CW: Disturbing content

The ritual for Jade and Milan, when you got down to it, had three objectives:

1. Cause both girls to ovulate
2. Transform Jade's egg into a sperm
3. Implant said sperm into Milan's egg and cause conception

While a list of three things generally didn't seem daunting to Hermione, for a ritual, it was incredibly, incredibly ambitious.

Needless to say that altogether, the ritual the coven had planned was extremely complicated.

The circle for the ritual was massive. It was actually a combination of three separate circles, two smaller ones attached to a bigger one in the middle. The side circles each had triangles in them, with one point touching a point on the larger circle, and the largest circle held an eight-pointed star. The middle circle was nearly twenty feet in diameter, with the core of the circle eight feet across. The coven was using chalk and salt this time to mark the lines, at least, of which there were plenty.

When Jade and Milan met Hermione at the appointed place and time, Hermione was waiting for them, rocking on her feet in nervousness and excitement.

"We're doing this in a bathroom, Granger?" Jade said, wrinkling her nose as she looked around. "This one's not even out of order anymore, is it?"

"No, you're right – they fixed it," Hermione agreed. "But we're not doing the ritual here."

Jade looked puzzled, but it was Milan who put it together first.

"Are we—" she broke off, dancing in place a little bit in excitement. "Are we going to the Chamber of Secrets?!"

Jade turned to gawk at her, while Hermione smiled.

"Got it in one," she said, grinning. "Let's go."

Hermione turned to the sink that never worked, the one with the snake carved into the tap.

"Open," she hissed.

The sink made a heavy thunk noise, before beginning to move and slide smoothly out of sight. Hermione watched Jade and Milan's faces as they watched this happen, enjoying the astonishment and excitement in their eyes. Once the sink settled into place, Hermione gestured magnanimously.

"After you," she offered.

Jade gave Hermione a sharp look.

"This doesn't seem like a good idea," she warned. "Going to the Chamber of—"

"There's no longer any monster there, and it was never marked out of bounds," Hermione said pleasantly. "It's a large space that's not often patrolled—"

Jade snorted.

"—and will allow us to do this ritual undisturbed," Hermione finished. She raised her eyebrows. "It's the best place possible to do this."

"She has a point," Milan urged Jade. "This is much better than a classroom where we'd have to worry about Filch catching us."

Jade looked torn, before she sighed.

"Fine," she grumped. "I've let you talk me into the rest of it. Why not this too?"

Milan smiled at Hermione.

"I think it's an excellent idea," she informed her. "I'll go first."

Milan jumped into the pipe, and with another dirty look at Hermione, Jade did as well. Hermione followed them down, hissing "close" to the sink as she leapt, hoping the sink would return to its place, leaving no possible trace of them behind.

In the pipe, Milan's delighted laughter echoed back up to Hermione as she joined the older girls on the slide down. The slide down to the Chamber was distinctly cleaner than it had been – Hermione had taken a lot of time using the Vanishing charm on all of the muck. She was distinctly glad she had learned it, even though it was such an advanced spell – the time and effort had certainly paid off.

When she reached the bottom, both Milan and Jade were standing, dusting themselves off, and Hermione hopped up to her feet, doing the same.

"Is this it?" Jade said, glancing around. "This hardly seems big enough for a basilisk."

"It isn't," Hermione said. "Follow me."

Hermione led them through the tunnel. Upon reaching the door with the jewel-eyed snakes, Hermione hissed "open" again, causing the snakes to unlock the door, the stone sliding smoothly out of sight. Jade gave her a hard look as it did.

"Someday, we will have a discussion on how it is you know Parseltongue," she said.

"If you like," Hermione said easily. "But the story's terribly boring."

Milan stifled a giggle, and with a smile, Hermione led them into the chamber.

She was pleased to see the circle was almost done being set up. It looked like they were on the last step, putting candles at necessary junctions of the channels and veins, with Blaise carefully writing runes around the core. They looked up as the three girls entered, and Harry waved.

"Just finishing up," he said cheerily. His hair was a mess and had streaks of chalk in it, but he looked excited and happy.

