SECOND CHANCES 6

Author's Note: I don't own any of the characters.

Hogwarts-The Library

On days like this the library was just about her only sanctuary. Classes on top of becoming more challenging were now a marathon of trying to get through them without her secret getting out. For most of the time Ron would help in any way that he could during the classes that they had together, keeping a very watchful eye out for anyone that he thought was getting to close to her. The morning sickness had almost undone them but she'd managed to teach Ron the right spells to be able to both hide any lapses in control that she had and cover up the sounds of it. The charm that Dumbledore had given her hid the fact that she was pregnant from everyone that didn't already know, and thankfully that pool of people was incredibly small and those that she considered friends. Professor McGonagall had given her the most withering look that she'd ever been given, one that she fervently hoped she'd never see again as long as she lived, but in the end relented and had become an almost constant source of support and a welcoming ear. Hagrid and Snape had to be kept in the dark as the former couldn't keep a normal secret for very long let alone a massive one such as this and the latter because Dumbledore had strictly forbidden it for reasons that he wouldn't go into.

The day had started out well enough with a breakfast that was scary to her about how much she had eaten, almost as much as Ron, and that was saying something. The house elves, most importantly Dobby who had been sworn to secrecy, had been sneaking her anything that she needed or craved. Some of her cravings had left Ron completely bewildered and had often left him staring open mouthed at her for several minutes. Keeping the secret from Harry and Ginny had been almost impossible, only helped by the fact that Ron and Hermione were almost always together anyway and so he had been able to run interference for her. One of the hardest parts of being pregnant was getting into and out of seats that weren't moveable. A chair was often simple enough but the benches in the Great Hall for meals were terrible with everyone looking at her. The odd class that she didn't have with Ron were a daily gauntlet of fears and barely suppressed panic attacks until he was by her side again.

They had spent as much time as they could together in the room of requirement, as it was a place that she didn't have to hide anything and could truly relax, often with Ron giving her weary shoulders a massage or rubbing her feet. She had been lucky enough to not notice the simplest facts of her pregnancy like getting a baby bump and some of her clothes no longer fitting for the first several weeks. But one morning in the dorm after Lavender and Parvati had left for breakfast she had been walking by one of the mirrors and caught sight of herself from the side, seeing the bump clearly for the first time. It had taken all of her strength to get dressed and to the common room before she had dissolved into a fit of sobbing in Ron's arms. They had been very lucky that he had hung back to wait for her and that the whole time that she cried they had been alone. By the time that Ron's birthday was coming up without the charm anyone and everyone could have seen that she was pregnant with ease and in a welcome feat of love Ron had told her weeks before that she and the baby being healthy was gift enough for him. She was in fact just about to fall into a lazy dream about that fact when McGonagall had burst into the library and informed her of Ron's being poisoned in Slughorn's office. Had her favorite Professor not been there she would have collapsed on the floor upon hearing the news. It had taken her several moments to collect herself enough to hurry as fast as she could to the hospital wing and try not to break down all over again while listening to Ginny and Harry discuss the particulars.

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The Hospital Wing-Nightfall

"Miss Granger…Hermione," Madam Pomfrey wondered softly with a hesitant expression and edge to her words as she slowly approached Hermione and then gently laid a hand on her shoulder. After Harry and the others had left the doors to the hospital wing had been magically locked and a muffling charm placed upon the whole room that the only two other occupants could have complete privacy in this their time of need.

"Huh…oh uh…I…I'm fine…really," Hermione weakly mumbled out through a jaw that refused to sit still as she'd suddenly found herself unable to think of anything else than Ron dying and having to raise the child by herself and both her mind and body were wholeheartedly rejecting even the thought of that to the point where she felt herself almost literally beginning to fall apart in her seat. She couldn't help but cover her stomach with both hands as she spoke and couldn't bring herself to look anywhere but at Madam Pomfrey.

"You don't have to lie to me Hermione, this must be terrible for you…so hard," Madam Pomfrey replied with a warm smile as she pulled a chair up and sat down next to Hermione before rubbing small circles on her back in hopes of soothing her.

