Repercussions

“Why are you so bloody chipper today?” Ron growled through a mouthful of oatmeal.

“I’m allowed. So sorry if I put a stain on your little piss-ant bubble, but some of us have better things to do than wallow in self pity for weeks on end.” Hermione’s statement was met with dead silence, and she aimed a swift kick to the shins at Harry to make him back her up.

“Hey, that hurt!” he yelled, his eyes watering. “Fine, Hermione’s right Ron. We’re supposed to be friends. If you need to err… talk things over, we’ll listen.”

“I’m not the one that needs to do the talking,” he replied with an over exaggerated glare at Hermione.

“And what is that supposed to mean?” she shot back angrily.

“Oh don’t play stupid, we know you’re not. I see you two, constantly glancing over at each other all google-eyed when you think no one’s watching. Showing off in class, practically sitting on his lap in Potions. ‘Oh Malfoy, can I hold your frogspawn? Can I carry your bag? Can I have a piece of your hair for my Malfoy ferret shrine!?’”

CRACK!

Hermione had gotten out of her seat and slapped the redhead hard across the face. They both stood for a second, stunned with what she had done. The entire student body was staring at them open-mouthed. Harry cleared his throat loudly to break the silence, and the hall broke out in whispers, sounding like a room full of leaking tires.

Hermione grabbed her bag and left the hall, trying to ignore the many faces turning in her direction as she walked. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a blonde head, purposefully looking at his plate while Blaise Zabini nudged his shoulder and pointed in Hermione’s direction. Obviously Malfoy was trying to stay nonchalant about her storm off, but she did catch his eye just before she exited through the large double doors. His pale cheeks were tinged with pink and he seemed quite content and at peace, which was how she herself felt until it was so rudely interrupted by Ron’s dismal attitude. ‘Bastard!’

Now where to go? All she could think of was the common room or the library. At the moment she didn’t know if she could handle being in the common room; the place where Hermione had fallen captive to the serpent’s needs. No, she definitely wasn’t in the mood for anything that would spur a trip down memory lane, no matter how enticing those memories may be.

The library was completely deserted as far as Hermione could tell, but she still ventured to the far back corner just as a precaution as to not be disturbed. She set her bag on top of the worn, but highly polished wooden table and dug through it to find her Ancient Runes book. She quickly found the page she had left off on and tried to immerse herself in the painstakingly detailed symbols that could normally keep her attention for hours on end.

After ten minutes staring at the same page with unfocused eyes, she slammed her book shut and let her anger rage war inside her brain. How dare Ron say those things to her! He had some nerve accusing her of being ‘google-eyed’ with Malfoy when he had absolutely no proof, nothing at all of which to make such a serious claim. So what if she and Malfoy excelled in Potions? They were Head Boy and Girl after all, it was their job to do well! And she had to get along with him in public or they would both loose their positions. Ron knew how much being Head Girl meant to her, so why couldn’t he understand that she would go to almost any lengths to secure the top spot? Even if that meant ‘fraternizing with the enemy,’ as he liked to put it.

Yes, Ron was completely out of line. He was just angry with her for breaking up with him, and would make up any excuse to make her look like the bad guy. It’s not like he was exactly Mr. Perfect. She saw him checking out other women while they were still technically together. She just didn’t let it bother her because well… it didn’t really bother her. She just didn’t feel that way about him. How was she supposed to pretend to have feelings that didn’t exist? Wasn’t it better that she broke the news to him sooner rather than later? She definitely felt she had done the right thing, Ron just couldn’t see that yet. She hoped he would soon though. In all honesty, she missed her friend.

She sighed aloud and picked up her book to try and resume reading, but was once again unsuccessful. She’d hardly been able to translate a single rune before her mind drifted. This time to more pleasant thoughts, yet at the same time more disturbing: Malfoy’s trademark evil smirk. It was so subtle yet so effective. It somehow projected confidence, playfulness, and a hint of mystery all at once. His piercing grey eyes would be unreadable, but the slight tilt to his lips said it all. Those lips had once said such horrible and hurtful things, so how could they make her feel so amazing now? Sucking her bottom lip… nibbling her collar…. flicking his hot tongue over her sensitive nipple before devouring it with those soft, pink, smirking lips…

She was completely lost in thought, her eyes closed as images of their encounter danced across her lids. The area between her legs was tingling just from thinking about him, how was that possible? The temperature in the library had seemingly gone up 20 degrees in less than 20 seconds. She felt uncomfortably hot and bothered. It was like an insect bite just out of reach for a good scratch. If only she had someone to scratch it for her…

“Hermione?” asked a soft voice from behind her. She nearly jumped out of her seat at the sound, snapping out of her daydream quite suddenly.

