Chapter Seventeen

2001- September

Pansy rushed along the, thankfully quiet Diagon Ally hoping that she wasn't going to be too late. Hermione, Daphne and Luna were already sitting outside the ice cream shop and waved pleasantly to her when she came into view.

"I'm so sorry I'm late I… I got caught up." Pansy said, not wanting to admit she'd spent the last half an hour camped out on the bathroom floor in the Leaky Cauldron throwing up her breakfast.

"No worries." Daphne said, waving her hand dismissively, "You're here now."

"I hope it was nothing serious." Hermione said kindly.

Pansy nodded, "No just… I've been feeling a little under the weather."

"You'll feel better soon." Luna said, slightly absent mindedly.

"How did your date with Draco go the other night?" Pansy asked her.

Luna grinned, "It was magical."

"Where did he take you in the end?" Hermione asked.

"Before we hear all the juicy details, we need ice cream." Daphne laughed, pulling out a scrap of paper and a pen, "Write down what you want, my treat."

Pansy chose lemon gelato and a cup of tea, lemon seemed to be the best thing for settling her stomach at the moment.

Daphne returned with the large tray, filled with dishes of ice cream and tall mugs of hot drinks.

"So, tell us everything." Daphne said, taking a mouthful of her strawberry ice cream.

"Well," Luna grinned, "I wore a green and blue dress that sort of shimmered in the light, and the silver necklace and comb that you got me for my birthday last year Daph. And he took me out to dinner at this really fancy restaurant, and we had about seven different courses but they were all tiny. My favourite was this lime cake that was just so light and fluffy. Then we saw Taming of the Shrew at the Globe which was just amazing!"

"Sounds magical." Pansy sighed, "Typical Draco to plan such perfect dates."

Luna nodded, "It was so much fun. We then went up to the forest outside Hogwarts and walked through the trees barefoot. Oh and we got to see the new Thestral foal."

"Hagrid told me that they'd had a few new foals." Hermione said.

"This one was so tiny." Luna sighed happily, "She was still unsteady on her feet. Her mummy was just so proud." Luna looked sad for a moment before shaking her head and forcing a smile.

"Aww Luna." Daphne said softly, "You ok?"

Luna nodded, "I was just thinking of mummy and daddy… I miss them."

"Of course you do sweetie." Hermione said, giving her a slightly awkward one armed hug, "I think part of you is always going to miss them."

"I just keep thinking of the future, with Draco, and then that leads to children of my own which leads to…" Luna shrugged her shoulders, "I'm worried that he's not going to love me so much with this gloomy cloud over my head all the time."

"Don't be silly!" Pansy told her, "Of course he's still going to love you."

"Are you not feeling well because of the baby?" Luna asked her, as Pansy felt another wave of nausea wash over her.

Silence fell quickly around the table.

"Mummy always said that ginger tea helps." Luna added.

Pansy laughed to herself for a moment.

"You're pregnant?" Hermione gasped.

Pansy smiled broadly, unable to stop herself, "Yes, yes I am. Only very early days still but… they're in there. A whole little person growing away."

"Oh my god!" Daphne squeaked, "This is so exciting! How did you know?" she asked Luna.

Luna looked confused between the other girls at the table, "Oh… I… I just assumed you all knew and you'd forgotten to tell me."

"I wouldn't have forgotten to tell you!" Pansy said, slightly insulted.

"Oh… people just used to forget to tell me a lot." Luna shrugged, "I'm really happy for you and William though. You're going to be amazing parents."

"Does William know?" Daphne asked quickly.

Pansy nodded, "Yes. I told him as soon as I'd missed my period. He's so excited. He wants to paint the nursery already."

"Well it's good to be prepared I guess." Hermione shrugged.

"The baby is going to be in our room for at least the first six months, and I can't stand white, or pale green or yellow for the walls. I want it to be what they want you know?"

"I get that." Hermione nodded.

"Well I think we should toast." Daphne said, raising her mug of hot chocolate, "To the next generation of magic. The first of us to bring a baby into the world."

"Here here." Luna and Hermione agreed, clinking their mugs with one another.

Pansy returned home a few hours later, with several bags filled with clothing and toys for the baby that her friends insisted on buying for her.

"Did you have fun?" William asked, calling through from the sitting room.

"I did." Pansy called back, making her way over to her husband and kissing him fondly, "What are you working on?"

William shrugged, "A few new ideas for broom twig mixes, few new ideas of ways to make myself a bit faster on the track… what's all the shopping?"

"Luna knew I was pregnant." Pansy laughed, "Gods knows how but then…"

"It's Luna." William grinned, "I gather they were pleased."

Pansy nodded, "Yes and now we wont have to buy clothes for the baby until they're seven or eight at a guess. I mean we've not even told our parents yet."

