Chapter 20: Opportunities

Authors Note: Thank you very much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I was surprised to see so many reviews and it makes me feel really proud of this story. However, we are only seven reviews away from 100 so if you do read this, please, please, please review it. I know that Hermione agreed with Ginny that they would go the next day to St. Mungo's however, let's just say that there has been a change in plans – not for them, but just because it makes more sense to skip a bit of time in order to get closer to Rose's birth and after that. Anyway here is chapter 20!

25th November 2005

It had been a week since that conversation with Ginny, and there had not been much or any change at all. Hermione had still agreed to go with her to St. Mungo's but there were no appointments for the next day and so they had been allocated on seven days later. That's where they were now, sat silently in the waiting room of the highest floor of St. Mungo's hospital, waiting for something to happen. They had talked a little and then they had stopped, knowing how nervous Ginny was. This would confirm everything, but it for her it seemed that it could only make matters worse.

Ginny still had not told Harry about what was going on. He had no idea what was happening and had just been told that she and Hermione had arranged to go out for the day and that Ron was working, but Harry was working as well, so Ginny had asked if her parents, Arthur and Molly would watch James for the day, stating that what they were doing was more important than they would think.

Ron still would not talk to his sister. It had been the most awkward at the Burrow the previous night. Normally Ron and Ginny would sit near if not next to one another. Instead Ron had swapped with Hermione who ended up being the peace keeper between them, like no man's land. It had been horribly awkward and somewhat uncomfortable. Harry did not have a clue what was happening and just continued to feed James who was sat on his knee quietly.

After a long, painful week in friendships and relationships, they were now sat here neither having a clue where this day would take everyone.

"Ginevra Potter."Healer Moon said and Ginny got up, Hermione following her towards Lily Moon's office. She sat down nervously looking ill and pale. This was not Ginny. This was a shell of her former self. It was frightening to watch what was happening to her. It was more frightening to think that all this was happening and Harry had absolutely no idea of what was currently going on. She hated that she was having to lie to the person who was close enough to be her brother, and she regretted not telling him but knew that Ginny would have to do it in her own time, if she ever did it at all.

"So, what seems to be the problem." Lily Moon enquired

"I think that I am pregnant." Ginny said "And if that is the case then I do not want the baby."

Lily, who happened to have been Ginny's healer whilst she was having James as well as now being Hermione's looked surprised by Ginny's statement and for a few moments did not say anything.

"Let's just be certain that you are pregnant first." Lily said, shuffling some papers on her desk and walking over to where Ginny was sat. "If you remember rightly a blood test will probably the easiest way of finding out if this is right or not, as we can get them back within a few minutes with certainty." She said as Ginny held out her arm and the needle was injected into a vein. After a few moments Lily stood up and headed towards the door, "I will be back in a minute she called."

"Are you absolutely certain about this Ginny?" Hermione said turning to face her friend once Lily had left the room. "I know it is rather soon after James but still, it is a child whether you like it or not."

"I can't go through with it, none of this was planned. If it had been planned then we would have waited at least a little bit longer, it is far too soon after James. And what if he is not happy about it?" Ginny told her

"And what's to say that he won't be happy and that he will be delighted. I know that he has you and James now but all he has ever wanted is a proper family and you have given him that, but do you not want that as well." Hermione replied. "You know that and I think you know how he would feel if he knew that you had gone and done something like this behind his back. It would ruin him, Ginny! It would ruin him and none of us want to watch that happen to you both."

"I know what is going to happen if I go through with anything. But I- I can't do it." She cried and Hermione put an arm around her friend as she cried heavily. Hermione realised that she was right and Ginny really was gone, she was not herself right now. She continued to cry for a while until just before Healer Moon re entered the room. She popped her head around the corner of the door not fully walking into the office.

"Hermione, could I have a word out here please?" Lily asked and Hermione got up from her seat and followed her old fellow Gryffindor out of the room. Despite the fact that the corridor was relatively quiet, she kept her voice very low and they moved a few paces away from the office so Ginny would not be able to hear anything.

"What is wrong with her?" Lily enquired and Hermione shrugged before beginning or at last attempting to begin to explain.

"She came over to our house last week crying and told us that she thought she was pregnant. She had done a muggle pregnancy test but she still was not to certain. Either that or she was in denial. Ron will not talk to her though. He believes that ever since we found out it would be difficult for us to have children Harry and Ginny have been so supportive of us and he was really hurt by the fact that she has an opportunity to have more children with ease and yet she is throwing that opportunity away." Hermione informed her.

"Does Harry know about this?" Lily asked the inevitable question.

"He thinks we have gone out shopping for a buggy for our daughter and that Ron is at work and so Ginny offered to help." Hermione sighed before they walked back into the room. Ginny looked like she would be sick at any second.

