Chapter Eight
Hermione smiled as she walked into the familiar and comforting atmosphere of the Burrow. In many ways she's practically grown up in this house with the weeks of summer spent here with this family. She flew into Molly's arms with a grin, hugging her second mother tight before pulling back to grab Jack's hand and pull him forward to meet Molly. Molly looked at him with a smile on her face.
"Welcome to the Burrow dear. Make yourself at home. Hermione love, why don't you take him outside, I think the boys may need your influence, the twins mentioned something about some new products." Molly said with a long-suffering sigh and a wink at Hermione.
Hermione made way for Molly to greet the others and led Jack through the house, stopping to introduce him to Arthur on the way. She laughed as they stepped into the garden as Fred, George and Bill were messing around and trying to convince Percy rather unsuccessfully to taste a sweet.
"Whatever you do, don't accept anything the twins offer you." Hermione whispered to Jack.
"Why?" He asked looked a little worried.
"They own a Wizarding joke shop, and they like to test their products. Don't eat anything they've touched unless you want to turn into a giant canary for a few minutes, or spend the day with your hair changing colour…" She said with a wry grin. A pretty blonde woman came up to them.
"Hi Alicia, what are they trying to feed Percy?" Hermione asked hugging her friend in greeting.
"Ah, well that's their latest invention. It will turn you back into your five year old self for about half an hour. They've been working on reducing the length of the spell, and I've finally refused to test anymore of those things. Every time I'm young again they trick me into testing their kids range…" Alicia said with a smirk.
Hermione laughed.
"I don't trust those two, not after they gave me pink hair that time by enchanting the quill I always chew on when I write." Hermione said with a smile.
"Anyway, Alicia, this is Jack." Hermione introduced them, and with her eyes begged Alicia to help her protect Jack today. Alicia winked at Hermione and took over the introductions as George appeared and wrapped an arm around his girlfriend. Hermione kissed Jack on the cheek and went to see if Molly needed any help in the kitchen.
"Where's Angelina today?" Hermione asked Molly as she and Ginny helped out in the kitchen.
"She's on her way, I think she stopped in to see her sister on the way here from the stadium." Molly said, putting down her wand for a moment.
"So, you told him then?" Molly asked Hermione curiously.
"Yes, he took it surprisingly well. He insisted on coming to the game today, which I was a bit wary about, but it didn't go too badly. He's been pretty quiet since the game finished though." Hermione said worriedly.
"Don't worry dear. I've warned the boys to be on their best behaviour, they know not get you angry!" Molly said with a wink remembering Hermione hexing both the twins after one of their practical jokes against her.
"It should be ok. Ron and Harry have been great so far. This is the nicest they've been to Jack in the last six months." She admitted.
"They just want to protect you." Molly said a sad smile as Ginny nodded in agreement. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"As long as they don't scare this one away!" She grinned before carrying out a large platter of food to the tables outside.
She saw that Angelina and Remus had now arrived and she rushed over to hug Remus and say hi to Angelina. She stopped as she looked at Fred's wife however and a huge grin spread over her face.
"Hey Angel, some with me a minute." She said softly in Angelina's ear, leading her away from the others to a secluded spot of the garden near to the house.
"What's up Hermione? Why wont you stop grinning?" Angelina asked her.
"So…you don't know?" Hermione asked cryptically. Angelina was now looking extremely puzzled.
Hermione leant close to Angelina.
"You're pregnant." She whispered.
"What?" Angelina shrieked, causing everyone in the garden to look at them. They giggled and ran into the house, finding sanctuary in the bathroom.
"How…how would you be able to tell?" Angelina asked, now looking excited.
"I can always tell. It's a weird magical gift." Hermione said with a smile.
"Oh my god…Fred is going to go mental!" Angelina giggled.
"Mental in a good way?" Hermione asked cautiously.
"Of course! This is Fantastic news!" She said with a huge smile.
"Can you tell how far along it is?" Angelina asked excitedly.
"Not exactly, maybe three or four weeks?" Hermione said, both of them smiling as they stood in the bathroom.
"Maybe we should get out of here before they start wondering what's going on." Hermione giggled as they made their way out of the house to several questioning glances.
Hermione slid into onto a bench next to Jack and gave him a smile as she joined the conversation he was having with Harry sitting opposite her.
"So, you enjoyed the game?" Harry was asking Jack.
"Yeah, it was so fast moving though. I would have been completely lost without the binoculars." Jack said.
