The Seventh Year Soap Opera

RECAP OF CHAPTER FIVE- Saying Goodbye: Hermione tells Ginny of her fifth year, when Harry told her he had to go into hiding under the Fidelius Charm. We get several flashbacks, including a flashback from Ginny's PoV. The Gryffindors have a New Year's Eve Party, during which Harry and Ron make up.

Chapter Six- Morning Sickness

"Where are we?" he asked.

There seemed to be a small sigh within the group, but they seemed to realize that he would know eventually. Harry waited patiently while Lupin offered Tonks his hand so she could step over a huge tree trunk. "We're in Little Hangleton," Tonks answered finally, pushing her white hair away from her face.

He stopped dead. "W-why?" he said hoarsely.

"Didn't you know that Voldemort used to live here when he was a boy?" demanded Moody gruffly, inspecting him carefully.

"Yes," said Harry, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. "But that doesn't answer why."

"Dumbledore's orders," said Moody, and from his tone Harry could tell he wasn't going to say anything more on the matter. Harry let out an irritable tut and continued walking.

After traveling a full day by carriage, Harry had arrived at the start of the woods in the morning. Tonks, Lupin, and Moody had been waiting for him. Greetings had been short; Tonks had offered a smile, Moody a grunt, but Lupin had given him a hug. And then they had started walking. They'd been at it a couple hours now, and Harry still hadn't been able to figure out why. Now, he knew they were walking somewhere in Little Hangleton. He had a faint suspicion where...

"Why are we going to the Riddle house?" he asked dully after ten minutes. Tonks tripped over a tree root. Lupin helped her up with worried eyes, then turned his attention on Harry.

"We don't know why, Harry. Dumbledore's -"

"Orders," finished Harry, thinking. Wasn't it sort of stupid to hide out in the place that Voldemort had grown up in as a boy? Where he had murdered his parents? Harry couldn't fathom why Dumbledore would send them there, of all places. Why not Grimmauld Place? Why not a cottage in the country?

"How did you know, Harry?" said Lupin.

"I've been there."

"What?" Tonks said sharply.

"In my dreams, that is. Once." Harry remembered that he had woken from that particular dream with his scar burning. He had written to Sirius about it. Sirius...

Don't think about him, thought Harry, stepping through the brush. He didn't like thinking about Sirius. He had talked about him with Ginny a couple of times, and had come to terms with his death, but it still hurt to think about him.

Instead, he began to feel guilty. Ginny didn't know where he was. Would she be worried? Would she hate him for not telling her? Would Ron and Hermione tell her?

Oh, Ron and Hermione...His heart gave a sharp pang. He missed them so much and he'd only been away from them for not even two days. And he didn't know how long he would be gone. Were they missing him, too? What a stupid thought. That's your best mate and your girlfriend you're talking about there.

He wondered how much longer it would take to reach the Riddle house. His feet were beginning to hurt and his head was starting to throb. He wished they could Apparate. He had been taught to Apparate during the summer. What was the point of teaching him that skill before everyone else if he couldn't even use it?

Eventually, Lupin gripped his shoulder. He stopped walking. Harry peered through the trees and felt a knot in his stomach. The Riddle house was right in front of him. Home sweet home, he thought sarcastically.

Harry rolled over in his four poster, and opened his eyes. He really wished he could stop dreaming about all that happened...there. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. A quick glance at his watch, which he had fallen asleep wearing, told him that it nearly seven. He knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep now.

Harry wiped his eyes and got out of bed, wanting nothing more than breakfast. "Ron, you awake?" He had sensed some movement from his once again friend's bed - Ron had forgotten to shut the hangings around his four poster. He briefly wondered if that was where Ron and Hermione had had...well, sex...but he pushed that thought of his head. It was a New Year. Ron had apologized. Harry had forgiven him. They weren't going to dwell on this anymore.

"Am now," grunted Ron and Harry smiled.

"Well, get up, then. Breakfast calls."

"Not gonna...wait...fer - 'Mione?" he mumbled in return, burying his head under his pillow.

"I think she can sleep for a while," said Harry.

"Mmmmm."

Harry rolled his eyes.

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

Hermione awoke with a splitting headache. "Great," she muttered, standing up quickly. As she did so, her head felt on the verge of exploding. She sat back on the four-poster and put her hand to her head. She sat like that for a few moments, then stood up again--slowly.

