Stormy Weather

Hermione toyed with her fork a little, watching the light glint off of it as Ron's chatter about his upcoming first game with the Chudley Cannons was going to go. Last meal at Hogwarts. Her thoughts ran back to the first time she'd been here, alone and virtually friendless, scared and not wanting to let anyone know about it, and so very eager to know what was going on all around her.

Things had changed so much it was impossible to really put a name to them all. Now the Slytherin she had thought was the most horrible person to have ever lived was her boyfriend, and father of the child growing inside of her.

She glanced over to the Slytherin table, smiling a bit as she saw Draco talking animatedly with Blaise Zabini. Peeves let the whole school know what was going on with us. That was embarrassing. She tried not to think too much about it, though. School was over and done with.

"Hermione?" She nibbled a little more, not paying attention to whoever it was that was calling her name until a hand whacked on her wrist. "Hermione! Didn't you hear me?"

"Huh?" It was Ron, and he looked a little annoyed. "No, I didn't. What was it?"

He shook his head, sighing deeply in annoyance. This wasn't the first time she'd been caught drifting off into space lately. "What are you going to be doing after school?"

"I'm going to be Keeper for the Harpies." Hermione grinned, touching the letter from their current Captain in the pocket of her robes. "After the baby is born, of course. So the Cannons had better watch out."

Ron blinked twice, then grinned. "Cool! See you on the Quidditch pitch, then!"

"If what Malfoy says is true, the Harpies are going to be a hard team to beat. Hermione's a natural who could give Oliver a run for his money!" Harry joined in, shooting a rather annoyed look at her for not showing her prowess during his reign as captain.

"We'll see about that!" Ron wasn't going to back down. He'd supported the Cannons all his life, and he was bound and determined to see to it they finally won again.

Hermione snickered softly. "We'll see. When you guys keep losing to us."

The argument stalled out as Dumbledore cleared his throat and rose to his feet. "Another year is over, and now it is time to announce the winner of this year's House Cup. As it happens, this is the closest score we have had since my tenure as Headmaster." His gaze took in the entire Great Hall and the students waiting to find out who had won. "There is no fourth place this year. For third, Hufflepuff House, with four hundred and ninety-five points."

Polite applause filled the air, as the Hufflepuffs grinned and waved. They hadn't been expecting to win. Dumbledore continued once the din died down. "With five hundred points, there is a tie between Gryffindor and Slytherin."

Noises that may well have been applause, or something else, shot between the two tables. Several of those in Gryffindor eyed Hermione, who sank back into her chair a little. If I hadn't had those points taken off, we would have won! And they all know it! If Peeves hadn't already been dead, she would've killed him for spreading that around. She could already see the Slytherins giving Draco a very different look; something much more akin to pride for getting Gryffindor knocked down some.

A deathly hush fell over the hall; they all knew what was coming next, but it had to be said officially before any cheering could start. "And in first place, with five hundred and one points...Ravenclaw!"

The cheers were absolutely deafening as a different house finally won the coveted prize. Hermione clapped sharply for several minutes, until her stomach started churning and bouncing harshly. Not again. "Excuse me." She slipped out of the Great Hall and bolted as soon as she was past the door, heading for the bathroom. She hated being pregnant.

Ron watched her go, then shook his head, glaring over towards Draco, who glared right back at him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Harry also shooting angry looks at the pale-haired Slytherin. This was probably their last chance to do something like this for a while.

"Behave, you two!" Sam snapped at them both. Ron didn't lift his glare by so much as a flicker of an eyelash. "Want me to go back to the U.S. instead of to your parents?" Now, that was just plain fighting dirty!

"Sorry." He looked away, Malfoy wasn't worth glaring at anyway, no matter how much Hermione liked him. Sam stamped down harshly on his foot and he stared over at her. "What was that for?"

"This is as much Hermione's fault as it is his, so don't take it all out on him!" Sam tried to sound like Hermione lecturing them, but Ron just couldn't bring himself to take her seriously at the moment, what with the pain in his foot.

Harry glanced from his friends to the Slytherin and back again. "I suppose." He didn't sound all that enthused about agreeing with her, though.

"No suppose about it. You'd better be glad that I don't make you two go apologize to him!" Sam threatened. Ron shook his head violently; that was going too far, even for his girlfriend!

"He should apologize to us too! He was glaring just as much as we were! I think he thinks it's funny!" The redheaded wizard declared. "Sam, he's not a cheery friendly nice person, he's a complete ass! Even if he is the ass Hermione loves!"

Sam rolled her eyes and shook her head, then shot a glare towards Draco. The Slytherin smirked back at her, not impressed at all by the heat in her gaze, or by her crossed eyes and stuck out tongue. He turned back to Blaise, the both of them sniggering softly at something or other. Sam was fairly convinced it was her, and Ron seemed to unknowingly agree, since he was snickering about something.

