The Consequences of Alcohol and Depression

The Consequences of Alcohol and Depression

Chapter 12: Old Acquaintances, Shopping, and Names

A visit to see Ameila a week after the date with Ron told Hermione that the baby was still fine. Although Ameila had offered to use the proper spells to detect the child's gender, Hermione and Percy had decided against it. They didn't want to know just yet.

Quickly gathering her purse and her winter cloak, Hermione locked the door to her office. She was meeting Percy at the Leaky Cauldron when he got off work, and they were going to go baby shopping.

"I'll see you later, Chelsea," Hermione said as she tightly fastened her cloak to protect her against the now-cold winds blowing outside. "I'm going baby shopping tonight."

"Oh, really?" Chelsea asked happily. "Um, where is Percy at?"

"We're meeting at the pub," she told her secretary, smiling.

"Hermione?" Chelsea asked carefully. "I know this will sound strange, but, um, would it be okay with you if I asked Percy out sometime?" Even after learning about the whole story, with Percy being the father of Hermione's baby, Chelsea still hadn't gotten over her attraction to him.

The question took Hermione by surprise. Even though she knew her secretary liked Percy, she didn't think Chelsea would have wanted to ask him out. "I- uh, well…" Hermione said, biting the inside of her lip. She didn't really like the idea of Percy going out with her notoriously wild secretary.

"You know," the other woman said quickly, "I won't ask him if you've got any problems with it. With him being the father of your baby and all. But, I mean, you have said that there is nothing going on with the two of you, and I rather like him."

Finally, forcing a fake smile onto her face, Hermione replied. "No, I guess I don't mind," she said with false cheeriness. "I've got to go, now."

"I'll see you later, then," Chelsea replied happily, a big grin plastered on her face. Hurrying out of the office, Hermione took off towards the Leaky Cauldron, muttering under her breath about loose secretaries.

Arriving quickly at the pub, Hermione hung her cloak on the coat rack and sat down at the bar. "Hermione, how are you?" Tom asked, smiling warmly. When she had first placed the order for the peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich, Tom had had his suspicions that Hermione was pregnant. He had been quite happy when he'd been proven right.

"I'm doing good, Tom," she replied, rubbing her hands together.

"And how's the baby?" he asked, nodding towards her belly.

"It's doing fine," Hermione told him with a grin, softly patting her stomach. "Could I get a cup of coffee? Decaffeinated?"

"That'll be right up," the barkeep said pleasantly. As promised, the drink was out momentarily. Hermione sat down and slowly sipped from her mug, waiting for Percy to arrive. He said he'd have to work at bit late, but that he'd be there as soon as possible.

Five-ten rolled around, quickly followed by five-fifteen, which was then succeeded by five-thirty, all with no sign of Percy. The mug had long been drained, and Hermione's overactive bladder was still in effect.

"Tom," she said, catching his attention, "If Percy Weasley comes in, will you tell him I'll be right back?"

"Sure thing," he said, nodding. Hermione quickly rushed off to the bathroom, hurrying the trip as much as possible. As she scanned the bar while she headed back to her seat, she accidentally bumped into someone.

"I'm sorry," she said politely, cringing as she saw the face of the person she'd literally run into.

"Well, well, Hermione Granger, fancy meeting you here."

"Hello, Jeremy," she said courteously, "How are you?"

"I'm fine," he said silkily, staring at her waist. "Did you just go on some kind of a binge after we broke up or something?"

"No, you twit, I'm pregnant," she said, her anger rising.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "Hermione, why didn't you tell me?" he asked. "We may have broken up, but I would've taken some responsibility for that." As he spoke, he gestured to Hermione's belly.

Her anger now hitting an almost unmanageable point, Hermione scowled. "What, you think I couldn't have gotten over you? That there's no chance some other bloke knocked me up?"

"Well, you never did deal well with getting over things," Jeremy told her, crossing his arms over his chest. He was taking a cheap shot, reminding her of the promotion she'd been promised whilst they'd been dating. Hermione had taken it rather hard when they'd given it to someone else at the last minute, and it had taken her quite a while to deal with it's loss.

"Listen, Jeremy, this baby isn't yours, so why don't you just leave me alone?"

