From Venice with Love

Later that morning, they laid quietly in bed. “You know,” Draco said after a few minutes. “I’m not sure how you do it, but it’s wonderful.”

“Do what?” Hermione asked, confused.

“Well, we’ve been together every weekend and you’ve never had your monthly,” he said. “Is it a charm or something?”

Dread began to fill Hermione as she let the realization set in. “What?” he said, seeing the colour drain from her face.

“Nothing,” she said quickly. “It’s not a charm-I’m just irregular.”

“Irregular? Hermione,” he sat up, his face paling as well. “Have you been using a contraceptive charm?”

“What? No, I thought you were!” She was definitely beginning to panic now.

“I did, at first,” he said. “But once we got back to school I thought you’d take care of it.”


“You never told me to!” she snapped.

“I thought you’d know!” he snapped back.

“How would I know? It’s not like I’ve done this before!” Hermione took a deep breath. “Okay, it’s probably fine. I am very irregular.”


“How long has it been?” he asked.


Hermione thought quickly.” A few months,” she admitted.

“You’ll have to go find out,” he said quickly.


“I will not go to Madam Pomfrey with this!” she said. “It’ll have to wait until next month when I’m at home. I’ll get a Muggle test. I’m sure it’s fine.”

He eyed her warily. “A Muggle test? No,” he said, getting up and putting on his pants. “I’ll be right back,” he said, leaving.


Twenty minutes later he was back with his school bag. He opened it up and took out a vial. “Here,” he said, handing it to her.


“What is that? Where did you get it?” She asked, looking at the clear liquid.

“A pregnancy test. It’s Pansy’s,” he said.” She won’t notice it’s gone. Even if she does, she’ll have no idea who took it. Just put a drop of blood in it and shake the vile. If it goes back to clear, it’s negative. If it goes blue, well, just take it.”


Hermione uncorked the vial and, using the letter opener from her desk, cut her finger. She pushed on it until a bright red drop of blood appeared, and she held her finger over the vial. The blood dropped in and she quickly corked it and gave it back to Draco. He shook it a few times and then they both stared anxiously at it. At first it seemed to stay clear, but then the liquid swirled and finally turned a very deep blue.

“Oh,” Hermione said. “Oh, no. Oh Merlin!” She sat down on the bed, her head in her hands. “What do I do now?”

“We need to find out how far gone you are,” Draco said. His voice was blank, his expression unreadable. “During the holiday we’ll go to St. Mungo’s.”

“No! Someone will recognise us. I’ll go to my Muggle doctor. She’ll be able to find out when I’m due.” She started to cry. “I can’t believe this happened. What am I going to do?”

“Well, we’ll have to get married,” Draco said like he was discussing the weather.


“What? I’m not getting married-not like this anyway.”

“Of course we are. I won’t have my child be a bastard!” he shouted at her and she began to cry harder. He sighed. “I’m sorry, Hermione. But I don’t think you understand. Unmarried women do not have children. If they do, the children are ostracised, taunted. Do you want that?”

“No,” she sniffed. “Do you even want to marry me?”

“Well, I would rather have waited a few years, but yes, I did plan to ask you eventually,” he said. “First we need to find out when you’re due to have the baby. We’ll decide then what to do. Alright?”

Hermione nodded, and they both went silent.”I’ve been sick,” she said suddenly.”Vomiting for a few weeks. I thought it was nerves,” she laughed bitterly. “How could I have been so stupid!”

“I knew you were sick. You’ve been pretty emotional too,” he said. “I should have said something.”

“Draco, I don’t want to have a baby,” Hermione said quietly. “My parents are going to kill me!” She looked at him. “Your father might literally kill me.”

“Of course he won’t kill you,” Draco said testily. “He won’t know about this.”

“You mean you don’t want me to have it?” she asked slowly.

“What? No, don’t be daft. I meant he won’t know about it. We’ll have to hide you- or something. I’m not sure-I wasn’t really prepared for this, I don’t have any answers right now.”

