The Witch and The Hunters

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

Page count: 15

Three weeks later....

"Just think, one more week and we'll finally be able to see our family home for the first time," Dean said, as he and Hermione walked hand in hand down Diagon Alley.

In the last week alone they'd managed to wrap up three cases with only minimal injuries of a few cuts and bruises, and since they'd been so busy lately they'd decided that they would return to England for a few days in order to have some time away and they could spend it with the family, especially since once Evander arrived, it would be a while before they would have the time or energy to visit.

They'd been back in London for only three days so far and as soon as they set foot in Diagon Alley barely an hour after arriving, Hermione had been ambushed by the paparazzi and Dean had been far from happy. Thankfully, Harry had been with them and he was able to help her and Sam restrain Dean from killing anyone, but that meant that more than a few Memory Charms had to be used in order wipe their memories of discovering Hermione's pregnancy, as well as destroying the evidence on the cameras. Two days later, and Hermione's pregnancy was still a secret and that's the way they wanted it.

Hermione had seen the stress the press had put on Ginny with her pregnancies and given her mother's fertility problems as well as how long it had taken her to fall pregnant, neither she nor Dean wanted to risk putting any stress on Hermione or the baby. In fact, they didn't wish for the pregnancy to be known at all, they were going to wait until after Evander had arrived and then release a statement once they were sure that both Hermione and Evander were healthy. Whether or not that went to plan would remain to be seen.

Given that it was now early September and all children that were old enough were at Hogwarts, Diagon Alley was fairly quiet that morning. Summer was transitioning into autumn meaning there was a chill in the air and Hermione pulled her robes around her more firmly, not only keeping her warm, but hiding her almost seven month baby bump from anyone that didn't know it was there.

They'd left Sam at the apartment given that he was still in bed despite him usually being the first one up, but the previous night Dean and Sam had been invited over to Malfoy Manor by Draco, along with Harry and The Weasley men for a night of muggle poker and drinking. Dean had been fairly sober when he returned; Sam on the other hand, had to be brought back by one of the Malfoy house-elves as he'd passed out.

"I know; I can't wait to finally see where we'll be raising our family. It seems like we've been waiting forever," Hermione sighed.

"Well, not much longer now," he said, smiling down at her and giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "The decorators are due to be finished in a few days and then we just have to wait until the house and land is magicked proof, Castiel's going to do the demon proofing afterwards, it'll be a lot easier for him than it would be for us, and he'll have better knowledge of the wardings, too, and he mentioned wanting to put a few Enochian symbols around the property for extra security."

"I know, the more security we have the safer our family will be. The house-elves are preparing to move Bobby's things."

"He's still going to shoot you, he'll just wait until after little Xander's arrived," he said amused.

"He wouldn't shoot me," she rolled her eyes. "Though he might slap me over the head a few times, but it needs to be done. He's not getting any younger, Dean, and you saw his medical records just as I did. He's going to kill himself, he's not looking after himself as he should be, and even if we do decide to continue hunting and we do so as a family, he won't be alone as the house-elves will take care of him, even Bobby can't so no to Mimsy."