"If it's not mine, who's is it?" he asked. Hearing the bell on the front door of the pub ring, Hermione quickly turned around, seeing a familiar head of red hair enter.

"His," she said simply, smirking. She waved to Percy, who quickly walked over, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry I'm late, I couldn't get away from work," he said, not noticing that Hermione's ex-boyfriend was standing there.

"Jeremy, you remember Percy Weasley, don't you?" she asked, quickly taking Percy's hand in her own. Percy did a double take at the mention of Jeremy.

"Oh, yes, how do you do, Percy?" he asked dryly.

"Just fine," Percy said, taken aback at the rudeness Jeremy displayed.

"Yes, we're just about to go baby shopping," she said pointedly, squeezing Percy's hand tighter. A death glare was present on her face.

Quickly getting the hint, Percy wrapped his free arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Yes, we must be getting to that."

"Pleasure seeing you again, Jeremy," Hermione replied sarcastically.

"Uh, you too," Jeremy replied, a shocked expression on his face. Hermione quickly walked to the counter while Percy gathered her cloak and purse. Giving Tom a few Knuts to cover the coffee and a tip, she let Percy help her into her cloak, being sure they were within Jeremy's line of view.

As they walked into the chilly air, Hermione sighed heavily. "What was up with him?" Percy asked. "He was being rather rude, if you ask me."

"Oh, he just can't believe that I could have gotten over him. He is such a jerk. Lucky you showed up when you did," she told him, running a hand through her hair.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that," Percy said sheepishly, his cheeks turning red with more than the cold. "Dad couldn't let me leave. We had some problems."

"Oh, don't worry," Hermione said nonchalantly. She had been a bit peeved with Percy at first, but Jeremy had always been able to make sure her anger was directed at him.

"So, you said you wanted to go to that store you and Ginny found, then?"

"Yeah," she replied, nodding. Hermione and Percy quickly Apparated to Hogsmeade, in front of 'The Baby Stop.' Stepping inside, Percy was immediately mesmerized.

"Woah," he said quietly, looking around at all of the tiny clothes and accessories. "Um, what did we need to get, again?"

Pulling a slip of parchment from her purse, Hermione quickly scanned the scribbled list. "We need a highchair, a crib, a changing tray, disposable nappies, a mobile-"

"Didn't Ron already get us one of those?" Percy asked, turning to Hermione.

"I will not have my child lying underneath that hideous orange thing. Chudley Cannons… with people chasing after Bludgers and such! It's violent!"

"You know," he said timidly, "They don't actually chase the Bludgers." Hermione simply scowled at him and set off to examine several white and pink mobiles that had no Quidditch paraphernalia.

"And," Hermione continued, "We need powder and lotion, a towel set… well, lets just look around for a bit."

An hour later, Percy looked about ready to drop. He was carrying several boxes and bags that Hermione had decided were absolutely necessary, even though she didn't even know what several of them were for.

"Hermione, what does this thing even do?" Percy asked bewilderedly, holding up a box with a picture of a complicated looking mechanism on the front.

"Oh, honestly," she replied exasperatedly, "It's a… a… oh, do you men know nothing about babies?!" Shaking her head in frustration, Hermione walked over to the next aisle.

"I'm just saying," he said, adjusting the packages in his arms, "Is that maybe we should cut back a little today. I mean, we saved up, sure, but I don't know exactly how much we'll be able to afford."

Quickly looking at the things Percy was carrying, Hermione realized he was right. Sighing, she nodded her head. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Sadly, she assessed the required items, placing the others back in their proper locations.

"Don't worry, Mione," Percy said soothingly, patting her back. "I mean, Christmas is coming up. I'm sure everyone's going to want to buy us things for the baby."

"Yeah," Hermione said as she stared at the unknown item Percy had questioned her about. Finally gathering only the necessities, they approached the cashier. Percy sighed happily as he set the heavy items down on the counter.

"Um," the young cashier said, "You do know we have carts, don't you?" She quickly motioned towards a queue of buggies lined against a wall. Percy glared darkly at them as he massaged his sore arms.

"So, did you find everything okay?" the woman asked Hermione.

"Yeah," Hermione told her, looking wistfully towards the shelves and the items she'd left behind. Before they left, Hermione and Percy had paid one hundred forty-two Galleons, fourteen Sickles, and three Knuts.

