Hermione was now five months pregnant. She had to charm her robes to "grow" along with her swollen stomach. She read in her pregnancy book that it was good to talk to the baby often, so that they would know the parents' voices. She began to do that very often as the book said to.
She'd tell unborn Arabella everything. She'd tell her about her, about her parents, about Harry, Neville, Luna, what she did that day in class, and plenty of other things. She, however, did not tell her anything about Dumbledore or Voldemort. She didn't want to scare her, even though she could not understand a word she was saying. And every night, she rub her tummy and whisper, "Goodnight, Arabella, sleep tight. Mummy loves you."
Hermione was glad her morning sickness ended three weeks ago in the middle of her fourth month and early beginning of fifth. Harry was glad as well, but but still missed holding her hair back for her.
Some great news came when Neville announced that he and Luna were now officially dating. They were the cutest couple Hermione had ever seen. And Luna had become her her girl best friend fairly quickly. Luna couldn't wait for Arabella to be born. She had made her a bracelet made out of coral and gave it to Hermione on her birthday. However, she couldn't wear it until she was a little older. Luna apologized that it wasn't a gift for her. Hermione burst into tears when she saw the bracelet. It was the most generous gift anyone has ever given her. She immediately forgave Luna for giving Arabella a present instead of her, telling her that her support was enough.
Harry did something extra special for Hermione's birthday. While Hermione was taking a nap, Harry snuck down to the kitchens and asked Dobby if it was okay if he could cook something for Hermione for her birthday. Dobby complied helping him in anyway he could.
That night, they had a candlelit dinner at their homework table. Dobby put a covered dish down in front of Hermione and uncovered it. She gasped and almost burst into tears again. Harry had made her chili with chopped up bananas. He had asked Dobby not to put the bananas in until the last possible moment, in fear of them getting soggy.
Hermione hugged him close. "Thank you so much, Harry! I've missed your chili with bananas!"
Harry chuckled and hugged her back, replying, "You're welcome, Hermione. Happy birthday."
They ate happily. Harry said that there was no way he was eating the same, so he just made himself some spaghetti with meatballs. For dessert, they had pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Hermione ended the night with, "Harry, this was the best birthday ever. Thank you."
It was a few days after her birthday did she feel it for the first time. She was sitting on her bed doing her Potions homework, which was a six-foot essay on how to properly brew a Forget-Me-Not potion.
She liked to talk to herself as she wrote the essay, so that she could properly understand it. "...'and add two rat spleens, which will make it turn an orange color. Then stir it clockwise six times until it turns blue. Then add in four-'" She stopped writing when she felt it.
Arabella must have heard her mother talking to herself because Hermione felt a kick for the first time. At first, she thought the elastic on her panties had busted, but when she felt it again, she knew exactly what it was. She put her hand on her stomach, right over Arabella. "Arabella? Is that you?" A response came in the form of another kick. She smiled widely. "Yes, yes, Mummy feels you." Another kick.
"HARRY! HARRY!" she bellowed, knowing he should not be missing this.
Five seconds later, he ran into her room, panting, "What?! What is it?! What's wrong?!"
"Come feel this!" she urged him forward. He rushed to her side, but sighed with relief when he saw she was smiling. "Give me your hand!" She grabbed his hand with both of hers and put it over their daughter. Harry was confused. "Wha-?" She was not kicking anymore.
"Come on, Arabella, do it for Daddy," Hermione encouraged as she noticed she was not kicking.
A second later, Harry gasped and widened his eyes. "W-what is that?!"
"That's Arabella, Harry! She's kicking!" she told him excitedly.
Harry looked confused. "Kicking? Why?" Obviously he had never heard of this.
"Well, she's big enough now to do that." He was still confused so she sighed and added, "This is your daughter kicking, Harry. It's an amazing and beautiful thing! You don't have to understand it, just know that nobody is harmed right now."
That settled Harry and he relaxed more. He smiled as she kicked again against his hand. "I think I understand this now. I just have never heard of such a thing."
Hermione giggled. "It's okay." After a moment she said, "Now that's she's started, she'll probably never stop. And I won't get any sleep."
Harry looked down at her stomach and told Arabella, "You let Mummy sleep tonight, she has class in the morning." Another kick was her response and they both laughed.
Hermione got in a few hours of sleep each night. She'd be waken up several times during the night from Arabella shifting and moving and kicking. She'd put her hand on her stomach and soothed her down to where she'd stay still. But then after an hour, the pregnant teen would wake up from her baby moving again. She didn't blame her though. She owed her that. She'd never blame her for anything. Ever.
