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Who: Hermione and Ron
Where: A shady spot somewhere on the lawns of Order headquarters
When: 10th August, 2001, afternoon
Status: Complete

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"You say that as though you haven't known me for ten years," Hermione said, turning the page in the book. For once this wasn't a spellbook. She'd found an old copy of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and was reading it slowly, savouring the words before she had to get back to helping Terry with Michael.

Using the faded ribbon attached to the spine of the book, Hermione marked her place and closed it, placing it carefully on the grass beside her as though it was a precious object.

She looked over at Ron, a smear of chocolate at the corner of his mouth. Rather than point it out, she merely leaned over and pressed a kiss to the spot.

"Were you able to get any more editions of the Prophet?"

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"A couple," he replied, his pleasure from her kiss dulled somewhat by the mention of that rag. He'd spent most of the morning scouring the outer fringes of Diagon Alley trying to find copies. Not surprisingly, that particular edition was one of their biggest sellers, third only to Dumbledore's death and the fall of Harry Potter. "Ginny has one and the rest are with Remus."

Taking another, smaller bite of his chocolate, Ron chewed thoughtfully for a long moment. Even with Harry back, things weren't falling into place like they should. No that he expected them too - fate was a cruel bitch like that - but he'd hoped, just this once...

"Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, they do."

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Hermione reached up and threaded her fingers into his hair, gently combing down to the ends and repeating the action. She'd not planned on being this cheeky. She'd not planned on it at all. But the words just bubbled up and spilled out of her mouth.

After all, things could be even worse.

She turned to face him and widened her eyes. "This would be a bad time to tell you I'm pregnant, wouldn't it?"

Hermione covered her mouth with her hand. Oh the look on his face. The colour actually draining. She could see it vanish and his skin go completely pale and his expression...

"No..." She chuckled. "No I'm not... I'm sorry... I couldn't help myself. Don't look at me like that. I'm not. I swear I'm not."

She schooled her features for a moment, but the laughter came bubbling up and perhaps it was a stressful kind of laughter, where everything in the world is going wrong and you cannot help but laugh. This wasn't even really a situation to be laughing. There were so many things going wrong...

And yet, she was barely able to breathe.

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Still pale enough that the freckles stood out in stark relief on his cheeks, Ron swatted her leg - and none too playfully, either. An unexpected pregnancy was not funny in the least little bit; her high-pitched laughter now dancing on the edge of hysterical didn't help matters at all.

Laughter that continued despite his frown and mildly annoyed look. He wasn't against seeing her smile, or laugh, obviously. He wished she did both more often... but for completely different reasons altogether.

"I saw Percy," he said, suddenly, hoping that would sober her up a bit.

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"I'm sorry..." Hermione sucked in a breath, all laughter gone. "I didn't mean it..."

She caught his hand and threaded her fingers with his. When he mentioned his brother, the first emotion that burst into her chest was anger. Percy. Nearly all of her blame lay on that one person.

The next emotion that cropped up was concern. She knew just how hard of a time the rest of the Weasleys had with Percy and how hard it was for them to even speak of it.

Her heart started to pound. The laughter completely gone. "Where did you see him? Did you talk to him? He didn't try to alert the Ministry, did he?"