1. The Good Life

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 1: The Good Life

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4 Months After LFL

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"Hermione, I'm back!" Harry yelled out as he entered his Boston flat with a flurry of snowflakes following in his wake. He quickly slammed the door shut and shook the snow of out his now wet ebony locks.

"Did you get it?" she called back.

Harry wiped the snow off the top of the cardboard box he was carrying and walked into the nursery where they had been working mercilessly on putting the crib together without magic.

"Yes; slightly burnt pineapple and jalapeno pizza, just the way you like it," he said with a grimace as he presented the pizza to a very swollen Hermione. She was sitting in the rocking chair by the window, reading a book on environmental studies that one of her professors gave her before she left on maternity leave.

Since finding out about the baby and moving to Boston, Harry and Hermione had led pretty quiet and peaceful lives. They had both felt a sense of guilt after they'd deliberately lied to Ron and Hermione's parents, but that had all been forgotten with the impending excitement of the pregnancy. True to their word, they had read through every single one of the pregnancy and parenting books they had bought.

They had also seen Dr. Hammond again for a follow up appointment and were delighted to know that their baby was perfectly healthy and growing.

After a couple weeks, Harry had found himself growing restless during the days. Hermione started school and he was very happy that she was doing well, but was peeved about the hours she had to keep. During her absences, he started reading the books in Hermione‘s collection, but that only made him feel nostalgic of home. He tried going out to explore the city but that only made him feel like a cat in a sea of dogs. It didn't help that numerous women had come up to him, inquiring if he'd like to go out sometime. He was surprised with himself when he responded that he was married, but the women seemed to get the picture and wandered off quickly.

One day he came upon an under construction restaurant that said they were taking applications for investors and sponsors. After talking with the owner, he decided to invest. Not only would it give him something to do, but he would have a say in the decisions the restaurant made and he could also provide Hermione and the baby with a monthly income once the restaurant was up and running.

The holidays came and went with the occasional communication with Hermione’s parents and none with the Weasley’s. Actually, they did receive many letters from the Weasley’s, Ron and Ginny in particular, in the first few weeks they were in Boston. Hermione actually read them at first, but after a few, her guilt was starting to reach new highs.

As the pregnancy went further along, her emotions were closer to the surface than ever before and it was starting to make Harry mental. In the gentlest way possible, he suggested to her that it would be better to stop reading the letters all together since they could not bring themselves to answer them yet, and reading them only seemed to upset her. He used the baby as his way of getting her to agree. Alas, after the conversation, (tearful on Hermione’s part), all following letters and packages from the Weasley’s were sent back unopened. They hoped that they would assume it was the fault of an incompetent owl. Though, they knew that at least Ginny would be able to connect the dots when they finally did return, a baby in tow.

Hermione’s mum, Cate, had tried to convince her daughter to come home for winter break but Hermione insisted that she just simply had too much work on her plate at the moment and that they’d get together around Easter instead. Of course, the two felt bad about lying, but again, they figured everything would be all right in a matter of months.

At least that’s what they kept repeating to themselves…

Christmas and New Year’s were celebrated both by Harry and Hermione a little half heartedly since it was their first without their family and friends. There was a few friends in Boston who threw parties that they attended. For the most part it made them forget about their situation and just act like two excited soon-to-be-parents.

Speaking of which, they still didn't want to be told the gender of the baby, so it served a problem deciding the colour for the nursery. But they did have fun picking out different boy and girl names. So far Harry’s names were very traditional while Hermione’s sounded like they were ancient Greek philosophers.

Hermione's classes had gone by successfully as well, seeing that she excelled in every class, albeit being pregnant. She even made a couple good friends that she relied on to take notes for her if she was ever late or got sick in the middle of class. Reluctance to leave for maternity leave was putting it lightly since Hermione was pretty adamant about staying in the bloody classes until the baby practically stuck its head and yelled that it was time to come out. Fortunately, Harry managed to sweet talk her into it.

There was another topic that the both of them could spend hours pondering over internally: where they lay together in terms of a relationship. Harry and Hermione progressively started acting more like a couple as the months passed. Harry would cook quiet meals for Hermione when she got home from classes and would gladly give her massages whenever she wanted. They would go out on walks through the park, closely huddled together to ward off the atrocious winter cold of Boston. Holding hands became a habit to them, and they could often be discovered lying in their bed, watching a film, wrapped in each others arms. The chaste and/or lingering kiss wasn't too foreign either. Hermione sometimes had quells of horniness during late hours of the night, and Harry was all too pleased to help appease her. Both never seemed to be bothered or even realize that these "quells" happened at least four times a week.

The fact that Harry continued to refer to Hermione as 'love' without coming out and saying that he loved her was a highly frustrating topic with her. She could spend hours droning over the topic, debating in Harry's defence that he was doing it because he wanted to make her comfortable and since she was his best friend, never letting herself settle on the possibility that Harry possibly could love her in 'that way'. All the kissing and snuggling was strictly platonic, and they were mature enough to express their terms of friendship in those matters. Because that's what they were. The best of friends- having a child together. Nothing more would come of that. They would have love for their child but not for each other. And that's how it was going to be... and she was sure that was how Harry wanted it to be as well. He had to. Harry couldn't think of her in any other light than the greatest of friends.

She was just plain old Hermione Granger. Pregnant with her best friend's child at the tender age of nineteen.

Harry couldn't possibly love her 'that' way.

And that was that.

But, oh how she wished he did…

"So I'm glad you decided not to get up and do some work on this thing while I was gone," Harry commented sarcastically as Hermione squashed her confusing jumble of thoughts by opening the box and taking a large bite of the pizza.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to move a limb while you were out of the house?" Hermione questioned back with a challenging smirk.

"Did I say that?" he asked sheepishly, scratching his head.

"Those were your words exactly," she responded cheekily, taking another bite.

"Good to know you listen when you want to." Harry sat down on the ground next to the pile of wood that was supposed to be their baby's crib.

"Hey! I listen all the time!" Hermione protested, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Face it Hermione, you have a very selective hearing process that plays in parts with your stubbornness. You listen to what you want to," he smiled at her as she finally shrugged, accepting his insinuations all the while devouring another slice of jalapeño and pineapple pizza.

"I still listen," she tried again when Harry thought she had dropped the subject.

Harry laughed, "Let's hope he doesn't inherit your stubbornness or we'll be in for some real trouble."

"You insult her when you say 'he' you know," Hermione said, softly rubbing her round stomach.

"Well he shouldn't be since he's a boy," Harry said again with a smug look, knowing Hermione was in her rocker right now rolling her eyes at him.

"Do we need to do this again, Harry?" she asked pointedly as he started lifting up pieces and trying to jam them together.

"Yes, I think we do. You know it's okay to admit you're wrong for once in you're life 'Mi."

"Harry, she kicks every time you refer to her as a boy!" Hermione again objected.

"And there's another point, he kicks way too hard to be a girl." He laughed as he saw the look of fury in Hermione's narrowed eyes.

"I hope she shows you a thing or two when she's born."

"He won't have to," he said airily. Looking at the angry expression on Hermione's face, Harry blew her a kiss knowing he'd get more of a rise from her.

Hermione scowled and threw her pizza crust at Harry, pelting him in the head.

"Ow!" he cried out, clutching his forehead. Hermione bit her lip to keep from laughing and when he turned his eyes on her she mocked him and blew him a kiss.

"Funny, Granger."

"You know you never thanked me," Hermione said changing the subject.

"For what?"

"For helping you paint the walls," she said obviously, motioning around towards the

light green walls.

Harry snorted, "All you did was sit in a rolling chair and stroke a paint stick up and down the wall."

"I'll have you know that's a lot of work! I was exhausted afterwards," she said with a wistful sigh.

Harry snickered, "I bet." She forgot to mention that the main reason she was exhausted was because she had one of her "quells" during the middle of painting.

"I'm serious, that was like a full upper body workout."

"More like a full body work out..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he responded quickly.

"That's right, you just get back to your slave labour while I sit here and read."

Harry sighed a few minutes later and wiped a sheen of sweat from his forehead, "Hermione, this thing's bloody impossible! I'm going to have to use magic!"

"Harry, no! We agreed we wouldn't use magic while doing this!" she said quickly, closing her book.

"I don't know how else to do it! It's like the bloody crib from hell- it just won't assemble!"

"Here, let me see the directions," she said snappishly, taking the booklet from Harry's right hand.

Hermione's eyes quickly scanned over the small booklet as Harry sat back and huffed, moodily staring at the wooden pieces of the crib.

Getting down to the last lines of the instructions, Hermione began to think that maybe something really was wrong when she spotted some words that made her raise an eyebrow. She lowered the booklet and looked at the disassembled parts.

Smirking, she said, "Guess what genius, you're trying to put it together backwards."

"What are you on about?" he asked with a frown, scooting back over.

"Flip the bottom piece around and you'll notice it's a lot easier to fit the screws in."

Harry did as he was told and blushed as he saw the two holes that had been absent earlier, "Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

"Give me a break okay, I've been slaving over this, running around to get you food, and then doing every other little thing you ask for. It's not like I'm having the greatest time right now," he finished, successfully putting the legs in the correct position.

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. What was he insinuating? That he didn't enjoy spending the time with her? Did he regret leaving with her?

Harry looked up at her with a grin as he finally put the frame up but frowned at the

look on her face. He sighed, "Hermione, you know I didn't mean anything by that."

Hermione shrugged and asked quietly, "Is it that horrible living with me?"

"No, not at all," he reassured her, scooting over on the floor to kneel in front of her.

Knowing how she could get in her hormonal state and wanting quickly to assuage her, he placed his hands on her thighs, "You know I love every minute of our time together. It just gets a little exhausting for me is all."

Hermione opened her mouth to argue but Harry beat her to it, "But, I'd rather it be me than you. I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Really?" she squeaked as if she was scared of his answer.

Harry smiled, "Really. I like it when you boss me around and bark out orders at me. It's kind of sexy actually..."

She raised an eyebrow, "I've been bossing you around since the day I met you on the Hogwarts Express."

"Touché," Harry laughed, "But I can't get turned on by an 11 year old yelling at me despite how pretty she was."

"But you can get turned on by an seven months pregnant, crazy lady that refuses to let you use magic to put up the crib?"

Harry pretended to mull it over, "Pretty much, yeah."

"Smooth, Potter."

"Yeah, I always know the right thing to say," he smirked while squeezing her thighs lightly.

"So... are you turned on right now?" she asked conspiringly, eyeing him with one of her chocolate orbs.

"Hermione Jane Granger, are you suggesting that I skive off from finishing the crib just to have a shag?"

"With me, yes." she responded very blatantly. This was her tone that told Harry he was going to do it whether he liked it or not.

"What would the 11 year old girl from the train say in a situation like this?" he asked pulling her gently to her feet.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she winked, taking his hand and leading the way out of the nursery and into their bedroom.

---

Harry lay awake in bed, leaning on his elbow and watching Hermione sleep, with his other hand resting gently on her abdomen. He often tended to do this: wait for Hermione to drift off and then just observe every inch of her until he couldn’t keep his eyes open. As weeks turned into months since they had left London and he continued to watch her, it bothered him because he couldn’t figure out why he would get overwhelming senses of pride and gratification as he watched her.

He used to tell himself that it was only because she was Hermione, his best friend- but that excuse wasn’t cutting it anymore.

After months of being with Hermione in such an intimate setting, pretending that they were a couple and not correcting people when they complimented them on what a lovely pair they made- his understanding of love and marriage came almost full circle. How could you not want to spend the rest of your life with a woman that was the epitome of everything to you?

Life in Boston had been perfect and he never wanted that feeling to go away.

He was in love with her, that he knew. Now, all that was left was finding the best time to tell her. His eyes glanced down again to her bulging stomach and an idea started formulating in his mind…

---

Hermione awoke later that afternoon to a pounding at the front door. She lifted herself up from the bed, blearily rubbing at her eyes. Looking over, she found Harry sprawled out in the position she had left him in with a small smile gracing his face.

She smirked to herself, revelling in the fact that she could cause him such satisfaction even in her current state of body. A soft buzzing sound was heard on the table next to the bed and Hermione glanced over to find her mobile ringing.

She answered, “Hello?”

“Christ woman, I’ve been outside your door for five minutes now. Five minutes! If I catch hypothermia, it’s entirely your fault!”

Hermione grinned at the sound of her friends stressed voice, “Okay, I’m coming Jess.”

“Waddle your ass out here fast- I’m carrying my weight in the books you’ve requested.”

Hermione ended the call with an amused smile. She quickly stowed Harry and hers wands away and reached for Harry’s shirt and boxers.

Walking as fast as she could, she finally answered the door with a hand resting on her stomach, “Hey you.”

Jessica Sacramone stood on the other side, looking as if she were about to tip over, “I’m going to start charging you every time you make me run to the library for you…”

Hermione smiled and moved to the side so the young woman could come in, “You can set those on the counter.”

With a grunt, the slim brunette hoisted the books onto the kitchen table, throwing her bag and scarf down next to the pile. Jessica was about to respond with a snarky comment before she turned to get a good look of Hermione approaching.

She smirked knowingly, “So you and Harry been bumping uglies all afternoon?”

Hermione shot her a look, “Not all afternoon- just a few hours into it.”

“Well if you’re wearing his clothes then what’s he in right now? I swear Hermione, if I happen to see a Brit’s wiener today, you’ll have to pay for the therapy.”

Hermione laughed, “Relax, he’s still sleeping.”

“You know, I’ve never known a more horny pregnant woman than you. I guess this makes the experience for Harry better than he initially imagined.”

Hermione shot her a glare but Jessica instantly brightened, “Ooh, you’ll never believe what I found for the baby today!”

Hermione’s face softened, “Jess you didn’t have to do that.”

“No, I really did need to buy this one,” she replied, pulling a light pink bag from her tote. “Look- isn’t it adorable?!”

Hermione laughed to herself as she read the baby outfit Jessica was holding up aloud, “I’m with smarty.” There was an arrow pointing to the left underneath the phrase.

Jessica nodded along in excitement, “Isn’t that so cute?!”

Hermione laughed again as Jessica continued, “And there’s more!” This time, she flipped the shirt over so Hermione could read the words written in a permanent black marker.

“Not with Jessie?” Hermione read with a furrowed brow.

Jessica nodded, “Just in case, if we’re out together with the baby and a hot guy comes along, he won’t think it’s mine and he won’t be deterred to talk to me! Remember, you’re alien could make or break me,” she finished, using her nickname for the baby. Jessica had started calling their child ‘the alien’ ever since she seen the sonogram pictures.

Hermione sighed wearily, “Jess, I don’t think my child will have any effect on your love life.”

“You never know,” she replied wisely, pushing the baby outfit into Hermione’s hands. “It’s like that one time I took the kitten to the mall and all those gay guys practically swarmed me. Well, if my calculations are correct, which they are,” Hermione snorted as Jessica continued, “It should have the same effect only on middle aged, handsome, rich guys if I go to like the gym or the movies with a baby…”

“What if the baby starts getting fussy right in the middle of your pick up line?” Hermione asked with a light grin.

“We’re just gonna have to talk to the mutant. Make sure it knows the GP of the day,” she replied like it was no big deal and telling a game plan to a baby would be a slice of cake.

Hermione rolled her eyes and thanked her before turning to the books. With an eager look, she said, “So what’d you bring me?”

“I’m pretty sure this is everything you asked for- though may I remind you we don’t need to know anything from these books for the midterms.”

Hermione counted off the titles in her head and then looked back to Jessica with a sheepish look, “Jess…”

Jessica slapped a hand to her forehead, “Don’t tell me you want another...”

“Just one,” Hermione said sweetly, telling her the title of the anatomy book she had been wanting to look through.

Her friend sighed, “Fine, but once you’ve deflated, I totally expect a few months of solid beckoning on my behalf from you. Understand?”

Hermione grinned and nodded, “Will you bring it to me after your morning class on Monday?’

“Sure,” she agreed, walking into the kitchen for a drink, “You know Hermione, I’m fairly confident you’d be fascinated by reading a fucking dictionary.”

To avoid the topic, Hermione only said, “Don’t swear in front of the baby.”

Jessica smiled devilishly, “Piss, shit, fuck, cocksuc-”

“What the hell is going on out here?” asked Harry from the hall wearing only a pair of pyjama bottoms.

“Jessie is acting like a five year old again,” Hermione said fondly as Harry came up to kiss her on the cheek.

“You,” he growled in Jessica’s direction, “Damn- I had hoped you had fallen off the face of the earth by now.”

It was no secret that Jessica and Harry didn’t exactly see eye to eye on things, but there wasn’t really any animosity between them. They both enjoyed ribbing and throwing extremely rude insults at each other whenever they where together.

“My hopes have been dashed as well, you pasty Brit. And for the love of god, put a shirt on before your pale ass blinds me to death.”

Harry stretched languorously next to Hermione, showing off his chest and making the girls giggle.

“Jess got the baby another present,” Hermione told him, handing him the pink outfit.

“Pink?” Harry scoffed right off the back, “He won’t be wearing this at all.”

“Read it dufus,” Jessica said.

Harry muttered it aloud and rolled his eyes in bemusement.

“Just make sure the arrow isn’t pointing at you and you’ll be good,” Jessica shot at Harry before taking a swig of water.

“Please go swallow a knife,” Harry responded dully, “And stop drinking my water.”

Of course, Jessica continued to drink from the water bottle and Harry made a move to swipe it from her before Hermione stopped him, “Enough you two.”

“He started it,” Jessica said, sticking her tongue out.

“Love, we need to change the locks on the apartment and tell this pile of uselessness we moved,” Harry whispered playfully in Hermione’s ear.

Jessie scowled, “I heard that jackass. Remember Hermione, chicks before dicks! Don’t let this loser talk you into things. You control the man- not the other way around!”

Hermione laughed, “Good advice.”

Harry was about to come back with a clever comment when Jessie’s phone started to ring. She answered it and hung up a short while later.

“Alright, I need to get going- Mitch wants to meet up tonight,” she reached down to pick up her bag and scarf as Harry and Hermione shared a perceptive look, “Call me this weekend, okay?”

“’Kay. I have an appointment tomorrow and then Sunday we’ll be working on the nursery, so if I don’t see you this weekend, I’ll see you Monday,” Hermione told her, hugging her friend and slapping Harry’s hand away as he reached up to smack her head.

“Douche,” Jessica muttered to Harry with a triumphant grin.

Harry only scowled at her and pushed her along to the doorway.

Jessica was already out the door when Harry’s head snapped up.

“Hey, wait!”

“What’s wrong?” Hermione asked in confusion as Harry started for the door.

“Uh-um,” Harry’s eyes glanced around and stalled on Jessie’s half empty water bottle. He went to grab it, “She left her water.”

Before Hermione could question him, he ran half naked out the door and down the hall to where Jessica was waiting for the elevator.

“Wait, I need to talk to you about something,” Harry said sliding into the elevator with her.

Jessie rolled her eyes good-naturedly, “There’s a tanning salon a few streets over…”

“What? No- that’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Well then?”

“You know how your uncle owns that jewellery shop…”

---

3. A Terrible Hunch

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 3: A Terrible Hunch

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Harry instantly took a step away from the hooded figure. He was about to open his mouth to speak when a jet of blue light shot into Harry's chest, making him feel like he was just hit by a ton of bricks.

The blow knocked him to the ground and left him gasping for air. Finally having the strength to peel his eye lids back open, he caught a glimpse of more cloaked people stepping out from behind the first one and quickly surrounding him.

His first instinct was to slam his eyes close and picture the front of his apartment building. Just when the familiar sense of apparition made his arm hairs stand on end, a feeling like bricks were weighing down on his shoulders stopped him. Anti-apparition wards…

He was about to open his mouth to scream out a hasty wandless stupefy when another curse flew at him. It felt as if a blade was scalping him, and the pain was unbearable. No sound came out as he opened his mouth trying to scream out.

After minutes of the unknown assailants’ torture had passed, Harry lay still on the ground. The only movement was the small, shaky breaths he took. He could hear someone whisper "search him" and then suddenly felt hands roughly shaking down his legs. They stopped and extracted something from his pocket. It must have been his phone and the wallet Hermione had given him for Christmas, since they were the only two things he carried with him.

How foolish he was to think that he didn't need to carry his wand around with him at all times in Boston…

"How precious," a voice to his right said. Harry peeled back an eyelid and saw a cloaked figure holding out the first sonogram he and Hermione got of the baby. His heart started beating wildly as another figure stepped forward and waved its wand at it, making it light up in flames.

Hands grabbed Harry and flipped him over so that he was laying on his back and facing up towards the black figures. The pain he felt as he tried to expand his lungs to say something was excruciating and the fact that he couldn't get rid of the metallic taste in his mouth was driving him crazy.

He could sense one of the figures leaning into him and heard, "Soon Potter, very soon, all that you love will be taken from you."

Harry's eyes shot open just in time to see another curse being aimed at him. His jaw clenched as white hot pain rippled through his body. He could hear and feel popping sounds in his chest like his rib cage was being twisted inside out. He tried to breath to steady the immense pain, but again the pressure in his lungs inhibited him.

This was all too much to handle; cloaked wizards finding him in Boston, making threats at him, burning his baby's picture, and now torturing him.

The last thought that shot through his numb brain before his eyes rolled back in their sockets was the hope that Hermione had made it home safely.

---

Hermione closed the door to the flat and locked it behind her. Humming to herself softly, she made her way into the kitchen and threw the folder containing information on the baby onto the kitchen counter. She grinned to herself as she opened the fridge, thinking that in only a few more weeks she would be a mum.

She smiled and patted her stomach absently, before grabbing a water bottle off the fridge shelf. Popping off the cap, she turned around. Suddenly, she gasped.

The water bottle dropped to the floor and spilled over the kitchen tile as Hermione stayed frozen to her spot, looking wide-eyed at a hooded figure, cloaked all in black, standing behind the kitchen table. The person was staring straight at her.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat as she watched the person hold out a shimmering fist- not the normal hand of a regular human. Her eyes never left the person as a thought floated through her mind, thinking that she could possibly run past the intruder, into her room to retrieve her wand. The thought vanished, though, as she watched the folder that she had thrown on the table slide across to the person’s hand.

Her eyes widened helplessly as the man started flipping through the folder containing all the medical information on her baby.

"Hmm," the figure finally sounded, shifting through some of the papers, "You're due sooner than I thought."

Hermione's heart plummeted. Who was this person and why was he concerned with the whereabouts of her baby? She tried to fold her arms to cover up her protruding stomach, despairingly wondering what this man was interested in. But to no avail, the figure only chuckled, "No use trying to hide it, Hermione."

"Who are you?" she asked in a level voice. She wasn’t about to let this person know how intimidated she actually was.

"A wizard," the voice said in a breath like it was the greatest status anyone could ever be bestowed with.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "I figured."

"I actually used to be a big fan of yours. At least, that was until you let that bloody undeserving hero knock you up..."

Hermione’s expression fell. This man knew Harry? Could that mean… no, it didn’t sound like any Death Eater she knew… plus, most of them the ministry had locked up after the war. What was going on?

The feeling of desperation was starting to set in on her. This person obviously had been following her and Harry. That thought alone made her severely distressed.

"What do you want?" she asked more forcefully this time.

"Honestly?"

"No, I want you to lie to me," she spat at him. She could only imagine the smug look

behind the person's hood.

The man reached down in the folder and pulled out the recent sonogram. He held it up to Hermione as if it were a prize of some sort.

“Your baby.”

Hermione paled and took a step back. She wanted to yell, scream- anything that would make someone come to help her, but all she could utter in a shaky voice was, "No."

The person chuckled, "Yes, indeed Miss Granger. Your baby could be a very vital part to my success."

Hermione couldn't fight the tears spilling down her cheeks. She felt like a fist was closing around her heart and squeezing it painfully. "W-Who are you?"

"All in due time," he said in his suave, yet sinister voice.

"You won't touch my baby! I won't let you!" she tried frantically, now backed against the fridge. She knew she was being daft by screaming protests at this man who obviously had the upper hand on her- but she’d be damned if she was just going to let this person say these dreadful things to her.

The man grinned, “Hermione, you won’t have much of a choice.” The menacing way he said that made Hermione’s skin crawl. It was also eerie the way he kept addressing her by her first name- as if he knew her personally…

“W-What do you mean?” she asked, wanting to sound like she could really care less about what this intruder had to say- but that would be a lie. This man wanted her child and she had a right to know why.

He chuckled, “Your cluelessness is endearing.”

Hermione scowled at him. The man chuckled again before he pulled a blue sphere from inside his robes.

Hermione’s face fell and her knees buckled. It didn’t take a genius to know what the man was holding. Suddenly, what he was implying started to make sense. He had to want her baby for a reason…

“No,” she whispered as tears streaked down her face. This couldn’t be happening. Not again… not to another Potter, “No, no, no…” she chanted in denial. She leaned against the fridge for support of her trembling legs.

“Marvellous things, prophecies, are the not?” he asked malignantly. Hermione’s whole body was now trembling and she was too petrified to answer. All she was thinking was not her- not her baby…

“They have quite a… tantalizing… way to tell what might be in store for the future. Or in this case who…” he spoke in an evasive manner.

“No,” Hermione started again emotionally, “Not my baby! You must have it wrong…”

“According to the prophecy, she’ll decide whether or not our world will turn,” he told her, ignoring her outburst and starting to gradually approach her.

She? “W-What do you mean ‘turn’? This is absurd! She hasn‘t even been born yet- there can’t be a prophecy made about her!”

“Why not? Potter had one made before he was born,” he stated knowingly, making Hermione grow agitated.

“It-It’s not factual though! Whatever the prophecy says, it could all be wrong!” Hermione tried dissuading him but he only laughed and got closer.

“You’re right- as of now this is only superstition,” he was now only a few steps from her making Hermione feel extremely uncomfortable, “Let’s just say… I have a hunch.”

Hermione wanted to slap him at the coolness of his tone but the fact that she was the mouse and he was the mad scientist in the situation refrained her from doing so. There was a glimmer out of the corner of her eyes and nonchalantly she looked over to where a knife was gleaming on top of the counter.

She felt a bit consoled at the aspect but she still bit her lip and let the tears spill down her face, “We’ll never give her up to you.”

This made the man laugh even louder. Hermione frowned, that laugh was familiar...

"You will, if you want her to live."

"You won't kill her if you need her," Hermione said in a squeaky voice- trying to reassure herself that he was bluffing. The man was getting forever closer, and she was getting even more desperate.

"I'd rather she die than have her grow up with you and saint Potter," he spat at her in an obvious tone. "You see, while she'd be extremely beneficial as my follower, she'd be a huge threat as my enemy. She'd be a constant threat..." he ended in a whisper as if he wasn't just talking about himself anymore.

"What do you mean?" she asked shakily.

The man smirked again, "She'll be the greatest weapon the wizarding world has ever seen..."

“Shut up,” Hermione said weakly with tears continuing to trail down her face, “It probably won’t even be fulfilled!”

The man shrugged and started in a gentle voice, as if he felt sorry for her, “This is all Potter’s fault, you know. If you would have fucked anyone but him then you wouldn’t be in this position right now. But… I guess I can’t chastise you. After all, you are giving me a very gracious gift-”

“Shut up!" Hermione had had enough. She reached for the counter and quickly grabbed the knife, wielding it threateningly at the man.

She was about to thrust it into his chest but he was too quick. He lifted his gleaming hand and shot an invisible force at her that caused Hermione to slam back into the cabinets and slump to the ground. The knife was summoned out of her hand and Hermione again was left defenceless.

She scooted back, one arm draped around her stomach. A cold trickle was moving down the back of her head and she figured the hit had cut her open.

"No need to get all protective," the man said referring to the way she had her arm across her stomach. "I will not harm you or your baby any more. Too much stress can't be good for an expecting mum, right?" he asked mockingly.

"Now, before I go," he said kneeling down next to her, "Let me tell you that I will be watching you. If you try to run for it, I'll kill you, Potter, and I'll even go back and find your parents in London. All after I rip your daughter from your stomach and have you watch her drown in your own blood. Understand?"

Hot tears flowed down Hermione's cheeks as she kept her head from moving. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"I hope that's a yes Hermione," he said in a gentler tone. "Now keep my secret weapon safe," he reached a hand forward to touch her stomach but she slapped it away.

He reared his arm back and connected his hand with her face. Hermione jerked her head back from the power of the slap.

"See what you made me do?" he asked in an uncaring voice. He stood up and walked back towards the front door. Before he disappeared from Hermione's vision he turned back to her, "I'll be in touch soon Hermione."

With that, he opened the door and left the flat, the folder of the baby's information clutched securely in his grasp.

Once the door was closed, Hermione broke down into heavy sobs, blood from the cut on her head and the one on her lip intermingling with her tears. She grabbed anxiously at her stomach and hoped beyond hope that this was one prophecy that wouldn’t be fulfilled.

---

Harry could feel something prodding him in the back. He groaned and tried to open his eyes only to discover that they were extremely painful and heavy to open.

"'Ey, you alive man?" said a Boston accented voice.

"Wha?" he mumbled deliriously, finally managing to open both his eyes. He was still in the alley and now instead of several cloaked figures reigning over him there was a much older, terrified looking man gazing down at him.

"You alright sonny? Looks like those muggers got you pretty bad. That's a nasty gash on your forehead," the gentleman said pointing at Harry.

"You seen 'em?" he asked, trying to push himself up. The man offered his arm and helped Harry into a sitting position. His body was aching so badly he thought he must have been bruised from head to toe. Looking around, he found the ground stained a dark red colour.

His blood.