Looking around the room, she realized no one was there. Good, she thought, I don't have to get dressed in the bathroom today. Very slowly, she dressed into her usual plaid skirt, white blouse, grey vest, kneesocks, red and gold striped tie, and of course, her black robes. She ran a brush through her hair and looked in the mirror.

"You look like a ghost," the mirror commented. Hermione frowned. Indeed, her face looked very pale. She shrugged and headed in the direction of the Great Hall.

When she got there, she saw her fellow Gryffindors talking and laughing loudly, which didn't improve her headache. She sat down next to Harry and realized that the volume of noise in the Great Hall had decreased. Everyone thinks I was probably off shagging someone, she thought. She propped her head on her elbow and shut her eyes. She wanted to go back to sleep.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked. Hermione opened her eyes and nodded.

"Pass the rolls please," she whispered. Even that took energy from her. Harry offered her the basket. She selected the largest roll and began to slowly break it apart, piece by piece, and then set the pieces on her plate, forming a smiley face. She sighed, depressed. Why couldn't she be happy? She grabbed a piece and popped it into her mouth, savoring the taste.

Harry and Ron didn't notice. They were talking about Quidditch. Hermione raised her eyebrows at their behavior of acting like best mates again and popped another roll piece in her mouth. It truly was the best thing she had ever tasted.

She stared down at her plate and decided that the amount of roll pieces on it was not satisfactory. She grabbed three more rolls from the basket and broke them into pieces as well and set them on her plate. She smiled at the large portion of bread. That's better, she thought happily.

Then, she spotted the butter. Her eyes widened as she greedily reached for it, knocking over Harry's pumpkin juice in the process.

She didn't notice. Harry cleaned up the spill with a wave of his wand and stared at her curiously. "Are you sure you're okay?" he said, watching her butter the roll pieces on her plate.

Hermione responded by stuffing three roll pieces in her mouth. "Are you guys friends again?" she said.

"Say it, don't spray it," said Ron, wiping bread crumbs from his robes.

"Yes, we're friends again," said Harry.

Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness," she said. "Didn't want a stupid mistake to get in the way of your friendship."

"It already has Hermione. You can't change it," Harry said.

Hermione popped yet another piece of roll into her mouth. "Fine. But both of you will be a part of Katarina's life. Harry, since you are my boyfriend, and Ron, well--because you are the biological father."

"Katarina?" said Ron cluelessly.

Hermione grinned as she stared at her stomach. "I'm hoping for a girl," she admitted.

"Oh."

"One more thing," Hermione started, "Both of you will be present when I tell my parents."

"Whoa--"

"Wait a minute--"

Hermione looked at them in disbelief, grabbed two roll pieces from her plate, and threw them at the boys. "I don't believe this," she said, her voice steadily rising. "What I need the most now is support and you aren't going to give it to me?"

"Hermione, hon, we never said that. Calm down," said Harry.

Hermione shoved two roll pieces in her mouth and muttered something that sounded distinctly like, "Sorry. Mood swings." She swallowed and turned to them. "I want you there," she said firmly.

"Okay," Ron agreed, "But you have to be there when I tell my parents."

Hermione dropped the roll piece she was holding and her face was one of horror. "I forgot about them."

Ron grinned. "I know."

At the end of breakfast, Hermione decided to speak to Professor Dumbledore. She had been seriously thinking about telling him about her being pregnant.

"He probably all ready knows," said Ron when she told him and Harry as they walked out of the Great Hall.

Harry nodded grimly. "Yeah, not much gets past him."

"I know that," said Hermione quickly, "but I still think we should tell him, you know?"

"Do you want me there?" Harry said. "Because I have detention in ten minutes."

"Detention?"

"Oh...he didn't tell you?" said Ron, sniggering. "Harry told off Snape during his Occlumency lessons."

"But he's a teacher!"

"He's a git," Harry said emphatically.

"And I didn't know you were still taking Occlumency lessons," said Hermione, feeling a bit put out.

"Well, now you know!" said Harry, a little too brightly.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Fine, we can go later then. I have to talk to him about dropping my Head Girl duties as well."

"What?!" Ron said, shocked.

Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat. If there was something that irked her about this whole...thing, it was having to drop her duties as Head Girl. "Well, it's going to be pretty tough keeping up with them now that I'm seven months pregnant, isn't it?" she snapped.

"You're that far along?" Harry said. Hermione nodded. "See you in Transfiguration," he said, walking away.

Hermione saw Ginny out of the corner of her eye. Ginny saw her too and walked up to them. "Hermione?" she said.

