?"

She laughed. "I'm not going to name your baby for you, Vic. You'll think of something." She paused. "Or maybe Colin will…"

I hadn't thought of that. "Do you think he'll want to help name the baby?"

She shrugged. "How should I know? I've only met him twice. I don't know how his mind works."

"I've known him for almost three years and I still don't know how his mind works," I replied. "Or how any guy's mind works for that matter."

"They're mysterious creatures," agreed Grace.

I nodded, yawning. "I think I'm gonna go to bed now," I said.

Grace stood up. "Good night."

"Good night," I replied.

It had been decided that the easiest way for me to return home would be by the Floo Network. So the next day I headed to Flitwick's office, trunk in tow, and stepped into his fireplace.

"Shell Cottage!" I shouted, throwing down a pinch of floo powder.

Seconds later, I found myself in the fireplace in my kitchen. I stepped out, dusting myself off. "Mum!"

My mum turned away from the counter. "Victoire!" she shrieked, dropping her wand on the floor.

I ran into her arms. "I missed you," I murmured, burying my head in her shoulder.

"Oh, darling, I missed you too," she replied. She took a step back, holding me at arm's length. "Look at you," she said. "You've gotten so big."

I nodded in agreement. "As Fred so eloquently put it, I look like I could pop at any second."

She grimaced slightly. "Fred always did 'ave such a way with words."

I spent the weekend sleeping and spending time with my parents. It was calm and relaxing and I felt less stressed than I had for months.

Then Monday arrived. And with it the owls carrying assignments from my teachers. Lots of assignments.

I sat on the couch, books spread out all around me, staring at the handwritten instructions from Slughorn about a potion I was supposed to concoct on my own.

I asked Mum for help, but all she did was tell me that Dad's old cauldron was in the basement and that I could find most of the ingredients in the cupboard in the kitchen.

Thirty minutes later, I found myself staring at a dark gray, lumpy potion that smelled faintly of dirty socks. My potions textbook told me that at this stage it was supposed to be light blue and smell like the ocean.

I'd always been rubbish at Potions.

For a minute I pictured myself going to Diagon Alley, buying a flask of this potion, and sending it back to Slughorn. He'd never know that I hadn't made it. But then I pictured being asked to make this potion during my N.E.W.T and receiving a failing grade for coming up with something similar to this. Cheating would only come back to bite me in the arse.

I realized Aidan was right. I was going to need Teddy's help. Teddy wasn't rubbish at Potions. Teddy wasn't rubbish at anything regarding school.

So I wrote to him, asking if he could possibly come over on his days off and maybe even after work once in a while to help me. I even added in a pretty please with sugar on top for good measure.

He replied to say that he would, and over the next week he managed to show up every day.

On Saturday night we were both sitting on the couch, taking a break from my schoolwork. We had the house to ourselves because my parents were out of town for the weekend. Teddy was in the middle of telling me a joke involving a grindylow, a banshee, and a wrackspurt.

I snorted loudly when he got to the punch line. It was extremely unladylike.

He grinned, looking pleased with himself for eliciting such a strong reaction from me.

For some reason, that just made me laugh more. I closed my eyes and threw my head back, cackling like a crazy person.

"Vic?" I heard him say, sounding slightly concerned. "You alright?"

I took a few breathes and opened my eyes. His face was inches from my mine, his blue eyes wide. I could feel his warm breath on my face.

Merlin's beard.

"You smell nice," I whispered. "Like a boy… but a clean one."

He looked amused. "I think you need to go to bed, Vic. You seem very tired."

He was still so close. Why was he so close?

"I'm not tired," I mumbled.

He leaned in closer. My breath hitched and my heart sped up.

"You look tired," he murmured.

"I'm not."

He shook his head, obviously not believing me, and started to pull away. I grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him back.

"What are you doing?" he asked, his voice low.

I didn't answer him. Instead, without thinking, I pulled him closer and pressed my lips against his. He froze for a second, but then he responded full force. I moaned, my tongue demanding entrance to his mouth. He obliged immediately. My hands made their way to the buttons on his shirt, which I hastily undid. I pressed myself as close to him as possible, wishing my giant stomach wasn't in the way.

Then, suddenly, Teddy tensed up and pulled away. He scooted away until there was a good foot between us and hurriedly buttoned his shirt.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He turned to stare at me. "What's wrong?" he asked, his voice cold. "I'll tell you what's wrong. We broke up, remember? Or, to be more specific, you broke up with me. You wanted to just be friends. You said that being in a relationship was too much to deal with right now."

"Friends can kiss each other," I mumbled in reply.

He sighed, shaking his head. "You mean like friends with benefits?" he asked, looking angry.

"Maybe," I replied. "What's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that?" he repeated. "That's not who you are, Vic. You're not that kind of girl. You don't have flings. You have serious boyfriends."

"Well, maybe I want to switch things up a little," I said, pouting slightly.

"Hooking up with me while still trying to be only friends is not going to do anything but mess with both of our heads and possibly screw things up beyond repair."

I sighed, knowing he was right. "You know, I think I am actually pretty tired," I said, "I should get to bed."

He stood up. "I guess I'll be going then," he said, taking a step toward the door.

"Wait," I replied. "Don't go."

He stopped. "Why not?"

"I don't like being alone at night," I replied.

"I guess I could sleep on the couch," he said.

"Or you could come up to my room with me."

He just looked at me, eyebrows raised in a what-did-we-just-talk-about sort of way.

"Not like that," I said quickly. "Just to sleep."

He shrugged. "Alright then."

Once in my room, I lay down on my head. Teddy hovered uncertainly in the doorway.

"Come lie down," I said.

"I can just sleep on the floor," he replied, taking a few tentative steps inside and assessing my carpet.

"Don't be ridiculous," I replied. "There's plenty of room on my bed."

"Fine," he said, lying down beside me. "But you better not steal all the covers."

I turned off the lights and lay there on my back. Beside me, I could feel Teddy fidgeting around, trying to get comfortable. Then, after a while, he was still. I could hear his slow, steady breathing and I wondered if he'd fallen asleep.

"Teddy," I whispered.

"Mmm," he murmured in reply. I could tell that he was on the verge of drifting off.

"If I ever decided sometime in the future that I wanted to be in a relationship with you again, would you take me back?"

He was silent for so long that I was sure that he'd fallen asleep. But just when I'd completely given up hope of an answer, I heard him quietly say, "I'll always take you back."

The baby's almost here!

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