Burning Down the House

'It's our turn.'

Ron stared at her blankly for a few moments. 'It's our turn? Our turn for what?' Then it dawned on him. 'It's our turn?' Hermione nodded. Ron slumped and buried his face in Hermione's lap, his arms going around her waist.

Hermione blinked in surprise. What ever reaction she had expected out of Ron, this was not what she'd had in mind. His shoulders started to shake, and his arms tightened around her waist a bit more. 'Ron?' He shook his head, and she stroked the back of his neck. 'Ron?' she asked uncertainly. When he finally lifted his face, she was speechless. He was laughing while tears ran down his face.

Ron began to stammer. 'B-b-b-but how?'

Hermione let out a choked laugh, and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. 'Ron, if you have to ask how, we've got a long evening ahead of us.'

Ron blushed. 'I mean I know how it happened, but when...? We haven't done anything since...' He trailed off, eyes widening. 'Was it then?'

'It had to be,' Hermione said. 'We'd been so busy the couple of weeks before that; we barely had the energy to kiss each other hello when we came home from work.'

Ron rose on his knees, so his face was level with Hermione's. 'It's our turn,' he whispered, before kissing her, holding her face between his hands like it was a piece of delicate porcelain.

******

Hermione wiggled her bare toes in the grass. It was starting to get chilly, but she wasn't ready to go inside yet. Ron was stretched out on the blanket next to her, a small smile playing on his lips. She looked up at the darkening sky through the roses. 'Do you think Dad knows?'

'Yeah, I do.' Ron reached up and snapped a rosebud off the branch over his head, and offered it to his wife. 'He's probably huffing that we're still too young.'

Hermione took the rosebud, and inhaled the scent. 'I miss him.'

'So do I.' Ron propped himself up on an elbow. 'He was the only person who could beat me at chess, you know.'

Hermione grinned. 'Keeps you humble to get your arse kicked every now and then, doesn't it?'

'Yeah. I'm still smarting from that game we played on your birthday. Which one was it? Nineteen?'

'That's the one. You just looked at Dad like he'd grown two extra heads, tipped your king over, and asked for a rematch the next Saturday.'

'I thought I was going to wet myself when I went to ask for permission to marry you.'

'Wait.' Hermione held a hand over Ron's mouth. 'You asked my father for permission to marry me?'

'Of course I did!'

'But why?'

Ron shook his head. 'Because I respected your father. Your mum, too. And there was no way I was going to do something like propose marriage to their only daughter without their permission.' Ron lay back down on the blanket. 'He was pretty flabbergasted by it, too. Said he didn't see why I was talking to him, since you were the one who was going to make the final decision.'

'Pretty archaic, if you ask me,' she said, throwing a roll at his head.

Ron fielded it without looking, and snorted, as he tore a piece off and ate it. 'That's what your mum said.' Ron crammed the rest of the roll into his mouth. 'It did explain a lot about you, hen.'

'Excuse me?' Hermione said archly.

'All those defects in your character,' Ron laughed. He was having a hard time keeping a straight face. 'Far too independent-minded.' He gave up, and curled up on his side, clutching his stomach, roaring with laughter.

Hermione gasped and began to pelt Ron with grapes. 'Too independent-minded, am I?'

Ron, still giggling, reached for her wrists, and pulled her down, so she lay across his chest. 'Thank Merlin for that, too. One of the things I love about you.' He tucked a curl behind her ear. 'I hope if we have a girl, she's just like you.'

Hermione kissed the tip of Ron's nose. 'So you want her to be an insufferable know-it-all, then?'

'Yep. I happen to like insufferable know-it-alls.'

'And you want her to punch someone like Malfoy on the nose?'

'The most brilliant thing you've ever done. If I didn't love you before that, I certainly loved you from then on.'

'Flatterer,' Hermione smirked. 'If you think that's going to get you in my knickers, well, it worked.'

'Totally my intention all along,' Ron vowed solemnly. 'Tell everyone Sunday?' he said, changing the subject.

'Much easier than trying to tell them one by one. It would take weeks.'

'When were you planning on telling Jane?'

'Thought maybe Saturday afternoon?'

Ron musingly ran a fingertip over Hermione's wedding ring. 'Why don't we ask her to come to Sunday lunch? She hasn't been since before... Before...' Ron bit his lip. He didn't want to destroy the mood.

'Dad died?' Hermione finished delicately. 'It's okay to say it. Won't make it hurt any less to not say it.'

'Yeah.' Ron turned her palm up and lightly kissed it. 'I wish he could see this.'

'What makes you think he can't?'

