SECOND CHANCES 8

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

England-The Granger Household

The more than nervous occupants of the house hadn't had to wait very long for the baby to arrive. Hermione and Ron had only walked in the front door two days earlier before her water had broken in the middle of the night. Ron had been up heading to the bathroom and had heard her little squeak of alarm and rushed in to check on her before sounding the alarm. It had been a very chaotic scene, as none of them knew very much about what to do outside of the obvious but Madam Pomfrey had saved them all when she had walked into the bedroom, bag in hand, as if it was completely normal. Her parents had been stunned to see her just show up out of thin air but there had been far bigger matters to attend to. All throughout the birth Ron had held one hand and been there while her mother had sat on her other side with her arms around her daughter's shoulders offering encouragement and support. Mr. Granger had stood beside his wife and had tried to not get in the way. The birth thankfully hadn't taken terribly long though the next thing that anyone had known it was dawn.

Madam Pomfrey ended up staying for almost a week, saying that it was not because there was anything wrong or that she was worried about anything but just wanted to help out, and she loved babies. Especially since her time at Hogwarts left her little chance of taking care of any. Ever since his birth Hermione had barely allowed him out of her sight and Ron had forbidden her from leaving her bed for anything more than short trips to the bathroom and equally short treks to stretch her legs. When she slept her mother had been more than happy to watch her grandson and take care of him. More than once Hermione had woken from a nap to find Ron sitting on the floor with his back to the wall sound asleep, as if he had come in to talk to her, found her asleep and intended on waiting for her to wake up but had slumbered instead. Thankfully, at least to Hermione, having a baby and being unable to leave the house or tell anyone meant that she didn't have to worry about makeup or her hair more so than what was absolutely necessary. Her bath on the third day after her son's birth felt like heaven to her and she was glad that Ron had eagerly volunteered to take care of him.

"How's my little angel," Mrs. Granger asked softly with a beyond thrilled smile as she wiped away a tear and sat down on the couch next to Ron, who held his son in his arms and was staring at the baby as if he wasn't sure if he was actually real or not.

"Sleeping, bloke nearly bled Hermione dry…definitely has an appetite, just like me…he's definitely a Weasley," Ron replied softly with a little laugh of relief as he tried to explain what had happened but realized who he was talking to and bit his lip to give him time to change lines of thought and decided to go for something with a little bit of humor.

"Well that's good, Hermione deserves some time to herself…she was so brave," Mrs. Granger added with a small and muffled sigh of relief as she sat down on the coach next to Ron and smiled sweetly at her young grandson.

"You don't know the half of it Mrs. Granger, Hermione being brave is something that I've come to not even think about because it's normal for her," Ron softly chuckled through his response as his whole face lit up and he blushed a bit as he turned to face her without jostling his son too much.

"I'm glad…but you can call me Mum now, or Jean…we're family now after all," Jean admitted out loud more to herself than to Ron as she realized that they were now linked for the rest of their lives and found that she wasn't all that upset by it and while it wasn't what she was expecting she wanted to make the most of it.

"Thanks Mrs., Jean…Mum," Ron nervously answered with his ears a bright red before he tried to cover it up by looking back at his son and using his thumb to lightly brush his temple, smoothing out some of the reddish brown hair there.

"Thank you Ronald, so tell me…how long have you been dating my daughter," Jean asked softly, clearly curious and fully intent on finding out the truth while she could, as she leaned in towards Ron a bit and looked at him intently, suddenly making Ron realize where Hermione had gotten it from. She had always taken that look when she was scrutinizing him intently and he had found it almost impossible to lie to her when she did that.

"A little over a year I think…yeah that sounds about right, it was right after my dad…er, well he got injured and had to spend some time at St. Mungo's, the wizard hospital, she really helped me through it and…well…," Ron explained with a subtle smile as in his mind he went back and remembered their early days after his father had been bitten by Nagini, though at the last minute he remembered that Hermione probably hadn't told her parents about that and so he stumbled through a lie to cover it up, hoping that Jean wouldn't notice as she leaned back in her seat.

"That sounds like my daughter all right, always putting others needs before her own," Jean remarked while chuckling softly, having to catch herself to keep from waking her grandson up, before her gaze returned to his face and she lovingly took in every bit of it.

"She can be a bit bossy at times can't she…uh, sorry," Ron agreed with a giddy grin as he tried not to laugh as he knew that his deep laugh would awaken his son and he wasn't ready to deal with the screams and crying just yet, especially since he was trying to help give Hermione as long of a break as he could.

"Don't worry Ronald, I think that she gets it from me, her father is always saying that…," Jean smiled warmly as she twirled her wedding ring around on her finger to give her hands something to do as she kept her eyes locked onto the newest member of the family before she was interrupted.