She was always tired every morning. Harry felt bad because she didn't sleep much because of the baby, while he slept like a baby. He felt horrible as she stumbled out of her room almost dead to the world.
He told her this. She told him that she was fine and not to worry.
She was okay about waking up because she was carrying her best friend's baby. Arabella wanted her Mummy's attention, even in the insane hours of the night, and Hermione gave her that attention.
One Friday night, Harry and Hermione were lying on Hermione's bed studying for a Potions exam, when Harry heard it.
A voice.
'Mmmm...warm. Cozy.' Harry looked at her. "Did you say something?"
She looked at him confused and shook her head. "No."
He shook it off and they went back to studying. But then he heard it again. 'Warm...mmmmm...peace.' The voice was feminine, he could tell that much; and that it was tiny.
He looked up again at her. "You sure you didn't hear that?"
"No. Are you okay?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just keep hearing voices. Or, rather, a voice."
"Is it Voldemort?" she asked concernedly grabbing his arm.
Harry chuckled at her question. "Oh, no. Not unless Voldemort has taken on a feminine voice."
She still looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
"I heard this voice. They said, 'warm...cozy...peace.' It sounded like the voice of a small child." That triggered something. He turned to look at Hermione's stomach. "No way. It-it can't be. It can't be her."
"What?" she asked him looking at her stomach in question.
'It is, Daddy. It's me. Arabella,' the voice said.
"Hermione..." he called to her still staring at her middle.
"Yeah?" she called back.
"Am I dreaming? Am I...asleep?" he asked.
"No," she answered. "You're very much awake. What is it? What's wrong? You're scaring me!"
"I hear...I hear her, Hermione. I hear her," he said in disbelief.
"Wait, you hear her?! Harry, she's not even born yet, much less talk! Are you sure you're okay?" she asked feeling his forehead, when she felt no unusual warmth, she ran her hand through his pitch-black hair, loving the feeling of it. She missed running her hands through his locks. She missed the feel of the silk. She hadn't touch it since...that night.
"I'm fine," he assured her, closing his eyes at her soft touch. "But I swear I can hear her!"
'You can, Daddy. It's not your imagination. I'm not talking, Daddy. I'm thinking. These are my thoughts,' "Arabella" said.
"But...how?"
' Bond, Daddy, bond. When you and Mummy created me, it started a bond between me and you. I just started to think and move and kick, now I can communicate with you.'
"How can you know these words and what they mean?"
'Mummy's been talking to me. I can hear her all the time. And you, too, Daddy. I hear you talk to each other. It's peaceful.'
"Why can't Her-I mean, Mummy hear you?"
'Because we are already bonded. I'm in her. There's no stronger bond than that, Daddy.'
"But why is this happening? I've never heard of this before," he asked her.
'I don't know, Daddy, my brain's not that developed.'
"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked him pulling him away from talking to his daughter.
He looked up at her. "It's her. She's talking, or rather, thinking to me." Hermione still didn't believe him. Harry had an idea. "Arabella, she doesn't seem to believe me. Kick, show her you can understand me."
"Harry, what are yo-?" She gasped as she felt Arabella kick her. She put her hand on her stomach and felt a small puncture on her stomach. "What is that?"
'Daddy, tell Mummy I'm trying to touch her. It's my hand.'
"She said she's trying to touch you. It's her hand," he told her.
Hermione stared at him with widened eyes. "Harry, if we didn't live in the Wizarding World, I would be telling you that this is impossible."
He smiled at her. "So you believe me?"
She nodded. "You can hear her in your mind?"
He nodded now. "Yeah, it's like telepathy. I'm hearing her thoughts. She's thinking to me."
"How does she know what to say?"
"She said you've been talking to her and she's been listening to us talk. She must be real smart. Just like her Mummy." He smiled up at her, she gave one back.
Hermione looked solemn and a little sad. "What?" he asked her.
"Why can't I hear her, Harry?"
"Because I'm bonded to her, she said. From the moment we...made her, we both became bonded with her. But you're bonded by body. She's in you. So, I can hear her thoughts," he explained.
She nodded, wishing she could hear her daughter's thoughts. "Does-does she like the way I've been taking care of her?"
Arabella didn't need her Daddy to ask her. She thought, 'I love Mummy! She's the best Mummy in the whole world! I love the food she feeds me! Especially what I think you call chili and bananas!' Harry had to laugh.
"What? What did she say?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"She said she loves you, you're the best Mummy in the whole world and that she loves the food you feed her, especially the chili and bananas," he answered, making her laugh.