"What's so funny?" Hermione had squirmed her way back into the group. Ron shook his head, not wanting to answer, until she prodded him a little sharply. "Come on, tell me, Ronald!"

"Fine, fine!" He recounted what had just happened, and Hermione shook her head ruefully.

"Can't I leave any of you alone for ten seconds?" She caught Draco's eye, sending him an apologetic look and a gentle smile that she hadn't let him see in days. She knew, more than ever now, if he asked her to marry him again, she wouldn't turn him down this time.

The Hogwarts Express ran like a great scarlet snake through the countryside, the students inside in every kind of mood imaginable. The chatter ran high in virtually every compartment, including the one where Hermione, Ron, Harry, Ginny, and Sam sat. At least the latter four were talking animatedly; Hermione stared silently out of the window. Whatever was going on in her mind, she was keeping it to herself.

Ron looked worriedly at his friend; this was so unlike Hermione that he was really getting worried. She's been really quiet ever since the Ending Feast. I don't even think that she's talked to Malfoy. She's looked at him, but she hasn't talked to him. As far as everyone knew, no more dreams had tormented her or anyone else, and she'd been taking the potion Snape had provided faithfully, resulting in a minimum of health problems.

However, there was one little side effect that kept cropping up, and Ron winced as she darted past him to the nearby bathroom compartment. They could faintly hear the sound of whatever it was that could possibly be in her stomach surging back up violently.

"Ron, give it up," Sam advised her boyfriend. "Every time anyone opens their mouth to her, she loses something else from lunch!"

"I noticed." The redhead sighed. "Believe me, I noticed." He glared at where Ginny was giggling at him from beside Harry, the older boy's arm around her comfortably. Little sisters could be such a pain.

"I can't believe I'm going to spend the weekend with you," Ginny piped up to her boyfriend. "I've been wanting to meet that cousin of yours." Mischief equal to that of the twins gleamed in her bright brown eyes.

Harry nodded a little, looking just as amused as she did. Petunia might have modified her attitude a little, but Dudley still had a long way to go. "I never expected that to happen, I know."

"What?" Ron was feeling decidedly out of the loop. He was certain his mother would just say that this was part of growing up, but he didn't like it. These were his friends, why did they keep things from him?

Ginny lifted her head to look at him. "Didn't mom tell you? Harry's aunt invited me to stay for a weekend before Harry heads for Godric's Hollow." One of Harry's first projects now that they were out of school was to restore his family's old home and get it back in living order. No one doubted that there would be more Potters one day to fill it, either.

"Where's Hermione?" A familiar silver-topped head looked in, the rest of the body still out in the hallway. Draco glanced around the group, looking a bit displeased as he didn't see his girlfriend anywhere.

"Bathroom," Harry said. The antagonism between them all was probably never going to go away entirely, but it wasn't as harsh anymore.

"Again?" Draco had hardly spoken before Hermione was back, smiling a little at him. "Feeling queasy?" As soon as the words left his mouth, she turned around and headed right back to the bathroom, the same familiar sound reaching them.

Draco eyed the door warily as it reopened and she came out of there, looking somewhat ashamed of herself as she joined them. "Don't talk to her," Sam told her. "She'll just run back in there. It's been happening ever since we left Hogwarts."

Draco's eyes flicked from one cousin to another, one eyebrow elevated slightly in disbelief. "I see." He slid his arm around Hermione as she leaned closer to him, then tugged him out into the hallway. "Hermione?" He started to say something, then groaned audibly as she squirmed away from him, hand clapped to her mouth, and once more made the swift trek to the bathroom. Draco stared after her in disbelief. This has reached the point of ridiculous. Perhaps I should send an owl to Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey about this. One didn't have to be a mediwizard to know how wrong this was.

When she came back out, she motioned him into the cabin across the corridor from where the others were. "I think it's safe to talk to me now. I don't think there's anything left for me to bring up again." He nodded as they sat down together, arm around her once more. "I wonder if your dad or my mom saw that last dream. I don't know if they were asleep or anything then."

"My father did." Draco told her. "He sent me an owl about it."

Hermione nodded, the familiar confidant look in her eyes. "I could hear you, you know. All of you." Her eyes twinkled in amusement. "And I am not just a Mudblood."

"Are you so sure about that?" He grinned at her, his hand starting to inch back down to a pocket in his robes. "'mione, I want to ask you..."

"Merlin..." Hermione groaned suddenly, turning green. "Not again!"

Draco couldn't believe his eyes. Was there nothing that could be done? Thankfully, she wasn't in there very long, and came out with a rather rueful grin, hands folded over her stomach. "'mione," he came closer to her, hand going back to the pocket, "I want to...damn it!"