"Nah, but I've heard there have been a few bad beatings in the area lately. The police haven't had much of a lead on 'em though."

Harry reached up a shaky hand and touched his head gently. He remembered cloaked figures, curses, and the sonogram. They burned the sonogram...

Oh god.

"I have to get home to my girlfriend," Harry said quickly, trying to brace himself into a standing position.

"You should probably call the cops and report-"

"No!" Harry cried in pain as one leg gave way underneath him causing him fall back down.

"Easy there sonny," the man said, helping to regain his stance. "I'd say you have a fairly decent concussion. You should probably go to the hospital-"

"I need to go home," Harry said more forcefully, trying to move one leg in front of the other but finding it very difficult. Every time he breathed he felt a poking sensation which made him believe that some of his ribs were broken. He tried to balance himself with both arms but his left just wouldn't lift up properly. Looking over he noticed it was about 2 centimetres lower than it should have been.

The man watched and winced as Harry nearly toppled over a few times, "Here, let me drive ya. Where ya live?"

"By the gardens," Harry said in exhaustion, leaning against the wall for support. He didn’t have time to sit in a car for ten agonizingly long minutes, waiting to get back to his flat. He needed to get there now to see if Hermione was okay. But knowing that he couldn’t very well apparate in front of the muggle and the fact that if he did, he’d probably splinch his entire left arm off, he allowed the man to help him down the alley and into his car.

Nearly ten minutes later, the elder gentleman had pulled up in an old truck to Harry's apartment building. Harry opened the door and limped out of the car.

“You need help inside?”

“No, I‘ll be fine,” Harry gasped out as he closed the truck door, bracing himself to walk.

The man gave him one last uneasy look before saying, "Take it easy, alright kid?"

Harry jerked his head, "Thank you."

The man drove away as Harry moved as fast as he could, ignoring the pain throbbing all over his body, up the stairs and into his hallway. He stopped short when he seen that the front door to their flat was slightly ajar.

Oh god...

Harry pushed through the door, his eyes quickly scanning around for anything out of the ordinary. Everything seemed okay, but something unsettled him greatly...

"'Mione?" he called loudly, stumbling further into the flat. He was on his way to the bedroom when he heard a sob from the kitchen.

"'Mione?" he asked again, limping as quickly as possible toward the kitchen.

His heart stopped when he saw Hermione sitting against the bottom cupboards, her bloody head in one hand while the other clutching her stomach. Harry also didn't fail to noticed the knife laying on the ground a ways from her.

His face dropped, Please, God no…

“Hermione?” he choked out, falling to his knees and grasping onto her shoulders, ignoring the pain shooting through his arm and chest.

Hermione finally lifted her trembling head to look at Harry. When she saw the state of his battered body she let out a breathless gasp.

Before she could ask him what had happened, he shook his head and ran his hands down to her stomach, “The b-baby?”

The word alone seemed to send Hermione into another fit of hysterics as large tears streaked down her face, “Oh god, Harry- he-he… our baby…”

“Hermione, what?! Please tell me what happened! Who’s he?!” Harry cried desperately, wanting to shake the information out of her.

Hermione placed a hand over her mouth and stared up at Harry with wet, squinted eyes, “H-he wants our baby-”

“What? Who’s he?!”

Hermione crunched her face up as more sobs swept over her, “A w-wizard. He- wants the baby.”

The paleness of Harry’s face turned to a chalk white at Hermione’s words.

“No…”

Hermione’s face crumpled again, “He s-said he would either take her or kill her.”

As tears of his own streamed down his face, internally, Harry was fuming. He was going to hunt down and kill the person who dared threaten the life of his child… his daughter.

Instinctively, he jumped to the possibility of it being a Death Eater- or at least one of Voldemort’s old supporters that was able to escape Azkaban.

So help me, I will hunt down and murder everyone of those bastard’s if it takes the life of me… “Hermione,” Harry voiced, trying to refrain from shaking, “What did he look like? Tell me what he looked like!”

Hermione shook her head, barely audible, “He was cloaked in black. I-I couldn’t see his face. H-he had… it was like a sil-silver hand…”

Harry stiffened in fury, Pettigrew, that son of a bitch…

Hermione again shook her head, seemingly knowing what Harry was thinking, “H-he sounded young. About our age…”

A neo-Death Eater. Fuck, I should have known groups like that would start to form- bastards just can’t let go of the fucking past…

“Harry?” Hermione asked weakly. Harry raised his eyes to her and could see that she was damn close to passing out, “What are we going to do? He wants our baby Harry… our baby…”

Harry placed two bloody, dirty, and sweaty palms on the sides of Hermione’s soaked face, “Well, he can‘t have her.”

“Why is this happening to us?” Hermione cried as sobs again raked over her body.

Harry’s heart sank. This obviously wouldn’t be happening to her if he wasn’t involved. If this was anyone’s baby but his, then there’d be no problems. Again- his life was being dictated for him and it was directly affecting his loved ones. His child…

“H-Hermione,” he started, forcing himself not to join in with her sobs and ignore the pain now shooting throughout his whole body, making it hard to breathe, “Tell me everything that happened. I want to know everything the bastard said to you.”

Hermione clenched her eyes shut and breathed deeply through her nose, preparing to relive the worst night of her entire life.

---

Fifteen minutes had passed. Hermione had managed to tell Harry everything in full detail and Harry, in return, told Hermione about being attacked in the alley by the restaurant. It was pretty evident that the text by Kevin was fake- something that unsettled Harry more than he let on.

That meant that these people were watching them very closely while Harry and Hermione didn’t even know who these said people were. As of right now, they were completely helpless.

Afterwards, Harry had attempted to carry Hermione back to the room, but found her weight to heavy for his fragile state. Instead he summoned his wand, immensely draining him of energy, and performed a few rudimentary healing charms on Hermione’s scratches and bruises before turning the spells on himself.

His legs still felt like lead and he could tell something was broken in his chest, but for Hermione’s sake, he kept quiet and helped her into the bedroom to lay down, urging her to try and relax.

“Harry?” she called out of the open bedroom door as she saw Harry saunter into the hallway and lean against the wall. The way his breathing came out in short raspy pants worried her.

Using the wall as a guide, Harry stumbled his way into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, dropping his head in his hands.

“Harry, what were you doing?”

“Wards,” he muttered stoically.

“You think that will help?”

He shot her an annoyed look, “I have no fucking clue what would help us right now.”

A hurt look shot over Hermione’s face and she turned her head from him. He sighed, wanting to apologize but not finding the voice.

All he really wanted at that moment was to wake up from this terrible dream…

“Here,” he said, holding out a glowing blue phial, “drink this. You should get some sleep.”

Hermione eyed the dreamless sleep potion, and didn’t utter one word of protest as she let the liquid slide down her throat. She too wanted to wake up to find this night one big, horrific, fabrication.

Harry breathed a pained sigh of relief as he watched her gently close her eyes and rest back on the pillows. He went to get up from the bed but her dreamlike voice stopped him.

“Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t leave me…” she whispered, looking at him through half closed eyes.

Harry bent down to kiss her hand and then scooted closer to her on the bed, “I won’t.”

He wanted to hold her, kiss her, whisper to her promises that he would protect her.

But could he? Did he hold the power to protect her and their baby? His family?

Hermione squeezed his hand one last time before being induced to sleep.

Watching her sleep peacefully next to him, with her baby bump protruding from underneath the covers made his mind finally snap into focus. He had to protect her. He didn’t have any other choice. She didn’t deserve this. Neither of them did…

---

4. Options

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 4: Options

---

Hermione’s eyes fluttered open slowly, almost cautiously. Rays of light were shinning through their bedroom window, spilling into the room and over Hermione’s blanket covered body. She took the light as a sign of hope and sat up in bed.

Surely after such a horrific night, a beautiful morning wouldn’t follow?

Then she heard it. Grunting and swishing sounds coming from the closet. Throwing the blankets over her and carefully levying herself off the bed, she approached the noise.

“Harry, what are you doing?” she asked cautiously, watching as Harry made quick work of shrinking his shirts and jumpers that were hanging on the mantle and then throwing them into a large black duffle bag.

“Packing,” he said without looking at her.

Hermione swallowed the dry lump in her throat and for the first time that morning, noticed the faint throbbing in her temple. It disturbed Hermione how Harry wouldn’t even spare a glance at her.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“We both are,” he replied in the same manner, moving on to his trainers.

Hermione’s eyebrows furrowed and she looked over to find her side of the spacious closet completely cleared out. Suddenly, the urge to cry came over Hermione full force. Her hopes of waking up to a beautiful, peaceful morning dashed, and were again replaced with the dread of last night’s events that were slamming back to the front of her mind.

She turned back to Harry as an unmanageable tear escaped, “Didn’t you listen, Harry?”

Finally he stopped and looked up at her, sweat dripping from his brow. She watched him intently as he let out a pained breath through his nose, grabbed his left side and unwillingly leaned against the wall of the closet for support.

“We can’t run,” she forced on in a shaky breath, desperately not wanting to appear so weak and fragile like she actually felt. “He’ll find us and kill us.”

“What other option do we have, Hermione?” Harry nearly screamed, all his frustrations draining out, “Do you want to just roll over and hand him our baby?”

That time it was a scream. Hermione took a involuntary step backwards while Harry stepped forward from the wall.

He pointed a finger at her and said in a more strangled, controlled voice, “I won’t let it happen anymore. Not to us and not to our fucking child!”

His eyes were alight with fury and Hermione looked down, wringing her hands, trying to control her trembling. He was right- she knew he was. Over the past eight years of their friendship- with all the hardships and hopelessness they endured, they were always able to find a way out. To find an escape.

They had no other choice. They had to run.

After a few moments, Hermione nodded her quivering head and turned to the bedside table to fetch her wand.

---

“So we’re just taking the necessities?” Hermione asked as she followed Harry out of their bedroom.

“I don’t think packing up the whole flat would be a good idea. I mean, more baggage would just slow us down.”

Hermione nodded, “Of course.”

Harry’s eyes softened at her tone and he took a step forward to gently grab her hand, “Are you okay?”

Hermione bit the inside of her lip, “Harry, where are we going to go?” She had been wanting to have this conversation with him all morning but couldn’t find the right moment to ask. The fact of the matter was that they had two options; one being do the whole on-the-run scenario and see how many bed and breakfasts’ they could make it too before they were found; or two, go back to the one place that people might be able to help them.

Harry obviously recognized the look in her eye, “I’m not taking you back to the place where this all stemmed from. These people are operating out of Britain, that much is obvious. There’s no way in hell I’m taking you back there!”

“We have more of a chance of surviving this if we have help! If we’re found, what’ll the two of us and a baby be able to do against possibly hundreds of these monsters?” She stopped for a moment as she watched Harry scrub two hands over his face and start pacing back and forth in front of her. She took a calming breath before speaking again, “I‘m just saying, if we reported it to the ministry they could-”

“The ministry, Hermione?” Harry asked turning back to her, clearly not convinced in the least, “They’ll be more concerned with the fact that the Boy-Who-Lived got his best friend pregnant, not that raging lunatics are out to murder them- again,” he added the last part bitterly.

Hermione nodded, knowing he was right. Plus, the British department of magical defence wasn’t particularly in a strong stage at the moment. Even before and ever since the final battle they had been trying to draw in as many recruits as possible, but it turns out that an occupation concerning magical law is only appealing after the period of looming threats and dangers.

“Well, what about the Order? They’d help us,” Hermione offered.

Harry again shook his head condemningly, “Half of the Order are Weasley’s! You think they’re going to want to help us after they know what we’ve done?”

“I’d like to think so, yes!” she shouted back, frustrated by Harry’s critical attitude, “They have to find out sooner or later, right? That’s what we’ve been saying this entire time. I think that the fact that we’re in danger would overpower the fact that we lied to them.”

Harry was about to start listing back all the reasons why the Weasley’s very well could slam the door in their faces if they did show up until he saw Hermione breathing heavily and trembling. He took a breath before stepping forward to pull her down onto the sofa with him.

“Look, we don’t know who these people are,” he explained gently, rubbing his thumb over her palm, “They could very well be people we thought were our friends. That’s why I think if we did go back and tell the ministry or the Order- well it could be one huge trap.”

Hermione nodded mutely as she watched Harry’s hands run soothingly over her legs.

“What about Grimmauld Place?” she asked a few seconds later. Harry’s face began to contort into another frown when Hermione continued, “I know there’s bad memories there Harry, but no one would be there and it’s unplottable. We could go there for the time being, just to get our heads together and figure out our next move.”

Harry fell silent, staring out of the window that overlooked the Boston Gardens while Hermione studied him, waiting for a reaction.

Moments passed, “Harry, what other option do we have right now?”

Harry finally turned to look into Hermione’s chocolate orbs, shining with unshed tears. She was being so strong for him. If it were anyone else they’d be running around in hysterics, but not her- not his Hermione. ‘She deserves so much better than me,’ Harry thought, shaking his head lightly.

“I’m sorry Hermione…”

Hermione felt her heart plunge down to her stomach. She placed two hands on the side of his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes, “You’ve never given up on me before.”

“What if something goes wrong?” he asked in a near whisper.

Hermione bit her lip, “We’ll have to take that chance. But if I know one thing, it’s that I trust you,” she finished leaning forward to kiss his temple and moving his hands up to her stomach, “And I trust you to keep us safe.”

As they continued to stare into each others eyes, both too scared to break contact, Harry knew that it was time. He had to tell her before he didn’t have the chance anymore.

“Hermione, I love-”

Buzzz Buzzz

Harry wanted to pound his head into a brick wall. He looked in the direction of the bedroom from where his mobile was vibrating and then back to Hermione. Her eyes were round, still staring into his and her mouth was slightly parted.

Harry swallowed, “I l-”

Buzzz Buzzz

“Go,” Hermione said in a cavalier tone, “It could be important.”

Harry let out a defeated breath before standing and walking towards their room. He entered, and picked up the phone just as it started vibrating again.

‘1 Unread Message’ was glaring from the screen. Harry frowned to himself, wondering who it could be, and started walking out into the hall again.

“Who is it?” Hermione asked from the kitchen with a bottle of water in her hand.

Harry scratched his head as he read from the screen, “Kevin. I guess he’s coming by with the papers that I was supposed to sign yesterday.”

Hermione looked at him with a confused look, “That’s odd.” Kevin was never one to take business out of the work place. He had been to Harry and Hermione’s flat on many occasions, but that was because of the friendship that had grown between the two, not for work related issues.

Harry shrugged, “Maybe there’s a deadline on them or something-”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Both Harry and Hermione’s heads jerked to the pounding on the front door. With a flick of his wrists, Harry’s wand soared into his hand from the coffee table. Immediately, he trained it on the door.

Hermione too had pulled her wand from her back pocket and was coming to stand next to him.

Harry quickly turned to Hermione, “Go into the bedroom and lock the door.”

Hermione’s eyebrows furrowed, “No.”

“Hermione-”

There was another series of pounding outside the door.

“If it were an intruder do you think they’d bother to knock?” Hermione asked

reasonably, taking a step forward.

Harry grabbed her arm long enough to step in front of her and approached the door, his wand now at his waist.

First, he looked through the eye whole. An empty corridor met his view.

“No one’s out there,” he whispered turning back to Hermione.

She shrugged as Harry turned back and started to unlatch the lock. He made sure Hermione was fully behind him before he cracked the door open.

Slowly, he inched the door back further and further- far enough until a limp hand fell in between the crack.

---

5. There Will Be Consequences

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 5: There Will be Consequences

---

Hermione let out a strangled mix between a scream and a sob, quickly clapping both hands over her mouth and backing away from the unmoving body of a familiar brunette man, laying sprawled out on his back, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

“K-Kevin…” Harry choked out, staring down at his friend. He swallowed the lump in his throat and looked up into the hallway, raising his wand from his waist. He scanned the hallway quickly, trying to see if there was any sign of a presence nearby. The corridor, however, was empty of both intruders and onlookers.

Taking a shaky look back at Hermione first, he then stepped out over Kevin’s chest, leaning down and placing his two first fingers against the top left of his neck.

“Is he…?” Hermione asked with tears flowing down her face, one hand still held over her mouth and the other gripping the hair at the top of her head.

Harry ignored the bile threatening to rise from his stomach and looked back at her.

“He’s dead.”

“N-no,” Hermione sputtered, walking towards Harry and grabbing onto his arm with a quivering hand. She glanced over his shoulder and saw Kevin’s lifeless eyes, before turning, and hurrying in the direction of the kitchen with the hand placed over her mouth, now clamped tightly.

Harry closed his eyes as he heard Hermione vomit into the kitchen sink.

He had a pretty good idea of who had done this to Kevin- but why? Why did the culprit think it was necessary to take an innocent life- the life of a husband and a father, no less?

Now someone was going to have to explain to a wife and son that they had just lost the most important man in their lives over matters that didn’t concern them in the least.

As a final act of respect for his friend and business partner, Harry reached down and gently closed his eyes.

Walking back into the kitchen a few moments later, Harry found Hermione rinsing her mouth out with water.

She looked up at him with round, watering brown eyes that contrasted greatly with her unnatural clammy skin.

“H-Harry? What are we going to do now?”

“We have to call the police,” Harry mumbled. He stood still for a few more seconds, his eyes wide and unfocused while Hermione watched him with concern.

“Harry?” she asked again, this time stronger.

“We have to call the police,” he said more clearly, now reaching in his pocket for his mobile and quickly dialling 911.

There was a certain look in his eyes as he spoke to the emergency operator- one that was indomitable and unemotional. One that Hermione had seen him wear religiously every day in the year following Dumbledore’s death.

It was a look that brought back the boy she used to know, who had the pressure of the world on his shoulders.

…

“Let’s run through this one more time before we go,” a gruff voice that went by the name of Detective O’Leary said, looking down to a notepad he held in his hand.

“You got a text message from Kevin McCalister saying he was at your front door at 8:36 a.m., exactly one minute later you answer the door to see him on the ground, seemingly dead. You then checked to see if he had a pulse to find that he in fact didn’t. You called the cops-”

“And the rest you know,” Harry replied edgily, giving the man a hard stare.

The detective raised his chin as he gave Harry a probing look, “Look, I’m just doin’ my job, kid.”

“We understand that sir, but Kevin was a dear friend of ours. Excuse us for being a bit testy,” Hermione replied for Harry, laying a hand on his shoulder. Usually, her touch would calm him down instantly but right now Harry was fighting the urge not to shrug it off…

“And excuse me for needing to get all the facts straight. I need everything exact if I’m to investigate Mr. McCalister’s death thoroughly.”

Harry’s jaw twitched and he was about to give the man another rude response when one of the two paramedics cut in, “I really don’t think that’ll be necessary, Jeff. This doesn’t seem to be a homicide.”

“What do you think happened then?” Hermione asked the man as a hand soothed over her stomach. It had been uneasy all day.

“That I can’t say for sure, but it looks to be cardiovascular related.”

“Like a heart attack?” Harry asked with a frown. He wasn’t sure if he was relieved or incensed that these muggles thought Kevin just dropped dead off his own accord. Of course, he knew full well that Kev was murdered, but what good would telling these daft blokes that?

“That’s usually what cardiovascular related deaths are,” the man replied slowly to Harry before glancing back at Hermione and wiggling his eyebrows, obviously trying to amuse her.

Harry glared dangerously at the paramedic while Hermione took the opportunity to speak, “Um, sir? Do you think we could have a moment with Kevin before you take him to the morgue? Just to say goodbye?”

The paramedic and Jeff shared a look before the younger bloke nodded, “Sure. He’s right over there,” he finished, pointing out in the hall to where the apparent form of a body lay on top of a gurney, a white sheet covering him.

Hermione and Harry approached him and just stood there for a few silent moments. Finally, Harry sniffed and reached over, pulling the sheet back below his hands crossed on his chest.

“Oh Kevin,” Hermione cried softly, placing a shaking hand over his cold one, “I’m so sorry…”

“This shouldn’t have happened to him,” Harry muttered, again more to himself then to anyone else.

As Harry continued to shake his head and mumble, Hermione’s hand ran over a rigid edge at the cuff of Kevin’s wrist. Her eyes widened and breath hitched as she made out the sharp white corner of an envelope.

“Harry…”

“He didn’t deserve to die-”

“Harry!” Hermione whispered frantically, nudging him with her elbow.

Harry finally looked at her, “What?”

Hermione merely nodded towards her hand that was laying over Kevin’s wrist. She lifted her palm secretively so Harry too could see the envelope, without revealing to the Detectives and paramedics that something was up.

“What is that?” Harry asked.

“It’s an envelope,” Hermione replied, not taking her eyes from it.

Harry looked up and over to the two policemen that were chatting together, not paying the young couple any mind.

“Take it,” Harry instructed quietly. He told himself that in all likelihood, it was the papers that he was meant to sign for the restaurant. But then again, what were the chances that Kevin really did just want to come over that morning to have him sign?

Not likely if Harry knew him as well as he thought he did…

Hermione carefully slid the long white envelope out of Kevin’s sleeve and into her own buttoned jumper.

She glanced at Harry before walking back into their flat, towards the detectives.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but will there be anything else today? I’m afraid the day’s

events has unsettled me and my little one greatly and I wish to have a lie down before I exhaust myself further,” Hermione told them smoothly. Not leaving time for them to respond, she wished them a pleasant day and left for her and Harry’s room.

“She gonna be okay, man?” the paramedic asked, turning back to Harry after he watched Hermione shut the door to her room behind her.

Harry shrugged as the men all headed towards the front door, “Like she said, he was a good friend.”

“Well, we’ll be getting out of your hair then,” the kinder detective said, giving Harry a consoling pat on the shoulder before walking after the paramedics, who had begun wheeling Kevin’s body down the corridor.

Jeff didn’t look sympathetic at all as he walked up to Harry last, “I trust you won’t be leaving town any time soon? The station will most likely call you down for some routine questions within a few days. Make sure you keep yourself available.”

With that, Jeff O’Leary strutted out, leaving Harry’s fist clenched with anger. He wanted nothing more then to hit something hard at that moment, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

As he closed the door, he heard soft footsteps making their way back down the hallway and turned to see Hermione staring at him with scared eyes.

“Hermione…”

“It’s addressed to us.”

“What?” Harry frowned in confusion, “To both of us?”

Hermione nodded and handed him the ill-fated object.

Harry stared into Hermione’s eyes for a few solid moments before he ran his thumb underneath the lid and ripped open the envelope.

Discarding the trash to the side, Harry’s eyes quickly read the four letter message.

His heart dropped.

“What? Harry, what does it say?” Hermione asked quickly, noticing his obvious reaction.

Harry handed over the note and Hermione took it eagerly.

“‘There will be consequences’ … oh god,” she whispered, the paper trembling under her grasp.

“No… no! Harry, what does this mean?”

Their eyes met, the both of them searching each other for some sort of guidance.

Hermione was about to re-voice her question when suddenly, a heavy flapping was heard.

They both jerked their heads up to see a large, towering bird perched on the top of their small pile of luggage next to the couch.

It looked to be a large eagle owl, one of the magnificent sorts. It had piercing golden eyes, that seemed as if they were staring daggers into Harry and Hermione.

Jumping in front of Hermione, Harry instantly pulled out his wand from his back pocket and pointed it at the strange creature, not knowing what to expect.

The three beings stood there for a few minutes, the bird in an intense staring match with the witch and wizard.

Harry and Hermione finally started to glance at each other in regards as to what they should do. Right as they looked away though, the bird let out an ear pitching screech. It rose from it’s position on top of the backpacks, and flew at full speed towards Harry and Hermione.

Harry quickly pulled Hermione to the side for safety, but watched as the haunting bird continued to fly at high speed into the fireplace and up the chimney.

“They know…”

Harry looked down to Hermione wrapped in his arms, “What?”

“They know we were trying to leave,” she said, fresh tears running down her face, “He told me not to even try it. So they killed Kevin… they killed him…”

“B-but,” Harry started, breathing quickly and shaking his head. None of this was making sense to him…, “But how could they know?”

“They’ve been watching us this whole bloody time probably. Oh god, Harry- that means, we- we’re…”

“We’re what?” Harry asked, genuinely frightened. He knew what Hermione was getting at, but for the life of him he couldn’t bare listen to her say it.

“We’re trapped.”

There. She said it…

Harry could see the levy’s of hope and trust that he would get them out of this predicament breaking in his love’s eyes as more tears spilled over her cheeks.

How could he have done this to her? To him? To them? How foolish was he? He should have known that somewhere, someone was out looking for revenge on him…

He was only a kid, though! A kid having a kid. All he had wanted was to go somewhere to be safe and start a family with Hermione. He just wanted to escape their reality for just a little while. But what he really did was leave all the protection and family he knew. And now… now…

“We have no way out this time…”

---

6. A Moth on the Wall

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 6: A Moth On The Wall

---

“Where are you going?” Harry asked Hermione quietly.

It had been a few hours since the police and medics had left with Kevin’s body. No conversation had been made between him and Hermione and she hadn‘t moved from her spot on the couch.

He had been leaning on the wall and looking out the window at the innocent kids playing American football in the park below when he heard Hermione grab her bag and walk off down the hall.

“Hermione? Where are you going?” he repeated louder, still staring after her.

Again, she did not answer so Harry moved off the wall and followed her into the bedroom.

“Hermione?”

“What Harry?” she snapped, turning to look at him with her bag open on the bed.

“What are you doing?” he asked back in the same tone.

“Unpacking, what’s it look like?”

“Oh,” he mumbled, “You know you don’t have to be angry at me. I was just curious…” he continued in a small voice, even though he half expected her to be furious with him.

“I’m not angry!” she shouted, throwing her hands up and turning wildly to him. Harry raised an unconvinced eyebrow, but made no comment.

Hermione sighed and shook her head heatedly, “Fine, I am! I’m frustrated as all hell!”

Harry looked down to his shoes as she carried on. He felt somewhat responsible for her being in the state she was in, so he didn’t find himself deserving to look her in the eye.

“It’s like whatever we do they’re two steps ahead of us!” By now she resumed meddling with her bag- her wand was out and she had sent various articles of clothing zooming back into the closet, “And I can’t figure out how! How do they know what we’re planning?”

Harry grunted as one of her shoes hit him in the chest. She sent him an apologetic look as he bent down and picked it up.

“I don’t know Hermione, but,” he stopped, spotting a moth on the wall and slamming it with the bottom of the shoe before tossing it back into the closet. He walked to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, “They’re bound to slip up soon. And when they do we have to make sure we take advantage of it and get the hell out.”

Hermione had started tearing again, “Do you think we’ll even get that opportunity?”

Harry didn‘t answer. He couldn’t. How the hell was he supposed to know if these people- whoever they were- would ever make any faults?

He didn’t want to tempt fate, so after a moment he said, “I’m not going to let them get you two, even if it kills me…”

He pulled her into the tightest embrace they could muster given the bump in between them.

Harry’s words repeated over and over again in Hermione’s head, and she couldn’t help but feel truly scared by the sincerity of his message.

As she leaned into his embrace she let her eyes wander, hoping beyond all hope it wouldn’t have to escalate to his death, or hers for that matter. ‘We’ve survived through far too much to die now…’

Suddenly Hermione’s eyes caught sight of something, and she gasped, pushing away from Harry.

“Herm-”

“Harry look!” she directed, pointing a shaky hand in front of her.

Harry turned, and instantly stepped back into Hermione as his right hand went for his wand.

“What is it?” Hermione asked, visibly shaken, with her eyes still glued to a quivering, flesh coloured shape, about the size of a large duffle bag. It was lying on what looked to be a pool of dark red blood.

‘It’s definitely blood,’ Harry determined, getting a whiff of the familiar scent.

“Harry, what is it?”

“I-I…”

But he didn’t have to answer because just then, the shape sprouted four limbs, clearly two arms and two legs based on where they sprouted from, and a round shape, smaller than a football, appeared at its top. It was clear that it was a person transforming- but from what?

“Oh, shit…” Harry muttered, his eyes glancing back up to the place near the closet door in which he had swatted a moth minutes prior.

“Harry!”

He registered the amount of distress in Hermione’s voice and quickly looked back to the form- now a bloody and still bleeding body of a young man.

The bloke’s body was completely mangled. His arms and legs were all poking out in different directions- none of which the way they should have been.

But his head was by far the most gruesome. Hermione had turned and pressed her head into the opposite wall while her hands clamped tight over her mouth. Harry had to look away and gag.

The bloke’s sandy coloured hair was dyed darker and matted to his head from the blood. None of the identifiable bone structure could be seen on his face.

If Harry had to guess, he would say that the beak rutted out to the right side of his face was his chin, the sinking gaps underneath his eyes were his collapsed eye sockets, and as for his nose- it was probably all but bone powder.

But the most jarring and irksome thing about the corpse was that his chest was still shaking quite visibly, and he had started foaming and spitting up blood out of his mouth.

‘He’s still alive… he’s trying to breathe…’

“Hermione, he‘s alive… what should we do?” Harry asked frantically, glancing back at Hermione who was still pressed against the wall, before turning back to the man.

Chunks of something were starting to flow out of his mouth. It took a moment for Harry to recognize them as teeth.

“Hermione!” Harry now shouted, turning back to her.

She had started shaking her head back and forth, before she turned to the rubbish bin at the side of the night stand and threw up.

Harry looked back and without another moment’s thought, pointed his wand at the man.

“Pretificus Totalus!”

“Harry?” Hermione panted, still knelt next to the rubbish bin, giving him a questioning look.

“We have to get him to the hospital!” Harry stated, quickly coming over to help her up.

“B-But-”

“Hermione, we have to!” Harry cut her off, giving her a look that pretty much

explained everything for her.

