Author's Note: Many thanks to all those who reviewed! And to all those who faved and alerted the story too! The end is near folks!

Chapter Seven

"I'm pregnant."

"Oh," Hermione uttered before she refilled her teacup. Her voice was soft and her motions were smooth. It was as if she had just heard an announcement of the day's weather through the Wizarding Wireless. "I'll murder the man..."

Holly cringed. "Please don't. I would rather my child not be fatherless."

"The least that buffoon could have done was apply a contraception charm.."

Holly cringed again. "The both of us could have. It honestly never came to mind when we.. you know."

Draco scoffed from his spot on the love seat. "I will have you know, Potter, that Hermione never forgets the damn contraception charm. And she best remember it, too. No way in a pauper's hell am I going to stick my dick in those latex muggle monstrosities.."

There was silence after that announcement. Hermione was pink cheeked. Ron was steadily turning to the shade of a radish. Holly had no doubt that steam would suddenly come out of his ears. Lavender was using both of her hands to sooth the young man, or at least keep him from blowing his top. His mouth would open as if he was about to talk, but then it would snap shut. He was reminiscent of a fish out of water.

"Well," Lavender said quietly, "I uh, I'm sorry... I mean, congratulations... I'm sorry! I mean... not about the situation, or maybe a little, but I'm happy for you if you are too!... I just- I don't' know what to say... I mean, our feelings about this really don't matter, do they?"

Draco rolled his eyes, while Hermione was began to look quite angry. Ron on the other hand was looking as if his own anger was finally deflating. He was taking slow calming breaths and his eyes were locked on the beige of the carpet floor.

"How can you say that, Lavender?!" Hermione asked. "We're her friends! Of course our feelings matter to her! In any situation!"

"She's right, Mine," Draco said softly, laying a calming hand atop his girlfriend's. "We have no say in this situation. This is her body. Her baby. This is all up to Potter on what she wants to do in this situation. What route she wants to go down is her business. What she needs is our support."

"Well, she's going to continue her education," Hermione went on to say, quite loudly and sounding so much so as her 12-year-old self had once sounded. "It's obvious, Draco! Of course, if she wants to keep the baby there are many a care facility just a floo away!"

Holly's eye twitched. "Hermione..."

"She's so young though!" Hermione huffed in exasperation. "A teen mum! I never thought I would know one, let alone be best girl friends with one. This situation is so going to mess up your career plans, Holly. We should start looking into a children's care center immediately!"

"Hermione, please stop.."

"And we should also start researching into how exactly you would be able to get all your work done.. I mean, heavens, I've seen pregnant women get so massive they aren't even able to walk without their ankles turning to cankles.."

"I'm not going back to school, Hermione!" Holly stamped her shoe angrily. "And I'm not getting cankles!"

"What?!" Hermione asked, outraged. "How can you not continue your education?! How are you going to support your situation?"

"Okay," Holly took a deep breath. "First off, stop calling it a situation. It's a baby, Hermione! And it's mine. And as to how I'm going to support it? That will be fairly easy considering how well off I am. I mean, blimey, I could live a couple dozen wizarding life spans on the inheritance my parents left me!"

Hermione paled and her eyes began to water. "So you're just going to live your life off of your parent's money and do nothing?! What kind of life will that be?!"

"I'm not going to be doing nothing, Hermione!" Holly exclaimed. "I'm going to be devoting my entire being into my baby! My child!

"I am so disappointed in you!"

Hermione gasped as those words came from her best friend's mouth.

"You of all people know how badly my aunt and uncle had treated me.. The awful things they said and did to me! And now here you are, talking about my baby as if.. as if it was some thing to throw away! Almost the same way the Dursley's used to threaten me to my face!"

Hermione paled. "No, I would never -"

"But you did," Holly interjected quickly. "I know you didn't mean it, but you did say it."

Ron stood from his seat suddenly and left the room. They head the front door open and then it closed with a slam. Lavender gave them all an apologetic look before she gathered her things and quickly followed after him. They all heard the door open for a second time, Lavender call out to Ron and then the door close behind her.

Hermione began to stammer. "Holly, I - I'm so sorry! I didn't realize I was acting in such a way.."

Holly sighed and turned away from the couple. "S'okay, Hermione. I understand you were only trying to look out for me, but like I said before, I'm not the only one that needs to be considered now. There's a baby involved now.

"The Dursley family treated me like utter shit. From the moment they were forced to take me in I was a stain on their perfectly mundane standing in the neighborhood. From the moment I was strong enough to hold my own I became their servant, their house-elf. I was shown no kindness, no love... It's a wonder I didn't turn into some bitter, cold-hearted bitch. Hell, I had the same kind of up bringing as Tom Riddle, and look what it turned him into.

"There is no way that I would treat my child the same way. I know that in this moment, you won't be able to comprehend how I feel, Hermione, but when I found out.. I was so over come with emotion. I was so scared in that moment, but then this title wave of emotion suddenly over came me. This feeling is so hard for me to describe... But I think, no, I know that this feeling is motherly... It was like wonder, awe, worship, joy and love mixed together."

Holly turned back to them and froze. Draco was still seated and with the same Malfoy indifference on his face, as always. Hermione though, had stood while her back had been turned. Fat drops of tears had fallen from her widened eyes.