Hermione stood up and walked to the door. “I’m going to send my mother a letter asking her to make me a doctor’s appointment for when I’m home. Also, to let her know you’ll be coming with me.”


“You’re not going to tell her, are you?” he asked.

“No, that’s something I better do face to face,” she said.

“I’ll be there as well.I'll let them know I plan to marry you.”

Hermione ignored him. “We should go to lunch. I’m going to go after I’m finished in the owlery.” She walked out without a goodbye, lost in her own thoughts. She went to the owlery and sent her letter with Hedwig, then made her way to lunch. She was slightly in a daze, her mind abuzz of what on earth she was going to do.

“Still feeling poorly?” Harry asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m working on a paper for Muggle Studies. Ginny?” Ginny looked up at her. “It’s on single parents. Is that common in the wizarding world?”

“Well, usually when a parent dies, the remaining one remarries. There are very few who don’t and those are usually the ones with older children,” Ginny replied.

“No. I mean unmarried.” Ron and Ginny both just stared at her.


“What? That wouldn’t happen,” Ginny said. “The parents of both involved would force them to marry. It wouldn’t be a choice.”

“In the old times, if a family didn’t approve, they might kill the other one,” Ron said. “I don’t think that happens much now, though.”

“It’s all very hush hush. No one speaks about it-even if you’re sure a couple got married after, you don’t talk about it.” Ginny kept going.

“With contraceptive charms so easy, it doesn’t happen much now. Someone would have to be a complete idiot to get a girl pregnant these days,” Ron went on.

“Oh,” was all Hermione said.”Thanks.” She should have known Draco would be right. She tried to picture herself in a year, married, with a baby…she couldn’t even imagine it. Not that she didn’t want to marry Draco, she did- in about 5 years. On the other hand, she couldn’t imagine having a baby alone either.

“Hermione, are you alright?” Ginny was looking at her strangely.

“Yes, sorry,” Hermione tried to focus on the lunchtime conversation. She sneaked a look at Draco. He looked positively awful, paler than usual, and paying no attention to Pansy, who was chattering at him. She quickly looked away, feeling even worse now.


“Ready for potions?” Harry asked, standing up.

“Sure,” Hermione followed him to the dungeons as if in a daze. She sat in Potions and wrote down everything Snape said without hearing a word. She sat through that nights’ prefect meeting not speaking, and went through her patrol with Susan barely speaking as well. She let Susan know that she would be changing the patrol schedule back to normal the next day, she was feeling so much better.

When she got back to her room, Draco was waiting for her. “I’m really tired,” she said, taking off her cloak. “And you can’t be caught after curfew.”


“I’ll live,” he said. “You look like hell.”

“Thanks. You don’t look so great either,” she said, sitting down in a chair.


“Come here,” he patted the bed where he was sitting. Hermione got up and sat beside him. “I know this is bad, but we can’t do anything now but make the best of it,” he said.


“It’s just so horrible. Should I tell Professor McGonagall? Will they still let me be Head Girl? I’m going to get so fat!” Hermione began to cry again. Draco smoothed her hair.

“We’re not going to tell anyone right now,” he said. “I need to think. No matter what, you still have a few months before anyone will be able to tell and by then we’ll be married. I just have to figure out how without anyone finding out.”


“Maybe we should tell Professor Dumbledore,” Hermione suggested.

“Just wait until we’ve talked to the doctor. Then we’ll talk about it.”

“Maybe the test was wrong.” Hermione looked at him hopefully.

“Umm, maybe.”Draco said sceptically. “We’ll know for sure soon.”

As if on cue, Hermione heard a rapping at her window. She opened it and let Hedwig in. She gave her a treat and opened the letter she untied.

“I have an appointment December 14th,” she said after a minute. “They’re very happy that you’re visiting.”

“They won’t be for long,” Draco sighed.