"The old omnioculars you bought me." Hermione explained.
"I didn't know you still had those!" Harry said surprised.
"Good idea though. It's tough following everything going on in a game at that speed."
"Good thing I had Hermione explaining things. I never thought she'd be so into sports, but she was screaming louder than anyone at some parts of the game!" Jack teased her.
""Really?" Harry said, raising his eyebrows.
"I've never really seen her up close during a game, I always thought Draco was teasing that you go even more mental than Ginny." Harry said with a grin, feeling really pleased that Hermione got so into the game. Ron and Laurie soon joined the conversation and eventually most of the large group was discussing the game, and celebrating that unless disaster struck the team, the Canon's would be division champions again.
Hermione kept half an eye on Angelina as everyone began to clear the table; she smiled to herself as Angelina took Fred aside while everyone's attention was on other things. Hermione jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Harry! I didn't hear you." She said turning to look up at him.
"What's up with you? You like you're about to burst with excitement! Are you going to tell everyone about the engagement?" He asked her.
"No, we're not ready for that. Well, Jack isn't anyway." She said softly.
"What is it then? You know you can't hide anything from me `Mione." He said, and then followed her gaze to where Fred had suddenly picked Angelina up and hugged her tight, both of them laughing.
"Are they..?" He asked softly, remembering what Hermione had once told him of her gift. She turned and beamed at him, nodding, knowing Fred and Angelina would be telling everyone soon.
"That's great news!" Harry said with a grin, slinging an arm around his best friends shoulders and together they wandered to the kitchen only to find Jack had fallen for one of George's tricks and was currently five years old.
Harry held back a laugh, and Hermione glared in George's direction, but a moment later dissolved into giggles, surprising Harry who'd thought she might be a bit sensitive about them using too much magic on Jack, let alone playing tricks on him. Hermione knelt down and little Jack ran over to her, the only person he really knew, as they'd played together as young children.
"This is bizarre." She said with a shake of her head, as Jack looked around the room from where he was now standing hiding behind her legs.
"Don't worry Hermione, I think we've got the time issue sorted out now, it should only last a few minutes now." George said with a guilty grin, walking past her carrying a plate of dessert. She stuck her tongue out and followed the others back into the garden where a moment later a rather shell-shocked looking Jack was back to normal and even managed to laugh lightly about the joke, though he did glance warily at the twins several times.
As everyone finished eating, Fred stood up and raised his bottle of Butter Beer.
"Everyone, I've got an announcement to make, well, we've got an announcement to make." He said grinning, his arm around Angelina's shoulder.
Molly looked she was about to cry as she suddenly realised what Hermione and Angelina had raced off to talk about.
"We're having a baby!" Angelina announced, beaming.
The garden was soon chaos with all the Weasley's and all the extended family congratulating the pair, and hugging them. Molly was now crying properly, she was so thrilled to finally be getting a grandchild. Hermione gave Ron a kiss on the cheek and grinned to see Angelina so happy. As it began to grow dark and the night got colder everyone moved into the living room to talk. Fred and Angelina left soon after so they could let her family know their news. Hermione and Ginny now sat talking in Ginny's childhood bedroom, Hermione finally telling her oldest female friend that technically she was engaged.
"The thing is, I'm feeling less sure about this now. I know it sounds awful, but do you think Jack will ever really fit in with the Wizarding world? I can't believe I'm even thinking it, let alone saying it aloud, but he's been so quiet today. You know him, he's not acting like himself today Gin." Hermione expressed her worries.
"I know he's acting strange, but it must be incredibly intimidating. We've all known each other for so long, and he's the only person here who isn't magical. He coped well with George's trick though. And he seemed genuinely interested in Quidditch, just because you are." Ginny said thoughtfully.
"You're probably right. I guess it takes time to adjust to everything. I said we'd go home and visit our parents tomorrow, so hopefully he'll get back to normal, and have a chance to talk with my parents about being involved in the magical world if he wants to." Hermione said.
"So, does anyone else know about the engagement?" Ginny asked.
"Just Harry. He was asleep in the living room the other night when I got up and we talked. I was nervous about telling Jack, but Harry's been great about it all. He and Jack actually seem to be getting along today." Hermione said hopefully, knowing that of all her boyfriends in the past, Harry had been most distant with Jack.
Ginny kept quiet. She knew how Harry really felt about Hermione, and she was really proud of him for being supportive of Hermione's engagement and her decision to tell Jack about being a witch.