First Comes Baby

{1}

Hermione sat on a cold bench, feeling very small as she was surrounded by large and encompassing buildings. It was night time, roughly half nine, but she hadn't looked at her watch in what felt like hours, and you never would have known it was so late due to all the flashing lights and billboards.

She'd never been to New York City before, hadn't even thought of it, but her mind had been so addled by the news she'd just gotten, this made the most sense.

It was ambiguous of her to sit alone on the red metal, watching people bustle about through Times Square. Hundreds of thousands passed her by, large groups and small families alike. There were those who were alone and sad and those who seemed more than happy to thrive among the ambiguity.

Hermione was pregnant.

There, she'd said it, well, not out loud and not to anyone, but there was certainly the pat on the back for having acknowledged it. It wasn't as if it was something to forget, no. Hermione wouldn't forget in a thousand years.

It certainly hadn't happened intentionally, that was for bloody sure. Too many gin and tonics, too many faces... for Merlin's sake she didn't even know who the father was. Well, she did, she just didn't know his name or hardly what he even looked like. When she'd woken up that morning after her one-night stand, he'd waved goodbye from the doorway with a vague smile.

To think she even remembered that was just brilliant.

They'd been out to attempt to get her over her not-so-recent but also not-so-long-ago break-up with Ron. It was terrible, really, and she'd hated herself for a month because of him leaving her. Hermione didn't think she was one to get so destroyed over such a thing, but then she was crying every night, chest heaving and feeling like she couldn't breathe. Well, Ginny and Luna had thought it was a brilliant idea to get plastered recently, exactly three months after she'd been dumped, and look where it had gotten her!

Not New York City, but pregnant and sitting on tacky red benches staring at the crowd as though she had nothing better to do. She didn't, but that did not mean she couldn't go and try to at least be productive with her time.

Hermione hadn't decided what to do with the pregnancy quite yet, she'd just found out a few days ago, and it had only been a few weeks since she'd slept with the wizard. Her heart dropped at the thought of her parents knowing anything about it, Gods, they'd most likely still love her, but would regardless be mildly disappointed underneath all the love and attention.

Then there was Harry... and Ron. What a disaster that would be, she thought humorously, Telling Harry was no problem, he was already knee-deep in toddlers anyways, but Ron... She couldn't bare to think of him, that pain in her chest coming back with a ferocity that she truly loathed.

Thinking only made her sad, so she pushed her knees together and looked out over the crowds again. It was so busy, even so late... or early if you looked at it in her normal time. Hermione wished briefly she was back home, but then decided here was still better. She didn't need to spend any time worrying over who would see her moping about or any such nonsense. Being a "public figure" meant she had to keep appearances up. She was fine, really, except for when she wasn't.

Now was one of the times when she wasn't, and as she rubbed her thighs to warm them, she caught sight of someone... familiar.

Now, familiar in New York wasn't hard, everyone here looked like someone someone else knew, even if only vaguely. The only problem was, was that this man looked too similar, eerily similar to someone who had fallen off the face of the bloody planet.

Long black hair, almost too pristine and pressed attire, and long stature, skinny and fitting of a man who no one ever saw. Of course, it couldn't be him, Hermione said as she began to stare, leaning onto her elbows, propping her chin up upon them. The man was staring at the city almost as astonished as she was with it, looking very in-place with all the random people bustling around.