Both of Us

Ron looked at the barn one final time. It was a boarding area for muggle horses. Hermione had shown him a herd when he was visiting and he had fallen in love with them. With a loan from Fred and George after graduating Hogwarts he was able to buy the land and begin a care facility. His magical creatures care certification had paid off handsomely and his horses responded well to magical treatments as well. He had his own horses and housed others for a fee. With the profits produced by his business he was able to pay his brothers back in just a couple years.

He was now a man of wealth and standing. In addition to the acres and acres of the horse enclosures, he had a creature care facility added to his home. Knowing how fanatic witches and wizards got with their familiars, he had an even more lucrative practice in that area.

He was able to employ a few hands to man the horses on a daily basis and creature care interns in his practice. Since he had a mastery he was able too sign off on credits of those working toward their own certification. There was never a shortage of labor on Ron’s land and because of this everything ran smoothly.

He was prone to leisurely strolls on his land, taking in the peaceful tranquility it offered. He grew up in the country and he loved it more now as an adult. As he left the front area of the barn and circled around the back he heard something faintly in the distance. He strained his ear to make it out.

Crying? Was that crying? He furled his brow and held still. The sound was coming to his left, but to his left was the barn. He moved a step closer. It was coming from the other side of the barn wall.

Moving quickly around to the front, he entered the barn and hurried to the back. Falling still, he heard the sniffling again. The farthest stalls were empty but the sound was definitely coming from that area. Who on earth would be in the back? At this time of night?

He moved closer, and there in the last stall, a cowering figure wrapped in a cloak was trembling from crying. “Excuse me, are you alri……” the figure looked up. “Pansy Parkinson?” Was he hallucinating?

“Ronald?” She backed up even further against the wall, pulling straw with her. “I didn’t know this was your barn, I’ll…..”

“Are you alright?” He moved closer. She had been crying for some time. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose red and swollen. “What’s the matter?” He asked, kneeling down.

She watched him with wide eyes and didn’t speak. Then she dropped her head and let more tears out. Her body racked from the effort and she had trouble breathing.

“Pansy, listen there is a storm on it’s way tonight. I was making sure the charms and wards were secure before going in. It will last a day or two, if you like, you can stay in my guest room until it passes. Even with the charms it will be too cold for humans, the horses are made of sturdier material then we are.”

She looked up at him. “I was going to leave in the morning.” She said, her voice harsh from her sobbing.

“I can’t let you do that. We are in the country here, the nearest house is a few miles away and the storm is expected to be a bad one. Come on, I live alone and have two guest rooms.” He held out a hand and when she took it, he helped her to stand.

Clutching her cloak and following him, he led her inside his home and shut the door. “Can I take that.” He said gesturing to her cloak. She unfastened it and turned letting him slip it off her shoulders. When she turned around his jaw dropped.

Pansy was pregnant! “You were going to stay in a barn in the middle of a storm and your expecting?!”

Pansy dripped her head and started crying again. Ron felt like hanging himself. “I’m sorry Pansy,” he moved and took her shoulders, “I’m sorry, please don’t cry. Here sit down.” He guided her to an armchair and eased her down.

Pansy let herself fall into the chair. She was immediately comforted by the warmth and Ron’s words were much calmer now. “I’m going to make some hot tea, and then we can talk alright.” She nodded. “Are you hungry as well?” He asked. She shook her head.

“I’ll be right back.” Ron moved to the kitchen and set about gathering a tea setting. She was pregnant and in his barn in the middle of the night with a storm on the way. What if he hadn’t been out there checking the spells? She could have been out there without food for the next two days.

After graduating she had all but vanished from view. Ron had heard through the local gossip that she had visited her relatives in Ireland. Everyone seemed to think she had decided to stay there. Over the past five or six years since Hogwarts she was hardly seen around, only making a scattered appearance here and there in the company of friends on occasion.

What was she doing here and how had she ended up alone and pregnant in his barn? He took the tray and went back to the common room where she hadn’t moved. Setting the tray on a small table between them, he poured her a cup and one for himself, then took his seat.

As she sipped, he spoke. “How far along are you?”

“Six months.” She said quietly.

“Won’t your husband be worried that you’re that far along and not at home?”

“I’m not married Ron.” She said looking up. “I left home when I heard my parents talking tonight. They had written to an adoption agency about my child. They said they could always use the imperious curse if I still proved to be less then agreeable as I had been.”

Ron leaned forward and set down his cup. “What?”

“After Hogwarts I went to Ireland to visit with my aunts and cousins.” He nodded, having heard that. “I was offered a job with my cousin in the inn she was employed at. For the last several years I’ve been there, helping large parties organize accommodations, helping with events held at the inn, conventions and such.”

He nodded. “Did you plan on coming back to England?”

