Accidental Happenstances [a Dramione fanfic]

Chapter II

May 20, 2003

The morning sickness began while Hermione was tending to a patient. Her stomach lurched and she quickly excused herself to the bathroom. She felt so sick that Head Healer Magdalene advised her to go home for the rest of the day to recuperate.

"I'm fine, Maggie, really! It's probably just food poisoning," she attempted.

Magdalene raised an eye brow. "What did you eat?"

"Er, sushi?" Hermione answered as more of a question. Magdalene eyed her suspiciously as her mind raced to figure the correct reason.

"You're lying to me." She pulled Hermione into an empty room and asked, "Are you pregnant?"

Hermione reddened in a telling blush, and Magdalene gasped.

"You are. Oh, Merlin. How far along are you?"

"Just two weeks, I think."

"Lay down." She locked the door while Hermione laid on the bed. Magdalene pulled out her wand and said, "Lift your shirt."

Hesitantly, she raised her shirt, exposing her stomach. Magdalene muttered a spell and a cloud appeared above Hermione's stomach. Inside the cloud, an image appeared. It was a mere cluster of cells, yet it gave out an aura of human life.

"That's it, huh?" Hermione breathed.

"Yes. This is your picture," Magdalene said. "And now you have all the information you need."

Hermione's transfixion with the image broke and she looked at Magdalene, confused. "Information for what?"

"To make a decision, of course. About whether to keep it, or otherwise."

"Oh." Hermione hadn't given much thought to having an abortion, but she didn't necessarily want to keep the child of her enemy. Then again, she reasoned, it wasn't just his child. It was her child too.

Magdalene continued, "You don't have to decide yet, but if you decide to get an abortion, I would recommend not waiting until you're four weeks along."

"Okay," Hermione seemed at a loss for words. Magdalene nodded and started to leave. "Wait."

Magdalene turned.

"Please don't mention this to anyone. Please," her big brown eyes begged Magdalene's blue ones to not spill her secret to the world.

"My lips are sealed, Hermione." She smiled and shut the door, leaving Hermione with the first image of her child sealed in her brain.

~

Ginny's pregnancy began to become more obvious, and the press zoomed in their focus on her. Everywhere she went, she was followed by someone with a camera. Harry had grown more protective of her and hired two Aurors to tag along on her outings. Ginny outright hated it, and vented to Hermione.

"These two big guys just follow me around everywhere! Harry has completely lost his marbles!" She was pacing Hermione's apartment, her normally flat stomach protruding just slightly.

"Ginny, they are there to protect you from the press."

"Yeah, right. Any and every paper who snaps a picture of me is printing it as front page news: Ginny Weasley: The Chosen One to Carry Harry Potter's Child. As if I had no say in the matter at all!"

"With them around, at least they can't physically harm you," Hermione reasoned. "And stop pacing, you'll burn holes in my carpet."

"You know what is worse? The Harpies want me to resign as captain for the rest of the season, just because I have this thing inside me."

"That thing is Harry Potter's child." Hermione smiled mischievously.

"Stop toying with me, Hermione. I'm serious!"

"Alright, alright!" She threw her hands up in defense. "Do you really want to know what I think?"

"Yes!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Then sit."

Ginny plopped down next to Hermione on the couch.

"Okay, so first of all, you need Ripley and Ezekiel to keep the more intrusive cameramen away from you. You don't need that added stress, so let them stress about it. Understand?"

"Yeah." She said with a roll of her eyes.

"And secondly, I would continue being captain until you absolutely have to leave. There is no risk to you or your baby if you play through the rest of your pregnancy. Of course, when it gets nearer to your due date, you may not want to, so make that the endpoint." Hermione had done her own thinking about her situation and how she would work everything out.

Ginny sighed and leaned into the couch. "I guess you're right. As always." She smiled and laid a hand on her growing belly. "Oh!" She popped up. "I didn't tell you the baby's sex! Do you want to know?"

"Do I want to know the sex of Harry Potter's baby, but of course!" Hermione joked.

"Ha ha. And I was going to ask you to be the godmother."

"Shut up! No way! Really?" Hermione exclaimed excitedly.

Ginny smiled and said, "Of course, Hermione! Now, do you want to know the sex?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

"Okay... baby Potter is... a BOY!" The women squeed and laughed tearily.

"Oh my God! You're going to have son! I'm going to have a godson!"

"Yes! But I do have to ask that you don't tell anyone yet. I mean, Mum and Dad know, of course, but I haven't said anything to anyone else. I don't want the press to publish my baby's sex to the world. I can see it now: The Chosen One to Have a Son! I mean, can you imagine?"

Hermione smiled. "I promise I won't tell anybody your baby's gender. Cross my heart." She took a deep breath. She wondered if now was the right time to tell Ginny of her pregnancy, but she realized that there was never a good time to tell someone you're pregnant with an illegitimate child. "But I do have news to tell you. And I hope you'll keep this as secret as baby boy Potter."

Ginny leaned forward, intrigued. "Oh, really? What news?" Hermione's face betrayed a look of tragedy. "Is it bad news?"

"Well, it doesn't... feel like bad news, but it does pose some major obstacles." She refused to think of it as bad because she wasn't sure she was opposed to becoming a mother

"Well, what happened, Hermione?"

Hermione relayed the story about her getting drunk out of right mind, going home with a strange man (intentionally leaving out his identity), and finally, "And now I'm pregnant."

"Whoa." Ginny leaned back onto the pillows and her mouth gaped open.

A moment of silence hung over the room and it was awhile before either woman spoke again.

"Ginny, do you think I'm a slut?" Hermione asked quietly, playing with her fingers.

"No. I don't believe in the term. Just because you have sex doesn't make you a slut, or easy, or whatever," Ginny stated. "No, I think that you made some unwise choices, but you are not a slut. However, you still have to deal with the repercussions your choices have caused."

"Yeah, I know." Hermione kept staring down into her lap. "I think I'm going to keep the baby. Now does that sound absurd?"

"Speaking as a woman who is carrying a child of her own, I sympathize with your reasons for keeping your baby, but as your best friend, I have to ask you if you've thought this completely through." Hermione looked up. "You have, haven't you?"

"I spent some time thinking it over, but the decision was surprisingly easy to make."

"There you go, then." They sat in more silence while the air cleared up of secrets and oscillating choices.