'Hermione?'

'Ron?'

'I love you.'

'I love you, too.' Hermione leaned down and kissed Ron.

******

Ron lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.

They were going to have a baby.

He hadn't thought it would be as terrifying as this.

In the space of a few hours, he had gone from elation to fear. A baby. Amazing how something so small could make you so scared. It wasn't like he'd never been around babies. Everyone had their turn babysitting Victoire, Isabella, Parker, Maddie, or James for at least a few hours. But even Ron had to admit to himself Harry was right. It wasn't the same as having one with you all the time. So helpless and defenseless. Dependant on you for everything. It made Ron break out into a cold sweat just thinking about it.

Even worse - what if it was a girl?

That just made Ron's stomach hurt.

What the bloody hell did he know about girls? Sure, he'd spent most of his childhood with Ginny, but Ginny hadn't been a girl. She preferred de-gnoming the garden to playing with dolls, played Quidditch with more intensity than possibly anyone Ron knew, with the exception of Oliver Wood and Harry. Ginny wasn't the weepy type and was loads tougher than most, if not all, of their brothers, himself included. She didn't even like pink. She claimed the color made her gag as a child. Ron squeezed his eyes shut. He knew Hermione liked to tease him that he had more than the emotional range of a teaspoon these days, but to be honest, girls still stumped him.

He rolled over and laid a hand over Hermione's stomach. 'I'll try my best not to screw up too badly,' Ron murmured. 'Just do one thing for me, all right? When you grow up, could you not take the mickey out of your old man too much for liking the Cannons?'

******

'What are you smiling about?' George threw a box of Daydream Charms to Ron.

'What do you mean?'

'You've had this, I dunno, sort of half-smile on your face all day. Like the cat with the canary.'

'It's just a beautiful day today, George.'

George glanced out the front window and snorted. It was raining heavily, and had been since shortly after they opened. 'You call that beautiful? We might as well close early today. It's been worse than dead all day.'

'Why don't you and Katie come over for dinner tonight, then?'

'Are you sure?'

'Yep. Bring the boys.'

'Oh, now I know you've gone daft. If you want to spend your evening with two rowdy toddlers.'

'I'll put Cushioning charms on the all corners and Toddler-Repelling charms on all the breakables.'

'Are you sure you want to go through all that trouble?'

'George, it's not that big a deal. Go on, go ask Katie.'

George squinted at his youngest brother. 'What's gotten into you? You've been almost anti-social lately.'

'It's a good day, that's what.' Ron motioned for George to go, so George shrugged and turned, disappearing with a pop.

Ron could hardly contain himself. He wanted to stand on the top of Westminster Abby and shout to all of London that he was going to be a father.

But he had to wait for Sunday. It was like trying to wait for Christmas.

George reappeared, an expression of relief warring with concern mixed on his face. 'It's all right with Katie. She's just thrilled she won't have to try to put anything together for dinner tonight, even if all you do is put out a plate of pumpkin pasties.' George frowned. 'I really hope that's not what you're planning.'

Ron rolled his eyes. 'Of course not.' He jabbed a finger into his chest. 'This is me you're talking to.'

'Oh, right. Momentary lapse of concentration.' George picked up a few boxes of Daydream Charms. 'Are you sure it's okay with Hermione? She's looked a bit peaky lately.'

'Oh, she's fine.' Ron hid a grin while he threw a handful of rubbish to the Pygmy Puffs. 'She's just fine.'

******

Katie dropped a heavily-laden bag next to the door of the flat. 'Are you sure this is all right?' she asked, trying to keep a firm grip on Jacob's wrist. 'No, Jacob. We don't grab the kitty,' she told her son, while he tried to make a grab for Crookshanks' bottle-brush tail.

'It's fine.' Hermione glanced at Crookshanks, lounging on the arm of the sofa. He had spent several years being hauled around and petted by first Teddy, then down the list of the various Weasley grandchildren and turned into a large ginger rug around children, allowing them to do pretty much anything they wanted, short of pulling his whiskers. 'And Crookshanks likes the attention.' She scratched the cat under his chin. 'Don't you, Crookshanks?' Crookshanks stretched his head out, eyes closing to slits, and purred with a deep, staccato rumble.

Hermione knelt on the floor and held out a hand to Jacob. Jacob wriggled from his mother's grasp and zoomed to Hermione, large blue eyes fixed on Crookshanks. He reached up to pat the cat, and screeched with laughter when Crookshanks licked his hand. Not to be outdone by his twin, Fred dropped his stuffed dragon, and ran to investigate what Jacob was doing. Crookshanks lazily slunk off the sofa, and ambled around the sitting room, with the boys following closely behind him. He would stop every so often, and oh-so-casually wash a paw, and wait for the boys to pat him a few times, and then he was up and trotting slowly around the room.

