Chapter Two~ Proposal Plans
"Harry they're going to be here any minute!"
"Yeah, I know, and you're going to be ready."
"No I'm not, look!"
Ginny came out of Hermione's room with only a lacy red bra, and matching knickers on.
"Wha--I--Holy shit, Ginny! Put some clothes on!" Harry exclaimed. his face the same color as Ginny's hair.
"Just showing you the facts," she replied cooly.
"Yeah well the facts could be a little less revealing," Harry said, his face still glowing. "Now go and put some clothes on!" he pleaded.
"Fine," she walked back into the room making sure to sway her backside with every step to tease him.
"Ginny!" he shouted, squeezing his eyes shut.
"I'm leaving."
When it was safe to open his eyes, Harry chuckled to himself. Ginny had been so nervous about her date with Malfoy that she had begged him to let her come over and get ready. "I need a man's opinion." she said to him. She was so nervous that she had even told Draco not to pick her up at her flat. Draco was a little disappointed but he agreed in the end.
Harry had told her that he wouldn't be much help telling her what she looked like because he only had eyes for Hermione, but he would still try. Twenty minutes later Ginny had come out of the room and did a little turn for him.
"Wow, you look great!" he exclaimed, looking at her.
Ginny was wearing a violet, three-quarter length blouse with a black handkerchief skirt that ended just above her knees. Mid-calf length black leather boots and just a hint of make-up accentuated her already flawless features. Her hair was done up in a messy bun so that strands of her vivid red hair fell around her face in perfect curls, and drop-earrings appeared just below the strands of ginger hair, sparkling every time she moved. Right on cue Harry's doorbell rang. Ginny scurried back into Hermione's room to peek from behind the door, making sure it wasn't Draco. She had told Harry that she wanted to "make an entrance", and to give her a signal whenever he arrived.
"Harry! Are you going to make me stand out here all day, mate!? Get the bloody door!" came the impatient voice of Ron Weasley.
"Don't worry about it, Ginny," Harry called to her while walking to the door, "It's just your brother."
Ron walked quickly into the apartment flat, ushering Luna to the sofa, and making sure she was comfortable. He got raised eyebrows from Harry, and a smirk from Ginny. "What?" he asked them. They just laughed at his clueless expression and went to go get some drinks from the kitchen.
"Are you comfortable, honey?"
"Erm, I suppose so, it's just that I've seem to have gotten a bit of a stomach ache," Luna replied nonchalantly.
"WHAT!? A stomach ache!? That could be the baby coming! You need to get to the hospital immediately!" Ron screamed.
"Ron!! Calm down, It's just a little stomach ache! The baby isn't coming, just sit down and relax."
"Well then don't scare me like that!" he whined.
Ginny came in the room levitating a tray of glasses and some bottles of Odgen's Best Firewhiskey, and some butterbeers in front of her, concerned with what all the noise was about. Following right behind her was Harry also levitating a tray. "Erm, is everything---" he started. The doorbell rang again.
"Oh!" Ginny exclaimed, it had to be Draco this time. She rushed back into the room just as Harry was opening the door.
"Hey everyone," said the figure of Draco Malfoy. He decked out in his new favorite color (black) from head to toe. A skin tight short-sleeved shirt showed off his well toned chest and arms, while the jeans he was wearing hung loosely from his thin waist, a silver studded belt was holding them there. Black dragon-hide boots garbed his feet, and he wore a bad-ass smirk upon his pale skinned face.
"So, Malfoy, are you trying to go for the gothic look, because I think that it suits you well. What I can't wait to see though is you with black eye-whiner I think the muggles call it. That would just make my year!" Ron sniggered heartily.