“Hey Ginny, do you need something?”

“No, not exactly. You left in such a hurry I was just seeing where you went off to.”

“I was just about to start my homework for Professor Vector. It’s due Monday and I haven’t even started yet.”

“You do realize you just slapped my brother in front of the whole school, right? I mean I’m not saying I don’t agree with it, he’s been a total prat, just… Hermione wow, what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing, nothing, I just need to focus on my work and I don’t have time to deal with Ron’s false accusations.” Her businesslike pretense was quickly falling under Ginny’s Mrs. Weasleyish, reprimanding gaze. “Ok, so maybe I over-reacted a little, Ron is just so… so frustrating!”

“Yeah, me and Harry had a talk with him after you left. He was pretty set on his claim. He thinks you broke up with him for Malfoy.”

“What?! That’s just absurd! He knows I have to get along with him. You know how much I hate the ferret, we all do. He spent the past six years tormenting me, and all my friends. Ron is obviously not thinking logically or he would see how ridiculous it is. Me and Malfoy... honestly...” Hermione heard the words flooding from her mouth before she even realized what she was saying. Why was it so easy to lie to Ginny, because she wanted with all her heart for it to be true, or because the truth was too disturbing to be said out loud? Either way, it helped her feel a little better at least to know that no matter what was going in her incredibly messed up ‘relationship’ with the Head Boy, the rest of the world wouldn’t have to know.

“Is it so ridiculous though? I mean, he’s rather good looking, and you spend so much time together. I would understand it if you fancied him.”

This was it. Ginny knew. She couldn’t know though. Hermione couldn’t bear to face her friends ever again if they found out that she had touched his… and had thought about his…. And had imagined him….

No, she definitely couldn’t tell her. Maybe someday when the fate of the wizarding world didn’t rest in the hands of one of her best friends, and the one sitting across from her didn’t know the perfect bat bogey hex, then she would spill the beans. For now it was just so much less complicated to lie. She hated herself for doing it, but definitely thought her friends were better off not knowing, and that was enough to ease her conscious.

“Ginny look, I could never like Malfoy or even think about him like that. He’s horrible. He’s an arrogant, self-loving, Death Eater, pureblood fanatic, slimy asshole, git! His father is in Azkaban for being a Death Eater, and I’m sure Malfoy’s just a graduation date away from joining him. How could you think I’d prefer someone like that over your brother?”

“No I don’t, you’ve just been acting a little strangely lately and I feel like we hardly see you anymore,” Ginny said with a softened expression. Hermione was playing her part well because the littlest Weasley was falling for it.

“I’ve been sick for like a month and that plus Head Girl duties and trying to study for NEWTS is just putting me off. I’m sorry. I’ll try to come by more often. Ron has been in such a bad mood though it’s hard to stand him for more than five minutes. Do you think I should try to talk to him again?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll talk to him. I’ll tell him what you said about Malfoy and he’ll be fine. For a minute he really had me convinced you liked him though, so he must really believe it. I’ll think of something to snap him out of it. Threaten to tell mum about him stealing her knickers as a dare, that should do it.” Ginny smirked to herself and stood up to leave.

“Thanks Gin, if I finish all my work by tomorrow I can go to Hogsmead with you. Harry and Ron too of course, if he’s relaxed by then.”

“Ok, see you at dinner.” Hermione watched Ginny disappear behind a bookshelf before once again attempting to finish her chapter. She was hardly halfway down the page before her second interruption of the day…


****


Draco returned to his room in a daze. Even the long cold shower hadn’t set his mind straight. Clearly something was not right with him, because he knew a Malfoy in their right mind would not have spent the morning goofing off with little miss golden girl. He even tickled her… oh God… Malfoys did NOT tickle.

The worst part was that he had thoroughly enjoyed himself. He felt carefree and happy for the first time in months. Like a caged animal released into the wild; finally seeing that there was more to life than what was set out for them and scheduled. He liked it, and he hated that he liked it. She made him feel so good, her touch delicate yet strong. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she hadn’t read every book on the art of pleasing a man. Otherwise she was just a natural, because no other girl had sent sparks through him like she did, and other girls used a lot more than their hand.