"Well, you are pregnant." Lily said reading the paper she had in her hand. "You are about seven weeks along. Do you remember that?"

"We went out for the evening for the first time since James was born. Ron and Hermione baby sat for us." Ginny sighed wiping her eyes. "What are my options?"

"You have two or three options. One, you keep the baby, as you did with James. Two, you have an abortion and get rid of it. Three, you keep the baby then sort for adoption." Lily suggested

"What would happen if I did go for the second option?" Ginny croaked.

"You come here would be given a potion along with a tablet. We do it differently to the way muggles do. We would get you to remain here for a while and it would be the same process that would happen in a miscarriage, and this would be equally as painful. Before you do anything though, please just talk to Harry about this." Lily told her and Ginny nodded.

"Thank you for your help." Ginny said before they left.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I have to tell him don't I?" Ginny whispered as they sat in a small booth in the Leaky Cauldron. Luckily the atmosphere was loud and lively meaning that they did not have to be as quiet but were cautious.

"Please, Ginny." Hermione pleaded, "You should have done this as soon as you thought you knew."

Ginny looked down at her pumpkin juice and stirred the straw in it in circular motions so that the ice cubes in the drink's glass clinked and collided with one another. It was a look of pure misery that Hermione had not seen her sister in law wear in a very, very long time if ever. She had not even seen that look when Harry and Ginny had been going through a rough patch before she moved away with the Holyhead Harpies for a couple of months. Not even when they were all convinced that Harry had been killed by Voldemort had she seen that look.

"I have no idea how I am going to tell him this. This is a completely different situation to last time. I can't just go "Hey I am pregnant and I know that it is your child as well as mine but I do not want it." It's going to be so much more than that and the thought of it makes me feel sick."Ginny said

"Either way, no matter how painful you are going to have to tell him. If you want I will come with you." Hermione suggested

"Thank you, but I think I have to do this alone. There is a chance he will end up angry with all of us otherwise." Ginny sighed

XXXXXXXXXX

They remained in Diagon Alley for the majority of what was left of the day before Ginny decided to depart and head back home. Hermione chose to stay for a bit longer before heading into Weasley's Wizard Weasley's as the sun began to set, knowing that Ron would finish work for the day in a few minutes.

She remembered the first time she had gone into the shop back in the summer before their sixth year. That was what she and Ron now liked to refer to as the dark ages. Amongst all the chaos that was going on at the time in the Wizarding World, they were still in the phase of looking at one another but not saying anything. She wished in some ways that they had said something earlier, but she was glad that they had not at the same time because it could have been a completely different story. They could have broken up. If they had then they may have never ended up where they were now.

She entered the shop, closing the door slowly behind her. There were only a couple of customers remaining in George's shop, but they were heading to where she had just come from. Ron was stood at the main counter, folding some orange and purple paper bags. His eyes seemed to light up when he noticed Hermione approaching him and he headed around the counter to kiss her gently, slowly wrapping his arms around her.

"I did not expect to see you. What are you doing here?" Ron exclaimed happily.

"This is the time you end for the day isn't it. Ginny left about half an hour ago and so I decided to stay a bit longer and meet you." Hermione said and Ron beamed

"Thank you, love." He replied embracing her once again.

"Go on lovebirds, your shift finished two minutes ago dear Ronald. Oh and hi, Hermione." George said from behind them laughing as they broke away.

"Hello George." Hermione smiled

"Well, I will see you on Wednesday."Ron said grinning to his brother before he and Hermione stepped into a nearby fireplace in order to floo home.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So, tell me what happened?" Ron asked as Hermione, with difficulty, climbed into bed. They lay there in the complete darkness, just staring at each other contently. After a couple of seconds it was easy to adjust to the darkness surrounding them and it was not too hard to see the outlines of the other's face. Neither one of them knew if the other could see them but they were happy that way, knowing that there was someone listening to them.

"Okay, so she is definitely pregnant. I do not want to put anything involving your sister and your best friend into your head but she thinks it was the night that we watched James for the evening, because the dates fit perfectly, she is only seven weeks. Lily gave her the options, she keeps it, she gives it up or she gets rid of it. I think she only became more uncertain when she was told how they would get rid of it if she chose that path." Hermione told him

"Just out of curiosity, only because I am worried about her, how do they do that?" Ron croaked

"She would go to St. Mungo's for a few hours. During which she would be given a potion. Apparently it would cause something to happen which would be similar to a miscarriage. And it would be as painful as that as well. I know that even if was painless, if I were in her position I would never go through with it." Hermione said quietly

"I know you would not do something like that." Ron whispered stroking her hair gently. "I know."