"Later," Hermione said quickly. She didn't want Ron knowing she was telling his baby sister the whole story behind how they had, er, gotten together.

Ginny nodded and Hermione noticed her scrunch up her face at something. "Lavender, will you two get a room?" she said loudly. Seamus and Lavender, who had hitherto been involved in a passionate kiss, broke apart at Ginny's words.

Lavender cleared her throat and gave Seamus a seductive stare. "Got a little carried away," she explained.

"Well, next time, get a room," agreed Hermione. "You are making me sick." Along with those damn rolls.

Just as the words left her mouth, a familiar sensation crept over her. She knew she was going to hurl. She clutched her stomach. "Bathroom," she managed to say, pacing back and forth. Everyone stared at her, unaware of what to do. "Bathroom, please..."

"Is that a new dance, Granger?" a drawling voice came. It was Draco Malfoy, whom was now was a part of the crowd watching her pace back and forth.

Two second later, he was covered in vomit.

Seamus fainted.

"That was attractive," muttered Ginny, as she watched Malfoy wipe chunks from his robes.

"You'll pay Mudblood!" he yelled at Hermione, who looked at him in horror, petrified at what she had just done.

Malfoy started to walk away and Hermione felt ready to burst into tears. She had never been so humiliated. Ron, however, handed her a napkin and grinned. "Looks good on you Malfoy!" he called down the corridor.

"Well done!" Lavender exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Where is Parvati, I have to tell her!" She walked off too, forgetting all about her fainted boyfriend.

"Dumb blonde," someone in the crowd said after Lavender had left.

Hermione was crying now. "It's okay," Ron said awkwardly, patting her back. "Let's go to the common room."

"I'll try to revive Seamus," Ginny said. "The stupid prat."

Ron led a horrified Hermione to the common room and helped her to a chair. "Are you okay?" he asked, sitting in the chair across from her. Hermione nodded timidly.

"Do you need anything?"

"No."

"What do you want to do?" he said, looking down at his watch. "We have an hour and a half before Transfiguration."

"Nothing."

"Just sit here?"

Hermione nodded again. "Okay," Ron said, rubbing his hands together.

After a few minutes of silence, he stood up. "I'm going to go, er, help Ginny revive Seamus. I'll be back in a minute."

Hermione didn't answer. Just as he was about to leave, her voice called him back. "Ron, I'm sorry I've made your life miserable," she said suddenly. She didn't know where that had come from, but as she said it, she realized she truly was sorry for making his life miserable.

He turned around. "Hermione, you haven't made my life miserable."

Hermione looked at the ground and shook her head, feeling horribly depressed. Yes, she had, she mused. Always putting him down, always challenging everything he said...In any case - "It will be once I've had this baby," she said.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, I suppose you'd rather be off partying or dating or...something," Hermione said, looking up from the floor.

"I can still do those things, Hermione. My life won't be miserable. I'll have a baby to show off to all my girlfriends," he joked. "You know that women like guys with children."

Hermione managed a smile. "So if you have a lot of girlfriends, your life will be perfect?"

"Hell yeah!" He grinned. Good old Ron, Hermione thought. But she felt queasy at the thought, and she didn't know if the feeling was still from the rolls.

"My life will be better," he added.

Hermione's smile faded. "You don't have to lie."

"I'm not!" Ron protested. "I've always wanted children...just not so soon."

"I guess that's my fault." She sighed, feeling worse than ever.

Ron couldn't believe his ears. The Hermione Granger he knew was not like this. The Hermione Granger he knew did not blame herself for anything. "I don't think, er, making a child, is the sort of thing you can do by yourself," he said pointedly.

Hermione gave a dry laugh. I would certainly hope not, she thought. "That's true," she admitted. "You can go, er, tend to Seamus now."

Ron reluctantly left, leaving Hermione alone with her emotions. She was the worst she had ever felt. Guilt, fear, anger, frustration, and deep sadness mixed together inside of her, substituting the blood in her veins. For so long, she had been the strong one, keeping her feelings locked away in a secret chamber of her soul. No more. The key had been found and the chamber opened.

She cried herself to sleep, right there on the common room sofa.

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

After Seamus had finally been revived, Ginny and Ron walked back to the common room to find that Hermione had fallen asleep on the couch. Ron turned to his sister. "Leave her there?" he said.

Ginny shook her head. "Any moment now, people will come thundering in here and Hermione needs her sleep."

Ron bent down and gently lifted Hermione into his arms. He felt deep satisfaction holding her again as Ginny led him up to the dormitories. He also couldn't help but realize how peaceful she looked when she slept. And how beautiful.

