Repercussions

Hello all! I was so surprised to see how many of you are still reading this story, and it made my day and was actually quite inspiring. So here is the next chapter as a thank you to all of you! I am starting to not sleep again so I can write fanfiction lol, it is bringing back memories! As for the story, I am going to start to skip into the future more to move things along. Could I have put every little detail in? Yes, but it would take me a very long time and I’m afraid if I don’t just get out the major plot points this story will take another year to finish, and who knows where any of us will be in another year. So I hope you don’t mind that I am glossing over some things (if you do mind feel free to tell me), I honestly just want to finish already and there is just soooo much info that has to be said or there will be plot holes and I would prefer to have as little plot holes as possible even with this crazy plot that is driving me nuts! *breathes* lol, maybe in the future I will lay off the caffeine before I sit down to write.

Oh and also I think a couple people got confused about the end of the last chapter. I didn’t mean to say that Harry was happy about Hermione being pregnant, he’s not happy about it but he is going to deal with it, he was just explaining to Hermione that in his dreams he was happy about it. Sorry if that was confusing.

**The lyrics are a continuation of the lyrics in the previous chapter. It’s from the song ‘What you wish for’ by Guster. I highly recommend listening to this song/this band. I think they have a really unique sound and they use a lot of different instruments that you don’t normally hear. So yeah you guys should ‘share’ their music on limewire for free and check them out! (also check out ‘Fa Fa’ ‘Satellite’ ‘One Man Wrecking Machine’ and ‘So Long’)

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Once had this dream, crashed down in Oz
Not black and white, but where the colors are.
I never dreamed that I would let her go.
-Guster


During breakfast on the first day that classes had resumed, McGonagall made the announcement to the school of Hermione’s condition. They had told her right after Christmas, and after careful consideration, she thought it would be easiest to get it out in the open before the rumors started swirling about.

McGonagall had been wrong.

A month later and people were still staring. At the time, telling everyone seemed to be such a good idea. Or maybe Hermione just thought it best to do anything the Headmistress wanted, since the older woman said she was allowed to keep her position as Head Girl, as long as she asked for help from the prefects when she needed it.

Lately however, she just wanted to crawl into a hole and hibernate. She finally knew what it felt like to be Harry Potter. Girls wanted to touch her belly, all the time! If someone passed gas in class, everyone would turn to look at her, and then snicker to themselves. Every week, contemplation of who the father could be would switch to a different person. Hermione had started telling people that the father was someone from home and that no one would know him, but that didn’t seem to quell the constant gossiping students. One would think they’d have better things to discuss seeing as there was a Dark wizard on the prowl, but such was not the case.

And as if all that wasn’t bad enough, to top it off, Pansy had returned from break with the smuggest look imaginable plastered to her pug-like face. She spent her time parading Draco around for all to see. They were rarely caught apart. Hermione heard him come back to their dorms late at night. She would bite her lip and pray that he was alone, though every once in awhile she swore she could hear a high-pitched giggle.

The only escape Hermione had from it all was her schoolwork and her friends. Ron and Harry had stuck by her. She had not expected them to be so ok with everything, especially not Ron, but they treated her just the same as always. Ron had taken it upon himself to even carry her bag to class and wouldn’t let her reach for high books in the library. Ronald Weasley! The same Ron that had had a hissy fit in fourth year just because she went to a ball with Victor Krum, and Ron loved Krum.

She didn’t know whether or not she should be grateful or concerned. When she had confronted him about it, he just shrugged and told her that there would be plenty of other times for them to fight and not talk to one another, and a war against Voldemort was not one of those times.

She supposed in a world where virgins could get pregnant, even something as crazy as Ronald Weasley maturing was possible.

Perhaps Mrs. Weasley had something to do with Ron’s out of character behavior. Hermione had personally owled her to tell her, before she found out from word of mouth. The letter she had gotten in return was one of the hardest things she had ever had to read.

Hermione dear, I don’t think I know what
to say to that. Bringing a child into the world
is a wonderful thing, only in your case, I feel
a child would be taking away something equally
as wonderful. Hermione, you have the most
beautiful mind out of anyone I have ever known.
You could have changed the world. You could
have done anything you set your mind to.