"You're happy?" Hermione sniffed.

Holly was barely able to hold in her emotion, she let loose a small sob and bit her lip. "I- I'm so happy!"

Both girls lunged for each other immediately. Their arms held each other tightly has the emotions in them both burst forward. As soon as Hermione heard Holly's sobs and felt her tears on her shoulder, she let loose her own sobs.

"Merlin, the pregnancy hormones have begun!" Draco grumbled as he pulled himself out of his seat, snatched the tea-pot from the table. "You need a bloody house-elf because I am damn tired of making my own!"

*3 weeks earlier*

"That'll be 3 galleons even."

Holly dug into her money pouch. She slapped out the 3 galleons onto the counter before she grabbed her paper bag wrapped buy and fled the apothocary. Making sure her hood was up, Holly wrapped her cloak around herself further and briskly began the incredibly short walk back to the three bedroom Hogsmeade cottage she shared with Hermione and Lavender(and Ron and Draco..).

She kept her head down and wrapped her arms around her middle. One hand was grasping tightly at the brown paper bag and the other was pressed directly over her lower abdomen. There was a ball of emotion inflating and caught in her throat that she quickly swallowed down. A fat tear fell from her eyes and she wiped it away quickly with her empty hand before placing it right back to her abdomen.

As soon as she was inside the cottage the door was locked behind her with a simple twitch of her wand. The same was done with her bedroom door. It was latched closed and then a chair was placed under the door knob, just in case Hermione would become her nosy self and try to magically unlock the door. She undressed until she was only in a bra and panties set and went into the bathroom with her brown paper bag.

She sat on the commode and stared at it blandly. Her one hand was still pressed against her abdomen and she sniffed. And she had no idea that she would feel this way. Her stomach was doing cartwheels, her breasts were tender and because of the cartwheels in her stomach she was feeling a tad bit nauseated.

This was most certainly not how she had imagined this experience to be like. At the least, she had always dreamt that she would be married and both she and her husband would be experiencing this together. Waiting for the test results together. Just herself and...Sirius.

No such luck for Holly Lily Potter this time around either. Insane dark wizard? No thank you, defeated. Pregnancy while still in your teens? Er, yes?

Holly sighed and grabbed the bag. She tore it open and briefly looked at the box and small potion vile before she turned the box over and began to read the instructions.

She muttered aloud."..Blah, blah, three drops from dropper in potion vile to applicator... Next soak applicator thoroughly in urine..eurgh!...Blah, Blah..Three minute results...Applicator will announce gestation period.. gestation period?! I'm not laying a bloody egg.."

She follow the directions closely. Three drops to a stiff piece of spongy cardboard that was sticking out of a plastic applicator. And the she grumbled as she peed on it. After she was sure it was thoroughly..soaked, she placed the applicator on the edge of the bathtub and waited.

"Three minutes?!" Holly muttered to herself as she stared at the applicator. "That's bloody forever!"

While she waited not so patiently, she realised that her hand had subconsciously made it's way back to her abdomen. She gently pressed against it, wondering if she would be able to feel the life she suspected was growing there. Nothing, just firm muscle and healthy fat. Then again, the last time she had actually had sex was the day before she had came to Hogwarts, which if that day had been the day the.. fetus had been conceived, then she was fairly early in the...pregnancy. So Holly definitely wouldn't be able to feel a thing, yet. If there was a.. baby in there, that it.

Holly frowned and removed the hand from her abdomen. When was this bloody applicator going to finish!

"Positive," a cool feminine voice suddenly said, coming straight from the plastic applicator.

Holly breathing suddenly took off and the nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach finally overcame her. She jumped off of the commode, flipped up the lid and her breakfast made a second appearance. In the background she can hear the plastic applicator's cool feminine voice speak on.

"First trimester. 6 weeks. By the end of the sixth week of your first trimester the milestones your baby has met are the development of the nose, mouth and ears. Your baby's heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute - almost twice as much as yours! Intestines are still developing, and a bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. The pituitary gland is forming still, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is now a quarter of an inch ling, about the size of a lentil."

As soon as the voice had finished it's announcement, Holly was done. She grabbed a towel that was hanging on a rack and wiped her mouth. A sob forced it's way out of her mouth as her hand once again found it's way to her still flat abdomen.

It was positive. There was a living being in her belly. A living being that would steadily continue to grow until it was ready to say hello. Another sob tore itself out of her throat, this time for a different reason, but a no less emotional reason.

This baby was a little piece of her and Sirius. A little piece of the man she was passionately in love with. The man who haunted her dreams almost nightly. The man who came to her like an incubus in the dead of night to ravish her body and heart in the most sinful of pleasurable ways.

"You tart," Holly scolded herself, as she was getting a little hot and bothered by the thought.

And a dirty thought it was. The thought that at the height of their passion, Sirius' delicious seed had been so deliciously deep inside of her that it had taken root and created life. She honestly could not think of anything more arousing than that at this moment. But it was suddenly beaten down by one thought.

How would she tell her friends and family? How would she tell Sirius?

*Present*

Sirius,

I think you and I need to have an overdue conversation. I will come visit you this Friday.

Holly