Repercussions

Babies and Boyfriends
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The rest of the summer passed without incident. Hermione was still put off by not getting her Head Girl badge, but tried not to let it affect her enjoying the rest of the break. This was made slightly difficult by the way her friends seemed to be walking on eggshells around her. They knew her too well to think that she wasn’t upset by not getting the top position, so they were being overly nice to her, especially Ron. They also repeatedly voiced the opinion that McGonagall was off her rocker, which annoyed Hermione because the thought did cross her mind as well, and she didn’t like that she was thinking harshly about her mentor.

It was now the last day of August, and the whole family was out in the garden to celebrate the trio’s final year. Hermione was in the kitchen helping Mrs. Weasley bring out the rest of the food.

She looked out the window and watched Bill run his fingers through his beautiful wife’s hair as she giggled at something he said, and kissed him on the cheek. She never really liked the part veela until the wedding earlier in the summer. Hermione had found the bride crying in the bathroom in her dressing room. She went to comfort her, not seeing anyone else around to do so and she felt bad just leaving her there. She had asked what was wrong and surprisingly, Fleur replied that she was nervous she wouldn’t be good enough for Bill. Hermione had always thought of the girl as self absorbed, and couldn’t believe she was actually thinking about her fiancé’s feelings over her own. The bride continued to cry until Mrs. Weasley arrived and took over. Hermione had left and went to her seat next to Ron, and watched the rest of the ceremony in awe. Now she was reliving that feeling again while watching the couple. It was so obvious that they were madly in love with each other. She felt slightly jealous of the happy young lovers, wishing more than ever that Ron would make a move.

“Coming dear? I think that’s the lot of it,” came the motherly voice of Mrs. Weasley, snapping Hermione out of her daydream. She picked up the bowl of mashed potatoes while looking around for her wand, spotting it on the table. She was almost out the door when the wand started sparking. She released it at once while it shot into the air, emitting a loud bang and exploding. Something small and black floated to the ground in its wake. Hermione bent down to pick it up, while carefully balancing the potatoes. She looked it over and shrieked when comprehension sunk in, tossing it out of her hand and dropping the bowl of hot food in the process.

“Oh my GOD, I’m so sorry! It’s just… well… what is THAT!?”

“It’s ok dear, the ones who should be sorry are Fred and George! That is part of their new product line for more umm… mature witches and wizards. They gave some to Fleur and Bill as a wedding present and I guess they left them around the house as well.” Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at the broken bowl and it quickly flew in to one piece.

Hermione cautiously picked up the black garment and examined it at arms length. It appeared to be a thong with a peeled banana on the front; looking just like a…well a man’s part and making her blush scarlet. She read the tag on the back and saw it said “Mr. Right Now’s Banana Hammock, courtesy of ‘Kinky Kupples’ by WWW.”

“That’s disgusting! I mean it’s creative and all but I’d rather not have that lying around the dinner table!”

“I know dear, they’re very special boys, I think they just go too far sometimes.”

Hermione huffed as she threw the man thong in the trash. Picking up the newly repaired bowl of potatoes she finally made her way outside into the garden. They had three long picnic tables pushed together but still had to elongate them to make more room when Lupin and Tonks turned up. Harry immediately started pressing them for answers on Snape as soon as they sat down and Hermione curiously listened in.

“Dumbledore’s portrait told us all we needed to know. It was the plan all along. If Snape couldn’t convince Draco to go into hiding and it came down to it, he had to kill Dumbledore. He made the unbreakable vow with Narcissa Malfoy, and Dumbledore insisted that Snape was to kill him.”

“I don’t believe it! I saw the look in Snape’s eyes as he said the curse. He wanted to kill him I know it!” Harry yelled, making the whole table go silent as they turned to stare at him.

“Calm down Harry, I know this is hard for you because of your closeness to the Headmaster, but it’s true. The reason Severus looked like that was because you can’t perform the killing curse without bringing out those feelings. Artificial or not it doesn’t matter, but hate and anger are necessary to perform it. You can talk to the portrait yourself if it will help,” Lupin said in a soothing voice. Harry was almost a son to him and he went through more hardships than anyone he knew. Remus knew what the boy had to face and he hoped he could regain his trust in Snape eventually, because the potions master could be of real use.

“Yeah fine,” Harry grumbled into his plate.

“”What about Malfoy?” Ron asked, cracking his knuckles.

“No one’s actually seen him since his departure. Snape said he should be returning to school though. He’s been convincing Voldemort that it would be useful to have a spy at Hogwarts that was a student who isn’t a total troll, and he thinks he went for it. We just have to worry that Draco really will be a spy, but once he’s away from Voldemort’s authority we think he will turn to the light side. Snape almost had him last year, but he said that even with his father in Azkaban, he is still a big influence on him.” Ron seemed to take Tonks’ information seriously, and didn’t reply but just sat with an uncharacteristic thoughtful look on his face.

They continued to eat the wonderful food until Fleur suddenly stood up and tapped her fork to her glass. Everyone looked at her with a bemused expression, but quieted down to listen out of respect to Bill.

“Okey evreebody, Beel and I have some exciteeng news for you.” She then turned sideways and rubbed her stomach.