"What am I always saying," Mr. Granger interjected with an almost amused tone to his words as he stepped into the room and adjusted his glasses with the latest newspaper in his hands.

"That I am often far more worried about others more than myself," Jean replied with a soft sigh as she tore her gaze from her grandson and moved it to her husband as he walked into the room as silently as he could and sat down in the chair furthest from Ron.

"True, my new grandson asleep," Mr. Granger nodded with a slight blush in his cheeks as he glanced up at his new grandson from the newspaper headline that he wanted to read before sitting down.

"Like his dad he's a heavy sleeper," Ron proudly announced as he started to puff his chest out a bit to add to the effect before the act seemed to cause his son to start to wake up. Ron stopped instantly and his little angel almost immediately seemed to calm back down.

"I know that I didn't …I apologize for my actions earlier, I can't believe that you named him after me," Mr. Granger tried to say to Ron with a slightly embarrassed expression that although he knew that he was right in being angry with what had happened he knew that it wasn't as if Ron or Hermione planned it and that it wouldn't do any of them any good to cause unneeded strife.

"Well we couldn't really think of a name so we just…it just seemed right," Ron started to answer as he tried to explain how he and Hermione had come up with their son's name before he stumbled in the middle and just shrugged through the rest, hoping that his answer would suffice for her father.

"What seemed right," Hermione interjected with a soft but amused smirk as she silently padded barefoot into the room wearing comfortable looking clothing and her hair still a bit damp fresh from her bath.

"Naming him Henry Arthur Weasley," Henry responded with a bit of a wistful look in his eye before he turned away and tried to hide the fact that he was wiping away a proud tear.

"You don't like it," Hermione asked softly while looking a bit alarmed at her father as she sat down on the coach next to Ron, as her mother slid over a little to give her daughter the room, before Ron carefully handed Henry over to her.

"Oh no it's not that Hermione, it's just that it's going to take some time getting used to it all," Henry replied with an appreciative smile as he set the newspaper down on the coffee table and leaned forward in his chair a bit.

"You think that you're having a hard time Dad, I'm still getting used to the fact that I am a mother, that Ron's a father…that we have a son," Hermione laughed out loud with an overwhelmed expression as she held her son close and looked intently at her father with a brief look and smile towards Ron before he took the opportunity to lean in and kiss her gently on the lips.

"And a darling boy he is at that," Madam Pomfrey added softly with a very happy smile as she walked into the room with a tray of newly baked cookies and set it down on the coffee table.

"So what did your mother say when you told her about all of this Ron, I'm sure that she'll be wanting to see her new grandson," Henry asked with a curious frown as he suddenly remembered that Ron and Hermione hadn't really talked very much about his family and their feelings about becoming grandparents and he decided that there was no time like the present to ask.

"She's very happy for me…er us, and wants us to bring him over as soon as we can," Ron lied back through his teeth with what he hoped was a convincing smile as Hermione used the moment to lean down and give Henry a kiss to block her face from her father's view. Her reaction to his question had been immediate and telling, and if her parents had seen it then they would have known that Ron wasn't telling them the truth and they couldn't have that, not then.

"Yeah, she'd be here already but she's so busy with Ron and Ginny being home for the summer and the wedding and all," Hermione quickly added after she had composed herself with a hopeful smile, as truth be told she was genuinely looking forward to the wedding, both because she always loved weddings and because she would finally be out in public and not have to hide behind a charm. The conversation continued on for several minutes until Henry woke up and was definitely not in a good mood.

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England-Granger House-Weeks Later

Ron had left only a few hours before and already she was fighting back the tears. She knew what she had to do, as they had discussed it at length after her parents had gone to bed, but she didn't know if she could actually go through with it. Even the thought of it made her blood run cold, her heart stop beating, and give her an overwhelming urge to vomit. She'd had nightmares of the possible outcomes of what she knew that she had to do, and she took no amount of relief in knowing that Ron was having similar nightmares. As the day approached to when she would have to carry it out she had done everything that she could think of with her parents and Henry, feeling that all of it could be the last chance for them to be together as a family. Catcalls of those who viewed her as being terrible to begin with were ringing in her ears as she finally stepped back out of the living room and cast the spell that would remove her parent's memories of her.

There was no need to affect Henry's memory, a truth which gave her the only comfort that day before she left. She had slipped a folder of all of the information that would be required for her parents to take little Henry with them out of the country on the table. She fervently hoped that the kiss that she had given Henry, and the very heartfelt I love you, before placing him in her mothers arms would not be the last that she would ever give him. It was all that she could do to step back out of the house and lock the door behind her before her knees gave out and she crumpled to the ground, sobbing against the front door. She felt the bile rising in her throat and the impression that her heart was about to explode before she felt two strong arms wrap around her from behind at the last minute.

