Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The rest of the summer passed by in a blur. Harry desperately wanted to find the remaining Horcruxes so that he could finally be over this part of his life. Unfortunately, he really hadn't gotten very far.

The three of them...Harry, Ron and Hermione...were sitting around the table. Hermione was the one who finally broke the silence. "You have to come back to school with us. Unless you do, you can't take your N.E.W.T.s, and then you won't be a fully qualified wizard."

"Like that's really important," Harry muttered.

"It is. You always said that you wanted to be an Auror. You can't do that unless you sit your N.E.W.T.s," she insisted.

"Well, I've changed my mind. I think I've had enough of dark wizard chasing."

"Fine then, but you still need to take your exams. Harry, please, your education is important," she pleaded, reaching across the table to place her hand on his. When she realized what she had done, she quickly pulled her hand away. "All right, if that's not enough, where have we gotten on the search? Nowhere. You at least need to be able to use the library at school. There is no better resource, and besides, Dumbledore may have left something behind that could be useful."

He looked into her eyes and found it hard to resist her. "For the library."

Hermione grinned broadly. "That's fantastic. I've been putting together a plan to search for clues in the library."

Ron and Harry both moaned.

****************

Hermione had been quite irritable and moody lately, but Harry supposed it had to do with all the work they were doing. She was studying harder than any of them. When she didn't return to the common room that evening, he decided to go to the library and see what she was doing. It wasn't like her to work this late.

Entering the library, he saw her slumped over a book-strewn table. He shook her gently. "Hermione? Are you all right?"

She jumped up and rubbed her eyes. "What? Oh, I guess I fell asleep," she said sheepishly.

He sat next to her. "Yeah. You've been doing that a lot lately." He looked around to make sure no one could hear them. "You haven't gotten hold of a Time Turner, again, have you?"

"No. You know they were all destroyed, and I wouldn't do that again, anyway. I'm just tired." She stretched and failed to stifle a yawn.

"Well, then perhaps it would be a good idea for you to call it a night? I mean, you aren't getting anything done anyway." He thought that she could definitely use a good night's rest.

"Sure. Help me with my books?"

He helped her gather up the books that she wanted to take with her, and they walked back up to Gryffindor Tower together. She started talking about her latest leads, but she couldn't stop yawning.

****************

Autumn melted into winter, and Hermione's moodiness did not seem to be waning. If anything, it was getting worse. Ron had taken to avoiding her almost completely as he seemed to be able to do nothing that pleased her. Every time he said something, it either set her to tears or else she would lash into him. Their relationship had never come easily, but now it looked as though it was regressing if anything.

Harry was only slightly luckier, and he spent a good deal of his time trying to decide what Ron had done to earn Hermione's ire. Normally, he was able to figure it out and decide if it was possible to smooth things between the two of them. But this time, he couldn't think of anything that Ron had done to make her so upset.

They were alone in the common room late one night, and he said, "Hermione, is something bothering you?"

She stared into his eyes for several long seconds. "Just all the work we still have before us. We've only been able to find two Horcruxes. We have a long way to go." She looked back down at her book.

"Hermione," Harry said softly as he reached across the table and placed his hand on hers. "You can tell me anything; you know that, right?"

She looked up into his eyes and found that she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "Oh, Harry," she sobbed.

He moved around to her side of the table and wrapped his arm around her. "What is it?"

She sniffled and wiped the tears from her face. "Not here. Get your Invisibility Cloak." While he was gone, she rose and started pacing, trying to determine how to tell him. She had been waiting for weeks for the opportunity to break the news to him, but it had never come. Now was still not the ideal time, but she found that she could not keep the secret any longer.

When he came back downstairs, he asked, "Where are we going?"

"An empty classroom," she replied as she stood close enough to be concealed under the Cloak. As they walked down the deserted corridors, she found her body reacting to his nearness, remembering that glorious summer night when she had given herself to him.

On the fourth floor, they found what they were looking for. Once the door was closed and locked, he pulled off the Cloak, but said nothing.

She paced, gathering up the courage to speak. Finally, she was ready, and she stopped her pacing. Looking into his eyes, she said, "I'm pregnant."

Harry stared at her in stunned silence for a few seconds. "You're what!" he shouted.

"Shhh. Harry." The last thing she needed was anyone discovering them in a deserted classroom with no schoolbooks.

"You're sure?"

"Positive," she replied as she opened her robe and showed him her gently swollen belly.

"Blimey!" He stared until she closed her robe. "How far... When's the baby due?"

"Middle of April, so I'm about five months along."

"But then... It's mine?"

She bit her lower lip and tried to fight back the tears as she nodded, not trusting her voice. Even though she tried to stop them, she could feel the tears running down her cheeks. When Harry wrapped his arms around her, she collapsed against him and sobbed.

He held her, rubbing her back gently, waiting for her to finish. When her sobbing finally subsided, he asked softly, "Who else knows?"

"No one. I've...I've kept it secret. If anyone were to find out..." She didn't finish, knowing that Harry would come to the same conclusion. The fact that she was Harry's friend already made her a target. If anyone were to learn that she was carrying his baby... She couldn't bear the thought of something bad happening to her baby.

His hand drifted so that it gently rested on her stomach. "People are going to start noticing soon," he said softly.

"See, that's what I've been working on. I know that right now my robes will hide it, but I've been working on a Veiling Charm. It's a modification of the Invisibility Charm. Anyone looking at me won't be able to tell. Of course, the only problem is that if anyone were to brush against me, they could still feel that I'm pregnant. But I'll be careful," she added quickly. It was the best she could do, but depending on the circumstances under which someone found out, she thought that she could Obliviate them.

