The Grangers pulled up to the Burrow, then turned off the engine.
"If it makes it any easier we could always tell them the truth," Mrs. Granger said.
"We can't," Harry said, "it's better this way."
Harry and Hermione stepped out of the car, then went to unbuckle Emily from the car seat. Hermione took her in her arms and they headed over to the house. Dr. Granger knocked, and what must have been the longest fifteen seconds of their lives passed before Mr. Weasley opened the door.
"Hello!" He seemed rather happy, but that might have been because muggles drove to his house.
"Hello Mr. Weasley," Harry and Hermione said.
He smiled at them, this was good, and looked down to the little girl in Hermione's arms who was gripping tightly to the front of her shirt.
"And who's this?" he asked.
"Emily," Hermione smiled.
"Well come on in," he stepped aside and let them all through the threshold.
They were greeted by every Weasley, save Percy, even Bill and Charlie. Bill slapped Harry's back and winked, which made Harry that much more uncomfortable.
Mrs. Weasley looked at them as if she were ready to attack.
"You know, I expect this from my own children, but Harry!"
"Excuse me ma'am," Dr. Granger interjected, "It wasn't his fault. We made him promise not to say anything..."
"Well, of course. But you see I was just so worried sick, he could have been lying dead somewhere and we wouldn't have known."
The vision of his dead body, or the bogart in his dead form, attacked his mind.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Weasley," was the only response Harry could think of.
It apparently worked because she hugged him, then went to Hermione and took Emily in her arms.
"Are you breast feeding dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked Hermione.
Hermione turned pink and looked over to see everyone watching the conversation.
"You know it is the best way to feed them, I'm sure your mum's told you that."
Hermione opened and closed her mouth, akin to a fish on dry land.
"Molly, why don't we have a little girl talk, just you and me." Hermione's mum said as she led Mrs. Weasley away from her daughter.
The twins were trying not to laugh out loud, while Charlie's eyes kept roaming down to Hermione's chest then shook himself out of it.
"Hey Ron," Harry tried to say casually even though he too was blushing, "Why don't we go talk."
Harry and Ron were not even gone five seconds when he heard Fred say, "I'm sure Harry's breast feeding; maybe there isn't enough for poor Emily."
That made most of the men laugh, minus two, of course.
"Fred!" he could hear Mr. Weasley scold.
"Sorry, Dr. Granger," was the last thing he heard before he closed the door to Ron's room.
"What's going on!?" Ron asked.
"Shhhh. Look I have to tell you something."
Harry went on to tell Ron all the details of what happened with Emily. Ron nodded, then promised he wouldn't breathe a word to anyone. When they exited the room they were met by Hermione and Ginny leaving her room. Hermione nodded to Harry and Ginny headed down the stairs. Ron headed after her, which left Harry and Hermione alone.
"I'm sorry about all of this... It's all my fault," Harry said.
Hermione rolled her eyes and took Harry by the hand into Ginny's bedroom.
"I'm just as much to blame as you," Hermione said, "Harry, Dumbledore planned for us to spend the rest of the summer holiday at Grimmauld Place. The Weasley's are going to ask my parents today if we can go."
Harry felt numb, he turned to her, "I don't want to go there."
Hermione gave him a sad look, then hugged him tightly, "I know," she said against his ear.
He hugged her back, repeating to himself as if it were a mantra, she's alive, I'll never see Sirius again, but she'll be okay.
Mrs. Weasley's cough broke them apart, as she stood in the doorway with Emily in her arms. Emily was reaching out towards Harry, fussing a bit. Harry stepped forward and took her in his arms as she let out a sigh.
"She wouldn't stop fussing, she just wanted her daddy," Mrs. Weasley smiled painfully.
Hermione approached Harry and ran her hands through Emily's hair. Emily's eyelids started to droop and she let out a small yawn.
"She's such a daddy's girl," Hermione sighed.
