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It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Almost all bad ideas did, didn’t they? But this…this had turned out to be a bad idea that would change everything.
It started out innocently enough...she needed a date for a few weddings and events that she was required to attend. He wanted to avoid his mum’s repeated matchmaking attempts. She brought up the idea of being each other’s “date” to the upcoming events that they were both already invited to, and he readily agreed.
No feelings or expectations. No matchmaking or meddling family members. No having to sit through yet another wedding or ministry event alone, at least through the end of summer. It had been a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Ginny had been beyond excited when she had told her about it. Well, not necessarily about their specific arrangement, but that she was finally doing something since she and Ron had broken up. It had been over a year and Ginny had made many attempts at getting her out from under the pile of work she had buried herself in. To get back out there. Ginny had said that it was long overdue for her to just experience and enjoy life again.
Well, she certainly hadn’t had a problem following that part of Ginny’s advice.
She enjoyed his company - she always had. They were both incredibly passionate about their work, and she could listen to him talk about his work for days on end and never get bored. In turn, he listened to her endless chatter about her work in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The two of them could go on for hours, and it only made her like him more.
Plus, the man was fit. She couldn’t deny that she had been attracted to him.
But now...
She had done exactly what Ginny had warned her against. It was like she had known this would happen.
That she would end up falling for him.
Their last night together...everything had felt right. The way he held her close while they danced. The fiery need that consumed her when they kissed and his hands left a scorching trail over her body. The way he looked at her as they laid together in her bed in the quiet aftermath of their passion had made her feel like she was the only thing in the world that mattered.
She had let herself believe that there had been true emotions behind that look and had let herself fall for what she should have known was an act. An act that she had suggested that was no longer an act for her. But it was for him.
She had allowed herself one moment of weakness, and now…
Hermione stared down at the golden light that surrounded her still flat stomach.
Pregnant.
It was too much. She leaned against the counter for support as her emotions overwhelmed her and she let out a strangled sob. She didn’t know what to think.
On one hand, she was terrified. They weren’t together. And while she wasn’t certain how he would react, she couldn’t imagine a scenario where this would be what he actually wanted.
Plus, she had made a point of avoiding him since that night almost two months ago. Not very brave of her, perhaps, but she had woken up to an empty bed and had not heard from him since. Granted, she had not reached out to him either, so maybe he wasn’t entirely to blame, but she wasn’t the one who left.
Not to mention how the rest of his family would react. There was bound to be awkwardness there, at the very least…
But on the other hand…
She laid a hand against her stomach and couldn’t help but smile softly through her tears. After the war, she had been told by several Healers that she would likely be unable to conceive due to her extended exposure to the Cruciatus Curse. The fact that they had managed to conceive at all, even though the circumstances were not at all what she would have envisioned...
She was happy.
Of course, she was also full of anxiety and crippling fear over knowing nothing about being a mum and not having any plans in place for this, but there was happiness there too. It was with that knowledge that Hermione pulled herself up off of the bathroom floor, wiped the tears off her face, got dressed for the day, and started to make a plan.
St Mungo’s was first on her list. She Floo called and was thankfully able to set up an appointment with her Healer for the next afternoon. With that settled, she continued making a list of things that she needed to do.
Books. She needed to go to Flourish and Blotts to get as many books about magical pregnancies as she could. And it wouldn’t hurt to take a trip out into muggle London and find some books on muggle pregnancies as well. The idea of researching calmed her in a way that no other thought had yet. She had no idea what she was doing, and books would give her at least some of the answers she would need.
Work could be complicated, but her Department Head was understanding. Maybe she would be allowed to work from home for a while after the baby arrived. Or maybe she would be able to bring the baby into work with her, at least on occasion, as long as she silenced her office and was not scheduled to be in meetings for the day.
At some point, she would need to think about her living situation. She was currently living in a small studio flat, and while that was fine for her, she wasn’t sure that it would give her the space she would need to eventually set up a nursery.
But those things would have to wait for now. Before she worried about any of that, she needed to tell him and find out how he felt about all of this and how involved he would want to be. At the very least, he deserved to be told instead of finding out later through someone else.
Thinking about it made her feel physically ill.
She took a deep breath. She was a Gryffindor - she could do this. She closed her eyes and turned, apparating out of her flat and reappearing right outside the wards around The Burrow. It was Sunday, so even if he wasn’t here now, he would be here soon for lunch. Sunday lunch had become a standing tradition after the war - one that even he had not fought Molly on and he showed up every week without complaint.
