Happy Friday! This chapter is definitely the softness I needed this week so I hope you all like it. :o) For those of you like CallaRose4ever who might be curious about what made Percy blush last chapter, here's what Molly said to him before she left:

His mum's hug was tighter than it normally would be. Looser than the first time she'd seen him after the war but tighter than the hugs she would pull him into as soon as he got off the Hogwarts Express every year.

But it was her whispered words that had his own arms freezing mid-hug: "You love her."

There is a certainty in her words that kill any rebuttal before they can begin as she pulls away just enough to see his face.

"You were put into Gryffindor for a reason," his mum continues, his silence all the confirmation she needs. "Don't miss out on something amazing by forgetting that. Courage doesn't always look like being the first to charge in or showing your affection through a show of wizbangs. Sometimes courage shows up in the seemingly small things because those are the things that can change everything."

Percy felt like his mum was seeing him, really seeing him, for the first time in his life. Her eyes held a world of regret and understanding, of words she wished she could take back and moments she was finally seeing clearly.

Percy couldn't find the right words so he nodded stiffly in response but her next words had embarrassment burning across his cheeks: "She was always meant to be a Weasley. I'm sorry it took me so long to see who the right one was."

As always, thank you so much for being here, thank you so much if you reviewed, and a special thanks to pianomouse for being the first person who sees this story. I really appreciate all of you!

Love Always,

Adrien

TRIGGER WARNING: INFERTILITY IS A MAJOR THEME AND DRIVING FACTOR IN THIS STORY ESPECIALLY IN CHAPTERS TWO AND FOUR SO PLEASE TREAD CAREFULLY IF THAT IS AN ISSUE FOR YOU.

Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable characters or settings, those belong to J. K. Rowling. I just enjoy making things in her sandbox.

Chapter Five: Moments Like This

Living with Percy was easy. Hermione found that the routine she'd witnessed that first day was one Percy followed every time it was his turn to make lunch while Hermione had always made their lunches the night before at the same time that she made dinner. It only made sense for Hermione to make dinner on the days that Percy made lunch while Hermione's lunches were used on the days Percy made dinner. They always did dishes together because it was a chore both of them hated…though Hermione found she hated it much less when she had someone to chat with while she did it.

They'd fallen into the habit of walking home together nearly every day, taking the visitor's entrance into muggle London and making the twenty minute walk back to the house in quiet companionship instead of flooing like they had the first few weeks. Once they got home, one would get started on dinner while the other would wind down for the night (Percy usually watched something on the tv while Hermione read for a bit). After dinner, they'd settle in for a movie or go for another walk depending on how they were feeling. The days where one of them didn't follow their routine were few and far in between and they were always sure to let the other know when a change in plans would happen.

Living with Percy was easy. Weeks turned into months and before Hermione knew it, it had gone from late February to her birthday…which also happened to be one of the few days that Percy wasn't there to walk home with her. He'd had to leave work early to go over some WWW paperwork with George that needed to be submitted before the ministry closed for the day but he'd promised to be home in time for them to head to The Burrow together for her birthday dinner.

Only, the shoes in the rack they'd placed next to the front door told her he had beaten her back…which in itself was odd because Kingsley had insisted she leave a bit early today after she'd submitted the latest draft of elvish welfare legislation for review.

"Percy?" Hermione calls out as she places her heels on the rack next to his work shoes.

There's a beat of silence before footsteps are rushing out of the office and a slightly rumpled Percy appears in front of Hermione.

"You're early!" He greets her with a grin more reminiscent of a Weasley twin than of Percy. "Close your eyes."

Hermione stares at him strangely for a moment before doing as he asks.

Percy takes her cloak and briefcase from her hands, setting them down somewhere nearby, before leading her further into the house.

"Alright, open."

The office looks radically different than it had when they had left for work that morning. This morning the room had been fairly bare and dark with Percy's desk along one wall facing three tall bookshelves that were filled to the brim with both of their books on the opposite wall and the entire room had been dark wood and neutral walls. Now, Hermione was surrounded by soft, sage green floor to ceiling built–in bookshelves on every wall. The only spaces not converted into bookshelves were where her desk (which had been in the closet since she'd moved in) and Percy's desk sat on either side of the single window in the room. Sheer white curtains covered the window, allowing more light in than the previous set of curtains had and a chandelier Hermione had fallen in love with when she and Percy had been exploring Honiton this summer brought in significantly more light than the previous fixture had. The chairs from her parents' study (which had also been packed away since she had moved in) sat in the opposite corners of Percy and Hermione's desks. The rest of Hermione's boxes from the closet sat in the middle of the floor, some open and half-unpacked.