Harry smiled, proud, then looked over to Mrs. Weasley who now had tears in her eyes.
"Are you all right?" Harry asked.
She swatted at air, "I'm fine dear." She turned and headed down the stairs.
They could hear her yell, "Charlie! Bill! When am I going to be a grandmother?"
"That's it! I'm leaving now!" Bill said.
"Why?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"When the grandchildren guilt starts, that's my cue to leave," He said.
"It's not guilt!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, "I'm just going to die never knowing what it's like to hold a grandchild in my arms."
"Thanks a lot Harry!" Bill said.
* * *
Hermione's parents insisted that Harry, Hermione, and Emily stay at their place until the end of the summer. They wanted to spend time with their daughter, which they hadn't been able to do so many summers before, and keep an eye on Harry and how he took care of Emily. The time seemed to fly by, and by the time they had to leave them at Kings Cross, they were a little less worried about leaving a baby in Harry's care.
Harry and Hermione had no choice but to take the train a day early. Harry was not ready to try to fight through the thousand students with an infant in his arms. He definitely didn't want to be on the train with Emily while Draco Malfoy was lurking nearby.
Not a soul could be seen on the train, save Harry, Hermione, and Emily. Harry sat on the floor of the compartment with Emily, trying to teach her how to crawl. Hermione sat with her feet up, trying to read one of her new schoolbooks, but failing miserably as she watched Emily fail miserably.
By the time they arrived at Hogwarts Hermione was sitting on the floor of the compartment trying to help Emily learn to crawl while Harry sat back and tried to encourage Emily.
They made their way to the lone carriage, Harry watched as the small girl in his arms eye's flutter shut. He sighed as his heart filled with warmth.
They reached the castle in what seemed like no time at all. Harry felt his heart quicken, this was going to be his life. He was going to go to school, take care of a baby, and lie to everyone, saying that this marriage was real and Hermione was the mother of his child. Hermione didn't seem to think about it, she just smiled at him, then smiled to the bundle in his arms.
"May I?" she asked.
She brought the bundle into her arms and she woke the little girl. Harry winced at that, but when Emily didn't cry he sighed in relief.
"Emily, this is Hogwarts. It's going to be our home for quite some time, don't you like it?" Hermione said, allowing the infant to look at the large doors that separated them from the inside of the castle.
Emily stared at Hermione and made some gurgling sounds.
"I knew you would," Hermione said.
Harry didn't know what to do, whether to knock or to just step inside, but was soon answered by the door opening and McGonagall appearing on the other side. Her glare was one that usually sent chills down his spine, and at that instant it was not an exception.
"Potter."
"Yes?" Harry noticed as he answered her, Hermione did too.
"Both of you need to get situated. Your room is next to Gryffindor tower, the password is Salamandar. You'll know the place, your belongings will be outside the room. As you know Miss Gr- Mrs. Potter, the house elves aren't allowed to go inside without permission from the occupants. Run along now."
McGonagall walked away, without looking back, leaving Harry and Hermione in the doorway.
They walked up the many flights of stairs, careful to not go too fast with Emily, and found on the left side of the entrance way to Gryffindor tower was a door and next to that door were all of their belongings.
Harry said the password and brought their belongings inside. There was a small hallway that lead to a large door. Hermione opened it to show a medium sized room with a large bed in the middle, and another door on the right wall. Hermione opened it to show a smaller room that had a crib, dressing table, and toy chest.
"So," Harry asked as he brought their belongings in the appropriate rooms, "Why aren't house elves allowed to come and go as they please?"
"Harry, these rooms were for married couples..."Hermione blushed.
"Oh, right," the room grew silent for a moment. "So, I think I can sleep on the floor in Emily's room, or I could transfigure a couch in there..."
"I don't really know about that, I mean you're usually the one taking care of Emily, it isn't very fair if you have to take care of her and sleep in an uncomfortable place. I'll find a few pillows I can transfigure into a mattress, that should do me nicely," Hermione said as she got redder by the second.
