An Unexpected Gift

An Unexpected Gift

~ Chapter 03 ~

"I'll go after him," Hermione said. She got up, but Dumbledore caught her arm.

"Perhaps that is not the best thing to do right now. I think he just needs to blow off steam.

She sat back down quietly.

Ginny buried her face in her hands. "What am I gonna do? My parents are gonna kill me."

"This is an unfortunate circumstance," Dumbledore said. "But not one we have not dealt with before." He was silent for a moment. "I will hold off on notifying your family until you are ready for them to know. Or until you give birth. Whichever one comes first."

"Thank you," Ginny said, a little more relieved than before.

Dumbledore told Madam Pomfrey to check Ginny over to make sure she was doing okay and to make sure there were no complications so far, and then he left.

Madam Pomfrey checked her over and confirmed that there were no complications. Hermione and Ginny left the hospital wing together. They got about halfway to Gryffindor Tower before Ginny stopped in the middle of the hallway. Hermione kept going a few more steps. Noticing that Ginny was no longer walking with her, she stopped and turned around.

"Coming?" Hermione asked.

Ginny didn't answer for a minute. She was looking down at the floor. "You know what the worst part of all this is?" she asked.

"What?" Hermione said, taking a couple steps closer to Ginny.

"I'm still going out with Dean Thomas and... the baby I'm gonna have isn't even his."

"So you cheated on your boyfriend of over a year, and now you're pregnant with someone else's child. Good job."

Hermione and Ginny turned around at the sound of Ron's voice behind them. He was leaning up against the brick wall with his arms folded, a glare fixed on his face.

"You know," he said, "I never figured you'd be the one to screw up like this. I always thought I would be the one to mess up. I thought you'd finish your schooling -"

"Whoever said I wasn't gonna finish school?" Ginny protested.

Ron looked at her like she was nuts. "You can't go to school and take care of a kid, too! It's just not possible!"

"Watch me," she said in a menacing tone.

"She'll have help, too," Hermione said. "From her friends and teachers."

"And hopefully from you as well, Ron," said Ginny. "I really want you to be a part of my baby's life. You're my big brother, I really care about you."

"I care about you, too. But... this is just something I'm really gonna have to think about."

"Okay," Ginny said, sounding really ticked. "Fine. Think about it all you want. I have to go talk to someone about something."

"You do that," said Ron. "You just go ahead and do that."

But Ginny was already halfway down the hallway and didn't seem to hear. Or, she was just pretending not to.

Hermione crossed her arms and glared at Ron disgustedly. "You really can't help but be hard on her, can you?" she said. Before Ron could respond, she left in the direction Ginny had. When she turned the corner at the end of the corridor, she found that Ginny had been waiting on her. When they got to Gryffindor Tower, Ginny shouted the password at the Fat Lady - startling her out of her slumber - and marched through the portrait hole. Once they were both in, they discovered that (by what they could see) it was deserted.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked.

Ginny didn't say anything at first. "I can't believe him sometimes," she said. "He should at least try to be supportive. I mean, what does he have to think about? I'm the one having a kid." She was silent for a moment. "Gosh, it's bad enough that I'm gonna have a kid at sixteen. It just makes it worse that it's not Dean's. I mean... he's gonna hate me when I tell him. He'll dump me faster than I can say 'Every Flavor Beans.'" She sighed. "That'll teach me to drink."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

Ginny looked at her. "I was drunk when I had sex, so I have no clue who the father of my child is. I just don't think it's Dean's because I was dancing with him before I met some guy over by the refreshments table. That's all I remember. That, and us taking a walk and ending up at one of the greenhouses. That's where I was when I woke up the next morning."

Hermione didn't say anything for a minute. "So, you don't even know who the father of your child is?"

"No. But I guess we'll find out when I have it," she said, shrugging. "I mean... it won't look completely like a Weasley." They were both silent for a minute or two. "Do you mind taking off for a little bit?" Ginny asked. "I need to... think about some things."

"Sure," Hermione said, and she got up and left.

Ginny walked over to one of the chairs in front of the fire and leaned on the back of it. She stayed like that for a moment until she noticed someone sitting in the other chair. "So, do you make a habit of listening to other people's conversations when they don't know you're there?" The person in the chair got up, and it startled Ginny to realize that she was face to face with her boyfriend, Dean Thomas. "Oh," she said in a surprised tone. "It's you."

"When were you planning on telling me, Ginny? Or were you just going to leave me in the dark about it and let me find out by the 'Hogwarts gossip line'?"

"No, and I was going to tell you as soon as possible, but I didn't know where you were. So I thought I would wait up here for you. Now, I guess there's no need for me to tell you the story because you've just heard the whole thing."

"Yeah, I suppose I have." They were both silent for a moment. "I can't believe you would do this to me. I mean, it'd be completely different if it was my child. But, since you're so dead set that it's somebody else's...." He was pacing back and forth in front of the fire with his arms crossed, not looking at her.

"Dean, we only had sex that one time, and that was early summer at the Burrow when everyone else was out... doing their own things."

"Trust me - I remember every minute of it. That was... the best damn two hours of my life."

"Yes, I know it was wonderful, but... if this was your child, I would have started having symptoms long before this."

"I just don't understand how you could do this to me. I thought we had something. I thought we had a good relationship. I guess... I guess I was wrong."

"No, Dean, you're not wrong! We do have a good relationship. I made a mistake - a big, big mistake. It's something that I regret dearly, and if you can't forgive me, I completely understand. But, please, if you break up with me, let it be because you can't stand the thought of me being with another man - even when you know it wasn't my fault. But don't let it be because you think I was unfaithful. Because then it would be you making the mistake, not me."

He didn't say anything for a minute, but stopped pacing and looked at her. She put her head down, but with his hand he lifted it back up so they were looking into each other's faces. "Hey, it's gonna be okay." A tear fell down her face. "I'll... I'll help you."

She looked up at him. "You will?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah." They hugged for a long time. Breaking apart, Dean said, "I'm gonna go down to dinner. You wanna come?"

"No, thanks." She wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

"Do you want me to bring you something back?"

"No. I think I'll just go over the kitchen in a little bit."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sure." She gave him a small smile, got up, and sat down on one of the comfy armchairs.

"Okay, then," he said. "Well... I'll see you later."

And, with that, he left Ginny by herself in the Gryffindor common room.