I’m not disappointed in you. No, and I’m not going
to give you any lectures, because obviously it’s
a little late for that. I’m just… sad. Motherhood
is not an easy thing to go through, especially
alone and at your age. I know you’re as strong a
witch as they come, but please don’t try to be a
hero on this one. Use your friends, ask for help,
and any time you need me, just know that I am
here for you. Looks like I’ll be having three
grandchildren this year. Fleur is due in less than
a month! Thank Merlin, I can’t take the complaining
anymore! Good luck to you, with everything.
Love,
-Molly

It was worse than if she had sent a howler. Though Mrs. Weasley claimed to not be disappointed, disappointment rang off her every word, and she hadn’t even been mean about it! Hermione no longer had the nerve to tell her own parents. Her new plan of action was to just show up at their door over the summer holiday and say ‘Look what I found!’

With NEWTS coming up just around the corner the professors had sent their workload into overdrive. The good news was that Hermione’s hand was so cramped from the excessive note taking that it drew the attention away from her back pains and swollen ankles. The bad news was that by the end of the day her entire body hurt, and nothing was around to distract her from it.

The day before Valentine’s Day was a Friday, and along with that, it was a grueling double DADA class, and Professor Figg was no longer messing around. With all the girls chatting excitedly about their plans for the big day, the Professor’s temper was running thin.

“You do realize that this is your final year at Hogwarts, and the tests you will take in a few short months’ time will determine what you will do for the rest of your lives!?” the Professor screeched, having finally lost her cool. The room instantly fell silent, though Lavender Brown was giving Professor Figg a very cold look, as if the teacher had no right to interrupt her conversation.

“Since most of you cannot seem to grasp the seriousness of these exams, I am going to put you all in a serious situation as a test of your skills. Tomorrow at midday-“

“But tomorrow is Valentine’s Day!” Parvarti wailed in horror.

“Thank you for pointing that out Ms. Patil, but I am quite aware of what day of the year it is. As I was saying, tomorrow at midday you will all venture into the Forbidden Forest. I will split you into three groups, and you will each be given a map, directing you to a campsite far away from one another. As long as you set up the correct protective spells over your tents, I see no reason why you won’t survive the night. Any questions?”

Everyone sat gaping at the professor. Even Hermione felt a twinge of fear run through her at the thought of spending an entire night in the Forbidden Forest.

“No questions? Well then-“

“Excuse me, Professor,” Neville piped up shyly. “But isn’t the Forbidden Forest… well… forbidden?”

The professor just smirked and raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at him. “I think we can make an exception. Now let’s see. Mr. Longbottom, Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, and Mr. Malfoy, you will be group number one.”

Ron groaned loudly, and to Hermione’s slight pang of annoyance and hurt, so did Malfoy.

“Mr. Weasley, Mr. Zabini, Lavender and Hannah, you will be group number two, and the rest of you are group three. I will hand out the maps tomorrow at breakfast. I won’t be around to see you off, but I trust you to leave on schedule. I doubt any of you would want to get a late start and not make it to your campsite before sundown,” Professor Figg finished with an evil glint in her eye.

The rest of the class was spent taking notes on possible defensive spells that might be needed in the forest. The only noise was the scratching of quills on crisp parchment. Not even Lavender dared make a sound for fear of taking a trip to the bottom of the Black Lake as the next ‘test of their skills.’

“This is crap,” Ron complained as they walked back towards Gryffindor tower after class. “She gave me the group of pouters.”

At this both Harry and Hermione turned to stare at Ron. ‘Pouters’ was such a random adjective, and they were interested to hear Ron’s explanation for this one... Hermione secretly hoped it had nothing to do with his masturbatory habits.

“No really… Lavender and Hannah are just going to be pouting the whole time because they aren’t spending Valentine’s Day snogging their latest conquests in Hogsmead. Blaise is going to be pouting because his boyfriend got put into your group, and he might get dirt under his fingernails in the ‘icky’ forest. And then I’ll be pouting, because she put me in the group full of bloody pouters!”

“Wow Ron, I suppose that almost makes sense,” Hermione said a second later, still going over Ron’s short speech in her mind with a quizzical look on her face. “At least you aren’t grouped with Malfoy,” she added, her expression changing from thoughtful to stony the instant the two syllables of Mal- foy had left her lips.

“True… it’s not like you couldn’t get out of it though.”

“What do you mean? Of course I can’t get out of it, Ron. Don’t be silly,” she said smoothly, brushing off the comment.

“Umm… Hermione,” Ron started cautiously. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re like seven months pregnant. You look like you could burst at any minute! If that’s not a good enough excuse to get out of this assignment then-”

“Of course I’ve noticed I’m a WHALE! You don’t have to go pointing it out to me every chance you get!” she sneered back at him. Pregnancy hormones were a bitch.