‘Of course they had to- he was Harry Potter. He wasn’t about to just sit back and watch the man die…’

Hermione nodded mutely. With a swish of his wand, the petrified man hastily floated out of the room and towards the front door.

Harry guided Hermione with him, following after the body and before she knew it, the familiar yet sickening sense of being squeezed through a small tube was being bestowed upon her.

She didn’t even have time to remind Harry of the consequences of apparition.

…

Harry’s feet met ground, and he looked around, recognizing the front entrance to the E.R. of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital a few yards ahead of them.

He had purposefully apparated them into the small enclosure where they kept the large garbage bins as to avoid from having to float the immobile bloke’s body all the way from the alley a street over.

“Alright, come on,” Harry muttered, looking around to make sure no one was looking their way. When he didn’t hear Hermione behind him, he turned back to find her.

His heart dropped when he saw Hermione laying on the ground with her back to him, struggling to get up.

"Hermione!" He ran to her, gently helping to her feet.

"Are you-"

"I-I'm fine..." Hermione lied, not meeting Harry's eyes. In all truth, she felt like a tornado was spinning through her head and she knew that if she hadn't just emptied her stomach a few minutes ago, then she'd be vomiting all over Harry right now.

Harry stared at her with a guilty and worried look on his face. He couldn’t believe how careless he'd been with her...

"We should hurry," Hermione voiced, finally meeting his eyes and breaking Harry from his thoughts.

Harry nodded, remembering why they had apparated in the first place and turned back to the man who was still frozen into the same eerie, broken position.

...

"Hey!" Harry called out to a team of paramedics who were lingering near their ambulance, "This guy needs help!"

The men turned to look at Harry and Hermione. Harry was now kneeling next to the man on the ground, acting like he had just drug them there, while Hermione stood- her face suddenly very pale.

"Rob, get the gurney!" One of the medics yelled, as he and another ran forward.

"What happened to him?" asked the first medic, quickly checking for a pulse.

Harry glanced at Hermione before turning back, "We uh, we don't know. We just found him like this in an alley."

The medic who had yelled at Rob gave Harry a probing look, "Sir, we need to know what happened to him so we can determine the best way to help him..."

"We said we found him!" Hermione cut in, "We don't know who he is or what happened to him."

"I can't get a pulse," the first man muttered before being distracted by Rob coming up with the gurney.

Hermione nudged Harry, who took the opportunity to pull out his wand.

"Enervate."

As if being turned on by a switch, the bloke started shaking again and bubbling at the mouth.

"Look!" Hermione alerted the others.

The next few minutes went by in a blur for both Harry and Hermione. The medics had lifted the blonde man onto a gurney and had called a E.R. team down. They were all shouting rushed commands at each other while a nurse was clearing the man's airway, preparing to put a tube in him to assist his breathing.

They started wheeling him forward into the hospital, took a right and disappeared from Harry and Hermione’s view.

Harry blinked and drew in a few deep breaths, still staring in the same direction. His head was spinning and mind was going haywire with pounding thoughts.

He had done the right thing… right? He was the one to cause him to be in the state he was in, so it was right that Harry brought him to the hospital. He couldn’t let the man die on his carpet. Could he? Should he have left him?

It was obvious, that whoever that man was, he was no friend to Harry or Hermione.

‘Why was he there in the first place?’ Something clicked in Harry’s head and he blinked. Why didn’t he think of that before?

‘The wizard could transfigure into a moth… That’s how they’ve been keeping tabs on us…’

“He’s with them. He was a spy…” Harry muttered lowly, his hands forming into fists. Anger and frustration ran through his veins, enraging his senses. Anger, because, like a ponce, he willingly brought the bloke to the hospital so he could get treatment, and frustration for not thinking of it before. He could have done something back at the apartment; searched his pockets for I.D. or even perform some healing charms on him, at least enough so he could get to the point where he could talk so Harry could get some information on him and the people he was working with.

Now his opportunities had been washed down the drain. He openly admitted that he and Hermione didn’t know the bloke, so why would the staff let them in to see him?

He’d probably never see the kid again…

“If he even makes it,” Harry muttered to himself bitterly.

Letting out another irate breath, he turned around wanting to get Hermione home soon so she could rest.

When he saw her though, his shoulders fell and the previous thoughts of anger evaporated in his mind, being replaced with worry and concern.

Hermione had sauntered over to the rubbish bin by the entrance of the E.R., and had one hand holding onto it’s rim tightly while the other was gripping her stomach. Just by her stance, Harry could tell she was breathing heavily.

He hurried over, “Hermione?”

“Yeah?” she asked breathlessly.

“Are you alright? Do you need to sit down or something?”

She shook her head, “I’m just a little dizzy…”

“Come on, let’s get you home,” he said grabbing her waist so she could ease off the bin and start walking. She let go, and would have collapsed if it weren’t for Harry holding her.

“Hermione?!” he asked in panic as she let out a quiet groan, her eye lids opening and closing very slowly.

“Hey, is she okay?” asked a woman coming out of the hospital doors in a blue medic suit. She was just about to light a cigarette when she saw Harry with Hermione in his arms, struggling to stay conscious.

“Something’s wrong with her,” Harry told her, trying to shake Hermione awake.

“Oh my…” she whispered after she got a good look at Hermione, particularly her abdomen, “Sir, how far along is she?”

“33 weeks,” Harry replied anxiously, distracted by Hermione’s eyes drifting shut and the trail of blood now leaking from her nose.

“We’re gonna need a doctor!” the woman shouted through the open hospital doors, throwing her cigarette to the side and coming forward to take Hermione from Harry’s trembling arms.

---

I know this is getting ridiculously dramatic but please review.

---

7. A Friendly Voice

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 7: A Friendly Voice

[A/N] I’ve been torn on where I wanted to take the trilogy. As I work on it, I see a whole new plethora of opportunities that could be explored, but they’re all different from the original draft. What I originally intended for the trilogy is dramatic and suspenseful- as you all should know since I’ve said so from the start. Part of me wants to see my outline through, while the other is hesitant because I know that I may possibly lose many readers for it.

With that said, I’ve had like four months to dwell on it. And I’ve decided that I’m finishing it like I had intended. I apologize now to those of you who might- will- be angry. Just please, give it a shot and remember the warnings I gave you back in the first few chapters of the first instalment.

---

The little boy sat in his high chair, clanking a bright red spoon against its matching bowl. He was screaming in delight for his ‘da’.

Harry crawled around the corner, a mischievous look on his grinning face, and slowly moved towards the back of the high chair. Meanwhile, the boy had stuck one hand, full of the goo in his bowl, in his mouth and raised the other one to tug at the top of his messy raven haired head.

He looked identical to the baby version of the man crouching behind his seat, except he had bright, beautiful chocolate eyes. His mother’s eyes.

Harry popped up from behind the boy with a playful ‘boo!’. The boy went into a giggling fit of hysterics as Harry tickled him mercilessly.

“Boys!” a voice admonished lightly. Hermione walked into the kitchen, holding the red spoon that the baby threw away before deciding to feed himself with his hands.

“Uh-oh!” the baby boy jittered, pointing a gooey hand at Harry’s head before looking up at Hermione with an innocent smile, “Da!”

“Hey!” Harry yelled, giving his son an appalled look, “Don’t point the finger at me!”

“Harry,” Hermione started, coming towards the baby with a quid ditch-themed embroided handkerchief, “You’re supposed to actually feed him when it’s breakfast time.”

“MA!” the boy screamed, showing her his gooey hand before sticking it back in his bowl and stuffing another handful in his mouth.

“You were feeding yourself, huh baby?” Hermione asked, cleaning off his right cheek before leaning in to kiss it. He smiled a gummy smile and Hermione looked down adoringly at him.

“See, he was eating. Now do I get a kiss?” Harry asked puckering his lips at Hermione.

Hermione grinned and leaned in. Right as she was about an inch away she turned back to the baby and blew a raspberry on his cheek.

“Ahh!” he giggled in delight as Harry gave her a betrayed look.

“Is that how it is? Him over me?” he asked glancing overdramatically between the boy and Hermione.

“Yup!” the baby answered, popping his lips at the end of the word.

“Yeah?” Harry probed, staring barbarically at him. He looked back to Hermione, trying to hide her smile, “Well I’m not going down without a fight.”

“Uh-oh,” Hermione said this time as Harry moved to her. Hermione tried to back away, but Harry grabbed her waist and gently tackled her to the ground.

The boy screamed and laughed happily as Harry gave Hermione the kiss he’d been waiting for.

…

Harry watched the small hand of the clock tick off another minute, leaving it at 6:38.

When Hermione passed out, the hospital staff had quickly made a spot for her in a room and began running all the necessary tests for her and the baby to make sure they were both okay. Thankfully, the results came back well and the incident was classified as just a scare. Or, at least, so the staff said.

Harry however knew it was because he apparated her.

Though, as he sat in the small room with her as she slept, he couldn’t help but start to think about that spy. He was probably up in surgery right now, with the muggles doing everything they could to keep him alive. Harry had tried to inquire on his condition with the nurses helping Hermione, but of course, they were too preoccupied to check.

He felt like a shit head because he had spent more time dwelling over the bloke then Hermione and his baby. He turned to her and watched her as she lay asleep peacefully in the hospital bed.

He had let her down again.

Harry heard the sound of the door opening and looked up to find a middle aged woman in a white lab coat and a stethoscope around her neck. She carried a thick clipboard and was staring down at it as she closed the door behind her.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Page the resident gynaecologist at the hospital. Our obstetrician was just called to the delivery room, so I thought I’d drop by and check up on Ms. Granger.”

Harry nodded absently, not really caring who the woman was as long as she could help Hermione.

“I’m Harry. I’m her boyfriend,” he said shaking the doctor’s hand politely.

“Well, she’s been sleeping for what, about four hours now? I think it’d be safe to wake her and see how she’s feeling.” Dr. Page reached into her pocket and withdrew two little white sticks.

She placed them underneath Hermione’s nostrils, and a few moments later she began to stir awake.

“H-Harry?” she called out, looking blearily around the white room.

Harry grabbed her hand and squeezed it softly, making Hermione turn her eyes to look at him in relief.

“Hermione, my name is Dr. Page. Can you tell me what you can remember before waking up?”

Hermione focused her eyes on the woman, “I-I felt sick.”

Dr. Page nodded, “Yes, you passed out-”

“I passed out?!” Hermione asked frantically, “My b-”

“You and your baby are okay Ms. Granger. Please try to relax,” Dr. Page carried on gently, “Now, will you be comfortable with me asking you a few questions?”

“What kind of questions?” Hermione answered hesitantly.

“Just some standard routine ones,” she reassured her. Hermione nodded before she continued, “So, how old are you Ms. Granger?”

“Nineteen…”

Harry caught the raised eyebrow on Dr. Page‘s face and the way she clucked her tongue. “And when’s the last time you ate?”

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows and looked away guiltily, “Um, like yesterday at lunch.”

“Ms. Granger that is unacceptable. It is very important that you eat several meals every day! Going six hours without eating is risky, let alone twenty-four!”

“I-I’m sorry we,” she looked over to Harry for support but found him sitting silently next to her bed staring at his shoes. His hand let go of hers, “We got preoccupied.”

“Well I suggest you make the time to eat if you want your baby to remain healthy,” the woman said sternly. As Hermione hung her head in shame, she couldn’t help but think that she hadn’t even had the baby yet and already she was shaping up to be a terrible mum.

Dr. Page sighed intolerantly and scribbled some notes on her clipboard. “You’re personal doctor is Dr. Hammond correct?”

Hermione nodded her head and watched as the woman mimicked her and then continued scribbling, “It’s our policy to have her come in and give you the final check up. She’ll tell you whether or not she thinks you’re fit to leave.”

Hermione simply nodded again, not really listening. She briefly wondered why Harry was hiding in the corner. Was he mad at her or something? Her confusion was short lived as her erratic brain suddenly shot back to the image of the small raven haired boy that she had just dreamt about. The image of Harry tickling the boy, giggling outrageously, brought a small smile to her lips.

“Very well,” Dr. Page continued, giving Hermione a somewhat disappointed glance as she stared off at Harry, “She’ll be here shortly. While you’re waiting I’ll have the nurse bring the both of you something to eat.”

Hermione again nodded and Dr. Page left without further notice. As they sat quietly, alone in the room, Harry still didn’t look up to meet her gaze. It gave Hermione more time to study him, study his facial features. He looked immensely surrendered to thought, and a sudden realization hit her as she kept observing. She’d seen that look numerous times before; he was brooding. Harry felt guilty.

“It’s not your fault,” Hermione blurted out. She prayed for him to finally look at her but he didn’t.

“I could have killed it,” he eventually said, his lips barely moving.

The word ‘it’ stung at Hermione’s heart. Her shoulders fell, and a new flood of worry flowed through her. That was the first time Harry had ever referred to their baby as an ‘it’.

“You had the right intentions, Harry. You were trying to save a life.” Hermione hadn’t meant for her voice to come out so hoarse. She wished she had some water.

“The life of a wizard who was spying on us,” Harry replied mockingly.

Hermione frowned, “What do you mean?”

“His animagus form was a moth. Don’t you see how easy it was for them to be keeping tabs on us? All he had to do was fly around and follow us…”

Hermione gaped at his unemotional tone. She didn’t know why she hadn’t connected the dots while they were still at the flat. She remembered feeling too sick and focusing on trying to stand in their spinning bedroom. Everything else was a blur.

‘That’s no excuse,’ a sickening voice sounded in her head. Hermione gave in to the voice easily. She had always been the most logical girl. By not coming to this conclusion right when it was all happening… sick or not- she felt like she was letting Harry down somehow; a feeling she always hated.

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head frantically. She wanted to make sense of the whole thing but she was finding it harder than ever, “But now that he’s gone, maybe… maybe…”

“Don’t be silly Hermione. These people aren’t going to stop their sick mission just because one of their members was accidentally killed,” Harry spoke harshly. It seemed like his anger was directed solely at her. Hermione’s eyes began to tear.

“Killed? He- he-”

Harry shrugged heartlessly, “He’s in surgery. I dunno anything for sure. But you seen him- how could he possibly survive looking the way he did?”

Hermione fell silent, flinching as she remembered the broken body instilled in her mind. Harry was right; only a miracle could make that man survive. And something in the tone of Harry’s voice and the look in his eyes made Hermione feel like he wanted just that, “Harry, what’ll you do if he does survive surgery?”

Harry gave Hermione a gruesome look, making his intentions obvious.

“Harry-”

“Food’s here!” announced a cheery voice, blustering backwards into the room, tugging on a cart in front of her. There were two plain looking styrofoam trays on top of the cart, holding what looked to be meat of some sort, mashed potatoes, grape kool-aid, and a cup of jell-o. Joy.

As Hermione was cringing away from the sight of the food, Harry stood up and edged towards the door.

“You should eat that and then take a nap,” he muttered neutrally.

“You’re not staying with me?” Hermione asked in shock as he grabbed the door knob.

It didn’t even look like he planned on saying a proper goodbye.

Harry froze for a mere instant before replying, “I’m just going to the restroom. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Hermione huffed, rolling her eyes and slamming herself back on her pillows with her arms folding over her chest. Harry sighed from the door before he walked out, not thinking he could really handle her hormones at the moment.

As much as he tried, he just couldn’t wrap his head around Hermione. What he would give to just be able to reach out and hold her against him, but he knew he was undeserving. The image of her passing out, falling over next to that garbage can in front of the hospital, served as a mental block against any comforting he wanted to give to her. So much for vowing to protect her.

And the baby. He shook his head at the mere word. It was hopeless… their baby would be taken from him and he would be destroyed. There was no feasible way around that. Hopefully they would spare Hermione…

He was turning the corner for the loo when a man made him stop. The man was clearly a doctor by the way he stood behind the medical counter and was wearing green scrubs. He was speaking calmly on the phone to someone while writing on a clipboard.

But the reason why this man really made Harry stop was because he looked exactly like Kevin… exactly like the man he and Hermione had found dead just a few hours ago.

“Sure, that’ll be fine. If you want to come down and sign those papers tomorrow, I’ll be free around 12:30…” the Kevin look-alike was saying with a voice all too similar to the dead man.

Harry frowned mid thought. The text messages. Harry had gotten a text message from Kevin right before they found him dead outside their door. He had received a text message from Kevin last night, the first night that he and Hermione first came into the harsh reality that someone wanted their baby. The same night that a group of wizards jumped him and hurt Hermione…

It was a set up. Those texts weren’t from Kevin, they were from them. Somehow, they had targeted Kevin and used him as a means to get to Hermione, him, and the baby. The baby…

Harry didn’t realize that he was shaking from the newfound realization. Paranoia was spreading through him like wildfire. They probably had more modes of watching them then he had imagined. It all sort of clicked together with the moth man. But now that he was really thinking about it…

It just wasn’t conceivable that that bloke would stay at their apartment all day of everyday. How do you eat as a moth anyway? There had to be more to it than that. Spells, detections of sorts that would work for them to monitor everything they did. Hell, they probably had their mobile’s traced and were keeping tabs on all the people Harry and Hermione were in physical contact with. But how could he make sure? If he were to perform a spell to check for anything mysterious… and it turned out they did have monitors recording them… then they’d be in deeper then they were now.

Perhaps… perhaps a device would be less noticeable to any wards they had. But where could he get a dark magic detector in Boston? Or when Hermione was still in the hospitable and these people were still out there?

Could he even take the risk?

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry caught a chubby male nurse in a blue uniform trip over his own feet and drop an accordion folder. After he gathered the strewn papers on the ground, he got up, glanced over his shoulders embarrassedly, and walked off.

Harry’s heart skipped a beat after watching the bloke disappear. Something in his mind clicked and he grinned. Of course!

Neville!

…

Harry approached the receptionist sitting behind the counter near the Kevin look-alike. The brunette doctor didn’t look up as Harry stopped at the counter, and continued writing aggressively on his clipboard. Harry noted the mobile phone that he had left on the counter, next to a tissue box. Harry put his hand next to the box.

“Um, excuse me I was wondering if Dr. Hammond had arrived yet?” Harry asked politely, looking directly at the receptionist.

The woman clicked around on the computer in front of her, “Yes, actually she just got in with her patient.”

Harry smiled, “Thank you.” He turned and walked away, quietly stuffing the phone into his jeans pocket as he went.

…

He reached the single unit lavatory in the west wing in record time, and instantly he was locking himself inside and performing a silencio at the back of the door.

Standing in the middle of the loo, he stared down at the small phone, praying that his idea would work. He had heard Mr. Weasley and Charlie talking about this over a Weasley dinner once, and hoped the telephone operator in the Muggle Artefacts office was still there.

Harry gripped his wand tightly, and tapped it against the keypad. “Ministry of Magic, London,” he spoke evenly.

The bathroom was silent, seemingly forever. Harry was about to bang his head against the wall hopelessly when finally, the phone lit up.

An aged, wiry voice emitted from the phone, “Ministry of Magic London, this is Opal.”

Harry clenched at his hair with one hand and tried to take a steadying breath, “Er, hi. Uh, I-I need to get a telephone number for Neville Longbottom, please.”

“Please hold.”

Harry stayed fidgeting in the loo as a couple minutes passed. He could barely believe his strategy had actually worked.

The line clicked and Opal’s voice returned, “The only person we have on file with that surname is a Mrs. Augustus Longbottom.”

“Oh, that’s his grandmother. Can I have it please?”

“You’re name?”

“Sorry?” Harry frowned, suddenly very anxious.

“It’s for logging purposes, dear.”

Harry tensed, “Uh, it’s… Zacharias Smith…”

Opal didn’t sound suspicious at all and a few seconds later, gave Harry Neville’s gran’s number. After saying a polite goodbye to the old witch, Harry quickly pressed the end button and began dialling again.

As the line began ringing, Harry tapped his foot on the ground nervously. He was still somewhat shaking.

The line swiftly stopped ringing, “HELLO?!”

Harry jerked the mobile away from his ear at the volume, “Um, Mrs. Longbottom?”

“WHO’S THIS?!”

Harry pinched his nose, doing some more quick thinking. The mobile was still dangling a foot away from his ear. “Er, this is Phylip Spore, I’m the author of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. I’m trying to get in touch with your grandson about a business proposal I have for him.”

“A business deal?! With Neville?” she asked, her voice still loud but no longer screaming, “Why don’t you just owl him?”

“I need to speak with him as soon as possible ma’am…” Harry replied, wishing she would just comply. Mrs. Longbottom was probably the most stubborn, and ornery old lady he’d ever known, so he shouldn’t have expected this to be a walk in the park.

“I’ll floo him, hold on a tick!”

Harry’s breathing escalated uneasily as a couple minutes passed. He held the phone to his ear and could hear the background noise of a fire, some mumblings, and eventually a clearer voice. He could’ve danced.

“Mr. Spore, this is Neville Longbottom,” Neville greeted with an enthusiastic edge to his voice.

Harry was so caught up in his own excitement that he didn’t have time to feel a bit guilty about getting his friend’s hopes up, “Neville, it’s me…”

Breathing stopped on the other end, “Ha-”

“Don’t say my name out loud! Can you get away from your grandmother for a minute?”

“Gran? I’m going to talk to Mr. Spore on the porch!” he announced back into the house. Harry could hear the mumble of Augustus’s agreement and then the closing of a door.

“Alright, I’m alone. It’s so good to hear from you mate,” the genuine tone of friendship made Harry feel strange. Almost like he wasn’t use to the normalness of his mates back home.

“Yeah, you too Neville. Listen, I need a favour…”

“Anything,” Neville answered eagerly.

“I need you to send me some dark magic detectors, and I need them as soon as possible.”

“Dark magic detectors? Like what exactly?”

Harry let out a breath and started listing off a few items that would be useful to him, “This is going to sound silly, but I need like, a secrecy sensor, a concealment sweep, a sneakoscope, a dark spell projector, a-a foe-glass…”

“That’s a lot of stuff Harry- is this serious?”

“I can’t answer your questions right now, but do you think you could do this for me?” Harry asked, truly hoping that Neville would recognize the desperation in his voice.

This was their last hope…

“Of course I can,” Neville answered quickly, “I can probably get them to you in an hour if you want me to apparate or floo to you-”

“No, you’ll have to send them by owl,” Harry interrupted immediately. He was already taking a huge risk by having Neville send him these things- if he had him show up too, well he was sure that would most likely be the end of his friend. Plus, Ron and Ginny had been owling them at their apartment ever since Christmas.

Hopefully, this wouldn’t seem too in the norm to anyone who was paying attention.

Neville sounded a little taken aback, “Oh, okay. It might not get there until tomorrow-”

“Just do what you can. I appreciate this Neville,” and with that, he hit the red end button, disconnecting the call. He stuffed the phone and his wand back in his jeans pocket before he opened the door and walked out into the corridor, starting back for Hermione’s room. This had been the first sign of good news they had had in a while.

Finally, something was going their way.

Awkwardly, Harry tried to feel optimistic, but the ominous cloud hanging over his head and clouding his vision had yet to disperse.

---

There‘s going to be a few more suspenseful chapters after this one, and they‘ll be paramount to your view on things. Some of you might really be disgusted, some of you might be very intrigued… I‘ll just guarantee you that it won‘t be anything you‘ve ever read before. And I promise, it all ends well.

…No pun intended.

REVIEW!!!

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8. Last Hope

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 8: Last Hope

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[AN] Something happens in this chapter that I think we’ve been waiting for since LFL. Hope you enjoy :]

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Harry was just rounding the corner, about to reach for door handle to Hermione’s hospital room, when he bumped into someone coming out.

Harry narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but smoothed the look over when he recognized Dr. Hammond standing before him.

The woman gave him a friendly smile, “Oh, I thought I was going to miss you.”

“Is everything okay?” Harry asked gruffly, not returning the smile.

“Well… she’s lucky. You both are. Like I told Hermione; it’s a team effort to keep your baby healthy. These final weeks are key for the baby to get all the nutrients it needs from its mum to keep growing after birth. So please, be careful.”

Harry nodded, “We will be.”

Dr. Hammond gave him a sympathetic smile, and patted his shoulder motherly, “I’ll be seeing the three of you soon then.”

Harry nodded again. He didn’t bother giving her a final goodbye; just hurried into Hermione’s room.

Hermione shot him a glare as soon as he came in, “We’re fine. Thanks for asking.”

“So you can go home?” Harry asked, ignoring her attitude.

“Yes, I’ve already finished the paperwork with the nurse.”

“Let’s go then.”

Harry held out his hand for Hermione to use while getting out of bed. She stubbornly ignored him, and tried to struggle off the thin mattress herself. Harry rolled his eyes and stopped her, grabbing her arm and forcing her to loop it through his. She shot a glare at him, but he was too preoccupied with tugging them towards the door to notice.

As they walked out into the hospital corridor, they noticed the medic from earlier getting off the elevator. Luckily, Harry didn’t have to go out of his way to talk to him, because the man was walking right at them.

“Hey,” Harry called out to him. The bloke looked up lifelessly at first, but then his face sparked into expression after he realized who had addressed him. “So is that guy going to be okay?” Harry asked.

A disturbed, sombre look came over the EMT’s face, “Ehh… it’s not looking too good for him. They’ll have to transfer him to another hospital. We don’t have enough of his blood type in storage here, and one of his lungs is going to have to be transplanted. If all that works out for him, there will still only be a slight chance that he’ll have any brain activity.”

Hermione grimaced. She wanted to comment, perhaps say how awful his circumstances were, or something like that. But truth be told, if that man was a spy, then he deserved whatever he got.

“Well hopefully he’ll pull through,” Harry muttered distractedly.

“Yeah, hopefully. Take care you two. Congratulations,” he added, nodding off at Hermione’s stomach.

Both Harry and Hermione nodded blankly, clearly disconcerted with his final comment.

They quickly made their way through the rest of the small hospital. Outside, they were able to hail a taxi in no time, and when they did, Harry hurriedly settled Hermione inside. He couldn’t be sure if anyone was watching, or if anything else was going to happen that day…

About five minutes into the cab ride, Hermione jolted in her seat. Harry gave her a questioning look as she glanced down to her swollen belly, a distressed look adorning her features.

“Mione?”

Hermione didn’t answer, too busy concentrating on the movements within her abdomen. She placed her hand on the left side of her stomach as a tear rolled down her cheek. The baby kicked again, and this time Hermione had to close both of her eyes as tears poured out of them.

Harry watched her the entire time, not knowing how she would best be comforted.

He glanced down to her hand, still clutched over a single spot on her stomach. Slowly, he reached out and placed his hand over hers. Obviously, the meagre attempt did nothing to console her. But honestly, Harry wasn’t sure if anything could right now.

About another five minutes passed before the cab driver pulled up in front of Harry and Hermione’s building. Harry threw some cash at the driver before hurrying out of his side and rushing over to Hermione’s door.

“Here,” he offered, unbuckling her seat belt and holding out his hand for her.

Hermione felt like glaring at him. Oh, so now he decides he wants to be the attentive gentleman and help her out?

“I can handle myself,” she muttered instead, levelling herself out of the cab.

Harry sighed but didn’t move away, “Well, obviously you can’t.”

“What?” Hermione asked, turning on him with a wounded look.

Harry shook his head, and again tried to grab her hand, “Nothing. Let’s get inside.”

Hermione jerked her hand away, “No. What the hell does that mean? You think I can’t take care of me and my baby?”

“Come on Hermione, you weren’t even eating…”

Hermione stared at him in betrayal, “My mind was in other places! I didn’t see you eating!”

“I’m not the one carrying our child!” Harry snapped. At least he was back to using ‘our’ child…, “You put our baby’s life in danger!” he raged on, pointing a finger at her.

Hermione scoffed coldly, not recognizing her words as they spilled from her mouth, “Oh please, you’re the reason our baby’s life’s in danger- not me.”

Harry blinked, “What?” Had she really just said what he think she said?

“Do you think this is just a coincidence Harry?! This wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t your child!” Hermione shouted at him, the cold look in her eyes almost rendering her undistinguishable.

Harry stared at her blankly, the hurt in his eyes starting to spread over his face.

Without saying anything, he turned and walked up the stairs, leaving Hermione behind in the cold.

Harry walked impassively up the stairs to their flat, and through their door, not even caring to watch out if anyone was there or watching him. He left the door open as he walked in and headed straight for their bedroom.

Hermione was standing in shock at the entrance of their building. She didn’t know what she was more concerned over- the fact that she had actually had the ability to say those awful words to Harry, or the fact that Harry had turned his back on her and his child, and just walked away.

‘Well of course he walked away, he probably wants nothing to do with you. He probably already regrets ever getting you pregnant…’ she told herself bitterly.

There was a loud crack that sounded like an engine backfiring somewhere on the street. Hermione glanced about her surroundings, one hand on her stomach, as she started to fervently remind herself that it wasn’t safe for her to be out here by herself. Taking a deep breath, Hermione started pulling herself up the stairs, using the handrail for support.

She had to take several breaks for air, but she eventually made it all the way up to their flat about ten minutes later. Hermione walked in through their open door cautiously, glancing around for Harry or any sign of somebody else. Looking down the hall, she noticed that their bedroom door was closed. Harry most likely locked himself in there, consumed with guilt…

Hermione sighed before turning and locking their front door. She knew that she’d have to talk to Harry and explain to him that she, in no way, actually meant her hurtful words. Obviously, the time wasn’t now, so Hermione headed off towards the nursery. She felt like it was the only place she’d be able to calm down.

Oh, how wrong she was.