Hermione nodded, glancing back, but it was apparent that Jade and Milan hadn't heard him – they had stopped walking and were wordlessly gawking at the chamber, their eyes wide as they took it all in. Hermione let them be – her coven had been the same, staring in astonishment when she'd first led all of them down here.

Hermione went over to Blaise, kneeling down to help him finish with the runes.

"Did you know snakes barely have any testicles?" he said conversationally. "They've really only got basically an epididymis – just a tube with sperm. Not proper testes at all."

Hermione's heart stopped. "Are you serious? What are—"

"Not to worry," Blaise interrupted. "I got something that will work instead."

"What?" Hermione wanted to know. "When we talked about what to sacrifice, we needed reproductive organs from asexually-created creatures—"

"I got the hemipenes," Blaise said, smirking.

Hermione paused.

"The… the 'hemipenes'?" she repeated.

Blaise's eyes sparkled with mischief.

"When the ashwinder didn't have any testes, I noticed it did have something rather unusual," he told her. "As it happens, snakes have two penises, that are sort of connected at the root. They're held inside of the body, and then they turn inside-out when they're needed."

Hermione stared, but Harry looked horrified

"It turns inside-out?" he said, incredulous. "Its penis?"

Blaise grinned. "Penises, plural. But yes."

Harry shuddered, while Susan and Luna snickered.

"It's still two, sort of, of a male reproductive organ," Blaise said. "So I figure it will work."

"Probably," Hermione admitted. "It's not as close of a balance to ovaries as testes would have been, but it will hopefully work all the same."

Jade and Milan finally wandered over, having perused the chamber on their own.

"That statue is insane," Jade said, gesturing. "I'm surprised it hasn't been moved somewhere more public."

Blaise snorted. "How are they going to move it?"

"Magic." Jade rolled her eyes. "They've got to have a way."

"Dumbledore's not fond of Slytherins to begin with," Hermione pointed out. "Do you really think he's going to honor them publicly with that?"

Jade paused. "Fair point."

"Are you ready?" Milan asked, eyes dancing. She knelt on the floor, looking. "This looks so complicated! What do we need to do?"

"Excellent question," Susan declared. She came over to Jade and Milan, sweeping dramatically in her robes, and Hermione wondered if she was cheating a little bit, using air magic to make the billowing more impressive. "If you two would take a seat, we can begin the run-through of how the ritual will go."

Jade and Milan looked amused, but they obediently sat down on the collapsed pillar Susan had gestured to.

"Now!" Susan clapped her hands. "This ritual is designed to help Milan conceive your child, Jade. In order to do that, we have to first make sure that you're both ovulating."

Jade and Milan nodded.

"In order to do that, the first step of the ritual will be to cause ovulation," she said. She gestured to the chalk lines. "We have smaller circles set up for that. As causing ovulation is a defined ritual that's been written down in grimoires, we've decided to use it as is and not try and mess with it."

"A wise choice," Jade said dryly. "What next?"

"Next, we have to change your egg into a sperm," Susan said, hesitating, "and then get it inside of Milan." She paused. "This is the hard part."

"No, really?" Sarcasm dripped from Jade's voice. "I wouldn't have thought."

Milan elbowed Jade, giving her a look.

"Come on," she said, annoyed. "You agreed to give this a try. If it works, we could be together."

"If it works," Jade said pointedly, but she settled down, quiet, while Milan listened raptly.

"For that part, we're going to have Jade lie in the middle circle kind of spread out," Susan said. "We're going to have just Jade in the first part of the ritual, when we transform her egg into a sperm, and then we'll have Milan join in for the last part, to transfer Jade's sperm into Milan. There will be lots of candles and different ritual elements scattered around, so be careful not to knock anything over."

"Do we need to be nude for this?" Milan asked. "Generally when a couple conceives, they're not wearing anything."

"Err—" Susan blushed a bright pink, the coloring standing out starkly on her cheeks against her turquoise glasses. "We didn't know how to do it that way. So the sperm will just… 'get' into you a different way. We think it'll just kind of Apparate in."

"It's not a sex ritual," Blaise clarified, smirking. "No need for strap-ons."

Hermione turned to stare at Blaise.

"How do you know what a strap-on is?" she demanded.

Blaise blinked.