His mind now in the gutter, he headed down to breakfast. The food tasted even better after a night in the Head Girl’s bed, and he rapidly shoveled it into his mouth, his chewing blocking out the screeching noise beside him that was Pansy Parkinson. Then he noticed the hall get quiet, even old pug face’s lips weren’t moving. He quickly swallowed his half-chewed eggs and saw, to his delight, Hermione slap the Weasel hard across the face. He wanted to cheer for her as she stormed out of the Great Hall, her hair flailing about her face and her cheeks flushed with anger. Damn she was hot when she was angry. Quickly realizing he was showing far too much emotion, he dropped his face to his empty dish, staring at the stop that was home to a mountain of crispy bacon barely five minutes ago.

“There goes your lover Draco, and it looks like Weasley got her all fired up for you,” Blaise said smartly, nudging him on the shoulder repeatedly to get his attention.

“Very funny Zabini,” he replied, looking up and catching a last glance of Hermione before she left the hall. He had a sudden desire to follow her, but he would have to wait a few minutes so it wouldn’t be quite so obvious.

“We already know you want her, now we just want you to tell us how you are going to go about getting in her pearly white knickers.”

“You don’t know anything,” Draco said a little more testily. He was sick of having to defend himself against liking Granger. He could use Occlumency to block out the Dark Lord, so why were his friends seeing into his head so easily?

“Just keep telling yourself that mate,” Blaise replied airily, not taking offense to Draco’s harsh tone. “So have you seen her naked yet? Maybe snuck a peep while she was getting in the shower, or copped a feel while you studied side by side? You’ve already admitted you want her. Just own up to it, we can help you! I have single handedly fucked almost every decent girl in this school. I haven’t gotten Granger yet, and if you don’t claim her soon, I might just have to test my skills.”

“If you like your testicles where they are I suggest you keep them away from her,” Draco shot back through gritted teeth, completely livid with his friend all of a sudden.

“Calm down, I was only kidding to prove a point. You want her. Even Crabbe and Goyle know it, and their heads are thicker and emptier than a new cauldron. Who are you trying to hide it from?”

“I’m not hiding anything. I’ll talk to you about this later though, there’s a pube stuck in Goyle’s front tooth.” He switched his gaze between Goyle and Millicent, who were spoon-feeding each other oatmeal, and shuddered. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

He had to get out of there and away from Blaise, who was too damn smart for his own good. To admit that he was falling for Granger out loud would make it all too real, and he didn’t think he could handle that just yet. Plus, if he was going to talk, he wanted something to talk about. He couldn’t even imagine the embarrassment if he admitted to his friends that he wanted her, then found out she was back with the Weasel. He had to be sure of things before he said anything.

Normally, if Draco Malfoy wanted something he got it. This was a tricky situation though. He had never had to worry about a girl wanting him before. Most girls in the school would practically throw themselves at him. He was always in control of how far things went; as far as he could remember, no girl had ever actually said no to him. And technically so far, Hermione was one of those girls. She had even asked to sleep with him, which resulted in the best sex he had ever had, but she didn’t remember it. Maybe he should tell her…. Would she believe him, or would she think it was just another cruel prank he was pulling?

She really did have a right to know. She was sick and throwing up every morning and she didn’t even know why. Plus, even though he knew she wasn’t a very vein girl, she must have noticed her stomach getting bigger.

Yes, he was going to find her and tell her the truth, if she chose to believe it or not was her problem. He was actually going to do the right thing for once. ‘Spending so much time with a Gryffindor is starting to rub off on me.’ He cringed at the thought, ‘Malfoy’ and ‘right thing’ did not usually go together.

Too much time had passed for her to still be in a hallway, especially at the pace she was going. He figured she would either be in the library or the common room, and decided to take his chances and check the library first.

The library appeared empty upon first entry, but he could hear voices and the shuffling of large volumes beyond the many shelves. He knew Granger liked the far back corner by the Restricted Section, and sure enough he saw the back of her full brown curls. After a few more steps, the rest of the table came into view and he saw that she was not alone. The only not hideous Weasley was with her, and Draco was about to turn around and just talk to her later when he heard his name. Deciding eavesdropping sounded like a much better idea, he hid behind the closest shelve to listen to the rest of their conversation. To his dismay, they weren’t discussing when to ask him to join them in a threesome.

”He knows I have to get along with him. You know how much I hate the ferret, we all do. He spent the past six years tormenting me, and all my friends. Ron is obviously not thinking logically or he would see how ridiculous it is. Me and Malfoy... honestly...”

