Legitimement Maries

Tout le monde sauf moi

Chapter 13: Tout le monde sauf moi

Everyone but me

Hermione's stomach gave a rumble of protest so loud that Fred threw his head up from where it had been resting on her abdomen, and roared with laughter.

It was mid-morning on a Sunday, about a week after their successful dinner date. They had frittered away the early hours of the morning with their love-making.

Hermione was trying just about every trick in the book to get pregnant as quickly as possible. At the present, her pelvis was being tilted backwards by several pillows, and she had swallowed a pharmacy of prenatal vitamins. The very timing of the sex had even been predetermined by several moon calendars – not that either of them was complaining too much. In fact, Hermione sensed that their emotional relationship was stronger, that is, once they had gotten over their silly embarrassment of seeing each other's bodies.

"I guess I'd better be making breakfast then," said a still chuckling Fred to Hermione's stomach.

"Fred," replied Hermione from over the top of yet another book about parenting. "We don't even know if there's a baby in there yet, why are you talking to my stomach?"

"Well, if there was a baby in there, I wouldn't want to be deliberately excluding them from the conversation. That would be rude," said Fred in all seriousness.

Hermione made a disparaging noise as she put down her book and kicked back the covers so that she could get up and make her own food.

"Don't make too much," Fred called out to Hermione as she left the room, "We're due at Mum's by twelve."

Hermione re-entered the room with a look of mock horror.

"You're telling me to not make too much food? You? A Weasley? I never thought I'd see the day!"

Fred rolled his eyes before rolling the rest of his body back across the bed so that he could comfortably lie back under the covers, relieved of the burden of producing breakfast.

"Mum's making treacle tart for dessert," he said simply, and Hermione understood. Her mouth was already salivating in anticipation.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHP

The continuous chatter was abruptly ceased by the tapping of knife to glass, a sound meant only one thing – somebody had an announcement to make.

Hermione turned her head away from her conversation with Fleur so that she would be able to pay attention to what seemed to be very important news for Percy and Dee. In fact, Percy had that pompous look that he had so frequently sported in adolescence; it must have been very important news.

"Good afternoon. Audrey and I have an announcement to make."

Percy reached out to give Audrey a one-armed hug that was the first sign of affection Hermione had ever seen him give.

"Audrey is pregnant. We're having a baby!"

Immediately the table was in an uproar of joy and the chatter was resumed in full force.

Women all but jumped over their seats to begin to ask Dee a multitude of questions, while men scraped back their own chairs to give Percy the first of many congratulatory thumps on the back.

However, to Hermione the room suddenly felt very crowded. The wall of people seemed to be closing in on her, so much so that her breathing became panicked.

Eyes opened wide, she looked around at the mass of bodies clouding her vision. A horrible, sick feeling began to rear in the pit of her stomach, and she knew that she had to get out of there fast.

Mentally putting a pair of blinders on herself, Hermione skidded back her chair. She pushed past all the people and headed towards the back door and into the garden of the Burrow.

The green grass felt springy under her skin as she plonked herself down beneath the shade of the numerous trees in the orchard. She wrapped her arms around her knees and pulled them in towards her chest, heaving with the force of her sobs.

It may have only been a few minutes, but to Hermione it felt more like hours or even days.

She felt and heard a heavy weight push itself onto the ground next to her. A familiar arm snaked its way around her shoulders and pulled her close to him.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" she heard Fred's voice buzz into her ear.

Hermione only shook her head and buried it deeper in her cocoon of arms and knees.

"Look, Hermione. I don't want to play guessing games with you, but I will guess that it has something to do with Percy and Audrey's little announcement."

Hermione cried harder still.

Fred sighed as he placed the palms of his hands on her cheeks, pulling her face up to meet his. Blue eyes locked into brown with unyielding fervour.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

After one last sniffle, Hermione composed herself enough to be able to provide some insight into why she looked like she had just crawled out of a dark hole for the first time in twenty years.

"I'm such a failure!"

"Mione, there are several words that I would use to describe you...'failure' however, does not bear a great resemblance to any of them."

This only caused Hermione's bottom lip to quiver in astronomical proportions.

"Of course I'm a failure, What else would I be? I can't do anything right," she wailed, dipping her head once more into the abyss of her lap.

By this point, Fred's patience was really wearing thin. He was not accustomed to a weepy Hermione. He didn't know what to do with her, or how to approach the seemingly dire situation.

"What makes you think that you're such a failure?" said Fred tentatively in anticipation of another potential outburst.

"I'm a horrible wife, that's what! I can't do anything right. We'll both be cast out of the magical community before we know it. Even Percy and Dee have had better luck than what we've had!"

Suddenly, something clicked in Fred's brain.

"Mione, a baby is not something we can force. Like I've said a million times before: It'll happen when it happens.

"But we've done everything we can. I looked up the charts, took the vitamins. I did everything I could to make it happen fast."

Fred pulled himself in closer for a proper hug, whispering calming words into her ear.

"We're in this together, we can do it."

Then, taking her by the hand, he lead her back up to the house so that they could finish congratulating Percy and Audrey on their own wonderful news.