"Should I not know what a strap-on is?" he asked carefully.

Hermione whirled around to look from Luna to Jade to Susan.

"Do you know what a strap-on is?"

"No idea," Luna said cheerfully. "But I can guess."

"Milan did," Jade said, raising an eyebrow. She smirked. "So I'm well acquainted with them now."

"Susan?" Hermione asked.

"Err—" Susan broke off, uncertain. "I'm guessing it's a sex thing?"

Hermione turned back to Blaise.

"See?" she said. "It's a muggle thing. Not wizarding. And don't try and tell me you're learning about muggle sex toys in Muggle Studies."

Blaise looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"Do we have to discuss this now?" he said with an injured air. "We have more important things to be doing, don't we?"

"We do," Susan agreed. "This ritual will take a while. And we only have so much time."

Hermione shot Blaise a look as he turned away, but she dropped the issue. Where had Blaise learned about a thing like that…?

"Jade, you need to sit down here," Luna said, directing her to one of the circles on the outside. "Milan, you're in the one on the other side. Be careful with your robes, so you don't disturb the salt."

The older girls stood but paused a moment, looking at each other, before they embraced fiercely.

"I am doing this for you," Jade said, holding Milan tightly. "I'm scared, but I'd face anything for you. You know it."

"I know." Milan's eyes were teary as she hugged Jade back. "It'll be okay."

The two separated, holding hands for a long moment, before they broke apart, Jade striding towards Luna and the circle next to her, Milan for the one closest to Harry. After the two were seated, the coven members went over to a small area they'd set up for supplies, each taking an element to go and put in a bowl.

"Are those eggs?" Milan asked, watching as Susan poured fresh water from a pitcher and set the eggs afloat.

"Chicken eggs." Susan nodded. "Ancient symbol of fertility."

"And current symbol," Harry added, putting eggs into Jade's opposite bowl. "Just think of Easter."

The orchid seeds and mistletoe berries weren't commented on, but when Blaise and Hermione approached with the third bowls, both Milan and Jade recoiled.

"What—" Milan gagged. "That's not—"

"Rabbit fetuses," Blaise confirmed. His eyes sparkled. "You're not vegan, are you?"

"Bit late for that," Hermione muttered.

"How did you get such a thing?" Jade wanted to know, her eyes wide. She looked pale. "Is there a spell to—to find pregnant rabbits?"

"I asked my cat to help out," Hermione admitted, "but mostly, just a lot of digging through the dead rabbits all the cats leave at the edge of the forest."

"It took forever," Blaise agreed. "Never thought I'd have to dissect dozens of bunnies and look in their wombs."

Milan huddled up, hugging her legs to her chest, while Jade look disturbed.

"And… this is normal?" Jade asked.

"It's a ritual that's been used for centuries," Hermione told her. "It fell out of use recently when rituals fell out of favor, but it'd been used for ages before that."

Luna quietly handed each of the girls a silver knife.

"Once we start chanting, you'll need to provide a blood sacrifice," she told them. "It'll increase the odds of conception. Just bleed on one of the salt lines – each of your sacrifices will help your partner out, not yourself."

The preparations complete, the coven backed away.

"This might hurt," Hermione warned them. "I don't think it will hurt much, but it might. Just mentally prepare yourself for that."

Her warning seemed to bolster them both, and Milan and Jade both sat up straight, determination shining in their eyes.

"Let's do this." Milan's eyes were bright.

Jade nodded once, firm. "I'm ready."

"Alright, then," Hermione said. "Then we'll begin."

The coven sat down around the enormous circle – two around Jade, two around Milan, and Hermione in the middle on the outside of the currently-empty middle circle. They all closed their eyes and centered their magic, taking deep breaths and focusing.

It was odd, Hermione reflected, how she could feel not only her own magic, but the coven's collective magic settling into their cores. It was neat, though, and reassuring in an odd way. This was her coven, and she could feel the bond between them holding strong.

Once everyone had centered themselves, they opened their eyes and began to chant.

They'd run through the chant several times. The phonetic spelling Hermione had gotten from the grimoire had helped, and they'd practiced until everyone had it down and could chant it in unison. Hermione watched as both Milan and Jade cut their hands, however reluctantly, letting the blood fall onto the salt lines of the circle.