"She has no idea what she is going to do."Hermione told him, "She has agreed that she is going to tell Harry. We were sat in the Leaky Cauldron and it was like she realised for the first time that she actually would have to let Harry know at some point sooner or later – preferably sooner."

"I know she is his wife, but in some ways we know Harry better than Ginny does." Ron said quietly, "It will ruin him if she goes and does anything behind his back. I know I have been harsh towards her but it is not exactly something you can easily let slide, if everyone else finds out this which some how they would, they will not believe her in shock."

"Exactly." Hermione replied, "She knows what effect it will have on him but she is completely in denial."

"Hmmm." Ron acknowledged

"This was not exactly how I imagined spending my first week of my maternity leave." She told him and he reached over so that his arm wrapped around his waist as if to pull her closer towards him.

"I know. I just really hope she does not go and do anything ridiculous." Ron said, "'Mione are you still awake?" he added, realising that he could suddenly hear deeper breathing.

"Hmmm, what?" Hermione said opening her eyes.

"It doesn't matter, just go to sleep darling. You ought to rest." Ron whispered as slowly his wife quickly drifted off. He loved his sister. He always had. She was his favourite sibling, probably because it was the only opportunity to be a big brother to someone; otherwise, he was always the younger brother to Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred and George. He wondered what Fred would think of what their younger sister was doing right now. If he was completely honest with himself, he was being a lot harsher on her simply because Fred was not alive to do the same and because he did not have the opportunity she had. He missed Fred everyday and he knew that Ginny did as well, but he knew how angered his brother would be at his younger sister if he were able to tell her. He had no clue at all as to where Hermione's thoughts currently rested, although he believed that they were somewhere along the same lines as his. Hermione had listened to him that night a week ago after Ginny had left when he had been a lot more hurt by what his sister was doing than his wife had been and in vice versa he had listened to her voice similar opinions merely a few minutes before.

He wanted to know how she really felt about the whole situation surrounding Ginny. Although he had voiced some very strong opinions in front of his sister and it was very apparent that those thoughts had struck a nerve, it was a very different point of view from what Hermione's would be. Although he was the one who had been with her through all the difficulties they had had whilst attempting to conceive their daughter, it was Hermione who had had to deal with everything on a much more painful level. It was Hermione who they now knew would always have difficulty when it came to conceiving a child if they wanted to have any more in the future. That was why it had taken them so long and why it could take a long amount of time if they wished to have more children later down the line – Bellatrix Lestrange and her bloody Cruciatus Curse. Ron believed it would have affected Hermione a lot more than him because of what she could have and yet what Hermione herself may not be able to. But it seemed to have been the other way knowing that that was the reality of the situation.

At times he wondered if he would ever understand what was going on in his wife's head. She was brilliant. Shockingly scary, terrifying sometimes, but brilliant. Her mind was incredible and it had been ever since he had met her some fourteen long years ago probably even before that time. But actually, he knew what she was thinking, a lot of the time he did. That was what had happened as they had grown closer and closer whilst falling in love. And she knew what he was thinking as well. It was just this one issue, that he had absolutely no idea on.

He must have fallen asleep because before he knew it, he felt himself being awoken by the doorbell ringing. As he rolled over to look at the muggle alarm clock, he realised that it had only just turned one o'clock in the morning.

"What is going on?" Hermione mumbled next to him as she started to sit up in the bed.

"I will go and get it, you stay here." Ron said and she lay back again, pulling the covers over her shoulders as Ron climbed out of the bed and headed down the staircase. A shuffling sound was made as his feet did not completely lift the ground and he stumbled sleepily towards the front door.

"Harry?" He said making out the outline of his best friend vaguely.

"Do you mind if I stay here for the night?" Harry asked before Ron nodded and let him through into the living room.

"Ginny?" He questioned quietly

"Ginny." Harry quickly replied and Ron sighed knowing what a mess of things she was beginning to make.

"Stay here, I will go and get Hermione." Ron said heading out of the room before Harry called to him, "Are you sure?"

"Trust me, she is a lot better at this than I am." Ron informed him before heading to the stairs. He reached the top of the stairs and went into their bedroom where he saw that his wife was fast asleep once again. He felt bad about waking her up. As they got closer to the due date of their daughter she was becoming more and more tired. Slowly she was turning into a female version of him, someone who loved sleep and would happily spend the majority of the day in bed. And in the opposite way he was becoming more like her. He was awake for far longer than he normally was, presumably because one of them had to wake up and climb out of bed sooner or later, and he was still at work for another three weeks before going on paternity leave from the shop.

"'Mione..." He said quietly shaking her shoulders gently and she slowly partially opened her eyes, still in a sleepy haze.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, "Who was at the door?"