"Do you like it?" Percy pulls her attention back to him and the uncertainty now tinging his tone makes Hermione realize that she hasn't said anything yet.

Hermione tries to reply but, for once, no words come to mind. No one had ever done anything like this for her before.

Percy starts to say something else but a mouthful of unruly curls and an armful of Hermione cut off his original thought.

"It's beautiful. Thank you, Percy."

"Happy birthday, Hermione," Percy replies, brushing the curls away from his face as he returns her embrace.

Hermione's only response is to hug him tighter.

She's not sure how long they stand there before the floo sounds in the living room, startling them out of the firm embrace.

"Hermione? Are you here? Kingsley said he sent you home early," Ginny's voice comes from the living room.

"In the office, Gin," Hermione calls out in response.

"I'm going to go clean up before we have to head over," Percy says, giving Hermione a soft smile before he heads out.

"Hi, Ginny," Percy greets his sister as the two pass in the hallway.

"Hey, Percy. Hermione and I are going to take a bit so we'll meet you over there," Ginny replies before stepping into the office, her eyes widening as she takes in the space. "Woah, when'd you decide to do this, Mione?"

"I didn't. Percy did," Hermione replies, smiling widely at her best girl friend.

"Percy did?" Ginny states incredulously.

"Yeah, it was my birthday present. He left work early today and did it all before I got home."

"Percy, never-knows-what-to-get-anyone, whose go-to gift is something practical or gift cards, did this."

"That's not true, Percy gives the best gifts," Hermione argues. "Remember, he got me that rare translation to English from Gobbledegook of first hand accounts of the Goblin Wars for my legislative research for Christmas last year when I was struggling to find reliable resources."

Ginny's eyebrows shoot up, a sound between a scoff and a huff escaping her mouth as she stares at her best girl friend in disbelief for a long moment before a look of realization crosses her face and she shakes her head in disbelief.

"What?" Hermione asks, not understanding what was going through the other woman's head.

Ginny gives her a long look before a smile tugs at her lips and she shakes her head, "Nothing…Are you ready for your present?"

Hermione raises her eyebrows but allows the younger woman to change the subject and lead her out of the office toward her bedroom.

This had become one of her favorite parts of her and Ginny's birthdays despite the teasing the boys in their lives had given them the first few years they'd done it. They started on Ginny's fourteenth birthday, the summer between Hermione's fourth and fifth year, when Ginny's brothers were giving her a particularly hard time for starting to date and she just couldn't be in the house with them anymore. Hermione had invited Ginny over to her parents' house for Ginny's birthday and they'd adventured into London on their own. They were walking past a dress shop when a dress in the window had caught Ginny's attention and Hermione had seen a longing in the other girl's eyes. The next thing she knew, she was pulling the younger girl into the store and they were both trying on dresses.

Dresses that Molly wouldn't approve of because they were too short or too tight or too sparkly. Dresses that none of the boys in their lives would have ever thought they would have liked to begin with because they still didn't see them as actual girls. Dresses that they wouldn't have felt comfortable liking around the other girls they knew because they would have made a big deal about how the two least girly girls in their years actually wanted to do something girly.

Hermione had bought them each a dress and they'd spent the rest of the day dressing up and doing all the cliche girly things they could think of until it was time to stop back at The Burrow for dinner before Ginny came back to Hermione's parents' for the rest of the week. Ginny had returned the favor for Hermione's birthday that year when running Dumbledore's Army, worrying about Harry, and trying to keep up with OWLs while being a prefect was taking its toll on Hermione. They repeated the process the next year and when they'd won the war and were just trying to find their footing again, when Ginny was celebrating her first birthday without all of her brothers and when Hermione was separated from her boys for the first time, it was a tradition that had brought them comfort.

Now, it was a tradition that brought them back to that first bit of freedom when they were getting stuck in everyday adulting.

"Hermione?" Ginny's voice pulls Hermione's attention to the redhead as Ginny's fingers sweep through the brunette's hair, the last step in their familiar routine before they put on the new dresses Ginny had hung up on the shower rod.