A feeling of power rose in the circles, and the lines began to light up with unearthly, pale blue light. The light spread, connecting the triangles and circles to each other, before slowly beginning to fill the lines of the large middle circle.

They kept chanting, even as they watched.

Abruptly, the mistletoe berries and orchid seeds near each girl caught fire, burning with a blue flame. It only lasted a moment, but it was enough to make the older girls gasp. The power in the circles rose further, the blue light becoming brighter. Hermione noticed thin trails of red unfurling through the blue from one circle to the other – their blood sacrifices for each other, perhaps?

The eggs vanished next, consumed in a flare of blue flame, and the feeling of power in the circles rose again. The feeling was much more stable this time, Hermione thought, as opposed to when she'd done it her first year. Maybe it had hurt so much when she had done it alone because she hadn't quite been powerful enough?

The bowl with the rabbit fetuses caught fire, but this one continued to burn with a blue flame, not going out like the others. Hermione nodded to Milan and Jade as a warning as the coven continued to chant, tense, sensing the power building even further, as if about to break.

It only took three more recitations of the chant, and the feeling of magic swelling inside the circles burst.

Magic rushed into each of the older girls, making each one cry out as they were lit up with blue flame, looking ghostly, their eyes only showing the unearthly blue. The coven stopped the chanting and watched with wide eyes, wind from nowhere swirling inside of the circles as the girls clenched their teeth and held their middles.

Hermione was astonished, however, to see the light die down in a matter of minutes. It was fading by the two-minute mark, and entirely gone by five. It had seemed to last forever when she had done it – had it really only been that long?

Maybe the pain had stretched it out for her. Neither Milan nor Jade seemed to be in much pain.

"So… we've ovulated now?" Milan asked, a little shaky.

"You have," Susan confirmed. "If you hadn't, the light wouldn't have gone out, or it would have turned orange before it vanished."

Milan smiled weakly. "So it worked."

"One ritual of three worked," Jade corrected. She gave Hermione a hard look. "Let's hope the other two do too."

Hermione raised her eyebrows, unphased.

"Milan, if you would follow Susan to the side of the circle?" she said. "Jade, you're going to lie down on the ground right here."

"I have to lie down on the floor?" Jade groaned. She shot Hermione a dirty look as she walked over. "Is this really necessary?"

"No, but it's safer," Harry admitted. "We had to make this one up, so in case it hurts and you faint, it's better you start out on the floor than hit your head on the stone when you fall."

Jade paled.

"The chance of that is relatively low," Susan soothed her. "We worked really hard on this."

Jade shot her a look. "Why? What do you get out of it?"

"Besides a chance to practice?" Susan said, blinking. "Um. Experience, I suppose?"

"Your undying support and unwavering loyalty," Blaise drawled, coming over to Jade's new circle with a bowl. "And your open endorsement of our coven when called upon."

"You wish," Jade snapped back, but she sounded less paranoid now.

"Pull your shirt up a bit," Hermione told her. "I need to write a rune on your belly."

"Is this why you told us to wear muggle clothes?" Jade asked, tugging her shirt up.

"Yes," Hermione said, raising her eyebrows. "It was either that, or you do the whole ritual in your knickers and stays."

Jade's face turned red, and she stayed silent as Hermione painted Ingwaz, the rune for male fertility and transformation, on her skin over her uterus, where her newly-released egg cell was lurking around. Jade seemed to not be paying attention to Hermione, instead watching as the other coven members carefully carried over pre-prepared bowls of sacrifices.

Jade's eyes lit on Blaise with curiosity. "What's that?"

"Parthinogenic stick insects," Blaise told her, raising an eyebrow. "Want to see?"

"Stick insects?" Milan looked confused. "Why insects?"

Luna turned to Milan as she set her own bowl down.

"For this ritual, it was important we get sacrifices that had the symbolism we needed – ones with odd reproductive structures or transformation," Luna explained. "We got butterfly cocoons and frog tadpoles as symbols of transformation, which was simple enough—"

Blaise snorted, and Hermione shot him a grin. He had been the one to use his connections to get most of the odd bits and pieces they'd needed.