"I…I can't…I can't…won't…do this without him," Hermione exclaimed back as loudly as she dared with tears flowing freely as she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head back and forth until the action almost made her a bit sick to her stomach and she had to stop and compose herself.

"Don't worry yourself sick, Mr. Potter got the bezoar to him in time and he's going to be okay, it'll probably be a few days yet before he wakes up but…after that…you won't have to raise your child without his father alone," Madam Pomfrey declared with as soothing and supporting of a tone of voice as she could as she continued to rub small circles on Hermione's back, which for the moment at least seemed to help the brunette calm down a bit.

"Oh thank God, I get sick at even the thought of what would have happened if things hadn't…wait what…what did you say," Hermione started to answer still through chattering teeth and barely restrained sobs of panic and worry as she struggled to give Madam Pomfrey a smile before her rational side picked up on something the older woman had said and it threw her so she had to know.

"That you won't have to be alone, Ron will be there with you," Madam Pomfrey eagerly nodded back with a warm smile as she wasn't sure what Hermione was getting at but wanted to stay positive to help to keep her spirits up as long as possible.

"No…you said that I wouldn't have to raise my child without his father…his…I'm having a boy," Hermione forced herself to say as calmly and politely as she could while keeping the whirlwind in her mind in check before her hormones got the better of her at the end and she couldn't help but cry a little.

"I am sorry for letting it slip but yes Miss Granger…Hermione, you're having a son, again I am truly sorry for telling you," Madam Pomfrey admitted while looking very guilty as she hung her head at first before picking it back up and smiling sweetly at Hermione with a light pat on her shoulder.

"No…don't be sorry, thank you…it's just, I can't believe it…a son," Hermione quickly shot back with a deep blush of her own, her mind all a whirl at the revelation of the sex of her baby, before she stared off into the night with visions of possible futures wafting through her head.

"I guess now you and Mr. Weasley can have an easier time coming up with a name," Madam Pomfrey thought out loud with a curious and hopeful smile as she pulled her hand back from Hermione and carefully looked Ron over to make sure that his condition hadn't worsened since her last assessment of him.

"A name…I hadn't even thought of any names yet, I think this was all just to new…but you're right, as soon as Ron wakes up we'll get to work, that's not something that I want to wait on till the last minute," Hermione gasped audibly as her eyes went wide and she was suddenly struck with the idea of actually having to name the child that she was carrying within her.

"Well you know where to find me if you need any help," Madam Pomfrey replied with a still warm smile as she stood up and pushed her chair back up against the wall and then turned to leave Hermione to spend time with Ron alone.

"Thank you," Hermione tiredly answered with a stifled yawn as she felt like falling asleep but forced herself to stay awake and keep watching over Ron as much as she could, hopefully at least a few more hours. It only ended up taking her about thirty minutes before she was out. It would be ten minutes after that in which Madam Pomfrey would walk out of her office to find the two in an exact copy of the night that they had returned from the Ministry, with her head on his chest and her seemingly claiming him as hers for all to see even though the hospital wing's doors were magically locked and silent.

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Hogwarts-Hospital Wing-Four Days Later

Again she had been in the library trying to find the proper uses for pink toadstools when she had been passed a note by a nervous first year that Ron had woken up and was asking for her. She only glanced down at the book that she had been reading and was surprised to see that it was a book about dementors. Shaking her head at her own silliness she closed the book and replaced it on the shelf before hurrying to the Hospital Ward as fast as she could, which she found wasn't that fast given how far along in her pregnancy she was. Most of the students just seemed to believe that she was out of shape as none of them that saw her almost throwing up because of the strain of running even bothered to ask if she was okay.

All that she could think about was getting to Ron and both screaming at him for eating the tainted cauldrons and telling him just how much she loved him, not to mention the news about their child. She hoped that the two could be totally alone and not have to worry about other students filling the other beds and listening in. Much to her relief when she arrived Ron's was the only bed that was filled and he was sitting up in bed with an impatient frown on his face, one that instantly vanished the moment that his gaze landed on her. Before she could stop herself she raced to his bedside and threw her arms around his neck before kissing him with all of the passion, relief, and joy that she possessed. It was several moments after they split that either was able to speak.