"Mummy loves you, too, Arabella," she hugged her stomach lovingly.
For the rest of the night, they continued to talk to her back and forth.
In Hermione's sixth month, October, Hermione was given tutoring. Her professors would come to their Common Room in their free hours and she would let them in and they would give her private tutoring as she would rest several times during the day. She was getting sad that her feet were starting to inflate. Harry had joked and said that they looked like loaves of bread. Hermione, because her hormones were acting up, began to cry. Harry hugged and assured her that he didn't mean it.
Arabella had thought-scolded him, 'That was not nice, Daddy!'
Harry had decided to be tutored as well with Hermione, since he had all of his classes with her. They of course, had one period free because they quit Defense Against the Dark Arts. They knew they needed to learn the class, but they were going to learn absolutely nothing in that class, if they were not even going to do anything active. Hermione, however, probably couldn't duel because she was with child.
Harry would get together with Neville and Luna in the Room of Requirement, which they had discovered about two weeks before, to learn from Neville what they were learning in Umbridge's class. He said, "Not much. Although there were a few spells that we learned the movements for." He showed him the movements of several spells, including Stupefy, Levicorpus, and Depulso. Hermione was sad she was missing out on practicing the spells, but Harry took her to the Room of Requirement once to at least let her try it a few times. She felt confident that she could do them. Harry made sure he didn't hit her when he showed her.
Arabella's vocabulary was getting a little better, but she still didn't understand certain words like "sex" and "abortion". Harry and Hermione made sure not to tell her their meanings, no matter how much she begged.
Harry found out he could project thoughts to his daughter, just like she could. She couldn't read his mind, but whatever he sent her, she could read that. He loved talking to her. She was always interested in the things around her. She asked him things about himself and about her Mummy. She wanted to know everything about everything. Harry thought she reminded him of her Mummy. He told her this,
'You remind me so much of your mother.'
'How?'
'She's just as curious as you are. She always wants to know everything. I bet you're as beautiful as she is, too.'
He "heard" her giggle. 'No, Daddy, I'm pretty sure I'm not as beautiful as Mummy. No one is, I bet.'
'Well, she doesn't believe that, but I do. She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.' He smiled to himself.
Arabella went back to her questions. 'Daddy, what's love?'
'Where did you hear that, princess?' He had started to call her this a week ago. She loved it.
'From Mr. Neville and Miss Luna. They are always telling each other 'I love you'. What does it mean?'
Harry didn't know how to answer this question. He never really knew love. He lived with his neglecting relatives for all his life and barely remembered a time when he was loved. He did love his godfather Sirius and his late parents, however. He knew that love. 'Love...is when you can't live without someone. If they died, you feel as if you were dead, too. You can't breathe without them. I've lost that part of me when I lost my parents, your grandparents. Love is friendship set on fire. When you love someone, you'd do everything for them. You'd do anything to make sure they were okay. It's like your heart and mind is calling someone else's to tell them that they want to see them tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, forever. That's what love is, princess.'
'Do you love me, Daddy?' she asked him.
'Yes, I will love you forever, Arabella.'
'I love you, too. Do you love Mummy?'
'Yes, of course.'
'Do you love her like Mr. Neville loves Miss Luna?'
Harry stopped and his heart jumped. He wasn't expecting that. Did he love her? Was he in love with her? He went back over his love speech he had just told Arabella. Searching for things that answered that question. If she died, he would die, as well. He felt as if there was a fire on his heart calling out to her. Was this what it meant to be in love? He remembered...that night and how beautiful and breathtaking she was. How amazing she was for her first time. He remembered her calling out his name as she finished and how wonderful it sounded to his ears. He remembered her kisses on his skin, how light and gentle they were. Her tears as he tore through her broke his heart. How tight she felt around him. Her gorgeous, chocolate-brown eyes as they looked into his emerald-green ones with happiness and ecstasy.
'Yes...yes, I love her like Mr. Neville loves Miss Luna. Possibly even more.'
'Does she know? Because I've never heard her say it before.'
'No, she doesn't know. I know she doesn't love me the same way. You'll understand when you're born and older.' He wanted to get off of this subject. 'What is Mummy doing?'
'More homework, she's talking to herself again.' He "heard" another giggle and chuckled. 'Daddy, what's rat spleen?'
He chuckled again and replied with, 'You'll see in about eleven or twelve years.'