As soon as she stepped through the door, the smell of lingering fresh paint and the sight of the half assembled baby crib brought her to tears. It was a harsh reminder that she’d probably never get to put her child to sleep in their crib, or that they’d never get to play with the assortment of toys that Harry and Hermione had already collected for them.

There was a sudden bang coming from their bedroom. Hermione glanced up from the crib, knowing that it was probably Harry having a fit. She knew she couldn’t go in there; it’d probably only set him off more. Honestly, all she wanted was to give Harry a healthy baby and a happy life that went along with that. Why was fate so cruel to them? Couldn’t they hold on to some happiness in their life?

Hermione looked back to the crib, laying in a heap on the floor. Well, if she wanted to be a mother, then she better start acting like it.

Slowly, she moved over to the wood pile and eased herself onto the ground in a sitting position. She summoned the book of directions over to herself, and started off on putting together the crib that her baby would sleep in for the first years of its life.

---

Meanwhile, back in their bedroom, Harry was perched on the edge of the bed, holding his head in his hands. Never in his broodiest dreams would he ever think that Hermione would admit that it was all his fault.

Could he really blame her? Yes; they were supposed to be in this together, and she was focusing on the negative. But was there a positive to this situation? Maybe…

He glanced over to the hole he had punched in the wall, and knew that he had to get control of himself. If not for himself, or Hermione, then for their baby.

Was it his fault? Everything bad seemed to happen to him, and the people closest to him. He had a prophecy made of himself; seems like that quality was passed on from him. Deep down, he knew that no matter if this was directly his fault, or some bizarre coincidence, that this was his baby. Everything he did, from this point on, needed to be in the best interest of him or her. After all, it wasn’t the baby’s fault that this was happening to them.

The thing that Harry feared most, besides losing Hermione, or losing their baby, was that his child would have to grow up in life, always looking over their shoulder. He wanted his baby to live in a world where this evil didn’t exist. Harry could never escape his own identity… but maybe he could save their child’s.

‘It’s your job to protect them… to protect your baby’s innocence… You’re not going to grow up with cruelty, that I promise.’

Harry scrubbed a hand over his weak, emotion ridden face, and replaced it with a solid, hard look. He got up from his spot on the bed, and walked over towards the door. In one swift move, he had it open and was walking down the hall, in the direction of Hermione’s little library. He needed to look up some wards to use once Neville sends his care package over.

---

Hermione’s brain was jumping all over the place as she was fixing the crib. She suddenly halted at the thought of her parents.

‘They’ll be so disappointed, but hopefully they’ll understand where I’m coming from. But what if they don’t? They’re going to call me an idiot for not using protection. And what if we had? What if I wasn’t pregnant? Well… I’d probably still be in school. Possibly have a job. Maybe even be with Ron… and I’d still be just as miserable…’

Hermione took a deep breath as she finished fastening the legs onto the wooden frame, “You’re the happiest you’ve ever been with Harry,” she reminded herself confidently.

Of course she’d always known that her and Harry worked best together. She’s always been happy with him- just this time, the feeling was a little different in realizing so.

She needed Harry. More than anyone else…

Her mind went back to the dream she had at the hospital. A smile spread over her lips as she thought of the little messy-haired boy. If it was a boy, then the prophecy would be false. And maybe then these idiots would back off…

A shadow passed across the open door of the nursery, and Hermione instantly recognized Harry walking down the hall. As quickly as possible, she struggled up and waddled out into the hall. Her heart jolted as she watched Harry get close to the front door.

“Harry?”

He didn’t answer, and kept walking.

“Harry, please don’t leave,” she pleaded, not caring how desperate she sounded.

Just as she spoke, Harry crossed over and headed for the study, “I’m not leaving.”

Hermione sucked in a relieved breath. Still staring after him, she figured now was as good a time as ever. She didn’t want to have to spend anymore time upset at the way she treated him, “I’m sorry about what I said. I didn’t mean to say-”

Harry rolled his eyes and turned to look at her, “Why not? It’s the truth. If this was Ron’s baby-”

“But it’s yours,” she cut in ardently, “and I wouldn’t want anyone else to father my child.”

Harry shook his head, “That’s a lie-”

“No it’s not,” Hermione argued, taking a few troubled steps towards him, “I want your babies, not Ron’s!”

Harry frowned, but not in anger. He stared at Hermione who was starting to fidget under his gaze. “What are you trying to say?” he asked in a way that surrendered his hostility.

Hermione bit her lip and shrugged, “I just, I love me an you together like this. Before this I was the happiest I’ve ever been and it’s because of you…” Hermione trailed off, opening and closing her mouth, obviously trying to say more. She wasn’t used to feeling so vulnerable around Harry.

“And?” Harry probed.

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath, “And I think together, we’d make pretty good parents to our baby. So we shouldn’t give up hope yet, because- because we can get through this.” She wished that sounded stronger than it came out. It was the truth though- they’d overcome so much, but this was entirely different. Lives had always been at stake, but this life, the one growing inside her at this moment, was so much more cherished and valuable to her.

Harry was currently refusing to get his hopes up at her last sentence, “I never wanted to lose you ‘Mione.”

“You won’t have too. I’ll always be here for you- you know that.”

“Like, I-I think I’d be able to deal with losing any other girl, but you… it’d kill me.”

Harry stood there, fumbling over his words. ‘Wow, it really was hard to try and tell someone that you love them…’

Hermione nodded, the tears pooling up in her eyes again, “It’d kill me too.”

Not knowing what else to do, or having nothing else he wanted to do, Harry walked forward and kissed her. “I’m going to give you the happy ending you deserve,” he muttered against her lips.

“And you’re going to be with me in this happy ending, right?” she asked timidly, hoping that he wasn’t going to back to his ‘even-if-it-kills-me’ strategy.

There was a brief pause before Harry nodded, “Of course.”

Hermione closed her eyes again and took a deep, shaky breath. When she opened them again, she stared unwavering at Harry.

“I love you.”

Harry‘s cheeks tugged back into a fitted smile. For a second, he marvelled over the fact that of course she’d be the one to say it first, but then all he could do was let his heart respond, “I love you too.”

A flash of need passed over Hermione’s face as he replied the fated four words.

Knowing that nothing else had to be said, they came together in a hungry kiss. It wasn’t long before Harry was pushing her back towards the bedroom…

---

Hermione was combing her hand through Harry’s hair as he rested on the pillow next to her, one of his hands laying over her belly. The baby had been especially active that night, preventing both Harry and Hermione from getting any sleep.

“I had a dream, after I passed out at the hospital,” Hermione suddenly spoke through the comfortable silence.

“Good or bad?” Harry asked, not looking away from her stomach.

Hermione smiled, “Good.”

“What was it about?”

“You and me… and a little boy that looked just like you,” Hermione told him, glancing

down to see his reaction.

Harry grinned, “Yeah?”

Hermione nodded, “Yeah, but he had brown eyes.”

“How old was he?” Harry questioned, obviously trying to picture him.

“Must have been about two or three,” Hermione answered, trying to concentrate back on the dream, “Right around that cute toddler stage.”

“And what were we all doing?” Harry asked, thirsty for more knowledge of a time when he and Hermione were happy with their baby, even if that time wasn’t exactly tangible.

Hermione lifted her shoulders airily, “Just trying to feed him breakfast. But we all looked so happy…”

Harry pulled her closer, “I wish I could have a dream like that.”

“Do you realize what it means though?”

Harry shook his head and gave her a quizzical look.

Hermione perched herself up on her elbows as she stared down at Harry with a more

serious look, “It was a little boy, not a little girl. That man last night said the prophecy referred to a girl!”

Harry too sat up, “A-Are you sure he said ‘she’?”

“I’m positive,” Hermione said nodding her head excitedly.

Harry stared off into their dark room, a noticeable look of concentration on his face.

“Harry, what if the prophecy was false? What if the baby really is a boy?”

Harry started shaking his head, “That would change everything…”

“I-I think we should go to Dr. Hammond and find out,” Hermione said, the anticipation obvious in her voice. It was apparent that she had been dwelling on this thought for a while. Harry, however, was at a loss for words, thinking of the possibility.

Hermione gave Harry a nervous look as a few seconds passed and he didn’t respond to her proposal, “Harry?”

“…Yeah…” Harry whispered. He looked back to her to meet her eyes. He tried to give her an assuring smile, “We’ll go in the morning, okay?”

Hermione nodded with an eager look and settled back into her pillows, her hand going back to play with Harry’s hair.

“Are you hungry?” Harry asked after a few quiet seconds.

Hermione smirked, “Actually, I could go for some ice cream.”

Harry chuckled, “Of course. I’ll be right back.”

Harry pushed himself up and kissed her on the lips, before sliding out of bed and heading for the kitchen.

---

Please review! Next chapter is the one that really changes the tone/pace of the story…

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9. If Hope Could Only Be So Kind

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 9: If Hope Could Only Be So Kind

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“What are you doing up so early?”

Harry jumped from his seat at the kitchen table, and spun around to see Hermione, still dressed in her pyjamas, giving him a curious look, “Hermione! You startled me.”

Hermione nodded off to the opened package in front of him, “What’s that?”

“This? Uh,” Harry paused, wondering how he was going to explain this to her. He was hoping he could leave her out of this. He didn’t want to give her another reason to get stressed out.

“It’s just some stuff,” Harry mumbled with a shrug.

“Harry…” Hermione trailed off, coming forward. She stopped short when she recognized the object laying next to the box, “Harry, is that a sneakoscope?”

Harry sighed, “Yeah.”

“How did you get one of those?” she asked frantically, “Harry, they could be watching!”

Harry shook his head quietly as he got up from the table and came towards her. He grabbed her hand gently, “I had Neville send me some things,” he started. Hermione instantly sucked in a hesitant breath, but Harry continued, “I’ve already set some wards. No one should be able to see or hear us now. I’ve had to take down all sorts of detection spells in every room. That’s how I think they’ve been keeping tabs on us.”

Hermione stared wide eyed at him. She couldn’t believe he would go behind her back and take such a huge risk like this. The death eater- or whatever he was- had warned her; if they so much as tried to divert them, then there’d be terrible consequences. How could Harry even think to take such a daring risk?

At her silence, Harry went on, “Although, there was only a scanner and a movement recorder in our room. There wasn’t any audio-detection charms…”

Hermione thought his words over for another moment before suddenly shaking her head, “W-Wait! Neville knows where we are?”

“Yes. I told him before we left,” Harry answered solemnly.

Hermione sent him a strangled look, “D-Does he knew about…”

Harry shook his head, “No, I just told him I was being sent away here for training.”

Hermione again was quiet for a moment. Finally, she spoke, “What if someone’s been watching him, too? Harry, he could be-”

“I had to take a chance, Hermione. Neville’s a good friend, I’m sure he’d understand if he knew the circumstances,” Harry finished, giving her a look showing her that he wasn’t any more comfortable about the situation than she was.

“How come you never told me?” Hermione questioned him in a hurt tone. Could he really not trust her with his theories any more?

Harry shrugged, “I didn’t want to worry you.”

Hermione scoffed, clearly expecting a better explanation, “I think it’s a little late for that.” Honestly, Hermione wanted to get rid of their enemies as much as Harry did, but he seemed to be taking it above and beyond the utmost extreme. They were supposed to be in this together. Hermione didn’t feel comfortable being the damsel in distress. She was supposed to have a say in things as well.

Taking a breath, Harry started on a different topic, “It’s almost nine. Do you want to head down to Hammond’s office soon?”

Hermione instantly felt better, “Yeah.”

She was excited, yet terrified at the same time to find out the sex of their baby.

Everything in their lives had been so ominous over the past two days; however, Hermione couldn’t forget about the beautiful dream she’d had. Oh, what she would give to have that dream become her reality…

Hermione was about to turn and head back to her room, before a thought struck her. She turned back to Harry, “So, is it safe in here now?”

Harry paused for a moment, thinking carefully. Finally he replied, “I think now we’ll be able to talk about things.”

Hermione frowned at his odd tone, but figured he was just getting back into ‘protective mode’. She nodded, “I’ll get dressed then.”

…

After a quick breakfast, Harry and Hermione left for Dr. Hammond’s office a few blocks over. Instead of walking like they normally would, Harry called for a cab. Still though, as the couple walked down the steps of their apartment building and climbed into the cab, Harry kept one hand tightly gripping Hermione’s and the other clutched onto his wand.

Even now, as they sat in a patient room at the doctor’s office, Harry held his wand, stowed away in his jacket pocket.

Hermione was sitting atop the padded table, and glanced over to Harry with a small smile on her face. She couldn’t help but feel optimistic, even though Harry looked as white as a ghost.

There was quick knock at the door, before it opened, “Hey guys,” greeted Dr. Hammond in a concerned tone, “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” Hermione answered, “We’re doing better. Harry and I just decided that we wanted to know the gender.”

Dr. Hammond brightened immediately, “You do? But I thought you wanted it to be a surprise?”

Hermione shook her head, “We really can’t wait any more.”

“Well there’s nothing wrong with that,” the doctor said smiling, “Go ahead and lay down and we can get started.”

Hermione hesitated, “But don’t you already know? Couldn’t you just tell us?”

“Oh come on! You didn’t come all the way down here just for me to say it to you. It’s much more exciting to see it with your own eyes!”

Hermione bit her lip, mentally kicking herself. ‘Damn it, we should have just called…’

“Well, okay,” Hermione relented with a sigh. She eased herself down on the bed before reaching her hand out for Harry’s. Harry automatically grabbed onto her.

Only a second passed before Dr. Hammond started lathering the jelly on Hermione’s stomach. She switched on some machines, and then gently pressed the disk to Hermione’s abdomen. The screen on the prompter flickered to life.

“Harry, Hermione- say hello to your baby girl. Congratulations!”

A deafening silence passed through the small room. Both Harry and Hermione’s hearts dropped into their stomachs. Both felt ready to throw up.

Hermione gaped at the screen showing their daughter curled up in her womb. Harry too looked on, but with cold, dead eyes.

“I-I don’t understand,” Hermione stuttered after a few seconds, “A girl?”

Dr. Hammond nodded, “Yep. See, if it where a boy then you’d be able to recognize his male reproductive organs by now.”

Harry glanced over to Hermione’s face. She looked like she was about to cry.

“Oh…”

“She’ll probably be just as beautiful as her mother. I expect you’re going to be keeping a watchful eye on her, right Harry?”

Harry stared up at the doctor with unblinking eyes. The grin on Dr. Hammond’s face began to fall, and she slowly glanced back to Hermione for a better response. Alas Hermione’s expression was identical to Harry’s, so the doctor got quiet.

“Um, okay then. I’ll just leave you two to… celebrate…”

As Dr. Hammond left the office, Hermione finally was able to drop her head in her hands and release her tears. Quickly though, her tears turned into full blown sobs.

Harry was frozen, staring at the new picture of their baby.

A few minutes passed before he looked back to Hermione. He wanted to comfort her, but how could he? Their worst nightmare had just became their reality.

…

No words had been spoken between the two as they left Dr. Hammond’s office and climbed back into another taxi. At least, that was until Hermione let out a shaky breath.

“Is this our fault?”

Harry slowly turned to look at her, stung by her words, “Hermione…”

Hermione scoffed at herself, “It is isn’t it? We made ourselves so vulnerable… they probably even knew we were together during the war. And then we left together. Why didn’t we- we should have known someone would be after her. Someone’s always trying to ruin our happiness… Her life is ruined because of us,” Hermione finished in a callous whisper.

“Hermione,” Harry started, unsure of what to say. He noticed the cab driver sending them suspicious looks in the rear-view mirror, “Look, let’s talk about this later, okay?”

Hermione scoffed again before sniffling, tears still leaking from her eyes. Harry felt even more helpless as she turned away from him and stared out the window.

A few minutes passed as the cabbie drove them closer to home. They were just starting to pass the familiar grounds of Harvard campus, when the sounds of police and ambulance sirens reached their ears. Both peering out of the window, Harry and Hermione saw a crowd gathered around the building that Hermione knew to be the school library.

The two shared a troubled look before going to stare back out of the window. The driver stopped at a red light, and glanced back in the mirror at them.

“You haven’t heard?” he asked in a raucous voice.

Harry turned to look at the man before shaking his head.

“Some poor girl was found dead outside the university library early this morning. It’s been all over the news…”

Hermione gave the driver a sharp look, “D-Dead?”

The driver nodded, “Yeah. Young too, only a freshman.”

Harry sent Hermione a worried look, as she sat back in her seat, looking almost catatonic, “Hermione, are you okay?”

She nodded weakly, though Hermione couldn’t stop thinking about the girl she had come to call her best friend here, in Boston. Her clenched knuckles turned white as she prayed for Jess’s safety.

…

Harry stuffed his wallet back into his pocket after paying the cab driver.

The driver counted the money, and then sent Harry and Hermione a smile, “Alright, you kids have a nice day. Enjoy what peace and quiet you have left before you’re little monster comes along!”

Harry gave the man an uneasy smile, but Hermione stared at him blankly, “She won’t be a monster…”

Harry grabbed her arm, “Come on.” He opened the door and stepped out, offering a

hand to Hermione as well. Once they were both on the sidewalk, Harry shut the door and the cab driver drove off.

Hermione was just about to start walking up the stairs before Harry stopped her,

“Hermione-”

“I don’t want to talk. I just…” she paused for a moment, refusing to meet Harry’s eyes, “I just want to take a kip. So-”

Hermione was suddenly cut off and slammed into Harry’s chest. She let out a pained gasp as Harry’s arms encircled her and pulled her back slightly to get a clear look.

The reason for Hermione’s abrupt impact became evident as he saw a young man getting up from the ground and starting to dust his knees off.

“What the fuck kid, watch where you’re going!” Harry screamed, moving to put Hermione behind him.

“Sorry…” the teenager muttered before turning and running past them.

“She’s pregnant you fucking asshole!” he yelled after him. He turned back to Hermione, “Are you okay, ‘Mione?”

Breathing heavily, she nodded, “Yeah…”

“Come on, let’s get inside,” Harry said, putting an arm around her waist. Together they walked up the stairs and into their flat.

“So… are you sure you’re okay?” Harry asked softly as he closed the door behind them.

Hermione gave him a blank look, and then shrugged.

“… Stupid question, I guess,” Harry mumbled.

“That was our last hope,” Hermione finally whispered.

Harry sighed. He knew how shitty Hermione felt, because he was currently feeling the same way. Words couldn’t describe how hopeless he felt. Alas, Harry didn’t want to be the one to tell Hermione that they really had no chance. While he didn’t want to sugar-coat anything, he couldn’t sit back and do nothing, “Look, we have options…”

“What options?” Hermione sneered, “Everything we’ve thought of has led straight to a dead end.”

Harry shook his head, “We could try to go back to Grimmauld Place.”

“And then what?” Hermione asked bitterly, “Spend the rest of our lives trapped there, wondering when they’ll finally take our child?” What was the bloody point? She figured that sooner or later, they’d both have to realize that they had no more security.

Harry sighed impatiently, “Alright so if you don’t want to run, then what Hermione? What would you have us do?”

Hermione kept quiet. She felt bad that she was being so terrible to Harry. After all, he was only trying to help and she had to remember that he was just as desperate as she was. Immediately, she started to regret her harsh thoughts.

“I-”

Harry stared at her with frustrated eyes. Hermione couldn’t bring herself to look him in the face, so she glanced back down before continuing, “I guess it would be worth a shot.”

Harry sighed again, this time in a calm manner. Reaching forward, he grabbed her hand, “We have to at least try, right?”

“Right.”

Harry attempted a smile and then leaned in to kiss her cheek. It was taking his all to

subdue his emotions enough to comfort her. Truth was, he was just waiting for a moment of privacy so that he could let out the heart-wrenching scream that had been boiling inside him ever since he heard the words that solidified he was having a daughter.

“Why don’t you go sit down,” he suggested, “I’ll make you a sandwich or something.”

Hermione nodded, and with a shaking hand pressed against her stomach, she took off for the living room.

…

Five minutes later, Harry walked in with a turkey sandwich cut in half. He sat down next to Hermione on the sofa, and handed her the plate. She took it, but didn’t reach for the food.

“Thanks,” she muttered.

A few minutes of silence passed between the two, in which Hermione still didn’t reach to take a bite of her sandwich. The dead silence and lack of movement was too forlorn; both Harry and Hermione felt like they were suffocating. To make the situation less dreadful, Hermione grabbed the remote sitting on the coffee table and turned on the telly.

All she wanted right now was a couple oblivious minutes of tranquillity where she could sit there with Harry and their unborn daughter in peace and normalcy. For once, she didn’t want to focus on their impending doom. Was a little happy normality too much to ask for?

Yes, it was.

The telly turned on to the local news channel, where the blonde anchorwoman was looking very morose, “And now over to Shannon Cassidy with breaking details on the Harvard campus tragedy.”

Both Harry and Hermione instantly perked up, as the screen displayed a view of the grounds near the school library. The camera panned in to show the new anchor, looking even more serious than her co-reporter, “It’s a tragic day for Harvard University, having just lost one of their beloved and bright students, Jessica Sacramone; a freshman English major who was found dead early this morning…”

Harry still was staring in shock at the television screen when Hermione’s sobs started.

“No, no, no… not Jess…” she cried, putting her head in her hands and shaking her head frantically.

Harry turned to look at her, not having the slightest clue of how to comfort her again. Quite honestly, he felt like breaking down into tears himself. Who could do this to Jess? Who could want to-

The blood drained from Harry’s face as he realized that this was not an ‘accidental murder’, like the news was making it out to be. Someone had murdered Jess, with every intention of who it would effect the most. It was another fucking sign…

“They know,” he whispered, turning to face her, “Hermione…”

Hermione looked up, still crying hard, “T-They know what?”

“They know we found out about the detection wards. They know we counteracted them.”

Hermione instantly stopped shaking, and gave Harry a frozen look, “How?”

“I-I don’t know…” This time, Harry was the one to put his head in his hands. It didn’t really make any sense, now that he thought about it. If they knew, then why hadn’t they tried to break through the wards? Why would they murder Jess for the off chance that Harry and Hermione would infer some sort of message from the killing?

But, what other reason was there to kill one of their friends?

“Hermione…”

The girl in question had started sobbing again, “It’s like one step forward, two steps back. Jess is dead because of us, Harry!”

“Hermione-”

“There’s no escaping them, is there?” she asked, now surprisingly sober. The thought that these people would be the end of her was even more terrifying then she could have ever imagined. Now, it all seemed too terribly real.

Harry looked at Hermione, the desperate surrender apparent in his eyes, “I’m sorry.”

Hermione stared back at him for a few moments. Suddenly, she found herself shaking her head, “No… no, Harry! I won’t let them have her!”

“I know,” he said, although in a resigned tone, “I won’t let them touch our baby. But…”

“But what?” Hermione asked, confused that there was anything else to say on the matter, “Harry I don’t care what we have to do, we just have to protect her from them!”

“Hermione…” Harry started, giving her a strangled look- a look that he had practically mastered in the past few days. The time had now come, where he honestly felt there was no more getting around their inevitable last option.

“Hermione… we can’t keep her.”

---

10. To Change A Life

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 10: To Change a Life

---

Prepare yourselves for this one people; it’s what I’ve been warning you about all along…

---

Previously:

“Hermione… we can’t keep her.”

---

The colour drained from Hermione’s face, and the blood in her veins immediately ran cold. Harry’s words were running through her mind on fast forward; she could only relate ‘we can’t keep her’ to one act, and that act had never been an option for them.

Abortion was completely out of the question.

“Harry what are you talking about?” she asked, hoping he would rectify himself. Did he even know how callous his words made him seem?

Harry started shaking his head, to keep his entire body from trembling, “She’ll always be in danger with us. We both know it.”

Instantly, Hermione narrowed her eyes, “But you just said you’d do anything to protect her!”

“I would! Even if that means staying away from her.”

If it was possible, Hermione’s face went even paler. “I don’t understand,” she whispered, even though she was starting to get a pretty good idea.

Harry looked at her with disturbed eyes, “She’ll be in constant danger with us, but we both refuse to hand her off. Aborting is completely out of the question, but there is something else…”

“What else?” Hermione whispered. She’d asked the question, but she honestly did not want to hear the answer.

Harry took a deep breath before he spoke, “Adoption.”

Hermione’s heart stopped. She sat immobile on the couch, staring at Harry, the shock written all over her face. Harry was starting to fidget next to her as a result of her silence. The idea of adoption only came to him during the car ride home from Dr. Hammond’s office. Harry didn’t want to acknowledge what adoption really meant for them, but he was starting to resign to the idea that it was the only way for their daughter.

Hermione’s shocked expression had started to turn into an accusing glare, “I can’t believe you… after all you went through as a child, you want to subject our daughter to the same life?”

Harry was surprised at her cold tone, so he quickly started to defend himself, “Hermione listen to me- it doesn’t have to be that terrible. This is a big country; I’m sure if we put her up for adoption when she’s born that someone or some couple will want her. This way she gets the normal life she deserves.”

“You think she’ll get a normal life?” Hermione cried in total disbelief, “What about when she starts to show signs of magic? Or worse, what if they come for her when she’s older? And how would we even get away from them long enough to put her up for adoption?! They’ll notice if I’m suddenly not pregnant and I don’t have my baby!”

“We can fake your labour,” Harry started, completely undeterred. By this point, he was convinced that this was the only way, “Surely they’ll follow us to the hospital for her… but we can fake it! We can get the doctors to say you miscarried! And then we can sneak out and leave!” Harry finished breathlessly raking his hands through his hair. He almost seemed happy…

Hermione was having trouble processing everything, “Wait- fake my labour? And get the doctor to say that the baby died?”

“Yes! And then we sneak out of the hospital. We can catch a plane that takes us somewhere far away…” Harry trailed off, with a wistful, yet agonizing look on his face.

Hermione began to shake her head as his words started to piece themselves together, “But Harry, if we do that, they’ll give up. They’ll think she’s dead!”

“Exactly,” Harry nodded, “Their mission would be ruined.”

Hermione didn’t share in his confidence. However, her heart started to pound at the prospect of something else, “But if we leave, that means we can still keep the baby!”

Harry visibly deflated, “Hermione…”

“What?” she asked, quickly frowning at his pessimism.

“They’ll always be able to track us down. The only reason they know where she is, is because she’s still in you.”

Hermione bit her lip, “But… but…” It was like no matter how hard she tried, she was constantly shot down and denied. She had never wanted anything more than she wanted her daughter. She couldn’t understand why anyone or anything would want to strip her motherhood from her.

Harry sighed, reaching for her hand, “If we keep her, then they’ll know that we tricked them. They’ll try to hunt us down again.”

“So we’re fucked over either way?” Hermione finally burst, tears streaming from her eyes, “Even though she’s our daughter, we can’t keep her and raise her like proper parents should?”

Harry felt like a heartless bastard for making her cry like this. He understood why she couldn’t completely grasp that adoption was the best solution. He wished he could keep denying it too. However, denying their problem wasn’t realistic. If they wanted any chance at saving their daughter’s life, then they needed to take a proactive approach. And right now, that meant calming Hermione down.

“We- we can have more, Hermione.”

Hermione’s eyes turned up to Harry’s. Instantly, they took on a harsh glow, “Oh, so that’s your answer? ‘We can have more’. Like this one doesn’t fucking matter?!”

“No that’s not what-”

“Because you’re wrong if you think that I’ll just be able to forget about her like that! So wrong…” Hermione couldn’t take it anymore. She put her head in her hands and cried.

“Hermione,” Harry started, his voice reflecting how much he didn’t want to be the one to say these words to her, “this is the only way we can save her life. Anything else would be too much of a risk.” He hated that he had to be the one to hurt her- to make her see. Truth was, he would never have even brought it up if he didn’t feel like this was their last resort.

“But I love her so much already!” Hermione sobbed.

Harry swallowed the rock of emotions forming in his throat. He couldn’t break down in front of her; he had to be the one to remain as strong as possible “I know, me

too,” he whispered, “But putting her up for adoption doesn’t mean that we don’t love her. It proves that we do.”

“What if she has to live in an orphanage? What if nobody else wants her?” Hermione rambled, nearly in hysterics.

Harry helplessly shook his head, “I… I don’t know, Hermione. I can’t answer that.”

A few minutes of silence passed between the two. Harry didn’t want to say anything, fearing that it would only set Hermione off more. She was still crying in her spot on the couch, and Harry figured she was about to start spewing off more hate-filled words when she finally opened her mouth to speak.

However, Hermione’s words weren’t argumentative; they were a sad realization, “This is the only way…”

Harry squeezed her hand in his, “It really is.”

Hermione couldn’t say anything else. She would never get the chance to raise her first child. Another friend’s life was taken away because of something that didn’t even concern her. It was all her fault.

…

Hermione sat at the kitchen table later that day, picking at her food in disinterest.

Harry sat next to her, working over their laptop. He had found a few adoption agencies over the internet, and were reading them off to Hermione.

Most of them were California based; Harry had asked her where they should start looking, and they agreed that a heavily populated state, far away from Boston, would be a good idea. Or rather, Harry asked and Hermione said nothing, therefore Harry took it as an okay.

“Um, this one looks okay,” Harry said, “It’s based in Los Angeles.”

Hermione again said nothing, and poked her fork a little more violently into the pasta.

“Oh look, they have parent profiles. Do you want to check some out?” Harry asked, looking up from the computer screen.

“Not really,” came back Hermione’s muttered response.

Harry sighed, “Hermione, come on. We need to make an effort.”

Hermione finally looked up, but only to glare at him.

Harry told himself not to get frustrated, but it was hard when she looked at him with those eyes. She looked at him like he was the enemy. He refrained from rolling his eyes, “Will you at least look at it? If we’re going to do this, we should probably do it as soon as possible. Your due date’s less than two months away-”

“I know when my due date is!” Hermione cut in quickly.