"Hermione," Ron gasped out softly in between deep breaths as he struggled to recover from her kiss, sounding a bit like he was disappointed that she wasn't still kissing him.

"How could you eat those cauldrons, why didn't you know that they were laced with a love potion…and they were Harry's," Hermione snapped angrily as she balled her hands up into fists and began to pound on Ron's chest and shoulders, though more out of frustration and fear than actual anger, as her eyes began to tear up.

"It's not my fault…you know how I am with food, besides…it's more Harry's fault for not throwing them away months ago," Ron commented in his own defense as he easily caught Hermione's fists in his hands and held them still as he struggled to keep his emotions in check, which was not an easy task at all for him, before he surprised Hermione by pulling her off of her chair and onto his lap. She initially fought back but her attempts to get off of his lap were weak and mostly for show before she settled down a bit and laid her head against his shoulder as his arms wrapped around her.

"It was still your fault Ron…but you're right, Harry should have thrown them away rather than stick them in his trunk, sometimes I don't know where his head is," Hermione grumbled out under her breath with an irritated scowl as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and then laid them gently on her bump.

"Worrying about whether Draco is a Death Eater or not, though I guess it does help us keep our secret a little longer," Ron let slip with a slightly annoyed at his best friend rolling of his before he took a deep breath and moved his left hand so that it came to rest on Hermione's bump, an act which seemed to go a long way to brightening her expression as she smiled warmly at his touch. Before she responded she quickly laid one of her hands over top of his.

"He's been worried about you, barely letting me get any sleep, every time that I try to…," Hermione admitted a bit sheepishly with a slight pink blush to her cheeks as she crushing fear and panic of what might happen if Ron hadn't been okay lift from her body before Ron cut in.

"I'm sure that he has and…wait…he…Hermione," Ron started to reply with a warm one armed hug to Hermione and a quick kiss on the cheek before what she had actually said hit him fully and his mind started to put two and two together and get four.

"Bloody hell…I…yes Ron…he, we're having a boy," Hermione groaned softly to herself with her eyes tightly squeezed shut as she admitted to herself that this was not how she wanted to break the news to Ron but now that the cat was out of the bag as it were she just decided to go with it and admit the truth plainly to him. She hoped that he would be happy, and that she wouldn't have to wait long for him to admit it.

"Blimey…a son," Ron mumbled out in total awe with eyes as wide as dinner plates before the extreme edges of his lips began to curl up into the slightest trace of a smile.

"It's…it's…," Hermione tried to say something to help him but even with all of her intellect words failed her and she quickly found herself in the same predicament as they both found it really hard to put their feelings into words now that they were both in on the secret and thinking fully about it.

"Mental…incredibly great…but mental," Ron finally managed to say with a scared but exhilarated breath and laugh as his breathing became more than a bit off as she could tell that he was struggling to come to terms with the new bit of knowledge and have it really sink in.

"Er…my thoughts exactly," Hermione shakily replied as she felt more than a bit confused and unsure of what Ron meant as she pulled away from him just enough so that she could look him in the eye.

"What…is something wrong," Ron wondered aloud quickly as he didn't like to see Hermione be worried about anything, let alone something as important as this.

"You're happy about this right, because…," Hermione asked with a fair amount of hope and pleading in her voice as she fought against herself to keep from tearing up at the thought of what he might say.

"What are you…of course I'm happy, just a bit…terrified, it's just all real now…ya know," Ron nervously explained with choosing his words slowly and deliberately so that he didn't scare her any more than possible before he could see his words had gotten his point across by the look in her eyes. They smiled in unison before leaning forward with the first in a short series of kisses that made them feel truly united in their future.

"Ah young love, so nice to see in these troubled times," Dumbledore interjected softly with an amused twinkle in his eyes as he silently stepped into the hospital wing and smiled at Ron and Hermione. Had Hermione not been tired and several months pregnant she would have leapt up off of Ron's lap and onto the chair beside his bed but because of his being poisoned even being interrupted like that couldn't make her let go of her love.

"Headmaster…I didn't…how did you," Madam Pomfrey exclaimed with a great amount of shock as she hurried out of her office and stared wide eyed at Dumbledore.