She had told him she hated him that morning and he hadn’t believed a word of it, but here she was saying it again. She said it so easily though, could it really be true? Maybe he was just kidding himself that there was a spark between them. He didn’t know if he wanted to hear more, the conversation was doing a number on his ego.

”Ginny look, I could never like Malfoy or even think about him like that. He’s horrible. He’s an arrogant, self-loving, Death Eater, pureblood fanatic, slimy asshole, git! His father is in Azkaban for being a Death Eater, and I’m sure Malfoy’s just a graduation date away from joining him. How could you think I’d prefer someone like that over your brother?”

That was not what Draco wanted to hear at the moment. So that was what she really thought of him; that he was an asshole Death Eater. He didn’t even consider the fact that she was just putting on a show for Ginny, he was too angry to see it from her point of view.

He was also feeling slightly hurt by her words, which frightened him. He had never let anyone get close enough to him before to hurt him. Years of abuse and neglect from his father had taught him better than that. Every waking moment for as long as he could remember had been spent trying to impress his father and live up to the Malfoy name, just to be dismissed and thrown aside like the Quibbler the second he had failed an impossible mission.

Now he realized nothing had changed, and he had been stupid to think it would. She didn’t appreciate any of his efforts. She didn’t care that he had been nice to her. Didn’t care that he hadn’t called her a mudblood or made fun of her looks since their return to school. She even looked past the fact that he could have been a total asshole to her when she put that curse on him. He could have gotten her in immense amounts of trouble for using such a dangerous curse, from a book that was supposed to be banned, but kept cropping up anyways. He could have easily over powered her and forced her to fix him or threaten to tell the Headmistress. He didn’t though, he was a gentleman about it. For the first time in his life he had cared about going too far and about making sure she was comfortable with what they were doing. He had cared, and for what? Hearing her call him a Death Eater on his way to Azkaban was like a cold slap across the face and kick to the groin all at once.

Finally he saw the red head leave, and he started towards Hermione, seething with anger and hurt.

“Hello Granger,” he spoke softly, in a low deep voice.

She jumped when she heard him, and almost fell out of her chair again. She looked up into his eyes, seeing the anger clearly evident in them, and gulped deeply. How much had he heard?

“What are you doing here?” she asked him, immediately regretting it when she saw his brows contract into a scowl. When he spoke it came out strangely calm, but it was almost worse than if he had screamed at her.

“Well, I was going to come congratulate you on your performance this morning. I didn’t know it was possible for you to make yourself more unattractive to the male population, but congratulations, you’ve done it. Now not only are you the stuck-up prude princess of Gryffindor, you’re also a manhandling bitch.” It felt good to call her names, give her a taste of her own medicine. It was helping him exchange the hurt feelings to anger, which he was much better at dealing with.

“What!?” she shrieked back. “How could you say things like that after last night!?”

“Because I am an arrogant Death Eater asshole, and I couldn’t give two shits about what happened last night.” He watched her eyes widen and well up with tears, but he stood his ground and refused to back down.

“I’m sorry, I was just saying that so Ginny didn’t think I liked you, I didn’t mean it,” she choked out, before her emotions got the best of her and the tears spilled over. Going from a playful pillow fight that morning to the serious fight of the present was too much to take in such a short time.

"Give me a fucking break, if that was what you were going for you could have stopped with 'I don't like him.'"

"I'm s-sorry, I just wanted it to be b-believable."

"Yeah? Well how's this for believeable. Don't fucking come near me again you filthy mudblood."

At these words Hermione completely broke down, and it was all Draco could do not to go the same way. He was watching her cry into her hands with a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t handle it, so he left her. He didn’t know where he was going to go to, just that he needed to get as far away from her as possible before he did something rash, like comfort her and tell her it was ok. He needed something to clear his mind of everything that had just happened. As he could no longer rely on his friend Blaise to talk some sense into him, he decided a trip to the Three Broomsticks was in order.

Drink it all away….


***


Hermione didn’t know how long she sat there crying to herself, only that when she seemingly ran out of tears, she was quite alone in the quiet library. She deemed her Ancient Runes book as a lost cause, and sought out the comforts of her warm bed and a large bag of M&M’s.

Her common room was empty, but a loud high-pitched whistle was coming from it. It almost sounded like a broken sneak-o-scope, but more shrill and annoying. She dropped her bag and covered her ears, searching for the source of the obnoxious noise. The culprit was discovered in the middle of the room. The boxes that held the students concerns were shaking in protest. They were overfull because the two Heads didn’t have time to go over them the night before. Hermione sat down and opened one of the chests, welcoming the distraction from her thoughts, and the whistling ceased immediately.