"It is Harry, and I think he needs to speak to both of us, not just me." Ron told her "Here's your dressing gown" He continued, passing Hermione the dark purple fluffy dressing gown that was hung on the back of their bedroom door as she climbed out of bed and she followed Ron back to the living room where Harry was sat with his head rested on one of his hands. As he heard the sound of feet enter the same room, he lifted his head and in the very little light that was available from a lamp near him, both Ron and Hermione could see tears on his face. They had not seen Harry cry in a long, long time. He had cried a few times whilst they were at Hogwarts, when he had found out who Sirius was, when Sirius died, when Cedric died and when Dumbledore had died. Dumbledore's death was the last time Ron could remember seeing Harry cry. However Hermione had also been there whilst they found James and Lily Potter's graves in Godric's Hollow. She wondered if there had been any other times that she had missed but she could not remember.

"She told you didn't she?" Hermione asked and Harry turned to look at her as she sat down next to him whilst Ron took the opposite sofa as oppose to the arm chair that was further away.

"I can't believe you did not tell me. Neither of you. You two are my best friends; I have seen you both at least twice in the past week and neither of you said anything to me." Harry said, his voice cracking as he spoke.

"Harry we wanted to tell you, we really did. We would have." Ron said

"Then why did you not?" Harry exclaimed cautiously being careful as to not make his voice too loud.

"Because it was not our place to. It was and is Ginny's. It is hers and your baby and it was wrong that she did not tell you." Hermione argued back at him. "Please just see it from our point of view."

There was a long silence in which nobody looked at one another. Hermione had never thought they would end up having this conversation with Harry. Everything had seemed perfect between the two relationships. Ron and Hermione had been married little under five years and Harry and Ginny had just had their fourth anniversary less than a month before. Then things had started to happen. Ron and Hermione had had difficulty conceiving their daughter, but it seemed to have only pulled them closer together at a time when they could easily be falling apart. Perhaps this was Harry and Ginny's thing. No matter what the thing was, both Hermione and Ron knew it would be painful to watch the scenario unfold.

"Can she really do this? If she ultimately decides that she does want to go ahead with...with getting rid of the baby, can she really do that and I have essentially no rights to stop her from doing it?"Harry questioned his voice quiet as he looked between his two best friends.

"By law, she can do this without you having any say at all. You can't put a stop to it even as the father if she goes ahead. This is both Wizarding and muggle law but we have both said to her and Lily has as well that she really needs to go through this with you before she does anything rash." Hermione informed him.

"What happened?" Ron asked and Harry shifted in his seat on the dark red sofa.

"I put James to bed at seven o'clock. He had been asleep for a while in the evening and so we decided to keep him up for a while so that hopefully he would sleep through the night. I went back downstairs after about an hour, it had taken a long time to get him to nod off, and we just sat as we normally would, talking watching television, the normal things you would do in the evening. And then it got to around ten and she said she had something to tell me." Harry said

"So she told you that she is pregnant?" Ron queried.

"Yes. She said that she is pregnant and I was delighted for a few moments before she said anything else. Then before I could say anything else she said that she did not want to keep it. She went on to say why she didn't and said that she had already been to St. Mungo's and she had told you both. And we just argued, all we did was argue before she said that she was not going to change her mind and went up to bed. We could not just leave it like that, and she would not talk to me so I hopefully disapparated over here. I know it is soon and that it was accidental but we have always wanted children in the plural. I love Ginny, and I get that is sooner than we planned but when there is a child right there why would you kill them. We can give them a family and home and a life, we have the money and the family and the friends to do that and I do not want to live with the fact that we could have had a child but their mother killed them before they even had a chance to live."Harry continued

"She needs your input. I know she can't see it right now, but still, if you can persuade her in any way at all maybe there is a chance that she will not go ahead with it." Ron said "And we will both help."

"How long do I have to persuade her?" Harry croaked

"Two weeks."Hermione told him and he sighed. "You can stay here as long as you need." To which Ron nodded before getting up.

"Thank you, both of you." He replied standing up and following his two best friends up the stairs to the first floor of their house. The architecture of their house had always been slightly different to the conventional one of four bedrooms, instead of the first floor being centred around a landing leading up a stair case from the hallway, there was simply a long corridor at the end of which was a small window with a window seat now concealed by dark blue curtains in the night time. Harry followed Ron and Hermione to the bedroom opposite theirs which they had always said they would use for guests.

"Have a good night." Harry said and he headed into the bedroom quietly and with sadness. Ron and Hermione simply looked at each other, having no idea what the outcome of this situation would be.

Authors Note: Wow! I think this has been one of the longest chapters I've ever wrote perhaps as long as chapter 42: Beyond in Hogwarts and Beyond. It feels weird because at the beginning of this chapter I felt like I would even manage a hundred words but hooray! Anyway thank you very much – please help me get to 100 reviews and PLEASE REVIEW!