"Hermione…," Ron whispered softly to her as he pulled her away from the door and into his arms, sitting himself down on the front sidewalk, being very glad that it was early and most of the neighbors weren't up yet.

"How…Ron…how," Hermione gutted out as the only words that she could make herself speak in between the sobs that wracked her body as she buried her head into his chest and relied on him for all her support.

"You had to do it, we…had to do it, there was no other choice Hermione," Ron commented softly, his voice full of guilt, as he pulled her onto his lap and gave her a squeeze, trying to keep the tears from falling from his own eyes the entire time, at least for the time being.

"But there should have been…what if we, maybe if we…, what about…," Hermione spat out in rapid succession as if she were just throwing out frantic ideas and hoping against hope that something, anything, would stick and that she wouldn't have to continue along the path that she and Ron had just set out upon.

"There was no other way," Ron declared forcefully as he was honestly trying to get himself to believe that it was the truth just as much as he was trying to get Hermione to believe it just as a few tears of his own dripped off of his cheeks and into her messy curls.

"How can you say that Ron, don't you care," Hermione very nearly screamed at him with a furious sneer as she pulled her face off of his chest and glared angrily at him before he spoke up.

"Of course I do…it's just," Ron shot back as angrily as the question had been cast to him before it all drained away and he was left looking very upset and guilty.

"Just what…," Hermione asked softly, now more scared than actually angry, before sniffling loudly as all of her crying was beginning to make her nose run and she didn't want to make things worse by having both tears and snot running down her face if she could help it.

"It's just that I have to stay strong for you, to keep you from going totally spare…because you're the smart one…because if I stop and think about it for more than a split second I'll…I'll…," Ron did his best to answer her with a very worried and panicked look in his eyes as softly rubbed her back with his fingertips as a steady rain began to fall on them, though neither seemed to notice it in the least.

"Hate yourself as much as I hate myself," Hermione added for him with a very appreciative and commiserative smile as she knew then that Ron felt exactly the same as she did and wasn't just trying to be brave but that it took every fiber of his being to not collapse in tears.

"Yeah, something like that," Ron nervously chuckled as his answer before he and Hermione leaned into a kiss at the same time and spent the next several moments trying to lose each other and the horrors of what was to come in said kiss.

"We should…go, before the neighbors," Hermione finally forced herself to whisper, with her voice full of regret and the tone that made Ron feel like she wanted to just keep kissing him until Voldemort and everything else was over but she knew that she couldn't and that they needed to hurry.

"Yeah," Ron whispered back just as unsure and unwilling to move from the spot, though before long he forced both Hermione and himself to stand back up and the two gave the house one last look just seconds before they turned on the spot and vanished. They arrived back at the Burrow seconds later, but only close enough so that the odd shaped house could be seen off in the distance.

"Ron…why aren't we," Hermione started to wonder aloud with a quick glance at Ron before the two sprung apart as neither could keep the food down that they had eaten earlier, though they couldn't figure out if it was because of how they had traveled or what they had left behind. It was several moments later before Hermione could find the strength to speak without fear of vomiting again. "I really shouldn't have eaten breakfast."

"You and me both…you okay," Ron chimed in sourly as he tried to spit the gross taste out of his mouth before he leaned back up against the rare tree in the area and scrunched up his nose at the fact that it was raining at the Burrow as well, if not a bit harder than it had been at Hermione's house.

"I think so…but I can't go in yet, not when…when…RON," Hermione tried to answer with a slightly amused tone to her words as she tried to be strong before it all left her and she crumpled back against him with a yell of sorrow and buried her face back into his chest. She let everything go just then when she felt Ron's arms encircle her and hold her close, in the end being very glad that she and Ron did the same and that she could feel his tears in her hair as their sobs soon became in unison. It would be hours before either could collect themselves enough to walk to the Burrow.

END OF CHAPTER 8

Author's Note: Thanks again to everyone for reading and reviewing this and the other chapters. As always reviews, questions, and comments are greatly appreciated. I decided against having a big shouting match in this chapter between Ron and Mr. Granger. I didn't use their names until I had Ron and Hermione name their son, named after his grandfathers. I tried to throw in a sweet moment or two before Ron and Hermione had to wipe out he parents memories and leave their son with them in the hopes of it being safer for all involved as the Death Eaters don't know that they have a child and so wouldn't be looking for a couple with a child. I tried to write Hermione's regret and anger and disgust with herself for leaving their son like that even though she knew that it was for the best and then I had them show up at the Burrow a ways away so that they could have their peace before going in. I never liked the stories where Hermione had a kid with someone that wasn't Ron and then he had to raise the child as his own, as I have a feeling that if you switched it around it would be very different. Thank You.