The Potions Master's Baby

Chapter 1: The Deed is Done


Hi again! It’s been a while since I wrote Sev…I was busy for quite awhile with ol’ Lucius, but I am back and I hope you enjoy this crazy little tale.


Alright, as usual, do not expect canon from me, this is AU/AR all the way. Characters will be slightly OOC at times and I will make no apologies for it!! I write it as it unfolds in my head so I am slave to the whims of my muse.(and more often than not slave to whatever Slytherin tickles my fancy)


Now, sit back and relax and we will just jump right into it…


Hermione Granger paced nervously in front of the fireplace in the sitting room of her quarters. A white plastic stick lay on the coffee table, taunting her as she waited for the small hourglass sitting beside it to run down. She had her fingers crossed, praying to get the result she wanted.


As she paced a million thoughts raced through her head. She wished things had been different, but they weren’t and nothing she could do would change what was. If things had been different she would be waiting for the results with a husband, with Ron. But a runaway carriage had ended any chance of that three months before their wedding.


She sat down on the sofa and thought about the path her life had taken. Once upon a time she had been a regular little girl, doing the normal little girl things when once evening while playing with her dolls she had made them dance. She recalled screaming her head off as she ran down the hall searching for her parents. Over the next few years she had figured out that she was different, odd things always seemed to be happening around her, especially when she was upset.


Then finally, one summer afternoon a letter arrived, delivered by a dark brown owl that landed on the window sill and scared her mother half to death. It was an acceptance letter to Hogwarts and with it an explanation that Hermione was a witch and would receive proper magical training if she attended the school. It had taken some convincing, but her parents finally relented and she was off to school.


She soon met Harry and Ron and the people who would become her family. It wasn’t an easy adolescence that was certain, but they had gotten through it and come out all the better for it. She and Ron had finally found their way together, finally figured out their feelings for each other and for 3 years they were blissfully happy and planning a future, together. In an instant it all had changed. One moment she was sitting with Ginny in the living room at the Burrow looking over the seating charts and the next she was on her knees in front of Harry sobbing as he informed her of Ron’s accident.


She couldn’t recall the funeral. She didn’t remember seeing him all dressed up in his casket, she didn’t recall the music being played or the moment they put him in the ground. She had a vague recollection of the weeks that followed, of not being able to move, lying in their bed crying until her eyes burned and ached. It was months before she left the flat and visited his grave and almost a year before she got back into her studies and finished her education.

For the last two years she had been teaching History of Magic at Hogwarts. She loved her job, even if her classroom was nestled in beside the potions classroom in the dungeons and she had to suffer through the rancid odor that drifted in throughout the day. At least her quarters were near Gryffindor tower where fresh air and bright sunshine permeated the rooms.


All in all she was happy with her life. She had great friends, a great job, but she wanted something more. She was thirty years old, single and she had no prospects to change that fact any time soon. She had a hard time with men, they annoyed her most of the time and she rarely found one who could hold a decent conversation. She would rather be alone than be with someone she couldn’t talk to.


The little hourglass chimed softly and Hermione held her breath as she reached for the little stick that would define her future. She lifted it to eye level and stared at the two solid blue lines, her future just looked a shade brighter.


~@~



Harry Potter stared at his beloved friend and wondered if she had finally gone around the bend. What frightened him most as he stared at her was that he could see she was dead serious. What had happened to her? She was the most level headed, reasonable person he knew. She was calm, collected and not given to flights of fancy, so what in the hell was she thinking.


“I’m afraid I don’t understand, Hermione. What do you mean when you say you are pregnant?” Harry asked, blinking rapidly behind his spectacles.


“I mean that I am going to have a baby, with child, enceinte, knocked up, I have a bun in the oven, a newt in the cauldron…”


“Alright, enough of that.” Harry frowned, turning to look at his wife sitting next to him with a smile on her face. “Did you know about this?”


“I knew she wanted a baby.” Ginny said. “I wasn’t expecting her to come and tell us she was expecting so soon.” Harry turned back to Hermione and gave an exasperated sigh.


“What…how? You haven’t had a boyfriend in…five years? Was it an accident? Who is the father?” He asked.


