The rest of January passed smoothly. Hermione and her friends were having a good time, even with all of the studying and preparing for their exams. Voldemort was still pretty quiet. There weren't many attacks occurring and the one that did was quickly shut down by the Order. Hermione had been to two more Order meetings where they had discussed the Horcruxes and more. Filius had found the Diadem Horcrux and it was currently locked in a strongly warded cupboard in the Headmasters' Office. They had formed a plan for Albus, Alastor, Filius and Arthur to go to Gringotts to look for the Cup Horcrux and hopefully find it during the second weekend of February. Minerva's and Molly's pregnancies were going well, and Minerva had started showing, thereby allowing Hermione to show them the spells she had found to hide pregnancies. Remus' and Severus' relationship was going well also, the two of them spent a lot of alone time together, as well as with the group, and they were both very happy. And everyone was happy for them.
It was now Sunday the first of February; Minerva was fourteen weeks pregnant, and Molly was eleven weeks pregnant. Everything was going well. Hermione was on her way to the Room of Requirement to meet her friends when she heard what sounded like a girl crying in pain in the girls' bathroom on the seventh floor.
Curious Hermione made her way to the room and opened the door to find Alice sitting huddled in the corner, blood pooled on the floor around her and her arms crossed over her stomach, crying in pain. Hermione rushed over to her friend, worried, and knelt next to her.
"Alice, what's going on?" Hermione asked concerned.
"I-I'm pregnant." Alice whispered through her tears, shocking Hermione. "I'm losing my baby, aren't I?" She asked sadly, looking at Hermione with pleading, sad eyes.
"I'm going to take you to the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey can help you." Hermione told her friend, trying to sound calm.
"No. I don't want anyone to see me like this. Please, Hermione." Alice pleaded.
Hermione called a House Elf and asked her to take the two of them to a private room in the Hospital Wing. As soon as they arrived and Alice was in the bed Hermione asked the House Elf to get Poppy for them.
When Poppy walked into the room to find the two girls on the bed, one bleeding and crying whilst Hermione comforted her as best as she could, she rushed over and asked what was wrong, concerned.
"Alice is pregnant. I found her like this in the seventh floor girls bathroom." Hermione answered for her friend.
Poppy looked shocked for a moment before clearing her face.
"Hermione, I'm going to need you to move away from Alice for me so I can scan her properly." Poppy instructed.
Hermione moved to sit in the chair next to the bed but Alice held onto her tightly, protesting through her cries of pain, fear and sadness.
"Alice, it's alright. I'll be right here, in the chair next to your bed, the whole time. I promise. You can hold my hand if you want, but I can't get in the way of Poppy's scans." Hermione promised, causing Alice to reluctantly let go. Hermione moved to the chair next to the bed and held Alice's hand in a comforting way, Alice squeezed it whenever the pain got particularly bad.
Poppy ran her scans and was shocked with what she found.
"Alice, sweetie, how long have you known that you are pregnant?" Poppy asked, concerned.
"Three months." Alice said quietly.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Poppy questioned.
"I was scared. I didn't want anyone to hate me for getting pregnant at fifteen. It was an accident." Alice cried.
"No one would have hated you, sweetie. But you needed to be seen my a medical professional such as myself. Who is the father? Does he know?"
"Frank, and no, he doesn't know. I was too scared to tell him. Is my baby dead?"
Poppy looked at the girl, a sad expression on her face as she nodded, causing Alice to start sobbing through the pain.
"Do you know what caused this? My diagnostic said that you were hit with a spell which caused the miscarriage, do you know who hit you with the spell?"
"Bulstrode, the older one." Alice whispered.
"Okay, I will be sure to tell the Headmaster so he can be punished. But, sweetie, I need to send you into labour because of how far along you are. Do you want me to get Frank for you so that he can be here? Do you want anyone else with you?"
"Please, get Frank. And I want Hermione here as well." Alice said hurriedly.
"Okay, I will get a House Elf to bring him for you whilst I go and get what I need." Poppy said before leaving the room.
The two girls stayed in silence, only the sound of Alice's cries filled the room, until Frank arrived by House Elf and rushed over to Alice, sitting next to her on the bed and taking her other hand in his.
"Alice, what's going on? Are you okay?" Frank asked his girlfriend worriedly.
"I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I was scared." Alice whispered to him, looking sadly into his eyes.
"Wanted to tell me what?" Frank questioned, confused.
"That I'm pregnant. Or I was, but the older Bulstrode hit me with a spell. I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you. I really did. But I was so scared that you would hate me." Alice pleaded.
"I could never hate you, Alice. I love you." Frank told her as sadness filled his eyes as well.
"I love you, too." Alice replied as Poppy entered the room again with a potion vial in her hand.
"Alice, sweetie, I need you to take this potion for me. It will send you into labour, although the labour will only last an hour as it speeds up the process. However, I won't be able to give you any pain reliever until afterwards. Take it when you're ready." Poppy told Alice gently, handing the potion over to her.
Alice took the vial into her hand slowly and stared at it through her tears for a few seconds before slowly unstoppering it and drinking it, groaning in pain as the first contraction spread through her stomach, squeezing Frank's hand, and giving the vial back to Poppy so that she could squeeze Hermione's hand also.