"—but odd reproduction was a bit harder. So one of the sacrifices we've gone with parthenogenic stick insects – because the females can reproduce on their own, without a male partner. That's close to what we're hoping for here."

"What are the others?" Jade asked, curious despite herself.

"Worker bees," Luna answered. "Worker bees are essentially sexless, and they cannot reproduce. It's a symbol of androgyny, and of the liminal space between male and female."

Hermione blinked. Luna had been the one to work primarily on what sacrifices they would need, and it was clear it had been a good choice – she knew the most about animals out of all of them.

"Our big sacrifices are reproductive organs from created creatures," Blaise explained. "Creatures that are made, and thus have no need for sex. Like the ashwinder."

"Ashwinders are made from magical fires that aren't put out," Luna told them helpfully.

Jade shot her a look. "I know that."

"I see," Milan said at the same time, eyes wide, and Hermione hid a smile.

"Because they're made creatures, they don't reproduce normally, but female ashwinders still lay eggs – they're used in potions at higher levels, apparently," Blaise said. His eyes glinted. "But there are males too."

Blaise raised his hand from the bowl he held, a horrific-looking thing drooping down from his fingers.

"This," Blaise announced, "is an ashwinder hemipenes."

Hermione gaped.

Two whitish, dangling-looking things that were connected at a thin white bit Blaise was holding dangled from his hand. The white bit looked odd and misshapen, with misplaced tendons or blood vessels or something, and the white bit continued down into a light purple, wider part. This part was bulbous and covered in small spikes. The penes continued further, each purple part dividing into two red protrusions, each also covered in hard spikes.

They were revolting-looking, utterly repugnant, but Hermione found herself staring anyway.

Blaise plopped the hemipenes back into the bowl and set it down at the bottom point of the circle, and everyone seemed to come back to the present moment.

"So that's the male element," Milan said slowly. "What'd you get for the female one? The eggs?"

"Not quite." Blaise smirked, shooting a grin at Hermione, who rolled her eyes.

"We're using basilisk ovaries," she said, bringing the last bowl over. "They're rarer and worth more, so they'll be more powerful in the ritual."

"Basilisk ovaries?" The sight of Jade goggling at her from the stone floor was amusing, and Hermione had to stifle her laughter. "Merlin, Granger, you're using basilisk parts for this? How much are those worth?"

"No idea," Hermione said. "Doesn't matter. Are you ready?"

Jade looked at her, seeing the rest of the coven around the circle's outside, waiting.

"Don't you need to light all the candles first?" she asked, delaying. "There's a lot of them."

Hermione smiled, and she reached down to touch her magic, fire elemental and air mingling together. With a wave of her hand, there was a sudden gust of hot wind, and all the candles burst into flame.

"Done," Hermione said, her eyes gleaming as Jade's widened. "Are you ready now?"

Jade looked around at them all one last time. She was clearly trying to hide her anxiety over the entire thing, and Hermione couldn't exactly blame her – this was an untested, powerful ritual. Who knew what could happen if it went wrong?

"Ready," Jade said finally, settling down. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, bracing herself for the worst.

Hermione glanced around at her coven, and they all lowered their hands to the circle, pushing in their power.

The circle had still held a light-blue tinge from the previous ritual part. Now, though, the circle lit up with a deep, royal blue light, illuminating them all and casting them in an odd shade.

The incantation couplets they had written were good, fully sufficient for their purpose. They had worked on them to get the meaning and meter down, and they would work – they would direct the magic power appropriately. It wasn't a matter of the magic not working, now; it was a matter of Hermione and the others mentally preparing themselves – largely so they wouldn't laugh.

No matter how certain they were, there was still something weird and deviant-feeling, chanting rhymes about eggs and sperm. Their practice runs had been interrupted with embarrassed giggling and snorts multiple times. Now, though, it felt very different. It felt very real, and nothing about it was funny or awkward at all. The magic in the circle was humming under their hands, and as Hermione turned to Blaise, he nodded.

"Male and female, white and black," he intoned. "Sides of the same coin, front or back."

The flame of the candle closest to him turned royal blue, as did the flames of three others near him, too. There was a feeling of tension that rose in the circle.