"I have been Headmaster a very long time, I believe I know this castle better than most…and can get where I need to be," Dumbledore kindly answered with a tired smile as he walked over and sat down in the chair that Hermione had vacated only minutes before.

"Sir…what are you doing here," Ron asked softly, looking more than a bit like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, as he felt Hermione tense up in his arms.

"I take the wellbeing of all of my students seriously Mr. Weasley, I am officially just here to see that you are alright," Dumbledore answered calmly as he smoothed out a fold in his robes and then smiled at Hermione as he seemed to be trying to show her that she wasn't in any trouble.

"And unofficially…," Hermione wondered softly with a very worried look as Ron felt her tense up in his arms as she felt very much like she was doing something that she shouldn't have but didn't move as she suddenly noticed that since Dumbledore had taken her chair she really didn't have anywhere to go and truthfully didn't want to move from Ron's lap just yet.

"To both check that you are alright and to make sure that Miss Granger here is not pushing herself to hard especially given her current state of health," Dumbledore readily replied with another warm smile, acting as if he didn't have a care in the world and the situation was completely normal to him before he reached a hand up to gently stroke his beard.

"Her condition seems to have dramatically improved now that Mr. Weasley is out of the woods and awake," Madam Pomfrey interjected with an anxious smile as she stood beside the bed and to Ron appeared as if she were expecting to be judged on something.

"Excellent, then my work here is done…but Miss Granger, are you sure that you do not wish to tell your parents about your little one," Dumbledore grinned widely back as he spoke at first before his countenance grew serious as he asked the question that had been bothering him for the entire day.

"I can't tell them yet sir, if they knew about the baby now they'd pull me out of school so fast that your head would spin…it's better that I tell them after the term is over I think," Hermione spoke softly as she did her best to explain her reasoning behind not telling her parents about the pregnancy as she then felt emboldened by Ron's arms pulling her more to him and she ended her answer by laying her head on his shoulder and taking a shaky deep breath, trying to appear confidant.

"Right before your due date then," Madam Pomfrey offered up with a clear look of disbelief as although she had agreed to Hermione's plan the brunette knew that the older woman didn't approve of it.

"Exactly," Hermione cautiously nodded back with a forced smile as Ron flexed his hand on her stomach and she responded in kind, silently hoping that she was making the right decision about her pregnancy and when to tell her parents.

"Guess then I should make out my will," Ron chuckled out softly with a darkly sarcastic laugh as he clearly looked worried, something that made Hermione snap her attention back to him as she regarded him with a look of great worry in her eyes.

"Whatever for Mr. Weasley," Madam Pomfrey asked quickly after a short gasp of astonishment and confusion as she edged a bit closer to the bed and cast a smirking Dumbledore a nervous look.

"Because when her dad finds out that she's pregnant and I show up at their house to spend a few innocent weeks at my best friend's house and of course to be there when the baby is born he's going to kill me," Ron did his best to explain as he tried to appear as if he found the idea both a complete farce and what he fully expected to happen to him once Hermione's parents learned of her pregnancy and that he was the father before Dumbledore finally spoke again.

"Good luck, I'll be sure to get a good seat at your funeral, that is if there's actually enough of you left to bury."

END OF CHAPTER 6

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the others chapters. As always questions, comments, and reviews are appreciated. I jumped forward with this chapter so that Hermione was definitely pregnant and late enough in it that she would be showing except the charm that she was given was one that would have everyone seeing her as not pregnant unless they actually went up and hugged her, then they'd know. I tried to have Hermione and Ron find out the sex of their baby, as I'd guess that in the magical world they'd know early enough, in a kind of funny way that neither were expecting. There are three big reasons why the baby is a boy that I'll explain in later author's notes, though all three of them make sense and work fully in this story. I won't tell them all until the very last chapter or the next to last chapter, though some might be able to figure one or more of them out before that. As for the not telling her parents until after she goes home, well like I said in the chapter if her parents knew then they'd yank her out of Hogwarts and Draco and everybody else would know so Voldemort would know and hunt the kid down. Sorry for ending this chapter as well with a line but just found it a bit funny. This happens right after Ron's birthday, the next chapter will start after Dumbledore's death and go from there. Thank You.