Or at least he had before.
She hadn’t come to lunch since they had slept together. She had made up a new excuse every week that she was sure none of them actually believed, at least not after the second week. Ginny had brought it up a few times but had dropped it relatively quickly, just saying that the two of them should talk.
Well, she needed to talk to him now. She just hoped that he would be here today.
“Hermione! It’s so good to see you, dear!” She smiled as Molly pulled her into a tight hug when she entered the house through the kitchen.
“I’m sorry I’ve missed the last few weeks, Molly,” Hermione replied, returning the hug. “I should have sent an owl to ask if it was alright-”
“-Nonsense, dear,” Molly cut her off. “You know that you are always welcome. You’re family.”
Her breath caught in her throat. Her own mother was in Australia and didn’t know she had a daughter, thanks to her own wand. The realization that she would be doing this without her parents hit her hard, and it was all she could do to keep the tears from falling. She held onto Molly tighter for a moment before taking a steadying breath and stepping away.
“Who else is here?” Hermione asked in what she hoped was a casual tone. At this point, she was quite certain that Molly suspected that something was going on.
“Oh, I think we’re just waiting on Percy and Audrey now. Would you mind setting the table, dear? Bill and Charlie should have the tables set up in the garden by now, as long as Fred and George didn’t interfere…”
“Of course,” Hermione replied with a nod, levitating the stack of dishes and cutlery in front of her as she exited the kitchen and made her way outside to the garden. She glanced around and smiled at the surprising feeling of peace that surrounded the garden.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
She had just lowered the stack of plates safely onto the table when she heard shrieks of laughter and looked up in time to see three small children running at full speed at her before they came to a stop in front of her, hugging her legs.
“Hide us, Auntie Mi!”
She grinned down at little Victoire, Teddy, and James. “Hide you? From who?”
They didn’t have a chance to answer her before three fully-grown, red-haired wizards barreled out from the orchards and came straight toward them. “Ah, I see…” The three children shrieked again and dove under the table.
“Hermione!” Fred reached her first, put his arm around her shoulders, and winked cheekily. “You wouldn’t have happened to see two mini-wizards and a mini-witch around here, would you?”
She grinned as she heard snickering coming from under the table. “Sorry, Fred. I’m afraid I haven’t seen anyone here...” she replied with a tilt of her head toward the table, as George and Charlie joined them. Both looked surprised to see her, though the former was definitely happier about her presence. The latter’s smile quickly dropped before he turned around and walked back toward the orchards.
Fred and George looked confused by their older brother’s sudden change in mood. Hermione sighed and ducked out from under Fred’s arm. “If you’ll excuse me, boys…I think that it’s about time your brother and I had a little chat.” She gave them a tight smile before following Charlie.
He hadn’t gone too far - just a few yards past the treeline. He likely thought that she wouldn’t follow him, and to be fair, she probably wouldn’t have if the circumstances weren’t what they were.
He was leaning against a tree with his eyes closed, head tilted back against the trunk of the tree and arms folded across his chest. She looked around and cast a Muffliato. While she saw no one else around and had not noticed Fred or George follow her, one could never be too careful with certain Weasleys around...and she wanted this conversation to be private, at least for now.
“Hey.” Wow. Way to take control of a conversation, Hermione. She cleared her throat, feeling incredibly awkward. “We need to talk…”
“Oh, now we need to talk,” Charlie said in a tone harsher than she had ever heard from him. He had opened his eyes and was looking at her with quite a bit of disdain. “What could we possibly need to talk about? It’s been almost two months since you last decided I was worth your time, Hermione. I think that says enough.”
She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. He was angry. Or hurt? Maybe both? But...that didn’t make any sense. Whatever she had expected, it hadn’t been this and it put her immediately on the defensive.
“You’re not the one who woke up to an empty bed,” Hermione snapped back at him, nearly two months of repressed hurt and anger over the situation coming out. She took a deep breath and tried to reign her temper back in. “But that’s not im-”
“Now you’re blaming me for leaving?” He cut her off and moved to stand in front of her. Though he was the shortest of the Weasley brothers, he still towered over her. “I got called into work for an emergency at the reserve. I thought you, of all people, would have understood.”