"An egg for one, a sperm for another," Luna said. "Our magic turning one into the other."

The colored flames spread, the candles in front of Luna flickering from yellow into blue. The magic was building, feeling anticipatory now, growing still.

"To defy nature, one must pay the price," Susan intoned, very formal. "To this end, we offer up a sacrifice."

Blue flames now lit in front of Susan, but the bowls on the edge of the circle now lit as well, royal blue flames burning in the bowls, waiting. The magic in the circle built more and more, hanging heavy in the air, waiting.

"With these offerings, we turn this sex cell male," Harry chanted, his face set with determination. "Magic overruling nature, our will will prevail."

The blue flames spread around the circle to in front of Harry now, winds from nowhere picking up inside the circle, whirling around. Jade's stomach suddenly lit up with blue and she cried out in surprise, the rune on her belly glowing.

"We summon our magic, we hold our will firm," Hermione intoned, her voice ringing out in the chamber. "With this power, turn egg into sperm!"

The feeling of tension peaked, and Hermione found herself breathless as the fires in the sacrifice bowls rose even higher, before the blue flames abruptly turned an icy white. The icy white flames overflowed the sacrifice bowls, the elements inside them consumed, and the salt lines began to catch fire and burn. As the fire approached Jade, who watched with wide, terrified eyes, Hermione had to admit to herself that she wondered if this was quite what she had expected to happen.

As the flames reached Jade, though, they lit the circle around her, and Jade cried out suddenly, and the blue rune on her belly began to glow with a white light. Jade looked astonished, poking her flat stomach, looking around rapidly as the feeling of magic in the circle diminished somewhat as the flames turned back to glowing light, holding steady at a lower level, but still anticipatory, waiting.

"Milan," Hermione said, gesturing. "Your turn now."

Milan stepped forward eagerly, her excitement plain on her face, and Hermione carefully painted two runes onto Milan's belly as well.

"Berkano is for fertility and birth," she said, blowing on the runes to dry them, "with Dagaz for awakening, breakthrough, and hope."

"I dropped Ancient Runes after taking my O.W.L.s," Milan admitted with a sheepish smile. "Those are what, Futhark runes?"

"We've only really covered Elder Futhark so far in Ancient Runes," Blaise told her. "They seem to be Professor Babbling's favorite ones."

Milan laughed. "That sounds about right."

"Now," Hermione said, "we need you and Jade to lie down together, with your bellies touching."

Milan carefully stepped into the circle and navigated her way to the center, where Jade had sat up, her belly still glowing.

"I guess I should be on the bottom?" Milan said. "As the 'girl' receiving the sperm?"

"It shouldn't matter," Hermione assured them. "You could be side by side, or you on top, and it wouldn't change the meaning, really."

It seemed to matter to Milan and Jade, though, who maneuvered so Milan was lying on her back, Jade lying on top of her, bracing herself above her on her elbows with her torso lying flush against hers, the two looking deeply into each other's eyes. The depth of emotion and intimacy of it made Hermione flush, and she quickly looked away, glancing around at her coven.

"Ready?" she asked. "Here we go."

This ritual, at least, had been largely taken from a grimoire. Fertility rituals used to be common, and there was one Hermione had found intended for conception when a man was impotent. She'd been relieved – most of them involved actual intercourse taking place during the ritual, but with an impotent man, that couldn't exactly happen, so the ritual was focused more on the successful transference of seed.

The incantation from the grimoire was in Latin, and Blaise had been in charge of translating it. The rough translation he'd emerged from the library with had confirmed the ritual would do what they wanted, but they'd agreed as a group to nix the parts of the chant that involved magically asserting the man's dominance over the woman, focusing instead on keeping the bits about transformation and fertility and conception without mention of the participants' gender.

Luckily, taking out the problematic sexist parts had made the chant much shorter and easier to memorize for the coven. And the sacrifices they'd already used to power the ritual circle worked for this part, too.

As they chanted, magic seemed to ooze from the candles, creating an odd, hazy cloudy look inside of the core of the circle. The lines of the circle began to light up again, the white light bouncing off of the odd cloudiness that roiled inside of the circle, and Hermione was fascinated, watching raptly even as she continued to chant. There was no wind this time, just an odd feeling of tension building in the air, with eerie light reflecting off of the non-existent clouds hovering in the air.