Before he'd even finished the sentence, she had dived back into the bathroom. No way. Not this time. He stalked into the small lavatory and looked to where she was 'worshipping the porcelain god', or so it was referred to in some of the Muggle stories she'd told him. Hideous things, but he'd always had a penchant for horror and unbelieveablity. "Hermione?" She looked up at him, her hair pulled to one side to keep it out of the way, and he pulled the ringbox from his robes, holding it out to her. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes!" Hermione smiled broadly, then laughed. "Can you imagine telling our child that their father proposed to their mother in the bathroom of the Hogwarts Express?"

Draco laughed himself as he helped her up, waiting for her to wash and straighten her robes before he slid the ring onto her finger. Both of them watched it glitter in the pale sunlight that slanted in through a window, flickering as they passed by trees and the occasional odd house. "I like how that looks." Hermione murmured. "I love it, Draco."

Once Hermione had freshened herself up via a quick wave of her wand and a couple of breath mints she'd been keeping on hand since this whole nausea mess had begun, she felt a lot better. Hand in hand, the two of them headed back to the cabin they'd been in before. This time, however, Crabbe and Goyle were there, surrounded by various piles of sweets. It appeared they were making the most of their final trip on the Express. Draco eyed the two of them, then looked at Hermione, making an obvious effort here. "I suppose we'll have to find somewhere else to be alone?"

"We'll go," Goyle got to his feet quickly, gathering up his share of the sweets. "There aren't any other open rooms." Those were the most words that Hermione could recall hearing from him at any given moment in her life. As the two of them passed by, she thought she saw Goyle's eyes on her engagement ring, and something that might well have been a faint hint of disappointment, but he was gone before anything could be said about it.

As the door was closed behind them, Hermione and Draco sat down, their hands still entwined about each other. Hermione leaned closer, kissing him deeply and warmly, her heart racing as he returned the kiss, his hands reaching up to entangle themselves in her hair. Her breath caught in her throat as the kiss grew stronger and stronger, then the door opened.

"We'll be at King's Cross Station in five minutes. Finish your kiss quickly and get ready." Sam grinned at them both knowingly, then stepped back and shut the door. Hermione glanced over at Draco and chuckled a bit, noting his pale pink blush.

"I like that." She touched his cheek gently. "This blush and her idea. Too bad we don't have time for a 'quicky'." Her eyes gleamed brightly in amusement. "Maybe some other time?"

"Maybe." Draco kissed her gently. "But I think that's how we got into trouble the first time in the Astronemy Tower." He kissed her again, keeping her occupied until they pulled into the station. Once they were both straight and no evidence remained of anything they'd done, the two of them headed out.

Once they were through the gate, the first thing Hermione saw were her waiting parents. She ran over quickly to hug them, then pulled back, holding out her left hand in silent acknowledgement. Her mother nodded approvingly. "Congratulations."

"It's about time." Her father told her. "I hope you have some kind of plans made."

Hermione just shook her head; her parents were never going to change.

Not that far away, the Malfoys were having their own little reunion. "Hello, father, mother," Draco nodded politely at them. "I hope you've been well."

Lucius nodded back towards him. Warmer greetings could come when they were home; this was in public. "How are things with Miss Granger?"

Draco's lips curved a touch. "You mean the eventual Mrs. Malfoy?" His father looked slightly surprised, and something that might have possibly been approval.

"She agreed?" Draco nodded slightly, and Lucius returned it. He motioned his son along, wanting out of the sight of the Muggles before they Apparated back to Malfoy Manor. Before they had taken many steps, Draco had caught Hermione's eye and they'd exchanged a nonverbal agreement to owl each other as soon as they could.

Hermione put the last of her things in her parents' car and curled up in the back seat, yawning a little. Her mother peered over at her from the front. "How are you feeling?"

"Good." Short answers were the order of the day. Anything longer meant she'd have to think, and Hermione was very much not in the mood for that. She made a mental note to mark the day as soon as she could. After all, that sort of thing didn't happen very often.

"Do you really love him?" Her mother wanted to know. Hermione nodded slightly, yawning once more. "Good. That's going to be important, you know."

"I know. I miss him already, though." She yawned even more, fidgeting around as the car started moving. Never have been able to sleep in a moving car. "I know I'm going to see him again soon, but it's just not soon enough."

Emma chuckled a little. "What are you going to do now?" She'd always wondered just what her daughter would do once she was a fully trained witch, and now that the day had come, she confessed inwardly to a deep curiosity as to what wizards and witches did.

Hermione yawned again, closing her eyes. "Have the baby. Play Quidditch."

"Hopefully in that order."

"In that order," Hermione agreed sleepily. "But first, marriage." She yawned again, only half-hearing her mother's admonition to get some rest, and mumbled something that might've been 'when we get home'. It was hard for her to tell, since she was deeply asleep in only a few heartbeats.