“Hermione I didn’t mean-“

“YES YOU DID!” she shouted, tears springing up in her eyes. She brought her hands up to hide her face, while backing herself up to the wall and slowly sliding down it. She stayed like that for a few minutes, her legs sprawled out to accommodate for her belly, softly crying to herself.

Eventually she wiped her eyes and looked up to see Ron and Harry staring down at her with concern etched across every inch of their faces. She dropped her eyes in embarrassment. She hated feeling so helpless and out of control, and even more so, she hated showing this weakness to anyone.

“I’m sorry…” she choked out. Her friends each knelt down to sit on either side of her.

“Don’t be sorry, ‘Mione,” Harry whispered to her. “You’ll be fine. And Ron’s right, you probably can get out of going with us into the forest tomorrow.”

Hermione quickly shook her head. “No, I want to go. I want to finish this year off as normally as possible. I don’t want special treatment… It’s just been so… hard lately! I’m getting bigger and bigger by the second, and these… things are constantly playing football with my bladder and I just want them out of me! But then at the same time I- I don’t…” she trailed off, new tears forming around the red rims of her eyes.

“Shh… it’ll be ok,” Ron said, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

“No it won’t! Oh you guys I’m so scared!” she wailed. “I’m not used to being scared for me… I don’t mind being scared for you two… I can handle that! But this… this is different… I feel so helpless! All this has happened out of my control and now I have to give birth and I don’t think I can! I don’t think I can do it!”

“Oh Hermione, like every woman has a baby at some point. If it was so horrible the species would have died out a long time ago! Hell, my mum’s done it seven times!”

Hermione nodded slowly, but she wasn’t entirely convinced.

“You’re the strongest witch I know. And we’ll be there with you when it... when it happens, so you can squeeze our hands until our fingers break, ok?” Harry asked gently.

“You promise?” Hermione questioned, the shadow of a smile breaking through her tearstained face.

“Yes… well as long as I don’t have to watch them come out, then yes.”

“I promise too, but I’m with Harry. I’m staying at your upper half,” Ron added with a shudder.

Hermione finally broke down and smiled, playfully punching Ron in the arm. She was so lucky to have these two men by her side. She couldn’t have asked for better people to be with her through all this.

“I love you guys, I really do,” she said throatily, wiping away the last remnants of her tears.

“We love you too, ‘Mione,” Harry and Ron both whispered to her, placing their arms across her overlarge front and embracing her in a tight hug.

“Oh!” Ron shouted in surprise, nearly jumping a foot. “Something’s moving in there!”

“Well of course there is, Ron. They do that all the time. It’s so annoying, especially at night,” she replied offhandedly.

Ron’s mouth gaped, as his hand inched its way back to the spot on her belly he had felt the kick. He stared expectantly at the baby bump, jumping slightly when he felt the kick again.

“Wow…” he breathed out, completely in awe. Harry’s hand joined Ron’s, and together they just sat in patient silence, the corners of their mouths twitching at every movement of the little beings inside their best friend’s stomach. For some reason this was starting to annoy Hermione. What was the big deal about a few little bumps in her belly anyway?

“We should get off the floor before Filch comes by,” Hermione said suddenly, brushing Ron and Harry’s hands away in her struggle to get to her feet. They two men stood up, watched Hermione’s fruitless attempts to get to her feet for a moment before taking pity on her and extending their hands.

The next morning at breakfast, maps and packages of food were handed out to the Seventh year Advanced DADA class. The students took them with a fake smile followed with a low groan. The campsites were deep in the forest, and even if they were traveling during the day, who knew what kind of obstacles they would encounter. Hermione had taken more than enough trips into the forest to know that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park.

And then of course there was the whole business of Malfoy being there… She couldn’t decide if she was happy about it or upset. She hadn’t spoken to him once since Christmas dinner. They still ran prefect meetings together, but he solely spoke to the group, barely even acknowledging her. His room was always locked, and she had a sneaking suspicion that he had started bathing in the prefects’ bathroom, because she never heard him in theirs.

Now however, she was about to spend an entire day and a night with him, and he had no way of escaping her unless he wanted to be eaten alive. She might even get a chance to talk to him alone for once, maybe get to the bottom of his sudden change of heart, and find out why he sent her the bracelet… The bracelet that had yet to leave her wrist since the second she put it on.

Having eaten as much as their stomachs could handle when they felt on the verge of a day in Hell, they headed out of the Great Hall to pack up their things. Ron went back to Gryffindor tower while Harry went with Hermione to the Head dorms so he could carry her bag for her, having packed his own things the night before.