“I’m not saying that you don’t. This is hard for me too, you know…” he finished quietly, looking away from her so that he wouldn’t have to deal with another unforgiving glare.

Hermione bit back her nasty retort upon noticing his wounded look. Begrudgingly, she glanced over to the computer screen, “So… what do we have to do- sign up for it?”

Harry gave her a look before answering, “It says that birth-parents can call and set up a formal appointment, but since we’re so far along in the pregnancy, and we live across the country, maybe we can call and set something up over the phone…”

Hermione bit her lip and nodded, “Yeah, that sounds good.”

Harry noticed the insincerity in her reply, but didn’t comment on it, “Should we call then? They’re a few hours behind.”

Hermione let out an uneven breath and rubbed at her temples before answering rather pathetically, “I guess…”

Harry squeezed her hand once more, before grabbing his mobile laying next to the laptop. He flipped it open and started dialling the number displayed on the website.

As the phone rang, Harry’s eyes didn’t leave Hermione’s.

Finally, a woman answered the other line, and Harry looked away, “Um yes, hello. I’m calling regarding putting a baby up for adoption… Yeah, I’m the biological father…” he glanced up at Hermione before speaking the next part, “Oh yeah, she’s consensual… No, she’s seven months pregnant… Yeah, we only just decided this would be the right path for us and the baby. We wanted to avoid sending her to an orphanage; we were sort of hoping to find a home for her as soon as possible.”

Harry continued talking with the woman, and explained to her that they didn’t currently live in California, but were hoping to come to L.A. to have the baby. Harry answered a few more of her questions, and listened as she discussed what the adoption process was and what it needed from the birthparents.

Harry listened quietly while she told him that he could still make an appointment, and then in the meanwhile look at potential parents through the website profiles. Apparently, some of the couples were still in transition of being evaluated, and since this was a pretty urgent situation, it’d be best if they chose a few.

“Alright, thanks. We’ll be seeing you soon then.” With a final farewell, Harry hung up

the phone and let out a much bated breath. That was the hardest phone call he had ever made in his entire life.

Hermione gave him a curious look, “What do you mean ‘see you soon’?”

“They said that with how far along you are and with how long it can take to arrange parents, that it’d be best if we got out there as soon as possible.”

Hermione nodded dully, “When’s the meeting?”

“Friday morning.”

She frowned, “This Friday?”

“Yes.”

“Shit, that is really soon,” Hermione muttered, looking away.

“The lady said that if we’re put on priority, then we can stay in the agencies facility until the baby’s born,” Harry said.

“Oh that- that’s nice, I guess.”

That factor didn’t make Harry feel that enthused either, “Yeah. But in the meanwhile, she said it’d be best if we started to check out the profiles on their website. Get an idea of who we want…”

Hermione nodded, turning her head so that she was staring down into her lap. Harry had a feeling she was staring at her stomach, so he moved to place a hand over her belly, “This is the only way she’ll be safe from them. We have to keep telling ourselves that.”

Hermione shrugged lifelessly, “That doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

“I know,” Harry whispered, unable to argue with her on that.

A few silent moments passed between the two before Hermione shifted in her seat,

“Well, we might as well take a look…”

With a heavy sigh, Harry and Hermione turned to the computer that was displaying their forlorn reality. Together they browsed through the site, and through all of the profiles with bright pictures of smiling couples. They were all pretty positive for the most part. Obviously, the financial support needed to take on an infant was a big concern for them, so both Harry and Hermione wanted to make sure that their potential candidates were living comfortably. What they couldn’t decide on was whether or not they should go for a single couple, or for a couple that already had children. Harry wanted their daughter to be a part of an actual family, but Hermione thought that it would be better if the couple could dedicate their full attention to the baby.

“Oh look, this couple already adopted an older girl from New York,” Harry pointed

out, glancing over the picture of a smiling, blond haired couple holding up a tan, brunette baby.

Hermione bit her lip, “I guess that seems okay. What do the parents do?”

Harry started to read, “Jordan and Belinda Johnson, both 35, been married for ten years. Jordan’s a fire-fighter and Belinda is a flight attendant.”

“A flight attendant and a fire-fighter?” Hermione repeated sceptically, “So basically they’re never around?”

Harry pursed his lips, “No, I’m sure that they’re around. I bet they take turns staying home with their daughter while the other’s at work.”

After a few moments, Hermione shook her head, “Let’s keep looking.”

“Fine,” Harry muttered, trying to keep his patience in check. He scrolled past a few more profiles before he stopped at another picture, “Oh, here’s one you’ll like. Ben and Kirsten Cooper, 30, live in Newport Beach. Ben is a personal financer, has his own company, but works from home. Kirsten plans various charity events around town, sponsored by Ben.”

Hermione glanced over to the screen. Nearly a second had passed before she actually found herself looking in interest at the beautiful couple. Both had fair coloured hair, and big smiles. They were embracing in the picture as the sun set over the ocean behind them. For all intent and purposes, they looked perfect.

“Wow…” Hermione mumbled, almost sadly.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed quietly. He couldn’t help but look enviously at the man in the photo. Ben Cooper seemed to have everything he wanted; the woman he loved, happiness… and if he was lucky, a new baby girl. Harry had never been more jealous in his entire life.

Silence had engulfed the couple as they both stared unwavering at the photograph.

Finally, Harry cleared his throat, “So they sound pretty financially stable.”

Hermione nodded, “Yes. They’d probably have plenty of time to dedicate to a baby.”

“He looks like he’d be a good dad,” Harry mumbled wistfully.

Hermione turned to look at Harry sitting next to her. His eyes were locked

despairingly on the computer screen. He looked like he was falling apart on the inside, but he still made it seem that he was confident that adoption was the right thing to do.

“I don’t want to look anymore,” she said suddenly.

Harry turned to her in surprise, “You don’t? Do you like them?”

Hermione shook her head as she shrugged, “No, I just don’t want to keep looking right now. I’m tired; I want to go to bed.”

“Oh, alright,” Harry said, going back to his quiet tone.

Hermione got up and started to walk out of the kitchen. She was just about to head into the hallway when she turned around and found Harry looking back at the computer.

She sighed, “Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you like them?”

Harry swallowed, taking another look at the photo of the happy California couple, “Um yeah.”

“I guess I do too. I think they’re the ones.”

Harry could hardly believe his ears, but at the same time he didn’t want to question her. He simply nodded, “I’ll call the social worker back then.”

“Then come to bed?” Hermione asked, “I won’t be able to sleep alone.”

Harry nodded, “Yeah.”

With a final look, Hermione turned and walked out of the kitchen as fast as she could. Tears had started running down her face again, and for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel comfortable letting Harry see her cry.

A few second later, Harry heard their bedroom door close. With a heavy sigh, he reached once more for his mobile. The line rang twice before the woman from earlier, Lisa, picked up, “Adoption Connection, this is Lisa.”

“Hi, this is Jason Meyers. I called about an hour ago,” Harry said, introducing the fake name he’d given her the first time.

“Oh yes, Mr. Meyers,” Lisa greeted in recognition, “Was there something else I could help you with?”

“I just wanted to let you know that my girlfriend and I found a couple that we liked,” Harry started, mentally preparing himself for the rest of the conversation.

“Really?” Lisa asked surprised, “So soon?”

Harry shifted nervously, “Yeah, we both feel pretty strongly about them.”

“You know Mr. Meyers, I understand that there’s a sense of urgency, given how far

along your partner is, but there really should be no rushing these things.”

Harry was somewhat taken aback by the woman’s sincerity. It wasn’t like Lisa was handling things like a business transaction; she seemed to really understand that their was a person’s life tangled up in the middle of this.

For a brief, nano of a second- Harry was tempted to agree with her warning and hang up. However, the heavy weight in his heart kept him rooted to the seat, holding the mobile to his ear, “Yeah I get that, but we really liked them, and you said it could take a while to sometimes sort things out…”

“Of course Mr. Meyers,” Lisa replied courteously, “I just wanted to let you know that there are other options.”

“Yeah thanks,” Harry muttered.

“Anyway, what were the couple’s name?”

“Ben and Kirsten Cooper,” Harry answered quickly- not excitedly, or eagerly; just quickly.

Lisa’s response was strangely enthusiastic, “Oh the Cooper’s?”

Harry frowned, slightly confused, “Uh, yeah. From Newport Beach.”

“Of course,” Harry could hear some typing over the other line as Lisa carried on,

“Well fortunately the Cooper’s have been with us for about a year and a half now.

Their status has already been updated as fit parents. Now what that means, is that the agency has done a series of interviews and background checks with the Coopers, and they’ve passed all of them.”

Harry nodded, relieved to be hearing this, “Oh, that’s good. So they’d be willing to do this so soon?”

“Well, we’d have to get in contact with them. They have already been chosen by a birth mother a few months back, but they ended up pulling out the day the baby was born…”

That last part made Harry’s eyes narrow, “What? Why?”

“Well, just how birthparents want to feel comfortable with their pick of adoptive parents, they, as well, need to feel sure and comfortable with the baby they’re taking in as theirs.” Lisa spoke so smoothly, that Harry was instantly comforted. If the Cooper’s had already turned down a baby once, then they probably wouldn’t feel the need to do it again. Right?

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”

“So should I put in a call to Mr. and Mrs. Cooper?” Lisa asked.

Harry took a deep breath before answering, “Yes.”

“Alright then, I’ll put in for them to get notified. We’ll probably be able to get back to you sometime tomorrow with their response,” Lisa replied again in her optimistic tone.

Harry wondered how someone who worked in such a field as adoption could always be so bright and happy. He appreciated her tone before, but now it seemed almost overbearing. It almost seemed like the cat who ate the canary was giving him a Cheshire grin and telling him to come back again some time soon…

Feeling like he was about to throw up, Harry quickly gave Lisa his mobile to reach him by before hanging up. He didn’t feel at all good or comfortable with what he had just done. However, deep down he knew that he had to put his own selfishness aside and think of his child. This wasn’t about him, this was about her. She would appreciate this one day.

Maybe.

---

11. The Plan

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 11: The Plan

---

After finishing the call with the adoption agency, Harry made his way back to their bedroom. Quietly, he opened the door and saw Hermione laying down on the bed. He paused in the doorway, taking a moment to admire the insane beauty he had found in Hermione over the past year. A part of him still couldn’t believe that he had ever gotten lucky enough to be with her.

Even though the result of being together had turn into this tumultuous ride, in which Harry and Hermione would be losing a daughter before they even got to know her- he would never regret being with Hermione. He didn’t know about her, but he had really meant what he said yesterday. He truly did love her.

“Harry?” Hermione called out as the raven haired wizard took a step into their room and started kicking his shoes off.

“It’s me,” he answered, crawling into bed next to her.

“What’d she say?” Hermione asked quietly after he had settled down.

“She’s going to notify the Cooper’s of our interest. Apparently, they’ve been waiting for a while. She said that they’ve passed all the required tests and protocols,” Harry finished, electing to leave out the part where Lisa had blatantly told him that the Cooper’s have turned down birthparents before. He didn’t want to stress her out any more than necessary.

Hermione simply nodded in understanding. Truth be told, she didn’t want to talk about the Cooper’s anymore, or any persons who would be taking her child in the weeks to come. Even if it was selfish, she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that she’d never get to be a mother to her first baby. What kind of person will her daughter think her to be? A coward? A whore? A pathetic excuse for a woman, much less a mother?

It was all too much to grasp.

“Harry?”

“What?”

“We’re not bad people for doing this, are we?”

Harry let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding, “No.”

“When will we know if the Cooper’s accept?”

“Hopefully tomorrow,” Harry replied, consciously knowing it might not be as simple as that. Yet again, he didn’t want to worry her.

“Harry?” Hermione whispered again after a few minutes.

“Yeah?”

“I’m scared.”

“Me too.”

…

The next morning, Hermione woke up to find Harry in the kitchen, talking on his mobile to someone. She walked in blearily, with one hand resting on her stomach, and sat herself at the kitchen table. She listened in gut-wrenching interest to Harry’s half of the conversation.

“Right, we understand… Oh, that- that’s good… Yeah, um we should be able to leave at any time. As soon as possible?… Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense. Alright, well thanks for all your help. I’ll look into some plane tickets and then call you back with the details. Alright, you too.” Harry finished by flipping his mobile closed. For a few minutes, Hermione watched on as he stared at the device in his hand.

Finally she made her presence known, “What’d she say?”

Harry’s head shot up, but he calmed down once he saw it was Hermione, “Oh, morning. Um, that was Lisa again. I guess, the Cooper’s are interested in meeting us. The agency wants us to fly to California as soon as we can to get things going.”

Hermione couldn’t help but frown. She didn’t know if it was intentional or not, but she hated how insensitive Harry was seeming. Nevertheless, she nodded. There was no point putting more energy into arguing, “But what if they don’t want her after we meet and everything? What then?”

Harry shrugged, “Hopefully we won’t have to worry about that.”

Hermione sighed. Harry could tell she way getting frustrated with him, but he didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t seem to realize that Harry was having just as difficult a time as she was. The only reason as to why he was acting so positively about the adoption, was because he knew that it was the only way his daughter would be able to have a shot at a normal life. If Harry and Hermione tried to keep her, then ultimately she would be the one who suffered. The thought of her oblivious safety, was the only thing keeping him going.

“So when should we leave?” Hermione asked, ignoring the temptation to huff, cross her arms, and yell at him as to why he wasn’t acting more disturbed by the whole process. She just had to keep telling herself that this was Harry’s way of coping- by trying to stay strong for her.

Little did he know, that she didn’t want a protector right now- she wanted a partner to share her pain with.

“The appointment is Friday morning, so we should at least leave by Thursday morning. Don’t you think?” Harry asked, making the attempt to include her.

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows, “But it’s Tuesday. That means that tomorrow…”

Harry nodded solemnly, “We’ll have to start planning.”

Hermione nervously shifted in her seat. Harry could see that she was trying to take some even, calming breaths but was failing miserably. Her chest, and lower lip were starting to tremble again. Harry instantly straightened up in worry.

As he came towards her, Hermione started to shake her head, “Harry, I don’t think I can do this. I-I’m not ready to do this.”

Harry sighed sadly as he kneeled in front of her and placed his hands over hers, “Hermione, we don’t have that much time. It’s pretty much now or never.”

Hermione stared at him, her hands slipping from under his grasp and instinctively going to wrap around her stomach. It was an act of instinct, because it was an act of protection. She felt like she had to do anything to protect her daughter. ‘That’s what this was all about,’ a hopeless, yet reassuring voice spoke in Hermione’s head,

‘Protection.’

With the weight of the world seemingly on her shoulders, Hermione took a deep breath and spoke, “How are we supposed to pull this off?”

Harry smiled softly at her cooperation before pulling a chair forward for himself, “I’ve been thinking- and if everything goes according to plan, we shouldn’t be in any

danger at all. Now…”

…

Once Harry and Hermione had finished working out the plan for tomorrow, Hermione had secluded herself back to their bedroom while Harry focused on booking them some plane tickets. It didn’t take long before Harry had reserved them both a seat aboard a commercial airline flying directly to Los Angeles out of Boston, at 9:15 Wednesday evening.

After everything was all finished over the computer, Harry closed the lid of the laptop and got up from the kitchen table. He was just about to head into the library and freshen up on some of his masking charms when a buzzing vibrated from the kitchen table. He turned, and saw his mobile lit up and flashing. With a curious look, he turned back and grabbed the phone.

A foreign number appeared on the front screen, so with a frown, Harry flipped it open and cautiously spoke, “Hello?”

“Hey!” greeted a happy, American voice, “This is Ben, I’m calling for a Jason Meyers?”

“Ben,” Harry repeated somewhat in shock, “Ben Cooper? From California?”

“Yeah, that’s me,” the man chuckled into the phone.

Harry was silent for a moment before he snapped out of his shock, “Um, yeah this is Jason. I’m sorry, I’m just a little surprised that you’re calling. I didn’t think we’d all get to talk until Friday.”

“I’m sorry to catch you off guard,” Ben apologized politely, “I just wanted to give you guys a call and thank you for choosing my wife and I as your pick. We’re very happy and honoured that you chose us out of all those other profiles.”

“Oh, yeah…” Harry mumbled. He cleared his throat, and tried to sound as unemotional as possible, “You and your wife look like you’d make really good parents.”

“Thanks Jason. I only hope we can reinforce that thought when we meet in person.

Kirsten and I are really ready to have a child of our own,” Ben rambled on in apparent bliss.

Harry, however, felt morbid as the man continued, “It’s just, the previous opportunities we’ve had never really felt right, time wise. But now, we’re both confident that we’re ready- for a little boy, or a girl,” he finished with a laugh.

“It’s a girl,” Harry interjected, “My girlfriend, she’s pregnant with a baby girl.”

“A girl! That’s fantastic! My wife will be thrilled, very thrilled. She’s always wanted a little girl…”

“Yeah well, I’m- I…” Harry didn’t know what else to say to the bloke. He was going to say that he was happy for them, but knew that would be a lie.

Ben continued to ramble on about how ecstatic he and his wife were, but Harry finally had to cut him off. There was a question burning within him that he was dying to ask.

“Can I ask you a question Ben?”

“Oh, sure Jason,” he replied, happy as ever.

“I apologize for being nosy, but why are you adopting?”

“Oh, well,” there was a pause over the line, telling Harry that he had hit a personal note. Fortunately though, Ben answered, “Kirsten- she can’t conceive.”

Harry felt like a jerk, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It was never really a problem before, but like I said, we’re really eager to have a baby. And plus, some of our best friends just recently adopted a baby, and so far they’re doing really well with him. If they can do it, that’s only further proof that we’re ready…” Ben, again, went off into a excited rant about how prepared they were for a child. Harry and Hermione’s child, to be exact. Harry could only listen half-heartedly, because in the back of his mind was the knowledge that the Cooper’s had come close to having a child before. Lisa had made it seem like the Cooper’s wouldn’t be backing down on an ‘offer’ again, but still.

Ben’s laughter sounded through the mobile, “Here I am, talking your ear off when all I called for was to thank you. And your girlfriend, of course.”

“Yeah uh, your welcome,” Harry muttered.

“So, we’ll be seeing you two this Saturday in Los Angeles, right?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

Harry could hear his happiness radiating through his voice, “This really is great Jason. I’m so excited to meet you both, and I promise my wife and I won’t let you down.”

Harry couldn’t think of anything else to say so he kept it quick and simple, “Yeah. See you then.” Before Ben could think to say anything more, Harry quickly flipped closed his mobile.

The brief and unexpected conversation didn’t leave him feeling any better. Instead, he felt more like a bloody coward.

‘No- this is for the best. At least they’ll be able to give her a happy life. ‘Mione and I can’t guarantee that… this is for her own good…’

With a slight shake of his head to clear his rampant thoughts, Harry set his mobile back down on the kitchen table, and started heading back for the library once more.

…

-The Next Day-

…

Hermione had been nervous all day. Like trembling, cold sweats, type of nervous.

She had been trying to ignore the reality of today for as long as possible, and still she was having trouble accepting what they were about to do tonight.

The plan that she and Harry had discussed had been running through her mind all day…

“Okay, so I’m thinking that as soon as we leave the flat, you need to start acting like your having labour pains. That’s important because they could be watching from right outside-”

“Do you really think they’re outside right now?” Hermione asked, wrinkling her forehead in worry.

Harry shrugged, “Probably. Anyway, we call a cab, and tell him to take us to the hospital. As soon as we get inside, we’ll call for a doctor and tell them that you’re having bad abdominal pain, but it can’t be contractions because your due date isn’t for another six weeks. If they’re watching, they’re going to know something’s wrong right off the bat…”

Hermione listened to Harry quietly, trying to focus more on the plan than the way Harry was telling it to her. He almost seemed… excited… She wanted to call him out on his enthusiasm, but again held her tongue. She didn’t want to start another argument, and for all she knew, Harry was just on edge relaying everything.

But then again, she knew Harry, and she knew he didn’t get jumpy when experiencing that sense of urgency.

“Then they are going to rush you into an emergency room-”

“You’re staying with me, right?” Hermione asked distractedly. If she had to be separated from Harry for even the slightest moment then she knew she’d fall to pieces and ruin the whole plan…

“Of course,” Harry reassured her, “Once you and I are both in the room with the nurses and doctor, I’ll lock the door. After that I’ll use a confundus charm over the muggles to get them-- what?”

Harry looked on curiously at Hermione who had started shaking her head. Hermione looked up to him with her notorious know-it-all expression, “Harry, you can’t.”

Harry frowned, “What do you mean?”

“Harry, you can’t perform magic on muggles! That’ll be the quickest way for them to discover that we tricked them,” Hermione said.

Upon Hermione’s worried and agitated look, Harry had the gall to smile, “You’re right, of course. But, who’s going to know that I bewitched the muggles?”

Hermione pretended to think it over, “Uh, the Ministry of Magic. You know they keep a registry…”

“Right, but what if I can deceive the registry?”

Hermione frowned, this time in intrigue, “Can you?”

“It’s an old spell- I remember reading about it when we were all at Grimmauld Place. Basically what it is, is a masking charm for your magical signature. When it’s masked, nobody can know what your wand does or how it’s used.”

Hermione bit her lip, thinking over the possibilities of such a useful spell. Finally she looked up to Harry in resignation, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Harry answered easily. “Now, after the muggles are confounded, we’ll hold them in the room for several minutes, making them believe that they’re delivering the baby. Once we’ve stayed confined long enough, I’ll release the charm, and they’ll walk out of the room with the belief that we’d lost the baby.”

Hermione had to look away from Harry’s convincing eyes, not wanting to even think of the possibilities. She didn’t care if this whole scheme was just pretend, Harry made it seem so real…

“Then what?” Hermione whispered.

“Well, I imagine they’re going to create a birth and death certificate. Hopefully it won’t take too long, and then after… we leave,” Harry finished. Finally, a grave look came over his face as he took in the severity of his plan.

“How though?” Hermione found herself asking, “What if they’re at the hospital watching- if they see me leave, still pregnant, then they’re going to know something’s up.”

Harry shook his head, “Um, we’re going to use disillusionment and more body disguising charms to hide your stomach. Hopefully, they’ll just leave after they hear the baby died.”

“Are we going to the airport right after?”

Harry nodded, “Yeah. We’ll get another cab; the driver’s going to have to drive through a busy part of town to get to the airport, so even if they’re following us to see if we go home, they’ll probably get confused since all the cabs look the same.”

“And then we fly to California,” Hermione finished, sadly nodding her head. She blinked repeatedly to keep from crying again.

“Yeah…”

The two shared a look. They both knew things needed to be said, but both weren’t willing to speak them just yet. What happened after they got to Los Angeles was unknown, and after that was even a bigger mystery.

“Hermione?” Harry’s voice called, breaking Hermione out of her reverie.

Harry appeared in the bedroom, “Hermione, are you done yet?”

“What?” Hermione asked confused. Glancing around, she realized that she hadn’t packed any of her possessions yet. She looked back up to Harry with a guilty face,

“Oh, sorry…”

“Did you need some help?” Harry asked coming further into the room.

“No, no- I just got… sidetracked…”

Harry gave her a look, but Hermione didn’t elaborate. Getting up from the bed, she grabbed for her wand and started summoning her clothes out of the closet, “So um, did you finish the library yet?”

It was already Wednesday afternoon, and so far that day Harry and Hermione had been busy packing up the flat. A lot of their time was spent deliberating on what they absolutely had to take with them and what could be left behind. After all, you could only shrink so much…

“Uh yeah, I got all of your books,” Harry answered.

Hermione nodded, “Thanks.”

Harry sighed, still looking at Hermione with despairing eyes, “You know Hermione, you don’t have to do this.”

She instantly turned and gave him a sharp look at his words. Did he mean…?

“I can finish packing for you. You can kip, or go grab a snack if you want.”

Hermione let out her propitious breath. Turning away from him, she shook her head,

“No, I’ll do it.”

“I’ll help then-”

“Harry, I can do it!” She hadn’t intended to scream at him, but with everything going on, and the way he was acting, she found her frustration reaching its boiling point.

Harry was clearly taken aback by her reaction, “Er, alright. I… I guess I’ll just go start on the kitchen.”

Hermione let out another heated breath as Harry walked out of their room. She knew she should apologize for her recent behaviour, but she really, really didn’t want to.

She was fed up… fed up with everything…

…

Harry and Hermione sat silently on the living room sofa a few hours later. Two backpacks sat in front of them, on the coffee table, holding the most vital of their possessions. Most of their things were being left behind, including pretty much everything in the nursery that they had both worked so hard on.

Harry sighed, but didn’t physically move from his spot, “Our flight leaves at 9:15. We should get going…”

“Just a few more minutes,” Hermione whispered.

“Hermione-”

“A few more minutes!”

Harry turned to look at her with prescient eyes. She was staring hard at the wall in front of her, and Harry could tell that she was putting her all into not crying. Harry had to give it to her; she was succeeding, painfully so.

His eyes then glanced down to where her hands were resting on her lap. He wanted to reach out and grab one, but something kept holding him back. He wasn’t sure if she would want him to- he wasn’t sure if he could comfort her anymore.

He sighed sadly to himself before standing up from the couch. Pulling out his wand, he sent shrinking spells to both of the backpacks before collecting them, and putting them in his pocket. He had already cast the masking charm over his wand, and Hermione’s too just in case. As of now, everything they did, magic-wise, was completely off the record.

With another calming breath, he turned back to Hermione, “We really should be going.”

He watched as her eyes fell shut, and for a moment he thought she was going to ignore him. After a few moments though, she braced her hands on either side of her and gently pushed herself up. Harry grabbed the jacket that was laying over the couch, and helped Hermione slide into it.

Once they were both standing there, ready to go, they started to take a look around the flat they had called home for the past few months of their lives.

“So this is it, huh?” Hermione asked in a miserable whisper.

Harry turned to her, and without saying a word, held out his hand to her. He was surprised by the amount of courage it took for him to do so, but even more surprised by the fear plaguing the back of his mind at the thought of her not wanting to take it.

Seconds passed, before Hermione finally reached forward and latched on to his proffered hand. Both seemed to take a deep, revitalizing breath, before they started for the front door.

---

12. The Birth and Death of the Imaginary, Jane Elizabeth Potter

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 12: The Birth and Death of the Imaginary, Jane Elizabeth Potter

---

It was like Harry and Hermione had ran down the stairs leaving their flat, because by the time they had reached the double doors leading out to the busy, darkening streets of Boston, Hermione was breathing hard, and sweating profusely.

Harry paused in front of her to stare anxiously out of the door. Another moment passed before he turned to her, “Are you ready?”

Hermione let his question wash over her. She’d never be ready, but that wouldn’t change what they had to do.

Without shrugging, or performing any other type of movement that would hint at her inner anguish, Hermione spoke, “Let’s go.”

Harry nodded, and squeezed her hand once more in his before pushing open the door. It was like a bright spot light shone directly on them as they took their first step away from safety.

“There’s a cab,” Harry muttered, looking out into the lighted, car ridden street. He hurried them down the stairs and waved his free hand towards the empty cab, slowly moseying down the street.

“Hey!” he called out, effectively getting the driver’s attention. Once the cab came to a stop, Harry opened the door and gently pushed Hermione in, “Hey, my girlfriend’s going into labour- we need to get to the hospital fast!”

The driver glanced back warily at Hermione, who was clutching on to her stomach and panting heavily, just like Harry had previously instructed.

“Uh, St. Elizabeth’s?” the driver asked after realizing this wasn’t a joke.

“Yes!”

“Okay then, hold on.” Not wasting any time, the cabbie floored the gas pedal, and the car immediately took off through the busy streets of Boston. Both Harry and Hermione were shocked at the man’s ability to weave through traffic while hardly taking his foot off the gas.

Hermione had semi-relented from her heavy breathing, but with a quick look from Harry, she started again. It was hard faking that type of pain, and she soon found herself actually coming short of air. The pain that she was trying to pretend was starting to realistically infiltrate her body.

Harry looked suddenly at her as a gasp escaped from her lips. Hermione’s eyes were closed, and now she had both arms wrapped around her pregnant stomach. Harry placed a hand on her back, and gently rubbed it over her tense body.

“It’ll be okay,” he choked out, in a clipped tone. He couldn’t quiet the voice in the back of his mind who was callously shouting at him that it would, in fact, not be okay.

Hermione only shook her head, “It hurts.”

Harry continued to rub her back, genuinely wondering if she was still acting, “I know. It’ll all be over soon.”

With another tremulous gasp, Hermione finally opened her eyes and turned to look out of the window. She didn’t want Harry to see the tears falling from her eyes. The more she thought about pretending to be in labour, made her wonder about the eventual labour she’d be going into, and then what would follow that.

She couldn’t hold out any longer. She began to really cry. Hard.

Harry stopped trying to rub her back. It seemed almost fake in a way- like he was only trying to comfort her for appearances sake. Truth was, their current situation was making him think about the closer future, in which Hermione truly would be sobbing over her labour. When that time came, Harry didn’t know how he’d be able to console her, or if he even could for that matter.

Would he even be able to control himself?

Suddenly, and severely so, the cab driver pulled over and slammed on the breaks.

Looking away from his girlfriend, Harry noticed that they had already arrived to the hospital. Quickly, he reached into his pocket and withdrew a wad of muggle money.

He threw it at the driver before hurrying to open the door and get himself out.

Telling himself to act frantically, Harry reached back in for Hermione and patiently pulled her out, instructing her to breathe and be calm, like any frenzied boyfriend would say to their pregnant girlfriend. Together, they hastily made their way up the walkway to the hospital and into the E.R.