"Hmm," Hermione replies, her eyes opening to watch the younger witch in the mirror from where she is seated on a kitchen chair when she doesn't receive an immediate response.

There's a long moment of silence where Ginny starts and stops asking a question multiple times before settling on: "Are you happy here?"

"Very," Hermione replies honestly but the distracted, bordering on frustrated look on Ginny's face says that isn't the question Ginny really wanted to ask so Hermione waits without elaborating.

A few moments pass before Ginny speaks again as she finishes twisting Hermione's hair away from her face and pulls herself up onto the bathroom counter so that she can look Hermione in the eye, "I have something to tell you but I don't know how you'll take it…I just…I don't want you to hear it from anyone else and I know Mum…and she'll make a big deal as soon as she figures it out…and I didn't want to tell you today of all days because it's supposed to be about you but Mum's got a nose for these things…and–"

"Gin," Hermione cuts off the younger woman as she spirals in her explanation, her voice soft as she clasps the redhead's fidgeting hands in her own. "Are you pregnant?"

Ginny takes a deep breath before looking Hermione straight in the eye and nodding, "Twelve weeks."

"Oh Ginny!" Hermione exclaimed, pulling the younger woman into a tight hug. It was slightly awkward and uncomfortable because Ginny was still sitting on the counter but neither of them cared. "I'm so happy for you!"

"You are?" Ginny's voice wobbled slightly as she pulled back just enough to see her best girl friend's face.

"Of course I am. You and Harry are going to be amazing parents. You deserve this, Ginny," Hermione states in the familiar matter-of-fact tone that all of her friends recognized as the tone they couldn't win against because whatever Hermione was saying was something she believed with her entire being, something that was an absolute fact in her mind.

That tone is what broke the redhead as she pulled the older witch back into a tight hug, sobs wracking through her lithe frame.

Hermione smiled softly, her own tears blurring her vision for her best girl friend and the boy who was her brother in every way that mattered who were finally pregnant after wanting to start a big family from the moment they'd gotten married five years ago, as she rubbed Ginny's back until her sobs settled down.

"It's a good thing we magically set our makeup before I told you or my makeup would have been a mess," Ginny laughed, brushing the stray tears from her face as she pulled away. "Come on, we've got to finish up and head over or Mum'll send someone after us like she did last year."

A shudder went through bother of their bodies at the thought of experiencing that again because George had apparated into Hermione's old flat right as the girls had realized that they had forgotten their dresses in Hermione and Ron's room when Ron had made them switch rooms halfway through getting ready so that he could get ready himself. They hadn't thought anything of making the short walk from the bathroom to Hermione's old room in only their knickers because Ron had left some time ago…Only George had appeared when they were halfway to the bedroom with a handful of whiz-bangs already set to go off in his hand which resulted in a three-way taste of mortification and the lingering scent of gunpowder that none of them could get rid of before they'd gotten back to The Burrow.

Ginny helped Hermione into the simple satin, sage green—a color that was both her favorite and one Ron had hated her to wear when they were together because it was too close to Slytherin—floor-length dress with spaghetti straps and a slit up to her thigh that Molly would absolutely hate.

When Hermione helped Ginny into her short, layered black dress, she could see exactly why the younger witch had chosen this dress. The light layer of mesh that floated around the more fitted solid black dress underneath, did a fantastic job of hiding the almost unnoticeable bump in Ginny's stomach.

"You look beautiful," they say in unison, wide smiles breaking out on their faces at the unintentional in-sync moment.

"Thank you," they reply in sync for the second time, making giggles bubble up in both of their chests.

Linking arms, they twist away so that the soot doesn't stain their new dresses, not caring that their giggles make them sound like nutty school girls.

"You're here!" Harry exclaims, gathering both women into his arms and spinning them around before setting them down and pulling Hermione into a separate hug as Ginny was swept into the kitchen by Molly. "Happy birthday, Hermione!"

Harry freezes minutely when Hermione hugs him back tighter than she normally would in greeting.

"Congratulations, Harry," she whispers just loud enough for him to hear.

Harry responds by hugging her back just as tightly as she is hugging him.

"Stop hogging the birthday girl!" George interrupts their hug, gently bumping Harry out of the way so that he can give Hermione his own hug.