Stop! he thought. That's how it all started. Remember? He remembered all right. The day he had ruined her and gotten her pregnant. He pushed away his thoughts and looked down at his best friend as he laid her on her bed and covered her with a blanket.

Fighting the sudden urge to tuck a lock of brown hair spread across her cheek behind her ear, he looked around the girl's dorm. There were three beds. Above Lavender's bed was a poster of some American guy (Brad Pitt, Ron read. Whoever that is.) A crystal ball decorated her nightstand. Parvati's bed was littered with fashion magazines and Ron was surprised to see that she had a picture of Dean on her nightstand. Go Dean! he thought.

His eyes wandered to Hermione's section of the room. On the dresser there was a picture of Harry, Hermione, and himself taken in their first year. In the picture, Hermione was smiling and holding a copy of Hogwarts, a History. He was standing behind her, lifting up her hair and making a face. Harry was laughing. Hermione's face grew red. Ron let go of her hair and burst into laughter at the look on her face. He and Harry continued to laugh, ignoring the glares they were receiving from Hermione.

Ron grinned. Hermione and her hair. He ran his hand over the dresser, which had been dusted. Unbelievable, he thought, shaking his head. His eyes rested on a house cleaning magazine next to the photograph and the letter on top of it. Ron stared befuddled at the signature on the bottom. "She's still writing to Krum?" he said incredulously.

Ginny walked over and examined the letter. "Ron, it's okay, he's not professing his undying love," she cracked.

Ron peeled his eyes from the letter to glare at her. "That's not funny," he said seriously.

"Look," said Ginny, pointing to the bookshelf next to Hermione's four-poster.

Ron skimmed the titles. "How many editions of Hogwarts, a History, are there?" he said.

"Six apparently," Ginny said dismissively. "Oh, Ron look! She has Quidditch Through The Ages! And some book about the Chudley Cannons!"

"That's nice," said Ron, beginning to feel guilty. They were invading Hermione's privacy.

"Oh, Ron look!" Ginny said again, opening Hermione's nightstand drawer.

Ron had had enough. "Ginny, get out of there!" he whispered.

Ginny ignored him and pulled out a tattered brown book that was frayed around the ages.

The words Hermione Granger were written in gold letters across the front, obviously by magic. "Ron!" Ginny said in a daze. "Ron, this is her diary!"

"So? Put it back."

"But--"

"Put it back."

"Fine," said Ginny somewhat moodily, throwing the book back in the drawer.

Ron hadn't seen his sister act like this before. His sister was normally considerate when it came to other people's things and feelings. She had been acting rather different lately, and he had no idea why. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Ginny said, and she too looked a bit guilty. "Let's just go."

He nodded, wondering what was bothering him. But he rid himself of those thoughts, as leaving Hermione's room was the higher priority at the moment. Ron took a last look at Hermione and his stomach flopped. He could remember the heat of that vivid night, the feel of her body arched against his...

He scowled. He hated thinking like that!

"Ron!" Ginny said shrilly by the doorway, clearly annoyed.

"Coming," Ron grumbled. Now he was in a bad mood. To lust after Hermione would only get him into trouble. She was Harry's girlfriend, and Ron didn't need any more rows with his best friend. Ron walked hurriedly out of the room thinking one thing.

Why did he always want what Harry had?

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

After Transfiguration, Harry walked back to the common room. Ron had told him that Hermione was sleeping and didn't want to be bothered, but Harry found it hard to believe that Hermione would want to miss Transfiguration, even if she had been horrified because she threw up all over Malfoy.

I still can't believe I missed that, thought Harry, as he stepped through the portrait hole. He and Ron exchanged a look - Hermione wasn't in the common room, so she therefore must still be asleep.

"You want to go to the library to do homework?" Ron asked him. Harry shrugged in reply, and the two of them made their way back out of the portrait hole. The Fat Lady grumbled something about waking her up for no reason.

"Sure," said Harry, and they walked to the library, stepping in ryhthm with one another.

Harry was enjoying having Ron as a friend again. The two of them had been best friends before they had even befriended Hermione, and he was a bit ashamed that she had come in the middle of their friendship. It was bollocks, actually, that a girl would come between them. He was ashamed that he had taken Ron's friendship for granted.

But now, that things had been settled between the three of them. Harry and Ron would help Hermione through her pregnancy and afterwards. Everything would be just fine.

Or so he thought.