The hour felt like forever for time felt like it was going terribly slowly. Poppy had warded the room to make sure no one could hear what was going on inside the room. But the hour was filled with cries, and groans, and screams from Alice as she gave birth to hers and Frank's dead child. Hermione, Frank and Poppy were also comforting her and encouraging her as much as they could.
The child turned out to be a girl. And after the child and the placenta were out of Alice she was given a pain reliever straight away. Poppy wrapped the tiny, red girl up in a soft white towel and lay her in Alice's arms before cleaning Alice and the bed magically and covering Alice's legs with the blanket on the bed. Poppy left the room quietly, allowing Alice and Frank to look down at their child, both silently crying as they held her tiny hands and stroked her tiny head.
Hermione sat their quietly, watching the two sadly, feeling tears sting her eyes as she thought about the pain the two must be going through at that moment.
Hermione cleared her throat gently, not wanting to disturb them, but not wanting to leave without letting them know that she was there for them if they ever needed her. The two looked up at her sadly.
"I will leave you two alone now. But, if either of you need anything, you know where to find me." Hermione said gently as she stood up from her chair.
"Thank you for being here, Hermione. It means a lot of me." Alice replied, smiling sadly.
"I'll always be here for you, Alice. Whenever you need me." Hermione promised.
Alice nodded and looked back at her precious daughter.
Frank muttered a 'thank you' before also turning back to his daughter and girlfriend.
Hermione left the Hospital Wing and made her way to the Room of Requirement, knowing the she was late but not caring at that particular moment.
When Hermione entered the Room of Requirement she was in a sort of trance. So much so that she didn't notice Sirius rush up and hug her until he already had his arms around her, causing her to jump.
"Hermione, where have you been? We were getting worried." Sirius asked as he pulled back and took in her appearance. "And why is there blood on your skirt? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Sirius and their friends all looked worried as Sirius guided her over to a chair and sat her in it, kneeling in front of her.
"I'm fine, Sirius." She told him quietly.
"Then why are you covered in blood? And why do you look like you're about to cry?" Sirius asked urgently, needing to know what was wrong with his love.
Remus, with his werewolf strengthened scent, could smell that the blood was from a miscarriage, he just couldn't tell if Hermione had had the miscarriage or someone else. The smell of dead unborn child was there though.
"Sirius, have you and Hermione had sex recently?" Remus asked, worriedly.
"What? Remus, why would you ask that?" Sirius questioned his friend.
"Because the blood is from a miscarriage. I just don't know who had the miscarriage." Remus said, causing Sirius to look at Hermione with a pained, betrayed expression on his face.
"Sirius, it wasn't me. I didn't have the miscarriage. I haven't had sex with anyone, I promise." Hermione told him honestly even as a tear leaked out of her eyes.
"Then who had the miscarriage, Hermione? Was it McGonagall?" Lily asked, worried for her teacher.
"No, mum is fine. But I don't know if I should tell you who had the miscarriage. I don't know if they want anyone else to know." Hermione said before breaking down into tears.
Sirius gathered her in his arms, pulling her into his lap as he sat on the floor, and he comforted her as best as he could, wandlessly and wordlessly removing the blood from her skirt as she cried. Their friends gathered on the floor around them and watched sadly as Hermione cried.
Soon the cries slowed down, but Hermione remained in Sirius' lap, soaking in the comfort he and their friends were providing her with.
"It was a girl, you know. The baby. She was so tiny." Hermione spoke quietly but all of her friends could hear her. "If I had only known about this child, I could have done something, anything to save her. I could have made sure the spell never hit her mother. I could have made sure her mother was protected."
"Hermione, it isn't your fault. Things like this happen. It's sad, but there is often nothing anyone can do to stop it." Sirius told her gently.
"But if I had known that the mother was pregnant I could have stopped it. Dumbledore in the future should have told me…"
"Maybe this is something that is different, something that has changed, meaning Dumbledore didn't know. Or maybe he knew that there were certain things that you couldn't change, so he decided not to tell you because it would have happened anyway. But Hermione, this isn't your fault. So stop blaming yourself. It is the fault of whoever shot the spell at the girls' mother. Not you." Lily cut off her friend. "And no matter how hard you try, Hermione, you aren't going to be able to save everyone. We're living in a war, people are going to die no matter how hard we try to save them."
"I know. I know people are going to die. But that doesn't stop me from thinking that this is my fault. I could have saved that unborn child from dying." Hermione whispered.
"Yes, you could have. But that could have changed things too much. That could have caused issues. A lot of unborn children die, Hermione, and unfortunately there is nothing we can do to stop that. And who's to say that even if you saved the mother from that spell nothing else would have happened to have caused a miscarriage, something that you couldn't have saved her from?" Sirius said gently, running a comforting hand up and down her back.
"I know, but it's still hard." Hermione replied.
"Of course it is. But we'll all be here to support the parents if they tell people what happened. And there's always a chance of them having other children. And they'll be okay, eventually. It will take time, and they'll never forget their lost daughter, but they will be okay." Sirius said, everyone nodded in agreement.
"Sorry for crying on you, I just. I had to watch her give birth to her dead child and I just wish there was something I could have done to have stopped it from happening. Then I was imagining it happening to me, to any of us, and I just…"
"We understand, Hermione. And it very well might happen to one of us. But we'll all be here to support each other, no matter what happens." Remus stated sadly, holding Severus' hand tightly.
"Always." Severus said in response, smiling at them all sadly.