“Excuse me, hey!” Harry shouted at the first nurse he saw, “My girlfriend’s having stomach pains- we think she’s going into labour!”

Instantly, a team of medical staff surrounded them. One nurse snuck up behind Hermione, and pushed her into a wheel chair, while the others immediately started asking her questions, assessing her vitals, and shouting something about a ‘delivery’.

Hermione didn’t know exactly what was being said; there was suddenly so much noise all around her, that it was practically suffocating.

“Harry-” Hermione whimpered, reaching out both mentally and physically for help.

Harry grabbed on to her hand and squeezed, “Her water didn’t break or anything. She just started having these terrible pains…”

“When is she due?” one of the female residents asked as someone started pushing

Hermione down the hall.

Harry, and the rest of the entourage followed, “Not for another seven weeks.”

“When was her last check up?” she asked again, scribbling away on a clipboard.

“We were at our doctor’s office just a few days ago- everything’s supposed to be fine…”

“Well, we’ll get her into a room and see what’s going on-”

“Is everything okay with our baby? Nothing’s wrong with her, right?” Harry asked pointedly, just in case somebody of interest was already listening.

The woman gave him a hesitant look, “We’ll see. An emergency caesarean could be a possibility here. I assume you’re going to want to stay with her?” she asked after noticing their entwined hands.

“Yes,” Harry replied automatically.

“Right this way then.” The team of residents hurried them into the first available room.

The man pushing Hermione rolled her right up next to the bed while the rest of the group attended to various machines in the room, “Now Miss, we’re going to have to sit you up on the bed so we can get you into a gown.”

Hermione shot Harry a hesitant look. She didn’t realize she’d have to be stripping down in the heat of the moment, with a horde of strange onlookers standing in her wake. But, she knew protesting would be useless as another woman nurse walked towards her holding a standard white hospital gown.

“I’ll do it,” Harry muttered, intercepting the woman and taking the grown from her.

He tried to cover Hermione as much as possible as he quickly pushed her jacket off her shoulders and lifted her shirt over her head. The rest of her clothes didn’t take too long, and luckily the other people in the room seemed busy with other tasks. Just as Harry finished tying on the gown, another person burst into the room.

“You two again?” Dr. Page asked, slightly surprised to see the young couple that she had strictly told to take an easy a few days ago, back so soon.

Harry was taken aback to see the familiar face, “Um, yeah. Hermione’s in pain- we think something’s wrong with the baby.”

“Well let’s take a look. Hermione, I need you to lay back on the bed for me, okay?” the woman said calmly as the first nurse assisted her in putting on some plastic gloves.

Hermione shot Harry another look before doing as the doctor said. Two of the nurses started lifting her legs up into the straddles, and Hermione found herself giving Harry another panicked look. If they waited any longer, then she was sure that they’d figure out nothing was wrong. What was Harry waiting for?

Harry stood a few inches away from the bed, his hand shoved into his front pocket and clutching onto his wand. His eyes darted from Dr. Page, getting ready to ‘evaluate’ Hermione, to Hermione, who’s forehead was drenched in cold sweat, mostly in panic and fear.

His eyes drifted close and he took one deep breath before pulling his wand from his pocket and directing it at the rest of the occupants in the room, “CONFUNDUS MULTIPLO MAXIMA!”

The bright orange light engulfed the muggles, and was gone a moment later. Both Hermione and Harry looked on in a strange awe, waiting for one of them to come around from the initial blow.

Dr. Page was the first to blink. Slowly, she turned to glance at Harry, then Hermione, and then the rest of her staff.

“Wha-” she sounded blankly.

Hermione gave Harry a pleading look at the doctor’s confused sound. Harry understood, and a second later trained his wand on the muggle’s once more,

“Immobulus!”

A blue hue formed over the bewildered muggles, rendering them frozen in their current befuddled positions.

Harry stiffly turned back to Hermione. He was going to say something, but he had no idea what. Trying to tell her that the ‘hard part was over’, or something else along those lines, would only make him sound more heartless.

“’Mione,” he attempted, blindly taking a step forward. Hermione merely shook her head at his efforts. Soundlessly, she sat up from the bed and turned away from Harry so that she could start putting on her clothes. He didn’t try to interrupt her as she changed- he figured he had done enough damage to her for one day. Hopefully, one day they’d be able to forgive each other.

Hopefully.

As Hermione finished putting her shirt on, she finally spoke, “So how long do we have to wait in here?”

Harry was a bit miffed at her professional tone, but thankful that she was at least speaking to him, “Um, at least a few more minutes, don’t you think?”

Hermione shrugged, still not turning to face him.

“You did good ‘Mione. I’m proud of you,” he said, figuring he’d take the chance.

She scoffed darkly, “What a compliment.”

“It’ll be over soon,” he tried again quietly.

Hermione finally snapped, “Is that supposed to make me feel any better about what we’re doing?”

Harry forced himself to take a patient breath, “We’re saving her life.”

“At what a cost,” she muttered under her breath.

Harry was at a lost for words. It was like everything he said was the wrong thing.

Again, she seemed to be forgetting that he didn’t want to have to do this any more than he did. He wasn’t allowed the luxury of complaining or sarcastic remarks because he understood that this was for the best.

As Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and stared moodily off into a corner of the hospital room, Harry decided that he wouldn’t talk unless she wanted him to. A part of him was done trying to make her feel better about everything. So instead, the two waited in an un-companionable silence for a few more minutes. Or at least, Harry thought it had only been a few minutes. Glancing down to his wrist watch, he realized he had let himself get too caught up in his thoughts. Fifteen minutes had gone by since they first came into the room. They needed to get going.

“Hermione, it’s time,” he announced gruffly.

Cautiously, Hermione turned around to face him, “What are you going to do exactly?”

“Just a spell to cover up your stomach and then a disillusionment so that no one will

pay extra attention,” Harry responded, again readying his wand in front of him.

Hermione looked strangely nervous at the end of Harry’s wand, but tried to ignore the pang in her stomach. Standing up from the hospital bed, she clenched her fists and turned towards him.

“Okay.”

Harry took a deep breath before he muttered, “Dissimulo!”

A purple haze shot from Harry’s wand and surrounded Hermione’s midsection. When the spell wore off, Harry was left looking at a seemingly non-pregnant Hermione.

Hermione glanced down at her flat stomach eerily. She didn’t like seeing herself like this again. The idea that her child was suddenly separate from her made her sick.

Reaching down though, she was instantly comforted as her hands traced over a still bulged and swollen stomach. Appearances could sometimes be so cruel.

After another second of caressing herself, Hermione glanced up to Harry once more. Without saying anything, Harry whispered the cantation for another spell, “Tutela contego maximus!”

Hermione could only blink as the strange spell engulfed her. Once it had settled over her, she gave Harry a sharp look, “What was that?”

“A protection shield. Just in case.”

“Oh,” Hermione mumbled blithely. She nodded at him, “And you?”

Harry shrugged. The shield was a last minute thought. He hadn’t thought about casting one over himself-- he wasn’t that important, “I’ll cast the disillusionment charm after they all leave.”

Hermione simply nodded again before Harry turned back to the group of frozen muggles. Not hesitating, he pointed his wand towards them and cast a memory modification charm at them. With the spell still intact, he imagined the made up scenario in his mind, where they delivered the baby stillborn and then let Hermione get dressed. He imagined one of the nurses grabbing the dead baby and putting it in a medical biohazard bag, before taking it out of the room. Lastly, he thought of Dr. Page telling him that she’d go collect some official documents for them to sign before they could leave.

Once Harry relinquished the memory modifying spell, he gave Hermione a readying

glance. He trained his wand on the staff one final time, “Finite!”

Just like that, the muggles snapped out of their magically induced immobility. For a second, they all started to stare around at each other with confused looks on their faces, before Harry cleared his throat.

“So do you want to go get those papers now?” Harry directed the question to Dr. Page.

“Papers?” she mumbled back.

“The birth and death certificates…”

She shook her head subtly before seeming to understand, “Oh! Oh… um, right. I’ll just go get those.” The situation really started to weigh down on her, because it was apparent that she was trying not to make eye contact with Hermione.

As the doctor got up, she turned to glance back at the people behind her, “What are you all still doing here?”

The group shared some more bewildered looks before they all unanimously shrugged, and started heading for the door. A few of them kindly wished their condolences as they left. Harry felt like a bastard hearing them say that to him. Alas, there was nothing he could do but accept that guilt.

Harry turned to watch them go as the last male nurse finally exited the room. They all started turning about and going their separate ways, all with an air of sadness around them from supposedly just having ‘witnessed’ an infant’s death. Just as the view through the glass window pane started to clear, Harry caught something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop.

It was a man, dressed strangely in some unsightly muggle attire. The man’s paisley fedora was pulled so far down his forehead, that Harry could only make out the tip of his nose, mouth, and chin. He had just addressed one of the nurses who had been one of the first to leave the room. The two men exchanged a few words before Harry saw the strange bloke smirk.

That smirk had ignited a fire in Harry’s chest. Without a breath of a doubt, Harry knew who the bloke was. He was one of them. He had come to St. Elizabeth’s, probably with a team of others, to take his daughter. Harry’s fists were now white, due to how hard he was clenching them; he was even starting to shake.

He was just beginning to reach for the door handle when an outside voice interrupted him, “Mr. Potter?”

The raven haired wizard turned back to the two women waiting behind him with a strangled look. Upon seeing his expression, Hermione frowned in concern. However, it was the good doctor who had spoke.

Harry looked up to Dr. Page. She was giving one of the most sympathetic looks he had ever received. Awkwardly, she reached forward and rubbed his back, “I’m sorry Harry.” She turned back to Hermione and gave her the same look but spoke no words. When she turned back to Harry, she started to talk, “I’ll just go get those documents and be right back. It shouldn’t take long.”

Harry moved aside so that she could leave. Once she was gone, Hermione looked back up to him, “Harry, why do you look like you just saw a ghost?”

Harry glanced up to her with burning eyes. Hermione could tell he was trying to contain himself, but why--

“They’re out there, aren’t they?” she asked in a whisper.

Harry didn’t say anything, but after a few seconds he nodded. Hermione let out a shaky, uneven breath at his confirmation. The thought that the people responsible for all of their havoc was so close… well, it brought out a side of Hermione that she didn’t think she’d ever feel, especially not while pregnant. She felt ready to kill.

Apparently though, Harry was feeling that same emotion. Hermione caught his sudden movement out of the corner of her eye, and realized he was heading for the door.

“Harry don’t,” Hermione said as he again reached for the door handle. Even though she wanted nothing more than to find a way keep her baby, she still wasn’t willing to let Harry potentially risk his life for it.

“Hermione-”

“I know,” she cut him off, “It’s just that we’ve… just don’t, okay?”

Harry stared hard at her for a few moments before nodding. He understood why Hermione wanted him to stay put, but that didn’t help ease the mind-numbing temptation he felt to chase the bastard down and find out who he really was. Harry turned back to the door, just to make sure the bloke was actually gone.

Luckily, he saw no one wearing the man’s paisley fedora or blue leather jacket. Just as his eyes were scanning up the hall once more for any signs of muggle-dressed wizards, he saw Dr. Page walking back with a folder in her hands.

Harry stood aside as she entered the room.

“Alright, I just need you two to sign. I can fill the rest of the baby’s information out later,” she told them softly, gently handing Harry two papers that were inside the folder, so far labelled ‘Potter’.

“Also, did you have a name in mind?” asked Dr. Page.

Harry and Hermione shared a quick, troubled look before Harry turned back to Dr. Page and shrugged, “Jane. Jane… Elizabeth.”

“Jane Elizabeth Potter,” Dr. Page repeated, “That’s a lovely choice.”

Harry only shrugged again before grabbing the pen that she held out for him. He didn’t at all want to read the certificate of birth or death, so he quickly just signed his name to the lines that read ‘father’.

He glanced up to Hermione, who had her lip caught between her teeth. She had paled considerably in the past few seconds, and was currently staring listlessly at the papers in Harry’s hands.

“Here,” he muttered, walking over to the bed and holding them out for her. She hesitated, but eventually she took the papers with trembling hands. Harry handed her the pen, and both he and Dr. Page waited for her to sign in a suffocating silence.

Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, mentally telling herself to just get it over with. She took a deep breath before opening them again and seeking out the lines entitled ‘mother’. With nimble fingers, she signed,

Hermione Jane Granger.

When she was finished, she pushed the papers back into Dr. Page’s hands and shamefully looked off into the corner of the room. Again, Harry felt like he should reach out to comfort her. But thinking so, and actually summoning the courage to do so, were two different things. Honestly, he didn’t think Hermione wanted him to touch her anyway.

“Alright then,” Dr. Page voiced, “This is all the hospital is going to need from you. Jane will be taken to Brooks Morgue tomorrow morning. They’ll be able to help you out with funeral arrangements.” She finished gently and headed over to the door.

Just as she was about to leave, she turned back to Harry and Hermione.

“I’m truly sorry for your loss.”

Hermione said nothing while Harry was barely able to nod his head. As Dr. Page finally left, Harry took a few seconds to let the recent events sink in.

‘So they think the baby’s dead. Now we’re free to go… well, not free. We’ll never be free…’

Harry made a desperate attempt to clear his head as he looked back to Hermione. She had just stood up from the bed, both of her hands resting on her seemingly flat stomach. Though, Harry could tell what she was really holding on to- or who, for that matter.

He cleared his throat, his voice thick with emotion, “We should go. Our plane leaves in an hour.”

Hermione didn’t say anything as she nodded, and walked towards the door. Harry shoved his hand back in his pocket so that he was gripping his wand. Just in case, they needed to be prepared for anything.

Then again, it wasn’t like they really had anything left to lose.

---

I know it’s no use, but the amount of hits compared to reviews is ridiculous. Please-- if you’ve taken the time to read, please take the time to review :]

And as always, thank you to those who are faithful in their commenting. The next chapter should be up very soon!

---

13. Welcome to Los Angeles, Welcome

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 13: Welcome to Los Angeles, Welcome.

---

Hermione couldn’t recall hearing or seeing anything as Harry led them through the halls of St. Elizabeth’s and hailed them a cab. Nothing else stuck out in her mind, besides of course, the blinding and numbing pain that was currently engulfing her ever since she signed her name to those two dreadful lines.

Harry glanced across at her out of the corner of his eye. He noticed her hand subconsciously resting against her hidden baby bum. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it together if he kept looking at her, so he looked away.

The rest of the cab ride had passed in complete silence. Even when they arrived at the airport and headed into the terminal, there was absolutely no communication between them.

Hermione stopped at the ticket-takers counter. Harry had already handed the flight attendant his ticket and had started down the hallway.

“Your ticket miss?” the woman asked her after a few moments.

Harry turned and gave Hermione a probing look, “Hermione?”

She didn’t respond for the longest time. Her fingers, clutching onto the ticket, were shaking uncontrollably.

Cautiously, Harry took a step forward, “Hermione, come on.”

Harry looked on as Hermione glanced down to her flat stomach, and then up to meet his eyes. He tried to give her a comforting look, but it came off like he was impatiently urging her to come on already.

Hermione gulped once more before lifting up her trembling hand, and giving the ticket to the stewardess.

“Enjoy your flight,” she said with a thin smile.

Hermione gaped at her reply before taking a heavy step forward. Harry waited for her to catch up before continuing down the platform.

The dread weighing down on Hermione’s body was becoming overbearing as they took their first step onto the plane. Her head was spinning uncontrollably, and she

had to close her eyes more than once to try and stop the unsettling feeling. There was a particular pressure panging in her lower abdomen, but Hermione just passed it off as guilt for what she’d done.

Harry didn’t seem aware of Hermione’s pain, and tugged her forward with him in search of a place to sit. They walked about ten feet down the crowded isle before Harry stopped and pointed towards a window seat, and the empty seat next to it. He turned back to Hermione for approval but she wasn’t paying any attention.

“Come on,” he muttered, nodding off to the vacant seats.

When they finally settled in, Hermione was gazing absently out of the small window.

Harry gave her an awkward look before clearing his throat.

“Might as well try and get some sleep.”

It wasn’t that he was tired- quite the opposite actually. He just wanted an excuse to close his eyes and think. He wasn’t sure what he was going to think about. Anything but the hopelessness of his current situation sounded nice.

Hermione didn’t acknowledge him in any way, so Harry sighed before closing his eyes and letting his head fall back against the seat.

---

Five hours and twenty minutes had passed before the suave voice of the pilot came over the intercom.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are now descending into the greater Los Angeles area. As we lose elevation, I’d like to ask for all of you to remain seated with your safety belts on. We’ll be landing in LAX shortly. Thank you.”

Harry’s eyes opened at the end of the pilot’s announcement. He looked over to Hermione, still staring absently out of the window, but she seemed completely unaffected by the man’s words. Maybe she hadn’t even heard him.

“We’re almost there Hermione,” Harry said quietly.

He was expecting a short nod, but Hermione remained motionless.

Harry reached sideways for her hand, “’Mione?”

Just as his fingers grazed hers, Hermione lifted her hand up to her ear and tucked away a loose strand of hair, “I heard you.”

Harry frowned at her behaviour, but didn’t comment. He shrugged back into his seat, secretly still looking at her. He always knew that this was going to change them.

From the day he found out she was pregnant-- he knew life would be different. And when the day came that they decided to give up their daughter, in hopes that she would be able to live a better life, he again knew that their lives had changed, for the worse this time.

Even though these terrible things were constantly plaguing them, they had always stuck together. No matter what, they had always dealt with things together.

Hermione was the one who had always made sure of that. But now, Harry felt as if Hermione was slowly slipping from his grasp. Willingly slipping.

It was one of the top two most sickening feelings he had ever experienced. The first- well you could probably guess.

Harry felt the cabin pressure increase a few minutes later, and he figured they were only seconds away from landing.

Hermione sucked in a sharp breath at the new sensation. Harry immediately looked over to her and noticed that she was gripping her flat stomach.

Acting instinctively, Harry put a hand over hers, “What’s wrong?”

It took a couple moments and a few deep breaths, but eventually, Hermione shook her head. “Nothing. The pressure… it just took me for a surprise I guess…”

Harry nodded, “Well, we’re about to land. Hold on to my hand, because it’ll probably get a little rocky.”

Hermione did as she was told, and allowed Harry to lace his fingers through hers. She braced her other hand on the seat handle, and tried to remain as calm as possible as the plane’s wheels made contact with the landing strip.

It took a few seconds, but eventually the plane settled on the ground and sped off in the direction of the airport terminal.

A few minutes later, Harry and Hermione, along with the rest of the passengers, were collecting their things and getting up from their seats.

Well, more like trying to, for Hermione.

“Here,” Harry said, holding out his hand to her as she squirmed in her seat.

Hermione didn’t hesitate, but kept the bewildered look on her face as Harry started to pull her up. For some reason, her legs felt like jelly, unable to support anything, much less the weight of her and her baby.

When Harry finally had her up on her feet, Hermione gasped as a sudden stab of pain shot from her midsection, down to her toes and then up through her torso. Her knees buckled, but Harry had a firm grip on her so she only fell into his chest.

“Whoa, you okay?” Harry asked in concern.

Hermione looked up to him blinking, trying to clear the pressure from her lungs so she could talk.

“Y-yes,” she finally choked out, but not before a numb, and unfamiliar sensation engulfed her.

Harry shot her a disbelieving look, but didn’t want to make a scene. He’d look like a patient of the funny farm if he asked his seemingly un-pregnant girlfriend if ‘the baby was okay’.

Harry settled for keeping an extra close eye on her, and didn’t let go of her as they started towards the exit of the plane.

“Welcome to Los Angeles,” greeted a smiling stewardess as they walked out of the tunnel, and into the actual terminal.

Harry tried to be polite by nodding, but his eyes never left Hermione. In the span of only a few minutes, her face had paled considerably. Her mouth was tightly shut, and her jaw was clenched. Harry could tell she was still in pain by the way her eyes were slightly bulging, yet her eyebrows crinkled.

“Hermione,” Harry said, rounding on her and giving her a firm look, “Are you really okay? You look like you’re about to pass out…”

Hermione opened her mouth and let out a abrupt breath, “I-I think I just need to go to the bathroom.”

Harry frowned. He didn’t know what she needed to do in the bathroom, but putting his confusion aside, he wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her to the women’s loo off to the side of the open terminal.

“I’ll be right here, okay?” Harry muttered as he braced Hermione on her feet at the edge of the ladies’ room.

Hermione nodded silently before shuffling inside, using the wall as support so that she wouldn’t topple over. Part of the dizziness she was experiencing was because she felt the added weight of her daughter extending nearly a foot away from her seemingly flat body.

Hermione hadn’t wanted to tell Harry exactly what she was feeling because she didn’t want to freak him out for no reason. In all seriousness, she was probably just getting herself sick over the guilt for what she’d let happen earlier today. Hopefully, she’d just be able to relieve herself by throwing up and then be fine.

However, there was that little burning thought in the back of her head that speculated if her symptoms were an affect of something more serious.

She prayed that everything was okay with her as she locked herself into a stall and collapsed onto the toilet. Finally, she felt free to take the few heavy breaths she had been needing to take. Her head fell into her hands as her panting continued.

Honestly, she was shocked with the pain she was feeling. She never thought guilt could do this to someone, but then again, the acts she had committed were beyond forgivable in her mind. Maybe she deserved this pain…

“AH!” Hermione gasped suddenly. Her jaw immediately clenched, and both hands shot towards her stomach at the new, splitting pain. The pain even pulsed through to her back, so it was impossible to find a comfortable position.

Hermione sucked in a sharp breath as the splitting pain was replaced with pressure building up in her stomach. She gently touched her stomach, below her bellybutton, and found it to be rock hard.

Sirens went off in Hermione’s head, and her eyes went wide.

‘No… no, it’s way too early… these can’t be contractions…’

Her breathing became erratic as she panicked over the possibilities. This kind of abdominal pain could only mean one of two things:

Either she was going into labour, or something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

Hermione braced her hands on the side handlebars, and struggled to lift herself up.

As she did, she noticed that her knickers felt damp. She glanced down, but there was no noticeable leakage- meaning her water obviously hadn’t broke.

Though, the dampness was unnerving. With trembling fingers, she unbuttoned her jeans and stuck a hand inside to check herself. When she extracted her hand, the colour of her fingers made her heart stop.

A dark red liquid stained her fingertips.

It was blood-- she was bleeding.

Something was terribly wrong.

…

Harry paced frantically out in front of the women’s loo. Hermione had been in there for a couple minutes already, and he was about to go in there to see if she was alright. To hell if he cared if anyone saw him.

With a determined sigh, he walked into the hall leading to the loos. Just as he was getting into the open bathroom, Hermione stumbled out of the corner stall.

Harry frowned when he saw Hermione- or more importantly her pregnant stomach protruding from her shirt. Glancing down, he noticed her wand poking out of her jacket pocket.

“Hermione,” he warned, stalking forward and concealing her wand. He was just about to give her a lecture on how they couldn’t risk being recognized when the blood wiped on Hermione’s t-shirt made him freeze.

“H-Hermione?” For the first time, he noticed how white Hermione’s face was, and the tears rimming her eyes. She was shaking uncontrollably.

“I-I think s-something’s w-wrong…” she mumbled weakly.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked. It was the only thing he could think to say.

“I think something’s wrong with the b-baby. I-I’m bleeding…”

Harry shook his head, fighting back the debilitating terror that wanted to consume him at Hermione’s shaky words.

“Harry-”

“We need to go to the hospital,” he announced suddenly. All of the sudden, nothing mattered to Harry but the health of his daughter. The thought that something might be wrong with her was like a punch in the gut, times ten. Acting incognito, finding their way to the orphanage- none of it mattered right now. They needed to get to the hospital, and they needed to get there fast.

…

As soon as they walked out of the bathroom, people started to take notice of Harry’s dishevelled appearance, and Hermione’s obvious pregnancy. Little kids would tug on their parents hands and point at Hermione, and then those parents would hurry the kids along to their appropriate terminal. A few snobbish business men caught a sight of the blood, and then turned up their noses at the couple.

Harry could care less about other people- he was trying to find a way out of the stupid airport. He could tell that it hurt Hermione to walk, and that made him in even more of a panic to find a way out.

Harry’s head was turning rapidly, and was about to glance off towards the escalators when a woman caught his attention. He recognized the woman as one of the stewardesses on the plane, and froze up as she started walking towards them.

“Are you alright?” she asked Hermione, giving the brunette a concerned look.

“I-I…” Hermione’s throat was constricting with the pressure from her stomach, so she only shook her head.

“We think she’s going into labour- we need to find a hospital!” Harry told her, staring at the woman like she would turn into an ambulance herself.

“I didn’t notice she was pregnant before. How far along is she?” the woman asked, unnerving Harry at how calm she was.

“She’s supposed to have another six weeks,” Harry answered, still in a frenzy.

The stewardess gave Harry a sharp look, “You’re not supposed to travel when they’re this pregnant! The elevation and cabin pressure probably induced her labour!”

“It’s… t-too early,” Hermione got out through clenched teeth as another stabbing pain ripped through her stomach.

“Come on, the exit’s this way,” the woman said, taking up Hermione’s other side so that she and Harry could start walking her in the exit’s direction. “They usually keep an ambulance parked out here just in case…”

It took about four minutes for the group to manoeuvre their way to the exit. But sure enough, once they were out in the midnight darkness of L.A., an ambulance was visible, parked in the corner of the parking lot.

The stewardess helped Harry and Hermione to the edge of the curb before hurrying off into the street and knocking on the back of the ambulance door.

Harry watched on, while Hermione struggled to stay conscious. The pressure built up in her body was making it difficult to keep standing. Honestly, she just wanted to collapse, but she knew that that would be the opposite of what her daughter needed.

For her baby’s sake, she needed to be strong.

It only took a few seconds, but eventually the EMT who had been talking to the stewardess popped out of the back with a partner, and together they grabbed a gurney. In a hurry, the three ran across the street, and stopped the gurney right in front of a wobbling Hermione.

“What’s the problem miss?” asked the first man, coming around to get a good look at Hermione.

“She’s bleeding, but her due date isn’t for a few more weeks,” Harry answered for her, his mind racing as the men took Hermione from him.

He anxiously watched as the EMTs lifted Hermione onto the gurney and set it up so that she wasn’t laying flat. Harry’s heart stopped as he noticed the massive amount of bloody staining Hermione’s jeans.

“What’s your name?” asked the second man, shining a small flashlight into Hermione’s eyes. Hermione instantly snapped her eyelids close, and turned away from the obtrusive light.

“Hermione,” Harry again answered, “Her name’s Hermione.”

“You’re the father?” questioned the first one, checking Hermione’s pulse.

“Yeah.”

“Alright, we need to get her to the hospital. Cedar Sinai is the closest.” Without further comment, the men started to wheel Hermione off towards the ambulance.

Harry gave the stewardess one last helpless, yet eternally grateful, look before running off after them.

…

Harry couldn’t recall ever being so scared in his entire life, but as he watched the first paramedic ‘assess’ Hermione, who looked so pale and lifeless, he knew he’d never be as scared again. Not only was there the fact that something could be wrong with the baby, but something could be wrong with Hermione as well. He didn’t want to sound cruel, but that was what really scared him.

He recognized a calm, yet quick voice speaking from the front. Harry glanced forward and noticed the second paramedic, who was expertly speeding through the traffic of fancy black escalades and convertibles. He was calmly relating through a walkie-talkie that there was a young pregnant woman going into premature labour, and that they’d need immediate assistance once they arrived. Estimated time, three minutes.

Those three minutes were the longest Harry had ever experienced in his whole life.

The noise of ambulance’s sirens, along with Hermione’s panting and the paramedic’s coaching all seemed to mix together. Harry’s eyes were resting on Hermione’s bare stomach, the EMT having lifted it up to get a proper feel of where the pain was. The fake labour they had imitated only hours earlier was like an ironic slap in the face. He didn’t know what ulterior power wanted him to feel this type of disparity in life, but he’d gladly die a thousands times over just so that he wouldn’t have to be here, in this situation, right now.

He’d willingly set himself on fire, and slowly burn to death if only he didn’t have to see the look of immense pain on Hermione’s face.

Before he knew it, the ambulance screeched to a halt. The driver paramedic quickly unbuckled and jumped out of the front while the second one stationed in the back with he and Hermione, stood up and started messing with Hermione’s gurney.

Harry turned his head backwards as the back doors suddenly opened. He was greeted with the alert faces of a few men in women, all dressed in hospital scrubs, and luckily, all looking ready to help.

“How early is she?” asked a small Asian woman, dressed in a white lab coat. Harry instantly knew she was the actual doctor.

“Six weeks,” replied the paramedic, getting behind the gurney and waiting for the residents to reach in and help ease Hermione out of the ambulance. As Hermione was wheeled out and set gently on the ground, the first paramedic and the doctor shared some routine information.

“The baby feels like it’s in a weird position. I think when it breached, the cord got wrapped around its neck…”

Harry’s stomach plunged at the ominous words. His eyes desperately shot to Hermione, but her eyes were closed and she was panting like she’d just run a marathon.

“Contractions?” probed the doctor, as the group evolving around Hermione started hurrying in the direction of the ER.

“They were a few minutes apart when we first got to her, but now there coming in intervals of merely seconds.

The doctor cursed under her breath, and then looked up to Hermione, “Miss, can you hear me alright?”

Hermione opened one feeble eye and put all of her strength into nodding.

“My name’s Dr. Chan. I’m the resident ER surgeon at the hospital.”