“I’m sure that three-point spell will come in handy, and I’ve bewitched our map to show our location on it so we’ll know how far away we are,” Hermione was saying, marking off her mental checklist.

“Like the Mauraders’ Map?” Harry asked.

“Yes, that is where I got the idea. Do you think we should bring extra food? I mean just incase something happens… I do eat an awful lot lately and the care package the professor gave us was meant for four normal students,” she said, eyeing her swollen belly with disdain.

“Well we’ve got time to stop by the kitchens, and I haven’t visited Dobby in awhile. He’d probably be thrilled to see us.”

“Yeah ok… remind me to grab some of my leftover hats before we go,” Hermione replied, her eyes lighting up at the thought of freeing the poor little elves.

“Hermione I said we had some time to get food, I don’t think elf liberation will fit into our schedule today.”

“I’ll just drop them off it won’t take up any extra-“

“Pstt!”

Harry and Hermione both stopped on the spot, trying to figure out where the noise had come from. A second later their Potions Master had popped out from behind the door to the nearest classroom and was hurriedly ushering them inside. He clearly didn’t want to be seen, and the way his hands were shaking as he closed the door suggested he was more than nervous.

“Are you alright, Professor Figg?” Harry asked. “You’re sweating quite a lot.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” the professor said quickly, his eyes frantically darting between Harry and the door. “Listen,” he said in a low whisper. “There’s something you need to know. Today’s-“

“Oh sorry I didn’t realize I was interrupting something,” the other Professor Figg said from the door. Hermione couldn’t help but to realize how incredibly horrified her brother looked at the sight of her, though he swallowed and tried to put on a casual front.

“Oh not interrupting, dear sister. Harry and Hermione here just had a question about our latest potion and were wondering if they could use any ingredients from the forest while they were in there,” he replied as smoothly as possible.

“Yes, well I hope you told them that they need to focus of making it to their campsites in one piece,” Professor Anastasia Figg said to her brother.

“Of course, of course,” he replied cheerily. “Did you need to speak with me?”

“Yes, no hurry though, you can finish with your conversation. I’ll just wait outside. Good luck today Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger,” their DADA professor said kindly as she left the room.

“What were you saying, Professor?” Hermione asked him. He didn’t reply, just stared at her with bulging eyes. He was slowly opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water.

“Professor?”

When his hands went up around his throat they realized that something was seriously wrong.

“Help! HELP!” Harry called to the door, rushing to his choking Potions teacher and shouting “Wadiwazi!” at him to dispel whatever was blocking his airway. Nothing happened. His sister rushed into the room with her wand drawn. With some quick spell casting the Potion’s professor slumped to the ground, as if he were in a deep sleep. Hermione checked his pulse and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

“I’ll keep him asleep until I get him up to the Hospital Wing,” the DADA professor said solemnly. “The sleeping spell I used keeps the body safe so he can’t get any worse until he is awoken.”

“Will he be ok?” Hermione asked.

“He should be fine Ms. Granger, he probably just ate something he is allergic to at breakfast this morning. He never did take his allergies very seriously. If you’ll excuse me I’ll get him to the Hospital.”

“I’ll help,” Harry quickly chimed in.

“That won’t be necessary Mr. Potter, I’m a big girl. Besides, you two should be getting ready for your camping trip. Again, good luck, and don’t worry about Alberson, this wouldn’t be the first time he’s eaten something he shouldn’t,” she said, sighing and shaking her head down at her unconscious brother. With a flick of her wand she had him floating in front of her and a second later they were out the door.

Harry and Hermione slowly turned to look at one another, wearing expressions of worry and confusion.

“What was that all about?”

“I don’t know Harry. Oh I do hope he’s alright!”

“Professor Figg didn’t seem too perturbed. I wonder what he was going to say though, it seemed to be important.”

Hermione shrugged. “Maybe he really did want us to find potion ingredients, and he knew his sister would get mad about it,” she suggested.

“Yeah… but why would he tell her that if he didn’t want her to know?”

That was a good question. Hermione was at a loss. “No idea… We should get a move on though, if we want to make it to the kitchens.”

“Yeah… let’s go.”


Meanwhile, Draco was having his own problems, only his were loud, screechy, clingy and worst of all, awake.

“Draco I’m going and that’s that. I don’t want to spend Valentine’s Day without you. Maybe it’ll be romantic… Alone in a forest with nothing but a tent and my boyfriend for protection…” Pansy trailed off dreamily.