“We’re pregneent! Look at me, I’m ‘uge!” Everyone stared in amazement as she rubbed her nonexistent baby bump. Mrs. Weasley burst into tears and went to hug her daughter-in-law. Hermione, Tonks, and Ginny all clapped enthusiastically, and the boys just sat there in shock.

“Well done brother, I see you put our KK products to good use,” Fred said, while raising his eyebrows suggestively. Bill laughed, but quickly recovered and hit his mischievous brother on the shoulder, after getting a sharp look from his wife. Everyone was instantly put in a good mood after hearing the news. Fleur was asked numerous questions, most of which she answered, but she ignored the ones from the twins.

“I can’t believe you’re already three months pregnant! You’re tiny!” Ginny exclaimed. Her attitude towards her sister-in-law had definitely improved.

“Oh me god you must be keeding! I am practeecally a whale! I am just lucky Beel dusn’t fine anuzzer woman to fulfeel his needs.”

“Love, you know I could never do that. You’re so beautiful, you couldn’t be a whale if I threw my best transfiguration spell your way.” Fleur smiled at Bill’s complement, and laid her head on his broad shoulder. Hermione once again felt jealousy rear its ugly head. She looked over at Ron who was shoveling food into his mouth, bored with the news already. She had feelings for him, but she was unsure if they were just glorified feelings of friendship, or how he felt towards her. Or maybe she was just longing for the closeness that Bill and Fleur had, and she thought of Ron because she didn’t think she had that many options.

As the sun set on the cheerful party, the chatter started to die down as one by one everyone got up from the table. People said their goodbyes and congratulations to the expecting couple, and Fred and George promised to start a line of maternity KK products. Hermione and Ginny helped put away the dishes while Ron and Harry dealt with the tables.

After the guests had departed, Hermione went back to the garden to find Crookshanks. Ron was busy shrinking the tables to fit into the shed, and she was sure Ginny and Harry were off on their own somewhere. She approached Ron and offered him some assistance, then asked him if he had seen Crookshanks at all.

“Well he’s probably off buggering the gnomes, but I’ll help you look for him.” Hermione was grateful for the help, but felt slightly awkward being alone with Ron, and didn’t know why.

“Thanks Ron, I just want to find him before it’s dark out since we have to leave tomorrow. Can you believe it’s our final year already?”

“No it’s pretty crazy. I’m just glad we actually are going back, you know? I mean we could be searching around aimlessly for the horcruxes right now. I’m so relieved Harry changed his mind about diving right into it.”

“Me too, there’s so much research I want to do before we set out.”

“Yes well someone’s got to do it. Better you than me. I bet I’d lead us straight down a black hole or something. Harry wouldn’t like that.”

“Oh shush…. Anyways…. Crookshanks? Come inside I have a treat for you!” she yelled into the hedges.

“Do you have a treat for me for helping you on this painstaking quest?” he asked huskily. Hermione looked up from her search of the grounds to find Ron standing right in front of her, looking down at the top of her head.

“Umm… what kind of treat did you want?” she replied softly. He was much to close; she could hear his heart beating and smell the sweet mint on his breath. She looked up into his eyes and saw pure lust staring back at her. Before she could comprehend what was happening they were kissing. His soft lips pushed into hers as his tongue slowly poked out, trying to gain entrance. She opened for him to deepen the kiss and moved her palms to rest flat on his chest. He was so tender and gentle with her, two traits she normally wouldn’t associate with him.

They broke the kiss at last and they both stared at the ground, breathing heavily. Hermione was still trying to grasp what had just occurred between the two best friends. She didn’t know what to say to him now, so she was relieved when he spoke first.

“Well… umm… that was a pretty good treat, just don’t give it to Crookshanks. He won’t like it as much as I did.” She giggled softly at his attempt at a joke and a complement. They walked in silence for a short while until Hermione spotted what appeared to be a large orange bush, waiting patiently for a gnome to emerge from a hole in the ground. She rushed over to her cat and grabbed him around the middle. Hermione and Ron then walked back towards the house to finish packing. They were almost to the door when the tall boy reached out a freckled hand to her shoulder, stopping her from entering.

“Hermione…. Do you think… err… Do you think you would want to umm… be my girlfriend?” Hermione just stared at him in shock, almost dropping her cat they just spent half an hour trying to find.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to. Sorry. It was stupid of me to ask.” She was just about to tell him how incredibly not stupid it was, when the back door flew open and Mrs. Weasley popped her head out.

“All packed and ready to go? We want to get an early start tomorrow, so it would be best to get to bed soon. G’night dears.”

Hermione opened the door again to shoo Crookshanks inside, then turned to finish the conversation with Ron.

The only problem was, he was nowhere in sight.





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Well there’s chapter 7! 2 chapters in 2 nights… I think that means I need to get a life lol. I think I’m going to have to go through and change all the “R” word chapter titles. I thought it was a good idea at first but I am running out of words and it is taking me longer to think of a title than write the whole chapter. I’m sure you won’t miss them lol.

Oh and just a reminder, there are only 78 days left until Deathly Hallows! I am SOO pumped! I’ve already told my family and my bf that I’m going into hiding when it comes out and I won’t return until I’ve read it like 20 billion times. Sorry, I just had to share that little bit of randomness. Anyways, Thanks for the reviews so far! I hope you like this chapter, I thought it was a little bit more eventful than the last one at least. Please read and Review!!