"Well, if you transfigure a bed, just make it small enough to fit in Emily's room and I'll sleep on it. That way if she wakes up I'll be right there. And I don't need an entire room, I've lived in more compact places..."
Hermione nodded, but did not look at him, and went to work on making a mattress in Emily's room.
Emily began to cry, and Harry went to her, and after twenty minutes of trying to find out what was wrong she fell asleep on Hermione's bed.
Hermione came out of Emily's room, "You know we'll have to change it back every day, this has to look like a normal marriage."
"Yeah, you know this is getting a little..."
"Weird, I know. Lying before was just in small doses, now it's going to have to be constant."
They both sat on the bed shoulder to shoulder.
"What will they expect of us? I mean what do normal married couples look like every day?"
Hermione looked a little oddly at Harry, but seemed to realize something and searched the ceiling for the answer.
"Like Mr. and Mrs. Weasley I suppose..." she said keeping her eyes on the ceiling.
"All married couples don't act like that, do they?" Harry asked.
"Well, no. Look at my parents, they're always sitting together, just looking comfortable with each other..."
"You mean like..."
Hermione, noticed their position, and that her side was touching his, they both slowly scooted away from each other.
"Well I don't think we'll have to do anything out of the ordinary for us. The conception was supposed to be last year, so if nothing changed then..."
"Wait, I thought it was a one time thing and we were trying to go back to our friendship, then you learned about your pregnancy, hid it from both your parents and me, but then they found out and told you to tell me, then after a particularly hard letter you had to write told me that you were pregnant with my child which caused me to run away to you."
"This is hopeless if we can't even remember our lie properly," Hermione rubbed her temples.
"Did I get it wrong?"
"I can't remember." They were silent for a moment, then she said, "I guess people are going to be expecting PDAs."
"What?"
"Like kissing, or holding hands..."
"I don't want to kiss my best friend..." Harry said nervously.
Hermione tried to breathe calmly, but also tried to understand what he meant by that.
Harry looked at her and once he realized what she was thinking he shook his head, "Not like that, it's just that you're my friend, it would just be weird."
Hermione smiled a bit, then after a few moments of silence said, "I think if we just kissed each other on the cheek that would be enough. Like when one of us leaves the room, I've seen some muggles do that."
Harry smiled, which caused Hermione's smile to grow, then they both looked away.
"Is there anything else we need to do?" Harry asked.
Hermione shrugged her shoulders and they both sat there in silence.
After a few minutes there was a knock at the door. Harry, a little curious as to who it could be, got up and went to the door. It opened to reveal one house elf.
"Harry Potter sir!" Dobby exclaimed joyfully. "Harry Potter wishes to see Dobby?"
Harry smiled, "Yes. I need a favor to ask you."
Harry moved and showed Dobby inside which caused some sobs from Dobby, but he was able to control himself.
"When school starts we need someone to look after Emily, you wouldn't happen to know any house elves that would be quite good at taking care of babies, would you?"
Dobby started to jump up and down, "Dobby does know! Winky and Dobby is those house elves sir!"
Dobby was quickly shushed by Harry and Hermione, and he himself put both hands over his mouth.
"She's asleep right now, would you like to see her?" Hermione motioned for Dobby to come over to the bed. He did, and with his hands still over his mouth looked at the sleeping infant.
Harry went to Hermione's side and waited for some sort of reaction from Dobby. After about a minute Dobby's attention was turned back to them.
"Dobby will do his best."
"Thank you Dobby." Hermione said.
Dobby became teary eyed again, then looked from Harry to Hermione, "Dobby will leave the Potters alone now..."
He quickly exited and once the door shut Harry and Hermione began to laugh.
"I think he thought we wanted him gone so we could snog or something," Harry said.
"That's what married couples do Harry, I'm sure he believes we are just a regular married couple... which means we've fooled Dobby."
"Now all we have to do is fool everyone else."
* * *
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