"You need to learn to keep your mouth shut, Weasley," Draco told him earnestly, and with a flick of his wand, Ron's mouth was stuck together. Draco was having a good old laugh when Ginny walked back into the room. "Wow!" he exclaimed, as his jaw dropped and his mouth formed a perfectly round circle. Ginny just smiled brilliantly at him while he stared at her ogling like a goldfish. She turned for him just like she did for Harry and walked over to him, still smiling radiantly. Draco, for once in his life seemed to be at a loss for words and just ogled even more while Ginny took his hand and led him over to sofa that wasn't occupying Luna and Ron. She sat down and patted the spot next to her indicating that he was to sit there. Draco just plopped down beside her, still marveling at how beautiful she looked. Ron, however was not enjoying his baby sister getting ogled at and tried to speak, but only succeeded in emitting a large series of mumbles through his magically closed mouth. Ginny frowned upon this and gave her famous I-know-you-think-that's-funny-but-think-about-how-he-feels look. Draco finally managed to get a hold on his mind and shrugged as he flicked his wand again to unseal Ron's mouth.
"You know, I really did like him better that way," Harry groaned.
"As did I," agreed Luna.
Everyone but Ron laughed again. After they had teased him to their liking, Harry got up in the middle of the floor.
"Alright, everyone. Now, the reason I didn't invite Hermione tonight is because, as I'm sure you all know thanks to Ron and Ginny is that I would like to propose to her."
This did not surprise anyone at all, but they all clapped politely. Ginny and Draco shot nervous glances at each other. They were going to have to tell Harry what Hermione had said soon, and this seemed to be the perfect time and place to do it. Draco mouthed 'After he's done making his speech' to Ginny and she nodded.
"Anyways, I invited you all here tonight, because I would like to run some plans by you all on how exactly I'm going to do this. Now, I know that Ron and Luna are the only ones who have gone through this already, and I've already dismissed their method of proposal. I hardly doubt that Hermione would like me to propose to her by an ad in The Quibbler, even though it worked for you two, I don't think it's for everyone. So I was thinking maybe I could cook her a romantic dinner and pop the ring in her wine glass or something like that. Any thoughts?" Harry told them.
"Erm...maybe that's just a bit too...well, no, it's just a crap idea," Ron said.
"Well you come up with something better then. I've been thinking about this all week and this is the best thing that I can come up with. It's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, you know!" he exclaimed. Having to think of a way to propose to Hermione was hard enough to do without having to suffer through Ron's criticism.
"I have an idea!" Luna said excitedly.
"What's that?"
"Well, I was thinking that maybe you could take her out to a restaurant and propose there! You know how some restaurants have the waiters who carry your food out on a tray and they have that serving platter thingy with the cover over top of it? Well you could have the waiter put it under there and then bring it out and serve it to her! It's alright if you don't like it. It was just an idea," she explained.
"Actually, Luna, I think it's brilliant!" said Harry happily.
"Great! Where do you want to take her? I know this great place on----" She stopped suddenly and her eyes got wide with terror. Her mouth opened as she let out an earsplitting scream. She grabbed the edge of the sofa and squeezed it so hard that the material ripped off.
"Luna!! What's wrong!?!" Ron screamed fearfully.
Another scream as she grabbed Ron's hand and crushed it with her own. There was a sickening crunch and then Ron joined in with her yelling.
"Oh my God!!! The baby is coming!!" Luna managed to struggle out between ragged breaths.
No one knew what to do. The men just stared at her, dumbfounded, while Ginny took charge and rushed over to her.
"Luna, listen to me, it's going to be alright. We need to get you to the hospital right away because you're contractions are coming in fast." she explained to her.
All Luna could do was nod feebly as she struggled to get off the couch. Harry had gotten a grip on reality and ran over to help her. He and Ginny managed to heave Luna off the sofa and walked her to the door. Ginny was telling Ron to apparate to Grimmauld Place his flat and gather together Luna's things, and Draco to call an ambulance.
"An ambu-what?" he yelled. "Why the hell don't we just take her to St. Mungos!? After all it is a magical baby!"
"That's too far away! If we don't get her too a hospital now she'll have to deliver her baby here! Now call the number 9-1-1 and explain that there's a baby on the way. Give them the address of the flat, then go help Ron get her things together! GO NOW!!" she ordered fiercely.