Hermione and Percy used the special Apparition bags the store provided, arriving home with all of their purchases intact. "Well, that was certainly a strange journey," Percy said, shaking his head.

"Yes, and we aren't nearly done," Hermione told him as they walked to the nursery, settling the bags in the closet. They had removed the office furniture, and it was now just a bare room. Quickly looking around, Hermione turned to Percy. "When are we going to decorate in here?"

"Decorate?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What, hadn't you thought of that?" she questioned teasingly. "Seriously, we need to get it done. We can't just have a bare room for a baby. Now, what color should we do it in?"

Percy bit his lip. "Um, green?" he asked tentatively.

"No, not green," Hermione told him with heavy emphasis on green. "My child won't live in Slytherin colors. Now, how about pink?"

Percy shook his head vehemently. "No pink! Even if it is a girl, I won't have my child living in a pink room."

"Fine!" she replied snappily. "What color would you have, then?"

"Oh, I don't know," he said, slowly turning in circles. Hermione watched as he caught sight of the blanket Parvati had made. "What about yellow?"

Looking at the walls, Hermione nodded. "Yeah… yellow. I like it."

******

Despite her best efforts, Hermione couldn't recruit anyone to help decorate the nursery. She and Percy had decided to do it all in one weekend, the upcoming one, and everyone had plans. They had spent much of their free time researching Painting and Coloring Charms.

Friday afternoon, Hermione had changed into some loose fitting clothing (a challenge, in her case) and held her wand ready as she and Percy marched into the soon-to-be nursery. They had worked long into the evening, managing to get one and a half of the walls painted.

Saturday morning, they both woke early and were back at work. Just after they had restarted after lunch, a thought came to Hermione. "Percy?" she asked, turning to face him.

"Hmm?" he asked, wiping his forehead with the back of his sleeve.

"You know what we haven't discussed yet?"

"What?" he questioned as he carefully aimed his wand at the wall, a spurt of paint coming forth and spreading evenly over the surface.

"Baby names," Hermione told him.

Percy stopped and looked at her strangely. "We haven't, have we?"

"Nope," she replied.

"Well, what about… John for a boy, and Terri for a girl?"

Hermione grimaced. "Ugh, no! No way!"

"Why not?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They just don't sound right. I mean, John Granger-Weasley? No thank you."

"Um, how about Carrie?" he suggested.

"And have a homicidal prom queen? No!" Hermione said firmly.

"Homicidal prom queen?" he asked, eyeing Hermione as if she had just turned into a giant chicken.

"It's from a Muggle novel," she said, waving him off. "How about Marshall?"

"Marshall?" Percy asked, snorting. "I think not."

"Okay… Serena," Hermione said, placing her hands on her hips. Percy shook his head.

"Um," he said, biting his lip, "Taran?" Hermione made a noise like a buzzer. She and Percy went back to painting, shooting off random names.

After forty minutes, they were still at it. "Oh!" Percy said excitedly, "I've got it! How about Thomas?"

Hermione smiled. "I think I could live with Thomas. What do you think of Sharon?" Percy shook his head slowly. Hermione kept spouting off with female names for five minutes. "Okay, then, Nicole."

"Nicole?" Percy asked, cocking his head to the side. A small smile hit his face. "Yeah, I like it."

"So we're decided then?" Hermione said. "Thomas for a boy, Nicole for a girl?"

Percy nodded. "For now, anyway. Who knows, we might want to change it when the baby's born."

"Alright, then," she said, holding out her hand; Percy quickly shook it.

******

(A/N- What did you all think of Jeremy? He is a supreme jerk, as you can tell. I mean, really, he's just an idiot! And, everyone can bring on your comments about Percy in OotP, I’m ready for ‘em!
Now, let me say, I am really sorry this took so long to get out. In April, my mother passed away, and, being underage, I had to move in with my Dad. My sister got to keep our computer, and I’ve only just gotten my one. To make up, I’ll be posting quickly. And, once again, I apologize for the wait.

On the name, I might change it when the baby is born, but who knows? I might also know the gender, but I don't think I'll tell. Even then, I sometimes surprise myself!