'My roommate smells funny.'

Hermione recognized the handwriting at once but didn’t know who the sender was, which was lucky because at the moment she was in need of someone to strangle. This exact note appeared in the boxes no less than twice a week. At first she was amused by them, but now it was just completely pissing her off.

She decided to leave the rest of the Hufflepuff box for later, and chose the next one from the Ravenclaw chest instead.

'So the other day I was walking down
the hall, and I decided to test out one of the
Weasley products, the nosebleed nougat. I
ate half and got this horrible nosebleed all
over the rug and down my robes. It surprised
me so I dropped the healing half. Well of
course ruddy Mrs. Norris turns up and I can’t
find the bloody candy. I must have retraced
my last steps like five times. But anyways,
I was walking back and fourth looking for it,
and this door just appears out of nowhere on
the wall. I heard Filch coming so I went in,
and there was the other half, just sitting there
on a table in an otherwise empty room. It was
just about the coolest thing that ever happened
to me. So yeah, just thought I would tell
someone, incase I’ve discovered a secret room
or something, I think I should get rewarded. This
is Liam Alexander of Ravenclaw, by the way.
So you know where to send the money or trophy
or whatever, I’m not picky.'

Hermione rolled her eyes after reading this one. The kid hadn’t made any new discoveries, he had just stumbled across the Room of Requirement. Hermione had such fond memories of that room, it really came in handy in their fifth year for the revolt against the ministry hag, Umbridge. The room had really out done itself on that occasion, it was like it had thought of everything they could ever possibly need. Like the room was all knowing.

Hermione jumped to her feet as a sudden epiphany hit her like a ton of bricks. The room could cure a nosebleed, why couldn’t it cure her flu? Excitement flooded her body at the thought of spending an entire 24 hours without throwing up. Without even grabbing her bag, she headed straight to the seventh floor.

‘I need a cure for my illness… I need a cure for my illness…. I need a cure for my illness…’ she thought desperately, pacing the floor in front of the familiar statue of Barnabas the Barmy. She looked up hopefully, but the wall remained a wall. Perhaps she wasn’t being specific enough?

‘I need a potion that will cure the flu I have…’ She walked back and forth repetitively, but no door was materializing. This wasn’t going as well as planned, but maybe she didn’t have the flu.

‘Ok err… I need to know what’s wrong with me!’ Still no door, she was starting to get frustrated.

‘Please… I just want to know why I am throwing up every morning, is that so much to ask for!?’ After the third time passing the empty wall, she saw the door appear at last.

She had never seen an odder compilation of items in the room. There were bookshelves along the outside walls, and one lonely toilet sitting in the middle next to a small table. There was also a squashy armchair next to that with a box of tissues on it.

Pushing aside the thought that the room had somehow gone senile, she approached the toilet and the table. On the table there was a funny looking stick shaped like a spoon, and a sheet that she realized was directions for whatever it was.

‘Step 1. Pee on small end of test.’

Even though she thought they were very odd directions, she decided it couldn’t hurt to go along with them, and she actually had to pee anyways.

‘Step 2. Put the test into the bottle of blue potion: round side up, pee side down.’

A small bottle of clear, dark blue liquid that she hadn’t noticed before was also sitting on the table, so she stuck the test into it and stared at it. Nothing was happening, but step number three (wait five minutes) explained that.

Finally words started to show up on the spoon shaped end of the test. Neat cursive letters written in baby blue and bubble gum pink spelled out the two words Hermione was least expecting to see….

‘You’re pregnant!’






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

EEE Hermione finally knows she’s pregnant! I hope this wasn’t too much of a cliffy, I started the next part but it really deserves its own chapter and I don’t think I can write any more tonight. I know this was long over due so I hope I didn’t disappoint you with how she found out. The good news is that I have part of the next chapter written already and I have a lot of ideas for the next few chapters, that bad news is that I’m going on vacation all next week and I don’t know if I’ll be able to post until I come home. I’m taking my dog with me on the plane and I had to get an airline approved bag… $77 with the tax, soooo ridiculous, and I probably won’t even use it once a year seeing as I don’t fly much more than that. Grr….

Anywhoo, just to clarify, the RoR wouldn’t open for Hermione’s first few questions because there isn’t anything really ‘wrong’ with her, and she doesn’t have an ‘illness.’ That is how I see it anyways.

Well I hope you liked this chapter, thanks SOOO much for all the nice reviews for the last one! Please keep them coming : )