Hermione never thought the telepathy would come in handy until the day something bad had happened. It was December and snowing heavily. Hermione was now seven months pregnant and she had woken up hungry during the middle of the night and she had called on Dobby, but he never came. So, to satisfy her craving, she left her and Harry's Common Room and made her way to the kitchens. She never got there as she ran into the one Draco Malfoy and three other Slytherin goons, Crabbe, Goyle, and someone Hermione knew his face but not his name.
"Ah, the Mudblood slut," he greeted with a smile. "We were just coming to the Gryffindor Tower to capture you. Orders from the Dark Lord." They did not know, however, that Harry and Hermione were staying in another dorm, not the Gryffindor dorms. "And I see you're wandless. That will make it all the easier."
Hermione's heart jumped into her throat at them and berated herself for not bringing her wand. She widened her eyes, afraid of what they were going to do to her. Or worse, what they were going to do to her unborn daughter. She attempted to run, but was stopped by Crabbe and Goyle. "NO! Let me go!"
"Ah, ah, ah, Mudblood, no running, don't want to hurt your precious cargo," he sneered. She stopped struggling to save Arabella from harm in case she fell. She began to scream again in case anyone heard her, but Malfoy just casted a Silencio on her.
She eventually just gave up and let her do what they wanted, letting them lead her to wherever they wanted her to go. They went through the castle until they got to the Main Entrance. Hermione had no idea where they were going. The Slytherins led her outside and Hermione felt the cold hit her like a tons of bricks. They walked to the Whomping Willow. Everyone stood back as Crabbe cautiously went up to a knot on the tree and stuck his wand on it, mobilizing the tree and letting them all go into the secret passageway underneath it. Hermione realized where they were going. The Shrieking Shack.
"No one will find or hear you here, Mudblood," the blonde-haired Slytherin said.
Did they plan to keep her there and leave her until she starved and died?! She was already hungry as hell!
When they arrived to the Shrieking Shack, they shoved her inside an empty room. She fell on her back lightly. She out her hand on her stomach to check if Arabella was okay. She felt a kick and sighed with relief.
The Slytherins snickered and one, Goyle, shot a Crucioat her. She screamed but no sound came out because of the Silent spell. Tears leaked through her eyes as the pain never stopped and only got worse. Finally, he ended the Torture Curse.
"How long are we supposed to keep her here?" the nameless boy asked Malfoy.
"The Dark Lord told us to wait for a sign, Levitt. I told you that!" he yelled back. So he had a name now, Levitt.
Hermione heard this exchange. Voldemort? He knew?! So they didn't bring her here to die, just so that no one could hear her.
Goyle crucioed her again and she screamed again and felt something go off in her and she began to panic. There wasn't enough time! It was too soon! She couldn't bear it. It hurt too much. She just hoped Arabella couldn't feel it. When he stopped the second time, Malfoy said, "Come on, boys! Let's go to a window and look out for the sign. She's not going anywhere." The four left, leaving Hermione and Arabella in the room alone.
After a few minutes, Hermione felt the Silence charm wearing off. She didn't know what to do. She began to cry, thinking the worst for her unborn child. She wanted Harry. No, she needed Harry. She felt a kick in her stomach and thought of something. She put her hand over Arabella. "Arabella, it's Mummy. If you can understand me, kick twice." After a moment, she felt her daughter kicked not once, but twice. She smiled. "Arabella, kick for Mummy two more times if you can get in contact with Daddy."
The pregnant teen waited for half a minute until she realized that it was hopeless. But then the two shudders came. "Okay, tell Daddy that Mummy's hurt. We're in a room in the Shrieking Shack with Malfoy and three other Slytherins. Tell him-tell him to hurry and that I'm in labor. Tell him you're coming." She added, "Kick three times if he's coming. Don't kick if he's not."
She waited and waited and waited.
'DADDY! DADDY, wake up!'
Harry woke up to his daughter calling to him. "Huh?" 'Arabella, is that you? It's too early, princess. Let Daddy sleep.'
'Daddy, it's Mummy! She's hurt! We're locked in a room in the Shrieking Shack with Malfoy and three other Slytherins. Hurry, Daddy, hurry! It's time for me to come out, Daddy. It's time for me to come out.'
Harry's eyes widened and he grabbed his wand off of the nightstand. He hurriedly put his socks and shoes on, his coat and deactivated the feather that was the portkey to get to the Hospital Wing on his table. He grabbed it and shoved it into his pocket.
Hermione was still waiting. She looked down and saw the pool of water, indicating that she was indeed in labor. She began to sob, covering her mouth.
Then, the three kicks came and she felt hope.