He brushed her cheek. "You should go into hiding. That way no one will find out, and no one will harm either of you."

Placing her hand on top of his, she replied, "You need me here. We both know that Ron isn't any good at library research, and frankly, neither are you." It would be so easy to run away and hide, but she had responsibilities and she just couldn't run from them.

Harry paled. "And what about Ron?"

She sighed, knowing that Ron really did love her deeply. "We both know he can't keep a secret..."

"Not that. Hermione, he loves you. This would devastate him. For that matter, what about Ginny." He released her and ran his fingers through his hair as he started pacing. "And what about the baby?"

"I thought that...that perhaps we could give the baby to my parents. They could keep it safe. At least until the war's over."

"And then what? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love you, Hermione, but..."

She was every bit as confused as he was, and she had known about her condition for months now. "I know. Just not that way," she finished. "I feel the same way, but... I don't know. Harry, I'm so sorry. I should have been more careful..." She turned away from him as she once again began crying. She hated not having control over her emotions and her body.

He moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her again. "It's not solely your fault. We're both to blame." Once again, his hands drifted to her stomach, tracing the gentle swell, mesmerized by the life that was growing within her.

She found unexpected comfort in his touch and managed to regain some small measure of control. "The baby's really started growing. And... I think I felt a kick last night."

Nuzzling against her, he replied, "My baby."

Not wanting his touch to vanish, she gently grasped his hand and guided it inside her robes so he could feel her bare flesh. As his hand traced her stomach she could feel herself becoming aroused. Pressing her back against him, she could feel that she was not the only one affected by their closeness to each other. Impulsively, she turned around and kissed him deeply. She had been craving this sort of physical attention for weeks, but she knew she could never have it with Ron. Not in her current condition; not even if she still felt that way about him.

Slipping her hand into his robes, she brushed his erection, feeling it grow harder. She was throbbing and wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her again. "Oh, Harry," she moaned.

Soon, they were both giving in to their passions; their robes the only cushion against the hard stone floor.

*****************

Hermione was alone most of Christmas break. She had Ginny for company, but Harry and Ron were on yet another Horcurx search. She tried not to be short with Ginny, but the lack of sex was taking a toll on her patience. In the week preceding the holidays, she and Harry had managed to get together every night, but he had now been gone a week, and she was on edge. Of course, that made her feel guilty whenever she was around Ginny, because she knew that her friend loved Harry deeply and was willing to wait until the end of the war for him. A part of her wanted to confide in Ginny, and had the father been anyone other than Harry, she would have.

Fortunately, due to her excellence in Transfiguration, she was able to modify her clothing so that it still fit. Unfortunately, by Christmas the baby had grown so much that her robes alone could no longer conceal her condition, and she found that holding her Veiling Charm was quite tiring, especially when combined with the fact the pregnancy was also exhausting her. She had taken to spending a lot of time in her dormitory alone so that the other students staying over the Christmas holidays did not see her very often or for very long. Unfortunately, Ginny could walk into her dormitory unannounced, so she'd had to set up a charm to let her know when someone was coming up the stairs.

Near the end of the holiday, she was trying to get some much needed rest, but the baby had really started kicking. Rather than lay awake in bed, she decided to go down by the fire. Wrapping her dressing gown around her, she grabbed a book and headed downstairs.

As she had expected, the common room was deserted. Sitting in the chair by the fire, she opened her book and started reading. Without thinking she started rubbing her belly.

The flicker of the fire mesmerized her. She set aside her book and started thinking about the future. Someone as bright as her should not have made such a foolish mistake. At first, she had thought that she could give the baby to her parents. Now, she wasn't so sure. Feeling the baby moving within her, she realized how special it was, how much a part of her this child was. No, she knew she could never give this child up. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought of the five lives that had been ruined, one before it had even properly started, in that brief moment of passion. She knew that both Ron and Ginny would feel betrayed, and rightly so.

She heard the portrait hole opening and reached for her wand to cast the Veiling Charm but realized she had left it upstairs. Instead, she did her best to shrink into the chair and hope that whoever it was wouldn't see her. She listened anxiously as the footsteps drew closer to the fire, and she wished she could Apparate to her room.

Harry came around the chair, halting suddenly at the surprise of seeing her there. "Hermione?"

She breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, Harry, it's only you." She saw that he was staring at her belly. Patting it softly, she said, "The baby's really growing."

"So I see." He sat down in a chair beside hers. "How are you feeling?"

"Not too bad, still tired, but that's normal." She reached out and took hold of his hand, placing it on her stomach. "Can you feel that?" she asked proudly.

He stared at his hand a few seconds and then looked up at her, a huge grin on his face. "I can feel him kicking." In order to more easily feel the baby, he knelt before her.

"It could be a her, you know," she replied playfully.

"I know." He stared back at her stomach, as though he were trying to see the child within. "That's our child," he said in awe.

Watching him, she knew that she could not deny him this child, especially not since he himself had known what it was like to be an orphan. "It is." She reached out and gently tipped his chin up so that she could look into his eyes. "Our child should have both her parents. I know we didn't want it this way, but I think that's how it has to be."

"That's why I came back. I had to see you, let you know that I want to be a part of my child's life."

"Oh, Harry!" she said and threw herself into his arms. "I'm so glad to hear you say that." She kissed him, but when she tried to pull away, she found that he had laced his fingers through her hair. When he tried to slip his tongue into her mouth, she let him.

When he finally broke the passionate kiss, he said, "The boys' dormitory is deserted..."

She nodded and replied breathlessly, "Okay."