The night after that is a blur of hugs and conversation with every Weasley except the youngest male, who had made his excuses for the evening like he did more often than not despite the fact that the two of them had made their peace, and the one she lived with, who was actually the one she found herself wanting to see the most.

It isn't until they are sitting down for dinner that she actually sees Percy again as he slides into the seat on her right.

Hermione smiles widely at him and presses her thigh into his in greeting, his slacks rough against her bare leg.

Percy returns her smile and presses his own leg into hers before turning his attention to the food around him, placing meat on her plate at the same time that she pours pumpkin juice into his glass before they both pass on the items in their hands.

Bill catches Hermione's gaze as she butters both her and Percy's rolls while Percy places her preferred vegetables onto her plate, his head tilting in a way that is reminiscent of his mother and sister but when Hermione raises an eyebrow in query, the older man just shakes his head.

Hermione shrugs and joins the quiet conversation Harry and Ginny are having about her contract for the next year, Hermione offering to look over any clauses she's uncertain about at work on monday if she thinks it would help because Hermione knows how much Ginny's job means to her and she'll do anything she can to make sure her friend doesn't have to give up one dream for another.

Ginny happily accepts, a relieved smile lighting up her face as she thanks her best girl friend profusely…but a new voice entering their conversation makes the trio realize that they hadn't been as quiet as they had thought.

"Why would you need to renegotiate your contract, Gin? I thought you had that squared away months ago," Charlie interrupts, concern sparking in his gaze across from the trio and drawing the attention of the rest of the table.

"Er…well," Ginny stumbles, her gaze flickering from Harry—who shrugs in response—to Hermione—who rolls her eyes and shoots the redhead an affable smile—before huffing good-naturedly. "We were going to wait a bit longer but I suppose now's as good a time as any. I have to renegotiate my contract because my circumstances have changed. Professional Quidditch and being heavily pregnant don't exactly mix."

There's a beat of silence followed by complete chaos as the expecting couple is nearly tackled by the entirety of the Weasley family. The overlapping of hugs, congratulations, questions, and planning for the future doesn't let up for the rest of the night. But after the initial happiness fades, well meaning sympathetic gazes and concerned glances start catching Hermione's eye. Both Fleur and Molly attempt to pull her aside more than once but Hermione sticks close to the happy couple until Percy slips in beside her, his fingers brushing the small of her back.

"You ready to head out?" He asks lowly, his own eyes flicking from Hermione to the two women Hermione had been attempting to avoid.

Hermione shoots him a bright, relieved smile and nods.

She and Percy make a quick round of hugs before seamlessly slipping through the Floo.

"Hermione?" Percy's voice pulls her attention to him before she can make her way to her room.

"Yes."

"You look beautiful tonight."

"You clean up pretty well yourself,"Hermione replies honestly, she liked that he'd dressed up a bit as well. As much as she liked hers and Ginny's tradition, she always felt a bit out of place when they went to The Burrow afterward. She'd felt a bit less that way with Percy by her side. "I can't believe we matched. Did you do that on purpose?" She plucks softly at the fabric of his shirt.

"It was a happy coincidence," Percy laughs, his hand covering her softly. "I just chose a shirt that reminded me of you."

Hermione meets his gaze then and freezes at the intensity there. She doesn't think she's ever seen Percy look at her that way before.

"Percy?" the question comes out as a whisper as he raises the hand not clasping hers to brush a stray curl behind her ear.

"Can I kiss you Hermione?"

Hermione stares at Percy for a long moment, her eyes searching for any sign of uncertainty, before nodding.

She expects soft and sweet and tentative…and when his lips first brush hers, it is.

But then his mouth is slanting over hers in a completely claiming kiss and his hands are skimming down her curves to clasp the backs of her thighs, lifting her just enough to take the pressure of her sore feet and to bring their lips to the same height.

One of her hands threads through his hair as the other works on unbuttoning his oxford shirt just enough to run her fingernail teasingly down his chest.

"Hermione," Percy groans, ripping lips away from hers as a shudder runs through his body at her touch. "Don't tease me."

"Who says I'm teasing?"

"Hermione," Percy groans, pulling her body closer to his. "We need to talk about this."

"Percy, if you're worried that I'm not sure or that this is something I'll regret. I promise, I won't. We aren't perfect. We'll fight and we'll fumble. But we fit, Percy. So I'm in if you are."

Percy's lips crushing onto hers is the only response she receives.