Hermione wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans. Her heart was thrumming in her chest, she thought she was going to have a heart attack. She, one more time, checked if everything was where it was supposed to be on the dinner table before sitting down on one of the chairs.
10 minutes. 10 more minutes before Ron came home from work. 10 more minutes before Hermione finally delivered The News to her husband. 10 more minutes before she got to see his reaction. 10 more minutes before Ron learned that they were gonna have a baby, that Hermione was pregnant.
Hermione, absent mindedly, started chewing on her nails. She was nervous as hell, because she didn’t know if Ron wanted to have a baby. She knew that Ron wouldn’t force her to have an abortion, but if their wants on the subject wasn’t the same, it would have a toll on their relationship. And Hermione was afraid that they wouldn’t recover from that.
She knew she wanted to have the baby, but she didn’t know if she could go through with being a mother if she had to do it alone.
“Honey, I’m home!”
“In the kitchen!”
Ron entered the kitchen and sighed blissfully at the delicious smells. “You cooked?” He asked after he pecked his wife’s lips with a chaste kiss.
“Yeah.” Hermione decided to be direct and honest. “I have something to tell you and I thought a nice dinner would be a good. Molly helped, so you don’t need to worry about getting poisoned.” Hermione forced out a nervous laugh but Ron didn’t laugh with her. He came closer and held her hands.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
“I already told you, I need to tell you something. I’m just a bit scared about how you might react.”
“You can tell me anything ‘Mione.”
“Okay.”
Hermione took in a deep breath, closed her eyes and braced herself.
“I’m pregnant. You’re gonna be a father Ronald.”
She kept her eyes closed, too afraid to see the fallout. She could feel Ron stiffening. He didn’t let go of her hands but he didn’t speak either. And all of those gave Hermione a thousand of mixed signals. She gingerly opened her eyes to see Ron staring at her with an unreadable expression. Her heart sank.
“Ron, say something, please.”
“Do you want to have the baby, or do you want to have an abortion?”
“What?”
“Do you want to have the baby, or do you want to have an abortion?”
“I- Have the baby. I want to have the baby.”
Hermione watched as a smile spread across Ron’s face, which caused her face to lit up as well. Ron hugged her tightly. He picked her up and spun her around, causing a chuckle to slip from her lips.
“I’m gonna be a father!”
Hermione laughed through her teary eyes, basking in relief.
“You really want to have a child with me?”
“Are you kidding me? Of course!”
“Then why did you wait as long as you did to react?” She asked hotly.
“Because I didn’t want you to answer my question based on my reaction. It’s your body, your life, your choice Hermione. I would hate to unintentionally force you to have a baby that you did not want to have. I would be by your side no matter what. Whether you said you wanted to give birth or not. I would be right here, by your side, when we arrived at the St. Mungos, no matter if it was nine months from now on or two weeks.”
Hermione’s eyes watered again. She threw her arms around her husband and smashed their lips together. Ron answered her eagerly. The harsh and fierce kiss turned into a sweet one soon and Hermione quite literally melted against her husband.
“I’m gonna be a mother. And you’re gonna be a father. We’re gonna be parents.”
“Yes. Yes, we will.”
***
The burrow was packed, as always.
Harry and Ginny were sitting right next to Hermione and Ron, little Jamie on Harry’s lap and Teddy at Ginny’s side. George and Angelina were sitting on the other side of the Potters. Percy and his fiancé Audrey were next to them. Bill and Fleur were next in line, with Victoire and Dominique in between them. Charlie was at the other side of them. And lastly, Arthur and Molly were sitting between them and Ron and Hermione at the big, round table.
Hermione stood up from her chair and asked for the guests’ attention. “We have an announcement to make.” Ron took her hand and also got up. They looked at each other excitedly one last time before yelling out “We are pregnant!”
Then it was complete chaos.
Everyone was hugging and congratulating them. Molly was crying happy tears. Harry was yelling “I’m gonna be an uncle!” along with George. Shortly after Ginny joined them with her own shout of “I’m gonna be an aunt!”. Fleur was telling Hermione that she could drop in anytime to ask any question she wanted. Vi and Dom were screaming from happiness and running around saying “We’re gonna have a new cousin! We’re gonna have a new cousin!” which scared Jamie a bit, causing his mother to pick him up to gently shush him.
After everyone cooled down a bit, Fleur immediately suggested a baby shower, which Hermione agreed reluctantly. Ginny and Percy accepted to help with the planning of it and they told Hermione and Ron that they would have everything they needed. Hermione put a hand to her stomach and looked around the dining table. She looked at her family. She smiled.