"We probably should do that today." William said thoughtfully, "I think both of our sets of parents would kill us if they found out we'd told everyone before we'd told them."

"In our defence," Pansy grinned, "It was more that Luna did her weird slightly psychic thing. Like when she knew that Tonks and Lupin's latest was going to be a girl."

"True." William smiled, pulling Pansy into his arms and holding her close, "Are you feeling better? You seemed to be feeling rather rough earlier."

Pansy shrugged, "Morning sickness is normal and yeah, I'm doing ok. Luna suggested ginger tea and it has to be worth a try."

"Well let me know if Luna tells you if it's a boy or girl." William laughed, "I'll get on the floo and invite our parents round shall I?"

"Sounds good." Pansy grinned, giving him another quick kiss, "When are you in work next?"

"Coach wants me down the track tomorrow." William told her, "Just for a few hours I think. There are some of the trickier turns that I'm taking at too wide and angle, it's adding precious seconds to my run time."

"Hence why you're also looking into ways to make your broom quicker." Pansy smiled, looking over the plans, "Wont mixing holly and apple make it kinda… volatile?"

William sighed and shrugged, "In theory. It just feels like every time I do the maths it come out as either brilliant or… well, explosive. And fast is brilliant, being on a broom, travelling at a hundred miles an hour when it decides to explode isn't something I'd want to try."

"No thank you!" Pansy laughed, "Just… be careful ok?"

"Of course pet." William assured her.

Pansy chewed her lip for a moment, "Have you thought about asking Birgitta or Agne for help?"

"From Durmstrang?" William asked.

Pansy nodded, "Lots of the Lions fly, they might have some ideas."

William nodded, "I can always ask. Worst thing they can say is no. Goodness knows Krum always had the best broom out there."

"Lions of the North have a long history of flying." Pansy said, "Apparently it's one of the things they need to prove they are proficient in before they can even be considered for joining."

"You seem to know a lot about their joining criteria." William pointed out thoughtfully, "You were telling me about the cursing tests just the other night."

Pansy blushed, "It's just so interesting." she shrugged, "Hogwarts Wolves are so new, now that it's being continued on for sure I feel like we should have a fixed joining criteria."

William nodded, "That seems perfectly reasonable."

Pansy rolled her eyes, "Yes I had been invited to go and train with the Lions and yes I may have been considering it before but I'm pregnant and their training is intense."

"Sweetheart, you're not going to be pregnant forever." William pointed out, "We could always look at going over in a year or so."

Pansy sighed and nodded, "I… it feels weird…"

William pushed his work away, guiding Pansy to the sofa and sitting down with her, "Talk to me pet."

Pansy looked longingly into his eyes, some how he always managed to calm her down, "It was us all together for so long. We needed to be together, to rely on one another to survive… and now… if I go over to Sweden to train, Harry, Hermione, Daphne, Neville and Draco wont be coming with me. It'll be just us and I did so not mean that the way it came out."

"Don't be silly." William laughed, "I know exactly what you mean. You went through so much. Hell, I went through so much and I was only there for half of it. It's no wonder that it's taking some adjustment to learn how to be grown-up without one another. What's caused it to start swimming around that brain of yours?"

"There's been a few things recently, two that have really stuck with me." Pansy said, "Firstly, we invited Cho to come out to lunch with us and…" Pansy rolled her eyes at herself, feeling silly for even thinking this way, "and she was busy decorating with Harry. And then the girls at lunch, they pointed out that this is the first of the generation of our children. I… we're bringing in the next lot of us. It feels like meeting them all for the first time was just yesterday and now our children might well grow up together?"

"It's a very weird thought, that's for sure." William assured her, "And I have to admit… I never thought I would be the first of my friends to have a baby."

Pansy snuggled down, laying her head on his lap "I'm so worried I'm going to mess this all up."

"You're going to be an amazing mum." William promised her.

"Everyone keeps saying that." Pansy laughed, "But it's not like I even had a baby brother or sister to practice on. My dolls didn't seem to mind too much if I forgot about them for a week."

"We've got a lot to learn." William agreed, "But that doesn't mean we wont be able to learn it all. And it doesn't mean that we can't go and spend six months with the Lions learning everything there."

"Their training course is two years minimum. Average is four." Pansy told him sitting up.

"Then we go over for a few years." William shrugged, "We were always going to end up home schooling and they have schools over there."

"We're really planning on doing this?" Pansy grinned.

"Yeah, why not." William grinned back, "You've really wanted to train with them, I can race from anywhere and there's so much I could learn from them as well. Plus Sweden is beautiful."

Pansy nodded, "After the baby though. For now, I just want to stay here, with you, and revel in everything we've been blessed with."

William kissed her deeply, "Sounds good to me."