“Don’t forget Potter, Longbottom and Granger,” Draco gritted out. “And if you really think any of us will protect you from the werewolves, giant spiders, and whatever the hell else is out there, you are seriously in denial.”

“Oh shush, baby. The professor wouldn’t make you do this if it was actually dangerous!”

“Whatever you say. It doesn’t change the fact that you aren’t in our class and therefore can’t go,” he said in a low, monotone voice, fed up with the conversation. Pansy could not go, it would ruin everything. He had almost been excited about the trip to the forest. It would be the first time he would get a chance to show Hermione that he did care, even if he had to share her with Potty and Longbottom, it was still better than nothing. Maybe he couldn’t say anything nice to her, but he could still blast some branches out of her way or something, as long as her two Gryffindor goons weren’t looking, anyway.

If anything he needed this trip as a vacation from Pansy, his sanity depended on it. It was hard enough watching the girl who had stolen his heart and was hopefully carrying his children scowl at him from across the room. The only thing he could do was avoid her at all costs. It was the only way to make sure she couldn’t interrogate him about everything that had happened between them.

What he hated the most was that she didn’t even try besides at Christmas, and even then he figured she was just doing it to make a good impression on the professors. It was like she didn’t even care anymore. She seemed to be doing ok. Her friends hadn’t abandoned her when they found out she was pregnant. He had at least expected the Weasel to behave in his usual irrational behavior, but even he was acting human for once.

Those were his kids, damn it! Not Weasel or Potter’s. He should be the one taking care of her, not her friends. He should be the one taking care of the babies when they were born in just two short months, but he knew it would be Harry and Ron in his place.

Dejectedly, he slung his bag over his shoulder and headed down to the forest with Pansy on his heels.

“Wait baby you’re walking so fast!” she screeched. Draco said nothing. Maybe if he ignored her she’d mysteriously disappear.

11:58 and Harry, Neville and Hermione were waiting on the edge of the forest.

“If he’s not here in two minutes we’re leaving without him,” Harry said, just as a high-pitched screech rang across the grounds.

“Draco wait!”

They all turned to see Malfoy practically sprinting across the grass with Pansy Parkinson following close behind. Hermione’s chest constricted. So much for talking to Draco. He couldn’t even spend one day without Pansy! This trip was going to be worse than she had thought.

Draco arrived next to them panting hard, and Pansy caught up a second later. Harry looked as if he wanted to say something about Pansy going, but seemed to think better of it.

“Don’t just stare at me Potter, get a move on,” Draco sneered in his usual drawl.

“Well Malfoy, we’d already have left if it weren’t for you and your excess baggage.”

“Let’s just go,” Neville interrupted before things got heated. He took a brave step through the edge of the trees and the rest slowly followed.

The woods were eerily quiet, and the first few hours were spent with them walking in silence with their wands at the ready. Every now and then Hermione thought she heard something moving off in the distance, but she had to remind herself that it was a forest, so there were going to be animals, and not all of them had to be bad. In all honesty she was more concerned with the way Pansy’s hand was clutching Draco’s arm, and though his face was stony, he wasn’t brushing her off.

They made a short stop to eat, checked the map to thankfully see that they were right on track, and continued on their journey. Hermione peed in the woods for the hundredth time, but besides that the trip was surprisingly uneventful.

As the sun started to set their pace increased. Hermione’s ears strained to hear every sound, just incase they were on the verge of an attack, but none came. It was all very strange. Hermione felt like they were too far into the forest not to have encountered anything, but she kept her worry to herself.

Just as dusk had sent dark shadows through the trees and they had to use their wands to light the way, they made it to the campsite. It was in a small clearing and consisted of a fire pit and a single tent. Each of them instantly started putting up the protective spells while Pansy took a seat on a stump and powdered her face.

No amount of powder can hide the pug face…Hermione snickered to herself.

Once the spells were in place and Hermione was satisfied that not even an ant could enter their campsite, she decided it was safe to grab her water bottle and take a break.

“Let’s check out the finest tents Hogwarts has to offer,” Harry said with sarcastic excitement. The group followed behind to inspect their living quarters for the night.

The only problem was that there was already someone inside. Someone with matted, pitch-black hair, bulging eyes that were dancing with maniacal excitement, and a wand that was pointed right at them…


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Eek please don’t hate me for the evil cliffie! I had to end it somewhere and this just felt like the perfect place. Thank you all as always for reading and reviewing, keep it up and I’ll do my best to update ASAP!! Love you guys!!