No one bothered to object to her directions and they scampered off in different directions. In a minute, Ron had gone to Grimmauld Place, and Draco was dialing the phone that Harry had placed in the kitchen. Harry and Ginny sped out the door with Luna and into the elevator. Harry was impatiently pushing the Lobby button over and over until the doors finally closed. Finally, then elevator started to slowly lower itself down eight floors. On the ground floor the doors opened with the help of Harry pushing them. Out on the busy London street the ambulance was pulling onto the sidewalk and three people spilled out of it. They relieved Harry and Ginny of their burden as they helped Luna into the ambulance. Ginny climbed in the back with Harry right behind her and then they were off.
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Hermione was sitting in her living quarters at Hogwarts when she had gotten the news about Luna. Sitting by the fire grading the papers of her class of fourth years was somewhat peaceful until she was being stared at my the face of her best friend Ron Weasley.
"Hi, Ron! How are you?" she asked somewhat surprised that her would be flooing her at this time. Her expression changed when she saw the look of fear and worry in his eyes. "Oh my God! What's wrong!? Did something happen to Luna!?" she screamed.
"She's going into labor, Hermione. I need you to get down here right now." he explained as calmly as he could to her.
"Where are you?"
"I'm at Grimmauld Place, but Luna is at the London Hospital. Get there as soon as you can, she'll need you."
"I'm on my way, Ron." she said.
Ron's head disappeared from the fireplace, and Hermione ran out of her room leaving the pieces of parchment to flutter to the ground, running as fast as she could to get off of the Hogwart's grounds.
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Harry, Hermione, Draco and Ginny all stood outside of the delivery room, nervously waiting to hear some news of any sort. Luna had gone into labor around eight-thirty and it was now almost three o'clock in the morning. Hermione new that the delivery process could take hours, or even days, but that didn't stop her from pacing around the room and biting on her fingernails. Harry had taken to flipping through a magazines, then standing up as if he were going to go somewhere, sighing, and then sitting back down again to find a new magazine. Ginny on the other hand who was on her eleventh cup of coffee, would stand up and rush to the bathroom, stop midway, and then run back to the waiting room, afraid that she would miss something. Draco was watching the doors that were leading to the delivery room, seldom blinking
"This is torture!" Hermione finally exclaimed, throwing her hands up into the air.
"Yeah, it might be, but try having eleven cups of coffee and not going to the bathroom in over ten hours," she said bitterly.
"That's no one's fault but yours, Ginny." said Harry as he rifled through "Better Homes and Gardens" for the third time that night. "Hey, did you know that if you plant your petunia's in the direction facing the sun and water them five times a day, that they'll grow faster?" Harry inquired, trying to lighten the mood.
"Ew, I hate petunias." Ginny said squeezing her knees together and eyeing the restroom with a slight longing in her eyes.
They then got into a conversation about their favorite types of flowers. As Hermione was telling Harry that she liked white roses best the door swung open and out came an ashen faced Ron. The conversation stopped immediately as they waited, holding their breath.
Ron buried his face in his hands and came up with his eyes shining. Hermione instinctively grabbed Harry's hand, and Ginny put her hand over her mouth, while Draco's face paled and his heart stopped.
"Ron, what happened?" Hermione asked fearfully, her eyes as wide as saucers.
He just shook his head, his ginger hair falling around his eyes.
"It's Luna...th--they don't think she's going to make it."
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Ok, guys...it's been a while since I posted this chapter, but I feel that I need to make an announcement...If I don't get more reviews, it will be a lot longer for all of you to wait for the next chapter. It sounds lame, but reviews are really important to me....FEEDBACK IS GOOD!!!!! I REALLY LURVE all of you who have been reviewing! Thanks so much for your opinions! As Lorelai Gilmore would say... "Did you ever know, that you're my hero?" Haha, ok...but seriously. I want to get up to AT LEAST THIRTY REVIEWS before I post the next chapter! So type away my loyal 'fans' (and I use that term very loosely, guys)!!