Hermione sat back with a smile on her face. Poor Harry, he was so confused and obviously worried. She appreciated his concern of course, but it was her life, her body and her choice. She wanted a child, was ready to be a mother. The only problem had been that she had no husband or boyfriend and no prospects for one in the near future. So she did the research and made the decision to do it on her own.


“Donor 47594. He has brown hair, brown eyes, tested high in magical ability and IQ; he is thirty three, unmarried, and a non-smoker with no negative genetic factors.” She answered, waiting patiently for the information to soak in.


“Wait…you bought sperm?” Harry asked, a horrified expression twisting his features.


“Well it isn’t as though I walked into ASDA and bought it!” Hermione laughed. “I went through a very extensive screening process to choose just the right donor.”


“Why didn’t you ask us?” Ginny pouted. “Harry could have been your donor and then your baby would be related to our children.”


“What?” Harry’s head snapped around abruptly to glare at his wife. “Don’t be offering my sperm up to our friends! It isn’t like she wants to borrow sugar, its sperm!”


“Oh calm down.” Ginny said with a roll of her eyes. “It isn’t like I meant for you to have sex with her.” Harry and Hermione both curled their noses with a simultaneous ‘ewww’. “I just meant that you could have been her donor and our kids would be related. I always wanted our kids to be related.”


Hermione saw the sadness creep over Ginny’s face and she felt the stab of pain in her heart. If things had been different their kids would have been blood kin.


“Gin, that is so sweet and believe me, I would love nothing more than for our kids to have been related, but it wasn’t meant to be. And no offense, but the idea of Harry’s sperm anywhere near me makes me want to shower.” Hermione said with a shudder.


“Hey! There is nothing wrong with my sperm!” Harry said indignantly.


“Of course not, Darling. Your sperm is wonderful. Powerful, manly sperm.” Ginny soothed with amusement.


“Okay, stop saying sperm!” Harry said, gagging a little and making Hermione and Ginny laugh.


“So, how exactly did you go about….you know….getting it in there.” Ginny asked. Harry groaned from beside her but she ignored it.


“Oh, it wasn’t too difficult actually. Poppy Pomfrey stored the samples in the cooler at the school and when the time was right she filled some syringes for me and I…inserted it.” Hermione said rather nonchalant. “I got really lucky actually, it took the first time. I am currently six weeks pregnant.”


“Well, congratulations.” Ginny said, getting up from the sofa and hugging her tightly.


“Thank you. Aren’t you going to be happy for me, Harry?” Hermione asked.


“Mione, I love you, you know I only want you to be happy, but have you really thought about this? What about a father? Kids need a father figure in their lives.” He said as she moved from her chair to sit beside him.


“Well, I may not have needed your sperm but I do need you to be a father of sorts. I didn’t worry about that because I knew I would have you and what better father could a kid ask for?” She laid her head on his shoulder and he sighed, leaning his cheek against the top of her head affectionately.


“You are trying to charm my blessing out of me aren’t you?” He chuckled.


“It’s done, Harry. I’m pregnant, I need you to be there for me. Please?” She hugged his arm tightly.


“I’m always here for you, you know that. I just hope you know what you are doing.” He said softly, turning to brush a kiss against her forehead. “Just what the world needs, another Hermione Granger.”



~@~

It was well into the evening when the infirmary finally cleared out. Poppy Pomfrey moved about the deserted hospital wing making beds and cleaning up the residue of tending to scraped knees and spells gone wrong. These were the moments she cherished, when no one needed her, when the ward was quiet and she could actually think.


She went through each cabinet and cupboard, checking her supplies and jotting down things that needed refilling or replacing. When she was done with that she moved on to the coolers. She checked expiration dates and the color of various potions, tossing them out as needed. While rifling through the shelf at the bottom where she stored things for the faculty she found the four vials belonging to Professor Granger and smiled. She wouldn’t be needing the rest of them now.


She withdrew the vials and looked at them for a moment. Something was off about them, they were capped with rubber stoppers and she very clearly remembered that the vial she had used was corked because she was very careful not to taint the specimen when she prepared it by crumbling the cork.


“Oh no!” She breathed, her stomach lurched as she fell to her knees and withdrew a tray filled with specimens she was storing for the potions master. “Oh no!” Her hands shook as she stared at the familiar corked vials of various ingredients used for potion making.


“Oh dear god! What have I done?”