She stood up straighter and her eyes flashed. She would not let him make her feel small. “I would have if you had actually said something! Instead, I woke up to an empty bed and haven’t heard from you since. Don’t blame me when you couldn’t find a moment to write to me afterward to explain.”
“I left a note!”
She shook her head. “There was no note, Charlie.”
“There was. I left a note on the pillow apologizing for having to leave and asking if you would let me take you out to dinner for an actual date. Not to a wedding to get mum off my back or to some ministry event so that you don’t get hounded all night...a real one, just for us.”
“I never saw a note. I don’t know what happened to it after you left, but I never saw it. For the record, I would have understood about you having to leave for an emergency at the reserve and would have happily agreed to a real date,” she replied, shaking her head again. “But a week passed...and then another...and I still hadn’t heard from you. What was I supposed to think? I assumed that you regretted that night and wanted to forget about it.”
“And when I never got a response from you, I assumed that you regretted that night and wanted nothing to do with me.” Charlie sighed and scrubbed his hands down his face. “Fuck. We’re a right pair, aren’t we?”
Hermione let out a short laugh. “I suppose we are. Gin’s been saying we should just talk to each other for weeks now.”
“My sister’s a smart witch...too bad neither of us listened to her before now. Speaking of, what made you decide that now was the right time to listen to Gin?”
Right.
She took a deep breath. She could do this.
“I’m pregnant.”
Whatever he had been expecting, it clearly wasn’t that. He opened and closed his mouth a few times like he was going to say something but wasn’t sure what to say.
“I just...I did the charm this morning after I put a few things together and started to suspect. I just wanted you to know. I’m going to keep the baby, but I don’t expect anything from you, Charlie. It’s obviously not something that we planned or talked about, but...”
He laid a finger gently against her lips to quiet her nervous rambling.
“I’m going to be a dad?” His voice was soft and gentle. His eyes were blazing.
She nodded. “You’re going to be a dad.”
His face lit up and he fell to his knees in front of her. He raised his hands toward her stomach but came to a stop before touching her. “May I?”
She nodded again and he gently laid his hands against her stomach. She knew that it was too early to feel the baby, but she swore that she felt something. And from the look of surprise and wonder on Charlie’s face, he likely had as well. She had no knowledge of magical pregnancies, but It was almost like a gentle surge of magic swept through her. She’d have to do some research to see what that was about.
After a moment he shifted his hands to her hips and laid his head against her stomach instead. She ran a hand gently through his hair and just took the time to enjoy this quiet moment with him.
“What happens next?” Charlie asked quietly as he leaned back slightly and looked up at her a few minutes later. She was surprised to see that his eyes were watery, and even more surprised to realize that hers were as well. She hadn’t noticed.
“Well, I have an appointment at St Mungo's tomorrow afternoon,” she replied, still running her hand through his hair. “After that...I honestly have no idea.”
“Would it be alright if I came to your appointment with you? And maybe afterward I could take you to dinner and then to Flourish and Blotts? I want to find some books about…I mean, I have experience with the hatchlings on the reserve... but it’s obviously not the same …” He trailed off as his ears turned red and he looked down at the ground sheepishly.
“I’d love that.”
He looked up and grinned at her. “Even though I just tried to compare our baby to a hatchling?”
Our baby. She liked that. And from the way that his eyes lit up when he said it, she suspected that he did as well.
“Somehow I have a feeling that won’t be the last time,” she replied with a grin of her own. She held out her hand to him. “Come on...we should get back. I’m honestly surprised that no one has come out here looking for us yet.”
He took her hand and stood back up, dusting off the dirt from his jeans. “If I know Gin, that will probably be her doing if Fred or George mentioned that you followed me when I ran off.”
“You’re probably right,” she agreed with a light laugh before sobering a little bit. “Can we keep the news about the baby to ourselves for a bit? At least until we see my Healer tomorrow and hear what she says?”
“Whatever you think, love,” he answered easily. “What about this, though?” He lifted their joined hands to her eye level.
“I suppose at least most of the truth will work…” She replied thoughtfully. “There was a misunderstanding. We talked it out and are in a much better place now, and that we are going to try to figure things out.”
He nodded and led her back out of the orchards and toward The Burrow, still holding hands. She smiled to herself and couldn’t help but be optimistic that they would figure everything out.
Together.