There was no warning – suddenly, after the seventh or eighth repetition of the chant, the light abruptly turned red, and Jade screamed.

Jade screamed, her face twisted with agony, and Hermione gasped. Milan looked horrified even as upside-down as she was, her eyes flying from Jade to Hermione to Jade again. Hermione bit her lip anxiously as she and the others waited for the feeling of magic to safely die down before hurrying to the core of the circle, worried.

"Jade? Jade?" Hermione said, touching her shoulder. "What's wrong? What hurts?"

Jade had stopped screaming, but she groaned in agony, and there were tear tracks on her face.

"My innards," she said. She grunted and rolled off of Milan to the side and onto her back, covering her eyes with her forearm. She was clearly still in pain, panting slightly but trying to bear it as best she could. "Did it work?"

"It worked," Susan said cautiously, glancing around at the fading red light. "You've definitely conceived – red light for a girl, green light for a boy. The light would have stayed blue if nothing happened."

Milan's face lit up.

"A girl?" she breathed, eyes wide. She looked down at her middle. "We're having a daughter?"

"You have to get past the first trimester first," Hermione cautioned, "but yes. It wasn't possible to have a boy – you both only have XX chromosomes, and it was hard enough to change an egg into a sperm—"

But Milan wasn't listening. She was touching Jade's face softly, and Jade groaned and pulled her arm away from her face.

"A girl," Milan said, her voice choked up. "Jade, children. Our own, like we dreamed of."

Jade moaned, but her eyes were soft as she met Milan's.

"You generally don't expect the impossible wishes you whisper to each other late at night to ever come true," Jade said. Her lips quirked in a tired sort of smirk. "But I'll take it."

Milan laughed and helped Jade sit up, before hugging her tightly. Jade returned her embrace, before pulling away slightly to shoot a sharp look at Hermione.

"So," she said dryly, "what happened?"

Hermione winced.

"Well," she said slowly, "It's possible that the sperm – um – had to physically pass through you to get into Milan."

Jade stared.

"You're saying the pain was the seed bursting out of my body?" she said incredulously. She looked down at her belly, the runes no longer glowing, and traced her skin. "There's no blood…"

"Sperm are microscopic," Hermione said. "It's likely we wouldn't see any injury, really? But it's possible that you felt it come bursting out of your uterus. Maybe out of your fallopian tube, too – that could really hurt. But… it would explain the pain?"

"So what you're saying," Jade said, eyes narrowed, "is that you don't really know what happened."

"Hey, that's unfair," Harry chimed in, frowning.

Jade raised an eyebrow at him. "Is it?"

"We know that you and your girlfriend successfully conceived a child together," Harry shot back. "That's never been done before. Never. But it worked."

"In my opinion, a bit of pain involved is a minor unexpected side effect," Blaise quipped, eyes glinting. "It could have been a lot worse. Your entire uterus burning up in magical fire, for example."

"That would not have happened," Luna cut in, annoyed, but Milan gasped, horrified.

"Are you okay now?" Milan asked anxiously. "Does it still hurt?"

"It's a bit achy, but the sharp pain's subsided now." Jade told her. She shot a look at Hermione. "You said you were sure of this!"

"It worked, didn't it?" Hermione protested, throwing up her hands. "But it's not like we could test it ahead of time!"

Jade rolled her eyes and groaned again, but Milan took Jade's hand, touching it to her own stomach.

"It worked," she said softly. Her eyes were bright, tears brimming. "Oh, Jade. Even if it hurt… it worked."

Jade looked down at her girlfriend, a soft smile touching her lips.

"It did," she said. "Hey, c'mon."

It was Jade that led Milan over to the fallen pillar, the two of them sitting down together and embracing, whispering to each other. Hermione saw tears falling from Milan's eyes, but she suspected they weren't a bad thing. She glanced around at her other coven members, who were avoiding looking at the emotional scene the same as her.

"Well," Susan said practically, clapping her hands. She looked down at the giant circle with an eyebrow raised. "Let's get to cleaning this up, then, shall we?"