“M-My baby…”

“Miss, I can’t tell how your baby’s doing right now. It’s very possible that the cord could be wrapped around its neck and cutting off air supply. Because of the excessive bleeding and contractions, I’m not going to be able to give you any pain medicine. We have to get your baby out now. Do you understand?”

“Harry…” she moaned, her eyes rolling back into their sockets as another contraction hit her.

Harry instantly rushed forward, “I’m here Hermione.” He wanted to reach out and grab her hand, but the stupid paramedics were blocking him on both sides.

Dr. Chan gave Harry a wary look, “You’re the father?”

“Yes!” Harry answered, starting to get frustrated that people would even bother with

those stupid questions when Hermione was moaning in severe pain.

The doctor nodded, “You’re allowed in the room, if you want to be there.”

Harry could practically feel the increase of his heart beat. “Of course,” he answered automatically.

“Right this way.”

As they came through the sliding glass doors, the medical team stopped in the corner of the open white room. They muttered a series of frantic instructions, none of which Harry figured out, before they grabbed Hermione on all sides and swiftly switched her over to another hospital gurney.

“Curtain six is available!” announced one of the nurses at the front of the pack. Harry didn’t notice the paramedics fade away behind them as he rushed along with the nurses and Dr. Chan past some doors and into another open area, lined with curtained rooms.

…

Hermione wasn’t aware of anything happening around her. All her mind could focus on was the burning pain in her lower regions. The sickening sensation from all of the heavy breathing made her feel like she was about to throw up. Her eyes were cracked open, only enough to get a limited view of things. She saw a lot of the white tiled floors, and the blue scrubs of the people leading her gurney. However, she didn’t notice any sign of Harry.

She remembered thinking of saying Harry’s name, but couldn’t remember if she had actually spoken. She tried to open her cracked lips to get Harry’s name out, but her parched throat was refusing to let any coherent words out.

Harry thought he heard Hermione mumble something as they whisked her past the sixth curtain, and swung her gurney around so that she was facing the opposite wall of the room.

He tried to get a decent view of her face, but once again, the crowd of medical staff was swarming his view.

“Hermione, all we can do right now is give you some oxygen to relieve the strain on your lungs. Other than that, there’s nothing else we can do until after the baby’s out,” Dr. Chan told her calmly, as Hermione laid, trembling and scared, on the hospital bed.

“Does anyone have the scissors?” asked one of the male interns.

Harry frowned, “Scissors?”

“We need to cut her pants off to see how far dilated she is,” Dr. Chan informed him.

Harry shot Hermione a worried look, but her intensely pained gaze was focused directly at the ceiling. He took a deep breath as the nurses finally found the scissors, and pushed his way through the barrier of people, until he finally got to Hermione’s side.

“Hermione,” Harry mumbled, grabbing her hand.

“S-scared,” was all she could get out before another girl forced an oxygen cup onto her mouth.

“Take a deep breath,” the woman said.

Hermione tried to breathe as evenly as possible, but it got a little shaky at the end. When she breathed out, she found the new source of air quite a relief from the pressure on her lungs.

Harry heard a snipping sound, and when he looked down he saw the intern cutting his way up Hermione’s jeans, while another one took off her shoes. Another nurse threw a blanket over Hermione from the waist down, before the others slid off her ruined jeans and knickers.

Harry saw Dr. Chan, with a cap already tied to her head, put on a white surgical mask and then hold her hands out so that one of the nurses could put gloves on her.

“She’s already ten centimetres dilated,” declared the dark haired male intern.

Harry’s eyes darted down to Hermione’s at the announcement. Even though her eyes were more open with the new assistance of the oxygen mask, it only further showed how terrified she was. All she could focus on was the fact that her baby was in trouble. She couldn’t wrap her head around anything but that.

With trembling hands, Harry watched as she moved them to rest over her hard, swollen stomach. His eyes locked onto the gesture, and at that point the numbness finally overcame him. Was this it? Would today be the day that he lost his daughter?

“On the count of three, I need a good push, okay Hermione?” said Dr. Chan loudly, now perched in the middle of Hermione’s hiked legs.

Hermione didn’t bother answering, she just curled her hands into fists to try and prepare for the inevitable pain.

“One, two, THREE!”

Hermione’s head fell back hard, and her teeth clenched as she pushed with every feasible muscle in her body. The new pain tearing apart her lower abdomen and pelvis was nothing compared to the pain earlier. It seemed like mere discomfort to this new agonizing sensation.

“Good, good, another one!” Dr. Chan called eagerly.

The screams finally broke through Harry’s dazed perception. He looked up to Hermione and noticed the look of torture on her face. Not knowing what else to do, Harry reached forward and grabbed one of her clenched hands. He knew he was supposed to be encouraging her on, whispering sweet nothings into her ear, like any other soon-to-be father would. But right now he felt like he had no voice.

“You’re doing great Hermione- I can see the head!”

Despite the dread, both Harry and Hermione’s hearts fluttered at the doctor’s words.

Harry gripped her hand once more as Dr. Chan told her to continue pushing.

“Almost there Hermione, just a few more before you can meet your baby!”

Even though those words were like a hard punch in the face, Hermione did as she was told. She bit down on her lip and pushed once more, trying to ignore the intense pain.

“Just a little more!”

Hermione’s eyes lolled back into her head. She’d never been that strong… she didn’t know how much more of this she could take.

‘You can’t even birth your baby. Good thing your not keeping her, because you’d be a terrible mother…’

Hermione’s eyes snapped open at her own harsh thought.

‘No… I’d be a good mum. It just hurts…’

The voice scoffed in her head, ‘I’m sure Kirsten Cooper would be able to do a little pushing.’

Hermione’s eyes narrowed heatedly. What was the voice trying to imply? That Kirsten Cooper was super-mum while she was just a pile of shit?

She’d had enough with her own malicious taunting. She had to prove that she could do something for her baby. She had to be strong for her daughter.

Blocking out the background noise, Hermione screwed her eyes shut and pushed as hard as she could’ve ever expected herself to.

“That’s it, that’s it!” Dr. Chan chanted. It felt like a boulder was moving through and out of her pelvis, and suddenly… emptiness.

Hermione’s eyes immediately snapped open, expecting to hear the shrill cries of her baby girl. However, there was no such noise. Only a faint scuttling of feet, and a heated conversation between Dr. Chan and her staff. Hermione lifted herself up on her elbows and strained to hear what they were talking about, or maybe even get a glimpse of her baby, but the blue scrubs blocked her view at all angles, and the medical terms were proving too quick to follow. Something about the umbilical cord…

“Harry…” Hermione whispered helplessly, tears starting to blur her view. Why wasn’t the baby crying?

Harry’s face was chalk white. Ever since Dr. Chan’s calls of victory, he had removed his gaze from Hermione and had started looking down, past the blanket, and past the nurse standing close to his right side, to see his daughter. A smile had started to spread over his lips as he saw one of his baby’s hands, lightly curled into a fist. His

anticipation grew as he caught sight of her chest and stomach.

However, his smile disappeared when he saw Dr. Chan’s hands concentrated on something around the baby’s neck. His heart stopped as he looked into the purple, and dead looking face of his daughter.

---

14. Distorted Happiness

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 14: Distorted Happiness

---

However, his smile disappeared when he saw where Dr. Chan’s hands were concentrated. His heart stopped as he looked into the purple, and dead looking face of his daughter.

---

Harry couldn’t recall how many minutes had passed after Dr. Chan clipped and tied the umbilical cord, and then rushed the baby over to the corner of the room. His eyes followed their actions deftly, but that was all he had strength to pay attention to.

He missed Hermione’s cries of help, and the frantic shouts of the doctor and nurses. He didn’t even notice the different utensils being handed to Dr. Chan- he only saw her hunched over the baby, moving her arms in a hurried fashion.

“Harry…” Hermione pleaded for the twentieth time. Harry finally heard her, and turned to see her crying her eyes out and pointing towards the crowd.

His eyes followed her direction, and he didn’t even think twice as his feet began to lead him over. He pushed through two of the nurses, trying to get a glimpse, “Wha-what’s wrong with her?”

“Sir, please stand back. You’re in the way,” one of the nurses said quickly, pushing

Harry back slightly.

Harry took a step back, but other than that he didn’t budge, “Tell me what’s wrong with her!”

The nurse who had pushed him turned around and gave him a nasty glare, “Look we’re trying to figure that out! Please, just stand-”

The man’s voice was cut off by a sudden scream. A hoarse, faint scream- but definitely a scream. It was the most beautiful noise Harry had ever heard in his entire life.

Everyone in the room turned their head in the direction of the noise; the noise of his daughter’s cries.

Harry again didn’t even recognize his movements as he pushed once more through the crowd. His heart swelled, and his voice thickened with emotion to the point where his Adam’s apple could only bob up and down repeatedly as he looked down into the lively face of his beautiful, crying daughter.

She was small, but that was okay to him. What mattered was that she was here. She was safe.

“Harry!” Hermione cried again. Harry looked up to her and immediately frowned as he saw Hermione trying to struggle out of the bed.

“Hermione, don’t get out of bed,” Dr. Chan ordered gently. Hermione, drenched in sweat and tears, fell back onto the uncomfortable hospital bed in a huff.

“Let me see her…” Harry heard her whisper desperately.

Harry turned back around, ready to wheel the cart over so that Hermione could see their baby, but stopped when he noticed Dr. Chan and a nurse gently wrapping her in a towel. Once they were finished, the two walked over to Hermione and handed her the baby.

Hermione quickly wiped away any rampant tears and loose strands of hair before reaching out to receive her little baby. Dr. Chan eased her into Hermione’s arms and then stood back with a pleased look as Hermione feasted her eyes on her daughter for the first time.

Hermione instantly saw that her hair, slicked down to her head, was a light brown in colour. She noticed that she had quite a lot of hair for a premature baby, and with a smile noted that she must’ve gotten that from both of her parents. Next were her eyebrows, and again Hermione was pleased to see they were traced just like hers.

By now, she had stopped crying and her eyes were squinting upwards. Hermione’s smile grew as she looked into the eyes of her daughter, tinted blue from birth.

Suddenly, Hermione’s face fell. She remembered reading that it could sometimes take between 4-6 months for a baby to stabilize their natural eye colour, due to how much melanin they’re exposed to or something like that. More tears welled up in her eyes at the thought that she would never get to see what colour her eyes were.

At the sight of Hermione’s crumpling face, the baby started to mimic her. Her face twisted up and Hermione noticed the tears about ready to spill over.

“No, no…” Hermione mumbled, gently wiping a tear off her cheek, “Please don’t cry.”

Much to her surprise, the baby seemed to calm down, only letting out a few high-pitched gurgles. She started to wiggle a bit, and raised her hand blindly in the air.

Hermione, acting on instinct, reached forward and slid her finger in the middle of her daughter’s formed fist. Instantly, she clamped onto her finger.

“It’ll be okay,” she whispered, leaning forward and placing a soft kiss on her

forehead. Hermione was just beginning to start examining her daughter’s face again when she heard Harry’s voice.

“Can I hold her, ‘Mione?”

Hermione froze. She wondered if he would ask again if she pretended that she hadn’t heard him. Maybe it was worth a shot.

‘He doesn’t even deserve to. After all, it’s his fault that you’re in this situation. He was so keen on giving her up, but now that she’s here, he wants to hold her?!’

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to clear away her demonic thoughts, ‘He’s her father. He has a right to-- and plus, it’s not like we’ll be getting the opportunity to do so later. Our time is limited.’

‘Yeah, and whose fault is that?’

Harry frowned as Hermione was quiet for a moment before abruptly shaking her head. Just as he was about to question her on it, and ask to hold the baby again, she looked up to him. The look in her eyes was unlike anything he’d ever seen. It was ineffable to describe beyond that.

“Hermione…” he spoke again, this time more beseechingly.

Harry watched as she bit her lip, glanced down at their daughter one more time, before shifting. He instantly came forward and reached out as Hermione carefully lifted her up to him.

“Be careful,” she instructed as Harry finally got hold of her. He thought her instruction was unnecessary, but didn’t say so. He was too busy staring into the face of his baby. A swirl of emotions were consuming him; he found himself wondering what his parents were thinking when they first looked at him. He even wondered what Hermione’s parents would say, or what the Cooper’s would be thinking, had they been here.

Harry’s face soured at the thought of the California couple. He knew it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to call the agency about their unexpected surprise. Was he ready to say goodbye yet?

“Do you two have a name?” Dr. Chan asked walking towards them from the corner of the room. Harry and Hermione looked away from their baby for the first time, and realized that much of the medical staff had cleared off. It looked like Dr. Chan and her assistant had been cleaning up the corner of the room while Harry, Hermione, and their daughter got in their first few minutes of bonding.

Harry turned back and gave Hermione a questioning look. To be honest, they hadn’t settled on a name. They’d looked through the books, but so far nothing had been set in stone. Ever since the knowledge of a potential prophecy, their world had been turned upside down. Name-picking had been pretty low on their list of priorities over the past few days.

“Um…” Harry sounded, trying to get some suggestions out of Hermione. However, she stayed quiet, her eyes having fell back to their baby.

Harry sighed. He knew he might as well be truthful with the doctor. She was bound to find out eventually…

“The thing is,” he started, in a different, more serious tone, “We- we weren’t planning on keeping her.”

Hermione knew it was stupid, but she wished that Harry didn’t have to say it in front of the baby like that.

Dr. Chan’s eyebrows immediately furrowed, “You mean you’re giving her up for adoption?”

Harry nodded, “Yes.”

Dr. Chan’s narrowed eyes glanced back and forth between Harry and Hermione, “Did you already have an agency set up, or are-”

“No, we have!” Harry rectified defensively, “That’s the reason we flew down here, was to meet with them. We have a couple lined up already too. We just weren’t expecting for her to be this early…”

“And I assume it’s consensual?” the doctor asked, now focusing on Hermione who was staring straight at the bundle in Harry’s arms.

Harry turned back to Hermione and gave her a look, “Yes.”

Dr. Chan didn’t acknowledge Harry’s answer. She had delivered too many babies to young girls who felt pressured to do whatever their birth father said, usually because they didn’t want the child. If this was this young man’s way of manipulating Hermione into giving up her baby, then she definitely wouldn’t stand for it.

It took a couple of moment’s for Hermione to realize that the doctor’s penetrating gaze wasn’t relenting. Finally she glanced up to her and nodded.

Dr. Chan sighed, “Well, you two still have to give her a name. The adoptive parents can change it once everything is finalized. You’re obligated to sign her birth certificate, as well.”

Harry and Hermione nodded quietly. They had to make up another name that they would never get to call her. Simple things like this was what tortured Hermione the most.

Both had gone back to staring at their daughter, now peacefully resting in Harry’s arms. Neither thought a name could describe how gorgeous she was.

There was a sudden light knock at the door, and everyone glanced up to see who it was. The male nurse from before was wheeling in a small, bedded cart. The side was lined by clear plastic, and with dread Harry realized what they wanted to do.

“We’ll give you two a minute while we take her off to get examined,” Dr. Chan said, coming forward for the little girl.

Hermione seized the opportunity to tug Harry forward by his shirt. As quickly as she could, she lifted herself up and placed a soft kiss on the baby’s cheek. Harry followed her lead, before handing her back to Dr. Chan.

The doctor gently took the baby, and then gave the foreign couple a strange look.

For parents so sure on putting their baby up for adoption, they already seemed quite attached.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said, before placing the baby in the blanketed bed and leaving with the nurse.

“Harry, do you think it’s safe to leave her unattended?” Hermione asked, worry engulfing her as soon as the door had closed. It didn’t feel right to already be separated from her.

Harry shook his head, “I don’t think anybody could’ve already found us here.”

Hermione’s eyes were reluctant at Harry’s words. That didn’t make her feel any calmer.

“Do you want me to follow them?” Harry asked, noticing Hermione’s appearance.

Hermione quickly nodded her head. Harry too nodded, and quietly headed for the door. Just as he was about to reach for the handle and leave, he turned back around.

“Hermione? Do you have any ideas for a name?”

Hermione shook her head, and Harry continued nervously, “Um, do-do you like Lillian Jane?”

Hermione froze at his suggestion. It wasn’t that she thought it was a bad name.

Quite the contrary actually; she felt it was a great name. Too great to be covered up by the Cooper’s.

Harry started to ramble at Hermione’s silence, “I-I know that we already used Jane at St. Elizabeth’s-”

“Harry, that doesn’t matter. It’s fine.”

Harry didn’t feel relieved, due to the lack of sincerity in Hermione’s approval. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Hermione muttered, not making eye contact with him.

Harry sighed, and gave her one last look before walking out of the room. He’d always wanted to name his kids someway after his parents. But he couldn’t help thinking that perhaps this wasn’t the appropriate time to do so. Despite his qualms, Harry refused to spend any more time thinking of a seemingly appropriate name. Hermione was right- it didn’t really matter anyway.

And plus, he wasn’t so sure that he’d be having kids after this.

…

Harry followed quietly behind the doctor and nurse as they wheeled his daughter into the infirmary. Luckily, he didn’t have to pull out his invisibility cloak or anything, because there was a large open window looking into the entire infirmary.

Harry joined the ranks of another man, staring down at his newborn, and watched Dr. Chan take his daughter over to the weighing station. It took about fifteen minutes for them to complete all of their tasks. Harry didn’t look away once as they examined his baby’s vitals and made sure she was healthy as possible.

As Harry continued to look on, he wondered how limited their time was. Now that Dr. Chan knew about the adoption, he was sure she would help facilitate the process.

Looking up to the clock on the wall inside the infirmary, Harry noticed that it was about a quarter past two in the morning.

He felt for his phone in his pocket. The Coopers lived in Newport Beach; Harry didn’t know how far of a drive that was. Nor did he know how quickly the adoption agency would get here and finalize everything. Harry and Hermione could have a few hours, or they could only have a couple. He didn’t know- and he didn’t want to concentrate on it.

Right now, he just wanted to stare at the stunning baby that would only be his for a little while longer.

…

Hermione quickly wiped her tears away as the door opened again unannounced. She looked up with an annoyed look on her face, ready to tell that stupid bloke nurse off he dared ask her if she needed anything again.

However, her scowling face instantly vanished as she saw Harry and Dr. Chan, wheeling her baby back in.

“Hey,” Harry whispered, pulling the baby up to Hermione’s side. Hermione immediately peered in and realized that she was fast asleep, a little pink beanie placed securely over her head, and a blanket draped lightly over her body.

Hermione didn’t say anything back as she slowly reached in and placed another finger through her daughter’s clenched fist. She grinned as the sleeping baby squeezed her tightly.

“So,” Dr. Chan said, making her presence known, “I have the birth certificate for you to sign. When a representative from the agency gets here, they’ll have you sign a few other documents. Since you two are choosing a closed adoption, there’ll probably be a hefty stack of paperwork for you to work through.”

Hermione frowned. Here she was, trying to admire her baby while Dr. Chan was constantly reminding her that she wasn’t going to be hers for too much longer. Could they ever catch a break?

“However,” the doctor continued in a softer tone after getting a look at Hermione, “Adoption Connection- your agency- doesn’t open for a few more hours. We don’t have to call until then.”

Harry glanced up at the doctor. It was like she was allowing them time; like she knew they didn’t really want to have to do this.

Harry nodded, showing his gratitude, “Thanks.”

“Is everything okay with her?” Hermione asked suddenly, “I mean, she’s not unhealthy or anything, right?”

Dr. Chan blew out a breath and shook her head, “It’s quite remarkable. With preemies born before the 37^th week, they almost always have some sort of anaemic condition, or pneumonia, or respiratory issues, or something! Lillian, however, is as healthy as a horse. She came back negative on every test we tried on her.”

Hermione smiled. “That’s my girl,” she whispered, staring down into her still sleeping face.

“We’ve already gave her some nutrients, but a nurse will have to come in when she wakes up and give her some formula. Since, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to breastfeed her…”

Hermione looked up to the doctor with what only could be considered a glare. What the hell was she trying to imply? That Hermione was incompetent or something?

Harry saw Hermione’s heated eyes, and then looked back to Dr. Chan cautiously.

The Asian woman was already fumbling to further explain herself, “It’s just that once a baby tastes a mother’s milk, they’ll always prefer that over formula. It won’t be in her best interest to expose it to her once or twice, and then hand her over to her adoptive mom, who isn’t producing milk.”

“We’re not just handing her over,” Hermione bit out angrily, “We’re giving her a better life.”

“Hermione,” Harry muttered, reaching out to touch Hermione’s shoulder. He didn’t want to do anything too drastic that might fire her up more.

Dr. Chan took a step back towards the door, “I didn’t mean any offence.”

“We know that- it’s just tough,” Harry replied, trying to calm both women down.

“Right, well…” Dr. Chan said, much more quietly. She stepped forward and handed Harry the folder, “It’s pretty self-explanatory. Just sign under mother and father.”

“Thanks,” Harry said, taking the folder.

Dr. Chan chanced a look back to Hermione, “Um, don’t hesitate if you need anything.”

“We won’t,” Harry again answered for her, “I’ll go get someone when Lillian wakes up.”

Dr. Chan nodded one last time, before turning and walking out of the door.

“The nerve of her,” Hermione sneered, turning back to her sleeping daughter.

Harry shot her a look, “Hermione, she doesn’t know any better.”

To that, she merely rolled her eyes, “Whatever.”

Harry sighed, opening the folder and glancing at the birth certificate inside. A small smile flittered over Harry’s lips as he read the information provided. He knew how lucky they were that she was okay after the type of delivery she had. Even though 9 ¾ inches long, and 6 lbs weren’t the best statistics, what really mattered was that she was okay.

Harry glanced back over the hospital’s crib, but found the baby now nestled in Hermione’s arms. He sighed at the image of the two people he loved most in this world. It seemed like Lilly’s life was starting off on the right foot. She was premature, but healthy. Most importantly, she was safe here. According to the birth certificate, she was the biological daughter of Jason and Hermione Meyers. Not Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

And even though it killed him inside to see Hermione and their daughter in such an intimate position, he was sure that giving her to the Cooper’s would be the best way.

Not for Harry or Hermione, but for their daughter.

“Love you Lillian,” Harry whispered before signing his fake name to the line that read ‘father’.

---

I realize things might seem a bit backwards in this chapter; if the baby was 6 weeks premature, I’m sure they wouldn’t waste any time in taking her off to get her tested and stuff. But, after all the sadness, I wanted to give Harry, Hermione, and you all, as much bonding time as possible.

I know it isn’t clear, but Dr. Chan never heard Hermione call Harry ‘Harry’. To Dr. Chan, Harry is Jason Meyers.

Oh, and please keep in mind that I said I was axing the other Lily (DH Ginny’s daughter) from this story. Hopefully, that’ll make sense later on.

Please review.

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15. Goodbye

Disclaimer: JKR owns.

Safe Harbour

Chapter 15: Goodbye

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[AN] Long chapter, last chapter.

---

About two and a half hours had passed since Dr. Chan had left Harry and Hermione alone to their daughter. Lillian woke up a few minutes after Harry and Hermione had signed away their illegitimacy. Hermione had expected for her to immediately start crying, and as a result Harry would go for a nurse to feed her. She was pleased though, when Lilly didn’t cry, but stared up in interest at her. She stayed like this for a while. As Hermione held her, Harry sat perched on the edge of the bed with one hand settled underneath the baby’s head.

After a couple minutes of cooing and gurgling, Harry reached down to wipe away the bubbles forming at the corner of her mouth. As soon as his finger touched her, Lilly quickly grabbed it in her small palm. Both Harry and Hermione were surprised at her quick reflexes, but they only shook it off with a fond smile. Both felt that words would only ruin the moment.

Hermione continued to observe every inch of the baby that she’d kept sheltered in her womb for the past seven months. No one had ever been more beautiful to her. Hermione found it astonishing that she took mostly after her. Her face, her arms, her body… even her feet seemed to take after her mum. Hermione was beginning to wonder if there was any of her dad in her, when she caught sight of something on Lilly’s face.

She couldn’t help but grin back at her daughter who was smiling up at them, flashing her gums. That smile was definitely Harry’s.

“She looks just like you,” Harry whispered.

“Told you she would,” Hermione cracked, still smiling.

Harry let out a laugh, remembering their old debate, “I wouldn’t want it any other way though.”

“Whose eyes do you think she’ll have?” Hermione asked, not paying attention to the look he was giving her.

Harry shrugged. “Probably yours,” he answered, looking down into his daughter’s blue tinted eyes.

Hermione honestly hoped that she wouldn’t, but kept quiet.

After another ten minutes of observational silence, Hermione relented and let Harry go find a nurse so that they could feed her. Lilly had yet to cry out or make any other sounds besides her modest gurgles, but Hermione knew that she had to be getting hungry. As Harry left, Hermione looked back down to Lilly. She knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her feelings locked up forever. And even though Lilly was a baby, and probably wouldn’t understand one word of what Hermione was saying, she still felt like her daughter had the right to know.

“I never thought I’d actually have to say goodbye to you…” she started, staring down into her daughter’s angelic face.

“You’re more beautiful then I could’ve ever imagined, and I love you so much already. That’s why this is so hard,” Hermione took a deep breath, and wiped away her first fallen tear.

“I want nothing more than to just take you to London with us so that we can try to be a normal family. But if we do that, then we’ll never be able to guarantee that you’ll be okay. Even though we don’t know the Cooper’s, they’ll be able to offer you a protection that we never could.”

Hermione paused for a moment. Lilly was staring up, tirelessly at her. It was silly to think that an infant could understand these words, and expressing them didn’t alleviate the pain in Hermione’s heart. Her before mentioned thought was true; words had ruined the moment.

Hermione tried to shake away the tears falling down her cheek, as she leaned down and kissed her baby on the forehead, “I’ll always love you… I’ll never forget…”

Lilly never stopped staring as Hermione sat back and wiped at her eyes. When Hermione put her hand back down, she placed it underneath her head. They stayed like that for a few more minutes, Hermione gently rubbing her thumb over Lilly’s cheek as the baby just stared relentlessly up at her.

Unfortunately, the door opened a few minutes later, interrupting their time together. Harry walked in first, followed by a nurse holding a bottle, and then lastly Dr. Chan. Hermione couldn’t help but frown at the appearance of the doctor.

“Hello Hermione,” Dr. Chan greeted politely, “This is Nurse Linda. She’s here to help feed Lillian.”

Hermione looked over to the older woman who smiled at her, before turning back to Dr. Chan. Harry intercepted her untrusting look and spoke up in explanation, “Um, it’s already after six. Dr. Chan put in a call to the adoption agency. A social worker is on the way, and… so are the Cooper’s.”

Harry couldn’t bring himself to meet Hermione’s eyes, as her burning glare swept over him. It wasn’t like this was his fault though. Dr. Chan had approached him on his way to get a nurse and told him that she’d already taken the opportunity to call for them.

“I-I guess the Cooper’s were in town for some event, so they should be here soon,” Harry muttered, wishing that Hermione would stop looking at him like he betrayed her somehow.

“Oh, she’s gorgeous,” Nurse Linda said, gazing down at Lilly in Hermione’s arms. “Have you ever fed a baby before?”

Trying to focus on the older woman, Hermione shook her head quietly. The nurse smiled in reply, “Well, the first time can be kind of tricky since the baby doesn’t know how to suck. What we usually do is just dab some of the formula on your pinkie, and let the baby get a taste of it that way…”

Hermione didn’t say anything, but let the nurse pull her hand free and put a dot of the warm liquid on her pinkie. She then guided it towards Lilly’s mouth, “There you go, just wait at her lips until she makes a move for more.”

Harry looked on with a tinge of jealousy as he watched Lilly open her mouth and taste Hermione’s finger. It took a minute or two, but with Nurse Linda’s coaxing, Hermione was finally able to get the bottle in their daughter’s mouth. Both of them couldn’t help but smile as Lilly started to eagerly suck at the liquid.

After a few minutes, Dr. Chan left while Nurse Linda remained behind to watch over Hermione and Lilly. Hermione wished that the stranger didn’t have to be there. Now there was a time limit left on how long they had to spend with Lilly. Neither Hermione nor Harry wanted to worry about another person, when they only had maybe an hour left to spend with their daughter.

…

Twenty minutes later, there was a light knock on the door. Hermione’s eyes darted open, and then up to Harry who held a sleeping Lilly in his arms. Nurse Linda had left about ten minutes ago, after the baby had finished her bottle and had let out a decent burp.

Ever since the older woman had left though, Hermione had been on edge. She knew it was only a matter of time before Dr. Chan came back with a social worker. She knew it was only a matter of time before the Cooper’s arrived.

Harry shared an anxious look with Hermione, before turning back to the door as someone began to push it open.

Much to their dread, it was an unfamiliar woman dressed in a suit, and holding a briefcase. Her smile was sickeningly sweet, “Jason and Hermione Meyers?”

Harry and Hermione shared a look before Hermione turned back to the woman, “Yes?”

The woman again smiled, and came into the room with her hand outstretched, “I’m Alicia Robles. I’m a representative social worker of Adoption Connection. I understand you’ve already been in touch with our office?”

“Yeah, Lisa…” Harry answered.

“Right. Well, I’ve been in touch with the Cooper’s this morning, and they said that they were close by and should be here shortly. They were very ecstatic when I told them the news that the baby had already arrived,” she finished, trying to share a grin with Harry and Hermione. However, the couple did not share in the woman’s happiness.

