Ginny Weasley was pacing anxiously in the waiting room of St Mungos Hospital. Her mind racing, she quickly sat herself down in an empty seat next to a witch whose head had been replaced by what looked like a giant orange. Taking a few breaths, she tried to relax. This is a good thing, this is a good thing, this is a good thing. She kept thinking this over and over in her mind until finally she was calm enough to think.
How could they do this to her at a time like this? It wasn’t as though she wasn’t happy for them, but she was already under so much stress at work, that she really couldn’t help but think about all she had to do even though she was caught up in the excitement of the moment. She felt worried though. What if something went wrong? How could she cope? She couldn’t bear to lose someone all over again. It would all just be too much.
All of a sudden she found herself on the verge of tears. Why? Why did he have to leave? I just can’t go on without him! I wish-
‘Ginny! Come on!’
She pulled herself together quickly and ran excitedly through the corridors, following Bill into an ordinary-looking room. As the room was in a hospital, the room featured a bed. The bed featured a tired-looking young woman, her brown hair, sticky with sweat, spread all over her pillow. And lying on the woman’s chest were two extremely small people, who were pink and covered in some sort of waxy liquid.
‘Twins! Oh Hermione, thank Merlin! Are you alright? How are you feeling? How are they? Have you named them? What… kind are they?’
Hermione looked up slowly at the young woman who’d just burst into her room. ‘Slow down, Ginny. I’m feeling a bit out of whack right now.’
‘Of course,’ Ginny said, willing to wait, but desperately waiting for an answer.
‘They’re boys, and the doctor said they’re probably going to have red hair,’ she said. ‘Just like their dad.’
She smiled at the man standing beside her bed. Ginny hadn’t seen him smile this much, or look so proud, since the Cannons had won the cup three years ago.
‘Wow. I’m an auntie- again,’ she said, thinking aloud. ‘That makes me feel so old.’
‘Yeah, Gin,’ Ron said, laughing. ‘You’re really getting on.’
Ginny smiled self-consciously. She knew she was pretty, and that the guys at work often stared. She knew she hadn’t even started aging. She was twenty-seven, but she still looked like a schoolgirl who was just mature beyond her years. Her long red hair, dead straight and almost all the way down her back caught more than its fair share of looks. Her eyes were brown, like Hermione’s, but she imagined her own were a lot less loving and warm than her friend’s.
And now Hermione had even more reason to love. She had children, and Ron, who worshipped the ground she walked on. What had Ginny done in the past three years? She’d found her way back home, and found a job. She worked so hard at that job that her friends often joked that she’d rather live at the office than at home. But what else could she do? While all her friends were out with their boyfriends and getting married, Ginny was alone.
She didn’t want to be alone. She wanted to be with him. But he’d left, with her promise that she’d wait for him. And so she’d waited. For three whole years she’d waited. And still he stayed away.
***
Hermione Granger had never felt so exhausted, and yet so exhilarated. She still couldn’t believe it. She was married, with children. Two perfect little boys. She hadn’t decided what to call them yet, but she had a lot of people who would be able to help her with that. Sam, maybe? Nick? Tom? Oh, not Tom. Definitely not.
She looked up at Ginny, who was excited, and looked happy for them. But their was a fault in her smile. Her eyes, brown, like her own, were so filled with sadness that Hermione could feel her heart torn in two. She knew that one sentence from Hermione could bring back the spark in Ginny’s life, could make her happy and complete once more. But there was always something to hold her back.
Hermione had a secret, something that only she knew, a secret given to her in the knowledge that she would never give it to anyone, especially Ginny. She wasn’t ready, he’d said. She was never ready. She’s ready! She’s been ready for years! She wanted to scream at him. But still she kept it inside, although she could see Ginny slowly breaking apart. Ginny was ready now. But Harry was still gone.
Just then, she heard something crash in the corridor outside her room, and she was torn between feeling excited and afraid. This was either something really good or really bad. She held her breath, noticing that everyone else in the room was also looking expectantly at the white door at the end of the room. Bill had his hand in his pocket where he kept his wand.
Very suddenly, two people with bright red hair burst into the room, holding brightly coloured packages before them like shields.
‘Do not shoot!’ one of them said loudly
‘Have mercy!’ the other shouted loudly, with the same voice. ‘We come bearing gifts!’
Hermione smiled broadly at the twins, thirty years old now, but still childish at heart. ‘Hi Fred, hi George.’
They dumped the presents on the floor and came over to the bed. Their eyebrows shot up when they noticed that there were two infants lying on the bed.
‘What ho? Two little kiddies? We were tricked, George. They were going to hide the second one from us!’ Fred was trying to look genuinely offended.
‘I agree brother. I wonder, perhaps, if this was a ruse to stop these twins from becoming the same as us in our joke-playing ways. Do these young pranksters happen to be of the male gender, dearest sister-in-law?’
‘Yes.’
Fred and George looked at each other quickly, and then looked back at Hermione, grinning broadly, their smiles almost evil. Hermione suddenly felt a wave of nausea, and anxiety, but she managed to smile.
She had a feeling that she’d just given birth to Hogwart’s next Fred and George.
First chapter done! Now all I have to do is write the second one.....
Let me know what you thought.
Luv ya,
chlo xoxo
Between the Lines by chocomaniac
Chapter Notes: Hello hello hello
due to popular demand, photographs is back, in form of a sequel- Between the Lines. Needless to say, it has taken me a while to get started on this. Hope you like it. This first chapter's short, kind of like a prologue