Hermione caught Katie's slightly anxious frown. 'It's all right. Victoire used to put bonnets and dresses on him, and he would just lie there and let her do it.'

'Oh, I'm not worried about Crookshanks. I'm sure he can take care of himself.' Katie waved off Hermione's concerns about the cat. 'I'm just not sure we should be here invading your evening like this.'

'Really, it's all right. It's been a bit too quiet around here lately,' Hermione said.

'How's your mum?'

'Doing all right. She's going to come to lunch on Sunday.' Hermione grew quiet, watching the twins play with her cat. She felt tears prickle behind her eyelids. It still didn't feel real, knowing that the scene playing before her would, in fact, become reality soon. All the weeks and months of waiting. It was over.

'Earth to Hermione...' Katie waved a hand in front of Hermione's unseeing eyes.

'Wha...?'

'You went somewhere for a while.'

'Just thinking.' Hermione pointed to the boys draped over Crookshanks' stomach, rubbing their faces against the fluffy fur. 'I'm looking forward to something like that.'

'Ha!' Katie huffed. 'You don't want two at a time, believe me. Oh, everyone tells you how lucky you are to get it all over with at once, but they fail to mention it's twice the nappies, twice the crying, twice the insanity, twice the feedings.' The corner of Katie's mouth twitched into a soft smile. 'I wouldn't trade it for anything. Especially when they're laughing like that. Or when they babble to each other, and you'd swear they were making up plans to create mayhem, but one will look up us with the sweetest smile, and it's most beautiful thing you've ever seen.'

Katie leaned back, contemplating her sons. 'But you realize how very different they are, even as identical as they are. Jacob hates taking naps, and will fight you to the end. Fred will sleep all day if you let him. They smile differently. Jacob runs into something full-tilt and Fred will hang back and watch to see what happens to Jacob first.' Katie looked at Hermione sitting next to her. 'As great as it is, you're still grateful when they go to sleep. And they look so adorable and innocent in their cots, and it just makes you want to have another one.' Katie sighed, a dreamy look on her face. She shook her head, making the honey hued waves dance around her face. 'Then, one of them wakes up screaming bloody murder and all bets are off.' She grinned ruefully and leaned closer to Hermione. 'I'll tell you a secret, though. George, he's the biggest marshmallow when it comes to the boys. I swear he'd give them each the moon if he could.'

******

Hermione sat at the table, watching Ron slice tomatoes. Every so often, she would sneak one from the pile he was about to add to the salad. 'Stop it,' he said mildly.

'Stop what?' she asked innocently.

'Stealing my tomatoes.'

'Fine,' she said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. And she reached for a carrot slice, grinning cheekily at Ron. She glanced out the kitchen window. They were planning to eat lunch outside, and most of the family was in the back garden. 'So how are we going to do this?'

Ron set the knife down, and gathered the tomatoes in his hands. 'I dunno,' he admitted. 'I was thinking about that last night.' Ron dropped the tomatoes on top of a mound of lettuce. 'Maybe we should just say it. None of that, "Hey, we have an announcement to make" rubbish.'

'So you're thinking something along the lines of, "Hey, Harry, could you pass me the potato salad, and oh, by the way, Hermione and I are going to have a baby?" Have you lost your mind?' Hermione glared at Ron.

'Well, it's better than trying to find a lull in the conversation from the mob out there!' Ron pointed to the open window. A window neither of them realized was wide open, and the whole family could hear their increasingly heated conversation. 'If we had to wait for a good moment to tell them all you're pregnant, he'll be boarding the bloody train for Hogwarts!'

'How do you know it's going to be a "he", Ronald Weasley? It could be a "she" you know!'

'I know,' shouted Ron. They had pushed out their chairs, and were now standing nearly nose-to-nose.

'And why shouldn't we make a big deal out of this?' Angry tears formed in the corners of Hermione's eyes. 'We can finally tell the whole damn family we are having a baby!'

The words dropped into the yawning silence. Even the little ones were cowed into silence by all the shouting. A silence that was only broken by Bill's stunned query of, 'What did you say?'

Hermione and Ron's heads slowly turned to face the open window. Every single person from Arthur all the way down to James, including Andromeda and Teddy, was standing by the window, speechless, mouths open.

Ron straightened his shoulders and grasped Hermione's hand.

'We're having a baby.'