Ms. Robles’s smile faltered uncomfortably. She blinked a few times, trying to figure out what to say next. When her eyes fell upon the bundle in Harry’s hands though, she smiled again, “Aw, is this her? She’s so beautiful…”

Hermione’s jaw clenched. She would’ve liked nothing more than to reach out and snatch Lilly from Harry’s arms, but she knew that doing so wouldn’t have been too good to her sleeping daughter. Reluctantly, she kept quiet in bed, glaring up at the woman.

“Thanks,” Harry mumbled, shifting his position of her in his arms so that he could get a better, tighter grip of her.

“So,” the woman said in a renewed vigour, setting her briefcase down on a stand and snapping it open, “We might as well get started on the formal work that Mr. and Mrs. Cooper do not have to be here for.”

“We have two kinds of closed adoptions; the first being where you have three days to take back your decision, and claim your daughter back; and the second is basically you sign away your rights today, with no possibility of reclaiming her again.”

Harry’s eyes unwillingly glanced down to his sleeping daughter before looking back up to Ms. Robles.

“However, both types entail that there be no contact between birth and adoptive parents. That means no visits, no pictures, no updates…”

Harry nodded, not even wanting to chance a look at Hermione, “We’ve already discussed that that’s what we wanted.”

Ms. Robles glanced at Hermione, who had her arms folded and was staring hard at the opposite corner of the room. Finally, she nodded, “Okay. These papers just go into more detail about how there will be no purpose and meaningful association between you two and the baby. If you agree, then sign here.”

She handed Hermione the paper and pen first, seeing as Harry was holding the baby. Harry knew that there was no way that Hermione was going to willingly just take it from the woman, so with a sigh he walked towards her, “Here Hermione,” he said, holding Lilly out, “Take her.”

Hermione didn’t need to be told twice. She immediately reached out and grabbed the baby gently, before bringing her back down and nestling her against her chest. Harry turned, and took the paper from Ms. Robles.

He felt like he’d feel like more of a downright asshole if he actually read over the document, so instead, he just signed on top of the line that read ‘birth father’. He didn’t need to know the fine print rules; it’d be too dangerous to seek Lilly out anyway. For her safety, there could be no contact.

Once he was done, he handed the paper over to Hermione so that she could sign with her free hand. Hermione, though, ignored it, and continued to look down at Lilly.

“Hermione,” Harry said firmly, jabbing the pen back at her. Honestly, her attitude was only making the situation harder…

Hermione glared up at him before easing a hand from underneath her sleeping baby, and grabbing the pen. Harry pointed out the spot for her to sign, and without hesitating, she closed her eyes and scribbled her fake name.

Ms. Robles handed them several more documents, explaining what each one meant as they went along. Hermione was about to snap at this lady and tell her not to speak so loud, when a phone rang. Alicia perked up and reached into her briefcase.

“Oh, excuse me one moment,” she muttered before hurrying out of the room with her mobile.

“Harry,” Hermione whispered, looking up at him tensely, “Harry, this doesn’t feel right.”

“Well of course it doesn’t Hermione,” he answered back pithily with a frustrated look. Hermione frowned, taken aback by his tone. He’d never spoken to her like that before…

Before she could question him on it though, Ms. Robles walked back in. She gave the two, both wearing disgruntled looks, a happy smile, “That was Ben and Kirsten. They’re coming in now.”

The colour drained from both Harry and Hermione’s faces at the woman’s words.

“Al-already?” Hermione stumbled.

She nodded, “Yeah, like I said, they were pretty excited to get here. I just gave them directions up to the room, so they should be here soon.”

Hermione swallowed and looked back to her daughter. So this was it. They were really getting down to it now. She’d spent seven months, carrying her around and trying to protect her from the vicious world that was already after her, and yet, she’d only been given a few short hours to actually get to know her and be with her. Hermione never thought that the best day of her life would also end up being her worst.

Harry, too, had looked back to his sleeping daughter. The numbness was beginning to consume him once more. He didn’t know what to say or do, that would make the situation any less hopeless. Closing his eyes, he tried to remember the reason why they were giving her up, and concentrated on replaying that reason over and over in his head.

‘Safety. Yeah, it’s for her own good. Nothing else matters- her safety and happiness is key, not your own…’

“So, you guys are all done with the paperwork. Once Ben and Kirsten sign it, they’ll be official,” Ms. Robles told them, walking back to her briefcase and messing around with the papers inside.

Hermione frowned. Honestly, she felt like everything was moving uncommonly fast. This woman was telling them that they basically had already given Lilly up to the Cooper’s. But what happened to Harry and Hermione having the right to be able to choose which parents they want for their child? Didn’t they have any say?

Hermione had started to work herself into a panic. Her mind was going a hundred miles a minute with the thoughts and possibilities that the Cooper’s could actually be bad people- bad parents.

“Harry,” she said suddenly, “Can I have a word with you?” Harry gave her a worried look, as did Ms. Robles who was looking at them curiously. “In private?” Hermione added, hoping that the woman would get the hint.

Harry gave Ms. Robles a look, “Uh…”

She nodded in understanding, “I’ll be right outside.”

Harry turned back to Hermione, “What is it?”

“I don’t like this…” Hermione started, shaking her head tersely.

Harry sighed, “I don’t either. But we talked about it. Do you really-”

“No!” Hermione cut him off instantly, “I mean, we haven’t even met the Cooper’s yet. How do we know if they’d be the best parents for her?”

“I talked to Ben-”

“What? When?” Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes in distrust. Since when did they keep these kinds of secrets from each other?

“Tuesday,” he admitted quietly, “Hermione, he sounded genuinely excited. He was just calling to tell me how grateful he was that we were giving them the opportunity to take her. He explained how Kirsten couldn’t have kids…”

Hermione sunk down a notch. She was hoping that he would have something negative to report… “So that’s just it? We’re not even going to wait and see if there’s somebody better?”

“Hermione, we can’t wait!” Harry quietly exclaimed, trying to keep his frustration down, “You know that the longer we stay with her, the more of a chance they have at finding us again.”

“I know that but-” Hermione was cut off by a sudden cry. Panicked, Hermione looked down into the contorted face of her daughter. With clenched fists, she let out another high pitched whine.

Hermione started to fumble nervously, trying to shake the baby and do other things that she thought helped calm babies down. “It’s okay,” she whispered, gently rocking Lilly back and forth, “I’m sorry…”

Her efforts seemed to work instantaneously, because upon Hermione’s apologetic face, Lilly quieted. Hermione grinned, pleased that her affect had been so comforting to her baby. She was even more pleased when Lilly seemed to imitate her grin; the corner of her lips tugged upward, managing a cute lopsided smile.

Harry couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the sight of her. Hermione looked up to him with a smile, and for a brief second, the two just remained there sharing a happy, peaceful moment.

That moment ended abruptly by the sound of sudden knock on the door.

Ms. Robles stuck her head in and flashed the couple a smile, “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, but I’ve got somebody I’d like you to meet.”

Harry’s stomach dropped and Hermione forgot to breath for a moment, as the woman straightened up, and pulled the door open wide. Nurse Linda appeared waiting behind Ms. Robles, and then behind her was a man and a woman; both immaculately dressed, especially for this hour of the morning. The man, presumably Ben Cooper, was dressed in fancy black slacks and a half buttoned grey dress shirt. His face matched the picture on their profile exactly; he had short, light sandy hair and he was smiling with excitement. The woman holding onto his arm was also grinning keenly. For all intent and purposes, Kirsten Cooper was beautiful. Her blonde hair was waved perfectly down her back, and her form fitting dress accentuated all of her right attributes.

“Hey!” Ben spoke first, leading his wife into the room, “Ben Cooper. You’re Jason?” he asked Harry, walking up to him first.

Harry nodded, “Yeah.”

Ben quickly reached forward and grabbed Harry’s hand, catching the wizard totally off guard. He shook it enthusiastically for a few seconds, “Man, it is such a pleasure to meet you in person. I was even more excited to meet you guys after our phone call…”

Without waiting for a reply, he let go of Harry and turned to Hermione with an even bigger smile, “And you must be Hermione. Boy, are you beautiful…”

Hermione didn’t bother with her manners. Instead, she went along with her natural instincts, and that was to frown at the man, and to clutch on to Lilly with her life’s strength.

She watched as Ben opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by a silky voice, “Dear me, she is gorgeous. Thank God…” Harry, Hermione, and Ben all turned to look at Kirsten, who was staring unabashedly at Hermione.

Ben let out an uncomfortable laugh, “Kristen…” he chastised lightly, before turning back to Harry and Hermione, “Forgive me- this is my wife, Kirsten.”

“Hello,” she greeted formally, sending a smile to Harry, and then back to Hermione, “Wow, you two seem awfully young.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes defensively as the woman continued to observe them.

“How old are you?” Kirsten asked, looking straight at Hermione.

“Um, nineteen.”

The woman raised an eyebrow, “That makes sense.”

Hermione instantly glared, and was about to give the strange woman a right telling before Ben cut her off.

His voice was suddenly very excited, “Is that her?”

Hermione stiffened. She glanced down to the baby in her arms, and then back up to Ben, who looked like he was in awe.

“Wow…” he whispered under his breath, “I can’t believe she’s actually here already…”

“Not that we’re unprepared or anything,” Kirsten said quickly, glancing back to Ms. Robles, “We already have a nursery set up at home and a car seat waiting in the car.”

Ben shot a grin at Harry and Hermione, “Told you we’ve been really excited.”

Harry merely nodded, before turning back to look at Hermione, holding Lilly.

Ben caught his distressed gaze and frowned slightly. He looked back to the girl, Hermione, and frowned further. They were both staring down at the baby with sad, longing eyes.

Ben opened his mouth to speak, concerned with something but paused when he heard his wife’s voice, “So Alicia, should we discuss the terms of the adoption?”

“Oh, right Mrs. Cooper,” Ms. Robles said, walking back to her briefcase, “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but the Meyers’ intend for a closed adoption. I assume you two already know the conditions of that?”

Kirsten nodded eagerly, “Yes, yes, we’ve already been through that with Lisa. I‘m sure a closed adoption would be best for the child, and for us.”

Ms. Robles nodded in agreement, “Hermione and Jason have agreed that they’d like to get everything taken care of today; meaning that there will be no three day grace period in which they could change their mind.”

Kirsten smiled, “Even better.”

Even though his wife was sounding exceptionally enthusiastic, Ben couldn’t keep ignoring the young couple’s depressed looks. For two kids who were about to give their baby up for adoption, they were really looking like they were starting to change their mind.

Ben really wanted everything to be right this time around with the baby. But he didn’t want to take a baby from parents who actually wanted their child.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked gently, directing his question to Hermione.

“Ben,” Kirsten warned automatically, giving her husband a sharp look, “Now, honey don’t go putting ideas into the Meyers’ head. If they want a closed adoption, then that’s what they should get.” Hermione’s eyes narrowed at the woman, as she suddenly turned to Ms. Robles with a bright smile, “Now what do you need from us to get this all finalized?”

“Well, we’ve already taken care of everything on the Meyers’ side. All that’s left is for you and your husband to sign some papers and pick out a name.”

“That’s going to be the tricky part,” Ben said with a laugh, forgetting his previous qualms, “We need a name to match that gorgeous face.”

Unaware of her movements, Hermione looked back down into her daughter’s face. She couldn’t think of any other name to best match her than Lillian. Hermione looked back up to the older couple as they continued talking.

“I thought we’d already agreed on a name for a girl, darling?” Kirsten said, giving him a probing look.

Ben sighed, “Come on, Kirsten. Just because you liked the name Destiny-”

“Destiny?” Hermione asked, wrinkling her nose. The first thing she thought of at that name was the fact that Lilly could potentially have a prophecy written for her. How appropriate would that name be? “No, that-that…” she started shaking her head, unsure of how to convey her theory to them. Finally, as the entire roomed stared on at her, she settled with, “She doesn’t look like a Destiny. That’s all.”

“Remember Ms. Meyers,” Ms. Robles started cautiously, “The adoptive parents have the right to name their daughter whatever they wish to.”

Hermione glared at the woman, but Ben beat her to speaking, “We haven’t decided on anything yet anyway,” he assured her, ignoring the glare from his wife, “It’s just an option.”

Hermione nodded curtly before turning back to Lilly. Kirsten followed her gaze, and after a second cleared her throat attentively.

Hermione was hesitant, but she forced herself to look up at her. She frowned when she saw the woman holding her hands out, “Can I hold her?”

Hermione froze, automatically tightening her grip on Lilly. She felt caged as the rest of the room stared at her, waiting for her response.

After a couple of seconds, Harry nudged her, “Hermione…”

Hermione forgot to keep breathing as she looked down to her baby, slowly blinking, fighting off her inevitable drowsiness. Harry was just about to nudge her again when Hermione finally moved.

The room watched on as she carefully bent down and placed a soft, lingering kiss on her cheek, before gathering Lilly in her arms and lifting her up to Kirsten.

“Wow, she really does look like you, Hermione,” Ben muttered, standing next to his wife and peering in at the bundle in her arms.

“Which we’re fine with,” Kirsten said confidently, “We don’t need a girl resembling a boy, now do we? No offence,” she added, nodding off to Harry.

Both Hermione and Harry were a little taken aback by her comment, and only stared on with light frowns.

Kirsten smiled at the baby, “Aw, you do too look like a Destin-”

The woman never got to finish her sentence as she was cut off by a sudden, shrill scream. She jolted slightly as Lilly began to wail in her arms. As Hermione straightened up in bed worriedly, Kirsten looked around frantically, “Ben! Ben do something.”

“She’s probably still hungry, the sweet thing,” said Nurse Linda, stepping in to the conversation for the first time.

“Hungry?” Kirsten asked nervously, “We- we didn’t bring any food or anything…”

Hermione wanted to roll her eyes at the older woman’s incompetence. But, she didn’t think she could do anything but stare at her baby in concern as she continued to cry in the unfamiliar woman’s arms.

“If you’d like I can take you to the infirmary to feed her,” Nurse Linda offered in her kind voice, “That way we can get started on getting her prints and taking her picture.”

Kirsten brightened up at the opportunity to finally get away from Harry and Hermione, “Yes, that sounds lovely. Lead the way.”

Hermione was about ready to jump out of the bed as Kirsten started for the door. Ben noticed both Harry and Hermione’s panicked look, and turned to grab his wife’s arm, “Kirsten, let them say goodbye.”

The word ‘goodbye’ sounded awfully cruel to Hermione. It was so final. But, if this was the last chance she’d have to get a good look at her daughter and to hold her in her arms- then she’d take it.

Hermione reached out eagerly to take Lilly back as Kirsten unwillingly walked back over to them. Lilly’s shrieks seemed to quiet down to moderate crying once she was settled back in Hermione’s arms. Though, distracted by her own problems, Hermione didn’t waste any time in leaning over and placing a kiss on both her cheeks, and then one on her forehead. She was grateful that she’d already gotten out everything she’d really wanted to say to her baby. All that was left was the obvious.

“I love you baby,” she whispered in her daughter’s ear, ignoring Lilly’s cries and the stinging of her own tearing eyes. ‘Like mother, like daughter,’ she thought bitterly, as she shakingly lifted Lilly to her chest and handed her off to Harry.

Harry wasted no time, “Love you,” he mumbled before kissing her head softly. Taking in one last desperate look of her, he handed her to Ben. Honestly, he felt like if he had to hold her any longer than necessary, than he might not have the strength to give her back.

“Alright, let’s go get you fed,” Kirsten’s voice cut through the moment. Lilly, who still happened to be crying, even more so now, had barely been in Ben’s hands for more than a couple seconds before Kirsten walked over and took her back.

She tried rocking her, but it didn’t work. Disgruntled, she looked up to the nurse, “We’re ready.”

Nurse Linda smiled politely before opening the door, and holding it open for Kirsten and the baby. She turned back to Ben with a smile, but the man wasn’t looking like he was ready to follow. Instead, he was looking solemnly at Harry and Hermione.

“Thank you for this. We- We’ll take good care of her. I promise.”

He shot them one last grateful smile, before turning on his heel and following after his wife and new daughter.

Neither Harry nor Hermione could say anything as the door closed behind them. They still couldn’t believe that she was gone.

“Well,” Ms. Robles spoke gently with a foreboding smile, “I’d like to thank you two on behalf of the agency, and again on behalf of the Cooper’s. We’d like for you to trust that you made the right decision for the baby, in giving her up to a loving, and supportive home-”

“I don’t want to be here anymore,” Hermione cut her off suddenly. She knew that if she had to spend an extra second laying around in this bloody hospital, that’d only be another second of temptation for her to go find her baby and run. The temptation alone was murder.

“Oh, uh… okay,” Ms. Robles said, off put by Hermione’s tone. She glanced up to Harry who was giving Hermione a blank look. A frown took over Alicia’s face; she didn’t know what it was about this couple. She’d been in the adoption business for quite a while. She felt like she’d come to acquire a firm grasp on how birth parents acted once their children were passed over. However, looking on at the two young kids in front of her… their behaviour was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. They looked like they were almost being tortured at the mere thought of being in the hospital anymore.

“Well, part of the centre’s program is that we provide a ride and one free night at one of our partner motels in town. If you’d like, I could arrange a ride to be here soon…”

Hermione closed her eyes and gave her a short, pained nod. She squirmed in the hospital bed, suddenly hating the feeling of the scratchy blanket laying over her, and the plastic gown wrapped around her legs. The scent and set up of the room was making her nauseous.

Harry only blinked apathetically, and stared at the ground as Hermione continued to fidget. He wished she would just stop already. The sound of the crunching fabrics came off like white noise in his ears.

“Okay,” Ms. Robles said, trying her best to give them an optimistic smile, “I’ll go make the call and then find someone to check you out.”

The woman didn’t even both to say anything else to the detached couple as she left the room. And once she was gone, Harry and Hermione didn’t bother to say anything either. Words would only make everything worse.

…

Two hours had passed, and still Harry could only hear the cries of his baby as Kirsten Cooper took her away. He’d barely had a chance to spend time with her that day, and only had a few short seconds to say goodbye. That was mostly thanks to Hermione, who had hogged her for practically the entire time. He’d only had those few short minutes to actually hold his daughter, and stare down at her unwaveringly as she slept in his arms. He’d never forget how she felt as he held her, or the look of her as she slept.

Even though he knew that forgetting was probably the best way to hold onto his sanity. He wasn’t sure how he’d be able to sleep at night, after today. The face of his first child would always be there, every time he closed his eyes.

Harry glanced over to Hermione, wondering if she was feeling the same numbing pain as he was. Or if she was feeling another type of pain; when the doctor was evaluating her, she answered all of his questions centred around her health with a dead look in her eyes. She didn’t have any trouble walking or anything though, Harry realized, looking down to the grey sweats the hospital gave to her so that she didn’t have to leave in her bloody pants.

Harry was torn between asking her if she was okay, or just keeping quiet. He knew that he should probably ask just to show his concern, but then again, he definitely didn’t have a fix to her inevitable ‘no’. So why bother? It wasn’t like she was worrying about him anyway.

“Okay you two, your room’s ready,” spoke the voice of the Mexican woman, standing behind the counter in the “lobby” of the motel. Really, the lobby was basically just a small room with a counter on one side of the wall, and three chairs on the other. But, it wasn’t like Harry expected for Adoption Connection to set them up with a free room at a five star hotel or anything.

Harry looked up at the woman and just stared for a second, while Hermione continued to gaze absently at the fake, potted, dust-collecting ficus tree in the other corner of the room.

Just as the woman opened her mouth to repeat herself, Harry cleared his throat and stood up. He sauntered over to the woman and took the room key in her hand.

“Room 102,” she said warily.

Harry didn’t bother with his manners; instead, he turned to Hermione who was still sitting unresponsive in the uncomfortable plastic chair.

“C’mon,” he muttered, nodding towards the door.

He didn’t remove his stare on her until she finally started making some movement to get up. As she stood up, she bent over and grabbed the blue hospital bag that carried her ruined jeans. Harry wondered why she didn’t just toss it at the hospital, but never said anything on it.

Hermione trudged slowly behind him as Harry led the way to their shabby motel room. He stopped at the paint-chipped door that had the numbers ‘102’ nailed on. After swiping the key through the door handle, he opened the door and walked in. Hermione followed silently.

“I guess this will do for one night,” Harry shrugged, sitting on the single bed that creaked under his weight.

Hermione also shrugged in disdain, as she sulked into the room, setting her bag on the coffee table. Harry watched her as she slipped out of her jacket and threw it over the bag. A few silent minutes passed before she actually looked to him and spoke, “Where are the backpacks?”

Harry paused. He’d expected for her to say something a little more meaningful than that. He sat frozen on the bed for a few seconds before Hermione gave him an impatient, probing look. He cleared his throat again before reaching into his pocket and extracting one of the shrunken backpacks they had packed the day before. With a wave of his hand, it expanded to its full size.

“Here, this one’s yours,” Harry said, handing her the navy backpack. Hermione quietly reached out and grabbed the bag before setting it on the coffee table and unzipping it.

Harry continued to watch her as she searched through her shrunken possessions. He observed as she cursed under her breath several times at her lack of finding whatever she was looking for, before he found the courage to speak.

“So… what do we do now?”

Hermione’s back stiffened. Harry was taken off guard as she turned around and gave him a cold glare, “You think I fucking know, Harry?”

He shrugged nervously, “It was just a question…”

“Well I don’t have an answer. I don’t have the answers for anything anymore,” she finished with a cold shake of her head.

Harry narrowed his eyes as she turned back to the backpack and continued searching through it. Even though she seemed finished with the conversation, Harry refused to be treated like this. It was bullshit! They had both lost someone they loved today, yet here Hermione was, treating him like he was the bad guy. He knew she wasn’t herself, given everything they’d just went through, but she didn’t have to be such a bloody bitch to him.

“You don’t have to be so rude to me, you know,” he bit out, trying to keep his temper under control. He knew what he’d like to tell her right now, but he, unlike someone else, knew what was out of hand and what wasn’t.

To that, Hermione merely snorted, “Oh please…”

“What is your problem, Hermione?”

Instantly, she spun around with a murderous look in her eyes, “What’s my problem?” she asked incredulously, “I was set on becoming a mother! And now I have no baby- that’s my bloody problem!”

Upon Harry’s stricken look, Hermione scoffed, “Why is that such a shock to you? Shouldn’t this be you’re fucking problem, too?!”

Harry clenched his fists, “Don’t act like this is my fault, Hermione!”

Hermione levelled a defiant glare at him before turning back around, searching through her bag more violently than before. Harry shook his head in disbelief. He couldn’t believe how selfish she was being.

“Would you have rather us try and keep her?” he couldn’t help but ask. He refused to let Hermione keep thinking that the whole adoption idea was a bad idea and purely his fault, when they had both agreed on it.

“She would have died- or worse, Hermione! What do you want me to do?” he finished desperately, giving her a pleading look.

He thought his speech would have made a difference, but Hermione appeared as cold as ever, “I don’t care what you do Harry! I’m not your bloody wife! Hell, I’m not even you’re girlfriend. I’m simply the mother, and now that we don’t have a baby, you can run off and do whatever you want with whomever you want. You’re not tied down anymore Harry, so go!”

Harry jumped up, rage coursing through his veins. He was tired of playing nice when Hermione obviously thought so little of him, “You’re unbelievable!”

“It’s true!” Hermione screamed back, “There is no ‘we’ anymore! Don’t ask me what we do next, because from here we go our separate ways. Nothing’s keeping us together anymore!”

Harry’s shoulders fell as she finished her rant. His mouth fell open in disbelief, “You want us to go our separate ways?”

Hermione let out a shaky breath, as she stared at him with teary eyes, “Harry, we’re not even twenty yet. There’s a whole world out there, and still a lot for us to learn about ourselves. What we shared over the past year has been unforgettable, but I think it’s time we start our own lives. Away from each other.”

Harry shook his head, trying to stop his world from crashing down around him. “But you said you loved me,” he screamed angrily. How could she just forget that?

“Harry I don’t want to be with you!” Hermione finally shouted, effectively ending their yelling match. She was lying through her teeth but she didn’t care. She wanted the whole world to feel the pain she was feeling right now, including the man that could sympathize most with her.

And even by the look on his face, showing her that she was inflicting some serious pain, she didn’t stop, “And to be honest, I don’t even think I can look at you anymore.”

Harry’s jaw immediately clenched. His lips came together to form a solid straight line. He narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists at the girl that had been his entire world for almost the past year now. He’d spilled his heart to this girl- he cared for her more than he’d ever cared about anyone. And now, she was using that all against him.

What used to be his worst fear, before he’d ever learned of his daughter and the prophecy created about her, was actually coming true. Life couldn’t get worse for Harry James Potter.

Hermione was rejecting him; using all the love he showed for her against him, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

However, there was one thing he could do to save himself whatever dignity he had left.

Narrowing his eyes into slits, he stared at her with the same cold eyes he’d given to Voldemort right before he killed him.

“I’ll save you the trouble then.” Harry didn’t spare her a second look as he spun on his heel, and marched towards the door. Hermione watched him with wide eyes as he yanked the door open, and jumped at the loud noise as he slammed it shut behind him.

Minutes passed before Hermione finally looked away from the closed door. She glanced around the bare, cold room and let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. For the first time in her nineteen years of life, she felt truly alone.

She struggled to take in a breath of air, before hurrying over to the blue hospital bag sitting on the coffee table. Hermione tore into it, and reached into the pocket of her bloodied jeans. With an air of relief, she pulled out the small three by four photograph, glad that it hadn’t been ruined. She couldn’t help but smile down at the innocent face relating to hers.

All of her hope was gone, but at least she had a picture.

…

It was quite a while before Hermione found the strength to look away from the photo. But when she finally did, it was with a sense of dread. She knew what she needed to do, but it was the matter of ‘how’ that was currently troubling her.

Blankly, she glanced over to the bedside table and noticed a notepad of motel stationery. She tried to take a deep breath as she gently placed the picture back in her jean’s pocket, and walked over to the bed. As she did, she grabbed up the notepad and the pen sitting by its side.

With closed eyes, she put the pen to the paper, and started writing her farewell to Harry. A goodbye to the only man she would ever truly love.

…

Later that day…

…

Harry slowly sauntered back into the parking lot of the crummy motel. It was night time now, and Harry had had to learn the hard way that there was literally nothing to do in Los Angeles without money.

He was starved, and dying of thirst, but he’d had a lot of time to think about everything as he sat in a nearby park for most of the day.

He knew that they’d both said things that they hadn’t meant, out of their anger at their hopeless situation. However, that didn’t stop Harry from loving Hermione. And he hoped that she still loved him, despite everything.

He stopped outside of their room, room 102, replaying his plan in his head. He was going to go in, tell her that he loved her, and ask for her forgiveness. If she complied to that, then…

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring box that he’d taken from his backpack after he’d left earlier that morning. Hermione never knew that Harry had slipped out Saturday morning, before her appointment with Dr. Hammond to go meet up with Jess at her uncle’s ring shop. The ring itself wasn’t that fancy- Jess had wanted him to go for a much bigger diamond, but he knew that Hermione would appreciate a more un-elaborate ring, as a testament to her low-maintenance attitude. It was just a simple titanium band with a decent sized, square cut diamond centred in the middle.

After about an hour of deep thinking in the park, he’d realized that he didn’t want to be without Hermione. He knew that she was just angry, and that she couldn’t be without him either. Even though the timing sucked, he still wanted to prove to her that he really did love her.

With a sigh, he stuffed the ring box back into his pocket, and instead pulled out the room key. He swiped it through the door before gently opening it.

“Hermione?” he called out softly, unsure if she was sleeping or not. Silence met his ears, so he pushed the door open further, and stepped into the room.

His stomach plummeted as he realized that the bed was untouched. Quickly, Harry scrambled for the light. Once the room was lit up, his eyes anxiously looked to the coffee table where Hermione’s bags should have been.

The coffee table, however, was bare.

“Hermione?” he called out again, running towards the bathroom. The door was open though, and he could see that no one, or nothing of hers was inside. He turned back to the rest of the room, breathing heavily and searching around for any sign of her.

His heart stopped when he saw a folded piece of paper laying on the bedside table. Without thinking twice, he rushed for it.

Harry couldn’t remember anything else as he sat on the edge of the bed and opened the paper, recognizing Hermione’s familiar writing.

It only took him three sentences, before he tossed the note aside and put his head in his hands. He let out the scream that had been brewing inside of him over the past five days, and didn’t fight the pain as it consumed his entire body.

He was too late. Hermione was gone.

---

Alright, that’s all for this fic. It was definitely a bumpy road, but trust me, the final instalment will be well worth the torture. There’s a couple things I’d like to point out before I go:

1. I’m sure this isn’t how a real adoption would go. However, with the research I did, and how I wanted the chapter to go, this was about as close to reality as I could possible get.

2. This story has been revised, so the few discrepancies littered throughout the series have been fixed.

3. As of yet, I have a nice outline for the third instalment, but haven’t started on it. It’ll be the longest, and most fulfilling of the story, so I think I’m going to write a few chapters worth before I begin posting. Hopefully, that shouldn’t take very long since I’ve been wanting to write the third story for over a year now.

4. Thanks again to everyone who’s stuck with me through the series. It means a lot to me, guys. Hopefully, you can leave one last review on your way out.

And that’s it. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer. Until Lost Daughter, take care.

---

Safe Harbour

1. The Good Life

2. Off

3. A Terrible Hunch

4. Options

5. There Will Be Consequences

6. A Moth on the Wall

7. A Friendly Voice

8. Last Hope

9. If Hope Could Only Be So Kind

10. To Change A Life

11. The Plan

12. The Birth and Death of the Imaginary, Jane Elizabeth Potter

13. Welcome to Los Angeles, Welcome

14. Distorted Happiness

15. Goodbye