“I hadn’t thought about it. I was merely enjoying what I was doing. That is until one of the guests became a little too agitated. He was constantly asking for things the inn couldn’t provide and since I was the concierge that dealt with him, it became my fault. One day he asked me to come to his room and provide my own room service. When I refused he became violent and as I ran from the room dodging makeshift bludgers, he had broken a window and put a hole in one of the walls. The owner asked him to leave.”

“I take it you saw him again.” Ron ventured.

“Yes. A month after the incident as I was walking back to my aunts I was attacked and apparated away. I don’t know where I was taken but it was dark and dirty and smelled of dust and water. He raped me over and over and over during the course of a few hours. He had said that if I had given him what he wanted in the first place I would have enjoyed it.”

She took a sip of her tea to help her throat then continued. “He took me back and left me there in the middle of the road. When I got in my aunt owled a friend who was a healer and he came to treat my injuries. He wanted to give me a potion that would rid me of any pregnancy, but I don’t believe in those potions. Prevention is one thing, but termination is something I couldn’t do.”

He nodded. He knew several women who refused to take them. “I take it your family didn’t agree with that decision.”

“My aunt had used the floo to bring them and they asked the healer outright for the potion for me, but he said he couldn’t force a woman to take it, and the potion would be ineffective if used under any curse. My parents were very angry.”

“Why would they be angry? You didn’t plan it, you were attacked.”

“My father was angry at my decision, he didn’t want a child of rape in the family. He said the man could come from a bad family and it would connect us to them forever. My mother didn’t want her daughter to carry a child of rape either.”

“It’s your decision not theirs.”

“I thought the same thing. I was the one who was raped and I was the one who would decide.”

“Your parents didn’t feel that way?”

“Through the next few weeks they spoke of how I should take the potion, and not risk a pregnancy. My father went on and on of how the child wouldn’t be considered Parkinson blood. I shouldn’t let that man leave me with something like that.”

“What happened when they found out about the baby?” Ron asked, leaning toward her.

“For the past four and half months since I found out they have been bringing home adoptive prospects to meet me. They felt if I picked out the parents myself it would make it easier for me. But I couldn’t do it. It may have been an attack but this is part my child too.”

Ron nodded. “I agree with you.”

She looked up. “You do?”

“Yes, the pregnancy is a part of you as well and besides, this is your body. You were the one attacked, the choice should always be yours and your alone.”

She gave a small smile and Ron wondered if he had been the first to tell her that since she had been raped. “Needless to say my parents were not happy. Tonight was the first I had heard them mention actually using the curse on me. I knew they would too. My parents would curse their own daughter rather then support her choice. I had to leave, I grabbed my cloak and snuck out.”

“Where were you headed?” He asked.

“I didn’t know. I was too angry and too hurt to think. I just kept moving, trying to get away from the house. I had to get as far away as possible.”

“I can understand your feeling that way.”

“When I saw your barn, I crept in to get away from the cold. I had been there for about an hour when you found me.”

“What did you think you would do having left your home?” He asked.

“I was going to go to Draco’s.” She admitted.

“Would he be willing to help?”

Pansy chuckled. “Yes he would.” She looked up at him. “I’m his Granger.”

Ron had to smile. He would do anything to help Hermione if she came to him hurt. She seemed to be assured that he would help so Ron was assured as well. “Well, the storm will keep you here for the next couple of days, so why don’t you get some sleep, have a bath if you want and we can try and get word to Draco in the morning.”

“Thank you Ron.” She said, gratitude oozing out of her face. He stood up and helped her stand. Looking down at her he just couldn’t resist.

“May I?” She smiled and took his hand, laying it over her bulge, low near her hips. He waited patiently until he felt what could be a kick or a punch in his palm. “Wow. That’s amazing.”

She smiled. “It’s actually a real comfort. No matter how it happened, this is my child.” She said. “If nobody wants it, at least I do.”

He felt a few more kicks and then removed his hand. “Thank you.” He led her back to the guest room that had it’s own bath.

“My sister left some clothes here when she visited, you can transfigure any of them to wear, she won’t mind.” Pansy nodded. “Sleep as late as you want tomorrow, you’ve earned a rest.” She smiled at him and again nodded.

“Thank you.” She told him.

“You’re welcome.” He turned to leave. “Oh by the way,” he stuck his head back in the door, “if you hear knocking from the other end of the house it’s probably someone with an emergency in the creature infirmary, don’t worry about it.”

She nodded and took her first relaxing bath when he left. She smiled to herself and caressed her swollen belly as she laid in bed. The kicks were dying down now, and shifting to a rolling feeling. Pansy gave a giggle as she imagined her child finding a comfortable position to sleep in.
“Everything will be alright my baby.” She said letting sleep claim her.